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1 rime Minister Narendra Modi and PChinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday held a warm and forward looking meeting here to further strengthen the positive momentum in the bilateral relationship after their informal summit in Wuhan. The meeting between the leaders of two Asian powers on the sidelines of the SCO summit came nearly six weeks after they held an informal summit in the Chinese city of Wuhan with an aim to solidify ties in various areas and ensuring better coordination between the border guarding forces of the two countries after the Doklam standoff last year. Modi arrived here in the afternoon on a two-day visit to attend the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). Before their meeting, the two leaders had a warm handshake and posed for photographs. In his opening remarks, Modi said that strong and stable relations between India and China can inspire a stable and peaceful world. He also recalled his informal summit with Xi in Wuhan. Further strengthening the positive momentum in the bilateral relationship generated at the Wuhan Informal Summit. P radesh Committee (PCC) Congress president Niranjan Patnaik, AICC Odisha in-charge Jitendra Singh and some other office - bearers of the State party met AICC president Rahul Gandhi at his residence in New Delhi on Saturday. Sources said Rahul held discussions for more than two hours on the party affairs in Odisha with Patnaik and other office-bearers. Later, Patnaik said We informed Rahulji about the initiatives we have undertaken and the programmes we have he BJD on Saturday Tslammed BJP leaders once again for targeting officers in the Third Floor of the State Secretariat (Chief Minister s Office) while stating that they are doing so after failing to face organised post my appointment as PCC president. Besides, we discussed different party issues relating to Odisha. He further said the AICC president is most likely to visit Odisha in July. In a circular issued by the AICC in the evening, Rahul Gandhi finalised a list of the new District Congress Committee presidents and working presidents. While 11 DCC presidents remained unchanged, the party high command appointed new faces in the remaining 22 districts. Satyabhushan Sahu was appointed as DCC president for Bargarh, Umakanta Sahu for Deogarh, Biplab Jena for Angul, Suresh Panigrahi for Dhenkanal, Dilip Kumar Behera for Balangir, Sankar Das for Subarnpur, Hemant Das for Mayurbhanj, Benumadhab Tripathy for Sundargarh, Rabi Ray for Rourkela and Aswini Kumar n his reaction to the BJD s refusal to accept the ICentral programme figures presented by him recently, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Saturday dared the State Government and the Chief Minister to prove his data wrong. Welcoming retired administrator Ashok Tripathy and over a hundred of people of Badamba to the BJP at a party joining meeting here, Pradhan said, I am inviting questioners Pratap Deb, Pratap Jena, Sanjay Dasburma, Arun Sahu et al to a tea table. I will give answer to each of their questions. But I do understand their the Chief Minister. The Government and the BJD are being managed by the direction of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. There is no leader of Naveen Patnaik s stature in Odisha. Some leaders are targeting others after failing to face the Chief Minister, which is not desirable, said BJD State secretary Bijay Nayak in a statement. Nayak said a phobia of The Third Floor has been haunting Dharmendra Pradhan and, hence, he seems to be talking in his sleep. By doing politics this way, the BJP can t fulfil its Guru for Sambalpur. Similarly, in Keonjhar Mohan Kumar Panda was named DCC president, Ranjit Das in Nayagarh, Satyabrata Patra in Puri, Sarat Raj in Baleswar, Manoj Rout in Jajpur, Ashok Das in Bhadrak, Chinmay Prasad Behura in Kendrapada, Girish Ranjan Panda in Jharsuguda, Suresh Kumar Routray in Khordha, Manas Choudhury in Bhubaneswar, Mohammed Moquim in Cuttack city, Gurupad Nanda in Cuttack, Govind Chandra Patra in Malkangiri, Manoranjan Tripathi in Nabrangpur, Durga Prasad Panda in Raygada, Bharat Bhusan Bemal in Kalahandi, Ghasiram Majhi in Nuapada, Bibhuti Patra in Gajapati, Barun Bhoi in Kandhamal, Sudhir Mahakud in Baudh, Dr Trinath Behera in Ganjam, Meenakshi Bahinipati in Koraput and Natabar Barik in Jagatsinghpur. problems. They have only deciphered the sayings of the Kalapahada of the Third Floor and this is their compulsion, Dharmendra said but didn t make it clear whom he referred to as Kalapahada. Reiterating that 5,449-km National Highways have been sanctioned during the Narendra Modi Government, he demanded that the Chief Minister soon tell the people that for how many days files containing 2,500-km NHs have been pending at his office for approval. Third floor is not an individual property. It is a centre of hopes of 4.5 crore people. A mass movement has already started to free it (the third floor) from the clutches of the Kalapahada, he said. dream of coming to power, he remarked. The people are not accepting the cheap politics of the BJP; and whenever they get an opportunity, they are discarding this party, he said. Nayak dared Pradhan to directly respond to questions asked by the BJD to him on Friday. If he has guts, he should give direct answers. He should not hoodwink people by making indirect and unjustified statements. His indirect response only indicates how capable he is! commented Nayak. PM Narendra Modi had a warm and forward looking meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the SCO Summit, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted. Modi and Xi also took stock of the implementation of the decisions taken at their informal summit in Wuhan on April After their talks in Wuhan, Modi and Xi had decided to issue strategic guidance to their militaries to strengthen communications to build trust and understanding as part of efforts to avoid a Doklamlike situation in the future. The two leaders had also discussed ways to give impetus to their economic ties as well as people-to-people relations. Modi is expected to hold nearly half a dozen bilateral meetings with leaders of other SCO countries. It is for the first time the Indian PM will be attending the SCO Summit after India along with Pakistan became fullfledged members of the grouping, which has been increasingly seen as a counter to NATO. ebellion in both the RCongress and the JD(S) in Karnataka has refused to die sending down shivers among the top leadership of the two partners. Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday met disgruntled Karnataka MLAs led by MB Patil in the national Capital but the talks remained inconclusive. After the meeting, Patil said the next plan of action will be decided after discussions with MLAs, who are unhappy with the Cabinet expansion. BJP leader BS Yeddyurappa only queered the pitch for the two foe-turned-friends by claiming that a number of the disgruntled MLAs from both the Congress and JD(S) camps are in touch with the BJP. Chief Minister Kumaraswamy is also facing dissent from his Ministers seeking plum portfolios. Sensing the growing dissent, the Congress may offer Patil the State party chief s post. Kumaraswamy s effort to pacify Patil too did not yield results. JD(S) leader GT Deve Gowda, who defeated Siddaramaiah in Mysuru and CS Puttaraju, are unhappy about their ministries allocation. Detailed report on P5 he Shree Jagannath Temple TAdministration (SJTA) has asked servitors of the shrine in Puri not to receive offerings or donations by devotees as per the direction of the Supreme Court in this regard. The temple administration has also requested devotees to deposit their donations either in the temple s Hundi or at Temple Head Office and Branch Offices and Temple Information Centres. A Vacation Bench of justices Adarsh Kumar Goel and Ashok Bhushan of the apex court, hearing a petition filed by one Mrinalini Padhi highlighting difficulties faced by devotees at the Jagannath Temple and their harassment ne of Delhi s most want- gangsters Rajesh Oed Bharti, kingpin of notorious Kranti gang, who figured among the top 10 criminals wanted by the law and carrying a reward of 1 lakh each declared by Delhi and Haryana police on his head was gunned down by a team of Special Cell on Saturday morning in a fierce gun battle that lasted for half an hour in south Delhi s Chhatarpur. Three of his accomplices who were travelling with him also got killed in the encounter that ensued while the fifth gangster got injured. The enormity of the exchange of fire could be judged by the fact that eight police personnel of the anti-terrorist unit were also injured. The condition of two ith grenade blasts in Wcrowded places and firing from a distance also called stand-off attacks at the Army camps being the new tactics of the terrorists, they have cast a shadow on the forthcoming annual Amarnath Yatra commencing last week of June. The security establishment doesn t rule out the possibility of terrorists resorting to throwing grenades and firing during the nearly 60-day long yatra too. While stand-off attacks can be effectively dealt with by returning concentrated volley of fire at the perpetrators, it is difficult to counter the threat posed by lobbying of grenades as collateral damage is feared. Engineered by Pakistanbased terror group Jaish-e- Mohammad (JeM), at least 18 grenade attacks have taken place in the last fortnight leaving more than 25 injured including civilians and security personnel in the summer capital Srinagar and towns of restive South Kashmir. Two soldiers have died in the same period after getting hit in the shoot and scoot fire in three or exploitation by servitors, had on Friday directed the temple administrator to ensure that no direct collection of the offerings is made by any Sevaks and all the offerings either in hundi or are deposited and accounted for and properly utilized. There should not be individual pockets by the Sevaks/attendants who may be given their due remuneration as per rules. To ensure this, the help of CCTV cameras and their footages or other steps may be explored, the Bench ruled. policemen is said to be critical and they have been admitted in the Fortis Hospital. The lone gang member and four police personnel have been admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Trauma centre. Two policemen who received injuries were released after giving first aid. Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Special Cell Pramod Singh Kushwah said, There was a specific intelligence input about the movement of notorious outlaw Rajesh Bharti, involved in over 25 cases of carjacking, kidnapping robberies and extortion. A team was put on the job and started monitoring the movement of Bharti and his gang members. They were spotted in Fatehpur Beri s Chanan Hola village, near Chhatarpur on Saturday morning. different attacks on three camps. Terrorists, however, managed to escape in all these incidents. Alarmed over the new trend, security forces are bracing for possibility of the JeM joining hands with another Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e-Tayyebba (LeT) to target the Amarnath Yatra starting June 28, officials said. Apart from throwing grenades on pilgrims and security personnel, the two groups may also try to use improvised explosive devices (IED) along the yatra route, they said. Incidentally, an IED was used last week to blow up an Army vehicle in North Kashmir. However, all the occupants escaped with minor injuries.

2 T he dinosaurs are back with their innate bigness, fury, ferocity and cluck-cluck inelegance, this time in the expert hands of director JA Bayona. The Jurassic franchise, ever since it overturned the cinematic perception of big canvas, jaw-dropping cinema by bringing in these extinct species through the lens eye of Steven Spielberg, has continuously recreated itself with more action and apocalyptic leanings than the previous editions. This one, too, travels back to the scenic and remote volcanic island of Isla Nublar off the Costa Rican coast, but with a total extinction storyline that brings in a lot more emotions for the 11 species of dinosaurs who are all being left to burn up as the world stands and watches with unhesitant Government sanction. The story unravels on much the same grounds with victims, saviour, conspiracy, a grandly dirty genetic project, exploitation of the dinosaurs and genetic engineering to create warfare machines out of the dinos it s all there to propel a big-time thriller but you could still see much of the same thing all over again. But that will be just a small niggle with Jurassic loyalists who soon get sucked into the big scale action and thrills that constantly play to the gallery to keep your attention stoked. Chris Pratt, Jeff Goldman and Bryce Dallas Howard are the usual suspects but Bayona skillfully keeps them only as second citizens to the dinos who are there in their full glory and with all their issues. Owen and his girlfriend Claire Dearing, the original park workers and the most obvious dino lovers, are roped into a secret rescue mission but soon enough they learn that it was all a ruse to get the dinos to the labs for demonic genetic modification and selling them to the underbelly men for millions of dollars, right on the estate which houses the dino museum with apparent tender loving care. As the US Government decides to let the dinos die on the island where the volcanoes have erupted, it is the film s most moving sight as the longest necked one gets slowly engulfed in the lava and magma as Owen and gang see it burn to death helplessly from afar. Then there is the raptor Blue which Owen trained as a hatchling in early years and it shares a uniquely emotional bond with him even after he is captured by the meanies. As total destruction films go, this one from the Jurassic franchise is quite a tear-apart film with all its CGIs and locational beauty. Yes, there is a plot there somewhere too but if you ve been a Jurassic loyalist you might find it much too similar to the prequels. But then, that s a little bit of nothing because when it s Jurassic, it s big, apocalyptic and intimately dramatic. Just a thought though perhaps producer Spielberg needs to turn director Spielberg for the next one in line for this billion dollar cinema series. This is your second time that you are revisiting a classic character. Does it make you reflective? Yes, I think it does, to an extent. It seems kind of fleeting and precious. I m a lucky guy, I know that, getting a whole bunch of chances to work with great people on interesting projects. When Colin Trevorrow(film director and screenwriter) and the others reached out to say they wanted you back, how did you react? Were you surprised? Surprised? You could ve knocked me over with a feather. I don t know if I was in shock, but somebody should ve thrown a blanket over me. I was overtaken by sheer ecstasy. I was floating on air like someone in love, another good song, by the way. Speaking of Colin, sweet genius, what a lovely man. He s an inspiration and too generous. Then he directed me, as Dr Malcolm and Jeff Goldblum, in the flesh, for that Super Bowl commercial and it was an unforgettable day. He wouldn t go back, would he? Not without a real good reason. But he might feel that he could contribute something useful. He loves creatures of all kinds. He might have a yen to see how new and unexpected variations of chaos and human madness run their course. After the transformational events of a couple of decades ago, I think he might be strangely fearless. How did you find working with JA Bayona? Forgive me if I gush. I d loved all his movies but when we got in cahoots, he was strikingly focused, passionate, brilliant, tasteful, joyful, and magnificently kind. Is Dr Malcolm an easy man to channel, to become again? I guess I think of it a little differently. It feels to me like wholehearted, immersive pretending, the serious business of play, and as for the good doctor, well, it s always challenging to do it ideally. Did you come up with an idea for what he has been doing? I ll bet I did. Writing about new mathematical theories and models, ethics in the use of beautiful science, respect for all life on our miraculous planet, innovative and out-of-the-box environmental protection strategies, and poetry. Continuing to support my wonderful daughter in her glorious freedom and empowerment and as a result of some memorable adventures, living life supremely at every moment. Have you shown your children the original films? I only showed Charlie the one minute Super Bowl spot with me and the dino. He was transfixed and then said: Dada, Again. What was it like to interact with Bryce, Chris and the rest? It was electrifying. Not only Bryce Dallas Howard and Chris Pratt who were totally enchanting and welcoming, but the entire company was brimming with energy and creative magic. They have my undying admiration and respect. I missed seeing Geraldine Chaplin (actor), with whom I ve done a couple of movies. I love her. Was there scope for you to improvise anything? There was Scope (mouthwash) in my trailer which I used to freshen my breath. Improvisation? I love to do it but this script was gorgeously crafted. Having said that, I might have offered a garnish or two a sprig of parsley here, an orange slice there. F rom screening a tribute audiences due to limited local David Attenborough that was a remarkable event at documentary on following for these genres, features music by Hans Zimmer London s National Gallery Pancham (RD Burman) Dharmesh Datta, VP, head, are a case in point. The sevenepisode where they assembled the to an art documentary on alternate content and series was filmed over largest ever collection of Michelangelo, to an exhibition film on Leonardo, to BBC s award-winning marine life documentary series Blue Planet II, cinephiles have had access to great content this season. They are now in for a treat with PVR 2.0 Live, an initiative to screen a mix of contemporary concert films, music, sports documentaries, marketing, PVR Ltd, says. PVR Live 2.0 was kickedoff in March, 2018 with the special screenings of Pancham Unmixed: Mujhe Chalte Jaana Hai, a tribute documentary directed by Brahmanand S Siingh honoring RD Burman. Winner of two National Awards for best historical compilation film and best four years and in more than a hundred countries. The film unravels some of the most breathtaking stories of life beneath the waves from the icy polar seas to the deepest, darkest parts of the ocean. The objective is to offer our patrons the opportunity to watch compelling cinema content beyond mainstream Leonardo s surviving paintings for a unique exhibition Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan. There are plans afoot of making content more appealing to the Indian market and tap the non-pvr audience. This content will be a differentiator for our brand and help us tap new audiences, Datta tells you. museum exhibitions, biographical, the documentary studio content. The initiative Apart from offering a world biographies and special premieres. Catering to a niche takes an incisive look into the legendary composer s reflective artistry and buoyant-but-alsolonely has been envisioned on the basis of the insights captured from the feedback of our away from traditional cinema model, the screen may also screen niche Hollywood titles audience, a sports inner being, featuring a patrons during PVR Live. which don t get a wide theatrical documentary titled Cristiano Ronaldo-The World At His Feet directed by Tara Pirnia recently premiered under this host of close friends, colleagues and admirers. Not only this, it has opened up a new world where ocean Therefore, this time around, the alternative cinema content has been curated keeping audiences sensibilities and preferences in release in India, premiered selectively over weekends. Amidst the starry night, PVR also inaugurated the Delhi initiative. The film follows the stories find a space to unfold. mind a healthy mix of edition of Mumbai life of the footballer from his humble beginnings in his hometown in Portugal to the breakthrough with the English club, Manchester United and later his career in Spain at Real The theatre release of the first two episodes of BBC s popular marine life documentary series Blue Planet II: One Ocean and The Deep narrated by International and local genres and overall more contemporary flavour, Datta says. Under the initiative, Leonardo also premiered which International Film Festival (MAMI) recently which was attended by Sanjeev Bijli, Ajay Bijli, Zoya Akhtar, Anupama Chopra, Vishal Bharadwaj, Siddharth Roy Kapoor, Anurag Madrid. Kashyap. The year-round To promote entertainment programme will be screening beyond movies, PVR launched movies, documentary and short PVR Live in 2014 that saw the films that never got released in special screening of ballet show India including the screening of Cinderella & Swan Lake. With uncensored movies once a the inception of PVR Live- month. The films will have Entertainment Beyond Movies, two screenings per month at the aim was to keep the movielovers hooked with an PVR Icon, Promenade. A three- PVR ECX, The Chanakya or interesting onscreen showcase day festival will be organised in of ballets, theatre, broadway March or April 2019, and will plays, and much more. We got host special screenings, really good occupancy levels for masterclass especially and international art films and workshops every week. concert films. However, Sit back and experience captured Iive theatre/ the world of alternate Broadway, ballet and musicals entertainment that is beyond had lower appeal among our cinema.

