T he stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana is not the sole reasons for air pollu- tion in the national Capital. The weathermen have predict- ed a spike in pollution levels in Delhi-NCR due to entirely dif- ferent factors. “Presently the western dis- turbance is moving away, and the north-westerly dry winds are settling over the areas of northwest plains and Delhi. These north-westerly winds are very light in intensity that they are unable to sway away the pollutants or lower down their concentration in the air,” Skymet said. Moreover, these light winds are likely to bring in pollutants from the northwest plains, spe- cially Haryana region, as dur- ing this time stubble burning is actively taking place in these areas. Apart from this, recent rain over north Haryana and hills during the last few days have helped gather moisture in the Delhi air. This moisture holds pollutants. This can be an added trigger to the already growing pollution levels. The air quality in Delhi dipped to poor level on Saturday with drop in wind speed, and the authorities pre- dicted further fall in the air quality index of the national Capital in the coming days. In the upcoming 24 hours, Delhi and NCR will witness mainly pleasant mornings with thick mist and haze. “Pollution during morning hours and evening hours will be on its peak as the moisture levels are quite high during the time in the form of haze or mist. Again, October 15 onwards a fresh western dis- turbance is likely to affect north-west India which may further worsen pollution levels due to the increasing light winds and moisture which will hold up the aerosol in the lower level,” the Skymet said. According to the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR), the Air Quality Index (AQI) in Delhi on Saturday morning was 699, which is considered way above haz- ardous. Adjoining Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Gurugram and Noida too recorded “very poor” air quality levels. “The overall air quality index (AQI) recorded at 4 pm on Saturday stood at 300, which falls in the poor catego- ry and is just one point from being ‘very poor’, according to Centre-run System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR). The PM10 level (presence of particles with diameter less than 10 microme- tres) in Delhi stood at 243 and the PM2.5 level was recorded at 122, according to the data. On Friday the AQI of the national Capital stood at 154. Meanwhile, recent satel- lite images from the NASA have showed that farmers in Punjab and Haryana have started burning crop residue. The NASA, on its official web- site, stated that burning crop residue in Punjab and Haryana has increased significantly over the past 10 days in and near Amritsar, Ambala, Karnal, Sirsa and Hisar. Burning of paddy straw every year during October and November and wheat straw during April in Punjab and Haryana are the major con- tributors to air pollution in Delhi-NCR as the smoke trav- els towards the national Capital. In Delhi, it mixes with the fog and creates a toxic smoggy winter every year. Meanwhile, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) predicted a warmer winter this year as a result of formation of El Nino, the periodic weather phenom- enon associated with the warming of surface tempera- tures in the Pacific Ocean thought to be responsible for drought in India and other parts of South Asia. T he BJP is expecting a state- ment of explanation from Union Minister MJ Akbar on Sunday on the cases of alleged harassment leveled against him from several women journalists before taking a call on his continuation in the Council of Ministers. As many as nine journalists have accused Akbar of “sexual” exploitation when he served as editor of English dailies. Akbar is returning to Delhi from an official tour of African nations on Sunday. In the midst of growing demand that Akbar should be asked to resign from the Council of Ministers and the RSS as well as his ministerial colleagues Maneka Gandhi and Smiriti Irani virtually backing the women journalists, Akbar’s statement could decide which way the whole episode will set- tle down. While Akbar’s fate will be decided by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP president Amit Shah has already said that the party would also definite- ly look into the issue. “We will definitely look into the issue. We have to see whether these allegations are true or false. We have to check the veracity of the post and the person who posted it,” he was reported as saying. Turn to Page 4 T he flood situation following heavy rains in the last 72 hours caused by the deep depression continued to remain grim in the State. Though the Very Severe Cyclonic Storm Titli’s effect was less than forecast, incessant rains in its aftermath have left a trail of destruction in three southern dis- tricts of the State. Ganjam district is the worst-affected by the floods with places including Bhanjanagar, Sorada, Dharakote, Aska, Purushottampur and Seragada still marooned. Airdropping of relief materi- als in these area is underway by two heli- copters of the Indian Navy. The three-member ministerial com- mittee comprising Revenue Minister Maheswar Mohanty, Water Resources Minister Niranjan Pujari and Energy Minister Sushanta Singh on the day mon- itored rescue, relief and restoration oper- ations in Ganjam. The committee’s first meeting was held at Chhatrapur to decide on the measures to restore normalcy in the affected areas. The situations in Gajapati and Rayagada districts also continued to be serious with many villages still marooned. However, the situation in northern region of the State was alarming with fears of flood looming large. The Baitarani river was flowing at 18.03 metre against the dan- ger mark of 17.83 metre near Akhuapada in Bhadrak district. Road communication on the Puruna Cuttack-Sambalpur route was affected as water was flowing five feet above the road near Madhapur in Athagarh of Cuttack district. At least 13 villages under Badasahi block in Mayurbhanj district were marooned as the floodwater of the Budhabalanga river flowed three feet above the Patalipura bridge. Budhabalanga was flowing at 8.22 metre against the danger mark of 8.13 metre at Barunighat in Baleswar inun- dating low-lying areas of Sadar block. In Baleswar, the water level of the Kansabansa river touched the danger level at 7.5 metre at Soro while the water level of Budhabalanga crossed the danger mark at Baruni Ghat. Road communica- tion between Salampur and Sonari was dis- rupted due to overflowing of floodwater at a height of about five feet. C hief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Saturday announced that all flood-affect- ed families in Gajapati, Ganjam and Rayagada districts would be distributed relief for 15 days at the rate of Rs 60 per elderly person and Rs 45 per child. He made the announce- ment after making an aerial visit to the flood affected dis- tricts for three hours. A family of four members would be assisted with more than Rs 3,000 as relief on an average, the Chief Minister announced after reviewing the damages caused by the Cyclone Titli. Speaking about the restora- tion works, Patnaik said that connectivity will be restored in all cut off areas within the next 48 hours. Electricity supply to 90 per cent of affected areas would be ensured in next 48 hours and the remaining 10 per cent areas in three to five days, he said. Similarly, he ordered to provide drinking water to peo- ple in all blocks within 48 hours and repair all tube-wells by Sunday. He said water supply will be restored in all urban areas in the next 24 hours. Generator sets would be used wherever required, he said. “House damage and crop damage assessment will start once the immediate relief and restoration measures are com- pleted,” the CM concluded. In response to a question of allegations raised by opposition parties, he said, “Let them raise allegations. It is the biggest catastrophe after the Super Cyclone and we are busy in relief and restoration works,” On death of people in Baraghara village under Raighar block of Gajapati dis- trict, the Chief Minister termed the incident most unfortunate and said assistances would be provided to their families on availability of report. Regarding India Today news channel’s best CM remark, Patnaik said, “It has made me calmer. I will be serving people with more ded- ication.” He said demand for dam- age assistance would be sent t the Union Government after an assessment of all damages is made. A s many as 12 persons, including five children, lost their lives while four oth- ers went missing due to a land- slide following torrential rains triggered by Cyclone Titli at Barghara village under Gangabada panchayat of Rayagada block in Gajapati district on Friday night. The deceased were identi- fied as Dandapani Bhuyan, Sumitra Bhuyan, Somanath Kathren, Jagan Kathi, Minakshi Shabar, Gangadhara Behera, Dinesh Bhuyan, Lalu Behera, Jayachandra Bhutan, Suramati Jani and Champa Bhutan. The villagers, who were still missing, were identified as Kati Bhuyan, Basanti Bhuyan, Basumati Bhuyan and Bishambara Shabara. As per reports, during the cyclonic storm, the houses of some villagers were damaged. Finding no way other out, 21 people took shelter in a cave. But due to the storm and inces- sant rains, they got buried in a landslide. “It is confirmed that 12 persons have died in the land- slide,” said Special Development Council chair- man Antaryami Gamang. Meanwhile, Special Relief Commissioner Bishnupada Sethi said the Gajapati SP and Collector would visit the spot and take stock of the situation. “After postmortem of the bodies, financial assistance would be provided to the kin of the deceased as per the Government provisions,” said Sethi.
the sole reasons for air pollu-tion in the national Capital.The weathermen have predict-ed a spike in pollution levels inDelhi-NCR due to entirely dif-ferent factors.
“Presently the western dis-turbance is moving away, andthe north-westerly dry windsare settling over the areas ofnorthwest plains and Delhi.These north-westerly windsare very light in intensity thatthey are unable to sway awaythe pollutants or lower downtheir concentration in the air,”Skymet said.
Moreover, these light windsare likely to bring in pollutantsfrom the northwest plains, spe-cially Haryana region, as dur-ing this time stubble burning isactively taking place in theseareas.
Apart from this, recentrain over north Haryana and
hills during the last few dayshave helped gather moisture inthe Delhi air. This moistureholds pollutants. This can be anadded trigger to the alreadygrowing pollution levels.
The air quality in Delhidipped to poor level onSaturday with drop in windspeed, and the authorities pre-dicted further fall in the airquality index of the nationalCapital in the coming days. Inthe upcoming 24 hours, Delhiand NCR will witness mainlypleasant mornings with thickmist and haze.
“Pollution during morninghours and evening hours willbe on its peak as the moisturelevels are quite high during thetime in the form of haze ormist. Again, October 15onwards a fresh western dis-turbance is likely to affectnorth-west India which mayfurther worsen pollution levelsdue to the increasing lightwinds and moisture which willhold up the aerosol in the
lower level,” the Skymet said. According to the System of
Air Quality and WeatherForecasting and Research(SAFAR), the Air Quality Index(AQI) in Delhi on Saturdaymorning was 699, which isconsidered way above haz-ardous. Adjoining Ghaziabad,Faridabad, Gurugram and
Noida too recorded “very poor”air quality levels.
“The overall air qualityindex (AQI) recorded at 4 pmon Saturday stood at 300,which falls in the poor catego-ry and is just one point frombeing ‘very poor’, according toCentre-run System of AirQuality and Weather
Forecasting and Research(SAFAR). The PM10 level(presence of particles withdiameter less than 10 microme-tres) in Delhi stood at 243 andthe PM2.5 level was recordedat 122, according to the data.On Friday the AQI of thenational Capital stood at 154.
Meanwhile, recent satel-lite images from the NASAhave showed that farmers inPunjab and Haryana havestarted burning crop residue.The NASA, on its official web-site, stated that burning cropresidue in Punjab and Haryanahas increased significantly overthe past 10 days in and nearAmritsar, Ambala, Karnal, Sirsaand Hisar.
Burning of paddy straw
every year during October andNovember and wheat strawduring April in Punjab andHaryana are the major con-tributors to air pollution inDelhi-NCR as the smoke trav-els towards the national Capital.In Delhi, it mixes with the fogand creates a toxic smoggywinter every year.
Meanwhile, the IndiaMeteorological Department(IMD) predicted a warmerwinter this year as a result offormation of El Nino, the periodic weather phenom-enon associated with thewarming of surface tempera-tures in the Pacific Oceanthought to be responsible fordrought in India and otherparts of South Asia.
The BJP is expecting a state-ment of explanation from
Union Minister MJ Akbar onSunday on the cases of allegedharassment leveled against himfrom several women journalistsbefore taking a call on hiscontinuation in the Council ofMinisters. As many as ninejournalists have accused Akbarof “sexual” exploitation whenhe served as editor of Englishdailies. Akbar is returning toDelhi from an official tour ofAfrican nations on Sunday.
In the midst of growingdemand that Akbar should beasked to resign from theCouncil of Ministers and theRSS as well as his ministerialcolleagues Maneka Gandhi andSmiriti Irani virtually backingthe women journalists, Akbar’sstatement could decide whichway the whole episode will set-tle down.
While Akbar’s fate will bedecided by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, BJP presidentAmit Shah has already said thatthe party would also definite-ly look into the issue.
“We will definitely lookinto the issue. We have to seewhether these allegations aretrue or false. We have to checkthe veracity of the post and theperson who posted it,” he wasreported as saying.
The flood situation following heavy rainsin the last 72 hours caused by the deep
depression continued to remain grim inthe State.
Though the Very Severe CyclonicStorm Titli’s effect was less than forecast,incessant rains in its aftermath have left atrail of destruction in three southern dis-tricts of the State.
Ganjam district is the worst-affectedby the floods with places includingBhanjanagar, Sorada, Dharakote, Aska,Purushottampur and Seragada stillmarooned. Airdropping of relief materi-als in these area is underway by two heli-copters of the Indian Navy.
The three-member ministerial com-mittee comprising Revenue MinisterMaheswar Mohanty, Water ResourcesMinister Niranjan Pujari and EnergyMinister Sushanta Singh on the day mon-itored rescue, relief and restoration oper-ations in Ganjam.
The committee’s first meeting was heldat Chhatrapur to decide on the measuresto restore normalcy in the affected areas.
The situations in Gajapati andRayagada districts also continued to beserious with many villages still marooned.
However, the situation in northernregion of the State was alarming with fearsof flood looming large. The Baitarani river
was flowing at 18.03 metre against the dan-ger mark of 17.83 metre near Akhuapadain Bhadrak district. Road communicationon the Puruna Cuttack-Sambalpur routewas affected as water was flowing five feetabove the road near Madhapur inAthagarh of Cuttack district.
At least 13 villages under Badasahiblock in Mayurbhanj district weremarooned as the floodwater of theBudhabalanga river flowed three feetabove the Patalipura bridge.
Budhabalanga was flowing at 8.22metre against the danger mark of 8.13metre at Barunighat in Baleswar inun-dating low-lying areas of Sadar block.
In Baleswar, the water level of theKansabansa river touched the dangerlevel at 7.5 metre at Soro while the waterlevel of Budhabalanga crossed the dangermark at Baruni Ghat. Road communica-tion between Salampur and Sonari was dis-rupted due to overflowing of floodwaterat a height of about five feet.
����� ��+��0>�<�*
Chief Minister NaveenPatnaik on Saturday
announced that all flood-affect-ed families in Gajapati, Ganjamand Rayagada districts wouldbe distributed relief for 15 daysat the rate of Rs 60 per elderlyperson and Rs 45 per child.
He made the announce-ment after making an aerialvisit to the flood affected dis-tricts for three hours.
A family of four memberswould be assisted with morethan Rs 3,000 as relief on anaverage, the Chief Ministerannounced after reviewing thedamages caused by the CycloneTitli.
Speaking about the restora-tion works, Patnaik said thatconnectivity will be restored inall cut off areas within the next48 hours. Electricity supply to90 per cent of affected areaswould be ensured in next 48hours and the remaining 10 percent areas in three to five days,he said.
Similarly, he ordered toprovide drinking water to peo-
ple in all blocks within 48hours and repair all tube-wellsby Sunday.
He said water supply willbe restored in all urban areas inthe next 24 hours. Generatorsets would be used whereverrequired, he said.
“House damage and cropdamage assessment will startonce the immediate relief andrestoration measures are com-pleted,” the CM concluded.
In response to a question ofallegations raised by oppositionparties, he said, “Let themraise allegations. It is the biggestcatastrophe after the SuperCyclone and we are busy inrelief and restoration works,”
On death of people inBaraghara village underRaighar block of Gajapati dis-trict, the Chief Minister termedthe incident most unfortunateand said assistances would be
provided to their families onavailability of report.
Regarding India Todaynews channel’s best CMremark, Patnaik said, “It hasmade me calmer. I will beserving people with more ded-ication.”
He said demand for dam-age assistance would be sent tthe Union Government after anassessment of all damages ismade.
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As many as 12 persons,including five children,
lost their lives while four oth-ers went missing due to a land-slide following torrential rainstriggered by Cyclone Titli atBarghara village underGangabada panchayat ofRayagada block in Gajapatidistrict on Friday night.
The deceased were identi-fied as Dandapani Bhuyan,Sumitra Bhuyan, SomanathKathren, Jagan Kathi,Minakshi Shabar, GangadharaBehera, Dinesh Bhuyan, LaluBehera, Jayachandra Bhutan,Suramati Jani and ChampaBhutan.
The villagers, who were stillmissing, were identified as KatiBhuyan, Basanti Bhuyan,Basumati Bhuyan and
Bishambara Shabara.As per reports, during the
cyclonic storm, the houses ofsome villagers were damaged.Finding no way other out, 21people took shelter in a cave.But due to the storm and inces-sant rains, they got buried in alandslide.
“It is confirmed that 12persons have died in the land-slide,” said SpecialDevelopment Council chair-man Antaryami Gamang.
Meanwhile, Special ReliefCommissioner BishnupadaSethi said the Gajapati SP andCollector would visit the spotand take stock of the situation.
“After postmortem of thebodies, financial assistancewould be provided to the kin ofthe deceased as per theGovernment provisions,” saidSethi.
Neil Armstrong may or may notregister on the presentgeneration but Ryan Gosling
will surely make them revel inhistory’s biggest moments — the firstman taking the first steps on theMoon. Gosling’s intense portrayal ofArmstrong through his journey oflife captivates the audience inslowmo and leads through the filmto make it one of those gems youwould like to be with more timesthan one.
The story encapsulates Armstrong’smost private moments, his family life,his camaraderie with fellow astronautsand his spatial passion which comethrough in a quiet and dignifiedmanner. You live Armstrong’s lifethrough Gosling and that’s a hugeachievement for the actor.
Thanks to the excellentcinematography, the movie is sublimewhat with planet Earth being left
behind a zillion miles in quest of abigger, unexplored and dark universefull of secrets that Armstrong brings tolight with a giant leap for humanity byjust one step on the Moon.
The director merges the film wellwith terrestrial and extra-terrestrialconcerns that Armstrong and his strongpersonality face, tackle and steer clearof. The movement and pace of the filmgives it a thriller shell from which itemerges only when emotions are atplay.
The eerie stillness of space is soastoundingly captured by a gingerlyroving camera that even a decibelcomes across as a screechy intrusion tothe ultimate peace that you settle intowith Gosling and his non-gravitationalexistence on the blemished satellite.
Armstrong in his youth is ascaptivating as an engineer as he is as anastronaut. Goslings lives all themoments with clarity and precision,something endemic to any spacewalker, most of all Armstrong.
The movie has been adapted fromJames Hansen’s biography onArmstrong and the writer would behappy with the clean adaptation of thisstunning film on a subject so widelydiscussed over the decades.
Dance Plus Season 4 isback on Star Plus witha much bigger plus.
On air since yesterday, thisseason is different from theprevious three with the tagline'Sapne Sirf Apne Nahin Hote.'This season is a tribute tounsung heroes behindsuccessful individuals.
The three teams are led bycaptains Shakti, Punit andDharmesh. Remo D'Souza isthe Super Judge. Raghav Juyalis the host with 41 contestantson the floor. Each team hasfour contestants, and the showwill run for 18 weeks.
Speaking on how thisshow is different, D'souza said:"Dance Plus redefines the
meaning of dance by focusingon untouched talent fromacross the country. The showpromises phenomenal actsand performances which willbe first on television. It willevolve dance styles throughsolo, duo and groupperformers. It is the only dancereality show made for dancers,created and judged by expertfrom the dancing field. Raisingthe bar for danceperformances, this seasonfeatures top internationaldancing superstars like Jaja andB-Dash, Karen and Ricardo,Poppin John and The RoyalFamily crew,” he added.
D’Souza also said that overthe years, Dance+ had exposed
audiences to new trends andinventive dance forms.
Talking about what thecontestants do after theseshows, D’Souza said: “Realityshows like Dance Plus are aboon for budding dancers.They give them the rightexposure to showcase theirtalent and build a career. Oldergeneration dancers andchoreographers, althoughgood, did not get this kind ofexposure and couldn’t make it.But, times have changed.”
Explaining hissuperpowers on the show, hesaid; “With the creative team,we collectively decide onselection and elimination.Being the super judge I have
extra responsibilities andpowers. For instance, in theauditions, I was amazed at thedancing acumen of A SquareCrew (Abhay & Ayush), andasked them who their guruwas. They said they had beentrained by their father and heis their Plus. Om gave up hisdream of dancing owing tofinancial constraints buttrained his children. I decidedto pass them on to megaauditions as a trio, which hasnever been done on any realityshow! My decision to select thetalented father with the kidswas my way of giving atalented dancer his due! Histalent propelled me to use mypower.”
�What is your role in Tujhse Hai Raabta”I play Atharv; it is neither a negative nor a positive character. He is a person with different
shades who brings a lot of twists and turns in the show. He loves Poorva played by AnupriyaDeshmukh and calls her Mai. �What made you say yes?
There were two reasons. First, in my previous show, I played a simple and funny characterin the backdrop of a village but this role breaks the monotony. Second, playing Atharv gives methe freedom to experiment with my looks, accent, new hairstyle and gives me exposure that Ineed.�Is there something that you like and dislike about your character?
The one thing that I like about Atharv is that he plays pranks on people and makes everyonelaugh. If someone gets angry with him, he handles the situation well. What I don’t like abouthim is his unprofessional attitude towards work; he is mean and not trustworthy. If things don’tgo his way, he doesn’t mind breaking a promise. I don’t like this quality of his.�How was your experience working with the co-stars?
I have bonded well with Reema who plays Kalyani Deshmukh. Whenever there is a shotwhere I my back is to the camera, I always tease her and make her laugh and then she gets scoldedby our director. I eat all her lunch every day and have even misplaced the lunch boxes a coupleof times aur isliye woh mujhsey khafa hain.
�How did acting happened?I was in Chandigarh and used to give auditions everywhere.
I weighed a 110 kg back then. I came to Mumbai and was cheatedby some people for �2.5 lakh. I was depressed and decided toreturn to Chandigarh. I did theatre for five years, started losingweight and gave auditions side by side. In 2016, I got a call fromRashmi Sharma who asked me to come to Mumbai to auditionfor a parallel lead role. I was not sure if I will be able to bagit. But after a month, I was locked to play Guddu in SantoshiMaa. Then I got my second show opposite Prince Narula inBado Bahu. It was my struggling phase. I remember I lost 3kg in a week by travelling daily from Kharghar to Goregaon,in the local trains.
�What about Splitsvilla 11?It was an incredible and crazy
experience. There was a lot ofpressure but I am the kind of personwho takes all the decisions andmakes things clear from the start.One thing that went wrong was thatI kept supporting my friends whowere simply playing their game andwhen I needed their support, they
were never there to support me. Sometimes I looked
bad in the show but itworked because the endresult was good. Theaudience understoodthat I stand for mypeople. �Who has been your
inspiration?My inspiration is Ranvir
Singh. He is a dynamic person and has a lot of positive energy.Be it experimenting with clothes or playing strong characterslike Alauddin Khilji, he tried to do different role and brokethe monotony. He cracks it every time and does everything withthe same energy. I wish to work with him sometime.�Is there a character you would have loved to play?
It would have to be Gautam Rode’s character in Karn andSaraswatichandra. Though the shows were not superhit, he wasthe driving force in the show in a women-oriented industry.�What does success means to you?
That I have a decent amount of money, recognition formy work, stay grounded andget a lot of time to spend withmy family.�What your fitness regimelike?
I am very fortunate tohave a brother like PrinceNarula. He makes sure I goto the gym every day. I havetrainers — Guddu Rangrezand Imtiaz Nazir who trainme the best.�O n e c h a n g e t h a t y o uwould like to see in theindustry?
I want that the scriptsshould be written in a waythat all the characters shouldget enough exposure.
Only the leads can’t pulloff the story. There are otheractors as well who equallycontribute to the story butt h e y d on’t ge t e n ou g hexposure and importance.The whole cast of a show istalented but they don’t getproper treatment from theproduction houses. I havebeen fortunate enough to getthis but I feel it isn’t the casewith everyone.
BHUBANESWAR: The agi-tating teachers on Saturdaydeferred their strike tillNovember 30 after the StateGovernment assured them tolook into their demands.
Following a discussionwith Chief Secretary AdityaPrasad Padhi, the Odisha
School College Teachers’ andEmployees’ United Forum tem-porarily put off their agitationgiving time to the Governmenttill November-end.
