16
I n a deadly terror strike on a patrol party, two motorcycle- borne terrorists shot five CRPF men, including two officers, on the busy Khannabal-Pahalgam (KP) road — Amarnath pil- grims travel via this road to the cave shrine — in South Kashmir’s Anantnag district on Wednesday. Three other CRPF jawans and two Jammu & Kashmir policemen received grievous injuries. Though Al-Umar Mujahideen, a a Pakistan- based defunct terror group, has claimed responsibility for the strike, officials, however, said that it was a handiwork of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM). The terror strike took place despite heightened level of security ahead of the beginning of annual Amarnath yatra from July 1. This is the first major terror attack on the CRPF after the “dastardly” Pulwama terror attack in which 40 CRPF per- sonnel were martyred in February this year. As the terrorists attacked the CRPF patrol party which fought the ultras and lost its five personnel, immediately addi- tional forces, led by Station House Officer of Saddar police station in Anantnag Arshad Ahmed, reached the encounter spot but had to face indis- criminate firing from the ter- rorists who also hurled grenades at them. In the ensur- ing gunfight, one terrorist was neutralised near Oxford school in the heart of busy Anantnag town, while the other managed to escape, officials said. Jammu & Kashmir Police spokesman in Srinagar said, “In this terror incident, five CRPF personnel attained martyrdom while repulsing the terror attack. Three security force personnel, including Anantnag SHO Inspector Arshid Khan, sustained gunshot injuries. In the retaliatory action, a terror- ist was gunned down on the spot. From the materials recov- ered, it is found that the dead terrorist was a foreigner.” Despite suffering loss of lives, security forces took utmost care to avoid any col- lateral damage in the busy market area. All the shops in the area immediately downed their shutters and people mov- ing in the area ran for safety as terrorists targeted the patrol party by lobbing grenades and opening indiscriminate firing. Due to the presence of tourists in Pahalgam, security forces cordoned off all the link roads connecting the famous tourist destination. Two ASI rank CRPF officers and three constables attained martyrdom in the terror attack, official sources told The Pioneer. Inspector Arshid Khan received bullet injuries on his chest and was rushed to mili- tary hospital for advance med- ical treatment. A young girl was also injured in the terror attack. The martyred CRPF per- sonnel have been identified as ASI Ramesh Kumar of Jhajjar, Haryana; ASI Nirod Sarma of Nalbari, Assam; constable Satendra Kumar of Muzaffarnagar, UP; constable Mahesh Kushwaha of Gazipur, UP; constable Sandeep Yadav of Dewas, MP. J&K Director General of Police Dilbagh Singh along with senior officers visited command hospital and enquired about health of the personnel injured in the Anantnag terror attack. T he newly-elected first woman Bar Council chair- person of Uttar Pradesh, Darvesh Singh Yadav, was gunned dead in Agra on Wednesday by a long-time acquaintance who tried to commit suicide and is battling for life with bullet injuries. On Wednesday, Darvesh attended a felicitation pro- gramme on the Civil Court premises in Agra and later went into the chamber of lawyer Arvind Kumar Mishra. While Darvesh and Arvind were chatting, another lawyer Manish Sharma, long-time acquaintance of Darvesh, entered the room and fired three shots at Darvesh from his licensed revolver. Manish then tried to end his life by shoot- ing himself. Darvesh was pro- nounced dead on being brought to hospital, while Mansih is in critical condition. Additional DG Ajay Anand rushed to the spot. Initial enquiry revealed that the victim and the assailant had a heated argument over some issue before the felicitation programme. Last Sunday, Darvesh and Harishanker Singh of Varanasi were jointly elected as chair- persons of UP Bar Council in Prayagraj as both poled 12 votes each. As per an agree- ment, Darvesh was given the post for the first six months while Harishanker was to take over for the next six months. T he Union Cabinet on Wednesday decided to re- introduce the Triple Talaq Bill in the forthcoming Parliament Session and extend President Rule in Jammu & Kashmir by six months. Addressing mediapersons after the Cabinet meeting, Information & Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar said a fresh Bill to ban the prac- tice of instant triple talaq will be introduced to replace the Ordinance issued in February. The fresh Bill will be intro- duced in the Budget Session of Parliament, beginning Monday, he said. The new Bill is having the same provisions of the second amendment Bill having provisions of reaching compromise between the hus- band and wife to avoid further prosecution. Due to the protests by Opposition parties, the previous Government could not pass the Bill in the Rajya Sabha. Javadekar informed that President Rule in Jammu & Kashmir will be extended by six more months beginning July 3. A viral video has exposed the brutal face of the Government Railway Police (GRP) whose men merciless- ly thrashed a news channel reporter and allegedly urinat- ed at him for doing a story on the derailment of a good train and illegal vendors at Shamli railway station, Uttar Pradesh, on Tuesday evening. Two rail- way policemen have been sus- pended for allegedly thrashing the journalist. Amit Sharma, who worked for a well-known Hindi channel, had gone to cover an incident of derail- ment of a freight train near Dheemanpur railway cross- ing and later came to Shamli station for further updates when he was grabbed by the GRP personnel. They punched and kicked him in front of the public and detained him. “It all began sometime back when I blew the cover of an illegal trade racket run by GRP personnel in the trains, I reported the story and since then I have been on the target of the GRP men. Last night, without any fault of mine, I was beaten and locked up. I was tortured while I was held cap- tive last night. I demand strict action on the people involved in beating me up,” he said. After the video of SHO (GRP) Rakesh Kumar and constable Sunil Kumar thrash- ing the journalist went viral, a huge number of journalists thronged the GRP station protesting the incident. After much hullaballoo, police ordered a probe on Wednesday morning. Preliminary investigation revealed that the GRP per- sonnel were inebriated. “They damaged my cam- era, hit and abused me. I was locked up, stripped and they urinated at me,” Sharma alleged. T he Delhi Government’s free ride scheme for women appears to have hit its first roadblock as the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has told the Government that the scheme will have to be first placed before the Fare Fixation Committee of Delhi Metro as per the Metro Act before its implementation. However, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday said, “DMRC believes the approval of the Fare Fixation Committee will be needed for the rollout of the scheme. The Fare Fixation Committee should ordinarily not be required in this case because this is not a matter of fare fixation. However, if the DMRC thinks it is necessary, we will go ahead with it,” said Kejriwal. The Delhi Metro has sub- mitted its proposal on the free travel for women in the Metro, a week after the Delhi Government gave the Delhi Metro and the Delhi Transport Corporation a plan to submit within a week to implement the scheme in next three months. Kejriwal said concrete plan has come out and major progress has been made by the DMRC. The CM said the DMRC has come with two options to implement the scheme in the city for woman and girls. However, both the options will take time to implement. New Delhi: The Delhi Government has finally notified the much awaited new fare slab fixed for the auto-rickshaws on Wednesday after almost a gap of six years. The new fare hike has been approved and notified by the Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot. The new fares will be issued to the public in two-three days. As per the new scheme, the auto-rick- shaw fare has been hiked by 18.75 per cent. Bengaluru: India’s second sojourn to the moon, Chandrayaan-2, would be launched on July 15, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) announced on Wednesday, as it is all set for the most complex mission ever undertaken by it. Under the nearly 1,000 crore mission, the landing on the moon near the South Pole would be on September 6 or 7 on an uncharted territory, ISRO chairman K Sivan said. The Lander, named after the father of the Indian space programme, Vikram Sarabhai, will touch down on a rugged lunar surface in the final descent, which, would be the “most terrifying moment” of the mission. “This 15 minutes is going to be terrifying to all of us not only people from ISRO, but for entire India, because the space agency has never undertaken such type of complex flight,” he said. Detailed report on P9 N ormal life was thrown out gear on Wednesday as the State continued to be scorched by the intense heat wave with six stations recording temper- atures above 45 degree Celsius and 15 recording above 40 degree. Sambalpur recorded the day’s highest temperature of 45.6 degree Celsius followed by Talcher with 45.3 degree, Hirakud-45.2 degree, Sonepur- 45.2 degree, Jharsuguda-45 degree, Titlagarh-45 degree, Sundargarh 44.5 degree and Angul 43.9 degree. While Malkangiri record- ed a temperature of 42.6 degree, mercury touched 42.5 in Balangir followed by capital city Bhubaneswar with 42.4 degree, Bhawanipatna-41.8 degree, Keonjhar 40.9 degree, Chandbali 40.8 degree and Cuttack 40.5 degree. Earlier, the IMD had issued heat wave warning till June 13 in the State. The alert was issued for 10 districts including Sundargarh, Jharsuguda, Sambalpur, Angul, Deogarh, Bargarh, Subarnapur, Balangir and Nuapada. T he State witnessed a 19-per cent growth in revenue col- lection by May-end during cur- rent financial year 2019-20 against the corresponding peri- od of the last year. It was revealed at a Secretary-level meeting held under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary AP Padhi at the State Secretariat here on Wednesday. While revenue of 5,466 crore had been collected by May-end, 2018, during the last year, 6,505 crore had been col- lected during the corresponding period. Of this year’s collection, the State’s own tax stands at 4,275 crore collected at a growth of 9.25 per cent and non- tax of 2,247 crore gained at a growth rate of 43.21 crore. In the nontax revenue, mining revenue grew by 51.18 per cent and water cess from industries grew by 16.22 per cent. It was revealed that bud- getary expenditure was 19 per cent less by May-end this year compared to May-end in 2018 in view of the imposition of the election code. Reviewing revenue man- agement of different depart- ments, Padhi directed the Secretaries to emphasise on optimum utilisation of the budgetary allocations and expedite field-level action plans. He directed the depart- ment to prepare annual action plans by June 17. Stressing on achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, Development Commissioner Asit Kumar Tripathy informed that there are 306 standards set at national level for achieving the goals. These standards are meant for 18 departments. He asked the departments to select standards appropriate for Odisha and make time-bound action plans. Informing that the Annual Budget 2019-20 would be tabled in the State Assembly on June 28, Finance Secretary Ashok Kumar Meena asked all departments to inform him about their new action plans soon. He too advised the departments, public undertak- ings and autonomous bodies to make purchases through the online ‘gem portal’. By now, 918 users have been registered with the portal. Among others, Agriculture Production Commissioner Gagan Kumar Dhal, ACS Raj Kumar Sharma and ACS Suresh Chandra Mohapatra were present.

