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n a strong message to
Pakistan, Prime Minister
Narendra Modi on Friday
vowed to stop every single
drop of Ravi, Beas and Sutlej
waters from going waste in
Pakistan and give that to the
farmers of Punjab and Jammu
& Kashmir.
The Prime Ministers
remarks on the waters of the
Indus system assume significance as Heart of Asia
Conference, which will be
attended by Pakistan Prime
Ministers adviser on foreign
affairs Sartaj Azizis, is scheduled to be held in Amritsar on
December 3-4. Pakistan has
warned India against use of
water as an instrument of coercion.
The waters in these rivers
(Sutlej, Beas and Ravi) belong
to India and our farmers. It is
not being used in the fields of
Pakistan but flowing into the
sea through Pakistan. Now
every drop of this water will be
stopped and I will give that to
farmers of Punjab and Jammu
& Kashmir and Indian farmers.
I am committed to this, said
the Prime Minister addressing
a rally in Bathinda after laying
the foundation stone of an All
India Institute of Medical
Sciences (AIIMS)..
He said a task force has
been constituted to ensure that

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each drop of water that flows

out of Sutlej, Beas and Ravi
reaches Punjab and Jammu &
Kashmir.
There is no reason that we
cannot use our rights (over our
waters). We cannot let our
farmers suffer, said he adding,
I need your blessings in order

to fulfil your requirements for

watering your fields.
Criticising the previous
Governments at the Centre,
Modi said, Waters kept flowing to Pakistan, but successive
Governments kept sleeping on
this issue and my farmers kept
crying for the want of water.

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If Punjab farmers get sufficient amount of water, they
could produce gold from the
soil and could fill the coffers of
the country, he said.
Our Government is committed to work in tandem with
the Badal Government in
Punjab to get farmers their
rights and address their concerns, he said.
Evading any direct comment on the controversy over
Satluj-Yamuna Link (SYL)
canal following Supreme
Courts decision, Modi suggested a middle path saying
that the solution for the problems of water could be found
out through common dialogue.
Our Government is committed to work in tandem with
the Badal Government in
Punjab to get farmers their
rights and address their concerns, he said.
Doing some tough talking
vis a vis Pakistan, he said,
From here Pakistan is not far
off. When schoolchildren are
killed in Pakistan, 125 crore
Indians cry for them. We are
with the people of Pakistan. I
want to urge the people of
Pakistan that they should tell
their rulers that Pakistan
should fight against poverty,
corruption and other evils.
Look at the strength of our
Army. Our soldiers did a surgical strike in a 250-km belt.
Continued on Page 4

6&EDQVILUHFUDFNHUV
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n a stern action to curb air

pollution during the ongoing
wedding season, the Supreme
Court on Friday suspended
the licences of all firecracker
sellers in Delhi and National
Capital Region with immediate
effect till further orders, virtually banning their sale and
purchase.
We in public interest direct
the suspension of existing
licences for possessing, stocking
and selling of fire crackers in
Delhi-NCR region till further
orders, said a Bench of Chief
Justice TS Thakur and Justices
AK Sikri and SA Bobde.
The apex court also directed the Centre not to renew any
such licences till further orders.
It directed the Central Pollution
Control Board (CPCB) to
examine and submit its report
in six months on the harmful
effects caused by the materials
used in the firecrackers.
The suspension of licences
with immediate effects means
that sale, purchase and stocking of firecrackers are completely banned in Delhi and
NCR region.
The apex court had on
November 11 reserved its verdict on the issue and said it
would go step-by-step as fireworks have become a part of
life and a reasonable order
needed to be passed which
could be enforced.
It had said it was consid-

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ering passing an order that no

new licence will be granted and
the existing ones not renewed
or could even direct the Centre
to pass an order suspending the
existing licences in Delhi-NCR.
The court had said it will
not pass any final order without going into research and
reports on its impact on air
quality, health and life-style.
Equating fire crackers with
burning of money, the apex
court had said one should
think that when humans are
affected so much with these fire
crackers, what effect would it
have it on animals like dogs

which have more sensitive ears

than humans. It had also
observed that as per reports, 30
per cent children in Delhi were
asthmatic and steps needed to
be taken all fronts.
The petitioners had
requested the Bench to give a
time limit to the Government
to suspend and not renew
licences for possessing, stocking and selling fire crackers.
They had moved the
Supreme Court seeking ban on
use of firecrackers in DelhiNCR on the ground that it has
contributed immensely to the
worsening air pollution.

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he relations between the

T
Treasury Benches and the
Opposition worsened on
Friday following Prime
Minister Narendra Modis
stinging criticism of his political rivals and the latters insistence that he should tender an
apology for virtually calling
them
supporters
of
black money.
In a full-fledged attack on
political rivals who are opposing his demonetisation move,
Modi said he would have been
lavished with praise had he
given his critics time before
withdrawing the high value
currency notes.
If these people had got 72
hours to make their preparation then they would have lavished praise that there is no one
like Modi, he said at function

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on Friday morning.
Modis comments resulted
in a fresh standoff and derailment of Parliament proceedings throughout the day, leading to fears that the entire
Winter Session could be
a washout.
Both the Houses of
Parliament were adjourned for

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the day, as bedlam prevailed

from the word go and agitated
Opposition MPs in the Upper
House stuck to their demand
for Modis presence throughout
the debate on demonetisation.
In the Lok Sabha, the united Opposition which was for
the last five days seeking
Continued on Page 4

CID official said.

The CID got more information about the racket following the arrest of two operatives on Thursday from South
View Nursing Home at James
Long Sarani in South Kolkata.
The information provided by the accused led the investigating teams to Baduria.
Apart from the skeletons which
were dug out from the Sujit
Dutta Memorial Trusts compound, ten baby girls aged
between one to nine months
Continued on Page 4

New Delhi: Now, commuting

between Wazirabad and
Vikaspuri has been made hassle-free after the Delhi
Governemnt inaugurated the
23.6 km-long VikaspuriWazirabad signal-free corridors last part a six-lane flyover at Mukundpur Chowk
on Friday.

The flyover with a twometre wide cycle track, 2.5mwide footpath and a green belt
on both sides is expected to
have major environmental
benefits.
Hailing the development,
commuters and officials said it
will significantly ease traffic
congestion on Capitals Outer

Ring Road.
The Government plans to
extend this signal-free corridor
to Noida to ease traffic movement. The 900 meter-long flyover at Mukundpur Chowk
has been constructed at a cost
of C 50 crore against its estimated cost of C60 crore.
Detailed report on P3

levied on unexplained bank

deposits made using the
scrapped C500 and C1,000
notes up to December 30,
along with a four-year lock-in
period for half of the remaining amount as per the amendment to the Income Tax Act
approved by the Cabinet. The
Government is mulling a
speedy amendment for
approval during the ongoing
Winter Session of Parliament.
However, a higher tax and
penalty could be levied if
assessees do not declare the
unaccounted cash voluntarily.
Top sources in the Government
said, In case such deposits are
not declared and are detected
by tax authorities, a total of 90
per cent tax and penalty would
be charged.
After the Governments
demonetisation move, it had
given a 50-day period beginning from November 10 for
either depositing the scrapped
notes or exchanging them for
new currency. While the

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New Delhi: Total deposits in

Jan Dhan accounts have
increased to C64,252.15 crore,
with Uttar Pradesh leading the
chart with C10,670.62 crore
deposits followed by West
Bengal and Rajasthan, the
Government said on Friday.
The Centre also stressed
that no public sector banks
had given any instructions to
their officials to deposit C1 or
C2 to avoid zero balance in Jan
Dhan accounts.
Detailed report on P11

*OREDOZDUPLQJWDNHVFKLOORIIWKLVZLQWHU
?=BQ =4F34;78

ith winters knocking

W
the doors, India
Meteorological Department

a macabre twist to the

Ithenongoing
investigation into
infant trafficking racket in
West Bengal, the Criminal
Investigation Department
(CID) on Friday dug out skeletons of two babies from the
backyard of Sujit Dutta
Memorial Trust, a non-governmental-organisation (NGO)
functioning at Baduria in
North 24 Parganas and recovered ten newborns from
Purbasha Home, an old age
home for the mentally challenged at Thakurpukur in
South 24 Parganas.
The geographical distance
between the two sites points at
the expanse of the baby-trafficking racket. Many more
nursing homes across the State
are under the scanner for their
involvement in the racket, and
some are currently being raided for more information, a top

lack money hoarders will

B
not get any respite as a minimum of 50 per cent tax may be

exchange, which was limited to

a maximum of C2,000 per person, has been withdrawn, all
old notes without any ceiling
can be deposited in
bank accounts.
As per the Government
data available on Friday, this
move had led to a surge in bank
deposits, particularly in zerobalance Jan Dhan accounts
that swelled by C64,252.15,
with Uttar Pradesh
Continued on Page 4

(IMD) has predicted that chill

of the season is likely to be mild
in most parts of the country
this year. However, certain
pockets in Odisha, Telengana
and Maharastra have begun
experiencing fall in temperature ranging 10-12 degrees
Celsius.
IMD soon proposes to
bring out a Cold Weather
Outlook for the period from
December 2016 to February
2017 on the lines of its Hot
Weather Season Outlook that
began in April 2016.
According to weather scientists in IMD, most parts of
the country are likely to experience higher than normal
average temperatures by 0.5 to
1 degrees Celsius. Though the
reasons for this are still not
clear, experts mentioned global warming as one of the pos-

sible causes.
Such warming signals are
being observed for over several years now. The winter of
2015 for instance had also
turned out to be quite warm.
However, considering that El
Nino that causes warming has
dissipated early this year, the
current season may not be
that warm either.
The forecast of above-normal temperatures comes
despite weak La Nina conditions in the Pacific Ocean that
are usually associated with
severe winters in India because
of greater influx of cold air over
the northern region. But this
winter may be different, predicted the sources. If the
approaching winter remains
slightly warmer, one can also
expect a reduction in intensity of fog, they added.
However, cold day conditions, with minimum temperatures below normal by around
4-6 degrees Celsius, prevail
over Hyderabad and several

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other districts of Telangana.

The lowest minimum temperature of 10 degrees Celsius
was recorded at Medak,
said IMD.
There was an appreciable

fall in minimum temperatures

at many places in parts of
Maharashtra and Odisha as
well. The minimum temperatures dropped appreciably in
one or two places and were

markedly below normal at

some places as Ahmednagar,
Pune and Nasik are observing
since past one week. Pune
recorded one of the lowest
minimum temperatures at 9.9

degrees Celsius.
Phulbani in Odisha
remained the coldest in the
State with minimum temperature falling to 7.6 degrees
Celsius. Bhawanipatna in the
Kalahandi district of the State
too witnessed dip in temperatures recording 8.7 degrees
Celsius.
In sharp contrast, the hill
stations of Himachal such as
Shimla, Dharamsala and
Nahan are experiencing pleasantly warm winter with mercury level settling between 11.8
and 12.5 degrees Celsius, which
is about 3-5 degrees above
normal, compared to the corresponding period in the previous years.
Explaining the phenomenon, private weather forecaster Skymet said that the cold
and dry winds blowing out
from North India through
Madhya Pradesh are causing
this significant dip in temperature across Maharashtra
Continued on Page 4

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28-year-old Bangladeshi
A
national was arrested from
the Indira Gandhi International
Airport (IGIA) while trying to
fly to Dubai on an Indian passport. Deputy Commissioner of
Police, IGIA, Sanjay Bhatia,
said the accused has been identified as Arefin Naiem.
Arefin was caught by immigration officials on November 17
after they suspected something
amiss and scrutinised his passport only to find discrepancies.
Immigration officials then handed him over to us and we arrested him, said the DCP.
The DCP said Arefin said
he is a Bangladeshi national and
got an Indian passport from an

agent in Kolkata
using forged documents. Probe is under way to
nab the agent who made the
fake passport.
The immigration officials
suspected Naiem, so they
checked his passport, which was
in the name of Nayem Ghazi.
Arefin was trying to fly to
Dubai from Delhi in flight
number 6E 23 on a tourist visa.
They found that the passport

has been procured using fake

documents such as PAN and
address proof and class 10th
marksheet. Hence he tried to
cheat the Indian Immigration
authorities by fraudulently
procuring fake Indian passport.
We are also in possession of
Arefins Bangladeshi passport,
said a police official, adding
that Naiem has been tightlipped about the agent.
Naiem has been
booked under IPC
Sections 419 (personation), 420 (cheating), 465
(forgery), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery for
purpose of cheating) and
471 (using as genuine a
forged document or electronic record).
He is also booked under
Section 12 of the Indian Passport
Act and Section 14 of the
Foreigners Act and is currently
remanded in police custody.

28CH1A845B
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he Tihar Jail stall at the

India International Trade
T
Fair (IITF) grabbed visitors
attention on Friday with people lining up to lay their hands
on products made by inmates.
To man the stall there
were five inmates, along with
other employees. One of the
inmates said, We are working
dedicatedly to promote products prepared by the jails
inmates and the result till
now has been satisfactory.
A visitor told The Pioneer

that she came all the way from

Dwarka to visit the stall. Of
many stalls, I am impressed by
the stall being run by inmates.
And their products are really of
good qualities. I even a bought
a few. Several visitors are purchasing the products, said
Anita, who gave only one name.
The best sellers at the stall
were bakery and confectionary
items. A music album Flying
Souls by Tihar Rock Band was
also exhibited in the stall.
A 32-year-old inmate, a
garment making trainer in
Tihar Jail, told The Pioneer, I

got my financial independence

only because of my job here.
Today as a skilled worker I earn
Rs 128 per day in comparison
to Rs 103 and Rs 80 by semiskilled and unskilled workers
respectively. I am happy to
give twenty five per cent of my
income to charity.
A jail staff said, Its necessary to channelise the energy of
the inmates towards a positive
cause. A 53-year-old inmate
said, It was behind the bars
that I picked up a few life-time
skills that certainly would help
me throughout my life.

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BC055A4?>AC4AQ =4F34;78

he Delhi Police has been

directed by the Delhi High
T
Court to file a status report
about the missing case of
Najeeb Ahmad, a student of
Jawaharlal Nehru University
(JNU), within three days.
The directions to the Delhi
Police was passed on Friday by
the double Bench of High
Court after Najeebs mother
filed a Habeus Corpus( a
write requiring a person under
arrest to be brought before a
judge or into a court) seeking
courts intervention in tracing
her missing son and produce
him before the court.
Najeeb, a student of School
of Biotechnology at JNU and a
native of Badaun in Uttar
Pradesh, went missing on
October 15 following an oncampus scuffle allegedly with
members of Akhil Bhartiya
Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP)
the night before.

The petition came up before

a Bench of justices G S Sistani
and Vinod Goel which issued
notice to the Delhi Government
and police asking them to
explain their stand on the plea
by the students mother, Fatima
Nafees. The Bench also directed the Delhi Police to file a status report within three days.
A senior Delhi Police officer told The Pioneer the Crime
Branch will file a detailed report
before the Delhi High Court.
The status report will contain
all the details about the investigations carried out so far.
Earlier, Najeebs mother, in
her petition filed through advocate Ali Qambar Zaidi, sought
the setting up of a court appointed Special Investigation Team
(SIT) of impartial officers of
proven integrity from outside the
State of Delhi to take over the
entire investigation from Crime
Branch of the Delhi Police.
Earlier, an SIT of the Delhi
Police was set up to trace the
missing student on instructions
of Home Minister Rajnath
Singh. While the case was being

investigated by the SIT, teams

were sent to Darbhanga in Bihar
and Nepal after they got leads
hinting that Najeeb might be
there, but they failed to find him.
Thereafter, the case was
transferred to the polices
Crime Branch for a fresh
look into it. Police has
increased the reward for information about the student from
the initial amount of C50,000 to
C5 lakh, but no productive
leads have yet been found.
In her plea, 45-year-old
Fatima has alleged that her son
was beaten up by members of
ABVP which is affiliated to the
RSS and therefore, closely connected with the BJP which is the
party in power at the Centre and
since the Delhi Police comes
under the control of the Central
Government, it is not likely that
any progress will be made in the
investigation. She has sought
criminal prosecution against
those people who were
involved in the alleged assault
of her son on the basis of the
records of the investigation
carried out so far.

BC055A4?>AC4AQ =4F34;78

he much awaited 23.6 kmlong Vikaspuri- Wazirabad

T
signal-free corridor in outer
Delhi was on Friday thrown
open to the public by the Delhi
Government.
The last part of this project
(Vikaspuri-Wazirabad) is being
thrown open to public today.
This is not just a flyover for commuting, but a big relief from traffic jams. We want to give people a life of ease and dignity by
this project. There was a huge
traffic on this stretch, said
Deputy Chief Minister Manish
Sisodia, while inaugurating the
flyover at an event on Friday.
Also, he asked the Public Works
Department (PWD) to construct a cycle track along the corridor from Mukundpur to
Majnu-ka-tilla crossing.
The Government inaugurated the corridors last part
a six-lane flyover at Mukundpur
Chowk that will significantly
ease traffic congestion on the
citys Outer Ring Road. As per
the plan, the Government wants
to extend this signal-free corridor to Noida to ease traffic
movement.
The Vikaspuri-Wazirabad
corridor, conceptualised by the
previous Sheila Dikshit
Government, has four components that involve construction

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of several flyovers at different

intersections VikaspuriMeera Bagh elevated corridor,
Mangolpuri-Madhuban
Chowk elevated corridor,
Madhuban Chowk to Mukarba
Chowk elevated corridor and
Mukarba Chowk to Wazirabad
signal-free project.
Construction work on this
corridor began in November

2013. The 900 metre-long flyover at Mukundpur Chowk has

been constructed at a cost of C50
crore against its estimated cost
of C60 crore. PWD Minister
Satyendar Jain said the
Government has saved about
10-15 crore in this project.
Areas to be benefited by
the construction of this flyover
are Burari, Mukundpur, Uttam

Nagar, Vikaspuri, Peeragarhi,

Mayapuri among others.
The Mukundpur intersection sees around 1.75 lakh vehicles per day and each vehicle will
save at least four minutes. All
traffic on NH-1, including interState pubic and commercial
vehicles will also be benefited.
There will be huge savings in
terms of commuting time, manpower, fuels, and there would be
lesser CO2 emission. This saving is equivalent to approximately C56 crore per year.
Smooth and uninterrupted
movement of traffic on this
intersection would save emission of at least 4,975 tonnes of
carbon dioxide (CO2) per day.
PWD said 2.29 lakh trees
would be required to absorb
this much amount of CO2
under normal conditions.
The PWD had in January
opened the elevated corridor
between Mangolpuri and
Madhuban Chowk in northwest Delhi and opened its next
section at Mukerba Chowk.
In the Mangolpuri and
Madhuban Chowk project, the
Government claimed to have
saved C123.05 crore in the
construction of that phase.
The flyovers, which were
being constructed under the
project of Vikaspuri-Wazirabad
signal-free elevated corridor,
were completed one by one.

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270=30=?A0:0B7Q
=4F34;78

day after the Central

Government issued an
order to stop exchanging of
high-value banned old currency notes of C500 and C1,000
with the new one, confusions
prevailed among people in several parts of the national
Capital on Friday.
Some labourers seen standing outside banks to exchange
old notes, were asked by the
bank officials, to deposit them
in their accounts as the practice
has been stopped.
Many daily wagers were
also seen standing outside
Punjab National Bank Branch
at Azadpur totally oblivious of
the fact that that counter to
exchange old demonetised
notes have been closed. They
were then directed to deposit
the amount in their accounts.
Failing in his attempt at
exchanging Specialised Bank
Notes at a State Bank of India
in Chandni Chowk, Bhola
Paswan, a sanitation worker
from Bihar, got agitated and
started arguing with the
security guard. Others in queue
intervened and informed

BC055A4?>AC4AQ =4F34;78

ive Delhi Police personnel,

including an Inspector, have
F
come under the scanner for

him about the Governments

new decision.
I wanted to change C3,000,
all in five hundred denominations but was denied by the
bank official. I do not have a
bank account and they (bank
officers) are asking me to visit
the Reserve Bank of India if I
want to exchange. I do not

know what and who is RBI.

This is the money that I have
been saving for months, now
what will I do? I am clueless,
said a crestfallen Bhola.
But there were some, like
59-year-old Faizan Ahmad, an
Indira Vikas Colony resident,
who were happy to deposit
money in less than half-an

allegedly misappropriating C10

lakh in demonetised currency
notes recovered by them
during a raid, police said
on Friday.
?T^_[T`dTdTd_^dcbXSTP
No case has been regisQP]Zc^ST_^bXccWTXa^[S
tered so far, but the five policeRdaaT]Rh]^cTbX]=Tf3T[WX
^]5aXSPh
?C8 men, working with the
Operations unit of the outer
district, have been sent to the
hour at the Punjab National police lines and we are conBanks Nirankari Colony ducting enquiry in the lapses
branch.
committed by the policemen
I feel lucky today. I have said Additional Deputy
been withdrawing money using Commissioner of Police 1
ICICI. My turn came in less Pankaj Singh.
than 30 minutes. Last time I
According to police, they
had to wait for almost three conducted a raid near the
hours. Today there were a few Rithala metro station on
people, he said.
Wednesday night based on a

tip-off and the employee of the

realtor was caught with the
money in demonetised currency notes
Police said the five, including one Inspector, 2 Head
Constables and 2 Constables
had allegedly apprehended an
employee of a property
dealer and recovered an
amount of C31 lakh from him
on Wednesday.
The accused had allegedly
shown the amount recovered
as C21 lakh, thereby misappropriating C10 lakh,
police said.
A senior police officer said
they have sent these five policemen to police lines for delay in
relaying the information to
the concerned higher officials.
Additional DCP(I) of Outer
police district Pankaj Singh is
investigating the matter.

CSbQ`TUQ\Ub[Y\\ccU\VQVdUbVQY\Y^Wd_UhSXQ^WUC%
BC055A4?>AC4AQ
=4F34;78

35-year-old small time

scrap dealer allegedly
A
committed suicide by hanging
himself from the ceiling fan
after he failed to exchange old
currency notes for new ones for
the last three days at Northeast
Delhis Gokulpuri area. The
incident was reported to police
on late Thursday night.
According to the police, the
deceased has been identified as
Mohammad Shakeel. Family

JR^f_RSZ`UZgVcdZejaRc\
SVZ_XdTR__VUW`c]V`aRcU
New Delhi: Delhi Environment Minister
Imran Hussain on Friday directed the
Forest Department to ascertain the facts
on sighting of leopard in Yamuna biodiversity park. In a meeting with additional principal forests and chief wildlife warden, the Minister said after ascertaining
the relevant facts efforts should be made
to catch the leopard alive with the help of
central zoo authority.
Hussain said sighting of wild cats is a
good indicator of quality forest area, but
expressed his concern that lack of security measures may pose danger to people
residing in nearby areas.
AK Shukla, chief wildlife warden, said
two wildlife inspectors have been deputed
to inspect the area for finding the pug
marks for actual assessment of age of the
leopard, if available.
He talked about placing the cage at
appropriate place with bait once the
location of the animal is identified. SR

members of the small time

scrap dealer claimed that he
was depressed over not being
able to exchange C5,000 cash
which he had managed to earn
in the past few weeks.
Meanwhile, Dr AK Singla, the
DCP of the North East district
refuted the claim saying that
the scrap dealer was under debt
and was unable to repay money
to his acquaintances.
The incident was reported
at around 12 am on Thursday
night when Shakeel, a scrap
dealer was found hanging from

_\T^_dUc

time scrap dealer, Shakeel

managed to earn C300-400
per day. He had been standing
in the queues for the past few
days but was unable to
exchange notes. On one occasion, he even carried one of our
handicapped relatives on his
lap thinking that his turn will
come much faster. However,
that did not happen. Dejected,
he became worried.
On Thursday, he returned
home around 6.30 pm. After
having dinner, he went to his
room around 10 pm and slept.

Hours later, Shakeels 12-yearold son woke up. Unable to

find his father beside him, he
got out of the bed and found
his father hanging from the
ceiling fan. For the first 4
minutes, the boy was in a state
of utter shock. Since we brothers live in the same house, the
boy raised an alarm after which
we informed police who
rushed him to the GTB hospital where he was declared
brought dead, added Vakeel.
Police said the body of the
victim was handed over to his

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family after the post-mortem
was conducted.
In the preliminary investigation, it appears that due to
this reason, he took the
extreme step.
Shakeel is survived by his
wife and children, said police,
adding that they have initiated a probe. Further investigation is underway.