The Government assuredthe teachers’ body to providesalary of 46 days and clear 30-day salary dues of collegeteachers. After the assurance,the Block Grant teachers and662 category college teachers
decided to defer the strike.Notably, the teachers were
on strike at Lower PMG inBhubaneswar since August 16seeking benefits of the 7th PayCommission recommendations,service conditions and job reg-ularization, among others, underthe new Grant-in-Aid (GIA)system. They had also stoppedconducting classes in schoolsfrom September 6. PNS
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Vigilance officials arrested OdishaState Pollution Control Board
(OSPCB) Jajpur Regional OfficerHadibandhu Panigrahi from Khandagiriin Bhubaneswar on Friday on the chargeof amassing property disproportionate tohis known sources of income.
Earlier on Thursday night, officialsof the anti-graft wing had seized cash ofRs 96,000 and gold coins from the offi-cial and taken him to custody after hefailed to give satisfactory answer aboutthe possession of property during inter-rogation.
A Vigilance team later conductedraids on his office at Kalinganagar inJajpur and his house at Khandagiri Bariin Bhubaneswar and reportedly detect-ed disproportionate assets in his posses-sion. Following this, the Vigilance policearrested Panigrahi and forwarded him tocourt.
The Vigilance had kept a close watchon the activities of Panigrahi for the lastfew days after receiving corruption alle-gations against him. On Thursdayevening, when he was coming toBhubaneswar from Jajpur after collectingcash from a crusher owner inKalinganagar, Vigilance sleuths detainedhim and took him to custody.
The Vigilance team later uneartheddisproportionate assets, including a plotat Angul, a house at Khandagiri, goldweighing 442 grams, over 1 kg of silverand three cars during the raids.
Sources said movable and immovableproperties to the tune of Rs 1.36 crore inPanigrahi’s and his family’s names weredetected during the raids.
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Ayouth was killed by hisbrother-in-law (sister’s hus-
band) for opposing the latter’smultiple marriages at Saidabadvillage under the BhadrakRural police limits on Saturday.The deceased was identified asSakim Khan (28) of the samevillage.
Sources said Sakim’s sisterhad married one Bhalu Khan(35) of the village. However,Bhalu later went on marryingfour other women one afteranother. Sakim had beenopposing this and used to fightwith Bhalu frequently for thesame, for which Bhalu hadallegedly hatched a conspiracyto kill his brother-in-law.
On Saturday morning
when Sakim was going to anearby place, Bhalu hackedhim to death with a knifebefore fleeing the spot.
The ghastly murder led totension in the area and angrylocals set Bhalu’s house and histwo auto-rickshaws on fire.
Police rushed to spot tobring the situation under con-trol. Search was on to nab theaccused, said police.
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Astudent of the Brahmagiri-based StXavier’s High School was killed
while four others sustained criticalinjuries after a road mishap in the districton Saturday.
Sources said that the van in which thestudents were going to the school over-turned and fell into a nullah near Gorualunder the Sadar police station in the dis-trict.
The injured students were rushed tothe District Headquarters Hospital(DHH) here.
The tragedy occurred as the driverlost control over the vehicle, followingwhich it turned turtle and fell into the nul-lah. While one of the students died on thespot, three others were critically injured.
Getting information, locals rushed tothe spot and shifted the injured to thehospital. The conditions of the injuredwere stated to be stable now.
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The State Government is mulling toformulate a policy on farmer
producer organisations (FPOs) forgenerating higher returns to farmingcommunities.
The proposed policy would facil-itate establishment of FPOs, whileintegrating and promoting the activ-ities involved in the field of agricul-ture and allied sectors.
The Government would make asingle-window clearance system tosupport FPOs for easy issue of licencesto trade in inputs like seed, fertiliser,farm machinery and pesticides etc foruse of their members as well as rout-ing the supply of agricultural inputsthrough FPOs at par with cooperatives.
Agriculture ProductionCommissioner Gagan Kumar Dhal,Principal Secretary Agriculture andFarmers’ Empowerment SaurabhGarg and Director Horticulture BijayaKetan Upadhyay held several roundsof talk in this regard among the offi-cials and also with the stakeholders.
Sectors like fisheries, dairy, live-stock, food processing, agri-business,warehousing and logistics will be givenfocused attention and with the supportof global technologies, necessary infra-structure facilities will be in place.
The objective of the proposedpolicy is to strengthen collectivisationof producers, especially small andmarginal farmers, into producerorganisations as one of the most effec-tive pathways to address many chal-lenges of agriculture but most impor-tantly, it will lead to improved accessto investment, technology, input andmarket, experts say.
These FPOs would be facilitatedwith new technology, infrastructure,knowledge, information technologyapplication, market intelligence anfinance arrangement so that they canensure availability of end- to-end ser-vices to their members.
The FPOs would successfullydeal with challenges and constraintsthat confront farmers by leveraging
collective strength and bargainingpower to access financial and non-financial inputs, services and appro-priate technologies, reduce transac-tion costs, tap high value markets andenter into partnerships with privateentities on more equitable terms.
This would ensure improvementof production, productivity, directlinkages and higher unit value reali-sation for the farmers and easy andcost effective access to specific quan-tum and quality of raw materialrequired by the industry.
The policy aims at maximisingdirect and indirect employment gen-eration through establishment ofmarketing outlets, creating necessarysupply chain like sorting and gradingyards, transportation, warehousesand cold storages.
The FPOs would be registeredunder the Cooperative Societies Act,1962 or as a farmers producer com-pany (FPC) under Section 581 (C) ofthe Indian Companies Act, 1956, asamended in 2013.
The FPOs would be linked tofinancial institutions like CooperativeBanks, Regional Rural Banks, com-mercial banks and other financialinstitutions for developing workingcapital, storage and processing infra-structure and other investments.
Intensive capacity building andtraining programme would be con-ducted for developing strong cohesionamong the member producers. The
Government would promotecourse on FPOs in a concessional ratefor better understanding among theFPO members.
The FPOs would render serviceslike input subsidy, finance, technol-ogy, insurance, procurement, pack-aging, marketing and networking.
Each relevant line departmentslike Agriculture, Horticulture,Fisheries and Animal Husbandrywould have their own resource insti-tutions (RI) and project managementunit (PMU) at their Directorate levelfor the purpose.
Several assistances like corpusfunds, investment promotion subsidy,interest subsidy, equity grant, creditguarantee fund, exemptions fromstamp duty and concession in regis-tration charges are proposed forstrengthening of the FPOs.
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After weakening consider-ably in its course, the deep
depression turned into a well-marked low pressure (WMLP)area over Gangetic West Bengalon Saturday, the RegionalOffice of the IndiaMeteorological Department(IMD) here said.
The WMLP area overGangetic West Bengal andneighbourhood could triggerlight to moderate rain accom-panied by thunderstorm at afew place over Odisha duringthe next 24 hours.
“Depression over northOdisha moved northeastwardsand weakened into a wellmarked low pressure area overGangetic West Bengal andneighbourhood at 5.30amtoday,” the IMD said.
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The Congress on Saturdayalleged that the State
Government’s claim of ‘zerocasualty’ in the Cyclone Titliand subsequent floods is total-ly false and said 23 to 25 per-sons are already reported tohave been washed away infloods during the last two days.
“The State Government ismisleading people by givingfalse information on damagescaused by the Titli and subse-quent floods. While 23 to 25persons have been washedaway, people have lost houses
and cattle in many areas. Theclaim of zero casualty is total-ly false,” said PCC media cellchief Satya Prakash Nayak.
Besides, Nayak alleged thatthe State Government hasalways failed to make follow-ups for availing cyclone andflood-related assistances fromthe Centre. Till 2013, the Statehad placed demands of Rs11,518.45 crore and availed Rs798.36 crore from the Centre.However, it didn’t make any fol-low-up to avail the rest ofdemanded assistance, he said.
He demanded that theGovernment make properassessment of loss of humanlives and damages of propertiesand crops. He too demandedthat the Government providedinterest-free loans and premi-um-free insurance coverage tofarmers.
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The BJP on Saturday blamedthe State Government for
reported death of 17 persons infloods in Gajapati district andtermed the tragedy as“Government-sponsored’.
“While the IMD had pre-dicted heavy rains, valuablelives were lost due to negligenceof the State Government. Inview of negligence, the deathscan’t be said to have occurreddue to natural calamities, ratherthey can be termed asG ov e r n m e nt - s p o n s o r e dkilling,” said BJP spokespersonGolak Mohapatra.
He said the Cyclone Titli
has disposed the real face of theState Government, whichalways claims to have workedfor welfare of people.
He demanded that SpecialRelief CommissionerBishnupada Sethi should bedismissed from job for failingto discharge duty properly giv-ing irresponsible statement ondeaths of people. He tooslammed the Chief Secretaryfor his alleged remark that theadministration didn’t expectsuch a catastrophe to happen.
�'�.���.���+0�*;�*�
Afamily in Sundargarh wasostracised from his local-
ity by the PESA Act support-ers for not supporting theirstand.
The family has written tothe Director General of Policeand also lodged an FIR inRajgangpur police station. Thepolice after registering a case areinvestigating the matter.
According to sources,Manuel Topno of Kukuda vil-lage under Rajgangpur policestation in his FIR told policethat the PESA Act supportersof his village accused him ofsupporting the OCL IndiaLimited’s land acquisition inDecember 2017 and calledhim to the PESA Gram Sabha(village meeting) to put hisviews. Manuel had gone toattend the meet and had puthis views.
The PESA supporters ofhis village again had brought
same allegation against him inthe month of January andhad boycotted Manual and hisfamily from their society. ThePESA supporters had alsostopped talking to him andhis family.
On October 8, whenManuel was cleaning a wheatstorage area on a Governmentland, about 50 PESA sup-porters of his village attackedManuel. Manuel was later res-cued by his brothers.
The Rajgangpur policeafter registered a case against50 attackers under various sec-tions of IPC.
Significantly, while locals atdifferent places of Sundargarhdistrict have been active incampaigning for implementa-tion of PESA Act and oppos-ing various works over last fewyears, another group of localsunder the banner of KhutkatiVikash Manch has startedopposing the pathar gadi (stoneerection) activities in the local-ity by the PESA activists.
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In reaction to the oppositionparties’ attack on the State
Government for its allegedfailure to tackle the situationarising out of the Cyclone Titliand the subsequent floods, theruling BJD on Saturday said, “Itis very unfortunate that somepolitical parties don’t want togive credit to those volunteers,Government employees andPeople's representatives whohave worked day and night toevacuate more than three lakhpeople.”
The BJD in a statementsaid, “Over the past 18 years,
Cyclone Titli has been the sec-ond biggest tragedy (in theState) after Phailin. ThoughHudhud was there, its impactwas seen mainly in AndhraPradesh. The Titli’s wind veloc-ity was at 165 km/hour and itwas a Very Severe CyclonicStorm. What it could havecaused and what it caused isbefore people to judge.”
“It is very unfortunate thatsome political parties don’twant to give credit to the vol-unteers, Government employ-ees and people's representativeswho have worked day andnight to evacuate more thanthree lakh people. It is veryunfortunate and sad about thelandslide that happened inGajapati district, about 200km away from the coast thatled to loss of precious humanlives,” the statement added.
����� ��+��0>�<�*
The 39th World Congress ofPoets (WCP) would be
organised at the KIIT here inOctober 2019. It was declaredby The World Academy ofArts and Culture (WAAC) inthe presence of Dr MaurusYoung, President; Prof ErnestoKahan, Vice-President and DrMaria Eugenia Soberanis,General Secretary of WAAC inthe 38th World Congress ofPoets hosted in SuiyangCounty of China's GuizhouProvince from October 10 to16.
The WAAC and the KIITwould jointly organise the 39thWCP, in which over 1,000poets and writers includingNoble Laureates, from 75 coun-tries and 2,000 delegates fromIndia would participate.
During the 38th WCP, theWAAC declared to honour
KIIT & KISS founder DrAchyuta Samanta with its high-est award "Golden Gabel" andconfer Honorary DLitt on him.The award would be given toDr Samanta later in India as hewas unable to attend the con-gress due to his ill health. TheMayor of Suiyang Countyhanded over the Flag andFlame of WCP to KIIT senioradvisor RK Das.
The main motto of WAACis to promote ‘WorldBrotherhood and World Peace
through Art andCulture’. Dr Young,Prof Kahan and DrMaria had dis-cussed with DrSamanta aboutorganising the 39thWCP and thegolden jubilee cel-ebration of WAACin India. DrSamanta has given
his consent to hold the 39thWCP at the KIIT.
Dr Samanta said, “It is amatter of pride that in India,KIIT is hosting the 39th WCP.”It would definitely promote theart, culture, heritage, litera-ture, tradition and tourism ofOdisha in the internationallevel. Though Odisha has glo-rious history of art, culture,heritage, literature, traditionand tourism, it needs morepromotion worldwide, headded.
PNS n PARADIP
On the occasionfood card distributionunder the StateGovernment scheme atKujang block onSaturday, local MLAand disgraced BJDleader Damodar Routwas present along withother BJD leaders.
The meeting wasarranged by Kujangblock Chairman SmrutiRanjan Behera.M i n i s t e r - c u m -Jagatsinghpur districtBJD observer Prafulla Samal, Jagatsinghpur MPDr Kulamani Samal, Vice Chairperson PuspaLata Behera and Kujang sarapanch BharatBhusan Nayak were presented at the meeting.
Dr Rout criticised MP Dr Samal as well asMinister Samal. “If the Government distributesfood security card, why the Minister must come,”he asked.
Samal told that as per the Governmentguideline, he came to distribute cards. Dr Routtold media that MP Samal was working for theirrelatives who have managed to get contractworks at the Paradip refinery. During his MPtenure he has forgotten the local people, Dr Routcharged but refrained from telling anythingagainst the BJD and CM Naveen Patnaik.
Saturday conducted its firsthearing in New Delhi on thelongstanding dispute betweenOdisha and Chhattisgarh overthe issue of sharing ofMahanadi water.
During the hearing, theChhattisgarh and MaharashtraGovernments sought eightweeks’ time to present their stands on the interim petition filed by the Odisha Government.
Acting on the pleas, athree-member bench asked theChhattisgarh and MaharashtraGovernments to file their state-ments of claims within eightweeks.
The bench comprisingSupreme Court’s Justice AMKhanwilkar, former Delhi HighCourt judge Indermeet Kaurand Patna High Court judgeRavi Ranjan also took up theoriginal petition filed by theOdisha Government and fixedthe hearing on January 12next.
The bench asked allrespondent States to file their counters by November 24.
The Odisha Governmentwould have to file a rejoinderbefore December 14.
Notably, the Centre hasconstituted the MahanadiWater Dispute Tribunal onMarch 12 following theSupreme Court’s January 23order on a suit filed by theOdisha Government.
�����������������-+*#
Not many of young servitorsare found at the
Shreemandir these days, espe-cially after the Puri police havebeen on an arrest spree fol-lowing the October 3 violencein the pilgrim town.
While hundreds of servi-tors have hidden themselves toevade arrest, only a few oldservitors are found loitering
near the Jagannath Temple forcollection of pilgrims. The rea-son for the decrease in numberof youths in the servitor com-munity is said to be a fear psy-chosis of being trapped by thepolice.
The Lion’s Gate, which hap-pens to be the roaming place forthe servitors to get devotees,wears almost a deserted lookafter October 3. Sources saideven many servitors are not vis-ible at home at night. In thesearch operation during the latenight in the streets, police arefinding them absent.
This has affected the guideservices of pilgrims and touristsin the Jagannath Temple. Thetourists and pilgrims needingguide support for their templevisit are found entering with-
out a priest leading them. Sources said the CCTV
cameras and mobile phoneshave stood as a stumblingblock for many servitors whohad been involved in the riotduring the Puri bandh. FromCCTV footages, the policehave been able to easily spot therioters.
Sources also said manypeople who were present at var-ious spots along the violence-hit Grand Road (Badadanda)are gradually sharing mobilepictures to the police. It has fur-ther helped the police spot theoffenders. However, the man-hunt launched by police has notsucceeded much as many ofmasterminds are at large. It issaid that they have fled to far-off places.
PNS n PURI
The Puri district adminis-tration would make all arrange-ments, including accommo-dation, food, drinking water,sanitation, medical facility,transportation and security,free of cost, for nearly 2,500women for the upcomingmonth-long Kartik Habishastarting from October 25 toNovember 23.
The administration wouldalso make necessary arrange-ment for a hassle free darsan ofthe deities inside theShreemandir for the women bybringing them in vehicles fromtheir accommodation centers atGovernment cost.
Like the previous years, allfacilities would be provided tothem in Puri. Two help deskseach at Puri railway station andmunicipal bus stand would beopened to greet the womencoming from across the State.
A preparatory meetingchaired by Collector JyotiPrakash Das discussed aboutthe arrangements for theincoming women for the KaritkHabisha.
As many as three placeshave been chosen in the city forthe accommodation centersfor the fasting women. Theadministration has fixed the
Railway Yatri Niwas andMunicipal Kalyan Mandap forthe women to stay. Besides,many women would be accom-modated in a temporary YatriNiwas near the DistrictHeadquarters Hospital.
In all accommodation cen-ters, attendants would be pro-vided by the administration tolook after them round theclock. A Government officialwould remain in charge ofeach accommodation center. Amedical aid center would workround the clock at each accom-modation place for treatmentof the women.
For safe bath of women inthe Narendra pond and ritualpractices on its bank, life guardsand fire brigade personnelwould be deployed to lookafter their safety. Besides, theadministration would makearrangements of Prabachan,Purana, Daskathia, and Palla atevery accommodation center.
����� *&+*7>)�
ACentral GST intelligenceteam arrested two busi-
nessmen of the city on Fridayevening, allegedly for runningfake invoice racket and pass-ing on the same to differentindustrial houses and availinginput tax credit, to the tune ofRs 20 crore.
Sources said during aninvestigation, the CGST offi-cials reportedly came to knowthat fake transactions throughfake invoices in the name ofdifferent organisations havebeen conducted worth aboutover Rs 100 crore, throughwhich about Rs 20 crore wasavailed as input
Tax Credit (ITC) by dif-ferent manufacturing organi-sations of the country.
The fake invoices showingtransactions of steel productsand cement,
which were generated atRourkela through the racket,were being passed on to dif-ferent manufacturing housesof the country, who were avail-ing ITC through these invoic-es.
During the month ofSeptember, the GST intelli-gence team conducted sever-al raids at different manufac-turing houses at Gujarat,Maharastra etc and unearthedthe tax theft.
The arrestees in Rourkelawere identified as NarayanKhaitan and Sanjib Singh.They were sent to jail, sincetheir bail petition was reject-ed in a local court.
Significantly, they had tar-geted several innocent unem-ployed and partial employedyouths, with the offer of amonthly income of Rs 8,000 toRs10,000 and used theirAadhaar and PAN cards etc. torun the fake transactions intheir names. These personscame to know about thewrongful practices only whenthey were interrogated byCGST officials.
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An ‘India Post BusinessSeminar’ was organised
under the chairmanship ofChief Postmaster General,Odisha Circle Dr SantoshKumar Kamila here onFriday on the eve of theBusiness Development Day.
Finance DepartmentAdditional Chief SecretaryTuhin Kanta Pandey gracedas chief guest and felicitatedJagatsinghpur HOPostmaster SanghamitraMohapatra with theMeghdoot Award 2018 fromOdisha circle for putting inher hard work and relentlesseffort towards betterment of ser-vice of the Department of Post.
She is the second awardeefrom the State since inception ofthe top award by the Departmentof Posts. Six Dak Seva Awardeeswere also honoured by the guests
including Assistant Director(BD/Mails) Debi Prasad Dashfor his outstanding contributionto the Department of Posts.
Other awardees in variouscategories were BerhampurSouth Sub div IP Swagatika Palo,RO Sambalpur System
Administrator Jitendra Sahu,Cuttack City division PA/SystemAdministrator Soujanya PrakashDas, Sahid Nagar MDG PostmanBansidhar Sahoo and SudarsanSO GDS BPM Urmila Nayak.
On the occasion, Pandeyreleased the Meghdoot Post
Card on Small Savings spon-sored by the FinanceDepartment. Among others,Postmaster General, BrahmapurRegion Col Jaleswar Kanhar andPostmaster General, SambalpurRegion Lalitendu Pradhan werepresent.
���������������,��*�+;+�
During his visit toJharsuguda on Thursday,
Governor of Odisha ProfGaneshi Lal urged allGovernment officials and non-Government organisations todo their work as a mission andnot as an occupation.
In the evening, theGovernor visited the model vil-lage Dumridipa underLakhanpur block where the vil-lagers greeted him in a differ-ent style.
The villagers appealed theGovernor to give revenue sta-tus to their village as suchassurance given by the districtadministration has not beenimplemented till date.
In reply, the Governor saidthat the sacrifice of those dis-
placed villagers for Hirakunddam will be recognized andwritten in golden letters in thehistory of Odisha. He said thathe felt privileged to have visit-
ed the model village.Earlier in the morning, the
Governor reached circuit housein Sundargarh where districtCollector Bibhuti Bhusan
Patnaik and SP Aswini KumarMohanty were present to wel-come him. He held a reviewmeeting of all Governmentschemes in the circuit house
with district-level officials.While addressing the officialsas friends, the Governor said,"All of us are engaged in pub-lic service and we should giveour best possible service to thepeople. It should be our prior-ity to verify the status of eachGovernment scheme and takeit to its ultimate outcomethrough periodic reviews anddiscussion."
The officers apprised theGovernor about the details ofvarious schemes. Later, he vis-ited ASHRA, a treatment andrehabilitation center, for men-tally challenged women run by'People's Forum' at Kantapalli.
Thereafter, he left for plan-tation site at Pandaripathardeveloped by the StateGovernment under 'GreenMahanadi Mission.' He visitedSaraswati Sisu Vidya Mandir atMangal Bazar where he gaveuseful tips to the students ongood conduct, humility andgreatness of Indian culture. Hegave financial assistance of Rs1 lakh to the school fund whilelaying the foundation of"Science Building" of the school.
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Villagers, mostly women,have strongly opposed the
lease given to the NLC India bythe State Government for min-ing coal from Talabira 2 and 3opencast mines in Jharsugudadistrict.
A meeting was scheduledto be held in Patrapai-Rampurvillage at 11 am on Friday bythe NLC India to dedicate tovillagers a drinking water pro-ject, built at a cost of Rs 10 lakh.Bargarh MP Pravas Singh,Jharsuguda MLA Naba KishoreDas, company director RBikram were to attend themeeting. However, villagers inlarge numbers came and wenton a rampage by broking chairsand tables before beginning ofthe meeting. Getting priorinformation, the guests didnot come to the meeting.
NLC project GM SC
Suman, Executive EngineerRamprit Ram and other offi-cials, who had already come tohold the meeting, returnedafter breaking a coconut on thesite. V
Villagers alleged that the
company authorities have notgiven any importance in givingjobs to the displaced personsand reducing pollution in thearea.
Villagers led by ParvatiAgarwal, Birendra Sai, Jitendra
Singhdeo, RK Singhdeo andManoj Rohidas protested thedrinking water project.Jharsuguda SDPO KailashAcharya said no prior infor-mation was given to the policeabout inauguration of project.
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The Quick Action Team(QAT) of the
Commissionerate policenabbed a gunrunner and seizeda mouser and bullets from hispossession here on Saturday.
On a tipoff, the QAT con-ducted a raid under theLingaraj police station andnabbed the accused, identifiedas Alok Sahu. He hails fromSikko under the Jankia policePS of Khordha district.
Police said the accusedlives in Mahavirnagar ofSamantarapur area under theLingaraj police station andactive in illegal gun trade. Hewas carrying one 7mm mouserand live ammunition in hisKarizma bike when the QATnabbed him.
The accused was handedover to Lingaraj police for fur-ther investigation.
Women and ChildDevelopment, Maneka Gandhion Monday said she is happythat #MeToo movement hasstarted in India. She said “angerat sexual molestation nevergoes away” and the individual“never forgets the person whodid it”.
“It is because of this reason,we have written to the LawMinistry, saying that the com-plaints should be without anytime limit,” she added.