ˇˆ˙ - The Pioneer · Darvesh was pro-nounced dead on being brought to hospital, while Mansih is in critical condition. Additional DG Ajay Anand rushed to the spot. Initial enquiry

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  • ������������������������������������������ ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ ����������!����������������������������"#$%���&�������������������������������#

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    In a deadly terror strike on apatrol party, two motorcycle-borne terrorists shot five CRPFmen, including two officers, onthe busy Khannabal-Pahalgam(KP) road — Amarnath pil-grims travel via this road to thecave shrine — in SouthKashmir’s Anantnag districton Wednesday. Three otherCRPF jawans and two Jammu& Kashmir policemen receivedgrievous injuries.

    Though Al-UmarMujahideen, a a Pakistan-based defunct terror group,has claimed responsibility forthe strike, officials, however,said that it was a handiwork ofJaish-e-Mohammed (JeM).

    The terror strike took placedespite heightened level ofsecurity ahead of the beginningof annual Amarnath yatra fromJuly 1. This is the first majorterror attack on the CRPF afterthe “dastardly” Pulwama terrorattack in which 40 CRPF per-sonnel were martyred inFebruary this year.

    As the terrorists attackedthe CRPF patrol party whichfought the ultras and lost its fivepersonnel, immediately addi-tional forces, led by StationHouse Officer of Saddar policestation in Anantnag ArshadAhmed, reached the encounterspot but had to face indis-criminate firing from the ter-rorists who also hurledgrenades at them. In the ensur-ing gunfight, one terrorist wasneutralised near Oxford school

    in the heart of busy Anantnagtown, while the other managedto escape, officials said.

    Jammu & Kashmir Policespokesman in Srinagar said, “Inthis terror incident, five CRPFpersonnel attained martyrdomwhile repulsing the terrorattack. Three security forcepersonnel, including AnantnagSHO Inspector Arshid Khan,sustained gunshot injuries. Inthe retaliatory action, a terror-ist was gunned down on the

    spot. From the materials recov-ered, it is found that the deadterrorist was a foreigner.”

    Despite suffering loss oflives, security forces tookutmost care to avoid any col-lateral damage in the busymarket area. All the shops inthe area immediately downedtheir shutters and people mov-ing in the area ran for safety asterrorists targeted the patrolparty by lobbing grenades andopening indiscriminate firing.

