NIA man trailing IM ultras shot 24 times

Transcription

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RNI No.2016/1957, REGD NO. SSP/LW/NP-34/2016-18
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OPINION 8
WORLD 13
SPORT 14
BHARAT MATA KI JAI
FATWA UNFORTUNATE
TRUMP ON DEFENCE, TRIES
TO REGAIN MOMENTUM
REAL MADRID STUN
BARCA AT CAMP NOU
Established 1864
Published From
DELHI LUCKNOW BHOPAL
BHUBANESWAR RANCHI RAIPUR
CHANDIGARH DEHRADUN
Late City Vol. 152 Issue 92
*Air Surcharge Extra if Applicable
LUCKNOW, MONDAY APRIL 4, 2016; PAGES 16 `3
{
}
DEEPIKA PADUKONE
OVERWHELMED
WITH NATIONAL
AWARDS WIN
16 VIVACITY
www.dailypioneer.com
NIA man trailing IM GST soon: Modi woos Saudi investors
ultras shot 24 times
Martyr Tanzil Ahmad’s widow critical,
children saved themselves from shower
of bullets by hiding in car’s rear seat
Police personnel check the car of NIA officer Tanzil (INSET), who was shot dead
by unidentified assailants in Bijnor on Sunday post midnight
PTI
PRABHA SHANKAR n LUCKNOW
n a daring incident in Bijnor,
I-borne
two unidentified motorcycle
assailants gunned down
an NIA officer and critically
wounded his wife in the wee
hours of Sunday. The officer, in
the rank of the deputy superintendent of Police, along with
his wife and children, was
returning home from a wedding from Bijnor.
The officer, Mohammed
Tanzil Ahmad, who was a
member of team probing terror cases related to Indian
Mujahideen, sustained as many
MARKETS
SENSEX 25,269.64 8 72.22
NIFTY
7,713.05 8 25.35
as 24 bullet wounds while his
wife Farzana was shot at four
times. Scared by the showering
of bullets, their 14-year old
daughter and 12-year old son
hid themselves under the back
seat of their Wagon-R car.
Home Minister Rajnath
Singh, who is visiting his parliamentary constituency of
Lucknow, was apprised of the
incident. “Whatever is necessary
is being done. We are talking to
NIA officials,” Singh said.
In a statement, the hospital where Farzana is admitted,
said, “The officer’s wife was
brought in a critical condition.
Our doctors are providing the
best medical treatment to her.
Consid-ering patient’s confidentiality, we cannot comment any further.”
According to reports,
around 8.00 pm on Saturday,
Tanzil along with his family left
their home for attending his
niece’s marriage function in
Sohra village in Bijnor. When
they were returning home, the
assailants waylaid his car 300
metres away from his house
and showered bullets around
12.45am on Sunday.
Terming the incident as a
“planned attack”, police officials did not rule out the possibility of terror angle in the
shootout. He was attacked
from a close range.
The police officials said it
seemed that Tanzil Ahmad’s
movement was being tracked by
assailants who used sophisticated weapons (one 9mm pistol) in
the shootout. “Tanzil Ahmad
was shot dead by two motorcycle-borne persons on his way to
home,” IG (Law and Order) of
UP Police Bhagwan Swaroop
said. In Delhi, NIA IG Sanjeev
Kumar mourned the murder of
one of the brave officers of the
organisation and also termed the
attack as a “planned attack”. “A
planned attack was made on
Ahmad and he was fired upon
several times. Ahmad was killed,
while his wife was injured. She
has been admitted to Fortis
Hospital, Noida.
Continued on Page 4
Prime Minister Narendra Modi being ordained the
highest civilian award of Saudi Arabia, The Order of
Abdullah, by King of Saudi Arabia Salman bin Abdulaziz
Al Saud at his palace in Riyadh on Sunday
PTI
PM seeks to inject new vigour in trade and
counter-terrorism ties; both nations ask
states to dismantle terror infrastructures
PTI n RIYADH
ooing investors with
W
promise of an easier business environment and stable
tax regime, Prime Minister
Narendra Modi on Sunday
said retrospective taxation has
Voters to seal Bengal Naxal-bed,
Assam heavyweights’ fate today
been made a thing of the past
but he is “not able to do anything” on two cases inherited
from the previous Government
as they are “sub-judice”.
Modi also held wide-ranging talks with Saudi King
Salman bin Abdulaziz on ways
Assam BJP CM
candidate, Tarun
Gogoi among 539
in fray for 69 seats
to expand strategic cooperation
in a range of areas, including
trade, investment and counterterrorism. Besides, the two
nations on Sunday decided to
ramp up their counter-terrorism cooperation as they asked
all countries to dismantle terror infrastructures “where they
happen to exist” and reject the
use of terrorism against other
countries, seen as an oblique
reference to Pakistan.
A joint statement issued
PM gifts Saudi
King gold replica
of Kerala mosque
All-women IT
centre a glory for
S Arabia: Modi
Riyadh: Prime Minister
gifted Saudi King Salman bin
Abdulaziz a gold-plated replica of Kerala’s Cheraman Juma
Masjid, believed to be the first
mosque built in India by Arab
traders around 629 AD. “PM
@narendramodi gifted His
Majesty King Salman bin
Abdulaziz Al Saud a goldplated replica of the
Cheraman Juma Masjid in
Kerala,” the PMO tweeted.
Detailed report on P7
Riyadh: Prime Minister
described an all-women IT
centre set up by India’s Tata
Consultancy Services (TCS)
as the “glory of Saudi Arabia”.
“I am meeting those professionals who are now the
glory of Saudi Arabia,” Modi
said, adding, “This atmosphere I am witnessing here
today has the potential to give
a strong message to the world.”
Detailed report on P7
after the talks between Modi
and King Salman, said, “They
called on all states to reject the
use of terrorism against other
countries; dismantle terrorism
infrastructures where they happen to exist and to cut off any
kind of support and financing
to the terrorists operating and
perpetrating terrorism from
their territories against other
states; and bring perpetrators of
acts of terrorism to justice.”
Inviting Saudi businesses to
come and invest in India’s
defence, energy, railway, health
and agriculture sectors, Modi
also said that a common indirect taxation regime in form of
GST (Goods and Services Tax)
was “about to happen”. He,
however, refrained from giving
any specific timeframe.
Addressing a select group of
Saudi and Indian business leaders on the last day of his two-day
visit to Saudi Arabia, Modi said
his Government has opened up
many sectors to foreign invest-
ment and India stands out as a
“beacon of hope” amidst global
economic slowdown. He further
said his Government was trying
to strengthen the banking network in India by freeing them
from non-performing assets
(NPAs) of state-run electricity
companies whose liabilities had
gone up significantly.
Modi said India has taken
major policy initiatives to create favourable environment for
investors besides removing
administrative bottlenecks. In
this regard, he said the World
Bank has placed India on the
12th position in the list of
countries that had ensured
ease of doing business. “Today,
the world is facing a very deep
economic crisis and in this situation, India is a beacon of
hope. Whether it is World
Bank, IMF or credit rating
agencies, all of them consider
India one of the fastest growing economies,” he said.
Continued on Page 4
Related reports on P7
WINDIES ON TOP OF WORLD
Markets as on 1st April (Friday)
WEATHER
MAX 38.0 0C (+2)
MIN 23.1 0C (+5)
mainly clear sky.
CAPSULE
NOW, MEN CAN’T ENTER
TRIMBAKESHWAR TEMPLE
Nashik: The Trimbakeshwar
Temple authorities on Sunday
imposed a restriction on men’s
entry too into the sanctum
sanctorum of the Lord Shiva
shrine with an aim to provide
“equal treatment” to both
genders, a trustee said.
3-YR-OLD ACCUSED OF
SEXUAL ABUSE IN UK
London: A three-year-old child in
the UK has been probed by the
police for allegedly sexually
abusing other children, according
to a media report. Police
launched the probe after
allegations emerged that the
child took part in sexual activity
with two other children.
FATHER TOM IS ‘SAFE’,
SWARAJ TELLS CBCI
New Delhi: Father Tom
Uzhunnalil, who was abducted by
a terror group in Yemen, is “safe”
and efforts are underway for his
early release, External Affairs
Minister Sushma Swaraj told a
delegation of Catholic Bishops’
Conference of India, the organisation’s spokesman said.
P5
KBK
PNS n NEW DELHI
he polling for the first
T
phase of the Assembly elections in Assam and West
Bengal will kick off on Monday
amid tight security. Eighteen
out of the 294 constituencies in
Bengal and 65 out of 126 constituencies in Assam would go
to polls on Monday.
In Assam, BJP’s star candidate and Chief Ministerial
candidate Sarbananda Sonowal
from Majuli, and Chief
Minister Tarun Gogoi from
Titabor are the candidates in
the first phase of polls.
In Bengal, 18 seats in
In Assam, the ruling
Congress, the BJP-AGP-BPF
alliance and the AIUDF are
locked in a keen battle to
decide the fate of 539 candidates in 65 of the 126 constituencies in the border State
where issue of illegal migrants
is one of the main poll issues.
The BJP’s campaign called
for a ‘parivartan’ (change) to
bring development while the
Congress highlighted its various achievements, including
improvement of the law and
order situation during last 15
years of its rule in Assam.
Continued on Page 4
Related reports on P6
Weather experts predict 100-102
per cent of normal rainfall this yr
PNS n NEW DELHI
Kottayam: In a new twist in the
solar scam, accused Saritha S
Nair had in a purported letter
alleged that she was sexually
abused by Kerala CM Oommen
Chandy, who dismissed the
charge as “totally baseless” and
claimed it was a conspiracy. P6
fter two successive rain
A
deficient years, weather
experts have predicted a “good”
New Delhi: As the money
laundering probe against Vijay
Mallya gathers pace, ED is
preparing to issue Letters
Rogatories to a certain countries,
including South Africa and the
UK, for obtaining information on
his overseas assets.
in 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the
North-Eastern state of Assam is
where the BJP is seeking to topple the long and well-entrenched
reign of the Congress.
The TMC is looking for a
repeat victory in Bengal after
ending the Left Front’s 34year-old stranglehold on the
State in 2011, as the CPI(M)Congress alliance hopes to
reverse the trend by raising the
issues of corruption, Saradha
scam and bad-governance
under the TMC dispensation.
The collapse of an under-construction flyover in Kolkata has
also become a hot issue in the
poll war in Bengal.
CHAMPIONS 2016! West Indies
team celebrate after defeating
England by four wickets in the
final of the ICC World Twenty20
2016 cricket tournament at Eden
Gardens in Kolkata on Sunday
(DETAILED REPORTS ON P15)
PTI
Cheer for farmers! Good monsoon ahead
SEXUALLY EXPLOITED BY
CHANDY, CLAIMS SARITHA
ED PREPARING FOR LR
IN MALLYA-KFA PROBE
Maoist-affected areas will go to
Assembly polls in the first of
the six-phase elections. Overall
133 candidates will try their
luck from the constituencies
falling under the districts of
West Midnapore, Purulia and
Bankura. Out of these, 13 have
been roughly classified as Left
Wing Extremism-affected areas
by the Election Commission
where voting will end early by
4 pm due to security reasons.
While the Trinamool
Congress Party (TMC) and the
Left-Congress alliance are the
main rival in the State with the
BJP looking at bettering its
major gains in vote percentage
KBK
monsoon this year — about 89
cms, which is 100 per cent to
102 per cent of normal. This is
due to drop in El Nino pattern,
which may go below further by
May-end and gradually
become neutral.
The weakening El Nino
phenomenon is expected to
make way for its reverse counterpart La Nina, when the temperatures of the Pacific could
cool abnormally and bring
plentiful rain in various Asian
countries, including India.
The India Meteorological
Department (IMD) is expect-
ed to come out with its first
official prediction on
monsoon during the last week
of April.
During the last two successive years, monsoon was
deficient by 14 per cent and 12
per cent respectively. When
rainfall deficit in a year is 10 per
cent or more in a monsoon season, it is considered as a meteorological drought year. Over
the last two years, rain was particularly insufficient in the
regions of northern Karnataka,
Maharashtra, Punjab, Haryana,
Bihar, Jharkhand and parts of
Uttar Pradesh.
According to weather
experts, this was due to severe
condition of El Nino, which was
above two notches since the last
PTI
monsoon. The current El Nino
spell has been one of the longest
and the strongest ever. This is
characterised by unusual warm-
ing of the sea surface in equatorial Pacific Ocean, which is
known to suppress rainfall over
the Indian region besides other
countries. The last year witnessed one of the strongest El
Nino spells in 50 years that led
to such a rain deficient year.
However, as per experts,
the severity of the phenomenon
dropped last week to be in the
category of a moderate El Nino.
This is expected to decline
further at the end of May,
paving the way for a normal
monsoon. In the rainy season,
extending for four months
from June- September, rain in
June is expected to be the
maximum.
The weather experts have
given more reasons for the
farmers to cheer up. Declining
El Nino, according to them, is
likely to pave the way for La
Nina that occurs due to extensive cooling of the central and
eastern tropical regions of
Pacific Ocean.
Continued on Page 4
Even toddy’s days
numbered in Bihar?
Nitish Govt mulling ban
PNS n PATNA
fter the total prohibition on
A
country and spiced liquor
in the countryside, the Nitish
Kumar Government in Bihar
may consider banning the sale
of toddy in villages amid
reports that people are turning
towards toddy in big number
after ban on liquor.
Excise
Department
Principal Secretary KK Pathak
while interacting with District
Magistrates (DMs) on Saturday
evening gave this hint when
some DMs told him that
toddy tappers were doing
brisk business after ban on
country liquor. He also advised
the DMs for some check on the
sale of toddy and put some
conditions.
However, neither in the
new excise policy nor in the
Bihar Excise (Amendment) Bill,
2016, which was passed last
week, there is no indication of
any restriction or ban on toddy,
the popular drink of poor people mainly OBCs and dalits.
Continued on Page 4
city 02
LUCKNOW | MONDAY | APRIL 4, 2016
Body found beside Youth, sister hurt as bus knocks bike
I
railway tracks
PNS ■ LUCKNOW
PIONEER NEWS SERVICE ■
LUCKNOW
semi-nude body of a 30year-old unidentified man
A
was found in Gomti Nagar on
Sunday morning.
The body was recovered
beside the railway tracks
between Malhaur and Dilkusha
and bore several wounds.
Police said the victim either
met with some accident after he
fell down from a moving train
or he was hit when he was
crossing the tracks. Police
said the body was not mutilated. But the Gomti Nagar police
failed to explain if the victim
was travelling by a train, how
come he was in a semi-clad
state. Police spokesman of SSP,
Lucknow, said the victim was
wearing a lower only when the
body was recovered. He added
the body had been sent for
autopsy and further investigation into the case was on. “His
hands and legs had broken
Police said the
body was not
mutilated. But
the Gomti Nagar
police failed to
explain if the
victim was
travelling by a
train, how come
he was in a semiclad state.
when he was picked up from
the scene,” SO, Gomti Nagar,
Akhilesh Pandey said.
He said the identity of the
victim was yet to be ascertained. “We sought details of
missing persons from different
police stations and tried to
match details with that of the
victim. We did not get any success,” he said.
This is not the first incident
in which the body of a man was
recovered from railway tracks
in Gomti Nagar.
“There are several
instances of the recovery of
unclaimed bodies from the
railway tracks between
Badshah Nagar and Gomti
Nagar, Malhaur and Dilkusha
and other railway tracks which
fall in Trans Gomti area. In the
recent past, the body of 22year-old nursing student
Manpreet Kaur was recovered
from beside the railway tracks
(Dilkusha and Malhaur) in
Gomti Nagar.
Also an aspirant of banking services, Pushpendra Singh
Lodhi’s body was recovered
from the railway tracks in
Ghazipur police station area on
Thursday.
“The railway tracks in
Trans Gomti area is jinxed as
‘death traps’,” residents raised
their apprehension. They said
every second day there was a
report in newspapers about
the death of some victim.
n a tragic incident, a youth
and his sister were critically
wounded when a speeding
roadways bus knocked their
bike from behind near Buddha
Park in Chowk police station
area.
Commuters and residents
flew into rage after they saw the
incident and created a ruckus
at the scene blaming traffic
policemen for laxity in duty.
Khurram (23) along with
his sister Pinki (20), both of
Wazirganj, were going towards
Chowk for some work and
were hit by the bus around
noon. Due to the heavy impact,
they were thrown away. Both
were rushed to Trauma Centre
in a critical state.
The incident took place at
a time when there was a heavy
rush on the road. Commuters
and residents flocked to the
scene and they chased the bus
which was going to
Shahjahanpur district. Sensing
trouble, the driver fled abandoning the bus on the road.
Police teams had a tough task
containing public ire and to get
the road cleared after blockade.
Senior officials reached the
place on information and they
negotiated a peace.
In Mohanlalganj, fouryear-old girl Gitika was killed
in a road mishap on Sunday
morning. The little girl was
playing outside her house in
where the doctors declared
her “brought dead”. Police registered a case and investigations
were underway.
MURDERED
A farmer was found mur-
IIT JEE aspirants find
Chemistry paper tough
KGMU shunts
out dy supdt
PIONEER NEWS SERVICE ■ LUCKNOW
PNS n LUCKNOW
ing George’s Medical University
administration swung into action
K
by responding to a complaint of a
patient’s attendant quickly and shunting out a deputy superintendent for
alleged laxity in dispensing his duty.
Vice-Chancellor Ravi Kant
responded to a complain call instantly as it came from one of the former
students of the university. In order to
attend to the complaint regarding the
plight of services in the Limb Centre,
the university administration acted
without any delay.
Dr GK Singh, a student of 1966
MBBS batch, was staying in the hospital to take care of his wife Champa
Singh, who was admitted here for the
last one week.
“When I reached the private ward,
to my surprise I found that the geyser
was defunct and the bedsheets
were torn at several places,” he said.
On seeing the plight of services
and unhygienic conditions prevailing
at the Limb Centre, he reached out
to the Vice-Chancellor of the
medical university and registered his
grievance.
Considering the complaint, the
administration immediately rushed a
team of 50-60 sanitary workers to the
Limb Centre.
This team cleaned up every ward
at the Limb Centre and gave them a
clean appearance in just two hours.
Moreover, another team of technicians
was pressed into job for repairing geysers and air-conditioners in the private
ward. The floor was swept with automatic cleaners.
After the complaint, the administration had also arranged for an X-ray
unit at the Limb Centre. The machine
will start working in the next two
days, claimed the administration.
Dr GK Singh, who had served in
the PMS, said: “The university has exapanded over the years. Being a centre
of excellence in medical education,
patients come here from far away locations in search of quality healthcare.
A hygienic and clean environment in
the hospital helps in quick healing of
the patient.”
The V-C had had earlier removed
additional superintendent Dr Anupam
Wakhlu on the charge of laxity in performing his duty.
Parwar village and was hit by
a motorcyclist who happened
to pass near her house. The
errant motorcyclist fled the
scene after he hit the girl. The
villagers rushed the girl to a
Community Health Centre
dered in Malihabad on Sunday.
Police termed the incident a
case of suicide saying Hari
Ram Rawat was found hanging
from a tree with a gamcha tied
around his neck. Police drew a
blank when asked if any suicide
note was recovered from the
scene. Later, police said the
body was sent for the postmortem and a case was being
investigated. Police said none of
victim’s family raised any suspicion about Hari Ram Rawat’s
death. “Still if we get a complaint, we will investigate the
case on that line too,” the
police spokesman said. He
added that the man was of alcoholic nature.
It surfaced during investigation that Hari Ram Rawat’s
wife was staying with her parents at their house. It also surfaced that Hari Ram was caught
for stealing cash from his
neighbour’s house two days
back. “The cash was recovered
from the possession of Hari
Ram Rawat. Since then, he was
living in fear probably because
he was given threats of a police
action by his neighbour,” the
villagers told police team which
was carrying out the investigation.
he IIT JEE aspirants, who
appeared for the IIT JEE
T
main examinations held on
Sunday, found the Chemistry
paper tough in comparison to
that of Physics and
Mathematics.
City coordinator, CBSE,
Javed Alam said that the examinations passed off without
any glitches.
Sandarsh Gupta, who
appeared for the examinations,
said that he found the papers
moderately difficult in comparison to last year.
Smridh Jain, who appeared
for the examination, said that
he found the paper tough. “ In
comparison to Physics and
Mathematics, the Chemistry
paper was tough because of
theoretical questions,” he said.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh at Holi milan prgramme in Hari Om Mandir on Sunday
Hindi Theatre Day celebrated
Lucknow (PNS): The Hindi Theatre Day was
celebrated with great fanfare at the Rai Umanath
Bali auditorium here by the Kalakaar Association
on the occasion of World Theatre Day on Sunday.
President of the Kalakaar Association Sangam
Bahuguna, while talking to The Pioneer, said that
the audience had started accepting the new trend
of paying for theatre. “Commercially, I will say that
we break even when we stage a play although I
strongly feel that in the coming days we will be
able to get a larger audience,” he said.
The theatre aficionado said that for some of
the plays in the paid ticket category they had
achieved a cent per cent pull-off. “The trend has
increased in the past years and we expect that this
situation will improve,” he added.
He said that they had also begun the concept
of sponsored theatre in the city.
“We have also begun the trend of rich stage
productions with the help of sponsors but we feel
that we need to get more publicity for this kind
of theatre,” he added.
Bahuguna said that amongst all the genres of
theatre the most popular one was that of comedy. “In today’s stressful times, the genre of comedy was greatly appreciated although all kinds of
genres prevail. There is an increase in the number of Hindi theatre productions and there are
more plays which are being staged in the state capital than in any other part of the country,” he added.
However, NK Dubey,
incharge of one of the coaching institutes for IIT in the city,
said that the paper was easier in comparison to that of last
year.
“ The questions were theoretical rather than numerical
and while the Mathematics
was easy and Physics slightly
tough than last year, Chemistry
had more of theoretical questions,” he added.
Experts said that the
Question Paper – I for BE and
B Tech courses in 2016 was
similar to the pattern in 2011
to 2015.
The paper was a balanced
one and was set from the CBSE
syllabus of Class XI and XII
and many of the questions
were conceptual with some
needing analytical skills. About
27 questions were easy, 48
were moderately difficult and
15 were of a relatively higher
difficulty, Dubey said.
“The overall difficulty level
for the paper was moderate.
For a student who had been
focused and serious all
through the two years in
improving speed and accuracy
by taking regular quizzes and
mock tests must have done
reasonably well. It is always relative performance which matters in such highly-competitive
examinations. In terms of
errors and ambiguity it will be
possible to say something only
after fully solving the paper.
Cut-offs are expected to be a little higher than last year,” he
added.
Cut-offs
for
CML
(Common Merit List) in 2013,
2014 and 2015 were 113,115
and 105 respectively.
Lt Gen Venkatesh pays homage Illegal structures
to be razed
to martyrs on 252nd anniv
PNS ■ LUCKNOW
wreath-laying ceremony was
organised at the AMC War
Memorial on the occasion of its
252nd Raising Day anniversary in
Lucknow Cantonment on Sunday.
Lt
Gen
MD
Venkatesh,
Commandant, AMC Centre and
College, paid homage by laying a
wreath at the AMC War Memorial
to those martyrs who had laid down
their lives in the service of the country.
Later, a Special Sainik Sammelan
was addressed by Lt Gen MD
Venkatesh at the AMC stadium.
About 5,000 officers and troops
were present on the occasion.
Addressing the Sainik Sammelan, Lt
Gen MD Venkatesh exhorted all
ranks of the Army Medical Corps to
strive hard to maintain the high standard of training imparted so that the
best of care could be rendered to the
A
sick and wounded both during war
and peace. Lt Gen MD Venkatesh
congratulated all ranks for the tireless and exemplary service they had
rendered across the country as well
as abroad during war, peace and natural calamities to keep the flag of the
Army Medical Corps flying high. Lt
Gen Venkatesh conveyed his best
wishes to all ranks and their families on the occasion of the 252nd
AMC Corps Day and prayed for
their good health and prosperity.
To commemorate the occasion
of the AMC Corps Day anniversary,
Lt Gen MD Venkatesh felicitated soldiers for their outstanding performance in different fields. Naib subedar JS Kushwah was awarded the Lt
Gen SR Mehta Rolling Trophy and
cash award for the Best Junior
Commissioned Officer (JCO).
Recruit Vikram Singh was awarded
the Lt Gen B Sadananda (Retired)
Rolling Trophy and cash award for
the Best Recruit
(MT
Battalion) while sepoy Rajnish
Pratap Singh, recruit Dilip Kumar,
recruit driver Shiva Rathi and
recruit nursing assistant Uttpal
Kumar Singh were awarded the SP
Arora cash award for the best recruit
(Technical Training Wing). Chandra
Prakash, MTS, was felicitated for
being the Best Worker (civilian).
The No 2 Military Training Battalion
was adjudged the Best Sub-Unit. Col
Vinod Kumaran, TT, received the
trophy on behalf of the sub-unit.
ivisional Commissioner, Lucknow, Mahesh Gupta
at a review meeting of Lucknow Development
D
Authority (LDA) issued a direction to Vice-Chairman
to remove unauthorised structures which had come
up properties.
He said that the top priority should be given to
residential areas to make the place of dwelling clean
and worth living and felt that officials engaged in the
task could take the help of residents and other people. The Divisional Commissioner, Lucknow, is an exofficio chairman of LDA. Source said that illegal structures had come up on a large-scale in parks especially in the old parts of the city. The commissioner asked
LDA authorities to seek the assistance of the Nagar
Nigam as the task was arduous. It was also decided that
a penalty would be imposed in residential areas on
those houses and flats which violated the authorised
blue-print. It will be mandatory for an individual to
take ‘no objection certificate’ from the competent
authority in future. Source said that it was not compulsory so far. LDA Vice-Chairman Satyendra Singh
said that officers of the development authority and the
state government were engaged in working out a rule
in that regard.
CT scan tests to start LMRC MD, officials inspect mishap site in TP Nagar
at Balrampur Hosp
PNS n LUCKNOW
PNS ■ LUCKNOW
T scan tests will begin in
Balrampur Hospital from
C
Monday after a gap of more
than three days. The government-run medical facility had
failed to present the approval
for running the unit to the
AERB.
CT scan tests were not
done in the last three days as
the Atomic Energy Regulatory
Board (AERB) ordered lock
down of the unit in the
absence of required documents. Though the hospital
administration had submitted
documents on Friday, the unit
could not be opened before
Monday.
A team of AERB inspected Balrampur Hospital on
Thursday. The team officials
found that the hospital did not
possess important registration certificates necessary for
the working of CT scan and
X-ray units. Moreover, the
team also observed that the
government-run hospital did
not possess the required certificates for the last 10 years.
The AERB team sealed units
and put a complete ban on
carrying out CT scan. In the
last three days, patients were
worst affected with the closure
of the unit. The unexpected
closure also pushed the waiting list of patients for CT scan.
Chief medical superintendent Dr Rajeev Lochan
said that the AERB had finally approved reopening of the
CT scan unit on receiving
complete documents from the
hospital, adding that the unit
would throw open from
Monday.
anaging
director,
Lucknow Metro Rail
M
Corporation, Kumar Keshav,
along with officials, visited the
accident site in Transportnagar
on Sunday to carry out an
inspection and discuss extra
measures which could be taken
to avoid the leakage of the
cement mixture which took
place under the viaduct of the
Lucknow Metro there on
Saturday.
Kumar Keshav, while talking to The Pioneer, said: “After
refixing the deck sheet for that
particular span and one more
span of the viaduct slab on
Saturday night successfully, we
inspected the site on Sunday
and discussed additional measures like provision of additional rivets in deck sheets to guard
against such incidents in future.”
It may be pointed out here
that a cement mixture leakage
in the casting of a slab on
Saturday had caused it to fall on
a stationary car on the road
below as a result of which its
windscreen had cracked.
The Lucknow Metro is one
of the priority projects of the
state government and the construction of the first phase
from Transportnagar to
Charbagh is being currently
carried out and the trials are
slated to begin in October and
November.
Printed and Published by Vijay Prakash Singh for and on behalf of CMYK Printech Ltd., 4th Floor, Sahara Shopping Centre, Faizabad Road, Lucknow-226016 and Printed at Tin Tin Printech Pvt Ltd., C-33 Amausi Industrial Area, Nadarganj, Lucknow. Tel: (0522) 2438656 / 9336266608.
Editor: Chandan Mitra. Resident Editor: Vijay Prakash Singh. RNI No. 2016/57. Lucknow Telephones: EPABX: 4036600 Fax: 2345582. Allahabad Office: (95532) 2420818, 2421018, 3290460. Kanpur Office: (95512) 2304006, 2304416. Varanasi Office: (95542) 2414294, 2414295. Delhi
Office: Link House, II Floor, 3 Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi 110 002. Tel: (011) 23755271-274, 41509074.
city 03
UP govt insensitive to
people’s woes: Rajnath
PNS ■ LUCKNOW
itting out at the Samajwadi
Party government in Uttar
H
Pradesh, Union Home Minister
Rajnath Singh said that a government which did not have
time to listen to the woes of
people “who earn their living
by toiling through sweat and
blood” had no right to continue in power.
“Neglecting the poor who
earn their living through hard
work shows the insensitivity of
a government. The government should honour their hard
work and resolve the problems
they are facing,” Singh said
while addressing the Parakh
Mahasangh and Adhikar rally
organised here on Sunday.
The rally was the brainchild of Mohanlalganj MP
Kaushal Kishore and the
demand for regularisation of ad
hoc employees was raised in it.
Bharatiya Janata Party
president Amit Shah was also
expected to address the rally
but he failed to make it.
The Union Home Minister
said the state government
should show compassion and
extend all help to the employees.
“A government which
neglects these hard working
employees has no right to stay
in power. This rally is a warning for the Akhilesh Yadav
government,” he said.
Singh also criticised the
Akhilesh Yadav government
for its frequent complaint that
the Centre was not releasing
funds.
“The allegation is false.
The fact is that the Narendra
Modi government has
increased the state’s share from
32 per cent to 42 per cent.
Whenever the state has asked
for money, the Centre has
released it,” he said.
“Everything boils down to
intention. If the intention of the
government is clean, it can do
Union Home Minister waves t the crowd at adhikar rally in Lucknow on Sunday
Outer ring road foundation
to be laid by May
Lucknow (PNS): Union Home Minister
Rajnath Singh said on Sunday that construction of the outer ring road would start from May
end and probably by next year, Lucknow would
become the most happening city of the country.
“The foundation for construction of outer
ring road will be laid by May end or June. Once
the outer ring road is constructed, it will ease
city traffic as now all the city roads are chocka-block with cars and two-wheelers,” Singh said
while addressing a Holi Milan programme
organised by Sonkar Samaj.
He said that this year, Rs 30 crore had been
pumped in so far on outer ring road project
tremendous work for the welfare of people. But if the intention is doubtful, the government will start cribbing and
ultimately people will suffer.
This is what is happening in
while additional Rs 109 crore had been released
for upgradation of Gomti Nagar railway station.
“We want to make it a world class railway
station having all amenities. You may not see
the changes now, but by next year this time the
changes will become visible,” he said.
He also spoke about the achievements of
the Narendra Modi government and how its
policies had benefited poor. The Union Home
Minister, who is a local MP, talked about Jan
Dhan Yojana, gas subsidy scheme and Mudra
banking.
“The Bharatiya Janata Party workers should
go to people and tell them about our schemes
so that they may avail the benefits,” he said.
Uttar Pradesh,” Singh, who is
on a three-day visit to his parliamentary constituency, said.
Singh said he had been the
Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh
and knew the ins and outs of
More passenger amenities
in UP soon: Sinha
PNS ■ LUCKNOW
he Indian Railways has
sanctioned projects worth
T
Rs 27,000 crore for Uttar
Pradesh for increasing passenger amenities and upgradation of railway lines.
Minister of State for
Railways Manoj Sinha disclosed that the Narendra Modi
government had initiated
steps to improve rail amenities
for passengers.
“Projects worth Rs 27,000
crore have been launched in
UP while the sundry increase
in budget allocation for the
state is five times,” Sinha told
reporters here on Sunday.
He said that this year 57
rail over bridges (ROBs) and
125 rail under bridges (RUBs)
would be constructed in Uttar
Pradesh.
“Earlier, we used to lay 4.6
km rail line per day in UP but
we have increased it to 7 km
per day. This is the first time
in the annals of UP that there
is a four times increase in rail
projects in the state,” he
said.
The minister also talked
about the Gomti Nagar railway station and said it would
be upgraded and made one of
the best in the country as far
as availability of public amenities was concerned.
He said that investments
in
Indian
Railways
had increased to Rs 1,29,000
crore while it was just Rs
48,000 crore during the
United Progressive Alliance
regime.
“In the next five years, our
target is to increase investments by Rs 8.5 lakh crore,” he
added.
Elaborating on the government schemes, Sinha said
the National Democratic
Alliance government was
committed to improve rail
amenities.
“Efforts are on to increase
speed of trains and provide
effective reservation to people
by 2020,” he said.
“There are 49 railway
zones where traffic load is
almost double. We wish to
increase track capacity and
non-ticketing revenue from
existing 5 per cent to 20 per
cent,” he said.
To buttress his point,
Sinha said parcel revenue in
India was Rs 2 lakh crore and
the Railways wanted to
increase it further because
the share of rail in this segment was very less,” the minister said. When asked about
the possibility of his taking
charge as the next state president of the Bharatiya Janata
Party, Sinha said he has no
knowledge about it.
“At present I am Rail minister and that is what I know,”
he said.
SP Cycle Yatra from April 18
Lucknow (PNS): With the aim of reaching
out to the electorate of UP ahead of the
Assembly election in 2017, the ruling Samajwadi
Party will take out a 10-day-long Cycle Yatra
across the state from April 18.
The Cycle Yatras will reach each and every
village to apprise the people of the achievements
of the Akhilesh Yadav government and the
development works done in the state.
Samajwadi Party spokesman and Cabinet
Minister Rajendra Choudhary said here on
Sunday that the party was intensifying its campaign for creating awareness among the masses about the positive contribution of Chief
Minister Akhilesh Yadav during the last four
years.
He said in 10 days, the Cycle Yatra would
cover all the 75 districts of the state.
Choudhary pointed out that earlier, on completion of four years of the SP government, Vikas
Diwas was celebrated in all block headquarters
of the state on March 15 and 16.
He said Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav had
asked the party’s office-bearers, MPs, former
MPs, MLAs, ex-MLAs, chairpersons of district
panchayats and other leaders to start preparations for flagging off the Cycle Yatra in their
respective districts and Assembly constituencies from April 15.
The Cycle Yatra will be taken out in each
Assembly constituency, which will be divided
into 10 zones. A team of 15 party workers on
bicycles will cover 5-7 villages every day each
zone.
The teams will be given publicity material
by the party. Each team will devote at least one
hour in each village and will also stay in one vil-
lage on the last day of the Cycle Yatra.
The SP spokesman said the Cycle Yatra
would conclude on April 27 in each Assembly
constituency in a grand manner.
Choudhary said that during the last four
years, the Akhilesh Yadav government had
launched several development and welfare
schemes for all sections of society and the party
wanted to publicise its achievements.
In December last year, the SP had launched
an innovative campaign, Gaon Gaon Akhilesh,
for reaching out to the masses ahead of the 2017
Assembly election.
The campaign, with the LED vans equipped
with TV screens, was launched to propagate the
achievements of the Akhilesh Yadav government
to every nook and corner of the state. In the first
phase, the campaign was launched in only five
districts — Faizabad, Agra, Gorakhpur,
Hamirpur and Jalaun.
The target of the campaign was to cover
over one lakh villages across the state. By the
end of February 2017, all 75 districts were covered. Each van visited at least 200 villages in each
district.
Besides conducting video clips showing
achievements of the government, a team of party
workers recorded the complaints, aspirations
and suggestions of the masses for redressal of
their grievances and also local development.
Publicity material was also distributed in villages
during the team’s visit.
Choudhary said the Gaon Gaon Akhilesh
campaign was very successful and its success so
far demonstrated that the people had unflinching faith in the leadership of Chief Minister
Akhilesh Yadav.
the government.
“I know UP treasury is like
Kuber’s khazana. The Chief
Minister should know how to
utilise the money and where, he
said.
Drought-hit
people of
Bundelkhand to
get Samajwadi
relief
PNS ■ LUCKNOW
hief Minister Akhilesh Yadav
has announced that the
C
drought-hit
people
in
Bundelkhand will get Samajwadi
relief material every month, a
scheme he launched last week
during his visit to the region.
The government spokesman
said that in view of the drought
in which farmers lost their crop
and had practically nothing to
eat, the Chief Minister had
ordered that the Samajwadi relief
material be distributed in the
affected region of Bundelkhand
every month on the designated
date.
“It will be the responsibility
of the district magistrate to
ensure that all the beneficiaries
get the relief material and there
is no pilferage. In case of any
problems, the district magistrates should contact senior officials in the government,” the
Chief Minister said.
Akhilesh Yadav had
launched the Samajwadi Drought
Relief Scheme during his visit to
Mahoba and Chitrakoot on
March 31.
The relief material comprises 10 kg of flour, 5 kg of rice, 5
kg gram, 25 kg potato, 5 kg mustard oil, 1 kg desi ghee and 1 kg
milk powder.
