ith over a month to go for Diwali, the Supreme Court on Tuesday revived the The Bench in its directions permanent licences for sale

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1 C M Y K RNI Regn. No. MPENG/2004/13703, Regd. No. L-2/BPLON/41/ here is some good news for Tthousands of homebuyers who have waited endlessly for delivery of their flats. The Uttar Pradesh Government has directed real estate companies and builders including those of Noida and Greater Noida to ensure that homebuyers get possession of 50,000 flats in the next three months. If the real estate companies failed to deliver then they would face tough punitive action as per provisions of Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) and Indian Penal Code (IPC). Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday held a meeting with promoters of real estate companies, Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of Noida, Greater Noida, and Yamuna Expressway Development Authority to review progress made towards completion of flats. Briefing mediapersons, Urban Development and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Suresh Khanna quoted the CM as saying that real estate companies must deliver 50,000 flats to homebuyers complete in all respect in the next three months come what may. Khanna said the CEOs of the three authorities have been directed to appoint an expert agency for resolution of dispute within the next month. He said that dispute resolution will take two months and the authorities will take follow-up action. He said that the Chief Minister would himself review the situation after three months. All options to take action against real estate companies are open for the Government. So far 13 FIRs have been lodged against real estate developers and builders, said the he BJP Government in TMadhya Pradesh on Tuesday decided to pay an honorarium of 8,000 per month to those who spent less than one month in prison under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) and Defence of India (DIR) rules during Emergency. The State Government already pays 25,000 per month to those who spent more than a month in jail under the MISA or DIR between 1975 and 1977, when the Indira Gandhi Government C M Y K Bhopal: Former Chief Minister Babulal Gaur has once again come out with a statement posing embarrassment to his own party, BJP. He has said that not only he himself, but former Ministers Laxmikant Sharma and Raghavji are also winning candidates and the party should provide tickets to them. Former Education Minister Laxmikant Sharma was terminated from the membership of the party, after he was named in the infamous Vyapam scam. In the case he also remained in jail for a couple of years. Similarly, then Finance Minister Raghavji was removed from the party, after he was named in a sodomy case registered against him by his male servants. Gaur told media persons that he had recently visited Lateri in Vidisha district in connection with a programme and there he met these two leaders. They have expressed the wish to contest the next Assembly elections. Notably, around a year ago, Gaur was removed from the State Cabinet, citing a formula of bar on those more than 75 years of age and since then he never leaves any chance to counter the senior party leaders, including the Chief Minister. Recently, during his State visit, BJP national president Amit Shah, while talking to media persons, had categorically stated that the decision whether to keep anybody in the Cabinet or not, is prerogative of the Chief Minister. Since then, Gaur is planning to contest Assembly election the eleventh time. SR had declared internal emergency, leading to arrests of political activists and leaders across the country. "The State Cabinet today decided to provide honorarium of 8,000 per month for those who spent less than one month in jail during Emergency," said an official of the Public Relations Department. Those eligible for the new honorarium will have to apply before November 30. In 2008, the Shivraj Singh Chouhan Government had first introduced honorarium for MISA detainees under the `Lok Nayak Jaiprakash Narayan Honorarium Rules'. Minister. Earlier on July 23, while addressing a conclave of Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India (CREDAI) in Lucknow, the Chief Minister had expressed disappointment over irregularities in the real estate sector. He had said he rift between homebuyers and realtors was widening and to bridge the gap, the Government needed to take stern steps. Continued on Page 4 gainst the backdrop of Aaccusations that Sangh Parivar supporters often went out of the way to target their critics on social media platforms, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat on Tuesday made it clear that his organisation doesn t support online trolling. We don t support trolling and aggressive behaviour on the internet, Bhagwat said while addressing over 50 diplomats in Delhi at the seventh Breakfast Briefing organised by India Foundation. Trolling amounts to hitting below the belt. We do not support those who display such aggressive nature, Bhagwat was quoted in a series of tweets posted by Prasar Bharati ith over a month to go for W Diwali, the Supreme Court on Tuesday revived the The Bench in its directions permanent licences for sale also issued an advisory to the and retail of firecrackers within the National Capital Region to encourage display of fire- Centre and concerned agencies (NCR). The order is an interim arrangement as the Bench participation rather than indi- works through community set up a Committee headed by vidual bursting of fireworks. Central Pollution Control The Bench was even critical of Board (CPCB) chairman to States adjoining Delhi which study the harmful affects of failed to provide any data on firecrackers on human health pollution levels around Diwali and submit a report by and Dussehra. December 31 this year. The court granted the facture of trict administration to ensure The court, by an interim order of November 11, 2016, had suspended all permanent licences for sale of firecrackers in the NCR. Lifting this ban, CPCB time till September 30 to come out with definite standards regarding the use of metals or other ingredients fireworks which is known to cause harm to human body. firecrackers are not burst in silence zones, an area covering 100 metres around hospitals, educational institutions, courts and religious places. the Bench of Justices Madan B of fireworks and The court also The Education Lokur and Deepak Gupta felt that with the festive season around, a complete ban in the absence of any study would be an extreme step. 500 temporary licences this year. In 2016, a total of 968 temporary licences were made absolute its July 31 order prohibiting use of compounds of antimony, lithium, mercury, arsenic and lead in manufacture of fireworks. prohibited transport of fireworks into Delhi and the NCR from outside the region till further orders. Departments of Delhi and States in NCR have been asked to frame an action plan within 15 days to make children aware of the health hazards and The Bench directed the issued for a period of 24 days It even banned the use of The Bench further ill-effects of firecrackers on Delhi Police to allow only up to each in Delhi. strontium chromate in manu- instructed the police and dis- environment. here has been an alarming T16-fold rise in the number of Swine flu cases and five-fold increase in deaths due to the H1N1 virus infection in India this year. According to the data available from the Union Health Ministry, a total of 29,076 cases have been registered so far in nine months in 2017 across the country against just 1,786 cases in Compared to 265 deaths reported last year, the casualty figure stands at 1,415 so far in Maharashtra tops the list with 504 deaths followed by Gujarat with 367 deaths. (See Box) However, while many States are under the grip of the mosquito-borne diseases, the data reveal that the virus seems to have spared the North- Eastern region so far. While Meghalaya, Sikkim, Mizoram or the second consecutive day Fheavy rainfall was witnessed in the city and the same pattern has prevailed across the State. The State would receive good rainfall for the next 48 hours too, Met officials said. Despite heavy rainfall there is bleak chance of decrease in the deficit of rainfall. The city received 4.4 cm of rainfall while Bairagarh recorded 3 cm of rainfall with an hour during the day on Tuesday. Among other area which recorded heavy rainfall, Indore and Ujjain recorded 3.8 cm rainfall each, Ratlam recorded 2.3 cm, Shivopuri recorded 1.4 cm rainfall, Satna 1.3 cm rainfall and Rewa 1.2 cm on Tuesday. Most of the regions of Ujjain division witnessed rainfall in the Chairman A Surya Prakash who was present at the event. Prasar Bharati is a broadcasting agency which runs the public broadcaster Doordarshan and Manipur have reported no cases, Arunanchal Pradesh has registered five cases and one death during the period. Tripura has reported 35 cases for the first time in last so many years. According to Director General of Health Services (DGHS) Jagdish Prasad, more deaths have been reported because people are late in visiting hospitals after catching the infection. If patients are put on Tamiflu, the drug approved for treating swine flu, as soon as clinical symptoms appear, many lives can be saved, he added. Clinicians suspect the H1N1 virus, which causes swine flu, may have mutated. The disease initially spread through pigs but now transmits from human to human. and All India Radio. Besides addressing the diplomats, Bhagwat answered questions at the event organised by the India Foundation, a right-leaning think tank. The RSS chief was also quoted as saying that the Sangh In 2009, when India was part of the global H1N1 pandemic, it registered 27,236 cases and 981 deaths in eight months (May-December). Continued on Page 4 Parivar does not believe in discrimination. No discrimination and oneness of our nation and oneness of the world is our goal, said another tweet by Surya Prakash quoting Bhagwat. He told the diplomats that the RSS runs 1.70 lakh service projects in various fields, including health, education, rural development. He invited them to attend the organisation s shakhas or camps and experience the Sangh culture. On the RSS relationship with the BJP, the parivar chief reiterated that the Sangh does not interfere in the party s affairs. The Sangh does not run the BJP. The BJP does not run the Sangh. As Swayamsevaks we consult and exchange notes but we are independent in past 24 hours, several places in Hoshangabad division and few places in Jabalpur, Shahdol, Indore and Gwalior. Heavy rainfall was witnessed in the afternoon which lashed the city and water-logged several areas. Commuters faced a hard time to ply on roads as they were flooded by water and remained so for hours. Traffic jams at several places in the city were witnessed after the heavy rainfall. The system over south-west Rajasthan and a trough line which receded induced the rainfall. Met officials said that the pattern of good rainfall has been witnessed across the State and would prevail for the next 2-3 days. In the past 24 hours Bhainskhedi recorded 7 cm of rainfall, Kannod recorded 5 cm of rainfall, Singrauli and Seoni recorded 4 cm of rainfall, Narsingh, Pachmari, Ishagarh, Raisen, Ujjain and Shajapur recorded 3 cm of rainfall. The city recorded day temperature at 32.2 degree Celsius and night temperature was 23.4 degree Celsius. Among major cities Indore, Gwalior and Jabalpur recorded day temperature at 31.5 cm, 37.4 cm and 31.9 cm, respectively. Except Gwalior, all the major cities witnessed rainfall. functioning, said BJP national general secretary Ram Madhav in a tweet quoting the RSS chief. Madhav, who was in charge of media and public relations of the RSS for a number of years before moving to the BJP, is a director of the India Foundation along with Surya Prakash.