    Due to the presence oftourists in Pahalgam, securityforces cordoned off all the linkroads connecting the famoustourist destination. Two ASIrank CRPF officers and threeconstables attained martyrdomin the terror attack, officialsources told The Pioneer.

    Inspector Arshid Khanreceived bullet injuries on hischest and was rushed to mili-tary hospital for advance med-ical treatment. A young girl wasalso injured in the terror attack.

    The martyred CRPF per-

    sonnel have been identified asASI Ramesh Kumar of Jhajjar,Haryana; ASI Nirod Sarma ofNalbari, Assam; constableSatendra Kumar ofMuzaffarnagar, UP; constableMahesh Kushwaha of Gazipur,UP; constable Sandeep Yadavof Dewas, MP.

    J&K Director General ofPolice Dilbagh Singh alongwith senior officers visitedcommand hospital andenquired about health of thepersonnel injured in theAnantnag terror attack.

    %���� 4'�(+8*

    The newly-elected firstwoman Bar Council chair-person of Uttar Pradesh,Darvesh Singh Yadav, wasgunned dead in Agra onWednesday by a long-timeacquaintance who tried tocommit suicide and is battlingfor life with bullet injuries.

    On Wednesday, Darveshattended a felicitation pro-gramme on the Civil Courtpremises in Agra and laterwent into the chamber oflawyer Arvind Kumar Mishra.

    While Darvesh and Arvindwere chatting, another lawyerManish Sharma, long-timeacquaintance of Darvesh,entered the room and firedthree shots at Darvesh from hislicensed revolver. Manish thentried to end his life by shoot-ing himself. Darvesh was pro-nounced dead on beingbrought to hospital, whileMansih is in critical condition.

    Additional DG Ajay Anandrushed to the spot. Initialenquiry revealed that the victimand the assailant had a heatedargument over some issue beforethe felicitation programme.

    Last Sunday, Darvesh andHarishanker Singh of Varanasiwere jointly elected as chair-persons of UP Bar Council inPrayagraj as both poled 12votes each. As per an agree-ment, Darvesh was given thepost for the first six monthswhile Harishanker was to takeover for the next six months.

    %���� +9*�094)/

    The Union Cabinet onWednesday decided to re-introduce the Triple Talaq Billin the forthcoming ParliamentSession and extend PresidentRule in Jammu & Kashmir by six months.

    Addressing mediapersonsafter the Cabinet meeting,Information & BroadcastingMinister Prakash Javadekarsaid a fresh Bill to ban the prac-tice of instant triple talaq willbe introduced to replace theOrdinance issued in February.

    The fresh Bill will be intro-duced in the Budget Session ofParliament, beginningMonday, he said. The new Bill

    is having the same provisionsof the second amendment Billhaving provisions of reachingcompromise between the hus-band and wife to avoid furtherprosecution. Due to theprotests by Opposition parties,the previous Governmentcould not pass the Bill in theRajya Sabha.

    Javadekar informed thatPresident Rule in Jammu &Kashmir will be extended bysix more months beginningJuly 3.

    %���� 4'�(+8*

    Aviral video has exposedthe brutal face of theGovernment Railway Police(GRP) whose men merciless-ly thrashed a news channelreporter and allegedly urinat-ed at him for doing a story onthe derailment of a good trainand illegal vendors at Shamlirailway station, Uttar Pradesh,on Tuesday evening. Two rail-way policemen have been sus-pended for allegedly thrashingthe journalist.

    Amit Sharma, whoworked for a well-knownHindi channel, had gone tocover an incident of derail-ment of a freight train nearDheemanpur railway cross-ing and later came to Shamlistation for further updateswhen he was grabbed by theGRP personnel. They punched and kicked himin front of the public anddetained him.

    “It all began sometime

    back when I blew the cover ofan illegal trade racket run byGRP personnel in the trains, Ireported the story and sincethen I have been on the targetof the GRP men. Last night,without any fault of mine, I wasbeaten and locked up. I wastortured while I was held cap-tive last night. I demand strictaction on the people involvedin beating me up,” he said.

    After the video of SHO(GRP) Rakesh Kumar andconstable Sunil Kumar thrash-ing the journalist went viral, ahuge number of journaliststhronged the GRP stationprotesting the incident.

    After much hullaballoo,police ordered a probe onWednesday morning.Preliminary investigationrevealed that the GRP per-sonnel were inebriated.

    “They damaged my cam-era, hit and abused me. I waslocked up, stripped and theyurinated at me,” Sharmaalleged.

    ��� ���!���� +9*�094)/

    The Delhi Government’s freeride scheme for womenappears to have hit its firstroadblock as the Delhi MetroRail Corporation (DMRC) hastold the Government that thescheme will have to be firstplaced before the Fare FixationCommittee of Delhi Metro asper the Metro Act before itsimplementation.

    However, Delhi ChiefMinister Arvind Kejriwal onWednesday said, “DMRCbelieves the approval of theFare Fixation Committee willbe needed for the rollout of thescheme. The Fare FixationCommittee should ordinarilynot be required in this casebecause this is not a matter offare fixation. However, if theDMRC thinks it is necessary,

    we will go ahead with it,” saidKejriwal.

    The Delhi Metro has sub-mitted its proposal on the freetravel for women in the Metro,a week after the DelhiGovernment gave the DelhiMetro and the Delhi TransportCorporation a plan to submitwithin a week to implement thescheme in next three months.

    Kejriwal said concrete planhas come out and majorprogress has been made by theDMRC. The CM said theDMRC has come with twooptions to implement thescheme in the city for womanand girls. However, both theoptions will take time to implement.

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    New Delhi: The DelhiGovernment has finally notifiedthe much awaited new fareslab fixed for the auto-rickshawson Wednesday after almost agap of six years. The new farehike has been approved andnotified by the TransportMinister Kailash Gahlot. Thenew fares will be issued to thepublic in two-three days. As perthe new scheme, the auto-rick-shaw fare has been hiked by18.75 per cent.

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    Bengaluru: India’s secondsojourn to the moon,Chandrayaan-2, would belaunched on July 15, IndianSpace Research Organisation(ISRO) announced onWednesday, as it is all set for themost complex mission everundertaken by it.

    Under the nearly �1,000crore mission, the landing onthe moon near the South Polewould be on September 6 or 7on an uncharted territory,ISRO chairman K Sivan said.

