A Tunisian-born man zigzagged a truck through a crowd celebrating Bastille Day in the French city of Nice, killing at least 84 and injuring about 202 in what President Francois Hollande on Friday called a “terrorist” attack. The truck driver who mowed down at least 84 peo- ple in Nice, France, has been identified as Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel. French news website Nice-Matin.com gave the name of the 31-year- old French-Tunisian national who was behind the wheel of the truck that ploughed through Bastille Day revellers. One witness said a motor- cyclist tried to stop the rampage by drawing level with the truck and attempting to open the door of its cab before he fell and ended up under its wheels. Two children were confirmed among the dead and another 50 were being treated in hospital after the attack that left bodies strewn over the palm-lined Promenade des Anglais in the French Riviera resort. Some of the dead, covered with sheets, remained on the promenade in the bright sun on Friday. Two US citizens and a Ukrainian were among those killed, their countries said. Witnesses said the white truck drove at speed into a crowd over a distance of two kilometres (1.3 miles) after they had been watching a fire- works display on France’s national day. City authorities said on Friday that some 30,000 people had watched the display. Hollande has declared three days of mourning after the assault, as shell shocked. France found itself again mourning its dead after attacks on Charlie Hebdo magazine in January 2015 and the November 2015 massacre in Paris. “France was struck on its national day... The symbol of freedom,” said Hollande in a sombre televised address. The attack was of an “undeniable terrorist nature”, he said. Around 50 children were being treated at a paediatric hospital close to the scene of the attack. Some were “hanging between life and death,” a hos- pital official said. Related reports on P12 K ashmir Valley remained in the grip of turbulence on Friday as fanned by Pakistan and separatists, violent protests continued against the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen comman- der Burhan Wani on July 9 by the security forces. Till now 38 people have been killed and more than 350 people, including over 120 security force personnel have been injured in the clashes and militant attacks since last Friday. In continued violence on Friday, militants hurled a grenade at a police station in Kulgam district of south Kashmir killing a Constable and injuring eight policemen. A youth Mushtaq Ahmed, was also killed during a demonstra- tion in Dragmulla area of north Kashmir when the secu- rity forces fired to control a vio- lent mob. Several protesters were injured in the retaliatory firing. A police spokesman said hundreds of people attacked a police station in Kulgam dis- trict of south Kashmir after midday congregational prayers. “As policemen lobbed tear gas canisters to disperse the stone- throwing mob, militants hiding in the crowd first hurled a grenade and then fired from an AK-47 rifle at the policemen. A policeman, Mudassir Ahmad, was killed and six others were injured in the militant-and- mob attack,” he said. Earlier in the day, further needling India on the Kashmir issue, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif at a Cabinet meet- ing on Friday declared Burhan Wani a “martyr” and said July 19 will be observed as a “black day” to express “solidarity” with the people of Kashmir. Spurred by this, the sepa- ratists have issued a fresh cal- endar of protests in the Valley diminishing any chances of peace returning to the region anytime soon. Separatist groups that had called for a bandh on Friday have extended the shutdown till Monday evening and asked the people to observe July 19 as a “black day” as per the programme announced by the Pakistani Government. London: A heroic member of the public halted the truck involved in the Nice terror attack by leaping into the vehi- cle, wrestling with the driver and seizing his revolver, giving the police time to arrive at the spot and shoot the driver dead, a media report said. The Independent quoted police sources in Nice as con- firming that the murderous two kilometre charge of the lorry, driven by Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, 31, might have been even longer if it had not been for the courage of a member of the public. The man had hurled himself into the cab when the 20 tonne truck was held up by an obstruction. He wrestled with the driver, who seized a revolver and fired several shots at the man and at police officers who arrived on the scene. None was hurt. The driver was then shot dead by two officers, the police said. An eyewitness, Eric Ciotti, told the media that as people tried to flee from the truck, someone jumped in and was able to help the police kill the man. Nice: An eight-month-old baby boy lost in the chaos after a truck rammed into a crowd in the French Riviera city of Nice killing at least 84 people was tracked down through Facebook. Tiava Banner — who said she was not the mother of the baby — sent out an appeal on Facebook looking for any information on the where- abouts of the child who had been lost in his blue stroller when the rampaging truck sent hundreds fleeing in panic as they watched Bastille Day fireworks. The post was shared thou- sands of times until it was updated with, “Found! Thank you Facebook and all those who helped us.” A member of the family said, “A young woman found him and took him home with her. She then went online and found the photo of the baby on Facebook.” The woman then contact- ed the baby’s parents. Dozens of other people appealed through social media to find missing loved ones. “We are worried to death”, “We haven’t heard from him since he went to see the fireworks”, were some of the messages. AFP Bhubaneswar: A three-member BJP MP team formed by party national president Amit Shah on Friday visited Kandhamal district to probe the gruesome killing of five innocent tribals of Gumudumaha at Krutamgada in the district. The team comprising party vice-president Vinay Sahasrabuddhe and national secretaries Jyoti Dhurve and Ramvichar Netam arrived here around 1.15 pm before directly proceeding to Kandhamal. They would interact with family members of the deceased and the injured. Besides, they would make a study under what circumstances the tribals were killed. Some State party leaders too joined them in Kandhamal, according to sources. Of the three, Dhurve and Netam are tribal leaders. BJP sources said the team would submit a report to Shah on return to New Delhi. PNS Bhubaneswar: Congress MLAs led by Leader of Opposition Narasingha Mishra on Friday left for Kandhamal to visit the firing site at Gumudumaha, where five civilians were shot dead and many others injured allegedly in a crossfire during an anti-Maoist operation on July 8. “We will talk to the family members and rel- atives of the victims. Besides, we will also try to find out the rea- son behind the firing incident. We will also visit the site to know if the incident could have been avoided,” Mishra stated. He said he doesn’t believe that the SIT formed by the State Government would probe the incident rightly. “It is well-known that the probe panels, which have been formed by the State into various incidents, have delivered little. The Government has formed the SIT only to hood- wink people,” he said. Terming the Naveen Patnaik Government as anti-Adivasi, Mishra told reporters that as many as 41 trib- als have been killed during the last 16 years of the BJD rule. PNS U nion Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram on Friday urged Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Jagat Prakash Nadda to send a doctors’ team to assess the dengue and jaundice situation in the State. Oram met Nadda in New Delhi and dis- cussed about the epidemic situation in Keonjhar due to spread of jaundice and dengue. “I have received reports that more than 600 people are suffer- ing in Barbil town and its nearby areas in Keonjhar district. It has also affected another nine districts of Odisha.” “It may further spread to other areas in the State. Please send a team of doctors to assess the situation and for taking remedial mea- sures at the earliest,” Oram requested Nadda. Meanwhile, State Health and Family Welfare Minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak reviewed the dengue situation here on Friday. It was revealed that as many as 1,109 people have been suffer- ing from dengue positive across the State. Of them, 164 patients are undergoing treatment at various hospitals, including 127 in the SCB Medical College Hospital in Cuttack. In another development, the Cuttack Municipality Corporation (CMC) has issued show-cause notices to four units of the Jagatpur Industrial Estate seeking replies as to why they have not taken preventive measures like cleaning drive to check breeding of mosquitoes. Bhubaneswar: Union Minister of State for Health Faggan Singh Kulaste arrived here on Friday to review the dengue situation prevailing at various places across the State. Kulaste told reporters told reporters, “A Central team will visit dengue-affected areas soon to take stock of the situation.” Besides, Kulaste would visit the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) to attend its 4th foundation day and chair a health-related review meeting there on Saturday. T he Supreme Court-appoint- ed Special Investigating Team (SIT) on black money is likely to submit its fifth inter- im report to the apex court in the first week of August. This was informed by the SIT Deputy Chairman Justice Arijit Pasayat here on Friday. Briefing mediapersons after holding a meeting here at his residence, Justice Pasayat informed that at least 120 per- sons, whose names had appeared in the Panama Papers’ list, have already deposed before the SIT after they were issued notices. “Recording of state- ments of around 2 5 0 NRIs, whose names h a v e appeared in the list, is taking time,” he said. On recovery of black money, he informed that over Rs 133 crore of cash has now been recovered from three edu- cational institutions during last fortnight. He, however, did not disclose the names of the insti- tutions but went on to add that the SIT has now made certain recommendations to the Union Government for implementa- tion to tap the black money inside the country. After meeting the SIT Deputy Vhairman, Odisha DGP KB Singh informed that the State police would contin- ue its offensive against the organised crime syndicates in the State, which are mostly dealing with black money. He said he made some presenta- tions about it before the SIT Deputy Chairman. O ver 10 lakh devotees thronged Puri to witness the most decorative attire of the deities “Suna Vesha” on the Raths on Friday. As scheduled, a special set of servitors brought huge gold orna- ments and jewelleries from the temple treasury to the Raths amid tight secu- rity. Three separate sets of dressers took about one hour to dress Lord Balabhadra, Lord Jagannath and Devi Subhadra simultaneously on the three chariots. Gold ornaments of various types and styles weighing about 100 kg were used to decorate the deities in complete gold. The ornaments includ- ed giant limbs like feet, hands and insignias like mace, lotus, wheel and conch, besides huge gold tiaras and a number of special necklaces and gar- lands. The deities too wore big “kun- dalas”(earrings) in their earlobes and chest guards all made of gold. The darshan of the special Vesha would continue till late in the night. In the end, the ornaments would be returned to the temple treasury by the servitors on duty. The administration has thrown a three-layer security of armed person- nel around the three Raths during the Vesha. The residents, particularly residing alongside the Badadanda, were peeved at the faulty pilgrim movements inside the city who blocked almost all the roads and lanes con- necting to Badadanda. The residents were forced to go for circuitous routes. One way entry was enforced. While the devotees were allowed to enter into the city by NH 316, they exit- ed via Puri-Konark/Gop/Nimapara/ Pipili routes. The 1978 inventory of the Lords’ wealth in form of ornaments revealed that there are 367 items of gold orna- ments weighing four quintals and 251 items of silver ornaments weighing 14 quintals in use. Apart from these, there are precious ornaments studded with diamond, emerald, ruby and other pre- cious stones of rare quality and size. It is learnt that of total seven vaults of the temple treasury, only one was opened so far and the contents were in use of the deities. Meanwhile, the deities would spend one more night on the Raths for Adhar Pana, a ritual marking offering of a special drink in the chariots.
Transcript
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ATunisian-born manzigzagged a truck through
a crowd celebrating BastilleDay in the French city of Nice,killing at least 84 and injuringabout 202 in what PresidentFrancois Hollande on Friday
called a “terrorist” attack.The truck driver who
mowed down at least 84 peo-ple in Nice, France, has beenidentified as MohamedLahouaiej Bouhlel. Frenchnews website Nice-Matin.comgave the name of the 31-year-old French-Tunisian national
who was behind the wheel ofthe truck that ploughedthrough Bastille Day revellers.
One witness said a motor-cyclist tried to stop the rampageby drawing level with the truckand attempting to open thedoor of its cab before he fell andended up under its wheels. Two
children were confirmedamong the dead and another 50were being treated in hospitalafter the attack that left bodiesstrewn over the palm-linedPromenade des Anglais in theFrench Riviera resort.
Some of the dead, covered with sheets, remainedon the promenade in the brightsun on Friday. Two US citizensand a Ukrainian were amongthose killed, their countriessaid. Witnesses said the whitetruck drove at speed into acrowd over a distance of twokilometres (1.3 miles) afterthey had been watching a fire-works display on France’snational day. City authoritiessaid on Friday that some 30,000people had watched the display.
Hollande has declared threedays of mourning after theassault, as shell shocked. Francefound itself again mourning itsdead after attacks on CharlieHebdo magazine in January2015 and the November 2015massacre in Paris. “France wasstruck on its national day...The symbol of freedom,” saidHollande in a sombre televisedaddress. The attack was of an“undeniable terrorist nature”, hesaid. Around 50 children werebeing treated at a paediatrichospital close to the scene of theattack. Some were “hangingbetween life and death,” a hos-pital official said.
Related reports on P12
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Kashmir Valley remained inthe grip of turbulence on
Friday as fanned by Pakistanand separatists, violent protestscontinued against the killing ofHizbul Mujahideen comman-der Burhan Wani on July 9 bythe security forces.
Till now 38 people havebeen killed and more than 350people, including over 120 security force personnel havebeen injured in the clashes andmilitant attacks since last Friday.
In continued violence onFriday, militants hurled agrenade at a police station inKulgam district of southKashmir killing a Constableand injuring eight policemen. A youth Mushtaq Ahmed, wasalso killed during a demonstra-tion in Dragmulla area of north Kashmir when the secu-rity forces fired to control a vio-lent mob. Several protesterswere injured in the retaliatoryfiring.
A police spokesman said
hundreds of people attacked apolice station in Kulgam dis-trict of south Kashmir aftermidday congregational prayers.“As policemen lobbed tear gascanisters to disperse the stone-throwing mob, militants hidingin the crowd first hurled agrenade and then fired from anAK-47 rifle at the policemen. Apoliceman, Mudassir Ahmad,was killed and six others wereinjured in the militant-and-mob attack,” he said.
Earlier in the day, furtherneedling India on the Kashmirissue, Pakistani Prime MinisterNawaz Sharif at a Cabinet meet-
ing on Friday declared BurhanWani a “martyr” and said July19 will be observed as a “blackday” to express “solidarity” withthe people of Kashmir.
Spurred by this, the sepa-ratists have issued a fresh cal-endar of protests in the Valleydiminishing any chances ofpeace returning to the regionanytime soon. Separatist groupsthat had called for a bandh onFriday have extended the shutdown till Monday eveningand asked the people to observeJuly 19 as a “black day” as perthe programme announced bythe Pakistani Government.
������������������������������� ��!�"��#������!�����������������London: A heroic member ofthe public halted the truckinvolved in the Nice terrorattack by leaping into the vehi-cle, wrestling with the driverand seizing his revolver, givingthe police time to arrive at thespot and shoot the driver dead,a media report said.
The Independent quotedpolice sources in Nice as con-firming that the murderous twokilometre charge of the lorry,driven by Mohamed LahouaiejBouhlel, 31, might have beeneven longer if it had not beenfor the courage of a member of
the public.The man had hurled himself
into the cab when the 20 tonnetruck was held up by an obstruction. He wrestled with thedriver, who seized a revolver andfired several shots at the man andat police officers who arrived onthe scene. None was hurt. Thedriver was then shot dead by twoofficers, the police said.
An eyewitness, Eric Ciotti,told the media that as peopletried to flee from the truck, someone jumped in andwas able to help the police kill theman.
"�������������� �������������#��� ����!������Nice: An eight-month-oldbaby boy lost in the chaos aftera truck rammed into a crowdin the French Riviera city ofNice killing at least 84 peoplewas tracked down throughFacebook.
Tiava Banner — who saidshe was not the mother of thebaby — sent out an appeal onFacebook looking for anyinformation on the where-abouts of the child who hadbeen lost in his blue strollerwhen the rampaging trucksent hundreds fleeing in panicas they watched Bastille Dayfireworks.
The post was shared thou-sands of times until it wasupdated with, “Found! Thankyou Facebook and all thosewho helped us.”
A member of the familysaid, “A young woman foundhim and took him home withher. She then went onlineand found the photo of thebaby on Facebook.”
The woman then contact-ed the baby’s parents. Dozensof other people appealedthrough social media to findmissing loved ones. “We areworried to death”, “We haven’theard from him since he wentto see the fireworks”, weresome of the messages. AFP
Bhubaneswar: A three-memberBJP MP team formed by partynational president Amit Shah onFriday visited Kandhamal districtto probe the gruesome killing offive innocent tribals ofGumudumaha at Krutamgada inthe district.
The team comprising partyvice-president VinaySahasrabuddhe and nationalsecretaries Jyoti Dhurve andRamvichar Netam arrived herearound 1.15 pm before directly
proceeding to Kandhamal.They would interact with
family members of the deceasedand the injured. Besides, theywould make a study under whatcircumstances the tribals werekilled. Some State party leaderstoo joined them in Kandhamal,according to sources. Of thethree, Dhurve and Netam aretribal leaders.
BJP sources said the teamwould submit a report to Shahon return to New Delhi. PNS
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Bhubaneswar: Congress MLAsled by Leader of OppositionNarasingha Mishra on Friday leftfor Kandhamal to visit the firingsite at Gumudumaha, wherefive civilians were shot dead andmany others injured allegedly ina crossfire during an anti-Maoistoperation on July 8. “We will talkto the family members and rel-atives of the victims. Besides, wewill also try to find out the rea-son behind the firing incident.
We will also visit the site to knowif the incident could have beenavoided,” Mishra stated.
He said he doesn’t believethat the SIT formed by the StateGovernment would probe theincident rightly. “It is well-knownthat the probe panels, which havebeen formed by the State intovarious incidents, have deliveredlittle. The Government hasformed the SIT only to hood-wink people,” he said. Termingthe Naveen Patnaik Governmentas anti-Adivasi, Mishra toldreporters that as many as 41 trib-als have been killed during thelast 16 years of the BJD rule. PNS
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Union Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram on Friday urged UnionHealth and Family Welfare Minister Jagat Prakash Nadda to
send a doctors’ team to assess the dengue andjaundice situation in the State.
Oram met Nadda in New Delhi and dis-cussed about the epidemic situation in Keonjhardue to spread of jaundice and dengue.
“I have received reports that more than 600 people are suffer-ing in Barbil town and its nearby areas in Keonjhar district. It hasalso affected another nine districts of Odisha.”
“It may further spread to other areas in the State. Please senda team of doctors to assess the situation and for taking remedial mea-sures at the earliest,” Oram requested Nadda.
Meanwhile, State Health and Family Welfare Minister AtanuSabyasachi Nayak reviewed the dengue situation here on Friday.
It was revealed that as many as 1,109 people have been suffer-ing from dengue positive across the State. Of them, 164 patients areundergoing treatment at various hospitals, including 127 in the SCBMedical College Hospital in Cuttack.
In another development, the Cuttack MunicipalityCorporation (CMC) has issued show-cause notices to four unitsof the Jagatpur Industrial Estate seeking replies as to why theyhave not taken preventive measures like cleaning drive to checkbreeding of mosquitoes.
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Bhubaneswar: Union Minister of State for Health Faggan SinghKulaste arrived here on Friday to review the dengue situationprevailing at various places across the State.
Kulaste told reporters told reporters, “A Central team willvisit dengue-affected areas soon to take stock of the situation.”
Besides, Kulaste would visit the All India Institute of MedicalSciences (AIIMS) to attend its 4th foundation day and chair ahealth-related review meeting there on Saturday.
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The Supreme Court-appoint-ed Special Investigating
Team (SIT) on black money islikely to submit its fifth inter-im report to the apex court inthe first week of August.
This was informed by theSIT Deputy Chairman JusticeArijit Pasayat here on Friday.
Briefing mediapersonsafter holding a meeting here athis residence, Justice Pasayatinformed that at least 120 per-sons, whose names hadappeared in the PanamaPapers’ list, have alreadydeposed before the SIT after
they werei s s u e dn o t i c e s .“Recordingof state-ments ofa r o u n d2 5 0N R I s ,w h o s en a m e sh a v e
appeared in the list, is taking time,” he said.
On recovery of blackmoney, he informed that overRs 133 crore of cash has nowbeen recovered from three edu-cational institutions during last
fortnight. He, however, did notdisclose the names of the insti-tutions but went on to add thatthe SIT has now made certainrecommendations to the UnionGovernment for implementa-tion to tap the black moneyinside the country.
After meeting the SITDeputy Vhairman, OdishaDGP KB Singh informed thatthe State police would contin-ue its offensive against theorganised crime syndicates inthe State, which are mostlydealing with black money. Hesaid he made some presenta-tions about it before the SITDeputy Chairman.
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Over 10 lakh devotees thronged Purito witness the most decorative
attire of the deities “Suna Vesha” on theRaths on Friday.
As scheduled, a special set ofservitors brought huge gold orna-ments and jewelleries from the templetreasury to the Raths amid tight secu-rity. Three separate sets of dresserstook about one hour to dress LordBalabhadra, Lord Jagannath and DeviSubhadra simultaneously on the threechariots.
Gold ornaments of various typesand styles weighing about 100 kg
were used to decorate the deities incomplete gold. The ornaments includ-ed giant limbs like feet, hands andinsignias like mace, lotus, wheel andconch, besides huge gold tiaras and anumber of special necklaces and gar-lands. The deities too wore big “kun-dalas”(earrings) in their earlobes andchest guards all made of gold.
The darshan of the special Veshawould continue till late in the night. Inthe end, the ornaments would bereturned to the temple treasury by theservitors on duty.
The administration has thrown athree-layer security of armed person-nel around the three Raths during theVesha. The residents, particularlyresiding alongside the Badadanda,were peeved at the faulty pilgrimmovements inside the city who blockedalmost all the roads and lanes con-necting to Badadanda. The residents
were forced to go for circuitous routes.One way entry was enforced.
While the devotees were allowed toenter into the city by NH 316, they exit-ed via Puri-Konark/Gop/Nimapara/Pipili routes.
The 1978 inventory of the Lords’wealth in form of ornaments revealedthat there are 367 items of gold orna-ments weighing four quintals and 251items of silver ornaments weighing 14quintals in use. Apart from these, thereare precious ornaments studded withdiamond, emerald, ruby and other pre-cious stones of rare quality and size. Itis learnt that of total seven vaults of thetemple treasury, only one was openedso far and the contents were in use ofthe deities.
Meanwhile, the deities wouldspend one more night on the Raths forAdhar Pana, a ritual marking offeringof a special drink in the chariots.
attack on two UnionMinisters’ vehicles at Bargarhlast month to inquire andanalyse the genesis andsequence of the events leadingto the incident has begun.
The inquiry by RDC(Northern Division) BhaskarJyoti Sarma would also reportto the State Government onthe role, conduct and responsibility of persons lead-ing to the incident and time-ly and appropriate adminis-trative and police action orlapses, if any, the RDC's office
said in a Press note.The inquiry process has
started about three weeks afterthe attack on the convoys ofUnion Minister SantoshGangwar on June 24. BesidesGangwar, Union MinisterSadhvi Niranjan Jyoti andother senior BJP leaders wereon way to attend a partymeeting when BJD workersallegedly attacked their con-voys with stones in whichthree vehicles including that ofGangwar were damaged.
The terms of reference ofthe inquiry include analysis ofthe genesis and sequence ofevents leading to the incident;the role, conduct and respon-
sibility of persons leading to theincident and timely and appro-priate administrative and policeaction or lapses.
People who wish to fur-nish information on this canfile affidavit either in person orby post before the Secretary tothe RDC from July 16 to 19,the Press note said, adding thatthe affidavits submitted duringthis period can be verified byinterested persons on July 20and counter-affidavits may befiled on July 21.
Persons interested to giveoral evidence regarding theincident may do so before theRDC at Sambalpur on July 28during office hours, it said.
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Rural electrification in theState has been extended to
around 96 per cent of the vil-lages. This was ascertained at ahigh-level review meeting heldunder the chairmanship of ChiefSecretary Aditya Prasad Padhi atthe State Secretariat on Friday.
Energy Principal SecretaryRajesh Kumar Verma along
with Gridco CMD HemantKumar Sharma presented theupdates on the subject and out-lined the issues for discussion.
Reviewing the progressmade so far, the Chief Secretarydirected the officials to com-plete the programmed workswithin the stipulated time bycovering the left-out villagesand hamlets expeditiously.
The issues relating to forest
and wildlife clearances werediscussed and resolved at themeeting. The Government hasset a target to complete theworks by October-Novemberthis year. A universal access toelectricity has been targeted tobe accomplished by March 2017.
Available data showed thatout of 47,677 villages as perCensus, 2011, 45,236 villagesconstituting around 96 percent have got power connec-tivity by June 30. Out of the bal-ance 2,441 villages, 541 havebeen identified as uninhabitedvillages. A detail action plan has
been prepared to cover rest ofthe villages.
To have expeditious imple-mentation, the works havebeen allocated to the agencieslike PGCIL, OPTCL, OREDAand NTPC. Meanwhile,preparatory steps like detailedsurvey and preparation of theprojects, bidding, etc., havebeen expedited.
The OREDA has targetedto complete electrification of275 villages by November 2016.Out of this 198 villages wouldbe connected through micro-grid and 76 would be covered
through standalone solar pro-jects. Around 12,000 house-holds would be benefitedthrough this scheme. Similarly,PGCIL, NTPC and OPTCLhave expedited their works toelectrify 6,62,667 and 341 vil-lages and hamlets.
Forest and EnvironmentPrincipal Secretary SureshChandra Mohapatra, Scienceand Technology Secretary VenuGopal, CESU CEO SK Popil andOREDA CEO Roopa Mishra,along with other senior officersfrom respective departmentsparticipated in the deliberations.
The BJD, the Congress andthe BJP in Odisha have no
qualms about resorting to vio-lence when it comes to oppos-ing one another over issuesthese days.
Needless to say, the threemainstream parties are in a raceto grab power, now that theBJD has been in power for thelast 16 years and by no meanswants any rival to take over; theCongress remains power-hun-gry for all these years andwants to stage a comeback,while the ambitious BJP, anerstwhile ally of the BJD, slogsits guts out to wrest the seat notjust to avenge the BJD for terminating the alliance aftertwo terms but to cash in on theanti-incumbency factor against
a scam-ridden BJD.Veritably, the Bargarh
incident, in which the BJD supporters attacked the cars of two visiting UnionMinisters of the BJP, hasopened a can of worms. For thefirst time in the history ofOdisha, did two UnionMinisters face the wrath of theruling regional party whosmashed their cars and showedthem black flags. The scene wasunsavoury as it also led to ascuffle between the BJD andBJP supporters.
The BJP registered strongprotest against the BJD’s ‘streetfight’, while the BJD termed itas a manifestation of the pent-up anger of the local people against the CentralGovernment.
The fight, however, did notstop there and rather escalated
so much so that today the BJPis not tolerating the presence ofthe BJD Ministers in any partof the State and outside.
The BJP protestors areshowing black flags to each BJDMinisters wherever they arevisiting and the same antagonism was also foundwhen the saffron party menprotested two visiting BJDMinisters in Mumbai. It looksthe strategy of the BJD is repli-cated by the BJP as a means oftit-for-tat.
Though it was Congress’sLulu Mohapatra whose indoctrinated brigade set thebad precedent of attacking BJDMinisters’ cars by throwingeggs, which had for a time keptthe ruling party leaders ingreat consternation as theyfeared to visit places, with BJDcondemning this egg-hurlingtactic with harshest terms, the same BJD took recourse tothe despicable practice when itis finding an emerging State
BJP trying to outsmart it basking in the favour of theCentral Government.
The Assembly has nolonger been an effectiveforum to oppose the BJD bythe BJP and Congress as it hasbeen found repeatedly thatthe BJD just bypasses theranting of the Opposition bydint of its brute majority.Most often it has been some-what a trend for the rulingparty to curtail the days of asession if it f inds theOpposition to be too tough.