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BC055A4?>AC4AQ =4F34;78

he 13th edition of the

World Robot Olympiad,
T
which is being held in India for

0[[T^_PaSPPcccWTHHP\d]P
QX^SXeTabXch__PaZ
?C8

a ceiling fan by his son at his

Mustafabad residence in
Gokulpuri.
No suicide note has been
recovered from the deceaseds
possession. We have initiated
investigation under Section
174 of the CrPC (Inquest
Proceedings). Further probe is
on, the DCP told The Pioneer.
Mohammad Vakeel, the
brother of the deceased, said,
Shakeel was living with his 12year-old son for the past few
days since his wife had gone to
their native place. A small

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the first time, aims to find

innovative solutions using
robotics technology to reduce,
manage and recycle waste.
Organised by the National
Council of Science Museums
(NCSM) in collaboration with
the India STEM Foundation
(ISF), the three-day international championship will begin
from Saturday and will see
participation by over 2,000
students from 54 countries.
We have been advocating
hands-on, minds-on approach to
learning and I believe this com-

petition will spread awareness

about Robotics education and
build an ecosystem of STEM
based hands-on learning education in India. It will be interesting to see students finding innovative ways of designing and programming autonomous robots
to complete the task in lesser
time, says AS Manekar, Director
General, NCSM.
Students in the age group
of 9 to 25 years will be participating in four categories
regular category (elementary,
junior high, senior high), WRO
football, open category and
advanced robotics challenge.
According to organisers,
the theme Rap the Scrap is in
line with Government of Indias

Swachh Bharat Mission. We

saw some great ideas in the preliminary rounds and hope to
see even better solutions in the
international finals. This event
will be a great showcase of our
future generations innovative
thinking abilities.
A science, technology, and
education event, the Olympiad
brings together young minds
from across the world to develop their creativity and problem
solving skills through challenging and educational robotics competition.
It seeks to enable real world
application of core concepts of
science, technology, engineering, maths, to develop innovative, critical thinking and cre-

ative problem-solving skills in

students. It is a huge privilege
for us to organise this competition at such a large scale. This
platform is a tremendous learning ground for students and
will provide numerous opportunities to them to nurture for
a lifetime, says Sudhanshu
Sharma, Co-Founder and
CEO, India STEM Foundation.
Before the final competition, preliminary rounds were
held in Delhi, Lucknow,
Tirupati,
Trivandrum,
Chennai, Kolkata, Varanasi,
Guwahati, Bangalore, Surat,
Mumbai,
Bhopal
and
Chandigarh over a span of
three months from August to
October 2016.

About 245 teams from India

qualified for the National
Championship held at Netaji
Indoor Stadium, Kolkata and 27
teams qualified for WRO
International Championship in
different categories. The contest
that is set to continue till
November 27 is being held at the
India Expo Mart, Greater Noida.

]PcX^]#

=4F34;78kB0CDA30H k=>E4<14A!%! %

>`UZRd\dWRc^Vcde`
a]VUXV_`ee`Sfc_Tc`a
Bathinda: Prime Minister
Narendra Modi on Friday asked
farmers, especially of Punjab
and Haryana, to take a pledge
of not burning crop stubble
which is a major cause of pollution and suggested them to
use it instead for earning and
higher food production.
He suggested that he was
taking an electoral risk by
making such utterances as
some people might say that
Modi does not know politics
since he is giving such an
advice to farmers when elections are near.
Do not burn it (crop
residue). It is your property
which is worth crore of rupees.
Do not burn it, Modi said
while addressing a gathering
here after laying foundation

stone of AIIMS here.

Some people will say
Modi does not know politics.
Elections are near and he is giving such advice to farmers. My
farmer brothers and sisters, I
have nothing to do with the
maths of politics. I only want
farmers' welfare, he said, seeking to connect with the agriculture community.
In the absence of complete
knowledge, we used to burn the
stubble....But now science has
proved that wastage left after
crop harvesting is the food for
the soil. If we bury that stubble
in the soil, it will be good food
for your soil. Like mother land
needs water and the same way,
it also needs food. If the soil
gets crop residue then it will
boost the productivity of your

field, he said.
He urged farmers to
eschew the practice of crop
burning which could yield
monetary returns to growers.
I am not a person who
only talks about environment
and I just want farmers' welfare.
Therefore, be it Punjab and
Haryana, western UP and
North Rajasthan, do not burn
stubble, he said.
There is a possibility of
making ethanol out of it. Indian
government is working on it. In
coming days, farmers will get
benefit and they will make
money from stubble. Therefore,
take a pledge today that food for
soil will not be burnt and it will
be buried which will become
manure and which will also
boost yield, he said.
PTI

! " #aPXSb)B2aTUdbTbc^
V^X]c^_[TPbTTZX]VB8C_a^QT
New Delhi: The Supreme
Court on Friday refused to go
into a plea seeking probe by an
SIT into alleged recovery of
documents by the IT department in connection with raids
on two business houses here in
2013-14 which purportedly
showed computerised inventories containing designations
of top people having received
money.
You take this back. You
come when you have some better material.
This is zero material. It is
only an insinuation, a bench
comprising Justices J S Khehar
and Arun Mishra said.
As the bench was not
inclined to order any investigation, Attorney General
Mukul Rohatgi said the allegations are scandalous, malafide
and NGO Common Cause,
which has filed the plea, was

indulging in kite flying.

The bench said it can only
hear the matter if the NGO can
come out with better material on December 14.
We cant order investigation only because you name a
big person, it said.
Give us some better material, good material. What is this
material? Just because it is a
computer entry would you
rope in the entire world. We are
very clear if the suspicion
arouses the conscience of any
person, it is a good material.
So far as this material is
concerned, it does not arouse
suspicion. We are not satisfied
at all. These are high public
functionaries. If you are bringing this material before us, it is
nothing. It is a serious issue.
You must give us something on
which we can determine, the
bench said.
PTI

B\^^cWaT\^]TcXbPcX^]X]9WPaZWP]S
BD<0=:B7A8E0BC0E0Q
A0=278

here may still be serpentine

queues outside ATMs in
T
other states, 17 days after Prime
Minister Narendra Modi
declared crackdown on the black
money by demonetising C1,000
and C500 notes, giving leeway to
the Opposition to demonise the
move, but Jharkhand is fast
pulling off smooth transition to
re-monetisation.
The State Government
swung into action soon after
the high value notes were
banned and worked in tandem
with RBI and various banks in
order to ensure availability and
distribution of new currencies. The result is that the people in Jharkhand, particularly
in urban areas, are not complaining much of the cash
crunch due to demonetisation
of Rs 1000 and C500 notes.
D e v e l o p m e n t
Commissioner cum Additional

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he Supreme Court on
Friday termed as infrucT
tuous the appeals of West
Bengal Government against
the Calcutta High Court
order, which had in June 2012
struck down the Singur Land
Act that had allowed the State
Government to reclaim 400
acres of land given to Tata
Motors. The petition has
become infructuous for the
time being in wake of earlier
judgement of the court.
Liberty granted to petitioners
to file interim application, if
the need arises, a Bench of
Justices JS Khehar and Arun
Mishra said.
Major victor y with
Supreme Court terming as
illegal and void the acquisition of 1053 acres land by the
erstwhile
Left
Front
Government for Tata Motors

Nano project at Singur, by

ordering restoration of land to
farmers who will retain the
compensation received. It had
directed the states Survey
Settlement Department to conduct a survey and identify
mouzas of lands acquired with
reference to layout plans, other
connected records, village maps
and survey settlement records
of the lands in question, in
order to identify the respective
portions which needed to be
returned to the respective owners or cultivators.
The court had said that the
possession of the lands be
restored to landowners/cultivators within 12 weeks from
the date of the verdict. The
verdict had come on petitions
filed by some farmers and
NGOs alleging that the acquisition of land was against the
provisions of Land Acquisition
Act, 1894 and other rules.

pset over the Indian

Government's interference in the appointments of
Nalanda University, its
Chancellor George Yeo of
Singapore has quit from his
post.
Yeo has alleged that the
Indian Government reconstituted governing body of the
University without consulting
him and that the varsity's
autonomy was being affected.
The Nalanda University
comes under Ministry of
External Affairs.
Yeo's main grudge was the
sudden dissolution of the old
Nalanda
University
Governing Board and new
appointments without his

knowledge. In a Facebook
message, Yeo wrote that
though the sudden dissolution of the old Nalanda
University Governing Board
is bound up with Indian
domestic politics which he
does not wish to be embroiled
in since he is not an Indian
citizen, he made it clear that
he was certainly upset by the
way things happened without
consulting him.
The University was earlier headed by economist
Amartya Sen but the NDA
Government decided not to
renew his tenure. He was
replaced by Yeo, former
Foreign Affairs Minister of
Singapore. But, on November
21, the Nalanda University
Governing Board was recon-

stituted by President Pranab

Mukher jee,
who
is
its Visitor.
The circumstances
under which the leadership
change in Nalanda University
has been suddenly and summarily effected is disturbing
and possibly harmful to the
University's development. It is
puzzling why I, as Chancellor,
was not even given notice of
it. When I was invited to take
over the responsibility from
Amartya Sen last year, I was
repeatedly assured that the
University would have autonomy. This appears not to be
the case now. Accordingly,
and with deep sadness, I have
submitted my letter of resignation as Chancellor to the
Visitor, Yeo said.

/RRNEH\RQGSROLWLFVLQ
FURVVERUGHUWUDGH2PDU
A07810A?0AE44=Q =4F34;78

t a time when India and

A
Pakistan relations have hit
the rock bottom, former J&K
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah
Friday called for the Government of India to look beyond
politics in the cross border
trade.
While releasing a report
Trading Confidence-A compelling case for LoC trade,
Abdullah said that the cross
border trade, which comes
under the Ministry of Home
Affairs should be shifted under
the Ministry of Commerce for
better economic results.
Omar urged the Centre to
come clear on its policy over the
trade between the bilateral
countries.
If that trade is purely to be
a symbolic CBM then tell us and
we will stop complaining about

the shortcomings but if its about

meaningful econimic benefit
then we have to realise it has
reached a point where its not
growing unless we address the
issues that are holding it back.
My request to the
Government of India is when
you leave this area with the
Ministry of Home Affairs it
gives it a shape of a security initiative...it is not a security initiative. It is a trade policy and
needs to come under Commerce Ministry...as far as these
issues are concerned, he said.
I believe we have reached
a plateau beyond which growth
is almost impossible unless we
address the issues being
brought up in event and conversation like these....this trade
is unusual because it us between
two regions whose status is disputed by the two countries.
The report was released by

Bureau of Research on.Industry

and Economic Fundamentals at
India Internatiinal Center.
He said while the issues of
India and Pakistan are tackled
out, the cross LoC trade must
happen.
He said that the anomalies
that cause hinderances in the
trade must be addressed.
Abdullah, who is the MLA
Beerwah said that he brought all
the points relating to this issue
be fire the Central Government
in his six year term but they
remain as they were.
He also said that he cannot blame India alone but
Pakistan also has to be receptive in its success.
In presence of various trade
bodies, senior journalist Shujaat
Bukhari said in times of hostility at LoC, it was thebest time
to talk about peace and measure
of reconciliation.

From Page 1
leading the chart with
C10,670.62 crore deposits followed by West Bengal and
Rajasthan, while it was Rs
21,000 crore in just two days
before, raising suspicions that
these accounts may have been
used to launder black money.
While the tax authorities
had talked of levying a peak
rate of tax and 200 per cent
penalty on top of it for any
unexplained deposit above C2.5
lakh during the November 9 to
December 30 period, it was felt
that such a move may not
have legal backing. To plug
those loopholes, the Cabinet is
believed to have on Thursday
approved amending the
Income Tax Act by adding a
clause in one of the sections to
provide for the tax on an unexplained income during the
window, sources said.
Sources added that demonetisation was a big step to
uproot black money and corruption but the very purpose
would have been defeated if the
ill-gotten wealth had made its
way into the system through
benami deposits. And taxing
them was a way to punish dishonest people.
The tax rate however cannot be the same as charged
from honest taxpayers. It also
could not be 45 per cent tax
and penalty charged on here-

*OREDO

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Chief Secretary (Finance) Amit

Khare told the Pioneer that the
situation in urban areas has
turned more or less normal as
we have ensured that the cash
reaches to peoples hands.
Now, our immediate challenges are how fast banks could
reach out to the rural population and also make available
new C500 notes in the ATMs,
he pointed out.
Around 2174 ATMs in the
State were active and 1193
ATMs not active. 1370 ATMs
have been recalibrated for C500
and C2000 currency notes
so far.
Khare said that soon after
the high value notes were
banned on November 8, our
focus was on three points--first,
to ensure security to banks and
currencies; second, convenience to common masses and
third, stopping misuse of currencies by anti-socials and
extremists.
We provided full security
to undisclosed wealth brought
to books using a one-time
compliance window under the
Income Disclosure Scheme
(IDS) that ended on September
30. Since the black money
holder did not utilise the
Governments offer to declare
his ill-gotten wealth, he should
pay a higher rate of tax now
and curbs placed on use of that
money, sources added.
The 60 per cent tax and
penalty had been charged on
disclosure of foreign black
money last year. Sources said
the Government is keen to root
out benami deposits, particularly in Jan Dhan accounts.
The Government, they further said, is also contemplating
coming out with a bond in
which the 25 per cent lock-in
money would be parked and can
be withdrawn after four years by
the depositor. Out of the additional taxes on unexplained and
undisclosed deposits, the
Government will create a fund
to build rural infrastructure.
Amid reports of high tax
penalty terrifying people from
putting their cash savings in the
formal banking system, on
Thursday
night
the
Government took a call by
summoning a Cabinet meeting
at a very short notice. The
Government wants all of the
C500 and C1,000 notes to be
deposited and not burnt or
destroyed for the fear of penal
action, the sources said.
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QPQXTbQ^]Tb^U!U^d]SX]1T]VP[
From Page 1
were also recovered from Purbasha
Home at Thakurpukur following a tip
off, said Additional Director General
of Police, CID, Rajesh Kumar.
Behind the veneer of a charitable
school and hospital, the Sujit Dutta
Memorial Trust ran a baby-trafficking
racket.
The traffickers and the nursing
home authorities in connivance with
some doctors sold the little ones. They
might have sold out at least 50 babies
till now, the ADG said.
Those babies who died in transit or
mishandling were buried in the com-

pound of the NGO. Those who survived were wrapped in cotton and
packed inside small cardboard boxes
before being shipped out to other
shelters like the one at Thakurupukur,
officers said.
Giving the modus operandi, officers
said the traffickers got the newborn
babies from unmarried girls who either
gave them up or sold them. They also
stole them from gullible mothers who
were falsely informed that they had
given birth to a stillborn child.
One of the babies recovered from
Purbasha Home was suffering from
thallassimia, another was spastic while

F^d[SeTV^c

From Page 1
admission of adjournment
motion to debate demonetisation, was now demanding an
apology from the Prime
Minister.
Modis sharp comments
against those criticising
demonetisation set the ball
rolling for strong political reactions in the two Houses of
Parliament.
Some people are criticising the move saying the
Government did not make
ample preparations. I think
that is not the issue that the
Government did not make
ample preparations. I think
the pain of such people is that
the Government did not give a
chance to make any preparations, he said at a book launch,
drawing strong reactions from
Opposition leaders who are rallying Monday to attack the ruling dispensation.

Modi said the country is

fighting a big battle against corruption and black money and
the ordinary citizen is the soldier in this fight.
Modi pointed out that
Indias name features prominently in global corruption
surveys and that was not something to be proud of. He
affirmed that some decisions
had to be taken in the interest
of the nation.
Modi said that civic bodies
had benefited by the demonetisation move. I got details
about municipal corporations
in some cities. Earlier they
used to get between Rs 3,000 to
Rs 3,500 crore as tax, but after
November 8 they have collected Rs 13,000 crore as tax. This
money will be used for development like construction of
roads and electricity supply, he
said.
Pandemonium began soon

a third one was dehydrated, sources

said. They are currently admitted to
Thakurpukur ESI Hospital.
Meanwhile, the CID also recovered
a huge amount of currency notes in the
form of US and Hong Kong dollars
from Partho Chatterjee the owner of Sri
Krishna Nursing Home in College
Street in North 24 Parganas.
He was arrested along with a doctor and some midwives a couple of days
ago on charges of being a key cog in the
racket. The officials did not rule out
international links of the racketeers.
Foreign currencies do point to a bigger international racket. However, we

after the Upper House met for

the day, with BSP chief
Mayawati raising objection to
Modis remarks. She said the
PM must either prove that the
Opposition was favouring black
money or apologise. Moreover,
Modi was making these observations outside Parliament and
was yet to make a statement
about demonetization in
Parliament, she said.
Leader of Opposition
Ghulam Nabi Azad said Modis
remarks were an insult of the
Opposition be it the Rajya
Sabha and Lok Sabha besides
MLAs of Vidhan Sabhas across
the country.
Justifying the Oppositions
demand for an apology, Azad
said when the discussion on
demonetisation resumed on
Thursday he had welcomed
Modi in the House and clarified that the entire Opposition
was against black money.
Therefore, Modis remarks
about the Opposition were
unjustified.

will investigate where the dollars came

from before coming to any conclusion,
an official said.
Purbasha Home seemed to be one
of those hideouts where the stolen
babies were temporarily parked till they
found customers. The prime accused
had fled, abandoning the infants at the
old age home, sources said.
State Womens and Child Welfare
Minister Shashi Panja on Friday said her
department was keeping a close eye on
the investigations and would take all
necessary steps. Meanwhile, a PIL had
been filed in the Calcutta High Court
seeking a CBI enquiry into the case.

Reiterating
the
Oppositions insistence on
Modis presence in the House,
Azad said when the Prime
Minister came to the Rajya
Sabha on Thursday he had
asked if Modi was there for the
Question Hour or to take part
in the discussion. Leader of the
House and Finance Minister
Arun Jaitley said Modi would
be present throughout the
debate and would also give a
reply, Azad said.
Deputy Chairman PJ
Kurien said Jaitley had clarified
that Modi will come and intervene in the debate. But Azad
disagreed, saying while they
were promised that Modi
would be in the House till the
debate was over, he did not
return after lunch hour on
Thursday. Azad also charged
the Government with derailing
the ongoing debate in the
House over demonetisation.
Sharad Yadav of the JD(U)
said Modis remarks were a
serious allegation while Ram

Gopal Yadav of the SP said the

Prime Ministers observations
were shameful.
The scene in the Lok Sabha
was no different, with the
Opposition parties vociferously protesting against the Prime
Ministers comments and
demanding an apology from
him.
Leader of Congress in the
House Mallikarjun Kharge
referred to Modis remarks and
said, The issue now is not our
demand for an adjournment
motion but the remarks of the
Prime Minister... He said the
Opposition supports black
money, Kharge said as members from various Opposition
parties rushed to the Well
demanding that the PM make
a statement in the Lok Sabha.
The Opposition members
were heard shouting Pradhan
Mantri
sadan
mein
aao...Himmat hai toh sadan
mein bolo, (PM, come to the
House. If you have the courage,
speak in the House).

to the banks for currency management and deployed choppers to bring currencies from
RBI Patna to Ranchi,
Jamshedpur, Bokaro and
Deoghar on November 11-12.
C1000 crores were transported
by train from Patna on
November 13, he added.
In all, the RBI has pumped
in around C4000 crores new
currencies to tide over the note
ban difficulties. The deposits
and exchange of the old C1000
and C500 notes in the banks
have been to the tune of around
C8,000 core so far.
Besides, Chief Minister
Raghubar Das also made an
appeal to voluntary organisations and religious bodies to
deposit their savings in small
denomination notes in banks
for the convenience of public,
he added.
Khare said that the State
Government was aware of the
difficulties being faced by the
rural population.

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I, Hanif S/o Mohammad

Safi R/o H.No. 103, Azad
Apartment, Plot No.111, I.P.
Extension, Patpar Ganj,
Delhi-91 have changed my
name to Mohammad Hanif
for all purposes.
PD ( 7435 )A
My
Client
Chandrika
Prasad S/o Sh. Ram Vishwas
Prasad
R/o
17/86,
Kalyanpuri,
Delhi
has
severed his relation and
debarred his son Rahul
from all his moveableimmoveable properties due
to his misbehavior and
misconduct. My Client shall
not be responsible for his
any act (s)/deed(s).
(Rakesh Kumar)
Advocate

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uestioning Prime Minister

Narendra Modis absence in
the ongoing Winter Session of
Parliament and speaking outside,
Congress vice-president Rahul
Gandhi on Friday dared him to participate in the debate on demonetisation as his party accused that
leakage of information on demonetisation had helped BJP leaders buy
property by converting their black
money in time.
The Congress also released a list
of some BJP leaders who allegedly
bought eight land parcels worth
C3.41 crore in Bihar in the run up to
the November 8 demonetisation
announcement.
Rahul tod the mediapersons on
Parliament premises that the Prime
Minister had laughed at the misery of people post demonetisation
(during his visit to Japan earlier this
month) and become emotional while
speaking on the issue.
Lets see what emotions appear
on his face when he comes to the Lok
Sabha, Gandhi said.
The main issue is that the Prime

Minister doesnt come to the Lok

Sabha for discussion. The moment,
he comes to the Lok Sabha, doodh ka
doodh, paani ka paani ho jayega
(everything will be clear). The Prime
Minister doesnt want to sit in the Lok
Sabha. We have been stopped from
speaking in the Lok Sabha. What are
you scared of? Rahul asked.

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In a swipe at the Prime Minister,

the Congress leader said the Prime
Minister can address pop concerts
but doesnt attend discussion on
demonetisation in House.
Rahul claimed that the moment
discussion takes place in the Lok
Sabha in the presence of Modi, it will
become clear who the PM had
allegedly told about in advance
about the November 8 move.
Gandhi maintained that the BJP
leaders were aware of the move.

<P]caXTbc^Yd\_X]c^
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he Lok Sabha on Friday

morning witnessed comT
motion after a man sitting in
the visitors gallery tried to
jump over the railings into the
House chamber. Security personnel promptly overpowered
him before whisking him away.
He was later identified as
Rakesh Singh Baghel from
Shivpuri in Madhya Pradesh.
The unprecedented incident happened soon after the
proceedings were adjourned at
1120 hours amid vociferous
protests by the Opposition
over the demonetisation issue.
As members started leaving
after the House was adjourned,
an Opposition member, who
had earlier trooped into the
Well, pointed out that security personnel in the visitors
gallery were grappling with a
person whose right foot was
hanging from the wooden railings, above Treasury benches.
Baghel was caught and lifted up by about 4-5 alert personnel. It then transpired that

he had tried to jump into the

Lok Sabha chamber. He was
caught and then bundled out.
Other visitors were then guided out of the gallery, which is
right opposite the Press enclosure. Had he succeeded in his
attempt, he would have landed
on the Treasury benches.
Delhi Police personnel in
plain clothes are usually seated in the front rows of the
Visitors Gallery to prevent
such incidents. Senior ministers
including Arun Jaitley and
leaders like Mulayam Singh
Yadav were in the House when
the incident took place, after
Speaker left seat announcing
adjournment upto 12noon.
Later when the House
reassembled at noon, Speaker
Sumitra Mahajan identified
the man, while mentioning
the incident.
He may be released with
a warning after enquiry,
Mahajan said and hoped that
the House agreed with it. In
response, Parliamentary Affairs
Minister Ananth Kumar said
they are in agreement.

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?C8Q =4F34;78

he Supreme Court on
Friday fixed on December
T
2 the hearing on a batch of
petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the decision to demonetise currency
notes of C1,000 and C500 and
the inconvenience faced by
the common man due to it.
A B ench comprising
Chief Justice TS Thakur and
Justice DY Chandrachud said,
We will examine both
aspects (inconvenience and
constitutional validity) of the
matter. Come on Friday at
2 pm.
The bench, meanwhile,
asked Attorney General
Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for
the Centre, to file additional
affidavit, if any, explaining the
schemes and steps taken to
ease the situation that has
arisen due to demonetisation.
Senior advocate Kapil
Sibal, appearing for one of the
petitioners who has challenged the Centres November
8 decision on demonetisation,
said the court should start
hearing the matter from
Tuesday itself.
Rohatgi,
however,

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opposed the contention and
said let all the petitioners,
who have approached various
high courts on the issue,
come to the apex court which
would take a call on
December 2 as to whether the
Supreme Court or the Delhi
High C ourt would hear
them all.
C entre has recently
moved the apex court seeking
transfer of all the petitions
pending in various high
courts to either the Supreme
Court or one of the high
courts.
On Thursday, Centre had
filed an affidavit in the apex
court on demonetisation and
had said that the bold move
would eradicate black money
and slush funds operating
since Independence which
cast a parallel economy hitting the p oor and the
middle class.

