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16
T wenty-eight years after the enactment of the Scheduled Caste and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, the Supreme Court on Tuesday tweaked the law to protect innocent people from the sweep of its draconian provi- sions which denied anticipato- ry bail to an accused and led to automatic arrest. From now on, arrest of any citizen under the Act will require a written approval from a police officer of the rank of Senior Superintendent of Police (equivalent to Additional Commissioner of Police) who will record reasons why an arrest is necessary. Where a public servant is involved, approval must come from the appointing authority. Even at the stage of registration of a case, it will be open to police to conduct a preliminary enquiry (by DSP rank officer) and not proceed in cases where allega- tions are found to be frivolous or motivated. Further, as an additional safeguard, the two-judge Bench noted that when an accused is arrested and produced before a Magistrate, the concerned court can apply its mind to ascertain if a prima facie case under the Act is made out. Based on its conclusion, further remand or detention of the accused can be refused. Section 18 of the 1989 Act did not allow an accused to get anticipatory bail. The court removed this bar by interpreting that the pro- vision will not apply to such cases where no case is made out or allegations are patently false or motivated. This was consid- ered necessary to prevent blackmail of public servants from discharging their official functions and common citizens faced with threat of jail and sur- render of civil rights. What prompted the court to think on these lines was the glaring misuse of law over the decades. The Bench of Justices Adarsh K Goel and UU Lalit relied on data supplied by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) to draw its conclusion. In 2015, out of the total complaints investigated by police under the Act, closure reports were filed in almost 16 per cent cases. Out of the total cases handled by courts under the Act in the same year, more than 75 per cent cases ended up in acquittal, withdrawal or compounding of cases. The crime in India-2016 statistics compiled by the NCRB drew similar results. In 2016 alone, under the Act, 5,347 cases were found to be false against the Scheduled Castes and 912 against Scheduled Tribes. The Annual Report 2016-17 of the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment, the Government of India com- piled figures to show that in year 2015, a total of 15,638 cases under the Act were decid- ed by courts across the coun- try of which a whopping 11,024 cases resulted in acquittal or discharge and only 4,119 cases resulted in conviction. Taking note of the above reports, the Bench said, “It has been judicially acknowledged that there are instances of abuse of the Act by vested inter- ests against political opponents in Panchayat, municipal or other elections; to settle private civil disputes arising out of property, monetary disputes, employment disputes and seniority disputes.” The court noted yet anoth- er trend that a large number of complaints were directed against public servants, judicial or quasi-judicial officers with an “oblique motive” of vested interests. The Bench held, “The underprivileged need to be protected against any atrocities to give effect to the constitu- tional ideals. At the same time, the said Act cannot be convert- ed into a charter for exploita- tion or oppression by any unscrupulous person or by police for any extraneous rea- sons against other citizens. Any harassment of an innocent citizen, irrespective of caste or religion, is against the guaran- tee of the Constitution. This court must enforce this guar- antee. Law should not result in caste hatred.” The court was aware that it cannot legislate and respected the legislative wisdom behind creating such an legislation. Even Parliament debated the misuse of the Act in 2015 but left it to the affected citizens to invoke suitable remedy under Indian Penal Code once the charge is proved false. But the court viewed the case from the standpoint of personal liberty of citizens under Article 21, which the court is bound to adjudicate upon. While perpe- trators should not go scot- free, the Bench added that no law can mandate arrest of an innocent by limiting even his pre-arrest bail. Continued on Page 4 E nding suspense over the fate of 39 Indians abducted in Iraq in June 2014, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday declared all these men dead and said their bod- ies will be brought back to India soon. In a statement made in the Rajya Sabha, Sushma said the deaths were confirmed on the basis of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) tests conducted on the bodies exhumed from a mound in Badoosh, Iraq. She confirmed that the DNA sam- ples of the dead Indians have matched with those of their family members in India. “We made all possible attempts and knocked all doors to locate these missing men in these years. As a responsible Government we could not have declared them dead without any proof. Today we have the evi- dence that these men are dead and with a heavy heart I am giv- ing this news. This news will also bring ‘closure’ for the fam- ily members of these missing men who have all along been hoping for their return,” Sushma said later in a Press conference. This is the first incident of direct mass killing of Indians by the ISIS even though the terror group has in the past kid- napped other Indians as well. A group of nurses were kid- napped in Iraq while a catholic priest was abducted in Yemen by the ISIS or its affiliates before the Indian Government negotiated their release. Breaking the news in the Rajya Sabha, Sushma said a total 40 Indians were originally abducted by the ISIS in June 2014 from Mosul in Iraq but one of them — Harjit Masih — escaped by posing as a Muslim from Bangladesh. The remain- ing 39 Indians were taken to Badoosh and killed by the flee- ing ISIS when the Iraqi security forces started closing in on them. She said that the search operations led to a mound in Badoosh where locals said some bodies were buried by the ISIS. Sushma added that on the request of India, Deep Penetration Radars (DPR) were used by the Iraqi Government to establish the fact that the mound indeed was a mass grave. The Minister said the mass grave had exactly 39 bod- ies, with distinctive features like long hair, non-Iraqi shoes, identity cards and kada (worn by Sikh community in India). The bodies were then sent to Baghdad for DNA testing. The Minister said that the DNA testing was conducted by the Iraqi NGO, Martyrs Foundation, which established the identity of 38 Indians while there has been 70 per cent matching of the DNA for the 39th person. The Minister could not confirm the timing of the death of these men and the way they were killed. “We might get all that details in the death certificate from the Martyrs Foundation when the dead bodies arrive,” Swaraj said. The Minister dismissed Masih’s claims that the Indian captives were killed in 2014 itself and he managed to escape despite being shot in the leg. Continued on Page 4 C hina will not concede “a single inch of land” and guard its sovereignty, Chinese President Xi Jinping, who was re-elected for second five-year term with prospects of contin- uing as leader for life asserted on Tuesday. Besides the border dispute with India, China claims rights over the disputed islands in East China Sea under the con- trol of Japan and vast stretch- es of the South China Sea, (SCS) where it is firmly assert- ing its control. Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have counter claims over the South China Sea. “The Chinese people and the Chinese nation have a shared conviction which is not a single inch of our land will be and can be ceded from China,” Xi said in a 30-minute-long speech at the end of the 18-day long parliament session. There are signs he said this in the context of Taiwan. But this view may be interpreted later to include areas like Arunachal Pradesh, which does not belong to China but Beijing insists that it does. During its session, China’s National People’s Congress rat- ified the constitutional amend- ment removing decades old two-term limit for President and Vice President paving the way for Xi to continue in power for life. He also was re-elected by the 2970 deputies for second five-year term as President and head of the military. In October, last year he was elected as General Secretary of the ruling Communist Party of China, (CPC) for the second five-year term. By heading the party, the military and presidency with no limit on tenure, he is regarded as the most powerful leader after party founder Mao Zedong. In a departure from the past, Xi on Tuesday addressed the closing session with rabble- rousing speech televised live all over the country. “We should safeguard the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country and achieve full unification of the motherland. This is the aspira- tion of all Chinese people. This is also in line with funda- mental of the Chinese nation,” he said in an apparent reference to Taiwan which China claims as part of it. He also delivered a stern message to the separatists. “Faced with this important question of our nation and his- tory, any action that separates the country is doomed to fail. These separatist actions will be met with the condemnation of the people and punishment by the state,” he said. Continued on Page 4 J awaharlal Nehru University (JNU) professor Atul Johri was arrested and later granted bail by a city court on Tuesday evening in sexual harassment cases. High drama unfolded at the Patiala House Courts where Johri, professor from the School of Life Sciences, was produced amid tight security. Within an hour of being produced at the Patiala House Courts, Duty Magistrate Ritu Singh granted bail to Johri and directed him to furnish a bail bond of 30,000 for each of the eight FIRs registered against him. Johri had moved a bail plea saying sending him to jail would spoil his career. The bail plea was opposed by the Delhi Police mentioning the apprehension of the com- plainants regarding intimida- tion from the accused as he is holding various authoritative positions in the JNU. After hearing both sides, the court gave Conditional Bail to the accused with an undertaking that he would not hamper the investigation in any way or intimidate the complainants. Further investigation in the cases is on, said Chief Spokesperson of Delhi Police Dependra Pathak. Taking cognisance of the written complaints submitted by the seven women students, all from the school of Life Sciences on Monday night, police registered seven separate FIRs. Overall eight FIRs have been registered against Johri. Earlier in the day, confirm- ing the arrest, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southwest) Milind Dumbere said, “Johri has been arrested and will be produced in court E ven as the Army is battling with critical shortage of ammunition, arms, assault rifles, battle tanks and bullet- proof jackets and inadequate Budget to tide over these issues, the Government has saddled them with an additional bur- den of 5,000 crore in the form of Goods and Services Tax (GST). There is no provi- sion in the 2018-19 allocations to fill this gap. The Navy already faced with a Budget deficit of 40 per cent accumulated over the past few years, and the IAF also faced the same problem there- by impacting their modernisa- tion drive. In fact, customs duties and new taxation laws have hit the three forces hard. In addition, the Rashtriya Rifles, the Army’s anti-insur- gency force now tackling ter- rorism in Jammu & Kashmir, is also short of funds by more than 136 crore due to less Budget. It is likely to have an adverse impact on the sus- tained campaign in the strife- torn State and the Rashtriya Rifles desperately needs state- of-the-art close quarter battle weapons, bulletproof jackets and communication systems. Nearly 65 battalions (one bat- talion has 1,000 soldiers) are now deployed in J&K. The force was raised in the early 1990s after full blown insur- gency erupted in the border State. As the Army flagged these matters during its deposition before Parliament’s Standing Committee on Defence, the panel noted that “an addition- al burden of 5,000 crore will be levied on the Army because of the new taxation laws in the form of GST. This has not been accounted for in the current year’s Budget for the Army.” Urging the Defence Ministry and the Government to take note of this issue, the Standing Committee said “rea- sonability be shown in the Budget by way of providing for the additional burden to the extent of 5,000 crore.” In its report tabled in Parliament recently, the panel said it desires to be apprised of the measures taken in this direction. Raising concern over a deficit revenue Budget to the tune of 9,282 crore, the panel urged the Government to do the needful to plug the gap. Revenue Budget caters to day- to-day operations, including maintenance of weapons, sup- ply of ammunition and fuel. The Committee said the Budget for operations and maintenance is a critical com- ponent for ensuring opera- tional preparedness at any given point of time. Problems on this count will not only affect the service- ability of the equipment that the Army is holding but may also lead to legal issues on account of not making pay- ments in time. Continued on Page 4 I n a major decision in higher education sector, the Centre on Tuesday announced full autonomy to 52 institutions. These institutions can now decide their admission proce- dure, fee structure and curricu- lum on their own without the interference of parent univer- sity. HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar said that the univer- sity watchdog — University Grants Commission (UGC) — has granted full autonomy Continued on Page 4

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Page 1: $0 ˇ*˘ /1839 &+ & , %&’() $* ˘ ==;˜7B:9˜:&=;˚I;7 9˜;: ;K1#˜;7 … open demands for sex and comments on the figure of almost every girl. If a girl objects, he held a grudge

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Twenty-eight years after theenactment of the Scheduled

Caste and the Scheduled Tribes(Prevention of Atrocities) Act,the Supreme Court on Tuesdaytweaked the law to protectinnocent people from thesweep of its draconian provi-sions which denied anticipato-ry bail to an accused and led toautomatic arrest.

From now on, arrest of anycitizen under the Act willrequire a written approval froma police officer of the rank ofSenior Superintendent of Police(equivalent to AdditionalCommissioner of Police) whowill record reasons why anarrest is necessary. Where apublic servant is involved,approval must come from theappointing authority. Even atthe stage of registration of a

case, it will be open to police toconduct a preliminary enquiry(by DSP rank officer) and notproceed in cases where allega-tions are found to be frivolousor motivated.

Further, as an additionalsafeguard, the two-judge Benchnoted that when an accused isarrested and produced beforea Magistrate, the concernedcourt can apply its mind toascertain if a prima facie caseunder the Act is made out.Based on its conclusion, furtherremand or detention of theaccused can be refused. Section18 of the 1989 Act did not allowan accused to get anticipatorybail. The court removed thisbar by interpreting that the pro-vision will not apply to suchcases where no case is made outor allegations are patently falseor motivated. This was consid-ered necessary to preventblackmail of public servants

from discharging their officialfunctions and common citizensfaced with threat of jail and sur-render of civil rights.

What prompted the courtto think on these lines was theglaring misuse of law over thedecades. The Bench of JusticesAdarsh K Goel and UU Lalitrelied on data supplied by the

National Crime RecordsBureau (NCRB) to draw itsconclusion. In 2015, out of thetotal complaints investigated bypolice under the Act, closurereports were filed in almost 16per cent cases. Out of the totalcases handled by courts underthe Act in the same year, morethan 75 per cent cases ended up

in acquittal, withdrawal orcompounding of cases.

The crime in India-2016statistics compiled by theNCRB drew similar results. In2016 alone, under the Act,5,347 cases were found to befalse against the ScheduledCastes and 912 againstScheduled Tribes. The Annual

Report 2016-17 of theDepartment of Social Justiceand Empowerment, theGovernment of India com-piled figures to show that inyear 2015, a total of 15,638cases under the Act were decid-ed by courts across the coun-try of which a whopping 11,024cases resulted in acquittal ordischarge and only 4,119 casesresulted in conviction.

Taking note of the abovereports, the Bench said, “It hasbeen judicially acknowledgedthat there are instances ofabuse of the Act by vested inter-ests against political opponentsin Panchayat, municipal orother elections; to settle privatecivil disputes arising out ofproperty, monetary disputes,employment disputes andseniority disputes.”

The court noted yet anoth-er trend that a large number ofcomplaints were directedagainst public servants, judicialor quasi-judicial officers withan “oblique motive” of vestedinterests.

The Bench held, “Theunderprivileged need to beprotected against any atrocitiesto give effect to the constitu-

tional ideals. At the same time,the said Act cannot be convert-ed into a charter for exploita-tion or oppression by anyunscrupulous person or bypolice for any extraneous rea-sons against other citizens.Any harassment of an innocentcitizen, irrespective of caste orreligion, is against the guaran-tee of the Constitution. Thiscourt must enforce this guar-antee. Law should not result incaste hatred.”

The court was aware that itcannot legislate and respectedthe legislative wisdom behindcreating such an legislation.Even Parliament debated themisuse of the Act in 2015 butleft it to the affected citizens toinvoke suitable remedy underIndian Penal Code once thecharge is proved false. But thecourt viewed the case from thestandpoint of personal libertyof citizens under Article 21,which the court is bound toadjudicate upon. While perpe-trators should not go scot-free, the Bench added that nolaw can mandate arrest of aninnocent by limiting even hispre-arrest bail.

Continued on Page 4

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Ending suspense over thefate of 39 Indians abducted

in Iraq in June 2014, ExternalAffairs Minister Sushma Swarajon Tuesday declared all thesemen dead and said their bod-ies will be brought back to Indiasoon. In a statement made inthe Rajya Sabha, Sushma saidthe deaths were confirmed onthe basis of deoxyribonucleicacid (DNA) tests conducted onthe bodies exhumed from amound in Badoosh, Iraq. She

confirmed that the DNA sam-ples of the dead Indians havematched with those of theirfamily members in India.

“We made all possibleattempts and knocked all doorsto locate these missing men inthese years. As a responsibleGovernment we could not havedeclared them dead without anyproof. Today we have the evi-dence that these men are deadand with a heavy heart I am giv-ing this news. This news willalso bring ‘closure’ for the fam-ily members of these missing

men who have all along beenhoping for their return,”Sushma said later in a Pressconference.

This is the first incident ofdirect mass killing of Indians bythe ISIS even though the terrorgroup has in the past kid-napped other Indians as well.A group of nurses were kid-napped in Iraq while a catholicpriest was abducted in Yemenby the ISIS or its affiliatesbefore the Indian Governmentnegotiated their release.

Breaking the news in the

Rajya Sabha, Sushma said atotal 40 Indians were originallyabducted by the ISIS in June2014 from Mosul in Iraq but oneof them — Harjit Masih —escaped by posing as a Muslimfrom Bangladesh. The remain-ing 39 Indians were taken toBadoosh and killed by the flee-ing ISIS when the Iraqi securityforces started closing in on them.

She said that the searchoperations led to a mound inBadoosh where locals saidsome bodies were buried by theISIS. Sushma added that on therequest of India, DeepPenetration Radars (DPR) wereused by the Iraqi Governmentto establish the fact that themound indeed was a massgrave. The Minister said themass grave had exactly 39 bod-ies, with distinctive features likelong hair, non-Iraqi shoes,identity cards and kada (wornby Sikh community in India).The bodies were then sent toBaghdad for DNA testing.

The Minister said that theDNA testing was conducted bythe Iraqi NGO, MartyrsFoundation, which establishedthe identity of 38 Indians whilethere has been 70 per centmatching of the DNA for the39th person. The Ministercould not confirm the timing ofthe death of these men and theway they were killed. “Wemight get all that details in thedeath certificate from theMartyrs Foundation when the

dead bodies arrive,” Swaraj said.The Minister dismissed

Masih’s claims that the Indiancaptives were killed in 2014itself and he managed to escapedespite being shot in the leg.

Continued on Page 4

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China will not concede “asingle inch of land” and

guard its sovereignty, ChinesePresident Xi Jinping, who wasre-elected for second five-yearterm with prospects of contin-uing as leader for life assertedon Tuesday.

Besides the border disputewith India, China claims rightsover the disputed islands inEast China Sea under the con-trol of Japan and vast stretch-es of the South China Sea,(SCS) where it is firmly assert-ing its control.

Vietnam, the Philippines,Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwanhave counter claims over theSouth China Sea.

“The Chinese people andthe Chinese nation have ashared conviction which is nota single inch of our land will beand can be ceded from China,”Xi said in a 30-minute-longspeech at the end of the 18-daylong parliament session.

There are signs he said thisin the context of Taiwan. Butthis view may be interpretedlater to include areas likeArunachal Pradesh, which doesnot belong to China but Beijinginsists that it does.

During its session, China’sNational People’s Congress rat-ified the constitutional amend-ment removing decades oldtwo-term limit for Presidentand Vice President paving the

way for Xi to continue inpower for life.

He also was re-elected bythe 2970 deputies for secondfive-year term as President andhead of the military. In October,last year he was elected asGeneral Secretary of the rulingCommunist Party of China,(CPC) for the second five-yearterm. By heading the party, themilitary and presidency with nolimit on tenure, he is regardedas the most powerful leader afterparty founder Mao Zedong.

In a departure from thepast, Xi on Tuesday addressedthe closing session with rabble-rousing speech televised live allover the country.

“We should safeguard the

sovereignty and territorialintegrity of the country andachieve full unification of themotherland. This is the aspira-tion of all Chinese people.This is also in line with funda-mental of the Chinese nation,”he said in an apparent referenceto Taiwan which China claimsas part of it.

He also delivered a sternmessage to the separatists.“Faced with this importantquestion of our nation and his-tory, any action that separatesthe country is doomed to fail.These separatist actions will bemet with the condemnation ofthe people and punishment bythe state,” he said.

Continued on Page 4

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Jawaharlal Nehru University(JNU) professor Atul Johri

was arrested and later grantedbail by a city court on Tuesdayevening in sexual harassmentcases. High drama unfolded atthe Patiala House Courts whereJohri, professor from theSchool of Life Sciences, wasproduced amid tight security.

Within an hour of beingproduced at the Patiala HouseCourts, Duty Magistrate RituSingh granted bail to Johriand directed him to furnish abail bond of �30,000 for eachof the eight FIRs registeredagainst him. Johri had moveda bail plea saying sending himto jail would spoil his career.