Problem for Akbar fur-ther compounded on Saturdaywhen a US-based woman jour-nalist accused him of sexualharassment. Majlie de PuyKamp of CNN has alleged thatAkbar had sexually harassedher in 2007 when she was an18-year-old intern.
���==����������� ;+*+;*��
In a horrific incident thatsent shivers down the spine of
onlookers, the personal securi-ty officer (PSO) of GurugramAdditional Sessions Judge (ASJ)Krishna Kant Sharma sprayedbullets on the judge’s wife andhis teenaged son in a crowdedmarket area in Sector 49 of theMillennium City on Saturdayaround 3.30 pm. The PSO,identified as Head ConstableMahipal, shot the ASJ’s wife inher chest twice and then turnedto pump three bullets into theback of her son’s head.
As both mother and son laywrithing in pain on the road,diabolical bystanders preferredto capture the gory details ontheir mobile phones. It took a
while before the police wasinformed about the incidentand the critically injured wererushed to a nearby hospitalfrom where they were shifted toMedanta Hospital.
Gurugram East DCPSulochna Gajraj said prelimi-nary investigation has revealedthat the gunner lost his coolafter he was reportedly admon-ished for not taking out the carfrom the parking. However,the police said that the motivebehind firing is not clear yet.
A video shot by a passerbyshows that people started scur-rying for safety as ConstableMahipal opened firing. Afterthe victims fell on the ground,the accused, donning policeuniform, is seen trying to lift thejudge’s son to put him in a car,
but as he could not do so, he ranaway leaving the teenager in theheap of blood. The accusedPSO was later apprehendedfrom Faridabab.
ASJ’s wife Ritu, 38, and his18-year-old son Dhruv hadgone for shopping in theArcadia market. They wereaccompanied by the judge’sPSO Mahipal. “Some localsinformed the police about gun-shots being fired outside theArcadia market. When a policeteam reached the spot, theyfound Ritu and Dhruv lying ina pool of blood,” the DCP said.
“They were taken toMedanta Hospital,” the DCPsaid, adding, “ConstableMahipal was later arrested fromFaridabad.”
According to officials, the
ASJ was attending a meetingconvened by District andSessions Judge RK Sondhiwhen he was informed aboutthe incident by the police. Themeeting was stopped and judgeleft for the hospital along withfellow judges.
As the news was relayed onthe police control room, manypolice teams were put on thejob to nab the accused PSOMahipal, who had run awayafter committing the crime.Gurugram PoliceCommissioner KK Rao himselfcame on the police wireless netand directed concerned unit toapprehend the accused. He wasintercepted by two teams ofCrime Branch in Gwal Pahariarea in Faridabad and wasoverpowered.
������������� �>0;�)+*+
After meeting some of thepast and present HAL
employees on Saturday,Congress president RahulGandhi slammed DefenceMinister Nirmala Sitharamanfor questioning the experi-ence of HAL in building fight-er jets for being denied the off-set contracts in Rafale deal.
Speaking to reporters,Rahul said, “Defence MinisterNirmala Sitharaman talkedabout lack of experience ofHAL, but she did not haveanything to say about the lackof experience of Anil Ambani“who has never built a plane inhis life.”
“HAL has no debt,Ambani has �45,000 crores ofdebt. HAL has been workingfor 78 years. His companyhas been working for 12 days.So, she has no comment aboutthe person who got the con-tract,” Rahul said.
Escalating his campaign
against the Modi Governmentover Rafale deal, Rahulaccused it of destroying the“strategic asset” State-runaerospace company.
Rahul questioned as towhy the order was taken awayfrom HAL, when it had all theexperience. “Why hasn’t thework given to them? WhyHAL is being destroyed byAnil Ambani, that is the ques-tion.”
“They are insulted andhurt because their hand workof over 78 years has beeninsulted and questioned by theGovernment of India throughthe Defence Minister. So thefirst thing is that they expectan apology from the DefenceMinister for insulting HAL.We understand that theDefence Minister is not goingto apologise,” he added.
On alleged corruption, hesaid HAL was one of the“modern temples” of Indiaand it was being destroyed“because of corruption that
Narendra Modi is doing tohelp Anil Ambani”.
“Every single person heremade it very clear that theyhave the experience. Theyhave the understanding andMr Anil Ambani does nothave the understanding,”Rahul said, referring to theHAL interaction… “we arehere to defend the people whoare defending the nation. Fromthe Government, we have todefend HAL,” he said.
HAL employees unionsaid that an interaction wassought with the employees, butthey have decided not takepart as the union was apoliti-cal.
“We had got communica-tion from Congress office, butwe can’t take sides for a polit-ical party being Governmentemployees, and our union isan independent union, we arenot affiliated to any politicalparty,” the union’s general sec-retary Suryadevara ChandraShekhar said.
cadre and troop strength in aphased manner to enhanceoperational and functional effi-ciency. The restructuringincludes reducing the troopstrength by over 1,00,000,increase the service tenure ofjawans from 15 to 20 years, anddo away with the rank ofBrigadier for faster promotions.
These recommendationswere part of four in-house stud-ies conducted by the Army inthe past few months and theongoing Army CommandersConference here decided onSaturday to implement them ina phased manner after gettingfeedback from all sections of the12 lakh strong force.
Giving the case of pro-posed reduction of troopstrength by one lakh over nextfew years, sources said theArmy will save at least �5,000crore every year. Moreover, byincreasing the service tenure ofjawans due to better health andfitness standards over the lastfour decades or so, the Armywill save on training a raw
recruit besides reducing pensionbills. At present, the jawan hasto retire after 15 years of service.
As regards doing away withthe rank of Brigadier, officialssaid the Army will be on a parwith the civil services in termsof ranks and promotions. Atpresent, an IndianAdministrative Service(IAS)officer has six steps for promo-tions to the highest rank whilethe Army has nine therebyleading to lot of heartburnamongst ranks.
Giving details of the ArmyCommanders conference heldtwice a year, officials said cur-rent operational, administrativeand human resource challenges
facing the Indian Army werereviewed in detail and futurecourse of actions have beendeliberated.
Four major studies regard-ing restructuring currentlyunderway were presented to thetop brass. The focus of thestudies is holistic integrationthereby enhance the opera-tional and functional efficiency,optimise budget expenditure,facilitate force modernizationand address aspirations.
The first study on 'Re-organisation and Rightsizingof the Indian Army'is focusedon the operational structures tomake them efficient, futureready by taking into account the
operational situation onWestern(Pakistan) andNorthern(China) borders. Thisstudy pertains to reduce troopstrength by one lakh.
The second study is on'Re-organisation of the ArmyHeadquarters,' aimed at inte-gration and preclude the redun-dancies. Over a period of time,with emerging scenarios; newstructures have emerged andmeasures to integrate and syn-ergise the same is underway.
Giving an example, sourcessaid the headquarters ofRashtriya Rifles(RR) raised inthe early 1990s to deal withinsurgency in Jammu &Kashmir is at present located inNew Delhi. The proposal is toshift it to Northern Commandto induce better synergy. TheRR has more than 65 battal-ions(one battalion has 1,000 sol-diers).
The third study on 'CadreReview of Officers' is aimed toincorporate the proposed reor-ganisation, restructuring andendeavours balanced cadre tomeet the aspirations of the offi-cers' cadre. The collegium fur-ther deliberated on the longertenure of flag ranks with a view
to ensure better continuity,achievements of objectives andaspirations. This study dealswith removing Brigadier rank.
The fourth study on'Review of Terms ofEngagement of Rank and File'isaimed to harness the higher lifeexpectancy, ensure youngerprofile and ensure due motiva-tion. It deals with servicetenure of jawans.
The Conference concludedthat the above studies will beimplemented progressively in aphased manner. The phases willcomprise requisite refinements ofthe studies making them prag-matic for implementation.
It was also decided that alloperational aspects of the stud-ies will be validated through testbedding them in exercises.During the deliberations, manyoptions were discussed and itwas decided that all value-inputs will be factored,360degrees evaluation to be under-taken, course-corrections to beinstituted if required and imple-ment the same with specifictimelines. The conference alsodecided on the 'enhancing lin-guistic skill in the Indian Army,'they said.
����� 0><>)�#
With the objective toextend support in terms
of rescue of submarines incase of a mishap at sea, theNavy has inducted its firstDeep Submergence RescueVehicle (DSRV). With thisinduction India has joined aselect group of countries hav-ing the capability to locateand rescue submarines in dis-tress.
At present US, China,Russia and a few other coun-tries have this capability todeploy DSRVs.
"Indian Navy joins selectleague of nations with capabil-ity to search, locate and providerescue to distressed submarinesby induction of first DeepSubmergence RescueVessel(DSRV) and associatedkit in fly away configuration,"Navy spokesman D K Sharmasaid here on Saturday after theDSRV was inducted at Mumbainaval base.
Though DSRVs are used
for rescue of personnel indowned submarines, they arealso deployed for various othermissions including to lay cableson the sea bed. Some DSRVvessels are air transportable invery large military cargo.Sharma said the DSRV atMumbai can be mobilised fromthe naval base to nearestmounting port by air, landand sea. The second DSRV isexpected to be inducted atVisakhapatnam in 2019. Theycan rescue a submarine from adepth of 650 metres and JamesFisher Defence of UK suppliedthese vessels.
Induction of DSRVs is partof the Indian Navy's efforts toextend its reach far away fromshore by providing cover to thesubmarines which patrol alongwith warships the critical sealanes in the Indian Ocean andbeyond as part of its missionbased deplolyment.
Incidentally, the Navy lastmonth signed a contract withHindustan Shipyard Limited(HSL), Vishakhapatnam for
the construction of two DivingSupport Vessels (DSV), a keyrequirement for submarinesupport operations at sea. Thetotal cost of the project isworth over Rs 3,000 crore.
The first vessel to be builtover a 36 month period wouldbe followed by the second, sixmonths later. The vessels to bebased at Vishakhapatnam andMumbai respectively, wouldbe of 118 m in length and ofapproximately 7,650 tonne dis-placement,
The Navy undertakes div-ing operations in the IndianOcean Region (IOR) whichnecessitates operations to facil-itate various activities such assubmarine rescue, under waterinspection, testing or salvage,and recovery of objects/ship/aircraft lost at sea.
The DSV enables divers toremain under water for extend-ed durations along with theirequipment. It is also equippedwith a Deep SubmergenceRescue Vessel (DSRV), whichis critical for submarine rescue.
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Difference of opinion seemed to havecropped up among the BJP mem-
bers of Parliament's EstimateCommittee on the ways to calculateGross Domestic Product (GDP) data.The draft report prepared by the BJPveteran MM Joshi who heads the com-mittee is ready for its adoption.
BJP members led by Lok Sabha MPNishikant Dube has reportedly raisedobjection for the report questioning theGovernment's mechanism to calculateGDP data.
BJP MPs indicated that they willnot let the panel's draft report on'Measuring Growth, Employment andIncome' which recommends review ofthe mechanism to calculate GDP to beadopted in its current form.
Some of the BJP MPs and mem-bers of the panel said it is absolutelyincorrect for the report to question theGovernment's mechanism to calculateGDP data.
They reportedly said It is beingdone according to global standards andthe current Government is imple-
menting the same methodology whichwas used by the previous ones, the MPsaid.
Dubey may give a dissent noteagainst the draft report and it will beadopted only after amendments.
The draft report, which was tabledin the Estimates Committee's meetingon Thursday, states that detailed exam-ination reveals several inadequacies inthe GDP measuring mechanism, suchas depletion of natural resources is notbeing taken into consideration.
It also said there is no mechanismto assess whether increase in GDP leadsto happiness among the people.
In the draft report, the committeeconcluded that the mechanism devel-oped for GDP estimation needs reviewand should reflect the ground reality.
The draft report recommendedreview and total revamp of mechanismto calculate GDP and evolve indica-tors/parameters to gauge the environ-mental resource decay, and replenish-ment efforts made to compensate theloss and also to capture these aspects inmeasuring GDP and other economicparameters.
the Congress on Saturdaydemanded that Chief MinisterManohar Parrikar step downand it be allowed to provemajority by convening a spe-cial session of the StateAssembly.
Congress leaders PawanKhera and Goa PCC chiefGirish Chodankar claimedthat the BJP is not removingParrikar from the ChiefMinister’s post fearing that hemight “spill the beans” on theRafale fighter jet deal.
The Opposition party alsoaccused the BJP of “betraying”the people of Goa and “killinggovernance” in the State."Power hungry BJP first mur-dered democracy in Goa andis now killing governancethere. The clamour for powerhas cemented a corrupt, cal-lous and cheat BJP to the CMChair in Goa. The BJP has noconstitutional right to contin-ue in power in Goa, even fora single day,” said Khera.
The Opposition party
alleged that the BJP “usurped”power in Goa through back-door. “People of Goa had giventhe mandate to the Congress.Governor Mridula Sinhashould listen to the voice ofpeople of Goa and Oppositionparties and allow us to proveour numbers on the floor ofthe House.
“A special session of theGoa Assembly should beimmediately convened andthere should be a floor test.This will clear all doubts aboutwho is in-charge in Goa andwho has the rightful claim tohead a democratic govern-ment," Chodankar said. Heclaimed the Congress has amajority in Goa and addedthat "Goans deserve a fulltime chief minister and toensure democracy and consti-tutional functioning, a floortest is imperative".
At the same time, headded "no constitutionalmorality can be expected fromPrime Minister NarendraModi and BJP chief Amit Shahbecause they are drunk withpower". Replying to a query, hesaid as the Defence Minister,
Parrikar must have had a lot ofinformation on the Rafale deal.
"So we have no doubt thatthe moment the PrimeMinister and the BJP Presidentpressure him or demand hisresignation or they try toremove him, ManoharParrikar will not keep quiet, hewill reveal all the secret infor-mation, important informa-tion, which can expose ourPrime Minister," he claimed.
Khera said the Congresshas been demanding that theGoa Governor convene a one-day special session so that itcan ask the government toprove majority. "The momentwe get the first opportunity, wewill prove it and we will showwe can form the government.Today itself if you call the ses-sion that I am here, we will beable to prove majority in theassembly," he claimed.
Wishing Parrikar a speedyrecovery and long life, he saidhis ailment cannot be animpediment to the aspirationsof the people of Goa as peo-ple of the state want gover-nance, administration andprogress.
Jaipur/ New Delhi: More casesof Zika virus were detected inJaipur Saturday taking the totalnumber of infected people to55, a Rajasthan health depart-ment official said.
The figure was issued bythe department after a reviewmeeting chaired by the addi-tional chief secretary (medicaland health) Veenu Gupta.
The official said of thetotal patients, 38 are doingfine after treatment.
Union Health Ministry offi-cials said fresh mosquito sam-ples have been collected fromvarious parts of Jaipur by a teamfrom the National Institute ofMalaria Research (NIMR).
On Friday, the authoritieshad reported 50 cases of thevirus till then.
The Zika virus was foundin some mosquitoes taken assamples from Sindhi Campand few mosquitoes collectedfrom the densely populatedShastri Nagar had already beenfound to be carriers of the virusleading to suspicion they arebehind the spread of the infec-tion.
Of the total patients, at least11 are pregnant women, the
ministry officials said.The first case had surfaced
on September 22 when an 85-year-old woman with no travelhistory tested positive for thedisease. Fogging and other anti-larvae activities are being carriedout in the Shastri Nagar area toprevent the spread of the virus.
At a review meeting heldon Friday, measures taken tocontain the situation were dis-cussed. The department hasalso issued an advisory forpregnant women staying out-side Shastri Nagar not to visitthe area A control room hasbeen activated at the NationalCentre for Disease Control tomonitor the situation.
The number of monitoringteams in Jaipur has beenincreased from 50 to 170 anda special isolation ward creat-ed at the Hira Bagh TrainingCentre to treat Zika virus-affected patients.
The RajasthanGovernment has been provid-ed information, education andcommunication (IEC) materi-al prepared to create awarenessabout the Zika virus and pre-vention strategies.
The virus, transmittedthrough the aedes aegypti mos-quito, causes fever, skin rashes,conjunctivitis, muscle and jointpain. It is harmful to pregnantwomen, as it can lead to micro-cephaly, a condition in whicha baby's head is significantlysmaller than expected, in new-born children.
In India, the first outbreakwas reported in Ahmedabad inJanuary 2017 and the second inTamil Nadu's Krishnagiri dis-trict in July that year. Boththese outbreaks were success-fully contained through inten-sive surveillance and vectormanagement, the ministry hadsaid earlier.
The disease continues to beunder surveillance of the UnionHealth Ministry although it isno longer a Public HealthEmergency of InternationalConcern under WHO notifi-cation since November 18,2016. PTI
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New Delhi: An animal protec-tion body on Saturday askedthe Centre and States to pre-pare specific plans withrequired financial and techni-cal resources to protect animalsand the livelihood of the peo-ple from any disaster in thefuture.
On the occasion ofInternational Day for DisasterReduction, World AnimalProtection asked the Centre toset up a Veterinary EmergencyFund. It also urged the Centraland all state governments toensure that efforts to reducedisaster risk include animalprotection.
The body said India has
been leading the way in thisregard by integrating animals inthe national disaster manage-ment policy, plans and as wellas in search and rescue opera-tions.
"Today, we urge theGovernment of India to set upa Veterinary Emergency Fundfor effective implementation ofthese initiatives," the WorldAnimal Protection (WAP) said.
"WAP also urges all Statesand UTs to develop their ded-icated State Animal DisasterManagement Plans with allthe required financial and tech-nical resources in place so thatwe can ensure that animals andthe livelihood of the people areprotected from any future dis-asters," it added.
Animal health, welfare andprotection has massive impli-cations for community nutri-
tion, food security and agri-cultural output.
WAP said around 2.5 bil-lion people around the worldare small-scale farmers,herders, pastoralists, fishers orare dependent on forests, andall of them rely on animals fortheir livelihoods. Eighteen ofthe poorest countries are relianton livestock.
Animal-dependent com-munities are extremely vul-nerable to natural disastersand many of the countrieswith the highest density oflivestock keepers are also thosewith high multi-hazard ratings,it said. A comprehensive studyof 78 post-disaster needsassessments, covering 48 devel-oping countries, found thatcrop and livestock lossesamounted to more than USD24 billion, the body said.
WAP recently responded tothe devastating floods in Keralaby providing cattle feed andmineral mixture in the deluge-affected areas of Alappuzha,Pathnamthitta, Kottayam,Ernakulam and Thrissur dis-tricts along with theDepartment of AnimalHusbandry of the Kerala gov-ernment and Indian Red CrossSociety.
This directly benefitted34,852 animals and the liveli-hood of 12,504 households, itsaid. "The recent floods inKerala is a painful reminderthat governments need to pre-pare for natural disasters, saidGajender K Sharma, the IndiaCountry Director of WorldAnimal Protection.
"In addition to the high lossof human and animal life, agri-cultural, fishing and cattle
breeding industries have beenbadly damaged. This will havea long-term effect on the state,"he said.
Target C of the SendaiFramework, an internationalagreement adopted by the UNmember states with the aim ofreducing disaster risk globally,is the focus of this year'sInternational Day for DisasterReduction. It centres on reduc-ing disaster-related economiclosses in relation to globalGDP by 2030, it said.
"To successfully reduce dis-aster economic losses, protec-tion of animals must be takenmore seriously. We have seeneconomies and communitiessuffer from lack of prepared-ness. It is essential that animal-inclusive disaster risk reductionstrategies are adopted," Sharmasaid. PTI
New Delhi: An officer of the AssamPolice has been conferred with the KirtiChakra posthumously for displayingindomitable courage and exemplaryleadership in fighting ULFA terrorists,Home Ministry official said.
Inspector Lohit Sonowal laid downhis life in Tinsukia district of Assam onApril 19, 2013 in an encounter withULFA terrorists in which two extrem-ists were also killed.
The police officer displayedindomitable courage, exemplary lead-ership dedication to duty and laiddown his life for which he was conferredwith the Kirti Chakra posthumously, aHome Ministry official said.
On the fateful day, upon receivingthe information that a group of suspectedULFA cadres were taking shelter in thegeneral area of Kordoiguri village ofTinsukia district, a joint operation waslaunched by the police and the CRPF.
During the search operation, onepolice team led by Sonowal noticedsome unusual movements in a houseand they cordoned the nearby area andwaited for the first light.
As the operation party approachedthe suspected house, a woman with twochildren came out of the house and on
seeing police presence, she immediate-ly warned the extremists taking shelterinside the house, the official said.
Immediately, the armed extremistscame out of the house and started firingindiscriminately aiming at the police party.
Though the police inspector wasunder direct line of firing, disregardinghis personal safety, he single handedlyfirst managed to rescue the woman alongwith two children, who were caught inbetween the gunfire and quickly duckedhimself behind the nearby trees for tak-ing cover and retaliated the fire.
The extremists continued firingaiming towards Sonowal and tried toescape by taking cover of the tea bush-es nearby and civilians.
During the exchange of fire, onehardcore ULFA terrorist was killed.
Another extremist re-entered intothe house and others fled taking advan-tage of thick tea bushes.
The ULFA militant who re-enteredthe house opened indiscriminate fireand lobbed grenades towards Sonowal.
During the cross fire, Sonowal sus-tained bullet injuries, but eliminated twoextremists in direct exchange of fire.However, Sonowal succumbed to hisinjuries later, another official said. PTI
Amaravati (AP): The AndhraPradesh Government onSaturday requested the Centreto release �1,200 crore as inter-im relief for restoration mea-sures in Srikakulam andVizianagaram districts that werebattered by cyclone Titli.
The severe cyclonic stormhit the two districts earlyThursday, with winds gustingup to 165 kilometers per hour.Heavy rainfall, ranging from 10cm to 43 cm, was witnessed indifferent parts of the districts.
In a letter to Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, Chief MinisterN Chandrababu Naidu said,"The devastating cyclone has hitnorth coastal Andhra Pradesh,badly damaging the infrastruc-ture and derailing normal life inthe region, especially in
Srikakulam and Vizianagaramdistricts." Naidu said the cost ofdamaged properties, crops andinfrastructure has tentativelyworked out to be �2,800 crore.
Horticulture was the worsthit with damages to the tune of�1,000 crore followed by agri-culture (�800 crore), powersector (�500 crore), roads andbuildings, panchayat raj, ruralwater supply, irrigation (�100crore each), animal husbandryand fisheries (�50 crore each),the Chief Minister said further.
"The State Government hasalready started rescue and reliefoperations on a war-footingand I am personally camping inthese districts, visiting the affect-ed areas and supervising therelief and restoration opera-tions," Naidu said. PTI
Washington: China’s econom-ic system is not compatiblewith the norms of the WTO,the Trump administration hassaid, asserting that the inter-national trade body is notequipped to deal with Beijingand its industrial policies.
The Trump administrationis also seeking to redefine theterm ‘developing nations’ ascountries like China, despitebeing the world’s second largesteconomy, are being consideredas developing, that gives themcertain benefits under the WorldTrade Organisation (WTO).
“Too many countries atthe WTO self-designate asdeveloping countries. And as adeveloping country at theWTO, you enjoy additionalflexibilities and exemptionsfrom the rules,” Dennis Shea,Deputy US TradeRepresentative and USAmbassador to the WTO, told a Washington audience on Friday.
“If you look at who some ofthese countries are, though, it’spretty amazing that they’reclaiming to be developing coun-tries at the WTO,” he said.
For example, 10 of the G-20 members claim developingcountry status at the WTO.
China, which is the secondlargest economy in the world,claims developing country sta-tus at the WTO, Shea said.
Five of the six countrieswith the largest GDP per capi-ta claim developing countrystatus at the WTO, he said dur-ing his appearance before theCenter for Strategic andInternational Studies (CSIS), atop American think-tank.
US Trade RepresentativeBob Lighthizer, Shea said, raisedthat issue at the ministerial con-ference in Buenos Aries inDecember and has a real con-versation going on at the WTOabout whether there should bemore differentiation among
developing countries.In July, he said, the US
offered a paper on China’s eco-nomic model and the point ofthe paper was the economicmodel is essentially inconstantwith the WTO norms.