Meanwhile, Congress spokesperson Anand Sharma also demanded

that Prime Minister has to come (to
the House). He has to explain.
Accountability has to be fixed... For the
chaos and the financial anarchy. The
Prime Minister is also answerable and
so is the RBI Governor, Sharma said.
Stressing that the demonetisation
move is an undeclared financial
emergency, Sharma said the
Government needs to explain under
which law it has put a curb on the

withdrawal of peoples own hard

earned money.
Launching a fresh attack on
Modi, Congress party said leakage of
demonetisation decision had helped
BJP leaders buy property by converting their black money through
various means a few months before
it was announced.
Leader of Congress in Lok
Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge accused
the Prime Minister of selective
leakage of demonetisation move to
his own partymen, who converted
their black money through property and other avenues. This shows
who are the real supporters of black
money, he told reporters outside
Parliament House. Kharge said
democracy functions through discussion and asked the Prime
Minister to participate in the debate
in Parliament on the issue if he
believed in democratic values.
CPI termed as provocative
Modis remarks that those who didnt get time to make preparations
were pained by demonetisation and
said he is a Prime Minister and not
just RSS pracharak to have spoken
like that. His statement was provocative, CPI national secretary D Raja
said. Raja also reiterated the
Oppositions demand the Prime
Minister take part in debate over
demonetisation inside Parliament.

WRSXVKGLJLWDOSD\PHQWV
?=BQ =4F34;78

n a bid to push digital payments

instead of the traditional money
Itransaction
through currency notes
on both Government and public
platforms, the NITI Aayog has set
up a committee of officers to work
out a roadmap in this regard. While
terming it a transformative attempt
to weed out black money and corruption from public life, Aayog said
the committee will work out ways
to enable 100 per cent conversion
of Government-citizen transactions
to the digital platform.
The committee, headed by NITI
Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant, has been
tasked to identify and operationalize at the earliest, user-friendly digital payment options in all sectors of
the economy. This is integral part
of the Governments strategy to
transform India into a cashless
economy, NITI Aayog said here on
Friday. In a statement in this regard,
Aayog added that the attempt is to
establish and monitor an implementation framework with strict
timelines to ensure that nearly 80 per
cent of the transaction in India
moves to the digital-only platform.

C^T]PQ[T 
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The Government during its
demonetisation drive has been
constantly advocating for shifting
towards digital payments for transparency and checking corruption.
This appears to be the first step in
that direction even though apprehension over safety of digital payments and online transactions
remain prime concerns for users.
Members of the committee of
officers include secretaries from
Department of Financial Services
(Ministry of Finance), Ministry of
Electronics and Information
Technology, Department of
Industrial Policy and Promotion,
Department of Investment and
Public Asset Management,
Ministry of Rural Development,
and Chairman, National Highways
Authority of India, MD & CEO,
National Payments Corporation of
India, Adviser, NITI Aayog.
The job of this committee is to
identify various digital payment sys-

tems appropriate for different sectors and coordinate efforts to make

them accessible and user-friendly.
The committee will also identify and
access infrastructural and bottlenecks affecting the access and utility of digital payment options.
The committee was asked to
regularly interact with all Central
ministries, regulators, State
Governments, district administrations, local bodies, trade and
industry associations to promote
rapid adoption of digital payment
systems. The committee will also
try to work out costs involved in
various digital payments options
and oversee implementation of
measures to make such transaction
between Government and citizens
cheaper than cash transaction.
The committee will also implement an action plan on advocacy,
awareness and handholding efforts
among public, micro enterprises
and other stakeholders and organise training, capacity building of various
States/UTs,
Ministries/Departments of the
Government of India, representatives
of States/UTs, trade and industry
bodies as well as other stakeholders.

]PcX^]%

=4F34;78kB0CDA30H k=>E4<14A!%! %

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FRSVNLOOHGKXUWLQ.XOJDPWHUURUDWWDFN
:7DAB7443F0=8Q BA8=060A

wo policemen, a soldier
T
and two militants were
killed in separate incidents of
violence in Kashmir Valley on
Friday even as police busted a
Lashkar-e-Tayyeba module
involved in looting a bank in
Budgam district.
Official sources said that
two militants and a soldier were
killed during a fierce gunfight
in Manzpora village of north
Kashmirs Bandipora district in
the wee hours of Friday. They
said that soldiers of 13
Rashtriya Rifles and cops from
the counterinsurgency wing of
the State had cordoned off the
village late on Thursday
evening following a specific
report that militants were hiding in a residential house.
At the crack of dawn, the
security forces began the flush
out operation. There was a heavy
exchange of fire that resulted into
grievous injuries to a soldier who
later succumbed to his injuries,
a police officer said.
In the retaliatory action,
two militants were killed.
Hundreds of people hit the
streets soon after the encounter
demanding the bodies of the
slain militants, suspected to be
non-locals or foreign nationals,

for last rites. However, police

refused to hand over the bodies. A police officer said that the
bodies were later sent to Uri in
Baramulla district for burial.
In another incident, suspected militants targeted a
police party in south Kashmirs
Kulgam district, killing two
cops on the spot and critically
injuring another.
Police sources said three
personnel of Indian Reserve
Police were targeted by militants
outside the district police lines
Kulgam in south Kashmir,
around 90 kilometers from here.
The car-borne militants
fired automatic weapons, first
targeting the police party and
then in air to scare away people
in order to flee from the area.
The slain cops have been
identified as head constable

OFFICE OF THE DIGP, GROUP CENTRE, CRPF,

SONEPAT, HARYANA.
Post Office-Bahalgarh, Distt.-Sonepat, (Haryana),
Pin -131021 Tel/Fax: 0130-2380102,
E-mail: digpgcstp@gmail.com/mktokas.crpf@nic.|n
Web site: - www.crpf.gov.in

OPEN TENDER ENQUIRY FOR PROCUREMENT

OF HAVERSACK SYNTHETIC
(DISRUPTIVE PATTERN)
Tender Enquiry NO. L.VII-2/2016-17-Q-GC-SPT(Haversack)
Dy. Inspector General of Police, Group Centre, CRPF,
Sonepat, Haryana for and on the behalf of the President Of India
invites online Tender under Two Bid System (Technical &
Commercial Bids) on the prescribed from for purchasing following store as per details given below: TENDER NO. : L.VII-C 2/2016- 17-Q-GC- SPT(Haversack),
DESCRIPTION OF STORES: Haversack Synthetic (Disruptive
Pattern), QTY: 2028 Nos., SPECIFICATION: Appendix - A, EMD
(RS): Rs. 15,000/- only, COST OF TENDER DOCUMENT (Nonrefundable (In Rupees): Rs-100/- only, DATE OF RECEIPT &
OPENING OF TENDER: (a) Time and date of receipt: 1100 Hrs.
on 03/01/2017, (b) Time and date of opening: 1200 Hrs. on
03/01/2017.
2. Bids will be accepted only online at e-procurement website
http://eprocure.gov.in/eprocure/app (CPPP). (Documents
to be submitted in original as per clause).
3. All details, including specifications, terms are available on eprocurement website http://eprocure.gov.in/eprocure/app
(CPPP), same may be downloading by the bidders for any
change, visit website regularly.
4. Tender can also be seen at CRPF website at www.crpf.gov.in
as well as http://eprocure.gov.in/eprocure/app (CPPP) _ for
any change in tender Enquiry/Specification etc. tenderers are
requested to visit the CRPF/CPPP website regularly.
5. In case of any problem, please contact on telephone number- 0130-2280102.
Sd/-19/11/2016
DIGP, GC, CRPF, SONEPAT, HARYANA.
davp 19111/11/0515/1617

OFFICE OF THE DIGP, GROUP CENTRE,

CRPF, SONEPAT, HARYANA.
Post Office- Bahalgarh, Distt-Sonepat, (Haryana), Pin-131021

Tel/Fax: 0130-2380102. E-mail: digpgcspt@gmail.com/mktokas, crpf@nic.in

website: www.crpf.gov.in

OPEN TENDER ENQUIRY FOR PROCUREMENT

OF CLOTH CELLULAR KHAKI (WIDTH-84 CMS.)
Tender Enquiry No. LVII-2/2016-17-Q-GC-SPT(CCK)

Dy. Inspector General of Police, Group Centre, CRPF,

Sonepat, Haryana for and on the behalf of the President
of India invites online Tender under Two Bid System
(Technical & Commercial Bids) on the prescribed from for
purchasing following store as per details given below: TENDER NO.: LVII-2/2016-17-Q-GC-SPT (CCK)
DESCRIPTION OF STORE:- Cloth Cellular Khaki (Width84 CMS), Qty.:- 9047 Mtrs, SPECIFICATION: As per
Appendix `A EMD (RS): Rs. 18,000/- only COST OF TENDER DOCUMENT (Non refundable (in Rupees): Rs.
100/- only DATE OF RECEIPT & OPENING OF TENDER:
a) Time and date of receipt 11.30 Hrs. on 04/01/2017.
b) Time and date of opening: 12.30 Hrs. on 04/01/2017
2. Bids will be accepted only online at e-procurement website: http://eprocure.gov.in/eprocure/app (CPPP) (documents to be submitted in original as per clouse).
3. All details including spefications, terms are available
on e-procurement website: http://eprocure.gov.in/eprocure/app (CPPP) same may be downloading by the
bidders for any change, visit website regularly.
4. Tender can also be seen at CRPF website at
www.crpf.gov.in as well as http://eprocure.gov.in/eprocure/app (CPPP) for any change in tender Enquiry
/Specification etc. tenderers are requested to visit the
CRPF /CPPP website regularly.
5. In case of any problem, please contact on telephone
number -0130-2280102.
Sd/-19/11/2016
DIGP GROUP CENTRE CRPF,
davp 19111/11/0517/1617
SONEPAT, HARYANA

Tanveer Ahmad and Constable

Jalaluddin Khandey. The
wounded cop Shamsuddin Bhat
of Reasi district was shifted to a
Srinagar hospital for treatment.
A police official said that the
militants later abandoned the
vehicle around a kilometre from
the attack site. The vehicle has
been seized for investigations.
Meanwhile, police said that
they busted a module of the
over-ground workers of
Lashkar-e-Tayyeba outfit by
arresting five persons who were
involved in the bank robbery at
Maloora Chrar-i-Sharief in central district Budgam On
November 21. The arrested
workers have revealed to the
police that the conspiracy to loot
the bank branch was hatched by
Arif Dar alias Au Haibatullah,
an active local LeT militant.

C=A067D=0C70Q <D<108

he Navi Mumbai police

arrested a baby caretaker
T
and owner of a creche at
Kharghar after a video footage
showed that a 10monthold
girl was beaten up and kicked
by the caretaker in the school
on Thursday.
Identifying the arrested
caretaker as Afsana Shaikh
and owner of Purva Play
School and Creche Priyanka
Nikam (34), a day care centre
for children at Kharghar in
Navi Mumbai, the police said
on Friday that the incident
came to light, after the CCTV
footage of the creche was
analysed by the police and the
infants parents.

After they registered an

FIR against Afsana and
Priyanka, the police produced
the two before a Panvel court
on Thursday afternoon. While
Afsana was remanded in judicial custody till 14 days,
Priyanka was released on bail
against a cash surety.
Afsana and Priyanka have
been charged under under
Sections 325 (voluntarily causing grevious hurt) and 34 (Acts
done by several persons) of the
IPC and section 23 of Child
Protection of Children Act 2000.
Having resumed work after
her maternity leave, mother
Ruchita Sinha, who works as a
Human Resources Deputy
manager in a private firm at
Chembur, had dropped her

EA90H0A09Q :>278

he Kerala Police on Friday

intensified the search for the
T
Maoists who could have

:D<0A274;;0??0=Q
274==08

Hospitals in Chennai since

September 22 has fully recovered and is normal, according
to Dr Pratap C Reddy, chairman of the hospital.

0_a^cTbcTacWa^fbbc^]TbSdaX]VPST\^]bcaPcX^]PUcTa5aXSPh_aPhTab]TPacWT
\PX]\^b`dT9P\XP<PbYXSX]BaX]PVPa^]5aXSPh
0?
?8>=44A=4FBB4AE824Q
BA8=060A

he normal life continued to

remain affected in Kashmir
T
valley due to separatist spon-

The Chief Minister is

speaking for a few minutes
everyday using a speaking aid.
Usually, we have to train people
who have undergone tracheostomy to speak with the
speaking aid. In the case of the
Chief Minister, it is only a temporary arrangement and we are
not going to train her, Dr
Reddy told journalists on Friday..
Dr Reddy, who headed the
team of doctors who treated
Jayalalithaa said she was
breathing on her own. Ninety
per cent of the time, she
breathes on her own. It is only
for some ten percent she needs
help, he said.

not willing to disclose as to what

had contributed to the injuries
suffered by the child, Ritishas
parents lodged a complaint
with the Khargar police station.
A subsequent examination
of the CCTV footage of the
school showed that the caretaker or made Afsana assaulting the child and even banging
her on the floor.
Meanwhile, Ritisha is

undergoing treatment for the

head injuries. Taking serious
cognizance of the incident,
Maharashtras Women and
Child Development Minister
Pankaja Munde said that the
State Government was making
it mandatory for play schools
to install CCTVs on their
premises, to ensure against
recurrence of Kharghar-like
incidents.

BT_PaPcXbcb_^]b^aTS ?>;8242><1:4A0;0
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&3,SURWHVWVHQFRXQWHUNLOOLQJV
]^a\P[[XUTX]EP[[Th

90H0C0;:8=6
=>FF8;;14
7><4B>>=)
3>2C>A
Jayalalithaa, Chief Minister of
Tamil Nadu, who is underJgoing
treatment at Apollo

child Ritisha at Pur va

Playschool and Creche on
November 21. The concerned
mother kept calling the nursery every half an hour to ascertain if her baby was okay.
When she went pick up her
child in the evening, Ruchita
found to her horror that her
daughter was in a semi-conscious condition with a blood
clot on the head. Upon inquiries,
Priyanka told her and husband
that the child had hurt herself.
However, upon a medical
examination conducted at a
hospital in Navi Mumbai, it
was found that child Ritisha had
a skull fracture and a possible
internal brain injury and her
condition was somewhat critical.
With the school authorities

sored shutdown as protests

and incidents of stone-pelting
were reported from several
areas. The authorities allowed
performance of congregational Friday prayers in historic
Jamia Masjid in old Srinagar
where these prayers were
barred since the middle of
July when massive public
protests erupted in Kashmir
following the killing of Hizbul
Mujahideen leader Burhan
Wani.
Reports of protests poured
in from Palhalan in north
Kashmirs Pattan area while
protests erupted in Rajouri
kadal area of old Srinagar after
the Friday prayers.
The overall situation
remained peaceful and under
control with no major untoward incident reported from
any part of the Valley.
Officials said there were no

curbs on the movement of people anywhere in the Valley.

However, the restrictions
under Section 144 CrPc continued to remain in force on
the assembly of people with
adequate deployment of police
and security personnel in all
sensitive areas and along roadsides to maintain law and
order.
Authorities allowed congregational prayers after 19
consecutive weeks at Kashmirs
622-year old Jamia Masjid in
old city. The last Friday prayer
was held at the mosque on July
8, hours before Burhan Wani
was killed by security forces in
south Kashmirs Kulgam area.
The Jamia masjid is located in
densely populated old Srinagar,
which is highly volatile and
pro-Pakistan sentiment runs
deep in the population. Senior
separatist leader and head
priest Mirwaiz Umar Farooq,
who delivers weekly sermon in
the mosque, was not allowed to
speak to the worshipers. He
was kept under house arrest at
his Nigeen mansion.

escaped Thursdays encounter

with Thunderbolt commandos
in the forest in Nilambur in
Malappuram district in which
two extremists were killed even
as the CPI, rights groups and
several influential personalities protested the States Maoist
hunt and allegations came up
to the effect that the encounter
might have been fake.
Sources in the police said
that the combing operations
were not limited to the jungles
under the Karulayi Forest
Range in Nilambur where the
gunfight between the Maoists
and the commandos had
reportedly taken place at noon
Thursday but a large number of
personnel were engaged in the
efforts in the areas contiguous
to the Nilambur forests in
Palakkad, Kozhikode and
Wayanad districts.
Those killed in the
encounter, according to
sources, were Kapu Devaraj, a

central committee member of

the CPI(Maoist) and chief
coordinator of the outfits
Kerala operations, and a
woman activist, Ajitha alias
Kaveri. Both were said to be
natives of Andhra Pradesh.
Reports also said that a third
Maoist, probably a top functionary from Kerala, was killed
in the gunfight or had escaped
with serious injuries.
Marxist Chief Minister
Pinarayi Vijayan confirmed
the encounter but claimed that
he was not aware of the details.
This is a region where some
attacks had taken place against
the police in the recent past.
The (Maoist) problem has been
prevailing in that area for quite
some time. This had grown
into the situation of an
encounter, the Chief Minister
said in Thrissur.
Visuals of the bodies of the
two Maoists killed in the
encounter came out on
Thursday evening. Both of
them were wearing the standard Maoist uniform, as per the
pictures. Sources said that the
police had found four tents

made of plastic sheets in the

middle of the jungle. They
also found explosive materials,
guns, ammunition, mobile
phones, pamphlets and about
50 kilograms of food materials.
According to sources, the
encounter which had lasted for
over 20 minutes had taken
place on Thursday noon at the
Kandamtharisu region at
Poolappotty, several kilometers
inside the jungle from the
Padukka Forest Station in the
Karulayi Forest Range in
Nilambur in Malappuram district. The Maoists had been
reportedly frequenting the
region since 2013 and at least
two incidents of the extremists
firing at the police had taken
place in the past few months.
The polices reluctance to
share any clear information on
the encounter with the Press,
their refusal to take mediamen
to the spot of encounter as they
had promised earlier and the
absence of any gun or other
weapon near the bodies of the
two Maoists sparked off
rumours that the polices version of the incident need not be
true and that the extremists
might not have been killed in
an actual encounter.
B\^ZTP]SU[P\TbaXbTUa^\
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n yet another incident of

malfunctioning of Khap
Panchayat, a 21-year-old youth
forced to commit suicide in
tribal dominated Khajuria village situated in central Gujarat
after Panchayat ordered the
victims family a fine of C1.70
lakh for falling in love with a
girl from the same village.
21-year-old tribal youth
Santosh Bhulabhai Rathava, a
resident of Khajuria village
near Chhota Udepur in central
Gujarat fell in love with a girl
belonging to the same village.
However, the girls family was
against their affair and as a

result of it the couple decided

to flee from the village and
begun a new life.
As the couple eloped from
the village the girls relatives
filed a complaint against the
boy and his family with Khap
Panchayat for abducting the

an emergency meeting to solve

the dispute between the two
families. Instead of coming
on to some logical conclusion,
surprisingly the Panchayat
ordered Rathavas family to
pay hefty fine worth C1.70
lakh for their sons criminal

?0HB?A8245>A;>E4
girl. Acting on the complaint,
the members of the Panchayat
with the help of the girls family members somehow managed to find whereabouts of the
couple and brought them back
to village.
Later on the members of
the Khap Panchayat called on

act of falling in love with a girl

belonging to the same village.
As it was not enough, the
members of Panchayat also
decided to lock Santosh in
Gram Panchayats office till his
family deposit the amount.
Knowing the fact that his family wouldnt be able to pay the

hefty amount, Santosh decided to end his life and strangulate himself with internet cable
inside the office.
Information about death of
the tribal youth spread in the
areas like wildfire and as result
of it finally the local police too
came to know about the incident. According to investigation officer VM Chauhan the
police was probing in the incident and would file a case
against at least five people. It is
worth mentioning that couple
of months back similar incident of malfunctioning of
Khap Panchayat in Devalia
village of Chhota Udepur
tehsil.

:4BCDAE0BD:8Q 14=60;DAD

ith more than 200 tamed

elephants in Karnataka
W
forest camps the State is making a desperate pitch to other
States to adopt them. With
Karnataka facing increasing
man-animal conflict, it is looking for States with sparse
jumbo populations and is
ready to gift the captive beasts
to them.
There are roughly 200 jumbos housed in the State's four
elephant camps, captured by the
forest department after reports
of rogue behaviour, raiding
crops and killing people.
The State is hoping to get rid
of at least half the jumbos as the
jumbos are facing food and
water shortage.
The State forest department has already decided to
send a dozen elephants to
Uttarakhands Jim Corbett
Tiger Reserve to protect tigers.
The Zoo Authority of India
and Forests and Environment

Ministry have already given

clearance.
According to State Forest
Minister Ramanath Rai the
State was looking for North
Indian States to adopt the
pachyderms.
According to Rai, the
health of the elephants was
crucial since they have to travel a distance of 2,500 km.
Local mahouts will also
accompany the elephants till
they reach their new home. Rai
said the Governments of
Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh
have also shown interest in
adopting captive elephants,
but are yet to initiate a dialogue.
TM Vijaya Bhaskar,
Additional Chief Secretary,
Department of Forests,
Environment and Ecology has
made an appeal to all PCCFs
at a conference held in Delhi
to adopt elephants from
Karnataka. He also said many
States have shown interest in
adopting them.

]PcX^]&

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274==08

day after the AIADMK MPs

submitted a memorandum
A
to Union Finance Minister Arun
Jaitley seeking permission for
cooperative banks in Tamil
Nadu to accept deposits on par
with commercial banks and
also the demonetised currency
notes of C500 and C1,000
denominations, leaders of various farmers unions allege that
the primary agricultural cooperative societies and cooperative
banks in the State are money
laundering centres.
These banks do not function as per the norms prescribed
by the Reserve Bank of India.
The fact is that cooperative
banks in Tamil Nadu are controlled by the AIADMK and

have become defunct, said

Kattumannarkoil Kannan, leader
of Kissan Morcha and secretary
of Cauvery Delta Farmers
Welfare Union. He said the
AIADMK memorandum submitted on Wednesday was too
little and too late an action to save
the Tamil Nadu farmers. Most
of the loans have been disbursed
with by nationalised banks itself.
The AIADMK has said that
farmers are struggling to purchase seeds. The seeds have
been purchased in September
itself, he pointed out.
Arpathi Kalynam, secretary, Farmers Association of
Thanjavur, Nagapattinam and
Thiruvarur said the cooperative
sector in the State has become
a battle field for the the
Dravidian majors as the interests of the farmers are ignored.
Unless these cooperative
banks are run like the nationalised banks as per the regulations and guidelines issued by
the Reserve Bank of India, the

cooperative banks are of no use

to the farmers, said Kalyanam.
According to Kannan, no
agricultural loans are pending
with banks in Tamil Nadu as all
loans have been disbursed before
the commencement of the farming season. He said the crisis
mentioned by the AIADMK in
their memorandum is their personal issue. They have to get the
unaccounted money exchanged
and they are misusing the farming community for the same.
He charged.
RV Giri, president,
Consortium of India Farmers
Associations (CIFA) said the
cooperative department in
Tamil Nadu was in the forefront
to oppose the recommendations made by the Vaidyanathan
Committee, a committee
appointed by the Union
Government to reform the
cooperative sector. It is too late
to ask the union finance ministry for some favours to the
cooperative sector, said Giri.