In such a situation, may be,the Opposition has found‘street justice’ to be the bestmode of registering protestand anger against the BJD andput it in embarrassment especially in the run-up to therural polls due in February nextyear, opined experts.
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The Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) demanded imme-
diate judicial probe into thekilling of five innocent tribalpeople in Kandhamal.
The members of the AAPState unit also demanded com-pensation of �20 lakh to kin ofeach deceased at a Press meethere on Friday.
The party also introducedone programme ‘Talk to AK’,through which AAP chief andDelhi Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal would directly inter-act with people.
The interested people canconnect with Kejriwal throughthe website www.talktoak.com.People can also call and talk toKejriwal through phone number 011-23392999 on July
17 at 11 am.The people who are inter-
ested in sending questions canlog in their questions on thewebsite www.talktoak.com orsend in their SMS on8130344141.
This is an attempt to addmore and more people to dis-cuss ideas and problems etcthrough the campaign, themembers said.
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Innovative entrepreneurshipwill boost the Make in India
initiative. Besides, it will alsocreate a conducive environ-ment for Indian industries toprovide employment to youngand educated masses, saidNalco CMD Tapan KumanChand here on Friday.
He was inaugurating anational conference on ‘Makein India: Opportunities andChallenges for Managers’, heldat the Birla Institute ofManagement Technology(BIMTEC) from Friday.
The success of Make inIndia would greatly impactnewer initiatives like ‘SkillIndia’, ‘Startup India’ and‘Digital India’, resulting inabout 90 million jobs in nearfuture, out of which manu-facturing industries wouldtop the employment chart,
said Chand.Among others, Prof
Banikanta Mishra of XIMB,
BIMTECH Director ProfParameswar Nayak, ICAIDirector Rajendra Bose and
Birla Global Institute DirectorBK Das were notably presenton the occasion.
workers clashedwith police forcesin front of the Statepolice headquar-ters here on Fridaywhen the formerwere not allowedto enter into theh i g h - s e c u r i t y DGP office.
The Congressworkers under theleadership of theparty’s city chiefMd Moqim hadcome in a rally tosubmit a memorandum toDGP KB Singh demandingaction against the SouthernRange IG and the KandhmalSP for the Gumudumha police firing.
As the slogan-shoutingCongress workers reached themain gate of the police head-
quarters, jostling and pushingbetween the deployed policemenat the closed gate, and tomatoesand water pouches were hurledat the policemen from behind,there was a clash between thepolice and the agitators.
The police, however,brought the situation under
control, aftere which a delega-tion headed by the CityCongress chief was allowedinside the headquarters to sub-mit their memorandum to theDGP. “The DGP has assured usthat he would take appropriateaction on our demands,”Moqim informed.
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Justice Sujit Narayan Prasadwas sworn in as a permanent
judge of the Orissa High Courthere on Friday. Chief JusticeVineet Saran administered theoath of office to Justice Prasad atthe High Court premises in thepresence of several members ofthe Bench and the Bar.
Justice Prasad, a native ofneighbouring Jharkhand State,had been elevated to the Benchof the Jharkhand High Court asan additional judge in September2014 and was transferred to theOrissa High Court in the samecapacity in March last year.
With this, the Orissa HighCourt now has 16 permanentjudges, including the ChiefJustice, and three additionaljudges against its sanctionedstrength of 17 permanent judgesand five additional judges.
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The 27th Raahgiri would becelebrated in coming
Sunday with a sweet experienceand theme centered onRasagola as it would coincidewith the ‘Niladribije’.
According to temple tradi-tion during the ‘Niladri Bije’,Lord Jagannath, after the nine-day sojourn during the RathYatra, takes the spongy sweetshome to appease GoddessLakshmi.
Since last year’sNabakalebara, the ‘Niladribije’is being celebrated as ‘RasagolaDivas’ by Odias worldwide.
Mayor Ananta NarayanJena said, “Five Rasagola mak-ers from Pahala region wouldgive a live demonstration onthe making of the Rasagola atthe Raahgiri venue.” Therewould be four Rasagola coun-ters in the Raahgiri area wherepeople can see live demo ofRasagola making,” he informed.
Jena also said the Rasagolamakers from Pahala woulddemonstrate everything, start-
ing from the making of thecountry cheese, preparing thedough and small balls, makingof the sugary syrup and final-ly preparing the wonder sweet.
Another attraction of the27th Raahgiri would be twoprofessional bands from theCRPF and the Odisha Police,which would provide a musi-
cal surrounding throughoutthe event.
As the World Youth SkillDevelopment Day is on July 15,to create awareness on allGovernment’s schemes fortechnical and skill develop-ment, the Art Ya Craft, thePecuc and the Art Goodamwould organise related events.
Thursday sought a report overthe fake encounter of civiliansin Kandhamal district. Thecommission has instructed theHome Ministry and the StateGovernment to submit thereport within two weeks.
The Odisha HumanRights Commission (OHRC)had also sent notices to theHome Department Secretary,the DGP, and the SouthernRange IG along with theSouthern Range RevenueDivisional Commissioner onMonday to submit a reportwithin two weeks.
While a probe on the inci-dent was also conducted by ateam of National Commissionfor Scheduled Tribes (NCST)led by chairman RameswarOraon, National Commissionfor Scheduled Castes (NCSC)chief PL Punia also visited thedistrict on Thursday to inves-tigate the incident.
Police claimed that thefive villagers of Gumudumaha,including three women and achild, were reportedly killed inan exchange of fire betweenpolice and Maoists atMalapanga forest inKurtamagarh of the district onevening of July 8. The statements of an injured victim undergoing treatmentat MKCG Medical CollegeHospital in Brahmapur
and doctors who had performed autopsy on thedead victims, however, had adifferent version.
The incident has ignitedprotests by various frontsdemanding compensation forthe victims and action againstthe security personnel, includ-ing sacking of KandhamalSuperintendent of Police PinakMishra and Southern Range IGAmitabh Thakur.
Here question arises overthe compliance of SupremeCourt guidelines to be fol-lowed during such incident.On September 2014, a benchof the apex court led by ChiefJustice of India (CJI) RMLodha issued a 16-pointguideline to be followed whileinvestigating police encountersin the case of death.
A few guidelines are in ref-erence to the Code of CriminalProcedure (CrPC), such asregistration of FIR after theoccurrence of such incident(Sec 157 and 158), mandato-ry magisterial inquiry (Sec170 and 190), quick and fairtrial (Sec 173) and compensa-tion to the kin of the dead vic-tim (Sec 357A).
The guidelines also men-tion that the statement of theinjured victim should berecorded by a magistrate withcertificate of a witness.
While the guidelines men-tion that the NHRC or StateCommission should be imme-diately informed of theencounter deaths, the admin-istration or Government actedin a lackadaisical manner inreporting it. A human rightsorganisation, Human RightsFront, filed the case before theOHRC after a gap of threedays from the incident and anadvocate, Radheshyam Jena,
filed it before the NHRC aftera gap of five days.
A Special InvestigationTeam (SIT) under HumanRights Protection Cell (HRPC)led by ADG Mahendra Pratapwas also formed by the StateGovernment to probe the inci-dent. The SC guidelines men-tions formation of such a teambut the team has to follow eightminimum probe requirementsbefore submitting the findingsbefore the court.
When the SC guidelinesclearly mention disciplinaryaction and suspension of policeofficials found guilty of suchencounter and such officialswill be barred from all gallantryawards or promotion untilproven innocent, the PoliceOfficers’ Association here onWednesday threatened theState Government to go onstrike if action is taken againstthe police personnel involvedin the firing before completionof the probe.
Further, the guidelinesmention that the family of anaccused police official has to beintimated and provided with legal services and thefamily of the victim can com-plain before the Sessions Judgeif it feels that the guidelineshave not been followed. Thejudge must take cognisance ofthe complaint and address allthe grievances.
Who is going to apprisethe family of the victimsabout such provisions whenthe State and police are actingas if unaware of the guidelinesand opposition parties aretr ying to gain polit icalmileage from the incident, isstill a question unaddressed.The innocent victims andcommon people are the last tosuffer from the incident.
Four people of Nuapada dis-trict have been arrested by
police for availing ration cardsillegally under the NFSA. FIRshave also been lodged against162 people for violation ofsimilar NFSA norms.
Such stringent action bythe district administration hasresulted in voluntary surren-dering of ration cards all overthe district. A total of 227people have already returnedtheir cards. They are also pay-ing back the cost of rice theyhad taken in last two to threemonths.
According to reports ofthe district civil supplies office,an amount of �3,71,635 hasalready been recovered from 92persons. Highest numbers ofcard have been surrendered inNuapada block. The numberhere is 53, out of whom four
persons have paid �30,448 intotal towards the cost of ricethey had taken. In Boden block,the 32 cards have been returnedand the amount recovered is�25,293 from seven persons.FIRs have been lodged againstten persons in this block.
In Komna block, 16 cardshave been surrendered volun-tarily by ineligible beneficiariesand an amount of �61,941 hasbeen recovered from 12 people. The number of FIRslodged against illegal beneficiaries in this block is 49, which is the highest in the district.
Cards surrendered by inel-igible persons in Sinapali andKhariar blocks are 28 each.
“We have issued notices to40 persons to return their cardsafter identifying them as inel-igible for the scheme. FIRshave also been lodged againstfour persons,” said Kharir block
Marketing Inspector (MI)Biren Dash. He furtherinformed that an amount of Rs1.02 lakh has been realised inthe block from 27 illegal ben-eficiaries, and FIRs have beenlodged against 46 persons.
Likewise, in Sinapali block,amount recovered is Rs.77891/-
from 15 beneficiaries andthe number of FIR lodged is 25.
Likewise, a total of 74 cardshave been surrendered in threeurban bodies, Khariar, KhariarRoad and Nuapada NACs ofthe district. An amount of Rs74,096 has been recoveredfrom 24 persons, and FIRshave been lodged against 11inthese NACs.
“We are expecting morepeople to surrender illegallyavailed ration cards in next fewdays. It will help us extend ourcoverage to genuine peopleunder the NFSA,” said civilsupplies officials.
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The Jagatsinghpur districtadministration has filed
FIRs against 91 illegal NFSA cardholders of eightblocks and two municipalitiesat different police stationsunder the district.
As of now, 182 ineligibleration cardholders havereturned NFSA cards, and atotal fine �7.20 lakh have been collected from them forlifting subsidised food grainsthrough the cards, informeddistrict Collector YaminiSarangi at a Press conferenceheld here on Wednesday.
Sarangi said about 2,03,150NFSA cards have been
distributed to beneficiaries ineight blocks and two munici-palities till date. However, alle-gations have been receivedthat many ineligible benefi-ciaries have been given thecards, he said.
“We have asked the unde-serving cardholders to returncards by July 25. Legal actionswould be taken against thosewho don’t return cards,” theCollector said.
District Civil SuppliesOfficer Raghunath Gumongasaid the department’sMarketing Inspectors and Supply Inspectors from each block have been directed to verify illegal cardpossessors and visit cluster points to examine distribution of food grains. They have also been asked tomake people know aboutdemerits and legal consequence of unlawful pos-session of NFSA cards.
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The poorest and naturalresource rich regions of
the country, including Odisha,Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, AP,Telengana, WB, Bihar,Maharashtra, MP and UP arewitnessing extrajudicial killingof innocent people, especiallyAdivasies, in large numbers bypolice and paramilitary forcesdeployed to fight Maoists.
The Home Ministry datasays during the last five yearsaround 2,200 civilians and 800security forces were killed inMaoist operations in differentparts of India. In Odisha,
between 2011 and 2016, morethan 200 people were killed inLeft wing extremist violence. Ina most recent incident atGungudumaha on July 9 last,five people were killed whichinclude a two-year-old child,two men and two women andsix people were injured by anattack of SOG police and CRPFin Kurtamgada, Malapangaforest in Kandhamal district ofOdisha which generated lots ofdebates among political partiesand social organisations ques-tioning the role of StateGovernment.
In ensuring protection ofcommon people in the Leftwing extremist areas of theState, there were similar casesof fake encounter by policeand paramilitary forces inrecent past. Earlier such typeof incident had taken place atKalyansingpur of Rayagadadistrict , Nishaguda ofKalahandi and Madaguda ofKandhamal where peoplewere killed in crossfire whilethey were searching for their
missing goats. The common people have
been facing harassment andpolice brutality and the mobil-ity of the people has been get-ting restricted to the forestwhile FRA encourages theirownership over forest forlivelihood. There have beenincreasing atrocities againstSCs and STs in the State andthe NCSC and NCST haveexpressed concern over inac-tion by the State Government.
There are six battalions ofBSF, eight battalions of CRPFand one CommandoBattalion for Resolute Action(CoBRA) deployed in theState while the State has beendemanding before the HomeMinistry for more number ofparamilitary forces to bedeployed in Naxal affectedareas or Maoist prone dis-tricts such as Kandhamal,Kalahandi, Nuapada,Koraput, Malkanagir i ,Balangir i , Baragada,Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj, Sun-dargarh, Jajpur and Ganjam.
The State Government hasformed Odisha AuxiliaryPolice Force (OAPF) byrecruiting tribal youths fromNaxalite affected areas of the
State. It is important to seehow the State Governmenthas been managing the hugepresence of police and para-military forces in backwardareas and making themaccountable to local peoplewhile enforcing law and order.
Article 21 of theConstitution of India says noperson shall be deprived of hislife or personal liberty exceptaccording to procedure estab-lished by law but this needs tobe translated into reality incase of poorest of the poorwho are deprived of their lifeand liberty to move freely intheir own locality.
There has been demandfor scraping of draconian lawssuch as Unlawful ActivitiesPrevention Act and TheArmed Forces Special PowerAct which are undemocraticand anti-people. The account-ability of police and paramili-tary forces to constitutionalsystem should be increasedand police reform should bemade to make the police morehumane and responsible whiledealing with common peoplein disturbed areas for main-taining law and order.
The casteist, anti-ethnic,
racial and patriarchal mindsetand attitude of the police forcestowards Dalit, Adivasies andwomen need to be changed.
The Maoist-hit districtsare inaccessible backward areaswith rich forest and mineralbearing and also these are 5thScheduled areas having a largenumber of Adivasi and Dalitpopulation who primarilydepend on forest resources fortheir survival.
These areas have mineralbearing and attract MNCs toset up mining and industrythere and the local people havebeen resisting such move of theGovernment while demandingright to self-determination overtheir land under the provisionsof constitution. Why the StateGovernment is so carelessabout the life and liberty of thepeople living in backward areaswhere it has failed to providebasic amenities and socialinfrastructure in spite of hun-dreds of schemes and pro-grammes and availability offinancial resources under plansand sub-plans for the poor andthe marginalised.
By such unwanted inci-dents, the mobility of the peo-ple in forest areas has been
restricted and people usuallyare not coming out even forlivelihood with fear of policeand paramilitary forcesdeployed in their areas.
The most recentKandhamal incident showsserious callousness of the localadministration in ensuringhuman dignity, humanitarianaid and treatment facility to theinjured victims.
The local SP and Collectorfailed to ensure timely human-itarian action for the poor vic-tims of police firing. The high-er police officials who are incharge of the operation arebehaving in an irresponsiblemanner with life and liberty ofthe people at stake.
The innocent poor tribaland Dalit people are beingharassed, humiliated and phys-ically tortured by the police andparamilitary personnel on manyoccasions without reason. Therehas been complaint of missingof people in the area who aretaken by police for interroga-tion. There have been hun-dreds of Adivasies and Dalitsput in jail with false cases afterbeing arrested under suspicionof Maoist link. Their cases havebeen pending in courts without
trial and there have been nolegal aid or judicial pro-active-ness to release such innocentpoor people suffering due totheir poverty, illiteracy and legalbackwardness.
The Government withoutaddressing the issues of thepeople has been more engagedin fighting against the Leftwing extremism by spendinghuge financial resources fromthe treasury on security in thename of countering Maoists.The real security is the wellbe-ing of the people.
There has been no regularemployment facility and mostof the schemes and pro-grammes meant for them havenot fully reached to them dueto bureaucratic apathy andlack of political will by rulingparties in Government at dif-ferent times along withinsignificant representation ofAdivaise and Dalits in gover-nance and developmentadministration.
The best possible way tocounter Maoist violence isdevelopment of the marginal-ized and dialogue with thecommunity.
Two persons were killed inseparate road accidents,
one in Brahmapur and theother in Balangir, on Friday.
A driver was killed whentwo trucks collided head on fol-lowing which an iron pipe-laden truck rammed into theill-fated vehicles at KanisiChhak under the Golantharapolice limits near Brahmapur.Two cattle also died in the acci-dent, sources said.
Besides, as many as threehelpers sustained grievousinjuries in this mishap. Policeand locals rescued the injuredpersons from the spot andadmitted them to a hospital, thesources added.
In the second incident, atruck driver was killed after twotankers collided head on nearChuinbandha on Balangir-Sambalpur NH-26. Accordingto reports, a chemicals-ladentanker rammed into an oiltanker, killing the driver on thespot. The identity of thedeceased was yet to be estab-lished. Following the accident,irate locals blocked the roaddisrupting vehicular move-ment on the route.
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In last 24 hours, as many asthree robberies and a gold
chain snatching occurred inthe district, especially underthe Ali and Kendrapada Townpolice limits.
According to policesources, as many as threedacoities occurred under Aulpolice station on Wednesdaynight. Miscreants made anattempt to loot the CuttackCentral Co-operative Bank at Ali as they enteredinto the bank by unlockingthe main grill gate.
The miscreants laterentered into the strongroom bydamaging the CCTV but failedto loot money though theybroke open the strong room.Manager Harihar Pandavlodged an FIR at Aul police sta-tion and acting on the FIR, theAli police registered a casebearing case no-170 /16 underSection 457 of IPC.
Similarly, the miscreantslooted �1.68 lakh from the Alisub post office after enteringinside the post office by break-ing the locks of the doors. Subpostmaster Arka Chattarjeelodged an FIR at Aul police sta-tion. The police registered acase in this regard bearingcase no-171/16 under Section457 and 380 of IPC, informedin-charge of the Aul police sta-tion SI Gobardhan Sahu.
In another case, the mis-creants unsuccessfully madean attempt to loot money fromKendrapada Credit Co-opera-tive Bank, Ali branch.
The Ali police started aninquiry on Thursday in thethree cases by taking the help ofsniffer dog squad and scientif-ic team. The police alsodetained a person suspecting hisinvolvement in the three cases.
Notably, last Monday night,miscreants had looted cashfrom the donation box of 500-year-old Laxmi Barahajew tem-ple in Aul after they enteredinto the temple by breakingopen the lock of the entrancedoor of the temple. Police arestill groping in dark in the inci-dent. Similarly, gold chainsnatchers have a field day at thetownship area.
On Wednesday night, twomotorbike borne miscreantsallegedly looted a gold chainfrom a woman near theKendrapara Block office areaon Santasahi-Gandakhia road.Police registered a case andstarted investigation on thealleged matter by detaining ayouth.
The locals alleged thatcriminals are moving scot-freeand committing crime in reg-ular intervals thanks to theunholy nexus between thecriminals and some police offi-cials.
When contacted SPNitinjeet Singh stated thatenough steps hav been taken tocurb crime in the district.
marked the culmination of 21weeks of basic training ofthe 01/2016 batch of traineesat the INS Chilka wherein2,280 sailors passed out suc-cessfully on Friday.
These trainees will nowproceed for cadre-specific pro-fessional training both at seaand professional trainingschools of the Indian Navy. Theparade was reviewed by INSChilka Commanding OfficerCaptain Manish Misra.
Omparkash Yadav, SSR, PNitin Navik, GD and P Darbal,MR were adjudged the besttrainees in their respective cat-egories for meritorious perfor-mance. The ceremony was alsoattended by trainees’ parentsand other dignitaries of theNavy and the Coast Guard.
The INS Chilka is a pre-
mier basic training establish-ment of the Indian Navy forimparting ab-initio training tosailors and naviks of the Navyand the Indian Coast Guard,respectively. The trainingregime being followed at theINS Chilka is well-structuredand scientifically-prepared tomeet the specific objectives ofthe Indian Navy.
The trainees are exposed toservice subjects as well as aca-demic subjects such as com-puter and applied science.Equal emphasis is also laid ontoughening the raw recruitsboth physically and mentallythrough various activities likedrill, route march sailing expe-dition, outdoor camps, weaponfiring and swimming.
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The Bargarh BJP led by itspresident Narayan Sahu,
Padampur MLA PradeepPurohit and State vice presidentAshwini Sarangi conducted arally and gharaoed the SP officeprotesting against Bargarh MLADebesh Acharya and Textilesand Handloom MinisterSnehangini Chhuria for abettingattack on Union Ministers.
Purohit said that the policehave acted as an agent of theBJD Government. His partymen wanted to know why thepolice arrested 16 persons onlywhen cases had been regis-tered against about 100 persons,including the Bargarh MLA inthe Union Minister attack case.
On June 24, UnionMinisters Santosh Gangwar andSadhvi Niranjana Jyati and for-mer Jharkhand Chief Minister
Arjun Munda had faced thewrath of the BJD activists whenthey came to Bargarh to takepart in the BJP-sponsored VikasUtsav, marking two years of theNarendra Modi Government atthe Centre.
The BJP demanded imme-diate arrest of the Bargarh
MLA and the HandloomMinister in the case. PriteshBahidar, Yuba Morcha Distpresident Gourahari Mishra,Sureswar Sathpathy,Nabakishor Panigrahi, AbaniKanta Panda, Ravi Dash, SouriBarik, besides over 1,000 partyworkers took part.
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The 3rd National TrainingProgramme on Portable
FRP Carp HatcheryInstallation and Operation washeld at the Central Institute ofFreshwater Aquaculture(CIFA) here on Friday.
Industries Minister DebiPrasad Mishra inaugurated theevent and handed over threeMoUs to the incubatees of theAgri-Business Incubation cen-tre of the CIFA. The entrepre-neurs were working on variousaspects of aquaculture.
The Minister appreciatedthe role of business incubationand steps taken by the StateGovernment in developingstart up policy where the bud-ding entrepreneurs, start-upswill be encouraged. He
advised to keep the smallfarmers at the centre whilegiving technology and busi-ness incubation support.
Chilika DevelopmentAuthority Chief ExecutiveKrishna Mohan was the guestof hounour. CIFA Director PJayasankar welcomed thedescribed the portable carphatchery as one of the epochmaking technology of theCIFA that has gone to allparts of the country.
The training programmewill continue till July 17 andwill cover A-Z of the portableFRP carp hatchery technology.More than 35 participantsfrom different States have par-ticipated in the programmethat has the primary objectiveof providing advanced knowl-edge, skill and technique of fishseed production using portablehatchery technology. Thetrainees would use the knowl-edge to further train and devel-op fish seed production capac-ity of the country, said theCIFA director.
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Four people have beendetected with dengue virus
in the district. While two per-sons are being treated outsidethe district, two other havebeen referred to the Burla hos-pital from the DistrictHeadquarters Hospital (DHH).
“We received a patient fourdays ago with symptom ofdengue. The patient was imme-diately referred to the Burlahospital,” informed CDMO DrRN Tripathy while speaking ata sensitisation workshop ondengue, malaria and diarrhoeaand other diseases on Friday atthe DHH.
The areas which are vul-nerable to dengue attack orhave record of people sufferingfrom the disease in the districtare Kantabanji town andTakapali near Patangarh, etc.
Though a machine to testdengue fever is available in thedistrict, people are not getting
names at the reg-istration counterat the DistrictHe a d q u a r t e r sHospital (DHH)here has becomea tedious one,taking it morethan an hour.
“I waited inthe queue since 8am and just gotthe ticket aftertwo hours, said aperson on Friday. As per therule, a person has to register atthe hospital counter first andthen show or check with doc-tors for treatment of his or herailment. Without a ticket fromthe counter, a doctor is likely to
refuse treatment.Out of the three computers
supposed to function, only oneis working. Moreover, there isno separate counter for women.
CDMO Dr RN Tripathysaid that a new place at the hos-
pital premises is being devel-oped where there would bethree counters.
When contacted by thiscorrespondent. districtCollector Ashis Thakare said,“I will look into the matter.”
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Bureaucratic hurdle is themain reason for which India
lags behind many countries incompetitive advantage for var-ious industries. The country isfacing difficult times in termsof investment. In view of this,the State Government is tryingto overcome such hurdles bydoing as much as possible forease of doing business, saidChief Secretary Aditya PrasadPadhi addressing a seminar on“Laws and Economics ofCompetition” here on Friday.
The seminar was jointlyorgansied by the Institute ofCompany Secretaries of India(ICSI) and the CompetitionCommission of India (CCI).
Padhi said that as part of its
initiatives, the OdishaGovernment is trying to bringeverything online as much aspossible to reduce human inter-face with the Governmentdepartments and make easierfor outside entrepreneurs andcompanies to come and starttheir ventures in the State.
The Government has setup a State-level facilitation cellas a one-stop solution forinvestment issues though it isnot yet fully operational.“Besides, we are trying to set upa centralized inspection frame-work, where we try to bringtogether inspection in-chargeofficials from the PollutionControl Board and the LabourCommission to do theirinspection and post their reportafter 48 hours of completing
the inspection, thereby reduc-ing human interface,” said theChief Secretary.
The State Government isalso focusing on Skill Odisha.It has set up the Odisha SkillDevelopment Authority underthe leadership of Subrat Bagchi
Sambad editor Soumya
Ranjan Patnaik said theCompetition Commission ofIndia promotes healthy com-petition and generates growth.However, the idea of competi-tion has only been restricted tothe business field only. Hecalled upon the industries topromote competition in non-
business sectors for an overalldevelopment of a nation.
Among others, ICSI pres-ident Mamta Binani andBhubaneswar Chapter presi-dent Ashok Kumar Mishra andCCI member SL Bunker spokeon the role and responsibilitiesof the CCI.
The Institute of CompanySecretaries of India (ICSI)
has signed an MoU with theCompetition Commission ofIndia (CCI) recently to pro-vide a platform for competi-tion advocacy activities ofthe CCI by organising work-shops and seminars.
This was announced byICSI president Mamta Binani ata Press meet here on Friday.
She further informed thatthe ICSI has taken three newinitiatives this year. It hasrecently launched the CSOlympiad for students ofClasses 11 and 12 in each aca-demic year in schools acrossIndia. The first CS Olympiadwill be conducted in September2016.
The ICSI has also intro-duced distance learning courseto skill youths. “We have lot oftraining session for students toundergo. They have to under-go a practical training for oneand half year, which is actual-ly all job training. The studentsalso get stipends for this,”Binani said.
Besides, the ICSI hasopened study centres, wherestudents can take admissionand study about the ICSIcourse. It has three such cen-ters in Bhubaneswar. “By theend of this financial year, weplan to open 12 study centresin the State,” she added.