The relief material will be
distributed among 2.30 lakh
families covered by Antyodaya
scheme in seven districts of
Bundelkhand. Yadav had said
that no people in the state should
die of hunger. He added that in
case of starvation death, the district magistrate would be held
responsible.
The spokesman said to
extend support to the droughthit people, atta was being provided at the rate of Rs 2 per kg
and rice at Rs 3 per kg under
Food Security Act.
Under the MGNREGA
scheme, the people of these
seven drought-hit districts would
get employment for 150 days
against the prescribed 100 days,
he added. “Directives have also
been issued to provide fodder for
animals and water for the people.
Power employees have been
asked to provide 24x7 electricity so that state-run tubewells
operate,” the spokesman said.
Shun ISIS, organisations spreading terror: Clerics
PIONEER NEWS SERVICE ■
LUCKNOW
n international conference
on ‘Islam and World Peace’,
A
presided over by the Imam of
Kaaba from Mecca in Saudi
Arabia, Sheikh Saleh Bin
Muhammad Bin Ibrahim Aal
Talib, has appealed to Muslim
youth not to be misled by ISIS
and other organisations spreading terror and hatred in the
name of jihad.
The conference held at
Aishbagh Eidgah here on
Sunday adopted a resolution
which says: “ISIS, under the
cover of jihad, is bringing a bad
name to Islam as what they are
doing in not jihad but strife and
terror and the conference
strongly condemns it.”
The resolution adds, “Islam
is a religion of peace and harmony. It had nothing to do with
terror in the past, it has nothing to do with terror in the present, and it will never have any
link with terror in the future
also.”
“The conference appeals to
Muslim youth not to be misled
by terrorist organisations like
ISIS. This organisation has
only killed thousands of
Muslims and has destroyed
schools, colleges, hospitals and
other state and community
buildings in Islamic states’’, the
resolution adds.
Urging the media to refrain
from linking acts of terror
with Muslims, the resolution
said, “We appeal to the international community, political
leaders and the media not to
malign the image of Islam by
linking the acts of terror with
it.”
Asking Muslims of India to
live in harmony with people of
other faiths, the resolution
said, “We appeal to Muslims to
live with love and compassion
with their non-Muslim
brethren in their native countries.”
The conference also
appealed to Muslims to make
their best efforts for ensuring
the best higher education to
their children. It asked Muslims
to lead their life as per the path
shown by Allah and his messenger, Prophet Mohammed,
and also impart religious education to their children so that
they stayed away from all kinds
of un-Islamic customs, traditions and vices.
The conference appealed to
the global Muslim community to maintain the sanctity of
Masjid al-Haram at Mecca and
to close their ranks against
forces trying to desecrate the
holy shrine in Saudi Arabia.
Emphasising the need for
unity among different sects of
Muslims, the conference urged
the community to seek redressal of their problems and grievances in a united manner.
The conference also urged
the government of Saudi
Arabia to consider the problems of the migrant labourers
from India in a sympathetic
manner.
Earlier in the day, Sheikh
Saleh Bin Muhammad Bin
Ibrahim Aal Talib was received
at the CCS airport in Amausi
by Basic Education Minister
Ahmed Hasan. The Imam led
the evening namaz at the
Eidgah. It was attended by
over one lakh local Sunni
Muslims. The Imam of Kaaba
was schedules to arrive here on
Saturday but his visit was
rescheduled and he reached
here on Sunday.
The Imam of Aishbagh
Eidgah, Maulana Khalid
Rashid Firangi Mahali, said
during the last Haj pilgrimage,
Saudi Arabia had declared that
ISIS was un-Islamic and unrelated to their religion.
He said that nearly 90 per
cent of those killed by ISIS were
Muslims and the organisation
had destroyed the infrastructure of several countries.
Traders bandh today in support of jewellers
raders’ organisation on Sunday gave a
call for statewide ‘bandh’ on Monday
T
in protest against the one per cent excise
levied by the Union government on jewellery items.
Akhil Bharatiya Udyog Vyapar Mandal
president Sandeep Bansal said the traders
would keep their establishments closed on
Monday in support of jewellers who are on
indefinite strike since March 1.
“We have asked the members of the
association across the state to make the
bandh a big success,” he said.
Demanding roll-back of one per cent
excise duty on jewellery, UP Adarsh
Vyapar Mandal president Sanjay Gupta
said the traders would burn the effigy of
the Central government and the Union
Finance Minister at different places during the bandh on Monday.
The traders plan to burn the effigies
of the Central government and the Union
Finance Minister at Munshipulia, Raheem
Nagar, Aminabad, Husadiya crossing,
Sadar, Medical College crossing, Lalbagh
and several other places.
Women’s traders body will also take
part in the protest.
Meanwhile, workers of petrol pumps
will tie black armbands in support of jewellers on Monday, their association said.
city/nation 04
Govt approaches Centre for getting
quarters of 40 babus vacated
RAJESH KUMAR n NEW DELHI
he AAP Government has
reportedly urged the
T
Centre to get all the houses
vacated by June 30, 2016, which
are still being occupied by IAS
and DANICS officers who are
no longer working with the
Delhi Government.
The Government is said to
have sent Delhi Cabinet’s decision, along with a list of 40 IAS
and DANCIS officers, posted
either with the Centre and
other States and Union
Territories, who are still retaining their Government accommodation in the national
Capital.
Among the officers whose
names have reportedly been
sent to the Centre are 1984
batch bureaucrats - Shakuntala
D Gamlin, posted as the Chief
Secretary of Arunachal Pradesh
, Arvind Ray, transferred to
Mizoram and Goa Chief
Secretary S R K Srivastava,
1985-batch officer Parimal
Rai, appointed as the advisor
to
the
Chandigarh
Administrator, 1990-cadre’s
Jitendra Narain and 1994
batch officer Asish Chandra
Verma, both posted to
Arunachal Pradesh, 1996
cadre’s Gitanjali Gupta
Kundra, who is in Mizoram,
2000 batch officer K K Jindal,
who is in Chandigarh, 2003
cadre bureaucrat Biaktulunga,
posted to Mizoram, 2007
batch officer Govind Jaiswal,
who is in Goa, 2012 batch officers Satyendra
Singh
Dursawat (Pudducherry),
Sonal
Sawarup
and
Himanshu Gupta (both in
Arunachal Pradesh) and
Harleen Kaur ( Mizoram).
Several bureaucrats said
that rules clearly state that
families of bureaucrats carry-
CITYBRIEFS
KATHAK RECITAL
The Indian Council for
Cultural Relations (ICCR) in collaboration with Rashtriya Kathak
Sansthan is organising a Kathak
dance by Surabhi Singh Tandon
ing out difficult postings in on Friday (April 8) at 7 pm at Rai
places like Arunachal Pradesh, Umanath Bali auditorium under
Mizoram and Puducherry can ‘Horizon’ series.
retain alternate accommodation in Delhi for two years. GHERAO
But the one’s who have taken
Candidates, who were selectup soft postings in places like ed for the post of agricultural
Chandigarh and Goa are not technical assistance - Group A,
covered under any such rule. will gherao the office of
The AAP Government’s Agricultural directorate on April
decision to get its houses 4 from 11 am. Candidates’
vacated by all the officers spokesman Ram Gopal said that
who were not serving with it the results were declared on
was taken at a Cabinet meet- December 15 last year but they
ing last month. Sources said had not being issued appointthe AAP Government also ment letters despite the directive
decided to approach the of the High Court.
Centre to provide it with
equivalent number of same DELEGATION
category of Government
The All-India Students’
houses in lieu of its houses Federation (AISF) has decided at
occupied by IAS and Danics its meeting that 50 per cent seats
officers posted with the Union should be reserved for students
Government or any other in the admission tests conductState or Union Territory by ed by Lucknow University for
June 30,2016.
various courses at the graduation
SCHOOLSCAN
level. This was disclosed by it
convener Monika Mishra. She
welcomed the decision of university authorities for selecting
students on merits. A delegation
will meet the Vice-Chancellor
drawing his attention towards
the reservation of seats for students.
ART WEEK
Manjari`s Institute of Music
and Fine Art has decided to
organise an art week from
Monday (April 4 to April 10). It
is also known as ‘Ingenuity‘— an
art week’. As per programme,
wall painting contest will be
held at its Gomti Nagar branch
on
Monday
at
3pm.
Kalasangoshti will be held on
Tuesday at Nirala Nagar branch
at 5 pm. Art competition will be
held at Indira Nagar branch on
Wednesday at 4 pm. Nature
drawing competition will be
held on Thursday at Saadat Ali
Khan Maqbara, Kaiserbagh, at 4
pm. Art exhibition will be held
Kala Srot, Aliganj, at 11 am while
concluding function will be held
at Kala Srot at 5 pm.
Thousands attend funeral
of slain NIA officer
PNS n NEW DELHI
housands of people gathered
at Batla House graveyard on
T
Sunday to pay their last respect to
the slain Deputy Superintendent
of Police Mohammad Tanzil
Ahmad of the National
Investigation Agency (NIA) who
was shot dead by unidentified
bike-borne assailants on Sunday
post midnight in Bijnor, Uttar
Pradesh, as he was returning after
attending a wedding.
His wife was seriously injured.
The slain officer’s body was
brought to Abul Fazal Encalve in
Okhla on Sunday evening where
he has been living for the last fifteen years or so, according to residents.
It was only after heavily armed
police personnel and media persons arrived in the area since
morning that many people came
to know that Tanzil resided in
Jamia Nagar, said residents.
Additional deployment was
made in and around the house of
the NIA officer to ensure that trouble mongers were kept at bay, an
official said. Also, Delhi Police’s
Special Cell has been asked to
investigate the murder of the officer who was involved in the investigations of some sensitive cases.
Tanzil was given a Guard of
Honour by the BSF jawans before
his body was laid to rest at a graveyard in the Jamia area. Before the
Honour, however, Tanzil’s body
was surrounded by agitated locals
who shouted slogans. They were
agitated because no senior
Government representatives were
present during the last rites of the
NIA officer. After the locals were
calmed down by the officers present at the scene, last rites were
allowed to be conducted.
Meanwhile, a senior NIA
official who had come to Tanzil’s
residence said the attack on the
Relatives of NIA officer Mohammed Tanzil, who was killed by unidentified assailants in
Bijnor mourn outside the building where Tanzil’s post-mortem was conducted, in
Moradabad on Sunday
PTI
officer was a planned one and
the agency is probing all possible angles and will send its findings to the Uttar Pradesh Police
that is investigating the grisly
murder.
WIFE CRITICAL
NOIDA (PNS): Farzana
Khatun(45), wife of NIA Deputy
Superintendent of police
Mohammad Tanzil Ahmad, who
was shot dead in Bijnor, Uttar
Pradesh, is critically injured with
one bullet wound in her stomach.
She has been admitted in Fortis
Hospital, Noida sector-62 where
her condition is said to be critical.
She was shot four times by the
assailants who had pumped 21 bullets at her husband when they were
returning after attending a marriage
at Bijnore on Sunday post midnight.
Fortis Management said she was
brought at hospital from
Moradabad around 7 am on
Sunday. “The doctors have conducted her operation. She has been
shifted in Intensive Care Unit where
her condition is still critical. Doctors
are observing her regularly,” Fortis
management said. Tanzil and his
wife and were immediately rushed
to the hospital in Moradabad district early morning on Sunday.
The doctor had declared Tanzil
brought dead but his wife was
immediately rushed to a hospital in
Noida. Bijnor police said the incident took place in wee hours on
Sunday when Tanzil Ahmed (45)
along with his wife and two children
was travelling in his car from
Bijnor. “He along with his wife and
two children was returning from the
wedding of his niece when unidentified bike-borne persons stopped
his car and opened fire at him.
Tanzil was driving the car while his
wife was sitting on the front seat and
two children - 14-year-old daughter and a 12-year-old son were in the
back seat,” said Inspector General,
Law and Order (UP), Bhagwan
Swarup. An assistant commandant
with Border Security Force (BSF),
Tanzil, was on deputation with the
NIA.
EVEN TODDY’S DAYS ARE NUMBERED...
Continued from page 1
Pathak has, however, not
directed the district officials for
any ban on toddy but reportedly
suggested that some restrictions
could be imposed on its sale and
consumption. A restriction has
already been imposed on its consumption at public places. There
is also an apprehension that the
toddy tappers might be mixing
country liquor or other chemicals
in the toddy. The senior officials
in the CM Secretariat feigned
ignorance about the possibility of
ban on toddy. One official even
indicated of a social unrest in the
countryside if such a ban was considered. Senior officials of the
Excise Department were not avail-
able for comment because of
Sunday. It is to be recalled that
toddy had been exempted from
tax during the regime of Lalu
Prasad in early nineties on the plea
that since this drink was used by
very poor people, they could not
pay tax. According to a survey of
NSSO, Bihar is among four States
where toddy is in high use but
Andhra Pradesh tops the list and
Bihar comes fourth after Kerala,
Assam and Jharkhand. There are
reports that sale of toddy in villages has gone up and also the
toddy tappers have increased its
price in view of high demand. A
500 ML bottle of toddy which earlier cost Rs 10 is now being sold
at Rs 15, reports suggested.
CMS STUDENTS WIN TOP
POSITIONS IN ENGLISH
AND SCIENCE CONTESTS
Manoneet Dwivedi and
Parth Agarwal, Class X students of City Montessori
School’s Station Road campus,
cleared the International
Benchmark Test in English
and Science respectively with
flying colours. In this contest,
organised by Australian
Council for Educational
Research in several countries,
Manoneet and Parth ranked
among the top 5 per cent students and were awarded
Certificate of High Distinction,
according to CMS chief public
relations officer Hari Om
Sharma. He said CMS continuously endeavours to chisel the
versatile talents of students
and prepares them for challenges in life through various
creative and innovative competitions and this has enabled
the gems of CMS to win a large
number of prizes in different
national and international
competitions.
Parth Agarwal
Manoneet Dwivedi
ALL-ROUND EDUCATION
IS BASE OF LIFE
City Montessori School’s
founder-director Bharti
Gandhi said that good and
meaningful education was necessary in the present age.
Speaking at the World Unity
Satsang held at City Montessori
School’s Gomti Nagar auditorium on Sunday, the educationiost and believer of Baha’i
faith, said that all-round education not only shaped the
future of children but straightened the direction of family,
society and world community
because young generation owns
the responsibility of well being
of the world fraternity. She said
that CMS, from the very beginning, was nurturing the concept of ‘Jai Jagat’ and ‘Vasudhaiv
Kutumbkam’ so that its students grew up as world citizens.
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
NIA MAN SHOT
He was an assistant commandant
with BSF and was on deputation with
NIA,” he said.
Police sealed borders of district and
launched a massive manhunt in search
of assailants. Additional Director
General of Police Daljit Chowdhry said
“nothing can be ruled out,” when
asked about the possibility of terror
angle behind the attack.
“The body has been sent for postmortem and details of what actually
happened will soon come out. Borders
of the State have been sealed and police
teams are conducting checking. We are
trying to find out the motive behind
gruesome killing,” he said.
He added that investigations were
on and UP Police, UP ATS, NIA, the
DIG of NIA from Lucknow and his
team were on the spot.
Chowdhry said the Uttar Pradesh
Police was also trying to ascertain
whether the 9 mm pistol used for the
crime was country-made or factorymade.
UP Director General of Police
Javed Ahmad said IG Special Task
Force (STF) and IG Anti Terrorist
Squad (ATS) have been dispatched to
Bijnor to probe the incident.
“We are also in touch with NIA
officers and coordinating with them.
We will go deep into it and ensure those
involved are arrested”, Ahmad said.
Superintendent of Police, Bijnor,
Subhash Singh Baghel said, Tanzil
Ahmad visited Bijnor on Friday to
attend his niece’s marriage at a guest
house in Sohara village, around nine
killometres from their residence.
Meanwhile, the slain officer’s body
was on Sunday evening brought to
Abul Fazal Encalve in Okhla where he
has been living for the last fifteen years
or so. Thousands of people gathered at
Batla House graveyard to pay their last
respect to the officer.
Ahmad was posted as an assistant
commandant in BSF and was on deputation to NIA. He was posted as
Inspector initially with the NIA’s
Intelligence wing and later in its investigation department. He was with the
NIA ever since the inception of the
organisation in February 2009 and had
been investigating many cases especially related to operational activity of
banned Indian Mujahideen terror outfit. His superiors termed him as a true
professional in intelligence gathering as
well in carrying out investigation. He
was also in the delegation of Indian
officers which is coordinating with
Pakistan’s Joint Investigation Team
probing the Pathankot terror attack.
VOTERS TO SEAL...
An electorate of 95,11,732 including
45,95,712 women, will exercise their franchise in 12,190 polling stations with the
number of hyper-sensitive and sensitive
booths yet to be released by the election
office in Assam.
The Congress is contesting in all the
65 constituencies in the first phase in
Assam while BJP is contesting in 54 and
its alliance partners -- the AGP in 11 and
the BPF in three--, the AIUDF in 27, the
CPI and the CPI(M) in ten each with
CPI(ML)(L) in six along with 60 others
of unrecognised parties and 13
Independents.
Security has been tightened across
the State with the Indo-Bangla border
along Barak Valley’s Karimganj district
sealed and more than 40,000 security
personnel deployed in the 65 constituencies spread across Upper Assam,
hill districts, northern banks and Barak
Valley.
More than 48,000 polling personnel
have been deployed in the first phase with
those in remote areas leaving for their
respective polling booths since Friday
evening.
The first phase will witness mostly
direct contest between the ruling
Congress and the BJP-AGP-BPF alliance
though the AIUDF has put up candidates
in 27 constituencies where the fight is
expected to be triangular.
Among the 539 candidates in the
fray, 496 are males and 43 women in 45
constituencies of the Brahmaputra Valley,
five in the two hill districts of Karbi
Anglong and Dima Hasao and 15 in the
Barak Valley.
The prominent Congress candidates
in the fray are Chief Minister Tarun
Gogoi from Titabor, Speaker of the outgoing Assembly Pranab Gogoi from
Sibsagar, former Union Minister and
prominent tea tribe leader Paban Singh
Ghatowar and Assam Ministers Gautam
Roy, Sarat Barkotoky, Ajanta Neog,
Khorsingh Engti, Siddeque Ahmed,
Bismita Gogoi, Sumitra Patir and
Girindra Malik among others
The BJP’s star candidates in the first
phase are Union Minister and party’s
Chief Ministerial candidate Sarbananda
Sonowal from Majuli, Jorhat LS MP
Kamakhya Prasad Tasa against the Chief
Minister from Titabor, sitting MLA
Prashanta Phukan Dilip Paul, along
with former AGP minister Hiten
Goswami and those who joined the party
last year, including sitting AGP MLAs
Padma Hazarika and Naba Doley,
Congress dissident and disqualified
MLAs Kripanath Mallah, Bolin Chetia
and Pallab Lochan Das and former
ULFA militant Kushal Duwari.
The run-up to the poll in both the
State was marked by a high-pitched campaign with high-profile national and State
leaders -- including Prime Minister
Narendra Modi, Congress president
Sonia Gandhi and party vice-president
Rahul Gandhi -- leading the campaign
trail for their respective parties.
GST SOON...
On roll out of the much-delayed
GST, Modi said, “GST will happen. I cannot give a timeframe, but it will happen.
It was our commitment, and it is about
to happen.”
To a question on retrospective tax,
Modi said it will never be brought back
again. He said two cases were “subjudice” and it would not be proper for
him to comment further. “As far as retrospective tax is concerned, it is a thing
of the past. We have repeatedly said this
in Parliament and I am repeating here
again today. There were two incidents
that took place under the last
Government. These are sub-judice. So,
I am not being able to do anything on
them. In one of the cases, positive outcome has come. Retrospective tax does
not exist in India anymore. It has
become a thing of the past. It won’t
come,” he said.
Although the PM did not specifically
name the pending cases, the major retrospective tax disputes include those
involving Vodafone and Cairn. “I think
in international relations, the taxation
system should be predictable. If somebody wants to come (to India) after 10
years, he should know India’s tax structure is like this. That’s why we are working on a long-term tax system and we are
implementing and I do not think there
will be any problem in that,” Modi said.
A Saudi businessman had asked
Modi about retrospective tax regime,
GST, banking system and some other
issues and wondered whether Modi will
be able to address their concerns.
Incidentally, Cairn Energy CEO Simon
Thomson told PTI in an interview in
London today that international investors
want the Modi government to walk the
talk on resolving retrospective tax issues
and send a clear signal that things are
changing under the new dispensation.
Cairn, which gave India its biggest
onland oil discovery that now accounts
for a fifth of the country’s oil production,
will press ahead with the arbitration challenging use of a legislation to tax internal business reorganisation with retrospective effect and will seek $1 billion in
damages, he further said.
Eyeing billions of dollars of investment from Saudi Arabia, which is setting
up a USD 2 trillion public investment
fund, Modi invited top CEOs to invest
in defence, energy, railway, health and
agriculture sectors in India. Holding that
there was huge opportunity to ramp up
trade ties, he said time has come to move
from ‘buyer-seller relationship’ to chart
a new path of growth and development
which will benefit people of both the
countries.
“We have to look beyond the buyerseller relationship, because that will be
an obstacle in the path of progress,” he
said at the interaction organised by the
Council of Saudi Chambers.
The two countries also called on
states to cut off any kind of support and
financing to terrorists operating and perpetrating terrorism from their territories
against other states and bring perpetrators of acts of terrorism to justice. The
pacts signed included one on cooperation in the exchange of intelligence
related to money laundering, terror
financing and related crimes and another relating to recruitment of Indian workers in Saudi Arabia, home to around
three million Indian workers.
CHEER FOR FARMERS...
The last La Nina episode was seen in
2011-12, which followed the 2009-10 El
Nino. The probability of the emergence
of La Nina conditions between August
and September augurs well for rain in
India, said the experts.
Meanwhile, the IMD has predicted
a hotter summer than last year. The mean,
maximum and minimum temperatures
in all the sub-divisions of the country are
likely to be above normal this summer.
The average temperature is expected to
rise by at least 1 degree Celsius, particularly in North-Western parts of the
country. Further, the frequency of heat
waves is also expected to be higher than
normal in central and north-west India
during the season.
Developments halted, says Maken
PNS n NEW DELHI
aunching their campaign
for MCD by-election at
L
Nawada, the Delhi Congress
on Sunday mounted a frontal
attack on the AAP and BJP
saying that both the parties
have betrayed the Delhiites
and halted the development of
Delhi.
Delhi Pradesh Congress
Committee president Ajay
Maken said, “Both were two
sides of the same coin, and
both had played negative roles
in stunting the developments
of Delhi, for which they have
to apologise to the people of
Delhi. Delhi is being ruled by
three Governments out of
which the Bharatiya Janata
Pary is in power at the
Centre and in the MCDs
while the AAP Government
was at the helm in Delhi.”
Maken said ever since
the Bharatiya Janata Pary and
the AAP started ruling in
Delhi, the developments
works in the Capital have
come to a grinding
halt.
Addressing thousands of
Congress workers and local
residents at Mohan Garden,
Peepal Road and Uttam
Nagar, Maken said, “Both the
BJP and the AAP had misled
the people through false
promises and propaganda to
get their votes, and after coming to power they betrayed the
trust and confidence of the
people to let them down.”
A 10-km long padayatra
to sound the bugle of the
MCD by-election to the
Nawada ward was taken out
with thousands of Congress
workers carrying Congress
flags.
“The development works
in the unauthorised colonies
of Delhi have come to a total
standstill, and people in
these colonies were leading a
miserable life. Mounts of
garbage were piling up in
unauthorised colonies and
mosquito menace has
become unbearable but the
area MLA and the Municipal
Councillor were in deep slumber and were not doing anything to help the people come
out of their ordeal,” said
Maken.
nation 05
Abducted Indian priest Centre releases new GRAPEVINE
rules on management S
in Yemen safe: Sushma of hazardous wastes
Face saver
Says Govt trying to get
Father Tom Uzhunnalil
free soon; 4 detained
Indians released
PNS n NEW DELHI
he Environment Ministry
released new rules for manT
agement of hazardous wastes,
PNS n NEW DELHI
ontrary to the news in foreign media that the Indian
C
priest abducted by gunmen in
Yemen last month was killed,
External Affairs Minister
Sushma Swaraj, reportedly, told
a Catholic group that Father
Tom Uzhunnalil is safe and the
Indian Government is trying to
ensure his release soon.
Father Uzhunnalil was captured from Aden in Yemen by
gunmen, believed to be from
ISIS, when they attacked a old
age home run by Missionaries
of Charity. They had killed 15
people, including one Indian
nun and taken away Father
Uzhunnalil in a car.
However, some news
reports by foreign media
claimed that Father Uzhunnalil
was possibly killed by ISIS on
Good Friday, though the Indian
Government doubted such
claims. While the foreign media
had quoted Archbishop of
Vienna, who during the Easter
Vigil Mass made the announcement, Indian officials said there
was no proof that the Indian
priest was dead or was in ISIS
custody. Officials said India
was trying to locate him and
Father Tom Uzhunnalil
Sushma Swaraj
* Father Uzhunnalil was captured from Aden in Yemen by gunmen,
believed to be from ISIS, when they attacked a old age home run by
Missionaries of Charity
* Some news reports by foreign media claimed that Father
Uzhunnalil was possibly killed by ISIS on Good Friday, though the
Indian Government doubted such claims
* On Sunday, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India said their
delegation that met Swaraj was assured by her that the Government
was working to secure the priest’s safe return
secure his release at the earliest.
On Sunday, the Catholic
Bishops’ Conference of India
(CBCI) said their delegation
that met Swaraj was assured by
her that the Government was
working to secure the priest’s
safe return. “She has assured us
Father Tom is safe and negotiations are on for his release
which could happen very soon,”
said Father Joseph Chinnaiyan,
deputy secretary of the CBCI.
Meanwhile, four Indians
detained by Syria have been
released. These four men were
arrested in Damascus in
Januar y when they were
allegedly on their way to join
ISIS. The Syrian Deputy Prime
Minister during his recent visit
to New Delhi had informed
about the detention to Swaraj.
“We have secured the release
of four Indian nationals from
Syria,” Swaraj said in a tweet. “I
had requested (the) Deputy PM
of Syria for their release during
his visit to India in January this
year. Thank you Syria…
Welcome home Arun Kumar
Saini, Sarvjit Singh, Kuldeep
Singh and Joga Singh. I appreciate the officers who facilitated
their journey from Syria to
India,” said in another tweet.
which for the first time include
a separate category of items like
tyre, metal scrap, paper and certain electronic goods, that can
be recycled and reused. These
have been included under the
category of “other waste”.
While releasing the new
rules, Environment Minister
Prakash Javadekar on Sunday
said they are “environment
and industry friendly, in line
with this Government’s priority for ease of doing business
and Make in India, but with
responsible concerns for sustainable development.” He also
said the rules will ensure
resource recovery and disposal of hazardous waste in environmentally sound manner.
Further, import of metal
scrap, paper waste and various
categories of electrical and electronic equipments for re-use
purpose has been exempted
from the need of obtaining the
Ministry’s permission under the
Hazardous and Other Wastes
(Management & Transboundary
Movement) Rules, 2016.
They have also revised all
forms for permission, transportation, those related to import
and export amongst others. The
new rules have adopted a more
stringent approach for management of such wastes.
“Procedure has been simplified to merge all the approvals
as a single window clearance for
setting up of hazardous waste
disposal facility and import of
other wastes,” said the rules.
The rules further state that
waste management hierarchy
in the sequence of priority of
prevention, minimisation,
reuse, recycling, recovery, coprocessing and safe disposal
has been incorporated.
The rules provide for coprocessing as preferential mechanism over disposal for use of
waste as supplementary resource,
or for recovery of energy has
been provided. The approval
process for co-processing of
hazardous waste to recover energy has been streamlined and put
on emission norms basis.
It said that the basic necessity of infrastructure to safeguard
health and environment from
waste processing industry has
been prescribed as SOP, specific to waste type, which has to be
complied by stakeholders and
ensured by Pollution Control
Board/ State Pollution Control
Board while granting such
authorisation.
amajwadi Party’s popular face on television
debates and Uttar Pradesh Government’s
youngest Additional Advocate General (AAG)
Gaurav Bhatia recently circulated a message to all his media
friends that he had
quit protesting over
some malfunctioning in the State’s
Legal Department.
Upon enquiry, it surfaced
that Bhatia was sacked a day
earlier from the AAG post by a UP
Government circular dated March 22. For
Bhatia, this came as a shock, and for lawyers
a surprise. He was recently in the news after
the president of Supreme Court Bar Association
(SCBA) Dushyant Dave offered to quit over differnces with Bhatia, the SCBA Secretary. Dave
later withdrew his offer after speaking to Chief
Justice of India.
No sightseeing for JIT
he five-member Pakistani Joint
Investigation Team that visited India to
carry forward its probe
into the Pathankot
airbase attack
case, wanted to
udnertake a
sightseeing trip
to Taj Mahal in
Agra and the
Dargah
of
Maulana Moinuddin
Chisti at Ajmer. But the
Indian authorities denied permission as the
same could have diluted the seriousness of purpose of the team’s visit here. The NDA
Government was already facing flak from the
Opposition parties over the visit of the JIT, and
the sightseeing tours by the visiting team could
have further strengthened the perception that
the visit was conducted as mere optics and
nothing substantive could be achieved.
T
CLASHES POST WORLD T-20 MATCH
Marathon for a cause
Rajnath assures full
security to Srinagar
NIT students
ommodore Joginder Chandna, a serving
Naval officer and a fitness freak, has
C
turned his passion
into a social cause —
to feed poor children. Along with a
chartered accountant
Meenal
Kotak, Chandna ran
marathons in various
parts of the National
Capital Region for the last
nine days, culminating in the
finale last weekend. Naming their run
“Ours Miles Their Smiles”, the runners urged
spectators and fellow participants to feed at least
one hungry child each day during the event.
Chandna hosted a langar for hundreds of children on the final day.
PNS n NEW DELHI
nion Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday
assured full security to NIT students in Srinagar,
saying they should not worry about their safety in
the wake of clashes between two groups after the
India-West Indies cricket match on Thursday.
Singh called up Jammu & Kashmir Governor
NN Vohra and Director General of Police (DGP)
K Rajendra Kumar and asked them to ensure proper security to the students.
U
‘I have spoken to
the Governor and
the DGP regarding
the situation. I have
instructed the DGP
to send a team of
officers to NIT,
Srinagar to assure
the students of their
safety and security’
“I assure the students that they should not worry
about their security. I have spoken to the Governor
and the DGP regarding the situation. I have
instructed the DGP to send a team of officers to NIT,
Srinagar to assure the students of their safety and
security,” he tweeted. Later Home Minister spoke to
media in Lucknow about the directions given by him
to the J&K administration.
The Home Minister’s statement came after clashes occurred at NIT, Srinagar following team India’s
defeat against West Indies in the World Cup T20
semi-final. Two group of students, one from
Kashmir and another from other states, fought after
some students burst crackers after India’s defeat, leading the shut down of the institute. Students from outside Kashmir alleged about the partisan attitude from
the J&K Police.
Opening up
BJP president Amit Shah with spiritual leader
Mata Amritanandamayi during a meeting in
New Delhi on Sunday
PTI
anchjayana and Organiser, both considered
mouthpieces of the RSS, invited leaders of
P
as diverse political parties as Congress and
CPI(M) to write for them on Freedom of
Speech and Sedition. While Abhishek Manu
Singhvi penned a column for the two weeklies,
CPM leader Sitaram Yechury refused to take
the offer.
Vacant chair
he process for filling up the two-year-old
vacant post of Chairperson for CBSE, layT
ing vacant since
December 2014, has
run into fresh hurdle.
The HRD Ministry’s
Additional Secretary
YSK Seshu Kumar,
who has just got another six months extension
after the search committee could not find a suitable person to head the CBSE, has so far managed the organisation without any controversy. Grapevine has it that the search-committee zeroed in on a JNU academician for the
post, but for obvious reasons his name had to
be dropped.
Angry Kerala CM
erala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy lost
cool on Saturday evening when he boyK
cotted the candidate selection process for the
forthcoming Assembly elections. Chandy was
upset with the high command for directing him
to deny tickets to some Ministers. Grapevine
has learnt that Chandy bluntly told the central
leaders that he would not be a part of the selection process and left in huff for Kerala on
Sunday morning.
New route
ith great pomp and show, the Chinese
Embassy in New Delhi last week celeW
brated the first anniversary of opening of new
pilgrimage route to Mansarovar via Nathu-La
in Sikkim. Chinese Ambassador Le Yucheng,
who was the first Chinese passport holder to
cross over from the Nathu-La border to Tibet
Autonoous Region, said he felt purified after
the visit to Mansarovar. Happy with the
response by Indian pilgrims, the Chinese are
now planning to launch souvenirs related to
Mansarovar. To begin with, the water of
Mansarovar Lake will now be available in
packed bottles.
Beat diabetes
t a Press meet organised by the World
Health Organisation (WHO)
A
on diabetes recently, healthconscious scribes were pleasantly surprised when they
found their Press kit containing fitness goodies like skipping rope and inch tape
measurement besides
awareness material
about diabetes.
The message
was loud and
clear: Tackle
diabetes
by
adopting healthy habits. “Beat
Diabetes” is the theme of the
World Health Day this year being
observed on April 7.
Can yoga control diabetes? AYUSH asks ICMR to find out
PNS n NEW DELHI
an yoga help prevent or
relieve diabetes? With diaC
betes emerging as a major disease
burden for India over the past
two decades, the Union AYUSH
Ministry has asked the Indian
Council of Medical Research
(ICMR), a research wing of the
Health Ministry, to conduct a
study to assess the impact of yoga
on diabetes.
A senior official from the
ICMR said, “we have been asked
to look at impact of yoga on diabetes. We will soon finalise a protocol in this direction. After
which we will rope in experts to
conduct the study.”
So far the effect of yogic
practices on the management
of diabetes has not been investigated well, though there
have been sporadic studies
here and there carried out in
our country to evaluate the
effect of yoga on diabetes. But So far the effect of
mostly they were done on
yogic practices on the
small number of patients.
This is for the first time management of
that the premier health diabetes has not been
research agency such as ICMR investigated well
has been involved to look into
Yoga got a major boost at the
the impact of Yoga, which is one
of the many Indian Alternate world level due to concentrated
Traditional medicine system of efforts from Prime Minister
India, on the diabetes which is Narendra Modi under whose
rapidly spreading its wings across endevaour last year UN agreed to
hold June 21 as World Yoga Day.
the country.
Since then, various schemes
and activities have been undertaken to push the Yoga which is
seen as useful system for the
treatment of certain diseases and
preservation of health in normal
individuals.
BK Sahay, former
Professor of Medicine,
Osmania Medical
College, Hyderabad
and Chief Investigator,
Diabetes and Yoga
Project, Vemana Yoga
Research Institute,
Hyderabad in a review
article in a journal
talked about the useful
role of yoga in the control of diabetes mellitus. He said their study has
shown that due to yoga fasting
and postprandial blood glucose
levels came down significantly.
“Good glycaemic status can
be maintained for long periods of
time. There was a lowering of
drug requirement and the incidence of acute complications
like infection and ketosis was significantly reduced. There were
significant changes in the insulin
kinetics and those of counter-regulatory hormones like cortisol.”
“There was a fall in free fatty
acids suggesting a better insulin
sensitivity and decrease in insulin
resistant, with a probable protective effect on beta cell function.
There is a beneficial effect on the
co-morbid conditions like hypertension and dyslipidemia. Yogic
practices are useful in all age
groups and can be performed in all
seasons and are useful for people
who travel frequently,” he added.
Stronger polio vaccine in effect soon RSS outfit incentivising
‘inter-caste harmony’
I
PNS n NEW DELHI
ndia is all ready with its
action plan to replace the
present polio vaccine by a
stronger version in its routine
immunisation programme.
The move is as per global
polio end-game strategy adopted by the World Health
Organisation (WHO).
At present, Trivalent Oral
Polio Vaccine (tOPV), which is
being used in routine immunisations and polio campaigns,
contains all three types of
Polioviruses — type 1, 2 and 3.
Since the polio type 2 has been
eradicated from the world,
bivalent oral polio vaccine
(bOPV) will totally replace
tOPV throughout the world.
Switch to bivalent is necessary keeping in view low immunisation coverage (just 71 per
cent kids are covered under the
programme due to various reasons), live vaccine virus used in
Oral polio vaccines (OPV) can
multiply for long and undergo
mutations to gain neuro-virulence. This can cause paralysis
and circulate in the community to cause outbreaks.
As per the WHO strategy,
polio type 3 virus would be
removed from the vaccine too
as next step because not a single case of this virus had been
reported from anywhere in the
world during the past two years.
At the third dose of bOPV,
the kids will also be administered an injection with inactivated polio vaccine (IPV), a
dead virus, which has already
been introduced in the country’s national immunisation
programme.
By 2020 all OPVs will be
completely stopped and only
Inactivated Polio Vaccine,
which is a dead virus, will be
used all over the world.
As per the Government’s
action plan, by April 25, all vaccines having tOPV will be
destroyed. Type 2 virus will also
be destroyed in all laboratories
( except Pune Virology Institute
) to eliminate the chances of its
spread again, said a senior official from the Drug Controller
General of India (DCGI).
