PNS n HYDERABAD

An advocate and activist fromTelangana, who is working tofree political prisoners, claimedthat he was one of the targetsof snooping using Pegasus, asoftware designed by Israelitech company NSO Groupthat has reportedly been soldto government agencies inIndia.

Ravindranath Balla releaseda Whatsapp conversation tomedia on Friday between himand John Scott, a seniorresearcher at the Citizen Lab atthe University of Toronto inCanada, which works on track-ing internet threat against civilsociety.

The 44-year oldRavindranath practises law inTelangana High Court. He isalso General Secretary of acommittee that works for therelease of political prisoners, anindependent body that fightsfor the release of those arrest-

ed under political pressure.The software has allegedly

been used to target and putunder illegal surveillance sev-eral activists, journalists, aca-demicians and advocates inIndia.

Ravindranath said that hereceived messages in the firstweek of October that hisdevice, too, was compromised,but he initially dismissed themessages as spam.

Like several activists whowere cautioned about the sur-veillance, Ravindranath toowas notified by seniorresearcher John Scott-Railtonfrom Citizen Lab, University ofToronto in Canada. CitizenLab exposed the surveillanceby Pegasus and f laggedWhatsApp about it.

On October 7, John reachedout to Ravindranath to informhim that his WhatsAppaccount was compromised andsuggested methods to keephis device safe.

Ravindranath initially dis-missed the messages as a workof a fraud. "John again triedreaching out me on October 11on a WhatsApp call, but I wassuspicious.

Continued on Page 4

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In a setback to Andhra ChiefMinister Y.S. Jagan MohanReddy, the Special CBI Courthere on Friday dismissed hispetition for exemption frompersonal appearance beforethe court during the hearingsof the alleged illegal assetscase.

The court, which hadreserved its order on his peti-tion on October 18, pro-nounced it on Friday.

Jagan had sought the exemp-tion from personal appear-ance in the court on theground that he is holding aconstitutional post and needsto attend several importantprogrammes.

However, the CentralBureau of Investigation (CBI)had opposed the ChiefMinister's plea, saying there isa change only in personalcapacity of the petitioner andnot in the circumstances of thecase. The federal agency hadalso argued that Jagan mayinfluence the witnesses.

Jagan now has to be presentin CBI court every Friday forhearing related to the casesfiled against him in 2011.

He has not appeared in thecourt since he became ChiefMinister in May as he wasgranted exemptions for thesame on a week-by-week basis.

Andhra Pradesh High Court

in 2017 had rejected Jagan'splea to exempt him fromappearing in the Special Court.He had pleaded for exemption,citing his duties as a legislatorand leader of opposition.

The high court, however,had ruled that he could applyfor exemption on a week-by-week basis.

The CBI, in its counter affi-davit, alleged that the petitionerapproached the court with'unclean hands and by sup-

pressing material facts.'It submitted to the court that

the exemption from personalappearance would give him 'anunsolicited liberty to do what-ever he wants and influence thewitnesses behind the iron wallof political, money and musclepowers.' Jagan sought exemp-tion on various groundsincluding his new status as theChief Minister, bifurcation ofAndhra Pradesh and the poorfinancial condition of the state

government."In all the 11 chargesheets,

the petitioner stands accused inhis individual capacity and asa representative of his private-ly owned companies, andtherefore should attend thecourt as such," said the CBI.

"Any reference to the rev-enue and financial condition ofthe government of AndhraPradesh is only an attempt todeviate the attention of thecourt from the real issues andtherefore cannot be given anycredence," it added.

"It is submitted that it isalmost six years from date offiling of last chargesheet in thecase, but the trial proceedingsare yet to start. This is an indi-cation that the accused hasbeen able to procrastinate theproceedings on one pretext orother."

In what is called the 'quid-pro-quo' cases, Jagan wasaccused of getting investmentsinto his businesses by firms andindividuals in return for theundue favours by the govern-ment headed by his father Y. S.Rajasekhara Reddy between2004 and 2009.

However, the YSRCP leaderdenied all the charges andtermed them as politicalvendetta.

The CBI arrested Jagan andsent him to jail on May 27,2012. After 16 months in jail,he was granted bail.

Long jam: Ongoing strike is longestin RTC history in Telugu StatesPNS n HYDERABAD

With the strike by employees ofTelangana State Road TransportCorporation (TSRTC) enteringthe 28th day on Friday, itbecame the longest strike in thehistory of the Corporation inthe Telugu states even as ChiefMinister K Chandrasekhar Raowill chair cabinet meeting laterin the day to take 'crucial deci-sions' on the TSRTC strike.

Over 48,000 employees ofthe state-owned public trans-port utility are on strike sinceOctober 5 to press for their 26demands. Their main demandis the merger of TSRTC withthe government so that theyare treated at par with govern-ment employees.

CM KCR has, however,rejected the merger demand,saying it would lead to similardemands from 56 other cor-porations in the state.

The longest strike in RTCwas in 2011 when busesremained off the roads for 27days and the employees ofthen Andhra Pradesh StateRoad Transport Corporation(APSRTC) from Telangana

region joined 'Sakala JanulaSamme', or the mass strike, todemand statehood forTelangana. The third majorstrike in APSRTC was wit-nessed in 2001 when employ-ees struck the work for 24 days,

demanding a pay revision.According to leaders of Joint

Action Committee (JAC) ofTSRTC employees' unions, thecurrent strike is the worst as 10employees have lost their lives.While three workers commit-ted suicide, others died due tocardiac arrest owing to stress.

The JAC leaders haveblamed the state governmentfor the deaths saying that as theChief Minister had declaredthat the employees had "dis-missed themselves" by notjoining duties, the mentalagony drove them to depres-sion and commit suicide.

Continued on Page 4

CBI had opposed Jagan's plea saying there is achange only in personal capacity of thepetitioner and not in the circumstances of thecase. Jagan, who has not appeared in the courtsince he became CM in May, will now have to bepresent in CBI court for hearing every Friday

Plea dismissed, CM Jagan toappear in CBI court in DA case

TS lawyer among victims ofIsraeli spyware Pegasus

PNS n WASHINGTON

A US-based software engi-neer, whose name was listed inthe Green Card backlog, diedsuddenly and as a result, hispregnant wife has been ren-dered out of status resulting inher inevitable return to India,a media report said.

Shiva Chalapathi Raju, whowas based in North Carolina,died suddenly on Tuesday,'The American Bazaar' report-ed on Thursday.

Because the family was inline for Green Card, Raju'ssudden death would meanthat his pregnant wife, BobbySowjanya, was now renderedout of status and would haveno choice but to travel back toIndia.

Raju had been working withOracle as a developer client inHigh Point, North Carolina. Inthe past, he had also workedfor Wipro and BritishPetroleum in Michigan andIllinois.

Meanwhile, many Indiansexpressed their outrage atIllinois Senator Dick Durbin'sopposition to Fairness for High

Skilled Immigrants Act 2019.The Indian Green Card

backlog community took toTwitter on Thursday anddescribed the plight of anoth-er Green Card backlog familyon the micro-blogging plat-form by using the hashtag#DurbinWidow and#DurbinOrphan.

Many held him directlyresponsible for the uncertainfate of a number of such fam-ilies, who were having toreconsider their lives due to

their long wait to obtain aGreen Card in the US.

The Piedmont Area TeluguAssociation (PATA) has start-ed a GoFundMe page to helpRaju's family, The AmericanBazaar said in its report. TheGoFundMe page says: "We(PATA) have started a funeralfundraiser to help cover thecost of his funeral expenses totransport his body to India. Hisfamily was not prepared for thehigh cost of a funeral, and dur-ing this difficult time we arereaching out to the communi-ty for help."

Telugu techie in GreenCard backlog dies in US

Shiva Chalapathi Raju

RTC driverattemptssuicide, criticalPNS n NAGARKURNOOL

A TSRTC driver, whowas reportedly depressedover financial problemsbeing faced by his fami-ly due to the ongoingRTC strike, attemptedsuicide by consumingpesticide on Friday. Hehas been admitted tohospital where he isreported to be in a criti-cal condition.

Khaja (37), a residentof Palem village inBijinapally mandal, wasworking in Shadnagardepot as an RTC driver.Due to financial prob-lems his family has beenfacing, his wife and chil-dren had taken to cottonpicking as labourers.

Continued on Page 4

n Strike entered 28th day on Friday

n Beats 27-day strike record madeduring Sakala Janula Samme in2011 demanding statehood forTelangana

n KCR to chair cabinet meet todayto take 'crucial decisions' on RTCstrike

Driver gives triple talaq towife, says she looks ugly PNS n HYDERABAD

An auto-driver here has beenbooked for allegedly giving'triple talaq' to his wife ongrounds she looked ugly withcrooked teeth, police said onThursday.

Based on a complaint fromthe 25-year-old woman, a caseunder sections 3 and 4 ofMuslim Women (Protection ofRights of Marriage) Act 2019,and under section 498 A ofIPC (Domestic Violence) wasregistered on October 30

against the man and his par-ents, the police said.

Further investigations wereon, they said.

According to the FIR, thewoman was given hand-inmarriage to MohammedMustafa after her family wastold he was into garment busi-ness.

After their marriage in June,Begum's family learnedMustafa was actually an auto-driver and his family did notown a house as was believed.

Continued on Page 4

Rescued newborn nowfaces high-risk surgeryPNS n HYDERABAD

She may have got a new leaseof live having been savedmoments before being buriedalive here, but the newborngirl baby now requires a "high-risk" surgery for a , police saidon Friday.

On Thursday, policethwarted the attempt of a duofrom burying the four-day oldgirl at an open ground afterher relatives thought she wasdead.

The child is now undergo-ing treatment in the IntensiveCare Unit (ICU) of a state-runhospital for a genital-relatedproblem and required a "high-risk" surgery, police saidadding doctors would take acall on it.

A video showing twopolicemen stopping the twomen's attempt to bury thebaby almost at the very lastminute was aired by TV chan-nels.

While one of the men isseen holding the childwrapped in a red cloth, theother squatted near a pit,apparently dug to bury thebaby as the police approachedthem.

Police rushed to the spotnear the Jubilee Bus Station onbeing alerted by some localautorickshaw drivers whogrew suspicious after noticingthe two persons along with thebaby.

Finding the baby alive, thepolice shifted her to the state-run hospital.

However, no case had benregistered in connection withthe incident as her grandfatherand another relative presumedthat the baby had died as shedid not move.

The baby was brought heretwo days ago fromKarimnagar and taken to ahospital for treatment of thegenital problem.

Continued on Page 4

Raju was working inOracle as a developerclient in High Point,North Carolina. Hiswife, BobbySowjanya, will haveno choice but to travelback to India

n Ravindranath Balla fights forrelease of political prisoners

n A senior Canadian researcher firstalerted him

n Later, WhatsApp reached out tohim on how to secure his device

Ravindranath Balla

His pregnant wife now rendered ‘outof status' over visa, may have to return

PNS n HYDERABAD

The Income Tax Departmentof Telangana and AndhraPradesh has withdrawn 969appeal cases involving anamount of Rs 403 crore fromTelangana High Court, APHigh Court and Income TaxAppellate Tribunals (ITAT)for financial year 2019-20.

The move comes afterCentral Board of DirectTaxes (CBDT) issued a cir-cular raising the threshold offiling cases in ITAT, HighCourt and Supreme Court.

The cases were dismissedon the basis of a recent cir-cular issued by CBDT onAugust 8, 2019, raising thethreshold for filing cases inITAT from Rs 20 lakh to Rs50 lakh.

Similarly, in high courts,the limit has been doubledfrom Rs 50 lakh to Rs 1 croreand in case of SupremeCourt, the revised limit forf i l ing appeal has beenincreased from Rs 1 crore toRs 2 crore.

The entire exercise ofwithdrawal of cases, on thebasis of an order issued onAugust 8 for enhancement ofmonetary limits for filing of

appeals in tribunals (ITAT)and courts (HC and SupremeCourt), is stipulated to becompleted by October.

The I-T department of APand TS clarified that it willnot file appeals in ITAT if thetax amount involved is lessthan Rs 50 lakh, not fileappeals in High Court ifamount involved in less thanRs 1 crore and not fileappeals in Supreme Court ifamount involved is less thanRs 2 crore.

Continued on Page 4

BONANZA FOR BUSINESSMEN

n CBDT issues circular in Augustraising threshold to file cases inITATs, HCs, SC

n Cases falling below newthreshold withdrawn

n 892 cases filed in 2018-19 alsowithdrawn

Public healthemergencyin Delhi,schools shutNEW DELHI: An unprece-dented public health emer-gency has been declared inDelhi and nearby areas by thepollution control body man-dated by the Supreme Court,as the region has been trappedin a toxic smog since Diwali.Schools in Delhi will be closedtill Tuesday, November 5,Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal tweeted.

Schools in the capital havebeen asked to stop all outdooractivities and sports tillNovember 5 to minimiseexposure of children to pollu-tion. The EnvironmentPollution (Prevention andControl) Authority (EPCA)has also banned constructionactivity till November 5 as thepollution level in the regionentered the "severe plus" or"emergency" category lateThursday night, the first timesince January.

The pollution authority hasalso banned the bursting ofcrackers during the winterseason.

Chief Minister Kejriwaltoday described the city as a"gas chamber" while distrib-uting masks to schoolchildren.He also blamed the neigh-bouring states of Haryana andPunjab, where thousands offarmers at this time of yearburn crop stubble, sendingvast clouds of smoke driftingacross northern India.

I-T dept withdraws969 cases worth Rs 403 cr in TS, AP

GST collectionfalls 5.3% toRs 95,380 crNEW DELHI: Revenue fromGoods and Services Tax fell5.3 per cent year-on-year toRs. 95,380 crore in October.However, on a monthly basisthe revenue from GST rose3.76 per cent from Rs. 91,916crore in September, officialdata released by Ministry ofFinance showed.

Central GST (CGST) col-lections stood at Rs. 17,582crore, State GST (SGST) col-lections came in at Rs. 23,674crore and Integrated GST(IGST) came in at Rs. 46,517crore (including Rs. 21,446crore collected on imports),according to press releaseissued by the FinanceMinistry.

TRAI fixesmobile ringtime at 30 sec NEW DELHI: The TelecomRegulatory Authority of India(TRAI) on Friday fixedmobile phone call ring timeat 30 seconds and 60 secondsfor landline phones, in casethe call is neither answerednor rejected by the sub-scriber.In an amendment toquality of service norms forbasic telephone service andcellular mobile telephone ser-vice, the TRAI said, "With theenactment of these amend-ments, Access Provide wouldhave to maintain the timeduration of alert for anincoming voice call, which isneither answered nor reject-ed by the called party, to thir-ty seconds for CellularMobile Telephone Serviceand sixty seconds for BasicTelephone Service."

5-phase pollin Jharkhandfrom Nov 30

Sunil Arora

NEW DELHI: The ElectionCommission of India onFriday announced a 5-phasepoll for Jharkhand Assemblyelection from November 30.

While date of polling forfirst phase is November 30,second phase polling willtake place on December 7.The third, fourth and fifthphases of polling will takeplace on December 12, 16and 19, respectively.

Counting of votes will betaken up on December 23,Chief Election CommissionerSunil Arora announced onFriday.

{

PNS n HYDERABAD

IT and Industries MinisterKT Rama Rao has inaugurat-ed the TIF-MSME GreenIndustrial Park atDandumalkapur in YadadriBhuvanagiri district on Friday.Telangana State IndustrialInfrastructure Corporation(TSIIC) and TelanganaIndustrialists Federation (TIF)are jointly developing the TIF-MSME Green Industrial Park.

This first-of-its-kind pollu-tion-free industrial park in thecountry has been constructedin 482 acres of land, attractinginvestments of

R 1,552 crore. The park canhouse more than 450 industri-al units, providing directemployment of 19,000 andindirect employment of 30,000.

A skill development centreis also being set up at the parkto train the local youth. Witha walk-to-work concept, ahousing colony is being builtin 192 acres in the parkpremises. The governmenthas provided the infrastruc-ture and basic amenities in thepark and also laid a road fromthe national highway to thepark.

Speaking at the inauguralceremony, Minister KTR stat-ed that the government's aimis to attract major investmentsand provide employmentopportunities for the localunemployed youth in the state.At the programme, theMinister stated that theMSMEs and industrialists arehappy today with sufficientpower supply to their indus-tries. He said that theTelangana is now a powersurplus state and that theGovernment is able to provide24 hrs uninterrupted powersupply, not just to industriesbut for agriculture and also to

the households. Minister KTRstated that the Telangana gov-ernment will not let industri-alization happen at the cost ofenvironment and green cover.He stated that lands have beengiven only to Green Industries,and not red and orange indus-tries in the TIF- MSME greenindustrial park.

Minister Jagadish Reddy,TIF President Sudhir Reddyand others were present.

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Veteran director and Dadasaheb Phalke awardee K Viswanath plants a sapling as part of the 'Green Challenge' initiated by theTRS MP Santosh Kumar, in Hyderabad on Friday

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PNS n SURYAPETA

A wedding function, which issupposed to be a happy goingevent with relatives and friends,has become a battlefield. Asmall conflict has turned into abig fight between the familymembers of the bridegroomand bride. The two groupsattacked each other with chairsand sticks. A video of the inci-dent, which happened inKodad in Suryapet, has goneviral on social media.

A girl from Prakasam districtgot married to a man whobelongs to Kodad here in thedistrict. After completing themarriage at boy's house, thebride's family members weregetting ready to take the newcouple to Prakasam district.However, the relatives of thebridegroom insisted to conduct'Barat' along with DJ. But the

bride's family didn't agree asthere was no time because thenewlywed couple has to travela long distance.

As they were leaving forPrakasam district, the boy'sfamily members stopped them,which resulted in a heated argu-ment between them. With this,the clash broke out between twogroups and attacked each otherwith chairs and sticks. In theattack, many sustained injuriesand the victims were rushed toa nearby hospital for treatment.

KTR inaugurates ‘Green Industrial Park’Palla upsetover notbeing giveninvitation

HYDERABAD: TRS MLCPalla Rajeshwar Reddy hasreportedly expressed hisunhappiness for not invitinghim for the inauguralprogramme of TIF- MSMEGreen Industrial Park atDandumalkapur in YadadriBhongir district on Friday forwhich party workingpresident and IT andIndustries Minister KT RamaRao was the chief guest. Palla Rajeshwar Reddy wasabstained from theprogramme as he didn't getan invitationthough hewas thelocal MLC.It is learntthat Pallawasunhappy fornot inviting him and notdisplaying his name in theinaugural plaque. Power Minister G JagdishReddy, all MLAs from thedistrict including newly-elected MLA S Saidi Reddyand Congress MLA fromMunugode KomatireddyRajagopal Reddy, BhongirMP Komatireddy VenkatReddy, Rajya Sabha memberBadugula Lingaiah Yadav,MLC Karne Prabhakarattended the programme.It may be recalled that Pallaworked as in-chargesuccessfully for Huzurnagarby-election for the party inwhich the party candidatewon the election with morethan 40,000 votes.

Komatireddy all praise for KTRPNS n HYDERABAD

Congress MLA fromMunugode KomatireddyRajagopal Reddy showeredpraises on the TRS workingpresident and IT Minister KTRama Rao here on Friday.Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy,who criticised TRS govern-ment and KTR during Budgetsession tooth and nail, praisedthe TRS working president,leaving all in shock.

The incident happened atDandu Malkapur near

Choutuppal in YadadriBhuvanagiri district when KTRcame to inaugurate TIF- MSMEGreen Industrial Park. "It isTelangana people's luck to haveKTR as Minister of Industries.KTR has good experience andunderstanding," said RajagopalReddy.