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n an apparent move to steady its sinking ship

with what the observers called a passive supIport
from the Trinamool Congress the Left
Front on Friday called dawn-to-dusk Bengal
Bandh against the Central Governments demonetisation move.
However, State Chief Minister Mamata
Banerjee who has thus far been the most vociferous voice Prime Minister Narendra Modis
drive against black money through demonetisation however promptly tweeted against the
Lefts bandh call.
Announcing a general strike CPI(M) politburo member and Front chairman Biman Bose
said The BJP Government has taken away the
basic right to live from the people through
demonetisation. There was no other way to make
the common mans voices heard by this oppressive Government so we have been forced to call
a general strike.
The bandh has been supported by 18 Left
parties he said. RSP State secretary Kshiti
Goswami said, we were forced to call the strike
as the common man is being subjected to inhu-

man suffering. We are not against unearthing

black money, but the way it has been implemented is wrong and is causing immense hardships to the common man.
Banks, post offices, ATMs weddings and
other essential services have been kept out of the
bandhs ambit, he maintained.
However, Mamata Banerjee said though her
party was taking the lead on the issue it did not
support the bandh.
We do not support bandh because it only
augments the hardship of the people Banerjee
said adding her party will remain by the peoples
side. She also said that the bandh call was not
discussed in the all-party meeting in Delhi. The
Congress however said it had no problems with
the Lefts call. They are calling a bandh for a justified cause and there is no reason to oppose it.
Notwithstanding her opposition to bandh
call Banerjee attacked Modi in no uncertain
terms saying he is not telling the truth while
justifying his stance for demonetisation.
Launching a scathing attack on the Prime
Minister she said Modi was a bad politician and
administrator. He is not only a bad politician
but also a bad administrator, Banerjee said.

eteran journalist and former consulting editor of

The Times of India (ToI) Dilip
Padgaonkar died at a private
hospital in Pune on Friday
afternoon, following a heart
attack and a multi-organ failure.
Padgaonkar, who had
been admitted to Punes Ruby
Hall Clinic on November 18
following a heart attack, suffered multiple organ failure.
A diabetic, Padgaonkar
had been put on dialysis for
the past few days after both
his kidneys stopped functioning. He suffered one more
severe heart attack in the
early hours of Friday and he
breathed last at 12.30 pm. He
was 72.
One of the long-serving
ser ving editors of ToI,
Padgaonkar was appointed

8]_^[[Q^d]S
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fter a fortnight, nearly 1.25

lakh youngsters in pollA
bound Goa will be able to sign
up for a free mobile calling and
data service, thanks to the
State Government's novel initiative, which allows those
youth between the ages of 1630 years to avail limited free
data and calling at fast speeds.
Chief Minister Laxmikant
Parsekar on Friday told
reporters, after a weekly Cabinet
meeting, that the scheme, the
first of its kind in the country,
was in line with Prime Minister
Narendra Modis vision for
Digital India and was aimed at
connecting youth across the
State, especially in rural areas,
and helping them network and
enhancing their skillsets.
This scheme is in line with
the Digital India initiative of
Government of India and will
cover youth in the age group of
16-30 years. It is exclusively for
the youth. Around 1.25 lakh
youngsters are expected to be
will be covered under the
scheme but, they will have to
apply, Parsekar said.

by the Manmohan Singh

Government in 2010 as one of
the three members of a team
of interlocutors to interact
with all sections of people in
Jammu & Kashmir and suggest ways to bring about peace
in the valley State.
Condoling Padgaonkars
death, Prime Minister
Narendra Modi tweeted, Mr
Dileep Padgaonkar was a
leading public thinker whose
contribution to journalism
will always be remembered.
Pained by his demise. RIP.
Born on May 1, 1944,
Padgaonkar graduated in
political science from
Fergusson College, Pune,
obtained a diploma in direction and script-writing from
the Institute of High
Cinematographic Studies in
France and received a doctoral degree in social sci-

38;8??0360>=:0A
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C=A067D=0C70Q <D<108

ences from the University of

Paris(Sorbonne).
After a ten-year-stint with
ToI, Padgaonkar joined
UNESCO as its Asia-Pacific
Information Officer in

he second edition of the

six-day Taj Balloon Festival
T
started on a tragic note, when

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laiming that the ban on his

organisation Islamic
C
Research Foundation (IRF) was
an attack on Muslims, peace,
democracy and justice, a rattled
Islamic preacher Zakir Naik
said on Friday that the decision
to ban was timed with demonetisation fiasco to distract
media attention and to take
advantage of lack of resistance
from the cash-strapped people.
In what he called his second letter to India circulated
in the social media, Naik
claimed that the IRF and he
were set up up for a ban
Before investigations were
done, even before reports submitted, the ban was already

decided. IRF was to be banned.

Whether it was owing to my
religion or some other reason,
does not matter, Naik said.
Early this month, the
Union government banned the
IRF and declared it as a terrorist
organisation under the
Unlawful Activities Prevention
Act (UAPA) for five years.
Describing that the ban on
IRF as flawless, Naik said,
From the Governments point of
view, the timing itself could not
have been better. The decision to
ban IRF was taken in the middle
of the demonetisation fiasco, as
the country reeled under the selfimposed cash crunch. I wont be
surprised if this ban was meant
to distract media from what was
going on in the country.

three tourists including a pilot

suffered injuries during an
emergency landing on Friday
morning.
The balloon developed
some technical snag after
which the pilot made an emergency landing at Kuankhera
area. In the process, the pilot
and two tourists suffered minor

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he upcoming Nalanda
University at Rajgir, 110
T
km from Patna, is now totally rudderless. Days after the
removal
of
founder
Chancellor Amartya Sen and
two other members of the
governing
board,
its
Chancellor George Yeo has
also resigned alleging
Government intervention in
the affairs of the autonomous
institution being raised on
international standards.
Chief Minister Nitish
Kumar, who played a key role
in the revival of the worlds
ancient academic institutions,
now preserved as ruins of
Nalanda, on Friday expressed
serious concern and pain over
the turn of events in Nalanda

University and particularly

the resignation of Yeo, a former Foreign Minister of
Singapore.
The turn of events has
created an atmosphere of
uncertainty leading to speculations which way this
University is going. If all the
intellectuals associated with it
since inception will go away
then the basic concept of Idea
of Nalanda will be badly hit,
said Nitish while leaving for
Rajgir to attend a cultural
event there.
The CM said the work on
revival of Nalanda had been
started at the initiative of
Bihar Government and in the
interest of its historical and
global importance. He praised
the role of Amartya Sen and
Yeo in the efforts.

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Communications Associates
(APCA), a multimedia organisation active in news and
current affairs on TV and in
print journalism. He founded
Biblio: A Review Of Books
and continued to be its editor
till his death.
A crusader against communalism, Padgaonkar spoke
and wrote passionately, eloquently against communalism, Hindu nationalism and
terrorism among other
tyhings. His views on these
issues reflected in his books
like When Bombay burned, a
book he edited on the 199293 Mumbai riots and numerous essays and articles.
A film aficionado,
Padgaonkar wrote a book on
Italian cinema maestro
Roberto Rossellinis eventful
sojourn in India titled Under
her Spell (2008).

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ontinuing his attack on

Prime Minister Narendra
C
Modi for his move to demonetise high value notes, Chief
Minister Akhilesh Yadav said
that 90 per cent of the population were affected by this antipeople move.
"The poor are the most
affected by the Centre's decision. They are standing in
queues for hours and returning
home empty handed. This is
increasing their anger against
the Government. These angry
people will teach BJP and its
allies a lesson in the coming UP
elections, Yadav said in
Lucknow on Friday.
Launching the double fortified salt for the poor coined
Samajwadi Namak (Salt) in

Lucknow, Yadav claimed that in

UP the poor have been given
free entry into CM's residence
but there is another
Government which is going
against the people.
"The farmers, poor and
other people are facing problems due to demonetisation,
but the Union Government is
not concerned about it. They
are now realising that it has
made a wrong move and therefore are changing rules almost
everyday now, he said.
Yadav said that in the last
four and a half years, the
Samajwadi Party Government
has launched many schemes
but these were launched after
full preparations. "Has anyone
heard about corruption in
Samajwadi Pension Scheme or
distribution of laptops. This is
because he had made an elaborate plan beforehand," he said.
However, the CM also
expressed concerns over implementation of the ambitious
Samajwadi Pension Scheme
which provides C500 a month
to a poor family.

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Bangkok. Two years later he

was promoted as Deputy
Director of Unescos Office of
Public Information at its
headquarters in Paris. He
stayed with UNESCO till
1986.
Having returned to ToI,
Padgaonkar was appointed
its editor in 1988, a position
he held the post for the next
six years.
As an editor of ToI,
Padgaonkar created a stir in
the media and political circles
in the country, by claiming
that he held the second most
important job in the country
after the Prime Minister. He
held senior positions in the
paper at various junctures
until 2005.
He was also Editor of the
Sharjah-based daily The Gulf
Today. In 1994 he became
Chairman of the Asia-Pacific

injuries as the balloon landed

with a bang. The police which
rushed o the spot is probing the
reason behind the mishap.
The Agra Balloon Festival
started with a total of 16 hot air
balloons from 12 countries
like the US, UK, Spain,
Germany, UAE and others participating on Friday morning.
The fest will include both free
and tethered flights.
Officials of the Sky Waltz,
who were organising the flights,
said that this year the festival

has been organised at a larger

scale and the number of days
has been doubled to six. The
visibility is also better this time
around, so tourists will have a
better view of the Taj. Last year,
visibility was an issue due to
heavy smog.
This year, there would be
an option of commercial flights
and that would depend on
demand and availability of
seats in balloons. The capacity of each balloon ranges from
1 to 8 persons.

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arely hours before his marriage, a Sub-Inspector in

B
Border Security Force (BSF)
was shot dead by his step brother in Kotwali City police station
area of Barabanki on Friday.
SP Barabanki, Raju Babu
Singh said that the accused was
against the BSF official's marriage with his sister-in-law. Two
persons have been arrested in
this regard and efforts are on to
nab the prime accused who is
absconded after the crime.
As per reports, Avinash
Rastogi (24) of Lakhpedabagh
hamlet of Kotwali area was
serving in Jammu as a SubInspector with the BSF. He
came to his native town for his
marriage which was to take
place on Friday evening.
On Friday morning as
Avinash was going with Vikas
on a motorcycle to make some
arrangements, Vikas stopped
the vehicle near Ghantaghar
crossing and was later joined by
two associates. Before Avinash

could suspect foul play, the

accused whipped out license
pistol and opened fire critically injuring him. Some locals
rushed to the spot hearing the
gunshots and informed the
family of Avinash.
The victim was taken to
District Hospital from where he
was referred to Trauma Centre
at KGMU, Lucknow but the doctors pronounced his dead soon
after arrival on Friday afternoon. A case was registered and
the body was sent for autopsy.
Meanwhile, in a similarcase in Baghpat, a CRPF constable posted in Arunachal
Pradesh was shot dead under
mysterious circumstances on
Thursday night.

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0]8]SXP?PZXbcP]fPaXbPcTaaXQ[TcWX]V=Tf3T[WX\dbcS^XcbQTbcc^Pe^XSXcQdcfWPcXUTUU^acbUPX[.FT
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s the skirmishes with
Pakistani troops
along the Line of
Control in Kashmir
and the International
Border in Jammu gets more frequent and intense, the possibility of the situation escalating into
a conventional war between
India and Pakistan can hardly be
ruled out. Of course, a war is a
terrible thing and India should
do everything it can to avoid one.
But what happens if Indias best
efforts to do that fail? The answer
is simple: It should be ready with
a comprehensive geo-strategic
plan, encompassing both diplomatic and military operations
and worked out in detail, to win.
Diplomacy is as important as
military action because the gains
of the latter can be lost on diplomatic table. This happened to us
in the Tashkent agreement of
January 1966 after the 1965 war
with Pakistan, when we gave
back to the latter the Haji Pir Pass
which we had won at great cost.
It again happened in the Shimla
agreement of July 1972, when we
returned the over 90,000
Pakistani prisoners of war we held
without extracting a Kashmir
settlement from Islamabad.
One part of our diplomatic
planning would be to have a clear
idea of what we would hope to
get at the end of the war and
what is the minimum that we
can accept, and how we should
navigate our actions to secure the
best we can between these two
extremities. Having done this, we
should have a clear idea of what
we can expect from which country, identifying those that will
support us to the hilt and to the
last, those that will confine
themselves to providing verbal
and diplomatic support, those
that will speak from all sides of
their mouths, and those that can
be expected to be outright hostile. The Ministry of External
Affairs should have a good idea
as to which country belongs to
which category.
What it must now do is to
formulate a course of action to
mobilise each of them to perform a task which it can be reasonably expected to do. For
example, India should ensure
that, those that one knows would
not provide anything more than
verbal support, do at least provide that and outspokenly and at
fora where they can be active.
The diplomatic aspect needs
to be emphasised because
Pakistan, which is militarily
weaker, will step up its efforts to

have a ceasefire clamped by the

Security Council before things
become too hot for it. Equally, it
would want the Council to brand
India as the aggressor irrespective of the facts of the case. Such
attempts had failed during the
1965 and 1971 wars. In both
these cases, India had the Soviet
Unions solid support behind it.
In the Kargil War of 1999,
Pakistan was so blatantly the
aggressor that even the United
States asked it to withdraw.
Can we get Russias support
in the same measure in which we
received in 1965 and 1971? The
question should be addressed
most seriously given Indias
increasingly close ties with the
United States and Russias more
than mild flirtation with
Pakistan. This in turn gives a
sharp edge to the question: How
much support can we expect
from the US in a war with
Pakistan? Despite recent bursts of
euphoria over the extremely cordial ties between the worlds
richest and largest democracies,
past record is by no means reassuring. The US has continued to
pour huge amounts into Pakistan

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as aid despite the latters growing

support to the Afghan Taliban
and organisations like Lashkare-Tayyeba which are attacking
the Government in Kabul that
Washington supports, and killing
US servicemen in Afghanistan.
There is unlikely to be any
change in this situation.
Clearly, India needs to work
pretty hard on its foreign policy vis--vis Pakistan while
preparing at the military level to
foil its aggressive thrust. No
war should be taken lightly, and
certainly not one with Pakistan
which has a good, professional
Army and, over the last 15
years, built up a huge and
sophisticated arsenal, with
weapons mainly for us against
India, with vast funds received
from the US. Unfortunately,
Indias defence purchases were
negligible during the 10 years of
the United Progressive Alliances
Government from 2004 to 2014.
As a result, the National
Democratic Alliance that came
into power in the latter year,
found itself forced to go on a
crash course of defence acquisition. While it has made some

B>D=318C4

progress, much remains to be

done particularly since the delivery of items for which a number
of agreements been signed will
take several years.
The point is that we must be
prepared in every respect to win
in case a war becomes unavoidable. One reason why we could
wrap up the Bangladesh campaign in 1971 is that we waited
till the conditions were right. A
war during the monsoon when
Bangladeshs formidable rivers
were in full spate and all tributaries and canals brimming,
would have been very slow and
international pressure may have
forced us to a halt before we had
occupied Dhaka. Equally, we
had to ensure that we had the
right kind of military hardware
and in full measure. Thus, while
we had to conserve as much
ammunition as we could during
the 1965 war, we were under no
such constraint in 1971.
Being ready means not only
having the military hardware
and the strategic and tactical
planning in place, but being prepared for operations behind the
enemys lines, utilising to the full
Pakistans political and societal
faultines. This in turn underlines
the importance of our providing
material, and not just moral,
support to Balochistans struggle
for justice and the struggle by
Shias in Pakistan to live with
dignity and security. There can
be no under-estimation of the
need for this. Pakistan will certainly utilise the widespread
network its Directorate-General
of Inter-Services Intelligence
has built up in India.
That this is not pointless
fear-mongering becomes clear
on recalling the blast in the New
Jalpaiguri railway station on
June 22, 1999, which killed nine
persons, including three Kargilbound jawans, and injured 80.
The act, which the then chief
minister of West B engal,
Buddhadev Bhattacharjee
unambiguously attributed to the
ISI, was a part of Pakistans
efforts to interdict the movement of goods and supplies
from
north-eastern
India to Kargil.
Any plan to cope with a war
with Pakistan must include both
a plan to ensure internal security and pay it back in its coin by
lighting fires in its backyards.
The sooner we are prepared to
do this, the better.
(The writer is Consultant
Editor, The Pioneer, and
an author)

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Sir This refers to the report,
Note ban legalised plunder: ExPM (November 25). It was astonishing to see former Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh accuse
the Modi Government of monumental mismanagement and
organised loot due to demonetisation, when, during his own 10year stint, he did nothing to tackle the menace of black money and
counterfeit currency.
His regime was pockmarked by a series of scandals
which involved billions of rupees
2G scam, coal scam,
Commonwealth Games scam
and more. This was due to his
policy paralysis, incompetence
and subservience to an unconstitutional authority.
In the Upper House, Singh
spoke in a dull, halting manner,
which was suggestive of the fact
that he is still unwell. However,
this time, Singh, who is often
referred to as maun (silent) by
some critics, seemed to be well
prepared to unleash venom
against his successor, who spearheaded the Congresss monumental defeat in the 2014 Lok
Sabha election.
M Ratan
Via email

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Sir The Opposition is more concerned about the inconvenience
(not distress as it is describing)
caused to the common man due to
demonetisation. Opposition parties have argued that such a drastic step should have been taken
after making elaborate arrangements. They are either ignorant or
do not want to appreciate the fact
that more elaborate safeguards
would have required more manpower at different places.
Moreover, secrecy of the entire
exercise had to be maintained, else
the very purpose of the drive
would have failed. Some are also of
the view that the Adanis and the
Ambanis were informed beforehand. While nobody is in a position
to brush off the allegations, none
can prove it either.
NK Das Gupta
Kolkata

9bbUc`_^cYR\U?``_cYdY_^
Sir It is distressing to note that
both the Houses of Parliament
were stalled for the sixth successive
day by the Opposition on account
of demonetisation. It is true that
people have been affected by
demonetisation. But things have

now eased when compared to the

early days. The Opposition is being
irresponsible. It should instead
help the Government mitigate the
peoples sufferings. Disrupting
Parliament is no solution.
NR Ramachandran
Chennai

<UWU^TQbicY^WUb
Sir M Balamuralikrishna was a
music genius who enriched our lives
with his immortal songs. He popularised Carnatic music so much so
that it is no more alien to the hoi polloi. It is a tribute to his greatness, as
a man and a musician, that his renditions of ragas appealed even to the
uninitiated lay people. An incomparable vocalist, his numbers have
become inseparable part of the finer
side of our lives.
His compositions transcended the ordinary and transported us
to another world. His concerts
were therapeutic. There was no
musical instrument which he could
not play to perfection. The spontaneous outpourings of praise are
a testament to the mesmerising
music he gave us.
G David Milton
Kanyakumari
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he geopolitical structure of Eurasia is in a state of perpetual flux for the last 25 years. Chinas entry to the Eurasian
T
space through its economic and political clouts, Russias growing desire to bring the other states of Eurasia under its sphere
of influence, Western powers slow but steady movement in this
geopolitical space and geopolitical developments in Afghanistan,
are explicitly or implicitly changing the rules of the Eurasian
geopolitics. These trajectories are providing additional challenge
to Indias foreign policy as how it can re-calibrate its policy
move in the light of these strategic developments taking place
in this space known as heartland a term coined by British
geopolitical thinker Halford J Mackinder.
After the end of Afghan dilemma (In the aftermath of the
overthrow of Taliban from power), there is a unanimity of opinion among the experts that Eurasia will stabilise and the growing penetration of external powers into this region will diminish. However, if one looks at the current developments that are
taking place in this region, instead of stabilisation, new conflicts
are emanating in this region. Geostrategic complexity of Eurasia
following economic sanctions on Russia and subsequent bailout
by China through multi-billion dollar energy deals is changing
the strategic map of Eurasia to a great extent. Though the energy deals helped Russia bailout its economy, it substantially altered
the bargaining capability between these two powers. Russia is wary
of the way China is penetrating into Central Asia. The Chinese
intention was manifested when Beijing took some extra efforts
to garner the energy wealth of this region. The TurkmenistanChina pipeline network, Kazakhstan-China energy pipeline projects as well as its sway in the Siberian energy sector of Russia
are some of the examples in this regard. On different occasions,
the native Central Asian leaders are often projecting China as
an alternative to Russia in this region. Chinese policy was manifested clearly when Prime Minister Li Keqiang recently visited
Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. While in Kazakhstan, Keqiang
focused on revitalising the economic partnership programme with
Astana and in Bishkek he focussed on the means to curb terrorism.
In recent years, China is also pleading for greater cooperation
with the Russian initiated Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) by
forging partnership with the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation
(SCO). However, what needs to be underlined here is that how
the Russian leadership is appreciating the Chinese expansionist policy in its own soft underbelly.
Though there is a sense of partnership between these two
states in Central Asia but once the prices of energy go up it may
contribute to the escalation of conflict as Russia will seek a greater
leverage of Central Asian energy. As reported in Eurasian News,
Moscow played a vital role in ensuring supply of Uzbek gas to
Bishkek after the latter joined the EEU. Resuming gas supply to
Kyrgyzstan by Uzbekistan after the deal significantly affected latters supply to China. This may hamper smoother energy relations between Tashkent and Beijing. The recent visit of Turkmen
President to Moscow helped augment bilateral relations between
these two states. Now, Ashgabat is keen on reviving energy relationship with Moscow. For instance both the parties are mulling
to complete the Caspian gas pipeline project. Similarly, with
Kazakhstan, Russia is inching closer to rescue its strategic relations which went into rough weather. During the recent visit
of Russian President to Astana both the sides agreed to upgrade
their strategic relations to a new height. Russia is also keen to
revive energy relations with Kazakhstan. The EEU is giving
teething pain to Russias economic relations in the Eurasian space.
Just to demonstrate its military capability. Moscow, under the
Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) in April, conducted its military exercises known as Search 2016, and in
September Rubezh 2016 exercises. These developments
demonstrate that Russia is keen to gain its lost space (Central
Asia) even though it conceded this space to China for the time
being. Moscows relations with Beijing can be located at two levels. At the global front, Russia needs China, to rebalance America
which is in mood to encircle both and at the Eurasian region
in the longer run, Russia wants to contain China.
America is keen to reorient its relationship in this landmass by investing in energy sector. The proliferation of ISIS menace in Eurasia is posing a threat to the security of this space. This
is providing additional incentives to Russia and Central Asian
states along with the USA to fight the dogmatic forces. It has
been argued by news reports that both American President-elect
Donald Trump and Russian President Putin will adopt a pragmatic approach in combating radicalism and extremism both
in Syria as well as in Eurasia.
How will these developments have an impact on India? Using
its historical connectivity with this part of the world, New Delhi
is strategising its economic as well as strategic partnership with
this region. In the energy sector, despite Chinese penetration,
India can make its presence felt in this region. As reported, Indian
energy conglomerates recently got a substantial stake in the
Eastern Siberian energy sector. Similarly, as reported in newspapers, both India and Russia are mulling a long pipeline from
Siberia to India. The joint proposal to this project got the necessary sanctity when President Putin visited India recently in
October. In addition to this, India is having stakes in Kazakhstan,
planning to invest in Turkmenistan and got minor share in BTC
pipeline project. One area where India and Eurasian states can
cooperate with each other is to fight the menace of radicalism.
The visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the five Central
Asian states last year as well as to Russia has contributed to the
strengthening of strategic relationship with this landmass.
However one point that requires closer attention is the way
Russia is mending fences with Pakistan. Islamabad is known for
sponsoring terrorism which in turn is causing instability not only
in South Asia, but also
in the adjacent Eurasia.
Similarly, China is also
directly or indirectly
supporting Pakistans
radical activities just to
promote its own strategic goals. The Gwadar
port, which was opened
recently and the ChinaPakistan Economic
Corridor (CPEC), is helping Beijing achieve its desired goals of
economic dominance and strategic hegemony in Eurasia.
Since the break-up of the USSR, the Eurasian Shatranj game
is in a fluid situation. India, because of its civilisational linkages with Eurasia, can engage itself more positively with this
landmass to ensure security, stability and development.
(The writer is Assistant Professor, CRCAS, School of
International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi)

ladimir Putins new

Kremlinology is all about
anti-Westernism. His all-out
campaign against America and
its allies across the world is
marked by a new hyper-nationalism. Putin loves the subject of
patriotism. Way back in 1999,
when he was all set to take over
as the President of Russia, he
listed patriotism and related
issues of national pride and
dignity in his first programme.
Then in 2015, he advocated
that patriotism is the sacred
duty of the Russians and called
it a moral compass for
teenagers. To him, patriotism
is not dialogised or associated with the work of a party or
any social structure. He even
goes one step ahead and says,
We have no national idea
besides patriotism, and there
can be no other.
Thus, he tries to bring a
whole lot of young people into
his new madness. But it is felt
that his tryst with patriotism
will not last long. Is it a good
idea to bind a nation only with
a new call for patriotism? Or is
it an idea of Putin to just
mobilise support around his
presidency? Or is it a new sign
of Russias transition to a state
of no return? What does new
Kremlinology indicate for
Russia? May be many things,
but one thing is crystal clear that
Putin is deliberately pushing the

country into an era of unending terror wherein he is fast

becoming the only one around
whom power and authority
survive. But, this can never be
a pragmatic model of power.
Drumming anti-Westernism
can never be a mechanism to
remain in power.
It is for sure that Russias
public opinion is more likely to
shape the behaviour of
Kremlin. But this can never be
possible within a short span of
time, unless the country goes
under a change of leadership.
Today, the Russian Duma is a
speechless house and it simply
endorses what Putin wants. His
inner coterie keeps all things
under cover from public. Even,
the members of this group are
clueless at times about the
possible movements of Putin.
So he behaves like a true secret
service guy. He has been successful so far in creating an
atmosphere that Russia needs
to be safeguarded against its
dangerous, devious and powerful enemies headed by the US
and its allies. Therefore, he
aptly justifies a costly security
apparatus under a new nobility. Just to protect the country
from an impending danger, he
has brought a new political and
military command centre. He
introduced a high command
in Russia, known as Stavka
under which his highly per-

sonalised politics survives well.