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Tension erupted in Rourkelafollowing the minority
community members held aroad blockade protestingobjectionable postings inWhatsapp by a youth, leadingto delay of chariot movementduring the Bahuda Yatra.
Bajrang Dal activistsprotested the road blockade.The situation was volatile andit was apprehended that itmight lead to a group clash.
However, huge policeforces were deployed to pre-vent any untoward situation.Loud speaker announcementswere repeatedly made, inti-mating about clamping ofSection 144 in the area andpolice team conducted flagmarch at different locations ofthe city till Friday.
All the shops and com-mercial establishments inmain road area of the city, par-
ticularly from Uditnagar toBisra Road area, remainedclosed.
The entire area was cov-ered with large deployment ofpolice personnel and CRPFwith about 20 platoons ofpolice forces engaged in thejob. A peace committee meet-ing was also convened onFriday, in presence ofSundargarh CollectorBhupinder Singh Punia, wherein people from different sec-tions of society were involvedand an appeal was made bydistrict administration torestore peace in the city.
Meanwhile, Vishva HinduParishad (VHP) announcedtwelve hours Rourkela bandhon Saturday, protesting thedelay in Rath Yatra movementdue to protest by the peoplefrom minor community.
“Restoring peace in thecity is our priority and we aretaking all measures to do that,”said Collector Punia. He alsoappealed the people ofRourkela to cooperate with thedistrict administration torestore normalcy in the city.
Rourkela SP Anirudha
Singh confirmed that policehave registered two separatecases and investigating in tothe matter but denied aboutany arrests in this cases. “Sincethe situation is tense now, ourpriority has been to restorepeace and later, appropriateaction will be taken against theculprits,” Singh added.
Significantly, hundreds oflocals belonging to minoritycommunity staged a roadblockade near HotelChandralok area of the Main road, demanding arrestof one youth, who hadallegedly shared some objec-tionable message throughWhatsApp.
This blockade spot beingthe route of return car festivalof Lord Jagannath, the Rathmovement was reportedlydelayed for some time.Although, police had clearedthe blockade and Rath move-ment was normalised, hun-dreds of activists of BajrangDal had staged a protest dur-ing late evening demandingrelease of the youth detainedby police on the objectionablepost issue.
cial issue of its magazineSamachar Patrika at thepremises of the Iskcon templehere in front of the three char-iots on Friday.
In the presence of NAIS-
ER VC Abhay Nayak, Utkal Sammilani State president Guru PrasadMohanty, city branch presi-dent Bibhuti Mishra andCuttack district branch pres-ident Rabi Ranjan Sahooreleased the book.
Mancheswar industrialbranch president Dillip Das
Sharma chaired the event.Magazine editors
Dwarikanath Mohanty and ErShiba Prasad Mishra,Bhubaneswar branch vice-president NirakarMahalik, Shital ChandraMahanta, Bibhuti Swain andRajeswari Paikray were present,among others.
CUTTACK: Vigilance officerson Friday conducted raids onhouses and office rooms ofLAMPCS Managing DirectorManoj Kumar Dash atBorigumma in Koraput dis-trict on the allegation of acqui-sition and possession of dis-proportionate assets. Dash’s res-idential house at Borigumma,native house at B Singhpur,father-in-law’s house at BSinghpur, brother’s house at
Pujarput in Koraput and officechamber at LAMPCS Officewere simultaneously searched.During searches, the Vigilanceofficers detected movable andimmovable assets worth of �79,25,411 in the name of Dash andhis family members. Notably,Dash had joined as Clerk at theCentral Cooperative Bank inBoriguma in 1994. He was pro-moted to the rank of ManagingDirector, LAMPCS in 2010.
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In a heartrending incident, awoman killed her two daugh-
ters by forcibly putting themunder water in a pond atBamara village under theKuchinda police station inSambalpur on Friday.
After killing her daughters,the woman attempted to commitsuicide. However, some neigh-bours prevented her from theattempt. The woman was iden-tified as Baijayanti Mahai, wife ofan engineer, Durga Mahai. AnFIR was lodged at the Kuchindapolice station in this regard fol-lowing which police detained theaccused and started investigationinto the matter. Sources said dur-ing interrogation, the womanconfessed to having killed herdaughter. Family dispute wassuspected to be the reasonbehind the murder.
CUTTACK: At least three BJP youth leaders were takeninto preventive custody here by police on Friday forshowing black flags to Employment and TechnicalEducation & Training Minister Sanjay Dasburma.
Demonstrating against Dasburma for his allegedinvolvement in the chit fund scam, the BJP workershad earlier threatened to protest his visit to the city.The Minister was here to attend a function at theBhubanananda School of Engineering on the occasionof the World Youth Skill Day.
When the Minister’s car was entering into theschool campus, the BJP youth leaders suddenlyappeared from behind a wall and waved black flags athim asking him to go back. The police escorting theMinister overpowered three BJP leaders and snatchedaway the black flags from them.
BJP City Yuva Morcha chief SR Mitra, vice-pres-ident Asutosh Das and another youth leader SatyabanDas were taken into preventive custody and detainedat the local Mangalabag police station, from where theywere released on PR bonds after the Minister left thecity in the afternoon. PNS
BHUBANESWAR: The Government-runSports Hostel gave a report to the Khordha ChildWelfare Committee (CWC) on Friday that won-der boy Budhia Singh (14) left hostel for sum-mer vacation from May 10.
“We don’t have any information on BudhiaSingh. Some coaches of the sports hostel hadgone to Budhia’s house at Salia Sahi. But wefound no one there,” said hostel officials. The
family members of marathoner Budhia can lodgea missing case if they want, they said.
Notably, the District Child WelfareCommittee had sought a report from theSports Directorate and Sports Hostel authori-ties asking them to furnish the same within threedays as to under what circumstances Budhiawent missing and what steps have been takento locate him. PNS
BHUBANESWAR: The Crime Branchon Friday produced fake notificationand Government fund bungling accusedsuspended Factories and BoilersAssistant Director Dr Motilal Gaudabefore a city court on completion of four-day remand. While the CB didn’t applyfor a fresh remand, Gauda was sent toJharpada Jail, according to sources.
Meanwhile, the Vigilance, which isalso probing allegation of amassment ofdisprortionate assets, has applied to thecourt to take Gauda on a 7-day demand.
It may be noted that Gauda has beenarrested on the charge of issuing a fakeGovernment notification to industries toget their employees check up health incertain nursing homes empaneled byhim. For this, he had allegedly takenkickback of �1 crore from them.
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The election of theBrajrajnagar Truck Owners’
Association (BTOA) inJharsuguda district will be heldon July 20.
A total of 17 candidates arein the fray. Amiya KumarSamal and Deb Prasad Dashwill directly contest for the postof president of the body. Fivecandidates, Ajit Singh, ArunJadav, Mukesh Singh, SalimAnsari and Sanjay Ray wouldcompete for the vice-presidentpost of the association.Similarly, three persons are inthe race for the post of gener-al secretary and two for thejoint secretary post. Besides,five candidates are contestingfor the treasurer post.The resultwould be declared in the after-noon on the election day, saidJharsugda ADM SR Patel
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Students of theRavenshaw University
here under the banner ofthe All India DemocraticStudents’ Organisation(AIDSO) staged ademonstration in front ofthe Vice-Chancellor’soffice on Friday demand-ing withdrawal of hiked admission fees, readmissionfees and hostel admission feesin the university.
They submitted a memo-randum to the Vice-Chancellorin this regard. Led by AIDSOpresident Shivani Sahu, vice-president Shubhasmita Sahu,secretary Amarendra Nayak,Pratyutapna Nayak, RonaliNayak, Sachhiranjan Behera and
Manoj Das met the VC.The Ravenshaw authorities
have increased the applicationand admission fees from grad-uation to PhD course from thisacademic session. Courses likeBEd and entrepreneurshipshave been opened in self-financing mode, said AIDSOmembers and self-financingand PG courses’ fees have beenincreased by �5,000.
approach in Jammu-Kashmir,following the killing of Hizbul-Mujahideen militant BurhanWani, India said Islamabad'sactions make it very obviousthat it continued glorificationof terrorists and sympathisingwith men who spread violenceand kill innocent. While reject-ing the decision of PakistanCabinet on Jammu andKashmir situation, India onFriday also asked Islamabad todesist from interfering inIndia's internal matters.
"India completely andunequivocally rejects in entire-ty the decisions adopted by theCabinet of Pakistan on the sit-uation in Jammu and Kashmir.We are dismayed at the con-tinued attempts by Pakistan tointerfere in our internal mat-ters, where, we reiterate,Pakistan or any other externalparty has no locus standi.Continued glorification of ter-
rorists belonging to proscribedterrorist organisations makes itamply clear where Pakistan'ssympathies continue to lie,"Ministry of External Affairsspokesperson Vikas Swarupsaid on Friday.
The Pakistan Cabinet onFriday decided to observe July19 as "Black Day" to expresssolidarity with Kashmiri peo-ple over killing of Wani, whomPak PM Nawaz Sharif termedas a "martyr". "Pakistan wouldcontinue to extend moral, polit-ical and diplomatic support forKashmiris in their just strugglefor right to self-determina-tion," Sharif said in Islamabad.
However, India sees suchstatements and actions by Pakleaders as a means to derivepolitical mileage. A large num-ber of Pak politicians and mil-itary officials are facing cor-ruption allegations. Sharif 'sname too has popped up in thePanama paper leaks thatshowed the Pakistan PM hasstashed his undeclared wealthin offshore holdings. Similarly,12 Pak Army officials wererecently sacked for theirinvolvement in corruption. Thelatest attempt of Pakistan stok-ing the fire in Kashmir is seenas a desperate attempt by the
beleaguered Pak Governmentto divert both domestic andinternational attention fromits own failures to other issues.
"The self serving actions byPakistan in the last few days toderive political mileage out ofthe recent developments inJ&K follow planned infiltrationand terrorism aimed at Indiafrom across the Line of Controland the InternationalBoundary. The attempts inPakistan by various players toingratiate themselves to thepeople of J&K in the run up tothe so called elections in terri-tories under Pakistan's illegaloccupation will not succeed.We hope that Pakistan willdesist from further interferingin India's internal affairs anddestabilising the situation inSouth Asia through support toterrorism and other subversiveacts. We also hope thatPakistan will respond con-structively to India's initiativesfor peace and normalising theIndia Pakistan relationship,"Swarup added.
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Prime Minister NarendraModi will on Saturday
chair the meeting of Inter-State Council comprisingChief Ministers of all States.The meeting, being convenedafter 10 years and for thefirst time at the RashtrapatiBhawan, is expected to wit-ness fireworks from opposi-tion Chief Ministers againstthe Centre. The main agendaof the meeting is focused onissues relating to internalsecurity, education, inter-stateand centre-state relation.
This is the eleventh meet-ing of the Inter-State Councilwherein the Prime Minister is
expected to seek co-operationfrom Chief Ministers for con-sensus on the GST Bill. Themeeting will also deliberate onthe successful implementa-tion of Aadhar and DirectBenefit Transfer schemes.
But then, the high profilemeeting could see the ChiefMinisters belonging to oppo-sition parties blame theCentre on the contentiousCentre-State relations in thewake of the ArunachalPradesh verdict
The meeting being con-vened at the RashtrapatiBhawan complex will see theparticipation of 17 UnionMinisters. "Six UnionMinisters Rajnath Singh,Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley,
M. Venkaiah Naidu, NitinJairam Gadkari and ManoharParrikar are the members ofthe Inter- State Council.Union Ministers SureshPrabhu, D. V. SadanandaGowda, Ramvilas Paswan,Ravi Shankar Prasad,
Harsimrat Kaur Badal, JualOram, Thaawar ChandGehlot, Smriti Zubin Irani,Shri Dharmendra Pradhan,Piyush Goyal and NirmalaSitharaman are the permanentinvitees to the Inter-StateCouncil," said a statementissued by Home Ministry. Thelast meeting the Council washeld on December 9, 2006.
The Modi Governmentrevived the Inter-StateCouncil structure after assum-ing office in May 2014. HomeMinister Rajnath Singh hadchaired meetings of all the fivezonal councils over the lastone year in various parts ofthe country in which chiefministers of states of therespective zones took part.
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The Supreme Court on Fridayturned down the plea for a
court-monitored probe into theAgusta Westland chopper scamafter the Centre assured theCourt that probe is on and thechargesheet is likely to be filedby the end of this year.
Accepting the submissionof the Centre, the Court dis-posed the PIL filed by lawyerML Sharma giving him theoption to approach the apexcourt at a later stage after filingof the charge sheet. The ordercame as a huge relief to theCongress Party as the role ofCongress President SoniaGandhi and former PrimeMinister Manmohan Singhwere sought to be probed bythe petitioner.
The bench of JusticesDipak Misra and C Nagappanhad issued notice to the Centreand CBI on an earlier date inorder to ascertain the stage ofinvestigation into the high-profile scam. Appearing for theCentre, Solicitor General RanjitKumar informed the Courtthat a Special InvestigationTeam (SIT) had been set up bythe Government to probe allallegations. Moreover, the mat-ter is pending investigationwith CBI which had registereda FIR in the year 2013. The case
was in connection with allegedbribes paid by the AW firm toIndians to clinch a deal for pur-chase of 12 helicopters meantto ferry VVIPs including thePresident and Prime Minister.
The Centre maintainedthat there was no need for aCourt-monitored inves-tigation as the inves-tigation is yet tocomplete. Hedemanded thepetition to be dis-missed as infruc-tuous as the probeagency was expect-ed to file its investi-gation report later thisyear.
Sharma had attached newsclippings based on an Italiancourt's decision hinting to therole of top Congress leaders inthe scam. He even alleged thatno FIR was registered againstthese political heavyweightsand instead, some were beingoffered constitutional posts.The bench directed Sharma toexpunge the remarks referringto constitutional authorities.
Solicitor General reactedto such wild allegations leveledby the petitioner and said therewas no room for any doubt thatthe guilty will be spared."Nobody is above law. If there isevidence against anyone in thecase, he or she will be bookedas per law," Kumar said.
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At a time when Islamabad isstoking separatism fire in
India, Afghanistan's formerchief of its spy agency NDS,Rahmatullah Nabil has accusedPakistan's ISI for paying 2.5million Pakistani rupees toeach terrorist who carried outattacks on Kabul airport in July2014 and that Pak has reacti-vated Al-Qaeda campsin Afghanistan that wereclosed due to US pres-sure.
In an article writtenfor Afghanistan's Tolonews website, Nabil pro-duced some internalofficial communication papersof Pakistan's ISI sent from itscentral office in Islamabad toMI-422 office in Swaba,Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where itdirected the office to thank thatthe figures that successfullyplotted the attack on KabulAirport (now Hamid KarzaiInternational Airport) and gave2.5 million Pakistani rupees tofor every one of the peopleinvolved in the attack. These
men were Haji Khalil Haqqani,Haji Hakim Woluswal, QariZahir Shah and MawlawiHakim. "Moreover, the officewas directed to donate 1.5 mil-lion Pakistani rupees to thefamilies of those that wereinvolved in the attack," Nabilsaid.
He further added theHaqqani organisation is strongsource for Pakistan's intelli-
gence for the strength-ening al-Qaeda, fuel-ing the flames of warand terrorism inAfghanistan as well asagainst internationaltroops. "In the sameway Pakistan uses
Lashkar-e-Tayyeba againstIndia," Nabil said while addingUSA was aware of these Pakactivities.
He added that the flexibil-ity in Iran-US bilateral ties,alongside India's soft andpatient economic and politicaldiplomacy and expansion ofcooperation between India andIran, paved way to diminishPakistan's importance amongserious regional players.
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The Supreme Court hasupheld the punishmentof dismissal of three
Navymen whorobbed a bank at aNaval base inAndhra Pradesh 18years ago.
The incidentoccurred on June 4,
1998 when the trioentered the Andhra Bank
branch with rods and country-made pistols at a time when thebank was about to close. Theyforced the Manager and cashierto open the locker and man-aged to flee with � 2,54,376.
Following their CourtMartial verdict in the year1999, they appealed to theArmed Forces Tribunal atChennai. The tribunal acquit-ted one of the accused, DKSingh while upheld convictionon the other two. The Tribunalmaintained their dismissal butordered their release from jailreducing their sentence to peri-od already undergone.
Coming down harshly onTribunal for overlooking cru-cial evidence against theaccused, the apex court felt that
the prosecution had sufficientevidence to nail the accused.The bench of Chief Justice TSThakur and Justice RBanumathi upheld their dis-missal from service after not-ing that since their arrest onJuly 30, 1998, the police recov-ered the weapons used for thecrime and even the unex-plained cash deposited by twoof the accused into their per-sonal bank accounts within sixdays of the incident. Moreover,even the fingers prints liftedfrom the bank matched withthat of the accused.
Services Tax (GST) passed inthe coming Monsoon session,Union Ministers Arun Jaitleyand Ananth Kumar Friday metsenior Congress leadersGhulam Nabi Azad and AnandSharma as the Governmentmaintained that it was trying toavoid 'trial of strength 'andseeking to build a consensus onit.
As the Government intendsto introduce the bill in RajyaSabha at the very start of thesession on July 18, Congress isprimarily demanding aConstitutional cap on the GSTrate which is, so far, not accept-
able to the Centre. The mainopposition also wants clarifi-cation from the Government ontaxability of various goods likepetroleum, alcohol, tobaccoand electricity.
"We are trying to buildconsensus on GST. We have dis-cussed all the points. Once themonsoon session starts, we willmeet again after discussing theissue within our respective par-ties," Jaitley said after his meet-ing with the Congress leaders.
This is the second attemptby the Government to take theCongress on board on the GSTBill. On Thursday, Informationand Broadcasting Minister MVenkaiah Naidu called upAzad and Sharma to seekCongress' support for the bill.
Earlier this week, Sharmahad denied that the Congresswas against the bill, saying theparty was the author of the billand its only concern was thatit should be "meaningful andsubstantive".
The Government, he said,needed to "ring fence" the GSTrate so as not to burden thecommon man. "Ball is in theircourt", said the Congress leader.
Besides, Governmentshould be clarifying whetherthe GST would subsume vari-ous cesses including the SwachhBharat cess.
The Government plans topush the ConstitutionAmendment bill in Rajya Sabhawhich had been approved byLok Sabha earlier. The Congress
leader is of view that his lead-ership would take a "consideredview", once it formally hearsfrom the government.
With the Government soft-ening its stand and reaching outto the Congress in this regard,which is still in majority in theRajya Sabha for the past twodays have been deliberating onthe issue and might clear theGST bill.
A senior Congress leadersaid that "time has come to sup-port the Government on theGST and it would send a wrongmessage if the deadlock overthis issue continues". SoniaGandhi on Thursday too dis-cussed the GST issue withsenior leaders.
New Delhi: Bollywood icon Amitabh Bachchan will be the faceof "city compost" campaign of 'Swachchh Bharat Mission',months after the Government had "put on hold" his name forbrand ambassador of Incredible India campaign following thePanama papers controversy.
Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu on Fridayspoke to the megastar and thanked him for agreeing to be theface of the Ministry's new communication campaign encour-aging citizens to use "city compost" produced from municipalsolid waste, a release said.
The Ministry will soon launch a multi-platform commu-nication campaign featuring the megastar, it said.
The development comes months after reports that there wasa rethink on the part of the government to sign up the actor for"Incredible India" campaign after the exit of another Bollywoodactor Aamir Khan following his controversial remarks on per-ceived intolerance. Tourism Ministry sources had said thatBachchan's name was "put on hold" after his name appeared inthe Panama papers. In his new role, "Bachchan is expected toappeal to all citizens, nursery owners and horticulture agenciesto pledge to use only city compost in their gardens, farm hous-es and public gardens. "Additionally, he will be making an appealto bulk waste generators like educational institutions and hotelsto set up decentralised composting equipment in their respec-tive premises and encourage the citizens to segregate organicwaste for further composting," the release said.
At present, India produces over 1.54 lakh metric tonnes(MT) of solid waste per day, 50 per cent of which comprisesorganic waste that can be converted into compost and gas,while 30 per cent is inorganic waste which can be turned intoenergy. PTI
Indian and Australian SpecialForces are likely to hold a
joint exercise here this year aspart of growing military tiesbetween the two countries.Army Chief General DalbirSingh Suhag extended the invi-tation for the exercise during hisfour-day visit to Australia whichended on Friday. His visit ispart of India's efforts to furtherstrengthen relations with coun-tries in Asia Pacific region.
Suhag invited theAustralians to take part in theinaugural Joint Special Forcestraining exercise planned to beheld in October. He also vis-ited Headquarters of JointOperational Command there.Incidentally, India is likely tohave its own Joint SpecialForces Command as recom-mended by the Naresh
The proposed command willbe on the lines of the US
Special Forces Commandwhich was responsible for
killing Osama Bin Laden.During Suhag's visit, the
Australian Army showcasedsome of its best facilities andinstitutions including theAustralian School of MilitaryEngineering. He appreciatedthe combat engineering skillsand professionalism of the offi-cers and soldiers. He was alsobriefed on the largestAustralian amphibious ship,Adelaide, officials said hereon Friday.
Speaking on the sidelines atthe Headquarters of JointOperational Command, Suhagexpressed satisfaction at themanner in which defencecooperation between the twocountries has progressed.
He also visited the historicAustralian War Memorial atCanberra and laid wreath. Hewas accompanied by AustralianArmy Chief Lt General ACampbell.
Mumbai: A day afterBollywood actor Anil Kapoorwas seen leaning out of a run-ning local train during a pro-motional event, the WesternRailway today slapped a noticeon the production house seek-ing an explanation for his "stunt"and flouting safety norms.
The Railway officials, how-ever, said that they now plan torope in the "Slumdog Millionaire"star in their campaign againsttrain stunts, which they said, haveclaimed several lives and con-tinue to be a problem.
Kapoor had boarded alocal train on the Western lineyesterday for the promotion ofhis TV series. A local newspa-per had published a photo-graph of the actor leaning fromthe foot-board of the runningtrain and waving his hand.
An official of the PublicRelations department of WRsaid they have sent a notice tothe production house and hassought an explanation as towhy the actor went against safe-ty and security rules.
"In spite of the terms andconditions to adhere strictly tosafety and security duringshoot, Anil Kapoor seems to beleaning from the foot-board ofa local train during a promoshoot on July 14," a senior offi-cial of the WR said.
"As observed from videos
through social media, an expla-nation has been sought fromproduction co M/s Market MenConsumer & Events Pvt Ltd inthis regard," said the official.
Udai Shukla, InspectorGeneral of Railway ProtectionForce-cum-Chief SecurityCommissioner of WR, said,"Although Kapoor's act of pos-ing for a photo by leaning outof the train is not much objec-tionable, there certainly is neg-ligence involved in it."
"We have sent a cautionarynote to the actor and are goingto make an appeal to supportour endeavour to educate peo-ple that performing stunts isextremely dangerous becausethere have been many instancesin which people lost their livesby indulging in such acts,"Shukla said. Last year, RailwayMinister Suresh Prabhu hadordered the Central Railway(CR) and WR to set up com-mittees to find out reasonsbehind accidental deaths.
An RTI query filed by anactivist had revealed that asmany as 25,722 passengers hadfallen off running local trainsin Mumbai (travelling onWestern, Central and Harboursuburban services in MumbaiCommissionerate) in the lastten years, of whom 6,989 com-muters died, while 18,733 sur-vived. PTI
New Delhi: Supreme Court judge Justice J Chelameswartoday recused himself from hearing a batch of petitions andcross-petitions relating to the implementation of the CauveryWater Disputes Tribunal (CWDT) award, filed by various par-ties, including Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala.
"I will not be part of the bench which would hear thesecases," Justice Chelameswar, who was heading the bench thatalso comprised Justices Shiva Kirti Singh and A M Sapre, said.
The court also asked a host of senior advocates includingF S Nariman, Rajeev Dhavan and Shekhar Naphade, repre-senting various stakeholders in the historic water dispute, tomention the matter before Chief Justice T S Thakur for list-ing of the cases before some other bench. PTI
Juba, capital city of war-tornSouth Sudan, as part ofOperation Sankat Mochan,said they were happy to behome and away from the con-flict zone, after landing at theThiruvananthapuram airport at4.00 AM Friday.
“I am very happy to behome from the war zone. It givesme immense relief,” saidAnilkumar, one of the 45Keralites evacuated from Jubathrough the Centre’s efforts whileMinister of State for ExternalAffairs VK Singh, who hadaccompanied the evacuees onthe giant C-17 aircraft of the AirForce, said many Indians therehad refused to be evacuated.
Majority of the 156 personsbrought back throughThiruvananthapuram airportwere South Indians, who includ-ed 32 passengers from TamilNadu. There were nine women,three children and two Nepalicitizens among the evacuees.After the passengers from Keralaand Tamil Nadu disembarked,the aircraft carrying the remain-ing passengers left for Delhi.
“The situation there wasextremely dangerous to every-one. There used to be large-scale firing. Nobody could saywhen the firing would start.The first two-three days of theweek had witnessed heavyexchange of fire. When therewas a respite in the fighting, wewere evacuated by the CentralGovernment. I thank them for
that,” said Anilkumar.“A few days ago, a man was
killed right in front of thegates of our residential com-pound in Juba,” said anotherKeralite. “A vehicle parkedinside our compound wasdestroyed in the firing. I amhappy to be home,” said anoth-er evacuee. Many areas of thecapital South Sudan have beenwitnessing heavy fighting
between former rebels andGovernment troops, he added.
Minister VK Singh toldmediapersons at the airportthat there were over 550Indians in Juba and 150 othersin the areas where the oil wellswere located. “When we land-ed, 156 of them came out withus. Some 30 to 40 people hadalready booked their ticketswhen the commercial flights
had started operating,” he said.However, about 300 people
did not want to be evacuatedbecause of their business con-cerns and other matters, he said,adding that business seemed tobe their prime concern. “Afterfighting erupted in Juba and itsoutskirts, our aim was to evac-uate our people who were indanger,” the Minister said. SomeIndians in Juba intended to
migrate to neighbouring Sudanwhere there was no conflict.
The operation confrontedsome complication when sev-eral Indians who had registeredwith the External AffairsDepartment for leaving theconflict-ridden country refusedto return when the time camedespite an appeal from ExternalAffairs Minister SushmaSwaraj. Singh said that he hadheld discussions with theauthorities in Sudan to ensurethe safety of Indians.
The C-17 aircraft from Jubahad flown to India after refuel-ing at Kampala, Uganda, wherethe Union Minister met thatcountry’s Prime Minister whohad assured all possible. Kerala’sPower Minister KadakampallySurendran and district collectorBiju Prabhakar were amongthose who were present at theThiruvananthapuram airportto receive the returnees fromSouth Sudan.
CPI(M) on Friday informedthe State Assembly that the saleof India-made foreign liquor(IMFL or hard liquor) hadcome down by nine per centafter the former Congress-ledUDF Government introducedits Prohibition-through-phas-es liquor policy but abuse ofnarcotic drugs had doubledduring the period.
