NEARBY Pakistani troops kill, mutilate two jawans · Borges India, and Kaleesuwari ... bodies near the Line of Con-trol (LoC) ... followed this up with firing from automatic weapons

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tuesday, may 2, 2017 Delhi

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Malnutrition isn’t just aboutacute starvation. Often,healthy-looking people aremalnourished too, becausetheir diet does not includethe right micronutrients. Insevere forms, suchdeficiencies can haveserious effects. For instance,iron deficiency leads tocritical problems duringpregnancy, and not enoughVitamin A can lead to poorvision, infections, and skinproblems.

To tackle the issue, theFood Safety and StandardsAuthority of India (FSSAI)released a set of standardsand a logo last year. Sincethen, it has focussed onawareness- and consensus-building. Now, a number ofenterprises will beginadding premixes ofmicronutrients to launch

fortified foods. SmitaMankad, head of the FSSAI’sFood Fortification ResourceCentre, told The Hindu thatin the next few months,General Mills India, ITC,Hindustan Unilever andPatanjali will launch wheatflour; Adani Wilmar, Marico,

Borges India, andKaleesuwari Refineries areworking on oil; LT Foods,DCP Food and KKR Food arelaunching rice; and in salt,other brands will join Tata,which already has a doublefortified brand in themarket. Milk cooperatives in

Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan,Assam and Maharashtra willfortify their products too.

Targeting children, theRajasthan, Madhya Pradesh,Haryana and HimachalPradesh governments havebegun using fortified oil fortheir mid-day meal schemes.West Bengal and Andamanand Nicobar Islands are nowdistributing fortified wheatflour through the publicdistribution system, and theMaharashtra governmenthas started a pilot project.

The FSSAI is also workingwith small local suppliers,for instance local flourgrinding mills, to get them toadd premixedmicronutrients. “The nextlevel of awarenesses will beamong consumers to opt forfortified staples,” Ms.Mankad said.

The FSSAI has decidednot to interfere in pricing.

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Fortiied foods to tackle malnutritionMNCs, co-ops, other manufacturers will add premixes of micronutrients to products

Jyoti Shelar

Mumbai

Rahul kick-starts poll

campaign in Gujarat,

targets Mann Ki Baat

page 10

Home Ministry orders

independent probe

into Sukma attack

page 10

Haiz Saeed to remain

under house arrest for

three more months

page 12

Mumbai Indians

extends good run

with a win over RCB

page 15

NEARBY

Dry Days: Industrial units in distressThe sixth of this seven-part

series on water scarcity in

south India analyses the

impact of drought-like

conditions on industries

relying heavily on water as an

input. Across the afected

regions and sectors, not only

are these industries facing

production setbacks, but this

exacerbates drinking water

shortages as well.NATION � PAGE 7

DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

Wondering whether Cal-cutta High Court judgeJustice C.S. Karnan is “feign-ing mental imbalance,” aseven-judge Supreme CourtBench, led by Chief Justiceof India J.S. Khehar, onMonday ordered him to bemedically examined by aboard of doctors in Kolkata.

The order was promptedby Justice Karnan’s state-ments to the media againstthe Bench and a recent ‘pur-ported judicial order’ direct-ing Chief Justice Khehar andseven SC judges to appearbefore him in Calcutta onMay 1, 2017.

“The tenor of the pressbriefings, as also the pur-ported order passed by him,indicate that he may not bein a position to defend him-self in the present proceed-ings. We, therefore, con-

sider it in the fitness ofmatters to direct him to bemedically examined beforeproceeding with the mat-ter,” the Bench ordered.

Hours after the SC order,Justice Karnan himself is-sued an order directing theDelhi DGP to produce theseven judges before a psy-chiatric board. He said hewould not undergo a med-ical examination andthreatened to suspend theWest Bengal DGP if he triedto execute the SC order.

(With PTI inputs)

SC orders Karnan to bemedically examined Calcutta HC judge issues tit-for-tat order

Krishnadas Rajagopal

Soumya Das

NEW DELHI/Kolkata

Justice C.S. Karnan

CONTINUED ON � PAGE 10

The Army on Monday saidPakistani troops killed twojawans and mutilated theirbodies near the Line of Con-trol (LoC) in the Pir PanjalValley’s Poonch district.

Pakistani soldiers andtheir Border Action Team,which includes trained bor-der inhabitants, launched ajoint attack early in the day.They first fired rockets andfollowed this up with firingfrom automatic weaponsnear Kranti Post, located inthe Krishna Ghati Sectoraround 8.30 a.m.

The Pakistanis thencrossed the LoC, entered200 metres into Indian ter-ritory, and attacked a jointpatrol of the Army and theBorder Security Force (BSF),heading to a nearby post.

Inhuman act: Jaitley“In an unsoldierly act, thePakistan Army mutilated thebodies of two jawans. Such adespicable act will be appro-priately responded to,” theArmy said. Sources said “itwas a case of beheading.”

Defence Minister ArunJaitley termed the mutilationa “reprehensible and an in-human act” and said suchacts don’t even take place“during war, let alonepeace.”

“Bodies of soldiers beingmutilated is an extreme

form of barbaric act. TheGovernment of Indiastrongly condemns this actand the whole country hasfull confidence and faith inour armed forces, which willreact appropriately to thisinhuman act. The sacrificeof these soldiers will not goin vain,” Mr. Jaitley said.

The attack triggered a ma-jor exchange of fire on theLoC, and Indian troops re-sorted to small arms fire andmortar shelling, said anArmy official.

The deceased personnelwere identified as BSF headconstable Prem Sagar of the200 Battalion and theArmy’s Naik Subedar Para-mjit Singh of 22 Sikh Regi-ment. Another BSF jawanwas injured.

(With inputs from Dinakar Peri)

Pakistani troops kill,mutilate two jawansAttack joint patrol of Army, BSF 200 m inside Indian territory

Peerzada Ashiq

Srinagar

One with nature: Girls practising Bharatanatyam as the temperature dips at a summer camp at Addanki, in Prakasam districtof Andhra Pradesh, on Monday. * KOMMURI SRINIVAS

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Wild blue yonder

Turkey and India on Mondaycalled for a collective fightagainst terrorism. Speakingat the end of delegation-leveltalks, visiting President Re-cep Tayyip Erdogan con-demned the attack on CRPFpersonnel in Sukma and ex-pressed solidarity with In-dia, even as he stopped shortof condemning cross-borderterrorism by Pakistan-basedgroups.

“We will never bow to ter-rorism that spreads tearsand unhappiness. Terroristswill drown in their ownblood,” said Mr. Erdogan, ad-dressing the media at Hy-derabad House.

“I condemn the terror at-tack of April 24 [in Sukma]where many Indian soldiersdied.”

However, Mr. Erdogan’scondemnation of the killingof security personnel incentral India contrasted with

his silence over the news ofan alleged cross-border at-tack by elements based inPakistan.

The issue of cross-borderterrorism was strongly takenup by Prime Minister Naren-dra Modi, who urged for acommon strategy againststates that use terrorism asan instrument of power.

Erdogan calls for war on terrorTerrorists will drown in their own blood, warns Turkish President

Kallol Bhattacherjee

NEW DELHI

CONTINUED ON � PAGE 10Narendra Modi greets RecepTayyip Erdogan in New Delhion Monday. * V. SUDERSHAN

ERDOGAN BACKS INDIA’S

BID FOR UNSC SEAT � PAGE 10

Five policemen and twobank security guards werekilled in south Kashmir’sKulgam district on Mondaywhen a group of armedmilitants attacked a cash vanof the J&K Bank.

The attackers decampedwith four service rifles of thepolicemen, but no cash waslooted.

A police official said themilitants attacked the van,which was heading to theKulgam districtheadquarters afterunloading cash at a branchin Nehama village.

Seven killed asmilitants attackbank’s cash vanSpecial correspondent

Srinagar

CONTINUED ON � PAGE 10CONTINUED ON � PAGE 10DELHI METRO � 6 PAGES

An ambulance service cater-ing exclusively to cows waslaunched here on Monday.

The “Gauvansh ChikitsaMobile Vans” service willtransport ill and injuredcows to gau shalas or takethem to a veterinary fortreatment.

A veterinarian along withan assistant will be presentin the ambulance. A “gauseva toll-free number” wasalso launched.

Flagging off five such am-bulances from his officialresidence here, UP DeputyChief Minister Keshav PrasadMaurya posted pictures ofthe event on his Facebookpage.

In the initial phase, theservice will be available inLucknow, Gorakhpur,Varanasi, Mathura andAllahabad.

The service is being run incollaboration with theMNREGA Mazdoor KalyanSanghathan, an organisationthat claims to work for la-bourers and others em-ployed in the informal sec-tor. Its president, Sanjay Rai,claims that the organisationhas presence in five States.

According to a brochurereleased by Mr. Rai, his or-ganisation plans to take ac-

tion against people whoabandon their cows oncethey stop giving milk andalso against municipal offi-cials if cows are forced to eatpolythene or plastic itemsdumped on streets.

Similar projectA similar project waslaunched a few days ago inKhargone district of MadhyaPradesh, ruled by the BJP.

After assuming office inMarch, the Yogi Adityanathgovernment has ordered theclosure of illegal slaughter-houses.

Justifying his govern-ment’s decision to close il-legal abattoirs, the chiefminister said the earlier re-gime had ignored the direc-tions of the National GreenTribunal of 2014 and the Su-preme Court in 2017 to shutdown such slaughter houses.

(With PTI)

Something to moo about; UPlaunches ambulance for cowsVet, assistant will be present in ambulance started in ive cities

Omar Rashid

Lucknow

A “gau seva toll-freenumber” was also launched.

Home Minister RajnathSingh will meet Jammu &Kashmir Governor N.N.Vohra on Tuesday to dis-cuss the security situationin the State.

Mr. Vohra has been inDelhi for the past threedays and will meet Mr.Singh at the latter’s resid-ence on Tuesday.

On Monday, Home Min-istry informed the ElectionCommission that it couldprovide only 30,000 cent-ral forces personnel for theAnantnag Lok Sabha by-poll on May 25.

The Election Commis-sion had demanded 74,000personnel. The Home Min-istry informed the EC thatit did not have such a hugenumber at its disposal.

An EC official said onMonday that the pollswould go on as scheduled.

Rajnath tomeet J&KGuv todaySpecial Correspondent

New Delhi

Slovenian among 3 heldin UP arms racketMEERUT

The DRI on Monday arrested

three persons, including a

Slovenian, for alleged

involvement in a major

gunrunning and wildlife

smuggling racket, after raids

at a national-level shooter’s

house in Meerut led to a haul

of arms and animal meat.

NEWS � PAGE 11


‘Refusal to hold talksmaking people angry’SRINAGAR

Peoples Democratic Party

Minister Altaf Bukhari on

Monday said his party was

“facing public rage as

promises made in the Agenda

of Alliance remain unmet”.

He also took exception to the

Centre’s refusal to hold talks

with the Hurriyat Conference

and Pakistan.

NATION � PAGE 6


The Aam Aadmi Party’s(AAP) dismal performancein the Delhi municipal elec-tions and the subsequentfeuding between Okhla MLAAmanatullah Khan andfounding member KumarVishvas claimed its first vic-tim on Monday when MrKhan resigned from theparty’s political affairscommittee.

Senior AAP leader ManishSisodia said the party accep-ted Mr. Khan's resignationafter a late evening meetingof the PAC.

“Members showed disap-proval of the statementsmade on Sunday by Aman-atullah. His resignation hasbeen accepted,” he said.

Vishvas skips meetingMr. Sisodia also said MrVishvas chose not to attendthe meeting and his absencealso became a point of dis-cussion at the meeting.

He stressed that leadershad been reminded to not is-sue statements and releasevideos to the media and thepublic, and instead trust theparty leadership.

Mr Khan resigned a day

after he accused Mr Vishvasof plotting to overthrowparty convenor ArvindKejriwal.

Earlier in the day, Mr.Kejriwal called a meeting ofsenior party leaders and ex-pressed his disapproval overthe “irresponsible” state-ments issued over the week-end, especially by MrVishvas and Mr. Khan.

Sources said the diktatwas directed at both theleaders. They have been toldto air their views before theparty and not to the media.

Amanatullah quits top party panel

AAP tells its leaders to not speak to media

Soumya Pillai

New Delhi

RELATED REPORT ON � DELHI

METRO

https://telegram.me/TheHindu_Zone https://telegram.me/PDF4EXAMS

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NOIDA/DELHI THE HINDU

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NORTH

the PRB Act).

DELHI Timings

Tuesday, May 02

RISE 05:40 SET 18:57

RISE 11:11 SET 00:05

Wednesday, May 03

RISE 05:39 SET 18:58

RISE 12:11 SET 00:56

Thursday, May 04

RISE 05:38 SET 18:58

RISE 13:10 SET 01:42

Tigress dies atJamshedpur zoo JAMSHEDPUR

A tigress has died at the Tata

Steel Zoological Park here on

Monday. The 18-year-old

tigress, Shanti, was under

treatment at the zoo hospital

due to old-age-related

complications, but her

condition deteriorated in the

last 15 days.- PTI

IN BRIEF

Student commits suicide in Rajasthan BUNDI

An 18-year-old boy allegedly

committed suicide on Monday

at his house here, the police

said. Shikhar Upadhyay, a

resident of New Colony area,

was found hanging from the

ceiling of his room by his

mother in the afternoon, the

police said. - PTI

Former Madhya PradeshMinister passes away ALIRAJPUR

Congress leader and former

Madhya Pradesh Minister

Pratap Singh Baghel died of

heart failure at a hospital in

Jobat area here on Monday.

He was 70. Pratap Singh

Baghel had served as Minister

in M.P. twice. - PTI

Man arrested forcelebratory firing death MUZAFFARNAGAR

Following the death of a

12-year-old boy in celebratory

fire at a wedding in Bilaspur

here, the police on Monday

arrested the bride’s brother.

Vinod, 27, was held after

Munir Hasan was killed in

celebratory fire while

watching the wedding event

on Saturday. - PTI

Former Deputy Chief Minis-ter and Shiromani Akali Dal(SAD) president SukhbirSingh Badal on Mondayasked the new Congress gov-ernment to encourage goodgovernance to continue thedevelopment narrative inPunjab.

He also asked Chief Minis-ter Capt Amarinder Singhnot to indulge in petty polit-ics like proposing to wind upthe Right to Service (RTS)Commission.

He said it was shockingthat a move was afoot towind up the RTI Commissionwhich had removed slothfrom government offices andjolted public servants to per-form at the pain of penalty.

“Any attempt to wind upthis Commission and dilutethe stringent clauses whichhave been implemented bythe Commission to ensurehassle-free efficient serviceto the people will be a re-gressive and anti-Punjabistep”, he added.

It has been learnt that thenew Congress governmentwanted to remove the pen-alty clause which was en-forceable in case govern-ment servants did notprovide services accordingto designated time lines, hesaid.

“This will take the bite outof the new proposed bodyand make it a toothless ti-ger”, he said while con-demning another proposalto make a senior bureaucratthe appealing authority in-

stead of RTI commissioners.He said it would not be

possible for bureaucrats totake strict action against fel-low officers or get their pen-alties recorded in their ser-vice books.

He said a canard was alsobeing spread by vested in-terests that the RTI Commis-sion did not have any work.

He said the truth of thematter was that the Commis-sion had processed 36,000cases in the last six years.

“It has also awarded pun-

ishment to 90 officers,” hesaid.

He said the Commissionhad also held mobile courtsto settle disputes near thehomes of complainants be-sides holding awareness ses-sions to make the peopleaware of their rights.

“The Commission has putpeople first and does notcharge any fee and evenawards the penalty amountto complainants in somecases to compensate for theharassment caused tothem”, he added.

Stating that valuable timewould be lost in trying towind up the Commissionwhich was difficult as it wasa statutory body and courtselsewhere had discouragedsuch practices, he asked thenew government to work in-stead to improve the func-tioning of the Commission.

“When the Commissionstarted functioning itprovided 67 services. Now itis providing 351 services.This can be further expan-ded,” he said.

Don’t play petty politics,Sukhbir tells Punjab govt‘Encourage good governance to continue the development narrative in the State’

Amarinder Singh *

Press Trust of India

Chandigarh

Sukhbir Singh Badal *

The Centre has ordered aprobe into the recent viol-ence on the Allahabad Uni-versity campus in UttarPradesh.

Union HRD MinisterPrakash Javadekar said onMonday that he has formeda fact-finding committee tolook into the matter andsubmit a report.

Violent protests hadrocked the varsity campuslast Friday after arrest offour students for disruptingan executive council meet-ing and violating prohibit-ory orders.

The agitating studentshad pelted police personnelwith stones. A number ofvehicles parked nearbywere damaged and win-dowpanes smashed.

“I have formed a fact-finding committee to invest-igate the matter. It will sub-mit me the report in acouple of days.

I will then take necessaryaction,” Mr Javadekar said ina series of tweets.

The Minister also ap-pealed to “all stakeholders”

to observe peace.Tensions began on the

campus Friday after a groupof students, led by office-bearers of their union, sur-rounded the university’sguest house, where an exec-utive council meeting wasunderway, and shouted slo-gans demanding actionagainst alleged financial ir-regularities in the institute.

Chief Minister YogiAdityanath has also sought areport on the violence fromthe the Chief Secretary andthe Director General ofPolice.

Report in a couple of days: Javadekar


New Delhi

Violence had rocked theAllahabad University campuslast Friday.

Centre orders probe into varsity violence

Ahead of the Assemblypolls in Madhya Pradeshnext year, the Janata Dal(United) on Monday de-manded a complete pro-hibition in the State on thelines of Bihar.

“Demand for liquor banis being raised in differentparts of Madhya Pradesh.Considering the demand,the Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led State governmentclosed down liquor shopsalong the Narmada riverbanks. But, this step isinadequate.

Our demand is thatthere should be a completeliquor ban in MP on thelines of Bihar,” JD(U) na-tional general secretaryAkhilesh Katiyar told re-porters here.

“The implementation ofliquor ban in Bihar did notmuch affect its revenues.This step brought downthe crime and road acci-dents to a large extent. Ithas increased the sale ofmilk and sewing ma-chines,” he said. Mr. Kati-yar informed that NitishKumar is likely to visit dif-ferent places of the State.

JD(U) seeksliquor banin M.P. Press Trust of India

Indore

As much as 69.32 lakhtonnes of wheat has so fararrived in Haryana duringthe ongoing Rabi marketingseason, whereas over 64.59lakh tonnes of wheat arrivedduring the corresponding

period last year.Giving the information on

Monday, a spokesman of theCivil Supplies and Con-sumer Affairs department,said 69.27 lakh tonnes ofwheat has been purchasedby five government procure-ment agencies.

69 lakh tonnes of wheatarrives in Haryana Press Trust of India

Chandigarh

The Rajasthan governmentwill set up a captivebreeding centre for the greatIndian bustard in an attemptto boost the wild populationof the country's mostcritically endangered bird.The task of conservation willbe taken up through twofacilities in Kota andJaisalmer districts.

This will be the first suchfacility in the country aimedat saving the bird, which isthe State bird of Rajasthan.Its last remnant wildpopulation of about 90 inRajasthan accounts for 95%of the total worldpopulation.

The captive breedingcentre will come up atSorsan in Kota district, whilea hatchery will be set up atMokhala in Jaisalmer districtin the next one year.

The Union Environmentand Forest Ministry hassanctioned ₹33.85 crore tofacilitate the two centres andauthorised the WildlifeInstitute of India (WII) to beits scientific arm.

State Chief WildlifeWarden G.V. Reddy told TheHindu on Monday that the

eggs would be fetched fromthe wild breedingpopulation in the DesertNational Park in westernRajasthan and brought tothe hatchery. A state-of-the-art egg hatching centre willbe raised there.

For the breeding centre,the comparatively moisthabitat of Sorsan has beenselected. The region hasbetter rainfall, besides forestland, and it was home to thebustards until two decadesago. After the chicks areraised, they would betransported to the desert forreintroduction in the wild,said Mr. Reddy.

Mr. Reddy said amemorandum ofunderstanding for

establishing the two facilitieswould be signed betweenthe Union government, WIIand the State government inabout two months. The tasksunder the MoU will includesourcing of eggs,transportation, rearing up ofchicks and reintroduction inthe wild with certaintraining inputs to youngbirds.

Experts from the ForestDepartment, WII and WWF-India deliberated on themodalities for establishingthe two centres anddiscussed issues related tothe remnant population ofbustards, habitatmanagement andanthropocentric pressure ata meeting here on Friday.

State Forest MinisterGajendra Singh presidedover the meeting.

Keith Scotland, whoserves at the Emirates BirdBreeding Centre at Al Ain inUnited Arab Emirates, andCarlos Alonso from Spainelaborated on how captivebreeding had succeededwith houbara and greatbustard in these regionsrespectively.

Tourism & WildlifeSociety of India honorarysecretary Harsh Vardhansaid it was a “milestonedecision” in the avian annalsof the country.

“We have been harpingon it since the late 1970s,”remarked the wildlifeenthusiast, considered anexpert on the endangeredbird species.

Mr. Vardhan said a femalebustard, which lays a singleegg in a season, was proneto lay a second time as well.If the scientific methodssucceed in enabling her tolay more eggs once theearlier ones are picked up tobe transported to thehatchery, a target could beset for getting five to eighteggs per female for the next10 years.

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Rajasthan to set up bustard breeding centre The State government plans centre in Kota and hatchery in Jaisalmer

Critically endangered: The great Indian bustard. * ANAND ARYA

Mohammed Iqbal

JAIPURA regional manager of Hi-machal Road TransportCorporation and two oth-ers were on Monday arres-ted near here with 4.4 kg ofchitta (synthetic drugs)worth ₹2.50 crore in the in-ternational market.

Shimla Police stoppedMohinder Rana’s officialvehicle at Shoghi check-post, 13 km from here andupon searching found thedrugs, a State police officialsaid.

State Transport MinisterG. S. Bali said that Mr Ranahas tarnished the image ofthe Corporation and hasbeen suspended with im-mediate effect.

He said that the seizeddrugs are worth around₹2.5 crore in the interna-tional market.

Mr Rana has been sus-pended in the past also butthen BJP-ruled State gov-ernment reinstated him in2008.

Police also arrested twopersons — Vikas and Rajivwho were travelling alongwith Mr Rana.

All of them would beproduced in the court, po-lice said.

HRTC oicernabbed with drugs Press Trust of India

Shimla

The Goods and Services Tax(GST) Bill was tabled in theUttarakhand Assembly onMonday during a specialtwo-day session of theHouse convened for the pur-pose of passing the pro-posed legislation.

Introducing the Bill in theAssembly, State FinanceMinister Prakash Pant saidits passage by the House wasnecessary in view of a uni-form tax regime coming intoforce across the countryfrom July 1.

As per the recommenda-tion of the GST council, allState Assemblies are re-quired to pass the Bill beforeJuly 1, when the GST comesinto effect throughout thecountry.

GST, which will replace aplethora of central and Statetaxes, is a consumptionbased tax levied on sale,manufacture and consump-tion on goods and servicesat a national level.

Under it, C-GST will belevied by the Centre, S-GSTby States and I-GST on inter-state supply of goods andservices

Different indirect taxes ofcentral excise duty, centralsales tax CST and service taxare to be merged with C-GSTwhile S-GST will subsumestate sales tax, VAT, luxurytax and entertainment tax.

Harish Rawat protestsMeanwhile, former ChiefMinister Harish Rawat sat ona token fast and dharna hereon Monday in protestagainst the hike in PDSprices of rice and wheat forAPL families.

He asked people to pre-pare themselves for a sus-tained fight over the nextfive years against the in-justices to which they werebeing subjected to.

GST Bill tabled inUttarakhand HouseSpecial two-day session convened


Dehradun

Chief Minister TrivendraSingh Rawat *



THE HINDU NOIDA/DELHI

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EAST

The State government’s mis-sion to position Odishaamong the top three startupdestinations in the countrygot a boost with the launchof the Startup Odisha webportal by Chief MinisterNaveen Patnaik here onMonday.

Inaugurating the portal,Mr. Patnaik called upon theyouth to take full advantageof the initiative to realisetheir dreams.

The portal is a one-stopplatform for startups, incub-ators and investors in theState for registration andavailing of the benefits un-der the Odisha startuppolicy, Mr. Patnaik said.

He expressed hope thatthe portal will act as a cata-lyst in boosting the startupecosystem in the State andhelp in achieving Mis-sion-1000 startups by 2020.

Revised guidelinesThe Chief Minister also re-leased the compendium of

the startup policy withamendments and revisedguidelines.

The portal has been care-fully crafted adhering to thethree core principles of easeof usage, transparency andknowledge sharing. Havingbeen seamlessly linked withthe Union Ministry of Cor-porate Affairs and StartupIn-dia, it will reduce duplica-tion of efforts in filling ofinformation.

For developing the star-tup ecosystem in Odisha,the State government hasidentified access to infra-structure, mentorship andguidance, national andglobal exposure and accessto funding as the majorlevers of growth.

Hopes it will act as a catalyst in boosting startup ecosystem

Special Correspondent

BHUBANESWAR

Naveen Patnaik

CM launches StartupOdisha web portal

The police on Monday de-tained two persons in con-nection with the allegedlynching of two suspectedcattle thieves in central As-sam’s Nagaon district but re-frained from terming it acase of ‘cow vigilantism’

District Superintendent ofPolice Debaraj Upadhay toldPTI, “We have picked up twopersons in this connectionand after investigation as towhether they were involvedin Sunday’s lynching incid-ent, we will arrest them.”

Mob fury The incident was an out-come of “mob fury leadingto the brutal killing of thetwo persons suspected to becattle thieves”, he said.

Asked if it was a case of‘cow vigilantism’, the SPsaid, “Not at all. There is nocommunal issue involved inthe incident. It was a case ofmob being angry and beat-ing up the two suspectedthieves”.

“The owner of the cattlein Kasamari village saw twomen taking away his cows

and shouted for the localpeople to stop them. Thepeople there came out andchased the two before theangry mob beat them up, in-juring them seriously,” Mr.Upadhay said.

The police team which ar-rived at the site rushed thetwo to hospital where they

succumbed to their injuries,he said.

Parents file plaintStating that the deceasedhave been identified as AbuHanifa and Riyazuddin, theSP said their parents have re-gistered a complaint withthe police and investigations

are on.Although some incidents

of cattle thieves beingthrashed by the mob havebeen reported from Assamearlier, this is the first casu-alty after cases of cow vigil-antism have been reportedin recent times across thenation.

Two persons detained inAssam lynching incidentNo communal issue involved in the incident, says Nagaon district SP

In grief: Shar Banu, 65, grandmother of Riyazuddin, who was beaten to death by a mob onSunday, cries outside her home in Naramari village, 140 km from Guwahati, on Monday * AP


Guwahati

Jharkhand labourers toget ₹750 as pensionRANCHI

Jharkhand Chief Minister

Raghubar Das on Monday

said labourers, who are

getting ₹ 500 as pension per

month, will now get ₹ 750

while beneficiaries of family

pension will get ₹ 500 from

the current ₹ 300.

Addressing a “Shramik

Samman Samaroh” here on

the occasion of Labour Day,

the Chief Minister said both

the announcements would be

effective from Monday. PTI

IN BRIEF

Marginal drop intemperature in Odisha BHUBANESWAR

A marginal drop in

temperature in several areas

coupled with a nor’wester

brought some respite on

Monday from the gruelling

heatwave conditions in

Odisha. The temperature at

Balangir, which remained the

hottest town in the State, fell

to 42.5 degrees Celsius

during the day from 44.3

degrees Celsius recorded on

Sunday. The maximum

temperature in Bhubaneswar

was 36.7 degrees Celsius and

36.4 degrees in Cuttack city,

the MeT office said. PTI

A farmer from Ganjam dis-trict, who allegedly attemp-ted suicide due to crop lossand debt burden three daysago, died at the MKCG med-ical college hospital here onMonday.

Santanu Nahak, 33, afarmer from Matha-Makund-pur village, had consumedpesticide on April 28.

He was initially admittedto the Rambha CommunityHealth Centre and latertransferred to the MKCGmedical college hospital

after his conditiondeteriorated.

Share cropper Speaking to newsmen at theMKCG medical college hos-pital campus , Sampad Mo-hapatra, the brother of thedeceased, said: “My brother

was a share cropper whohad had taken up vegetablecultivation by investingaround ₹ 10 lakh. Being ashare cropper, he was notentitled to a loan from banksand cooperative bodies. Sohe had taken loans of over ₹8 lakh from private sources.”

Ganjam farmer who attempted suicide diesStaff Reporter

BERHAMPUR

Maoists and security forceswere engaged in an ex-change of fire in Malkangiridistrict of Odisha in theearly hours of Monday,hours after the ultras killeda tribal in the same district.

According to policesources, the exchange of firetook place inside the forestnear the remote Kurub vil-lage when the security per-sonnel were involved in ananti-Maoist operation. Butthe naxalites managed to es-cape taking advantage of thehilly terrain.

Combing operation Combing operation hasbeen intensified in the area.

Maoists killed a tribalnamed Deba Madhi (45) inTamaguda village under theMV-79 police station limitson Sunday night. Accordingto sources, a group ofaround 20 armed naxalitesreached the village aroundmidnight.

The victim, who wassleeping outside his house,was forcefully dragged tothe outskirts of the village.He was ruthlessly beaten upand later hacked to deathwith some sharp weapon.The ultras alleged that hewas a police informer.

The body of the victimwas found on Mondaymorning.

During the past fewweeks, Maoists have be-come active in Malkangiridistrict that borders the nax-alite-infested areas of Chhat-tisgarh and Andhra Pra-desh. On April 27 night,Maoists shot dead two tri-bals in the district.

The ultras had murderedBisu Kirsani and Ram Pa-diami of Sudhakanda villageunder the MV-79 police sta-tion alleging that they werepolice informers.

But police sourcesclaimed that the recent vic-tims of Maoist violence werepoor tribals who had nolinks with the police.

Maoists kill tribal inMalkangiri districtUltras, security forces also exchange ire

Staff Reporter

BERHAMPURThe Election Commissionhas appointed Tripura gov-ernment’s Principal Secret-ary Sriram Taranikanti asthe new Chief Electoral Of-ficer (CEO) of the State, anofficial said here onMonday.

Mr. Taranikanti replacesS.K. Rakesh, who hasmoved to the Central gov-ernment on deputation.

1992 batch IAS officer Mr. Taranikanti is a 1992batch IAS officer of theTripura cadre and waslooking after Transport,Food, Civil Suppliers andConsumer Affairsdepartments.

Under his supervisionthe next Assembly elec-tions would be held in theLeft-ruled State, an officialsaid.

Elections to the 60-seatTripura assembly are likelyto be held in February nextyear along with Nagalandand Meghalaya.

Tripura getsnew polloicerIANS

Agartala

Two persons, including aminor, were thrashed byangry villagers in East GaroHills district after they al-legedly raped a 14-year-oldgirl, the police said on

Monday.The incident took place

on April 27 at about 3:30p.m. when they waylaid thegirl on her way back homefrom school at remote Din-amgre village, a senior dis-trict police told PTI.