"The youth waited allthese years expecting thatthey would get employ-ment if Telangana Statewas created. This is suchan occasion. The govern-ment has to provide

opportunities to the locals inthis industrial park. The localshave expectations that they willget employment if industriesare established. KTR has to ini-tiate steps to meet the expec-tations of them by bringing anact in favor of locals,” he said.These sudden praises on KTR

by Rajagopal Reddy gavescope to speculationson Rajagopal Reddy'spolitical future.Rajagopal Reddymade open state-ments in the past in

favor of BJP statingthat the saffron

party is the onlyan alternative

to ther u l ingT R Sparty.

It is Telangana people's luck to have KT Rama Rao as Minister of Industries.KTR has good experience and

understanding— KOMATIREDDY RAJAGOPAL REDDY

IT MInister KT Rama Rao and other Ministers and MLAs at the launch of TIF-MSME Green Industrial Park at Dandumalkapur in Yadadri Bhuvanagiri district on Friday

Technozion off to a flying start in WarangalPNS n WARANGAL

National Institute ofTechnology (NIT)- Warangal'sannual technical festival'Technozion 2019' was off to acolourful start here on Friday.

The fest has receivedtremendous response as stu-dents from various statesthronged the campus for theTechnozion. With more than2,500 registrations this year, theoverall footfall of the fest has hita staggering high of more than5,000 students on-campus.

With hundreds of partici-pants in each of the fouteenworkshops, Technozion 2019has proved to be a technicalcraving in the making. Theaura of technicality has alreadyseeped deep into the chasms ofpeople who have made theirabode here for the 3 days of

fest. The events have wit-nessed a flurry of people whoquench their thirst of knowl-edge by cultivating an interesttowards the practical world

and try to garner the intrica-cies involved in dealing withthe technologies of tomorrow.

Code debugging, Enigma,Electronova, Mathematical

Tambola have witnessed ahumongous participation andhave been the most famousevents throughout the firstday. Three musketeers, anevent which involves a detec-tive level intellectual to unde-cipher the labyrinth.

Guest lecture by SrinidhiAnantharaman on "Industry-Institute Collaboration indeveloping smart building"received good response. Heexpressed that buildings are

visible manifestation of civilengineering evolved as anapplication of technology. Hediscussed about how a build-ing can be made intelligent orself-learned by the applicationIoT and AI. Spotlights likeAvion-E, Wreckage, Thrust,Jahaj have proved that thestudents are amazingly goodnot just in passive classroomlearning but are also way aheadin practical applications ofscience.

With hundreds of participants,Technozion 2019 has proved to be atechnical hotspot in the making. Code debugging, Enigma andElectronova have witnessed ahumongous participation

PTI n NEW DELHI

As Indians break their headsover WhatsApp spygate wherean Israeli bug infected selectusers smartphones to accesstheir personal details, the masssurveillance technology hastruly come of age and now thegovernments just need to makea missed call to install an 'exploitlink' into the device of a personthey want to bug and listen in.

From the days when sur-veillance methods involvedbugging the phone or cablewires to tap phones (remem-ber Radia tapes!) to track aperson's vehicle by installing atracking device beneath thecar, cyber criminals and hack-ers have devised modern anduntraceable tools to hack intoyour systems.

The most popular mass sur-veillance programme is'PRISM' -- under which the USNational Security Agency(NSA) collects user's person-al communications from var-ious US internet companies.'PRISM' allegedly collectsstored Internet communica-tions based on demands madeto internet companies.

The NSA can use PRISMrequests to target communica-tions that were encryptedwhen they traveled across the

internet backbone, to focus onstored data that telecommuni-cation filtering systems dis-carded earlier, and to getaccess to data.

NSA contractor leaked itsexistence and whistleblowerEdward Snowden, who warnedthat the extent of mass data col-lection was far greater than thepublic knew. US PresidentBarack Obama, during a visit toGermany, stated that the NSA'sdata gathering practices consti-tute "a circumscribed, narrowsystem directed at us being ableto protect our people".

According to Amnesty.org,NSA and UK's GCHQ aremonitoring you with codenames. 'Muscular' is one suchproject that "intercepts userdata as it passes betweenGoogle servers".

The governmentsjust need to makea missed call toinstall an ‘exploitlink' into thedevice of a person they wantto bug and listen in

PNS n HYDERABAD

Dr Reddy's Laboratories' netprofit for the quarter endedSeptember 30 was up 117 percent to Rs 1,092.50 croreagainst Rs 503.80 crore for thesecond quarter of FY19.Revenue for the quarterincreased by 26 per cent at Rs4,801 crore against Rs 3,798crore in the same quarter lastfiscal, the company said.

Commenting on the finan-cial results, Dr Reddy's co-chairman and managing direc-tor, GV Prasad said "I ampleased with our performanceacross the businesses andstrong cash generation duringthe quarter. We are progress-ing well in execution of ourstrategy and in our transfor-mation journey on qualityand efficiency."

Hyderabad-based pharma-ceutical company's revenuesfrom global generics segmentstood at Rs 3,280 crore withyear-on-year growth of sevenper cent, driven by Europe,Emerging Markets and Indiawhile sequentially decliningone per cent. Revenues fromNorth America were at Rs1,430 crore showing a flatgrowth over last year samequarter while decliningsequential by 13 per cent, dueto price erosion and lower

volumes.Revenues from PSAI went

up by 18 per cent to Rs 710crore. As of September 30, thecompany said, cumulatively 99generic filings are pendingfor approval with the USFDA.Of these 96 are abbreviatednew drug applicctions, 55 arePara IVs out of which thecompany believes 31 have'First to File' status.

Dr Reddy's revenues fromIndia stood at Rs 750 crorewith an year-on-year growthof 9 per cent, driven by newproducts, improved realisa-tions and volume traction inbase business.

Eight injuredas SUV turnsturtlePNS n MAHABUBNAGAR

Eight passengers were injuredwhen the Toofan vehicle, inwhich they were travelling in,turned turtle nearDharmapur area ofMahabubnagar district onFriday.

The passengers were head-ing towards Dharmarajfromthe Mahabubnagar BusDepot when the incidenthappened. The injured wereshifted to the Mahabubnagardistrict hospital. According towitness, the incident hap-pened when the driver triedto avoid a bumpy road andlost control over the steeringafter which the vehicle turnedupside down. Two people,who sustained critical injurieswere shifted to Hyderabad.

Google, Amazon like to hire women at job fairPNS n BENGALURU

Several top-notch tech firmswill be part of 50 recruiters toencourage and hire women invarious tech roles at a job fairand technology conferencehere on November 6-8, anon-profit organisation said

on Friday. Google, AmericanExpress, Amazon, GoldmanSachs, Western Digital, WellsFargo, NetApp, Oracle, SAP,Credit Suisse and Adobe arepart of the recruiters.

The recruiters are alsowilling to support and hireworking mothers and

women who took breaks toraise families, said the non-profit dedicated to advancingwomen's representation andgrowth in technology.

Computing, IT and engi-neering professionals andstudents can directly interactwith the leading global tech-

nology brands at the jobfair. The event will have dis-cussions on emerging tech-nologies like Artif icialIntelligence (AI), data analyt-ics, DevOps, Internet ofThings (IoT), computing andproduct evolution, amongothers.

Deadline set forconstruction of hospitalPNS n MEDAK

Finance Minister T HarishRao on Friday inspected theconstruction of hundred-bedhospital in Dubbaka town ofthe Siddipet district alongwith the local legislatorRamalinga Reddy.

The Ministerreprimanded thecontractor forthe delayedexecution ofthe works andadvised themto complete theprocess by nextMarch without fail.During his visit, theMinister said the state govern-ment was keen on imple-menting the developmentprogrammes with a firm

approach andasserted that the

development andwelfare tag of the

government was tak-ing the state towards desired

progress. The Minister laterinaugurated the 33/11 KVsub-station of Dubbakatown.

n Harish Raoreprimanded thecontractor for thedelayed execution ofworks and advisedthem to complete

the process bynext Marchwithout fail

Dr Reddy's profit morethan doubles in Q2

Company’s netprofit was up by117% to Rs 1,092.50 cragainst Rs 503cr for thesecond quarterof FY19

A small conflictturned into a bigfight betweenfamily members ofthe bridegroomand bride

Wedding functionturns battlefield

Students display their models at the ‘Technozion 2019' fest at NIT-Warangal

n A skill developmentcentre is also being setup at the park to trainthe local youthn The govt provided theinfrastructure and basicamenities in the parkand also laid a road fromthe national highway tothe park

Just a missed callcan hack you!

PNS n HYDERABAD

CREDAI, the Confederation ofReal Estate Developers'Associations of India, country'sapex body of Real estate develop-ers, on Friday announced theHyderabad Property Show East2019. The objective of this prop-erty show is to highlight the ris-ing opportunities for developersand homebuyers in the EasternPart of the city. The event wasgraced by P Rama Krishna Rao,president, C Murali Mohan, KRajeshwar, V Venu Vinod, NJaideep Reddy, vice presidents,

V Rajshekhar Reddy, GeneralSecretary, Aditya Gowra,Treasurer and Shivraj Thakurand K Rambabu, joint secre-taries along with the ManagingCommittee members ofCREDAI-Hyderabad, representa-tives of banks and financial insti-

tutions and other stakeholders.CREDAI Hyderabad Property

Show - East 2019 will be held on9 and 10 November atSaroornagar Indoor Stadium,Kothapet. The two-day proper-ty show will bring together real-tors, building material manufac-turers, consultants, and financial

institutions especially from theeastern part of the city to exhib-it the advances in the real estatesector under a single umbrella.The show will see participationfrom over 55 developers andother stakeholders from the dif-ferent allied industries. The exhi-bition will showcase over 5000

units suiting every requirementand budget by the developersproviding consumers a chance toget the best options for homesolutions in the EasternHyderabad.

Speaking at the press meet toannounce the CREDAI proper-ty show, P Ramakrishna Rao,president, CREDAI Hyderabad,said, "Hyderabad offers the bestinfrastructure facilities and con-nectivity across the city. So far thecity has seen a major spurt in thedevelopment in the western part

of the city. Lop-sided develop-ment of a city is not beneficial inthe long run. The visionary lead-ership of the state has embarkedupon a plan in their current termof developing the eastern part ofthe city to ensure overall devel-opment. The 'Look East Policyenvisages to develop the city onthe eastern side especially areassuch as Uppal, LB Nagar, Keesara,Sagar Road Vijayawada Road,Adibatla etc. which would bedeveloped at par with the otherprominent hubs.”

HYDERABAD | SATURDAY | NOVEMBER 2, 2019 hyderabad 03

The two-day property show will bringtogether realtors, building materialmanufacturers, consultants, and financialinstitutions especially from the eastern partof the city to exhibit the advances in real estate sector under a single umbrella

RIMEORNERC Married man weds another

woman, murders herPNS n HYDERABAD

The Vanasthalipuram police onFriday arrested a man who killedhis wife by pushing her off thethird floor of a building a fortnightago.

The arrested person,Tilakchand Sundarlal Lihare (28),is a mason from Maharashtra,while his wife, deceased SeemaDamahe (22), was a native ofBalaghat in Madhya Pradesh.

According to the police,Sundarlal Lihare had dupedSeema into believing that he wasunmarried and had eloped withher. He in fact is married and hasa daughter who lives in his nativevillage.

Lihare had come in touch withSeema over the phone two monthsago. He began seducing her andlater eloped with her from her vil-lage Parant of Balaghat in MP.They came to Hyderabad onOctober 5. The girl's father regis-tered a missing person case atBahela police station after shewent missing.

Lihare married Seema andbrought her to a construction siteat Vanasthalipuram where he wasworking. He introduced her toeveryone as his wife, while theylived in temporary huts built at theconstruction site. After a fewdays, Seema started asking him tolegitimising their marriage bytaking her back to her village to

her parents, but Lihare was notinterested in doing that as he wasalready married.

He admitted to marrying her forhis sexual needs. Seema kept insist-ing on a proper wedding afterwhich Lihare decided to kill her.

On October 16, Lihare askedSeema to come to the 3rd floor ofan under construction building

with some firewood. After shereached there, he started an argu-ment with her, beat her and thenpushed her from the 3rd floor.Seema fell on the balcony of thefirst floor and sustained severeinjuries. Lihare fled the sceneafter the incident.

Other workers, who heard thenoise, shifted Seema to a nearbyclinic where they were asked toshift her to Osmania GeneralHospital where she was declaredbrought dead.

Lihare was arrested on Fridayat Hanumakonda in Warangaland was remanded to judicialcustody.

Hindu leaderswant tightsecurity forAyodhya verdictPNS n HYDERABAD

In view of Ayodhya verdict tobe delivered by Supreme Courtthis month, a delegation ofHindu leaders led by VishwaHindu Parishad State presidentM Rama Raju met TelanganaState DGP Mahender Reddyand submitted a memoran-dum with a request to takeproper security arrangementsin sensitive areas.

The delegation said that someelements were trying to createdisturbances by giving provoca-tive speeches. They wantedsecurity to be tightened in areaslike Bhainsa, Nirmal, Old Cityareas, Musheerabad, Bholakpurand others to safeguard theHindu community in theseareas. The delegation comprisedleaders like BhagyanagarGanesh Utsav Samithi generalsecretary Bhagavanth Rao, VHPspokesperson RavinuthalaShashidhar, Hindu Vahini stategeneral secretary Uppal Rajuand others.

The DGP assured them ofproper security arrangementsand putting in place precau-tionary measures in advance.

Mentally ill womankills 2 teen childrenPNS n HYDERABAD

A 35-year-old woman was arrested onFriday for murdering her own teenagechildren by poisoning them and step-ping on their throats at their residencein Kanchanbagh. The incident hap-pened on October 26.

The accused, Syeda FarhathBegum, wife of Mohd Abdul Rahim,was allegedly mentally disturbed andhas been talking around about com-mitting suicide, said the police. "Sheclaimed that she wanted to kill thembefore she dies, as her husband maynot look after them after her demise,"said J Venkat Reddy, inspector ofKanchanbagh.

The deceased were identified asNeha Jabeen, 15, and Mohd AbdulAziz, 14. The murder occurredbetween 5.30 pm and 9 pm onOctober 26. She gave the childrensleeping tablets, insulin injectionsand then went on to press theirthroats with her foot.

Inspector Venkat Reddy said thaton the day of the crime, FarhathBegum told her husband Rahim afterhe came home in the night that shewas unwell. After the kids slept off,Rahim dropped his wife at her sister'shouse.

Police said he came back home andnoticed some liquid oozing from

Aziz's mouth. He tried to wake themup but was not able to. When they didnot wake up he rushed them to a pri-vate hospital and later to OsmaniaGeneral Hospital where doctors pro-nounced them dead. Police seizedutensils in the house, which pointedat suspected food poisoning. Severalbottles of medicines were also foundin the house.

The Kanchanbagh police booked acase under section 302 (murder) ofIPC against the accused and remand-ed her in judicial custody.

She gave thechildren sleepingtablets, insulininjections and thenwent on to presstheir throats withher foot

BBQ open 7thoutlet in city at KothapetPNS n HYDERABAD

Barbeque Nation launched itsseventh outlet in Hyderabadlocated at Doctors Colony inKothapet on Saturday. The storewas inaugurated by NGO kidsfrom 'Hope for Life Foundation'.The special guest for the eventwas Dethadi Harika.

The eat-all-you-can buffet atBarbeque Nation showcases anarray of vegetarian and non-veg-etarian spreads. For starters,the non-vegetarians can indulgein the famous Mutton KadhakSeekh, Chilli Garlic Prawns,Ajwaini Fish Tikka, Murg BotiKebab and much more, whilevegetarians can feast into themouth-watering HariyaliKumbh, Pineapple Chaat, CajunSpice Baby Potato and PunjabiPaneer Tikka, among others.

Mansoor Memon, BarbequeNation's regional manager forTS and AP said, "Our endeavouris to reach out to everyHyderabadi, because of the pop-ularity we have here, peoplefrom all over the city want us tobe closest to them. This is the7th outlet and three more are inthe pipeline in Hyderabad. AtBarbeque Nation, we are alwaysevolving our menu with newerflavors to match the changingtastes of our customers. We areconfident of spreading this joyto the people in and aroundKothapet and urge them to joinus for a special culinary ride."

3 held for cloningcards, takingloans of Rs 57 L

The Cyber Crime Police ofCyberabad nabbed three

persons for identity theft andcheating by impersonation afterthey committed a fraud of Rs57 lakh. The arrested personshave been identified asHimanshu Khanna, GauravKumar Jha and Deepak Kumar,all residents of New Delhi. Thepolice received a complaintfrom a Hyderabad residentwhen he received a call onAugust 9 from India Bullscompany that he needs to payinstallment for the personalloan he availed from them. Itwas then that the victimrealised that there was apersonal loan on his name withIndia Bulls in Delhi. He told thecaller that he is a resident ofHyderabad and never appliedfor any personal loan withthem. The victim then checkedhis credit report in CIBIL andfound that there was a personalloan enquiry from India Bullson his name in the report andhis address was changed with adifferent address in Delhi. Healso found from India Bullsabout a personal loan of Rs 13lakh. During investigation,officials learned that theaccused trio opened bankaccounts with Axis Bank, ICICIBank, Federal Bank and Bank ofBaroda Further by collectingPAN numbers from dataproviders and modifying thecards by changing thephotographs, addresses on thecards cards and opened bankaccounts in different banks withfake addresses with theassistance of bank officials.They then applied for personalloans online through 'DhaniApp' of India Bulls and availedloans on different names. SinceNovember 2018, the trioapplied for personal loans byusing 22 different PAN cardsand obtained personal loans byusing the Dhani App of IndiaBulls. Officials said HimanshuKhanna committed fraud to thetune of Rs 73.5 lakh on IndiaBulls along with the bankersGaurav Kumar Jha and DeepakKumar by fabricatingdocuments and byimpersonation for wrongfulgain. The accused werearrested by the Cyber CrimePolice of Cyberabad and wereproduced before a court forjudicial remand. Officials seizeda laptop, three mobile phones,forged PAN cards, voter IDcards, cheque books etc., fromtheir possession.

ACB arrests MD offirm in IMS scamPNS n HYDERABAD

The MD of VaishnaviEnterprises was arrested by theofficials of Anti CorruptionBureau (ACB) in connectionwith the Insurance MedicalServices (IMS) scam onFriday.

The accused, PSrinivasa Reddy,managing direc-tor of VaishnaviEnterprises, wasarrested onFriday followinga case registered onThursday with theallegations of corruption,conspiracy and collusion withgovernment officials and oth-ers to benefit himself, thedirector of IMS and others.

ACB officials said Reddypersonally pursued and metthe IMS director, asst. directorand other officials. The ACBsaid on account of collusion,conspiracy and commonintention between them, dur-

ing the years 2016-2018, he gotpurchase orders worth Rs 5.48crore for rate contract (RC)items without following guide-lines of ESIC and GOs of thestate government. The cost ofthe orders in RC is Rs 1.39crore. The excess amount

spent from the govern-ment exchequer in

purchase instead ofRC firms is Rs 4.09crore, officials said.Officials of IMS incollusion with

Reddy have caused aloss of Rs 4.09 crore to

the government, ACBsaid.

Two shell firms, namelyMahidhara Medicals &Surgicals and Jai SairamDistributors, were floated by theIMS director and KNagalakshmi, a pharmacist withthe help of P Rajeshwara Reddyand his brother P SrinivasaReddy. The accused will beproduced before the ACB courtfor judicial custody.

Onlinecertificatesfor JNTU-H'salumni abroadPNS n HYDERABAD

Students of Jawaharlal NehruTechnological University-Hyderabad (JNTU-H), whohad moved abroad, can nowapply and receive certificatesat their doorstep. JNTU-Hhas come up with a new facil-ity for students who graduat-ed from constituent and affil-iated colleges, and are resid-ing in foreign countries.

The varsity will provideoriginal degree certificates,transcripts, migration andmedium certificates throughthe new system fromNovember 1.