    The Lander, named afterthe father of the Indian spaceprogramme, Vikram Sarabhai,will touch down on a ruggedlunar surface in the finaldescent, which, would be the“most terrifying moment” ofthe mission. “This 15 minutesis going to be terrifying to allof us not only people fromISRO, but for entire India,because the space agency hasnever undertaken such type ofcomplex flight,” he said.

    Detailed report on P9

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    Normal life was thrown outgear on Wednesday as theState continued to be scorchedby the intense heat wave withsix stations recording temper-atures above 45 degree Celsiusand 15 recording above 40degree.

    Sambalpur recorded theday’s highest temperature of45.6 degree Celsius followed byTalcher with 45.3 degree,Hirakud-45.2 degree, Sonepur-45.2 degree, Jharsuguda-45degree, Titlagarh-45 degree,Sundargarh 44.5 degree andAngul 43.9 degree.

    While Malkangiri record-ed a temperature of 42.6 degree,mercury touched 42.5 in

    Balangir followed by capital cityBhubaneswar with 42.4 degree,Bhawanipatna-41.8 degree,Keonjhar 40.9 degree,Chandbali 40.8 degree andCuttack 40.5 degree.

    Earlier, the IMD had issued

    heat wave warning till June 13in the State. The alert wasissued for 10 districts includingSundargarh, Jharsuguda,Sambalpur, Angul, Deogarh,Bargarh, Subarnapur, Balangirand Nuapada.

    %���� .)'.5+9�*56

    The State witnessed a 19-percent growth in revenue col-lection by May-end during cur-rent financial year 2019-20against the corresponding peri-od of the last year.

    It was revealed at aSecretary-level meeting heldunder the chairmanship of ChiefSecretary AP Padhi at the StateSecretariat here on Wednesday.

    While revenue of �5,466crore had been collected byMay-end, 2018, during the lastyear, �6,505 crore had been col-lected during the correspondingperiod. Of this year’s collection,the State’s own tax stands at�4,275 crore collected at agrowth of 9.25 per cent and non-

    tax of �2,247 crore gained at agrowth rate of 43.21 crore. In thenontax revenue, mining revenuegrew by 51.18 per cent and watercess from industries grew by16.22 per cent.

    It was revealed that bud-getary expenditure was 19 percent less by May-end this yearcompared to May-end in 2018in view of the imposition of theelection code.

    Reviewing revenue man-agement of different depart-ments, Padhi directed theSecretaries to emphasise onoptimum utilisation of thebudgetary allocations andexpedite field-level actionplans. He directed the depart-ment to prepare annual actionplans by June 17.

    Stressing on achievement ofthe Sustainable DevelopmentGoals, DevelopmentCommissioner Asit KumarTripathy informed that there are

    306 standards set at nationallevel for achieving the goals.These standards are meant for18 departments. He asked thedepartments to select standardsappropriate for Odisha andmake time-bound action plans.

    Informing that the AnnualBudget 2019-20 would betabled in the State Assembly onJune 28, Finance SecretaryAshok Kumar Meena asked alldepartments to inform himabout their new action planssoon. He too advised thedepartments, public undertak-ings and autonomous bodies tomake purchases through theonline ‘gem portal’. By now, 918users have been registered withthe portal.

    Among others, AgricultureProduction CommissionerGagan Kumar Dhal, ACS RajKumar Sharma and ACSSuresh Chandra Mohapatrawere present.

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    Atribal youth died of griev-ous cut injuries afterunknown miscreants slit histhroat at Ratha Sahi here onTuesday night.

    The deceased was identi-fied as Prasanna Nayak (26).

    According to sources, somelocals found the youth’s bodylying in a pool of blood andimmediately alerted police.Acting swiftly, the Pallaharapolice reached the spot andsent the body for postmortem.

    Prasanna’s wife BasantiNayak said that her uncle Ratha

    Nayak had called Prasanna totake bath in a nearby pond inevening time. But Prasannadidn’t return till night, sheadded.

    She alleged that her uncle,who has fled from village, hascommitted the crime. Policesaid an investigation into theincident was on.

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    The Defence Researchand DevelopmentOrgnaisation (DRDO) suc-cessfully test-fired aTechnology DemonstratorVehicle from the Dr Abdul Kalam Island on theOdisha coast on Wednesday.

    The vehicle was fired fromthe island at 11.27 am and it successfullyachieved targets, said an offi-cial release. Many types ofradar, telemetry station andelectro optical tracking sen-sors watched the vehicle’smovement.

    Detailed data have beencollected; and a review wouldbe held to accord complextechnology status to the vehi-cle, said the release.

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    In order to fight the battle ofher life, Namita Sahoo (38)has come across several hur-dles, but she could manage toface the challenges and emergeout with success despite losingher husband and having a sonwith complete disability. Now,the Bhubaneswar MunicipalCorporation (BMC) hasteamed up with the womanwith nerves of steel to make herstronger and economicallyindependent.

    Keeping the essence of itsholistic approach for socialupliftment and care for thepoor and the needy, the BMCon Wednesday sanctioned Rs30,000 from the Chief

    Minister’s Relief Fund (CMRF)so that Namita will invest theamount in growing her tinyshop with more stocks and alsowould help her daughterSwatirani (8) to have bettereducation and health.

    Zonal DeputyCommissioner (North Zone) ofBMC Pramod Kumar Prusty

    handed over the cheque of Rs30,000 to Namita in presence ofher little daughter Swatirani.

    It can be mentioned herethat the mother of the two firstcame to the BMC CentralOffice and petitioned theMunicipal Commissioner andafter an inquiry the MunicipalCommissioner’s Office ordered

    the help for Namita throughthe zonal office (North).

    A resident of GGP Colony,Namita came to Bhubaneswarfrom Bhadrak after the SuperCyclone in 1999 and settledhere with her husbandDhanajay. Though the destinydid not stand by her and shelost her husband at an early age,her son’s disability also came asa major jolt, but defying allodds of her life Namita is astrong woman today and apartfrom her own small shop atGGP Colony, she is alsoinvolved with the SHG move-ment and has become a mem-ber of a local self-help group.

    The BMC authorities alsoadded Namita’s name to thewidow pensioners’ list.

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    National spokesperson ofBJP Dr Sambit Patra metForeign Minister S Jayanankaron Wednesday and sought hisassistance towards the deceasedpilgrims of Puri and Khordha.

