NEW DELHI, Sept 6:

Vijay Kumar Chopra, ChiefEditor of the Punjab Kesari Groupof newspapers, was today unani-mously elected Chairman of PressTrust of India (PTI), the country’spremier news agency.

Chopra, 87,succeeds N Ravi,Publisher and former Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu.

Vineet Jain, ManagingDirector of Bennett, Colemanand Company Limited(BCCL),the publisher of Times of India,was elected Vice-Chairman.

The elections took place at ameeting of the Board ofDirectors of the news agencyfollowing the company’s 71stannual general meeting here.

Chopra was earlier Chairmanof PTI in 2001-02 and 2009-10.He was also past President of theIndian Newspaper Society(INS).

The newspapers of thePunjab Kesari Group have wonnumerous National Awards forexcellence in printing from theGovernment of India and AllIndia Federation of MasterPrinters, including the award forbest printing at the 5th WorldPrint Congress, 1993.

A Padma Shri recipient,Chopra is a winner of severalawards including Munshi PremChand award in 1991 for fearlessand impartial journalism. Hisname was also entered in theLimca Book of Records in 1997as the writer of the longest trave-logue.

Chopra had created history

by running a Rotary Web OffsetPress with the help of a tractorin 1974 when the supply of elec-tricity was cut off by the Punjabgovernment for political rea-sons.

Besides Chopra, Jain andRavi, the PTI Board membersare Viveck Goenka(the ExpressGroup), Mahendra MohanGupta (Dainik Jagran), K NShanth Kumar (Deccan Herald),Riyad Mathew (MalayalaManorama), Aveek KumarSarkar (Ananda-bazar Patrika),M P Veerendra Kumar(Mathrubhumi), R Laksh-mipa-thy (Dinamalar), Hormusji NCama (Bombay Samachar),Praveen Someshwar(HindustanTimes), Justice R C Lahoti,Deepak Nayyar, Shyam Saranand J F Pochkhanawalla. (PTI)

SINGAPORE, Sept 6:

External Affairs Minister SJaishankar today said that Indiais open to talk about the issue ofterrorism with Pakistan provid-ed that it is done in a “civilised”manner “without having the gunpointed at my head.”

Jaishankar, who is inSingapore on a September 6-10visit, made the comments whilespeaking at the Mint AsiaLeadership Summit here attend-ed by around 400 delegates.

His comments came amidstheightened tensions betweenIndia and Pakistan after NewDelhi revoked the special statusto Jammu and Kashmir onAugust 5.

He said that if there are issuesthat need to be talked about, it isbetween India and Pakistan.

“But it must be done withouthaving the gun pointed at myhead,” he said, referring to thecross-border terrorism emanat-ing from Pakistan.

Highlighting Pakistan PrimeMinister Imran Khans’ acknowl-edgement of the presence of 40different militant groups in thecountry, Jaishankar said, “we areopen to talking about it providedthat you talk like two civilisedneighbours.”

“But you don’t say I talk toyou, but I reserve the right tocome at night and blow youcities,” he added.

Talking about the tradeissues with the US, Jaishankarsaid that he was not disturbed bythe problems.

Though trade is an importantpart of the bilateral relationshipbetween India and the US, a rowover market access and tariffshas escalated in recent months,leading to fears of a protracteddispute.

US President Donald Trumpin June ended the preferentialtrade status granted to India,asserting that New Delhi hasfailed to assure America of“equitable and reasonable”access to its markets.

“Reality is that if you tradewith a country, you are going tohave trade issues. Questions ishow to manage these issues. Ireally think most of them(issues) are resolvable,” he said.

“Frankly I am quite confi-dent that we will be able workour way through these,” he said.

Talking about India’s growthglobally, Jaishankar said that ifIndia has to grow beyond SouthAsia, the relationship withSoutheast Asia, member countriesof the Association of South EastAsian Nations and Singapore isgoing to be fundamental to that.

“As we get bigger and ourinterest widens, the importanceof this region rises,” he said.

“If India is to grow beyond theconfines of South Asia, to getglobal, the relationship withSoutheast Asia, ASEAN andSingapore are going to be funda-mental to that,” said Jaishankar.

Elaborating on the Indo-

Pacific, hesaid it wouldbe the naturalprogressionof India’si n t e r e s t ,influence andengagementin the region.

“You cannot be among thetop five economies of the worldand say my world is reallybetween the Bay of Bengal andthe Arabian Sea. Naturally, asyou progress, the world willexpand beyond,” he said.

Stressing that India’sprogress is not only in onedirection, he said that the coun-try’s interests in Africa haveseen remarkable achievements.

“We are opening 18 newembassies in Africa. There areAfrican countries where India isthe largest investor,” Jaishankarsaid, underlining India’s progressglobally.

“We do see in many waysAfrica a region where we needto pay much more attention andall our new embassies we areopening are in the continent,” hesaid.

Singapore Deputy PrimeMinister Heng Swee Keat, whoalso attended the event, said thatIndia, Singapore and Thailandwill jointly patrol the Andamanseas to strengthen maritimesecurity. He, however, did notelaborate.(PTI)

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2019 (PAGE 16) DAILY EXCELSIOR, JAMMU

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Talks with Pak only if it acts in ‘civilized’ manner: Jaishankar

Vijay Chopra elected PTI Chairman