The bail plea was opposedby the Delhi Police mentioningthe apprehension of the com-plainants regarding intimida-tion from the accused as he isholding various authoritativepositions in the JNU. Afterhearing both sides, the courtgave Conditional Bail to the

accused with an undertakingthat he would not hamper theinvestigation in any way orintimidate the complainants.Further investigation in thecases is on, said ChiefSpokesperson of Delhi PoliceDependra Pathak.

Taking cognisance of thewritten complaints submittedby the seven women students,all from the school of LifeSciences on Monday night,police registered seven separateFIRs. Overall eight FIRs havebeen registered against Johri.

Earlier in the day, confirm-ing the arrest, DeputyCommissioner of Police(Southwest) Milind Dumberesaid, “Johri has been arrestedand will be produced in court

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Even as the Army is battlingwith critical shortage of

ammunition, arms, assaultrifles, battle tanks and bullet-proof jackets and inadequateBudget to tide over these issues,the Government has saddledthem with an additional bur-den of �5,000 crore in theform of Goods and ServicesTax (GST). There is no provi-sion in the 2018-19 allocationsto fill this gap.

The Navy already facedwith a Budget deficit of 40 percent accumulated over the pastfew years, and the IAF alsofaced the same problem there-by impacting their modernisa-tion drive. In fact, customsduties and new taxation lawshave hit the three forces hard.

In addition, the RashtriyaRifles, the Army’s anti-insur-gency force now tackling ter-rorism in Jammu & Kashmir, isalso short of funds by morethan �136 crore due to lessBudget.

It is likely to have anadverse impact on the sus-tained campaign in the strife-torn State and the RashtriyaRifles desperately needs state-

of-the-art close quarter battleweapons, bulletproof jacketsand communication systems.Nearly 65 battalions (one bat-talion has 1,000 soldiers) arenow deployed in J&K. Theforce was raised in the early1990s after full blown insur-gency erupted in the borderState.

As the Army flagged thesematters during its depositionbefore Parliament’s StandingCommittee on Defence, thepanel noted that “an addition-al burden of �5,000 crore willbe levied on the Army becauseof the new taxation laws in theform of GST. This has not beenaccounted for in the currentyear’s Budget for the Army.”

Urging the DefenceMinistry and the Governmentto take note of this issue, theStanding Committee said “rea-sonability be shown in theBudget by way of providing forthe additional burden to theextent of �5,000 crore.” In itsreport tabled in Parliamentrecently, the panel said it desiresto be apprised of the measurestaken in this direction.

Raising concern over adeficit revenue Budget to thetune of �9,282 crore, the panel

urged the Government to dothe needful to plug the gap.Revenue Budget caters to day-to-day operations, includingmaintenance of weapons, sup-ply of ammunition and fuel.

The Committee said theBudget for operations andmaintenance is a critical com-ponent for ensuring opera-tional preparedness at anygiven point of time.

Problems on this countwill not only affect the service-ability of the equipment thatthe Army is holding but mayalso lead to legal issues onaccount of not making pay-ments in time.

Continued on Page 4

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In a major decision in highereducation sector, the Centre

on Tuesday announced fullautonomy to 52 institutions.These institutions can now

decide their admission proce-dure, fee structure and curricu-lum on their own without theinterference of parent univer-sity.

HRD Minister PrakashJavadekar said that the univer-sity watchdog — UniversityGrants Commission (UGC)— has granted full autonomy

Continued on Page 4

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Taking cognisance of theongoing sealing drive in

Delhi's market, Chief MinisterArvind Kejriwal will hold all-party meeting with theSupreme Court-appointedMonitoring Committee tof ind a solut ion to the issue.

A Delhi Government offi-cial said that the Chief Ministerhas invited leaders of theCongress and the BJP to attendthe meeting to be held with thecommittee at the DelhiSecretariat.

It may be noted that lastweek, Kejriwal had sought anappointment with theSupreme-Court appointedpanel to discuss the sealingissue.

“The committee memberswill come to Delhi Secretariaton Wednesday on the requestmade by the Chief Minister.The Chief Minister has alsoinvited BJP and Congress lead-ers to attend this meeting,” theofficial added.

Leader of Opposition(LoP) in th eDelhi AssemblyVijednra Gupta said that theywill be attending all-partymeeting convened by the ChiefMinister. Gupta said he dis-cussed the issue with Delhi BJPpresident Manoj Tiwari andthey both will be going for themeeting.

The Delhi Congress alsosaid the party will send a setof delegation to attend themeet.

Earlier this month,Kejriwal had held an all-partymeeting to find a solution tothe ongoing sealing drive being

carried out by municipal cor-porations against commercialestablishments for violatingcivic norms since Decemberlast year following the direc-tions of MonitoringCommittee.

During the meeting held atKejriwal's residence on March13, the AAP and the Congresshad agreed to raise their voicein Parliament through theirMPs against the drive. Tradershave been affected by the moveto shut down commercialestablishments.

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Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal has expressed

grief at the killings of 39Indians in captivity in Iraq, andthe Delhi Assembly observed a

two-minute silence to payhomage to them.

“Extremely saddened toknow about the killing of 39Indian workers who were heldhostage in Iraq. Entire nationstands with the families of vic-tims,” Kejriwal tweeted. In theAssembly, Speaker Ram NiwasGoel read out a condolencemessage that was followed bya two-minute silence to payhomage to the deceased.

“It is unfortunate that afterthree-and-a-half years, we cameto know that 39 Indians havebeen killed in Iraq,” Goel said.All the 39 Indians, who wereabducted by ISIS in Iraq nearlythree years ago, were killed andtheir bodies have been recov-ered, External Affairs MinisterSushma Swaraj said today.

As many as 40 Indianswere originally abducted by theterrorist organisation in June2015 from Mosul in Iraq butone of them escaped by posingas a Muslim from Bangladesh,Swaraj said in a suo motustatement in Rajya Sabha. Theremaining 39 Indians weretaken to Badoosh and killed.

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As part of efforts to spreadthe message to protect and

preserve the planet, Delhiitesare expected to join a billionpeople across the globe toobserve 'Earth Hour' on March24. Discom BRPL and BYPLhave urged Delhiites to be apart of the initiative by switch-ing off electrical appliancesbetween 8.30pm onwards onSaturday. Last year, Delhi savedaround 290 MW (207 MW inBSES area).

Commenting over thedevelopment, a BSESspokesperson said, “We sin-cerely appeal to our consumersto make the right choice “giveup to give back” for the planetand for the future generations

that will inherit it. “BSES discoms are leading

the distribution of highly sub-sidised LEDs being facilitatedby Government of India. Weare also actively involved in

renewable push being seen inthe country,” he said.

The official also informedthat the discom are taking sev-eral steps to share concern onclimate change by various

means such as publishing'Earth hour message in syner-gy - BSES' monthly/bi-lingualnewsletter, engaging RWAs andthrough the website www.bses-delhi.com.

Earth hour is an annualinternational event created bythe WWF (World Wide Fundfor Nature) that urges house-holds and businesses across theworld to turn off their non-essential lights and electricalappliances for one hour at theappointed time to raise aware-ness towards the need to takeaction on climate change.

BRPL and BYPL are pre-mier power distribution com-panies and Joint Venturesbetween RelianceInfrastructure Limited andGoNCT.

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Aam Aadmi Party MLAskept on attacking bureau-

crats in the Delhi Assembly, fol-lowing which Speaker RamNiwas Goel ordered theAssembly’s Privilege Commit-tee to look into the matter relat-ed to Revenue SecretaryManisha Saxena’s recent inter-view to a Hindi daily, in whichshe allegedly said a mobattacked the principal andteachers of a Governmentschool for scolding a student inNarela area on February 21.

However, speaking on theissue, Deputy Chief MinisterManish Sisodia termedSaxena's remarks imaginaryand said such an incident neveractually happened.

Besides the privilege com-mittee, Goel also sent Saxena'smatter to the question andreference committee follow-ing a demand by AAP MLASourabh Bharadwaj. Goel alsoreferred four matters involvingthe officers to the question andreference committee.

Sexena, a 1996-batch IASofficer, was present in theOfficers' Gallery of the Houseafter a direction issued from thespeaker.

During the Question Hour,AAP legislators sought actionagainst a section of officers fornot replying properly to ques-tions asked by them.“Bureaucrats gave incompletewritten answers to the minis-

ters concerned, who then pre-sented them in the Assembly,”they said.

AAP MLA Rakhi Birla,referring to a question asked byher, said the officer who gavethe answer was misleading theAssembly by giving a falsereply.

AAP's Okhla MLAAmanattullah Khan objected tothe presence of IAS officers inthe House along with ChiefSecretary Anshu Prakash andsought a discussion on it andthe speaker agreed to allowtime for discussion.

The AAP dispensation andthe bureaucrats have been atloggerheads over a range ofissues. Following an allegedattack on Prakash by someAAP MLAs at Chief MinisterArvind Kejriwal's residencelast month, the officers havebeen boycotting meetings withthe ministers.

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The Delhi High Court onTuesday directed the

Directorate General of CivilAviation (DGCA) to file anaffidavit as required under theAircraft Rules on the safetyand airworthiness of the A320Neo planes flying in India. ABench of Acting Chief JusticeGita Mittal and Justice C HariShankar said the affidavitwould be signed by an officernot below the rank of jointdirector of the DGCA andlisted the matter for furtherhearing on April 6.

The order by the Bench

came after the petitioner,Yashwant Shenoy, told thecourt that there have been 100engine failures in connectionwith the A 320 Neos. Theseplanes are not allowed in theUS and European airspace inaccordance with EASA(European Aviation SafetyAgency) directives, heclaimed.

On March 16, the courthad refused to grant Shenoy'smain prayer to ground all theA320 Neo aircraft, which areoperated by low cost carriersIndigo and GoAir. OnTuesday, it said his petition betreated as an application and

issued notice to the DGCAseeking its affidavit accordingto the Aircraft Rules.

While issuing the direction,the bench observed that it wasa matter of public knowledgethat several A320 Neos weregrounded, one as recent asMarch 18. “Let DGCA saythey are safe,” the court said.

DGCA told the courtthat there were engine failureproblems in the modifiedA320 Neos, which numbered14 and were grounded. Theremaining were not modifiedand therefore a consciousdecision was taken to notground them.

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Delhi BJP MLAs on Tuesdayapproaches the Delhi High

Court seeking TransportMinister Kailash Gahlot berestrained from attending theongoing Assembly proceed-ings as he has been disqualifiedas an MLA for holding office ofprofit.

The plea, challenging thecontinuance of Gahlot as aminister, was mentionedbefore a bench of Acting ChiefJustice Gita Mittal and JusticeC Hari Shankar, which listed itfor hearing on Wednesday.The budget session of theDelhi Assembly started onMarch 16 and will continue tillMarch 28.

The ElectionCommission had recom-mended the disqualificationof 20 AAP MLAs for holdingoffice of profit on January 19.The president had acceptedthe poll panel's opinion thevery next day. The MLAshave challenged their dis-qualification order in the highcourt, which is yet to pro-nounce the judgment.

Advocates BalenduShekhar and Neeraj Kumarmentioned the petition onbehalf of the four BJP MLAs-- Vijender Gupta, O PSharma, Jagdish Pradhan andManjinder Singh Sirsa.

The MLAs, in their peti-tion, have also questioned thereasoning of the assemblyspeaker in allowing Gahlot toattend the house on thegrounds that he has six monthssince the disqualification to getre-elected.

The plea seeks the court'sinter vention, saying thespeaker's decision to permitGahlot to sit in the House iscontrary to the Constitutionand the 1991 NCT of DelhiAct.

They have submitted thatonce an MLA has been dis-qualified by the EC, he or shecannot continue under anycircumstances. The MLAs hadprotested against Gahlot's pres-ence in the House on the firstday of the budget session.

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The Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) has alleged that

some private hospitals andshopping malls in South DelhiMunicipal Corporation(SDMC) areas are taking ille-gal parking charges from thepeople.

The AAP said this “illegalextortion” in name of parkingcharges is against the “order ofDelhi High Court in which itstated that these private hospi-tals and malls cannot takeparking charges as they are onthe land given by governmenton the condition that they willnot levy any parking charges,”said the AAP.

Senior AAP leader andparty spokesperson DilipPandey alleged that this “ille-gal extortion” is going on underthe patronage of BJP leaders inthe corporation. “All theseshopping malls and privatehospitals are of rich business-

men who are extorting moneyfrom the pocket of commonpeople in name of parkingcharges. All this is going onunder the patronage of BJPleaders in the corporation,”said Pandey.

Further alleging that part ofthis “illegal money” goes intothe pocket of BJP leaders,Pandey said that after HighCourt orders on the PIL filed byan AAP worker this illegalparking charge is stopped atmany places but still there aresome private hospitals andshopping malls which are tak-ing this illegal fee in name ofparking.

The AAP claimed that thisillegal business in name ofparking charges is also going onin the North Delhi MunicipalCorporation and East DelhiMunicipal Corporation areas.

“The AAP will knock at thedoor of Commissioners ofthese two corporationsdemanding free parking and if

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Leader of Opposition in theDelhi Assembly Vijender

Gupta said on Tuesday that theAddress of Lieutenant GovernorAnil Baijal in the House onMarch 16 was very disappointingand lifeless. “Lack of coordinationbetween the Legislative wingand executive wing was reflect-ed in the proposals,” said Gupta.

The LoP said the govern-ment failed to present vision offuture, adding , “Neither theoutcome budget of 2017-18 norgreen budget of 2018-19 wasanywhere insight. Its sole aimwas to cover government's mis-rule, irregularities and failures.The Infrastructure develop-ment or concrete projects aremissing,” said Gupta.

He further said that theimportant matters of publicinterest were pushed under thecarpet.

“There was no word on theGovernment's strategy to findpermanent solution to sealing.The infighting with bureaucracyfound no mention and no wordof unauthorized continuation ofKailash Gahlot as Ministerdespite cancellation of hisMLAship,” he added. “It is unfor-tunate, the AAP governmenthas confirmed its commitment todoorstep delivery of ration itemdespite criticism,” he added.

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Municipal corporations onTuesday sealed 19 prop-

erties and shops for misusingspaces. South Delhi MunicipalCorporation sealed five prop-erties in Defence Colony whileNorth Delhi MunicipalCorporation sealed 10 proper-ties in Civil Lines and RohiniZone.

East Delhi MunicipalCorporation has also sealedfour properties inRaghubarpura and KrishnaNagar. A senior SDMC officialsaid that the officials of build-ing department took theaction on the direction of the'Supreme Court EmpoweredMonitoring Committee'.

Traders in the nationalcapital hit hard after buildingdepartment of the municipalcorporations had started seal-ing business establishmentsfor non-payment of conver-sion charges, encroachment,and illegal construction on theinstructions of the SupremeCourt-appointed monitoringcommittee. In the drive, thou-sands of shops have beensealed since last Decemberand there is still no sigh ofrelief amid all the coordinat-ed efforts put up by all theregarding stakeholders.

Forced with the circum-stances that seem to be inces-sant, traders associations haveheld numerous protest ralliesagainst the drive.

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The Crime Branch of theDelhi Police on Tuesday

busted a gang of burglars whoused to target houses of Armyofficers in the DelhiCantonment area.

DCP (Crime) BhishamSingh said, “Three men —including a suspended FitterGeneral Mechanic of theMilitary Engineering Services— have been arrested. Theaccused have been identified asDharambir (54), Deepak (30)and Dheeraj (22).”

Dharambir used to do arecce of the Cantonment areato identify locked residences ofArmy officers and then facili-tated an easy entry of his asso-ciates in cantonment area in hiscar by showing his govt. IDcard of MES at sentry posts.Thereafter, the accused personsfled away easily after commit-ting burglaries.

Police said that they haverecovered one stolen LED TV,expensive cameras, one goldenwrist watch, silver utensils,govt. ID card and I-10 car.

The officer said that in lightof the spurt in the incidents ofday light burglaries in the inresidences of senior Army offi-cers in Cantonment area, theMilitary Intelligence (MI), afterconducting preliminary inves-tigations approached the CrimeBranch for a joint operation.

“Taking cognisance, a jointteam of officers of Military

Intelligence and Crime Branchanalysed all the incidents andtried to identify the culprits.

“On the intervening nightof March 18 and 19, a teamunder ACP Aditya Gautamlaid a trap arrested the accusedfrom the Dwarka Sector 1 area.the accused were caught in aWhite i-1- car while they weregoing to dispose off the stolenarticles,” said Singh. Duringsustained interrogation, theaccused, Dharambir (54) dis-closed that he was suspendedfrom his job in the Miliray

Engineering Services (MES)where he used to work as aFitter General Mechanic,” saidBhisham Singh.

He revealed that he wasfirst arrested in 1995 when hepicked up a fight with a Captainof India Army. Thereafter, hewas again arrested in the year2009 in a robbery case and waslodged in jail where he came incontact with Deepak andformed a gang. After comingout of jail, he started commit-ting burglaries in the houses ofArmy officers and remainedinvolved in about 18 cases ofburglaries etc. He used to facil-itate an easy entry inCantonment area by showinghis identity card of MES.Dheeraj, on the other hand isa drug addict and in order tofulfill his requirements of drugaddiction, he joined handswith Dharambir throughDeepak.

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The Delhi Police has arrest-ed an autodriver, who lift-

ed bags and luggage from peo-ple coming to the city andrecovered a stolen bag con-taining foreign currencies —$3,881 and 5.76 lakh Indo-nesian Rupiah, 26 MalaysianRinggit— and a mobile phone(Samsung). The accused hasbeen identified as Emtaz Miraresident of Pandav Nagar.

According to police, theaccused has been staying inDelhi for past 10 years. He isilliterate and drives rentedauto in Delhi and NCR fortrapping such innocent riders.

“While investigating onecomplaint regarding theft of bagwith foreign currency, policezeroed in on one suspect, iden-tified as Emtaz Mira.Immediately, Mira was arrest-ed from New Delhi RailwayStation and was subjected tosustained interrogation. Heconfessed to his crime and toldpolice that he targets train pas-sengers who are coming fromoutside Delhi and before drop-ping them at their destination,he makes excuses and he fleeswith the bag,” said DeputyCommissioner of Police (NewDelhi) Madhur Verma.

On his instance bag withforeign currency and mobilephone has been recovered fromhis residence.

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The Congress andother Opposition par-

ties on Tuesday sought tocorner the Government overthe killing of 39 Indians inIraq’s Mosul questioning whythe ruling regime gave ‘false

hope’ to the nation and why itdidn’t inform the families of the

victims before informing theParliament. It also soughtExternal Affairs MinisterSushma Swaraj’s apology.

"We want External AffairsMinister Sushma Swaraj to go

and meet the families of thedeceased and apologisepublicly. She should say

that she kept them in the darkand that she had no concreteinformation," senior Congressleader Ambika Soni said.

From Page 1Swaraj said Masih has been

giving contradictory statementsto the Government and she hadconcrete evidence that he waslying. “Masih had escapedalong with Bangladeshis withthe help of a caterer using a fakename Ali. The details wererevealed to me by Masih’semployer and the caterer whohelped him,” Swaraj said. In theLok Sabha, slogan-shoutingOpposition members did notallow Swaraj to give her state-ment on the death of 39 miss-ing Indians in Iraq after shedetailed it in the Rajya Sabhafollowing continued protests byTDP,TRS and AIADMK par-ties.

The Lok Sabha was firstadjourned till noon and thenfor the day due to the ruckuscreated by several protestingparties leading Speaker SumitraMahajan to announce that shewas unable to take up the no-confidence motion as therewas no order in the House.

When the House met atnoon after first adjournment,Mahajan ordered laying of the

listed papers, but soonAIADMK, TRS and TDP start-ed raising slogans in support oftheir demands. Several mem-bers had crowded the Well ofthe House.