Candidates who wish toapply for certificates or tran-scripts have to make a requeston the JNTU-H studentonline services portalhttps://studentservices.jntuh.ac.in.

JNTU-H Registrar Prof NYadaiah said students need toregister on the portal andselect certificates they wish toapply for. They also need tofurnish residential addressand pay the required feeonline.CDA celebrates silver

jubilee of Formation DayPNS n HYDERABAD

Controller of DefenceAccounts (CDA)Secunderabad celebrated SilverJubilee of its Formation Dayhere on Friday. The CDASecunderabad office underDefence Accounts Department(DAD) was formed on 1stNovember 1994. There are 38sub-offices under this officespread across Telangana andAndhra Pradesh with a total of700 staff including officers.

CDA, Secunderabad isresponsible for Accounting,Audit, Financial Advice andalso Integrated FinancialAdvice function for the ArmyUnits and formations andMilitary Engineering Serviceslocated in the States ofTelangana and AndhraPradesh. It is also responsible

for drawl and disbursement ofpay & Allowances of soldiersof Electronic and MechanicalEngineers (EME) and ArmyOrdnance Corps (AOC) inthe entire Country. The orga-nization of CDA Secunderabadis presently headed by Shri KVenkata Rao, IDAS, Controller,

a 1994 batch of Indian DefenceAccounts Service cadre officer.

The celebrations began withHaritha Haram by plantingsaplings in the premises ofCDA. Shri Damodar Koleti,Chairman, Telangana StatePolice Housing CorporationLtd and senior officers of thedepartment participated in theplanting drive. A Blood dona-tion camp was also organisedin collaboration with RedCross Society and 40 bloodunits were donated by theofficers and staff for the ben-efit of the children sufferingfrom Thalassemia decease. AnEye check-up camp was organ-ised for the staff in associationwith Pushpagiri Eye Institute.Former Principal Controllersof CDA Secunderabad KNiranjan Rao, IDAS, V V Rao,and others were felicitated.

Shortage of lecturersaffecting studies in OUPNS n HYDERABAD

A video recorded by a law student ofOsmania University has been mak-ing rounds on social media speakingabout difficulty in holding classesdue to lack of staff even as exams areclosing in. Lectures say there is anacute need for more staff and recruit-ments need to be held so that class-es can be run regularly.

The law college student who madethe video, Mohd Ahmed, said, "Nolectures come to our class to teach.This has been the issue since thebeginning of the year. Even thebenches are dirty and nothing iscleaned. My parents ask me why Idon't go to college, but it's hard toexplain to them that there aren't any

classes running at college," he said.Inside the Osmania University, you

notice many students walking aroundaimlessly. When asked why they areout and whether they have a class ornot, one student from anotherdepartment, Ajay Kumar, said, "Therehaven't been classes running in a verylong time due to shortage of lectur-ers. They instead tell us it is becauseof our bad behavior that lectures donot come here. This is false.”

A teacher at the campus said, "Thesituation here is terrible and there isa massive need for governmentinvolvement. The college has notrecruited lecturers in a very longtime. The colleges have been runningon part-time lecturers and peoplewith very little experience.”

n Sundarlal lied to Seema, killed her for fear of 2nd marriage becoming publicAfter a few days,Seema asked himto take her to hervillage to herparents, but Liharewas not interestedas he was alreadymarried

CREDAI's Hyd property show from Nov 9

PNS n HYDERABAD

The Telangana High Court onFriday pulled up the TSRTCin-charge Managing Director(MD) Sunil Sharma for filingvague and ambiguous addi-tional counter affidavit regard-ing the dues payable by thestate government and GreaterHyderabad MunicipalCorporation (GHMC) to theTelangana State RoadTransport Corporation(TRSTC).

Expressing surprise over theaffidavit filed by the RTC MD,it said that the MD appeared tohave deliberately submittedvague report with confusingfigures. The court made theseremarks while dealing with abatch of Public InterestLitigation (PIL)s on the ongo-ing TSRTC strike. The in-charge MD of the corporationSunil Sharma appeared in per-son before the court to reply tothe questions raised by thecourt and present the stand ofthe corporation.

Citing one of the submis-sions made by Sunil Sharma inhis counter affidavit submittedon Thursday, a division benchof the court wondered as tohow the MD would misquotethe loan availed by the corpo-ration for buying new buses asthe reimbursement of the sub-sidy amount by the state gov-ernment.

Intervening at this juncture,the MD told the court that theyhad used the reimbursed sub-sidy amount for the paymentof the salaries and purchase ofDiesel. Referring to the duesfrom GHMC to the corpora-tion, he said that the corpora-tion had formally urged thecivic body to pay around Rs1,786 crore and added that ithad paid Rs 336 crore as a partpayment to clear some of thetotal dues for fiscals 2015-16and 2016-17.

He also told the court thatthere was nothing in law tobear the losses incurred by thecorporation by GHMC whilemaking it clear that the civicbody had already told the stategovernment that it would nothave the capacity to clear theremaining dues to the TSRTC. This has prompted the HC toretort as to why the civic bodypaid Rs 336 crore to the cor-poration.

It also wondered as to whythe corporation, which paid Rs108 crore to clear dues duringthe year 2015-16 and Rs 228crore in the following yeardespite being burdened with a

HYDERABAD | SATURDAY | NOVEMBER 2, 2019 hyderabad 04

Expressingsurprise over theaffidavit filed bythe RTC MD, itsaid that MDappeared tohave deliberatelysubmittedvague reportwith confusing figures

HC PULLS UP RTC MDFOR ‘VAGUE' REPORT

PNS n HYDERABAD

TSRTC JAC convenorAshwathama Reddy slammedthe TSRTC management andsenior officials for filing an affi-davit with false facts to HighCourt and playing into thehands of government. Hestressed that it is a shame onthe part of RTC officials thatthey are furnishing false factsto HC and trying to destructRTC instead of saving it.

"It is extremely unfortunatethat RTC management andsenior officials have filed theaffidavit with false facts inHC. It is shame on the part ofofficials that HC has pulledthem up for presenting falsefacts. Officials have informed

HC that the government doesnot owe any dues to RTC. Theysaid that TSRTC has alreadygot Rs 665 dues fromGovernment. When Judge fur-ther asked, in what form didthe dues were paid by the gov-ernment to TSRTC, officialswere not in a position toanswer. When Judge raisedthe issue of pending dues toTSRTC by the governmentciting Transport Minister'sspeech in Assembly twomonths ago, TSRTC officialslies were exposed. Officialsare in such a pathetic situationthat they are not even in a posi-tion to answer when HC pulledthem up for presenting falsefacts," said AshwathamaReddy.

Ashwathama Reddy allegedthat instead of filing the affi-davit on behalf of TSRTC,officials have filed on behalf ofGHMC. "Instead of filing theaffidavit on behalf of TSRTC,officials have filed throughMunicipal Act. Instead of try-ing to save TSRTC, seniorofficials like TSRTC MD andED are trying to destruct theorganisation, under the influ-ence of the government.TSRTC strike has entered 28thday and RTC employees arelosing lives. Instead of trying tomislead HC and get admon-ished by Judge, TSRTC officialsshould make efforts to endstrike and save RTC,"Ashwathama Reddy furthersaid after the HC hearing.

RTC JAC slamsmanagement for ‘false facts'

Karimnagar tense,protest with driver'sdead body continuesPNS n KARIMNAGAR

Tension prevailed inKarimnagar town on Fridayas opposition parties calledfor a shutdown while con-tinuing protests with thedead body of a strikingemployees of TelanganaState Road TransportCorporation (TSRTC).

Police deployed forcesnear the residence of N.Babu. His relatives, BJP MPBandi Sanjay Kumar andleaders of TSRTC employ-ees continued their sit-inwith the body for the secondconsecutive day -- refusingto perform the last rites tillthe government held talkswith the striking employeesand resolve the crisis.

More than 48,000 TSRTCemployees are on strikesince October 5 to press fortheir demands includingthe demand for merger of

TSRTC with the govern-ment. Babu died of cardiacarrest at the public meetingorganized by Joint ActionCommittee (JAC) of strik-ing employees in Hyderabadon October 30.

JAC has called for 'chaloKarimnagar' on Friday toprotest the government'sadamant attitude on theirdemands resulting in thedeaths of workers. Threeemployees have committedsuicide while more than sixhave died of cardiac arrest.JAC and opposition partiesalleged that the governmenthas pushed the strikingemployees into depressionby sacking them and by notpaying them salary forSeptember. Opposition par-ties have called for shut-down in Karimnagar districton Friday. JAC urged theemployees to stage protestsat all depots.

RTC buses fail to cater to needs in rural areas AVINASH DEEPAK PULIn MAHABUBNAGAR

The alternative transport sys-tem provided by the govern-ment to meet the challenge ofthe RTC strike is unable tocater to the needs of the com-muters of the rural parts in theerstwhile Mahabubnagar dis-trict for the past seven days.

Though the number of ser-

vices operated is on par with theregular services in the districts,the rural services are failing tomatch the needs of the studentsand other passengers in manyareas. Especially in Gadwal dis-trict, the interior passengers arerelying on the private transportnetwork and the alternativeservices operated by the RTCwere not meeting the regularKMPL and fleet patterns.In all,

about 754 services are beingoperated by the RTC in the erst-while Mahabubnagar districtand all these services, as per therecords of the RTC officials areoperated with utmost ease sincethe temporary network is suc-cessfully provided in the dis-tricts. There were certain areaswhere the targets of the trans-port department are reachedsuccessfully but the collection

point is failing to match theregular averages in almost allthe routes.

In all, a total of 174 routes inthe districts are failing to reachthe targets and those targets arevery minimal as per the averagesset by the RTC. Sources say thatif the strike continues, the alter-nate transport pattern wouldsuffer further and it is unlikelyto help the RTC in coming days.

No positiveresponse fromCM: PawanPNS n HYDERABAD

Jana Sena party chief PawanKalyan has stated that nobody,including Telangana ChiefMinister K ChandrashekharRao, IT Minister KT Ramarao,Rajya Sabha MP K KeshavaRao and others are willing totalk on TSRTC strike. In astatement issued on Friday,Pawan Kalyan said, "There isno response from the govern-ment over RTC JAC leadersrequest to hold talks. They havelamented saying that the talkswith the government turnedtangle. They said there was noproper response from the stategovernment though the strikeentered 28th day," he said.

Jana Sena party representa-tives tried for the appointmentof KCR, Keshava Rao andsome Ministers; however,nobody expressed their will-ingness to speak on the issue.

"I am going toVisakhapatnam to participatein the Long March to be heldon November 3. I will try againto meet CM after coming backfrom Vizag", he said.

‘Children should be exposed to research'PNS n HYDERABAD

Prof BS Murty, Director ofIIT-Hyderabad, has visitedTMR Junior College BarkasBoys - 1 here on Friday. ProfBS Murty inspired and moti-vated the young studentstowards science and providedthem with brief exposure to thelatest research and innovationactivities at IIT Hyderabad,which is impacting the societyand industry. He also gave aninsight into path-breakingresearch work, new initiatives,student projects and theadvanced facilities and labora-tories, which have been estab-lished at IIT Hyderabad.

Addressing the students,

Prof BS Murty said: "It isimportant to expose children tosome of these research activi-ties early on. They may not

understand everything, butthey will have life long memo-ries of what they see or hearduring their interactions."

He shared his experiencesthat students come to IIT as hisvision is only to crack the IITexamination and also encour-

aged the students that theyshould never come to IIT forjust to get good offer, but cometo IIT to become good engineerand should have a vision toachieve it. He briefed the stu-dents about the on-goingresearch from the variousdepartments of IIT Hyderabadand about, artificial intelli-gence, robotics, and nanotech-nology.

In his remarks he wrote "It isexciting to meet students here.I wish that all their dreams &aspirations come true." Lastmonth, the TMREIS has signeda Memorandum ofUnderstanding with IndianInstitute of Technology-Hyderabad (IIT-H).

IIT-Hyderabad Director Prof BS Murty interacts with the students at TMR Junior College at Barkas on Friday

Panel to collect ‘evidence'on TRS govt ‘corruption'K VENKATESHWARLUn HYDERABAD

The Telangana Congress hasdecided to gather 'evidence'and 'information' regardingalleged corruption of the TRSgovernment. The party hasalso decided to wage move-ment to expose corruption ofTRS government and failure ofNDA government's economicpolicy following the decision ofAICC Core Committee meet-ing held at AICC office onSeptember 7.

The Telangana CongressAffairs in-charge RCKhuntia has appoint-ed a Committeefor this purposewith 26 leadersof the stateC o n g r e s s .According toK h u n t i a ' ss tatement ,the commit-tee will visitvarious irriga-tion and powerprojects within twomonths to collect evidencesand information regarding thealleged corruption of TRS gov-ernment.

Later, the Committee willprepare a petition in consulta-tion with legal and technicalexperts to submit the memo-randum to the President ofIndia and Governor ofTelangana. The Committee

would also prepare a report onthe failure of economic policyof NDA government and fail-ure of TRS government tofulfill the assurances given tothe people during elections.

This Committee would alsoprepare a one-year action planfor agitational programmeacross the state. Meanwhile,the AICC will conduct a meet-ing of all AICC general secre-taries, state in-charges, headsof frontal organisations andAICC departments onNovember 2. AICC chief SoniaGandhi will give directions tothe leaders in this meeting on

the agitational pro-grammes to be held

against NDAgovernment'sfailures.

As part ofit, the com-mittee willtake upP a d a y a t r a

from GandhiBhavan to

H y d e r a b a dCollectorate on

November 15. Before that, theparty will send the material toPCC office bearers and DCCpresidents by November 5 forcirculation for agitation pro-gramme against mismanage-ment of Indian economy byBJP government and mis-management of Telanganaeconomy by TRS.

The party already assigned

AICC official spokespersonDr Sravan Dasoju, TPCCCPRO K Hari Prasad, TPCCresearch team head AamirJaved. After receiving the mate-rial, the DCC presidents willhold press meets on the sameon November 6. On November8, the DCC presidents willstage dharnas in front of alldistrict collectorates onNovember 8. These pro-grammes will be a curtainraiser to the programmes to betaken up by the Committeeconstituted with 26 seniorleaders.

Talangana state affairs in-charge RC Khuntia hasannounced the Committeeunder the chairmanship of NUttam Kumar Reddy and CLPleader Bhatti VikramarkaMallu as convener. The mem-bers include: A Revanth Reddy,Ponnam Prabhakar,Mohammed Azharuddin,Komatireddy Venkat Reddy,Ponnala Laxmaiah, VHanumantha Rao, T JeevanReddy, DamodarRajanarsimha, Vijayashanthi,Dr G Chinna Reddy, MadhuYashki Goud, SA SampathKumar, Ch Vamshi ChandReddy, Marri ShashidharReddy, P Sudarshan Reddy,Mohd Shabbir Ali, D SridharBabu, T Jayaprakash Reddy, JGeetha Reddy, Dr Mallu Ravi,Konda Vishweshwar Reddy,Dr Sravan Dasoju, AamirJaved.

Continued from Page 1

The striking employees arealso facing financial problemsas they had not been paidsalaries for September.

The TSRTC, which hasaccumulated losses of Rs 1,200crore, said it has no money topay September salaries. TheCorporation told TelanganaHigh Court that it has Rs 7crore, while over Rs 200 crorewas required to pay the salaries.

The Corporation has beensuffering a daily loss of Rs1 toRs 1.5 crore due to the strike,with the TSRTC managing tooperate partial services with thehelp of temporary employees.

On the direction of the HighCourt, the TSRTC last weekheld talks with leaders of thestriking workers on the 21 oftheir demands, excluding themerger demand, but failed tofind any solution to the stale-mate.

At the previous hearing onOctober 28, the High Courtasked the government whetherit could provide Rs 47 crore tomeet some demands of theemployees to end the strike.However, the governmentexpressed its inability to do soon the ground that it hadgiven the Corporation morefunds than what it owes to it.

The current spell of the

strike has also turned into a ral-lying point for the oppositionparties and all groups opposedto the ruling Telangana RashtraSamiti (TRS), thus posing thefirst major challenge toChandrashekhar Rao sinceTelangana was carved out of

AP in 2014. Backed by theentire opposition, trade unionsand students' groups, the JAChad called for Telangana shut-down on October 19. Thiswas the first shutdown againstChandrashekhar Rao, who hadled many such protests during

the Telangana movement.At the public meeting organ-

ised by the JAC on October 30in Hyderabad, its membersand opposition leaders threat-ened a 'Million March' like theone organised at the peak of theTelangana agitation. Theyslammed the Chief Minister forhis adamant attitude and auto-cratic style of functioning.

KCR has blamed the RTCunion leaders and the oppositionparties for the current situation.He had remarked that the"TSRTC is finished and nobodycan save it". He said "by going onstrike during festival season,the employees cut the verybranch they were sitting on."

Ongoing strike is longest in RTC history...RTC driver attempts suicide...

BJP blames KCR, Etela for dengue deathsPNS n HYDERABAD

BJP's leader in LegislativeCouncil N Ramchander Raofired on Government for com-pletely neglecting dengue casesand failing to take steps to con-trol it, though dengue deathcases are rising at an alarmingrate in Telangana. He said that

the personal rivalry betweenChief Minister and HealthMinister is affecting the people,as Health and MedicalDepartment has been paralysed.

"Dengue cases are rising atan alarming rate but the gov-ernment has not taken anysteps to prevent and control itin the state. It is unfortunate

that the Health Departmenthas not initiated any actioneven after the High Courtpulled up the government overdengue cases. Neither KCR orEtela Rajender has not evenconducted a review on the sit-uation. More than 10,000dengue cases have occurred inthe state,” he said.

Continued from Page 1

Depressed over his family'sfinancial problems, he con-sumed pesticide. His familymembers admitted him inNagarkurnool Government

Hospital, where his conditionwas said to be critical. FormerMP Nagam JanardhanReddy, BJP leaders BangaruShruthi and Dileep Acharymet Khaja's family membersand consoled them.

I-T deptwithdraws...Continued from Page 1

The I-T department has with-drawn 87 cases worth Rs 35crore from AP High Court,452 cases worth Rs 219 crorefrom TS High Court, 407cases worth Rs 119 crorefrom ITAT and 23 casesworth Rs 29 crore fromSupreme Court.

The I-T department hasalso withdrawn 892 casespertaining to previous finan-cial year 2018-19 in TS andAP. It has withdrawn 33 casesfrom Supreme Court, 441cases from High Courts and418 cases from ITATs inTelugu States.

Rescuednewborn nowfaces...Continued from Page 1

Her family members werereportedly told by doctorsthat she would not survive.

Meanwhile, they wereinformed the condition ofthe baby's mother hadbecome serious and on theway to the bus-stand toreturn to their native theytried to bury the baby think-ing that the child had died,police added.

They wanted to bury the"body" here instead of takingit to Karimnagar, their nativeplace, they said.

Driver givestriple talaq...Continued from Page 1

He allegedly began ill-treat-ing her and harassed her formoney, beside insulting hersaying she was ugly withcrooked teeth. Her parents-in-law too tortured her, kepther locked up and did notallow her to speak to her par-ents, the police said.

"After marriage he(Mustafa) started harassingme for more money. We gaveso much money and alsogold. His torture went on toan extent that he started crit-icising me that I am ugly...and I have crooked teeth, shetold reporters here.

TS lawyer amongvictims of Israeli...Continued from Page 1

Later when I tried callinghim, he said that he was busy,"the lawyer said.Ravindhranath clarified thatlike others, he did not receiveany video call either.

On October 29, WhatsAppreached out to Ravindranathsaying, "In May, we stopped anattack where an advancedcyber actor exploited ourvideo calling to install a mal-ware on user devices. There'sa possibility this phone num-ber was impacted, and wewanted to make sure you

know how to keep yourmobile secure." Followed bythis message, they gaveinstructions on how to securethe device from the spyware.

