RNI Regn. No. CHHENG/2012/42718, Postal Reg. No. - RYP DN ... · (Bilaspur), Chandrabhan Barmate...

12
N avy chief Admiral Sunil Lanba on Tuesday said there are reports about terror- ists being trained to carry out operations through the sea against India even as New Delhi refuted Pakistan’s claims of presence of an Indian Navy submarine in Pakistani waters in the Arabian sea. Addressing a gathering of global experts at the Indo- Pacific Regional Dialogue here, Lanba said the Pulwama attack was perpetrated by extremists that were “aided by a State” that seeks to destabilise India. But he did not name Pakistan. “We have reports of ter- rorists being trained to carry out operations in various modus operandi, including through the medium of the sea,” he said. His warning came days after the Pulwama attack. The 26/11 Mumbai terrorist attack in 2008 was carried out by 10 sea-borne terrorists of the Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT), who hijacked an Indian fishing trawler to reach Mumbai and unleash mayhem. While sounding a note of caution about the possibility of terrorists using the sea route for their actions, the Navy chief said this part of the world had witnessed multiple forms of terrorism in recent years and few countries in the region had been spared. The global nature that ter- rorism has acquired in the recent times has further enhanced the scope of this threat, Lanba said. India, how- ever, faces a “far more serious” version of “State-sponsored” terrorism, he said. “We recently saw the hor- rific scale of the extremist attack in J&K about three weeks ago. This violence was perpetrated by extremists aided and abetted by a State that seeks to desta- bilise India,” he said. He added, “We have seen how quickly terror groups evolve across the globe. A par- ticular brand of terror can well become a global problem in near future.” The Indian security estab- lishment is continuously work- ing to address this menace, the Navy chief said, noting that “it is imperative that the global community works in concert to eliminate terrorism”. Lanba also emphasised the importance of the Indo-Pacific Region. “There is a renewed focus of the world on the seas. This is principally due to the geoeconomic and geopolitical significance of the maritime domain.” Meanwhile, India and Pakistan on Tuesday traded charges with the latter claiming that an Indian Navy submarine was forced to return from Pakistani waters after it was detected on Monday. New Delhi termed it as “false propaganda and spread of misinformation” besides rubbishing Islamabad’s claim that its air force had shot down a SU-30 fighter plane. On the submarine issue, the Pakistan Navy said it had identified an Indian submarine in its maritime zone. The offi- cial message said it “success- fully detected and thwarted an attempt by the submarine to enter Pakistani waters. The Pakistani Navy spokesperson also said, “The Indian subma- rine was not targeted keeping in view Pakistan’s policy of peace.” The Pakistan Navy also released a video, shot from air, supposedly of the Indian sub- marine’s mast above water. Brushing aside the Pakistan claim, the Indian Navy termed it as “false pro- paganda.” The brief statement also said the Navy does not “take cognisance of such pro- paganda” adding “our deploy- ments remain undeterred.” I ndian origin British Parliamentarians are organis- ing a function on April 13 at House of Lords to commemorate centenary of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre amid indication that the British Government could offer a “formal apology” for the massacre of more than 1,600 per- sons. An email invitation sent by Loomba, Member of House of Lords, to Sanjay Dalmia, noted industrialist and former Rajya Sabha member, said the horrific event was debated in the House of Lords on February 19, 2019 to raise awareness. “In this context I initiated the debate, supported by many mem- bers of the House of Lords, including Lord Desai, Lord Bilimoria, Baroness Verma, Lord Suri, Baroness Northover, Lord Alton, Earl of Sandwich, Lord Morgan, Lord Collins of Highbury and Lord Mawson. They wholeheartedly agreed that the British Government should tender an apology,” the invite read. “The noble Minister, Rt Hon Baroness Goldie summarised and agreed that it was a deeply shame- ful episode in British History. “We should never forget what took place 100 years ago. The chair of the Foreign Affairs committee feels that this year may constitute an appropriate moment for her Majesty’s Government to formal- ly apologise. The Foreign Secretary is currently reflecting on the situ- ation. I can say that the views expressed in this debate are cer- tainly noted and will be conveyed back to the department,” said the email invite. U S President Donald Trump has announced plans to scrap the preferential trade treatment to India, claiming that New Delhi has failed to assure the US of “equitable and reasonable” access to its mar- kets, a move India said will not have a “significant impact” on its exports to America. The move to end the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) for India and Turkey is the latest push by the Trump Administration to redress what it considers to be unfair trading relationships with other countries like China. Trump has pledged to reduce US trade deficits, and has repeatedly called out India for high tariffs. On Monday, President Trump notified Congress in let- ters of his “intent to terminate” trade benefits for both coun- tries under the GSP eligibility criteria. Under the United States GSP programme, nearly 2,000 products, including auto com- ponents and textile materials, can enter the US duty-free if the beneficiary developing coun- tries meet the eligibility criteria established by Congress. India was the largest ben- eficiary of the programme in 2017 with $5.7 billion in imports to the US given duty- free status and Turkey the fifth largest with $1.7 billion in cov- ered imports, according to a Congressional Research Service report issued in January. In a letter to Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, Trump said, “I am taking this step because, after intensive engagement between the United States and the Government of India, I have determined that India has not assured the United States that it will provide equitable and reasonable access to the markets of India,” Trump said. “I will continue to assess whether the Government of India is providing equitable and reasonable access to its mar- kets, in accordance with the GSP eligibility criteria,” Trump said in his letter. In New Delhi, Commerce Secretary Anup Wadhawan, while reacting to the US move, said India exports goods worth $5.6 billion under the GSP, and the duty benefit is only $190 million annually. India mainly exports raw materials and intermediate goods such as organic chemi- cals to the US, he said. “GSP withdrawal will not have a significant impact on India’s exports to the US,” he told journalists. He said “the benefits in absolute sense and a percent- age of trade involved are very minimal and moderate”. The US Trade Representative’s Office has said that removing India from the GSP programme would not take effect for at least 60 days after notifications to Congress and the Indian Government, and it will be enacted by a pres- idential proclamation. A s tension persists with Pakistan, India on Tuesday said it will have “all options” available in case there is anoth- er terror strike while maintain- ing that New Delhi will persist with its efforts to reach out to international community to put pressure on Islamabad to show concrete steps taken in dis- mantling terror infrastructure. Asserting this point here, official sources also said the Indian Air Force (IAF) has kept all its bases in western sector on maximum alert after India car- ried out a strike on the biggest terrorist training camp of JeM in Pakistan’s Balakot on February 26. As to preparedness of the IAF, a SU-30 fighter jet on Monday shot down a Pakistani military drone in Bikaner sector of the India-Pakistan border. Detailed report on P2 T op leadership of the Congress in Chhattisgarh has apparently differed over induction of some JCC (J) leaders into the party fold. Senior Congress leader and Panchayat, Rural Development and Health Minister T.S. Singhdeo expressed his reser- vation over Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel’s decision to induct five senior JCC (J) lead- ers on Tuesday into the Congress fold ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The JCC (J) leaders joined the Congress by taking prima- ry membership of the grand old party in the presence of Baghel, who is also the Pradesh Congress president, on Tuesday at Marwahi, the bastion of for- mer chief minister and JCC (J) chief Ajit Jogi. The leaders include JCC (J) candidates in the recently con- cluded assembly polls and for- mer MLAs Siyaram Kaushik (Bilha), Chaitram Sahu (Bhatapara), Brajesh Sahu (Bilaspur), Chandrabhan Barmate (Mungeli) and Santosh Kaushik (Takhatpur). Singhdeo, however, had a note of caution against the move, saying it would impact the morale of the Congress workers. “It would diminish the morale of the Congress work- ers as these leaders had fought against the Congress in the recently held polls”, he said. He also made it clear that the newly-inducted leaders should not be in the forefront of the party. “The new entrants should be the second rung leaders of the party while the Congress activists who devotedly strug- gled for the party in the recent- ly concluded assembly polls should be in the frontline”, he stated. Baghel, however, tried to downplay the rift.He said “it was a ‘home coming’ for the leaders and they were basical- ly adherent of the Congress ide- ology”.“Their inclusion in the party-fold has been done after contemplating all pros and cons”, he added. RNI Regn. No. CHHENG/2012/42718, Postal Reg. No. - RYP DN/34/2013-2015

Transcript of RNI Regn. No. CHHENG/2012/42718, Postal Reg. No. - RYP DN ... · (Bilaspur), Chandrabhan Barmate...

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Navy chief Admiral SunilLanba on Tuesday said

there are reports about terror-ists being trained to carry outoperations through the seaagainst India even as NewDelhi refuted Pakistan’s claimsof presence of an Indian Navysubmarine in Pakistani watersin the Arabian sea.

Addressing a gathering ofglobal experts at the Indo-Pacific Regional Dialogue here,Lanba said the Pulwama attackwas perpetrated by extremiststhat were “aided by a State” thatseeks to destabilise India. Buthe did not name Pakistan.

“We have reports of ter-rorists being trained to carryout operations in variousmodus operandi, includingthrough the medium of the sea,”he said. His warning came daysafter the Pulwama attack. The26/11 Mumbai terrorist attackin 2008 was carried out by 10sea-borne terrorists of the

Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT), whohijacked an Indian fishingtrawler to reach Mumbai andunleash mayhem.

While sounding a note ofcaution about the possibility ofterrorists using the sea route fortheir actions, the Navy chiefsaid this part of the world hadwitnessed multiple forms ofterrorism in recent years andfew countries in the region hadbeen spared.

The global nature that ter-rorism has acquired in therecent times has furtherenhanced the scope of thisthreat, Lanba said. India, how-ever, faces a “far more serious”version of “State-sponsored”terrorism, he said.

“We recently saw the hor-rific scale of the extremist attackin J&K about three weeks ago.This violence was perpetratedby extremists aided and abettedby a State that seeks to desta-bilise India,” he said.

He added, “We have seenhow quickly terror groups

evolve across the globe. A par-ticular brand of terror can wellbecome a global problem innear future.”

The Indian security estab-lishment is continuously work-ing to address this menace, theNavy chief said, noting that “itis imperative that the globalcommunity works in concert toeliminate terrorism”.

Lanba also emphasised theimportance of the Indo-PacificRegion. “There is a renewedfocus of the world on the seas.This is principally due to thegeoeconomic and geopoliticalsignificance of the maritimedomain.”

Meanwhile, India andPakistan on Tuesday tradedcharges with the latter claiming

that an Indian Navy submarinewas forced to return fromPakistani waters after it wasdetected on Monday. New Delhitermed it as “false propagandaand spread of misinformation”besides rubbishing Islamabad’sclaim that its air force had shotdown a SU-30 fighter plane.

On the submarine issue,the Pakistan Navy said it had

identified an Indian submarinein its maritime zone. The offi-cial message said it “success-fully detected and thwartedan attempt by the submarine toenter Pakistani waters. ThePakistani Navy spokespersonalso said, “The Indian subma-rine was not targeted keepingin view Pakistan’s policy ofpeace.”

The Pakistan Navy alsoreleased a video, shot from air,supposedly of the Indian sub-marine’s mast above water.

Brushing aside thePakistan claim, the IndianNavy termed it as “false pro-paganda.” The brief statementalso said the Navy does not“take cognisance of such pro-paganda” adding “our deploy-ments remain undeterred.”

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Indian origin BritishParliamentarians are organis-

ing a function on April 13 atHouse of Lords to commemoratecentenary of the Jallianwala Baghmassacre amid indication thatthe British Government couldoffer a “formal apology” for the

massacre of more than 1,600 per-sons.

An email invitation sent byLoomba, Member of House ofLords, to Sanjay Dalmia, notedindustrialist and former RajyaSabha member, said the horrificevent was debated in the Houseof Lords on February 19, 2019 toraise awareness.

“In this context I initiated thedebate, supported by many mem-bers of the House of Lords,including Lord Desai, LordBilimoria, Baroness Verma, LordSuri, Baroness Northover, LordAlton, Earl of Sandwich, LordMorgan, Lord Collins ofHighbury and Lord Mawson.They wholeheartedly agreed that

the British Government shouldtender an apology,” the invite read.

“The noble Minister, Rt HonBaroness Goldie summarised andagreed that it was a deeply shame-ful episode in British History.“We should never forget what tookplace 100 years ago. The chair ofthe Foreign Affairs committee feelsthat this year may constitute an

appropriate moment for herMajesty’s Government to formal-ly apologise. The Foreign Secretaryis currently reflecting on the situ-ation.

I can say that the viewsexpressed in this debate are cer-tainly noted and will be conveyedback to the department,” said theemail invite.

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US President Donald Trumphas announced plans to

scrap the preferential tradetreatment to India, claimingthat New Delhi has failed toassure the US of “equitable andreasonable” access to its mar-kets, a move India said will nothave a “significant impact” onits exports to America.

The move to end theGeneralized System ofPreferences (GSP) for India andTurkey is the latest push by theTrump Administration toredress what it considers to beunfair trading relationshipswith other countries like China.Trump has pledged to reduceUS trade deficits, and hasrepeatedly called out India forhigh tariffs.

On Monday, PresidentTrump notified Congress in let-

ters of his “intent to terminate”trade benefits for both coun-tries under the GSP eligibilitycriteria.

Under the United StatesGSP programme, nearly 2,000products, including auto com-ponents and textile materials,can enter the US duty-free if thebeneficiary developing coun-tries meet the eligibility criteriaestablished by Congress.

India was the largest ben-eficiary of the programme in2017 with $5.7 billion inimports to the US given duty-free status and Turkey the fifth

largest with $1.7 billion in cov-ered imports, according to aCongressional Research Servicereport issued in January.

In a letter to Speaker of theUS House of RepresentativesNancy Pelosi, Trump said, “Iam taking this step because,after intensive engagementbetween the United States andthe Government of India, Ihave determined that India hasnot assured the United Statesthat it will provide equitable andreasonable access to the marketsof India,” Trump said.

“I will continue to assess

whether the Government ofIndia is providing equitable andreasonable access to its mar-kets, in accordance with theGSP eligibility criteria,” Trumpsaid in his letter. In New Delhi,Commerce Secretary AnupWadhawan, while reacting tothe US move, said India exportsgoods worth $5.6 billion underthe GSP, and the duty benefitis only $190 million annually.

India mainly exports rawmaterials and intermediategoods such as organic chemi-cals to the US, he said.

“GSP withdrawal will nothave a significant impact onIndia’s exports to the US,” hetold journalists.

He said “the benefits inabsolute sense and a percent-age of trade involved are veryminimal and moderate”.

The US TradeRepresentative’s Office has saidthat removing India from theGSP programme would nottake effect for at least 60 daysafter notifications to Congressand the Indian Government,and it will be enacted by a pres-idential proclamation.

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As tension persists withPakistan, India on Tuesday

said it will have “all options”available in case there is anoth-er terror strike while maintain-ing that New Delhi will persistwith its efforts to reach out tointernational community to putpressure on Islamabad to showconcrete steps taken in dis-mantling terror infrastructure.

Asserting this point here,official sources also said theIndian Air Force (IAF) has keptall its bases in western sector onmaximum alert after India car-ried out a strike on the biggestterrorist training camp of JeMin Pakistan’s Balakot onFebruary 26.

As to preparedness of theIAF, a SU-30 fighter jet onMonday shot down a Pakistanimilitary drone in Bikaner sector of the India-Pakistanborder.

Detailed report on P2

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Top leadership of theCongress in Chhattisgarh

has apparently differed overinduction of some JCC (J)leaders into the party fold.

Senior Congress leader andPanchayat, Rural Developmentand Health Minister T.S.Singhdeo expressed his reser-vation over Chief MinisterBhupesh Baghel’s decision toinduct five senior JCC (J) lead-ers on Tuesday into theCongress fold ahead of 2019Lok Sabha elections.

The JCC (J) leaders joinedthe Congress by taking prima-ry membership of the grandold party in the presence ofBaghel, who is also the PradeshCongress president, on Tuesdayat Marwahi, the bastion of for-mer chief minister and JCC (J)chief Ajit Jogi.

The leaders include JCC (J)candidates in the recently con-cluded assembly polls and for-mer MLAs Siyaram Kaushik(Bilha), Chaitram Sahu(Bhatapara), Brajesh Sahu(Bilaspur), ChandrabhanBarmate (Mungeli) andSantosh Kaushik (Takhatpur).

Singhdeo, however, had anote of caution against themove, saying it would impactthe morale of the Congressworkers.

“It would diminish themorale of the Congress work-ers as these leaders had foughtagainst the Congress in therecently held polls”, he said.

He also made it clear thatthe newly-inducted leadersshould not be in the forefrontof the party.

“The new entrants shouldbe the second rung leaders ofthe party while the Congressactivists who devotedly strug-gled for the party in the recent-ly concluded assembly pollsshould be in the frontline”, hestated.

Baghel, however, tried todownplay the rift.He said “itwas a ‘home coming’ for theleaders and they were basical-ly adherent of the Congress ide-ology”.“Their inclusion in theparty-fold has been done aftercontemplating all pros andcons”, he added.

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The political sniping thatstarted after the IAF air

strike against terrorists inPakistan again led the BJP andthe Modi-Government onTuesday to attack the Congressfor doubting the effectivenessof the operation and accusedit of lowering the morale ofarmed forces as several seniorcentral ministers defendedGovernment stand with UnionHome Minister Rajnath Singhcryptically maintaining thatthe number of terrorists killedin Balakot would be “ knownone day.”

While Union MinisterRavishankar Prasad speakingon behalf of the BJP here atParty headquarters lashed outat the Congress for allegedlyechoing Pakistan’s view pointson the air strike, DefenceMinister Nirmala Sitharamanat Chennai sought to say thatthe IAF strike that destroyed aJaish-e-Mohammad terrorcamp in Pakistan’s Balakot areawas “not a military action” asthere was no civilian casualty.

She also said ForeignSecretary Vijay Gokhale hadnot given any casualty figure inhis media briefing after the airstrike and only gave a statementwhich is the government’s“position”.

Gokha lehad said thenon-militaryand preemp-tive strike onthe Jaish-e-Mohammedtraining campkilled a “verylarge number”of terrorists,trainers andsenior com-manders.

Sitharaman said, “Therewas no need to analyse more onBalakot strike” as she declinedto link the air strike on terrorcamp with the coming LokSabha election.

“After Pulwama attack, wewere waiting patiently fordays... When we got informa-tion the terrorist attacks wereoriginating from that region(Pakistan), without militaryaction, we carried out the strikepointedly,” she told reporterson the sidelines of the launchof Pradhan Mantri Shram YogiMaandhan , a pension scheme.

“Civilians in the vicinity orsurrounding areas were notaffected in any way, so wehave been saying the strike wecarried out after Pulwama sui-cide bombing was not a mili-tary action,” she added.

Joining the debate Unionhome minister Rajnath Singh

who wasspeaking atD h u b r i ,Assam, stated“It will beknown oneday how manyterrorists werekilled inBalakot”. “IfC o n g r e s swants to knowhow many ter-

rorists were killed, they shouldgo to Pakistan and ask there orcount bodies,” said Rajnathtaking a swipe at the oppositionparty.

“NTRO system showedthere were 300 mobile phonesactive at Balakot attack site;were these used by trees if notterrorists,” quipped HomeMinister.