3 s many as 35,440 meritori- students, who passed Aous the High School Certificate (HSC) Examinations, conducted by the Board of Secondary Education (BSE), Odisha, will get the Chief Minister s Merit Scholarship this year. Guidelines prepared by the School and Mass Education Department clearly mentions about selection of the students and procedure to award the meritorious students under the Chief Minister s Merit Scholarship programme. According to the guidelines, the meritorious students of both Government and aided Odia medium high schools securing high marks in the HSC Examination would be covered under the programme, which would begin from this year. Sources said that 100 students from every block, 100 from each municipal corporation, 50 students from each municipality and 20 from every CC president Niranjan PPatnaik has stated that the BJD Government is a failure on all fronts. There is a series of scams, massive unemployment, poverty, atrocities on women and deterioration of law and order in the State. The so-called dreams of Biju Patnaik have remained unfulfilled under his son Naveen Patnaik s rule for 18 long years, he said while attending a party reception for him here on Thursday. Describing the State s industrial scenarios as gloomy, T he Council of Higher Secondary Education (CHSE) on Saturday announced the results of this year s Plus Two Arts and Commerce streams. The overall pass in Arts was per cent against per cent in Similarly, per cent students cleared the examination in Commerce against the last year s figure of per cent, informed School and Mass Education Minister Badri Narayan Patra. A total of 1, 58,378 students passed the examination in Arts. Girls outshone boys as NAC would get the scholarship. Each student would receive 5,000 as scholarship amount, which would be transferred to their bank account. The students would be identified within one month of announcement of Class X annual results, said officials. A committee headed by district Collector would be constituted in each district for identification of the students for the scholarship. The panel would also comprise District Education Officer (DEO) as the Convener and all the Block he concept that a little Tthing should not be underestimated again appeared true with a video showing a small snake defeating another snake, which is bigger in size, in a fight. The video was shot in Sunabeda of Koraput district 94,619 of them cleared the examinations whereas 63,759 boys were successful. A total of 19,993 students secured first division, 26,076 second division and 1,12,143 third division. Puri district recorded the highest pass rate of per cent while Nabarangpur district had the lowest of per cent in Arts, informed Patra. The Arts pass rate was per cent and the Education Officers as the members. The final merit list would be prepared on the basis of reports of the district panel. From the budgetary provision of the School and Mass Education Department, funds would be sanctioned by June every year. The funds would be provided to the DEOs by July 15. Then, the DEOs would transfer the scholarship amounts to bank accounts of the selected students between August and September. where a threefeet-long Trinket snake attacked a fivefeet-long one belonging to the Ptyas m u c o s a 47-year-old construction species, popularly Aworker, Jagbandhu Jagat, known as working with the CAS Indian Snake, Rat and Construction Company is reportedly missing since Friday morning. Jagat was working on the rail over-bridge (ROB) constructed on the third line over river Ib under the South East Central Railway (SECR). He is believed to have been swept away by the river water. Sources said the CAS Construction Company is the executing agency of the ROB) work on river Ib. According to eyewitnesses, due to heavy rain, the raw road was being constructed for the overpowered it in the fight. It was a rare sight the locals witnessed and was captured on a camera. The video showed that the non-venomous Trinket snake was fighting with the Indian Rat without giving its rival a chance to rescue from its grip. The species is a small, but its courage was big to win the battle. Later, the locals managed to separate two fighting snakes. Niranjan Patnaik said that though a host of MoUs have been signed during Naveen s tenure as Chief Minister, most of the projects have failed to take off, Odia youths are migrating to other States in search of jobs. The health and agriculture sectors are in pathetic conditions in the absence of any long-term solution. Farmers are committing suicide; assaults on women and minor girls are a daily affair. The PCC chief asserted that the Congress would certainly return to power in the State in 2019 and its Government would waive farm loans and increase the old age pension from 300 to 1,000 as its priority decisions. AICC Odisha in-charge Jitendra Singh, speaking at the event, accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of supporting the Chhattisgarh Government in unilaterally building barrages on the Mahanadi thereby restricting water flow to Odisha. Turning heat on the BJD Governent, Singh said it did nothing to protect the interests of the State till 2015 when the Chhattisgarh Government was busy raising barrages on the Mahanadi but is now shedding crocodile tears. Among others, PCC working presidents Pradip Majhi and Chiranjib Biswal, AICC secretary Rudra Raju and senior leaders Bhakta Das and MP Ranjib Biswal addressed the gathering of thousands of Congress supporters from across Jagatsinghpur district. Commerce pass rate per cent. I n Commerce, a total of 26,984 students had appeared at the examinations out of which 20,216 candidates have passed. The number of students passed in first division was 4,006, in second division 3,734 and in third division 12,470. The number of successful boys was 13,089 and that of girls 7,127. Nayagarh district recorded the highest pass percentage of and Deogarh recoded the lowest pass percentage of per cent. esidents of VSS Nagar and R10 nearby mouzas, including Mancheswar, Chakeisihani and Satya Vihar, would block the service road at Vani Vihar on June 11 at 9 am in protest against the delay in completion of the subway there. Underground Road Sangram Samiti chairman Er Krushna Chandra Sahu informed this at a Press meet bridge built over the river and arrangements were made by putting a large pipe for water harvesting. On early Friday morning, due to heavy rain, the water on both sides of the pipe was slowly eroding the soil; and at that point of time Jagbandhu Jagat was asked to stop the water by putting a boulder. Around 10 am, Jagbandhu was believed to have been swept into the river; and at only about 1 pm, when locals reported the incident, divers from Jharsuguda were called. But Jagbandhu could not be first dengue patient of Tthe city was identified on Friday and the number of persons affected in the vectorborne disease in Ganjam dis- BeMC trict increased to two. Earlier, Fakir Swain of Kujidhep village under Ganjam block was tested positive for dengue at the Khandadeuti Community Health Centre (CHC). On Friday, blood samples of Sachala Pradhan, a resident of the Gosaninuagaon area in the city, were tested dengue-positive, said District Malaria Officers Dr R Jagdish Patnaik. According to information, he Odisha Government has Tdecided to provide career and counselling services for students at the higher education level in the Governmentrun colleges. Due to the impact of globalisation and technological advancements in order to facilitate meaningful career for students in academics or industry, it was felt that a good Career and Counselling Cell (CCC) at colleges is essential to bridge the employability gap, focusing on entrepreneurship and establishing linkages with the job market to facilitate placement. Higher Education Secretary Bishnupada Sethi has held discussions with the senior officials of the department in this regard. Accordingly, guidelines have been prepared for the colleges to open the CCC, said sources. The CCC would promote the holistic development of the young talents to discover their full potential and engage in meaningful career that contributes in creating a socially responsible, morally aware, economically independent and an active partner in the progress of the State and the society. The CCC would identify the values and interest of the students and enhance their employability skills to face challenges and facilitate employment opportunities across the globe. The broad objectives of the CCC are to make students develop their academic and here on Saturday. Though it has been four years since the construction of the subway began to connect VSS Nagar to Saheed Nagar, but it is yet to be completed. People belonging to more than 10 mouzas, including residents of VSS Nagar, are facing problems to move to interior parts of the city. We have requested the NHAI officials umpteen times but in vain, said general secretary Dillip Dashasharma. Among others, Subhas Chandra Samal, Maheswar Biswal, Sital Chandra Mohanty and Durgapuja Sampadak Samiti were present. traced till filing of this report. Jagbandhu is a resident of the local village Ib. Outraged by the incident, people of the village ransacked the office of CAS Construction and some of the villagers even looted computers and other items. When contacted, SECR Bilaspur Division CPRO Prakash Chandra Tripathi said he was not aware of the details of the incident and was collecting more information. The locals have demanded stringent action against the CAS Construction Company officials. Sachala had gone to Srikakulam for some work. After her return, she got a fever. When tested, her blood showed positive for dengue. Meanwhile, on the advice of the Health Department, Ganjam district Collector Prem Chandra Choudhury and mobile van would be intro- soon to provide eye Aduced care service to people covering 10 districts in the State, an official source said here on Saturday. Commissioner The service would be available in the tribal districts including Koraput, Rayagada, Kandhamal, Malkangiri and Nabarangpur under the Universal Eye Health Programme launched by the State Government in October last year. Equipped with all the necessary medical equipments, the van would have an Optometric Assistant. It would travel across the localities in the 10 districts once in a week. The patients can undergo eye tests Chakraborty Singh Rathore have risen to the occasion and engaged ASHA and Anganwadi Workers in creation of awareness for prevention of dengue in rural and urban areas. It may be noted that 74 persons had been found dengue-positive in 2015 and the number rose to 329 in In 2017, 146 persons had been affected in the vector-borne disease in Ganjam, according to the District Malarial officer. he Handicraft and Cottage TIndustry Department will soon seek 10 crore from the Union Ministry of Textiles to develop stone craving village Sukhuapada at Lalitagiri in Jajpur district as a Craft Village. Handicraft and Cottage Industry Director Sitikanta Sarangi while on a site visit along with senior officials told this recently. Last year, we had entrusted Utkalika to prepare a Detailed Project Report (DPR) on stone carvings of Sukhupada and recently, Satya Ranjan Sahoo, the Managing Director of Utkalika, submitted the DPR before us. We will soon send the DPR to the Union Ministry of Textiles to get 10 crore financial assistance to develop Sukhuapada as a model crafts village, he said. The Ministry is providing financial assistance of 10 crore under infrastructure and technology development scheme for promotion of crafts and tourism. The proposed craft villages would offer opportunity to tourists to see the manufacturing of stone items and buy from crafts persons directly. This would help sculptors get good price for their products, added Sarangi. Sukhuapada would be the second Craft Village in the State under the Union Government s craft village scheme. A few years back, the Union Ministry of Textiles had granted first installment of 6 crore out of 10 crore to develop Raghurajpur in Puri district as a craft village, Sarangi informed. The Government would build proper roads, training centers, work-sheds and houses for craft persons and other infrastructure in the proposed craft villages soon, sources said. during the period. The authorities have decided to set up a Vision Centre in one Community Health Centre (CHC) in 10 districts each and two CHCs in the remaining 20 districts each, said a senior official in the Health Department. Besides, the eye test would be digitised for the first time in Odisha. Each patient would be provided an eye care card in which all the data about the patient would be mentioned so career interests, and their short and long term goals through individual counseling and group discussion. This would assist students identify their own potential and interests and help them implement successful job search strategies. The CCC would inform various opportunities available in the State and outside and create awareness among the students regarding career trends. It would enhance soft skills of the students and make them industry ready and would facilitate employment opportunities and encourage students to be self-reliant. A young faculty would be appointed as coordinator for CCC and arrangement for both one-on-one and group career counseling sessions for the students to make them aware of their strengths and weaknesses, explore their values and interest, identify the skills gaps and take up new learning to achieve career goals. There is a need to get their aptitude, emotional quotient (EQ) measured using standard techniques/agencies and social media groups to be created for students to have immediate information regarding job or higher study opportunities. The cell would organise basic employability skills training for students from all streams that include training on job preparedness, communication skills, etiquettes and manners, personality grooming, team work and IT skills. The CCC is to arrange Employability Assessment Tests for the students in association with organisations such as NASSCOM (NAC-TEC), Aspiring Minds (AMCAT), Mettle Test (MET), Wheel box that the doctors could easily know about the patient if he or she undergoes medical test in any State-run hospital. Necessary software would be developed by the Health Department at an investment of Rs 2 crore for updating patients data relating to their ailments and diagnosis. Earlier, the department developed a mobile app DROP (Diabetic Retinopathy in Odisha Programme) for online registration of diabetics and appointment for retinopathy checkup in the nearest health centres like sub-divisional hospital and district headquarters hospital free of cost. The authorities have decided to collect all the data about the eye patients through this mobile app. Employability Test and Youth4work Test and share comprehensive report with the students for corrective action. As online tests have become the first process in majority of the recruitment drives, the CCC would have to tie up with portals like for online mock tests free of cost. The cell would make arrangements with recruitment portals such as and for online registration and selection of students of the colleges free of cost. The CCC would facilitate campus recruitment drives for students pursuing professional courses as well as traditional courses inviting corporate, banks, NGOs and Government departments for the benefit of the students.

4 disha is all set to be a gas- economy with the Obased rolling out of several natural gas based projects connecting 19 districts which will cover 60 per cent of geographical area and 85 per cent of States population, said Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Dharnendra Pradhan. While delivering keynote address at the 9th CGD Bidding event in Bhubaneswar, Pradhan further said, Till yesterday making the State as gas based economy was only limited to letters. During the last four years, we have brought Odisha to the centre stage of energy and gas map. espite best efforts by Army DEngineering team, NDRF and ODRAF personnel to rescue the two workers trapped inside a stone quarry near Bariput in Koraput district, the duo are yet to be rescued. However, due to the blasting carried out by the Army team, a JCB excavator which was buried under the huge stones was detected on Saturday. Sources said the rescue operations might take another two to three days. Meanwhile, the All Odisha Contractors Association in a Press conference in Bhubaneswar on Saturday expressed surprise that no he Kalinga Institute of TSocial Sciences (KISS) posted an impressive performance by securing 100 per cent success in this year s Plus Two Arts and Commerce examinations conducted by the Council of Higher Secondary Education (CHSE), Odisha. The average-state results in Arts and Commerce are and per cent respectively while the KISS achieved cent per cent in both the streams. The highest mark Coincidentally, all four kinds of natural gas will be available in the State. Once all pipelines and grids connecting are finished, it will directly benefit the households. CNG for transportation will help small and petty traders and industries, asserted Pradhan. To make this happen, the public sector oil companies and some private companies like Adani and others are installing terminals and grids both for domestic production and imports, he informed. Odisha is going to be second beneficial State after Gujarat as far as use of natural gas is concerned. The Petroleum Ministry is going to action has been taken against the construction company DD Builders, though ten days have passed since the mishap in the stone quarry. The association alleged that no action has been taken against the company because it has contacts with some influential people in the State Secretariat. Even though an FIR has been lodged against the construction company DD Builders, the firm has been awarded the contract to complete the pending work of Bomikhal Flyover in Bhubaneswar, alleged president of the association Prabhat Das. However, Roads and Buildings Executive Engineer Ranjit Kumar Sahu refuted the charge that DD Builders has been given responsibility to complete the unfinished work of Bomikhal flyover. secured by students in both Arts and Commerce streams is 80 per cent. Most importantly, all the primitive tribes students who appeared for the examination passed. Five primitive tribes students each from both Arts and Commerce secured first division. KIIT and KISS founder Dr Achyuta Samanta congratulated the students and attributed their success to the hard work of students, proper guidance of faculties, staffs and the blessings of God. invest Rs 7,000 crore nearly 10 per cent of total Rs 70,000 crore planned for the country through Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) bidding process in City Gas Distribution(CGD) project to make available all kinds of natural gases including LNG and CNG. The PNGRB has identified seven geographical areas covering 17 districts of Odisha out of 174 in the country for the 9th CGD Bidding Round for Investors. These districts are Angul, Dhenkanal, Sundargarh, Jharsuguda, Baleswar, Bhadrak, Mayurbhanj, Bargarh, Deogarh, Sambalpur, Ganjam, Nayagarh, Puri, Jagatsinghpur, KendrapaDa, Jajpur and Keonjhar. Almost half of Odisha, nearly 85 per cent of population, will be covered in this round. This will reduce pollution, gas based industries will rise in numbers creating employment opportunities in the State, Pradhan said. yasanagar Municipality VChairperson Sabita Rout was reportedly assaulted by former BJD Councillor Debendra Samal while a council meeting was underway on Friday. Rout filed an FIR at the Jajpur Road police station and an investigation was on. A case was registered in this connection by framing charges against Samal under various Sections of IPC, said PS IIC Amitav Mohapatra. According to sources, Samal lost his temper and shoe- beat Rout by his shoe. However, he was managed by municipality staff. Executive Officer Mohan arking another signifi- development in the Mcant spread of the Pradhan Mantri Urja Ganga in Odisha, Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas and Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Dharmendra Pradhan on Saturday inaugurated two Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) stations at CDA sector 1 and Bidyadharpur at Cuttack. GAIL is implementing the prestigious Pradhan Mantri Urja Ganga and also the City Gas Distribution (CGD) projects in various cities including Bhubaneswar and Cuttack. Pradhan also flagged off a CNG awareness auto rally and took a ride in a CNG auto from CDA Sector -1 CNG station to CNG Station at Bidhyadharpur. Over 100 CNG powered autos participated in the rally covering a distance of 15 km between the two CNG Charan Jena officially forwarded the FIR. Many Women leaders including local BJP Women Cell president Bidyutprava Ray condemned the incident and said that women are not safe in the State. The attack to a working women Chairman by a former BJD Councillor was an example of this, they stated. BJP Jajpur unit Media Cell secretary Dusmant Rout condemned the incident. he result of the annual +2 TVocational examination, which was declared along with the results of Arts and Commerce streams here on Saturday, revealed dismal performance in Nabarangpur as only two students managed to pass the test in the district. As per official figures, 55 students had enrolled for the examination in the Vocational stream in the district while 51 of them appeared. Only two of them emerged successful in the examination with one passing the test in 3rd division and another qualifying compartmentally. The district registered the lowest pass percentage of 3.92 in the stream. he Big Bazaar police on TSaturday cracked the Jemadeipentha Street-6 murder and theft case by arresting two persons on Saturday. According to information, Jambabati Sahu was sleeping alone in her house at Jemadeipentha Street-6 on June 1. But she was found dead the next morning and her 10 tolas stations. Earlier in December 2017, two CNG stations at Chandrasekharpur and Patia had started operations in Bhubaneswar. Two more stations are being constructed in Khandagiri and Tamando and another two would be ready in near future. Over the coming years, over 20 CNG stations will be commissioned in the twin cities of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack to supply CNG to vehicles. The overall capital expenditure for the Bhubaneswar and Cuttack CGD projects will be Rs 1,750 crore, of which Rs 450 crore will be spent in the next three to five years, said sources. n a conference on Climate IChange Initiatives, organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in association with Odisha State Pollution Control Board, Additional Chief Secretary Suresh Chandra Mohapatra said Odisha is one of the greenest States of the country. Reminding the commitment laid down in Paris Accord of Climate Change, he urged the industrial houses to be more responsible and also very careful when they use the soil, water and river of the State. Odisha has a special climate change action plan and every department allots some percentage of budget to mitigate the adverse effect of climate change. Mohapatra told the industrial houses to be more responsible towards environment and bio-diversity of the of gold ornaments and Rs 3 lakh were found missing from her almirah. The woman had cut marks on her neck During course of investigation, police detained some people and interrogated them. During interrogation, police arrested two of the detainees, one of whom is a driver. The police have also seized some gold and hard cash from the two arrested. he southwest monsoon, Twhich arrived in Odisha on Friday, advanced to 10 districts of the State on Saturday, the State. He also said that, International Solar Alliance set a target that 40 per cent of power used will be from renewable energy sources. Initiatives have been taken to achieve this target. The State Government will provide subsidy for solar and renewable energy project. Coal Cess fund will be used for this kind subsidy. Every year the Government collects on an average of Rs10,000- Rs15,000 crore as Coal Cess. Inaugurating the conference, Steel and Mines Minister Praffula Kumar Mallick said that many afforestation schemes have been implemented to increase the forest cover in the State. Recently the Mahanadi Mission also has been launched for massive plantation programme. He urged the industry leaders and scientists to come up with innovative and environment- friendly ideas to he Viswa Hindu Parishad Meteorological T(VHP) on Saturday welcomed the Supreme Court s direction regarding smooth management in the Shree Jagannath Temple, Puri and demanded that the management processes followed in the Tirupati Temple and other major shrines in the country be followed in the 12th-Century Jagannath Temple soon. Commenting on the SC s order to the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) to ensure that no direct collection of offerings is made by any servitor and the offering is made only in Hundi, VHP Odisha (Purba) working president Dr Badrinath Patnaik said at a Press meet here said it is a welcoming decision and by this devotees won t have to suffer India Department (IMD) said. The south-west monsoon has further advanced into some more parts of Odisha today. It has covered the districts of Nabarangpur, Malkangiri, Koraput, Gajapati and most parts of Rayagada and some parts of Kalahandi, Kandhamal, Ganjam, Khordha and Puri, an IMD bulletin said. Conditions are becoming favourable for further advance of the monsoon into some parts of Odisha during next 48 hours, the bulletin added. Notably, the monsoon had touched Odisha on Friday, two days ahead of the schedule, and covered some parts of Malkangiri district. Earlier, the IMD had predicted that monsoon was likely to reach Odisha on June 10 or 11. he Kalinga Literary TFestival's second day here on Saturday began with an inaugural session which was moderated by Central University of Odisha, Koraput VC Prof Sachidananda Mohanty in the august presence of panelists including Sanjeev Sanyal, Paramita Satpathy and Mridula Garg. Prof Mohanty spoke about the essence of celebration of such events and focused on the central theme of the day i.e. art of mentoring to promote qualitative literature. He said about professional approaches in the society, how somebody needs to be professional in terms of punctuality and identifying right people etc. He also said the KLF is giving a grand platform for assemblage of young, old and middle aged writers tackle the adverse impact of climatechange. Odisha State Pollution Control Board (OSPCB) scientist Dr DK Behera highlighted the climate change project in India as well as at the international level. Director General, Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Rajiv Singh said, The Indian Government has portrayed its seriousness to ensure a de-carbonised economy by The primary strategy is to reduce fossil fuel dependency of the economy. By 2030, the country aims to increase renewable energy (RE)-based electricity contribution to 40 per cent, an ambitious target. The other action plan includes a steep increase in energy efficiency for the economy in the next two decades. This would require US$ 2.5 trillion by 2030, to be sourced from myriad stakeholders, with India Inc. believed to be playing a major role. under one roof. He added that inter-disciplinary action towards literature is needed while equity and equality and justice in the society are very important in terms of literature. Other panelists conveyed that the sole of the civilization is renewed by effective use of literature. So let the youths of the country write innovative ideas. Eminent personalities shared the values of leadership and aspiration of youths for the development of new India. A special discussion session was held with MP and aking a jibe at Chief MMinister Naveen Patnaik's silence on the missing keys of the Ratna Bhandar in the Lord Jagannath Temple in Puri, Union Minister Dharnendra Pradhan on Saturday said it is the responsibility of the CM to tell the truth and solve the issue. It is quite deplorable that the CM is not operating his mouth even after the Supreme Court, the Orissa High Court and the State Governor have expressed their concerns, Pradhan quipped. People of Odisha and all the harassment done by Sevaks and would have hassle-free visit to the temple. Patnaik also welcomed the apex court s order to the State Government to form an experts panel to visit and study the management systems in major temple in the country and suggested that the Government should not be involved in the temple affairs, rather an autonomous body like a trust be formed for management of the temple. He also welcomed the direction of the SC to the District Judge, Puri to form a committee to probe the allegations of exploitation of devotees and tourists and submit its report by June 30. he Jagatsinghpur district TBJP unit on Friday burnt an effigy of Congress Rajya Sabha member Ranjib Biswal and lodged an FIR against him at the police station here accusing him of having made anti-saffron remarks at the district Congress meeting held here on Wednesday. BJP district president Satya Brata Mohapatra said that political parties have liberty criticising their opponent political leaders in constructive manners, but Biswal skipped his limitation while delivering his speech at the Congress party congregation. He alleged that the MP had made derogatory remarks against local BJP leaders characters and personal behaviours. ust storm followed by rain Dhit the national Capital and its surrounding areas on Saturday that had been reeling under the scorching heat for a few days. The dust storm with winds gusting up to 70 kmph brought hardship to commuters with services on the Red Line and Blue Line of the Delhi Metro being hit briefly, officials said. Reports of rain came from other parts of India, including Punjab, Haryana and some parts of Uttar Pradesh, which had been sweating it out in sweltering conditions. Two persons were killed in rain-related incidents in Maharashtra s Thane district on Saturday. Delhi plunged into premature darkness. There were reports of power blackout in some parts of the Delhi-NCR region causing inconvenience to residents. Trees were uprooted in many parts of Delhi-NCR due to strong gushing winds. However, there was no report of damage to property or casualty of any form. People travelling on metro said they faced problem. Due to sudden dust storm and rain around 5 pm, there were a few cases of track circuit signalling drop report- ed on Line 1 (Red Line) and Line 3 (Blue Line) and external object striking overhead electrification near Janakpuri East, a senior DMRC official said. This had no major impact on overall services, except minor regulation of trains on affected stretches. Trains on all lines are running normal otherwise, he said. Red Line connects Dilshad Garden in east Delhi and Rithala in the western part of the city. Blue Line spans from Dwarka Sector 21 to Noida City Centre. Both are two of the longests and busiest routes on the metro network. Operations at the IGI Airport were hit owing to the bad weather. A total of 27 flights were diverted in Delhi due to rain and dust storm between 5 pm and 6 pm. However, the operations have been restored back to normal at Indira Gandhi International Airport. founder of KISS Dr Achyuta Samanta. The Kalinga Literary Youth Awards were conferred on 28 young, energetic and innovative personalities across the State for the notable contribution to the field of literature. Parallel sessions were held where writers and readers interpersonally connected to share their views on the critical issues and further development of the society. Discussions were mainly held on future of art education, aspiration and young India, travelogue and literature, women in literature, modern writers in new genres, transition from news to social media, transcending gender boundaries, etc along with multilingual poetry recitation, story telling sessions, one-onone discussion etc. Jagannath followers would definitely know this despite CM's silence, he, however, maintained.