At this stage the Speakerrequested the members tomaintain order as Swaraj want-ed to inform the House abouta “serious” issue. SoonCongress and Left membersstarted raising slogans, drown-ing the voice of Swaraj.

“She wants to inform theHouse about the 39 Indianskilled in Iraq. Please listen toher,” the Speaker said.

Swaraj said she cannotmake a statement in the din asit was a serious issue, whilerecalling that the Lok Sabhahad on several occasions dis-cussed about the fate of the 39Indians. Swaraj could not makethe statement due to the uproarin the House. Despite theSpeaker’s repeated pleas to theOpposition members toobserved two-minute of silenceto condole the death, bedlamcontinued.

Before she adjourned theHouse for the day, the Speakerregretted that members wereshowing lack of sensitivitytowards the serious issue.‘Hindustan ke liye bhi samved-

na nahin ye kaisi rajniti,” theSpeaker said as Congressmembers, who were at theirseats, objected to the disrup-tions, saying this would preventthe notices of no- trust motionfrom being taken up.

Minister of State forExternal Affairs VK Singh willbe flying to Iraq to bring backthe bodies on a special flight.Of these 39 persons, 27 arefrom Punjab, four fromHimachal Pradesh, six fromBihar and two from WestBengal.

The distraught familymembers of the dead Indiansrefused to believe this news andmany of them accused Swarajof misleading them all theseyear. They also criticised her fornot taking them in confidencebefore breaking the news andthat they heard it from televi-sion. Some even claimed thatthey have proof that these menare alive.

Swaraj clarified that sinceParliament was in session shewas duty bound to informboth the Houses of Parliamentfirst. She also added that withthe dead bodies arriving nextweek, Swaraj said the familieswill be able to convince them-selves that the news is indeedtrue.

From Page 1Parliament had in 2015

amended the 1989 Act toinclude new offences and createspecial courts to exclusively trycases under the Act and ensureexpeditious justice to SCs andSTs. The amended provisionsincluded acts of tonsuring ofhead, moustache, garlandingwith chappals, denying access toirrigation facilities or forestrights, dispose or carry humanor animal carcasses, dig graves,manual scavenging, dedicatinga SC/ST women as devadasi,abusing in the name of caste,perpetrating witchcraft, social oreconomic boycott, preventingSC/ST candidates from filingnomination to contest electionsamong others. In addition, IPCoffences against SC/ST mem-bers like hurt, grievous hurt,intimidation, kidnapping etc.that attracted less than ten yearsof imprisonment were alsomade offences punishable underthe Act. Till then, the Act pun-ished only those offences pun-ishable with more than 10 yearsunder IPC.

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From Page 1The new FIRs were filed by

the Delhi Police following theprotests staged by the 250strong-crowd consisting of stu-dents from the JawarharlalNehru University as well asmembers from the womenrights organisations stood out-side the Vasant Kunj Police sta-tion on Monday evening. Theyhad alleged police high-hand-edness, claiming that they werelathi-charged. Denying theseclaims, the area DCP had saidthat no force was used.

The first FIR was filed by astudent on Friday after the stu-dent groups raised a protest onThursday night. As per thewritten complaint, the professormade sexually-colouredremarks, open demands for sexand comments on the figure ofalmost every girl. If a girlobjects, he held a grudge againsther,” the women students hadsaid in a statement last week.

It was only later that sevento eight more girls came outand shared how they too had

been sexually harassed by Johriin the past one year.

Following the allegationslevelled against him, the JNUprofessor had said that he wasbeing targeted by the Left-lean-ing students. “The girls, whohave levelled the allegationsagainst me, had received a mailfrom me on February 27 regard-ing their irregular attendance inthe lab. So, they are targetingme,” he had said earlier.

High drama unfolded onTuesday afternoon onwardsafter Professor Johri visited theVasant Kunj North police sta-tion. Police said that the arrestcame after the School of LifeSciences professor was ques-tioned by the police team forclose to an hour in connectionwith multiple cases of sexualharassment filed against him.Before arresting the professor onTuesday, police had issued anotice to Johri join the probe buthe failed to appear on Monday.

Besides the students, JNUprofessors have also beendemanding action against Johri.Women rights organisations --including All India DemocraticWomen’s Association (AIDWA)and All India Mahila SanskritikSangathan -- held protests againstJohri on Tuesday demandingthe arrest of the professor.

So far, nine women studentshave lodged complaints againstthe professor accusing of sexu-al misconduct. A case of molestation and outragingthe modesty was registeredagainst Johri.

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Noted music composerIllaiyaraja, Hindustani clas-

sical singer Ghulam MustafaKhan, Hindutva thinker PParameswaran, Kerala BishopPhilipose Mar Chrysostom and39 other prominent personali-ties were conferred the presti-gious Padma awards for 2018by President Ram Nath Kovindon Tuesday.

Vice-President M VenkaiahNaidu, Prime Minister NarendraModi and his ministerial col-leagues, and several other dig-nitaries attended the function atthe Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Keeping its promise of hon-ouring "unsung heroes", theGovernment this year honouredwith Padma awards several per-sonalities who served the poor,set up free schools and popu-larised tribal arts globally.Illaiyaraja, the president of

Vivekananda KendraKanyakumari Parameswaran,and Hindustani classical singerGhulam Mustafa Khan wereconferred the Padma Vibhusanawards. Emeritus Metropolitanbishop of the Mar Thoma SyrianChurch Philipose MarChrysostom, historian andarchaeologist RamachandranNagaswamy, legal scholar VedPrakash Nanda, and Hindustaniclassical musician and sitar play-er Pandit Arvind Parikh wereconferred the Padma Bhushanawards. Among the 37 promi-nent personalities who weregiven the Padma Shri awards areArvind Gupta, an IIT Kanpuralumnus who inspired genera-tions of students to learn sciencefrom thrash, Lakshmikutty, atribal woman from Kerala whoprepares 500 herbal medicinefrom memory and help thou-sands of people, especially insnake and insect bite cases.

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Union Ministerand Lok

Janshakti Party (LJP)chief Ram VilasPaswan on Tuesdaydismissed as“unthinkable” suggestions thathis alliance with the BJP isunder strain and asserted thatNarendra Modi will remain thePrime Minister after the nextLok Sabha polls.

Paswan, in his recent com-ments in Bihar, was critical ofsome BJP leaders’ alleged com-munal statements, and hadadvised the party to take alongall sections of society, setting offspeculation about his futureplans. “The NDA is not in anydifficulty. I had earlier saidthat there is no vacancy for thePrime Minister’s post in 2019.Narendra Modi is and willremain the prime minister. TheNDA will remain intact,” theLok Janshakti Party (LJP) pres-ident said.

He also made light of thetalk about a federal front, sayingmeetings keep happening “butnothing comes out of them”, andreferred to the failed attempt tounite the ‘Janata Parivar’ . Asked

about speculation onhis party’s futureplans, Paswan saidany such suggestion isunthinkable. Partysources said BJP gen-eral secretaryBhupendra Yadav,

who is also Bihar in-charge, hadmet Paswan following his recentcomments.

The Dalit leader has oftenswitched sides in the pastbefore elections and ended upwith the winning combina-tion. To a question about con-troversial statements of someBJP leaders, including a Unionminister, in Bihar, he said thegovernment had done a lot forDalits and minorities and itsefforts should be directed athighlighting them.

Paswan was recently criticalof a section of BJP leadersDeputy Chief Minister SushilModi, Nand Kishore Yadav andShahnawaz Hussain from Bihar.

He also mocked theCongress for its attack on theBJP following the reverses inrecent by-polls, saying theopposition party was celebrat-ing the loss of its deposit inseats like Gorakhpur andPhulpur.

�:������ The Union HomeMinistry will examine in detailthe Karnataka Government’srecommendation to grant reli-gious minority tag to theLingayat and VeerashaivaLingayat community as andwhen it receives the proposal.The Home Ministry is expect-ed to forward the proposal tothe Registrar General &Census Commissioner for a

detailed examination and sug-gestions. The centralGovernment’s reaction came aday after the CongressGovernment in poll-boundKarnataka decided to recom-mend that religious minoritytag be granted to the numeri-cally strong and politically-influential Lingayat andVeerashaiva Lingayat commu-nity. PNS

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From Page 1“Chinese people have strong

determination, full confidenceand every capability to triumphover all the separatist actions,” hesaid.

Besides Taiwan, Chinabrands the Dalai Lama as “spli-tist”. China is also carrying outextensive crackdown in theMuslim Uygur majority Xinjiangagainst the separatist group EastTurkistan Islamic Movement,(ETIM).Xi said any actions andtricks to split China are certainto meet with the people’s con-demnation and the punishment.Seeking to allay fears aboutabsolute powers enjoyed by himcontrolling all levers of power, Xi

vowed to continue to serve as aservant of the people. He alsosought to allay the concerns of theworld over the rise of China, say-ing that China’s developmentdoes not pose a threat to anyother country. “China will neverseek hegemony or engage inexpansion. Only those who areaccustomed to threatening oth-ers see everyone as a threat,” hesaid, taking a dig at the US.

“The Chinese people’s sin-cere wish and practical action tocontribute to the peace anddevelopment of humanity shouldnot be misinterpreted, norshould they be distorted,” Xi said,adding that “justice will prevail!”Xi said China will stay on thepath of peaceful development,and continue to pursue a mutu-ally beneficial strategy of open-ing up. He said China endeav-

ours to uphold internationalfairness and justice. China advo-cates that all issues in the worldshould be settled through con-sultation with people around theworld.China will not impose itswill on others, Xi added. He saidChina will contribute moreChinese wisdom, Chinese solu-tions and Chinese strength to theworld, to push for building anopen, inclusive, clean, and beau-tiful world that enjoys lastingpeace, universal security, andcommon prosperity.

Expressing his heartfelt grat-itude to the trust placed on himby all deputies and Chinesepeople of all ethnic groups, hesaid, “It is a glorious mission andweighty responsibility to take onthis great position of thePresident of the People’s Republicof China”.

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Page 5: $0 ˇ*˘ /1839 &+ & , %&’() $* ˘ ==;˜7B:9˜:&=;˚I;7 9˜;: ;K1#˜;7 … open demands for sex and comments on the figure of almost every girl. If a girl objects, he held a grudge

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The Parliamentary StandingCommittee on Health on

Tuesday rejected theGovernment’s proposal to allowpractitioners of alternative med-icine to deal in modern medi-cines but approved replacingthe corruption-ridden MedicalCouncil of India (MCI) with aNational Medical Commission.

In its much awaited reporton the National MedicalCommission Bill-which moots acommission to replace the MCI-the panel rejected cross-disci-pline permissions, and called forcriminal action against medicalprofessionals who practise with-out requisite qualifications.

Among the panel’s sugges-tions-made in an attempt to curbcorruption that is witnessed inthe MCI-is that all NMC mem-bers should declare in advancetheir conflict of interests as wellas personal assets.

The panel headed by RajyaSabha member Ram GopalYadav said the ‘bridge course’,proposed in the NMC Bill, toallow practitioners of alternativemedicines such as homoeopa-thy and ayurveda to practiseallopathy, should not be madea mandatory provision.

Noting that every state hasits own specific healthcarechallenges, the panel recom-mended that the state govern-ments may implement mea-sures to enhance the capacity ofexisting healthcare profession-als, including AYUSH practi-tioners, B.Sc (Nursing), BDS,B.Pharma and others to addresstheir specific primary health-care issues in rural areas.

The panel also suggestedthat the central governmentshould consider using theMBBS final year examinationsto assess medical graduatesinstead of conducting exitexaminations as suggested in theBill, and let also allow states toconduct the examination.

Although panel generallyapproved of replacing the MCIwith a new body, it said that thereplacement commission should

have a higher elected componentthan the one the Bill proposes.

It also recommendedmandatory rural posting for allMBBS doctors and prescribinga period of compulsory workingin the country for Indian med-ical graduates and postgraduatesto prevent them from leavingimmediately after graduation.

The NMC Bill, 2017, whichseeks to replace the existingapex medical education regu-lator, the Medical Council ofIndia (MCI), with a new body,

was moved by the governmentin Parliament on December 29.

Following opposition fromthe medical fraternity over dif-ferent provisions of the proposedlegislation, one of which was the‘bridge course’, the Bill wasreferred to the ParliamentaryStanding Committee.

The panel, however,acknowledged the need tobuild the capacity of existinghuman resources in the health-care sector, to address shortageof professionals.

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Minister of State for Health Ashwini Kumar Choubey onTuesday released the manual on oral health promotion for

health workers and schoolteachers with an aim to promote basicoral healthcare and prevent common dental diseases.

At an event here to mark the World Oral Health Day,Choubey said that “It’s high time that good oral hygiene becomesa social movement- Jan Abhiyaan. We need to educate childrenright at the beginning for good oral health so that they canbecome our health ambassadors.”

While manual for health workers guide the frontline work-ers in identifying oral diseases and their duties, the manual forschool teachers aims at enhancing the role of teachers and theschool environment in child health, said Union HealthSecretary Preeti Sudan.

Dr OP Kharbanda, Head of the Centre for Dental Educationand Research, AIIMS, Delhi said such manuals are the need ofthe hour given that oral and dental diseases are widely preva-lent in India. “Though not life-threatening, these diseases arevery painful, expensive to treat and affect quality of life. But theseare to a great extent preventable,” he pointed out.

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Against the backdrop of Parliament notbeing able to function smoothly, a

group of about 10 Opposition parties onTuesday alleged that the Government wasnot interested in running the House andwanted to “bypass” legislative scrutiny.

The Congress alleged a “conspiracy”aimed at avoiding discussion on crucialissues including the bank scams. Tuesdaywas the 12th day in a row that Parliamenthas not functioned and the current stale-mate has entered the third week.

Leaders of Congress, TMC, BSP, SP,NCP, DMK, CPI, CPI-M and JMM dis-cussed the crisis in the chamber of Leaderof Opposition in Rajya Sabha GhulamNabi Azad. Azad said while oppositionparties wanted various issues of nationalimportance to be discussed in Parliament,the government showed no inclination ofreaching out to the opposition to resolvethe current impasse.

“The entire opposition holds that theGovernment is responsible for the impasseand for not taking any interest in the func-tioning of Parliament. So, they are runningaway from the issues. The government isrunning away from debate. They, as a mat-ter of fact, do not want to discuss theissues; they are very scared of the bankscam. They are very much scared. Theyknow that they have no face to face thepublic of India and are scared to discussthis issue on the floor of House. They arenot interested in running or in function-ing of the House,” Azad said.

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India’s National Cultural AudioVisual Archives (NCAA), rep-

resenting the country’s culturaldiversity in audio-visual form,has been certified as the world’sfirst trusted digital repository asper ISO 16363:2012 standard bythe UK-based PrimaryTrustworthy Digital RepositoryAuthorisation Body Ltd. (PTAB).

Launched in 2014, theNCCA, which is hosted by theIndira Gandhi National Centrefor the Arts (IGNCA), aims toidentify and preserve the cul-tural heritage of India availablein audiovisual form through aprocess of digitisation and mak-ing it accessible to the people.

Over 23,000 hours ofunpublished audiovisualrecordings have already beendigitised. By the March-end, acorpus of 30,000 hours ofunpublished, non-commercialaudio & video recordings willbe made online athttp://ncaa.gov.in/repository,out of which approximately15,000 hours are already host-ed online along with contextualmetadata, said a senior officialfrom the Culture Ministry.

The NCAA pilot digitalrepository was developed incollaboration with the Centreof Excellence for DigitalPreservation by C-DAC, Pune.

This is being done as thesematerials of historic values arein imminent danger of beinglost in the absence of system-atic and modern preservationtechnologies, lack of awarenessand proper upkeep, as well asthe fragility of the medium theyare stored in, said the official.

He said that plans for thenext phase is to integrate aboutthree lakh hours of audiovisu-als materials, a corpus estimat-ed based on a scoping surveyconducted in 25 cities across thecountry, on this platform overthe next five years.

The Minister of State for

Culture, Dr Mahesh Sharmasaid, “I congratulate IGNCA forthis remarkable achievement.The Digital India initiative ofthe Prime Minister, aimed atconnecting rural India withhigh-speed internet networks

and improving digital literacywill boost the accessibility ofthe NCAA up to the remotestcorner of the country and helppreserve India’s rich culturethroughout its length andbreadth.”

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The Ministries of Agriculture and SkillDevelopment on Tuesday signed a pact to

conduct programmes for training in farm andallied sectors at 690 Krishi Vigyan Kendras(KVKs) across the country.

“We have entered an MoU with the skill devel-opment Ministry to intensify the pace of skill devel-opment in 690 Krishi Vikas Kendras country-wideby training agricultural workforce,” UnionAgriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh said.“About 40 per cent of the country’s workforce islinked to agricultural knowledge activities. The

government aims to double farmers’ income,”Union Skill Development & EntrepreneurshipMinister Dharmendra Pradhan said.

However, without skill upgradation, this isnot possible. There are rapid technologicalstrides in the agriculture sector, therefore,upskilling is needed, he added.

He said the skill development ministry hadappealed to the agriculture ministry to linkskilling initiatives with the Indian Council ofAgricultural Research, Animal Husbandry,Agricultural Universities, seed market logisticsand cold chains, and will intensify structuralengagement in the future.

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Aday after the EnforcementDirectorate, the main pros-

ecuting agency CBI also onTuesday moved the Delhi HighCourt challenging the trial courtorder acquitting former telecomMinister A Raja, DMK MPKanimozhi and others in the 2Gscam case. The matter wasmentioned before a bench ofActing Chief Justice Gita Mittaland Justice C Hari Shankar byAdditional Solicitor General(ASG) Tushar Mehta, who isalso the new Special PublicProsecutor in the 2G cases.The court allowed it to be list-ed for hearing on Wednesdaybefore Justice SP Garg.

The special court had onDecember 21 last year acquit-ted Raja, Kanimozhi and oth-ers in the cases registered by theCentral Bureau of Investigation(CBI) and the ED. Both agen-cies in their appeal contested

the trial court judgment byarguing that the Special JudgeOP Saini “totally erred” and“took casual approach” in look-ing into the concrete evidencesof violation of telecom guide-lines and �200 crore moneytrails to DMK run KalaignarTV from accused telecom com-pany owners.

CBI and ED also argued intheir appeal that many crucialwitnesses and witnesses deposedbefore Magistrates under Section164 of CrPC were also “ignored”by the trial court judge. Theagencies said that the proofsprovided by them were wellappreciated by Supreme Courtwhich cancelled the illegal 122licenses allotted by then TelecomMinister A.Raja.

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Anguished over disruptions in theworking of the Rajya Sabha,

Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu has can-celled a dinner he was to host for mem-bers of the Upper House on Wednesdayeven as BJP MP Manoj Tiwari wrote toLok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan ask-ing for salary cuts for MPs when no con-structive work happens in Parliament.

According to sources, preparations forNaidu’s dinner were completed last weekand invitation cards were kept ready withsome of them also dispatched. Naidu hadspoken to the President, the PrimeMinister, the Leader of the House, theLeader of Opposition and floor leaders ofvarious parties whom he had invited.

Naidu had expected the House pro-ceedings would normalise on Tuesday.

At a meeting with the floor leaders ofvarious parties in his chamber, the RSChairman conveyed anguish over theongoing stalemate in the House andinformed them of his decision to cancelthe dinner. Naidu was of the view that itwould not be appropriate to go ahead withthe dinner with the House not function-ing for over two weeks, the sources said.

Naidu had on many occasions main-tained in the Rajya Sabha that bankingissues need to be discussed and that theGovernment too has agreed. Law MinisterRavi Shankar Prasad and Minister of Statefor Parliamentary Affairs Vijay Goel hadsaid that the Government had since day

one stated that it is prepared for any dis-cussion.

Naidu had planned an AndhraPradesh special dinner, with specialistcooks called from the state. It is learnt thathe also refused to inaugurate a badmintontournament for Members of Parliamentat the Constitution Club last week.