The angry villagers caught

hold of the two and thrashedthem and later handed themover to the police, the officersaid.

The girl was rushed to theWilliamnagar Civil Hospitalby family members after theincident and she is said to bein a stable condition.

Minor among two held for rapePress Trust of India

Tura (Meghalaya)





WEST

Workers from Goa marchedin Panaji on Monday to de-mand nationalisation of alliron ore mines in the State,and to pledge support to thevillagers of Sonshi and allothers struggling for cleanwater and air.

The All India Trade UnionCongress (AITUC) had or-ganised the rally to celebrateInternational Workers’ Day.Workers from factories,mines, shipyards, port anddock, commercial establish-ments, transport, govern-ment and semi-governmentdepartments shouted slo-gans and waved colourfulposters and banners bearingmessages.

The rally ended with apublic meeting addressed byAITUC Goa general secretaryChristopher Fonseca, pres-ident Prasanna Utagi,deputy general secretaryR.D. Mangueshkar and sec-retary Suhaas Naik.

The workers felicitatedAmandeep Prabhudessai, adoctor who has dedicatedhis whole life to serve theneedy. They also felicitated

Comrade Juvenile Braganza,a veteran communist whohas served working peoplein Goa for many years.

Mr. Fonseca said that theoffensive launched by the

BJP-led government on theworking people and theirhard-won rights at the be-hest of the corporate lobbymust stop. He demandedthat workers’ rights must be

protected.“The Modi government

has also launched direct at-tacks on the democraticrights of the people, particu-larly the working class, by

unleashing anti-labouramendments to labour lawssecured by the working classafter relentless struggles.This government is out todefeat the hard-won labourlaws, which are beingamended to suit the hire-&-fire policies of MNCs andcorporates,” Mr. Fonsecasaid.

Trade union speakers at-tacked the government for“anti-labour laws” and ac-cused it of failing to tacklethe unemployment problemacross the country.

Mr. Naik demanded a roll-back of the hike in prices ofpetrol and diesel, con-trolling prices of essentialcommodities, recognition ofthe right to organise andright to strike as a funda-mental right, no pro-em-ployer changes to labourlaws, stopping sale of profit-making public sector under-takings, setting up a NationalFund for the unorganisedworkers and toilers, promul-gating minimum wage of₹18,000 per month linked todearness allowance, and ab-olition of the contract laboursystem in government.

Goa workers march for their rights AITUC leaders say hard-won labour laws must be protected

Red-letter day: Workers shout slogans and wave banners during the May Day rally organisedby the AITUC in Panaji on Monday. * ATISH POMBURFEKAR

Prakash Kamat

PANAJI

The Consumer Educationand Research Society(CERS), a leading consumerrights’ organisation, is work-ing towards a movementwhere corporations, manu-facturers and retailers be-come corporate members ofCERS, and all these stake-holders serve consumerstogether.

Talking to The Hindu onthe sidelines of an event or-ganised by consumer rightsbody GOACAN on Sunday,Walter Vieira, chairman ofthe Ahmedabad-basedCERS, said, “I want to startthis movement because Ifirmly believe that corpor-ates, manufacturers and or-ganisations like CERS are notenemies, but are on thesame side of the table toserve the consumers.”

Consumer-centricHe added, “If the consumeris the centre of business, asit should be in any business,then what is the conflict?You want to give them thebest, value for money. Andthese corporates shouldthen be able to say on theirletterheads, ‘we are a con-sumer-centric company andthat we are members ofCERS’.”

“My second thing is toreach out to retailers. [Forinstance,] in Singapore, theyhave a placard on thecounter saying ‘we are ap-proved by the consumerunion of Singapore. If youhave any complaint, contacthere’. It shows it is con-sumer-centric and compli-ant,” said Mr. Vieira.

He said that in developedcountries, consumer unionsare able mobilise huge fundsthrough magazine subscrip-

tions. He recalled how CERShad to close down itsmagazine Insight, which waslosing ₹1 lakh a month as itcould not get more than1,800 subscribers.

At present, the CERS runsa Hindi magazine called Gra-hak Sathi with funds fromthe Ministry of Consumer Af-fairs. It expects to get grantsfrom the Gujarat and Telan-gana governments for Gujar-ati and Telugu issues.

Govt. support lackingMr. Vieira admits that theconsumer movement hasfailed to take off in the coun-try because organisationshave not been able to getmasses involved. But he la-ments that the Ministry ofConsumer Affairs has beengiving huge grants to organ-isations like FICCI and CIIfor consumer protection,but not even one-tenth ofthe amount to consumer or-ganisations. “Does it makeany sense? Six months ago,Mr. Ram Vilas Paswan an-nounced huge grants to theAdvertising Standards Coun-cil of India. You are givingthem a couple of crores, todo what? To protect the adagencies?” he asked.

Mr. Vieira said he was notnot happy with the con-sumer courts in the country.“The idea is fine, but thegovernment is not support-ing it. Not giving enoughmoney to support it — infra-structure for courts, person-nel, nothing,” he said.

‘All stakeholdersshould join handsto serve consumer’CERS chief says businesses, rightsgroups are on the same side

Prakash Kamat

PANAJI <> I am not happy

[with consumer

courts] because the

idea is ine, but the

government is not

supporting it.

Walter Vieira

CERS chairman

The groundwater level in60% tehsils of Maharashtrahas depleted by a minimumof one metre, a Maharashtragovernment agency reporthas said.

“Of the 353 tehsils in Ma-harashtra, 218 have showngroundwater level depletingby at least one metre. A totalof 5,166 villages in these teh-sils would face waterscarcity during the summerseason,” a report released bythe Groundwater Surveysand Development Agency(GSDA) said.

The report is based onreadings taken at 3,920 ob-servation wells across theState. Groundwater levelreadings taken in March arecrucial as they help framepolicies to tackle scarcity.

A total of 2,130 villages in72 tehsils, where there was arainfall deficit in a range of0-20% in 2016, have showngroundwater depletion ofmore than one metre, saidthe report. Similarly, 1,854villages in 113 tehsils, whichreceived excess rainfall dur-ing the monsoon, have re-ported a minimum one

metre depletion. Moreover, in 325 villages,

the water table has depletedmore than three metres,while in 857 villages, the de-pletion is between two andthree metres.

Pradeep Purandare,former associate professor(irrigation management) atWater and Land Manage-ment Institute, Aurangabad,said, the depletion may be aresult either of farmers opt-ing for water-intensivecrops, or exploitation of re-sources by private compan-ies supplying drinking water.

Groundwater level dips in60% tehsils of Maharashtra Press Trust of India

Mumbai

At least five wagons of agoods train derailed at 1.50a.m. on Monday near Dudh-ani Railway Station in Maha-rashtra, under the Solapur-Wadi division. The train,carrying chemicals, was onits way to Solapur fromMalkhed.

At least 11 trains were di-verted on the Hotgi-Gun-takal, Wadi-Latur-Manmadline. No causalities havebeen reported.

Trains divertedThe following trains have

been diverted: Jaipur-Yesh-wantpur Suvidha special viaHotgi-Vijayapura-Yeshwant-pur; Rajkot-Coimbatore Ex-press via Hotgi-Vijayapura-Guntakal; CST Mumbai-Bhubaneswar Konark Ex-press; CST Mumbai-Kanyakumari Express; NewDelhi-KSR Bengaluru Ex-press; CST Mumbai-ChennaiExpress; Dadar-ChennaiEgmore Express; Varanasi-Mysuru Express; KSRBengaluru-Ahmedabad Ex-press; Coimbatore-Lok-manya Tilak Terminus Ex-press; KSR Bengaluru-NewDelhi Express.

Five goods wagonsderail near DudhaniCORRESPONDENT

KALABURAGI

Following speculationsabout the possibility ofChief Minister ManoharParrikar contesting as-sembly election from theCurchorem constituencyof South Goa, the ChiefMinister now reportedlylikely to choose the Panajiseat.

Sources close to PanajiMLA Siddarth Kuncalien-ker told The Hindu onMonday that it was now“sure” that Mr. Parrikarwill contest from Panaji.Mr. Kuncalienker will haveto vacate the seat for theChief Minister.

Sources in the BJP saidthat Mr. Parrikar has beenholding meetings withparty workers and well-wishers from Panaji andhas decided to contestfrom this constituency,though a formal announce-ment may take some time.

Mr. Parrikar was swornin as Chief Minister onMarch 14 after the resultsof State Assembly electionsheld on February 4 wereannounced. He has to getelected to the State As-sembly by September 14.At present, the former De-fence Minister is a RajyaSabha Member fromLucknow.

Mr. Parrikar represen-ted the Panaji constituencyin the Assembly for fiveconsecutive terms till 2012,having been elected for thefirst time in 1994. Heresigned as an MLA afterhe took over as DefenceMinister in 2014.

Mr. Kuncalienker, aformer aide of Mr. Par-rikar, won the 2015 by-election as well as the 2017Assembly election fromPanaji.

Curchorem BJP MLANilesh Cabral had recentlyoffered to resign as MLA toallow Mr. Parrikar to con-test from his constituency.

Parrikar likelyto contestfrom PanajiAssembly seatPrakash Kamat

Panaji


CMYK

A ND-ND

SOUTHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE



The BJP’s central leadershiphas played down the faction-alism that has erupted in itsKarnataka unit and said itseven-handed response — re-moving four office-bearers,two from each faction —sends a message that Stateleaders should fall in line.

In a boost to former ChiefMinister and current partychief B.S. Yeddyurappa, how-ever, party interlocutorswere clear that the centralleadership had “no confu-sion” over the question ofwho would lead the Stateunit and be the party’s chiefministerial candidate in theAssembly polls.

“The central leadershiphas sent a message throughthese expulsions of what isconsidered acceptable beha-viour. In any case, we don’tsee a great or serious prob-lem which creates a chal-lenge for what the party

wants to achieve inKarnataka. We are not sayingeverything is smooth, but thepeople in the State unit onboth sides also understandthat for the central leader-ship, the leader of the cam-paign for the elections nextyear and for the party as itsface is a settled fact,” said asenior central office-bearerinvolved with the issue.

Matters within the State

unit of the BJP had come to ahead last week when, underthe banner of the RayannaBrigade, former DeputyChief Minister Eshwarappacriticised Mr. Yeddyurappa.

The latter, on his part, hadblamed joint national organ-isational general secretaryB.L. Santhosh of not doingenough to curb dissidence.General secretary P. Muralid-har Rao had been rushed to

Bengaluru over the weekendto sort matters. Two vice-presidents, the chief of theparty’s farmers cell, and aspokesperson were sackedfrom their posts, an even-handed stick to the twosides.

“The leader of the partythat the national leadershiphas recognised [Mr. Yeddy-urappa] is not weak orwithout popular support. Onthat point, in fact, the wholeState unit has no issue. Suchproblems come up becausevictory in the State is in sight,and due to some reason orthe other, there is a concernabout one’s own space, butthat is no reason to speak outin public. All sides have beentold to express opinions inthe party forum,” said theoffice-bearer.

Sources confirmed thatleaders like Mr. Eshwarappawould be coming to Delhi topresent their case with theparty high command.

Yeddyurappa still boss, willbe CM candidate: BJP brassParty’s central leadership sends out a warning to faction leaders

Nistula Hebbar

NEW DELHI

Open feud: Matters within the Karnataka BJP had come to ahead last week with Eshwarappa, right, criticising Yeddyurappa.

Launching a frontal attackon Andhra Pradesh ChiefMinister N. ChandrababuNaidu, YSR Congress partypresident Y.S. Jagan MohanReddy on Monday said thatMr. Naidu had reneged on allpoll promises made to farm-ers. The TDP government’sapathetic attitude in dealingwith issues relating to farm-ers had left them in a miser-able condition.

Mr. Reddy on May Daylaunched a two-day ‘rythudeeksha’ to highlight theproblems being faced byfarmers, at a venue two kmfrom the Asia’s largest chilliyard.

Market vagariesTouching upon issues relat-ing to the crisis in farming,fuelled by a steep fall inprices, he said that farmerscontinued to face the bruntof market vagaries, naturaldisasters and fluctuations involatile global markets.

“But this government, in-

stead of coming to the res-cue of farmers, had added totheir misery. Mr. Naidu hadfailed to disburse input sub-sidy of ₹4,394 crore for threeyears. No one knows whathappened to his poll-evepromise of creating a marketstabilisation fund of ₹5,000crore. It has become a habitfor Mr. Naidu to make apromise and break the trustof people later,’’ Mr. Reddysaid.

Reminding the Chief Min-ister that he had demandedthat the report on farm re-forms headed by formerHaryana Chief MinisterBhupinder Singh Hooda in2010 be made public, Mr.Reddy said that Mr. Naidunow pretended that he hadnever known about the re-port and about the recom-mendations of agricultureexpert M.S. Swaminathan.

The report submitted in

2010 had advocated sweep-ing reforms in agriculture,encouraging private invest-ment in agricultural market-ing infrastructure and end-ing the monopoly ofagricultural marketingcommittees.

Flays support priceMr. Reddy also slammed therecent State Government’sprice support scheme forchilli farmers and said that ithad only benefited the com-mission agents. The scheme,which envisaged a supportprice of ₹1,500 over the pre-vailing price was full of loop-holes, Mr. Reddy said.

“What benefit will thefarmer get if the governmentsays that the scheme is onlyfor chilli produce whichfetches below ₹8,000 perquintal? The farmer getssupport for only 20 quintals.Instead, the governmentcould have procured chillithrough Markfed, a movewhich would have ensuredcompetition among privateplayers,’’ Mr. Reddy said.

YSR Cong. chief launches two-day ‘rythu deeksha’ near Asia’s largest chilli yard

Staff Reporter

GUNTUR

Making a point: Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy speaks at the launchof a ‘rythu deeksha’ in Guntur on Monday. * T. VIJAYA KUMAR

TDP govt. has cheated farmers: Jagan

Lokesh to inaugurate 7 IT irms on May 4VIJAYAWADA

Andhra Pradesh IT Minister

Nara Lokesh will inaugurate

seven IT companies at Medha

IT Tower at Gannavaram in

Vijayawada on May 4. Seven

companies, including Grupo

Antolin, Melsova, EP SOFT,

Yamyah IT Solutions and

others will start their

operations at the IT park.

IN BRIEF

Khammam incidentsnowballs into political row KHAMMAM

The issue of Friday’s attack on

agriculture market yard by

chilli farmers in Khammam,

incensed over denial of fair

price for their produce,

snowballed into a political

controversy on Monday. The

Opposition parties accused

the Telangana Rashtra Samithi

government of foisting cases

on farmers and acting with

political vendetta.

Cool harbinger: With hovering clouds bringing down the temperature, people thronged the beach in Visakhapatnam, AndhraPradesh, on Monday. * C.V. SUBRAHMANYAM

CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC

Welcome respite

A series of tweets by Con-gress leader Digvijaya Singhon Monday that the police ofTelangana were trappingMuslim youths by encour-aging them to join the Is-lamic State evoked strong re-action from the Stategovernment as well as polit-ical parties.

The BJP sought legal ac-tion against Mr. Singh, whois the party’s general secret-ary in-charge of Telangana,while an MLA of the rulingTRS lodged a complaint in alocal police station.

Bogus siteMr. Singh kicked up the con-troversy with his first tweetin the morning that read“Telangana police has set upa bogus ISIS site which isradicalising Muslim youthsand encouraging them to be-come ISIS modules”. An-other one read: “it was ontheir information that Mad-hya Pradesh police arrested

accused who were respons-ible for the bomb blast intrain in Shajapur district ofMP”. He was apparently re-ferring to a suspected IS act-ivist Saifullah who was killedin an anti-terror operation inLucknow on March 8 al-legedly on a tip off providedby the Telangana police. Sai-fullah was linked to a blast ina Bhopal-Ujjain train in MPin which 10 persons wereinjured.

Information TechnologyMinister K.T. Rama Rao whowas on a tour of New Delhi

took a serious view of Mr.Singh’s tweet and shot backin his own handle “most ir-responsible and reprehens-ible thing coming from aformer Chief Minister. Re-quest you to withdraw thesecomments unconditionallyor provide evidence.”

The Director General ofPolice of Telangana AnuragSharma tweeted: “unfoun-ded allegations from asenior responsible leaderwill lower the morale andimage of police engaged infighting anti-nationalforces”. Talking to The

Hindu, Mr. Sharma deniedthe allegations. On Saiful-lah’s antecedents, Mr.Sharma said there was al-ways information sharingbetween police forces “andthat’s what we did”.

In one of his five tweets,Mr. Digvijaya Singh hadasked if Chief Minister K.Chandrasekhar Rao had au-thorised Telangana police totrap Muslim youth and en-couraged them to join IS.

‘Police trap Muslim youth by encouraging them to join IS’

N. Rahul

HYDERABAD

Digvijaya’s tweet on Telanganapolice kicks up a controversy

Digvijaya Singh

Sharing of Krishna watersbecame a contentious issuefor Andhra Pradesh and Tel-angana yet again on Mondaywhen the irrigation officials/engineers from the two sideshad heated exchanges at theNagarjuna Sagar ProjectRight Canal Head Regulatoras the mercury soared in theday.

The problem cropped uparound noon when the wa-ter release to the NSP RightCanal was stopped by the ir-rigation authorities of Telan-gana, who supervise the re-leases at the dam site, as therelease of water allocated toA.P. by the Krishna RiverManagement Board (KRMB)was completed.

Several Executive Engin-eers, Deputy Executive En-

gineers, Work Inspectorsand other staff from AP(from the Macherla division)rushed to the Right CanalHead Regulator site and al-

legedly had arguments withthe Telangana staff there.

Official sources stated thatthe A.P. engineers had con-tended that one more tmcft

of water allocated by theKRMB was yet to be releasedeven as their Telanganacounterparts explained howthe water allocated was re-leased in full already.

As the situation deterior-ated, police from the twoStates reached either side ofthe dam. However, Chief En-gineer of NSP S. Suneelsaved the situation by ex-plaining about the waterrelease.

“The A.P. engineers triedto intimidate Telangana em-ployees at the Right CanalHead Regulator and eventhreatened registering casesforgetting that they (TS staff )were only implementing theKRMB orders. We too cau-tioned them (A.P. engineers)about lodging police com-plaint against them ,” an en-gineer said.

A.P.-Telangana water row resurfaces Oicials, engineers have heated exchanges at Nagarjuna Sagar Project Right Canal

B. Chandrashekhar

HYDERABAD

Bone of contention: Water to the NSP Right Canal was stoppedby Telangana oicials on Monday. * SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

The Guntur police havelaunched a hunt for a 40-year-old man who has al-legedly kidnapped a 13-year-old school girl from Bhatti-prolu village in Vemuruconstituency.

Inspector General of Po-lice, South Coastal Range, N.Sanjay, said that four specialteams had been sent to dif-ferent parts of Andhra Pra-desh to trace the accused,Srirama Nageswara Rao.

A former BSF constable,Rao was driving an autorick-shaw after being sackedrecently.

The accused, who used todrop the girl at the school atIlavaram, allegedly lured

her. When the parents of thegirl noticed somethingstrange with her behaviour,they engaged anotherautorickshaw.

On April 20, the girl didnot return home after at-tending classes. The parentssmelt something fishy afterthey noticed that the ac-cused too was not seen inthe village.

The local police, who firstregistered a missing case,changed the sections, char-ging the accused withkidnap.

A.P. Mahila Commissionchairperson NannapaneniRajakumari visited the vil-lage and urged the police toimmediately nab the ac-cused.

Girl missing: hunton for auto driver Police sent to various parts of A.P.

Staff Reporter

GUNTUR CPI Kerala unit secretaryKanam Rajendran onMonday defended removalof a cross erected on an en-croached land in ecologic-ally sensitive Munnar, sayingthe religious symbol hadbeen “abused to cover upfalsehood.”

“This cross does not sym-bolise the sacrifice of JesusChrist.

“This cross is being usedto encroach on governmentland [in the State],” he toldparty workers in his MayDay address here.

‘It is unfortunate’The leader of the CPI, a keyally of the ruling LDF, said itwas “unfortunate” that the

cross, which symbolised thesupreme sacrifice was beingabused to encroach on gov-ernment land.

A 30-foot metal cross putup by allegedly encroachingon government land at Pap-pathichola in high rangeMunnar was pulled downlast month as part of an anti-encroachment drive.

However, Chief MinisterPinarayi Vijayan had ex-pressed strong displeasureover the manner in whichthe cross was removed bythe Idukki districtadministration.

But the CPI has said thatthe Revenue department,held by the party MLA, wasdetermined to evict en-croachments from the gov-ernment land.

CPI defends removalof cross in Munnar

Party sees ‘bid to cover up falsehood’


Kottayam

A passenger sustained in-juries and slipped into acoma after he was allegedlythrown out of a movingtrain by a ticket examinerat Obulapuram in Kadapadistrict on Monday.

Giri Prasad of Chinthak-unta village in Anantapurdistrict boarded theTirupati-Kolhapur Hari-priya Express at Tirupation Sunday night. An alter-cation ensued with a ticketexaminer who allegedlypushed him out. Peoplesaw Prasad by the trackand called an ambulance.

Man thrownout of train,slips into coma


KURNOOL

A driver attached to a taxiaggregator has been accusedof molesting a 32-year-oldwoman near Begur. Whilethe alleged incident tookplace on April 28, it came tolight on Monday.

According to a complaintby the woman, who is a pro-fessional singer, she bookedan Ola cab from her office inKoramangala to her house atBegur around 2 a.m. onApril 28.

She was picked up by thedriver, Ravikumar.

“On Begur Road, he sud-denly stopped the car. Heclaimed that he needed toreverse the car, as the roadahead was blocked. He thenturned around and grabbedme,” the woman told report-ers. She shouted for help,pushed away the driver andfled.

Laxity allegedAs the road was deserted,the woman hid in a nearbyclinic until her friend pickedher up. She went to theBommanahalli police stationand filed a complaint.

However, she alleged, thepolice did not make any ef-fort to chase the culprit,who had driven away.

On Monday, the policeformed a team, led by an As-sistant Commissioner of Po-lice, to nab Ravikumar.

When asked about thewoman’s allegation of laxity,Hemanth Nimbalkar, Addi-tional Commissioner of Po-lice (East), said: “A case hasbeen registered and we willcatch the culprit soon.”

Ola issued a statementthat the services of Raviku-mar had been terminated.

Cab driver accused of molesting32-year-old woman in Bengaluru

Suspect yet to be arrested; aggregator terminates his services

Staff Reporter

Bengaluru

Tomato farmers in severalparts of Kolar are dumpingtheir crop with prices crash-ing to as low as ₹2 to ₹3 a kgin the Agriculture ProduceMarketing Committees(APMC) in the district.

Many are facing ruin. “Ihad cultivated tomato on atwo-acre plot and invested₹2 lakh. Now, at the time ofharvest, the prices havecrashed,” said Nagarajappa,a farmer. “I may suffer a lossof a minimum of ₹1.5 lakh,”he said.

Currently, tomatoes arebeing cultivated on an estim-ated 9,850 acres of land

across the Kolar district.Most farmers are strug-

gling to get the produce intothe market. They feel it is notworth the effort. “We are noteven able to cover the cost oflabour and transportation,”

K.M. Nagaraj of Srinivasapurtaluk said.

Varying pricesThe lack of standardisationin prices is also a cause forconcern. For instance, a 15-

kg box fetched only ₹25 atSrinivasapur APMC yard onSaturday, which is less than₹2 per kg. However, at KolarAPMC, the rates were mar-ginally better: a 15-kg boxwas going for anywherebetween ₹50 and ₹60 (about₹4 per kg) on Saturday.

Only a month ago, toma-toes fetched an average of₹150 to ₹200 for a 15-kg box,which was around ₹13 perkg. Farmers were relativelyhappy with this price.

Price variations are for-cing farmers to leave toma-toes to rot in the field.Dumping of tomato on theroadside has become a com-mon scene in the district.

As prices crash, farmers leave tomatoes to rot Crop fetches as low as ₹2 to ₹3 a kg in Kolar district of Karnataka

Vishwa Kundapura

Kolar

Sorry state: Dumping of tomatoes on the roadside has becomea common sight in Kolar district. * SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT





NATION

Sanjay Pratihar bagsprestigious INSA medalGUWAHATI

Sanjay Pratihar, a scientist at

Tezpur University, has been

chosen for the the prestigious

Indian National Science

Academy (INSA) medal for the

Young Scientist Award for the

year 2017. Mr. Pratihar, of the

Department of Chemical

Sciences, has been awarded

for his excellent contribution

to multi-metal complexes.

The award will be given to him

during INSA’s anniversary

meeting in December. PTI

IN BRIEF

Rohtas district to blastmines’ peripherySASARAM

To stop illegal stone mining in

Bihar’s Rohtas district, the

district administration has

decided to blast the area

adjacent to the mines to make

it inaccessible for illegal

miners. The blast would be

triggered in the periphery of a

particular part of the Kaimur

hill to create a trench so as to

make mining area inaccessible

to illegal miners. PTI

Subsidised meals inPunjab’s Nawanshahr NAWANSHAHR

The city administration on

Monday launched an

initiative, ‘Saanjhi Rasoi’,

under which it aims to

provide meals to adults at

₹10 while serving it free for

children. The project,

brainchild of local district

administration, aims to serve

the poor with the help of

social organisations. PTI

Gurugram engineerdrowns in GangaRISHIKESH

A Gurugram-based engineer

drowned while bathing in the

Ganga in Rishikesh on Sunday.

Neeraj Kumar (26), who

worked as an engineer in a

firm in Gurugram, had come

in a group of six persons to

spend the weekend here.

The group was bathing at

Shivpuri ghat. PTI

Faced with rising incidents ofmonkeys raiding vegetablegardens, invading homes andattacking villagers in coastalOdisha, the State's Forest andEnvironment Department hasasked its personnel to learn afew tricks from the Mankidiatribe to contain the menace.

"We have asked our fieldofficials to accompanyMankidias, who are skilled intrapping monkeys, and learnsome tricks on how to catchthe simians," Sudarshan

Patra, Divisional ForestOfficer of Cuttack TerritorialDivision, told The Hindu.

"We hope a dedicatedgroup of forest personnel,with skills learnt fromMankidias, will be at workshortly."

Ingenious methodA group of 23 Mankidias fromChattarpur hamlet, nearKuldiha Wildlife Sanctuary inBalasore district, is deployedin villages of Jajpur andCuttack districts. On Sunday,nine monkeys were captured

from Gopinathpur village inJajpur, where two villagerswere injured in monkeyattacks.

So, how do the Mankidiasgo about catching the cunninganimals?

"When we spot a monkeyin a tree, we surround the byclimbing nearby trees andstructures. Once it issurrounded, we shake thetree till the animal falls. Ateam on the ground, who areready with a net, quickly trapthe animal," said GouraKheruada, the 50-year-old

team leader of the group.The trapped animals are

released in forests, severalkilometres away from humanhabitation.

LivelihoodThe Mankidias, a semi-nomadic tribe, used to huntmonkeys for food.

"After we began residingcloser to other societies, weno longer eat monkey meat.We now help catch them,”said Mr. Kheruada.

The Mankidias mainly liveinside Similipal Forest in

Mayurbhanj district.The monkey menace is

prevalent in Cuttack,Kendrapara, Jajpur,Jagatsinghpur and Khordhadistricts. It has forced many tostop growing vegetables intheir backyards.

Protected speciesSince monkeys are aprotected species under theWildlife (Protection) Act, 1972,any attempt to kill the simiansinvites strong penalties.

However, if certain areaswitness an infestation of

monkeys, the animal can bedeclared a vermin, in whichcase the Act does not apply.

On appeal by farmers, whohave sustained heavyagricultural losses due to themenace, the forestdepartment has askeddifferent forest circles toidentify pockets wheremonkeys could be declared asvermin.

The State government,however, has dithered ontaking a decision to declaremonkeys in the pockets asvermin.

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Odisha forest staf learn how to trap monkeys from Mankidia tribesmen Monkey attacks on the rise; forest department asks its oicials to learn techniques used by the expert trappers to control the growing menace

Satyasundar Barik

BHUBANESWAR

Monkeys have been raidingvegetable gardens andattacking villagers in coastalOdisha. * SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR

As many as 21 Joint Secretar-ies were appointed in differ-ent Central government de-partments on Monday aspart of a mid-level bureau-cratic reshuffle.

Of the total number of offi-cials, nine are from the In-dian Administrative Service(IAS). The remaining arefrom other services such asthe Indian Forest Service andthe Indian Audit and Ac-counts Service.

Major appointmentA prominent appointment isthat of 1989-batch Gujaratcadre IAS official K. Srinivas.Mr. Srinivas has been appoin-ted as Joint Secretary in theDepartment of Personneland Training (DoPT). He iscurrently Principal Secretary(Revenue) in the State gov-ernment, and was PersonnelSecretary when Prime Minis-ter Narendra Modi was theChief Minister of Gujarat.

Two IAS officials of theTamil Nadu cadre— JatindraNath Swain of the 1988 batchand K.Rajaraman of 1989batch— have been appointed

as JS in the Ministry of Newand Renewable Energy andDepartment of Expenditure,respectively.

Other IAS officials who fig-ure in the list include AnilSrivastava as Advisor to NITIAayog, Upma Srivastav asJoint Secretary, Ministry ofCivil Aviation, P.K. Borthau-mar as JS, Agriculture, Shant-manu as Development Com-missioner (Handicrafts),Pramod Tiwari as JS, Foodand Public Distribution, andNidhi Chibber as JS in the De-partment of Defence.

Sources said a major Sec-retary-level reshuffle is alsoexpected to happen soon tofill in several vacancies.

Among those who are setto retire this month are De-fence Secretary G. MohanKumar and Economics Af-fairs Secretary ShaktikantaDas. Mr. Das' tenure hadbeen extended in January.

Officials said the appoint-ments would be made fromthe pool of 1984 and 1985batch IAS officials.

“The empanelment listwill be out soon,” an officialinvolved in the appointmentprocess said.

21 babus appointed as Joint SecretariesSecretary-level reshule likely soon

Mahesh Langa

AHMEDABAD

Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) Minister Altaf Bukharion Monday said his partywas “facing public rage aspromises made in theAgenda of Alliance (AoA) re-main unmet”.

Mr. Bukhari also took ex-ception to the Central gov-ernment’s refusal to holdtalks with the Hurriyat Con-ference and Pakistan.

“We went to the peoplewith AoA, which holds a cru-cial promise to hold talkswith all stakeholders, includ-ing the Hurriyat. We prom-ised to talk to Pakistan.People are eager if notanxious to see talks happen-ing soon,” Mr. Bukhari toldThe Hindu in an interview.

‘Need dialogue’On Bharatiya Janata Partynational general secretaryRam Madhav’s stand on dia-logue with separatists, Mr.Bukhari said: “We are notdemanding something new.The BJP’s priority seems to

be development. However,development will not hap-pen when there is no peace.For peace, we have to holddialogue,” said Mr. Bukhari.

