CMYK

ND-ND

DELHI MONDAY AUGUST 11 2014

Printed at Chennai Coimbatore Bangalore Hyderabad Madurai Noida Visakhapatnam Thiruvananthapuram Kochi Vijayawada Mangalore Tiruchirapalli Kolkata Hubli Mohali Allahabad Malappuram Lucknow Anantapur and Nellorebull bull

Regd DL(ND)-1161102006-07-08 RNI No TNENG201249940 ISSN 0971 - 751X Vol 4 No 190 CITY EDITION 20 Pages Rs 800 wwwthehinduin

NEW DELHI By providing a plat-form for Pakistani serials inIndia the Zee network has ad-dressed a long-held grouseamong people on the otherside of the border mdash abouthow Bollywood had finishedtheir film industry

Though a trickle comparedto the Bollywood films thatflood Pakistan the phenom-enal viewership for the hand-ful of Pakistani televisionserials that have been aired onZeersquos Zindagi channel sinceits launch on June 23 isbound to encourage Pakis-tanrsquos entertainment industrywhich is trying to get back onits feet against huge odds

Whether it was just fatiguewith the same old saas-bahufare dished out by heavilydressed actors living in pala-tial homes or the latent thirstfor what has mostly been lsquofor-bidden fruitrsquo mdash as the laws donot allow direct downlinking

of Pakistani channels into In-dian homes mdash there is no de-nying that serials like AunnZara and Zindagi Gulzaar Haihave breathed new life intotelevision viewing here

The viewership cuts acrossage gender and class divide asthe routine fare on offer mdash onboth Hindi and regional chan-nels mdash appeared to be clonesof each other

So you have a grandmotherwatching it with her yet-to-

reach-the-teens granddaught-er with the son catching one ofthe repeats and a colony beau-ty parlour running the chan-nel through the dayEvidently the clientele mdash al-ready hooked to the program-ming mdash does not complain

ldquoThe themes of these sto-ries mdash which mainly focus onthe problems of women mdash of-ten remind one of the story-lines of Hindi films of the1960s and 70s But it is the

handling of the subjects therefined language which is amix of Urdu and Punjabi butsounds so much like the lan-guage that was spoken in ourhouseholds till about 30 yearsago that comes as a pleasantchangerdquo says Aradhana Bhat-nagar who is in her seventiesldquoI am just glad that I get to seethese serials with my grand-daughter since it will help herpick up the language It is ourcommon heritagerdquo

Such are the eyeballs for thePakistani content that it is un-likely to be edged out evenwhen Zee diversifies to in-clude programmes from LatinAmerica Turkey Egypt andWest Asia on Zindagi Apartfrom the business gains andthe footprint that Pakistanitelevision industry has got inIndia Zindagi has challengedsome deep misconceptionsIndians have about Pakistanand made them realise howmuch the two countries havein common

Pakistani lsquosoap powerrsquo hooks IndiaAnita Joshua

A still from Pakistani serial Zindagi Gulzaar Hai

Smriti says she hasYale degreeNEW DELHI The controversyover Human ResourceDevelopment MinisterSmriti Iranirsquos educationalqualifications has taken anew turn with herassertion that she also hasa degree from theprestigious YaleUniversity in the UnitedStates Page 10

NEW DELHI The Union HomeMinistryrsquos recent communi-queacute to the Reserve Bank ofIndia mint requisitioning fiveBharat Ratna medallions hastriggered speculation thatthere might be more than onerecipient of the countryrsquoshighest civilian award thisyear

While the Ministryrsquos moveled to speculation that theCentre planned to bestow thecoveted award upon five per-sonalities including formerPrime Minister Atal BihariVajpayee sources said theRashtrapati Bhavan has notyet received any list of names

Confirming that the Minis-try has asked for the medal-lions a senior official saidldquoPeople are unnecessarilyspeculating Although wehave requested for five med-allions it does not mean thatthe award would be conferredon five persons in the sameyearrdquo BJP leaders remainedtight-lipped about the issuestating a decision would betaken by the governmentNames of Netaji SubhasChandra Bose and MadanMohan Malviya have alsobeen suggested

