3zx 75: cvw`c^d e` dy`cv fa vt`_`^j - daily pioneer

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T he Centre on Wednesday announced major steps to attract foreign investment and give a boost to medical educa- tion in the country. The Government relaxed Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) rules in many sectors, including sin- gle brand retail, coal and lignite mining, contract man- ufacturing and digital media. It also decided to open 75 med- ical colleges which will add at least 15,700 MBBS seats in the country. Briefing reporters on the decisions taken by the Union Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said 100 per cent FDI under auto- matic route in coal mining and associated infrastructure has been approved. To boost domestic manu- facturing, 100 per cent FDI in contract manufacturing under automatic route has been allowed, he said, adding that 26 per cent FDI has been allowed in digital media. On FDI in single-brand retail, the Cabinet has expand- ed the definition of mandato- ry 30 per cent domestic sourc- ing norm. It also allowed sin- gle-brand retailers to start online sales, waiving the pre- vious condition of setting up a mandatory brick-and-mortar store, said Goyal. “The changes in FDI poli- cy will result in making India a more attractive FDI destina- tion, leading to benefits of increased investments, employ- ment, and growth,” Goyal told a media briefing after the meet- ing of the Union Cabinet. He said 100 per cent FDI under automatic route in coal mining and sale of coal as also associated infrastructure activ- ity has been allowed to help attract international players to create an efficient and com- petitive coal market. “Easing local sourcing norms for FDI in Single Brand Retail Trading (SBRT) was announced in Union Budget Speech of Finance Minister. This will lead to greater flexi- bility and ease of operations for SBRT entities, besides creating a level playing field for com- panies with higher exports in a base year. In addition, per- mitting online sales prior to opening of brick and mortar stores brings policy in sync with current market practices. Online sales will also lead to creation of jobs in logistics, dig- ital payments, customer care, training and product skilling. “The above amendments to the FDI policy are meant to liberalise and simplify the FDI policy to provide ease of doing business in the country, lead- ing to larger FDI inflows and thereby contributing to growth of investment, income and employment,” said the state- ment issued by the Government. The FDI policy provides that 30 per cent of value of goods has to be procured from India if SBRT entity has FDI more than 51 per cent. Further, as regards local sourc- ing requirement, the same can be met as an average during the first five years, and there- after annually towards its India operations. With a view to provide greater flexibility and ease of operations to SBRT entities, it has been decided that all procurements made from India by the SBRT enti- ty for that single brand shall be counted towards local sourc- ing, irrespective of whether the goods procured are sold in India or exported. Further, the current cap of considering exports for five years only is proposed to be removed, to give an impetus to exports, it added, detailing the changes in the single brand FDI norms. FDI is a major driver of economic growth and a source of non-debt finance for the economic development of the country. The Government has put in place an investor-friendly policy on FDI, under which investment up to 100 per cent is permitted on the automatic route in most sec- tors/ activities. B ritish Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday unveiled plans to suspend Parliament until October 14, days ahead of the October 31 Brexit deadline, in order to pre- sent what was described as a “new bold and ambitious leg- islative agenda”, a move which has attracted widespread crit- icism from the Opposition. Downing Street said Johnson had spoken to Queen Elizabeth II to request an end to the current parliamentary session in its second sitting week next month, starting September 9. Three Conservative party members of the Queen’s Privy Council, the monarch’s body of advisers, took the formal request to her Scottish resi- dence at Balmoral Castle on Wednesday morning on behalf of Johnson. It was then approved, allowing the government to suspend Parliament any time between September 9 and 12 until October 14. British MPs will now return from their ongoing summer recess next Tuesday and will conclude business by the following week, giving them very little time to table any new legislative measures for debate. “Following the conclusion of the traditional party confer- ence season, the second session of this Parliament will com- mence with a Queen’s Speech on Monday 14 October,” Downing Street said in a statement. The House of Commons Speaker, John Bercow, led the charge against the move, describing it as a “constitutional outrage”. “However it is dressed up, it is blindingly obvious that the purpose of (suspend- ing Parliament) now would be to stop (MPs) debating Brexit and performing its duty in shaping a course for the coun- try,” he said. Opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said, “Suspending Parliament is not acceptable, it is not on. What the Prime Minister is doing is a smash and grab on our democracy to force through a no deal.” He said when MPs return to the Commons next Tuesday, “the first thing we’ll do is attempt legislation to prevent what (the PM) is doing”, fol- lowed by a vote of no confi- dence “at some point”. R eaching out to a large army of unemployed youth in Jammu & Kashmir, Governor Satya Pal Malik on Wednesday announced one of the largest single recruitment drive to fill at least 50,000 vacant posts within a span of next two-three months. The Governor listed out a slew of measures taken by the Government for the welfare of the people and said starting from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, every one is working towards restoring normalcy in the State. “None of us want to see loss of human lives under the prevailing circumstances,” he added. “We are working round the clock to bring back normalcy in the region. We are not in a hurry to throw open shops. We are not putting pressure to throw open business estab- lishments and schools. Let normalcy come at a slow pace. We are not rushing to restore normalcy. It’s your city, you decide on your own. We are here to facilitate you,” he said. The Governor said the Prime Minister has also given a solemn assurance to save, protect and preserve identity, culture, heritage, soci- ety, language and religion of Jammu & Kashmir. “Our aim is to work on ground zero so as to convince people of the State that in real- ity these measures were taken to ensure their well being. In the next six months, we will start many developmental pro- jects in Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh. You will see peo- ple on the other side start talk- ing that they too want to enjoy similar development.” Making an appeal to the common people to bear restric- tions on mobile calling/mobile internet facilities for some more time Malik said, “It is one of the dangerous tools used by the Pakistan and its stooges to disrupt peace in the region.” The Governor said, mobile calling facility will be restored in all 10 districts of Jammu region by late Wednesday night along with two districts of Ladakh. He said out of 197 police stations, there are no day time restrictions across 166 police stations in the State. Nearly 3,000 primary and 1000 mid- dle schools have been reopened and attendance is picking up gradually, he said. I t was a dream come true for a daily wager when his daughter cracked National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) and got admission in the prestigious Lady Hardinge Medical College (LHMC) in the national Capital. Shashi, the daughter of Akhilesh Kumar Gaur and student of a Delhi Government school, has cleared NEET examination with the help of “Jai Bhim Mukhyamantri Pratibha Vikas Yojna”, a flagship scheme of the AAP Government. Besides Shashi, there are three other beneficiaries of the scheme. Vijay Kumar, who cleared Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) mains and got admission in IIT Delhi. Vijay is a Dalit. His father is a tailor and mother a domestic help. Amarjeet and Himanshu cracked JEE and got admission in National Institution if Technology (NIT) Delhi and Netaji Subhash University of Technology (NSUT). “I am very thankful to Delhi Government and the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for such a wonderful scheme. This Government has given a chance to poor people like us to achieve success and showcase our talent. When I got to know about the scheme, I immediately went to the training centre with my father. It was my dream to become a doctor,” said a beaming Shashi, adding that now she can support her family and two siblings after completing studies. The Minister of SC/ST department and brain behind the scheme, Rajendra Pal Gautam, applauded Shashi’s feet and met her in his office on Wednesday. Congratulating Shashi, Gautam said, “Jai Bhim Mukhyamantri Pratibha Vikas Yojna is ensuring that poverty will no longer be a handicap for poor students. Chief Minister is fulfilling the dream of Baba Saheb Ambedkar by ensuring medical education for a labour- er’s daughter.” Meanwhile, Arvind Kejriwal tweeted, “If every stu- dents coming from poor fam- ily will be given a chance to study and fly, the poverty will be vanished from the country within a generation. I am very happy that students a number of students coming from below poverty line are getting a chance to study engineering and medical.” Shashi had passed the class XII Board examination from the Rajkiya Sarvodya Kanya Vidyalaya, GTB Nagar in North east Delhi. She had earlier appeared in the 2017 NEET exam, but was not successful. T he Supreme Court on Wednesday referred a batch of petitions challenging the changes in Jammu & Kashmir’s constitutional status by abro- gating provisions of Article 370 to a five-judge Constitution Bench. The SC, which said the petitions will be listed for hear- ing in the first week of October, also issued notices to the Centre and the Jammu and Kashmir administration on the batch of pleas challenging the presidential order abrogating Article 370 of the Constitution. A Bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi did not agree with the Centre that there was no need for issuing notices in the matter as Attorney General KK Venugopal and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta were marking their presence in the court. “We will refer the mat- ter to a five-judge Constitution Bench,” said the Bench while not accepting the argument that the notices would have a “cross-border repercussion”. The Bench also comprised Justices SA Bobde and SA Nazeer. The Attorney General said whatever was being said by the court was sent before the United Nations (UN). As the counsel appearing for both sides were involved in argu- ments and counter-arguments, the SC said, “We know what to do, we have passed the order, we are not going to change.” Meanwhile, the SC asked the Centre and the Jammu & Kashmir administration to reply to the pleas seeking removal of several regressive restrictions in the State, including the com- munications blockade, that are hampering the functioning of the media after the abrogation of Article 370. The SC issued notices on the two petitions, filed by Anuradha Bhasin, Executive Editor of Kashmir Times and Congress activist Tehseen Poonawalla. The first petition chal- lenging the Presidential Order scrapping Article 370 was filed by advocate ML Sharma, who was later joined by another lawyer from Jammu & Kashmir, Shakir Shabir. National Conference (NC), a prominent political party from Jammu & Kashmir, filed a petition on August 10, con- tending that the changes brought in the status of the State had taken away the rights of its citizens without their mandate. F ormer Congress chief Rahul Gandhi has slammed Pakistan for insti- gating and supporting vio- lence in Jammu & Kashmir. His statement came after the Congress hit out at Pakistan for “mischievously” dragging the name of Rahul Gandhi in its alleged petition moved to the United Nations to justify its “lies” and misinformation on Jammu & Kashmir. The Congress said using the name of Rahul Gandhi in the alleged petition moved by the Pakistani Government to United Nations is a mischie- vous act by Pakistan to justi- fy the pack of lies and delib- erate misinformation about India by the neighbouring country. In a letter to the UN, Pakistan has quoted Rahul Gandhi saying “people are dying in Jammu & Kahsmir” and the situation was very bad there. This prompted Union Minister Prakash Javadekar to say the Congress was doing the “most irresponsible politics ever” and favouring Pakistan. The Congress hit back saying the BJP and its Government needed to intro- spect before they fall and lower its political stature. Both the BJP and the Congress demanded apologies from each other.

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The Centre on Wednesdayannounced major steps to

attract foreign investment andgive a boost to medical educa-tion in the country. TheGovernment relaxed ForeignDirect Investment (FDI) rulesin many sectors, including sin-gle brand retail, coal and lignite mining, contract man-ufacturing and digital media. Italso decided to open 75 med-ical colleges which will add at least 15,700 MBBS seats inthe country.

Briefing reporters on thedecisions taken by the UnionCabinet headed by PrimeMinister Narendra Modi,Commerce and IndustryMinister Piyush Goyal said100 per cent FDI under auto-matic route in coal mining andassociated infrastructure hasbeen approved.

To boost domestic manu-facturing, 100 per cent FDI incontract manufacturing under

automatic route has beenallowed, he said, adding that 26per cent FDI has been allowedin digital media.

On FDI in single-brandretail, the Cabinet has expand-ed the definition of mandato-ry 30 per cent domestic sourc-ing norm. It also allowed sin-gle-brand retailers to startonline sales, waiving the pre-vious condition of setting up amandatory brick-and-mortarstore, said Goyal.

“The changes in FDI poli-cy will result in making Indiaa more attractive FDI destina-tion, leading to benefits ofincreased investments, employ-ment, and growth,” Goyal tolda media briefing after the meet-ing of the Union Cabinet.

He said 100 per cent FDIunder automatic route in coal

mining and sale of coal as alsoassociated infrastructure activ-ity has been allowed to helpattract international players tocreate an efficient and com-petitive coal market.

“Easing local sourcingnorms for FDI in Single BrandRetail Trading (SBRT) wasannounced in Union BudgetSpeech of Finance Minister.This will lead to greater flexi-bility and ease of operations forSBRT entities, besides creatinga level playing field for com-panies with higher exports ina base year. In addition, per-mitting online sales prior toopening of brick and mortarstores brings policy in syncwith current market practices.Online sales will also lead tocreation of jobs in logistics, dig-ital payments, customer care,

training and product skilling.“The above amendments

to the FDI policy are meant toliberalise and simplify the FDIpolicy to provide ease of doingbusiness in the country, lead-ing to larger FDI inflows andthereby contributing to growthof investment, income andemployment,” said the state-ment issued by the

Government.The FDI policy provides

that 30 per cent of value ofgoods has to be procuredfrom India if SBRT entity hasFDI more than 51 per cent.Further, as regards local sourc-ing requirement, the same canbe met as an average duringthe first five years, and there-after annually towards its India

operations. With a view toprovide greater flexibility andease of operations to SBRTentities, it has been decidedthat all procurements madefrom India by the SBRT enti-ty for that single brand shall becounted towards local sourc-ing, irrespective of whether thegoods procured are sold inIndia or exported.

Further, the current cap ofconsidering exports for fiveyears only is proposed to beremoved, to give an impetus toexports, it added, detailing thechanges in the single brand FDInorms.

FDI is a major driver ofeconomic growth and a source of non-debt finance forthe economic development ofthe country.

The Government has putin place an investor-friendlypolicy on FDI, under whichinvestment up to 100 per centis permitted on the automatic route in most sec-tors/ activities.

����� ����

British Prime Minister BorisJohnson on Wednesday

unveiled plans to suspendParliament until October 14,days ahead of the October 31Brexit deadline, in order to pre-sent what was described as a“new bold and ambitious leg-islative agenda”, a move whichhas attracted widespread crit-icism from the Opposition.

Downing Street saidJohnson had spoken to QueenElizabeth II to request an endto the current parliamentarysession in its second sittingweek next month, startingSeptember 9.

Three Conservative partymembers of the Queen’s PrivyCouncil, the monarch’s body ofadvisers, took the formalrequest to her Scottish resi-dence at Balmoral Castle onWednesday morning on behalfof Johnson.

It was then approved,allowing the government tosuspend Parliament any timebetween September 9 and 12until October 14.

British MPs will nowreturn from their ongoingsummer recess next Tuesdayand will conclude business bythe following week, givingthem very little time to tableany new legislative measuresfor debate.

“Following the conclusionof the traditional party confer-

ence season, the second sessionof this Parliament will com-mence with a Queen’s Speech on Monday 14October,” Downing Street saidin a statement.

The House of CommonsSpeaker, John Bercow, led thecharge against the move,describing it as a “constitutionaloutrage”. “However it is dressedup, it is blindingly obviousthat the purpose of (suspend-ing Parliament) now would beto stop (MPs) debating Brexitand performing its duty inshaping a course for the coun-try,” he said.

Opposition Labour leaderJeremy Corbyn said,“Suspending Parliament is notacceptable, it is not on. Whatthe Prime Minister is doing isa smash and grab on ourdemocracy to force through ano deal.”

He said when MPs returnto the Commons next Tuesday,“the first thing we’ll do isattempt legislation to preventwhat (the PM) is doing”, fol-lowed by a vote of no confi-dence “at some point”.

������� ����� �� �

Reaching out to a large armyof unemployed youth in

Jammu & Kashmir, GovernorSatya Pal Malik on Wednesdayannounced one of the largestsingle recruitment drive to fill at least 50,000 vacantposts within a span of next two-three months.

The Governor listed out aslew of measures taken by theGovernment for the welfare ofthe people and said startingfrom Prime Minister NarendraModi, every one is workingtowards restoring normalcy inthe State.

“None of us want to seeloss of human lives under theprevailing circumstances,” headded.

“We are working round theclock to bring back normalcyin the region. We are not in ahurry to throw open shops. Weare not putting pressure tothrow open business estab-

lishments and schools. Letnormalcy come at a slow pace.We are not rushing to restorenormalcy. It’s your city, youdecide on your own. We arehere to facilitate you,” he said.

The Governor said thePrime Minister has also givena solemn assurance to save,protect and preserve identity, culture, heritage, soci-ety, language and religion ofJammu & Kashmir.

“Our aim is to work on

ground zero so as to convincepeople of the State that in real-ity these measures were takento ensure their well being. Inthe next six months, we willstart many developmental pro-jects in Jammu & Kashmirand Ladakh. You will see peo-ple on the other side start talk-ing that they too want to enjoysimilar development.”

Making an appeal to thecommon people to bear restric-tions on mobile calling/mobileinternet facilities for somemore time Malik said, “It is oneof the dangerous tools used bythe Pakistan and its stooges todisrupt peace in the region.”

The Governor said, mobilecalling facility will be restoredin all 10 districts of Jammuregion by late Wednesday nightalong with two districts ofLadakh.

He said out of 197 policestations, there are no day timerestrictions across 166 policestations in the State. Nearly3,000 primary and 1000 mid-dle schools have been reopenedand attendance is picking upgradually, he said.

��������������� ���������

It was a dream come true fora daily wager when his

daughter cracked NationalEligibility cum Entrance Test(NEET) and got admission inthe prestigious Lady HardingeMedical College (LHMC) inthe national Capital. Shashi, thedaughter of Akhilesh KumarGaur and student of a DelhiGovernment school, hascleared NEET examinationwith the help of “Jai BhimMukhyamantri Pratibha VikasYojna”, a flagship scheme of theAAP Government.

Besides Shashi, there arethree other beneficiaries of thescheme. Vijay Kumar, whocleared Joint EntranceExamination (JEE) mains andgot admission in IIT Delhi.Vijay is a Dalit. His father is atailor and mother a domestichelp. Amarjeet and Himanshucracked JEE and got admissionin National Institution ifTechnology (NIT) Delhi andNetaji Subhash University of

Technology (NSUT).“I am very thankful to

Delhi Government and theDelhi Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal for such a wonderfulscheme. This Government hasgiven a chance to poor peoplelike us to achieve success andshowcase our talent. When Igot to know about the scheme,I immediately went to thetraining centre with my father.It was my dream to become adoctor,” said a beamingShashi, adding that now shecan support her family andtwo siblings after completingstudies.

The Minister of SC/STdepartment and brain behindthe scheme, Rajendra PalGautam, applauded Shashi’sfeet and met her in his office onWednesday.

Congratulating Shashi,Gautam said, “Jai BhimMukhyamantri Pratibha Vikas

Yojna is ensuring that povertywill no longer be a handicap forpoor students. Chief Ministeris fulfilling the dream of BabaSaheb Ambedkar by ensuringmedical education for a labour-er’s daughter.”

Meanwhile, ArvindKejriwal tweeted, “If every stu-dents coming from poor fam-ily will be given a chance tostudy and fly, the poverty willbe vanished from the countrywithin a generation. I am veryhappy that students a numberof students coming from belowpoverty line are getting a chanceto study engineering and medical.”

Shashi had passed the classXII Board examination fromthe Rajkiya Sarvodya KanyaVidyalaya, GTB Nagar in Northeast Delhi.

She had earlier appeared inthe 2017 NEET exam, but wasnot successful.

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The Supreme Court onWednesday referred a batch

of petitions challenging thechanges in Jammu & Kashmir’sconstitutional status by abro-gating provisions of Article370 to a five-judge ConstitutionBench. The SC, which said thepetitions will be listed for hear-ing in the first week of October,also issued notices to theCentre and the Jammu andKashmir administration on thebatch of pleas challenging thepresidential order abrogatingArticle 370 of the Constitution.

A Bench headed by ChiefJustice Ranjan Gogoi did notagree with the Centre thatthere was no need for issuingnotices in the matter asAttorney General KKVenugopal and Solicitor

General Tushar Mehta weremarking their presence in thecourt. “We will refer the mat-ter to a f ive-judgeConstitution Bench,” said theBench while not acceptingthe argument that the noticeswould have a “cross-borderrepercussion”.

The Bench also comprisedJustices SA Bobde and SANazeer. The Attorney Generalsaid whatever was being said bythe court was sent before theUnited Nations (UN). As thecounsel appearing for bothsides were involved in argu-ments and counter-arguments,the SC said, “We know what to

do, we have passed the order,we are not going to change.”

Meanwhile, the SC askedthe Centre and the Jammu &Kashmir administration to replyto the pleas seeking removal ofseveral regressive restrictions inthe State, including the com-munications blockade, that arehampering the functioning ofthe media after the abrogationof Article 370. The SC issuednotices on the two petitions,filed by Anuradha Bhasin,Executive Editor of KashmirTimes and Congress activistTehseen Poonawalla.

The first petition chal-lenging the Presidential Orderscrapping Article 370 was filedby advocate ML Sharma, whowas later joined by anotherlawyer from Jammu &Kashmir, Shakir Shabir.National Conference (NC), aprominent political party fromJammu & Kashmir, filed apetition on August 10, con-tending that the changesbrought in the status of theState had taken away the rightsof its citizens without theirmandate.

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Former Congress chiefRahul Gandhi has

slammed Pakistan for insti-gating and supporting vio-lence in Jammu & Kashmir.His statement came after theCongress hit out at Pakistanfor “mischievously” draggingthe name of Rahul Gandhi inits alleged petition moved tothe United Nations to justify its“lies” and misinformation onJammu & Kashmir.

The Congress said usingthe name of Rahul Gandhi inthe alleged petition moved bythe Pakistani Government toUnited Nations is a mischie-vous act by Pakistan to justi-fy the pack of lies and delib-erate misinformation aboutIndia by the neighbouringcountry.

In a letter to the UN, Pakistan has quotedRahul Gandhi saying “people

are dying in Jammu &Kahsmir” and the situationwas very bad there.

This prompted UnionMinister Prakash Javadekarto say the Congress was doingthe “most irresponsible politicsever” and favouring Pakistan.

The Congress hit backsaying the BJP and itsGovernment needed to intro-spect before they fall andlower its political stature. Boththe BJP and the Congressdemanded apologies fromeach other.

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Himachal Pradesh ChiefMinister Jai Ram Thakur

on Wednesday ordered inves-tigations into the death of awoman who suffered severemental distress after a privateclinic “wrongly” diagnosed herwith HIV.

The chief minister told thestate assembly on Wednesdaythat the director of the healthservices would look into theincident and submit a report ina fortnight.

The issue was raised in theassembly by Rohru CongressMLA Mohan Lal Brakta.

“The matter is very sensi-tive and after the probe reportis received, strict action will betaken against the private clin-ic for preparing a wrong HIVpositive report. Compensationto the deceased woman's fam-ily will be provided as per

rules,” Thakur said.Raising the issue, Brakta

demanded strict action againstthe private clinic situated in theRohru subdivision in Shimladistrict. He also sought ade-quate compensation for the22-year-old woman's family.

The MLA said that thewoman died at Indira GandhiMedical College and Hospital(IGMC) in Shimla on Tuesdaydue to severe mental and emo-tional shock after she came toknow about the “HIV positive”report.

Brakta said the womanhad gone to the private clinicfor a checkup due to an ail-ment. Her tests were con-ducted at the private clinic andthe reports of the test weresubmitted to her withoutinforming her about its con-tents.

She later went to the gov-ernment run Kamla Nehru

Hospital (KNH) in Shimla fortreatment where her husbandwas told about the report pre-pared by the private clinic.She was then asked to under-go fresh tests.When the womancame to know that she has beendiagnosed 'HIV positive' by theprivate clinic, she went into acoma.She was then shifted toIGMC where she later died.The report of the fresh test con-ducted at the government hos-pital stated that she was notHIV positive.

Himachal Assembly scraps20 archaic law

The Himachal PradeshAssembly here on Wednesdayrepealed 20 laws, which thegovernment said had lost theirsignificance or had becomeobsolete and redundant.

Moving The HimachalPradesh Repealing Bill, 2019,Law Minister Suresh Bhardwaj

said the objective was toremove redundant laws fromthe statute book and bring inclarity.

“These laws have becomeeither irrelevant or dysfunc-tional and importantly haveoutlived their utility,” Bhardwajsaid while listing a British eralaw.Expressing concern overthe move, CPI-M memberRakesh Singha said, “TheAssembly is for making laws,not for repealing laws. The gov-ernment is repealing 20 laws inone go. The House shouldreconsider (the passing of bill).”

Participating in the debate,Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu ofthe Congress asked, “Havethese laws been repealed byParliament?”

On this, the Law Ministersaid they had become irrelevantand the new laws had comeinto force. “There was no needto continue with archaic laws,”

Bhardwaj said.Leader ofOpposition Mukesh Agnihotridemanded that the Bill shouldbe sent to select committee.Despite objections, the Housepassed the Bill by a voice vote.

Over 3 000 posts for ex-ser-vicemen lying vacant in HP

Over 3,000 posts for ex-ser-vicemen are lying vacant invarious departments, SainikWelfare minister MahenderSingh said on Wednesday.Replying to a question bySarkaghat BJP MLA Col InderSingh, Singh told the stateAssembly that around 4,265posts of ex-servicemen werelying vacant till January 15 thisyear. Out of 4,265, 619 postshave been filled on regular basiswhereas 382 posts have beenfilled on temporary basis, hesaid. Therefore, 3,264 posts ofex-servicemen are still lyingvacant, he added.

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Haryana Health MinisterAnil Vij on Wednesday

launched Electronic VaccineIntelligence Network (eVIN),Safe Delivery App and ASHASoft mobile application, toimprove healthcare services inthe state.

He said eVIN App wouldsupport the Government ofIndia’s Universal ImmunisationProgramme by providing real-time information on vaccinestocks and flows, and storagetemperatures across all coldchain points in Haryana.

The minister added thateVIN is an innovative techno-

logical solution for strengthen-ing immunization supply chainsystems in India. It has beenimplemented by the Ministry ofHealth and Family Welfare(Mohfw) with the support fromthe United Nations DevelopmentProgramme (UNDP).

Vij said that during theprogramme, Vaccination ColChain Managers of all 22 dis-tricts, were given smartphones.He said that eVIN is such anapp, which would help in pro-viding the information of vac-cine or medicines inventoriesto the cold chain managers.This App would help in pro-viding information of vaccinestocks and storage tempera-

tures in all cold chain points ofthe state.

Additional Chief Secretary,Health, Rajiv Arora said thateVIN has created a big dataarchitecture that generatesactionable analytics encourag-ing data-driven decision-mak-ing, accountability and positivebehavioral change in the pub-lic health system. He said thatvaccine inventories and stocks,and storage temperatures at 675functional cold chain points inall 22 districts of Haryana, arebeing digitised with eVIN.These Apps would be helpfulfor all the government staff,ivaccine store-keepers and coldchain handlers.

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With Haryana Assemblyelections barely a few

weeks away, Congress is all setto replace State party chiefAshok Tanwar to end bitter fac-tionalism which has markedthe party in recent months.

After taking over as theCongress president, SoniaGandhi’s key challenge in pollbound Haryana will be to dealwith factionalism in the state,triggered by non-cooperationof a majority of MLAS, led byformer Chief MinisterBhupinder Singh Hooda withTanwar

It was expected thatTanwar will resign after elec-toral defeat of Congress Partyin the Parliamentary election2019 but he did not resign fromthe post.Differences have beenwitnessed in the Congress’sHaryana unit with party vet-eran Hooda revolting againstthe party leadership. The stateunit has split into two factions,one comprising Hooda’s sup-porters, who are demanding achange in the state leadership,and the other supporting stateCongress chief Ashok Tanwar.In fact, a change of guard in thestate organisation seemsinevitable.