He also pointed out thatthere was a huge rise in casesof smuggling of narcotic sub-stances like cannabis, hashish,heroin and brown sugar intothe State since the introductionof the liquor policy towards theend of 2014 by the formerregime. All bars in the Stateexcept those at five-star hotelsand clubs of the elite in theState were closed down as partof that liquor policy.
Chandrasekharan said thatthere was a fall by 20 lakh casesin the sales of hard liquor in theState when compared to the fig-
ures of 2013-14. However, beersales in the State during theperiod went up by 61 percent.The former Government hadissued licences liberally foroperating beer and wine par-lours after it introduced thepolicy aimed at bringing downuse of hard liquor.
The Minister told theAssembly that the number ofcases related to narcotic drugshad doubled in the three yearssince 2013-14. While the num-ber of drug-related cases reg-istered by the State ExciseDepartment in 2013-14 was860, this had gone up to 1704in 2015-16, he said, indicatingthat the danger of liquor wasperhaps being replaced by the
bigger danger of drug abuse.The House was told that
even the abuse of pain-killingdrugs as intoxicants was on therise in the State. Drugs likepethidine and morphine werebeing used in this manner,Chandrasekharan said, addingthat stringent measures wouldbe adopted to control this.
State Excise CommissionerRishiraj Singh had recentlywarned that Kerala might soonreach the situation which Punjabwas currently facing with regardto trafficking and abuse of drugs.Kochi, Kerala’s commercial cap-ital was already in the third placein the list of Indian cities as faras drug abuse was concerned, hehad pointed out.
Patna: Stressing the need formaking youths employable,Bihar Chief Minister NitishKumar on Friday said theState Government will provideskill development training toone crore people in the Stateby 2020.
“The State Governmentwill provide skill develop-ment training to one croreyouths of the State by 2020 inorder to make them self-dependent.
Our youths are meritori-ous and they just need oppor-tunity ... I am quite confidentwe will achieve our goals,”Kumar said.
He was addressing a func-tion organised by Bihar SkillDevelopment Mission(BSDM) on the occasion of‘World Youth Skil lDevelopment Day’ here.
Skill development figuresin Bihar Government’s ambi-tious ‘seven resolves’ whichtalks about overall developmentof the State and its people.
State’s labour resourcesdepartment along with BSDMsigned a Memorandum ofUnderstanding (MoU) withMaharashtra KnowledgeCorporation Ltd (MKCL),Kumar said, adding MKCLwould be the state govern-ment’s knowledge partner inthe field of skill develop-ment. PTI
people from South Sudan andbrought them back to India onFriday by a military plane. TheC-17 aircraft flew from SouthSudan’s capital city Juba withMinister of State for ExternalAffairs VK Singh escorting theevacuees, along with twoNepali citizens. The plane firststopped atThiruvananthapuram wherepassengers from Kerala andTamil Nadu disembarkedbefore landing at the IndiraGandhi International Airportin New Delhi.
Prime Minister NarendraModi hailed the efforts of theExternal Affairs Ministry, theDefence Ministry, the IndianAir Force, Air India and theRailways for the success ofOperation Sankat Mochan.Modi spoke to External AffairsMinister Sushma Swaraj andVK Singh to congratulate them.
“The Prime Minister haswelcomed all our Indian sisters& brothers who have returnedfrom South Sudan,” the PMOsaid on Twitter. “PM spoke toEAM @SushmaSwaraj & MoS@Gen_VKSingh & congratu-lated them for their efforts inrescuing Indians..PM congrat-ulated RM @manoharparrikar,IAF, the Railways, @airindiainfor their role in Operation#SankatMochan,” the PMO
said. “The flight from SouthSudan has landed in Delhi. Mycolleague Vijay Goyal is at theairport to receive them,”External Affairs MinisterSushma Swaraj tweeted. “I wel-come our brothers and sisterson their safe return from strife-torn South Sudan. Your coun-try is always with you in hourof crisis,” Swaraj added whileexpressing her gratitude to theIndian Air Force and its officersfor safe evacuation of Indiannationals from the strife-tornterritory.
“Our heartfelt gratitude tothe Indian Air Force and theirbrave officers who carried outthis mission. I appreciate myMEA officers, IndianAmbassador to South Sudan
and his team for their meticu-lous work,” Swaraj said.
In Juba, Singh met Vice-President of South Sudan. TheC-17 aircraft was brought viaUganda and the Minister alsomet Ugandan Prime MinisterRuhakana Rugunda who on hispart assured India of all help.
Southern Railway andIRCTC provided free traintickets to the Indians whoarrived here by the specialIAF flight from South Sudan.Free train tickets with con-firmed reservations andaccommodation were provid-ed to two of the evacuees fromKerala for their onward jour-ney to their respective desti-nations and 15 others fromneighbouring States.
The 23-year-old pro-quotaPatidar leader Hardik Patel
got a hero’s welcome after hewas released from Lajpore jailin Surat on Friday morning asthousands of people partici-pated in a rally which snakedthrough the streets of Surat.
Dressed in a Kathiawadi(Saurashtra region) farmer’sattire, the Patidar AnamatAndolan Samiti (PASS) con-vener immediately announcedthat the pro-quota agitationwould continue.
“The agitation will not stopno matter what,” said Hardikadding, “It will only end ifmembers of the Patidar com-munity want it to stop. The agi-tation is not the property of anypolitical party and hence noone should try to take credit forit.”
Hardik couldn’t resist indi-cating that members of thePatidar community would
show their strength in theupcoming Gujarat Assemblypolls in the year 2017. He alsorevealed his intentions of goingnational saying that there wereover 27 crore Kurmis (Patels)across the country and hewould like to unite them andunderstand their issues by trav-elling to different places.
Terming the Gujarat
Government’s decision of 10per cent quota for unreservedcategory including Patidars asinadequate, Hardik said thatthe Patidars were not givenwhat they demanded. ThePAAS convener however saidthat he and other pro-quotaPatidar leaders were open fordiscussion with StateGovernment representatives.
“After six months Patidarswill analyse what they lost andwhat they achieved after one-and-half-years of the pro-quotastir. On the basis of the analysis,appropriate decision will betaken collectively in the bestinterest of the community,” hesaid in a query of future courseof action.
Commenting sarcasticallyon PM Modi’s famous remarksof 56-inch-chest during 2014Lok Sabha poll campaign,Hardik said that he didn’t haveheight, weight or 56-inch-chestand what he wanted was reser-vation for Patidar inGovernment jobs and educa-tional institutions to Patidarsunder OBC category.
The Executive Engineer SWR-II, PWD NewDelhi invites on behalf of President of India,online item rate tender from approved andeligible contractors of CPWD for followingwork throughe-procurement solution:-
1. NIT No. 38/EE/SWR-II/PWD/2016-17,Tender ID 2016_PWD_107450_2,Name of work: A/R & M/O variousRoad under PWD Sub Divn.-1, SWR-II dg. 2016-17 (SH:-Desilting of drainat Pankha Road, New Delhi).Estimated Cost: Rs 21,28,857/- EarnestMoney : Rs. 42,577/- Time OfCompletion: 60 Days.The last date to fill/upload the tenderthrough e- tendering is dt. 18-07-16 upto03:00 P.M. The Bid forms and otherdetails can be obtained from the websitehttps://govtprocurement.delhi.gov.in.
2. NIT No. 50/EE/SWR-II/PWD/2016-17,Tender ID 2016_PWD_103028_3,Name of work: A/R & M/O variousRoads under PWD Division.SouthWest Road-II dg.2015-16 (SH:_Disposal of malba to MCD dumpingground under sub divn.-1, New Delhi).Estimated Cost: Rs 14,13,750/- EarnestMoney : Rs. 28,275/- Time ofCompletion: 06 Months.The last date to fill/upload the tenderthrough e- tendering is 18-07-2016 upto03:00 P.M. The Bid forms and otherdetails can be obtained from the websitehttps://govtprocurement.delhi.gov.in.
DIP/Shabdarth/1172/16-17
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An SUV in President PranabMukherjee’s cavalcade
which was coming fromDarjeeling to Bagdogra inNorth Bengal skidded off theroad and fell about one hundredfeet deep into a gorge leaving sixof his security personnelinjured, one of them seriously.
The incident happened onFriday morning at Sonada whenthe President’s convoy was pass-ing through a clouded hillyterrain. All the six occupants ofthe vehicle had a providentialescape as the third vehicle in theconvoy skidded off the road andfell into the gorge.
The President was return-ing from Darjeeling after hisfour-day trip to the Queen ofHills. Mukherjee who wasscheduled to catch a flight fromBagdogra to Delhi was safe.
Bengal Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee who wasalso coming behind immedi-ately stopped at the accidentsite and took upon herself therescue operations controllingthe crowd, getting ropesthrown immediately at the vic-tims trapped several feet belowand encouraging the trappedpersonnel to “hold your nervesand come up slowly and with-out fear as we are all with youand will take care of you assoon as you come up.”
The Chief Minister alsocontacted a worried President— whose vehicle had alreadymoved ahead — over thephone and “assured him aboutthe safety of his staff as he wasvery much worried.”
The Chief Minister wasalso visiting Darjeeling wherethe two leaders attended some
joint programmes.Meanwhile, soon after the
accident a worried PrimeMinister Narendra Modi calledup the President and enquiredabout his well being.
In a significant develop-ment of political consequencethe Mamata BanerjeeGovernment had earlier host-ed a State reception in honourof the President at Chowrasta(Mall) in Darjeeling barely ayear before Mukherjee’s 5-year-term comes to an end in 2017.
During the programme theChief Minister not only broketraditions by addressing thePresident as “Dada” but alsoshowered on him praises forthe “decades of services he hasrendered to the nation.”
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As the Bihar Governmenttries hard to implement the
total prohibition, leaders of theruling Janata Dal(U) are makingthe mockery of the law and pos-sessing and consuming liquor.Former JD(U) MLA Lalan Ramhas been caught consumingbeer and cursing Nitish Kumarfor enforcing prohibition. Lastmonth. party's MLC ManormaDevi was suspended after liquorbottles were recovered from herhouse in Gaya. Ram has alsobeen suspended from the partyand deprived of organisationalresponsibilities.
What is more interestingthat since the imposition of thetotal prohibition, no personbelonging to Opposition par-ties has been arrested for vio-lation of the law. Jana AdhikarParty leader Rajesh Ranjanalias Pappu Yadav openlyblamed that most of the lead-ers of the ruling alliance werehabitual drinkers and could notsurvive a day without liquor.
RLSP national secretary SeemaSaxena said the ruling allianceleaders were openly violatingthe prohibition law and alsoseen consuming liquor on cam-era. One of the Legislators wasseen claiming to have stock ofall brands of liquor at hishome. “Only the sale of theliquor has been banned not theconsumption,” she alleged.
Former JD(U) MLA fromKutumba in Aurangabad dis-trict Lalan Ram, who has beenarrested from near Bihar-Jharkhand borders, had beenshown in a video clipping con-suming beer and saying thatNitish enforced a “useless” law.Ram who had been MLA in2010-15 claimed that it was theconspiracy of his political oppo-nents. “I am a Nitish bhakt andcannot imagine saying any-thing against him,” he pleaded.
However, Ram laterchanged his statement and saidthat his video of beer con-sumption might had been shotat his paternal house which isin Jharkhand where liquor
consumption is not illegal. Hesaid he was staying there sinceFebruary much before the theliquor was banned in Bihar.
JD(U) general secretaryNavin Kumar Arya said Ram hasbeen suspended from the partyand removed from the positionof State organising secretary.Leader of Opposition PremKumar said the Government hasutterly failed to implement theprohibition. He also demandedcancellation of license to liquormanufacturing units in Bihar.
Calling the prohibition pol-icy a farce Bihar BJP presidentMangal Pandey said Nitishwas indulging in drama as 16manufacturing units of wineand two of beer were stillworking. He said these unitswere producing 8.66 lakh litersof wine and 2.33 lakh liters ofbeer every month and suppliedto neighbouring States andGovernment was earning rev-enue. “After the prohibitiondrama the sale and consump-tion of illicit liquor has shot upin Bihar,” Pandey alleged.
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After initiating a shake-up andprojecting a CM face for the
first time in UP, the Congressbrass has planned to launch thenewly appointed team of leaderson coming Sunday.
The party will make aroadshow from airport to theState party headquarters inMall Avenue and all leadersgiven different responsibilitieswould be atop a single vehicleas if to showcase ‘solidarity’ forone another.
“Congress had planned agrand roadshow on Sunday towelcome the new State presi-dent Raj Babbar, CM candidateSheila Dikshit, campaign com-mittee chief Sanjay Singh, co-ordination committee chief
Pramod Tewari and other lead-ers who have been givenresposnbiilities,” confirmed chairman of UPCC media cellSatyadeo Tripathi.
Talking to the media onFriday, Tripathi said that theroadshow would pass throughVVIP road and reach MallAvenue office in the eveningwhere the leaders wouldaddress the media.
“All along the route, morethan 100 gates would be erect-ed besides hoardings andcutouts of leaders will be putup. Several spots have beenidentified to welcome the lead-ers,” he said.
Congress had on Thursdayannounced 78-year-oldDikshit, who has been the CMof Delhi for 15 years, as itsChief Ministerial candidate forthe upcoming Assembly polls.
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Lucknow: Indicating realign-ment of political forces beforethe Uttar Pradesh Assemblypolls, Bihar Chief Minister andJD-U president Nitish Kumarwill take part in a rally organ-ised by BSP rebel RKChaudhary here on July 26.
"Nitish Kumar has agreedto attend the BS-4 (BahujanSamaj Swabhiman SangharshSamiti) rally scheduled at theBijli Pasi Quila here on July 26,"Chaudhary said.
Kumar will be the chiefguest, Chaudhary, a Dalit leaderand once close confidant of BSPsupremo Mayawati, said.
Reiterating his charge thatMayawati has deviated from
the path shown by BSP founderKanshi Ram, he said the partyhas been reduced to private realestate company of the BSPpresident.
"There could be a big rebel-lion in the BSP any time now...workers are looking for a solid
alternative," he said.Chaudhary had quit BSP
on June 30 accusing Mayawatiof "auctioning" tickets to con-test Assembly polls in UttarPradesh, a charge levelled bythree other BSP rebels whoquit, including Swami PrasadMaurya, an OBC leader.
"At time of elections, tick-ets are allotted to the personwho pays the highest amount,"Chaudhary and Maurya hadalleged. Testing the politicalwaters in poll bound UP,Kumar has been holding ralliesin certain parts of the state, par-ticular the eastern parts,promising complete prohibi-tion among others. PNS/PTI
Free distribution of threeLED bulbs for every fam-
ily by the BJP-led coalitionGovernment in poll-boundGoa, by tweaking a CentralGovernment scheme, has trig-gered political fireworks inGoa, with the Oppositionalleging that the gifting ofbulbs is a poll gimmick, whilealso claiming there was ascam in the works.
The involvement of BJP’sparty cadre in organising LEDbulb distribution events hasalso caused heartburn in theOpposition, which has alsotargeted none other thanDefence Minister ManoharParrikar over his presence at one the Jyotimay Ujala LED distribution cere-monies.
Launched earlier thismonth, the scheme envisagesto provide three 9 watt LEDbulbs to nearly five lakh fam-ilies in the State free of cost,which according to chief min-ister Laxmikant Parsekar, willhelp but down power con-sumption by as much as 75per cent.
“The bulbs have been pro-cured by the CentralGovernment at a bulk priceand made available to stategovernment at subsidisedrates under the Ujala scheme.We have done away with eventhat cost for up to three bulbsper family. Not only can con-sumers cut down on theirpower bills because of theLED technology, the State willalso save on the subsidy givenon power bills and save elec-tricity too,” Chief MinisterLaxmikant Parsekar told ThePioneer, soon after launchingthe scheme.
The scheme however hitrough weather after theOpposition alleged that theruling politicians were pulling
wool over people’s eyes, byclaiming that the bulbs beinggiven away free were worth �1,200 (for a set of three),when in fact their price wasmuch lower.
“Bulbs of these specifica-tions and made by reputedcompanies cost in the range of�100. So the very fact thatParsekar and his team areover pricing them is a subjectof investigation,” Oppositionlegislator Vijai Sardesai toldThe Pioneer.
The Oppositions’ gripeabout the scheme doesn’t endthere. Another independentopposition legislator RohanKhaunte has accused the StateGovernment of involving BJPcadre in the bulb distributionexercise, which partyspokesperson SunilKawthankar claimed was thedomain of the state electrici-ty department.
“This is a political gim-mick. Why should partyworkers involve themselvesin Government events? This isclearly done with the electionsin mind and is violation ofGovernment business rules,”Khaunte.
In Sal village in Bicholimin North Goa as well as inCavrem village in the Quepemsub district of South Goa,villagers protested at the bulbdistribution events claimingalong with the BJP bulbs, theparty’s political pamphletswere also being distributed.
State Bharatiya JanataParty president VinayTendulkar has however reject-ed the allegations of politicalinterference, but also addedthat the involvement of theBJP had ensured that thereach of the scheme widensand the benefits reaches thecommon man in distantreaches of Goa, which isexpected to go to poll in early 2017.
In a major twist in the death ofDySp Ganapathy's case the
family of deceased on Fridaydemanded CBI probe into hisunnatural death. Pawana wife ofGanapathy told the mediaper-sons in Madikeri that as she hasno faith in the State Governmentled probes, she wants a CBIprobe into the suicide of her hus-band late Ganapathy who wasserving as a DySp in Mangaluru.51 year old Ganapathy hadblamed Karnataka Minister KJGeorge and two senior policeofficers a before he hung him-self in a lodge in Madikeri.Pawana said "I had written toPrime Minister seeking his inter-vention in seeking a CBI probe.We have no faith in StateGovernment probe."
Meanwhile, as the standoffover the suicide by a DeputySuperintendent of Police con-tinued Opposition parties con-tinued their protests in theKarnataka Assembly for the fifthday today, sticking to theirdemand for sacking Minister KJGeorge and a CBI probe into theincident. Continuing theirovernight dharna in the Housefor the second day, BJP and JDSmembers shouted anti-Government slogans from thewell, refusing to settle for any-thing less than meeting their twindemands by the Government.
As soon as the Assemblymet, Opposition membersentered the well of the Houseand raised slogans against theGovernment for its "adamant"stand in protecting George.Speaker KB Koliwada appealedto the members to maintainorder and allow him to conductQuestion Hour but it wentunheeded. As pandemoniumprevailed, the Speaker adjournedthe House for Monday. BJP andJDS launched a day-night protestin the House on Wednesday,insisting on a CBI enquiry andsacking of George, named bydeceased official Ganapathyalong with two top police offi-cials for his extreme step.
Until a few days ago, itlooked like Brexit wasgoing to be definedand implemented byits enemies. The team
that led Britain out of the EuropeanUnion had vanished; their careersdestroyed by their uselessness atthe basic art of parliamentaryplotting. Theresa May walked intoNo 10 unopposed, backed by alliesof George Osborne.
The bookmakers had himdown as favourite to be the nextForeign Secretary, and many MPsfeared that a deal had been done —that the most momentous vote inBritish history would be followed byvery little change at the top.
How different it all looks now.Osborne has been sacked andBoris Johnson has been appointedto the job instead. It’s an inspiredappointment, a Foreign Secretaryable to explain to the world the pos-itive vision of Brexit that he so suc-cessfully advocated during the ref-erendum campaign.
He’ll be able to tell a story of anoptimistic country, tugging at theleash fitted upon it by the EuropeanUnion. A nation that welcomesimmigrants, but would quite like theability to control immigration.Britain needs a global salesman,who makes an impact when he vis-its. And no one has ever accusedJohnson of failing to do that.
The European Union’s diplo-mats may well want to snarl atBritain in the negotiations, whenthey start. So May has sent themDavid Davis, the most cheerfulbruiser in the House of Commons,as the head Brexit negotiator.
Meanwhile, the task of strik-ing new trade deals with farawaynations will not be held by a min-ister (like Philip Hammond) whonever really thought it possible, butby Liam Fox. He’s a globally-mind-ed Brexiteer whose idea of perfecthappiness is a week of back-to-back diplomatic functions on theother side of the world.
May might never be able tospeak with conviction about theopportunities of Brexit, but shehas just hired three Cabinetmembers who can.
She might not actually need allthree, but their recruitment doeswonders for party unity. OnMonday, after Andrea Leadsomdropped out of the leadership race,some MPs were muttering abouta Conservative Party split due tothe failure of the Brexiteers.
On Wednesday night, cham-pagne bottles were on the tables ofthe House of Commons terrace asthose same Eurosceptics toastedMay’s premiership. They have got
their wish: And it amazes them asmuch as everyone else.
On Thursday morning, therewas another, more sombre, gather-ing: David Cameron and GeorgeOsborne sitting outside in a NottingHill café reading the newspapersand consoling each other. Both willbitterly regret ever having seen Mayas the continuity candidate.
She routed the Tory mod-ernisers yesterday, sacking anyonewho was seen to be associated withthe project regardless of theirposition on Brexit.
Michael Gove is gone, as areMinisters who supported hisdoomed leadership bid. NickBoles has quit. Nicky Morgan, aneffective Education Secretary anda onetime leadership hopeful,has been sent packing.
It’s no secret that May had herdoubts about Tory modernisation,seeing it as a posh boy’s projectaimed at making the Tories moreacceptable at London dinner par-ties. But it’s hard to reconcile thiscaricature with the fruits of theCameron project: Falling inequal-ity, the incomes of the lowest-paidrising the most, a revolution in stateschools helping the poorest.
Even for those who havenever been quite sold on Torymodernisation (myself includ-ed), the extent of May’s bloodlet-ting is alarming. These are stillyoung men, who shaped the partyfor the last 10 years. They hadplenty of experience in govern-ment, plenty still to offer. But they
have been dumped, en masse.To look at the casualties of
May’s reshuffle, it’s as if she spentyears in Cabinet meetings lookingaround the table and dreamingabout the day she’d dispatch thiscrop of privately-educated youngTories back to Notting Hill to cryinto their cappuccinos.
All this would make moresense if May wanted somehow toroot out their ideology, in the sameway that Gordon Brown’s alliessought a purge of the Blairites. Butfrom what she has said, she intendsto build on what Cameron soughtto achieve: Focusing Conservatismtowards the poorest, and winningLabour voters by emphasising theprogressive nature of Tory mission.
They share the same aim, butthe means are starting to look ratherdifferent. The emergence of adepartment for “industrial strategy”suggests that May is about toattempt a policy rather more inter-ventionist than the Cameroonswould have tolerated.
This suggests Ed Miliband-styleplans to boss companies around,and tell them who they should haveon their boards. When Sajid Javidbecame Business Secretary, hedropped the phrase “industrialstrategy”; Government, he said,should not be so vain as to think itcan set out strategies for business.On Thursday, he was demoted tothe role of Communities Secretary.
So if she were to depart fromthe Cameron approach and startreviving 1970s ideas about having
workers sit in company boards, whoin her Cabinet would protest?Anyone on the Tory Right has beenkept well away from anything to dowith business or economics.
The only real answer is thesuper-dry Philip Hammond, theChancellor, who is also her closestally in the Cabinet. Their friendshipis likely to overcome any policy dif-ferences — perhaps one of the mainreasons that he was chosen.
Her reshuffle seems to haveeliminated anything that mightgrow into a power base. The mod-ernisers are more likely to quit pol-itics altogether than rebel against herin Parliament. Boris will be offcharming Canadian talk-showhosts or rugby-tackling Japaneseschoolboys. The Tory Right will bechewing on the bone of Brexit.
And this is where her reshuf-fle starts to make the most sense. It’snot that the new Prime Ministerloves Brexiteers and dislikes poshboys. She just likes a Governmentthat she can manage. She doesn’tlike surprises or arguments, and issuspicious of Ministers with toomany grand ideas of their own —and the Tory modernisers spe-cialised in those.
All of these modernising ideascertainly had their uses: Theyappear to have formed about three-quarters of Theresa May’s agenda.But she is now out to completeDavid Cameron’s mission of “onenation” Toryism without the help ofCameron, or any of his friends.
Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Nanny’s frivolous food tax” (July13). The Kerala Government’sdecision to introduce a ‘fat tax’ iscommendable for the implicitmessage it brings: Intake of foodladen with excess fat must beavoided as it leads to obesity andother health problems.
The intention of imposing a14.5 per cent tax on items likepizza, burger, sandwich, pastaetc, which are sold at brandedupscale restaurants and food retailoutlets, is to keep potential cus-tomers away from junk food.
As a corollary of the fat tax, tra-ditional food habits and tradition-al food can stage a comebackamong the health-conscious, yetrisk-averse people of Kerala.
G David MiltonMaruthancode
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Sir — This refers to the article,“Pakistan’s dreams of disbalance,disruption” (July 13) by ClaudeArpi. New Delhi must keep a tab onthe so-called Indian intellectuals,and not only preachers like ZakirNaik, who propagate the ‘dream’ ofa self-determined Kashmir. It
should also keep a weary eye on stu-dents from institutions like theJawaharlal Nehru University.
Abhi Via web
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Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Modi’s Africa connect” (July 13)Prime Minister Narendra Modi’sjust-concluded four-nation tour toAfrica will be remembered forboth political and economic con-tents. The best way to describe hismission is to say that he made it hisbusiness to establish India as a ‘reli-able friend’ in Africa’s growth story.
In each nation, the thrust wasto link the economies with theIndian economy and to supple-ment this with agreements nowindispensable to the developmen-tal ties. And yes, India and Indianswill also have to pro-activelyaddress Africa’s perception as a‘dark continent’ within India andthe racial attacks against Africans.
Meghna ANew South Wales
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Sir — China’s rejection of theUnited Nations Convention on theLaw of the Sea, soon after citing
rules to oppose India’s member-ship of the Nuclear Suppliers’Group, exposes it to the charge ofhypocrisy. The outright rejectionof the verdict by China, whichmaintained at the highest levelsthat the five judges of the Tribunalwere one-sided and biased, cansooner or later lead to a test of willsbetween an increasingly assertiveChina and the rest of the world.Meanwhile, India has done well toask China to respect the verdict.India cannot, and should not for-get the Chinese perfidies.
Vani A Secunderabad
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Sir — This refers to the article,“Religious unity can tackle terror”(July 11) by JS Rajput. The author,as many before him, says that it istime to call a spade a spade, andthen, like those before him, fightsshy of doing so. Why just blamePakistan? The Quran preachespeace, but there are also verses thatencourage violence. Only if wename the problem, we have achance to solve it.