He refused to talk aboutthe impact of the non-imple-mentation of AoA on thePDP-BJP alliance. “I am notgoing to say anything that isfor or against the alliance. Iam giving voice to the pre-

dominant aspiration of thepeople,” he added.

Growing unrestMr. Bukhari said Chief Minis-ter Mehbooba Mufti “doesnot live in a glass castle andis fully aware of the situationand the aspirations on theground.”

Sources said there is grow-ing unrest within PDP ranks

“with many seeking a finalcall on the coalition.”

Sources said Mr. Madhav’smeeting with Ms. Mufti inSrinagar had failed “to drawa joint strategy to tackle thegrowing unrest in the Kash-mir Valley,” with the BJPhardening its position onPakistan and the Hurriyat.

“There is no military solu-tion to Kashmir. Now orlater, talks are the only wayout,” Mr. Bukhari said.

The Minister said Kashmirwas “essentially a politicalproblem”.

“I wonder why our PrimeMinister [Narendra Modi],with a historic public man-date, is shying away from hisresponsibility by not carry-ing forward the legacy ofAtal Bihari Vajpayee and aformer Prime Minister whosaid ‘sky is the limit’ on theissue of Kashmir,” he added.

According to Mr. Bukhari,the perception is that thecentral government is lacka-daisical towards Kashmirand that “needs to bechanged on the ground.”

Refusal to hold talks makingpeople angry: PDP MinisterAltaf Bukhari says promises made in the Agenda of Alliance remain unmet

Talking tough: Peoples Democratic Party Minister AltafBukhari said there is “no military solution to Kashmir” andthat “talks are the only way out”. * NISSAR AHMAD

Peerzada Ashiq

Srinagar

Uttar Pradesh will soonhave a new excise policyunder which liquor shopswill not be allowed alonghighways, near educa-tional institutions, religiousplaces and in densely pop-ulated areas.

This was announced byChief Minister YogiAdityanath at the inauguralsession of the BJP State ex-ecutive meeting here onMonday.

Strict measuresThe announcement as-sumes significance as therehave been a number of illi-cit liquor tragedies in theState in recent years.

“After the BJP came topower in U.P., a number ofliquor shops were attackedby mobs,” said the U.P. CM.

“We came to know thatthe previous governmenthad renewed the licencesof liquor shops till 2018and allowed them to beshifted 500 metres fromthe national highways intohamlets and populatedareas,” Mr. Adityanath said.

No liquorshops nearinstitutions,says U.P. CMPress Trust of India

Lucknow





CMYK

NATION

Depending on where you live inIndia, May Day may or may nothave been a holiday for you.That’s because State govern-ments use their discretion in de-claring a holiday on May Daysince it is not a national holidayacross the country.

May Day, also known as the In-ternational Workers’ Day, origin-ated in 1884, when the Federa-tion of Organised Trades andLabour Unions of the UnitedStates and Canada demanded aneight-hour workday.

Haymarket Riots“Workers went on a strike de-

manding an eight-hour workday,which led to the Haymarket Riotsof 1886 in Chicago. It eventuallyresulted in the official sanction-ing of the eight-hour workday.The day is marked as a publicholiday in over 80 countries tocelebrate the accomplishmentsof the working class,” said Dr.Otojit Kshetrimayum, AssociateFellow and Coordinator, V.V. GiriNational Labour Institute underthe Union Labour and Employ-ment Ministry.

In India, Labour Day was firstcelebrated on May 1, 1923 on theTriplicane beach in Chennai andthe celebrations were organisedby the Labour Kisan Party ofHindustan, founded byMalayapuram Singaravelu Chet-tiar, one of the founders of theCommunist Party of India.

“The Labour Kisan party in-troduced May Day celebrationsin Madras. Comrade Singaravelarpresided over the meeting. A res-olution was passed, stating thatthe government should declareMay Day as a holiday. The presid-ent of the party explained thenon-violent principles of theparty. There was a request forfinancial aid. It was emphasisedthat workers of the world mustunite to achieve independence,”The Hindu reported on May 2,1923.

May Day currently is a holidayacross Tamil Nadu.

“Until 1957, May Day was not aholiday in any of the States in In-dia. When a Communist-led gov-ernment was first formed in 1957in Kerala, it declared a holiday onMay 1 marking Labour’s Day,”Centre of Indian Trade Unionsleader A.K. Padmanabhan said.

Bengal’s stanceInterestingly, West Bengal underthe United Front Government ofJyoti Basu declared May 1 as apublic holiday for the first timein 1967 and also requested all in-dustrial establishments in theState to declare it an additionalpaid holiday. It’s exactly half acentury since May Day became aholiday in West Bengal.

The practice of declaring MayDay a holiday was scrappedmore than a decade ago inerstwhile United Andhra Pradeshand the Government of the Tel-angana is continuing the samepractice. In present Andhra Pra-desh too, May Day is not a gov-ernment holiday. However, it’s aholiday for those working inshops and establishments underthe Shops and EstablishmentsAct, 1953. Likewise, it is holidayfor workers covered by the

Factories Act, 1948 and for thosein banks under the Negotiable In-struments Act. May Day is also aholiday in Karnataka.

Different reasonOn the other hand, May 1 is a hol-iday across Maharashtra not be-cause of May Day but since theState was created on the verysame day in 1960.

There is no gazetted holidayfor State government employeeson May Day in Rajasthan. Everyyear, the Labour Department is-sues an “appeal” to employers togive a paid holiday to their work-ers on the May Day. AdditionalLabour Commissioner C.B.S.Rathore told The Hindu that itwas just a request, which was notlegally enforceable.

In Odisha, all government of-fices were open on May Day evenas some industrial units run bythe State government remainedclosed. According to SubasSingh, Chairperson of OdishaBuilding & Other ConstructionWorkers’ Welfare Board, therewas no gazette notification is-sued by the State government tokeep those industrial unitsclosed on Labour Day.

(With inputs from Statebureaus)

Why youmay (or may not)have worked onMay DayState governments use their discretion in declaring a holiday

Triumph of labour: Various trade unions take part in a rally onInternational Workers' Day in Bengaluru onMonday. * K. MURALI KUMAR

Somesh Jha

New Delhi

This week's space mission,GSAT-9 or the South Asia Satel-lite, will carry a new feature thatwill eventually make advancedIndian spacecraft far lighter. Itwill even lower the cost oflaunches tangibly in the nearfuture.

The 2,195-kg GSAT-9, due totake off on a GSLV rocket on May5, carries an electric propulsionor EP System. The hardware is afirst on an Indian spacecraft.

M.Annadurai, Director of theISRO Satellite Centre, Bengaluru,explained its immediate and po-tential benefits: the satellite willbe flying with around 80 kg ofchemical fuel - or just about 25%of what it would have otherwisecarried.

Managing it for more than adecade in orbit will become costefficient.

In the long run, with the cru-cial weight factor coming downlater even for sophisticated satel-lites, Indian Space Research Or-ganisation can launch them onits upcoming heavy rockets in-stead of sending them to spaceon costly foreign boosters.Shortly, its own vehicle GSLVMkIII is due for its full test flight.

Dr. Annadurai told The Hinduthat GSAT-9's EPS would be usedto keep its functions going whenit reaches its final slot — which isroughly about two weeks afterlaunch — and throughout its life-time.

GSAT-9 heraldscost-savingtechnologyMadhumathi D.S.

BENGALURU

After 64 public interest litigationpetitions (PILs) making “scandal-ous” insinuations against a formerChief Justice of India and judges ofthe Supreme Court and the Ra-jasthan High Court in the past 10years, the Supreme Court onMonday finally lost patience andimposed ₹25 lakh costs on an or-ganisation, Suraz India Trust, and

its chairman Rajiv Daiya, andbanned them from ever approach-ing a court in the country in theguise of espousing public interest.

A Bench of Chief Justice of IndiaJ.S. Khehar and Justices D.Y.Chandrachud and Sanjay KishanKaul heard Mr. Daiya almostthrough the morning. The Re-gistry had been earlier directed tosupply a list of all the 64 PILs thatSuraz had filed through Mr. Daiya.

The court asked Mr. Daiya to ex-plain the reason and circum-stances behind filing each of thesepetitions. Mr. Daiya said none ofhis 64 PILs was heard properly.His petitions, filed in public in-terest, were thwarted by the Su-preme Court. The judges had keptdismissing them, saying they were“not inclined” to hear them.

After uninterruptedly address-ing the court for over an hour and

a half, Mr. Daiya said he neededthe court to appoint an amicuscuriae in the case and sought anadjournment. Both requests wereshot down. “You addressed us forone-and-half hours. Public pays usand you have wasted judicial timehere. Look around you in thiscourtroom, look how manypeople are waiting for their casesto be heard,” Chief Justice Kheharsnapped at Mr. Daiya.

SC sends out stern message against frivolous PILsBench slaps ₹25 lakh costs on Non-Governmental Organisation for wasting judicial timeKrishnadas Rajagopal

NEW DELHI





CMYK

A ND-ND

EDITORIAL

The Centre’s obvious reluctance to set up a stat-

utory anti-corruption institution stands com-

pletely exposed after the Supreme Court made it

clear that the existing Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013

is workable on its own, without having to be amended

as proposed by the government. The court’s order that

the law, notiied in 2014, is good to go is an indictment of

the delay in establishing the Lokpal. It is a rejection of

the attempt to explain the delay on the ground that a

parliamentary standing committee’s report on pro-

posed amendments is still under consideration. The

government was on weak legal footing when it claimed

it was awaiting the passage of these amendments,

mainly of one that related to the leader of the largest

party in opposition in the Lok Sabha being considered

as the Leader of the Opposition for the purposes of

forming the Selection Committee to choose the Lokpal.

The selection panel consists of the Prime Minister, the

Speaker of the Lok Sabha, Leader of the Opposition, the

Chief Justice of India or his nominee, and an eminent

jurist chosen by them. The court has noted that the Act

provides for the selection committee to make appoint-

ments even when it is truncated due to a vacancy. It has

made it clear that the fact that some amendments have

been proposed and a parliamentary panel has submit-

ted a report would not constitute a legal bar on enfor-

cing the existing law.

The court has rightly refused to read down the provi-

sion on the Leader of the Opposition to mean “the

leader of the largest party in the opposition”. At the

same time, it is curious that an amendment to this efect

is pending since 2014, even after it was endorsed by the

parliamentary committee in its December 2015 report.

Provisions relating to the selection of the Chief Informa-

tion Commissioner and the Central Bureau of Investiga-

tion Director have been amended to treat the leader of

the largest opposition party as the Leader of the Oppos-

ition in the absence of anyone recognised as such. The

delay in passing this simple amendment is inexplicable.

Another provision relating to the declaration of assets

by public servants was amended last year. A simple way

of resolving the impasse was to recognise the Congress

party leader in the Lok Sabha as the Leader of the Op-

position. There is no law, except a direction from the

chair when G.V. Mavalankar was Speaker, that says re-

cognition is given only to a party that has won 10% of the

seats in the Lower House. A 1977 Act on the salary of the

Opposition Leader deines the position as the leader of

the largest party in the opposition and recognised as

such by the Speaker. An inescapable inference is that

the country does not have an anti-corruption ombuds-

man not due to any legal bar, but due to the absence of

political will.

Lokpal and the lawThe ruling that the existing legislation is

workable is an indictment of the government

Acontroversial proposal by Bibek Debroy, a mem-

ber of the government think tank NITI Aayog, to

tax agricultural income above a particular

threshold has led to a public exchange of views. Finance

Minister Arun Jaitley quickly dismissed any plans to tax

farm income, but more policymakers have begun to

voice their opinion, the latest being Chief Economic Ad-

viser Arvind Subramanian who made it clear that taxing

farm income is a State subject. The public image of

farming being a poor man’s venture and the sizeable

vote share that farmers enjoy have made the idea of

farm taxes a political taboo. The frequent distress faced

by poor or marginal farmers, which could be attributed

to structural issues other than taxation, hasn’t helped

matters either. But India has a presence of rich farmers

as well and there exists as a strong justiication for tax-

ing them in order to widen the country’s embarrass-

ingly narrow tax base. Mr. Debroy suggested that an ap-

propriate tax policy should draw a distinction between

rich and poor farmers, thereby addressing the wide-

spread political apprehension of bringing agriculture

under the tax net. It is no secret that India’s tax base,

standing at a minuscule 5.9% of the working popula-

tion, is already among the lowest in the world. This un-

necessarily burdens the more formal sectors of the eco-

nomy that are already overtaxed; at the same time, it

handicaps government spending on the social sector.

The case for treating agriculture on a par with other

sectors is thus clear. But policymakers must also show

equal care and urgency in addressing the structural is-

sues facing the sector. This includes, among many, re-

forms to the broken agricultural supply chain that still

leaves farmers at the mercy of middlemen cartels. Such

reforms are crucial if farming is to become a sustainable

enterprise in the long run. Else, a tax on high-income

farmers will result only in driving resources away from

agriculture into other sectors. It would make no difer-

ence to poorer farmers stuck in agriculture, merely be-

cause of the lack of opportunities. In this context, the

historical transition of labour and other resources from

agriculture into other sectors is particularly useful to

keep in mind. The said transition has been very slow in

India; in fact, according to Census igures, the size of the

farm workforce increased by 28.9 million between 2001

and 2011. This is due to a combination of factors, but

one in particular is worth noting: the diiculty agricul-

tural workers face in inding jobs in other more ad-

vanced sectors. A tax on lucrative high value farm ven-

tures, which afects their ability to absorb labourers

from low-value farming, could make life more diicult

for farmers unable to make the cut in industry or ser-

vices. Given this, policymakers ought to tread carefully

as they move forward on a long overdue iscal reform.

Equity in taxesRich farmers need to be treated on a par with

other taxpayers, but with a clear road map

Rhetoric and political sig-nalling is an accepted ele-ment of crisis management

provided the messages are clearlyunderstood by those for whomthese are intended. If not, it be-comes a source of misunderstand-ing and a recipe for unintendedmiscalculation and potential dis-aster. Nowhere is this more evidentthan in recent exchanges betweenthe U.S. and the DemocraticPeople’s Republic of Korea (DPRK)where events threaten to spin outof control.

Trump’s mixed signalsIn an interview to Reuters lastweek, U.S. President DonaldTrump, while describing it as his“biggest challenge”, cautioned:“There is a chance that we couldend up having a major major con-lict with North Korea. Absolutely.”Earlier in April, amid reports thatNorth Korea might be planning an-other nuclear test to coincide withthe 105th birth anniversary of long-time leader Kim Il Sung, Mr. Trumphad announced that “an armada,very powerful” was headed to-wards the Korean peninsula. Aftera week it emerged that the USS CarlVinson aircraft carrier was actuallyon its way to Western Australia, onaccount of a lack of clarity in com-munications. This now stands cor-rected. Meanwhile, a nuclear sub-marine, USS Michigan, hassurfaced in Korean waters.

In turn, the DPRK threatened a“super mighty pre-emptivestrike”. After undertaking a live ir-ing exercise of its east coast, it fol-lowed up with another test-iring ofa ballistic missile on April 29 whichizzled, causing loss of face.

During the campaign, Mr.Trump had said that he would bewilling to talk to North Koreanleader Kim Jong-un, making it clear

that Barack Obama’s policy focus-sing on tighter sanctions was a fail-ure. After assuming oice, he ad-opted a harder line, declaring thathe would do “whatever is neces-sary” to prevent North Korea fromdeveloping a nuclear-capable mis-sile that can reach the U.S.

In the Reuters interview, how-ever, he relected unusual empathywhen asked about Kim Jong-un:“He is 27 years old [in 2011 when hetook over]. His father dies, tookover a regime. So say what youwant but that is not easy, especiallyat that age.”

In an interview to NPR last week,U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tiller-son said that while the NorthKorean leader may be ruthless, “heis not crazy”. He held out pro-spects of engaging in direct talksbut was unwilling to engage in “ne-gotiations about negotiations”.The U.S. has not held bilateral talkswith North Korea since the BillClinton presidency. So clearly,there is no dearth of signalling butthe question is, what is the 33-year-old Kim Jong-un expected to makeof it?

Need for policy consistencyRegime acceptance and regimesurvival have been key prioritiesfor Pyongyang since the collapse ofthe Soviet Union. A positive movein 1992 was the withdrawal of tac-tical nuclear weapons from theKorean peninsula and a suspen-sion of Team Spirit, the joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises,leading to the Basic Agreement on

Reconciliation, Non-Aggression,and Exchanges and Cooperation.When joint exercises were re-sumed in 1993, North Korea an-nounced its decision to withdrawfrom the Nuclear Non-ProliferationTreaty (NPT). The ensuing crisisled to talks and a year later, anAgreed Framework was concludedunder which North Korea suspen-ded its decision to withdraw fromthe NPT, agreed to freeze its nuc-lear activities, and in return, theU.S. pledged to build two light wa-ter nuclear power reactors. Foodaid and humanitarian assistanceprovided by the Clinton adminis-tration from 1995 till 2000 wasclose to $750 million.

The Bush administration de-clared North Korea part of the ‘axisof evil’ in 2002, cancelled directtalks and annulled the 1994 agree-ment. North Korea responded bythrowing out International AtomicEnergy Agency inspectors andformally quit the NPT thereby pro-voking a fresh crisis. China andRussia initiated Six Party Talks in2004 which led to the 2005 jointstatement which expanded thescope to more than the nuclear is-sue. However, the talks collapsedwhen the U.S. imposed sanctions afew months later; North Korea re-sponded with its irst nuclear testin 2006.

Since then, North Korea hasmade steady progress in its nuclearand missile programmes. An un-derground nuclear facility hasbeen built at Mt. Musan. Nucleartests were conducted in 2013 and

twice last year, and it is estimatedthat North Korea has enough issilematerial for 10 to 15 nucleardevices. By 2019, North Korea willbe able to develop long-range mis-siles that can reach the U.S. main-land. Given Mr. Trump’s redline,Mr. Jong-un is convinced that nuc-lear capability is the ultimate se-curity guarantee to protect his re-gime against U.S. intervention.

U.S. policy has oscillatedbetween sanctions in response tonuclear and missile tests, dilutionof sanctions by China, talks aboutcloser defence ties with Japan andSouth Korea, citing of additionalthreats by North Korea and moretesting, thus repeating the cycle.U.S. expectations that sanctionswould lead to regime collapse weremisplaced because given China’sstakes, this will not happen.

Will China nudge?Recently China has registered apolicy shift relecting unhappinessabout Mr. Jong-un’s behaviour, par-ticularly the high-proile execu-tions of those considered to beclose to China. The most recentwas the assassination of Kim Jong-nam, Mr. Jong-un’s half brother, inFebruary, which prompted Chinato halting coal briquette importsfrom North Korea. Air Chinastopped direct lights to Pyongy-ang last month but these are nowbeing reinstated. North Korea hasaccused China of “dancing to thetune of the U.S.”. However, Chinacan neither permit a regime col-lapse which would create instabil-ity nor allow its communist ally tobe subsumed into a uniied Korea.

Mr. Trump is trying to persuadeChina to exert greater leverage bypraising its President, Xi Jinping, as“a good man” who is “trying hard”.After the latest missile test, Mr.Trump tweeted, “North Korea dis-respected the wishes of China & itshighly respected President when itlaunched, though unsuccessfully, amissile today. Bad!” Mr. Xi is un-likely to be persuaded. At the UNSecurity Council meeting on April28, Foreign Minister Wang Yi reaf-irmed support for a denuclearisedKorean peninsula and previous Se-

curity Council resolutions but didnot support additional punitivemeasures. Instead, he again sug-gested that the U.S. and SouthKorea could suspend their militaryexercises.

More than North Korean tests,China is worried about the possib-ility of an unpredictable Trump ini-tiating unilateral action whichcould create an escalatory spiral.Another concern is the U.S. de-cision to accelerate deployment ofthe THAAD (Terminal High Alti-tude Area Defence) system inSouth Korea though it is hopefulthat a moderate President getselected in the May 9 election inSouth Korea and reverses theTHAAD decision.

The way forwardMr. Xi’s objective is to persuade Mr.Trump that neither more sanctionsnor military strikes are viable op-tions; the only option is ‘dialogue’.Second, while denuclearisation ofthe Korean peninsula can be along-term objective, for the fore-seeable future, Mr. Jong-un is notgoing to give up North Korea’s nuc-lear and missile capabilities. Atmost, he can agree to a freeze on itsprogrammes — no further tests, noexports or transfers and no threats.In return, the U.S. will need toprovide assurances relating to re-gime acceptance and a gradualnormalisation of relations. A mod-erate leader in Seoul will help theprocess of a sustained dialoguewhich also needs coordinationwith Japan.

Mr. Jong-un’s stakes are existen-tial and, having seen Western inter-ventions in Iraq and Libya and Rus-sian intervention in Ukraine, he isdetermined to retain his nuclearcapabilities till the end of what willbe a long and delicate negotiatingprocess, a process which could alltoo easily be derailed by confusingrhetoric and mixed signalling thathas escalated tensions.

Rakesh Sood is a former diplomat andcurrently Distinguished Fellow at theObserver Research Foundation. E-mail:[email protected]

Being pragmatic with PyongyangThe U.S. must realise that neither more sanctions nor military strikes are viable options to rein in North Korea

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Acollection of addresses by

Justice K.K. Mathew alongwith excerpts from his judi-

cial opinions, published in 1978 un-der the title Democracy, Equalityand Freedom, became the irst workof its kind in Indian legal literature.Regrettably, it was also the last! Thehope expressed by its editor, Prof.Upendra Baxi, that it would be theprecursor of similar literary ven-tures in the future remainedunfulilled.

Making a markIn a practical sense, the book,Democracy, Equality and Freedom,published by the Eastern BookCompany — with a foreword byJustice Y.V. Chandrachud, ChiefJustice of India — is why Justice K.K.Mathew is still remembered, 40years after he stopped sitting in In-dia’s Supreme Court. But for the il-luminating and exhaustive 86-pageintroduction expounding the judi-

cial creativity and craftsmanship ofthe judge, K.K. Mathew would havebeen just one judge out of a roll-callof 186 judges who had sat in India’sSupreme Court. Prof. Baxi has beenmoved to say that Justice Mathew’sminority opinion in KesavanandaBharati (one out of several in aBench decision of 13 judges) “en-sures him the fame of being the Car-dozo of India”!

The reason for Prof. Baxi’s spon-taneous remark is Justice Mathew’smasterly use of contemporary juris-prudential thinking when attempt-ing to resolve the “fundamentalpuzzle” of India’s Constitution. Hisopinion in Kesavananda Bharati is amini-treatise on the use of jurispru-dence in judicial lawmaking. JusticeMathew approached the questionof amendment of the Constitutionas a constitutionalist, expounding awritten document of governance.He refused to accept that themakers of the Constitution ever in-tended that Fundamental Rightsshould be subservient to DirectivePrinciples of State Policy; rather (hesaid) they visualised a societywhere rights in Part IV and aspira-tions in Part IV would co-exist inharmony — “A succeeding genera-tion might view the relative import-ance of the Fundamental Rights and

Directive Principles in a diferentlight or from a diferent perspective.The value judgment of the succeed-ing generations as regards the relat-ive weight and importance of theserights and aspirations might be en-tirely diferent from that of themakers of the Constitution. And it isno answer to say that the relativepriority value of the Directive Prin-ciple over Fundamental Rights wasnot apprehended, or even if appre-hended was not given efect towhen the Constitution was framed,or to insist that what the DirectivePrinciples meant to the vision ofthat day it must mean to the visionof our time.”

Justice Mathew concluded thatthe only limitation to the amendingpower in the Constitution was thatthe Constitution could not be re-

pealed or abrogated in the exerciseof the power of amendmentwithout substituting a mechanismby which the state was constitutedand organised — “that limitationlows from the language of the Art-icle (Article 368) itself. I don’t thinkthere were or are any implied inher-ent limitations upon the power ofParliament under the Article.”

Another ine momentBut whatever be the contribution ofJustice Mathew to the great Funda-mental Rights case, the more im-portant — the more seminal — de-cision of his was in the immediatelysucceeding case (Indira Gandhi v.Raj Narain: 1975 Suppl. SCC1); hisopinion in this case illustrated whata strict self-disciplinarian the judgewas. Like other dissentients inKesavananda Bharati (Ray, Beg, andChandrachud ), Justice Mathew wasable to overcome the initial intellec-tual diiculty of reconciling hisreasoning in that case with the im-pelling need to hold that Article329A (challenged in Indira Gandhi v.Raj Narain) was constitutionally im-permissible. Unlike Chief JusticeRay, he did not say (Indira Gandhi v.Raj Narain) that Kesavananda Bhar-ati did not decide that there wereany implied limitations (arising out

of the doctrine of basic structure) tothe amending power of Parliament.In fact he straightaway conceded (asdid Justice Chandrachud) that therewas a seven-judge majority (in aBench of 13 judges) for the proposi-tion that “the power conferred un-der Article 368..... was not abso-lute.” Having done so, in conformitywith the basic norm of judicial dis-cipline, he then proceeded toidentify democracy as an aspect ofthe basic structure doctrine.

Article 329A as enacted had re-moved past, present and future op-erations of the Representation ofthe People Act, 1951, to election dis-putes afecting the Prime Ministerand Speaker, and despite the ab-sence of any applicable law it had(in efect) adjudicated the electiondispute between Raj Narain and In-dira Gandhi. In so doing, theamending body neither “ascer-tained the facts of the case” nor “ap-plied any norms for determiningthe validity of the election”, andhence this was (according to JusticeMathew) plainly an exercise of “des-potic power” damaging the demo-cratic structure of the Constitution.

Fali S. Nariman is an eminent lawyer,constitutional jurist and a formernominated Member of the Rajya Sabha

Guided by the ConstitutionOn his 25th death anniversary, revisiting some of Justice K.K. Mathew’s opinions

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Matching resultsIt is a pity that almost allpolitical parties havecontrasting opinions on thereliability of electronicvoting machines —immediately suspectingthem when they stumble inelections and showeringthem with praise when theywin.Having given room to the“apprehensions” of anumber of political parties,the Election Commission ofIndia has now causedunnecessary confusion in itsoverreaction (“EC maychange recounting rules”,May 1). Whether one agreesor not, automation ortechnology does helpimprove eiciency andovercome large-scaleinstances of fraud. Wehaven’t abandoned the useof motor vehicles despitethe risks of road accidents.We try to observe safetymeasures instead.Kshirasagara Balaji Rao,

Hyderabad

A fresh mandate?Having managed to cobble amajority on its own in theLok Sabha and with a buferto fall back upon — in theform of seats secured by itsallies — the BJP has noreason to go in for a snapmidterm poll (“Venkaiahrules out mid-termelections”, May 1). The Modigovernment has got into itsstride and been able to wardof the Opposition despitedrastic measures such asdemonetisation. It has beenable to raise its stockconsiderably with athumping win in UttarPradesh and has mademincemeat of both the AamAadmi Party and theCongress in the Delhimunicipal polls. TheOpposition parties are indisarray with the Modi waveshowing no signs of ebbing.The prevailing situationhardly warrants a freshmandate before time.C.V. Aravind,

Bengaluru

Simultaneous elections The idea of havingsimultaneous Lok Sabhaand State elections isundemocratic and a denialof our opportunity to makea midterm rating ofgovernments. Calls for andtalk about favouring such achange of system now stemfrom a ploy aimed atreaping huge politicaladvantages across thecountry over any singleemotive and sensitive issuethat can momentarilyinluence the electorate.And India is a country thathas such emotive issuesaplenty. The present systemof separate time periods forState and general elections,though cumbersome, hasensured that the people usethe State elections as areferendum to judge theperformance of agovernment. The backers ofsimultaneous electionsseem to want to avoid that.Besides, the hugeexpenditure in holding

simultaneous elections, thedeployment of securitypersonnel deployment toowill be under immensepressure. The country willbe left without valid andresponsible administrationboth at the Central and Statelevel because all of themwill be under the ModelCode of Conduct. It isimperative that people seethrough such politicalgames and prevent theusurping of our democraticrights to choose and judgethose we elect. K.C. Menon,

Cherayiyil, Kochi

Trump on Paris pact U.S. President DonaldTrump’s statement onChina, Russia and India“having contributednothing under ParisAgreement” is like the potcalling the kettle black. Itdoes not behove a countrysuch as the United States tosay such things as it is one ofthe largest carbon emitters

in the world and willcontinue to be so. It is forthe U.S. to bear the cost ofcorrecting the course ofclimate change as it is aworld leader. It needs tolead by example.Dinesh Kumar,

Beri, Jhajjar, Haryana

BBC ThamizhosaiIt is saddening to read aboutthe closure of theThamizhosai BBC TamilRadio service (Tamil Nadu,“After 76 years, BBC Tamilradio to go of air”, May 1).During the India-Pakistanwars of 1965 and 1971, BBCTamil was neutral andextensive in its coverageeven though BBC was biased

against India. During the1967 general election, whenthe Indian NationalCongress’s popularitydeclined considerably, BBCwas again objective. Irecollect programmes suchas “Paattondru Ketten”.Whenever an importantevent took place in India orTamil Nadu, BBC Tamil wasamong the irst to contactVIPs and air their opinions.The station also played acrucial role in presentingthe ground reality in SriLanka by interviewing SriLankan Tamil politicians. Sukumar Talpady,

Kottara, Mangaluru

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters emailed to [email protected] must carry the full postal address and the full name or the name with initials.

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corrections & clarifications:

The scoreboard accompanying “Dominant Kings steamrollerDaredevils” (Sport, May 1, 2017) erroneously gave the fall of Mo-hammed Shami’s wicket as 9 for 69. It should have been 9 for 67.

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Chinese Communist leader Mao Tse-tung made a surprisepublic appearance at the May Day celebrations in Peking amidfrantically cheering crowds who had not seen him for fivemonths. The reception he was given as he was driven standingin a jeep through Peking’s parks at times bordered on hysteria.Defence Minister Lin Piao, his chosen first deputy, sat besideMao in the jeep. Wearing a blue highnecked tunic and cap,Mao, his face composed and expressionless, only occasionallytook his right hand from a supporting rail in the jeep to wavebriefly to the crowds. Mao’s last public appearance was at aRed Guard rally last November and to-day was the first time hehad taken part in May Day celebrations for eight years.

FIFTY YEARS AGO MAY 2, 1967

Mao makes public appearance

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FROM ARCHIVES

Details have been received here of a successful operation re-cently carried out by the Central Provinces Police against adangerous gang of dacoits. It appears that for the last twoyears this gang armed with guns and other weapons had beenterrorising the countryside in the north of Damoh and Saugordistricts of the Central Provinces and the adjoining NativeStates. On one occasion a villager was shot and an informerwho was caught had his nose cut off, while the gang openlyboasted that they would shoot at the sight of those who madeany attempts to arrest them. Eventually, however, the mainbody of the dacoits was located in the middle of thick jungle.

A HUNDRED YEARS AGO MAY 2, 1917

A dacoity in C.P.