Penetrating into the deliberations of the inner circle of
Stavka is exceedingly difficult
and equally dangerous.
With the coming of the
new American President,
Donald J Trump, who shares a
good relationship with Putin,
Russias equation with the US
may undergo change. But Putin
will probably not accept any
change of balance of power
wherein his country will have
to heed to America. There can
be no such scenario in which
America and Russia will work
in tandem to shape the global
affairs. It can be very well

gauged from how the mess in

Syria is inching towards a total
disaster. When Russia came
down to rescue its ally Assad,
America had simply branded
the latter as the only despot for
whom the entire chaos was
continuing and the solution
lied only in his ouster. It was no
big surprise for the international community that the
agreement to herald peace
under a ceasefire arrangement
in Syria went into disarray.
Thus, working together for
both Russia and America can
simply sort of a dream even
under President-elect Trump.
It would be worth watching
how Putin survives his new
found ideology, if one calls simply so. But international
observers say that Putin will survive. Once he falls, again his
country will pass onto a band of
oligarchs who are no other than
the members of his core team.
There would be no instance
(probably) under which Russia
can move into the hands of a
popular leadership. Consent
will definitely be manufactured
in the days to come. Russians,
majority of them are under an
illusion that their country is
doing great and has become a
permanent target of the West.
But course correction in Russia
is on its way, sooner or later.
It must be said that it is a
wrong assumption that Russian

E6?849@?8+2W`cX`eeV_VaZd`UV
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such as the remote towns in Yunnan along
the China-Myanmar border. Tengchong is
a faraway hill town nestled in scenic
mountains, forests and hot springs. Fabled
for its exquisite jade, old-style Chinese
homes, and expanse of farmland, the town
can be an epitome of serene bliss for any
visitor. It is often referred as a tourist destination for the whole 365 days in a year.
It is difficult to imagine that seventy years
ago this quiet old town and her farm folks
suffered the brunt of Japanese invasion and
they fought a valiant battle and chased the
aggressor thus liberating the town. The
local legend is that the liberation of
Tengchong and the crushing defeat of
Japanese is a turning point in the course
of the war in China-Myanmar-India theatre. For Tengchong people, this history
still lingers as strong emotive memories
which they preserve for generations to
come and witness and learn not to forget.
In local parlance, Tengchong is known
as Biancheng Zhen (border town) connecting Yunnan and India through
Myanmar. Tengchong has recently been
added in the official list of border economic zone. The drive is to make
Tengchong as an important trade centre
connecting South Asia and Southeast
Asia. It is closer to the places and towns
across the border as it connect Yunnan
with Myitkyina in Myanmar. Tengchong
lies 200 km from Mytkyima and nearly 600
km away from Ledo, India. This geographical position makes it an important
gateway of China to South Asia and South
East Asia.
The folklore in Tengchong narrates
that the prosperity of 6,00,000 people
residing in this area depends on the possibility of constructing a highway connecting Yunnan and India through
Tengchong. The city has already constructed a second grade highway between
Tengchong and Mytikima in Myanmar
after the continuous efforts by the then
Party Secretary of this region. In theory,
Tengchong is situated in the economically most viable location as far as connecting (Ledo) India and (Yunnan) China by
road is concerned. India gains a very
important position in the eyes of people
as the ray of prosperity and wealth.
Local history records that Tengchong
used to be a strategic passage and communications hub of the Silk Road of the
ancient southwestern China. Tengyue
(the earlier name of Tengchong) has been
referred as an ancient town in Dianyue
(earlier name of Yunnan). Zhang Qian, the
great explorer, diplomat and traveller
passing through the southwest Silk Road
did not cross Yunnan and could not come
to India. But He Shun (ancient merchant
town) has witnessed a good expansion of
trade in Ming dynasty. In 1899, England
established its consulate at Tengchong. In
1902, the Qing Government established
Tengyue customs here. The people of
Tengchong first discovered the market
value of emeralds and were the first ones
to start processing of jade. Jade processing has a history of more than 600 years
now. Since the ancient times till present,
Tengchong has all along been an important jade processing trading and distribution centre of South East Asia.
Tengchong was major site of the
Chinas resistance war against Japanese
invasion as an important Burma Road was
built during the Second World War here.
In the situation where the Japanese con-

trolled most of the sea ports and cities of

China, it was difficult for the American
forces supporting the Kuomintang to
provide military supplies in China. The
Burma Road acquired a strategic importance in this context. The road used to
transport military supplies to Kunming,
Yunnan and other parts of China. The
Burma Road is actually formed of two
roads: one stretching 600 miles long built
in 1937-38 between Lashio, Burma and
Kunming, China. It was basically to help
Chiang Kai-Shek bring supplies through
a backdoor of China after the Japanese
invaded China; secondly, the straight
lines built from Ledo to Kunming, which
is about 460 miles. The Burma and Ledo
Roads were built through the worlds most
difficult terrain of China-India and
Myanmar. Kunming in Yunnan was the
main distributing point for the supplies
which were coming from the Burma and
Ledo Roads. It was the leadership of
General Stilwell, the commander of
American troops in China-MyanmarIndia region. In China, the Burma and
Ledo Roads are known as the Stilwell
Road.
Stilwells troops invaded Myanmar
from India in October 1943, the Japanese
Army was defeated at the battles of
Kohima and Imphal by the British forces
and Stilwell forces fought a fierce battle
against the Japanese to defend Myitkyina,
which lasted for ten weeks from MayAugust in 1944. Chinese troops in a way
fought under the US command.
Tengchong became a battlefield when the
Japanese imperial army invaded and
occupied the Western Yunnan from
Myitkyina in 1942. For the next two years,
there was a war of resistance from China.
The largest part of such war of resistance
in Western Yunnan was to regain control
of Tengchong town. When the Japanese
invaded Tengchong from Myitkyina in
Myanmar, they passed through and
attacked villages and townships dominated by ethnic minorities like Lisu, Dai, Wa
and Anchang. Tengchong became the
important battleground in the war of resistance in the Western Yunnan. It was only
in September 1944, the Chinese expeditionary forces could recover this area.
The liberation of Tengchong and its
significance in the China-Maynmar-India
theatre of the Second World War may have
become a forgotten episode for the people outside Yunnan. But the memories of
the war still evoke strong emotions for the
local people. Tengchong is an important
fortification at the borders. It geographical location and specialty given the place
a very critical role to play in military affairs.
On September 14, 1944, the common people of the entire place, the self-defence
force of the region and the expeditionary
force came together to attack the Japanese
forces at Tengchong. After a bloody war
that lasted for 127 days, Tengchong was
finally redeemed. More than 6,000 ene-

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B08:80

There will be no massive

investment in Putins Russia so
that it can fast turn itself into
an engine of growth. May be
there could be a slow decline of
Putins style of governance.
(The writer is Senior Editor,
The Pioneer)

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>C74AE>824

egends of history can sometimes be

found in places which otherwise
L
remain unknown to the world outside,

confrontation with the West is

all about ideology. It has always
been about the threat that a
western system of governance
based on rule of law is not suitable for Putins dogmatic and
regressive system. In fact, the
liberal democratic system prevailing across the West used to
be a potential danger for the
Soviet system too. Hence it was
nothing new for Putins regime.
Russia today is more dangerous
than the Soviet Union was, as
there is no collective leadership
of the Politburo which used to
put significant restraint on the
leader after Stalins death. It is
near certain that Russia is acting out of weakness, rather
than strength. Nonetheless, it
would be an insurmountable
job for the US and its allies in
the West to contain Putin. In a
globalised world, when we are
so very well-integrated, the
containment of the Cold War
era cannot be possible. But the
information war launched by
Russia must be checked.
However, the growing hatred
among the Russian youth about
the West must be minimised
and a massive public awareness
may be created in regard to the
internal situation in that country. How this will happen can
only be decided by a grand
western alliance for the benefit of the common people of
Russia. Russia is not China.

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mies, 9,168 people from the expeditionary force and 19 people from the allied
forces of officers were killed in the war.
This history of war of resistance is both
inspiring and tragic at the same time. It
reminds people and plays clippings of
series of historic events in their minds:
China-India highway and expeditionary
forces, Tuofeng air route and flying tigers,
the commissioner of the war of resistance
Zhang Wende, the mausoleum of war
heroes, etc.
To commemorate those soldiers who
had sacrificed their lives, the Government
has constructed the Cemetery of National
Martyrs over an area of 10,000 sq metres.
Souls of 9,000 soldiers of the expeditionary
force who laid down their lives to recover the territory of Tengchong rest here.
This cemetery was built in June 1956. At
present it is the largest and well-protected frontline battlefield mausoleum for
martyrs of the war of resistance.
Heading upward of this cemetery, there
is a memorial compound with a small hall
bearing the flags of the Guomindang and
a portrait of Chiang-Kai-Shek. It is one of
rarest phenomena showing respect to
Republican flag which today is the flag of
Taiwan. There are large numbers of tombs
of Chinese soldiers arranged in a rank and
file with names imprinted on those. It was
these soldiers who prevented Japan from
intruding China from the south west.
There are more than 3,000 small headstones with the rank and names of those
who lost their lives in the fierce battles for
Tengchong that were crucial in preventing
Chinas collapse. Today, the Martyrs
Cemetry on Songyuan Lu is a reminder of
the great sacrifices made by Chinese soldiers almost 70 years ago in Tengchong.
(The writer teaches at the School of
International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru
University, New Delhi)

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ver since its conceptualisation, the China-Pakistan Economic

E
Corridor (CPEC) project continues to pose an interesting
puzzle for Indian diplomacy. A better part of Indias diplomatic efforts is concentrated towards formulating ways and means
to tackle the project.
The underlying rationale behind India adopting such a critical position towards the project stems from the fact that the project fails to consider the legal status of Pakistan-Occupied
Kashmir (PoK), very much a disputed territory.
But instead of getting overly apprehensive, perhaps it would
be pertinent for India to take a back seat and allow the game to
unfold. Contrary to the commonly held view that the CPEC will
help Pakistan embrace China economically, the project is bound
to cost Pakistan huge socio-economic and political problems.
One can draw such conclusions about CPEC based on a similar experience Myanmar had witnessed a few years ago.
Bertil Lintners article in Asia Times online of October 19, 2011
on China-Myanmar relations provides excellent insights into the
challenges faced by Myanmars military junta in shrugging off
Chinese influence and hold over Myanmars polity and society.
From his article one can derive that what started as a seemingly sensible decision to engage China for economic and military reasons turned out to be Myanmars worst nightmare. This
is validated by the fact that during my field trip to Myanmar in
December 2015, several respondents representing Myanmars
civil society, academia and industry openly expressed their displeasure about Chinas overwhelming presence.
Now apply the same pattern in Pakistans context for the coming years. Given the humungous amounts of investments that
CPEC promises to bring into Pakistan, the project would essentially rescue the country from at least some of its economic woes.
To begin with, the CPEC would enable Pakistan to bridge the
long-standing energy deficit in the country through several mega
projects. It also promises to revamp Pakistans transportation network and creation of local industries. From purely a developmental perspective, the dividends from CPEC seem to be highly rewarding.
But the brazen way in which China has approached mega
projects world over, Pakistani society is in no position to stomach the socio-economic consequences.
Citing absence of local expertise, China will bring its own
industries and technology to kick start CPEC-associated projects, thereby depriving local industries of an equal chance. The
Chinese industries have world over been known for their utter
disrespect towards environmental concerns and local sensitivities. On the other hand, China itself would be sorely disappointed
with the painstakingly slow second-tier bureaucracy that exists
in Pakistan.
On its part, Pakistans military leadership, which has taken
a lead role in implementing the CPEC has till date not been able
to fathom the consequences of an overwhelming Chinese presence on every aspect of Pakistani society and polity.
Given the kind of investments China is proposing to make
in Pakistan, the former would in all certainty like to have its own
chips within the decision-making circles of Pakistan.
The commencement of CEPC is also feared by many in
Pakistan to further intensify insurgency activities. Pakistani journalist Gharidah Farooqi has interestingly documented the grievances of the Baluch fishermen near the port of Gwadar in her
article in Express News dated May 6, 2016.
Due to heightening economic activities largely stimulated
by port development and competition from Sindhi trawlers, the
local Baluch fishermen are being deprived off their traditional
source of income, she writes. She further writes that the development of Gwadar port has not translated into any benefits for
the local Baluch population and the jobs are usurped by people from other areas of Pakistan.
Continuation of such trends in other spheres of economic
activity is likely to provide an ideal breeding ground for the revival
of a Marxist-inspired insurgency in Baluchistan. The men in
khakis have not realised that CPEC, along with bringing Chinese
goodies would also present great deal of unfathomable challenges
that Pakistan would not be in a position to either comprehend
or afford in the long run.
(The writer is Fellow at Observer Research Foundation,
Mumbai)

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?=BQ =4F34;78

ith a huge recovery in

W
the rupee, bulls dominated the Dalal Street surging the BSE benchmark
Sensex 456 points to reclaim
the 26,000-mark on the first
day of December series. The
exp or t-or iente d IT and
pharma stocks pushed the
rally with such massive gain
in the market, claiming the
benchmark index's biggest
single day gain on a big
surge of rupee by 27 paise
from a record low and the
Asian cues as well.
T h e S e ns e x op e n e d
higher at 25,953.24 and hovered in a range of 25,874.45
and 26,343.95 before ending
at 26,316.34, showing a gain
of 456.17 points or 1.76 per
cent. Similarly, the NSE 50share Nifty also rose by
148.80 points or 1.87 per
cent to close above 8,100le vel at 8,114.30. After
touching a fresh all-time
low against the US dollar on
Thursday, the rupee jumped
27 paise to end at 68.46.
"With fresh positions
being initiated in December
futures and options (F&O)
s e r i e s an d w it h r up e e
strengthening sharply, mar-

ket found its voice, and registered gains across sectors,"

said Anand James, Chief
Market Strategist, Geojit
B N P Par i b a s Fi n an c i a l
Services.
"Gains were initially seen
in IT and metal sectors, but
mid-caps too joined the
rally, suggesting that risk

appetite had improved after

a fortnight-long selling spree
had rendered prices ripe for
value picking," James added.
In the IT pack, TCS rose
5.23 per cent, followed by
Infosys (4.78 per cent) and
Wipro (3.09 per cent), while
pharma sector gainers were
Sun Pharma (4.18 per cent),

Aurobindo Pharma (4.07 per

cent), Lupin (3.36 per cent)
and Cipla (1.75 per cent).
On the other hand Fitch
R at i ng s s ai d it e x p e c t s
India's GDP growth to trend
higher than China's in the
medium term, adding that it
would accelerate next fiscal
on the back of reforms and
monetar y policy easing,
which may have contributed
to the market upmove.
Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold
shares worth a net C2,010.15
crore yesterday, as per provisional data released by the
stock exchanges. In overseas
markets, Asian stocks gained
as the Thanksgiving break in
the US pegged the dollar's
relentless surge that had
sucked capital out of most
emerging markets.
The key Asian indices in
China, Hong Kong, Japan,
South Korea, Singapore and
Taiwan moved up by 0.08
per cent to 0.62 per cent.
Europ ean markets were
trading narrowly mixed as
key indices in France and
UK rose by 0.02 per cent to
0 . 0 4 p e r c e nt , w h i l e
Germany's DAX quoted
lower by 0.01 per cent.
The December series

derivative contracts were off

to a s olid st ar t, w hich
revived investors' confidence. IT, teck, healthcare,
consumer durables, power
and metal stocks hogged the
limelight. The BSE Mid-Cap
index provisionally rose 1.30
per cent, underperforming
the Sensex, while the smallcap index gained 2.00 per
cent.
A total of 27 scrips in the
30-share Sensex pack ended
higher, while only 3 closed
lower. Other gainers were
Gail India (3.48 per cent),
H DF C ( 3 . 0 5 p e r c e nt ) ,
NTPC (2.97 per cent), Adani
Ports (2.81 per cent), Tata
Steel (2.37 per cent), ITC
(1.99 per cent), Dr Reddy's
(1.99 per cent) and HDFC
B an k ( 1 . 9 1 p e r c e nt ) .
However, Bajaj Auto dropped
by 0.74 per cent, followed by
SBI (0.29 per cent) and
Bharti Airtel (0.22 per cent).
Among t he s e c tor a l
indices, IT rose 4.69 per
cent, Teck 3.79 per cent,
Healthcare 2.35 per cent,
Ut i l it i e s 2 . 0 9 p e r c e nt ,
Consumer Durables 1.74 per
cent, Power 1.67 per cent,
Finance 1.65 per cent, Metal
1.48 per cent and Realty 1.34
per cent.

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?=BQ =4F34;78

oardroom brawl at Tata

Group further escalated
B
on Friday as Cyrus Mistry was
ousted as Chairman of Tata
Steel, the third Tata Group
firm to do so, a move that
Mistry-camp slammed as
unprecedented erosion of core
values.
The 10-member board of
Tata Steel by "majority consent" removed Mistry as
Chairman and named O P
Bhatt, an independent director and former head of State
Bank of India, as interim
head.
Tata Steel in a regulatory
filing said following leadership change at Tata Sons, the
holding company of the group
f rom where Mistr y was
abruptly ousted on October
24, it had received a notice
from the principal promoter
seeking convening of a shareholder meet to remove him as
director of the company.
"In view of the current situation ie the Special Notice
and Requisition received from
Tata Sons Ltd, the Board of
Directors through circular
resolutions dated November
25, 2016 passed by majority
consent, has decided to
replace Mr Cyrus P Mistry as
the Chairman of the board

with immediate effect," it

said.
Tata Steel is the third
group firm to remove Mistry
as chairman.
First Tata Consultancy
Services (TCS) removed him
as chairman but that ouster
was not through a vote but by
virtue of Tata Sons holding a
commanding 73.26 per cent
stake in the India's largest
software services firm.
Then on November 15,
seven out of 10 board members of Tata Global Beverages
voted him out.
Slamming the latest move,
sources close to Mistry said,
"We believe that this unprecedented erosion of core Tata
Values, is seriously damaging
Brand Tata. Each time one
thinks the current standard of
corporate governance in Tata
Group listed companies under
the leadership of the Interim
Chairman (Ratan Tata) cannot hit a newer low, one has
been belied."
They claimed a circular
for replacing Mistr y as
Chairman was initiated just
minutes before a pre-scheduled Board Meeting.
"Those involved are representatives of Tata Sons,
those drawing large remuneration from other Tata
Trustee-controlled compa-

nies, and an "independent"

director, who is the wife of a
newly-inducted Tata trustee,
who is also recently nominated director of Tata Sons,"
they claimed without naming
anyone.
Besides Bhatt, Tata Steel
has Subodh Bhargava,
Chairman Emeritus of Eicher
Group, Andrew M Robb,
Jacobus Schraven, Nusli
Nevile Wadia and Mallika
Srinivasan as independent
directors.
Koushik Chatterjee is CFO
and Tata veteran Ishaat Hussain
is also on the board. T V
Narendran is Managing Director
of the company and D K
Mehrota is the other non-executive director on the company
board.
Mallika is wife of Venu
Srinivasan who was inducted as
non-executive director on Tata
Sons after Ratan Tata was named
interim chairman on removal of
Mistry.
After returning, Tata is
attempting to tighten his reins
over the $103 billion group as
Tata Sons has sought ouster of
Mistry as director from group
firms.
While the Chairman
remains in chair at the pleasure
of the board members, a director on a company board can only
be removed by shareholders.

6SLFH-HW4SURILWMXPSVWR CT[TR^\Rdbc^\TaQPbTbWaX]Zbc^ $"\]X]0dVdbc

CFUSODQHRUGHUVRRQ
<D<108) Remaining prof-

it a b l e f or t h e s e v e nt h
straight quarter, SpiceJet on
Friday reported its highestever quarterly profit of C59
crore in July-September and
is in final stages of placing
order for nearly 100 planes.
The good show of the
no-frills airline, which has
been registering over 90 per
cent load factor for more
than a year, primarily came
on the back of higher operating margins and lower
costs.
SpiceJet's latest quarterly profit -- the highest in its
decade-old history -- marks
an increase of 103 per cent
from C29 crore in the yearago period.
"This is (generally) the
weakest quarter of the year
and despite intense competition in the market, we have
performed exceptionally
well. We continue to focus
on responsible and profit a b l e
g row t h , "
said
Chairman and Managing

Director Ajay Singh in a

statement.
The airline's revenue
rose 35 per cent to C1,400
crore as its capacity grew 38
per cent during the period.Total cost declined 10
per cent over the same quarter last year while average
unit fare improved by 5 per
cent despite competitive
pressure.
This is the seventh consecutive profitable quarter
after the challenges in
December 2014 and the
change in management and
control, SpiceJet said.
"We have resolved practically all our legacy issues
and the stage is set for building up our cash reserves
and finalising our long-term
fleet expansion plans," Singh
said.
During a conference call
with reporters today, he said
the airline expects to place
order for around 100 aircraft
soon.
"We are in the final stages

of negotiations and documentations... The process is

expected to be completed in
next 2-3 weeks," he said.
Asked about a possible
deadline for sealing the deal,
Singh emphasised the need
to get the right deal. "I don't
want to get bound by a specific timeframe, but we are
very close," he said, adding
that the order would go to
one manufacturer.
In the September 2016
quarter, the airline recorded
a passenger load factor of
92.3 per cent -- the highest in
the industry. The airline's
monthly load factor -- an
indicator of seat occupancy - has been in excess of 90 per
cent since April 2015.
SpiceJet operates 342
daily flights connecting 45
destinations, of which 39 are
d om e s t i c d e pl oy i ng 3 1
B o e i ng 7 3 7 NG s and 1 7
Bombardier Q-400s.
The stock of the airline
rose nearly 2 per cent to close
at C65.35 on BSE.
?C8

=4F 34;78) Telecom subscriber base in the country

declined by over half a per
cent to 1,053.4 million in
August from 1,058.8 million
in Ju ly, mainly due to
Reliance Communications
losing its 2G customers on
adoption of 4G technology, as
per Trai's monthly subscriber
report.
"The number of telephone subscribers in India
declined from 1,058.85 million at the end of July 2016 to
1,053.40 million at the end of
August 2016, showing a
monthly decline rate of 0.52
p er cent," t he Tele com
Regulatory Authority of India
said in the report.
Consequent on migration from CDMA to LTE
(4G)
by
Reliance
Communications, the CDMA
subscriber base reduced by 18
million during August, the
report said.
In July too, RCom lost
3.24 million mobile customers.
With the continuous slide
in the customer base, RCom
slipped to 6th position in the

1RWHVEDQWRKDYHQHJDWLYHLPSDFW
RQJURZWKLQVKRUWUXQVD\V)LWFK
=4F 34;78: Demonetisation

will have a "negative" impact

on growth in the short run
but for the full fiscal, the GDP
decline would be "relatively
moderate", Fitch Ratings said
on Friday.
The ratings agency, however, expects India's GDP
growth to trend higher than
China's in the medium term,
adding that it would accelerate next fiscal on the back of
reforms and monetary policy
easing.
"The impact on GDP
growth is clearly going to be
negative in the short run and
depends to a large extent on
how long the cash crunch is
going to take.
"A significant decline in
the growth number for this
quarter is highly likely, but for
the fiscal year as a whole the
decline may still be relatively moderate," Fitch AsiaPacific Sovereigns Group
Director
Thomas
Rookmaaker said.
He, however, said that
there are many elements to
the demonetisation exercise,
which makes it difficult to
quantify its impact on real

GDP growth.
"In India we expect GDP
growth to accelerate in
FY2018 on the back of reform
implementation, monetary
easing of the past year and
infrastructure spending,"
Rookmaaker added.
Listing out the positives of
demonetisation, he said it
may improve the fiscal position to the extent more earnings will be declared and a
transfer is possible from the
RBI to the Government of the
seigniorage earned from
unchanged notes.
"A stronger revenue
intake would be positive from
a rating perspective, as the fiscal position forms the Achilles
heel in India's sovereign cred-

it profile, given the high general government debt burden

and fiscal deficit compared
with peers," Rookmaaker said.
Beyond the immediate
policy issues of managing the
cash crunch as best as possible and trying to mitigate
the worst side-effects, it
would be interesting to see
what further steps the government will take to formalise the economy and
structurally generate higher
government revenues, Fitch
said.
India's economy expanded
at 7.6 per cent in 2015-16, and
the Finance Ministr y's
Economic Survey has projected growth to be between 7-7.75
per cent this fiscal.