2 nder the popular museum Useries Exhibit of the Month of Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya, a traditional object is displayed for display for a whole month. The exhibit for the month of September, 2017 is Guru Padmasambhava: A Metallic Sculpture. The Director, IGRMS, Prof Sarit Kumar Chaudhuri inaugurated Exhibit of the month at Veethi Sankul indoor exhibition building. This exhibit has been combination by Garima Anand (Museum Associate). This object is a metallic sculpture of Guru Padmsambhava (Lotus Born) also known as Guru Rinpoche of 8th century Indian Buddhist Master, who is widely venerated as a 'Second Buddha' across Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan and the Himalayan states of India. Although there was a historical Padmsambhava, but not so much is known of him apart from helping the construction of the first Buddhist monastery in Tibet at samye at the behest of he students of Madhya TPradesh School of Drama (MPSD) under their class presentation are all set to entertain the theatre buffs with a Parsi play Yahudi Ki Ladki. The play was written by an eminent Urdu play writer Agha Hashr Kashmiri and will be directed by Imtiyaz Ali. It is to be noted that the theatre plays have discovered a niche in the city of lakes and the students are also taking keen participation in the theatre activities. The final rehearsals of the play are almost completed. Yahudi Ki Ladki is among one of the hit Parsi style plays. Three years back it was staged which was directed by Alopi Verma. Director Imtiyaz Ali has come up with new innovations in the play. It is to be noted that the story of the play revolves around religion discriminations and how people forget their limitations for their ego and false dignity. Interestingly, it is a around 125-year-old play which reveals the truth of today s prevailing society. The story features the rivalry between the Roman priest Brutus and the oppressed Jewish merchant, Prince Ezra. Brutus sentences Ezra's son to death and Ezra in turn kidnaps and raises Brutus' only daughter, Rahil. During the final rehearsals Imtiyaz told the students about the Parsi style theatre which is vanishing slowly from theatre world. He told them about the set, stage backdrop, costumes and acting skills used in Parsi style. The play will be staged at Rangashree Little Ballet premises on Thursday. Trisong Detsen. Padmsambhava is also regarded as founder of iantric tradition in Buddhism. Army officials visit Under the leadership of AK Asthana (Director, ICM, Bhopal) and Amit Mudgal (Faculty Member) 44 JCOs and soldiers from Indian Army, Indian Navy and Indian Air Force undergoing training at Institute of Cooperative Management, Bhopal visited IGRMS for a special guided tour. Hindi Fortnight The Sangrahalaya commenced Official Language Hindi Fortnight 2017 to be observed from 1st to 15th September, Under the activities of Hindi Fortnight an essay debating competition on topic Is Primary Education Compulsory: Must Be In Mother Tongue Only was organised. Around 15 officials of IGRMS, Bhopal participated in this competition. This competition was coordinated by Shr. Arun Kiro, (Assistant Curator) and Judge RM Nayal, (Assistant Keeper). eeting should be held every Mmonth with citizens at police station level to maintain social harmony and law and order, said Home and Transport Minister Bhupendra Singh during a review meeting of the Bhopal and Hoshangabad divisions at police control room here 42-year-old man died after Ahis scooter was hit by a speeding vehicle near SBI square under Koh-e-Fiza police station on Monday. Police said that an injured man was rushed to Hamidia hospital after he was hit by a speeding vehicle where he was declared dead. The deceased on Tuesday. He said that the road accidents are challenges for police and to stop the increasing number of accidents better monitoring system and strengthening of system would be required. The participation of citizens is required to curb the number of accidents. Cyber crimes are on rise and require awareness was identified as Bhupendra Chouhan of Ibrahimganj. He used to run a dairy and was on his way to SBI square. Body was sent for the post mortem after the preliminary investigation. The police have registered a case under section 304 A of the IPC and have started further investigation. In the accident deceased sustained head injuries which lead to his death and at the time of the incident he was alone and left the house for some work. During the investigation the errant driver would be searched. The nearby installed CCTV cameras would be investigated in the investigation. Meanwhile, a 17-year-old boy committed suicide by among the citizens. With the help of transport department license of drunk drivers should be done. Property of criminals should be seized to make them financially weak and restrain them from crimes. Continuous efforts to control teasing of women and girls would be required and training of selfdefense for women and girls is important. A decrease of 33 per cent in road accidents has been recorded as compared to number of accidents reported last year. Under smart city project 14 places have been installed with advance cameras. With the aim to encourage citizens to support and join traffic police over social hanging with the ceiling at Shankar Nagar under Nishatpura police station area on Monday. Police said that the deceased Rajesh Naagar was found hanging and was rushed to a nearby hospital where he was declared dead. In the initial investigation the police have not found any suicide note or reason behind nder the project 'Maitri' UState Police was presented with 80 new Hero Duet scooters to the women police personnel on Tuesday. Home and Transport Minister Bhupendra Singh was present at the event. Equipped with sirens, flash lights, PA systems and other essential police accessories, the new Hero scooters will empower the women police officers in the city to adequately perform their patrolling duties. media efforts have been made and for this traffic warden has been started on whatspp which provides details like diversion and traffic status. The whatapps number is In the city 5 variable messaging systems has been installed at 10 places. During the meeting SP of Bhopal, Hoshangabad, Betul, Harda, Raisen, Rajgarh, Sehore and Vidisha shared law and order situation in their districts. the suicide. Family members have expressed ignorance over the reason behind the suicide. Friends of deceased would be questioned during the investigation. After the preliminary investigation the body was sent for the post mortem and a case under section 174 of the CrPC and has started further investigation. hanvi Shrivastava, player of JMadhya Pradesh State Water Sports Academy, will represent Team India at the Canoe Slalom World Championship. The championship will be played at France from September 23 till October 1. O n Tuesday, Jhanvi left for New Delhi from where she will fly with the Team India to France on September 22. It is a proud moment for her as well as her coach. Jhanvi studies in Class 11 at Delhi Public School, Bhopal. It is to be noted that Jhanvi was selected through Talent Identification Programme held by International Canoe Federation. At the Talent Identification Programme players from atleast 14 countries participated. The players under 18 years of age were a part of the talent identification programme in which Jhanvi gave a tough fight to her competitors and grabbed the opportunity for the World Cup series. After the selection process, the International Canoe Federation organises a camp wherein all the players are trained for the world cup. The group exhibition display- sculptures and graph- Aing ic prints began ontuesday at the Rangdarshini Gallery, Bharat Bhawan. The spectators experienced the beauty of artistic imagery in the graphics, photographs and sculpture altogether, under one roof. Artist Poonam Nag Chaturvedi has displayed her beautiful creations over the canvas and in photographs. On the other hand sculptor Mamta has showcased her unique work on wood with displaying the wood sculptures. While talking about her work Poonam said, II have tried to bring out the beauty of women and historical buildings together through my graphic designs. Here I have tried to show the old building of Lucknow and the inner self of a woman compiling both of them together. On asking about this touch of art in her photographs, she said, Everyone is different and has a different perception towards things. A spectator is o let the little writers know Tthe importance of Hindi language in theatre, a creative writing workshop in Hindi was organised on Tuesday. The workshop was held at Jawahar Bal Bhavan at its art and drama section wherein the little writers were taught about the basics of creative writing. Expert Arvind Sharma conducted the daylong workshop. As many as 30 children from various schools of the city were present to attend the workshop and explored the aspects of creative writing. The children s creative writing workshop was an interesting event for the participants as they were able to explore the creative insight of oneself. Besides, it was also an extravagant for the little poets and writers as they had a platform to express what they feel. Their great imagery power was beautifully expressed at the workshop as and when Arvind kept on intructing them to write camp is also organised at France which will continue till September 22. Canoe slalom is a competitive sport with the aim to navigate a decked canoe or kayak through a course of hanging downstream or upstream gates on river rapids in the fastest time possible. Slalom racing started in Europe and in the 1940s, the International Canoe Federation (ICF) was formed to govern the sport. From 1949 to 1977, all World Championships were held in Europe. It has been a regular Olympic sport since Meanwhile, the players of Madhya Pradesh State Shooting Academy have returned to city after receiving a professional training of shooting. The training camp was organised at Italy from August 19 to 30. Here on Tuesday, the players met Minister of Sports and Youth Welfare Yashodhara Raje Scindia. While interacting with the players, Scindia asked them about their experience at the training camp and what all they have learnt. Players including Sanju Singh, Gubbu Mehra, Pragati Dubey and Pooja Vishwakarma were a part of the championship. free to draw his own view point for the painting he s having a look at. Moreover, one can see the clear message in these paintings even without the facial expressions. On the other hand, Mamta s sculptures told the unlike stories. Each sculpture is holding a diverse narration of stories in itself. She has mainly displayed the faces of women in her sculptures with the aura that a woman holds. She has mended each wood piece into pretty and beautiful sculptures. The exhibition is a mass treat for art lovers, as they were able to watch different aspect of art forms in a single show at the gallery. Their work differs from the usual realm of their creativity expressing their emotions. One could find such pieces of art dealing with the worldly things. Here one can find the good work in graphics and prints, leaving an impact over the visitor. The visitors were enthralled with the work of creativity at the exhibition. anything step by step. At the programme, the transparency of literature was appreciated by the participants. Arvind told them about the kind of writing used for theatre plays. He said the correct usage of words and correct use of imagination plays a vital role in shaping up the script of the play. He further said that what the writer thinks sometimes could not be explained in words and so the writer should know the ricks and tantrums to make the dialogue interesting. The interesting part of the workshop was Newsletter writing wherein the children were asked to make their own newsletters. Here they were told about the working of editorial department of a newspaper.

3 Chouhan directed the agriculture department's officials for the best. new record by taking resolution hief Minister Shivraj Singh that it should be ensured that The Chief Minister CChouhan has issued contingency plan prepared for reviewed preparations for instructions to launch a drive rain shortfall is informed to Swachhata fortnight to be for holding flowing rain water farmers effectively. Gram Sabha observed between September from September 15. He has meetings should be held. 15 and October 2. Expecting instructed to make action plan Information regarding availability active participation of Cabinet for farmers' income not getting reduced due to rain deficit, observe Swachhata fortnight and get prepared for rabi crop considering rain shortfall. of water for irrigation, minor, semi-irrigated crops and availability of their seeds, should be communicated to farmers. Agriculture, Revenue, Members, he asked them to participate in Shramdan programmes. He said that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that Madhya Pradesh Chouhan asked the district Panchayat and Rural bagged 80 per cent awards of in-charge Ministers to assess availability of water for irrigation by Agriculture, Water Development Departments will jointly create awareness among Swachhata awards. This trend should not get reversed and with public representatives Resources, Public Health farmers at war footing to tack- comprehensive action plan and administrative officers Engineering, Animal le the situation. should be made to make it better between September 15 and 20. Husbandry, Cooperatives and The society should be prepared with outline of programmes Effective management should Urban Administration to deal with situation due to be held at State, district and be put in place for executing contingency action plan for irrigation from available water and apprise farmers of it. He was reviewing contingency action plan to deal with situation arising from short rainfall after the Cabinet meeting. Presentations were made Departments regarding preparation for tackling short rainfall. It was informed that the Chief Minister and all members of the Cabinet will actively participate in awareness drive for stopping water from flowing away. They will get constructed bori bandhans. to rain deficit by utilising different forums like farmers' conventions, Jan Upbhokta Santha and all modes of mass communication. He said that task should be defined so that farmers' income is not decreased in such adverse conditions. Connect people and set village level included in it. Drive for cleanliness and Shramdan will be held on September 17 at district-level. The Chief Minister administered resolution to ministers and officers to tackle situation due to rain deficit and overcome it successfully. man allegedly ran his car over a police official Awho had come to arrest his absconding brother at Jamunia village in Raisen district on Tuesday. Head constable Inderpal Singh Sengar, attached to Bharkach police station, died in the hospital. Sengar had gone to the village, 80 km from the district headquarters, alone to arrest Bhaiji Rajput (45), an absconder, said District Superintendent of Police Jagatsingh Rajput. Akshay Singh Rajput (35), Bhaiji's brother, helped him escape. In a fit of anger, Akshay then ran his car over the police officer who was only carrying a baton (lathi), the