5 ooking forward to give a Lmajor fillip to the railway infrastructure development, the Centre is all set to divest 12 per cent stake through IPO (Initial Public Offer) in the RITES, a PSU of the Railway Ministry. After the divestment, the Government will hold about 87.4 per cent, as another 0.6 per cent will be given to the RITES (Rail India Technical and Economic Services Ltd) employees. stakes will help projects like While IPOs existed in the freight corridors, high speed State-owned sectors like Oil, rail corridors, station development and upgradation of rail Energy and Power, the IPO being planned by RITES will be tracks to bear with the speed of the first by the Indian Railways 160 kmph. which so far has been looking Listing will help wider for investors from other participants of stakeholders resources including the insurance companies. Railways reviewed by different market and our performance will be anticipates that the listing of the participants. The greatest advantage in the IPOs will be for the retail investors with small funding who can get associated with railways. More than the excitement, I am looking forward for a great success since RITES as a firm has its own credibility across the globe, RITES Chairman and Managing Director Rajeev Mehrotra told The Pioneer. RITES provides consultation in transportation, multimodal, city planning, railways, shipping, water management, designing, and operating stations, among other things. While the IPO is slated for third week of this month, the company is expected to list by the first week of July. The IPO is part of Government s strategic disinvestment plan as the company has enough funds for its immediate capital expenditure. fter a gap of two years, the ACongress has decided to hold Iftar on June 13 with party president Rahul Gandhi playing host to a galaxy of leaders who are likely to attend the event. For Rahul, this will be the first occasion to host an Iftar since he took charge as the Congress chief. Iftar will be held on June 13 at Taj Palace Hotel in Delhi, Congress Minority Cell chief Nadeem Javed said. The party did not hold Iftar, which marks the customary breaking of the daylong fast in the holy month of Ramzan, during the past two years and its last Iftar was in The then Congress president Sonia Gandhi had hosted the feast at that time. The party conventionally invites leaders of all faiths to the event as also top diplomats. This year s Iftar will be keenly watched for the presence of Opposition leaders at a time 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The party s decision to resume Iftar comes days after President Ram Nath Kovind decided to discontinue the feast traditionally held at Rashtrapati Bhavan. Recently Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao hosted Iftar triggering a controversy around expenditure related to the event. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal Prior to 2016, the Congress used to host Iftar in one way or the other. When the party was in power, the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh used to organise the event. In Opposition former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi played host until the party decided to skip the event in 2016 and The resumption of Iftar comes at a time when the Congress is seen to be pursuing when the Congress is positioning also hosted an Iftar but a policy of soft Hindutva as itself as the centre of Opposition unity ahead of Congress leaders stayed away from it. evidenced in Rahul Gandhi s several recent temple visits. Mehrotra is credited to boost the image of the RITES and its revenue from 566 crore when he took over in to about 1600 crore last fiscal. Besides launching the significant IPO now, Mehrotra, who comes from a power sector background, has been instrumental in exports of railways rolling stocks (locomotives, coaches, multiple units) to the sub-continent countries like Sri Lanka, Myanmar and couple of African countries. Currently, RITES has undertaken the metro project in Mauritius other than being involved in some of the domestic metro projects like Pune, Nagpur and Ahmedabad.On a query on global competition from European firms, the United States, Japan, China and Korea, Mehrotra said RITES is at par with the global leaders as far as technical expertise is concerned. Mehrotra received three award for Export Excellence (Silver Shield) for three financial years in a row. We have an experience in doing business in 55 countries, Mehrotra said. RITES, which one amongst the 11 PSUs of national transporter, has a paid-up equity of 200 crore, net worth of 2,100 crore, and cash reserves of over 1,400 crore, of which working capital requirement is about 500 crore. In Financial Year 2017, RITES posted a revenue of 1,563 crore. he Congress on Saturday Tdemanded an investigation into reports that the Maoists planned to assassinate the Prime Minister and made it clear that the issue should not be politicised. Any threat received by anyone against the Prime Minister, howsoever suspicious the threat is, howsoever vague, even if it is a rumour, it should be taken seriously. Action should be taken, investigations should be done, party spokesperson Pawan Khera told reporters here. Lashing out at elements attempting to politicise the issue, he said do not use a threat to the PM of India for petty politics. We have lost two prime ministers. We have lost an entire leadership in the Chhattisgarh violence. We know what it means to fight terrorism, to fight naxalism. But do not play politics. We lost leadership in Chhattisgarh when the BJP was in power. n a bid to appease certain Iextremely backward castes (EBCs), the Bihar Government has recommended the Centre to accord them the status of Scheduled Tribe (ST). For their inclusion in the ST category we are sending the ethnographic study report to the Ministry of Scheduled Tribe Welfare with our recommendation, said an official on Saturday. The EBCs recommended for tribal status included Mallah and Nishad and their sub-castes Bind, Beldar, Chayen, Teeyar, Khulwat, Surhiya, Gorhi, Vanpar and Kewat, which belong to fishermen and boatmen castes. Another caste recommended for tribal category is Nonia or earth-cutter. By this move the Nitish Kumar led Government has played a big role to woo these castes. According to unofficial statistics the EBCs as a whole constitute more than 35 per cent of population and these caste groups are not supposed to have any political affiliation like Yadav, Kurmi and Kushwaha which are regarded as creamy layers of the backward class. With this recommendation the State has put the ball in the Centre s court with a broad message that the State Government was in favour of their recognition as Scheduled Tribe for their social, educational and economic welfare. The official spokesman said that a similar recommendation had been sent to the Centre back in But the ST Welfare Ministry had returned the recommendation with advise that an ethnographic study should be conducted first. The Bihar Government got the ethnographic study conducted by AN Sinha Institute of Social Studies which submitted its study report to the Government. CM Nitish Kumar ordered to submit the recommendation with the ethnographic study report to the Union Ministry. The decision has been largely hailed by these extremely backward castes. Nitish led JD(U) is looking for social groups for its he rebellion in Karnataka TCongress over the allocation of Cabinet berths reached New Delhi with the disgruntled MLAs, led by MB Patil, expressing their resentment to party chief Rahul Gandhi. The meeting, however, remained inconclusive. Senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) working president Dinesh Gundu Rao and new Minister Krishna Byre Gowda too were present at the meeting. We are trying to resolve the differences. The process is on at the moment. No decision has been taken yet. The consultations are still going on with State leaders, Gowda said. Supporters of prominent Congress leaders also protested outside the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee office in Bengaluru. Chief Minister and JD(S) chief HD Kumaraswamy too is facing dissent from his Ministers seeking plum portfolios. The JD(S)-Congress Cabinet was expanded on June 6 with the induction of 25 new Ministers, after intense bargaining for Ministerial berths. The much-awaited exercise has caused heartburn among several lawmakers in the coalition while supporters of some of the Ministerial aspirants staged expansion and acceptability. This move is also seen in the light of the ongoing debates that Nitish s party has very limited caste based support, that s only of Kurmis which has a population of about 4 per cent whereas the Kushwaha caste is almost double of the Kurmis. The leader of Kushwaha caste Upendra Kushwaha, who is junior Union Minister and heads Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) is sulking in the NDA camp or at least showing his disenchantment to the BJP leadership. The RJD is trying to take advantage of the situation and luring Upendra Kushwaha to quit NDA and join Mahagathbandhan. Signals to this effect have been send by Tejashwi Yadav who said Kushwaha has no place of dignity in the NDA and was being ignored there. But the target of Kushwaha is not the Lok Sabha polls 2010 but the Assembly elections His supporters have time and again publicly demanded that Upendra Kushwaha should be projected the CM face in The RJD leadership have send signals that he was welcome to join the Mahagathbandhan for honourable adjustment but he should forget the demand of the post of CM because that post is already reserved for Tejashwi. Did we play politics in Chhattisgarh, we did not, he said, while replying to a question. The police in Pune on Thursday told a court that they had seized a letter from the Delhi residence of one of the five people arrested on Wednesday for having alleged links with the banned CPI (Maoist). The purported letter allegedly mentioned of a plan to assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi in another Rajiv Gandhi-type incident, the police told the court. Khera also criticised attempts at politicising the Bhima-Koregaon violence and said the BJP government was exposed in the matter when Union Minister Ramdas Athawale challenged their own government in Maharashtra and the police saying that there was no relation of Elgaar Parishad with the violence. Athawale had also called the arrests of Dalit activists in connection with the violence as injustice. mob in Assam s Karbi AAnglong district have beaten to death two youths on suspicion that they were childabductors. Police have arrested five persons for their alleged involvement in the crime even as search is on to trace others involved in the incident. The horrific incident took place at remote Kathilangsho area under Dokmoka police station in the Central Assam district on Friday night, police said that no one has been arrested so far regarding the incident but investigation is on to book the culprits. The two youth from Guwahati, identified as Nilotpal Das Abhijeet Nath had gone to Kathilangso waterfall area under Dengaon area under Dokmoka police station in the district. It was late evening and seeing two youths, the locals suspected them to be child abductors and started grilling them, police said adding that although the youths tried to convince the mob that they were not child abductors, there was no takers for their appeal. The mob grew soon and they attacked the youths with he Congress has sought an Tapology from Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his remarks during the Gujarat Assembly election campaign last year that his predecessor Manmohan Singh and other party members had colluded with Pakistan to influence the poll results. Party at a press conference cited an RTI reply from the Prime Minister s Office suggesting that the PM made the remarks based on informal and formal information received from multiple sources. AICC spokesman Pawan Khera sought to know as to how can the Prime Minister make a statement based on information received from informal sources when he is an elected leader and has pledged allegiance to the Constitution. Singh, on his part, has already sought an apology from the PM, terming the charges baseless. You have set a precedent. What is informal about the constitutional post? You have taken oath under the Constitution. You are gathering information from informal sources and you are questioning the leaders, Khare said, demanding an apology from the Prime Minister. The information sought pertains to the PM speaking during a political campaign. The information sought does not relate to a political matter or a decision of the Government. So with regard to the Prime Minister, he is entitled to receive informal or formal information from multiple sources, he quoted the RTI plea as saying. Denouncing the remarks, the Congress spokesperson said Modi has resorted to informal talks ever since he became protests. Reacting to the issue, Kumaraswamy said he has seen reports about such disgruntlement only in the media and no one has expressed their dissatisfaction with him personally. Some people will have a wish to work in certain Departments, but in every Department there is opportunity to work efficiently. We have to work efficiently. Can everyone be given the portfolio they wish for? the Chief Minister asked, adding, is there a better Department than Higher Education and Minor Irrigation to work? He was referring to JD(S) leader GT Deve Gowda, who defeated Siddaramaiah in Mysuru and has been allotted Higher Education, and CS Puttaraju, who got Minor Irrigation in the portfolio allocation last night, being unhappy about their Ministries. On reported comments by GT Deve Gowda about him being given Higher Education, when he just studied till eighth standard, the Chief Minister said, What have I studied? I m working as the Chief Minister. GT Devegowda and Puttaraju, (who vacated his Lok Sabha seat and won the Melukote assembly segment), were eyeing key portfolios, including Transport. DC Thammanna, a relative of JD(S) supremo HD Deve Gowda, has been allotted the Transport Department and has ever expressed discontent. Besides Patil and Gundu Rao, the Congress has dropped several key members of the previous Siddaramaiah Ministry, including Ramalinga Reddy, R Roshan Baig, HK Patil, Tanvir Sait, Shamanur Sivashankarappaand, Satish Jarkhiholi, from the coalition Government leading to resentment. After meeting with the Congress high command, Patil said the next plan of action will be decided after discussions with the MLAs, who are unhappy with the Cabinet expansion. He, however, asserted that he has no plans to quit the Congress. Patil, who campaigned for a minority status for the Lingayats, is a prominent State Congress leader. Under his leadership a section of dissatisfied legislators have held several meetings last week. I shared my views with Rahul Gandhi and explained the State s situation. I have not demanded anything. I am not alone, many friends are together with me. I will share with them what happened in the meeting and then decide next plan of action. Patil, a former Irrigation Minister and an MLA from Vijayapura district, said he has no plans to quit the party. The BJP has not approached me nor I have got in touch with the saffron party. My fight is within Congress, he said. He also mentioned that he was not in the race for the KPCC President post and did not make that demand in the meeting. Queering the pitch for the two partners, BJP strongman BS Yeddyurappa said many legislators of JD(S) and Congress are eager to join the BJP. Yeddyurappa s comments assumes significance as dissident activities intensified in the Congress and JD(S) over not getting Ministerial berths. The growing dissent is also threatening the fragile coalition in Karnataka which is formed to fight the BJP in 2019 elections. Kumaraswamy announced the portfolios for the 25 Ministers inducted into the Cabinet and he kept 12 key portfolios to the JD(S), including Finance, intelligence, energy and infrastructure development. bamboo sticks and beat them till arrival of the police. IT was too late when we arrived and the duo succumbed to their injuries, said the Police. It may be mentioned here that the incident took place at a time when rumours doing the rounds in social media that some group of chilkd abductors are kidnapping child of different age group in Dimapur in Nagaland and its adjoining areas. Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has condemned the killing of the two youth and ordered a high level probe into the incident and circumstances that led to the incident. The Assam government also rushed state s Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Mukesh Agarwala to take stock of the situation. Assam DGP Kuladhar Saikia said that police have arrested five persons so far in this connection. We are going to fast track the investigation, Saikia said. The Leader of the Opposition, Assam Legislative Assembly, Sri Debabrata Saikia, today condemned the lynching of two Guwahati based youths, Nilotpal Das and Abhijit Nath, at Dokmoka in Karbi Anglong last evening and called for a judicial inquiry into the incident. Terming the murders as another instance of the State Government s utter failure to maintain law and order, Assam Opposition leader Debabrata Saikia expressed concern at the inaction of the local administration even though it is reported that rumours of childlifters had been rife in the area for quite some time. He called for a thorough probe into the negligent attitude of the civil and police administration and initiation of strict action for their failure to prevent the unfortunate incident. the PM, but he is considered the most articulate prime minister the country has had. What kind of image of India is he creating before the world, especially when every word of the PM is analysed the world over. We deserve a better and a healthier narrative. He should apologise to the country. The statement was a low-level jumla. If he does not apologise, it will be a serious threat to democracy, Khera said. He said the Prime Minister has developed a habit of raising the Pakistan issue, of Hafiz Sayed when he loses elections but forgets to talk about the plight of farmers, small traders or unemployment. ays after being repri- by Railway Dmanded Minister Piyush Goyal over the declining punctuality of trains, the Northern Railway (NR) on Saturday clarified that despite large-scale works underway in the zone, there was only a 10 per cent drop in the timelines of trains as compared to last year. At a press conference, Vishwesh Chaube, General Manager (GM), NR, said as of June 8, 2017, the punctuality rate in the zone was 63 per cent, adding that on June 8, 2018, it had declined to 53 per cent. The punctuality of trains is now being recorded through data-loggers whereas, earlier it was done manually. Now, even if a train is late by a minute, it is counted as a train arriving late. This has made a difference in the punctuality figures of this year. Also, despite a lot of work going on, there is only a 10-per cent drop in the punctuality rate, he said. Chaube added that while the number of trains in the zone had increased from 1,300 in 2008 to 1,800 in 2018, the infrastructure had not grown at the same pace.