Sources in Congress saidafter Sonia Gandhi took over

the leadership on August 10,she was upfront regardingissues related to the statesgoing to the elections thisyear and early next year. Shewants the house in orderahead of the elections, thesource added.Assembly elec-tions in Maharashtra, Haryanaand Jharkhand are due laterthis year while Delhi will go thepolls early next year.

Gandhi apparently had hadseveral rounds of meetingswith senior leaders sinceAugust 15 to decide on a newunit chief in Haryana. She hadalso met Hooda in Delhi and isbelieved to have persuadedhim not to part ways with theparty. And a decision on thenew state unit chief is likely tobe announced in two to threedays, the source said.

Due to unending differ-ences between Tanwar andHooda, the party may replacethe former with a new leaderand give functional autonomyto Hooda in the CampaignCommittee and in the selec-

tion of candidates for theAssembly polls.

On August 18, Hooda,while addressing a rally inRohtak, came out in support ofthe Modi government''s moveto axe Article 370 of theConstitution.Hooda alsoannounced a 25-member panelto decide the party''s future inthe state, in a signal to theCongress leadership to handover the party''s reins in thestate to him, failing which hewould go his own way.

Speculations were rife thatHooda, a two-time ChiefMinister, and his son DeependerSingh Hooda, a former MP,might quit the Congress afterthey said they were sidelined bythe party high command.

On August 17, a day beforethe Rohtak rally, Hooda had aclosed-door meeting withCongress leaders in New Delhiduring which they tried toconvince him not to take anyhasty decision to quit the partyas it had always accorded himthe due importance.

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Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)on Wednesday formed a

seven-member committee tohold discussions with theUnion Government to facilitaterestoration of the Guru RavisasTemple at New Delhi’sTughlaqabad to the satisfactionof the Ravidasia community.

As per the decision, takenduring a meeting of SAD’sScheduled Caste Wing,presided over by party presi-dent Sukhbir Badal, onWednesday, the committeewould hold talks with the rep-resentatives of the UnionGovernment who have beendeputed by Union HomeMinister Amit Shah to resolvethe issue.

The development has comedays after the SAD presidentand Union Food ProcessingIndustries Minister HarsimratKaur Badal met the UnionHome Minister to urge him tosympathetically consider thedemand of the Ravidasia com-munity to reconstruct theTemple at its original locationin Tughlaqabad.

The seven-member panel,including Punjab VidhanSabha’s former SpeakerCharanjit Singh Atwal, formerministers Gulzar Singh Ranikeand Sohan Singh Thandal,former MLA Nirmal Singhand MLAs Pawan Kumar Tinu,Dr Sukhwinder Sukhi andBaldev Khara, will meet theCentral Government repre-sentatives to hold discussionson restoration of Guru Ravidasji temple on Thursday.

Earlier, during the meeting,senior dalit leaders maintainedthat there was an overwhelm-ing feeling amongst the com-munity that the temple shouldbe restored in all its glory at thesame site. They said that thesite, where the temple stoodbefore it was demolished, helddeep ‘aastha’ for the commu-nity. “We would urge the UnionGovernment to keep this inmind while taking a decisionon the matter,” said SAD’s dalitleader.

Sukhbir said that the SADwould abide with the decisiontaken by the seven memberdelegation as well as the larg-er Ravidasia community.

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Ajoint operation undertak-en by Food and Drugs

Administration Punjab (FDA)and CIA teams led to theseizure of huge quantity offormulations prohibited underNarcotic Drugs andPsychotropic Substances Act,1985, from a druggist inFaridkot.

“On late Tuesday evening,a raid was conducted at M/sFriends Medical Agency nearOld Bus Stand, FaridkotDistrict, leading to the seizureof 11 types of habit formingdrugs, mostly Tramadol,Diphenoxylate andBuprenorphine, and a total of2,555 tablets were recoveredfrom the premises of the med-ical store. The store alsostocked 28 types of allopathicdrugs without purchase recordson Form 16. This unaccount-ed cache of drugs comprised of3040 tabs, 62 kits and 70ampoules amounting to a totalof 34,887 drugs,” said FDACommissioner KS Pannu onWednesday.

He said that the seizurewarranted further search of theresidential premises of theowner of the firm. The raid bythe senior officials of both

FDA and Police unearthed 33types of drug formulationsprohibited under NDPS Actmostly Tramadol,Buprenorphine, Diphenoxylate,Alprazolam and Clonzepamstocked in the basement of theresidence of the druggist.

A total of 65845 tablets, 119Injections and 30 syrups, allhabit forming ones were recov-ered.

The police also recovereddrug money amounting toapproximately Rs 90 lakh (Rs87,59,000) from residentialpremises.

Owner of the store or res-idential premises is in policecustody and an FIR, datedAugust 27, 2019, under Section22, 61, 85 has been registeredby police in Thana City,Faridkot.

Both retail sale and whole-sale drugs licenses of M/sFriends Medical AgencyFaridkot have been cancelled,with immediate effect,informed Pannu.

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Haryana Chief MinisterManohar Lal Khattar on

Wednesday laid the foundationstone of Vigyan Bhawan to beconstructed on 8.5 acres area inSector-78, Faridabad at a costof Rs 400 crore.

"With the construction ofVigyan Bhawan, the peoplefrom state and the countrywould come here for confer-ence and there would be moreeconomic development in thearea,Khattar said, addressingthe people during JanAashirvad Yatra in Tigaonassembly constituency.

He said that during thetenure of the present state gov-ernment, CM window hadbeen opened, on which, about6.30 lakh complaints werereceived from the people, outof which 5.80 lakh complaintswere redressed.

Addressing the people ofBadkhal and Faridabad NITduring his Jan Ashirwad Yatra,

Haryana Chief MinisterManohar Lal Khattar said thatthe State Government is con-sidering running metrobetween Faridabad andGurugram.

He said the StateGovernment has left no stoneunturned in carrying out devel-opment in all parts of theState.

Khattar said that people ofthe State elected the BJPGovernment in year 2014 andwe also worked with moretransparency and undertakendevelopment works keepingin view the requirement ofpeople. "Our performance ofthese five years has been out-standing and the pace of devel-opment in the State would befurther accelerated in the nextfive years," he said.

The Chief Minister alsoinvited people for the RohtakRally to be addressed by PrimeMinister Narendra Modi onSeptember 8.

Addressing the people ofGurugram AssemblyConstituency during his JanAshirwad Yatra, he said water

supply would be ensured inevery household in the Stateduring the next five years andthe State Government hasalready started working in thisdirection.

He also inaugurated andlaid foundation stone of vari-ous development project worthabout Rs 53 crore inGurugram. Khattar started hisJan Ashirwad Yatra with theinauguration and laying foun-dation stone of eight develop-ment projects in the premisesof PWD Rest House,Gurugram. He inauguratedfour development projectscosting about Rs 23 crore andlaid foundation stone of fourprojects at a cost of about Rs30 crore.

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With the motto “always onduty” adversely impact-

ing the quality of policing inChandigarh, a public interestlitigation seeking eight-hourshift pattern system in all thepolice stations and police postsbesides weekly off for the UTPolice personnel has been filedin the Punjab and HaryanaHigh Court.

Due to the prevalence ofthis “always on duty” dictum,the police personnel inChandigarh are subjected toinordinately long and irregularhours of work ranging between12-16 hours and that too with-out any weekly day off for restand recuperation, stated thepetition filed through advocateSumati Jund.

The petitioner, Jagjit Singhis currently working as a headconstable in Chandigarh Policeand has been in the UT Policefrom the year 2000. The peti-tion has sought introduction of8-hour shift pattern system inall the police stations andpolice posts of ChandigarhPolice along with weekly off forassuring efficient and peoplefriendly policing in the city.

Advocate Sumati said thatthe matter was adjourned todayand the Court will hear thepetition in October.

The petition stated, “Policepersonnel are subjected to inor-dinately long and irregularhours of work (often rangingbetween 12-16 hours). Suchlong hours are not only phys-ically exhausting and mental-ly draining for the police offi-cials but also non- conducivefor attending to their person-al/ family needs and social lifeand commitments.”

“The ever-increasing work-load and emergent nature ofjob has taken a toll on thehealth of the police officials.Apart from health, gruelingand tedious work regime is alsocausing an enormous adverseimpact on the quality of policeservice as the overworked andovertired police personnel arenot able to perform to the bestof their potential. Their over-all frustration is resulting intheir rude and offensive behav-ior with the Public which inturn is leading to the erosion ofsocietal image of the police,” itstated.

The petition pointed outthat the Chandigarh Police iscertainly not facing any short-

age of manpower. The presentpolice: population ratio ofChandigarh Police is 476 policepersonnel per 1,00,000 popu-lation. And, the shift workingsystem in the police stationscould be introduced if thepolice: population ratio rises upto 173 personnel per 1,00,000population, the petition stated.

As per the audit andinspection report (on accountof the office of InspectorGeneral of Police, UTChandigarh) for the periodApril 1, 2013 to March 31,2014, the then police: popula-tion ratio was 629 police per-sonnel per lakh population inChandigarh.It further pointedout that a total of 17318 com-plaints were received in the year2016 at Public Window, PoliceHeadquarters Sector-9 while21792 complaints have beenreceived in the year 2018.

The issue regarding intro-duction of shift pattern systemhas been raised time and againby the police officials in theSampark Sabhas as well variousmeetings but to no avail as nei-ther any action has been takentill date to introduce the shiftpattern system nor to complywith the directions of studytitled “National Requirement ofManpower for 8 Hour Shifts inPolice Stations”, the petitionadded.

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Awhopping �2,000 crore was washedaway in just 72-hour of incessant rains

in Punjab from August 17 to 19, which lefteight dead and more than 13,000 people dis-placed.

Earlier, the State Government hadassessed the losses at �1700 crore, while it hassought �1000 crore special package from theCentral Government to deal with the floodsin the state.

“Damage assessed will cost the Stateapproximately Rs 2,000 crore, which includescompensation and damage to the state'sinfrastructure,” said Chief Minister CaptAmarinder Singh in a tweet from his Twitterhandle while expressing the gratitude to theIndian Army, National Disaster ResponseForce (NDRF) and the Punjab government’sofficials along with the people “who cametogether to repair breaches and safeguard lives”.

Capt Amarinder also shared a report ofthe damages during the recent floods, datedAugust 24. It says that total of 18 districts wereaffected by the recent floods after a total of317.63 mm rainfall lashed all the 22 districtsacross Punjab.

The report says that as many as 13635people in 554 villages across the state, espe-cially the districts Jalandhar, Kapurthala,Ludhiana, Ferozepur, Rupnagar, and Moga,were affected by the heavy rains that batteredthe state, causing overflowing of rivers andleading to floods.

As per the report total eight lives werelost, with maximum five in Ludhiana district.One person each died in Fazilka, Roopnagar(Ropar) and Jalandhar districts. Besides, oneperson has been reported missing while 12others have faced serious injuries due tofloods.

A total of 4228 animals, including thelivestock, were died during this period, saidthe report adding that as many 3,000 animals

were in total four relief camps set up by theState Government.

As many 2,776 people have been resid-ing in total 99 relief camps set up by the StateGovernment, where all the items of require-ments, including food and water, is being pro-vided. In addition, 5,973 persons were evac-uated from their houses.

During the rains, over 1,457 pucca hous-es and 49 kutcha houses were fully orseverely damaged other than 298 pucca and64 kutcha houses that were partially damaged.

As per the report, the rainfall affectedcrops over 1.72 lakh (1,72,223) acres. Evenas the State Government is yet to order thegirdwari (crop assessment), which would beconducted after the water level recedes, thepreliminary crop loss has been estimated atRs 750 crore.

Besides, the Government had earlierattributed Rs 200 crore loss to the rural infra-structure including damage to the schools,dispensaries, veterinary dispensaries, streetsand drains at �200 crore, �150 crore to repairirrigation infrastructure, �150 crore forrepairing the damaged village link roads, �100crore each for repairing the damages to thehighways and bridges, along with municipaland civic infrastructure and power infra-structure.

Preliminary loss to private electric tube-wells, and diesel pump sets, besides ruralwater supply has been estimated to be �50crore each, besides �50 crore to other expen-diture.

Declaring the rains as “unprecedented”,the Chief Minister had already declared theflood situation in the affected villages of thestate as a “natural calamity”.

Capt Amarinder had noted that a largenumber of crops have been destroyed in morethan 100 villages especially in Ropar,Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Kapurthala districts,due to heavy rains leading to overflowing ofSutlej river.

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Punjab unit of Aam AadmiParty (AAP) on Wednesday

said it has launched a State-wide membership drive underthe tagline 'Aam Aadmi Army'.

Formally launched byparty’s state president and par-liamentarian, Bhagwant Mann,Leader of Opposition (LoP),Harpal Singh Cheema, DeputyLeader of Opposition (Dy LoP)Sarabjit Kaur Manuke and corecommittee chairman, PrincipalBudh Ram along with seniorleaders were present on theoccasion.

A booklet and record bookhighlighting the mission andobjectives of the Aam Aadmi

Army (AAA) was also released.Bhagwant Mann informed thatthe AAA team would reach outto each and every village andtowns and city, and would telect their team leader during

the membership drive.Mann said that the AAA

would fight tooth and naillike the civilian army againstthe ‘mafia raj’, the illegitimatechild of the Badals andCaptain.

The AAP leader said theseself-centred and family-ori-ented politicians had not let thefruits of independence go downto the common man.

People are dying under thescourge of floods, droughts,cancer, drugs and debt, sayingthat those at the helms ofaffairs, l ike CaptainAmarinder Singh and SukhbirSingh Badal were busy in shar-ing tweets on their twitterhandles.

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Setting aside a total of Rs475.56 crore for the flood-hit

districts of the state, PunjabChief Minister Capt AmarinderSingh on Wednesday orderedthe concerned officials to pre-pare comprehensive rehabilita-tion plans for the ravaged areas,including the works needed tobe carried out post the reliefoperations.

While Rs 242.33 crore isbeing used for the immediateinfrastructure works or reliefoperations, another Rs 233.23crore will be provided in theshort and long term, after prop-er damage assessment and plan-ning, said an official spokesper-son.

Reviewing the flood situa-tion, Capt Amarinder asked theChief Secretary Karan AvtarSingh, who is heading the dis-aster management group, toensure prompt execution of postflood infrastructure works toaddress the damage caused tothe public installations.

He also emphasised theneed for constant monitoring ofthe post-flood operations toensure time-bound action onsuch plans as may be preparedfor the affected districts.

The Chief Minister hasdirected all the DeputyCommissioners to prepare reha-bilitation plans and ensure sup-ply of food, drinking water,

shelter and medicines to all theaffected people till so required.

He also asked the AnimalHusbandry Department to pro-vide the necessary fodder andmedicines for the livestock in theaffected areas on priority.Thereview meeting was informedthat of the total Rs 475.56 crore,set aside for the execution offlood relief or infrastructureworks, a sum of Rs 68.75 crorewould be spent on restorationworks in Rupnagar district, Rs91.38 crore in Moga, Rs 119.85crore in Jalandhar, Rs 189.62crore in Kapurthala, Rs 54 lakhin Fazilka, and Rs 5.42 crore in

Ferozepur.Capt Amarinder has also

asked the Additional ChiefSecretary (Development) toensure that the agricultural landaffected by floods is reclaimedand restored for sowing of thenext crop well in advance.Heassured necessary assistance forthe affected farmers in the formof compensation for their loss-es and free seeds.

The Chief Minister wasapprised that the flood hit farm-ers would be compensated at therate of Rs 12,000 per acre (inwhich Centre’s share is Rs 5,000and the State Government’s

share is Rs 7,000).The compensation, which

also include de-silting of landaffected by floods, would be dis-bursed after completion of spe-cial girdawari, which the StateRevenue Department hasalready ordered.

Deferring recovery of croploans of the affected farmerstaken from the StateCooperative Banks, the ChiefMinister stated that he wouldtake up this issue with theCentral Government to requestfor a similar decision by theCommercial Banks in the State.

Notably, the StateGovernment has alreadyannounced Rs four lakh per

person to compensate the fami-lies of the deceased, besidesmonetary assistance to compen-sate the affected families in lieuof loss of their animals at the rateof Rs 30,000 per milch cattle, Rs25,000 for bullocks and Rs 3000for sheep, goat and pig.

The State Government, asper policy, would compensatethe affected families at the rateof Rs one lakh for fully damagedpucca house and Rs 95,000 forfully damaged kacha house.

Farm labourers and otherworkers would also be compen-sated at the rate of Rs 60 per dayper adult and Rs 45 per day perchild, not housed in any reliefcamps set by the Government.

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To strengthen the party atgrass-roots ahead of

Haryana Assembly election,

the Indian Youth Congress onWednesday launched ‘JanShakti’ drive.

In this, IYC memberswould meet to the peoplethrough door to door cam-

paign, informing them aboutBJP’s failure in five years aswell as achievements of theCongress party during its 10years rule in the state, saidIYC’s national president

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AChandigarh Police sub-inspector, Gulzar Singh on

Wednesday committed suicideby jumping from the buildingof Sector 19 police station here.

55-year-old Gulzar Singhwas deployed at Sector 19 policestation here. He had jumpedfrom the top floor of back sideof the building at around 10:50am. Cops rushed him to thePGIMER, where the doctorsdeclared him brought dead.Apolice official said that GulzarSingh was under depression,due to which he took the extremestep. When he reported to theduty on Wednesday morning, heacted normally, the official said.

An investigation is going onin the matter, he added.

While a suicide note isreportedly found from thecrime scene, the police officialshave not confirmed about thesame.According to the officialstatement issued byChandigarh Police, GulzarSingh remained posted inPolice Station (PS)-26 fromJuly 2014 to 2018. He washanded over the charge ofMalkhana of PS, Sector 26.After that, he was shifted to PS-19 in November 2018.

There were some discrep-ancies over the charge ofMalkhana of PS-26 and aninquiry of the said matter was

going on, due to which, GulzarSingh was under depression, thestatement stated.

Gulzar Singh was survivedby his wife, two sons and adaughter. His elder son is serv-ing in Chandigarh Police.

Sriniwas BV.Based on their active-

ness in the Constituency con-cerned, ten members ofYouth Congress will be giventicket in the Assembly elec-tion in the state, he said.

Sriniwas said that youthCongress had recently com-pleted its internal survey andbased on that 40 out of 90Vidhan Sabha seats have beenselected in the state whereinIYC members would cam-paign door to door tostrengthen the party.

People’s suggestion willalso be sought during cam-paign, which will be laterincluded in party’s electionmanifesto. He said that all thesenior party leaders are unit-ed and they are working attheir level to strengthen theparty ahead of the Assemblyelection. "Party will form thegovernment in the state,"

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Lamenting the “very pitiful”conviction rate in criminal

cases in the country, UnionHome Minister Amit Shah onWednesday said the era of age-old police techniques likeadministering third degree tosuspects and phone tappingare over as they do not yield thedesired results in curbing crime.

Addressing the top brass ofCentral Police Organisationsduring the 49th Raising Dayevent of the Bureau of PoliceResearch and Development(BPRD) here, Shah exhortedthe use of forensic evidence bypolice investigators to clinchconvictions against criminals.

Hinting at an overhaul ofpolicing techniques, the minis-ter said that he has asked theBPRD to prepare a plan to have‘modus operandi bureaus’ at thenational and state-level andthat the government is mullingmaking forensic evidence com-pulsory in all criminal caseswhere the quantum of punish-ment is seven years or more.

He said he has asked theBPRD, a police think tankunder the Home Ministry, toinitiate a countrywide “con-sultative process” for effectingchanges in CrPC (CriminalProcedure Code) and IPC(Indian Penal Code).

“All suggestions should be

documented and recommen-dations should be sent to theministry. There has been nochange for a long time in CrPCand IPC and we should go for-ward on this,” he said.

“The conviction rate is verypitiful in the true sense. It can-not go like this in these times.

This needs to be corrected andthis can only be corrected whena probe is supported by foren-sic evidence,” he said.

He further said, “If a chargesheet is supported by forensicevidence, then there are notmany options before the judgeand the defence lawyer.

Automatically, the convictionrate will improve.”

The minister asserted thata good law and order environ-ment in the country is essen-tial to realise Prime MinisterNarendra Modi’s dream ofmaking India a USD 5 trillioneconomy and getting the coun-try a place among top threeeconomies of the world.

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Underscoring the impor-tance of forensic science,

he announced, “A police andnational forensic science uni-versity will be created at thenational level. Its affiliated col-leges will be there in every Stateand after class 12 if any studentwho has decided to pursue acareer in police or CAPFs, weshould ensure that training ofsuch students is done from thebeginning itself.”

Such a student, he said,should get “weightage” whenthey appear for police entrance.“BPRD has sent the proposal tous and in few days we will putit before the Cabinet for afinal decision,” he said.

“I believe the usage of FSL(forensic science laboratories)should be encouraged andmade compulsory under law.We will then see more successin getting criminals punishedand after this only the tenden-cy to commit a crime willreduce. BPRD should also workon this,” Shah said.

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The Union Cabinet onWednesday approved a

�6,268-crore subsidy for exportof 60 lakh tonnes of sugar dur-ing the 2019-20 marketing yearstarting October, in order to liq-uidate surplus domestic stockand help mills in clearing hugesugarcane arrears to farmers.

The decision, meant for thesugarcane season for the cur-rent year involving an exportsubsidy of ��10,448 per metrictonne to sugar mills, comes inthe backdrop of upcomingpolls in Maharashtra,Jharkhand and Haryana.

Maharashtra and Haryanaare among the top sugarcaneproducing states. India has 162lakh tonnes of sugar stock. Ofthis, 40 lakh tonnes is bufferstock and 60 lakh tonnes aremeant for export.

After the Cabinet meeting,Information and BroadcastingMinister Prakash Javadekarsaid that the government hastaken an important decision inthe interest of sugarcane farm-ers. “This will benefit millionsof farmers in Uttar Pradesh,Maharashtra and Karnatakaas well as other states,” he said.The government is providingsubsidy for export of 50 lakhtonnes of sugar for the current2018-19 marketing year.

“The subsidy will be trans-ferred directly to the farmer’saccount on behalf of the millsagainst cane price dues and sub-sequent balance, if any, wouldbe credited to mill’s account.The direct transfer will poten-

tially curb pilferage and direct-ly reach the farmers. The sugarseason 2019-20 is expected tostart with an opening and clos-ing stock of 142 MT and 162MT respectively,” officials said.

The announcement isexpected to give a boost to BJP’ssupport base among farmers inMaharashtra, Jharkhand,Haryana and Delhi. In a majoroutreach initiative to addressthe concerns of the farmingcommunity, which cost theBJP three state elections lastDecember, the NDA govern-ment extended the scope of thePradhan Mantri KisanSamman Nidhi, or PM-Kisanscheme, to include all the 145million farmers across thecountry, besides announcing a�� 3,000 monthly pensionscheme for 125 million smalland marginal farmers.

To deal with this situation,the government has recentlycreated buffer stock of 40 lakh

metric tonnes of sugar for oneyear from August 1, 2019.However, even after takinginto account this buffer stock-ing of 40 lakh metric tonnes tillJuly 31, 2020 and likely diver-sion of sugar by way of pro-duction of ethanol from B-heavy molasses/cane juice dur-ing 2019-20 and requirementof normative stock for twomonths, there shall be about 60lakh metric tonnes of excesssugar stock that will need evac-uation through export.

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With Prime MinisterNarendra Modi making

a strong pitch for rainwater har-vesting, the ArcheologicalSurvey of India (ASI) is doingits bit by setting up the struc-tures needed for it at over3,900 monuments of nationalimportance across the country.

“Most of the monumentshave huge space and hencethere is no problem in settingup the rain water harvestingunits. These structures willensure that water collectedduring rains does not gowaste. In fact, Taj Mahal is thefirst monument to alreadyhave such a system in place.The project is now beingreplicated at other monu-ments as well,” said an officialfrom the ASI.

He said the Union CultureMinistry has recently written aletter to the ASI to ensuregreen measures in all the mon-uments and accordingly all theASI circles have been asked toshare the budget estimates forsuch purpose.

To begin with, in thenational capital, Qutub Minar,the 13th century minaret inMehrauli, and its surrounding

structures will soon act as areserve for recharging thegroundwater level. Four rain-water harvesting units are beingconstructed inside the newparking lot of the complex. TheASI will also carry out similarwater conservation initiatives atother heritage spots such as theTughlaqabad Fort, Hauz Khas,

Mehrauli Archaeological Parkand Red Fort, the officialadded.

Also, a sewage treatmentplant (STP) will be construct-ed near the toilet facilities at allthe monuments for bettersewage management facilitieswhile a campaign will belaunched from October 2, 2019

to make the premises plastic-free following a call from thePrime Minister.

Concerned about the watercrisis in rural areas, Modi inJune 2019 had written a per-sonal letter to ‘gram pradhans’(village chiefs) requesting themto conserve rainwater duringthe monsoon seasons.

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The Supreme Court onWednesday extended till

tomorrow the interim protec-tion from arrest granted to for-mer finance minister PChidambaram in the INXMedia money laundering caselodged by the EnforcementDirectorate (ED).

A bench of Justices RBanumathi and A S Bopannaheard arguments advanced bySolicitor General Tushar Mehtawho said that Chidambaramwas trying to play the “victimcard” and prevent ED fromexercising its right to arrest himin the case.

“This is not a witch huntas alleged by them. We havematerial to show that it is a seri-ous case of money laundering.We have collected cogent mate-rials in the case,” Mehta told thebench, which would continuehearing arguments in the caseon Thursday.

The apex court is hearinga plea filed by Chidambaramwho has challenged the August20 verdict of the Delhi High Court denying him antic-ipatory bail in the INX Mediacorruption and money laun-dering cases lodged by theCBI and the ED.

“A ghost is sought to becreated by playing the victim

card,” Mehta said while oppos-ing grant of anticipatory bail toChidambaram.

CBI had lodged an FIR onMay 15, 2017, alleging irregu-larities in FIPB clearance grant-ed to INX Media group forreceiving overseas funds of Rs305 crore in 2007 duringChidambaram’s tenure asfinance minister.

Thereafter, ED lodged amoney laundering case.Chidambaram was Union min-ister for finance as also homeduring the UPA-I and UPA-IIgovernment from 2004 to 2014.

He had said in the apexcourt on Tuesday that the EDbe asked to produce transcriptsof his questioning in the caseand claimed that the probeagency wanted his arrest just to“humiliate” him.

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The Supreme Court onWednesday allowed a law

student from Jamia MilliaIslamia University here to visithis parents in Anantnag districtof Jammu and Kashmir andaskedthe police to provide him security.

The top court asked thestudent Mohd Aleem Syed tofile an affidavit after visiting his parents.

A bench of Chief JusticeRanjan Gogoi and Justices S ABobde and S Abdul Nazeerasked the police to provide himsecurity and facilitate his visitto the family.

The bench told senioradvocate Sanjay Hegde that ifthe Jamia student wants totravel to Anantnag onThursday then the court orderwill be made available to himin one hour.

Syed, in his plea filedthrough advocate MrigankPrabhakar, said he is a perma-nent resident of Anantnag andsince August 4-5, he has notreceived any information abouthis parents.Syed said that hesuspects that his parents havebeen detained in Kashmir as hewas not able to contact them byany means or manner.