BJP leader Prasad seized onCongress leader DigvijaySingh’s tweet, terming thePulwama terror attack a“durghatna” (accident), tomount a stinging attack on theopposition party and allegethat its senior leaders are speak-ing the language of Pakistan.

Prasad also referred tocomments of Congress’ formerministers Kapil Sibal and PChidambaram to claim they donot trust the Indian Army andthe Air Force. No foreign coun-try has sought evidence of the

air strike, the BJP leader said,adding that Congress leadersdo not believe in Indian mediareports.

“It is part of a design withblessings of (Congress presi-dent) Rahul Gandhi and (UPAchairperson) Sonia Gandhi.Let the country ask them ques-tions,” the Union Minister said.

He also asked the Congressnot to “reduce the morale,courage and prestige of ourforces” for “petty extraneouspolitical gains”.

Prasad also attackedChidambaram for asking whohad made the claim of 300-350terrorists being killed inBalakot when neither the AirForce nor MEA gave out anyfigure.

“There is voluminous con-temporaneous evidence avail-able that entire attack was veryeffective and caused extensivedamage to terrorist network”,he said.

Prasad cited news reports,including one that spoke aboutpresence of many ambulanceson the site in Balakot, origi-nating from Pakistan to assertthat the air strike hit terrorcamps.

His colleague PrakashJavadekar lashed out at theCongress for “rubbishing thearmed forces’ claims and ques-tioning their strength”.

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Top Congress leadersDigvijay Singh and Kapil

Sibal have sought proof ofIndian Air Force’s strikedestroying the biggest camp ofJaish-e-Mohammad inPakistan and accused PrimeMinister Narendra Modi ofpoliticising terror. Congressalso asked the prime ministerto clear the doubt as one of theUnion Minister was denyingTV news that 300 terroristswere killed in the air strike onFeb 26. (Jha)

“Modi ji must answer as theinternational media like NewYork Times, Washington Post,London-based Jane Informationgroup, Daily Telegraph, theGuardian and Reuters, arereporting that there is no proofof militant losses at Balakot inPakistan,” Sibal said on Twitterholding the government guilty

of politicising terror. Senior Congress leader

Digvijaya Singh, termed thePulawama attack an accidentand questioned the air strike inPakistan demanding proof.

Sharp reactions also camein the wake of Union MinisterS S Ahluwalia’s statement thatneither Modi nor any govern-ment spokesperson had givenany figure on the casualty of airstrikes. Congress chiefspokesman Randeep Surjewalaalso put out a news report

about Union Minister SSAhluwalia in this regard.

Punjab minister andCongress leader Navjot SinghSidhu said, “300 terrorist dead,Yes or No? What was the pur-pose then? Were you uprootingterrorist or trees? Was it anelection gimmick? Deceit pos-sesses our land in guise of fight-ing a foreign enemy. Stop politi-cising the Army, it is as sacredas the State,” he said, adding“Oonchi Dukaan, PheekaPakwan” (big talk, no delivery).

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Former Defence MinisterAK Antony on Tuesday

accused Prime MinisterNarendra Modi of sacrificingnational interests and urgedhim “not to politicise” theArmed forces. The Congressleader also accused the PrimeMinister of “ignoring” thereport of a committee that hadsaid there were irregularities inthe selection of L-1 in theRafale deal and had called forits withdrawal.

At a time when the securi-ty forces were still fighting at theborders, the BJP president wasgiving out operational details ofthe armed forces action, whichwas very unfortunate, Antonysaid. “Even now our soldiersdied, that details only Army andCRPF can explain, not BJPspokesman or BJP president. Itis very very unfortunate. Don’tpoliticise the armed forces.Don’t bring the military in thepolitics. I request the BJP pres-ident, I request the prime min-ister don’t politicise the Army.As a former defence minister, Iam telling them,” Antony saidat AICC Press conference.

“No other leader but ourprime minister is touring the

country and is spreading mis-information. Yesterday, he hasgone to the extent of sayingCongress compromised thenational security, accusedCongress of delaying the Rafaledeal for commission,” he said.

The former defence min-ister accused the prime minis-ter of ignoring the report of thecommittee instituted by him tolook into alleged irregularitiespointed out by SubramanianSwamy and Yashwant Sinha,who was then in the BJP. Afterthe complaint of Swamy andSinha, and some members ofthe Contract NegotiatingCommittee, “a committee ofexperts found irregularity inthe process of L-1. So, they cat-egorically recommended thatthis must be withdrawn,” healleged.

����� �23�#20(�

Petroleum and ExplosivesSafety Organisation (PESO)

told the Supreme Court onTuesday that it has finalised“improved formulations” formaking green firecrackers andproduct approvals will be givento manufacturers by March 21.

The apex court wasinformed that joint work wasundertaken by Council ofScientific and IndustrialResearch (CSIR), NationalEnvironmental EngineeringResearch Institute (NEERI), andother fireworks manufacturersrelated to formulation and pro-duction of green firecrackers.

Trial of some samples wasalso conducted, PESO said,adding that the developmentwould reduce the emission ofpollutants PM 2.5 at least by 25-30 per cent.

As per the CSIR-NEERIminutes of meeting placedbefore a bench of Justices A KSikri and S Abdul Nazeer, theauthority would proceed withproduct approval documents ofmakers of fireworks by March 7.

New Delhi: The SupremeCourt Tuesday referred to athree-judge bench a plea chal-lenging the Constitutionalvalidity of provisions in matri-monial laws empoweringcourts to ask estranged spous-es to “cohabit” and “take part insexual intercourse”.

The plea said that theselaws treat women as “chattel”and are violative of funda-mental rights including theright to privacy.

Ojaswa Pathak andMayank Gupta, the students ofGujarat National LawUniversity at Gandhinagar,have challenged the validity ofsection 9 of the HinduMarriage Act (HMA), Section22 of the Special Marriage Act(SMA) and certain provisionsof the Code of Civil Procedure(CPC). They empower courtsto pass a decree of restitutionof conjugal rights to anestranged couple. PTI

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An Election Commissionproposal to ban political

advertisements in newspaperson election day will not beimplemented in the comingLok Sabha polls as it is pend-ing with the Ministry of Lawand Law Ministry.

Sources said that the movewill require changes in theRepresentation of the PeopleAct and it is now up to the nextLok Sabha to take a call.

“The Law Ministry did notconsider moving the Cabinet topropose amendments in thestatutes as the Budget session wastoo brief and it required politi-cal consensus. Now the 17th LokSabha will take a call on the pro-posal,” sources explained.

A 10-member committeeof the EC suggested thatFacebook, WhatsApp ,Twitteror any other social media plat-forms should not be allowed tocirculate any election cam-paign related material for 48hours till polling is over duringelections in a constituency.

“The period of 48 hoursbefore closing time of pollingin India is “sacrosanct” and vot-ers are provided a period ofsilence to “independently con-

sider their decision” of whichcandidate to vote for on the pollday”, the Committee said in itsrecommendations.

As of now, only the elec-tronic media is barred fromshowing election publicitymaterial during the last 48hours before conclusion ofpolling. But the committeerecommended bringing theprint media under the ambit ofSection 126 of theRepresentation of the PeopleAct 1951. It would, in effect,mean that political parties can-not publish campaigningadvertisements on election day.

In 2016, the EC urged thegovernment to amend the elec-toral law to bar political adver-tisements in newspapers 48hours before the day of pollingon the lines of the restriction onelectronic media.

The move came in thewake of the poll panel using itsconstitutional powers to bansuch newspaper advertisementson a case-by-case basis duringthe Bihar assembly election inOctober-November of 2015.Elections are due in April-May. The term of the 16th LokSabha ends on June 3 and anew Lok Sabha has to be con-stituted before that.

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The Supreme Court onTuesday said it would con-

sider listing of a fresh plea seek-ing direction to the authoritiesnot to evict any forest dwellerand to set up an SIT to lookinto illegal acquisition of trib-als’ land.

A bench comprising ChiefJustice Ranjan Gogoi andJustice Sanjiv Khanna tookcognisance of the plea, filed byChhattisgarh-based TarikaTarangini Larka, seeking direc-tion to the Centre not to allotpossession of any forest landbelonging to tribals to anyoneother than ‘Adivasis’ residing inthat particular area.

“We will see to it (listing ofplea). We will not assure that itwill be come on Monday,” thebench said when lawyer MLSharma sought urgent listing ofthe plea.

Sharma had mentioned theplea for urgent hearing onFriday before a bench headedby Justice A K Sikri and wastold to mention it before thebench headed by the CJI.

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With the political temper-ature heating up over

the issue of alleged data theft ofAndhra Pradesh voters, theTelugu Desam Party (TDP)on Tuesday accused Telangana’sruling Telangana RashtraSamithi (TRS) of misusingpower to help its rival YSRCongress. A Hyderabad-basedfirm is embroiled in a row overthe alleged data theft.

TDP national spokesper-son Kambhampati RammohanRao said the 70 lakh people,said to be hit by the data leak,are party cadres. In a statement,Rao said misinformation overthe episode has created confu-sion among people and “causeddamage” to the party. He urgedthe TRS and YSR Congress tonot spread “misguided infor-

mation” on the issue. The TDPis also “seeking advice” forlegal action, he said.

The issue has gained polit-ical traction in the two statesafter Telangana police booked aHyderabad-based firm forallegedly stealing voters’ datathrough “Seva Mitra” mobileapplication, used by TDP to con-nect with its registered cadres.

On Monday, TDP chiefand Andhra Pradesh ChiefMinister N ChandrababuNaidu alleged it was part of aconspiracy to help oppositionYSR Congress headed byJaganmohan Reddy.

However, YSR Congresshas questioned how confiden-tial data went into private hands,claiming the data theft is “partof a plan to remove names ofthose against the (TDP) gov-ernment from electors’ list.”

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Suggesting that the world’slargest sanitation pro-

gramme has managed tochange the behaviour of peoplewith respect to toilet usage, aGovernment survey has foundthat of 93.1 per cent of house-holds who had access to toilets,96.5 per cent used it.

The National Annual RuralSanitation Survey (NARSS)2018-19 survey was conductedbetween November 2018 andFebruary 2019, covering 92040households in 6136 villagesacross the country by an inde-pendent verification agencyunder the World Bank supportproject to the Swachh BharatMission Grameen (SBM-G).

The survey has also recon-firmed the Open DefecationFree (ODF) status of 90.7 percent of villages which were pre-viously declared and verified asODF by various districts andstates, as per a statement hereby the Union Ministry of Waterand Sanitation on Tuesday.

The remaining villages alsohad sanitation coverage ofabout 93 per cent while 95.4per cent of the villages surveyed

found to have minimal litterand minimal stagnant water.

The IVA presented theirfindings to the Expert WorkingGroup (EWG) constituted foroversight of NARSS, compris-ing representatives from orga-nizations including the WorldBank, UNICEF, Water Aid,Bill & Melinda GatesFoundation, India SanitationCoalition, NITI Aayog, andMinistry of Statistics andProgram Implementation.

The survey also coveredschools, anganwadis and pub-lic/community toilets in thesevillages. Launched by PrimeMinister Modi, the goal of themission is to make India OpenDefecation Free (ODF) byOctober 2019.

According to the state-ment, five hundred millionpeople have stopped defecatingin the open since the SBMbegan, down from 550 millionat the beginning of the pro-gramme to less than 50 milliontoday. Over 9 crore toilets havebeen built across rural Indiaunder the Mission. Over 5.5lakh villages and 615 districtshave been declared ODF, alongwith 30 ODF States and UnionTerritories, said the statement.

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As tension persists withPakistan, India on Tuesday

said it will have “all options”available in case there is anoth-er terror strike while maintain-ing that New Delhi will persistwith its efforts to reach out tointernational community to putpressure on Islamabad to showconcrete steps taken in dis-mantling terror infrastructure.

Asserting this point here,official sources also said theIndian Air Force (IAF) has keptall its bases in Western sectoron maximum alert after Indiacarried out a strike on thebiggest terrorist training campof JeM in Pakistan’s Balakot onFebruary 26.

As regards to preparednessof the IAF, a SU-30 fighter jeton Monday shot down aPakistani military drone inBikaner sector of the India-

Pakistan border. The dronewas trying to gather intelligencefrom air about India’s militarystrength in Rajasthan when anair to air missile fired by theSU-30 brought it down. Thedrone fell on the Pakistani sideafter getting hit at about 11.30am. It was the second unsuc-cessful attempt by Pakistan touse drones for spying in the lastseven days.

Besides its military pre-paredness, India has launcheda fresh initiative to get Jaish-eMohammed (JeM) chiefMasood Azhar blacklisted bythe UN Security Council. NewDelhi is also approaching othercountries outside UNSC tocompel Pakistan to take con-crete action against terror out-fits operating from its soil.

Sources said as parts of itseffort India has shared with theUS the evidence of use of F-16fighter jet by Pakistan duringretaliatory aerial combat and

was confident that the US isinvestigating the matter.

Since Balakot punitivestrikes against terrorist campsby the IAF, India is trying tobuild maximum pressure onPakistan on the issue of ter-rorism, they said.

Pakistan has gone to allcountries seeking mediationbut there is greater under-standing of India’s position,

sources said, adding India hastold the international commu-nity that it is not an India-Pakistan issue, but about ter-rorism. If JeM chief Azhar getsbanned by the UN, Pakistan willget into a difficult situation as hehas been residing there as perthe Pakistan Foreign Minister’sadmission, said sources.

Sources said on Mondaythe IAF has kept all its basesin Western sector on maxi-mum alert after India carriedout a strike on the biggest ter-rorist training camp of JeM inPakistan’s Balakot on February26.

Pakistan had attempted toretaliate by unsuccessfully tar-geting a number of militaryinstallations in Rajouri sectorthe next day. In the ensuingaerial combat after somePakistan fighter jets intrudedinto India, a jet each of twocountries were downed andIAF pilot Wing Commander

Abhinandan Varthaman wascaptured by the Pakistanis afterhis MIG-21 Bison was hit byPakistan’s air defence. Heejected from the plane beforeit crashed and was taken pris-oner in Pakistan OccupiedKashmir (POK). The Indianpilot was released two days laterand returned to India on Fridaynight and now undergoingmedical tests and debriefing bythe IAF.

India’s air strike which thegovernment had termed a“non-military” action, followeda terror attack on a CentralReserve Police Force (CRPF)convoy in Pulwama, Jammu &Kashmir on February 14, inwhich 40 personnel were killed.The JeM had claimed respon-sibility for the attack. NewDelhi called the air strikesnon-military as the targetswere terrorists and their infra-structure and not militaryinstallations or assets.

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Asenior advocate, assistingthe apex court as an ami-

cus curiae in a matter related toadministration of Jagannathtemple in Puri, Tuesday filed inthe Supreme Court a “detailedreport” after his recent visit tothe shrine.

The top court is dealingwith a petition which has high-lighted the difficulties faced bythe devotees at the Jagannathtemple and their alleged harass-ment and exploitation by the‘sevaks’ (staff).

Senior advocate RanjitKumar, who was earlier askedby the top court to visit thetemple to assess the groundrealities there, told a bench ofjustices A K Sikri and S AbdulNazeer that he has given detailsof his interaction with the tem-ple management committee,‘sewaks’ and others in hisreport.

“I am filing my report. Ihave made a detailed report.This is required to be goneinto,” he told the bench, addingthat he would assist the courton the basis of his report.

The counsel appearing forOdisha said that the report filedby the amicus should be givento them also.

The bench said the reportbe given to advocates appear-ing for all the parties in thecase.

The court also said thatparties can file their responseon the report within four weeksand posted the matter for hear-ing on April 2.

On February 5, the coun-sel appearing for Odisha hadtold the top court that the ami-cus should visit the temple totake stock of the situationthere.

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chhattisgarh 03RAIPUR | WEDNESDAY | MARCH 6, 2019

STAFF REPORTER n MARWAHI

Chhattisgarh Chief MinisterBhupesh Baghel on Tuesday prom-

ised to upgrade Pendra-Marwahi asrevenue district during his tenure.

The process will commence soon,he said while addressing a public felic-itation and meeting organised atLohari area under Marwahi assemblyconstituency.

While addressing the gathering, hemade the people of Pendra-Marwahito give assurance that they would notfight over the issue.

“It was from the Marwahi assem-bly constituency that Congress nation-al president Rahul Gandhi hadannounced that the farmers’ loan willbe waived off if Congress forms gov-ernment in the state,” the CM recalled.

He added, “Within two hours ofthe formation of the government andeven before Rahul Gandhi had reached

New Delhi, the loan waiver wasannounced by the government.”

Taking a dig at Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, Baghel said, “It is notlike the promises made by the primeminister—Rs 15 lakh will be creditedin each bank account--which have notyet been fulfilled.”

It is reported that during thetenure of the previous BJP govern-ment, when revenue districts wereformed, residents of different regionshad opposed the move and starteddemanding separate district status.Following such demands, a few placeswere given the status jointly, likeBaloda Bazar-Bhatapara and Janjgir-Champa.

The demand for creation ofPendra-Marwahi district had beendoing the rounds for some time now aspeople are finding it difficult to travelto Bilaspur for their works.

Baghel promises upgradation ofPendra-Marwahi as revenue district

STAFF REPORTER n RAIPUR

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister BhupeshBaghel will inaugurate a seminar on

the topic ‘Bastar Division Level IndustrialDevelopment’ at 11.00 am on Wednesdayat Kumharand-based Shahid GundadhurAgriculture College auditorium.

Commerce and Industries depart-ment minister Kawasi Lakhma would pre-side over the event. Special guest will beAgriculture, animal husbandry, fisheriesand water resources minister RavindraChoubey.

Discussion would be held on estab-lishing ancillary industries for upcomingNagarnar Steel Plant, besides agricultureand forest produce based industries.

Representatives from the NationalMineral Development Corporation(NMDC), agriculture, horticulture, ani-mal husbandry, forest departments, agri-

culture and horticulture college will briefon the possibilities of establishing theindustries and the steps to be taken by thegovernment will be discussed.

Local Member of Parliament, MLAs,and senior officials of Bastar region willalso be present.

Nodal Officer, District Business andIndustries Centre General Manager ShivRathore said that all the industrialists andrepresentatives of the Bastar Chamber ofCommerce have been invited for the sem-inar.

CM to open seminar onIndustrial Developmentin Bastar today

Discussion would also beheld on establishing ancillary

industries for upcomingNagarnar Steel Plant

STAFF REPORTER n RAIPUR

Chhattisgarh Chief MinisterBhupesh Baghel on Tuesday

directed all the industrial institu-tions to strictly adhere to the state’sindustrial and rehabilitation policy.

He said the land owners mustget the stipulated financial compen-sation along with a job to a memberof the family based on qualificationand eligibility.

If the family members do nothave requisite qualification, thenthey should be imparted technicaland skill development training toprovide a job, the chief ministeradded.

He gave the directives at thereview meeting of the NationalThermal Power Corporation(NTPC) Lara, Raigarh project at hisofficial residence.

He said coal, water, landbelongs to Chhattisgarh, and sothose affected by industrial project

should not go to jail demandingtheir rights.

