National English Daily

In memory of Dr Asima Kemal and Prof. Dr. Salim W Kemal

indianhorizon2010@gmail.com

feedbackhorizon@gmail.com

New Delhi, Tuesday, January 14, 2020 Pages 12 + 4 pull out (P16) Price: 3.00Volume No: 7 Issue No: 14

www.indianhorizon.org

Indian HorizonRNI No: Deleng/2013/51507

Published from New Delhi & Hyderabad

Gandhi said “Narendra Modi should have courage to tell youngsters why Indian economy has become a disaster,

why unemployment is on the rise?

Congress hits back at Amit Shah

P-5

Nadal calls for merger of Davis Cup

and ATP CupP-11

UK royals gather for talks over Harry-

Meghan’s futureP-8

Will approach court for filing FIR against Delhi Police: JAMIA VC

New Delhi, Jan 13 (IANS) Vice Chancellor of Jamia Milia Islamia (JMI), Najma Akhtar, on Monday assured agitating students that “we will approach the court for registering an FIR against the Delhi Police” for the violence on campus on December 15.“We had initiated a com-plaint, but the police didn’t register an FIR. We have also sent an objection to the gov-ernment regarding the same,” the VC said.“Now we will

move the court against this inaction as the police entered the campus without permis-sion and hence, we want an FIR to be registered against them,” she added.She fur-ther clarifi ed that she didn’t issue any notice to vacate the hostels after the violence.Akhtar also said that security has already been beefed up on the campus.Meanwhile, in an offi cial statement, JMI stated that the ongoing se-mester exams stood can-

celled till further notice. The new schedule will be declared later.“On the demand of the protesting students, the Vice Chancellor in consultation with the Deans, head of de-partments and other offi cials

announced that the ongoing semester exams stand can-celled till further notice. New schedule will be declared later,” the statement read.Students of Jamia Millia Isla-mia on Monday surrounded the Vice Chancellor’s offi ce to press for their charter of de-mands. Organised under the banner of Jamia Coordina-tion Committee, the students gathered at noon near the Vice Chancellor’s offi ce to set up a blockade.

Mumbai, Jan 13 (IANS) Tak-ing strong umbrage at a book ‘Aajke Shivaji: Narendra Modi’ released by a Bharatiya Janata Party activist, the Maharashtra Congress announced a state-wide agitation on Tuesday to protest against what it termed a “contempt” of the great Maratha king, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.

State Congress President and Revenue Minister Balasa-heb Thorat said attempts were made even in the past by some BJP activists like Ajay kumar Bisht and Vijay Goel to make such comparisons.

......Continue on Page 4

New Delhi, Jan 13 (IANS)After the opposi-tion meet on CAA-NRC, Rahul Gandhi on Mon-day launched a scathing attack on Prime Minis-ter Narendra Modi and alleged that the govern-ment has failed on eco-nomic issues and is now distracting the nation through other means.Gandhi said “Narendra

Modi should have cour-age to tell youngsters why Indian economy has become a disaster, why unemployment is on the rise? He does not have the guts to stand in front of students. I challenge him to go to any university, stand there without police and tell people what he is going to do for this

country.”He said that the government is trying to suppress the voice of the youth and the de-mands of the youth are legitimate but govern-ment is not listening to it.Earlier the opposi-tion met in New Delhi to chalk out a strategy on the issue of CAA and NPR. The meeting was attended by 20 politi-

PM TRYING TO DISTRACT NATION: RAHUL GANDHI

UNNAO RAPE CASE: NOW DOCTOR DIES MYSTERIOUSLY

SHIVAJI vis-a-vis Modi:

Congress to agitate

against BJP

Andhra, Telangana CMs discuss political developments Unnao (Uttar Pradesh) Jan 13

(IANS) The doctor who treated the father of the Unnao rape victim has died in mysterious circumstances here on Monday.

Prashant Upadhyaya had treated the Unnao rape victim’s father in April 2018 after he had been brutally thrashed in po-lice custody. The doctor was

posted in the emergency ward of the district hospital. He had discharged the rape victim’s fa-ther after fi rst aid and the latter died in custody a few hours later.Upadhaya was later suspended during the CBI inquiry into the matter. He had later been rein-stated and was presently posted in Fatehpur.The case related to

the murder of the rape victim’s father is scheduled to come up in court on Tuesday.

According to his family mem-bers, Upadhaya complained of diffi culty in breathing on Mon-day morning but refused to go to the hospital. Later when he was taken to the hospital, the doc-tors declared him brought dead.

The family members said that he was a diabetic patient.The body has been sent for post-mortem.Expelled BJP MLA Kuldeep Sen-gar, who has been convicted for the rape of the Unnao victim, is serving a life sentence in Tihar jail while his brother Atul Sengar is also in jail for the murder of the girl’s father.

Hyderabad, Jan 13 (IANS)Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh and Telan-gana met here on Monday to discuss various issues including the latest po-litical developments at the national level in the wake of the nation-wide protests over Citizenship (Amend-ment) Act.After landing here from Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh Chief Min-ister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Red-dy drove to Pragati Bhavan,

the offi cial residence of his Telangana counterpart K. Chandrashekhar Rao.Rao accorded a warm wel-come to Reddy and hosted a lunch for him. After the lunch, they discussed vari-ous issues.While the agen-da of their meeting was not offi cially announced, the two leaders understood to be discussing the political developments at the Cen-tre in the wake of ongo-ing protests against CAA,

National Population Reg-ister (NPR) and National Register of Citizens (NRC).The two Chief Ministers are likely to discuss CAA and related issues to take a stand in view of nation-wide protests. Rao’s Telan-gana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) had voted against the Bill in Parliament while YSR Con-gress Party (YSRCP) led by Jagan Mohan Reddy had supported it.

......Continue on Page 3

Ranchi, Jan 13 (IANS) Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren is likely to ex-pand his cabinet as kharmas, an inauspicious period in Hin-du calender, ends in two days.Soren, in Delhi to take part in the non-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Chief Ministers’ meeting with Sonia Gandhi, is likely to dis-cuss cabinet expansion with her

as well as other senior Congress leaders. He may return to Ranchi on Tuesday.Soren took oath on December 29 along with three Ministers -- two from the Con-gress and one from the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). No Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) MLA was made Minister. Fourteen days af-ter the swearing in, the portfolios are yet to be allocated.According

to sources, induction of more Ministers and portfolio distri-bution are not proving easy for Soren. While the Congress wants fi ve ministries, the JMM is willing to give only four. The Congress also wants important ministries, like health, education and rural development.

“A detailed discussion is likely with senior Congress leaders in Delhi on cabinet expansion and portfolio distribution,” a JMM source told IANS.Soren has to deal with the Congress de-mands, meet the aspirations of his own party legislators as well as balance the caste factor. Also, there are over half a dozen JMM legislators who have won the As-sembly polls four-fi ve times and are aspiring to be in the ministry.

......Continue on Page 5

Sonia Gandhi asks Delhi Cong stalwarts to contest polls, Ist list soon

Hemant Soren may expand Jharkhand cabinet after two days

cal parties but two major allies gave it a miss as DMK did not take part because they are at loggerheads with the state unit of the Congress while Shiv Sena also did not turn up.

New Delhi, Jan 13 (IANS) Con-gress interim chief Sonia Gandhi has asked the party leaders seek-ing ticket for their kins to them-selves contest the Delhi Assem-bly polls. The party is likely to release it's fi rst list of candidates in a day or two.

According to sources, she said everybody whom the party wanted to nominate would con-test elections. While some senior leaders had sought time, others expressed their willingness to contest elections, sources said.

Sonia doesn't want any thing, like Haryana and Maharashtra, where party didn't contest the elections with full force.

The Congress is keen to fi eld strong candidates and doesn't want to contest in a manner that would send out a message that the party is not a strong con-tender.Miffed with the party's lacklustre approach, Gandhi summoned all leaders, including Ajay Maken and Arvinder Singh Lovely, who had contested Lok Sabha polls to her residence.

J.P. Agarwal, Rajesh Lilothia and Naseeb Singh were also present at the meeting.

IANS had reported last Mon-day that as many as a dozen leaders wanted party ticket for their sons or daughters. Wary of defeat, some of these lead-ers were trying to garner ticket for their kins.Sajjan Kumar has sought ticket for his son. Mudit Agarwal, son of J.P. Agarwal, is also hoping for a nomination. Yoganand Shastri's daughter is also demanding a ticket.

New Delhi, Jan 13 (IANS) After BJP held a core group meeting on the intervening night of Sunday and Mon-day which lasted till 3 am, the party reconvened the meeting on Delhi polls at Amit Shah's residence. However, the party postponed its Central election committee meeting which was scheduled for 6 p.m. on Mon-day evening.Party's working president J.P. Nadda, Gen-eral Secretary (organisation) B.L. Santosh, party's Delhi

in-charge Prakash Javadekar, state President Manoj Tiwari among others were present in the meeting. Shyam Jaju, Harsh Vardhan were also part

of the meeting on Monday afternoon.The BJP has held a series of surveys of each constituency, sources said.The nightlong meeting was

to get fi nal feedback on prob-able candidates for all seats in Delhi before deciding on the candidates on Monday's CEC, which was postponed at the last minute. The party's high-est decision-making body on candidate selection may meet yet again on January 17, sourc-es said.Some of the prominent names that are likely to be tak-en up are Delhi BJP spokesper-son Tajinder Bagga from Tilak Nagar and Kapil Mishra from Karawal Nagar among others.

Amit Shah goes into huddle again; CEC put off

Patna, Jan 13 (IANS) Bi-har Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has reiterated that there is no question or any need to implement Na-tional Register of Citizens (NRC) in Bihar, though he said he is open to debate on the issue.

Kumar said the NRC was meant for Assam only and even Prime Minister has acknowledged it on sev-eral occasions.Speaking at the special session of the Assembly convened to rat-

ify the 126th Constitution Amendment Bill, which proposes to extend SC/ST quota in Lok Sabha and State Assemblies by anoth-er 10 years, Kumar extend-ed support to the caste-based census and said, "This will clarify how many

people belong to which caste as the last caste-based census took place in 1930."On the question of a debate in the House on the CAA and the NRC, the Chief Minister said, "If people want, we are ready for a discussion on the is-sue in the Assembly. So far as NRC is concerned, there is no question of imple-menting it. This was meant for Assam only. Even the Prime Minister has cat-egorically said this."

No question of NRC in Bihar: Nitish

City2

New Delhi, Jan 13 (IANS) ca place with his-torical importance, is struggling with present-day issues of bad roads, lack of proper transport and water supply. The history of Delhi's Na-rela can be traced back to Harappa and Indus Valley Civilisation and it also finds mention in the 'Tuzuk-e-Jahangiri', the autobiography of Mughal emperor Jahangir.

Most of the localities in the constituency are rural. Villages, including Lampur, Akbarpur Ma-jra, Bakhtawarpur, Bak-ouli, Bankner, Bhorgarh, Budhpur, Ghoga, Hamid-pur, Hiranki and Holam-bi Kalan are part of the constituency. Also part of the constituency are vil-lages of Holambi Khurd, Iradat Nagar, Jhango-la, Jindpur, Khampur, Khera Kalan, Shahpur Garhi, Singhola, Singhu, Sungerpur, Tajpur Kalan and Tigipur.

Located on the border of Delhi and Haryana, the area is just off the Grand Trunk Road -- one of Asia's oldest and longest roads which had linked the Indian subcontinent with Central Asia. Na-rela was developed as the third mega sub-city

project of Delhi Develop-ment Authority (DDA) in the urban extension proj-ect of Delhi, after Rohini Sub City and Dwarka Sub City. While the city had witnessed several waves of changes, the constitu-ency, however, more or less, has been facing the basic issues with a large part of it being consid-ered unauthorised.

According to locals, the main and basic survival issues they face are lack of water supply and sew-ers, traffic jams, narrow lanes, bad condition of roads with potholes, and lack of a proper public transport system. Even the metro is yet to reach

the area. The extension of Phase IV of the Delhi Metro Red Line will touch Narela with the expected date of the Rithala-Narela extension completion by 2024. The Narela Indus-trial Area and the Anaj Mandi makes the place crucial from the business and commercial point of view.

Having 2,52,467 voters with 1,13,118 females, the constituency has a sex ratio of 812 -- below the state's Gender Ra-tio of 824. Interestingly, all the five MLAs elected from the seat between 1993 and 2015, were males. In 2015, AAP's Sharad Chauhan bagged

the seat getting 59.97 per cent of total votes. In 2015, a total of eight male candidates contested from the seat. All the ma-jor parties, including BJP, Congress, AAP, BSP, Shiv Sena and CPI-M-L had contested the seat that year. From 1993 to 2008, the seat was a segment within the East Delhi Lok Sabha constituency, be-fore which it was a part of Metropolitan Council segment. After the de-limitation of 2008, Narela is now an assembly seg-ment within the North West Delhi Lok Sabha constituency.

Between the 1993 and 2015 assembly elections, the seat has elected Con-gress thrice in 1998, 2003 and 2008. It has elected the BJP in 1993 and 2013, when the Congress and AAP formed a govern-ment for 49 days. aThe city is again going for polls on February 8 with AAP, Congress and BJP has the top contenders. The election is crucial for all three parties. The AAP had bagged 67 of the 70 Assembly seats in the 2015 polls in Delhi. The BJP got the remaining three while the Congress, which ruled the city for 15 years, drew a blank.

Narela: Historical place with modern-day issues

Purvanchalis set poll agenda in Burari Assembly seat

New Delhi, Jan 13 (IANS) Burari, one of the most populated and a Purvanchali-dominated Assembly constituency, has several illegal colonies and is often discussed by Delhi residents for crime, bad roads and lack of wa-ter and sewerage system. Of the 3,57,331 voters, only 1,58,218 are females and the constituency has a sex ratio of 795, below the state's gender ratio of 824. Purvanchalis -- people from the eastern UP and the western Bihar -- ac-count for around 44 per cent of the population and thus play a crucial role in elections.

Since the Burari As-sembly seats's formation through the delimitation process in 2008, it has elected Sanjeev Jha, a Pur-vanchali, of the Aam Aad-mi Party (AAP) in 2013 and 2015. In 2013, when the AAP contested elections the first time, Jha won by 10,000 votes and in 2015 he defeated Gopal Jha of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by 68,000 votes. In 2008, Sri Krishan of thBJP had won the seat. Accord-ing to the AAP, the BJP

government at the Centre and the North Munici-pal Corporation of Delhi (NMCD) have failed to meet their responsibilities in terms of law and order and garbage maintenance.

According to Jha, Burari residents have been de-prived of basic necessities for decades. "The Burari Assembly constituency has several problems, like lack of good education infrastructure, water sup-ply system, sewer lines, healthcare facilities, as well as women's security," said Jha.

Stating his resolve to solve these problems, Jha said, "Why should the taxpaying residents of the constituency tol-erate these harsh living

conditions." Listing his works, the two-time AAP legislator said he ensured creation of around 200 modern classrooms and construction of 380 more was in progress. "The AAP gave an 800-bed hospi-tal, 14 mohalla clinics (10 more are in the process) and 72 km water pipeline. We got 30 km sewer lines built and 270 km more sewer lines are under vari-ous stages of construction. Over 2,000 CCTV cameras have been installed to en-sure safety of residents," he said. "Using taxpayers' money taxpayers' benefit with honesty and trans-parency is the responsibil-ity of every government," he said. Burari Assembly constituency comprises

Ibrahimpur, Jahangirpuri Resettlement Colony and Nathupura and rural set-tlements like Mukandpur, Nangli Poona, Jagatpur, Kadipur and Mukhmelpur.

The area hit the head-lines in July 2018 when 11 members of a family were found dead in their house, which the police termed a case of mass suicide. The area is also known for Khandeswar Mandir, con-sidered a Mahabharat-era temple dedicated to Lord Shiva. According to folk-lore, it's the place where Arjun prayed to Lord Shi-va before setting afire the Khandavprastha (forest of Khandva). While the AAP and the BJP are likely to leave no stone unturned to capture the seat, the Congress is also said to be in the race. But the opposition parties are in search of candidates who could give a contest to the AAP's Purvanchali leader. However, it's just a mat-ter of three-four weeks -- Delhi will go to polls on February 8 and votes will be counted on February 11 -- when the preference of Burari voters will be out in open.

Indian HorizonTuesday, January 14, 2020

New Delhi, Jan 13 (IANS) The Supreme Court on Monday told the Enforce-ment Directorate (ED) to at-tach JPMorgan's properties if it failed to give response on depositing Rs 140 crore in the Amrapali Group case.

The homebuyers' coun-sel contended before a Bench, headed by Justice Arun Mishra and compris-ing Justice U.U. Lalit, that there was no response from the multinational company on the issue. When Justice Mishra asked the ED what it had done so far, the ED offi-cial responded by saying the preliminary investigation into the matter had been complete.

"What about the money they were required to de-posit," asked the apex court. "Why don't you attach their (JPMorgan) properties to the extent it's required (in ac-cordance money, which is supposed to be deposited in the court), and then they will come to us," said the court.

The court said the ED should take the necessary action and also noted no counsel representing JPMor-gan was present in the court at the hearing. The ED had earlier told the court it had found prima facie evidence of the Foreign Exchange

Management Act, 1999 (FEMA) violation against JPMorgan in the Amrapali Group case. The ED, rep-resented by Joint Director Rajeshwar Singh, had said it would wrap up the probe into the multi-national com-pany soon and submit the report in the apex court on the next hearing.

The ED said it had re-corded statements of the company's country head in connection with the firm's dealings with the now de-funct Amrapali Group.

Singh contended that though the investigation was ongoing, prima facie it was evident that the firm was involved in violations of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and action would be taken ac-cordingly. The Bench had asked the ED to conduct an unbiased investigation into

the matter. "As recorded in the apex court judgment on the basis of the forensic auditor's report, a reputed venture capital fund, like JPMorgan, has facilitated promoters of Amrapali to launder money and take it outside India using compa-nies where employees such as peons of the statutory auditor were made direc-tors," said Kumar Mihir, one of the advocates represent-ing homebuyers. He said it seemed the ED had found more anomalies under the PMLA and accordingly, a complaint had been filed. "It's a welcome step and we are hopeful that the entire amount of Rs 140 crore will be recovered," said Mihir.

The Supreme Court in th July verdict had ordered a probe into the finan-cial fraud by the Amrapali Group, which included

diversion of 42,000 home-buyers' money. The ED had begun a probe into the case, where it was likely to ques-tion JPMorgan officials.

The forensic audit plays a crucial role in ascertain-ing the nature of JPMor-gan's involvement and how did it allegedly help Amrapali Group in siphon-ing off homebuyers' funds. The homebuyers' counsel said according to the court verdict, the multinational company invested around Rs 85 crore ($12.3 million) in an Amrapali Group company's shares and later sold them to an office boy and nephew of the au-ditor for Rs 140 crore. "The shares were overvalued for making payment to JPM-organ. It was adopted as a device for siphoning off the money of homebuyers to foreign countries," the court had said in judge-ment, agreeing with the forensic auditor regard-ing JPMorgan's role. The apex court also allowed the ED to take custody of Amrapali Group CMD Anil Sharma, Directors Shiv Priya and Ajay Kumar, who are lodged in a Delhi jail, for interrogation in money laundering and other of-fences.