It is well known that au-thoritarian governmentsare less tolerant of publicprotests than democraticones. But that does not ex-plain why some democra-cies also take to repressingprotests through violentmeans, while some don’t.

S. Erdem Aytaç, LuisSchiumerini, and SusanStokes in their paper,“Protests and Repressionin New Democracies,” inthe journal, Perspectiveson Politics (March 2017),seek to identify the pos-sible motivating factors fordemocratic governmentswhen dealing with popu-lar protests, especiallywith a backlash followingcrackdown on initialprotests.

Their paper looks at the“extrication” strategies ofthree democratically elec-ted governments to hypo-thesise that “electoral cal-culations” are a pivotalbasis for reactions to abacklash. The authors use

the in-depth case studymethod to contrast thestrategies adopted bythree governments — Re-cep Tayyip Erdogan’s gov-ernment in Turkey; DilmaRousseff ’s in Brazil; andViktor Yanukovych’s inUkraine — while dealingwith protests in 2013.

The backlash againstthese governments fol-lowed protests in Istanbul,Brazil and central Kiev re-spectively. In all threecases, the initial suppres-sion by governments ledto further agitations. Whatwas different was theirhandling.

While Mr. Erdogan’sgovernment used full-scale repression, theBrazilian and Ukrainiangovernments reacted withrelatively less-repressiveactions, even seeking tonegotiate.

The authors argue thatthe strategies were motiv-ated by concerns regard-ing electoral security ofthe parties in power. In

Turkey, the ruling Justiceand Development Party(AKP) “rested securely ona base of conservative anddevout constituents” andthere were barely any rul-ing party supportersamong those who pro-tested as part of the back-lash.

The support base of theruling Workers’ Party (PT)in Brazil was less partisan,leading to a dampening ofsupport following the ini-tial wave of repression. InUkraine, while there was adefinite cleavage alongpro-Russian and pro-West-ern lines, the party systemwas “inchoate”. The au-thors say this is why Tur-key’s response was clearlydifferent from Brazil’s andUkraine’s even though theinstitutional structures aresimilar in Turkey andUkraine.

The findings of this pa-per are useful to explainhow even the governmentin India reacts or could re-act to similar situations.

Electoral risks govern protest response

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ABSTRACT

The elected governments in Turkey, Brazil and Ukrainedifered in the way they handled protests in 2013

Srinivasan Ramani

Mustafa Kemal Ata-turk, Jawaharlal Nehruand ArchbishopMakarios, founders ofmodern Turkey, Indiaand Cyprus respect-ively, are being re-eval-uated by the nationsthey founded. That allthree names evoke

complex emotions is expected; the real issue, however, is thatcritics are not quite conident of taking on these three.

There are many similarities in the way the three are beingviewed now. Critics of Nehru blame him for a number of prob-lems that torment India at present — issues as diverse as eco-nomy and India-China ties. Ataturk’s critics accuse modern-day Kemalists of degrading his ideology. Makarios is describedeither as an evil man or as a saint by diferent segments ofGreek, Cypriot and Turkish politics.

Mixed legaciesIn India, Nehruvian politics is increasingly viewed as lackingappeal for the aspiring masses. In Turkey, Kemalism is viewedas a highly Westernised anti-religious movement, Makarioshas faced criticism for not being fully pro-West, and for being avotary of non-alignment and solidarity among Third Worldcountries. The similarities do not end there. Despite the criti-cism of these igures, there is also an intense race to cooptthem into the dominant discourse of the day. Unable to dealwith Nehru’s achievements, his critics often resort to nuancesand instead of blaming him they are trying to build thememory of Nehru’s opponents like Syama Prasad Mookerjee.Similarly, Turkey under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan iscareful not to blame Ataturk and instead blames his followersfor reducing secularism to a fetish. Cyprus is similarly caughtbetween the ideology and memories of Makarios. Makarioschampioned non-alignment with Nehru and Egypt’s GamalAbdel Nasser, but in 2004, Cyprus dumped the Non-AlignedMovement (NAM) and joined the European Union (EU).

But critics don’t have full ammunition to demolish thesethree yet. Nehru’s politics and policies are criticised but criticsdo not have a complete set of alternatives. In Turkey, though itwas Ataturk who had banned the headscarf, present-dayrulers still enforce it in varying forms, citing freedom ofchoice. Cyprus wishes to model itself as the door to theEuropean market but still clings on to the idea of Third Worldsolidarity.

All three are also blamed for leaving behind conlicts. Nehruis blamed for the Kashmir dispute. Ataturk’s Turkish ethno-cracy created the festering Kurdish question. Makarios failedto resolve the issue of northern Cyprus with Turkey. In 1960,Nehru had tried to resolve the issue of Cyprus by bringing Tur-key into non-alignment. But the move was scuttled by a milit-ary coup in Ankara. However, all three stand tall on the scale ofsecularism. Given the cautious criticism and lack of an altern-ative agenda, it is obvious that critics are not yet fully conidentof taking on these three giants of world history who shaped the20th century.

Giants under scrutiny

Critics of Nehru, Ataturk and Makariosare yet to ofer an alternative agenda

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Democracy has its paradoxes andironies, built as a system of differ-ences. Its institutions are supposedto allow for dissent and for diversity.However, electoral democracy can,at times, set up the basis for tyran-nical rule. A majoritarian democracycan become a megalomania of num-bers. The Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) today is a party that believes ina majoritarian democracy in searchof absolute control. It is not a ques-tion of passing a few laws, it is a planfor a deeper cultural control. We cansense it while having a look at theelectoral map, the saffronisation ofIndia coming across as a visual epi-demic. As the electoral dots multiply,one colour dominates the electoraluniverse. This saffronisation is liter-ally a project for total culturalcontrol.

A party in search of such totalitiesdoes not look kindly at alternativesor at competing realities. The earlierpicture we had of democracy, in theCongress era, was a more affableone. As we moved from the nationalto the regional or local levels, thecontrol of national parties wouldweaken and dissent built aroundlocal issues would create a smatter-ing of oppositional entities. Suchparties, with their tiny pockets ofrepresentation, were seen as addingto the pluralism of democracy. Theywere seen as necessary at the locallevel because they focussed on spe-cific issues. They usually alignedthemselves with larger forces at thenational level while amplifying thevoices of ethnicity, locality and lan-guage. Democracy did not see themas parochial creations but as a part ofthe politics of scale.

Towards more intoleranceAs we moved from the macro to themicro, diversity was supposed tomultiply. Such local diversity wasseen as a healthy sign, a way of ac-commodating variation and pluralityat a local level. Two examples of thiswould testify to this. The DravidaMunnetra Kazhagam (DMK), whichwas a local party, could be almost se-cessionist in Parliament in terms oflanguage and still be listened to withtolerance. Laldenga, once seen as an

insurgent, was equally at home asChief Minister of Mizoram in the1980s. Such was the tolerance the In-dian polity displayed.

A totalising party such as the BJPhas no such affable theory of di-versity. In fact, it sees difference as asign of absence, of a failure to infilt-rate an area. Difference is immedi-ately identified as disturbance, sedi-tion, dissent and a challenge to theparty’s plan for an absolute majority.Opposition in any form is threaten-ing. When BJP president Amit Shahlooks at a map of India and sees dif-ferently coloured dots, I think hesees red, literally, wondering whythese regions are not saffron.

There is a second dynamic herethat we must understand. Smallparties often tend to have large egos,and larger aspirations. The emer-gence of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)was a perfect example. After winninga resounding victory in Delhi, it visu-alised new and victorious constituen-cies in States like Goa and Punjab,apart from imagining itself as an al-ternative to the BJP across the ‘HindiBelt’. Smallness always allows forhubris and the AAP, on the basis ofits Delhi victories, was alreadybranding itself as a national party.

For a while, the AAP did warm theimagination of middle-class India. Itoffered not only a more ‘grass-roots-oriented’ theory of politics but also adifferent style, emphasising a range

of experiments in governance. Its at-tempts to reform school admissionsand its efforts to raise the question ofenvironmental pollution met with analmost euphoric response. It sud-denly appeared like a model for a fu-ture India. In its own tiny, Lilliputianway, the AAP had become a threatfor the BJP; the possibility of an epicDavid vs. Goliath battle was real.

Rise and fall of AAPThe BJP has had a second plan fordominance, beyond countering theeffervescence of parties like the AAP.It sees any resurgence of civil societyas a threat. In fact, one of its first tac-tics was to suppress the variety ofnon-governmental organisations(NGOs) blossoming across India. Ithas also systematically attacked uni-versity space in the country, all partof its efforts to align the Constitutionwith the world view of the party.

Arvind Kejriwal, in his initialyears, combined the imagination of acivil society leader and the allure of asmall party’s head. The AAP’s risemight have been a local event but italways managed to make nationalnews. Given the lassitude of the Con-gress, the AAP was like a new guer-rilla party which could easily out-point a behemoth like the BJP. Thevery idea of such a David vs. Goliathbattle was manna for the media. TheBJP saw the Delhi municipal electionas a continuation, an add-on to the

Uttar Pradesh election. A defeatwould have reopened the Pandora’sbox of scepticism. One could see thatthe media immediately took its cuesfrom the political signals of the BJP.Municipal elections elsewhere get afootnote or a terse notice. In Delhi,the footnote had become amplifiedto an epic quality. The municipallandscape, for a week, commandednational attention.

For the BJP, and particularly forAmit Shah, the miracle of U.P.needed repetition. In many people’sminds, municipal Delhi was a hinter-land of U.P., an outhouse of migrantsfrom that State. As Yogi Adityanathentered the phase of governmental-ity, Mr. Shah had to invent a ‘juniorAdityanath’, to convince politicalpundits of his political acumen. Hedid just that by appointing Bhojpuristar Manoj Tiwari to head the Delhicampaign. Mr. Shah had to producean Adityanath for Delhi’s wards,which are chock-full of migrantsfrom the Purvanchal region of U.P.

Oddly, Mr. Tiwari’s first foray intoelectoral politics had been as a Sama-jwadi Party candidate against Mr.Adityanath in Gorakhpur, in 2009. InMr. Tiwari, Mr. Shah found a man tooutmanoeuvre Mr. Kejriwal. Heoffered a more cheerful theory ofurbanism, a more optimistic scen-ario of citizenship, a smart electionfor the smart city boroughs of Delhi.

A municipal election, despite itsminiaturised form, became repres-entative of national possibilities. TheU.P. State elections and the Delhi mu-nicipal elections became in thatsense a hyphenated battle. Mr. Tiwarihad to reproduce the devastatingpower of Mr. Adityanath’s victory atthe local level. He did.

Politicians often sense the futurein little events. They read the tealeaves of localities to predict newpossibilities. Mr. Shah is a broodingfuturist who sensed the strategicvalue of Delhi’s municipal elections.By rolling over a discouraged Mr.Kejriwal, he realised that municipalelections could be read as a majornational victory. He did just that,consolidating his role as the electoralNapoleon of the BJP onslaught. TheDelhi civic elections have clinchedhis reputation as a Mr. Juggernaut.Even sceptics like this writer have toacknowledge the tactical power ofthe victory.

Shiv Visvanathan is professor, Jindal GlobalLaw School and director, Centre for the Studyof Knowledge Systems, O.P. Jindal GlobalUniversity

How the U.P. State and Delhi municipal elections became a hyphenated battle for the BJP

Local trump card: As Yogi Adityanath entered the phase of governmentality,Amit Shah had to invent a ‘junior Adityanath’. He did just that by appointingManoj Tiwari to head the Delhi campaign. * SANDEEP SAXENA

The national in the municipal

Shiv Visvanathan

The Maoist attack on the 99-member CentralReserve Police Force (CRPF) party in Sukma,Chhattisgarh, in which at least 25 jawans losttheir lives, has once again brought the focuson not just the threat represented by left-wing extremism (LWE) but also questions ofpreparation, equipping, training andstrategy of the CRPF that is bearing the bruntof the burden in this fight.

The fight against Maoists has been charac-terised by high casualty count of our secur-ity forces. The Sukma attack of April 24 wasreminiscent of the ambush in Dantewada inApril 2010 when Maoists killed 76 CRPF per-sonnel and decamped with their weaponsand explosives.

Deaths after deathsPredictably there is anger, and there will beheavy payback for the Maoists. But it is in-deed inexplicable that despite the five-dec-ade-long insurgent movement, and a largenumber of paramilitary personnel alongwith State police being deployed in Maoism-affected areas, there seems to be no clearstrategic approach to the problem and theforces do not have an upper hand in theareas.

The problem is compounded by the factthat the LWE/Maoists corridor spreadsacross several States and the perceived lackof a common plan has left each State govern-ment combating the Naxals as per their ownstrategy. This is costing lives of scores of ourCRPF and police personnel and the patienceof people to tolerate these slaughters is wear-ing thin.

While there has been a significant drop inMaoist violence in Chhattisgarh in the pastyear when 36 security personnel were killedas compared to 182 in 2007, between 2005and 2017, as many as 1,910 security person-nel were killed in LWE/Maoist attacks in In-dia, out of which 954 casualties were in Ch-hattisgarh alone, including the latestincident.

For several decades, combating LWEs/Maoists has been characterised by recruitingCRPF soldiers, putting them through inad-equate training, giving them a uniform andasking them to make do. There are alsoshortages of Mine Protected Vehicles (MPV).Successive ambushes and attacks haveshown the vulnerability of the CRPF and po-lice parties in the Naxal areas.

The damage and loss of life from attackswith grenade launchers and improvised ex-plosive devices (IED) can be lessened with

movement in armoured vehicles. In 2010,the Centre had sanctioned acquisition of 350MPVs for the CRPF, but in March 2017, therewere only 122 MPVs with the CRPF. Out ofthese 122 MPVs, about a dozen have beenshifted to Jammu and Kashmir.

In an answer to my question on shortageof MPVs in Parliament, the Ministry of HomeAffairs said there was more than one MPVper battalion — though the authorisationstates that every battalion must hold 7-10MPVs.

Need for a dedicated MinistryInadequate combat capability of policeforces in Maoism-affected States remains theprime factor for failing security response asalso dependency of State police forces on theCentral government for anti-Maoistoperations.

Lack of institutionalised intelligence-shar-ing between States and regions and regionalcoordination is being clearly utilised by theLWEs/Maoists.

The Greyhounds special force of undi-vided Andhra Pradesh has by far been themost effective force to have succeeded in re-versing the trend of Maoist violence. Since2005, 429 LWEs/Maoists have been killed inAndhra Pradesh and 36 security personnelhave lost their lives; in Telangana, formed in2014, four LWEs/Maoists have been killedwith no casualties on the security forces’side. In 2012, the Home Ministry had pro-posed to replicate Greyhounds in five Mao-ism-hit States. Clearly, the proposal has notseen the light of day, especially inChhattisgarh.

Apart from the obvious gaps in intelli-gence-gathering, there is clear evidence thatthe CRPF lags on strategy and tactics. Theuse of technology (including drones) to in-crease surveillance around patrols to pre-vent ambushes is inadequate. Losing aquarter of the patrol force in an ambush likethis must get the CRPF leadership to re-eval-uate tactics, training and equipment. Thetime has come for a fundamental transform-ation of the Home Ministry — by moving in-ternal security functions of the governmentto a new, focussed and accountable InternalSecurity Ministry.

The service and sacrifice of our CRPF mar-tyrs must not be in vain and it must be awake-up call for the government, and in par-ticular the Home Ministry. It is a 26/11 mo-ment in our fight against LWEs/Maoists. Thebattle with them must be accompanied bynot just the perseverance and devotion ofour men in uniform, but also better tactics,equipment, training and a determinedstrategy to prevail and win that combines theresources and leadership of all States in-volved and the Central government.

Rajeev Chandrasekhar is Member of Parliament, RajyaSabha and vice-chairman, NDA Kerala

Sukma is a wake-up callOnly better training, equipment and tactics will helpsecurity forces prevail over the Maoists

Rajeev Chandrasekhar

Rent seekingPolitical economy

Rent seeking is a type ofeconomic behaviour, typ-ically found in a climate ofuncertain or weak prop-erty rights enforcement,wherein certain actorsseek to appropriate thewealth of others withoutcreating any new wealth.Rent-seeking behaviourapplies to a variety of situ-ations, from piracy on thehigh seas to lobbying gov-ernments for favourablepolicies. The incentive toundertake rent-seeking ef-forts is weak when an eco-nomy is strong becauseproductive activities arehighly lucrative. Duringtimes of economic stress,the net benefit of corner-ing the surpluses of othersgoes up.

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FROM PAGE ONE

Meanwhile, the PakistanArmy denied the allegedceasefire violation or themutilation of bodies.

“Pakistan Army did notcommit any ceasefire viola-tion on LoC as alleged by In-dia. The Indian blame ofmutilating Indian soldiers isalso false,” M. Nafees Za-karia, spokesperson ofPakistan’s Ministry of For-eign Affairs tweeted.

The Pakistan Army is ahighly professional forceand will never disrespect asoldier, he said in anothertweet.

Kashmir witnessed an in-cident of mutilation of a sol-dier by Pakistani troops inMachil sector in Novemberlast year. Around 65 cease-fire violations were reported

on the LoC this year.The fresh Pakistan attack

comes just a day after itschief General Qamar JavedBajwa visited the LoC inPakistan-occupied Kashmirwhere he pledged support“to the rightful politicalstruggle of Kashmiris.”

Rawat visits PanzgamArmy Chief Gen. BipinRawat on Monday visitedthe Panzgam garrison inKashmir. Officials said it wasa pre-scheduled visit.

Terrorists last week at-tacked an Army camp inPanzgam, killing three per-sonnel including an officer.Gen. Rawat was briefed onthe encounter and he later“took stock of the enhancedsecurity measures.”

Pakistani troops kill,mutilate two jawans

The van, accompanied by apolice escort, was stoppednear Pombai village by themilitants.

“The militants openedfire after the guards tried torepulse the attack. Five po-licemen and two bank offi-cials were killed. No cashwas looted,” said the policeofficer.

The deceased policemenwere identified as assistantsub-inspector MuhammadYousuf, and constablesFarooq Ahmad, MohammadQasim, Mohammad Yousufand Ishfaq Ahmad.

The two security guardskilled were Javaid AhmadBhat and Muzaffar Ahmad.

Militant outfit Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HuM) claimedresponsibility for the attack.“The attack was carried outby a special squad of theoutfit which besides inflict-ing casualties also snatchedfour service rifles from thepolicemen. We had no in-tention to loot money,” saida Hizb spokesman. Policesaid three Hizb-ul-Mu-jahideen militants, includ-ing a resident of Souch vil-lage, carried out the Kulgamattack.

Meanwhile, a youth de-tained under the PublicSafety Act for stone-pelting,fled from police custody inShopian district on Monday.

7 killed as militantsattack bank’s cash van

President Erdogan in a TVinterview before arriving inIndia had called for end tothe violence in Kashmir andstarting a multilateral dia-logue involving India andPakistan. However Indiamaintained that it had nevershied away from holding bi-lateral talks in line with the1972 Shimla Pact and the1999 Lahore agreement andsaid the main issue in Kash-mir is of terrorism.

“We need to act andstand against those who cre-ate and conceive, supportand sustain, shelter andspread these instrumentsand ideologies of violence,”said Mr. Modi in his speech.

However, the Ministry ofExternal Affairs maintainedthat Turkey agreed to India’sdefinition of cross-borderterrorism and included it ina bilateral Joint Statement.

“The two leaders reiter-ated their strong condemna-tion of and resolute opposi-tion to terrorism in all itsforms and manifestations,wherever committed and bywhomever. Both sides urgedall countries and entities towork sincerely to disruptterrorist networks and theirfinancing and stop cross-border movement of terror-ists,” stated the Joint State-ment issued towards theend of the visit.

President Erdogan alsotargeted the prominent Suficleric Fethullah Gulen’s Hiz-met network that he blamedfor the failed coup of July 15-16 2016.

“We are telling ourfriends about the dangersthat the Fetho group poses,”President Erdogan said, ur-ging India and Turkey tocombat the threat together.

Erdogan calls for joint war on terror

“I further direct the DirectorGeneral of Police, N. Delhi(New Delhi) to take all theaccused judges…and pro-duce them to a psychiatricmedical board attached tothe AIIMS Hospital, N.Delhito conduct appropriatemedical tests on the accusedand submit a copy of the re-port on or before7.5.2017(May 7, 2017),”Justice Karnan said.

He stated that the Su-preme Court’s latest orderwas not only a “harassmentorder” against his sanity butalso an “insult.” “This kindof harassment order againstmy sanity is an additional in-sult to an innocent Dalitjudge who is of soundhealth and mind,” he said.The judge also said that hiswife and two sons, who areengineers, are “very muchsatisfied” with his physicaland mental health.

Earlier in the SupremeCourt, Attorney-GeneralMukul Rohatgi submittedthat Justice Karnan’s con-duct since the contemptproceedings started in Feb-ruary 8 this year was a“gross aggravation of con-tempt of the SupremeCourt.”

Justice Karnan hadpassed orders in violation ofthe Supreme Court’s ex-press direction to him to re-frain from judicial and ad-

ministrative work duringthe pendency of the currentcontempt proceedings.

“His order directed eightjudges of the SupremeCourt, including all MyLords to appear beforehim,” Mr. Rohatgisubmitted.

“That is why he is notpresent here despite us or-dering him to be so. He iswaiting for us there [Kolk-ata],” Chief Justice Kheharresponded.

The Bench orderedJustice Karnan to be ex-amined by a board of gov-ernment doctors in Kolkataon May 4 and ordered theDGP of West Bengal todepute police personnel forthe purpose.

The court directed theboard to submit its report byMay 8, and scheduled ahearing on May 18.

It further directed courts,commissions or authoritiesto not take cognisance ofany order passed by JusticeKarnan after February 8,2017.

The Bench, also compris-ing Justices Dipak Misra, J.Chelameswar, Ranjan Go-goi, P.C. Ghose and KurianJoseph, disagreed withsenior advocate K.K.Venugopal’s advice thatsince Justice Karnan was re-tiring in June, the contempthearing should be deferred.

SC orders Karnan to bemedically examined

The Union Home Ministryhas asked the Central forcesdeployed in the States af-fected by Left-wing extrem-ism to step up operationsbased on specific intelligenceinputs and overcome the“psychological setback” theysuffered in the past few days.

The Ministry has askedthe forces to coordinate withthe State police while con-ducting operations and actonly if there was “actionableintelligence”.

On April 24, 25 Central Re-serve Police Force jawanswere killed near Burkapal inSukma district of Chhattis-garh when they were provid-ing security to a road con-struction party.

In a similar attack, 12CRPF jawans were killednear Bhejji in Sukma onMarch 11. The Central secur-

ity forces and the State po-lice informed Home MinisterRajnath Singh on Mondaythat at least “six Maoists”were killed in last week’sambush.

The change in strategycomes even as the HomeMinistry initiated an inde-pendent inquiry to uncoverthe lapses in the Sukma in-cident.

The terms of reference ofthe inquiry will be decidedsoon.

The CRPF is already con-ducting a court of inquiryand the local police have re-gistered a separate first in-formation report.

Operation reviewMr. Singh reviewed the oper-ations being undertaken bythe Central forces in the af-fected States on Monday.

National Security AdviserAjit Doval was not present atthe meeting, but top offi-cials, including Union HomeSecretary Rajiv Mehrishi andchiefs of intelligence agen-cies, deliberated the plan ofaction.

“We will be focussingmore on operations now,and road construction cantake a back seat. Providingsecurity to road constructionhad made them defensive

and now that it has beentemporarily halted, we canfocus more on result-ori-ented operations now,” asenior Home Ministry officialsaid.

The official said that in themeeting, it was also sugges-ted that either new techno-logy that could expedite roadconstruction be adopted orthe work be suspended for awhile as it exposed the secur-ity forces to unwanted atten-tion and made them vulner-able to attacks.

Border vigilMr. Singh also reviewed thesituation in Jammu and Kash-mir, and directed the top of-ficials to ensure strict vigilalong the International Bor-der, which is guarded by theBorder Security Force.

The continuing unrest inthe Kashmir Valley was alsodiscussed.

Put ambush behind, CRPF toldHome Ministry asks Central forces to coordinate with police and act only on ‘actionable intelligence’

Vijaita Singh

New Delhi

Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh hands over an appointmentletter to Jiteshwari, wife of CRPF martyr Banmali Yadav, whowas killed in the recent Sukma attack, in Jashpur district. * PTI

Jamia Millia Islamia onMonday conferred the De-gree of Doctor of Letters(Honoris Causa) to TurkishPresident Recep Tayyip Er-dogan who is on a two-dayvisit to India.

The university said that itwas conferring the degree toPresident Erdogan for “hiscontribution to strengtheninternational cooperation,peace and diplomacy aswell as for his extraordinaryhumanitarian aid to millionsof refugees.”

‘Glad to accept honour’Mr. Erdogan said he was de-lighted to accept the honor-ary degree from a universitywhich had played a signific-ant role not only in India’sfreedom movement but alsoin the way it supported theKhilafat Movement in the1920s and stood by the Turk-ish people and its founders.

Citing the commonnessand familiarity between theIndian and Turkish cultures,he said that “culture andeducation” were potentialareas which could take therelationship between bothcountries to the next level.

In his address, he suppor-ted a permanent United Na-

tions Security Council seatfor India and called for re-forms in the UNSC. “India,with a population of 1.3 bil-lion is not a part of theUNSC. Over 1.7 billionpeople live in the Islamicworld but they too are not apart of the UNSC. This is nota healthy sign,” PresidentErdogan said.

Criticising the currentstructure of the Council asarbitrary, he said that it wasset up to address the crisisemanating from the SecondWorld War but now thatsituation had changeddrastically. It therefore re-quired thorough restructur-ing to address the currentgeo-political reality of theworld. “Only five perman-ent members of the Councilare deciding the fate of theentire world which is notfair”, he added.

Turkey supportsIndia’s UNSC bid Calls for restructuring of Council

Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI

Tayyip Erdogan at JamiaMillia Islamia on Monday.

* SHANKER CHAKRAVARTY

Launching the Assemblyelection campaign in Gujaraton the State’s FoundationDay, Congress vice-presidentRahul Gandhi slammedPrime Minister NarendraModi here on Monday formaking people listen to hisMann Ki Baat instead oflistening to their problemsand resolving them.

“Hindustan’s shaan”Mr. Gandhi addressed amassive rally in tribal-dom-inated Dediapada in Nar-mada district, describing“Gujarat as Hindustan’sshaan”, and said that underthe BJP rule, only 10 to 15people were running theState. “As elections are duein Gujarat, I want to promiseyou that if the Congress winsthe polls, our governmentwill be of everyone and notof just one person. Instead ofjust telling our Mann Ki Baat,our government will try tounderstand your Mann KiBaat,” he said taking a dig atMr. Modi’s monthly radioprogramme.

Invoking MahatmaGandhi and Sardar Patel, Mr.Gandhi said Gujarat’s pro-gress was due to their ef-forts. “The way the Amuldairy movement involvingwomen and farmers was cre-ated in Gujarat by Sardar Pa-tel at the instance of Ma-hatma Gandhi, it remainsthe largest movement todayand no nation can competewith it,” he said.

“I want to ask the farm-ers, that in the past 20 yearswhat has the Narendra Modigovernment done for you?Big industrialists get thou-sands of acres as gift in Gu-jarat. When farmers ask fortheir rights, the police beattheir women. Today, 10 to 15people rule Gujarat,” hesaid.

Job creationTaking potshots at Mr.Modi’s promises made dur-ing the campaigning for the2014 polls, the Congressleader said Mr. Modi hadpromised to create two crorejobs annually but as per gov-ernment records, only onelakh new jobs were createdlast year.

“When I met somePatidar youth from Gujarat,they told me that they allsupported Modiji in the pastbut when they tried to de-mand jobs and education,they were beaten up, and

women were also beatenup,” he said, referring to thePatidar quota agitation in2015.

Mr. Gandhi expressedconfidence that his partywould defeat the BJP in theAssembly polls later thisyear.

According to him, theNDA government at theCentre and the BJP govern-ment at the State have ig-nored the issues of tribals,farmers and have onlyworked to promote interestsof a few industrialists.

“The RSS and the BJPwant tribals to migrate tourban areas and work asmaids while the governmenthad brought in a law to giveforest lands to tribals.”

Senior Congress leaderand political adviser to SoniaGandhi, Ahmed Patel,slammed the Centre over thekillings of security forces byterrorists and the PakistanArmy.

We understand your Mann

Ki Baat, Rahul tells Gujarat‘Under BJP rule, 10 to 15 people are running the State’

Mahesh Langa

AHMEDABAD

Poll campaign: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi at a publicmeeting in Narmada district on Monday. * PTI

A Delhi court on Mondayremanded AIADMK(Amma) deputy generalsecretary T.T.V. Dhinakaranand his co-accusedMallikarjuna to judicialcustody in the case of al-leged attempt to bribe theElection Commission.

He allegedly tried tobribe the panel for the al-lotment of ‘two leaves’symbol to the Amma fac-tion for a byelection to theR.K. Nagar Assembly seatin Tamil Nadu which waslater cancelled by the EC.

Special Judge PoonamChaudhary remanded thetwo accused to judicial cus-tody till May 15, after theDelhi police producedthem submitting that theirfurther custodial interroga-tion was not required.

Later, the court directedthe Tihar Central Jail au-thorities to produce thepolitician and his accom-plice before the courtthrough videoconferencingafter their lawyers ex-pressed security concerns.

Examining witnessesThe police also submittedthat investigation was stillgoing on, and a number ofwitnesses were yet to beexamined.

Meanwhile, the courtalso extended the judicialcustody of alleged hawalaoperator Nathu Singh, an-other accused in the case,till May 15 after he was pro-duced before it on the ex-piry of his one-day judicialcustody.

Dhinakaran in judicialcustodySpecial correspondent

New Delhi

Hurriyat chairman MirwaizUmar Farooq on Mondaywelcomed the mediationoffer of Turkey PresidentRecep Tayyip Erdogan onthe Kashmir issue.

Describing Turkey as“an important Islamiccountry”, the Mirwaiz saidthe President of Turkey“should make efforts toend the political uncer-tainly prevalent in the re-gion for decades”.

Welcoming the state-ment of Mr. Erodgan,wherein he stated Turkeywas ready to play a role tosolve the Kashmir disputebetween India andPakistan, the Mirwaiz saidit could act in an “imaginat-ive way” in bringing bothIndia and Pakistan near tofinding a just solution tothe Kashmir issue.

Hurriyatbacks oferby ErdoganSpecial correspondent

Srinagar

With the Modi governmentin power, the immediatechallenge before the CPI(M)and other secular parties is“to tackle economic and so-cial oppression, not just endcaste and class divisions,”party general secretary Sit-aram Yechury said here onMonday.

Mr. Yechury said this atan Opposition conclavecalled on the occasion of So-cialist leader MadhuLimaye’s 95th birth an-niversary to galvanise secu-lar forces in the countryagainst the current BJP-ledNDA government.