For his part, in his letter addressed toMahajan, Tiwari wrote that he is painedby the ‘unprecedented chaos in theHouse resulting in loss of valuable timeof the Parliament.’ He called for ‘No WorkNo Pay’ system to be enforced. “I pro-pose deducting the salary of MPs for theirfailure to engage in any constructivework,” he wrote highlighting that publicrepresentatives are ‘running away fromtheir responsibilities’.

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Seven lakh ghost artisansand close to 500 fake Khadi

Institutions (KI), that’s whathave been the discovery due tothe Aadhaar-seeded paymentof subsidy directly into thebank accounts of Khadi arti-sans. As a result, the Khadi andVillage Industries Commission(KVIC) has saved �153 cr thatwould have gone to the ghostartisans and the KIs in the lasttwo fiscals.

After the implementationof ‘Digital India’ doctrine ofPrime Minister NarendraModi, KIs which were claim-ing subsidy on inflated numberof artisans from the KVIC,were in for a big shock. WhenKVIC made use of Aadhaarmandatory for Khadi institu-tions following complaintsabout fraud in subsidy pay-ment, it produced astonishingresults.

In FY 2015-16, subsidy ofaround �316 crore was given toaltogether 1,918 Khadi institu-tions. After the implementationof online Direct BenefitTransfer (DBT) system throughAadhar-seeded bank accountsin January 2016, the subsidyamount was reduced to �172crore for 1,759 institutions inthe next fiscal 2016-17. In thepresent fiscal 2017-18, theKVIC has disbursed �163 crore

among 1,413 institutions.Subsidy is calculated at 30

percent of prime cost of pro-duction. Out of this eligibleamount, 40 percent is paid tothe Khadi-producing institu-tions, 40 percent to the artisans,and remaining 20 percent tothose same institutions for giv-ing discounts to customers.

“The KVIC ranks andfiles - right from CVO, direc-tors and members- were askedto move in the field to verifythe artisans. The scrutinyrevealed that hundreds ofKhadi institutions claimed

subsidy for non-existing arti-sans and pocketed huge sumsof money for artisans in thelast 10-odd years,” said KVICChairman Vinai KumarSaxena.

“This meticulous exercisehas weeded out almost 7 lakhfake artisans as the number ofregistered number of artisanswas found 4.6 lakh instead ofinflated 11.6 lakh, therebyreducing the subsidy burden onthe Government worth �152crore. Not only that, the num-ber of KIs, who claimed subsidy(MDA) has also come down to

1423 in current FY till 13thMarch 2018 from 1759 in FY2016-17 and 1918 in 2015-16.”Saxena said.

The Chairman said theKVIC has zero-tolerance policyon corruption and transparen-cy in all transactions is its toppriority. “We introduced onlineDirect Benefit Transfer (DBT)system through Aadhaar-seed-ed bank accounts in January2016. Now we have genuine arti-sans who are registered with uson online portal. ThisSwachchata Abhiyaan has led tocreation of genuine data of arti-sans as well as the Khadi insti-tutions; an exercise not attempt-ed earlier. Hence, in our clean-up operation, imaginary num-ber of artisans has been broughtto the real numbers.”

The Minister of MSMEGiriraj Singh said that variousschemes of the KVIC havebeen digitalized in the past andthe Commission has alwayspreferred to be transparent inits modus operandi. “KVIChas entered the new digital eraon March 1 this year, with theimplementation of theIntegrated FinancialManagement System (IFMS)under SAP platform. The ERPenables real-time transactionaccounting, budgetary controland reconciliation systems,connecting all its field offices,”he said.

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Congress president Rahul Gandhion Tuesday in his third visit to

costal and Malnad region continuedhis scathing attack on Prime MinisterNarendra Modi. Poll bound Karnatakais experiencing a new political anal-ogy between the Congress and the BJPas the State is important to both ofthem.

In Padubidre in costal district ofUdupi, Rahul said Prime MinisterNarendra Modi is “insulting” thecommon man by claiming credit forIndia’s progress. He also accused theBJP of dividing people despite its talkof dharma.

In his continued tirade againstModi, Rahul accused him (PM) offavouring big businesses men bywaiving their loans while ignoringfarmers.

He said,”Wherever NarendraModi goes he says in the last 70 yearsnothing has happened. He is insult-ing your parents, poor farmers,labourers, small businessmen of India”.“If this country stands as equal toother countries of the world today, ithas not happened in two years. It hastaken years of time, sweat and bloodof common people. Modi shouldstop insulting the common man,” he

added.“BJP people talk about dharma,

but wherever they go, they divide peo-ple by pitting one against the other. Onone side they praise Basavanna andNarayana Guru (social reformers),and on the other every day theyindulge in things that these two greatpeople fought against,” he said.

Congress chief is visiting Udupi,

Dakshina Kannada, Chikkamagaluru(the place gave political re birth to latePM Indira Gandhi), which have astrong BJP presence. He is also visit-ing Hassan district the strong hold andhome district of former PrimeMinister and Janata Dal (Secular)supremo HD Deve Gowda.

Congress leader said five majorbanks originated in Udupi district, and

said the Congress party’s idea behindthat was to take banks to people, andblamed the Modi Government formounting non-performing assets(NPAs).

He said “We took banks to vil-lages, but if you see today there areNPAs worth lakhs of crore of rupeesof rich people.” “About 10-15 rich per-sons of India have taken away your �8

lakh crore. In the last few years, BJPhas waived �2.5 lakh crore loanstaken by 15 rich people... but when afarmer asks for loan waiver NarendraModi and Arun Jaitley (FinanceMinister) say it is not our policy,” headded.”Narendra Modi speaks aboutBasavanna and Narayana Guru. Iwant to ask him a question. You speakabout Basavanna and Narayana Guru,then why do you differentiate betweenrich and poor?” he said.

Rahul Gandhi who is trying toimitate his new found theory of softHindutva after Gujarat has been hasvisiting religious places during hiselection tours. This time also accord-ing to his itinerary he will pay obei-sance at Gokarnatheswara Temple,Rosario Church, Ullal Dargah,Sringeri Sharadamba Temple andalso Sringeri Mutt. He will also meetthe Shankaracharya of the Sringeri Mutt.

Rahul Gandhi said,” Modi hadmade three main promises beforecoming to power. He had promisedbring back black money and deposit�15 lacs to every Indian’s account. Butfour years have passed his promiseremains unfulfilled and he has failedto deposit even �15.”

The Assembly elections in thestate are likely in April-May.

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Campaigning for the by-election to be held soon in

the Chengannur Assemblyconstituency in Kerala hasgathered momentum with thestart of election conventionsand candidates, top leadersand workers of all the threepolitical fronts intensifyingelectioneering exercise despitethe fact that the ElectionCommission is yet to announcethe schedule for the by-poll.

The CPI(M)-led rulingLDF, the death of whose sittingmember KK RamachandranNair on January 14 necessi-tated the by-election, onTuesday took an early lead informal electioneering by beingthe first front to hold con-stituency convention thoughthe BJP-led NDA was the firstto finalize the candidate sever-al days ago.

The Congress-ledOpposition UDF, which hadwon the seat in five consecutiveelections since 1991 and had

lost it to the CPI(M) in the lastelection, will hold its conven-tion on Thursday. The BJP-ledNDA which hopes to spring asurprise in the constituency inthe by-poll is yet to decide thedate of its convention due tosome “minor” intra-allianceproblems.

“Electioneering for the by-poll has already reached sucha high pitch that one can’tbelieve that the schedule for hasnot been announced so far,”said Pramod Kumar, a graph-ic artist who designs bannersand boards for printing units inChengannur. “I can say for cer-tain that the spirit in all threecamps is far more intense thanthat seen during the 2016 Stateelection,” he said.

The LDF has fielded as itscandidate Saji Cherian, theCPI(M)’s district secretary inAlappuzha, while the UDF’snominee is senior Congressleader D Vijayakumar, a nativeof the constituency. The NDA’scandidate is former State BJPpresident PS Sreedharan Pillai

who had in the last electionincreased the party’s votes inthe seat to 42,682 from themere 6,062 in 2011.

Though the by-electionwill have no impact on theState’s administration as theLDF already has a comfortablyhuge majority in the Assembly,all the three fronts are consid-ering it as a significant politi-cal exercise as they think thatits outcome could be a point-er to how things may shape upin the general elections duenext year.

“We definitely have a clear

edge because of the good thingsthe State Government led byChief Minister Pinarayi Vijayanhas done for the entire State inthese two years and, moreimportantly, the many greatprojects Ramachandran Nairhad brought to Chengannur.The vote here will be for car-rying forward those develop-ment programmes,” says SajiCherian.

Tuesday saw ShobhanaGeorge, who had representedChengannur in the Assemblyfor the Congress for 15 years,sharing the dais of the LDF’s

election convention withPinarayi and other communiststo seek votes for Saji. The LDFthinks that Shobhana, a nativeof Chengannur who wasestranged from the Congress afew years ago, can attractChristian votes for its candi-date.

The UDF claims that theby-poll result will reflect thepeople’s response to the per-formance records of both theLDF regime in Kerala and theNDA Government in theCentre. “The CPI(M)’s politi-cal violence, the LDF’s liquorpolicy that intends to drownthe State in booze, the Pinarayiregime’s inefficiency, etc arealready big issues here,” said aUDF campaign manager.

Observers say that a slow-down has of late affected theBJP’s campaigning, which hadstarted in high spirits almosttwo weeks ago, probably due tothe disputes in the party overwhether to rope in the KeralaCongress (M), Church-backedparty of tainted former minis-

ter KM Mani to the front andthe problems in the relationshipwith ally Bharat Dharma JanaSena (BDJS).

However, signs of recon-ciliation came in from theparty on Tuesday with formerState BJP president VMuraleedharan, who had beenopposing the idea of seekingKC(M)’s help, announcing thatthe NDA would accept votesfrom all sections after candidateSreedharan Pillai reportedlylodged a complaint againsthim with the leadership.

The BDJS, a party ofKerala’s majority communityoutfits, had last week decidednot to support the NDA can-didate as it felt that the BJP hadfailed to fulfill the promisesmade to it.

A meeting of theChengannur constituencycommittee on Monday hadratified this decision. However,efforts for reconciliation are onand the BJP hopes that theBDJS would drop its intransi-gence.

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Asudden spurt of commu-nally loaded incidents in

some parts of Bihar has causedconcern among people andalarmed Chief Minister NitishKumar to the extent that he hadto declare publicly that hewould not compromise withdivisive forces similarly as hedid not compromise with thecorruption. The corruptionreference was to the RJD and itschief Lalu Prasad with whomNitish severed ties in July last.

The CM’s stern remarks areviewed as a warning to a sec-tion of the BJP who are allegedto be playing nasty games andprovoking social tension.

In the communally sensi-tive Bhagalpur violence brokeout on Sunday and Mondayafter an “unauthorised” pro-cession was taken out inNathnagar to mark the begin-ning of the Hindu new yearwhich was led by Arjit Shaswatwho is son of Union Ministerof State for Health AshwiniKumar Choubey. Earlier com-munal tension prevailed inAraria and Darbhanga. Eachincident was alleged to havepolitical backing. Nathnagarpolice filed an FIR namingjunior Choubey and 500unnamed people for taking

out procession without per-mission and raising provocativeslogans.

Nitish’s statement in thebackdrop of the recent inci-dents that brought his admin-istration under sharp attackmight not go down well withthe BJP and particularlyChoubey. But this public state-ment came after he was beingaccused of keeping mum overthe social disturbances becauseBJP men were involved inthem.

“I will never compromisewith elements trying to createcommunal disturbances anddivide the society and myGovernment will definitelytake action against them,” hesaid in reference to theBhagalpur incident. In anoblique reference to Choubeyand another MoS GirirajSingh’s recent remarks he saidsome people have a habit tomake objectionable commentsbut his Government never sup-ported them. In the same vein,however, the CM praised hisdeputy and senior BJP leaderSushil Kumar Modi. Nitishnever had friendly relationswith Choubey and Singh evenas both served as Ministers inhis cabinet.

“We have established ruleof law and will never compro-

mise on this. There are somepeople who are trying to createsocial hatred but we will frus-trate their designs with the sup-port of the people and alertnessof our administration,” Nitishsaid while referring to a mur-der and social tension inDarbhanga a few days back. Hesaid the murder of the father ofa BJP activist was committeddue to land dispute and notbecause of naming any square

after PM Modi. In Araria, soon after the

results of the bypoll to the LokSabha seat was declared infavour of the RJD, a video wentviral which showed three peo-ple raising pro Pakistan slogans.This video also created socialtension.

RJD leader Tejashwi PrasadYadav, however, blamed Nitish’sweakness for such ugly inci-dents and said BJP leaders like

Choubey, Giriraj Singh andNityanand Rai made provoca-tive statements publicly butthe Government could nottake any action which, he said,showed that Nitish had nocourage to take on “divisive”elements.

“The claim of rule of law isonly a sham. If he has couragehe should take on communalelements who are roamingfreely,” he said.

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Four unidentified terrorists have been killed in a prolongedgun-battle in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district on Tuesday

while a soldier, part of a road opening party, shot himself deadin south Kashmir’s Qazigund pocket.

Sources said that a fierce gun-battle erupted between ter-rorists and security forces in Arampora-Helmatpora clusterin north Kashmir’sKupwara district onTuesday afternoon.In the initial gun-fight two terroristswere ki l led. Thesecurity forces havecordoned off a vastarea and plugged allentry and exit routestowards theencounter site. Twomore terrorists werekilled in subsequentgunfight.

“Encounter is inprogress. So far fourterrorists have beenkil led,” Srinagar-based defenses p o k e s p e r s o nColonel Rajesh Kaliasaid.

Meanwhile, asoldier posted insouth Kashmir committed suicide after shooting himself withservice rifle. The soldier identified as Kulwinder Singh waspart of a road opening party on Srinagar-Jammu Nationalhighway. The reasons for taking extereme step were not imme-diately known.

“A case has been registered and investigation taken up,”police said.

The incidents of soldiers committing suicide have againoccurred in Kashmir during past two months after the trendhad significantly been arrested. Officials say that the soldiersperform duties under tremendous psychological pressure. TheArmy had taken a slew of measures to de-stress the soldiers.

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Suburban train services onthe Central Railway ground

to a halt in north-central andnorth-eastern Mumbai fornearly three and a half hours onTuesday morning affecting4.5 million commuters, after“300 to 400” railway appren-tices resorted to a violent “railroko” agitation between Dadarand Matunga railway stations,demanding jobs.

The protesters indulged inintense stone throwing at policepersonnel who resorted to lathi-charge to quell the rioting mobs.Eleven police constables wereinjured in the stone-throwingindulged in by the agitators.

The agitating railwayapprentices took the CentralRailway authorities by sur-prise, as they squatted on thetracks at 7.15 am and blockedtrains for the next three and ahalf hours on both Up anddown directions between theDadar and Matunga railwaystations in north-centralMumbai.

Soon after the police per-sonnel tried to remove thesquatting students from therailway tracks, the agitators

hurled stones at them.However, the police managedto remove the squatting railwayapprentices from the railwaytracks at around 10.30 am.The services were restored onthe affected track at around10.45 am. Apart from bringingto a standstill the suburbantrain services on the CentralRailway, the flash agitation bythe railway apprentices alsoaffected the movement of thelong-distance train services.

Given that the railwayapprentices had resorted to“rail roko” during morningpeak hours, lakhs of office-goers were stranded at manyplaces en route to southMumbai where a majority ofgovernment offices, privatefirms and business establish-ments exist.

In all, 45 lakh commuterstravel by the main suburbanline of the Central Railwayevery day.

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The political developmentsin Andhra Pradesh and

ruling TDP’s move to quit theNDA over the denial of specialcategory status has compelledBihar Chief Minister NitishKumar to explain his positionand claim that he has notcompromised over thedemand for special categorystatus to Bihar. For the last twodays Nitish, also the JD(U)chief, is trying to rebut theOpposition charges that heafter joining the NDA wasgoing soft on this demand ashe has no courage to raise the

issue before the NarendraModi led Government whichhe had been doing when theUPA was in power at Centre.

“I am neither silent norcompromised on this demand.There is no question of step-

ping back,” Nitish reiterated onTuesday addressing a functionorganised by former BiharCongress president AshokChaudhary who last weekjoined JD(U). In an attempt toinvolve Opposition too, theCM asked them to submit amemorandum to the 15thFinance Commission jointly inorder to show that not only allthe political parties but entireBihar is strongly in favour ofthis demand.

“We have raised this issuewith the Finance Commissionand I appeal to all the partiesto submit a memorandumjointly,” he said.

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Even as a Ram Rajya Rath Yatraorganised by a small organisation

entered Tamil Nadu on Tuesday morn-ing, it was exit time for the DMK, themain Opposition party, from theAssembly. The DMK members wereevicted from the House for creatingruckus while Chief Minister EdappadiPalaniswamy was speaking.

Hundreds of policemen guarded thearterial roads in Chennai as variousIslamist organisations staged a roadroko demanding a ban on the entry ofthe Yatra in the State.

Top DMK leader MK Stalin and hisassociates were arrested by police forstaging road roko at Kamarajar Salai infront of Fort Saint George, Tamil Nadu’sseat of power. They were let off aftersome time. Leaders of various Tamilchauvinist and Islamist organisationstoo courted arrest for staging demon-strations all over the State demandingthe ban on the Yatra.

By the end of the day the Yatrabecame an instant hit in Tamil Naduthanks to the 24X7 TV news channelswhich beamed its live pictures and inter-views with the hitherto unheardsanyasins in the State.

Stalin, while speaking in theAssembly demanded the immediateban on the Yatra. “This is a dangerousmove by the Central and StateGovernments. The Yatra will jeopardizethe communal harmony and secularismin Tamil Nadu. The land of Annadurai,Ramaswamy Naicker and Karunanidhihas no place for Ram Rajya,” said Stalin.

When the Chief Minister rose toreply to the charges by Stalin, the DMKmembers were on their feet and shout-ed the Chief Minister down. This madethe Speaker order the eviction of theDMK members from the House. “Wehave taken all measures to ensure

peace and harmony in the State. Certainpolitical leaders are intent on foment-ing troubles in the State. This Rath Yatrawas flagged off from Uttar Pradesh andhas crossed five States till now. Therewere no law & order problems in theseStates. We are monitoring the situationcontinuously,” said Palaniswamy.

While the DMK-led Oppositionalleged that the Ram Rath Yatra wasbeing led by VHP and admonishedthe organisation for its attempt to

divide the State, it turned out that theYatra was being led by Sree RamadassaMission Universal Society. “The yatrawas flagged off by Yogi Adityanath,the UP Chief Minister, on February13 and we have travelled across theStates of UP, Madhya Pradesh,Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala andnow we are here in Tamil Nadu,” saidSwamy Sakthi Santha AnandaMaharishi, the national general sec-retary of the society.

Speaking to The Pioneer over tele-phone from Tenkashi in Tirunelveli dis-trict, the monk said ,the yatra is beingstaged to create an awareness about theimportance of Ramayana in the life ofan Indian. “We would like theGovernment to make Ramayana a partof the syllabus in our schools and col-leges and the establishment of RamRajya as well as the construction of theRam Temple at Ram Janmabhumi,” saidthe monk.

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Even as lawmakers of theAIADMK and the DMK

have been preventing bothHouses of Parliament fromfunctioning demanding theconstitution of the CauveryManagement Board as direct-ed by the Supreme Court in itsverdict, it has been disclosedthat both the parties have donenothing to sort out the Cauveryimbroglio in the past.

The DMK, which was thecrucial constituent of the UPAGovernment led by theCongress which reigned during2004 to 2013, the party has notpressurised the ManmohanSingh-led Government eitherto constitute the CMB or even

to gazette the award issued bythe Cauvery Water DisputeTribunal in February 2007.