Amrapali Case: SC asks ED to attach JPMorgan's assets

The Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Bipin Rawat calling on the Union Minister for Defence, Shri Rajnath Singh, in New Delhi.

New Delhi, Jan 13 (IANS) The BJP is plan-ning to field former Delhi Minister and rebel AAP leader Kapil Mishra against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal from New Delhi assem-bly constituency, party leaders said. "Mishra's candidature as a prob-able candidate against Kejriwal from New Delhi constituency has been discussed," said a senior BJP leader, adding no fi-nal discussion has taken

place on any candidate. Some party leaders, he said, want a senior lead-er to challenge the Aam Aadmi Party national convener in Delhi.

Mishra's candidature cropped up as he had challenged Kejriwal in 2018 and pushed him on the back foot. An-other party leader said Mishra is willing to con-test from the Karawal Nagar assembly seat, which he won in 2015. The BJP, which was re-

duced to three out of 70 seats in the 2015 assem-bly elections, is looking to make a comeback in the national capital. BJP President Amit Shah held a night-long core group meeting of the party on the interven-ing night of Sunday and Monday that lasted till 3 a.m. He has convened the party's Central Elec-tion Committee meet-ing to decide on the can-didates. The night-long meeting took feedback

on probable candidates for each Delhi seat. The meeting was held at Shah's residence which was attended by party's working president J.P. Nadda, General Secre-tary (organisation) B.L. Santosh, party's Delhi in-charge Prakash Ja-vadekar, state President Manoj Tiwari among others. According to BJP sources, the party will release a list of over 55 candidates by Janu-ary 16.

BJP may field Kapil Mishra or a senior against Kejriwal

New Delhi, Jan 13 (IANS) India has dropped 10 places to 84 in the latest update of the Henley Passport Index, sharing the spot with tiny countries like Mauritania and Tajikistan.

India's ranking fell from a decade-high ranking of 74 to a low of 84 in 2020. The Henley Passport In-dex is the ranking of all the world's passports accord-ing to the number of des-tinations their holders can access without a prior visa.

The Henley Passport Index website provides comprehensive lists of the countries one can access visa-free, with an electronic visa (e-Visa), with a visa on arrival, or with a normal visa. In a statement released last week, Henley Passport Index said Asian countries have firmly established their lead. For the third

consecutive year, Japan has secured the top spot on the index, which is based on exclusive data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), with a visa-free/visa-on-arrival score of 191. Singapore holds on to its 2nd place position with a score of 190, while South Korea drops a rank to 3rd place alongside Germany, giving their pass-

port holders access to 189 destinations worldwide.

The US and the UK con-tinue their downward tra-jectory on the index's rank-ings. While both countries remain in the top 10, their shared 8th place position is a significant decline from the number one spot they jointly held in 2015. In the top 10, Finland and Italy share 4th place, while Den-

mark, Luxembourg, and Spain together hold 5th place. The statement said that the index's historic success story remains the steady ascent of the UAE, which has climbed a re-markable 47 places over the past 10 years and now sits in 18th place. On the other end of the travel freedom spectrum, Afghanistan re-mains at the bottom.

India drops to 84 in Passport Index, Asian countries lead

3State

India-13-01-2029,--Makar Sakranti marks the beginning of harvest festival in India. ISKCON celebrates the festival by distrib-uting holy Kichdi that’s cooked only on this special day of Makar Sankranti. The Khichdi will be distributed around many soci-eties and market places with the help of society residence for the general public, Sudama Sevaks

who are supporting in building this temple will be putting stalls all over Dwarka. ISKCON Dwarka has also organised a massive Kite flying competition to celebrate Uttarayan, to seek blessing of Sun God, bringing the community to-gether for the celebration.

ISKCON is better recognized as a “Hare Krishna movement” and its followers are known as Hare

Krishnas they follow damous devotional bhakti yoga tradition--Gaudiya Vaishnavism., ISKCON has popularised the the teach-ing of Lord Krishna worldwide. severe. Lord Jagannath saved his devotees from the inevitable. The wheel will be available for wor-shippers to view starting 14 Janu-ary 2020.

ISKCON is a non-profit or-

ganization that works for social welfare. They have only one aim and that is spreading the values and teachings of our Vedas. ISK-CON Dwarka Delhi is a beautiful place for gaining such values and for making your life even more fruitful and meaningful. Teach-ings of Bhagavad Gita is available to everyone and permanent hap-piness is guaranteed.

New Delhi, Jan 13 (IANS) Opposition parties have decided to keep up the pressure on the Centre on the triple CAA, NPR and NRC issues by reading out the preamble to the Con-stitution across the coun-try on Republic Day.

In a statement issued following a meeting here on Monday, the opposi-tion parties said they had decided to observe a "Jai Hind Day" on the birth an-niversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose on January 23. The resolution adopted at the meeting also called upon Chief Ministers who

are opposed to the Citi-zenship (Amendment) Act and the National Register of Citizens (NRC), to stop the Nationbal Population Register (NPR) process their states.

The resolution said: "The slogan coined by the Indian National Army (INA) under his (Bose) leadership has become the regular greeting of all Indians - "Jai Hind". The historic INA trial at Red Fort reverberated with the slogan "Sahhgal, Dhillon, Shahnawaz" that galvan-ised the Indian people and bolstered the communal

unity of our people dur-ing those difficult times of 1945-46." "Readings of the Preamble of the Con-stitution and taking oath to safeguard it in all habi-tations across the country must be held. and on Janu-ary 30, on the martyrdom day of Mahatma Gandhi. Observe it by highlighting his relentless campaigns in pursuit of communal harmony," the resolution said, urging people to join the program. The opposi-tion parties also urged the states to stop the NPR pro-cess from going ahead.

"The CAA, NPR and NRC

is a package that is un-constitutional, which spe-cifically targets the poor, the downtrodden, the SC/STs and the linguistic and religious minorities. The NPR is the basis for the NRC. We demand the withdrawal of the CAA and the immediate stoppage of the nationwide NRC/NPR. All the Chief Ministers, who have announced that they will not implement NRC in their State, must consider to suspend the NPR enumeration as this is a prelude to NRC," they said. The resolution also said the economic crisis

has pushed the economy to the verge of a recession with a record fall in the country's GDP and unem-ployment levels at their highest in the last half century. "Agrarian distress deepening with rising farmers' suicides, mas-sive closures and lay offs in industrial units accom-panied by rising prices of petroleum products, cook-ing gas, vegetables and all essential commodities is making people's lives more miserable. The Modi government has created an economic disaster," it added.

Opposition to read out Constitution preamble on Republic Day

Darshan opens at ISKCON Dwarka for a rare wheel of Lord Jaganath Puri’s Rath along with Khichdi

distribution & Kite flying this Makarsankranti

Indian Horizon Tuesday, January 14, 2020

New Delhi, Jan 13 (IANS) Delhi Po-lice Commissioner Amulya Patnaik, here on Monday, briefed Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla on law and order situation following Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and Jamia Millia vio-lence within a month.

The meeting took place in North Block in the afternoon. Earlier, Patnaik and Bhalla apprised a 31-member Parlia-mentary Standing Committee for Home Affairs on Delhi's law and order, which deteriorated during violent protests in Jamia and a series of student protests. The protests were against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, which came into force on Friday. The CAA proposes citizenship rights to migrants of six non-Muslim communities facing religious persecution in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

According to sources, Patnaik informed Bhalla that as many as 90 people had been arrested in the last one month for involve-ment in the anti-CAA violent demonstra-

tions and that the law and order situation in the city was under control.

Patnaik also briefed Bhalla about a report, prepared by Delhi Police's Joint Commissioner Shalini Singh on the January 5 JNU violence. The JNUSU has claimed that members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the RSS student wing, were behind the violence. The ABVP has denied the al-legations. On the Jamia Millia incident in which the university sought a high-level probe into Delhi Police's entry to the university premises and opening of fire against protesters, Patnaik shared a detailed action report with the Home Secretary. The police claimed it had en-tered the campus in search of "outsid-ers". Later, it arrested 10 suspects for violence and released the students de-tained at the police station. It said Jamia students were not among the arrested suspects, some of whom had criminal antecedents.

Failing to disclose details of drones by Jan 31 to invite penal action

Delhi Police brief Home Secretary on

law & order

New Delhi, Jan 13 (IANS) Tightening regulations for drones which could be a poten-tial security threat in the sky, the Civil Aviation Ministry has asked individuals or firms to voluntarily disclose the details about the unmanned aerial ve-hicles (UAV) starting Tuesday.

Failing to make disclosure by January 31 will attract penal action in accordance with the present law. An official note from the misaid that those pos-sessing drones are required to submit information about them. Accordingly, they can vis-it the dedicated digital platform and share the drone details.

"This is the global practice.

It is the baseline information which authorities require drone operators to share," a former Directorate General of Civil Avi-ation (DGCA) official said.

As per the drone guide-lines by the aviation regulator, drone operators have to obtain Unique Identification Number (UIN), Unmanned Aircraft Op-erator Permit (UAOP) and other operational requirements be-fore flying them in the sky.

"It was brought to the notice of the Government of India that such drones and drone opera-tors are not complying with the CAR (Civil Aviation Require-ments) mentioned above," the Aviation Ministry said in a state-

ment. "The conditions of No Permission-No Take off (NPNT) as envisaged in the aforesaid CAR are not mandatory for this purpose whereas if drones are operated without due permis-sion, the aforesaid process of CAR is violated. The deadline to submit the required informa-tion to the Government is 31st January 2020," it said.

On successful submission of voluntary disclosure of possess-ing drone, a Drone Acknowl-edgement Number (DAN) and an Ownership Acknowledge-ment Number (OAN) will be is-sued online to the owners. This will assist in validation of opera-tions of drones in India.

Indian Praja Congress Party, Inaugrated Delhi Pardesh Office in Jeevan Nagar,Ashram, Under Jangppura Constituency,New Delhi, Party Founder and National President Mr K.B.Sri Dhar,National General Secretary @ Spokes Person Mr Subhash Bihari, Mr Rekha Palli Hari nath National General Secretary @ Delhi incharge, Mr

Ajit Singh Khatana Delhi Pardesh President and other Aslo seen.

Delhi –13Jan. Trivision Films Pvt Ltd has Launched Historical Song on POK at Institute of Engi-neers Bhawan New Delhi.

In Which Grand Occasion of Documentary Song “POK is inte-gral Part of India” has been mes-merizing the audiences and made them Proud of being Indian Patri-otism. In this song tribute to all freedom fighters Who has made supreme sacrifice to our Country. On this Occasion RSS Patron Dr. Keshav Bali Ram Hedgewar, For-mer Prime Minister of India late shree Atal Bihari Vajpayee great contribution to Nation remem-

bered. There is a noble presence of Anmol Industries founder Sri Baijnath Choudhary and Satmola Group founder late shree shiv shankar Mittal, Geeta Singh and others. Trivision Films CMD &

Director Sri Vijay Bhardwaj , Co –Producer Sri Akhilesh Chandra Shukla , Sri Vijay Bansal and MP Sushil Singh, BJP Spokesperson Sanjay Mayukh were present on this occasion.

Launched of Historical Documentary Song on POK

Monster Energy welcomes Indian cricketer Hardik

Pandya to the teamIndia, 13th January, 2020: Global energy drinks

brand Monster Energy has partnered with its first cricketer globally, Indian all-rounder, Hardik Pandya.The brand has teamed up with some of the world’s most accomplished sports personalities to inspire the rising passion for action sports and motorsports across disciplines. These include Ultimate Fighting Championship Superstar, Conor McGregor, MotoGP Legend, Valentino Rossi, 6x Formula One World Champion, Lewis Hamilton, and 6x X-Games gold medalist Jackson Strong, the recent feature in a major video campaign with Monster Energy in India. The brand has also on-boarded a classic mix of sporting heroes pushing boundaries and testing limits in their chosen disciplines. Hardik Pandya commented, “I’m delighted to be a part of the Monster Energy family. I have always believed in living my passion and follow-ing my dream.

Sh Nitin Gadkari Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways held a meeting with Sh Jagdish Sharma Principal Secretary PWD and Sh Sanjay Kundu Principal Secretary to Chief Minister to review the progress of various National Highway projects in the HIMACHAL state.-Sectetary MoRTH, DG-MoRTH, Chairman- NHAI, Dy Resident Commissioner Sh Vivek Mahajan Officers of State PWD , Ministry of Road Transport and Highways

were also present in the meeting.

New Delhi, Jan 13 (IANS) Bhim Army chief Chan-drashekhar Azad on Monday filed a bail plea before a Delhi court in connection with a case relating to the Violence that broke in the Daryaganj area of the national capital. Azad, who is currently in ju-dicial custody, claimed that there was no evidence against him in the FIR which states that he had instigated the

crowd to march to Delhi Gate from Jama Masjid and indulge in violence. The matter will be heard tomorrow. "No motive has been attributed to the ac-cused in the present FIR and all charges have been added mechanically," the plea said. Azad further claimed that he suffers from severe physical disability and that it cannot be comprehended that he could at all influence any witnesses.

Chandrashekhar files bail plea

Police commissionerates won't help law & order:

MayawatiNew Delhi, Jan 13 (IANS) Bahujan

Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Mon-day said that implementing police re-forms at a few places in Uttar Pradesh will not make any difference but the government should pay attention to the overall law and order situation in the state. She tweeted in Hindi on Monday saying: "Changing the po-lice system in some places in Uttar Pradesh will not change anything, but taking strict legal action against criminal elements, rising above party politics, can bring about the right im-provement in the state's poor law and order, which the government must pay attention to."

New Delhi, Jan 13 (IANS) Former Hary-ana Chief Minister and senior Congress lead-er Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Monday sought to project the party's united stand at a lunch he hosted at his residence ahead of an Opposition meeting over the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Reg-ister of Citizens (NRC).

Several senior Con-gress leaders -- Ahmed Patel, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Jairam Ramesh, Randeep Singh Sur-jewala, Kumari Selja, P. Chidambaram and Prithviraj Chavan and others-- attended the luncheon. Shiv Sena

spokesperson Pri-yanka Cahturvedi also attended the lunch. Hooda's "unity show" is the first such occa-sion after the Haryana assembly polls held last year in which Con-gress had improved its tally, though BJP with

the help of Dushyant Chautala's Jannayak Janta Party formed the government in the state. The Congress under Selja and Hooda managed to win 31 out of 90 seats, improv-ing the party tally of 15 seats in 2014 polls.

Hooda holds Cong 'unity show' at lunch

New Delhi, Jan 13 (IANS) The national capital on Monday witnessed fog and 'very poor' air quality as it remained cloudy, with the weather office predicting showers during the day. The minimum temperature was recorded at nine degrees Celsius, an IMD official said. "The maximum tem-perature, however, is likely to hover around 23 degrees Celsius," the official added.

"The sky will be gener-ally cloudy with light rains

expected during the day," the official said. At least 15 Delhi-bound trains were delayed on Monday due to fog, railway officials said. A Western Disturbance has given rise to a cyclonic cir-culation over Afghanistan and Pakistan between 1.5 and 3.1 km above mean sea level, the Met said.

"Under its influence, fairly widespread to wide-spread precipitation with isolated heavy to very heavy falls is very likely to occur

over western Himalayan re-gion on Monday," it added. According to the Centre-run System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting (SA-FAR), the overall air quality index (AQI) of Delhi was re-corded at 356. "The overall Delhi AQI is in the higher range of 'very poor' catego-ry on Monday morning. Un-der the influence of current western disturbance(WD) increased wind speed and isolated rainfall is expecting by evening.

Rain likely as Delhi remains overcast

South 4Shivaji vis-a-vis Modi: Congress

to agitate against BJP

Cong summons Kerala leaders to Delhi to end internal feud

Amaravati farmers’ views sought amid protests over capital

4 get life term for sexually assaulting a

woman

Chhatrapati Shivaji beyond compare: Shiv

Sena

How China’s Baidu is uniting missing

persons with families

No question of NRC in Bihar: Nitish

MPPSC question paper ‘insults’ Bhil community,

triggers row

Dust coats neighbourhood after Maradu demolition

Mumbai, Jan 13 (IANS) Taking strong umbrage at a book ‘Aajke Shivaji: Na-rendra Modi’ released by a Bharatiya Janata Party activist, the Maharash-tra Congress announced a state-wide agitation on Tuesday to protest against

what it termed a “con-tempt” of the great Maratha king, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.

State Congress President and Revenue Minister Bala-saheb Thorat said attempts were made even in the past by some BJP activists like

Ajay kumar Bisht and Vijay Goel to make such compar-isons.

“Chhatrapati Shivaji Ma-haraj is a revered idol of the masses in the state. Those who sought votes in his name are now making mis-chievous attempts to insult him in this manner,” said Thorat sharply.

He alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has been playing self-ish politics, held the nation at ransom with the CAA-NRC, dividing people on religious lines, harassed the masses after demoneti-sation, and ruling the coun-try in an autocratic manner and “can never be com-pared with the great Chha-trapati Shivaji Maharaj”.

On the other hand, Tho-

rat said Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj united peoples of all religions to pave the way for ‘Swarajya’, so Modi can-not be equated with even a ‘toe-nail’ of the great Maratha King.

“The BJP did not even spare the Chhatrapati Me-morial of a scam and it has lost the moral right to even utter the great Maratha King’s name. We shall pro-test against the BJP in all cities, districts and talukas tomorrow (Jan 14),” Thorat announced.

Earlier, top leaders of Shiv Sena, Nationalist Con-gress Party and the Con-gress slammed the BJP af-ter the book, penned by Jai Bhagwan Goyal kicked off a huge political storm in Ma-harashtra.

T h i r u v a n a n t h a -puram, Jan 13 (IANS) The congenital prob-lem of factional feud continues to dog the Congress in Kerala. And the entire top brass of the party in Kerala has been sum-moned to Delhi to find an amicable solution to tne never-ending squabbles.

These leaders in-cluded state party chief Mullapally Ram-achandran, Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala, former Congress Chief Minis-ter Oommen Chandy as well as Benny Be-hanan, convenor of the Congress-led UDF and Lok Sabha member.

As they have been

unable to resolve their differences over the much-delayed party revamp and continue to bat for their sup-porters’ elevation to the party posts, the central party leader-ship has called them to Delhi.

Since the seven-ties, the party was led by A.K. Karunakaran and A.K. Antony, both former Chief Minis-ters. Now their groups have been taken over by Chennithala and Chandy.

After Karunakaran’s death, his several sup-porters crossed over to the Chandy faction, making him the tallest Congress leader with a pan-Kerala accep-

tance. But after lead-ing the UDF to defeat in 2016 Assembly polls, Chandy withdrew to the backstage, leav-ing the field open to Chennithala. There is another faction led by Ramachandran.