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Acommittee of Speakers ofState assemblies will frame

the “code of conduct” formembers of legislative assem-blies and councils to makethem more efficient, transactgood legislative business andreduce adjournments, LokSabha Speaker Om Birlaannounced here on Tuesday.

Birla announced this whilechairing a meeting of the pre-siding officers of legislaturesattended by more than 30speakers of state assembliesand chairpersons of legislativecouncils.

The Speaker had earliersaid a code of conduct formembers of both Houses ofParliament would be framed.The committee will give itsreport in November and afinal decision would be takenthereafter.

Addressing the mediaabout the meeting, Birla said itwas very fruitful and all pre-siding officers agreed that thereis need to frame rules forimproving the efficiency ofstate legislatures.

The participants unani-mously decided that for thesmooth conduct of proceedingsand fruitful session with lessadjournments, a code of con-duct for the legislators was

needed. “A committee of stateassembly speakers will beformed which will hold delib-erations with speakers all statelegislative assemblies and chair-persons of state legislativecouncils. It will give its reportin November and a final deci-sion will be taken thereafter,”Birla said.

Birla said digitisation of allstate legislatures were discussedin the meeting and a commit-tee was formed for the purpose.

The Speaker had in the lastsession announced that upgra-dation of the currentParliament building was underconsideration which wouldalso mean inclusion of latestcommunication technologyand use of various gadgets tomake Indian Parliament as oneof the best in the world.

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The Defence Ministry hasapproved the Army propos-

al to construct and repair morethan 130 educational schools runby it. The repairs will be carriedfrom within the Army budget.The annual expenditure on thisproject is �160 crores.

Giving details of the pro-ject, officials said here onWednesday that while 130schools are located on defenceland all over the country, sevenothers are on private land or onlease. The Army runs theseschools from within its ownbudget. However, in 2014-15construction and repair ormaintenance of these institu-tions came to a halt after thegovernment asked the Army toget the schools running ondefence land regularized.

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The CBI on Wednesdayexamined BJP leader

Mukul Roy and TrinamoolCongress MP KD Singh inconnection with the Naradasting case in which some TMCpoliticians and bureaucratswere allegedly caught on tapeaccepting money from a jour-nalist posing as a representativeof a private company.

Roy, who was a close con-fidant of West Bengal ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjeebefore he broke ranks with theTrinamool Congress (TMC),was called at the agency head-quarters where a team of offi-cials from Kolkata had come toexamine him, officials said.

Roy had joined the BJPmonths after being named asan accused in the case by theCBI on April 16, 2017.

The CBI team fromKolkata also questioned TMCleader and Rajya Sabha mem-ber K D Singh in connectionwith the case, they said.

The agency suspects thatSingh had investments in aninvestigation magazine whichhad commissioned the stingoperation, they said.

The sting was later broad-cast on various channels byNarada news editor MathewSamuel who had provided therecordings to the CBI pur-portedly showing alleged pay-ments received by politiciansand senior bureaucrats of WestBengal Government.

The agency confrontedSamuel and Singh on allegedpayments to the politicianswho were caught on camera,they said.

The CBI had booked 12top TMC leaders, includingMPs and West Bengal minis-ters, and an IPS officer in con-

nection with the case.In its FIR, the agency has

said suspect public servantshave been identified who wereshown to have either acceptedmoney in cash given by Samuelposing as a representative of aChennai-based company orasked him to handover themoney to someone else ontheir behalf.

An FIR was lodged foralleged criminal conspiracyunder the Indian Penal Codeand relevant provisions of thePrevention of Corruption Actdealing with bribery and crim-inal misconduct.

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Prime Minister NarendraModi’s visit to Russia from

September 4 to 5 will open a“new chapter” in already closebilateral ties as the two sideswill aim to boost cooperationin a plethora of areas includingdefence, trade, civil nuclearenergy and hydrocarbons,Russian envoy NikolayKudashev said on Wednesday.

Expanding existing civilnuclear cooperation will be akey focus area during Modi’svisit and both countries areworking to firm up a generalagreement for building sixmore atomic reactors in Indiaapart from those under theKudankulam project, DeputyChief of Russian EmbassyRoman Babushkin said.

Without sharing specificdetails, Babushkin said a num-ber of agreements will be signedto expand cooperation betweenthe two countries in several keyareas during Modi’s visit.

Referring to the Afghanpeace process, he said bothIndia and Iran were importantplayers in Afghanistan andthat New Delhi has made greatcontribution in socio-economicdevelopment of the war-rav-aged country.

Kudashev and Babushkinaddressed a press conferenceon Modi’s upcoming visit to

Russia.In Russia, Modi will attend

the Eastern Economic Forumin Vladivostoc as the chiefguest and hold the 20th India-Russia annual summit. Apartfrom bilateral issues, the twoleaders are expected to delib-erate on major regional andinternational issues as well.

“The 20th summit will beunique as compared to theprevious highest level engage-ments between our two lead-ers,” said the RussianAmbassador.

He said the summitbetween Modi and PresidentVladimir Putin will lay a solidground for exploration andpromotion of a new dimensionto the special and privilegepartnership between the twocountries.

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Prime Minister NarendraModi will launch the

Coalition for Disaster ResilientInfrastructure (CDRI) at theupcoming United NationsClimate Summit in New Yorkon September 23.

The Union Cabinetapproved the proposal duringits meeting on Wednesday.

India has pledged Rs 480crore to the CDRI to helpfund technical assistance andresearch projects, setting up ofoffices and covering recurringexpenditures for the next fiveyears under the initiative.

The proposal was initial-ly approved by the PrimeMinister on August 13 and

aims to bring together thelargest number of state headsto generate commitments tocombat the effects of climatechange and resulting disasters.

Its supporting secretariatwill be set up in New Delhi.The memorandum and by-laws of the CDRI society willbe prepared by the NationalDisaster ManagementAuthority (NDMA).

“No additional financialimplication will be required.The financial resourcesrequired to conduct researchwill be met from the existingbudget and schemes of theNational Medicinal PlantsBoard, Ministry of Aayush,” according a govern-ment statement.

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New Delhi: Startling revela-tions in the SwamiChinmayanand sexual abusecase has given a new twist tothe story, which has takenUttar Pradesh by storm.

The Shahjahanpur girl whoreleased a video on August 23,accusing former BJP UnionMinister SwamiChinamayanand of sexualharassment, has been traced inNew Delhi, along with the boywho reportedly demanded aransom of �5 crore fromChinamayanand.

A senior Uttar PradeshPolice officer confirmed withIANS that CCTV footageretrieved from a hotel inDwarka establishes the pres-ence of the victim with the boywho reportedly made an extor-tion call to Chinmayanand.

"We have recovered anAadhaar card, submitted asaddress proof, from the Delhihotel. The couple shifted toanother hotel on August 25,"said an official associated withthe investigation, adding, "Theboy also belongs toShahjahanpur. Efforts are on toidentify his place and family."

The police have also tracedthe location and the elopementroute of the young couple from

Shahjahanpur to Delhi throughthe records of their mobilephones.

Sources said that afterAugust 24, the couple switchedoff their phones and probablystarted using new numbers.The police also said that the girlspoke to her family till August24. The victim, who allegedthat Chinmayanand was sexu-ally harassing her, was in touchwith the local boy for the pastseveral days. The records of hermobile phone established thatthe two were staying in thesame premises in Delhi.

Earlier, Chinmayanandhad said that he was beingframed in a case of abductionand sexual harassment as partof a conspiracy.

Referring to the FIR lodgedagainst him for the allegedabduction of a law student inSS College in Shahjahanpur, theBJP leader told a news channel:"This is a conspiracy against meand the girl in question is a partof it. There are four other boyswho had earlier tried to black-mail me and extort money."

The former minister fur-ther said that attempts werebeing made to malign theimage of the Yogi Adityanathgovernment.

"Earlier Kuldeep SinghSengar was implicated in asimilar case and now I ambeing targeted," he said.

Expelled BJP MLA Sengarhas been charged with rape andattempt to murder the rape vic-tim and her lawyer by staginga road accident. Sengar is inTihar Jail at present.

Chinmayanand has beenaccused of "harassment anddestroying lives of several girls"by a student of Shahjahanpur'sSS College, of which the BJPleader is a director. The girl stu-dent made this statement in avideo clip that was posted onsocial media last week. A daylater, the girl went missing andher father lodged a complaintwith the police. IANS

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Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh WomenCommission on Wednesday sought a reportfrom the Shahjahanpur district administrationon the disappearance of a Post-graduate studentwho, in a video clip, had accused former Unionminister Swami Chinmayanand of harassing her.

UPWC chief Vimla Batham also expressedher commitment to safe return of the girl, whohad been pursuing her studies in a college runby BJP leader Chinmayanand's Mumukshuashram.

"We have taken note of the incident andsought a report in this regard from district mag-istrate and superintendent of police ofShahjahapur. We are awaiting report and willensure that she returns safely," Batham toldreporters.

The missing woman's father subsequentlyin a complaint to the police has accusedChinmayanand of sexually harassing his daugh-ter and being behind her disappearance — acharge vehemently refuted by the BJP leader'slawyer.

On the father's complaint, the police haslodged an FIR against the former Union min-ister under sections 364 (kidnapping or abduct-ing for murder) and 506 (criminal intimidation)of the Indian Penal Code. PTI

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Lucknow: Congress leader PriyankaGandhi Vadra on Wednesday saidthe alleged harassment of a womanstudent by ex-Union Minister andBJP leader Swami Chinmayanand inShahjahanpur appears to be a repe-tition of the Unnao case.

In a tweet, she alleged that inUttar Pradesh, if a woman registersa complaint against a BJP leader hersecurity is not guaranteed.

Gandhi was referring to the rapecharge made by a 19-year-old womanfrom Unnao against MLA KuldeepSingh Sengar, who was expelledfrom the BJP recently. InShahjahanpur, Chinmayanand wasbooked on Tuesday under IPC sec-tions related to abduction in order tomurder, and criminal intimidation.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath'smedia advisor Mrityunjay Kumarwas quick in his retort advising theCongress general secretary not to cre-ate confusion and the police havetaken all the steps in this regard.

The Shahjahanpur police onTuesday lodged an FIR againstChinmayanand after the student

went missing following her allegationin a video clip that he had beenharassing her.

Her father had filed a complaintwith the police accusingChinmayanand of sexually harassingher, a charge refuted by the BJPleader's lawyer who claimed it was a"conspiracy" to blackmail him.

The woman's father alleged thatshe has gone missing at the behest ofthe 72-year-old BJP leader, whoheads Mumukshu ashram. She is apost-graduate student in one of thecolleges run by the ashram.

"In Uttar Pradesh, this matterappears to be repetition of the Unnaocase. If a woman complains againsta BJP leader, then she is not guaran-teed justice, even her own safety isnot guaranteed," Priyanka Gandhisaid in a tweet in Hindi with hash-tag 'EnoughIsEnough'.

The 19-year-old rape survivorfrom Unnao and her lawyer sufferedcritical injuries in a car-truck colli-sion in Rae Bareli district in UttarPradesh on July 28. Her two auntsdied in the incident. The girl's fam-

ily alleged that the accident was anattempt to eliminate her.

In another tweet, Gandhi said,"Not a single day passes in UttarPradesh when the BJP governmentmanages to assure women that youare safe and you will get justice if any-thing happens with you."

She also tagged new reports ofthe case involving SwamiChinmayanand in support of hertweets.

"Last year, the BJP governmenthad withdrawn a rape case againstaccused (Chinmayanand). It's clearwhere the government is standing.UP girls are watching," Gandhi saidin the microblogging site.

"The girl, who raised voice ismissing or deliberately being takenaway. What is happening with hernobody knows. Till when this willcontinue?" she posed in anothertweet.

Reacting on Priyanka Gandhi'scomments, Mrityunjay Kumar tookto the same platform to say, "Dontcreate confusion Priyankaji. UPpolice has taken all steps." PTI

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Srinagar: The more politi-cians spend time in jail, themore political dividends theyare likely to accrue — was howJammu & Kashmir GovernorSatya Pal Malik sought to jus-tify the detention of main-stream politicians after theabrogation of the State's specialstatus under Article 370 of theConstitution.

Malik, addressing his firstpress conference after theCentre announced its move onAugust 5, was asked about thecontinued detention of threeformer Chief Ministers —Farooq Abdullah, OmarAbdullah and Mehbooba Mufti-- and other politicians and atimeline for their release.

"Don't you want that peo-ple should become leaders. Ihave gone to jail 30 times.Those who will go to jail, will

become leaders. Let them bethere. The more they spendtime in the jail, the more theywill claim duringelections...That I have spent sixmonths behind bars...

"So if you sympathise withthem, do not be sad over deten-tion. And they all are in theirhomes. I was jailed inFatehgarh during theEmergency where it used totake two days to reach. Ifsomeone is detained in anyissue, if he is wise, he will takepolitical benefit. I am wishingthem well," the governor said.

While senior Abdullah is athis home, his son Omar hasbeen kept at Hari Niwas andMehbooba is at Chesmashahihut. The other politicians havebeen kept at Centaur Hotellocated on the banks of DalLake. PTI

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leader DK Shivakumar onTuesday said he was not lobby-ing for Karnataka PradeshCongress Committee Presidentpost and will always abide by theGandhi family decision.

Shivakumar's assertioncomes in the backdrop of hisrecent visit to Delhi to meet theCongressleadership leading tospeculations about him lobbyingforthe post. He visited Delhiamid reports that the stateCongress chief will be changed.

"...I don't want to respond towhat others are saying. I'm notan aspirant to any position. Idon't plead for any post. You(media) said I had gone for lob-bying, why should I lobby?" hesaid here.

Speaking to reporters, hesaid, "I have belief inthe Gandhifamily and their leadership.Whatever they do I consider itas 'prasad' and accept it."

However, he was unwillingto give any direct response to aquestionwhether he will acceptthe KPCC president post, if theparty asked him.

"At several situations inthepast when I was to be made(president), I was not made(president), now I'm not both-ered about it. If it's in my fate,everything will come searchingfor me," he said, pointing outthat Laxman Savadi, who is noteven a legislator, was todayDeputy Chief Minister.

"It was in his (Savadi's) fate,I congratulate him".

Shivakumar during hismeeting with the central lead-ership of the party has reportedlyasked them to consider hisname for the post of the leaderof the opposition (LoP) in theassembly, if notfor KPCC chief.

Responding to a ques-tion,Shivakumar saidSiddaramaiah was the leader of

the Congress legislaturepartyand it was left to the high com-mand todecide on who shouldbe the LoP. Rubbishing mediareports that he had made com-ments against Siddaramaiah,who is the other maincontenderfor the post of LoP post, he said"I'm not some one who makesuch loosecomments againstsome one, under whom I haveworked. I was Minister underSiddaramaiah in his Govt."

With B S Yediyurappa tak-ing over as the Chief Ministerlast month, following the fall oftheCongress-JD(S) coalitionGovernment, the LoP post isvacant. With the Congress nowthe principal oppositionparty inthe Assembly, the the positiongoes to it. Besides Siddaramaiah,there are several other seniorleaders including Shivakumar,HK Patil and KrishnaByreGowda, who are reported-ly eyeing for the post. PTI

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Patna: Members of a pan-chayat in Bihar’s Gaya district“punished” a gangraped minorgirl by tonsuring her head andparading her through the vil-lage, a police officer said hereon Wednesday.

The 15-year-old girl waskidnapped by residents of hervillage on August 14 and gan-graped, sources in the policeheadquarters said.

The girl narrated the inci-dent to her parents who thenapproached the local panchay-at for justice two days later.

However, the members ofthe panchayat accused the girlof making unfounded allega-tions against the accused, whoenjoy clout in the area, andpunished the minor by ton-suring and parading herthrough the village, they said.

The incident came to lightwhen the victim and her par-ents lodged a telephonic com-plaint with the office of the

Director General of Police aweek after the panchayat’s ver-dict.

Six people, including fivemembers of the panchayat,were arrested on August 26after recording the statementsof the victim and her parents,Mohanpur SHO Ravi Bhushansaid.

Gaya Mahila Thana in-charge Ravi Ranjana said thearrested persons have beensent to judicial custody for 14

days after being producedbefore a designated court whilethe girl's statement was record-ed before a magistrate after hermedical examination.

She said the girl is yet torecover from the trauma buthas been able to identify one ofthe accused.

Meanwhile, the statewomen commission has shotoff a missive to Gaya policechief, demanding speedy justiceto the victim besides sum-moning the five panchayatmembers.

"It is a very serious matter.We have asked the Gaya SSP toensure that the accused areawarded strict punishment andthe victim gets justice. Wehave asked the five panchayatmembers to appear before usand explain why such an inhu-man treatment was meted outto a minor girl," State WomenCommission ChairpersonDilmani Mishra said. PTI

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Daman: IAS officer KannanGopinathan, who resigned lastweek and stated that he did soas the denial of "freedom ofexpression" to the people ofJammu and Kashmir was notacceptable to him, has beenasked to resume duty andcontinue to work till his res-ignation is accepted.

Gopinathan, who was thesecretary, power departmentof the Union Territories ofDaman and Diu, and Dadraand Nagar Haveli, submittedresignation to the HomeMinistry on August 21.

The PersonnelDepartment of Daman andDiu has now asked him toattend the office till it isaccepted.

As he was not present in Silvassa, the capital city of Dadra and Nagar Haveli,officials pasted a notice on the

door of the room in a government guesthouse wherehe lived.

The notice, dated August27, has been signed byGurpreet Singh, deputy secre-tary, personnel department ofDaman and Diu.

Citing Department ofPersonnel and Training(DoPT) rules, the notice saidresignation by a governmentofficer "becomes effectivewhen it is accepted".

"Therefore, you are hereby directed to continueattending to your assignedduties immediately, till a deci-sion is taken on your resigna-tion," it said.

When contacted,Gopinathan told PTI that hewas aware of the notice, butdeclined to comment further.

After resigning, the IASofficer had claimed he took the

decision as he wanted toexpress his views against the"denial of freedom of expres-sion" in Kashmir.

His resignation, though,had made no mention of theKashmir issue.

After tendering resigna-tion, Gopinathan, who hailsfrom Kottayam district ofKerala, had said to abrogateArticle 370 of the Constitutionwas the "right of elected gov-ernment", but in democracypeople have the right torespond, too.

"After taking the decisionon Kashmir, nearly 20 dayshave passed and even now, thepeople there are not allowed toreact or respond to it and thatis not acceptable in a democ-ratic set-up. Personally, I couldnot accept it and continue inthe service during such atime," he had told PTI. PTI

.�' ������!������ $��������0��� 2 �����%����������% Guwahati: The All Assam

Students' Union (AASU) onWednesday said it has full faithin the updation process of theNRC and claimed that theapprehension expressed by var-ious political parties is a ploy toconfuse people as they want toprotect their votebanks.

The AASU is a signatory tothe Assam Accord, a 1985 doc-ument that provided for "detec-tion, deletion and deportation"of illegal foreigners from Assam.

Under the monitoring ofthe Supreme Court, theNational Register of Citizens(NRC) is being updated in theBJP-ruled state to prepare a listof genuine Indians. The finalversion of it is slated to be pub-lished on August 31.

"We have full faith in theprocess. Different political par-ties are trying to confuse thepeople by expressing appre-hensions at a stage when theNRC is to be published in a fewdays," AASU Chief Advisor

Samujjal Bhattacharya told PTI.Union Home Minister

Amit Shah, who is also the BJPpresident, and Chief MinisterSarbananda Sonowal had ear-lier "hailed the publication ofthe draft NRC but suddenlythey started criticising theprocess," he said.

Former Congress chiefminister Tarun Gogoi who hadclaimed it was his governmentthat initiated the NRC process,recently alleged that the regis-ter is going to be just a "scrap ofpaper", Bhattacharya claimed.

"Political parties seek to pro-tect their vote banks involvingboth Hindus and Muslims andthese criticisms are just a ploy toconfuse people," he alleged.

The BJP government isthere at the Centre since 2014and in the state from 2016, andboth have the power to resolvethe foreigners' issue, the AASUleader said. "Before both theassembly poll and recent LokSabha elections, the BJP

promised that they will ensurepublication of a foreigner-freeNRC but now they have adopt-ed a different stand," the AASUleader said. The BJP and theAkhil Bharatiya VidyarthiParishad are claiming that a largenumber of foreigners have beenincluded in the NRC drafts.

The state and central gov-ernments had moved theSupreme Court seeking per-mission for 20 per cent samplere-verification to find outwrongful inclusions and exclu-sions of persons in the NRC.The apex court rejected theplea on July 23.

The AASU leader urgedpolitical parties and the gov-ernments not to confuse peo-ple but cooperate in the processof the NRC publication. Duringthe last 34 years since the sign-ing of the Assam Accord, therehas been no detection ordeportation or sealing of theIndo-Bangladesh border,Bhattacharya claimed. PTI

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Guwahati: An organisationagainst infiltration onWednesday accused the AssamGovernment of "doing nothingat the right time" to ensure anerror-free NRC, while allegingthat the ruling BJP was onlyinterested in including HinduBangladeshis in the document.

It is now "evident" that theNational Register of Citizens(NRC), the final version ofwhich will be published onAugust 31, will include a largenumber of foreigners illegal-ly living in Assam, claimed thePrabajan Virodhi Manch(Forum Against Infiltration).

"They (the state govern-ment and the BJP) were onlyso happy to turn a blind eyewhenever discrepancies in theNRC process came to light -be it officers/personnel caughton video seeking bribe, for-eigner being deployed in theNRC process, daily reports inthe media of subversion of theNRC process, etc," chief of theManch Upamanyu Hazarikasaid in a statement here.

The state government hasbeen "doing nothing at theright time when it wasrequired,... No proceedings(were) drawn up against suchofficers", it claimed.

"The Chief Minister andthe leaders of the ruling partyhave started blaming all andsundry, particularly the ChiefCoordinator of NRC PrateekHajela for what is evidentlygoing to be an NRC riddledwith flaws, which will includea large number of foreigners,"Hazarika claimed.

"Their singular obsession

was to include HinduBangladeshis in the NRC bygranting them citizenship.They were not even botheredwith large scale inclusion offoreigners in the draft NRC,"he alleged. After the first NRCdraft was published onDecember 31, 2017, the ChiefMinister had described it as'historic', and now the BJP iscrying foul over the inclusionof a large number of illegal for-eigners in the document, hesaid. "Either, they are enactinga drama to assuage the senti-ments of the indigenous peo-ple..., or it is plain incompe-tence," he insisted.

The Manch chief said theonly alternative left to protectthe identity of Assamese peo-ple is to ensure that land,employment and trade licencesare reserved only for theindigenous people as is the casein other Northeastern states.

The BJP on Mondayattacked NRC state coordina-tor Prateek Hajela appre-hending that foreigners mightmake it to the final version ofthe register. On August 1,BJP members in the AssamAssembly had claimed that therate of exclusion of NRCapplicants in the districts bor-dering Bangladesh was lessthan the state average of 12.5per cent.

Assam, which had facedan influx of people fromBangladesh since the early20th century, is the only statehaving an NRC which was firstprepared in 1951. It is for thefirst time since then that theNRC is being updated. PTI

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Hajipur (Bihar): Over 20 peo-ple, including three women,suffered serious burn injurieswhen acid was thrown duringa skirmish between membersof two households in Vaishalidistrict, police said onWednesday.

The incident took place atDaudnagar village underVaishali police station area ofthe district, where children ofthe two households picked upa fight in the morning and com-plained to their family mem-bers, SHO Vinod Prasad said.

Members of one of the families went to the neigh-bouring house and the two sides picked up a quarrel,he said.

One family was involved in

jewellery business and hadbottles of acid kept in thehouse, which were broughtout by some people and thecontents hurled in a fit ofrage, leaving altogether 21people injured, Prasad said.

The injured were initiallytaken to a local dispensary but later referred to the SadarHospital at the district headquarters in Hajipur inview of their serious condition,he said.

Five persons, who alleged-ly threw the acid, have beenarrested and are being inter-rogated, the SHO said, adding,further investigation andaction would ensue afterrecording the statements of theaccused. PTI

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Chennai: The Tamil NaduGovernment on Wednesdayinformed the Madras HighCourt that no one deniedaccess to Dalits to their burialand cremation ground in a vil-lage in Vellore district and thatthere were no caste-based dif-ferences.

The submission was madeduring a hearing on a petitionon access routes being alleged-ly blocked for Dalits to a cre-mation ground inNarayanapuram village, forcingthe community members tolower bodies of their relatives,with the help of ropes, from abridge into a nearby riverbedfor the past four years.

The court, which had ini-tiated the petition on its owntaking cognisance of a media

report after Assistant SolicitorGeneral G Karthikeyan drewattention to it, had on Mondaysought an explanation from theauthorities on the issue.

When the matter came upfor hearing before a bench ofJustices S Manikumar andSubramonium Prasad, the gov-ernment pleader said therewas no encroachment of the

pathway and the land belongedto individuals.

The owners of the landwould have permitted theDalits to pass through theirland to reach the cremationground had anyoneapproached them, but "unfor-tunately no one approachedthem or the local authorities,"the government pleader said.

However, wondering whythe Dalits airdropped theirdeceased from the top of abridge if the access to the bur-ial ground was not denied, thebench adjourned the hearing toThursday.

The issue pertains to a newsarticle published in an Englishdaily that claimed that Dalitswere denied the access to theircremation ground on the banksof Palar river forcing them to air-drop their dead from a 20-foot-high bridge. On Monday,the court had decried the practice of earmarking separateburial and cremation ground for Dalits, while pointing outthat right to entry into temples,hospitals or any public office isequal to all, irrespective of reli-gion or caste. PIT

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Clearly, the informal talks andpersonal chemistry between

Russian President VladimirPutin and Prime MinisterNarendra Modi have reset theIndo-Russian axis of coopera-tion, one that many had thoughtwas being pulled at the edges ina US-dominated scenario.Going by the chief guest statusaccorded to Modi for theEastern Economic Forum meet-ing at Vladivostok, introducingIndia as a decisive economicplayer in the Russian-Pacificregion and holding the 20thbilateral summit there as anexample of expanded coopera-tion, the relationship is notonly on an even keel but emerg-ing as a major force in the FarEast. As the Russian ambassadorto India, Nikolay Kudashev,said at a press conference, “Ourleaders, who represent globalpowers, playing an active role inshaping a more just, equal andrepresentative multi-polar worldorder, will for sure synchronisewatches on international andregional developments, whilewe enjoy similarity of approach-es in global affairs.”

Given the immediacy ofJammu & Kashmir as a contextthat tested ties, he further reit-erated Russia’s position that itrespected “India’s constitution-al space, that Kashmir was aninternal issue of India to bedecided within the parametersof the Simla Agreement and thetwo countries would have tosolve their issues through dia-logue.” Backing him up, theDeputy Chief Mission, RomanBabushkin, clarified that duringthe closed consultations in UNSecurity Council earlier thismonth Russia had insisted thatmembers should adhere to theUN charter, which says thereshould be no interference indomestic matters. “There was nomention of any specific UN res-olutions. We are committed tonon-interference in domesticaffairs of a third country,” hesaid. The envoys also highlight-ed Russia’s continued support toIndia’s candidacy as a permanentmember in the Security Counciland the “inadmissibility of dou-ble standards on terrorism. TheRussian-Indian ties successful-ly adjust themselves to themodem realities, including tur-bulence and unpredictability of

today’s world. Our bilateral rela-tions are immune to any nega-tive influence from outside.” Ifthere was any doubt on Russia’srole vis-a-vis India-Pakistan,this clearly dispelled it.