China’s post-Mao reform era islargely seen as beginning of a
“transition” and the numerous man-ifestations of the impact of the mar-ket on the socialist nation. In this his-toric shift, China’s burgeoning mid-dle class has been scripting a newfuture for rising China either know-ingly or unknowingly. The legitimacyof the post-Communist regime wasprimarily moulded around thesimultaneous development of twosignificant aspects: material (wuzhi)and spiritual (jingshen). China’smaterial ladder of the civilisationrefers to the growth element of themodel and the spiritual aspect thesocial control aspect of the same.Deng Xiaoping’s call for a “xiaokang”(well-off) society in the 1980s andHu Jintao’s trademark evocation ofa “hexieshehui” (harmonious soci-ety) largely reflects how the future ofthe country would be determined bythe growing middle class, but ofcourse no one can be really immunefrom political conditioning imposedby the all powerful CommunistParty of China (CPC). The grand“China dream” of Xi Jinping underwhich he aspires to rejuvenate thewhole nation is adding both flavourand friction to a much wider debatearound how the CPC will fit into orfulfil the fast growing demands of themiddle class while bolstering the relevance of it.
As of today, China has a hugemiddle class, which sits between theruling elite of the CPC and the poor.McKinsey, a global consultancy, in itsreport records that China’s middleclass is estimated to be 225 millionhouseholds compared to just 5 mil-lion in 2000. The yardstick it has usedwas an annual income of 75,000-2,80,000 yuan i.e. $11,500-43,000.This report predicts that betweennow and 2020 another 50 millionhouseholds will join its ranks. Theyare spread across the country, but arehighly concentrated in urban areas;around 80 per cent of them ownproperty; and they include many ofthe Communist Party’s 88 millionmembers. When China gotIndependence in 1949, the countryhad a small section of bourgeoisie.Again, during Mao’s CulturalRevolution, which ended with his
death in 1976, people possessingwealth, education and interested inwestern culture were either harassedor eliminated by the so-called “RedGuards” across the country. But withliberalisation, the country has regis-tered considerable progress; and par-ticularly its middle class has come along way on the economic ladder.
The biggest worry for the mid-dle class is that the wealth of the toprich class has surged much ahead ofthem. On record, Beijing now hasmore billionaires than New York andthis contributes to the increasing gapbetween the super rich and the mid-dle class. The combined net worth ofthe country’s 568 billionaires isalmost equivalent to Australia’s GDP.Besides, the gap between the upperand the lower ends of the middle classis growing much faster than everbefore. On the other hand, the mostof the members of the China’s mid-dle classes own property and theyhave decent jobs either in theGovernment sectors or in esteemedprivate sector companies. Still theyworry that they are being constant-ly squeezed both from the top and thebottom as they are not getting enoughspace for free expression of their ideasand restricted in voicing their woesto the political authority. The recenthistory shows that by 1980s, Chinawas among one of the most equalsocieties in the world with a Ginicoefficient of 0.3, but in 2008, thecountry had gone up to 0.49. Thoughthe past seven years have shown adeclining trend as pay for both ruraland blue collar jobs has been on therise than the white collar jobs, buttoday with Gini coeficient at 0.46, itis still much higher than the richOECD club of countries. It is analarming rate and it rightly demon-strates the countries sharpening gapbetween the rich and the poor.
The stress on harmony as arationality of the Government at thisturning point is not coincidental,rather it is an utter necessity for theCPC to restore order and normalcyin the country. Today the Chinesesociety is described as complex by itsown political elites, which largelyincorporate diverse and often con-flicting interests. And all of them arelooking for representation and bet-
ter enhancement of their facilities astime passes by. However, in a dom-inant society like that of China,these tendencies are not been por-trayed as being at opposing ends ofthe CPC. The post-Mao leadershiptries to refer them as non-antagonisticand the objective of the Governmentis to accommodate them as far as pos-sible. The idea behind is crystalclear — avoid conflict and largersocio-political chaos in the country.Else it would simply mean an imme-diate challenge to the authority of theCPC and its losing relevance in theChinese society. It is argued thatalthough harmonious society doesnot appear to constitute a departurefrom traditional paternalistic type ofgovernance that the CPC wants toimpose on its people by creating aunique set of institutional mecha-nism. In reality, the political appara-tus of the socialist hierarchical stateis still in vogue and after threedecades of marketisation, hardlythere is any sign of what the systemmight successfully supplant it.Nonetheless, the monolithic state isadapting so quietly that outsiders can-not feel the growing conflicts with-in except on rare occasions. As Luigi
Tomba states, “The rationalities ofGovernment and the subjects, itattempts to produce today, are dif-ferent from those thirty years ago.Today the State requires citizenswho are both autonomous (so theycan participate in the market) andresponsible (so they will maintain thepolitical status quo).” Thus theGovernment has purposefully shapedthe middle class to serve its long-terminterests but not to fulfil their far cryfor more rights and liberties.
Many middle class folks feel thatthey are being rewarded lesser thanwhat they deserve. They see societyas unfair as their demands are grad-ually been sidelined by theGovernment. They are squeezedfurther by zoning them in markedareas so that the Government cancontrol their anger better than in asociety wherein the middle class isspread across. Thus the outcome isa classification of society into thosewho are bearers of modernity andcan be trusted to govern themselvesand those who need to be improvedand governed. It stresses on the lat-ter class for improvement andadjustment in the governing process.
Whatsoever it may be, China’s
middle rung people may one day beone of the main irritants to the CPCwhich created the same for servingit. In fact, this class which has fash-ioned their lifestyle much like theirwestern peers may have the potentialto destabilise the longstanding rule ofthe CPC. It is ironical also why a sec-tion of society which can see lifebeyond the borders of the tradition-al Chinese society will ever listen tothe age old maxims of the CPC. Theparty has helped hundreds of millionsget richer but has done little toensure that their assets serve them theway they want. Pension and insur-ance schemes are too weak in Chinaand many think that Government istotally irresponsible in meeting thedemands of the middle class. Theparty does not offer any explanation.Even if the people want to approachthe judiciary, it is again a party con-trolled machine. Then where to go?The ordinary people either stay clue-less or give up the hope for gettingjustice ever in their life. The biggestmyth about China is that its peopledo not have the power to vote theirleaders in a popular election and it iseasy for the CPC to control theemerging conflicts. For decades, theCPC has been claiming to representthe will of the people. “Since 1980 ithas often done that for pragmatic rea-sons. It has remained in power large-ly by letting its citizens get richer andstaying ahead of their expectations,occasionally even bending to some oftheir demands.” This shows how theCPC is scared of the growing aware-ness of the people about their unholyalliance with power. The controlover the commons is now fraying andit might so happen that China will seeits doomsday soon.
Finally, it can rightly be arguedthat China’s long-term policies tocurb public anger will prove to be dis-astrous one fine day for sure. Peopleare angry about corruption, pollutionand inequality in society. Drummingup national sentiment on issuesrelated to South China Sea, HongKong, Taiwan, Tibet and Xinjiang willnot always help the CPC retainpower forever. China’s challenge willmost probably come from withinthan from outside. Its global marchto reach out to all corners of the world
and teaming up with an anti-westernbrigade of nations or at times offer-ing support to African dictators maylose the relevance of its growthmodel soon. Mainly, China’s muchambitious route to “peaceful rise” wasdecried by most of the Asian nationsand the way Xi Jinping is trying tobring back the Maoist ethos back willfurther deteriorate the regional powerbalance in the coming days. China’sempire building efforts must reflectthe realities it has been facing insidethe country. Its citizens are not get-ting adequate space to ventilate theirgrievances and hence the CPC mustrealise the futility of extending its armbeyond its capacity. Xi’s constant callto love the Communist Party andactively practise socialist core valuesmay not take him and his belovedparty farther. It has been observedthat the CPC will rather look for, andalways used to, authoritarianismrather than taking resort to account-ability, even in the event of a possi-ble middle class upsurge acrossChina. It is certain that there may notbe an immediate revolt or civil rightsmovement anytime soon, but thehuge middle class is definitely look-ing for a change. The CPC’s iron gripover the party and the policy mak-ing may require an urgent adjustmentso that it will be able to douse the firein the middle class gradually.
The writing on the wall is clear:internet and social media haveexposed the people to the outsideworld beyond China’s Great Wall, sonow they will demand more andmore freedom the way others areenjoying across the world. The CPC’spolicy of balancing freedom ofexpression with repression is nolonger sustainable and it may invitemajor setback to the survival of theparty. It is time now to gear up to goahead with the changing dynamicsof a globalised society. The CPC’scontrol over the masses needs to beredefined. The social engineering ofthe urban middle class may bringunrest unless the CPC brings forthgradual changes in the process ofgovernance and accordingly sparemore spaces for them.
Brexit literally means exit of Britainfrom the European Union. Yet, it
is not as simple as that. Those againstBrexit have unleashed their angst say-ing Brexit is anti-liberalism, anti-immigrants, anti-collectivism, anti-globalisation, and anti-feminism.Those for Brexit say it is a revolutionto establish a new world order wherenationalism reigns supreme andnational interests are not sacrificed atthe altar of internationalism. Truth ofcourse, is somewhere in the middle.Brexit and its aftermath are touted asa fight between the rich versus thepoor, the Irish elite versus the Britishelite, the young versus the old, thenative versus the outsider, the xeno-phobe versus the neo-liberal, DavidCameron versus Boris Johnson, BorisJohnson versus Michael Gove, MichaelGove versus Theresa May, Liberalsversus Conservatives, Cameron &Corbyn versus Nigel Farage, TheresaMay versus Andrea Leadsom, DavidBeckham, Elton John & Daniel Craigfrom the “Remain” camp versusElizabeth Hurley, Perry McCarthy &Ian Botham from the “Leave” camp,Scots versus the Welsh, Birmingham& Cumbria versus London & Glasgow,London versus rest of England and soon. Whew! It is another matter thatfinally Theresa May trumped therest to 10 Downing Street.
Before proceeding any further, afew myths need to be dispelled. IsBrexit about anger against the EU ingeneral? No. The EU is UK’s largesttrading partner accounting for 44 percent of its exports and 53 per cent ofits imports. In fact, Britain hadaccess to EU’s large single market vir-tually unfettered sans borders,encouraging free flow of labour &capital, even without converting thepound into euro! Interestingly, Wales& Cornwall are two regions that getthe maximum funds and subsidiesfrom the EU, yet they chose toleave. So, money matters clearly didnot matter on June 23, day of the ref-erendum.
Is Brexit about Xenophobia?No. Data shows, most of those whovoted for “Leave” are those whostood against Nazism, Fascism,apartheid in their life-time andhelped refugees generously withmoney and supplies even when theFrench Government failed 6,000refugees in the town of Calais inNorthern France. Is Brexit about aconfused mob as the renownedBarrister Robertson would have youbelieve? No. A 72 per cent turnouton the day of the referendum with
over 30 million voters, of which 17.4million voted for Leave, cannot betermed a mob.
Is Brexit about rising economicchasm between the rich and theimpoverished? No. Older peoplelargely voted for Leave and a recentstudy reveals a quarter of people agedbetween 55 and 64 years live inhouseholds with more than £1m ofassets, compared with only 4 per centof 25 to 34-year-olds. Also, the aver-age wealth of those near or aboveretirement age stands at a robust6,00,000 pounds. If economic dis-parities were indeed the reason,then it is the younger generation thatshould have voted for Leave, not theolder. On June 23, however, youngervoted for Remain, and older for Leave.
Is Brexit about an anti-immi-gration wave spreading like wildfireacross much of Europe? No. Studiesshow, Poland and the other ninecountries that joined the EU in2004 have contributed almost £5 bil-lion more to UK’s economy than theyused in benefits and public services.Leading researcher ChristianDustmann says immigrants con-tributed 64 per cent more to theBritish exchequer by way of taxesthan they took by way of state ben-efits, and immigrants from Centraland Eastern Europe contributed 12per cent more. Also, between 1995and 2011, negative contribution toState exchequer by native Britonsstood at an embarassing 591 billionpounds. So clearly, the anti-immi-gration theory is not supported bynumbers.
Is Brexit about de-industrialisa-tion of Great Britain that started withsevere job cuts by Ford Motors in thelatter half of 20th century, whichresulted in UK’s manufacturing sec-tor shrinking by a whopping 67 percent in the last 30 yrs? No. UK’s econ-omy has done pretty well in the lastfew years, with net public borrowing(annual deficit) falling to just 90 bil-lion pounds from 150 billion poundsin 2009. Unemployment rate at 5.1per cent is the lowest since 2006 andemployment rate has hit fresh highsof about 74 per cent, with JohnHawksworth of PWC saying “Britainis now a remarkable job creatingmachine.” Brexit, therefore, is notabout any illusory economic miseryof the Britons. Interestingly, if Brexitdoes crystalise, UK’s economy couldlose 2.2 per cent of GDP but only by2030. On the contrary, if the UKnegotiates a new Free Trade
Agreement with Europe by pursuingambitious de-regulation, Britisheconomy could actually gain to thetune of 1.6 per cent of GDP in thenext 5-7 years.
Also, let’s face it. Europe needsBritain due to the power it wields bybeing member of the NATO and theUNSC. France and Britain are, infact, the only two European membersat the UN Security Council, andBritain is, of course, the fifth biggestdefence spender globally, if thathelps. So, this was never about eco-nomics, as is being peddled, as bothBritain and the EU need and feed offeach other.
From India’s perspective, theUK has cumulatively added $22bn toIndia’s FDI kitty in the last 15 years,accounting for 8 per cent of inwardFDI flows into India, third highest,after Mauritius and Singapore. India’spharma exports to the EU are 12 percent of total exports with the UKaccounting for 3.5 per cent. In IT ser-vices, the corresponding numbers are29 per cent and 17 per cent. Again,there are 815 Indian businesses in theUK, employing 1,10,000 people andthese are unlikely to be impacted,barring minor rise in administrativeand compliance costs, were Brexit tounfold. The fact that a weak poundmakes holidaying and studying in theUK far cheaper for Indians needsmention. To sum up, the economicimpact will be marginal, if any, forIndia, from a trade perspective,given the presence of counter-bal-ancing global levers.
Of course, there is one piece of
bad news and that is for fish loversin Britain. The UK boasts of rough-ly 10,500 “Fish & Chips” shops, serv-ing 382 million portions annually.Post June 23, prices of salmon, had-dock, cod have hit the roof, thanksto the Pound-Sterling collapsing bynot only 13 per cent against the dol-lar but also 10 per cent against theNorwegian crown. Salmon pricesthat were already up 60 per centcompared to a year ago, thanks to thepresence of sea lice in SouthAmerica, now seem to be worth theirweight in gold. Don’t forget that fish-ing is a huge industry in the UK, anda weaker pound has made importsfrom Norway costlier, what withNorway selling Salmons worth 3.4billion crowns every year to Britain.Clearly, Britain’s loss is Norway’s gain.Supermarket chains like WMMorrisons and Tesco are already feel-ing the pinch with fish literally rais-ing a stink.
Keeping “fishy” stories aside,what one needs to be cautious about,however, is the impact Brexit couldhave on global bond yields andtherefore on India. German, Swissand Japanese 10-year bond yieldscrashed to a negative 0.18 per cent,0.64 per cent and 0.27 per cent onJuly 11, 2016. Swiss 30-year bondyields turned negative for the firsttime in recent history. UK’s 10-yeargilt yield which stood at 1.35 per centbefore June 23, 2016, crashed to anew post referendum low of 0.71 percent on July 11, 2016. Negativebond yields globally imply moremoney going into Government
bonds and safe haven assets like UStreasuries, which means a strongerdollar, going forward. That could inturn mean lower crude oil and com-modity prices globally, which in turnmeans China may be forced todevalue the Yuan like it did onAugust 11, 2015, sending globalmarkets, including India, into atizzy. A weaker Yuan could lead toa spate of beggar thy neighbour easymoney policies by other centralbankers, in a race to the bottom,leading to asset inflation and risingstock markets in the short term butpaving the way for an assets bubblethat could be disruptive once thebubble bursts. Do note, China hasalways reacted to a global “apoca-lypse” by simply printing moremoney to boost exports and invest-ment demand, and allowing every-one around to feast on a liquiditybinge. And as we all know, too muchof a good thing is bad.
Make no mistake, Brexit mayeventually never really “happen”because the onus of triggering Article50 under the Lisbon Treaty lies withBritain and it can simply choose toignore the referendum and move onwith business as usual. Also, Britonsmay opt for a referendum of the ref-erendum, and for all we know,“Remain” may fetch more votesthan “Leave”. An interesting pointworth noting, however, is that evenif Brexit becomes a reality, Britainmay continue to be guided byEuropean Convention of HumanRights. To that extent, Britain willnever quite rid itself of its Europeanassociation. Eurosceptics, of course,believe Brexit will eventually changedemography and geography so as toensure the “United Kingdom ofGreat Britain and Northern Ireland”eventually becomes “UnitedKingdom of Little England andWales”. Moot point, though, is Brexithas stirred the imagination of gen-erations, cutting across borders,gender, political affiliations, eco-nomic status and race.
Critics of Brexit equate it withfascism and hyper-nationalism, butthat is just a malicious lie. Fascism,Mussolini style, or the Emergency of1975, Indira Gandhi style, is dicta-torial, radical, reactionary, militant,authoritarian style nationalism thatrejects principles of “liberty, equal-ity and fraternity” and relies on total-itarianism. Brexit, on the other hand,celebrate brotherhood, freedom ofchoice, right to vote, plurality, diver-sity; and most importantly, it is about
people whose love for their nation-State and a shared national con-sciousness for a better tomorrow sur-passes much else. Brexit-ers alsodemand accountability from thepolitical class that has failed to curba bloody civil war in Syria, Russianaggression in Ukraine and of course,Turkish aggression against the Kurds.
To sum up, Brexit is not anoth-er “Jasmine Revolution”, waiting tofail. Nor is Brexit an isolated event.Ultimately, Brexit is an idea that is allabout reclaiming your national iden-tity, without losing your globalmoorings. Just as Hindutva is notHinduism but simply a state ofmind and a secular way of life thatcelebrates Indian culture and Indianethos, as ruled by no less than theSupreme Court of India in its historic1995 judgement, Brexit too is abouta nation-State that wishes to breakaway from the mould and assert itsaspirations, without losing its glob-al strappings. India had its Brexitmoment in May 2014, when thecharismatic Narendra Modi wasvoted into power with an over-whelmingly decisive mandate, asthe Prime Minister of the world’slargest democracy, in its quest for amore vibrant India, that was nolonger shackled by the vestiges of thedefunct Nehru-Gandhi dynasty thathad ruled the country for decadeslike their personal fiefdom. Right-wing parties globally are rising likenever before. From Marine Le Pen’sFNP in France to Frauke Petry’s AFDin Germany to Matteo Salvini’sNorthern League in Italy to KristianDahl’s Danish People’s Party toNorbert Hofer’s FPO in Austria, toGeert Wilder in the Netherlands andof course, Donald Trump’s “MakeAmerica Great Again” campaign....The list goes on and on and for awhole good reason.
Former Chancellor of GermanyHelmut Kohl once infamously said,“A united Europe is the only way tocontain German nationalism. If leftto themselves, Germans would killeach other”. Well, Brexit would makeKohl turn in his grave. To sum up,setting the economics and the poli-tics aside, the message from Brexit isloud and clear: We are not xeno-phobic but do not deprive us fromtaking pride in our identity as anation-State that aspires for moreand rightfully so.
(The writer is an economist,stock market expert and spokespersonfor the Mumbai BJP)
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Infosys on Friday disappoint-ed markets with downward
revision of its revenue guidancefor FY17, sending the stockcrashing the most in a singleday since Vishal Sikka becameCEO more than two years ago.
The company on fridayannounced over 13 per centrise in June quarter net profiton new client additions.Consolidated net profit stoodat �3,436 crore during thequarter ended June 30.Revenue for the April-Junequarter of current fiscal was upnearly 17 per cent year-on-yearto �16,782 crore.
India's second largest ITservices company forecast a10.8-12.3 per cent sales growthin US dollar terms for 2016-17,down from the previous fore-cast of 11.8-13.8 per cent as itfactored in uncertainties aris-ing out of Britain's decision toexit from the European Union.
The cut in guidance sentstock crashing by 8.8 per centto close at �1,072.25 on theBSE.
This was more than 8.54per cent slide in stock onMarch 13, 2014 but less than22.24 per cent slump witnessedon April 12, 2013. The previoustwo big slides too followed thecompany reporting sluggishgrowth in revenues.
“We had unanticipatedheadwinds in discretionaryspending in consulting ser-vices and package implemen-tations as well as slower projectramp-ups in large deals that wehad won in earlier quarters,resulting in a lower-than-expected growth in Q1,” Sikkasaid.
The full-year revenue guid-ance at 10.5-12 per cent in con-stant currency terms is lowerthan its April forecast of 11.5-13.5 per cent.
Since taking over the helmof Infosys in August 2014,Sikka has focused on “trans-forming” Infosys by betting bigon automation and high-mar-gin areas like artificial intelli-gence and digital.
Setting a target of $20 bil-lion revenue by fiscal 2020,from $9.3 billion in 2015-16, he
has helped Infosys value rise by40 per cent in last two years. InUS dollar terms, the consoli-dated net profit rose 7.4 percent to $511 million in the firstquarter of 2016-17, while rev-enue rose 10.9 per cent to $2.5billion.
Sikka admitted that the
company's performance was“not quite up to the mark”.
The operating margin at24.1 per cent was impacted bywage hikes (1.4 per centimpact) and visa charges (0.8per cent), but was partly offsetby cost optimisation efforts.
Infosys will stick to medi-
um-term margin guidance of24-26 per cent, the company'sCFO MD Ranganath said.
The Earnings per share orEPS was �15.03 for the quarter,13.4 per cent higher than theyear ago period.
“As we look ahead to thefuture, clearly (Brexit) is some-
thing that many banks areworried about and so forth. Inthe near term we don't knowhow this will play out...So,given the visibility, we loweredour guidance,” Sikka said.
Infosys, which is chasing a$20 billion revenue aspirationby 2020, said that the perfor-
mance in one quarter will nothold the company back fromreaching that milestone.
Infosys, which gets 23 percent of its topline from Europe,saw a marginal rise in revenuefrom that market. Banks andfinancial sector contribute athird of Infosys' revenue.
Gartner Research DirectorArup Roy said Infosys numbershad been “lukewarm” and arereflective of the state of affairsof the market.
“Financial services has atepid environment. Infosys hasa higher revenue share comingfrom discretionary spend andtherefore has taken the firstbeating,” Roy said.
Earlier this year, industrybody Nasscom had lowered itsgrowth forecast for softwareexports to 10-12 per cent in theyear to March 31, 2017, downfrom 12-14 per cent in 2015-16.
Infosys added 13,268(gross) and 3,006 (net) peoplein the said quarter, taking itsheadcount to 1,97,050 at theend of June, 2016. The attritionrate during the quarterincreased to 21 per cent, but
Infosys said it is not a concernyet.
Attributing the rise in attri-tion to seasonality, ChiefOperating Officer UB PravinRao said “typically in Q1, wehave higher exits due to (peo-ple going for) higher studies”.
While the attrition levelshave shot up, Infosys has beenable to retain “high perform-ers”, he added.
The technology major hasrelaunched its ESOP pro-gramme after a gap of about13 years for junior to middlelevel management. This will,subsequently, be extended tomiddle management andsenior leaders.
On Visa issues in the back-drop of US elections, SandeepDadlani, Infosys President andHead – Americas said: “Thisis an election year, every elec-tion year the rhetoric overimmigration, over H1B visagoes up dramatically...Thisyear it is particularly dramat-ic because of nature of thecandidates and nature of thepolarisation, but every yearthings settle down,” he said.
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��������,Infosys CEO VishalSikka on Friday said Brexit hasled to uncertainty in the nearterm, but expressed optimismthat it may also offer revenuegrowth “opportunities” as newdemand for technology ser-vices and integration comes upin medium to long term.
“Banks are trying to figureout what changes need to bemade and what it means fornear-term spending...Unfortunate as it is that some ofthese walls are being created dueto Brexit, it does create moreneed for services, integration,
more need for ways to interactacross boundaries. So, it meansopportunity for revenuegrowth,” Sikka said.
In the near term, he admit-ted, there may be uncertainties.
“But it is too early to tell...So far we have not seen anyimpact,” he added.
For the full year 2016-17,the country's second-largestsoftware services firm slashed itsrevenue forecast to 10.5-12 percent in constant currency terms,lower than previously estimat-ed 11.5-13.5 per cent. The com-pany attributed the cut in guid-
ance to the macroeconomicuncertainties.
“So far, Brexit has had noimpact on us. But as we lookahead, this is clearly somethingthat many banks are worriedabout... It creates this opportu-nity for us in the medium tolong term, but in the near term,we do not know how this willplay out. Given this, we loweredour guidance,” he said.
The outlook translates into11.7-13.2 per cent revenuegrowth in rupee terms, and 10.8-12.3 per cent in dollar terms.
Sikka's comments come a
day after larger rival TataConsultancy Services said it iskeeping a close “watch” on theEuropean market, but is yet tosee any client-specific negativi-ty.
Infosys derives 23 per centof its revenue from Europewhile TCS has a larger exposurewith over 26 per cent of the over-all business coming from thatmarket. For TCS, in the firstquarter ended June 2016, theUK accounted for 14.8 per centof the revenue, with ContinentalEurope contributing another11.5 per cent. ���
expectation with its bigger-than-expected 18 per centjump in June quarter net prof-it on the back of highest refin-ing margin in eight years androbust petrochemical earn-ings.
Consolidated net profit at�7,113 crore, or Rs 24.1 pershare, in the April-June periodwas 18.1 per cent higher than�6,024 crore in the same peri-od of last fiscal, RIL said in astatement.
This was the ninth con-secutive quarter for which thecompany posted highest seg-ment profit for refining andpetrochemical business.
RIL, which has in recentyears invested in sectors liketelecom, retail and financialservices as it seeks to diversi-fy revenue sources and reducedependence on the oil and gassector, however did not giveany guidance on commerciallaunch of its 4G telecom andhigh-speed broadband ser-vices.
Revenue fell 13.4 per cent
to �71,451 crore, hurt by asharp fall in prices of crude oiland petroleum products.
RIL, operator of theworld's biggest oil-refinerycomplex that can process low-grade crude and switchbetween fuels depending onmarket prices, earned $11.5 onturning every barrel of crudeinto petroleum product.
This was the highest grossrefining margin it has earnedin eight years, as against $10.8per barrel in precedingJanuary-March quarter and$10.4 in the first quarter of2015-16 fiscal.
The company, which isinvesting $12 billion to boostpetrochemical capacity and
refinery processes as well asbuild facilities to import ethanefrom US, earned a 13.5 permargin on petrochem business.
“At Reliance, we continuedto harness the power of ourintegrated energy and materi-als business portfolio. Wemaintained our earningsgrowth trajectory during thisquarter, as the world grappledwith new dimensions of eco-nomic uncertainty,” saidMukesh D Ambani, Chairmanand Managing Director RIL.