“And I had a big back-and-forth with my Chinese coun-terpart. In fact, people said itwas the most exciting timethey’ve ever seen at a GeneralCouncil meeting at the WTO.And my reaction was, ‘Well, ifthis is the most exciting timethis place must be pretty bor-ing’,” Shea said.
Indicating tightening ofthe US approach against China,Shea said that the middle-of-the-road approach on some ofthe issues, particularly aroundChina, is no longer viable.
“We really need to recog-nise that the economic systemof China is not compatiblewith the WTO norms,” he said,asserting that other countriesneed to speak up on this.
The WTO, as currentlyconstituted, is not equipped tohandle the China issue.
“One of my jobs is to helpeducate the membership aboutthe ramifications of China’snon-market economy, not justfor the US, but for the WTO membership at large,”Shea said.
That is the reason why, heobserved, the US submitted
that paper on the Chinese eco-nomic model at the last gener-al council meeting in July.
The US, Japan and the EUare now engaged in the trilat-eral process, in which they arelooking at ways to share infor-mation.
“They’re looking at a num-ber of areas. One on industri-al subsidies and state-ownedenterprises; another on theissue of forced technologytransfer; and, the third issue on,you know, defining: what arethe elements of a market econ-omy? Can we have a commonunderstanding of what a mar-ket economy is?” the top UStrade official said.
“Part of this effort involvesdevelopment of new rules. Sothe US and the EU and theJapan are engaged in discus-sions, at a technical staff level,about the development of newrules around industrial subsi-dies and SOEs — that’s the fur-thest along — and potentiallynew rules around forced tech-nology transfer,” Shea said.
Responding to a question,Shea said that in China, thereis no independent judiciary,which can resolve disputesamong stakeholders in Chinain impartial manner.
“Should China be kickedout of the WTO if the USloses?” he was asked. “Youknow, yes,” he answered. PTI
Coal India Ltd (CIL) has dis-patched over 84 per cent of
its coal to the power sector tillOctober 12. 2018, the minersaid on Saturday.
Coal India Ltd is dispatch-ing 1.34 million tonnes of coalper day to power plants inOctober 2018, the miner said.In the wake of the festive sea-son, Coal India Ltd has rushedabout 14-15 rakes a day to WestBengal Power DevelopmentCorporation Power Plants andabout 15 rakes per day toTANGEDCO (Tamil NaduGeneration and DistributionCorporation Ltd) power plants.
From April 2018 toOctober 12, 2018, Coal IndiaLtd has dispatched 1.27 milliontonnes of coal per day against1.16 million tonnes per day to the power sector ascompared to the same periodlast year, indicating a growth of9 per cent.
Recently, power industrybody Indian Captive PowerProducers Association (ICPPA) has requested thePrime Minister’s Office (PMO)to take steps to address theissue of coal availability and itssupply.
ICPPA members includeplayers from key sectors suchas steel and aluminium.
New Delhi: Gold continued itsupward journey for yet anoth-er week and recorded a rise of�150 in its prices to close at�32,050 per 10 grams, amidpositive global cues and pick upin buying by local jewellers tomeet festive season demand.
Besides, the rupee falling toan all-time low against thedollar, making imports costlier,too influenced gold prices.
However, silver endedlower owing to reduced offtakeby industrial units and coinmakers. Bullion traders said afirm trend overseas as rout in
Furthermore, pick up inbuying by local jewellers tomeet increased demand in thefestive and wedding seasonalso supported the upside inthe precious metal prices, theyadded. Globally, gold ended theweek higher at $1,218.50 anounce and silver at $14.68 anounce in New York.
In the national Capital,gold of 99.9 and 99.5 per centpurity commenced the weeklower at �31,870 and �31,720per 10 grams, respectively, on
lack of buying support butsoon bounced back to hitweek’s high of �32,120 and�31,970 on positive overseascues before ending at �32,050and �31,900 per 10 grams,showing a rise of �150 each.
Sovereign, however, con-
tinued to move in a narrowrange in scattered dealsthroughout the week and set-tled at previous level of �24,600per piece of eight gram.
In volatile movements onalternate bouts of buying andselling, silver ready ended theweek lower by �400 to �39,400per kg and weekly-based deliv-ery by �360 to �38,915 per kg.On the other hand, silver coinsended higher at �75,000 forbuying and �76,000 for sellingof 100 pieces on pick up indemand from coin makersahead of Diwali festival. PTI
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The US wants to prohibitdata localisation to ensure
that there is a free flow of infor-mation across borders, a seniorTrump administration officialhas said, amid reports thatmajor American IT companiesare up in arms against the lat-est Indian directive which kicksoff next week.
Data localisation is an actof storing data on any devicethat is physically present with-in the borders of a particularcountry where the data wasgenerated.
The Reserve Bank of India(RBI), in a circular in April,said all system providers willhave to ensure that the entiredata relating to payment sys-tems operated by them arestored in a system only inIndia.
It gave time till October 15to comply with the mandate.
“We want to have prohibi-tions on data localisation toensure that there’s free flow ofinformation, free flow of dataacross borders, disciplinesaround countries requiring com-panies to give up their sourcecode, permanent ban on taxa-
tion or duties on digital trans-missions,” Dennis Shea, DeputyUS Trade Representative and USAmbassador to the WTO, told a Washington audience on Friday.
“And by the way, SouthAfrica and India want torethink the current moratori-um on those duties,” Shea saidin response to a question at theCenter for Strategic andInternational Studies (CSIS), atop American think-tank.
American financial com-panies are believed to haveapproached the administra-tion against an RBI directivewhich, beginning October 15,requires them to store in Indiaany payment-related data fromtransactions that take placeinside the country.
India has rejected theirrequest of mirroring.
“If implemented, this pol-icy will put an unnecessaryburden on American compa-nies and hurt consumers, whowill endure higher costs andincreased cybersecurity risks,”Republican Strategist AndySurabian, who is also a politi-cal adviser to Donald Trump Jr,wrote in BreitBart News thisweek.
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Soon after India rejected thefindings of the World Bank’s
Human Capital Index (HCI),Indian Economic AffairsSecretary Subhash ChandraGarg said a better metric isneeded for the index to mea-sure the status of human cap-ital in the digital age.
“Human Capital Index usesmetric of industrial era to mea-sure the status of human cap-ital for digital age and its pro-duction system.
“He (Garg) said that a bet-ter metric is needed,” a FinanceMinistry statement on Saturdayquoted Garg, who led theIndian delegation at the IMFsummit at Bali.
Speaking at theInternational Monetary Fund’sDevelopment CommitteeLunch Session on Friday, Garg asserted that there is aneed to recognise that the dig-ital technological changes tak-ing place are more fundamen-tal than even the invention ofthe steam engine, which hadlaid the foundation of theindustrial revolution.
New Delhi: Domestic month-ly diesel consumption fell forthe first time in 10 monthsyear-on-year in September,while petrol sales grew by theleast in four months as recordhigh pump prices denteddemand, Government datashowed on Friday.
Lower local sales of petroland diesel curbed growth inoverall fuel demand to 1.1 percent in September, despitehigher sales of liquefied petro-leum gas and jet fuel.
Domestic fuel consump-tion, a proxy for oil demand,totalled 16.54 million tonnes inSeptember, a decline of about1.3 per cent from August, datafrom the Petroleum Planningand Analysis Cell (PPAC) ofthe oil ministry showed.
A sharp fall in the value ofthe rupee and soaring oil pricesled to record high pump pricesof diesel and petrol, forcing theGovernment to cut taxes onthem and asking retailers to cut marketing margins by 1rupee a litre.
Diesel sales, which accountfor about 40 per cent of refinedfuels used in the country,declined by 0.8 per cent to 6.03
million tonnes in September,the data showed.
Growth in sales of gasoline,widely used for transporta-tion, eased to 4.2 per cent to2.23 million tonnes from thesame month last year, asdemand for passenger vehiclesfell 5.6 per cent in Septemberfrom a year ago.
“It may have some priceimpact but we need to analysethat...last month growth inpetrol and diesel sales wereimpacted as (in) September2017 there was a robustgrowth,” said MK Surana,Chairman of HindustanPetroleum Corp. Agencies
Nusa Dua (Indonesia): Globalfinancial leaders wrapped up anannual meeting of theInternational Monetary Fundand World Bank on Saturdayby urging countries to brace forpotential risks from trade dis-putes and other tensions.
The meetings in Bali,Indonesia, this week were over-shadowed by a spate of finan-cial market turmoil and by thethreat to global growth fromthe trade clash between the USand China over Beijing’s tech-nology policies.
The InternationalMonetary and FinancialCommittee, which advises the
IMF’s board of governors,issued a communique onSaturday urging countries tokeep debt under control, engi-neer policies to ensure credit isavailable in line with their lev-els of inflation and ensure sus-tained economic growth “forthe benefit of all.”
IMF members also pledgedto avoid devaluing currenciesto seek a trade advantage bymaking a country’s exportsrelatively cheaper.
IMF Managing DirectorChristine Lagarde said thatwhile global growth is stillstrong, it has levelled off.
The IMF started the meet-
ings in Bali by downgrading its2018 estimate for global growthto a still robust 3.7 per cent froman earlier forecast of 3.9 per cent.
“I think it’s not inconsistentto have a plateaued growth anddownside risks that are theclouds on the horizon, some ofwhich have begun to open up,”Lagard said. Adding that giventhe level of debt around theworld, “we’ve given strong rec-ommendations and in terms oftrade: de-escalate and pleasedialogue.” Countries shouldseek to ensure their levels ofdebt are manageable and thatpolicies foster growth for all,she said. AP
New Delhi: Internet bankingusers of State Bank of India arerequired to register their mobilenumber (if not done earlier)with the lender by December 1,2018, said the country’s largestbank. Customers who fail toregister it before the deadline,will not be able to access theinternet banking facilities of SBI,the lender said on its online por-tal-onlinesbi.com.
could be behind the disap-pearance of missing journalistJamal Khashoggi and warnedWashington would inflict“severe punishment” if he wasmurdered.
The Saudi critic has notbeen seen since he walked intothe kingdom’s consulate inIstanbul on October 2, withTurkish officials accusingRiyadh of murdering himinside the diplomatic mission.
“We’re going to get to thebottom of it and there will besevere punishment,” Trumptold CBS’s “60 Minutes” pro-gram, according to an extractof an interview that wasreleased on Saturday.
“As of this moment, theydeny it and they deny it vehe-mently. Could it be them? Yes,”Trump said in the interview,which was conducted onThursday, when asked ifKhashoggi was murdered bySaudi Arabia. The networksaid it will air the interview infull on Sunday evening.
Trump added the matterwas especially important“because this man was areporter.”
But when asked whatoptions Trump would consid-er, the president said he was notkeen to limit arms sales to thekingdom — a position he has
previously voiced.“Well, it depends on what
the sanction is,” he said. “I’llgive you an example — they areordering military equipment.
Everybody in the worldwanted that order. Russia want-ed it, China wanted it, wewanted it. We got it, and we gotall of it, every bit of it.
He added: “I’ll tell youwhat I don’t want to do. Boeing,Lockheed, Raytheon, I don’twant to hurt jobs. I don’t wantto lose an order like that. Andyou know what, there are otherways of punishing, to use aword that’s a pretty harsh word,but it’s true.”
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The Taliban held talks withthe US special envoy tasked
with finding a negotiated endto Afghanistan’s protracted andincreasingly bloody war, aTaliban official said onSaturday.
In a statement, Talibanspokesman ZabihullahMujahid said the meeting withZalmay Khalilzad was heldFriday in the Middle Easternstate of Qatar, where theTaliban maintain a politicaloffice. Taliban political chiefAbbas Stanikzai led the five-member delegation that dis-cussed with Khalilzad “ways offinding a peaceful end to theoccupation of Afghanistan,”the statement said.
It went on to say that thepresence of “foreign forces” inAfghanistan was the biggestconcern of the Taliban.
Mujahid said the two sidesdiscussed “finding a good wayfor the withdrawal of foreignforces from Afghanistan.”
The US Embassy in Kabulsaid only that Khalilzad was inthe Afghan capital Saturdaymeeting with President AshrafGhani and Chief ExecutiveAbdullah Abdullah.
Khalilzad arrived in Kabulfrom Qatar, winding up his firstofficial trip since being named
special envoy. He also visitedPakistan, the United ArabEmirates and Saudi Arabia.
In a statement Saturday,Ghani said simply thatKhalilzad briefed a meeting ofAfghanistan’s top officials onthe series of meetings he hasheld in the region since begin-ning his sojourn on October 4.
There was no mention of ameeting with the Taliban.
When he was appointedearlier this month, the USState Department saidKhalilzad’s job was to find apeaceful end to a war thatbegan more than 17 years agoand that has cost Washingtonin the neighbourhood of $900billion, according to a reportearlier this year from a USCongress appointed watchdog.Of that $900 billion, JohnSopko, the special inspectorgeneral on Afghan reconstruc-tion, said USD 720 billion was
spent on US military opera-tions.
“During this time, thehuman cost of the struggleagainst Afghan insurgents andterrorist groups has led tomore than 2,400 Americanmilitary fatalities, about 1,100among other members of theNATO-led Coalition, and tensof thousands of Afghan deaths,”Sopko said in a statement ear-lier this year.
US President DonaldTrump bemoaned the extraor-dinary cost of the war inAfghanistan while campaign-ing for president, when headvocated an end to USinvolvement in the conflict.
Since then, the US presi-dent announced an Afghanstrategy that called on Pakistanto do more to push the Talibanto the negotiating table and toend safe havens for insurgents,an allegation Islamabad denies.
One of Iran’s top foreign pol-icy officials has called for
negotiations with “anti-Trumpmovements” in the US todampen the impact of sanc-tions, local media reported onSaturday.
“America is not Trump,”said Heshmatollah Falahat-Pisheh, a conservative law-maker who heads parliament’sinfluential national securityand foreign policy commission,according to reformist news-paper Arman.
“There is a new diplomat-ic atmosphere for deescala-tion with America and it is fit-ting that Iran follows negotia-tion diplomacy and lobbyinganti-Trump movements inAmerica,” he added. He saidthis would help alleviate pres-sure caused by Washington’s“extensive sanction-focusedforce”. The US pulled out of the2015 Iran nuclear deal in Mayand reimposed punishing sanc-tions on the country, hoping topressure Tehran into whatPresident Donald Trump callsa “better deal”.
The US is due to completethe reimposition of sanctionson November 5, targeting Iran’soil sector and central bank.
election rally in northeasternAfghanistan on Saturday killingat least 14 people, includingcivilians and security forces,officials said.
Khalil Aser, spokesman forthe provincial police chief inTakhar province, said 32 oth-ers were wounded when theexplosives-laden motorbikeparked near the rally in Rustaqdistrict exploded.
“There are a number ofwounded people in criticalcondition,” he said.
The attack took place atabout noon before NazefaYusoufi Beg, a female candidaterunning for a seat in parliamentin October 20 elections, arrivedat the rally, Aser said.
It was not immediatelyclear if she was the target.
Jawad Hajri, spokesmanfor the provincial governor,said Rustaq is a remote districtwhere insurgent attacks havenot occurred in the past and
the candidate’s supporters hadgathered for the rally confidentthey would be safe.
Adeb Hamra, a local resi-dent, said in a telephone inter-view that the district govern-ment hospital has only fourdoctors and was overwhelmedwith dead and wounded, mostof them in critical condition.
No one immediatelyclaimed responsibility for theattack but Taliban insurgentsare active in the province andhave claimed pervious attacksthere. It was not the first attackon a political campaign.
On Tuesday, eight peopleincluding candidate SalehMohammad Achekzai, werekilled when a suicide bomberstruck Achekzai’s home InHelmand province.
He was holding a meetingat the time of the attack inLashkar Gah, the provincialcapital.
On October 2, just daysafter official campaigningbegan, a suicide bomber struckan election rally in easternNangarhar province, killing at
least 14 people and woundingaround 40.
Last week, Taliban insur-gents issued a statement con-demning the elections andwarning candidates andAfghan Security Forces thatthey would be targets if theyparticipate.
The Taliban called the pollsa US-manipulated event tofurther their hold on the coun-try. There are 2,565 candidatesvying for seats in the 249-mem-ber chamber, including 417women candidates.
In the run-up to cam-paigning, five candidates havebeen killed in separate attacks.
Officials from the country’sIndependent ElectionCommission said another twocandidates have been abduct-ed, with their fates unknown,and three others have beenwounded in violence.
Afghan security forcesaccidentally killed three body-guards of an independent can-didate during a raid on a housenear his residence in the east-ern Kunar province.
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Pope Francis has defrockedtwo Chilean bishops for
the alleged sexual abuse ofminors, the Vatican said in astatement on Saturday after ameeting between the pontiffand the president of Chile.
The decision to expel for-mer archbishop Francisco JoseCox Huneeus and former bish-op Marco Antonio OrdenesFernandez — the latest headsto roll in a country hit hard bythe cleric abuse scandal —could not be appealed, it said.
Both were stripped of theirpriesthood “as a consequence
of overt acts of abuse againstminors”.
Defrocking is consideredthe harshest penalty for priestswithin the Church and meansthe offender is forbidden fromexercising any clerical duties atall, even in private.
Scores of new cases ofpriestly sexual abuse of minorshave come to light in Chile,deepening a crisis in theRoman Catholic church thathas also embroiled PopeFrancis. On Saturday, Francismet with Chilean PresidentSebastian Pinera at the Vaticanfor talks on the “difficult situ-ation” in Chile.
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IMF chief Christine Lagardesaid on Saturday she was
“horrified” by reports about thefate of Saudi dissident JamalKhashoggi but still plans toattend an economic meeting inRiyadh this month.
As questions swirl over thefate of Khashoggi — a Saudicritic who has not been seensince he walked into the king-dom’s consulate in Istanbul onOctober 2 — some big businessnames and media outlets havepulled out of the Kingdom’s sec-ond Future InvestmentInitiative. But Lagarde said herplans were unchanged for now,despite international uproarover the case.
“Human rights, freedom ofinformation are essential rightsand horrifying things havebeen reported and I am horri-fied,” she told reporters in Baliwhere the IMF is holdingannual meetings.
“But I have to conduct thebusiness of the IMF in all cor-ners in the world and with
many governments.” “When Ivisit a country, I always speakmy mind... So at this point oftime my intention is to notchange my plans and to be veryattentive to the informationthat is coming out in the nextfew days.”
Her comments came short-ly after US Treasury SecretarySteven Mnuchin said he alsostill planned to attend theOctober 23-25 meeting,dubbed “Davos in the Desert”.
“The answer is for now Iam” still going, Mnuchin said.
“If more informationcomes out over the next week,I will obviously take that intoaccount.” “Obviously I want toexpress concern for MrKhashoggi and his family,” headded.
“We look forward to get-ting results of this investiga-tion.”
Riyadh on Saturday dis-missed accusations that author-ities there had orderedKhashoggi be murdered by ahit squad inside its Istanbulconsulate as “lies and baseless
allegations”.But the row has intensified
with the Washington Postreporting that Turkish offi-cials have recordings madefrom inside the building thatallegedly prove their claimsKhashoggi was tortured andkilled at the consulate.
Bloomberg, the FinancialTimes, The Economist andThe New York Times havewithdrawn as media sponsorsfrom the event amid questionsabout the missing man’s fate.
The CEO of ride-hailingapp Uber, Dara Khosrowshahi,said that he will no longer beattending the event unless “asubstantially different set offacts emerges”.
British entrepreneurRichard Branson said he wouldsuspend two directorshipslinked to tourism projects inSaudi Arabia over the issue.
Amnesty Internationaldemanded the Saudi authoritiesreveal what happened toKhashoggi as it said Riyadh was“responsible at a minimum forenforced disappearance”.
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Social media giant Facebook,which has its largest user
base in India, said that a recenthacking into its system hasaffected about 30 million users.
Facebook product man-agement vice president GuyRosen on Friday said the cyberattackers exploited a vulnera-bility in Facebook’s code thatexisted between July 2017 andSeptember 2018.
The vulnerability has nowbeen fixed, but not before theattackers used an automatedtechnique to move fromaccount to account so theycould steal the access tokens ofusers, their friends, friends oftheir friends, and so on,totalling about 400,000 people.
“The attackers used a por-
tion of these 400,000 people’slists of friends to steal accesstokens for about 30 millionpeople. For 15 million people,attackers accessed two sets ofinformation, name and contactdetails -- phone number, email,or both, depending on whatpeople had on their profiles,”Rosen said.
For another 14 millionpeople, the attack was poten-tially more damaging as thehackers accessed both theirname and contact details aswell as other details like user-name, gender, location, lan-guage, relationship status, reli-gion, hometown, date of birth,device types used to accessFacebook, education, workdetails, places they have recent-ly “checked in” to as visiting,people or pages they follow and
the 15 most recent searches.For the remaining one mil-
lion people whose access tokenwere stolen, the attackers didnot access any information,Rosen said.
He said users’ accountshave already been secured bythe Facebook two weeks agoand they do not need to log outagain or change their pass-words.
The attack did not affectFacebook-owned Messenger,Messenger Kids, Instagram,WhatsApp, Oculus, Workplace,third-party apps, payments,
Pages, and advertising or devel-oper accounts, the companysaid.
Asserting that Facebook isstill looking at other ways thehackers may have used the plat-form, Rosen said, “People’scredit card information wouldnot have been visible to theattackers, as we do not displayfull credit card numbers -- noteven to the account holder.”
“We haven’t ruled out thepossibility of smaller-scale,low-level access attempts dur-ing the time the vulnerabilitywas exposed. Our investigationinto that continues,” he said.
Facebook has been coop-erating with the FBI, the USFederal Trade Commission,the Irish Data ProtectionCommission and other author-ities.
“We don’t have a specificindication of the intention ofthe attackers. And as we havesaid, we are cooperating withthe FBI in an active investiga-tion. As part of the informationthat we will be sharing withusers over the coming days, wewill be including informationas to how they can watch outfor any suspicious e-mails ortext messages or things of thatsort,” Rosen said.
Responding to a question,he said, the company will benotifying people throughFacebook so that they canunderstand what informationwas accessed from theiraccount and which group theywere part of.
“We will also work to con-tact people who may not be onFacebook any longer,” he said.
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The Pakistan Army onSaturday took control of the
security of polling stationsahead of Sunday’s by-polls for11 national and 24 provincialseats.
Final preparations wereunderway to conduct electionsin nine National Assemblyconstituencies in Punjab andone each in Sindh and KhyberPakhtunkhwa, and 24 provin-cial assembly seats, including11 in Punjab, nine in KhyberPakhtunkhwa and two each inSindh and Balochistan.
Most of these seats werevacated by the candidates who
won from more than one seatin the general elections held onJuly 25.
Prime Minister ImranKhan won five seats and vacat-ed four which are also up forgrabs.
For the first time, overseasPakistanis will participate in theelection process through a spe-cial online portal designed bythe Election Commission ofPakistan (ECP). Thousands ofsoldiers will stand guard to pro-vide security at 7,489 pollingbooths to ensure a smoothand peaceful electoral process.
The ECP, while makingsecurity arrangement, desig-nated as many as 1,727 polling
stations “highly sensitive”where extra troops weredeployed and security camerasinstalled.
These include 848 out oftotal 5,193 polling stations inPunjab, 544 in KhyberPakhtunkhwa, 201 in Sindhand 134 in Balochistanprovinces. The deployment oftroops began on Friday andthey would remain on electionduty till October 15.
Soldiers will be deployedinside and outside the pollingstations in order to avoid anyuntoward incident.
They also provide securityduring distribution of electionmaterial and transportation.
Saturday’s Oval Office meetingwith Andrew Brunson, theAmerican pastor whose releaseafter nearly two years of deten-tion in Turkey was a diplomatictriumph for Trump.
“It will be wonderful to seeand meet him.
He is a great Christianwho has been through such atough experience,” Trump saidin a tweet confirming theWhite House meeting for 2:30pm local time.