These factions and their leaders -- despite several rounds of talks -- have failed to reach an understanding to the party’s revamp, which includes 14 dis-trict presidents and the lower committees. These factions and their leaders -- despite several rounds of talks -- have failed to reach an understanding to the party’s revamp, which includes 14 dis-trict presidents and

the lower committees. While Ramachandran wanted one vice-presi-dent and fewer general secretaries and sec-retaries, Chandy and Chennithala are de-manding a jumbo list of office-bearers to ac-commodate their sup-porters.

With two crucial elec-tions -- local body polls later this year and the 2021 Assembly polls in May -- the party knows without setting the internal squabbles it would be difficult to take on the now ‘cash rich’ ruling CPI-M. With two crucial elec-tions -- local body polls later this year and the 2021 Assembly polls in May -- the party knows without setting the internal squabbles it would be difficult to take on the now ‘cash rich’ ruling CPI-M.

Amaravati, Jan 13 (IANS) A committee formed by the Andhra Pradesh government to look into the three-capital proposal on Monday sought the opinion of Amaravati farmers, who have been protesting against the pro-posal for nearly a month.

The 16-member committee, comprising ministers and senior officials, held its third meeting on Monday even as protests by farmers in 29 villages of Amara-vati continued against the pro-posal to develop Visakhapatnam as administrative capital and Kunrool as the judicial capital.

Minister for Information and Public Relations Perni Nani told reporters that the farmers could convey their views to the panel. They may submit the opinion and suggestions in writing per-sonally to the Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA)

Commissioner or online. The move comes amid the protest by farmers, who were angry that the government is going ahead with its move without consulting them.

Before the committee met on Monday, Urban Development Minister Botsa Satyanarayana said a one-day special session of Assembly is likely to be convened on January 20 to announce a de-cision on the capital.

The government on Decem-ber 29 constituted a high-power committee to examine the rec-ommendations of the expert committee, which suggested a three-capital formula for de-centralized development of the state.

The panel, comprising 11 min-isters and five officials, was asked to submit the report in three weeks. It will also take into ac-

count the recommendations of the Boston Consultancy Group (BCG). aAfter the six-member expert committee submitted its report on December 20, the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) govern-ment roped in BCG to study the option available for the develop-ment of the capital city.

Both the expert committee and BCG recommended decen-tralisation of development and state capital functions.

The reports triggered unrest among farmers in 29 villages of Amaravati, who had given 33,000 acres of land in 2015 for develop-ment of the state capital.

The farmers are staging daily protests, demanding the govern-ment drop the three-capital pro-posal and develop the capital in Amaravati as planned by the pre-vious Telugu Desam Party (TDP) government.

Chennai, Jan 13 (IANS) A womens court in Tamil Nadu’s Than-javur district on Mon-day sentenced four youths to life impris-onment for sexually assaulting a woman in 2018.

The court also sent an autorickshaw driver Gurumurthy to rigor-ous imprisonment for seven years in the same case.

The persons con-victed for life impris-onment are S. Dinesh, M. Vasanth, S. Puru-shothaman, and S. An-barasan.

The woman from Del-

hi had reached Kumba-konam, a town in Than-javur district, at night to join a private bank by a train.

She boarded an au-torickshaw and gave the driver her destina-tion address. However, the driver drove her around in order to get more money from her.

When she started questioning him and started shouting for help, he asked her to get down midway and went away.

The woman then got a lift from a two wheel-er rider, who took her to a secluded place. His

other friends too came there and sexually as-saulted her.

One of her assaulters took her in another auto rickshaw and dropped her in Kumbakonam. Enroute, he spoke to his friends using the auto driver’s mobile phone.

The woman had not-ed down the autorick-shaw’s registration number and the next day after narrating her ordeal to her colleagues made a police com-plaint.

With these clues, the police soon cracked the case and arrested the convicts.

Mumbai, Jan 13 (IANS) Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj is the revered idol of Maharashtra and cannot be ‘compared’ with anyone, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut said here on Monday, demanding a ban on “Aaj Ke Shivaji - Narendra Modi” which was released on Sunday, triggering a huge contro-versy in the state. “The BJP must recall the book immediately and Union Home Minister Amit Shah should personally intervene and ensure the book is banned,” Raut told mediapersons here. The book, by a BJP activist, has been slammed by the ruling Shiv Sena-Nationalist Congress Party-Congress alliance, plus All India Kisan Sabha pres-ident Ashok Dhawale, political activists and intel-lectuals as it allegedly seeks to draw comparisons between the great Maratha hero and the Prime Minister.

“Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj is our national hero, Prime Minister modi is the respected leader of the country... The Chhatrapati’s descendents of the Kolhapur and Satara dynasties must take seri-ous note of this,” Raut urged.

Chennai, Jan 13 (IANS) A search engine company that searches and unites missing persons with their long-lost families?

Well, that is one of the facets of the Chinese search engine com-pany Baidu which is using Artificial intelligence (AI)-based facial recog-nition technology.

“Our Baidu ‘AI Xunren’ has re-united about 10,000 missing per-sons with their families,” in China, a company official told IANS on the

condition of anonymity recently here. According to the official, Baidu’s AI programme can identify missing people from old pictures of a person regardless of his/her age.

In other words, even if the photo of a person is taken during his childhood, it can be matched with the same person’s photo taken several years later, through Baidu’s AI programme. The com-pany official said a person can upload his/her picture or the pic-

ture of the missing person in the family, regardless of the year the picture was taken. The photo can be uploaded on China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs’ website for miss-ing persons or on other channels like the Baidu ‘AI Xunren website, the Baidu AI Xuren Smart Mini Programme on the Baidu App or through various non-governmen-tal organisations (NGO) working in the field, the official said. Bai-du’s ‘AI Xunren’ then takes over

and compares the pictures that are uploaded and identifies a suit-able match. The accuracy rate for Baidu’s facial recognition technol-ogy has reached 99.7 per cent.

Remarkably, Baidu’s cross-age facial recognition technology can identify missing people from old photos, so it can find people who went missing a long time ago, even if their appearances have changed significantly, the official said. The official said there was a case where

a boy was lost at the age of four and when he was 25 years of age, he was identified as a missing person.

Baidu also uses AI to help visu-ally-impaired people in massage parlours. The Baidu ‘Xiaodu’ smart speakers are there in several mas-sage parlours and the massage ther-apists who are visually impaired can use voice to control air condition-ing, control the curtains and a lot of Internet of Things (IoT) devices which makes their life easier.

Patna, Jan 13 (IANS) Bihar Chief Minister Nit-ish Kumar has reiterated that there is no question or any need to imple-ment National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Bihar, though he said he is open to debate on the issue.

Kumar said the NRC was meant for Assam only and even Prime Minister has acknowledged it on several occasions.

Speaking at the special session of the Assem-bly convened to ratify the 126th Constitution Amendment Bill, which proposes to extend SC/ST quota in Lok Sabha and State Assemblies by another 10 years, Kumar extended support to the caste-based census and said, “This will clarify how many people belong

to which caste as the last caste-based census took place in 1930.”

On the question of a debate in the House on the CAA and the NRC, the Chief Minister said, “If people want, we are ready for a discussion on the is-sue in the Assembly. So far as NRC is concerned, there is no question of implementing it. This was meant for Assam only. Even the Prime Minis-ter has categorically said this.”

Kumar’s party JD-U had supported Citizen-ship Amendment Act in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha last month, which triggered mas-sive controversy within the party as party Vice President Prashant Kishor openly opposed it.

Bhopal, Jan 13 (IANS) The question paper of the recently held Madhya Pradesh Public Service Commission (MPPSC) examination has raked up a controversy over a derogatory ref-erence to the Bhil community. The question paper of the competitive ex-amination, conducted by the MPPSC on Sunday, had a “passage” on the Bhil community. One of the pas-sage’s questions allegedly said, “They are financially weak as they spend more than their income.”

The question paper also cited that the community people had “crimi-nal tendencies”, which is one of the reasons for their poverty. Call-ing the question paper “insulting”, Opposition leader Gopal Bhargava lashed out at the MPPSC. “The trib-als have made a significant con-tribution to India’s independence struggle. They are the protectors of our culture. It is an insult to the en-tire tribal community.

Kochi, Jan 13 (IANS) A day after the demolition of five apartment blocks, angry local residents vent-ed their anger against the Maradu municipality in Kerala demand-ing an immediate clean up of the residual dust that has engulfed the area.

“Last night around 9.30 p.m., my child suffered breathing prob-lems and had to be rushed to the nearby hospital,” said a local resi-dent.

“The dust is causing several is-sues, we are unable to cook any-thing. It has come to a stage that every hour we have to clean the house, as the dust returns quickly after we clean. The authorities have to come to our rescue,” said another resident.

Meanwhile pollution expert Aravind Kumar after examining the locality said that the quality of air is not that bad.

T.H. Nadira, the chairperson of the municipality was at the receiving end, when two dozen women surrounded her office and demanded quick action to re-move the dust.

“We have made all arrange-ments to see that water is sprayed on the debris. We have also got in touch with the higher ups to see that the problem is addressed. We are doing everything to decrease the difficulties faced by those living in the neighbourhood of where the five apartment blocks were razed,” said Nadira.

Four months after the Supreme Court ordered demolition of five apartment blocks at Maradu, the last of the apartment blocks of Golden Kayalorem was razed on Sunday afternoon.

The Ernakulam district admin-istration that oversaw the demoli-tion has handed over the removal

of the debris and dust to a com-pany which has estimated the debris at around 76,000 tonnes of concrete.

The company have to first sep-arate the steel from the concrete and then dispose it off for which they have 70 days to finish the job.

It was on September 6 that the apex court had ordered the de-molition by September 20 for violating the Coastal Regulation Zone rules but the Kerala govern-ment dilly-dallied on it.

It was only after the court took a tough stance that the Kerala gov-ernment realised that there was no way out but the demolition of the buildings.

After several rounds of discus-sions, the demolition date was fi-nalised. Through an open tender, the task of demolition was given to firms that had experience of such operations.

Indian Horizon Tuesday, January 14, 2020

NATION5

2 killed, 22 injured in accident on Agra-Lucknow

expressway Agra, Jan 13 (IANS) A UP roadways Volvo bus headed

for Lucknow from Agra Fort depot rammed into a station-ary truck on the Agra-Lucknow Expressway, early Monday morning, killing two and injuring more than 20 passengers.

The ill-fated bus hit the truck from the rear side at a fairly good speed, as the driver of the bus failed to see the vehicle in front of it due to dense fog, according to villagers of Sikr-ara under Fatehabad police station.

The police later shifted all the injured passengers to Agra Medical College and hospital.

Senior officials reached the accident site to oversee rescue operations. The bus fell almost 40 feet below the elevated expressway due to the accident impact, they said.

ED raids 11 locations in Kolkata in alleged Hawala case

Kolkata, Jan 13 (IANS) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday carried out searches at over 11 locations here, including the residence of former Border Security Force (BSF) commandant Zibi D. Mathew, in connection with its probe into an alleged hawala racket.

A senior ED official said that multiple teams of the finan-cial probe agency carried out the raids at over 11 places in the city over suspicion of hawala operatives and their shell companies. The official said that it carried out searches at the premises of alleged animal smuggler Mohammad In-amul Haque and others. The ED searches came in the wake of an FIR filed by the CBI against Mathew, who was arrested by them in March last year with over Rs 45 lakh in cash. The official said that it got the tip-off that Mathew and Haque shared a good bond and thus to unearth their nexus involv-ing financial dealings, the ED raided several premises here.

‘Indic civilisation could be 24,000 years old’

Agra, Jan 13 (IANS) The Indic civilisation could be 24,000 years old, according to available research documentation, claims author Neelesh Neelkanth Oak citing “configuration of stars in the Mahabharata, Ramayana and the Vedas.”

Oak was addressing a meeting of local intellectuals at the Engineering Institute of Agra University on Monday.

He said scientific investigation of new material, and the “configuration of stars as described in the Mahabharata, Ramayana and the Vedas, clearly indicated that the Indic civilisation was much older than 3,500 years as estimated by western historians. “Astronomical data of major events described in our epics points to the antiquity of our civilisa-tion,” he added. The positioning of various stars, ‘naksha-tras’ like Arundhati and Vashishth, establish the date of Ma-habharata war as 5561 BC, he said.

Cheating case: IAF officer, friend in police custody

Villagers mow down leopard, third in a week in UP

Congress hits back at Amit Shah Punjab to set up seven fast-track courts for rape cases

Twin probe on into Tripura youth’s death in police custody

Bhopal, Jan 13 (IANS) Wing Commander Kuldeep Waghela and dentist Chandresh Shukla, who were nabbed for posing as Home Minister Amit Shah and his assistant and calling up Gov-ernor Lalji Tandon to seek help for Shukla’s appointment as vice-chancellor, were on Mon-day remanded in police custody for two days.

Meanwhile, a team of Indian Air Force officials arrived in Bhopal to make enquiries about Wing Commander Waghela’s in-volvement in the case.

Other crimes of facilitating work fraudulently have so far not been revealed in the investiga-tions. But nothing could be ruled out at the moment, sources said.

The two are being grilled in the

police custody, said Superinten-dent of Police Special Task Force (STF) Rajesh Bhadoria.

Bhadoria said Chandresh be-came friends with Kuldeep Wa-ghela during his visits at the Governor house when Waghela was ADC to former Governor Ramnaresh Yadav. Waghela was later posted at Air Force Head-quarters.

After Chandresh applied for the post of Vice Chancellor, he contacted Waghela and they hatched the plan to contact Tan-don for helping Chandresh’s se-lection.

The Facebook of Chandresh is filled with photographs with leaders of political parties and he is currently working as professor with a private Dental College.

Badaun (Uttar Pradesh), Jan 13 (IANS) After Bijnor and Moradabad, it is now Badaun where the local people beat a leopard to death with sticks and then mowed it down with a tractor.

Leopards were killed in Bijnor on January 6 and in Moradabad on January 8.

According to reports, the in-cident took place on Sunday in the Jarifpur Gadhiya village in Uttar Pradesh’s Badaun district, where two persons were alleg-edly attacked and injured by the animal in a span of two hours.

Sher Singh, 16, was playing in the village when a leopard attacked and injured him. His family members took him to a private hospital for treatment.

Nearly two hours later, Mohan Lal, 60, who was working in a field on the outskirts of the village, was

also attacked by a leopard while he was relieving himself. On hearing his cries, his son-in-law and other villagers rushed to the spot. Mohan Lal sustained inju-ries on his right arm.

The local people, who had gathered there, spotted the leopard and attacked it with sticks. Some of them brought a tractor and mowed down the animal to make sure that it was dead.

Sub-divisional forest officer V. K. Gupta said that he would comment on the issue only af-ter inspecting the scene of the crime. Station House officer (SHO) of Sahaswan police sta-tion Harendra Singh said: “The villagers killed leopard after it injured two locals. We are awaiting complaint from forest department to lodge an FIR in the matter.”

Agartala, Jan 13 (IANS) The Tripura government has or-dered a twin probe, includ-ing a magisterial inquiry, into the death of a 38-year-old youth in police custody, a senior police officer said on Monday, even as the opposi-tion parties have demaned a judicial probe and interven-tion of the Human Rights Commission in the matter.

Chief Minister Biplab Ku-mar Deb ordered a magis-terial inquiry on Sunday to probe the death of Sushanta Ghosh, 38, while the police on Monday appointed a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) to investigate the matter. The youth was

arrested on Friday from his house in Lankamura on the outskirts of the state capital in connection with cash theft from city ATMs using clon-ing devices.

“We are yet to get the post-mortem report of the death from the three-member medical board. We have suf-ficient proof and evidence that Sushanta Ghosh com-mitted suicide at the West Agartala police station on intervening night between Saturday-Sunday,” a police officer said on condition of anonymity.

The officer said that the slain youth was involved in stealing huge sums of cash

from ATMs using cloning devices alongwith two Turk-ish and two Bangladeshi na-tionals, who were arrested at Belgharia (under North 24 Parganas district) in West Bengal in November and are now being interrogated by the intelligence and cy-ber crime branch officials in Agartala.

After visiting Ghosh’s fam-ily here former Tripura Chief Minister and Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) politburo member Manik Sarkar said on MOnday that an impartial probe must be conducted, while the officers of the West Agartala Police Station should be removed

immediately. Reacting to the incident, local traders are observing a strike and have shut their shops and markets in the area as the Sushan-ta Ghosh’s father Parimal Ghosh is a sweet trader.

Meanwhile, the Tripura government on Monday transferred 32 senior po-lice officers, including the Superintendent of Police (Cyber Crime) Sharmistha Chakraborty, who was prob-ing the ATM robberies.

senior lawyer, and Tripura Human Rights Organisation Secretary Purusattam Roy-barman has demanded a ju-dicial probe by a sitting High Court judge.

While the CPI-M has urged the Tripura Human Rights Commission to inquire into the incident, the Congress has demanded a judicial probe.

Sushanta’s father Parimal Ghosh in an FIR claimed his son died following police torture. “My son was arrest-ed as the Turkish and Ban-gladeshi ATM hackers had earlier bought sweets from my shop. My son had helped them exchange dollars into rupees without knowing their (Bangladeshis) crimi-nality,” Ghosh said, and claimed that some injury marks have been found on his son’s body.

Srinagar, Jan 13 (IANS) The story of Deputy Su-perintendent of Police (DySP) Devinder Singh, who has been booked by Jammu and Kashmir Po-lice along with two other terrorists, reads like that of a person who fell from fame to shame.

He was arrested along with the dreaded terrorist Naveed Baba of Shopian district where he was fer-rying him to winter capital Jammu in his private car.

Devinder Singh has been formally arrested and named as an accused terrorist in the FIR lodged by the police in Kulgam district.

Skeletons tumbled out of Singh’s cupboard when interrogators found that he had been helping the terrorists by provid-

ing them hideouts in his residences at Srinagar and Jammu in addition to en-suring their safe passage during change of locations for carrying out subversive activities.

Top sources in the state police and the intelligence agencies have categorical-ly denied that Singh was travelling with the two ter-rorists in his private car as part of any overt or covert anti-militancy operation or for facilitating the sur-render of dreaded terrorist Naveed.

There are some basic facts which confirm that Singh was not at all acting in his line of duty when he was arrested by the police.

“He was travelling on the Srinagar-Jammu Na-tional Highway towards Jammu when he was de-

tained at Mir Bazaar in Kulgam district.

“There is no question of taking a valley operating terrorist for surrender to Jammu. He was posted in the anti-hijacking squad at the Srinagar interna-tional airport. His duties were confined to the air-port security and he had nothing to do with anti-militancy operation.

“It is a clear case of po-lice officer shaming his uniform after an appar-ently illustrious career,” said a senior police officer.

Singh joined the Jammu and Kashmir Police as a Sub-Inspector in 1990. He was posted in the anti-militancy special opera-tion group (SOP) where he was part of many success-ful anti-militancy opera-tions.

Ranchi, Jan 13 (IANS) Jharkhand Chief Minis-ter Hemant Soren is like-ly to expand his cabinet as kharmas, an inauspi-cious period in Hindu calender, ends in two days.