"Yesterday when I heardthe news about the snoopingon WhatsApp, that's when Irealised what was happen-ing," Ravindranath said.

"Government agencies havebeen snooping on me becauseI fight for the rights of politi-cal prisoners. If you notice thepeople who are victims of thissnooping, all of them areactivists working for the welfareof Dalits and tribals," he said.

BJP's leader in Legislative Council N Ramchander Rao addresses the media in Hyderabad on Friday

TSRTC in-charge ManagingDirector (MD) Sunil Sharma

TSRTC JAC convenor

Ashwathama Reddy

HYDERABAD | SATURDAY | NOVEMBER 2, 2019 nation 05SHORT READS

Pawar visits Nashik,rues govt apathy forrain-hit farmersMUMBAI: NCP chief SharadPawar on Friday visited Nashikdistrict in north Maharashtra toreview crop losses due to rains.Withdrawing monsoon rainshave damaged crops in manyparts of the state. "The farmerssaid they have lost crop,suffered heavy losses and arefaced with question whether tolive or die. No one from thegovernment has approachedthem the farmers said," Pawartweeted. The former Unionagriculture minister said hevisited Take Ghoti village inIgatpuri tehsil. A partystatement said Pawar will alsovisit the Marathwada region fora similar inspection onNovember 6.

Narayanasamy'sremarkunparliamentary: Bedi

17 girls rescued inOdisha, suspectedtrafficker heldKORAPUT (ODISHA): Nov 1(PTI) A group of 17 teenagedgirls have been rescued from abus in Odisha's Koraput district,police said on Friday. Oneperson, who wasaccompanying the girls, hasbeen arrested on the charge oftrafficking, a police officer said.Acting on a tip-off, a policeteam rescued 17 girls from abus at Jeypore bus stand andnabbed the 26-year-old man onWednesday night, Jeypore Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO)Varun Guntupalli said. "We hadspecific information that thegirls were being trafficked fromRaighar in Nabarangpur districtto Visakhapatnam in AndhraPradesh in a bus. Accordingly,we stopped the vehicle atJeypore bus stand," he said.The accused revealed duringinterrogation that fromVisakhapatnam, he would havetaken the girls, all fromNabarangpur district, toChennai in Tamil Nadu toengage them in constructionwork, the SDPO said. All thegirls are in their teens, he said,adding that steps are beingtaken to hand over the rescuedgirls to their parents. "A racketis suspected to be operationalin the region, members ofwhich are trafficking children toother states by promising themlucrative jobs," Guntupalli said.Awareness campaigns havebeen launched in the area tomake people cautious abouthuman traffickers, he added.

PUDUCHERRY: LieutenantGovernor of Puducherry KiranBedi on Friday said ChiefMinister V Narayanasamy'sremark on her was'unparliamentary, uncalled for,uncivilised and uncouth, andunacceptable.' The ChiefMinister had on Thursdaycalled Bedi a demon, who wasposted in the Union Territory bythe Centre, because she hadallegedly been impedingimplementation of welfareschemes decided upon by theterritorial cabinet. The formerIPS officer aired her outrageagainst the Chief Minister in herwhatsapp message. She said,"Demons do not work for thelarger good and demons wanteverything for themselves andalso scare people." The ChiefMinister made the remark whileaddressing a meetingorganised by the rulingCongress to observe the 35thdeath anniversary of formerPrime Minister Indira Gandhi.

PNS n BENGALURU

Chief Minister B SYediyurappa on Friday calledupon people from differentregions living in Karnataka tolearn Kannada to strengthentheir bonding with the state,its culture and people.

He was addressing a gath-ering at Kanteerava Stadiumwhere the 64th KarnatakaRajyotsava, the foundationday of the State, was celebrat-ed in a grand manner.

He said the history ofKannada language is morethan 2,000 years, which wasenriched by great litterateurssuch as Pampa, Harihara,12th Century AD socialreformer Basavanna andKuvempu. Right from ancientliterature to medieval era lit-erature, renaissance, avant-garde, revolutionary litera-ture and Dalit literature con-tributed significantly toKannada, he added.

He pointed out that thestate is credited with havingeight Jnanapith awardees.

Prior to his address, hehoisted the Kannada flag alongwith the Indian tri-colour.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Shiromani Akali Dal presi-dent Sukhbir Singh Badal onFriday urged PM Modi toacquit Sikhs who had desert-ed the Army in the aftermathof the Operation Blue Star ofall charges, and treat them asex-servicemen by restoringall benefits to them.

In a letter to the primeminister, Badal also said jus-tice continued to elude thevictims of anti-Sikh riots of1984. "I am writing to you tobring to your notice the sagaof appalling injustice to theSikh community.... The guiltyare still at large and victimfamilies are wailing for jus-tice," he said.

Indian Army conductedOperation Blue Star to flushout militants from GoldenTemple in 1984. After theoperation, Badal said, 309Sikh soldiers left their barrackin a state of shock and laterthey were court-martialledand punished.

PNS n NEW DELHI

India and Germany haveresolved to intensify bilateraland multilateral cooperationto deal with the threats of ter-rorism and extremism, PrimeMinister Narendra Modi saidon Friday after holding wide-raging talks with GermanChancellor Angela Merkel.

After the two leaders co-chaired the fifth Inter-Governmental Consultations,India and Germany signed fivejoint declarations of intentand inked 11 pacts in fieldssuch as space, civil aviation,maritime technology, medi-cine and education.

"We have vowed to build'new India' by 2022 and exper-tise of technological, economicpowerhouses like Germanywill be useful for it," Modi saidin his press statement after themeeting.

"We have resolved to inten-sify bilateral and multilateralcooperation to deal with ter-rorism and extremism," headded.

India and Germany willcontinue cooperation to expe-dite reforms in UN SecurityCouncil, Modi said.

He said that India has invit-ed Germany to take advantage

of opportunities in defenceproduction in the defence cor-ridors in UP and Tamil Nadu.

"We have decided to tapcooperation possibilities in e-mobility, smart cities, cleaningof rivers and environmentalprotection," Modi said.

PNS n SRINAGAR

The PDP expelled its RajyaSabha member Nazir AhmadLaway from the party onFriday for "anti-party activi-ties", after he had attended theswearing-in ceremony of thenew Lieutenant Governor ofJammu and Kashmir.

"The member of RajyaSabha, Nazir Ahmed Laway,has been expelled from thebasic membership of the party,"a Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) spokesman said in astatement here.

The decision, he said, hasbeen taken by the party lead-ership in view of Laway's par-ticipation in the swearing-inceremony of the newlyappointed Lieutenant

Governor in Srinagar under-mining the party's stand.

He said that the participa-tion of the MP was in contra-vention to the party's standregarding the current politicalsituation and the revocation ofJammu and Kashmir's special

status under Article 370 of theConstitution.

G C Murmu was onThursday sworn in as lieu-tenant governor (L-G) ofJammu and Kashmir. Theunion territories of Jammuand Kashmir, and Ladakh,

have been carved out of thestate of Jammu and Kashmir, inaccordance with the govern-ment's August 5 decision torevoke the special status of thestate under Article 370 andbifurcate it into two UTs.

This is not for the first timethat Laway has gone against thedirectives and instructions ofthe party, the spokesman said.

Prior to this, Laway hadabstained from voting againstthe triple talaq bill in RajyaSabha this year.

Laway had torn a copy of theConstitution, along with PDPMP Mir Mohammed Fayaz, onAugust 5 before Union HomeMinister Amit Shah laid theJammu and KashmirReorganisation Bill in RajyaSabha.

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Delhi High Court wasinformed Friday that formerfinance minister PChidambaram, lodged in Tiharjail in the INX Media moneylaundering case, is fine anddoes not require hospitalisa-tion.

Solicitor General TusharMehta read out the report ofAIIMS Medical Board, set upon the court's order to exam-ine Chidambaram's health con-dition, and said the Congressleader does not require a ster-ile environment.

Justice Suresh Kait, who washearing Chidambaram's inter-im bail plea, directed the Tiharjail superintendent to provideclean and hygienic surround-ing to the 74-year old Congressleader as also home-cookedfood, mineral water, mosquitoprotection net and repellant.

The court also directed thatChidambaram's medical checkup be done regularly.

The court disposed of the

plea after senior advocate KapilSibal, representingChidambaram, said they donot require any further direc-tion.

The court had on Thursdaydirected the AIIMS director toconstitute a medical board togive opinion on the health ofChidambaram, who is suffer-ing from Crohn's disease.

Crohn's disease refers to theinflammation of the digestivetract leading to abdominalpain, diarrhoea and also weightloss.

The high court had saidthat the Hyderabad-based gas-troenterologist NageshwarReddy, who has been treatingthe Congress leader, be includ-ed in the board to give his opin-

ion on Chidambaram's medicalcondition.

Chidambaram has soughtinterim bail in the case, filed bythe Enforcement Directorate(ED), on medical grounds say-ing his condition is deteriorat-ing and he needs to be in a ster-ile environment.

He has sought interim relieffor six days to enable him toconsult and get examined byhis regular doctor, Reddy, at theAsian Institute ofGastroenterology (AIG) inHyderabad.

He has claimed that he needs"urgent medical treatment forthe acute and persistentabdominal pain being experi-enced" by him since October 5

due to Crohn's disease whichhe was diagnosed with in 2017.

The court was informed thatChidambaram's weight hasreduced from 73 kg to 66 kg,which showed that his condi-tion was deteriorating in cus-tody.

The court in its order direct-ed the AIIMS medical board togive opinion onChidambaram's condition,especially on whether herequires admission in sterileenvironment at the hospital.

It asked the AIIMS directorto constitute the board by 4 pmand the team of doctors willinclude Reddy.

The court made it clear thatthe board will meet at 7 pm and

if Reddy is unable to reach herefrom Hyderabad, the board willsit on Friday at 10 am and giveits opinion.

The interim bail applica-tion was filed inChidambaram's pending bailplea which is listed for hearingon November 4.

According to his interimbail plea, he was examined atthe All India Institute ofMedical Sciences (AIIMS) onOctober 7 and was prescribedan antibiotic and painkillersafter which the abdominalpain subsided.

Thereafter, the problemrecurred on October 22 and hewas examined on October 23at AIIMS and prescribed anew set of medicines. However,there was no relief from thepain, the application has con-tended.

Subsequently, he was exam-ined again at AIIMS onOctober 24 and October 26and tests were conducted atRam Manohar Lohia Hospitalon October 28.

INX case: Chidambaram fine, govt advocate tells HC

PNS n JAIPUR

Toll tax collection from privatevehicles on state highways hasbegun again from Friday mid-night in Rajasthan, 18 monthssince it was revoked by the pre-vious BJP-led government inthe state.

Private vehicles wereexempted from paying toll taxon state highways in April lastyear in Rajasthan, but theCongress government in thestate decided to reverse thedecision for maintenance andrepairing of roads.

A notification for toll taxcollection was issued by thegovernment on Thursday, fol-lowing which the exercise wasstarted from midnight.

The state government, in astatement, said repairing andmaintenance of the highwayswere being affected due to theprevious regime's decision,which was taken "hurriedlyand without consideration",adding that this was being

done in public interest and toensure that the exchequer wasnot burdened.

Since the former BharatiyaJanata Party (BJP) regime, ledby Vasundhara Raje, exempt-ed private vehicles from pay-

ing toll tax on 55 state high-ways, it led to a loss of Rs 172crore in toll tax collection, ascompared to financial year2017-18, which had an adverseimpact on road repair and con-struction works, according tothe statement.

Before the exemption wasaccorded to private vehicles,toll tax collection on variousstate highways fetched Rs 851crore annually and these high-ways were being properlymaintained, the governmentsaid. The collection of toll taxfrom commercial vehicles willcontinue.

PNS n LUCKNOW

Ahead of the Ayodhya case ver-dict, senior member of the AllIndia Muslim Personal LawBoard Maulana KhalidRasheed Firangi Mahali onFriday said imams shouldadvice Muslims to repose faithin the Constitution and judi-ciary and maintain communalharmony.

Chief Justice of India RanjanGogoi is expected to deliververdict in the Ayodhya casebefore his retirement onNovember 17.

In a statement here MaulanaKhalid said, "As media reportssuggest the Supreme Court'sjudgement on Ayodhya isgoing to come soon. You areaware of the fact that theAyodhya case is the biggest andmost sensitive case of inde-pendent India. The entirecountry and global communi-ty is looking towards the judge-ment. Hence, it is the respon-

sibility of every citizen to hon-our the judgement of the courtand maintain peace."

"My appeal is to every imamof various mosques to makeappeal that Muslims need notto feel afraid, but they shouldrepose faith in country'sConstitution and judiciary, andwhatever the judgement comes,we should honour it," he said.

Maulana Khalid alsoappealed to people not to

indulge in any type of celebra-tion after the judgement isout, not to indulge in sloga-neering nor undertake protests.

"No issue should be raisedwhich may hurt religious sen-timents. The fabric of commu-nal bonhomie and Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb should not beallowed to be damaged," hesaid.

A 5-judge Constitutionbench headed by the CJI had

reserved the verdict on October16 after concluding the 40-day-long hearing in the politicallysensitive case

Fourteen appeals have beenfiled in the apex court againstthe 2010 Allahabad High Courtjudgment, delivered in fourcivil suits, that the 2.77-acreland in Ayodhya be partitionedequally among three parties --the Sunni Waqf Board, theNirmohi Akhara and RamLalla.

It is theresponsibility ofevery citizen tohonour thejudgement of thecourt and maintainpeace, PersonalLaw BoardMaulana KhalidRasheed said

Pvt vehicles wereexempted from tollon state highwaysin April last year,but Congress govthas decided toreverse decision

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta read outthe report of AIIMS Medical Board, setup on the court's order to examineChidambaram's health condition, andsaid the Congress leader does notrequire a sterile environment

Kerala Congress (M) power tussle:Court dismisses Jose Mani's pleaPNS n KOTTAYAM (KER)

In yet another setback to JoseK Mani, a court in Idukki dis-trict on Friday upheld a lowercourt's order restraining himfrom officiating and discharg-ing any function as the chair-man of the Kerala Congress(M). The Munsiff court hadearlier issued an injunctionorder preventing Jose Manifrom officiating as the chair-man of the KC(M).

Challenging this, the Jose KMani faction filed an appealbefore the sub-court inKattappana in Idukki district.

The court dismissed the

plea observing there was noneed to intervene in thematter at this stage. Rival PJ Joseph faction in theKC(M) had secured a stayorder from the local courtagainst the election of Rajya

Sabha MP Jose K Mani asthe party chairman on June16.

Joseph, the working chair-man of the party, had declaredthe election as invalid andsaid it was against the partyconstitution.

The Jose K Mani faction hadclaimed that out of 437 statecommittee members of theparty, 325 attended the meet-ing which elected the newparty chairman.

Hailing the court's decisionon Friday, veteran leaderJoseph said Jose Mani has noposition in the party as he didnot agree with its constitution.

R’than restores toll on pvtvehicles on state highways

Narendra Modi

India andGermany willcontinuecooperation toexpedite reformsin UN SecurityCouncil, PMModi said

Mani faction hadclaimed that 325state committeemembers hadattended ameeting electednew partychairman

AIMPLB asks Muslims torepose faith in Constitution

PNS n BERHAMPUR (ODISHA)

Over 20 families in Ganjam dis-trict have not been given rationsupply after a panchayat bodydecided to stop the benefitsfrom reaching people who werefound defecating in open.

According to a decisiontaken at a panchayat meetingon October 20, the distributionof ration under the public dis-tribution system (PDS) wasstopped to over 20 families inlast 11 days, Sushant Swain, thesarpanch of Goutami pan-chayat in Sanakhemundi block,said.

However, Ganjam districtcollector Vijay Amruta Kunagesaid, the benefits underNational Food Security Act(NFSA) and State FoodSecurity Act (SFSA) to anyperson should not be curtailed.

If anyone was found defe-cating in open, particularly onroadside, the panchayat bodywill instruct the dealer con-cerned to stop giving ration tosuch people for a month, Swainsaid.

The move is aimed at mak-ing people aware of the need to

use toilets, he said.Around 300 women, all

members of a self-help group(SHG), patrol the open spacesin the panchayat from 3 AM to5 AM and 5 PM to 7 PM tokeep vigil on the violators, thesarpanch said.

"If they find anyone defecat-ing in the open, they inform thepanchayat. The women do thework voluntarily," he said.

Initially several villagers hadopposed the decision of thepanchayat but the number of

people defecating in the openwas now gradually reducing, heclaimed.

Those who do not have toi-lets in their houses have beenasked to build toilets in the nexttwo months under SwachhBharat Mission (SBM), Swainsaid.

Goutami panchayat hasaround 2,000 households witha population of 4,563. Of these,Of these, 180 families do nothave toilets in their houses atpresent, the sarpanch said.

Yedi urgespeople fromother states tolearn Kannada

Badal for Sikhdeserters tobe treated asex-servicemen

PDP expels MP for attending L-G Murmu’s oath

AYODHYA VERDICT AHEAD

India, Germany sign 17MoUs on maritime, agriPNS n NEW DELHI

Seventeen agreements havebeen signed between Indiaand Germany in the fields ofagriculture, maritime tech-nology, ayurveda and yogaamong others, the ExternalAffairs Ministry said.

Five joint declarations ofintent were also exchangedbetween India and Germany,the ministry said in a state-ment. The joint declarationsof intent included coopera-

tion on strategic projects,partnership for green urbanmobility, research and devel-opment on artificial intelli-gence and cooperation in thefield of prevention of marinelitter, it said.

German Chancel lorAngela Merkel, who is on atwo-day visit to India, saidthe agreements prove that tiesbetween the countries aremarching ahead in the area ofnew and advanced technolo-gy.

India, Germany to deepenterror combat ties: ModiNo ration to 20 Odisha families

for defecating in open

US President Donald Trump’sover-enthusiastic and cinemat-ic description of the end ofIslamic State (IS) leader AbuBakr al-Baghdadi notwithstand-

ing, the global reaction to the latest counter-terror operation was more nuanced and bal-anced. The global “war on terror”, which offi-cially started in the aftermath of the 9/11attacks, has continuously evolved and mutat-ed to include the likes of the IS and has sub-designated subsequent operational initiatives.Take for example, Operation InherentResolve.

Irrespective of nomenclature and terrororganisations involved, the “war on terror”has been conducted with numerous interna-tional powers, regional nations and sectar-ian militias, who often worked at cross-pur-poses. This chessboard-like landscape fre-quently distracted various forces fromfocussing on the principal terror organisa-tion ie, IS and, instead, checkmated eachother, while delaying the decimation of theIS’s infrastructure and leadership. Such anunaligned environment compromised on theoperational efficacy of the “war on terror”and most importantly allowed social justi-fications to the terror organisations to per-petuate their perverse logic.

The capture of Osama bin Laden in 2011did not automatically amount to neutralis-ing the very idea of Al Qaeda, which has sincesurvived in various metastasising inspirationsand formats across the world. Ironically, AbuBakr al-Baghdadi was himself taking coverin a territory in the Idlib province that wascontrolled by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham(HTS), which itself is an affiliate of Al Qaeda.Even the demise of Bin Laden eight years ago,the subsequent naming and shaming of hisatrocities and the emergence of the moredominant IS formation could not complete-ly obliterate the “idea” of this terroristorganisation. In the fight against terror, themaxim, “one terrorist killed gives rise to twonew terrorists”, holds true unless the “idea”of terror itself is addressed and not just thefoot-soldiers of the “idea.” Many Al Qaedaaffiliates today bear little resemblance or con-nection with each other, let alone any formof coordination. Yet, the “idea” has inspiredterror organisations in West Africa, NorthAfrica, Somalia, Spain, the Afghan-Pakregion to organisations as far as thePhilippines.