But what is more startlingis the silence maintained by theDMK from 2004 to 2013 fromasking the Manmohan SinghGovernment to implementwhat the UPA had promisedpeople in its famous CommonMinimum Programme.

The CMP, drafted andfinalised by the pre and postpoll constituents of the UPAafter the 2004 Lok Sabha elec-tion, which saw the BJP-ledNDA Government biting thedust, had promised the elec-torate that the ManmohanSingh-led Government wouldsort out all inter-State waterdisputes at the earliest so thatfarmers all over the country

need not worry over shortageof irrigation water.

The Common MinimumProgramme drafted andfinalised by all the constituentparties of the UPAGovernment was released onMay 27, 2004, five days afterManmohan Singh was swornin as Prime Minister of thecountry. The most notable fea-ture of the CMP was the UPA’scommitment to make wateravailable 24X7 to the farming

community in the country.The section “Water

Resources” in the CMP reads:“The UPA Government willmake a comprehensive assess-ment of the feasibility of link-ing the rivers in the country,starting with the south-boundrivers. This assessment will bedone in a fully consultativemanner. It will also explore thefeasibility of linking sub-basinsof rivers in States like Bihar.The UPA will take all steps to

ensure that long-pending inter-State disputes on rivers andwater-sharing like the Cauverywaters dispute are settled ami-cably at the earliest, keeping inmind the interests of all parties

to the dispute.”Neither the DMK nor the

Congress spoke about the link-ing of rivers even once duringthe tenure of the UPAGovernment.

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Maruthappa Natarajan, 75,husband of VK Sasikala,

aide to former Tamil NaduChief Minister J Jalyalalithaapassed away in a private hos-pital in the early hours ofTuesday. He was admitted tothe hospital last week followingcardiac arrest and was on lifesupport system since then.

According to the releaseissued by the hospital ‘every pos-sible clinical attempt was madeto sustain his revival. However,despite our best efforts he wasunable to recover’.

Natarajan’s mortal remainswere brought to his residence inChennai’s Besant Nagar wherea number of political leadersand cultural personalities paidhomages to him. Natarajan,popularly known as MN, was amaster strategist who played amajor role in getting Sasikalaelected as the general secretaryof the AIADMK following thedeath of Jayalalithaa inDecember 2016.

Sasikala, who is serving afour-year term in BangalorePrison following the SupremeCourt upholding the trial courtverdict in the disproportionateasset case in February 2017,could not be near her husbandwhile he breathed his last. Butshe has been granted parole for15 days.

By Tuesday, Natarajan’sbody was taken to his village inThanjaur where he would becreamated on Wednesday. MKStalin, working president of theDMK, Dravida Kazhagam pro-prietor K Veeramani, MDMKleader Vaiko, Nanjil Sampath,who quit the Sasikala faction onSaturday and a host of Dravidaoutfit leaders had gathered athis residence to pay their lastrespects.

At the time of his demise,Natarajan was under a two-yearprison sentence handed over bythe Special CBI court inChennai which was confirmedby the Madras High Court inNovember 2017. The case hasto do with the import of abrand new Lexus car by

Natarajan in 1994 whichcaused the exchequer a loss of�1.04 crore due to evasion ofimport duty.

The most touching tributesto Natarajan came from VSChandralekha, former seniorIAS officer who said that it wasbecause of him that Jayalalithaacould become the ChiefMinister. “Natarajan played acrucial role in elevatingJayalalithaa as the ChiefMinister following the demiseof MGR. That part of historycould never be forgotten,” saidChandralekha who visitedMN’s residence to pay floraltributes.

Last October, Natarajanhad undergone liver and kid-ney transplant and had recov-ered fully.

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Karnataka prison authori-ties have granted 15-days

parole to jailed AIADMKleader VK Sasikala onTuesday to attend the last ritesof her husband MaruthappaNatarajan who died in a hos-pital in Chennai on Tuesday.Natarajan died at the age of 75has played a major role inTamil Nadu politics as a back-room artist.

Sasikala is currently serv-ing a four-year imprison-ment and is lodged in highsecurity central prison atParappana Agrahara at theoutskirts of IT city Bengaluruin a disproportionate assetscase. The prison authoritieshave given 15 days emer-

gency parole to Sasikala onTuesday morning include twodays of travelling to and fromTanjavur in Tamil Naduwhere the final rites ofNatarajan is to take place.

The parole was sanc-tioned after her advocatesfiled an application followingher husband’s demise.Sasikala left the CentralPrisons on Tuesday noon byroad and is expected to reachTanjavur by night. As per theparole Sasikala has beeninstructed not to take part inany political activity or inter-act with her supporters or themedia.

She has also beeninstructed not to travel any-where outside ArulanandaNagar in Tanjavur and returnback to the prison by April 3.

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Page 8: $0 ˇ*˘ /1839 &+ & , %&’() $* ˘ ==;˜7B:9˜:&=;˚I;7 9˜;: ;K1#˜;7 … open demands for sex and comments on the figure of almost every girl. If a girl objects, he held a grudge

Rex Tillerson did not sufferfools gladly. He called USPresident Donald Trump a“moron” in a private conversa-tion after one meeting at the

Pentagon, and did not take the opportu-nity to deny it when a journalist askedhim in public.

In meetings with the President, hewould “roll his eyes and slouch” when-ever Trump said something he thoughtwas particularly stupid. It’s amazing thathe lasted as long as he did.

He wasn’t a very good Secretary ofState either. He gutted the StateDepartment in the name of efficiency,and large numbers of experienced diplo-mats quit in despair as he ‘downsised’ theorganisation.

His only real achievement in his 14months in office was to restrain USPresident Trump from doing some trulydangerous things like starting a majorconfrontation with Iran. But we’ll misshim now that he’s gone.

Donald Trump used to enjoy dismiss-ing people with a brutal ‘You’re fired!’when he was doing reality television, buthe seems to have problems doing it face-to-face. Tweets addressed to theworld at large are more his style, with hisactual victims left to find out from themedia. But he is getting rid of the peo-ple who question his judgement at animpressive rate: Thirty-five senior peo-ple have been fired or quit in little morethan a year.

The net effect of all this ‘turmoil’ inthe White House, unsurprisingly, hasbeen to remove most of the people whose ideas, values, or experienceand knowledge of the world led them todisagree with Trump’s obsessions, hispolicies (to the extent that he has any),or just his whims of the moment. What’sleft, for the most part, are the yes-menand women.

The most notable remaining excep-tions are the three generals who hold highpositions in the Trump Administration:His chief of staff, John Kelly, the defencesecretary, James Mattis, and the nation-al security advisor, HR McMaster. ButMcMaster is widely rumoured to be nextfor the chopping block, and even Kelly’swillingness to continue shouldering therole of senior grown-up indefinitely is tobe doubted.

The era of adult supervision in theWhite House is coming to an end, andDonald Trump is more and more “free tobe Donald.” As he said, “I’m really at apoint where we’re getting very close tohaving the Cabinet and other things thatI want.”

The Cabinet he wants is one that isentirely free from the constraints that

were initially imposed on him by theRepublican Party’s establishment.

He is a populist who cherry-picksideas from anywhere, and no more aRepublican than he is a Democrat. In fact,he once was a Democrat, and even con-sidered trying to hijack the DemocraticParty’s presidential nomination before the2008 election.

In the end he hijacked the RepublicanParty instead, but it did try to rein himin by putting orthodox Republicans inkey positions in his Administration. Hisstruggle to be free began with the dis-missal last July of the Republican Party’schoice as his chief of staff, ReincePriebus. It has ended in total victory in the past two weeks with the res-ignation of his chief economic adviser,Gary Cohn, and the firing of RexTillerson.

Cohn resigned because of Trump’sdecision to impose steep tariffs on USimports of steel and aluminum. TheRepublican Party has been a staunch sup-porter of free trade for the past half-century, and Cohn feared that thenew tariffs were likely to cause an inter-national trade war that impoverisheseverybody. Trump doesn’t care aboutthat. “Trade wars are good,” he said. “Andeasy to win.”

His new Secretary of State, Mike

Pompeo, is a hard-liner who shares USPresident Trump’s obsession with break-ing the international deal that stops Iranfrom developing nuclear weapons for thenext 10 years.

“When you look at the Iran deal, Ithink it’s terrible. I guess ( Rex Tillerson)thought it was OK,” Trump said. “WithMike Pompeo, we have a very similarthought process. I think it’s going to govery well.”

So stand by for Trump to alienate allof America’s main allies by sabotaging atreaty they worked very hard to achieve. Since he has swallowed Saudi Arabia’s argument that Iran is an‘expansionist’' power that must bestopped, even direct military clashesbetween the US and Iran, especially inSyria, become a lot more likely.

And what about the unprecedentedmeeting with North Korean leader KimJong-un that Trump agreed to last week(without consulting Tillerson)?

In theory it’s a good idea, becausenuclear war in the Korean peninsula isa very bad idea. But there are few people left around Trump who can steerhim away from disastrous decisions.They can’t even make him read hisbriefing papers.

(The writer is an independent journalist)

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Sir — This refers to the report,“Kejriwal, Sisodia go on ‘sorry’spree” (March 20). The headlineof the report captures the shame-lessness and thick-headedness ofDelhi Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal and his deputy ManishSisodia for publicly apologisingto political leaders, namely, NitinGadkari and Kapil Sibal and hisson Amit Sibal for their defam-atory allegations.

Earlier, Kejriwal apologisedto Akali Dal leader Bikram SinghMajithia for a similar guilt.Umpteen defamatory cases arestill pending against Kejriwal,including one by Union FinanceMinister Arun Jaitley. In thethree cases mentioned above,Kejriwal had to file affidavits incourts regretting his “unfound-ed and unverifiable allegations”.Will Kejriwal, with his knowntendency to resort to falsehoodto malign his opponents, start toa new chapter of dignity, propri-ety and truthfulness expectedfrom one holding a Constitu-tional office of Chief Minister?

M Ratan Via mail

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Sir— This refers to the editori-al, “Waiting for dynamism”(March 20). The severe politicalupheaval stemming from thedefeat of the Bharatiya JanataParty’s poster child duo in theirrespective home turfs in UttarPradesh, which some politicalpundits are also seeing as the tipof an iceberg of public disen-

chantment against the party,may prove fleeting in case thegrand old party as the chiefOpposition fails to act timely andprudently.

The editorial’s observationthat Congress president RahulGandhi should concentrate onhis organisational network witha good blend of the old and thenew guard with a mutual bene-fit agenda for the regional satrapsin mind as well, holds good.

Or else, if lost in ritualisedmutual recrimination with theGovernment, the Congress mayget distracted from the main goalit has to go with to contest thenext year’s parliamentary electionagainst the BJP.

Azhar Ali Khan Rampur

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Waiting for dynamism”(March 20). The problem withthe Congress is that it is in noposition to dictate the regionalsatraps. They won’t accept RahulGandhi as their leader. In anycase, they are a motley crowdwithout any aim, except to gainpower. Further, they can neverdecide on a common leader.

In fact, there isn’t any leaderamong them who has a nation-al vision. As things stand today,Prime Minister Modi is the onlyleader who has a vision and whocan command respect from thewhole.

Ashok K MehtaVia email

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Page 9: $0 ˇ*˘ /1839 &+ & , %&’() $* ˘ ==;˜7B:9˜:&=;˚I;7 9˜;: ;K1#˜;7 … open demands for sex and comments on the figure of almost every girl. If a girl objects, he held a grudge

Who thought that PrimeMinister Narendra Modiwho is touted as a strong

leader leading an expanding BharatiyaJanata Party (BJP) will face a no-con-fidence motion after four years? WhenModi rode to South Block in 2014, theBJP believed that the party and its lead-ers are invincible and is now enthusedby successive poll results, which enabledthe BJP-led National DemocraticAlliance (NDA) ruling in 21 States. So,the first no-confidence motion broughtagainst the Modi Government by thetwo regional parties Telugu DesamParty (TDP) and Yuvajana ShramikaRythu Congress (YSR Congress) fromAndhra Pradesh this week has come asa shock to the BJP cadres.

No-confidence motion in a

democracy is a strong tool for theOpposition. Socialist leader AcharyaKripalani brought the first no-con-fidence motion against the JawaharlalNehru Government in August 1963.The last was against Dr ManmohanSingh Government in 2008 on theIndo-US nuclear deal. A no-confi-dence motion brought down theNDA Government led by Atal BihariVajpayee by just one vote in 1999.Interestingly, Indira Gandhi faced arecord number of 15 no-confidencemotions and her son Rajiv Gandhiwith such brute majority also facedit in 1987.

So, why this sudden move toattack the Modi Government? Theimmediate provocation was the NDAally TDP quitting the alliance on theissue of granting a special status toAndhra Pradesh as promised duringthe bifurcation of the State in 2014.Unable to counter the rival YSR Co-ngress proposing to bring a no-confi-dence motion against the ModiGovernment on this issue, the rulingTDP also has given notice. Sensingan opportunity to hit the Modi Go-

vernment, several opposition partiesincluding the Congress, NationalistCongress Party (NCP), All IndiaTrinamool Congress (TMC), AllIndia Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen(AIMIM), Communist Party ofIndia-Marxist (CPI-M), Aam AadmiParty (AAP), Communist Party ofIndia (CPI) and Rashtriya Janata Dal(RJD) have come forward to supportthe motion.

Secondly, the Opposition feelsthat the timing is right for such amotion with cracks appearing in theNDA. Though the BJP had stunnedeveryone with its spectacular victory inthe North-East last month, the subse-quent losses in the recent by-electionsin Uttar Pradesh and Bihar haveemboldened the disgruntledOpposition to attack the Government.

The fact that the efforts for theOpposition unity are being pursuedby Congress leader Sonia Gandhi,NCP chief Sharad Pawar andTelangana Chief Minister KChandrashekhar Rao shows howthe Opposition is sensing the oppor-tunity. Two other regional satraps —

the Samajwadi Party (SP) chiefAkhilesh Yadav and BahujanSamajwadi Party (BSP) chiefMayawati have also got a boost afterthe alliance won Gorakhpur andPhulpur constituencies to take on theBJP. Sitting in jail, the RJD chief LaluPrasad Yadav has had the last laughin Bihar bypoll results.

Thirdly, although there is nothreat to the Modi Government asthe BJP and its allies still have 314votes, the Opposition wants to denthis image within the country andabroad. The anti-BJP forces wouldnot like to lose any opportunity toembarrass the Modi regime. TheParliamentary Affairs MinisterAnanth Kumar has said recently, “Iwant to tell the Congress and otheropposition members that there isconfidence inside and outside theHouse. That’s why the BJP is readyto face the no-confidence motion”.

Fourthly, the other disgruntledNDA allies are not that happy with theBJP leaders. TDP is the second NDAally, after former Bihar Chief MinisterJitan Ram Manjhi, to part ways with the

NDA in less than a month.Significantly, after the exit of the TDP,the NDA is not in power in any Statein the south. Another long-term allyShiv Sena has already announced thatit will not fight the 2019 Lok Sabha pollswith the BJP. The Akali Dal too hasbeen blunt with the BJP and had con-veyed that the BJP needs to deal withthe SAD better.

What made the TDP embolden totake on the powerful BJP? The TDPchief Chandrababu Naidu has realisedthat he had to face the 2019 Lok Sabhaand Assembly polls without fulfillingmost of the dreams he had sold to theelectorate. So, what can be a better waythan making the Modi Government thevillain? TDP rival YS JaganmohanReddy of the YSR Congress also saw anopportunity to gain some browniepoints and jumped into the fray bybringing the no-confidence motion.However, Naidu has effectively stolenthe thunder of Reddy and also upset theplans of the BJP, as even YSRC can’talign with BJP at this juncture.

The Congress president RahulGandhi said that he would grant a

special status to Andhra if Congresswere voted to power in 2019. Thereis no doubt that cracks have appearedin the NDA.

The BJP’s expansion plans in thesouth have also hit a break. Its moveto help the EPS and OPS factions inTamil Nadu to come together hasn’tbeen a success. A win the upcomingKarnataka polls will go a long way inboosting the morale of the BJPworkers. The BJP has to address theconcerns of the allies if it means tocontinue the coalition dharma. Afterall, the BJP has come a long way froman ‘untouchable party’ in the early80s to 33 NDA allies today.

The no-confidence motionmight not even see the daylight as theHouse is yet to take up the issuebecause Tamil Nadu MPs aredemanding the setting up of theCauvery board and will not allow theHouse to run. Neither theGovernment nor the Opposition iskeen to resolve this and ultimately itmight be a wasted session.

(The writer is a senior political com-mentator and syndicated columnist)

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There has been a staggering growthin foreign direct investment (FDI)under the Narendra Modi

Government over the last three years,from $45.15 billion in 2014-15 to $60.08billion in 2016-17 (see graph 1), an all-time high, due to the sustained easingof more than 80 FDI rules spreadacross 21 sectors to accelerate econom-ic growth and enhance employment.This sustained growth in FDI is the resultof Government’s efforts driven byreforms in FDI norms, tax payments,access to credit, reduction of bordercompliance time by improving portinfrastructure, resolving insolvency andprotection of minority investors that hasalso catapulted India by 30 places to rankat 100th position globally in ease of doingbusiness. Will the recent announcementby the Modi Government of easing thenorms in key sectors like retail, civil avi-ation, construction and power exchangesbefore the Davos World EconomicForum in January this year lead to aninclusive growth?

According to Department ofIndustrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP),the total FDI investments in India dur-ing April-December 2017 stood at$35.94 billion. Telecommunications hasbeen the favoured sector attracting thehighest FDI inflow of $6.14 billion, fol-lowed by computer software and hard-ware — $5.16 billion and services —$4.62 billion, and construction activities— $2.5 billion. The trend was similar forthe year ending 2017 (see graph 2 below)However, sectors like defence industries,ports and coal production failed toattract any FDI during the same period.

Country-wise, during April-December 2017, maximum FDI inflowswere received from Mauritius ($13.35billion), followed by Singapore ($9.21 bil-lion), Netherlands ($2.38 billion), USA($1.74 billion), and Japan ($1.26 billion).

The future holds an influx ofmultinational companies investingin different parts of our country. Afterthe recent allowing 100 per cent FDIin single-brand retail trading throughthe automatic route earlier this yearwith some relaxation in local sourc-ing norms, Ikea, a single brand retail-er, announced its plans to invest up to�4,000 crore ($612 million) inMaharashtra to set up multi-formatstores and experience centres. Anothersingle-brand retailer, the US-basedfootwear company, Skechers, is plan-ning to add 400-500 more exclusiveoutlets in India over the next five yearsand also to launch its apparel andaccessories collection in India.

On the other hand, multi-brandretail giants are not far behind withWalmart planning to set up 30 newstores in India over the coming threeyears and US-based e-commerce giant,Amazon, with an investment about onebillion dollar in its Indian arm in 2017,took the total investment in its business

in India to $2.7 billion. Singapore’sTemasek plans to acquire a 16 per centstake worth �1,000 crore ($156.16 mil-lion) in Bengaluru-based private health-care network Manipal Hospitals whichruns a hospital chain of around 5,000beds. Last year, north-eastern region ofIndia saw an investment in the range of$612-765 million after the Governmentof India asked the States to focus onstrengthening single window clearancesystem for fast-tracking approvalprocesses and mandating clearance of allproposals requiring approval within 10weeks after the receipt of application, inorder to increase Japanese investmentsin India.This has led to India and Japanjoining hands for infrastructure devel-opment in India’s north-eastern Statesand are also setting up an India-JapanCoordination Forum for Developmentof the North East to undertake strate-gic infrastructure projects there.