SP added. Sengar was rushed to a hospital in Bhopal where he died during treatment. Akshay fled from his house after the incident. Police have registered a case of murder against him and launched a manhunt for both him and his absconding brother, the SP said. Bhaiji Rajput was wanted in a case under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, he said. Bhopal: A farmer of Dhamarra village in Berasia was duped to the tune of 63,000 by an unidentified miscreant who took details of his ATM card posing as SBI official; cyber crime cell has registered a case and started investigation. According to the police the victim Omprakash Pathak was duped by an accused on September 9 after he received a call regarding his ATM card block information. A complaint was lodged with the Cyber cell by the victim and based on the complaint a case was registered and further investigation have been started. On September 9, the victim received a phone call from a mobile number. The accused posed as SBI official and told that the victim that the ATM card used by her has been blocked and asked to provide the 16 nder the joint aegis of the UMadhya Pradesh State Planning Commission and the Disaster Management Institute, a one-year post-graduate diploma course in disaster management, starting this year, was launched here on Tuesday. Chief Guest of the programme Rajendra Kumar Mishra, Principal Advisor, MP State Planning Commission and Nandan Dubey Vice President, Disaster Management Institute, Bhopal were present on the occasion. Addressing the students, Rajendra Kumar Mishra, Principal Advisor, MP State Planning Commission said that the disaster management is an interdisciplinary subject and thus there is a need of awareness of this stream in every section of society including educational, industrial, agricultural, defence services, government organisations, NGO s, Media as well as judiciary. PGDDM course will enrich the students with thorough knowledge and understanding of all aspects of Disaster and its management. This one year disaster management post graduate course is benchmarked against the very best programmes in the world; it provides opportunities for global exposure to students. Nandan Dubey, Vice Chairman of Disaster Management Institute, Bhopal said that this course has been developed by a team of Academicians, Disaster Management Authorities and experts of reputed Government and autonomous agencies so as to impart applied knowledge and develop trained manpower in the field of Disaster mitigation and management for overall capacity development. Rakesh Dubey, Director of Disaster Management Institute threw light on the objectives of this course. He said Post Graduate Diploma in Disaster Management (PGDDM) has been launched by Disaster Management Institute, with a view to educate people of diverse sections about various aspects of disaster (both natural & manmade), its related problems and the effective management of disasters and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto. PGDDM course is of immense use to students, citizens at every stage and at all levels of formal (technical) and non-formal professionals. digit ATM card number and after the victim provided 16 digit ATM card number 63,000 were withdrawn from her bank account. The victim provided the details of the card fearing that the ATM card has been blocked and would require visiting bank for further process but he was unaware of the fraud. The victim tried to call on the same mobile number but failed to get any response and later approached cyber cell to lodge a complaint. The accused used the money for shopping. The victim came to know about the fraud when he received a message of shopping on his mobile phone and then he lodged a complaint with police. The police have registered a case under section 420 of the IPC and have started further investigation. SR eader of the Opposition in Lthe State Assembly Ajay Singh has urged the State Government to immediately appoint a full-time chairman for the State Human Rights Commission. In a letter to the Commission, he expressed gratitude towards the National Human Rights Commission for issuing notice to the State Government for the death of two newborns during delivery in Tikamgarh district hospital. Singh said that in Madhya Pradesh at the State Human Rights Commission, there is no full-time chairman and thus the citizens of the State are facing problem in getting protection of the Commission. In the letter, Singh stated that such an incident was reported from district hospital and this indicates as how sensitive the governance system in Madhya Pradesh. There have been several instances, when human rights of the citizens of the State have been violated in absence of full-time chairman, he said, adding that due to this, in few cases, the national Commission had to take cognizance directly to protect the human rights. These rinking water scheme was Dapproved for making permanent drinking water sources available in Government Primary and Middle Schools at the Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. For this crore was approved from the year to The Cabinet decided to give Third Kramonnat Vetanman Grade-pay 4200 to Assistant Teachers and Third Kramonnat Vetanman Grade-pay 6,600 to Teachers after 30 years of regular service. This arrangement will be effective from July 1, This decision will benefit about 30 thousand teachers. The Cabinet took this decision under the policy of implementing Assured Career Promotion Scheme to employees by the State Government. The Cabinet approved crore in three years from to under the free textbook supply scheme to students of all Government schools from Class I to VIII. The Cabinet approved expenditure of crore in the year to under Shikshak Awas Griha Kaksh Nirman programme under security scheme of girls hostels. The Cabinet has approved 180 crores in the coming three years from to under Free Uniform Supply Scheme for above BPL boys belonging to nearly 45 lakh unreserved and Other Backward Classes in the state. The Cabinet approved in principle 205 crores for financial year to for implementation of Sakshar Bharat Yojana. The Cabinet has given approval of 1, crore for Gond Lift Irrigation Project. This project will benefit 18,080 hectare of 82 villages of Singrauli and 9,920 hectare of 65 villages of Sidhi district that is total 28,000 hectare area Rabi and 6500 hectare area of Kharif irrigation. Drinking water supply would be possible through this project to a total population of nearly 3.13 lakh of 218 villages including 40 villages of Majhouli development block of Sidhi district and 178 villages of Devsar development block in Singrauli district. The Cabinet approved crore fund of Bargi Diversion Project s Command Area Development and Water Management Scheme. The project s annual irrigation capacity is 3.76 lakh hectare. The project will benefit total 1450 villages including 438 villages of Jabalpur district, 127 villages of Katni district, 855 villages of Satna district and 30 villages of Rewa district. cases included, detrah of 116 children due to malnutrition in Sheopur, death of 11 patients in Indore s MY hospital due to obstruction in oxygen supply, drought situation in Bundelkhand and forcing nursing students in Ratlam to prostitution. Singh stated that in want of full-time chairman, the citizens of Madhya Pradesh are deprived of their constitutional rights. In past four months, more than 100 farmers have committed suicide and on June 6, 2017, in Mandsaur, innocent agitating farmers were gunned down by police. However, till date, no FIR has been registered. Singh stated that as per rules, there are provisions of opening fires only in emergency and that too below the waist, but the police personnel violated the rules. he Central Bureau of TInvestigation (CBI) has arrested a middleman (private person), Dilip Gupta, allegedly involved in six cases of Vyapam ie Forest Guard Recruitment Test-2013, Food and Measurement Recruitment Test-2012, PMT-2012, PMT- 2013, Police Constable Recruitment Test-2012 & MP Dairy Federation Co-operative Ltd Recruitment Test The said accused was allegedly figuring as middleman in 6 cases pertaining to illegal selection of candidates through manipulations of OMR answer sheets/results in conspiracy with certain Vyapam officials and others. He was absconding since the cases were being investigated by STF, Bhopal. He allegedly arranged various candidates/scorers for illegal selection through examinations conducted by Vyapam for racketeers who got the candidates selected in connivance with Vyapam officials through manipulation of result/ OMR Answer Sheets/ Roll Numbers, etc. The Special Judge, CBI, Bhopal had issued an Arrest Warrant in respect of accused, who remained absconding during investigation conducted by STF as well as after the investigation was taken over by CBI. CBI made strenuous efforts to trace him at various locations. Due to relentless pressure by CBI, he was forced to surrender. The accused were produced on Tuesday before the Designated Court. CBI had taken over the investigation of cases relating to Vyapam in compliance of the orders dated July 9, 2015 of Supreme Court of India in WP (Civil) 417/2015. hief Minister Shivraj Singh CChouhan said that the launching of the Pradhan Mantri Bharatiya Jan Aushadhi Pariyojana in the State is the beginning of a revolution. He said that now generic drugs will be purchased in the State. A public awareness campaign will be launched to remove the myths related to the use and effects of generic drugs. He urged all doctors to prescribe generic drugs along with company medicines. He said that the Jan Abhiyan Parishad would be implemented as Bharatiya Jan Aushadhiya Pariyojana. He expressed gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for this public interest scheme. Chouhan said that steps would also be taken to ban exaggerated advertisements related to medical facilities and drugs. Chouhan was addressing a workshop on the use of generic medicines after signing of an MoU between the State Government and Union Ministry for Chemicals and Fertilizers at the Academy of Administration for launching of Jan Aushadhi Kendra. An MoU was signed between the state government and the Medicine Department of the Union Ministry for Chemicals and Fertilizers. The MoU was signed by Executive Director of Jan Abhiyan Parishad Shri Umesh Sharma on behalf of State Government and CEO of Bureau of Pharma PSU Viplav Chatterji on behalf of the Government of India. It may be noted here that the generic drugs will be available at very reasonable rates compared to branded and expensive medicines. The formation and components of these drugs are similar. There are no sideeffects of these drugs compared to any other branded drugs. hief Minister Shivraj Singh CChouhan said that the Nadi Abhiyan should be made successful in the State. Participation of all sections of the society and social organisations should be ensured in this pious campaign. Chouhan was reviewing preparations of Nadi-Abhiyan- Rally for Rivers at the Mantralaya on Tuesday. The yatra under the public awareness campaign started by Sadguru Jaggi Vasudev on September 3 from Coimbatore for river and environment conservation will continue in the State from September During this period, programmes will be held in Indore, Bhopal and Vidisha. He said that the Nadi Abhiyan has been started by ESHA Foundation for conservation of rivers and environment. All possible support should be extended for this pious campaign. All sections of the society and organizations should be connected to this campaign. Awareness should be generated towards rivers, trees, water, soil and environment through this campaign. Representatives of Narmada Seva Samitis, Nadi Sevaks working for conservation of rivers and farmers should be invited for the programme. It was informed that Sadguru Jaggi Vasudev would address the programmes to be organized in Indore, Bhopal and Vidisha during the yatra in state. The yatra will enter from Dahod on September 21 and reach Maheshwar via Jhabua, Rajgarh, Manawar and Dhamnod. Here information would be given about Narmada Yatra and cultural programme will be held. The Yatra will reach Indore the next day on September 22 afternoon. Here a programme will be organized at Daly College at 5 pm in which Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan will take part. Famous singer Niti Mohan will perform in this programme. The next day on September 23 will reach Bhopal in the afternoon. Here there will a programme from 6 p.m. in which famous folk singer Prahlad Tipaniya will perform. On September 24 morning the yatra will reach Vidisha where a programme will be organized at Ganesh temple premises. From here the yatra will proceed to Kanpur via Lalitpur and Jhansi. On this day students from the schools in state will take a resolve for Nadi Abhiyan.

4 ithin nine months of her Wappointment as general secretary of the party, VK Sasikala was removed from the post unanimously by the AIADMK General Council which met in Chennai on Tuesday. The General Council unanimously decided to abolish the post of general secretary as it was felt that nobody in the party had the stature and charisma of party founder MGR or former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa. In a special resolution, the General Council made a slew of changes to the party bylaws, including the one suggesting that Jayalalithaa would remain as the permanent general secretary and none will be elected or appointed to the post. More than 2,100 out of the 2,300 General Council members of the AIADMK attended the meeting. With the decision to revoke the appointment of Sasikala or chinamma as she was also called, as general secretary, all appointments made by her in that capacity too have become null and void. It was also decided to remove TTV Dinakaran from the post of party deputy general secretary. The appointments made by TTV Dinakaran, whose activities have brought a bad name to Jayalalithaa s legacy and to the AIADMK have been annulled, said one of the resolutions passed by the General Council. The bylaws of the party have also been suitably amended to legalise the removal of Sasikala and Dinakaran from party posts. Hereafter, the party would be guided by a high-power committee led by a coordinator and deputy coordinator and assisted by a group of senior leaders. O Panneerselvam and E Palaniswamy were appointed as the party coordinator and deputy coordinator respectively. The General Council s decisions taken on Tuesday were silent about the status of Sasikala and Dinakaran in the party. The other resolutions adopted in the meeting include the decision to fight for the retrieval of the Two Leaves party symbol. It also said that there was only one AIADMK and that was the one led by Panneerselvam and Palaniswamy. Speaking to journalists in Madurai, Dinakaran scoffed at the decisions of the General Council. It was not a General Council meeting. It was just a gathering of some people and was an illegal conclave. The Madras High Court itself has ruled that the decisions taken by the meeting are not binding on the party, said Dinakaran. He also reiterated his decision to oust the Palaniswamy Government from power in the trust vote that will be held sooner than later. New Delhi/Muscat: Father Tom Uzhunnalil, a Catholic priest from Kerala, has been rescued in Yemen, 18 months after he was abducted by ISIS terrorists during a deadly attack on a care home in the port city of Aden in the warravaged country. I am happy to inform that Father Tom Uzhunnalil has been rescued, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj Swaraj said in a tweet. Father Uzhunnalil was abducted in March last year by Islamic State terrorists after they attacked the care home run by Mother Teresa s Missionaries of Charity. At least 15 people at the old-age home were killed in the attack. Oman s official news agency ONA reported that Oman in coordination with the Yemeni parties have managed to find Father Uzhunnalil and that he has been moved to Muscat from where he will return to Kerala. It said Uzhunnalil thanked God and appreciated Oman s Sultan Qaboos bin Said. He also thanked his brothers and sisters and all relatives and friends who prayed for his safety and release. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that the release of Uzhunnalil was heartening. The intervention of Oman had paved the way for his release, I understand, he said in a Facebook post. All help will be provided to enable him reach Kerala and for his further treatment, he added. Catholic Bishops Conference of India President and Major Archbishop of Syro Malankara church Baselious Cardinal Cleemis Catholicos and Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas, CBCI Secretary General said the church was grateful to Government of India and all concerned for the steps taken to secure his release. A video of Uzhunnalil had surfaced in December last year in which he appealed to the government to free him. In the clip, Uzhunnalil was seen saying, If I were a European priest, I would have been taken more seriously. I am from India. I am perhaps not considered of much value. In July, Swaraj had taken up the the issue of Uzhunnalil s abduction with the Deputy Prime Minister of Yemen and requested him to secure the release of the priest. Last year, Swaraj had said Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself has spoken to various countries so that the the priest could be released. PTI This prompted Leader of the Opposition MK Stalin to approach the Madras High Court with a plea to order a floor test in the Tamil Nadu Assembly. The court has decided to hear his petition on October 10. Though the Dinakaran camp used all legal means to prevent the General Council from taking place, the Madras High Court in a late night order on Monday ruled that he meeting could not be stopped. If the declaration by Dinakaran, who claims the support of 25 MLAs, is any indication, things have reached a point of no return in the AIADMK and the next weeks are going to be crucial for the Palaniswamy Government. bag was found inside the toilet, it indicates that he went there straight from the gate and was he Special Investigation attacked by someone who used TTeam (SIT) of the those windows as escape route, Gurugram Police investigating the gruesome murder and the source said. Thakur has approached failed sodomy bid on the Supreme Court seeking a Pradyuman Thakur Class II student of Ryan International School suspects the involvement of another person who may have escaped from one of the broken windows of the timings of the events on the fateful morning of September 8. According to Thakur, he had dropped his son and daughter at the Ryan International CBI investigation into the matter. Thakur said he feels there is something fishy and missing points in police theory. Police have already arrested Ashok and said he was the school toilet. School at 7:55 am and he inside the toilet when The SIT told the Sohna court on Tuesday that evidences were tampered with in the case. Following which, the Gurugram Police is likely to interrogate the gardener of the school whose movements have been found to be mysterious on the fateful day and he could be an accomplice in the crime. A doctor, who conducted the post-mortem, said the boy was not sexually assaulted and died of excessive bleeding. The killing of seven-year-old Pradyuman on his school premises has left several unsolved questions before his parents and the SIT. Also, the report of a factfinding committee constituted by the Gurugram district administration has found several lapses in the school, including no police verification of bus drivers, conductors and other staff, and broken boundary wall, widening the spectrum of investigation. Pradyuman s father Varun Thakur flagged concerns over claimed to have received a call from the school management at 8.10 am informing him about his son being found bleeding inside the washroom. Saurabh Raghav, a driver of the school bus in which accused Ashok worked as conductor, entered the school at the same time when Ashok was helping to de-board the students and helped him to park the bus outside at the parking lot, which often takes five minutes. The crime took place within 10 minutes, between 8 am and 8.10 am. It would take Pradyuman at least 2-3 minutes to reach the main building straight away covering around 400 meters from the gate, while Ashok would spend at least 5-7 minutes in the bus before heading there, the source said. Such circumstances, the source said, indicate that the boy entered the toilet first and the possibility of Ashok already being there was less. Since Pradyuman s school Pradyuman entered and grabbed him with the intention to sodomise him and when he failed to do so he slit the child s throat. Amid the ongoing probe, bus driver Raghav, however, has claimed that police and the school management forced him to give a wrong statement against the conductor that the knife, which was allegedly used in the crime, was part of tool kit and kept in the bus. Raghav alleged he was beaten up and tortured in police custody to give the statement. The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued a notice to the Centre, the CBI and the Haryana Government on a plea by Thakur. The fact-finding three member sub-enquiry committee, which was constituted by Gurugram district administration, on Tuesday submitted its report to Vinay Pratap Singh, District Commissioner of Gurugram. The committee has detected five lapses in the school such as broken window, ill-equipped fire extinguishers, common toilets, no police verification of conductors and drivers and other ground staff, broken boundary wall and low quality CCTV without having wide-angle facilities, irregularities in students toilets without guard, Singh told PTI. The Deputy Commissioner said he has recommended to the directorate of Hayana Education Department to take action against the school. The Education Department has three options to take over the management of school, cancellation of licence or impose fine of Rs 25,000 for each lapse. Official sources said the Education Department is planning to takeover of management to give strong message to other schools. Ryan murder sequence was recreated on Tuesday on the school premises. Commissioner of Police Gurugram Sandeep Khirwar, along with the officers of the SIT and forensic experts, scanned the crime spot. Sources said police chief and his team of investigators wanted to recreate the sequence of events that led to the murder of the child inside the washroom of Ryan International School. Police tooth combed the crime spot to lift chance prints, blood stains and other evidence to nail the accused Ashok Kumar, the conductor of the school bus. MDC Ltd is making efforts Nto increase iron ore evacuation capacity through doubling of Kirandul-Kothavalasa (KK) railway line, officials informed. Notably, the company is also participating in the Rowghat-Jagdalpur Rail line project as a major stake holder with 43% share along with SAIL, IRCON & Govt. of Chhattisgarh being other stake holders with 21%, 26% & 10% respectively. On the other hand, Chhattisgarh government would be earmarking suitable land banks in the vicinity of Dallirajahara-Rowghat- Jagdalpur Rail Corridor for setting up of small industrial units, officials informed. Notably, the Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) is co-ordinating the construction of Railay line from DaIlirajhara to Rowghat covering a distance of 95 km with Indian Railways in Chhattisgarh. The project for doubling of Railway line between Kirandul and Jagdalpurin Chhatisgarh s insurgency ridden Bastar region is expected to be complete by January 2019, official sources informed. Notably, NMDC Ltd had also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Union Ministry of Railways on December 21, 2012 and the aforesaid project would be helpful in significantly augmenting evacuation capacity of NMDC s Bailadila Sector mines by rail from the existing 28 MTPA to 40 MTPA of iron ore. NMDC had deposited an amount of 150 crores with East Coast Railwayand the expenditure incurred as on March 31, 2015 was crore, sources informed. For execution of the project, the Railways has divided the 150 km length of doubling work into three Sections namely, Jagdalpur to Silakjori km, Kirandul to Gidam km and Silakjori to Gidam km. Notably, the 2000 crore Rowghat to Jagdalpur railway line would also pass through heavily insurgency infested Kondagaon and Narayanpur districts of Bastar division in Chhattisgarh, officials stated. The project is a joint venture between Chhattisgarh government, NMDC, SAIL and IRCON. The initial stretch of the first phase of the ambitious 235- km-long Dallirajhara-Rowghat- Jagdalpur Railway line project in Bastar division of Chhattisgarh has been completed, officials stated. In all, 17 km Rail track has been completed in the first phase and Chief Minister Raman Singh has expressed happiness over the achievement, they stated. A successful trial run of a Railway diesel engine was also carried out earlier between Dallirajhara till Gudum village at the speed of 20 km per hour. Notably, the development of two key Rail corridors in mineral-rich Chhattisgarh is now set to expand the Railway line network by 45 per cent in the State, officials stated. The completion of Dallirajhara-Rowghat-Jagdalpur, East and East-WestRail corridor projects will comprise a total of 535 kilometers Railway-line during the next two to four years, they stated. The East West Rail Corridor project is expected to get completed in The corridor is to facilitate movement of about 60 million tonnes of coal to various parts of the country apart from providing passenger train facility for the local populace of the region. The length of the rail track would be kms.the Chhattisgarh East West Railway Ltd is the implementing agency for the project. Notably, Coal India Ltd (CIL) is putting all its resources together to ensure its flagship subsidiary South Eastern Coalfields Ltd (SECL) is able to transport more coal easily to its customers, officials informed. Notably, the East West Corridor project from Gevra to Pendra in Chhattisgarh with a length of about 122 kms is being executed by Chhattisgarh East West Rail Ltd (CEWRL). CEWRL is a joint venture company formed by South Eastern Coalfields Ltd (SECL), IRCON and Chhattisgarh Government. The project had been undertaken for evacuation of coal from SECL s Gevra- Korba coalfields. The Union Ministry of Coal has ensured Coal India Ltd (CIL) for getting Mand- Raigarh railway line project expedited to facilitate growth in offtake of coal from mines under South Eastern Coalfields Ltd (SECL) in Chhattisgarh. Notably, the coal requirement for the proposed Super Thermal Plant of NTPC Ltd at Lara would be met from Talaipalli Coal Block of Mand in Raigarh Coalfields, officials stated. NMDC Ltd is making an expenditure of Rs crore for enabling facilities needed for doubling of railway line between Kirandul and Jagdalpur and Jagdalpur- Ambagaon section for augmentation of iron ore evacuation from Bailadila mines in Baster region of Chhattisgarh. The company is also going for enhancement of production capacity enhancement of iron ore from 4.2 MTPA to 6 MTPA at its Bailadila Deposit no 10 in Dantewada district of South Bastar region in Chhattisgarh, officials informed. It has already commenced work for setting up the 2.0 MTPA Pellet Plant at Nagarnar near Jagdalpur in Bastar region of Chhattisgarh, officials informed. Notably, the company has made a capital expenditure of Rs 4.76 crore as on September 2016 for development of its Bailadila iron ore mines in Bastar region of Chhattisgarh during the last financial year, officials informed. The company is now going for construction of the 5th iron ore screening line at its existing screening plant number 2 at Bailadila Iron Ore Mine at Kirandul complex in Dantewada district of Bastar region. It may also be recalled that NMDC has proposed to use its mine lease area at Deposit number 4 located at Bailadila range of hills at Bhansi near Bacheli in South Bastar s Dantewada district in Chhattisgarh for meeting the raw material requirement 'exclusively' for its upcoming 3 MTPA Integrated Steel Plant at Nagarnar, officials informed. From Page 1 Despite making full payments, homebuyers were being harassed and not getting timely possession of homes. This has resulted in loss of confidence among buyers. To bridge the gap amicably, the Government will have to take strong steps, the CM had said. Yogi had also said that gaining confidence of potential buyers was a big challenge for real estate industry and business could run profitable only if there was trust among the consumer and the builders. The CM had urged the builders not to leave any project incomplete. He reminded that in Noida, there have been several cases where builders ran away with money and the burden fell fallen on the Government. Hearing the petition of investors and homebuyers, the Supreme Court has already directed a major real estate company to deposit Rs 2,000 crore with the court by October 27. The court has also prohibited promoter and directors of the company from going abroad. From Page 1 In the following year, it was 20,604 cases and 1,763 deaths. However, the experts at the National Institute of Virology (NIV) blame an antigenic drift a sort of an alteration in the virus making it deadlier. However, they refute the chances of any mutational changes. Maintaining that hygiene is most important, doctor says people should wash hands at regular intervals with disinfectants, and if there is prolonged fever, they must see a doctor. They should also not ignore symptoms such as difficulty in breathing, doctors say. Dr Sanjay Kalra, consultant endocrinologist of Bharti Hospital Karnal and vice-president of South Asian Federation of Endocrine Societies, said swine flu can be deadly for diabetic people. In people with an underlying disorder such as diabetes, mosquito-borne and other diseases such as swine flu cause fever and increase the metabolic rate. This can lead to a fluctuation in blood sugar levels. Provided people living with diabetes are monitored well, they stand the risk of developing serious complications. A senior official from the Health Ministry said all states have been asked to ensure that private labs testing swine flu do not overcharge. The States have also been asked to analyse mortality data to find out the age and health profiles of people most affected by the virus. All the States have been asked to tell Schedule-X licence holder pharmacies to stock and sell H1N1 drug Tamiflu, he added.