Former US President Barack Obama wasmore restrained, realistic and clinical in han-dling the “taking out” of Osama bin Ladenas he presumably realised both the enormi-ty of the act and yet the limitations of thesame in ending the “war on terror” thatnecessitated a more fundamental change ofsocietal perceptions. Obama had recognisedthe importance of remaining “inclusive” andnot giving into blustering rhetoric when hepresciently stated that “his (Osama’s) deathdoes not mark the end of our effort. There’sno doubt that Al Qaeda will continue to pur-

sue attacks against us.” He saga-ciously added, “We must alsoreaffirm that the US is not —and never will be — at war withIslam. I’ve made clear, just asPresident Bush did shortly after9/11, that our war is not againstIslam. Bin Laden was not aMuslim leader; he was a massmurderer of Muslims. Indeed, AlQaeda has slaughtered scores ofMuslims in many countries,including our own. So hisdemise should be welcomed byall who believe in peace andhuman dignity.”

No such reassuring tone oremotion was at display inTrump’s moment whenBaghdadi was killed. He gloat-ed inelegantly about the terror-ist “crying, screaming and whim-pering” besides adding thatBaghdadi “died like a dog.” In apolarised world, increasing voic-es of “us versus them” played outopenly. This conveniently andunfairly lumped people togeth-er by virtue of their religiosity,nationality or even the topicalstatus as US “allies.” In thisbackdrop, the opportunity tohonour the moment by talkingabout the regressive “idea” thatbesets terrorism in a sensitiveway was lost to the usual urgencyof self-aggrandisement byTrump.

While the end of Baghdadi

is an important milestone, it wasalmost foretold with his organ-isation getting diminished con-siderably in the recent past.Importantly, the genesis of boththe Al Qaeda earlier and IS laterwas based on extreme anti-Americanism, a sentiment thathad festered in the region forlong and one that was exploitedby these terror organisations.

In 1997, Osama bin Ladenhad said, “As a result of an arro-gant atmosphere, the US hastoday set a double standard, call-ing whoever goes against itsinjustice a terrorist.” A potentmix of the prevailing sense ofinjustice, ignorance and reli-gious benefaction was mali-ciously invoked by such-likeforces, ably aided by the belliger-ence of the US actions that per-sisted with the “us versus them”divide. This fundamental battleof perceptions between the US’efforts and the locals in conflictzones is an age-old one withAmerica repeatedly displayingvery limited and selfish objec-tives, then bolting out immedi-ately on achieving them andleaving a dangerous vacuumthat is often filled by the likes ofIS. This selfish short-sightednessof the US is what germinated theTaliban after it vacatedAfghanistan in the early 1990sand this is exactly what germi-

nated the IS when it vacated Iraq(after Saddam Hussein’s hang-ing) at the hands of sectarianmilitias.

As the most dominant inter-ventionist in global conflicts, theUS has to tackle the battle of per-ceptions in negating the “idea”that gives rise to forces like theTaliban, IS or Al Qaeda. The not-so-subtle mention of the“Muslim ban” during the presi-dential question and answersession following Baghdadi’skilling was exactly the sort ofcontextualisation that is unhelp-ful, unwarranted and unfair.

All the historical injustices,discrimination and double-stan-dards that were committed bythe colonists earlier and by theUS more recently, are the criti-cal closure-points that can negatethe “idea”, rather than just theelimination of terrorists. Historyof all successful counter-insur-gency closures in the worldpoint out the change in percep-tion of the locals, which thenresults in the suffocation of anylocal support system for the ter-ror infrastructure to survive.Till that happens, the killing ofany terrorist, however senior inranking, is still just a statistic.

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

The dragon will continue to spew fire andspeak in a forked tongue. All of India’s effortsto contain China vis-a-vis Pakistan through

“informal” and “friendly summits” and engagein the practical context of economics beyond pol-itics have yielded little result. For China again blewhot on the Union Territory status given to Ladakhand termed the reorganisation of Jammu andKashmir “unlawful and void.” It went even fur-ther to claim that Ladakh now “includes” someof China’s territory in its administrative jurisdic-

tion. Not only this, it said the FATF (Financial Action Task Force), the money laun-dering watchdog, had no business to blacklist nations but should help them counterterrorist funding and networks. As the statements were issued in rapid succes-sion, China proved that Pakistan would be its all-weather friend and a potent coun-terweight against India. The Government understands the need for such postur-ing and accommodates China despite that. It doesn’t even officially commenton China’s own controversial moves and decisions and has been clarifying thatthe upgraded status of Ladakh didn’t automatically mean a change on the Lineof Actual Control (LAC). So this constant needling was impetus enough to givea strong rejoinder to Beijing and ask it to refrain from commenting on our inter-nal matters. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, too, has been facing heat from theOpposition for not raising with Chinese President Xi Jinping the pro-democracyprotests being muzzled in Hong Kong, human rights violations in Xinjiang, con-tinued oppression in Tibet and Beijing’s shenanigans in South China Sea. So thisresponse showed that we have a backbone at least and won’t allow walkovers.

It is surprising that China, which till now had been more nuanced, resortedto provocation so soon after the Modi-Xi summit. India must raise China’s occu-pation of about 38,000 sq km of Aksai Chin and 5,800 sq km in Shaksgam Valleyof Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK) and question vehemently its claims overlarge parts of Arunachal Pradesh. China approached the Security Council despiteviolating its principles. It violated the status quo by annexing a part of Kashmirin 1963, building the Karakoram highway through what it calls “disputed” terri-tory for its convenience and more recently the corridor project in PoK. Thoughthe bilateral relationship has been swinging from cooperative to competitive bouts,New Delhi would do well to parry Beijing’s diplomatic blows with its own strate-gic ones, like excluding Huawei from 5G. Our market force will neutralise hypocrisy.

Information warfare is winning elections,changing regimes and recasting people’sopinions and policy across the world. And

social media platforms have emerged as thefavoured tools given their porosity and vulner-abilities. Hackers are being used to spread mal-ware across the information highway, commis-sioned by vested interests, corporations andeven governments, to mine sensitive data.Clearly, social messaging platform WhatsApphas not been able to proof itself from hackerswho have injected 1.5 billion phones with sur-

veillance software despite an update in May. Many experts then had even warnedthat the military-grade software transmitted through something as basic as a missedcall could now be used by less sophisticated hackers. So it is no surprise thatthe messaging company has now confirmed that an Israeli spyware, called Pegasus,was used by operators to spy on journalists and human rights activists in India.It said it was aware of those targetted and had reached out to them but refusedto put out a number though it claimed it was “not insignificant.” Although theGovernment has sought a response from WhatsApp and the company itself issuing NSO, the Israeli firm behind the snooping technology, there are questionsabout the nature and intent of the operation. NSO claims that it usually works withGovernments and its agencies across the world as their big brother. The 1,400affected users span four continents and include diplomats, political dissidents,activists, journalists and senior government officials. Which means that the estab-lishments of nation states were involved in some way. The spyware itself is veryeffective in profiling a person on both his private and public domains and, there-fore, most relied upon as a watchdog. If the user clicks on an exploit link, it allowsthe operator to penetrate security features on the phone without the user’s knowl-edge. It can then control the phone and gain access to information like passwords,contact lists, calendar events, text messages, mails and percolate to other appsloaded on it. Given this pattern, could the India episode really have an official endorse-ment of sorts as is being feared? The names of those targetted certainly seemto confirm doubts considering that they are all critics of mainstream discourseand have been rights champions. Besides stifling dissent has not been restrictedto the cyberspace but is now common across India. Apart from journalists whohave been critical of the Government, the list includes activists who are Left-lean-ing, sympathetic to the Dalits in the Bhima-Koregaon case and even those work-ing at the grassroots in Chhattisgarh. Looking back at the harsh crackdowns onactivists of Bhima Koregaon and charging them with something as serious as sedi-tion, the takedown and trolling of anybody who is a truth-seeker, ruining the careerfate of journalists daring to present an alternative perspective, it takes no rocketscience to conclude that the move could have been politically motivated. Besides,the process is costly. If not the Government then at least the ruling BJP comeswithin the arc of suspicion. Perhaps, that’s the reason Union Communicationsand IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, too, took a swipe at surveillance drills in theUPA era, saying they did not even spare former President Pranab Mukherjee. Butwhataboutery in no way dilutes the bigger picture that regardless of the politicalestablishment of the day, each regime, both at home and around the world, iscreating an Orwellian matrix, chipping away at free speech and thinking and track-ing you down to scare you from exercising basic human rights. The democracythat social media has so far guaranteed is actually at most threat on its own turf.

According to the US-based Forrester report, India is in the list of countrieswhere government surveillance has become a major concern from a data pri-vacy perspective. Come January 2020, a new set of rules for platforms that allowpeople to send and share messages will mean that they can be monitored andintercepted in the name of national security and controlling misinformation. It nowwants WhatsApp to use automated tools for messages so that, like China, it cantake down specific messages and even trace them back to the original sender.It is this that has sparked fears of a witch-hunt. State-sponsored snooping maynot affect the common man so much, except for mapping his lifestyle and behav-ioural choices, but clearly discourages the expression of a thinking mind. TheSupreme Court had said that privacy is “the constitutional core of human digni-ty.” But given the targetted breaches, that dignity has been compromised.

Breach most foul

Kashmir saga

Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Unwelcome visit” (October30). Post the abrogation of Article370, a clampdown in the Valleywas in order but it cannot be pro-longed beyond a point. TheBharatiya Janata Party (BJP) per-haps feared a political whiplashand adverse impact on itsprospects in the Maharashtraand Haryana Assembly elections.Its political bravado was evi-dently short-lived.

But having now felt the grow-ing national unease through theAssembly election results, theBJP must realise the futility ofextending the siege in the Valley.The visit of MPs from theEuropean Union (EU) to get a“first-hand feel” of the ground sit-uation or any other ploy will onlyhelp to the extent of buying time.Otherwise, it will compound theburden of remedy.

International opinion is fick-le; though it is favourable today,it can abruptly change tomorrow.The sooner we move on to thenext phase the quicker we can putthe Kashmir episode behind us.

R NarayananMumbai

Simplify GST norms

Sir — Recent media reports havementioned the steps taken tocheck large-scale evasion of theGoods and Services Tax (GST) by

way of false claim of input taxcredit (ITC), which includes cap-ping the number of invoices intune with business turnover.

The Government has alreadyamended the rules to restrict theITC to 20 per cent of the eligible

amount for an entity in case thesupplier has not uploaded rele-vant invoice.

All such steps will rather fur-ther complicate the already-cum-bersome GST system. A simplerway may be to retain the ITC sys-

tem only for trade activities, abol-ishing it from manufacture andservice sector. In such a scenario,only two basic GST rates of 10 and25 per cent can replace the vari-ous GST slabs. Increasing the GSTfor gold, silver and diamonds to10 per cent may not result in dou-ble taxation. Cess should bereplaced by additional GST slabs;petrol and diesel should alsocome under the GST system.

Madhu AgrawalDelhi

Irresponsible leader

Sir — It isn’t surprising thatCongress leader Rahul Gandhi willskip the 10-day agitation organisedby his party to protest against keyissues under the ModiGovernment. The timing of hiscurrent “meditation trip” has raisedeyebrows. That Rahul will miss outon a golden opportunity to con-front the Modi Government speaksvolumes not only about his polit-ical inexperience but also hisinability to lead the party.

SwetaVia email

P A P E R W I T H P A S S I O N

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op nionHYDERABAD | SATURDAY | NOVEMBER 2, 2019

06

War on terror not over yet

BHOPINDER SINGH

While Baghdadi has been eliminated, the US has to tackle the battle of perceptions innegating the idea that gives rise to forces like the Taliban, IS or Al Qaeda

We don't want to be in such aweather outside in the field forsix or seven hours. Threehours a game we are playingand three hours of practice.

Bangladesh coach—Russell Domingo

S O U N D B I T E

L E T T E R S T O TT H E E D I T O R

Gurudas Dasgupta: A doyen of trade union

With the demise of communist leader GurudasDasgupta, the Indian trade union movement haslost a doyen. Known for his oratory skills,

Dasgupta spent three terms in the Rajya Sabha and twoin the Lok Sabha. As the general secretary of the All IndiaTrade Union Council (AITUC), he transformed the lesser-known trade union into a major force, even surpassing theCommunist Party of India (Marxist)’s Centre of Indian TradeUnions (CITU) in membership. He was the man whobrought unity of all trade unions, including the BharatiyaMazdoor Sangh (BMS) and the Indian National Trade UnionCongress (INTUC) during the UPA Government and organ-ised a nation-wide strike that saw the participation of morethan 20 crore workers from the public sector.

As far as his parliamentary career is concerned,Dasgupta’s turning point came in the early 1990s whenhe raised the Harshad Mehta scandal in Parliament, expos-ing several irregularities. The scam shook the securitiesmarket and forced the then Narasimha Rao Governmentto set up a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) to probethe issue. He was a member of the JPC on the securitiesscam that was headed by Congressman Ram NiwasMirdha. His party colleagues still recall his fiery interro-

gation of bureaucrats in the committee along with lateCPI(M) leader Somnath Chatterjee. Unhappy with the con-clusions of the JPC, Dasgupta even wrote an alternativereport, naming a couple of individuals which the officialreport left out. The alleged 2G scam saw the best ofDasgupta as a lawmaker. He was the most active mem-ber of the JPC on 2G, the first Left leader, who accusedformer Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of “derelictionof duty” and finally gave a long dissent note as the PCChacko-led panel’s report was favourable to theGovernment.

Abhijit RoyJamshedpur

IT WAS THESELFISH SHORT-

SIGHTEDNESS OFTHE US THAT

GERMINATED THETALIBAN AFTER

IT VACATEDAFGHANISTAN IN

THE EARLY 1990SAND THIS IS

EXACTLY WHATGERMINATED THE

IS WHEN ITVACATED IRAQ

(AFTER SADDAMHUSSEIN’S

HANGING) AT THEHANDS OF

SECTARIANMILITIAS

Send yyour ffeedback tto:letterstopioneer@gmail.com

Bold reproachWhen our athletes representour country in a foreignland, more Indians shouldvisit these events to cheerfor them, to motivate them.

Bollywood actor—Amitabh Bachchan

As WhatsApp tries to undo its shame of snooping malware,questions arise about why civil society was targetted

China has been poking the elephant all too much.The MEA statement was rightfully strident Taxi companies have been

directed to not surge prices during the odd-even drive. I alsourge all auto-rickshaw drivers tostrictly run by meter.

Delhi Chief Minister—Arvind Kejriwal

All Opposition parties havegathered at one platform togive a message to PM Khanthat the time has come forhim to step down.

PML-N president—Shehbaz Sharif

Govt must learn to let PSUs go

POINTCOUNTERPOINT

In the Budget presented on July 5, UnionFinance Minister Nirmala Sitharamanannounced disinvestment of the

Government’s shareholding in public sectorundertakings (PSUs) to a level below 51 per centon a “case-by-case” basis. The Cabinet Committeeon Economic Affairs (CCEA) is expected toapprove this policy soon.

The 51 per cent threshold is very crucial asshareholding at this level or above enables theGovernment to have majority ownership andcontrol over the undertaking. If the holding isreduced to below 51 per cent, this will lead torelinquishment of majority ownership and con-trol, or privatisation in plain words. This will betransformative — a bold reform indeed. But, holdyour breath, there is a caveat appended to it.

In the Budget speech, Sitharaman hadexplained that the intent was to change the extantpolicy of the Government “directly” holding 51per cent or above in a PSU to one whereby itstotal holding, “direct” and “indirect,” is main-tained at 51 per cent. This caveat changes theentire complexion of the stated intent. So, whatis “indirect” holding?

To illustrate, let us take the case of the IndianOil Corporation Limited (IOCL). In addition toits direct shareholding of 51.5 per cent, the UnionGovernment has majority shares (above 51 percent) in a number of other PSUs which in turn,hold shares in IOCL. Thus, Life InsuranceCorporation (LIC), which is 100 per cent ownedby the Centre, holds 6.5 per cent shares in IOCL.The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC)which is 63 per cent owned by the Government,holds 14 per cent shares in IOCL. Likewise, OilIndia Limited (OIL) which is 60 per cent ownedby the Government, holds 5 per cent shares inIOCL.

The “indirect” shareholding of the UnionGovernment in IOCL via its holdings in the threeother PSUs, viz LIC, ONGC and OIL, works outto 18.3 per cent (6.5x1 + 14x0.63 + 5x0.6).However, when it comes to control or ability toinfluence decisions of IOCL, the “indirect”contribution will be 25.5 per cent (6.5x1 + 14x1+ 5x1) as the predominant view of the majorityshareholder, that is the Centre in LIC, ONGC andOIL, would prevail. Including “indirect,” the effec-tive control of the Union Government in IOCLis 77 per cent (51.5 per cent+25.5 per cent).

With these numbers in the backdrop, whatthe Finance Minister is alluding to is that the“direct” shareholding of the Government in IOCLcan be reduced from the existing 51.5 per centto 25.5 per cent. With this, technically thoughit may have changed its status to that of a minor-ity shareholder with a mere 25.5 per cent hold-ing, including the “indirect” control will still giveit a majority share of 51 per cent.

Thus, contrary to what one may infer froma plain reading of the numbers that the ModiGovernment has taken a bold decision to priva-tise IOCL, in reality it is not so. With theGovernment continuing to retain overarchingcontrol, the very purpose of the exercise — whichis to entice a strategic investor to come and trans-form the way an enterprise is run, make it growfaster and enhance its competitiveness in anincreasingly challenging world — will be defeat-ed.

True, with the Government’s shareholding

dipping below 51 per cent and theundertaking stripped off the PSU tag,it can avoid coming under the scannerof the statutory watchdogs like theCentral Bureau of Investigation (CBI),Central Vigilance Commission (CVC),Comptroller and Auditor General(CAG). But, continuous interference bythe political brass and bureaucratscan’t be ruled out. Hence, the strategicinvestor will think many times beforetaking the plunge.

A major reason as to why last yearthe sale of Air India could not gothrough had to do with theGovernment’s decision then to retain 24per cent shareholding, which discour-aged bidders (this anomaly has nowbeen corrected with the offer of 100 percent of its shareholding under the saleplan during the current year).

With change of policy stance toretain 51 per cent shareholding (albeitdirect plus indirect) in PSUs up forstrategic sale — the reluctance amonginvestors will be even greater. This willalso affect the Government’s ability tofetch a good price though this can’t byitself be an objective of strategic sale.

Collateral damage has to do withthe Government losing policy spacewith regard to its future course of actionon undertakings whose continuedmajority ownership is necessary forexercising “indirect” control over thesaid PSU (IOCL is an example) to therequired extent.

If, at some future point of time, itwants to undertake privatisation of sayOIL, it won’t be able to do it as that willhave the inevitable effect of losing con-trol over IOCL as well.

A decision with regard to an under-

taking should be made taking intoaccount the circumstances facing it andin the overriding interest of maintain-ing its health, competitiveness andgrowth. Its fate can’t be tied to that ofany other PSU which the Governmentwants to control.

The very concept of looking at indi-rect control to arrive at a decision ondisinvestment militates against thisfundamental tenet.

The instinct of the Government toretain control even while executing itsstrategic disinvestment plans is dis-cernible even in its previous actions.During 2017-18, it sold 51.11 per centof its shareholding in HindustanPetroleum Corporation Limited(HPCL) to ONGC. In 2018-19, it sold52.63 per cent of its shareholding inRural Electrification Corporation(REC) to Power Finance Corporation(PFC).

Though touted as good examples ofstrategic sale, in reality it was not so, aseven after relinquishing 51 per cent plusshareholding, the Government contin-ues to exercise full control (albeit indi-rectly) over HPCL/REC by virtue ofbeing majority owner in the acquirernamely, ONGC/PFC.