He directed to withdraw thecases against such people and askedofficials to ensure their rights areprotected.

Chief Secretary Sunil Kujurdirected NTPC officials to under-take developmental works inRaigarh district and affected areas.

The outstanding land compen-sation money and jobs should beprovided to the affected families atthe earliest. The public-orientedworks can also be undertakenunder the CSR activities.

NTPC Chairman cumManaging Director Gurdeep Singhsaid that Lara project is based onsuper critical technique, having two

units of 800MW each.Around nine villages have been

acquired for 780 hectares of land,displacing 2449 farmers. Till date1816 farmers have been given Rs117 crore as compensation out of atotal of Rs187 crore-award amount.

The first unit has completedsuccessful test run. 50% powergenerated by the unit will be given

to the state. The commercial opera-tion will commence in March 2019.The Unit 2 is expected to be com-missioned in June 2019. On thedirective of the chief minister,Pursour ITI will be upgraded withlab and technical staff to be provid-ed by the NTPC. A hospital andschool will be run in the projectarea for the affected residents.

‘Strictly implement rehabilitation policy’

STAFF REPORTER n RAIPUR

Odisha in-charge of the All IndiaCongress Committee and

Chhattisgarh Minister forPanchayat, Rural Development andHealth T.S. Singhdeo will be touringthe neighbouring state fromWednesday.

He will be participating in theparty’s state election committeemeeting in Odisha on Wednesday.Thereafter, he will leave for thenational capital on Thursday toattend a meeting of the party highcommand. From New Delhi, he willaccompany party president RahulGandhi on his tour to Odisha onFriday and will also participate in apublic rally there.

Singhdeo on Odishatour from today

STAFF REPORTER n RAIPUR

Chhattisgarh Chief MinisterBhupesh Baghel will dedicate

to the people of the capital cityDaksha, an intelligence trafficmanagement system, at a func-tion to be held at ShaheedSmarak premises on Wednesday.

The ITMS-Dakhsa, a projectof Raipur Municipal Corporation(RMC) and Raipur Smart CityLimited (RSCL) costs Rs 175.7crore.

It is a world class system to beintroduced in the capital foreffective and management oftraffic and commuters’ safety,further boosting civic amenitiesin Raipur

Official sources in RSCLinformed that under the system,a Traffic Enforcement System(TES), Surveillance System (SS)and Integrated City Commandand Control System would beestablished.

The system will help controlviolation of traffic rules, speed

limit of vehicles and entry ofvehicles on specified roads.

Under the project, 20 smartpoles are being established at var-ious locations. People can alsorequest for police assistance atthe emergency call box installedin these poles. The citizens of the

capital could now also access freeWiFi, and through public addresssystem they will be able to getweather updates.

Equipped with modern cam-eras in sensitive areas, the systemwill also help control crime in thecapital city, sources said.

The victim hadadopted the accusedwhen he was just one-and-half years oldSTAFF REPORTER n RAIPUR

Police has arrested a 30-year-old man for allegedly murder-

ing his foster mother over a“property dispute.”

The elderly woman adoptedthe accused while he was a tod-dler, police said here on Tuesday.

The victim who was aSamaritan, had pledged to donateher body to the medical collegeafter death and the accused wasaware of this fact, policeinformed.

“The accused, Sudeep Bosehad strangulated HemprabhaBose (68) in her house atProfessors Colony on the inter-vening night of February 25 and26 and then donated the body to amedical hospital. He was aware ofthe fact that the bodies donatedfor medical research are not sub-jected to post-mortem,”

Additional Superintendent ofPolice (ASP) Prafull Thakur said.

Few days ago victim’s neigh-bours informed Purani Bastipolice that Hemprabha was notseen and her son was also actingsuspiciously, the ASP said.

“Victim’s brother JagdishChandra Bose, a resident ofKanker, who also got informationfrom neighbours about his sisterbeing missing, came to Raipur.The accused told him that

Hemprabha died of natural causeand as per her last wish the bodywas donated to the medical col-lege,” the ASP informed.

The victim had retired fromthe post of assistant commission-er, Income Tax and was livinghere with Sudeep.

Victim’s brother told policethat Sudeep used to torture hissister over property issue.

Acting on his complaint,police registered a case and vic-

tim’s body was sent for post-mortem. The short post-mortemreport clearly suggested strangu-lation as reason of death, the APSadded.

According to the ASP the vic-tim had adopted Sudeep when hewas just one-and-half years old.

The accused was arrested andbooked under Section 302 (mur-der) and 201 (causing disappear-ance of evidence) of Indian PenalCode (IPC), police informed.

STAFF REPORTER n RAIPUR

School education minister andSanskrti Vidyamandalam chairman

Dr Premsai Singh Tekam conducted sur-prise visit to the Sanskrit examinationcentre in the Raipur Central Jail onTuesday.

Around 18 prisoners had appearedfor the examinations, which com-menced on the first week of March.

In 2010, the lone Sanskrit schoolinside a jail in the state was established.The prisoners are imparted commercialSanskrit, including astrology, yoga andayurveda. The initiative was appreciatedat the national level.

Minister appreciated the initiativeand assured of all assistance.

Chhattisgarh SanskritVidyamandalam’s main examination has

already begun on March 1 and will con-clude on March 19. In a total of 30 exam-ination centres, 3233 students areappearing in different levels of examina-tion.

DIG Dr K K Gupta briefed the min-ister on Sanskrit school education activ-ities and programmes including thelibrary facility in the jail.

STAFF REPORTER nJASHPUR

Jashpur police onTuesday nabbed

four inter-statecannabis smugglersand seized a hugeconsignment of 1.3quintal of the contra-band, worth Rs 19lakh.

Kunkuri policestation house in-charge Vishal Kujur informed that thedrug peddlers were on their way toBihar from Odisha when they wereintercepted by the police. They weretravelling in a new pickup vehicle, notbearing any registration number, hesaid.

The arrestees are Ritesh (20),Krishna (21), Ravi (21) and Vikas (22).All of them hail from Rohtas in Bihar,the official added.

Police had registered a case underrelevant sections and was further inves-tigating the matter, the official said.

STAFF REPORTER nBHILAI

Acashier of a private firmwas looted of Rs 9 lakh

cash in broad daylight nearChouhan Plaza underChowni Police station onTuesday afternoon.

The victim identified asAshish Sharma worked in acompany that deals in tobac-co. He was on his way todeposit Rs 9 lakh in theUnion Bank Supela, whenthe loot happened,Additional Superintendentof Police (ASP) City RohitKumar Jha said.

The incident happenednear Chouhan Plaza close toKarbala Dargah around 2pm, police said.

The victim who was on abike was accosted by threebike-borne assailants comingfrom behind. When the vic-tim stopped the bike, theyouths took out a gun andfired shots in the air, policesaid.

The assailants then loot-ed the cash at the gunpointand fled on the bike. Victimthen informed the police,who have lodged a case andhave launched investiga-tions.

Man kills foster mother over property dispute

The accused in police custody

CM to dedicate intelligence trafficmanagement system ‘Daksha’ today

Police seize cannabis frominter-state smugglers

Cashier lootedof Rs 9 lakh inbroad daylight

School Edu minister payssurprise visit to Central Jail

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Aday after parting ways withthe Shiromani Akali Dal

(SAD), Ferozepur MP SherSingh Ghubaya on Tuesdayjoined the Congress—becom-ing the second sitting parlia-mentarian of the BJP-led NDAto join the grand old party inthe last three days after BJP MPfrom Uttar Pradesh Savitri BaiPhule.

With his joining, Ghubayais a likely claimant of the partyticket for Ferozepur Lok Sabha

seat for the ensuing elections.Though it is being claimed thatGhubaya has joined theCongress unconditionally, it hasbeen learnt that the deal wasstruck after he was assured ofgetting the party ticket.

However, the preliminarysignals on tickets will be clear onMarch 10 when the first screen-ing for the Punjab Congress can-didates happens in Delhi.

After more than two yearsof his hostility with the party,Ghubaya finally bid a final adieuto the Akali Dal. Earlier, he wasexpected to join the Congress on

March 7 during the party’snational president RahulGandhi’s rally at Moga.

However, his “hurried”induction in the party has raisedmany eyebrows within theCongress circles. It is believedthat Ghubaya’s induction a dayafter was done to keep any sortof controversy away.

“Many senior leaders haveraised objection over Ghubaya’sinduction, especially the possi-bility of giving him the partyticket. Moreover, many havealso opposed his induction cit-ing Ghubaya’s sleazy video thatwent viral ahead 2017 elec-tions,” a senior Congress leadertold The Pioneer requestinganonymity.

Notably, Ghubaya’s son —Devinder Singh Ghubaya — isCongress MLA from Fazilkaafter winning 2017 state assem-bly polls.

Two-time MP, Ghubaya

hails from the Rai Sikh com-munity which is a dominant votebank in Ferozepur constituency.He is a two-time MP fromFerozepur parliamentary seat—first in 2009 and then in 2014.He has also been elected MLAtwice from Jalalabad in 1997 and2007, and later left the seat forSukhbir.

On the other hand, theCongress’ old guard and seniorparty leaders are not in favourof fielding a “turncoat” or any-one who had opposed the party

in the past as its candidate whileignoring the workers.

While making public hisresignation from the SAD,Ghubaya had blamed the partypresident Sukhbir Badal’s“wrong policies” for resigningfrom the primary membershipand all posts of the party.

Hours later, the SAD issueda press note from its head-quarters at Chandigarh sayingthat Sukbir has “expelled”Ghubaya from the primarymembership of the party for his

“anti-party activities”.While Punjab Congress

president Sunil Jakhar — whowas the party’s candidate in2014 elections and is now sit-ting MP from Gurdaspur —has already made clear hisintention of seeking re-elec-tion from Gurdaspur, the stateCabinet Minister RanaGurmit Singh Sodhi hadclaimed the party ticket fromFerozepur either for himself orhis son Anumit Singh ‘Hira’Sodhi.

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Haryana Government onTuesday approved amend-

ments in provisions for grant-ing furlough to prisoners, pol-icy pertaining to surrender oflicence and rationalisation ofrates of tax on the stage car-riages operated by any StateTransport Undertaking.

The decisions were takenduring the State Cabinet meet-ing held under Chief MinisterManohar Lal on Tuesday.

This was the third StateCabinet meeting in last 35days, as the State Governmentis rushing to give nod to vari-ous policies and projects, beforethe model code of conductkicks in for ensuing Lok Sabhapolls. The Cabinet is likely tomeet again on March 8 now totake decisions benefitingGovernment employees.

The Cabinet on Tuesdayapproved amendment inHaryana Good ConductPrisoners (Temporary Release)

Act, 1988 for making specialprovisions for prisoners otherthan hardcore prisoners.

Under the amendment, aconvict other than a hardcoreprisoner will be released ontemporary basis or on fur-lough to attend marriage of hisgrand child or sibling, or deathof his grandparent, parent,grandparent-in-law, sibling,spouse, child or grandchildunder an Armed Police Escortfor a period of 48 hours to bedecided by the concernedSuperintendent of Jail, said anofficial spokesman.

Further, a convict otherthan a hardcore prisoner maybe released on temporary basisto attend the marriage of hisdaughter for 96 hours and forthe marriage of his son for 72hours under an Armed PoliceEscort, to be decided by theconcerned Superintendent ofJail.

He will intimate with 24hours the concerned DistrictMagistrate and Superintendent

of Police in this regard with fullparticulars of the hardcoreprisoners being so released.

Earlier, such a provisionwas not available to the con-victed prisoners other thanthe hardcore prisoners in subsection 5A in the Act. However,now the Act has been amend-ed to insert sub section 5B soas to remove this anomaly, thespokesman added.

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The State Government hasgiven approval to amendmentin policy pertaining to surren-der of licence. As per theamendment, no third partyrights should have been creat-ed in the colony.

However, in case the samehave been created then sur-render of licence, partly orwholly, will be allowed with theconsent of the allottees of thecolony, which will be deemedas extinguishing of third partyright to the extent of said part

of the colony.The area over which such

third party right stand created,should be in a compact blockas defined in the HaryanaDevelopment and Regulationof Urban Areas Rules, 1976.Further, if the third party rightcreated area is scattered overthe licenced area then, thecoloniser has to submit consentof each individual allottees formaking it in a compact blockalong with detailed scheme ofthe relocation within licencedarea, the government’sspokesman said.

He said that the licences ofthe project which are consid-ered under this policy for ‘sur-render of licence’ will requirepayment of outstandingrenewal fee with interest up todate. All government duesincluding scrutiny fee, licencefee, conversion charges, IDC,qua the part of licenced areabeing surrendered, will be for-feited.

The Cabinet has further

approved that the licencee willhave three options qua EDCwhen he or she applies for sur-render of licence.

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A proposal of TransportDepartment for rationalisa-tion of rates of motor vehicletax was approved. Accordingly,the motor vehicle tax for vehi-cles having GVW not exceed-ing 1.2 tonnes will be �300,having GVW exceeding 1.2tonnes but not exceeding sixtonnes will be �7,200, havingGVW exceeding six tonnes butnot exceeding 16.2 tonnes willbe �9,600, having GVWexceeding 16.2 tonnes but notexceeding 18.5 tonnes will be�11,200, having GVW exceed-ing 18.5 tonnes but not exceed-ing 28 tonnes will be �17,300and having GVW exceeding 28tonnes, the motor vehicle taxwill be �25,300. These taxes areper annum.

The State Government alsoapproved rationalisation ofrates of tax on the stage car-riages operated by any StateTransport Undertaking ofHaryana as City Bus Serviceand for EducationalInstitutions.

Following this, the buses ofeducational institutions regis-tered outside the state will berequired to pay 20 per centmore tax than the tax paid bythe buses registered withinthe State.

Under the approved pro-posal, the rate of tax for stagecarriage operated by any StateTransport Undertaking ofHaryana as City Bus Serviceswill be �1,000 per month.Similarly, the rate of tax forcontract carriage used by edu-cational institutions (ordinary)registered in the state, havingsix to 12 seats excluding driverwill be �5,000 per year, having13 to 32 seats excluding driver�8,000 per year and having 33and above seats excluding dri-

ver �10,000 per year.The rate of tax for contract

carriages used by educationalinstitutions (air-conditioned)registered in Haryana havingsix to 12 seats excluding driverwill be �12,000 per year, hav-ing 13 to 32 seats excludingdriver will be �20,000 per yearand having 33 and above seatsexcluding driver will be�30,000 per year.

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Punjab Chief Minister CaptAmarinder Singh on

Tuesday gave in-principleapproval to the master plan forthe development of Banur as anindustrial hub and directed theCountry and Town PlanningDepartment to immediatelymake necessary amendmentsfor time-bound completion ofthe project.

Capt Amarinder, chairingthe 37th meeting of PunjabRegional and Town Planningand Development Board,underlined the importance ofthe move to boost the region’sindustrial development in thelight of the pro-investmentenvironment in the state, backedby the policies and incentivesannounced by his government.

The Chief Minister alsogave approval to effect amend-

ments in the development con-trol regulations, thus accedingto the demand of theConfederation of Real EstateDevelopers Association of India(CREDAI) Punjab regardingcalculation of saleable area ofEWS sites and alignment ofZonal roads for connectivity ofsector/inter sector roads in var-ious master plans.

In another important step,the Chief Minister also gave go-ahead to make amendments inthe unified Zoning Regulationsand Development Controls forMaster Plans to ensure plannedand holistic urban develop-ment in the state.

It was also decided in themeeting to allow warehousingof all commodities in the agri-cultural zone of the notifiedplan, for which objectionswould be invited from the gen-eral public before the final noti-fication of the Master Plan.

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In a bid to ensure overalldevelopment of the margin-

alised class, some of the vil-lages falling under the juris-diction of Ranchi districtadministration will soon begiven a facelift. The Ranchi dis-

trict administration on Tuesdaysigned an MoU with UnitedNation DevelopmentProgramme (UNDP) regardingthe Corporate SocialResponsibility (CSR) project ofAirport Authority of India(AAI) Limited.

Focusing on inclusive com-munity development, as manyas 12 villages situated aroundthe proximity of Birsa MundaAirport will be developed soonby AAI Limited at a cost of Rs.6.18 crore. The project con-ceived seeking different devel-opmental modules will receivethe technical assistance fromUNDP and formulated in con-sultation with Ranchi districtadministration.

Hundru, Chota Ghaggra,Hethu, chandaghasi, ChuruLodhma, Karamtoli,Kachecholi, Latma, Nariguttu,khijri, Pokhartoli andTumbagattu have been identi-fied by AAI and will be devel-oped with all civic amenitiesbesides ensuring the executionof different State and Centralgovernment schemes.

“Raising the standard ofliving of the villagers is themain purpose of the districtadministration. Healthcarefacilities, drinking water andsanitation services includingother factors will be ensured ona priority basis. Further, inter-vention will be made to recog-nise several other factors inconsultation with the primaryagency involved in the venture.

All plans before being imple-mented will be first tabledbefore the district administra-tion team,” said Ranchi DC, RaiMahimapat Ray.

The identified villages willbe developed in three years tak-ing into consideration fivemajor factors. Disaster man-agement, health, education,skill development includingcommunity infrastructure arethe key parameters on whichthe development work at all theidentified villages will be car-ried out. Also, a three-monthintervention time is given toUNDP to identify a few moredomains that affect the demog-raphy including their socio-economic-cultural factors atthese villages.

“An extensive survey wascarried out a few years ago toidentify the factors that willbest go with the changes there.After two years of researchwhich was conducted in asso-ciation with several NGOs,focus will be on improving thebasic indicators first. Also,other factors will be also takeninto consideration during thecourse of development at theidentified villages,” said a rep-resentative of UNDP.

“As per the blueprint,installing mobile medical units,up gradation of six governmenthigh schools which includeselectrification and setting uphi-tech computer laboratories,infrastructural assessment willbe carried out at the earliest.

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In an exclusive interview withThe Pioneer during a road

trip from Ranchi to Khunti,Rekha Sharma, Chairpersonof National Commission forWomen (NCW), Delhi talksabout the women related issuesin Jharkhand, the plan ofamendment in the NCW Actand much more. Excerpts:

What are the most commontypes of cases you get fromJharkhand?

The most common type ofcases from Jharkhand is ofdomestic violence. We also takesuo motu cognizance, the lastbeing Kochang rape case ofKhunti district. Our two mem-ber team visited the spot afterthe incident and submitted ourfindings to the State as well asCentral government. We foundseveral loopholes in the caseand also found involvement ofthe priest, which was later con-firmed by the local police.

How many cases do you getfrom across the country?

Last year we got around31,000 cases, almost 50 percentof them from Uttar Pradesh.However, many case from UPturn out to be fake too. Theother states from where we gethigh number of cases are Delhi,

Haryana, West Bengal andBihar.

Do you get fake cases fromJharkhand too?

No, all of them are genuinebut the number of cases is lessas the people are not veryaware. If there are cases whichneed counseling we forwardthem to the State Commissionas they are doing a good workand it will also be easier for thevictim to contact the localcommission on a regular basis.

Human trafficking is a majorproblem in Jharkhand. Whatdoes the commission plans todo to solve the problem?