5 BHOPAL WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 13, 2017 nation 05 DISPROPORTIONATE ASSETS OF MPS, MLAS Set up fast track courts, SC tells Centre Cabinet approves `10K cr fund for dairy sector PNS n NEW DELHI he Union Cabinet on TTuesday approved a `10,881-crore fund to give a boost to the country s dairy sector. Projects under the corpus called Dairy Processing & Infrastructure Development Fund (DIDF) will focus on building an efficient milk procurement system by setting up of chilling infrastructure & PNS n NEW DELHI he Cabinet on Tuesday Tapproved the doubling of Daund-Manmad railway line to ease movement of passengers and goods across Pune, Ahmednagar and Nashik in Maharashtra. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs gave the approval at an estimated cost of `2, crore and expected completion cost of ` crore. The km long railway line is expected to be completed in five years. Doubling of the line will greatly ease the ever increasing passenger and freight traffic on Daund-Manmad route, thereby increasing the revenue of Railways, said Railway Minister Piyush Goyal detailing the Cabinet decisions. Besides passengers, industries in and around Daund- Manmad route will have additional transport capacity to meet their requirements. The districts of Pune, Ahmednagar and Nashik in Maharashtra will be benefited by this project, he said. At present the Railways is working on the Mumbai- Chennai route by doubling the Bhigwan-Mohol and Hotgi- Gulbarga sections. Work on a installation of electronic milk adulteration testing equipment, creation/modernization/expansion of processing infrastructure and manufacturing faculties for value added products for milk unions and milk producer companies. The fund will be spent on creating necessary infrastructure and supporting dairy farmers over a period of 12 years during With PNS n NEW DELHI he Supreme Court on TTuesday advised the Centre to set up special fast track courts to exclusively deal with cases of corruption and disproportionate assets against members of legislative bodies. The observation came as the Bench reserved orders on a PIL which demanded action against MPs and MLAs whose income grows five to ten folds, without any mechanism to punish them under law for amassing such huge wealth beyond their known sources of income. The court was confronted with the names of 7 Lok Sabha MPs and 98 MLAs against whom the Income Tax authorities found proof that the income declared by them in election affidavits was beyond their known sources of income. The Bench of Justices J Chelameswar and S Abdul Nazeer examined the sealed cover containing the names of MPs and MLAs under probe by the Income Tax authorities and told the Centre that a mechanism must be there to ensure such cases are fasttracked. The Bench felt that the Parliament had the competence to enact a law to create necessary infrastructure for setting up of such courts for speedy disposal of cases against lawmakers. Attorney General KK Venugopal told the Court that the recommendation could be made by the Court to the executive rather than the legislature. However, he batted for a timely follow-up in cases of MPs and MLAs found to disclose substantial assets and income in their election affidavit which is found to be beyond their known sources of income. In such cases, Venugopal said, the Director General Income Tax (Investigations) verifies and forwards those cases where investigation is required to the Assessing Officer. The petitioner NGO Lok Prahari represented by former bureaucrat SN Shukla demanded that such investigation must be time-bound and the names be revealed in public interest. Attorney General pointed out that with the right to privacy now declared a fundamental right, the returns filed by individual candidates is part of his/her privacy that needs to be protected. The Bench said it will have to be balanced against the citizen s right to know under Article 19(1)(a) for determining which interest is superior. Although Centre refused to disclose details claiming immunity available to DGIT investigation under Right to Information Act, the bench wondered whether such immunity can exist for lawmakers when people have a Constitutional right to know details of their elected representatives. DA hike of 1% to benefit 50L Govt employees PNS n NEW DELHI nion Cabinet on Tuesday Uincreased the Dearness Allowance (DA) and Dearness Relief (DR) by 1 per cent to 5%, benefiting 50 lakh employees and 61 lakh pensioners. The Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi also approved an amendment bill that seeks to double tax-free gratuity for formal sector employees to ` 20 lakh. Release of additional installment of DA is an increase of 1 per cent over the existing rate of 4% of the basic pay/pension, to compensate for price rise, said the official statement. The new rate will be applicable from July 1. The combined impact on the exchequer on account of both DA and DR would be `3, crore per annum and `2, crore in the financial year (for a period of 8 months from July 2017 to February 2018). This move will benefit about lakh Central Government employees and lakh pensioners, it said. Detailing the Cabinet decisions, Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the Payment of Gratuity (Amendment) Bill, 2017 will be introduced in next session of Parliament. The amendment will put the maximum limit of gratuity of employees of the private sector as well as public undertakings and autonomous organisations under the Government who are not covered under Central Civil Services (Pension) PNS n NEW DELHI rouble mounted for rebel TJanata Dal (United) leader Sharad Yadav as the Election Commission on Tuesday rejected his claims made on the JD(U) poll symbol (Arrow) and the offices allotted to the party for lack of supportive evidence. This even as he faces the prospect of disqualification from the Rajya Sabha for antiparty activities. According to sources, the Commission has refused to take congnisance on Sharad Yadav faction s claims citing lack of evidence. Yadav, the former president and co-founder of JDU, had approached the EC, claiming that he represented the real party, and that a majority of its national council members were with him. Yadav was said to be unhappy with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar s decision to dissolve the Grand Alliance Government and join ranks with the BJP to form new Government. In a related development, the Rajya Sabha secretariat has asked the JD(U) s rebel MPs, Sharad Yadav and Ali Anwar, to respond within a week to their party s petition that they be disqualified from the House for their anti-party activities. After Yadav turned against party president Nitish Kumar s decision to ally with the BJP new line on the Lonand- Phaltan-Baramati route in Maharashtra is also in progress. Once these works are completed, there will be tremendous increase in traffic over the Daund-Manmad section and existing single line will not be in a position to deal with the increased traffic, said the statement issued by Rail Ministry, emphasising the need for doubling. Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi also approved the `1,423-crore highway project in Andhra Pradesh, part of the high density Kolkata-Chennai traffic corridor. The Cabinet this investment, 95 lakh farmers in about 50,000 villages will be benefited, said the Government through an official statement after the Union Cabinet. The project will be implemented by the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) and National Dairy Development Cooperation (NCDC) directly through end borrowers such as Milk Unions, and attended an opposition rally in Patna, the JD(U) had urged Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu to disqualify him and Ansari, who too had joined Yadav. Yadav was first removed as the party s leader in the Upper House. After he attended a Lalu Prasad-led RJD rally in Patna, the JD(U) moved to get him disqualified. Earlier in its communication to the Sharad Yadav s camp, the Commission said, Your plea was not backed by any evidence or affidavits of support from party office bearers, MPs and MLAs. Therefore the Commission has not taken any cognisance of the said application under Para RaGa defends dynasty, slams divisive politics S RAJAGOPALAN n WASHINGTON icking off a two-week KAmerican sojourn that has been billed as a major outreach to the Indian Diaspora, Congress vicepresident Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday courted a fresh controversy by virtually defending India s bane of dynastic politics, asserting it was something fairly common to the country s political or corporate landscape. That s how India runs, he remarked during a Q&A at the University of California, Berkeley, after delivering a lecture on India at 70: Reflections on the Path Forward that hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi s divisive politics and reckless economic policies. Gandhi, who slammed the BJP for projecting him as a reluctant and stupid politician, also declared that he was absolutely ready to take up an executive role in the Congress Party, before quickly adding that it was a decision for his party to take. Actually most parties in India have that (dynastic) problem. So don t give us stick, he said, when the moderator at Berkeley asked him pointedly about his party s long association with dynastic politics. Listing a host of political leaders, Gandhi said: Mr Akhilesh Yadav (Samajwadi Party) is a dynast. Mr Stalin (of DMK) is a dynast. Mr Dumal s son (apparent reference to BJP s Anurag Thakur) is a dynast.even (actor) Ahishek Bachchan is a dynast. So don t get after me because that s how the entire country is running, he Rules, at par with Central Government employees, which is `20 lakh. The current upper ceiling on gratuity under the Act is ` 10 lakh. The provisions for central government employees under Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules, 1972, with regard to gratuity are also similar. Before implementation of the 7th Central Pay Commission, the ceiling under CCS (Pension) Rules, 1972, was `10 lakh. However, post rollout, in the case of Government servants, the ceiling stands at `20 lakh, effective January 1, Considering inflation and wage increase even in the case of employees engaged in the private sector, the Government is of the view that the entitlement of gratuity should be revised for employees who are covered under the Payment of Gratuity Act, Accordingly, the Government initiated the process for amendment to the Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972, which applies to establishments employing 10 or more persons. The main purpose for enacting this Act is to provide social security to workmen after retirement, whether it is because of rules of superannuation, or physical disablement or impairment of vital parts of the body. Therefore, the Gratuity Act serves as a key social security legislation to wage earners in industries, factories and establishments. CCEA nod to slew of rly, road projects Committee on Economic Affairs has given its approval for development of six-laning of Narasannapeta-Ranastalam section of National Highway (NH)-16 (old NH-5) in Andhra Pradesh, an official statement said. The cost of the 54-km project, to be executed under the National Highways Development Project (NHDP) phase V, has been estimated at Rs 1,423 crore, including cost of land acquisition, resettlement and rehabilitation, besides other preconstruction activities. The job will be done in hybrid annuity mode. State Dairy Federations, Multistate Milk Cooperatives, Milk Producer Companies and NDDB subsidiaries. The project activities under the scheme will include setting up of 28,000 Bulk Milk Coolers (BMCs) at village level. Under the scheme, additional milk processing capacity of 126 lakh litre per day and milk chilling capacity of 140 lakh litre per day will also be created. EC nixes Sharad claim on JD(U) symbol (15) of the Symbols Order, the Commission s order states. Further, the application filed by Javed Raza, on behalf of the Sharad faction, was not signed by Raza. EC sources said the Yadav faction is free to file another application with documents to effectively buttress its claim, a task that would be difficult for the veteran leader given the kind of support Kumar enjoys in the party. On the other hand, Nitish Kumar camp had submitted all documentary proof related to party affidavits of 71 of our MLAs, 30 members of Legislative Council in Bihar, two Lok Sabha members and seven Rajya Sabha members. remarked amid much laughter. By the way, last I recall, Mr Ambani s kids are running his business. And that s also going on in Infosys. Right? he commented. In his address, Gandhi came down hard on Modi s politics of hate and reckless and dangerous economic policy decisions such as demonetization and the hastily-applied Goods and Services Tax (GST). Millions of people feel that they have no future in their own country, he said as he dwelt on the politics of polarisation which has raised its ugly head in India today. He spoke of liberal journalists being shot, people being lynched because they are Dalits and Muslims killed on suspicion of eating beef. Questioning the Modi government s record on job creation, Gandhi said a mere 500 jobs were being created a day whereas 30,000 youngsters are joining the job market every single day. As he put it, The decline in economic growth today is worrying and it s leading to an upsurge of anger in the country. He attacked the Prime Minister for not listening to experts on important decisions such as demonetization of high-value currency notes undertaken last November. The DeMo decision was carried out unilaterally without asking the Chief Economic Advisor, the Cabinet or even Parliament, he alleged, adding: Ignoring India s tremendous institutional knowledge and taking ad hoc decisions is reckless and dangerous. While calling demonetization a completely self-inflicted wound that caused 2% loss in India s GDP, Gandhi went on to say: India cannot afford to grow and create jobs at the current rate. If we continue at the current rate, if India cannot give the millions of people entering the job market employment, anger will increase and it has the potential to derail what is being built so far. That will be catastrophic for India and the world beyond it. Quizzed about the Modi decisions that he would approve of, Gandhi cited the Make in India and Swachh Bharat programmes. I like the concept of Make in India, he said, but quickly added that his orientation would be different, namely small and medium industry and not big business. On Swachchh Bharat, he commented, The idea of hygiene I think is a good one. And I think I think the sort of stuff that they are doing on open defecation is not a bad thing. Maneka Gandhi, Prakash Javadekar to hold high-level meeting on safety of students PTI n NEW DELHI nion Ministers Maneka UGandhi and Prakash Javadekar will hold a high-level meeting tomorrow to develop a protocol for educational institutions to ensure safety of students following incidents of child sexual abuse in schools, a Government official said. Officials of the Ministries of Women and Child Development and Human Resource Development as well as representative of the National Commission of Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), CBSE, NCERT, Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan will be a part of this meeting. The conference comes in backdrop of the murder of a Class II student inside Ryan International School in Gurgaon for allegedly resisting sexual assault and the rape of a five- year-old girl in a private PTI n NEW DELHI P school in Shahdara. The two Ministries will develop a set of guidelines and protocols for