    During pilgrimage toNepal, one Bijay Kumar Jena ofPuri and Charan Biswal ofKhordha died in a severe roadaccident in Nepal when the buscarrying them was suddenlydashed by a speeding truckfrom rear.

    While the bus skidded intoa forest nearby, Bijay andCharan died on the spot withother two from Odisha sus-taining severe injuries. The

    injured admitted into a Nepalhospital have been identified asSheshadev Jena andSarbeshwar Jena.

    During meeting, Patrarequested the MEA to assist thevictim families in facilitatingrepatriation of the deceasedpersons.

    Jaysankar assured Patra ofall possible helps. Notably,U n i o nMinister Dharmendra Pradhanin letter to the MEA alsosought assistance to bring bod-ies to India.

    The incident occurred onMonday night near Mangalpuron the Janakpur-Kathmanduhighway when the bus carrying20 pilgrims had halted there.

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    Proper management of solidwaste is emerging as a crit-ical determinant for goodhealth.

    To draw attention to theissue, a media roundtable onSolid Waste Management(SWM) in Rural Odisha wasorganised by Unicef Odishahere on Tuesday. The partici-pants included Chief, Unicef,Odisha, Dr Monika Nielsen,expert from Mumbai PramodDabrase, Joint Secretary,Department of Panchayati Rajand Drinking Water SubashChandra Das and AbhayBiswal, SuperintendentEngineer, RWSS, CircleBhubaneswar Abhay Biswalfrom the Government ofOdisha, WASH Specialist,Unicef Odisha Shipra Saxena

    and 30 State level media rep-resentatives.

    The discussions focusedon effective management ofsolid waste in rural areas bycreating awareness, mobilis-ing and putting waste dispos-al and systems of reuse inplace at household and com-munity level.

    Welcoming the media, DrNielsen said, “While on onehand the world has made hugestrides in improving health,nutrition, education outcomesfor everyone especially childrenand women, on the other hand,through indiscriminate solidwaste disposal, we are pollut-ing our air, water and soil. Thishas a significant impact onpublic health and the environ-ment and is emerging as a hugeproblem that needs all ourattention urgently.”

    Setting the context, WASHspecialist Saxena said, “Withthousands of tonnes of wastebeing generated per day, we cancall ourselves a wasteful civi-lization. To reduce, reuse andrecycle is call of the time.Waste management is progress,sustainability.”

    sPramod Dabrase said,“The health and environmen-tal impact due to lack of solidwaste management systems,are least understood. Today.solid waste is a problem notonly in cities but also ruralareas.”

    Speaking on Governmentpolicy on solid waste manage-ment in rural areas, JointSecretary of PR DW Dashsaid, “As per NGT’s recentdirectives all States of the coun-try have to follow the SolidWaste Management 2016."

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    An Excise Flying Squad onWednesday conducted araid at Swapneswar Sahi hereand seized 30 gramsbrown sugar from one DebarajDalei.

    Police said that the market

    price of the contraband wasestimated to be �3 lakh.

    Khordha Excise InspectorRanjan Kumar Naik, CuttackExcise Inspector PramodKumar Panda and Sub-Inspector Kamala LochanPaikaray were part of the teamwhich conducted the raid.

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  • Romance and nostalgia surround-ing the grandeur of the Britishempire in the 19th and 20th cen-tury is predicated on “the empireon which the sun never sets.”This pomposity was extended to includeemerging America in the mid-19th centu-ry to posit the Anglophone domain, asnoted by Alexander Campbell in 1852, “ToBritain and America, god has granted thepossession of the new world; and becausethe sun never sets upon our religion, ourlanguage and our arts…” Subsequently, thetwo world wars of the 20th centurychanged the global narrative and thechurn of history left the British empire tohold on and cast its equation with the USin a Churchellian expression, “specialrelationship.” Befittingly, British PrimeMinister Theresa May sought “a new spe-cial relationship”, while not one to be leftout, US President Donald Trump added hisown to the lexicon by claiming the bilat-eral relationship to be, “the highest level ofspecial!” However, the stark reality of thetwo nations clutching the straws of histo-ry was inevitable as Trump made his statevisit to the UK as May was in the last weekof her notice period.

    The usual blusters, clichés and gaffesnotwithstanding, the visit nailed the opticsof an empire that was wilting under theweight of an “unequal” relationship thatbesets any relationship with the USPresident Donald Trump. The quintessen-tial English “correctness” of May helped hermumble over the contentious issuesbetween the two nations, namely, on howto handle Iran, China or even Brexit. Eventhe ostensibly “nasty” past of the once-American and now the Duchess of Sussex,Meghan Markle, was providentially avoid-ed as she was on maternity leave. Yet, thecracks in the sovereign outlook and intru-sions into the domestic affairs of the UKby Trump, had all the hallmarks of a very“Un-English” inelegance and mannerism.From opining on members of the royalfamily, the mayor of London, Oppositionleaders, Brexit negotiations, to even his ownpreferences for the next incumbent of the10 Downing Street — Great Britain wasmade to look rather pedestrian and behold-en to its “special” ally.

    Undercurrents of suspicion across theAtlantic have simmered for long and eventhe victory in World War II was marredwith private concerns in the UK, over theruthless negotiations done by the US, toextend crucial support during the war toits “special” ally. Beyond the exactingcommercial terms enforced on the post-war UK, the US denied support to its “spe-cial” ally on Suez Canal, leading to itshumiliating retreat. In 1983, the US invad-ed Grenada in the Caribbean, then suppos-edly a member of the BritishCommonwealth. Even the reciprocal dis-interest in both the Vietnam war and later,

    the Falklands, owing to theirindividual compulsions militat-ed against the publically pos-tured alliance. The USSecretary of State during theVietnam War, Dean Rusk, hadfamously told a British journal-ist on the cold feet developedby the British Government incontributing military where-withal: “When the Russiansinvade Sussex, don’t expect usto come and help you.” Deep inthe psyche of the Trans-Atlantic world, only the fear ofthe “others” in the Cold Warera kept the portents of “specialrelationship” going — but thewriting was always on the wall,and with the advent of the busi-nessman-turned-President,the worms came out of thewoodwork.

    Serendipitously, a 2003British comedy film, LoveActually, has a role played byHugh Grant as the PrimeMinister of Great Britain, whostands up to the roughshodantics of the visiting USPresident. In it, the BritishPrime Minister calls the bluffon the “special relationship”by saying on the podium withthe US President by his side,“I love that word relationship.Covers all manners of sins,doesn’t it? I fear that this hasbecome a bad relationship.