Soren, in Delhi to take part in the non-Bharati-ya Janata Party (BJP) Chief Ministers’ meet-ing with Sonia Gandhi, is likely to discuss cabi-net expansion with her as well as other senior Congress leaders. He may return to Ranchi on Tuesday.

Soren took oath on December 29 along with three Ministers -- two from the Congress and one from the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). No Jharkhand Mukti Mor-cha (JMM) MLA was made Minister. Fourteen days after the swearing in, the portfolios are yet to be allocated.

According to sources, induction of more Min-isters and portfolio dis-tribution are not prov-ing easy for Soren. While the Congress wants five

ministries, the JMM is willing to give only four. The Congress also wants important ministries, like health, education and rural development.

“A detailed discussion is likely with senior Con-gress leaders in Delhi on cabinet expansion and portfolio distribution,” a JMM source told IANS.

Soren has to deal with the Congress demands, meet the aspirations of his own party legislators as well as balance the caste factor. Also, there are over half a dozen JMM legislators who have won the Assembly polls four-five times and are aspiring to be in the ministry.

In view of the likely cabinet expansion, the Congress legislative par-ty leader, Ministers and 16 legislators are camp-ing in Delhi. These Min-isters are lobbying for ‘good’ portfolios.

The JMM, the Congress and the RJD won 30, 16 and 1 seat, respectively, in the recent Assembly polls.

Jabalpur, Jan 13 (IANS) Though a serious topic like citizenship register was supposed to have brought Home Minister Amit Shah to Jabalpur he did not for-get to address the Delhi voter 700 kms away on Sunday.

MP Congress media cell vice-president Bhupendra Gupta is-sued a press release late in the evening to say Shah seems to forget he is the nation’s home minister. This is the first time a home minister has been going door to door to explain a law no-tified by his government. If the law is so good and he is capable of elaborating it why does he not go to Assam and explain it to the chief minister in that state. The chief minister belongs to his own party. Why his visits to that state are being cancelled, asked Gupta. He mocked Shah for say-ing that the people were recall-

ing the days of Shivraj Chouhan.“Now that the Kamal Nath gov-

ernment has wreaked havoc on their encroachment some Ma-fiosi were certainly remember-ing the good days they enjoyed during the Chouhan regime. The public has already forgotten him,” said Gupta.

Switching role from Home minister to the BJP president Shah lambasted both Rahul Gandhi and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal for their alleged support to the JNU students. He said those who raised anti-na-tional slogans in JNU will be sent to jail.

“In JNU, some boys raised anti-national slogans. They indulged in sloganeering Bharat tere tukde ho ek hazar, insha allah, insha allah. Should they not be sent to jail?” Shah asked.

The crowd roared in recipro-

cation,” Desh ke gaddaron ko , Jootey maro saalon ko.” The crass response boosted his morale. “Speak louder, you should be heard in Delhi. Should they not be put behind the bars?”

“Listen Kejriwalji whosoever speaks against the nation will find himself behind the bars, nowhere else,” Shah said, trying to catch up with the key rival in Delhi elec-tions where initial surveys show, the BJP is trailing AAP by a dis-tance.

Kejriwal has been keeping off JNU politics where Right and the Left wings students are locked into a fight for pre-em-inence. He has not visited the campus to express solidarity with protesters affiliated to the opposition, fearing an electoral backlash in the ensuing elec-tions in which he is expected to romp home.

Chandigarh, Jan 9 (IANS) Paving the way for sweeping legal reforms in the state, the Punjab gov-ernment on Thursday de-cided to set up seven fast-track courts to ensure speedy trial and justice in rape cases, and three spe-cial courts to adjudicate offences against children.

It also decided to estab-lish 10 more family courts to cover all the districts.

These decisions were taken during a meeting of the state Cabinet here, under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Ama-rinder Singh.

The measures are in line with the Chief Min-ister’s commitment to

ensure full safety for women and child safety in the state, said an of-ficial spokesperson after the cabinet meeting.

The Cabinet has ap-proved setting up of sev-en fast-track courts, with the creation of 70 posts to manage them, for dealing exclusively with the rape cases.

Four of these courts will be set up in Ludhiana and one each at Amritsar, Jalandhar and Ferozepur.

Seven additional posts of additional and district sessions judges along with 63 supporting staff have been approved by the Cabinet, according to an official spokesperson.

Mumbai, Jan 13 (IANS) Despite the Shiv Sena reportedly skip-ping two meetings in a fortnight over the CAA/NRC convened by Congress interim chief Sonia Gandhi, leaders from all the three par-ties, including National-ist Congress Party, insist that “all’s well” with the Maha Vikas Aghadi al-liance government in Maharashtra.

The Shiv Sena Lok Sabha Parliamentary Party leader Vinayak Raut earlier said that it was “not aware” of

the opposition parties meeting convened by Gandhi in the capital on Monday evening.

“We are not aware of such a meeting. We

have not been invited for it. So, we have not taken any decision on it so far,” Shiv Sena’ Group Leader in Lok Sabha Vi-nayak Raut told IANS.

Sena absent in Sonia meet, but ‘all’s well’ in alliance

Devinder Singh’s arrest had nothing to do with anti-militancy op

Soren may expand Jharkhand cabinet

after two days

Indian HorizonTuesday, January 14, 2020

Tuesday, January 14, 2020

Readers Response and contribution Welcome

Indian Horizon

Meghna Gulzar’s Chhapaak, the story of a gritty acid attack survivor rebuilding her life — deftly portrayed by Deepika Padukone who gets into the (scarred) skin of the character — is a grim reminder of our inability to eradicate this criminal scourge. The National Crime Records Bureau report released recently puts the number of acid assault incidents in 2018 at 228, with two out of every three victims being women. Nota-bly, this is just a marginal fall from the year earlier when 244 people suffered burns from the corrosive liquid splashed on them deliberate-ly. Aggravating the concern is the abysmally low rate of conviction: only 28 criminals were held guilty of acid attacks. Long-drawn legal tri-als lend a sense of impunity to the perpetrators. In abject unfairness, the accused seem to roam freely in society or abscond even as the vic-tims are condemned to a lifetime of costly treatments and surgeries and reinventing themselves. Little sur-prise that few are brave enough to face the world with their heads held high even though they are but vic-tims who deserve care and cure.

Those guilty of this heinous crime are not getting away because of lack of strong legislation. It is due to the failure of proper implementation of the rules. In the wake of the public outrage against the Nirbhaya gan-grape, the Supreme Court in 2013 passed guidelines on acid sale curbs and compensation for the victims’ rehabilitation. Section 326 A of the Indian Penal Code prescribes a mini-mum punishment of 10 years’ impris-onment. But as acid continues to be easily available for use as a weapon on targets — by jilted suitors wanting to ravage women or disputing parties taking revenge on rivals — it exposes the laxity in monitoring the sale.

By highlighting the violent assault and the uphill struggle faced by the brave survivor, the film spreads awareness about the victims’ rights and remedies available to them. It should also rouse society into re-jecting the patriarchal mindset of treating women as objects that leads to such heinous crimes. And, importantly, to refuse to be accept-ing of these crimes.

By Vikash Narain RaiIt could be one of the blindest

police tales of political complicity, the one that simmered at the main gate of Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on January 5, a cold Sunday evening. There seems to be no other way to describe the legal trilemma, coerced for hours together, by the simultaneously existing unlawful assembly of vio-lent hooligans taking law in their hands, an academic and politi-cal leadership of repute put under constant threat from them and a vast police presence expressing its rude inability to act in the situa-tion. And all this, in full media glare under nationwide live telecast!

The hooligans, in playing out their script, showed no respect for law, the police paid scant atten-tion about law enforcement, their primary task, and the rest of the gathered lot and the countless TV viewers cannot be blamed if they silently swallowed a loss of faith in the redeeming ability of the legal machinery.

Earlier in the day, a tussle which turned into a clash between war-ring groups of anti and pro-fee hike students on the campus over registration for the next semester,

had led to a blunt weapon raid by an outside mob of masked goons, leaving a trail of shocking injuries, forced trespass and vandalised doors and windows. All accounts say that the university adminis-tration remained aloof through-out the disturbance whereas the police intervened way after the miscreants had made their es-cape.

Until this stage, the police would have passed as being indifferent or at worst derelict, or, as they claimed, circumspect, waiting for the Vice

Chancellor’s nod to enter the campus. But for their long and de-liberate inaction at the gate, they would still have hoped to keep their face by resorting to the usual gimmicks of opening an inquiry and registering an FIR, which they eventually did.

However, the episode has only highlighted that the police profes-sionalism will have to be assessed in a political context.

The alliance of baton wielders and power wielders is nothing new in Indian polity. Its new low was evident recently from the open support extended by the RSS-dom-inated UP establishment to the

racist ‘go to Pakistan’ abuse hurled at innocent Muslim bystanders in their own backyard, by the Addi-tional Superintendent of Police of Meerut, during the hotly debated anti-CAA stir. The guilty officer is yet to be officially censured, in spite of Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, the only Muslim cabinet minister in Modi’s government, giving a media call for immediate action.

It was nothing unusual. Any doubt in this regard has now been put to rest by the Delhi Police, which reports directly to Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

A question was tossed, to and from, between Amit Shah and his detractors during the ongoing CAA-NRC debate: why only the BJP-ruled states were witnessing violence? The continuation of this trend even in the National Capital would suggest that the answer lies as much in the kind of selective in-action witnessed at the JNU gate as in the reckless action of the law en-forcers elsewhere.

Notwithstanding the Prime Minister finding virtue in his last Mann ki Baat episode of the year, in the country’s youth question-ing the system, there have so far emerged no visible champions of

this doctrine on the official hori-zon. It is not a situation of com-plete despondency, though. There are enough reports to suggest that the police functionaries in several UP districts, encouraged by many seniors, have shown character in maintaining order while earning people’s trust and cooperation at the same time amidst the current phase of protest dharnas and ral-lies. Surely, policing heroes will emerge from dark shadows only, in due course.

In the meantime, the following recent episode of the police’s time-tested reliance on self-account-ability, as reported in the American media, is worth pondering over.

A New York police officer who was sentenced last month in Ten-nessee for a racist tirade and break-in at the home of an African-American family has since resigned from the force. Calls for the firing of NYPD officer Michael Reynolds, who is white, have grown since he was sentenced to 15 days in jail and three years of probation on December 6 in the rampage at the Nashville home in 2018, with an online petition drawing more than 12,000 signatures.

IANS

A case of complicit policing at JNU gate

Burning issueAcid attack survivors must get

quick justice

By Jayshree SenguptaThe government does not seem

to be in any hurry to solve the deep economic problems confronting the Indian economy. The World Bank has lowered its forecast for India’s GDP growth at 5 percent for FY 2020-21. The government’s Central Sta-tistics Office (CSO) has also lowered the growth forecast for current fiscal year at 5 per cent, the lowest in 11 years. The RBI has also predicted GDP growth at 5 per cent. The government, however, has failed to come up with a concrete action plan to deal with the slowdown.

It is a very difficult situation that India is faced with regarding demand. All these years, it was consumer de-mand which was the engine of growth for the Indian economy. Suddenly, over the past year, we find it is no lon-ger so and, instead, it is the govern-ment expenditure which is keeping the economy going.

Why did consumers, who are by no means committed to austerity, sud-denly hold back purchases? Even after hefty discounts during the last festival season, sales did not pick up. It has to do with the fear of what the future holds. When the economy is boom-ing and there is low unemployment, there is a rise in consumer confidence and people are happy to spend on themselves and their families.

The consumer confidence surveys have shown a dip in confidence re-cently, according to the CMIE, which

is why people are not willing to spend. Many have dependent parents and unemployed family members to sup-port. They are worried about after school tuition costs and rising private school fees for their children. People are worried about the high costs of treatment in case of serious illness. People are afraid that if in future, in-come flows dry up, they will not be able to maintain their living standards and, hence, hold back on buying a new car or washing machine. There is also a lurking fear of inflation because vegetable prices have been soaring re-cently — food inflation rose to 10 per cent and retail inflation to 5.54 per cent in November.

The other side of the coin is the in-vestors who are holding back on in-vestments because they have already a problem of inventory pileup due to slow sales and if they do not see pros-pects of demand for their goods ris-ing, they will hold back on expansion of production.

It is low investment, low income and low demand that are dominat-ing the economic scene. People need incomes. If there was high growth in the manufacturing sector, there could have been more people finding jobs in factories. Unfortunately, the sector has been floundering and there was a shrinkage in output (3.8 per cent) in October and November 2019. Accord-ing to CSO, the manufacturing sector growth will shrink to 2 per cent in FY 2019-20, down from 6.9 per cent in the

previous financial year. It clearly in-dicates that the sector is not the lead sector anymore. The Make in India ini-tiative did not take off as expected and that is the main reason why the manu-facturing sector has remained stag-nant. It promised foreign manufactur-ing units financial incentives, less red tape, intellectual property rights pro-tection and the availability of a young workforce, low wages and a huge do-mestic market. Many big names like Apple and Xiaomi have increased their production in India and Samsung has the world’s largest smartphone plant near New Delhi, even though the parts are made outside India. In 2015, India had the largest volume of announced greenfield investment (‘greenfield in-vestment’ is defined as tangible invest-ments resulting in new or expanded facilities and jobs and include manu-facturing) at $60 billion, according to Financial Times data services. In 2018, China got $107 billion and India got $55 billion. FDI into manufacturing has been only $8 billion during the FY 19 till March.

The fall in the flow of FDI to the manufacturing sector from its previ-ous highs could be a reason why the Make in India initiative has not taken off. This is surprising because In-dia’s ranking, according to the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business, has gone up to the 63rd place over the past few years. Why is it that manu-facturing did not take off in India to the same extent it did in Vietnam and

Bangladesh? A main reason is infra-structure, like roads, power supply and slow reforms in land acquisition and labour laws. Our neighbours also have much lower wages and their productivity is higher. India, once boasted to be the most-favoured FDI destination, is no longer so, what with more political problems coming daily to the fore. It will put off many foreign investors.

Also, the share of manufactures in GDP has remained around 15 per cent against the targeted 25 per cent and India is missing out in being a part of the global value supply chain. The government has started giving cash to the poor in rural areas but that may not lead to any significant rise in demand. It is also a paltry Rs 6,000 a year which may be enough to take care of personal loans. The incomes of the rural population have to rise by the creation of non-farm jobs, but this is not happening. Had the Make in India initiative taken off, there would have been many food process-ing, jams and pickles making factories as well as light manufacturing units in rural areas, giving employment to both men and women. The vari-ous other rural initiatives which were undertaken to increase employment also do not seem to have been very successful. Rural India is marked by stagnant wages and low farmers’ in-comes. Food inflation may, however, help raise income and demand.

IANS

Revamp manufacturing sector to boost GDP

By Aunindyo ChakravartyIndia’s GDP will grow at just 5%

this year. That’s the Modi govern-ment’s own estimate. Even this dismal figure could well be an over-statement. The country’s income grew by just 4.8% in the first six months, and it will have to grow at 5.2% in the second half for the CSO’s GDP estimates to come true. Most pundits find that hard to believe.

What is even more alarming, is that nominal GDP growth — or GDP in current prices — is going to be just 7.5%. That’s the lowest nominal GDP growth in 44 years. Some would argue that nominal growth doesn’t matter, because what counts is the real growth in output of goods and services. But that does not take into account the psychological impact of low growth in money income.

To understand that, let’s take the example of Mr Sharma from Ludhiana. He is disappointed with his raise this year. Over the past five years, his increment has hov-ered around 3-5%. Before that, he used to regularly get double-digit pay hikes. His friend, Mr Gupta, who teaches economics in a lo-cal business school, explains that even though he used to get 10% plus raises five years ago, his real income growth was lower, because retail inflation was higher than his increment. On the other hand, his 3-5% salary hikes over the past five years, have given him a higher real income growth, because retail price

rise is so low.But Mr Gupta’s ‘rational expec-

tations’ of his friend are irrational. People ‘feel good’ about big jumps in money income, even when they face high inflation. It encourages them to spend more and invest more, be-cause of an imagined ‘wealth effect’. The exact opposite happens when money income doesn’t grow. Even if the prices of things they buy stay flat, a low growth in nominal income, creates a ‘poverty effect’, stopping people from spending.

This is even more true for busi-nesses. Corporates mostly care about their money income, as do people who invest in their shares. An auto company, for instance, could end up selling fewer cars, but make higher profits by selling them at higher prices. Real output doesn’t matter to them, at least in the short run, as long as money in-come is increasing.

Similarly, if sales volumes go up, but a company loses pricing power, its money income will not grow. This will make shareholders dump the stock and force the company into contraction mode. Other en-trepreneurs, who were thinking of entering the sector, would hold back on investments. So, fewer jobs would be added and fewer ma-chines would be sold.

This is what makes the 7.5% nom-inal GDP growth so dangerous. It is going to discourage consumers from buying more and stop corpo-rates from investing more. What

is more, it will also affect the gov-ernment’s ability to spend. This is because, fiscal deficit targets are based on nominal GDP. The Modi government assumed a 12% nomi-nal GDP growth in 2019-20, and therefore, estimated its Rs 7 lakh crore fiscal deficit will end up being about 3.3% of GDP. The new nomi-nal GDP growth projection of 7.5% will immediately raise fiscal deficit to 3.45%, without a single addition-al rupee being spent.

The government understands that, and has asked all ministries to curtail their budgeted spending. Ministries were earlier allowed to spend 33% of their budget in the last quarter. A new directive has cut that to 25%. This will make it even more difficult for the economy to revive in the second half.

That is because government spending has been the single-big-gest driver of GDP growth in the first half of this fiscal. Government Final Consumption Expenditure grew by 12.3% in real terms and 15.6% in nominal terms. It was the only segment of the GDP that showed double-digit growth in both con-stant and current prices. If govern-ment expenditure is removed, GDP growth in the first six months of this fiscal was just 3.8% in real terms and 4.8% in nominal terms.

The government has a big problem on its hands. Even if it meets all its spending and revenue targets, the low nominal GDP growth will make this year’s fiscal deficit look bigger. All reports suggest

that the government is having a hard time meeting its revenue target. GST collections have been sub-par in almost every month, and disinvestment targets look very difficult to achieve.

The only way out is to say good-bye to the FRBM Act, which restricts government spending. The govern-ment has to take a radical step and forget its fiscal deficit target. It has to spend another 2-3% of GDP to revive the economy. This was done by the UPA government, right after the global slowdown, and it paid dividends in terms of growth and employment.

The Modi regime needs to use this massive slowdown to restruc-ture policies that every government has been following since Nara-simha Rao liberalised the economy in 1991. Three decades of reforms have turned India into an economy that caters to the top 10% of the population that buys cars, durables and consumes the bulk of all fast-moving consumer goods. India needs a hard reset to reorient its in-vestment priorities.

In a situation, where there’s no demand, the private sector is not going to invest. It is only the gov-ernment which can spend — to create jobs, spur consumption and direct investments — without an immediate profit motive. This re-quires the government to re-enter the economy, and direct what to produce, how much to produce and for whom to produce.