We cannot work on theground level so we have to coor-dinate with the local police. Wehave found that there is a lackof will in the police ofJharkhand to deal with suchcases and the gender sensitivi-ty is also less. We organize sen-sitization programmes for thepolice regarding such issues. Wehave already organized two bigseminars in Jharkhand and areplanning to organize more.

Are there any plans of orga-nizing seminars exclusivelyon the issue of trafficking?

Yes, we are planning toorganize seminars in the sourcestates because if trafficking iscontained at source states, this

will not be a problem in tran-sition and destination states.

What should be the role ofpolice in curbing trafficking?

The police needs to crack-down against the placementagencies. Also there is a need towork at the grass root level asmost of the traffickers end upbeing relatives of the victims.

What are the major reasonsfor trafficking fromJharkhand?

Domestic work, prostitu-tion, surrogacy and organ tradeare some of the major reasons.

How do you think social issueslike witch hunting and traf-ficking be solved?

The change can happenonly at the ground level throughawareness and education. Wehave to get people talking aboutthese issues to bring a change.The government can only helpif they take up these issues likea challenge and work on warfooting.

How does the NCW help Statecommission?

A number of legal aware-ness camps are being orga-nized at State level. Alreadyaround 16 to 18 camps havebeen organized and we haveasked for an estimate for thenext year.

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Brexit talks with theEuropean Union are mak-

ing progress, a senior BritishGovernment Minister said onTuesday, as Prime MinisterTheresa May seeks conces-sions from Brussels to help per-suade lawmakers to back herdeal in a series of crucial votesnext week.

Britain is due to leave theEU on March 29 — the firstcountry ever to do so — butBritish lawmakers have reject-ed a draft deal sealed by Mayand her EU counterparts inNovember. Both they and EUlawmakers must endorse anyagreement.

“I think the signals we are getting are reasonably pos-itive,” Foreign Secretary JeremyHunt told the BBC. “I don’twant to overstate them becauseI still think there’s a lot of workto do, but I think they dounderstand that we are being

sincere.”EU chief negotiator Michel

Barnier was due to meet U.K.Brexit Secretary StephenBarclay and Attorney GeneralGeoffrey Cox in Brussels lateron Tuesday seeking to breakthe deadlock.

The objections in Londoncenter on a provision demand-ed by Brussels to guaranteethere are no barriers along thecurrently invisible borderbetween EU member stateIreland and Northern Ireland,which is part of the U.K. Britainwants reassurances that thismechanism would be tempo-rary.

EU leaders insist that thelegally binding divorce agreement governing Britain’sdeparture can’t be reopened.But Hunt told the BBC that hiscountry is “prepared to beflexible” about how changes areachieved, and argued that theEuropeans are coming aroundto the idea that May “can get a

majority in Parliament.”With time running out, the

chances of Britain crashingout without any deal at all aregrowing, although Hunt saidhis government wants to avoidsuch a potentially devastatingscenario. EU leaders want toavoid that too.

In Poland, leaders werediscussing Tuesday a plan toprepare for that eventuality.

Prime Minister MateuszMorawiecki and his Cabinetwere taking up the draft legis-lation during their regularweekly meeting Tuesday.Konrad Szymanski, a deputyForeign Minister responsiblefor European issues, told Polishnews agency PAP that the planshould help alleviate the mostacute consequences of a no-deal Brexit.

Also hanging in the balance is the fate of hundredsof thousands of Poles who have settled in the UKsince Poland joined the EU in

2004.The Bank of England has

warned that “significant mar-ket volatility” is likely ifBritain crashes out.

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Malaysian prosecutors hereon Tuesday charged a

former ally of former PrimeMinister Najib Razak withmultiple counts of money laun-dering.

Musa Aman, former ChiefMinister of Sabah, was chargedat a Kuala Lumpur court with16 counts of money launderingamounting to $37 million,Xinhua news agency reported.The offences were committedbetween 2006 and 2008, reportssay.

Musa was accused of indi-rect involvement in allegedmoney laundering activitiesby instructing a bank accountto be opened at a Singaporeanbank to receive proceeds froman illicit transaction.

He was also accused ofindirect involvement in moneylaundering through receivingillicit funds from various com-panies and individuals througha foreign bank between 2006and 2008.

The largest recorded sumfor a single transactionamounted to $16.15 million,the report said.

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China plans to complete the construction of the

artificial sun this year, achiev-ing an ion temperature of 100million degrees Celsius, anofficial has said.

The HL-2M Tokamakdevice is designed to replicatethe nuclear fusion process that occurs naturally in the sunand stars to provide almost infinite clean energy throughcontrolled nuclear fusion,which is often dubbed as the“artificial sun.”

Achieving an ion temper-ature above 100 million degreesCelsius is one of the threechallenges to reach the goal ofharnessing the nuclear fusion,and the core of the sun is wide-ly believed to be 15 milliondegree Celsius, meaning thatthe ion at the device’s core willbe seven times higher than thatof the Sun, Duan Xuru, an offi-cial of the China NationalNuclear Corporation (CNNC)was quoted as saying by thestate-run Global Times.

The other two challengesare containing the fusion with-

in a limited space in the longterm, and providing a suffi-ciently high density profile,Science and Technology Dailyreported on Monday.

“The artificial sun’s plasmais mainly composed of elec-trons and ions, and the coun-try’s existing Tokamak deviceshave achieved an electron tem-perature of over 100 milliondegrees Celsius in its core plasma, and an ion temperatureof 50 million degrees Celsius, and it is the ion thatgenerates energy in the device,”Duan said.

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Tehran: Iran says its ForeignMinister wanted to resign lastmonth after being kept in thedark about a surprise visit bySyrian President Bashar Assad toTehran.

President Hassan Rouhaniultimately rejected MohammadJavad Zarif ’s resignation, throw-ing his full support behind thediplomat who negotiated thecountry’s nuclear deal withworld powers.

Zarif later returned to hisjob. Both men face growingpressure from Iranian hard-lin-ers as the nuclear accord unrav-els under American pressure.

Foreign Ministry spok-esman Bahram Ghasemi said onTuesday that “one of the reasonsfor Zarif ’s resignation was thistype of lack of coordination withthe Foreign Ministry.” Assadwas warmly received bySupreme Leader Ayatollah AliKhamenei, Rouhani and alsoGen. Qassem Soleimani, thecommander of an elite unit ofthe Revolutionary Guard. AP

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AVietnamese womanaccused of murdering the

half-brother of North Korea’sleader will testify in court for thefirst time next week, when thelong-running trial over the ColdWar-style hit resumes, herlawyer said on Tuesday.

In a brazen killing thatshocked the world, Doan ThiHuong from Vietnam and SitiAisyah from Indonesia areaccused of assassinating KimJong Nam by smearing VXnerve agent on his face at KualaLumpur airport in February2017. The women have deniedmurder, saying they believedthey were taking part in a prankand were tricked by NorthKorean agents.

Salim Bashir, one of Huong’slawyers, said she will testify onMonday when the trial resumeswith the defence stage of pro-ceedings after a break of sever-al months.

“Huong is in good health,confident and is ready to take thestand,” he told AFP, adding thatthe thrust of the defence

remained that the women weretricked into carrying out thekilling.

“Huong had no... Intentionto commit murder.” The pairhave been on trial since October2017 but proceedings have beenhit by repeated delays, andAisyah’s defence — which wasoriginally due to start last year— is currently on hold due to arow over witness statements.

Prosecutors presented theircase in the first stage of the trial,with witnesses describing howthe victim — the estranged rel-ative of Kim Jong Un and onceseen as heir apparent to theNorth Korean leadership —died in agony shortly after beingattacked.

In August, a judge ruledthere was sufficient evidence thesuspects had engaged in a “well-planned conspiracy” with fourNorth Koreans to murder Kim,and ordered that the trial con-tinue to the defence stage.

The four, who are accusedof having recruited the pair andbeing the masterminds of theplot, are also formally accusedover the killing.

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AUK-based male patient’sHIV has become “unde-

tectable” following a stem celltransplant — in only the sec-ond case of its kind in theworld, scientists led by anIndian-origin researcherreported Tuesday in a studypublished in the journalNature.

The ‘London patient’, whohas not been named, was diag-nosed with HIV in 2003 andadvanced Hodgkin’s lymphomain 2012. Professor RavindraGupta said the patient was treat-ed with stem cell transplantsfrom donors carrying a geneticmutation that prevents expres-sion of an HIV receptor CCR5.

The subject of the newstudy has been in remission for18 months after his antiretro-viral therapy (ARV) was dis-continued, he said.

“At the moment the only

way to treat HIV is with med-ications that suppress the virus,which people need to take fortheir entire lives, posing a par-ticular challenge in developing countries,” saidGupta from University CollegeLondon (UCL), the study’slead author

“Finding a way to eliminatethe virus entirely is an urgentglobal priority, but is particu-larly difficult because the virusintegrates into the white bloodcells of its host,” he said in astatement.

The team, which com-prised of researchers at UCLand Imperial College Londonas well as partners at theUniversity of Cambridge andthe University of Oxford, saidthe latest case is a proof of theconcept that scientists will oneday be able to end AIDS,caused by HIV, but does notmean a cure for HIV has beenfound.

It was way back in October, 1973, thatmembers of the Organisation of ArabPetroleum Exporting Countries(OAPEC) imposed an embargo on oilsupplies to certain nations, which was

in retaliation against the Yom Kippur War.This caused enormous turmoil in the glob-al oil market and the US, which was heavilydependent on oil imports, was particularlybadly affected. Its production declined rapid-ly in earlier years, to compensate for which,imports grew substantially. In 1973, forinstance, the US imported 6.2 million barrelsper day of oil (mbd), compared to 3.2 mbdin 1970. While there was considerable panicamong these major importers of oil, leadingto a serious economic crisis, most of thesecountries were able to recover within a rea-sonable period of time. For instance, PresidentRichard Nixon introduced the CorporateAverage Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards forautomobiles in the US, which in the short runincreased their average fuel efficiency and withincrease in petro-dollars, countries like SaudiArabia imported large quantities of capitalequipment and services from the US at inflat-ed prices, thereby leading to a balance in trade.

What is now ironic is the fact that theUS has emerged as the largest producer ofoil in the world. There are serious issuesrelated to the production of shale oil butwhat has contributed to this phenomenalincrease in the US’ oil production is theincrease in shale, which during the mid-dle of 2018, reached a total of 11 mbd,including both conventional and shale pro-duction. When Saudi Arabia was thelargest producer of oil in the past, thatcountry and, in general, the OPEC nations,had regularly dictated terms to the rest ofthe world in respect of oil prices. Ironically,it is now the US which has enhanced itsinfluence. US President Donald Trumpstated recently, “Oil prices are getting toohigh. OPEC, please relax and take it easy.World cannot take a price hike — fragile!”How much this warning will be heeded isanother matter. Indeed, a country like Indiais very vulnerable to the impacts of highoil prices on its economy, and in recentmonths, the decline in the value of theIndian rupee is a direct reflection of glob-al oil prices. There are, of course, majorissues related to India’s hydrocarbon poli-cies, which need detailed discussion andserious reflection, but we may first dealwith alarming trends at the global level.Historically, there has never been a trad-ed commodity which has influenced theglobal economy and its distribution as thecase of oil.

What is particularly disturbing is the factthat the global demand for oil in October,2018, was 101.1 mbd, which is substantiallyhigher than projections made in the past. Thisfigure clearly exceeds consumption of oil asfossil fuels committed by nationalGovernments in their Nationally DeterminedContributions (NDCs) under the Paris agree-

ment. Since the last century,there has been a huge increase inthe consumption of fossil fuelsand allied economic activities.The result is, therefore, a signif-icant increase in the emissions ofgreenhouse gases (GHGs) dur-ing 2018. Clearly, there are vest-ed interests that would want toprolong the era of oil and max-imise profits from existingreserves and new discoveries.

Curiously, it was a formerSaudi oil Minister, SheikhYamani, who is reported to havesaid that “the stone age did notend because there were nostones”. Yet, in the case of oil,clearly, the oil age is not endingbecause there is still the lure ofoil under the ground and withthe oil industry, the automobileindustry, the highway lobby andothers benefitting perpetuallyfrom the consumption of oil.They, thus, resist any move tolower carbon sources of energywith all the power and moneythat they have. India, unfortu-nately, is no exception to thistrend because our transport pol-icy, which is moving rapidlytowards vehicular transporta-tion, is totally dependent on oilimports, which jeopardise oureconomy and foreign exchangeoutflow. And our efforts to dealwith climate change are, there-fore, unlikely to succeed fully.

The knowledge about cli-

mate change has been around fora long time now, including oneof the earliest efforts by SvanteArrhenius, a Swedish scientistwho won the Nobel Prize in1903, but the euphoria andromance with the internal com-bustion engine has completelyignored the warning of scientistsover the years.

The IntergovernmentalPanel on Climate Change (IPCC)was established in 1988. It notonly gets the best scientists of theworld mobilised to provide theirtime and talent on a voluntarybasis, but their reports areapproved and accepted by all theGovernments of the world. Yet,the fossil fuel lobby in most coun-tries continues to look the otherway when it comes to assessingthe risks and damage from thegrowing impacts of climatechange. Efforts to convert thosein power and involved in ener-gy decisions have generallyproved futile.

This writer was the presidentof the International Associationfor Energy Economics in 1988,when during the annual interna-tional conference of that body, asix-point programme of actionwas proposed to reduce thegrowing burden on the environ-ment due to the use of fossil fuelslike coal, thereby saving theworld from excessive levels ofcarbon dioxide. It was also pro-

posed in this conference that aglobal dialogue between northand south be held to reduce lev-els of carbon dioxide on an equi-table basis. Indeed, such a dia-logue commenced in 1992 withthe acceptance of the UNFramework Convention onClimate Change (UNFCCC) byall the countries of the world.Yet, it is unfortunate that after aquarter century of the existenceof this convention, GHG emis-sions continue to grow.Technology, which should havebeen directed to the develop-ment of low carbon energy sup-ply and possibly intensive devel-opment of carbon capture andstorage technologies, has gonetowards production of shale oiland fracking technologies forproduction of natural gas. Someof these not only have seriousenvironmental problems at thelocal level but contribute signif-icantly to emissions of GHGs.The question remains whetherlike the stone age ending, weneed to end the era of oil evenif there are reserves under theground. Or do we continue witheconomic disruption, inequitabledistribution of income andwealth and dangerous levels ofclimate change for the comfortand prosperity of a few?

(The writer is former chair-man, Intergovernmental Panelon Climate Change, 2002-15)

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Sir — It is a sorry spectacle to wit-ness that both the BJP and theOpposition have been tradingcharges against each other topoliticise the Pulwama terrorattack and the subsequent hero-ic act by our Air Force. All of thisto score brownie points ahead ofthe Lok Sabha poll. PrimeMinister Narendra Modi hasbeen attacking the Nehru-Gandhifamily at almost every platformwith choicest slogans and words.

Both parties are just interest-ed in catching votes, caring littlefor national security, which isunder threat from India’s enemies.It is high time that they maintainrestraint during their campaigns.

KR SrinivasanSecunderabad

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Sir — It is distressing that a newstudy has found that seven of thetop 10 most polluted cities in theworld are in India. It is a matter ofconcern that Gurugram, locatedsouthwest of India’s capital NewDelhi, led all cities in pollution lev-els in 2018, even as its score

improved from the previous year,according to data released by IQAirAirVisual and Greenpeace. Threeother Indian cities joined Faisalabadand Pakistan in the top five. The ill-effects of pollution are grave. It isalso known that only a healthy gen-eration can make a nation healthy.But when will India’s war on air pol-lution finally begin?

Muhammad ZaidRamanagara

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Sir — Indian Air Force (IAF)chief BS Dhanoa has made itamply clear that the Air Force’sduty is to only see if a target hasbeen hit or not. That it isn’t itsresponsibility to provide thedetails on the number of terror-ists killed during an operation.That is the job of the

Government. Dhanoa is absolutely right to

say so but it is a reality that in awar, there is no a feeling of com-passion and nobody wins at all.War is a battle waged betweentwo or more nations where rag-ing revenge prevails. Can a nationreally win a war? Certainly not.War always kills people, which isnot a happy thing. So, in the inter-est of the mankind, nations must

stop using force to kill people. As human beings march for-

ward from barbarianism to acivilised world, war is sure toelude us and ultimately, perfectpeace and harmony would cometo stay. Once we stop earmarkingthe budgetary allocation of astro-nomical amount for defence, wewill have the sure chance ofspending a whopping amount forthe welfare of people. Let us alllook forward to such a peacefuland prosperous world sans war.

TK NandananChennai

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Sir — The air strikes betweenIndia and Pakistan and the con-sequent capture and release of theIndian pilot may just have post-poned a war between the twocountries. It will, however, benaive to think that Islamabad willdesist from performing anti-India activities. It will be inIndia’s best interest to co-opt thelocal populace in Kashmir.

ShivanshVia email

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Picking undervalued stocks requires bothquantitative and qualitative analysis.Quantitative factors use more of numbers

and can be analysed through a ratio analysisor other valuation methods. On the otherhand, qualitative factors are important to iden-tify fundamentally strong companies and thequality of the stock, beyond numbers.Although these factors are very crucial for busi-ness valuation, they are very difficult toquantify. However, no company can ignorethem as they are, sometimes, tangible. At thesame time, they can be intangible, too, as theyare the imperatives for valuation of a compa-ny. They provide a range of important infor-mation that factors both the financial statementanalysis and valuation process. They also oftenidentify important catalysts for the upward ordownward movement of stocks in the future.

Qualitative factors can be internal (com-pany-related) or external (industry-related).There are different ways to make an analysisthat has a significant bearing on the fundamen-tal analysis: The business model, competitiveadvantage, customer base and management aswell as corporate governance.

The core business model: It is importantto understand what the company does and howit generates value for its customers. For somefirms this is easy because they sell food or man-ufacture something simple. For example, if youlook at the business model of KFC, one willnotice that it sells delicious chicken burgers,chicken roasts, many varieties of mouth-lick-ing chicken and veg recipes. Their businessmodel is very easy to follow. An investor knowsthat this is how KFC makes money. Othertimes, it is more complicated. Therefore, it isimperative to first know the business modelof a company and then conduct due diligence— find out its history, revenue generationmodel, how it got started, how long the com-pany has been in the market, what is the rev-enue and profit margin maintained by them.

Customers and Geographic exposure: Aninvestor must identify if the firm has a few largecustomers or a very fragmented customer base.It is also essential to know how the firm isviewed by the customers — as a value or pre-mium brand? Is it consistent with the qualityof its product? Does it deliver on time? And arethe products fairly priced? Some companiesserve only a handful of customers while oth-ers serve millions. In general, it’s a red flag (anegative) if a business relies on a small num-ber of customers for a large portion of its salesbecause the loss of each customer could dra-matically affect revenues. Further one mustknow the geographic sales breakdown — eacheconomy has different growth rates and criti-cal factors that may require additional research.