The president also assert-ed anew that he had made “nodeal” with Turkey to winBrunson’s long-sought free-dom. “I don’t make deals forhostages,” he said.
Brunson was due at theWhite House following hisbrief stop at a US military hos-pital in Germany for a healthassessment.
Trump also thankedTurkey’s president, RecepTayyip Erdogan, who hadresisted the demands of Trumpand other high-level US offi-cials for Brunson’s release.Erdogan had insisted that hiscountry’s courts are indepen-dent, though he previously hadsuggested a possible swap forBrunson.
Trump said the US greatlyappreciated Brunson’s releaseand said the move “will lead togood, perhaps great, relations”between the US and fellowNATO ally Turkey.
Relations between the twocountries had become severe-ly strained over Brunson’sdetention and a host of otherissues.
Brunson’s homecomingamounts to a diplomatic highnote for Trump, who is count-ing on the support of evangel-ical Christians for Republicancandidates in the November 6election.
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The Islamic State groupstormed a settlement for
displaced people in easternSyria and abducted scores ofcivilians in the latest attack bythe extremists on civilians, aUS-backed Syrian force and awar monitor said on Saturday.
The area in Syria’s easternDeir el-Zour province has beenwitnessing days of intenseclashes between ISIS and theUS-backed Syrian DemocraticForces amid bad weather andlow visibility.
Torrential rains triggeredflash floods and landslides
on the Indonesian island ofSumatra, killing at least 27 peo-ple, including a dozen childrenat a school, officials said onSaturday. A flash flood withmud and debris from land-slides struck Mandailing Nataldistrict in North Sumatraprovince and smashed anIslamic school in Muara Saladivillage, where 29 children wereswept away on Friday after-noon, said local police chiefIrsan Sinuhaji.
He said rescuers retrievedthe bodies of 11 children frommud and rubble hours later.
The National DisasterMitigation Agency’sspokesman, Sutopo PurwoNugroho, said rescuers and vil-lagers managed to rescue 17other children and severalteachers on Friday and pulledout the body of a child onSaturday near Aek Saladi river,close to the school.
A video obtained by TheAssociated Press showed rela-tives crying besides their lovedones at a health clinic where thebodies of the children werelying, covered with blankets.
Nugroho said two bodieswere found early Saturday froma car washed away by floods inMandailing Natal, where 17houses collapsed and 12 were
swept away. Hundreds of otherhomes were flooded up to 2meters (7 feet) high, whilelandslides occurred in eightareas of the region. Four vil-lagers were killed after land-slides hit 29 houses and flood-ed about 100 buildings inneighbouring Sibolga district,Nugroho said. He said flashfloods also smashed severalvillages in West Sumatraprovince’s Tanah Datar dis-trict, killing five people, includ-ing two children, and leavinganother missing.
Landslides and flooding inthe neighbouring districts ofPadang Pariaman and WestPasaman killed four villagersafter 500 houses flooded.
Rishabh Pant's audacious stroke-play complemented AjinkyaRahane's patient approach as
India reached 308 for four againstWest Indies on the second day of thesecond Test on Saturday.
India are now only three runsshort of West Indies' first innings totalof 311. The Caribbeans could add only16 runs in the morning session afterUmesh Yadav polished off the tail withcareer-best figures of 6/88 in 26.4 overs.
While young Pant celebrated hisODI call-up with a second Test half-cen-tury, an attractive unbeaten 85 off 120balls, vice-captain Rahane slogged hardto remain undefeated on 75 off 174 balls.
Together, the duo added 146 runsfor the unbroken fifth wicket after Indialost in-form skipper Virat Kohli (45) tobe reduced to 163 for 4.
This was after young Prithvi Shawlit up the morning, smashing his wayto 70 off 53 balls to provide an initialmomentum.
It was a day where India's Gen-Nextenthralled the 18,000 odd crowd withspectacular strokeplay.
Shaw's cover and off-drive weretreat for the eyes. The way he slashedShannon Gabriel for a six over thirdman or stood on toes to smash JasonHolder through point was eerily simi-lar to Virender Sehwag's style of play.The 11 fours and a six were out of thetop drawer.
For Pant, it was more about brutepower. He hit back-to-back sixes off left-arm spinner Jomel Warrican (1/76),who had till his arrival had decent fig-ures including the wicket of Shaw.
Pant's approach also gave Rahanetime to build his innings even thoughhe never looked in control. Howevergoing to Australia, India needed its vice-captain to get some runs and to hiscredit he hung around to do the need-ful.
Rahane, on Indian sub-continent,has had problem facing spinners dur-
ing last home season and here Pant wastaking the spinners on most of the timewhile Rahane was seen more com-fortable facing Gabriel for a lengthyperiod of time. The vice -captain hit sixfours in his knock.
The Indians were also helped bypoor fielding from the West Indians.It also didn't help their cause that theirmain keeper Shane Dowrich got a nastyhit on the knee and reserve keeperJahmar Hamilton wasn't up to themark.
Skipper Virat Kohli (45, 78 balls)missed out on an opportunity to add
another ton to his growing list of inter-national hundreds as he looked in notrouble whatsoever during his stay atthe crease.
He hit the cover drive well and ranthe singles as a time when India werein a spot of bother at 102 for 3 afterShaw and Cheteshwar Pujara (10)were out in quick succession.
Earlier, West Indies added only 16runs to their overnight total but RostonChase (106, 189 balls) howeverdeservedly completed his fourth Testhundred before the innings wrappedup.
Fast bowler Dane Paterson was named man of the match but saidthe award could have been shared by all South Africa's bowlers
as the hosts clinched a Twenty20 series win against Zimbabwe atSenwes Park on Friday.
South Africa took a 2-0 lead in the three-match series with asix-wicket win after restricting Zimbabwe to 132 for seven in their20 overs. It followed a 3-0 one-day series win.
"Credit goes to the whole bowling unit. We kept it tight tonight,"said Paterson, who took two top-order wickets for 22 runs.
South Africa's pace bowlers held sway, with Lungi Ngidi,Paterson and RobbieFrylinck each takingtwo wickets. AndilePhehlukwayo did nottake a wicket but con-ceded only 15 runs infour overs.
Left-arm spinnerTabraiz Shamsi was theonly expensive bowler,taking one for 37, withhis last over leaking 24runs, including threesixes by top-scorer SeanWilliams, but captainFaf du Plessis saidShamsi had bowledthree "really good overs" before being targeted by Williams, whomade 41 off 28 balls.
"It was one of our best games," said Du Plessis. "All the bowlerswere really good tonight and our batters made it look pretty easy."
All six of South Africa's batsmen reached double figures andscored at better than a run a ball, with JP Duminy top-scoring with33 not out. South Africa won with 4.2 overs to spare.
Zimbabwe captain Hamilton Masakadza bemoaned anothertop-order batting failure. "We got off to a little bit of a start but westill lost wickets," he said.
Williams followed up his batting effort by taking two for 25while Zimbabwe leg-spinner Brandon Mavuta impressed again, tak-ing one for 29.
Masakadza said Zimbabwe's infrequent international fixtureswere a factor, "but it's our fifth game (in South Africa) and we shouldbe coming right."
South Africa made four changes from the side that won thefirst match by 34 runs in East London on Tuesday and Du Plessissaid there would be "more experiments" for the final game in Benonion Sunday.
"The plan was to give everyone two games," he said, indicat-ing he would be one of the players sitting out on Sunday.
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England were awarded victo-ry in the second one-day
international against Sri Lanka ona faster run rate Saturday afterplay was halted by heavy rain.
The tourists scored 278-9,with Eoin Morgan smashing 92,but umpires stopped play atDambulla with Sri Lanka on 140-5 after 29 of their overs.
Thisara Perera was on 44 andDhananjaya da Silva on 36 whenplay was halted. The pair had puton 66 for the sixth wicket after SriLanka looked in deep trouble at74 for five.
Heavy rain was still falling anhour after the suspension andEngland recorded a 31-run vic-tory under the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern run rate system.
Earlier captain Eoin Morgan
blasted 92 and Test skipper JoeRoot 71 as England reached 278for nine in their second one dayinternational against Sri Lanka onSaturday.
Morgan hit 11 fours and two
sixes in his 91-ball innings thatformed the core of the Englandscore after Sri Lanka won the tossand put the tourists in. Root hitsix fours in his knock.
Paceman Lasith Malinga
took five for 44 on the trickyDambulla pitch, includingEngland opener Jason Roy withthe fourth ball of the day. ButRoot hit three straight fours offMalinga in the fifth over asEngland grew in confidence.
Adil Rashid and Olly Stoneput on 24 for the final wicket togive England a late boost.
Only 15 overs of the firstODI between the two sides waspossible on Wednesday beforethe game had to be abandonedwithout a result.
A warm up game against aSri Lanka Cricket XI on October6 did not start because of rain.
The third 50-over match is inPallekele on Wednesday. Englandwill also play two Tests and aTwenty20 international againstSri Lanka on the tour, which runsthrough November 27.
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Promising Indian shuttler LakshyaSen settled for a Silver medal after
he lost the men's singles summit clashagainst Li Shifeng of China in straightgames at the Youth Olympics here.
Sen, the reigning junior Asianchampion, lost 15-21, 19-21 in a 42-minute final match to bag the Silver.He had beaten Shifeng in straightgames in the quarterfinals of theAsian Championships in July but onFriday evening, it was the turn of theChinese to turn the tables on the 17-year-old.
In both the games, Shifeng led allthrough and Sen was playing catch-up, eventually failing to succeed.
In the first game, Shifeng took anearly lead and raced to 14-5 in notime. Sen made a fine recovery tonarrow down the gap to 13-16 but hecould not sustain it and Shifengwent ahead 18-13 and then made it20-14 to have six game points.Though Sen saved one game point,the Chinese won the next one topocket the first game in 17 minutes.
The second game was a closerfight than the first but the Chinesewas leading all the time. Shifeng wasahead 8-7 initially but the gapwidened to 12-7 before Sen made it11-14. The three-point gap remainedfor some time before the Chinesemade it 18-14 and then 19-14.
Sen made a last-ditch effort to
save the match by winningthree straight points butShifeng still made it 20-17to have three match points.
Sen was sti l l notthrowing the towel as hereeled off two straightpoints to make it 19-20
and just one point away from adeuce. But his Chinese opponent wasa hard nut to crack as Shifeng won thefinal point to clinch the match andthe gold.
The India admitting to commit-ting early mistakes and gave full cred-it to his Chinese rival.
"He was very good and won thecrucial points. I couldn't push myselftough I managed to prolong the
inevitable," said Sen after his final."But I am happy to be the second
Indian to bring back a medal in bad-minton from such an elite champi-onship," he added.
It was a sort of a revenge for theChinese whom the Indian had beat-en in the quarterfinals of the AsianChampionships earlier this year.
In other events, Indian women'steam notched up a comfortable 3-0win over Poland to enter the semifi-nals of the Hockey 5s competition ofthe 2018 Youth Olympic Games here.
Lalremsiami (10'), captain SalimaTete (14') and Baljeet Kaur (14') con-tributed to the U-18 team's victorywith a goal each at the ParquePolideportivo Roca.
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India recorded its best-ever showing in theAsian Para Games by bagging 72 medals,
including 15 Gold, with the shuttlers addingtwo yellow metals and three Bronze on theconcluding day of competitions here Saturday.
With 15 Gold, 24 Silver and 33 Bronzemedals, India was placed ninth in the over-all tally.
China finished on top with 172 Gold, 88Silver and 59 Bronze for a whopping total of319 medals. South Korea (53, 45, 47) and Iran(51, 42, 43) were second and third respec-tively.
This was India's best ever performance,bettering the last edition (2014) tally of 33medals (3 Gold, 14 Silver, 16 Bronze).
All of India's five medals on Saturdaycame from badminton.
In men's singles SL3 class badminton,Pramod Bhagat defeated Ukun Rukaendi ofIndonesia 21-19, 15-21, 21-14 to clinch theGold medal.
Athletes in the SL3 category generallyhave impairment in one or both lower limbsand poor walking or running balance.Athletes with cerebral palsy, bilateral polioor loss of both legs below the knee competein half-court (lenghtwise) to minimise theimpact of their impairment.
Tarun added another Gold for India onthe final day of the event by beating YuyangGao of China 21-16, 21-6 in the men's sin-gles SL4 class.
The SL4 class athletes have a lesser
impairment compared to SL 3 and play full-court. Players with impairment in one or bothlower limbs, unilateral polio or mild cerebralpalsy fall in SL4 category.
The Bronze winning shuttlers wereManoj Sarkar (men's singles SL3), men's dou-bles SL3-SL4 pairs of Manoj Sarkar andPramod Bhagat, and Ananda Kumar Gowda
and Nitesh Kumar.Para-athletics gave India half
of the medals (36) with sevenGold, 13 Silver and 16 Bronze.Badminton and chess contributednine medals each while para-swimming gave eight medals.
Earlier Friday, Paralympicmedallist Deepa Malik bagged her secondBronze.
K Jennitha Anto clinched the Gold inwomen's individual rapid P1 chess event afterbeating Manurung Roslinda 1-0 in the finalround, while Kishan Gangolli got the betterof Majid Bagheri in the men's individual rapidVI - B2/B3 event to claim the top spot.
The national selection committeewas left deeply embarrassed after
Mahendra Singh Dhoni declined toplay Vijay Hazare Trophy quarter-finalsfor Jharkhand on Sunday despitechairman MSK Prasad's publicannouncement couple of days back.
The current fiasco now complete-ly established that there is no com-munication between the selectors andsenior players, who decide their ownschedule.
Dhoni, who has been horribly outof touch as a batsman during the pasttwo years, was expected to be a part ofJharkhand's quarter-final againstMaharashtra.
But on Saturday, Jharkhand chiefcoach Rajiv Kumar told reporters inBengaluru that Dhoni has decidedagainst playing the quarter-final, con-trary to what chief national selector hadearlier announced.
"Dhoni feels that it would not befair for him to join us at this stage, giventhat the team has done so well and
reached the quarter-final stage in hisabsence. He does not want to upset theteam balance," Jharkhand coachKumar said.
Since he has only played 22 daysof international cricket this year (15ODIs, 7 T20Is), Dhoni has looked outof sorts as a batsman, whenever he hascome after a long break.
Accordingly, when on lastThursday chairman of selectors Prasadwas asked about whether Dhoni andRayudu will be playing the VijayHazare quarters, he replied: "Dhoni isplaying the knock-outs. About Rayudu,I will check and get back."
Jharkhand topped the groupleague stage with 32 points andShahbaz Nadeem's was their notableperformer with a List A world recordhaul of 8 for 10.
There are now questions beingraised whether Prasad had even con-sulted Dhoni in first place beforemaking a public announcement.
"I would love to know how MSKPrasad gets in touch with Dhoni," asenior BCCI official said.
There’s hardly a fashion eventwhere you can miss theearnest man, not one strandof his silver hair ever out ofplace, his moustache curledup, not with bravado but withcontentment and the neatwrap of a beard never daring
to trespass the trim. He’s ever energetic andinvolved in every show, hardselling the virtuesof our craftsmanship, creativity and style. Eversince he has helmed the Fashion DesignCouncil of India (FDCI), Sunil Sethi has revo-lutionised the business of fashion and changedthe dynamics of the industry, which oncesought Western approbation and which nowtakes pride in celebrating things Indian andselling big at home. He has single-handedlydeveloped the pret market, encouraging youngtalent and street fashion, while hiving off cou-ture as a grander, culture club space. In theprocess, he has birthed a movement of rescu-ing our heritage of textiles and weaves, breath-ing life into Government clusters and ensuringthe weavers and artisans still have reams ofcontinuity.
Relying on his past experience as exporterand merchandiser, he has encouraged a sus-tainable business model of fashion and effec-tively taken it to the online space. Every corpo-rate now wants to endorse a fashion week.Sitting on the cusp of change and welcomingwinds of change, Sethi talks about how brandIndia is now a sensible rather than an emo-tional investment. But yes, he is totally emo-tional about his Ambassador.
Many seasons into fashion weeks, the FDCI— despite being supported by theGovernment — has emerged with an independent, stable identity that has turnedfashion into a serious business. How haveyou helmed the transition?The approach from the very beginning hasbeen to be self-reliant. We have never reallywaited for Government money, though wewere getting support from the Ministries of Textile and Commerce. However, what is more important is that we have theGovernment support in terms of any projectwe undertake, in terms of collaborations. Inthe current fashion week for example, theMinistry of Textile with DC Handlooms curat-ed a special show with us. Such initiatives havehelped us develop and mainstream weaverclusters and revive our textile heritage. Foralmost two years now, we have tried to workwith production hubs of handloom weavers,like those of Telangana ikat and the Banarasibrocade. They even got in Australian designersto work with the fabric and come up withproducts and lines that have contemporarysensibilities and address a global audience.Recently, each fashion designer was roped infor design interventions at weaving centres andclusters and the money was sufficient to takecare of the expenses. Interesting tie-ups likethese have helped us widen the interpretativearc of fashion.
The real evolution has been in the appreci-ation of fashion as a serious cultural and eco-nomic benchmark. Previously, it was associat-ed more with glamour and lifestyle and neithera politician, nor a serious player was ever seenin the front row. Now ministers and politiciansare opening these shows and walking alongsideweavers and craftspeople on the ramp, lendingfashion its rightful dignity as a fine art.Fashion today is going to the next level interms of not only handlooms and handicraftsbut also being adapted across multi-utilityplatforms as one of the drivers of the localeconomy. Corporates are engaging meaning-fully, too.
In fact, a few years ago, the then ChiefMinister of Gujarat, Anandiben Patel, was also
happy to get on the ramp after a show onkhadi and speak to the audience about the tex-tile strength of Gujarat. Jyotiraditya Scindiawalked the ramp along with weavers to focuson our Chanderi project. Our ‘Make in India’man, Niti Aayog’s Amitabh Kant, has alwaysbeen around to appreciate our shows. InMumbai, we did a Banaras night with a chefand a leading hotel. Many of our leadingdesigners presented their Banaras handloomcollections. Union Textile Minister Smriti Iranihad two very successful ‘I love handloom’ and‘cotton school’ campaigns on social media,which nobody had ever thought of before.These are very big statements.
They may be in politics but by promotingtextiles, the region, jobs and emphasising thatthis industry is the second largest employer inthe country, they have changed the perceptionabout fashion and made us feel invested in ourown heritage. Fashion is no longer seen as anunattainable concept beyond the lakshmanrekha. We have crossed the boundary and thatis a very major step, bigger than getting funds from the Government.
How would you define the design revolution,this resurgence of ethnic consciousness andwearing our own identities as it were? I can explain this by citing the example of theIncredible India campaign. We were veryhappy to travel abroad and boast about it, butas soon as the campaign had a global impact,we started looking within. I remember therewas a sudden rush and curiosity among NorthIndians to visit Kerala as the tagline ‘God’sown country’ became popular. That globalrecognition boosted our own sense of self-appreciation.
Then there was this phase of experiencingthe newness of modernity when many peopledismantled their old houses, threw away theirantique furniture, got rid of the wooden archesand replaced them with modern-day architec-tural products. Those ethnic markers, however,found ready acceptance in the West as anIndian accent. The reverse psychology workedagain to reinforce the value of ethnicity. A lotof jaali work and Burma teak have returned ashave old trunks, chests and utilitarian metalitems as a decorative comment on our legacy.
The years of Western minimalism havenow ensured that our ethnicity is not over-the-top, but the fact is that it took at least 30 yearsfor us to realise our worth in the world.Everybody is now realising that the top globalbrands they run after come to us when theyhave anything to do with handicrafts, use ourembroidery, buy fabrics, appreciate our hand-looms. We have something special about ourikats and tie-dye, though variants are availableall around the world, and our weaving process-es. So we have grown into that proud feeling ofbeing an Indian. I remember wearing a Nehrujacket, bundi, or whatever it is you want to callit, for the past 30 years. This has survived onlybecause it is very practical, suited to our cli-mate, can sit as easily on a kurta as on anArmani shirt, is a slip-on, convenient accesso-ry and still lets you wear India on your sleeves.Of course, the politicians always wore it butnow every news reader, every corporate hon-cho, every businessman, almost everybody hasone in the wardrobe. Not that the feeling was-n’t there, it’s just that we are now proud ofwearing Indian.
The same sensibility has permeated fash-ion. There was a time when ethnic, couture,bridal and occasion wear were not considered“with it.” Yet today, this category generatesmassive business. If we as a people are appre-ciative of Indian fashion designers and givingthem round-the-year business and they areable to grow from a mom-pop operation toboutique, factory and a larger scale, then it isperhaps the best time for the Indian fashionindustry.
The domestic customer is now dictatingterms of the market. And it is not just ethnicwear that is getting a boost, our consumer hascoopted Western lines with equal glee, theevening gown now ubiquitous at galas andevents. I remember gowns on the red carpetand at Navy and May Queen balls. Today,everybody wants a gown. Yes, the demand forethnic and Indo-Western has peaked whichhas, in fact, cascaded and streaked into otherlines, be it Western or corporate. Hotels, air-lines, restaurants and brand offices are engag-ing our designers for interventions and styling.Some hotels and big corporations are exclu-sively helping out weaver clusters and buyinguniform saris from them.
So I would say the tremendous absorptivepotential of India is responsible for the spurt inthe fashion industry. The demand of Indiancustomers and the fact that they have startedto appreciate how much difference a fashiondesigner will make in their profile have been acatalyst. After Bollywood and sports, fashion iswhat grabs the most eyeballs and has emergedas a key component of soft diplomacy. It is thisascension which has compelled our designers,some of whom were touting their placementsin foreign stores and partnerships as successesand some who managed to set up individualoutlets overseas, get real.
Consistently. Our first fashionweek was in 2000 and it has onlybeen a mere 18 years. In the firstfive or six years, there were notakers at all, but it boomed in thelast 10 years when every small citytried to have an edition of its own.There were many fly-by-nightoperators too, who used the plat-form for promotion rather thangenerating any serious business,but they fizzled out. The FDCIhas consistently stood by the busi-ness of, by, and for the designerand ensured the showcase isintended to fuel big buys andorders. So really there is no com-promise that way. Our sponsorshave stayed with us over the years,which proves our brand worthand credibility. We have had 34editions so far and I have beenpart of the last 10. Within these
10-plus years, 40-45 shows havetaken place during each outing.Some shows have been a con-glomerate of four or five design-ers. I have been a part of morethan a 1,000 shows myself and tomaintain consistency has been ahuge effort by the FDCI and itsteam. The pressure of ensuring aquality outing has meant thedesigner has been on his/her feet,has evolved with the times and iscontinuously churning out newerdesigns, output and innovation.
Ours is not a slow industry.More so in the times of socialmedia when you are exposed toeverything happening then andthere. The awareness is so highthat you can’t afford to be compla-cent anymore. So Indian fashionhas changed much faster in thepast five years than maybe anyother industry. Because it is reallyhappening on a day-to-day basis.
But many people complain of aglut, of too many fashion weeksdiluting their very purpose? I agree there was a big fashionfatigue and I am not even sayingthat we are out of that as yet, butnobody gets tired of looking at afashionable outfit every singleminute on Instagram. So whatyou call fashion fatigue has trans-muted into curiosity. You might
be over-exposed but people arestill consuming it hungrily. That isthe reason why we are still inbusiness. Also, there is a demo-graphic mix of baby boomers tomillennials. One generation ishappy with slow fashion and theother wants fast fashion. Thedemand is taut between these twoarcs. That’s also the reason whyeven online entities now want a
touch-and-feel flagship store.
So how have online retail coun-ters and social media changedthe economics of fashion? Tremendously; they have madefashion gettable. The FDCI islucky to have an e-commerceplayer. That started on the basis ofparticipation in a fashion week.But sooner or later, they had to
develop their own platforms to bestrong enough and they havedone it very successfully. The dayis not far when we might haveonline fashion shows and if themarket goes that way, so will theFDCI. Personally, I am a bit oldworld though and would not wantto let go of the ramp up close.