Its debt rose to �186,692crore at the end of June from�180,388 crore as on March 31,2016. Cash in hand was upmarginally at �90,812 crorefrom �89,966 crore at end of
FY16.Before the earning
announcement, RIL sharesclosed 0.6 per cent higher�1,012.55 on BSE.Ambani said:“Though regional refiningmargins trendeddownwards,our high-conversion refiningsystem was able to take advan-tage of higher margins onmiddle distillates and widerdiscounts on sour crude oils.
“Our refining businessdelivered another record per-formance and achieved indus-try leading GRM.”
While pre-tax profit fromrefinery business jumped 26per cent to �6,593 crore, earn-ings from petrochemical busi-ness soared 20.5 per cent to�2,806 crore.
RIL's oil and gas businessreported a pre-tax loss of �312crore as compared to �199crore profit a year ago.
Revenue from organisedretail soared 46 per cent to�6,666 crore and EBIT by 21.2per cent to �240 crore.
Other income was higherat �2,378 crore in the quarterunder review, as against Rs1,584 crore a year ago due tohigher interest income and
profit on sale of investments.Its interest cost also soared
to �1,206 crore as against �915crore a year ago. The rise wasdue to “higher averageexchange rate during the quar-ter”, RIL said.
Lower oil prices meantearnings from refinery busi-ness fell 17.7 per cent to�56,568 crore but segmentpre-tax profit was up 26 percent at �6,593 crore.
During the quarter, RIL'sJamnagar refineries processed16.8 million tonnes, whichtranslates into 109 per cent ofthe installed capacity.
“RIL's GRM outper-formed Singapore complexmargins by $6.5 per barrel,highest level achieved in thelast eight years,” the companysaid.
Petrochemical businessrevenue was down 0.7 percent at �20,718 crore but seg-ment pre-tax profit was up20.5 per cent to �2,806 crore,primarily on account ofincrease in prices.
US shale gas revenue fell35 per cent to �556 crore andit posted a pre-tax loss of �354crore during the quarter.
����6����?�������8�)���-@>�����;�--A����������!��!���)����� ������,Former Reserve Bank
Governor Duvvuri Subbaraohas credited his successorRaghuram Rajan's “formidablereputation” for bringing sani-ty to the forex market when therupee had lost nearly 25 percent amid 'taper tantrums' inthe summer of 2013.
He has also blamed thenthen Finance Minister PChidambaram's reluctance toaccept that the rupee wasbleeding more because ofdomestic issues and less due toexternal factors like the tapertantrums - a reference to theUS Fed's gradual withdrawal ofstimulus measures for theAmerican economy followingthe global financial crisis of2008.
“I had several conversa-tions with Chidambaram onthis, but found him reluctant toface up to this inconvenienttruth. He is too intelligent notto have seen the point; I sus-pect he found it politically con-venient to point to an externalscapegoat rather than callattention to domestic struc-tural factors,” Subbarao, thebureaucrat-turned centralbanker, has written in a book.
He has also blamedChidambaram who “whole-heartedly supported hisappointment” to the Mint
Road for undermining theautonomy of RBI and puttingpressure on him to cut inter-est rates.
On the impact of theappointment of RaghuramRajan as the new Governor onstabilising the rupee, Subbaraosays “the scheduled leader-ship change at the ReserveBank and the formidable rep-utation of my successor,Raghuram Rajan, helpedrestore confidence in theIndian markets”.
The book 'Who MovedMy Interest Rates- Leadingthe Reserve Bank of Indiathrough Five Turbulent Years',is a tell-tale 352 page memoirby Subbarao. It hit the standson Friday and will be formal-ly launched next month. It ispublished by Penguin RandomHouse.
“In fact, as chief econom-ic adviser to the Government,Raghu was on board allthrough the exchange rate tur-moil and was more activelyinvolved in all the decisionsafter he was named in earlyAugust as my successor,” henotes in the book, which hebegan penning in the middle oflast year.
On the radical measuresthat Rajan announced onassuming charge, Subbarao
says soon after Rajan came toRBI as an OSD, they both hadagreed on those steps like rais-ing forex through NRI deposits.
“Raghu was kind enoughto offer that I announce thesemeasures before signing off.But I thought that the measureswould be more effective if heannounced them as the incom-ing Governor. At least on thisissue, my judgement worked!”he says in a chapter titled'Rupee Tantrums 137'.
Blaming the plight of therupee primarily on structural-imbalances like high currentaccount deficit (CAD) drivenby non-productive imports likegold, Subbarao saysChidambaram was not ready toaccept this.
“My concern was that wewould go astray in both thediagnosis and remedy if we didnot acknowledge that at theheart of our external economyproblem were domestic vul-nerabilities,” he says in hisbook.
Chidambaram's reluctanceto put the house in order hap-pened, writes Subbarao, “evenas we were engaged in a fierceexchange rate defence, oneissue that troubled me allthrough was the narrative thatwas taking shape about the ori-gin of the problem.” ���
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India's exports turned pos-itive after 18 months in
June, recording a growth of1.27 per cent, pushed up byincrease in shipments of agricommodities, pharmaceuti-cals and engineering goods.
The merchandise exportstotalled $22.57 billion asagainst $22.28 billion in thesame month last year.
Rising exports anddecline in imports a lsobrought down the tradedeficit in June to $8.11 billionas against $10.82 billion in theyear-ago month.
Exports have been fallingsince December 2014 due toweak global demand and slidein oil prices.
As per the data releasedby Commerce and IndustryMinistry, imports in Junewere at $30.68 billion, down7.33 per cent from $33.11 bil-lion in the year-ago month.
Gold too imports dropover 38 per cent in June to$1.2 billion.
Apex exporters bodyFIEO said positive figure hasinstilled optimism amongexporters, though global sce-nario remains challenging.
“Positive exports by engi-
neering, marine, drugs andpharma, plantation com-modities, electronic goods,carpets and handicrafts sec-tors is very encouraging asthese are high employmentgenerating sectors as well,”said FIEO President SCRalhan.
Industry body CII saidthe rise is “a much needed
boost to the confidence” ofIndian exporters.
“All the recent initiativestaken by Department ofCommerce to revive exportshave finally yielded positiveresults,” it said.
The Government datarevealed that imports ofpetroleum, crude and relatedproducts were down 16.42 per
cent in June while that of coal,coke and briquettes shrunk byabout 13 per cent.
Commerce and IndustryMinister Nirmala Sitharamanhad yesterday said the declinein exports have bottomed outand the outbound shipmentsare expected to witness grad-ual improvement in the com-ing months depending upon
pick up in global demand. Invalue terms, imports of fer-tilisers too were down by22.77per cent at $712.36 million.Gold import was recorded at$1.20 billion in June, a declineof 38.54 over the year-agoperiod.
Cumulative value of mer-chandise exports for April-June 2016-17 was $65.31 bil-lion as against USD 66.69 bil-lion, a decline of 2.07 per cent.
Overall imports in thefirst quarter of the fiscal stoodat $84.54 billion, down 14.53per cent year-on-year.
The trade deficit forApril-June was estimated at$19.23 billion, lower than thedeficit of $32.225 billion inthe corresponding period lastfiscal.
In case of services, exports(receipts) during May (latest dataavailable) were valued at $13.46billion, registering a growth of4.28 per cent, and imports stoodat $7.92 billion, a growth of 10.29per cent.
Overall the trade balance(merchandise and service sectors)has improved. Taking merchan-dise and services together, over-all trade deficit for April-June isestimated at $7.97 billion whichis 62.01 per cent lower from$20.98 billion year-on-year.
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Petrol price was on Friday cutby �2.25 a litre and diesel by
�42 paise a litre, the secondreduction in rates this monthon global cues.
Petrol will cost �62.51 a litrein Delhi from midnight tonightas compared to �64.76 per litrecurrently, said Indian Oil Corp,the nation's largest fuel retail-er. Similarly, diesel will cost�54.28 per litre as against�54.70 currently.
This is the second reduc-tion in rates this month.Petrol price was cut by 89paise a litre and diesel by 49paise on July 1.
Prior to the reductionthis month, rates had beenhiked on four occasions sinceMay 1. Petrol prices in thefour hikes had been raised byRs 4.52 a litre and diesel by Rs7.72 per litre.
“The current level of inter-national product prices of petroland diesel and Rupee-US Dollarexchange rate warrant decreasein selling price of petrol anddiesel, the impact of which isbeing passed on to the con-sumers with this price revision,”IOC said in a statement.
Barring an exemption onApril 16, when price of petrolwas cut by 74 paise a litre anddiesel by �1.30, the upwardtrend in rates had been a phe-nomenon since March 17.
After discounting the April16 reduction, petrol prices havejumped by �9.04 per litre sincemid-March and diesel by�11.05 per litre.
The movement of prices inthe international oil market andRupee-USD exchange rate shallcontinue to be monitored close-ly and developing trends of themarket will be reflected in futureprice changes, IOC added.
��� �����, Gold importsplunged by 38.54 per cent to�1.2 billion in June whileinbound shipments of silverfell by more than a quarter inthe month.
Gold imports were worth$1.96 billion in June 2015.
Meanwhile, theGovernment has announcedlaunch of fourth tranche ofsovereign gold bond schemefrom July 18 in a bid to checkthe demand for physical gold.
The Reserve Bank hasfixed the issue price of bondat �3,119 per gram. The ratehas been fixed on the basis ofsimple average of closing priceof gold of 999 purity for theweek July 11 to 15, 2016 aspublished by the India Bullion
and Jewellers Association(IBJA).
Government has netted3.1 tonnes of idle householdand temple gold under themonetisation scheme sinceits launch in November 2015.
India imports about 1,000tonnes of gold every year andthe precious metal is the sec-ond—highest component of
the import bill after crude oil.An estimated 20,000 tonnes ofgold is lying with householdsand temples.
As per the data released bythe Commerce and IndustryMinistry, the silver importswere recorded at $249.39 mil-lion in June as against $342.37million, registering a declineof 27.16 per cent year-on-year.
Also, shipments of pearls,precious and semi-preciousstones showed a decline of13.52 per cent in June.
Imports of coal, coke andbriquettes were $1.07 billion,down 12.95 per cent. Importsof fertiliser, petroleum prod-ucts, and iron and steel toowitnessed significant declinein June.
Stressing the importance ofrole models in societies,
Finance Minister Arun Jaitleyon Friday said more and morepeople are achieving excellenceat young age and the “era ofgrey eminence is graduallycoming to an end”.
“Achievers also act as a rolemodel in aspirational soci-ety...Role models are essentialfor society,” he said atLakshmipat Singhania - IIMLucknow National LeadershipAwards here.
Such recognitions shouldencourage the role models tooccupy the centre-stage ofpublic discourse, he said.
Jaitley further said increas-ingly people are acquiringexcellence at young age andthat the “era of grey eminenceis gradually coming to an end”.
Citing an example, theFinance Minister said, nolonger a physician with 40 yearsof experience is consideredbest.
The award in fields ofBusiness, Science &Technology, CommunityService and Social Upliftmentwere given by the FinanceMinister.
ICICI Academy aims to trainone lakh youth in the country
by 2017 as part of its skill devel-opment programme and finan-cial inclusion drive.
“It is crucial to bridge thecritical gap between manpoweravailability and employabilityby providing sustainable liveli-hood opportunities for all togrow and prosper. ICICIFoundation aims to reach themilestone of training over 1 lakhyouth by March 2017,” ICICIBank’s MD and CEO ChandaKochhar said in an e-mail inter-action on the occasion of ‘WorldYouth Skills Day’ on Friday.
Kochhar said the youth inIndia need to equip themselveswith skills which will empowerthem to earn a sustainable liveli-hood. According to ICICI group,India has a unique advantage inthe form of its demographic div-idend. Being one of the youngestnations in the world, it hasmore than 62 per cent of pop-ulation in working age group(15-59 years), while over 54 percent are below 25 years.
“To reap this demograph-ic dividend, we need to enablethe youth to acquire skillsrequired to get the job orbecome self-employed. Withthe right skills, you will be theforce who will drive Indiatowards further progress anddevelopment,” she said.
Elaborating, Kochhar said alarge section of youth, mainlyunderprivileged have little accessto training that can increasetheir employability. As per esti-mates, only 4.69 per cent of thetotal workforce have undergone
formal skill training compared to68 per cent in UK, 75 per cent inGermany, 52 per cent in the US,80 per cent in Japan and 96 percent in South Korea.
Pointing out at the hugeskill gap, she asserted India’sneed to bridge this divide.ICICI Foundat ion forInclus ive Growth hadlaunched the ICICI Academyfor Skills in October 2013 toprovide vocational trainingto economical ly weakeryouths to help them earn asustainable livelihood.
Tata Motors plans to raise�3,000 crore in the next 12
months through non-convert-ible debentures (NCDs) orrupee denominated non-con-vertible foreign currency bondson a private placement basis.The company will seekapproval of shareholders toraise the sum at its upcomingAGM to be held on August 9.
“In continuation of itsefforts to strengthen its capitalstructure, the company intendsto augment the resourcesthrough a mix of internal accru-als and long term borrowings,”Tata Motors said in a letter to itsshareholders. It is proposed toissue NCDs and/or rupeedenominated non convertibleforeign currency bonds on aprivate placement basis aggre-gating up to �3,000 crore, in oneor more series/ tranches duringthe 12 month period from thedate of the AGM, it added.
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MUMBAI: Country’s foreignexchange reserves declined by$1.228 billion to $361.943 bil-lion in the week to July 8 dueto a fall in foreign currencyassets, the Reserve Bank saidon Friday. Last week, thereserves had surged by $2.374billion to $363.171 billion.
Foreign currency assets(FCAs), a major component of theoverall reserves, declined by$1.218 billion to $337.493 billionin the reporting week, RBI datashowed. FCAs, expressed in dol-lar terms, include the effect ofappreciation/depreciation of non-US currencies such as euro, poundand yen held in the reserves.
Gold reserves remainedunchanged at $20.576 billion.The country's special drawingrights with the IMF were downby $ 3.6 million to $1.484 billionand the reserve position dippedby $5.9 million to $2.389 billion,the central bank said. PTI
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The Finance Ministry islikely to soon clear the
first round of capital infusionin public sector banks (PSBs)that has been slated for thecurrent financial year.
The proposal for capitalinfusion is expected to getapproval f rom FinanceMinister Arun Jaitley short-ly, sources said, adding thatthe first tranche is likely to beless than �20,000 crore. Afterthe fourth quarter results,each bank made a detailedrequest for fresh fund infu-sion taking into accountissues pertaining to non-per-forming assets (NPAs) or badloans and growth projections.
Based on the suggestions,the Department of FinancialServices finalised the firsttranche of fund infusion,sources said. The Government
has made Budget provision of�25,000 crore capital infu-sion in public sector banks forthe current fiscal. Jaitley, how-ever, had assured the state-owned banks that theGovernment would providemore funds if needed.
Last year, theGovernment announced arevamp plan Indradhanush toinfuse �70,000 crore in state-
owned banks over four years,while the banks themselveswere expected to raise a fur-ther �1.1 lakh crore from themarket to meet their capitalrequirements in line withglobal risk norms Basel-III. Inline with the blueprint, PSUbanks will get �25,000 crorethis fiscal. Besides, �10,000crore each would be infusedin 2017-18 and 2018-19.
NEW DELHI: The CommerceMinistry has pitched for aneasier visa regime to promotetourism and boost service sec-tor exports. “We have beenrecommending (easy visaregime) to improve tourismand certain service sectors,including medical tourism.We from the the ministrywanted e-visas and visa onarrival to be provided, so thatit becomes less cumbersomeand helps in promoting ser-vices sector and tourism.
So that is the recommenda-tion which has gone from our
ministry,” Commerce andIndustry Minister NirmalaSitharaman told PTI. Citing anexample, she said if a tourist isgoing to Bodh Gaya (Bihar) andthen to Nepal and wants tocome back to visit Sanchi(Madhya Pradesh), a singleentry visa will not be helpful.
“It should be a multipleentry visa otherwise the touristwill have to once again obtain avisa. So these kind of anomalies,we wanted to be sorted out,” shesaid. The main idea of these rec-ommendations is to promotetourism and other services.PTI
NEW DELHI: Investors pulledout �21,535 crore from variousmutual fund (MF) schemes inJune, making it the 2nd consec-utive monthly outflow, primari-ly due to huge redemption frommoney market segment.
In comparison, MFs witnessedan outflow of �58,185 crore in May.Prior to that, �1.71 lakh crore wasinvested in April. The latest outflowwas mainly due to withdrawal ofmoney from liquid or money mar-ket funds. As per data from theAssociation of Mutual Funds in Indiainvestors withdrew �21,535 crorefrom MF schemes in June 2016. PTI
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NEW DELHI: After staying ontop for two quarters, Indiaslipped to the third positionglobally on the scale of businessoptimism because of delays inkey reforms like the GST andbad loans facing state-ownedbanks, says a report.
According to the latest GrantThornton International BusinessReport (IBR), India ranked thirdduring the April- June quarter of2016. “Delays in key reforms likeGST, non-resolution of tax dis-putes, banking issues due toNPAs and need for significant
recapitalisation of public sectorbanks are some of biggest con-cerns of Corporate India thathave collectively impacted thebusiness confidence affectingthe overall business optimism inthe country,” the report said.
Moreover, growth inemployment expectationsdropped to second positionduring this period from top rankin the previous quarter(January-March this year), whilethe optimism further slipped tofourth place in profitabilityexpectations from third. PTI
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HOUSTON: Union MinisterDharmendra Pradhan ton Fridaypromised a ‘transparent regulatoryregime’ and greater ease in doingbusiness with India as he pro-moted auctioning of 46 discoveredoil and gas fields in a roadshowhere. These fields, discovered byONGC and OIL, are envisaged tobe put on production throughexpeditious efforts.
As many as 50 internationaloil related companies, includingMagna Energy, BP, IHS Energy,Texas Oil & Gas Technology,Nabors, McDermott, RelianceExploration and ProductionDMCC, KPMG, Halliburton,Joshi Technologies International,
Vega Energy, Schlumbergerattended the roadshow inHouston. The Houston road-show comprised extensive anddetailed presentations and one-on-one meetings with the com-panies. Companies such as BG,Cairn Energy, ONGC, RIL sharedtheir successful experience ofworking in the Indian explorationand production (E&P) sector.
Promising a ‘transparent reg-ulatory regime’ and greater ease ofdoing business, the minister in hisplenary address said that, “werecognise that the need of the houris to increase the domestic ener-gy production by unlockingIndia’s hydrocarbon potential.”
Easy regulatory administra-tion, pricing freedom for crude oiland natural gas produced fromnew fields in a transparent man-ner to further promote oil and gasassets across the country, he said.
In fact, the current bidround is also being held underrevised set of industry friendlybid guidelines and processeswith the Discovered Small FieldsPolicy acting as the regulatoryframework.Under the bid round,67 fields in 46 contract areas,across 9 sedimentary basins arebeing offered to potentialinvestors through InternationalCompetitive Bidding in the oiland gas producing basins. PTI
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CHENNAI: Centre plans toenhance the power transmis-sion capacity in the country byalmost three times by 2020,Union Minister Piyush Goyalsaid on Friday, adding thatSouth India has achievedpower surplus status due tovarious initiatives.
“We have brought solarrevolution in a big way toIndia. In the last two years,there was highest ever renew-able energy capacity expansionin wind and solar. In fact, solarenergy capacity, which was2,400 mw in 2014, has now
crossed 7,000 mw,” the Goyaltold reporters here.
Stating that gas-basedpower plants which were lyingidle for lack of fuel have nowstarted operations, he said mostof these plants are in SouthIndia. He said as much as 71 percent of transmission capacityfrom the Northern and Easterngrids have been connected toSouth India. “All these steps puttogether have led to SouthIndia becoming power sur-plus. They have the ability toprovide power 24/7 throughoutSouth India,” he said. PTI
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NEW DELHI: Strengthening itsrisk management mechanism,markets regulator Sebi on Fridaybarred banks from using theirown Fixed Deposit Receipts(FDRs) as collateral in their func-tion as trading or clearing mem-bers of stock exchanges, directlyor through associate entities.
In a circular to clearing cor-porations, Sebi asked them not toaccept such FDRs while trading orclearing members having alreadydeposited their own FDRs or thatof associate banks would need toreplace them with other eligiblecollaterals within 6 months. PNS
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MUMBAI: Technology stockstook a hammering in the wakeof muted guidance from Infosys,which pulled down the bench-mark Sensex 106 points belowthe 28,000 mark at the close,while a ‘terror attack’ in Francekept the market on the edge.
The IT index bore the bruntafter Infosys slashed its full-yearrevenue guidance, which trig-gered a massive sell-off in thetechnology sector pack, wherethe fall was across the board.Risk sentiment soured furtherafter a gunman ploughed atruck into a crowd in France,killing at least 80 people, whichroiled European shares.
China offered a glimmer ofhope as second quarter GDPgrew at 6.7 per cent, which some-what cushioned the impact of thetwin blow. Another record closingin US markets offered relief too,dealers said. These developmentsapart, improving global liquidity,good monsoon and likely passageof the GST Bill in the Upper Houseof Parliament are seen as key fac-tors in determining the way the mar-ket will move forward, which areexpected to limit the extent of thedownside. For the week, the Sensexrallied 709.60 points, or 2.61 per cent,while the NSE Nifty surged 218.20points, or 2.62 per cent. PTI
Expressing concern over thefree movement that Laskhar-
e-Tayyeba chief Hafiz Saeedcontinues to enjoy in Pakistan,the United States has reiteratedits position that Islamabad must“target and root out” all extrem-ist groups operating from its soil.
“As we have said from thispodium many times, we remainconcerned about his (Saeed’s)activities,” State Departmentspokesperson Elizabeth Trudeausaid, noting that besides beingput on the US list of most want-ed terrorists and carrying areward of $10 million on hishead, Saeed has also been des-ignated by the UN SecurityCouncil.
Responding to a questionabout Saeed roaming freely inPakistan and giving media inter-views, Trudeau said Washingtonhas been “very clear with theGovernment of Pakistan thatthey must target and root outthese extremist groups, all mil-itant groups and Taliban”.
The spokesperson rejectedSaeed’s recent assertions that theUS by not taking a position vis-
à-vis the recent happenings inKashmir Valley was giving Indiaa free hand in dealing with thedemonstrators. “We’re not goingto respond to every statementlike that. Obviously we disagreewith his premise,” Trudeau said.
As for the current situationin Kashmir, she reiterated thatthe US would “encourage allsides to make efforts to findinga peaceful resolution”. Sheexpressed the view that the sit-uation on the ground remainsfluid and very complex.
Apart from the Obamaadministration’s comment,Pakistan has been at the receiv-ing end on Capitol Hill as wellthis week, with a House ofRepresentatives’ subcommitteeholding a hearing, titled:“Pakistan: Friend or Foe in theFight against Terrorism?”
“While Pakistani officialsand forces have assisted the USin hunting senior al Qaeda fig-ures at times, Pakistan’s overallstrategy is pro-jihadist and there-fore puts it in the foe category,”said Bill Roggio of The LongWar Journal in his testimonybefore the committee.
“Pakistan myopically sup-ports a host of terrorist groups
in Pakistan, Afghanistan, andIndia to further its goals in theregion. Pakistan backs thesegroups despite the fact that theyare allied with and aid the veryterrorist groups that fight thePakistani state. In addition,many of the jihadist groupssponsored by Pakistan are alliedwith al Qaeda,” Roggio com-mented.
As for LeT, he noted thatdespite its campaign of terror inIndia and Afghanistan, thePakistani government hasrefused to crack down on thisgroup. “Its complexes inMuridke and throughout thecountry remain open, and itsleaders operate unfettered. HafizSaeed is feted by Pakistani offi-cials, who refuse to hold him andother LeT leaders accountablefor their actions.”
The same goes for Jaish-e-Mohammad, the other promi-nent anti-India terror outfitoperating from Pakistan, Roggiosaid, pointing out how despitebeing implicated by India for itsPathankot Air Force base assaultin January and interception ofphone call of Pakistan-basedhandlers, the group has escapedany action by Islamabad.
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In striking the jewel of theFrench Riviera on a nation-
al holiday the truck attack onNice delivered a new blow toFrance’s tourism sectoralready reeling from repeatedterror attacks.
On Friday, several cultur-al events across France werecancelled or postponed as amark of respect for the 84 peo-ple killed when a gunmandrove a 19-tonne truck into acrowd of revellers followingBastille Day fireworks the pre-vious evening.
President FrancoisHollande declared the inci-dent a “terrorist” attack.
The place of the attackwas a top tourist destination:the palm-lined Promenade desAnglais along the Mediter-ranean coast in the city whichis the number two destinationin France behind Paris.
The attack was the thirdmajor strike against France inless than 18 months. It comeseight months after Islamic Stategunmen and suicide bombersattacked bars, restaurants, aconcert hall and the nationalstadium in Paris, killing 130people. In January last year 17were killed in another attack atvarious sites including theoffices of the Charlie Hebdomagazine and a Jewish super-market in Paris.
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Ending all speculation andlast-minute confusion, pre-
sumptive Republican presi-dential nominee DonaldTrump on Friday confirmedthat he has picked IndianaGovernor Mike Pence as hisrunning mate.
“I am pleased to announcethat I have chosen GovernorMike Pence as my VicePresidential running mate.News conference tomorrow at11:00 A.M.,” Trump tweeted onFriday morning.
A staunch conservative,the 57-year-old Pence is expect-ed to enthuse rank-and-fileRepublicans who have strongreservations over Trump’s ownconservative credentials.
Trump, if elected, can also
count on Pence to provide crit-ical support for his adminis-tration’s dealings with Congress,given that he has served sixterms in the House ofRepresentatives before becom-ing Indiana’s Governor in 2013.
Pence’s close ties with evan-gelical Christians is also beingviewed by pundits as a hugeplus for the Trump candidacy.
During the presidentialprimaries in Indiana in May,
Pence had voted not for Trump,but his rival Senator Ted Cruz.Once Cruz quit the race afterlosing Indiana, Pence was quickto endorse the billionaire busi-nessman.
“I’m going to campaignhard for the Republican nom-inee because Indiana needs apartner in the White House,”Pence had said during hisendorsement speech.
Although media outletsreported by Thursday after-noon that Pence is going to bethe V-P pick, Trump surprisedeveryone by asserting in aninterview to Fox News in theevening that he was still tomake a final decision as towhich one of the three “fan-tastic” persons will make thecut – Pence, former HouseSpeaker Newt Gingrich or NewJersey Governor Chris Christie.
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The EU urged China andthe Philippines to settle
peacefully their dispute overthe South China Sea butstopped short of pushingBeijing to abide by an inter-national tribunal’s rulingagainst Beijing’s claims.
The watered-down state-ment, which came after days ofarguments among memberstates, did not follow the leadof the United States in specif-ically calling on China to hon-our the decision by the UN-backed tribunal in The Hague.
EU foreign policy chiefFederica Mogherini said in astatement that the bloc’s mem-ber states “acknowledge” theruling but said the EU does nottake a position on sovereigntyrows.