The DCGI is already in
talks with the vaccine manufacturers and drug controllers
at Zonal and District level to
ensure availability of bOPV two
weeks prior to switch.
“It must be ensured that
secondary packaging of bOPV
is not opened before switch
date,” the drug controller has
made it clear.
The DCGI will also cancel
all licenses for manufacturing as
well as import of tOPV for use
from 25 April 2016 onwards.
It was in 2011, the last
polio case was reported in
India. India attained poliofree status on 27 March 2014,
but threat looms large due to
vaccine-derived polio and also
from two of its neighbors (
Pakistan and Afghanistan)
which remain polio-endemic.
“Post Wild Polio Virus
(WPV) eradication, Vaccine
associated paralytic polio
(VAPP) and Vaccine-derived
polio virus (VDPV) are the last
formidable opponents in India’s
war against Polio.
“The Global strategy must
be customised in line with our
local
considerations.
Administration of additional
early dose of IPV at 6 weeks of
age (other than the mandatory dose at or after 14 weeks of
age) will ensure an early,
stronger and more widespread
protection against the risks of
VAPP and VDPV,” said pediatricians Manoj Grover from
Niti Aayog and Nidhi
Bhatnagar from Army College
of Medical Sciences, New Delhi
in a journal Indian Pediatrics.
Moreover, launch of mass
IPV campaigns in states with
poor routine immunization
coverage before the tOPVbOPV switch will help preempt any emergence of VDPV
in susceptible populations. The
additional costs of an extra IPV
dose in the UIP and mass
campaigns may be justified as
it is an ethical obligation on us
to eliminate the iatrogenic risk
of VDPV, they noted.
DEEPAK K UPRETI n NEW DELHI
SS outfit Bharat Vikas
Parishad (BVP) is walking
R
extra mile in “incentivising” villages which have tuned into
“inter-caste
harmony”
progammes and seeking an
“integrated social and economic growth” by organising
funding of projects in these
rural areas.
RSS has been campaigning
for encouraging participation
of all communities in festivals
“where caste does not become
a barrier” and insisting that at
least one festival be celebrated
in villages by all together.
Pointing out the “connect of
RSS in rural areas”, sources
pointed out that the RSS published “Jagaran Patrikas” in local
languages are going “directly” to
over 2,30,000 villages in the
country. This is besides the regular RSS-inspired publications.
These “Jagaran Patrikas” are
running into eight to 24 pages
carrying dialogues, stories, and
articles on rural issues those
appeal to rural masses.
In Rajasthan villages, it
goes by the name of Pather kan,
in Marathi it is titled Sanskritic
Varta Patra, Telugu Vijay Vani
and Tamil Vijay Bharatas.
“These magazines are communicated by collective readings by prominent people of villages either at ‘chaupal’ or any
other community centre where
ideas on positive social changes
are also exchanged,” they said.
According to sources, the
RSS has analysed “prant-wise”
scrutiny of caste discrimination
against Dalits and other communities and sought to give a
pro-active encouragement to
‘integrated villages’ which are
adopting ‘ek mandir, ek talab,
ek shamshan’ programme initiated by the Sangh.
In return, the BVP is “helping in promotion” of water
management, agriculture and
community development programme, they said. “The precondition is establishing harmony by way of implementing
togetherness”, sources said.
By now the main work of the
BVP was on the promotion of
“the Jaipur foot” for the disabled.
Under its fresh social harmony
projects, leaders of all communities are called and ways are
gradually worked out to establish
caste harmony in villages.
“Workers of BVP have stayed in
the houses of dalit communities
and attempted to bring about
togetherness,” they said.
RSS reach in rural areas, particularly in the mandal levels,
have increased with a manifold
increase, during last one year, in
the number of their ‘Vistaraks’
(working people spending 15
days outside their regions to initiate new Sakhas) who later
assume the role of ‘Pracharaks’
in the Sangh Parivar.
nation 06
MEHBOOBA TO TAKE THE HOT SEAT TODAY Pratyusha’s boyfriend Rahul
Will be sworn in
admitted to hospital
as first woman
CM in J&K
he nearly three-month-long
Governor’s rule would
T
come to an end in Jammu &
Kashmir on Monday when
Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP) president Mehbooba
Mufti would be sworn in as first
woman Chief Minister of the
embattled State. The 56-yearold Mufti was invited by the
Governor NN Vohra to form
the Government on Saturday,
a week after PDP and BJP leaders met him in Jammu to offer
consent to form the coalition
Government.
Mehbooba left for Jammu
on Sunday afternoon to take
oath along with her Council of
Ministers. The coalition partners have not revealed the
names of Ministers but it is
believed that a few new faces
would be introduced in the
new Council of Ministers.
Mehbooba and her top
party leaders held a meeting
with BJP’s top brass led by
Nirmal Singh late on Sunday
night at Circuit House to finalise
the list of Ministers, sources said.
The Governor’s rule was
imposed in J&K on January 8,
a day after then Chief Minister
Mufti Muhammad Sayeed’s
demise. Mehbooba refused to
step into her father’s shoes, initially due to mourning, and
later citing reservations in continuing alliance with BJP. She
demanded J&K-specific
Confidence Building Measures
(CBMs) from New Delhi
before renewing alliance with
the right wing party. At one
point, it seemed that the
alliance was at the verge of collapse but on March 22, a meeting between Prime Minister
Narendra Modi and Mehbooba
Mufti in New Delhi changed
the scenario.
Mufti apparently dropped
her demand of CBMs and
vowed to remained committed
the Agenda of Alliance formulated by her late father with the
BJP leadership as a roadmap
for governance in J&K.
Politicians
from
Opposition leader Omar
Abdullah to people on the
street in Kashmir say that
Mehbooba Mufti would have to
explain as to why she wasted
three months for forming a
government when none of her
demands was accepted by the
Center.
Mehbooba on Saturday
called up Omar Abdullah to
invite him on the oath cere-
mony. Omar appreciated the
gesture. “Very gracious of
Mehbooba Mufti Sahiba to
phone & invite me to her oath
taking ceremony. I look forward to being there on the 4th,”
Abdullah tweeted shortly after
Mehbooba’s call.
Sources said that Ms Mufti
has invited 20 top women
including four women Chief
Ministers Mamta Banerjee,
Jayalalita, Anandi Ben Patel
and Vasundra Raja Scindia
besides ace tennis player Sania
Mirza.
Even as Congress president
Sonia Gandhi, JKPCC Chief
Gulam Ahmad Mir and state
legislators of the party were
invited for the ceremony, the
party announced in the
evening that it would boycott
the oath ceremony in protest
against “undemocratic” ways of
destabilising Congress governments in some states.
“BJP and its Central
Government led by Prime
Minister Narendra Modi has
used undemocratic ways to
destabilize democratically
elected Congress Governments
in Arunachal Pradesh and
Uttarakhand,” a BJP spokesman
said.
“PDP and BJP formed an
unholy alliance in the State
even though the two parties
contested Assembly elections
against each other by projecting different ideologies and
manifestos, but later entered
into an alliance,” the
spokesman said.
Meanwhile, sources said
that while PDP is likely to drop
Altaf Bukhari this time, the axe
from the BJP side has fallen on
the only Muslim face of the BJP
Abdul Gani Kohli. Former
State BJP president Ashok
Khajuria is likely to be taken in.
Meanwhile, the television
channels will not be allowed to
telecast the oath ceremony live
even as BJP general secretary
Ram Madhav had told them to
call Out Broadcasting Vans to
Jammu.
18 Bengal seats to Over 95 lakh to vote in first
go to poll today phase of Assam polls today
ANUP SHARMA n GUWAHATI
BJP workers take
part in poll
campaigning
wearing PM
Narendra Modi
masks at
Ashoknagar in
North 24
Parganas district
of West Bengal
on Sunday PTI
SAUGAR SENGUPTA n KOLKATA
ith a lot of heat and dust
generated after the
W
Saradha, Narada and fly-over
collapse, the month-long
Bengal Assembly polls finally
kick-start on Monday when
elections will be held for 18
seats across three districts of
Jangalmahal on the first day of
the first phase.
About 40 lakh voters will
exercise their franchise to elect
from a total 113 candidates
mostly from the TMC, Left
Front, Congress and the BJP.
There are 4203 polling stations
and 4945 booths. With 13 seats
falling under Left Wing
Extremism area, 1962 booths
have been marked as highly
sensitive. Polling will end in the
LWE areas at 4 pm, two hours
before the normal timing.
he ruling Congress, the
BJP led three-party alliance
T
and the All India United
The second part of the
first phase will be held on
April 11. Subsequent days of
polling are, April 17, 21, 25, 30
and May 5.
Each polling station will be
manned by one section or 8
central forces jawans. A State
police constable will stand outside the booth overseeing the
voters’ queue, ECI officials said.
Out of 294 Assembly seats
the Trinamool which was fighting as an alliance partner of the
Congress won 184 in 2011. The
Congress won 42 while the Left
won 62 seats. Subsequently
the BJP won the lone seat of
Basirhat in a by-election.
This time round with corruption and violence becoming
the major issue the Left and the
Congress have formed an
alliance against the Trinamool
Congress.
Democratic Front (AIUDF)
are all set to engage in the battle of ballots for the first phase
of polls for 65 of the total 126
legislative Assembly constituencies tomorrow.
There are a total of 539
candidates including 43 women
are in the electoral fray this
time and a total of 95,11,732
voters are expected to cast
their votes in 12,190 polling
stations set up across the 65
constituencies.
Security has been intensified across the 65 constituencies which are going to polls
tomorrow even as the election
machinery is using 535 companies of security forces including Central Armed Police
Forces to ensure security and
smooth conduction of the
polls.
The State’s international
borders have been put under
strict vigil so that anti-socials
from other side of the border
could not sneak over to disrupt
the poll process across the
State.
The election to the first
phase of polls will assumes significance, particularly for the
BJP as the saffron party has
been eyeing to capture more
constituencies located in Upper
Assam, north bank of the
Brahmaputra river and in
Barak Valley. The 65 constituencies going to polls
tomorrow are located mostly in
Upper Assam, Barak Valley
and in north bank of
Brahmaputra river.
Most of the remaining 61
constituencies, which are going
to polls in the second phase on
April 11, are currently being
held mainly by the ruling
Congress, the AIUDF and
some smaller parties like
Bodoland Peoples Front (BPF)
and some others.
While the Congress is
fighting the polls with United
Peoples Party (UPP), the BJP,
the Asom Gana Parishad
(AGP) and the Bodoland
Peoples’ Front (BPF) is going to
the polls together.
Assam’s Chief Electoral
Officer Vijayendra said that all
the necessary steps have been
taken by the election machinery to ensure smooth polling
across the 65 constituencies.
“We are hopeful that
Assam the 65 constituencies
going to polls tomorrow will
register peaceful and good
polling percentage. The polling
parties including presiding officers, polling staffs and security personnel have already
moved to their respective
polling stations,” he said.
“Polling will start at 7 am
tomorrow and will continue till
5 pm. However, those persons, who stands in the queue
in front of the polling stations
till 5 pm must be allowed to
vote,” Vijayendra said.
He said that a total of 535
companies of security forces
including 433 companies of
Central Armed Police Force
(CAPF) and 102 companies of
State Armed Police Force
(SAPF) has been deployed as
per the necessity across the
polling stations.
The election machinery is
using 2370 heavy vehicles, 3913
medium vehicles, 7343 light
vehicles, 144 boats and 35 bullcok carts for convenience of the
polling personnel and carrying
of EVMs to respective polling
stations.
It may be mentioned here
that the election machinery
which has been strictly implementing the model code of
conduct (MCC) across the
State has so far seized over Rs.
9 crore illegal money, close to
8 lakh liters of illicit liquors and
over 5 lakh kgs of drugs meant
to be distributed among the
voters. Apart from this the
Income Tax department had
also seized over Rs. 2 crores of
illegal money since imposition of the MCC.
“Similarly, the 166 illegal
arms and 538 round of illegal
ammunition have also been
seized from different areas of
the State so far,” the CEO said.
After he complained of chest pain,
hypotension while being grilled by
cops about relations with actress
TN RAGHUNATHA n MUMBAI
ate television actress
Pratyusha
Banerjee’s
L
boyfriend Rahul Raj Singh was
on Sunday hospitalised after he
complained of chest pain and
low blood pressure while he
was being questioned for the
second consecutive day in connection with the actress’ alleged
suicide.
Rahul, whose role in the
circumstances that led to
Pratyusha’s alleged suicide is
being investigated, complained
of uneasiness, chest pain and
low pressure while he was
being questioned in connection
with his ex-girl friend’s death.
He was immediately taken to
the Shree Sai Hospital, where
he was admitted in the
Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
Two days after the “Balika
Vadhu” television serial fame
allegedly committed suicide
by hanging herself to a ceiling
fan, the investigators searched
the actress’ flat in Harmony residency building at Goregaon in
north Mumbai for clues leading to Pratyusha taking the
extreme step of ending her life.
Informed police sources
said that the investigators had
found two mobile phones from
Pratyusha’s flat. The police
have ruled out any financial
angle to the circumstances
leading to the actress’ suicide.
Rahul, whom the investigators see as a logical suspect
in the case, has come under the
intense scanner of the police for
his failed love relationship with
Pratyusha. Going by the
accounts provided by her
friends and those who had
known her, Pratyusha was
reportedly upset with Rahul for
not honouring her intense love
for him.
The investigators, who
have been mobile data of both
Pratyusha and her boyfriend,
have been questioning Rahul
about the nature of his relations
with the actress and the kind of
interactions they were having
for the past one week before her
alleged suicide.
The investigators are trying
to ascertain if there was any discord between the couple. They
have so far not found any evidence to suggest that Rahul
abetted Pratyusha’s alleged suicide.
The post-mortem, conducted on Pratyusha’s body, has
not revealed any foul play,
Denying that there were any
injury marks on any part of
Pratyusha’s body, the police
had on Saturday attributed
Pratyusha’s death to asphyxia,
caused because of hanging or
strangulation.
“Provisional cause of death
is ligature marks over neck and
asphyxia. Final cause of death
is pending and would be
known after chemical analyser’s
report. Statements of parents
and relatives are being recorded,” Zonal deputy commissioner of police Vikram
Deshmane had said on
Saturday.
Meanwhile, most of television industr y friends of
Pratyusha have blamed Rahul
for her death. Interacting with
electronic media on Saturday,
actor Ajaz Khan had gone to
the extent of claiming that
Pratyusha’s death was a premeditated murder, while TV
producer Vikas Gupta had said
that her relationship with Rahul
had soured.
However, Rahul’s father
Harshavardhan Singh told the
police that the relations
between his son and
Pratyusha were good and that
his son had sought his permission two months ago to get
married.
Pratyusha’s last status message on her Whatsapp that
read: “Marke bhi muh na tuzse
modana” (even after death
won’t be turning my face away
from you) with a smiley, gave
an inkling to her depressed
state of mind at the time of the
incident.
Meanwhile, Bollywood
actor Arbaaz Khan said that
Pratyusha Banerjee and Rahul
looked very much in love during the show “Power Couple”.
BPF chief Hagrama Mohilary (2nd R), candidate of the AGP-BJP-BPF alliance from Chaygaon Assembly constituency and
former State Health Minister Dr Kamala Kalita (C) and Rabha Hasong Autonomous Council (RHAC) chief Tangkeswar Rabha
(2nd L) at a BJP election rally ahead of the Assam Assembly elections at Chaygaon in Assam on Sunday
PTI
Mixed opinion in Jangalmahal before polls Saritha Nair’s letter
alleges Chandy
T
sexually abused her
SAUGAR SENGUPTA n
WEST MIDNAPORE
he sweetly garnished mud
hutments and spotless interiors of an adivasi household
may often mislead you about
the State of its kitchen. This little Sabar village of Banspahari
is one example.
Mamata Banerjee had started her Jangalmahal campaign
about two decades ago from
this village telling the whole
world about the horrific conditions of the Sabars who survive on the eggs of red ants. It
was scorching Left regime then.
Many years later she came
to power in 2011. But the lives
of Suku Sabar, his relatives,
Madhu, Bangshi or for that
matter a slightly ‘richer’
Fulmoni Sabar (a part time
labourer) has not changed one
bit. The reason you ask and pat
comes the reply.
“Kings come and go but
there is no respite for us. There
is no one for the garib manush,”
says Fulmoni who apart from
being a little ‘rich’ is courageous
also. “Their mouths have been
muted in the past several years.
You do not have work, water,
food, nothing. But when TV
babus (reporters) come you are
required to paint a rosy picture
or else you are gone.”
Incidentally the Chief
Minister had repeatedly told in
her Jangalmahal meetings that
she was through with 90 percent work that she made.
And who intimidates? The
one answer is common. It is the
TMC. “They were in People’s
Committee when the Maoists
came. Then they joined the
Trinamool and now they rule
the roost minting money
through labour contracts in
highway construction,” says a
retired teacher near Belpahari.
“There is either no availability of the 100-days’ work
and even if we get some there
is no payment for them for
months. All the money is taken
by the TMC,” says a young man
from Belpahari refusing to
deliver his name. So why don’t
they vote against the rulers?
“We do not get a chance to
vote,” is the simple answer. We
could not vote after 2004. The
only time we voted after that
was in 2011. But that was the last
time. We could not vote in 2013
(panchayat polls) or 2014 elections,” says Bura Soren a local.
At Lalgarh which was the
hot bed of “revolution” and
“counter-revolution” by the
Maoists and then CPI(M)
things are better though. Ruled
now by the Trinamool workers
around no local would complain of any hardship.
“The situation is better as
there is no violence. A bridge
has been constructed across the
Kangsabati shortening the distance between Lalgarh and
Jhargram. Then the road
between Lalgarh and Netai has
been constructed” says Rabi
Mahato adding “the most
important thing is that we are
getting Rs 2-a-kg rice and cycle
to travel distance.”
Another person at Amliya
village, “the most important
thing is that violence is gone and
peace has returned” only to be
stopped by Shantanu Soren a
school teacher: “But this peace
has returned after most socalled Maoists returned to their
original party Trinamool
Congress. We lived through
those tumultuous years seeing
how TMC men tied up with the
Maoists through various committees, identified the Left leaders’ houses and got them killed
in the dead of night. Now those
men are panchayat members
and are earning in millions.”
A little bit of prodding
brings some more people
around. “True we have seen
some development as schools
and colleges have come up. But
there is no staff, no jobs.
There is water line but not a
drop in it. How can we live on
alms of Rs 2-a-kg rice and a
free cycle?” he asks a pertinent
question.
At Netai - where CPI(M)’s
harmads gunned down 9 villagers mistaking them for
Maoists - the locals are more
vocal. “You do not have water.
Though there is no water. The
power lines are there but voltage is very low so that you cannot see anything” says
Nasimuddin a local.
Will they go to vote this
time round or sit back like they
did in 2014? “Let us see how
the Central forces act. Till now
we have not seen them in the
interior areas. They are only sitting in police stations or
marching on main roads.”
Guj HC notice to IAS ADMK ridicules BJP for allegations against Jaya
officer Pradeep’s wife
PNS n GANDHINAGAR
uspended Gujarat cadre IAS
officer Pradeep Sharma had
one more setback in much
talked land related case as the
Gujarat High Court issued
notice to his wife Shyamal
Sharma to appear before it on
15 June 2016.
Shyamal has been named
co-accused in a case wherein her
husband and former bureaucrat
Pradeep Sharma was alleged to
have sold Government land to
Welspun Group in an arbitrary
manner at a cheaper rate when
he was the collector of Kutch district in 2003-04. This, as per the
case, caused a loss of `1.2 crore
to the State exchequer at that
point of time.
According to the details of
the case, Welspun on getting the
requisite land made Shyamal,
S
who lives in US, a 30 per cent
partner in one of its subsidiaries
and extended benefits of `29.5
lakh to her. The Enforcement
Directorate (ED) had invoked
Prevention of
Money
Laundering Act (PMLA) in the
matter in 2012. The ED alleged
that the money was initially
deposited in Shyamal’s overseas
bank account and later transferred to her husband’s account
in India, violating PMLA.
Gujarat ACB had arrested
Pradeep Sharma in 2009 this case
but he later received bail. ACB
had filed a petition in the Bhuj
court seeking issuance of a summons to Shyamal in connection
with the investigation of the case.
But as the district court rejected
its plea, ACB moved to High
Court. The notice is now expected to be served to her in US via
Union Home ministry.
KUMART CHELLAPPAN n
CHENNAI
the AIADMK
leader, on Sunday blasted
JtheJayalalithaa,
BJP for its allegations that
she remained inaccessible to
the Union Ministers for discussing the development issues
of Tamil Nadu. An article in
Sunday’s Namathu MGR, the
AIADMK mouthpiece, which
could not have been published
without the approval of
Jayalalithaa, said the BJP was
upset and frustrated because of
its failure to cobble up an
alliance in poll-bound Tamil
Nadu. Though all major political parties have forged
alliances and fronts, BJP is the
only party in Tamil Nadu
which remains without any
friends or allies.
But the article in Namathu
MGR has ridiculed the newfound aggressiveness of the BJP
THE WAR OF WORDS BETWEEN THE BJP AND
JAYALALITHAA BEGAN RECENTLY WITH PIYUSH GOYAL’S
STATEMENT IN NEW DELHI THAT HE
COULD NOT MEET CM JAYALALITHAA EVEN ONCE
FOR DISCUSSING ABOUT THE UJJWAL DISSCOM
ASSURANCE YOJANA, A FLAGSHIP PROGRAMME OF
THE CENTRE TO HELP THE POWER DISTRIBUTION
COMPANIES IN THE COUNTRY WHICH WERE IN THE RED
which it says was in stark contrast to the stance of Prime
Minister Narendra Modi. “The
Prime Minister while launching
the BJP’s election campaign at
Coimbatore on February 2 did
not make any critical comments
either about Jayalalithaa or the
AIADMK”, said the article.
The war of words between
the BJP and Jayalalithaa began
recently with Union Minister
for power Piyush Goyal’s statement in New Delhi that he
could not meet Chief Minister
Jayalalithaa even once for discussing about the Ujjwal
Disscom Assurance Yojana, a
flagship programme of the
Centre to help the power distribution companies in the
country which were in the red.
While Jayalalithaa deputed
two of her Cabinet colleagues
to rebut the charges of Goyal,
other BJP leaders and Union
Ministers took off from where
Goyal left. Prakash Javadekar,
Union Minister for environment and forests who is also in
charge of BJP’s Tamil Nadu
unit, alleged that the AIADMK
Government was not interested in helping the poor and the
common man. He also charged
that the Tamil Nadu
Government was foisting sedition charges on those demanding total prohibition in the
State. Pon Radhakrishnan, the
lone BJP Minister from Tamil
Nadu in the Union Cabinet too
chipped in with his criticism
against Jayalalithaa, a leader
whom he fear most.
Radhakrishnan’s charge was
about the deployment of
money and muscle power by
the AIADMK.
“Radhakrishnan and
Venkiah Naidu had lauded the
AIADMK Government till yesterday for redeeming Tamil
Nadu from power crisis created by the previous DMK
Government. Their change in
stance is nothing but a sign of
frustration. Nobody in Tamil
Nadu has bothered to respond
to BJP’s invitation,” ridiculed
the article.
VR JAYARAJ n KOCHI
he infamous solar scam on
Sunday returned to haunt
T
Kerala’s beleaguered Chief
Minister Oommen Chandy
ahead of the crucial May 16
Assembly election with a letter
written by con woman Saritha
S Nair, main accused in the
scam, accusing him of abusing
her sexually at his official residence, the Cliff House in
Thiruvananthapuram, appearing in a TV channel.
The letter, said to have
been written by Saritha on
July 19, 2013 when she was in
police custody in Perumbavoor
after her arrest in the solar
scam, also said that a former
Union Minister had raped her
at the house of a State Minister
and the personal assistant of a
key Minister in the Chandy
Cabinet had tried to “gift” her
to several former Central
Ministers.
“Baseless allegation,” was
how Chandy reacted to the
charge as television channels
continued airing reports quoting the letter allegedly written
by Saritha, on Sunday. “Clearly,
there is a conspiracy connected to the election behind this.
This will be probed and the
truth found out. I view this as
part of a bid to topple my
Government,” the Chief
Minister said in Kottayam.
“I myself had written the
letter,” Saritha told the TV
channel which had brought
her letter to the public
domain. “The handwriting in
it is mine and I own up whatever is said in that. Every word
mentioned in it is true. I don’t
deny anything. However, I
don’t want to offer further
explanations on matters mentioned in it,” she said.
Ironically, the explosive
‘disclosures’ came out on an
evening when Chandy was relishing the joy of scoring a
huge political victory over his
foes within the Congress after
the party high command
reportedly bowed to the pressures he exerted on it to let the
tainted members in his Cabinet
and his loyalists fight the election as party candidates.
Describing how close she
was to Chandy, his family and
the Cliff House, Saritha says in
her letter that she did not
expect such kind of an immoral
approach from a man - the
Chief Minister - whom she had
considered as a father figure.
She also said that she had been
an associate in several land
deals carried out by Chandy
and relatives through Benamis.
Interestingly, the charge
leveled in the letter against
Chandy is in agreement with
the allegation leveled earlier by
Saritha’s former live-in partner
and solar scam co-accused Biju
Radhakrishnan before the judicial commission probing the
scam that the Chief Minister
had sexual relationship with the
con woman.
Saritha herself had rejected Biju’s allegation then. Biju
had then claimed that he had
evidences to substantiate his
charge but the dramatic efforts
to seize these from Coimbatore
had ended in a fiasco. However,
Saritha had later accused
Chandy of taking Rs 1.90 crore
as bribe from her promising to
help her in her solar power
business.
world 07
PM gifts replica of ancient Need to delink religion PM hails all-women IT centre
Kerala mosque to Saudi King from terrorism: Modi as ‘glory of Saudi Arabia’
PTI n RIYADH
PTI n RIYADH
T
rime Minister Narendra
Modi on Sunday gifted
P
Saudi King Salman bin
Abdulaziz a gold-plated replica of Kerala’s Cheraman Juma
Masjid, believed to be the first
mosque built in India by Arab
traders around 629 AD.
“PM @narendramodi gifted
His Majesty King Salman bin
Abdulaziz Al Saud a gold-plated replica of the Cheraman
Juma Masjid in Kerala,” the
Prime Minister’s Office tweeted.
The mosque in Karala’s
Thrissur district is believed to
be the first mosque built in
India by Arab traders around
629 AD. “Cheraman Juma
Masjid is symbolic of active
trade relations between India
and Saudi Arabia since ancient
times,” it said.
According to oral tradition,
Cheraman Perumal was the
Chera King and a contemporary
of the Holy Prophet who went
to Arabia and embraced Islam
after meeting the Holy Prophet
at Mecca, the PMO said.
Before he died in Oman
due to some illness on the way
back to India, he wrote letters
asking the local rulers, to
whom he had handed over his
empire, to extend all help they
erming terrorism as the
enemy of humanity, Prime
Minister Narendra Modi today
said there was a need to “delink”
religion from it and asserted
that “segmented and partial”
approaches to counter the menace will not be effective.
Pressing for united global
efforts to deal with the scourge,
Modi said there can be no distinction between “good” or “bad”
terrorism and that it has “no
caste, colour, creed or religion”.
Appreciating
Saudi
Arabia’s leadership role in fighting terrorism in the Middle
East, Modi said India was committed to working with Riyadh
as well as with its partners in
the region to ensure that the
world is a better and safer
place to live in.
The Prime Minister said
India has sought to challenge
and repudiate the terror narrative that global counter-terrorism efforts are directed
against any particular religion
or ethnic group.
“In this context, we deeply
appreciate the leadership role
being played by Saudi Arabia in
the region to fight this menace,”
he told leading daily Arab
News in an interview during
his two-day visit to the
Prime Minister Narendra Modi being greeted by King of Saudi Arabia Salman bin
Abdulaziz Al Saud at his palace for the ceremonial welcome in Riyadh on Sunday PTI
could to Arab merchants who
were planning to visit India.
The mosque has an ancient
oil lamp that is always kept
burning and believed to be over
a thousand years old. People
from all religions bring oil for
the lamp as an offering.
Many believe that the
mosque is a testimony to
Islam’s arrival to India long
before the Mughals came in
from the northwest. Modi,
who is on a two-day visit to
Saudi Arabia, was today
received at the Royal Court by
King Salman. He is the fourth
Indian Prime Minister to visit
Saudi Arabia after Manmohan
Singh in 2010, Indira Gandhi
in 1982 and Jawaharlal Nehru
in 1956.
Kingdom.
Saudi Arabia, a country
known as the spiritual home of
Islam, recently formed a major
coalition of 34 Muslim nations
to fight terror, particularly the
ISIS. Saudi Arabia and India
have a counter-terror mechanism as well.
“To defeat terrorism, all
those who believe in humanity have to be united. We need
to delink religion from terrorism. Terrorism should be dealt
in a comprehensive manner.
Segmented and partial
approaches have historically
proven to be at best suboptimal,” Modi said.
“There can be no distinction between ‘good’ or ‘bad’ terrorism,” he said in a veiled reference to Pakistan, a close ally
of Saudi Arabia. Modi said both
India and Saudi Arabia recognise that no cause can justify an
act of terror.
He noted that India and
Saudi Arabia have come
together to cooperate in eradicating the scourge of terrorism.
Hailing the role of King Salman
bin Abdulaziz in nurturing the
Indo-Saudi partnership, Modi
said building further on the
strategic partnership with the
powerful nation was one of the
foreign policy priorities of his
Government.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi poses
for a selfie with IT professionals
working in TCS All Women IT & ITES
Centre during his visit to the Complex
in Riyadh on Sunday
PTI
IANS n RIYADH
Modi on Sunday described
P
an all-women IT centre set up
by India’s Tata Consultancy
Services (TCS) here as the
“glory of Saudi Arabia”.
“I am meeting those professionals who are now the
glory of Saudi Arabia,” said
Modi in the first engagement of
the second and last day of his
bilateral visit to Saudi Arabia.
“This atmosphere I am witnessing here today has the
potential to give a strong mes-
Saudi King briefs PM on 34-nation Islamic military coalition Strengthening relations
with Saudi Arabia
S
India’s priority: Modi
PTI n RIYADH
audi King Salman bin
Abdulaziz on Sunday
briefed Prime Minister
Narendra Modi on his initiative
in bringing together 34 countries to form a powerful Islamic
military coalition to combat
terrorism, as the two leaders
agreed to strengthen cooperation in fighting the menace.
Modi, who is here on a
two-day official visit to the
Kingdom, and Salman held
wide-ranging talks and agreed
to strengthen cooperation in
combating terrorism, both at
the bilateral level and within the
multilateral system of the UN.
King Salman briefed Modi
on the Kingdom’s “initiative in
bringing together Islamic
Alliance against terrorism,”
said a joint statement issued
after their talks.
“The Prime Minister lauded Kingdom’s efforts at fighting
terrorism in all its aspects and
its active participation in international efforts towards this
end,” the statement said.
It said the two leaders
called upon the international
community to strengthen multilateral regimes to effectively
address the challenges posed by
terrorism.
The two sides also agreed
to work together towards the
adoption of India’s proposed
Comprehensive Convention
on International Terrorism in
the United Nations, it added.
In December, Saudi had
announced the formation of the
34-state Islamic military coalition to combat terrorism. The
coalition includes nations with
large and established armies
such as Pakistan, Turkey and
Egypt as well as war-torn countries with embattled militaries
such as Libya and Yemen.
Other members are Saudi
Arabia’s five partners in the Gulf
Cooperation Council, as well as
Jordan, Nigeria, Egypt, Chad,
Mali, Malaysia, Morocco,
Senegal, Somalia and Tunisia.
Saudi Arabia’s regional
rival, Iran, is not part of the
coalition. Iraq and Syria whose
forces are battling the Islamic
State terror group are also not
in the coalition.
According to Saudi officials, the members of the new
“anti-terrorism” coalition
would share intelligence, combat violent ideology and deploy
troops if necessary.
PM seeks Saudi investments in key Indian sectors
PTI n RIYADH
Modi on Sunday invited oilP
rich Saudi Arabia’s top business
tycoons to invest in India’s key
sectors like Defence, insurance, Railway and oil as he projected his country as an attractive investment destination
even in the face of a global economic slowdown.
Saudi Arabia is planning to
set up world’s largest sovereign
wealth fund of over $2 trillion
and India was eyeing a major
investment from the country
which is India’s fourth largest
trading partner.
Listing policy initiatives
taken by his Government to
boost economic growth, Modi
said his Government was looking for major investment in
Defence production, Railways
and deep sea off-shore oil
exploration in coal gasification
to produce clean energy.
The Prime Minister made
the pitch while interacting with
a group of 30 top Saudi CEOs
and Indian business leaders at
the Council of Saudi Chambers
of Commerce here.
The Saudi business honchos, who attended the interaction, collectively account for
a major share of the Saudi
GDP. Talking about his
Government’s initiative in “high
temperature deep sea off shore
exploration”, Modi invited Saudi
investment in the sector which
has been opened up for FDI
from this month.
He said “most transparent”
policy framework has been put
in place and that market driven
revenue sharing model will be
adopted for such project. The
Prime Minister said India plans
to build a staggering 50 million
low cost housing, a mega project requiring huge investment
IANS n RIYADH
ndian Prime Minister
Narendra Modi has said
Istrengthening
the strategic
partnership with Saudi Arabia
was a priority of India.
“Building further on this strategic partnership with Saudi
Arabia is one of the foreign policy priorities of our government,” Arab News quoted
Modi as saying in an interview
on Saturday.
Modi’s visit to Saudi Arabia
is a part of his three nations
tour which also include
Brussels and Washington.
Modi, who is on a two-day visit
to Saudi Arabia, has described
Custodian of the Two Holy
Mosques King Salman bin
Abdulaziz Al Saud as a visionary leader.
“King Salman has led Saudi
Arabia with great maturity and
foresightedness during one of
the most challenging times,”
Modi said.
King Salman has taken
personal interest in building the
Indo-Saudi relationship and
further strengthening bilateral
cooperation and engagements
in diverse fields, he said.
Replying to a question, Modi
termed terrorism as the enemy
of the entire humanity. “Both
India and Saudi Arabia have
been victims of the acts of terror resulting in the loss of
innocent lives. The recent cowardly acts of terror in Lahore,
Brussels, Paris, Iraq and the
continuing violence in
Afghanistan have shown that
terrorists recognise no boundaries.”
“They have no caste,
colour, creed or religion. We
need to delink religion from
terrorism.” Modi acknowledged
and appreciated Saudi Arabia’s
role in eradicating the scourge
of terrorism. “We deeply appreciate the leadership role being
played by Saudi Arabia in the
region to fight this menace,” he
said.
Modi thanked the Saudi
leadership for hosting a large
Indian community and for
ensuring their continued welfare and wellbeing.
“I have heard immense
praise of our community for
their educational and technical
achievement; for their integrity and sense of discipline; and
for their honesty and devotion
to work. Such praise fills me
with great pride,” he said.
BESH’S EX-PM SEEKS BAIL IN BUS BOMBING CASE
Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Saudi King Salman bin Abdul Aziz during the Delegation Level Talks, at the Royal Court, in
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Sunday
PTI
which will create massive economic opportunities besides
creating jobs.
“I want to give house to
every poor Indian. I think every
year a new Saudi Arabia has to
be built in my country. That is
a huge requirement,” he said.
Modi said railways and
food processing sectors have
been opened up for 100 per
cent Foreign Direct Investment
and that there is huge investment opportunity in building
cold storage network as well as
in manufacture of equipment
for generation of solar power.
Pitching for Saudi investment in the defence sector,
Modi said India’s biggest
import bill after petroleum
products is defence equipment
and asserted that the government now is focusing on
indigenous production. “We
are importing everything. Why
not we develop defence equipment in India. Your investment
can play a major role in this,”
he said.
Talking about cyber
threats, the Prime Minister
said major investments will be
required to ensure cyber security and Saudi Arabia can invest
significantly in the sector. The
Prime Minister also faced range
of questions at the interaction
relating to retrospective tax,
proposed Goods and Services
Tax, non-performing assets of
Indian banks and whether
India will allow Islamic banking.
Referring to specific sectors, Modi said India plans to
go for coal gasification in order
to be able to produce clean
energy and invited Saudi companies to invest in the sector. “I
think your companies can do
a great deal in this regard.”
Seeking investment in railways, he said, “Today, India’s
railway is world’s second
longest network and I wish to
double that. I wish to upgrade
it. We have 50 cities in the
country where we wish to
build metro network.” He said
the insurance sector has been
opened up and that there is
huge scope in it. The Prime
Minister also invited Saudi
investment in agriculture and
medical tourism sectors.
Dhaka: Bangladesh’s former prime minister and main opposition leader
Khaleda Zia is expected to appear in court and seek bail after an arrest
warrant being issued over a bus bombing attack, her lawyer said on
Sunday. A court in Dhaka on Wednesday issued arrest warrants for Zia,
70, and 27 leaders of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) in
connection with a bomb attack on a bus in January 2015 during an antigovernment campaign, the Daily Star reported. “Madam (Zia) will appear
before the court on April 5 and will seek bail,” her lawyer Sanaullah Miah
told reporters. The BNP called for a countrywide protest on Monday
against the arrest warrant, saying it was politically motivated.