IANS

Figures not adding up

6 EDIT Indian HorizonTuesday, January 14, 2020

7 OPED

The views expressed in these columns are the writers’ own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Indian Horizon or its management.-Editor

Indian HorizonTuesday, January 14, 2020

By Christopher ClaryDespite the tragic shooting down of Ukrai-

nian International Airlines Flight 572 near Tehran, the United States and Iran appear to have avoided an all-out war in the aftermath of the high-profile US drone strike that killed Gen. Qasem Soleimani. Iran’s retaliatory mis-sile strikes into Iraq did not cause any casual-ties, and both sides are clearly trying to find an off-ramp. However, the US-Iran relation-ship is unlikely simply to go back to business as usual, and the crisis has important conse-quences for longer-term regional stability.

Iran’s missiles are getting more accurate, which may constrain future US basing and operations

Before the recent missile attacks, many public assessments of Iran’s missiles as-sumed they were fairly inaccurate. Satellite imagery of Iran’s recent barrage indicates that those assessments may have been wrong. Iran recorded a fairly high rate of likely “hits” to “misses”. The lack of casualties may have been the result of Iran targeting areas of the bases with fewer personnel and more equip-ment, and not merely dumb luck and early warning.

This probably shows that Iran now deploys fairly accurate short-range ballistic missiles, part of a global trend toward more accurate missiles that the Pentagon has predicted for years. The missiles are conceivably at least 10

times as accurate as the Soviet-origin Scud missiles that Iran and Iraq deployed against each other during their conflict in the 1980s.

In a future conflict, Iran could use precise conventional ballistic missiles to damage and degrade bases used by US aircraft and harass and destroy ports upon which the United States would rely to deploy and resup-ply troops. It is difficult, if not impossible, to maintain a normal tempo of military opera-tions in the face of incoming missiles.

The United States could shift to aircraft based on US Navy aircraft carriers. However, these giant ships are themselves vulnerable, and there aren’t that many of them. Alter-natively, the United States could use aircraft from more distant bases, out of range of Ira-nian missiles. However, this would entail lon-ger transit times to target and perhaps aerial refuelling. That, in turn, would mean that any future campaign will require more aircraft and be costlier than it would be if Iran had not developed more-precise missiles. This situa-tion would be dramatically different from the campaigns of 1991 and 2003, when US bases were virtually invulnerable to missile attack.

The shooting down of a passenger jet shows that the crisis had its costs. The shooting down of a civilian aircraft showed how trag-edies can occur during military crises, even when neither participant desires escalation.

Sadly, this is far from the first crisis in which

one side mistook a civilian airliner for its op-ponent’s military aircraft. Similar incidents resulted in the shoot-down of a Malaysian passenger plane over Ukraine in 2014; an Iranian passenger airliner over the Arabian Gulf in 1988; and a Korean Airlines plane that strayed into Soviet airspace in 1983.

The common ingredient in all of these epi-sodes was a crisis or war that had at least one actor in a state of high alert. When that actor received ambiguous information — such as a warning of an unidentified incoming aircraft — it assumed the worst. Shooting first and asking questions later can have terrible con-sequences. Iran has now admitted that it was responsible for the Flight 572 mistake and that it feared that the United States would launch retaliatory strikes on Iranian territory after Iran hit the Iraqi bases housing US forces. An Iranian air defence operator, who was primed to expect incoming US military aircraft, and unable to get timely confirmation of the tar-get’s identity, fired at a civilian jet instead.

When actors make decisions under stress-ful conditions with incomplete information — conditions that a crisis or war meets virtu-ally by definition — they may become more rather than less likely to use force. The fog of war can induce not simply confusion but a type of worst-case thinking that promotes es-calation rather than restraint. That dynamic could re-emerge in future conflicts in the re-

gion, or beyond.Not over yetSome of Iran’s own citizens are accusing

their government of negligence in causing the deaths of those aboard the Ukrainian airlines flight — the vast majority of whom were Ira-

nian. Angry Iranians are taking to the streets. Such protests can easily have international consequences, as evidenced by the brief de-tention on Saturday of the British ambassador in Iran over alleged incitement.

Gulf News

Post-Brexit Britain will be under Trump’s thumb

By Linda S. HeardIn just two weeks Britain will officially

be out of the European Union although during the 11-month transition period the country remains obliged to com-ply with EU rules and regulations. For roughly half the population January 1, 2021 will be a day to celebrate freedom from EU diktats and to welcome an era of unlimited possibilities.

For others who believe expert predic-tions of economic woes, job losses and a reduction of Britain’s influence on the global stage, it will either stand as one of

the darkest days in their nation’s history or the majority will merely shrug their shoulders on the grounds that we Brits will always muddle through.

There will be no bubbly for me. I loved feeling European and benefited greatly from the free passage of people whereby I was able to live and work in Paris, Nico-sia, Marbella and Athens without hassle. It saddens me that the door is about to close preventing the country’s youth from expanding their horizons.

The cripplingly painful UK-EU divorce may be done and dusted but how much

independence and economic growth Britain will enjoy in coming years is an open question. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is gleefully optimistic on all fronts.

Shared historyBorn in New York he held dual UK/

US citizenship until 2017 when he re-nounced his American citizenship over a tax dispute. Nevertheless, Johnson sees the American camp as the way forward. While there is a shared history, language and culture between London and Wash-ington resulting in the much-touted ‘special relationship’, there is no deny-ing that the relationship has suffered strains during the tenure of President Donald Trump.

The likelihood is that Trump, who pushed for a no-deal Brexit, will deliver on his pledge to place the UK at the front of the trade deal queue but at what cost? This America First president is not big on free lunches. When it comes to business he has no friends and chances are that he will take advantage of his country’s junior partner shorn of its clout derived from EU membership.

A man who famously changes his mind several times daily, Trump’s assurances that the National Health Service is not up for grabs could have been a placatory tactic. It is more than probable that the UK will be obliged to open up to chlori-nated chickens, genetically engineered crops and expensive US-manufactured

drugs. Moreover, any trade deal secured with the EU will oblige the UK to abide by European food standards which do not coincide with those of the US tend-ing to be liberal by comparison.

Trump is not popular in the UK where his approval rating stands at around 21 per cent and if Johnson is coerced into becoming a US leader’s lapdog a la Tony Blair, the populist wave propelling the prime minister to greater heights will swiftly dry up. He knows not to get overly cosy with Trump in public. In the run-up to the recent election, he studiously kept his distance from the visiting Leader of the Free World.

So far the signs pointing the way to the UK’s liberation from outside influences look less than positive. This week the US sent in heavyweights from its National Security Agency and National Economic Council to lean on the UK government to outlaw Huawei from assisting with the development of its planned 5G mobile network.

Dragged into US warsBritain is also vulnerable to being

dragged into US wars. During the re-cent tensions between the US and Iran that narrowly escaped erupting into all-out conflict, unlike the governments of France and Germany that were unequiv-ocally opposed to war, the UK sent out mixed messages fudging on which side of the fence it stood. Boris Johnson did join with the French president and the

German chancellor in calling for de-es-calation while simultaneously deploying a Royal Navy nuclear-powered subma-rine to the region. According to newspa-per reports the Department of Defence was planning to engage with the United States in the event of war.

The fact is that Britain’s defensive ca-pabilities have been downgraded over the decades in light of its reliance on good old Uncle Sam and Nato for pro-tection. But at a time when the White House rides roughshod over America’s traditional allies preferring to fawn over several of its nuclear-armed adversaries and cracks are beginning to form within the Alliance, the UK’s Department of De-fence is experiencing an awakening.

“We are very dependent on American Air Cover and American intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets,” said Defence Secretary Ben Wallace in an interview with the Sunday Times while admitting that America’s increasingly isolationist policies keep him awake at night — and rightly so in my view.

Lastly, here is an important point that’s been pushed under the radar. Americans head to the polls in November. What if the president does not get a second term, will his successor bestow the UK with a fast-track trade deal given that his pre-decessor Barack Obama warned the UK that quitting the EU would send it to the back of the queue?

Gulf News

Why the US is no longer an undisputed superpowerBy James J. ZogbyDespite its claims of making

America more respected and feared in the world, the Trump administration’s behaviours have only contributed to accel-erating the decline in America’s leadership. President Trump’s demonstrated disdain for inter-national agreements and law, his erratic behaviour, and his reck-less tweets, have left world lead-ers and their publics alternating between being confounded and frightened. One result has been that some allies and opponents have sought leadership and more predictable partnerships else-where.

This was not the way it was just three decades ago when the United States emerged victorious from the Cold War and the first Bush administration appeared to seamlessly manage the transition to a unipolar world order. While the Clinton administration large-ly maintained continuity with their predecessor’s approach, President George W. Bush’s inva-sion of Iraq marked the beginning of the unravelling of American leadership and the end of the idea of a unipolar world.

Unlike the constructive use of diplomacy favoured by his father and President Clinton, George W.’s policies were reckless and unilateral, and, more often than not, shaped more by ideology than reality. The results were dev-

astating to the US and the world. Iraq was a case in point.

According to the neoconserva-tive ideologues who were driving George W.’s approach to the Mid-dle East, a decisive use of force against Iraq would accomplish a number of critical objectives. First and foremost, it would se-cure the US role as the dominant world hegemon, insuring a US-led unipolar world for the fore-seeable future. They also believed that with Saddam Hussain gone, democracy would spontaneously take root in Iraq, transforming not only that country but the en-tire Middle East.

Rise of ‘other’ powersAs we have seen, the oppo-

site occurred. America became ground down in a long costly war that took a terrible toll not only in lives and treasure, but in Ameri-ca’s standing in the world. As the war dragged on, it became clear that not only was America weaker and less respected, but other re-gional and international players began to assert themselves. As a result of this foolish war, the very multipolarity the neoconserva-tives sought to forestall became a reality.

Globally, Russia and China ex-panded their roles and, in the Middle East, Turkey and Iran sought increased influence, as did Saudi Arabia and its GCC partners. Maybe the most con-sequential impact of the Iraq war

was the extent to which it em-boldened and unleashed Iran, enabling it to pursue its meddle-some sectarian behaviour across the region.

The Obama administration began with great promise. Rec-ognising the damage done by his predecessor, President Obama declared his intention to correct course and rebuild confidence in America’s role in the world. So desperate were some to see America restored as a stable leader and partner that the new president was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize. The award proved to be premature. Obama’s failure to deliver on his visionary promise and his administration’s tenden-cy to hesitate and/or meander when confronted by challenges, caused both frustration and deep disappointment.

Then came Donald Trump. Despite early signs of erratic behaviour and his “shoot-first-ask-questions-later” approach to global and domestic problems, there was some hope — espe-cially in parts of the Middle East — that given his business back-ground, he would be fair and de-cisive in the policies he pursued in the world. This, too, proved to be premature.

Reckless, bombastic, and un-predictable

After Bush and Obama, what many across the Middle East hoped for was a Goldilocks and

Three Bears US president. One who wouldn’t be “too much” or “too little” — but “just right.” They wanted American leader-ship that was decisive, princi-pled, and predictable. What they got instead was the worst of the past combined in one president. He has been reckless, bombastic, and unpredictable. And he has made great promises that have elevated expectations, only to fail to deliver on them.

Recent polling from Pew Re-search demonstrates how the public’s attitudes toward the US and President Trump have wit-nessed sharp declines in many nations across the world. In Europe, the Americas, and the Middle East favourable attitudes toward the US went from lows during the years of George W. Bush’s presidency to highs in the early Obama years to lows, once again, in the Trump era. And in our Zogby Research Services (ZRS) polling we found, with a few exceptions, much the same trajectory across the Middle East.

In the fall of 2019, for example, we found that the initial opti-mism in some Arab countries that Trump administration policies toward some regional concerns might move in a positive direc-tion has now dissipated. There is a sharp decline in respondents’ views of US policies toward re-solving the Israel-Palestine con-flict, helping to stabilise Syria and

Iraq, deal constructively with the Muslim world, and coherently ad-dress the threats posed by Iran’s nuclear and regional agendas.

When we asked respondents in 10 countries whether they have seen positive or negative change in US policy toward each of these critical concerns — in almost every instance and in almost ev-ery country, negative change far surpassed positive change. In only one case — that of US policy toward Syria — did respondents in Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE see some signs of positive change — largely due to the suc-cessful fight against Daesh. This,

however, was before the Trump Administration sent conflict-ing signals about its intention to withdraw from Syria. As a re-sult, when we asked respondents in the same 10 countries to look forward to the next decade and identify the countries they felt would be their most depend-able ally, the US ranked first in only Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. Ranking high in other countries were the EU (first in Tunisia, Lebanon, and Turkey) and China, with Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Russia, and India scoring well in a few others.

Gulf News

How US-Iran crisis impacts regional stability

8internationalindian Horizontuesday, January 14, 2020

thai King orders changes in royal motorcadesBangkok, Jan 13 (IANS) The

Thai government on Monday announced that King Maha Vajiralongkorn has directed the police to change security protocols to avoid huge traffic jams that are formed whenev-er members of the royal family travel through the capital in motorcades.

At the behest of the royal decree issued by the King, the security forces have modified the usual procedure of cut-ting off entire streets through which royals are passing and instead will partially reserve only certain lanes for the mo-torcades, Efe news quoted government spokesperson Narumon Pinyosinwat as say-ing in a statement.

"His Majesty the King was concerned that the motor-

cades might affect Thai peo-ple's commute. Therefore, his majesty has assigned the Royal Thai Police to set guide-lines for citizens to transit regularly and to have the least

impact," the statement said. "The process of adjusting the protection pattern during the royal motorcades of the King and his royal family by the Royal Thai Police is intended

to provide security to His Maj-esty the King and royal family at the highest standard to be dignified and in accordance with the wishes of His Majesty the King."

The new plans include opening lanes for the public to use at the same time as the royal motorcades, as well as allowing the use of U-turns and bridges. These measures were introduced following an unusual wave of criticism on social media focused on the traffic chaos and disruptions generated by the royal fami-ly's land travels through Bang-kok, one of the world's most congested cities.

The hashtag #RoyalMotor-cade (in Thai) was a trending topic in October 2019, when many users complained about

being stuck for hours waiting for the sovereign or his rela-tives to move through the cap-ital's downtown area.

In December, a bridge lead-ing out of the metropolis was shut down to allow the mon-arch to pick up his new yacht.

The outrage intensified at the end of the year, when many parts in southern Thai-land, including the popular Phi Phi national park, were shut to the public because Princess Sirivannavari, the King's youngest daughter, was vacationing there.

In Thailand, any public crit-icism of the monarchy is ex-tremely rare, since it has one of the harshest lese-majeste laws in the world that imposes penalties of up to 15 years in prison for offenders.

Riyadh, Jan 13 (IANS) Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met the King of Saudi Arabia Salman bin Ab-dulaziz and other offi-cials during his visit to the Kingdom to discuss cooperation between the two countries.

"They reviewed bi-lateral relations be-tween the two friendly countries and ways of enhancing and devel-oping them," Efe news agency quoted the Saudi state-run SPA news as saying on Sun-day. Both officials "also reviewed aspects of cooperation in accor-dance with the Saudi-Japanese Vision 2030", it added.

The meeting on Sunday addressed co-operation aspects in the fields of tourism, security supplies, arti-

ficial intelligence and renewable energy, ac-cording to the SPA.

Earlier in the day, Abe met Saudi For-eign Minister Farhan Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud. They discussed the "bilateral relations and aspects of coop-eration as well as the recent developments of the regional and in-ternational issues", an official statement said.

Abe also held a meet-ing with Saudi Minister of Energy Abdulaziz bin Salman bin Ab-dulaziz to address the cooperation between both countries in the field of energy as per an official statement.

The Japanese pre-mier arrived in Ri-yadh as part of a Gulf tour that also includes United Arab Emirates and Oman.

abe visits Saudi arabia, meets King

Jerusalem, Jan 13 (IANS) Israel has "successfully" concluded a series of tests of an upgraded Iron Dome air defence system, according to the govern-ment. Taking to Twitter on Sunday, the Defence Ministry said that it has completed "a complex test campaign" of an ad-vanced version of the Iron Dome system, reports Xi-nhua news agency.

The tests were con-ducted by the Israel Mis-sile Defense Organiza-tion, a department of the Defence Ministry, and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd., a govern-ment-owned weapons company.

"The system tested is an upgraded and im-proved version of the Iron Dome," Moshe Patael, chief of the Israel Missile

Defense Organization, said. Patael said that once the upgraded system was delivered to the military, it "will enable the Air Force to confront expected threats in the region in a much better way".

Rafael's Executive Vice President and Head of Air and Missile Defence Divi-sion, Pini Yungman, said the "system intercepted all threats simulated dur-ing the tests".

The Defence Ministry

said the completion of the tests marked "an impor-tant milestone in Israel's operational ability to de-fend itself of current and future regional threats".

It added that the new tests was conducted 10 years after the system was first tested.

Israel uses the Iron Dome mainly to intercept short-range rockets fired from the Gaza Strip dur-ing escalations with the Palestinians.

israel completes tests of upgraded iron Dome air defence system

Musharraf plea hearing against special court conviction resumes

indian-american prof fired for joke about iranian bomb list of US sites

Lahore, Jan 13 (IANS) The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday resumed hearing a set of petitions filed by former President Pervez Musharraf chal-lenging multiple actions against him, including his conviction for high trea-son, the establishment of the trial court that con-victed him and filing of the original high treason inquiry against him by the government.

On Friday, a full bench of the LHC had asked the federal government to submit a summary on the formation of the Islam-abad-based special court and had directed the state's lawyer to present arguments on Monday, reports Dawn news.

A special court on De-

cember 17, 2019 handed down the death penalty to Musharraf after six years of hearing the treason case against him.

The case was filed by the then Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government in 2013.

In his petition, Mush-arraf had asked the LHC to set aside the special court's verdict for being illegal, without jurisdiction and unconstitutional, while also seeking suspension of the verdict till a decision on his petition was made.

During Friday's hearing, the LHC had posed ques-tions regarding the legality of the treason case and the formation of the special court that conducted the trial and had handed Mush-arraf the death sentence.

New York, Jan. Jan 13 (IANS) An Indian-Ameri-can professor, who posted a joke on Facebook about Iran choosing 52 US cultur-al sites to bomb, has been fired by his college. Babson College said Asheen Phan-sey was fired because the post on his "personal Face-book page does not repre-sent the values and culture of the College", according to WBZ television.

He had apologised for the post last week calling it "sloppy humour" that was "read as a threat". His post was a reaction to US President Donald Trump's tweet about targeting sties "very high level and impor-tant to Iran and the Iranian

culture". Bombing cultural sites is a war crime under international law and con-tradicting Trump, US offi-cials said that Washington would not target them.

Phansey suggested on Facebook that Iran select-ed 52 US sites such as the Mall of America in Min-nesota or the residence of the Kardashians, a family of American celebrities made famous by the reality TV series "Keeping Up with the Kardashians". He was the director of sustainability at Babson College, an in-stitution that specialises in business and entrepreneur-ship education. It is located in Wellesley, about 20 km from Boston.