While the envoys said thatthey were satisfied with currentlevels of defence cooperation,the Vladivostok summit isexpected to promote stablemutual growth of tradeturnovers, aiming to touch $ 30billion by 2025. While ONGCVidesh has been an early play-er in the region with theSakhalin oil fields, the newareas for Indian investment andagreements would be miningmineral resources, harnessingenergy, participation in phar-maceuticals and R&D, part-nerships in education, agricul-ture, aquaculture, promotion oftourism and people-to-peoplecontacts. A visit to Vladivostokis now being facilitated by e-visas. Low-cost financing andpreferential tax regimes will beoffered to encourage invest-ment. Most importantly, theVladivostok-Chennai sea route,which was once used by Russiancargo ships, will now be devel-oped as a key transport andlogistics corridor.

On its part, the Russians willenhance industrial cooperation,create new technological andinvestment alliances, and con-tribute to infrastructure devel-opment through the “Make inIndia” project. For example,Russian Railway will collaborateon the Nagpur-Secunderabadhigh-speed corridor.

Russia is stepping upefforts to prepare bilateral inter-governmental agreements onpromotion and mutual protec-tion of investments, expedit-ing the Free Trade Areabetween the EurasianEconomic Union (EAEU)and India and expanding theuse of local currencies inmutual payments. “We musteliminate dependence on theUS dollar,” said Babushkin.

And since nuclear ener-gy constitutes a fundamentalbuilding block for strategicpartnership, Russia remainsthe only foreign country inIndia involved in practicalconstruction of nuclear reac-tors. The ambassador saidthat the implementation ofthe project to build six powerunits of the Kudankulam

nuclear power plant is wellunder way. During the visit,both countries intend to sign ageneral contract for the con-struction of at least six extrapower units of the NPP of theRussian design.” Meanwhile,Russia hopes to fatten up thebouquet of existing cooperationin hydrocarbons and liquefiednatural gas, where delivery hasbeen timely. Post the Modivisit, one can expect coopera-tion in geological explorationand joint development of oiland gas fields in both Russiaand India, including offshorefields. On the agenda are scal-ing up direct air communica-tion for passengers and freight,including between the regionsof the two countries.

Now that Russia will betraining and selecting astro-nauts for Gaganyaan, therewill be increased cooperationbetween the Roscosmos StateCorporation and the IndianSpace Research Organisation(ISRO), on production of rock-ets and spacecraft, explorationand use of outer space, includ-ing planetary exploration andmanned flights.

Of course, Russia will haveto consider the Indo-Chinaanxieties within the RIC(Russia, India, China) if itwants to be a pivot of the Asia-Pacific region. The envoysdeflected that concern sayingevery country in the region hadits own vision and “the idea wasnot to exclude anybody fromdialogue.” Cooperation withinG20, BRICS, SCO, RIC, EASand other multilateral formatswill be an important part of theRussian-lndian agenda, theyadded.

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Guwahati: With just three daysleft for the publication of theNational Register of Citizens(NRC) in Assam, officers areworking round-the-clock toensure an "error-free" final list,official sources said onWednesday.

Data compilation is com-plete and the NRC offices at thedistrict, circle and block levelsare working 24X7 to ensure nobonafide citizen is left out,they said.

The final NRC list will bepublished on August 31.

"Quality control checks areunderway to ensure that theNRC is error-free and thiswould continue till the last day,"sources in the NRC state coor-dinator's office told PTI.

Officers engaged in theexercise of updating the list arein constant touch with thegovernment departments con-cerned, including the borderpolice wing and the ForeignersTribunals (FTs) so that name ofany person against whom casesare pending in the tribunals arenot included in the NRC.

Meanwhile, the office ofthe NRC state coordinatorissued a notice on Wednesdayon how to check the names inthe final list.

"Those who submittedclaims as they were not includ-ed in the complete draft pub-lished on July 30, 2018 orexcluded by the AdditionalDraft Exclusion List publishedon June 26, 2019, and those

who had any objection filedagainst their inclusion, can seetheir status in the supplemen-tary list of inclusion by visitingdesignated NSK/office of circleofficers/office of deputy com-missioners," the notice said.

People can also check theirstatus online by typing theirApplication Receipt Numbers(ARNs) on the NRC websitefrom August 31 under the title'Supplementary List ofInclusions/Exclusions Status'.

Those who were includedin the complete draft and notexcluded in the AdditionalDraft Exclusion List, but werecalled for hearings from July 5,2019 onwards, can also checktheir status in the same man-ner, it said.

In addition, people whowere not called for the hearingshave "no cause to worry abouttheir inclusion status, as theycontinue to be included in thefinal NRC", the notice added.

Assam DGP KuladharSaikia said the police is "fullyprepared" to prevent any unto-ward law and order situation inthe run-up to the publicationof the NRC and after.

The state government hadon Tuesday said it will providefree legal aid to "needy" peoplewhose names do not figure init, as it sought to assuage thefears of bonafide Indians whoapprehend losing citizenship.

The process of updation ofNRC is being conducted by theRegistrar General of India. The

Supreme Court is monitoringthe exercise.

It is for the first time since1951 that the NRC is beingupdated in Assam to identifybonafide residents and deportillegal immigrants.

When the draft NRC waspublished on July 30, 2018,there was a huge controversyover the exclusion of 40.7 lakhpeople from it. The NRCincluded the names of 2.9 crorepeople out of the total 3.29crore applications.

In the list published inJune 2019, over a lakh morepeople were excluded.

Assam has seen a hugeinflux of people fromBangladesh since the early 20thcentury. PTI

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Mamata Banerjee has fore-seen a “one-election-one-

leader-one-party “presidentialrule” in India. Launching a vit-riolic attack on the NarendraModi Government from a rallyof the party’s students’ armTrinamool Congress ChhatraParishad, the Bengal ChiefMinister on Wednesday said,“here I am making a final pre-diction for you … India isgoing towards a one-election-one-leader-one-party and oneemergency rule… that is their(BJP’s) ultimate agenda.”

Citing how the countrywas living under a shadow offear she said no political partycould raise its voice when theKumaraswamy Governmentwas toppled in Karnataka. “The

general political climate of thecountry from Kashmir to else-where is one of panic,” Banerjeesaid lashing out at the Centreon a host of issues.

Aiming at the ModiGovernment for pursuing apolicy of repression she said“their policy is one of occupythe entire country, leave nospace for dissenting voice,break the judiciary, break themedia,” which had no cue onwhat was going on in Kashmir.

Referring to the goings onin Kashmir she said, “lookhow they have subjected every-one under the gun in Kashmir… No one has any information(on that State). They do noteven allow the media to go andreport about the ground situ-ation there. No one is allowedto speak on the issue.”

On how the oppositionparties were being forcibly bro-ken by using central agenciesagainst them Banerjee allegedthat the opposition leadersincluding their MPs and MLAswere being summoned andthreatened by the CBI, EDand other agencies.

“Here they are threateningmy colleagues and me withCBI and ED but I am notafraid of them. Today theyhave summoned my brothers,tomorrow they will summonme. But I am not afraid ofgoing to jail. Even if they sendme to jail I will not stopopposing them,” Banerjee saidadding “from jail I will con-tinue my fight considering it asanother struggle forIndependence and never bowdown to the BJP’s politics.”

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In a development that couldwork as a face-saver for the

BJP, the Central Bureau ofInvestigation summoned forquestioning former KolkataMayor Sovan Chattejree whorecently left the TrinamoolCongress to join the saffronoutfit.

Chatterjee, a former ManFriday of Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee who calledher by a pet name ‘Kanan, hasbeen asked to appear before theinvestigation officers at itsNizam Palace office onSaturday, CBI sources said.

Chatterjee’s summon islikely to provide the BJP aface-saving argument silencingthe critics who wondered whythe tainted Opposition leaders

were only summoned and theones who join the BJP arespared.

Apart from Chatterjee, theCBI has also summonedAparupa Poddar, TMC MPfrom Arambagh. Poddar hasbeen asked to appear before theCBI investigators on Monday inconnection to the Narada pay-off case, sources said.

“I will definitely appearand cooperate with the officialsif I am asked to do so. I will visittheir office as many time as Iam asked to do,” she said.

Reacting to Chatterjee’scase State BJP president DilipGhosh however said that any-one who is summoned did notbecome guilty. “No one is guiltyonly for the fact that he or shehas been summoned. Let Sovanbabu face the CBI,” he said.

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Lucknow: The Bahujan SamajParty will go it alone in all the13 Assembly constituencies inUttar Pradesh where bye-elec-tions are to be held as the partyon Wednesday announced itscandidates for the 12 seats.

The candidate for Gangoh

seat will be declared later, theBSP said.

The candidates are:Naushad Ali (Hamirpur seat),Zubair Masood Khan (RampurSadar), Abhay Kumar (Iglas),Ramesh Chandra (Balha), SunilKumar Chittaurh (Tundla),Arun Dwivedi (LucknowCantt), Devi Prasad Tiwari(Govind Nagar), Rajnarain(Manikpur), Ranjit Singh Patel

(Pratapgarh Sadar), AkhileshKumar Ambedkar (Jaidpur),Rakesh Pandey (Jalalpur),Abdul Quayum (Ghosi).

Most of these seats fellvacant after the sitting MLAswere elected to the Lok Sabhain May.

Hamirpur will go to pollson September 23, while theElection Commission is yet toannounce the election schedulefor other seats.

The BSP had tied up withthe SP in the Lok Sabha polls,but soon after the results wereout, BSP supremo Mayawatihad announced parting of waysand decided to go solo, fol-lowing which SP chief AkhileshYadav too said his party willcontest on its own. PTI

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Thanjavur(TN): A 10-day-old baby girl is battling for lifeat a Government hospital hereafter she was allegedly fedmercury mixed with betel leafjuice by her grandmother totreat stomach ache.

A doctor at the hospitalsaid the infant was sufferingfrom Septecemia due to mer-cury poisoning.

Septecemia occurs when abacterial infection elsewhere inthe body, such as lungs or skin,enters the bloodstream.

"The baby's maternal

grandmother fed mercury withbetel leaf juice (to the infant)leading to her critical condi-tion," he said.

Sumathira, baby's mothersaid her child had developedstomach pain due to constipa-tion after which the grand-mother gave her the concoc-tion. PTI

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Jammu: A group of Gujjars ledby former minister Abdul GaniKohli on Wednesday staged ananti-Pakistan protest againstthe recent killing of two mem-bers of the community by ter-rorists in Kashmir.

Several BJP leaders belong-ing to the community, includ-ing state vice president GhulamAli Khatana, also joined theprotest outside the party head-quarters and raised anti-Pakistan slogans.

Bullet-riddled bodies ofthe two nomads -- Abdul QadirKohli and his cousin ManzoorAhmad Kohli -- were recoveredon Monday and Tuesday,respectively, after they wereabducted by terrorists fromthe higher reaches of Tral insouth Kashmir on the inter-vening night of August 18 and19.

"The murder of two inno-

cent persons by Pakistan-backed terrorists is unbearable.The Gujjar community willnot be cowed down by suchacts as we are nationalists bycore and ready to sacrifice ourlives for our nation," Kohlisaid.

Describing the killing oftwo Gujjars as the "murder ofhumanity and an anti-Islamicact", Khatana expressed hopethat the killers will be identifiedand appropriate action will betaken against them.

"The BJP stands with thebereaved families at this hourof grief," he said, assuring allhelp to the families of thedeceased persons.

Later, addressing a pressconference, BJP state spokesper-son Tahir Choudhary said thekilling of the two Gujjars is aconspiracy to demoralise thecommunity. PTI

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Mathura (UP): A man and hiswife set themselves on fire out-side a police station here onWednesday, alleging inaction bythe police over their complaintthat some village strongmenwere harassing them, officialssaid.

The couple reached Surirpolice station in Mathura in themorning after pouring keroseneoil on their bodies and set them-selves on fire there, with a pur-ported video of the incident get-

ting circulated on social media.The couple suffered serious

burn injuries and has beenreferred to Delhi for treatment,the officials said.

"The case was related to an August 23 incident in which an FIR with names of accused was registered.

The couple claimed there was no action by thepolice," Mathura's SeniorSuperintendent of Police ShalabhMathur said. PTI

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The abrogation of Article 370 hasled to a lot of typing on the key-boards of Indian as well as foreignjournalists. Most scribes were ill-informed about the legality of the

issue but generally, the Indian Press dealt withthe subject more decently, taking into con-sideration the situation on the ground,including Ladakh where the “liberation” ofthe mountainous division was celebrated asin Jammu, too. The Indian Press also men-tioned about the tragic fate of the KashmiriPandits and how the Article fuelled terror-ist acts, which have plagued the Valley fordecades. Even the Supreme Court, whichsometimes does not mind stepping in the roleof the Executive, handled the issue withrestraint and care in the higher interest of thepopulation concerned.

But this has not been the case of the for-eign Press, which has once again shown notonly its partisanship — the often-violent“anti-Modi” bias (they hate the ‘Modi’ phe-nomenon which eludes their understanding)— but also its abysmal ignorance of the his-torical background of the Kashmir issue.

Take the example of the French Press.Following the August 5 decision, it is diffi-cult to say that it was the worst, because theBritish and the American were really bad, too(particularly the BBC). In their officesbeyond the seas, editorialists remain stuck inold clichés — they love to portray Modi’sIndia as having only one objective: To mas-sacre as many Muslims as possible. Due tosheer “White” arrogance, most of these “grandreporters” do not need to study the issuebefore writing on it, as “they know” about it.

After the Indian Prime Minister’s visit tothe UAE, one French publication evenwrote: “Modi has managed to escape theMuslim ire …for now.” The Chinese factorand their indecent claims over Ladakh havealso been brushed aside; the Buddhists ofLadakh and the Pandits are not worth a word.It is ironic that at the same time, the Indo-French bilateral relations have been blossom-ing (but journalists will probably say, “Modihas bought Macron on his side by promis-ing to buy a few Rafales more”).

Who is responsible for this constant mis-information or disinformation? As I said, itis not possible to change the ideological slantof the Press (foreign or French), so one shouldlet it be. Where the Government of Indiafailed is in “educating” the Press by giving afull historical briefing on all the facets of theissue.

One problem is that the Ministry ofExternal Affairs (MEA) today functions with-out a historical division, (in the 1990s, somesmart mandarins thought they knew every-thing and that a division was not required).Before the announcement, the South Blockshould have prepared a “background note onthe Kashmir issue and the history of the tem-porary Article 370 of Indian Constitution” butnobody probably had the time for suchniceties. Foreign embassies could have been

given this note, which could haveinformed their “all-knowing”Press; it is part of the bilateralrelations, no?

The foreign Press could havebeen told: “You are free to use thebriefing and check the facts if youwant.” One of the problems is thesacrosanct “freedom of the Press”which allows anybody to writeanything! Those who object tothis are “fascists.”

Now what are the facts?A few years ago, I came

across a top secret note entitled,‘Background to the Kashmir Issue:Facts of the case’, written in theearly 1950s in the Nehru Papers(the JN Collections at the NehruMemorial Museum andLibrary). It makes for a fascinat-ing read. It starts with a histori-cal dateline: “Invasion of the Stateby tribesmen and Pakistannationals through or fromPakistan territory on October 20,1947; ruler’s offer of accession ofthe State to India supported bythe National Conference, a pre-dominantly Muslim thoughnon-communal political organ-sation, on October 26, 1947;acceptance of accession by theBritish Governor-General ofIndia on October 27, 1947,under this accession, the Statebecame an integral part of India;expression of a wish by LordMountbatten in a separate letterto the ruler the fulfillment ofwhich was to take place at a

future date when law and orderhad been restored and the soil ofthe State cleared of the invader,the people of the State were giventhe right to decide whether theyshould remain in India or not.”

Then the note mentioned“[the] invasion of the State byPakistan Regular Forces on May8, 1948, in contravention ofinternational law. One of thegrounds for this military opera-tion, as disclosed by Pakistan’sForeign Minister himself, was arecommendation of theCommander-in-Chief ofPakistan that an easy victory forthe Indian Army was almost cer-tain to arouse the anger of theinvading tribesmen againstPakistan.”

Pakistan was not interestedin the plebiscite, further it want-ed to grab …Buddhist Ladakh,too. At some other point, thenote observed: “Pakistan, notcontent with assisting the invad-er, has itself become an invaderand its Army is still occupying alarge part of the soil of Kashmir,thus committing a continuingbreach of international law.”

This was noticed by SirOwen Dixon, the UNRepresentative. Pakistani politi-cians (and others) often quotethe UN resolutions but very fewhave read them. Has PakistanPrime Minister Imran Khanever looked at them? I bet not.

Following the ceasefire of

January 1, 1949, the military rep-resentatives of India and Pakistanmet in Karachi between July 18and 27, 1949, under the auspicesof the United NationsCommission for India andPakistan. Before leaving forKarachi, the delegates had abriefing from Sir Girja ShankarBajpai, the Secretary General ofthe MEA, who explained thelegal position in detail to the del-egates. He told them that the res-olution of August 13, 1948 “hadconceded the legality ofKashmir’s accession to Indiaand as such no man’s land, if any,should be controlled by Indiaduring the period of ceasefireand truce.” Thus, the Line ofCeasefire (now Line of Control)was drawn and accepted byPakistan on this principle.

Who remembers the August1948 resolution today?

Similarly, for Article 370,the temporary backgroundshould have been explained,particularly how it deprivedJammu and Ladakh of theiradministrative freedom; how ithelped fuel terrorism fromacross the LoC; how gender-biased it was. This should havebeen done. It would not haveremoved the bias of the foreign“secular” Press but they couldnot have said they did notknow.

(The writer is an expert onIndia-China relations)

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Sir — Every single day unfolds anew set of problems for the peo-ple and nations across the world.Despite technological advance-ments, the world community isfinding it difficult to cope withthe emerging climate crisis. Theforest fires in the Amazon havecaused irreversible damage. Thetropical forest area is home toplanet earth’s most bountiful eco-logical diversity. It is home tothree million species — plantsand animals — as also a millionindigenous people, most of whomhave lost lives fighting for the pro-tection of the forests.

Many nations are home to therainforests but Brazil containsone-third of the total area as 60per cent of the Amazon belongsto this country. Preserving it is notonly important for Brazil but alsofor every nation for the simplereason that the rainforests are thekey to meeting climate goals. Andit’s not just the responsibility ofthe Brazilian Government butalso of the international commu-nity to develop a mechanism toprotect and restore the Amazonrainforest. A small beginningtowards this end has been made

at the G7 summit held in Francewhere leaders agreed to providelogistical and financial support tohelp fight fires in the Amazonrainforest. The way forward is toact together.

P Senthil Via email

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Sir — This refers to the article,“Voices of sanity at last” (August27) by A Surya Prakash. The dif-ficulty with the grand old partyis that it is not prepared to gobeyond the hegemony of a single

family even as it may be blockingthe infusion of new ideas.

There is a theory in manage-ment circles that disfavours contin-uation of the same person on oneseat in recognition of the axiom thatideas get stale. Unfortunately, theCongress is not prepared to accept

this. In the process, it wasted anopportunity of appointing a leaderof his/her own political standingthat could have paved the way notonly for the dispersal of power butalso infusion of fresh ideas. Theabove mentioned attitude has takenroots in the minds of Congressmenbecause of the fixation that it is onlythe Congress, particular a family,that participated in the freedommovement and this bestowed it theauthority to rule the country.

Besides the party’s hatred forPrime Minister Modi, the twomajor fronts that are out of tunewith the people are its outdatedideas of economic extreme Leftand flawed concepts of secularism.Even on the face of worldwiderecognition of the failure of com-munist economic policies, theCongress is not only sticking to itbut going towards it with vigour.In the area of secularism, its ideaof protecting minorities(Muslims) from the majority(Hindus) has created a separateclass of citizens away from themainstream. It’s time the Congressdoes some introspection.

BP SrivastavaNoida

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On September 6, 2018, in a landmark judg-ment, the Supreme Court (SC) decrimi-nalised Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code

(IPC) and allowed consensual gay sex betweenadults in private. The apex court’s ruling that crim-inalising gay sex was “unconstitutional, irrational,indefensible and manifestly arbitrary,” was met withwidespread celebrations by the LGBTQ commu-nity across India. However, despite this path-break-ing verdict, which delivered a powerful riposte toinstitutionalised disgust and contempt aimed at theLGBTQ community, nearly one year down the linenothing much seems to have changed on theground. Inclusion in the mainstream remains a pipedream as the LGBTQ community continues tostruggle for an identity and acceptance. Membersof the community face legal exclusion, ostracisa-tion, violence and denial of access to financial andhealth service, among others.

Access to employment and a discrimination-free workplace continues to be a challenge for thecommunity, particularly for transgender people, aslimited access to formal education and discrimi-natory recruitment practices of organisations leadto their exclusion.

Despite the SC verdict, LGBTQs continue tobe closeted about their sexuality over fears of poten-tial discrimination at the workplace. More oftenthan not, when they do come out or are outed, theyoften face ridicule and discrimination. In fact, theIndian LGBT Workplace Survey, 2016, shows thatabout 40 per cent people have faced harassment atthe place of employment on account of their gen-der identity/sexual orientation.

More significantly, in spite of constitutionalrecognition of rights in various judgments, exist-ing laws continue to exclude LGBTQ people. Thisbecomes apparent in their day-to-day experienceswith the law and the legal system.

Besides discrimination in the formal sector,LGBTQs, specifically transgenders, continue to bedisproportionately targetted by enforcement agen-cies in the unorganised/informal sector. This is par-ticularly prevalent in the case of sex workers andbeggars, wherein transgender persons are often tar-geted by laws such as the Immoral Traffic(Prevention) Act, 1956 (ITPA) and anti-begginglaws, respectively. The lack of regulation of the infor-mal sector makes LGBTQ community membersworking in the sector particularly vulnerable to dis-crimination and harassment. This is also the casewith laws dealing with violence as there are two car-dinal problems with them. First, substantive lawsmay not account for the LGBTQ community, thuscreating barriers in accessing such provisions.Second, prevalent discriminatory patterns lead tothe well-documented persecution that they face atthe hands of law enforcement agencies.

The discrimination against LGBTQ persons insubstantive criminal law occurs at two levels. First,the operation of such laws in the male-female bina-ry does not take into account the transgender iden-tity, thereby creating a barrier for transgender per-sons from accessing such provisions. Second, theoperation of criminal laws on heteronormativeassumptions does not recognise same-sex relation-ships or non-heterosexual sexual orientations, there-by limiting the operation of such provisions to sex-ual acts in the male-female binary.

Criminal law provisions such as rape, Section375 of the IPC, exclude LGBTQ people at both lev-

els. By operating in the male-female bina-ry, it fails to account for the transgenderidentity and by only accounting for het-erosexual conduct it fails to include alter-native sexual experiences.

Therefore, in light of the realities ofsexual violence, a potential way forwardcould be the neutrality of the victim forthe offence of rape and for related pro-visions of sexual violence. Further, in linewith the recommendations of the JusticeVerma Committee, introduction of a vic-tim-neutral provision that deals with non-penetrative acts of sexual violence couldalso be considered.

Such an approach would recogniseLGBTQ people’s right to sexual autono-my and choice and also obviate concernsof the use of a dated provision like Section377 in instances of sexual violence.Neutrality of the perpetrator is, howev-er, a more complex issue and wouldrequire further research to be undertak-en before being considered.

However, neutrality cannot be theonly answer to LGBTQ inclusion in thelaw and much more needs to be done inorder to make access to justice a reality.This requires measures such as greaterlegal education, sensitisation of lawenforcement authorities etc.

In India, even instances of workplacesexual harassment are dealt by the SexualHarassment of Women at Workplace(Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal)Act, 2013 (POSH Act). Provisions in theAct, however, only recognise the com-plainant to be an “aggrieved woman”under Section 2(a), thereby excludingtransgender persons and precluding thepossibility of LGBTQ people being sub-jects of workplace sexual harassment.

Further, law and Government poli-cies also render transgender identity invis-ible by operating in the categories of maleand female or by providing only male and

female prefixes such as Smt/Shri etc. Considering the nature of identity,

there is a need to strongly considerwhether requiring one’s gender status isnecessary for a scheme or policy. Wheregender is irrelevant, schemes or policescan be actively un-gendered. The samelogic could also be extended to forms inthe private sector where details regard-ing gender identity may be irrelevant tothe purpose for which the form is beingfilled. Active un-gendering of forms is alsoin line with international best practices.

In instances, where gender specifica-tion is relevant for a scheme or collectionof such data is necessary for policy pur-poses, the requirement to provide gen-der status must also account for transgen-der persons.

Further, the law also tends to freezeidentities at birth which goes against thefluid nature of identity. The Registrationof Births and Deaths Act, 1969 opera-tionalised through State rules and forms,only recognises two sexes i.e. male andfemale in the birth certificate. Recordingthis attribute is also mandatory, whichthus results in the assignment of sex andeventually gender within the male-female binary. This binary understand-ing of male and female sex also indicateshow persons with intersex variation i.e.those who do not fit into either of the twosexes are rendered invisible by the law,which ends up force-fitting them into thetwo categories.

Further, such laws also cause themedical community to perform non-con-sensual medical procedures on minorswith intersex variations so that their bod-ies fit into the binary of male or female.

Conversations with doctors revealedthat there is no uniform protocol forassigning sex at birth and shockingly, insome cases the choice of sex in infants isbased on the surgical intervention that

would be easiest to fit the infant into eithermale or female depending on the shapeof the genitalia. The need for an objec-tive medical protocol in this regard is thuspressing.

In fact, most recently, the MadrasHigh Court in a path-breaking judgementheld that non-consensual surgery oninfants with intersex variations was a vio-lation of the SC’s judgment and directedthe Government of Tamil Nadu to issuean order prohibiting such surgeries oninfants. Similar measures are the need ofthe hour in other States as well. Ironically,in spite of the recognition of the trans-gender identity and an individual’s fun-damental right to choose one’s genderidentity in the SC’s judgment in NationalLegal Services Authority Vs Union ofIndia, way back in 2014, laws have notresponded adequately and still remainunclear on what the consequences of achange in gender identity would be andhow rights and liabilities translate postsuch a change.

Even the recently introducedTransgender (Protection of Rights) Bill2018 remains completely silent on this.Illustratively, does a marriage dissolveupon a change in gender identity becausesame-gender marriages are not recog-nised in India? Countries like Malta,Argentina and Norway have clarified theimpact of such a change on the rights ofpersons who change their gender iden-tity in their gender identity laws. It’s timeIndia does the same and also makes lawsmore inclusive for the LGBTQ commu-nity.

The fact remains that India is hometo more than 55 million LGBTQ adultsand the country as a whole cannot affordto ignore them anymore, both as individ-uals, a market and as a talent pool.