MUSLIM FAMILY UPSET AFTER TEACHER CALLS BOY TERRORIST
Houston(US): A 12-year-old Muslim boy has accused his teacher of
targeting him for his religion by calling him a “terrorist” in front of his
peers in the US state of Texas, prompting school authorities to probe the
incident. Waleed Abushaaban, a 7th grade student in First Colony Middle
School has been the butt of “bomb” jokes and ridicule from his fellow
classmates after his teacher made the careless crack, a local TV
KHOU.Com reported.
KATE ON INDIA WARDROBE AFTER ADVANCE TEAM RECCE!
London: Fashion conscious Kate Middleton will reportedly be packing 1215 outfits for her six-day visit to India and Bhutan after an advance team
completed a recce of locations, including the iconic Taj Mahal. Kate, 34,
and Prince William, 33, will fly into Mumbai next Sunday for the trip and
the Duchess of Cambridge will be packing alongside her daytime dresses
and evening gowns, a surprise addition — a pair of hiking boots. Kate
will take 12-15 outfits for the six days of official visits, the Telegraph
reported.
Nepal’s ruling coalition partner seeks reinstating Hindu State
Kathmandu: Nepal’s proHindu party, part of the ruling
coalition, on Sunday said it will
table an amendment motion in
the Parliament to reinstate
Nepal as a Hindu nation, warning of massive street protests if
the demand is not met.
Rastriya Prajatantra PartyNepal (RPP-N), the fourth
largest party in the Parliament,
took the decision during the
central committee meeting of
the party chaired by RPP-N
chairman and Deputy Prime
Minister Kamal Thapa that
concluded in Birgunj in southern Nepal today.
Party sources said RPP-N
decided to move a motion
against the provision of secular State in the Constitution
and seek returning to a Hindu
nation.
The party has been campaigning for reinstatement of a
Hindu State since the country
was converted into a secular
THE PARTY HAS BEEN CAMPAIGNING FOR
REINSTATEMENT OF A HINDU STATE SINCE
THE COUNTRY WAS CONVERTED INTO A
SECULAR NATION THROUGH PARLIAMENT
DECLARATION IN 2008
nation through Parliament declaration in 2008, when monarchy was abolished from the
country following the success
of the People’s Movement.
“The party has also decided to launch street agitation for
the same purpose, if the constitution amendment process
could not reconvert the coun-
try into a Hindu State,” the proposal endorsed by the party’s
CWC meeting said.
Last year, the Constituent
Assembly had overwhelmingly rejected a proposal by proHindu RPP-N to revert Nepal
as a Hindu State, declaring that
the Hindu-majority nation will
remain secular.
Thapa had registered the
amendment proposal demanding to reinstate Nepal as a
Hindu State in Article 4 of the
revised bill of the new
Constitution.
The rejection had triggered violent protests amid an
already volatile situation over
federal structure.
Today, the RPP-N also
asked the Government to
resolve the issues relating to the
agitation launched by the
Madhesis through political
means of holding dialogue
with the agitating parties.
PTI
sage to the world.”
Modi said that in today’s
competitive world “we have to
unite our strengths, both natural and human, for optimum
progress”. He said that when
women power becomes part of
the development journey, it
gathers fresh momentum.
The Prime Minister said
that the atmosphere he witnessed at the all-women’s centre
on Sunday appeared to be a harbinger of a positive force for the
world. He invited the women IT
professionals to visit India, and
said their visit would make a
huge impact even in India.
Modi emphasised the role
of technology in governance,
and said e-governance, for
him, meant easy governance,
effective governance, and economic governance. He invited
them to see the “Narendra
Modi App” and even share
their views on women empowerment in India.
“Vande Mataram. Matri
Devo Bhavah (Salutations to
Mother. Mother be the god)”
wrote the prime minister
on the message board at the
centre.
opinion 08
www.dailypioneer.com
paper with passion
Needless over-reaction
Fatwa against ‘Bharat Mata ki jai’ is unfortunate
he Darul Uloom Deoband's directive that Muslims should not chant ‘Bharat
Mata ki jai' because the slogan violates the basic tenets of Islam is both
silly and unfortunate. The seminary's fatwa claims that the slogan calls for
worship of the nation, and Muslims cannot worship anyone other than their god.
‘Bharat Mata ki jai’ is not a form of worship but a clarion cry for victory to the
nation — Mother India. And while the country may have been depicted as a goddess in some places, and a few temples too have come up in parts of the country in ‘Mother India's’ name, the slogan itself makes no mention of ‘god' or religion. It is, therefore, wrong of the Deoband seminary to say that Bharat has been
made equivalent to a goddess in the slogan. The ‘Bharat Mata ki jai’ cry had
been used during the freedom-struggle and continues to be used by a wide variety of Indians, including those in the Armed Forces. And this cuts across all castes
and religious denominations. There had never been a ‘religion' angle to the slogan — until now, that is, when Muslim clerics have waded into the controversy that erupted soon after Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat
sensibly opined that the younger generations of Indians must be taught the values of nationalist slogans such as ‘Bharat Mata ki jai’ and All India Majlis-eIttehadul Muslimeen supremo
Asaduddin Owaisi dramatically
declined to raise the call “even if a knife
was put to my throat”. The need for
the seminary to issue a fatwa came
— in Darul Uloom Deoband's explanation — after several Muslims from
across the country reached out to it
for an opinion on the issue. The seminary later said that the “oneness of
Allah” forms the core of Islam, and
that this core was seen as being violated in the slogan. Instead of seeing
religious angles in the slogan, Muslim
clerics and like-minded politicians
must realise that it is they who are giving a religious colour to what has
essentially been, and considered, a
secular phrase in praise of the country. Neither Bhagwat nor any of those
others who have backed the slogan (and they belong to parties other than the
Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies) were guided by any motive to compel the
minority community to adopt that which is against its religious belief. The RSS
chief has clarified that there is no question of forcing anyone to raise the nationalist cry. It is sad indeed that the unifying call of “Bharat Mata ki jai”, in use
for decades, is being today exploited as a divisive tool by parochial minds
But then, the over-zealousness of such elements is understandable. They have
always done business on the premise of religion and need issues to sustain their
relevance in an age when the younger generation of Indians is less inclined to
align with their dated concepts and more tuned in to the agenda of development.
By now and then crying wolf over supposed assaults on their religion, they hope
to exploit what they know is sensitive enough to arouse deep passions among
the community. The more these self-appointed leaders of the minority community take hardline and illogical positions, the more they invite similarly extreme
responses from other, conflicting sections of society. The end result is a bitter
and often dangerous verbal duel that leaves society further fragmented.
T
Preparing for rain clouds
Good monsoon will uplift agriculture, economy
fter two years of below average rainfall that has had a debilitating impact
on Indian agriculture and stymied the growth of the overall India economy,
recent assessments pointing to a better monsoon this year have no doubt
brought a sigh of relief. Two factors seem to be playing in India's favour: First,
the El Nino phenomenon, which refers to the unusual rise of sea surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific Ocean, and which is known to curtail rainfall
in this region, is weakening. The Australian Bureau of Meteorology has noted
that the equatorial Pacific has been its “coolest” since January 2015, and the El
Nino phenomenon is likely to be neutralised by May. The second factor is the
La Nina phenomenon, which is the opposite of the El Nino phenomenon, and is
known to boost rainfall in this region. A strong La Nina is expected to develop
by August, according to the latest bulletin issued by the Climate Prediction Centre
of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the United States.
Cause for optimism as they may be, both factors, however, must be viewed in
perspective. The impact of the El Nino will take about three months to be felt in
India, which means that if the phenomenon continues into May, as
expected, then the first round of rainfall may still be affected. Also, the El
Nino and La Nina are just two of many
complex factors that determine actual rainfall, and it is still quite early in
the day to make any definite predictions. A better picture should be available in about three week's time, when
the Indian Meteorological Department
comes out with its own report. India's
policymakers and its public will be
awaiting this first assessment from the
IMD with baited breath.
With even the winter rains having
played truant this past season, the
overall monsoon deficit has already
taken a huge toll. And this will only
get worse, if there isn't proper rainfall for the third year in row. Several parts of the country are reeling under drought;
the farm sector is, of course, distressed and food imports have also gone up;
water levels in major reservoirs across the country are well below the red-mark;
in some parts, even drinking water has been affected. In fact, in Maharastra's
Latur town, local authorities had to impose Section 144 to prevent people from
rioting at water distribution points. The dam that supplies water to Latur had
dried up, and while the authorities made arrangements to bring water from other
places, the situation was still dire. Latur is in Maharashtra's Marathwada region
which has been one of the worst hit areas in the country — the situation was
so bad that hospitals have had to scale back operations while weddings had been
postponed. Thankfully, there was a decent amount of rain in Marathwada in the
last week of March while April bought some pre-monsoon showers to West Bengal,
Bihar and Odisha. One can only hope that this trend will now sustain and the
main Monsoon period, from June to September, will see ample rainfall.
A
Minimum Government,
maximum governance
JOGINDER SINGH
Heavens will not fall if all the committees, except the parliamentary panels, and at least half
of the bureaucratic posts, are abolished. Let the Government try out this prescription
uch of the present
generation of
active politicians
was born after
India became
independent, following the sacrifices of many freedom-fighters. In
those early years, corruption was
a stray creature. When Jawaharlal
Nehru was Prime Minister, even
a whiff of corruption was enough
for anybody, be it a bureaucrat or
a politician, to lose his position.
After the death of Nehru and his
successor Lal Bahadur Shastri, the
governance of India passed into
the hands of lesser leaders. Such
people could not look beyond
their coterie of sycophants.
This continues to be the situation even today, especially when
it comes to cushy post-retirement
jobs, either for politicians or
bureaucrats. All that such
appointees have to do is please
their political masters or mastersto-be. They say goodbye governance and focus on pleasing the
boss. Since this writer does not
care much for any politician, the
only question he has is this: Do our
politicians stand by their convictions, or do they prefer to run with
the hare and hunt with the
hounds, or do they just toe the line
of their party bosses irrespective
national interest?
As Antonio says in William
Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice,
“The devil can cite Scripture for his
M
purpose. An evil soul producing
holy witness Is like a villain with
a smiling cheek, A goodly apple
rotten at the heart. Oh, what a
goodly outside falsehood hath!”
A former Union Minister for
Home Affairs has said that it is
possible to hold an “honest opinion” that the Afzal Guru case was
“perhaps not correctly decided”
and there were “grave doubts
about the extent of his involvement” in the Parliament attack.
Afzal Guru was hanged on
February 9, 2013. The former
Home Minister is a lawyer, and if
what he says now he also felt at the
time of the trial, then he should
have issued written orders to drop
the case.
Justice PV Reddi, who headed the two-judge Bench which
upheld Afzal Guru’s conviction,
has said, “The judgement speaks
for itself. Those who celebrate
Afzal martyrdom day must pick
up the judgement and read it thoroughly before making comments
or criticism. Fair criticism of
Supreme Court judgements is the
hallmark of our democratic system
that zealously guards the right to
free speech. But to term it a judicial hanging is crossing the limit.
The criticism must be decent and
in public interest. If not, then it
could hit at the root of democracy, of which Supreme Court is an
important pillar.”
In view of the above observa-
We are part of NDA,
but there is no proper coordination
among alliance partners. BJP is not giving us the attention
we deserve.
HAM(S) chief
—Jitan Ram Manjhi
AFTER THE DEATH
OF NEHRU AND HIS
SUCCESSOR LAL
BAHADUR SHASTRI,
THE GOVERNANCE
OF INDIA PASSED
INTO THE HANDS OF
LESSER LEADERS.
THESE PEOPLE
COULD NOT LOOK
BEYOND THEIR
COTERIE OF
SYCOPHANTS
tion of the former judge, it appears
that India has a great numbers of
enemies, within. Indeed, the rot set
in right after Nehru — and now
a former Home Secretary has
spilled the beans on his political
master. The latter has, of course,
denied any wrongdoing.
The affidavit in the Ishrat
Jahan case was changed by the
Centre. The UPA Government
revised its position that Ishrat
Jahan was a member of a Lashkare-Tayyeba squad that was moving
around the country, and said that
there was no evidence to support
such a conclusion.
Many petty functionaries,
have criticised the retired Union
Home Secretary and wondered
why he did not say the same
things when he was in service.
Perhaps, they are not aware that
criticism of the Government by
a serving bureaucrat is against the
law. Besides, what the retired
Home Secretary has said is not
something new. I myself defied
the then Prime Minister in one
to one conversation about the
principal accused in the fodder
scam. I found myself transferred,
on my return to India from an
Interpol conference.
Many of the so-called VIPs
have feet of clay. Loyalty to the
country is far from their mind.
Once I asked a Minister, why he
visits his home State almost every
weekend? He frankly confessed
SOUNDBITE
that it was because he was elected from that State. He said that his
visits to other parts of the country are few.
What I have said above is largely the position of the vast majority of leaders, irrespective of their
party. While going through some
of my old files, I was shocked to discover the number of committees
and panels that have been set up to
assist with governance.
The easiest way to pass on the
buck of poor governance is to set
up committee or a commission. I
wonder how long my countrymen
will have to suffer corruption? It
is said that that, in England,
“Everything which is not forbidden is allowed”, while, in Germany,
“Everything which is not allowed
is forbidden”. This may be extended to France where, “Everything
is allowed even if it is forbidden”
and Russia where “Everything is
forbidden, even that which is
expressly allowed”. In North Korea,
it is said that “Everything that is
not forbidden is compulsory”.
In India, even if something is
allowed, it is forbidden by the
rules of multiple Government
departments, which undo the
work of each other. The heavens
would not fall, if all the committees, except the Parliamentary
Committees, and at least half of
the bureaucratic posts are abolished. Let the Government try out
this prescription.
Destiny had different
plans for me and acting
happened. But, definitely I have designing
in the back of my head.
It is very difficult to
see huge reductions
in our nuclear
arsenal unless the
US and Russia are
prepared to lead
the way.
Actor
—Sonakshi Sinha
US President
—Barack Obama
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Punish culprits
Sir — This refers to the editorial,
“Criminal callousness” (April 2).
In view of the upcoming poll in
West Bengal, Chief Minister
Mamata Banerjee was quick to
announce compensation to the
victims of the flyover tragedy.
Moreover, she also shifted the
blame to the previous Left Front
Government. This is not something unusual. Politicians (no
matter which party is in power),
to gain public sympathy, announce
large sums of aid to the affected.
No amount of compensation can
mitigate the grief of the affected
families. The least the Mamata
Government can do is to ensure
severe punishment for the culprits.
Gulab Shanker Singh
Lucknow
Accountability matters
Sir — This refers to the editorial
The editorial has rightly called for
accountability. Collapse of flyovers,
bridges, buildings, roads and canals
are common across the country,
and precious lives are lost.
Both the Trinamool Congress
and IVRCL are responsible for this
incident. They could have been vig-
Personal law: Ball is now
in the Supreme Court
T
his refers to the editorial, “Review personal laws” (March 30). Sadly,
despite several decades of long discussion, the Uniform Civil Code
has not yet seen the light of the day. This is because our country
has multiple religious communities which by no stretch of imagination
seem, save the liberals, to be compromising on their respective religious
personal laws even as they enjoy the constitutional right to cling follow
those laws. The Shah Bano case is a testimony to it.
With regards to a spate of cases of gender discrimination against
women, it is a matter of great concern and the Supreme Court has already
directed the Union Government to present a panel's report on Muslim
personal law dealing with such biases. Now, the ball is in the apex court,
which has to take a final call. However, the Union Government will have
to always face a slew of political compulsions while handling sensitive
matters like these.
Azhar A Khan
Akola
ilant, especially when the project
was located in a densely-populated area like Burrabazar.
The fact is that the TMC was
in a rush to complete the project.
Moreover, the project failed to
meet several deadlines. Why did
West Bengal Chief Minister
Mamata Banerjee not take note of
the dangerous situation that was
visible even to a layman? A portion of the bridge was seen hanging perilously. This was a warning
of the impending danger in a highly vulnerable spot.
PN Saxena
Via email
Poor management
Sir — This refers to the editorial,
The crashing of an under-construction flyover in Kolkata is unfortunate. What is all the more tragic is
that the narrow stretch of the flyover has made rescue operations all
the more difficult. On top of it, the
Hyderabad-based company,
IVRCL, has categorised this tragedy
as an ‘act of god’ to shy away from
taking ownership of the accident.
On the other hand, this tragedy
has once again highlighted the fact
that disaster management is still
very poor in our country. After each
tragedy, we talk about improving
disaster management, but we subsequently forget about it and brush
it under the carpet. The Union
Government must now ensure
strict monitoring of construction
sites and safety norms for construction workers on the site.
Bal Govind
Noida
Not enough
Sir — This refers to the editorial, “Purging truth of Netaji”
(April 1). The fact is that no serious attempt has been made to
unearth the mystery behind the
disappearance of Netaji Subhas
Chandra Bose. The files declassified by the Modi Government
are hardly relevant as far as his
disappearance is concerned.
There are some who say that
the declassification of Netaji files
will affect India’s relations with
other countries. This shows that,
indeed something is fishy. The
Government must choose
between the two — international
relations or to get enlightened on
the fate of Netaji, who sacrificed
his life for this country.
Kajal Chatterjee
Kolkata
Send your feedback to:
letterstopioneer@gmail.com
3rdeye 09
POINTCOUNTERPOINT
I had alerted the State Government about
the flyover's faulty design. But by that time
50-60 per cent of work had been done.
—Trinamool Congress MP
SUDIP BANDYOPADHYAY
FIRST
COLUMN
There’s no turning
back for Europe
Kabul suffers as powers quibble
Peace has become elusive in Afghanistan as the Quadrilateral Coordination Group failed to prepare the ground for reconciliation. Focus is
on Pakistan. In case the Taliban fail to strike a deal with the Ghani Government on Pakistani terms, Islamabad’s credibility will be at stake
here are a number of ways to
understand a peace process
which finally leads to agreements that are formal contracts, meant to end violent
conflicts. Peace agreements during a
peace process may include pre-negotiation agreements, interim agreements,
framework agreements, and implementation agreements. Each has a specific purpose. However, sometimes, one agreement
may overlap the other. Pre-negotiation
agreements are ‘talks about talks’ as they
tend to deal with issues such as who is
going to negotiate with what status and
what is the agenda of negotiations. At this
stage, negotiations discuss the pre-conditions of talks such as the release of political prisoners, or cessation of hostilities or
ceasefire during peace negotiations. But
the Afghan peace process is still stuck in
the primary stage and is yet to reach the
level of pre-negotiation deal.
The Quadrilateral Coordination
Group which includes Afghanistan,
China, Pakistan and the US, has taken a
much-needed initiative to pacify the
conflict-ridden Afghanistan. The QCG
mechanism became operational in
January when it met for the first time. And
just before the fourth round of QCG discussions in February, Pakistan Army chief
Raheel Sharif travelled to Doha to persuade the Taliban factions and groups to
return to the negotiating table. But it is not
hard to believe that any substantial breakthrough in peace negotiations is as
remote as ever.
The QCG is not a balanced and efficient mechanism to bring about lasting
peace in Afghanistan as it effectively
blocks Russia and Iran, the two most
important neighbours of Afghanistan,
from the discussion table. Most importantly, multiple rounds of talks among the
quartet have failed to convince the
Afghan Taliban to talk peace with the
Government in Kabul. Although former
Afghan Prime Minister Gulbuddin
Hekmatyar’s Hezb-e Islami, formally
allied with the Afghan Taliban, has
decided to join the peace talks, it will not
have a greater impact on the peace
process because Hezb-e Islami’s capability of anti-Government insurgency has
been increasingly declining over the
years and it has virtually no or little influence over the Taliban. Why does the latest refusal by the Taliban, to join the peace
negotiations, seem so much frightening
today than it did a few years back?
There are serious concerns about the
deteriorating security situation in
Afghanistan. Terrorists are posing several challenges to the prospects of peace and
security in that volatile region. This is
borne out by the recent observations of
Nicholas Haysom, the special representative of the UN Secretary General for
Afghanistan. Haysom has painted a very
grim picture of the situation in
Afghanistan where conflict has grown in
intensity and scope, resulting in all
Afghan governmental institutions, including security forces, being critically challenged on all fronts.
The two most disturbing features of
the report are the rise in security-related
incidents in 2015 as compared to 2014,
and the deterioration of security in areas
that have not been previously the Taliban’s
T
With increased attacks by Islamic State, Europeans are
forced to pay the price for the US policy of empowering
militant Islamism, WRITES IVAN ZADOROZHNY
urope has again been the target of terrorist attacks by Islamic
State, the self-proclaimed realm carved out by jihadis from
parts of Syria and Iraq. In what now looks like a gruesome
pattern, on March 22, bombs were detonated in central
Brussels, the seat of the EU, killing dozens. Before that, in Paris
last year, people were killed in a similar fashion. More terrorists attacks may be coming.
In the 1960s and 1970s, tensions developed between
Afghanistan and Pakistan as Islamabad sought to undermine the
secular Government in Kabul and install there an Islamist regime
modelled upon Pakistan's and answerable to itself. The policy
was partly driven by a long-standing feud between the two countries centering on the allegiance of the Pashtuns, Pakistan's second most numerous ethnic group and the most numerous ethnic group in Afghanistan.
The Generals in Islamabad feared that social reforms in
Afghanistan might destabilise Pakistan by seducing its Pashtun populations. So Pakistan set about encouraging unrest among the Afghan
Muslims in an effort to ignite a civil war and overthrow the country's secular Government. By the late 1970s Pakistan was conducting what amounted to a full-fledged covert war against Afghanistan.
That gave an idea to US military planners, and specifically
to one Zbigniew Brzezinski, a recent Polish immigrant in the US
Government's employ who was apparently more concerned to
avenge the old country for perceived Soviet mistreatments than
to promote long-term interests of his newly-found homeland.
They hatched a plan to destroy the Soviet Union by exploding
it from within through a Muslim insurgency. That was to be done
by first installing an Islamist regime in Afghanistan, a country
friendly to the Soviet Union, and then exporting the Muslim revolution to Soviet Central Asia. And if the Afghan upheaval provoked a Soviet intervention, so much the better.
Of those efforts, Al Qaeda, the terrorist organisation, led by
Osama bin Laden, an ‘Afghan Arab’, was born. The operation
continued for more than 10 years, assuring for the US the title
of godfather of militant Islam and an early sponsor of Al Qaeda.
While the US failed in its goal of igniting a Muslim uprising in
the Soviet Union, its strategy of militant Islamist empowerment
worked in other ways.
After Al Qaeda turned on its Washington sponsors and
mounted the 9/11 attacks on the American homeland, the US
bizarrely chose to invade secular Iraq that had no links to the
terrorist group. The US also invaded the Taliban-run Afghanistan
over its refusal to hand over bin Laden.
Some say the US just took the opportunity to invade these countries to tighten its grip on the Middle East. As it turned out, the
US' invasion of Iraq was instrumental in the formation of a militant Islamist group known as ‘Al Qaeda in Iraq’, which subsequently evolved into the Islamic State.
Now that Europe finds itself in the middle of a refugee crisis
and under the terrorist onslaught, its options seem limited. If it
steps up the fight against Islamic State, that will likely only increase
the terror threat, at least in the short-term. With the huge numbers of immigrants flooding the EU from the various US-led regime
change operations in the Middle East, it's extremely difficult effectively to defect and catch terrorists.
If Europe backs down and withdraws from the fight, the Islamic
State won't leave it alone anyway, as such capitulation will only
embolden it. It looks like that all the Europeans can do now is to
hunker down and pray of the best. In any event, it seems that Europe
has been left once again to pay the blood price for the erstwhile
American (or Polish?) adventurism in the far-away lands.
(Courtesy: Sputnik International)
From Sudip's statement, it becomes that the
Mamata Government was aware that a
disaster could happen. Why didn't it act?
—Bengal Congress chief
ADHIR CHOWDHURY
E
VINAY KAURA
While the Taliban is
fighting their way to
the negotiating
table, the Afghan
National Unity
Government does
not have either
have a viable
peaceful conflict
settlement plan nor
any overarching
war strategy.
Worse, the political,
economic and
social angst and
discontent in a
large section of the
Afghan people, has
not been properly
addressed
The Quadrilateral Coordination Group at its second meeting in Kabul on January 18
stronghold. The Taliban have undoubtedly expanded their territorial reach last
year, as reflected in the temporary capture
of about two dozen districts in almost all
parts of the country, with the temporary
seize of the Provincial capital of Kunduz
being the most notorious and audacious.
While the Taliban are fighting their
way to the negotiating table, the Afghan
National Unity Government seems to
have neither any viable peaceful conflict
settlement plan nor any overarching war
strategy. To make matters worse, the political, economic and social angst and discontent of a large section of the Afghan
people as not been properly addressed,
and has been exploited by the Taliban.
Faced with a rapidly intensifying
insurgency, the country may witness the
dangerous prospect of being carved up
into rival fiefdoms. The emergence of the
Islamic State, which is trying to recruit
from among the disgruntled Taliban
ranks and other terrorist groups, has further diminished hopes of the country
returning to a state of normalcy.
As the Taliban have again rejected the
latest peace offers from the QCG, firmly insisting on their own terms and conditions, the already fragile peace process
has entered the most crucial phase.
Under such circumstances, it will be futile
to expect the inadequately-trained Afghan
security forces with support from insufficient number of US-led North Atlantic
Treaty Organisation forces, to attain a military edge over their opponent. If the
Taliban escalates the fight in the coming
months, the country faces the prospect of
sliding down a perilous path towards turmoil and mayhem. In fact, Western military support for the Ashraf Ghani regime
is more of a background psychological fac-
tor than a physical one since the US has
almost quit Afghanistan.
The focus of attention has now again
shifted back to Pakistan’s role in contributing to the peace process. The conventional wisdom is that Pakistan has a great
influence over the Taliban. Pakistan’s
Taliban policy has shifted along with
broader geopolitical trends, with the balance sometimes swinging towards closer alignment and at other times, at permitting greater autonomy.
Foreign Affairs Advisor Sartaj Aziz
has admitted to Pakistan’s influence over
the Taliban when he recently said, “We
have some influence on them because
their leadership is in Pakistan, and they
get some medical facilities, their families
are here. So we can use those levers to
pressurise them to say, ‘come to the table’”.
But attitudes within Pakistan’s security elite are complex; dividing between
those who support the resolution of conflict at the earliest on the ground that continuation of conflict will further worsen
the security situation in Pakistan, and
those who insist on first protecting
Pakistan’s strategic interests, defined in
straight forwardly realist terms. Thus
there is a strong section within Pakistan’s
military establishment that defends the
notion of a tightly integrated geopolitical region on both sides of the Khyber
Pass with Pakistan’s informal control over
policies of Afghanistan. In constant
denial about the costs and tragedies perpetrated by the India-centric ‘strategic
depth’ policy, this powerful lobby argues
that Pakistan’s strategic needs stretch well
beyond the Durand Line, and it is only
pragmatic to act on those needs. Afghan
political elite’s excellent relations with
India has been a chronic irritant in
Too many regulators, a bad idea
A new holistic look at the economy and the factors contributing to inflation, is needed. A stable and judicious
pricing system is required to the keep the economy on rails and contain fiscal deficit to the targeted level
he Union Government
needs to pursue policies
that can ease inflation
and reduce prices to lubricate
the economy. The trap laid by
previous Governments is
seemingly tightening.
It is not just the fuel price
that firm up prices. Though it
remains the base, there are
other factors like continuous
increase in insurance premia,
toll taxes, banking, parking, airport charges, tuition fee,
dynamic railway fare, high taxi
and bus fare apart from high
commodity prices, that lead the
country to a phenomenon of
price rise.
The flak for this is borne by
the Government as it is blamed
for not controlling the situation.
It also has to bear the cost by paying its staff more to sustain
unhindered profiteering of the
unscrupulous. The Government
has taken a view that it will not
intervene to facilitate business.
T
Business in this country
thrives on the poor man’s
money, and loans are easily
available through certain questionable bank practices. More
the inflation, higher the
charges, more the banks gobble up public funds; their coffers grow and so do their
exploitative practices. All the
same, the private reserves
either remain intact or increase.
Who suffers? The common
man and the Government of
the day.
The Government itself has
sealed itself out through a system of regulators. The latter,
whether in insurance, electricity or telecom sectors, at
times act in favour of the perpetrators and are casual in
protecting consumers. The
logic seems to be that the ‘the
consumer has to pay more
and more to keep businesses
profitable’ — or stated differently, the consumer can be
exploited at all times and if he
seeks a relief, it is to be denied,
as being ‘unsustainable’.
Should we really have such
regulators or go back to the earlier system of people’s
(Government) control? It needs
to be pondered seriously.
Regulators are primarily
responsible for higher power
bills, higher insurance premia
and most other hikes.
Just go to any city, and parents are to be found fighting
with schools who arbitrarily
raise fees, force students to buy
books and stationery, uniforms
etc. A failure to do so can cost
the students dearly, including
the school’s refusal to hand
over their results, cancellation
of admission and many other
retributive practices.
Is there a remedy? State
Governments have expressed
their inability on many counts
to help the parents or the students. Officials may say this is
not part of the economy. This
is a grave fallacy.
The high cost of education is causing severe stress
among the middle-class citizens. They have stopped going
to the market for buying anything except which is utterly
necessary. Even there, they
have been reducing necessary consumption of essential
items. This affects the Prime
Minister’s concept of Make in
India. Such reduction in
demand affects production.
The nation needs to seriously reconsider whether the cost
of education should be low or
not. The institutions at all levels have devised methods to
pay less to the teachers — they
are even asked to refund a
part of their salary credited to
their bank accounts — and
increase management profits.
The insurance companies
and the insurance regulator
have been raising premia every
year from third party motorvehicle claims to health, fire,
property etc, on unjustifiable
pretexts. The claims in this
country are at their lowest but
the regulator allows insurance
companies enormous increases, forgetting that this finally
impacts industry and individuals alike. It increases cost of
operations and leaves them
with less spare money to sustain the market. The regulator
has itself stated that “incurred
claims ratio of the motor segment came down by two percent in 2015 against 2014”.
Then why has it hiked the third
party premium? It hits the
transport sector heavily, which
then hikes its tariff.
No less illogical is the decision to disallow registration of
high-powered diesel vehicles in
Delhi. The courts are supposed to go by the provisions
of the Motor Vehicles Act, that
allows all vehicles to ply all the
Afghan-Pakistan relations, making
Rawalpindi profoundly paranoid about
collaborating in an effort that enables
India to have any meaningful say in
Afghan political affairs. This explains the
Pakistan Army’s highly selective approach
towards eliminating terrorist groups it
once created and had patronised.
The Taliban can seem very powerful now but it will wrong to think of the
outfit as invincible. There are many splits
and fissures within it. The Afghan
Taliban have been going through a turbulent leadership transition since last year
with the new leader Mullah Mansoor still
facing difficulties in consolidating his
leadership position. Those who are challenging Mansoor’s succession to Mullah
Omar are of the view that they have
acquired a decisive edge against the
Afghan security forces. In order to avoid
internal rebellion and further dissension,
Mansoor does not want to show any haste
in joining the peace talks.
If a dominant section of the Taliban
leadership is not prepared to strike a deal
with the Ghani Government on Pakistani
terms, then the very credibility of Pakistan
will be at stake. Islamabad will face
tremendous pressure from Washington
and Beijing to take action against the recalcitrant Taliban elements that are based in
Pakistan. Therefore, Pakistan seems to be
doubling its efforts, short of arm-twisting,
to bring the Taliban leadership to the
negotiation table. But the current adverse
dynamic may likely continue between the
Taliban and the Afghan Government.
(The writer is Assistant Professor,
Department of International Affairs
and Security Studies, Sardar Patel
University of Police Security and
Criminal Justice, Jodhpur)
think
now
SHIVAJI SARKAR
24 days — a provision that
helps production of new vehicles and the creation of jobs.
The National Green Tribunal is
playing havoc with the
production process.
If everything is to be
banned, then let us start with
banning the NGT. In no country are vehicles junked in the
manner that the NGT suggests. It hurts the economy
and wealth creation.
The Niti Ayog and the
Union Government have to
consider various aspects that are
hindering economic growth
and creating an inflationary
process. They also need to look
at how they can keep business
expenses low — an essential
condition for ease of doing
business. A new holistic look at
the economy and those adding
to inflation, is needed. A stable
and judicious pricing system is
required to keep the economy
on rails and cut fiscal deficit.
ou know, if we understand one
question rightly, all questions
are answered. But we don't
know how to ask the right question.
To ask the right question demands
a great deal of intelligence and
sensitivity. Here is a question, a
fundamental question: Is life a
torture? It is, as it is; and man has
lived in this torture, centuries upon
centuries, from ancient history to
the present day, in agony, in despair,
in sorrow; and he doesn't find a
way out of it. Therefore he invents
gods, churches, all the rituals, and
all that nonsense, or he escapes in
different ways.
Y
—J Krishnamurthy
Spiritual leader
money 10
The international investment
community wishes to see India
doing as it has stated in looking to
resolve the retrospective tax issue
with actions which would send a
positive signal to global investors
that things are changing under this
current Government
CAIRN ENERGY CEO
SIMON THOMSON
BUZZ
FROM
GOVT & CORP
The fear psychosis has been
curbed up to a large extent with
various landmark initiatives taken
by the FSSAI in easing the
approval of food products and
nutraceuticals
FSSAI CEO PAWAN AGARWAL
Expectations high for up to 0.50% rate cut by RBI
NEW DELHI: With inflation
under check and Government
sticking to its fiscal consolidation path, market expectations are that RBI may cut
interest rate by up to 0.50 per
cent in its first bi-monthly
monetary policy review for
2016-17 on Tuesday in order
to propel growth.
The Government has also
pared the small savings interest rate by up to 1.3 per cent
providing cushion to the
Reserve Bank for cutting the
policy rate.
Finance Minister Arun
Jaitley, too, had last week
expressed desire that the RBI
should cut rate, stating "I
want what everybody wants.
At this stage if rate cuts do
take place it's certainly going
to be helpful because you
need a more efficient economy and you need a more
competitive cost of capital".
Bankers said high interest
rate could make Indian economy sluggish given that inflation is around 5 per cent.
"There is possibility of
RBI reducing rate by 0.25
per cent as inflation has
eased," Bank of Maharashtra
Chairman and Managing
Director Sushil Muhnot told
the news agency.
According to a senior
official from a state-run bank,
although a 25 basis points has
been factored in by the market there is also a high possibility of RBI going for a 50
basis points rate cut.
Citing various factors for
easing of monetary stance,
industry chambers are pitching for 0.5 per cent cut in the
key interest rate.
A 0.25 per cent cut in the
policy rate by the RBI is
almost given, but the real
impact of falling lending cost
‘UK steelworkers' pensions
could be slashed under Tata plan'
PTI n LONDON
ens of thousands of steelworkers in the UK could
T
have their pensions slashed
by up to 20 per cent under
plans by Tata to wash its
hands of the 15 billion
pounds British Steel retirement scheme, media reported on Sunday.
According to a report in
the Sunday Times, the Indian
conglomerate is understood
to be in negotiations with the
government and the Pensions
Regulator over putting the
scheme, which has about
130,000 active and retired
members, into the Pension
Protec tion Fund (PPF),
which would mean workers
suffer cuts to their retirement
savings of as much as 20 per
cent.
Last week Tata said UK's
largest steelworks, at Port
Talbot in South Wales, was no
longer viable and put its
entire British steel operation
up for sale, leaving 15,000
jobs hanging in the balance.
Sources close to the
company said it does not
plan to continue supporting
the pension fund once it has
quit UK steel, according to
the report.
"There is no possibility
whatsoever [it will retain the
pension scheme]," said one
source. "Legally it can do it."
The scheme is one of
Britain's biggest — a throwback to when the industry
employed hundreds of thousands of workers.
It has a deficit of 485 million pounds, but with assets
of almost 14 billion pounds,
it is in fairly healthy shape.
Amid the pension talks,
Sanjeev Gupta, the Indian
origin steel tycoon, has made
an alternative proposal to
replace Port Talbot's blast
furnaces with more efficient
electric arc furnaces.
can be felt only if the central
bank goes in for a bold reduction of at least 0.50 per cent,
industry body Assocham said.
Retail inflation as measured by the Consumer Price
Index (CPI) eased to 5.18 per
cent in February as food
prices rose at a slower pace,
while Wholesale Price Index
stayed in the negative territory for the 16th month in a
row.
Industrial output for the
third month in a row
remained in the negative territory contracting 1.5 per
cent in January due to poor
Tata Steel's Port Talbot plants
PTI n LONDON
K-based Indian steel tycoon
Sanjeev Gupta has come to
U
the rescue of the troubled Tata
Steel by opening discussions with
owners of the steel giant to acquire
its plants at Port Talbot, Britain's
largest employing some 4,000
people.
The 44-year-old founder of
steel, commodities and property
group Liberty House, who has
already saved a number of UK
plants from closure, has said he is
ready to discuss with the British
Government to rescue the plants
where thousands of jobs are at
stake.