He said that the macroeconomic effects of the cash

crunch include a temporary
delay of consumption and
investment, disrupted supply
chains, farmers being unable to
buy inputs, and some loss in
productivity due to time lost to
deal with cash issues.
"People find inventive ways
around the cash crunch as
well -- there is always the art
of jugaad. At the same time,
this seems to suggest that
demonetisation is a one-off
event and is not likely to generate a significant structural
shift of activity from the informal to the formal sector," he
added.
Fitch expects India's GDP
growth to trend higher than
China's in the medium term as
a continued increase in leverage in the broader Chinese
economy is more and more
becoming a burden for growth.
For China, Fitch forecasts
real GDP growth of 6.4 per
cent in 2017, down from a
projected 6.7 per cent in 2016,
due to the impact of recent
macro-prudential tightening
measures targeting the housing market.
?C8

Indian mobile market in

June-August, after Aircel.
On the other hand, the
state-owned BSNL led the
market in terms of new customer addition and became
the fourth largest mobile
player in August with a total
subscriber base of over 92.36
million. Its net mobile customer addition in July was 1.6
million.
The overall teledensity

6iTYR_XV`W`]U
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e`T`_eZ_fVReC3:
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?=BQ =4F34;78

BI counters will continue to provide the

R
services of exchanging
banned 500 and 1,000
rupee notes for new currency even after the facility was withdrawn from all
banks.
The Government had
yesterday announced that
the demonetised 500 and
1,000 rupee notes can no
longer be exchanged at bank
counters and any holdings
will necessarily have to be
deposited in bank accounts.
"The Reserve Bank of
India advises members of
public that exchange of banknotes in C500 and C1,000
denominations, whose legal
tender status has been withdrawn, will continue to be
available at the counters of
the Reserve Bank up to the
current limits per person as
hitherto," the central bank
said in a statement.
The limit to exchange
old notes was recently set at
C2,000 per person.

in India declined to 82.54 at

August-end, from 83.04 at
July-end.
Tata Teleservices and
Sistema Shyam also continued to lose mobile customers
in August.
In terms of net mobile
subscriber addition during
August, Bharti Airtel followe d BSNL by adding
701,750 new customers.
Vodafone added 486,206,

Idea Cellular 412,697, Aircel

376,325, Telenor 114,944 ,
Quadrant (Videocon Punjab)
11,955 and MTNL 9,913.
The wireline or landline
subscriber base in the country declined to 24.51 million
at the end of August, from
24.62 million at the end of
July, with BSNL losing maximum customers.
D espite
attrac tive
schemes of free calls during
night and on Sundays, BSNL
saw a loss of 126,856 landline
customers in August, taking
its wireline customer base to
13.9 million. The state-owned
MTNL too lost 8,617 landline
customers.
While private operator
Bharti Airtel led the growth
in wireline s eg ment by
adding 24,388 new customers
in August, Vodafone added
4,619 and RCom 615.
The number of broadband subscribers increased to
171.71 million at the end of
August, from 166.96 million
in July.
"Top
f ive
s er vice
providers constituted 85.16
per cent market share of the

total broadband subscribers

at the end of August 2016.
These service providers were
Bharti Airtel (45.35 million),
Vodafone (35.01 million),
Idea (29.58 million), BSNL
(21.04 million) and RCom
(15.24 million)," the report
said. BSNL led the wireline
broadband market with a
customerbase of 9.84 million at the end of August, followed by Bharti Airtel (1.91
million), Atria Convergence
Technologies (1.09 million),
MTNL (1.07 million) and
YOU Broadband (0.57 million).
Bharti Airtel dominated
wireless or mobile broadband market with customer
base of 43.44 million followed by Vodafone with 35
million customers, Idea 29.58
million, RCom 15.13 million
and BSNL 11.20 million.
In August, a total of 5.13
million mobile subscribers
submitted their applications
for mobile number portability (MNP), taking the cumulative MNP requests to 234.47
million since its implementation.
?C8

/LTXLGLW\LVVXHVWRVWD\IRU
WKUHHPRQWKV3DQDJDUL\D
<D<108) Niti Aayog Vice-

Chairman Arvind Panagariya

on Friday acknowledged that
the demonetisation move will
impact economic activity and
growth due to lack of liquidity in the system which could be
in short supply for three
months.
"In the short run, you have
a liquidity crunch. It is going to
impact economic activity and
it is also happening. The problem is being gradually solved,
liquidity is being put into the
system back and at the pace at
which we're going, I imagine
that might be maximum a
quarter during which this
shortage will stay," he said at an
Asia Society event here.
Stating that the liquidity
situation is better now than it
was a fortnight ago after Prime
Minister Narendra Modi
announced the surprise move
to scrap C500 and C1,000 notes,
Panagariya said the last month
within the quarter will see a
small shortage of liquidity.
Speaking a day after former
prime minister Manmohan
Singh's statement about impact
of up to 2 percentage points on

growth, Panagariya said, "I

think it's a matter of a quarter
and how much impact on the
growth rate that happens in this
quarter is anybody's estimate."
He said the exercise has
positives like getting a lot of
money into the formal financial system, and the increase in
deposits will enhance financial
intermediation in the economy
and make it an "exciting quarter" for financial firms.
Panagariya said the smooth
flow of vehicles due to a limited period toll waiver and zero
hassles from policemen looking for bribes will also be of
help.
He, however, parried the
question when IDFC Bank's
chief Rajiv Lal flagged concerns
over banks' NPAs as toll road
companies do not pay up.
"What is more important, economic growth or asset quality?"
Panagariya asked.
The economist said the
move will also help the nation's
morale after having been
"plagued by corruption for
long".
Asked if preparations for
the audacious exercise could

have been better, Panagariya

said secrecy was crucial.
"Somebody at the top has
to take a call on when is the
right time. If the trade-off was
that, it would cause inconvenience, let me use my political
capital," he said, pointing out
that there was already a news
item on October 27 pointing
out the exact details of the plan.
He also said Niti Aayog is
working on publication of
state-level rankings on social
indicators like education,
health and water. It is also looking to create coastal employment zones which will require
upwards of 500 sq km each,
starting with Andhra Pradesh
and Gujarat.
The idea is to have zones
concentrating on manufacturing as in China, and "these two
states have the best potential
due to favourable labour and
land acquisition laws".
Panagariya spoke of China
facing troubles on multiple
fronts, including cost of labour,
and "it is up to us to seize the
opportunity created by it and
increase our share in merchant trade globally".

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otal deposits in Jan Dhan

accounts have increased to
T
C64,252.15 crore, with Uttar

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Pradesh leading the chart with

C10,670.62 crore deposits followed by West Bengal and
Rajasthan, the Government said
on Friday. The Centre also
stressed that no public sector
banks had given any instructions to their officials to deposit
C 1 or 2 to avoid zero balance in
Jan Dhan accounts.
As on November 16, 25.58
crore accounts with aggregate
deposits of C64,252.15 crore
have been opened under
Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan
Yojana (PMJDY) across the
country," Minister of State for
Finance Santosh Kumar
Gangwar said in a written reply
to the Lok Sabha.
L e ading t he pack of
states, Uttar Pradesh has the
highest number of account
holders to the tune of 3.79
crore and therefore highest
deposits of C10,670.62 crore.
It is followed by West Bengal
wit h 2.44 accounts and
deposits of C7,826.44 crore.
Rajasthan comes at the third

real GDP growth is

expected to slow to 6.5 per
Icentndias
in the current fiscal on the
likely impact of demonetisation,
while muted inflation may open
room for additional rate cuts,
says a Deutsche Bank report.
According to the global financial services major, economic
growth will see a moderation in
the near term and would gradually recover to 7.5 per cent in
the next financial year.
Prime Minister Narendra
Modi on November 8 had
announced the demonetisation of
C500 and C1,000 notes, thereby
withdrawing 86 per cent or C14
lakh crore worth currency from circulation. We expect growth to be
impacted adversely in the present
and next quarters due to the
Governments temporary de- mon-

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NEW DELHI: Mobile wallet

company Paytm has suspended
its app that allowed small shopkeepers to accept payment
through cards amid ongoing
cash crunch, citing risks to customer data and privacy. The
new feature was designed to
eliminate the need for a physical
point-of-sale (PoS) terminal or a
card swipe machine, instead
helping small shopkeepers use
their smartphones to facilitate the
transactions. However, soon after
launching App POS with much
fanfare this week, Paytm rolled
back the initiative after concerns
were raised over security of customers card details by the industry. Based on some suggestions
from the industry, we have decided to dd additional certifications
and features before making it
available to merchants. We will
re-launch this product as soon as
we have updated the product, the
Alibaba-backed company said in
a blogpost.
PTI

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spot with 1.89 crore accounts
and the deposit in these accounts
totals to C5,345.57 crore while
Bihar with 2.62 crore accounts
have deposits of C4,912.79 crore
as of November 16. Out of
25.58 crore accounts, 5.98 crore
(23.02 per cent) are zero balance accounts, he said. All
public sector banks have denied
giving any instructions to
deposit C1 to 2 in the zero bal-

ance accounts, he said.

Banks have been asked to
ensure linkage of all PMJDY
accounts with Aadhaar number in a time-bound manner.
PMJDY envisages channelising all Government benefits to
the beneficiaries to all
accounts opened under the
Yojana and thus trying to
bring down the zero balance
in such accounts by transfer-

ring Direct Benefit Transfer

(DBT), he said. In reply to a separate question, Minister of State
for Finance Arjun Ram
Meghwal said the currency in
circulation as on November 11
is C17.87 lakh crore. RBI presses printed 2,119.5 crore pieces
of bank notes during 2015-16
as against 2,365.2 crore pieces
in the previous fiscal, Meghwal
said.
During 2015-16, 429.1
crore pieces were C500 notes
and 97.7 crore pieces of
C1,000 were printed as compared to 501.8 crore pieces,
105.2 crore pieces, respectively in the previous fiscal.
Replying to another
quest ion, Meg hwa l s aid
introduction of new series of
b an k n ote s i n v ar i ous
denominations which are distinctly different in terms of
look, design, size and colour
has already been approved by
the Government.

NEW DELHI: Government on

Friday said that call drops in telecom networks cannot be eradicated completely and it is a global phenomenon. The dropping
of calls in wireless network cannot be completely eradicated as it
is a world-wide phenomenon
and happens in every wireless network due to various reasons
including poor radio coverage,
radio interference, loading of
available spectrum, change in
pattern of traffic, shutdown of sites
due to power failures etc," Telecom
Minister Manoj Sinha informed
the Rajya Sabha.
He added that the government and the telecom regulator
Trai are taking all possible steps
with the help of telecom operators
to address the problem of call drop
and bring it down within the permissible limit. Sinha said that the
Telecom Regulatory Authority
of India (Trai) regularly undertakes the drive tests of mobile networks in select cities, highways
and railway routes to assess the
Quality of Service and coverage
around the areas covered in the
drive test routes. As per the data
shared by the minister, Trai
imposed penalty of around C11.8
crore on telecom operators for failing to meet minimum service
quality benchmark and recovered
C10.42 crore out of it.
PTI

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?C8Q 14=60;DAD

arge companies dont react

quickly to problems like
L
demonetisation and expect smart
innovative people to address it,
Hewlett Packard Enterprise Group
India R&D President Naresh Shah
said. He said that there are smart
innovative people who come up
with solutions to address the issue
of the day, one of which was a new
app he had seen on television,
which solves the problem of
standing in bank queues. So, there
are smart innovative people, they will
come up with innovations to address
the issue of the day, but I think the
large companies like us don't react
that quickly to things like demonetisation, he said at the Nasscom
CSR Leadership Summit 2016 here
late last evening. Shah made this
remark when asked at a panel discussion chaired by TV journalist
Chandra Ranganathan Shrikant
if companies are looking at problems faced by people due to
demonetisation.
PTI

etisation initiative, said the note,

adding that GDP will slow to 6.5
per cent in 2016-17, and gradually recover to 7.5 per cent in 201718. According to the report, the
Government is expected to increase
public spending from the next fiscal year to offset the likely lingering impact of a slower growth in the
informal economy.
Moreover, the RBI is also likely to keep monetary policy accommodative for a prolonged period,
which will help private consumption
to recover once again in the next fiscal year, especially in the second half.
This could help push up FY18 real
GDP growth to about 7.5 per cent,
with the recovery likely to be more
back-ended, Deutsche Bank added.
The global brokerage expects CPI
inflation to average under 5 per
cent both in 2016-17 and 201718, opening up considerable
additional room for rate cuts.

FPV^]Ad]eTX[TS

NEW DELHI: Maruti Suzuki

India on Friday launched a
limited edition version of its
hatchback Wagon R, priced
between C4.4 lakh and C5.37
lakh (ex-showroom Delhi),
in the country. The variant
Wagon R Felicity comes
with various features
including reverse parking
sensors with display and
voice guidance, body graphics and rear spoiler.
Wagon R is one of the
most successful car brands ever
in India. As the brand has
evolved, its popularity and loyalty have grown. We wanted to
celebrate the brand by creating
something distinct and special,
which is fresh and feature rich,
Maruti Suzuki India Executive
Director Marketing & Sales RS
Kalsi said in a statement. PTI

NEW DELHI: Textiles Ministry

is eyeing niche overseas markets
to boost domestic handloom and
handicraft exports as many global companies are willing to tie up
with Indian weavers and artisans,
a top official said on Friday.
There is a huge scope for promoting Indian handloom and
handicraft products in the niche
markets world over, Textiles
Secretary Rashmi Verma said at
an Assocham event here. She
said that though overseas shipments of most sectors declined,
handicraft exports continued to
grow at 17 per cent.
The Textiles Secretary said
that all stakeholders should make
efforts to engage with local artisans and weavers and hand-hold
them for ensuring that they get
right price and market for their
products. Verma said the ministry
has signed memoranda of under-

standing (MoUs) with 20 e-commerce firms to engage with artisans and weavers in various
handloom and handicraft clusters
and provide them a direct marketing platform. This will go a
long way in ensuring that they get
the rightprice for their product as
they are able to sell their product
directly to the consumer, she said.
Verma said the Government
is taking measures for skilling
weavers, for giving them design
inputs, quality raw material,
tools and upgrading their looms
to empower them so that they
continue to remain engaged in
this craft. We are finding that
younger generation is slowly
getting disinterested in this sector and moving towards information technology (IT) as the
children of the weavers and artisans are not joining this profession, she observed. PTI

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Dff<jZRTTfdVU`WWRZ]Z_X
e`dRgVC`YZ_XjR>fd]Z^d
Yangon: Nobel Peace Prize
winner Aung San Suu Kyi on
Friday stood accused of failing to protect Myanmars
Rohingya Muslims from what
rights groups say is a systematic campaign of abuse by the
Army.
The democracy icon, garlanded by the international
community as a moral force
during Myanmars junta years,
has remained near-silent
despite mounting evidence of
army abuses in Rakhine State.
The United Nations has
said recent security operations
amount to ethnic cleansing of
the Muslim Rohingya minority, with thousands fleeing to
neighbouring Bangladesh.
Suu Kyi, Myanmars de
facto leader, has seen her halo
start to slip since her party took
power this year after winning

D=) <hP]\Pa
RPaahX]VTcW]XR
R[TP]bX]V^U
A^WX]VhP

Teknaf
(Bangladesh):
Myanmar is carrying out ethnic cleansing of Rohingya
Muslims, a UN official has
reportedly said, as horrifying
stories of gang rape, torture and
murder emerge from among
the thousands who have fled to
Bangladesh.
Up to 30,000 of the impoverished ethnic group have
abandoned their homes in
Myanmar to escape the unfolding violence, the UN says, after
troops poured into the narrow
strip where they live earlier this
month. John McKissick, head
of the United Nations refugee
agency (UNHCR) in the
Bangladeshi border town of
Coxs Bazar, told the BBC that
troops were killing men,
shooting them, slaughtering
children, raping women, burning and looting houses, forcing
these people to cross the river
into Bangladesh.
Dhaka has resisted urgent
international appeals to open
its border to avert a humanitarian crisis, instead telling
Myanmar it must do more to
prevent the stateless Rohingya
minority from entering.
Its very difficult for the
Bangladeshi government to
say the border is open because
this would further encourage
the government of Myanmar to
continue the atrocities and
push them out until they have
achieved their ultimate goal of
ethnic cleansing of the Muslim
minority in Myanmar,
McKissick said.
AFP

the countrys first free elections

in a generation.
Her failure to speak out in
support of the Rohingya is
baffling to an international
audience that persists in casting her as a human rights
icon, said David Mathieson of
Human Rights Watch.
One version to explain
her silence is callous indifference, another is calculated
limited messaging... But the
most likely is she simply has no
control over the Burmese
army. Thousands of Rohingya
have fled the army lockdown
in Rakhine to Bangladesh,
bringing with them horrifying
stories of gang rape, torture
and murder at the hands of
Myanmars military.
Rights groups say the military has used attacks on police
border posts last month as an

excuse for a crackdown on the

Rohingya, a Muslim group
reviled by many Myanmar
Buddhists.
The government flatly
denies the allegations, saying
troops are defending the country from an armed insurgency.
It has barred investigators
and foreign journalists from
the locked-down area and
lashed out at reports of abuse
as fabrications.
Suu Kyi, who has travelled
to India and Japan during the
six-week crisis, has commented only to say a probe into the
attacks was underway in accordance with the law.
But she has faced growing
criticism for her inaction.
The UN special rapporteur
on Myanmar, Yanghee Lee,
has slammed the lockdown as
unacceptable.
AFP

0c[TPbc" ZX[[TS
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Tehran: At least 31 people
were killed in Iran on Friday
when a passenger train
rammed into the back of an
intercity express which had
broken down, the provincial
governor said.
More than 70 people were
admitted to hospital after the
crash in the northern province
of Semnan on the main line
between the capital Tehran
and second city Mashhad,
Mohammad Reza Khabbaz
told state television.
The express train, operating one of Irans longest distances services from Tabriz in
the northwest to Mashhad,
had been forced to stop
between stations by a mechanical failure, perhaps caused by
the cold November weather,
Khabbaz said.
Two of its coaches burst
into flames when the train
behind ran into the back of it
at 7:50 am (0420 GMT).
AFP

$VFDOLSKDWHVKULQNV
,6,6VWUXJJOHVLQ(J\SW
Cairo: As the Islamic State
group loses territory in Iraq
and Syria, one of its deadliest
branches is struggling against
Egypts powerful army to maintain a foothold in the Sinai
Peninsula. The affiliate, known
as Sinai Province, has waged a
murky war in the north of the
peninsula bordering Israel that
has killed hundreds of soldiers and policemen.
It also claimed the bombing of a Russian airliner carrying holidaymakers from a
south Sinai resort in October
2015 that killed all 224 people
on board. Egypts tourism has
yet to recover.
But Sinai Province has
been unable to seize population
centres, with one attempt to
occupy a town in 2015 ending
with the military unleashing F-

16 jets against the jihadists.

Instead the group has tried
to keep up a steady war of attrition involving roadside bombings, sniper fire and checkpoint
attacks such as the one on
Thursday that killed eight soldiers.
The jihadists are increasingly encircled in the peninsula, with the military razing sections of a town bordering the
Palestinian Gaza Strip to create
a buffer zone and destroying
tunnels there, while setting up
checkpoints on routes out.
The militarys biggest success is that they have been able
to contain the insurgency, by
and large, to North Sinai, said
Jantzen Garnett, an expert on
the jihadists with the Navanti
Group analytics company.
The army had been strug-

gling to quash the insurgency

that took off in 2013 after the
military ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, unleashing a bloody crackdown on his
followers.
Three years into the insurgency, however, a decisive victory against the jihadists
appears distant, as Thursdays
attack suggests.
The Egyptian army has
made some short-term
progress against (Sinai
Province) over the past year but
the militant group continues to
adapt and this progress should
not be construed as long-term
success, Garnett said.
The military upped up its
presence in the Sinai following
the July 1 attempt at taking over
Sheikh Zuweid, analyst
Mokhtar Awad said.
AFP

7d]SaTSbU[TTfX[SUXaTb]TPa9TadbP[T\
05? Q 94ADB0;4<

undreds of people were

evacuated from an
H
Israeli village near Jerusalem
overnight, police said today, as
firefighters battled wildfires
that have forced tens of thousands to flee around the country.
The evacuations in Beit
Meir, a cooperative village of
religious Jews, came after
60,000 people in Israel's thirdlargest city Haifa were moved
to safety on Thursday because
of a spate of fires.
"All the Beit Meir area has
been evacuated -- several hundred people, maybe 400," police
spokesman Micky Rosenfeld
told AFP.
Rosenfeld said that a suspect had been arrested in connection with the blaze, but did
not elaborate.
Police have arrested a number of people in connection
with the fires across the country.

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Budapest: The far-right mayor
of a Hungarian village says
councillors have voted to ban
the construction of mosques
and the activity of muezzins, as
well as the use of veils and
headscar ves like burqas,
chadors and burkinis worn by
Muslim women.
Asotthalom mayor Laszlo
Toroczkai says the ordinance
was adopted to defend the villages community and traditions from any EU scheme to
resettle asylum-seekers among
the members of the 28-nation
bloc.
The southern village is on
the border with Serbia and has
been a major entry point into
Hungary for migrants on the
Balkan route trying to reach
Western Europe.
AP

(UGRJDQWKUHDWHQVWRRSHQ #db__`c[Y\\UTY^CibYQ^
7XUNH\ERUGHUVWRPLJUDQWV 7_fdQYbcdbY[U*1^[QbQ
05?Q 8BC0=1D;

urkish President Recep

Tayyip Erdogan on Friday
threatened to throw open
Turkeys borders to illegal
migrants after the European
Parliament voted to back a
freeze in membership talks
with Ankara.
Listen to me. If you go any
further, then the frontiers will
be opened, bear that in mind,
Erdogan told the European
Union (EU) in a speech in

Istanbul. On March 18, Ankara

and Brussels forged a deal for
Turkey to halt the flow of
migrants to Europe -- an
accord that has largely been
successful in reducing numbers
crossing the Aegean Sea
between Turkey and Greece.
Turkey agreed to step up
maritime and land border controls in exchange for incentives
on its long-stalled membership
bid, including visa-free travel
for its citizens and an acceleration of accession talks.

0?Q 8BC0=1D;

hree Turkish soldiers were

killed in northern Syria in
what the Turkish military said
was a pre-dawn Syrian
airstrike, an account disputed
by Syrian activists, who said the
soldiers were killed by an
Islamic State suicide attack the
day before.
The Turkish military said
on Thursday in a statement on
its website that the attack took
place at 3:30 am, but did not

provide an exact location.

Turkeys state-run Anadolu
news agency said the airstrike
took place near the town of alBab, which Turkish-backed
Syrian opposition forces are
trying to take back from the
Islamic State group.
However, a Syrian monitoring group that tracks the
conflict through a network of
activists on the ground said the
Turkish soldiers were killed by
an IS suicide attack on
Wednesday.

Some are suspected of

criminal negligence leading to
accidental fires in tinder-dry
woodland and undergrowth,
while there are also suspicions
that some may have been deliberate and related to the IsraelPalestinian conflict.
Police on Friday morning
reported the outbreak of a new
fire near the southern town of
Kiryat Gat.
In the north, thousands of
residents of the mixed JewishArab coastal city of Haifa spent
the night in temporary accommodation.
The Haifa fires were "under

control" on Friday morning,

Rosenfeld said, but he cautioned that "things can change
and develop as we speak."
Firefighters and rescue services say strong and changeable
winds make developments
hard to predict.
"At the moment, (Haifa)
residents who were evacuated
from their homes are not
allowed to go back," police
spokeswoman Luba Samri said
in a statement.
Entire neighbourhoods of
the port city have been evacuated, along with Haifa
University and local prisons.