(The writer is a Research Fellow at theVidhi Centre for Legal Policy)

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Considered a formidable natur-al fortress, the Amazon rain-forests have a legendary repu-

tation due to their density, whichreaches almost mythical levels. But thespectre of climate change seems to becatching up with these awe-inspiringecological assets as well. This year hasbeen particularly punishing, as Brazil’sNational Institute for Space Research(NISR) detected 72,000 fires betweenJanuary and August 2019 and around9,500 conflagrations since lastThursday alone.

According to the space agency andsatellite data, wildfires in the Amazonrainforest rose by 84 per cent this year.The world’s largest, these rainforestsplay the role of a carbon sink and slow

down the rate of global warming. Apartfrom this, they are home to millions ofanimal species and indigenous popu-lations. Anthropogenic interventionhad been nibbling away at these forestsfor long but till now this ecological mar-vel had been successful in keeping itsadverse impact at bay. Sadly, now thecombined impact of human interven-tion coupled with climate change isbeginning to tell on the health of theserainforests.

The intensity and the consequentdamage caused by these blazes can begauged by the fact that the smoke ema-nating from these infernos caused anhour-long blackout in Sao Paulo, a city2,700 km away. While the dry seasonprovides favourable conditions forwildfires in Brazil, fires meant to clearthe land for cattle ranching also causethem. Amazonas, a state in northwest-ern Brazil, declared an emergency inthe wake of the conflagrations, whilesatellite images showed Roraimaengulfed in choking black smoke.

According to data published byNISR, the country saw 88 per centincrease in deforestation in June 2019,a figure that was instantly dismissed by

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro,who attributed it to farmers setting firesto clear land.

However, conservationists blameBolsonaro for encouraging loggersand farmers to clear the land, resultingin rampant forest fires and deforesta-tion. In fact, scientists believe the lossof forests in Amazon is taking place ata faster rate since the new Presidenttook office in January 2019.

Given the important role these nat-ural carbon sinks play in fighting glob-al warming, the Amazon conflagrations

have attracted world attention. OnAugust 23, 2019, the United Nationschief, Antonio Guterres, also expresseddeep concern over the fires and calledfor the protection of these rainforests.

Yet another cause for the spike inwildfires is the rapid rise in ambienttemperatures. In India, too, risingtemperatures play havoc with ourgreen cover. As many states witnessedhigher than normal maximum temper-ature this week, instances of large blazesincreased more than six times acrossthe country.

According to the IndiaMetrological Department (IMD) data,the average maximum temperatureshave been on the rise at most places inUttarakhand, Nagaland, Manipur,Mizoram, Tripura, Punjab, Haryana,Chandigarh, Delhi, east Uttar Pradesh,Jharkhand, Jammu & Kashmir, Bihar,Chhattisgarh, Marathwada and coastalAndhra Pradesh. The Forest Survey ofIndia’s (FSI’s) data shows that on anaverage, there are more than 100 large,active forest fires in the country. Thehighest number of blazes is beingreported from Uttarakhand,Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh andUttar Pradesh.

Another reason that literally addsfuel to forest fires is the scanty rainfall.These conditions are further exacerbat-ed in areas such as the Amazon wherethe loss of green cover is immediatelyapparent. In fact, studies show thatnearly 2.2 million square miles of theAmazon rainforest are nearing a tip-ping point, and large, fragmented por-tions of the rainforest could degradeinto an entirely different, drier ecosys-tem. This would lead to the accelera-tion of climate change, the loss of count-

less species and disaster for the indige-nous populations that call the tropicalrainforest home.

Be it forests in India or in theAmazon, they all have a crucial role toplay in containing climate change andabsorbing atmospheric carbon. Sadly,these precious carbon sinks are fallingprey to human greed.

In the case of the Amazon, thebiggest threat that is emerging is thepresence of economic interest groups,which are eating away at the Amazonrainforests such as cattle grazers andsoyabean growers. These humangroups are slowly wreaking havoc andthis is precisely what the countriesacross the world must fight to stop. Theimpact of climate change is becomingapparent in all walks of life and now theglobal forest covers, too, are notexempt. There need to be concertedglobal efforts to ensure that naturalassets are insulated against degradingdevelopments. The state of the Amazonrainforests due to the fires is nothingshort of unfortunate and needs imme-diate intervention and redressal.

(The writer is an environmentaljournalist)

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The Reserve Bank couldtransfer an additional �1.23

trillion from its surpluses to theGovernment, thanks to thegains from bond buying and achange in the accounting prac-tices of its forex operations,sources said Wednesday.

These two heads alonehave contributed as much as�57,000 crore to the income ofthe central bank, people in theknow explained.

There has been widespreadcriticism after the RBI agreedto part �1.76 trillion with thegovernment following theBimal Jalan committee reporton the appropriate economiccapital framework for the cen-tral bank. The �1.76 trillionincludes a surplus of �1.23 tril-lion and �52,000 crore in one-time surplus.

The higher quantum ofbond buying to inject liquidi-ty into the system has result-ed in additional income of�36,000 crore, while the

changes in accounting prac-tices resulted in gains of�21,000 crore, the source said.

Without quantifying thegains, the source also said thatthere is no need to providemoney against potential risksas the capital required is fallingwithin the levels prescribed bythe Jalan committee.

“These three heads (OMOincome, change in forexaccounting and zero provi-sions) are all independentevents that have taken place atthe some point during the fis-cal year,” the source explained.

On the one-time transferof �52,000 crore, the sourcesaid passing the money to thegovernment is considered a“much neater” way of trans-ferring the excess reservesidentified by the Jalan com-mittee.

The source said the Jalancommittee was extra conserv-ative while prescribing the pre-ferred levels of buffers requiredto be maintained, and takesinto account a scenario wherethe 10 largest banks go downsimultaneously in an owner-ship-agnostic way.

The levels prescribed aresuch that the RBI will be ableto carry on its role as the lenderof last resort even if these 10banks were to go down, thesource pointed out.

The Jalan panel has askedthe central bank to maintain itsrisk buffers in the range of 5.5-

6.5 percent of its overall bal-ance sheet and that the trans-fer of �52,000 crore will notforce the RBI to sell any assetsto meet this requirement, thesource said.

Replying to the initialexcitement after papers,including those published bysome “respected people” whichpegged the excess reserves at�3 trillion, the sourceexplained that the same stemsfrom the size of the currencyand gold revaluation account(CGRA).

The CGRA stood at �7.3trillion for the year June 2019(RBI follows a July-Juneaccounting calendar whichwill be changed to April-Marchfrom this year as per the Jalanpanel), which resulted in suchexpectations. However, thepanel has made it clear thatinvestments in both forex andgold are prone to volatilities,and only transaction on saleshould lead to booking ofprofit or losses which led to theexpectations being belied.

The panel has also feltthat paying interim dividend ashas been done in the last twoyears, is “not the right thing todo”, the source said.

However, the panel hasdefined the right level of thebuffers which takes care ofmany of those concerns, thesource said, adding the levelsare arrived at with a lot ofrigour.

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The National Company LawTribunal Wednesday

cleared the sale of IL&FS’sseven wind energy assets toJapan’s Orix Corporation for�4,800 crore, which will par-tially help reduce its debt bur-den of over �99,000 crore.

The tribunal comprising ofVP Singh and Rajesh Sharmaallowed the Government-appointed board’s plea toapprove sale of 51 percentstake in seven wind energyarms to Orix.

Orix Corporation isalready an equity partner in thegroup and owns 49 percentstake in each of these sevenoperating wind power plants.

The seven wind powerSPVs are Lalpur Wind Energy,Etesian Urja, Khandke WindEnergy, Retadi Wind Power,Wind Urja Indiae, Tadas WindEnergy and Kaze Energy.

The company shoulddeposit the fund from the asset

sale in an interest bearingaccount until further, the tri-bunal said.

Retired Supreme Courtjudge DK Jain had recom-mended that the proceeds fromthe sale of these seven assetsshould be kept in an escrowaccount.

Last month, IL&FS hadsaid it would completely exitthe wind energy business, heldunder IL&FS Wind Energy toOrix, with NCLT for finalapproval.

The proposal was filedbefore the tribunal after com-pleting a binding share pur-chase agreement with Orixand obtaining an in-principleapproval from all lenders.

Jain had approved sale onconditions that the proposalwould be placed before NCLTfor approval and the bidamount realised from the salebe kept in an escrow accountand the money would be dis-bursed only on the orders anddirections of theNCLT/NCLAT.

This intent to buy 51 per-cent stake was in exercise ofOrix’s right under the terms ofan existing MoU wherein Orixcan match the price offered bythe highest bidder for pur-chasing these assets.

Orix decided to match theoffer of the highest bidder, ofabout �4,800 crore for 100percent of enterprise value,contemplating no haircut to thedebt of the SPVs aggregating toaround �3,700 crore.

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The recent amendments toanti-money laundering

rules allowing voluntary use ofAadhaar for opening of bankaccounts and the modalities ofdigital KYC for cases whereverification is done using otherdocuments like voter ID anddriving licence will make theprocess secure and convenientfor users, UIDAI CEO said onWednesday.

The Government, lastweek, had notified amend-ments to the Prevention ofM o n e y - L a u n d e r i n g(Maintenance of Records) rulesto allow voluntary use of thebiometric identifier for open-ing of bank accounts, and hadalso spelt out the detailed pro-cedure for ‘digital KYC’ to beperformed in case of verifica-tion done via documents likevoter ID and driving licence.

The notification now pavesthe way for use of various veri-fication mechanisms — AadhaareKYC where Aadhaar docu-ments are given voluntarily,

offline verification and DigitalKYC (Know Your Customer) foropening bank accounts.

The same procedure willalso be applicable for invest-ment in mutual funds andopening of demat accounts.

“Digital KYC has been suc-cessful in telecom sector forissuing mobile connections.For bank accounts too, now ifsomeone has paper Aadhaar,voter ID or driving licence,then the person can go forDigital KYC, like in the telecomsector,” Unique IdentificationAuthority of India (UIDAI)CEO Ajay Bhushan Pandeytold PTI.

Digital KYC will involvecapturing the live photo of thecustomer and officially validdocuments or proof of posses-sion of Aadhaar where offlineverification cannot be carriedout, along with latitude andlongitude of the location wheresuch live photo is being takenby an authorised officer of thebank. A step-by-step procedurehas been laid down for per-forming Digital KYC.

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French carmak-er Renault

today unveiledtheir latest prod-uct in the Indianmarket the hatch-back Triber,which will how-ever feature athird-row of seats.The French car-maker is claimingthat this seven-seater is the mostversatile car in itsclass andV e n k a t r a mMa m i l l ap a l l e ,M a n a g i n gDirector, RenaultIndia believes that the car-maker has another hit on theirhands. Featuring a three-cylin-der one-litre petrol enginewith 72PS of power, the Triberwill be available in four vari-ants with prices starting at�4.95 lakh and go up to �6.49lakh, significantly undercuttingboth the Hyundai i10 Nios andMaruti-Suzuki Swift.

Speaking to The Pioneer,Mamillapalle said that heexpects demand from ruralIndia to be a major driver forRenault going forward. “Indiancities are very congested and

many youngsters in cities arenow looking at shared mobil-ity options, but we believethere are opportunities insmaller towns and rural India.Today 30 per cent of our salescome from rural areas andthat number will only increase.”With the carmaker having

plans to double the number ofoutlets it has from 350 to 700by the end of 2020 serving 330cities and towns across thecountry it also plans to doubleits marketshare with productslike the Triber and others in thepipeline. “Several new outletswill be on the ultra-light andlight asset models, which willalso help our existing dealersexpand”, he added.

Mamillapalle also spokeabout the dramatic decline incar sales and whether theslew of measures by theFinance Ministry will help. “I

believe the short-term actionsbeing taken by the FinanceMinistry will give an impetusto demand. The slowdown insales was something we couldsee ever since demonetisationand the decline of the real-estate sector. There has alsobeen confusion around BS4

and BS6 and an overall neg-ative sentiment. One reasonI am bullish about futureprospects is because I feel thereal-estate sector is recover-ing in smaller towns andrural areas, which also is areason for our rural push.”Renault India plans to startproducing BS6 vehicles fromearly-2020 and has alsoannounced that they, likeMaruti-Suzuki, will be with-drawing from the diesel seg-ment entirely from April,2020 when BS6 emissionnorms come into force.

����� � 0�

The rupee declined by 29paise to close at 71.77

against the US dollar onWednesday as fears of animpending global recessionprompted investors to stick tosafe-haven assets like theJapanese yen.

Rising crude oil prices andweakness in the equity marketput further pressure on thedomestic currency, forex deal-ers said.

At the interbank foreignexchange market, the rupeeopened on the back foot at71.50 a dollar and went on totouch the day’s low of 71.87. Itfinally pared some losses to set-tle at 71.77, down by 29 paiseagainst its previous close.

On Tuesday, the rupee hadzoomed 54 paise to finish at71.48.

Global equities struggledwhile gold and yen held on togains following the latest inver-sion of yield curves of USTreasury bonds, which is seenas a signal of an approachingrecession.

With the US-China trade

talks showing no signs of a res-olution, chances of the globaleconomy tipping into a slow-down remain quite high, ana-lysts said.

“Global sentimentsremained muted with uncer-tainty around the US-Chinatrade deal and growth,” saidSunil Sharma, ChiefInvestment Officer, SanctumWealth Management.

Crude oil benchmark BrentFutures spurted 1.21 per cent totrade at $60.23 per barrel onWednesday.

The dollar index — whichgauges the greenback’s strengthagainst a basket of six curren-cies — rose 0.10 per cent to98.09.

The 10-year Indian gov-ernment bond yield was up at6.58 per cent.Foreign institu-tional investors (FIIs) remainednet sellers in the capital mar-kets, pulling out �923.94 croreon Tuesday, as per provisionaldata.

Meanwhile, domesticbenchmark indices snappedtheir three-session rising streakamid losses in metals, energy,banking and auto counters.

New Delhi: To celebrate the Independence Day fervor in themonth of August, Indian Paper Manufacturers Association(IPMA) reached out to people in the capital with the messageof using paper and enjoying freedom to choose green.

“True freedom lies in the choices we make. Paper has cometo provide an effective and eco-friendly alternative and can helpusers make a green choice”, said Rohit Pandit, secretary gener-al IPMA. The complexion of Paper Industry has changed overthe years. Today the industry is far more innovative and able toprovide a wide variety of products and solutions which find appli-cation in e-commerce, FMCG, pharmaceuticals, food packag-ing etc., stated IPMA. PNS

����� 0���4

Foreign businesses in Chinaare ill-prepared for the

tough sanctions and constantsurveillance demanded by asocial credit system to berolled out this year, a Europeanbusiness group warnedWednesday.

Under this new systemfor ranking businesses, bothforeign and domestic compa-nies will be required to installsurveillance cameras in theirpremises and share the datawith the Government.

Those who violate ruleswill be placed in “blacklists”and subjected to “immediateand severe punishments”, theEU Chamber of Commerce inChina said in a report pub-lished Wednesday.

The sanctions are not lim-ited to penalties but alsoinclude more frequent inspec-tions, customs delays, not get-ting subsidies or tax rebatesand public shaming, the reportadded.

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Iran will open a branch of itsBank Pasargad in India in the

next 2-3 months to help boosttrade between the two nationsat a time when US economicsanctions have blocked inter-national banking channels.

Ali Chegeni, Iran’sAmbassador to India, saidPasargad has received all nec-essary approvals includingfrom the Reserve Bank of India(RBI) to commercial bankingoperations.

“It (Bank Pasargad) will startoperations in 2-3 months,” he saidon sidelines of an industry eventhere. Oil was the biggest com-modity traded between the twocountries with India buying onan average $1 billion worth ofcrude oil from the Persian Gulfnation every month.

But, after the US imposedpartial economic sanctions onIran in November last year,India’s purchase of oil from thePersian Gulf nation was start-ed in the rupee instead of USdollars.

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The initiatives taken in lastfour years have resulted in

increase in number of Indianseafarers to 2.08 lakh, and thecount will reach five lakh in thecoming years, the Governmentsaid on Wednesday.

The sector is seeing majordevelopments in the areas ofcoastal shipping, inland water-ways and other maritime activ-ities. This is leading to gener-ation of employment in the sec-tor, which is evident in thegrowing number of Indian sea-

farers in the international ship-ping industry, Minister of Statefor Shipping MansukhMandaviya said.

“Maritime sector is a verybig opportunity for employ-ment generation. The initiativestaken by us in the last fouryears has resulted in increase inseafarers from 1 lakh to 2.08lakh.

“Today we have reached2.08 lakh. In the coming yearswe will take it to 5 lakh. Fivelakh youth will get job oppor-tunity in maritme sector,” theminister said.

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Japanese auto majors ToyotaMotor Corporation and

Suzuki Motor Corporation onWednesday said they wouldacquire stake in each other asthey seek to strengthen theiralliance. As part of a capitalalliance agreement, Toyota willacquire 2.4 crore shares of com-mon stock in Suzuki (4.94 percent stake) for 96 billion yen(over �6,510 crore), while Suzukiplans to acquire shares in Toyotaequivalent to 48 billion yen(around �3,255 crore).

On October 12, 2016, the twocompanies had first announcedtheir business partnership. InMarch this year, they agreed toengage in joint product develop-ment and collaboration in pro-duction, in addition to promot-ing mutual supply of products bybringing together Toyota’sstrength in electrification tech-nologies and Suzuki’s strength intechnologies for compact vehicle.Elaborating on the reasons fortheir capital alliance, Toyota andSuzuki in a joint statement saidthe automobile sector was cur-rently experiencing a turningpoint unprecedented in bothscope and scale, not only becauseof enhanced environmental reg-ulations but also from new entriesfrom distinct industries anddiversified mobility businesses.

����� ��������

French auto major Renault isbetting on Indian small

towns and rural markets as itlooks to double sales here in thenext three years, a senior com-pany official said.

The company, which cur-rently sells around 80,000 unitsannually, aims to start selling 2lakh units in the country overthe next three years, aided bynew model launches and high-er sales in rural markets.

Renault, which launchedcompact seven-seater multi pur-pose vehicle Triber pricedbetween �4.95 lakh and �6.49lakh on Wednesday, aims tointroduce one new product eachyear till 2022 which would bespecifically designed and devel-oped for the Indian market.

“Every year we will launcha new product in India. We arenot going to be a ‘me too’ prod-uct. We are going to be veryinnovative for the Indian mar-ket, designed for the Indiancustomers, like the way Triberis,” Renault India OperationsCountry CEO and MDVenkatram Mamillapalle toldreporters here.

He further said, “We don’twant to bring products which

are very successful in Brazil andRussia and bring it to India —that was Captur, and we don’twant to make the same mistake.”

Mamillapalle said the com-pany made mistakes by fol-lowing the market and launch-ing ‘me too’ products. “Wewill no longer go into thatdirection. That is a mistakeRenault did in the past,” he said.

Commenting on the sig-nificance of the small townsand rural market in India, he

said the potential of buying carsthere was developing and wasbecoming as good as that ofurban market.

“These towns are all slow-ly expanding and as theyexpand, their transportationneeds are also increasing... Weare currently selling around 500cars per month in rural areas,”he said, adding that the com-pany aims rural sales toaccount for around 30 per centof its total sales in India.

The company at presentjust gets about 2 per cent of itsoverall sales from rural markets.

“As we move ahead, wehave a mid-term plan of up to2022 to double our marketshare, which means doubleour volumes. Which means wecan’t be doing only in a con-centrated market place. Ruralmarkets offer a solid potential.They are evolving very fast,”Mamillapalle said.

Elaborating on company’ssales network push to attaintargets, Mamillapalle saidRenault would double its salesnetwork, which currentlystands at around 360 outlets, bythe end of the next year.Majority of these new outletswould come up in rural mar-kets, he added.

����� � 0�

The BSE Sensex snappedits three-session risingstreak to close 189 points

lower on Wednesday, led bylosses in metals, energy, bank-ing and auto counters, as glob-al markets wobbled amid reces-sion fears.

Profit-booking followingthe recent rally and a depreci-ating rupee also weighed onbourses, traders said.

Additionally, India Ratingslowered the country’s growthforecast to a six-year low of 6.7per cent for the current fiscalfrom its earlier estimate of7.3% on account of slowdownin consumption and modera-tion in industrial growth,

among other factors.After a choppy session,

the 30-share Sensex settled189.43 points, or 0.50%, lowerat 37,451.84. Similarly, thebroader NSE Nifty fell 59.25points, or 0.53%, to 11,046.10.

Global equities were heldback by fears of an impendingrecession following the latestinversion of yield curves of USTreasury bonds — seen as a pre-dictor of economic contraction.

Yes Bank was the biggestloser in the Sensex pack, plung-ing 7.47%, after Moody’sInvestors Service downgradedthe lender’s long-term foreign-currency issuer rating, termingthe bank’s outlook as negative.

Vedanta, Tata Steel, TataMotors, ONGC, M&M,

Maruti, NTPC and HUL toofell up to 4.06%.

On the other hand, HCLTech, Infosys, Tech Mahindra,HDFC, TCS and Asian Paintsrose up to 2.61%.

“Despite reversal in sur-charge, FPIs continued to benet sellers due to clouds overglobal trade discrepancies, riskof recession and fall in bondyields, which are having a rip-ple effect on the market.Consensus estimate a drop indomestic Q1FY20 GDP growthto 5.7% and weakening rupeeimpacted investors’ optimismon earnings outlook,” saidVinod Nair, head of research atGeojit Financial Services.

Sectorally, the BSE metal,auto, power, utilities, bankex,

industrials, energy and financeindices tumbled up to 3.40% .Realty, IT and teck indices set-tled up to 1.86 per cent higher.

The broader BSE midcapand smallcap indices too ended0.92% lower.

Elsewhere in Asia,Shanghai Composite Index andHang Seng ended in the red,while Kospi and Nikkei settledon a positive note. Equities inEurope were trading in the neg-ative zone in their respectiveearly sessions.

Meanwhile, the Indianrupee depreciated 27 paise to71.75 against the US dollarintra-day. Brent crude futures,the global oil benchmark, rose1.07 per cent to USD 59.66 perbarrel.

New Delhi (PTI): Stating that everyeconomy faces headwinds and India wasno exception, mining major Vedanta saidthe country’s economy was going througha “transition”. The remarks come at a timewhen IMF and Asian Development Bank(ADB) have lowered India’s growth fore-cast, citing global and domestic headwinds.

“I think every country, every economyfaces headwinds. Ours is no exception. Youare aware that in auto and other sectors, slow-down has happened in the past but at the

same time you have also seen the packagewhich has come from the finance ministry...you have to remember that our economy isgoing through a transition,” Ajay Kapur,CEO, aluminium and power, Vedanta toldreporters here on Tuesday. The company, aleading primary metal producer, further saidit was producing new products, especiallyfor the auto sector which would be a gamechanger in the time to come.

When asked if it was a good idea toproduce new products for the auto sector,

which is going through a slowdown, hesaid, “slowdown is there today, but will itremain for all time to come? You are awarethat in auto and other sectors slowdownhas happened in the past.”

The company said it was focusing a loton value-added products, including billetsand wire rods.

When asked if the company was plan-ning to tap any new market, Kapur said,within India the company was concen-trating more on value addition.

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New Delhi (PTI): Frenchauto major Renault onWednesday said it wouldbring electric vehicle (EV) inIndia by 2022 but wanted thegovernment to aggressivelydevelop ecosystem “beforeany forced” launches in thecountry.

Stating that India wasstill not equipped with theecosytstem for EVs, RenaultIndia Operations CountryCEO and MD VenkatramMamillapalle said launchingEVs now and “having the carsin the garages makes nosense”.