    One that is based on thePresident taking exactly whathe wants and casually ignor-ing all those things that real-ly matter to Britain. We maybe a small country, but we’rea great one too” and then addsfor good measure, “A friendwho bullies us is no longer afriend. And since bullies onlyrespond to strength, fromnow onward, I will be pre-pared to be much stronger.And the President should beprepared for that.”

    Unfortunately, in 2019,none of that happened andMay stood meekly by the sideof the US President as he railedagainst the Mayor of London,Sadiq Khan, by calling him a“not good mayor who haddone a poor job.” He thenadded, condescendingly andlordly, that the mayor had crit-icised the “representative of theUS that can do so much goodfor the UK.” Further, with theBritish Prime Minister acqui-escing, Trump went on to callthe head of the Oppositionparty, Jeremy Corbyn, a “neg-ative force.” Completing thepicture of servility was thefinal comments by May,addressed to both the Mayor ofLondon and Corbyn, aboutthe “greatest alliance” that“ensures our safety and securi-

    ty and the safety and securityof others around the world,too.” That May was no WinstonChurchill or even MargaretThatcher was all too clear andvisible.

    Trump merrily waded intothe bitterly divided waters ofBrexit with his own opinionson its (mis)handling, whilemaking the protocol exceptionto meet the divisive figure ofNigel Farage at the USAmbassador’s residence. Hereiterated Brexit “will happenand it probably should happen”.A hapless empire was left witha visiting US President tellingthem about his personal pref-erences for the next PrimeMinister in Boris Johnson orJeremy Hunt.

    Clearly, the days when ablunt Margaret Thatcher couldstand up to the YankeeRepublican President, likeRonald Reagan, who whileurging her to go slow onFalklands, was told off chilling-ly by the ‘Iron Lady’: “I didn’tlose some of my best ships andsome of my finest lives to leavequietly.” Since then, the sun hasindeed firmly set on theempire’s “greatest alliance.”

    (The writer, a military vet-eran, is a former Lt Governor ofAndaman & Nicobar Islandsand Puducherry)

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    Sir — This refers to the editor-ial, “Hong Kong wrong” (June12). It is strange that muchapprehension has been raised inIndia about the proposed extra-dition Bill in Hong Kong thatwill allow fugitives to be extra-dited to China. Ironically, India,the world’s largest democracy,has a written Constitution. YetState Governments brazenlyarrest citizens who exercise theirguaranteed right to freedom ofspeech. Despite the SupremeCourt having given clear verdictson this issue, the inalienableright of the citizens is alwaysunder the scanner.

    In the latest case, the UttarPradesh government had arrest-ed a freelance journalist forallegedly sharing an objection-able post against Chief MinisterYogi Adityanath on social media.Ultimately, the court had tointervene and pull up the func-tionaries. This was completelyan avoidable situation. Unless afew heads roll at each suchinstance, Governments will con-tinue to transgress .

    R Narayanan Navi Mumbai

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    Sir — A perennial rebel, a liber-al to the core and Jnanpithaward-winning playwright, actorand film-maker Girish Karnad’sdeath brings down the curtainson a life that was dedicated to artand literature in every possiblesense of the word. The successof his play Yayati initiated a jour-

    ney that saw him pen criticallyacclaimed plays, includingHayvadan, that is often count-ed among the most importantplays of independent India. Healso wrote screenplays forKannada films like Samskaraand Vamsha Vriksha, co-direct-ed by BV Karanth, that usheredin the new wave of Kannada cin-ema. But then, the later gener-ation of film audiences, especial-

    ly Hindi cinema, might remem-ber Karnad more for his actingroles than his expansive body ofwork. His persona went beyondthe world of showbiz — a ver-satile career spanning variousmediums and genres.

    In a way, he was a rebel bothin cinema and life. By the earlypart of the new millennium,Karnad became one of the mostprominent social voices and there

    was rarely a social cause or aburning issue of the day that hehad not commented on. At times,he even incurred the wrath of fel-low artists. Once, Karnadfamously disparaged VS Naipauland Rabindranath Tagore, whichprompted MS Sathyu, the film-maker who made the seminalclassic Garam Hawa, to callKarnad’s comments “stupid.”

    JS Acharya Hyderabad

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    Sir — In the passing away ofGirish Karnad, the country haslost an extraordinary playwrightwho never shied away fromembracing progressive ideasbesides speaking boldly againstthe pernicious trend of stiflingdissent and the climate of intol-erance. He always took care toensure that Indian theatreorganically linked itself to itsperformative traditions. An eraof ethical and intellectual inspi-ration has ended.

    Ravi KanthuriaVia email

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    As early as December 2018, it waspredicted that the summer of2019 would deliver punishingheat wave conditions and going by thespiralling temperatures currently beingexperienced across the country, theprophecy seems to be coming true. Thenational capital Delhi was left scaldedas it experienced temperatures touch-ing 48 degree centigrade as recently asJune 10 — the hottest June day for thecapital ever. Dholpur in nearbyRajasthan was worse at 51°C. It was thefourth time that the temperaturecrossed 50°C in June in the State,according to Indian MeteorologicalDepartment (IMD).

    A combined effect of climatechange and an evolving El-Nino is

    transforming this year to be the hottestever and the trend is not gladdening.Four of the warmest years ever record-ed were the last four years. The year2018 started off with a moderate La-Nina phenomenon, which generally hasa cooling effect on global climate, butis going to end up being the fourthwarmest year after 2015, 2016 and 2017.

    This clearly shows a warmingtrend. In fact, the 20 warmest years onrecord have occurred in the last 22years. This trend also sits in perfectlywith the emission rates of GreenHouse Gases (GHGs) which were at arecord high by end of 2018, accordingto the World MeteorologicalOrganisation. Scientists at PennsylvaniaState University in the US have alsoconfirmed that a combination ofhuman-caused warming and a natur-al upswing in temperatures increase theodds that any new El-Nino year wouldturn out to be the warmest ever.

    Additionally, many weather fore-casters around the world, includingthe IMD, had predicted that thedevelopment of an El-Nino phe-nomenon by the end of 2018 wouldmake things unbearably hot in 2019.