What do you make of the designfluidity that has spilt over fromwhat we wear to the smallestaccessories and utilities? For a long time, India wasdeprived of foreign products. Justto get hold of an Ikea magazinewas considered a luxury. Peoplewere not exposed to possibilities.Now that they are, they know theycan roll out a thousand productsout of one kind of weave or motif.Imagine the multi-billion scale ofdiversification. We never had adesign school, there was NIFTand that too is also not more than20 years old. What was experi-mental product design can nowbe utilitarian and mass grade.Young people are choosing fash-ion as a career even more nowbecause you have to immerseyourself in it as much as engineer-ing, medicine, or applied scienceto get the results.
How did you find your way intofashion? I did not want to get into myfamily business of automobile
spare parts and even though Ijoined because of family pres-sure, my heart was always set onthe export market of handicrafts,textile and apparel. Fresh out ofcollege, I left for Europe, Canada,and America with a bagful ofsamples. That exposure andexperience worked in under-standing how brand India couldbe marketed. I was fortunate Ihad achieved what I wanted to inmy corporate life before I cameto the FDCI, so I had alreadyworked with the best.
One of the largest sourcingcompanies in the world boughtmy intellectual rights. I achievedlarge turnovers of my own, so Iwas ready to give everything tothe fashion industry withoutexpecting anything in return. It isa blessing in disguise that I got somuch out of the industry. It hasmade me value people. It has putme in the limelight without mewanting it. Even the 20-25 yearsof solid work I did in my earlierfield got more recognition.
I have worked with all fashiondesigners and done manyalliances with them. I have madeso many different products usingtheir inspiration and given themadditional lines to work with.That to me is a very big satisfac-tion. Most importantly, we havealways had a healthy financialposition. The FDCI is now capa-ble of doing many things.
Heart disease is getting younger by the day inIndia and is striking people at unlikely ages.With increasing lifestyle deviation and spik-
ing stress, its catchment area is ominously increas-ing, taking even children in its grip. According toseveral industry reports, heart disease is becomingawfully common in the ages just after 30 and itbecomes imperative that one takes preventive steps.
Despite noteworthy achievements in healthcareand an increase in life expectancy, the country is fac-ing a serious threat from the increasing non-com-municable diseases(NCDs) and heartailments associatedwith l i festylechanges. Today,NCDs claim asmany as 15 millionlives (61 per cent)between the age of30-70, with 45 percent of them beingaffected by CVDs.A study says, 10 percent of all patientswith heart diseasetoday are under theage of 40.
India has a dis-tinction of beingknown as the heartdisease capital ofthe world and Indians are genetically predisposedto develop heart diseases. This coupled with a seden-tary lifestyle and stress only makes us even moreprone to heart ailments. While everyone likes to havea healthy lifestyle and mostly all are aware of the waysto achieve it, one soon realises how difficult it is tofollow all those practices in the practical world. Withdeadlines at work, dining out, late nights, and earlymornings, it’s easy to miss out on health.
With a little precaution and planning for the dietand lifestyle one leads, one can learn to take care ofthe heart. But while you exercise, follow a healthydiet, avoid stressing yourself and sleep well, protect-ing the heart against uncertainties and medical emer-gencies is also essential. Given the risk factors galore,the assessment of heart health should start early intoday's life. Regular screening and remedial actionsthereafter is the only way to keep your heart healthy.
The Momo and Blue WhaleChallenges recently spreadenormous fear in the nation,and there is a need for astrong legal framework to
regulate such trends which can be athreat to human lives. In today’s world,almost everyone is living two lives —a life of his own and a life in the virtu-al space. The hectic schedules of today’scomplicated and stressful life have hadsuch a massive impact on the lives ofpeople that they have started living adubious life. To add to this, there arelots of games which are making mat-ters worse. Social media games thesedays are not just addictive, they alsoinstigate suicidal tendencies.
The pattern of luring people orattracting them to such games or chal-lenges starts with a request from ananonymous sender in the form of aninvitation to complete simple tasks. Thisgradually leads up to dangerous ones.In some cases, it even drives individu-als to commit suicide.
Recently, a Class X student inAjmer, Rajasthan succumbed to thethreats of Momo challenge and com-mitted suicide by hanging herself at herresidence. A deeper understanding ofthese fads can probably help oneunderstand what can be done to avoidsuch an unfortunate end.
��� ��''����The latest addition to the list of danger-ous — sometimes even fatal — onlinegames is the ‘Momo Challenge’.According to recent media reports,Momo Challenge has a social mediaaccount called ‘Momo’ on various socialmedia platforms. It deploys the pictureof horror artwork known as ‘MotherBird’. This image tends to draw curios-ity among children and the youth. Oncethey get hooked, it drives them to per-form several dangerous tasks.
The accounts associated withMomo Challenge are connected tothree numbers from Mexico, Columbia,and Japan. If a person wants to quit thegame midway and is reluctant to takepart in the challenge, he is threatenedwith several creepy images that createa strong and terrifying effect. There areclaims that these are malicious attemptsat deriving information about theusers based on their pattern of usageand their behaviour.
The Momo Challenge entails a hor-rifying image of a female whose eyespop out of the sockets. This sender fur-ther sends instructions to the playersand on not following these, they are sentmore such scary videos and clips too.
�'�����'�� ��''����Before Momo Challenge, what domi-nated human minds in a similar man-ner was the Blue Whale game or ‘BlueWhale Challenge’ as it was popularlyknown. The game throws some chal-lenges on a daily basis which the play-ers are required to accomplish. Thegame starts with simple tasks likewaking up in wee hours, listening to aparticular type of music, watchinghorror movies etc. Gradually, the chal-lenge leads to peeling out one’s own skinin particular shapes and sizes. It even-tually leads to suicide.
What makes it tormenting in the
very process is that the participant hasto share photographs showcasing thatthe tasks are completed.
There is a lot of speculation onhow these games are played. Whilesome say that these are done bydownloading these applications onyour phones, some believe that thesegames are played via popular socialmedia platforms.
While there are several instanceswhere social media laws and cybercrime department of our country havetaken an active part in annihilating thedanger, there needs to be done a lot interms of these games. While the mat-ter of banning such nuisances evenreached the top most court of the coun-try, the agencies have not been able toblock access to these addictive and dan-gerous challenges.
As a safety measure and in order toeducate children to stay away from such
dangerous challenges, several warningshave been issued by schools and otherauthorities in order to caution the par-ents or others to remain alert, vigilantand careful for their wards. While self-control is the primary and the mostimportant guideline for any person inmost of the cases, at times these gamesbecome difficult to ignore and avoid. Inmost of the cases, these games aretempting and apparently simple inoutlook,. But once a person getsinvolved and goes further, they becomedeadly and tumultuous.
However, what is required at themoment is a strong regulatory frame-work that would set certain rules andregulations for these online games/chal-lenges. In terms of online games, rules,regulations and limitations are still atthe nascent stage. There seems to be nodefinite law pertaining to online gam-ing. As a result, the laws that are
imposed by the central authorities inconnection to different states andregions are blurred. There is no definitetechno-legal framework that will setlimitations for this online gaming. Infact, unfortunately, the central govern-ment has not been able to enforce cyberlaw diligence and internet intermedi-ary liability law in India effectively. Theneed of the hour is to pass a law ban-ning usage, sharing and accessibility ofsuch games/challenges through socialmedia or otherwise.
The impact of these games isgradually increasing. The death tollgenerating from the Momo Challengeis, in fact, capable of crossing that ofthe Blue Whale Challenge. Thus, thereshould be measures at both the legaland individual levels to regulate suchchallenges and ensure that lives ofhuman beings are not at risk.
*���/�������������� ���������/���
The jury is out on whetherCCTV cameras areimportant in classrooms
or not. The recent Delhi cabinetnod approving the installation ofCCTV cameras in governmentschools and the subsequentquashing of the PIL against theDelhi Government’s proposal toinstall over 1.4 lakh CCTVcameras inside the classrooms ofthe schools, by the Delhi HighCourt are landmark events thatwill go a long way in setting aworthy precedent.
While privacy is an impor-tant concern when it comes tochildren, it really needs to be bal-anced with safety, an area thathas so far been sadly compro-mised. A spate of cases in therecent past have thrown thespotlight on the fact that theschool space which is considered
to be a safe haven for childrendoes not always turn out to benecessarily so when a slew ofsafety measures aren’t followed.Both as parents and schooladministrators we have followedthe coverage of many such casesin media which have left us won-dering about the security of ourchildren as we send them off toschool everyday in the hope ofprocuring a brighter future forthem. Yet sometimes, these veryinstitutions that are supposed tobe the guardians of their future
fail to protect them and they arerobbed of their present.
CCTV cameras are one wayto ensure that there is constantsurveillance and that childrenare always within earshot ofresponsible adults (even if dig-itally). With growing cases ofsexual misconduct, bullying andmore, this certainly is the needof the hour, not only so that youcan monitor the child’s safety butalso so that perpetrators of suchheinous crimes are fearful ofcommitting any wrong action
knowing that their moves arebeing watched.
Also, in Governmentschools or even in some privateones, where issues have beenraised on teacher absenteeism,poor quality of teaching andmore, CCTV cameras can comein handy as they can help onemonitor the quality of educationbeing imparted.
Of course what is requiredis that the footage be passwordprotected and be available onlyto a select few and not to any
strangers lest the security of chil-dren is compromised at anystage. In fact as parents, wewould well be within our rightsto opt for schools that have theseprovisions, where footage isavailable not just on demand butwhich provide access to live feed.
A lot of the success of theinstallation of CCTV cameraswill however still depend on theattitude adopted by both schoolauthorities and parents. Theyneed to view the provision as asafety mechanism for their child
and not turn it into monitoringmechanism where the childfeels that every move of his/ heris being watched. This technol-ogy should not turn one into ahelicopter parent where theyview each and every move of thechild. It goes without saying thatsuch actions will smother thechild and not allow him or herto develop independently to thefull potential.
As long as all of us under-stand that the idea of employ-ing technology is clearly not todetract from the carefree atti-tude of childhood but just tooffer safety which is everychild’s right, there is no way wecan go wrong.
Love blossoms at the unlikeliest ofplaces, with the unlikeliest of peo-ple, in the strangest circum-
stances and in most spontaneous andnatural ways. An elderly couple grap-pling with the loneliness caused due tothe death of their respective spouses,living with grown-up children, decideto cut across boundaries of religionand social stereotypes to find love andcompanionship at their advanced age,sans its typically youthful haste orrashness of actions. A middle-agedman living in the cocoon of a passion-ate love that was nurtured over letterswith a pen pal but inexplicablysnapped short at a young age, finallyopens up to his wife to find completeacceptance and embraces love. Ayoung woman comes to terms with herdead mother’s extramarital relationshipand unexpectedly finds solace and res-olution in life. Many such well-chosen,heart-warming stories exploring themyriad facets of love are on offer in thecollection, Storywallah.
Storywallah is a bouquet of twentystories written by nine writers fromNeelesh Misra’s famed Mandali found-ed by Misra in 2011, comprising ofhandpicked and closely mentoredupcoming writers. It is this Mandaliwhich churned out the vast repertoireof lyricist, radio storyteller, journalistand writer Neelesh Misra’s extremelypopular shows like Yaadon ka IdiotBox, The Neelesh Misra Show, Qissonka Kona, Time Machine and KahaaniExpress to name a few. The nine writ-ers whose works find place inStorywallah are Anulata Raj Nair (fourstories), Kanchan Pant, JamshedQamar Siddiqui and Manjit Thakur(three stories each), Umesh Pant andChhavi Nigam (two stories each), andShabnam Gupta, Ankita Chauhan andSnehvir Gosain with one story each. Itmust be mentioned that all these writ-ers belong to different age groups,backgrounds and professions.
The stories in the collection probeseveral themes including love andbelonging, companionship and long-ing, memory and nostalgia, parent-hood, community, and death. In theopening story “Wildflower” byKanchan Pant, Nemat is shocked byher discovery of her dead mother’sextra marital affair, and to put it sim-ply, finds it hard to breathe. She findsher mother’s request to “Please try andunderstand my relationship withAnirudh” completely baffling and sheends up climbing several “mountainsof rage and disgust, of hatred and help-lessness”. As she meets and observesAnirudh, the ice begins to melt and for
the first time, she reads her mother’sletter “not as her daughter, but as awoman”, and unravels the deeper con-nection of mind that had sustained hermother. While there is no action per sein the story, the gentle emotionalmovements bind the several threads ofthis poignant story.
In Umesh Pant’s “Nails”, Simmi callsoff her engagement from what lookedlike a picture-perfect relationship withSumit for a seemingly frivolous reason:He chides her to prim her nails. Thewriter cleverly employs the eminentlyfeminine stereotype of long nails to asurprising effect: Sumit’s strong reactionto her long nails gets Simmi thinkinghard about the “correlation betweenlong nails and goodness”, about whetherthe steering of her relationship was inher own hands, and where was theindependent, chirpy and sprightlyyoung Simmi of yesteryear. JamshedQamar Siddiqui’s protagonist, a
divorced, single mother in “A DivorcedGirl”, defies the stereotype of “Divorcedwomen (don’t) say no” to come out of asuffocating alliance to reaffirm herindependence and her right to live herown life on her own terms; she realises,“In one second, it felt as if all of societyhad compressed itself...in Gaurav’simage.... Like society, Gaurav too feltthat he was doing me a favour by mar-rying me, and that in my gratitude Iwould do whatever he asked of me”.
Manjit Thakur’s “Satrangi” the read-er finds the beautiful bride Satrangi’sdreams of a romantic wedding nightshattered to pieces, the contrast betweenher and her husband Chandramohan isskilfully brought out: “There was nocomparison. Chandramohan had smalleyes, hers were big and kohl-lined. Hisnose was bulbous, hers was sharp…Chandramohan was uneducated andSatrangi had topped the whole dis-trict…She wrote poetry and stories, and
everyone had known that she wouldmake something of her life”. Thepoignancy of the story is enhanced withthe discovery of an intense but mellowlove blossoming with the ghost of themansion, young Robert Clive. Satrangi’sgrowing affection towards Robert is nat-urally marked by a growing alienationwith the world around her. The storydepicts contrasting notions of life anddeath with respect to love.
Of her four stories included in thiscollection, it is “Amaya” where AnulataRaj Nair’s craft finds a completeexpression. Amaya, a young widow ofa martyred soldier, decides to live withher in-laws for the rest of her life. Herlife is punctuated by loving memoriesof her husband’s love for her and thebrief but happy time they had spenttogether: “When she was in his armsshe felt no pain could touch her. Lifewas so carefree when he was with her”.She discovers that she is pregnant witha part of Prashant growing within her,and she weaves new dreams for thenew life, “She sang sweet lullabies asshe prepared for the beautiful daysahead”. But her desire to continue liv-ing her life the way he liked her to beis brutally dashed by her conservativein-laws: When she decides to wear abright orange saree that Prashant hadliked, she is reminded of her widow-hood, “It was Prashant’s favourite,right? Well he is not sitting here nowto appreciate you in it”. When herdaughter is subjected to similar shack-les of tradition, Amaya’s weaknessgives way to a newfound strength andshe decides to take her daughter away,“If I keep killing my dreams and wish-es, who will keep (my daughter)’salive? Prashant would never havewanted me to be sad”. The narrativeflows beautifully through the differentstages of Amaya’s life and moves thereader into a recognition of a youngwoman’s desires.
All in all, this book does a fascinat-ing job at capturing the distinct flavourof life making its way through small-towns and big cities.
Imagining Lahore, HaroonKhalid’s fourth book in India,compares the Lahore of proverbswith the Lahore of today.Through a mix of nostalgia and
the angst that comes from the madnessof urban life, he imagines what Lahoremust have been like in its golden daysand what it might have been today hadhistory run a different course. His keenhistorian’s eye helps him dig up cultur-ally loaded anecdotes that got “parti-tioned” in 1947 and makes the Indianreaders wonder how many more ofsuch anecdotes must still lie buried,waiting to be dug up again.
Could you describe your first memo-ry of Lahore as a city with a uniquecharacter? From where do most of your initial discoveries aboutLahore’s past come?Lahore is home for me. So, growingup, I could never reflect on its idio-syncrasies. It was the only normal Iknew. I began experiencing a new citysoon after my graduation, when I wasintroduced to Iqbal Qaiser. He is alocal historian who has worked exten-sively on the history of the city. Ibegan traveling around with him,exploring abandoned temples, gurd-waras, and other historical structures.Through him I was able to seethrough the rush, the overcrowdedresidential quarters and imagine thehistoricity of a locality, or its history.
One of the most astonishing discov-eries for me was of a locality quite closeto my home, which I used to pass on adaily basis without giving secondthought to it. I learned that this is a his-torical village which might even predatethe arrival of the Mughals. It was discov-eries like these, the extraordinary storiesof many ordinary localities aroundLahore that led me to write this book.
Is Pakistani youth becoming moreaware of how distorted stories of thepast are often fed to young people inorder to serve the interests of a few?I don’t think so. Meta state narrativescan be very complicated to peelthough, particularly if one is not pro-vided the right tools. I don’t think thisis a problem unique to Pakistan. I see asimilar pattern all over South Asia,India, Bangladesh. What makes thisnarrative so pervasive is its introduc-tion to the children at a young age,through school text books, popular dis-course and media.
Which traits of its illustrious past has the modern day Lahore managedto retain? I think Lahore today is in many ways a
completely new city, a post-Partitioncity. It is not that iconic multi-religiousmetropolis that made it one of themost exciting cities of British-India.But then in many ways it is still thesame city. Its hard for me to pin-pointexactly what those characteristics are. Ifeel like it’s a cultural spirit that per-vades all over the city and can be expe-rienced in the courtyards of its Sufishrines, its festivals, its foods, its edu-cational institutions, and its attitudes.
Dulla Bhatti is a figure that is stillremembered and celebrated in someparts of India. To find out that hisgrave is in Pakistan makes a 20-some-thing Indian reader wonder howmany more of such intriguing storieswe have lost to the Partition. Do youhave some more of such anecdotesthat you could share here?I don’t think stories are lost due to
Partition. Like everything else, even thestories are partitioned. Thus they havebecome lost to a segment of a broadersociety while they remain alive in otherplaces. From Pakistan’s perspectivethere are several such stories that welost to the communalisation of historyand culture. The stories of GuruNanak, Guru Arjan, Bhagat Singh, LalaLajpat Rai, Kartar Singh Sarabha areonly few of the myriad stories that welost. They are also the stories of PuranBhagat, whose temple still exists inSialkot, or the story of Parhlad Bhagatwhose temple once was the centralshrine in the ancient city of Multan.
If you could have it your way, couldthere have been a way to moderniseLahore without compromising on its cultural identity?Absolutely. Right now there are strictspatial divisions that divide the modern
from the traditional. The traditional inthis interaction often is reduced toghettos. If it was up to me I wouldmake the walled city of Lahore the cen-tre of the city with Lahore flankingboth sides of Ravi. I would also like toincorporate dozens of historical ham-lets within the city, instead of cagingthem within walls as suburban commu-nities develop around it. Within certainlocalities and streets there needs to be ablanket ban on the use of cars.
In news reports and travelogues,Lahore is still talked about as the cul-tural hub of Pakistan. Do you agree? I think this is a title that Lahore stilldearly holds onto but I don’t feelLahore still retains that central positionit once did. I think one issue has beenthe overall decline in cultural activitiesin the city. Basant was banned manyyears ago and concerts have become
rare due to terrorist threats. The spacefor cultural activities has shrunk allover the country. Lahore was once thecapital of the Pakistan Film Industrywhich played an important role in giv-ing Lahore the title of cultural hub. In1990s the movie industry also experi-enced a gradual death, thus deprivingthe city of its special position. In therecent years there has been a revival ofthe film industry but that has beenmore Karachi centric.
As far as show business is con-cerned Karachi is now the heart of theindustry. Lahore was also once the hubof literary activities in the country. Itwas once home to writers such as FaizAhmed Faiz and Manto. In many waysthese literary activities have survivedand there are regularly meet ups andthere is a resistant vernacular literaryculture, however it is far from theLahore of the 1950s and 1960s.
The practice and theoretical ren-dering of the SDGs (Sustainable
Development Goals) is here to stayin the larger international system. Inthe context of international organ-isations, as an aftermath of theWorld War-I, the lengthening shad-ow of then empty seat at the Councilof the League of Nations (LON), stillholds a grim grain of relevance.
American President WoodrowWilson aimed to make the UnitedStates a member of the LON andalso as a key player in the interna-tional arena. As the AmericanSenate rejected the President’s offerof a legislation to make US a mem-ber of the League’s Secretariat andthe Council, the argument whichbecame fetid was that the length-ening shadow of the Americanempty chair had a final debilitatingimpact upon the future of theLeague of Nations as it lost its legit-imacy and power sans America’s for-malised presence. This year thegreen Granite backdrop of theGeneral Assembly witnessed amixed narrative for the entirepanoply of world states.
American President DonaldTrump deftly occupied his seat ofpower at the United Nation’sGeneral Assembly with theAmerican representative, NikkiHalley, by his side and charted outhis “Novae World Order” withquintessential American and nation-al interest oriented talk. He eclecti-cally congratulated the nations ofthe larger world in having stuck tothe task of ameliorating the humansecurity conditions. He categoricallyhailed the Indian nation for beinga true blue historically “Free soci-ety set-up” which had left no stoneunturned to elevate the impover-ished section of the denizens, who,were mired in the quicksand ofpoverty, malnutrition, disease andunemployment. Much earlier inthe National Security Strategy of2017, President Trump had eggedon India and Prime MinisterNarendra Modi to assume a glob-
ally acceptable leadership role play-ing for the Indian nation and tomove up the ladder of being a super-power.
The SDGs are not a new grainof salt as they have their roots hid-den in the global welfare idiom ofthe Indian state’s pantheon andalso in the entrepreneurial zeal ofthe United States of America. TheAmerican President in his UNGAaddress in New York charted out thetrajectory of allies and foes alike,which, the US is confronted with inthe contemporary context. Heappreciated the entire world as partof global war on terrorism for hav-ing extricated out the ISIS in nations
such as Syria and Iraq. He ear-marked Iran as the key threat for theentire West Asian and the globalcomity of nation states. He declaredIran and its attendant establishedunder Khomeini as being the glob-al sponsor of terrorism in West Asiaand beyond. Last year, the AmericanPresident in his UNGA address tothe world had solicited internationalcooperation to get rid of the “RocketMan” Kim-Jong-Un. North Korea’sriddance was the last year’s pet peevebut with the Trump-Kim summitbecoming the nom de plume ofdemilitarisation and disarmament,the attention is focused on Iran withnew sanctions being slapped on it.
Along with the American strate-gic ire comes the declaration to theIran’s trade partners not to do com-merce and trade with Tehran as thatwould attract sanctions, but nationssuch as Turkey have ignored theTrump’s clarion call despite a fracasdelimiting the horizons of the US-Turkey relations. But, in a manner,President Trump recognised themultilateral nature of the interna-tional system with gory conse-quences for the forces inimical toAmerica’s interests.
He declared as he had done inhis campaign trail, that, there can beno more free lunches from theAmerican fold, and the European
nations and others will have to payup for the American securityumbrella ushering in, “AccountableSecuritisation” as the smooth sail-ing factor for the world’s larger well-being.
The drawing of frontiers andfences is akin to what PresidentTrump premises his larger policy on.The President congratulated hisestablishment for having signed anew trade deal with Mexico in thecontext of what President calls as the“slighting of the sovereignty” forWashington. The narrative of glob-al cooperation with the clarion callto be co-equals in contributions tointernational organisations was one
of the oft-repeated refrains of thePresidential communication to thelarger world of recalcitrant nationStates, both in the context of spatialterrorism and geo-economics. Still,the new role playing envisaged forNew Delhi is a “first” in many sens-es that nations such as India can actas bridges to the orient and can playa domineering role in the upkeep ofbalance of power and peace in theAsian continent.