She added that the union“expresses the need for the
parties to the dispute to resolveit through peaceful means, toclarify their claims and pursuethem in respect and in accor-dance with international law.”
“The EU calls upon theparties concerned to addressremaining and further relatedissues through negotiationsand other peaceful means andrefrain from activities likely toraise tensions,” Mogherini said.
The statement came afterdays of wrangling over word-ing as eastern EU countries,including Slovenia and Croatiawhich also have territorial dis-putes before the tribunal, diplo-mats said.
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Continuing to needle India onthe Kashmir issue, Pakistan
Prime Minister Nawaz Shariftoday declared slain Hizbul com-mander Burhan Wani as a “mar-tyr” and said July 19 will beobserved as ‘black day’ to protest“atrocities” against Kashmirisby Indian security forces.
Addressing a special cabinetmeeting here to discuss the sit-uation in Kashmir, Sharif termedthe “movement of Kashmiris asa movement of freedom”.
“The whole Pakistan isstanding by Kashmiris.Pakistan would continue toextend moral, political anddiplomatic support forKashmiris in their just strugglefor right to self-determina-tion,” the Prime Minister said.
“The Prime Minister termedBurhan Wani as martyr of inde-pendence movement,” RadioPakistan reported.
He said, the “Indian brutal-ities will give impetus to the free-dom struggle and Kashmiri peo-ple will get their right to self-determination for which thewhole Pakistani nation is stand-ing behind them.”
The cabinet decided that“black day” will be observed onTuesday (July 19).
An official statementreleased after the meeting said,“July 19 will be observed as ablack day in the country so thatthe attention of the internation-al conscience can be drawntowards the atrocities of Indianforces in Kashmir.”
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At least 300 people havebeen killed in four days of
intense gunbattles in the capi-tal of South Sudan and 42,000have fled the city, the UN saidon Friday.
The recent violence in Jubaechoed the fighting that trig-gered the civil war and marksa fresh blow to last year’s peacedeal to end the bitter conflictthat began when PresidentSalva Kiir accused ex-rebeland now Vice President RiekMachar of plotting a coup.
“It’s over 300 deaths sinceAugust 8,” said World HealthOrganisation spokesman TarikJasarevic. The UN howeversaid it did not have the num-ber of injured.
The July 8-11 violence hadleft “42,000 internally dis-placed” in the world’s youngestnation, said William Spindler,
the spokesman for the UNrefugee agency.”The number ofrefugees in neigbouring coun-tries is now 835,000,” he said.
However, the InternationalOrganisation for Migrationsaid many people were return-ing.
“Humanitarian access toaffected people has improveddramatically since Monday.But this can only be sustainedif the ceasefire holds”, saidJohn McCue, IOM SouthSudan Head of Operations.
Machar’s sacking as vice-president in 2013 set off acycle of retaliatory killings thatsplit the poverty-stricken, land-locked country along ethniclines and drove more than twomillion out of their homes.
The conflict has been char-acterised by horrific rightsabuses, including gang rapes,the wholesale burning of vil-lages and cannibalism.
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In a blunt statement, NepalPrime Minister KP Oli has
blamed India for beingbehind the CPN(Maoist Centre)pulling out support tohis Government.
“India’s role was pri-marily behind” thepulling out of supportby the Maoists, Oli said onThursday in a conference onNational Security in Kathmandu,adding that the process of
Government change was “not anautomatic process but conduct-ed by remote control”.
Nepal-India ties took a dipafter Oli came intopower last October,which was followedby the five-month-long economic block-age on the Nepal-India border by theMadhesi protesters.
Oli since the very beginninghas been a critic of Indian“high-handedness” in Nepal’sinternal political affairs.
Forest Grove Oregon: Whenyou “gotta catch ‘em all” noth-ing can stop you, not even astab wound. Michael Baker ofForest Grove, Oregon, was sofocused on catching all thecharacters in “Pokemon Go”that he kept playing even afterhe was stabbed.
Baker said he was outattempting to catch the mythicalcreatures when he was app-roached by a man who he tho-ught was also playing the game.
“I saw him go by and asked
if he was playing Pokemon Go.He was like, ‘What?’ I guess hewanted to battle because hecame up at me with a knife,”said Baker. According to apolice report, Baker refusedmedical treatment and contin-ued his Pokemon hunt.
“I basically risked my life,”Baker said. “It’s important to me.I gotta basically catch them all.”
Baker said he got eightstitches on his shoulder.
Police have not made anyarrest. Agencies
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Republican presidential can-didate Donald Trump
today said if elected he wouldgo to Congress and seek dec-laration of war against the ISISterror group and would involveNATO in the effort.
“I would. I would. This iswar,” Trump told Fox News inan interview when asked if hewould go to the Congress andask for a declaration of war.
“If you look at it, this is warcoming from all different parts.And frankly it’s war, and we’redealing with people withoutuniforms. In the old days youwould have uniforms. Youknew what you were fighting,”he said.
“We are allowing peopleinto our country who we haveno idea where they are, wherethey are from, who they are,they have no paperwork, theyhave no documentation inmany cases and Hillary Clintonwants to allow 550 per centmore than even Obama and heis letting them in by the thou-sands,” he said.
Trump said NATO shouldalso be involved in the war.
“I have been saying it weshould use NATO for a purpose.I mean, we’re spending a fortuneon NATO. We have countries inNATO that don’t make a faircontribution,” he said.
“We are supporting NATOand we should at least getsomething out of it and gettingrid of ISIS and getting rid ofthis cancer that we’re watchingall over the world, that certainlywould be a good thing, a goodthing for NATO to be involvedin,” he added.
Thousands of Iraqis defiedwarnings from authorities
and rallied in the heart ofBaghdad ob, renewing pressureon the Government to carryout reforms targeting corrup-tion and sectarianism.
Although protests over thepast year have resulted inrepeated promises of reform,little in the way of concreteprogress has been made, asthose in a position to effect
change benefit from the exist-ing system.
Populist Shia cleric Moqtadaal-Sadr, who had called for thedemonstration, made a briefappearance at the rally in TahrirSquare, which was packed withflag-waving protesters.
Protesters fought to getcloser for a glimpse of the cler-ic but he quickly departed,and his remarks were insteadread out by another speaker.
Sadr called for measuresincluding the dismissal and trial
of corrupt officials, an end to sec-tarian and political party quotasthrough which positions aredivvied up, and the formation ofa government of technocrats,according to the remarks.
He has organised repeat-ed protests calling for reforms,during which demonstratorshave on several occasionsbreached Baghdad’s GreenZone, a fortified area that ishome to key governmentinstitutions and foreignembassies.
doing Jazbaa though ittanked at the box office. “Iwould have been glad to doit five years ago and I will beglad to do it five years later,”she told us during a post-release event. Here she talksabout her return to the lime-light, her motherhood andplaying a lawyer differently.
Jazbaa happened after along gap of five years. Didthe time lapse affect thefilm in any way?I’m saying this in all honesty,I don’t know how many ofyou have been married,been mothers and work-ing…we don’t realise howtime flies by us. No idea atall. There have been sever-al layers to my life since thebeginning. Whether it wasadvertising, endorsing mod-elling, and social work apartfrom being an actor onscreen. So I think I havealways been a part of your(media’s) life, you’ll (media)have always been a part ofmy life. And that’s why Inever felt I went awayanywhere. There was nocomplete cut-off fromstudios, this life ofmake-up hair,clothes, etc. it’s likecharacters fromscreen.
How has Aaradhayabeen a part of allthis? Does she askyou about yourwork?I tell her that I’mgoing to office. Ialways call ito f f i c e .Aaradhayahas beenas much apart ofmy life asI havebeen apart of hers. I am around herall the time I can. I feel I amlucky that I can blur the linebetween work and person-al life for my child. It madeit easier to work simultane-ously with motherhood.Likewise when it came todoing Jazbaa, when I thinkback, God was always plan-ning it but it was the perfectone to start with. I used toplan Aaradhaya and my daykeeping the shooting inmind. Personally I am con-tent the way Jazbaa has beenmade.
What is the jazbaa of theeponymous film?The movie has manyaspects. The protagonist Iplay is a professional and amother. It’s a challengingcharacter. That’s a given. Butwhen you look at all thecharacters in Jazbaa, each ofthem has an experience,each of them are in searchof answers. We hope thetelevision viewers under-stand the experiences ofthe characters eventually.
Who is the hero of thefilm?I would like to believe thesubject itself. Sanjay wouldsay Aishwarya has thestrong protagonist role in aparticular context but Ialways believe in any film,the subject has to be thehero. The subject has to bestrong enough to please theaudience and the rest of thechallenge lies on the film-maker who binds all thedepartments together andmakes it one. The responsi-bility is squarely on thedirector’s shoulder. So ithas to be the subject and thework of the filmmaker.
Did you choose the filmbecause of its content?I would have been glad to
do Jazbaa five years ago andI will be glad to do it fiveyears later because of thesubject itself. The differ-ence is if I would have doneit five years earlier, I wouldhave played a mother Iwould have imagined. Nowwhen I play a parent draw-inng from my experience.So as an actor the truth,honesty and integrity I bringto the table would be differ-ent. Having said that Iwould have done Jazbaaanytime. It has a strongfemale protagonist but allthe characters are strong. Itwill set people thinking.
Any comments on yourjourney from Iruvar?I am grateful that it has beenmy unique story to tell. Mybeginning could have beendifferent but now when Ilook back I am grateful to allthe filmmakers, my col-leagues, members of themedia, critics and my audi-ence. You’ll have never mademe feel otherwise irrespec-tive of the box office results.And that’s very liberating
for an artist and gives asense of security to go
ahead and take up dif-ferent projects with
filmmakers. Just likemy audience, I toohope films live upto the promise.
You’re playingan advocatefor the firsttime. Did
you take ani n s p i r at i o n
from some-one?Very honestly,no, We weredependent on
the script. We allhad to leave our
notions behindsince the narrative is
of the present time. Inreality, there is no time fordramatics and theatrics.Time is of the utmostimportance in the legal sys-tem. That’s what we reallyretained and that’s whatnaturally fell in tandem.
How much have youchanged due to mother-hood?I haven’t really analysed butchange is constant.Everyone will always changeand evolve. SubconsciouslyI realize that motherhoodwill always be foremost onmy mind. It doesn’t comewith an instruction bookbut it’s always there on yourmind. Even if you don’twant to think about it, it’snatural. You can’t rememberlife differently.
What do you have to sayabout women-centricfilms?God bless and let themkeep coming. I am notgoing to question why. Ithink wonderful stories arebeing told. We will achievetrue empowerment and lib-eration when it breaks awayeven from that identity. Afilm should be recognisedfor a movie rather than becompartmentalized.
Would you do somethinglike Quantico?I haven’t seen anything to beable to draw comparisons.Whether I would do televi-sion here or overseas likecinema, are all opportunitieswith immense promise. I amglad to say I have consistentqueries but I don’t need toannounce that to the media.Such decisions are depen-dent on my circumstancesand my commitments.
(Jazbaa premieres onZee Cinemas
today at 8.30 pm)
We hit it off instantly, me andthe chef, over the roundedperfection and grainy tex-
ture of the stones from the bed of theRamganga river in Corbett. Turnsout he is as much a collector of river-ine relics, willing to travel every-where, as if they were atoms of time.We momentarily agree on its decon-structed nature, as a sediment of timeand our lives gone by, a distillate ofour very existence on this planet, thelast remnant and anchor of timewithout beginning. Then disagree thenext moment whether it is reallydead or alive, matter or anti-matter?Young chef Saurabh Udinia, who ishelming the Delhi edition of MasalaLibrary by Jiggs Kalra, believes insteeping these ancient stones inwater inside his super kitchen andpresenting them as a plating acces-sory to his nouvelle and post-mole-cular 19-course menu. He places adehydrated and oven-roasted lotusshoot, lightly dusted with leaf pow-der, over an everyday raita relish ofKashmiri radish and walnut, ladledover the stone. I can almost get thatwet, sondhi smell waft up my sens-es with the flavours. As I scoop upthe relish, scraping it like a heathen,I ask, “Is the food reacting to the ele-ments in the stone? Is somethinghappening here or is it just an illu-sion?” The 26-year-old gives me aspiel on bringing the earthly ele-ments in the heart of Delhi’s businessdistrict but leaves me wondering, realor illusion? Science or back-to-the-basics philosophy?
There are similar magical expe-riences put up by this believer ofquantum physics at Masala Library,which intends to be a New York-kindof uber fine-diner, with an intendedthree-month waitlist. (In Mumbai,where it debuted, it still has a queueof three weeks). The jadoo still liesin the treasure trove of food impre-sario Jiggs Kalra’s research into ourdiet history, presented with flair,visual drama, bite-sized explosionand flavour-enhancing techniques byson Zorawar. While making hisdebut on the famed Masterchef show,Zorawar, the diehard lover of Indianfood, wants to make it the favouritefood of not only the global Indian butthe global audience. So while theremay be the bubbles, floating mangospheres, the saffron foam or theultrasound to get the precise prepa-ration times, the taste is as authen-tic as you could get in your home and
as comforting as the one you had onyour mother’s kitchen counter.
Chef Saurabh may have appren-ticed at the Le Meridien next doorand grown wings under IndianAccent’s Manish Mehrotra but it is atMasala Library that he is taking offfrom where his mother left. He hastravelled the country for a year,particularly rediscovering the cuisineof the Northeast, before puttingtogether a representative menu. “Ihave always tried to find Indian alter-natives to fancy ingredients requiredfor pan-Asian, Mediterranean andWestern cuisine. I am an advocate ofIndian food and believe in its infinitevariety that no other cuisine in theworld can match up to in percentageterms. It is the least offensive foodand yes, nobody can cook better thanmum. This I learnt from Florence,where I checked into a classic sim-ple restaurant run by a womanwhose kitchen was manned by heraunt and mother,” he tells us.
We begin with a nest of brokenhalf-boiled eggs and filtered rasam,an indicator of the early and home-ly breakfast hour. Only the brokenegg shells are crafted ceramic shotglasses from Spain, the bulbous yel-low yolk is a glutinous mango sphereseated on a bed of tender coconutpulp. There are the usual syringes ofspiced water to go with cubistchaats and Goan cake, the decon-structed samosa, every ingredientdolloped on a cocktail crackerinstead of a wrap, but chef Saurabhsurprises us with his minimalism,purity and home-grown art.
Who would ever think of bajre kiroti or ridge gourd as amuse bouche?Masala Library dares to present itsFarmer’s Staple, onion slivers friedwith chilli and salt in home-churnedwhite butter, stuffed in a dough ofbajra and served in a plate with bro-ken edges. The chef works withceramic specialists himself, workingon the glaze and shape and apparent-ly the farmer’s platter was finalisedout of 21 samples! His roasted toraior ridge gourd is zested up with agrassy pea filling and topped with afloaty, gossamer and crispy sail witha dry ginger chutney. A humblewater-retaining summer vegetablebecomes a porous receptacle of full-ness and flavour. “The poppadum-like crest is actually blanched andpulverised gourd, held up with a cel-lulose wall. It is dehydrated for 18hours at least and never fried. That’s
the time and thought that goes intoeach preparation,” he tells me.
The very familiar keema karela,too, undergoes a makeover. Themince is hand-pounded, cookedwith the marrow and seeds of bittergourd along with nigella seeds andpaanch phoran. The kick comesfrom the topping, slices of bittergourd, brined in apple cider and saltfor six days. The whole effect is actu-ally quite crunchy and nutty.
He serves galouti kebab as a pateserved over a sheermal melt.After cooking with tradi-tional spices, themince is beaten upover and overagain to make itairy and creamy,such that it dis-sipates into yourmouth evenfaster. “It doesnot requirechickpea paste asa binding agentand it is a silkysmooth ride of puresubstance, subtlety anddelicateness,” he tells us. This isone of the standout features ofMasala Library; it does not use morespices than are necessary or over-powering. All 25 chefs seem to haveinternalised true knowledge.
Though not a big lover of foodart, I love the curd rice foam on acurry leaf with pepper-fried prawn.“The pulverised and aeratedrice uses the same vol-ume as would berequired to serveone person but hasjust 10 per cent ofthe calories,” thechef has me know.Nothing could bemore delicious thana blast of comfortflavours without bother-ing about falling off to sleep.
But it is the Naga pork with fer-mented soy beans and Mizo stewwith black rice that would want tomake you just curl up in yourlounge. Playing around with thedainty cress, the smoky chilli flavourfrom Khonoma gives quite a kick tothe pork without the stir-fried hot-ness of the original. It is succulent,turgid with a sweet aftertaste and notfibrous at all, having been cooked inthe oven for three hours at 180degrees, skin-on-belly and rehydrat-
ed by letting it cool and sit in thesame water released by the heat.Turns out the chef tried marinatingthe meat in a variety of fancy liquidsto make his morsels melting-smoothand rid them of game odour till hetried dunking it in coconut milk!And he had his Eureka moment.Wild beans fermented for two daysare a perfect accompaniment to thestew and chicken, taking away theirblandness.
Chef Saurabh has an eye fordetail. So his Bengal fish is the
very absorbent sea basscoated in the tradi-
tional radhuni spice,all gauzed up inthe season’s spe-cial pooin saakand lying prettyon a bed ofkasundi.
But the bestcomes last, the
chef handing outsimple karonda
(cranberr y) andchooran popsicles with
a hint of pomegranate tocleanse the palate. “That’s my
childhood revisited,” says the boyfrom Karol Bagh who gorged onchaats and the street food of OldDelhi at one time, an experience, hebelieves, maximised the potential ofhis tastebuds.
So here come the ashen kulfi,the traditional dessert sealed in by a
darkened layer of burntbanana leaves, the
best digestivethere is, and
the jalebicaviar, thesweet glob-ules dissipat-ing into the
saffron foamand the trick-
ling pistachio rabripresented in a sea shell.
So where’s the quirk, you may ask?White chocolate spinning on a super-conductor tray levitating on a mag-net and digital art with chocolateganache? But then that’s just the kidin him, I guess.
Imagination does not come fromjust chasing particles that chefSaurabh swears by. “That’s from myreading. I love Khalid Hosseini (TheKite Runner) and Gregory DavidRoberts (Shantaram).” He knows hislibrary alright.
They say relationships may be forgot-ten but they never die. So the fifthgeneration descendant of the French
chief commander of Maharaja Ranjit Singh’sarmy against the British is seeking to renewties with his second home after 200 years.Jean-Francois Allard was sent to India byEmperor Louis Philippe of France to helpMaharaja Ranjit Singh in the 1820s. He roseto be a general in the Fauj-e-Khas andbecame chief commander. Subsequently, hemarried the princess of Chamba, Banu PanDei. His great great grandson HenriPrevost-Allard is now here and wants to setup the bust of Maharaja Ranjit Singh inSaint Tropez, of which he is deputy mayor,next to the bust of Jean Allard and Banu PanDei.
“We were in Chandigarh two days agobecause the Punjab government had decid-ed to offer the bust of Maharaja Ranjit Singhto Saint Tropez in order to install it at AllardSquare in September. On this occasion, wewill organise a tribute. There will be exhi-bitions on the history of Sikhs from GuruNanak to 1849, French and Indian militarylinks and cooperation and north Indian cul-ture. The general aim of this event is toillustrate the role of Maharaja Ranjit Singhas an intermediary in Indo-French rela-tions. It is also aimed at giving visibility toSikh communities in Europe and France inparticular,” Henri told us.
He continued, “France and India havea long history together. Now we French,along with the help of the Indian govern-ment, are trying to revive these ties. Threeyears ago we started two festivals, Bon JourIndia in India and Namaste France inFrance.” Ranjit Singh’s bust is made ofbronze, similar to the kind used for the stat-ue of Jean Allard and his wife.
Recounting the robbery of antiquepaintings of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, Henrisighed, “I had original paintings ofMaharaja Ranjit Singh and Bano Pan Dei.But someone robbed the precious paintingsaround 35 years ago at gunpoint. They alsorobbed some other precious works of art.Both the paintings were made in Lahoreand were not exhibited anywhere at anypoint of time.”
Jean Allard, afraid of the sati ritual in
India, sent his wife and sons to SaintTropez. “He saw Sati happening in Indiaand he did not want his wife to be burriedalong with him after his death. So he oncereturned to France to settle his family beforegoing back to Punjab,” said Henri. Jean diedin Punjab and was buried in Lahore. TheBritish at the time did not alow Allard’sfamily to visit. “Our family lost all its con-nection with our Indian ancestry. Wenever saw anyone from my great greatgrandmother’s side. But now we are keenon rediscovering our roots. I am hoping tomeet someone from the Indian ancestrysoon,” hoped Henri.
“Under Maharaja Ranjit Singh, everyreligion flourished in Punjab. He was a greatking and a great human. That’s what I havelearnt from my ancestors,” he ended.
After learningqawwali fromhis father
Ghulam Farid Sabriand sharing his firststage performancewith him, AmjadSabri still remainedgrounded and hum-ble, a man of fewwords. As a tribute to the late singer,Delhi is all set to witness a mysticalnight with singers like Sufi HayatBrothers (Hamsar Hayat Nizami andbrothers) and Sabri Sufi Brothers (HajiIqbalshad Sabri, Dilshad Sabri andIrshad Sabri) sharing the stage toexpress their love and affection for hiin.
We spoke to Ali Zaidi, the personbehind visualising the Tribute to theLegend: Amjad Sabri. "I have beendoing Sufi events since a very long time.After the death of Amjad in Pakistanit was our responsibility to take an ini-tiative," he said wistfully. "He has givenso much to Sufism and the music fra-ternity, the musical reverence for hisheritage is worth admiring." Askedabout what relation he shared withAmjad Sabri, Ali said, "Multiple rela-tions with the legend in music andhumanity, no blood relation but love forSufi." Ali grieved the fact that he nevergot an opportunity to work with lateAmjad but he always loved his work."Since my childhood I have heard hissongs like Damadam Mast Qalander,Savere Savere, Saqia Aur Pila, Ya Sahib-Ul-Jamal and many more."
"He hasn't gone, he is alive throughhis music," Ali added.
The stage will have two platforms.One end will have Sufi Hayat Brothers(Hamsar Hayat Nizami and brothers)while Sabri Sufi Brothers (Haji
Iqbalshad Sabri, Dilshad Sabri andIrshad Sabri) will perform on the otherend. "His aim to unify nations through thebond of pure music will be kept alive byremembering his work in all upcomingmusic events," Ali added.
A rich, low toned talent, Amjad Sabriis known for Bhar do Jholi which made anews flash in India with Salman Khan's
film Bajrangi Bhaijaan due to copyrightissues. No doubt he certainly enjoyed own-ing the stage with his dedication and pas-sion. Who can resist the unforgettable andbrilliant song Mast Qalandar that we allgrooved to in our youth.
Ali Zaidi concluded, "We are hisdiehard fans here and that's why we aregiving this tribute."
Tne great thing about growingherbs at home is that if pre-
served, they live longer even afterthe plants are gone. The reasonherbs exude aroma is becausethey contain essential oil - sub-stances found in flowers' seeds,bark, grains, roots and leaves.These essential oils contain the vitalenergy of the plants and thus canhave healing and powerful effecton your body, mind and emotions.Let's concentrate on four amazingherbs namely - Carnation,Tuberose, Frankincense and YlangYlang to understand how effective-ly they can work for hair
and skin.Carnation: Known as the
flower of gods (local name clovepink), carnation has its origin inGreece, being cultivated for atleast 2,000 years now. The floweraids in reinstating and balancingnatural hormones in women withnervous conditions. A perfecthomeopathic remedy at home to
treat fever, stomach aches andchest congestions. In oil form, itacts like a conditioner for skin.
HOT TIP: Simmer some car-nation leaves in water and use thissolution to wash your skin. Makeyour own cleansing creams andlotions from this herb as it cleans-es and moisturises the skin.
Ylang Ylang: An aphrodisiac,Ylang Ylang can be used as bath oiland controls anxiety, tension andhigh blood pressure. It stimulateshair growth and can be used as aconditioner.
HOT TIP: You can use ylangylang for hot oil treatment. Mix 3-4 drops of ylang ylang oil in 2-3tablespoons of olive oil, heat thismixture and apply to your hair. Youcan also massage by mixing it inany carrier oil of your choice, theconcoction is a natural hair losstreatment.
Frankincense: Acknowledgedfor its antiseptic and deodorisingnature, frankincense is used in per-fumes and incensed sticks. Mixfrankincense oil in floral water andapply on skin for that smooth and
soft feel. It helps in removingacne, stretch and surgery markswhile rejuvenating the skin. Fordandruff, it's a perfect treatment ifused regularly.
HOT TIP: To disinfect yourhome, add a couple of frankincenseoil drops in baking soda andlemon essential oil and scrub yourkitchen sink. See how smoothly it
removes all the grease leaving itsqueaky clean and incensed. Youcan try the same method for keep-ing your fridge odour-free byadding a few drops of oil in water.
Tuberose: Though not a verypopular herb, Tuberose (also calledNight Queen or Raat ki Rani) hasbeautiful aroma and only bloomsat night.
You can use this flower as adeodorant, a stress buster andeven apply on inflammation. It alsostimulates and increases bloodcirculation, especially in winters.Tuberose is excellent forsmoothening hair and keeps themfrizz-free, giving a natural sheen.
HOT TIP: The oil extractedfrom this flower soothes frayednerves stimulating blood circula-tion. Add 2-3 drops of tuberose oilin your bathing water and take awarm aromatic bath. Use tuberoseessential oil as a massage blend totreat dry skin in winters.
Singer Rihanna, who was slated to per-form in Nice, France, and the cast and
crew of the forthcoming film Fifty ShadesDarker who were shooting there, are safein the French Riviera where at least 84people were killed and over150 injured in an attack.Many Hollywood celebri-ties like Kris Jenner, MileyCyrus, Amy Schumer andJosh Gad have mournedthe death of people inthe terror attack.
The attack tookplace on Bastille Dayon Thursday nightwhen a terroristploughed with histruck through acrowd of thousandswho were enjoyingthe celebrations inthe French city.
Rihanna, whowas in Nice dur-ing the time of theattack, was set toperform at theAllianz Stadium onFriday night as partof her Anti WorldTour. However, herperformance gotcancelled later,reports variety.com.
Her representa-tive confirmed thatshe is safe.
Meanwhile,Fifty ShadesDarker, starring
Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan, hadbeen under production in the FrenchRiviera for the past few weeks.
It's not known if the film's produc-tion will be suspended this weekend.However, sources say the makers shotscenes on Thursday in the region butwrapped up production before the attackin the night.
After hearing about the attack, manycelebrities took to social networkingsites like Twitter and Instagram to strong-ly condemn it.
Songstress Miley Cyrus shared:“Sending love to Nice and especially tothose who lost a loved one today. Wemust keep up the fight for a more peace-ful, understanding world without thissenseless violence.”
Reality TV star Kris Jenner said, “Wemust continue to spread love in the faceof hate. Pray for Nice.”