    This pattern has already taken over.It is evident in the form of abnormal-ly hot winter seasons for the past threeto four years in a row. Continuing atthis rate, the next year will be evenworse and the threat to health andwell-being, especially of the young andthe elderly, will be devastating.

    The development of these eventshas been evident since the later half ofthe last year. On November 22, 2018,the IMD observed that moderate El-Nino Southern Oscillation conditionswere prevalent in the equatorial PacificOcean region and the El-Nino is like-ly to develop in the next two months.

    El Nino, which is the unusual

    warming of the equatorial PacificOcean, further adds to the alreadywarming temperatures. Following onthis, on December 3, 2018, the IMDagain stated that equatorial Sea SurfaceTemperatures (SSTs) were above aver-age across most of the Pacific Ocean.

    The climate prediction centre at theNational Oceanic and AtmosphericAdministration (NOAA) says thatthere is an 80 per cent chance that a full-fledged El-Nino has already begun andwill last till the end of February 2019.The impact of El-Nino on globalweather has also got more intense onthe past few occasions as a result of cli-mate change, according to a research

    paper published in the journalGeophysical Research Letters. Anothermajor indicator of the warming trenddue to climate change is Ocean HeatContent (OHC). The year 2018 record-ed a new high in terms of OHC sinceobservations began in 1940.

    There is more heat stored in theEarth’s oceans today than at any timein the last 78 years. When GHGs trapheat in the atmosphere, some of it getsconverted into surface temperature but90 per cent of it gets assimilated intothe oceans. Therefore, OHC is a muchbetter indicator of climate change thansurface temperatures. The last El-Ninoevent that ended in 2016 had lasted fortwo years and caused heat waves allaround the world, including India. Theheat waves in 2015 and 2016 killedmore than 2,500 people in India andhave been attributed to climate change,which suggests that El-Nino was inten-sified by global warming.

    Heat waves are not uncommonbut increasingly, these extremeweather conditions are being attrib-uted to global warming and climatechange. The heat waves of 2015 and2016 especially have been attributed

    to global warming, particularly con-sidering a combination of tempera-ture and humidity. The severe El-Nino conditions are also causingmassive coral bleaching in the GreatBarrier Reef and droughts in parts ofAfrica, South East Asia and SouthAmerica. Australia, too, is witness-ing its worst drought in living mem-ory. In regions like the New SouthWales, the drought is the worst in 400years. One of the impacts of warmersurface temperatures and more oceanheat will be greater occurrence ofextreme weather events such astropical cyclones, heat waves, floodsand droughts. In 2018, there were 70tropical cyclones all over the world,while the long-term average was 53.

    The world lost more than five lakhpeople to such events in the last 20 yearsalong with an economic loss of $3.47trillion, according to the latest Globalclimate risk index 2019 report. The year2019 seems to be having more than itsshare of extreme weather events in thefirst three months. One can only hopefor the best for the rest of the year.

    (The writer is an environmentaljournalist)

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    Just about a month ago, an Indian AirForce (IAF) AN-32 military transport air-craft had overshot the runway at theMumbai international airport and come toa halt perilously close to the boundary wallalong the Western Express highway.Reportedly, over 50 flights were affected dueto this incident. More recently, another AN-32 aircraft carrying 13 people on board wentmissing in Arunachal Pradesh’s West Siangdistrict. The wreckage of the aircraft wasfound eight days later after intense searchoperations.

    It is understood that the EmergencyLocator Transmitter (ELT), which sends adistress signal in case of a 20G (20-timesgravitational force) impact, was non-func-tional. Well, what else did not work? Withover 16 IAF aircraft lost during the last oneyear, one needs to ask some tough questions.

    It is quite a paradoxical situation that ourscientists are now world leaders in satellitetechnology and have established many arecord but are unable to rectify some of theglitches which tend to recur in our IAF air-craft. One important aspect appears to beoverlooked, that of safety of ageing fleet. Lastyear, in a written reply to a question (March2018), former Minister of State for Defence,Subhash Bhamre, had informed the LokSabha that 31 aircraft of the IAF had beeninvolved in accidents during the last fouryears. It was said that 10 accidents had takenplace in 2014-15, six in 2015-16 and 10 in2016-17, while five were reported in 2017-18. These accounted for almost twosquadrons of aircraft.

    Since this reply in the Parliament,another 18 aircraft have been lost. Theseaccount for almost two squadrons. In orderto get the full impact of these figures, oneshould read this together with the statementmade by Air Chief Marshal Birender SinghDhanoa a few months ago, where he said thatthe depleted Air Force had only 31squadrons as against a sanction of 42squadrons (16-18 planes each) and that Indiafaced a grave threat. Even if the Air Forcegets the sanctioned 42 squadrons, India’sstrength would be “less than the combinedstrength of our two adversaries — China andPakistan”, he said.

    In case one takes into account the IAFlosses during the last 10 years, almost foursquadrons or even more may have been lostwhich is not a small number. In a way, hadwe cut down such losses, the country wouldhave been in a much better position to face any threats. As the IAF had the highest num-ber of peace-time crashes in the world quitesome time ago, a committee chaired by for-mer IAF Chief Air Chief Marshal DenisAnthony Lafontaine, a fighter pilot whoplayed a key role in 1965 and 1971 Indo-Pakwars, had gone into various aspects and hadcome to the conclusion that among the mainfactors for crashes were pilot error (42 percent), bird hits (seven per cent) and main-tenance and technical issues (44 per cent).

    A very high rate of pilot error was

    blamed on the absence of an Advanced JetTrainer (AJT). It was said that pilots, for wantof an AJT, were trained on slower aircraftand got suddenly exposed to a Mach-2 sit-uation, leading to accidents. In any case, AN-32 is a much slower transport aircraft.

    Losses have continued even after theinduction of the AJT. During the last fouryears, that is after the induction of AJT,almost two squadrons may have been lost.As the number of crashes has not comedown significantly, there must be some othercontributing factors that need to beaddressed.

    Earlier, in the late 1990s, the situationwas even more serious as the frequency ofcrashes had assumed alarming propor-tions. Eighty one aircraft, all MIGs and itsvariants, had crashed during a five-year peri-od, killing 34 pilots. Admittedly, there wasa spare parts crunch at that time as some ofthese had been procured from the CentralAsian and East European countries, whichwere not in a position to maintain that levelof forces and were reducing their invento-ry. These spare parts were not of the samequality as originals.