Power, prosperity and peace,emerged as the tripod-foundation-al elements of the US foreign poli-cy which included a moral-liberalentreaty to the larger comity ofnations. President Trump castigat-ed the brutal regime of Bashar-Al-Assad and congratulated thereforms being undertaken in Riyadhalong with the stability role play forIsrael in a new West Asian region-al order in the near future. InisClaude’s seminal work on the UnitedStates is now read more as a classictext and its title itself pinpointstowards the larger role of the UnitedNations as the Book is titled “FromSwords into Ploughshares.”
The Washington Post writesthat the initial part of PresidentTrump’s Speech consists of boastsstraight out of the hyperbole of hisPresidential campaign trail. Theposer can be that how can, “address-ing the threats facing the World andtalking about a vision to usher in alifeline to the larger humanity” beequated with plane jane rhetoric andmumbo jumbo?
President Trump was not wrongin declaring that United State’seconomy had added 10 trillion dol-lars in wealth and unemploymenthad receded by half and the stockmarket is at an all-time high inAmerican history. He contended,“The United States is a stronger,richer and safer country” now withthe 2018 military budget beingaugmented to 716 billion dollars, animprovement over 700 billion dol-lars in 2017. The idiom being thestratagem to increase the girth and
the striking might of the AmericanDefense establishment.
In a way the unilateralism, withits precedent, patriotism, is thebulwarks of President Trump’s twinpegs of foreign policy and gover-nance. Still, the US might be with-drawing as of now, but not into aself-imposed shell as PresidentTrump believes in his own MonroeDoctrine of the contemporarytimes. The core refrain of theAmerican intent apart from the pre-sent entreaty at the United NationsGeneral Assembly is that the US isnot retreating inside a cocoon butit is being more practical and busi-ness like in factoring in the trans-actional costs with the rest of thenations. Thus, akin to his NationalSecurity Strategy of 2017, theUNGA speech was a reiteration ofwhat the United States intends tomete out to the rest of the comity ofnations which might have its stereo-typical bluster but is definitely well-conceived and well delineated. Thenew liberal order of the Demos ishere to stay even if it appears hard-nosed to some of the other forces inthe World system. With issues suchas Jude aspirant Bret Kavanaughrankling the domestic political fir-mament and allegations arisingfrom a few domestic quarters,President Trump can count on anovae veneer to his foreign policywhich has characteristically con-cluded that it is not only Moscow,but a blithe Beijing too which hasunwelcomingly intervened in theAmerican electoral process.
The United Nations GeneralAssembly utterings spell a newaggression with an intent to clarifythe American approach in a fastchanging comity of nations whichis something on the lines of the,“New World Order” approach ofPresident George Bush in the year1991.
(The writer teaches InternationalRelations at Indian Institute of PublicAdministration, Delhi)
Ending tuberculosis (TB) isan important global prior-
ity today. The first-ever UnitedNations General AssemblyHigh-Level Meeting on TBwas convened on September 26where heads of states and rep-resentatives of states made keycommitments towards endingthe disease. We now stand at acrucial moment in TB historyas we approach the targets setwithin the SustainableDevelopment Goals and theglobal mandate for expansionof universal health coverage.
One of the challenges withachieving these goals lies indiagnosing and treatingpatients accurately and effi-ciently. This is particularly per-tinent for India where 4.45 percent of deaths in the countryare attributed to the disease(Global Health Data Exchange,2016). Studies indicate that inIndia, only 60 per cent of TBpatients are successfully diag-nosed, 45 per cent completetreatment, and 39 per centachieve recurrence-free sur-vival. (Subbaraman R,Nathavitharana RR,Satyanarayana S, Pai M,Thomas BE, The TuberculosisCascade of Care in India'sPublic Sector: A SystematicReview and Meta-analysis.PLOS Medicine)
India has recently madegreat strides in access to andcoverage of evidence-based TBservices to reduce losses alongthe cascade of care. The Joint
Effort for Elimination ofTuberculosis (JEET) project,for example, which will cover45 cities and 406 districts, aimsto amplify TB care coverage byconnecting patients in the pri-vate sector with free-of-costtreatment and benefits availableunder the national TB pro-gramme and standardisingtreatment protocols in the pri-vate sector. Also, since 2013,through the Initiative forPromoting Affordable andQuality TB Tests (IPAQT), pri-vate sector diagnostic labs areproviding WHO-endorsed TBtests at substantially reducedprices, which would otherwisebe unaffordable for a largesection of the population.
While access and coverageare foundations of a high-quality health system, achiev-ing improved health outcomesalso requires a focus onimproving processes of care.India's new National StrategicPlan does envisage the imple-mentation of certain QualityImprovement systems for TBcare, however, studies havepointed out that processes ofTB care (i.e., extent to whichpatients receive recommendedcare) in India in both the pub-lic and private sector fall shortof national and internationalstandards. (Quality of tubercu-losis care in high burden coun-tries: the urgent need to addressgaps in the care cascade,International Journal ofInfectious Diseases, Volume
56, 2017, Pages 111-116, ISSN1201-9712)
Fortunately, well-estab-lished methods to monitor andimprove processes of care existand are easily adapted to theIndian context. QualityImprovement methods werefirst introduced in the 1920s to
reduce variation in manufac-turing processes and therebyproduce a consistent product.These methods evolved furtherand were applied with greatsuccess to the automotiveindustry, particularly by com-panies like Toyota in Japan, inthe 1980s and have since
become established in nearlyevery industry, includinghealthcare. At its basic core,Quality Improvement involvesthe use of facility-level data byfront-line providers to drivecontinuous process improve-ment. For example, the Modelfor Improvement which
embraces the Shewhart Cycle,commonly known as Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) is acommon Quality Improvementframework in which a team ofhealth workers develops anaim, identify changes to test intheir system, implement thosethat are successful, and then
assess their impact on the pre-defined performance measures.The cycle is repeated continu-ously to achieve and sustainhigh-quality care.
Nascent QualityImprovement efforts relatedto TB care are now beingreported around the world.Studies in Uganda have shownthat quality indicators of TBcare can be measured usingdata routinely collected in TBregisters and used to driveperformance improvement.South Africa recently becamethe first country to develop andimplement a formal TB QualityImprovement programme on anational scale. The latterrequires the national TB pro-gramme to lead the develop-ment of a formal QualityManagement Plan that estab-lishes a technical workinggroup or committee, a set ofcore performance measures,expectations for implementingQuality Improvement activities,plans for staff capacity buildingand patient/communityinvolvement.
These elements of gover-nance, which include nationalmonitoring of core measures,are necessary to sustain thehealth system's focus on qual-ity in the face of environmen-tal changes that affect the sta-bility of healthcare organisa-tions and the workforce.(Bardfield J, Palumbo M, GeisM, Jasmin M, Agins B. ANational Organizational
Assessment (NOA) to BuildSustainable QualityManagement Programs in Low-and Middle-Income Countries)
Such a system would helpIndia's national TB programmequickly identify real-time chal-lenges and implement risk mit-igation strategies. To test theefficacy of this system inimproving programmatic out-comes, the TB programme canconsider piloting it in selectedsites across the country.
A fundamental concept ofimprovement is that every sys-tem is perfectly designed toachieve exactly the results itachieves. ComprehensiveQuality Improvement systemswill be vital to perfectingIndia's national TB programmeand ensuring that every TBpatient successfully completestreatment. India has estab-lished the foundations of a sys-tem to transform the quality ofits TB care. Now, all that is leftfor the country is to implementchange.
(Dr Adithya Cattamanchi isan Associate Professor ofMedicine and co-Director of theImplementation ScienceTraining Program at theUniversity of California SanFrancisco. Dr Bruce Agins is theDirector of HEALTHQUALInternational and Professor ofEpidemiology at the Universityof California San Francisco,Institute for Global HealthSciences)
In contemporary India, genderhas become a point of discus-sion not just in the sphere of
academia, but also in media, andcoffee houses as well as dinnertables. While spilling over of dis-cussions is a step in the rightdirection, there remains a truththat cannot be wished away —discrimination and inequalitybased on one’s gender. Gender:Discrimination and Inequality inContemporary India is a collec-tion of essays edited by JayaShrivastava, which takes a look athow gender is constructed, per-formed, and censored in India.
Shiv Kumar Yadav’s essay,‘Gender Discrimination andInequalities: Status, Causes andSolutions’, is a succinct summaryof the issues that plague women.Yadav draws mostly from litera-ture, and dwells on the nature of awoman’s role as described inprominent texts. Women havebeen generally regarded, even inreligious texts, and in texts of lit-erary prominence, as second classcitizens and those who must sub-mit to their assigned male coun-terparts to hope for any growthand development. The essay is anattempt to locate how power isgenerated and distributedthrough one of the most powerfultools of knowledge, books.
Nikhil Kumar along withMukesh Bharti and Preeti Misratake the arguments forwardthrough their exploration of sex-ual minorities, and Nikhil Kumartakes a look at the philosophicalaspect of discrimination based
along the lines of gender.Society is an undeniable and
powerful force that reaffirms andcensors gender roles. RituAgarwal and Anuja, in theirrespective research, give us aglimpse of how society framesdiscriminatory practices againsta gender, particularly women,and validates it through repeti-tion, and the threat of punish-ment and social exclusion.
The growing debate on TripleTalaq, along with an opening up ofvoices of Indian Muslim women,avenues have opened up for criti-cally analysing the arena of mar-riage and the autonomy of womenwithin it. Added to it is the dimen-sion of technology, minutelyassessed by Faisal Akhtar and AsifAkhtar Khan in ‘GenderInequality and Mobile Phones:Problems and Conclusions forDeveloping Nations’.
In India, property andwomen have always shared anuneasy relationship. From own-ership to occupation and labour,women have had to negotiateserpentine paths to stake a claimin property. As the global econ-
omy spreads out its vast andintricate net, an increasingnumber of women have joinedthe workforce. However, as thesection on economy in the textpoints out, that is just tip of theiceberg. While opportunitiesfor women might have increasedin number, a glaring lack ofawareness and access to equal
pay continue to plague femaleworkers across disciplines.
Along with a gender-orient-ed gap in pay, there are alsomultiples cases of sexual harass-ment, both documented andundocumented, that continue tohound not just women, but any-one who does not identify withthe binary of male or female.
While protests have existed inIndia from a long time, thenature and demands of thesame have undergone massivechange over the years.
From physical marches toonline protests, the very nature ofexpressing dissent and registeringprotest have shifted with the risein technology and the globalisa-
tion of economy and lives. However, a personal favourite
from the eclectic collection ispossibly the take on KhabarLahariya, a rural media projectby certain women of UttarPradesh and Bihar. Neelu Sharmaand Gopal Singh provide aninsight into how protests in theera of online dissemination of
information function at thegrassroots. Run by a group ofrural women journalists, KhabarLahariya originated fromBundelkhand, a place plaguedwith caste and gender based vio-lence, low literacy rates, andpoverty. With a readership of80,000 people comprising mostlyof people from rural and semi-rural areas, the platform providesaccess to the world.
The collection is definitely abird’s eye view of the currentsocio-cultural and political sce-nario in a country that has strug-gled with maintaining a healthysex ratio in most of its States eventoday. While they do provide aninsight into numerous areas, likeGovernment funds for womenand minorities, to the publichealth services, brought to theforefront in recent times bymovies like Pad Man and Toilet:Ek Prem Katha, a lot still remainsto be written about. The essayshave looked at specific communi-ties and geographical locations,and yet, various areas, like that ofNorth-Eastern India or parts ofSouth India have not beenexplored. The thrust of theresearch is concentrated alongparts of North and Central India.
The book might have madeinroads into certain areas, but itwould be best to say that most ofthe research is still at a nascentstage. Be it the case study ofmobile phones or the history ofwomen’s movements in India, aneed for further investigation witha bigger sample size is required.
As a Prime Ministerial candi-date, Narendra Modi hadfought the Lok SabhaElections from two places —Vadodara seat of his home
State Gujarat and Varanasi in UttarPradesh, the largest State in the country.Later, he relinquished the Vadodara seat.Now, as another Lok Sabha poll inchescloser, there is speculation over the num-ber of seats Modi will contest from.
Recently, the BJP’s Odisha unitoffered him Puri seat to fight from.The party has passed a formal proposaland sent it to Modi. This must benoted that Odisha will face theAssembly Elections along with LokSabha. The BJP believes that if the PMfights from Puri, then the party willbenefit in both elections. At the sametime, many leaders of Bihar BJP wantthe PM to contest from their State. ThePatna Sahib seat was proposed forModi, from where Shatrughan Sinha isthe party MP. Modi might also berequested to fight from either East orWest Champaran amidst the year-long150th birth celebrations of MahatmaGandhi. On the other hand, leaders ofGujarat have also urged him to contestfrom the State, and there is a proposalfrom the South as well. But one thing iscertain: He will fight from Varanasi.
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Think about this scenario: The Leftleaders standing with Mamata
Banerjee and jointly fighting the BJP.Sounds impossible? Well, nothing isimpossible in Indian politics. NitishKumar had formed his party against LaluPrasad, but later both joined hands; theTDP was formed against the Congressideology, but the two parties might fighttogether; rivals SP and BSP have alsocome closer. In the same vein, it mightnot be surprising if the TMC and Leftfront go together in West Bengal.
It is common knowledge thatMamata had formed the TMC to wipeout the Left Front from the State follow-ing the treatment meted out to her fel-low men. She chose the political route toseek retribution, and snatched powerfrom the Left after a long-drawn battle.Now, it seems that Mamata’s biggestenemy has changed — the BJP hasreplaced the Left. And that is why shehas reached out to the Left Front to stop her old ally, the BJP. Mamata hasannounced a big rally of the Oppositionparties in Kolkata on January 19, and ispersonally sending out all invites. Shehas invited the CM of Kerala andCommunist leader P Vijayan. Mamatasaid that apart from the CPM, she willalso invite leaders from the CPI, RSP,and Forward Bloc. The stand of the Leftleaders isn’t clear yet, but Mamata hassent a strong political signal.
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BJP’s National President Amit Shah ischallenging the Opposition leaders
to debates. Shah’s challenge has beenaccepted, but the question is how will
the debates be conducted and who willspeak on behalf of Shah? Will Shahengage in verbal duel with theOpposition leaders? There are manycountries where election debates areconducted. In India, they are organisedonly in the JNU at the time of studentunion elections, where all candidatesput forward their viewpoints. Now, ifShah has thrown down the gauntlet tothe Opposition parties on the issue ofdevelopment, then why shouldn’t thedebates be held before elections?
Recently, Shah addressed thePurvanchal Mahakumbh Rally in Delhi,where he declared that he was ready fora debate with CM Arvind Kejriwal onthe issue of development. Kejriwal thenasked him to decide the time of thedebate, but the BJP didn’t reply. If Shahand Kejriwal are indeed ready, what’sstopping them from a debate?
After a few days, Shah challengedthe Congress President Rahul Gandhi,saying they should have a debate on theissue of development. The Congressalso accepted the challenge, but nodebate took place. This was followed bya slew of suggestions on social mediaon the model and way to conduct thedebates. Many people said Sambit Patrashould be sent for the debate on behalfof the BJP, so it won’t matter whocomes from the Opposition’s side.
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What will the leader of SuheldevBharatiya Samaj Party — the
alliance partner of the BJP in UP — OPRajbhar do? The BJP leaders are keepinga hawkish eye on him in the same waythey are tracking Upendra Kushwaha inBihar. Both leaders have been the BJP’strump cards against Yadav politics in thetwo States. But as of now, they are nothappy with the BJP. Sources say Rajbharmight make a big announcement at theend of this month. He is gearing up for apolitical function on October 27, wherehe will revive the demand for reserva-tion. He wants the MBC category to becreated within the OBC category, so thatbackward castes can benefit.
Before this, he had been raisingother issues, such as corruption in theYogi Government. Although he is a partof that very Government, he says workin his constituency has been stuck dueto corruption. Now, he has starteddemanding reservation within reserva-tion. In the meantime, he also doesn’tmiss any opportunity to heap praises onthe Opposition parties, which couldexplain the BJP’s apprehensiveness.However, this is also being said that hecan break his relationship with the BJPon October 27. Though this is also truethat he is awaiting the results of fiveStates, just like Kushwaha.
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What will the Government do withthe 40 lakh people left out of the
Assam National Register of Citizens(NRC) final draft, which was released onJuly 31? The correction process, whichcommenced on September 28, will con-tinue till November 23. Documentsapproved by the court and NRCRegistrar are being accepted afresh andwill be investigated subsequently.According to speculation, post-investiga-tion, maximum four to five lakh nameswill be added to the NRC list. Even afterthat, 30 to 35 lakh people will still be offthe list, giving them the tag of illegalimmigrants from Bangladesh. WhileAmit Shah is calling them termites,claiming they would be thrown out ofthe country, there is news that India haspromised Bangladesh that no oneexcluded from the NRC would be sentback to that country. Such claims arebeing made by only Bangladeshi leaders,but they are naming the top leaders ofour country. HT Imam, political advisorof Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina, toldjournalists at Dhaka that PM Modi hadassured Hasina that no one would besent back from India. Elections are duein Bangladesh in the next few months, soit is possible that Imam’s statement ispolitically motivated.
Some days ago, Sayeed Najib Ul Haj, a
prominent leader in the BangladeshGovernment, also said that the top leader-ship of India had promised that no onewould be sent back to Bangladesh. Hesaid Minister of State for Home AffairsKiren Rijiju had assured him that all thesepeople are a part of the Indian economyand would be taken care of. Now thequestion is if no one would be sent back,then what’s the point of the NRC?
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Till date, only the Congress had beenup in arms against the Rafale deal.
The entire Opposition has not been unit-ed on this, like it was on the Bofors scan-dal. But now, the Left parties have decid-ed to hold an agitation against it. TheLeft has also decided to organise JanAdalats where experts on Rafale andother strategic issues will be invited.Some former Army officers will also becalled to give minute details of the deal.
The Congress had been focusing onthe Rafale price and Anil Ambani’s com-pany, which had been included as an offset partner. Now, it is being said thatthe Left will raise other minute issues.Meanwhile, questions are also beingraised on S-40, a deal with Russia, and itsoffset partner. But it’s not clear whetherthe Left will raise this issue. The Left isall set to hold protests against the deal inthe country after the Jan Adalats.
AHalloween decoration hanging inthe window of a North Dakota
home is so scary that it promptedcalls from concerned neighbours andat least one plea for police assistance.The sign reading “Help Me,” whichappears to be written in blood, is part of Becky Muhs’ display for her favorite holiday at herWest Fargo home.
WDAY-TV reports thatMuhs and herhusband begangetting mes-sages fromneighboursover theweekendasking if they were OK,and one neighbour evendialed 911, leading to avisit from a police offi-cer. Muhs says the inci-dent ended in a laughand that the officerdidn’t ask her to takethe sign down.
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AMichigan man curious about a rockhe’d used for decades as a doorstop
now knows its secret: it’s a meteoriteworth $100,000. In fact, the nearly 23-pound hunk of iron and nickel is the
sixth largest meteorite found inMichigan, according to theSmithsonian Museum and
Central Michigan University.David Mazurek said he took his
doorstop to the university forexamination after seeing
reports in January ofmeteorite piecesselling for thou-sands of dollars. “Isaid, ‘Wait a
minute. I wonder how much mineis worth,’” Mazurek said.
University Geology ProfessorMona Sirbescu first identified
the piece as more than just arock. She then sent two smallslices of the rock to theSmithsonian for confirmation.“I could tell right away that
this was something special,” shesaid. “It’s the most valuable spec-
imen I have everheld in my life,monetarily andscientifically.”
Mazurek saidthe meteorite camewith a barn he bought in 1988 inEdmore. He said the farmer who soldhim the property told him it landed inhis backyard in the 1930s.
“The story goes that it was collect-ed immediately after they witnessedthe big boom and the actual meteoritewas dug out from a crater,” Sirbescusaid. More tests are being conductedto see if the meteorite contains rareelements. “What typically happenswith these at this point is that mete-orites can either be sold and shown ina museum or sold to collectors andsellers looking to make a profit,”Sirbescu said.
The Smithsonian and a mineralmuseum in Maine are considering pur-chasing the specimen. Mazurek saidthat when he sells the meteorite, he’lldonate some of the money to the uni-versity. “I’m done using it as a doorstop.Let’s get a buyer!” Mazurek said.
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Around a thousand dogs and their owners
marched on Britain’s parlia-ment on Sunday demanding an end to Brexit via a second vote on theterms of the country’s exit from theEuropean Union. Organisers of the so-called “Wooferendum” cam-paign argued that animals would suffer from leaving the EU, sayingthere would be a shortage of vets and a rise in pet food costs.
Bulldogs, both English and Frenchbreeds, were among those walkedthrough central London to ParliamentSquare. One grey Schnauzer wore ahomemade banner declaring “Brexit’sBarking Mad”.
The march backed a wider cam-paign for a ‘People’s Vote’ on Brexit, atwhich Britons would have the chanceto vote on whatever Brexit deal PrimeMinister Theresa May is able to bringback from Brussels.
At several ‘Pee Stations’ along theroute, dogs were encouraged to urinateon images of Brexiteers like formerforeign minister Boris Johnson and ex-
UK Independence Party leader NigelFarage — key faces in the 2016 Brexitreferendum campaign.
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AWashington state karaokehost is raising money for
breast cancer awareness bysinging the same GarthBrooks song for 36 hoursstraight. CliffSatterwhite, a Seattle-area karaoke host, saidhe is raising moneyfor the Real MenWear Pink breastcancer awarenesscampaign and mark-ing October’s BreastCancer AwarenessMonth by holding aone-man 36-hourkaraoke session with“Friends in Low Places” asthe only song. This willmark Satterwhite’s fourthmarathon karaokefundraiser.
“My attempt will feature onesinger, one song, no sleep breaks
and only a 2-5 minutebreak between songs forwater, food and bath-
room, that’s really whatsets it apart,” he told
KCPQ-TV. “The last threeyears have taught me so much
in terms of preparation,pace and when and
what to eat. I’velearned those areall key factors inthe success ofthis event.”
The goal ofthe attempt,which beganTuesday atStars Bar andGrill in Federal
Way and isscheduled to end
around noonWednesday, is to raise
at least $10,000 for thebreast cancer awarenesscampaign.
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Taylor Swift has made her firstforay into US politics, publiclyendorsing two Democrats for
the upcoming midterm elections,while aligning herself to fight forLGBTQ rights, gender equity, and anend to the “terrifying, sickening andprevalent” racism in the US. “In thepast I’ve been reluctant to publiclyvoice my political opinions, but dueto several events in my life and in theworld in the past two years, I feelvery differently about that now,”Swift wrote on social media onSunday night, in a plea for her youngfans to register and vote. The postaccrued 360,000 Instagram likeswithin the first hour.
“I always have and always will castmy vote based on which candidate willprotect and fight for the human rightsI believe we all deserve in this country.I believe in the fight for LGBTQrights, and that any form of discrimi-nation based on sexual orientation orgender is WRONG. I believe that thesystemic racism we still see in thiscountry towards people of color is ter-rifying, sickening and prevalent.
“I cannot vote for someone who
will not be willing to fight for dignityfor ALL Americans, no matter theirskin color, gender or who they love.”
In the post she backs Democratsin the key state of Tennessee, sayingshe “cannot support” MarshaBlackburn, the Republican candidatefor the Senate who was endorsed byDonald Trump last week, and hasvoted with Trump almost all the time.(“I’m politically incorrect and proud ofit,” the arch conservative said in her2017 Senate announcement video.)
When the Royal SwedishAcademy of Sciences inStockholm announced the
Nobel prize for physics this week,anyone wanting to find out moreabout one of the three winners wouldhave drawn a blank on Wikipedia.Until around an hour and a half afterthe award was announced on Tuesday,the Canadian physicist DonnaStrickland was not deemed significantenough to merit her own page on theuser-edited encyclopedia. The over-sight has once again highlighted themarginalisation of women in scienceand gender bias at Wikipedia.