He will return here from
Dubai tomorrow to meet
Government officials and Tata to
gauge their support for a proposal to keep Britain's largest steel
plant open.
On the question of acquiring
the State Steel plants at Port
Talbot, Gupta was quoted in the
Sunday Telegraph saying: "We
would need a proper partnership
with the Government. I don't
know what that would entail at
this stage, We've started the discussions... We are in the process
of starting a discussion with Tata."
He has submitted preliminary
proposals to the Government to
replace Port Talbot's traditional
blast furnaces with modern elec-
brews fresh funding in US
PTI n NEW YORK
A
Illinois-based MB Financial
Bank permitting the company
to obtain loans up to $400,000.
As per the terms of the
promissory note, Mendocino
has promised to pay the principal sum of $325,000 with
accrued interest to Catamaran
within 6 months, subject to the
receipt by the company of a
bridge loan from its majority
shareholder.
This repayment is subject to
the shareholder loan amount
being sufficient either to pay the
note through 'Permitted
Payments', or to pay both the
note and certain existing obligations of the company to MB
Financial Bank.
The 'Permitted Payments'
on the note are payments made
from the portion of a
Shareholder Loan that is in
excess of $600,000, the filing further said.
If the company is not able
to satisfy its obligations on the
note within six months, the note
will get automatically extended
for additional six months terms
"until a Shareholder Loan sufficient to satisfy the note is
received or the note is otherwise
paid."
A major controversy has
broken out back in India ever
systemic liquidity.
"We expect RBI to address
the issues of systemic liquidity," Bhattacharya has said.
Currently, high volatility
in currency holdings of public (both in the form of cash
and jewellery) as well as government’s cash balances with
RBI is leading to volatility in
systemic liquidity, she had
said.
According to Citigroup
report, the RBI is expected to
cut repo rate by 0.25 percentage point given that the
budget stayed on the path of
fiscal consolidation and
progress has been made on
the reforms front.
The case for a rate cut
becomes even stronger considering the benign CPI outlook and a strengthened
transmission mechanism
(quarterly reset in small savings rate, MCLR).
PTI
Gupta keen on acquiring
Mallya's craft beer firm
way from the furore over
huge loan default in India
by Vijay Mallya-led UB Group,
its US-based brewery arm has
secured a complex funding that
it intends to repay later with a
'bridge loan' from its parent.
California-based
Mendocino Brewing Company,
which sells a number of beer
brands including Kingfisher in
the US, has got Mallya as its
Chairman and is owned by UB
Group through a complex
shareholding structure.
In a regulatory filing with
the US markets regulator SEC
(Securities and Exchange
Commission), Mendocino has
disclosed having issued a
'promissory note' to Delawarebased Catamaran Services, Inc,
in the principal amount of
$325,000 (over `2 crore).
It further said Mendocino
had earlier also issued four
promissory notes to Catamaran
between January 2014 and June
2015, for principal amounts of
$500,000 each.
Catamaran's sole shareholder is an entity named
Catamaran Holdings, Ltd,
which interestingly "has directors in common with
Inversiones Mirabel SA", one of
the major shareholders of
Mendocino.
The indirect beneficial
owner of Inversiones is United
Breweries Holdings Limited
(UBHL), making UBHL the
indirect majority shareholder of
Mendocino. Mallya chairs the
boards of UBHL as well as
Mendocino.
Mendocino further said it
has also received a letter from
showing of manufacturing
sector raising industry clamour for rate cut by the RBI.
RBI Governor Raghuram
Rajan on March 12 said
Government's sticking to fiscal consolidation roadmap of
reducing deficit to 3.5 per
cent of the GDP in 2016-17
was comforting, a statement
which raised hope for rate cut
in April 5 monetary policy.
Rajan, on February 2, had left
the key interest rateunchanged citing inflation risks
and growth concerns.
As for the forthcoming
policy review, Union Bank
Chairman and Managing
Director Arun Tiwari said: "I
see a 25 basis points rate cut
as inflation has come under
the Reserve Bank's target."
SBI Chairman Arundhati
Bhattacharya has said, meanwhile, that RBI should outline
steps to curb the volatility in
since Mallya left the country
amid growing clamour for
recovery of dues totalling over
`9,000 crore of the longgrounded Kingfisher Airlines in
outstanding loans and interest
amount.
Mallya and his group firms
are also being probed by multiple regulators and agencies
including Sebi, Enforcement
Directorate and SFIO (Serious
Fraud Investigations Office).
Under terms of the promissory
note, interest will accruefrom
the date of the note on the
unpaid principal at a rate equal
to the lesser of 1.5 per cent per
annum above the prime rate
offered from time to time by the
Bank of America Corporation,
or 10 per cent per annum, until
the principal is fully paid.
The note can be prepaid
without penalty at the option of
the company, but can not be
amended without the prior
written consent of MB
Financial.
In another filing with SEC,
Mendocino said it was unable to
timely file its Annual Report on
Form 10-K for the period ended
December 31, 2015 "due to
delays experienced in the collection of certain financial information about the Registrant's
UK subsidiaries required to be
included in the Annual Report".
"The Registrant intends to
file the Annual Report with the
Securities and Exchange
Commission within the 15-day
extension period..." it added.
In its last annual report for
2014, Mendocino had disclosed
having paid Mallya a total
amount of $267,700 (about `1.8
crore). This included $120,000
per year for services rendered as
Mendocino Chairman and
$147,700 by a subsidiary United
Breweries International (UK)
Ltd for promoting its "products
in the Foreign Territory outside
the United Kingdom".
The payment to him during
2015 would be known after the
latest annual report is filed later
this month.
Mallya
became
Mendocino's Chairman in
October 1997 and also served as
its CEO until January 2005.
Mendocino
Brewing
Company was founded way
back in 1983 and it caught
Mallya's interest in 1997.
Today it claims to produce
over '20 nationally recognisable
labels', including Red Tail Ale,
and the company says it has
"trekked from a 1983 production of about 400 barrels (5500
case equivalent) to the current
production of about 75,000
barrels (over one million cases)".
Its North American operations primarily consist of
brewing and marketing proprietary craft beers. Its foreign
operations are conducted
through wholly-owned subsidiary United Breweries
International (UK) Ltd and a
step-down unit Kingfisher Beer
Europe Ltd.
PTI
tric arc furnaces, used to produce
raw steel by melting scrap.
According to Gupta, the
problem with Port Talbot is its size
and the fact that it is built around
blast furnace making liquid steel
from ores. The model that Liberty
is building at Newport and elsewhere is built around melting
down scrap metal - two million
tonnes a year at Newport - using
modern electric arc furnaces.
Gupta, who is best known in
Wales for buying the former
Alphasteel works in Newport in
2013 and re-opening production
there last autumn, has recently
bought Tata's two rolling mills at
Clydebridge and Dalzell in
Scotland, facilitated by a temporary 'nationalisation' by the
Scottish Government.
Tata Steel stated yesterday that
although there was "no fixed
timeline" for the sale process, "it
JSPL lenders
approve `2,500 cr
refinancing under
5/25 scheme
NEW DELHI: Lenders to
Jindal Steel and Power Ltd
(JSPL) have approved refinancing of loans worth
`2,500 crore, sources said.
"JSPL was talking to its
lenders (banks) for the
last two months and they
have agreed to refinance
loans worth `2,500 crore
of the company," they
added.
Talks are on to refinance more loans under
the Reserve Bank (RBI)
scheme, they said.
For 2014-15, the
Naveen Jindal-led JSPL,
with interests ranging
from power and steel to
cement, had a consolidated net debt of `42,929
crore against a net debt of
`35,419 crore in 2013-14.
When contacted, a
JSPL spokesperson said:
"JSPL has an excellent
track record of meeting
financial commitments
and has met its financial
commitments
till
November-December
2015.
"We are in discussion
with banks, in respect of
the 5/25 scheme and also
exploring various options
with all lenders to reschedule payments considering
likely short/medium term
cash flow mis-matches.
When these are completed, there will not be any
overdue situation."
As part of monetisation and debt reduction
plans already advised, we
are looking at various
options diligently to meet
our debt obligations and
strengthen our balance
sheets, the spokesperson
added.
needs to be implemented urgently as there are severe funding
requirements affecting the UK
operations.
Gupta said: "I haven't made
a proposition that I want to buy
all of (Tata Steel UK) because that's
too big an undertaking to even put
on the table at the stage. If the
company, its people, its workers
and the Government would be
willing to consider my suggestions
then I'm willing to engage in a discussion about what role we will
play in that."
Gupta, who currently lives
in the UK, was born in Punjab
where his father owned a
number of businesses including Victor cycles. Since 1992,
he has grown Liberty House
into a business with a 4.2 million dollars turnover, employing more than 2,000 around
the world.
Let hundred flowers bloom;
MVNO policy is a welcome step
MANOJ GAIROLA
Is the Idea of Mobile Virtual
Network Operators (MVNO)
too late? This question has
become relevant as the Telecom
Commission
approved
MVNOs guidelines last week,
nearly seven
years after telecom regulator
recommended
that
they
should
be
allowed to
offer services.
MVNOs are basically
mobile telephony service operators who do not own either
telecom networks or spectrum.
They lease capacities of the
existing telecom service
providers and sell them under
their own brand.
When the Telecom
Regulatory Authority of India
(TRAI) first recommended it,
in 2008, there were only five
pan-India mobile operators.
Mobile penetration was comparatively low. However, mobile
telephony had become a necessity so operators did not bother about consumer satisfaction. Quality of services was bad
but the customers had no
choice as all the operators were
equally bad. The situation is
similar even today. It has only
worsened as call drop has
spread like epidemic, especially in metros and big cities.
In developed economies
such as Europe and the USA
where the mobile penetration
is very high compared to India
and quality of services is better, MVNOs are doing well.
There are more than 80
MVNOs in Germany and 60
in the UK. Similarly, the num-
ber of MVNOs in the USA is
over 80.
So there is no reason to
believe the argument that the
Indian market has matured
and there would not be many
takers for MVNO business.
MVNOs basically buy
bulk access to network services
from the existing operators at
wholesale rates. They do value
addition and then sell services
at their own retail prices under
their own brands.
For example, in the USA
one successful MVNO offers
services to Hispanic population by providing low calling
rates between the USA and
South America. In Europe,
s o m e
MVNOs target student
community.
Both the
European
and the USA
telecom markets are saturated. In Europe,
MVNO are still thriving. In
the USA, there are few success
stories. Even in the Europe
only 20 per cnt of the MVNO
start ups are successful.
So what is the message for
Indian market? Should we
agree with the cellular operators association of India
(COAI) when it says that the
operators do not have spectrum to spare and hence they
are not excited. This may be
only partially true. There will
be operators who will be willing to sell their capacities at
whole sale markets.
Relinace Jio, a new operator, will have excess capacity.
It may not be a bad idea for it
go for aggressive MVNO strategy.
There would be entrepreneurs who would come out
with innovative ideas and
become successful. It will be a
win-win situation for both as
entrepreneurs have limited
financial capacities and operators are too large to service
niche markets.
(The writer is a Senior
Journalist)
Essar Oil turns around
loss-making Stanlow refinery
PTI n STANLOW (UK)
early five-years after
acquiring the strategic
N
Stanlow refinery from Shell,
Essar Oil UK has turned
around the loss making unit
with a record net profit of $187
million in 2015-16 as it optimised processes, diversified
crude basket and invested in
margin improvement programmes.
Essar Oil UK, controlled by
Mumbai-based Ruia family,
reported highest ever EBITDA
of $340 million in the financial
year ended March 31, 2016 as
compared to an EBITDA of
$177 million in the previous fiscal.
"EBITDA was negative $17
million in FY12 ," said Naresh
Nayyar, Executive Chairman,
Essar Oil UK. "Net profit in
FY16 is about $187 million as
compared to $70 million in the
previous fiscal."
Stanlow on Sunday produces over 16 per cent of UK's
transport fuels, serving northwest part of UK.
Essar, the only Indian firm
to own and operate a refinery
in Europe, has also entered into
auto fuel retailing in UK, opening seven petrol stations and
plans to raise the number to 400
in three years to capture 10 per
cent of market, he said.
Stanlow, which operated
at a third of its stated capacity
of 210,000 barrels per day in
July 2011 when Essar bought
the unit from Shell for $350
million, clocked near 200,000
bpd crude run in FY16.
"We have basically optimised refinery configuration to
deliver better yields," he said,
adding that higher margin
yielding petrol and diesel production has been increased.
Also, the refinery is pro-
cessing 25 new crude oils that
give price and yield advantage
instead of Shell's policy of relying only on North Sea grades
that did not offer better economics all the time.
"There has been a margin
improvement of $3 per barrel
since acquisition," Nayyar said,
adding that natural gas is being
used as fuel to run the refinery,
low margin lubes unit has been
shut, crude slate diversified
and margin improvement projects have been taken up.
Stanlow earned $8.7 on
turning every barrel of crude oil
into fuel in 2015-16, $3 more
than the North West Europe
benchmark Current Price (CP)
Gross Refining Margin (GRM).
Nayyar said a smaller crude distillation unit has been mothballed to operate Stanlow as an
optimised single train site,
adding $0.4 per barrel to margin and saving $0.10 a barrel in
operating expenses.
"The crude basket was
stretched by reducing the proportion of light crudes and
introducing medium density
crudes, while sources were
diversified by including African
and grades," he said.
"Condensates were introduced
into the diet in 2015, with all of
these moves resulting in a lowering of the crude basket cost by
about $1.4 per barrel."
Essar has invested significantly in Stanlow, with the total
equity invested at $694 million
(including acquisition) and an
additional $545 million
incurred through capital
expenditure.
Stanlow is one of the
largest refineries in the UK,
with the current optimised
configuration giving a 196,000
bpd operating capacity and
Nelson Complexity of 10.7. It
produces 33 per cent petrol, 57
per cent kerosene and diesel
and 3 per cent fuel oil
In a pioneering first crude
inventory monetisation, Essar
in July 2012 entered into a deal
with Barclays Bank, which
purchased the stocks of crude
oil and petroleum products at
Stanlow site and supplied the
refinery with crude on a daily
basis as required.
"This transaction, the first
of its kind in Europe, helped
the drive for more efficiency by
reducing costs, reducing capital employed and reducing
risk from crude price volatility," he said.
When Barclays exited the
commodity business, new long
term arrangements were signed
in July 2015 with J Aron &
Company for inventory monetisation and Lloyds Bank Plc.
Nayyar said Essar will
invest about $137 million in
project 'Tiger Cub' which will
see major improvements to key
units at Stanlow to deliver
further reduction in crude
costs and improved yields
across the product slate.
"Project Tiger Cub, and the
additional works undertaken
during the major block turnaround in 2018 will drive a further $2 per barrel in margin
improvements," he said. PTI
money 11
Cairn asks Government to hands down, top choice for wealthy
walk the talk on retro tax
Australia beats competition
NEW DELHI: Australia seems
PTI n LONDON
eeks after being slapped
with a `29,000 crore
W
'retrospective tax demand',
British oil explorer Cairn
Energy on Sunday said international investors want the
Modi Government to walk
the talk on resolving retrospective tax issues and send a
clear signal that things are
changing.
Cairn, which gave India its
biggest onland oil discovery
that now accounts for a fifth
of the country's oil production,
said it will continue to press
ahead with the arbitration
challenging use of a new legislation to tax internal business
reorganisation with retrospective effect and will seek $1
billion in damages to its value.
“The international investment community wishes to see
India doing as it has stated in
looking to resolve the retrospective tax issue with actions
which would send a positive
signal to global investors that
things are changing under
this current government,”
Cairn Energy CEO Simon
Thomson told the news
agency in an interview here.
The
Income
Tax
Department in Februar y
slapped on Cairn Energy a tax
demand notice of over `29,000
crore, including `18,800 crore
in back dated interest.
The Department had on
January 22, 2014, issued a
draft assessment order of
`10,247 crore on alleged capital gains the company made
in a 2006 reorganisation of its
India business. Two years later,
it issued a final assessment
order.
The actions of the Income
Tax Department have been
hugely detrimental to Cairn's
business and its UK and international
shareholders,
Thomson said.
“The issuing of a retrospective tax assessment is very
disappointing and follows a
long period of engagement
with the Government of India
which has repeatedly given
public assurances that it would
not resort to retrospective tax
measures, introduced by the
previous Government, given
the negative message it sends
to the international investment community,” he said.
Thomson said Prime
Minister Narendra Modi had
earlier this year stated that retrospective tax is a matter of the
past and he was ensuring that
this Government and future
Governments cannot open
this chapter.
Modi, he said, had stated
that “We have clearly articulated that we will not resort to
retrospective taxation and
demonstrated this position in
a number of ways.”
“However, Cairn Energy's
outstanding retrospective tax
case is yet to be resolved and
the matter has been ongoing
for more than two years and is
having a major detrimental
impact on our business and to
our UK and international
shareholders,” Thomson said.
He said the tax issue was
a very unfortunate conclusion to a 20 year investment in
India where “Cairn Energy has
been a model corporate citizen
and created a legacy asset
which is seen as an example of
what can be achieved through
India and UK cooperation”.
The Rajasthan discoveries
generates huge value for India,
with revenues of multi-billions
for the government, he said.
Asked
about
the
Government offer to waive
interest and penalty if companies facing retrospective tax
demand paid the principal
tax due, he said Cairn strongly contests the basis of the tax
assessment order supported by
detailed legal advice on the
strength of the protections
available to it under interna-
Maruti aims to double sales
tional law.
“As such, Cairn has a high
level of confidence in its case
under
the
UK-India
Investment Treaty and is seeking to use the international
arbitration process in a nonconfrontational manner.
“We wish to resolve the
issue as swiftly and amicably
as possible following a long
period of engagement with the
government which has repeatedly given public assurances
that it would not resort to the
retrospective tax measures of
the previous Government,” he
said.
Stating that the international arbitration process has
begun with the arbitration
panel being appointed, he said
Cairn welcomes the Indian
Government's positive engagement in the process.
“We would hope that, like
us, the Government of India
wants to achieve an outcome
as soon as possible in order
that this issue is cleared up
once and for all.
“The preliminary hearings will take place shortly and
the formal process will continue from there. There is no
pre-set fixed timetable for the
arbitration process but it is
unlikely to be less than 12
months,” he said.
carmaker Maruti Suzuki India
(MSI) aims to double its sales
network to 4,000 outlets by
2020 as part of plans to sell 20
lakh units per annum by then.
The company, which ended
2014-15 fiscal at a total of
1,820 traditional dealerships
spread across 1,470 cities, plans
to add 200 outlets in the current fiscal, thereby taking the
count to over 2,000 shops by
the end of current fiscal.
“We are looking at doubling the sale outlets to 4,000 by
2020. This is in line with the
ambition to sell two million
units by 2020,” MSI Executive
Director Marketing and sales
RS Kalsi told the news agency.
The company is also planning to enhance the number of
Nexa showrooms to 250 in the
current fiscal from the current
127 outlets, he added.
In 2015-16 fiscal, ended
March 31, the company added
200 traditional dealerships,
while Nexa outlets expansion
was the fastest retail network
expansion anywhere in the
world, Kalsi said.
“Nexa outlets have been
well accepted and we aim to
close the current fiscal at 250
outlets,” he added.
As part of its plans to
achieve 20 lakh sales mark by
2020, the company also plans
to introduce a slew of models
in the country.
In the current fiscal, the
company plans to launch two
new models, Ignis and Baleno
RS, towards the festive period
this year.
The company, which posted its highest-ever total sales at
14,29,248 units in 2015-16 at a
growth rate of 10.6 per cent,
had launched three models S
Cross, Baleno and Vitara
Brezza in 2015-16 fiscal.
Suzuki Motor Corporation
(SMC) has already announced
plans to launch around 15 new
models in India in the next five
years to aid MSI achieve target
of selling two million units
annually by 2020.
MSI's market share soared
to 7-year high at 46.8 per cent
in the domestic passenger vehicle segment during the last fiscal.
The top four best-selling
models in India -- Alto, Dzire,
Swift and WagonR, came out
from the Maruti Suzuki stable
for fourth year in a row. PTI
Stock market looks
to RBI policy for cues
NEW DELHI: Outcome of RBI
policy review on Tuesday,
foreign fund inflow trend
and quarterly earnings
expectation will set the tone
for the stock market this
week, say experts.
“Rate cut and earnings
expectations to dominate
trading s ent iments t his
week. The next big event for
investors is the RBI monetary policy review. RBI will
announce the first bimonthly monetary policy
for 2016-17 on Tuesday.
“Hopefully, the upcoming monetary policy will
provide the needed trigger
for next directional move,”
s a i d Vi j a y S i n g h a n i a ,
Founder-Director, Trade
Smart Online.
Ap ar t f rom r at e - c ut
expectations, investors will
now also start building up
expectation for the March
2016 earnings, he said.
BHEL is scheduled to
announce its tentative
financial result for the year
ended March 31, on
Thursday.
“The key event for the
market is monetary policy
review from Reserve Bank
of India. Outcome of RBI's
monetary policy, trend in
global markets, investment
by foreign investors, movement of crude oil prices
will dictate trend of the
market in near term,” said
Rohit Gadia, Founder &
CEO, CapitalVia Global
Research.
A l s o,
Purchasing
Managers' Index (PMI) data
for services and manufacturing sectors are due this
week, which would have a
bearing on trading.
Meanwhile, snapping
the four-week gains, the
market ended with minor
losses as the BSE benchm ar k S e ns e x fe l l 6 7 . 9 2
points to close at 25,269.64,
while the NSE Nifty ended
on a flat note slipping by a
marginal 3.45 points and
managed to hold the crucial
7,700-level.
PTI
Algeria and Morocco) and
Turkey.
Interestingly, in 2015,
London saw an inflow of
3 , 0 0 0 m i l l i o n a i re s , b u t
2,500 super-rich left the
city and moved to other
parts of England.
A large number also
moved overseas, mainly to
English-speaking countries
such as Australia, Canada,
New Zealand and the US.
“Most of the millionaires who left London were
UK-born whereas almost
all of the millionaires coming into the city were from
other countries,” the report
said, adding “this may be a
trend that continues in
future as several wealthy
UK-born people remain
“concerned” about the way
London and the UK in general had changed over the
past decade or so.
Paris saw the biggest
outflow, with as many as
7,000 of millionaires heading the exit door. The other
cities with large outflows of
millionaires include Rome
(5,000), Chicago (3,000)
and Athens (2,000).
The factors responsible
for millionaire migration
varied widely. For Paris, it
was rising religious tension and lack of opportunities; for Rome, economic
slump; for Chicago, rising
racial tension and rising
crime levels, and for
Athens, economic slump
and migration crisis with
Syria/Turkey.
Millionaires refer to
individuals with net assets
of $1 million or more
excluding their primar y
residences.
PTI
India incredibly unique, valuable mkt: Microsoft executives
PTI n SAN FRANCISCO
network to 4,000 outlets by 2020 I
NEW DELHI: Country's largest
He said the company has
had robust legal advice that
the action of the Government
in seeking to apply tax retrospectively to its internal group
reorganisation in 2006 and in
freezing Cairn’s assets in the
country are a breach of the
fundamental position of the
Treaty which protects against
expropriation and ensures a
fair and equitable investment
environment for British
investors in India.
“Cairn is claiming full
compensation for the about $1
billion value of which its
shareholders have been
deprived,” he said.
He said one major US
investor in Cairn stated that
“It is now time for India to
send a message to all international investors that retrospective tax is dead and buried
once and for all. Many investments needed to finance
India's growth will not happen
if retrospective laws are possible.
“Repudiating retrospective laws and adopting international norms would allow
the international investment
community to see that the
Modi Government is delivering on its pre-election promise
to eradicate so called tax terrorism.”
to be the most preferred
destination for the global
rich, with Sydney leading
the pack with the biggest
net inflow of millionaires,
as some 4,000 of them shifted base to the city in 2015,
says a report.
Overall, the figure for
the entire continent stood
at 8,000 as Melbourne and
Perth attracted 3,000 and
1,000 high net worth individuals (HNIs) and secured
second and eighth positions, respectively, according to a report by New
World Wealth.
“Sydney, Melbourne and
Perth all benefited from
millionaire inflows from
China, Europe, the UK, the
US and South Africa. Other
Australian areas such as
the Gold Coast, Brisbane,
Noosa and the Sunshine
Coast also experienced
inflows,” the report said.
Tel Aviv drew a large
chunk of millionaires from
Europe, especially France.
The city was ranked third,
with as many as 2,000 HNIs
making this city their
domicile.
Other Israeli cities such
as Herzliya, Jerusalem and
Netanya too saw inflows.
There were large millionaire inf lows to San
F r a n c i s c o, S e a t t l e a n d
Vancouver from China and
South East Asia while
Dubai pulled in many from
No r t h A f r i c a ( E g y p t ,
ndia's growing and robust
start-up culture, strong
base of development partners and its large economy
m a ke it an “ i n c re d i b l y
unique and valuable” market
for Microsoft, senior executives at the technology giant
have said.
“India is unique in a
number of different ways. In
India, (there is) such an
embrace of technology in
development as a whole. It is
unbelievable the quality and
diversity of development that
is coming out of the countr y,” S enior Director of
Windows Product Marketing
at
Mi c ro s of t
Aaron
Woodman told the news
agency on the sidelines of the
just-concluded annual developers' conference 'Build
2016' here.
Underlining the importance of the Indian market
from the perspective of
C l ou d
c omput i ng ,
Microsoft's Cloud Platform
General Manager Julia White
said that India is an “amazing and robust market”, particularly against the backdrop of the innovations coming from there and the growing start-up culture.
“That was one of the
reasons we put data centers
in India. We know that there
is so much opportunity and
so many start-ups and innovation going on in India
that there is need and comfort around having data sovereignty and having information remain lo ca l in
India,” she said.
Noting that there is significant development being
done in India on Windows,
Woodman said the country's embrace of the English
language in addition to the
native languages and dialects
has helped Microsoft a lot in
terms of its acceleration and
ability to speak to developers and have a conversation.
“It does not feel like it
Jewellery industry fears
go e s t h rou g h a f i lte r,”
Woodman said adding that
t h e w i d e s pre a d u s e of
English is also one of the reasons that enabled Microsoft
to bring its digital personal
a s s i s t ant
pro g r am m e
Cortana to the Indian market.
“It is also one of the reasons why we have been able
to do things like bring
Cortana to India because we
can do it in English. We
could struggle with additional languages there but it
is certainly our aspiration,”
he said.
Making India even more
unique is its large economy,
which while presenting challenges around distribution,
price and accessibility, is
valuable because of the manner in which educational
institutions across the country have embraced technology.
“ T h e s e t h re e t h i ng s
m a ke In d i a i n c re d i bly
unique and valuable for us.
The incredible development
partners, the strong base of
partnerships there, the language helps enormously
from a business perspective
and the economic opportunity.
“It is not just people but
people that understand the
value that technology can
actually bring to education,
to empowerment,” he said.
Wo o dman st ress e d t hat
given the way the broad
populationin countries like
India, Israel and Brazil have
embraced technology, it will
not be a surprise that some
of the advanced technologies
like Artificial Intelligence
and Virtual Reality “will
likely have a footprint in
those places before other
places because of the cultural acceptance of the technology”.
White said Microsoft's
investment in India is “really
based on the premise that
there is opportunity not only
from the start-ups and inno-
vators perspective” but also
because a lot of mainstream
organisations in the country
are trying to be competitive
and stay ahead of the market.
“The only way to do that
and innovate quickly is to
move to a cloud model. We go
through a lot of evaluations of
where we would put data
centers and where we invest
locally and India is one of
those countries because of its
culture, the innovation coming from the country,” she
said.
Terming India as an
“incredible market” for
Microsoft, Woodman however said that distribution in
India is challenging.
He said the Indian market
is not like the US and UK
where there is a concentration
of the distribution partners.
Instead India's distribution network is massive and
diverse and while that presents a huge benefit for the
customers, it is “challenging”
for the company.
Income Tax dept launches tax
losing out on festive cheer calculator; e-filing begins this week
With the onset of the added.
MUMBAI:
festive season, the gems and jewellery industry fears losing out on
sizeable sales, with some industry leaders saying continuation
of the strike will be a “disaster”
for the business.
All India Gems and
Jewellery Trade Federation (GJF)
Director Ashok Minawala said if
the jewellers continue to strike,
it's going to be “a disaster” during Gudi Padwa in Maharashtra.
“We must understand the
consumer demand, retain and
maintain it.
There is a need to come out
of the mindset and start a proper and meaningful dialogue with
the government and reach some
decision.
If the strike ends, the
demand during Gudi Padwa as
well as the entire festival season
is going to be phenomenal,” he
Waman Hari Pethe Director
Aditya Pethe rued that there is a
lot of confusion in the consumer's mind with regard to the
jewellers' strike as 80 per cent of
the shops are shut since last one
month.
“However, if the agitation is
over soon, then the offtake will
zoom as there is lot of backlog
consumer demand. We expect
minimum 30-35 per cent rise in
demand on the Gudi Padwa day.
It will be very high during the
festive season,” he added.
“The demand will be at least
three-fold during Gudi Padwa,
where people consider it auspicious to buy gold, due to a lot of
pent-up demand that was help up
following the all India strike by
jewellers across the country,”
PNG Jewellers CMD Saurabh
Gadgil told PTI here.
PTI
NEW DELHI: With the new Income
Tax Return (ITR) forms notified
recently for assessment year
2016-17, filers can do an easy
check and obtain their annual tax
liability on a computer-based calculator hosted by the IT department.
The 'tax calculator' is an
online computer-based programmme hosted on the official
website of the department and is
meant to help taxpayers or filers
assess their tax liability.
The calculator works once a
filer correctly feeds his basic
details and information, as notified for the current assessment
year by the Government.
Also, the e-filing facility for
ITR-1 (for individuals having
income from salaries, single
house property and other
sources) and ITR-4 (for individ-
uals and Hindu Undivided
Families (HUFs) having income
from a proprietary business or
profession) is expected to go
online and get enabled this week,
the other ITRs will be hosted
soon after, a senior IT department officer said.
The Central Board of Direct
Taxes had notified the new forms
on March 30 and ITRs can be
filed till the stipulated deadline of
July 31.
Officials said the calculator
has been updated and calibrated
by the department as per the new
announcements made in respect
of tax rates in the latest Budget.
The facility can be used by
any taxpayer whether individual,
corporate or any other entity, to
compute their tax liability.
However, there is a word of
caution from the tax department
that filers should not solely rely
on it as complicated cases of ITR
have different requirements
which may not be addressed by
the 'calculator'.
“The calculator is only to
enable public to have a quick and
an easy access to basic tax calculation and does not purport to
give correct tax calculation in all
circumstances.
“It is advised that for filing of
returns the exact calculation
may be made as per the provisions contained in the relevant
Acts, Rules etc,” a disclaimer by
the department says.The official
said the calculator has been
hosted on the website of the
d e p a r t m e n t - www.Incometaxindia.Gov.In--,
for the ease of all who either do
an e-filing or manual filing of
ITR.
PTI
Mining leases approved for Adani's project in Australia
PTI n MELBOURNE
ndian mining giant Adani
on Sunday moved one step
Icloser
to realising its 21.7 billion
dollars coal mine in Australia
after the local Government
granted three mining leases for
the controversy-hit project.
Queensland minister for
Natural Resources and Mines
Anthony Lynham approved the
individual lease grant for 70441
Carmichael, 70505 Carmichael
East and 70506 Carmichael
North, which are estimated to
contain 11 billion tonnes of
thermal coal, media reports
said.
According to state Premier
Annastacia Palaszczuk, the
approval had undergone “extensive Government and community scrutiny” and were a step
towards securing jobs for
region, with more than 5,000
jobs expected to be generated
during construction and more
than 4,000 during operation.
“I know the people of north
and central Queensland will
welcome this latest progress
for the potential jobs and economic development it brings
closer for their communities,”
she said.
She said “stringent conditions would continue to protect
the environment, landholders'
and traditional owners' interests
and Great Barrier Reef ”.
Lynham confirmed no
dredging at Abbot Point would
take place until Adani had
demonstrated financial closure.
Over 200 conditions apply
to the project which, if it goes
ahead, would be the largest
coal mine in Australia.
“The mine's environmental
authority had about 140 conditions to protect local flora and
fauna, groundwater and surface
water resources, as well as controls on dust and noise,”
Lynham said adding, “A further
99 stringent and wide-ranging
conditions apply to the rail and
port elements of the project.”
The project now has 19 permits and approvals at all three
levels of Government, including
nine primary approvals from
the State and Federal
Government.
“A number of other steps
have to be completed before
mine construction can start,”
Lynham said.
“They include secondary
approvals for rail, port facilities,
power, water, roadworks and the
airport and a financial assurance
with the Department of
Environment and Heritage
Protection.
“The
independent
Coordinator-General will continue to work with Adani to
progress the project,” he said.
The latest approvals have
come after Adani secured final
environmental approval and
had reached an agreement on
compensation with a landholder last month.
Adani's plan to build one of
the world's biggest coal mines in
Australia has been hampered
time and again. A federal court
in August last year had revoked
the original approval due to
environmental concerns.
In October last year, the
project got a new lease of life
after
the
Australian
Government gave its reapproval.
Welcoming the latest
approvals, Adani said, “The
granting of a mining lease helps
deliver the company certainty
with respect to timelines, while
moving to the next phase of the
project, subject to the resolution
of legal challenges by politically-motivated activists.” (“Adani
has consistently said that what
is required forits projects to proceed is certainty on approvals.
This is key approval helps provide that with respect to
Carmichael,” the company said
in a statement.
“Absent additional legal
challenges designed to delay
progress on this export-creating
mine, the next phase of the project, following this key approval,
will see a return to the pre-engineering work that had to be suspended in 2015 with the loss of
certainty on approvals timelines
that had occurred at that time,”
Adani said.
“Concurrent with that, the
company will continue to
finalise second tier approvals,
with the clear aim of commencing construction in calendar year 2017.”
“In the coming months,
Adani and its partners will provide additional detail regarding
the next steps for the logistics
and labour requirements of
the project,” it said.
“It is important to note that
successive legal challenges to
science-based approvals, which
are the strictest of their kind for
a major resources project in
this country, are designed to
deny the job creating benefits
of the company’s mine, rail and
port projects to our state.
“It is for this reason that
conclusion of second tier
approvals and resolution of
politically-motivated legal challenges is the company's principal focus, prior to a final
investment decision being
made, it said.