    So also was the case with lubricants andgreases, whose shelf-life had expired. On theother hand, one of the former Air Chiefs wason record, having stated that there was a seri-ous design flaw. While this debate was heat-ing up, the Russian manufacturers blamedus for poor maintenance of the aircraft andmaking changes in the original designs.

    Be that as it may, the fact remains that

    we have lost a few hundred aircraft and val-ued pilots due to peace-time crashes, seri-ously depleting our resources and imping-ing on our fighting capability. Unfortunately,the same trend continues. Losing seven ofour best possessions, including Su-30MKI,which is a fourth generation aircraft beingmanufactured at Nasik, does not augur well.Most of these crashes of the �400 croreplanes were attributed to technical snagsconnected with the wire-guided system.

    It has been often observed that in ourcountry, items in which foreign manufactur-ers of defence equipment are interested hap-pen to be the slowest to develop. None per-haps would be interested to sell us satellitesor their launchers, and look at the phenom-enal progress made by us in the expertise inrocket and missile technology.

    On the other hand, the development ofbattle tanks and aircraft has taken a very longtime. Considering that even in the indigenous-ly manufactured aircraft, a significant propor-tion in critical areas still gets imported, theirvulnerability to cyber attacks would also needto be taken into account with appropriatecounter measures in place. Now that we arein the process of acquiring state-of-the-art andlatest aircraft, it is up to our technicians, main-tenance crews and pilot trainers to ensure thatwe have an accident-free record. After all,every accident prevented only adds to thesquadron strength of our Air Force.

    (The writer is a retired Delhi PoliceCommissioner and former UttarakhandGovernor)

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    India’s indus-trial outputgrew to a six-month high of3.4 per cent inApril mainlyon account ofimprovementin mining andpower genera-tion, accordingto Governmentdata releasedWednesday.

    The Indexof IndustrialP r o d u c t i o n(IIP) had expanded by 4.5 percent in April 2018. The previ-ous high in IIP growth wasrecorded at 8.4 per cent inOctober 2018.

    The expansion in the min-ing sector was 5.1 per centcompared to 3.8 per cent in theyear-ago month.

    Similarly, the growth in thepower sector was 6 per cent inApril as against 2.1 per cent inthe corresponding month ofthe last fiscal. However, therewas a slowdown in the manu-facturing sector.

    As per Central StatisticsOffice (CSO) data, manufac-turing growth slipped to 2.8 percent in April from 4.9 per centin the corresponding period

    last year.Giving further details, the

    CSO data revealed that thegrowth in capital goods seg-ment, barometer of investmentactivities, slowed sharply to2.5 per cent from a high of 9.8per cent in April 2018.

    Similarly, slower growthwas recorded in infrastruc-ture/construction goods, con-sumer durables and consumernon-durables, segments inApril 2019 on annual basis.

    However, the production ofprimary goods increased by 5.2per cent in April this year asagainst 2.7 per cent year-on-year.

    In terms of industries, 14out of 23 industry groups in the

    manufacturing sector showedpositive growth during April2019 as compared to the cor-responding month of the pre-vious year.

    The industry group ‘man-ufacture of wearing apparel’ hasshown the highest positivegrowth of 33.6 per cent fol-lowed by 22.6 per cent in‘Manufacture of wood andproducts of wood and cork,except furniture

    On the other hand, theindustry group ‘manufacture ofpaper and paper products’showed the highest negativegrowth of (-) 12.3 per cent fol-lowed by (-) 9.6 per cent in‘manufacture of fabricatedmetal products.

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    The deal street saw a sharp54 percent decline Mergerand Acquitions (M&A) in Mayat $2.8 billion due to fewer largedeals, according a report.

    However, rainmakers arehopeful that formation of astrong Government can helpthe scenario.

    There were 82 deals involv-ing investments of $2.8 billionin May, which is a 54 percentdecline year-on-year, EY Indiasaid Wednesday and attrib-uted the fall to fewer largedeals, as there were only fivedeals of over $100 million dur-ing the month.

    The dip comes amid datarelease of sagging GDP growthfuelled largely by a fall in con-sumption which has been theone of the favourite forinvestors as well.

    EY partner Vivek Soni,

    however, exuded confidence indeal making picking up in thecoming months on the back ofthe “decisive electoral mandate”and a “strong deal pipeline”.

    Within the $2.8-billionfund inflows, buyouts was thelargest category accounting for$1.4 billion.

    From a sectoral perspectiveinfrastructure was the top pickwitnessing $900 million ininvestments, largely due to the$500-million deal involvingGIC and Essel Infraprojectsand also the $400-millionGIC/KKR deal with India GridTrust, it said.

    Investments by sovereignwealth funds and pensionfunds accounted for over 40percent of the total deals in themonth, it said.

    There was a sharp fall inexits as well, down 55 percentin May at $739 million fromthe year-ago period.

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    At the launch of India’s firstscooter that meets BharatStage 6 emission norms, HondaMotorcycle and Scooter India(HMSI) Chief ExecutiveOfficer, Minoru Kato men-tioned that the Japanese com-pany, India’s largest scootermanufacturer was ‘putting onhold any further investmentdecisions until they got someclarity on the government’sproposals around electrifica-tion of sub-150cc two-wheel-ers.’ This is in light of a recentproposal in a report released bythe Niti Ayog that has proposedthat all sub-1500 two-wheelersin India get run on electricityby 2023. Kato made it clear thatwhile electrification was thefuture, to moveto electric sosoon after implementing newBharat Stage 6 emission normswas not a wise move, “We andmany of our suppliers havemade very heavy investmentsin moving to BS6.”

    In doing so, Kato echoedthe sentiments expressed byPawan Munjal, CEO, HeroMotocorp and Rajiv Bajaj,Managing Director, Bajaj Auto.India has moved from nation-wide Bharat Stage 4 (BS4)emission norms to BS6 emis-sion norms in just three years.Europe moved from the rough-ly comparable Euro 3 to Euro5 in thirteen years. two -wheel-er manufacturers in India have

    privately stat-ed that thisrapid move hasled to themdiverting hugeamounts ofengineer ingresources intoBS6 enginedevelopment.The strictere m i s s i o nnorms willmean that most, if not all two-wheelers will have to use fuel-injection systems. This coupledwith new insurance rules andsafety norms, are increasingprices by 10-15 per cent.

    This might have led to asales slowdown, which Katosaid was anticip