Competitive advantage: Before an investorevaluates a company in quantitative terms andjudges it on the basis of figures, he/she needsto find out what’s the competitive advantage ofthe firm? This is important because withoutcompetitive advantage, competition increasesand profit margins decrease or disappear. Forexample, if a company sells online, its logisticscan be its competitive advantage, which can help

it reach its customers superfast and delivergoods/products faster than its competitors. Asan investor, one needs to think about the com-petitive advantage or lack of it before investing.Because competitive advantage is the soleingredient of producing astounding or mediocreresults. For example, while for Intel, Research& Development and size maybe advantageous,for Wal-Mart, it’s their industry leading logis-tics along with size that provide them leverageover suppliers.

Quality of management: One of themost important factors of any business is thequality of management in the company. If themanagement is motivated enough to steer thecompany toward its summit, it would be agigantic force and it would always find a wayeven amid greatest economic turndowns. Agood management team can make a big dif-ference, especially when a business is in a chal-lenging environment or still developing indus-try. Checking management comments in thefinancials can reveal if a team is hitting tar-gets and has had successful strategy in the past.So before investing in a company, having acheck on management quality is of utmostimportance.

Corporate governance: In simple terms,corporate governance is the holy grail of a sus-tainable business. If corporate governance ofa business is not in order, the entire businesswill crumble sooner or later. So, an investorshould check out the corporate governance ofa company and look out for three things: Arethe rules of the company aligned with the firm’smission and vision?; is the company servingeach and every stakeholder well?; and is itlegally compliant with the Government’s poli-cies? If the answer to these questions is a ‘yes’,usually, the company is pretty good at corpo-rate governance.

Externally, industry related factors that aninvestor should look out for are:

Industry growth trends: If an industry isexpected to decline by five per cent, it is hardto forecast a company in it to grow at 10 percent. Knowing the industry trends and cycleis critical factors in modelling companygrowth. Look at the historic data along withforecasts from competitors and trade groups.

Market share: A company can be thelargest player in an industry, a small, up andcoming firm or a niche player. Gaining or los-ing market share is a growth factor to consid-er, know what trends are driving the stocksgains or losses. Good market research helpuncover these trends.

Competition: Identifying the closest com-petitor is very important. Often times, thecompetitive position determines pricing powerand margins. Also, conduct market researchto track competitors and search for actions thatare disruptive such as a new product launch,discounting or strategic shift.

Regulatory authorities: External regula-tors are impactful for some firms. Knowingwho plays key roles and issues critical legis-lation or rulings is critical.

Disruptive Technologies: Technologiescan shape or break a company. Look for dis-ruptive technologies that have shaped theindustry altogether. And then see whether thecompany you are evaluating is using thosetechnologies or not. In this age of continuousadvancement of technologies, only disruptiveones make any progress.

These are the ten mantras that can help aninvestor look more than just numbers like prof-its and sales that can help them make aninformed decision based on the quality of stock.

(The writer is Assistant Professor, Amity University)

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After the Pulwama terrorattack on February 14 andIndia’s subsequent retalia-

tion to it, poll issues seem to havechanged overnight. It is clear nowthat issues like the Rafale scam, job-lessness, rural and farm crisis,among others have taken a back seatas the terror narrative is giving anadvantage to the ruling BharatiyaJanata Party (BJP) and PrimeMinister Narendra Modi. Whetherthe issue will help them garner votesor not is a different question alto-gether.

However, the party at the helmoften stands benefited when deal-ing with a war-like situation because

of the surcharged atmosphere in thecountry. A muscular policy is whatthey want. This happened duringthe 1971 Bangladesh war when thethen Prime Minister Indira Gandhiwon kudos all around.

The planning for the coup tookalmost from April to December,1971. It was such a closely keptsecret that even US Secretary ofState Henry Kissinger did not get ahint about it when he met IndiraGandhi in July 1971. US PresidentRichard Nixon was so upset that hecalled Indira Gandhi “a witch anda bitch”.

Former Prime Minister AtalBihari Vajpayee, too, got the nation’ssupport during the Kargil war andhis party, the BJP, won the LokSabha poll in 1999; although it didnot increase the party’s seat tally.The BJP went all-out to propagatethe Kargil victory; though it wasknown that de-escalation cameonly after the intervention of thethen US President, Bill Clinton, whowas keen to avert a war between thetwo nuclear powers.

Now, it is the turn of Prime

Minister Modi to claim victory;although it is clear that both Indiaand Pakistan have cooled downafter pressure from the US andother international powers, whoadvised both countries to avertany kind of escalation. The BJPbelieves that Modi’s chances ofreturning to power are much moreafter the Balakot airstrikes as he hasbeen able to send an effective sig-nal to the country that he is a strongleader.

Prior to Pulwama, Modi was ina vulnerable position politically,particularly after the major debaclein the three Hindi heartland Statesof Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh andChhattisgarh last December. Theelection results sent the messageclear that people were slowly gettingdisenchanted with the ModiGovernment for not fulfilling thetall promises on job creation andagrarian crisis. Anti-incumbencyhad to be countered.

However, all of these havechanged after Pulwama. Earlier,the BJP was thinking of making thebuilding of Ram Mandir in

Ayodhya as the main poll issue. TheRashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh(RSS), which had been banking on‘temple’ plus ‘cow’ narrative to lurethe voters, has now changed itsfocus to prioritise terrorism.

On February 22, at an RSSinternal meeting, it re-designedthe campaign to focus on the needfor a stable Government to dealwith terror.

Second, the BJP is attempting atinvoking nationalism after theattack, making use of the simmer-ing anger against Pakistan withinthe country. With the Balakotairstrikes, Prime Minister Modihas locked his political script for the2019 polls. He had used the ‘MiaMusharraf ’ narrative even duringhis 2002 Gujarat campaign success-fully to polarise the electorate. Theparty is propagating the achieve-ments of the strong Prime Ministerand his muscular policy.

Third, though the Opposition,including the Congress, came out insupport of the Government soonafter the Pulwama attack, theybegan to criticise Prime Minister

Modi within days. Now, both theBJP and the Opposition have beenaccusing each other of politicisingthe Pulwama issue in view of theelections. Around 21 oppositionparties last week issued a statementthat: “National security must tran-scend narrow political considera-tions.”

The Opposition has beenstumped by the BJP’s security nar-rative and has planned its own strat-egy to counter it. Congress insidersclaim that the Opposition has moreammunition to fire, most of themcreated by the BJP itself.

The first step is to raise doubtsabout the airstrike itself. TheCongress’ narrative is to shredModi’s claims into pieces and ques-tion the intelligence failure, asacknowledged by Jammu &Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik.

Already, multiple voices havequestioned Modi’s security strate-gy. West Bengal Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee has questionedthe timing of the Pulwama attack,asking whether the Governmentwanted to go to war when the Lok

Sabha election was round the cor-ner. Other Opposition leaders havejoined the chorus.

The Opposition believes that itwould be difficult for PrimeMinister Modi and the BJP to sus-tain the momentum for the nexttwo months and it will have enoughtime to hit out.

Therefore, other issues likeRafale could come to the forefrontsooner than later. But it is a chal-lenge for the Opposition how tochange the national security narra-tive so soon and bring back the localand domestic issues and failures ofthe Modi Government.

The point is: Questioning theBJP’s national security narrativewould be risky. The Opposition hasto find other ways of restoring theprimacy of other issues like jobs.Whose narrative works will best beknown when the ballot boxes open.But the Opposition faces a toughchallenge of countering the com-municative strategy of the BJP.

(The writer is a senior politicalcommentator and syndicated columnist)

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The DMK-led UnitedProgressive Alliance in

Tamil Nadu on Tuesday suc-cessfully finalised and for-malised the seat sharingprocess for the upcoming LokSabha elections. MK Stalin,who turned 66 on March 1 (hisfirst birth day since getting ele-vated as party chief in August2017), told reporters at theparty headquarters that hisparty would contest 20 seatswhile the alliance partnershave been allocated 20 seats outof the total 40 seats at stake (39seats from Tamil Nadu and thelone seat from Puducherry).

Though the AIADMK-ledfront has almost finalised theseat sharing talks with its part-ners, a final announcementabout the composition of theline-up would be made only bylate Tuesday night orWednesday morning, accord-ing to AIADMK leaders. Aclear picture would beannounced by Wednesdaybecause Prime MinisterNarendra Modi is flying downto Chennai to address the elec-tion rally convened by the

AIADMK-led front.Stalin said that the CPI, the

CPI(M) and VCK have beenallocated two seats each whilethe MDMK, KMDK , MuslimLeague and Indian JananayakaKatchi were given one seateach. The DMK had allocatedten seats to the Congress (ninein Tamil Nadu and the lonePuducherry seat). ManithaneyaMakkal Katchi, an Islamic out-fit which had been with theDMK for the last three yearscould not be accommodatedthis time because of shortage ofseats. “They will be given dueconsideration in the next elec-tion,” said Stalin while M HJawahirullah of the MMK leftthe DMK headquarters with asheepish smile.

Stalin also announced thatthe DMK-led front wouldlaunch its election campaign onMarch 13 from Kanyakumariwhere Rahul Gandhi, theyoung president of theCongress would address amammoth rally.

Though Vaiko of theMDMK had demanded threeLok Sabha seats, Stalin boughtpeace with him with one seat.“Vaiko would be nominated tothe Rajya Sabha in June 2019,when the next vacancy from theState is due,” said Stalin. He alsodisclosed that Vaiko, who waswith the BJP-led NDA in the2014 Lok Sabha election wouldlead the propaganda for theUPA all over Tamil Nadu.

With the DMK choosing to

content with 20 seats, it hasbecome clear that some hardbargaining took place in theparty head- quarters with therepresentatives of the Lefts andthe VCK. Leaders of the DMKhad made it known earlierthat they would keep aside 15seats for the alliance partnerswhile the party itself wouldcontest a minimum of 25 seatsto make its presence felt in NewDelhi during the Governmentformation.

All eyes are now onDMDK leader Vijayakanth ,who is expected to announcehis course of action lateTuesday or Wednesday morn-ing. The DMDK was the leadalliance partner of the NDA inTamil Nadu during the 2014Lok Sabha election when it hadcontested 14 seats. This time itmay have to be satisfied withtwo or three seats to be allo-cated by the AIADMK.

In the AIADMK-led front,the PMK and the BJP havebeen allocated seven and fiveLok Sabha seats while smallerparties like the PT, and IJP weregiven one seat each. The TamilManila Congress too is expect-ed to cast with the AIADMK-led front.

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Congress president RahulGandhi is likely to start his

election campaign in Bengalsometime later this month,Pradesh Congress sources said.

The new move comes inthe wake of two parallel but notunconnected developments:Firstly, the proffering by theCPI(M) of a “no mutual con-test” formula in at least six par-liamentary seats and second, aletter from PCC presidentSomen Mitra to Gandhi advo-cating early decision on anagreeable seat-sharing formu-la with the Left Front which stillenjoys an appreciable vote basenotwithstanding BJP’s recentmeteoric rise in the State.

In his letter sent onTuesday Mitra has “expressedthe opinion of the rank and file”underlining the need for a“seat-sharing or alliance” for-mula with the CPI(M) so as to“stop the march of the BJP inthe State and dethrone theTMC in 2021 Assembly elec-tions.”

Mitra told reporters that hehad “written to Rahulji with myassessment. Now it is for ourparty president and the AICCto take a call on the matter.”

About his assessment he said hehad only written about the“aspirations of party workersand leaders.”

Though a major section ofboth the Congress and theLeft Front have been asking foran alliance or “in the least aseat-sharing arrangement,” thetwo parties have failed to agreeon two seats of Raiganj andMurshidabad where both theparties have a good presenceand their workers are againstleaving the seats.

According to insidesources both in the CPI(M)and the Congress “the mood issuch that if the seats are sacri-ficed for the alliance to standthen the workers who havebeen cultivating the con-stituencies might go towardsthe BJP.”

In 2014 general elections

when all the parties contestedseparately the Congress wonfour seats of: Malda North andMalda South, Behrampore andJangipur. In multi-corneredcontests Deepa Dasmunshi ofthe Congress lost Raiganj toLeft’s Md Salim by about 3,000votes whereas the CPI(M)defeated the tri-colour party inMurshidabad by about 25,000votes.

After several rounds ofdeliberations the State com-mittees of both the partieshave refused to leave thesetwo closely contested seats.

“Raiganj which was theconstituency of PR Dasmunshiand subsequently DeepaDasmunshi and Murshidabadare our traditional bastionsand cannot be left,” a seniorPCC leader said admittinghowever that “if the two partiesfought separately then the BJPwill gain an advantage.”

As for Malda North afterthe sitting Congress MPMausam Benazir Noor joinedthe Trinamool Congress the tri-colour party is planning to fieldhis cousin a local MLA IshaKhan Chowdhury. SouthMalda seat is currently held byCongress MP Abu HasemKhan Chowdhury.

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Mumbai: A CPI(M) leaderfrom Maharashtra has beensuspended from the party'sCentral Committee, days afterhe publicly praised PrimeMinister Narendra Modi.

The BJP responded to thisaction by the communist partyas "shameless display of intol-erance."

At a rally in Solapur onJanuary 9, former CPI(M) MLANarsaiyya Adam praised andthanked Modi and MaharashtraChief Minister DevendraFadnavis for speedy clearance toa housing project in Solapurdistrict. Adam, a former MLAfrom Solapur district, had saidModi should get another termas Prime Minister.

"Such praise is against thepolicy of our party, so a decisionhas been taken to suspend himfor three months from theCentral Committee," a partyofficial said on Tuesday.

The Committee is a keydecision-making body of thecommunist party. While Adamwas unavailable for comments,state BJP spokesperson MadhavBhandari said the CPI(M) deci-sion is "a shameless display ofintolerance." PTI

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Agartala: The IndigenousPeoples Front of Tripura (IPFT),an ally of the ruling BJP inTripura, said on Tuesday itwould go it alone in the upcom-ing Lok Sabha polls.

Mangal Debbarma, thespokesperson of the party, saidthe decision to field candidatesin the two Lok Sabha seats in thestate was taken on March 3, fol-lowing the IPFT central com-mittee meeting here.

"When BJP national presi-dent Amit Shah visited Agartalaon January 5, we submitted amemorandum to him, demand-ing that the IPFT be allowed tofield candidate in East Tripuraconstituency, reserved forScheduled Tribe. He told us thathe would get back to us on thematter, but never did,"Debbarma, who is also theassistant general secretary of the

party, told reporters.As Shah did not respond to

the IPFT request, the party wascompelled to take this decision,he said.

A five-member committeehas been formed with IPFTpresident NC Debbarma as thechairman to select candidatesfor the two seats and discuss themodalities of election cam-paign, he added.

BJP spokesperson AshokSinha, when asked about hisreaction to the IPFT move,said every political party has thefreedom to make a choice.

"It is up to the IPFT todecide what it wants to do forthe Lok Sabha polls. Everypolitical party is free to take itsown decision. However, when itcomes to the BJP, such decisionsare taken by the senior leadersin Delhi," Sinha added. PTI

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Shillong: BJP, which is backingthe NPP-led DemocraticAlliance Government inMeghalaya, on Tuesdayannounced that it will go alonein the upcoming Lok Sabhapolls and field candidates onthe two Parliamentary seats—Tura and Shillong.

The decision was taken ata meeting chaired by BJP gen-eral secretary in-charge ofNorth East, Ajay Jamuwal andattended by State party's lead-ers and workers here.

"We have decided in prin-ciple to contest the Lok Sabhaelections from both the parlia-mentary seats in Meghalaya,"BJP state leader and Cabinetminister AL Hek told reporters.

Hek said the election com-mittee will be constituted soonfor inviting application fromaspiring candidates for the twoseats.

According to BJP minister,a delegation of the state partywill also be meeting the nation-al president Amit Shah toinform him about the Tuesday'sdecision.

He said that so far aroundfour-five candidates havealready approached the partyfor tickets, but the decision onthe matter will be taken by thestate election committee.

The announcement cameafter the MDA partners failed

to decide consensus candidateon both the constituencies,Hek said.

The UDP, the leadingregional party supporting theMDA Government, hadannounced its general secretaryJemino Mawthoh as the can-didate. However, other region-al parties like the HSPDP, PDFand the KHNAM are yet tomake public if they support theidea or not.

"We are confident to winboth the seats. The BJP washaving only two MPs in 1984but now it is the biggest partyin the country," he said, whilereacting to a query on poorperformance of the party in the2018 Assembly polls.

BJP state president ShibunLyngdoh said that the partyearlier thought of supportingand had waited for the MDA topropose the consensus candi-dates but nothing happened tillTuesday.

Facing tough questionsfrom natives on CitizenshipAmendment Bill and the beefban politics, the BJP did notfield candidates in the February27 tribal council elections.

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Adalaj (Guj): Asking theGovernment to account for itswork has now become a trendin the country, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi said here onTuesday.

The BJP-led Governmentaims to empower society toconduct more social works, hesaid, after the 'pran-pratistha'(idol installation) ceremony atthe newly-built AnnapurnaDham temple here.

"There is a recent trend ofpeople expecting that every-thing has to be done by theGovernment. They also seekanswers from the Governmentfor the works that are notdone. This was not a traditionin our country," he said.

The society used to builddharmshalas (guest houses),gaushala (cow shelters), waterponds and libraries, he said.

"All these used to be con-structed by society's strength.Slowly, knowingly or unknow-ingly, this activity of the soci-ety was suppressed and thestate took the role of carryingout social work," Modi said.

"Our attempt is (to ensure)

that the state should do theadministrative work, and soci-ety should be empowered so itcan carry out such socialworks beneficial for people atlarge," he said after the cere-mony at the temple set up byLeuva Patels, a sub-caste of thePatidar community. The primeminister said it was the LeuvaPatel community, led byIndia's first Home ministerSardar Vallabhbhai Patel,which started the Amul move-

ment and benefited peoplecoming from all castes andclasses in the villages ofGujarat.

"Sardar Patel should not beseen from the prism of caste.He was a tall world leader. His'Statue of Unity' (in Gujarat'sNarmada district) is theworld's tallest statue, and Idon't think we can break thisrecord," he said.

"Who started the AmulDairy? For our understanding,

they were all Leuva Patels...Theleaders of our communitywho founded Amul benefitedpeople from all communi-ties," he said.

Modi said he would likethis trust (of the AnnapurnaDham) to set up food pro-cessing units and develop ascientific method of food pro-cessing.

"We should work on foodprocessing on a large scale andconduct research in the sector.I would like people from theindustry to think in this direc-tion," he said.

He suggested the templetrust to gift plants to devoteesso they stay like "God's bless-ings" after growing up.

After the birth of a daugh-ter in a Leuva Patel family, itsmembers should be encour-aged to visit the AnnapurnaDham to seek the Goddess'blessings, he said.

The family should begiven five plants of best woodquality for making furniture,and government's help shouldbe sought for land to growthem, he said. PTI

Jammu: A soldier was injuredon Tuesday as Pakistan againviolated ceasefire by resortingto unprovoked mortar shellingand firing of small arms on for-ward posts and villages at twoplaces along the Line of Controlin Jammu & Kashmir, officialssaid.

The unprovoked firingfrom across the border tookplace in Nowshera sector inRajouri district and KrishnaGhati in Poonch district,prompting effective retaliationby the Indian Army, a defencespokesman said.