He, however, warned thata coming together of polit-ical forces was not merely amatter of “arithmetic”, butneeded to be based on acommon world view.

Focus on ideologyCongress leader DigvijayaSingh, too, stressed that thedebate must be focused onideology. “The BJP has con-verted the ideological de-bate into one about develop-ment. But whosedevelopment is the BJP pro-moting? Does it mean thatas investment increases, theHuman Development Indexfalls?” Referring to theGandhian and theNehruvian brands of secu-larism, he cited the Mahat-ma’s favourite hymn, Raghu-pati Raghava Raja Ram andobserved that “perhaps,Gandhi’s secularism was

more apt in the Indiancontext”.

The conclave’s first ob-jective, leaders from partiesbelonging to three streams,Socialist, Communist andCongress stressed, was toensure the election of aPresident who would be aguardian of the Constitu-tion, not one who took in-spiration from Nagpur.

“We must all unite, other-wise the country will per-ish,” said JD(U) leaderSharad Yadav, highlightingthe BJP government’s cur-rent failure in Kashmir.

Madhu Limaye’s son,Aniruddha Limaye, who isnot a politician, said wordssuch as “secularism” had nomeaning for the youngergeneration and needed tobe recast in a fresh, newway; and if the object was todefeat the BJP, then theparties would have to beginanew with a new organisa-tion and a much youngerleadership. “It will take 10years, not 10 weeks,” hesaid, adding: “That will bethe biggest tribute to myfather whom you havegathered to honour.”

Opposition meetcalls for unity‘Elect President who stands by statute’


New Delhi

Sharad Yadav

Students clashed with secur-ity forces in Pulwama dis-trict of south Kashmir, trig-gering a stand-off and ashutdown here on Mondaymorning.

Trouble started when stu-dents of Mehjoor MemorialHigher Secondary school

(MMHSS) and GovernmentDegree College, Pulwama,staged a demonstration out-side a police station to pressthe release of some arrestedstudents.

They alleged that six stu-dents were rounded up bythe police last week.

The students latermarched on the roads and

clashed with the securityforces. Tear-smoke shellswere used to disperse thestudents.

Closed shops The clashes created panicand shopkeepers downedtheir shutters in the maintown.

A clash was also reported

in Srinagar’s GovernmentPolytechnic College, whichwitnessed a major clash onSaturday.

The alleged thrashing ofstudents of the GovernmentDegree College in Pulwamaon April 15 started a wave ofstudents’ protests in Kash-mir. Over 100 students wereinjured.

Students take on police in J&KStage demonstration outside police station for release of those arrested

Dangerous portends: Students hold an Islamic State lag at the Government Degree College in Pulwama district of southKashmir on Monday. * SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT


Srinagar


CMYK

A ND-ND




NEWS

Oil tanker drivers go on strike in ManipurIMPHAL

Oil tanker drivers went on a

strike on Monday to protest

against the militant attacks

along highways. Official

sources said if the drivers

refused to transport fuel from

Assam to Manipur for a few

more days, the oil pumps in

the State would go dry. Pump

owners said the stock had

gone down because of “panic

buying.” The pumps in the

State were closed during the

four-month economic

blockade imposed by the

United Naga Council.

The Supreme Court onMonday directed the CBI tosubmit a detailed status re-port, replete with the timeframe by which its prolongedinvestigation into a possiblelarger conspiracy behind theassassination of formerPrime Minister Rajiv Gandhiwill be completed.

A Bench led by JusticeRanjan Gogoi gave fourweeks’ time for the premieragency to submit a sealedcover report indicating thelegal hurdles in conductingthe two-decades-old probeand steps taken so far toovercome these roadblocks.

The order was passed on apetition filed by A.G. Per-arivalan, one of the convictsin the case.

He has alleged that therehas not been an effectiveprobe into the “larger con-spiracy” behind the 1991killing of the national leader.

He has claimed that an

“effective and straight-for-ward investigation may bringmaterial contrary to the pro-secution case.”

Perarivalan, lodged in theVellore prison in TamilNadu, claimed that he hadspent 25 years in prison, andhad every right as a citizen toseek that a proper investiga-tion was carried out into theassassination of a nationalleader.

Appearing for the CBI, Ad-ditional Solicitor GeneralManinder Singh submittedthat the probe was pro-longed as there were diffi-culties, including the factthat many of the suspectswere absconders and outsidethe country, and so they re-quired to be extradited first.

‘Probe feeble’To this, the Bench said theinvestigation has to be com-pleted and if there is any be-nefit accruing to the peti-tioner (Perarivalan) from theresult of the enquiry, he

should surely get it.The story of the ‘larger

conspiracy’ angle started in1997 when the Justice M.C.Jain Commission of Inquiry( JCI) recommended furtherprobe into “various conspir-acies behind the assassina-tion of Rajiv Gandhi”.

After placing the recom-mendation before Parlia-ment, the government set upa Multi Disciplinary Monitor-ing Agency (MDMA) in theCBI to follow up on the JainCommission’s work.

In July 1999, the desig-nated TADA court allowed

the MDMA to probe the lar-ger conspiracy angle. How-ever, in 2013, Perarivalancomplained to the TADAcourt that the probe wasboth “feeble and pandering.”But the TADA court dis-missed the plea.

‘Powerful persons’A subsequent appeal in theMadras High Court to directthe TADA court to effectivelymonitor the investigationwas not entertained in 2015.He claimed that the TADAcourt had not even deemedit necessary to open the sev-eral investigation reportsfiled before it in sealed cov-ers.

In his petition before theSupreme Court, Perarivalancondemned the almost two-decade-long CBI investiga-tion, which, he said, wascloaked in secrecy.

“It is imminent to statethat the persons benefitedfrom the assassination wouldbe powerful and the sus-

pects/accused may be oneamong them. All these as-pects cannot be based onsurmises and assumptionsbut has to be the outcome ofa thorough investigation.However, the CBI has onlyundertaken a namesake andfeeble investigation so far inthe left out aspects of the as-sassination case for the past16 years,” Perarivalan said inthe petition.

Charges against CBIHe claimed that the CBI hadmore to conceal than to re-veal and “is scared of theskeletons tha may stumbleout of their own cupboard.”

The petition said it was es-sential and expedient in theinterest of justice that the in-vestigation into the largerconspiracy be “strictly mon-itored” by the trial court orpreferably by the High Courttill the probe reaches its lo-gical conclusion.

The case is scheduled forAugust 16.

Rajiv case: SC wants report on ‘larger plot’ Convict Perarivalan condemns almost two-decade-long CBI investigation, saying it is ‘cloaked in secrecy’

Krishnadas Rajagopal

NEW DELHI

Even as the time for challen-ging the results of the recentAssembly elections in the re-spective High Courts haslapsed, the Election Commis-sion is yet to come up with aschedule for its “open chal-lenge” to experts and polit-ical parties to demonstratehow the electronic votingmachines (EVMs) can betampered with.

Various political partieshave alleged that the EVMsused in the elections in UttarPradesh and Punjab weretampered with. Representat-ives of 16 parties had peti-tioned the President seekinghis intervention. Counteringthe allegations, the EC has is-sued statements, assertingthat the EVMs were tamper-proof.

In view of the widespreadcriticism, the Commissionhas decided to throw anopen challenge invitingpeople to demonstrate howthe tampering can be done.Asked about the event’sschedule, an EC official — oncondition of anonymity —had earlier said that it wouldbe finalised once the limita-tion period of 45 days foranyone to challenge the elec-tion results in the High Courtwas over. It expired on April26.

Response to challengeAn EC source recently toldThe Hindu that the guidelinesfor the event were beingframed in consultation withthe EVM manufacturers.However, no public state-ment to this effect has beenissued yet.

Last week, Chief ElectionCommissioner Nasim Zaiditold the media that the elect-oral body would first hold anall-party meeting to convincethem that the machines were“non-tamperable andsecured”.

After reports on EC’s plansto invite experts made the

rounds, a group of eminentengineers and scientistswrote an open letter to Dr.Zaidi highlighting the issuesinvolved.

More leeway for expertsThe group, laying down cer-tain conditions for testing,stated that experts be al-lowed to choose their instru-ments and access beprovided for physical tam-pering of EVMs. They shouldbe provided design docu-ments and test descriptionsand results, as well as in-formation about the securityprocedures in place, for eachgeneration of EVM currentlyin use.

The results obtained byeach team examining theEVMs should be made pub-lic. Longer term testing by ateam with in-depth expertise

in computer security andvoting system securityshould be performed, and itsresults should also be madepublic.

“The EC should note thatit is virtually impossible,whatever the qualification ofthe individual examining theEVM, to determine with cer-tainty that EVMs are tamper-proof. Electronic devices canbe designed to detect whenthey are being tested, and itis practically impossible totest for every possible config-uration and scenario,” saidthe group.

Hence, the letter said, ifthe EVM challenge does notdetect a problem, this didnot mean that election out-comes were guaranteed tobe secure in the future; regu-lar VVPAT audits could helpaddress the issue.

EC yet to throw open EVMs to hackersPanel had announced an open challenge to demonstrate how the machines can be tampered with

Devesh K. Pandey

NEW DELHI

Nasim Zaidi

The Centre on Monday is-sued a notification allowingofficials on emergency anddisaster management-re-lated duties to use beaconson top of their vehicles.

The notification allowsuse of multi-coloured — red,blue and white light —beacons on top of officialvehicles related to “controlof fire, police duty, defenceforces or paramilitary forcesfor maintenance of law andorder”. Officials on disastermanagement duties relatedto “natural disasters, includ-ing earthquake, flood, land

slide, cyclone, tsunami, andman-made disasters such asnuclear disaster, chemicaldisaster and biological dis-aster” can use vehicles withmulti-coloured beacons.

“The multi-coloured lightshall not be put to use whenthe vehicle is not on the des-ignated duty,” the notifica-tion issued under Rule 108of the Central MotorVehicles Rules, 1989 said.

The Transport Depart-ment of each State will needto issue a notice enlistingthe list of authorities towhom the permission to usevehicles with multi-colouredlights, the notification said.

Centre allows beacon

use for emergenciesIssues notice on multi-coloured onesSpecial Correspondent

NEW DELHI

Global warming may beinching the oceans higherevery year but researchersstudying the seas around In-dia report a paradox. From1993 to 2003 — the first dec-ade when satellites started toconsistently track the riseand fall of ocean heights andglobal temperatures soared— the north Indian Ocean(NIO) sea levels fell. The NIOconsists of the Arabian Sea,the Bay of Bengal and part ofthe Indian Ocean up till the5°S latitude. After 2004, sealevels began an unpreceden-ted, accelerated spike till2014.

This rise and fall was evenas global temperaturessteadily climbed and re-gistered their largest two-decadal jump in more than acentury.

Previous studies that hadmeasured ocean heightsbased on traditional tidegauges found that the NIO—like the rest of the world’sseas — continued to risebetween 1993 and 2004.While Intergovernmental

Panel on Climate Change re-ports have concluded thatwhile unabated greenhousegas emissions into the atmo-sphere would cause oceansto rise every year, therewould be years during whichsome seas could register afall. Scientists associatedwith the study said that sucha “decadal swing” in theNorth Indian Ocean wasunique and never observedin either the Pacific or At-lantic oceans.

“We were trying to under-stand why the North IndianOcean was warming twice asfast as the other oceans after

2004,” lead author M.Ravichandran, Director, Na-tional Centre for Antarcticand Ocean Research(NCAOR), told The Hindu.

Melting ice sheetsThe NIO went down about0.3 mm a year and from2004 gained about 6 mm an-nually. This was twice theglobal, annual average ofabout 3 mm. When temper-ature and sea level trends inthe NIO were mathematic-ally separated out from theother oceans, the fall waseven more dramatic: nearly3 mm per year and the Ara-

bian Sea cooling off rapidlyat 4 mm per year. Mr.Ravichandran and his col-leagues relied on satellite ob-servations and a global net-work of floats, which logtemperature and salinity, toarrive at their findings. Theirwork appears in the latestedition of the peer-reviewedClimate Dynamics.

Sea levels primarily risedue to water expanding fromatmospheric heat and, morewater being added from, forinstance, melting ice sheetsand glaciers. In this case,said Mr. Ravichandran, 70%of the NIO’s warming could

be explained by expansion. Unlike the Pacific and At-

lantic, the NIO was hemmedin all sides, except for an out-let on the southern side. Thisinfluenced the rate at whichheat was absorbed andflushed out from within thesystem. According to theircalculations, heat was mov-ing out slower during after2004 than during the 1990s.

Wind flows“This inter-decadal trend isan extremely importantfactor,” said Shailesh Nayak,a co-author and former sec-retary of the Central earthsciences department, “andunderlines why we need toplan coastal managementbetter.”

Mr. Ravichandran saidwind flows, which welledwarm water on the IndianOcean surface, changed dir-ections every decade andprobably influenced sealevel patterns. “It could bethat coming decades — inspite of rapid, rising temper-atures — will see a fall in sealevels but that’s still hypo-thetical,” he added.

Curious case of dip, rise in Indian seasScientists say such a ‘decadal swing’ in north Indian Ocean is unique and never observed in others

Jacob Koshy

NEW DELHI

Ebb and low: The north Indian Ocean consists of the Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal and part ofthe Indian Ocean up till the 5°S latitude. * C.V. SUBRHAMANYAM

The CBI on Monday in-formed a Delhi court that ithad obtained sanction toprosecute former ISROChairman G. MadhavanNair and others for al-legedly extending illegalmonetary benefit of ₹578crore to a private multime-dia company, Devas, byAntrix, an ISRO arm.

The others whose pro-secution was approved areA. Bhaskar Narayana Rao,former Director in ISRO,and K.R. Sridhar Murthy,former Executive Directorof Antrix. Special judgeVirender Kumar Goyalgranted a month’s time tothe CBI to get sanction toprosecute Veena S. Rao,former Additional Secret-ary, Department of Space.

CBI set toprosecute ex-ISRO chiefSpecial Correspondent

NEW DELHI

The Directorate of RevenueIntelligence (DRI) onMonday arrested three per-sons, including a Slovenian,for their alleged involve-ment in a major gunrunningand wildlife smugglingracket, after raids at a na-tional-level shooter’s housein Uttar Pradesh’s Meerutled to a haul of arms and an-imal meat.

Intercepted at airportThe accused were intercep-ted by officials of the DRIafter their arrival at the IGIAirport here by a TurkishAirlines flight from Slove-nia’s capital Ljubljana viaIstanbul on Saturday. Theywere carrying 25 illegally

imported lethal weaponsand other items worthabout ₹4.5 crore with them,a senior DRI official said.

Incorrect declarationThey had incorrectly de-clared the quantity andvalue of the arms and am-munition to the customs of-ficials and tried to get theseitems cleared by misusingthe scheme meant forrenowned shooters, he said.

Rules permit professionalshooters to import a limitedquantity of arms and am-munition for practice. Thetrio — Amit Goyal, Anil Ku-mar Langan and Boris So-botic Mikolic — have beenarrested for allegedly violat-ing customs rules to evadepayment of import duty.

DRI seizes weapons worth ₹4.5 crore


New Delhi

Slovenian among 3arrested in arms raid

The Central Bureau of In-vestigation on Monday ques-tioned UPSC member Chat-tar Singh in connection withalleged irregularities in theallocation of 14 Panchkulaindustrial plots in 2012.

“The investigating teamhas questioned Mr. Singh, aretired IAS official, as he wasPrincipal Secretary to thethen Haryana Chief Minister[Bhupinder Singh Hooda],”said a CBI official.

In May 2016, the CBI tookover the case from the StateVigilance branch.

The alleged irregularitiestook place when Mr. Hooda,by virtue of being the ChiefMinister, was Chairman ofthe Haryana Urban Develop-ment Authority. He hadearlier termed the move a“witch-hunt” and “personalvendetta”.

Named in FIRApart from the then HUDAChairman, three officials —retired IAS officer D.P.S.Nagal, who was chief admin-istrator of HUDA, S.C.Kansal, the then Controllerof Finance, and B.B. Taneja,and the then HUDA Deputy

Superintendent — and 13 be-neficiaries have been namedin the FIR. The role of otherpublic servants is beinginvestigated.

According to the CBI, ithas been alleged that afterthe final date for submissionof applications, provisions ofthe allotment were changedand plots allocated to the be-neficiaries at a price lowerthan the rate fixed by thegovernment.

The accused beneficiarieshad submitted applicationson January 24, 2012, 18 daysafter the last date ofsubmission.

CBI quizzes UPSC memberfor alleged irregularitiesOver allocation of Panchkula industrial plots in 2012


NEW DELHI Uttar Pradesh Chief MinisterYogi Adityanath on Mondayrefused to meet the familyof jailed rape-accusedformer Minister Gayatri Pra-japati at his residence here,according to family mem-bers of the SP leader.

“We wanted to meet theChief Minister, but he didnot meet us,” Mr. Prajapati’swife told reporters outsidethe 5 Kalidas Marg residenceof the Chief Minister.

“I am confident that myhusband will get justice. Wewill make another attemptto have a word with the

Chief Minister,” she said.Prajapati’s sobbing

daughter claimed her fatherwas being implicated in thecase.

“He is innocent. We wantjustice. We hope the ChiefMinister will listen to us andensure justice to our family,”she said.

The controvesial SPleader was granted bail by aspecial court last week in arape and molestation case.But the Allahabad HighCourt stayed the bail gran-ted to Prajapati by Protec-tion of Children from SexualOffences (POCSO) courtjudge O. P. Mishra.

Adityanath avoided us, says Prajapati’s family

‘We will try to meet the CM again’


Lucknow

With no let up in sight inthe ongoing students’protest on the campus, theKhalsa College manage-ment here was on Mondayforced to postpone all itsannual examinations ofgraduate, post-graduateand M.Phil classes of vari-ous subjects.

The decision will affectnearly 8,000 students ofthe college but the man-agement blamed the agita-tion and the district andpolice administration forfailing to provide a con-genial atmosphere to holdthe exams.

Talking to media per-sons, Khalsa College Gov-erning Council chiefSatayjit Singh Majithia saidthey were forced to takethe step as the whole cam-pus has been condoned offby protesters with the staffhaving no access to the col-lege records and offices.

College exampostponedamid stir Press Trust of India

AMRITSAR

Mamata pays tribute toManna Dey KOLKATA

West Bengal Chief Minister

Mamata Banerjee on Monday

paid tributes to Manna Dey

on the 98th birth anniversary

of the singing legend.

“Remembering the evergreen

singer and our pride Manna

Dey on his 98th birth

anniversary,” Ms Banerjee

posted in her Twitter handle.

Meanwhile, cultural

organisations held

programmes in the city to

mark the day. - PTI

IN BRIEF

Himachal Pradesh ChiefMinister Virbhadra Singh’swife on Monday withdrewher application from a spe-cial court in which she hadurged the court not to takecognisance of a CBI chargesheet filed against thecouple in a disproportionateassets case.

After she withdrew theapplication, Special JudgeVirender Kumar Goyal putup the matter for May 3 fordecision on taking cognis-ance of the final report filedagainst Mr Singh, his wifePratibha Singh and others al-leging that the Chief Ministerhad amassed assets worth₹10 crore which were dispro-portionate by 192 per cent tohis total income during histenure as a Union Minister.

The court allowed Prat-ibha Singh’s counsel to with-draw the plea, giving himliberty to move it again at alater stage if he wished to.

In her application moved

before the court on April 24,the politician’s wife hadurged the court to first de-cide whether the materialrelied upon by the CBI in itsfinal report, which was re-portedly collected during itsprobe in the State withouttaking the Himachal Pradeshgovernment’s approval, canbe considered for the pur-pose of cognisance by thejudge or not.

‘Consent mandatory’In her plea, moved throughadvocate Vijay Aggarwal,she had claimed that theconsent of the concernedState government was amandatory pre-requisite forthe CBI to derive jurisdictionto carry out investigation inany area within the territ-orial limit of the State.

The court was hearing thematter in which the CBI hadfiled a charge sheet againstnine people on March 31 foralleged offences of abetmentand forgery, punishable un-der Indian Penal Code and

other offence punishable un-der Prevention of Corrup-tion Act. The agency has ar-rayed around 225 witnessesand 442 documents.

Corruption chargesBesides the 82-year-old Con-gress leader and his wife, theCBI has also named LICagency Anand Chauhan,Universal Apple Associateowner Chunni Lal Chauhan,stamp paper vendor Jo-ginder Singh Ghalta, MD ofTarani Infrastructure V.Chandrasekhar among oth-ers as accused, chargingthem with criminal conspir-acy, cheating and corruptionamong others.

Chauhan was arrested bythe Enforcement Directorate(ED) from Chandigarh onJuly 9 last year in a moneylaundering case filed it onthe basis of CBI complaintand is currently in the judi-cial custody. The court hadon September 7 last yeartaken cognisance of the finalreport against him.

Virbhadra’s wife withdrawsplea from court in DA caseCourt gives liberty to move it again at a later stage


New Delhi

Khalistan terrorist Goldyacquitted PATIALA

A court here on Monday

acquitted Khalistan Tiger

Force terrorist Ramandeep

Singh Goldy in a blast case of

2010 due to lack of evidence.

Additional Sessions Judge

Ravideep Singh Hundal

granted him the reprieve

after the prosecution could

not convince the court why

the eyewitnesses took so

long to record their

statements, defence lawyer

B. S. Sodhi said.

Goldy was arrested by Punjab

Police from Malaysia in 2014.- PTI


CMYK

A ND-ND




WORLD

Tony Blair announcesreturn to politicsLONDON

Former British Prime Minister

Tony Blair said on Monday he

was plunging back into

domestic politics in order to

ight against Brexit. He said

he wanted to build a

movement to shape policy

debates as U.K. begins talks

to leave the EU. AFP

ELSEWHERE

UN rights chief hits outat Turkey over purgeGENEVA

It is “highly unlikely” Turkey

followed due process in the

mass arrests and firings since

July’s failed coup, UN rights

chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein

said on Monday, specifically

condemning the dismissal of

nearly 4,000 public officials,

including more than 1,000

people working for Justice

Ministry, on Saturday. AFP

Eight men in Indonesiaface jail over gay partySURABAYA

Eight men have been arrested

for allegedly holding a “gay

party” in Indonesia, the

world’s most populous

Muslim-majority country, the

police said on Monday.

Officers busted 14 men

holding the party in Surabaya,

the second biggest city in

Indonesia, around midnight

on Sunday. AFP

Policeman arrested forfiring at ruling party HQ COLOMBO

An off-duty police constable

was arrested after he fired

shots at the headquarters of

the United National Party, Sri

Lanka’s ruling party, in

Colombo on Monday. No one

was injured. The policeman

used his automatic assault

rifle, the police said, adding

that they were investigating

his motive. AFP

U.S. President DonaldTrump is reviewing a pos-sible breakup of large U.S.banks, according to a pub-lished interview on Monday.

Mr. Trump toldBloomberg News that hewas considering a ‘21st cen-tury’ version of the 1933Glass-Steagall law that sep-arated consumer lendingand investment banking andwas repealed in 1999 byPresident Bill Clinton.

“I’m looking at that rightnow,” Mr. Trump said in anOval Office interview withBloomberg. “There’s somepeople that want to go backto the old system, right? Sowe’re going to look at that.”

Mr. Trump's commentsare his first on the subjectand follow other statementsfrom administration officials

such as National EconomicCouncil Director Gary Cohnand Treasury SecretarySteven Mnuchin expressingbroad support for the idea.

Details not knownSeveral liberal Democrats,including Senator BernieSanders, have also suppor-ted a breakup of the biggestbanks.

However, the Trump ad-ministration has not re-leased details about what aneventual breakup planmight look like.

Shares of large banksgave up some of their gainsfollowing the Bloomberg re-port, but stayed in positiveterritory. Around 1730 GMT,JPMorgan Chase was up0.6% at $87.46, Citigroupwas up 0.8% at $59.61 andBank of America was up1.2% at $23.61.

Trump consideringbreaking up large banks

He is looking at new Glass-Steagall law

Agence France-Presse

New York

SpaceX on Monday blastedoff a secretive U.S. govern-ment satellite, known onlyas NROL-76, marking thefirst military launch for theCalifornia-based aerospacecompany headed by billion-aire tycoon Elon Musk.

The payload for the Na-tional Reconnaissance Of-fice, which makes and oper-ates spy satellites for theUnited States, soared intothe sky atop a Falcon 9rocket at 1115 GMT.

About 10 minutes afterlaunch, the scorched firststage of the rocket cameback to Earth and landedupright at Cape Canaveral,marking the fourth success-ful solid ground landing forSpaceX. “And we havetouchdown,” a SpaceX com-mentator said on a live web-cast as cheers broke out atmission control. “The first

stage has landed back atLanding Zone 1. Anothergood day for us at SpaceX. Abeautiful sight to see.”

Live video of the launchshowed the first and secondstages of the rocket separat-ing about two and a halfminutes into the flight.

Fiery entry burnThe larger portion of therocket, known as the firststage, made a gentle arc andpowered its nitrogenthrusters to guide it back toEarth. After a fiery entryburn, the rocket set itselfdown steadily in the centerof the 300-foot (91-meter)circular landing zone.

Mr. Musk is leading an ef-fort in the rocket industry tore-use costly parts.

SpaceX has already mademultiple successful landings— some on land and otherson floating ocean platforms,known as drone ships.

SpaceX makes irstU.S. military launchSends secretive satellite to space


Miami

Steering clear of blamingChina for the maritime dis-putes in the South ChinaSea, the 10-member Associ-ation of South East Asian Na-tions (ASEAN) has focussedon a regional trade pact andshoring up economies ofsome of the lesser developedcountries in the grouping.

A Chairman’s statementissued at the end of the Ma-nila summit on Sunday tooknote of the improving co-operation between ASEANand China. It welcomed theprogress to complete aframework of the code ofconduct in the South ChinaSea by mid-2017.

The code is a non-bindingdocument that urges self-re-straint and resolution of dis-putes through directnegotiations

On the sidelines of thesummit, the PhilippineTrade and Industry Secret-ary, Ramon Lopez, ex-

plained that PresidentRodrigo Duterte, whochaired the meeting, had“developed friendship” withChina on his trip to Beijing inOctober. This had “openedmany doors to thePhilippines”.

“We still have differencesover the South China Sea.The wisdom is to put this is-sue aside and talk aboutbusiness and strengtheningeconomic ties,” he said.

“It’s not about getting adonation and fighting back

in the future.” The document welcomed

the operationalisation of theGuidelines for Hotline Com-munications among seniorofficials of the ministries offoreign affairs of ASEANcountries and China in re-

sponse to maritime emergen-cies. The leaders focused onthe Regional ComprehensiveEconomic Partnership(RCEP) negotiations, point-ing out that the giant freetrade pact will boost globaltrade. The RCEP is a pro-posed free trade agreementbetween ASEAN and sixother states — Australia,China, India, Japan, SouthKorea and New Zealand. Thedocument highlighted a com-mitment to assist Cambodia,Laos, Myanmar and Vietnamto enable them to bolster re-gional integration.

The grouping reaffirmedits aspiration to play a biggerrole in the global economyand reiterated its full supportfor the denuclearisation ofthe Korean Peninsula, andfor concerned parties to ex-plore all avenues for dia-logue. The ASEAN comprisesBrunei, Cambodia, Indone-sia, Laos, Malaysia, Myan-mar, the Philippines, Singa-pore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Bloc is also preparing a code of conduct on South China Sea that urges all parties to show self-restraint

Atul Aneja

Beijing

ASEAN wants stronger ties with China

U.S.-led strikes aimedagainst the Islamic Statehave “unintentionally”killed 352 civilians sincethe offensive began in2014, according to the U.S.military.

The tally from the Com-bined Joint Task Force didnot include findings froman investigation the coali-tion said it had launchedinto one allegedly particu-larly deadly strike onMarch 17 in west Mosul.

U.S. General StephenTownsend had said coali-tion forces “probably had arole in those casualties”.

Under reviewThe statement releasedSunday by Operation In-herent Resolve — the coali-tion fighting the IslamicState group in Iraq andSyria — said 42 reports ofcivilian fatalities were stillunder review. FromNovember 2016 to March 9,2017, coalition strikes killed45 civilians, the statementsaid.

Three separate strikesnear Mosul in early Marchof this year left 26 civiliansdead. The statement saidthe coalition had in Febru-ary and March finished anaudit of its civilian casualtyreport tracking.

The Pentagon said 80 ci-vilian casualties caused byU.S.-led strikes in Iraq andSyria from August 2014 todate had not previouslybeen publicly announced.

Two civilian deaths thathad previously been repor-ted were found not to beattributable to the coali-tion, the statement said.

Critics, including monit-oring groups, say the realtotal number of civiliancasualties is much higherthan the official tally repor-ted by the US military.

The coalition insists theIS group has targeted civil-ians and used them as hu-man shields, making it dif-ficult to avoid civiliancasualties despite its state-of-the-art technology.

U.S. owns upto civiliandeaths in Iraq, SyriaAgence France-Presse

Washington

European Union flagsnapping in the wind in thetiny German village ofGadheim is the only hint atwhy the world’s media arebeating a path to this out-of-the-way spot. Its handful ofhouses are set in the rollinghills of Bavaria’s winecountry, clustered around asolitary road wendingthrough fields overlooked bya clutch of wind turbines.

When Britain’s two-yearnegotiations on leaving theEU end in 2019, Gadheim’s89 inhabitants will findthemselves at the geographiccentre of the bloc, accordingto the IGN geographicinstitute in Paris.

Most here first heard thenews on the radio, saysJuergen Goetz, mayor ofnearby Veitshoechheim —Gadheim being too small to

have a Buergermeister[mayor] of its own. “Wethought it was an April Fool’sjoke at first,” Mr. Goetzlaughs, as he recounts the

story around a table in thevillage hotel. There’s nodoubt that locals are proudto see their countryside infocus, with its vineyards,

endless fields and thewinding Main river.

“My husband has alwayssaid that we were the centreof the world,” jokes Inge

Diek, the villagerepresentative of theGerman Farmers’Association. “There’s apretty saying, ‘God kissedthe Earth only once, andthat’s where Veitshoechheimis. Gadheim is a part of that,”beams Mr. Goetz.

Marking the spotGadheimers have set up aWhatsApp group to marvelat their new-found fame andmull how to mark the spot.Most surprised of all wasKarin Kessler, dark-haired,slightly weather-beaten anddressed in warm, practicalfarming attire. Her son senther a message with a map ofthe exact coordinates —which she at first thoughtwere on her neighbours’land. “No, it’s in your field!”her son shot back. Ms.Kessler may be amused tofind the centre of the EU in

her unremarkable field ofrapeseed.

But “the fact that it’s onlyhappening because of thisBrexit is a bit of a shame forme,” she says.

Like others in the village,Ms. Kessler still hasn’t gotover her disbelief, first thatBritish voters would chooseto quit the club, and that theprocess will now be seenthrough to its end.

For her, the most tangibleimpact of the EU —castigated for decades insome of the British press as aburdensome foreign yoke —is the fact that there are noborder checks when shedrives to France on regularholidays. “And then I think,my father was in World WarII. He was a prisoner inFrance. That gives me goodreason to value the EU,founded to bind historicenemies together.”

CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC

Brexit moves a tiny German village to the centre of EU Most of the 89 inhabitants of Gadheim are surprised by the new-found fame their village got after last year’s British referendum

New attraction: Most of the residents of the village of Gadheim near Wuerzburg, Germany,thought it was an April Fool’s joke when they irst heard the news on radio. * AFP


Gadheim, GermanyTwitter is launching a 24-hour streaming news chan-nel in partnership with theBloomberg news agency, ina major expansion of itsvideo operations.

Bloomberg chief execut-ive Justin Smith confirmedthe partnership lateSunday, retweeting a WallStreet Journal article refer-ring to the tie-up. “We’llhave a lot more to sayabout this exciting newpartnership at BloombergMedia’s NewFronts onMonday,” Mr. Smithtweeted, referring to a con-ference being held thisweek.

The Journal, which firstreported the partnership,said Bloomberg would pro-duce news exclusively forthe online channel, separ-ate from content producedfor its own TV channel.

Twitter,Bloombergteam upAgence France-Presse

Washington

Pakistan on Monday exten-ded the detention of Jamaat-ud-Dawa ( JuD) chief HafizSaeed and his close aides forthree more months. Saeed,the mastermind of the 2008Mumbai terror attack, hasbeen under house arrestsince January 30. The JuDand its charity arm, Falah-i-Insaaniyat, had also been puton a terrorist watch list.

A notification by theHome Ministry of Punjabprovince announced the de-cision to extend Saeed’s de-tention. Saeed and his aideshave challenged their deten-tion in the Lahore HighCourt but only a couple ofhearings have been held sofar in which the court hasasked the government to

provide written reasons forhis arrest.

The crackdown on themilitant leader came in lateJanuary after Pakistani news-papers reported that the U.S.

had threatened to imposesanctions on the country if itdid not ban the JuD.Pakistani authorities, how-ever, denied the reports.Meanwhile, the JuD changed

its name to Tehrik-i-Azadi-iKashmir. The UN and theU.S. have already declaredthe JuD a terrorist organisa-tion, but Pakistan is yet toban the group as it had gotreprieve from the LahoreHigh Court. India has longaccused the JuD and Saeed oflaunching terrorist attacksinside the country.

‘U.S. putting pressure’Saeed remained defiant des-pite the crackdown and al-leged that the U.S. is puttingpressure on Pakistan to banhis organisation on the be-hest of India. “We will go tothe court if any such ban ifimposed on the JuD,” he saidin a statement issued afterhis arrest in January.

In January 2016,Pakistan’s State bank had

ordered to freeze all the as-sets of the JuD, including itsbank accounts.

Meanwhile PakistanPrime Minister Nawaz Sharifmet his top ministers andaides to discuss options be-fore the government to de-fuse a civil-military row overa leaked report.

The meeting in Lahore onSunday followed Pakistan’smilitary rejecting Mr. Sharif’smove to sack his top aideand Special Assistant on For-eign Affairs Tariq Fatemi fol-lowing investigation into areport by Dawn that thereare rifts between the govern-ment and the military onhow to confront militants.

The military has rejectedthe investigation’s findingsand recommendations.

(With PTI inputs)

Pak. extends Haiz Saeed’s detention The 26/11 Mumbai terror attack mastermind will remain in house arrest for three more months

Deiant tone: Haiz Saeed was held after the U.S. threatenedto impose sanctions on Pakistan if it did not ban the JuD. * AP

Mubashir Zaidi

Karachi

Nepal’s first female SupremeCourt Chief Justice was sus-pended after an impeach-ment motion was filed inParliament accusing her ofbias and interfering with ex-ecutive powers.

Sushila Karki was suspen-ded automatically after themotion signed by nearly halfthe members in Parliamentwas registered, SupremeCourt spokesman MahendraNath Upadhaya said onMonday. Deputy Prime Min-ister Bimalendra Nidhiresigned in protest of the im-peachment motion. Mr.Nidhi was also the HomeMinister tasked with arran-ging security for the polls.

Mr. Nidhi handed in hisresignation because he dis-agrees with the motion filed

against the Chief Justice,which will bring further dis-tance between the legis-lature and judiciary, hispress adviser Ramjee Dahalsaid. There was no discus-sion on the issue within theparty, Mr. Dahal said.

Mr. Nidhi is from theNepali Congress party, oneof the two ruling parties

whose members signed themotion. Justice Karki was ac-cused of interfering with ex-ecutive powers and issuingbiased decisions.

Two-thirds supportThe motion cited a court or-der overturning the govern-ment’s appointment of thepolice chief. The motion,filed late Sunday, needs to bedebated and then receivetwo-thirds of the votes inParliament for it to be ap-proved. Justice Karki wasdue to retire next month.

Meanwhile, the NepalArmy said it would maintainvigil due to the “unfoldingevents” in the country. Itsaid that officials had re-viewed the overall securitysituation in the wake of theimpeachment motion.

(With PTI inputs)

Parties accuse her of interfering with executive powers

Associated Press

Kathmandu

Nepal’s irst woman ChiefJustice suspended

Justice Sushila Karki

U.S. President DonaldTrump has claimed thatChina stoppedmanipulating its currencyas soon as he assumedoffice.

“I did say I would callChina, if they were, acurrency manipulator,early in my tenure. Andthen I get there. Numberone, as soon as I got

elected, they stopped.They’re not — it’s not goingdown anymore, theircurrency,” Mr. Trump said.“They were doing itbefore. I mean, there wasno question. I mean, theywere absolute currencymanipulators before,” Mr.Trump told CBS onSunday.

China has been accusedof suppressing the yuan tomake its exports more

competitive with Americangoods. Before the election,Mr. Trump had likened thisto “raping” the U.S., andpromised to label China acurrency manipulator onhis first day in office. Lastmonth, Mr. Trump told theWall Street Journal thatChina had not been“currency manipulators”for some time and hadbeen trying to preventfurther weakening.

Trump claims credit for ending‘currency manipulation’ by ChinaPress Trust of India

Washington


CMYK

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Mobile phones could be-come cheaper if the govern-ment accepts a proposal bythe NITI Aayog to drop the2% import duty imposed ona critical component forhandsets in the UnionBudget for 2017-18.

The Aayog, in its draftthree-year action plan, hassaid the duty will hurt mo-bile phone makers in thecountry and the governmentmust ensure that industriesare not built behind ‘a wallof protection.’

The Budget had imposeda 2% special additional dutyon imports of populatedprinted circuit boards (PCBs)used for mobile phones, topush the Make in India cam-paign. The duty is aimed atproviding ‘adequate protec-tion to domestic industry,’the government had said, sothat local manufacturers ofPCBs get an incentive ofsorts. Handset prices wereexpected to rise by over 1%owing to the duty.

Calling for a ‘low or no

duty regime’ for key inputsof electronic products, theAayog has said that the 2%customs duty on PCBs wouldprovide modest protectionto domestic manufacturers,but hurt the mobile phonemanufacturers.

‘Tariff handicap’“At this stage, it is best for usto let mobile phone manu-facturing flourish and not behandicapped by tariffs on itscomponents. As this hap-pens and we begin to exportmobile phones in large

volumes, the way to themanufacture of other com-ponents will be automatic-ally paved,” the Aayog hasnoted in its recommenda-tions on the electronics sec-tor.

“We should return to zeroduty on PCBs. We must buildindustries that are globallycompetitive and do not needto operate behind a wall ofprotection,” it stressed.

A senior official in theelectronics and IT ministryexpressed surprise at theAayog’s suggestion and said

that though some mobilephone producers had ini-tially expressed apprehen-sions about the levy of theduty on PCBs, they recog-nise that the idea is to in-centivise domestic produc-tion of PCBs.

“The duty is being leviedat a nominal rate and is just asignal in favour of local man-ufacturing,” the official said.

Though India has the po-tential to become a largeelectronics manufacturerand exporter due to its largelabour force, a growing do-mestic market and proximityto other economies on theelectronics value chain, thesector accounted for just 3%of India’s merchandise ex-ports in 2015, the Centre’sthink tank has pointed out.

“The world market inelectronics products is $2trillion compared with only$65 billion in the domesticmarket. Therefore, an ag-gressive export strategy is es-sential to credibly prepareourselves for the fourth In-dustrial Revolution,” theAayog noted.

NITI Aayog for abolishing 2% duty on mobile phone circuitsThe Budget had imposed duty on imports to push the ‘Make in India’ campaign

Vikas Dhoot

NEW DELHI

‘Scratch’ guard: The Aayog, in its draft three-year action plan,has said the duty will hurt mobile phone makers.

The eight core industriesgrew by 5% in March, thefastest in three months, onthe back of higher coal andsteel production.

The growth rate of eightinfrastructure sectors —coal, crude oil, natural gas,refinery products, fertil-isers, steel, cement andelectricity — was, however,lower than 9.3% recorded inMarch 2016.

As per government data,coal production increased10% in March as against2.5% in the previous year.Steel (alloy and non-alloy)production rose 11% while ithad expanded by 7.8% inMarch 2016.

Electricity generationwas up by 5.9%. Crude oiland natural gas productionwas 0.9% and 8.3%. Mean-

while, cement productiondeclined 6.8% as also fertil-iser output (-0.8%). Therewas also a decline in pro-duction of refinery products(-0.3%). The core industries,which contribute 38% to thetotal industrial production,had expanded by 1% in Feb-ruary and 3.4% in January.

Infrastructure industriesgrew 4.5% in FY17, up from4% in the previous fiscal.

Core industries outputgrows 5% in March

Higher steel, coal production spur rise

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

NEW DELHI

Watts up: Electricitygeneration was up by 5.9%.

The board of Snapdeal isexpected to meet on Tues-day to discuss the potentialsale of India’s third largeste-commerce firm to largerrival Flipkart.

Also on the agenda willbe getting Nexus VenturePartners (NVP), an early in-vestor in Snapdeal, toagree to the sale of the e-commerce firm.

The approval of NexusVenture Partners will becrucial for the proposedtransaction to proceed, ac-cording to sources close tothe development.

The seven-memberboard of Jasper Infotech,which operates Snapdeal,includes representationfrom investors SoftBank,Kalaari Capital and NexusVenture Partners, as wellas co-founders Kunal Bahland Rohit Bansal.

Snapdeal todiscuss likelysale todayPress Trust of India

New Delhi

Reliance Capital Asset Man-agement’s open-endedequity growth scheme, Re-liance Growth Fund, hasachieved a net asset value(NAV) of ₹1,000.

This is the first fund inthe industry to achieve thisNAV level. The fund waslaunched 21 years ago inOctober 1995.

“It gives us immense sat-isfaction that ₹1 lakh inves-ted in our fund is valued at₹1 crore today, ” said Reli-ance Mutual Fund CEOSundeep Sikka.

NAV is the value pershare of a mutual fund on aspecific date or time. Reli-ance Growth Fund, a mid-cap oriented fund, isprimarily invested in finan-cial, information techno-logy, industrial and health-care companies.

The fund has a corpus ofover ₹5,000 crore frommore than six lakh in-vestors. As of March, thefund had an asset base of₹2,10,890 crore.

RGF’s netasset value at ₹1,000 PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

NEW DELHI

Public sector lenders likeState Bank of India (SBI) andBank of Baroda have re-duced interest on fixed de-posits on various maturitiesfrom the end of April as thebanking system is flush withliquidity.

SBI, the country’s largestlender, reduced the retailterm deposit rate (for up to₹1 crore) by 25-50 basispoints (bps) on various ma-turities. (100 bps = 1 percent-age point). For depositsmaturing from two years toless than three years, SBIcustomers will earn 6.25% ascompared with 6.75%earlier.

For three years to 10-yeardeposits, the interest ratewill be 6.25% as comparedwith 6.5%. The new ratescame into effect on Sat-urday. Senior citizens willcontinue to get 50 bps moreover the card rate.

Another public sectorlender, Bank of Baroda, re-duced the deposit rate by 10-25 bps on various maturit-ies. The one-year depositrate will now be 6.9% ascompared with 7% earlier.

“There is abundant li-quidity in the system, whichhas prompted banks to cutthe rates,” said a senior offi-cial from Bank of Baroda.According to Reserve Bankof India, the surplus liquid-ity in the banking systemwas ₹4.8 lakh crore in

March, though it has comedown from its peak of ₹8lakh crore in January.

In early January, bankshad reduced the benchmarklending rate — the marginalcost of funds based lendingrate — sharply, by about 90bps. The move followed de-monetisation which resultedin significantly high mobil-isation of low-cost deposits.However, banks had not re-duced deposit rates at thetime. Now, banks have notcut their lending rates.

SBI, Bank of Baroda reduce rate by 10-50 basis points

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

MUMBAI

Cascading efect: For deposits maturing from two years to lessthan three years, SBI customers will now earn 6.25%. * REUTERS

Excess liquidity promptsbanks to cut deposit rates

Having seen the contro-versy related to RelianceJio’s free trial run stretchedtoo far, the Telecom Regu-latory Authority of India onMonday started a consulta-tion process to frame rulesfor the network testing be-fore full-fledged commer-cial launch.

“The DoT requested theAuthority to provide its re-commendations on testingof network before commer-cial launch of services in-cluding enrolment of cus-tomers for testingpurposes before commer-cial launch, duration oftesting period etc...,” ac-cording to a consultationpaper prepared by TRAI.

Accordingly, this paperhas been prepared to dis-cuss issues involved, pos-sible solutions and frame-work to bring clarity on thematter,” the TRAI said.

The consultation papermentioned that till date,the need was not felt tospecify various aspects oftesting such as definition oftest cards, limit of testcards and testing duration.

“However, in 2016, aTSP (telecom service pro-vider) carried out testing ofits long-term evolution(LTE) network on a verylarge scale and enrolledlakhs of subscribers as testusers before commerciallaunch of its services...Some incumbent operatorsfiled representationsthrough their industry as-sociation expressing thatthis practice is unfairdue...,” the consultationpaper noted.

Jio efect:TRAI to settesting rulesPRESS TRUST OF INDIA

NEW DELHI

Job opportunities under thePrime Minister’s Employ-ment Generation Pro-gramme (PMEGP) fell over9.5% year-on-year to 3.2 lakhin FY16 from more than 3.5lakh in FY15, according to in-dustry body Assocham.

“Besides, the number ofprojects set up under thePMEGP also reduced fromover 48,100 in FY15 to about44,300,” according to a re-port by Assocham based onan analysis of governmentdata.

Uttar Pradesh topped

with over 43,000 jobs gener-ated under the PMEGP inFY16, but the number of jobsreduced from more than48,600 that was generated inFY15 thereby registering ayear-on-year decline of morethan 11%.

“The PMEGP is an effect-ive scheme aimed at redu-cing unemployment andgenerating sustainable em-ployment opportunities inrural and urban India, butthere is a need for banks andother institutions to put incollaborative effort to meetthe targets of this pro-gramme,” said D.S. Rawat,

secretary general ofAssocham.

Credit proposalsWhile the number of creditproposals approved underthe Credit Guarantee FundTrust for Micro and SmallEnterprises (CGTMSE) in-creased significantly fromjust over four lakh to over 5.1lakh between 2014-15 and2015-16, the approvedamount under this schemefell 6% from ₹21,200 crore inFY15 to more than ₹19,900crore in FY16.

The number of MSMEswhich benefited from the

Marketing Assistance andTechnology Upgradationprogramme also fell from359 in FY15 to 303 in FY16,according to the analysis. Itadded that the number oftrainees under the Entre-preneur Development Pro-grammes Scheme fell signi-ficantly from more than 1.4lakh in FY15 to just over66,000 in FY16.

The number of new ideasapproved as part of Entre-preneurial Development ofSMEs through Incubatorsrose marginally from 143 inFY15 to 145 in FY16, accord-ing to ASSOCHAM.

‘Employment under PMEGP falls 9.5%’Project numbers too declined, says Assocham, citing government data for FY16

Piyush Pandey

MUMBAI

Smartphone shipmentsgrow 4.3% to 347 mnNEW DELHI

More than 347 million

smartphones were shipped

in the irst quarter of 2017,

higher by 4.3% from the

same period last year,

research irm IDC said.

While the growth dipped to

low single digits for the

irst time, the irst quarter

numbers indicate that the

industry could show some

rebound in 2017, as per

IDC’s preliminary data. The

growth rate is slightly

higher than IDC’s previous

forecast of 3.6%. PTI

‘No logic behind lowcredit rating for India’MUMBAI

Critical of rating agencies

for giving India the lowest

investment grade rating,

eminent banker Deepak

Parekh has wondered how a

country with such “strong

fundamentals” can be rated

so low. “Why is India, the

fastest growing emerging

economy, now with all

macroeconomic

fundamentals being

positive, rated just BBB-?

“Italy and Spain, which are

far weaker and smaller, are

having much higher ratings

than us,” Parekh said. PTI

Centre mullsaerotropolis in AssamGUWAHATI

The Centre is planning to

build an aerotropolis (urban

area centred around an

airport) in Assam and has

sought 2,000 acres from

the State for the purpose.

The issue was discussed at a

meeting between Union

Minister of State for Civil

Aviation Jayant Sinha and

Assam CM Sarbananda

Sonowal for development

of the aviation sector in the

state. The aerotropolis in

the state would “bring huge

beneits to the region,” said

a statement. PTI

Reliance Industries (RIL)on Monday approachedthe Securities AppellateTribunal against a SEBI or-der, which had banned theMukesh Ambani-led firmfrom equity derivative trad-ing for one year and hadasked it to disgorge nearly₹1,000 crore in an allegedfraudulent trading case.

The Tribunal is likely tohear RIL’s appeal on May 3to decide on admission andfurther hearing, sourcessaid.

In a nearly 10-year-oldcase, capital markets regu-lator SEBI on March 24 hadbanned RIL and 12 othersfrom equity derivativestrading for one year, whileaccusing the company ofmaking “unlawful gains.”

Besides, RIL was askedto disgorge ₹447 crore,along with an annual in-terest of 12% since Novem-ber 29, 2007, which itselfwould be over ₹500 crore.

ReliancechallengesSEBI banPRESS TRUST OF INDIA

NEW DELHI

The government expects its‘major new policy’ of aphased manufacturing pro-gramme for mobile phonesto create two million jobsand half-a-billion dollarsworth of manufacturingactivity in the country overthe next five to seven years,Electronics and InformationTechnology Secretary ArunaSundararajan told The

Hindu.

Ten-year roadmap“The basic chipset (for mo-bile handsets) is, of course,imported,” she said. “But therest of the manufacturingcan happen in India. So thephased manufacturing pro-gramme is our roadmap forthe next ten years as to howvalue addition should hap-pen in India.

This is a very major policydeclaration which we believewill incentivise large-scalemobile manufacturing.”

The Centre will initiatefresh talks with Apple Incwhich will now have to calib-rate its plans to manufactureits iconic iPhones in thecountry, in line with a new

phased manufacturing pro-gramme for mobile phonesnotified on Friday.

When asked how Apple’splans could fit in with thenew programme, Ms.

Sundararajan said, “That’sexactly what we are examin-ing to see if their roadmapcan be aligned with ours.

“We have some challengesbecause right now, the man-

ufacturing program we haddrawn up doesn’t cover allthe components they want.So that’s why we are sittingdown together to see howthey can work with it.”

While the programme willenable handset makers andcomponent suppliers to planinvestments, separately, in-frastructure will be createdacross 8,000 acres of landover three years for electron-ics manufacturing clusters.

The basic issue for mobilephones, she said, was that itbecame cheaper to importcomponents and finishedgoods after India signed theWorld Trade Organisation’sITA-1 pact, under which cer-tain inputs for IT productswere exempted from duties.

Duty differential“Therefore, investors werenot interested in manufac-turing in India. We startedwith a duty differential ap-proach in 2014 with threeproducts and are now gradu-

ally trying to get companiesto move up the value chain,”she said.

The manufacturingroadmap has been preparedkeeping in view the ‘state ofplay of the design/manufac-turing ecosystem in thecountry, wherein throughappropriate fiscal and finan-cial incentives, indigenousmanufacturing of mobilehandsets and various sub-as-semblies that go into theirmanufacturing shall be pro-moted over a period of time,’according to the notification.

With the intention to sub-stantially increase value ad-dition within the country,the programme envisagespromoting the sub-assemblyof mechanics, microphoneand receiver, keypad andUSB cables in 2017-18; prin-ted circuit boards, cameramodules and connectors in2018-19; and display as-sembly, touch panels, vi-brator motor and ringer in2019-20.

Govt. eyes 2 mn jobs in mobile phone unitsTalks are on with Apple on the new phased manufacturing plan to see how the Cupertino-based irm can it in

Order of magnitude: A major scheme for infrastructure in electronics manufacturing clustershas been unveiled under which 8,000 acres of land will be developed across the country.

Vikas Dhoot

NEW DELHI

IN BRIEF


BUSINESSEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE



IN BRIEF

AirAsia passenger traic rises 57% MUMBAI

AirAsia India lew 8.4 lakh

passengers in the January-

March quarter of the current

year, up 57% from 5.38 lakh

in the same period of 2016,

aided by new routes and

higher capacity. The airline

raised its leet size to nine

from six in the irst quarter of

the previous year. The

number of passengers carried

increased by 57% year-on-

year to 0.84 million, with a

50% increase in capacity. PTI

‘Centre to meet 3.5%iscal deicit target’ NEW DELHI

The Centre is conident of

achieving the iscal deicit

target of 3.5% for 2016-17,

the new Controller General

of Accounts (CGA), Anthony

Lianzuala, said. After taking

charge on Monday, Mr.

Lianzuala said his oice had

given timely input to the

government on the

expenditure and receipt

fronts to assess its iscal

roadmap. “We have done our

best (in giving data) and I

think the government will be

able to achieve its target of

iscal deicit of 3.5%,” he

said. PTI

TRAI to reply to DoT this month in Jio case NEW DELHI

Telecom Regulatory

Authority of India will “this

month” send to the Telecom

Ministry its clariication on

the ₹3,050 crore penalty it

had sought from Airtel,

Vodafone and Idea for

denying call connectivity to

new entrant Reliance Jio.

“No, we have not written to

them (DoT) yet. But we will

be writing soon... We will be

responding certainly this

month,” said TRAI Chairman

R.S. Sharma. PTI

Automobile majors MarutiSuzuki, Tata Motors, Toyotaand Honda began the newfiscal on a strong note, post-ing high double-digit growthin their domestic passengervehicle sales in April.

The country’s largest car-maker Maruti Suzuki India(MSI) posted a 19.5% jump intotal sales to 1,51,215 units inApril, against 1,26,569 unitsin the same month last yearas sales of its compact andsports utility vehicles rose.

Its domestic sales rose23.4% during the month to1,44,492 units compared to1,17,045 units in April 2016.

Sales of mini segmentcars, including Alto andWagonR, were up 21.9% to38,897 units from 31,906units a year ago, MSI said ina statement.

The company said sales inthe compact segment —comprising Swift, Estilo,Dzire, Baleno and Ignis — in-creased 39.1% to 63,584units in April this year asagainst 45,700 units in thesame month of 2016.

Ciaz, Ertiga popularSales of mid-sized sedanCiaz rose 23.2% to 7,024units during the month.Sales of utility vehicles, in-cluding Ertiga, S-Cross andVitara Brezza, rose 28.6% to20,638 units in April from16,044 units in the corres-ponding month last year.

The company posted adecline of 4% in sales ofvans, Omni and Eeco, at13,938 units last month com-pared with 14,520 units inthe same month the previ-ous year. Exports during themonth too declined 29.4% to6,723 units from 9,524 unitsin April last year, MSI said.

Tata Motors reported a23% growth in sales of itspassenger vehicles in the do-

mestic market at 12,827 unitslast month. It was led by astrong pipeline for Tiago anda positive response for newlifestyle UV — Tata HEXA,said Tata Motors PresidentPassenger Vehicles BusinessUnit Mayank Pareek.

Honda Cars India Ltd(HCIL) reported a 38.1% in-crease in domestic sales at14,480 units in April. It hadsold 10,486 units in the sameperiod last year.

HCIL President and CEOYoichiro Ueno said: “Thenew fiscal year has begun ona positive note and we hopeto continue the growth mo-mentum.”

Hyundai sales rise 3.57%Sales of India’s second-largest carmaker HyundaiMotor India Ltd (HMIL) re-ported a 3.57% increase intotal sales at 56,368 units inApril this year, driven by anincreasing demand for its se-dans.

The company had sold54,420 units in April 2016,HMIL said in a statement.

Domestic sales were up5.68% at 44,758 units duringthe month, as against 42,351units in the year-ago period,the company said.

Commenting on the salesperformance, HMIL Director

Sales & Marketing RakeshSrivastava said the companycontinued its growth mo-mentum “on a strong base oflast year.”

Toyota Kirloskar Motor(TKM) reported a 47.85%jump in total sales at 14,057units in April, driven by itsnewly unveiled SUVFortuner.

The company had soldtotal 9,507 units in the samemonth last year, TKM said ina statement.

Domestic sales grew51.81% to 12,948 units asagainst 8,529 units in Aprillast year, it added. TKM ex-ported 1,109 units of theEtios series in April 2017 ascompared to 978 units in thesame month last year.

N. Raja, director andsenior vice—president —sales & marketing, ToyotaKirloskar Motor, said: “Thisgrowth has been propelledby the overwhelming re-sponse the new Fortunerhas received.”

The new Fortuner hasalready sold more than12,200 units in less than sixmonths of its launch, headded.

Japanese automobile ma-jor Nissan said its sales rose39.26% to 4,217 units inApril.

Domestic sales ofauto majors zoomMaruti, Honda, Toyota, Tata Motors see double-digit growth

Top gear: Maruti’s sales in the compact segment increased39.1% to 63,584 units in April this year.

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

NEW DELHI

A five-day working week,improvement in the dear-ness allowance schemeand provision for housingfor all employees are someof the demands that wouldbe put forth by banks uni-ons at the industry-levelwage revision talks withthe Indian Banks Associ-ation (IBA) in Mumbai onTuesday.

IBA, which has invitedthe bank unions, will berepresented by its chair-man Rajeev Rishi, whilethe union will be represen-ted by C.H. Venkatach-alam, General Secretary,All India Bank Employees’Association and leaders ofall the nine unions belong-ing to the United Forum ofBank Unions.

“The tenth bipartite set-tlement on wage revisionfor 10 lakh bank employeesand officers will come to anend during October 2017.The next wage revision isdue from November 2017.Hence, we have to startearly to finish it soonwithout any delay,” Mr.Venkatachalam said.

According to him, 43banks in the public sector,private sector and amongforeign banks will becovered by the new settle-ment.

‘No re-privatisation’AIBEA has objected to therecent statement by RBIDeputy Governor ViralAcharya on re-privatisatingsome of the public sectorbanks, and has demandedits withdrawal.

“Everyone, includingMr. Acharya, knows thatthe bulk of the bad loansare due to big defaultersand private sector is thecontributor of 97% of thebad loans,” Mr. Venkatach-alam said.

“If RBI cannot recoverthe money, it cannot beput on us or the nation atlarge,” he said.

IBA invitesunions forwage talksN. Anand

CHENNAI

India’s biggest online match-maker BharatMatrimony hasrevived its IPO plans and ismost likely to be listed in thesecond quarter of the cur-rent fiscal.

The recently-launchedmatrimony photographybusiness is expected toboost revenue, according toa senior official of the com-pany.

The Chennai-based firmwas to have been listed onthe Indian bourses lastDecember but the initialpublic offering was post-poned due to certain unfore-seen circumstances, accord-ing to the company’s ChiefExecutive Officer and

founder MurugavelJanakiraman.

Speaking to The Hindu

over phone, Mr. Janakira-man said, “We had to post-pone it due to the demonet-isation exercise. We wantedto postpone the decision tillthe confusion in the marketsettled. We have applied forit afresh and will be goingfor an IPO in the secondquarter of this fiscal.”

The company is yet to de-cide on the quantum offunds to be raised and theareas in which investmentsare to be made, the foundersaid. Speaking about thecompany’s latest venture,Mr. Murugavel said matri-mony photography is a $3-billion opportunity in India.

Given the potential, the seg-ment is expected to boostthe company’ revenues sig-nificantly, according to him.

The company is in theprocess of roping in photo-graphers possessing 5D andabove models. In a similarmodel to that of Uber cabs,MatrimonyPhotography willbe paying ₹25,000 to eachpartnering photographer forseven-day service in amonth. “The photographerscan do their other assign-ments in the rest of the daysin the month.

“Right now, the model isworking very well. Even ifwe capture less than 5% ofthe business, the future isvery bright,” Mr. Janakira-man said.

To follow Uber model for wedding photography businessAPPAJI REDDEM

VIJAYAWADA

BharatMatrimony revivesIPO plans, to go public in Q2

Kenstar, part of the Video-con Group, has finalisedplans to enter the fast-grow-ing air purifier business inIndia.

The company is also get-ting into the industrialcooler segment, a top com-pany executive said.

“The Indian market forair purifiers is poised togrow exponentially and weare set to enter the seg-ment,” Rajiv Kenue, ChiefCommercial Officer, Kenstarsaid. “Our products will beavailable in the market bySeptember this year,” hesaid.

Growing air pollution inmetros, more specifically inDelhi, Mumbai andBengaluru has led to large-scale demand for air purifi-ers in India. More than a

dozen companies, includingHindustan Unilever with itsbrand Blueair and EurokaForbes with its brand Dr.Aeroguard, had entered thesegment and had last yearreported a combined salesturnover of ₹250 crore.

“This market is growingby 25%-30% a year and willnow grow sharply as de-mand has started coming ineven from Tier-2 and Tier-3cities. We estimate that thismarket will grow to the sizeof ₹1,000 crore in threeyears; this is why we are en-tering the market,” he said.

The company has con-ducted market research andwill roll out products at thebeginning of winter, the sea-son for air purifiers.

Mr. Kenue said the com-pany expects to corner 10%share in the first year ofoperations.

Kenstar to make forayinto air puriier market

Pollution in metros fuels demand

Lalatendu Mishra

MUMBAI

Stent manufacturers wantthe government to applydifferential pricing fordrug-eluting stents by clas-sifying them on the basis oftechnology used.

Such a move will rewardquality and innovation tokeep the segment viablewhile also giving physi-cians broader treatmentoptions, said industry bod-ies — AdvaMed and MTaI.

Drug-eluting stents(DES) have a polymer coat-ing over mesh that emits adrug which prevents block-age of arteries from recur-ring. These are seen as su-perior to bare metal stents.

In February, the NPPAhad capped prices at₹7,260 for bare metal vari-eties and ₹29,600 for DES.

Earlier, the correspond-ing prices were ₹45,100and ₹1.21 lakh respectively.

‘Fix stentprices basedon tech’PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

NEW DELHI


CMYK

A ND-ND




SPORT

Over the first nine editions ofthe Indian Premier League(IPL), Rohit Sharma has es-tablished himself as the un-disputed king of chasingdown targets. However, themagic seemed to have beenmissing so far in the tenthedition. The Mumbai Indianscaptain regained his silkentouch by leading his side to afive-wicket win against RoyalChallengers Bangalore.