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Script Open High Low LTPRCOM 0.99 0.99 0.93 0.93YESBANK 65.00 65.20 58.05 59.50RBLBANK 352.95 359.00 291.90 313.65IBULHSGFIN 465.00 473.70 446.65 457.05TATAMOTORS 120.75 124.05 114.75 116.35HDFCLIFE 556.90 557.50 538.25 547.20IDEA 5.33 5.37 4.95 5.01HDFCBANK 2255.00 2256.00 2225.20 2247.90BOMDYEING 84.90 85.60 79.20 80.45MARUTI 6264.00 6264.00 6051.20 6094.90SPICEJET 131.80 133.80 128.50 129.15RELIANCE 1276.00 1280.50 1256.85 1263.05TATASTEEL 350.00 350.60 333.60 336.85LICHSGFIN 425.00 428.05 410.35 417.80INDUSINDBK 1367.05 1407.00 1354.35 1365.05HDFCAMC 2407.00 2477.00 2365.20 2399.15COALINDIA 188.70 192.55 184.25 185.20DLF 160.80 165.65 158.70 164.20OBEROIRLTY 498.95 542.45 495.60 538.30SBIN 287.25 287.25 282.20 284.90JINDALSTEL 104.40 104.40 94.95 95.80DHFL 48.25 49.20 46.00 48.30LT 1360.55 1369.00 1337.00 1344.75TATAGLOBAL 272.80 281.00 267.85 280.00BHARTIARTL 351.50 351.50 335.95 345.85EDELWEISS 117.00 124.65 114.00 118.85BBTC 929.00 945.00 883.00 892.80J&KBANK 36.75 41.85 36.25 39.10ICICIPRULI 403.00 420.00 398.10 417.20

ASHOKLEY 67.20 67.55 65.65 66.75RPOWER 3.19 3.23 3.01 3.05BAJFINANCE 3370.00 3370.00 3300.50 3326.45INFY 785.10 804.90 785.10 802.10RELCAPITAL 36.50 36.65 33.85 34.65ZEEL 363.90 370.00 360.95 364.25ICICIBANK 418.90 418.90 409.80 413.05HINDUNILVR 1841.20 1847.65 1813.20 1827.75BANKBARODA 97.40 97.65 93.80 94.50RELINFRA 40.30 41.10 37.35 38.25KOTAKBANK 1503.00 1503.05 1473.60 1483.60HDFC 2178.00 2193.10 2156.40 2187.40RNAM 257.50 280.80 257.50 277.30DMART 1524.00 1578.00 1520.95 1554.10MOTHERSUMI 101.00 104.25 96.85 97.65L&TFH 98.30 98.95 92.90 94.70VEDL 138.20 138.50 131.50 132.20BRITANNIA 2725.00 2743.00 2670.35 2702.40IBREALEST 73.20 73.70 70.10 71.85NOCIL 87.85 93.50 87.45 91.35ITC 247.00 247.55 243.10 245.80DELTACORP 165.00 173.30 164.20 168.50HINDPETRO 257.05 268.55 255.45 265.00JSWSTEEL 214.40 214.50 203.00 205.90IDBI 28.75 28.75 25.90 26.75GODFRYPHLP 1023.00 1098.00 1023.00 1036.50ONGC 125.50 125.95 120.50 121.15SUNPHARMA 417.00 421.70 411.60 412.75MCX 908.00 948.00 904.00 942.60KALPATPOWR 477.25 477.80 415.10 441.05JUBILANT 408.00 419.90 396.00 415.70BEML 770.00 814.95 770.00 801.35POWERGRID 207.05 211.20 204.40 205.70BIOCON 229.10 229.30 219.00 220.90TCS 2242.00 2251.10 2216.05 2239.65TATAMTRDVR 56.40 57.80 53.10 53.60TITAN 1130.00 1131.40 1108.30 1110.80PCJEWELLER 34.70 36.15 34.30 35.20TAKE 107.00 122.50 106.70 117.45UPL 556.00 571.60 546.60 557.25ICICIGI 1212.95 1254.45 1212.95 1249.40ADANITRANS 238.95 239.75 232.05 234.55HCLTECH 1096.55 1128.25 1092.30 1123.40IGL 332.50 349.00 330.95 332.65INDIGO 1658.00 1664.35 1632.65 1659.50PETRONET 260.05 260.90 256.25 259.85AXISBANK 684.90 689.50 673.80 678.10ESCORTS 495.80 500.15 486.60 492.65TATAELXSI 657.00 669.00 643.00 648.75CANBK 231.30 231.60 224.95 226.45SRTRANSFIN 1028.95 1032.55 980.45 991.45IPCALAB 988.20 993.50 923.40 938.65HEROMOTOCO 2607.00 2626.40 2555.45 2569.65APOLLOHOSP 1477.00 1530.30 1477.00 1522.10PNB 67.20 67.95 64.90 65.70IOC 125.05 126.80 121.80 122.95NBCC 36.90 36.90 35.50 36.00TECHM 678.80 693.00 676.70 690.55JUBLFOOD 1209.90 1223.30 1178.00 1184.60BHEL 52.65 53.40 50.60 51.25UJJIVAN 293.00 293.00 275.15 283.90M&M 556.40 559.85 535.05 539.90

JUSTDIAL 697.95 709.65 689.10 705.15JAICORPLTD 77.65 78.80 73.75 75.05BAJAJFINSV 7100.00 7137.10 6990.00 7034.00ULTRACEMCO 4135.00 4184.80 4090.50 4122.75EICHERMOT 16123.05 16337.50 15842.30 16295.45APOLLOTYRE 174.00 174.00 166.95 168.30PEL 1948.00 1949.95 1869.50 1895.35HEG 965.75 970.00 931.10 934.70NIITTECH 1430.10 1540.50 1430.10 1523.70GRAPHITE 293.50 293.55 278.35 281.05BANKINDIA 69.75 70.60 66.60 67.70SAIL 32.85 32.85 30.85 31.05NCC 60.00 60.75 58.20 59.35IDFCFIRSTB 43.50 43.55 41.85 42.15WIPRO 250.00 253.15 248.25 249.20BPCL 342.30 352.25 337.65 350.25GAIL 131.50 133.55 127.50 128.00DISHTV 24.40 24.80 22.75 23.00SUNTECK 468.30 468.30 449.30 456.65TATAPOWER 55.30 55.80 53.80 55.35INDIACEM 76.25 78.50 73.75 75.45CIPLA 468.90 476.10 460.40 464.00ADANIPOWER 59.25 60.25 58.05 59.25MINDTREE 680.00 688.00 670.45 677.15PFC 106.05 106.05 102.55 103.20IBVENTURES 187.80 189.35 179.25 181.40STRTECH 126.50 126.80 121.10 122.25GODREJCP 603.70 604.00 587.60 600.00WELCORP 116.00 122.75 116.00 118.85BAJAJ-AUTO 2740.00 2814.45 2740.00 2764.55SWANENERGY 118.85 119.90 111.05 113.25ERIS 380.70 380.70 371.05 375.35HUDCO 38.80 39.15 36.25 36.95FEDERALBNK 84.20 85.30 81.50 81.80BEL 103.20 104.50 102.70 103.85ADANIPORTS 374.00 374.00 364.00 366.05ITI 65.80 68.70 65.00 67.25COFFEEDAY 89.00 89.00 82.75 82.75UFLEX 212.50 213.90 209.50 210.70HINDALCO 181.50 181.85 176.50 178.40FORCEMOT 1275.00 1289.10 1248.00 1251.75BAJAJELEC 391.90 406.10 387.70 396.50M&MFIN 339.00 339.00 315.70 319.90ADANIENT 136.85 137.00 132.20 135.45INDIANB 197.45 199.80 187.00 196.35GRASIM 730.00 732.45 708.85 713.55DRREDDY 2550.25 2568.50 2504.05 2511.05EQUITAS 111.90 111.90 101.30 105.00LTTS 1626.80 1653.00 1579.95 1592.05THOMASCOOK 132.00 140.00 130.25 133.45TATACOFFEE 72.20 77.50 72.15 75.50JINDALSAW 72.20 72.35 67.30 67.80GNFC 193.00 193.20 181.75 182.80AUROPHARMA 590.10 601.25 586.15 591.00ENGINERSIN 105.40 107.80 103.50 104.05ASIANPAINT 1600.00 1606.15 1590.80 1603.70SPARC 143.90 144.30 139.00 141.35TIMETECHNO 64.65 73.90 64.10 64.85ACC 1535.00 1549.95 1520.30 1541.35NMDC 84.00 84.00 80.40 80.95SBILIFE 835.00 839.85 822.00 828.20CHOLAFIN 272.05 274.25 264.10 266.35NIACL 110.00 110.40 106.20 106.75TATACHEM 561.20 567.80 558.80 565.15BATAINDIA 1519.00 1520.75 1502.30 1507.70LUPIN 740.00 751.25 726.00 732.35RAYMOND 586.00 599.80 567.00 572.50UNIONBANK 62.70 63.40 59.85 60.35REDINGTON 102.70 112.50 102.00 110.05NTPC 123.40 124.70 119.50 119.90GSPL 214.55 220.00 212.60 218.80HAVELLS 663.40 668.60 660.05 665.85DBL 381.50 387.10 372.35 375.85MGL 870.00 871.45 851.25 855.70RAJESHEXPO 693.55 703.50 684.00 695.00PIDILITIND 1371.50 1387.75 1365.00 1378.80HATHWAY 30.30 33.20 28.85 33.20AJANTPHARM 951.00 1008.00 943.65 985.45STAR 380.00 385.60 370.70 373.70NESTLEIND 12440.00 12850.55 12425.00 12514.70JBCHEPHARM 374.50 376.25 373.50 375.80REPCOHOME 315.75 334.85 315.45 319.10CEATLTD 925.00 925.00 878.60 911.60VIPIND 419.15 427.05 410.45 414.50VOLTAS 619.00 628.40 614.65 625.85NETWORK18 21.45 24.25 21.45 22.80PHILIPCARB 117.95 118.60 113.10 113.95IRB 82.85 83.95 77.55 78.25RADICO 315.10 318.45 303.75 305.05WOCKPHARMA 258.00 259.25 250.15 252.40MANAPPURAM 122.50 123.45 120.55 121.40MAHINDCIE 157.65 160.80 152.10 156.65ABCAPITAL 89.80 90.25 87.40 87.70MARICO 386.95 392.15 382.80 391.20TV18BRDCST 20.50 22.70 20.40 21.60CADILAHC 220.00 224.60 216.50 223.25CANFINHOME 399.00 408.80 392.10 404.65COLPAL 1204.25 1217.60 1199.50 1212.15PRESTIGE 292.80 296.95 290.75 295.85ADANIGREEN 45.80 45.80 43.60 44.35GRUH 251.80 256.40 250.25 253.55CHAMBLFERT 148.40 154.50 148.25 153.00TORNTPOWER 284.00 287.90 278.40 280.90FSL 49.65 50.25 47.65 47.85HEXAWARE 394.95 397.00 385.20 386.55SUNTV 450.55 456.30 434.60 441.80MMTC 19.85 19.85 18.55 18.60TVSMOTOR 371.00 372.60 356.50 359.50AVANTI 305.05 312.60 302.70 309.70

WABAG 279.95 287.25 277.50 281.60CENTURYTEX 852.05 859.95 839.40 847.45NAUKRI 2007.65 2047.00 1974.55 2005.95GLENMARK 376.40 382.15 371.70 378.30DCBBANK 200.00 202.30 198.30 199.15CASTROLIND 126.90 128.40 122.25 123.80LTI 1633.10 1653.85 1630.00 1638.40VENKYS 1419.75 1421.05 1368.00 1376.60GODREJIND 435.40 441.95 425.00 425.75GALAXYSURF 1320.80 1330.80 1297.45 1316.20OIL 150.00 150.00 143.35 143.85ABB 1381.80 1390.00 1352.40 1361.30SCI 28.40 28.60 26.80 27.40AMBUJACEM 205.00 207.40 202.90 205.00GODREJPROP 892.05 903.60 889.00 893.05DEEPAKNI 286.80 294.00 284.20 285.95PVR 1562.00 1593.75 1544.85 1579.75RAIN 83.45 83.70 79.40 80.45KAJARIACER 483.00 487.75 468.85 472.50BLISSGVS 97.90 100.90 95.90 96.95SOUTHBANK 11.60 11.60 11.09 11.18DABUR 441.85 442.00 433.15 434.50RELAXO 448.95 456.30 435.20 441.90SOBHA 505.45 531.50 503.75 525.60MINDACORP 95.50 96.55 89.05 91.05JSLHISAR 65.00 65.00 61.80 63.00NATIONALUM 40.90 40.90 39.45 39.85RECLTD 145.45 145.45 140.20 140.95HSCL 81.00 82.70 79.05 79.75CROMPTON 225.85 228.00 225.85 226.30BHARATFORG 395.30 401.20 387.85 389.80SRF 2800.00 2828.30 2762.35 2775.05CARERATING 535.25 547.80 527.85 542.95MFSL 441.95 444.00 427.90 430.10EIDPARRY 154.00 161.65 151.60 152.25ALBK 35.20 35.70 34.20 34.85INTELLECT 215.20 218.00 211.00 214.45SUVEN 263.80 264.00 254.55 255.50GSFC 74.50 75.60 71.70 72.35PHOENIXLTD 690.85 699.95 654.80 684.95BERGEPAINT 368.00 368.20 362.45 366.50EXIDEIND 183.00 183.00 177.90 178.50RITES 236.80 237.65 226.85 228.05PIIND 1137.80 1138.00 1110.00 1118.60JKTYRE 58.95 59.30 56.85 57.35ENDURANCE 885.45 915.50 879.15 895.55LAOPALA 165.00 188.65 159.70 176.60CUMMINSIND 569.50 578.00 556.00 569.10CUB 197.35 197.35 192.60 193.45UBL 1368.80 1368.80 1318.65 1329.30DEEPAKFERT 82.80 85.50 80.05 81.05SUZLON 4.33 4.33 4.06 4.17PTC 56.30 57.60 56.00 56.50VINATIORGA 2142.75 2192.95 2141.35 2167.10SHANKARA 287.90 287.90 259.50 261.70JYOTHYLAB 146.55 148.75 144.60 146.70MINDAIND 340.00 340.00 329.05 336.05RCF 41.40 42.40 40.10 40.60SOMANYCERA 324.00 324.00 287.05 291.45TRENT 476.90 481.50 472.00 474.25GHCL 195.55 199.20 192.75 193.85KTKBANK 78.70 78.85 75.30 75.70DIVISLAB 1565.00 1613.70 1565.00 1575.65ITDCEM 74.20 74.20 68.00 69.15TORNTPHARM 1687.70 1695.50 1661.40 1668.60FCONSUMER 28.65 29.45 28.15 28.75THYROCARE 468.30 475.00 467.60 471.85FRETAIL 401.00 402.00 390.00 393.80SUNDRMFAST 444.00 444.00 419.00 423.70PARAGMILK 146.25 146.60 136.80 137.45ISEC 220.00 232.50 220.00 227.35CAPPL 412.00 432.00 412.00 413.70ADANIGAS 149.00 150.00 146.10 146.80KEC 252.75 252.75 242.00 242.85INFRATEL 245.25 250.45 244.85 248.90HEIDELBERG 196.50 202.40 195.60 199.25WELSPUNIND 49.85 50.15 48.50 49.60BANDHANBNK 475.40 476.75 471.30 474.95SIEMENS 1197.10 1202.05 1173.50 1176.70ASHOKA 102.00 102.00 97.60 99.50LAKSHVILAS 42.75 42.75 40.75 40.75EMAMILTD 304.50 306.10 299.55 301.40HINDZINC 213.35 215.25 209.10 210.55SHK 136.00 137.50 129.50 130.75QUESS 469.15 472.00 459.75 464.60MEGH 47.10 47.75 45.65 45.85JAMNAAUTO 35.00 35.45 32.80 33.50MUTHOOTFIN 635.70 636.05 618.50 622.65AEGISLOG 197.10 198.00 190.10 196.00LALPATHLAB 1170.00 1184.25 1159.35 1169.70HERITGFOOD 336.05 344.00 331.25 334.60GRANULES 92.50 93.35 91.55 92.70PAGEIND 18399.00 18399.00 17934.00 18029.65JAGRAN 65.60 67.80 62.70 63.80BIRLACORPN 551.95 552.90 527.15 535.40CONCOR 490.00 499.00 482.60 485.10BLUESTARCO 754.55 760.65 719.00 736.40KEI 476.50 479.00 468.00 470.35ASTRAL 1289.60 1309.00 1289.60 1303.40SUPRAJIT 172.65 178.10 167.75 177.05HINDCOPPER 32.40 32.50 30.75 30.95SONATSOFTW 317.00 319.50 316.00 317.95COROMANDEL 386.55 389.00 376.70 385.80JPASSOCIAT 2.10 2.10 2.02 2.08AUBANK 667.75 682.45 666.35 669.25GMRINFRA 15.47 15.57 15.19 15.27VARROC 434.70 465.80 433.00 438.55AMARAJABAT 622.00 625.00 607.05 613.00ABFRL 195.95 198.50 190.00 191.00

ORIENTBANK 69.90 69.90 67.15 67.90SADBHAV 137.40 137.40 128.05 132.20DBCORP 137.50 139.30 135.00 136.25BALMLAWRIE 173.90 174.85 172.00 173.45NATCOPHARM 541.00 543.55 532.00 538.20COCHINSHIP 349.65 349.65 344.95 345.90HFCL 19.00 19.25 18.70 18.75KANSAINER 480.00 481.50 465.10 475.00CENTURYPLY 135.05 136.35 133.05 133.60ZYDUSWELL 1696.00 1696.00 1620.00 1632.45DCAL 171.50 173.60 165.35 169.50PGHL 4343.70 4418.00 4305.05 4318.40BALKRISIND 752.00 756.40 741.70 744.75GUJALKALI 414.85 415.15 396.20 400.85ORIENTCEM 82.65 84.20 78.85 83.90RAMCOCEM 759.60 765.80 741.70 751.80ITDC 179.50 182.25 165.00 167.60JISLJALEQS 20.15 20.40 19.50 19.85BAJAJHLDNG 3330.00 3335.00 3290.00 3296.45APLAPOLLO 1325.00 1325.00 1259.95 1272.75GEPIL 792.20 800.00 759.00 785.80JSWENERGY 68.85 69.00 66.50 67.20CREDITACC 524.35 532.00 520.00 524.75NLCINDIA 55.40 55.50 54.50 54.60GODREJAGRO 464.95 464.95 453.25 455.70HIMATSEIDE 133.45 133.45 128.45 128.95GICHSGFIN 181.00 182.25 178.80 180.05INFIBEAM 39.50 40.40 39.45 39.85TRIDENT 59.00 59.00 56.35 56.85SCHNEIDER 77.50 80.65 77.10 78.05LEMONTREE 56.20 57.60 56.20 57.10TATACOMM 421.35 426.20 416.05 421.45GREAVESCOT 126.20 126.50 121.60 124.10GRINDWELL 555.00 555.00 542.00 545.05PNBHOUSING 670.00 670.00 642.95 646.50GICRE 177.00 179.40 170.00 171.25ASTRAZEN 1872.80 1881.00 1820.00 1828.30MRPL 46.95 47.50 46.50 47.25NAVINFLUOR 732.90 732.90 713.60 718.40THERMAX 1003.30 1020.05 1002.05 1013.05DCMSHRIRAM 405.00 405.00 386.10 389.95CENTRALBK 20.10 20.20 18.00 19.50GLAXO 1227.00 1227.00 1194.00 1200.05BOSCHLTD 14698.00 14698.00 13987.05 14202.15MAHLIFE 373.80 375.50 364.15 368.40WESTLIFE 287.35 288.85 281.00 281.60JKCEMENT 1075.00 1085.05 1054.55 1062.60ASTERDM 118.10 119.25 117.00 117.65LINDEINDIA 522.00 524.00 504.90 509.25ESSELPRO 90.50 95.95 86.60 95.20IRCON 343.00 343.45 335.00 336.85NHPC 23.45 23.45 22.95 23.05INDHOTEL 137.05 139.50 137.05 138.70OFSS 3014.70 3020.00 3000.00 3006.70MOIL 127.60 127.90 123.25 124.00AIAENG 1555.90 1562.35 1533.00 1554.95JKLAKSHMI 326.95 327.00 324.05 324.95BAYERCROP 3100.00 3125.00 3071.00 3103.85KNRCON 225.95 228.10 218.10 219.85EVEREADY 84.05 85.05 78.20 82.20MPHASIS 971.10 983.35 963.45 976.65CYIENT 439.00 439.00 433.00 434.05SUPREMEIND 1135.00 1135.00 1105.80 1115.15LAXMIMACH 3800.00 3825.00 3757.00 3779.90AAVAS 1537.00 1570.00 1517.00 1554.00IDFC 35.00 35.00 33.20 33.60RALLIS 157.85 158.60 155.80 156.65GESHIP* 241.90 242.75 236.00 239.05OMAXE 195.45 195.55 194.20 194.45INOXLEISUR 268.00 272.40 263.35 266.05IEX 134.20 135.40 130.15 132.15SUDARSCHEM 320.00 322.00 315.95 317.85BDL 285.85 289.00 281.05 281.80NESCO 534.25 542.00 525.90 527.40IFCI 7.10 7.41 7.10 7.17TEAMLEASE 2641.00 2732.80 2631.60 2714.55ADVENZYMES 151.15 153.20 149.55 149.90LUXIND 1058.00 1070.00 1036.00 1051.00KRBL 218.05 224.00 218.00 221.50APLLTD 504.45 504.45 495.00 496.95GUJGAS 180.10 180.50 177.05 178.10PERSISTENT 536.25 544.00 535.80 540.45CHOLAHLDNG 437.50 453.50 437.50 442.50TATAMETALI 525.95 527.00 503.00 505.40IBULISL 90.95 92.65 87.35 87.60MOTILALOFS 594.25 598.25 584.00 591.85TNPL 191.35 193.00 189.10 190.70CENTRUM 27.50 27.90 26.40 27.55GDL 99.65 101.75 97.40 97.95ATUL 3506.15 3516.25 3490.00 3499.55TATAINVEST 766.95 768.10 760.50 767.10GPPL 80.90 80.95 78.35 79.10SREINFRA 11.60 11.80 10.17 10.89SYNDIBANK 32.90 32.90 30.45 30.75VMART 1950.00 1973.25 1907.00 1951.75PNCINFRA 183.50 185.05 179.00 180.30INOXWIND 36.50 37.05 33.85 34.30GSKCONS 7987.00 8052.40 7857.15 7903.80WHIRLPOOL 1538.70 1542.50 1511.90 1539.70TEJASNET 84.10 85.40 80.00 81.85MAHLOG 344.85 347.00 336.20 338.40TVTODAY 312.30 319.00 312.30 315.50FINCABLES 368.80 370.30 360.25 361.60ECLERX 453.80 466.15 452.50 455.35JSL 29.70 29.95 29.30 29.75CARBORUNIV 285.05 289.95 281.00 285.80MRF 58604.95 59198.80 57654.40 58005.05SKFINDIA 1857.00 1870.95 1839.55 1843.45IOB 10.14 10.21 10.00 10.10

UCOBANK 15.55 15.70 15.10 15.20STARCEMENT 103.00 103.00 94.30 97.45SJVN 24.25 24.40 24.00 24.10ANDHRABANK 19.00 19.00 18.60 18.70JETAIRWAYS 39.70 39.80 39.70 39.80CHENNPETRO 188.75 190.10 186.40 186.80SYNGENE 299.70 304.65 299.70 303.30SANOFI 5980.00 5999.00 5910.00 5937.75TIINDIA 348.00 348.00 339.55 341.05SHREECEM 19145.10 19436.00 19000.00 19101.45CRISIL 1299.90 1303.00 1280.35 1292.05CERA 2482.30 2525.00 2414.00 2515.45SHILPAMED 222.00 226.00 216.25 218.05JMFINANCIL 73.60 73.60 71.75 72.253MINDIA 20930.00 20930.00 20341.00 20388.15TIMKEN 698.40 698.40 680.00 685.15FORTIS 121.30 122.45 120.90 122.05ABBOTINDIA 9160.00 9180.60 9055.80 9110.25BASF 1025.95 1038.00 1017.10 1021.60ZENSARTECH 219.95 221.80 214.20 217.40MAHABANK 12.01 12.14 11.71 11.97TVSSRICHAK 1765.00 1765.30 1740.00 1740.05PGHH 10100.00 10161.00 9966.30 10076.00MONSANTO 2075.25 2086.00 2030.00 2033.80NBVENTURES 81.00 82.85 77.50 82.70DHANUKA 318.75 321.75 311.15 316.15FINOLEXIND 517.00 519.00 507.25 510.45NILKAMAL 996.00 1005.00 988.00 990.70FDC 160.00 161.00 160.00 160.90ALKEM 1814.80 1840.00 1814.80 1828.15PRSMJOHNSN 88.85 90.35 87.85 88.95GILLETTE 7100.00 7100.00 7019.10 7022.80GMDCLTD 65.00 65.70 63.55 64.00BAJAJCON 252.05 255.00 250.05 252.65RATNAMANI 919.00 926.00 907.50 912.65TCNSBRANDS 717.00 717.00 678.30 685.90VGUARD 227.15 228.75 226.00 226.55MAHSCOOTER 3990.10 4008.85 3922.80 3953.75TTKPRESTIG 5711.85 5754.25 5650.15 5693.90EIHOTEL 162.85 163.80 160.20 161.70NH 234.45 236.50 231.05 233.55MHRIL 214.25 216.30 212.40 214.30FLFL 440.00 443.00 430.30 433.20SFL 1205.00 1247.55 1192.05 1227.15LAURUSLABS 328.00 332.60 328.00 329.85SHOPERSTOP 401.30 402.00 385.95 400.90CORPBANK 17.75 18.10 17.55 17.70GET&D 153.00 154.80 150.00 152.10HAL 647.90 664.50 647.85 657.30PFIZER 2899.40 2907.55 2896.20 2897.85FINEORG 1425.55 1430.00 1350.00 1417.20SOLARINDS 1160.00 1170.00 1132.00 1137.20APARINDS 548.50 552.20 543.95 550.95SHRIRAMCIT 1385.75 1391.35 1352.00 1379.80ORIENTELEC 151.50 153.00 151.15 152.35KPRMILL 565.55 571.25 561.60 566.55CCL 243.65 243.65 240.55 241.65CGPOWER 9.50 9.50 9.50 9.50TRITURBINE 101.55 101.90 97.50 100.15ASAHIINDIA 185.00 185.00 181.60 182.15INDOSTAR 285.60 285.60 280.50 283.00JCHAC 1596.30 1635.00 1590.10 1613.60UNITEDBNK 10.39 10.39 9.55 9.69

ALLCARGO 92.95 93.50 91.25 92.05VBL 640.40 642.95 635.20 641.45ELGIEQUIP 243.75 244.00 243.75 244.00MAXINDIA 56.45 57.65 55.10 56.60IFBIND 663.60 665.25 652.00 661.90GAYAPROJ 111.00 111.00 108.10 108.95SYMPHONY 1240.95 1247.40 1230.00 1236.95WABCOINDIA 6100.00 6132.45 6100.00 6113.45SCHAEFFLER 4130.00 4130.00 4015.00 4069.65HONAUT 24422.05 24710.00 24372.00 24610.00MAHSEAMLES 374.60 376.55 371.65 373.60JSWHL 2740.00 2770.15 2669.00 2769.20MAGMA 69.00 69.90 68.00 68.65GULFOILLUB 850.00 856.35 843.60 848.80HATSUN 603.00 603.00 594.00 601.70BLUEDART 2212.15 2239.90 2210.00 2237.00AKZOINDIA 1700.45 1705.85 1700.00 1703.60MASFIN 594.65 594.75 587.50 589.80VTL 889.75 889.75 882.80 885.30SIS 773.00 773.00 766.05 767.00

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SCRIP OPEN HIgh LOW LTP CHANGENIFTY 50 11101.30 11129.65 10987.65 11046.10 -59.25HCLTECH 1097.00 1130.00 1092.30 1122.80 29.70BPCL 342.00 352.50 337.50 350.80 8.50INFY 787.40 805.00 786.30 803.50 18.85INFRATEL 245.95 250.50 244.40 250.45 5.40EICHERMOT 15999.80 16342.35 15825.25 16300.05 304.65TECHM 676.00 693.45 676.00 687.25 10.90HDFC 2174.00 2193.60 2155.75 2189.90 15.60BRITANNIA 2700.00 2743.25 2672.05 2697.75 11.85UPL 559.00 571.50 546.15 558.00 2.00ASIANPAINT 1599.20 1606.75 1590.60 1604.05 4.60ZEEL 362.00 369.95 360.80 364.25 0.50TCS 2240.00 2252.15 2216.00 2238.35 1.85ITC 246.15 247.65 243.10 245.60 0.10CIPLA 465.80 476.20 460.15 465.00 -0.35BHARTIARTL 349.50 349.50 340.50 348.00 -0.30SBIN 286.65 286.65 282.20 285.40 -0.30WIPRO 250.10 253.20 248.10 249.80 -0.30ULTRACEMCO 4135.70 4184.95 4086.05 4130.00 -5.70BAJAJ-AUTO 2760.00 2813.95 2750.55 2761.75 -4.75POWERGRID 207.95 211.25 204.35 205.65 -0.90HDFCBANK 2250.00 2257.35 2226.35 2245.00 -14.95LT 1362.10 1370.00 1336.10 1347.50 -9.45BAJFINANCE 3348.80 3362.65 3296.75 3331.00 -26.75AXISBANK 685.10 689.35 673.50 677.10 -5.85SUNPHARMA 416.90 421.70 411.50 412.70 -4.05DRREDDY 2557.50 2569.00 2503.45 2512.00 -28.70RELIANCE 1273.75 1281.00 1256.05 1260.05 -14.80BAJAJFINSV 7107.00 7140.00 6983.30 7040.00 -86.50TITAN 1129.00 1131.50 1107.50 1110.00 -13.70ADANIPORTS 373.10 374.25 364.05 367.40 -4.65HINDALCO 181.50 182.00 176.50 178.80 -2.40KOTAKBANK 1499.20 1501.00 1473.35 1481.70 -19.85ICICIBANK 418.00 418.25 409.70 412.70 -5.90GRASIM 725.45 732.70 708.10 712.90 -11.05INDUSINDBK 1379.00 1406.50 1353.70 1361.75 -24.35GAIL 130.80 133.60 127.50 127.85 -2.35HINDUNILVR 1835.00 1848.40 1812.50 1827.00 -34.40HEROMOTOCO2597.75 2626.00 2555.00 2564.90 -49.55IOC 125.90 126.90 121.70 123.10 -2.65M&M 556.70 559.90 534.75 540.55 -13.50NTPC 123.80 124.70 119.45 120.20 -3.00MARUTI 6248.00 6248.00 6070.00 6109.95 -167.80TATAMOTORS 120.55 124.00 114.80 116.70 -3.65IBULHSGFIN 465.05 473.35 447.50 457.00 -14.50ONGC 125.05 125.95 120.40 121.50 -4.10COALINDIA 189.00 192.60 184.20 184.70 -7.15VEDL 138.10 138.45 131.60 132.90 -5.20JSWSTEEL 214.00 214.25 202.80 205.25 -8.15TATASTEEL 350.90 350.90 333.40 335.85 -15.05YESBANK 64.50 65.15 58.05 59.90 -4.60