schools to ensure that children are protected from any kind of abuse or physical and mental harm, a WCD spokesperson said. WCD Minister Maneka Gandhi has also discussed the matter with HRD minister Prakash Javadekar over phone and recommended that women be employed as support staff, including bus drivers and conductors. She also stressed on the need to have strict norms for employing non-teaching staff, according to the official. The Supreme Court on Monday issued a notice to the Centre and the Haryana police on a plea by the father of the Ryan student seeking a CBI probe into the murder as well as framing of guidelines to ensure safety of children. Abe to arrive in India today on a two-day visit reparing to receive his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe on Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said India truly values its ties with Japan and that he looked forward to further boost the bilateral relations in a wide range of areas. Abe will undertake a twoday official visit to India from today to hold the annual India- Japan Summit with Modi in Gandhinagar, the capital of the Prime Minister s home State Gujarat. I look forward to welcoming I will be hosting him in Gujarat in our fourth annual summit together, Modi tweeted in English as well as in Japanese. and I will attend a wide range of programmes on 13th and 14th September 2017, aimed at further boosting India-Japan ties, he added. In another tweet, he said the two leaders will attend a programme to mark the start of work of India s first high- speed rail project between Ahmedabad and Mumbai. The train is expected to significantly reduce travel time between the two cities. Japan is a pioneer in high-speed rail networks, and its Shinkansen bullet train is among the fastest in the world. India truly values the relationship with Japan and we look forward to further boosting our bilateral ties in a wide range of sectors, the Prime Minister said.the two leaders will review the recent progress in the multifaceted cooperation between India and Japan under the framework of their Special Strategic and Global Partnership and will set its future direction, said a statement on Narendramodi.In. Smriti lambastes Rahul for his remarks abroad PNS n NEW DELHI he BJP on Tuesday dubbed Rahul TGandhi a failed dynast who failed in his political journey hours after the Congress vice-president defended the dynasty culture and cited examples of SP s Akhilesh Yadav or Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan s son Abhishek. The people of the country where he leads a political party no longer support him so he is expressing his pain abroad, BJP leader and I&B Minister Smriti Irani told mediapersons. The Congress jumped to Rahul s defence saying criticising even the Prime Minster is acceptable in a democracy. The Congress said Rahul, in fact, raised respect for India abroad unlike PM Narendra Modi s speeches abroad in the early days when he was guilty of insulting India. Irani blasted Rahul at a Press conference, saying his admission that the Congress had turned arrogant since 2012 was a big political confession and a reflection on Sonia Gandhi, who was and remains its president. It must be the first time that a Congress vice-president chose to taunt his party president and it is for the party to introspect on this, she said. A failed dynast today chose to speak about his failed political journey in the US... The country (India) is not listening so he is speaking somewhere else, Irani said.on Rahul s criticism of Modi s reckless and dangerous decisions like demonetisation and GST, Irani said the criticism reflected the failed strategy of the Congress leader. The fact that Rahul Gandhi chose to belittle the Prime Minister is not a surprise but expected... It is an indication of his failed strategy. The people of the country where he leads a political party no longer support him so he is expressing his pain abroad, she said.she also challenged him to a public debate without a handwritten script over his criticism of the Modi government. Irani, who had lost to Rahul in Amethi in the last Lok Sabha poll and is seen as the BJP s nominee in the next election as well, described the US college as a platform of convenience for the Congress leader. She said people PTI n NEW DELHI ndia and Belarus on Tuesday Iinked 10 pacts to expand cooperation in a range of areas and decided to explore joint development and manufacture of military platforms, giving a fresh momentum in bilateral ties. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Belarus President A G Lukashenko, during their extensive talks, also agreed to focus on ramping up economic engagement between the two countries, holding that there was a huge scope for boosting trade and investment. We will encourage joint development and manufacturing in defence sector under the Make in India programme, PNS n NEW DELHI efence Minister Nirmala DSitharaman and Railway Minister Piyush Goyal have become members of key cabinet committees like Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) and Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA) reconstituted after the September 3 reshuffle when the two were promoted to the Cabinet ranks. Sitharaman and Goyal, along with Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, have also been included as permanent members of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA). The erstwhile Railway Minster Suresh Prabhu was not a part of CCPA. In December 2014, Health Minister JP Nadda was included in the CCPA though his predecessor Harsh Vardhan was not part of CCPA. BJP allies Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Anant Geete, Ram Vilas Paswan and Ashok Gajapati Raju continue in CCPA. Six Cabinet committees were reconstituted on September 11 and all except the Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC) have seen changes after the September 3 Ministry reshuffle. Housing and Urban should visit Amethi, his Parliamentary constituency, to see how much development he had done. Lashing out at him for his remarks on dynasties, Irani cited the examples of President Ram Nath Kovind, Vice President Venkaiah Naidu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to argue that the top three constitutional positions were held by people with humble backgrounds.this was evidence that merit, not dynasty, drove India s robust democracy, the Information and Broadcasting Minister said. She claimed that Rahul had little awareness about the lack of propriety in criticising his country on foreign soil as he was driven by boosting his own image not patriotism. In an apparent reference to Rahul s meeting with the Chinese envoy in India during the Dokalam stand-off, she said he had not spoken to the Indian diaspora or officials but chosen to converse with a foreign power. To his criticism of the Modi Government s handling of Kashmir, she accused him of indulging in politics and said it was the Nehru-Gandhi family which had passed on a legacy of challenges to the country. In its riposte, Congress spokesperson Anand Sharma said BJP leaders comments betray their streak of intolerance towards criticism, which he added is reflected in the climate in the country today. Rahul Gandhi spoke about the proud achievements of India since independence. Thanks to Nehru s vision and successive administrations, institutions of the modern state and educational institutions of excellence have been set up, we became a nuclear power, said Sharma recounting Rahul s speech in Berkeley.Because he spoke of these things, Sharma said, Rahul increased respect for India abroad. India, Belarus sign 10 pacts, focus on ramping economic engagement Modi said in a media statement. The Prime Minister said he and Lukashenko reviewed the architecture of India-Belarus partnership and exchanged ideas to expand it.the pacts inked provided for enhancing bilateral cooperation in a variety of areas, including oil and gas, education and sports. Nirmala Sitharaman, Piyush Goyal become members of key Cabinet committees Development Minister (Independent charge) Hardeep Puri, has been included as a special invitee to the Cabinet Committee on Accommodation. Social Justice Minister TC Gehlot has for the first time been included in the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs. The two new Ministers of State for Parliamentary Affairs, Vijay Goel and Arjun Ram Meghwal, have been included as special invitees to the panel, in place of their predecessors MA Naqvi and SS Ahluwalia. Uma Bharti, who was divested of her Water Resources Ministry portfolio, is not a member of any of the Cabinet committees. After her elevation as Defence Minister, Sitharaman has already become a member of the Cabinet committee on security headed by the Prime Minister. The other members are Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj. Vijay Goel, who has been made the Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs, is part of the reconstituted Parliamentary Affairs Ministry.

6 The pomp and pageantry of Rashtrapati Bhavan accorded, pleasantries exchanged, and all good things said, made four-time Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba s visit to India last month successful at a time when there is stiff competition in Nepal between India and China: That installed in Kathmandu, is a Government of its choice. Beijing, a new entrant in this game, is holding its cards close to its chest. Old hand India brags about special relations and rotibeti rishta while China bags all the goodwill and developmental contracts. At the Tribhuvan International Airport, Kathmandu, on a disingenuous contraption raised four feet above the tarmac, Indian security officials conduct ladder-point frisking of passengers to uphold Nepal s sovereignty as it is not on its soil. This love-hate relationship is the epitome of post-andolan Nepal-India ties. For a Nepali potential and incumbent Prime Minister, it is essential that he gets invited to India on a visit and much is made of him. Many feign maladies to consult Indian leaders ostensibly on a medical check up. The Chinese do it more brashly, inviting their favourites like star performer, former Prime Minister KP Oli of the Unified Marxist-Leninist (UML). But Deuba, being a dyed in the wool, pro-india, pro-west, Nepali Congress leader, has never been invited to China in the post-andolan period. The Chinese are furious that last year, at the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-leaning India Foundation conclave at Goa, Deuba shared the dais with Lobsang Sangay, Prime Minister of the Tibetan Government in exile. Former Prime Minister Sushil Koirala was the only Prime Minister from the Nepali Congress who was not invited on a state visit to India. He died disappointed but was seen by New Delhi to be doing Beijing s bidding. Last month, India Foundation organised its usual civic reception for Deuba at the Delhi s grand Imperial Hotel, festooned with portraits of British and Indian royalty and the Charge of the Light Brigade, similar to the Ranas splendour and memorabilia seen at Kathmandu s Yak and Yeti hotel. While welcoming Deuba, Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan from Bihar waxed eloquent on roti-beti but also inadvertently touched a raw nerve, mentioning China s highhandedness in Tibet. This prompted an impromptu comment by Deuba in his address. He said, We have excellent relations with China and don t face problems from them. This is straight out of Nepal s history books, an 18h century epistle on diplomacy from Nepal s founder, King Prithvinarayan Shah, that Nepal, being a yam between two boulders, must remain equidistant. When Deuba returned to his seat after reading out his speech, Maoist party coalition partner and Foreign Minister KB Mahara apparently commended him on the pithy China interjection. Or so it seemed. Later, in an interview with Business Standard on Deuba s visit and the triangular India- China-Nepal relations, he said it was not appropriate to discuss affairs of third countries during a bilateral visit. Another Nepali commentator remarked, Deuba should have ignored Paswan s comment. India s core concerns in Nepal remain its security, anti-india sentiment and ultranatioalism, stability of the Nepali Congress- Maoist coalition and constitutional amendment relating to Madhesi rights. At least two Prime Ministers Oli and Deuba undertook their pilgrimage to India after tabling the Constitutional Amendment Bill. While Oli facilitated the passage of the first amendment, his party blocked the second amendment tabled by Deuba. Despite this, Madhesis are finally participating in the postponed local elections to the Teraibased number 2 province next week. The task of the Deuba-led Government is to conduct two elections before 21 January 2018 when the life of the second Constituent Assembly turned legislature expires. On November 26, the Election Commission of Nepal will conduct provincial and parliamentary elections together. Present trends favour Oli s UML to win most provincial elections Sir This refers to the editorial, Rising for safety first (September 12). It is not only about the nature of the crime but also about the frequency which should force our administration and Government to act fast. In crimes like the Ryan International school incident, both the parents and school administration became very critical. As a parent, we need to teach our child the difference between good touch and bad touch and regularly interact with them to understand what is going on in their lives by trying to develop a close bond with them. Schools need to teach selfdefence as a compulsory measure to their students. The editorial has rightly suggested that reforming police and having a well-meaning police-public engagement can go a long way in reducing crime rates. We, as responsible citizens of the society need to change our thought process as we are also key stakeholders of the society. Bal Govind Noida Sir The presence of about 25,000 Rohingya immigrants from Rakhine province of Myanmar, who took shelter in Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh region is a burning problem. These Muslim immigrants infiltrated into India to save their lives from scourge of sectarian violence and threat. It is no moral responsibility of India to rehabilitate the unwanted citizens of Myanmar since they are not of Indian origin. India is already overpopulated and emerge as the single largest party in national elections. The Nepali electorate is very sharp and discerning. After the andolan for new Nepal, Maoists were overwhelming winners in the first Constituent Assembly. In the second Constituent Assembly, they dropped to third position with Nepali Congress resorting to the top position. UML is backed not just by China s deep pockets but also by goodwill earned at India s cost for seen to be supporting the game-changing Madhesi blockade of In his interview to Business Standard, Mahara said, The next Government (without naming any party) will last five years and provide stability for economic growth. India would hope the Nepali Congress and Maoists improve their tally of seats and along with the United Madhesi Front, come close to a two-thirds majority for passage of the 2nd Amendment. This will be difficult though. Deuba didn t take a hell of a lot back to Kathmandu except mostly repackaged old projects and goodwill. His is considered a holding Government. New Delhi must address Kathmandu s concerns its sovereignty, perceptions of micro-management, and suspicion of restoration of monarchy and a Hindu state and other outstanding issues. Soon, Nepal will be engulfed in Dasain and Tihar festivities, just prior to two most crucial elections. In the brief interregnum, India must try to regain the hearts and minds