Official sources said asepoy, guarding a forward postin Kalal area of Nowshera sec-tor, suffered a bullet injury inthe firing from across the bor-

der and was subsequentlyadmitted to a hospital.

The defence spokesmansaid Pakistani troopers firsttargeted forward posts and vil-lages in Nowshera around11:30 am and the cross-borderskirmishes continued for sometime.

Pakistani army also initi-ated shelling with mortars andsmall arms in Krishna Ghati

sector around 6pm, thespokesman said.

He said the Indian Armyretaliated strongly but the casu-alties on the Pakistani sidecould not be known immedi-ately.

There has been a spurt inceasefire violation by Pakistanafter India's air strike at Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorist campin Balakot on February 26 in apreemptive action followingthe February 14 suicide bomb-ing in Pulwama in which 40CRPF personnel were killed.

Four civilians, includingthree members of a family, werekilled and several othersinjured in over 60 ceasefire vio-lations by Pakistan along theLoC last week. PTI

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Ahmedabad: Congress law-maker from Gujarat BhagvanBarad has been disqualified asan MLA following his convic-tion in an illegal mining case,state Assembly Speaker RajendraTrivedi said on Tuesday.

The Opposition Congresshas termed the move "political-ly motivated" and said it wouldapproach court over theSpeaker's move and also holdprotests. A court in Gir-Somnath district last Fridayawarded Barad a jail term of twoyears and nine months in a 24-year-old case of illegal mining.

The 60-year-old Congressleader won from Talala seat inGir-Somnath in the 2017Assembly polls. PTI

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Still to find a berth, theO p p o s i t i o n

“Mahaghatbandhan” in theState, Maharashtra NavnirmanSena (MNS) chief RajThackeray may spell out hisparty’s stand whether it will bea part of the Opposition front orgo it alone in the polls, at hisparty’s 13th foundation dayhere on March 9.

Raj — whose party has notso far come to an electoralunderstanding with any politi-cal party despite his desperateefforts to hitch a ride on theOpposition bandwagon for theforthcoming Lok Sabha polls –will unveil the MNS' road mapfor the forthcoming Lok Sabhapolls and the subsequent StateAssembly polls at the partyrally on Saturday. In its effort towhip up enthusiasm amongthe cadres ahead of the party’s

foundation day rally to be heldat the Rangsharda auditorium atBandra in north-west Mumbai,the MNS has gone to town withteasers in the social media,exhorting the party workers tobe ready for a “surgical strike”from its president, at Saturday’srally. Notwithstanding theefforts made by Raj to jumponto the Opposition bandwag-on ahead of the Lok Sabha polls,there is still uncertainty onwhether the MNS will be admit-ted into the Opposition“Mahaghatbandhan”.

Between the two main con-stituents of the“Mahaghatbandhan”, the NCPhas evinced interest in takingthe MNS into the Oppositionfold, while the Congressstaunchly opposed the RajThackeray-led party’s inclusionin the Opposition front.

It may be recalled that for-mer deputy chief minister andsenior NCP leader Ajit Pawarhad on February 12 made astrong case for MNS’ inclusionin the “Mahaghatbandhan” toensure consolidation of theOpposition votes.

Subsequently, MaharashtraCongress president AshokChavan said that his party hadconveyed to its ally NCP that itcould not come to an under-standing “covertly or overtly”with the MNS to include it inthe “Mahaghatbandhan” cob-bled up for the forthcoming LokSabha polls. Chavan’s statement

came in the backdrop of thehints thrown by the NCP thatit would offer the Kalyan LokSabha seat to the MNS.

Talking to media persons,Chavan had said that theCongress would not “tolerate”any move by the NCP to forgea seat-sharing arrangementwith the MNS “either overtly orcovertly”.

The Congress’ hesitationto take the MNS into the“Mahaghatbandhan” stemsfrom the fact it fears that thepresence of the Raj Thackeray-led party in the Oppositionfront might erode its north-Indian vote bank.

Though he sought to mendhis ways by participating in anorth-Indian conventionrecently, Raj has been targetingthe north-Indians settled inMumbai ever since he quit theShiv Sena and founded theMNS on March 9, 2006.

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Lucknow: The Rashtriya LokDal will contest three LokSabha seats as part of analliance with the SP and theBSP, Samajwadi Party chiefAkhilesh Yadav said onTuesday and asserted that theCongress was "very much" partof their "mahagatbandhan" inUttar Pradesh.

Addressing a press confer-ence with RLD leader JayantChaudhary, son of partyfounder Ajit Singh, Yadav saidthe RLD, which has politicalinfluence in western UttarPradesh, would contestMathura, Baghpat andMuzaffarnagar Lok Sabha seats.

After repeated questions byreporters at the press confer-ence, the SP chief said theCongress was "very much inthe alliance".

"We have left two seats(Amethi and Rae Bareli) for theparty (Congress)," he said.

Amethi is represented byCongress president RahulGandhi and Rae Bareli byUnited Progressive Alliance

chairperson Sonia Gandhi.Yadav said the alliance

partners will jointly take on theBJP in Lok Sabha polls inUttar Pradesh.

Chowdhury said that thisalliance is a "Sangam of ide-ologies and parties" and addedthat for him, "relations areimportant".

BSP chief Mayawati andSP's Yadav had jointlyannounced their alliance inJanuary, saying the SP and theBSP will contest 38 seats eachout of the total 80 in UttarPradesh.

However, according to a list

released later, the SPannounced it will contest 37seats and the BSP 38.

On Feb 21, over a monthafter the SP-BSP alliance wasannounced, Samajwadi Partyfounder Mulayam Singh Yadavmade it clear that he was upsetwith the tie-up, questioningwhy Akhilesh Yadav gave "half "of the total seats in UP toMayawati's party.

The remarks had comedays after the SP patriarch cre-ated a stir in Parliament, say-ing he wished that PrimeMinister Narendra Modireturns to power. PTI

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Dhubri (Assam): Union HomeMinister Rajnath Singh onTuesday said the Governmentdoes not have the number ofJaish-e-Mohammed terroristskilled in the IAF strike inPakistan's Balakot and attackedthose questioning its veracity,insisting people who do that areindulging in politics over thevalour of the armed forces.

He said the number of fatal-ities at the JeM terror trainingcamp will be known some day.

Singh, however, claimedthat the National TechnicalResearch Organisation (NTRO)has informed the security estab-lishment about the presence ofaround 300 "active" mobilephones at the training camp sitebefore the IAF bombing.

Charging the oppositionwith doing politics over the"valour and sacrifice" of defencepersonnel, the minister advisedthe Congress, which beendemanding proof of the retal-iatory assault and casualties inthe aftermath of the Pulwamasuicide bombing that left 40CRPF men dead, to go toPakistan and count the bodiesif they indeed wanted to ascer-tain the number of fatalities.

"Some leaders of otherpolitical parties are asking usquestions about how many ter-rorists were killed in the IAFstrike. Some day, it will beknown that how many were

killed. Leaders in Pakistanknow in their hearts how manyperished in the IAF attack,"Singh told a public gathering

after inaugurating an electron-ic border guarding project ofthe BSF on the Indo-Bangladesh border here. He

mocked the opposition over itsdemand for the number offatalities, wondering why itsleaders were asking "kitnemare, kitne mare?" (how manywere killed?)" "Should our AirForce personnel count the bod-ies after the attack — 1, 2, 3, 4,5...? What is this joke," heasked. The Home Ministerreferred to Indian Air Forcechief B S Dhanoa's media inter-action on Monday where he saidthe force does not count bodiesand is concerned only aboutwhether the target was hit.

Sidestepping a ragingdebate on the number of casu-alties in the Balakot strike,Dhanoa had said it was for thegovernment to provide detailsof the terrorists. PTI

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Dhubri (Assam): Union HomeMinister Rajnath Singh onTuesday said illegal immigrantswill not be treated inhumanlyand the Government will speakto the neighbouring country tofind a way out to handle theissue.

Singh said the governmentwill not treat anyone coming toIndia, whether legally or ille-gally, in an inhuman manner asit is not part of Indian culture.

"For those coming to India

illegally, we will talk to theneighbouring country and seewhat can be done humanly. Wedo not do inhuman treatmentto anyone," he said addressingthe public after inaugurating aborder project by the BSF,without naming the country.

Hinting his support to thecontentious citizenship bill,he said all people coming toIndia from Pakistan,Afghanistan and Bangladeshdue to religious persecution

will be treated with "humanbehaviour".

The Citizenship(Amendment) Bill, which waspassed by Lok Sabha on January8 but was not tabled in RajyaSabha, seeks to provide Indiancitizenship to Hindus, Jains,Christians, Sikhs, Buddhistsand Parsis from Bangladesh,Pakistan and Afghanistan aftersix years of residence in Indiaeven if they do not possess anydocument. PTI

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Barmer: The marriage of a 23-year-old Indian groom with aPakistani bride scheduled to beheld later this week has beendeferred due to the lingeringtension between the two coun-tries following the IAF's airstrike on a Jaish terror facilityat Balakot in KhyberPakhtunkhwa.

Mahendra Singh of Khejadka Par village here was tomarry Chagan Kanwar of Sinoivillage in Amarkot district ofSindh province in Pakistan onMarch 8.

The groom and his familymembers were to take a trainto Pakistan on March 2 itself,but the tickets had to be can-celled amid the lingering Indo-Pak-tension.

"Considering the tensionbetween India and Pakistan,the family decided to call offthe marriage for now andcancelled the train tickets.My Pakistani in-laws tooagreed to the decision. Thefamily is waiting for the situ-ation to normalise,” saidMahendra.

He said six family mem-bers had got visa for Pakistanfor three months in Januaryafter lot of hitches and prepa-rations were on for the weddingceremony for which even theinvitation cards had been dis-tributed. PTI

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Chennai: Defence MinisterNirmala Sitharaman said onTuesday the Indian Air Forcestrike that destroyed a Jaish-e-Mohammad terror camp inPakistan's Balakot area was "nota military action" as there wasno civilian casualty.

She also said ForeignSecretary Vijay Gokhale had notgiven any casualty figure in hismedia briefing after the airstrike and only gave a statementwhich is the government's "posi-tion".

Gokhale has said the non-military and preemptive strikeon the Jaish-e-Mohammedtraining camp killed a "verylarge number" of terrorists,trainers and senior comman-ders.

Sitharaman's remarks comeamid some Opposition leaderdemanding evidence about thenumber of terrorists killed in the

air strike.The IAF, which carried out

the strike on February 26, saidon Monday that governmentwould provide details on thecasualty figures as the Air Forceonly sees if a target has been hitor not.

On Tuesday, the defenceminister said, "There was noneed to analyse more on Balakotstrike" as she declined to link theair strike on terror camp withthe coming Lok Sabha election.

"After Pulwama attack, wewere waiting patiently for days...When we got information theterrorist attacks were originat-ing from that region (Pakistan),without military action, we car-ried out the strike pointedly," shetold reporters here on the side-lines of the launch of PradhanMantri Shram Yogi Maandhan(PMSYM), a pension scheme.

"Civilians in the vicinity or

surrounding areas were notaffected in any way, so we havebeen saying the strike we carriedout after Pulwama suicidebombing was not a militaryaction," she added.

On February 14, a suicidebomber of the Pakistan-basedJeM group rammed an explo-sives-laden vehicle into a bus inJammu and Kashmir's Pulwamadistrict, killing 40 CentralReserve Police Force personnel.

Sitharaman said Pakistanhas failed to take action againstterror groups despite India pro-viding details of terrorist train-ing camps.

"Pakistan has beeninformed about terrorist camps,with proof, by the present(NDA) and previous UPAGovernment. But they neithertook action, nor did theyremove the terrorist trainingcamps." PTI

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Agartala: Union Minister VijayGoel on Tuesday said the airstrike by the IAF on the train-ing camp of Jaish-e-Mohammedin Pakistan's Balakot was inresponse to the Pulwama terrorattack. "This for the first time theCentre has responded to terrorstrikes by giving a befittingreply which was possible due tothe will power and vision ofPrime Minister NarendraModi," he told reporters here.

The Union Minister of Statefor Statistics and ProgrammeImplementation claimed thatPrime Minister Narendra Modiwould return to power andform the government for thesecond time. "Modi is guidingall developmental activities inthe country in one hand andalso giving stern and promptreply to terrorism on the otherhand," Goel said. PTI

Bengaluru: Amid the continu-ing uncertainty about JD(S)patriarch HD Deve Gowda’schoice of constituency for thecoming Lok Sabha electrions,there is growing demand with-in the party that he contestfromMysore-Kodagu seat.

"...Deve Gowda has himselfsaid Prajwal will contest fromHassan and Nikhil will contestfrom Mandya. We want DeveGowda to contest fromMysuru.. We have said thisearlier also in public meeting,"Mysuru district in-chargeMinister and JD(S) leader G TDeve Gowda said.

Prajwal and Nikhil areDeve Gowda's grandsons.

Speaking to reporters, theMinister said, the former prime

Minister had an affectionaterelationship with the people ofMysuru, who have recognisedthe developments in the irriga-tion sector in the region ush-ered in by him.

"If there is alliance betweenCongress and JD(S), H D DeveGowda should be candidatethat's the wish of the people," hesaid adding there was no othername, and "we have requestedhim," the Minister said.

Demand for the JDSsupremo to contest from Mysore-Kodagu con-stituency resurfaced, with himindicating on Sunday thatCM Kumaraswamys sonNikhil Kumaraswamy waslikely to be the candidatefrom Mandya. PTI

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Kolkata: The BJP on Tuesdayaccused the TrinamoolCongress Government in WestBengal of unleashing atrocitiesduring motorbike rallies heldacross the State on Sunday aspart of the saffron party's pub-lic outreach programme.

Over 3,500 party workershave been detained for takingpart in the 'Sankalp Yatra'motor cycle rallies, he said.

An unspecified number ofBJP workers and policemenwere injured in clashes in sev-eral districts of the state Sundayafter the authorities preventedthe rallies saying they had notbeen granted permissionbecause of the ongoing school

board examinations.Addressing a press meet

here, BJP state president DilipGhosh said, "The TMC gov-ernment has throttled alldemocratic principles and tra-ditions by preventing our ral-lies in recent times. The inci-dents happened during theSankalp Yatra rallies is themost recent example."

The Sankalp Yatra bike rally is part of the BJP'scountrywide pre-poll exerciseto establish contact with thepeople.

Ghosh claimed that around 60-70 BJP activistswere injured in the attack bythe TMC's goons and police-men as party workers were"peacefully" bringing out therallies in different parts ofState on March 3.

"This shows the frustrationand desperation of the TMC

and how scared they havebecome of the BJP," he said.

Asked about report of afarmer's death in the state on Monday, Ghosh said, "TheState Government wants tosuppress the unnatural death ofa farmer. It wants to pass off thesuicide of a farmer as due to ail-ments. It does not want to facethe truth."

He claimed that 5 lakhmetric tonnes of potatoremained unsold in the State, but the TMCGovernment is doing nothingto address the issue and helpthe potato growers.

To a question about reportsof WBCS officers to be givenflats by the Government,Ghosh said, "The decision hadbeen made two years back, butthe Government is announcingit only now, just before the elec-tions." PTI

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2>�������1������������������� ��������6����������������1���$������=2����Kolkata: Hitting out at the BJPfor allegedly politicising the airstrike in Pakistan, theTrinamool Congress onTuesday said it was trying toreplace the Ashoka emblem onthe uniform of armed forceswith party logo.

The Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) should stop taking creditfor the preemptive strike on ter-ror camps in Pakistan as armedforces belong to India, not to thesaffron party, TrinamoolCongress national spokespersonDerek O'Brien said.

"The BJP is shamelesslytrying to replace the AshokStambh (emblem) on the armedforces' uniform, with their partylogo. Not a single opposition

leader has politicised theairstrike, it was just the BJP whodid it.

"The armed forces areIndia's pride. We are always withthem, but we will oppose theincumbent government, whoseexpiry date is over," O'Brien,who is also the TMC parlia-

mentary party leader in RajyaSabha, said.

BJP national presidentAmit Shah said on Saturdaythat those who did not havecourage to avenge the killing ofsoldiers, when in power, wereraising doubts on the recent airstrike on Jaish-e-Mohammedcamps for "cheap politics" andtheir statements have madePakistan happy.

Two days before Shah'sassertion, West Bengal ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjee haddemanded evidence of theIndian Air Force (IAF) airstrike.

She also said that the oppo-sition parties wanted to knowthe details of the operation. PTI

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Nagpur: An 85-year-oldfarmer from Nagpur district inMaharashtra allegedly com-mitted suicide last week by set-ting his crop on fire and jump-ing into it, police said onTuesday.

Police suspect the farmer,Gopal Jaane took the extremestep due to recurring healthissues.

The incident occurred onMarch 1 evening when Jaaneallegedly set the pigeon pea cropon fire at his farm in Madna vil-lage, and jumped into it, an offi-

cial release stated.When contacted,

Jalalkheda police stationinspector GR Tambe said, "Asper preliminary investigation,the deceased farmer had somehealth issues. He was sufferingfrom a kidney problem".

Quoting villagers and kinof Jaane, the police officer saidthe farmer had tried to killhimself in the past as well.

Police are awaiting post-mortem report, and have reg-istered a case of accidentaldeath. PTI

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chief Sachin Pilot said on onTuesday the party will contestall 25 Lok Sabha seats in theState in the upcoming elec-tions.

"Selection of nominees isin the final stage and a lot willbe clear after the screeningcommittee meeting on March8 in New Delhi," Pilot toldreporters.

He said the selection ofcandidate would be done onthe basis of feedback of partyworkers, hard work andwinnability. The party is of theopinion to find nominees otherthan the family members of

leaders, sitting MPs and MLAsand those who lost elections inthe past.

However, the choice ofparty workers and people andwinnability of the candidateswould be considered, he added.

He said the Congress hasbeen contesting on all seats inthe state and will do so thistime as well to secure a win inthe upcoming Lok Sabha elec-tions.

A panel of three candidateswill be sent to the party's cen-tral committee to finalise thenames, he said.

Pilot attacked the incum-bent BJP-led government at the

Centre, saying the Congress iscontesting the election todefeat the "forces that haveweakened and hollowed demo-cratic institutions in the pastfive years".

"So, it is an importantelection for us," he said.

The BJP won all 25 seats inRajasthan in the 2014 generalelections.

On the Indian Air Forceair strike at a Jaish terror campin Balakot of Pakistan, Pilotsaid the action on terroristfacility was a matter of pridefor India and "it is not right toraise question on valour of thesecurity forces". PTI

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Tasked with cleaning up ofmammoth financial mess at

embattled IL&FS, itsGovernment-appointed boardhas charged 14 former directorsof group firm IL&FS FinancialServices Ltd (IFIN) of facili-tating money laundering, sanc-tioning loans in violation ofrules and causing “huge finan-cial stress and losses” to thecompany.

In show-cause noticesissued to the 14 former direc-tors, the new management hascharged them of having “sanc-tioned loans deceptively toexternal and group companieswith sole objective to infringeRBI guidelines of excessiveexposure of IFIN to intra-group companies.”

They have also beenaccused of extending loans for“criminal intent of falsificationof repayment by a number ofborrowers, including someentities associated with largecorporate groups.