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SCRIP OPEN HIgh LOW LTP CHANGENIFTY NEXT 50 26204.20 26234.25 25880.50 26032.15 -124.10ICICIPRULI 402.00 420.00 398.10 419.65 20.70HINDPETRO 258.15 268.60 255.25 267.95 8.20ICICIGI 1222.00 1255.00 1215.00 1251.00 36.30DLF 160.80 165.80 158.65 163.55 2.80CADILAHC 218.00 224.70 216.55 221.65 3.50INDIGO 1650.00 1665.00 1632.40 1664.65 16.05COLPAL 1205.70 1218.00 1198.15 1212.45 10.40PETRONET 259.90 261.00 256.20 260.70 2.20DMART 1528.30 1578.80 1520.00 1547.00 12.90MARICO 386.25 392.95 382.70 389.10 3.20HAVELLS 663.50 671.85 660.00 664.95 4.50AUROPHARMA 590.50 601.50 585.95 590.70 2.35PIDILITIND 1376.00 1388.00 1363.15 1377.00 5.15ASHOKLEY 67.00 67.55 65.65 66.75 0.10ACC 1538.00 1550.00 1520.00 1541.50 1.90MCDOWELL-N 604.00 608.50 593.10 600.00 0.45BANDHANBNK 476.00 477.00 470.70 474.40 0.35AMBUJACEM 205.00 207.50 202.75 204.75 -0.35SHREECEM 19066.80 19499.25 18959.05 19000.00 -66.80OFSS 3025.75 3039.95 2998.05 3000.00 -10.70HDFCAMC 2408.00 2478.80 2364.00 2400.30 -11.25HINDZINC 213.15 215.40 208.70 211.90 -1.25DIVISLAB 1593.55 1616.00 1570.00 1583.30 -10.25NHPC 23.25 23.25 22.95 23.10 -0.15PGHH 10200.00 10200.00 9936.95 10036.65 -68.40BAJAJHLDNG 3349.85 3349.85 3290.15 3301.10 -23.25LUPIN 742.00 751.30 725.25 731.90 -6.95SBILIFE 840.00 841.80 821.55 825.45 -8.80CONCOR 498.85 499.40 482.05 490.00 -5.80GODREJCP 600.30 605.00 587.40 596.05 -7.55PAGEIND 18270.00 18283.85 17920.00 18001.45 -229.90DABUR 441.00 442.15 433.15 434.00 -6.15UBL 1334.15 1350.05 1318.20 1328.00 -19.45ABB 1375.15 1390.05 1352.10 1355.00 -23.50HDFCLIFE 556.90 557.40 538.10 545.15 -10.05SIEMENS 1196.00 1202.90 1172.25 1174.50 -22.30MRF 58871.00 59200.00 57580.60 57760.00 -1111.50BOSCHLTD 14551.00 14551.05 13986.70 14200.00 -294.20BHEL 52.60 53.40 50.60 51.50 -1.20NIACL 110.60 110.90 106.10 107.00 -2.85SRTRANSFIN 1028.40 1032.50 980.10 992.55 -27.05BANKBARODA 97.20 97.65 93.75 94.50 -2.80PEL 1942.00 1951.45 1868.55 1892.00 -58.00NMDC 83.80 83.80 80.40 80.90 -2.90L&TFH 98.65 99.00 92.85 94.80 -3.45GICRE 179.75 179.75 170.05 170.80 -6.75MOTHERSUMI 102.00 104.25 96.75 97.55 -4.20BIOCON 228.80 228.80 218.65 219.20 -9.65IDEA 5.30 5.35 4.95 5.00 -0.30SAIL 32.75 32.75 30.85 30.95 -1.90

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The US and the Taliban are"close" to reaching an

agreement for a deal that wouldsee the Pentagon slash its troopnumbers in Afghanistan, aspokesman for the insurgentssaid Wednesday.

The two foes have beenmeeting in Doha in recentdays to put the final touches ona historic deal that would seethe Taliban make various secu-rity guarantees in return for asharp reduction in the 13,000or so American troops based inAfghanistan.

"Negotiations will contin-ue today. We are close to anagreement. We hope to bringgood news for our Muslim andfreedom seeking nation soon,"Taliban spokesmen ZabihullahMujahid tweeted, attributingthe statement to an earliermessage that Doha-basedspokesman Suhail Shaheen hadsent in Pashto.

The US embassy in Kabul

did not immediately comment.The apparent final phase of

talks brings into view the endof an excruciating few monthsfor Afghans who have watchedon nervously and largely voice-less as America cuts a deal withthe Taliban while sidelining theKabul government.

After 18 years of war, theUS wants to end its militaryinvolvement in Afghanistanand has been talking to theinsurgents since at least 2018.

Most of the work was ledby US special envoy ZalmayKhalilzad, who has spent recentmonths shuttling betweenworld capitals in a bid to buildsupport for a deal with theIslamist hardliners known fortheir extreme interpretations ofSharia law.

On Tuesday in Doha,Shaheen told reporters a dealcould be expected "as soon asthe remaining points arefinalised", as negotiators wran-gled over individual words andphrases in a draft.

The agreement is expectedto centre on the US withdraw-ing troops in exchange for theTaliban guaranteeingAfghanistan will not be used asa jihadist safe haven, talks withthe Afghan government and aneventual ceasefire.

In the Afghan capital onWednesday, AmnestyInternational called on the USand the Taliban to also considerhuman rights in any deal.

"Any peace agreementmust not ignore (Afghans')voices, the voices of the victims, they must not ignoretheir calls for justice andaccountability for war crimes, crimes against human-ity and other serious humanrights violations", OmarWaraich, Amnesty's deputySouth Asia director, toldreporters.

While the Taliban are noto-rious for numerous humanrights abuses, violations havealso been perpetrated by pro-government forces.

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At least 23 people were killedand 13 badly wounded in

a fire at a bar in eastern Mexicothat is being investigated as anattack, authorities saidWednesday.

The fire in the city ofCoatzacoalcos, which brokeout Tuesday night, "may havebeen the result of a vile attack,"said a statement from prose-cutors in the state of Veracruz,a flashpoint in the bloody turfwars between Mexico's rivaldrug cartels.

Media reports said the firebroke out when attackers burstinto the bar and threw Molotovcocktails.

"The devious crime of afew moments ago inCoatzacoalcos will not gounpunished," VeracruzGovernor Cuitlahuac Garciasaid in a tweet.

Frantic family members

rushed to the bar, the Caballo Blanco (White Horse),looking for their loved ones,said an AFP reporter at thescene.

"I just want to know if he'sOK," said a mother looking forher son, who worked as acleaner at the bar, after search-ing for him in vain at local hos-pitals. The interior of the barwas wrecked and charred, withchairs overturned and debrislittering the floor. A heavycontingent of police and emer-gency vehicles gathered outsidethe building.

Veracruz is one of the mostviolent regions in the country.Its strategic location on thecoast of the Gulf of Mexicomakes it a popular route fordrug cartels and for humantraffickers bringing undocu-mented migrants to the UnitedStates.

Bloody battles betweenwarring cartels and gangs fre-quently erupt in the state.

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Pakistan on Wednesday seizedover 50 satellite receivers,

dozen DTH and entire cable net-work of three networks inPunjab province as it intensifiedits crackdown against illegalIndian devices, the country'selectronic media regulator said.

During the operation, ille-gal equipment has beenimpounded in just two weekstime, including C-LineReceivers, LNBs, Dish Antennasand other related equipment,thousands in numbers.

"We are successfully run-ning our drive against IndianDTH (direct-to-home), C-LineEquipment, Indian Channelsand Indian Content throughoutthe country. During the crack-down on Wednesday over 50satellite receivers, dozen DTHand entire cable network ofthree networks were seized inSargodha district of Punjabprovince," says the PakistanElectronic Media RegulatoryAuthority (PEMRA).

It said during the currentspell of crackdown against theIndian DTH and IndianContent, PEMRA regionalenforcement teams have carriedout operations in various citiesacross Pakistan, includingLahore, Karachi, Peshawar,Islamabad/ Rawalpindi andMultan.

PEMRA says it has alsobanned telecast of advertise-ments showing Indianactors/talent on broadcast anddistribution media.

"The authority has alsoissued show cause notices tolicence holder for violatingPEMRA regulations."

PEMRA chairman SaleemBaig has directed the officials ofthe authority to continue crack-down and enforcement drivemore rigorously againstsale/purchase of illegal IndianDTH and associated activities tocompletely eliminate grey mar-ket of Indian DTH and toensure strict compliance oforders of the Supreme Court ofPakistan.

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Hamas said on Wednesdaythat two overnight bomb-

ings killed three Palestinianpolice officers in the Gaza Stripin what witnesses called suicideattacks as the Palestinianenclave was placed under a stateof alert.

Witnesses told AFP thatboth bombings were suicideattacks by assailants on motor-bikes, but there was no officialconfirmation.

A source familiar with theinvestigation said a Salafistmovement in Gaza, which isrun by Islamist movementHamas, that sympathises withthe Islamic State jihadist groupwas suspected.

Hamas's interior ministryconfirmed the three deaths,but spoke only of two "bomb-ings" in Gaza City without pro-viding details.

It said two of the police offi-cers were 32 and the third was45. Two separate police check-points were targeted, it said.

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Racism in America is aninstitutional "white man's

problem visited on people ofcolour," Vice President JoeBiden said Tuesday, arguingthat the way to attack the issueis to defeat President DonaldTrump and hold him responsi-ble for deepening the nation'sracial divide.

Taking aim at incendiaryracial appeals by Trump, Bidensaid in an interview with a smallgroup of reporters that a pres-ident's words can "appeal to theworst damn instincts of humannature," just as they can movemarkets or take a nation intowar.

Biden is leading hisDemocratic challengers for thepresidential nomination inalmost all polls, largely becauseof the support of black voters.

He has made appealing tothem central to his candidacyand vowed to make maximis-

ing black and Latino turnout an"overwhelming focus" of hiseffort.

The interview, more thanan hour long, focused largely onracial issues.

"White folks are the reasonwe have institutional racism,"Biden said.

"There has always beenracism in America. Whitesupremacists have always exist-ed, they still exist."

He added later that in hisadministration, it would "not betolerated."

By highlighting the nation'sracial tensions and placingblame on Trump, Biden isshowing that he, too, is willingto make race a core campaignissue, but from the oppositeperspective of the president.

Turnout and enthusiasmamong black voters will becritical for the Democraticnominee, notably to try toreclaim states like Pennsylvania,Michigan and Wisconsin.

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La Paz: Bolivia's leftist PresidentEvo Morales gave a half-heart-ed welcome on Tuesday to a G7pledge of $20 million to fight theAmazon wildfires, describing itas "tiny." An underwhelmedMorales said the aid from themost industrialized countries w-as part of the world's "obliga-tion" to preserve the Amazonrainforest.

"I welcome that small,small, tiny contribution of $ 20million from the G7 — that isnot help, it is part of a shared co-responsibility, as all peopleshave the obligation to preservethe ecosystem," Morales toldBolivia's Radio Panamericana.

The richest nations "shouldcontribute a lot, and not onlywhen there are fires," the pres-ident said, adding that he hopedthe aid would arrive as quicklyas possible.

Bolivia is one of nine SouthAmerican countries to share theAmazon rainforest.

While fires in Brazil havecaptured the world's attention,Bolivia has been fighting its ownblazes that Morales said onTuesday had destroyed 1.2 mil-lion hectares, or more than4,000 square miles of forestand grassland, since May. AFP

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Lingering smoke in theAmazon is reportedly caus-

ing increased respiratory prob-lems — particularly amongchildren and the elderly — asfires in the region rage.

"The kids are affected themost. They're coughing a lot,"said Elane Diaz, a nurse in theRondonia state capital of PortoVelho, as she waited for a doc-tor's appointment Tuesday atthe city's 9 of July hospitalwith her 5-year-old sonEduardo.

"They have problemsbreathing. I'm concernedbecause it affects their health."

The number of peopletreated for respiratory issuesincreased sharply in recentdays at the local Cosme eDamia Children's hospital.

"This period has been verytough. The dry weather and thesmoke causes many problemsfor children, such as pneumo-nia, coughing and secretion,"

Daniel Pires, a pediatrician andthe hospital's adjunct directortold the Folha de S Paulo news-paper.

He said the number ofcases has more than doubledsince the early part of themonth.

Fears over health impactshave been growing with thesurge in fires, with more than77,000 blazes documented bythe country's National SpaceResearch Institute since thestart of the year. About half ofthe fires occurred in theAmazon region, with most inthe past month.

But the issue has been over-shadowed by growing acrimo-ny between Brazil andEuropean countries seeking tohelp fight Amazon fires in aregion seen as vital to thehealth of the planet.

At a summit in France thisweek, Group of Seven nationspledged $20 million for theeffort, with a separate $12 mil-lion from Britain and $11 mil-

lion from Canada.But Brazilian President Jair

Bolsonaro, a climate skepticwho took office this year witha promise to boost developmentin Latin America's biggest econ-omy, has suggested the offers ofinternational aid mask a plot toexploit the Amazon's resourcesand weaken Brazilian growth.

He raised those complaintsagain on Wednesday in a meet-ing with Chilean PresidentSebastian Pinera, accusingFrench President EmmanuelMacron — with whom he'sbeen feuding openly — of try-ing to "buy" the sovereignty ofBrazil. In a video message,Brazilian novelist Paulo Coelhooffered an apology to France forwhat he called Bolsonaro's "hys-teria," saying the Brazilian gov-ernment had resorted to insultsto dodge responsibility for theAmazon fires.

But many in Brazil saidthey support Bolsonaro despitelocal and international criticismof his handling of the crisis.

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Washington: Former USDefence Secretary WarnedWednesday that the UnitedStates cannot survive without itsallies, days after the G7 summitshowed President DonaldTrump out of step withAmerica's key partners.

"An oft-spoken admonitionin the Marines is this: Whenyou're going to a gunfight, bringall your friends with guns,"Mattis wrote in the Wall StreetJournal, in his first public com-ments since quitting in a policydispute with Trump lastDecember. "A leader must dis-play strategic acumen that incor-porates respect for those nationsthat have stood with us whentrouble loomed," Mattis wrote.

"Nations with allies thrive,and those without them wither.Alone, America cannot protectour people and our economy."Mattis's opinion column was

published just hours before hissuccessor, Mark Esper, gives hisfirst on-camera press briefingsince being confirmed asPentagon chief last month.

Esper has the responsibili-ty of implementing Trump'sdemands for a withdrawal ofmost US troops in Afghanistan,Iraq and Syria, the policiesMattis fell out with the presidentover. Mattis, a retired MarineCorps general, said he had tostep down after his "concretesolutions and strategic advice,especially keeping faith withour allies, no longer resonated,"with the US leadership.

Mattis also blasted thehyper-partisan political atmos-phere in Washington as con-tributing to the erosion of USleadership in the world, sayinghe had little taste for "the polit-ical fratricide practiced inWashington." AFP

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Known for its vast grasslandsand prancing zebras, theSerengeti is a rich ecosystem

in northern Tanzania. However, itsdrama is unknown to many.Through a six-part series, SimonFuller, American Idol creator andEmmy Award-winning filmmaker,brings forth a lonely lioness, a pas-sionate baboon and many otheranimals from deep in the heart ofAfrica. The idea came to Fuller whenhe went to Africa on a safari andcame back with the thoughts of whywe aren’t telling the story of the ani-mals in such habitats.

�How did you get involved in theseries, and what attracted you tothe project?

I am a great lover of animalsand have spent a lot of time inAfrica. Three years ago, after a tripto Kenya with a music artist, Idecided to take a short break torecharge my batteries. I foundmyself relaxing one afternoon pon-dering over life, looking out at awatering hole in the Serengeti,imagining what it must be like tobe one of those beautiful animals.The more I thought about it, themore I started to relate to their lives.Their commitment to family andproviding for their loved ones,their instincts for survival and thejoy they take from the simplethings in life. While sitting there onthat steamy afternoon, I decided Iwanted to make a TV series to telltheir stories.

�How was the music put togeth-er?

The music came about very

easily and naturally. I had grandvisions of who I wanted to workwith. However, before I had firmedup any ideas, John Downer intro-duced me to Will Gregory (ofGoldfrapp), who he has workedwith on several other shows. I wasa big fan of Goldfrapp but we hadnever worked together. After ourfirst conversation it was clear thatWill was the perfect person for thejob. Instantly we got on so well and

our vision for the music was per-fectly aligned. The soaring melodieswith the infusion of electronicrhythms, together with subtleAfrican musical influences, it allcame together very easily. We bothfelt that the layering of voicescould add an ethereal majesty to thevisuals, so our first task was to findexceptional singers. I suggestedLola Lennox and Cathy Dennis andboth worked like a dream and theyelevated the songs to a whole otherlevel. I am absolutely delighted withthe music and Will is incredibly tal-ented.

�What can the audience expectfrom the series (and the music)?What do you hope people watch-ing can take away from it?

I am hoping that the audiencewill be inspired and enchanted bySerengeti. The music helps theviewer to feel things from the ani-mal's point of view in a seamlessand natural way. If the viewer canmake that connection, they will berewarded by a very special insight

into the lives of these incredible ani-mals. Once we start to understandthese extraordinary living soulsand relate to their lives in the sameway as our own, we will all be bet-ter for it. Our lives and worlds areinextricably connected, if werespect and understand each other’sneeds we can face our planet’s chal-lenges together.

�Did anything inspire you whenplanning the score?

I believe music has a way tocommunicate things more delicate-ly and thoughtfully to people thanany other form of entertainment.Simple messages combined withbeautiful melodies, not only capturea mood but have the power toinspire a generation. The melodyand genius of John Barry was cer-tainly an inspiration for me as Icontemplated the music for theseries.

�How did you get involved in anatural history series?

Simply, it is my love of animalsand my deep concern for our plan-et that led me to make Serengeti. Itruly believe that the closer humansbecome with nature and the betterthey understand and can relate toevery living soul on this planet, themore enlightened we will allbecome. Humans need to be hum-bled by the magnificence of ourplanet and stop being obsessed byour own powers.

�What is unique about the series,especially from a musical point ofview?

I really wanted music to be animportant and essential part ofSerengeti. The words in a song havea poetic license to say things thatcould not be simply spoken by anarrator. Serengeti is a soulful showand music plays to our souls, I wantpeople to suspend their belief andgo with the flow of these pure sto-ries of real animal’s lives and themusic takes you there seamlessly.

(The series premieres onSeptember 9, Monday to Friday at9 pm on Sony BBC Earth.)

Typically, a designer’s new collec-tion is showcased through afashion show where modelscatwalk the ramp wearing thedesigner ensembles. However,

have you ever heard of dancers and artistsdonning those outfits and performing onstage? Designers Asha Gupta and GautamGupta of Asha Gautam label, in a first-of-its-kind concept, launched their newcollection, Noor Jehan, through a classi-cal dance performance, performed andchoreographed by Kathak impresarioShovana Narayan, with the queen as theirmuse.

Weaving a story of love, the Kathakperformance saw the journey of Nur Jahanto becoming the favourite wife of Mughalemperor Jahangir. It showcased how shedevoted her entire life to loving theEmperor and how that became a specialepisode in history. Lovingly and common-ly known as Nur Mahal, (light of thepalace), she epitomised grace, beauty, gen-erosity and intelligence. And as Narayansaid that for her, Nur Jahan was “asymbol for beautiful, smart andwell-educated woman, who had adeep respect for culture. She wasfull of love and romance but morethan that she was a lady with a per-sonality. And not much is knownabout this but she was an admin-istrator and had a sharp intellectand a good heart. As a person, shewas impressive. History is evi-dence how various scholars havealso seen her as a powerful per-son of her time.”

While the first part depicted

her waiting to find the right person to fallin love with, the second showcased thetime when she has finally found him andis rejoicing and indulging in shringaarwith the other courtesans in the palace.The following part featured her as a bridewho is all set to move to her beloved’shome. She was seen swinging throughmixed emotions of happiness and also thepain of separation from her family andfriends. The courtesans gather on one sideas she parts from them during her Bidaai.The last part showcased the unveiling ofNur Jahan and her first night, where sheis dancing on the tunes of love as she waitsfor her admirer. And ultimately, it dwelledon how her power is locked in theromance and love between her and

Jahangir.It was when Asha told Narayan about

how they’re going to theme their collec-tion based on their idea of Nur Jahan,when “their muse became my muse too.I was inspired by the inner beauty of herand decided to reflect that in my perfor-mance too. I was delighted to be a part ofit.”

She added that when she learnedabout the designs and how they’ve beenconceptualised, “a lot was going on in mymind about how the same level of emo-tions could be brought forth. However,Kathak is something that transcends theboundaries in art as it can bring forth theuniversality of human emotions, move-ments, rhythms and musical notes easi-

ly.”So how do collaborations of two dif-

ferent art forms help? Doesn’t it limit thepossibilities? To the contrary, however, shesaid, “Through collaborations, co-artistsbecome more aware of different artforms. Here, they will realise the versatil-ity and salient details of Kathak and howit can portray all kinds of emotions sobeautifully. And shaadi ke baad bidaai tohhoni hai (separation is imperative aftermarriage), so why not dance it away?”(laughs)

Gautam said that for the collection,rich textiles like paithani, bandhani,Banarasi silk, tissue, kota, organza and pat-loa were used “to give the collection a royalvibe.” There were vibrant colours such asbright rose, tomato red, radiant yellow,garden green, beetroot purple, red, ricegold to coriander brown. There was vin-tage zardozi embroidery, which was com-bined with pearls, ari and resham. “Wehave used peacock and flower motifs tosignify the feeling of happiness in thatmoment,” he said. The golden zari lehen-gas had meenakari designs and were wornwith heavily embellished blouses.

For him, Nur Jahan was “very muchahead” of her time. He said, “Our inspi-ration was her beauty, her love for fash-ion and jewellery, art, dance and musicand above all, her kindness. History hasalways glorified the love story of Salimand Anarkali which overshadowed theone of Nur Jahan and Jahangir. We havewoven music, jewellery and florals withher wedding and its celebration to nar-rate her inspiring story of power, loveand beauty.”

When actor VidyaBalan was asked thatat a time when every

other actor in Bollywoodseemed to be trying to pleasethe current BJP government,why had she chosen to playIndia’s first female PrimeMinister and Congress mas-cot Indira Gandhi in an forth-coming web series, she said,“When I think of powerfulwomen, Indira Gandhi is thefirst name which comes to mymind. I am very party agnos-tic. I have nothing to do withany political party. The webseries is not about any polit-ical party, it is about an indi-vidual who goes beyond theparty.”

The actor was asked aboutthe schedule of the shoot ofthe web series. “Not any timesoon. It’s going to take timebecause it’s a web series andthat requires a lot of work toput things together. So it maytake a couple of years to startthe shoot,” said Vidya.

She will soon be seenplaying Shakuntala Devi in a

forthcoming biopic of therenowned mathematician. Onworking in the film afterMission Mangal, she said,“From science to maths, mybest dream comes true thisyear. Most South Indians pur-sue science and maths, and Iam sure my parents will nowbe satisfied that I traverseboth worlds within one yearfaster than the rest of themdid!”

Asked about her prepara-tions for her role ofShakuntala Devi, she said, “Itis not just about maths.Anyway, I am going to fake it.The makers of the film aregoing to give me the answersthat I will write on board. Ithink I need to be familiarwith the person more than thesubject. She was the onlycomputer in the world with awicked sense of humour andI am actually trying to imbibethat quality. Since she also hadan incredible journey, I amfeeling nervous about playingher character in the film.”

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The Indo-European youth orchestra organ-ised a concert at the Danube Palace in

Budapest, Hungary on August 18 in front ofan extremely enthusiastic audience who treat-ed the Indian group with long applause. Thecultural director of the Indian embassy inHungary Ms Tanuja Shankar graced the con-cert along with her colleagues.

A16 year old boy, Parth Sarthi of Noidawas a part of the concert. He has learnt vio-lin from Delhi School Music and is currentlystudying in eighth grade of violin music whichis conducted by Trinity School, London. Hehas earlier won accolades for his work forreuniting missing children through aadhaarcamps. While volunteering during summervacation and teaching vulnerable, runaway orother similar children, he organised aadhaarcamp for them which helped to reunite 12 ofthem with their parents. He is the founder ofan NGO- Raasta Foundation which has atheme, maths and music. He teaches mathe-matics to children and also organises musicclasses so that they get positive diversion andstay away from negative influences such asdrugs, smoking etc. He earlier organised a miniconcert with eight such orphan children whosang beautiful songs during a carnival in thecity.

The orchestra brought together 15 youngIndian musicians from different parts ofIndia, US and UK. The event is also known as‘Voyage to Europe’. The concert was culminat-ed with a gala concert under the baton ofIndian composer and conductor, MaestroMichael Makhal. Out of 15 members, 12 youngtalents have been selected from Noida,Mumbai, Hyderabad, Delhi, Kolkata andBengaluru and two Indian American mem-bers from Tallahassee Florida, USA and oneIndian Portuguese member from UK. It hadsix professional Hungarian musicians in all thesection of the orchestra.

The orchestra is collaborating with theHungarian orchestra and institution of its ownkind, Danube Symphony Orchestra to organ-ise the concert. This is for the first time anyIndia based western classical music orchestraperformed in Hungary and probably for thefirst time any Indian western classical orches-tra performed in Europe, making it a very sig-nificant event for the country.

Indian classical music stalwarts have beenpraised in the western world. Veterans like PtRavi Shankar, Ustad Zakhir Hussain and Dr LSubramanium have advanced the friendshipbetween India and the western world throughmusic for decades. The director and conductorof the orchestra, Michael Makhal believed thatwe should collaborate to associate ourselves withthe European classical music culture and tradi-tions through new musical approach. “We could-n’t have taken our first step if the Danube orches-tra had not collaborated with us,” said he.

If one day, the sun does not rise,the day will be covered with

intense darkness. Knowledge ofthe four Vedas, which emanatesdirectly from God, is also like thesun. If one doesn’t have theknowledge of Vedas, then auto-matically, people will also indulgein darkness and a world of illu-sions. It is said that even after theMahabharata war, the sun ofVedas had set down and hence, itcreated an illusion.

Today, people are so attract-ed towards materialism and inflaunting their luxurious lifestyles,that they completely leave behindspirituality and until death. A veryfew people know about the secret

of one of the mantras of Yajurvedathat at the time of death, soulremembers the name of God, hisform and the deeds done by thesoul from childhood, on whichthe soul repents, gets extremelysorrowful that he had indulged inillusion and has wasted his valu-able life in falsehood.