Strickland is an associate profes-sor of physics and astronomy at theUniversity of Waterloo and formerpresident of the Optical Society, butwhen a Wikipedia user attempted tocreate a profile for her in March, thepage was denied by a moderator.“This submission’s references do notshow that the subject qualifies for aWikipedia article,” said the moderator.
Soon after Tuesday’s announce-ment, however, the Wikipedia com-munity scrambled to build up a pro-file, completing sections on her
research, biography and her awards.But the belated recognition contrastedwith that afforded to Strickland’s col-league Gérard Mourou — with whomshe shared the award — who had aWikipedia page in 2005. Stricklandshared the award with Mourou andArthur Ashkin for their work on pulselasers — widely viewed as a precursorto precise machining and lasersurgery. She is the first woman to winthe award since it went to MariaGoeppert-Mayer in 1963.
Australian researchers say theyhave developed a new tool thatcould help students cramming
for exams — a font that helps thereader remember information.Melbourne-based RMIT University’sbehavioural business lab and designschool teamed up to create “SansForgetica”, which they say uses psy-chological and design theories to aidmemory retention. About 400 univer-sity students have been involved in astudy that found a small increase inthe amount participants remembered— 57 per cent of text written in SansForgetica compared with 50 per centin a plain Arial. Typography lecturerStephen Banham said the font had anunusual seven-degree back slant to theleft and gaps in each letter. “The mindwill naturally seek to complete thoseshapes and so by doing that it slowsthe reading and triggers memory,”
Banham told the Guardian.Senior marketing lecturer Janneke
Blijlevens said the concept of “desir-able difficulty” underpinned the font’sdesign. “When we want to learnsomething and remember it, it’s goodto have a little bit of an obstructionadded to that learning process becauseif something is too easy it doesn’t cre-ate a memory trace,” she told theGuardian. “If it’s too difficult, it does-n’t leave a memory trace either. So youneed to look for that sweet spot.”
The font was designed with year12 students cramming for exams inmind but could also be used to helppeople studying foreign languages andelderly people grappling with memoryloss. Blijlevens is keen to test the fontin other contexts such as proofread-ing. Banham, who has created about20 fonts, said the typeface would bebest used for short texts.
Michael Caine has writtena self-help book,although he’s never readone himself — heprefers thrillers. “Len
Deighton, that sort of stuff.” He has alsonever seen a therapist. “I think youhave to be mad to have therapy!” Helaughs, looks at me, waits for the joketo land. I laugh too. He is Sir MichaelCaine, after all — 85 years old,Hollywood icon, star of films like TheIpcress File, Alfie, Get Carter, The ItalianJob and A Muppet Christmas Carol, andmore than 100 others, with a voice sofamous that it is used in talking birth-day cards. He is also charming, goodcompany, and although his hair isdowny and his eyes rheumy, he still hascharisma. “No,” he says, serious now. “Iwould never go and see a psychiatristmyself. Because I’ve sorted myself out. Iwon’t say I don’t believe in psychologybecause I don’t know anything about it,and obviously it has done a great dealof good for a lot of people, so it is avalid thing, but…”
In many ways he’s right; he has sort-ed himself out. He’s self-made in thepurest sense, surviving slums andtrenches, pushbacks and heartbreaks,failure, discrimination, alcoholism andgrief. He has strived, thrived, succeeded— professionally and personally. He’swon two Oscars (and been nominatedfor six), he’s been married for 45 years,he’s got a big house in the country and apenthouse apartment in London’sChelsea Harbour — which is where wemeet, sitting at the far end of a vast din-ing table, the shelves crowded with pho-tographs of him and his grandchildren,him being knighted by the Queen, himand his wife Shakira on his 38th birth-day, cutting a massive pavlova.
Blowing the Bloody Doors Off: AndOther Lessons in Life is Caine’s thirdmemoir. He has also written analmanac of surprising facts called NotMany People Know That and a thrillerabout a terrorist attack involving aplane flying into a skyscraper, con-ceived before 9/11 and consigned to thedrawer thereafter. This new book isostensibly a how-to guide for movieactors. There are sections about block-ing and learning lines, being on timeand always remembering to carry apencil. But really it is about how toovercome adversity, offering personalanecdotes interwoven with homespun
wisdom such as, “It doesn’t matterwhere you start…”
Michael Caine was born MauriceMicklewhite Jr in 1933, the son of acharlady and a Billingsgate Market fishporter. The family lived in a two-roomflat, “with no electric light, no fridge,kino inside loo, no hot water”, and as ayoung boy Caine had to wear surgicalboots after contracting rickets. Hisfather gambled on the horses and Cainerecalls being three years old, totteringdown the stairs to answer the door tothe debt collectors. The book is redolentwith this sort of detail, but for Caine theprocess was not a Knausgårdianunspooling of deep memory, as he satthere with his green pad and felt-tippen, writing his life in capital letters.
His past is part of his mythology,and as such you get the sense that thiswas all set down and solidified longago, stories told and retold. “I have amemory like a computer. I rememberevery detail of everything about every-thing,” he says. During the SecondWorld War, Caine was evacuated, firstto a family who locked him in the cup-board under the stairs, Harry Potter-style. He was rescued by his motherand they moved, with his youngerbrother Stanley, to a farm in Norfolkwhere there were fresh milk and eggs,pheasants to shoot and rabbits to hunt.Caine was cured of rickets and wassoon towering over his 5ft 1in mother.
“I was six when the war broke out,and although it was a tragedy for theworld, it was the best thing that everhappened to me,” he says. The teacherin the local school saw his potential,tutoring him to win a scholarship to agrammar school, and instilling in him alifelong love of reading. After the war,the Micklewhites returned to south-eastLondon and the luxury of a prefabricat-ed council flat. Caine didn’t like school,but he did like acting at the local youthclub and he loved cinema. “I lived inthe cinema. I grew up watchingAmerican movies because I never sawanyone like me in British movies,except as some kind of gangster, a killeror a scumbag.”
The England of Caine’s youth wasdefined by class. “It used to be harmfulbecause it kept people, as they used tosay, ‘in their place’.”’ But Caine didn’twant to follow his father’s path; hewanted to be an actor. First, though, hehad to do two years of national service.
After eight weeks of army training, hejoined the occupation force in Berlin in1951. Then he served in Korea. Thiswas, he says, one of the toughest trialsof his life: Rat-infested trenches, nightsspent in no man’s land, thinking he wasgoing to be killed. But for all the terrorand horror, it was in Korea that he dis-covered that he wasn’t a coward; that ifhe was attacked, he would fight back.
He returned to London and, after adispiriting stint in a butter factory, got ajob in a repertory theatre in Horsham,West Sussex, being paid “two pound 10 aweek”. But he didn’t care how bad themoney was. “I just wanted to become thebest actor I could possibly be. There wereno thoughts of fame or riches or stardombecause I knew, and a million people toldme, that was absolutely impossible.” Henever gave up, even though he was toldagain and again that he would nevermake it, he didn’t look right, he didn’tspeak right. He never gave up, evenwhen he fainted on stage during a pro-duction of Wuthering Heights, from cere-bral malaria contracted in Korea. Henever gave up, even after he got marriedto an actor called Patricia Haines andhad a baby, Dominique, and life was sotough on their tiny actors’ incomes thatthe marriage failed, and, “young andbroke and desperate”, he walked out onhis family when his daughter was onlyeight months old.
In the book, he admits that he wasnot the father to Dominique that heshould have been, or indeed the hus-band he should have been, but has triedto make it up to his daughter in theintervening years. They have a relation-ship now, she raises horses and doesn’thave any children.
Caine had been working for nearlya decade when he got his break in thefilm Zulu, in which, surprisingly, heplays a lieutenant rather than a private.This only happened, he says, becausethe director, Cy Endfield, wasAmerican. England was then strictlystratified, but by the 1960s that socialorder was being challenged by a newgeneration of actors, writers, directors,artists, musicians and fashion design-ers. Caine was part of that revolution,most notably with his performance inAlfie, about the amoral adventures of acockney-about-town.
“None of us changed any-thing on our own, weall changed it togeth-
er; and we were really lucky to have thewriters, like Harold Pinter and JohnOsborne. Before them, no one hadwritten anything about the workingclass.” Caine has of course played manynon-cockneys; most recently FredBallinger, a classical-music composer,in Paolo Sorrentino’s Youth. But he con-tinues to be cast to type — his latestrole is as Brian Reader, the criminalpensioner who masterminded the 2015Hatton Garden heist, in the new filmKing of Thieves. And class is still anissue for actors.
By the 1970s, Caine was an interna-tional star. He had achieved so muchmore than he had ever thought possi-ble. And yet he was drinking more thana bottle of vodka a day. “Just a littledrop of vodka after breakfast. It was thetension. I drank to calm myself.” He istrying to be blasé, like this wasn’t aproblem, wasn’t indicative of anythingdeeper, and in those days a tot of vodkaafter breakfast might not have beenconsidered so unusual. “It was Shakirawho came along and stopped all that,so I really owe my life to her.”
He is a happy man, who enjoys thethree grandchildren who visit him athis house in Surrey most weekends,who likes to spend spare moments onhis own, gardening and cooking. He isstill being offered parts, although thelast two were both based in retirementhomes. The only real sadness for himnow is the fact that so many of hisdear friends are dead, people likeRoger Moore, who was, he says, sec-ond only to Shakira in the nicenessstakes. And his Mayfair Orphans, agroup that included Johnny Gold, theowner of Tramp nightclub, photogra-pher Terry O’Neill and tailor DougieHayward. “There were about 12 of us,and now there are only a few left. Wemeet every week. The value of theones who are left is so great.”
I ask him for one last piece of wis-dom — how he deals with grief, a sub-ject he has more experience of thanmost. This is the one time in the inter-view when he pauses, when he hasn’t gotthe funny line or an anecdote. He lookslike he might cry. “The way to managegrief is to get it all out. There are peoplearound you who need you. So I grieveterribly but for a very short time —
because you’ve got to moveon, you’ve got to survive.”
Iam talking about human bodies. Just likewe, souls, are parts of God (Gita 15.7),our bodies are parts of the material cre-
ation of God. A soul can reach the highestpeak of liberation and Vaikuntha. And, ahuman body can perform amazing some-times quite unbelievable feats. The follow-ing examples will illustrate what I mean.
Let me begin with Shri RamakrishnaParamhansa. He looked upon the Deity ofgoddess Kali as his mother and the motherof the universe. He used to spend a lot oftime in samadhi. One day God appeared infront of him in the form of Adi Shakti andhe immediately felt a strong bond towardsGod’s Kali form. How many of us have suchfortune of having darshan of God in per-son? But due to Shri Ramakrishna’s totaldevotion towards God’s deity form, he wasblessed like very few are.
The next example is of SwamiVivekananda. He did know fear. When hewas informed that he had been accepted asa delegate to speak at the ChicagoParliament, he was courageous. He spoke infront of a crowd of seven thousandalthough coming from a poor country likeIndia and speaking about Hinduism.
Socrates is my third example. At somepoint in his life, he had the realisation thathe was a soul, not a material body. Thismade him very courageous. When he wassentenced to death because of propagatingsomething his peers could not accept, that
is being very different from what theybelieved, he was sentenced to death bydrinking a mixture of poison hemlock. Hedrank it without hesitation.
Einstein is my fourth example. He was atheoretical physicist, who developed thetheory of relatively, one of the two pillars ofmodern physics. He died in 1955 but histheory has not been challenged even todaywith so much research going on with suchadvanced equipment and facilities. Einsteindidn’t have the benefit of these.
Bill Gates is my next example. He is anAmerican business magnet, investor, author,philanthropist, humanitarian, and principalfounder of Microsoft Corporation. Hewished to give charity unlimitedly.Therefore, God gave him enormous wealth.He has so far given $35 billion to charity.
The last example is of LataMangeshkar. She began singing activelyin 1942. She has recorded thousands of
songs in many languages. These are solo,duet and chorus backed.
These are topmost examples but thereare millions of other examples of personswho have done wonders. What makes themqualified to do so? These are some of thequalities. One should have one or more ofthese. A link with God is at the top of thelist. If God is pleased with someone, there ispractically no limit to what one can achieve.There must be a strong/deep desire forsomething. There should be purity of heart.One must be a very good person. He or shemust have public welfare uppermost inmind like Bill Gates has, who has givenaway fruits of his labour to others.
God gives such persons exceptionalbodies. They have sharp intelligence, muchmore than an average person possesses.Their minds are controlled, which is notnormally the case. They are blessed withgreat memory. They have tremendous senseof doing the right things. Needless to say,they have remarkable abilities. God givesthem opportunities galore.
So what is the conclusion? Both thesoul and the human body have greatpotential. A soul, as mentioned earlier,can achieve the ultimate goal. Similarly, ifwe are deserving we will be given bodies,in which the sky is the limit to what wecan achieve materially.
Te Amo is a popular phrase that is used in manylanguages to express the feeling of passionatelove to somebody. “I love you” in English is Te
Amo in three languages namely Italian, Spanish andMexican. Incidentally, Te Amo is a popular Italiansong, too, that was released in 1977. And yes, Te Amois also part of a Hindi song from the film Dum MaroDum. Te Amo or I love you is then a universal feelingin some form or the other. But why Te Amo? That isthe question. We often wonder what is the power thatdrives the world. It is this issue that often stirs thehuman mind that tries to find the answer in God,Nature or even Boson or the Bose particle as probableforces that seem to drive this world. But is that so?Famous Physicist and the man who gave the Principleof Lever, Archimedes is supposed to have once said —give me a place to stand and I shall move the earth.Maybe, he could have if he had found the place tostand. But why in the first place will someone want tomove the earth. There has to be some very strong rea-son, some intense motive powerful enough to drivesomeone to that level of craziness. It is this motive thatdrives this world. And this motive is love. Passionatelove. It is the power of the love that made Adam defyGod’s diktat to please Eve. It was this love that pushedLord Rama to run behind the Golden deer to fulfillSita’s desire. It is this love that we find magnified in thelegend of Radha and Krishna. It is this love that givessomeone a reason to do all those things that are seem-ingly impossible. The story of the Mountain Man,Dashrath Manjhi of Bihar in India, is that great saga oflove that drove an individual to single-handedly to cre-ate a passage through a mountain with only a hammerand a chisel. From Psychologists to ManagementGurus have all tried to find answers to the basic ques-tion what motivates. Yet, they have failed to realize thisbasic truth that Love is the greatest motivator. Thepower that drives human beings to action. Little won-der mystic Indian Saint Kabir had said that the worldhas not been able to acquire knowledge despite readingvolumes of thick texts. Only those who understand thelanguage of love can become knowledgeable. Lovegives compassion and compassion gives power to sus-tain. If someone wants to understand the force thatdrives this world he needs to understand love. And thebest explanation is given, again by Kabir, in thefamous couplet that says that love is not grown in thefarm lands, not is it sold in the market place. Anyonewho wants it, be it the king or the pauper, has to offerhis head to obtain it. The meaning is that whosoeverwants love must shun his ego. Love is spiritual andnot a material thing. It is driven by the heart not thehead. Philosopher J Krishnamurthy says that love isthe only force that can end insanity, hatred and vio-lence from this world. Love always seeks to give. Itnever desires to take.The world runs on the wheels oflove. Rightly did Mozart, the famous music composer,say: “Love is the soul of the genius.”
How do you respond whenfaced with a setback inlife? How do you copewith change and disrup-tion around you? How do
you respond to challenges? Do you livein the present or while away your timeworrying about the future? Responsesto the above questions determinewhether or not you are poised for suc-cess in life and whether or not youpossess the ‘seventh sense of optimism’.The Power of Positivity: Optimism andthe Seventh Sense, a book authored byrenowned academician, leader and lifecoach, Dr Padmakali Banerjee is notonly a riveting read but also serves as a‘tool’ to develop this coveted seventhsense. It helps in completely transform-ing the readers’ lives .
The book analyses different facetsof optimism, providing a solid theoret-ical framework to measure the level ofoptimism in an individual’s life. It alsooffers a comprehensive approach thatcan be used to develop optimism and apositive mindset, which is a prerequi-site to leading a happy and fulfilled life.It brings us closer to the highest psy-chological need of human beings —‘self -actualisation’.
The book is divided into seveninteresting chapters that have catchytitles. The second chapter, titled“Knock the ‘t’ off of can’t” offers sto-ries from the lives of people likeGautama Buddha, RabindranathTagore, Mohandas KaramchandGandhi, and Swami Vivekananda.They evidence that the “highest levelof optimism inculcates a sense of loveand compassion in all human beings”.All success stories have one thing incommon — an underlying sense ofoptimism and hope to make a massivechange in whatever domain one isinvolved in. The author points outthat there is plenty of research-backedevidence which proves that “an opti-mist disposition of people helps themto anticipate positive outcomes abouteverything.” It eventually helps inensuring longevity of life, faster recov-ery from illness, better quality ofsleep, high immunity levels, gracefulaging and better survival rate of ter-minally ill patients.
The most important section of thebook is where the author unveils herinnovative method conceptualised formeasuring the seventh sense of opti-mism through a robust frameworkcalled PEROMA that creates a mecha-nism for reviewing, measuring,enhancing and sustaining optimism asan attitude for an organisation’s or anindividual’s success. The frameworkuses ‘Optimism Index’ (Oi 1.1) — a powerful psychometric tool andOAM model — which reveals a step-by-step process to improve self-efficacy and to predict success.
PEROMA is a framework whichdenotes various dimensions of opti-mism. It stands for Positive Emotion,Relationship network, Meaningfulnessand Achievement. The test to calculatethe Optimism Index includes 60 itemsmeasuring various dimensions of thePEROMA framework. Thus, besidesthe overall score of optimism, whichranges from (100-300), Oi computesscores on the six dimensions of thePEROMA framework.
A significant and ground-breakingcontribution of the psychometric test,Optimism Index is used by the authorto classify all individuals into ten cate-gories based on the different bands oftheir scores. The categories given bythe author are aptly based on the criti-cal skills required for success in mod-ern professional life. These are:Collaborator, entrepreneur, energetics,synergist, networker, analyst, innova-tor, go-getter, expert and most impor-tantly, a leader. These categories aresuch which emphasise a particularaspect of the individual’s personalitybased on elements of PEROMA. Forexample, out of the ten categories, if aperson falls under ‘Collaborator’ — heor she indicates ‘high’ levels of compe-tence under Relationship Network ofPEROMA.When an individual wouldreceive this type of complete profilingin the test report, it would helphim/her to understand behaviour andidentify the core strength that can helpmaximise his/her potential. Therequired help for the process is alsoprovided in a step-by-step guide elabo-rated through the OAM model. Thiscompletes the picture for someone
who can identify the lacunas in one’spersonality and understand its theoret-ical basis. It gets hand holding to sig-nificantly change the attitude anddevelop the seventh sense.
Human beings are the most pow-erful resource in the world. In today’sworld full of uncertainty with techno-logical disruptions at mind bogglingpace, only those countries/organisa-tions can succeed which continuouslywork towards developing the humancapital. Organisations have to give thatcongenial environment, opportunitiesfor training and development to theirhuman capital through which they canstrive to reach their highest potential.
This book offers the solution toorganisation’s problems as they canscreen the applicants on basis of thetest scores to identify an individual’spositive/ negative attributes of person-ality. It also helps individuals as thescores would help one to identify one’score strength so that their potential canbe maximised. The OAM Model isagain a pioneering method based onsolid research by the author who is atrained psychologist. It has six stepswhich need to be followed in order tomove closer towards having the sev-enth sense in us. The power of themodel and this step-by-step approachlies in the fact that an individual canpractice it on his own with some inter-ventions by trained personnel duringthe initial stages. In order to illustratethis fact, the author elucidates severalcase studies where these interventionsworked in the lives of people.
Among the many facets of OAM,Dr. Banerjee says that “Mindful medi-tation” is the most effective tool inreinforcing our beliefs and dealingwith inner conflicts”. Her passion andbelief in the supremacy of mindfulmeditation to bring “one’s attention tooccurrences in the present moment asthey occur to oneself” is evident in thebook. In our struggle to be successful,we often fail to realise that the ultimateaim of life is to be ‘happy’ — now andalways. Dr Banerjee’s book shakes us tothe core to remind us that “Every timeyou are happy, you win.”
Durga Puja festivity is midwaythrough. I wish the seeker’sendeavours prove to be rewarding.
This festivity is dedicated to the epitomeof ‘Shakti’, Mother Goddess Durga. At theoutset, let me make it clear, ‘Shakti’ shouldnot be equated with ‘Energy’ as we ordi-narily understand. Energy is just a force,which doesn’t have an expressed intent inits own right. If not directed a particularway, it may hit upon whatever comes itsway. On the contrary, intrinsic to Shakti isconsciousness, which makes it self-intelli-gent. That is how Shakti-s emanatingfrom the ‘Primal-source, involuntarily fol-lowed an orderly course of progressiveevolution, which eventually culminated inthe manifest plural world. Had naturewith its huge network of field players (TheShakti-s) been devoid of self-intelligence,they would not have been in harmonyand balance. But for which, the worldwould not have sustained for so long.
Consciousness element is supposedlyeternal, all-pervading, incorruptible, andall-knowing. Its versatility is such that itmanifests varied ways on different sets ofexistences as per their individualisticneed. Plants and vegetable world havejust the touch sensation. Worms arebelieved to have touch and taste sensation.
Smelling sense gets added on to an ant.Bees have sight sensation also. All the fivesenses — smell, touch, taste, sight, andhearing — are manifest in higher animalsand human beings, but with a difference.All existences live or inert, but forhuman beings, are bound by their prede-fined design parameters, with no scopeto make any exception. They just goabout by their natural flow, and there-fore, don’t need to work upon to enhancetheir indwelling potential. Humanbeings, on the contrary, could guide theiractions by choice and discrimination.
With choice option in hand, sense ofduality comes into play, as is evident inthe making of human mind. That is whatmakes us take varying stance over thesame issue. We may react and respond toexternal prompting different ways. Alsoself-excite conflicting thoughts andremain stuck to them for long. We arearmed with discriminatory ability to fil-ter off the undesirables and pick up theright lead. The paradox, however, is thatthe faculty of discriminate intelligencedoesn’t come into play involuntarily. Itneeds to be consciously invoked. Theirony, however, is that caught up in theusual mills of life, we lose the sense ofalert needed to bring into play our dis-
criminatory abilities. Even more sobecause of our individualistic ego.
Here again, the probability of use andmisuse of choice option remains equal.And there is nothing like free lunch inthis world. So, one has to bear with theconsequences of good or bad choicesmade, with carryover effect stretchingeven to posterity, as we are bound by acause-effect chain. The impressionsthereof, particularly negative emotions,add to a heavy baggage carried over fromthe past. These thought-imprints keep ustoo much involved in our inner world.So, mind is hardly left with the spaceneeded to objectively process ourthoughts. Over a period of time one getsfatigued, stressed, and hardly left with thespirit need to carry on the productiveaspirations in right earnest.
The problem gets even more com-pounded during the current phase of theyear, as Sun that nourishes and sustainsus with its vital energy remains at itslowest ebb. For, it closes up with westernhorizon coinciding with southern hemi-sphere. It, therefore, reaches the farthestpoint from the part of the globe we livein, which lies in northern hemisphereand towards the east.
We, therefore, need to periodicallyrejuvenate ourselves. It is pertinent to
note here that all about life is a play ofenergies. Even our thoughts are nothingbut energies playing within our mind.And, because of our dualistic nature, wecould use it either way — productively orunmindfully towards self-defeating ends.All the more, because even the weathercycle is undergoing transition from rainyseason to the winders. So, we also needto withstand the impact of seasonalchange and be well geared up to faceemerging challenges. It is with this endin view that Shardeya Navaratra has beentimed during this phase of the year.
During the nine-day prayer regime,we align our individual consciousnesswith the one inherent in the conceptunderlying Mother Goddess’s form. Inthe process, we rekindle our indwellingenergies, and raise our sense of alert. Ourconsciousness level gets considerablyraised during the process enabling us tojudiciously use the resources in hand —physical prowess, skillsets, and wisdom— towards productive ends.