of the Nepalese lost in inelegantly promoting the cause of Nepal s Madhesis. In 2014, Prime Minister Modi performed a minor miracle, erasing all the ills Nepalese held India responsible for, thanks to his speech writers and his oratory. The India-China contest will be long and protracted but given the open borders, geography, Gorkha soldiers in the Indian Army and upto 10 mn Nepalis working in India, the match eventually will go India s way. During Doklam, Nepal studiously adopted a neutral position though given there are Gorkha soldiers in the Indian Army, that s a stance hard to sustain when things get hot. The sudden and surprise resolution of Doklam may prove a turning point for improved India-China relations after a sustained tension of over two years. Beijing had promised to punish India for allowing the Dalai Lama to revisit Tawang escorted by a Minister. That threat of retribution, many thought, was delivered when in Beijing helped the Oli Government in breaking India s political hegemony. China is now using the One Belt One Road as a commercial enterprise to penetrate not just Nepal but all of South Asia. The post-andolan political scene requires careful jugglery of balls, especially catering for the new electoral system. Though post-doklam, China has said it welcomes strong India-Nepal relations, New Delhi has to keep its one time blue eyed boy, Oli, on the right side. (The writer is a retired Major General of the Indian Army and founder member of the Defence Planning Staff, currently the revamped Integrated Defence Staff) and unable to absorb and accommodate all the Rohingyas coming in. It is the responsibility of India to deport them immediately from the point of larger national interest. India has learnt nothing from the exodus of large number of Bangladeshi Muslims which became the insurmountable crisis for the country. Inspite of the apex court s direction to detect and deport these illegal Bangladeshi immigrants, the system has not fully complied. Nimai Charan Swain Bhubaneswar Sir The recent Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) raid at the residence of Jayanthi Natarajan, who quit the Manmohan Singh Government from the post of Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, and blamed Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi of interference in her Ministry, has engulfed her in a fresh controversy. What is significant is that the permission for diversion of forest land had been rejected by Natrajan s predecessor Jairam Ramesh but when she took the post, she allegedly cleared it even though there was no change in the circumstances. She claimed that she followed Rahul Gandhi s directions on the issue. Interestingly, every time the CBI acts against a former UPA Minister, the Opposition calls it political vendetta, but this time, there seems to be a studied silence in the party. KS Jayatheertha Bengaluru

7 The Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will visit Ahmedabad today to perform the bhoomi pujan (ground breaking ceremony) for the highspeed railway network corridor being built between Mumbai and Ahmedabad. He, along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi will also lay the foundation for two Japanese industrial park at Sanand, Gujarat, which will attract 20,000 crore investments. The park will have a Japanese residential colony, the first of its kind in India. Besides, Japan is also developing an industrial corridor that spans across the States of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra and is also bringing investment and jobs. Seen in a historical context, the India-Japan relationship goes back to more than a century. Okakura Kakuzo ( ), a contemporary of Rabindranath Tagore and Swami Vivekananda, visited India in Famous revolutionary Rash Behari Bose ( ) spent half of his life in Japan. Tagore visited Japan (1915) and later introduced Judo (1924), the martial art of Japan, into India through the Visva Bharati curriculum. Of late, the Indo-Japanese relationship has assumed dimensions of strategic partnership under Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, after the Liberal Democratic Party won the December 2012 election in Japan. The historic visit of Japan s Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko, in November 2013 to India was a watershed moment in the Indo-Japanese relationship. The six-day tour resulted from the recommendations made by the Japanese Cabinet led by nationalist Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. In 2014, with the victory of nationalist leader Narandra Modi, India and Japan are all set to make history. India is the only non-signatory of the Non- Proliferation Treaty with which Japan and India signed a nuclear deal in 2016 when Prime Minister Modi visited Japan. The deal enables Japan to supply nuclear reactors, fuel and technology to India. Looking at the future, it is the defence cooperation that is expected to significantly contribute to the emerging relationship. There is already cooperation between the Naval forces of both the countries and now, the focus is on bringing the two Air Forces closer. The India-Japan-US trilateral Malabar Naval exercise is paving the ground for greater military cooperation. The Malabar 2017 is the largest maritime exercise ever conducted in the Indian Ocean, as President of the United States, Donald Trump, said during the Modi-Trump summit in June The historic joint Naval exercise saw the debut of JS Izumo in an exercise with the US and Indian navies. This year s Malabar exercise is notable on several fronts it s the first Naval exercise between three countries to involve aircraft carriers from each side. The Indian Navy has deployed INS Vikramaditya whereas, the US has sent the USS Nimitz the super carrier to the exercises. Sixteen ships, two submarines and more than 95 aircrafts were part of the exercise in the Bay of Bengal. India-Japan defence and security cooperation now needs to be exalted to the next level. In a joint statement with Japanese Defence Minister, General Nakatani, Japan and India have pledged to deepen bilateral defence ties along with the establishment of a Joint Working Group on Defence Equipment and Technology Cooperation. The $1.3 billion defence deal of procurement of 12 Japan-made W hile much has been said of a woman becoming the first full-time Defence Minister in the Modi Cabinet, there has not been much debate about the disappointment of the 32 allies, who have been left out of power-sharing. There is nothing wrong. After all, it is the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which has the control of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). But, expectations of the allies were really high. It is known that the relationship between the BJP and its allies has not been very smooth. While some of the long-term allies, like the Shiv Sena, the Shiromani Akali Dal and the Telugu Desam Party, have been complaining about their treatment, the BJP has not done much to assuage their feelings. At various times, Telugu Desam Party president Chandrababu Naidu, and Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal, have expressed their unhappiness openly. The Shiv Sena, the oldest ally of the BJP, has had a running battle with the BJP on various issues both in Maharashtra and New Delhi. Vibes from the Shiv Sena have been cold ever since the BJP won most seats in the 2014 Assembly election in Maharashtra. Shiv Sena spokesman, Sanjay Raut said, It is possible that the BJP is arrogant about its majority in the Lok Sabha because of which it has stopped consultations. We don t pay attention to such issues. It is the BJP s majority so the party should run the Government the way it wants. The latest to join this club was the Janata Dal (United) which returned to the NDA fold recently. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who has severed connections with other partners of the grand alliance ShinMaywa US-2 amphibious search-and-rescue aircraft, for the Indian Navy, needs to be expedited. It will also be a landmark in Tokyo s efforts to shed its post-war ban on weapons trade and get the ball rolling for a new chapter in strategic military cooperation between the two nations. Over the past decade and a half, Japanese investment has played significant role in India s growth story. Japan invested more than $25 billion in different sectors across India during the period from 2000 to Currently, Japan is the third biggest investor in India, and investment from Japan increased substantially during Japanese investments in India, during this period reached $4.7 billion, an 80 per cent increase over the $2.6 billion of Most importantly, Japan pledged investments of around $35 billion for the period of to boost India s manufacturing and infrastructure sectors. India and Japan are also working on Asia-Africa Growth Corridor (AAGC), which was unveiled on May 23 this year, during the 52nd Annual Meetings of the African Development Bank (AfDB) held in Gandhinagar, Gujarat. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is the son of Foreign Minister of Japan, Shintaro Abe and grandson of a Prime Minister, Kan Abe. According to Shinzo, he learnt from his father, Shintaro, one of most accomplished diplomats in the postwar Japan, the importance and sacrifices that need to be made to lead a public life. Prime Ministers Shinzo Abe s plan to restore Japan is unfolding as the story of the re-emergence of one of the greatest nations of the world. Japan is the oldest democracy of Asia and post 2012, the journey of Japan has many lessons for the which defeated the BJP in 2015 Assembly poll, is a disappointed man as he was hoping for some power sharing at the Centre. The JD(U) reaction was muted. Nobody is interested in talking to us about such crucial issues anymore. There was absolutely no discussion or exchange of ideas about the issue within the NDA. It is for the BJP to decide if they want to consult old alliance partners on crucial issues or not. The BJP has the majority and may be they don t want to discuss important issues with us, said JD (U) leader KC Tyagi. The united All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), which is waiting to join the NDA, was also hoping for two Cabinet berths so that internal power sharing problem within the party could be resolved, but is now disappointed. If one looks back, the BJP and its partners have had a roller-coaster relationship all along. The NDA came into being in 1998 during the time of Atal Bihari Vajpayee as the largest democracy of Asia India. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe s resounding victory and re-election in 2016 provided him with opportunities to rejuvenate the Japanese economy, revising the post-war Constitution and to allow more conventional military in sync with the contemporary security needs in Asia. The revival of Shintoism has played a pivotal role in reinvigorating the Japanese approach to emerging strategic geo-political needs. Japan is all set to play a more meaningful role in the Asia-Pacific region for maintaining peace and order in Asia. Japan is a technological power and can play a key role in transforming rising Asian powers like India. Prime Ministers Shinzo Abe is determined to lead Japan back to its glory. Prime Minister Abe, along with Indian Prime Minister Narandra Modi, and US President Donald Trump, represent two of the world s oldest, largest, and most responsible democracies. Together, they represent 25 per cent of world s population, 35 per cent of global gross domestic product and will play a critical role in the preservation of democracy and peace in Asia in days to come. The Indo- Japan relation is among the strongest relationships shared by two Asian nations that need to be advanced to the next level. (The writer is an expert on Learning and Development and organizational Leadership Development, based in Ahmedabad) BJP wanted to prove its acceptability in a coalition politics. Vajpayee was able to lead a 24- partner coalition, although AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa brought down his Government within 13 months. However, the coalition continued with political realignment and Vajpayee came back to power. Though the NDA lost power from 2004 to 2014, the front continued as some of them like the Telugu Desam Party, the Shiv Sena, the Shiromani Akali Dal and other anti-congress parties had nowhere to go and they found it convenient to remain together. When Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the NDA in 2014, it had 29 partners, some of them small and he was graceful in accommodating parties like the Shiromani Akali Dal, the Shiv Sena and the Telugu Desam Party by giving them representation in his Cabinet. However, since then, the allies have been waiting patiently for more representation. It is not as if the BJP can totally ignore the allies as it needs their support in the Rajya Sabha where the NDA is in minority. The Congress-led Opposition has been blocking several important Bills and Prime Minister Modi needs the support of the allies in getting legislations passed in the upper House. Moreover, the BJP also needed the allies in the recent presidential and vice presidential elections without whose support, the party would not have been able to get its nominees elected. Things were smoothened in its second NDA meeting, in July last, ahead of the polls, when the allies endorsed Prime Minister Modi s policies as well as promised their support to the BJP. The NDA allies have been demanding the revival of the convener post. Earlier, former Defence Minister George Fernandes, held it during the Vajpayee days, which was later given to Sharad Yadav of the JD(U). At present, there are some leaders like Chandrababu Naidu and Nitish Kumar who are aspiring for the post, but the BJP is mum on this. Second, the allies want the BJP to have more interaction with them, both for floor coordination as well as other policy issues. They have expressed their discontent on this quite often. Third, they fear the speed with which the BJP is spreading. The BJP has set its eyes on about 115 seats across the country where it has never won in the past, as part of its strategy for 2019 Lok Sabha poll. They fear that the expansion plan of the BJP in the south, and also the east, might be at their expense and they would like to protect their interests. The growing popularity of the Prime Minister also makes them apprehensive whether their voters would shift to the BJP. It is likely that nearer the 2019 poll, the BJP would try to mollify them at the time of seat sharing in some of the States where the BJP is a junior partner. For, most of the NDA allies need the BJP and the BJP needs them. (The writer is a senior political commentator and syndicated columnist)