Vyas Muni ji in Mahabharatamakes us understand that one dayeveryone will have to meet deathand Vedas should be followed toovercome death. The Atharvavedapreaches to get progress in bothmaterialism and Vedic spiritual-ism simultaneously as it isbelieved that one-sided progressis harmful. With Rigveda, the man

comes under God’s protection.Once, Albert Einstein was

asked by an American reporterduring the time of his death, ‘Sir,you are the greatest scientist ofthis country, what is your lastdesire and if you are reborn thenwhat would you like to be?’Einstein thought for sometimeand replied, ‘I would like to beanyone except a scientist.’ Whenthe reporter heard the reply, hewas surprised. He questionedagain, ‘This is so astonishing.After such successful inventions,why do you say so?’ Einsteinslightly smiled and said, ‘I haveresearched on several scientificmatters and spent my whole life

doing that. But today, at the timeof death, I have discovered thetruth. I would leave with emptyhands. And here is only onetruth that is left — ‘Who madeEinstein?’ I have worked on somany matters but failed to discov-er myself. I feel sorry that I did-n’t pay attention to the discoveryof soul and the god. If there is arebirth, I pray to god that in it, Ibecome a self-explorer and asuccessful saint who can discov-er what life is. I want to know thegreatest power that god is andattain self-realisation.’

His thoughts conclude that nomatter how great titles or heightsone might achieve, her/his pur-

pose of existence shall never becompleted if s/he doesn’t discov-er god and the soul. His thoughtstally with what Vedas preach. Hestated that whatever we discover,god already knows it. As per theYajurveda, birth in human life ismeant to discover who you are.

Einstein’s words might havebeen remembered by a few peo-ple for some time but eventually,the thought was ignored sincetoday, people run only behindmoney and materialism morethan spirituality. Humans haveforgotten the Vedic path and god.

(The author is the chief editorof Ved Ishvareeya Vani, a bi-annu-al magazine.)

The state-of-the-art facilitieswas inaugurated at SRMInstitute of Science and

Technology’s NanotechnologyResearch Centre in theKattankulathur campus recent-ly. A workshop on AdvancedCharacterisation of Material andDevices was also held.

The campus has equippeditself with advanced characteri-sation facilities — laser flashthermal conductivity, seebeckcoefficient measurement sys-tem, cryogenic probe stationand semiconductor parameteranalyser.

It was inaugurated by Dr MKamruddin, associate director,ANG division, IGCARKalpakkam. He was joined by DrC Muthamizhchelvan, director

of engineering and technology.Professor Masaru Shimomura,Hiroya Ikeda and YasuhiroHayakawa from ShizuokaUniversity, Japan.

Speaking on the occasion, DrKamruddin said, “All these facil-ities are dream instruments.Private universities and organi-sations should chip in more forresearch and development. It isgood that SRMIST is workingtowards bringing such worldclass facilities under one roof.These facilities are open toeveryone from all over the worldwhere researchers can send intheir samples.” DrMuthamizhchelvan said,“Research is not confined toone department, therefore, thesefacil it ies are open to al l .

Researchers can send their sam-ples through online bookingand gain access to the latestequipment.”

The facilities, LFA 467hyperflash and ZEM3 are spon-sored by SRMIST at a cost of �3.5crores. The other facilities at theinstitution include X-Ray photo-electron spectroscopy (XPS),high-resolution transmissionelectron microscope (HR-TEM),field emission scanning elec-tron microscope( FESEM),vibrating-sample magnetome-ter (VSM) , X-Ray diffractome-ter (XRD), scanning probemicroscope (SPM), high resolu-tion mass spectrometr y (HRMS) along with a supercom-puter typically used for scientif-ic and engineering applications.

Atwo-day workshopwas organised by

NSPCL on Engine onLoad. With a view toimprove the utilisation ofthe rolling stock, and helpthe power stations inprompt clearance of freighttrains from their terminals,the introduction of Engineon Load operations hasbeen introduced by theRailway.

The scheme carries ahost of features whichform an innovative indus-trial mechanism. Underthe EOL, the train enginewill remain available dur-ing loading or unloadingoperation in the sidingand wait on railway’saccount so that the trainfunctions immediately

after the loading orunloading operation.NTPC has implementedthe scheme at its Simhadristation and its joint ventureunit at NSPCL Bhilai fol-lowing the traditions ofoperational excellence.

The workshop wasattended by the represen-tatives of NTPC stationsacross the country. Thescheme once implementedwill lead to cost optimisa-tion and reduction in ener-

gy charges.The inaugural session

was graced by NTPC offi-cials — Prakash Tiwari,director (Operations),Anirban Dasgupta, CEOBhilai steel plant, KK Singh,RED (NR), Tejveer Singh,Director, Srinivas, ED, SDPrasad, ED(FM), and PKBondriya, CEO, NSPCL.Senior officials from SouthEast Central Railway,Bilaspur were also presentduring the workshop.

Health Department, ICDS, and theEducation Department will be holding

celebrations for the National AgriculturalLiberation Day on Thursday. On the day, chil-dren from one to 19 years and scholars willwork to remove insects and later, be fedFenbendazole pills. The campaign is organ-ised by Ghaziabad district officer AjayShankar Pandey from Indagarhi StatusPrimary School. ACMO Dr Sanjay Aggarwalsaid, “All the parents should feed their chil-dren well. This pill is not fed on an emptystomach. All departments engaged in thecampaign have been trained to shoot.”

He said that due to worms in the stom-ach, which affects the physical and mentaldevelopment of the child, the health depart-ment runs a campaign twice every year to feedthe children to take the insecticide pills. “Thetablet has to be swallowed with water afterchewing it properly. One to two-year-olds facehave difficulty while chewing the pill, so theyonly have to grind half the tablet. Children,two to 19-year-olds, will have to chew a pill,”said he.

Dr Sanjay informed that 1.25 lakh tabletshave been made available by the healthdepartment. He said, “These tablets are for

urban and rural Anganwadi centres. Apartfrom this, three lakh tablets have been madeavailable to the DIOS (district school inspec-tor) too.”

The campaign will start today and will goon in Anganwadi centres till September 4.CMO Dr NK Gupta has appealed to all theparents to feed their children with insecticide.It is very necessary for the physical and men-tal development of the child.

The Institute of CharteredAccountants of India (ICAI)

has collaborated with ManipalGlobal Education (MGE) anddesigned ResidentialManagement DevelopmentProgramme (MDP). The 23days programme is conductedkeeping in mind the importanceof managerial skills in today’sglobal economy. It aims tosharpen the skills of CA finalrank holders in terms of lead-ership abilities. It is being organ-ised at Bengaluru campus ofManipal University tillSeptember 13 and will be madeavailable at a concessional fee.In addition to this, the coursewill conclude with a special

placement programme whichwill see the participation ofreputed organisations from allover the country.

ICAI, in order to keep pacewith the changing trends and toprovide best learning platformsto its students and members, ismaking efforts to provide expo-sure to the CA rank holderswith skills that will enhancetheir overall understanding ofthe business in addition to theirstrong technical proficiency.The sessions during the pro-gramme will be delivered byexperts from academia whohave vast experience of theindustry.

The Key highlights are —

customised course content,interactive and participativelearning, expert faculty, regulargroup discussions and certifi-cate from the university.

CA Prafulla Chhajed,President, ICAI says, “MDP isa dynamic training programmethat is designed to enhance andstrengthen the leadership capa-bilities to lead, engage and excelin career. ICAI is offering 80 percent of the course fee as a sub-sidy and participants have topay only 20 per cent of the totalfee. For the rank holders (upto50 ranks) belonging to the eco-nomically weaker section, entirefee would be paid by the organ-isation”.

An induction ceremonyof CISF was held at

Nayara Energy LtdJamnagar, Gujarat. The unitis headed by an assistantcommandant rank officerand the sanctioned strengthof CISF for this establish-ment was more than 100.

Nilima Rani Singh,deputy inspector general,CISF, western zone,Mumbai was the chief gueston the occasion. CManoharan, director(Refinery), officers of thethe company and other dig-nitaries were present onthe occasion. With thisinduction, the private estab-

lishments under CISF secu-rity cover was raised to 10.The administrative controlof this private establish-ment will be under IG,

CISF western sector,Mumbai. Nayara is a pri-vately held oil companythat encompasses refining,marketing, production. The

company is set up inJamnagar considering thehigh value of investment inthe region and proximity tothe busiest Sea route.

Ghaziabad DevelopmentAuthority (GDA) offers

to buy property in the mid-dle of the city. The launch ofGDA’s ChandrashilavasiYojana and auction of plotsat Nandagram andGovindapuram will startfrom Friday.

Kanchan Verma, GDAvice president says that theprices of apartments havebeen revised in this scheme,the value of each apartmenthas been reduced by �10 to12 lakh. The fok apartmentwas worth �65 lakh earlier,and now its revised value is�44 lakh. He further saysthat the residential schemehas 120 apartments, ofwhich 48 have been allotted.The plots are 90 and 60square metres.

Athree-day conference onthird World Water

Summit and 10th WorldRenewable EnergyTechnology was organised byEnergy and Environmentfoundation at NDMCConvention Centre in thecity. It was held with the sup-port of the Union Ministry ofWater Resources and theMinistry of New andRenewable Energy. UpendraTripathy, interim directorgeneral of solar alliance inau-gurated the event and gaveout the Global ExcellenceAwards for the renewableenergy sector. He was alsothe chief guest at the event.

The experts presentthere discussed the solutions

in terms of energy for thefuture generations. The audi-ence was also provided theinformation regardingrenewable energy technolo-gy, electric utilities and trans-mission, organic energy,

organic fuels and renewablematerials. Tripathy said,“Today the solar energy cancompete with any kind ofother energy, it can be divid-ed into two spectrums ofheat and light. But we only

use the light, the heat ener-gy is still unused which theindustries should use. Thesolar revolution will onlycome with the revolution instorage and we are waitingfor that day.”

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SRM Institute inaugurates state-of-the-art facility

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Australian batting mainstaySteve Smith thought about

his late teammate PhillipHughes right after being hit onthe neck by England pacerJofra Archer in the secondAshes Test.

Smith, who missed thethird Test due to the resultantconcussion, was initially clearedto resume his innings on dayfive following the nasty blowbefore he started feeling a “lit-tle bit under the weather”.

“I had a few things runningthrough my head, particularlywhere I got hit, just a bit of pastcame up, if you know what Imean, from a few years ago.That was probably the firstthing I thought about,” Smithtold reporters in Derby refer-ring to Hughes who passedaway after being hit by a bounc-er in a 2014 Sheffield Shieldmatch.

Smith was found to havedelayed concussion which hesaid, felt like he had too muchalcohol.

“It wasn’t until later thatevening that it hit me. When

the doc asked me what did itfeel like I said it felt like I hadsix beers last night and felt a lit-tle bit under the weather, with-out the six beers unfortunate-ly.

“That was the sort of feel-ing I got, that groggy feelingand that stuck around for a cou-ple of days,” he said.

Set to play the fourth Teststarting Sept 4 in Manchester,Smith is expecting a lot ofshort balls to be directed at himbut will not change the way hebats against Archer.

“If they’re bowling up thereit means they can’t nick me off,or hit me on the pad or hit thestumps. With the Dukes ball, Idon’t know, that’s an interestingploy. So we’ll see what happens.I’m not really going to changeanything.

“There’s been a bit of talkthat he’s (Archer) got the woodover me, but he hasn’t actuallygot me out. He hit me on thehead on a wicket that was a bitup and down at Lord’s. Heactually didn’t get me out so allthe other bowlers have hadmore success against me I dare-say,” Smith added.

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Young Shubman Gil lwould be the cynosure ofall eyes when the five-

match unofficial ODI seriesbetween India A and SouthAfrica begins here today.

Gill, who has been in goodform in recent times, shoneduring the India A team’srecent Caribbean tour butmissed out on selection for thesenior ODI squad. And thebatsman would be keen toprove his credentials during thematches against the visitingProteas A side.

The stylish Punjab right-hander, who played two ODIsin New Zealand earlier thisyear, would look to continuethe good run he enjoyed in the

Caribbean (with the A team) tomake a case for himself beforethe national selectors ahead ofthe home season.

Besides Gill, all-rounderVijay Shankar is another play-er who will be on the selectors’lens after he recovered from atoe injury.

Shankar had to returnedmid-way from the ICC WorldCup in England due to theinjury and made his return tothe field during the recentTamil Nadu Premier League.

With a long home seasonahead, the Tamil Nadu all-rounder would be eager to getback into the groove and pushhis case for selection.

Manish Pandey, whorecently made a comeback intothe national limited-overs side

in the West Indies, will lead theteam in the first three gamesbefore Shreyas Iyer takes overfor the last two matches.

Pandey will be eyeing bigruns as the battle for a middle-order slot in the Indian ODIside continues.

The team comprises sever-al players who were recentlypart of the senior limited oversside in the West Indies.

The series will also providea good opportunity for wristspinner Yuzvendra Chahal toget his mojo back.

Chahal, who is goingthrough a slump in form sincethe World Cup, would be look-ing to hit the straps quicklyagainst the Proteas, who arenot regarded as great players ofspin.

Krunal Pandya, who hasmade a mark with both bat andball in the T20 series in theCaribbean, will also be seen inaction along side talented IshanKishan, in-form RuturajGaikwad and Nitish Rana.

India A’s bowling will beled by pace duo of KhaleelAhmed and Deepak Chahar.

For South Africa A, led bythe experienced TembaBavuma, the series will helpthem gain much-needed expe-rience of sub-continent condi-tions ahead of the senior team’stour.

Bavuma, who has played36 Tests and two ODIs, willneed to bring all his experienceto the fore.

TEAMS (FROM)India A: Manish Pandey(Captain), Ruturaj Gaikwad,Shubman Gill, AnmolpreetSingh, Ricky Bhui, IshanKishan (wicket-keeper), VijayShankar, Shivam Dube, KrunalPandya, Axar Patel, YuzvendraChahal, Shardul Thakur,Deepak Chahar, KhaleelAhmed, Nitish Rana.South Africa A: TembaBavuma (Captain), MatthewBreetzke, Kyle Verrynne, JuniorDala, Theunis de Bruyn, BjornFortuin, Beuran Hendricks,Reeza Hendricks, HeinrichKlaasen, George Linde ,Janneman Malan, MarcoJansen, Anrich Nortje,Sinethemba Qeshile, LuthoSipamla.

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India might be celebrating aworld champion in P V Sindhu

right now but national badmintoncoach Pullela Gopichand feelsthere are reasons to be worriedabout the future as the country hasnot “invested enough in coaches”.

Sindhu, who is also an OlympicSilver-medallist, became India’sfirst world champion in the sportwith a straight-game triumph onSunday. She returned to a frenziedwelcome on Monday night.

However, Gopichand feels thecountry needs to wake up to thefact that there aren’t enough coach-es to handle the talent that is ris-ing.

“...We have not investedenough in coaches,” he said herewith Sindhu by his side at a pressconference on Tuesday night.

Gopichand, a Dronacharyaawardee, is credited with groomingnot just Sindhu but also the trail-blazing Saina Nehwal and KSrikanth among others.

“We actually have a big vacu-um in terms of producing coach-es of quality and it’s not a trainingprogram. It’s an ecosystem issue. So,we need to work harder to bridgethat gap,” he said.

Gopichand said although thereare some foreign coaches likeSouth Korean Kim Ji-Hyun on

board, more are needed to dealwith the talent that is coming up.

He said more coaches arerequired to strategise for matchesagainst seasoned international play-ers like Lin Dan.

“That we have not achieved.Hopefully, when this generation ofpeople retire, we will actually getthese people. If these people getback into coaching, then we’llactually get back numbers whichare required,” he said.

“It’s a question without an easyanswer and till that time, foreigncoaches need to support,” he said.

The former All England cham-pion said the hectic calendar of thesport is also the reason why a larg-er pool of coaches and physiother-apists is required.

“It’s also our own doing.Because, we have grown too fastand the infrastructure around ushasn’t grown enough.

“That’s a big problem we haveand we need to sort it out. We needto talk about it and collectively findan answer,” Gopichand said.

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Rafael Nadal launched his tilt ata fourth US Open title onTuesday with a swift defeat of

John Millman as other leading seedsin his half of the draw tumbled out inthe first round.

Four players in the world’s top 10— Dominic Thiem, Stefanos Tsitsipas,Karen Khachanov and RobertoBautista Agut — lost Tuesday to easeNadal’s potential path to the final.

The Spanish second seed — USOpen champion in 2010, 2013 and2017 — needed barely two hours tosee Millman off 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 atArthur Ashe Stadium with the worldnumber 60 from Australia unable toreproduce the magic that saw himstun Roger Federer here a year ago.

“The beginning, the first match,is always a little bit new even if I’veplayed here plenty of times,” saidNadal, who meets Aussie ThanasiKokkinakis next. “I think I played welland in general am very happy with theway I started.

“He (Millman) showed last yearwhat he’s able to do when he’s doingwell and I came on court with a lot ofrespect.”

Two-time French Open runner-up Thiem was upset by Italian giant-killer Thomas Fabbiano 6-4, 3-6, 6-3,6-2, the Austrian fourth seed slump-ing to another first-round exit, hav-ing lost at the same stage atWimbledon.

“I got very tired and exhaustedafter two sets. I’m far away from 100percent,” an ailing Thiem said. “It wasnot the real me there on the court.”

Greek eighth seed Tsitsipas strug-gled with cramps and accused umpiresof having “preferences” after he fell toa 6-4, 6-7 (5/7), 7-6 (9/7), 7-5 defeatby Next Gen rival Andrey Rublev ina gruelling four-hour slog.

Tsitsipas, for whom it was also asecond successive Grand Slam open-ing-round defeat, was hit with a

point penalty for a time violationin the final set.

Russian ninth seed Khachanovlost to Canada’s Vasek Pospisil in five

sets, with 10th seed Bautista Agut ofSpain succumbing in similar fashionto Mikhail Kukushkin ofKazakhstan to leave that quar-ter of the draw wide open forNick Kyrgios.

The volatile Australianeased past American SteveJohnson 6-3, 7-6 (7/1), 6-4 ina match that finished at 1:12 a.m.local time.

Alexander Zverev, seeded sixth,outlasted Moldova’s Radu Albot 6-1,6-3, 3-6, 4-6, 6-2, while Marin Cilic,the 2014 champion, advanced instraight sets over Slovakia’s MartinKlizan.

Reigning women’s US Openchampion Naomi Osaka confrontedsevere nerves as she overcameRussia's Anna Blinkova, the worldnumber 84.

Osaka suffered a first-round exit

last month at Wimbledon and theJapanese star struggled to put awayBlinkova before prevailing 6-4, 6-7(5/7), 6-2.

The top seed goes on to facePoland’s Magda Linette.

Osaka must retain her USOpen crown to have a chanceof remaining world numberone.

Wimbledon championSimona Halep, ousted in theopening round the past two

years at Flushing Meadows, beat USlucky loser Nicole Gibbs 6-3, 3-6, 6-2.

“I feel much better that I couldwin a match finally in this tourna-ment,” Halep said. “I feel like my game,it's there.”

Sloane Stephens, the 2017 cham-pion, slid to a 6-3, 6-4 loss to Russianqualifier Anna Kalinskaya, while 15-year-old Wimbledon sensation CocoGauff edged past Anastasia Potapova,18, in three sets on her US Opendebut.

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Bolstered by a historic World cham-pionships Bronze, Indian shuttler

B Sai Praneeth is now eyeing a con-sistent show in the season’s remain-ing tournaments to seal his TokyoOlympic spot by early next year.

Last week, Praneeth became thefirst Indian male player in 36 years towin a medal at the BWF WorldChampionship, emulating the leg-endary Prakash Padukone, who hadclinched a Bronze at the 1983 edition.

His historic feat saw him jumpfour places to World No 15 in the lat-est world rankings.

Only two shuttlers from onecountry, inside the top-16 on April 30,2020, will qualify for the TokyoOlympics and Praneeth said hischances are also bettered by the factthat he does not have to defend rank-ing points in the tournaments he willparticipate in from now.

“...Till Swiss Open next year. Sothere are a few tournaments where Ican play well and give some good per-formances and maintain my rankingsfor the Olympics,” Praneeth said.

“The Swiss Open is the only tour-nament in the qualification periodwhere I have to defend lot ofpoints. Last year, I didn’t playChina, Korea and lost early inDenmark and French. I lost infirst round at Hong Kong aswell.

“So if I can reach thesemifinals and quarterfinalsconsistently or win a tourna-ment, that will help seal myranking,” he explained.

The 27-year-old fromHyderabad, however, said heneeds to work on his fit-ness to trouble big play-ers such as two-timeworld champion KentoMomota.

“I know if I am fit Ican play much better. Inthe last few tournaments,I have been performingwell, so it gave me confi-dence. For me, fitness hasalways been the key and I stillneed to be more fit to beat play-ers such as Momota,” saidPraneeth, who lost to theJapanese in the semifinals atBasel.

Praneeth, who has beenconferred with the ArjunaAward this year, said thenews of the national awardcame as a massive boost for

him ahead of the WorldChampionship.

“The year has gone well for meand knowing about the Arjuna justahead of the World Championship,naturally gave me an additionalboost,” he said.

“Winning the last point in thequarterfinals against Jonatan(Christie) is a moment that I willalways remember. It was a big thing,I knew it would be a record for Indiaif I win.”

On way to the WorldChampionship semifinals, Praneethhad stunned two Indonesians instraight games — World No 9Anthony Sinisuka Ginting and WorldNo 4 Christie.

Talking about the role of thecoaches — Pullela Gopichand andPark Tae Sang, Praneeth said, “Theinputs of the coaches were importantfor the win. Sometimes in pressure sit-uation during matches, a player can’tthink anything and the coaches canprovide the strategy.

“So both the coaches helped me,especially Gopi sir, in the quarterfi-nals he gave me some inputs which Ididn’t even think of.”

Praneeth also attributed his suc-cess to the endurance train-

ing of new foreigncoach Park.

“Park is verycommitted. He isalways behind theplayers. He is helpingus and played a role in

our success. Hisendurance training,

long sessions ahead ofthe tournament

helped,” hesaid.

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Asian Games Gold medallisttriple jumper Arpinder

Singh won the Gold but failed totouch the World Championshipsqualifying mark on the secondday of 59th National Inter-StateAthletics Championships here onWednesday.

Arpinder managed the sea-son’s best jump of 16.83m, 12cmshort of World Championshipqualifying standard of 16.95munder hot and humid conditionsat the PAC Stadium here.

Karnataka’s U Karthik andTamil Nadu’s Mohammed

Salahuddin took the Silver andBronze respectively with

jumps of 16.0m and 16.79m.The 26-year-old

Arpinder, who has a per-sonal best of 17.17m (of

2014), will have another shotat World Championships quali-fication in the Indian GrandPrix in New Delhi on September5.

None of the Indians couldcome close to the qualifying

marks of the WorldChampionships to be held inDoha from September 28 toOctober 6.

Balakumar Nithin and AlexAntony won the men’s 200m and400m gold respectively in theabsence of top runners.

Having won the sprint dou-ble in the Khelo India YouthGames in Pune earlier this year,Nithin’s winning time of 20.91seconds here was the third-beston the list among Indians over the200m this year.

Only Arokia Rajiv andMuhammed Anas Yahiya — both400m specialists — have runfaster in 200m than the bespec-tacled sprinter from Tamil Nadu.

The 200m qualifying time forthe World Championships is20.40.

Kerala runner Alex, who firstgave glimpses of his potentialwith a 46.66 second run in theIndian Grand Prix V in Patialaearlier this month, improved hispersonal best with a 46.17 secondeffort.

It’s creditable that he won a

race that included runners of thecaliber of Ayyasamy Dharun(400m hurdles national recordholder) and TamilarasanSanthosh.

Dharun and Santhosh fin-ished fifth and seventh whileHaryana’s Harsh Baljeet Singhand Karnataka’s Sachin Robytook the Silver and Bronzerespectively by finishing inside 47seconds.

Kunhu Mohammed, who hasbeen part of the Indian 4x400mrelay team, was unable to go pastthe semifinal run in the morning,clocking 47.69 to finish third inhis heats. Iranian Mahdi Pirjahanwon the men’s 400m hurdles innew meet record time of 49.33seconds. The Athletics Federationof India had invited some foreignathletes for the meet.

P U Chithra won the women’s800m in her personal best time of2:02.96 while Mohammed Afsalpocketed the gold in men’s 800min the absence of Manjit Singhand Jinson Johnson with theyear’s best by an Indian, clocking1:48.35.

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Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju has lav-ished praise on tennis players

Sumit Nagal and PrajneshGunneswaran who participated in theongoing US Open.

On Monday, Nagal became thefirst tennis player to win a set in thefirst round of the US Open againstSwiss legend Roger Federer since2003. However, the 22-year-old fromJhajjar eventually lost the match 6-4,1-6, 2-6, 4-6 in two hours and 30 min-

utes. On the other hand, Prajnesh wasknocked out of the competition afterlosing 4-6, 1-6, 2-6 to world No 5Daniil Medvedev.

“I am very happy to see twoyoung tennis players Prajnesh andSumit exceedingly displaying their tal-ents in the US Open. I think they havea great future ahead,” Rijiju said in avideo posted on his official Twitterhandle on Wednesday.

“I am very happy to see their per-formances in the US Open and thisgives a lot of encouragement to theentire youth, especially in the tennisworld. These are good signs forIndian sports,” he added.

The Sports Minister also urgedthe two players to keep their focus andtrain harder.

Sumit had also earned praise fromFederer who said that the 22-year-oldwill have a solid career in the future.

“I think he knows what he canbring. That’s why I think he’s going tohave a very solid career. But, ofcourse, it’s not the game that comesout with the biggest surprises. It’s real-ly consistent. I think he did it very welltonight,” Federer had said in the post-match interview.

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Reigning Wimbledon cham-pion Simona Halep, a first-

round US Open loser the pasttwo years, felt a load had beenlifted Tuesday after advancing tothe second round.

“Definitely I feel lighternow,” Halep said. “I feel muchbetter that I could win a matchfinally in this tournament.”

Halep lost to Russian five-time Grand Slam championMaria Sharapova in the 2017first round and fell to Estonia’sKaia Kanepi last year.

“Well, the pressure wastricky today. Winning one matchin three years, it’s pretty tough,”Halep said with a smile. “But it’sgood that I could go over that.

“I was stressed before thematch, also on this court that Ilost last year. Was not easy. ButI’m really happy that I couldmanage in the end to play bet-ter than before.”

Halep said she was thankfulfor a tough fight in her opener,thinking it better prepares herfor the tests to come.

“I’m not feeling great at thebeginning of the tournament,but always when I played tough

matches at the beginning, thenI went through the semi-finalsor quarter-finals,” Halep said.

“So I’m confident. I feel likemy game, it’s there. I’m movingwell. I just need a little bit ofmental confidence. Now I’mtrying to get it.”

Halep hopes to match thelevel she reached in last month’sWimbledon final, where sheoutplayed 23-time major cham-pion Serena Williams to collecther second Grand Slam title afterthe 2018 French Open.

“The good thing is that Ibelieve I can touch that level,”Halep said. “If I keep workingevery day really hard, I’m able todo it again. So that’s why I’mmotivated. I’m still hungry ofresults, of titles. I’m sure thatwith matches and with tourna-ments I can get back there.”

She could become the worldnumber one by winning the USOpen title and could chase forthe year-end number one rank-ing she held last year. “If I’mhealthy, I will go for it 100 per-cent,” Halep said. “I want to fin-ish number one. I still havechances, so I’m going to work forthem. I’m confident I have actu-ally a big chance. I will fight.”

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