DUXbQ^cUU[cd_eWXUbQSdY_^
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Tehran: Irans President
Hassan Rouhani called for
tougher action by the Iraqi
Government on Friday after a
jihadist suicide bombing killed
at least 70 people, most of them
Iranian pilgrims.
Yesterdays huge truck
bomb blast, claimed by the
Islamic State group, ripped
through a petrol station south
of Baghdad where buses
packed with pilgrims returning
from the Shiite shrine city of
Karbala were parked.
I strongly request the
Iraqi Government to deal more
resolutely with the perpetrators

of such inhumane acts,

Rouhani said in a message
published by the official IRNA
news agency.
The Islamic Republic of
Iran is determined to wage an
all-out fight against terrorists
and extremists, and is confident that with unity and solidarity from the people of
Iraq, we shall soon witness its
final victory.
Yesterdays bombing in
Babylon province came as
Iraqi forces mount a huge
assault on ISIS bastion Mosul
with support from Iran as well
as a US-led coalition. AFP

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Jalalabad: At least five people
were killed and 27 others
wounded in a triple bombing in
eastern
Afghanistans
Nangarhar province on Friday,
provincial officials said. There
was no claim of responsibility
for the three bombings in
Jalalabad, the capital of
Nangarhar province, which is
a hotbed of IS militancy. AFP

ODNKSDVVHQJHUVKLWRQ
WKLUGGD\RI/XIWKDQVDVWULNH
have tried to pick up some
of the slack by expanding their
service to Germany. The
groups other airlines
Germanwings, Air Dolomiti
and Brussels Airlines have
not been affected by the strike.
The top-selling daily Bild
says the strike is costing
Lufthansa some 10 million
euros ($10.5 million) a day.
AFP

Berlin: Germanys flagship airline Lufthansa said 830 domestic and European flights were
being scrapped on Friday,
affecting more than than
100,000 passengers, on the
third day of a strike by pilots
demanding higher pay.
More than 2,600 flights
have been cancelled since the
start of the walkout, which the
pilots union Vereinigung

Cockpit (VC) yesterday

announced would be extended
into Saturday.
The strike is Lufthansas
14th since April 2014. VC are
demanding a pay rise of an
average of 3.66 per cent per
year, retroactive for the past five
years. The management are
offering 2.5 per cent.
Austrian Airlines and Swiss
part of the Lufthansa group

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Kano: Boko Haram jihadists

have raided three villages in
northeastern Nigeria, killing
five people and setting fire to
several homes and fields, residents have said.
Armed members of the
extremist group on Wednesday
sped into the villages of
Huyum, Sabongarin Huyum
and Wasada on motorbike,
killing five villagers and looting their property before setting
fire to their homes and farms,
witnesses said.
The armed men arrived at 4
pm and for four hours they
held us all hostage, Huyum
resident Bala Jonah said. AFP

London: Since Britain voted to

leave the European Union, UK
officials have had one message:
Brexit means Brexit. Now they
have EU leaders reply: And its
going to hurt. The Prime
Minister of Malta, whose country is about to assume the EU
presidency, is the latest leader
to dash Britains hopes of an
easy divorce, signaling that the
27 other nations will drive a
hard bargain. Joseph Muscat
told the BBC that there will
not be a situation when the UK
has a better deal than it has on
Friday.
AP

Aleppo: Syrian regime air

strikes and artillery bombardment on Friday on rebel-held
areas in eastern Aleppo killed
at least 16 civilians, four of
them children, a monitor said.
The Britain-based Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights
said the assault came on the
10th day of an offensive by
Government forces to retake
the east of Syrias second city
from the insurgents.
AFP

NOTICE INVITING e-TENDERS

The Executive Engineer, C.B.M. Division
M-332(N), PWD at D.T.U. Campus,
Bawana Road, Delhi-42 invites on
behalf of President of India online PERCENTAGE RATE tender for the following works from approved and eligible contractors of CPWD and For
"MES, BSNL & other State
Government Department dealing
with Building and Road and other
experienced contractors through eprocurement solution:1. Tender
ID
No.
2016_PWD_118526_1,
NIT
No.67/EE/PWD/M-332(N)/2016-17
Name of Work: Retro Fitting and
Restoration of Dangerous / Weak
R.C.C. Beam, Slab and Walls of
Entrance Portion in Old Pucca
Building and Re-alignment of Storm
Water Drain due to Abandoned Line
Near Gate at S.K.V., C-Block,
Sultanpuri, Delhi.
Estimated Cost: Rs.10,42,167/Ear nest Money: Rs.20,843/Time of Completion: 60 Days
The last date to fill/upload the tender
through e-tendering is 28.11.2016 upto
3:00 P.M. and online opening at 3:30
P.M. on 28.11.2016.
The tender form and other details can
be obtained from the web site:
https://govtprocurement.delhi.gov.in.
DIP/Shabdarth/2556/16-17

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ot too many musicians in
Bollywood can boast of a discography that is as impressive as composer duo Vishal-Shekhars. The partners,
who lately performed in the city at the
Royal Stag Barrel Select MTV Unplugged,
left the audience singing and jumping on
their tunes. Holding his cup of coffee right
before the performance, Vishal smiled and
said, It is always amazing to perform for
the audience who is energetic and supporting. And the remaining help is the coffee.
A strong one. In the past, the singer and
music director has also performed with
Chris Martin, front man of the British rock
band Coldplay. For Vishal it is coffee that
helps before his performance, Shekhar
believes that it is the rush they get from
audience that is the key. It takes a lot of
energy to perform live. You can improvise
as much as you want but if you go wrong
then there is no way you can undo it.
However, if the audience is willing to participate in the performance, I fear less and
gets extra power from it, he said.
Starting their journey from the movie
Pyar Mein Kabhi Kabhi, Shekhar recalled,
I was asked to do two songs for PMKK.
One day, as I was leaving the recording studio, I saw Vishal walk in. When we got to
know that both of us were working on the
same film, we interacted more and played
our songs for each other. Then we decided to do the last song of the film together. Thats how Vishal-Shekhar was formed.
Vishal was simply happy to find a friend
for it was his debut. He said, We were just
happy to be in the same space at the same
time. We played each other our tracks.
More than competitive, it was really excit-

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ing and also inspiring because Shekhar is

more of an evolved musician than I am.
Fast forward seventeen years now, VishalShekhar has given some of the biggest hits
to the Indian music industry.
The duo has also judged some of the
singing reality shows. Appreciating the
young talent that participates in the competition, Shekhar said, Its great that we
have many talent shows. Since we have
loads of talent in our country and there are
not as many avenues to accommodate it,
we should applaud the little efforts which
are done. However, Vishal gets disappointed when people call these talent shows fake

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fter a long cut shot, J.P. Clarkin, a professional polo player, picks the ball
A
from the centre ground and pulls it
towards the goal post. With his horse
stretching well in itself and galloping in the
direction of the post, he suddenly stretches his mallet from a 40-yard distance from
the goal post and hits hard on the ball making it cross the two poles- converting into
a goal for Jindal Panthers. The excitement
in the final match of polo championship
between Jindal Panthers and Rajnigandha
Achievers is very high indeed. On a
vibrantly green and immaculately groomed
field, the polo players gather near the main
stand - as they do after every goal.
Standing in the Taj Mahal Hotel
lounge at the Jaipur Polo Ground with a
glass of fine Scotch and watching the
game of polo, we feel no less than royalty. But according to a former polo player, Samir Suhag, there is more to the
game of kings than what meets the eye.
It is not only about riding the horse in
those leather boots and swinging the mallet. The player needs to coordinate with
the horse and at the same time keep an
eye on the field for the ball. So apart from
being an elegant sport, it is also about
coordinating, he says. Further talking
about the development this game has
seen, Suhag adds, Polo is developing very
quickly, in both traditional and emerging
destinations. He further says, There are
beautiful polo facilities being built and
young players are drawn to the game. Its
an extremely exciting time to be a part of
the scene.
In fact, this ancient sport is enjoying
a regal renaissance as its luxurious aura and
finesse attract players and spectators from
emerging markets across the world; keen
to indulge in the rich traditions shared
both on and off the polo pitch. Also, the
royal affiliation is now part and parcel of

the polo scene an aspect that has helped

attract a new generation of players and
spectators from across the world.
A game thats older than recorded history, polo was first played as a simulated
war game by Central Asian nomads, with
up to 100 players battling it out on each
team. The sport taught essential equestrian skills and helped forge that timeless
bond between man and horse. It was eventually adopted by the Persian royal family as a training regime for the kings elite
cavalry.
However, modern polo is said to have
originated in Manipur, where Silchar Polo
Club was founded in 1859 by British cavalry officers and plantation owners who
observed the locals playing a strategic and
fast-paced match on stout polo ponies. It
wasnt then long until the games place as an

essential of high society was cemented.

Polo, till a few years ago, was a virgin sport. Those who played were the ones
who watched. Now, the audience has
grown and changed. These days polo
remains above all a popular sport among
the independently wealthy and the upper
classes. As a result polo clubs have acquired
an air of exclusivity, played within an ambience that is still decidedly privileged and
aristocratic, says Suhag.
While we are talking to Suhag, the
Jindal Panthers push the ball through the
goal post, for the winning point. This
game is more popular because of the legacy it holds. Once reserved only for the royals, the game now is open for anybody and
everybody to learn and play. However, the
game still needs to be promoted as its a
part of our heritage, he concludes.

or scripted. We respect the participants

who come from different parts of the world
for showcasing their talent. The efforts they
put are far beyond we can imagine. And
calling it useless or scripted, simply blows
my mind, Vishal gushed. Both the music
directors have always been on the front
foot when it comes to giving chance to the
new talent. These new kids have so much
in them and they are absolutely capable of
singing in any genre. There talent cannot
simply be explained in words, he added.
While both of them were positive
about the EDM genre becoming a major
part of the music industry in India,

Shekhar said, There are new forms of

music and it keeps evolving. And EDM has
evolved into different sub-genres. All
these genres are now explored. There are
some tracks in Bollywood which have bits
of electronic music in them and they have
done pretty well. So we will soon be getting more of electronic in our desi tracks.
Where Vishal is also on a jury panel of an
English singing talent show, he believes
that language is a very small aspect of
music. Moreover, it can not be a decisive
factor for anybody who wants to enter the
music industry. He said, Music is music.
Language is a tiny aspect of it. They are

singing and are talented and in no time,

even with singing songs in English language, they will create a niche for themselves in the world of music.
When asked if their equation has
changed over the past years, both of them
looked at each other and laughed.
Shekhar is like a family. We do fight a lot.
And there is often a difference in our
opinions. But we try to keep intact, said
Vishal.
On the other hand, Shekhar cracked,
We have broken up many times and we
just dont talk to each other. We have
recently patched up though.

4=2>D=C4A $<8=DC4B

hocolates and laddus made

of protein rich quinoa and
C
healthier chia seeds, ice-creams
enriched with omega-3, multigrain banana bars and carbonated fruit juices, the superfoods
developed by the CSIR- Central
Food Technological Research
Institute (CFTRI) are an innovation for the common man.
Finally, we may better the
nations health index with a scientific approach to mass diet
patterns.
The products exhibited at
the India International Trade
Fair at Pragati Maidan both
impress and surprise us with the
range and scope of their utility
and potency. The main focus of
developing the superfoods is to
introduce health and nutrition
best practices to everyday life.
Superfoods have a superior
nutrition profile and on regular
consumption are guaranteed to
improve health and wellness.
People in the country have
been going through a nutrition
transition and there is an
increase in incidence of diabete
and obesity while there is still
rampant malnutrition, said
director CSIR- CFTRI, Prof
Ram Rajasekharan. Chia and
quinoa, dubbed super foods for
their nutritional value, are consumed as seeds. These can be
beneficial supplements in a
country like India that has a high
index of malnutrition, he added.
The chocolates are made by
adding the seeds after roasting
them. Ten per cent of the
ingredient of the chocolates are
roasted quinoa and chia. The
content of saturated fat is
reduced by adding the seeds

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whereas that of omega 3 fat,

which is essential for the over all
improvement of health, is high,
Prof Rajasekharan said.
The oil extracted from
quinoa and chia is used to make
ice cream. The ice cream also
has the health benefits of omega
3, he added.
Partially broken seeds are
used to make laddu. Both the
quality and quantity of protein
in the laddu is high. Consuming
it wont raise the blood sugar
level. Its not possible to say that
diabetic patients can take these
products , but the health issues
of consuming them are reduced
to the minimum, he further
said.
In the carbonated drinks
only fresh fruits, which have
grown naturally, are used whereas banana bar is made of spoiled
banana. By making the bar, we

are converting the spoiled

banana into a new product.
Any fruit or grain can be put in
between the bars and can be
consumed as sandwich, the
director said.
On making nutrient-rich
food for the common man,
Prof Rajasekharan said that the
prices of these products will be
competitive. We have started
producing them on a commer-

cial basis. But the price is less

compared to the other products
available in the market. At IITF
they are cheaper, he said.
CFTRI worked on various
facets of food technology, food
processing, advanced nutrition, and allied sciences for
developing the superfoods. It
has developed the agro-technology for growing chia ( a
species of flowering plant in the
mint family) and quinoa (of the
flowering plant family) in
Indian conditions. Chia is the
richest source of omega-3 fats
from a vegetarian source and
quinoa has excellent protein
quality and low glycemic load
carbohydrates. They have the
potential to improve health
condition and both blend
seamlessly into traditional food
preparations.
Leading scientists of CFTRI,
Mysore have been working on
the project to develop an indigenous variety of the two highly
nutritious grain crops that are
grown and used widely across
the world for the past four
years. We have set up an independent department to work on
molecular nutrition to develop
the technology. The team has
worked for four years to develop that. We modified the seeds
of chia and quinoa to grow them
in India, the director said.

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ts my brothers birthday
today and I am in Delhi
to surprise him. Dont
tell him I am here, actress
Sandhya Mridul confided while
pulling a chair for herself. She
loves to crackle in a conversation but her busy schedule at
PoW, the home-grown twist
on Homeland, hardly allows
her to do that. Still she looks for
an opportunity to be back in her
hometown, even if it is for
show promotions. I have spent
my early childhood in Delhi. I
love everything about this city.
The food and life here are
unmatchable and bring me back
time and again, she told us.
Known for her performance-oriented films and stage
presence, Sandhya is now back
on TV and it wont be dodgy if
we say, with a bang. She
admitted, I am very happy that
I am part of a good story and a
purposeful project. The storyline caught my eye at the first
read, especially Nazneens character. Also Nikkhil is one of my
favourite directors in the industry. He is into the character
details and scenes not only
physically but emotionally too.
His vision and control over the
medium of story-telling is very
strong. I have never worked
with Nikkhil before though I
had loved his Dday. I have
always met him socially. What
amazes me working with him is
the passion and boundless energy that he comes on set with. He
understands his actors very
well, she said.
Sandhya is portraying the
character of Nazneen Khan,
mother of two children who
brings them up single-handedly while her husband goes missing since the Kargil War. In the
process, she has also moved on
emotionally from him and
found a partner in his brother.
This character is the biggest
challenge for me, not only
because it is an emotional character but also because its totally different from who I am.
Nazneen is more internalised,
fragile, vulnerable and feminine.
She thinks before speaking. I
dont know all of that. And the
biggest challenge for me was
how to convey the pain of the
wife of a prisoner of war. You
dont know what it feels like and
you cant cheat on that. You cant
ham it. You will have to convey
the pain and which is why you
will have to stay honest. And
hence the biggest challenge was
to become that woman. It took
me two weeks to understand
and feel her. Now I build up on
that. The flip side is Nazneen
stays with me even after the
shoot. Initially, I would break

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down at home but now I am
more in control after the shoot,
she elaborated. Personally
though, Sandhya is very much
like her character in the film
Page 3, except that she would
not fall for an old man.
Of course, Nazneen has
clearly impacted her deeply for
she couldnt hold her tears
when she started talking about
her mother. She was widowed
very young and she used to be
very upset and quiet. She would
cry often and I thought she was
weak. Now after so many years,
let me tell you I have never seen

a stronger woman. She never

showed her strength and
brought us up commendably.
Today, I realise that there was
more strength in her quietness
than in anybodys noise.
Undoubtedly she was shattered
but she has picked up her and
our lives. Sometimes I feel this
character is based on her. I started feeling that the way this
woman is holding herself is the
way my mother held herself,
she explained.
Sandhya told us that essaying the hardships of a single
mother does take a toll and

post-shoot she sought solace in

music and meditation. I meditate and play every kind of yoga
nidra before going to sleep.
When I wake up, I play Shiva
and Buddhist chants. Music
helps me a lot, is my biggest saviour, she laughed. Back to
being single after a separation,
much of her pain too gets projected. Right now, she is in a
happy space, hanging out with
her girl gangs though she is still
bad at handling money.
As a kid, Sandhya used to
act like Madhubala and Helen.
I always wanted to be an actor.

I even told someone that I

wanted to be like Helen. But my
father never wanted me to be an
actor. I still remember him saying, my daughter will never be
an actor and this got stuck in
my mind somewhere. I avoided this career for years because
I was very close to my father and
did not want to let him down.
I took up a marketing assignment but wasnt happy at all.
Years later, after our father had
left us, I told my mother of my
deepest desire and said I wanted to be an actor despite knowing my dad up there would be
very angry. And she said, He
gave you more freedom than I
have. You do what you want to
do with dedication and dignity.
Every type of work that I have
done, I have always kept my
family in mind. They are very
important to me.
Sandhya is quite selective
about the kind of roles she
chooses. Be it films or television,
she has no qualms about not
jumping at every project that
comes her way. Acting is not
my career, its my playground
and when you go out to play,
you wont play a boring game.
Its my hobby, my passion. I cant
do things that will put me in
news and give money but will
not give me any respect. I am
not capable of it because I have
not been brought up like that. I
am not fond of dressing up or
make-up, I only enjoy the acting part, she gushed.
I have been offered so
many TV shows by now, I cant
even tell you but I never took
them because they didnt interest me. And if they dont impress
me, I dont want to be there, she
added. It is not aspirational to
always see women over madeup. We are just being real.
Women do not put make up all
the time. When I get out of bed,
I dont look like this at all. I take
only 20 minutes to get ready and
even that is irritating for me.
Ask my hair and make-up artist.
The irony is that the women in
the industry have been told for
a very long time that if you dont
have big b**bs, you are not
going to be a heroine. And every
bit of revenue is appearance-driven. And having said that,
does she condone the projection
of women on television? At this,
Sandhya turns a tad diplomatic for our taste. Yes, there is an
audience for every kind of genre
and role, cliched and pathbreaking. A Naagin works too.
I am happy with the viewership
that I can draw. I never worry
about TRPs, thats my producers call. We sure would like
Sandhya to challenge traditional roles on TV more regularly.

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aran will grill the boys
on their history with
K
Deepika Padukone, SRKs
padded underwear comment and much more. But
not to be easily stumped by
Karan, Ranbir and Ranveer
respond in their truly
Besharam and Befikre styles.
While fans will be able
to witness the RanbirRanveer bromance on the
much awaited episode, the
bonding is supposedly not
limited to the show. Did
you know the supremely
talented actor R anbir
Kapoor wants to don the
directors hat one day? On
the show, the two actors
speak about wanting to star
in a film together directed
by Ranbir. Temporarily
called Project X, the actor
duo also offer Karan Johar
chance to produce the film.
The boys go on to talk
about the common love
factor between them.
Deepika Padukone you say?
Not really! We are talking
about the renowned director Sanjay Leela Bhansali.
Being quizzed about their
current equation with the
profound filmmaker,
Ranbir talks about his once
in a lifetime experience of
working on the sets of Black
and how Bhansali has been
the biggest cinematic influence in his life. Ranveer
adds to the conversation
terming Bhansali as a complete actors director, being
one of the few directors
who gives an artist wings to
fly. Clearly, no loss of love
from the Saawariya and
Bajirao Mastani actors for
Bhansali.
Seen as the two current
reigning superstars of
B ollywood, they have
always been pitted against
each other and when
quizzed about their relationship dynamics and

views about each other as

competitors, Ranbir accepts
that they are not the best of
friends but does add that
they respect each others
work. Ranbir says hes glad
to have competition in
Ranveer as he inspires him
and is a little scared that
Ranveer has no limits.
Ranveer returns the compliments by accepting that
Ranbir has always been the
benchmark.
Reacting to Shah Rukh
Khans jibe on the first
episode of the chat show
when he said he was curious if the actor was wearing
padded underwear in his
next film. I am just saving
them (makers of Befikre)
post-production cost.
Otherwise, they will have to
do VFX on my red chillies,
said Ranveer, tongue firmly in cheek, referring to
SRKs production banner.
He also shared his
insights on having space
in relationships by saying,
If you want space and all,
you should join NASA.
There is no such thing
called space.
And just when you
thought the episode couldnt pack more punch, Arjun
Kapoor joins the steaming
couch in which he gets
kissed by Ranbir when
Karan asked the latter if he
has dated any of his friends
exes.
As Ranveer Singh and
Ranbir Kapoor sizzle on the
couch be sure to catch the
episode this Sunday at 9
PM only on Star World.

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he lively beat of the dhol mixed with

lyrical Gujarati folk songs echo in the
T
air as we enter the exhibition grounds.
Moving closer, we pass various stalls displaying Rajasthani savouries, to camel
leather shoes, silk quilts to ceramic
planters. Looks a bit like a bustling
medieval bazaar. We see dancers float
on the stage in their heavily-embroidered
ghagra, choli and dupatta, decked with
jewellery, even as they perform precarious acts with nimble steps and swaying
their bodies. There is excitement and joie
de vivre, whoops and claps, as men and
women, old and young, and even toddlers, dance around the garba deep.
A few steps further, we notice the little men sport handle-bar moustaches
and colourful turbans, the women in
flowing stone-studded ghagras and
white, heavy bangles. Well, these are dolls
made of wood and cloth and are pulled
by strings while they enact stories of
chivalrous kings and pretty queens.
This is Katputli ka Khel (puppet show),
one of the most popular, traditional folk
art forms of Rajasthan.
Moving ahead, chanderi cottons
from Madhya Pradesh and a wide range
of brass products catch our eyes. The
idea behind this exhibition named
Heritage 365 is to bring three states of
India, namely Gujarat, Rajasthan and
Madhya Pradesh, to one platform. The
artform and their culture have been
blended together for the people of Delhi.
It is also a reminder to the city people

that we should include traditional Indian

art and craft in our daily lives as well,
says Aman Nath, the founder-trustee of
the Neemrana Music Foundation.
He further adds, It has always been
my endeavour to promote Indian heritage and to showcase what we can offer
by repackaging the unrivalled crafts, culture and tradition of the chosen states,
re-imagined by the countrys foremost
creative minds. But this area has
remained unrepresented.
Hinting on three new states next
year, he smiles and continues, We may

come up with Bengal, Odissa and some

other state with artistic value.
The exhibition also gives an opportunity to the shopaholics like us to
splurge on traditional kundan, polki, silver jewellery along with contemporary
fashion accessories, handcrafted mojaris,
bags and travel kits. Several master
craftsmen like Nirmal Salvi, famous for
Patan Patola sarees, Abdul Jabbar Khatri
and Padma Shri awardee Mohammad
Tyaab Khan for tie and dye, Abdul Rauf
Khatri for ajarakha block printing and
Vankar Shamji Vishram for handloom
weaving are also seen here.
We have brought the hand-dyeing
art from Jodhpur to Delhi. This art
which used to be practised in France and
was priced above C25,000. We have
recreated the same artworks but they are
all hand-done with prices ranging from
C2500 to 6000. Through this venture I
have given employment to almost 90 per
cent widows of Jodhpur who didnt
have any supporting hand, said Tyaab
Khan.
Jute jhoolas, oval table mats featuring rabari embroidery and intricately
carved wooden jharokhas painted in soft
colours, seem to infuse new life into the
traditional fare. Choosing a bandhej
saree for her, we meet the organiser of
the exhibition, Vandana Haksar. This
exhibition brings out, albeit in a small
way, the contemporary relevance of all
three states traditional craft skills, she
says.
The exhibition also features
Anupama Bose, Sanjay Garg, Purvi
Doshi, Vaya, Bodhi, Button Masala and
O Layla, Pero, Rasa for clothes, Sameer
Wheaton with furniture, Anantaya for
home dcor and Amrapali for exquisite
jadau and silver jewellery, among others.
Such exhibitions provide great
exposure but in terms of footfalls, our
expectations are not met, says Manju
Singh, a furniture designer.

b_^ac $

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ndian captain Virat Kohli says

I"respects"
comeback man Parthiv Patel
the fact that he is a

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he deadlock broken in the

most comprehensive manner,
hosts India would look to do an
encore by putting England through
another rigorous spin test when the
two teams square off in the third
cricket Test starting here on Saturday.
After their 246-run win in the
second Test, Virat Kohli and his boys
have got the requisite confidence
needed to outclass the visitors, who
put up a spirited fight in the first two
matches.
However, as luck would have it,
Kohli will not be able to field the
winning
combination
as
Wriddhiman Saha is out with a
thigh strain, ensuring that Parthiv
Patel gets to play a Test match after
eight long years.
Last time when Parthiv played a
Test, current coach Anil Kumble was
the captain while Sachin Tendulkar,
Virender Sehwag, VVS Laxman,
Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly
were very much a part of the side.
India were at the receiving end of the
then newly introduced technology
known as Decision Review System.
The PCA Stadium track, once a
paradise for speedsters which later
became a bowlers' graveyard only to
undergo another transformation into
a rank turner, will be the cynosure of

all eyes.
A rank turner may not be on
offer but the 22-yard strip that is
devoid of any grass will surely help
the tweakers as the game progresses.
One can brace for at least another
four-day show if not full five days.
As far as Kohli is concerned, the
backdrop could not have been more
interesting and the wild allegations of
ball tampering levelled by a section
of British media could surely act as
a catalyst for him to do a Faf du
Plessis. A du Plessis-like century will
be a befitting reply to all the conspiracy theories that have been floated. In sublime form with 337 runs
under his belt, the Indian captain, on
his day, can make life really difficult
for the English bowlers, who are certainly feeling the effect of his blazing
blade.
While Jimmy Anderson did
make an impressive comeback, the
absence of Stuart Broad will definitely
affect England as the lanky fast
bowler performed superbly despite
injury during the Visakhapatnam
Test match. Add to it Zafar Ansari's
sore back has also increased England
captain Alastair Cook's worries. Ben
Duckett, after a wretched run, may
have to sit out making way for an
impact player like Jos Buttler.
In this situation, there is every
possibility that Kohli could make

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ron-willed Usman Khawaja batted out the

entire day to tilt the third day-night Test
Itowards
Australia with a masterful century against
South Africa on Friday.
At the close on the second day in Adelaide, the
Australians were 307 for six in reply to the Proteas'
259 for nine declared, with Khawaja unbeaten on
138 off 285 balls and Mitchell Starc not out 16. The
home side lead by 48 runs.
It was Khawaja's fifth Test century and
arguably his best as Australia seek to prevent the
Proteas from an unprecedented series clean
sweep after huge defeats in the opening two Tests.
Khawaja, who has performed best out of the
Australian batsmen in a troubled series, led the way
with his wristy shotmaking to put the home
side in front in the pinkball Test.
It was the first century by an Australian in
the series and the stylish
left-hander has now
scored 307 runs in the
three Tests.
But his well-crafted
ton was marred by a
mix-up which left skipper Steve Smith stranded as he darted off for a
quick single.
Smith, who was put
down by Hashim Amla
on 46, was sailing along
when his run out for 59
came out of the blue in a bad breakdown in communication with Khawaja.
After Smith called for a quick single off leftarm spinner Tabraiz Shamsi, Khawaja took several tentative steps before wheeling back and Smith
was caught well out of his ground by Vernon
Philander's throw to wicketkeeper Quinton de
Kock.
Smith put on 137 for the third wicket in his
158 minutes at the crease
The South African bowlers laboured to make
a breakthrough for the first time in the series as
Australia's batsmen finally put up a resistance after
several humiliating batting collapses.