6 New Delhi: National carrier Air India s employees might have to wait till June 15 to get their May salaries. According to a staff notice issued on Friday, the airline informed its employees that disbursement of salary for month of May 2018 is delayed and payment is likely to be made on June 15. Air India has invited bids from financial institutions and banks for a `1,000-crore Government guarantee-backed Short Term Loan (STL). The Airline has called for financial bids by June 13 and said that the amount of `1,000 crore will be drawn in June 18 in one or more trenches. Earlier, a group of Air India pilots said that they have decided to stop complete cooperation with the management till the time salary payment is regularised and normal functioning is restored. The decision to go in for non cooperation was informed to the Indian Commercial Pilot s Association s Central Executive Committee in an internal communication dated June 6 by one of its regional units. IANS ublic sector banks (PSBs) Pwill soon create a dedicated mechanism for managing stressed accounts, Finance Minister Piyush Goyal said on Friday following a meeting with PSB chiefs on the issue of banks non-performing assets (NPAs), or bad loans. The accumulated NPAs in the Indian banking system have crossed the staggering level of 9 lakh crore. The proposed mechanism would seek a faster resolution of such cases. A panel under Punjab National Bank (PNB) nonexecutive chairman Sunil Mehta will give its report in two weeks over setting up of Asset Restructuring Company (ARC) or Asset Management Company (AMC) to resolve stressed assets, Goyal told reporters here after the meeting. I have discussed improving credit flow to strengthen Indian economy while mitigating risk flow associated with that, he said. The committee will deliberate whether it is worth considering setting up of an AMC to deal with assets having exposure to several banks. It will also consider if setting up of an ARC or AMC is good for the banking system. Noting that the State Bank of India has a proven mechanism to take faster decisions in a transparent manner, Goyal, who holds temporary charge of the finance portfolio in the absence of a convalescing Arun Jaitley, said all bank showed willingness to set up such a mechanism for faster resolution of stressed accounts. Some of the banks may also consider setting up oversight committees and bring in external expertise to help faster decision making," he said. Goyal said discussions during the meeting focused on credit flow and banks devising mechanisms to ensure credit flow to good borrowers should not be hampered owing to restrictions on credit activity due to NPAs. Risks need to be mitigated to support the economy, he said. The Minister said the meeting had discussed situation arising out of banks working in silos and PSBs decided to come together in a cohesive manner to resolve the credit needs of MSMEs (micro, small, medium enterprises), exporters, small and medium borrowers so that the needs of the economy can be addressed. He also said that all vacant positions of PSB heads will be filled in the next 30 days. New Delhi: The high powered arbitration in the matter of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and Singapore Exchange (SGX) commenced on Saturday, people close to the development said. The matter is related to a dispute between the NSE and SGX over the latter's plan to launch Nifty-based products in June. The arbitration in the NSE- SGX case commenced before Justice Vazifdar, they said. Last month, the Bombay High court had barred SGX from launching new India derivative products and referred the case to arbitration to which the Singapore bourse agreed. It is believed that the Indian exchange in its argument said that the new products of SGX are identical to the existing ones and based on the very same underlying. In fact, every feature of the products and the terms of the products are identical. The exchange also said that existing exposure and open positions are openly being sought to be migrated to the new products, showing homogeneity, according to people close to the development.pti he country s largest lender, TState Bank of India (SBI), is looking at recovering more than 40,000 crore of its stressed assets in the current fiscal, an official said on Saturday. Our expectation is that we will be making a recovery of more than 40,000 crore in the current financial year. We expect to get around 25,000-30,000 crore from IBC (Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code) route and the balance would be recovered from other sources like sale to ARCs and one time settlement, lender s Deputy Managing Director (Stressed Assets Resolution Group) Pallav Mohapatra said. Under IBC the lender s exposure in the first list of stressed accounts as referred by Reserve Bank of India was 48,000 crore and for the second list, the exposure was to the tune of 28,000 crore, he said. In total, our exposure for the stressed accounts which were referred to IBC as per RBI T he Chairperson of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) M S Sahoo today said that the focus on cases coming under Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) should be on resolution and not liquidation to maximise the value of corporate debtors. He said that the soul of the Code was to keep the firm alive by balancing the interest of all stakeholders for which a successful resolution was needed. Sahoo said that this was not happening at the moment. Speaking at a CII event here, Sahoo said this is not happening. But there is nothing to worry. Our effort will be on resolution. For that to happen, the resolution value has to be higher than the liquidation value. To encourage resolutions to take place, the voting threshold had been lowered from 75 per cent to 66 per cent, he said. He said that out of 850-odd cases which had been referred to the NCLT, 130 of them were direction was 76,000 crore, he said. So far, only two cases have been resolved, he said. In case of Bhushan Steel, we have got 8,500 crore with a 30 per cent haircut and our claim was around 11, 500 crore. For the other case, the money has been deposited to escrow account. Once the court gives the clearance, it will be adjusted, Mohapatra said. He further said the proceed from the Bhushan Steel case, would go in the write-off of provisions and reduction of non performing assets. When asked if it was a concern for the lender when liquidation were happening more in the corporate insolvency resolution process, he said, since the lender made provisions, on the balance sheet front, it does not have much of worry on that. "We are expecting more recovery but it is not to that extent," he added. The lender proactively filed around 250 cases in National Company Law Tribunals and the total exposure will be around 95,000 crore, he added. either in the stage of a resolution or liquidation. One hundred of the 130 cases had been referred for liquidation, he said. On the Committee of Creditors (CoC) which comprised mostly lenders, he said, it was a determining role to select suitable people in taking over a business and keep it running. Sahoo said that regulations on non-entertainment of late bids and no negotiations with late bidders would be announced soon and would be in force with prospective effect. K R Jinan, member of NCLT Kolkata bench, said that there had been instances of non-cooperation by the corporate debtors with the resolution professionals. Sometimes lenders refuse to finance the Resolution Professionals to see resolution is through as a going concern, he said. Jinan said the implementation of the Code was at an initial stage. It has to be implemented in its true spirit. For that, periodical review is needed for successful resolution of stressed assets. ndia s foreign exchange I(Forex) reserves depleted by $593.7 million as on June 1, official data showed on Friday. According to the Reserve Bank of India s (RBI) weekly statistical supplement, the overall forex reserves declined to $ billion from $ billion reported for the week ended May 25. India s forex reserves comprise of foreign currency assets (FCAs), gold reserves, special drawing rights (SDRs) and the RBI s position with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Segment-wise, FCAs - - the largest component of the Forex reserves decreased by $81.3 million to $ billion during the week under review. Besides the US dollar, FCAs consist of nearly per cent of major global currencies. As per the data, the value of the country s gold reserves plunged. It plunged by $511 million to $21.18 billion. arkets regulator Sebi and Mstock exchanges will put in place additional surveillance measures for companies that are undergoing insolvency resolution process (IRP) from Monday, according to the leading bourse BSE. The data available with the BSE shows that 75 firms, including ABG Shipyard, Amtek Auto, Bhushan Steel, Jaypee Infratech, Electrosteel Steels, Industries, Monnet Ispat & Energy, Ruchi Soya Industries, Supreme Tex Mart, Vardhman Industries and Rei Agro, are undergoing insolvency process as per the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC). In order to enhance market integrity and safeguard investors interest, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) and the exchanges have been introducing various enhanced pre-emptive surveillance measures such as reduction in price band, periodic call auction and transfer of securities to trade to trade category from time to time. ith a view to achieve the Woverall goal of affordable healthcare for all, government think tank Niti Aayog today sought suggestions for rationalisation of trade margins in medical devices. The Aayog in a concept note titled Rationalisation of Trade Margins in Medical Devices A Concept Note said the Government intends to make available critical and lifesaving medical devices to the needy masses at affordable prices. The aim is to ensure reasonable prices to consumers and at the same time allow reasonable profits to all stakeholders in the medical device industry, including those involved in the supply chain by rationalising trade margins and thereby passing the benefits of the reduced cost to the final consumer, the note added. The trade margin is the difference between the price at which he manufacturers/importers sell to trade nion Agriculture UMinister Radha Mohan Singh on Saturday said the Union Government is working consistently towards doubling the income of farmers and animal rearers. Singh was here to lay foundation stone of the country s first sexsorted semen laboratory in Rishikesh under the Rashtriya Gokul Mission Mandhana Yojana. The laboratory will be the first of its kind facility in the country where the technique of producing female calf through artificial insemination in animals will be used. Singh said such an initiative will help increase milk production and boost farmers income, the Union Minister said. The Minister said the Centre has been working consistently over the past four years for farmers welfare. It is because of the government s efforts that more than 700 agricultural scientists in the country have come out (price to trade) and the price to patients (maximum retail price). The note pointed out that the issue of unreasonably high trade margins in medical devices has been adversely affecting both the industry as well as consumer interest. Various representations regarding rationalisation of trade margins on medical devices from industry/trade associations/indigenous manufacturers/importers have also been received. The Government has had stakeholders consultations on this subject beginning from October 2017 to ascertain their view points, the note said. According to the note, Only 23 medical devices have been notified as drugs and are regulated under Drugs and Cosmetics Act, of these, only 4 devices viz. Cardiac stents, drug eluting stents, condoms and intra uterine devices are included in the national list of essential medicines and by virtue thereof are subject to notified price ceilings. of laboratories and reached field level for ground testing, he said. Animal husbandry is the backbone of the rural economy but there is lack of productivity in the sector, he said, adding a laboratory of this kind will help improve the situation. Addressing the programme, Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat said the Rashtriya Gokul Mission is to conserve the indigenous cow breeds and enhance their milk productivity. The sex sorted semen laboratory being set up in Rishikesh will play an important role in this, he said. Through animal husbandry, the target of doubling farmers income can also be achieved, the CM said.

7 A n unknown number of nuclear warheads. Stockpiles of plutonium and uranium. ICBMs. Weapons factories and the scientists who work at them. The list of what it would take for the complete denuclearisation of North Korea is long. North Korea has said it s willing to deal away its entire nuclear arsenal if the United States provides it with a reliable security assurance and other benefits. But there is lingering skepticism ahead of Tuesday s summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that Kim would fully give up the nuclear weapons he has pushed so hard to build. It wouldn t be hard to hide at least some of the warheads and radioactive materials in the country s vast complex of underground facilities. A look at the many pieces of a secrecyclouded bomb program that has rattled the region for decades. The size of North Korea s nuclear arsenal is a mystery, with estimates ranging from 10 bombs to as many as 60 to 70. akistan s former dictator PPervez Musharraf may contest in the upcoming elections scheduled to be held on July 25 after the Supreme Court gave him a conditional permission, his party has said. The chief justice of the apex court hearing a petition against a lifetime ban on him by a high court in 2013 said that 74-year-old Musharraf can file nomination. Musharraf s All Pakistan Muslims League (APML) said that he would contest election from the northern district of Chitral in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. It is the same seat which was won by a candidate who was supported by the APML in 2013 elections after Musharraf was disqualified by the Peshawar High Court. There were reports that How sophisticated they are is also unclear. It s one thing to conduct a nuclear test - North Korea has carried out six underground explosions since 2006, including what it says were two hydrogen bomb tests. It s another thing to make the warheads small enough to be carried by a long-range missile that can strike the U.S. Mainland. Kim said last November that his country had mastered that technology, and many foreign experts and governments believe North Korea is at least getting there. They are close enough now in their capabilities that from a U.S. Policy perspective we ought to behave as if we are on the cusp of them achieving the ability to strike the United States, then-cia Director Mike Pompeo said in October. Closer to home, many analysts believe North Korea is able to mount nuclear weapons on shorter-range missiles that could reach South Korea and Japan, where 80,000 American troops are stationed. Nuclear bombs can be made from plutonium or highly enriched uranium, and North Korea has both. he will also contest from his home city of Karachi. APML general secretary Muhammad Amjad said Musharraf will come back before the election but did not give a final date. He said that the party will field candidates for several seats. The Supreme Court in its ruling asked Musharraf to appear in person on June 13 and promised that he will not be arrested despite involvement in several criminal cases. The apex court has been criticised by leading politicians, including ousted premier Nawaz Sharif, for allowing Musharraf to contest despite his disqualification. Musharraf came to power in a bloodless coup in 1999 and ruled until 2008 when forced to resign. He has been living in Dubai since March 2016 after he was allowed to leave the country for medical treatment. A 2016 South Korean government report says that North Korea is believed to have produced 50 kilograms (110 pounds) of weaponized plutonium, enough for six to 10 bombs. North Korea shut down the plutonium-producing factory at its main nuclear complex in Nyongbyon in 2007 as part a disarmament-for-aid deal, but the accord later fell apart, and satellite imagery indicates the North has resumed extracting plutonium in recent years. Plutonium plants are generally large and generate much heat, making it easier for outsiders to detect. A uraniumenrichment plant is more compact and can be easily hidden from satellite cameras. The centrifuges to enrich uranium can be clandestinely operated underground. Stanford University scholars, including nuclear physicist Siegfried Hecker who visited North Korea s centrifuge facility at Nyongbyon in 2010, recently wrote that North Korea is estimated to have a highly enriched uranium inventory of 250 to 500 kilograms (550 to 1,100 pounds), sufficient for 25 to 30 nuclear devices. umbai terror attack mas- Hafiz Saeed s Mtermind JuD is fielding more than 200 candidates for national and provincial assembly seats across Pakistan in the July 25 general election through a dormant political entity as his party has been denied recognition, even though he himself has decided not to run for parliament. Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD), a front for the Lashkar-e- Taiba militant group that carried out the deadly 2008 Mumbai attack, launched its political front Milli Muslim League (MML), but it has not been yet registered with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). With general elections approaching, the group decided to contest on the platform of a dormant political entity, Allaha-u-Akbar Tehreek (AAT), registered with the ECP. MML president Saifullah he European Union will Tspend more than $40 million to help Venezuelans suffering through a deepening humanitarian crisis even as the country s leaders have steadfastly denied it needs any foreign assistance. Most of the money will provide health care, food and clean water to vulnerable Venezuelans living inside and outside of the country, European Commission officials said on Thursday. European leaders, meanwhile, have threatened a new round of sanctions against Venezuela s top officials, after what it considers President Nicolas Maduro s undemocratic re-election. Commissioner Christos Stylianides said he recently visited Colombia s border with Venezuela, and signs of the crisis he saw were obvious. Many people are lacking crucial medicines and are in need of humanitarian assistance, Stylianides said. We cannot remain bystanders to this human tragedy. Venezuela was once one of Latin America s wealthiest countries, sitting atop the world s largest oil reserves. Mismanagement and a drop in global oil prices have left it in a deepening economic and political crisis, marked by shortages of food and medicine and mass migration. Maduro won a second, sixyear term May 20, which his t least 19 Afghan soldiers Awere killed when Taliban fighters stormed a military base in western Afghanistan, hours before the group announced a ceasefire, officials said on Saturday. The Taliban claimed the last night attack, which Herat provincial governor spokesman Jilani Farhad told AFP killed 19 members of the Afghan security forces and wounded another. There also were a number of Taliban casualties in the Zawol district ambush, Farhad said, but he could not provide exact figures. Zawol district governor Mohammad Saeed Sarwari confirmed the attack and the death toll. The Taliban confiscated weapons following the attack, Sarwari told AFP. In a WhatsApp message, the Taliban put the death toll at 18 Afghan soldiers. The attack came hours before the Taliban announced an unprecedented ceasefire with Afghan security forces for the first three days of Eid, the holiday that caps Ramadan. Khalid and AAT chief Ehsan Bari have agreed to field joint candidates on the platform of ATT in the upcoming elections. Under the seat adjustment agreement, the MML will field more than 200 educated candidates. They will contest the elections on the AAT s election symbol chair, Ahmad Nadeem, an MML spokesperson, told PTI today. He said there are many political figures who have joined the MML and it has awarded them AAT tickets. Asked if Saeed plans to run as a parliamentary candidate in S pro-democracy groups Uhave urged Zimbabwean authorities to take steps to ensure a free and fair election in July and break from a history of flawed elections under longtime ruler Robert Mugabe. Changing Zimbabwe s electoral trajectory will require pro-active and concerted efforts to instil public confidence, the International Republican Institute and the National Democratic Institute said in a statement late yesterday after a week of pre-election observation. Zimbabwe holds a general election on July 30, the first without Mugabe who was forced out of office after a brief military takeover last year. David Dreier, a former United States Congressman and member of the IRI-NDI monitors, told reporters in Harare that while the observers have found several notable improvements in the political environment and electoral preparations as compared to prior elections, a number of significant opportunities to break with the past have been missed. As a result, we still have concerns about the fairness of ussian President Vladimir RPutin said that dialogue with Donald Trump could be constructive, in comments released after his US counterpart called for Russia to be re-admitted to the exclusive Group of Seven club of nations. Trump is a serious-minded person who knows how to listen to people and respond to their arguments, Putin said in a Russian television interview, the full version of which will air on Sunday. This leads me to believe that dialogue may prove to be constructive, the Russian leader added. this election, the spokesman said: No... Hafiz sahib has no such plans at the moment. The MML is taking part for the first time in the general elections and hopefully, we will make to the parliament. To a question, if any significant leader of the JuD would contest the election, he said: Our priority is that those joining us from other political parties or educated youth in respective constituencies be given AAT tickets. He said the AAT will launch its political campaign once its candidates file nomination papers. We are hopeful that the people will elect our candidates, he said. It is believed that since the MML has hardly any chance to get registered with the ECP as the latter had announced the election schedule and issued election symbols, it had no other option but to contest the election on any dormant entity like the AAT. anadian special forces have Cended their training support for Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters, the defence department confirmed on Saturday, after Ottawa suspended the assistance in October. Canada is part of the United States-led international coalition against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, which has trained and assisted local forces while conducting air strikes against the jihadists, whose self-proclaimed caliphate has collapsed. The Special Operations Task Force has partnered with Kurdish units of the Iraqi security forces in the past, the Department of National Defence said in a statement. the process. The group said while Zimbabweans welcome President Emmerson Mnangagwa s public commitments to hold credible elections there were concerns whether the military will accept the outcome of the presidential polls. They called on senior military officers to make public and unambiguous statements that the army will loyally serve whoever wins the elections. The statement came days after the main opposition staged street protests to pressure the authorities to adopt a family that lost three Agenerations at a Texas church mass shooting in November filed a lawsuit on Saturday against the US Government, claiming it could have prevented the gunman from legally acquiring firearms. Devin Patrick Kelley, who had a history of domestic abuse and mental health problems, killed 26 people and wounded 20 others at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas. The victims included one-year-old Holcombe and his aunt 36- year-old Crystal Holcombe, who was pregnant and died along with three of her five children. In all, the Holcombe family counted nine members who perished in the attack. This assistance contributed to the greater Iraqi security forces successes in recapturing Iraq s second city, Mosul, and then in October freeing Hawija, the IS s last urban stronghold in Iraq, it said. The units the SOTF is looking to advise and assist... At this time do not fall under the Ministry of Peshmerga, it said. The statement came after Canada s top soldier, General Jon Vance, was quoted on Thursday in The Globe and Mail as saying that training with the peshmerga was ceased when it was no longer of any value in terms of the battle against IS. In February 2016 Ottawa tripled its special forces contingent to 210 and said its mission to train Kurdish forces would continue into closest rival has challenged in Venezuela s supreme court as deeply flawed with illegal tactics. Venezuela s leading opposition parties boycotted the election as fraudulent. The United States, European Union and several of Venezuela s neighbours in Latin America have rejected Maduro s election as illegitimate. Humanitarian groups in the past have raised concern that Venezuelan officials would use international assistance as political tool instead of sending it to communities where it is needed. A spokesman for the European Commission, however, told The Associated Press that they re giving the money to crisis groups working in the region, like the United Nations and Red Cross so it doesn t fall into the hands of Venezuelan officials. Venezuelan leaders haven t publicly commented on the European money being sent, but in the past they refused foreign assistance as a possible Trojan Horse that could open the politically turbulent nation to foreign military intervention. Rather, Venezuela s government prefers to send assistance to other nations, not willing to admit its deep needs at home. It was among the biggest providers of aid to Haiti following the 2010 earthquake. More recently, Venezuelan state TV showed 12 tons of supplies being loaded onto cargo planes headed to Cuba for island residents hit by a tropical storm. Since Maduro s re-election, the European Union has called for a new presidential election in Venezuela, saying it will swiftly levy a new round of sanctions targeting those close to Maduro. The European humanitarian assistance directed at Venezuela s people won t contradict its sanctions or those in place by the United States against 70 Venezuelan officials, including Maduro, experts say. Eric Farnsworth, vice president at the Council of the Americas and Americas Society think tank, said Washington has already announced spending at least USD 16 million on Venezuela s exiles, while pressing sanctions. The key is to help the people without lending support to the regime, Farnsworth said. It s complicated, although not impossible in my mind, especially if the EU continues on the sanctions effort. slew of reforms to ensure a fair poll. The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party wants to observe the printing of ballot papers, that Zimbabweans based abroad be allowed to vote and the removal of military personnel seconded to the electoral commission. Mnangagwa will square off with former student activist Nelson Chamisa leading a coalition of opposition parties under the MDC-Alliance. A new pre-poll survey by Afrobarometer published this week showed the ruling Zanu-PF would attract 42 per cent of the vote compared to 31 per cent for the MDC, meaning the election could go to a run-off. hinese Government hack- have stolen a massive Cers cache of highly sensitive data related to undersea warfare from a US Navy contractor, including secret plans to develop a new type of submarinelaunched anti-ship missile, a media report said today. Some 614 gigabytes of material were taken in the breaches that occurred in January and February. Among these were secret plans to develop a supersonic anti-ship missile for use on US submarines by 2020, The Washington Post reported. Quoting unnamed American officials, the daily said the stolen material also Noah included information related to a secretive project known as Sea Dragon, as well as signals and sensor data, submarine radio room information relating to cryptographic systems, and the Navy submarine development unit s electronic warfare library. The data was stolen by Chinese hackers by breaching into the computers of a contractor. The name of the contractor was not released by the daily. The breach is part of China s long-running effort to blunt the US advantage in military technology and become the preeminent power in East Asia. The news comes as the Trump administration is seeking to secure Beijing s support in persuading North Korea to give up nuclear weapons, even as tensions persist between the US and China over trade and defence matters, The Washington Post said. After the publication of the story, the Pentagon inspector general s office said that Defence Secretary Jim Mattis had asked it to review contractor cybersecurity issues, the daily said. The Navy is leading the investigation into the breach with the help of the FBI, officials said.