The notices, datedFebruary 27, have asked former

directors to reply within sevendays upon receipt as to whydepartmental and legal actionsshould not be taken againstthem for their “misconduct,dereliction of duties, gross neg-ligence and acts of conspiracyand getting unlawful gains foroneself and others.”

Officials said no reply hasbeen received from any of the14 noticees and the board is setto follow up the notices withstern action, which mayinclude filing of cases.

When contacted, IL&FS(Infrastructure Leasing andFinancial Services Ltd)spokesperson Sharad Goeldeclined to comment.

The notices follow anextensive special audit orderedby the new board and con-ducted by Grant Thornton ofcrisis-hit IL&FS Group, whichidentified numerous financialirregularities in deals withfinancial implications of over�13,000 crore.

IL&FS Group, which oper-ates at least 24 direct sub-sidiaries, 135 indirect sub-sidiaries, six joint ventures and

four associate companies, is sit-ting on debt of �94,000 croreand landed in a major contro-versy last year following mul-tiple defaults, prompting thegovernment to supercede itsboard.

The audit report has iden-tified at least 29 instanceswhere loans disbursed to bor-rowers appeared to have beenutilised by their group compa-nies to repay the existing debtobligations with IL&FSFinancial Services Limited(IFIN). LIC is the single largestshareholder with over 25 percent stake in IL&FS and Japan’sOrix Corp owns a little over 23per cent.

IL&FS Employees WelfareTrust holds 12 per cent in thecompany. The Abu DhabiInvestment Authority, HDFCand Central Bank of Indiahold 12.56 per cent, 9.02 percent and 7.67 per cent, respec-tively, in the cash-strappedcompany. SBI has the loweststake, at around 7 per cent, inthe company.

In the show-cause notice,former IFIN directors havebeen accused of sanctioningloans worth thousands ofcrores to certain entities by“overlooking negative assess-ment by the credit risk assess-ment group” and withoutrecording any cogent justifi-cation, despite having fullknowledge that the assets ofthe borrower entities werestressed.

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Indian equities benchmarkSensex on Tuesday surged

by nearly 379 points to closeat 36,442 on intense buyingmainly in auto, financial andenergy stocks amid easinggeo-political tensions andpositive macroeconomic out-look.

The NSE Nifty too rosenearly 124 points to close a tadbelow the psychological11,000-level.

Among the Sensex con-stituents, 23 stocks rose andseven counters fell.

Tata Motors led the Sensexchart with a rise of 7.72 percent, followed by HeromotoCorp 5.28 per cent and Axisbank 4.12 per cent.

The key BSE index was fur-ther lifted by ONGC, CoalIndia, Tata Steel, NTPC, Marutiand ICICI Bank — rising asmuch as 3.96 per cent.

Among the major Sensexlaggards, Infosys slipped 1.15per cent, HUL dropped 0.62per cent and TCS fell 0.19 percent. PowerGrid, LT, Yes Bankand HCL Tech were the otherlosers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, the country’sservices sector activity gatheredmomentum in February, drivenby a quicker expansion in newwork orders that supported afaster increase in output andjob creation, a monthly surveyshowed Tuesday.

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The rupee rebounded by 43paise to close at 70.49 against

the US dollar on Tuesday large-ly driven by positive macrodata and easing crude prices.

Forex traders said heavybuying in domestic equities andsustained foreign fund inflowsalso propped up the local unit.

At the Interbank ForeignExchange (forex) market, thedomestic unit opened slightlydown at 70.95.

During the day, the localunit, however, gathered momen-tum and rose to an intra-dayhigh of 70.43 before finally end-ing at 70.49, showing a gain of 43paise. The local unit had weak-ened by 20 paise to close at 70.92against the US dollar Friday.

The domestic forex marketand equity market were closedMonday on account ofMahashivratri.

Commenting on the appre-ciation in rupee, Sunil Sharma,Chief Investment Officer,Sanctum Wealth Managementsaid, “Over last one month theIndian rupee has appreciated1.5 per cent and is the best per-forming emerging market cur-rency”.

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IIFL Finance, India’s non-banking finance company, is

bringing exciting offers onGold Loan schemes by launch-ing its Gola Loan Mela from 1stMarch to 11th March 2019.

Gold Loan Mela offersattractive interest rate of 1% permonth along with commit-ment of quick processing ofloan in just 5 minutes, maxi-mum Loan value on Gold andeasy digital payment options.

This Mela also offersattractive prizes for customersunder the ‘Refer & Win’scheme. The Gold Loan Melais being held at more than 480IIFL branches in AndhraPradesh, Telangana, Karnataka,Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh,Maharashtra and Goa.

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The World Bank will providea $250-million loan for the

National Rural EconomicTransformation Project(NRETP) to help women inrural households develop viableenterprises for farm and non-farm products.

An agreement in thisregard was signed between theWorld Bank and theGovernment of India onTuesday.

“A key focus of the projectwill be to promote women-owned and women-led farmand non-farm enterprisesacross value chains; enablethem to build businesses thathelp them access finance, mar-kets and networks; and gener-ate employment,” Wold Banksaid in a statement.

NRETP is an additionalfinancing to the $500-millionNational Rural LivelihoodsProject (NRLP) approved bythe World Bank in July 2011.

The $250 million loan hasa 5-year grace period, and afinal maturity of 20 years.

The NRLP, which is cur-rently being implementedacross 13 states, 162 districts

and 575 blocks, has so farmobilised more than 8.8 mil-lion women from poor ruralhouseholds into 7.5 lakh self-help groups (SHGs).

These SHGs have beenfurther federated into 48,700village organisations and 2,900cluster or gram panchayat-level federations.

While the 13 states willcontinue to be supported underthe new project signed onTuesday, 125 new districts willbe added from within thesestates, the release said.

Since its launch in 2011, theNational Rural LivelihoodsMission (NRLM) has mobilised50 million poor rural womeninto self-help groups and theirhigher-level federations.

According to the release,these groups have leveragednearly $30 billion from com-mercial banks.

The World Bank furthersaid the NERTP would supportenterprise development pro-grammes for rural poor womenand youth by creating a plat-form to access finance includ-ing start-up financing optionsto build their individual and/orcollectively owned and man-aged enterprises.

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Kundan Gold Refinery, aprivate gold refinery in

India, is expanding and enter-ing into an affordable gold jew-ellery segment by launching itsnew brand ‘Zeya by Kundan’ incollaboration with Swarovski.The Company has invested �60Cr in its expansion.

Zeya by Kundan will befirst of its kind hand-craftedgold jewellery adorned withcubic Zirconia from Swarovski.The jewellery range includespendants, rings for men andwomen.

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Keeping in view of Holi, theCentre on Tuesday fixed

sugar sale quota at 24.5 lakhtonne for March in the openmarket. It has also allocatedsugar quota for sale to each ofthe 524 mills in the country.Recently, mills were alsoadvised to go for advancebooking of sugar sales to bulkconsumers.

According to the Ministryof Food and Consumers’Affairs, the increase (in quotafor March) is attributable tovarious factors.

“There is a pattern of highsales/dispatches around thistime of the Year. Mills areallowed to sell sugar at a min-imum selling price of �31 perkg. The rate was increasedrecently from �29 per kg tohelp mills realise maximumrevenue and clear cane pricearrears of farmers”, it said.

The Government has beenfixing sugar quota for millssince June 2018 and imple-menting the Sugar Price(Control) Order 2018 in orderto manage surplus produc-tion in the country and to sta-bilise sugar prices with a viewto clear cane price arrears offarmers.

Sugarcane arrears to farm-ers have crossed �20,000 crorein the current marketing year2018-19 (October-September).

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New Delhi: Aon, a global pro-fessional services firm provid-ing a broad range of risk,retirement and health solu-tions, on Tuesday released the23rd edition of its annual SalaryIncrease Survey in India. Thestudy, analysed data across1000+ companies from morethan 20 industries.

As per the results of thesurvey, companies in Indiagave an average pay increase of9.5% during 2018, reflectingimproved business sentimentcompared to 2017. PNS

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Andy Murray will put his "heart andsoul" into trying to return to pro-

fessional tennis, his mother Judy hassaid, although she admitted the player'sfuture is unclear.

The 31-year-old underwent hipresurfacing surgery at the end of Januaryin a final throw of the dice to try to over-come the problem that first became a serious issuein 2017.

The operation was performed primarily toimprove his quality of life, with Murray reveal-ing that he struggled simply to put on his socksand shoes, but also offered a potential route backto the sport.

"He is doing pretty well. It is not that longsince he had the operation and time will tell," JudyMurray told Sky Sports.

"Nobody knows how he is going to recover

in the longer term. He is in a goodplace mentally and we just keep ourfingers crossed.

"But I tell you, if anybody can doit he can because he will put his heartand soul into it like he does witheverything."

The former world number oneannounced at an emotional press con-ference ahead of the Australian Open

in January that he planned to retire afterWimbledon but was more hopeful following aremarkable five-set defeat by Roberto BautistaAgut in the first round.

No player has come back from the same oper-ation to play singles but American Bob Bryanrecently returned in doubles and won an ATPTour title in Delray Beach last month with hisbrother Mike. Bryan said in Australia that he nolonger felt any pain and backed Murray to followhim by making a comeback.

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Achallenging draw stands in the way but India's topshuttlers PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal will

nonetheless fancy their chances of ending a nearly two-decade old title jinx at the All England Championshipstarting on Wednesday.

It was Sindhu and Saina's mentor and current chiefnational coach P Gopichand, who was the last Indianto win the championship back in 2001.

Only the top 32 in the Badminton World Federation(BWF) rankings qualify for the tournament and out ofthem, only three Indians have been seeded — the thirdbeing Kidambi Srikanth (seeded seventh) in the men'sevent.

Fifth-seeded Olympic and world championshipSilver-medallist Sindhu will square off against formerworld No 2 Sung Ji Hyun of South Korea at the $ onemillion event.

London Olympics Bronze-medallist Saina, seededeighth, will start her campaign against Scotland's KristyGilmour.

The star shuttlers have had contrasting resultsagainst their first-round opponents.

While Saina enjoys a 6-0 overall record againstGilmour, Sindhu has been troubled by Sung Ji but leads8-6 in their previous 14 encounters.

Sung Ji defeated Sindhu twice in three meetings lastyear and if the Indian can put it past the Korean, shewill run into either Russian Evgeniya Kosetskaya orHong Kong's Cheung Ngan Yi in the second round.

A favourable result will then pit Sindhu againstthird-seeded Chinese youngster, Chen Yufei in the quar-terfinals.

The Indian had lost to Chen at the 2018 ChinaOpen and will be wary of the Chinese despite enjoy-ing a 4-3 head-to-head record.

"Each round will be comparatively tough. Eachpoint is important to me. I am playing Sung Ji Hyunin the first round and it would be important for me tofocus from the first round," said the 23-year-old, whohad reached the semifinals in the last edition.

While Sindhu has been in red-hot form last sea-son, claiming Silver medals at all major events, formerworld No 1 Saina remains the only Indian to come closeto winning the prestigious title, finishing runners-upin 2015.

The seasoned Hyderabadi enjoyed a good start tothe year, winning the title at the Indonesia Masters inJanuary and getting the better of Sindhu in thenational finals to claim the crown.

Saina, who turns 29 on March 17, will face eitherDenmark's Line Hojmark Kjaersfeldt or China's CaiYanyan if she happens to win the first round.

While Saina has an edge over the Dane, she hasnever faced the 19-year-old Chinese player before.

The vastly experienced Indian is expected to crossat least the second round and is likely to face her neme-sis Tai Tzu Ying, against whom she has lost 12 consec-utive times.

The Chinese Taipei shuttler enjoys an overall head-to-head record of 14-5 against Saina.

In the men's event, Srikanth will take on FrenchmanBrice Leverdez in the opening round while an in-formSameer Verma will start against former world cham-pion and world No 1 Viktor Axelsen of Denmark.

After a poor 2018, Srikanth had a decent outing in

Malaysia and Indonesia, reaching the quarterfinals. Hewould look to find his best form during the week.

Sameer, who had reached the knockout stage of theWorld Tour Finals, will be playing his first BWF eventof the season.

Among others, B Sai Praneeth and HS Prannoy willface each other in the opening round.

While Praneeth would be hungry to put his SeniorNationals' disappointment behind him, Prannoy hasbeen battling with a breathing problem. He would beeager to put on a good show before leaving for his med-ical treatment in the US.

Chief coach Gopichand has already pinned hishopes on Saina, Sindhu and Srikanth. He feels the triohas what it takes to end the country's 18-year wait forthe prestigious trophy.

"We have had good performances from Saina,Sindhu and Srikanth has also been in good form. I doexpect that we will have a good performance at thisyear's All-England," Gopichand had said last month.

Three-time world champion Carolina Marin,who is undergoing physiotherapy after rupturing theAnterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) in her right kneeduring the Indonesia Masters final, will be also amongthe ones to watch out for in the singles' draw.

In women's doubles, Ashwini Ponnapa & N SikkiReddy will play the seventh-seeded Japanese pair ShihoTanaka and Koharu Yonemoto, while MeghanaJakkampudi and Poorvisha S Ram will square offagainst Russia's Ekaterina Bolotova and AlinaDavletova.

In men's doubles, former National champion ManuAttri and B Sumeeth Reddy will face China's Ou Xuanyiand Ren Xiangyu in the first round.

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Germany head coachJoachim Loew

dropped a bombshell onTuesday by announcingthat 2014 World Cup win-ners Jerome Boateng, MatsHummels and ThomasMueller are no longer in hisplans.

Loew told the BayernMunich trio before henames the squad for thefriendly against Serbia inWolfsburg in two weeksand the Euro 2020 qualifi-er against the Netherlandsin Amsterdam on March24.

Between them,Hummels, Boateng, both30, and Mueller, still only29, boast 246 appearancesfor Germany and were atthe heart of the team whichwon the 2014 World Cupin Brazil.

However, last year'sdebacle at the World Cupfinals in Russia sawGermany crash out afterthe group stages due tobelow-par performancesfrom Loew's trusted stars,including the trio.

"2019 is the year of anew start for the German

national football team,"said Loew.

"It was important to mepersonally to explain mythoughts and plans to theplayers and managers of FCBayern," added Loew, whoflew to Munich to speak tothe trio.

The 59-year-old, whomasterminded Germany'sWorld Cup triumph inBrazil, thanked "Mats,Jerome and Thomas" for"many successful, extraor-dinary and unique yearstogether."

Loew's decision her-

alds the end of an impres-sive international careerfor Mueller, who brokethrough as a raw 20-year-old at the 2010 World Cupand went on to score 38goals in 100 appearances.

Hummels andBoateng, Germany's suc-cessful centre-back part-nership before the disasterat the finals in Russia, haveplayed in 70 and 76 inter-nationals respectively.

Others could also findthemselves surplus toLoew's requirements in thecoming weeks.

Germany captainManuel Neuer, 32, has abattle to keep his goal-keeping shirt fromBarcelona's Marc-Andreter Stegen, 26.

"I said last year thatManuel is number one rightnow, but this year we havesomething like a new startand Marc will get hischances too," said Loewbefore Tuesday's announce-ment.

With a year to go beforethe European champi-onships, Loew feels now isthe time to remove more of

his old guard having alreadylast year dropped SamiKhedira, another 2014World Cup winner.

Loew was heavily crit-icised in the wake of lastyear's debacle in Russia forfailing to give chances to thereserves, many of whomhad won the 2017Confederations Cup, whenhis World Cup plans fellapart.

"In the year of qualify-ing for the EuropeanChampionship 2020, we aresending out a clear signal:the young national teamplayers will have the spacethey need to fully develop,"said Loew. "They have totake responsibility now."

Loew's boss, GermanFootball Association presi-dent Reinhard Grindel, whoalso took flak last year whenMesut Ozil retired fromGermany duty amid claimsof racism, welcomed Loew'smove.

"I welcome the fact thathe is now making decisiveprogress in transformingour national team and start-ing the qualification forEURO 2020 is the righttime for personnelchanges," said Grindel.

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The Sports Authority of India (SAI) onTuesday cleared Dipa Karmakar's partic-

ipation in the upcoming World Cups at Bakuand Doha respectively but asked the gymnas-tics federation to conduct trials for men.

In a letter copied to the GymanasticFederation of India (GFI), SAI approved Dipaand her personal coach Bisweswar Nandi's par-ticipation at FIG World Cups in Baku andDoha respectively.

The GFI had registered Dipa for theback-to-back World Cups to be held fromMarch 14-17 and March 20-23 at Azerbaijanand Qatar respectively but clearance waspending with the event beginning in less thantwo weeks time.

"On taking notice of the pendency of clear-ance of Gymnastics team for the World Cups,SAI acted swiftly and immediately approval forclearance of the contingent for the OlympicQualification World Cup events," Riyaz Bhati,vice-president of GFI said.

"Now the gymnasts are clear in their mindand can focus exclusively on their training andpreparation."

GFI had also sent the entries of Yogeshwar

Singh and Ashish Kumar in the men's artis-tic event in Doha.

However, SAI has decided to conduct aselection trial for men gymnasts for DohaWorld Cup where two gymnasts will beselected to compete on Floor and Vault eventsrespectively. Apart from Ashish and Yogeshwar,there will be a number other gymnasts partic-ipating in the trials.

"The selection trial is likely to be conduct-ed on March 11. We can make a request to theworld body for replacement of gymnastsalready registered," Bhati said.

Bhati, who was selected by GFI to accom-pany the delegation at the two events, had ear-lier claimed that SAI Project Manager RajinderPathania was not clearing the team because hewanted to go for the two events.

SAI then had a meeting with Bhati onTuesday before clearing the tours for the twoOlympic qualifiers for the Tokyo Games.

Dipa, who finished fourth at the RioOlympics, had clinched the Bronze medal atWorld Cup at Cottbus, Germany last year.

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The India 'A' and 'B' teams started theircampaigns in the under-19 quadran-

gular ODI series on Tuesday with easywins over South Africa and Afghanistanrespectively.

In a match played at the GreenfieldInternational stadium here, India 'A'routed the Proteas colts by 157 runswhile the 'B' team hammeredAfghanistan by seven wickets at the StXavier's KCA ground.

The 'A' team won the toss and post-ed 251 all out in 50 overs, riding on half-centuries by opener Qamran Iqbal (60,65 balls, 3X4, 4X6) and Sashwat Rawat(64, 55 balls, 10X4).

For the Proteas, Marco Jansen tookfour wickets conceding 30 runs whileNonelela Yikha took 2 for 37.

In reply, the visiting South Africanswere bundled out for 94 in 35.4 overswith left-arm spinner Harsh Dubey shin-ing with figures of 3 for 7 from sevenovers while off-break bowler RaviBishnoi took 3 for 27.

Tail-ender Marco Jansen was thehighest scorer with 33 (57 balls 3X4, 1X6)while only one other batsmen reached

double figures.In the India 'B'-Afghanistan game,

fast bowler Purnank Tyagi (4 for 36 in9 overs) and leg-spinner Paras RayBarman with brilliant figures of 3 for 10helped the host team bundle out theAfghan colts for 106 in 47.3 overs.

Jamshid made the top score of 28 forthe Afghanistan team which struggledto get going on a track offering help tothe bowlers.

In reply, India 'B' was in trouble, los-ing three wickets for just five runs beforecaptain Rahul Chandrol (56 not out, 51

balls, 5X4, 1X6) and K Nitish KumarReddy (44, 70 balls, 4X4) saw the teamhome.

������ ��India under-19 'A' 251 all out in 50overs (Qamran Iqbal 60, Ravi Bishnoi64, Marco Jansen 4 for 30) beat SouthAfrica under-19 94 all out in 35.4overs (Marco Jansen 33, Harsh Dubey3 for 7, Ravi Bishnoi 3 for 27). Afghanistan under-19 106 all out in47.3 overs lost to India under-19 'B'107 for 3 in 22.3 overs.

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Indian bowlers delivered in aheart-stopping climax to fash-ion a narrow eight-run victo-

ry against Australia in the secondODI after skipper Virat Kohliconjured up a resolute hundred intesting conditions on Tuesday.

Pacer Vijay Shankar scalpedthe last two Australian batsmen inthe final over in which Australianeeded to score 11 runs for aseries-levelling win.

Handing the ball to mediumpacer Shankar at the make-or-break situation was a bold decisionby skipper Kohli, who had theoption of employing Kedar Jadhavas well.

Chasing 251, Australia was240 for eight when Shankar got ridof dangerous Marcus Stoinins (52)in the very first ball of the 50th overand castled Adam Zampa in thethird ball to trigger celebrations inthe Indian camp.

Before that, pacer JaspritBumrah (2/19), who is ever-reli-able in death overs, dismissedNathan Coulter-Nile and PatCummins in space of three balls inthe 46th over and conceded justone run in the 48th over, playinga crucial role in India's win afterthe spinners had choked theAustralians in the middle overs.

It was Stoinis who had kept thevisitors in hunt as he resisted theunrelenting Indian attack withaplomb and added 47-runs for thesixth wicket with Alex Carey (22).

Kohli's 40th ODI centurysteered India to a competitive 250after a middle-order collapse on adry surface at the VCA stadiumbut it proved to be just enough inthe end as India earned the winwith just three balls to spare.

India now lead the five-matchseries 2-0 with third match slatedfor Friday in Ranchi.

The Indian skipper was ingood touch and played somedelightful drives whenever theball was pitched up. In conditionswhich tested the fitness of each andevery player, Kohli struck only 10boundaries and ran a lot of singlesand two's in his 116-run knock.

He was at the crease till the

start of the 48th over, facing 120balls in an innings which will rankamong one of his top ODI knocksin recent times.

Australia were off to a fluentstart with openers Aaron Finch(37) and Usman Khawaja (38)adding 83 runs at a decent pace but

the spinners led by ChinamanKuldeep Yadav (3/54) not only putthe brakes on run-rate but alsohurt the visitors by taking wicketsintermittently.

Kuldeep broke the openingstand by trapping Finch and latersent back dangerous Glenn

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Maxwell (4) and Carey while Jadhav and Jadeja accountedfor Khawaja and Shaun Marsh respectively.

Stoinis and Carey took the Aussie chase deep with theirdogged batting but Kuldeep turned the tide in India's favourby dismissing the latter.

After the first innings, it was clear that spinners will shape

the outcome of the match andKuldeep along with RavindraJadeja and Kedar Jadhav did stran-gulate the Australian innings.

Between overs 13 and 33 theIndian bowlers conceded just oneboundary.

Earlier, Kohli steadily build theIndian innings even as he saw thefall of colleagues Shikhar Dhawan(21) and Ambati Rayudu (18).

Kohli got a good ally in VijayShankar (46 off 41) with whom headded 81 runs for the fourthwicket but the latter was unfortu-nately run out when he backed uptoo far at the non-striker's end toa Kohli straight drive.

Leg-spinner Adam Zampathen got rid of Kedar Jadhav (11)and M S Dhoni (0) off successiveballs but Kohli held one end up.

He completed his hundred bycutting one from Nathan Coulter-Nile to the square boundary.

The innings approaching theend, acceleration was requiredbut Ravindra Jadeja could onlymanage 21 off 40 balls and wassoon removed by Cummins. Kohliwas finally dismissed while tryingto pull Pat Cummins.

Kuldeep and Jasprit Bumrahtoo perished in a jiffy and Indiacould not even bat for full 50 overs.

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Germany winger Serge Gnabry hasextended his Bayern Munich contract

until 2023, adding three more years to hisdeal, as the defending Bundesliga cham-pions continue to rejuvenate their squad.

The 23-year-old is being groomed toreplace Bayern's ageing wingers ArjenRobben and Franck Ribery, who are both35 and out of contract at the end of the sea-son.

Gnabry, Canadian wunderkindAlphonso Davies, 18, and FrenchmanKingsley Coman, 22, are the next gener-ation of Bayern wingers.

"We are happy that we at FC Bayernhave tied ourselves to Serge for the longterm," said Bayern's sports director HasanSalihamidzic.

"He has taken a big step forward with

us this year."Bayern paid Werder Bremen eight mil-

lion euros ($9m) for Stuttgart-born Gnabryin 2017, but loaned him out to Hoffenheimlast season, so this is his first year at Bayern.

Having scored eight goals in 29 gamesfor Bayern, Gnabry, who can play on eitherwing, has been a key factor in slashingDortmund's lead at the top of the

Bundesliga in recent weeks.Defending champions Bayern have

eroded Dortmund's nine-point lead inDecember and draw level on 54 points lastweekend with only a goal difference of justtwo separating the clubs.

"Sportingly, things are going verywell for me personally right now," Gnabrysaid, who spent five years at Arsenal from2011 until 2016 having initially joined theGunners' academy.

"I know that I still have potential andneed to develop further."

Gnabry was part of the Germany teamwhich won Silver in the men's footballtournament at the 2016 Olympic Games.

He scored a hat-trick in an 8-0 thrash-ing of minnows San Marino on his seniorinternational debut in November 2016 inthe first of his five appearances forGermany.

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Dani Alves jokes that Paris Saint-Germain are still Champions League"virgins", but the presence of players

like the decorated Brazilian only helps makethem more credible contenders to win thecoveted trophy.

In a glittering career, Alves has won theChampions League three times withBarcelona and reached another final withJuventus.

He is a veteran now, his 36th birthdayfalling several weeks before this season'sfinal, and he is conscious of what players likehim and goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, now41, can add to a PSG squad already featur-ing Neymar and Kylian Mbappe.

"We know how to win and how to lose.What we try to transmit to the others is thateither we all go together in the same direc-tion, or we leave the doors open to a defeat,"Alves said.

He is speaking at the club's trainingground, 48 hours before their last 16, sec-ond leg at home to Manchester United.

The mood is relaxed, with confidencehigh in Paris that Thomas Tuchel's side willmake good their 2-0 first-leg win lastmonth, achieved without Neymar andEdinson Cavani, the two superstars both outinjured.

"This is not a competition that dependsonly on one player having a spectacular day,"he insists.

"When you have experienced players,you don't tremble when it comes to play-ing in a hostile atmosphere, or under pres-sure."

@��� ��������������AIn his first campaign at PSG last season,

they were knocked out at this stage by RealMadrid, the first time Alves had not beeninvolved in the quarter-finals of theChampions League in a decade.

It was an enormous disappointment forParis and their Qatari owners, who had justpaid the two biggest transfer fees in histo-ry for Neymar and Mbappe.

"I always talk about how we have spe-cial players here, like 'Ney', like Kylian, like'Edi', who at some point can make the dif-ference, and we have to help them," Alvessays.

"Otherwise it would be like having a big

meal without the right side dishes, and itwouldn't have the same flavour." But whatdish would he be?

Alves, a brilliant full-back with limitlessenergy, has recently been reinvented as amidfielder, fully recovered from the kneeinjury which saw him miss last year'sWorld Cup.

��� ����� ?He is happy in Paris, and the happiness

is infectious. "I like to get on with everyone.I ask myself how I can get on with this guy,with that guy. Because what happens on thepitch sort of reflects how things are off it,"he says as he discusses getting along with asquad full of big names.

"We spend more time here than we dowith our families, so you need to get on withpeople, have fun, and that is reflected on thepitch. We try to put the egos to one side —because like it or not people have egos.

"We need to not let that show through,because then you stop thinking aboutbeing happy, and life is not about being right,it's about being happy!"

It is certainly easy to see how he mightbe happier now in Paris under Tuchel, a

warmer, more charismatic coach than hispredecessor, Unai Emery.

PSG don't just want to get past United— they want to go beyond the last eight,something they have not managed since theQatari takeover in 2011.

"We are lucky this year to have a man-agement team that is liked, respected byeveryone, that there is an incredible atmos-phere," he says. "Everything has been put inplace to make this a great year for us."

���=��� ������������Ashley Young has warned that

Manchester United should not be writtenoff as they attempt to mount an improba-ble comeback against Paris Saint-Germainin the last 16.

Solskjaer's men head to France for thesecond leg of their last-16 tie on Wednesdaytrailing 2-0 after a humbling experience atOld Trafford last month in what remains theonly defeat they have suffered to date underinterim manager.

PSG are favourites to progress to thequarter-finals, but 33-year-old Young hasadvised them to take nothing for grantedafter seeing United revive their season since

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Having impressed in theFIFA Under-17 World

Cup, Jamshedpur FC for-ward Aniket Jadhav is set totake his next big step — athree-month training stint atEnglish Championship foot-ball club Blackburn Rovers.

The Kolhapur-basedfootballer will become thefirst Indian professional play-er to train in England whenhe joins the BlackburnRovers Academy atBrockhall village, Lancashire.

"For someone comingfrom a small place inKolhapur, it's a dream cometrue for me," Jadhav, whoplayed in all the three match-es for hosts India at theUnder-17 World Cup saidbefore leaving for Lancashire.

"I'm looking forward tothis stint. The World Cupwas a big experience and thisis equally big and it keeps meon track with the missionwhen I left home as a nine-year-old kid," the left-footedstriker said.

Having started his foot-ball journey under JaideepAngiwal of Krida Prabodhinischool in Pune, the strikerwas picked by Pune FCwhere he joined the Under-15 side before progressing tothe Under-17s.

He was spotted byNicolai Adam during an U-17 World Cup trial in

Mumbai and since then hehas been a constant memberof the youth side.

"I would like to thankBlackburn Rovers FC forbelieving in me and my abil-ity, and inviting me to trainat their world class academy."

Jadhav also thankedBalaji Rao, owner ofBlackburn Rovers FootballClub, his agent JehanKothary of KSMN sports,and Jamshedpur FC for thesupport.

Blackburn Rovers — oneof only six champions of thePremier League alongsideManchester United, Chelsea,Arsenal, Manchester Cityand Leicester City — areowned by Venkys LondonLtd, a wholly owned sub-sidiary of Pune-based poul-try conglomerate

Venkateshwara HatcheriesGroup.

Owner of BlackburnRovers Rao said the clubwants to help young Indiantalent.

"Our Academy atBlackburn Rovers is one ofthe finest Category 1Academy in the UK. Thistraining stint will definitelyhelp Aniket to develop tech-nically as a player, which willin turn contribute to theimprovement of his perfor-mances on the pitch.

"We want to supportyoung talented footballers inthe best way possible tohelp improve the Indiannational team's perfor-mances and FIFA rankingon the world stage," Raosaid.

Mukul Choudari ofJamshedpur FC also hailedJadhav's achievement .

"We are very happy forAniket. In fact, very rarelydo Indian football playersget such an opportunity andif they get it at this age, it isjust fantastic, as this willonly help him grow andenhance his skills further.

"It is going to be a win-win for everybody. AsJamshedpur FC, we congrat-ulate Aniket for his talentand the opportunity thathe's got, which we are surehe will make the best of andcome back as a much betterplayer and make us proud."

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English Premier League giantsManchester City's owners City Football

Group (CFG) are planning to invest in anIndian football team by the end of this year,said chief executive Ferran Soriano.

An official of a reputed club, who hasbeen tracking the development, said thePremier League champions are at an"advanced stage of discussions" with IndianSuper League (ISL) franchise Mumbai CityFC. They have also had preliminary discus-sions with Jamshedpur FC.

"Last year, they visited India andwatched a match between Jamshedpur andMumbai City. Talks are on for sure," the offi-cial, close to Mumbai City FC, said.

Another official in the know of things,said:"City owners have been talking toMumbai for the past eight months and talksare at an advanced stage."

City owner Sheikh Mansour of AbuDhabi Royal Family, has recently pur-chased a Chinese third division clubSichuan Jiuniu, a seventh addition to theirbouquet of clubs, which also include NewYork City, Melbourne City, Japan'sYokohama F Marinos, Atletico Torque andGirona.

"We have some interest in some mar-kets and countries where there is a genuinefootball passion and opportunities, likeChina, but also India. So there might beother opportunities in Asia," Sorianio wasquoted by www.Skysports.Com.

The CEO said that City, currently on topof EPL points table, have been exploring theIndian market for the past two years now.

"With all these developments, we haveto be patient. We have been looking at Indiafor nearly two years now. I would say thisyear we'll end up doing an investment inIndia," he said.

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Defending champions MinervaPunjab FC, who pulled out of their

I-League clash against Real Kashmir inSrinagar citing security concerns, willget a re-match, the All India FootballFederation has ruled but the debutantside has decided to challenge theorder.

The February 18 game did not takeplace after Minerva refused to travel toSrinagar, insisting that their foreignplayers had been advised against it bytheir respective embassies in the after-math of the Pulwama terror attack.

"With the current situation inKashmir not conducive to conduct amatch, and keeping in mind the cur-rent extraordinary situation as well asthe desire of teams to play football onthe field, the match stands rescheduledto be held after March 6, 2019, at a timeand location feasible for AIFF, and theparticipating teams," the AIFF said ina statement.

It is learnt, the match could be heldin Delhi on March 12.

Officials in Real Kashmir said theclub is likely to file an appeal againstthe decision and called it "against thelaid down norms of FIFA".

The club, which is at presentfourth in the I-League points table,cited a 2006 national Football Leaguematch between Air India and Fransa-Pax. Fransa-Pax had not turned up forthe match, citing poor refereeing in aprevious game. The AIFF called for are-match but Air India challenged thecall before a jury and were awardedthree points.

The AIFF Emergency Committee,comprising president Praful Patel, fivevice-presidents and general secretary,ruled on Monday that the match berescheduled to or after March 6 at atime and location feasible for AIFF andthe participating teams.

I-League Committee CEOSunando Dhar said the AIFF will waitfor a reply from Real Kashmir on thedecision of the AIFF EmergencyCommittee before deciding on the dateand venue of the re-match.

"We have communicated this toReal Kashmir (since they are the hostteam) and we will take a decision (onthe venue and date) after they give areply. The plan is to have the matchbefore the Super Cup preliminaryround starts (on March 15)," Dhar said.

"I don't want to say anything ondate and venue now," he added.

Asked if there was still a chance ofthe match being held in Srinagar, Dharsaid, "Let us wait for what RealKashmir wants, in their reply."

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Indian Super League champi-ons Chennaiyin FC will make

their AFC Cup debut whenthey take on Sri Lanka'sColombo FC in a qualifyingplay-off round match onWednesday.

Chennaiyin, the first ISLoutfit to participate in the AFCCup, are vying for a place in thegroup stage of the AFC Cup inthe South Asian Zone.

The Chennai-based side arecoming in the first-leg tie at theColombo Race Course Groundafter concluding their 2018-19ISL campaign with a 0-1 defeatto FC Goa last week.

"The boys are in good spir-its, ahead of what is a very biggame for us against ColomboFC. We are honoured to be thefirst Indian Super League teamto have qualified for the AFCCup, and are hopeful of secur-ing a victory that puts us in acommanding position in the sec-ond leg," said Chennaiyin FCHead Coach John Gregoryahead of the match.

"We are aware of the quali-ty Colombo FC possess andexpect a good fight from themtomorrow (on Wednesday)," headded.

Nine players from the 25-man Chennaiyin squad have fea-tured in the competition onprevious occasions with otherclubs. Star India striker JejeLalpekhlua is the most seniorplayer in the squad.

The Mizo striker has playedagainst Colombo FC in the past,having turned out for MohunBagan in the 2017 AFC Cup pre-liminary round.

"This is a historic match inthe club's history, and we areoptimistic about taking home agood result for the second leg. Iremember facing Colombo FCwith Mohun Bagan two yearsback and they are a very toughside. It is not going to be an easygame," said Jeje.

Chennaiyin will be bol-stered by the comeback of Indianmidfielder Dhanpal Ganesh forthe qualifying play-off againstColombo, after he missed out onthe 2018-19 ISL season with aknee injury.

Australian Chris Herd, who

joined CFC in the January trans-fer window, will be the club'sAsian player in the qualifier withthe Brazilian trio of MailsonAlves, Eli Sabia and RaphaelAugusto being the other threeforeigners.

Four youth team players —defenders Hendry Antonay (U-18 and B team) andReamsochung Aimol (B team),midfielder Zonunmawia (Bteam) and forward BawlteRohmingthanga (B team) havealso been included in the squad.

Colombo FC defeatedBhutan's Transport United 9-2on aggregate in the preliminaryround to set up the clash withChennaiyin.

Colombo have five differentplayers who found the back of

the net so far in their qualifyingcampaign, but Tagne Dimitriwould be the man to watch afterscoring a hat-trick againstTransport United.

This is Colombo's secondappearance in the AFC Cup,having lost 2-4 on aggregate toIndian side Mohun Bagan in the2017 edition's preliminaryround.

Colombo qualified for the2019 edition's preliminary roundon the back of their third succes-sive Sri Lankan top flight (DialogChampions League) title in2017-18. They finished as run-ners-up in the 2018-19 edition,which concluded recently.

The second leg of the qual-ifying play-off will be played inAhmedabad on March 13.

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the Norwegian's arrival."We know what we're capable of," he

said. "People can write us off. People werewriting us off at the start of the season andpeople are writing us off now. It's no differ-ent.

"Obviously it's going to be tough. It's notgoing to be easy. We've got to go over there,win the game and score goals.

"I've got every faith if we defend well andif we create the chances that I know we cando, we can win the game."

Paul Pogba's red card in the first gamemeans he is unavailable for the return whilefellow midfielders Nemanja Matic, AnderHerrera, Juan Mata and Jesse Lingardappear on a casualty list that also includesPhil Jones, Matteo Darmian, AntonioValencia, Anthony Martial and AlexisSanchez.

However, Young is confident the spir-it that fuelled Saturday's 3-2 fightback vic-tory over lowly Southampton will serve histeam well once again. He said: "That's theclub's way, the United way. Never say die."

The odds are stacked against United butSolskjaer at least has striker Romelu Lukakuback in lethal form in front of goal after heclaimed a fine double to help see off theSaints.

"I wouldn't want to play against him,"said Young. "He does give us a different pres-ence. "It's good to see all the strikers in form,the whole team. It's not just 11 men on thepitch, it's a squad game.

"Everyone has got to be ready. Everyonehas got to be prepared and ready to playwhen the manager calls on you. Whenyou've got competition for places, it can onlyhelp."