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mincemeat of the England attack as
seamer Chris Woakes and Ansari's
possible replacement, off-spinner
Gareth Batty, might not have the
wherewithal to stop the Indian ace.
Cheteshwar Pujara (262 runs in 2
Tests), who has shown a lot of positive intent with back-to-back centuries, will like to consolidate his position in the side with another impressive effort.
While India's first innings efforts
in both Test matches488 and 455
have been good but it has not exactly
been a collective one with only Murali
Vijay contributing up the order with
a hundred, besides Pujara and Kohli.
The only person who could be a touch
worried is Ajinkya Rahane as his total
runs from 4 innings is a mere 63. For
someone who has the distinction of
scoring a hundred at both Melbourne
Cricket Ground (MCG) and the
Lord's, Rahane is too good a player to
fail for long. The talented Mumbai
batsman was seen speaking to
Australian batsman Dean Jones after
his net session on Thursday.
While it seemed like a chance
meeting, Jones was seen trying to
show Rahane a thing or two about

0??C8

footwork.
For KL Rahul, fast-tracked into
the playing XI for the second Test by
pulling him out of Ranji Trophy, skipper Kohli and the selectors have
shown how eagerly they waited for his
recovery from a hamstring injury.
Rahul has always had good scores to
show after a failure and the Mangalore
lad would want to do the same.
India's bowling is more or less
sorted with Ravichandran Ashwin
leading the charge.
One of India's premier matchwinners, Ashwin is at the cusp of
another record. Another five-wicket
haul will put him at par with Kapil
Dev's 23. Considering it will be
Ashwin's 42nd Test match, the record
would be phenomenal purely in terms
of numbers as Dev had this record in
131 matches. Out of the 32 England
wickets taken by bowlers, the spinners
have accounted for 24 of them which
includes 11 in the name of Ashwin, 6
for Ravindra Jadeja, 4 for rookie
Jayant Yadav and 3 for Amit Mishra.
For England, there had been
some good performances but nothing
spectacular. While Haseeb Hameed
can be termed the 'find of the tour' for
England, they would expect one
among Ben Stokes (233), Joe Root
(206) or skipper Alastair Cook (207)
to score a 'Daddy Hundred', which the
visitors desperately need.

stopgap keeper but expects him

to make full use of the opportunity so that he can grab the
second wicketkeeper's slot when
India goes for away Test series.
Parthiv is all set to play a
Test match after eight years due
to first choice glovesman
Wriddhiman Saha's tendonitis.
"We are pretty excited to
have him back although we
won't have thought about
(Wriddhiman) Saha getting
injured at this stage. It's part of
the game. Parthiv understands
the situation he is in. I am pretty glad he respects that and he's
still looking forward to the :>7;870??HF8C73AB
opportunity and try to make a
Asked if he was happy with
mark. He knows when we plan it, Kohli said: "Yes, I am pretty
to take two wicketkeepers away, happy with it. It just confirms the
this is the opportunity."
decision that's been made on the
"Luckily Parthiv's attitude field. And if you want to challenge
has been great. I don't see any the umpire, it's not just you
nerves. He's played enough telling him that he could have
cricket to understand this kind made a different decision, you
of position and situation. He's have the option of checking it
pretty excited to be back and again and figure out if it is wrong
make a mark. He's been peror right. I think it is pretty fair
forming consistently
for the game."
well in first-class
Meanwhile,
;dRZX[h
cricket for the last
Kohli termed the
few years. He's
ball tampering
?PacWXeb
guy who has
allegations
PccXcdSTWPbQTT]
experience at
against him as a
VaTPc8S^]cbTT
the Test level,"
ploy to "shift
P]h]TaeTb7Tb
the skipper
focus from the
_[PhTST]^dVW
backed
the
series" as "ICC
RaXRZTc
choice of the
would have spoEXaPc:^W[X
selectors.
ken to him" had
Whether it's by
there been any iota
choice or design,
of truth in the matter.
Kohli's first XI has always
"I think it's just to take the
had changes according to sur- focus away from the series to be
faces and the skipper said that it honest. It happened in Australia
was the Galle Test match against when South Africa won the
Sri Lanka where India lost chas- series. I'm surprised the issue of
ing a sub-200 total.
what I've been told came up in
"This is something that we Rajkot but there was no mention
made pretty clear when we lost until the result in Vizag," Kohli
the game in Galle and after that said. "To me a newspaper article
we had a pretty clear chat that we doesn't matter over the decision
are going to play people that we of ICC. We as cricketers respect
think are suitable for different that only. And allegations and
venues. The team bought into it. speculations? I don't read news"Even with the batting order papers so I'm not aware of these
changes, we have made changes, things, someone told me and I
I have gone up and down the laughed it off. Some people are
order as well and other batsmen trying to take the focus away
are keen to do it as well. I think from the series good luck to
it sends the message across that them. But we're totally focused
the eventual motive is for the on what we have to do," Kohli
team to win."
said firmly.

&RRNVHHNVFODULW\IURP
,&&RQEDOOWDPSHULQJ

82234A834B
A414;;8>DB505

?C8Q <>70;8

stand-in skipper Faf du Plessis's

decision to lodge an appeal after he
was found guilty of a ball-tampering in the second Test against
Australia in Hobart.
"ICC is disappointed that Faf
du Plessis has chosen not to accept
the findings of match referee Andy
Pycroft and will instead exercise his
right to appeal. A Judicial
Commissioner will now be
appointed to hear the appeal at the
earliest opportunity," world cricket's apex body said in a statement.
Du Plessis was fined 100 per
cent of his match fee after footage
emerged from the second Test of
him applying saliva to the ball with
a mint in his mouth.
The 32-year-old, standing in for
regular captain AB de Villiers,
scored an unbeaten century on day
one of the ongoing day-night Test at
Adelaide Oval, where he was booed
by some locals when reaching three
figures.
Cricket South Africa said in a
statement yesterday he would appeal
the decision, which prompted the
ICC to respond before the second
day's play. Du Plessis was found
guilty of breaching Article 2. 2.9 of
the ICC Code of Conduct.
"The ICC will wait until the
completion of the appeal before
making full comment, but at this
stage it is important to clarify the
Laws of cricket. These state that a
player should not use artificial substances to shine the ball. The ICC
understands that to include, but is
not limited to, sunscreen, lip ice and
residue from sweets,"ICC said in the
statement.
Following the appeal ICC will
review the matter along with its
members and the MCC to see if
there are any learnings to be taken.

?C8Q 034;0834

he International Cricket
Council today expressed disT
appointment at South African

ngland captain Alastair Cook

reckons that there are a lot of
E
"grey areas" as to what exactly
would be considered ball tampering and ICC needs to come
clear on that.
With Faf du Plessis being
docked 100 percent after being
seen applying saliva from a sweet
mint that he was chewing and the
alleged footage published in a
British tabloid of Indian captain
Virat Kohli applying saliva has
been a topic of discussion for the
last few days.
When Cook's opinion was
sought, he gave an elaborate reply:
"I think the players are just looking for the ICC to clarify what is
acceptable and what isn't. If a guy
is chewing a gum or just throwing
jelly beans in his mouth at drinks
break and then happens to shine
the ball in the next over, it
becomes a very grey area."
"If the ICC is saying you must
not put your finger on the sweet
and then straight onto the ball
then it might clear it up. I don't
know if it helps or not, to be brutally honest."
Jos Buttler, who had some
good matches for Mumbai Indians
and has been a fantastic limited
overs player for England, has been
inducted into the playing XI in
place of an out-of-form Ben
Duckett. "Jos is an extremely talented cricketer and we've all seen
that in the One-day and Twenty20
format. He's right up there with the
best short-form players in the
world and he has earned an opportunity to come and play here. It's
clearly not ideal because of circumstances and he has not played
a lot of red-ball cricket but some-

A43a]R__Z_X]VXR]
cVT`fcdVRXRZ_de344:
?C8Q :0A0278

8506DH8B274F8=6
06D<0=3C74=
70??4=BC>B78=4
C7410;;8=C74
=4GC>E4A8C
142><4B0E4AH
6A4H0A40
0;08BC0A2>>:
times when the pressure's off and
you just go out and play you can
do something special. Jos will bat
at No 7 with Mo (Moeen) at four
and Jonny (Bairstow) at No 5,"
Cook revealed the batting order.
Stuart Broad's absence will
certainly hurt their chances feels
Cook. "Stuart's definitely out. It is
a shame after the way he bowled
in that last innings and you wouldn't know that his foot was as bad
as it was but the specialist's advice
is that there is a risk of it going
totally and he would be out for a
period of time. They were quite

surprised how well he got through

those four and a half days after
doing it in the third or fourth over.
"Knowing that (Broad's injury) , if
he played here and did a lot more
damage to the tendon in the second over then you'd look stupid."
On selection of Chris Woakes,
Cook said, "Chris Woakes, who is
a part of that rotation is definitely in and it's just a question of
whether we go with four seamers
and two spinners or three and
three again."
The skipper feels that Saqlain
Mushtaq's presence as a spin consultant has been of great help for
the English spinners. "The difference with our spinner since
Bangladesh is that we have been
able to hit better areas and we've
able to keep the run-rate lower
than it was. The spinners were
going at four and a half runs an
over in Bangladesh on spinning
wickets but here with Saqi's
(Saqlain's nickname) help, all four
spinners have a better trajectory
on the ball."

CB chairman Shaharyar
Khan has said that it
P
could take legal recourse
and seek compensation from
the the BCCI after the ICC
ruled in favour of Pakistan in
a dispute over the women's
series which was not held in
September-October in
Dubai.
"The ICC had asked the
BCCI to show the letters or
any other documents with
their external ministry to
confirm it didn't send its
team to play Pakistan in the
ICC women's champions
league in UAE on advice of
its government," Shaharyar
said. The ICC technical
committee awarded points
to our women's team declaring the series as forfeited by
India because the BCCI
couldn't show any document which confirmed they
were stopped by their government from playing the
series," he said.
The PCB chief said the

ICC had told the BCCI to

show any evidence to back
their claim they couldn't
play Pakistan in a bilateral
series due to government
advice. "The BCCI couldn't
show any document to the
ICC to back their claim
which is why the ICC committee awarded six points to
Pakistan," he said.
The BCCI is not happy
with the ICC decision which
came after Pakistan said it
was ready o host India for
the league championship
series in Dubai. Shaharyar
made it clear that the ICC
decision against the BCCI
had given confidence to the
PCB.
"We now want the
Indian board to provide the
ICC with evidence that they
have been told by their government to not play us in
bilateral series despite a written MOU signed between
the two boards in 2014 to
play six such series between
2015 and 2022," he told the
"Jang" newspaper.

b_^ac %

=4F34;78kB0CDA30H k=>E4<14A!%! %

5HGKRW5RRQH\UHWXUQV
FPh]TR[^bX]VX]^]WXbc^ahPbD]XcTSca^d]RT5ThT]^^aS#*8]cTa^dbcTS
0?Q <0=274BC4A

ayne Rooney surpassed Ruud

van Nistelrooy as Manchester
United's all-time top scorer in
European competitions on Thursday,
leading the English club to a 4-0 win over
Feyenoord and keeping it alive in the
Europa League.
After scoring his 39th European
goal in the 35th minute, Rooney also
unselfishly set up Juan Mata in the
69th, leaving United on its way to an easy
victory and in a good position to advance
to the knockout rounds.
United got a third on the board with
an own-goal by Feyenoord goalkeeper
Brad Jones after an angled shot by
Zlatan Ibrahimovic in the 75th.
Substitute Jesse Lingard added a
fourth in injury time.
"Tonight was a performance and a
result," United manager Jose Mourinho
said. "Today they played very well again,
and with goals, which is very important
for us. We always told since Day 1 we
wanted to do well in the Europa League
and we were in a position of needing four
points and now we need just one."
United reached nine points and is
only one behind Group A leader
Fenerbahce, which defeated Ukraine's
Zorya Luhansk 2-0 in Turkey. Feyenoord
has seven points.
An away draw against already eliminated Zorya in the final round in
December will be enough to send United
through and help relieve some of the
pressure on Mourinho.
Rooney's goal - his first at Old
Trafford this season - came after a welltimed pass by Ibrahimovic. The England
forward calmly flicked the ball over Jones
after receiving the ball behind the
Feyenoord defenders inside the area.
It was Rooney's 248th goal for
United, leaving him just one short of
Bobby Charlton's all-time record with the
club.
The 31-year-old Rooney's chances of
drawing level with Charlton ended for
this match when he was substituted in the
82nd.
A good night's work for Rooney came
more than a week after he was forced to
apologize for apparent late-night revelry while on England duty, when he was
pictured looking bleary-eyed at a wedding reception at the team hotel.
Rooney insisted to BT Sport after
Thursday's match that "I actually didn't

the final round. Inter stayed on three

points.
The Italian club played with 10 men
from the 69th minute as goalkeeper
Samir Handanovic was sent off for a foul
that prompted Hapoel's equalizer from
a penalty kick.
Mauro Icardi scored his sixth goal in
as many games for Inter in the 13th and
Marcelo Brozovic added to the lead in the
25th. But the hosts got one back through
Lucio Maranhao in the 58th and
Anthony Nwakaeme converted the
penalty after Handanovic's red card.
Striker Ben Sahar netted the late winner with a shot from inside the area after
a fast breakaway that caught Inter's
defense off guard.

A><0# E8:C>A80?;I4=

even step foot into the wedding," adding

"I think it's a shame that I'm having to
talk about it now after such a great victory."
On his European record, Rooney
said: "It's a great feeling to score goals and
to score goals for this club."

70?>4;"!8=C4A<8;0=

Inter Milan couldn't hold on to a

two-goal lead against Israeli club Hapoel
Beer-Sheva on Thursday, being elimi-

singles
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erala Blasters shrugged off

K
their big defeat in previous
match to be back in the semifinals
race as they brushed aside the challenge of Pune City 2-1 in an ISL
match, here on Friday.
The Blasters were hammered 05 by Mumbai City FC in their previous match but they returned to
winning ways with goals from
Duckens Nazon (7th minute) and
Aaron Hughes (57th minute).
Anibal Zurdo managed to pull
one back for the visitors in the second minute of added time but that
came too late for the Pune City.
The victory took Blasters to the
third spot with 18 points from 12
matches, the same as Atletico de
Kolkata who have a better goal difference. Kerala Blasters now need
only a win from their remaining
two matches. Kerala will travel to
Kolkata next to play ATK on
Tuesday and return home to host
NorthEast United on December 4.
Losing their second consecutive match, Pune are placed fifth
with 15 points from 13 matches and
it will be difficult for the team
coached by Antonio Habas to qualify with just a match in hand. Habas
will have a week's break before they

nated from the Europa League with one

round still to be played.
Inter conceded three goals in the second half, including one in the third and
final minute of stoppage time, as it lost
for the fourth time in five games in
Group K.
Sparta Prague, which defeated
Southampton 1-0 at home, secured first
place in the group with 12 points, five
more than both Hapoel and
Southampton, which meet in England in

Edin Dzeko scored a hat trick but it

was Argentine forward Diego Perotti who
attracted all the attention with a rabona
goal late in the game in Rome.
Inside the area, and slightly off balance, Perotti quickly brought his right
foot behind his left to delicately chip the
ball into the goal from a tough angle.
UEFA called it an own goal by Ales
Mateju with the ball taking a slight
deflection before hitting the crossbar and
going in.
Perotti said it "was meant to be a
cross." Roma was one of nine teams
Thursday to secure a spot in the round
of 32, along with Anderlecht, APOEL,
Athletic Bilbao, Genk, Krasnodar,
Olympiakos, Saint-Etienne and Sparta
Prague.
Elsewhere, Villarreal missed a chance
to reach the top of a tightly fought Group
L after conceding an 87th-minute equalizer against FC Zurich, leaving the group
lead with Turkish side Osmanlispor,
which lost 2-1 at Steaua Bucharest.
Fiorentina lost 3-2 to Greek side
PAOK at home but remained with a
three-point lead in Group J, while Zenit
St. Petersburg maintained a perfect
record after a 2-0 home win against
Maccabi Tel Aviv in Group D. Zenit has
a 10-point lead at the top.
Schalke defeated Nice 2-0 to also stay
comfortably ahead in Group I, and
Group H leader Shakhtar Donetsk routed Konyaspor 4-0.
Ajax stayed ahead in Group G with
a 2-0 win over last-placed Panathinaikos,
while Athletic Bilbao guaranteed its
place in the next round by beating
Sassuolo 3-2 in Group F.

hennaiyin FC will need to play out of their

skin and grab full points in their next two
C
matches, including Saturday's clash against

travel to Kolkata to play against his

former club on 2 December.
The home team took the lead in
the seventh minute itself as Duckens
Nazon capitalised on a defensive
lapse. A goal-kick by Pune goalkeeper Edel Bete saw Hughes win
the ball from a header.
A corner in the 57th minute
was only partially cleared by Pune
City and Vineeth chased it down on
the left, sending a cross to the far
post. The Pune defence shocking-

ly stood still, allowing Aaron

enough time to rush and head
home from point blank range.
The goal crippled Pune City,
who however managed to pull a
goal back in stoppage time. A cleverly taken free kick saw Pitu touch
the ball to set up Anibal Zurdo, who
blasted it on to the far post, past
goalkeeper Sandip Nandy.
The goal, however, came too late
and there was no time for Pune City
to get anything out of the match.

NorthEast United FC, to stay alive in the Hero

Indian Super League.
The defending champions are placed seventh
with 14 points from 12 matches and need six
points to possibly make the grade. Chennaiyin
FC will have to prove they can do an encore, starting with NorthEast United FC at Jawaharlal
Nehru Stadium here on Saturday. Last season,
Chennaiyin FC were struggling at the bottom for
most part but turned their fortunes around with
a late surge, not just qualifying for the semi-finals
but going on to win the title at FC Goa's expense
in Goa. This time, not everything has worked
according to plan for Marco Materazzi but all is
still not lost for the defending champions.
"We knew we were in a must-win situation
and now we know that we have to win the next
two games to get six points and we have shown
(in the past) we can battle every team," said
Materazzi.
Chennaiyin FC have lost three of their last
five matches, including the last one against
Mumbai City FC, but they cannot afford anymore slips-ups against Mumbai City on Saturday
and FC Goa next week. NorthEast United
instilled life in their campaign with a solitary goal
victory over FC Pune City in their last game, a
result that helped them stay alive. NorthEast

United had gone six games without a win, losing four of them, but the 1-0 victory over Pune
City took them to the sixth spot with 14 points
from 11 matches. "I want to tell the real followers of NorthEast United that we will continue to
fight till the end and we will go in with the mindset of winning in our remaining three games of
the league stage," said Portuguese coach Nelo
Vingada.
Besides Chennayin FC on Saturday,
NorthEast United have to take on the might of
Delhi Dynamos on November 30 and Kerala
Blasters on December 4 in a battle that is likely
to go down to the wire.
NorthEast United are likely to have the services of first-choice defenders Robin Gurung,
Gustavo Lazzaretti and Nirmal Chettri, all of
whom missed the last clash against Pune City,
although for the moment the coach was keeping
his fingers crossed. Interestingly, a win for either
team will take them to the top four.

B8=37DB8II;4BB08=058II;4B>DC

fident. Liang is good, she has improved a lot. I was

not up to the mark," said Sindhu.
Saina said that since the last two matches were
very tiring, it became a bit tough for her on Friday
as she was still not 100 per cent fit.

lympic silver-medallist P V Sindhu entered the

semifinals of the Hong Kong Super Series after
O
posting a hard-fought victory over Singapore's
Xiaoyu Liang even as Saina Nehwal bowed out here
on Friday.
Had the former World No 1 and London
Olympics bronze medallist Saina won her match, she
would have met Sindhu in an all Indian battle in the
semifinals.
The only time Saina and Sindhu clashed at the
international circuit was at the 2014 India Grand Prix
gold tournament and it was the senior shuttler who
had the last laugh in a two-game match.
Earlier on Friday, Sindhu, who clinched the China
Open last week, staved off a stiff challenge from
Xiaoyu Liang 21-17 21-23 21-18 in a quarterfinal
match that lasted an hour and 19 minutes at the Hong
Kong Coliseum.
Fifth-seeded Saina, meanwhile, failed to cross the
hurdle as she was stunned by unseeded local shut-

B8=37DC>??;4BB08=08=A0=:8=6

tler Cheung Ngan Yi 8-21 21-18 19-21 in a contest

that lasted an hour and 11 minutes. The Indian had
earlier beaten Cheung Ngan Yi at the World
Championships last year.
Analysing her quarterfinal match that she won
in three games, Sindhu said although she managed
to pull it off she was not up to the mark.

"I was leading but lost the second game. She

(Xiaoyu Lian) played well. I was very nervous and
gave a huge lead. I was 7-15 down in the third. My
shots were going out, even the once I had to get. I
was not confident in playing strokes. Even when I
played safe the shots were going out.
"I didn't know what to play. After 7-15 I got con-

=4F 34;78)  Riding on her maiden Super Series

Premier title at the China Open, Olympic silver
medallist PV Sindhu entered the top 10 but Saina
Nehwal crashed out of the elite bracket in the latest
BWF world ranking. Sindhu, who clinched the China
Open last week, jumped two places to grab the ninth
spot, while former World No 1 Saina, who is on a
comeback trail after recovering from a serious injury,
slipped five places to 11th spot, owing to her first
round exit at China Open.
In the Destinational Dubai ranking for the BWF Super
Series Final, Sindhu (38,490) is ahead of Saina (38,080)
by a few points and their performance at the ongoing Hong Kong Open will determine who qualifies
for the prestigious tournament next month.