8 Runners-up at Brazil 2014, the Copa America in Chile in 2015 and again in the US in 2016, football powerhouse Argentina has been the perennial bridesmaid in recent years. The South American nation are two-time World Cup winners, yet only booked their ticket to Russia at the last minute after a turbulent qualifying campaign led by three different head coaches. In their opening qualifier, Argentina were without talisman Lionel Messi through injury, and embarrassingly lost 2-0 at home to Ecuador. Messi had temporarily withdrawn from international football in 2016 before returning to help save Argentina's chance of qualifying for Russia. The last qualifying match ultimately proved decisive, as Messi rescued his team with a hat-trick to beat Ecuador 3-1. A five-time Ballon d'or winner, Messi has been repeatedly challenged to prove his standing as one of the all-time greats by winning the World Cup with Argentina. The Barcelona forward has won everything at club level, but remains without a major trophy for his country. Argentina stepped up their World Cup preparations with a 4-0 victory over 108th-ranked Haiti, thanks to a hat-trick from Messi, who also turned provider with an assist for Manchester City forward Sergio Aguero. Following the confidence-boosting win against admittedly limited opposition, Messi said after the game that a good start will be crucial to their progression. "We will do everything we can. We have to win the first game, that will give us the peace of mind to face MARIO GOETZE What a difference four years can make. Having scored the winning goal in Germany's 1-0 extra-time victory over Argentina in the 2014 World Cup final, Goetze seemed on top of the world. But after a move back to Borussia Dortmund, an illness and a poor season resulted in coach Joachim Loew leaving Goetze out. "It wasn't his best season. He wasn't able to show his incredible quality. Personally, I'm very sorry for him," Loew said. MOTION PICTURE the remaining two." Placed in Group D, Argentina will face tough competition in the form of Croatia, Iceland and Nigeria. Head coach Jorge Sampaoli acknowledged that he anticipated a challenging campaign. The former Chile and Sevilla boss has a preference for attacking football. He replaced Edgardo Bauza to be the team's third coach during the qualifying phase, but like his predecessors, he also relied heavily on Messi. "This is going to be his team," Sampaoli explained at a news conference in March, adding that Messi would help the team go further and end their lengthy trophy drought in Russia. In addition to Messi, Argentina are blessed with a plethora of attacking options, such as Aguero and the Juventus pair of Paulo Dybala and Gonzalo Higuain. But the level of dependence on their star man was painfully obvious in a friendly against Spain in March, when a Messi-less Argentina slumped to a humiliating 6-1 loss. That defeat also prompted uncomfortable questions about the quality of Argentina's defense, a problem that has been exacerbated by the injury-enforced withdrawal of first-choice goalkeeper Sergio Romero. Replacing him will be one of Nahuel Guzman, Franco Armani and Willy Caballero, none of whom have significant experience of international football. If Argentina are to have a successful World Cup, coach Sampaoli will have to draw on all his considerable tactical nous, exemplified by the way he led his Chile side to beat Argentina in the 2015 Copa America final. T he man who scored the winning goal in the last World Cup. The best young player in the English Premier League. A striker who scored a total of 53 goals in Serie A the last two seasons. Mario Goetze, Leroy Sane and Mauro Icardi have achieved plenty in ALVARO MORATA The former Real Madrid man s recent struggles at Chelsea were the main reason that prompted Spain coach Julen Lopetegui to leave out the highly regarded striker from his plans. "It's always a difficult decision," Lopetegui said. "There wasn't anything negative about him (Morata). But we thought there were other players in the position who could help us." their careers. But they won't be achieving anything at the upcoming World Cup. Along with the likes of Alvaro Morata and Adrien Rabiot, they belong to a group of elite players left off their national team squads. There are plenty more players who won't be traveling to Russia for a different reason - their teams didn't qualify. MAURO ICARDI Icardi's omission seems a result not only of Argentina's wealth of strikers but also a personality issue. The Inter Milan captain has often clashed with his fellow national team members. And blessed with the likes of Lionel Messi, Gonzalo Higuain, Sergio Aguero and Paulo Dybala, coach Jorge Sampaoli apparently felt like there was no need to risk including Icardi in the squad. ZLATAN IBRAHIMOVIC No such list is complete without the superstar striker now bamboozling American hearts at LA Galaxy. The 36-year-old Ibrahimovic retired from Sweden's national team after the 2016 European Championship. Despite speculation that he might return in Russia, Ibrahimovic resisted the temptation, choosing to stay put just where he was and relishing in the fact that it was the World Cup who would be sorely missing his heroics. "I'm going to go as far away as possible - where the time difference will force me to watch the least amount of matches possible," said defender Giorgio Chiellini, a member of four-time champion Italy, which failed to qualify for the first time in six decades. A look at some of the missing stars: LEROY SANE The 22-year-old winger, who won the Premier League title with Manchester City and was voted young player of the year by the Professional Footballers' Association, was also left home by Loew. Sane scored 10 goals and created another 15 in 32 appearances for City. But Sane has only appeared 12 times for Germany and is yet to score for the national team. "Maybe he has not fully arrived in the national team games. Maybe that tipped the balance," Loew said. GIANLUIGI BUFFON The legendary Italy goalkeeper had a chance to match the World Cup record with a sixth appearance in the tournament - until the Azzurri lost a playoff to Sweden. The 40-year-old Buffon bid a tearful goodbye to the national team after the playoff but then returned for a pair of friendlies and now may continue his club career elsewhere after leaving Juventus. Buffon has played in the last four World Cups and was an unused backup in the 1998 tournament. If he keeps playing, perhaps he can match Lothar Matthaus by playing in a fifth World Cup in ADRIEN RABIOT The Paris Saint-Germain midfielder had a slim chance of going to Russia until he found out that coach Didier Deschamps had put him on as a reserve. Rabiot immeditely asked his name to be taken off the list of reserve players for France contemplating, perhaps, that he deserved better. "I was obviously surprised," Deschamps had later said on Rabiot s decision to be ruled out entirely. "I can understand his immense disappointment but I'm convinced he made a huge mistake. " MUSCOB TES MOTION PICTURE 'WELCOME TO RUSSIA FIFA BANS GHANA FA BOSS LAYUN PRAISES MEXICO GERMANY BEATS S ARABIA 2-1 SWITZERLAND WIN OVER JAPAN CHILE HOLD POLAND

9 ASL? Do you remember this ubiquitous question in yearning-for-love chat rooms in the early years of Internet in India? With cyber café rooms filled like DTC buses, Internet prices still high, the speed agonisingly slow, teenagers flocked to dingy rooms with dilapidated desktop computers with money in the wallet and hope in the heart. It was as if someone had opened a world hitherto unknown to them. It was a passage towards love anybody could enter this anonymous, faceless, voiceless world and try their luck. There were the one-to-many those who liked to enter common chat rooms and attempted to chat with an entire group at once; any-to-any those who kept inviting anyone who cared to listen to private chats; one-to-one those who logged in each day to chat with the same person at the same time; and the many-to-one those who tasked themselves to play fastest finger first across multiple private chat rooms. Yet another category was the fun-to-none those who disguised themselves as Salman Khan or Tom Cruise or changed their gender or their age who just wanted to mess with others. All in all, there was something for everyone. Apart from horrendous usernames, such as GoldenHeartPrince_83 and Sweet_AngelDoll89, the other big gift from this age was creeps. The creeps who didn t have a voice in the earlier age of missed calls on landlines despite the user IDs, now had a (fake) face and a (fake) voice. Everything from I am in a big problem and I need your urgent help. Send me 5,000 now to Send me noode pix babz. It was a new experience, this one, and it had its ups and downs. Cut to the WhatsApp age. With random dudes sending you Gm baby (gm meaning good morning), to your Pammi aunty sending you the recipe of chhole bhature, to your boss asking where you are, to you stalking your ex-girlfriend and wondering why she s online at 2.30 am WhatsApp unleashed connectivity like it was never known. The points I wish to make are that technology has changed how we meet people, how we interact with people and how we (dis)like them in a way that wasn t known to us; the age of being disconnected is long gone; and creeps existed in every era and will continue to exist. Where does that leave love? Literature, whether you are a student of it like me or not, had defined a certain idea of love in our heads. Remember Percy Bysshe Shelley s poem, Love s Philosophy? The fountains mingle with the river And the rivers with the ocean, The winds of heaven mix forever With a sweet emotion; Nothing in the world is single; All things by a law divine In one spirit meet and mingle. Why not I with thine? See the mountains kiss high heaven And the waves clasp one another; No sister-flower would be forgiven If it disdained its brother; And the sunlight clasps the earth And the moonbeams kiss the sea: What is all this sweet work worth If thou kiss not me? The love, the longing and the desperate need for human contact by your loved one that s the love we have read about and wanted to experience. If that is too high brow for you, then there is Bollywood to the rescue. Madhuri Dixit, in all her glorious youth, dancing to music every other minute in the musical, Dil To Pagal Hai (1997), says: Kahin na kahin, koi na koi mere liye banaya gaya hai... aur kabhi na kabhi main usse zaroor miloongi. When you actually see your loved one, your heart sounds like the guitar (Dekha jo tujhe yaar/dil mein baje guitar) à la Riteish Deshmukh in Apna Sapna Money Money (2006). Or more recently, Dhanush in Raanjhanaa (2013), where love happens at first sight when he exclaims: Namaaz mein woh thi, par laga dua humaari manzoor ho gayi. Through all these romantic movies, you are in love with the idea of falling in love. When you first look at someone and it feels different. When you slowly start figuring out that this person means more than others. Stolen glances and unsaid words the time when you can think of nothing else. Those first few meetings where you don t know what to say. Those days when you speak for hours but still feel that a lot is left to be said. This time the beautiful time of falling in love and ensuing courtship many of us know love as this. But it has changed in the age of digital dating. In an age where commitment has been replaced by availability and Mr Right has been shown the door for Mr Right Now, longing for companionship and the human need to be desired has taken a dreaded form. Dare to Date on Channel V has transformed courtship to a game challenge. MTV Splitsvilla has ensured that the priceless gift of love is put on the backburner for a more prized cash prize. And now Shilpa Shetty is all set to host Amazon Prime s show on blind dating, Hear Me. Love Me., where she will send a young woman on three dates in a single day. For the impatient, open to change, brittle to criticism individual, these shows, and apps such as Tinder, present a new twisted idea of love. Watching American sitcoms like How I Met your Mother or Two and a Half Men, I have often marveled at the concept of picking up girls at the bar. You go to a happening bar. You like a girl. You buy her a drink. The next moment you are talking and more often than not, end up going home with that girl. I often wished that this existed in India too. But what I found in India can be compared to the time when the party ends and the lights come on. Where those who had to rush have already left, those who found love have gone, and the only ones who remain are those who can t move because of being drunk or those who want to hunt the ones weakened by alcohol. The problem with love today, like readyto-eat fast food, is that it is now available in all customised sizes and can be ordered online when required. While it is convenient, fast and easy, it doesn t have the original flavour. And this has led to several kinds of problems. Don t get me wrong, I do not mean that love in the 21st century must be defined by 15th century standards. I only lament the fact that the essence of love seems to have been compromised. Here are the problems that I feel exist in the age of digital dating: Unsafe: There are times when you just want someone to be there for you. After a rough day, you wish you got a hug. After a long day at the office, you wish you had a loved one to go home to. Feeling sidelined and useless, you long for someone who can value you. This loneliness makes us desperate for approval. This desperation sometimes leads us into a trap. There is the example of UK-based Anna Rowe, who took to Tinder to find love. Imagine her happiness when not only did she find the perfect partner, but he was none other than Kal Ho Na Ho s Saif Ali Khan. He promised her marriage, addressed her as his future wife in his messages and met her on several occasions. Before you start hating Chhote Nawab, let me tell you that the person in question was an imposter who had put up Saif Ali Khan s picture as his display photo and was a married man and a father too! Temporary: I am all for easy access to many suitors and I have no judgment for those who decide to get intimate early. But what about those whose single point objective is to hook up using digital platforms? You don t know the person for any reasonable time, you are not sure of the kind of person he/she is, but you are keen to get on the riding bandwagon. Result? You find yourself in an intimate relationship with someone who will move on, swiping right on the next profile as soon as they get what they want. Human bonding: Why don t parents allow kids to play online cricket instead of the real sport in the playground? This is because a virtual experience, no matter how HD it is, cannot replace the skills you learn on ground. Remember the Netherfield Ball in Jane Austen s Pride and Prejudice? Or the prom in F.R.I.E.N.D.S ( )? These mixers opened you up to the challenge of speaking to the other gender. For being wanted at the ball, you need sophistication, poise, and charm. For asking someone out for prom, you had to muster up the courage to go ask someone as well as open yourself up to rejection. Both models have their own issues, but the point that I am making is human interaction vs virtual selection. Digital dating has short-circuited the process as the experience of human bonding before the date is simply not required. Self-esteem: If you ve watched the very popular and dark 13 Reasons Why (2017) on Netflix, you probably know what a cruel place high school can be. Low self-esteem and feeling left out along with a feeling that the world is out to get her, the beautiful and ambitious Hannah Baker takes the shocking decision of ending her life. Studies have proven that digital dating apps are directly linked to the way you feel about yourself. According to a study conducted by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, women use the dating app Tinder for a kind of self-assertion of their looks and appearance.

10 At a time where we ve been discovering the true extent of the pay gap and just how far we are from gender parity (100 years in the UK, if you re interested yes, really, we won t see it in our lifetime), it s been an opportunity for me to reflect on how I will lead my company, Peanut, into the next stage of our growth story, and what part gender has to play in that, if any. I started life as an M&A lawyer. Bright-eyed and full of enthusiasm on my move to the Big Smoke from Newcastle, where I trained, gender was hardly the first thing on my mind. On my university law course there had been a gender split of around 50:50, while at law school my class had had a 60:40 ratio of women to men. I d then trained at a firm where the intake of trainees was an even split. So I suppose the playing field seemed equal to me. I had some strong female role models throughout my journey, and at that stage, without perhaps a more worldly view of how the workplace looked, beyond a certain level, I had no evidence I could not be a female leader. In hindsight, I had perhaps overlooked the fact that the number of female partners was not as evenly split as the intake of newly qualified lawyers I was part of, but I found a formidable female lawyer in the team, and set to work on making her my new role model. From the law firm, I made a side step, first joining a biotech company as in-house counsel and later joining Badoo, the behemoth dating platform. Both bioscience and tech being traditionally male industries, I was often the only woman in the room, almost always (at that point), the most junior. What did this mean? It meant that I worked hard, and I learnt fast. It meant that if I wanted to progress, I asked direct questions and used skills I d learnt as a junior lawyer to get to the details that would help me understand. Did I do that because I was a woman in a roomful of men? No. I did that because I wanted to succeed, and I wanted to be at that table, wanted to keep my place at that table, and to have a voice. I made a lot of mistakes. Why wouldn t I? I was learning. On one occasion, I was asked to get sugar during a board meeting I d been prepping for for weeks, and I responded obediently. (I won t go into what I really wanted to do with the sugar bowl at that moment.) I volunteered to attend meetings that others didn t want to go to; I took deep breaths and dug my fingers into the palm of my hand when I walked into tech events to find groups of men standing around in close circles, and steeled myself against anyone I felt was expressing a sexist view of the world. I was the first senior executive to become a mother, and by this point I d risen to deputy CEO. I navigated this clumsily, determined to show that nothing had changed while knowing ultimately that everything had for me. Again, I made mistakes. I said yes to everything travel, working weekends, late-night conference calls fearful the position I had worked so hard for would be in jeopardy if I changed anything. I took my son into the office when I couldn t miss a meeting and watched in horror as he drew on the founder s expensive antique sound system, and I planned my work on weekends around his nap times. One of the projects I was working on, when my son was seven months old, was establishing a new dating app, and the young female CEO of the product at the time, who I was mentoring, would often exclaim, How are you doing all of this? her face a mixture of astonishment and fear (I think). I thought I was doing great things. The reality was, I was probably giving her, and other women at the company, an unenviable portrait of what would be required to sustain the executive position. I left my position in January 2016 with an idea of my own, and in 2017, launched my own company, Peanut. Inspired by my experience at Badoo and Bumble, and of course, my experience of motherhood, Peanut is an app to connect like-minded women who happen to be mothers. Among many of the items on my agenda to change the world, one was culture. I wanted to challenge culture. I wanted to be a strong, mission-led leader, and a good boss. To be clear, not a mumpreneur, or She-eo (or any other myriad fem-words we ve been applying to the workplace recently), but certainly a purposeful leader. For Peanut, there would be no pay gap, no ceiling to shatter, and more than simply good intentions to challenge bias, a system which prevented it. So, was that possible? So far, yes. With a small team, and a good deal of transparency, along with open and frank conversations about the current social climate, Peanut represents a workplace I am proud of. We debate the approach we take to the product, how we represent the brand, and of course the workplace, with hunger. Why? Because the team collectively feels responsible for the messages we share. It was only last week that I was debating female role models with my head of mobile engineering (a mother of two girls), with respect to the impact on future generations, a scene that perhaps two years ago I wouldn t have dreamed was possible. Change is happening, perceptions are being challenged, conversations leading to action are taking place. Yes, it s hugely troubling when stories like that of James Damore s Google manifesto break, and we re reminded that there are people who believe biological differences account for the difference in male and female executive representation. Yet I remain optimistic that change is afoot. I attended a dinner hosted by a venture capital firm recently. As I surveyed the room, the male to female ratio was striking, but familiar. I was one of four women. No big deal, I m used to it. But this particular evening, the reason it became so apparent was because the person who raised the issue was not me, but the male founder to my left. We spoke at length about the gender imbalance, positive discrimination and gender stereotypes. We spoke about our role as founders and CEOs to make changes, to keep our workplace healthy, to give it longevity, and I left feeling enlightened and bolstered by this man, happy in the knowledge that creating workplaces where gender parity is the norm sits at the top of the agenda for this new generation of founders. The importance of reports on the pay gap, on conversations around women in the workplace, women V-Cs and women entrepreneurs doesn t require its own terminology, but it does require airtime. By keeping that conversation going, by continually highlighting the issues that people perceive to be female, we make them societal issues; everyone s issues. I can t claim to be the perfect leader, and I don t know what that looks like, but conversations around disparity, around unconscious bias, around flexible working well, they might just lead to leadership that looks a little more like that 50:50 split I believed to be standard at university all those years ago. I n Libya, a group of confident, young women have formed a burgeoning startup scene that plans to break down professional and cultural barriers through entrepreneurship and they want to share their stories with female startup founders in Britain. Traditionally, women in Libya are far more likely to take up a role in the home rather than the workplace, and just 24.6 per cent were in employment in 2017, according to the World Bank. Since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi, gender restrictions have started to relax in parts of Libya, and in the country s first free elections after the coup in 2012, 33 women were elected to the General National Congress. Now, as expectations continue to shift, a new economy in which women sell crafts made at home has blossomed. Fatima Nasser has a plan to boost these women through her startup Yummy, an online marketplace that gives women a place to sell homemade food. Nasser s decision to campaign for women s rights was inspired by her mother, who was one of the founding members of the Women s Union of the South in Libya. I ve always noticed this gap between men and women, and an inequality in society that I wanted to solve, she says. I was lucky to grow up in a better environment than most of my friends. Both my parents worked at a university and had a balance between them. My brother did housework, as I did. Has she experienced discrimination? Of course I ve experienced it, we are in Libya. Everybody has. Discrimination is kind of the norm itself in society. A student in the final semester of her English language degree, Nasser has cofounded Yummy, an app that puts cooks directly in contact with customers who may be looking to buy utensils, or baked goods in a similar way to ebay and Etsy. There was a huge trend of women making things at home and selling them as part of an informal economy, says Nasser. We thought, why not get these women to be part of the formal economy and expand their businesses? Although Yummy is yet to officially launch, it is already advertising the goods of around 300 women. And it was recently awarded a top prize in the Enjazi Startup Competition, held by Tatweer Research and MIT Enterprise Forum, which was the subject of a BBC World documentary last month. As in the UK, female entrepreneurs in Libya face difficulties in securing funds to start businesses. Selffunding is a common way to bypass this problem, and is one reason why Nasser attributes a large part of her success to her family. If your family doesn t support you, you have a higher chance of failing, she says. She hopes that won t be the case for much longer and that platforms like Yummy and the startup community can give women the support she had from her family. More women have approached me for advice on how to start their own businesses, which makes me really happy, she says. I hope all women who have startups support one another and create a supportive community that encourages more people to join. Founding Yummy hasn t been an entirely smooth ride for Nasser, who was recently the target of cyber bullying and a smear campaign on Libyan national television. I was called a spy and accused of wanting to corrupt women by bringing liberal thinking, she says. My picture was posted everywhere, alongside things about my Mum. Initially angry and upset about the abuse, Nasser s mum helped her realise that the backlash meant her work was having an impact. It really shows how afraid they are of strong women and that I m actually doing something, she says. What advice does she have for other women in Libya and the UK who want to start their own businesses? They have to be strong and have the will to continue when they face adversity, she says. They have to fight for what they believe. eartbreak: People ment start turning. But digital dating has taken away experience from roof, driverless cars, robots nology is improved and online? The whole online cars, a helipad on every guns do shoot. The tech- Hremember their first crush with the same intensity of remembering the first time they got their hearts broken. There is something about heartbreak: There is just no good way to break up. It stings and people react to it in different ways. Lots of tears, sad songs on loop, sleep, alcohol, or crazy partying the ways people express themselves are many. But eventually, heartbreak teaches you something. As you lie in your bed at night, thinking about what went wrong, the wheels of some sort of a cathartic refresh- this pain too. By short circuiting the process, you simply go back to swiping right on more profiles. The learning that heartbreak once gave us seems all but extinct. There will be many who will argue that they found love online on a dating app like Tinder. Then there are those who are married and continue to be on Tinder just for fun. Another group of people will want to tell me that when you can find your life partner on Shaadi.com or Bharatmatrimony.com, then why not find a date Amazon.com getting you gifts, to Uber getting you a cab, to BigBasket.com getting you groceries was made to make the process easier, faster, and convenient. So, what is so wrong with getting a date online? To all those who say this, I would point you to science fiction. If you were a kid who lived through the 2000s, it may be a good experience to pick up a magazine from that time that talks about the future in the 2000s, we were supposed to have flying that can replace humans and many more. If you look around today, some of it has been achieved. We do have driverless cars from Google and Artificial Intelligence (AI) is on way to making robots replace humans in many activities. In many ways, science fiction has predicted the future. Yet, if you read any science fiction story or novel, the story is not about this futuristic technology: Flying cars do the same job that our cars do transport, and laser guns do the same job that futuristic in these stories, but the stories centre around the same human emotions: Greed, jealousy, hatred, love etc. As long as digital dating is improving the experience and making love possible for many, it is something that we should cherish. But the moment it threatens to replace the idea of love and cheats the process to make it about love-at-a-click, it should set alarm bells ringing.

11 The book delves briefly into the past when the Great Game was being played between the British Empire and Russia to control the vast and strategic trade routes of Central Asia, for their own primary trade goals. These games have become far bigger and complex with disintegration of Russia and emergence of five key nations of Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, referred to as 5 CARs in the book. Amiya s book aptly portrays the modern trade games being played in Central Asia. It talks about its importance for India and focuses on strategies for overcoming various barriers in achieving these strategic goals. The increasing clout and influence of China juxtaposed with the dwindling authority of the US under the leadership of President Trump, dilution and distraction of British and European nations with Brexit, ever growing discontent and waging wars in the Middle East and Gulf countries, trade politics being played over the nuclearisation of North Korea the strategic importance of Central Asia is critical and of far more significance for India than was ever before. The book provides insight into the stakes of all the other key players in Central Asia. It positions China, Russia and India as the players in the new Bigger Game. There, China and Russia already have an early mover advantage and have gained substantially. That doesn t work well for Indian security and trade interests. India has always considered Russia as its dependable friend. However, the same cannot be said of China as it has taken an aggressive stand against India on numerous occasions in the past. China s interference and influence has been witnessed in the recent incidents involving Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan, Myanmar, North Korea and now even Maldives. China, in its unstated yet conscious policy, has been trying to limit India s influence as well as trade potential. China has great ambitions of expanding its trade, military as well political control across the world. It s been equally aggressive in African and South American continents and has taken a clear leadership position there. In his book, Amiya has tried to draw attention towards China s growing influence in Central Asia how through its OBOR programme, it intends to dominate world trade. Trade, Finance, Security, and Grants are some of the means it has deployed to further its objectives. The book outlines the series of events and steps that the Indian Government has taken recently and also puts it in the historical perspective. It s surprising that India s approach has been rather muted when in reality India had been one of the key nations which proposed, suggested and agreed to the need of an over-the-land trade route, linking Asian countries to Europe through Central Asia. Central Asia today is being treated as India s extended neighbourhood. As per the book, the importance of Central Asia to India is now not merely civilisational and historical, but also geopolitical and economic. Though these republics have been acknowledged as being endowed with rich energy and other mineral resources, they require heavy investments and technical know-how to develop these resources. Above all, the CARs share common glitches of political instability, terrorism, mutual discord on border delineation, sharing of water resources and problems of landlockedness, etc. Such a scenario wherein regional players like Russia and China seem to be able to dominate the weak Central Asian Republics and may reduce countries like India, with little physical access to Central Asia, permanently to a fringe-player status, is a hyper-exaggeration of the situation. Evidence shows that the last two decades and especially since the NDA Government under Narendra Modi took charge, have been periods of intense political engagement. There has been a constant search for newer ways of economic engagement between India and Central Asia. Some recent academic literature describes India as playing The New Great Game in Central Asia, and that it is in competition with the key regional and global powers for resources and influence. While not sharing the abovementioned pessimistic outlook, Amiya in his book argues that India s relationship with Central Asia must be seen in terms of a unique model of political, economic, strategic, cultural and development partnership with a multilateral approach. In these past couple of years a massive effort by the Indian government can be witnessed by visits undertaken by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Central Asia Republics, Cabinet Ministers like Nitin Gadkari visiting Iran as a special envoy of India was in Tehran and represented India at the swearing-in of President Hassan Rouhani for the second term in August Given the vast energy resources of the Central Asian region and its hunger for development and infrastructure, India, with its proven prowess in capacity- building and training, is uniquely equipped to play an important role in the transformation of the region. But this benevolent intent, as mentioned above, has been constrained by the lack of direct land connectivity to the Central Asian region. The instability in Afghanistan and the reluctance of Pakistan to grant overland access to India have come in the way of fructifying the potential of India s relationship with the region. The INSTC envisages a movement of goods to and from Mumbai to the Bandar Abbas port in Iran by sea, from Bandar Abbas to Bandar-e-Anzali (an Iranian port on the Caspian Sea) by rail and road, from Bandar-e-Anzali to Astrakhan, a Russian port, across the Caspian Sea by ship and from Astrakhan to other regions in Russia by rail. The book argues that in the long term, the challenge is, creation of stable and competitive goods and energy supply networks for not just trade but also for the supply of oil from the Caspian Sea, gas from Turkmenistan and hydroelectricity from Tajikistan to India. The Indian public sector companies are in active discussions with Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan in the oil and natural gas sector. The fact that the governments of the region have agreed to the construction of the TAPI (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan- India) gas pipeline project is a positive indication of the opportunities ahead, given the growing political will to enter into such cooperation between Central Asia and South Asia. India is engaged with Central Asia through multilateral forums as well. One of the forums through which the Central Asian Republics are tied together is the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). In one instance, the book offers new perspective and recommends some key solutions for increasing trade between India and Central-Asian nations. It tries to reach out beyond the conventional hurdles that India is facing and suggests new means to come out of it. General Director Economic Society, Ashgabat, Mouhamed J Kalandarov says about the book that it provides numerous insights, pragmatic solutions and new perspective to circumvent challenges. The final chapter concludes the entire gamut of the economic dimension of the India-Central Asia relations by making an assessment of the extent and pattern of their economic and trade relations in a comparative perspective with a long-term projection of their engagements in the context of India s on-going Connect Central Asia Policy. Besides, it also provides a perspective on New Delhi s growing attention to the region as a response to the changing dynamics of the major powers relations with Central Asia, particularly the increased involvement of China. D oes history repeat itself in the media, just as it does in politics and governance? What are the origins of India s particularly vibrant freedom of the press? This delightful book from an American PhD scholar, Andrew Otis, at the University of Maryland Philip Merril College of Journalism, suggests it all began in the 1780s. Otis researched this book in Delhi, Kolkata, Germany and England over a period of six years. He gained a unique perspective on the establishment of Company Raj, Robert Clive, Warren Hastings, and their imperial times. And 90 years after the establishment of the British in Calcutta, came India s first newspaper. James Augustus Hicky was a subaltern, a poor Irishman out to make his mark in India. He could only afford to live in the Black Town of Calcutta, and not amongst the bungalows and gardens of the privileged. He was sent to common jail for being in debt, first for a failed trade, and the latter incarceration was for libel. But throughout, once started in 1780, Hicky gave voice to the underdog with his newspaper, Hicky s Bengal Gazette or The Original Calcutta General Advertiser, which became an instant sensation. So much so, that Governor General Warren Hastings, moved quickly to try and limit its rapidly growing influence. The story of this shortlived but highly influential newspaper, and the dramatis personae of the time, is fascinatingly laid out in this book. Hicky s Gazette was priced at Re 1, expensive for the 1780s, but equivalent to newspapers in England then. It was printed weekly, four or five pages long- two or three of them containing news and opinion letters, and the other two featuring advertisements. The printing press was located at 67, Radha Bazar, Calcutta. Competition from the establishment that Hicky targeted, came later in the same year. Backed by Hastings, the rival paper was circulated free and without postage via the Indian postal system. The India Gazette, founded by Bernard Messink and Peter Reed, propounded British superiority, the viewpoint of the East India Company, and the upperclass. Its advertisements were from private boat rental companies, for hunting dogs, garden houses and dinner clubs. A popular and repeated advertisement was for the buying and shipping of diamonds home to England, presumably for corrupt Companymen, and some of their many contractors. Hicky, convinced that the powers-that-be were out to ruin him, undertook a series of exposes. This earned him even more repression. Warren Hastings banned even the paid circulation of Hicky s newspaper via the postal system, and ordered that mail that enclosed cuttings from it be stopped too. This hurt Hicky s profits and wider circulation, but made his paper more popular in Calcutta itself, where it was now distributed via runners or hircarrahs, and the number of his subscriptions there increased markedly. Hicky s Gazette was the antityranny, anti-corruption, and pro-free speech campaigner of its time. People depended on it to spot and expose malfeasance, fraud, abuse of power. Hicky adapted and : embraced notions of rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness that were coursing through Western Europe and America. This tonality and content annoyed most high government functionaries, particularly because of Hicky s relentless exposure of abuses of power in the government and judiciary, patronage as bribery, and rampant corruption in government contracts. Hicky s newspaper often also gave voice to the grievances of the common soldier both British and native, the Anglo-Indian, the injustices borne by ordinary people, the rapaciousness of the evangelical clergy involved in commerce rather than the harvesting of souls, the subversions practiced by a biddable judiciary, and the like. Hicky s Gazette was also popular for its humorous pieces, satire, and human interest stories. Soon assassins, fortunately discovered in time, came for Hicky in the dark of the night. And Hicky, in turn, turned up the journalistic heat. He began suggesting, via anonymous articles using various pseudonyms like Cassius and Britannicus, that it was not a good idea to fight in expansionist wars initiated by Warren Hastings that sacrificed common soldiers for his personal dreams of conquest. This, and similar pieces took Hicky to the edge of sedition, especially when the articles printed in his paper, suggested mutiny, and the carrying out of a coup. In consequence, Hicky was slapped with criminal charges of libel against both Hastings and a rich clergyman Kiernander, his bail being set at 40,000, twice his annual income. This forced Hicky to stay in jail. The newspaper continued however, with Hicky running it from inside the jail, now lampooning all his tormentors including those in the judiciary, with biting satire. After a tumultuous trial, the 24 member jury, many of them East India Company men themselves, returned a Not Guilty verdict. Otis sees this as a landmark judgement for the early freedom of the press in India. There were multiple and separate trials with regard to the priest Kiernander and even sundry others Hicky had offended. Some of these trials returned indictments. In one mounted by Hastings, against Hicky s paper urging soldiers to mutiny, he was sentenced to a year in jail with fines. But all this railing at Warren Hastings tyranny and corruption had begun to have its effect back in Britain. This, even as the continuous litigation pauperized Hicky and closed down his paper, when his press too was seized in The litigation and adverse publicity also drove Kiernander into bankruptcy and penury in his old age. Next came the karmic retribution for Hastings. The East India Company Act of 1784 put severe curbs on the powers of the Governor General and subordinated his actions to control from the Crown. Hastings decided to go home at this, after three decades in India. But, perhaps as a public relations gesture, not before asking the Supreme Court in India to forgive the rest of Hicky s fines and let him go free. Now it was Hastings turn to be put under the lash. Parliamentarian and political theorist, Edmund Burke, mounted a bid for his impeachment with twenty-two separate charges, in the House of Commons. After eight years of gruelling parliamentary investigation, through both the House of Commons and Lords in July 1795, Warren Hastings was eventually acquitted. But not before his reputation and fortune had been destroyed. Hicky died at sea aboard the ship Ajax en route to China in But clearly, he was not the only protagonist in this drama that ended his days in penury.

12 T he preceding four years have indeed been an eventful period for the railways. A rapid move forward in consolidating existing operations and energising various growth oriented projects is being witnessed. The realisation that railways needs to restructure, reform and revitalise has indeed dawned on the national carrier. The need to enhance infrastructure at a pace that blends with the rapidly growing national expectations in so far as passenger and freight traffic is concerned has also started getting addressed. With tremendous emphasis being laid on safety, an effort that has already started giving results, impetus is also being given to expediting the much needed reforms cultural, process and structural reforms becoming the order of the day. Perhaps for the first time ever in history, very major strides are being made in the process of bringing reforms in the railway system. Delivery is indeed the primary focus of the organisation. ii) With 73 train accidents, the year has indeed been the best year in the history of the railways in so far as its safety record is concerned. It is also the first year ever to log double digit figure of accidents and it is definitely not a freak achievement, but an achievement that the entire organisation has worked for. Renewal of overaged unsafe rail-track has touched an all-time record of 4,405 kms, sharply up from 2,597 kms in The last four years also witnessed an unprecedented high removal of 5469 unmanned level crossings, that are inimical to safety. The Government has also recently and wisely decided to fill up a huge backlog of almost one lakh safety related posts besides creating a fund (Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh) with a corpus of one lakh crores to be spent on safety items. iii) The sharp focus of the Government towards capacity enhancement, primarily narrowing the huge backlog of infrastructure deficit has also started paying dividends. The average annual capital expenditure during the last four years at over 98,000 crores is more than double of the spending achieved in the previous five. Our achievements in commissioning 9,528 kms of new broad gauge line in the last four years as against 7,600 kms during the previous five is indicative of our commitment to enhance the pace of building of infrastructure. And electrification, easily the most widely recognised symbol of development has also witnessed a spike of 4,300 kms during , a pace that we indeed intend to accelerate further. Manufacture of coaches and locomotives at railway production units has also touched new highs in with ICF manufacturing 2,397 coaches, CLW manufacturing 350 electric locomotives and DLW 321 locomotives. iv) The September 14, 2017, will go down in the annals of history as a giant leap for the railways in our country, for it is on this day this year that the nation took a major step forward towards displaying its intent of moving away from the era of slow speed trains to real high speed ones. As a citizen of this nation and more so as a railwayman, I indeed feel more proud than ever. The very thought that the journey from the heart of Ahmedabad in Gujarat to the heart of Mumbai in Maharashtra would be covered in a time frame much shorter than what air travel would entail, and that this is just the beginning, is indeed extremely exciting. Prime Ministers Modi and Shinzo Abe on this day laid the foundation stone of the Mumbai - Ahmedabad High Speed Rail (MAHSR) project, popularly known as the Ahmedabad- Mumbai bullet train in Ahmedabad. And the next five years shall witness frentic activity in the States of Maharashtra and Gujarat to complete this project and position India and also its railway system in the illustrious list of nations that run high speed trains. This first route marks the beginning of a new journey for the railways as well as for the nation. This first route that shall be fully commissioned in 2023 will be the front runner of many more such routes. This project apart from triggering a paradigm shift in how people travel within India and therefore facilitate travel and tourism, would also have a significant impact on the nation s economy as it scores high on the Make in India front. Make in India and transfer of technology rightly figure in the project agreement between India and Japan, thereby enabling India to make the bullet train a pivotal part of connecting our remotest corners to the epicentres of urbanisation. Called in Japan as Shinkansen, which means new trunk line, the bullet train is almost a wonder that will script the most memorable milestone in our journey towards a New India. v) Construction of dedicated freight corridors has also picked up speed. With many administrative, managerial, contractual and legal hurdles having been resolved, this project is going to see the light of the day in March 2020, when both the eastern and western corridors would stand fully commissioned. This would also be a giant leap forward for the railways as from a mixed traffic configuration on our tracks, we would start moving to lines dedicated for freight with its attendant benefits. vi) Major strides have also been made in one of the most fundamental missions launched in recent times mission cleanliness. While a lot yet needs to be done, considerable improvements have been achieved in cleanliness of stations and trains. Other passenger interface areas like catering, passenger information regarding delayed trains, e-ticketing and introduction of PoS machines are also being aggressively handled and taken forward. A variety of new designs of coaches and trains in the form of products like the Tejas, Antyodaya, Deen Dayalu, Humsafar, Anubhuti have also been launched to enhance passenger satisfaction levels. Our sensitivity towards the commuters experiencing dense loads in the suburban systems at Bangalore and Mumbai is also reflected in the sanction of projects for upgradation of Mumbai and Bangalore suburban systems at an overall cost of 51,000 and 17,000 crores respectively thereby benefitting millions of our passengers. viii) And our commitment and role in integrating the nation can never be underestimated. With 970 kms of gauge conversion done in the last four years, the North East is now fully integrated with the broad gauge network that covers the entire nation. Rail connectivity has now been established with the states of Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram and direct train connectivity has been made between Itanagar and Silchar to Delhi. Indian Railways indeed provides the wheels on which the nation moves. It is also aptly called the economic lifeline of the nation and the primary and the most economical mode of transport for the masses. The onset of the new Government in 2014 has indeed led to the beginning of the unleashing of this gigantic monolith and a lot of action has indeed begun in the right direction with reforms being at the core of them. Yet the fact remains that internal contradictions within the organisation due to it being a business enterprise and also a ministry, leads to inadequate exploitation of its true potential. A gigantic leap forward within the realm of possibility would entail a major structural reform at some point in time, the sooner the better. Change is always painful, yet it is the only constant an organisation must have, if it is to progress by leaps and bounds and for a long-term gain, paying a price in the short-term is inevitable. While the progress made in the recent past is indeed noteworthy, the fact remains that we run short of the national expectations and will continue to do so with the gap increasing at a rapid pace, unless major structural reforms are undertaken to ultimately run the organisation truly on professional lines. The pace of improvement witnessed in recent times and the commitment to the reform process make one confident that the railways would always be the key player in the economic development of the country in times to come. (The writer is Chairman of Railway Board) F or the last 150 years, our world has been suffering under the grip of an iron dictatorship. This dictatorship created suffering and gave rise to feelings of hatred and aggression. However, it imposes a political agenda and creates a situation of oppression wherein physical prowess is used to drive people towards atheism and turn them into selfish materialists who view this world as an arena of struggle. This is the dictatorship of Darwinism and the world doesn t even know that it exists. It is fiercely promoted despite all the mounting evidence against it and constantly imposed on nations, on leaders, and on academics. Today, in almost every country, the indoctrination of evolution starts in elementary school and continues throughout one s life. People are forced to accept Darwinism by the sheer force of intimidation, propaganda and illusion. This is the only reason why no world leader today can express their objection to Darwinism or even the most religious countries teach their children evolution, although it essentially denies the existence of God. This surprising imposition is due to one reason only: Darwin s theory of evolution, which even Darwin himself had doubts about, was chosen as the so-called basis of materialism and since then, has been forced upon the people. As a result, generations have been indoctrinated into believing that evolution happened. The Technics & Science Research Foundation, which has for decades showed a commendable stance against this harassment, has been organising international science conferences for the last three years. As a part of this commitment, scientists from around the world come together and explain why evolution is wrong and how it is consistently refuted by science. In the latest conference, which was held on April 28, 2018 in the Fairmont Quasar Hotel in Istanbul, eight scientists used the latest scientific findings to show that science proved God s existence. The first speaker, American biochemist Dr Fazale Rana, responded to the junk DNA fallacy of the evolutionary theory and explained that the recent Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) project showed that there was no such thing as junk DNA and that DNA was a fantastic example of God s creation. Physicist Dr Bijan Nemati talked about the very creation of the Earth and how it was especially designed to accommodate life. He also showed that the Earth is protected meticulously in the universe, which is the only example we know of in the universe. American theologian Kenneth Keathley talked about the seven days of creation described in the Bible and explained why the new Young Earth movement was wrong. American academician Anna Manja Larcher demonstrated that love and compassion could not be accounted for by evolutionary ideas. Dr David Snoke, a professor of Physics and Astronomy from the US explained how, despite their resistance, the scientific community is now clearly referring to the design visible in the nature and is carrying out their work based on the assumption that everything is intelligently designed. Italian sociologist Fabrizio Fratus pushed back the idea that evolution was science and demonstrated that in truth, it was nothing but a mere ideology disguised as science. Turkish neurosurgeon Dr Oktar Babuna explained that the Quran pointed to creation and not evolution, while Austrian Professor Hans Köchler analysed monotheism and the meaning of co-existence. This conference marked a turning point not only because it heralds the fall of the materialist dictatorship, but because it brought together people with different faiths and ethnicities for a good cause. There is another reason why this scientific refusal of evolution by scientists was crucial: Dangerous and erroneous ideas like life is a struggle, you have to be cruel to be successful, feel no compassion, you are an animal just like everyone else is the main reason behind the current culture of hatred that is wreaking havoc around the world. Even terrorism, one of the biggest problems in today s world, is usually due to this hateful and selfish mentality. A person who knows that he is created by God, like all others, and that humans are not animals, a person who appreciates the beauty of love, compassion and forgiveness, cannot possibly hurt anyone. For these reasons, this was a historical meeting that made it clear that better days are ahead and we hope that it will be an example to for similar future events that will help save our world from the clutches of this dangerous and covert dictatorship. (The writer is a Turkish author)

13 The BJP top brass is trying to find a counter move against the manoeuvring of its ally in Bihar, the JDU. It was to reach an amicable solution that Amit Shah had a meeting with the LJP s Ram Vilas Paswan last Sunday. When the core team of the JDU was meeting in Patna, Shah was in talks with Paswan. After the meeting, Paswan said they discussed the issues of changes in the SC/ST Act, reservation in promotion for Dalits, and special status for Bihar. But in all likelihood, the core agenda was to discuss the political situation in the State. The BJP leaders are, in fact, said to be brainstorming over an appropriate reaction to Nitish Kumar s latest move. After the meeting of the core team, the JDU said there might be several faces in the NDA, but in Bihar, the only face is that of Nitish. No leader of the BJP is denying this, but sources say the JDU has demanded implementation of the old formula of seat sharing. The party is said to be pressing for 25 seats. This must be noted that the JDU used to fight on 25 seats and the BJP used to get only 15 seats under the old formula. For the Assembly Elections, the old formula was: 142 seats for the JDU and 101 for the BJP. However, the equation has changed now. At present, the BJP has 23 MPs; the LJP has six, and the RLSP has three. In this scenario, the old formula can t be implemented. After the JDU s latest move, there are two speculations: Either Nitish is creating pressure for more seats in the Assembly Elections or he is ready to part ways with the BJP. But the question is where will he go from here? His party leaders say he could either go back to the RJD, as many of its old leaders say that if Nitish wants to come back, he will be welcomed. The other alternative would be to create a third front taking the Dalits and EBCs along. The BJP s other partner, the RLSP, could also be a part of this front. If Nitish chooses this option, the BJP will not have any problem. Amid all these twists and turns, the politics of Bihar has become interesting. T he other partner of the BJP, the RLSP, is also in action. Upendra Kushwaha has again raised the demand for special status for Bihar and has also said that the seat-sharing process should be complete right now. During the last elections, Kushwaha had got three seats and had won all a 100 per cent result. Though one of his MPs, Arun Kumar, parted ways with the RLSP, it is a fact that Kushwaha s vote bank is still intact. To keep a tab on Kushwaha, the BJP has taken in Samrat Chaudhary, who had joined Jitan Ram Manjhi s party after leaving the RJD. Probably this is why Kushwaha is apprehensive of the BJP s future stand. And it could also be why he wants immediate seat-sharing details from the BJP. This is interesting that in the present political scenario of Bihar, Kushwaha is in the most comfortable position. He is with the BJP, he is a Minister at the Centre, and to keep him along, the BJP could still give him two or three seats. On the other hand, the RJD is also ready to welcome him. When Lalu Prasad was admitted in AIIMS, it was Kushwaha who had met him first. Apart from this, if any third front is formed in Bihar, ie if Nitish takes an initiative, then he would also wish to take Kushwaha along. R egional parties of the country are gearing up to show their strength just like they did at the oath-taking ceremony of HD Kumaraswamy in Bengaluru on May 23. At that time, the regional kshatrapas had gathered there only to pose for photographs, but they are now all set to hold a conference in Delhi to discuss the political scenario and the possibility of a Mahagathbandhan. It is being said that Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu has taken the initiative for this. In fact, Naidu wants all Opposition parties to meet in Delhi when the Monsoon Session of Parliament begins. Naidu will, in fact, host the conference. This is the first time in Indian politics that a South Indian leader is taking an initiative for an alliance and leading it too. Earlier, leaders of North India used to do the same. But that initiative always happened to be against the Congress. However, this is being said that the Congress will join the proposed conference of regional parties. There are speculations of an alliance between the Congress and AAP, and probably AAP will also be a part of the conference. This will be a big rainbow gathering of the Opposition leaders, wherein many leaders, who are foes in politics, will sit at the same table. On one hand, leaders from the TMC as well as the Left will be present, and on the other hand, leaders of the SP and BSP will also sit across each other. Four regional parties of South India the TDP, JDS, TRS, and DMK will participate in the conference. People are saying that the strategy for the General Elections will be discussed. The Opposition parties have to decide where they will go for pre-poll alliances and where they will opt for post-poll alliances. Which party will go with whom in which State and which party will silently support whom a consensus can be made on these issues also. D ata of political donations made in the past few years has been made public, and it has become clear that donations for the Congress have been fast dwindling. The BJP is getting much more than what all parties are getting jointly. For the Congress, however, decreasing donations and not being in power have led to a grave financial crisis. This is being said that the Congress will soon be resorting to crowdsourcing, which means it will appeal to common people for funds so that its routine work is not hampered. This must be noted that the AAP had also mobilised good funds from crowdsourcing. It can t be said whether the Congress will manage that much money or not. Before asking from people, the Congress has appealed to its MLAs, MPs, former MLAs, and former MPs to donate money. Recently, there was news that the office of the Congress would be sealed as the construction company had not been paid. To make a payment of 55 lakh to the company, the party asked its former MLAs and MPs to donate anything from 50,000 to 1 lakh. In the same manner, an appeal had been made to other States also. The Congress leaders are hopeful that after Karnataka results, the party will make a comeback and that is why people have started donating money to the party. This is also a fact that the donation process has become difficult after the electoral bond, as the Government is keeping an eye on all donations. T he BJP is gearing up for the Lok Sabha and Assembly Elections in three new States on priority basis. The party is seeing big gains in Odisha, West Bengal, and Andhra Pradesh, and that is why it is paying special attention to them. In all three States, outsiders have a special place in the BJP s strategy. The party is ready to take in either leaders of other parties or even non-political faces. The BJP might apply the same strategy in Tamil Nadu as well. The BJP is devising a new strategy for Andhra Pradesh as Chandrababu Naidu has gone his own way. Earlier, it was being said that the BJP was in talks with Jaganmohan Reddy of the YSR Congress and this was the reason why Naidu broke away. But now it seems that the BJP is not taking Jagan along either. The party might go for a post-poll alliance with Jagan, but a pre-poll tie-up seems difficult as the BJP leaders think the anti-corruption issue will be hampered. So now, the party has its eye on Pawan Kalyan, who has formed the Jana Sena Party, and there is a possibility that the BJP will go into an alliance with them. In the same manner, the BJP is being experimental in West Bengal. The party had roped in many filmstars and is now said to be keen on bringing Sourav Ganguly into the fold. In Odisha, the BJP has almost decided to project Dharmendra Pradhan as the CM candidate, but has also roped in Jay Panda, who recently quit the Biju Janata Dal. N ow that Donald Trump has followed through on his threat to start a trade war, what next for international partners such as Britain and Europe? The answer might be in new changes to the Continent s flagship climate policy the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). Among reforms is a plan which could upend international relations, and add almost $7bn ( 5.2bn) in carbon tariffs on US exports to Europe. But while Britain and Europe claim to be serious about cutting emissions, do they really have the courage to strong-arm the US to do likewise? The ETS is Europe s key instrument to comply with the Paris Agreement. It forces polluting industries to buy allowances to emit carbon dioxide. This in principle ensures these companies account for climate costs in their production decisions, instead of society facing these costs in the form of a warming atmosphere. However, up to now the EU has provided heavy industry such as British steelmakers with most of their carbon allowances for free. This ensures they are not undercut by competition from foreign producers who face no such charges for emitting carbon. While this policy has protected European and British producers, it has also blunted the impact of the ETS on emissions. As a result, policymakers have considered alternative measures which would protect both industry and the climate. The new ETS Directive contains one such measure. It suggests the ETS should be kept under review in light of climate policy measures in other economies. The review would allow for the European Commission to apply what it terms carbon border adjustments on imported goods. What does this mean? If a country fails to ratify and implement the Paris Agreement, the EU now says it could apply an adjustment effectively a tariff on that country s heavy industrial goods. The first target of such a tariff is clear: Trump s new trade sanctions on products such as steel and his withdrawal from the Paris Agreement make him an obvious choice. By refusing to be part of the Paris Agreement, the current US administration represents a key threat to the world s best hope to prevent dangerous climate change. It is also free-riding on other countries climate action: it will benefit from a safer climate, but its manufacturers do not have to face any carbon costs. Carbon tariffs could potentially redress this imbalance and punish America s failure to move to cleaner production. Under the new measures, the European Commission could apply carbon tariffs on the US s industrial products including steel, aluminium and even cars at the border. The charge would be equivalent to the carbon costs European industries face. It would thus level the playing field between domestic manufacturers and American competitors. The scale could be significant. Based on current trade patterns, estimates of the carbon embedded in US exports and emission prices, the carbon tariff liability on American goods to Europe may be as high as $2.5bn today. Given expected increases in the European emissions price, this could rise to almost $7bn in Furthermore, the EU could be given legal cover for action by the WTO. Leading experts are increasingly of the view that tariffs to account for traded carbon are compatible with WTO rules. The organisation gives broad scope to members to protect against possible environmental damage from imports. And there are precedents for tariffs of this nature. The US itself has applied a range of tariffs on imports to protect against potential environmental damage. The WTO has dismissed legal challenges to these tariffs. It has said that countries may be given broad scope to protect the environment, including the air, as long as tariffs are applied fairly. Nonetheless, any moves to tie tariffs to climate action would likely be met with fierce opposition. The current US administration s climate scepticism and hostility to free trade suggest that it would retaliate forcefully to any carbon tariffs on its exports to Europe. Trump could quickly escalate current trade hostilities into an all-out trade war. In this scenario, Britain would face some tough choices: keep carbon tariffs after Brexit to attain its climate ambition while protecting industry, or drop them as part of a trade deal with the US. Given the likely backlash from the US to any carbon tariffs, could this scenario credibly arise? The emerging evidence suggests that Europe could indeed follow through on its threat. There is a growing political consensus in Europe that it must protect domestic industry against unfair competition from countries which do not implement the Paris Agreement. French president Emmanuel Macronhas said carbon tariffs are indispensable for a fair ecological transition. The EU also favours using its economic power more forcefully to strengthen environmental protection: the commission recently noted that it will link future trade agreements to robust action on climate change. The new EU ETS Directive has now given the bloc the legal means to also target existing trade arrangements if climate safeguards are not met. Teddy Roosevelt s foreign policy was to speak softly and carry a big stick. Europe has so far used the muted tones of climate diplomacy to entice countries to reduce emissions. However, it is now arming itself with a big stick too: tying market access to climate action. And the first hit looks set to be on Trump.

14 At the time of the uprising in 2011 against Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, I was living in Cairo. It had already been two years since I had arrived in the city and had discovered the good humour and general garrulous nature of local Egyptians around. The taxi drivers on the street, neighbourhood sellers of aish baladi the delicious flat Egyptian bread fruit vendors, friends, acquaintances, usually had an opinion or two about the goings-on in Egypt. If not from the newspapers and loud televisions at home and on the streets, they would pick information from each other. There was a genuine interest amongst the Egyptians in their country s history and current affairs. On the latter, there was always enough to talk about joblessness in the country, relations with the neighbours, the cultural agenda at the local cinema or the Opera House, and later the dictatorship and the uprising of Egyptian people. Yet of all the things we talked about, climate change was never one that was spoken of. Even if the dry desert heat would be interspersed with freak rainfalls, a thick smog would once in a while engulf the pyramids of Giza, and the desert city would be hit by a hailstorm as was recently the case there was rarely much thought extended to the state of the planet earth. Indifference to climate change, I soon discovered, was common across most parts of the Middle East. In the region, temperatures were beating the records each year, heat waves were getting hotter, droughts were becoming longer, and crops were dying, but there was no conversation that made it seem as if apocalypse was hitting now, as was the case earlier when I was living in Europe. The most recent issue of the Economist laments that this is still the he gubernatorial campaign of Tactress and activist Cynthia Nixon learned a hard lesson about New York state geography when it misspelled the name of the city of Ithaca in an to supporters.the Democrat s campaign repeatedly spelled the city Ithica in Friday s , which invited voters to an event with Nixon on Sunday in the upstate city. Nixon is challenging Gov. Andrew Cuomo in this year s Democratic primary. A Cuomo campaign aide ridiculed the mistake, tweeting that while Nixon s Sex and the City character may have never left Manhattan, someone auditioning for governor should be able to hire better writers. A Nixon spokeswoman says the was sent case. The magazine reports that summer temperatures in the Middle East and North Africa will rise over twice as fast as the global average. Last year, Iran came close to breaking the highest recorded temperature of 54 C, which Kuwait had reached the year before. By 2100, humidity and heat could rise so high in the Gulf such that the region will be uninhabitable. It suggests that agricultural production be shifted to heat-resilient crops, drip irrigation could be used more widely, and the layout of cities could be modified. Few of these efforts have been tried by Arab governments, which are often preoccupied with other problems, the Economist reports. Incidentally, three years ago, the same magazine had reported that the UAE s air is a bit worse than China s and more than twice as bad as India s. Living under dictatorships and weak governments, fighting wars, and fending for their life in sectarian violence, climate change is understandably the last thing on the minds of many of the region s inhabitants. For the rest of the region s people, they are often more preoccupied with economic growth, even though climate change has now indeed become an economic opportunity. These sun-drenched countries are now setting up massive solar plants. Morocco and UAE are building enormous solar power plants in their deserts, and Saudi Arabia plans to build a solar plant that will be 200 times the size of the current biggest one. For these countries, solar power increases the electricity supply and helps them curb emissions. However, such examples are rare while the majority of the region s population would consider climate change a distant first world problem. There are similar situations elsewhere. In Colombia, for the past few in error. She provided a photo of a campaign worker writing Ithaca correctly several dozen times on a dry erase board. wo melons grown in a Tprized region in Japan sold for a record-breaking price at a wholesale market s fruit auction. The melons, grow in Yubari, Hokkaido, sold for $29, at the Sapporo market, besting the $13, fetched by a pair of melons sold at the auction last year and the $27,597 record set in Shinya Noda, the winning bidder and president of fruit and vegetable packaging company Hokuyu Pack, said he wanted to make a large gesture to celebrate the 20th anniversary of his company. I wanted to make a record-setting bid by all means, he told the Mainichi Shimbun. Noda said the melons will go on display until the end of the month, when they will be cut up and distributed as free samples to market customers. A total of 507 melons from Yubari were auctioned Saturday, the city s agricultural cooperative said. decades, forests have been occupied by armed groups, as a consequence of which there has been rampant deforestation and ecological scientists have stayed away. In Goa, a few days ago, my husband Chirag made a sudden stop on the road and swung the car towards a pharmacy close by. He made a quick purchase of a packet of diapers and baby food, and ran up to hand these over to a woman begging on the road with her infant not more than eight months old trailing on his fours behind her, butt naked, covered with stool. Watching him, I wondered yet again if there was any agenda more important in this country than giving the thousands of street children a life free of hunger, and one of safety and dignity? Would the mother of this infant care about the change in the earth s climatic conditions? Would this infant grow up to struggle to feed himself first or fight against climate change? Can we expect the 21.2 per cent of our population living under poverty line to first fill their empty stomachs or care for the environment? Would I strive to alleviate my people out of poverty first or save the planet from the change in climate? While empty stomachs can not save the planet, it is another matter that the government does not do enough of either. It is a moral dilemma for many to solve the immediate problem or chip away a brewing crisis. For the angry, hungry, oppressed, ambitious, and ignorant, climate change is a remote quandary that will affect only the future generations, and not urgent enough to be able to think and act collectively for our shared future. bird. Fulwiler applauded the surfer s kindness. How often do we see somebody go out of their way for pigeon? she said. You know there s so many of them, but to that pigeon it mattered. She said her children learned a valuable lesson from witnessing the rescue. Look for kindness in the world, she said. There are people who will go out of their way for a lowly pigeon. M organ Freeman has said any suggestion he assaulted women or created an unsafe workplace is false but apologised to anyone he may have upset, after media reported that women have accused him of inappropriate behavior or harassment. The accusations against the Oscar-winning actor are the latest in a torrent against male actors, filmmakers and agents that have roiled Hollywood since October 2017, leading in some cases to resignations and the halting of projects. Last Friday, movie mogul Harvey Weinstein was charged with rape and other sex crimes. Similar accusations have also engulfed men in politics and business and inspired a #MeToo social media movement by victims sharing their stories of sexual harassment or abuse. CNN reported on Thursday that it spoke with 16 people as part of its investigation into the 80- year-old actor, some of whom also alleged inappropriate behavior by Freeman at his production company, Revelations Entertainment. D onald Trump has offered a full pardon to the far-right documentary film-maker Dinesh D Souza and talked about pardoning Martha Stewart and commuting the prison sentence of former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich. In a flurry of controversial moves on Thursday, the president tweeted his intention to pardon D Souza and then while aboard Air Force One on his way to Texas, brought up the other two names, noting that home cooking and decor expert Stewart used to be one of my biggest fans. Last year Trump pardoned Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was known for racial profiling in his hardline immigration enforcement and the harsh treatment of prisoners, who were made to sleep outdoors and work on chain gangs. D Souza, best known as the 57- year-old director of 2016 s anti- Clinton documentary Hillary s America, had pleaded guilty to violating federal campaign finance laws in 2014, and Trump has S olo: A Star Wars Story has performed disappointingly on its box-office debut, recording much poorer results than the previous Star Wars standalone, Rogue One, and becoming the lowest-performing liveaction Star Wars film at the US box office since Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones in After its US release on the Memorial day weekend, Solo, starring Alden Ehrenreich, took an estimated $83.3m ( 63m) for its first three days, well short of Rogue One s $155.1m for the same period. With an extra day s compassionate surfer at a Florida Abeach was caught on camera rescuing a drowning pigeon and bringing it back to dry land. Nicole Fulwiler, who was visiting the beach in Venice n off-duty FBI agent dancing with her children on Sunday, captured Awildly at a downtown Denver bar cellphone footage of the surfer paddling up to the drowning bird and when the agent tried to pick up a gun accidentally shot a man in the leg allowing it to climb up on the front that fell from its holster as he performed a handstand, Denver police of his surfboard. The man then paddled his board said. A bystander recorded video of to shore and helped the pigeon find a the incident involving the unnamed safe spot to rest and dry off. Fulwiler agent, which authorities said took said the beach was beset by harsh place early on Saturday at the Mile waves from a subtropical storm. High Spirits and Distillery night spot, It looked like it just got hit by a and the footage was shared widely wave and couldn t get back out, she online on Sunday. told WFTS-TV. We didn t think it was In a statement, the Denver Police going to be a good outcome for the Department said the agent was dancing at a night club when his firearm became dislodged from its waistband holster and fell onto the floor. When the agent retrieved his handgun an unintended discharge occurred. Another bar patron was hit by a bullet in a lower leg, sustaining a non-lifethreatening injury, said the statement by a department spokeswoman, Marika Putnam. The agent was taken to police headquarters, Putnam said, and later released to an Federal Bureau of Investigation supervisor. The Denver District Attorney s office will decide whether to press any charges against the agent. Denver district attorney spokesman Ken Lane said by on Sunday morning that the DA s office had no comment as the incident remains under investigation by the Denver Police. Denver FBI spokeswoman Amy Sanders also said that Denver Police are leading the investigation I am devastated that 80 years of my life is at risk of being undermined, in the blink of an eye, by Thursday s media reports, Freeman said in a statement on Friday, a day after he first apologized. But I also want to be clear: I did not create unsafe work environments. I did not assault women. I did not offer employment or advancement in exchange for sex. Any suggestion that I did so is completely false. claimed he was treated very unfairly by the government. D Souza had been sentenced to five years of probation and a $30,000 fine after illegally using straw donors to contribute to the campaign of Wendy Long, a Republican Senate candidate in He initially expressed regret but later claimed he was targeted. D Souza has a history of making wild statements on Twitter. results for the four-day weekend, Solo has reached an estimated $103m but that is well down on the projected take of $130m -$150m. Solo s figures are also well behind Episode III Revenge of the Sith s $158.4m in 2005, which also benefited from a four-day opening weekend. Solo s problems have been compounded by dismal international returns, having taken only $68m outside the US (including $10.1m in China). By comparison, Rogue One managed $134.9m on its international debut and that was before its sizeable China release. and that it was a personnel matter for the FBI. She did not say how the FBI has or will discipline the agent. apper Snoop Dogg took Rhis 1993 hit Gin and Juice to the next level at a California music festival by mixing a record-breaking 132-gallon cocktail. Guinness World Records confirmed the gin and juice cocktail mixed up Saturday at the BottleRock Napa Valley festival by Snoop Dogg, Warren G and Top Chef winner Michael Voltaggio was a new record for the world s largest paradise cocktail. The cocktail, which was mixed in a glass measuring 5 feet high and 3 feet wide, contained 180 bottles of Hendricks gin and a massive load of juice donated for the attempt by Whole Foods. Snoop Dogg performed as a headliner on the second day of the festival.

15 Receptivity is a state in which we download God into ourselves. We can compare it with the way a computer downloads information. Unfortunately, instead of downloading God, we are downloading the world into ourselves. How can we download God instead of the world to reap more spiritual benefits? Think about how a computer works. A computer starts out as basic hardware. On its own, it can do nothing. To operate, software programs have to be downloaded to it. These software programs carry out different tasks and functions. Although all computers are basically the same, they operate differently based on the kind of software downloaded into it. Human beings are like computer hardware. We are all born with the same basic operating equipment. We have a physical body, bodily systems, and the brain with its system of taking information from the body and senses. What makes us different is the kind of input that is downloading into our self over the course of our lives. We all download different types of input from the world. Most people only download information into themselves that comes from their body, their senses, and the outer world. Receptivity is downloading software from God instead of from programs of this world. The soul is not interested in downloading the world with its enjoyment and entertainments. It wants to download the Divine and its bliss, love, and ecstasy. If we identify with our true self, the soul, the computer operator of our body and brain, we too will find that downloading this world does not fulfill us. The soul is only nourished by the love and light of the Divine. To be truly fulfilled, we need to download God. How can we do that? I t is not my conjecture. Lord Krishna says so in The Gita verse #9.29 when He states, I am similarly inclined towards all beings, no one is hateful for Me; and no one is dear. This has a very important lesson for all of us. What is bane for most people? It is their emotions getting the better of their intelligence. Emotions have a place in our lives. Sans emotions a person is like a stone but to be driven solely by emotions definitely hurts. Even good emotions like appreciation can hurt if expressed wrongly. A person who appreciates without more justification, is considered a sycophant. What is this emotion? This word has been defined variously. It is a strong feeling of any kind like love, joy, anger, hate and fear. When we are born, we have mainly three emotions, which are love, fear and anger. Excitement or disturbance of feeling on account of certain important events or thoughts is another way it is defined. The third definition is what forms the basis of bonding between different living entities. We go to The Gita to learn about the origin of emotions. Lord Krishna states, Emotions, they be Meditation is the process of downloading God. When we meditate, our soul comes in contact with the vibrating principle of God, the current of light and sound. The point of connection is at the third or single eye, between and behind the two eyebrows. When we put our attention there, we begin the download process in which we connect with the light and sound of God. When that is complete, we are then connected to the entire network of God. We merge into the light and sound and can travel on the current through all the realms of creation, transcending realms of matter to enter realms of spirit. The ultimate end of the journey is merging back into God, an infinite ocean of consciousness and love. When we download God into our system, we are actually merging our real nature back into our Source. We then tap into eternal wisdom, immortality, bliss, happiness, peace, and divine love. We transcend this world of pain and suffering to enter a realm with no death, no pain, and no suffering. We experience an ecstasy and love unknown to us in this physical world. Meditation is a time to download God. However, what do most of us do in meditation? After stilling our body, instead of also stilling the mind, we continue downloading the world. This is where the problem begins. We good, passionate or bad, originate from Me only. (7.12) Deluded by these emotions under the three modes, ie goodness, passion and darkness, this whole world does not recognize Me, who is beyond these modes. (7.13) We learn from this that emotions should always pass the test of proper intelligence, ie we must consider critically if what we are feeling is right or not. Eight emotions form the basis of all emotions. These are: Acceptance, anger, curiosity (interest), disgust, fear, joy, sadness and surprise. Emotions are of three kinds. Good emotions like appreciation, joy, contentment, love, peacefulness and gratefulness are very good for our health both mental and physical, especially joy, which induces secretion of good chemicals such as serotonin, antioxidants, nitric acid, endorphins, etc. Attachment and lust are passionate emotions. These are thinking during our meditation time. We are downloading our past. We are downloading our wishes for the future. We are downloading our thoughts of anger, lust, greed, attachment, and ego. We are downloading the desires of our senses into our lives. Receptivity is downloading God in our meditation. To download God, we need to keep our mind still. The spiritual Master is a master programmer who can make the connection between us and the light and sound. Initiation is like a computer expert connecting our computer to the programs we need. The Master can help us download God by teaching us the meditation technique on the inner light and sound. That is why Masters at initiation give five Words to repeat that are spiritually charged by their attention. The meditation practice, called simran, or silent repetition of these Words, has a special function. Repetition of these Words jumpstarts our attention to withdraw from the operating system of the body and mind to rise to a point where we can download the current of light and sound. The light and sound current connects us to the source of all love, wisdom, and bliss. When we are paying attention to our thoughts during meditation, we are downloading the world. When we are deeply ingrained in our psyche. Conscious efforts should be made to put a check on them. The third kind of emotions are bad ones such as anger, greed, pride, hate, fear and depression. The last named emotion causes secretion of bad chemicals like toxins, depressants, etc. How does one develop good are not thinking, but keeping our mind still, we are able to download God. The repetition of the Words spiritually charged by a Master keeps our mind from intervening. Then, we can be open and receptive to receive the light and sound within us. When we meditate and are distracted by thoughts, we can stop our thoughts in their tracks and ask, Do I want to download worldly thoughts, or do I want to meditate? This simple reminder can get us back on track to repeating simran and focusing our attention within. Every time thoughts intervene, we can ask ourselves whether we want to spend our meditation thinking or spend it being receptive to download whatever God wants to send us. If we can train ourselves to do this, we will form a habit. That habit will be that the mind remains stilled during meditation time. Then, we will see rapid results in our meditation and will swim in the ocean of love and bliss. We have all day long when not meditating to spend time thinking. When we set aside time for meditation, we do not want to waste that time downloading thoughts of the world. We want to be open to download what God is sending us. When we are absorbed in the light and sound, we rise from consciousness of this world into spiritual consciousness in which we awaken to inner spiritual realms. We then soar through the astral, causal, and supracausal realms, until we reach the spiritual region of Sach Khand, from where the Source, God, emanates. Receptivity being like an empty cup, or being like a computer that downloads God opens us up to receive the eternal treasures of God, and helps us swim in the ocean of unspeakable light, music, love, peace, joy, and bliss. emotions, which are not easy to have? This can be done by remembering their benefits. For example, if one has the quality of appreciating others, one can gain friendship anywhere in the world; everyone of us possesses this wealth unlimitedly but hardly ever uses it. The emotion of contentment helps one T he technological sophistication, the mechanical life style, the race for perfection, the search for formula 1, that is the best way of life has sapped humanness out of human beings. And slowly but painfully human beings are realising this. Given the fact that the essence of human beings is humanness, the programmed life style and the wired living has now started taking its toll on human kind. As man becomes confined to himself, Ghettoised and lonely, his craving for humanness has started to ignite his basic nature. Classical sociology maintained that man is gregarious by nature. That, however, was long ago. In modern times, the search for some unknown definitions of prosperity and perfection has led man astray. He is on road to nowhere. But the basic nature tries to wriggle out of this mess. So human beings are now being pulled within by the basic centripetal force that is drawing them towards their essential human nature. Look what has started happening. An altogether new vocation has come up. It is called people walker. As the name suggests people walkers are those people who provide walking services or in other words give companionship for desiring humans at a price. In US these people walkers have started helping people fight loneliness by providing them company. The social disconnect is impinging so heavily on humans that they are now feeling depressed, which is the root cause of several fatal diseases. Rather ironical because it is an era in which human beings boast of being tuned and connected. The popular punch line being stay tuned, stay connected. But the wired connect is now proving to be a mire in which humanness is slowly being bogged down in the morass of loneliness. The smart phones and the social media have deepened divisions and replaced real human relations with the surreal, the ersatz,and the artificial. The growing global culture of individualism is proving to be a major cause of loneliness. Loneliness that pains. Loneliness that kills. Human beings love Company, may be just love love. The craving of human life is to love and be loved. But where is the time. People walker is just a trend round the corner, and the fact is that it will also prove to be a poor substitute. Buying the services of a people walker for $ 30 an hour may help human beings walk fast for the time being, but will certainly not make them go far enough. There is a popular cliché that says if you want to travel fast walk alone, if you want to travel far walk together. It remains to be seen whether the people walker will give that feeling of togetherness. Because companionship is a relationship that runs quite deep. It is more a heart to heart connect rather than business. For the love starved humanity, then, love is coming for a price. Will it, won t it is the big question that lurks as the profession gets more popular and human beings more lonely. Studies pouring in are suggesting in no uncertain terms that face to face contact is important for mental and physical wellbeing. One of the biggest causes of sadness is eating alone. The family is being missed terribly with compulsion of individualistic life style drawing people into the cocoon of their own making. The African philosophy of Ubuntu, meaning I am because we are may provide some answer. Twitterati and the Glitteratti are you listening? to keep one s mental balance. Why are we so dissatisfied? Because we don t appreciate what all we have; our focus is on what we don t possess. The quality of love endears us to others. This quality sustains the world. If there was no love, we will not exist, but it must be expressed more. Peacefulness is necessary to be happy, however, its source is God only. Real peace can be obtained by linking with God by prescribed methods. Thankfulness endears us to others and qualifies us for further favours. Role models help us to inculcate these prime emotions. We can learn contentment from Albert Einstein, who refused the presidency of Israel; he was content with his work as a scientist. Mother Teresa is a prime example of a person who was happy; she came to India from Albania and stayed here to serve the poor. Helpfulness was displayed in plenty by a girl of the famous story, who kept her hand on a hole in a canal all through a very cold night. Good emotions bring success. Who is sought after: a hero or a villain? Who would you like to associate with: a soft-spoken kind person or a foul-mouthed cruel person? Good emotions improve health. The benefits start from the mental level and, then, reach the physical level. Quality of life improves manifold. How should one control bad emotions, which is not easy to do? Anger can be controlled by remembering what all losses we incurred every time we lost our cool, which we all do. Fear can be got rid of by linking with God, because in the ultimate sense He only can do so by giving us the perfect knowledge as also the fact of Him being omnipotent. Greed like anger hurts. This is a very common failing and we can do well by recounting our past experiences. Hate is the reason for most wars fought. At the personal level, relationships are destroyed when hate surfaces.

16 W e begin life with high hopes and aspirations, bubbling with energy, and carrying a mindset that would know no limits, as if no target is beyond reach. Like a free bird, which is free from any geographical limitations, we all wish to make it to our dream destination unhindered. But when faced with hard realities of life, and not being able to make it unobstructed to the desired destination, we realise that life does not necessarily move to our asking. We then come under pressure and often resign to fate. But a few among us, unfazed by such challenges, are even able to create history. The question now is: Were those who created history so destined? Or that they made a conscientious choice and then sincerely worked towards that end? Well, it is difficult to digest that history can be created by choice. But then focused efforts by choice and discrimination could lead to making history. Provided, such an endeavour ends up serving a meaningful purpose of significance for the society at large. Let us first examine as to what makes out our destiny. Bear in mind; human beings enjoy the freedom of making choices in life. That however, is something like a double edged sword. For, it carries equal probability of use and misuse. And there is nothing like a free lunch in life. So, we become due for bearing with the consequences of choices made. We, thus, get trapped into a circuitous web of cause-effect chain. Remember, every effect is the culmination of doings in the past, and the effect, in turn, sets the ground where from the future course of events take off. This is the ground on which the concept of destiny works. If we look at this scheme of things on its face value, it would mean that our life is fated. Naturally arises the question: How can we escape the consequences of our own doing? If, however, we look deep into the founding principle on which the concept of destiny is based, it will come out that we are not helplessly fated beyond any scope of reprieve. The choice option itself enjoins upon us with the freedom to make conscientious choice intended to not simply overcome the carryover effect of past doing. Also raise our awareness level through fresh educative inputs, which in turn, may help shape the course of destiny afresh. The paradox, however, is that seldom are people found ever using this option. But some of those few who used their choice option in this spirit, were the ones who could make history. For, even in the event of failure, they did not lose their nerve. They rather maintained calm and poise, geared up afresh, reaffirmed their resolve, and then made a fresh bid in right earnest towards the designated task. But not without identifying their inadequacies, which they acknowledged and then strived to overcome. They then, explored beyond the known, and equipped themselves adequately to strike upon even unchartered territory. So said swami Vivekananda: The history of the world is the history of few men who had faith in themselves. Faith calls out divinity within you; you can do everything. You fail only when you do not strive sufficiently to manifest infinite power. Truth remains that in so far as a being s making is concerned, potentially we carry immense mind-power, which if unfolded in full, shall know no limits. The irony, however, is that being bound by cause-effect chain, we carry a very strong legacy from the past, which includes previous birth. That preconditions our mind one way or the other, depending on what short of individual specific experiences one would have had. The imprints of these experiences that mind carries from the past, defines the unique character of a being. And that finds reflection by way of our inherent mental propensities desire trends, likes and dislikes, prejudices and obsessions, habit & attitudes, and even virtues and attributes. That clouds our vision. Consequently, we fail to access full landscape of our mind. So, in effect, our mind-power gets compromised. Mind it; the choice option available with us very much enjoins upon us with the privilege to self-reflect and identify our inborn fault-lines. If we acknowledge them, and then consciously work upon to free our mind from all such limitations, the best in us will emerge. This is what swamiji s above quoted statement implies. Even astrology can prove handy in identifying our inborn traits and with a fair amount of precision. The issue continues