Having previously sought
to progress to the construction
phase in 2015, Adani is keenly aware of the risks of proceeding on major works in
advance of the conclusion of
these matters. Delivering low
ash, low sulphur, lower emitting coal to thermal generators
in India, while delivering jobs
in regions crying out for them,
and taxes and royalties to
Queensland, is paramount,”
Adani said.
funds 12
LUCKNOW MONDAY | APRIL 4, 2016
OPEN-ENDED
(GROWTH)
Scheme
BNP PARIBAS MUTUAL FUND
NAV
AXIS MUTUAL FUND
Enhanced Arbitrage Fund - Direct Plan - Dividend
Enhanced Arbitrage Fund - Direct Plan - Growth
Enhanced Arbitrage Fund - Regular Plan - Dividend
Enhanced Arbitrage Fund - Regular Plan - Growth
Equity Fund - Direct Plan - Dividend
Equity Fund - Direct Plan - Growth
Equity Fund - Dividend
Equity Fund - Growth
Equity Saver Fund - Direct Plan - Growth
Equity Saver Fund - Direct Plan - Monthly Dividend
Equity Saver Fund - Direct Plan - Quarterly Dividend
Equity Saver Fund - Regular Plan - Growth
Equity Saver Fund - Regular Plan - Monthly Dividend
Equity Saver Fund - Regular Plan - Quarterly Dividend
Focused 25 Fund - Direct Plan - Dividend Option
Focused 25 Fund - Direct Plan - Growth Option
Focused 25 Fund - Dividend Option
Focused 25 Fund - Growth Option
Midcap Fund - Direct Plan - Dividend
Midcap Fund - Direct Plan - Growth
Midcap Fund - Dividend
Midcap Fund - Growth
10.6649
11.3575
10.4204
11.1998
13.63
18.83
13.15
18.18
9.95
9.93
9.93
9.87
9.86
9.87
17.34
17.54
14.17
16.86
22.41
24.04
19.75
23.11
BARODA PIONEER MUTUAL FUND
Banking And Financial Services Fund - Plan A - Bonus
13.87
Banking and Financial Services Fund - Plan A - Div Payout
12.9
Banking and Financial Services Fund - Plan A - Growth
13.87
Banking And Financial Services Fund - Plan B (Direct) - Bonus 14.75
Banking and Financial Services Fund - Plan B (Direct) - Div Payout 13.26
Banking and Financial Services Fund - Plan B (Direct) - Growth 14.25
GROWTH FUND - Plan A - Dividend Option
31.97
GROWTH FUND - Plan A - Growth Option
71.36
GROWTH FUND - Plan B (Direct) - Dividend Option
31.31
GROWTH FUND - Plan B (Direct) - Growth Option
73.42
Infrastucture Fund - Plan A - Dividend Option
9.34
Infrastucture Fund - Plan A - Growth Option
10.15
Infrastucture Fund - Plan B (Direct) - Dividend Option
9.55
Infrastucture Fund - Plan B (Direct) - Growth Option
10.35
PSU Equity Fund- Plan A - Dividend Option
6.64
PSU Equity Fund- Plan A - Growth Option
6.64
PSU Equity Fund- Plan B (Direct) - Growth Option
6.81
PSU Equity Fund-Plan B (Direct)-Dividend Option
6.81
BIRLA SUN LIFE MUTUAL FUND
Advantage Fund - Dividend - Direct Plan
94.33
Advantage Fund - Growth - Direct Plan
286.89
Advantage Fund - Regular Growth
281.86
Advantage Fund -Regular Dividend
82.74
Banking and Financial Services Fund - Direct Plan - Div
14.03
Banking and Financial Services Fund - Direct Plan - Growth 16.57
Banking and Financial Services Fund - Regular Plan - Div
12.67
Banking and Financial Services Fund - Regular Plan - Growth 16.25
Buy India Fund - Dividend - Direct Plan
40.63
Buy India Fund - Dividend - Regular Plan
35.91
Buy India Fund - Growth - Direct Plan
92.57
Buy India Fund - Growth - Regular Plan
90.93
Commodity Equities - Global Agri Plan - Dividend - Direct 15.5301
Commodity Equities - Global Agri Plan - Dividend - Regular 15.2915
Commodity Equities - Global Agri Plan - Growth - Direct 20.1253
Commodity Equities - Global Agri Plan - Growth - Regular 19.8564
Dividend Yield Plus - Dividend - Direct Plan
18.66
Dividend Yield Plus - Dividend - Regular Plan
13.74
Dividend Yield Plus - Growth - Direct Plan
129.71
Dividend Yield Plus - Growth - Regular Plan
126.54
Enhanced Arbitrage Fund - Dividend - Direct Plan
10.9901
Enhanced Arbitrage Fund - Growth - Direct Plan
16.1236
ENHANCED ARBITRAGE FUND - INSTL PLAN - DIV
10.1628
ENHANCED ARBITRAGE FUND - INSTL PLAN - GROWTH
0
ENHANCED ARBITRAGE FUND - REGULAR PLAN - DIV 10.8328
ENHANCED ARBITRAGE FUND - REGULAR PLAN - GR 15.8852
Equity Fund - Dividend - Direct Plan
92.05
Equity Fund - Dividend - Regular Plan
81.39
Equity Fund - Growth - Direct Plan
476.17
Equity Fund - Growth - Regular Plan
463.81
Equity Savings Fund - Direct Plan - Dividend
10.37
Equity Savings Fund - Direct Plan - Growth
10.58
Equity Savings Fund - Regular Plan - Dividend
10.22
Equity Savings Fund - Regular Plan - Growth
10.43
Frontline Equity Fund - Dividend - Direct Plan
35.67
Frontline Equity Fund - Growth - Direct Plan
159.9
Frontline Equity Fund-Dividend
23.6
Frontline Equity Fund-Growth
155.46
Frontline Equity Fund-Plan B (Dividend)
12.5
Frontline Equity Fund-Plan B (Growth)
12.5
Index Fund - Dividend - Direct Plan
10.759
Index Fund - Dividend - Regular Plan
10.672
Index Fund - Growth - Direct Plan
75.6859
Index Fund - Growth - Regular Plan
75.8232
India Gennext Fund - Dividend - Direct Plan
22.63
India Gennext Fund - Growth - Direct Plan
53.17
India Gennext Fund-Dividend Option
20.31
India Gennext Fund-Growth Option
51.71
India Opportunities Fund - Dividend - Direct Plan
34.39
India Opportunities Fund - Dividend - Regular Plan
25.28
India Opportunities Fund - Growth - Direct Plan
114.27
India Opportunities Fund - Growth - Regular Plan
112.07
India Reforms Fund - Dividend - Direct Plan
13.43
India Reforms Fund - Growth - Direct Plan
13.42
India Reforms Fund-DIVIDEND
11.06
India Reforms Fund-GROWTH
13.19
Infrastructure Fund - Dividend - Direct Plan
16.49
Infrastructure Fund - Growth - Direct Plan
24.03
Infrastructure Fund-Dividend
12.84
Infrastructure Fund-Growth
23.47
Infrastructure Fund-Plan B (Dividend)
10.97
Infrastructure Fund-Plan B (Growth)
11.43
International Equity Fund - Plan A - Dividend - Direct Plan 16.0461
International Equity Fund - Plan A - Dividend - Regular Plan 14.5011
International Equity Fund - Plan A - Growth - Direct Plan 16.0347
International Equity Fund - Plan A - Growth - Regular Plan 15.7609
International Equity Fund - Plan B - Dividend - Direct Plan 13.5956
International Equity Fund - Plan B - Dividend - Regular Plan 13.3767
International Equity Fund - Plan B - Growth - Direct Plan 13.6028
International Equity Fund - Plan B - Growth - Regular Plan 13.3769
Long Term Advantage - Dividend - Direct Plan
23.45
Long Term Advantage - Growth - Direct Plan
25.37
Long Term Fund- Growth Option
24.78
Long Term Fund-Dividend Option
18.46
Manufacturing Equity Fund - Direct Plan - Dividend
9.62
Manufacturing Equity Fund - Direct Plan - Growth
9.6
Manufacturing Equity Fund - Regular Plan - Dividend
9.5
Manufacturing Equity Fund - Regular Plan - Growth
9.5
Midcap Fund - Dividend - Direct Plan
39.78
Midcap Fund - Growth - Direct Plan
211.84
MIDCAP Fund-Dividend
29.11
MIDCAP Fund-Growth
206.65
MIDCAP Fund-Plan B (Dividend)
12.51
MIDCAP Fund-Plan B (Growth)
12.51
MNC Fund - Dividend - Direct Plan
194.58
MNC Fund - Dividend - Regular Plan
139.54
MNC Fund - Growth - Direct Plan
573.7
MNC Fund - Growth - Regular Plan
558.99
New Millenium Fund - Dividend - Regular Plan
18.19
New Millenium Fund - Growth - Regular Plan
35.66
New Millennium Fund - Dividend - Direct Plan
18.69
New Millennium Fund - Growth - Direct Plan
36.46
Pure Value Fund - Dividend - Direct Plan
33.9424
Pure Value Fund - Dividend Option
24.4671
Pure Value Fund - Growth - Direct Plan
38.7776
Pure Value Fund - Growth Option
37.8274
Small & Midcap Fund - DIVIDEND
18.6071
Small & Midcap Fund - GROWTH
24.2326
Small And Midcap Fund - Dividend - Direct Plan
24.1125
Small And Midcap Fund - Growth - Direct Plan
24.8855
Special Situations Fund - Dividend
13.5904
Special Situations Fund - Dividend - Direct Plan
16.5426
Special Situations Fund - Growth
16.2328
Special Situations Fund - Growth - Direct Plan
16.554
Top 100 Fund - Dividend - Direct Plan
23.906
Top 100 Fund - Growth - Direct Plan
41.9642
Top 100 Fund -Dividend Option
15.371
Top 100 Fund -Growth Option
40.8597
Equity Fund-Dividend Option
Equity Fund-Growth Option
Equity Fund - Direct Plan - Dividend Option
Equity Fund - Direct Plan - Growth Option
Dividend Yield Fund - Direct Plan - Dividend Option
Dividend Yield Fund - Direct Plan - Growth Option
Dividend Yield Fund-Dividend Option
Dividend Yield Fund-Growth Option
Mid Cap Fund - Direct Plan - Dividend Option
Mid Cap Fund - Direct Plan - Growth Option
Mid Cap Fund-Dividend Option
Mid Cap Fund-Growth Option
BOI AXA MUTUAL FUND
15.57
63.17
16.05
65.05
14.892
34.233
14.216
32.79
24.252
24.366
23.455
23.551
Equity Fund Direct Plan- Quarterly Dividend
Equity Fund Direct Plan- Bonus
Equity Fund Direct Plan-Growth
Equity Fund Direct Plan-Regular Dividend
Equity Fund Eco Plan- Growth
Equity Fund Eco Plan-Bonus
Equity Fund Eco Plan-Quarterly Dividend
Equity Fund Eco Plan-Regular Dividend
Equity Fund Regular Plan- Growth
Equity Fund Regular Plan- Quarterly Dividend
Equity Fund Regular Plan- Regular Dividend
Equity Fund Regular Plan-Bonus
Manufacturing & Infrastructure Fund-Direct Plan-Growth
Manufacturing & Infrastructure Fund-Direct Plan-Qtrly Div
Manufacturing & Infrastructure Fund-Direct Plan-Regular Div
Manufacturing & Infrastructure Fund-Growth
Manufacturing & Infrastructure Fund-Quarterly Dividend
Manufacturing & Infrastructure Fund-Regular Dividend
10.36
13.76
26.51
12.19
26.49
26.49
9.69
12.11
25.62
10
10.46
25.61
11.42
11.34
11.33
11.04
10.52
11.04
CANARA ROBECO MUTUAL FUND
Emerging Equities - Regular Plan - GROWTH
Emerging Equities-Direct Plan-Dividend Option
Emerging Equities-Direct Plan-Growth Option
Emerging Equities-Regular Plan - DIVIDEND
Equity Diversified - Regular Plan - Dividend
Equity Diversified - Regular Plan - Growth
Equity Diversified-Direct Plan -Growth Option
Equity Diversified-Direct Plan-Dividend Option
F.O.R.C.E Fund - Direct Plan - Dividend
F.O.R.C.E Fund - Direct Plan - Growth
F.O.R.C.E Fund - Institutional Plan - Growth Option
F.O.R.C.E Fund - Regular Plan - Dividend Option
F.O.R.C.E Fund - Regular Plan - Growth Option
Infrastructure - Regular Plan - DIVIDEND
Infrastructure - Regular Plan - GROWTH
Infrastructure-Direct Plan - Dividend
Infrastructure-Direct Plan - Growth
Large Cap+ Fund - Direct Plan - Dividend
Large Cap+ Fund - Direct Plan - Growth
Large Cap+ Fund - Regular Plan - Dividend
Large Cap+ Fund - Regular Plan - Growth
56.74
39.95
58.3
32.07
29.47
85.88
87.37
37.79
22.42
24.11
23.55
18.33
23.53
23.29
35.18
25.82
35.87
16.88
16.94
14.16
16.5
DHFL PRAMERICA MUTUAL FUND
Arbitrage Fund - Direct Plan - Annual Dividend
11.3395
Arbitrage Fund - Direct Plan - Growth
11.3396
Arbitrage Fund - Direct Plan - Monthly Dividend
10.5178
Arbitrage Fund - Direct Plan - Quarterly Dividend
10.5249
Arbitrage Fund - Direct Plan - Regular Dividend
10.973
Arbitrage Fund - Regular Plan - Annual Dividend
11.2468
Arbitrage Fund - Regular Plan - Growth
11.2439
Arbitrage Fund - Regular Plan - Monthly Dividend
10.4056
Arbitrage Fund - Regular Plan - Quarterly Dividend
10.3771
Arbitrage Fund - Regular Plan - Regular Dividend
10.75
Balanced Advantage Fund - BONUS OPTION
15.36
Balanced Advantage Fund - Direct Plan - Dividend
21.23
Balanced Advantage Fund - Direct Plan - Growth
55.44
Balanced Advantage Fund - Dividend Option
13.83
Balanced Advantage Fund - Growth Option
53.58
Balanced Advantage Fund Wealth Plan- Dividend Option
18.56
Balanced Advantage Fund Wealth Plan- Growth Option
24.24
Diversified Equity Fund - Direct Plan - Dividend Option
9.47
Diversified Equity Fund - Direct Plan - Growth Option
9.47
Diversified Equity Fund - Regular Plan - Dividend Option
9.42
Diversified Equity Fund - Regular Plan - Growth Option
9.42
Dynamic Asset Allocation Fund - Direct Plan-Growth Option 11.97
Dynamic Asset Allocation Fund - Dividend Option
10.88
Dynamic Asset Allocation Fund - Growth Option
11.79
Dynamic Asset Allocation Fund- Direct Plan-Div Option
11
Equity Income Fund - Annual Dividend option
13.58
Equity Income Fund - Direct Plan - Annual Dividend
14.9243
Equity Income Fund - Direct Plan - Growth
26.1581
Equity Income Fund - Direct Plan - Monthly Dividend
11.7288
Equity Income Fund - Direct Plan - Quarterly Dividend
11.6023
Equity Income Fund - Growth Option
25.4492
Equity Income Fund - Monthly Dividend option
11.5321
Equity Income Fund - Quarterly Dividend
11.2651
Large Cap Equity Fund - Direct Plan-Dividend Option
10.6
Large Cap Equity Fund - Direct Plan-Growth Option
11.48
Large Cap Equity Fund - Dividend Option
10.44
Large Cap Equity Fund - Growth Option
11.29
Large Cap Fund - BONUS OPTION
16.21
Large Cap Fund - Direct Plan - Bonus
16.56
Large Cap Fund - Direct Plan - Dividend
18.63
Large Cap Fund - Direct Plan - Growth
124.3
Large Cap Fund - Dividend
17.65
Large Cap Fund - Growth
120.34
Large Cap Fund Wealth Plan - Growth Option
25.06
Large Cap Fund Wealth Plan -Dividend Option
13.16
Midcap Opportunities Fund - Direct Plan - Dividend - Payout 12.55
Midcap Opportunities Fund - Direct Plan - Growth Option
14.3
Midcap Opportunities Fund - Regular - Div Option - Payout 12.41
Midcap Opportunities Fund - Regular - Growth Option14.15
DSP BLACKROCK MUTUAL FUND
Equity Fund - Direct Plan - Dividend
59.176
Equity Fund - Direct Plan - Growth
26.113
Equity Fund - Regular Plan - Dividend
47.872
Equity Fund - Regular Plan - Growth
25.622
Equity Fund - Institutional Plan - Growth
20.856
Equity Savings Fund - Direct Plan - Dividend
10.054
Equity Savings Fund - Direct Plan - Growth
10.054
Equity Savings Fund - Direct Plan - Monthly Dividend
10.054
Equity Savings Fund - Direct Plan - Quarterly Dividend
10.054
Equity Savings Fund - Regular Plan - Quarterly Dividend 10.053
Equity Savings Fund - Regular Plan - Dividend
10.053
Equity Savings Fund - Regular Plan - Growth
10.053
Equity Savings Fund - Regular Plan - Monthly Dividend
10.053
Focus 25 Fund - Direct Plan - Dividend
16.74
Focus 25 Fund - Direct Plan - Growth
16.74
Focus 25 Fund - Regular Plan - Dividend
12.322
Focus 25 Fund - Regular Plan - Growth
16.415
India T.I.G.E.R. Fund - Direct Plan - Dividend
23.341
India T.I.G.E.R. Fund - Direct Plan - Growth
64.863
India T.I.G.E.R. Fund - Regular Plan - Growth
63.814
India T.I.G.E.R. Fund - Regular Plan - Dividend
14.987
Micro Cap Fund - Direct Plan - Dividend
25.464
Micro Cap Fund - Direct Plan - Growth
41.94
Micro Cap Fund - Regular - Dividend
24.91
Micro Cap Fund - Regular - Growth
41.024
Natural Resources and New Energy Fund - Direct - Div
12.512
Natural Resources and New Energy Fund - Direct - Growth 18.916
Natural Resources And New Energy Fund - Regular - Growth 18.61
Natural Resources And New Energy Fund - Regular - Div 12.302
Opportunities Fund - Direct Plan - Dividend
39.019
Opportunities Fund - Direct Plan - Growth
147.205
Opportunities Fund-Regular Plan - Dividend
22.817
Opportunities Fund-Regular Plan - Growth
144.512
Small and Mid Cap Fund - Direct Plan - Dividend
28.037
Small and Mid Cap Fund - Direct Plan - Growth
35.985
Small and Mid Cap Fund - Regular Plan - Dividend
18.169
Small and Mid Cap Fund - Regular Plan - Growth
35.245
Technology.com Fund - Regular Plan - Dividend
28.947
Technology.com Fund - Regular Plan - Growth
55.751
Technology.com Fund - Direct Plan - Dividend
36.533
Technology.com Fund - Direct Plan - Growth
56.738
Top 100 Equity Fund - Direct Plan - Dividend
20.624
Top 100 Equity Fund - Direct Plan - Growth
149.034
Top 100 Equity Fund - Regular Plan - Dividend
19.175
Top 100 Equity Fund - Regular Plan - Growth
146.301
Top 100 Equity Fund - Institutional Plan - Dividend
13.27
Top 100 Equity Fund - Institutional Plan - Growth
20.621
EDELWEISS MUTUAL FUND
Absolute Return Fund - Direct Plan-Dividend Option
13.93
Absolute Return Fund - Dividend Option
12.5
Absolute Return Fund - Growth Option
18.14
Absolute Return Fund -Direct Plan-Growth Option
18.43
Arbitrage Fund- Direct Plan- Dividend Option
10.3598
Arbitrage Fund- Direct Plan- Growth Option
11.5358
Arbitrage Fund- Regular Plan -Bonus Option
11.4585
Arbitrage Fund- Regular Plan- Dividend Option
10.3289
Arbitrage Fund- Regular Plan- Growth Option
11.4585
Diversified Growth Equity Top 100 - Direct Plan-Div Op
17.83
Diversified Growth Equity Top 100 - Direct Plan-Growth Op 24.34
Diversified Growth Equity Top 100 - Growth Option
23.94
Diversified Growth Equity Top 100 - Plan B - Dividend Op 24.35
Diversified Growth Equity Top 100 - Plan B - Growth Option 24.06
Diversified Growth Equity Top 100 - Plan C - Div Option
19.4
Diversified Growth Equity Top 100 - Plan C - Growth Option 23.74
Diversified Growth Equity Top 100 - Dividend Option
16.14
Emerging Leaders Fund - Direct Plan- Dividend
16.81
Emerging Leaders Fund - Direct Plan- Growth
19.27
Emerging Leaders Fund - Dividend
15.77
Emerging Leaders Fund - Growth
18.95
Equity Savings Advantage Fund - Direct Plan- Div Option
11.75
Equity Savings Advantage Fund - Dividend Option
11.73
Equity Savings Advantage Fund - Growth Option
16.17
Equity Savings Advantage Fund- Direct Plan- Growth Option 16.34
Prudent Advantage Fund - Growth Option
18.96
Prudent Advantage Fund- Plan B-Growth Option
18.71
Prudent Advantage Fund-Direct Plan-Dividend Option
17.01
Prudent Advantage Fund-Direct Plan-Growth Option
19.18
Prudent Advantage Fund-Dividend
16.77
Prudent Advantage Fund-Plan B- Dividend Option
19.07
ESCORTS MUTUAL FUND
Growth Plan-DIVIDEND OPTION
Growth Plan-DIVIDEND OPTION-Direct Plan
Growth Plan-GROWTH OPTION
Growth Plan-GROWTH OPTION-Direct Plan
High Yield Equity Plan - Bonus Option
High Yield Equity Plan - Bonus Option-Direct Plan
High Yield Equity Plan - Dividend Option
High Yield Equity Plan - Dividend Option-Direct Plan
High Yield Equity Plan - Growth Option
High Yield Equity Plan - Growth Option-Direct Plan
Infrastructure Fund - Dividend
Infrastructure Fund - Dividend Option-Direct Plan
Infrastructure Fund - Growth Option
Infrastructure Fund - Growth Option-Direct Plan
Leading Sectors Fund - Dividend Option
Leading Sectors Fund - Dividend Option-Direct Plan
Leading Sectors Fund - Growth Option
Leading Sectors Fund - Growth Option-Direct Plan
Opportunities Fund-Dividend
Opportunities Fund-Dividend Option-Direct Plan
Opportunities Fund-Growth
Opportunities Fund-Growth Option-Direct Plan
Power & Energy Fund - Dividend Option
Power & Energy Fund - Dividend Option-Direct Plan
Power & Energy Fund - Growth Option
Power & Energy Fund - Growth Option-Direct Plan
16.3669
16.5179
122.5923
123.1374
25.4115
25.4115
18.6171
15.0865
25.3735
25.6554
6.2573
6.3024
6.2783
6.2903
19.598
15.8588
22.3196
22.0879
15.8105
15.8105
44.6694
44.909
12.0669
12.0753
16.8504
17.106
FRANKLIN TEMPLETON MF
Asian Equity Fund - Direct - Dividend
Asian Equity Fund - Direct - Growth
Asian Equity Fund - Dividend Plan
Asian Equity Fund - Growth Plan
Build India Fund - Direct - Dividend
Build India Fund - Direct - Growth
Build India Fund Dividend Plan
Build India Fund Growth Plan
India Bluechip Fund- Direct - Growth
India Bluechip Fund- Direct -Dividend
India Bluechip Fund-Dividend
India Bluechip Fund-Growth
India FLEXI CAP FUND - Direct - Dividend
India FLEXI CAP FUND - Direct - Growth
India Flexi Cap Fund-Dividend Plan
India Flexi Cap Fund-Growth Plan
India High Growth Companies Fund - Direct - Dividend
India High Growth Companies Fund - Direct - Growth
India High Growth Companies Fund - Dividend Plan
India High Growth Companies Fund - Growth Plan
India INDEX FUND NIFTY PLAN - Direct - Dividend
India INDEX FUND NIFTY PLAN - Direct - Growth
India Index Fund- Nifty Plan - Dividend Plan
India Index Fund- Nifty Plan - Growth Plan
INDIA OPPORTUNITIES FUND - Direct - Dividend
India Opportunities Fund-Dividend
INDIA OPPORTUNITIES FUND - Direct - Growth
India Opportunities Fund - Growth
India PRIMA FUND - Direct - Dividend
India PRIMA FUND - Direct - Growth
India Prima Fund-Dividend
India Prima Fund-Growth
India PRIMA PLUS - Direct - Dividend
India PRIMA PLUS - Direct - Growth
India Prima Plus-Dividend
India Prima Plus-Growth
India Smaller Companies Fund - Direct - Dividend
India Smaller Companies Fund - Direct - Growth
India Smaller Companies Fund-Dividend
India Smaller Companies Fund-Growth
INFOTECH FUND - Direct - Dividend
INFOTECH FUND - Direct - Growth
Infotech Fund-Dividend
Infotech Fund-Growth
India EQUITY INCOME FUND - Direct - Dividend
India EQUITY INCOME FUND - Direct - Growth
India Equity Income Fund-Dividend Plan
India Equity Income Fund-Growth Plan
India Growth Fund - Direct - Growth
India Growth Fund-Direct - Dividend
India Growth Fund-Dividend Plan
India Growth Fund-Growth Plan
12.058
15.8812
11.8146
15.5727
19.4135
28.4771
18.6572
27.5143
352.1928
37.689
36.5002
343.0236
17.1661
60.7709
16.7557
59.4535
21.7255
28.4338
20.9671
27.5237
61.6908
61.6908
61.0246
61.0246
17.9351
17.6113
53.9555
53.0643
57.2397
673.5785
55.0762
650.7958
34.1657
443.0635
33.1096
431.1051
23.3689
39.7121
22.4789
38.4103
24.301
116.9493
23.8678
114.9328
13.8407
32.7144
13.5547
32.1342
180.6304
56.9404
55.6025
176.9351
GOLDMAN SACHS MUTUAL FUND
CNX 500 Fund - Direct Plan - Dividend Option
CNX 500 Fund - Direct Plan - Growth Option
CNX 500 Fund - Dividend Option
CNX 500 Fund - Growth Option
India Equity Fund - Direct Plan -Dividend Option
India Equity Fund - Direct Plan -Growth Option
India Equity Fund - Dividend Plan
India Equity Fund - Growth Plan
HDFC MUTUAL FUND
17.1673
27.4311
16.8464
26.9221
17.98
17.98
17.6
17.6
Arbitrage Fund -Direct Plan - Growth Option
18.404
ARBITRAGE FUND RETAIL PLAN DIVIDEND OPTION
13.508
ARBITRAGE FUND RETAIL PLAN GROWTH OPTION
18.19
ARBITRAGE FUND RETAIL PLAN QTRLY DIV OPTION
12.927
ARBITRAGE FUND WHOLESALE PLAN DIV OPTION DIRECT 10.612
ARBITRAGE FUND WHOLESALE PLAN GROWTH OPTION 18.51
ARBITRAGE FUND WHOLESALE PLAN GR OPTION DIRECT 11.609
ARBITRAGE FUND WHOLESALE PLAN MONTHLY DIV OP 10.799
ARBITRAGE FUND WHOLESALE PLAN MONTHLY DIV - DIRECT 10.37
ARBITRAGE FUND WHOLESALE PLAN NORMAL DIV OP 10.438
Arbitrage Fund-Direct Plan - Dividend Quarterly Option
13.945
Capital Builder Fund - Dividend Option
23.62
Capital Builder Fund - Growth Option
193.863
Capital Builder Fund -Direct Plan - Dividend Option
24.21
Capital Builder Fund -Direct Plan - Growth Option
197.525
Core & Satellite Fund -Direct Plan - Dividend Option
17.046
Core & Satellite Fund -Direct Plan - Growth Option
56.424
Core and Satellite Fund - DIVIDEND
16.434
Core and Satellite Fund - GROWTH
55.297
Equity Fund - Dividend Option
43.049
Equity Fund - Growth Option
417.048
Equity Fund -Direct Plan - Dividend Option
44.321
Equity Fund -Direct Plan - Growth Option
427.128
Equity Savings Fund - DIVIDEND
11.322
Equity Savings Fund -Direct Plan - Dividend Option
11.509
Equity Savings Fund -Direct Plan - Growth Option
26.804
Equity Savings Fund -GROWTH
26.397
Growth Fund - Dividend Option
25.708
Growth Fund - Growth Option
125.443
Growth Fund -Direct Plan - Dividend Option
26.206
Growth Fund -Direct Plan - Growth Option
127.442
Index Fund Nifty Plan-Direct Plan
68.6003
Index Fund-Nifty Plan(FV Rs 10.326)
68.2092
Index Fund Sensex Plus Plan-Direct Plan
334.4909
Index Fund-Sensex Plus( FV-Rs32.161)
331.1283
Index Fund Sensex Plan-Direct Plan
219.3431
Index FundSensex Plan( FV Rs 32.161)
217.7028
Infrastructure Fund -Direct Plan - Dividend Option
14.379
Infrastructure Fund -Direct Plan - Growth Option
14.379
INFRASTRUCTURE FUND-DIVIDEND OPTION
11.757
INFRASTRUCTURE FUND-GROWTH OPTION
14
Large Cap Fund - Direct Dividend Plan
21.213
Large Cap Fund - Direct Growth Plan
82.191
Large Cap Fund - Regular Dividend Plan
19.073
Large Cap Fund - Regular Growth Plan
81.633
Mid Cap Opportunities Fund -Direct Plan - Div Option
27.502
Mid Cap Opportunities Fund -Direct Plan - Growth Option 37.243
MID-CAP OPPORTUNITIES FUND - Dividend Option
23.994
MID-CAP OPPORTUNITIES FUND - Growth Option
36.374
Premier Multi-Cap Fund-Dividend
11.762
Premier Multi-Cap Fund-Growth
38.162
Premier Multicap -Direct Plan - Dividend Option
12.033
Premier Multicap -Direct Plan - Growth Option
38.876
Retirement Savings Fund - Equity Plan - Direct Plan
10.997
Retirement Savings Fund - Equity Plan - Regular Plan
10.979
Small and Mid Cap Fund - Direct Dividend Plan
18.87
Small and Mid Cap Fund - Direct Growth Plan
26.101
Small and Mid Cap Fund - Regular Dividend Plan
18.173
Small and Mid Cap Fund - Regular Growth Plan
25.371
Top 200 Fund - Dividend Option
42.1
Top 200 Fund - Growth Option
309.426
Top 200 Fund -Direct Plan - Dividend Option
43.095
Top 200 Fund -Direct Plan - Growth Option
315.533
HSBC MUTUAL FUND
Dividend Yield Equity Fund - Dividend
Dividend Yield Equity Fund - Growth
Dividend Yield Equity Fund-Dividend Direct
Dividend Yield Equity Fund-Growth Direct
Dynamic Fund - Dividend
Dynamic Fund - Growth
Dynamic Fund-Dividend Direct
Dynamic Fund-Growth Direct
Equity Fund - Dividend
Equity Fund - Dividend Direct
Equity Fund - Growth
Equity Fund - Growth Direct
India Opportunities Fund - Dividend
India Opportunities Fund - Dividend Direct
India Opportunities Fund - Growth
India Opportunities Fund - Growth Direct
Progressive Themes Fund - Dividend Direct
Progressive Themes Fund - Growth
Progressive Themes Fund - Growth Direct
Progressive Themes Fund- Dividend
Midcap Equity Fund - Dividend
Midcap Equity Fund - Dividend Direct
Midcap Equity Fund - Growth
Midcap Equity Fund - Growth Direct
15.3825
15.3825
15.7409
15.7409
13.2918
13.2918
13.6056
13.6056
25.7353
26.4874
140.6518
144.1257
20.5931
22.2912
60.9137
62.4117
13.6247
15.6405
16.0161
13.3038
17.1417
20.0503
36.5966
37.5096
ICICI PRUDENTIAL MUTUAL FUND
Banking and Financial Services Fund - Dividend
24.03
Banking and Financial Services Fund - Growth
33.01
Banking and Financial Services Fund - Direct Plan - Div
32.44
Banking and Financial Services Fund - Direct Plan - Growth 33.97
Blended Plan A - Dividend
13.6168
Blended Plan A - Direct Plan Bonus
10.9152
Blended Plan A - Growth
22.6763
Blended Plan A-Direct Plan - Dividend
13.6693
Blended Plan A-Direct Plan - Growth
23.0052
Dividend Yield Equity Fund Direct Plan Dividend Option
11.16
Dividend Yield Equity Fund Direct Plan Growth Option
11.54
Dividend Yield Equity Fund Dividend Option
11.01
Dividend Yield Equity Fund Growth Option
11.39
Dynamic - Direct Plan - Dividend
21.2326
Dynamic - Direct Plan - Growth
180.1684
Dynamic - Dividend
19.7606
Dynamic - Growth
175.8493
Dynamic Plan- Institutional Growth Option
16.9925
Dynamic Plan-Institutional Option - I
28.9071
Equity - Arbritrage Fund-Institutional Growth Option
20.6958
Equity Arbitrage Fund - Bonus
11.2245
Equity Arbitrage Fund - Direct Plan - Dividend
14.2182
Equity Arbitrage Fund - Direct Plan - Growth
20.7616
Equity Arbitrage Fund - Direct Plan Bonus
11.2959
Equity Arbitrage Fund - Dividend
13.7517
Equity Arbitrage Fund - Growth
20.4242
Equity Income Fund - Cumulative option
10.39
Equity Income Fund - Direct Plan - Cumulative option
10.52
Equity Income Fund - Direct Plan - Half Yearly Dividend
10.28
Equity Income Fund - Direct Plan - Monthly Dividend
10.2
Equity Income Fund - Direct Plan - Quarterly Dividend
10.28
Equity Income Fund - Half Yearly Dividend
10.18
Equity Income Fund - Monthly Dividend
10.07
Equity Income Fund - Quarterly Dividend
10.23
Exports and Other Services Fund - Direct Plan - Dividend
33.37
Exports and Other Services Fund - Direct Plan - Growth
44.34
Exports and Other Services Fund - Dividend
25.26
Exports and Other Services Fund - Growth
43.4
FMCG Fund - Direct Plan - Dividend
78.92
FMCG Fund - Direct Plan - Growth
158.48
FMCG Fund - Dividend
60.59
FMCG Fund - Growth
155.16
Focused Bluechip Equity Fund - Direct Plan - Dividend
24.84
Focused Bluechip Equity Fund - Direct Plan - Growth
28.26
Focused Bluechip Equity Fund - Dividend
19.05
Focused Bluechip Equity Fund - Growth
27.5
Focused Bluechip Equity Fund - Instl Option - I - Growth
29.46
Indo Asia Equity Fund - Dividend
14.47
Indo Asia Equity Fund - Growth
18.74
Indo Asia Equity Fund - Direct Plan - Growth
19.08
Indo Asia Equity Fund - Direct Plan - Dividend
19.08
Indo Asia Equity Fund - Institutional Growth
18.75
Infrastructure Fund - Direct Plan - Dividend
12.71
Infrastructure Fund - Direct Plan - Growth
36.34
Infrastructure Fund - Dividend
11.94
Infrastructure Fund - Growth
35.61
MidCap Fund - Direct Plan - Dividend
24.78
MidCap Fund - Direct Plan - Growth
66.96
MidCap Fund - Dividend
21.36
MidCap Fund - Growth
65.29
Multicap Fund - Direct Plan - Dividend
25.47
Multicap Fund - Direct Plan - Growth
197.48
Multicap Fund - Dividend
20.58
Multicap Fund - Growth
193.3
Nifty Index Fund - Cumulative Option
73.8593
Nifty Index Fund - Direct Plan Cumulative Option
74.8323
Nifty Index Fund - Direct Plan Dividend Option
10.062
Nifty Index Fund - Dividend Option
9.844
Nifty Next 50 Index Fund - Direct Plan - Dividend
16.6487
Nifty Next 50 Index Fund - Direct Plan - Growth
16.6532
Nifty Next 50 Index Fund - Growth
16.4037
Nifty Next 50 Index Fund -Dividend
16.4037
Select Large Cap Fund - Direct Plan - Dividend
22.07
Select Large Cap Fund - Direct Plan - Growth
22.07
Select Large Cap Fund - Dividend
16.53
Select Large Cap Fund -Growth
21.46
Technology Fund - Direct Plan - Dividend
42.53
Technology Fund - Direct Plan - Growth
42.55
Technology Fund - Dividend
30.72
Technology Fund - Growth
41.53
Top 100 Fund - Direct Plan - Dividend
19.74
Top 100 Fund - Direct Plan - Growth
229.39
Top 100 Fund - Dividend
16.31
Top 100 Fund - Growth
223.76
US Bluechip Equity Fund - Direct Plan - Dividend
18.99
US Bluechip Equity Fund - Direct Plan - Growth
18.99
US Bluechip Equity Fund - Dividend
18.49
US Bluechip Equity Fund - Growth
18.49
Value Discovery Fund - Direct Plan - Dividend
40.9
Value Discovery Fund - Direct Plan - Growth
112.38
Value Discovery Fund - Dividend
28.43
Value Discovery Fund - Growth
109.19
IDBI MUTUAL FUND
DIVERSIFIED EQUITY FUND Dividend - Direct Plan
DIVERSIFIED EQUITY FUND Dividend - Regular Plan
DIVERSIFIED EQUITY FUND Growth Direct
DIVERSIFIED EQUITY FUND Growth Regular
15.3
15.13
16.27
16.09
India Top 100 Equity Fund Dividend
India Top 100 Equity Fund Dividend Direct
India Top 100 Equity Fund Growth
India Top 100 Equity Fund Growth Direct
Nifty Index Fund Dividend
Nifty Index Fund Dividend Direct
NIFTY Index Fund Growth
NIFTY Index Fund Growth Direct
Nifty Junior Index Fund Dividend
Nifty Junior Index Fund Dividend Direct
Nifty Junior Index Fund Growth
Nifty Junior Index Fund Growth Direct
16.03
16.36
18.19
18.53
13.78
14.0281
14.4489
14.7048
14.3385
14.6357
14.3385
14.6357
Arbitrage Fund-Direct Plan- Growth
Arbitrage Fund-Direct Plan-Dividend
Arbitrage Fund-Regular Plan- Growth
Arbitrage Fund-Regular Plan-Dividend
Arbitrage Fund - Plan B - Dividend
Arbitrage Fund - Plan B - Growth
Arbitrage Fund-Direct Plan- Annual Dividend
Arbitrage Fund-Regular Plan- Annual Dividend
Arbitrage Plus Fund-Direct Plan-Dividend
Arbitrage Plus Fund-Direct Plan-Growth
Arbitrage Plus Fund-Regular Plan-Dividend
Arbitrage Plus Fund-Regular Plan-Growth
Arbitrage Plus Fund -B-DIVIDEND
Arbitrage Plus Fund -B-GROWTH
Arbitrage Plus Fund- Regular Plan- Annual Dividend
Arbitrage Plus Fund-Direct Plan- Annual Dividend
Classic Equity Fund-Direct Plan-Dividend
Classic Equity Fund-Direct Plan-Growth
Classic Equity Fund-Regular Plan-Dividend
Classic Equity Fund-Regular Plan-Growth
Classic Equity Fund-Plan B- Dividend
Classic Equity Fund-Plan B- Growth
DEF_Direct Plan_Dividend
DEF_Direct Plan_Growth
DEF_Regular Plan_Dividend
DEF_Regular Plan_Growth
Equity Fund-Direct Plan-Dividend
Equity Fund-Direct Plan-Growth
Equity Fund-Regular Plan-Dividend
Equity Fund-Regular Plan-Growth
Equity Fund -Plan B- Dividend
Equity Fund -Plan B-Growth
Imperial Equity Fund-Direct Plan-Dividend
Imperial Equity Fund-Direct Plan-Growth
Imperial Equity Fund-Regular Plan-Dividend
Imperial Equity Fund-Regular Plan-Growth
Imperial Equity Fund-Plan B - Dividend
Imperial Equity Fund-Plan B - Growth
Infrastructure Fund-Direct Plan-Dividend
Infrastructure Fund-Direct Plan-Growth
Infrastructure Fund-Regular Plan-Dividend
Infrastructure Fund-Regular Plan-Growth
Nifty Fund-Direct Plan-Dividend
Nifty Fund-Direct Plan-Growth
Nifty Fund-Regular Plan-Dividend
Nifty Fund-Regular Plan-Growth
Premier Equity Fund-Direct Plan-Dividend
Premier Equity Fund-Direct Plan-Growth
Premier Equity Fund-Regular Plan-Dividend
Premier Equity Fund-Regular Plan-Growth
Premier Equity Fund-Plan B - Dividend
Premier Equity Fund_Plan B - Growth
Sterling Equity Fund -Regular Plan-Dividend
Sterling Equity Fund -Regular Plan-Growth
Sterling Equity Fund-Direct Plan-Dividend
Sterling Equity Fund-Direct Plan-Growth
19.827
12.945
19.5158
12.6067
14.6448
20.1461
10.8779
10.8125
12.2041
17.3627
11.9693
17.1145
12.1795
16.0114
10.068
10.3979
12.8494
30.4686
11.859
29.5032
11.5463
23.4869
10.5355
10.7497
10.3417
10.5336
13.9967
22.9571
11.794
22.2564
11.74
18.3642
12.8795
25.174
10.8036
24.3931
11.2721
21.0331
10.696
10.6986
10.3295
10.3249
15.6559
15.5235
15.6117
15.4899
29.4388
69.8854
28.8741
68.3389
22.9412
50.5114
14.4921
32.3952
14.9735
33.253
India Growth Fund - Direct Plan - Dividend
India Growth Fund - Regular Plan - Dividend
India Growth Fund -Regular Plan - Growth
India Growth Fund-Direct Plan-Growth
10.3328
10.1508
10.1508
10.3328
IDFC MUTUAL FUND
IIFL MUTUAL FUND
INDIABULLS MUTUAL FUND
Blue Chip Fund - Direct Plan - Dividend Option
Blue Chip Fund - Direct Plan - Growth Option
Blue Chip Fund - Dividend Option
Blue Chip Fund - Growth Option
Value Discovery Fund - Direct Plan - Dividend Option
Value Discovery Fund - Direct Plan - Growth Option
Value Discovery Fund - Regular Plan - Dividend Option
Value Discovery Fund - Regular Plan - Growth Option
12.4
14.7
12.1
14.04
9.5544
9.5544
9.4326
9.4326
JM FINANCIAL MUTUAL FUND
Arbitrage Advantage Fund (Direct) - Annual Bonus Option
Arbitrage Advantage Fund (Direct) - Annual Div Option
Arbitrage Advantage Fund (Direct) - Bonus Option
Arbitrage Advantage Fund (Direct) - Dividend Option
Arbitrage Advantage Fund (Direct) - Growth Option
Arbitrage Advantage (Direct) - Half Yrly Bonus Op - Principal Units
Arbitrage Advantage (Direct) - Half Yearly Dividend Option
Arbitrage Advantage (Direct) - Monthly Dividend Option
Arbitrage Advantage (Direct) - Qtrly Bonus Op - Principal Units
Arbitrage Advantage Fund (Direct) - Quarterly Div Option
Arbitrage Advantage Fund - Annual Bonus Option
Arbitrage Advantage Fund - Annual Dividend Option
Arbitrage Advantage Fund - Bonus Option
Arbitrage Advantage Fund - Half Yrly Bonus Op - Principal Units
Arbitrage Advantage Fund - Half Yearly Dividend Option
Arbitrage Advantage Fund - Monthly Dividend Option
Arbitrage Advantage Fund - Qtrly Bonus Op - Principal Units
Arbitrage Advantage Fund - Quarterly Dividend Option
ARBITRAGE ADVANTAGE FUND-Dividend
ARBITRAGE ADVANTAGE FUND-Growth
Basic Fund (Direct) - Dividend Option
Basic Fund (Direct) - Growth Option
Basic Fund - Dividend Option
Basic Fund - Growth Option
Core 11 Fund (Direct) - Growth Option
Core 11 Fund (Direct) - Dividend Option
Core 11 Fund - Dividend option
Core 11 Fund - Growth option
Equity Fund (Direct) - Annual Dividend Option
Equity Fund (Direct) - Dividend Option
Equity Fund (Direct) - Growth Option
Equity Fund (Direct) - Half Yearly Dividend Option
Equity Fund (Direct) - Monthly Dividend Option
Equity Fund (Direct) - Quarterly Dividend Option
Equity Fund - Annual Dividend Option
Equity Fund - Half Yearly Dividend Option
Equity Fund - Monthly Dividend Option
Equity Fund - Quarterly Dividend Option
Equity Fund-Dividend
Equity Fund-Growth
Multi Strategy Fund (Direct) - Dividend Option
Multi Strategy Fund (Direct) - Growth Option
Multi Strategy Fund - Dividend option
Multi Strategy Fund - Growth option
10.7567
11.2925
11.2073
10.7292
20.9158
20.8848
11.2925
11.261
20.8848
11.2925
20.643
10.9681
11.1793
20.6779
10.9637
10.9453
20.6779
10.9681
10.407
20.563
14.0377
20.3479
13.7614
19.7076
5.4622
5.3998
5.2703
5.2705
21.5861
21.3245
52.5565
21.5856
21.5861
21.5861
20.9931
14.6533
20.9683
20.9913
20.7245
50.9128
18.7172
20.3496
18.3275
19.7057
JP MORGAN MUTUAL FUND
India Economic Resurgence Fund - Direct Plan - Div Option 9.409
India Economic Resurgence Fund - Direct Plan - Growth Op 9.461
India Economic Resurgence Fund - Regular Plan - Div Op 9.345
India Economic Resurgence Fund - Regular Plan - Growth Op 9.345
India Equity Fund - Direct Plan - Dividend Option
15.643
India Equity Fund - Direct Plan - Growth Option
22.259
India Equity Fund - Regular Plan - Dividend Option
15.149
India Equity Fund - Regular Plan - Growth Option
21.452
India Equity Income Fund - Direct Plan - Bonus Option
10.9096
India Equity Income Fund - Direct Plan - Dividend Option 10.5519
India Equity Income Fund - Direct Plan - Growth Option 10.9126
India Equity Income Fund - Regular Plan - Bonus Option 10.8415
India Equity Income Fund - Regular Plan - Div Option
10.3855
India Equity Income Fund - Regular Plan - Growth Option 10.8406
India Mid and Small Cap Fund - Direct Plan - Div Option 18.159
India Mid and Small Cap Fund - Direct Plan - Growth Op 18.858
India Mid and Small Cap Fund - Regular Plan - Dividend Op 16.8
India Mid and Small Cap Fund - Regular Plan - Growth Op 18.222
India Top 100 Fund - Direct Plan - Dividend Option
11.112
India Top 100 Fund - Direct Plan - Growth Option
11.198
India Top 100 Fund - Regular Plan - Dividend Option
10.963
India Top 100 Fund - Regular Plan - Growth Option
10.963
world 13
Trump on defence, tries to regain momentum
Sanders urged rallygoers to come out in
droves on Tuesday
AP n EAU CLAIRE (US)
ollowing one of the worst
weeks of his campaign,
F
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was on
defence as he kicked off a
three-day
sprint
to
Wisconsin's primary.
Contenders in both parties
crisscrossed the Midwestern
state seeking an edge ahead of
Tuesday's primaries, none more
actively than Trump, who's
had a rough week and faces a
likely struggle against Texas
Senator Ted Cruz in the state,
who has passed Trump in
recent Wisconsin polls.
The Republican race is
overshadowed by a persistent
effort by Trump's rivals in the
campaign and the party to
force the nomination fight into
the July convention -- and by
his equivocations on whether
he will be loyal to the
Republican Party or bolt for an
independent candidacy if he
feels mistreated.
Trump began the afternoon with a rally in the
Milwaukee suburb of Racine
yesterday, where he defended a
series of controversial com-
ments in recent days on NATO,
abortion and his remark that
Japan and South Korea should
perhaps be allowed to acquire
nuclear weapons.
"This politics is a tough
business," said Trump.
"Because you can say things
one way and the press will criticise you horribly. You say it
another way and the press will
criticise you horribly."
Off the stage, in a more
reflective moment, Trump
expressed regret that he had
retweeted an unflattering photo
of rival Ted Cruz's wife, Heidi,
paired with a glamorous photo
of his own wife, Melania, a
former model, as part of a bitter feud between the two men.
"Yeah, it was a mistake," he
told New York Times columnist
Maureen Dowd. "If I had to do
it again, I wouldn't have sent it."
Cruz sought favour in
North Dakota, which is not
holding a primary or caucuses in the 2016 Republican
race.
He
addressed
Republicans at a state convention that is selecting delegates
who will go to the national
convention unbound to any of
the presidential candidates.
Trump and Ohio Gov John
Kasich sent supporters on their
behalf to make the case that
they should be backed by North
Dakota's delegates at the
Cleveland convention in July.
The Democratic race
Syrian Army captures key
ISIS-held city near Palmyra
IANS n DAMASCUS
he Syrian army on Sunday
fully captured a key city in
the central province of Homs
near the ancient city of
Palmyra, following intense battles against the Islamic State
(IS) militant group.
The Syrian forces backed by
Russian warplanes stormed the
city of Qaryatain from a number of directions, a day after
Syria's boots on the ground
stormed areas in the western
parts of that key city, Xinhua
newds agency reported.
A military source said that
the army's entry into Qaryatain
came after the bomb squads
dismantled explosive devices
and other booby-traps the IS
terrorists had planted to thwart
the advance of the Syrian army.
On Saturday, the Syrian
forces unleashed a wide-scale
offensive on the city, which has
succeeded in breaking through
the IS defences in the western
part of that predominantlyChristian city.
The Russian warplanes are
playing a significant role in
helping retake Qaryatain, the
source added.
The military campaign to
reclaim Qaryatain came less
than a week after the Syrian
T
THE SYRIAN FORCES
UNLEASHED A WIDESCALE OFFENSIVE ON
THE CITY, WHICH HAS
SUCCEEDED IN
BREAKING THROUGH
THE IS DEFENCES IN
THE WESTERN PART OF
THAT PREDOMINANTLYCHRISTIAN CITY
army captured Palmyra, which
had been held by the IS for 10
months.
Meanwhile, the state news
agency SANA said the Syrian
air force struck the IS positions
in the eastern and southern
parts of the city.
Qaryatain is the last IS
stronghold near the mountainous region of Qalamoun,
north of Damascus and close to
the Lebanese borders.
The IS militants who withdrew from Palmyra have holed
up in Qaryatain, 85 km southeast of Homs.
The city is strategically
important due to its proximity to the Syrian city of Qara, a
stronghold of the Hezbollah
Shia group, which is fighting
alongside the Syrian army in
key battlefields in the country.
Australia opposes Trump's
Asia nuclear policy: PM
Republican presidential candidate
Donald Trump speaks during a rally at
Memorial High School in Eau Claire, in
Wisconsin on Saturday.
Photo AP
between Hillary Clinton and
Bernie Sanders has grown
increasingly bitter, too, though
it has not matched the
Republican contest for raw
hostility. Their attention will
quickly turn to an even more
consequential contest, in New
York on April 19, where the
Democratic front-runner dearly hopes to avoid an upset in
the state she served as senator.
Sanders, who was born in
Brooklyn, can claim New York
as his home state.
Sanders urged rally-goers
to come out in droves on
Tuesday.
"Here is the political reality," he told a young and
rustic, three story-Arabic
bookstore in old Istanbul has
become an anchor for many
Syrians who have stayed put in
Turkey but crave a taste of home.
The founder and owner of
Pages, Samer al-Kadri, a refugee
himself, says the store strives to
be a bridge between Syrians,
Turks and the myriad of foreigners who visit the city.
Its weekly programme
includes music concerts and,
star ting soon, language
exchanges in Arabic, English
A
and Turkish. Books are available in all three languages. AlKadri is acutely aware that the
language barrier "has made it
difficult for Syrians to really
integrate into society."
Turkey is hosting 2.7 million Syrian refugees and is
due to receive many more
under a plan with the
European Union that aims to
halt the smuggling of
migrants into Europe. The
deal stipulates that for every
Syrian returned, another
Syrian in Turkey will be relocated to a European country.
12-year-old Muslim boy
has accused his teacher of
A
targeting him for his religion by
calling him a “terrorist” in
front of his peers in the US state
of Texas, prompting school
authorities to probe the incident.
Waleed Abushaaban, a 7th
grade student in First Colony
Middle School has been the
butt of “bomb” jokes and
ridicule from his fellow classmates after his teacher made
the careless crack, a local TV
KHOU.com reported.
The teacher allegedly made
the insensitive comment when
her class had been watching the
movie “Bend it Like Beckham”
after taking an exam and
Waleed let out a loud laugh at
a joke in the movie.
“We’re in the class watching a movie,” Waleed said.
“And I was just laughing at the
movie and the teacher said: “I
The teacher allegedly made the insensitive comment when
her class had been
watching the movie
“Bend
it
Like
Beckham” after taking an exam and
Waleed let out a loud
laugh at a joke in the
movie
wouldn’t be laughing if I was
you. And I said why? She said
because we all think you’re a
terrorist.” After that comment
other students started making
fun of him and started calling
him a “bomb”. “They were
like, ‘oh I see a bomb!’ and they
started all laughing and making jokes. I was upset and I felt
like I was put in the corner and
like everybody was just looking
at me,” Waleed added.
The English and Language
Arts teacher was immediately
removed from the classroom
after the accusations, and
emphasising her Democratic
bona fides. Before hundreds
gathered in a hotel ballroom in
Eau Claire later yesterday, the
former secretary of state stressed
that she has been "a proud
Democrat all my adult life and
I think that's kind of important
if we're selecting somebody to
be a Democratic nominee of the
Democratic Party."
PTI n ISLAMABAD,
ver 250 militants have
been killed in Pakistan in
army operations in the last two
months along the porous PakAfghan border, the military
said.
"The battle to clear the
last pocket close to the PakAfghan border continues," the
Inter-Services Public Relations
said, adding that all heights
over 9,000 feet have been
cleared.
"Major terrorist hubs" in
Mana, Gurbaz, Lataka, Inzarkas
and Magrotai areas have been
cleared of militants, it added.
"Terrorists' hideouts were
destroyed, a cache of arms and
ammunition recovered and
there was virtually no communications infrastructure
remaining in the Shawal area
once the operation was
launched in Feb this year,"
Dawn quoted the statement as
saying.
Hundreds of troops,
backed by fighter jets, have
been chasing the remaining
militants in Shawal Valley
where they are hiding, the
statement said.
The militants have been
The plan has drawn considerable criticism from human
rights groups, who worry that
Turkey is not a suitable haven
for asylum-seekers and fear it
could pave the way for mass
deportations.
Amnesty International
says Turkey has already scaled
down its registration of Syrian
refugees and is illegally sending back refugees to its wartorn neighbour. Turkey has
committed to giving work
permits to its Syrian "guests"
but there are signs this perk
may be riddled with caveats.
Waleed’s family wants her gone
for good.
“Just because my son is a
Muslim doesn’t mean he is a
terrorist,” said Malek
Abushaaban, Waleed’s father.
“He’s as American as anybody
else. He was born here ... that’s
all he knows is how to be an
American.”
The family is also calling
for the school to get religious
sensitivity training.
The Fort Bend school district released a statement about
the accusations saying they do
“not support the teacher’s
actions.”
“No religion should be targeted by and disrespected by
any administrator on any
school campus,” said Quanell
X, a community activist.
The school has removed
the English and Language Arts
teacher from the classroom
while it investigates; however,
Waleed’s family want her permanently dismissed.
Azerbaijan announces ‘unilateral'
ceasefire in Karabakh region
AFP n BAKU
zerbaijan on Sunday
announced a unilateral
A
ceasefire after the worst violence over disputed Nagorno
Karabakh in more than two
decades, but Armenian forces
said clashes were continuing
despite international appeals to
stop fighting.
"Azerbaijan, showing good
will, has decided to unilaterally cease hostilities", Azerbaijan's
defense ministry said in a statement, warning it would "liberate all (Armenian-) occupied
territories" if Armenian forces
"do not stop provocations."
Baku also pledged to "reinforce" several strategic positions
it said it had "liberated" inside
the region, which is controlled
by Armenia but internationally recognised as part of
Azerbaijan.
But spokesman for the
Armenian-backed rebel
defense ministry in Karabakh,
David Babayan, told that fighting has never been halted along
the frontline.
"Fierce fighting is under
way on southestern and northeastern sectors of the Karabakh
frontline," he said.
Earlier on Sunday,
Karabakh forces claimed they
killed under the Zarb-i-Azb
military operation which was
launched in North Waziristan
nearly two years ago after a
brazen militant attack on
Karachi's international airport
and the failure of peace talks
between the government and
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan
negotiators.
The operation entered its
last phase in February this
year.
"During the last phase of
operation in Shawal, 252 terrorists have been killed, and
reportedly 160 were severely
injured. In the last two months,
valiantly fighting in Shawal,
eight soldiers of the Pakistan
Army embraced shahadat
(martyrdom) while 39 injured,"
the statement said.
"Since the launch of the last
phase in February 2016, army
troops have been fighting
valiantly and have cleared 640
square km of Shawal area," it
said.
During the last phase of
Zarb-e-Azb, return of
Temporarily Displaced Persons
was progressing according to
plan, as 37,012 families in
North Waziristan Agency -- 36
percent of such persons -have returned to their homes,
the statement added.
ETHNIC ARMENIAN SEPARATISTS BACKED BY
YEREVAN SEIZED CONTROL IN THE EARLY 1990S
THAT CLAIMED SOME 30,000 LIVES. THE FOES
HAVE NEVER SIGNED A PEACE DEAL DESPITE A
CEASEFIRE IN 1994. THE REGION IS STILL
INTERNATIONALLY RECOGNISED AS PART OF
AZERBAIJAN AND THE TWO SIDES FREQUENTLY
EXCHANGE FIRE, BUT THE LATEST EPISODE
MARKED A SURGE IN VIOLENCE AND SPARKED
FRANTIC APPEALS FOR PEACE FROM
INTERNATIONAL POWERS
took back the strategic LalaTepe height in Karabakh which
was captured by Azeri troops
on Saturday.
Baku denied the report,
saying that the height remained
under its control and that rebel
troops sustained "serious manpowewr losses."
On Saturday, fierce clashes left at least 18 Armenian and
12 Azerbaijani soldiers dead
and reportedly claimed the
lives of two civilians after both
sides accused each other of
attacking with heavy weaponry across the volatile frontline.
Both Russia and the West
appealed to all sides to show
restraint.
Ethnic Armenian separatists backed by Yerevan seized
control of the mountainous
Iran not hand in glove with
RAW, says Pakistan
IANS n ISLAMABAD
akistani Interior Minister
Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan
P
reiterated that Iran was not
O
Muslim family in US upset after
teacher calls boy a terrorist
PTI n HOUSTON
pumped-up crowd of thousands on the University of
Wisconsin's Eau Claire campus.
"If there is a large voter turnout,
if working people, many of
whom have given up on the
political process, if young people come, perhaps for the first
time we will win on Tuesday."
Clinton sought to draw a
contrast with Sanders by
252 militants killed in last phase
of military operation: ISI
Bookstore anchors Syrian refugees in Istanbul
AP n ISTANBUL
Sydney: Australia opposes Donald Trump's suggestion
that Japan and South Korea should develop nuclear weapons
since this would "add considerably" to the risk of regional conflict, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said today.
The Republican presidential front-runner had declared
he would withdraw US troops from both countries and allow
them to develop their own nuclear arsenals.
But Turnbull said regional power Australia, a US ally, was
"opposed to the further proliferation of nuclear weapons".
"That is absolutely not the view of Australia," the prime
minister told Sky News of Trump's nuclear policy comments.
"We would not support, in fact we would strenuously
oppose, I think, as a global community, the further proliferation of nuclear weapons.
"Clearly... It would add considerably to tensions and the
risk of conflict in the region."
South Korea and Japan last week offered muted reactions
to Trump's comments. There are nearly 30,000 US troops permanently stationed in South Korea and 47,000 in Japan, with
little appetite for nuclear weapons in either nations.
The White House on Friday said Trump's policy would
shatter doctrine held for decades with "catastrophic" consequences. Turnbull in February unveiled a major new investment in Australia's defence capabilities.
AFP
Nogorno Karabakh Conflict
working hand in glove with
Indian intelligence agency
RAW to stoke instability in
Islamabad.
"Iran has nothing to do
with the activities of Indian
intelligence network. Kite flying regarding arrest of Indian
spy and his links with Iran must
stop now," he told reporters at
a press conference here on
Saturday.
The minister said that an
impression was being given in
a section of media that Iran was
involved in certain negative
activities against Pakistan, the
Daily Times reported.
Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan
said some elements wanted to
damage positive and historic
brotherly relations and create
misunderstandings between
the two countries.
Nisar Ali Khan said the
matter of relations between
the two countries must not be
linked with arrest of the
Indian spy.
"I appeal to media not to
create an impression as if Iran
is facilitating RAW’s activities
in Pakistan. Pakistan and Iran
are tied in decades-long religious, social, cultural and political bonds and nothing can
come in way of our relations,”
he said.
The issue of arrest of RAW
agent was taken up by Pakistan
Army chief General Raheel
Sharif with Iranian President
Hassan Rouhani.
“There is one concern that
RAW is involved in Pakistan,
especially in Balochistan, and
sometimes also uses the soil of
our brother country, Iran,”
the army chief told the visiting
dignitary.
“I request, they should be
told to stop these activities
and allow Pakistan to achieve
stability,” the army chief said,
according to a release issued by
the Inter-Services Public
Relations (ISPR) after their
meeting.
However,
President
Hassan Rouhani at a press
conference held later in the day
denied that the issue of Indian
spy agency’s involvement in
Pakistan was discussed during
his meeting with the Pakistani
Army chief.
“Whenever Iran comes
closer to Pakistan, such
rumours are spread,” he said.
‘Moon plays key role in maintaining Earth's magnetic field’
PTI n LONDON
he Moon may play a major
role in maintaining Earth's
T
magnetic field that permanently protects us from the
charged particles and radiation
that originate in the Sun,
according to a new study.
The magnetic field is produced by the geodynamo, the
rapid motion of huge quantities
of liquid iron alloy in the
Earth's outer core.
To maintain this magnetic
field until the present day, the
classical model required the
Earth's core to have cooled by
around 3,000 degrees Celsius
over the past 4.3 billion years.
Now, a team of
researchers from the National
Centre for Scientific Research
(CNRS) and Universite Blaise
Pascal in France suggests that,
on the contrary, its temperature has fallen by only 300
degrees Celsius.
The action of the Moon,
overlooked until now, is
thought to have compensated
for this difference and kept
the geodynamo active,
researchers said.
The classical model of the
formation of Earth's magnetic field raised a major paradox.
For the geodynamo to work,
Earth would have had to be
totally molten four billion
years ago, and its core would
have had to slowly cool from
around 6,800 degrees Celsius
at that time to 3,800 degrees
Celsius today.
However, recent modelling of the early evolution of the
internal temperature of the
planet, together with geochemical studies of the composition of the oldest carbonatites and basalts, do not support such cooling.
With such high tempera-
tures being ruled out, the
researchers propose another
source of energy in their study.
Earth has a slightly flattened shape and rotates about
an inclined axis that wobbles
around the poles. Its mantle
deforms elastically due to tidal
effects caused by the Moon.
The researchers show that
this effect could continuously
stimulate the motion of the liquid iron alloy making up the
outer core, and in return generate Earth's magnetic field.
The Earth continuously
receives 3,700 billion watts of
power through the transfer of
the gravitational and rotational energy of the Earth-MoonSun system, and over 1,000 billion watts is thought to be available to bring about this type of
motion in the outer core.
This energy is enough to
generate the Earth's magnetic
field, which together with the
Coffee may cut colorectal cancer risk: Study
PTI n LOS ANGELES
offee lovers, rejoice!
Drinking coffee, includC
ing decaf, instant and black,
may decrease the risk of colorectal cancer, according to a
new study which found that the
benefits increase with more
consumption.
Researchers from the
University of Southern
California (USC) examined
over 5,100 men and women
who had been diagnosed with
colorectal cancer within the
past six months, along with an
additional 4,000 men and
women with no history of colorectal cancer to serve as a control group.
Participants reported their
daily consumption of boiled
(espresso), instant, decaffeinated and filtered coffee, as
well as their total consumption
of other liquids. A questionnaire also gathered information
about many other factors that
influence the risk of colorectal
cancer, including family history of cancer, diet, physical
activity and smoking.
“We found that drinking
coffee is associated with lower
risk of colorectal cancer, and
the more coffee consumed, the
lower the risk,” said Stephen
Gruber from USC.
The data showed that even
moderate coffee consumption,
between one to two servings a
day, was associated with a 26
per cent reduction in the odds
of developing colorectal cancer
after adjusting for known risk
factors, researchers said.
Moreover, the risk of developing colorectal cancer continued to decrease to up to 50
per cent when participants
drank more than 2.5 servings
of coffee each day, they said.
The
indication
of
decreased risk was seen across
all types of coffee, both caffeinated and decaffeinated.
“We were somewhat surprised to see that caffeine did
not seem to matter. This indicates that caffeine alone is not
responsible for coffee’s protective properties,” said Gruber.
Moon, resolves the major paradox in the classical theory,
researchers said.
Since neither the Earth's
rotation around its axis, nor the
direction of its axis, nor the
Moon's orbit are perfectly regular, their combined effect on
motion in the core is unstable
and can cause fluctuations in
the geodynamo.
This process could account
for certain heat pulses in the
outer core and at its boundary
with the Earth's mantle.
Over the course of time,
this may have led to peaks in
deep mantle melting and possibly to major volcanic events
at the Earth's surface.
This new model shows
that the Moon's effect on the
Earth goes well beyond merely causing tides.
The research was published in the journal Earth
and Planetary Science Letters.
region in a war in the early
1990s that claimed some 30,000
lives.
The foes have never signed
a peace deal despite a ceasefire
in 1994. The region is still internationally recognised as part of
Azerbaijan and the two sides
frequently exchange fire, but
the latest episode marked a
surge in violence and sparked
frantic appeals for peace from
international powers.
Energy-rich Azerbaijan,
whose military spending has in
the past exceeded Armenia's
entire state budget, has repeatedly threatened to take back the
breakaway region by force if
negotiations fail to yield results.
Moscow-backed Armenia
says it could crush any offensive.
GLOBE
TROTTING
THOUSANDS PROTEST
ACROSS COLOMBIA
Bogota: Thousands of
Colombians protested in more
than 20 cities across the country
against President Juan Manuel
Santos and his government's
peace process with the FARC
guerrillas.
ROAD ACCIDENT IN
SAUDI ARABIA KILLS 15
Riyadh: Two vans have collided
in southwestern Saudi Arabia,
killing 15 people, including six
children.Saudi Red Crescent
spokesman Ahmed Asiri was
quoted by the official Saudi
Press Agency as saying the road
accident took place just before 6
am today in the Wadi bin
Hashbal region of Asir province,
located south of the holy city of
Mecca.
POWERFUL QUAKE HITS
OFF VANUATU
Sydney: A powerful 6.9magnitude earthquake struck off
Vanuatu today, but a tsunami
threat passed with no immediate
reports of major damage along
the coasts of the Pacific
archipelago.
IRAQ FORCES FREE
PRISONERS: OFFICIALS
Baghdad: Iraqi forces freed a
large number of prisoners from
an underground Islamic State
group jail during a battle to
retake a western town from the
jihadists, officials said today.
PKK BOMB ATTACK
KILLS SIX IN TURKEY
Istanbul: Five Turkish soldiers
and one special forces police
officer were killed today in a
bomb attack blamed on Kurdish
militants in the southeast of the
country, the Dogan news
agency reported.
POSSIBLE MH370
DEBRIS FOUND
Sydney: Australia's transport
minister said new debris found
on the Indian Ocean island of
Mauritius would be examined
to see if it belonged to MH370,
just weeks after two
Mozambique fragments were
linked to the missing flight. The
debris was found on the
Mauritius island of Rodrigues
by a vacationing couple,
news.Com.Au reported
First plane takes off from
Brussels after attack
AFP n BRUSSELS
Brussels Airlines flight to
the Portuguese city of Faro
A
became the first plane today to
take off from Brussels Airport
since it was hit by Islamic State
attacks on March 22.
Staff and government officials at the airport marked the
departure with a minute's
silence and a round of applause.
The passengers on board were
the first to undergo the airport's
strict new security regime after
the suicide bombings.
The key travel hub has
been closed since two men
blew themselves up in the
departure hall on March 22 in
coordinated blasts that also
struck a metro station in the
Belgian capital, killing a total of
32 people.
The attacks at the heart of
Europe shocked the country
and many hope the airport's
reopening, albeit in a limited
capacity and using a tent-like
temporary check-in facility,
will help turn the page on this
month's traumatic events.
Brussels Airport chief executive Arnaud Feist yesterday
said the partial resumption of
services would start with three
"symbolic passenger flights" to
Faro, Athens and Turin.
sport 14
Ronaldo silences Camp Nou
CR7 responds to loud boos in style by scoring the winner to end Barca’s 39-match unbeaten run
AP n BARCELONA
ristiano Ronaldo scored late for 10-man
Real Madrid to snatch a 2-1 comeback
win at Barcelona and revive its slim
hopes for the Spanish league title on Saturday.
Madrid ended Barcelona's Spanish
record unbeaten streak at 39 games across
all competitions with its first come-frombehind win at Camp Nou since 1965,
according to STATS.
In Zinedine Zidane's first clasico as a manager, Madrid avenged
a 4-0 home loss to Barcelona it
endured under Rafa Benitez in
November by dealing the
Catalan club its first defeat
since Oct. 3.
On a night that
Barcelona honored Johan
Cruyff with a moving
tribute, it was Ronaldo
and Madrid's star forwards that outperformed Lionel Messi,
Neymar, and Luis
Suarez.
"There are some
things above winning and losing,"
Barcelona midfielder Andres Iniesa
said about Cruyff. "We were all thinking about him and we weren't able to
get the victory that we wanted."
After a lackluster first half,
Barcelona's Gerard Pique opened the
scoring with a header in the 56th.
But after Karim Benzema equalized
six minutes later, instead of staying
true to the trademark ball-possession
style that Cruyff instilled at the club,
Barcelona lost its hold of the match and
went on fruitless charges forward.
The up-and-down flow played to
Madrid's favor, and Ronaldo slotted in
the winner off a counterattack in the
85th, moments after Madrid's Sergio
Ramos received a second booking.
"Even before Ramos' sending off,
there were five minutes when we didn't have control of the match," Pique said.
"I don't know if we got tired, but we
couldn't find a way to attack."
The big win kept Madrid in third place,
one point behind Atletico Madrid after its
5-1 win over Real Betis, reducing the
deficit with Barcelona to seven points with
seven rounds left.
Napoli's title
hopes diminish,
Milan lose
C
singles
Indian eves suffer 2nd straight defeat
Hastings (New Zealand): The Indian women's
hockey team slumped to its second consecutive
defeat in the Hawke's Bay Cup, going down 0-4 to
Ireland, here on Sunday. After a barren first quarter,
the Indian defence let in two goals in the next 15
minutes when Anna O'Flanagan (25th minute) and
Nicola Daly (29th) scored twice for Ireland in a
span of five minutes. After the change of ends,
Chloe Watkins (37th) made the scoreline 3-0 in
Ireland's favour before Megan Frazer (44th) found
the net again for the Irish girls seven minutes later.
Indian eves had earlier lost 0-1 to hosts New
Zealand in the tournament opener. India will next
play China in their next Pool B match on April 5.
‘Innovative strokes not enough in T20’
Rajkot: Gujarat Lions wicket-keeper batsman
Dinesh Karthik on Sunday said that playing
innovative shots is not enough to score runs in the
shortest format of the game. "In modern cricket,
many batsmen play innovative strokes which I
think are not enough to score runs in T20 format,"
the 30-year-old batsman said here at the SCA
stadium in Khandheri where Gujarat Lions players
started practise. The Lions will play their first match
on April 11 against Kings XI Punjab in Mohali in the
Indian Premier League (IPL). "T20 format is not all
about playing innovative shots, as batsman like
Virat Kohli have been scoring lot of runs by playing
only cricketing shots. In this format, the batsmen
should stay calm and execute his shots selection
properly to score runs," he said. Karthik, Pradeep
Sangwan, head coach Brad Hodge, bowling coach
Heath Streak arrived here on Saturday, while rest of
the players like captain Suresh Raina, Ravindra
Jadeja will join the team soon.
Robin lauds Dynamos' grassroot initiative
New Delhi: India and Delhi Dynamos FC striker
Robin Singh on Sunday lauded the Indian Super
League side's grassroot scouting initiative, saying
that it will help the aspiring youngsters develop
their football skills and become future stars. "It is
amazing that Delhi Dynamos is doing so much for
aspiring footballers in North India," Robin said.
Dynamos, in association with the ISL, conducted
its grassroots scouting festival for the Reliance
Foundation Young Champs Programme. The
Dynamos kicked off their grassroots programme
for 2016 with an open trial on March 30, during
which 120 kids were shortlisted. These shortlisted
kids took part in the final round of selections held
on Sunday. Those who are selected from Sunday's
programme will head to Mumbai for the final
selection camp.
Gonzalo Higuain argues with referee on Sunday AP
AP n MILAN
Cristiano Ronaldo scores the winning goal for Real Madrid against Barcelona on Saturday night
Given the considerable gap and dwindling chances to overtake both frontrunners,
Madrid's best shot at silverware still rests in
the Champions League, where it will play
German side Wolfsburg on Wednesday.
"First, we have to overtake Atletico
Madrid because we are still third, and then
we will see what happens," Zidane said.
"What I can say is that winning here is a huge
reward for our players. It's very important for
our morale, and just before we play a game
in the Champions League in Germany."
Despite the loss, Barcelona's quest to
repeat its rare treble of Liga, Copa del Rey,
and European Cup from last season remains
intact. Barcelona hosts Atletico in the
Champions League on Tuesday.
"Their first goal unnerved us and unfortunately we lost our first game at home" this
season, Barcelona coach Luis Enrique said.
"We have to shake it off and recover for the
Champions League, which will be a demanding match. We have to think that we are still
IT WAS RONALDO'S 10TH GOAL
IN THE LAST NINE MATCHES HE
HAS PLAYED AT THE FAMED
VENUE, AND THE 13TH OVERALL
IN THE LAST 16 ‘CLASICOS.’
RONALDO SCORED AT LEAST
ONE GOAL IN EIGHT OF THE
NINE GAMES HE PLAYED AT THE
CAMP NOU SINCE 2012
the leaders with seven rounds left."
Before kickoff, Barcelona played a video
of many former players giving thanks to former player and manager Cruyff, who died
of lung cancer last week. The 90,000-plus
crowd responded with a long ovation, and
formed a huge mosaic with the message
"Thanks Johan" in Catalan while they sang
the club anthem before a minute of silence.
Foxes in touching distance of title
AP n LEICESTER
eicester surged seven points
clear at the Premier League
L
summit by reeling off a fourth
successive 1-0 victory Sunday,
with Wes Morgan's first-half
bullet header seeing off
Southampton.
By netting his first goal of
the season, Morgan is a step closer to becoming the first Leicester
captain in the club's 132-year
history to lift the English
topflight trophy next month.
With another dogged defensive display and win, Claudio
Ranieri's team took full advantage of second-place Tottenham.
A year ago, Leicester was
seven points from safety stranded at the bottom of the standings
before embarking on an astonishing recovery.
Now backed by a sevenpoint lead, Leicester can afford
to lose two of its remaining six
games if it wins the other four.
There's already a celebratory
atmosphere at the modest central
England club. The late-season
recovery that saved the central
England team from relegation
improbably carried into this cam-
Leicester had a lucky escape
in the 32nd minute too when
referee Michael Oliver didn't
award a penalty to Southampton.
Sadio Mane broke through
and rounded goalkeeper Kasper
Schmeichel. His resulting shot
was blocked by Danny Simpson's
raised right arm but play was
allowed to continue. Like so
often this season, Schmeichel
rescued his team by tipping
away Jose Fonte's powerful strike
from 25 yards (meters).
Leicester's breakthrough
came in the 38th when Morgan
rose above Jordy Clasie to meet
Christian Fuchs' cross from the
left flank, sending a header
beyond goalkeeper Fraser Forster.
Forster was required to
make a fine save from his own
player to prevent Southampton
gifting Leicester another. Fonte,
Leicester’s Wes Morgan (2nd left) celebrates after scoring against Southampton at King Power Stadium in Leicester on Sunday AP attempting to clear Danny
Drinkwater's deep ball, inadverSouthampton was the course with a strong work ethic tently diverted it toward the top
paign with fans already singing,
Premier League team trying to and togetherness encapsulated of the net before Forster scooped
"We're gonna win the league."
It's the fans who will be lav- break up the established order a by the word "fearless" that fea- it away. Cementing his credentials to be Joe Hart's England
ishing their owner with gifts if couple years ago. The south tures pitch-side.
Leicester was camped inside understudy, Forster thwarted
the pre-season 5,000-1 title out- coast club couldn't hold onto its
siders become one of the unlike- place in the top four though and Southampton's half for the open- Leicester again with five minutes
ing half-hour but couldn't man- to go, denying Jamie Vardy from
liest champions in English foot- cashed in on its stars.
a tight angle.
But Leicester is lasting the age a shot on target.
ball history.
Pawan wins District Men’s
Chess Championship
LUCKNOW: Pawan Batham of commercial tax department hold Ravi Shanker in
the last round to emerge winner in the
district men’s chess championship on
Sunday.
Meanwhile, second seed Mayank
Pandey, who lost to eight-year-old
Medhansh Saxena on Saturday, edged
past Kuldeep Shankar to get himself
selected for the state tournament.
Saurabh Yadav and Vasu Bajpai finished
second and third respectively.
RESULTS:
Senior: 1-Pawan Batham, Saurabh, Vasu,
Mayank U-15) Boy’s: 1-Garv Kalra, 2Skand Tripathi, 3-Aniket; Girl’s: 1Shradha Yadav, 2-Smriti Singh, 3-Shivani
(U-11) Boy’s: 1-Medhansh Saxena, 2Arnav, 3-Dhairesh; Girl’s: 1-Maitreyi, 2Vasundhara, Swasti.
only seven rounds remaining.
To add to Napoli's misery, top goalscorer Gonzalo Higuain was sent off following
two bookings. The Argentina international was visibly agitated and had to be dragged
off the pitch by fellow players.
Second spot is also in jeopardy as
third-place Roma moved to within four
points of Napoli after winning the derby
match against Lazio 4-1.
Bruno Fernandes gave Udinese the
lead from the penalty spot in the 14th
minute and although Higuain leveled with
his 30th goal in 31 matches, Fernandes
scored again on the stroke of halftime,
then Cyril Thereau sealed the result.
It could have been worse for Napoli
as goalkeeper Gabriel saved another
Fernandes penalty in the 26th minute.
Napoli coach Maurizio Sarri was sent to
the stands for his resulting protests.
Fiorentina's chances of third spot and
the final Champions League spot also
diminished as it was held to a 1-1 draw
by 10-man Sampdoria. It is seven points
behind Roma and just one above Inter
Milan, which hosts Torino later.
Milan, whose players were wearing
black armbands following the death of
former player and coach Cesare Maldini,
got off to the perfect start at Atalanta but
went on to lose 2-1, with home player
Mauricio Pinilla scoring a stunning overhead kick
Elsewhere, relegation-threatened sides
Frosinone and Palermo are further in
trouble after losing 4-0 and 3-1 at Genoa
and Chievo Verona, respectively.
It was a curious atmosphere in the
derby as fans from Roma and Lazio again
boycotted the match in protest at the security measures that split the Stadio
Olimpico "curve" — the ends of the stadium where the hardcore supporters sit.
Lazio had a number of regular players out through injury, especially at the
back and that had a part to play in Roma's
first goal as Stephan El Shaarawy was left
unmarked to head Lucas Digne's cross
into the bottom right corner.
Miralem Pjanic should have extended Roma's lead but his shot from distance
hit the right post.
Roma did double its lead shortly after
the hour when Diego Perotti's longrange strike crashed off the left upright
and substitute Edin Dzeko rushed in to
fire the rebound into the bottom right corner with his first touch, four minutes after
coming off the bench.
Lazio did get back into the match in
the 75th when Miroslav Klose headed
over the onrushing Szczesny and Parolo
tapped into the empty net. But goals from
homegrown Roma fan Alessandro
Florenzi and Perotti secured the points.
Intanon, Momota triumph
PTI n NEW DELHI
op Thai shuttler Ratchanok Intanon
pocketed her second Yonex-Sunrise
T
India Open Super Series title with a
Milan legend Cesare Maldini dies
Milan: AC Milan led the Serie A tributes to former
defender and club legend Cesare Maldini, who died
on Sunday at the age of 84. Maldini, the father of
1990s club icon Paolo Maldini, made 412
appearances with the Rossoneri between 1954 and
1966, winning four league titles including a first
'scudetto' in his first season with the club. Maldini
had the honour of lifting the trophy at Wembley in
1963 when Milan became the first Italian club to
win the European Cup, with victory over Eusebioinspired Benfica. He would play 14 times for Italy,
including their 1962 World Cup campaign in Chile
before hanging up his boots in 1966. A statement
by Milan said: "President Silvio Berlusconi and the
rest of the club will always remember his charisma,
kindness and warm smile with fondness." Agencies
AP
The same message was also painted on the
side of the pitch and worn on the players'
shirts.
The intensity revved up after halftime,
and Keylor Navas had to dive and stretch to
turn Messi's crafty lobbed shot past his post.
From the resulting corner, there was nothing Navas could do to keep out Pique's pointblank header.
Madrid quickly leveled against the flow
of the match when Marcelo led a disorganized attack that undid Barcelona when Toni
Kroos' deflected pass fell to Benzema to
sweep in.
While Barcelona battled to regain command, Madrid mounted counterattacks.
Gareth Bale appeared to have scored but his
goal was waived off for a foul on Jordi Alba.
Moments later, Ronaldo sent a ball off the
top of the bar. Elsewhere, Valencia lost at Las
Palmas 2-1 in the debut of coach Pako
Ayestaran, while Deportivo La Coruna
drew at Celta Vigo 1-1.
apoli's title hopes are all but over after
losing 3-1 at Udinese to leave it six
N
points behind Serie A leader Juventus with
straight-game victory over Olympic champion Li Xuerui in the the women's singles
final at the Siri Fort Sports Complex here
on Sunday.
In a clash between two former champions, it was Ratchanok who emerged victorious with a 21-17, 21-18 scoreline in a
matching lasting 42 minutes. It was her
fourth win over the former World No 1
Chinese in 11 meetings. Li had won the
India Open in 2012.
Japan's Kento Momota also won his
inaugural India Open title after seeing off
Denmark's Viktor Axelsen 21-15, 21-18
and sprawled on the court after hitting a
powerful smash which earned him the title.
It was Momota's fourth Super Series title.
Ratchanok, who lost to Saina Nehwal
in the final here last year, said: "Li has good
skills, she is a very attacking player. I had
to prepare well for this match. Idea was not
to make mistakes. The shuttle was very fast
today, so I played it like a doubles match.
My concentration was good. I was more
managed to distance herself and pocketed the opening game when Li hit long.
Things didn't change much in the second game with Ratchanok once again
zooming to a 7-1 lead. But the Thai girl
erred at the nets a few times before producing a smash from the back court to
move into the break at 11-6.
After the break, the fight continued but
Ratchanok managed to stay ahead at 1714. Li committed a lot of errors and hit
wide to allow the Thai to make it 19-15.
Another net error gave Ratchanok a
healthy four match points. The Chinese
saved two before Ratchanok closed a long
engrossing rally with a smash.
In a all-Japanese women's doubles
Ratchanok Intanon acknowledges the crowd
PTI summit clash, Misaki Matsutomo and
focused. I kept telling myself that it is one Ayaka Takahashi beat Naoko Fukuman
more point and I should not commit errors.” and Kurumi Yonao 21-18, 21-18, while
Ratchanok, who had beaten Li at the Chinese pair of Lu Kai and Huang Yaqiong
Asia Championship to break her title defeated Indonesian combo of Riky
drought last year, played with soft hands and Widianto and Puspita Richi Dili 21-13, 2116 to win the mixed doubles title.
her deceptive strokes earned her points.
In the men's doubles, Indonesia's
Cheered by a packed vocal crowd, the
Thai girl opened up a big lead early on, Gideon Markus Fernaldi and Kevin
reaching 5-1 and kept her nose ahead at 11- Sanjaya Sukamuljo defeated compatriots
9 during the first interval. Li caught up with Angga Pratama and Ricky Karanda
her rival at 15-15 but Ratchanok once again Suwardi 21-17, 21-13 for the title.
15
The 120-run stand between Hayley
Matthews and Stafanie Taylor was
West Indies' best ever stand in T20
WC as well as in women's T20
matches. Shanel Daley and Deandra
Dottin's 118-run stand for the fifth
wicket against South African
was previous best
[
[
IT WAS A PIVOTAL MOMENT. WE
NEEDED 160-PLUS TO SET US UP. IT
WAS DISAPPOINTING NOT TO
FINISH SUCH A GOOD BATTING SIDE
— AUS SKIPPER MEG LANNING
ON FALLING SHORT BY 10-15 RUNS
M A T C H R E P O R T
West Indies are World Champions
DATELINE KOLKATA
PTI
est Indies tonight created history by becoming the first
W
nation to win the ICC World T20
twice with a dramatic four wicket
victory over England riding on
Carlos Brathwaite’s four consecutive
lusty sixes in the final over of the
innings.
Chasing a tricky target of 156,
it was Marlon Samuels, who did an
encore of the 2012 final that Darren
Sammy’s men had won, hitting a
magnificent 85 not out off 66 balls
with nine boundaries and two huge
sixes.
However it was the unheralded
giant Brathwaite, who showed
why he commanded such a record
IPL price from Delhi Daredvils
scoring 34 off only 10 balls as he
hit the four most important
maximums of his short cricketing
career.
With 19 runs needed off the
final over, Brathwaite hit the first
ball behind square for a six and
the next was hit over long-on for
a six and the third over long-off
to basically bring down the equation 1 off 3 balls before finishing off
with another hit over deep midwicket.
The entire stadium save a few
English fans erupted in joy as the
West Indies team members rushed
to the field to congratulate the
heroes.
It was one of the most beautiful sights as the women’s team also
joined their men as the danced to
the now popular Bravo rap of
‘Champion’ in unison. They took a
‘lap of Honour from an Eden
Gardens that gave them a standing
ovation.
The West Indies despite all
their problems are now World
‘Disappointed as
we are yet to hear
from our board’:
KOLKATA: Skipper Darren
Sammy on Sunday launched a
scathing attack on West Indies
Cricket Board (WICB) which has
failed to communicate with them
terming the attitude as “disappointing”.
Sammy was emotional as he
spoke about how they are yet to
hear from the West Indies Cricket
Board (WICB) as he made it clear
that the issues with the board
regarding the pay disputes are yet
to be sorted.
“People were wondering we
would plays this tournament, we
had issues with the board, Mark
Nicholas called us players with no
brain. But all of us came together,
these 15 men put adversity aside,
play this type of cricket in front of
such passionate fans. It was tremendous. I want to thank the coaching
team, Phil Simmons,” Sammy said
at the post-match presentation
ceremony. “Really happy for this
win, it’s something we’ll cherish for
a long time. We have a few matchwinners, nobody give us a chance,
every game somebody stepped up
- good to see Carlos play like that
in his debut World Cup,” added
Sammy. “We had a new manager in
this tournament in Rawl Lewis. He
was doing the job for the first time.
He came to Dubai and we know
what he did so that we get the jerseys. We did not have the jerseys.
Got to give credit to the entire team
here. This is for all the fans in the
Caribbean. President Mitchell
(Keith Mitchell, President of
Grenada) send us a inspiring message.”
Virat Kohli awarded
‘Man of the Tournament’
West Indies men's and women's players celebrate after their respective wins in the finals of the ICC World Twenty20 2016 cricket tournament at
Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Sunday
Champions in U-19, women’s and
men’s World T20.
For England’s bowling unit, the
hero certainly would left-arm seamer David Willey, who had phenomenal figures of 3/20 in 4 overs with
an astounding 13 dot balls as he
increased pressure on the Caribbean
batsmen before Stokes frittered it
away.
Eoin Morgan took a calculative
risk introducing part-time off-spinner Root in the second over and it
turned out to be a masterstroke.
Root snuffed out Chris Gayle (4)
and Johnson Charles (0), both trying to hit a six and caught by Ben
Stokes in the deep.
It was Morgan’s ability to play on
Gayle’s mind that proved to be key.
Gayle may thought about Moeen Ali
Title will spur women's
and it was Root, who did flight the
ball.
From 5/2 it became 11/3 as last
game’s ‘Man of The Match’ Lendl
Simmons (0) was caught plumb infront as Willey got one to shape
back.
In the final over of the
Powerplay, Marlon Samuels (27)
spanked three boundaries off Chris
Jordan to take the score to 37. He
had a close shave when he edged one
off Liam Plunkett to Jos Buttler
which Rod Tucker had given out.
But replays showed that the England
wicketkeeper did not take the catch
cleanly and the batsman got a
reprieve.
However England bowlers
maintained tight lines West Indies
reached 54 for 3 in 10 overs need-
ing 102 from remaining 10 overs.
But Samuels and of course
Brathwaite had other ideas.
This was also the first time that
a target in excess of 150 was chased
in a World T20 final.
The pitch had good pace and
bounce but it also had some purchase for the spinners as leg-spinner Adil Rashid (1/23 in 4 overs),
who was fantastic as he did not give
a single boundary in the first three
overs.
While he had a good time with
the ball, Dwayne Bravo (25, 27 balls)
struggled big time as he could not
find the boundary save the six off
Rashid before being out playing a
horrible shot. The partnership for
the 4th wicket was of 75 runs but
West Indies were still in trouble at
KOLKATA: India’s premier batsman Virat Kohli was deservingly
awarded the ‘Man of the
Tournament’ for his brilliant performance in the ICC World T20,
that concluded, here on Sunday.
It was former India captain and
CAB president Sourav Ganguly,
who collected the award on Kohli’s
behalf as the cricketer was not present in person.
Kohli was in sublime for
throughout the tournament scoring
273 runs with a staggering average
of 136.50 and an equally astounding strike-rate of 146.77 with three
50 plus scores. He hit 29 boundaries
and five sixes in all. He was second
in the list of run-getters behind
Tamim Iqbal of Bangladesh, who
scored 295 runs. However most of
Tamim’s runs were scored in the
qualifying tournament against associate nations.
The highlight of Kohli’s three
half-centuries was his unbeaten 82
not out in a successful run-chase
against Australia, which is
being considered as an epic T20
knock. He also scored an un
beaten 55 against Pakistan on a
square turner while his 89 not out
against West Indies came in a losing cause.
86/4.
The turning point was the 15th
over bowled by the normally disciplined Liam Plunkett which yielded 18 runs as Samuels finally gave
the charge hitting him for two
sixes of full length deliveries apart
from a boundary as West Indies for
the first time raised visions of victory.
However he lost the dangerous
Andre Russell (1) in the next over
when Stokes took his third catch and
Willey got his second wicket. It
became 107 for six as Darren
Sammy’s (2) horrible tournament
came to an end with an atrocious
shot.
But Brathwaite let Samuels set
the stage for him before he finished
the final leg of the chase with utter
disdain leaving the Englishmen
horrified.
For an England team, even
after close to three decades,
there was no change in their fortune
in a global final. Just like Mike
Gatting’s reverse sweep, Stokes’s
over will also come to haunt them
big time.
Earlier, West Indies bowlers
effected a middle-order collapse to
restrict England to a decent 155
for 9 despite Joe Root’s attractive
half-century after Sammy won the
toss.
It was leg-spinner Samuel
Badree (2/16 in 4 overs), who
inflicted the initial damage in a
splendid opening act while Dwayne
Bravo (3/37 in 4 overs) and Carlos
Brathwaite (3/23 in 4 overs) displayed their variations while triggering a collapse during the back-10.
The last five overs produced a meagre 40 runs.
Just when Root (54 in 36 balls)
along with Jos Buttler (36), looked
set for an imposing total, Bravo and
Brathwaite wreaked havoc.
England were cruising 84 for 3
in 11.1 overs with Root and Buttler
having added 61 runs already but
were soon reduced to 111 for 7, losing four wickets for 27 runs within
next three overs.
F A I R S H A R E
WIndies clinch maiden WT20 title
game in Caribbean: Taylor
DATELINE KOLKATA
DATELINE KOLKATA
PTI
PTI
aving clinched their maiden
Women's WT20 title, West Indies
H
skipper Stafanie Taylor today said that
the historic triumph should act as the
stepping stone for the development of
the women's game in the Caribbeans.
"We have to move on from here not
just enjoy look at it stepping stone. We
don't want to stuck here. We definitely
need some infrastructure like in
Australia and England. We need young
guys coming up," Taylor said.
"When these core players go, it will
deteriorate. We need to start building.
We need consistency to compete teams
like England and Australia," she added.
Taylor, who hit a 57-ball 59 today,
said the mindset of targetting to bat
through instead of thinking the
England total helped to her side win
the final match.
"It's funny, we never discussed the
total. We just we wanted to bat through,
it was good to keep wickets in hand. We
could do that stay there and bat
through," Taylor said as the West Indies
chased down the target of 149 to halt a
quadruple of titles by the Australians.
n a historic first, the West Indies women's
cricket team ended three-time defending
Ichampions
Australia's domination by winning
Taylor said she and her team-mates
were still feeling "unreal" about winning
the title. "I don't think it has sunk in yet.
When we wake up in the morning it's
going to be like is it real trophy. I will
ask myself is this real. When we touch
down at the Caribbean that's when it's
going to hit you. A lot of people with
cameras you will realise that you have
won the World Cup," Taylor said.
Lanning heaped praise on Windies
batter Hayley Matthews who struck a 45ball 66 to set up her side's win.
"She's very talented, she had a good
series against us. It was not a surprise.
She played exceptionally well," Lanning
said.
the ICC World T20 title with an emphatic
eight-wicket victory in the final here on Sunday.
The foundation of the successful chase
was laid by a 120-run partnership by openers Hayley Matthews (66 off 45) and skipper
Stafanie Taylor (59 off 57), who helped the
team chase a stiff target of 149.
The moment the West Indies reached the
target courtesy an overthrow, the entire
dugout jumped in joy as the team joined the
two not out batswomen, Britney Cooper and
Deandra Dottin, in the middle.
TOP OF THE WORLD: West Indies players celebrate after winning the ICC WT20 beating Australia
AP
What made the celebrations more spethe winning run from the overthrow.
cial was the men's team, led by captain Darren her sublime form with a solid knock.
Captain Meg Lanning (52) and opener
After Hayley holed out at the midwickSammy, bowling coach Curtley Ambrose and
all-rounder Andre Russell joined everyone in et in the 16th over, the West Indies need- Elyse Villani (52) scored brisk half-centuries
ed 29 from 26 balls and the equation went before the West Indies fought back at the end
congratulating the girls.
The girls, as promised to Dwayne Bravo, down to 14 from the last 2 overs but the to restrict three-time defending champions
danced to the beats of the all-rounder's lat- experienced Dottin made sure the team got Australia to 148 for five.
Villani set up the tempo with her 37-ball
home comfortably.
est rap compilation 'Champion'.
With three needed from the last over, innings and shared a 77-run partnership off
It was also the West Indies' first win over
Dottin took a single to give the strike to 60 balls with Lanning, who continued her
Australia in nine T20 Internationals.
Hayley was the star of their chase with a Cooper who ran a quick single and Aussies good run with second successive fifty.
Ellyse was looking dangerous with two
career-best innings, while Stafanie continued narrowly missed the stump as they complete
huge sixes but Dottin ensured that the
Australia did not do much damage in the last
over as they could muster only 36 runs from
the last five overs, which proved to be the difference. From being nine for no loss in the
first three overs, the West Indies were quiet
at the start with Hayley looking dormant with
two runs from eight balls.
In the next over, Hayley stepped on the
gas taking charge on Rene Farrell with two
boundaries and in the next over she smacked
Schutt over midwicket for a huge six.
But the massive turnaround came in the
last over of Powerplay when Stafanie too
joined in the act with two boundaries after
Hayely's step-out six as they raced to 45/0.
Stafanie was happy to rotate the strike
while Hayely went on the rampage as the
Southern Stars bowled too wide and full.
Hayley completed her maiden half-century in 35 balls with a six and boundary
against Jess Jonassen.
Earlier, opting to bat after winning a crucial toss in hot and sultry conditions,
Australia were off to a flying start with Villani
taking charge after her opening partner Alyssa
Healy (4) got out in a soft dismissal.
Villani raced to her second fifty and
eighth overall in T20Is in 34 balls while
Lanning was sensible at the start.
Lanning was a joy to watch as she completed her second successive half-century.
P A K F I L E
AFRIDI QUITS AS PAKISTAN T20 CAPTAIN
DATELINE KARACHI
PTI
acing criticism for Pakistan's
dismal show in the WT20,
Shahid Afridi on Sunday stepped
down as captain of the team but will
continue to play in the shortest format of the game.
The Afridi-led Pakistan failed
make it to the semifinals of the WT20
in India, where his comments also
drew the ire of former players.
The 36-year-old all-rounder and
the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) had
hinted that World T20 could well be
be his last as skipper.
"Today, I wish to inform my fans
in Pakistan and all over the world that
I am relinquishing the captaincy of the
T20 Pakistani team of my own volition," Afridi said in a statement,
released on his twitter account.
F
"On this day, I thank Allah
(SWT) for His Kindness and Mercy
which enabled me to discharge my
leadership duties, to the best of my
abilities for the sake of honour and
prestige of my motherland. For me it
was a great honour to lead my country in all three formats of the game,"
Afridi wrote in his statement.
Afridi, however, asserted that he
will be available for selection as a player in the team even though PCB
Chairman Shaharyar Khan has made
it clear that the all-rounder is no
longer a surety in the side.
"My profound thanks to the PCB
and its Chairman Shaharyar Khan
who gave me the honour to lead the
national team. I would also like to
inform that InshaAllah I intend to
continue to play the game for my
country and league cricket etc. And
request my fans for kindly keep
praying and supporting for my best
future performances for Pakistan (as
Waqar refuses to go out as villain
DATELINE KARACHI
PTI
akistan cricket coach Waqar
Younis on Sunday refused to step
P
down from his position despite
Pakistan team head coach Waqar Younis (left) with Shahid Afridi during WT20
a player); and in all other arenas of the
game, world over."
The mercurial cricketer played 27
Tests for Pakistan before retiring
from the format in 2010 with 1716
runs and 48 wickets.
PTI
Afridi found himself mired in
controversies during Pakistan's World
T20 campaign. First, he drew flak in
Pakistan for stating that he and his
players were loved more in India than
back home.
being in the line of fire for the team's
disastrous World Twenty20 campaign, saying that he will not go out
as a "villain".
"I am being portrayed as the villain. If the Board wants to remove me
they first have to inform me in writing. I have no issues but I will not go
like this," Waqar said.
Pakistan cricket has been thrown
into disarray after the team's poor
performances in the Asia Cup and
World T20 but Waqar said he did all
he could to arrest the slide.
"I didn't request for the coaching job. I applied for it with the PCB.
I was interviewed by Mr Najam Sethi
and I submitted a comprehensive
plan to him with which he concurred
and the board appointed me as
coach," Waqar said in an interview.
"Unfortunately after the World
Cup 2015 Sethi never met me and
despite me pointing out several
issues I was facing in unfolding my
plan no one in the board listened to
me," he said.
"Now they are trying to blame
me for everything. They want to sack
me. I can go tomorrow. But if things
continue this way in Pakistan cricket two years down the line some
other coach would also find himself
in a similar position," he added.
Fact-finding committee
submits report to PM
CB's fact-finding committee,
Pwhich is probing into the reasons
for Pakistan's poor show in WT20
and Asia Cup, has submitted its
report to PM Nawaz Sharif.
"The PCB is now waiting for
further instructions from the Prime
Minister's secretariat which now is
also holding its own independent
inquiry into the cricket affairs," a
well-informed source in PCB said.
Federal
interior
minister
Chaudhary Nisar Ali Khan said on
Saturday the govt was not happy
with the way the confidential reports
of head coach Waqar Younis and
manager Intikhab Alam were leaked.
vivacity 16
emember the scene from the movie
Notting Hill where Julia Roberts’s character Anna Scott gives a description of
what it is like to be a star, with the constant
intrusion of the paparazzi. There was, in particular, one dialogue that sums best the lives
of celebrities, “And every time I get my heart
broken, the newspapers splash it about as
though it’s entertainment.”
With every passing minute, the death of
24-year-old Pratyusha Banerjee is becoming
murkier — with the father of Rahul Raj Singh
claiming that the actress was about to sever
ties with her family and his mother stating
that one who loves cannot kill. Over the
past two days, every form of social
media — Twitter, Facebook and
Instagram — has been flooded with
condolences, pouring in from every
possible member of the television
fraternity and also some from
Bollywood.
Amidst all the “RIPs”, “sad to
hear about her death” and
“strength for her family”, a few
actors have actually had the
sense to speak up about how
death is not the only solution
one could resort to when all
options in hand are exhausted.
Some celebs have the nerve to
fight through whatever is bothering them, while some succumb to
it. Case in point would be Deepika
Padukone, who sought counselling and
overcame her phase of depression. And
that is exactly one of the points that few
TV actors are trying to make.
“I worry there is something broken in
our generation; there are so many sad eyes
on happy faces. —Atticus. (sic),” said actor
Mouni Roy’s photo on photo sharing site
Instagram. Her reaction, at the news of
her friend’s death, did not look fake as
she apparently fainted at the hospital.
The actor’s opposition to the act that
Banerjee sought a solution in, found a voice
in her post which wished for the actor to shoe
some strength to “overcome her woes.”
Even her neighbour Anuj Sachdeva, in
his statement, lamented the fact that he
should have at least knocked once and asked
her about it. He mentioned that instead of
taking such drastic measures one should at
least attempt to talk to someone, “because
that helps.”
Pratyusha’s fellow contestant at Bigg Boss
and friend Kushal Tandon echoed Roy’s and
Sachdeva’s thoughts on Twitter which said,
“Suicide doesnt take away the pain, it gives
it to someone else.” And we agree. It might
be the end for the victim but it triggers a
decade of woes for family and friends.
We know what’s it like to feel depressed
and alone with no place to go but that certainly does not entitle anybody to take their
own life.
R
‘The society is
male-dominated’
SONAM KAPOOR, who is known
for her outspoken views, says the
society is “male-dominated”, but
things are slowly changing.
“It's a male-dominated society
and a male-dominated world,
but I think it's changing slowly
and steadily,” Sonam said.
“I have the luxury of choosing
to do a film like Neerja,
but a lot of people
don't,” she added.
“It's about the
quality of female role
that you have. It's about
choosing a role that is
inspirational for
women,” she added.
Sonam also asserted
that she is not
outspoken, but just
“honest” about
her opinion.
“I don't think I
am outspoken.
I am straight
forward and
honest and I believe
as an Indian, it's imperative to
have an opinion especially in the
atmosphere that we are living in.
There is a general downward
spiral that the world is going in.
Anybody who has an opinion, it's
important to speak up,” the
actress said.
Deepika Padukone
overwhelmed
ctress Deepika Padukone is “over-
Awhelmed” that both of her films “Piku”
and “Bajirao Mastani” have
won many National Awards.
The 30-year-old actress, who
is currently shooting her
debut Hollywood project
“xXx: The Return of
Xander Cage” in Canada,
took to Twitter to express
her
excitement.
“Extremely overwhelmed to see both my
movies #Piku & #BajiraoMastani win
almost every award this season!,” she
wrote. In “Piku”, Deepika played an independent but short-tempered daughter of
hypochondriac father Amitabh Bachchan,
who won his career’s fourth best actor
national award for the road drama. “Piku”,
meanwhile, also won for the best original
screenplay and dialogues. Writer Juhi
Chaturvedi shared the award with
Himanshu Sharma, who won it for “Tanu
Weds Manu Returns”. The “Tamasha” star
essayed the titular role of Mastaani, second wife of the Maratha Peshwa Bajirao,
in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s “Bajirao
Mastani”. Expressing gratitude to both the
directors, Deepika said: “Thank you
#SanjayLeelaBhansali & @ShoojitSircar
for the opportunity...”
Hiddleston gives
weather report
TOM HIDDLESTON dropped by a
Chicago news station as Loki, the
famous fictional character
that he portrays in Thor
and Avengers series, to
update viewers on the
terrible weather hitting
the area this
weekend. Hiddleton
blamed it all on his
onscreen brother
Thor (Chris
Hemsworth),
saying that his
“brother from
another mother’s
been
misbehaving”,
reports a website.
“The God of Thunder
has brought his skill
set to bare on the
local weather,” he
said.
Hiddleton added,
“Chris Hemsworth
has taken his
hammer and
smashed it on
the surface of
the sky and it’s going to rain a
helluva lot.” Hiddleston and
Hemsworth will appear onscreen
again in Thor: Ragnarok.
DR AJAY PHADKE
DR SONAL ANAND
Amid all the heart
life often has hidden pressures as there is a
ll actors in the limelight are
rendering messages Acelebrity’s
facade that the actors have to maintain for being
A
faced with a constant need
happy, upbeat, look great and act right all the time. They
for
perfection in all fields —
in the light of
do not have the privacy like an ordinary person. The
work quality , looks and beauminutest details of their lives are splashed across media
ty, social life, career growth.
and are constantly scrutinised.
Pratyusha
Along with that comes hectic
This very limelight can become
working hours, lack of sleep,
a prison if they do not have
Banerjee’s death,
physical and mental stress for
space to talk about the
delivering on time. Such stressed
problems,
express
their
actors go through a lot of concelebs from tinsel
feelings and take time off to
flicts due to their multi-focal
deal with pressure. This affects
tasking and are more prone for
town are speaking
the mental health of a person
instant gratification like alcohol
and he/she is forced to live dual
and drugs and living for the
up on how taking
lives. Working at odd hours,
moment behaviour.
constant travelling, lack of
At some point, they do go
sleep,
less
time
spent
with
one's life is not the family and friends et al. add to
through an ‘occupational
burnout’ (or a milder version
the unprecedented pressure
solution and that
termed brownout). It all starts
into celebrities’ life. They often
with the zest for proving oneself
pay a big price and sacrifice a lot of good things in life to
through compulsive working.
they should have become rich and famous.
Today, living a celebrity life can be physically and
the courage to
psychologically very demanding. In order to battle the
and depression, one must seek help and talk to
someone they trust, a professional who can keep secrets.
beat the odds and stress
They can guide in terms of steps one needs to take to
the issue. It is also important to step away from
seek counselling. address
the limelight from time to time and evolve from within.
should reach out to family and friends and connect
By SHRABASTI MALLIK One
regularly in person. The people one talks to don’t have to
be able to fix your stress; they just need to be good
and ARJITA MISHRA
listeners. Opening up is not a sign of weakness.
CEO AND FOUNDER, TYPE A THOUGHT
It’s
not
the
end
KUSHAL TANDON
MOUNI ROY
ctor Kushal Tandon, who
knew Banerjee since their
time together in the Bigg Boss
house, took to micro blogging site
Twitter, calling suicide a “selfish act
which needs to be addressed.”
The statement read,
“SAD...If Life is difficult...But why do
this...This is not the way
to end your life, rip
pratyusha my sweet
friend, strength to her
family sad sad sad, suicide doesnt take away
the pain, it gives it to
someone else... And
that is to family members.... Suicide is a selfish act...
Depression needs address b4
suicide remains d only destination, A girl died... let her
loved ones mourn in peace...
social media may not have
conscience... but it can have
a heart... (sic).”
hocked angry hurt & very disturbed with the fact that
Pratyusha took her own life on
account of a bad relationship or the
other hardships she was fighting in
her life. We all have several battles
to fight & darkest nights after nights
we struggle through fear and pain
and lost causes but there s always a
master there who can take us
towards light again. We need to seek
help, take that one step, ask for a
hand to hold need be, but this, this
is not right. Lets not be so unfair to
our parents, siblings, friends or
anyone who saw even a tiniest bit
of hope in us. This is really really sad and heartbreaking; I wish
she had an ounce of strength to
overcome her woes & had exercised
her ghosts and lived still. A day too
late now, I pray that her soul s peaceful and transcends to her wishful
heaven. Shall always remember you
as the emotional, lost beautiful girl.
This is really sad (sic)”
A
S
CONSULTANT PSYCHIATRISTS IN
WOCKHARDT HOSPITAL
All other needs take a backseat.
Perception and values start
changing leading to isolation
and some behaviour changes like
aggression, becoming emotionally blunt and preferring social
withdrawal. Their life starts getting more machine-like and
predictable. Along with pressure
on the body, the constant overdrive on the mind can lead to
depression and in severe cases
suicidal ideation as the only
means of rescue from the situation. Learning how to deal
with day to day stressors does
help. Meditation, yoga and relaxation exercises all play an important role along with time management and coping skills.
Sometimes an anti-depressant
pill may be prescribed by a mental health professional so that
depression is kept at bay and
work focus is not lost.
Born in Bengal The front runner
PAYAL KHANDWALA’s Spring Summer
2016 at the Lakme Fashion Week saw a lot of
silk outfits
Designers from Kolkata
displayed their collection
inspired by the textile,
crafts and arts from Bengal.
S MALLIK finds from curator
CHIKKY GOENKA, a
designer herself, that it was
her long standing dream to
put Bengal on the fashion
map of India
ummer is here and what better than the pool side of the
St. Regis Mumbai to showcase a beautiful Spring
SSummer’16
collection by designer Payal Khandwala at the
ESHAANI JAYASWAL
engal is known for a lot of things —
theatre, food, history and yes,
B
handicrafts. And it doesn’t end there.
Just like the Banarasi silk is embedded
in the craftsmanship of that place, textiles like jamdani, dhakai and tangail are
inherent to the state, amongst others.
It was designer Chikky Goenka’s
long dream to put Bengal in the fashion map of India. And along with Pooja
Roy Yadav, founder and CEO, Nimai,
she did exactly that by hosting the first
edition of the Travelling Trunk show in
Delhi. The two day show displayed
works of designers from Kolkata.
“Both Chikky and I have been associated for the past two years where she
has hosted the store in Kolkata for various shows. She was always keen to
bring together the goodness of ‘Made
in Bengal’ label in the form of a
Travelling Trunk that went from one
city to the other to promote the rich
craftsmen of Bengal,” said Yadav.
Goenka added, “I wanted to use my
expertise and sensibilities to support
and promote designers on a larger platform. Interact with the customers and
let them experience the diversity of
Bengal fashion.”
Here’s what the designers had to
say:
PAROMITA BANERJEE
It was a great experience because
the idea was about cohesively showcasing brand Bengal to an audience outside the state. As designers working
We used the expert craftsmanship of the state in the collection that was displayed. The monochrome collection Iron Fairies was
inspired from oriental paintings.
Enlarged birds and floral appliqués
was a twist to the miniature oriental flowers and birds.
This was our first print line for
which the first process of developing screens of out artworks
needed us to work with the local
artisans.
DEBASHRI SAMANTA
from Kolkata we retail at multi designer stores across, but it is a different identity when we do this together as a complete story.
We work with weaver clusters
from all across India. This collection has
two stories. One on textured light silks
for evening wear but has very classic silhouettes like the kallidar kurta, capes
and bandhgala. We have used upcycled
patchwork details as part of another.
On the
occassion of
World Autism
Day, DLF
Promenade took
aa step ahead
and celebreated
it by lighting up
the entire mall
blue. At night it
was a sight to
behold and was
one of the few
places that
turned blue for
the cause
We have taken inspiration
from the traditional jamdani of
Bengal and made a next-gen version of it in tussar and khadi.
The signature motifs are all
handwoven and studio engineered. We worked with our
own team of weavers in the villages of Bengal.
The collection is all about
revisiting and re-interpreting our traditions. We revive the age-old Bengali
sensibility with an urbane edge by
using studio-handwoven, new-age
jamdani motifs. The main motif used
are the houses, full meenakari trees
with their roots intact, and peacocks.
Our collection rightly compliments
this philosophy as we go back to
nature and back to basics but with
the right kind of edge and luxurious global appeal.
Lakme Fashion Week.
The geometric inspired range showcased the simplicity
and complexity of shapes with an evocative play of negative
and positive spaces. The use of minimal flat shapes transformed into a three dimensional forms. Repeats, lines,
symmetry, asymmetry and angles echoed
across the outfits, creating interesting silhouettes with hand-woven artisanal
details and tailoring focused on circles,
triangles and the often forgotten parallelogram.
The models looked fierce wearing
ensembles in a palette of whites
accentuated by shades of coral, fuschia,
citrine, chartreuse, blush, and metallic vintage gold and silver adding a
dash of playfulness and brilliance to
the ramp. Textures ranging
from cottons, linens,
permpleating, lightweight
handwoven silks and neoprene to silk organzas and
handcrafted brocades were
seen in full grandeur.
An array of handcrafted leather accessories by
the designer’s line Tachi
was showcased. A bold
new line of minimal
brass and leather jewelry including rings,
necklaces, earrings,
nosepins, bangles
and anklets were
designed to complement
this
collection.
The motifs handwoven in metallic gold
and silver thread in
geometric patterns by
artisans from Varanasi
and Bengal gave the collection a traditional yet
contemporary appeal,
creating
versatile
outfits.
Celebrity guests
who supported the
designer
were
Konkana
S en
Sharma, Adhuna
Akhtar, Manasi
S cott,
Pernia
Q u r e s h i ,
Priyanka Bose,
Mini Mathur
and
Sayani
Gupta.
This feminine and relaxed
version of resort wear
by Payal Khandwala
can take you from a summer
vacation to a summer
wedding.

NIA man trailing IM ultras shot 24 times

Transcription

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