During the current year also, it iscontinuing with this strategy as reflect-ed in its decision to sell all of its 100 percent stake in North Eastern ElectricPower Corporation (NEEPCO) and 75per cent in THDC India Limited.

These shares will be picked up byNational Thermal Power Corporation(NTPC) and NHPC Limited respective-ly which are majority owned by theGovernment. So, post-divestment, theownership and control of NEEPCO and

THDC India will remain with theUnion Government (albeit indirectly).

The only case where the ModiGovernment has shown gumption to gofor strategic disinvestment in the truesense of the term is in its decision to sellall of its 53.29 per cent shareholding inBharat Petroleum Corporation Limited(BPCL) — the refiner and retailer ofpetroleum products — to a privateinvestor. This will result in transfer ofthe ownership and management con-trol — lock, stock and barrel — to theacquirer.

This has generated huge interestamong all global energy majors likeSaudi Aramco (Saudi Arabia), Total SA(France), ExxonMobil (USA), RoyalDutch Shell (UK/Netherlands), BP Plc(UK) and so on.

Post-acquisition by any of thesegiants, BPCL will become an integralpart of the global supply chain and willbe able to operate free from all encum-brances, take quick decisions and runefficiently as per global standards fordelivering low cost and best qualityproducts.

The Government should follow theBPCL model for undertaking disinvest-ment of all other PSUs. Its instinct toretain control, by hook or by crook,should give way to wholesome trans-fer of ownership and authority to pri-vate investors.

While being in the best interest ofthe undertaking, this will also garnerrequired resources for the exchequer ata time when it is facing a huge short-fall in tax collection even as expendi-ture continues to grow.

(The writer is a New Delhi-basedpolicy analyst)

Privatisation and controls can’t go hand-in-hand. The Centre’s instinct to retain its hold on PSUsindirectly should give way to wholesome transfer of ownership and authority to private investors

analysis 07F I R S T C O L U M N

A vital foreignpolicy tool

SOURAJIT AIYER

UTTAM GUPTA

THE ONLY CASEWHERE THE MODI

GOVERNMENTHAS SHOWN THE

GUMPTION TO GOFOR STRATEGIC

DISINVESTMENT INTHE TRUE SENSE

OF THE TERM IS IN ITS DECISION

TO SELL ALL OF ITS

53.29 PER CENTSHAREHOLDING

IN BHARATPETROLEUM

CORPORATIONLIMITED TO A

PRIVATEINVESTOR.

THIS WILL RESULTIN TRANSFER OFTHE OWNERSHIP

ANDMANAGEMENT

CONTROL —LOCK, STOCK AND

BARREL — TO THEACQUIRER

Climate change has woven itself into India’s foreign policy inrecent years, right from its leadership to operationalise theInternational Solar Alliance (ISA), to Prime Minister Narendra

Modi raising the climate threat at the World Economic Forum (WEF),and the UN General Assembly (UNGA), or the Indian Navy posi-tioning itself as a relief-services provider during natural disastersin the region. Historically, economic growth had been critical fornations with large populations, given the massive burden of jobcreation that they have. However, due to its susceptibility to cli-mate risks owing to the diverse ecology and geography, India wascompelled to take cognisance of environmental degradation andclimate change that arise due to our current model of economicgrowth. Moreover, participating in global climate discourses notonly gives the country resources to tackle those risks, it also givesIndia an opportunity to enlarge its role on the world stage.

India’s foreign policy outreach itself has seen a renewed boostunder its current Government, focussing on a multi-polar engage-ment model. It deepened its ties with larger global powers like Russia,the US, Japan and China while also taking firm steps of friend-ship with the middle-level powers like Australia, the European Union,the ASEAN under its ‘Act East’ policy, South Asia under its‘Neighbourhood First’ policy, the Middle East under its ‘Link West’policy and with Africa, by setting up the India-Africa Forum. Climatechange cooperation has been on the agenda on many occasionsin the bilateral meets with most of these countries. One of the objec-tives for this was to convey India’s pro-activeness in taking theclimate discourse forward, especially as it was presumed this rolewould be largely limited to the developed countries. It also reaf-firms India’s standing as a responsible global actor, ultimately augur-ing well for its role on the world stage.

India is positioned to leverage climate change-related policyin furthering its geopolitical outreach with the developed countries,especially those making concerted efforts to address this risk. Thatwould give it better mileage to deepen those bilateral ties into fur-ther areas of strategic cooperation, be it investment, trade, defenceor counter-terrorism. In short, climate can be the fodder to cre-ate further dividends from those relationships. A pertinent exam-ple is India’s ties with France, which strengthened across multi-ple sectors following their cooperation to set up the ISA.

Apart from developed nations, the fight against climate changegives India leverage with the developing countries as well. Sinceit could never match China’s wallet when it came to funding hardinfrastructure in low-income nations in Asia, Africa or Latin America,New Delhi resorted to soft infrastructure building in key areas likehealth and education with such partners.

Climate change cooperation now offers the country anotheravenue in this soft diplomacy approach and expands its geopo-litical influence with the developing world. At the global climate nego-tiations, India has pursued a policy of common but differentiatedresponsibilities when it comes to emissions, the aim being to holdthe developed countries more responsible owing to their decades-long industrialisation drive. Thus, just like it was a flag-bearer ofthe developing world during the Cold War era’s Non-AlignedMovement (NAM), it is now seen as a flag-bearer for the devel-oping countries at the global climate table.

An issue that remains in this context is the intertwining of India’sglobal climate agenda with energy security, to meet the energy needsof its billion-plus population. While energy poverty is as impor-tant an issue as economic growth to India, its climate agenda mustbecome more expansive. Other sectors should be part of the coun-try’s agenda in its climate negotiations. One example is agricul-ture, critical for a country where a large proportion of the work-force is still farm-dependent. It is also a major cause of emissionsand a victim of climate risks. In conclusion, climate change is nowa vital tool in India’s geopolitical efforts. It gives the country anopportunity to broaden its sphere of influence and deepen its bilat-eral ties in various strategic areas. Moreover, it allows it to achieveforeign policy gains without the commensurate need to alwaysexpand the security domain, which had traditionally been one pil-lar for expanding foreign relations. As climate negotiations becomemore enmeshed in global geopolitics, it would help India furthersolidify its brand as a responsible global actor. But the true testfor India would be the quantum of climate finance flows it is ableto win from the developed countries. The largest multilateral cli-mate fund, the Green Climate Fund, has a limit for India which isfar dwarfed by its actual requirements to address climate risks.Time will tell how much dividend was realised by leveraging cli-mate change in India’s geopolitical strategy.

(The writer is an author and consultant with a leading business insights portal)

India, along with China, is amongthose nations that have good rela-tions with both Saudi Arabia and

Iran. This helps them to diversifytheir oil imports, especially after theUS withdrew sanctions waivers foroil imports from Iran. Energy secu-rity is a crucial aspect of PrimeMinister Narendra Modi’s visit toSaudi Arabia. India gets 18 per centof its crude oil and 22 per cent of itsLiquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG)requirements from the kingdom.

A memorandum of understand-ing (MoU) was signed betweenAramco and Indian StrategicPetroleum Reserves Limited(ISPRL). Aramco can sell Indianrefiners a portion of the 4.6 millionbarrels of oil stored at the ISPRL

facility in Padur, Karnataka. Theseinvestments are a way to rope in bigIndian refiners as customers. Indiahas huge energy needs and Gulf pro-ducers like Saudi Arabia are keen tohelp satisfy this demand.

Ellen R Wald, president ofTransversal Consulting, says, “SaudiAramco is a major supplier of oil toIndia. The sanctions on Iranianshave only increased Saudi Arabia’simportance as a reliable source of oilto the growing Indian market. At thesame time, Aramco sees India as animportant growth area and is look-ing to grow its investment in thecountry in the refining sector.”

Hasan Alhassan, associate fellowon Gulf-South Asia relations at theInternational Institute for StrategicStudies, says, “By inviting PrimeMinister Modi to deliver the keynoteaddress at its apex economic sum-mit, Saudi Arabia wants to showcaseto the world the strength of its grow-ing relations with India, a keyemerging power. In return, the visitwill enable Modi to claim that hisGovernment’s controversial deci-

sion on Jammu & Kashmir has donenothing to harm India’s relationswith Muslim countries.

“On the economic front, Modiis probably hoping to inject momen-tum into planned Saudi invest-ments in India’s refining and petro-chemicals sector, reportedly worthtens of billions of dollars. SaudiAramco is negotiating the purchaseof a sizeable portion of RelianceIndustries’ refining and petrochem-ical business, while teaming upwith Abu Dhabi’s Adnoc to set up amassive refinery in Maharashtra.

“Moreover, Modi’s visit — pre-ceded a few weeks earlier byNational Security Advisor (NSA)Ajit Doval’s appearance in Riyadh —also appears to carry a security com-ponent in the form of joint navalexercises and cooperation agree-ments in the area of defence pro-curement.” Against the backdrop ofthe drone-and-missile attacks onSaudi Aramco in September, NewDelhi is anxious to avoid militaryescalation in the Gulf, a region thatsupplies India with almost two

thirds of its oil imports and is hometo millions of NRIs.

Saudi Arabia as a leading Islamicnation and the custodian of the twoholy mosques, Harmain Shareefainand Al-Masjid an-Nabawi, can offerIndia its support on the Kashmirissue.

Ashok K Behuria, senior fellowand coordinator of the South AsiaCentre at New Delhi-based thinktank Institute for Defence Studiesand Analyses (IDSA) says this pointof view is flawed. He says that “weshould stop looking at India-Saudirelations from the narrow prism ofKashmir or Indo-Pak relations.India and Saudi Arabia are enhanc-ing strategic dialogue. The India-Saudi relationship is a multi-layeredstrategic relationship with energy,investment and defence cooperationin its purview.”

Qamar Agha, retired professorof West Asia Studies at Jamia MilliaIslamia University, says that “untilnow, Saudi Arabia looked at Indiathrough the Pakistan prism butthat’s in the past now. Globalisation

is forcing India and Saudi Arabia tocome closer. Ideology and politicsare in the back seat and economicsis the driver of the relationship.”

Bilateral trade is $27.5 billion,mostly in petroleum products, infavour of Saudi Arabia and $5 bil-lion in favour of India. Saudi Arabiais now looking to invest $100 billionin India, a country with a huge mid-dle-class of 250-300 million people.

Though at present the GrossDomestic Product (GDP) growthrate of the India has slipped to fiveper cent in the first quarter of thefinancial year, the lowest in over sixyears, there are hectic efforts beingmade by the Government to ensureeconomic recovery through concert-ed fiscal reforms.

The Indian economy is at the$2.7 trillion mark and FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharamanexpects it to grow to $5 trillion by2024-25. Also, over 2.6 millionIndians work in Saudi Arabia andsend home remittances to the tuneof $10 billion or more annually.

The main driver in India-Saudi

Arabia relations might not be ener-gy ties or search for legitimacyfrom the country that is custodianof the two holy mosques. It is strate-gic cooperation and defence ties.

The Strategic PartnershipCouncil chaired by Modi and Saudicrown prince Mohammad binSalman was established during thisvisit. India and Saudi Arabia willhave their first-ever joint navalexercise in December. An MoU oncooperation in defence productionwas also signed.

Talmiz Ahmad, former Indianambassador to Saudi Arabia, Omanand the UAE, says, “The strategicdimension of the ties is important.India-Saudi ties have been institu-tionalised. A strategic platform fordialogue between the NSAs hasbeen created. The relationship hasmoved from one dependent onenergy sales.”

An MoU has even been signedconcerning collaboration in militaryacquisition, industries, research,development and technologybetween Saudi General Authority of

Military Industries (GAMI) andDepartment of Defence Production,Ministry of Defence.

Cooperation in civil aviation wasalso discussed and Saudi Arabialooks to increase business to its flagcarrier Saudia.

Colby Connelly, research asso-ciate at the Arab Gulf States Institutein Washington, who works on thepolitical economy of the GCC States,says, “The Indian civil aviationmarket is huge for Saudi Arabia’sefforts to make Saudia, its nationalcarrier, profitable by 2020. Saudia’sacquisition of more than 60 newfuel-efficient Airbus A320 family air-craft will surely bolster its capabili-ty to compete in this market. Asidefrom the enormous amount of directair traffic between the kingdom andIndia on a daily basis, Saudia mayalso seek to compete with QatarAirways and UAE-based airlines asa transit point for journeys betweenIndia and North America.”

(The writer is a journalist whospecialises in geopolitics of India’sneighbourhood and cyber security)

A friendship fuelled by energy and regional securityWhile energy security is a crucial aspect of India's relationship with Saudi Arabia, the cooperation between

the two nations has now progressed to strategic cooperation and defence ties

AVEEK SEN

HYDERABAD | SATURDAY | NOVEMBER 2, 2019

www.dailypioneer.com

INDIA ANNOUNCED ESTABLISHMENT OF J&K AND LADAKHUNION TERRITORIES WHICH INCLUDED SOME OF CHINA'S

TERRITORY INTO ITS ADMINISTRATIVE JURISDICTION.—CHINA'S FOREIGN MINISTRY SPOKESMAN

GENG SHUANG

IT (CHINA) HAS ALSO ILLEGALLY ACQUIRED INDIANTERRITORIES FROM POK UNDER THE SO-CALLED CHINA-PAKISTAN BOUNDARY AGREEMENT OF 1963.—EXTERNAL AFFAIRS MINISTRY SPOKESPERSON RAVEESH KUMAR

India’s climate change fight gives it an opportunityto broaden its global sphere of influence anddeepen bilateral ties in many strategic areas

HYDERABAD | SATURDAY | NOVEMBER 2, 2019 money 08

CAPSULE

TVS Motor salesdown 19 pc inOctoberNEW DELHI: TVS Motor Co onFriday reported a 18.83 percent decline in total sales inOctober at 3,23,368 units. Thecompany, which primarilymakes two-wheelers andthree-wheelers, had sold3,98,427 units in the samemonth last year, TVS MotorCompany said in a statement.Total two-wheeler sales duringthe month stood at 3,08,161units as against 3,84,307 unitsin October 2018, down 19.81per cent. Domestic two-wheeler sales stood at2,52,684 units last month ascompared to 3,38,988 units inOctober 2018, a decline of25.45 per cent, it added. Totalexports increased 20 per centto 69,339 units last month ascompared with 57,926 units inOctober 2018.

GST collectionsremain subdued atRs 95,380 cr in OctNEW DELHI: The Goods and

Services Tax (GST) collectionin October declined to Rs95,380 crore, as against Rs1,00,710 crore in the samemonth a year ago, as pergovernment data released onFriday. This is the thirdconsecutive month when GSTmop-up remained below theRs 1 lakh crore mark, despiteOctober being a festive month.The revenue collection inSeptember stood at Rs 91,916crore. "The gross GST revenuecollected in the month ofOctober, 2019 is Rs 95,380crore of which CGST is Rs17,582 crore, SGST is Rs23,674 crore, IGST is Rs46,517 crore (including Rs21,446 crore collected onimports) and Cess is Rs 7,607crore (including Rs 774 crorecollected on imports)," thefinance ministry said in astatement. It further said thetotal number of GSTR 3Breturns (summary of self-assessed return) filed for themonth of September (up toOctober 30) was 73.83 lakh.

VE CommercialVehicles total salesdecline 37 pc in OctNEW DELHI: VE CommercialVehicles Ltd, a Volvo Groupand Eicher Motors jointventure, on Friday reported a37.2 per cent decline in totalsales at 3,755 units inOctober. The company hadsold 5,980 units in Octoberlast year, VE CommercialVehicles Ltd (VECV) said in astatement. Eicher brandedtrucks and buses recordedsales of 3,681 units in Octoberas compared to 5,826 units inthe same month last year, adecline of 30.8 per cent, itadded. Volvo Trucks recordedsales of 74 units last month asagainst 154 units in October2018, down 51.9 per cent.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Sanjeev Nandan Sahai hasassumed charge as Secretary ofthe Power Ministry on Friday."Sanjeev Nandan Sahaiassumed charge as Secretary,Ministry of Power here today.Prior to this, he was serving asthe Special Secretary in theMinistry of Power," the ministrysaid in a statement.

Sahai is a UT cadre IAS offi-cer of 1986 batch. He has alsoserved as Additional Secretaryin the Ministry of Power fromMay,2018 to July, 2019, accord-ing to the statement.

Along with these, Sahai hasheld several other importantpositions in the Union as well asstate governments. These includeDG(Additional Secretary equiv-alent) and Additional Secretaryin the Ministry of Commerceand Industry, Principal Secretaryin the Home Department,Chairman and MD of DelhiTransport Corporation,Secretary-cum-CommissionerTransport for Delhi

Government, Chairman of theChandigarh Housing Board,Finance Secretary in theGovernment of NCT of Delhi,among others. Sahai has suc-ceeded Subhash Chandra Garg,who retired on Thursday. Garg,who is a former finance secretaryhad sought voluntary retire-ment, which was approved bythe government. Garg was toretire on October 31, 2020.

Garg was transferred fromthe Finance Ministry to thePower Ministry as Secretary.

PNS n BEIJING

China's three major state-runtelecom operators have unveiledtheir superfast 5G networkacross the country, as theCommunist giant aims atbecoming the global leader innext generation telecom tech-nology surpassing the US andother western nations.

State-owned carriers ChinaMobile, China Unicom andChina Telecom unveiled their5G data plans on Thursday asChina and the US are embroiledin a power struggle over tradeand technology.

The three firms in simulta-neous moves unveiled theirmonthly 5G plans with pricesranging from 128 yuan (aboutRs 1,289) to 599 yuan (Rs6,030). Subscribers will be ableto enjoy connections way fasterthan 4G and less expensive dataper gigabyte, state-run Xinhuanews agency reported.

5G is the next generation cel-lular technology with downloadspeeds stated to be 10 to 100times faster than the current 4GLTE networks.

The 5G networking standardis seen as critical because it cansupport the next generation ofmobile devices in addition to

new applications like driverlesscars. The 5G commercial ser-vices are now available in 50cities, including major citieslike Beijing, Shanghai,Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

Shanghai had activated11,859 5G base stations by mid-October, which will support

the 5G network coverage acrossthe city's key outdoor areas, thereport said.

The three major mobile oper-ators have already registeredover 10 million 5G users beforethe official commercialisationlaunch, it said.

Beijing, which is embroiled in

a trade and technology warwith Washington, is hoping towoo India and other countrieswith its 5G telecom technology.

China and the US have beenfighting for leadership in thetechnology sector in recentmonths, with Chinese tech giantHuawei at the centre of theirpower struggle.

The Trump administrationhas blacklisted Huawei, arguingthat it poses a national securityrisk. The US has also lobbiedallies to shun the Chinese com-pany from their 5G networks.

Huawei denies this charge,and many in China see the USactions as part of its efforts tocurb the rise of the world's sec-ond largest economy.

According to an estimatemade by the China Telecom, thecountry is expected to be afront-runner in the adoption of5G services with over 170 mil-lion 5G subscribers by nextyear.

China rolls out nationwide 5G telecom services

PNS n NEW DELHI

Automobile manufacturers,including Maruti SuzukiIndia, Mahindra & Mahindraand Toyota Kirloskar Motor,on Friday reported improvedsales in October driven by fes-tive season demand amid aprolonged slowdown in thesector.

The country's largest car-maker Maruti Suzuki India(MSI) posted a growth of 4.5per cent in its domesticwholesales at 1,44,277 units inOctober as against 1,38,100units in same period last year.

This is the first time in thelast seven months that thecompany has seen an increasein its domestic sales.

Despite being in the nega-tive territory, Mahindra &Mahindra managed to arrestdecline in sales, posting 11 percent dip at 49,193 units last

month as compared to 55,350units in October 2018.

In September the companyhad reported a decline of 21

per cent in domestic sales at40,692 units.