8 goons. But I must remind that how they were brought to olitical violence and syndi- were the two high of the CPI(M). If they contin- power because of the violence Pcatisation spots of Mamata Banerjee Government, BJP president Amit Shah said on Tuesday. Launching a scathing attack on the Trinamool Congress Government, Shah told a gathering of intellectuals in Kolkata that a large share of Central funds sent to the State for its development had ended up in the hands of syndicates. Thousands of crores have been sent to the State but most of this money has gone into the hands of the syndicates. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will have to account for the lost funds Shah said wondering did you bring the ue to do so they will also be thrown out of power in which BJP will take the lead. No amount of violence could stop his party from progressing in Bengal he said asking the pioneers of human rights who were confined to Delhi to come out and see for yourself what is happening in this State. State Education Minister Partho Chatterjee however refuted Shah s charge saying he should first explain why the Centre has stopped sending funds to Bengal and why political violence were taking place in UP and Gujarat. Blue (Trinamool Congress) Bengal, Shah said had been Government by throwing out transformed into a State of the Red Government to see this day. A time had come when the intellectuals who led the struggle against the Left to raise their voices. Shah was speaking at a gathering of intellectuals on the last day of his three-day visit to Bengal. Here the people who nourish rival views were attacked by the ruling party cadres their houses are set on fire, shops are looted Earlier he met a group of BJP workers who were victims of the Trinamool attacks. I met the family members of the vic- political appeasement where you have to go to the court to seek permission for the immersion of Durga idols, adding BJP strived for politics of perfor- Government to bring Subsequently he accused limbs broken because they tims of political violence in mance and not appeasement. Trinamool to power should take the lead again and question the Government because the poor people are too afraid the State Government for unleashing a reign of terror in the State. Bengal is perhaps the most violent State in the world. support a different political ideology, Shah said wondering whether this is the State Tagore and Vivekanand. Bengal in the last six months. They revealed the tale of political vengeance they suffered in the hands of the Trinamool Listing the performance of the BJP he said there were at least 50 instances showcasing the BJP s achievements. T he induction of former bureaucrat Alphons Kannanthanam into the Union Ministry, which is being interpreted generally as a BJP strategy to make inroads into Kerala s Christian community, seems to have antagonised the State s biggest Catholic Churchbacked political party, the Kerala Congress (M). In a clear indication of this, former State Minister KM Mani, chairman of the Kerala Congress (M), has expressed the displeasure of his party at Kannanthanam s appointment by saying that the BJP will not be able to derive any advantage from this and nobody can agree with that party s policies. Prime Minister Narendra Modi inducted Kannanthanam at a time when the State BJP leadership had been toying with the idea of roping Mani s party, which has six legislators in the Kerala Assembly, into the NDA. The KC(M) legislators are sitting as a separate bloc since the party severed its alliance of over three decades with the Congressled Opposition UDF a year ago. Observers say that Mani himself has not been very averse to this idea, especially after his party s departure from the UDF. Just before the recent Cabinet reshuffle, many within the KC(M) and outside had expected Mani s son Jose K Mani, Lok Sabha member from Kottayam, to be invited to join the Union Government though Jose himself had claimed this would not happen. According to State BJP sources, the national leadership also was in favour of the idea of bringing Mani s party into the NDA, especially after uncertainties began to crop up in it in the State following the continuous attacks against the BJP from Vellappally Natesan, general secretary of SNDP Yogam, the force behind the BDJS, the BJP s biggest ally in Kerala. Though Natesan s son Thushar Vellappally, president of the BDJS, keeps saying that his father s opinions have nothing to do with his party, even BJP leaders in Kerala are admitting that the relations between them have been strained. There are also reports that Vellappally is keeping his options open for the next Lok Sabha election. If the BDJS, which has no existence without SNDP Yogam s support, decides to sever ties with the NDA, the BJP will have to find support from elsewhere to achieve the Mission 350-Plus goal party president Amit Shah has set for the next Lok Sabha polls. The new development is to be seen in this context, says senior journalist BS Panicker. We have never said that we will cooperate with the BJP or join the NDA. But we have always maintained that we don t view any party or front as untouchable, said a senior leader of the Kerala Congress (M). I don t think the BJP will be able to win the hearts of the Church and the Catholics here by promoting Kannanthanam, he said. The KC(M) leader said that any particular community need not support any particular party just because a leader belonging to that community had been given a high position. Everybody knows the case of PC Thomas who was made a Minister in the former AB Vajpayee Government. What advantage had the BJP made out of it? he asked. Though Mar Mathew Arakkal, Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Kanjirappally, hometown of Kannanthanam, has said that the Church does not have anything against BJP or any other party, senior clergy has made it clear that the welcome the Church had accorded to him as Minister should not be seen as a sign of its political leaning. ujarat Pradesh Congress GCommittee (GPCC) president Bharatsinh Solanki announced on Tuesday that the Congress would give unemployment allowance to youngsters if the oldest political outfit would come into power post assembly elections. Addressing a Press conference, Solanki claimed that even after 22 years of power, the BJP couldn t offer adequate jobs to the youth. The BJP had promised 50 lakh jobs, but the fact is more than 30 lakh youngsters are unemployed, he added. The economy is in doldrums and business in dumps. The agriculture growth has slackened and the youth are in disgust. The agitations in the State are symbolic of this dissatisfaction, said Solanki. According to him, Gujarat witnessed imposition of section 144 for 200 days in a year. He stated this in response to the BJP president Amit Shah s remark that under Congress rule Gujarat witnessed curfew for 200 days in a year before The GPCC president said the Congress would provide jobs to every youngster in five years and as per party s commitment, unemployed youngsters would get allowance till they get jobs. The Congress said that it will extend a monthly stipend of 3,000 to each youngster who has completed 12th, 3,500 for graduates and 4,000 for post graduates. It also announced that soft loan will be extended to those seeking to go entrepreneurial way. The move wouldn t give much financial burden on the State as it would cost hardly 8,000 crore per year, said Solanki, adding that the amount is much lesser than that of BJP-ruled Government s expenses on fairs and festivals. We will strictly adhere to the policy of giving 80 per cent jobs to local people. Gujarat was a textiles hub, an oil engine hub, pharma hub, diamond hub, chemicals hub and ceramic hub before 1995 when BJP came to power. Since then they talked of making Gujarat an I-T hub, knowledge hub, auto hub but nothing. The State has not added even 1 MW of public sector power, nor has one university been opened by Government. All that capitalist BJP has done is open up the sectors for private sector, said former Gujarat Congress president Siddhartha Patel in context to Amit Shah s data on pre and post 1995 developments which Shah divulged during his interaction with youngsters on Sunday. JD supremo Lalu Prasad Rand his son and Leader of Opposition in Bihar Assembly Tejashwi Prasad Yadav on Tuesday hurled serious allegations on Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and accused him of breaking the Mahagathbandhan under tremendous pressure of the BJP. He had only two options; either to break the alliance and join NDA or go to jail in the multi crore Srijan scandal. Nitish is deep involved in this scam because the loot of the public money was held with his full knowledge, said Tejashwi, who escaped the CBI questioning in New Delhi and held a press conference to level allegations against the CM. CBI had summoned him on September 12 and his father on September 11 for questioning but both did not go pleading political pre occupation. Lalu and his sons had held a meeting in Bhagalpur on Sunday to expose the real culprits of the Sirjan scam but Nitish termed their meeting as nukkar natak saying it might prove suicidal for them. The father son duo said they were not scared of such threats and alleged that when Nitish realized in the last fortnight of July that he could be caught for this scam he started rushing to Delhi and made a deal with the BJP under which he broke away of the alliance else he would have ended in jail. Calling Nitish Bhishma t the second round of talks Aon the vexed Darjeeling issue, Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday managed to purchase more time to solve the ongoing crisis while expelled Gorkha Janmukti Morcha leader Benay Tamang tended to grow taller in stature at the cost of party chief Bimal Gurung, who was currently at large following a plethora of cases under the UAPA slapped against him. After the meeting, the CM said most of the demands, save the one for a separate Gorkhaland State, had been accepted by the Government. Tamang said he would appeal to the people to lift the bandh to facilitate the peace talks further. The next round of talks was scheduled for October 16 when scopes for a tripartite dialogue involving Hill parties, the State and the Centre could be discussed. Meanwhile, Gurung got a big jolt when two of his party MLAs joined the talks dropping from their agenda a demand for a separate State. Pitamah of corruption, the former Deputy CM said everything happening in the NGO Srijan was in the knowledge of CM and his Deputy Sushil Kumar Modi. He also cited the report of CAG of 2008 which mentioned this scandal and recommended for recovery of entire amount transferred in the bank accounts of Srijan. He also claimed that the Bhagalpur DM in 2006 had also ordered for closure of transfer of funds to the NGO still the practice continued till July Lalu said, When cheques started bouncing between July 10 and 29, 2017, Nitish find it difficult to escape and then he made a deal with the BJP to break alliance because he was certain to go to jail. Why Nitish is not putting all facts in public domain which he had been asking Tejashwi to do? The RJD chief also alleged that all the allegations leveled on his family by Sushil Modi were in fact sponsored by Nitish. Nitish is giving us lesson of morality as if he is our headmaster. I have studied political science and he engineering. I know the political nuances and he is doing only engineering. He is accusing us of abusive language but ordering his spokesmen to abuse us. We will continue exposing him, said Lalu and Tejashwi added that all documents related to the scam would be handed over to the CBI. But he added that CBI was under pressure of the Centre as a result most of the culprits of the scam were given opportunity to escape and some were murdered. llahabad is set to get a new Aname with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath accepting the demand of Akhil Bharatiya Akhara Parishad to rechristen the city as Prayagraj. Yogi also assured saints to take action against fake godmen. The CM had an hourlong meeting with members of Akhara Parishad in Lucknow on Tuesday. Around 26 saints representing 13 akharas of the country were present during the meeting. The meeting assumes importance as it came at the backdrop of Akhil Bharatiya Akhara Parishad releasing a list of fake sadhus. President of Akhara Parishad Mahant Narendra Giri told reporters that Yogi accepted their proposal to rename Allahabad as Prayagraj. Allahabad was renamed in 1580 by Mughal emperor Akbar from Prayag as he maintained that it was a place of Allah (God) and hence it be known as Allah-bad. The wrong that the Mughal emperor did should be corrected. We expect that the Chief Minister will issue orders towards changing the name of Allahabad to Prayagraj, Giri said. In 2001, then Chief Minister Rajnath Singh and then Governor Vishnu Kant Shastri were also in favour of renaming Allahabad as Prayagraj but the promise remained unfulfilled. Though Yogi s meeting with the Akhara Parishad on Tuesday was held in view of preparation for the coming Ardh Kumbh Mela in Allahabad in early 2019, the Parishad members also raised the issue of fake godmen who were giving a bad name to Hindu religion. The CM assured us that he would take stern steps against these fake babas and promised that no facility will be provided to them during the next Ardh Kumbh Mela at Allahabad, Mahant Giri said. The Akhara Parishad announced that they would boycott 14 fake saints and appealed to the masses not to get attached with them.

9 nion Home Minister URajnath Singh on Tuesday sent out a firm message to illegal immigrants from different neighbouring countries saying the Union Government is going to adopt tough measures against them. He, however, shied away from listing the nature of action Government of India is contemplating to resolve the issue. Before heading to New Delhi, Rajnath, in a Press conference, said, Rohingyas are illegal immigrants. We will take some action. iming to transform AAndhra Pradesh into a drought proof state with water security, the State Government is planning intra-linkage of rivers apart from completing all pending projects in a time bound manner, State s Water Resources Minister Devineni Uma Maheswara Rao said. Interlinking of rivers is very appropriate and is need of the time. Because, some parts in the country are facing deficit or drought conditions whereas other parts are either surplus or facing flood conditions, the Minister said in the 31st Annual General Body Meeting of the National Water Development Agency in New Delhi on Tuesday. Union Minister for Water Resources Nitin Gadkari chaired the meeting attended by Union Ministers of States Arjunram Meghwal and Satyapal Singh and Water Resource Ministers of all the States. While presenting the case of Andhra Pradesh, Devineni said, Security threat posed by them can t be ruled out, said Rajnath when he was repeatedly quizzed by reporters on what action Govt of India is going to take to address the contentious issue. Rajnath maintained the Andhra Pradesh is also facing the same situation. In Godavari river, hundreds of TMC of water is going into sea during flood times. But in the other parts of the State, especially in Rayalaseema districts, people are facing severe water crisis. Elaborating the woes of the farmers of water deficient areas of Andhra Pradesh, he added, Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu has linked Godavari and Krishna rivers in 2015 itself through Pattiseema Lift Irrigation Scheme in a record time of less than one year. Expalining the benefits of river-linking, he said, Just because of diversion of Godavari surplus waters to Krishna Delta during the last two kharif seasons, the State Government was able to save crops worth of 8,000 crore. Naidu is also planning to link other rivers in the State, he added. Devineni explained the steps taken by the State Government in measuring groundwater. Our State is the first one in the Country in monitoring the groundwater in real time. Government of India had adopted a humane approach towards immigrants and displaced people from different neighbouring countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh but it was strongly against illegal immigration. G ujarat s capital Gandhinagar and commercial capital Ahmedabad have been decked up to offer grand hospitality to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe who are visiting the State for couple of days from Wednesday afternoon. Visit of both the Prime Ministers will began with a joint road-show right from Sardar Patel International Airport to Sabarmati Ashram. The 8 km route for the roadshow has been decorated with hoardings and colourful lights. