balancing the issues relating

Transcription

1 bserving that Hindus in Othe country felt insulted over remark made by the Supreme Court while postponing Ram Mandir hearing to January that it had its own priorities, the RSS on Friday urged the apex court to reconsider its priority on the sensitive issue and said if need be, it would launch a 1992-like agitation to demand construction of the Ram temple at Ayodhya. Addressing a news conference at the end of a three-day All India working committee at Uttan Thane district, RSS general secretary Suresh Bhaiyyaji Joshi expressed dissatisfaction over the inordinate delay in a judicial verdict over the Ram Mandir issue. Responding to a specific question if the RSS would launch a 1992-like agitation to demand the construction of Ram Mandir, Joshi said, Avashyakta padi to he State Cabinet, which Tmet under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik at the Secretariat on Friday, approved proposals for restructuring of Geologist cadres under the Directorate of Ground Water Development and the Rural Water Supply n a significant move, the IOrissa High Court Bar Association on Friday expelled three Senior Advocates from the association and issued show-cause notice to Senior Sdvocate and Bar Council of Odisha (BCO) chairman Dr Tahali Charan Mohanty for their alleged attempt to weaken the ongoing Statewide lawyers agitation being spearheaded by the association for over two months now. The general body of the association resolved to suspend the membership of Senior Advocate Asim Amitav Dash, Milan Kanungo and Banshidhar Satapathy. Since Dr Mohanty has already tendered an apology, he has been issued a notice to show cause as to why his membership of the association shall not be suspended, said association secretary Satyabrata Mohanty. Mohanty further informed that the general body also resolved to continue the lawyers agitation till November 9, the date fixed by the High Court to hear all the three writ petitions pertaining to the lawyer-police strife arising out of the August 28 police assault on a Cuttack advocate. On that date, Crime Branch IGP Arun Bothra has also been asked to submit final reports on the relevant criminal cases. Demanding arrest of four policemen, who had assaulted advocate Devi Prasanna Patnaik, the lawyers across the State are on strike since August 29. In the meantime, advocate Patnaik, who had also been booked in three cases, has approached the High Court for quashing of the FIRs against him and has also sought interim protection. All his petitions are scheduled to be taken up on karenge (If need be, we will launch an agitation). We were expecting some good news about the Ram Mandir before the Diwali. But, the Supreme Court refused to hear the Ram Mandir case and also postponed the hearing indefinitely. The Supreme Court has powers to decide on legal matters like this. I don t and Sanitation Departments. With the restructuring, posts of eight news Geologists, three Deputy Director, two Joint Director and one Additional Director have been created. Besides, a decision was taken to create three geology water divisions and two ground water development circle (geology). November 12. In another related development, secretary of Cuttack Criminal Court Bar Association Pradeep Kumar Parida through his advocate Prashant Kumar Nayak on Friday issued a legal notice to Cuttack city DCP Akhileswar Singh. Parida alleged that Singh had tried to defame him in public eyes by taking his name among those advocates who had apparently negotiated with the police to call off the lawyers strike. Singh had earlier this week alleged that office-bearers of the bar association and some other advocates, including Parida, had reached an agreement with the police at the Naraj IB on September 25 to call off the strike if at least two policemen are arrested. Although the arrests were made, the lawyers did not keep their words and the strike continued, the DCP had said. Taking umbrage to the DCP s allegation, Parida claims that he was not present at the Naraj IB when the so-called agreement was reached. The utterances of the DCP were intended to defame my client; and if the DCP does not apologise for giving false statements in media, my client will take legal action in appropriate court, said Parida s counsel Nayak. want to talk about its jurisdiction. When the apex court was asked when it would fix the date for start of hearing, the Judge said the apex court has different priorities. This remark has caused anguish among crores of Hindus in the country, Joshi said. The Hindu community feels insulted about the manner With this, the number of cadres in the Odisha Geologist Service under the Directorate of Ground Water Development went up to 48 from 34. After restructuring, the cadre strength in the RWSW will be increased from 19 to 39. Similarly, the Cabinet approved a proposal of restructuring of the cadre of Odisha in which the Judge sought to respond to a query regarding an issue that involves the faith of crores of Hindus. The fact that an issue which involves the faith of crores of Hindus does not fit into the priorities of the Supreme Court is surprising, anguishing and we as Hindus feel insulted. Hence, we urge the court not to treat the issue like this but reconsider it and change its priorities so as to expedite matters relating to the litigation, Joshi said. Replying to a question, Joshi said the RSS had never disrespected the judicial pronouncements. We are among those who believe in the Constitution. While we respect the judiciary, it also becomes the responsibility of the courts to respect the sentiments of the people. That s what we expect. We are not saying anything about the verdicts by the court. All we are asking the Supreme Court to give priority to the Welfare Service and Odisha Subordinate Welfare Service. Accordingly, 71 additional posts of ADWOs, nine additional posts of DWOs, eight additional posts of Deputy Directors, three additional posts of Joint Directors and a post of Additional Director would be increased. A proposal to amend the Odisha Fisheries Service Group- A and B (Recruitment and Conditions of Service) Rules 2013 was also okayed by the Cabinet. The amended rules would facilitate the promotional avenues of the officers and enhance competitiveness in the process of recruitment of Assistant Fisheries Officers conducted by the OPSC, an Ram Mandir issue, RSS general secretary said. Joshi said it is for the Government to decide when to come out with an ordinance or a bill to acquire the disputed land and hand it over for the construction of Ram Mandir. We understand that till the Supreme Court does not decide on the issue, even the Government has its own difficulty in taking decisions (in matters relating to promulgation of ordinance or introduction of a bill in Parliament), he said Ȧsked as to why the BJP had not resolved the Ram Mandir issue despite having been in power at the Centre for three terms since 1992 and why it revived the issue during elections, Joshi said, It is not question of our putting pressure on the Government. Things are decided on consensus. The Government functions balancing the issues relating to Constitution and sentiments of the people. All the Governments have so far waited for a verdict from the courts. If we (the Government) were among those who did not respect the courts, we would have enacted law to facilitate construction of Ram Mandir a long ago. hief Minister Yogi CAdityanath is set to lay foundation of the groundwork for building the much-awaited 107- metre statue of Lord Ram on Diwali at Ayodhya on the banks of Saryu River. Yogi is likely to lay the bricks for building the sprawling pedestal on which the towering statute will be built. The height of the statue will be 151 metres as it will be put on a 44-metre pedestal on the bank of Saryu and will be part of Tourism department s plan coined Naya Ayodhya. An official said on Friday the actual place where the statue will be installed was yet to be decided but it would not be very far away from Saryu the River. Yogi on his visit to Ayodjhya on November 6 will lay foundation of the pedestal and the statue will be installed later, the official said. he US has agreed to tem- allow eight coun- Tporarily tries, including India, to continue buying Iranian oil after it reimposes crippling sanctions on Tehran on November 5, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Friday, citing significant reduction in imports of oil from the Persian Gulf nation. Earlier in the day, Bloomberg quoted a US official as saying that the eight countries being exempted from sanctions include India, Japan and South Korea. While the US had previously wanted the countries, including India, to completely halt oil purchases from Iran by November 4 when its full sanctions against Tehran come into force, it seems to have relented considering the havoc the move to completely take out Interbank Iranian supplies from the market would have had on prices. India, which is the second biggest purchaser of Iranian oil after China, is willing to restrict its monthly purchase to 1.25 million tonnes or 15 million tonnes in a year (3,00,000 barrels per day), down from 22.6 million tonnes (4,52,000 barrels per day) bought in financial year, sources in New Delhi said. Pompeo said, the US is to issue temporary exemption to eight jurisdictions from Iranian sanctions recognising their significant reduction in imports of oil from Iran. The names of the jurisdictions would be released on Monday. The US will allow the eight nations to import Iranian oil but only at much lower levels after the reimposition of sanctions on Monday, Pompeo said. The US will also demand the Society for Worldwide Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) global financial network stop supporting Iranian banks as part of enforcing sanctions over Tehran s nuclear programme and alleged support for terrorism.

2 JD supremo and Chief BMinister Naveen Patnaik on Friday once again targeted the BJP-led NDA Government at the Centre over the longstanding demand for Special Category State status to Odisha. Addressing party workers at a Jana Sampark Padayatra held here, Patnaik said, Special Category State status to Odisha was the first agenda in the 2014 poll manifesto of the BJP. However, the party forgot its promise after coming to power. Patnaik stated that youths of Odisha would be more benefited in terms of employment if the Centre accords Special Category status to the State. He further said, Once Odisha gets the Special Category status, the State s share in various Centre-sponsored schemes will reduce from to so that we would be able to spend remaining funds on education, health, he recent electrocution of Tas many as seven elephants at Kamalanga of Dhenkanal district sparked off a countrywide indignation and calls for action against the guilty. A week has passed. What has been the outcome? A few lower-level forest officers and some district-level electrical engineers and lower staffs of the Cesu have been suspended. Of course, a junior engineer of Cesu has been dismissed from service. infrastructure and other developmental activities. Stating that Odisha is incurring a heavy loss due to natural disasters every year, Patnaik questioned as to whether natural calamities are not a strong ground for the Special Category status. He challenged the Centre that people of Odisha would make the BJP recall its 2014 promise in the 2019 elections. Special Category status for Odisha is our right. The BJD will continue to fight for it, Patnaik asserted. T he All India Federation of General Insurance Pensioners held its office-bearers meeting at Puri recently. The delegates expressed immense displeasure that the Union Government was only giving 15 per cent of the pension amount to the widows of the deceased pensioners; while under similar circumstances the widows of other Central Government employee are getting 30 per cent of the pension amount. A resolution was unanimously passed with a decision that the widows of the deceased pensioners along with women pensioners will stage a peaceful demonstration. The delegates also appealed to the managements of the non-life insurance companies to revisit their pension arrangement with the LIC which has been unscrupulously designed to benefit the LIC most at the cost of non-life companies. The federation also appealed to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to implement reservation of seats for the senior citizens in both Government and private buses as has been done in Maharashtra. Federation Odisha unit president Ashok Behari Mahapatra and secretary Bijay Sahoo under stewardship of insurance think-tank Rajendra Prasad Samal would take up the matter with the CM. Imagine the outrage if seven human beings had died at the spot had they accidentally touched the sagging 11KV overhead power line. These engineers who were guilty of negligence or rather criminal negligence would have been booked and arrested for murder of the second degree caused by criminal negligence since their culpability was clear and visible. The forest department had been regularly warning the district electrical officials as well as the Managing Director of Cesu about the sagging overhead wires in Dhenkanal since the last two years. They had recommended insulated overhead wires for at least 136 running km where elephants regularly pass. Forest Minister BijashreeRoutray was well aware of this issue since Wildlife Society of Orissa (WSO) has written three letters Regarding the schemes undertaken by his Government Patnaik said, I had told you about four essential things, food security, shelter, health and social security. Many eligible families were deprived of these necessities as per the norms set by the Union Government. It pained me. Hence, we have started Biju Pucca Ghar, Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana, State food security programme and Madhubabu Pension Yojana and other social security programmes with the State s money. dia mountaineer Nilachal OParida, who on September 18 trekked one of the top peaks of Asia, the Mount Stock Kangri Summit, and sets eyes to touch the highest peak of the world, the Mount Everest, has sought support from the State Government as well the Central Government to achieve his dream. A resident of Baramunda here and a driver by profession, Parida belongs to a very poor family and lost his father when he was two years old. When asked why he didn t climb the Kilimanjaro peak in Africa on October 27, as part of his plan to climb highest points of the seven continents, the Seven Summits, Parida said, Due to very low financial status, I was not able to take part in it. elhi-based journalist Abhijit Iyer DMitra on Friday appeared before the House Committee of Odisha Assembly for the second time over an alleged breach of privilege of the legislators. He was asked to be present before the panel again on Saturday as he failed to submit an affidavit for his remarks against the members of the Assembly. Earlier, Mitra had appeared before the House Committee on October 23 for an inquiry into the breach of privilege. He had signed the paper containing his statements to him over the last one year about the sagging overhead power lines in Dhenkanal district and the immense danger they pose to passing elephants. The department officials have also informed him about the lack of cooperation from the Energy Department and Cesu. Why did he remain quiet? Did he take this up with the Energy Minister? Did he seek the CM s intervention to save elephants? I am quite certain if these simple steps had been taken these innocent elephants and the rest which have died by electrocution during his tenure from May,2017 would have been saved. The Minister never bothered and hence, this lack of concern is unpardonable. If he had any remorse, he would have owned moral responsibility and resigned by now. What a shame for us to have such a Minister who has failed hree labourers were criti- injured after a 25-feet- Tcally high wall of a bakery unit collapsed on them in Baramunda s Paikanagar here on Friday. The injured were rescued and admitted to the Capital Hospital. The identities of the injured were yet to be ascertained. According to sources, around six to seven labourers were engaged in the construction of a drain near the factory, when the huge wall of the bakery collapsed trapping some of them under it. On getting information, police, Fire Services and ODRAF personnel rushed to the spot and rescued three labourers trapped under the debris. Sources said the rescue teams were engaged in removing the debris as it was suspected that some others might have got trapped below it. over the allegations. The panel headed by Leader of Opposition Narasingha Mishra wildlife on all fronts! Among the many unnatural reasons like poaching, electrocution, train and road kills and even falling into open well, electrocution deaths is among the top two leading causes for unnatural deaths of elephants. Angul and Dhenkanal districts both under Cesu distribution network have emerged as a hotspot for electrocution having lost 12 elephants since April in just seven months. Power lines sag at dangerous low levels posing immense danger to even humans apart from elephants. There are no safety systems like fuses. Between 2000 and 2010, there were 77 electrocution deaths, mostly due to sagging power lines averaging less than eight elephants in a year. During this period, the Government had not taken any preventive steps to control he city is going to have a Ttechnology-driven citizenfriendly city bus service, which is likely to be launched on November 6. The bus service will use mobile app through which citizens can book tickets and know about locations of the vehicle. The Capital Region Urban Transport (CRUT) has already received 125 buses for registration. Besides, 75 more buses are likely to join the fleet very soon. The new city buses, besides having technology driven features, will have urban features, including spacious cabins. Designed as per the Urban Bus Design Code, the buses will be comfortable for use of urban public and far better than the private-owned public transport buses. The mountaineer, who has completed his basic mountaineering course at the Jawhar Institute of Mountaineering (Jammu and Kashmir) with Grade-A, has been supported by some people to continue his dream of climbing. Also working as a traffic volunteer in the city, Parida, with tears in his eyes, seeks financial and motivational support from the State and Central Governments, To achieve my dreams I request the governments to support, he said and hoped that everything good would happen. Parida, who is inspired by Purna Chandra Das, Odisha s first male Everester Ganesh Jena and Dillip Kumar Pradhan, thanked DGP Dr RP Sharma, Linka Subudhi, Dhamnagar MLA Muktikanta Mandal, Odisha Police Commandant Bijay Kumar Sahoo, Seva Prayas Foundation, Rudra Narayan Samantray and Ambika Maharana for their electrocutions. From 2010 onwards, despite some preventive steps taken by the Government, including allocation of adequate funds for strengthening of power lines, the electrocution death rates have not come down. From April, 2010 to October 27, 2018 (8.7 years ) the State has lost102 elephants to electrocution, averaging about 12 elephants in a year. Live wire poaching traps, sagging overhead lines and electrified fences are the three methods of electrocution of elephants in Odisha. 60 per cent of the electrocution deaths are now due to live wire poaching. Before 2010, majority of the unnatural elephant deaths, approximately 80 per cent, were due to sagging power lines. Since 2010 out of 102 electrocution deaths, 42 are due to sagging lines and 60 are due to live wire poaching which The CRUT has plans to induct new buses under its ambitious Bhubaneswar City Bus Modernization Plan (BCBMP). After a detailed demand analysis by a leading transport consulting firm, it has decided to revamp the existing public transport facility in three phases spanning over 2018 to Along with it, 200 new bus queue shelters (BQS) are also being developed to provide passenger convenience. In second phase, the CRUT will introduce 90 electric buses and develop special depot facilities to maintain these electric buses. It has also planned to add 300 more BQS during the second phase. In third phase, 300 new buses will be procured in new developed or uncovered areas of Bhubaneswar, Puri and Cuttack. supports. He has climbed the 15,700-foot Highest Summit in Himachal Pradesh (Avimas), 12,500-feet three- Treks Summit In Jammu and Kashmir, and 3,336-meter Sandakphu Peak Summit in Darjeeling on the India-Nepal border for the Odisha Government Expedition. He has also climbed two peaks in Himachal Pradesh, Narkanda Hatu Temple Summit and Himrikufri Summit Trek, while taking part in the National Adventure Camp. Besides, he has also taken part in the State Adventure Camp and the 21-km BSF Marathon. Recently, a 14-member Odia team, including 12 boys and two girls, under the leadership of Parida completed their Basic Mountaineering course in Kashmir on September 20. had asked him to appear before it on November 2. Mitra is currently lodged at the Jharpada jail in Bhubaneswar for allegedly abusing Odisha culture and derogatory remarks against the Konark Sun Temple. Notably, Mitra was arrested by the Bhubaneswar police soon after his appearance before the House Committee on October 23. The Konark police had taken him on remand for interrogation on his abusive remarks against the Sun Temple. After completion of the remand, he was again sent to the Jharpada jail. reveals absence of patrolling. These deaths could have been prevented had the distcoms like Cesu been more responsible by lifting them. The distcoms violate Central Electricity Authority (CEA) guidelines for laying and maintenance of 11/33-KV transmission/distribution lines in area critical for wildlife. Rule 77 is violated which provides minimum ground clearance for conductor at various places like across streets, along streets and other places at minimum of 4.6 metres. 11-KV line has to be minimum height of 5.5. metres above ground. Lack of testing of all apparatus, cables and supply lines periodically poses a grave danger. No Earth Leakage Circuit breaker (ELCBs) to disconnect the supply instantly on occurrence of earth fault and no safety fuse or isolated lines either. This was an important JP State president Basant BPanda on Friday demanded that the State Government admit farmer suicides and provide adequate compensation to the families of such deceased farmers soon. Farmers are committing suicides due to crop losses and loan burdens. The State Government should admit this first and then provide adequate compensation to bereaved families. The Government should also provide interest-free loans to farmers in lines with the BJPruled States, demanded Panda at a Press meet here. He further alleged that recommendation of the four member expert MoeFCCcommittee in RTI information about inspection of power lines for the period from April 1, 2011 to December 15, 2016 (nearly six years) obtained on February 4, 2017 revealed no inspections. Sagging lines reported to the Discoms not followed up. There is no local Reward system to prevent any hooking for live wire poaching. Not a single Discom official has been convicted and jailed under Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 despite death of nearly 120 elephants caused by sagging overhead lines. No action against senior officers for dereliction of duties. No action in Angul case where two elephants were killed in 10 days by electrocution due to lack of patrolling. The DFO or Range Officer never faced any proceeding. It is against this backdrop farmers are suffering a lot as paddy is not being procured from them at minimum support prices (MSP). The millers are paying PC to the Government and, hence, they are troubling farmers, he alleged. While the Union Government has increased the paddy MSP by Rs 200, it is disappointing that farmers are not getting right prices. Reduction of five to 10 kg per quintal of paddy is adding to the woes of the farmers only, Panda alleged further. Demanding that the Government waive farm loans and pay compensation to drought-affected farmers, Panda said the BJP Krushak Morcha would be forced to take to the streets if demands aren t met at the earliest. Among others, BJP Krushak Morcha State president Shibaji Mohanty was present. that there is a need to set up reinforced electric poles fitted with spikes to prevent elephants rubbing against them and lifting of sagging overhead power lines. This is yet to be done in many jungle areas. Also insulate overhead wires across all elephant habitat and elephant movement zones and remove / dismantle all defunct solar powered fences. (Dr Mohanty is secretary, Wildlife Society of Orissa (WSO), kachhapa@gmail.com)

3 he Forest Department on TFriday suspended two of its staffs for negligence in duty after a carcass of a female wild elephant was found buried near Putulia village in the Sonakhan section area under the Rajgangpur Forest Range in Sundagarh district. The two suspended officials were identified as Forester Harish Jena and Forest Guard Sabita Kishan. The Rajgangpur Range Officer has been served a show-cause notice in connection with the incident, informed Rourkela Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Sanjay Kumar Swain. We received the information of the elephant being killed and buried yesterday. After preliminary investigations, one person was arrested in connection with the incident. Meanwhile, three teams have been formed to nab the other persons involved in the act, added Swain. Reports said that some miscreants set the carcass of the elephant on fire. Kerosenefilled cans, logs and axes were also found from the spot. Forest officials were yet to reach the spot. It was alleged that the suspended officials Jena and Kishan along with some villagers had set the big animal on fire to destroy evidences. T he meeting of the Cuttack Ravenshaw English Department alumni was held recently. This was the second meeting. Glowing tributes were paid here to Prof Sarbeswar Dash and the former students remembered their associations with Prof Dash and his teaching style. Homage wwas also paid to the memory of late Prof BJB Mohapatra, Prof Sadananda Mishra, Prof Ramachandra Tripathy besides former students like Nagesh Rao, Pratap Mohanty and Jitamitra Mohanty. Also, all wished quick healing of Gunanidhi Jena, who is he Kosal Mukti Rath rolled Tdown by the Kosal Janata Dal, a newly registered political outfit of Odisha, reached Bonaigarh in Sundargarh district on Thursday. Launched on October 2 with an avowed mission of covering all district headquarters, subdivisions, blocks and panchayats of western Odisha, the rath in its first phase has already covered Rourkela and its peripheral areas. undergoing treatment. Prominent among other old faces were Bijay Mania, Arabinda Panigrahi, Poet Prafulla Subudhi, Ballav Balabantaray,Omar Khan, Shaym Sundar Tripathy, Suresh Rath, former IPS Chintamani Panda. A joint endavour was made by former bureaucrat Rabi Nanda, Prof Santosh Bez, Prof Souri Mohan Udgata, Khirod Acharya and Khirod Mallick to make the programme a success. Noted Indo- Anglican poet RP Samal and former Principal Prof Manjushree Dwivedi served as rapporteurs on this memorable occasion. The next meeting will be held in January, it was decided. However, we have not received any information regarding the elephant carcass set on fire. I will visit the spot; and after a detailed investigation, stringent action will be taken against the persons involved in the incident, said the DFO. Reports said that a herd of elephants were straying in the region and often destroying crops. In a fit of rage, some villagers killed an elephant and buried it in the forest. n another instance of the Isorry state of affairs in Government-run schools in the State, 40 students of the Tarlakota residential school under Korukonda block in Malkangiri district jumped over the boundary wall of the school hostel and walked miles to put forth their grievances before the district Collector. Sources said the students were starving as the hostel authorities did not serve them food on Thursday night. With no option left, the students decided to bring the matter to the notice of the Collector. The 40 hostel inmates jumped over the boundary and started walking in the dark to meet the Collector, 25 km away from the hostel. Some locals spotted the students and called up the police, who rushed to the spot and took the children back to and ownership is central to Lagriculture growth but lakhs of rural landless poor are deprived of homestead and cultivable land as the land reforms laws are not been implemented in last 70 years. The results of this apathy are found in the form of farmer suicides, distress sale of agroproducts, distress migration, hunger and malnutrition, food insecurity and less farm productivity in the State. The main objective of the Land Reforms Act was doing away with unequal holding of land and distribution of surplus land out of land ceiling. It aims at abolition of large holdings and all kinds of intermediaries, enforcing ceiling, distribution of land, consolidation of fragmented holdings, reform in tenancy, recognising rights of agriculture workers and sharecroppers, completion of survey and settlement, preparation of land records, protection of SCs and STs from land alienation and reform in land revenue administration. In order to fulfil these series of objectives, laws have been enacted by the State Government as land is under the State List. The laws include, The caravan covering Sundargarh, Jharsuguda and Debgarh districts would come to an end by November 30, said party president Baidyanath The Estate Abolition Act, The Odisha Land Reforms Act, The Survey and Settlement Act, The Odisha Government Land Settlement Act, The Odisha Prevention of Land Encroachment Act, The Consolidation of Fragmented Holdings Act and The Bonded Labour Abolition Act etc. But these acts are not being implemented by revenue bureaucracy in the interest of the landless poor. The Estate Abolition Act and The Land Reforms Act have not been implemented for last 25 years because of cases in courts by the then kings and Zamindars against the Government challenging the implementations of various provisions of the laws. Finally, these Acts get a place in the Ninth Scheduled of the Constitution of India. So, almost 25 years have been wasted in enforcing the important provisions of land reforms, especially in the abolition of estate, enforcement ceiling laws and distribution of ceiling surplus land. The land owning feudal classes have benefited with compensation for abolition of estate and managed to hold huge land by cunningly avoiding the ceiling laws. But on the Mishra in a Press conference. Rest parts of Western Odisha would be covered in December in three to four phases with an objective to generate mass awareness among the domiciles of Western Odisha on the need for a separate State, he added. During the programme, several members joined the new outfit amid enthusiasm and glee. Umesh Chandra Patra and Lingraj Dandia were selected as president of Lahunipada and Gurundia block, respectively. Mishra said the party plans to field at least 30 candidates in the coming Assembly Elections stretching out to all parts of the State. For the party, Narla, Patnagarh, Rourkela, Deogarh and Redhakhol are the key constituencies and all resources would be put together to create a win situation, added Mishra. fter the Maoists faced a lot Aof flak for the killing of Odia Doordarshan video journalist Achyutananda Sahu in an attack by them in Chhattisgarh, the Leftwing extremists have clarified in a release that they had no intention to kill the journalist. The Darbha Division Committee (DVC) of Maoists on Friday claimed that they had no intention to target the media, but Sahu was killed after being caught in the ambush. The security personnel have been forcefully allowing construction of road from Aranpur to Burgum area since October 1 without caring about the destruction of cultivation of poor tribals in the process. Protesting the development we had carried out an ambush near Aranpur and as the security personnel reached the spot we attacked them. But we had no idea that a media team was also accompanying them. We had no intention of killing mediapersons since they are not our enemies but friends, the statement by the Maoists said. Condemning media reports of their intentional attack on journalists, the Maoists have also urged the media and other persons not to accompany police especially for poll-related duties. Notably, Sahu, a video journalist from Ghusuramunda village of Balangir district along the hostel in auto-rickshaws. The cops also provided snacks to the children before dropping them at the hostel. Later, the District Welfare farmer died while his wife Awas rescued in a critical condition after the elderly farmer couple attempted suicide by jumping into a pond at Tuna village under Koksara block of the district on Friday allegedly over crop failure. Though locals managed to rescue the woman and rushed her to a hospital, the man identified as Sudarsan Majhi (65) drowned. Reports said Sudarsan had cultivated rice in his five acre land. But due to scanty rainfall, his crops were damaged. Unable to bear the trauma, with two other security personnel were killed in an attack by Maoists while carrying out an election coverage programme near Nilabaya of Aranpur area in Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh on October 30. Meanwhile, on Friday a prayer meeting was organised by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and by Prasar Bharati for Sahu in which Information and Broadcasting Minister Rajyavardhan Rathore paid tributes to Sahu for his dedication to duty and also expressed his sympathies to the cameraman s family. contrary, the real farmers have been deprived of record of rights over the land they have been cultivating since generations. In the absence of survey and settlement and distribution of land, a vast majority of farmers, sharecroppers and landless agricultural workers, have been deprived of record of rights. The huge land available with temples and mutts has been taken over by the Government under the Odisha Hindu Religion Endowment Act, but they have been left to its trustees for management whereas it was expected to distribute this among the cultivators. The post-90s experience shows the move of the Government in allocating land to the corporates, companies for various commercial and nonagriculture purpose but not to the landless farmers for cultivation and also it is unfortunate that the different categories of assigned land reserved for distribution such as ceiling surplus land, waste land, Bhoodan land and Anabadi land are being given to the companies but not to the farmers. The shift in non agricultural use of land and non-availability of private land for agriculture has led to deprivation and penury of agricultural workers and sharecroppers of the State. The implementation of land reforms was one of the major recommendations of the National Commission for Farmers (NCF)in the context of the ongoing agrarian distress in the country, but no attempt has been made by the Central or State Government to address this issue of land ownership. It is said in the NCF report that land reforms are essential to ensure access of a major section of farmers, especially landless sharecroppers, Dalit and Adivasi farmers and small and marginal landholders to land for both crop and livestock. Studies have established that the inequality in land ownership has been impacting the status of food and nutrition security for a long time. The NSS report says the share of bottom 50 per cent of rural households (12per cent) are landless; and 40per cent having sub-marginal holdings below one acre) own only 3 per cent of the country s total land whereas the top 10 per cent above five acres owned about 55 per cent of land. The huge inequality in productive assets ownership has many ramifications over social, political and economic Officer reached the spot and assured the locals that the matter would be investigated and action would be taken accordingly. life of the country; and it is very much linked to the continued agrarian crisis. There are landless sharecroppers cultivating land of absentee land owners and privileged land owners those who cannot cultivate. Tribal and Dalit farmers without records of right over the land have been cultivating for generations. A majority of the informal sharecroppers are illiterate and unorganized having no access to formal institutional credit, having no bank accounts and formal identity as farmers. In the majority of suicide cases in Odisha, it was revealed that most of the farmers who committed suicide are sharecroppers and deprived of institutional credit and access to compensations of the Government and insurance companies to meet the crop loss. The new trend shows a shift of sharecropping due to entry of corporate and contract farming where the absentee land owners prefer to lend their land to companies for contract farming which assures guaranteed higher return, rather than giving it to the landless poor sharecroppers who have no resources to invest over the land except their physical labour. This process has Sudarsan along with his wife took the extreme step. He was telling me yesterday that his crops got damaged and how he could look after his family? He was dejected, said a villager Kailash Majhi. The post-mortem report would establish the exact cause of the death. The family of the deceased will be granted assistance as per the rules, informed Kokasara Tehsildar Mausumi Nayak. After an inquiry into the matter, it will be known whether the suicide was due to crop failure or not, added Nayak. encouraged concentration of productive assets in the hands of a few and has deprived many poor households of owning land; and they are ultimately prohibited from productive engagement. The monopolization of production will pave the way of dependency of more numbers of poor people on food subsidy schemes of the Government out of public funds. Record of right over land is considered as the basis of a farmer s identity and access to any kind of Government subsidy scheme considering the importance of the issues the NCF has recommended for distribution of ceiling-surplus land and wasteland among the landless farmers. The NCF has also recommended that the prime agricultural land and forest must not be diverted to the corporate sector for nonagricultural purpose. But there has been no attempt to impose any form of restriction over the nonagricultural use of land. The huge diversion has been restricting the access of marginal farmers to common property resources, forest, grazing land, pastures, water bodies and other forms of bioresources for agriculture-based livelihood. During last fifty years, due to involuntary displacement, many farmers have become marginalised and further pushed into the periphery after losing traditional access to common property resources. The linkage of land reforms with the issue of marginalised farmers and their vulnerability has not been sufficiently discussed in public domain. The Government has almost no initiative for creation of new land for agriculture and forestry purposes by reclamation of wasteland, specially the mined-out land in the mining areas of the State. Also, thousands of acres of land have become wasteland because of deforestation and soil erosion. These categories of land can be developed for their productive use by distributing/leasing to landless farmers for integrated agriculture, animal husbandry, fish farming, herbal garden and agro forestry to generate employment and boost growth by using existing agricultural technologies. The production of milk, meat, egg, fruits and vegetables and fish in the State can be improved to meet the growing demand of the domestic market and for export. This will bring food and nutritional security of the rural households engaged in agriculture. Land being a State subject, it is the duty of the State Government to implement land reforms, especially land distribution, to ensure asset equality, agriculture production and growth to build an inclusive Odisha. The Government must implement the law in a time bound manner and provide 10 decimals of homestead land and five acres of cultivable land to each landless family in the State and a special session of the State Assembly be convened for holding discussion on the land issues and to enact the Homestead Land Right Act and the Odisha Sharecropper s Protection Act. (manasbbsr15@gmail.com)

4 PNS n PARADIP Union Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways, Shipping, Chemical and Fertilizer and MSME Mansukh Mandaviya was on a visit to Paradip. Attending a meeting, he told that by a special project, all banks will provide loan and technical support to start micro, small and medium industries. The PPT, PPL, IFFCO, Paradip Refinery will play a major rule for the MSME project. It will create new employment opportunity for local unemployed youths, Mandaviya told. Rs 10 lakh loan will be provided without any mortgage to start a project, Mundaviya said and praised PM Narendra Midi for his good governance. Some traders received n the most sensational mur- case of Parshuram Ider Pradhan, a former Sarpanch and RTI activist of Salebhata panchayat under Rairakhol sub division, the two main accused surrendered before the police on Friday. The Rairakhol police arrested the duo who are also brothers and forwarded them to court. They were absconding since the murder on August 27. The arrested persons were identified as Dasarath Dhal and his elder brother Rushidhar Dhal. Dasarath was a former secretary of Salebhata Cooperative o give a boost to the small Tand medium enterprises (SME), Union Minister of Steel Chaudhury Virendra Singh unveiled Sahajog and Sampark in Puri on Friday. As the PM Narendra Modi launched the flagship programme for SME in hundred districts of the country at Vigyan Bhaban on Friday, Puri is one of them which the Minister unveiled amid a gathering of thousands of entrepreneurs here. The Minister said that the small and medium entrepreneurs would directly benefit from the new initiatives of the PM. The programme was organised by the Ministry of SME in collaboration with the UCO Bank. With close cooperation of several ministries such as the MSME, the Commerce, the Labour and Employment, the loans from different banks for their proposed projects. Union MSME Principal Secretary Nikunja Kishor Sundarray, PPT Chairman Rinkesh Ray, Paradip ADM Kahnu Charan Dhir were present. Before the Minister's arrival to Paradip, the town Society. Parshuran, the deceased former sarpanch, sought for some information on RTI on cooperative matters that enraged Dasarath. Further, on the basis of the allegations of Parsuram, the Vigilance had arrested Dasarath. All these infuriated the accused duo brothers and they, with help of four others, brutally attacked Parshuram on August 27 evening and the latter succumbed to his injuries just after a few hours. The police had arrested two persons earlier in the case. Two other accused in the case are also absconding, Rairakhol SDPO Hadibandhu Swain informed. Chemical and Fertilizers, the Rural Development, the Skill Development, the Food Processing, the Pharmaceutical and Textiles, the programme named Gram Swaraj Abhijan (GSA) will be operational in 100 selected districts in the country. The aim and objective of programme is to facilitate the small and medium entrepreneurs in entry to market, gain of knowledge about various schemes, purchase and sale of their products and their direct transaction and benefits. To give proper guidance to BJD held a drarna and closed the NH 5(A) near Tarenigada from 10 am to 12am demanding repairing of the NH 5A road from Paradip to Chandikhol and gave a memorandum to the NHAI authority through the Kujang Tehsildar. nion Petroleum and UNatural Gas and Skill Development and Enterprises Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Friday urged the budding entrepreneurs to leverage their support to the ecosystem created in the country by the Narendra Modi Government to enhance productivity of the MSMEs in various sectors. He attended a district-level the entrepreneurs in implementation, the office bearers (Pravari) in those districted have been appointed since October 26. Keeping coordination with the officials of the MSME, the Pravaris would help the entrepreneurs in the market. Under the initiative, steps have been taken for MSME solution, trade receivable discounting system, cluster development, skill development, rural selfemployment training and Government e-marketing plus, etc. OFFICE OF THE CHIEF DISTRICT MEDICAL & PUBLIC HEALTH OFFICER, BARGARH No.9432 Date:29/10/2018 WALK-IN-INTERVIEW FOR IN HOUSE SELECTION Walk-In-Interview will be conducted for In House selection of 1 No. of Block Data Manager under ZSS, NHM, Bargarh. The position is purely contractual in nature and for a period of 11 months subject to renewal as per ZSS terms & conditions based on performances and subject to continuance of the programme. Interested In house candidates working under NHM in the same post of OSH & FW society in other district, desiring to be posted in BARGARH District may log on to for details terms and conditions & application form etc. The Eligible candidates for the above post may attend for certificate verification at District Training Unit, DHH, Bargarh on dt- 16/11/2018 at A.M (registration will be started from AM to AM). No candidature will be entertained after AM. The candidates should bring their original certificates, NOC & Experience Certificate from appropriate authority along with their bio-data in specified format and a set of attested photocopies of required testimonials for verification. Time to time notification regarding status of selection process will be hoisted in district web-site. The undersigned reserves the right to cancel / reject any or all the applications without assigning any reason thereof. No personal query will be entertained. Sd/- Chief District Medical & PHO-cum- District Mission Director, NHM, Bargarh n a dowry death case registered Iat the Tirtol police station three days ago, police arrested the killer husband on Thursday and forwarded him to court. Reports said that Pramila, wife of Prasanta Das of Olagada village under Kolara panchayat in Tirtol block died on Monday. Her parental brother Devendra Das lodged an FIR alleging that his sister was murdered by her husband and in-laws due nonfulfilment of dowry demand during marriage. In another case in Jagatssinghpur district, a man was arrested from Anantapur village in the Balikuda area on Thursday for allegedly molesting a minor girl in the same village. The girl s parents had lodged a complaint at the Anantapur police outpost in this regard. Police acted promptly, sent the victim for medical examination and arrested the accused. seven-member team of Athe Central Government, led by Ministry of Home Affairs Joint Secretary SK Shahi, visited the Titli-affected Gajapati district on Friday to make assessment of the damages caused by the cyclone. The team visited the villages of Khamunga, M a n i k a p a t n a, Burungi,Chammunida and Baraghara village of Gangabada panchayat where over a dozen people were killed in a landslide which was triggered by the heavy rain following the cyclone. The team spoke to the affected villagers about the relief and rehabilitation measures undertaken by the district administration. Later, they held a meeting with Gajapati Collector Anupam Saha and line department officials at the district Collectorate. he office of Accountants TGeneral, Odisha observed the concluding ceremony of the Vigilance Awareness Week with this year s theme Eradicate Corruption - Build a New India here on Friday. Vigilance Director Debasis Panigrahi, Principal programme held on the sidelines of the Prime Minister launching a programme to support the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) through credit plus services in New Delhi on the day. The programme organised by the Union Ministry of MSME in collaboration with the UCO Bank in Cuttack, Pradhan said Utkal Gourab Madhusudan Das had a vision of New Odisha with an objective to provide employment to the youths of the State by recognising the traditional industry into an organised industry. He also felicitated six successful entrepreneurs of Cuttack district who have established their business successfully in the different fields with support of the MUDRA Yojana. Besides, 10 beneficiaries were also provided financial assistance under the UCO The team in its first phase of visit on Thursday had visited the cyclone and flooddevastated areas in Patrapur, Surada and Dharakote blocks in Ganjam district. They interacted with the people and block-level officials to assess the prevailing situation in the district. The team also held meeting with the Chief Secretary Accountant General (A and E) Madhuniita Basu, Principal Accountant General (E and RSA) Yashodhara Ray Chaudhuri and Accountant General (G and SSA) Bibhudutta Basantia attended as guests. Panigrahi emphasised on Gandhiji's ideas on transparency and focused on eradicating corruption by three E s, i.e, Enforcement, Education and Empowerment. He also appreciated initiatives taken by the AG offices in Trader and MUDRA schemes to start their business. Among others, UCO Bank ED Charan Singh, SECI MD Jatindra Nath Swain, GST and Central Excise Commissioner SG Dewalwar, bank GM Chanchal Majumdar, MSME Cuttack Director Dr SK Sahoo, FICCI Odisha State Head Satyajit Mohanty and USRSS (Filigree Association) president Brahmananda Maharana were present. and senior officials of different line departments of State Government at the State secretariat in Bhubaneswar after returning from the visit. MHA Joint Secretary Shahi said cyclone Titli has caused widespread damage in the district. After making a detailed assessment the team would submit a report to the Central Government. ed by former Nilgiri MLA Land senior leader Pratap Sarangi, thousands of BJP workers gheraoed Sadar Block office of Puri on Friday protesting corruption and fraud of the BJD Government. In a huge rally, the BJP members reached the block and staged protests against the Naveen Patnaik Government s financial irregularities in the State, besides corruption in Sadar block office by Puri MLA and Revenue Minister Maheswar Mohanty. In the part of block gherao programmes starting from October 27 in the whole State, the BJP members also staged protests in Brahmagiri and Pipili blocks on Friday against the mal-governance empowering the pensioners and GPF subscribers and stressed on creating better corruption-free atmosphere for the next generation. Basu elaborated the two ways to handling vigilance, i.e, handling through preventive actions and handling through corrective actions. Chaudhuri elicited the need for learning skills to audit in a digital environment which has new challenges and Basantia reminded the Audit and Accounts fraternity the esponding to a Rrequest by the Doordarshan (DD) employees' association, KIIT and KISS have extended helping hand to the family of Achyutananda Sahu, the DD cameraman who was recently killed by Maoists in Chhattisgarh. He is survived by his wife and a daughter. The DD employees' association had requested KIIT & KISS founder Prof Achyuta Samanta to provide assistance to the family. Prof Samanta immediately announced to provide a job to the widow of the martyred video olice Friday arrested seven Ppersons allegedly involved in looting a huge quantity of ganja from the Kandhamal court Malkhana recently. The arrestees included the mastermind of the case Rashmiranjan Behera, Rakesh Digal, Sunil Behera of Gudari, Susant Behera of Danken, Sukant Kumar Digal of Mulagudari, Sunil Kumar Behera of Adenigada of Boudh district and a juvenile. Police seized 34 kg ganja, three motorbikes, two scooters, one computer, Xerox machine, and cash of Rs 40,000. Loot of a SBI ATM and a mobile phone and corruption of the ruling BJD. Looking at any untoward incidents in the rally, the police barricaded the block office. However, the rally was peaceful limiting to protests, addresses and sloganeering against the Naveen Patnaik and Maheswar Mohanty, to whom the BJP leaders charged as fraudsters. Sarangi in his address criticized the CM s inability to speak Odia after 20 years and condemned Minister Pradip necessity of carrying out their service functions diligently and with integrity and honesty. On the occasion, the guests felicitated the winners in the essay writing, elocution and slogan writing competitions conducted during the week and distributed certificates of merit to meritorious staffs in appreciation of their sincerity and commitment to work. A Hindi play LAALACH was played on Vigilance awareness written and directed by Surjyamani Rana. journalist along with all possible assistance to the family. Prof Samanta saluted the courage of Sahu and condemned the Maoist attack on police and mediapersons. shop case is also pending against the gang, said Kandhamal SP Pratik Singh at a Press meet here. The gang had kept a watch on the police PCR van and after it left after routine patrol, they barged into the court Malkhana, terrorised the security guards on duty by brandishing lethal weapons and decamped with the contraband. Police are investigating whether any other persons are involved in the incident. Phulbani Sadar SDPO SN Murmu, Town PS IIC Satyabrata Rout, Khajuripada PS IIC Anita Kida and SS Alda comprised the police team which cracked the case. Maharathy s slangs against women. In a scratching attack, Sarangi said that chit fund operators in close association of CM Naveen Patnaik cheated the poor of the State thousands of crores of rupees. He alleged that the CM was involved in many other scams like coal, iron ore irrigation, ration card, paddy procurement, fertilizer, besides innumerable frauds and irregularities over past two decades. He called upon the people to topple the Government. Besides, local BJP leaders slammed Puri MLA for massive corruption in the block office through a temporary BDO. They also alleged that the MLA is instrumental in grabbing all the funds of developmental schemes through a proxy Chairman.

5 he BJP on Friday released Tits first list of 177 candidates for the Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls, slashing tickets of 63 MLAs and fielding Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan from the Budhni seat, scotching speculation that he may change his constituency. Among the 177 names announced out of the total of 230 Assembly seats, 14 are women candidates, even as 63 sitting MLAs, who have been denied tickets, replaced with new faces. The party also repeated 95 MLAs who won the election during Chouhan would continue to file his nomination from his traditional Budhni seat. The party also announced candidates for 28 Assembly seats in Telangana and 24 in Mizoram. Activists eing ardent followers of Sardar BVallabhbhai Patel, Shekhar Sharma and his friends, all hearing impaired youth, were glued to the TV during the recent event for the unveiling of the statue of the Indian Independence icon but could not make a word what Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in his speech. They could, however, look forward to understanding such speeches in the days to come. Realising the importance of sign language interpreters (SLIs) in reaching out to the hearing impaired persons like Shekhar and his friends as well speech impaired persons during such important events, the Government has asked all the Ministries and Departments to ensure arrangement of SLIs in all their meetings, seminars, workshops and conferences. The measure, if implemented in right earnest, will not only sensitise the people towards the sector but also create jobs for the SLIs, said the activists in the sector, welcoming the move. India has around 80 million people with disabilities. According to the 2011 census, there are over 5 million people with hearing disabilities and 2 million with speech impairment in the country. Shakuntla Gamlin, Secretary of the Persons with Disability Department under the Ministry in a letter recently drew the attention of all the Ministries to the rights of Persons with Disabilities (PWD) Act 2016 which came into force from April last year which recognises sign language as a means of communication with hearing and speech impairment. She reminded the officials concerned that "As per the provision of the Act, it is incumbent upon the Government to create a barrier free environment for persons with disabilities not only in respect of built environment but also in the area of transportation, ICT eco system and other facilities and services. "As such it is incumbent upon all the Ministries and department to take steps in this direction so that all information is available in accessible format for the use of all categories of the persons with disabilities." Further with a view to reach out to the persons with hearing impairment it would be appropriate if sign language interpretation is made available in all Government meetings/workshops/organised by the Ministries /Department, Gamlin added. Dr Satendra Singh, a disability rights defender, called the step as the much-needed one. "I had written to the NHRC to make SLIs mandatory in hospitals. We don't see that. Imagine a deaf patient needing emergency operation, how will the doctors take consent? It was strange that the Doordarshan did not interpret the Prime A dditional Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, PK Mishra has said the Government is making efforts with an integrated approach and has initiated "multiple reforms" in order to achieve the target of doubling farmers' income by He also emphasised the need to analyse as to "why the past initiatives could not accomplish the desired results" in the agriculture sector. Addressing the 78th Annual conference of the Indian Society of Agricultural Economics on Thursday, Mishra said that the present Government has for the first time ushered in a paradigm shift in the approach, from growth of production to increase in farmers' income. Some of the initiatives taken to address price and eleasing the report on Rsouthwest monsoon 2018, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Friday that the country has received 91 per cent rainfall this year. As per data, 95 per cent rainfall received in June, 94 per cent in July, 92 per cent in August, and 76 per cent in September. "Out of the total 36 meteorological subdivisions, 23 subdivisions constituting 68 per cent of the total area of the country received normal season rainfall, one subdivision received excess rainfall (one per cent of the total area), and 12 subdivisions (31 per cent of the total area) received deficient season rainfall. Out of the 12 deficient subdivisions, 5 subdivisions were from East & Northeast India (Arunachal Pradesh, Assam & Meghalaya, Gangetic west Bengal, Bihar and Jharkhand), 3 subdivisions each were from the Central India (Saurashtra & Kutch, Gujarat region and Marathwada) and South Peninsula (Rayalaseema, North Interior Karnataka and Lakshadweep) and one subdivision (West Rajasthan) from Northwest India," the IMD said. During the season, 10 yield risks in the last four years include setting up of electronic National Agriculture Market (enam), upgradation of rural haats, new scheme Pradhan Mantri Annadata Aay Sanrakshan Abhiyan (PM- AASHA), Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana. This is a major shift in the approach a clear focus on farmer and farmer welfare rather than simply production and productivity, he said. "For this purpose, a holistic strategy for the agriculture sector was visualised. Efforts are being made to follow this with an integrated approach by initiating multiple reforms and programmes with an overall objective of doubling farmers income," Mishra said. In February 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said farmers' income would be doubled by 2022 to mark 75 years of India's independence. Minister's speech at Statue of Unity launch. Diversity should be viewed as a norm and not exception." It needs to become a culture else the initiative will fail. As we see at present, many of the circulars on DEPwD websites aren't accessible to visually impaired," Dr Singh rued. Alok Bhuwan from Manovikas Charitable Society, echoed similar views saying that there may be some challenges such as shortage of SLIs at various locations, absence of standardisation of contextual vocabulary for ISL etc. However, this gap can be met through deploying ICT Technology solutions such as closed captioning. The Government should also consider investing in encouraging research and innovation for localisation of such technology solutions, Bhuwan suggested. To ensure supply of the SLIs and to promote usage of sign language in the country, the Centre on its part, in 2015, set up Indian Sign Language Research and Training centre in Delhi, a first of its kind in the country. Last year, it came out with a dictionary with over 3,000 signs, relating to words commonly used in academic, legal and medical circles. monsoon low pressure systems (one cyclone, one deep depression, one depressions, two well marked low pressure areas and two low pressure areas) formed against an average of six depressions and eight low pressure areas. The IMD claimed that forecast for monsoon onset over Kerala for this year was very accurate, as both the forecasted and realised date of onset of monsoon over Kerala was May 29. The season witnessed a very large number of 'High Impact weather events, of which 'floods' remained to be the most frequent and widespread phenomenon. "During the 2018 southwest monsoon season, though the warming trends in the sea surface temperatures (SSTs) over equatorial Pacific indicated evolving El Nino, SSTs remained below the El Nino threshold value. Hence, warm ENSO neutral conditions prevailed over the equatorial Pacific. The atmospheric conditions were also indicating neutral ENSO conditions," it said. He further noted that, there is a need to analyse as to why the past initiatives could not accomplish the desired results and highlighted the need for agricultural research. "Policymakers and practitioners need to look at how one could address the farmers' risk that affects his income and welfare and linking activities of non-agriculture sector. This is also an area of agriculture research," he said. The senior PMO official said that Indian Society of Agricultural Economics (ISAE) should focus its research on topics like why does farmers distress happen in areas where there is high agricultural growth and how to modernise agriculture. "Agricultural growth has a strong correlation with poverty reduction. In order to alleviate rural poverty, we need to focus on agricultural productivity and farmers' income." New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed the CBI appeal against the Delhi High Court's 2005 verdict discharging all the accused, including the Hinduja brothers, in the politically-sensitive 64 crore Bofors pay-off case. The apex court rejected the CBI plea seeking condonation of the 13 year delay in filing the appeal against the May 31, 2005 judgement of the High Court saying it is not convinced with the grounds furnished by the agency. "We are not convinced with the grounds furnished by the petitioner for the inordinate delay of 4,522 days in filing the present Special Leave Petitions," said a bench, headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi. The apex court said the CBI can raise all grounds in the appeal against the high court verdict filed by advocate Ajay Agrawal, who has also challenged the judgement. The top court has already admitted the petition filed by Agrawal, the BJP leader, who had contested the 2014 Lok Sabha election against the then Congress president Sonia Gandhi from Rae Bareilly. "Furthermore, we have noticed that in the criminal appeal filed against the very same order by the complainant, the petitioner herein i.e. Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is a party and would be heard in the said appeal. We, therefore, are not inclined to entertain the present Special Leave Petitions," the bench, also comprising Justices K M Joseph and Hemant Gupta, said. The CBI had filed the appeal on February 2 this year. Attorney General K K Venugopal asked the top court to make it clear in its order that dismissal of CBI appeal would not preclude the probe agency from carrying out investigation in the case. The apex court, however, did not mention anything in its order on this issue. Jaipur: Rajasthan Congress on Friday said it will soon bring out a "report card" of Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje-led State Government's performance, highlighting its "unfulfilled promises". Addressing a press conference here, Rajasthan Congress president Sachin Pilot said the "report card" would be an analysis of the promises made by the Government and those fulfilled in the last five years. Speaking about the Congress' list of candidates for next month's assembly elections, he said the first will be released after Diwali. Pilot said the party's manifesto will incorporate suggestions and demands of all sections of society. The Congress had earlier said the manifesto would be announced by the second week of this month. Party manifesto committee in-charge Harish Chaudhary said people can give their suggestions by calling a toll-free helpline number, messaging or through short videos. He said the suggestions can also be given through Facebook within a week's time. Polling will be held in Rajasthan on December 7. The results will be announced on December 11 along with four other States. SC bench The High Court in its 2005 judgement had quashed all charges against the three Hinduja brothers S P Hinduja, G P Hinduja and P P Hinduja and others under the Prevention of Corruption Act. In December 2016, during the hearing of Agrawal's appeal, the apex court had asked the CBI why it had not filed the appeal within the mandatory time limit of 90 days. The agency had said that it did not get the nod from the previous UPA Government. After the NDA Government came to power, there were speculations that the CBI would take a call to either respond as respondent in Agrawal's petition or prefer a separate appeal. After lot of deliberation, the CBI this year got the nod from the NDA Government to file an appeal in the apex court. PTI Dharamshala: BJP MP Anurag Thakur on Friday welcomed the Supreme Court order quashing an FIR against him related to alleged irregularities in a land deal for a cricket stadium here, saying the previous Congress Government in Himachal Pradesh was against the development of sports in the State. He said this is the victory of all the budding players and sports lovers in the state. "The cricket stadium in Dharamshala was created for promoting the game in New Delhi: The Supreme Court has directed the AAP Government to "redo" the exercise of fixing the minimum wages for the scheduled employment "afresh" within three months. The top court said that the minimum wages for all classes of workmen in all scheduled employment would be governed by the notification issue by the AAP Government on an interim basis. A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, however, made it clear that, at this stage, no arrears need to be paid but the current wages will be as per the notification dated March 3, 2017 till the time it decides the appeal against the Delhi High Court judgement. "We also make it clear that the question of arrears under the notification dated March 3, 2017 will be governed by such wages as may be re-fixed pursuant to the fresh exercise ordered to be undertaken. "We also make it clear that no recovery of amount paid shall be made by employer(s). Needless to say, in the de novo exercise ordered to be carried out will be open for all the stakeholders to raise all issues as may be relevant," the bench also comprising Justices U U Lalit and K M Joseph, said. The high court on August 4 had quashed Delhi Government's March 2017 notification revising minimum wages for all classes of workmen in all scheduled employment, saying the "hurried" decision was taken without hearing the employers or employees. As per the notification, the minimum wages for unskilled, semi-skilled and skilled labour were fixed at 13,500, 14,698 and 16,182, respectively. The decision by the court came on several pleas filed by various industrial units and companies who employ workers on minimum wages. The high court had also set aside a September 2016 notification by which a Minimum Wages Advisory Committee for all scheduled employments was set up, saying that its constitution was "completely flawed". PTI New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday quashed an FIR against BJP MP Anurag Thakur, former Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal and others in a case related to alleged irregularities in granting land on lease for construction of the Dharamshala cricket stadium. A bench of justices A K Sikri, Ashok Bhushan and Ajay Rastogi said, "We allow the appeal. The FIR registered is quashed." Thakur, Dhumal and Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA) had challenged the Himachal Pradesh High Court order refusing to quash the FIR registered during the then Virbhadra Singh Government in the State. The High Court on April 25, 2014, had refused to quash the FIR and stay the criminal trial pending before special judge, Dharamshala, in a case registered for cheating and criminal conspiracy, and under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act. Thakur, who is a BJP MP from Hamirpur and was then the HPCA president, had contended in the apex court that the case was actually a civil dispute but the then Virbhadra Singh-led Congress Government had made it a criminal case for political reasons. The FIR in the case was registered by the Dharamshala office of the Vigilance Bureau on August 1, 2013, months after the Congress Government assumed power in December PTI New Delhi: Joining the chorus for the construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya, Union Minister Vijay Goel on Friday said it should be done at the earliest through any mean constitutional, legislative, judicial or community dialogue. The Union Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs claimed that the building of the temple is a "matter of faith" for "crores of people" and ways should be found to "amicably resolve" the issue to pave the way for its construction. He said a campaign, 'Ek Diya, Ram ke Naam', will be launched Saturday, seeking to promote the bid for the construction of the temple in Ayodhya. He also took a dig at Congress saying, if its president Rahul Gandhi is also visiting temples, "the party should not have any objection to it (construction of temple)". "A number of people from different walks of life will converge at my official residence here tomorrow to light up thousands of 'diyas' seeking to send a symbolic message for building of the Ram temple," he said. "It is a wish of crores of people that Ram temple should be constructed. So, the temple should be built at the earliest through any way, be it constitutional or legislation or court or through dialogue between all the parties involved," Goel told PTI. He said lighting up of 'diyas' is part of the campaign that will go on till November 7, and people can also show support on social media by using hashtag of #JalaoEkDiyaRamMandirKe NaamKa. Incidentally, a big cutout of a temple has been erected at the main entrance of his residence at 10, Ashoka Road and a mock-up model of a temple on its premises. A three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, recently said the appropriate bench will decide the future course of hearing in January on the appeals filed against the Allahabad High Court verdict in the Ayodhya land dispute case. As many as 14 appeals have been filed against the 2010 High Court judgement that suggested that the 2.77 acres of disputed land be partitioned equally among three parties the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla. Many experts have said that the matter should be taken up by the court after 2019 elections, as it might affect the voters. PTI Himachal Pradesh, but the Congress government took every possible step against it," he said. "The intention of that government was not towards development, but for destruction of sports," the Hamirpur MP said. The Supreme Court Friday quashed the FIR filed against Thakur, former Himachal Pradesh chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal and others in a case related to alleged irregularities in granting land on lease for construction of the Dharamshala cricket stadium. PTI New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday said it would hear after eight weeks a plea which has alleged that the Centre has been "indefinitely sitting" on the names recommended by the apex court collegium for appointment of judges in the higher judiciary. The plea, stating that the government cannot "frustrate" the process of appointment of judges in the apex court and high courts in "an oblique way" by sitting on collegium's recommendations and not responding to names reiterated by it, came up for hearing before a bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi. Senior lawyer Dushyant Dave and advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for petitioner NGO Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL), told the bench that the Centre has been sitting on several names for appointment as judges in the higher judiciary. The bench, also comprising Justices K M Joseph and Hemant Gupta, asked Dave whether he knew the number of names which the collegium has reiterated to the Centre. Dave said, "As far as I know, there are 13 names". To this, the CJI told Dave, "It is three times more. Papers are lying on my table." Dave requested the court to issue notice to the Centre on the plea but the bench said it would hear the matter after eight weeks. PTI

6 amily members of former FFinance Minister and Congress strongman P Chidambaram got a major relief in a legal battle against the Centre as the Madras High Court on Friday quashed a sanction order by an income tax official to prosecute them under the ssam Chief Minister ASarbananda Sonowal on Friday warned stern action against those involved in the massacre of five Bengali Hindu in Tinsukia district of eastern Assam on Thursday evening and said that the Government will also take action against a section of people, organisations and public representatives who made inflammatory statements in the past that led to the incident on Thursday. Three Ministers of the Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal led Assam cabinet visited the place of occurrence on Friday and interacted with the people to assure security to them. The Government have also announced ex-gratia of 5 lakh and Government jobs to the next keen of the victims family. We will take strongest action against the perpetrators of this heinous crime. I have directed all law enforcing agencies to maintain peace and take stern action against anybody trying to destabilise our peaceful society and State, Sonowal tweeted on Friday. I strongly condemn the cowardly attack on innocent people at Sadiya. My hearfelt condolence to the family members of those who have lost their lives Sonowal tweeted on Friday. My police department has started taking action against the culprits involved in the killing, said Sonowal in another tweet on Friday. Some individuals, organizations, a section of media, social media and inflammatory statements by a section of peoples representatives have led to the situation yesterday. We appeal all to maintain restrain or we will be forced to take action against them, Sonowal said. Interestingly, the anti-talk faction of Ulfa, who the police had suspected to be behind the incident, denied their involvement in the incident on Friday. Assam DGP Kuladhar Saikia refused to name any particular outfit behind the incident on Friday and only said that the police have started the investigation to bring the culprits to the book. Our first job is to instill a sense of security among the people living here and we are doing that. I hope that police will arrest the culprits soon, said the DGP. In another development, police in Assam s capital town Guwahati have arrested Mrinal Hazarika, a senior leader of the pro-talk faction of Ulfa for Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act of Nalini Chidambaram (lawyer wife of Chidambaram), Karti P Chidambaram (son) and Srinidhi Karti Chidambaram (daughter-in-law) had challenged the prosecution process launched against them by the Department of Income Tax under the above mentioned allegedly making inflammatory statements against a particular community a few days back. Police said that Hazarika while speaking against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill recently had threatened the Bengali Hindus of dire consequences. It may be mentioned here that Assam has been witnessing severe protests over the BJP led Government s move to pass in the parliament the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 a constitutional amendment bill that seeks to grant citizenship to persecuted minority communities in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan. While several organizations including the indigenous communities are opposing the Bill, some of the Hindu Bengali organizations are supporting the Bill. Several Hindu Bengali organization had also planned to organize a rally in support of the Bill on November 17, to which, however the BJP led Assam Government denied permission. Act. They had contended that the Principal Director of Income Tax (Investigation) was not the competent officer to launch prosecution under Section 50 of the Act and hence the complaint filed against them should be quashed. Justices S Manikumar and Subramonium Prasad who heard the petition quashed the sanction orders issued by the Income Tax hen the helicopter carry- Chief Minister Nitish Wing Kumar and his officials lifted up from the airport at Gaya after the sunset, when he had a pleasant surprise to see below the streaks of lights on the entire fully illuminated route down to Patna. He asked his secretaries to take out their mobile phones and take the pictures. This was a real pleasant surprise, he said while addressing a meeting to mark the completion of his ambitious project Har ghar bijli under his seven resolves. All the households in Bihar have been connected with power in a record time and two months prior to the deadline of December 31, What a huge contrast! In February 2004, The Economist in A Survey of India special supplement said, Satellite photos of India at night show Bihar at centre of an area of darkness. Electricity is a sporadic luxury. Nitish and his Energy Minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav have another interesting folk story to link with darkness or non-electricity in rural areas. They revealed a bhoot (ghost) story at the glittering programme to mark the sixth foundation day of Bihar State Power Holding Company (BSPHC) hours after the Halloween day observed across the world. official stating that the sanction had not been given in accordance with law. The judges also quashed the private complaints lodged by the Income Tax Department against the family before the Metropolitan Magistrate Court in Chennai. The judges ruled that the sanction had not been given in accordance with the law. The petitioners had told the court that the Principal Director of Income Tax (Investigation ) was not the competent authority to launch prosecution under Section 50 of the Act and hence the complaint filed against them should be quashed. The Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court at Egmore Chennai was not designated as a special court under the act, they argued. The cases were filed after it has been found by the Income Tax department that Karti, his mother and wife had purchased a property in London (5, Holben Close, Barton, Cambridge, UK). The IT Department found that the property was purchased for 5.37 The mothers used to disallow children going out of home by scaring them that bhoot in the darkness will catch them. Now with electricity everywhere the bhoot has been driven away. This is a big social reform, said Nitish. Under the light they read, play and move out without a fear because mothers can no longer scare them with ghosts of darkness. The ghost is gone, Yadav added, Energy department principal secretary and BSPHC CMD Pratyaya Amrit said under the mission mode all hands in the companies worked constantly beating the weather woes to complete the gigantic task. Bihar is eighth States to achieve total electrification. Until 2005 electricity was a luxury and even in big towns including State capital 24 hours power was beyond imagination. Amrit said har ghar bijli scheme was launched by the CM on November 15, 2016 fixing a target to take power to all the households desirous to have connection by December 31, We worked with dedication and zeal and achieved this goal two months earlier. Our work became model for the country and teams from other States and Centre visited to see it. The Centre adopted this scheme under its Saubhagya Yojna, said Amrit under whose leadership the herculean task of lighting Bihar turned a reality in just few years un-electrified villages and 26,000 settlements were electrified in only 87 days and our team did it with precision, he added. crore but this was not disclosed in the IT returns filed by them. The petitioners also contended that if any proceedings were initiated by the Chief Metroplitan Magistrate based on the prosecution complaint filed by the second respondent (Principal Director), who is incompetent to file the complaint, it would cause prejudice to the respondents. The petitioner does not have any undisclosed foreign asset and hence does not come within the purview of the Black Money Act, the petitioners had claimed. But G Rajagopal, additional solicitor general who appeared for the Government said the Income Tax department would definitely challenge Friday s decision of the Madras High Court as the Chief Metroplitan Magistrate Court was the competent court for the trial of the case and there was no discrepancy in the principal director initiating prosecution proceedings against the petitioners. D(S) supremo HD Deve JGowda who is in a calculated way pitching for Congress president Rahul Gandhi as the prime ministerial candidate for the 2019 general elections has to face a litmus test in the battlefield Ballari, a by-election for Lok Saba on Saturday. The Congress candidate VS Ugrappa, supported by the coalition of JD(S) and Congress is facing the heat in the dusty terrain of Ballari where mining baron Reddy brothers are vigoursly campaigning for J Shantha of the BJP. Shantha is the sister of powerful Schedule Tribe leader J Sriramulu. Ballari is reserved ST constituency. The by election was necessitated by the resignation of Sriramulu from Lok Sabha as he had won the election to Karnataka Assembly. Many insiders in the ruling Government feel it is really a tough fight taking on Reddy brothers and the stronghold of Sriramulu. It is also testing time for the JDs- Congress combine who dream of taking this unity to the 2019 general elections to fight the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah. Karnataka is witnessing three by polls to Ballari, Shivamogga and Mandya and two assembly seats at Ramanagara and Jamakhandi Thiruvananthapuram: With the Sabarimala temple set to open for a day on Monday, the Congress on Friday accused the Kerala Government of "creating trouble" over the temple issue. Addressing the media here, Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala said that instead of dousing passions, it was most unfortunate that the Left Government was trying to create frictions. "The BJP and Sangh Parivar have one agenda. The Vijayan Government should have come out with a proper plan to avoid any trouble. Their decision to appoint 1,500 party workers on temporary basis in the temple town for the two month long pilgrimage season is a challenge to peace in the temple town," said on Saturday. Even though the elections are not an indicator of the future keeping in mind 2019 general elections, it is crucial for all the three political parties, Congress, BJP and JDs to establish their supremacy in the political sphere of the State. In Jamakhandi, the late MLA s son Anand Nyamagouda is contesting on Congress ticket, but faces serious challenge from BJP s Shrikant Kulkarni. Kulkarni is a BJP veteran in local politics and confident of sailing through. At Ramanagara assembly constituency in an embarrassment to BJP its candidate L Chandrashekhar retired from the fray in support of Anita Kumaraswamy, the wife of Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy. At Shivamogga lok saba constituency which is facing by polls after Lingayat strongman BS Yeddyurappa got elected to assembly, his son BY Raghavendra is contesting and fighting a fierce battle facing the son of former Chief Minister Madhu Bangarappa of the JDs. Another candidate Mahima Patil of the JD(U) and son of late Chief Minister JH Patel is also in the fray. In Mandya the coalition combine has put up JDs candidate L Shivarame Gowda facing BJP s Siddaramaiah. At Ballari it is a keen contest between Congress Minister DK Shivakumar and BJP strongman J Sriramulu. They are fighting to establish political supremacy in the crucial Hyderabad Karnataka. In Ballari the Congress has been leaving no stone unturned to clinch the seat from the BJP in a bid to regain its lost glory, which it had enjoyed ever since elections were held in 1952 till The party is also in buoyant mood after it won six out of nine Assembly seats in the recently concluded elections. Caste plays a major role in Ballari and it s controlled by STs and other backward communities. The Congress won six out of the nine assembly seats in May, but the electorate has more often favoured the BJP in national elections. Sriramulu, who had left the BJP before 2013, rejoined the party and had successfully contested the 2014 Lok Sabha election and 2018 assembly polls. In May, he chose to retain his assembly seat. Meanwhile in another political development the Karnataka BJP, which was stumped on Thursday by the withdrawal of its candidate in the Ramanagara Assembly byepoll favouring JDs candidate Anita Kumaraswamy just two days ahead of the election, has now sought the polling to be postponed in the seat. They have petitioned the EC. Chennithala. "The Government has no business to interfere in the pilgrimage," he added. Ever since the Supreme Court ruled that women of all age can visit the Sabarimala temple, the Kerala Government has said it will uphold the verdict, angering traditionalists. The Kerala High Court has patted the State Government. In a related development, an organisation of the Hindu Nair community which has taken a stand against the Left Government had three of its offices attacked, forcing its General Secretary Sukumaran Nair to warn the CPI-M on Friday "not to play with them". "We know who is behind the attacks," said Nair, adding that the need of the hour was to resolve the Sabarimala issue. IANS

7 rinamool Congress and TCPI(M) erupted in a big Jammu: Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office Dr Jitendra Singh was 'heckled' by angry mourners after the cremation ceremony was over in Kishtwar on Friday. Surrounded by thick posse of security personnel when Dr Singh was stepping out of the cremation ground, local residents tried to approach him but were prevented from coming closer. Agitated residents then started raising the issue of 'selective' minority community and poor security arrangements in the district to ensure their safety. Section of the people also vent their ire highlighting long absence of MoS PMO from his parliamentary constituency. At this moment Inspector General of Police, Jammu range Dr SD Singh Jamwal escorted Dr Singh safely from the spot and whisked him away in his official car. Slogans were also raised against the district police and local authorities for failing to ensure killing of members of the safety of residents. PNS ven as situation remained Etense in communally sensitive Kishtwar after the 'brutal' killing of a top BJP leader, Anil Parihar, and his elder brother, Ajeet Parihar, on ground zero fear is lurking in the minds of local residents over the revival of terrorism in the region. Deputy Commissioner, Kishtwar, Angrez Singh Rana, had imposed curfew restrictions in the area late Thursday night to contain public anger against the killing. Mobile internet services were snapped in the hilly districts while Internet services were slowed down across Jammu region to prevent spread of rumours and communally sensitive propaganda material/literature. Parihar was one of the bravest right wing politicians in the region and had countered separatism and terrorism 'firmly'. He along with his brother was running a stationary and sports goods business in Kishtwar. The duo were returning home when 'unidentified' gunmen hit them in the head,leading to their sudden death. Recently, he had publicly opposed calls for support of Article 35A at the peak of controversy over granting special status to the State of J&K. Almost 25 years ago on May 10, 1993 one of the most vocal and popular leader of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Satish Bhandari, too was gunned down in the same area by 'unidentified' terrorists. He was targeted by the terrorists to spread panic among the members of the Hindu community to fled away from the hilly district. On the same pattern suspected terrorists, believed to be cadre of Hizbul Mujahideen, targeted Anil Parihar to eliminate tall leaders and instil fear in their minds, local residents alleged. Former BJP Minister and a local MLA, Sunil Sharma, echoed similar sentiments in Kishtwar ahead of their cremation ceremony. Speaking to media persons at his residence Sunil Sharma said, "it is due to the failure of the security agencies we have lost such a senior BJP leader who represented voice of the people of Kishtwar region and played key role in ongoing fight against revival of terrorism in the region". Sharma said, series of events which have taken place clearly indicate attempts are being made to once again revive terrorism in the region to scare away Hindu population.he also raised question marks over the decision to disband Special Operations group (SOG) from the area, chiefly responsible for tackling the threat posed by terrorists. He said each and every BJP worker present in Kishtwar is alert and ready to foil sinister design of anti national forces. Before the cremation ceremony Army columns staged flag march in Kishtwar and neighbouring Bhaderwah town in Doda district to restore peace in the region. Protests rocked different district headquarters of Jammu region where BJP workers and various other sociopolitico organisations staged protest demonstrations and shouted anti-pak slogans. Former Deputy Chief Minister Kavinder Gupta demanded high level probe behind the brutal killing. He said it could be a case of politically motivated murder and a high level probe should be ordered to unravel the mystery behind the attack. way condemning Thursday s Tinsukia killings with Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday turning her social media display picture black as a mark of solidarity with the Assam victims families and lambasting the BJP for injecting fear in every household of the country. Five people of Bengali community were brutally gunned down by unknown assailants at Tinsukia on Thursday evening. While the CPI(M) took out a rally on Friday evening TMC MP and Abhishek Banerjee led a huge rally in the noon demanding Assam Chief Minister Sarbanand Sonwal s resignation for presiding over a Government of killers and failing to protect the lives of innocent, hapless people. The TMC leaders tweeted in solidarity, on Protest day to condemn the brutal killings of Bengalis by a State ruled by the BJP we are turning out Twitter/FB DPs into black, adding street protests would continue throughout Bengal even as an embarrassed BJP leadership wondered why the Trinamool and the Left were making an issue out of the incident as the Assam Government has taken prompt action over the issue. Calling the Thursday s killings as an extension of Assam Government s NRC drive the Bengal Chief Minister said the people who were killed on Thursday belong to the poorest of the poor section of the society wondering whether the killings were a direct fallout of the animosity provoked by the NRC drive in that State. The BJP was driving out the Biharis from Gujarat, Bengalis and UP wallahs from Assam so that it had become difficult to survive peacefully in one s own country, Banerjee alleged saying her party would always remain by the side of the victims of such mass extraditions. Under this Government (in Centre) India is in the grip of fear. Every household is in fear. There is fear of demonetisation, there is fear of murder like the one happened in Tinsukia, the fear of being ejected in the name of NRC, the fear of central Agencies, Banerjee said. Attacking the BJP for creating a rift among the people of the country the Chief Minister said those who were talking about nationalism and unity of the country were actually trying to divide its citizens along the lines of religion, caste, language. Her nephew and party MP Abhishek Banerjee who led the Friday s rally too demanded immediate halt in persecution of Bengalis in Assam saying there is a clear BJP hand in the Assam killings. The fact of the matter is that the Chief Minister of that State who had led the NRC movement should immediately resign for failing to protect the lives of the innocent citizens. CPI(M) which also took out an impressive rally on Friday evening said the party would continue to carry out protest movements against the BJP s divisive politics. Ever since the BJP has come to power either in Delhi or in Assam or anywhere the places concerned have seen killings like this. These are no ordinary political murders but they contain communal and sectarian venom which may have far reaching effect, CPI(M) central committee member Sujan Chakrabarty said. ccompanied by his Gujarat Acounterpart Vijay Rupani, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and star campaigner of ruling BJP for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls Yogi Adityanath on Friday paid tribute to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel by visiting Statue of Unity the tallest statue of the world situated near Sardar Sarovar Dam. Yogi, who was personally invited by Gujarat CM Rupani couldn t remain present in the inauguration ceremony of the Statue on the birth anniversary of Sardar Patel on October 31 in presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Sources in Gujarat BJP said that other BJP ruled CMs would visit the statue site in coming days. Even President Ramnath Kovind is also scheduled to visit the statue on December 15. Meanwhile, during his brief interaction with the local media Yogi praise Gujarat Government s efforts to pay he men and women in Tkhaki, all trainee constables, on Friday went on rampage, attacking and assaulting their seniors and vendalising the new police line, hitting at the media people and commoners breaking their cameras and equipment and vehicle. They were protesting over the death of a woman constable Savita Pathak due to dengue and denial of leave to her. The officials including city SP, rural SP, DSP and sergeant major who reached the spot were abused and chased with rampaging cops throwing stone at them. A DSP rank official was seen bleeding with his uniform blood soaked. befitting tribute to the Ironman of India by constructing his tallest statue at Sadhu Bet situated on the River Narmada. Despite repeated questions about Ram temple at Ayodhya, Yogi didn t make any remarks before a group of newsmen. It was Sardar s vision to merge more than 550 Princely States into Union of India immediately after the independence. The statue would give inspiration for unity to In bid to ensure that their vandalism was not videographed they assaulted the cameramen and broke their equipment. Those who tried to film their acts on their mobile phones were also attacked and phones were snatched and smashed under their boots. They also rampaged a temple adjacent to the police line and smashed its CCTV camera unit. Over ten police vehicles were ransacked. Even the tough and no non-sense SSP of Patna Manu Maharaaj could not dare to generations in future, he said adding that the Statue of Unity would also bring prosperity and employment opportunities in the tribal dominated Narmada district. Officials of Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Limited briefed the UP CM about the Statue of Unity project. He also visited Valley of Flowers near the Statue apart from climbing the statue up to viewing gallery. enter the police line. It was like a police revolt against the police force when the junior policemen were seen attacking and assaulting with sticks and stones violently the senior officials. Ten rounds were also fired but to no avail. The daughter of a DSP rank official Maslehuddin Ahmad, whose residence is inside police line said they numbered no less than 300 and smashed over ten vehicles badly with flower pots and showed her own scooty which was destroyed.

8 Sir This refers to the editorial, Sardar Patel: New India s crisis man (October 31) by Suresh Prabhu. The writer has rightly paid rich tributes to Sardar Patel, the unsung hero of independence, and has given the finest detail about his contribution towards India s independence and its unity. It is a fact that history books in schools have less space for Patel. Instead, our present generation or even generations post India s Independence were forced to learn again and again about those very leaders who were already declared national heroes. Currently, the present Government at the Centre has done the right thing to have installed the Statue of Unity in remembrance of the Iron Man. The statue is not only the tallest in the world, but it spreads across the message that it was because of Sardar Patel s efforts that India stands untied today. His contributions to the nation s cause are taller than his statue on the banks of the Narmada river. Sharadchandran S New Delhi Author Lew Wallace had once said, The monuments of the nations are all protests against nothingness after death; so are statues and inscriptions; so is history. Yet, from the momentous zeal of their commemoration, they get easily bronzed over with layers of interpretation that settle one over the other till the curated gleam is gone. Then they descend into the heat and dust of everydayness, becoming a part of the gush of life that doesn t really care what they stand for or not. And they end up being a scaffolding of life itself, a perch for natural life forms, a sheltering shadow for refugees who have nowhere to go and a landmark for people to map their journeys with. This is the fundamental truth of extraordinary efforts that in the end become ordinary statistics. Yet statues have a visual narrative that nobody in the world can unstring themselves from. They are the most visible markers of our civilisational history, from the Egyptian pyramids to the Bamiyan Buddhas. And their unshakeable giganticism seeks to transcend time and space, sometimes imprinting themselves, at other times encroaching on collective consciousness. They even acquire a spiritual aura as a repository of collective faith. Do we really then need statues in an information age? Yes, because there is no scale-flexing in a flat world of digital uniformity. So we want to stand out more in the physical world. This explains why the Chinese demolished the status of the Statue of Liberty as the tallest with its Buddhist statue at Henan and India toppled that with its Statue of Unity dedicated to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, never mind if Buddha is India s most successful export to China or that the Patel statue has Chinese bronze. Both examples of shining human endeavour and might, they gentrify the appreciation of it in the process we have it, you don t. Even making the digital plane subservient to them. In fact, statues continue to be a focal point of posturing and messaging. One just has to go back to the viral images of an African-American woman climbing and clinging to the skirts of the Statue of Liberty, protesting against US President Donald Trump s immigration policies and police trying to talk her down. That image was the most potent reminder of what the American nation was born of and stood for, an instant reckoner of history and its obfuscation too. If there was collective amnesia about the essence of the proverbial American dream, one unremarkable woman could get that back by courting at the feet of the Statue of Liberty. Simply because it was there to anchor history in the first place. What could be a tokenism turned into a milestone on a civilisational timeline. That explains the current swirl of opinionating on the statue on the banks of the Sabarmati at Kevadiya in Gujarat. And perhaps in a post-truth world, myth-making becomes easier with statues embodying the viewpoint of the story-teller. In that sense, statues, museums and public monuments are mutual extensions of each other, offering a manicured version of history as well as encouraging its dissidence in the public space. So for critics questioning the delayed iconisation of Sardar Patel as an appropriation of his legacy for political mongering by the ruling BJP, fact remains that it was necessary to rescue him from his relative anonymity in the Congress annals. Yes, he was the architect of the modern republic as we know it today, uniting the impossible princely states and tackling internal emergencies and Kashmir with a deft hand. In that sense he was a true nationalist. However, out of the Gandhi-Nehru aura, he drifted to the right end of the Congress spectrum and therefore, policy-wise, found a resonance in today s BJP, which is positing itself as his rescuer in history and Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a fellow Gujarati appropriating the good intentions of a son of the soil like himself. The BJP may not end up practising Patel s ideologies as such but the fact remains that the statue was a historical necessity of sorts too amid a plethora of commemorative plaques, platitudes, busts and memorials. Statues around the world have been installed and dethroned in this continuous process called revision of history. Be it the desecration of the Confederate statues in the US or the tumble of Lenin-Stalin shrines with the collapse of Sir This refers to the editorial, Save the world (November 2). We, humans, are the most destructive animals on this planet Earth. While other species kill only for food, we kill for pleasure. Further, our appetite for killing remains insatiable. We destroy forests to satisfy our greed without thinking that we are destroying the environment. Ashok Mehta Via web Sir This refers to the editorial, Sardar Patel: New India s crisis man (October 31) by Suresh Prabhu. The Statue of Communism, or the neo-reclamation of BR Ambedkar and other Dalit icons by a flurry of monoliths commissioned by BSP chief Mayawati, all seem to harp on the need to archive and document history as is and not its coloured versions. It s for the same reason that the busts of Bengal revolutionaries continue to be venerated in that state, once by the Left and now by the Trinamool Congress, simply because they do not find due space in the Congress-dominated retelling of our story of Independence. And even if there s inclusivity in texts and recorded material, truth is there cannot be denial in the public space, which ought to allow democratic discourse, one where everybody can find a resonance, can invest his identity and claim a stake. Such cooption and acceptance of ideas will, therefore, for some time to come, rest with public monuments. And perhaps when every ship finds a lighthouse, will we wake up to our full potential as an eclectic culture. Right now, we are in the process of historical correction and still quite a long way away from accepting guilt too for the many indiscretions of societal violence and genocide. Will these too figure in statues like the Salt March of Dandi? So statues will continue to endure, either by their installation or their decimation or their reinterpretation, simply because people look up to tangible, tactile heroes and feel a transformative moment of rising to their potential, if only briefly. People like to look up to a Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose than the many netajis of contemporary politics who have Unity, the tallest in the world, inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Gujarat will serve as a reminder to the entire world and also future generations about the courage, capability and resolution of the Iron man (Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel) who did the holy work of thwarting the conspiracy to disintegrate mother India into pieces. The statue will also remind those eroded the allure of leadership. So they make a hue and cry in Kolkata when his bronzed likeness gets crusted with bird droppings. Or feel respectful enough to not even smoke around the statue of Vivekananda in Kanyakumari, his bigness reminding them to elevate themselves momentarily. And nobody may have heeded the angst of Rohith Vermula when he was alive but the Dalit student, who committed suicide driven by casteist moves against him, has managed to galvanise a movement in his university and ensure that human rights are executed, not given out as a dole. Talking in front of his newly-constructed statue, one of the student leaders Sreerag P had said, Rohith was an imperative force, who through his memories, rekindles the ethos of resistance which are carved into our political psyche. Call it retributive, restorative or retrospective justice but till we deal with falsification and denials of history tellers, the politics and debates around building statues will continue to gather steam. And since we are a far cry from developing living icons, except in the spiritual sphere, and humans cannot easily become demi-gods, there will be no easy answers. Had that been the case, we would be celebrating modern shrines like the Jammu & Kashmir Railway, an unimaginable feat and temple of modern India among the shifting Himalayas with the world s highest arch bridge. But we have not yet learnt to celebrate or acknowledge the efforts of little big men. (The writer is Associate Editor, The Pioneer) who keep questioning India s existence since it is the tallest statue in the world made of pure bronze. Jubel D Cruz Mumbai Sir This refers to the editorial, Cure worse than disease (November 1). It is not that only outlived vehicles running on Delhi s roads are responsible for the air pollution. There are others factors, too, that need to be dealt with all seriousness. Factory emissions in and around the National Capital Region contribute greatly in the form of carbon emissions. Farmers, too, resort to burning of their agricultural wastes. Action should be taken to reduce the emission from factories and ways should be devised to destroy the agricultural wastes besides banning outdated automobiles polluting the air in the NCR. Sravana Ramachandran Chennai

9 Any economic growth, beyond just transactional trade and investments, is based on people-to-people links, starting at the leadership level. The India Economic Strategy (IES) 2035 report, authored by Peter N Varghese, Chancellor, University of Queensland, recognises the importance of people-to-people links as a part of the bilateral architecture and is leadership driven. This diplomacy approach includes political, bureaucratic, business and sectoral leaders at the ground level to build trust, social understanding and cultural capacity between countries over a period of time consistently, and goes beyond ongoing arts and cultural exchanges or programmes between the countries. Crisis such as the Doklam conflict between India and China was diffused by a well-planned informal meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping at Wuhan, China. The summit was set with social and cultural exposure to reiterate the bond between the two leadership, translating to a bilateral relationship. In a similar way, it was a conscious decision by Prime Minister Modi to bond with former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull with a metro ride to the Akshardham Temple to establish leadership trust. In doing so, Narendra Modi signalled that India s foreign relations have grown in strength not only based on its strategic and economic priorities, but also its history, multi-cultural values and social equity. Cultural intelligence and capacity: India and Australia both have a multi-cultural society and work environment that requires the Government and leaders across various sectors to be equipped with cultural intelligence as a skill. Cultural intelligence not only plays an important role among stakeholders in shaping diplomatic, domestic and international policies, but also nurtures businesses, industries, communities and society. Cultural intelligence is also known within businesses as cultural quotient (CQ), which is a theory within management and organisational psychology. This is a critical gap I see where bilateral stakeholders are unable to apply this skill, which is commonly misunderstood for cultural exposure or knowledge of a country. Cultural intelligence and capacity will make positive impacts at three broad levels for Australia in context of bilateral relationship: Diplomacy and policy: In Australian diplomacy, bureaucrats and political leadership need to consider shifting from the lens of Anglospheric or Anglo-Saxon to a socio-cultural lens of India for bilateral engagement. This will allow Australia to interpret India s vision of development and build a new strategic narrative from non-alignment to multi-alignment in context to India s foreign policy of a new global order. Australia s foreign policy towards India can lend a new dimension with relevant inclusion of cultural diplomacy, which is still conventionally viewed as state-sponsored/supported arts and cultural exchange. Cultural diplomacy needs to have an inclusive approach of bringing the Government and business leaders to consult with the social sector and sustainability and cultural leaders for policy development. The case for such policy consultation required is that economic investments can t be made in any geography without a social, ecological and cultural audit of the region. Socio-cultural insights make the deployment of investments effective and mitigates on-ground resistance or bottlenecks, such as the Adani case. Australia s own domestic policies for a multi-cultural society and economy could benefit from building cultural capacity among policy-makers and influencers. A positive start in this direction has been the launch of Victoria s India strategy in 2018, underpinning the importance of cultural understanding in its domestic policy approach and Indian engagement. Trade and business: India s socio-cultural diversity and complexities can be leveraged as a demographic dividend with an access to the largest youth population in the world. The report highlights this opportunity in each sector and state-wise focus. Australian trade and business ecosystem is inclined towards short-term results. It is transactional rather than long-term relationship, unlike the Indian counterpart that prioritises trust and relationship building as a propeller for transactional trade and business collaborations. Macquarie CEO, Shemara Wikramanayake, had emphasised on Australia looking at India for business with patience and nurturing a long-term relationship. The bilateral ecosystem of stakeholders, including bodies like Australia India Business Council, need to integrate cultural capacity as a tool of engagement for business and trade opportunities. Australian corporate companies, that also employs a multicultural and multi-ethnic workforce, would benefit from cultural intelligence skills in their work environment as they expand across the Indo-pacific region. Education and exposure: Leadership starts with education and community engagement. The Australian education sector can lead towards capacity-building of cultural intelligence among education leaders and student community as future leaders. Education is Australia s third largest export sector and is also home to the second largest student population from India. Cultural capacity is an ideal tool to bring diverse student population (including local Australian student s cultural capacity) across Australian universities, not just to leverage this skill in their education or work environment, but also in their respective communities/societies. This skill is also helpful to the Australian leadership, team and faculties within universities to be more effective in attracting Indian students to study. But most importantly, it helps in mentoring students to thrive as working professionals and positive contributors to the society. Additionally, there is a critical gap between the Australian mainstream media and the online platform s presence in India for consistent and onground coverage of our diverse country. A biased exposure and skewed interpretation of India hasn t helped the Australians with the current multidimensional perspectives of India. The strategy and opportunities laid out in the IES 2035 report can be realised when leadership across the bilateral spectrum recognise cultural capacity as a multiplier of growth. Cultural diplomacy and intelligence can be a strong lever that can propel the economic prosperity vision of 2035 for Australia with India. (The writer is Director, Collaborative Community and Steering Committee member of AIYD) B usinesses today are on the constant lookout for an increasing competitive advantage by improving employee engagement, increasing productivity and expanding globally, while ensuring security and cost management. The movement from desk-first to mobile-first is the primary driving force behind workplace evolution across the globe. The fruitful combination of real estate, technology and human behaviour results in successful workplace transformation by crafting flexible and innovative set-ups. To truly embrace the evolution of workplaces and derive a wholesome collaborative environment, what s required is a new way of thinking the fruition of traditional beliefs of from work being a place to work being a concept. There has been a fundamental shift in workspaces from the idea of supervision to the idea of fulfilling objectives. The older format of running cubes was majorly driven by the belief that if the employees are not present in the manager s line of vision, they must not be working. However, latest surveys show that the trust factor between employees is the primary force behind meeting deadlines. This breaks the fundamental notion behind standard set-ups, giving way to more open layouts and flexible formats. Open plans, that are economically efficient, predicate on establishing parity across the workspace to enhance employee experience and well-being, whilst eliminating the physical metaphors of authoritarianism. It also dissolves traditional notions of professional hierarchy and embraces democratic engagement. Infrastructure, too, steers collaborative and transparent environment. There is a growing shift towards designing workplaces that reflect an egalitarian structure through receptive design, disregarding orthodox norms. As the role of employees is being imagined beyond a static location, their spaces have become more dynamic and temporal according to the changing nature of work. Work needs to be portrayed as something more than the confinement of a cubicle-dynamic in its fundamental approach. Cubicle set-ups are rigid, often forcing individuals to get through the assigned work from a location, which hampers human potential as different kinds of spaces that are required to drive different requirements at work environments. The dynamic nature of spaces allows for a differentiated group formation and activity, which benefits team-building efforts. Every individual is unique and tackles situations differently. What is needed as per the ever-evolving corporate space is a way to substantiate the requirements of all, while managing to achieve the decorum of a workplace. This means providing collaborative spaces, meeting spaces, team rooms and allowing people to work from any corner of a setup that helps them achieve efficiency. As the spaces become socially receptive, the transfer of information and networks acquires different forms, thereby inviting collaboration. Such a breakdown of hierarchy in workplaces is a new concept. Offices should be transformed to accommodate the kind of work that supports business outcomes. Beyond developing a new mindset, these transformations are a direct outcome of three areas: Real estate, technology, and people. For the real estate, it is imperative to move away from assigned seating to open seating, where organisational teams can function together. Providing a variety of seating spaces for employees to move around and work according to their requirement is not only feasible, but is also modular. More needs can be identified using data analysis to meet the changing spatial requirements. To decouple the physical space, consumption from employee headcount to lower real estate cost is imperative to provide spaces that remain economically inclusive for smaller organisations. With growth in consumer-based technology, the need of the hour is to leverage existing investments in wireless infrastructure and remote access control. Collaboration tools are the new meeting rooms. With employees spread across the globe, it is important to have everyone on one portal to facilitate discussions. Here, the employees choice of device often ends up being a vital factor in meeting deadlines with productive work. So, the choice of device is the fundamental factor behind the design of spaces, delineating the nature of their use. The present trend of globalisation has created a combinatorial explosion of ideas amongst people, where desires, needs and choices are not defined by region, but by approach. The present rate of globalisation requires everyone to be prompt with new devices and techniques of collaboration. Training sessions to bring everyone on the same platform will enhance productivity and engagement. Collaboration is being encouraged via meeting rooms and tools. Flexible workstations are a must. Transformed workplaces, in line with the requirements of an organisation, often result in happier employees. They also enable better hiring, thus bringing in the most qualified candidates for the position as location no longer dictates success. This also enhances space utilisation, as seating is only provided based on the employees coming in on a day, which results in greater employee engagement and competitive advantage for the business. Thus, a collaborative approach to workplaces is not only a marketing approach, but a performancebased intervention that retains creative output. Thus, workspaces are transforming from product-centric environments to customer-centric environments, being able to incorporate a research-based, operationbased and consultancy-based atmosphere within the confinements of a single space, which is evidently much more sustainable. (The writer is COO of a design consultancy firm)

10 nvestor wealth rose by 1.72 Ilakh crore Friday helped by a smart rally in the broader market where the BSE benchmark index surged almost 580 points. Tracking gains in stocks, the market capitalisation of the BSE listed companies surged by 1,72, crore to 1,40,78, crore. The 30-share key index soared points, or 1.68 per cent, to end at 35, After a flat start to November, stock markets Friday traded with a strong positive momentum and registered sharp gains. Trading sentiment got a boost amid a fall in global crude prices and rising rupee. Positive global cues also triggered buying, said Abhijeet Dey, senior fund manager-equities, BNP Paribas Mutual Fund. The rupee on Friday clocked its biggest single-day gain in over five years, surging by 100 paise to close at against the US dollar. Brent crude, the international benchmark, dropped below the $73-mark to quote at a seven-month low of $72.65 by falling 3.48 per cent. From the 30-share pack, 25 stocks ended with gains led by Maruti Suzuki India, Tata Motors, Vedanta and Induslnd Bank. he Indian rupee on Friday clocked its biggest single-day gain Tin over five years, surging by 100 paise to close at against the US dollar on easing crude oil prices and possibility that the US might grant waivers to India from sanctions on Iranian oil imports. Besides, a bullish trend in the equity market and fresh foreign fund inflows provided support to the domestic currency, which has witnessed a massive 150 paise rise in the last two trading sessions. The domestic currency had Thursday gained 50 paise. At the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market, the domestic unit Friday opened on a higher note at 73.14, then gained further ground and touched an intra-day high of 72.43, a jump of 102 paise. It, however, closed at against the greenback, showing a rise of 100 paise the best day for the Indian unit since September With crude oil prices constantly dipping, concerns over widening current account deficit have slightly eased, helping the rupee claw back some lost ground. The reports have suggested that the Trump administration is considering granting waivers to India and some other countries, which will allow these nations to continue buying oil from Iran, despite the renewal of US sanctions from next week. The US had told various countries, including India, to cut oil imports from the Persian Gulf nation to zero by November 4 or face sanctions. Broad-based weakness in dollar along with fall in crude oil prices boosted the Indian rupee, which climbed 1.40 per cent to Local currency had a single biggest day gain in five years amid improvement in macro environment. Foreign funds have turned buyer in domestic equity and debt market, an analyst said. Brent crude, the international benchmark, was trading at $72.98 per barrel. he Government on Friday Tpromulgated an ordinance to amend the companies law, a senior official said. The proposal to issue an ordinance to amend the Companies Act, 2013, was cleared by the Cabinet on Thursday. The official said the ordinance had received assent from President Ram Nath Kovind and has been promulgated. Details about the proposed amendments could not be immediately ascertained. The Corporate Affairs Ministry, which is implementing the Act, has been looking at ways to promote ease of doing business as well as ensure better compliance levels. In August, a Governmentappointed panel suggested various changes to the Act, including restructuring of corporate offences under the companies law and an in-house adjudication mechanism to ensure that courts get more time to deal with serious violations. Apart from restructuring of corporate offences to relieve special courts from adjudicating routine offences, the panel has mooted re-categorisation of 16 out of the 81 compoundable offences under the Act. he Reserve Bank should Tprovide a liquidity credit line of 30,000-40,000 crore to non-banking financial companies (NBFC) as a temporary relief from tight liquidity conditions, Assocham said on Friday. In a statement, the chamber s Secretary General Uday Kumar Varma said such steps were essential in view of the current liquidity crisis faced by the Indian economy. He also voiced industry concerns and the growing unease among investors and businesses at large. Varma observed that in view of the liquidity challenges, monetary policy easing by way of lowering interest rates would give the necessary boost to investor confidence. He highlighted that due to the various factors that have triggered this liquidity crunch, beginning with the IL&FS default and measures to keep the rupee from depreciating further, the money markets have seen higher costs of borrowing capital. Seeking urgent attention to the crisis, he appealed for immediate measures to infuse liquidity into the system by ational Stock Exchange of NIndia Limited (NSE), India s leading stock exchange, through its Electronic Bidding Platform, NSE- EBP, facilitated the 2000 crores debt raising program for India s leading bank, the State Bank of India. This Debt program will help meet SBI s entire Tier II capital requirement for the current financial year. The capital raise was of the nature of Non-Convertible, Taxable, Redeemable, Subordinated Bonds, which are Basel III compliant. The Bonds are Unsecured Debt instrument issued in the form of debentures. The issue size of these Tier II Bonds was 2000 crore, with Green Shoe option to retain over subscription. The issue was oversubscribed over two times of the issue size and is the largest single tranche successful issue in current financial year with accepted subscription of more than 4,000 crore for a 10-year tenure on Electronic Bidding Platform. Vikram Limaye, MD and CEO, NSE, congratulated SBI for successfully raising Additional Tier 2 Bonds on the NSE EBP Platform at a very competitive pricing and achieving oversubscription of around two times. It is encouraging to see such widened investor participation that led to an efficient price discovery for the Bank. NSE EBP has been the preferred choice of marquee issuers for their private placements and we thank SBI for partnering with us, Limaye said. Prashant Kumar, DMD and CFO, SBI, said Investors have reposed their faith in SBI by oversubscribing the issue by two times. NSE-EBP has broadened our access to the wider pool of investors and this digital initiative will surely lead to creation of vibrant primary debt markets in India. The Bonds are priced at par with face value of 10 Lakhs per bond and redeemable after 10 years from the deemed date of allotment, with an exercisable call option after five years. The Electronic Bidding Platform (EBP) is an initiative by SEBI mandated for private placement of debt issues by corporates. This Platform has been utilized by Banks, NBFCs, Housing Finance companies and other corporates to raise debt funding. The platform helps widen the issuer access to investors including Pension Funds, Provident Funds, Insurance Companies, Mutual Funds, Banks and other QIBs and non QIBs. RBI. Varma reiterated the need for decisions to be guided by public interest and the requirements of the Indian economy, given that there are multiple trade influences and factors. He highlighted that while the government continues to undertake favourable measures and its progressive policies have catapulted India to the 77th rank in Ease of Doing Business, certain segments such as NBFCs and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) have been affected by the liquidity crisis. This warrants serious attention, given the fact that NBFCs being the strong link between the banks and the MSMEs are under serious stress, he said. The chamber noted that for India to transition from being a developing to a developed economy with commensurate norms, it is pertinent that growth of 7-9 per cent be maintained to improve per capita income. This calls for a radical shift towards flexible policies amidst a conducive environment, rather than continuing on a stringent regulatory path, Assocham said. T wo subsidiaries of cashladen Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) on Friday have defaulted on a total interest payment of crore of various debt instruments. The group s non-banking finance arm, IL&FS Financial Services (IFIN) on Friday said it has defaulted on repayment of various debt obligation worth crore, due on Thursday, the company said in a filing to exchanges. The company was unable to service its obligations of interest on cash credit facilities/shortterm loans/term loans worth crore, the company said. IFIN, on Thursday, also defaulted on repayment of 106 crore of term loans and 0.77 crore of interest on short term loan, due on October 31, In a separate filing to exchanges, IL&FS Transportation also Friday said it has defaulted on payment of interest worth 2.29 crore on non-convertible debentures (NCD), which was payable on November 2, It had defaulted on interest payment of a similar amount on a different NCD, which was November 1, he country s largest steel Tmaker SAIL Friday posted a standalone profit of crore for the July-September quarter of driven by an impressive growth in income. The steel PSU had posted a standalone loss of crore in the July-September period of the previous fiscal. The standalone income during the second quarter increased by 23.1 per cent to 16, crore, compared to 13, crore in the yearago period, according to a regulatory filing by SAIL. Raising volumes, targeting to operate at rated capacities and focussing to meet the requirement of the railways in terms of rails and wheels and axles are our foremost priorities, along with upholding safety practices at the core, SAIL Chairman Anil Kumar Chaudhary said.

11 enchmark Sensex surged almost 580 Bpoints to end at a one-month high of 35, Friday as the rupee staged a sharp upmove amid a resounding rally in global equities. Trading sentiment got a boost after Asian and European markets soared on easing concerns over the US-China trade war, while global crude oil prices eased. Back home, the rupee gained a massive 95 paise to trade at per dollar (intra-day), which added to the momentum, brokers said. The 30-share Sensex got off to a strong start at 34, points and reclaimed the 35,000-mark to hit a high of 35, but profit-booking trimmed the gains. It finally settled points, or 1.68 per cent, higher at 35, This is its highest closing since October 4, when it had finished at 35, The NSE Nifty leaped points, or 1.66 per cent, to 10,553 after touching a high of 10, during the session. On a weekly basis, both the Sensex and Nifty halted their two-week losing streak by surging 1, points or 5 per cent, and 523 points or 5 per cent, respectively. Brent crude, the international benchmark, dropped below the USD 73-mark to quote at a seven-month low of USD by falling 3.48 per cent on higher supply from the world s major producers. Adding to the upbeat mood, GST collections in October crossed the 1 lakh crore mark, after a five-month gap, on the back of festive spending and anti-evasion measures. The Finance Ministry on Thursday said lakh businesses filed Goods and Services Tax (GST) returns in October and deposited 1,00,710 crore as taxes. Auto stocks were the centre of brisk activity during the session after some automakers came out with encouraging sales figures for October month. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs), which had been selling on the Indian bourses, made fresh purchases worth crore Thursday, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) sold shares to the tune of crore, provisional data showed. Expectation of global trade deal and cheer in domestic auto sales numbers supported the market to extend its rally. Any consensus in US- China trade negotiation could settle global market volatility and will attract investors to the beaten down stocks. Additionally, continued fall in oil prices and drop in yield eased liquidity concerns," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services. Maruti Suzuki was the star performer in the Sensex pack, surging 6.37 per cent, followed by Tata Motors at 6.29 per cent. Shares of Bajaj Auto rose 2.31 per cent after the company on Friday reported a 32 per cent jump in total sales at 5,06,699 units in October. Other major gainers included Vedanta Ltd 6.04 per cent, IndusInd Bank 5.29 per cent, Adani Ports 4.46 per cent, M&M 3.87 per cent, Hero MotoCorp 3.62 per cent, HDFC Ltd 3.59 per cent, Bharti Airtel 3.30 per cent, Tata Steel 3.07 per cent and Yes Bank 2.77 per cent. However, Wipro, TCS, SBI, Infosys and Sun Pharma ended lower by up to 3.29 per cent. Shares of state-run oil marketing companies such as HPCL, BPCL and IOC gained up to 6.69 per cent, supported by falling crude prices in the global market. Sector-wise, the BSE auto index emerged the best performer by climbing 4.05 per cent, followed by metal (3.04 per cent), oil and gas (2.46 per cent), consumer durables (1.85 per cent), FMCG (1.52 per cent), infrastructure (1.42 per cent), bankex (1.42 per cent), capital goods (1.30 per cent), PSU (1.07 per cent), power (0.79 per cent) and realty (0.12 per cent). In contrast, IT, teck and healthcare indices ended in the negative zone, falling up to 1.32 per cent. The broader markets too were in a better shape after investors widened their portfolios, lifting the BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices by up to 0.84 per cent. The BSE and NSE will conduct a special 'Muhurat' trading session on Wednesday, November 7. he government Friday promulgated an ordi- to amend the companies law, a senior Tnance official said. While details about the ordinance could not be immediately ascertained, it is believed that amendments mainly pertain to restructuring of corporate offences under the Companies Act, The proposal to issue an ordinance to amend the Act was cleared by the Cabinet Thursday. The official said the ordinance had received assent from President Ram Nath Kovind and has been promulgated. The Corporate Affairs Ministry, which is implementing the Act, has been looking at ways to promote ease of doing business as well as ensure better compliance levels. In August, a government-appointed panel suggested various changes to the Act, including restructuring of corporate offences under the companies law and an in-house adjudication mechanism to ensure that courts get more time to deal with serious violations. Apart from restructuring of corporate offences to relieve special courts from adjudicating routine offences, the panel has mooted "re-categorisation of 16 out of the 81 compoundable offences" under the Act. The committee had also recommended disqualification of directors in case they have directorships beyond permissible limits and capping an independent director's remuneration. New Delhi: Fraud-hit Punjab National Bank Friday posted a staggering loss of 4, crore for the second quarter ended September 2018 on rising bad loans. The state-owned bank had a net profit of Rs 561 crore in the July-September quarter of last fiscal PTI pple CEO Tim Cook voiced optimism that the Indian government Awill at some point agree to allow the technology giant to bring in its stores as he lauded the country s bold reforms, saying he is a big believer and very bullish on India. Cook was responding to a question on whether Apple is at a disadvantage in India, as compared to other markets, in terms of ability to own stores and manufacture its products. We ve had really great productive discussions with the Indian government and I fully expect that at some point, they will agree to allow us to bring our stores into the country. We ve been in discussions with them and the discussions are going quite well, Cook said during the fourth quarter 2018 earnings call Thursday. Cook said that in India there are import duties in some or most of the product categories that Apple is in and in some cases they compound. This is an area that we're giving lots of feedback on. We do manufacture some of the entry iphones in India and that project has gone well. I am a big believer in India. I am very bullish on the country and the people and our ability to do well there, he said. Cook said that despite the challenges, including currency weakness, he was very optimistic about his company's future growth in the Indian market. With the rupee touching 74 to a dollar, Cook said the currency weakness has been part of Apple's challenge in India, "as you can tell from just looking at the currency trends, but I sort of view these as speed bumps along a very long journey though, and the long term is, I think is very, very strong there (India). There s a huge number of people that will move into the middle class. The government has really focused on reform in a major way and made some very bold moves and I applaud them for doing that, and sort of can't wait for the future there, he said. On some deceleration in key emerging markets, Cook said the emerging markets that Apple is seeing pressure in are Turkey, India, Brazil, Russia. These are markets where currencies have weakened over the recent period. In some cases, that resulted in us raising prices and those markets are not growing the way we would like to see, he said. Cook said Apple's business in India in Q4 was flat. Obviously, we would like to see that be a huge growth. Brazil was down somewhat compared to the previous year. And so I think, or at least the way that I see these, is each one of the emerging markets has a bit of a different story, and I don t see it as some sort of issue that is common between those for the most part, he said.

12 resident Donald Trump has Pclaimed that the provision of birthright citizenship has created an entire industry of birth tourism in the US with Chinese people benefitting a lot from this crazy, lunatic policy. Birth tourism refers to the practice of people travelling to another country solely to give birth there. Most leave for their home countries right after. In his latest hardline immigration rhetoric, the US President on Tuesday expressed his intention to take the path of an executive order to deny automatic citizenship to children born of non-american parents in the US. This policy (birthright citizenship) has even created an entire industry. It s called birth tourism, where pregnant mothers from all over the world travel to America to make their children instant lifelong citizens with guaranteed everything, Trump told his supporters at an election rally in Columbia, Missouri. Trump alleged that the opposition Democrats want to continue giving automatic birthright citizenship to every child born to an illegal alien. Even if they ve been on our soil for a mere matter of seconds, he said. Hundreds of thousands of children born to illegal immigrants are made automatic citizens of the United States every year because of this crazy, lunatic policy that we can end, he said amidst applause from his supporters. We need support, but we can do it. They re all made Colombo: In a boost for newly-appointed Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, a lawmaker from the main Tamil party defected to the premier s side and was made a minister on Friday even as President Maithripala Sirisena agreed to summon Parliament on November 7 for a floor test to end the political turmoil. Rajapaksa claims he now has enough numbers to prove his majority and at least five of ousted premier Ranil Wickremasinghe s men have defected to his side. The current suspension of Parliament is seen as key to Rajapaksa negotiating for enough defections. Rajapaksa was further bolstered by the defection of TNA MP S Vilenthiriyan from the eastern district of Batticaloa, who was made the deputy minister of eastern development. Wickremasinghe s United National Party said they have handed over a motion of no confidence against new Prime Minister Rajapaksa. Senior UNP member Lakshman Kiriella said Secretary General of Parliament was informed of the motion. PTI instantly eligible for every privilege and benefit of American citizenship. You get nothing more than they do. They re full citizens, he said. This is costing US many billions of dollars a year. You don t realise what a big industry it s an industry. Many come from China. You ll be surprised. China now is number one. We re not talking just South America, Latin America. We re talking about China, parts of Asia. It s crazy, he said. Think of it. You re an enemy of our country. You re a general with war on your mind. You re a dictator who we hate and who s against us. And that dictator has his wife have a baby on American soil. Congratulations. Your son or daughter is now an American citizen. Does anybody think this makes sense? he asked the audience. It s crazy. But we re getting it all worked out, he said assuring his supporters that he will work to end birthright citizenship. S President Donald Trump Uappeared to be considerate to the hundreds of thousands of skilled professionals including Indians patiently waiting for years to receive green cards, saying they have done everything perfectly and they are going to enter America. His comments came amid tension over a caravan of an estimated 5,000 to 7,000 people mostly from three Latin American countries El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala who are currently marching towards the southern US border of Mexico with the intention to enter the US. As per the official estimates, more than 600,000 Indians in the US are waiting to receive green cards or legal permanent residency, which is a step short of American citizenship. Letting illegal immigrants enter the country in thousands and then letting them take advantage of the catch and release policy is quite unfair to these skilled professionals. hina on Friday reportedly Cagreed to provide $6 billion in aid to Pakistan, which is going through a low point, to minimise the cash-strapped country s dependence on an IMF bailout package as Prime Minister Imran Khan held talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Khan, who is here on his maiden visit, met Xi in the Great Hall of People where the two leaders also held one-onone meeting besides delegation-level talks, Pakistani media reports said. Pakistan is expected to receive $6 billion economic package from China during the visit, Geo TV quoted sources as saying. A loan of $1.5 billion is also expected to be offered, along with an additional package of USD three billion for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the report said. The loan and the investments were reportedly part of the $6 billion package. However, there was no immediate official comment from Beijing on the report. United Nations: The killing of journalists around the world for doing their job is outrageous and should not become the new normal, UN chief Antonio Guterres said. In just over a decade, some 1,010 journalists have been killed for reporting the news, and in nine out of 10 cases, the perpetrators are never brought to justice. In 2018 alone, at least 88 journalists have been killed according to the UN. Many thousands more have been attacked, harassed, detained or imprisoned on spurious charges, without due process, Guterres said in a video message for The International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists, marked annually on November 2. Secretary-General Guterres paid tribute to the reporters in the field who do their jobs every day despite intimidation and threats. And he called on the international community to protect journalists and create the conditions they need to do their work. PTI op Pakistani cleric Maulana TSamiul Haq, who was also known as the godfather of Taliban, was stabbed to death at his residence in the garrison city of Rawalpindi on Friday, his family said. Haq, 82, was the head of the Islamic religious seminary Darul Uloom Haqqania in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa s Akora Khattak town and also the chief of the hardline political party Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Sami (JUI-S). Haq, a heart patient, was killed by unidentified attackers while he was resting in his room, his son Maulana Hamidul Haq was quoted as saying by Geo News. His personal guard had gone out to the market and when he came back he saw Haq lying in a pool of blood on the bed, Hamidul added. JUI- S s Peshawar president also confirmed Haq s death following an assassination attempt in Rawalpindi. Initially there were conflicting reports about how Haq was killed. Some Pakistani media had reported that he was espite rapid economic Dgrowth, the Asia-Pacific region has 486 million people who go hungry as progress stalls in improving food security and basic living conditions, a United Nations report said Friday. Even in relatively wellto-do cities like Bangkok and the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur, poor families cannot afford enough good food for their children, often with devastating long-term consequences for their health and future productivity, says the report. killed in a gun attack. Haq s son has clarified that the cleric was attacked with knife. Mulana Abdul Majid Hazarwi, a close associate of Haq, also confirmed that he was attacked with knife. So far, no outfit has claimed the responsibility of the killing. Haq was elected twice to Pakistan s parliament on Islami Jamhoori Itehad ticket. He was also the chairman of the Difa-e-Pakistan Council an umbrella coalition of more than 40 groups, including Hafeez Saeed-led Jamat-ud Dawa (JuD) and the banned Sipah-e-Sahaba. Haq s madrassa in Akora Khattak is known for having several top Afghan Taliban leaders among its alumni, including Mullah Omar who had received an honorary doctorate from the seminary. Haqqani Network founder Jalaluddin Haqqani, Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AIQS) leader Asim Umar and slain Afghan Taliban chief Mullah Akhtar Mansoor were also among the alumni of the seminary which is dubbed as the University of Jehad. Islamabad/Karachi: Pakistan Army on Friday warned hundreds of radical Islamists hardliners not to test their patience and asked them to end the standoff peacefully to avoid the use of force as the mass protests against the acquittal of a Christian woman for blasphemy entered its third day. Asia Bibi, a 47-year-old mother of four, was convicted in 2010 after being accused of insulting Islam in a row with her neighbours. She always maintained her innocence, but has spent most of the past eight years in solitary confinement. The apex court s judgement, which was pronounced last Wednesday, triggered protests across Pakistan with protestors led by Islamic political party Tehreek-i-Labaik Pakistan and other groups. PTI Washington: NASA s pioneering Dawn spacecraft which orbited the two largest objects in the asteroid belt has run out of fuel, ending a historic 11- year mission that unravelled many mysteries of our solar system, the US space agency said. The USD 467 million Dawn mission, launched in 2007 to study the protoplanet Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres, missed scheduled communications sessions with NASA s Deep Space Network on October 31 and November 1, NASA said in a statement. After the flight team eliminated other possible causes for the missed communications, mission managers concluded that the spacecraft finally ran out of hydrazine. PTI

13 P erformance art can traverse continents, bridge differences among communities and trace commonalities but there is a delicate balance that needs to be maintained with respect to the imperative of politics and culture diplomacy. However, that doesn t mean that one would stop trying. There is work to be done in Australia in giving the right space to the Aboriginal people, who gained voting rights only in They then pushed for land rights and recently a change in the constitution was sought but we didn t have the opportunity to vote on that. The government has been slow to take initiatives but we try through Bangarra Dance Theatre to make indigenous culture accessible, not political but educational. That s what we re trying to demonstrate. If you find the right balance, you can really broaden people s mind and connect. India could do with that too, said Philippe Magid, executive director of the dance company that had started 30 years ago with the aim to showcase only traditional performance art of the first nation people of Australia. Performance art can bring people together and Bangarra is the purest form of reconciliation. We focus on inclusion, changing perceptions and making people understand the oldest living culture in the world needs to be honoured, he said. During their India tour, they connected with the tribes of India in Mizoram, Bengal s Purulia district and Madhya Pradesh. In the last, they did a workshop with the forest-dwelling community of Baigas, who are spread across Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. They also met the Attakkalari dance company in Bengaluru. He mentioned that the workshops could lead to collaborations in the future. We taught ilmmakers Sriram Raghavan and Sujoy FGhosh have joined a new initiative to recognise short filmmakers in India. The medium finds most ground in the digital space but the amount of effort and talent needed is same as that of a feature. The standard of the Critics Choice Short Film Awards is expected to be extremely high with such fine minds coming together to judge it. Ghosh shares, It s a great challenge to be able to do storytelling in short film format but they are great learning platforms for people who want to get into filmmaking, especially when you have to learn about scripting, editing, cinematography and more from scratch. All faculties are same as a feature film and the only thing that is different is the medium of presentation. I believe a short film has to be a very clever project and high on content as well. NVS Media, a company owned by the Vistas Media Capital Pte Ltd (Singapore) has also become associated with the Critics Choice Short Film Awards. Sujoy shares, A short film s publicity depends on word of mouth. And for that it has to leave an impact on the viewer so he/she is able to talk further about it. To make your short film as a commercial product is a challenge. It s a great learning experience at the same time. I personally feel it s an incredible initiative because it gives some legitimacy to short filmmakers and will hopefully encourage more and more creative minds. Film Critics Guild in partnership with Motion Content Group is all set to present the first-ever short film awards Critics Choice Short Film Awards. The event will be held in Mumbai in December. traditional aboriginal dance and Torres traditional dance. It was about the cultural exchange through dance theory and movement. In fact, a contemporary choreographer in Northeast was interested in working with us in the future, he said. The multi-city tour was part of the company s commitment to Asia for a cultural exchange. After India, they will be visiting Japan, and spending more time in Asia next year. The performance they brought to India was a mix of contemporary and traditional performance art from different indigenous communities of mainland Australia and Torres Strait islands apart from their older creations iverdale is a thrilling drama Rfilled with secrets, mysteries and scandals and far removed from the Archie Comics it is based on. The genre-bending show follows the story of the residents of the not-so-sleepy town of Riverdale. While the first season unravelled the saga surrounding the tragic death of high school boy Jason Blossom, the second season dealt with the mystery of the Black Hood and the third one is following a separate genre of its own. We catch up with Cole Sprouse, who plays Jughead Jones in the show, to find out how season three will pan out. What excites you the most about Jughead s storyline in season three? Jughead s mother [played by Gina Gershon] and his sister [played by Trinity Rose Likins] are coming back into town, so that will shake up his family dynamic. For a while, Jughead was the only one without a second parent in the picture - but that s no longer the case. How will Jughead be a different leader to his father, FP [played by Skeet Ulrich]? Jughead s a tactician. He s a cerebral leader. He doesn t think that might is right. He was a pacifist for much for season two, and he s going to be bringing that feeling into the Serpents; how do we rebuild without making so many enemies while simultaneously standing our ground? It s going to be interesting. Season two ended in a bit of a mess for the Serpents. How much danger will they face in the upcoming season? The Serpents are in a rag-tag place. Their ranks are really depleted, so a lot of it is about recruitment and a lot of it is about building back up. For much of the season, Jughead is going to be tested as the leader of the Serpents. He s in a much more calm and collected place now that he s had this near-death experience, so he s not as hot-headed anymore. That helps. Is Jughead out for revenge? I don t know if revenge is part of his leadership quality. I don t know if revenge really suits him. I think he s going to be calm and collected and more tactical about how he approaches leadership. No, I don t think revenge is in the picture. How will the arrival of Jughead s mother and sister change his role as the leader of the Serpents? It s going to breed some discontent between him and his leadership. He s also got some people testing themselves against his leadership, so we ll see where that goes, too. What do you hope to see happen in season three? We are still in the dark for most of it but I want to find out about Jughead s relationship with his younger sister. I want to see what that means to him. I want to see how protective he is towards her. that date as far back to What stood out most were the narrativebased stories of creation. Their style is grounded in the earth unlike ballet, which is more up in the air. They don t just mix the contemporary with the traditional, the preferred word for folk, they also let the latter shine through between sections. Their specific style evolved over a period of 30 years and has become sought after because of the innovations they factored in. One of the stories performed was from 2007, about the artist Nyapanyapa Yunupingu, who is a famous indigenous artist Down Under, and is an exploration of how she paints. We show smoke in an evocative way, which in aboriginal culture is used as a cleansing medium. There are three sections in which we work with clay that is used to paint the dancers body. One of them is a traditional male dance, warrior style and it transitions woman s story, which is ethereal and beautiful. Another creation story called Moth, is about its unravelling from a cocoon, Magid said. He added, We are deliberately increasing the number of community engagement activities to set a benchmark for future. We re proud to share the resilience and strength of Australia s First Nation people with other indigenous communities and groups and are looking forward to continue our tradition globally. He will introduce her to this sh*tshow that s going on around his life, which is going to be a really interesting and fun dynamic to play. I also want to see how the Serpents react to his family. olkata was once the intellectual and Kcultural capital of the nation but today it s become hard to find a succinct description that would do justice to the city of joy. The state is no longer called West Bengal and the city too is caught between modernity and colonial times. With dilapidated structures from the Raj being torn down and a 62-floor building standing tall in the central business district of Chowringhee and more expansion planned, the urban landscape is no longer the one we read about it in Byomkesh Bakshi novels or films of Uttam Kumar. The book features black and white pictures of places such as Mother House; the Marble Palace, built by the Mullicks of Sovabazar, who were bullion merchants; pictures of the Great Bengal Famine of 1943 claiming the lives of three million; another shows what used to be the city s lifeline the tram. In visuals depicting the modern life in the city, one of them shows wrestlers and bodybuilders on the banks of Hooghly. In another, a man with perfectly parted hair sits besides the carriage driver and seems unaffected by the stares from the cars nearby. This photo of the quintessential Bengali Babu is just one of the many fascinating images found in the two-part book published by Roli. It captures the essence of a people torn between their habits and forces of change. The book is a sweeping ode to At the end of season two, Jughead asked Betty [played by Lili Reinhart] to be his Serpent queen. What exactly does that involve? I have no idea. It is a bit ambiguous and we actually address that in the first episode [of season three]. We clarify exactly what that means. I think it s more of a partnership thing. It means, I ve got your back, and you ve got my back. His unwillingness to include her in the Serpents before was an attempt to protect her, so his willingness to include her now is an attempt to say, I feel confident about you. What else can fans expect to see in season three of Riverdale? Every season seems to have a difference in genre. Season One was a murder mystery. The first part of Season Two was a horror and the second was a mafia crime drama. This season, it s looking like a cult narrative is going to be the over-arching theme, which is going to be super-interesting. There are rumours that there will be a supernatural element to season three. It seems like some of the supernatural elements that [Riverdale executive producer] Roberto [Aguirre- Sacasa] has been training his pen on for Sabrina have woven their way slightly into the show. What do you think of the show s soaring success? We re very lucky on Riverdale. We work really hard on the show. All of us do. We re taking a property that already had a built-in fan base and we re adding interesting people, interesting actors, interesting casting and interesting narratives to the plot and we hope that it takes off. In some way or another, as long as we do that justice, then we re going to end up in a good place and people are going to continue to like the show. (Season Three of Riverdale airs every Thursday at 10 pm on Colors Infinity) the city and narrates the story of modern India s first capital through its past and present. Author Sunanda K Datta-Ray, who captured the Calcutta Then, dives into the rich history of the city using rare images of its iconic monuments, including the Victoria Memorial under construction and the Howrah bridge that crosses the Hooghly river. Many of the photos in the book have never been seen before. Founder-publisher of Roli Books and also the photo editor of the book, Pramod Kapoor said, I met around 40 old families living in the city, some of them were formerly zamindars (landlords) or linked to the maharajas, and some who settled there many years ago for business. I got disappointed at some places but also succeeded at others. He added, I have an umbilical connection to the city. I was born in Jorasanko and have very fond memories of the time spent there. I have visited Kolkata many times since my birth, but it wasn t until late last year when I was researching for this book that I realised those memories cannot be that easily erased. Author Indrajit Hazra of Kolkata Now said that for visitors and those who once left the city, like I did, it can be a walk through time, a ride on a tram, or a constant return to the scene of old happy times on Park Street. The book was launched on November 1 by the Ambassador of France, Alexandre Ziegler. ctress Sanya Malhotra, who Arecently enthralled the audience with her impeccable performance in Patakha and Badhaai Ho, shared insights about her interest in dance and cooking in a candid conversation with actress and comedian Mallika Dua on the sets of Midnight Misadventures with Mallika Dua. She revealed that she is a selftaught dancer, and has been actively dancing since young. I started dancing when I was three to four years old and performed on Tu Cheez Badi Hai Mast Mast song. Dance makes me really happy and after my fifth or sixth film, I would like to take a sabbatical to learn the tap dance form. Talking about her love for food, Sanya, said, I love to cook, especially for my friends. For Patakha, I had to put on 12 kg and that was the best part about that film. I used to eat bananas, ice cream shakes, pan cakes, fries, dal chawal which is my favourite food. It was amazing. (The show will be aired on TLC and its official YouTube page RISE BY TLC on November 5.)

14 t is a known fact that IFantastic Beasts: The crimes of the Grindelwald is the predecessor of the Potter series. The film is based on J.K. Rowling s wizarding world which was set 70 years before the Harry Potter books explored the adventure of magizoologist. The screenwriter and producer of both the series, JK Rowling confesses that Albus Dumbledore is her favorite character of the series. However, the beloved Hogwarts future headmaster Dumbledore does not make an appearance in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. He only returns in the second installment. Rowling feels, Within the Fantastic Beasts franchise, I am telling a story that is only hinted at in the Harry Potter L ong ago, tunes of legendary actor Raj Kapoor s iconic song Sir par lal topi roosi, phir bhi dil hai Hindustani would echo on the streets of Moscow and St Petersburg. The link between the two nations is subliminal and Bollywood, arts and politics have played a major part in maintaining them over the years. Which is why generations have grown up on nostalgia. But it is the generation next that the children s folk dance group called Kalinka is intent on nurturing, indicative of an ethno-surge that is sweeping both countries at the moment. Directed by Natalya Levitskaya- Flippova, the traditional folk dance group from Russia celebrated the 15th anniversary of its first concert in Delhi and recently performed at the Rosatom Festival of Science and Culture. Besides showing the best part of Russia, we meet representatives of different cultures from all around the world and learn a lot from them. The best way to learn a new culture is by experiencing it. Arts and culture are free of politics so when people share what they have, the world becomes a better place. Such programmes should happen more often, Natalya says. Founded in 1986 by Alexander Flippov, the Kalinka has trained more than 20,000 children in 50 years. It is a legacy that Natalya has followed since her childhood. She says that Alexander Flippov was a very bright person, who created a team that gives joy and love to both children, who dance, and spectators, who come to the concerts. Talking about how the group has evolved over the years, she adds, We are trying to preserve what he had created as much as we can. There haven t been many changes since it had started. There has been development with time and there is always space for some improvement. The team s task is not just to change but to take itself to an allnew level through choreography, stunts and elements while keep its originality intact, she believes. One of the most unique features were that the team came with 3,000 handsewn costumes. From sarafan (peasant pinafore dress), red headdresses, white skirts, kokoshnik, kosovorotka to plain dark-coloured trousers, the stage was filled with frills for their folk dances: Lozhkari, the rhythm of spoons, and books the rise of Grindelwald, who profoundly threatened both the wizarding and non-wizarding worlds, and his antagonist, Dumbledore, who, of course, is a key figure in the Potter stories. Grindelwald is first mentioned in Harry Potter and the Philosopher s Stone, so he was there from the beginning though he was more of a mysterious background character. You know that he must have been important to figure so prominently in Dumbledore s own history, but it is only when you reach the end of the Potter series that you find out just how important he was and you might also intuit that there must be much more to tell. I think this was the story I was most interested in revisiting because it s so crucial to understanding Dumbledore, who is my favorite character, she acknowledges. The film which is not a reintroduction to the magical world but is the legitimate build off from the world JK Rowling established, in which Johnny Depp plays Grindelwald the dark and powerful wizard who has once been a friend of Dumbledore. Others in the cast include Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Alison Sudol, Jude Law, Dan Fogler, Ezra Miller, Claudia Kim, ZoëKravitz and Brontis Jodorowsky. The film is written by JK Rowling and directed by David Yates. The film is set to release Pan India on November 16 in English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu by Warner Bros Pictures India. or around six decades he has been Fmesmerising both adults and teenagers with his vivid and varied characterisation, gripping plots, and impeccable story telling. A deep love of humanity and humane values, wit and humour are the hallmarks of his short stories and novels, where those in teens love to get lost in a world of fantasy and funny ghosts and the equally lovable good and bad people. On Friday Mukhopadhyay turned 84. Meet Sahitya Akademi awardee Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay, rated as one of the finest and popular writers of modern Bengali literature. As he stepped into his 84th year Mukhopadhyay is least bothered about his advancing age, and has adapted magnificently to a new world of laptops and tabs. I am not at all concerned about my age, or that I am growing old. I consider myself young. I still play pranks on my grandchildren. I face no issues with the change in technology as I am in favour of the change. I myself use new gadgets and devices and practice writing on them. I have been using laptops for a long time. Currently I am writing stories on my new tab, Mukhopadhyay said. Mukhopadhyay, who has penned nearly 100 books of short stories and novels for the adult readers, and 34 for teenagers most of them best sellers does not believe that emergence of e-books would put writers in trouble. I believe e-books are the future. We can get almost 40 to 50 novels within one small portable device and read them any time we want. It is of great convenience to the readers. said the author, who won the Sahitya Akademi in 1989 for his novel Manabjamin. He himself uses various social media platforms. Social media allows free interaction between the author and readers. It has opened up new horizon for the writers as they can reach out to more people easily and also use the platform to advertise their books if needed. I have accounts on various social media platforms like Facebook and Whatsapp but I do not use them a lot as I don t Yablochko, the dance of the Russian sailors. With the focus on choreography, the dances by both boys and girls reflected the richness of the national culture with many regional spices. Natalya believes that India and Russia share a similarity, i.e. both have a rich and diverse heritage in arts. Russian culture differs from one region to another. I think it s the same in India as well, she says. It takes a lot of preparation when it comes to leading a team on the international forefront, so what were Natalya s struggles and practices? She answers, We have performed abroad for several years. Though pre-activities don t take too much time, we choose the programme carefully and then do the necessary number of rehearsals. It s always interesting to come to different countries like India to perform. We have daily rehearsals before we travel abroad. On an average, dancers go on the tour. Following a discipline during the rehearsals, it becomes simple for the trainers to work backstage as well as onstage. This time, only 11 children performed. I can t say it was a challenge for us because we were ready to perform in a number as big as up to 100 people and more as well, she says. She loves watching different kinds of classical Indian dances. Indian dance get time but the impact of social media on writers have been positive, he said. Mukhopadhyay, who was massively influenced by the works of Rabindranath Tagore and Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, rued that great translations commissioned by the Sahitya Akademi remain unsold as people do not know about them. He suggested Sahitya Akademi set up its own retail shops to get more visibility among the literature enthusiasts. Born in Mymensingh (now in Bangladesh) in 1935, his family migrated to Kolkata during the partition. However, Mukhopadhyay spent his formative years shuttling between various places as his father had a transferable job. consists of thousand of symbols, where every gesture means something. Since I am an amateur from the point of view of Indian culture, I do not undertake performing it for the fear of doing something wrong. I would love to consider an opportunity to work with an Indian choreographer and create something together, she says. She shares one of her experiences of collaborating with Indian dancers. We performed with a few Indian girls. And it turned out to be awesome. Our children watched the Indian dancers open-mouthed, she says. She believes that the people of India are its biggest asset. They are highly sensitive when it comes to their taste in art, especially music and dance. I f you have the skills, you may have to struggle but success can be yours, says actor Manoj Bajpayee who hails from a small town in Bihar, shifted to Delhi to study and then moved to Mumbai to make a mark. You can t complain about nepotism by just sitting in a small town. Come to Bombay, start struggling, do theatre and learn some skills. If one has to compete with film industry children, you really have to be good. It is skills versus opportunities, and I feel skills matter the most, Manoj said. The 49-year-old actor s initial journey in Bollywood was full of struggle and hardships. But it was his dedication which helped him to achieve heights in his career. Manoj said: After doing Bandit Queen, I shifted to Mumbai and living in Mumbai was not easy. I was not getting work. People were not believing in my abilities. I felt dejected and started doubting my capabilities. I was not having any work, I started feeling that my theatre work was just a fluke. But I didn t quit. I got up, started knocking at the doors and worked on my skills. After Bandit Queen the actor did crime thriller Satya for which he got immense fame and also his first National Award. For Manoj, getting a National Award was always his big dream. He said: The 1990s was a dark age of cinema and Satya came right at the end. It was a landmark film of Indian cinema and changed the face of our industry. I always had a dream of achieving National Award. Getting this award means getting into league of legends and big actors. It came as a surprise and I feel fortunate that I did film like Satya. Manoj is in Dharamshala for the o n g o i n g Dharamshala International Film Festival, where his Bhonsle will be screened. He engaged in a discussion on films and about his ideal way of direction during a session. When I am in front of the camera, I just want to be left alone. I want to be observed by my director. If I am really going wrong, then I want my director to counter me. Sometimes, directors give too much information during the shots which I feel disturbing. I like to be briefed before the shots, he added. I came across a great variety of people, This obviously helped me in portraying a wide array of characters. The experience of staying in different mofussil and rural areas greatly shaped backdrop of my novels and stories, said Mukhopadhyay, whose first published story was Jol Torongo in The first novel Ghunpoka came out in the midsixties. A deep undertone of spirituality runs through his works. They add to the depth, but never hinder the flow. Mukhopadhyay credits this to the influence of his guru (spiritual guide) Thakur Anukulchandra. I believe, to portray some idealism in one s writing, it is important to first assimilate the ideals. Otherwise it would sound like an advertisement. I could do it successfully. The reference to Thakur in my writings comes from my belief in his philosophy, he said. Mukhopadhyay s magnificent ouvre of adult fiction includes such evergreen books like Kagojer Bou, Durbin, Ujaan, Akranta and Parthibo. Many of his works have been translated into various languages. Mukhopadhyay delved into the world of children s literature much later, in the mid- 1970s, and got instant success with the novel Manojder Adbhut Bari. I don t face issues in writing for the children and the grown ups simultaneously. I have been doing it for many years. But the truth is there is no secret formula behind this. I won t be able to explain how I do it. May be, it is something within me, he said. His treasure trove of children s literature is enriched with elements like thrill, suspense, humour, colloquialism and often the not-at-all-scary supernatural entities. His Goshaibaganer Bhoot, Goynar Baksho and Chhayamoy, all of which were turned into movies, have the presence of ghosts. I believe in ghosts. But what s more significant, I feel the ghosts too believe in me. They come to grace my writings whenever I need them. I have a mutual relationship with them, Shirshendu said in his trademark humorous style.

15 I ndia leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal broke into the top-10 of the ICC rankings while Shikhar Dhawan dropped four places in the batsmen standings following a lean home series against the West Indies. India captain Virat Kohli completed 10,000 ODI runs on his way to a series aggregate of 453 runs and has consolidated his position as the top-ranked batsman. He earned 15 points, which has lifted him to 899 points, 28 ahead of second-ranked teammate Rohit Sharma, who has collected 29 points following his series total of 389 runs. His points tally of 871 is his highest to-date. Dhawan, who failed to register a half century in the five innings against the West Indies, has slipped four places to be ninth. In the bowlers' table, Chahal, Akila Dananjaya and Ravindra Jadeja have made big impacts, while number-one-ranked Jasprit Bumrah has achieved a careerhigh 841 rating points, which is the highest in ODI bowling since Shaun Pollock had 894 points in Bumrah leads third-ranked Kuldeep Yadav by 118 points. Yadav is also at a career-high 723 rating points. Chahal has entered the top-10 for the first time in his career by rising three places to eighth, Sri Lanka's Dananjaya has achieved a career-high ranking of 13th after his nine wickets helped him jump eight places, and Jadeja has climbed 16 places to move to 25th ll-rounder Shivam Dubey's Asmashing hundred complemented by pacer Tushar Deshpande's late evening burst saw Mumbai gain upperhand against Railways on the second day of the Ranji Trophy group A encounter on Friday. After Siddhesh Lad (99) missed out on a hundred, Dubey (114) struck his maiden century in only his second first-class game as Mumbai scored 411 in their first essay. The Railways were down in the dumps at 115 for 6 with Deshpande (3/29 in 11 overs) struck a double blow with the semi-new ball. Dubey on his part took a wicket while senior seamer Dhawal Kulkarni also got a wicket. For Railways, their senior pro Arindam Ghosh is at the crease having crawled his way to 39 off 115 deliveries. At the start of the day, Lad, who hit a couple of boundaries to reach into the 90's was bowled by left-arm spinner Avinash Yadav with a just a run required for his coveted three-figure mark. Lad faced 189 deliveries and hit 14 boundaries. However left-handed Shivam played a counter-attacking knock, hitting 13 fours and four sixes in 139 balls. He was severe on the spin troika of Harsh Tyagi (4/83), Avinash Yadav (3/99) and Madhur Khatri (0/77 in 17 overs). Dubey shared a 56-run seventh wicket stand with skipper Kulkarni (22) and then upped the ante alongside tailenders to get his side passed 400-run mark. He was the ninth batsman to be dismissed after Tyagi found a nick which was pouched by rival skipper Mahesh Rawat. Nicely warmd up after his hundred, Dubey then came on as first-change bowler to remove opener Saurabh Wakaskar (22) after Deshpande and Kulkarni got rid of Nitin Bhille and PS Singh respectively. Reduced to 62 for 4, Rawat (30) and Ghosh added 49 runs for the fifth wicket before Deshpande struck twice at the fag end of the day. Elsewhere in Dindigul Rajat Patidar missed out on a welldeserved double century by four runs, but helped Madhya Pradesh make 393 against Tamil Nadu in Elite Group B Match. Test spinner R Ashwin and paceman M Mohammed finished with four wickets each to help TN restrict Madhya Pradesh from posting a huge total. The home team was zero for no loss in two overs at stumps on day two. Resuming at the overnight score of 214 for 3, Patidar forged another useful partnership with Shubham Sharma (43) to put the team in a strong position. However, things went awry after the exit of Sharma as they slid from 317 for 4 to 393 all out. Shubham Sharma was snapped up by wicketkeeper N Jagadeesan off Rahil Shah's bowling following which Patidar and Yash Dubey (6) added 42 runs. Patidar defied the Tamil Nadu bowlers like he did on Thursday. He slammed 17 fours and a six in his 406-ball knock. Mohammed and Ashwin took over after the exit of Patidar to engineer a collapse. Ashwin snapped the last three wickets to fall (Avesh Khan, Ishwar Pandey and Kuldeep Sen) to finish with 4 for 85 from 38.4 overs. Mohammed ended with 4 for 98. ormer Australian all- Andrew Symonds Frounder says the 'monkeygate' incident during the home series against India in 2008 triggered his downfall in international cricket and even led to bouts of "binge drinking". Symonds accused Harbhajan Singh of calling him a 'monkey' in the Sydney Test, a claim that the Indian spinner denied. The infamous incident led to Harbhajan being banned for three games but it was overturned after the Indian team threatened to pull out of the tour. The 43-year-old recalled how the entire episode affected him. "From that moment on that was my downhill slide. I started to drink heavily as a result of it and my life was starting to dissolve around me," Symonds told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. "I felt the pressure and the weight of dragging those mates of mine into the cauldron of this cesspit that should ast bowling great Jeff Thomson on FFriday said India are favourites to "steamroll" Australia in the Test series Down Under due to the absence of the experienced duo of Steve Smith and David Warner. Thomson, arguably the fastest bowler in Test cricket history, said the Australian batting looks ordinary in the absence of Smith and Warner, who both were handed 12-month bans for their involvement in the infamous ball-tampering scandal in Cape Town. "You (India) have a solid team, a very good fast bowling unit and you should win if you play hard in the upcoming series. There is no reason why you should not steamroll Australia which will be without Smith and Warner. Without these two, the Australian batting line-up is very average," said the 68-year-old Thomson. "You see the footwork of the Australians during the series against Pakistan (in the UAE which they lost 0-1). They lack technique, they just want to smack the ball out of the park, which is due to playing too many T20 and ODI matches," said the Australian, who took 200 wickets in 51 Tests between India will tour Australia for a four-test series beginning December 6 at Adelaide. Thomson said the ball-tampering controversy had embarrassed the Australian sports fraternity but felt the 12- month ban imposed on Smith and Warner was not justified. "Banning them for such a long period of 12 months is ridiculous. I heard that the ban was to be for six months but one person (the Australian Prime Minister) who has no business in the issue called up and it was changed to 12 months," he said. Thomson did not give a definitive answer when asked if Virat Kohli is the new Sachin Tendulkar. "I feel Virat Kohli is emerging as a great player but he might have played differently in an earlier time. These days, a batsman will not score for two overs and then score a boundary with a stupid shot. At times, not getting out is the mindset of a batsmen," he said. "I think other team members (than Kohli) should play tough cricket like he plays. When he is out, other members should show the fighting spirit. If you score you should win (in Australia)," he added. He said he must have clocked 110 spot after picking up seven wickets. For the West Indies, Shai Hope and Shimron Hetmyer are the biggest gainers in the batsmen rankings. Hope scored 250 runs in the series at and has been rewarded with a jump of 22 places that has not only put him in 25th position but has also confirmed his status as the highest-ranked Windies batsman. Hetmyer, who captained the Windies to the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup title in 2016, was his side's leading run-getter with 259 runs at This performance reflects in the latest batting table as the left-hander has vaulted 31 places to claim 26th position. The two batsmen are enjoying their career-high rankings and are now separated by only nine points. But, more importantly, the Windies now have two representatives inside the top-30 among batsmen. England are the number-one ranked side, while India are second. India trail England by five points, but lead third-ranked New Zealand by nine points. never have got to this sort of point where we felt guilty. "I was dealing with it the wrong way. I felt guilty that I'd dragged my mates (teammates) into something I didn't think they deserved to be involved in." Symonds happened to play his last game for Australia in May 2009 and a month later his Cricket Australia contract was withdrawn after he was sent home from the World T20 for "breaking a number of team rules related to alcohol and other issues". On the 'monkeygate' incident, Symonds remained firm on his claim that Harbhajan had abused him on multiple occasions. "I'd spoken to Harbhajan the series before in India, he'd called me a monkey before in India. "I went into their dressing room and said, 'Can I speak to Harbhajan for a minute outside please?' So he came outside and I said, 'Look, the name-calling's got to stop or else it's going to get out of hand.'" miles/hr in his playing days if the measurement was done similar to the current practice. "During my time, the speed was measured at the impact of the ball with the bat and now it is done when the ball leaves the hand. I think I must have clocked 175 km/hr in the current measurement system," he said. On the playing conditions now-a-days, he said, "It is heavily tilted towards batsmen. The balls are a problem, pitches have changed and have become flat, boundaries are smaller, bats are heavier and miss hits can go to boundaries." Asked to name the five best batsmen in the world he has bowled to during his career, he mentioned Brian Lara, Vivian Richards, Sunil Gavaskar, Greg Chappell and Barry Richards. Lara though started playing after his retirement. irat Kohli is a "superstar" who Vwill be at the forefront of keeping Test cricket alive, feels former South African captain Graeme Smith. The year 2018 has been great for the Indian captain, who has produced some exceptional ODI feats including the fastest to reach the 10,000 club, elevating his stature as the best batsman in the world. "World cricket is lacking huge amount of superstars. May be one or two in England. I think Virat (Kohli) is that guy (superstar)," Smith said in his address at the Jagmohan Dalmiya Annual Conclave (Chapter II) here Friday. "The fact that he loves Test cricket and puts in performances, it keeps Test cricket relevant in a country that loves the game with IPL and other T20s. It's huge for the game. "As long as Virat keeps promoting Test cricket as an icon and super- star, we all have the chance to keep the game relevant," he added. Smith, who played 117 Tests while captaining South Africa in 109 of them, criticised the Kookaburra balls for adding to Test cricket's misery. This has come at a time when members of the Indian team, including Kohli, who have slammed the quality of SG balls. through transformation phases. I believe if world cricket is competitive all formats will work," he said. "Test cricket is the ultimate test of your ability and skill and your physical state. The challenge is to get competitive teams outside the top three. Then if we add some of the nuances people will start take seriously." India will be in Australia for a full tour starting next month with an aim Terming the quality of to script a maiden series Down Kookaburra balls as huge issue, Smith said: "The Kookaburra balls in particular is letting people down. "It's a ball that softens and does not swing for a long period of time. I think Test cricket cannot afford to have boring draws. "It needs the ball to spin, it needs the ball to swing and movement in the air. It needs competition between the bat and the ball so as to keep Test cricket stay relevant," he added. There has been a lot of debate over tweaking Test cricket to keep it alive and the 37-year-old South African offered a "simple solution" to bring in more competitiveness in the format. "Unfortunately in Test cricket, we have lost a few dynamic teams. There are teams who are going Under. In their recent overseas tour to England, India suffered a 1-4 drubbing while earlier this year they lost 1-2 in South Africa. Showering praise on India's pace attack, Smith said India have it in them to win Down Under this time. "They (India) will be disappointed that they have not won a Test series in South Africa and England. Certainly the ability is there. I think they can challenge teams in their own conditions. They have the talent and ability to do well in Australia," he said. "India's seam attack is one of the best that we have seen. Not just one, but the whole attack is outstanding. You now have young seamers who can hurt the opposition," Smith signed off. outh Africa promised not to wind up Australia over ball- on Sunday when they meet for the first time since Stampering this year's ill-fated Test series, when a cheating scandal plunged Australian cricket into disgrace. The three-game, one-day series is a chance for Australia to move on from a miserable eight months, which began with the tampering row and continued with some grim results on the road. Australia lost the Test series to South Africa and another against Pakistan, and crashed badly in a one-day series to England. They returned home to a scathing independent review this week that slammed Cricket Australia for creating an "arrogant" and "controlling" atmosphere that fostered a win-at-all-costs attitude. South Africa captain Faf du Plessis, who played in the 'sandpaper-gate' Test that culminated in lengthy bans for Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft, insisted his team won't dredge up the past. "I don't think us as a team would go there," he told reporters. "It's got nothing to do with the cricket -- it's in the past. For us, it's business as usual." South African fans laid into the Australians during the Test series, holding up signs mocking the team. One young supporter reportedly tried to get bowler Nathan Lyon to autograph a piece of sandpaper. When South Africa toured Australia in 2016, du Plessis was fined for ball-tampering after he sucked on a mint and then shined the ball. He disputed the finding. The Proteas have brought virtually their strongest team to Australia for the one-dayers in Perth, Adelaide and Hobart, and a single Twenty20 clash on the Gold Coast. While missing Hashim Amla (finger) and JP Duminy (shoulder) for the tour, fast bowler Dale Steyn is back and joins Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi and Imran Tahir in a formidable attack. All-rounder Chris Morris also returns after recovering from a lower back injury, although South Africa's tour didn't start well with a four-wicket loss to a young Prime Minister's XI in Canberra on Wednesday. After recent failures, Australia have dumped Tim Paine as one-day captain, with explosive batsman Aaron Finch assuming the role. Spin veteran Lyon has also been axed, along with all-rounder Mitch Marsh. But fast bowlers Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins return from injury to spearhead the attack alongside Josh Hazlewood. Finch said batsmen's staying at the crease was a key focus leading into the series after recent capitulations. "We've struggled with the bat for quite a while now and it's up to us guys who get first go of it in Perth next Sunday against South Africa to start rewriting that last probably 18 months," he said.

16 H anded an unforgiving start as Arsenal's first new manager for nearly a quarter of a century, Unai Emery has quickly put defeats to Manchester City and Chelsea behind him with a 13-game unbeaten run to earn the respect of the Gunners' support. However, the real test of how far Emery's Arsenal have evolved since being outclassed by City on the opening weekend of the season comes when Liverpool travel to the Emirates on Saturday. Arsenal have won 12 of those 13 games unbeaten, the only slip coming at Crystal Palace last weekend when they conceded two penalties in a 2-2 draw. Yet, they haven't faced any of the Premier League's top six from last season in that run, with defeats of Watford and Everton their only victories over sides in the top half of the table. Emery still seems to be searching for the right balance, while also getting two star centre-forwards in Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang into the side. Lacazette and Aubameyang have already combined for 14 goals between them this season and their firepower has so far got Arsenal out of trouble, particularly late in games with Emery's men yet to enjoy a half-time lead in the Premier League. It is to Emery's credit that his oger Federer's bid for a R100th career title remains on as he beat Fabio Fognini 6-4, 6-3 on Thursday to reach the Paris Masters quarterfinals. If he wins that, against Kei Nishikori, he could face Novak Djokovic in the semifinals - but Federer is thinking more about winning the season-ending ATP Finals, which start November 11. "My objective is London. If I can do well here in Paris and beat (Djokovic), all the better," Federer said. "But I'm not there yet. We'll see." Federer, 37 and returning to the tournament for the first time since 2015, was hardly tested as he beat Fognini for the fourth time in four matches. He was fresh after Milos Raonic pulled out injured before their second-round match on Wednesday. "It was welcome because my body needed it," Federer said. "I needed an extra day and this is what I got. It was a lot of luck." Third seed Federer is playing the Paris Masters for the first time since 2015 and is bidding to clinch the tournament for just the second time after winning it in "I think both of us were far from our best, but we fought with what we had and at the end I think I maybe served a bit better in the important moments than Fabio did," Federer said. A double break of serve put Federer 4-1 up before Fognini broke back with a backhand winner down the line. Fognini had a chance to pressure Federer in the 10th game when the 20-time Grand Slam champion was down on serve. But Federer, who got through a few difficult situations last week on his way to winning the Swiss changes have often impacted the game positively for his side, and that Arsenal only trail league leaders City and Liverpool by four points heading into this weekend. The priority for Arsenal this season remains a top four finish and a return to the Champions League rather than a title challenge, and Emery is well on course for that goal. Liverpool's Jurgen Klopp says Arsenal boss Unai Emery has proved himself as a top manager as the two coaches prepare to go head to head for the first time since the 2016 Europa League final. Emery, then in charge at Sevilla, got the better of Klopp in the final in Basel, Indoors for the ninth time, saved both and then held to clinch the first set. Federer responded well in the eighth game of the second set, again saving two break points at down on his way to leading 5-3. Fognini cracked in the next game and was broken to love, double faulting on match point. Federer was given a standing ovation after his win. "It was wonderful to have such a welcome from the French public," he said. "The atmosphere was wonderful." Nishikori, seeded 10, made the quarter-finals by beating Kevin Anderson 6-4, 6-4 to avenge his defeat to the big South African in Sunday's Vienna final. Federer leads Nishikori 6-2 in career meetings having won their last four clashes. The Japanese's last win over the 20-time major winner came in with his side coming from behind to win 3-1, and subsequently won the French league title with Paris Saint-Germain. Klopp believes Emery has won enough in his career three successive Europa League titles and five major trophies at PSG to warrant the respect his current 13-match unbeaten run deserves. "All people in football knew how good he is but I am not sure all Arsenal fans were over the moon at first when they heard it would be Emery," said Klopp. "But that's England a little bit, you want the poster boys. Unai was in France and before that in Spain in a smaller club, so you can go a bit under the radar. Klopp's record against Arsenal since arriving in England is impressive. He has never lost against the Gunners, with three wins and two draws from five matches. The fixture has a history of high scores, with the past nine Premier League matches bringing 42 goals. "It doesn't look like that will change. They score a lot of goals and are really good offensively," said Klopp. "We have to see how this game will develop. With two very offensive-orientated teams it can often happen. It doesn't have to we saw in the Manchester City game (a goalless draw) that, but it is possible at least." Klopp will still be without midfielders Jordan Henderson and Naby Keita, who are not likely to be in contention for a recall until next weekend. Madrid: Mumbai: New Delhi: Sydney: Las Vegas: ose Mourinho believes JManchester United can still secure a top-four finish in the Premier League, saying an unkind fixture list is partly to blame for their early season struggles. United are languishing in eighth place in the table, five points from a Champions League qualification position, as they prepare to visit Bournemouth on Saturday. But the manager believes his team have been hindered by a series of difficult back-toback away fixtures, citing the fact they must travel to Manchester City in the Premier League on November 11, four days after a Champions League trip to Juventus, and that they visit Liverpool in December after a European away game against Valencia. He did not mention that United have also had back-toback home games three times across all competitions already this season and have only played two of the current top six in their opening 10 league games. Mourinho, in his prematch press conference, said he believed the picture at Old Trafford would be rosier at the beginning of the New Year. "I always say that in the end of the season you play 19 matches at home and away and it doesn't matter when but the reality is that the way the fixtures are coming, sometimes they have an influence in the moment. "We had a double fixture away in September (at Burnley and Watford). Now we have a double away league fixture at Bournemouth and Manchester City. "We will have Juventus away before we go to Manchester City, and we will have Valencia away before Liverpool. "In this part of the season, we play away against possibly the three biggest candidates for the title, in Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester City, so the evin De Bruyne suffered an injury Kscare as League Cup holders Manchester City moved into the quarter-finals with a 2-0 win against Fulham. There was concern for De Bruyne after the City midfielder limped off with what appeared to be a knee injury in the closing minutes on Thursday. De Bruyne, 27, only recently returned from another knee problem that forced him to miss two months this season, limiting him to five appearances to date. City manager Pep Guardiola will hope his influential Belgian star is able to make a quick recovery as they head into a busy period featuring crucial Champions League fixtures and the a brace at the Etihad Stadium. Manchester derby. "He's being checked by the doctor. Right now I don't know if it's nothing or something serious," Guardiola said. Until the injury, Guardiola felt it was the most complete performance of De Bruyne's comeback, but now he must fret over his fitness again. "I think today Kevin is back. The Kevin we know," he said. "Today he was involved in offence and defence. Hopefully what happened in the last minute is not serious." De Bruyne's injury overshadowed a memorable evening for youngster Brahim Diaz. Diaz was making only his third appearance of the season and the promising Spanish striker seized his chance with The 19-year-old's goals ensured City advance to face Leicester or Southampton in the last eight as they bid to retain the trophy. Diaz has been linked with a move to Real Madrid among other top European sides, but Guardiola confirmed City are keen to hold onto their hot prospect. "He knows the desire we have and what we want for all the young players," Guardiola said. "They know how we want to protect them and to try to help them understand the way we want to play. "We want him. In the end it won't depend on us, it is them. It is the agent, him, his family, they will decide." With the English champions having won at Tottenham in the Premier League calendar was not nice to us. "But I think by the end of December, which is the end of the first half of the Premier League season, we are not going to be in the position we are now. We will be in a better position." Mourinho has refused to rule out a challenge for the title but says the first priority must be to climb into the top four. "When you are outside the top four I don't think you should speak about the title," he said. "When you are in the top four, which I believe we are going to be, you can look up, see the distance, look to the fixtures, to the calendar." He declined to reveal whether striker Romelu Lukaku would be recalled at Bournemouth, having been dropped after going eight games without scoring. on Monday, Guardiola rested many of his stars among 10 changes. Diaz was one of those who came in, while De Bruyne, Phil Foden and Gabriel Jesus also featured against Premier League strugglers Fulham.