Tehran, Jan 13 (IANS) Iran's Foreign Ministry has summoned the UK's Ambas-sador Rob Macaire to explain his presence at an "illegal" anti-government protest in Tehran. Macaire was briefly detained following the dem-onstration, sparking a spat between the UK and Iran, re-ports Efe news.

The diplomat said he had attended a vigil for victims of the Ukrainian airliner on Jan-uary 8 by an Iranian missile, but left when the gathering turned into an anti-govern-ment protest. In a statement on Sunday, the Foreign Min-istry said: "Rob Macaire was summoned because of his unconventional behaviour of attending an illegal rally on Saturday."

Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi reacted to a raft of political condemna-tion when news of the ambas-sador's temporary detention broke. "He wasn't detained, but arrested as an unknown foreigner in an illegal gath-

ering. When police informed me a man's arrested who claims to be the UK Amb, I said impossible.

"Only after my phone con-versation with him, I identi-fied, out of big surprise, that it's him. 15 min later he was free." The British ambassa-dor tweeted: "Can confirm I wasn't taking part in any demonstrations! Went to an event advertised as a vigil for victims of the PS752 tragedy.

"Normal to want to pay my

respects - some of the vic-tims were British. I left after 5 mins, when some started chanting." In London, the UK's secretary of state for se-curity, Brandon Lewis, called for a de-escalation in ten-sions with Iran.

Several Iranian lawmakers have advocated for the expul-sion of the UK ambassador.

The Ambassador was ac-cused of participating in an anti-government protest that erupted after people paid

tribute to the 176 civilian vic-tims of the Ukrainian Inter-national Airlines flight, which brought down by the Iranian military after it wrongly iden-tified it as a cruise missile. Tehran at first denied any involvement in the accident but admitted responsibility on Saturday.

The crash occurred just af-ter Iran fired missiles at Iraqi military bases with US pres-ence retaliation to the US' killing of Qasem Soleimani, a revered Iranian general, in Baghdad on January 3.

About 200 people gathered outside the British Embassy in the Iranian capital on Sun-day, where some chanted "Death to the UK" and others burned a British flag.

There was also a boost in police presence in downtown Tehran, especially around Azadi Square and university grounds, amid fears among officials that there could be fresh protests against the government for its handling of the plane tragedy.

Baghdad, Jan 13 (IANS) Seven Katyusha rockets on Sunday hit Balad air base, which previously housed US troops, in Iraq's Sala-hudin province, informed sources said. The attack took place in the evening when the rockets landed on the air base, located around 90 km from Iraqi capital Baghdad, wounding two soldiers and causing dam-ages to nearby buildings, a security source told Xinhua news agency on the condi-tion of anonymity.

Balad air base is the larg-est military air base in Iraq, also known by the US forces as the Logistics Support Activity (LSA) Anaconda. The air base was hous-ing a number of US troops and advisors of an Ameri-can company operating the Iraqi F-16 jet fighters, but they withdrew about a week ago after the interna-tional US-led coalition an-nounced the suspension of its operations against the Islamic State (IS) militants

in Iraq. No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack.

The attack came a few days after Qais al-Khazali, leader of the Iraqi Iran-backed Shiite militia Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq, said the Iranian initial response to the kill-ing of the Iranian military leader is done and it is time for Iraq to respond to the US airstrike. Al-Khazali's threat came after Iran fired ballistic missiles earlier in the day on military bases housing US troops in Iraq's western province of Anbar

and near the city of Erbil, capital of the semi-auton-omous region of Kurdistan.

Last week, a US drone attacked a convoy at Bagh-dad International Airport, killing Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Rev-olution Guards Corps, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy chief of Iraq's para-military Hashd Shaabi forces. More than 5,000 US troops have been deployed in Iraq to support the Iraqi forces in the battles against Islamic State militants.

iran summons UK envoy over 'illegal' protest 7 rockets hit army base in iraq's Salahu-

London, Jan 13 (IANS) The UK royals, led by Queen Eliza-beth II, will gather on Monday at the Monarch's Sandringham Estate for talks over the futures of Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle over their shock announcement to step down as senior royals.

Prince Harry, Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge and their father Charles, the Prince of Wales, will all attend the meet-ing, while Meghan was expected to join the discussion by phone from Canada, reports the BBC.

It is hoped the talks will pro-duce a "next step" on the way to defining the couple's new re-lationship with the Royal Family - in line with the Queen's wish to find a solution within days.

Among the issues likely to be discussed are what funding the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will receive, whether they will keep

their titles, and what royal duties they will continue to carry out.

Monday's gathering at the Queen's estate in Norfolk - being described as the "Sandringham summit" - will be the first time the monarch has come face-to-face with Prince Harry since the Sussexes' announcement, which was posted on their official Insta-gram account on January 8.

But newspaper reports sug-

gested the couple could conduct a potentially damaging television interview if they were unhappy with the outcome of the discus-sions. Broadcaster and friend of the couple, Tom Bradby, who made a documentary with them last year, wrote in the Sunday Times: "I have some idea of what might be aired in a full, no-holds-barred, sit-down interview and I don't think it would be pretty."

Meghan is currently in Canada with her eight-month-old son Archie after flying there amid the ongoing discussions, which have involved the UK and Canadian governments, reports the BBC.

The couple had been in Can-ada over Christmas, before they returned to the UK last week af-ter a six-week break from royal duties. Last October, Harry and Meghan publicly revealed their struggles under the media spot-light. The couple were already preparing to launch their own Sussex Royal charity, which they set up after splitting from the Duke and Duchess of Cam-bridge's foundation in June last year. In December it was re-vealed that the couple had made an application to trademark their Sussex Royal brand across a string of items including books, calendars, clothing, charitable fundraising, education.

UK royals gather for talks over Harry-Meghan's future

Quetta, Jan 13 (IANS) Heavy snowfall and rain have claimed at least 14 lives in different parts of Balochistan and suspend-ed road and air links of the Pakistans largest province with rest of the world, as the unusually extreme weather system entered the country.

With a strong westerly wave affecting most parts of the country, snowfall is also expected in Khy-ber Pakh tunkhwa, Gilgit-Baltistan and Pakistan-oc-cupied-Kashmir, besides heavy showers have been forecast for Islamabad as well as upper and central Punjab from Monday till Tuesday morning, Dawn news quoted the Met De-

partment as saying.Met officials said heavy

snowfall in Quetta had al-ready broken the 20-year record. "In Qilla Saifullah, the Met Office recorded three- to four-foot snow, which was (more than) double the usual one- to 1.5-foot snow," said Chief Meteo rologist Azmat Hay-at Khan.

An aircraft that had ar-rived from Saudi Arabia with passengers on Satur-day night could not return, as Quetta airport runway remained covered with heavy snow, sources said. Traffic was suspended on the Quetta-Chaman high-way as the Khozak-Pass linking Pakistan with Af-ghanistan also received

heavy snowfall, bringing a halt to the Afghan tran-sit trade as hundreds of trucks and other goods vehicles remained stan-dard on both sides of the border.

Around two dozen pas-sengers in four vehicles were trapped in the far-flung area of Kaachar close to Pakistan-Iran border. Meanwhile, emergency has been declared in Mas-tung, Qila Abdullah, Kech, Ziarat, Harnai, and Pishin districts of Balochistan due to heavy snow, said The News International in a re-port. While addressing the media here, Chief Minis-ter Jam Kamal Khan said a high alert had been issued to the commissioners.

14 die as snowfall, rain wreak havoc in Balochistan

9 business indian HorizonTuesday, January 14, 2020

New Delhi, Jan 13 (IANS) An independent forensic au-dit in Reliance Commercial Finance Limited (RCFL) does not have any adverse find-ings on any fraud, embezzle-ment, diversion or siphoning of funds by the company, its promoters or employees.

The clear signal from the forensic audit marks a boost for 22 lenders to recover 100 per cent through resolution plans as per RBI guidelines.

The forensic audit con-ducted by Grant Thornton was mandated by the lend-ers of RCFL which has been completed. RCFL has made a similar disclosure to Reli-ance Home Finance Limited (RHFL) on the forensic audit and no adverse findings be-ing found.

The forensic audit is part of the debt resolution process, as per RBI guidelines on pru-

dential framework. The fo-rensic auditors have submit-ted their report, and there are no adverse findings recorded on 11 key parameters: Pro-moter, company, employees, associates, diversion & si-phoning of funds, embezzle-ment, malafide operations, falsification of accounts, fraudulent transactions and detection of fraud.

Since September 2018, the company has not accessed any fresh loans or incremen-tal borrowings other than by way of securitization. "The Company is thus already observing a self-imposed restraint on accessing the public funds for more than 15 months", RCFL said in a statement.

The other findings in the

forensic audit report are limited to the issues with re-spect to alleged regulatory anomalies as regards group exposure and alleged devia-tion from certain policies and procedures.

"The Regulator, Reserve Bank of India (RBI), to whom all the facts have been pro-vided before the commence-ment of the forensic audit, had already taken due note of the same, and has direct-ed the Company not to ac-cess 'public funds' and not to take any further exposure with immediate effect until further notice," the company said.

Based on completion of the forensic audit, the RCFL has requested its bankers to proceed on a fast-track ba-sis with the debt resolution plan under 'change of man-agement and control' in the

overall interests of all lend-ers.

The forensic report has confirmed the potential group entities' exposure through several intermedi-ate unlisted entities at Rs 4,427.74 crore (including in-terest), which the company had voluntarily and publicly disclosed even before the commencement of forensic audit to its auditors, regula-tors, lenders, and also in the latest annual financial state-ments which were duly ap-proved by the shareholders.

"This media release is be-ing issued to protect the in-terests of all stakeholders and address any misinformation arising out of mischievous selective leakage of the foren-sic audit report by vested in-terests in an attempt to derail the Company's debt resolu-tion plans", RCFL said.

New Delhi, Jan 13 (IANS) Rashesh Shah, Chairman & CEO, Edelweiss Group, has written a personal note to as-sure stakeholders that Edel-weiss has no relationship with Capstone Forex and all allegations of FEMA viola-tions are false.

"You may have seen some media reports relating to Edelweiss. I am writing to you directly, to assure you that Edelweiss has no rela-tionship with Capstone Forex Pvt. Ltd. and all allegations of FEMA violations are false", Shah said, after being sum-moned by Enforcement Di-rectorate.

He has assured full coop-

eration to the agencies. "We appreciate that regulators and agencies have an obliga-tion to investigate; if any in-formation is sought from us, as a responsible corporate

citizen, we will of course pro-vide the same".

Shah said he was unable to go personally to the ED office but had sent a representa-tive. "While it is unfortunate

that I was unable to go in per-son to the Directorate of En-forcement (ED), our senior authorised representative did attend in person with the requisite information. Need-less to say, if in the future any assistance or support to the investigation is requested from us, we will cooperate fully", Edelweiss Chairman said in a mailer.

He has also refuted reports that Sanjay Nathalal Shah, Chartered Accountant and an independent director of a few of group companies, is alleged to be connected to Capstone.

"Let me reiterate that he has no other association with

the Edelweiss Group, nor is he in any way related to me; you will appreciate that Shah is a common name", he add-ed.

Edelweiss is committed to high standards of corporate governance. "I would like to personally reiterate that these allegations are false and we remain committed to the highest governance standards, built on a strong foundation of ethics. We take our responsibilities as good corporate citizens ex-tremely seriously. We find our strength in the unshaken trust reposed by our custom-ers, shareholders, partners and employees", Shah said.

New Delhi, Jan 13 (IANS) As Amazon Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos begins his India visit this week, its arch rival Walmart In-dia on Monday said it has asked 56 senior executives to leave as part of its corporate restructur-ing process, shrugging off re-ports about the second round of layoffs coming in April.

In a statement, the company which operates nearly 28 whole-sale stores in the country, said it is looking for ways to operate more efficiently, "which requires it to review its corporate struc-ture to ensure that it is organized in the right way".

"As part of this review, we have let go 56 of our associates across levels at the corporate office. All of the 56 impacted associates (8 in the senior management and 48 in the middle/lower man-agement) have been offered en-hanced severance benefits and outplacement services to sup-

port their transition," Krish Iyer, President & CEO, Walmart India, said in a statement.

"A report appearing in the section of the Press speculating second round of layoffs in April is baseless and incorrect," Iyer added.

Walmart partnered Bharti in 2007 for its cash-and-carry busi-

ness in India and went on its own in 2013. The world's largest re-tailer which acquired Flipkart for $16 billion, owns and operates 28 Best Price Modern Wholesale stores offering nearly 5,000 items in a cash-and-carry wholesale format.

The company also has Fulfill-ment Centres in Mumbai, Luc-

know and Hyderabad.Iyer said that Walmart remains

committed to growing its B2B Cash and Carry business in In-dia.

"We opened six new Best Price modern wholesale stores, one Fulfilment Centre and our sales grew 22 per cent in 2019," he said.

Walmart India said it has re-cently made significant invest-ments in the country to serve its members better.

This includes investments in brick and mortar stores as well as e-commerce.

"Our members are increas-ingly becoming omni-channel shoppers. We are thus investing heavily in technology and have a healthy pipeline of Best Price stores. This will provide our members a true omni-channel and convenient shopping experi-ence in the future," the Walmart India CEO added.

Mumbai, Jan 13 (IANS) In-dian sugar mills have benefited from the rise in sugar prices in the international market, as the demand for sugar exports from the country has increased and 28 lakh tonnes of sugar export deals have been sealed so far.

The increased sugar export demand has led to a spurt in sugar prices in the domestic market. The price of sugar have increased by about Rs 100 per quintal. The National Federa-tion of Co-operative Sugar Fac-tories (NFCSF) estimates that sugar exports will meet the 60 lakh tonnes target this year.

NFCSF Managing Director Prakash Naiknavare said, "The export demand has increased due to the rise in the prices of sugar in the global market. It seems that the sugar exports target fixed by the government will be met this year."

The central government has set a target of 6 million tonnes of sugar exports for domestic sugar mills under the Maximum Admissible Export Quantity (MAEQ) for the 2019-20 season.

Last year, the government had set a target of 5 million tonnes of sugar under Minimum In-dicative Export Quotas (MIEQ). However, India managed only 38 lakh tonnes of sugar exports.

"The current season or sugar production and marketing year 2019-20 (October), which started from October 1, has not even completed four months, but 28 lakh tonnes of sugar export deals have been made and the supply will continue to rise further as the supply is less than the demand. Domes-tic mills will benefit from sugar exports," Naiknavare said.

In the international mar-ket, the price of raw sugar has gone up by 18 per cent in the last three months and the price of white sugar has gone up by more than nine per cent, which has helped the Indian sugar mills' exports.

US sugar-11 price was 14

cents per pound higher on Monday. London sugar also closed at $376.80 per ton in the previous session.

"According to the prevailing price of sugar in the interna-tional market, sugar mills in India are getting ex-mill price of white sugar at around Rs 2,300 per quintal, while that of raw sugar is around Rs 2,100 per quintal. If we add incen-tive of Rs 1045 per quintal be-ing given by the government under the MAEQ scheme, then the price of white sugar exceeds Rs 34,00 per quintal, which is higher than the cur-rent domestic prices," Nai-knavare said.

Sushil Kumar, a Delhi-based

sugar trader, said that the ex-mill rate of old sugar in Uttar Pradesh is currently Rs 3,280-3,300 per quintal, while the ex-mill rate of new sugar is Rs 3,250-3,290 per quintal.

He said that the price of sugar has gone up by about Rs 80-Rs 100 per quintal this month.

"The government has sought details of exports made by sug-ar mills till December 31. The government has set a quota of 60 lakh tonnes of sugar for 530 sugar mills. However, few mills did not export or they do not want to export. In such a situ-ation, their quota will be given to the mills who are exporting," said Kumar.

He informed that after the ex-port of 60 lakh tonnes of sugar by September 30 this year, the closing stock will come down to 100 lakh tonnes.

According to NFCSF esti-mates, sugar production in the current season is 263 lakh tonnes, while last year's out-standing stock is 145 lakh tonnes. Thus the total supply is 408 lakh tonnes. After extract-ing 60 lakh tonnes of exports and about 260 lakh tonnes for domestic consumption, the re-maining stock will be 88 lakh tonnes. Of this, 40 lakh tonnes of buffer stock will remain.

New Delhi, Jan 13 (IANS) India's retail food inflation sky-rocketed in December to 14.12 per cent, as seasonal factors made vegetables and pulses dearer, official data showed on Monday.

According to the Na-tional Statistical Of-fice, the consumer food price index shot up to 14.12 per cent from 10.01 per cent in No-vember and (-) 2.65 per cent in December 2018.

Consequently, the high food retail inflation rate lifted the overall Consumer Price Index to 7.35 per cent from 5.54 per cent in November.

In terms of CPI YoY inflation rate, vegeta-bles and pulses' prices jumped to 60.50 per cent and 15.44 per cent, respectively in Decem-ber 2019.

Furthermore, meat and fish prices rose 9.57 per cent, eggs became dearer by 8.79 per cent and the overall price of food and beverages cat-egory was up 12.16 per cent.

In addition, the fuel and light category under CPI rose 0.70 per cent. Last month, RBI in its monetary policy review statement had predicted the CPI-based inflation to rise in the coming quarters.

"Going forward, the inflation outlook is likely to be influenced by several factors. First, the upsurge in prices of vegetables is likely to continue in the immedi-ate months; however, a pick-up in arrivals from the late kharif season along with measures tak-en by the government to augment supply through imports should help soft-en vegetables prices by early February 2020," the Fifth Bi-monthly Mon-

etary Policy Statement, 2019-20 said.

"Second, incipient price pressures seen in other food items such as milk, pulses, and sugar are likely to be sustained, with implica-tions for the trajectory of food inflation. Third, both the 3-month and 1-year ahead inflation expectations of house-holds polled by the Re-serve Bank have risen and these latent senti-ment upsides are being reflected in other surveys as well."

The data also indicated that retail inflation has breached the medium-term target of the RBI to contain CPI inflation within 4 per cent with a band of +/- 2 per cent.

no fraud or funds diversion in RCFL; boost for lenders

Rasesh shah refutes allegations of FeMA violations by edelweiss

New Delhi, Jan 13 (IANS) Good news for consumers as fuel prices fell again on Mon-day, the second consecutive day after easing of tensions between the US and Iran. Price of petrol fell by 10 paise and that of diesel by 5 paise a litre across all major cities on Monday.

Delhi, petrol now costs Rs 75.80 a litre, Rs 81.39 a litre in Mumbai, Rs 78.38 a litre in Kolkata and Rs 78.76 a litre in Chennai after the decrease in price. Similarly, diesel costs Rs 69.06 a litre in Delhi, Rs

72.42 a litre in Mumbai, Rs 71.43 per litre in Kolkata and Rs 72.99 a litre in Chennai, ac-cording to Indian Oil Corpo-ration website.

The retail prices of fuel are dependent on the global crude prices and the rupee-US dollar exchange rate as In-dia imports 80 per cent of its crude requirements. Domes-tic petrol and diesel prices are reviewed by oil marketing companies on a daily basis. Price revisions are imple-mented at the fuel stations with effect from 6 a.m.