"The festive month ofOctober was excellent forMahindra, with retail volumeexceeding wholesale byapproximately 40 per cent.This robust retail performancewas contributed by both pas-senger and commercial vehi-cles," M&M Chief of Sales andMarketing, AutomotiveDivision, Veejay Ram Nakrasaid.

Similarly, Toyota KirloskarMotor reported 6 per centdecline in domestic sales at11,866 units as compared to

12,606 units in the corre-sponding month last year.

Toyota Kirloskar hadreported total sales of 10,203units in September this year.

Commenting on the salesperformance, TKM DeputyManaging Director N Rajasaid customer demand wit-nessed a spike in the festiveseason, especially duringDhanteras and Diwali.

"The boost in customersentiments has enabled anupward trend in our salesperformance as compared to

the last few months of slow-down. It was quite encourag-ing to see the markedimprovement in customerorders on account of festiveseason," he said.

New entrant MG MotorIndia reported retail sales of3,536 units of its SUV Hectorin October.

In the two wheeler segment,Bajaj Auto reported a dip of 13per cent in the domestic salesat 2,78,776 units as against3,19,942 in October last year.Similarly, TVS MotorCompany reported 25.45 percent decline in domestic two-wheeler sales at 2,52,684 unitsas compared to 3,38,988 in theyear-ago period.

Commercial vehicle makerAshok Leyland reporteddomestic sales of 9,074 unitslast month as compared to14,341 units in the year-agomonth, down 37 per cent.

PNS n NEW DELHI

India's offer of seven oilblocks on revamped licenceterms attracted just eight bidsfrom state-owned f irmsincluding six single bids inthe latest licensing roundignored by both private andforeign companies.

The Directorate General ofHydrocarbons (DGH) in astatement said state-owned Oiland Natural Gas Corporation(ONGC) bid for all the sevenblocks while Oil India Ltd(OIL) put in an offer for oneblock at the close of bidding onThursday.

The block in Rajasthan sawcompetition from ONGC andOIL but the five in MadhyaPradesh and one in WestBengal saw single bids fromONGC, DGH said.

"Seven onland blocks wereon offer (in the fourth round ofOpen Acreage LicensingPolicy) with an area of approx18,500 sq km," DGH said. "Theresults demonstrate continuedinterest of established players inIndian E&P (exploration andproduction) with bids receivedfor all 7 blocks. The evaluation

of the bids would be under-taken in a time-bound man-ner."

The fourth round of biddingunder OALP had the lowestnumber of blocks. While thefirst round got 110 bids for 55blocks, the second roundattracted 33 bids for 14 blocks.The third round saw 42 bidsfor 23 blocks. In the previousthree rounds together, 87blocks have been awarded cov-ering an area of 1.18 lakh sqkm.

"Expression of interest sub-mission window for the OALP-V bid round is open tillNovember 30, 2019, and com-

panies have another opportu-nity to take part in the blos-soming Indian exploration andproduction sector," the DGHsaid in the statement.

OALP-IV was the first roundon revamped terms approvedin February 2019.

DGH said that unlike previ-ous rounds where blocks wereawarded to companies offeringa maximum share of oil and gasto the government, blocks in lit-tle or unexplored category-IIand III basins will be awardedto companies offering to domaximum exploration pro-gramme.

While blocks in Madhya

Pradesh fall in the Vindhyanbasin which is a category-IIbasin, Bengal Purnea basin iscategory-III area where noexploration has happened sofar.

Under OALP, companies areallowed to carve out areas theywant to explore oil and gas in.Companies can put in anexpression of interest (EoI) forany area throughout the yearbut such interests are accumu-lated thrice in a year. The areassought are then put on auction.

The fifth cycle of submittingEoIs is currently going on tillNovember 30, 2019, and wouldbe followed by the sixth cyclefrom December 1, 2019, tillMarch 31, 2020, DGH said.

PNS n NEW DELHI

The government is likely torelease the first index to rankstates and Union territoriesbased on their preparedness topromote exports, an officialsaid.

The exercise would help inpromoting healthy competi-tion among states and UTs towork on parameters for pro-moting the country's exports,which is one of the key indi-cators for boosting economicgrowth.

The index will rank themon some key parameters suchas business environment,infrastructure, transport con-nectivity, access to finance,export infrastructure andtrade support, the official said.

Both the Niti Aayog and thecommerce ministry is workingon this index.

Besides overall ranking, itwill also be there for coastalstates, landlocked states andhilly states.

According to experts, theexercise would help in givinga direction to states and UTsto work on their policies andinfrastructure to attract bothinvestors and exporters.

"It would give an empiricaltool to states and UTs forintrospection for their exportpreparedness. Exporters willalso get a direction and guide-line," Professor at IndianInstitute of Foreign Trade(IIFT) Rakesh Mohan Joshisaid.

PNS n NEW DELHI

JSW Energy on Friday post-ed about 12 % rise in consol-idated net profit at Rs 353crore for the September quar-ter of this fiscal mainly due tolower fuel and finance cost.

The company had reporteda profit of Rs 316 crore in theyear-ago period, a BSE filingsaid. The profit in April-September also rose to Rs597.36 crore from Rs 545.13crore a year ago.

Total revenue during thequarter under review fell 13per cent to Rs 2,232 crorefrom Rs 2,568 crore in theyear-ago period mainly due todecline in fuel cost.

The fuel cost for the quar-ter fell 26 per cent year-on-year to Rs 983 crore primari-ly due to moderation in theimported coal prices, the com-pany said.

PNS n HYDERABAD

Laurus Labs Ltd on Fridayannounced that its profit aftertax (PAT) for the quarterended September 30, 2019was up by 249 per cent to Rs56.6 crore against Rs 16.2crore during the correspond-ing period last fiscal.

The total revenue grew by 21per cent to Rs 712 crore againstRs 588 crore during Q2 FY' 19,a statement issued by the citydrug-maker said.

CEO of Laurus LabsSatyanarayana Chava said inthe statement that the perfor-mance during the quartershows the ability to execute thelong-term strategy of the com-pany with enhanced revenuefrom formulations businesscontributing positively to bothtopline and margins.

"We have recorded robust gowth across most of our divi-sions. The API (active phar-

maceutical ingredient) divisionshowed a strong growth dur-ing the quarter on the back ofincrease in new product addi-tions, with oncology and syn-thesis maintaining theirgrowth momentum. With theimpending shift in the treat-ment regimen in South Africa,we are witnessing a slowdownin sales in ARV (anti-rabiesvaccine) API business for FY

'20," he said.On the regulatory side, the

drug-maker received EIRs(establishment inspectionreport) for Units 1 and 3. Unit4 successfully completed itsmaiden USFDA (United States

Food and DrugAdministration) audit with nilobservations and also receivedEIR during the quarter, therelease said.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Amid instances of fraudsterscollecting investors' infor-mation, the NSE has askedtrading members to takesteps to safeguard data of theclients registered with themand not to share such datawith unauthorised persons.

The move comes after Sebicommunicated to the NSEthat certain fraudsters arecollecting data of clients whoare already into trading inexchanges and send thembulk messages on the pretextof providing investment tipsand lure them to invest intheir bogus firms by promis-ing huge profits. Sebi, further,said there is a need to createawareness among investorsabout such incidents.

Consequently, NSE askedall members "to sensitise theirclients and create awareness"on the issue. "Further, mem-bers are advised to take nec-essary steps to safeguard dataof clients/investors registeredwith them and not to share orreveal such data to unautho-rised persons," it added.

The block inRajasthan sawcompetition fromONGC and OIL butthe five in MadhyaPradesh and one inWest Bengal sawsingle bids fromONGC, DGH said

Maruti ups sales in Oct; M&M, Toyota to do well

1st export preparednessindex to rank states,UTs likely in January

NSE asksmembers tosafeguardinvestor data

JSW Energyprofit up 12 pc at Rs353 cr in Q2

India, Germanyfor resumingtalks for freetrade with EUPNS n NEW DELHI

India and Germany haveagreed to deepen efforts toresume stalled negotiationsfor a free trade agreementbetween India and theEuropean Union (EU), a jointstatement said on Friday.

The statement was issuedafter the meeting betweenPrime Minister NarendraModi and GermanChancellor Angela Merkelhere. "Both sides confirmed theimportance of a balanced freetrade agreement between Indiaand the EU and agreed todeepen efforts to restart nego-tiations between the EU andIndia on the Bilateral Tradeand Investment Agreement(BTIA)," the statement said.

Talks for the pact have beenheld up since May 2013 asboth sides failed to bridge gapson crucial issues.

Laurus Labs' PAT jumpsto Rs 57 crore in Q2

Oil block bid under revamped rulesalmost flops; gets 8 bids for 7 blocks

Sanjeev Nandan Sahai

Sanjeev NandanSahai takes chargeas Power Secretary

Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) posted agrowth of 4.5 per cent in itsdomestic wholesales. This is thefirst time in the last seven monthsthat the company has seen anincrease in its domestic sales

China and theUS have beenfighting forleadership inthe technologysector in recentmonths, withChinese techgiant Huawei atthe centre oftheir powerstruggle

DBS, Nasscom open digitalliteracy centrePNS n NEW DELHI

DBS Asia Hub 2 (DAH2) inpartnership with Nasscomfoundation inaugurated thefirst DAH2 Digital LiteracyCentre in Hyderabad. Thecentre supports the NationalDigital Literacy Mission ini-tiative by the Government ofIndia and is located inMehdipatnam.

It will serve the commu-nities of Gudimalkapur,Rethibowli, and nearby areasand aims to facilitate train-ing infrastructure that willbenefit close to 1,000 peoplein the underserved commu-nity. It will help beneficiarieslearn the basics of comput-ers and other digital devices,communicate via emails,engage on social media and

leverage the power of theinternet.

Alex Woo, CEO, DBS AsiaHub 2 said, the centre alignstheir larger ethos of beingpurpose-driven and makinga positive impact on lives.Jayesh Ranjan, PrincipalSecretar y, Industr ies &Commerce and InformationTechnology, Electronics andC o m m u n i c a t i o n sDepartment, said, "ThroughDigital Telangana, we are

creating a digital ecosystemto ensure advanced e-com-merce, e-health, e-gover-nance and e-education facil-ities in Telangana but gov-ernment programmes alonecannot boost updation todigital".

Nasscom foundation hastrained 10,000 people inTelangana including 300 per-sons with disabilities in dig-ital literacy and employabil-ity skills.

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SaturdayNovember 2, 2019

AS PETEX IS IN TOWNIT'S ‘PET'TASTIC

Pet owners and lovers are in for an awesome treat this weekendwith Petex India kicking off in the city, reports K RAMYA SREE

ave you ever felt thatyour dog does notget to mingle enoughwith people or otherpets? Well, you are

not alone. Petex Hyderabadedition is in town to solve justthat and is holding a three-day event starting Friday. Thishas helped many pet loversand product manufacturerscome for a furry day out.

However, as it was a week-day, the first day did not pickup steam until late in theafternoon. Various stallsincluding grooming, healthservices and much more wereon display, making this placea one stop shop for B2B andB2C services.

The show inaugurated byRaman, GM of Hyderabad-based Pet Food Company,MARS, opened with twotypes of grooming competi-tions — freestyle and purebreed class —organised byPune-based ABK Imports.

Elaborating further, organ-iser Manvi, who is a groomerherself said, “In freestyle,people generally groom theirpets in the salon and they arenovices. Grooming itself is ata very nascent stage in Indiaand is picking up only now.We are trying to give a plat-form to the groomersthrough this show and helpthem get motivated by look-ing at other people.”

As many as 40 doggroomers from across Indiaparticipated in the freestylecompetition. Sunny Baid andSushil Boath from Mumbaiand Rajkumar fromBengaluru bagged the awardsalong with a cash prize of Rs75,000, 50,000 and 30,000respectively.

This was followed by a dogobedience competition wheredogs who followed instruc-tions and were obedient to its

owners have been felicitated.The dogs were made to runthrough an obstacle courseguided by their owners.While some perfected theroutine flawlessly, the rebelsdid what they pleased muchto the amusement of theaudience. Obedient or not, alldogs were given equal loveand attention by everyone.

A representative of PerfectCompanion Group (PCG),Hariprasad, who has been apart of pet shows for over 12years said, “While the infra-structure and facilities provid-ed were not up to the markearlier, there seems to be amarked improvement now.”

He added, “The number ofpeople coming out to attendsuch shows may have wit-nessed a dip as people areeither not aware or the num-ber of pet owners hasdropped due to nuclear fami-lies and people preferring tolive in apartments.”

Dr Sheeba Verghese fromPentorse seconds him andsaid, “We witnessed a mixedcrowd this year and this isearly in the day. We couldwitness more people in theevening.”

Talking of her product shesaid, “Lot of pet parents haveliked our products and thefeedback was good. We havebeen a part of two editionspreviously in Delhi andMumbai and our product isaimed at mainly relievingjoint pains for pets. It is aniche product right now.”

Unlike last year, the firstday of Petex 2019 also wit-nessed a drop in the numberof feline pets.

Chakravarthy, a pet parentand owner of a four-year-oldGerman Shepherd said, “I amvisiting the pet expo for thefirst time and really liked theset up. I went through thewebsite before coming here toget an idea of what exactly isavailable here. The variety ofproducts available are reallygood for pet owners.”

People wanting to traintheir dogs were not let downeither as CommandoTrainer, a group whichtrains dogs, was also pre-sent to showcase thetricks that trained dogscan do. Vijay, a trainersaid, “People comehere with their

dogs to look at the way wetrain them. We start off witha basic three-month obedi-ence training and graduallyincrease the intensity.”

When asked if the responsefrom pet owners has beengood he said, “We have gotmany customers through thisshow. People witness howobedient these dogs are andget impressed.”

An awareness programmeis also being conducted toincrease responsible dogownership and to educatepeople about the importanceand benefits of having pet.

Ananya, a dog lover and apet owner said, “Today beinga weekday might have damp-ened the spirits of stall own-ers here, but am sure it willpick up tomorrow. I did notsee as many people as lastyear today. The stalls provid-ed pet owners with a widevariety of products that suitall breeds and overall I wouldsay this is the best implemen-tation of a pet show.”

While many visitors werehappy with the set up, somewere disappointed with veryfew food stalls for pets inplace. Some felt that the placecould've been more friendly ifthey had live kitchen thatmade pet food to treat theirfurry ones. The event willalso feature some rare breedssuch as Anatolian Shepherd,Bullmastiff, Dogo Argentino,Dogue De Bordeaux, Mastiff,Miniature pinscher, among

others.

H

Dogs that walked the ramp at the event Sunny Baid, Sushil Boath and Rajkumar, winners of grooming competition Dog performing at the obedience competition

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PARTY

10

Hyderabad Saturday November 2, 2019

l The playINDRAJAL isone of themasterpiecesof Hindiwriter JaiShankarPrasad. It is alove storybetween Belaand Goli, members of a travelling community whodream of devoting their entire life to each other andhow different reflections of our society play a role.It will be held at Pheonix Arena on November 16 at7.30 pm.

l Sur-O-Dhwani Foundation is conducting amusical evening Ninaad on November 16 atNritya Forum for Performing Arts, Road No 2,Jubilee Hills from 6:30 pm. Barnali Bhattacharyawill present traditional Khayal, accompanied byDr Abhijit Bhattacharya on tabla and RahulDeshpande on harmonium.

CITY GUIDE

lArtist Sisir Sahana is showcasing her latestartworks Old Seeds In Glass at Kalakriti Art Gallery,Road No 10, Banjara Hills till November 5 between10am and 6pm.

ART AAND CCULTURE

MELANGE

THEATRECHALAM'S MAIDANAMlSamahaaraTheatre Co-operative isstaging a play,Chalam'sMaidanam ontoday at PhoenixArena from 7.30pm. It is one ofthe most famousand mostcontroversial of Chalam's works, dramatises hisideas on marriage, freedom and the moral issuesinvolved in them.

GET YOUR EVENT LISTED: To get your events listed, please send your detailsalong with a poster and contact number to features.pioneer@gmail.com

CHUHALBAAZIYANlThis is theplay which isbased on theconversationbetween twolegendaryUrdu writersand friends.IsmatChugtai andSadat Hassan Manto stayed in mumbai for sevenyears. The similarity between both was theirobservation of society. The play will be held atLamakaan on November 10 at 7.30 pm.

OLD SEEDS

lAn NGO,Cultivating Art isconducting thesecond edition ofHyderabad OpenArt Competitionon November 10at Phoenix Arenafrom 10 amonwards. It is a platform to encourage everyone,especially school children to practice art, exploreideas and encourage all budding artists.

OPEN ART COMPETITION

INDRAJAL

HALF MARATHON

PETEX INDIA

l PETEX India 2019, India’s largest pet expo, willbe held till tomorrow at Hitex, Madhapur between10 am and 7 pm.

what’s brewing?

MUSICAL JOURNEY

l NEB Sports Entertainment in association withIDBI Federal Life Insurance is conducting the thirdedition of Hyderabad Half Marathon tomorrow atGachibowli Stadium. Pullela Gopichand is the faceof the event.

FUN TIME

Rules

ARCHIE

GARFIELD

SUDOKU

REALITY CHECK SPEED BUMP CROSSWORD

GINGER MEGGS

NANCY

CALVIN AND HOBBES

l Each row and column cancontain each number (1 to 9)exactly once.

l The sum of all numbers inany row or column mustequal 45.

Yesterday’s solution

FASHIONFRENZYThe Brochure launch of Mr,

Miss and Mrs India 2020auditions was held in the city

recently. The gathering wasthrilled about having Bollywoodactress Zahi Khan in their midst,who launched the brochure at theevent. Vishal Tiwari, Founder andCEO of LMS League OPC Pvt Ltd,was also seen at the event. Thefirst auditions will be held inHyderabad on December 8.

l Abhinav l Vishal

l Shilpi

l Sridevi`

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ilmmaker V.N. Aditya, who lastdirected the comedy Mugguru in2011, is back on the director’s chairwith Vallidari Madhya which is goingto be a love story. Produced by

Arjun under Vedhamsh Creative Works, thefilm features fresh faces, Viraj Ashwin andNeha Krishna, in lead roles.

Speaking about the film, which is 90 percent through with its shooting, Aditya, whomade super hits like Manasuntha Nuvve andNenunnanu in the last decade, said, “ByDecember 1 will complete the film. Humanrelations are not the same anymoreand the film dwells on this point. It’sa love story between a male and afemale villain,” he noted.

Viraj pointed out that the film isa great opportunity for him. “I’mlearning a lot from Aditya. Thefilm is being made with a youngand a passionate team, and itscoming out well. As someone whodoesn’t boast of a love story in mylife, I could connect to the film’s

story. It has a strong message to the youth,”the actor opined.

Neha said that although she pursued acareer outside arts, the passion to get into theindustry and prove herself as an actress neverdied. “I was looking for an opening and I con-tacted V.N. Aditya at the right time. I didsome different things in the movie that not alot of newcomers would be doing in their firstfew films. I consider myself lucky in thataspect,” she said.

fter roping in RituVarma to castalongside NagaShaurya for hermaiden direc-

torial, debutante direc-tor Souujanya Med-arametla has signedon music composerVishal Chandrasekharand cameraman Div-akar Mani too. “Vishalis on board while there’sa slight issue withDivakar’s dates. He willshoot the first schedule thatwill kick off on November 15but his dates in December are yetto be confirmed. He is also the camera-man of Venu Udugula’s Virata Parvam and if thatfilm doesn’t have a schedule next month, he willwork on Souujanya’s film,” mentioned a source.

Souujanya’s film, a love story, traces the jour-ney of an honest and principled couple. Themakers have also initiated talks with Nadhiyafor a key role. “She has expressed her desire tobe a part of the film after endorsing the storyand her part in particular. She will be seen asRitu’s mother in the film,” added the source.