Thanks to Rohit’s un-beaten 56, Mumbai Indiansoverhauled the target of 163off the penultimate ball aftera tense last over by ShaneWatson. The result also en-sured Mumbai Indians of aplace in the top four andevaporated whatever minus-cule arithmetic chance RoyalChallengers had of makingthe cut.

When Rohit joined youngNitish Rana at the crease inthe eighth over after Jos But-tler failed to build up on yetanother good start, thehome team required 102runs off 75 balls. The MI cap-tain has struggled against theleg-spinners in the tourna-ment. Perhaps the RoyalChallengers captain ViratKohli missed a trick by notre-introducing YuzvendraChahal into the attackstraightaway.

Even with left-arm spin-ner Pawan Negi getting rid ofRana and Chahal forcing amistake from the burlyKieron Pollard, Rohit had sethimself up to stay there tillthe end.

Despite losing partners atthe other end, Rohit, havingbecome only the fourth bats-man to cross 4,000 runs inIPL early on in his innings,continued to rotate the strikeand target an odd boundaryto ensure the required ratedoes not climb.

Hardik Pandya broughtdown the target to wellwithin reach with a six overdeep square off Aniket

Choudhary in the 18th over.Rohit then swept a slowerone from S. Arvind from out-side the off-stump into thestands over square leg to en-sure his team required justseven runs off the last over.

Watson started off with awide but then restrictedboth the batsmen to twosingles each for the next fourballs.

With two off two required,Rohit caressed him throughthe covers for a four to sealthe win.

Rohit’s effort washed outthe efforts of AB de Villiersand Negi with the bat, whichhelped the Royal Challengersto put on its first respectabletotal in four outings. Whilede Villiers’s quickfire 43ended with a top-edged

sweep off left-arm spinnerKrunal Pandya, Negi’s cameoensured that Royal Chal-

lengers had a total to bowl at.However, Royal Challengerslost three wickets off the last

three balls, which eventuallyturned out to be a knockoutblow for the team.

Rohit guides Mumbai Indians home No end in sight to Royal Challengers’ dismal run as it sinks furtherAmol Karhadkar

MUMBAI

Silken touch: The Mumbai Indians captain regained his form and helped his team overhaul the target of the penultimate ball.* PRASHANT NAKWE

IPL 10

Royal Challengers Bangalore:Virat Kohli c Rohit b McClen-aghan 20 (14b, 2x6), MandeepSingh c Hardik b Karn 17 (13b,3x4), Travis Head c Hardik bKrunal 12 (15b, 1x4), A.B. de Vil-liers c Bumrah b Krunal 43 (27b,3x4, 3x6), Kedar Jadhav c Pol-lard b McClenaghan 28 (22b,2x4), Shane Watson b Bumrah 3(5b), Pawan Negi c Pollard bMcClenaghan 35 (23b, 1x4,3x6), Adam Milne (not out) 0(1b), S. Arvind run out 0 (0b);Extras (lb-2, w-2): 4; Total (foreight wkts. in 20 overs): 162.

Fall of wickets: 1-31 (Mandeep,3.4 overs), 2-40 (Kohli, 5.1), 3-85 (Head, 10.3), 4-102 (de Villi-ers, 12.2), 5-108 (Watson, 13.4),6-162 (Negi, 19.4), 7-162

(Jadhav, 19.5), 8-162 (Arvind,19.6).

Mumbai Indians bowling:Mitchell McClenaghan 4-0-34-3, Lasith Malinga 4-0-31-0,Hardik Pandya 1-0-5-0, KarnSharma 3-0-23-1, Jasprit Bum-rah 4-0-33-1, Krunal Pandya4-0-34-2.

Mumbai Indians: Parthiv Patel cChahal b Choudhary 0 (1b), JosButtler c Head b Negi 33 (21b,4x4, 1x6), Nitish Rana c Head bNegi 27 (28b, 4x4), RohitSharma (not out) 56 (37b, 6x4,1x6), Kieron Pollard c Head bChahal 17 (13b, 2x4), KrunalPandya retd. hurt 2 (2b), KarnSharma c Milne b Watson 9 (8b,1x4), Hardik Pandya (not out) 14(9b, 1x6); Extras (lb-2, w-5): 7;

Total (for five wkts. in 19.5overs): 165.

Fall of wickets: 1-0 (Parthiv,0.1), 2-61 (Buttler, 7.3), 3-70(Rana, 9.2), 4-98 (Pollard,12.6), 5-130 (Karn, 16.3).

Royal Challengers Bangalorebowling: Aniket Choudhary 4-0-32-1, Yuzvendra Chahal 4-0-36-1, Adam Milne 2-0-29-0, S.Arvind 2-0-21-0, Shane Watson3.5-0-28-1, Pawan Negi4-0-17-2.

Toss: Royal ChallengersBangalore.

Man-of-the-match: RohitSharma.

Mumbai Indians won by fivewickets with a ball to spare.

SCOREBOARD MUMBAI INDIANS VS ROYAL CHALLENGERS

Delhi Daredevils is back in fa-miliar territory and the teammanagement and fans willnot be too happy about it.

Bottom-placed among theeight teams with more thanhalf the tenth season of theIPL gone, the perpetual un-derachiever is back home forits remaining games, startingwith Sunrisers Hyderabad onTuesday.

The chances of it missingthe play-offs yet again arequite high.

The season was touted asone where DD’s incrediblebowling would help it ad-vance in the tournament butthat has not exactlyhappened.

It has had more to do withthe disappointing batting —that culminated in an all-time low total of 67 all out inits last match on tour againstKings XI Punjab on Sundayand a 10-wicket defeat — thathas provided the bowlingfire-power very little to de-fend. The good thing for DDis that it does not have totravel any more. With sixgames on the trot to beplayed at home, the teamcan still, theoretically, makeit to the top-four, provided itwins all the remaining gamesand the other results go its

way as well. But the team hasnot given the confidence itcan do that.

There is no doubt aboutthe talent in DD batting butthe lack of experience andproven match-winners haslet it down.

The younger lot of SanjuSamson, Rishabh Pant,Karun Nair, Shreyas Iyer andSam Billings has been far tooinconsistent. DD has alreadylost Billings for the rest of thetournament, the opener fly-ing back for England’s up-coming series against Ire-land.

Zaheer unavailableThe team was dealt a biggerblow after captain ZaheerKhan was ruled out of Tues-day’s game.

Zaheer, who did not playon Sunday either, is yet to re-cover from a hamstringstrain sustained against KKRwith Karun continuing to bethe stand in captain.

SRH, on the other hand,would come into the gameon a high following a com-fortable 48-run victory

against KKR and all its bignames ready and available.Hyderabad has come goodthrough the tournament, inevery department.

Match winnersCaptain David Warner hasled from the front, his dev-astating century in the previ-ous game propelling him tothe top of the run-scorers’list and the orange cap.Shikhar Dhawan, Kane Willi-amson, Yuvraj Singh have allgot runs and playedmatch-winners.

Bhuvneshwar Kumarleads the bowling charge asthe top wicket-taker so farand has Afghan teen sensa-tion Rashid Khan for com-pany in the top-five. AshishNehra and Siddarth Kaulhave done well too, espe-cially in the death overs.

DD coach Rahul Dravidhad admitted that his teamwas better than what theymanaged against KXIP.Against a well-rounded teamas SRH, DD would have toimprove by miles to provehim right.

The Kotla pitch is sup-posed to be low and slow butthe Mohali pitch was similar,and DD batsmen fell towrong shot selection there.That has been its story allthrough, all over again.

Delhi Daredevils back in familiar territory Languishing in the bottom half, the team takes on a conident Sunrisers

UTHRA GANESAN

NEW DELHI

Brittle batting: Though the Delhi Daredevils batting has talentit hasn’t set the house on ire. Here Karun Nair, foreground, andRishabh Pant seen at a net session on the Eve of match againstSunrisers Hyderabad. * R. V. MOORTHY

PLAYING TODAYDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

DD vs SRH, 8 p.m.Sony Six, Sony ESPN, Sony Max(SD & HD)DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

The Board of Control forCricket in India (BCCI), lack-ing direction, is struggling,not having a shoulder to leanon. A clarion call by the chiefof the Committee of Admin-istrators, Vinod Rai, askingthe legends of the game tospeak up and force a massivechange must have shaken upthose in charge of runningthe game.

The Indian cricket admin-istrators, a long list of stal-warts, had a vision and drewa roadmap for the growth ofthe game. There was nomoney, only passion. WhenIndia won the World Cup in1983, the Board had to or-

ganise a Lata Mangeshkarshow in Delhi to raise fundsto reward the teammembers!

All that changed duringthe path-breaking associ-ation forged by JagmohanDalmiya and I.S. Bindrawhen cable and satellite TVwas entering the Indian mar-ket. The Board became fin-ancially rich and the adventof the Indian PremierLeague (IPL), the brainchildof Lalit Modi, in 2008opened the gates to a re-markable rise in its coffers.The money that camethrough the mind-bogglingmarketing of the broadcast-ing rights saw the BCCI be-come one of the richest

sports bodies in the world.The flow of funds, how-

ever, encouraged a new setof administrators. N.Srinivasan set the tone,keeping the cricketershappy, but there was also sy-cophancy.

The Board, however, paidheavily for its arrogance. TheSupreme Court ensuredtransparency in its function-ing while the InternationalCricket Council (ICC)brought it back to earth inDubai recently.

Desperate situationThe Board has been left tofend for itself in its fight for agreater share of the ICC rev-enue. Indeed, it finds itself in

a desperate situation in thewake of its representatives’failure at the ICC meeting.

“To me, this is the biggestcrisis Indian cricket hasfaced,” said veteran PunjabCricket Association (PCA) ad-ministrator M.P. Pandove.

How to regain its prestigeis the question that hauntsthe BCCI, which unfortu-nately lacks leadership dur-ing this testing phase. “Head-less and friendless,” was howa veteran official put it,ahead of the Special GeneralMeeting (SGM), scheduledfor May 7.

The BCCI may have been afamily, as Bindra had said,but it is a headless bodytoday.

BCCI left to fend for itself The Board has paid heavily for its arrogance

Vijay Lokapally

NEW DELHI

West Indies — 1st innings: K.Brathwaite c Sarfraz b Amir 9, K.Powell lbw b Amir 38, S. Het-myer c Azhar b Abbas 1, S. Hopec Sarfraz b Yasir 5, R. Chase cYounis b Amir 131, Vishaul Singhc Younis b Abbas 3, S. Dowrich cYounis b Shadab 29, J. Holder cAhmed b Abbas 58, D. Bishoo cYasir b Abbas 14, A. Joseph bYasir 8, S. Gabriel (not out) 0;Extras (b-4, lb-10, w-2) 16;Total (all out in 98.5 overs) 312.

Fall of wickets: 1-12, 2-13, 3-37,4-102, 5-107, 6-154, 7-286, 8-

286, 9-312.

Pakistan bowling: Amir 26-5-65-3, Abbas 23-6-56-4, Yasir25.5-2-83-2, Shadab 23-3-90-1,Azhar Ali 1-0-4-0

Pakistan — 1st innings: AzharAli (batting) 16, A. Shehzad(batting) 16; Extras (b-2, nb-2)4; Total (for no loss in 14 overs)36.

West indies bowling: Gabriel 4-1-13-0, Joseph 3-1-10-0, Chase4-1-8-0, Holder 3-1-3-0. (Atlunch)

SCOREBOARD WEST INDIES V PAKISTAN, SECOND TEST

POINTS TABLE

TEAM M W L NR PTS NRR

Mumbai Indians 10 8 2 0 16 +0.427

Kolkata Knight Riders 10 7 3 0 14 +0.849

Sunrisers Hyderabad 10 6 3 1 13 +0.794

Rising Pune Supergiant 10 6 4 0 12 -0.179

Kings XI Punjab 9 4 5 0 8 +0.228

Gujarat Lions 10 3 7 0 6 -0.323

Royal Challengers Bangalore 11 2 8 1 5 -1.441

Delhi Daredevils 8 2 6 0 4 -0.156

*After the RPS-GL match

David Warner, who led fromthe front with a brilliant cen-tury against Kolkata KnightRiders on Sunday, said hisside can’t afford to be com-placent as the tournamentnears the business end.

“We have to keep the mo-mentum going, keep playingwell. We are aware that theother teams will be planninghow to beat SRH,” saidWarner after the 48-run win.

“Ideally, it would be greatif we finish in the top two ofthe table,” he said.

Dhawan’s role“I have to make a specialmention of Shikhar(Dhawan) and the role heplayed. I had to play that

role [at the start in the previ-ous game] when he was go-ing all guns blazing. Kane[Williamson] is unbeliev-able, he just comes andknocks it and gets a 40. Itjust sums it up for us,” saidWarner.

“Siraj has been the findfor us.

“He lends quality to theattack and is learning. This iswhat our system ensures aseveryone keeps listening tothe others.

“It is great to haveBhuvneshwar as the young-sters are always talking tohim. That is of great help,”said Warner.

Would be great to inishin the top two: WarnerV.V. SUBRAHMANYAM

HYDERABAD

Pakistan’s opening pair waslaying the foundations of asolid reply at 36 without lossat lunch after its bowlers haddismissed the West Indiesfor 312 in the first innings onthe second day of the secondTest at Kensington Oval inBarbados on Monday.

Mohammad Abbas led thevisiting bowlers’ effort withtwo more wickets to finishwith four for 56, the best fig-ures by a Pakistan fastbowler in Test innings at thevenue, bettering WasimAkram’s four for 73 in 1988,as the home team lost its lastfour wickets for the additionof 26 runs.

West Indies’ hopes ofpushing towards a totalcloser to the 400-run markwere dashed within the firstnine deliveries of the morn-

ing as its first-day heroes, Ro-ston Chase and Jason Holder,were dismissed without anyaddition to the overnighttotal.

West Indies bowled out for 312Chase’s century is the irst by a Barbadian on home soil in 18 years

Roston Chase * AFP


Bridgetown

Chasing 161, Rising Pune Su-pergiant slumped to 42 forfour in seven overs, 67 at the10-over milestone, beforeBen Stokes smashed his wayto 103 not out off 63 balls,his first T20 ton, to guide histeam home by five wickets,167 for five in 19.5 overs. M.S.Dhoni’s departure 43 runsaway from the target did notcurb the England all-rounder as he plunderedruns at will (seven fours, sixsixes) to deflate GujaratLions at the MCA stadium inIPL-10.

Stokes blasted 50 off 38balls (3x4, 3x6), defusing thecrisis after Lions combo ofPradeep Sangwan’s swingand Basil Thampi’s pacemade inroads in the first sixovers. Ajinkya Rahane,Steven Smith, Manoj Tiwaryfell forcing the pace. Dhonistepped up the scoring ratewith power-packed strokes,making room for shots offthe square, but fell slogging.

Lions managed a fighting161 in 19.5 overs after beingasked to bat, losing steam inthe last 10 overs (64 against94 at the halfway mark).

Earlier, Imran Tahir madethings happen for RPS afterpressed into the attack in thePowerplay overs. The SouthAfrican tricked three bats-men in an outstanding showof aggressive bowling.

Tahir victims (4-0-27-3)were frontline batsmen,boosting his individual tallyto 16 wickets.. Ishan Kishanslashed against the turn andperished. Aaron Finchtapped back tamely andDwayne Smith fell swishingagainst a googly. BrendonMcCullum led the assault forthe visitors with 45 off 27

balls. The home team heldtheir catches to support adisciplined bowling show.

RPS made a bold move,pitting off-spinner Washing-ton in the second overs, asprovocation for hard-hittingopeners Kishan and McCul-lum to flex arms.

The youngster fired at thestumps, gave away a singlerun. The second over cost 11runs but forced Kishan tonick once, luckily the insideedge eluded Dhoni. McCul-lum whacked a six off Stokesto mid-wicket.

Tahir struck the first blowin the sixth over, cominground the wicket to Kishanand spearing the ball intothe trigger-happy opener.

The left-hander (31 off 24balls) cut against the lineand paid the price.

Raina walked in to joinMcCullum after the openershad stolen 55 runs in thePowerPlay. GL reeled fromthe shock run out of theskipper.

Dhoni’s flash reaction inresponse to a Rahane throwfrom the deep beat Raina’sdash back. Tahir twisted theknife into Lions by removingAaron Finch and DwayneSmith in the same over.

The second dismissal res-ulted in the leg-spinner tak-ing off on a celebratory runafter he slipped in a googlyand beat the batsman whoswatted across the line.

Gujarat Lions: Ishan Kishan cWashington Sundar b Tahir 31(24b, 3x4, 2x6), Brendon Mc-Cullum c Rahane b Shardul 45(27b, 5x4, 2x6), Suresh Rainarun out 8 (8b), Aaron Finch c &b Tahir 13 (6b, 1x4, 1x6),Dwayne Smith b Tahir 0 (1b),Dinesh Karthik run out 29 (26b,3x4), Ravindra Jadeja c Unadkatb Christian 19 (12b, 3x4), JamesFaulkner c Tiwary b Unadkat 6(7b), Pradeep Sangwan c Tri-pathi b Unadkat 1 (2b), BasilThampi (not out) 2 (5b), AnkitSoni b Unadkat 0 (1b); Extras(lb-5, w-2): 7; Total (in 19.5overs): 161.

Fall of wickets: 1-55 (Kishan,5.6 overs), 2-71 (Raina, 7.6), 3-94 (Finch, 9.5), 4-94 (Dwayne

Smith, 9.6), 5-109 (McCullum,11.5), 6-135 (Jadeja, 14.6), 7-146 (Faulkner, 17.2), 8-148(Sangwan, 17.5), 9-161 (Karthik,19.4).

Rising Pune Supergiant bowl-ing: Jaydev Unadkat 3.5-0-29-3, Washington Sundar 2-0-12-0, Ben Stokes 4-0-36-0, Im-ran Tahir 4-0-27-3, ShardulThakur 3-0-25-1, Dan Christian3-0-27-1.

Rising Pune Supergiant:Ajinkya Rahane lbw b Sangwan4 (4b, 1x4), Rahul Tripathi runout 6 (7b, 1x4), Steve Smith cSoni b Sangwan 4 (2b, 1x4),Manoj Tiwary lbw b Thampi 0(2b), Ben Stokes (not out) 103(63b, 7x4, 6x6), M.S. Dhoni cMcCullum b Thampi 26 (33b,

1x4, 1x6), Dan Christian (notout) 17 (8b, 1x4, 1x6); Extras(lb-3, w-4): 7; Total (for fivewkts. in 19.5 overs): 167.

Fall of wickets: 1-4 (Rahane,0.4), 2-8 (Steve Smith, 0.6), 3-10 (Tiwary, 1.3), 4-42 (Tripathi,5.3), 5-118 (Dhoni, 16.1).

Gujarat Lions bowling: PradeepSangwan 4-0-38-2, BasilThampi 4-0-35-2, JamesFaulkner 2.5-0-30-0, AnkitSoni 4-0-16-0, Ravindra Jadeja2-0-19-0, Dwayne Smith3-0-26-0.

Toss: Rising Pune Supergiant.

Man-of-the-match: Stokes.

Supergiant won by five wick-ets with one ball remaining.

SCOREBOARD RISING PUNE SUPERGIANT VS GUJARAT LIONS

‘Big Ben’ comes to the partyThe left-hander and Dhoni steady the ship after a bad start

Scintillating: Ben Stokes, coming in with the team in sometrouble, paced his innings wonderfully to hit a century and take Pune Supergiant home * AFP

Nandakumar Marar

Pune


CMYK

A ND-ND




SPORT

SUDOKU

C I G B A G S U

A S S A Y E R K E R A T I N

L R P U I R O E

L I A S I O N N O T I C E D

O E E E A K I

W A L L A B I E S G R A N T

M I A D E

S T I P E N D A I R H E A D

A M L R B

C A P R I E C O N O M I S E

K O O A R N A

R O S T R U M C H A S S I S

A T A E H L A T

C H E S T E R I N T E N S E

E R E S D O E R

Solution to puzzle 11995 Solution to yesterday’s Sudoku

DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

The Tirumurai Kanda Puranam, a work attributed toUmapathy Sivachariar, records the incidents leading to thesearch, discovery and retrieval of the sacred Thevaramsongs of the saints Thirunavukkarasar, Gnanasambandarand Sundaramurthy Nayanar. That fact that these were keptin safe custody in the sacred chambers of the Chidambaramtemple was known through divine grace when efforts to col-lect the songs were undertaken around the time of Raja RajaChozha, pointed out Dr. Sudha Seshaiyan in a discourse.

It is held that the Chozha king was also a staunch Siva de-votee and in conjunction with the devout and realised soulNambi Andar Nambi, was instrumental in retrieving the doc-umented collection of songs. He happened to hear some ofthe Thevaram songs sung by a group of devotees visiting hiscourt. He was so impressed by the divine quality and wishedto hear more. But he was told that they knew only a few ofthese songs. His zeal to find the songs led him to one NambiAndar Nambi, a great devotee of Polla Pillayar. This deity re-vealed to Nambi Andar Nambi that the complete collectionwas available in the underground chambers of the Tillaitemple at Chidambaram. But the priests were sticklers fortradition and would not open the vaults that had beensealed by the saints. It could only be opened if the saintsthemselves came in person. The Lord showed a way to over-come this hurdle and had the king make the idols of thesaints who would be brought to the temple and grant per-mission for the chambers to be opened. The entire collec-tion in the form of palm leaf documents was there but unfor-tunately two thirds of it had been moth eaten. The voice ofthe Lord reassured that whatever was available would besufficient to sustain devotion among people and posterity.

FAITH

Retrieval of a spiritual legacy

3 A sentence that is eternal for

motherland (9)

5 Corrected and sent, central to

being in the spiritual realm

(14)

6 Starts using motorway on the

border, it's understudy (5)

7 Country music about soldiers

(7)

8 They teach primarily- teach for

America to retain top spot (6)

9 They make you buy- means

test drive convertible (14)

16 Hang on, shift reserve into

private banks (9)

17 Agreed to be part of rowing

team- showing vision (8)

19 No balls- Imagine getting

tactical tips (7)

21 Tilling ground, keeping in

rhythm (7)

22 Took a break to hire outside

accommodation (6)

24 State panel reconstituted (5)

bitterness over a paste up job

(7)

13 Conference remains orderly (7)

14 News breaking- even petunia is

showing listlessness (5)

15 He would rather act than eat

mince pies (8)

18 Old, getting on, is distressed

(8)

20 Republicans join public

meeting (5)

23 Not many turned out to be the

opposite (7)

25 Sewers are mostly unnecessary

(7)

26 They are sometimes counted

on retirement (5)

27 Middle of eight, nine, ten-

taking one back for tidying up

(9)

28 Admit it could be hard to

forego (8)

29 Peak hour is 8 (6)

■ DOWN

1 Old Greek was crazy up close,

perhaps... (8)

2 ...similar character- one set to

slip freely inside (7)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

9

10 11

12 13

14 15 16

17

18 19 20 21

22

23 24 25

26 27

28 29

(set by Arden)

■ ACROSS 1 Soldiers are part of the old

man's fears (6)

4 Begin to admit law is bad for

one who's loyal (8)

10 Service maybe aimed at

reaching a large population

(4,5)

11 It returns somewhat regularly-

makes absolute mockery (5)

12 He ran many a mile illed with

THE HINDU CROSSWORD 11996

Kohli & Konofsky bag ITF seniors title TALLINN

Rakesh Kohli and KarlKonofsky won the over-55title in the ITF Seniorsgrade-3 tournament here. The results: ITF Seniors,Tallinn: Over-55: Pre-quarterfinals: AndresAarelaid (Est) bt Rakesh Kohli5-7, 6-4, 6-4. Doubles: Final:Karl Konofsky (Ger) & RakeshKohli bt Sven Johannson &Jaanus Otsa (Est) 2-6, 7-5,[10-6].

‘A worthy replacementfor Rosberg’ SOCHI

Team Mercedess’ non-executive chairman NikiLauda heaped praise onRussian GP winner ValtteriBottas on Monday. “Hesurprised me a lot becauseit’s his first race victory undersuch difficult conditions, with(Ferrari’s Sebastian) Vettel ina better combination behindhim. Honestly, he did afantastic job,” said Lauda.“For sure, he is certainly avery good replacement forNico!” AFP

Estoril thrashes India coltsLISBON

The Indian under-17 footballteam lost 4-1 to Portugueseclub Estoril in a practicematch during their exposuretour of Europe on Monday.The result: Estoril 4 (Montero8, Velez 33, Bernardo 55,Andrade 88) bt India u-17 1(Rahim Ali 78). PTI

Isaiah Thomas shook off hav-ing a tooth knocked out andthe heartache of his sister’sfuneral to score 33 points onSunday, powering BostonCeltics over Washington Wiz-ards 123-111 in an NBA playoffgame.

Thomas went 11-of-23 fromthe floor, 6-of-7 from the freethrow line and contributednine assists as the Celticsbattled back after surrender-ing the game’s first 16 pointsto beat the visiting Wizardsin their best-of-seven EasternConference second roundopener.

The Boston guard flewacross the country to playafter speaking on Saturday athis sister Chyna’s funeral inWashington state. She waskilled two weeks ago in a caraccident.

Thomas also had his leftfront tooth knocked out afterbeing struck in the face by anelbow from Washington’sOtto Porter midway into thefirst quarter.

Thomas saw his tooth popout and fall on the court and,not missing a beat, went overand picked up the tooth offthe floor and later handed it

to a Celtics trainer, broadlydisplaying a bloodied gap-toothed smile on the benchafter going 3-for-3 followingthe dental mishap and lead-ing all first-half scorers with19 points.

“I don’t know (how

Thomas does it). I wish I hadthat kind of character,” Celt-ics coach Brad Stevens said.

Celtics outscored Wash-ington 36-16 in the thirdquarter, in which they seizedtheir first lead at 73-71 andstretched it to 95-80 entering

the fourth. The Wizardsmade seven turnovers in thethird quarter after only threein the entire first half.

From there, it was only amatter of holding off theWizards down the stretch.

Jae Crowder added 24

points for Celtics whilecentre Al Horford had 21points, 10 assists and nine re-bounds and Avery Bradleynetted 18 points.

Bradley Beal scored 27points while John Wall added20 and 16 assists and Porterand Marcin Gortat each had16 points.

Washington took a 64-59half-time lead after openingon a 16-0 run, blanking theCeltics over almost fourminutes at the start.

In the second quarter,Washington’s Markieff Mor-ris injured his left anklewhen he made a jump shotbut landed on Horford’s foot.He stayed in the game tomake a free throw, but theWizards fouled immediatelyso they could remove Morrisand send him to the lockerroom.

The results:

Eastern Conference (secondround): Boston 123 bt Washing-ton 111 (Boston leads series1-0).

Western Conference (firstround): Utah 104 bt LosAngeles Clippers 91 (Utah winsseries 4-3).

Thomas powers Celtics to victory Shakes of the heartache of sister’s funeral and a tooth knock out to score 33 points


Washington

Making a mark: Boston Celtics guard Isaiah Thomas, right, is about to shoot against WashingtonWizards in game one of the second round of the Playofs. * AP

NBA

Nomura wins LPGA Texas shootout LOS ANGELES

Japan’s Haru Nomura birdiedthe sixth hole of a sudden-death playoff to beat CristieKerr on Sunday for the LPGATexas Shootout title insuburban Dallas. NomuraandKerr both parred the first fiveplayoff holes. Nomura thentapped in from inches for abirdie while Kerr missed fromoutside 10 feet. AFP

Roger Federer said on Sat-urday that he plans to playat Roland Garros nextmonth.

After defeating John Isner6-4, 7-6(7) in an exhibitionmatch at Seattle to benefithis charity foundation, Fe-derer told the Tennis Chan-

nel: “I am registered and myintention is to play RolandGarros.”

The 35-year-old Swissstar, ranked fourth in theworld, made a quarterfinalexit in Paris in 2015 and

missed last year’s eventwhile dealing with knee andback injuries.

“I feel very privileged tobe back on a tennis court,”Federer said. “Last year wasextremely difficult, havinghad surgery and the kneenever healing.

Then I had back pain too,and it all got too much atWimbledon and I was outfor six months.

“But I was able to spendsome incredible time withthe family and start prepar-ing for this season.”

‘I intend to playRoland Garros’ Injured Federer sat out last year


Los Angeles

Legends combine: Roger Federer and Bill Gates played JohnIsner and musician Mike McCready in an exhibition match inSeattle to raise funds for the Roger Federer Foundation. * AP

Top seed Vikas Krishan(75kg) and Gaurav Bidhuri(56kg) advanced to thequarterfinals of the Asianboxing championships hereon Monday.

Vikas took barely twominutes to sail past Thail-and’s Pathomsak Kuttiyaafter his opponent sustaineda cut above his left eye justover a minute into the open-ing round.

The bout was haltedtwice before the referee de-cided to stop the contest infavour of the Indian.

Vikas will face Indone-sia’s Betaubun BramaHendra in the last-eight

stage. Gaurav went past Yut-tapong Tongdee of Thailandand has a tough contest ashe comes up against secondseed Jiawei Hang of China.

However, it was curtainsfor Asian youth silvermedallist Ashish Kumar(64kg), who lost to Uzbek-istan’s Ikboljon Kholdarov.

All the three competed inthe pre-quarterfinal stageafter getting first-roundbyes. Fourth-seeded ShivaThapa (60kg), third seedSatish Kumar (+91kg), sixth-seeded Manoj Kumar(69kg), Manish Panwar(81kg) and Kavinder Singh(49kg) will open their cam-paign on Tuesday.

BOXING

Vikas and Gaurav enter quarterinals Press Trust of India

Tashkent

Hockey India (HI) has recom-mended former Nationalcaptain Sardar Singh for theRajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, In-dia’s highest sportinghonour.

He was the youngestplayer to captain India whenhe led the side at the 2008Sultan Azlan Shah Cup. Hehas also received the ArjunaAward in 2012 and PadmaShri in 2015.

S.V. Sunil, DharamvirSingh and Deepika havebeen recommended for theArjuna Award while R.P.Singh and Sumrai Tete havebeen recommended for theDhyan Chand Award.

Coaches Sandeep Sang-

wan and Romesh Pathaniahave been recommended forthe Dronacharya Award.

A committee formed bythe Sports Ministry will de-cide on therecommendations.

R.P. Singh represented thecountry at the 1986 and 1990World Cups. Tete, a formerIndian women’s captain and

coach, was a member of thegold medal winning team atthe 2002 Manchester Com-monwealth Games.

Sunil is now a vital cog inthe senior men’s team afterhis stellar performances inIndia’s recent success.

Deepika was instrumentalin India’s first ever win at the

Women’s Asian ChampionsTrophy last year.

Dharamvir Singh was partof the Asian Games gold-medal winning team as wellas the squad that won silverat the CommonwealthGames and bronze at AzlanShah Cup in 2015.