Mumbai, Jan 13 (IANS) The key Indian equity indi-ces opened on a positive note on Monday with the NIfty50 on the National Stock Ex-change and the BSE touch-ing new record levels. The NIfty50 touched a fresh high of 12,333.45, while the Sensex reached a record level of 41,893.41 points.

At 9.27 a.m, the Nifty traded at 12,333.45, higher by 76.65

points or 0.63 per cent from the previous close of 12,256.80 points. The BSE Sensex was trading at 41,848.76, higher by 249.04, points, or 0.60 per cent from the previous close of 41,599.72 points. It had opened at 41,788.21 and so far the intra-day low has been 41,720.76 points. The rise in domestic stock markets came on the back of the gains in the Asian markets, analysts said.

Bengaluru, Jan 13 (IANS) Global aero-space major Airbus on Monday announced it has signed a contract with Bengaluru-based startup Traxof Technol-ogies to automate tal-ent acquisition process for the company in In-dia and Europe offices. Traxof's Cloud-based, automated desktop and mobile-based solution - that provides real-time visibility and monitor-ing of recruitment pro-cesses - will support the up of Information Man-agement (IM) resources, especially in India for Airbus' digitalization, the company said in a statement.

Traxof was part of Air-bus BizLab's startup ac-

celeration programme 'Season 4'. "Indian start-ups are extraordinarily competent, competitive and entrepreneurial in spirit. All they need is some supportive accel-eration to achieve vi-ability and scale. Airbus BizLab has been provid-ing this support to In-dian startups with great results," said Anand E Stanley, President and Managing Director, Air-bus India & South Asia.

Airbus BizLab is a global aerospace busi-ness accelerator where startups and Airbus 'in-trapreneurs' speed up the transformation of innovative ideas into valuable businesses.

Since its inception in 2015, Airbus BizLab has

accelerated 72 startups and 54 internal proj-ects, which have raised a combined 23.5 million Euros. "Traxof solves a real-world problem that is shared by a wide range of our inter-nal stakeholders with a simple off the shelf solution," said Carlo Nizam, Chief Informa-tion Officer, Airbus In-dia and South Asia.

Founded in 2014, Traxof Technologies is a workflow automa-tion startup that pro-vides customisability, natural language-based interaction, ease of us-age, process optimisa-tion, interfacing with external tools and bet-ter human-computer interaction.

Fuel prices cut for second straight day on Monday

sensex, nifty rise to freshrecord high

Airbus joins indian startup for talent acquisition

Food prices sky-rocket in Dec; vegetables, pulses dearer

Walmart india sacks 56 senior executives, denies more layoffs

india contracts 28 lakh tonnes of sugar exports so far

businessindian HorizonTuesday, January 14, 2020

Bengaluru, Jan 13 (IANS) The global software major was ab-solutely right in concealing the whistleblowers' complaints from the regulators and the media, Info-sys chairman Nandan Nilekani has said. "It is not the job of companies to take a whistleblower's com-plaint coming every morning and issue a media release on it.

"That is going to create a new set of issues. So, we did absolutely the right thing," Nilekani told IANS, which red-flagged the complaints in October and the co-founder ac-knowledged it later.

Admitting that a company was duty-bound to take on record a whistleblower's complaint, Nile-kani said a report was made on it (plaint) after due diligence and in-vestigation by an audit committee, set up to probe the charges against its Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Salil Parekh and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Nilanjan Roy.

Based on the findings of the au-dit committee, Nilekani claimed on Friday (January 10) that there was no wrongdoing by Parekh or Roy in the financial dealings with its glob-

al clients. Infosys' audit commit-tee arrived at this conclusion after investigating 77 people, including some employees, through 128 in-terviews on the myriad allegations.

The company entrusted 46 cus-todians to collect relevant docu-ments and electronic data which ran into 2,10,000 documents, amounting to 8 tera bytes data.

In the audit committee key find-ings, explaining an unnamed large deal, the report said the reasons for choosing Percentage of Com-pletion (POC) cost method were neither discussed nor disclosed to the audit committee. It said no evi-dence was found to say that POC method was forced for recognition of application maintenance rev-

enue."The company notes that it has

historically applied the straight line method (SLM) of revenue rec-ognition for substantial majority of its fixed price maintenance con-tracts," said the audit committee report.

It also said that POC method ad-heres to the company's accounting policy, therefore, no specific dis-closure was required to be made to the audit committee.

"Revenues from such mainte-nance contracts where this method has been applied are not material and hence, a separate disclosure in the financial statements was not considered necessary," claimed the report. Before briefing the me-dia on the company's third quar-terly results, Nilekani absolved Parekh and Roy of all the charges as the audit panel gave a clean chit to them on the grounds that they (allegations) were unsubstantiated or not backed by evidence by the whistleblowers.

"I am pleased that after rigorous investigation, the audit committee has found no wrongdoing by the

company or its executives," reiter-ated Nilekani. The audit commit-tee roped in legal counsel Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co and PricewaterhouseCoopers to in-quire into the charges.

Nilekani also asked the media what evidence it had to know that the whistleblowers were the com-pany's employees, as claimed by one of them working in the com-pany's finance department.

When asked about the safety of the employees who raised the con-cerns over the lack of transparency in deals with the clients, Nilekeni said the company had no plans to identify the whistleblowers or the unethical employees.

"That will vitiate the purpose; we are not going around looking for whistleblowers. We have no inten-tion of finding them or doing any-thing about that," added Nilekani. On October 21, 2019 a complaint to the company board purportedly from unidentified 'ethical employ-ees' came to light, accusing Parekh and Roy of serious misconduct and unethical practices.

Nilekani's defence for not in-

forming the regulators (SEBI and SEC) about the plaints forced the whistleblowers to share them with the media that resulted in its blue-chip scrip of Rs 5 face value (per share) plunge 17 per cent on Oc-tober 22, wiping off a whopping Rs 50,000 crore of its market capital-ization in a single day.

The gravity of charges also made Nilekani step into the imbroglio and admit to the media that an unnamed board member received two anonymous complaints on September 30 and another on Sep-tember 20 titled 'Disturbing un-ethical practices' and the second undated with the title, "Whistle-blower complaint'.

The BSE sought a clarification on October 23 from the $11-billion IT behemoth over the non-disclosure of the complaint. "We work with a large number of regulators and stock exchanges. We are in con-stant touch with all the regulators and other agencies. We are giv-ing them full cooperation, we are keeping them fully up to date and we will take those discussions to the logical conclusion.

nilekani defends infosys concealing whistleblowers' complaints

10

New Delhi, Jan 13 (IANS) Seeking to boost Indian tourist inflow, especially of millen-nials, to the Southeast Asian country, Singa-pore's One Faber Group has initiated talks with banks, credit card firms and airlines to offer lu-crative deals.

Instead of relying solely on travel agents and intermediaries, the group has appointed an India representative tasked with increasing its tourist volume. The company has appointed ISA Tourism as its India market representative.

Maintaining that Sin-gapore continues to be an important destina-tion for Indian tourists in Southeast Asia, One Faber Group senior ex-ecutive Patrick Lee said

that India figures among the top three markets for Singapore.

He agreed that follow-ing the shutdown of Jet Airways, traffic on the India-Singapore route had seen some impact, but said that this drop was being fast com-pensated by new flights launched by IndiGo, GoAir and Vistara.

The leisure and life-style services firm said that Singapore saw as many as 1.5 million In-dian tourists visiting the island nation in 2018, and in the January-Oc-tober period of 2019 the total figure stood 1.19 million. In the last 2-3 years destinations like Vietnam and Cambodia have also become popu-lar among Indian tour-ists and this may have

prompted some of trav-ellers to choose these new countries over the traditional destinations.

"The decline in num-ber (2019 against 2018) is not because Singa-pore is losing its appeal among Indian tourists," said Lee who is Direc-tor of Sales and Business Development at Mount Faber Leisure Group.

He noted that there was a significant jump in tourist numbers from India in 2018, compared to 2017.

One Faber Group's portfolio of products and services include the Singapore Cable Car, Wings of Time, Faber Peak Singapore, Arbora, Dusk Restaurant and Bar, Good Old Days and 100M Private Dining, among others.

New Delhi, Jan 13 (IANS) An independent forensic audit in Reliance Home Finance Limited (RHFL) contains no adverse find-ings on any fraud, embezzlement, diversion or siphoning of funds by the company, or its promot-ers. The forensic audit conducted by Grant Thornton was mandated by the lenders of RHFL which has been completed.

The forensic audit is part of the debt resolution process, as per RBI guidelines on prudential framework. In a statement, RHF said there are no adverse find-ings on the forensic audit on any fraud, embezzlement, diversion and siphoning of funds or falsifi-cation of accounts by any of the company or its promoters, em-ployees or associates.

The comprehensive scope of the forensic audit included di-version and siphoning of funds, embezzlement, malafide opera-tions among others. RHFL said

even prior to the commencement of the forensic audit, had trans-parently disclosed full details of lending to potential indirectly linked entities to auditors, regula-tor, lenders and also in the latest annual financial statements, duly approved by the shareholders at the AGM in September 2019.

"This media release is being issued to protect the interests of all stakeholders and address any misinformation arising out of mischievous selective leakage of the forensic audit report by vested interests in an attempt to derail the Company's debt resolution plans," RHFL said.

The company said the lending to potential group companies was entirely for the end-use of debt servicing by the listed group com-panies only. There are no adverse findings in the forensic audit re-lating to the quantum and end-use of the lending to potential indirectly linked entities.

The observations in the foren-sic audit are limited to potential regulatory anomalies which had already been reported to NHB, for which NHB has already taken action by requisite penalty and directions. RHFL has requested lenders to fast-track the debt resolution plan already submit-ted under "change of control and management" as per the RBI circular to maximize realization in the overall best interest of all lenders.

As part of the Debt Resolution process, the Company's lend-ers appointed Grant Thornton in August 2019 for forensic audit, as required under RBI guidelines on Prudential Framework for Reso-lution of Stressed Assets under change of control and manage-ment. The company's auditors in the Company's Annual Report dated August 13, 2019 for FY 18-19 (page no. 54) prior to the com-mencement of Forensic Audit

have already likewise confirmed the following: "During the course of our examination of the books and records of the Company, car-ried out in accordance with the generally accepted auditing prac-tices in India, and according to the information and explanations given to us by the management, we have neither come across any instance of fraud by the Com-pany, or any fraud on the Com-pany by its officers or employees, noticed or reported during the year, nor have we been informed of any such instance by the man-agement except a case of fraud on the Company for commercial purchase loan for an identified property amounting to (only) Rs. 2.04 Crore which was identified by management ..."

The forensic report has con-firmed the potential group enti-ties' exposure through several in-termediate unlisted entities at Rs. 7,984 crore (including interest).

Reliance Home Finance says no adverse findings in forensic audit report

One Faber Group eyes millennials to boost leisure business

New Delhi, Jan 13 (IANS) Ritesh Agarwal-led Indian hospitality unicorn Oyo, cur-rently the second top unicorn after Paytm and valued at nearly $10 billion in the coun-try, has acted tough by laying off thousands of employees in India and China, after Japa-nese giant SoftBank tightened its noose around it.

According to Asia Times, the company has let go about 1,200 employees in India "and plans to shed a similar num-ber in the next four months".

According to Oyo, it is ly-ing off poor performers and has set up a "meritocracy-based" performance evalua-tion programme. Attempts for a detailed statement from the company on the current con-

troversy went unanswered. According to reports, Soft-Bank has given Oyo a deadline of March 31, 2020 to phase out contracts or businesses, which are not EBITDA-profitable.

The company has a deadline to post positive Earnings be-fore interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) for its self-operated hotels and July as the deadline for posi-tive EBITDA of its ancillary businesses.

"The decision to layoff such a huge number of employees

can also be attributed to the plans of Oyo to list publicly in the US within the next three years," the report added.

Founded in 2013, Oyo's self-operated business includes Oyo Townhouse, Silverkey, Collection O, Oyo Flagship and Oyo Homes and ancillary businesses include Weddingz.in. SoftBank's Vision Fund has so far invested about $1.5 bil-lion in Oyo, pushing the hospi-tality company's valuation to $10 billion but learning from WeWork fiasco, the Japanese conglomerate is now looking at the companies it financially back from a different lens.

Also backed by Airbnb Inc., Sequoia Capital and Light-speed Venture Partners, Oyo currently works with 10,000

hotel owners in the country.A New York Times report

recently quoted current and former Oyo employees as say-ing that the company was "in-dulging in questionable busi-ness practices". The article claimed the "SoftBank Jewel in India" is facing toxic cul-ture and troubling incidents. "While Ritesh Agarwal's Oyo aims to be the world's biggest hotel chain, its growth was fuelled by questionable prac-tices, employees said," as per the report.

The hospitality chain de-nied the allegations, saying it is committed to "growing the right way" by meeting the needs of property owners and guests. "With regard to com-plaints of a small section.

New Delhi, Jan 13 (IANS) The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Monday announced the extension of the deadline for IndiGo to replace about 135 unmodified Pratt and Whitney engines till May 31, 2020. Previously, the airline had to get the engines by January 31.

In a statement, the avia-tion regulator said that post its order of November 1, 2019, the airline along with the aircraft and engine manufacturers have made significant efforts towards completion of the task.

"They have jointly and

severally submitted a com-plete action plan, which finds the change of engines for the entire fleet feasible by the end of June 2020," it said.

It added: "However, DGCA feels that it can be compressed further and should be achievable by May 2020. And therefore, the revised timeline for complete removal of un-modified engines from the fleet is May 31 2020."

The regulator further not-ed that no aircraft with un-modified engine in Indigo fleet shall be allowed to fly after the extended deadline.

It said that one about 70 per cent of the total Neo engines of IndiGo's fleet is likely to be modified by Jan-uary 31, 2020.

"Incidentally, the pro-curement of modified en-gines was adversely impact-ed due to holidays during Christmas and New Year at MRO (Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul) facilities," said the statement.

The budget airline wit-nessed around 13 incidents of engine trouble last year.

"Four Air Turn Back (ATB)/Inflight Shut Down (IFSD) events were wit-nessed on Airbus 320 Neo aircraft operated by M/s In-diGo in a week during Octo-ber 2019 due to the failure of 3rd stage LPT blades, which caused serious concern."

At the root of the problem were the unmodified engines powering the IndiGo NeO fleet and the DGCA there-after set up a timeline for change of these engines.

star unicorn Oyo shuts door on employees in india, ChinaDeadline extended for indiGo to replace P&W engines

New Delhi, Jan 13 (IANS) Former head of the audit com-mittee of the Yes Bank board Uttam Prakash Agarwal has filed a complaint with the Se-curities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) seeking a probe into "the illegal gains made by a certain set of people" in giv-ing misleading information to the markets and the people on potential investors, including Citax and Erwin Singh Braich.

Though Agarwal, who re-cently resigned as the inde-pendent director from the Yes Bank board and head of the audit committee, has not spelled it out, it implies to in-sider- trading, which needs to be investigated by SEBI.

In a letter to SEBI Chair-man Ajay Tyagi and Whole-time Member G Mahalingam, Agarwal, former president of the Institute of Chartered Ac-countants of India (ICAI), has revealed the chain of events when Yes Bank was evaluating potential investors.

The copy of the letter is also marked to Reserve Bank of In-dia (RBI) Governor Shaktikan-ta Das, Secretary of the Minis-try of Corporate Affairs Injeti Srinivas, NSE Managing Direc-tor and CEO Vikram Limaye, and BSE Managing Director and CEO Ashish Chauhan. The NSE has acknowledged the re-ceipt of the letter.

Agarwal has asked SEBI to investigate whether the process followed by MD and CEO Ravneet Gill had been law-compliant. He has also sought a probe if the informa-tion provided to the board, disseminated to the public

through a press release, and to the stock exchanges and the RBI "are false or misleading or distorted".

Agarwal has also raised the question if the whole process influenced decision of inves-tors on account of dissemi-nation of false and mislead-ing news, which may have enthused sale or purchase of securities. Even more seri-ous is the former director's demand for a probe into "the resultant illegal gains made by a set of people on account of non-compliances, false/misleading news," and for fix-ing responsibility with appro-

priate fines, punishment and other measures. According to the compliant, the Yes Bank management first didn't share names of potential investors with the board members and when it did in the form of Citax and Braich, these were not binding term sheets devoid of details and without any due diligence from legal experts or investment bank.

Following pressure from the board members, Agarwal al-leges, Gill downloaded from the internet a copy of balance sheet of Citax with paid-up capital of only 100 pounds at which the aghast members insisted that no such mislead-ing information on investors putting in billions of dollars should be shared with the public or the regulatory au-thorities. "In addition to the two term sheets, CEO/MD tabled three more single-page letters from different inves-tors, namely Rekha Jhunjun-wala (undated).

ex-director seeks sebi probe into Yes bank insider-trading

New Delhi, Jan 13 (IANS) A massive rise in food prices lifted India's December re-tail inflation to 7.35 per cent from 5.54 per cent in Novem-ber, official data showed on Monday.

Similarly, on a year-on-year (YoY) basis, the Con-

sumer Price Index (CPI) for December was higher than the corresponding period of last year when retail inflation stood at 2.11 per cent.

According to the data furnished by the National Statistical Office (NSO), the Consumer Food Price Index

(CFPI) inflated to 14.12 per cent during the month under review from an expansion of 10.01 per cent in November 2019 and (-)2.65 per cent rise reported for the correspond-ing period of last year.

The data assumes signifi-cance as the Reserve Bank of India in its last monetary policy review maintained the key lending rates on account of rising retail inflation.

The central bank is ex-pected to keep the rates in-tact during the last monetary policy review for 2019-20 to be held in February.

Dec retail inflation sky-rockets to 7.35% as food prices surge

Sports Indian HorizonTuesday, January 14, 202011

Ravi Shastri doesn’t care about trolls at all: Kohli

Brisbane, Jan 13 (IANS) South African batting great AB de Villiers is all set to make his BBL (Big Bash League) debut on Tuesday and ahead of it, the 35-year-old felt he is in some of the best form of his career.

De Villiers arrived in Brisbane on Sunday night and will debut against Adelaide Strikers at the Gabba. The South African said he’s been keenly watching the Brisbane Heat games from South Africa.“I felt in some of the best form of my career. Hopefully we’ll see more of that in this tournament,” de Villiers was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au.

“I know what’s required of me to make a play for the team. There’s been some standout performances from the Heat this season and I think the team is in a really good place. Tom Banton did a fantastic job, hopefully I’ll do a similar job but in the middle order,” he added.

The former Proteas captain was lured to Brisbane by skipper Chris Lynn as they were together in the IPL but in different teams in the Indian domestic T20 league. de Villiers said he was excited to bat with the six-hitting sensation for the first time.

“It could be interesting, I don’t know what to expect. We know each other from chatting at IPL but it’s an interesting dynamic with two players at the crease, it either works or it doesn’t,” de Villiers said on Lynn.