More on Page 11

Speculationover BharatRatna Devesh K Pandey

NEW DELHI Reserve Bank of In-dia Governor Raghuram Ra-jan has said that demand forbank loans for industrial in-vestments has not picked upeven after two back-to-backcuts in the statutory liquidityratio (SLR) since the changeof government at the Centre

ldquoThe industrial sectorrsquos de-mand for credit from banks isnot picking up hellip growth re-mains mutedrdquo Dr Rajan toldpresspersons after a meetingof the RBIrsquos central boardhere on Sunday

Union Finance MinisterArun Jaitley said at the jointpress conference that theRBIrsquos policy regime was beinggeared for higher growthapart from lower inflationDr Rajan on the other handsaid any change in the policyregime which has been anti-inflation so far would be con-tingent on fresh data coming

in The Ministerrsquos statementsindicate that the governmentis of the view that loweringthe cost of capital can spur

investment growth Dr Ra-jan however seems to sug-gest that the major obstacleto investment climate might

be risk appetite rather thanthe cost of capital

The Governorrsquos statementon no pick-up in the creditgrowth for industrial invest-ments assumes significanceas the expectation was thatafter the formation of the Mo-di government the invest-ment sentiment in the

economy would reviveswiftly

Monetary policy could notsimultaneously achieve lowerinflation and higher growthFor lower inflation growthmust be sacrificed To attackinflation the RBI had in thelast two monetary policy re-views kept interest rates un-changed but lowered the SLRfrom 23 per cent to 22 percent

Demand for bank credit not picking up despite easing of normsPuja Mehra

Risk-averse industry keepinginvestment down says Rajan

No sharp revival ininvestment sentiment isa worrying prospect

CHENNAI The attendance re-cord of cricketer Sachin Ten-dulkar and actor Rekha mighthave raised questions aboutthe role and relevance of ce-lebrity MPs in the Rajya Sab-ha but many of their electedcounterparts do no better

At least 33 MPs across bothHouses of Parliament cur-rently have less than 50 percent attendance That is theyare absent more often thanthey are present Only threeof those 33 are nominatedmembers an analysis of theparliamentary attendance re-cords compiled by PRS Leg-islative Research shows

Actors Hema Malini andTapas Pal who are both elect-ed members of the Lok Sabhahave not attended even a sin-gle day of the ongoing budgetsession Others with a poor

attendance record includeUttar Pradesh Chief MinisterAkhilesh Yadavrsquos wife Dim-ple Yadav deputy leader ofthe Congress in the Lok Sab-ha Captain Amarinder Singhand Rajasthan Chief MinisterVasundhara Rajersquos son Dush-yant Singh

Sachin Rekhahave companyAt least 33 MPshave less than50 attendance

Ajai Sreevatsan

XIANBEIJING With Chinafirming up in the comingtwo or three months aldquomasterplanrdquo for itsambitious land andmaritime ldquonew SilkRoadrdquo project a topofficial has said Beijingwants India to play a keyrole in the initiative

Beijing envisages aneconomic corridorlinking its south-westernYunnan provincethrough Myanmar toKolkata as a key segmentof a land-based ldquoSilkRoad economic beltrdquoand is also planning toboost ties with portcities such as Chennaithrough a ldquoMaritime SilkRoadrdquo starting out fromsouth-eastern Fujianprovince and linkinglittoral countries in theregion

More on Page 10

Key role forIndia in lsquoSilkRoadrsquo projectsays China Ananth Krishnan

GURGAON Around two dozenMuslim families operatingsmall enterprises such asbarber shops and tailoringand scrap units werethrashed and forced to fleeBasai village in Gurgaonearlier this week

Confirming the incidentDeputy Commissioner ofPolice (West) Sangeeta Ranitold The Hindu that fivepersons including primeaccused Amit have been ar-rested