Sardar recommended for Khel Ratna Sunil, Dharamvir and Deepika for Arjuna Award


New Delhi

Sardar Singh * FILE PHOTO

Deepender Grewal beatRudra Kapoor 7-5, 0-6, 7-5 inthe under-16 boys’ firstround in the Zenlabs EthicaAITA National Series juniortennis tournament at theCLTA Complex on Monday.

Important results (firstround): Boys: Shashikant Ra-jput bt Hardik Malik 6-1, 6-0;Deepender Grewal bt Rudra Ka-poor 7-5, 0-6, 7-5; Krish Patelbt Chaitanya Choudhary 6-0,6-1.

Aakarshit Mahajan btHritesh Balmiki 6-2, 6-2; Sush-ant Dabas bt Vaibhav SinghBisht 6-2, 6-1; Ajay Singh bt

Aditya Vardhan Roy Chowdhary6-4, 7-6(4); Yash Dabas btUbaid Alam 6-0, 6-1; AaryanPandit bt Bhavesh Kumar Agar-wal 6-1, 6-2; Lokender Pun btRaj Goswami 1-6, 6-3, 6-2.

Anish Lal bt Aditya Baldia6-1, 6-0; Nitin Jaipal Singh btDeepesh Sangwan 6-1, 6-4.Kushan Shah bt Abhay Mohan6-1, 6-1.

Sonu Khan bt Aarav SinghGill 6-4, 6-3; Amann Dahiya btSammir Raina 6-2, 6-3; GauravKumar bt Jasmeet Duhan 6-3,6-2; Subham Saini bt AshishBawra 6-0, 6-4.

Dhruv Tangri bt HimanshuDuhan 3-6, 6-3, 6-3; KarthikSingh Panwar bt DivyanshAgrahari 6-3, 6-1; Sourabh

Sehrawat bt HarshvardhanChopra 7-5, 6-4.

Girls: Ashpreet Kaur Bajwwa btAmreen Sidhu 6-2, 6-1;Sandeepti Singh Rao bt Princypanchal 6-3, 6-1.

Rahat Mangat bt KonikaSingh Dhull 6-0, 6-2; RupalKharab bt Hanshika Mor 6-2,6-1.

Priyanka Jakhar bt CatherineBhangu 6-2, 6-1; Asmita Kaurbt Shreya Chakraborty 7-6(4),6-1; Shardha Chhabra bt AvaniLathwal 6-1, 6-0.

Atrey Kuhoo bt Kavya Khir-war 6-4, 5-7, 6-3; JigyasaSharma bt Harmandeep Kaur6-1, 6-0; Sukhmani Singh btLavanya Sabharwal 6-1, 6-1.

TENNIS

Deepender Grewal advancesSports Bureau

CHANDIGARH

The BCCI has nominatedprolific run scorerCheteshwar Pujara forthe prestigious Arjunaaward, acknowledginghis stupendous show

during the last Testseason for India.

Along with Pujara,Indian women’s cricketteam memberHarmanpreet Kaur hasalso been nominated bythe Board for the award.

Pujara nominated Press Trust on India

New Delhi

IN BRIEF

Prajnesh beaten bytop seed Lu GIMCHEON (KOREA)

Prajnesh Gunneswaran lost6-2, 6-2 to top seed YenHsun Lu in the first round ofthe $50,000 Challengertennis tournament here onMonday.Other results: $25,000Futures, Abuja: First round:Sylvester Emmanuel (Ngr) &Mark Verryth (Aus) bt HaadinBava & Garry Tokas 6-3, 7-5. $15,000 ITF women, HuaHin: First round: KarmanKaur Thandi bt Haruka Kaji(Jpn) 6-1, 6-3. Doubles:Harriet Dart (GBR) & ChanelSimmonds (RSA) bt HanSung-Hee (Kor) & NidhiChilumula 6-4, 6-4;Shanshan Guo & Ziyue Sun(Chn) bt Zhanlan Wei (Chn) &Karman Kaur Thandi 6-3. 6-4.

Telefunken in inal

Ankit Dabas scored a crucial43 and picked up fourwickets to help TelefunkenCC beat Collage Group by 62runs in the first semifinal ofthe 27th all-India Om NathSood memorial crickettournament.

Opener Sagar Sehrawat (58)and Rahul Yadav (52) scoredhalf-centuries for the winnerbefore quick runs fromAbhishek Khandelwalhelped add 56 in the lastfour overs.

In reply, Collage Group wasall out for 228 in just 35.2overs despite the best effortsof Shivam Singh (53),Siddhant Dobal (61) andKshitiz Sharma (58).

TCC will now take on thewinner of second semifinalbetween DASCB and ACSports in the title clash.

The scores (semifinal): TCC290 for eight in 40 overs(Sagar Sehrawat 58, RahulYadav 52, Ankit Dabas 43,Yogesh Nagar 33, AbhishekKhandelwal 30) bt CollageGroup 228 in 35.2 overs(Siddhant Dobal 61, KshitizSharma 58, Shivam Singh 53,Chetan Bisht 31, Ankit Dabasfour for 45).

Abhimanyu, Himank starfor AC Sports

Abhimanyu Rao picked uptwo wickets and top-scoredwith 65 as AC Sportsdefeated Friends Club bythree wickets to enter the

pre-quarterfinals of the 33rdall-India Laxman DasChhabra memorial crickettournament. Delhi under-19medium-pacer and Man-of-the-Match Himank Singhpicked up four wickets.The scores: Friends Club 252for eight in 40 overs (DineshDabas 85, Gaurav Gautam 78,Sagar Malik 56 not out, HimankSingh four for 47) lost to ACSports 256 for seven in 38.3overs (Abhimanu Rao 65,Vikramjeet Singh 50, Amit Pal50).

Four-wkt. win for LBS

Sarthak Verma and VikasDixit picked up three wicketseach as LB Shastri CC scoreda four-wicket win overWonders Club in the firstAdmiral Cricket League. All

six wickets to fall for LBSCCwere taken by Rahul Narwal.The scores: Wonders Club 77all out in 22.3 overs (SarthakVerma three for 12, Vikas Dixitthree for 42) lost to LBSCC 81for six in 16.4 overs (RahulNarwal six for 53).

Kaushal, Ankit shine

Kaushal Suman (90) andAnkit Pratap Singh (three for13) helped West DelhiAcademy defeat DelhiSunriser by 140 runs in theGhevra Cup crickettournament.The scores: WDA 275 for six in40 overs (Kaushal Suman 90,Yash Kalakoti 57, Amrit PreetSingh 52, Aditya Yadav threefor 52) bt Delhi Sunriser 135 in38.2 overs (Ankit Pratap Singhthree for 13).

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\ NEW DELHI ROUND-UP \

Vijendra Singh Rathorescored four times asHockey Rajasthanhammered Hockey Him 7-2here on Monday in the HImen’s sub-junior Nationalchampionship (‘B’ divi-sion). The results: Pool ‘D’: HockeyJ&K 4 (Manik Sharma 13,Prabhjot Singh 28,Gagandeep Singh 60, 68) lostto Hockey Bengaluru 5 (Prem16, Punith Padmanabha 20,Umashankar 22, 26, PrasanthKumar Ramaji 45).

Hockey Rajasthan 7(Vijendra Singh Rathore 6, 8,59, 61, Kamlesh Kumar 18,Aniket Rawat 38, PankajGodara 68) bt Hockey Him 2(Vishal Kumar 40, DhananjayPrajapati 53).

Pool ‘A’: Hockey Uttarakhand1 lost to Mumbai School SA 3.

Rathore shines


Bengaluru


CMYK

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Basketball: NBA playoffs,5.30 a.m. & 8 a.m., Sony Six& HD.Cricket: West Indies vsPakistan, 2nd Test, Day 3,7.30 p.m., Ten 1HD & Ten 3.Football: Champions Leaguesemifinals, Real Madrid vs At-letico Madrid, 11 p.m., Ten 2.Hockey: Sultan Azlan ShahCup, India vs Australia, 1.30p.m., New Zealand vs Japan,3.30 p.m., Malaysia vs GreatBritain 6 p.m., Star Sports 2 &HD2.

TV PICKS

Maria Sharapova made a

controversial return to tennis

this week at Stuttgart’s WTA

tournament following her

15-month ban and made the

semifinals before losing to

Kristina Mladenovic.

Her press-conferences

were just as compelling as

the action on court.

When asked if she would

try and build bridges in the

locker room with her rivals, a

lot of who have been

lukewarm to her comeback,

Sharpova said: “To have

people say nice things about

me in press conferences —

what will that change about

my tennis? I can’t control

what people say. The only

thing I can control is what I

do out there.”

On whether she would

accept a wild-card to play

Roland Garros, with a

decision due on May 16, she

replied: “I’d play in the

juniors if I had to. I’m not

getting wild-cards to

trophies. It’s my job to win

matches.”

When she spotted a

reporter from British tabloid

The Sun, the following

exchange occurred:

Sharapova: Oh, God!

Journalist: Nice to see you,

too.

Sharapova: I don’t think The

Sun has ever been in

Stuttgart, have they?

Journalist: No. It’s nice, it’s

fantastic.

Sharapova: First time, wow!

Virgins!

Asked if Eugenie Bouchard

branding her ‘cheater’ and

Mladenovic’s saying

Sharapova should not be

getting wild-cards would fire

her up, the Russian said: “Not

at all. I am not someone that

uses it as part of my

comeback. I have let my

tennis do the talking. My

results have spoken for

everything that needs to be

said. The biggest part of my

comeback is what happens

on court.”

As iesty as ever in the PCsAgence France-Presse

Stuttgart

Ghana’s Sulley Muntari

dramatically walked off the

pitch while playing for

Pescara at Cagliari on Sunday

after his complaints of

alleged racist abuse were met

with a yellow card.

The former AC Milan and

Inter midfielder also angrily

confronted Cagliari fans,

shouting at them: “This is my

colour.”

Muntari could now face

disciplinary measures after

deciding, voluntarily, to leave

the field seconds before

full-time — a decision that

earned him a second yellow

card, and then a red, in the

96th minute of the game that

his team lost 1-0.

Earlier, he had spoken

directly with a section of the

Cagliari supporters targeting

him with racist abuse.

And, when he protested to

match referee Daniele Minelli

and other officials in the 89th

minute that he was still being

targeted, he was booked.

While leaving the pitch in

frustration and murmuring

“Basta! (Enough)” minutes

later, Muntari went to

address more supporters,

showing them his arm and

shouting: “this is my colour,

this is my colour.”

His protest was later

backed by Pescara coach

Zdenek Zeman, although in

comments to Sky Sport the

Czech veteran said Muntari

should not have quit the

game. “He asked the referee

to intervene, but he (said he

had) neither heard nor seen

anything,” Zeman said.

“Muntari was right, but he

shouldn't have left the pitch.”

Muntari walks of in racism stormAgence France-Presse

Milan

Aizawl FC’s I-League tri-umph marks the expositionof the latent belief in thepeople of North-East aboutits pre-eminence in football.This was evident in the emo-tional outpouring of thefans, as hundreds of AizawlFC supporters swamped thepitch after their team en-sured itself the crown onSunday with a 1-1 drawagainst the host and the tra-ditional rival Shillong LajongFC.

There was no untowardincident as the Aizawl sup-porters danced, chanted andcelebrated their team’s suc-cess, sparing the nervous or-ganisers the fear of abotched up prize distribu-tion ceremony.

The police presence at thestadium was hardly substan-tial, with the law enforcingagencies evidently not anti-cipating any trouble. Andthe discipline with which theAizawl FC supporters con-ducted themselves also high-lighted the spirit of theteam’s title quest.

“This is a big achievementfor North East football,which has always beenlooked at as the biggestreservoir of football talent inthe country,” said ThangboiSingto, Shillong Lajongcoach, who graciously con-gratulated his rival and Aiz-awl FC counterpart KhalidJamil.

“I would like to congratu-late a fellow Indian coach

with whom I had shared theAFC Pro licence training inJapan. Aizawl FC has sur-prised everyone with con-sistent good performancethis season, and that issomething that should be ap-preciated by everyone in theNorth-East,” Singto said.

With the All India FootballFederation, at the behest ofits marketing partner IMG-Reliance, contemplatingphasing out the I-league asthe premier club tourna-ment of the country, the pas-sion and excitement sur-rounding the triumph ofAizawl FC comes as a sad jux-taposition.

“If that happens it will besad, but let us see what hap-pens,” said Jamil, when thequestion about the I-League’s future popped up.

Aizawl and Shillong, afterall, are the hubs of grass-roots development activity,and consigning the clubs ofthis region to the lowerrungs of the proposed amal-gamated league will causegreat disappointment inthese parts.

Mahmoud Al Amnah, Aiz-awl FC’s Syrian midfielder,had a heart-warming story tonarrate.

“When Mohun Bagan wonthe I-League in 2015, my

younger daughter Talintcried a lot seeing other play-ers celebrating after the vic-tory. I was then with Sport-ing Clube de Goa, and sheasked me when I would getaround to lifting the trophy,”he said.

“I had promised her thatit would happen soon. Itfeels great to be on the win-ning side with Aizawl FC.”

The seasoned midfieldersaid a fantastic dressingroom atmosphere backed bythe genuine passion of thefans had motivated the teamto the realise the long-helddream of the people of theregion.

Pride and joy push concernsto the backgroundI-League’s future in question as the North-East cherishes collective achievementAMITABHA DAS SHARMA

SHILLONG

Evident passion: Aizawl FC’s fans travelled to Shillong in huge numbers to be there as their sidebrought up its inest moment. * RAJEEV BHATT

Celta Vigo was beaten forthe fifth time in six La Ligagames, going down 3-0 athome to Athletic Bilbao onSunday with the Galiciansdistracted by Thursday’sEuropa League semifinalagainst Manchester United.

Eduardo Berizzo madenine changes from the sidethat started Thursday’s 2-1defeat at Sevilla and Athlet-ic’s greater desire for thepoints showed as it boostedits bid to qualify for next sea-son’s Europa League.

Raul Garcia struck eitherside of half-time beforeMikel Rico wrapped up a vi-tal three points for the vis-itor to take it above Basquerival Real Sociedad intosixth.

Elsewhere, Leganes failedto take a step closer to sur-vival as it was beaten 2-0 atEibar.

In the Serie A, a first-halfwinner from Jose Callejonhanded Napoli the pointsfrom a 1-0 win at Inter Milanon Sunday that closed thegap on Roma, in the secondspot, to a point.

Inter's fourth defeat in asix-match winless run,meanwhile, left theNerazzurri in seventh, butnow three points behindcity rivals AC Milan andeight behind fifth-placedAtalanta.The results:

On Sunday: La Liga: Eibar 2(Kike 62, Enrich 66) bt Leganes0; Celta Vigo 0 lost to AthleticBilbao 3 (Raul Garcia 35, 50,Mikel Rico 83).

Serie A: Inter Milan 0 lost toNapoli 1 (Callejon 43).

Celta Vigo beaten againJose Callejon strikes to hand Napoli win over Inter MilanAgence France-Presse

Madrid

Pulling it of: Jose Callejon’s goal in the irst half helped Napoliclose the gap on Roma. * AP

Top seed Soumyajit Ghoshdefeated third-seededcompatriot A. Amalraj 8-11,13-11, 11-6, 11-9, 4-11, 11-7 inthe men’s singles final ofthe Seamaster 2017 ITTFChallenge Chile table ten-nis open at Santiago onSunday.

By bagging his first in-ternational singles crown,Soumyajit became thethird Indian after A.Sharath Kamal and G. Sath-iyan to win a men’s singlestitle at an ITTF ChallengeSeries or a ITTF WorldTour tournament.

Soumyajit and Amalrajwon the men’s doublestitle with a 13-11, 10-12, 14-12, 11-9 win over PhilippFloritz of Bulgaria andSzocs Huno Szocs ofRomania.

Speaking to the ITTFwebsite, Soumyajit said: “Ihad to start the sixth gameaggressively. I kept think-ing I could win my first biginternational title; it washard to win againstAmalraj. It took some timeto adapt to the ball, it’sharder than the one weused before. The quality isgood, it enables morepower but less spin.” Sou-myajit said.

Doubledelight forSoumyajit

Sports Bureau

SANTIAGO

Soumyajit Ghosh.


CMYK

A ND-ND




LIFE

Eminem takes NZpolitical party to court WELLINGTON

Rapper Eminem launched

legal action against New

Zealand’s ruling political

party on Monday, accusing it

of using an unlicensed

version of his hit Lose

Yourself in a campaign

advertisement. Lawyers for

the U.S. artist told the High

Court that he never gave the

National Party permission to

use the song. AFP

IN BRIEF

Chocolatier ofers goldentickets, à la Willy WonkaBRATTLEBORO

A town in the U.S. state of

Vermont is giving away

golden tickets courtesy of its

local chocolatier and the prize

is free parking for a year, not

a tour of a chocolate factory.

The limited edition chocolate

bars were created by

Vermont’s Tavenier

Chocolates. AP

Video shows bufalomeat, clariies KajolMUMBAI

Actor Kajol, who was trolled

online for posting a video of a

beef dish made by a friend,

has said that it was buffalo

meat. “A video of me at a

friend’s lunch said that there

was a beef dish at the table.

That’s a miscommunication.

What was shown was buffalo

meat, that is legally available

meat,” Kajol tweeted. PTI

Ace shuttler P.V. Sindhu, thefirst Indian woman to bag asilver medal at the Olympics,is the latest athlete whosestory is set to be told on thebig screen.

Actor-producer SonuSood is taking the reins of aproject to highlight Sindhu’sachievements. Expressingher pleasure over the news,Sindhu tweeted that shehoped her biopic would in-spire millions of peoplearound the world.

“Looking forward to thebiopic 2 b made by SonuSood & team...hope it in-spires millions 2 follow theirdreams. Thanks @sonu_sood@baselineventures,” shewrote.

Sonu Sood said in a state-ment, “It’s a story of a girlwho has given a message

that everyone can dream bigand not only dream butachieve it too by doing hardwork. It’s a journey thateveryone has to know[about] and be inspired.”

Sindhu, who was born inHyderabad, started playing

badminton from the age ofeight after being inspired byPullela Gopichand’s victoryat the All England Open Bad-minton Championship in2001.

Sindhu said, “I’m very im-pressed with the thorough

research the team has doneon my biopic for the lasteight months.”

Bollywood trendB-town has recently seen atrend of biopics being madeon athletes and sports per-sonalities. M.S. Dhoni: TheUntold Story was based onthe World Cup-winning skip-per’s life in his hometown ofRanchi, while legendarycricketer Sachin Tendulkaracted in his own biopic.

Boxer Mary Kom, formersprinter Milkha Singh andformer cricketer MohammedAzharuddin have also seentheir life story being conver-ted into movies.

Recently, Saina Nehwalalso announced thatShraddha Kapoor is set to es-say her role in a biopic basedon the badminton champi-on’s life.

P.V. Sindhu joins biopic leagueActor-producer Sonu Sood to showcase life and achievements of ace shuttler

Asian News International

Mumbai

Golden girl: P.V. Sindhu said she hopes the biopic will inspiremillions to dream big and work hard. * SANDEEP SAXENA

People having a non-O bloodgroup such as A, B or ABmay be at an increased riskof a heart attack, new re-search has found.

“We demonstrate thathaving a non-O blood groupis associated with a 9% in-creased risk of coronaryevents and a 9% increasedrisk of cardiovascularevents, especially myocar-dial infarction (heart at-tack),” said Tessa Kole fromUniversity Medical CentreGroningen in theNetherlands.

Researchers studied13,62,569 subjects fromabout 11 prospective co-horts, described in nine re-

search articles. There were atotal of 23,154 cardiovascu-lar events. They analysedthe association betweenblood group and all coron-ary events, combined cardi-ovascular events, and fatalcoronary events.

Researchers found thatthe odds ratio (OR) for allcoronary events was signific-antly higher in carriers of anon-O blood group.

The analysis of fatal

coronary events did notshow a significant differencebetween people with O andnon-O blood groups, re-searchers said.

The higher risk for cardi-ovascular events in non-Oblood group carriers may bedue to having greater con-centrations of von Willeb-rand factor — a blood clot-ting protein, researcherssaid. Non-O blood group car-riers, specifically those withan A blood group, areknown to have highercholesterol.

And galectin-3 protein,which is linked to inflamma-tion and worse outcomes inheart failure patients, is alsohigher in those with a non-Oblood group.

Non-O groups carry more of a blood-clotting protein


London

Blood group may predictheart attack risk: study

The Iraq war may not soundlike a musical comedy, butan Off-Broadway revival isspinning intelligence failuresand tragedy into a farce thatoffers potent messages forDonald Trump’s America.

Baghdaddy tells the truestory of an Iraqi defector,code named Curveball,whose claims aboutweapons of mass destruc-tion became justification forthe U.S.-led invasion in2003.

“If you put Hamilton andThe Office in a blender youwould have this show,” saysproducer Charlie Fink of theBroadway smash hit aboutAmerican founding fatherAlexander and the U.S. tele-vision sitcom.

Seeking redemptionThe plot opens in thepresent day with disgracedCIA spies gathering at a sup-port group — think SpooksAnonymous — as they seekunderstanding and redemp-

tion for mistakes that hauntthem years later.

The action then switchesback in time to Frankfurt air-port, where the informantoffers to trade apparentsecrets about Saddam Hus-

sein’s presumed bio-weapons programme forpolitical asylum.

German intelligence con-sults the CIA, where analystsdriven by ambition, officecrushes and intransigent

bosses see Curveball as aticket out of everydayroutine and a fast-track topromotion.

But the growing farcequickly gives way to the 9/11attacks, swapping comedy

for tragedy and the onset ofa war still being foughttoday, 14 years after an inva-sion found no weapons ofmass destruction.

It’s a fast-paced scriptwoven into a tight score thatblends traditional musicaltheatre and camp dancingwith hip-hop tracks thatcarry a stark warning thathistory should not repeatitself.

Mr. Fink says it is morerelevant than ever in today’sclimate of “fake news” and“alternative facts” as somefear that Trump could dragthe country into anotherconflict, if not in Syria thenover North Korea.

Sense of immediacy“It has an immediacy that itdidn’t have in 2015 and asense that we’re doing thisall again,” says Mr. Fink, re-ferring to a short run twoyears ago.

“It feels like a time whenrules are being rewritten andauthority is listening to its in-stincts, rather than listening

to facts and analysis. Andthat’s scary,” says Mr. Fink.The first preview on April 6coincided with the day thatthe president ordered acruise missile attack on aSyrian airbase, the first dir-ect U.S. action against theSyrian regime.

Fixing responsibilityLow budget and in the worksfor 10 years, there are justeight actors playing six mainroles. Baghdaddy returns atthe height of the Broadwayseason, competing withmore than a dozen othernew shows.

It also spreads responsib-ility for the 2003 invasion farand wide, not just at thedoor of then presidentGeorge W. Bush or the U.S.government but the countryas a whole and its Westernallies in general.

“We all messed up,” saysMarshall Pailet, director, co-writer and composer.

Far from seeing comedyas inappropriate, he says it’sa great vehicle to get New

York theatre-goers thinking.“Because we open up theirminds and their hearts withcomedy, we’re able to slip insubstance, story, characterand a lesson.”

A.D. Penedo, who wrotethe lyrics and co-wrote thebook, admits it was dauntingto turn the subject into a mu-sical that both entertainsand sends people away witha clear message.

“We want them to be en-tertained and moved,” hesaid. “But we want them totake away... that even thoughyou feel like you don’t mat-ter, you really do, andthere’s ramifications foryour actions.”

But never does the showlaugh at war itself. More than4,500 U.S. troops have diedin Iraq since 2003. Some es-timates for the number of ci-vilians to have perishedrange from 173,916 to nearlyhalf a million.

“We all own it,” says Mr.Fink. “A wound in the worldthat is not going to be healedwith tears or laughter.”

Baghdaddy: New York turns Iraq war into musical comedyThe play weaves tragedy and farce to ofer a subtle but strong message for America in the time of Donald Trump


New York

Poser to history: Actors perform a scene during a dress rehearsal of Baghdaddy in New York. * AFP

A new computer-driven ro-botic drill that can make atype of complex cranialsurgery 50 times fasterthan standard procedureshas been developed byscientists.

The automated drill,similar to those used in ma-chine auto parts, producesfast, clean and safe cuts, re-ducing the time the woundis open and the patient isanaesthetised.

This can decrease the in-cidence of infection, hu-man error, and surgicalcost, according to the find-ings published in thejournal Neurosurgical Fo-cus. To perform complexsurgeries, especially cra-nial surgeries, surgeonsuse hand drills to make in-tricate openings, addinghours to a procedure.

The automated drill re-duces the time for bone re-moval from two hours us-ing a hand drill to 2.5minutes.

Robotic drilldoes fasterskull surgery Press Trust of India

Washington

It’s dark and surprisinglywarm in a cave in westernSpain that hides our most in-timate connection to the pre-historic past — hand silhou-ettes painted tens ofthousands of years ago.

Archaeologist HipolitoCollado and his team had notentered the Maltravieso Cavein the city of Caceres forclose to a year to avoid dam-aging the 57 faded hands thatadorn the walls, preciousremnants of a far-flung pieceof history we know littleabout.

Why did our ancestors ordistant relatives paint handsin caves? Was it merely tomake their mark, or part of aritual to commune withspirits?

Do they tell us anythingabout the role of women dur-

ing the Paleolithic era thatended some 10,000 yearsago? And why are some fin-gers missing?

In a bid to unlock some ofthese mysteries, Mr. Collado,head of archaeology for the

government of the Ex-tremadura region whereCaceres is located, has setout to catalogue all ofEurope’s prehistoric paintedhands. Crouching under lowhanging rocks or abseiling

down crags, he and other ar-chaeologists have been goingfrom cave to cave, takingscans and high-resolutionphotos of all the hands theyencounter.

They then post them indetailed, 3D format in a free-to-use online database, aspart of an EU-funded projectcalled Handpas.

Awaiting a breakthroughThe idea is for researchers

anywhere in the world to beable to examine them all inone place without having tovisit every cave or gain ac-cess to those closed for con-servation, in the hope of pro-ducing a breakthrough.

“It’s about making inac-cessible art accessible,” saysMr. Collado, as he checkssensors for any change inCO2 levels, temperature orhumidity since he last visited

the meandering, crampedcave.

According to Mr. Collado,a Spaniard who is also headof the International Federa-tion of Rock Art Organiza-tions, painted hands havebeen found in 36 caves inEurope — all in France, Spainand Italy.

Some also contain animaldrawings and fossils but hisproject focuses only onhands.

Work on documentingpainted hands in two Italiancaves has also begun.

But the project has comeup against a major stumblingblock as Mr. Collado’s teamhas yet to get the green lightto access the French caves —18 months after sending theirfirst letter to the cultureministry.

“We’re on standby,” heconcludes impatiently.

A Spanish quest to unlock ancient secretsArchaelogists will catalogue all of Europe’s prehistoric hand paintings and share them online

Agence-France Presse

Cŕceres (Spain)

Palm art: A painting in the Maltravieso cave. * AFP/HANDPAS

Researchers have success-fully generated cartilage tis-sue using a 3D bioprinter, anadvance that could lead tonew treatments forosteoarthritis.

The advance represents agiant step forward in theability to generate new, en-dogenous cartilage tissue,researchers at SahlgrenskaAcademy in Sweden said.

In future, it should bepossible to use 3D bioprint-ing to generate cartilagebased on a patient’s own,“backed-up” stem cells, theysaid.

“This bioprinted tissuecan be used to repair cartil-age damage, or to treat os-teoarthritis, in which joint

cartilage degenerates andbreaks down,” researcherswrote in the study publishedin the journal ScientificReports.

Influencing cells The research team was ableto influence the cells to mul-tiply and differentiate toform chondrocytes (cartil-age cells) in the printedstructure. “The fact that thestem cells survived beingprinted in this manner is asuccess in itself,” research-ers said.

The team used cartilagecells harvested from patientswho underwent knee sur-gery, and these cells werethen manipulated in a labor-atory, causing them to reju-venate and revert into

“pluripotent” stem cells —cells that have the potentialto develop into many differ-ent types of cells.

The stem cells were thenexpanded and encapsulatedin a composition of nanofib-rillated cellulose and printedinto a structure using a 3Dbioprinter.

Following printing, thestem cells were treated withgrowth factors that causedthem to differentiate cor-rectly, so that they formedcartilage tissue. “In nature,the differentiation of stemcells into cartilage is asimple process, but it ismuch more complicated toaccomplish in a test tube,”said Stina Simonsson, associ-ate professor at SahlgrenskaAcademy.

3D-printed cartilage mayhelp treat osteoarthritis Stem cells were treated with growth factors


London

Star Wars fans with deeppockets might consider it agolden opportunity.

A Tokyo jewellery store isoffering life-size Darth Vadermasks made of 24-carat goldat a hefty price of ¥154 mil-lion ($1.4 million) to markthe 40th anniversary of therelease of the first Star Warsmovie.

The creation measures26.5 centimetres wide and30 centimetres high.

The Ginza Tanaka storesays the masks, weighingabout 15 kilograms, are notdesigned for wearing, theywould be too heavy, andthey have no opening for ahead.

While the masks are itsmost expensive Star Wars

memorabilia, the jewellerhas made pricier products.In 2013, a gold Disney-themed Christmas tree waspriced at ¥500 million ($4.5million). Marketing managerHirotsugu Tsuchiya said ittook 10 goldsmiths three

months to mould and as-semble the prototype.

“The most difficult aspectwas that each section of themask was created by a differ-ent gold craftsman and thenassembled to make oneDarth Vader mask,” Mr.Tsuchiya said. Orders for themask can be made at itsmain store in the glitzyGinza shopping area wherethe prototype is on display.Customers will have to waitthree months after ordering.

For those looking for lessexpensive options, goldcoins engraved with Yoda orLuke Skywalker will also beavailable . They will go onsale on May 4, celebrated bysome fans as Star Wars daybecause “May the fourth”evokes the film’s iconic line,“May the force be with you.”

10 craftsmen took three months to make the prototype

Associated Press

TOKYO

May the force be with you:Buyers have to wait threemonths after an order. * AP

Tokyo jeweller ofers gold masksof Darth Vader for $1.4 million

A pair of American greeniguanas procured by theChennai Snake Park atGuindy are the latest attrac-tion for visitors.

After a thorough examina-tion of physical fitness, thesix-month-old reptiles wereon display for the public onMonday. They live in aclosed enclosure that hasplants and bushes.

“The gigantic lizard is nat-ive to the Amazon forests ofSouth America,” said S. Sub-barayalu Naidu, chairman ofChennai Snake Park Trust.“With these new additions,the trust is on the verge of in-creasing the number of rep-tiles to 50 by the end of thisyear,” he said.

At present, there areabout 35 reptile species inthe park.

The reptiles are native to the Amazon rainforests of South America

T. Madhavan

Chennai

New home: One of the two green iguanas at Chennai Snake Park. * R. RAGU

Chennai Snake Park gets green iguanas


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