Singer Blake Shelton was appalled bythe news and said, “Sickening to see
what has happened in France. Thiswas with a truck. This new normal
Indian spin troika of RavindraJadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin andAmit Mishra kept their strangle-
hold on the inexperienced West IndiesBoard President's XI to bowl them outfor a paltry 180 on the first day of thefinal warm-up game, here on Friday.
At stumps, India were 93 for 3 inreply in 25.3 overs with KL Rahul (30batting) looking solid whileCheteshwar Pujara (28) was dis-missed of the last ball of the day.
Regular openers Murali Vijay(23) and Shikhar Dhawan (9) weredismissed quickly by the West Indiesnew ball bowlers.
But the day belonged to theIndian spinners with Jadeja recordingmiserly figures of 3/16 in 13 overs ashe stifled the batsmen for runs withaccurate bowling.
Ashwin (3/62 in 19.5 overs)although rusty and Mishra (2/45 in 10overs), who was a tad bit expensive,nevertheless complemented Jadejaby picking up crucial wickets with thehome team were all out in 62.5 oversafter opting to bat.
When India started bowling,Mohammed Shami was a bit waywardwith the new ball and did not bowlafter his first five-over spell in themorning.
Rookie Shardul Thakur (1/24),meanwhile, was impressive with hisline and length and often beat thebatsmen. He got the opening break-through, with skipper Leon Johnson(3) caught by a diving Stuart Binny atmid-off.
Binny (1-8) was the first-changebowler and added to the wickets' col-umn, removing Shai Hope (11). Hetoo bowled the initial spell of fiveovers only, as most of the bull-work
during the day was trusted to the threespinners who didn't disappoint.
Ashwin seemed to have recoveredcompletely from his injury-scarebefore departing from here, as heworked out a nice length after initialrustiness thereafter during his 19.5overs. Although the pitch was slow,he used the bounce beautifully.Opener John Campbell (34) wasstumped charging Ashwin, and laterthe off-spinner also removedRahkeem Cornwall (41) andGudakesh Motie (8).
Cornwall was the top-scorer for
the Board President's side, hittingseven fours in his 56-ball stay. Theburly batsman looked to be on theattack against the spinners and had aninteresting duel with Amit Mishra (2-45), whom he hit for a six.
But the real star of the day wasRavindra Jadeja, who picked up wick-ets in two lengthy spells spanning 13overs, and ran through middle order.
He bowled Jermaine Blackwood(36), and then struck quick blows afterlunch to remove Vishaul Singh (3) andMontcin Hodge (6).
Jadeja used the bounce on offer to
good effect and was nearly unplayableat times on account of his accuracy.Once Cornwall was dismissed offAshwin, the end came quickly for thehosts after tea, leaving almost an entiresession for the Indians to bat.
Vijay then opened with Dhawanand the duo put on 34 runs for theopening wicket. The right-handerlooked at ease during his stay and theonly mistake he made was when hechased a wide delivery to be caughtbehind off Chemar Holder (1-8).
Earlier, Dhawan too showed somepatience at the crease and was out-
scored by his partner. Just when helooked to be opening up, he played aloose stroke to be caught at backwardpoint off Jason Dawes (1-15).
Rahul who hit two fours, was sentin to bat at No 3 and Pujaraput on 59runs for the third wicket. They did-n't look in any hurry and wanted tojust spend time in the middle.
Towards close of play, there werea couple hiccups in terms of runningbetween the wickets. Pujara was thenbowled in the last over of the day, try-ing to turn one off Cornwall (1-17)onto the leg-side.
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Just like his teammates, left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja
also knows that victories athome counts for little unless theteam starts winning overseasand that's what is the goal ofthis current as they get readyfor four-Test series againstWest Indies.
"Nowadays, all people careabout is how much you havewon overseas in Tests andODIs. So our focus is on thatand we want to win here in theWest Indies," Jadeja, who madea case for his selection with fig-ures of 3/16, said at post-match press conference.
"Everyone says that we wineasily in India, so we want tochange that thinking. We are ayoung side and each one of usis eager to win in overseas con-ditions. Fitness and energy isgood in this side and the prepa-ration has been good. We arelooking forward to winning thisTest series in the West Indies."
Jadeja admitted that it wasgood to be a part of the longerformat games, having lastplayed five-day matches athome against South Africa.
"It feels good to be playingin the longer format after a longtime. You have to be match andalso fit for bowling, and I havebeen working on it. You haveto be fit enough to be able tobowl 15-20 overs in a day.
"The way I bowled todayfelt like I am building towardsit and getting back to my fullfitness. The wicket was turningslow but there was goodbounce available for us. So Iwas trying to bowl as per myline and length," he added.
Like Ashwin, the left-armspinner is also bracing up fortough humid conditions in theCaribbean islands.
"Mentally, we have to beprepared about hot and humidconditions here. But they aresimilar to the ones we experi-ence when playing in theIndian summer. So our focus ison thinking about match situ-ations and match conditions,for example when there arelong partnerships.
"We have bowled as a unittoday and we haven't givenaway too many runs, which hasbeen our main focus. As abowling attack, our aim is tobowl three consecutive maid-en overs and put pressure onthe batsmen," he added.
As spin troika, the duohave come together well. "Ithink we are gelling well as aspin trio," said Jadeja, of hispartnership with Ashwin andMishra.
"All of us have differentstyles and different bowlingspeeds. I am a left-arm spinner,Ashwin has off-breaks andMishra has his leg spin. Sothat's a very good thing. Ourvariations are quite potent andit is not easy for the batsmen tojudge three different spinnersat the same time and play inthree different ways.
"I think we will test theWest Indies' batsmen in spin-
ning conditions. I don't knowwhat the combination of theteam will be, but I am certain-ly looking forward to bowlingwith them as a spin unit."
This series will be AnilKumble's first assignment asthe Indian coach and he hasalready started making animpression on the young team.
"He has told me to work onmy strengths. We have had along chat about bowling inthese conditions, about howwickets might not come easilyand it is important to keep upthe focus and body languagewhen that happens.
"It is important to lookmore energetic and be ready tobowl 12-15 overs. I have donethat in Ranji Trophy and I amused to bowling longer spells,and I am looking to do thesame thing here as well," he fur-ther said.
Kumble's presence in thedressing room is also provingto be helpful. "It is very impor-tant that he is with us. He hasbeen a legend for Indian crick-et and he has done well in bothformats. So all we want to dois talk to him about his expe-rience and learn from him," hesigned off.
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Rajkot and Visakhapatnamwill host their first ever Test
respectively when India playtheir five-Test series againstEngland starting November 9.
The BCCI todayannounced the dates of theseries comprising five Tests,three ODIS and as many T20Internationals from Novemberto February.
Making the announcementhere on Friday, BCCI SecretaryAjay Shirke said England willstart their tour with the open-ing Test in Rajkot which beginsfrom November 9 and thenmove to Vizag and Mohali. Thelast two Test matches will beheld in Mumbai and Chennai.
Rajkot will host the firstTest of the series fromNovember 9-13, followed bythe second Test inVisakhapatnam fromNovember 17-21. The teamsthen travel up north for thethird Test at Mohali fromNovember 26-30. The remain-ing two games will be played inMumbai and Chennai, fromDecember 8-12 and 16-20respectively.
Significantly as per thetimings of the Test matchesreleased in the BCCI website,there would not be anyDay/Night Test matches againstEngland also. As per timings,all matches will be starting at9:30 am.
BCCI, released a video ofnew Head Coach Anil Kumblewith Indian Test skipper ViratKohli, where they describe,
how in past India had manytussles with the England teamand how important this serieswill be.
The ODI series begins inPune on January 15, followedby games at Cuttack andKolkata on January 19 and 22.
The 3 T20 Internationalswill be played in Kanpur(January 26), Nagpur (Jan 29)and Bengaluru (February 1).
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Pakistan's Mohammad Amirwas denied a wicket on his
long-awaited return to Testcricket as England dominatedthe second morning of thefirst Test at Lord's on Friday.
England all-rounder ChrisWoakes took a Test-best six for70 as Pakistan, 282/6 overnight,were bowled out for 339.
England then raced to 64for one at lunch, with captainAlastair Cook — dropped offAmir — 35 not out and newnumber three Joe Root 23*
The duo's second-wicketstand was so far worth 56 in 54balls. But it might all have beendifferent had Cook been out, ashe should have been, on 22,with England then 38 for one.
The left-hander was drawnforward by an excellent Amirdelivery on off stump only for
first slip Mohammad Hafeez todrop the routine catch.
Pakistan resumed withcaptain Misbah-ul-Haq 110not out after the 42-year-oldbecame the oldest player in 82years to make a Test centuryyesterday.
But Misbah added just fourruns to his overnight score,with Pakistan losing threewickets for six runs in eightballs as the quick and accurateWoakes did the bulk of thedamage. That gave the 27-year-old Woakes his maidenfive wickets in a Test inningshaul in what was theWarwickshire paceman's ninthmatch at this level.
Amir making his return toTest cricket at Lord's — thescene of his 2010 spot-fixingcrime — walked out to bat toa handful of boos from a capac-ity crowd.
Rafael Nadal will be fit and ready for Rio,the head of the Spanish Olympic
Committee insisted Thursday, even thoughthe 14-time Grand Slam title winner is stillsweating on his place in the squad.
Nadalwas theOlympicchampionat Beijingin 2008b u tm i s s e dt h eL o n d o nG a m e swith ak n e ei n j u r yfour yearslater.
T h e30-year-old is dueto beS p a i n ' sflag-bearer at the opening ceremony in Rioon August 5 but still needs the go-ahead fromthe International Tennis Federation after hefailed to meet qualifying criteria.
"Nadal's commitment is total and he willgo to Rio to participate," said AlejandroBlanco, the president of the country'sOlympic committee (COE).
"I have no doubts over his participation.He is training regularly in order to achievewhat he wants — a medal."
Nadal is due to play singles and also themixed doubles with French Open champi-on Garbine Muguruza at Rio.
However, he is still recovering from a leftwrist injury which caused an early withdraw-al from the French Open as well as forcinghim to sit out Wimbledon.
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Athletics gold medal hope-fuls Caster Semenya and
Wayde van Niekerk werenamed Thursday in a 137-strong South Africa multi-sport team for Rio Olympics.
Semenya is favourite towin the 800 metres women'sgold medal in the first Gameshosted by South America afterclocking the fastest time thisyear, 1 minute 56.64 seconds.
Having won the 2009world championship 800m titlein Berlin, the South Africanhad to undergo gender testingbefore being permitted to com-pete as a woman.
The 2012 LondonOlympics 800m silver medal-list has made a timely return toform this year after severalinjury-plagued seasons. Worldmen's 400m champion VanNiekerk, whose coach is a
grandmother from central cityBloemfontein, seems the nextbest South African prospect fortrack and field gold.
Three-time African discuschampion Vincent Hoganmisses out on Rio, though, hav-ing tested positive for methyl-hexaneamine at the nationalchampionships last April.
Chad le Clos, who stunnedAmerican multi-Olympics goldmedallist Michael Phelps bywinning the London Games200m butterfly, is widelyregarded as the best hope forswimming success. The starfrom Indian Ocean cityDurban revealed this weekthat both his parents are bat-tling cancer, but they plan tocheer him on in Brazil.
Jaco van Zyl and BrandenStone will represent South Africain golf after Major winnersLouis Oosthuizen and CharlSchwartzel and Branden Grace
said they were unavailable.All cited Zika, a mosquito-
borne virus which has report-edly infected about 1.5 millionBrazilians since last year, forwithdrawing.
The national men's andwomen's football teams havequalified for Rio, although nei-ther squad are realistic medalcontenders. But the men's sev-ens rugby squad, who haveoverlooked veteran Springbokwinger Bryan Habana, areamong the chief candidatesfor gold in a 12-team field.
South African medal win-ners in Rio will not onlyachieve sporting fame, but alsobe rewarded financially.
Gold medallists willbecome 500,000 rand ($35,000,32,000 euros) richer, silvermedallists 250,000 rand betteroff and bronze medallistsreceive a 100,000 rand boost totheir bank balance.
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Barcelona star Neymar was as expected namedin the Brazil squad for the Olympics football
tournament on Thursday as well Paris SaintGermain defender Marquinhos.
Also selected wereNeymar's club mateRafinha, Lazio mid-fielder Felipe Andersonand rising star GabrielBarbosa.Brazil: Goalkeepers:Fernando Prass(Palmeiras), Uilson( A t l e t i c o - M G ) ;Defenders: Marquinhos(PSG/FRA), RodrigoCaio (Sao Paulo) Luan(Vasco da Gama), Willian (Internacional), DouglasSantos (Atlético-MG), Zeca (Santos); Midfielders:Walace (Grêmio), Rodrigo Dourado (Internacional)Thiago Maia (Santos), Rafinha (Barcelona/ESP),Renato Augusto (Beijing Ghouan/CHN), FelipeAnderson (Lazio/ITA); Attackers: Neymar(Barcelona/ESP), Gabriel (Santos), Gabriel Jesus(Palmeiras), Luan (Grêmio).
India's pro-boxing sensation VijenderSingh will look to continue hisundefeated streak in the profes-
sional arena when he takes on Welsh-born Australian Kerry Hope in hismaiden title bout for the WBO AsiaPacific super middleweight belt here onSaturday.
Undefeated so far in the profession-al arena, Saturday's opponent KerryHope could be the toughest test wait-ing for the 30-year-old India.
The Welsh-born Hope, who emi-grated to Australia, brings with him 30bouts of experience, winning 23 (two ofthem were knockouts).
However, the Indian's incrediblestart to the professional life, winning allof his six bouts so far in the profession-al arena via knockouts, will put himright in the mix to secure his maidentitle on Saturday at the ThyagarajSports Complex.
The 30-year-old Indian, who will becompeting in his maiden professionalbout in India, simply cannot wait tofight in front of a packed home after agap of nearly six years.
"I can't wait for tomorrow. It's beena long time since I fought here. It wasin 2010 when I fought here in 2010CWG. It's about six years now. It isgoing to be a great bout and I am veryexcited about it," said Vijender after theofficial weigh-in and face off withKerry.
None of Vijender's opponents so farhave quite matched up to his level, withFrenchman Matiouze Royer in his fifthbout making him work the hardest bytaking the bout into the fifth round ofthe six-round super middleweight con-test.
However, Hope remains confidentof beating Vijender in front of his homecrowd saying, "I have trained very hardand I can see that he hasn't. So I am veryconfident."
In reply to the statement, the Indiansaid: "We will see tomorrow night."
The 30-year-old, who came in at75.7kg in the official weigh in, also hasextra motivation for his maiden titlebout as a win on Saturday will take himinto the Top-15 of WBO world rankingsand open the door for him to compete
with the big boys."It will open the door for world title
bouts, so that would be a progression
for me," said Vijender.Whereas Hope added: "This bout will
open the doors to bigger things in life."
The approximate 5,000 crowd at theThyagaraj Sports Complex will definite-ly be a factor for the fight. While mostof the support will be pouring in for theIndian, Hope doesn't seem too botheredabout it.
"I have been there and done it. Iknow what it's like," added the 34-year-old Australian who weighed 74.9kg.
The height difference could be a fac-tor on Saturday. Singh, at 6ft, has a slightreach advantage over Hope, who is at5ft 10.
Vijender, who has two promoters -India-based IOS and UK-basedQueensberry Promotions, will hope tomake the most of height difference andwill look to continue with his trend ofgrabbing another knockout win.
When asked if he is confident of get-ting another knock out win, he said: "Iwill try."
The 2008 bronze Olympic medalwinner also feels that Saturday's fightwill be a decisive one for Indian box-ing.
"This fight will surely decide thefuture of pro-boxing in the country. Iwill try to come up with a super show.I hope we succeed in this new endeav-our," Vijender added.
The Saturday night fight will alsofeature seven other undercard bouts,comprising boxers from the IndianBoxing Council's stable and two Thaiinvites. One of the seven fights will bea women's exhibition bout, featuringboxers - Boichang and Nengneihat -from the celebrated MC Mary Kom'sacademy.
Moreover, an India IBC super wel-ter weight championship title fightbetween Siddharth Verma and DilbaghThakran will also take place.
An August gathering of sportinglegends, politicians and Bollywoodcelebrities will be in full attendance atthe Thyagaraj stadium, with sizeablenumber of fans are expected to be inattendance as well.
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Pia Hansson may have a 12-year-old son anda lot of other personal responsibilities, but
she still has time to somehow manage her pro-fessional career.
The 50-year-old woman, who has partic-ipated in more than 400 marathons, sets footin India for the first time to participate in the'The Great India Run'.
Pia, the only woman thatcher fromDenmark, began her journey as a profession-al athlete in 2013 and has since participatedin about four hundred marathons, almost run-ning three to four marathons per week.
The mother of a twelve year old child is aninspiration to many as she is a self-employedthatcher — is the craft of building a roof withdry vegetation so as to shed water away fromthe inner roof.
She loves her job as much as running andallots time for everything.
The athlete believes in the fact that run-ning makes her stronger and confesses that itis not easy to manage her professional life with
her personallife but byhook or bycrook the pas-sionate athletemakes time forrunning amarathon.
Pia addsthat some-times after thelong hours atwork she goesfor hermarathons atnight. The ath-lete has onlyone rule andthat is not toshare her time."It is my time,I cannot shareit ," sheexplained.
T h eDenmark ath-lete is alsoprone toinjuries due toher thatcherp r o f e s s i o n .However, shefeels that allthe injuries flyaway as soonas she startsrunning.
"I alsowork as athatcher and Iget injuriesthere, but Idon't let thataffect me.Running is the
time I am free, and for me, it is scared. For meit feels like the more I use my body, the moreenergy I get back. It makes me feel stronger,"said the athlete who runs for the sheer love forthe sport.
On the diet intake, Pia said that she fol-lows an ordinary diet chart with an extra intakeof salts.
Since it is the first time she is in India, the50-year-old is eagerly looking forward to'The Great India Run'.
However, the hot weather in New Delhiright now may not make it easy for the run-ners, but Pia is up for it. "We are here for morethan a week and if we put the pace down, thenits okay," she added.
Pia is also not here to set records, but toenjoy the company while running.
"When I run, I run without a watch. It isthe running itself and the company that I enjoyrather than the timing I achieve."
The athlete enjoys the company of the peo-ple she meets and prefers meeting someoneduring a marathon rather at a cafe.
"We don't go to cafe, we go for run withfriends" she said.
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Saketh Myneni and RamkumarRamanathan endured challenging
conditions to wear down their spiritedrivals as India took a comfortable 2-0 leadon the opening day of the Asia|Oceaniagroup I Davis Cup tie against South Koreahere on Friday.
It seemed bizarre but bothRamkumar and Myneni saw their oppo-nents conceding when the Indians wereserving for their respective matches.
The 21-year-old Ramkumar, ranked217, put the hosts ahead in his Davis Cupdebut when Seong Chan Hong conced-ed the first singles due to cramps in hisright thigh as the Indian was serving forthe match.
After battling hard for two hours and36 minutes, Ramkumar was leading 6-3,2-6, 6-3, 6-5 (15-15) when Hong sudden-ly clenched his right thigh and grimacedin pain, bringing about a sudden end tothe match at the Chandigarh Club.
Since the rain has been lashing thecity for the past few days, it made thegrass soggy. The surface was dry but itturned out to be a dead court where theball hardly rose to the knee height.
However, the surface improved whenMyneni played as the ball was bouncinga lot better. The onus to bring Korea backwas on the most experienced player of the
side, Yong-Kyu Lim, but Myneni dashedtheir hopes with a 6-1, 3-6, 6-4, 3-6, 5-2win to set India up nicely.
Lim conceded the match whenMyneni was 15-15 and serving for thematch in the eighth game. It was after thetwo players fought tooth and nail for threehours and nine minutes.
The 28-year-old Myneni, who playedhis first ever five-setter, threw his jersey andpunched the air, to celebrate his victory. Histeammates lifted him on the shoulders,
acknowledging the grit showed in a toughcontest. The second singles was litteredwith medical timeouts and a long toiletbreak as both players started to strugglewith cramps from the fourth set onwards.
The hot and humid conditions test-ed fitness of the players even as theKoreans negotiated the grass courts, onwhich they hardly play, quite well. Theyhad done their homework and made lifetough for both Ramkumar and Myneni.
Rohan Bopanna and Leander Paes
will look to wrap up the tie when theyface Hong Chung and Yunseong Chungon Saturday.
Myneni made a dominating start bysealing the first set in no time as he brokeLim twice to race to a 5-1 lead. True to hisgame, the lanky Myneni served extreme-ly well, hardly conceded points on his serveand wrapped up the first set quickly.
Lim though managed to raise hisgame and matched Myneni's level fromthe second set onwards. It was 4-3 when
the 25-year-old Korean capitalised onMyneni's double faults to get crucial breakand levelled the match in the next game.
A flurry of unforced errors meantthat Myneni was now facing three break-points in the opening game of the thirdset. He was broken at love and India hadreasons for concern.
Much to the relief of the home campthough, Lim served a double fault at 30-40 in the fourth game as Myneni neu-tralised the break. Lim staved off threebreakpoints in the eighth game that sawfive deuce points being fought off by thetwo players.
Lim managed to hold that but suf-fered reversal in the 10th. Lim's attempt-ed lob went long, giving Myneni his firstset point, but the Indian netted a back-hand on that. Myneni found a forehandwinner to earn his second set point andconverted on Lim's unforced error.
Lim refused to throw in the towel andkept fighting. He broke Myneni in thefifth game to create a mini lead.
He broke Lim in the very first gamethat was followed by a long toilet break.Myneni played some smart tennis bykeeping the points short with his big serve.
The Korean again lost serve in thefifth game and when Lim fell on his backwhen Myneni was serving for the matchin the seventh game, he could not recov-er from this bout of cramps.
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India captain Anand Amritrajsays it was "initiation by fire"
for both Saketh Myneni andRamkumar Ramanathan as theypulled off victories in their sin-gles matches against Korea inthe Asia/Oceania group I DavisCup tie here on Friday.
"Saketh showed tremen-dous heart. It was initiation byfire for the boys. It was mind-boggling. I have never seen inmy 25-year career that both theguys (Saketh and Lim) are onthe ground. It was a matter ofjust standing up. I knew who-ever would stand, will win," saidan elated Amritraj.
Amritraj said he hadthought of withdrawing Myneniout the match since he was insevere pain but the gritty Indianplayer wanted to continue andfinish the job at hand.
Myneni said: "I wanted tofinish it off in three sets. It wasvery humid but never I thoughtof giving up. I just need to keepmoving. The support staffplayed a great role. Withoutthem I would not have been ableto continue. They kept megoing, they were pulling thesocks up," a much-relievedMyneni said.
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Bolstered by Australian Open tri-umph, India ace shuttler Saina
Nehwal says she is now working onher half smashes under the watchfuleyes of coach Vimal Kumar to get clos-er to the goal of winning a gold medalat next month's Rio Olympics.
"The victory in Australia came atjust the right time. I was really look-ing forward for some change andnothing boosts confidence like win-ning. I needed a win to keep believ-ing that I am on the right track," the26-year-old told.
"I am working hard on my halfsmashes to get closer to my goals. Itis wonderful to win Australian Openprior to the Olympics. It is very sat-isfying to beat two world championsand a junior world champion in onetournament," added the girl fromHyderabad who clinched theAustralian title last month.
Set to play in her third Olympics,Saina said she is completely fit and thekey will be to "reach the peak" in thatparticular week.
"I take each tournament as itcomes. Rio Olympics will also be likeany other games. My approach to thegame is very positive and I would liketo keep it like that and focus on mygame. I feel that on the day that I am100 percent fit, I have the potential todefeat anyone," said the LondonOlympics bronze medallist.
"I feel I am fit. I am running nice-ly. At the end of the day, it's importantthat you reach the peak and play yourbest during that particular week.That's what will count ultimately andwill be the key."
It has been a year and a half thatSaina has been training under VimalKumar in Bangalore and she said theformer national coach was the onewho made her believe that she can bea champion.
"Vimal Sir's influence is the biggestchange. I really want to thank him formaking me believe every day that I ama champion, I can be number one.Vimal Sir is helping me work on myhalf smashes and get closer to mygoals," said Saina, who had reached theWorld No. 1 under Vimal's guidancelast year.
"It's not easy to play at the high-est level. I would like to give my bestand like all the players my goal is alsoto come back with a gold medal. It'sa big contingent going from India thistime, so we hope to have a tri-umphant return with lots of medals."
Asked about the competition inwomen's singles, Saina said therewon't be any clear favourite for thegold medal.
"I believe every player is therebecause they have the potential. Eachgame is going to be a tough game andeach player will be a serious challenger.Li Xuerui, Tai Tzu Ying, NozomiOkuhara, Ratchanok Intanon,
Carolina Marin are all very good," saidthe 2010 Commonwealth Gameschampion. "I think everyone is wellprepared for the games. They havebeen doing well in the recent gamesand I am going to take each of mycompetitor seriously. The standard ofcompetition raises every year buthaving said that I am very positive andconfident about my performance."
It was at the Beijing Olympicswhen as a 18-year-old Saina hadhogged the limelight after coming ago-nisingly close to winning a medal buteventually lost in the quarterfinals toIndonesia's Maria Kristin Yulianti.
Taking a walk down memorylane, Saina said it was a big break-through for her and it inspired manyIndians to take up badminton.
"It was an amazing experience ofparticipating in Beijing Olympics, Iwas only 18 years old that time. Nowpeople expect a lot because I feel I haveinspired a new generation to take upbadminton, especially girls.
"Women power is certainly on therise in badminton in India. Manymore players are coming up now. It isa healthy sign and a good trend. Weshould have more cities producingmore badminton players," she said.
"It was a breakthrough for me toenter the quarter-final stage at Beijingand I believe that it gave Indian bad-minton a massive facelift. Across theworld, one generation of successfulathletes inspires the next lot of cham-
pions."It is a trend, and Beijing saw
Indian badminton cash in on my story.From then, the pressure has been onme to perform and build on my suc-cess, and this proved to be a motivat-ing factor in my career," she explained.
Saina, who was presented with aspecial Omega watch -- the OfficialTimekeeper of the Olympics Games— as a good luck gesture at a recentevent in Bangalore, also spoke aboutthe role of the brand in time-keepingat Rio. "From the last 84 yearsOMEGA has fulfilled the presti-gious role of Official Timekeeper atthe Olympic Games. Under theirwatchful eye, records have been setand broken, history has been wit-nessed and legends have beenmade. No matter the year, theOlympic Games have always deliv-ered a multitude of great momentsin time," she said.
"Three one-thousandths of asecond is less than 1/10th of a blink,less than 1/100th of a heartbeat. Butif you're a speedskater, 0.003 sec-onds can be the difference betweengold and silver. They're responsiblefor the record-keeping of prettymuch every major internationalsports competition, from swim-ming to cycling to the biathlon.Olympic timings need to be preciseto cater for close finishes and thelatest technologies by Omega keepit fair."