DE VILLIERS confident

of good show in

maiden BBL stint

Rohit can break Lara’s

record of not out:

Warner

Adelaide, Jan 13 (IANS) Australian opener David Warner feels Rohit Sharma can surpass West Indies legend Brian Lara’s record 400 not out in a Test match.

“Yeah, look, I think it’s about the person himself.

We’ve got long boundaries, it is quite difficult at times. When fatigue sets in, it’s very hard to try hard and throw your hands at it,” Warner told ‘Fox Sports’.

“At the end, I tried to run twos to lift the ante because I couldn’t actually think like I could clear the ropes.

I think, one day, if I’ve to name a player, I reckon it could be Rohit Sharma. Definitely,” he added.

Warner had scored 154 in the Test and record breaking 335 not out in the second. His score is the second highest by any Australian in a Test innings.

Warner is the seventh Australian to score a triple ton. It is also the first time since December 2016 that any batsman has managed to score a triple ton in Test cricket after India’s Karun Nair did so against England in Chennai.

Germany, France, Portugal: Group of Death in Euro

Greater Noida, Jan 13 (IANS) The stage is set for a spectacular day of races at the Buddh International Circuit here, with the LGB Formula 4 and the JK Tyre Suzuki Gixxer Cup poised for a gripping showdown in the JK Tyre Festival of Speed on Sunday.

Chennai’s Vishnu Prasad and Raghul Rangasamy, close friends and arch-rivals in the LGB-4, were tied on 73 points after Saturday’s two races and have one last race to battle it out for the coveted title in the JK Tyre FMSCI National racing championship on Sunday.

The Gixxer Cup too went topsy-turvy with championship leader Tanay Gaikwad suffering an unexpected DNF on S a t u r d a y . B e n g a l u r u ’ s Muzammil collected 10 points on Saturday, comfortably winning the race to move to 56 points. The final race will be held on Sunday.BRS Racing Bangalore began the X1 Racing competition on a dominant note, winning the day’s two races. The pair of Arjun Maini (Indian

international racer) and Oliver Webb (international racer) proved to be unbeatable while their teammates Nayan Chatterjee (Indian domestic racer) and Michelle Gatting (international racer, female) finished fourth and third in the two races, respectively.

Mumbai Falcons were the other formidable team, cruising to the third position thanks to Karthik Tharani and Mikkel Jensen in Race 1, while Kush Maini and Pippa Mann finished second in Race 2.In the JK Tyre Super Bike 1000cc, Bhumik Lalwani and Dilip Lalwani of Mount Abu

clinched the honours, taking the first two places, respectively. Simranjeet Singh of Delhi took the third place to set the stage for another close finish.

Provisional Results:JK LGB Formula 4:Race 1: Diljith TS (13:31.101);

2. Raghul Rangaswamy (13:31.298); 3. Ashwin Datta (13:31.349)

Race 2: 1. Ashwin Datta (19:37.578); 2. Diljith (19:38.649); 3. Raghul Rangasamy (19:38.775)

JK Tyre Suzuki Gixxer Cup: 1. Syed Muzammil Ali (23:30.905); 2. Sanjeev Mhatre (23:37.455); 3. Amul Angadi (23:40.296)

JK Tyre Superbike Cup 1000CC:

1. Bhumik Lalwani (15:40.361); 2. Dilip Lalwani (15:49.420); 3. Simranjeet Singh (15:55.262)

X1 Racing:Race 11. BRS Racing Bangalore

(32:34.633)2. DG Racing Ahmedabad

(32:45.545)3. Mumbai Falcons (32:55.046)Race 21. BRS racing Bangalore

(32:51.044)2. Mumbai Falcons- 32:58.1243. BRS Racing Bangalore-

32:59.273

New Delhi, Jan 13 (IANS) India captain Virat Kohli has dismissed the criticism and trolls that have come coach Ravi Shastri's way. The relations between the pair has often led to speculation and indications that Shastri has little power over Kohli's word in matters involving various aspects of the Indian team.

Kohli also said that these conversations, alongwith rumours that are often spread about his wife and Bollywood star Anushka Sharma, are all "agenda-driven".

"All the things we spoke about, you know what was being spoken and said about Anushka as well. I think most of these things are agenda-driven. I don't know why or what for, but to accept lies in that manner, it could not be anything else but agenda driven," Kohli told India Today."If it was random, one guy would write it and the others would not focus on it because it is not important enough."Kohli, however, said that Shastri never gets

affected by it and that the 57-year-old former India captain's focus is on how the present team can become the greatest of all time."In Ravi bhai's case, he is luckily a person who doesn't care at all.

I mean a guy who has faced that attack (during his career) without a helmet and got runs, he is not gonna be bothering about someone sitting at home and trolling him.

"Because if you want to troll a guy who has done that, get up, go into that position, face those bowlers, do what he has done, and then have a debate with that guy. He is absolutely chilled out. He says our only focus is on how we can be the best team of all time," Kohli said.

Madrid, Jan 13 (IANS) The last two World Cup champions - France in 2018 and Germany in 2014 - along with Portugal, the 2016 winner of the last big continental tournament, make up Group F, the so-called Group of Death, in the Euro 2020 football championship.

This year the luck of the draw created an alliance of three of the most powerful teams in recent years. Armed with some of the world's leading players, the national teams in Playoff A - Hungary, Romania, Iceland and Bulgaria - will fight it out in Munich and Budapest for the final spot in Group F, reports Efe news.

In fact, the winning team in this group of four will play against Portugal, the reigning champ, in Budapest on June 16, while in Munich on the same day, France and Germany will debut in the final phase. The last World Cup champions will meet head-on.Without big stars but with a team of totally integrated players, Germany

is out to win its fourth championship crown. After the disappointment of its last World Cup, where it failed to get past the group phase, the team of Joachim Low aims to recover a throne that it last captured in

1996 in England.The semifinals in France 2016 and in Poland/Ukraine 2012 were as far as Germany got in its two most recent Euro Cups. Madrid player Toni Kroos and Bayern veterans like goalkeeper

Manuel Neuer, competing with the excellence of Barcelona keeper Marc Andre Ter Stegen, and that of Borussia Dortmund's Marco Reus, lead a squad in which players from fullbacks like Joshua Kimmich to forwards Timo Werner and Serge Gnabry have their place.

Clashes against France and Portugal will measure the maturity of Germany, which last shone in Brazil 2014.

The French squad, however, keeps going with a lineup of top level players and is definitely the one to beat. A finalist in the last Euro Cup, where it was the host and favorite, it was overcome in the final by Portugal - but the team of Didier Deschamps recovered its glow in the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

Portugal completes the shortlist of hopefuls to occupy one of the first two places in the Group of Death, even though the one that comes in third can have the option of advancing to the elimination round.

Sydney, Jan 13 (IANS) World No. 1 Rafael Nadal believes the ATP Cup and Davis Cup should join forces.

Speaking to reporters in Sydney after Spain’s 2-1 loss to Serbia in the ATP Cup Final on Sunday evening, the 19-time Grand Slam

winner appeared frustrated with the scheduling of the new 24-nation round robin tournament, reports Xinhua news agency.

“It is a long competition. Is a tough way to start the season,” Nadal said.”I think it’s confusing for the spectators, and we need to be clear in our sport.”

Recently sealing victory for Spain at the 18-nation Davis Cup competition in Madrid in November, the 33-year-old voiced his concern about having two similar tournaments back-to-back.“I think it is a great

competition (the ATP Cup), but at the same time I can’t change my mind that two World Cups in one month is not real. So it is not possible,” he said.

“We need to find a way to fix it and we need to find a way to make a big deal with the International Tennis Federation (ITP) and Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) to create a big World Team Cup competition, not two World Cups in one month.”

“For the health of our sport and for the benefit of our sport it is, in my opinion, it’s mandatory that we fix it.”

Nadal will now travel to Melbourne to prepare for the Australian Open which starts on January 20.

Nadal calls for merger of Davis Cup and ATP Cup

Paris, Jan 13 (IANS) American tennis great Serena Williams moved into the ninth position in the new rankings recently released by the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA). The 38-year-old won the ASB Classic in Auckland, New Zealand on Sunday, her first title since winning the Australian Open in 2017 and since she became a mother.Williams in the process became the first player in the Open era to win

titles across four decades.Australia’s Ashleigh Barty remains top of the rankings but second placed Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic has narrowed the gap heading into the Australian Open. Barty is looking to become the first Australian to win the Grand Slam since Christine O’Neil in 1976.Japan’s Naomi Osaka moves up one place to third while Romania’s Simona Halep came down to fourth.

WTA rankings: Serena moves to th, Pliskova

closes gap to top

Bengaluru, Jan 13 (IANS) Bengaluru FC on Monday announced that Spanish defender Juanan Gonzalez had signed a new two-year deal to keep him with the Indian Super League (ISL) champions until the end of the 2021-2022 season.

The 32-year-old, who joined in the summer of 2016, put pen to paper here on Monday afternoon after agreeing to new terms.Juanan has made 96 appearances for the club to date, scoring four goals in that time, most notably in the 2016 AFC Cup semi-final against Johor Darul Ta’zim.

The defender has been an integral part of the club’s title challenges, and believes there is much more to accomplish in the next two years.“I have always maintained that I am content here; at this club, in this city and in this League. My family has been very happy since we moved to Bengaluru and the way this club treats you, makes it easy to make these decisions. I am looking forward to contributing to this club for as long as I can,” Juanan said after completing formalities.The new term will make Juanan the club’s longest-serving foreigner,

having joined the club alongside Alvaro Rubio ahead of the Blues’ historic charge to the AFC Cup final in 2016. Head Coach Carles Cuadrat, who joined the club at the same time as Juanan, spoke highly of his centre-half.

“Juanan and I arrived in Bengaluru on the same day and he has been an integral part of the club since day one. He gives everything for the team, and with his experience and talent, is one of the most important players in our system. He loves the club, its fans, and feels deeply for the badge.

ISL: Juanan Gonzalez commits future to Bengaluru FC

JK Tyre Festival of Speed set for spectacular finish

Printer Publisher & owner By Dr, Rahimmuddin Kemal Printed at Sonu Printer B-180 Okhla Industrial Aria Phase-1-New Delhi-110020-Editor Fahim Arij Kemal.Published From k-556,Bowli Gate, Nizamuddin (w) -Lodhi Road New Delhi-110013- Ph,No +919885003940

Email: indianhorizon2010@gmail.com feedbackhorizon@gmail.com

SRK TAKES FIVE HOURS TO GET READY: GAURI KHAN

Superstar Shah Rukh Khan takes way more time to get ready

than his wife Gauri Khan. This candid confession came from none other than Gauri herself."I take fi ve minutes and he (SRK) takes 5 hours," said Gauri, adding that SRK has a big room only full of ward-robes.To which, Shah Rukh replied: "I wear the same clothes everywhere.I

wear the black suit, so you got to have a difference in black suit everytime you wear."Gauri's revelation about SRK came during an interview with the news channel NDTV.

The star couple were at the Vogue X Nykaa Fashion Power List event where they bagged the Most Stylish Couple of the year award.

IANS

Tuesday - January 14, 2020 12

Entertainment

Winning through the year , Sara Ali Khan

grabbed all debutant awards in her list!

Indian HorizonIndian Horizon

Prg

h

LEONARDO DICAPRIO GOES INCOGNITO ON

DATE NIGHT

Actor Leonardo DiCaprio tried hard to not get rec-ognised during a date

night with girlfriend Camila Morrone in Aspen.

The 45-year-old actor, who sported a baseball cap and black coat, was seen attempt-ing to go incognito while leav-ing dinner with his 22-year-old girlfriend and friends at Matsuhisa in Aspen, Colora-do, reports dailymail.co.uk.

Earlier in the day, the cou-ple were spotted enjoying a shopping trip with DiCaprio's best friend, 43-year-old actor Lukas Haas.

The trio enjoyed hitting the luxury retailers including Chanel and Loro Piana.Di-Caprio, 45, attempted to keep a low profi le as he pulled his hoodie over his head. He also wore a hat and pair of design-er shades.Keeping up with the incognito theme, he wore all black including leather jacket, trousers and lace-up boots.

IANS

What's the one kind of song Kumar Sanu won't sing

with his daughter?

Throwback to 'Lucky shot', Tiger Shroff has been giving us major action goals

eversince his debut.

Popular singer Ku-mar Sanu's daughter Shannon K has fol-

lowed in his footsteps and the proud father is happy about her career choice. However, he isn't keen on going behind the micro-

phone to record a roman-tic song with his daughter.Kumar Sanu and Shannon came together for a non-fi lm song titled "It's magi-cal" last year. Asked if he will be doing more songs with her, Kumar Sanu told

IANS: "We had done 'It's magical'. I had sung in Hindi and she had sung in English. I don't want to sing romantic songs with her. We have a relationship of a father and a daughter, so it's better we sing romatic songs with other singers."

"She has sung with Sonu Nigam and Shaan. She also sang for a Himesh Resham-miya movie and Ekta Ka-poor's movie," he added about his daughter, who started her musical journey in the US in 2018 with the song "A long time".

His young daughter is still trying to make it big in the music industry, while Sanu is a name that is essential in Bollywood music, espe-cially when you talk of nine-ties music.Talking about contemporary music, the "Tujhe dekha toh yeh jaana sanam" hitmaker shared: "When it comes to melody, nowadays the basic Indian music is missing a bit.

IANS

Sara Ali Khan has always de-livered promising roles and has nailed every character

by bringing all the justice to it. Despite being just two fi lms old, she has swept all debutant awards in the year 2019 and it totally proves how Sara is on a winning spree!Taking all over our hearts

through her sincerity towards her work, Sara Ali Khan has charmed us by sweeping all the debutant awards for this year. Breaking the big box of awards in the category of debutants, she has captured Filmfare Award for the best female debut, IIFA Award for Star Debut of the Year and now, very recently

Rising star at Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards.Sara also won oth-er signifi cant awards with Vogue's Fresh Face Female of the Year. The actress has earned a successful spot for herself by getting all the accolades in her kitty! Since her debut in Kedarnath as `Manda-kini" which was further followed

by her next character in Simmba- both have successfully got praised at the box offi ce, critics and was immensely loved by the audiences also.She has been hailed as the "Buzz Girl" of Bollywood because of the hype around her that was witnessed after her debut in Ke-darnath and her skills of portrayal

as the real character in the fi lm.Sara Ali Khan stepped through Kedarnath which was directed by Abhishek Kapoor. Her next was with Ranveer Singh in 'Simmba' and this pair got lots of love from the fans and audience. She was in buzz before her debut and after that, she got hailed as the "Buzz

Girl" of Bollywood after her back to back releases.Sara Ali Khan has beautifully brought every charac-ter to life and the awards that she's achieved refl ects that which truly also shows the success that she has garnered for herself ever since the debut.

Courtesy: Santabanta

SUNNY LEONE: Don't be quiet

about workplace harassment

Actress Sunny Leone un-derstands workplace harassment is diffi cult

to deal with, but feels one needs to step up and address it."Workplace harassment is diffi cult to deal with but you don't have to be quiet. Find yourself a supportive boss," Leone posted on Instagram along with a video address-ing the issue.

The video highlights why it is important to speak up and not stay silent if someone is trying to use powerful posi-tion to exploit someone.

It is in sync with the mes-sage of her upcoming web series "Ragini MMS Returns Season 2", which throws light on the importance of consent while getting inti-mate with a horror story. She has a cameo as a paranormal expert in the series.

On the Bollywood front, the 38-year-old has been roped in for a horror-com-edy called "Coca Cola". She also forayed into the southern film industry with movies like "Rangeela" and "Veeramadevi".

"Nothing is tough when you enjoy doing it or are passionate about the same. South industry will definite-ly help me grow. Being able to learn about a new culture is something that I like and enjoy a lot," Sunny had told IANS in the past.

IANS

Bigg Boss 11" contestant Hina Khan will return

to the house to conduct a fun task in the ongo-ing season.

On "Bigg Boss 13", Hina will be seen making her third spe-cial appearance this season on the show hosted by superstar Salman Khan.

She is set to throw open a fun 'Elite Club' challenge to the top 10 of the current season. As part of the task, Hina will be judging the con-tending contestants on various factors to eventually decide who would be good enough to be a part of the 'Elite Club'."Till date people remember Hina as one

of the strongest lady contestants 'Bigg Boss' has ever seen. From her amazing style state-ment to her 'SherKhan'

personality, she really made season 11 stand-out like none other," said a source.

IANS

BIGG BOSS : Hina Khan back in the house for fun task

T iger Shroff has been giving us ma-jor action goals

ever since he has made his debut on the silver screen and he continues to amaze us as he per-forms stupendous ac-tion, each time he graces the screens!

Recently, Tiger took to his social media and shared a clip of a scene from one of his previ-ous films where he is performing the tornado kick along with a ball. Sharing the video Tiger captioned it by saying, "Lucky shot.

As soon as Tiger shared the video, the comments section was flooded with the emojis like fire, su-perb sir, great work and not just the fans but celebrities too. Ishaan Khatter reacted " " on the video.The actor has been hailed as the 'Youngest Action Star'

owing to the kind of ac-tion he has been per-forming with each of his films, taking the difficul-ty and intensity a notch higher each time.

The year has been su-perb for the actor as with WAR he is the youngest actor in the 300 crore club. The film has per-formed extremely well at the box office and Tiger's performance has been loved by audience and critics alike.

The actor is back in the city after the 40 days shoot schedule in Serbia for Baaghi 3. The film will hit the screens on 6th March, 2020.

Bestowed with such a remarkable talent in performing action and bringing characters to life, Tiger Shroff, with-out doubt, has gained the status as one of the most prominent actors in B-Town. The hard-

working and dedicated actor doesn't have any off days.

He trains every single day of the year and tries his hand in various genres of actions so that he can bring freshness and new-ness to his characters and entertain audiences with his individual and differ-ent take on it, every time he is on screen.

The key principle is Sua-vity; the refusal to break a sweat. The real impossible task for Tiger would be calling it a day.

Tiger has a fi tness regi-men beyond what most actors and civilians would contemplate and dream of having.

Tiger's determination and diligence are what make him stand out in his league of contemporaries and we can draw inspira-tion from him. If he can do it, why can't we?

Courtesy: Santabanta

Oscar-winning actress Jane Fonda was ar-rested for the fi fth

time here while protesting with climate change activ-ists.Dubbed as Fire Drill Fridays, Fonda has been protesting every week since October, sometimes with other popular personalities, to raise awareness about cli-mate change and focus at-tention on the anti-fossil fuels movement.A video of Fonda's most recent arrest has made its way onto the social media,

in which she is shown cuffed, and seems to be enjoying the moment, reports hollywood-reporter.om.The actress, who will turn 82 on Saturday, was

avoiding arrest in the past weeks as she was accumulat-ing many run-ins with the law and that she would be facing lengthier jail stints.

Fonda has asserted that she is willing to get arrested as many times as it takes to get her point across."I will be on the Capitol every Friday, rain or shine, inspired and em-boldened by the incredible movement our youth have created," Fonda previously wrote on her own website.

IANS

Jane Fonda arrested for fifth time