Besides Hyderabad, the as-yet-untitled SitharaEntertainments production will also be shot in Vizag,Kerala, Darjeeling and Dehradun. —NG

Hyderabad Saturday November 2, 2019

11

tollywood

JAGAPATHI AND RAMYAboard VARUN TEJ'S boxing drama

Kiran Korrapati is leaving no stoneunturned for his debut movie bycasting A-listers for the supporting

roles. NAGARAJ GOUD finds outmore about the sports dramawhose shooting schedule

will kick offsoon

ebutant directorKiran Korrapati,who is helmingVarun Tej’s next, acommercial sportsdrama, is getting the

cast together. While he hasample time to start the film,that will begin shooting onNew Year, he is ensuring thathis supporting actors’ dates areblocked. The Pioneer has exclu-sively learnt that he has signedon Jagapathi Babu and RamyaKrishnan for pivotal roles.While Jagapathi is a busy actorhere, Ramya has beenextremely selective of late,choosing roles that offerstrong characterisations. “It’searly to talk about their role

in Varun’s film but theyare playing full-length

roles for sure. LikeVarun’s coach,

whose cast-ing

is yet to be finalised, their out-ings will be spoken at lengthonce the film opens,” said asource close to the develop-ment.

The source further addedthat Varun, who will be seen asa pugilist (a professionalboxer), has begun his prepara-tion for the part in Hyderabadand in another 10 days, he willhead to Mumbai for furtherprep. He will also be requiredto sport a well-toned body forthe film. “The first schedulefor 15 days will kick off inHyderabad, followed by amonth-long schedule inVisakhapatnam. Hyderabadwill again host the third sched-ule, while the fourth will takeplace in and around theNational Capital Region (NewDelhi),” added our source.

A joint production venturebetween Sidhu Mudda andAllu Venkatesh, the film willbe shot by cinematographer

George C. Williams, whileS.S. Thaman is the tune-

smith.

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IN THE FILM, VARUN WILL BE SEEN AS A PUGILIST (A PROFESSIONAL BOXER) AND WILL SPORT A WELL-TONED BODY. HE WILL BEGIN TRAINING IN HYD ANDTHEN CONTINUE TO MUMBAI AS WELL

he first look of Anjali from Anushka and Madhavan-starrer Nishabdam was unveiled by the productionhouses People Media Factory and Kona Film

Corporation on Friday. In the horror thriller, directed byHemanth Madhukar, the actress will be seen as Maha, acrime detective posted in Seattle.FI

RST

LOO

K T

s part of his prepa-ration for Ruler, hisnext with K.S.Ravikumar,Nandamuri

Balakrishna has lost oodlesof weight in 40 days. Theactor has been criticised forhis weight issues in the pastbut with Ruler, he has gonethe extra mile to shed somekilos. “In Ruler, the actorwill be seen in a role withdual shades. “To play therole of the cop, Ravikumarhas asked him if he can loseweight to show variations ofthe two types of characters,the other being a suave cor-porate guy, he will play inthe film. The actor obligedreadily. He hasn’t missed asingle day at the gym forpast two months and hasalso been keeping a tab onwhat he eats. As of now, helost eight kilos,” said asource.

The fact that BoyapatiSreenu, his next director,told the actor that his filmalso requires him to cut alean frame, Balayya felt it’sthe best time to get back intohis best shape, according tothe source.

Ruler, which is the actor’s105th film, is a productionventure of C. Kalyan underhis Happy Movies. Also star-ring Sonal Chauhan, Vedika,Jayasudha and Prakash Raj,it will open in cinemas onDecember 20.

BALAYYA

loses 8 kgfor RulerA

F

A

More familiar namesjoin SHAURYA'S next

Aditya ready for comeback

AMALA to playSharwa's mother

fter making a comeback to films with Life IsBeautiful, actress Amala Akkineni has beenextremely picky about her roles. The latest abouther film stint is that she has signed Sharwanand’snext with debutant director Shree Karthick. The

film is a Telugu-Tamil bilingual produced by Tamil produc-tion house, Dream Warrior Pictures. The makers say that,impressed with her part, Amala hopped onboard. She haseven joined the second schedule, which has commenced onFriday in Hyderabad. Ravi Raghavendra will be seen as herhusband, while Sharwa will be playing her son. Sequencesinvolving the family are being shot in this outing.

The untitled film, co-starring Nassar, Vennela Kishore andPriyadarshi in supporting roles, deals with inseparablebonding in friendship and love. Filmmaker-turned-actorTharun Bhascker has penned the Telugu dialogues. Themakers are planning to release it next summer. Jakes Bejoy isthe film’s music director.

A

AFP nMELBOURNE

Australia cruised past Sri Lankato clean-sweep their three-

match T20 series on Friday, with anin-form David Warner grindingout a third successive half-centuryin the seven wicket win.

The home team have beendominant throughout, winning by134 runs in Adelaide and by ninewickets with seven overs to spare inBrisbane ahead of the clash inMelbourne.

Sri Lanka’s batting had beeninsipid until now, but they finallyposted a competitive score of 142 forsix, with Kusal Perera hitting 57.

However their bowlers, led byLasith Malinga, have been no matchfor a quality Australian batting line-up, spearheaded by Warner who hasnow scored 217 in three inningswithout losing his wicket.

“It was pretty clinical once wegot into a routine,” said Australiacaptain Aaron Finch.

“The way the bowlers set it upfor us over the last two games, it wasoutstanding.

“Every game is a different chal-lenge and a different surface, so it’simportant to bring in your best, in

terms of preparation and mental sideof the game too.”

Warner, who scored an unbeat-en 100 and 60 not out in the open-ing two games, brings up his 50 off

44 balls to end the match unbeatenon 57, aided by Ashton Turner whochipped in with 22 as Australiareached 145 for three with 14 ballsto spare.

sport 12HYDERABAD | SATURDAY | NOVEMBER 2, 2019

PTI n KOLKATA

Cheteshwar Pujara can’t wait for India’sfirst ever Day/Night Test despite all

the talk of it being a challenge as he is con-fident that the country’s formidable bat-ting line-up will have no trouble adapt-ing to the pink ball.

The prolific batsman topped the runcharts (453) with two daddy hundreds,including a 256 not out for India Blue inthe Duleep Trophy more than threeyears back when pink ball was experi-mented with for the first time by theSourav Ganguly-led BCCI technical com-mittee.

Now, after taking over as the BCCIpresident, Ganguly has convinced theBangladesh Cricket Board and both thecountries will play their maiden pink ballTest at Eden Gardens from November 22-26.

“It’s going to be exciting...What weplayed was a first-class match, this is goingto be a Test match. I’m sure all the play-ers are excited about it,” the Indian TestNo 3 said.

Pujara said pink ball could pose someproblems during the twilight period.

“In the twilight period, I feel thatmaybe, sighting the ball could be a littlechallenging. (But) the more you play, you

AFP n CHRISTCHURCH

Amaiden half centuryfrom James Vince

powered England to a con-vincing seven-wicket victo-ry over New Zealand in theopening T20 match inChristchurch on Friday.

Vince top-scored forthe tourists with 59 asEngland chased down NewZealand’s 154-run targetin 18.3 overs to take a 1-0lead in the five-matchseries.

While Vince’s man-of-the-match performancecaught the eye, captainEoin Morgan was also fullof praise for his bowlers,who laid the platform forvictory by restricting theBlack Caps to 153 for five.

“The game was wonand lost in the firstinnings... James Vinceplayed outstanding wellbut all credit to the bowlers

today,” he said.A three-wicket haul

from spinner MitchellSantner was not enough torescue the Black Caps,whose batting line-up failedto fire after Morgan wonthe toss and sent them in.

New Zealand’s regularcaptain Kane Williamson isout of the series with a hipinjury and the Black Capssorely missed his batting

prowess. Stand-in skipperTim Southee said there isroom for improvement inbowling, batting and field-ing.

“We were probably alittle bit off in all threeareas,” he said.

“We got a score on theboard that we felt we coulddefend but we were a littlebit off with the ball and inthe field, which didn’t help.”

RANCHI: Openers Shubman Gilland Mayank Agarwal smashedspectacular hundreds beforeJalaj Saxena took a career-bestseven-wicket haul, steering IndiaC into the final of the DeodharTrophy with a massive 232-runwin over India A on Friday.

India C skipper Gill (143 off142) and Mayank Agarwal (120off 111) shared a 226-run standbefore a special knock fromSuryakumar Yadav (72 not outoff 29) propelled the team to366 for three in 50 overs.

India A were neverin the chase and off-spinner Saxena (7/41)ran through theirbatting line-upwith a memo-rable spell. Itwas India A’ssecond suc-cessive defeatin as manydays, knockingthem out ofthe tourna-ment.

India C and India B, whobeat India A on Thursday, willplay the final on Monday beforemeeting each other in the finalleague game today.

India C effectively battedIndia A out of the game withAgarwal and Gill piling up theruns. Gill hammered as many ashalf a dozen sixes besides 10fours on way to his highest score

in List A cricket.Agarwal carried

his stellar Test forminto the 50-over for-mat, collecting 15fours and a six.

Following theopeners’ double cen-

tury stand,Suryakumar gotinto the act and

showed why he isconsidered as a dan-gerous white-ball

batsman. The Mumbai cricketerclobbered nine fours and foursixes in his exhilarating knock,providing a perfect finish toIndia C innings. PTI

PTI n NEW DELHI

Bangladesh coach Russell Domingoexpects the recent ban on ShakibAl Hasan will affect the team’s per-

formance against India in the upcom-ing T20 and Test series but is hopeful thathis players will step up to the challengeagainst the formidable hosts.

Bangladesh build-up to the three-match T20 and two-match Test assign-ment was dealt a huge blow when Shakibwas banned for two years, one year sus-pended, for failing to report three cor-rupt approaches from a suspected Indianbookie, a day before the team’s departure.

Ahead of the first T20I here at ArunJaitley stadium tomorrow, Domingoaddressed the issue and was candidenough to admit that the dressing roomis still recovering from the shock.

“He has been a big player forBangladesh and is close friends with alot of players. So it has obviously affect-ed a few players. Obviously he has madea mistake and he is paying the price forit,” Domingo said during a press meetafter a training session.

“There’s not much we can control.Obviously it affects the team’s perfor-mance but we need to be focused on theseries and the World Cup (T20),” headded.

Since Domingo took charge just amonth back, he didn’t really get achance to work with Shakib but what theSouth African understands is that theworld’s No 1 all-rounder commandshuge respect in the change room.

“I haven’t had a chance to know himpersonally but players have a greatrespect for him. But as I said, he hasmade a mistake and paid the price forit.”

The coach admitted that Shakib’sdual skills, which fetched him more11,000 runs and over 500 wickets acrossthree formats, will be sorely missed.

“He bats at No 3. Often, he opensthe bowling, bowls first change, bowlsfour overs in every game, he is one of ourleading batters. So you need to decidewhether you replace the batsman or doyou replace the bowler.

“Because you can’t replace both asit is very difficult to get players who pro-vide both skills. So you might find your-self short in some department andstrengthened in one department,”Domingo explained.

He is fully aware of his team’s lim-ited resources as Tamim Iqbal is also outdue to personal commitments andwants to make optimal use of the talent

he has at his disposal.“It will depend on conditions. If the

pitch is flat, we will have an extra bowlerand if the pitch does a little, may be havean extra batsman. It is very difficult tofill Shakib’s shoes but those availableshould try their best to get those num-bers,” he said.

Domingo, however, is not sure howShakib’s reintegration will happen afterone year.

“One year in cricketing terms is along time and I haven’t thought aboutit. How Shakib will be integrated in theteam has neither crossed my mind northe players’ mind,” he said.

IANS n NEW DELHI

Be it a Test match, an ODI, a T20Ior an Indian Premier League

game, the square at the ArunJaitley Stadium has over the yearsalways been a talking point. Andwhile it has often been on the linesof how it doesnt let batsmen playtheir shots freely, things havechanged for the better in the lastfew years under curator AnkitDatta. And on Friday the Indianteam management was pleasantlysurprised to see freshness on thewickets.

Speaking about it, a member of

the team management said that itwas indeed a pleasant sight as T20wickets are expected to be onewhere there are plenty of runs onoffer and bowlers also get goodbounce and carry.

“It was the freshness whichpleased both the coaching staff ledby Ravi Shastri and stand-in skip-per Rohit Sharma. In fact, thewhole square looks very fresh,” themember said.

While a senior Delhi andDistrict Cricket Association(DDCA) official said that Ankitdeserves credit for keeping thewicket fresh and ready for thegame.

“Over the years, we have seena hundred games being played atthe Kotla through the year and nei-ther does Ankit get time to work onthe square, nor do the pitches getbreathing time. You cannot getquality wickets if non-stop match-es are played. But this time, heensured that the wickets weren’tused and they retained the fresh-ness,” the official said.

‘Shakib episode will affect Bangla performance’Tigers head coach admits it will be hard to fill skipper’s void but is confident of good show against India

Bangladesh players wear masks to protect themselves from air pollution as they practice at the netsahead of their first T20I against India in New Delhi on Friday AP

Need to identify core playersfor T20 WC: Rathour

PTI n NEW DELHI

The prevailing smoggyconditions in the nation-

al capital are not perfect,admitted Russell Domingobut said “no one is dying” aspollution is an issue in theircountry as well.

Domingo said gettingexposed to poor quality air inIndia was not as big a shockfor them as it is for someother countries.

Bangladesh players AlAmin, Abu Hider Rony and

team’s spin consultant DanielVettori were seen wearingmasks during their fieldingsession this morning.

“We know the SriLankans struggled last timeand look there’s a bit of pol-lution in Bangladesh as well,so it’s a not a massive shockunlike some other countries.The players have just got onwith the game and haven’tcomplained too much aboutit,” Domingo told reporters.

As the situation got bet-ter, the players removed their

masks, except Vettori andother non-Bangladeshi sup-port staff.

“It’s only three hours soit’s going to be easy. Theremaybe scratchy eyes, sorethroat but that’s ok. No oneis dying,” Domingo added.

He admitted that the sit-uation is not ideal and it’ssame for both teams.

“There’s no breeze butobviously not perfect weath-er with the smog. But itsame for both teams. Notperfect, not ideal but you

can’t complaint about and geton with the game,” the coachsaid.

When India’s battingcoach Vikram Rathour’sresponse was sought on pre-vail ing conditions, hesaid,”You are asking thewrong person.

I have played all mycricket in North India(Punjab and HimachalPradesh). Basically nothingspecial. There is pollutionbut a game has been sched-uled and we have to play.”

‘Conditions not ideal but no one will die’

Team India impressed withfreshness in Kotla wicket

Rohit survives injury scarePTI n NEW DELHI

India captain Rohit Sharma, who washit on his left abdomen during a net

session, has been declared “fit andavailable” for the first T20.

Rohit, who will leadIndia in the three-matchseries in Virat Kohli’sabsence, received the blowearly into the net sessionwhile taking throw-downs.

After a few throw-downs, one sharp deliv-ery hit Rohit on the insideregion of jios left thigh.

He immediately left the netsand it was visible that he wasn’thappy with the pace at whichthe throwdown delivery washurled at him.

“Rohit Sharma was hit onthe left side of his abdomenwhile batting in the nets.The BCCI medicalteam has confirmedthat he is fit and avail-

able for the first T20 after assess-ment of his injury,” the BCCImedia manager issued a state-ment on behalf of the team.

The Indian team has adesignated a left-armthrowdown expert in SriLanka’s Nuwan to counterleft-arm seamers in theopposition, MustafizurRahaman in this particu-lar series.

The practice ses-sion was a goodenough indicator thatSanju Samson will

not be keeping wickets ashe was seen fielding withothers and number onechoice Rishabh Pant wasseen devoting extra

time to his glove work.All eyes were on

big-hitting Mumbaiall-rounder ShivamDube who was seentalking to head

coach Ravi Shastri.

PTI n NEW DELHI

Getting the core of play-ers right without too

much tinkering will beIndia’s priority going intothe 2020 T20 World Cup,batting coach VikramRathour said on Friday.

India will start theirthree-match T20 campaignagainst Bangladesh heretomorrow with an aim totest young players likeShivam Dube and SanjuSamson.

Rathour said thatexperiments can happenbut he is not in favour offrequent chop and change.

“You can’t be changingtoo much as well. I agree.But a big tournament iscoming so we need toknow the core of our teamand we need to maintainthat core,” Rathour saidduring the media confer-ence.

“And in between, tryout new players who arecoming through. If theywork out good for ourcombination, it will work

for our team,” saidRathour.

The former openingbatsman said that winningmatches while batting firstis one area the team needsto improve on.

“In the last series, wedeliberately batted first inone game which we lost.That’s one are we need towork on. We need to batbetter when we bat first.We chase pretty well,”explained Rathour.

He is happy with thekind of talent pool avail-able in Indian cricket.

“Extremely excitingtimes when you see young-sters coming through,doing well in domesticcricket and come into theIndian team,” he said.

T20 is perhaps oneformat where teams don’tmiss their star playersmuch, he said.

“Missing out top play-ers of course makes a dif-ference but T20 is the onlyformat where you don’tmiss them too much,” headded.

India head coach Ravi Shastri & batting coach Vikram Rathour chat during nets PTI

Adapting to pink ball only challenge in D/N Test: Pujara

Arun Jaitley stadium engulfed in smog aheadof India’s 1st T20 against Bangladesh PTI

get used to it. It’s always about experience andknowing how the ball is behaving,” he said.

Pujara had complained about sighting the ballunder lights in the 2016-17 season but he claimsto be better-prepared now.

“The more we play, the more we gain expe-rience of how to tackle the ball. Every ball has itschallenges. I don’t think it will require a hugechange to shift from red ball to pink ball. The rea-son is it’s the same format. We are still playing afive-day match,” the 31-year-old said.

“Yes, under lights, it will be different. But it’sabout getting used to the pink ball. That’s whatI feel. Rest, I don’t think will be a major differ-ence. Once we play some Test matches, we willbe able to know the exact difference and canimprovise.”

Apart from Pujara, Mayank Agarwal, RishabhPant, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami andWriddhiman Saha, from the current Indian Testsquad, have the experience of playing with a pinkball at the domestic level.

Summing up the mood in the camp, he said:“We won’t have any issue. Most of the guys haveplayed in Duleep Trophy and for the ones whohave not played, it would be a good learning curvefor them.”

“The help for the bowlers could come at a dif-ferent times unlike the traditional Tests. It couldbe under lights or without lights. Once we play,we will get to know about all such things. We willhave to adapt to it as quickly as possible.”Ravi Shastri gives tip to Cheteshwar Pujara during SA Test series PTI

217 NOT OUTWarner remains unbeaten in three gamesas Aussies clean-sweep SL in T20 series

India C enter Deodhar Trophy final Eng draw first blood in T20 series

Eoin Morgan, left, and Pat Brown celebrate after winning first T20 AP

STAFF REPORTER n NEW DELHI

Ahead of scheduled T20 match in cap-ital tomorrow, the South Delhi

Municipal Corporation (SDMC) hasdeployed a huge manpower to control airand dust pollution near stadium situatedin Central Zone of the civic body.

The civic body has taken a slew ofmeasures including 12 water sprinklersand 10 mechanical sweepers to controldust pollution. Besides, the civic body hasalso deployed approx 50 safai karamcharisto ensure sanitation and cleanliness tocombat dust pollution.

As per the instructions of theCommissioner, patrolling teams havebeen constituted to take instant actionagainst violators in the areas around thestadium, the civic body said in a statement.

“The Licensing department has beenauthorized to take strict action againstburning of garbage, construction activi-ties, ‘Construction and Demolition’ wastedumping etc,” it said.

The move came after EnvironmentPollution (Prevention and Control)Authority (EPCA) declared a publichealth emergency in the Delhi in the wakeof rising level of pollution.

SDMC effortsfor 1st T20