Although FDI is one of the majordrivers of economic growth and Indiahas a vast potential to attract far moreforeign investment by further liber-alising and simplifying the FDIregime, there are some major con-cerns. Firstly, the majority of FDIinflows are from small nations likeMauritius, Singapore and Netherlandsand this raises serious doubts if theinflows constitute actual investmentsor are being routed through thesenations to take advantage of benefitsof Double Tax Avoidance Agreement(DTAA) that India has with thesecountries.

Secondly, over the years, there hasbeen a major regional disparity in FDIinflows. States like Delhi, Haryana,Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu,

Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh havetogether attracted more than 70 per centof total FDI inflows to India during thelast 15 years. However, States with vastnatural resources like Jharkhand, Bihar,Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh andOdisha have not been able to attract for-eign funds directly for investment in dif-ferent sectors, due to poor physical, insti-tutional, social and political infrastruc-ture. The regional disparity of FDI is aworldwide phenomenon and is not lim-ited to India. In China, eastern zoneprovinces attract higher FDI flowsbecause of its high per capita income andliving standards reflected into bettersocio-economic indicators, better infra-structure facilities in terms of electrici-ty, road and rail network and also high-er international orientation in terms oftheir openness to trade. Similar is thecase in Romania, where FDI investmentsare limited to Bucure?ti - Ilfov regionsand Russia where the distribution of FDIis attributed to regional factors. Thisuneven distribution of FDI inflowsleads to rising disparity in regional eco-nomic growth and creates a serioussocial divide and the Government needsto take proper steps to have moreinclusive growth.

As a solution, the first step is to cre-ate a physical and institutional infrastruc-ture backed by strong governance andsafe environment in these under-invest-ed States. Secondly, special incentivesshould be given to multinational com-panies to invest in these States, not onlyfor economic benefits but also for theimproving the infrastructure like ener-gy, higher education and physical anddigital connectivity, making public-pri-vate partnership in the development of

these States a priority for theGovernment.

Thirdly, although FDI is wel-come and as a nation in an ever-increasing globalised world, we can-not stop free flow of capital, it is all themore necessary to develop and revivedomestic private investment by pro-viding incentives and by investing ineducation, health and environment toreap long-term benefits by not onlyimproving India’s socio-economiccondition but also boosting domesticprivate investment. This is extreme-ly important to protect ourselvesfrom uncertainty and volatility due tothe exit of multinational companieslike General Motors, Barclays andRoyal Bank of Scotland to name a few,from Indian soil.

FDI has become an increasinglyimportant source of finance that cancontribute to economic development inthe developing countries, particularly inIndia. In fact, for Indian economy,which has tremendous potential butlacks necessary capital and technology,FDI can have a significantly positiveimpact. However, the true benefit of FDIwould be seen if States run by regionalparties work in sync with the CentralGovernment by moving beyond partypolitics and work for the betterment ofthese States to attract more FDI. BothState and Central Governments shouldmake concerted efforts to develop thoseregions which are lagging behind andspecial attention should be paid by pol-icymakers to reduce the regional dispar-ity of FDI and make growth inclusive innature.

(The writer is Assistant Professor,Amity University)

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Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhuon Tuesday appealed to the World

Trade Organization (WTO) members toidentify common ground for strength-ening the multi-lateral trade body amidchallenges being faced by it following thedeadlock at the Buenos Aires ministe-rial in December.

Delegates from as many as 52 coun-tries, including the US and China, areparticipating in the informal meeting ofthe WTO called by India amidst increas-ing protectionism in global trade.

India has called this meet to exploreoptions to reinvigorate the WTO.

Addressing the representatives,Prabhu said the meeting is happeningat a time when WTO is facing multiplechallenges including a deadlock whichhappened at Buenos Aires, Argentina,and systemic issues.

“Most of you present here wouldagree that the multilateral trading sys-tem has contributed significantly to eco-nomic growth, international trade,development and employment. If youvalue WTO and its contributions, thenyou should collectively agree to make allefforts to strengthen it. Inaction should

not be choice for any one of us,” he said.There is an urgent need for reflec-

tion and political engagements on allsuch matters which are likely to haveimplications on the multilateral tradingsystem, he added.

“Our meeting today is an initiativeby India to facilitate free and frankexchange of views on all issues of com-mon interest as well as seeking toaddress the challenges,” Prabhu said.

The objective of this meeting is toreinvigorate the WTO and “we need towork together for achieving this objec-tive,” the minister said, adding, “let usfind the ways to identify commonground for strengthening the organisa-tion”.

He called upon the participants to

focus on issues like providing politicalguidance to further work in the WTOand the way forward on development.

He said that in the absence of guid-ance at the last ministerial conference,highest decision making body of theWTO, in Argentina, there is a need toprovide collective political guidanceon aspects such as matters where thereare no work programmes.

The meeting comes against thebackdrop of imposition of importduties on steel and aluminium by the USadministration, and Washington drag-ging India to the WTO against exportincentive programmes.

Although India has invited Pakistanfor the meeting, it has decided to skipthe conference.

WTO Director General RobertoAzevedo, who is here for the meet, hassaid: “We are facing many challenges inthe WTO and outside. Trade environ-ment globally is very risky at this pointof time. We will try to have an open andhonest conversation at the informalWTO meeting here”.

The meeting would also discuss theissue of appointment of members of theappellate body of the WTO's dispute set-tlement body. The US has blocked

appointment of these members, whichwould hamper its functioning.

The meeting has been convened byIndia in the aftermath of failure of thetrade talks at Buenos Aires last year onaccount of differences among the mem-bers of the WTO.

The rich nations are forming group-ings to prepare ground for pushing newissues such as investment facilitation,preparing rules for e-commerce, pro-moting gender equality and reducingsubsidy on fisheries.

India has been keenly pushing agri-culture issues at the WTO. It has alsobeen raising its voice against bringingnew issues, especially those which arenot directly linked to trade, to thenegotiating table.

The talks at the WTO's 11th min-isterial conference collapsed after theUS went back on its commitment tofind a permanent solution to thepublic food stockholding issue, a keymatter for India.

The four-day conference inArgentina, which ended without a min-isterial declaration or any substantiveoutcome, did manage to make feebleprogress on fisheries and e-commerceby agreeing to work programmes.

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The Securities and ExchangeBoard of India (SEBI) has

barred Remac Realty and its fivedirectors from the securitiesmarket for at least four years forillegal fund raising activities.

The four-year ban would beeffective from the date of com-pleting the refund to investors.

Besides, the watchdog hasrestrained the five individualsfrom serving as a director orkey managerial personnel at anylisted company for four years.

In a 10-page order, SEBIsaid the company and its fivedirectors — Partha PratimTewari, Leena Tewari, ReenaVijay, Sandip Chattopadhyayand Debapratim Mazumder— are “jointly and severallyliable to wind up its existingcol lect ive investmentschemes” and refund themoney within three months.

The company allegedlyraised funds illegally by wayof various schemes, including

those pertaining to solarproducts.

In July 2014, the regulatorhad passed an interim orderagainst the company and itsdirectors, wherein it wasbarred from collecting moneyfrom investors from thenexisting schemes or launchany new ones.

According to SEBI’s latestorder, dated March 19, RemacRealty and the five directorsshould not sell any assets of thecompany or any other assetacquired out of funds of thefirm, except for making refundsto its investors.

These entities have beenbanned from “accessing thesecurities market and are pro-hibited from buying, selling orotherwise dealing in securitiesmarket, directly or indirectly,”till refund to investors are com-plete, as per the order.

After completion of refund,they have to undergo debar-ment for further four years.

The directors “shall berestrained from holding posi-tion as directors or key man-agerial personnel of any listedcompany for a period of fouryears from the date of thisorder,” SEBI noted.

KOLKATA: Aditya BirlaGroup’s UltraTech Cement islikely to get support fromCommittee of Creditors(CoC) of Binani Cement inthe ongoing fight for controlafter the Birla company issuedcomfort letter worth �7,266crore to Binani group for98.43 per cent stake.

UltraTech had said thatBinani Industries Ltd (BIL) —the promoter firm of BCL —had approached it for arrangingfunds to pay off the lenders.

“As a creditor, we supportthe UltraTech offer as it offers abetter deal for us,” an officialfrom a lead creditor said. Thisis despite the CoC’s approval ofthe Dalmia Bharat's bid.

“Since, the Insolvency andBankruptcy Code proceedingsinitiated about 7-8 months backon Binani, a moratorium oninterest had been imposed. TheUltraTech offer allows the loanto a regular one and there willbe no haircut even in the inter-

est loss in the interim period,”the official explained.

A revised bid after the CoCapproval is perhaps a firstinstance and legal opinionsremain divided on its sanity. But,if the NCLT proceeding is chal-lenged in the Supreme Court,CoC will support the move.

The bid by Dalmia BharatCement jointly with BainCapital's Resurgent IndiaFund of �6,350 crore hasbeen to buy Binani Cementoffering 20 per cent equity inBinani to the lenders.

The total secured and unse-cured debt of financial creditorsis around �6,265 crore, of whichthe largest exposure is fromEdelweiss ARC with an out-standing of about �2,775 crore.

The Dalmia offer coveredthe financial creditors but severalsmall operational creditors (readMSMEs) have claimed theirdebt has not been taken care ofproperly and haircut of even 80per cent was sought. PTI

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Reversing a five-session slide, bench-mark Sensex ticked modestly higher

in see-saw trade on Tuesday as investorspiled into recently beaten down IT sharesamid mixed global cues.

The 30-share index rose about 74points to end at 32,996.76, while thebroader NSE Nifty settled 30 pointshigher at 10,124.35.

Markets benefited from value buyingin recently battered stocks and a mixedtrend overseas, as investors focused onnew Federal Reserve Chairman JeromePowell's first policy meeting startinglater in the day amid concerns of a glob-al trade war, brokers said.

The Sensex shrugged of its early loss-es, with IT and telecom stocks leading therecovery, and touched high of 33,102.74. Itfinally settled at 32,996.76, showing a gainof 73.64 points, or 0.22 per cent.

The index had lost 994.82 points in theprevious five sessions on worries overwidening current account deficit and pos-sible US Fed rate hike.

The broader NSE Nifty reclaimed thekey 10,100-mark and touched a high of

10,155.65, before finally settling at 10,124.35,showing a gain of 30.10 points, or 0.30 percent. Intra-day, it hit a low of 10,049.10.

Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors(FPIs) bought shares worth �292.23 croreon net basis, while domestic institution-al investors (DIIs) sold equities to the tuneof �191.52 crore on Monday, provision-al data showed.

“Market is struggling to rebound fromthe support level due to redemption andexpectation of 25 bps Fed rate hike. India iscurrently underperforming compared to restof the world owing to high valuation and riskfor downgrade in earnings due to higher

interest rate. Short covering in IT and phar-ma stocks on account of weakening rupeeled the indices to close on a positive note,”said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, GeojitFinancial Services.

Most IT shares rose, with Wipro gain-ing 1.54 per cent, followed by Infosys 1.30per cent and TCS 1.07 per cent.

Hexaware Technologies spurted 3.75 percent, Tech Mahindra 3.80 per cent, PersistentSystems 0.85 per cent and HCL Technologies1.16 per cent after the rupee weakenedagainst the dollar to hit a four-month lowof 65.24 (intra-day).

Tata Steel was the biggest gainer in theSensex pack, advancing 3.17 per cent.Other gainers were Sun Pharma, Dr Reddy's,Adani Ports, HDFC Ltd, L&T, Tata Motors,Bajaj Auto, Asian Paints, SBI, Power Grid,HUL, Axis Bank, Maruti Suzuki and HeroMotoCorp, rising up to 2.20 per cent.

Losses in ONGC, ICICI Bank, YesBank, RIL, HDFC Bank, Kotak MahindraBank, Coal India, NTPC, M&M, IndusIndBank and ITC capped the gains.

Canara Bank slumped 3.84 per centafter the CBI charged its ex-CMD RKDubey and two former executive directorswith cheating and forgery.

NEW DELHI: Expressing dis-pleasure over lack of communi-cation between the Banks BoardBureau (BBB) and the FinanceMinistry, Vinod Rai, formerCAG who now heads the advi-sory body, has said that most ofBBB’s recommendations havenot received due attention fromthe Government and it has beenmerely working as an appoint-ment board since inception.

It has also sought widermandate from the Governmentincluding advising theGovernment on public sector

bank (PSB) consolidation in theleast disruptive manner.

The comments of BBBcome on the heels of ReserveBank of India demanding morepowers to deal with frauds in thebanking system.

“If the Government doesindeed desire to make theBureau address issues of gover-nance around PSBs in a holisticmanner and make its outputeffective, there is need for anorganic relationship betweenGovernment and the Bureau,” itsaid in its compendium of rec-

ommendations.Prime Minister

Narendra Modi in2016 approved theconstitution of BBB asa body of eminentprofessionals and offi-cials to make recom-mendations forappointment of Whole-timeDirectors as well as non-Executive Chairmen of PSBs.

They were also given thetask of engaging with the Boardof Directors of all the public sec-tor banks to formulate appro-

priate strategies for theirgrowth and develop-ment.

Besides, it was alsoasked to frame strate-gy discussion on con-solidation based onthe requirement. Thegovernment wanted to

encourage bank boards torestructure their business strat-egy and also suggest way for-ward for their consolidationand merger with other banks.

“The Bureau, as a body ofexperts on public sector bank-

ing, would be able to providegreater utility to the FinanceMinister on matters relating tothe governance and perfor-mance of PSBs, if there were tobe greater organic linkage anddialogue with the FinanceMinistry. At present the bodyis merely functioning as anappointment board,” it said.

It made several sugges-tions to the government in itstwo years of existence tostrengthen governance at PSBsbut there was no constructivefeedback, it added. PNS

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State-run Energy EfficiencyServices (EESL) on Tuesday

acquired the England-basedcombined heat and power(CHP) utility Edina for �493crore to further its strategy ofadopting natural gas-basedtechnologies to halve powercost, for large commercialestablishments.

The acquisition,a first-of-its-kindventure by an entityunder the UnionPower Ministry, iscarried out throughEESL's British subsidiaryEnergyPro Assets.

“It is our endeavour tofacilitate the nation's energysecurity with sustainable ener-gy supply. We have beenexploring opportunities toinclude gas engines to producecooling, heat and electricity tohalve power cost for establish-ments like hotels, hospitalsand malls. This �493 croreacquisition is a step in thatdirection,” EESL ManagingDirector Saurabh Kumar said.

The combined heat andpower technology is a tri-gen-eration model most suited foroperations where there is a 24-hour requirement of all thethree — electricity, hot waterand cooling.

“Through this acquisi-tion, EESL intends to bringCHP technology to the coun-try, providing an integratedservice offering to industries

that would enable them toreceive equipment mainte-nance, electricity, heat andpower at no upfront cost forinstallation,” he said.

Kumar said the technolo-gy has a potential of 20,000 mwin the country and in the ini-tial phase the company is tar-geting 1,000 mw to be achievedin the next couple of years.

“To begin with,we have identifiedindustrial establish-ments , airports ,hospitals, and hotelsamong others .Apart from that, we

have also signed agreementwith Tata Motors andMahindra & Mahindra forproviding these services attheir factories and other estab-lishments,” Kumar said.

He further said EESL willinvest $600-700 million forthis over the period.

Under this deal, Edina hasagreed to service Sterling &Wilson India's subsidiary inBritain to develop short-termoperational reserve by supply-ing gas generating units thatwill provide 26 mw power.

“England-based servicingopportunities with India- basedclients, like Sterling & Wilson,will help EESL in its expansionplans. On the one hand, EESLaims to tap into the �53,782-crore energy efficiency marketin Britain, expanding the offer-ing in the energy service con-tract model for CHP technol-ogy,” Kumar said.

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The Central Board ofExcise and Customs(CBEC), falling under

the Ministry of Finance, onTuesday removed the 20 percent export duty on sugar toboost overseas sales in viewof fall in domestic prices onestimated rise in productionand lift domestic price.

The country is facing sur-plus production of sugar thisyear. Export duty on sugarused to be levied at 20 percent. Now, the export duty onsugar is nil.

As per estimate, thecountry is likely to produce arecord 29.5 million tonnes ofsugar in the 2017-18 seasonthat ends on September 30,up 45 per cent from the pre-vious year.

Sugar prices have fallenaround 16 per cent in the

local market since October 1,2017, making it difficult formills to pay farmers the 11per cent Government-man-dated hike in cane prices. Thedomestic demand is 24-25million tonnes annually.

A notification issued bythe Finance Ministry saidthe estimated revenue impli-cation of the move is �75crore for a year at currentexport volumes.

Reacting on the CBECmove, Binod Kumar Pandey,General Secretar y ofRashtriya Kisan Mahasanghtold The Pioneer that themove will help the farmers.

"This would protect thefarmers' interest in the coun-try. The farmers have beendemanding this from the pastfew months,” Pandey said.

Chattar Singh, a farmerfrom western Uttar Pradeshsaid there is an urgent need

to regulate sugar industry.“The Narendra Modi gov-ernment should have takenthis step earlier,” he added.

Sugar production swingswildly in India, where half ofthe countr y 's farmlanddepends on the June toSeptember monsoon rainsfor water because of a lack of

irrigation. Sugar cane is verywater-intensive.

With domestic pricesfalling below cost of produc-tion, sugar industry bodiesIndian Sugar Mil lsAssociation (ISMA) andNational Federat ion ofCooperative Sugar Factories(NFCSF) had met senior food

ministry officials last month,seeking hike in sugar importduty from 50 per cent to 100per cent and scrapping ofexport duty of 20 per cent toliquidate surplus sugar.

Cane arrears to sugar-cane farmers touched �14,000crore at the end of Januaryand might rise further in

wake of slide in sugar prices,as per ISMA. Mills have pro-duced 25.80 million tonnessugar till March 15 of the2017-18 marketing year(October-September).

Union Minister ofConsumer Affairs Ram VilasPaswan had earlier asked theMinistry of Finance to scrapexport duty from sugar to liftdomestic price and boostoverseas sales.

Last month, theGovernment doubled importduty on sugar to 100 per centand restricted sale by mills tokeep a checking on fallingprices and to check cheaperimports from overseas mar-kets, particularly Pakistan.Trade sources said the moveis unlikely to make a majorimpact as global prices arealso depressed. The industryis demanding subsidy onexport of sugar.

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French ex-President NicolasSarkozy was taken into

police custody on Tuesday andquestioned over allegationsthat late Libyan dictatorMoamer Kadhafi financed his2007 election campaign viasuitcases stuffed with cash, asource close to the inquirytold AFP.

Sarkozy was detained earlythis morning and was beingquestioned by prosecutors spe-cialising in corruption, moneylaundering and tax evasion attheir office in the Parisian sub-urb of Nanterre.

The 63-year-old had untilnow refused to respond to asummons for questioning inthe case, one of several legalprobes that have dogged theright-winger since he left office

after one term in 2012.Sarkozy's detention was

first reported by the Mediapartinvestigative news site andFrench daily Le Monde.

AFP's source said thatBrice Hortefeux, a top govern-ment minister during Sarkozy'spresidency, was also questionedtoday as part of the inquiry.

Sarkozy has been a focusof the inquiry opened in 2013by magistrates investigatingearlier claims by late Libyanruler Moamer Kadhafi and hisson Seif al-Islam that they pro-vided funds for Sarkozy's elec-tion effort.

Sarkozy has dismissed theallegations as the claims of vin-dictive Libyan regime membersfurious over his participation inthe US-led military interven-tion that ended Kadhafi's 41-year rule and led to his death.

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President Xi Jinping onTuesday underlined the

overall supremacy of the rulingCommunist Party in Chinaand demanded that the two-million strong military andGovernment institutions workunder its leadership.

Xi has been re-elected for afive-year second term. He isexpected to continue to be inpower as the head of the party,the military and the presidencyfor life, as the National People'sCongress (NPC) ratified a con-stitutional amendment, remov-ing the two-term limit for thepresident and Vice-President.

In his closing speech at theNPC today, Xi said, “The Partyis the highest force for politi-cal leadership and the funda-mental guarantee of the reju-venation of the Chinese nation”.

Over 1.5 million Chineseofficials, including over 100ministers, were punished in themassive anti-corruption drivecarried out by Xi in the last fiveyears.The NPC has formallyended its 18-day annual session,widely regarded by observers ashistoric as it formally removedthe two-term limit for 64-year-old Xi changing China's one-party system virtually into a one-leader state.

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Three people, including theassailant, were critically

injured in a shooting at a highschool in the eastern US stateof Maryland on Tuesday, offi-cials said, just days before anationwide student-organisedmarch against school violence.

The shooting occurredshortly after 8:00 am (1200GMT) at Great Mills HighSchool, located about a 90-minute drive southeast of theUS capital Washington.

“A single shooter fired around at a female victim just atthe beginning of the school

hours this morning,” St. Mary'sCounty Sheriff Tim Camerontold the MSNBC televisionnetwork.

The sheriff said the shoot-er was “engaged” by the “schoolresource officer” responsible forsecurity and was criticallywounded.

He said a female studentwas in critical condition and a“young man” was in critical butstable condition. All three weretaken to area hospitals fortreatment.

Police cars and emergencyvehicles with flashing lightscould be seen surrounding theschool.

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Syrian Observatory forHuman Rights on Tuesday

said three dozen pro-Government fighters werekilled in a district of Syria’s cap-ital as Islamic State jihadiststook control of it in a surprisenighttime attack.

There was no immediatecomment from theGovernment on the reportwhich could not provide casu-alty figures for ISIS. “IS took fullcontrol of Qadam, and 36 Govttroops and loyalist fighters havebeen killed,” the Britain-basedmonitoring group said.

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Pakistan is still mullingAfghanistan's recent over-

tures, including an invitationthat Pakistani prime ministervisit Kabul.

Analysts widely see the offeras a good sign, underscoring thatdialogue between the two oftenuneasy neighbours is key todefeating militants on both sidesof the border.

Pakistan, however, says itwants to consult the country'spolitical and military leadershipbefore accepting Afghan

President Ashraf Ghani's invi-tation.

The invitation follows avisit last weekend to Kabul byPakistan's National SecurityAdviser Nasser Janjua and alsolast month's offer by Ghani ofunconditional talks with theTaliban. The Taliban have notresponded yet.

Pakistan's foreign ministryspokesman Moahmmad Faisalsaid on Tuesday the country'spolitical and military leaders arecarefully considering the invi-tation in order “to prepare a brieffor the prime minister.”

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The US will not resume secu-rity aid to Pakistan until it

addresses America's concernson terrorist safe havens, thePentagon said, underlining thatIslamabad's action against mil-itants would not only helpAfghanistan but also protectIndia and the entire region.

The US in January sus-pended more than USD 1.15billion security assistance toPakistan, accusing Islamabad ofharbouring terror groups likethe Afghan Taliban and theHaqqani Network within itsborder and showing unwill-

ingness to take decisive actionsagainst them. In addition, theDepartment of Defense hadsuspended the entire USD 900million of the Coalition SupportFund (CSF) money to Pakistanfor the fiscal year 2017.

“The US government hasbeen very honest and open bothpublicly and privately withPakistan on the things thatthey need to address before wecan move forward with theresumption of the aid that hasbeen suspended,” Lt Col MikeAndrews, a spokesperson of theDepartment of Defence toldPTI.

But at the same time, he

also noted that except forexceptional circumstances –that too on a case-by-case basiswith approval from the author-ities – it has no plans to crossthe international border instriking terrorists across theborder from Afghanistan.

Andrews recently returnedfrom Afghanistan wherein heaccompanied the DefenceSecretary Jim Mattis.

The focus of Mattis' trip toAfghanistan last week was toreview the progress of theSouth Asia Policy in the war-torn country and to see the pre-paredness of the Afghan secu-rity forces.

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In a move that could poten-tially impact India and some

other low-cost economies, a Billintroduced in the Senate seeksto keep American call centrejobs within the United States byplacing restrictions on compa-nies that move these jobs over-seas.

And in a related develop-ment, a Washington-basedgroup has launched an anti H-1B ad campaign at metro sta-tions across the tech hub of SanFrancisco, asking US Congressto “fix H-1B law” so that com-panies are forced to seek andhire American workers.

“Too many companieshave packed up their call cen-ters in Ohio and across thecountry, and moved to India orMexico,” said DemocraticSenator Sherrod Brown fromOhio as he introduced his Billto force American companiesto keep their call centre jobswithin the US.

Called the US Call CentreWorkers and ConsumerProtection Act, the Bill requirescall centre agents overseas to“disclose their location andguarantee US customers theright to ask to transfer their callto a customer service agentwho is physically located in theUnited States”.

The Bill also proposes tocreate a public list of companiesthat outsource call centre jobs,and give preference in federalcontracts to companies thathaven’t shipped these jobs over-seas. It also requires companiesto notify the Department of

Labour before they relocate callcenters.

“Any companies on the listwould be ineligible for federalgrants or loans, with an exception for national security or substantial job lossin the United States,” the Billsays.

Stating that call centre jobsare among the most vulnerableto offshoring, Brown citednumbers from the Bureau ofLabour Statistics to say that theUnited States has lost 200,000call centre jobs between 2006and 2014.

“While foreign workers arenot to blame for outsourcedjobs and are often victims of thesame failed trade agreements asAmerican workers, mostAmericans want to supportAmerican jobs by buyingAmerican whenever they can.That includes the customerservice they get from call cen-tres,” Brown said.

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After his recent controversialpush on steel and alu-

minium tariffs, PresidentDonald Trump is reportedlypreparing to impose a hefty $60billion in annual tariffs againstChinese products.

Trump plans to unveil histariff package for Chinesegoods by Friday, TheWashington Post reported onTuesday, citing four unnamedsenior administration officials.

Right from the time of hispresidential campaign, Trumphas held out the threat of deal-

ing with China on severalissues, ranging from tariffs tointellectual property protec-tion.

The Post reported thatwhile his senior aides hadmooted a $30 billion tariffpackage on a range of Chineseproducts, Trump directed themto roughly double the levies.

The package is proposed tobe applied to over 100 productsthat have reportedly beendeveloped by using tradesecrets that China stole fromUS companies or forced themto hand over in exchange foraccess to its massive market, thepaper reported.

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With the advent of digitalmedia, Radio Industry hasundergone a transforma-

tion in the last decade. Radio Jockey(RJ) as a profession wasn’t consid-ered mainstream and has nowevolved to become in-demand. Theprofession has now received moreexposure and visibility, as a result,myths are busted and a clearer pic-ture is conveyed to the people.

But even today, when people lis-ten to any RJ on the radio, it isassumed that the voice you hear isthe whole and soul of the show.However, that isn’t the case. Every RJis backed by a group of other tech-nical and business professionals likeRadio Producer, ProgrammingDirector, Music Manager, SoundEngineers who make the radio showsuccessful.

A radio station comprises sev-eral teams— programming, sales,scheduling, branded solutions, etc.Lot of ideas, thoughts and collectiveeffort goes behind everything that isbroadcast on the radio. The trend-ing conversations in the nation orcity are linked or generated into con-tent. So, it is about staying up-to-date about the most recent happen-ings and trends.

The employment opportunitiesin the radio industry are limiteddespite the fact it’s growing but thatshouldn’t be a deterrent to them ifthey are passionate about the medi-um. The profession demands seriouspeople with the talent, patience andright zeal for the medium. The firststep in the direction of starting acareer in the field could be by

working as an intern at any radiostation and learn as much as onecan. As far as remuneration is con-cerned, it is decided based on yourtalent, experience and presence inthe market.

Expectations from an RJ con-tinue to rise with the popularity ofthe medium. Besides possessing anoutgoing personality; good sense ofhumour and exceptional presence ofmind, an RJ should be multi-dimen-sional. The job of an RJ now is notmerely restricted to entertainthe listeners through musicand shows, the profile is morelike that of a multi-talentedartist. From being highly-inquisit ive, tech-savvy,entertaining, having a flairfor current affairs to beingtechnically sound, an RJmust be completely tunedin, otherwise ,it's going to bea torturous uphill climb. Notto forget, a good commandover language, voice and abili-ty to connect with the listeners isa must in this profession.

The key in here is to be yourself,and that's what works. One shouldhave their own style of communi-

cating with the listeners. In this pro-fession, it's also one's aptitude,

overall confidence, and person-ality to deliver all of it through

voice which counts more.Apart from this, RJs should beculturally sound, know theircity well, and be aware of thekey events taking placearound them.

Radio in India today isevolving at a fast rate; rightfrom the medium's func-

tioning to the way it isemployed as a platform for

CSR activities. RJs also swiftlyadapt to the changes. They step

into the profession with the under-standing that the medium hasbecome more like a podium for lis-teners, where social issues can be

raised without any hesitation. RJs have realized this responsi-

bility to represent the society and itscritical issues, on the medium. Theyare not only doing reality-checks on-air but also make their voices heardon social media platforms to drivea positive change in a locality, city.They are walking an extra mile andhighlighting the current scenario inevery possible aspect with the intentto make their listeners more con-scious and aware about social issues,through various campaigns.Listeners now have the opportuni-ty to understand these issues in anin-depth manner through on-air andsocial media campaigns.

The radio stations and RJs inunity are leading social issues in thehope to communicate the messageamong the masses. A lot of changecan be noticed when it comes to tak-ing up CSR initiatives through anamalgamation of both mediums.The success of these campaignscontributes towards making the jobof an RJ, one of the most fulfillingprofessions in the world.

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Pearson India in collaborationwith FICE Education, a leading

provider of experiential learning inengineering, has launched a newprogramme titled “Intelligence andData Engineering Analytics (IDEA).”The partnership will provide stu-dents with access to high-qualityeducational content from the world’sleading institutions through edx.org.

The programme is delivered atmultiple campuses belonging toHoly Mary Group of Institutions andNalanda Institute of Technology inTelengana and Andhra Pradesh. Itseeks to help students work effec-tively in a team to achieve goals; solveproblems using critical thinking;apply data analysis techniques andtools to analyse and visualise data,

make decisions and predictionsusing machine learning techniques;build a network of engineering andindustry professional colleagues andbuild skills to increase employabil-ity.

The blended learning pro-gramme combines online coursesfrom edX.org with face-to-face ses-sions and lab work, delivered byFICE instructors in India. The pro-gramme lasts 40 weeks. Successfulstudents will earn certification fromedX, its partner universities andPearson. The edX courses includedin the partnership provide students

with the opportunity to gain knowl-edge in the most in-demand fields,including Data Science and MachineLearning. These courses are:�Introduction to Python for DataScience from Microsoft�Enabling Technologies for DataScience and Analytics: The Internetof Things from Columbia University�Introduction to Data AnalysisUsing Excel from Microsoft�Introduction to ProjectManagement from the University ofAdelaide�Data Science Essentials fromMicrosoft

�Machine Learning for Data Scienceand Analytics from ColumbiaUniversity

The various elements of theIDEA programme have beendesigned by Pearson and FICE,including courses on edX fromColumbia University, AdelaideUniversity and Microsoft.

Nagesh Singh, executive direc-tor, FICE Education said: “We havehelped 200 leading institutionsaround India set up IoT and artifi-cial intelligence labs focused on theareas that are evolving and inno-vating at the most rapid pace today.Through this partnership, we will beable to develop technical skills andenhance the employability of Indianstudents”.

��6#��4�0�0���������������'�+�� �A��/�The Institute of Management Studies (IMS),

Ghaziabad, recently organised its gala“Convocation 2018” recently at their campus.Renowned technocrat, Dr Mangu Singh, managingdirector, DMRC was the chief guest at the event where-as chief human resource officer, Uttam SucrotechInternational Arvind Pachauri was the keynote speaker.

Dr Singh and Pachauri awarded gold medal toPGDM 2015-17 batch student Sristhi Suman and silvermedal to Kajal Agarwal for being toppers. In the pres-ence of managing trustees of IMS Society — DrPramod Aggarwal, executive council member; DrTapan Kumar Nayak, director, IMS Ghaziabad; Dr SapnaRakesh, director, IMSUC and invited guests. Around 225graduating students were awarded with PGDM diplo-mas by the dignitaries.

��/��:�����2�#��/���0 � #����The Placement Cell of Dyal Singh Evening College,

University of Delhi, will be holding its first ever Inter-College Internship Fair on March 28, 2018, from 9 am onwardson the college campus. This one-day fair aims to create a tri-bune of summer internship opportunities for the students com-ing from different colleges across Delhi NCR and various fieldsof study. More than 15 companies from different fields includ-ing Finance, Marketing, Public Relations, Journalism, SocialService and others will be interviewing the students comingfrom different colleges of Delhi University and other privateinstitutions.

“Through the Inter-College Internship Fair, we aim to trainand place the students from different disciplines in the bestknown corporate entities all over India. We at Dyal SinghEvening College endeavour to provide diverse opportunitiesto the potential youth and foster a healthy relationship withstudents, catering to the employment needs of students andensuring employability to each student. So far, we have got over400 registration of students,” Dr Sumita Puri, convenor,Placement cell of Dyal Singh Evening College, says.

Students can register themselves at bit.ly/dsecinternshipfair.

Success in examination depends onhow students write examinations

without stress. Success is not a matterof luck, but can be achieved throughhard work. Parents and teachers needto create stress free ecosystem amongthe students. But as Class X and XIIBoard examinations are going on,parents and teachers are anxious aboutthe outcome of examinations. State andCBSE board syllabus examinations forClass X and XII standard will beginfrom next week. Recent research doneby Professor Dympna Devine, Head ofthe sociology at University CollegeDublin reveals that three out of fourstudents say that the exams are biggeststress in school. Moreover, 75 per centof students were satisfied with careercounselling and active learning.

��B)������In order to succeed in the exami-

nations, the student’s mind needs to becalm, intellect to be doubt free, mem-ory to be clear and ego to be healthy.Recent findings reveal that a studentattending the examination withoutstress will additionally gain 20 per centmarks than students writing the examwith stress. Anything which helps tocreate positive attitude includes regu-lar sleep, food, exercise, spending

study time in daylight hours, learn andpractice a relaxation technique, restwhile resting and study when optingto study. During sleep, brain clears itstrash. During deep sleep period from11 pm to 3 am, concentrate on sleeprather than study. Minimum six hoursof sleep is essential for the examination.Always keep the mobile phone andinternet resources away from studyroom. But internet can be used only tosupplement studies.

During examination season, avoidthe use of social media. Most often stu-dents hate subjects because of listless,uninspired teaching and badly writtentext books. Try to concentrate on fun-damentals first. Students must opt foreasy studying than emergency study-ing. Emergency studying will createunwanted stress. Too much stressmeans too much to do, too little timeand not enough energy. While doing

emergency studying the immediateworry among the students is whetherI can complete the study in time?

��:��������Students must practice last five

years question papers. Study continu-ously on priority basis and answer allthe questions in the text book. Take 10minutes break in every two hours ofstudy. Time management is moreimportant. Drink plenty of water andfruit juices and avoid excess of non-vegetarian and junk foods. Physics,Chemistry, Mathematics, ComputerScience & Commerce are do type sub-jects. Study the formula and equations.Study skills include survey, question,read, recite and review. Meditation andyoga helps improve mental, emotion-al, physical and spiritual health. It canbe done for 15 minutes a day toimprove concentration, memory, men-tal and physical health. Self-confidenceand stress free mindset will pave wayfor success in board examinations.

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Monster India, one of the leadingonline career and recruitment

solutions providers, has signed aMemorandum of Understanding(MoU) with the Indian NavalPlacement Agency (INPA) to becomethe exclusive online recruiter to support the retired and shortly retir-ing navy veterans, seeking suitablesecond career opportunities in thecorporate world through job listingson Monster India’s website.

The INPA has been establishedunder the aegis of directorate of ex-ser-vicemen affairs at the Indian Navalheadquarters in February 2006, as awelfare facility for the retiring / retirednaval personnel to facilitate a second

career option in the corporate world.Monster India aims to list more

than 1000 opportunities in the next12 months with a target of increasingthis number to 2000 opportunities bythe year 2020. The partnership willfocus on identifying opportunities insectors such as capital goods indus-tries, IT, security space, ITeS, MSMEsetc for the uniquely skilled talent poolof INPA.

The INPA pool consists of around8800 candidates across ranks major-ity are graduates and post-graduatesand possess engineering and

professional degrees such as MBAand LLB. The candidates are tech-savvy and their exposure to foreignnavies and cities equip them with rel-evant skills relevant for the corporateworld.

INPA’s Commodore VivekKarnavat, principal director ex-ser-vicemen affairs said: “Our associationwith Monster India is to furtherstrengthen the support INPA pro-vides to the navy veterans to identi-fy second career opportunities. Toequip the talent pool of INPA withthe skill set required for corporate

India across ranks, the organisationhas been regularly conducting entre-preneurship training with certifica-tion under the aegis of NationalInstitute of Small BusinessDevelopment and Entrepreneurship(NIESBUD). In addition to this, allret ir ing sai lors undergo Skil lDevelopment Courses, wherein theyare certified under the Recognition ofPrior Learning scheme. INPA also hasan association with Indian Instituteof Management (IIM) for officerswho are keen to follow a career laterin management. These endeavorshave successfully resulted in placingcandidates in over 5400 vacancies inthe last three years.”

The BSE Institute Ltd, leaderin financial education, has

signed a Memorandum ofUnderstanding (MoU) withIIM Lucknow to offer jointprogramme in AdvanceManagement.

It aims to provide world-class education to the studentsthrough collaborative pro-grammes. In addition, the col-laboration will also lead toopportunities of joint researchand student exchange pro-grammes between the twoinstitutions. It will provide

excellent opportunities to pro-fessionals who aspire for anoptimal learning environment,with a diverse peer group, anda global, lifelong network oftrusted connections.

The Advanced Managementprogramme is built on an inte-grated module approach, incor-porating action learningmethodologies which are furtherdivided into multiple modules.The programme is spread overone-year (part-time) focusingon building leadership skills,innovation for aspiring leaders

and is a life-altering and career-changing programme, designedto accelerate personal and pro-fessional growth. Through afully immersive format,Advanced ManagementProgramme will completelychange the way participants andtheir companies do business.

It is designed to sharpencritical thinking skills and honeleadership capabilities and pro-vides insights into InternationalPolitical Analysis, and fosterleaders’ ability to build and sus-tain a successful enterprise.

��������� ����The Hotel School invites

applications for admission inone-year professional diplomacourse in F&B service, frontoffice associate and chef. Theseprogrammes teach students howfood service professionals createand deliver guest-driven service,enhance value, build guest loy-alty, and promote repeat busi-ness. Students will learn howevery aspect of a food serviceoperation contributes to theguest experience and willexplore unique features of a vari-ety of food and beverage oper-ations. Featuring the latest ser-vice trends contributing to theguest experience; new leadershipinformation; sustainability/green issues for suppliers, equip-ment, and facilities; menutrends; revised labor and costcontrol information; and allnew restaurant industry exam-ples.

Eligibility: Candidates whohave appeared/passed 10+2examination of CBSE, ICSE orequivalent accreditation are eli-gible to apply.

Selection: Selection will bedone on the basis the candidate’sperformance in Aptitude Testfollowed by personal interview.

How to Apply: Applicationforms and brochure may beobtained from admission officeof The Hotel School at 989, nearOberoi farm, Kapashera, NewDelhi.

Deadline: March 30, 2018

� ���:��������The Xavier School of

Management (XLRI) announcesadmission to the PostgraduateDiploma in Management(PGDM) for WorkingExecutives and Business Ownersfor the batch 2018 to 2021.