A case has been registeredunder Sections 148 149323 427 and 506 of the Indi-an Penal Code

A senior police officer

said the attackers suspectedthe involvement of the scrapdealers in petty theft Hehowever said only four orfive families were targeted

Earlier this year Mewat

saw an escalation of commu-nal tension over cattlesmuggling which resultedin the death of a Hinduyouth

Several Muslim youthhave been arrested for al-leged involvement in cattlesmuggling but members ofthe community argued thatmost of the victims of lastweekrsquos attack were from Ut-tar Pradesh and Bihar whohave been running theirshops for nearly a decade

They alleged that the at-tack was aimed at polarisingthe two communities to seekpolitical mileage Haryana isone of the two States whichwill go to the polls this year

More on Page 4

Ashok Kumar

Muslims at a dhaba nearBasai village- PHOTO ASHOK KUMAR

Muslims forced to flee Gurgaon village

HYDERABAD The Telanganagovernment is determinedto go ahead with a massivesurvey of households in theState on August 19 despitemounting criticism fromthe opposition about itsfeasibility and intentionThe Telangana RashtraSamiti regime is gearing upto deploy about four lakhemployees for the surveyand may even use thepolice if necessary

The opposition is mainlyon the ground that thesurvey is aimed at denyingwelfare benefits to sectionsof the poor Parties inAndhra Pradesh allege thatit is an exercise toascertain the nativity ofTelangana residents andexlcude those who hailfrom the Seemandhraregion from governmentbenefits such as supply of

essential commodities atsubsidised rates feereimbursements socialsecurity pensions andhousing Chief Minister KChandrasekhar Raohowever denies thesecharges

Mr Rao saidcategorically at a meetingthat the survey was meantonly to prevent ineligiblepersons cornering benefitsfunded by public money

There were 225 lakhbogus ration cards in useand huge amounts in theform of fee reimbursementwere reaching theineligible and helpingunscrupulous professionalcolleges he claimed

B Chandrashekhar

TRS firm onhousehold survey

Opposition parties fearit could be an exerciseto deny welfare tonon-domiciles

NEW DELHI Kingfisher Air-lines with the tag line oflsquoKing of good timesrsquo hasnose-dived but there will beanother as-yet-unnamedairline that will unveil itsbrand identity on Mondaypromising a full-serviceflight experience

This airline is part ownedby the Tatas which found-ed Indiarsquos first civilian air-line that was laternationalised with the icon-ic Maharaja as the logopromising a luxurious ex-perience in the air

The grouprsquos partner inthe new venture is Singa-pore Airlines which pro-vides vistas of ultimatepassenger comfort

Most flights will havedouble the number of busi-ness class seats currentlybeing offered by the exist-ing airlines while paring thenumber of economy seats

But there is likely to be

an in-between class too forthose unlikely to afford thebusiness fare but yearn tobe looked after

Speculation now centreson the name of the airlinewhich is being referred to asTata-SIA Airlines Ltd Onemedia report has the nameas lsquoVistararsquo

Sandeep Dikshit

Tatas promise luxuryfor flyers in new airline

JRD Tata was apioneer of Indiarsquos firstcivilian airline before itwas nationalised

BRIEFLY

39 killed in Iranairliner crashTEHRAN An Iranianpassenger plane crashedon Sunday moments aftertakeoff from Tehrankilling at least 39 on boardand narrowly avoidingmany more deaths when itfell near a busy market mdashAFP More on Page 12

Odisha flood tollmounts to 45BHUBANESWAR The deathtoll in floods in Odishaclimbed to 45 and thenumber of people affectedto over 329 lakh onSunday as the situationimproved gradually withreceding water level inmany areas More on Page 10

METRO PLUSmdash 4 Pages

Rain wreaks havocin DelhiNEW DELHI The rush ofRakhi-bearing sistersheading to the homes oftheir brothers coupledwith a few hours oftorrential rain at noonbrought the Capital to astandstill Traffic wasgridlocked in many partsof the city as drains wereunable to absorb the loadof stormwater Page 3