XLRI has redesigned itshighly successful three-yearAICTE approved evening post-graduate diploma programme asa weekend programme from2017 onwards. This BusinessManagement programme isuniquely designed and struc-tured to enable working execu-tives and business owners todevelop the requisite manager-ial and business skills and com-petence for a managerial/own-ership role.

Spread over three academ-ic years, the programme com-prises of 900 hours of course-work interaction with sessions tobe conducted mainly using

physical classrooms during theweekends at XLRI Jamshedpurto accommodate the time con-straints of working executivesand business owners. On fewselect weekends, sessions will beconducted over the virtual class-room mode to provide greaterflexibility to the students. Thevirtual classes will compriseonly 25 per cent of the sessions.The programme scheduling alsoprovides for breaks betweenterms and during the financialyear ending which is typically ahectic time for working profes-sionals and business owners.

Selection: Candidates are tobe selected through a writtenaptitude test on April 8, 2018.The test will comprise of sec-tions on quantitative ability,logical reasoning, and Englishlanguage skills. Candidates whohave written any of the well-established managemententrance examination (e.g., XAT,GMAT and CAT), in the lasttwo years are encouraged tosend the copy of the scores alongwith the application. Personalinterviews are to be held fromApril 7 to 17 at XLRI campus.

Eligibility: Candidates hav-ing three years Bachelors degreeor equivalent in any disciplinerecognised by a University or adeemed University and a min-imum work experience of twoyears in managerial/superviso-ry/executive/ownership roleprior to April 30, 2018, are eli-gible to apply for this pro-gramme. Candidates who havecompleted the four-yearBachelors' degree in anyEngineering discipline from aUniversity or DeemedUniversity are also eligible toapply. The candidate must havea score of 50 per cent or moremarks or its equivalent GPA inthe above programmes.

Fee: The fee of the pro-gramme is �11 lakhs, is payablein installments as decided by theinstitute.

Deadline: The last date ofreceipt of application with pay-ments is March 31, 2018. Theprogramme is scheduled tocommence from the third weekof May 2018.

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Class XII Boards are on and stress among the students giv-ing Boards is discernible. Every year, students have to under-

go Boards, which decide their career ahead. While Science stu-dents are anxious about memorising formulae, diagrams andremembering concepts, Commerce students face similarchallenges. They have to deal with the flow charts and othercalculation methods. Students have to undergo business andaccountancy jargons and deal with an infinite syllabus. The bestway to prepare for the commerce Board exam is to practice asmany sample papers as possible. It helps and gives a clear ideaof the exam format. There are certain last-minute tips forAccountancy, Economics and Computer Science which can helpstudents score good marks in Boards.

����)���������������Revise all the topics thoroughly and students should not startwith any new topic just before the exam, as it may create a lotof stress.�Students should attend eight-mark questions first and thenproceed with others.�Students should focus on solving questions on accounting forpartnership firms and companies and treatment of accumu-lated profit and loss first, as it carry more weightage.�Make a firm grip over debenture interest account and loss onissue of debenture account, as they are scoring topics�Solve previous years’ sample papers.

;���'��#������.)�+��������������)�����������Students should target getting through the material.�Students should not overburden themselves with extra top-ics, but keep updated with current topics of interest.�They should stick to the relevant topic and focus on numer-ical questions on national income, investment multiplier, elas-ticity of demand and supply.�Students should know the concepts in detail and be aware ofthe background of every topic.�Students should focus on both macro and micro economics,as it consists of maximum marks. Consumer behaviour anddemand and producer behaviour and supply are some of theimportant topics.

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����)����������������Students should organise their study place, where they feelcomfortable and are able to focus.�Use flow charts and diagrams and summarise the revisionnotes into a single page diagram.�Practice sample papers and make short notes.�Take short breaks after every 40-50 minutes.�Focus on the topic related to object oriented programmingand data structure, as it consists of maximum marks.

Exams are basically a measuring scale, by which one’s abil-ity is judged and evaluated. With only few hours left for theBoard exams, students should take proper sleep and rest. Tryto remain calm and composed before the exams and do notpanic. Time management is essential and therefore, studentsshould practice by making notes and flow charts. Studentsshould always revise the topic which they know well, first, asit boosts their moral and confidence. Students should revisethe syllabus systematically and should undergo NCERTbooks first. Following these tips before the exams, will help stu-dents to achieve their milestone.

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The Dixie StateUniversity is offeringInternational FreshmenMerit Scholarships to studyin USA. Scholarships areavailable for new F-1 under-graduate, degree-seekinginternational students admit-ted directly into a universitybachelor’s degree programme.

Eligibility: All new F-1undergraduate, degree-seek-ing international studentsapplying to Dixie StateUniversity will be consid-ered.

Scholarships will beawarded to internationalstudents who meet the fol-lowing criteria: 3.0 GPA orequivalent or ACT score of26-plus or SAT score of1240-plus. Scholarshiprecipients will be required tomaintain a minimum 3.2GPA each semester. Englishlanguage requirements:English proficiency scores(TOEFL – 68, IETLTS – 6.0or evidence of primary lan-guage of instruction in highschool is English.

International studentsare eligible to apply. Theaward is for $4,500 for thefirst academic year; $2,250for the first fall and $2,250for the first spring semesterof enrollment and is applic-able to tuition only.

How to apply: The modeof applying is online. Visit:

https://interna-tional.dixie.edu/interna-

tional-student-scholar-ships/

Application deadline:The last date to apply is July1, 2018.

Novus Biologicals isoffering scholarship forinternational students.Scholarship is available forbaccalaureate, graduate,associate degree or diplomaprogramme.

Eligibility: Scholarshipis available for baccalaureate,graduate, associate degree ordiploma programme with adeclared major in a sciencerelated field. Internationalstudents can apply. Englishlanguage requirements:Applicants from outside thehome country will oftenneed to meet specific Englishlanguage/other languagerequirements in order to beable to study there.

How to apply: Fill outthe scholarship applicationform. Submit a transcript ofall college/post-secondarycoursework (high schoolstudent submit high schooltranscript). Submit a writtenstatement addressing thefollowing topics: Submit a140 character statement/Tweet on what your favoritescientific discovery is andwhy. Write a personal state-ment of 500 words or less onhow you plan to use yourdegree to further advancescience in your field.

Application deadline:July 20, 2018

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QUERY: My daughter’s nameis Riya Kashyap. She is 15 yearsold and her date of birth isAugust 14, 2003. Please suggestthe right career stream for her sothat she can be successful in herlife.

BHATT: Your daughter Riya isa Leo and her element is Fire. Onekey element of her personality isboldness. She can go into any typeof situation and look completely incontrol. She has Sun in her ninthhouse which is a royal combina-tion. She is majestic and strong.The Sun further energising hercharacteristic. The Sun is going topower her ambitions for the life.

As she is a Leo girl she hascertain personality traits that a lotof people wish they could have.These traits will help her in careerprospect, however, the dark sidetrait of her personality is, she canbecome emotionally parched ifthere’s nobody making her feel spe-cial. Her ego can also be a stum-bling block in the path of successhence would advise you to coun-sel her time to time.

Entertainment industry:She will have her own uniqueway of communicating and con-necting with people and enjoyjobs that would provide with anopportunity to travel and inter-act with people. Hence she hasvarious options that includeentertainment, event planning,public relations, media, fine arts,etc.

Management: Sun is herplanetary leader thus she is aborn leader. She can get heraudience fired up quicker thanmost star signs. She could pur-sue motivational speakingopportunities, work for fundrais-ers and charities, or even

become a politi-cian.

Entrepreneur:She has all qualitiesto become an entre-preneur. As Leo natives findthemselves tempted towardsentrepreneurship since it givesthem the chance to show theirleadership. They possess a goodamount of charm and friendlynature so in general, they havegood relations with theiremployees in the business.

Sales & Marketing: Leos arebelieved to be good at handlingclients and customers for whichshe could grow well in the mar-keting and sales segment orcould do well in their own busi-ness prospects.

Motivational speaker: Yourdaughter can make a good careeras a motivational speaker. As theLeo's have a natural talent forgetting people all fired up andready for action. They have theability to channelise the effusiveenergy into something positive.Hence career as a motivationalspeaker is a good option for her.

We advice to the natives ofLeo to not to have over confi-dence and to stay a bit awayfrom taking risks at every turn asthis could also bring losses attimes. They should ponder forsome time before implementingtheir thoughts. They should alsocontrol their desire for alwaysbeing at top because many timesit is not possible and their pas-sion to be on the top may causea big trouble for them in termsof enemies in disguise.

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The reduction of syllabus by 50per cent is a watershed reformfor the Indian school education

system. It acknowledges that in the21st century, where information isubiquitous, students need to developskills and conceptual understanding,rather than memorising content.

���E� ����It will create an eco-system thatwould help us all realise what ElliotEisner said: “The major aim ofschooling is to enable students tobecome the architects of their owneducation so that they can inventthemselves during the course of theirlives.’�The reduced syllabus will allowteachers and students time to divedeeper into learning. The focus wouldshift from ‘covering’ syllabus in classto a ‘mastery’ of concepts. Content hasalways dominated the classroom.Now the time is to focus on pedagogy.Schools will be able to focus on howstudents learn rather than what teach-ers teach. �By reducing the syllabus, the stresslevel of teachers would also reducesignificantly. A less stressed teacheris a happy teacher and a moreengaged and committed one. �The current assessment regime ofthe annual exam system will be lessof a burden with this new initiative.It will also enable assessment patternswhere we can evaluate the ability ofstudents to apply the mastery of con-cepts in different contexts and situa-tions. It will go beyond rote learning,or ‘learning by heart’. Assessment of

skills through project-based learningand design thinking will becomeimportant.�The teachers will have more time inhand for important learning areas likesports, arts, computers etc and, mostimportantly, development of 21stcentury skills like creativity, collabo-ration, communication and criticalthinking.

�������������Internationally, the schools have

shifted focus from content to skills.The 21st century is defined by trans-formative technologies that areredefining the way we work, collab-orate, communicate and socialise;the students will now need to incul-cate skills that will help them stay rel-evant in these changing times.

The P21, a US-based non-profitorganisation, representing over fivemillion members of the global work-force, believes that learning and inno-vation skills are increasingly beingrecognised as the skills that separatestudents prepared for increasingly

complex life and work environmentsand those who are not. Focus on cre-ativity, critical thinking, communi-cation and collaboration is essential toprepare students for the future.

Our National CurriculumFramework was last reviewed andapproved in 2005. Now is the time tore-imagine it. Our existing syllabus,assessment and pedagogy do notreflect the real-world changes. It cer-tainly is not positioned to prepare stu-dents for the complex, challengingand uncertain future ahead.

The reduced syllabus will hope-fully shift focus to the real issues that

will make the 16 years of educationa worthwhile and joyful experiencefor students.

��������������The school curriculum must be

seen as a continuum. Ron Ritchhartof Harvard University challenged usto think differently when he stated:“What if education were less aboutacquiring skills and knowledge andmore about cultivating the disposi-tions and habits of mind that studentswill need for a lifetime of learning,problem-solving and decision mak-ing? What if education were less con-cerned with the end-of-year exam andmore concerned with who studentsbecome as a result of their schooling?What if we viewed smartness as a goalthat students can work towards ratherthan as something they either have ordon’t?”

���)����More time for development of 21stcentury skills like creativity, com-munication, collaboration, etc

�More time for diving deep into eachconcept so that the students can mas-ter the content (be able to apply theknowledge in different contexts)�More time for arts. We recommenda detailed framework on Arts as a coresubject which can focus on drawing,sketching, various forms of painting,craft, clay modeling, digital arts,graphic designing etc.�More time for Science with focus ontechnology, Robotics andEngineering. The initiatives of NITIAyog on Tinkering Lab will get aboost as well. �Life skills programme can be intro-duced that will cover financial liter-acy, decision-making skills, adoles-cence education programme, globalcitizenship etc.�More time for understanding theself through value education.

�))�����������We will be failing our students and

an entire generation if we continue tofocus on content and vast syllabus thathas little relevance in terms of its appli-cation in real world. The stress of stu-dents and staff in these 16 years of edu-cation has to be reduced and dealtwith. It is no longer a question ofwhether we need to reduce the syl-labus, the right question is ‘by howmuch’? A bad curriculum well taughtis a better experience than a good cur-riculum badly taught. The reduced syl-labus will make learning joyful, makelife less stressful and shift the focus on‘real-life’ deeper learning.

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Mithali Raj on Tuesday said anIPL-like event for women willmake sense only when the BCCI

has in place for them a "strong domes-tic" setup.

"It's important to have the pool ofplayers, who will be qualified to play IPLkind of a league. As I mentioned (in)India A (team) itself we need quality play-ers. Once we have those many playersthen it will be wise enough to have anIPL," Mithali, skipper of India's women'sTest team, said.

The Cricket Board is organisingexhibition matches for women during theupcoming Indian Premier League's 11thseason.

With people starting to look up to thelikes of Harmanpreet Kaur, Mithali andJhulan Goswami, the BCCI decided toorganise these exhibition matches, whichcan also lay the groundwork for women'sIPL.

Mithali said, "You can feed in anydomestic (players) but then there will bea stark difference between an interna-tional player and domestic player. Itmight go against promoting women'scricket."

"So, I personally believe that whenyou have strong domestic set-up andchurning quality players then givingthem an opportunity in IPL makessense," she said.

Veteran pacer Jhulan Goswami, whowas sitting alongside Mitahli, agreed withher Test captain.

"That is absolutely right, the domes-tic set up needs to be a little morestronger," quipped Jhulan.

Meanwhile, India will be a part of theT2O series involving Australia andEngland, which begins on Thursday inMumbai and Mithali said before theWorld T20, the team needs to get its com-binations right.

"The team is now preparing for theT20 World Cup this year and it's impor-tant that before the World Cup we needto have combinations right. And for thatif we have to have few changes in thesquad, irrespective of whether the resultgoes our way or not, it is importantbecause we see the bigger picture prepar-ing for the World Cup," Mithali said.

Quizzed how would the team addressthe issue of power-hitting, Mithali saidthat it needs to pick players and give themspecific role.

"That's what Australia has beendoing since the past couple of years, theyhave picked up players and they knowwhat they need to do, we need to do thesame. We have power hitters like

Harmapreet Kaur, Veda Krishnamurthy."You have seen Pooja (Vastrakar), she

has that ability and we need to give hermore abilities to groom into a good all-rounder," she added.

Meanwhile, Jhulun said she was dis-appointed that she was not a part of theT20 series in South Africa, but as asportsperson things like injuries wouldhappen.

����)����������� Indian women's ODI captain Mithali

Raj on Tuesday admitted that not havinga bench-strength of desired quality is areality and it will take at least two moreyears before the next crop of internationalstandard players emerge.

The Indian women's were soundlythrashed 0-3 by their Australian coun-terparts but the more worrying aspect hasbeen lack of replacements for a lot ofnon-performers.

The India A team which played a fewwarm-up games against Australia A andnow England A have been wallopped inmost of the matches, raising serious ques-tions about reserve bench. Save JemimahRodrigues, no top quality talent hasemerged from the women's game withmost players having been around for 3-4 years now.

"We have just started with India Atours and formation of an A team, sincelast year, after we came back from theWorld Cup. It will take sometime. It willtake a couple of years to get our secondstring in place," the straight-talkingMithali put things as it is currently in the

women's game.She believes that international expo-

sure will make them better"We do have some young talented

players, but they need that exposure. SoI am sure in a year or two, we will havea better quality of players playing IndiaA," the 35-year-old veteran batter said.

������������������B��� ��India's heavy loss to Australia in the

recent Women's ODI Championship fix-ture has prompted the BCCI to expeditethe process of strengthening the benchstrength of the national team.

After streamlining the domestic struc-ture and introducing India A tours, theselectors have been asked to handpick apool of pacers, spinners and wicketkeep-ers and test them in a camp at theNational Cricket Academy beginning laterthis month.

The likes of Mithali Raj and JhulanGoswami are not going to be around forlong and the board feels that it is time toact now.

The women's committee comprisingCOA member Diana Edulji, Mithali,Harmanpreet Kaur , Hemlata Kala andProf Ratnakar Shetty will meet on March28 to review the team's disappointing per-formance against Australia and discuss theway forward. "There is a definite need formore quality pace bowlers and spinners.The Australia series showed us that. Theyplayed our spinners rather easily while ourteam struggled against theirs. We also needmore firepower in the batting department,"Edulji said.

����� ��;::��

Dinesh Karthik has become the toast of the nation with his 8-ball-29 against Bangladesh in the tri-series final but he still

feels like a "student in an University where Mahendra Singh Dhoniis a topper", when it comes to the tag of a best finisher.

"When it comes to Dhoni, I am studying in an university wherehe is the topper. He is one of the guys I have always looked up to.It is unfair to compare me with him," Karthik told mediapersonsduring an interaction, here on Tuesday.

Interestingly, Karthik madehis international debut inSeptember 2004 duringChampions Trophy in England,three months before Dhoni'sdebut against Bangladesh in abilateral series in December.

In the next 14 years, Dhonibecame India's most successfulcaptain and one of its greatestlimited overs exponent whileKarthik struggled in the fringes,waiting for his chances.

"His (Dhoni) journey hasbeen totally different and myjourney is a different one. He is a terrific guy. He is somebody whoused to be reserved, shy. Today, he is a person, who is really vocalin helping the youngsters. I feel these comparisons are very unfair.As I said, he is probably a topper in an university, where I am study-ing. I am just happy in the space I am in," Karthik said.

Having been around for a decade and a half, Karthik is final-ly enjoying his time under spotlight, something he has so richlydeserved. He attributes it to his good karma and divine intervention.

"It feels good that all the attention is on me. All the good karmaand good things I have done over the years helped me hit that six.It is just that the shot went for a six. Probably the two mm extrathat it went for it became a six."

The feeling is yet to sink in and Karthik admitted it. "It is hardfor me to put in words. I am just happy to play this sport. Whenyou play domestic cricket, it is a hard grind, To suddenly getso much attention feels so good but you also know that youwant this to be a start of something special," he added.

Karthik also said the time spent with Mumbai cricketerAbhishek Nayar over the years had helped him strengthen the men-tal aspect of his game.

"He (Abhishek Nayar) has been the most important factor inthe last two and half years in my career. He has helped me pre-pare for games. He has made me think in terms of strategy. Healso knows what is the right way to work hard. He has been theriver and I have been the boat," he added.

Karthik also defended rookie Vijay Shankar who didn't havethe experience of tackling Mustafizur Rahaman's slower deliver-ies. "Vijay Shankar has the skill. He has done really well as a bowler.For someone, who is a batting all-rounder, he did well under pres-sure. I see a really good future for him. He has got a good atti-tude. He is a special talent and he has it in him to play for a long,long time," the 32-year-old stumper said.

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With the national tennissquad scheduled to face

China next month, formerstar Vijay Amritraj onTuesday said the new DavisCup format is not ideal foremerging countries like India.

According to Amritraj,the new two-day format maybe difficult for India as it willbe difficult for players tocompete in both singles anddoubles. "We have a goodchance to win against China...I am not crazy about the two-day format in the Davis Cup.

"I don't think the two-dayformat is a good thingbecause a country like usneeds to have a good week-end of matches," Amritrajsaid.

"The three-day format isimportant for us because wemay have a singles player whowill also be required to playthe doubles. The three-day

format was a good one. It wasa tried and tested formatwhich worked very well," headded.

The former World No16felt that it will be difficult forIndia to compete or evenreach the World Group unlessthe country starts producinghigh quality singles players ona regular basis.

"We need to play four sin-gles matches. They are mostimportant as they give us fourpoints. We have to try to getbetter singles players. Till wehave guys who are goodenough to be in the top 100or 50, everything else isimmaterial," he said.

"To reach the Worldgroup we need players in top50 and we can only achievethat by doing hard work.

"Our players are not goodenough because results haveshown we are not goodenough. We are getting bet-ter," he added.

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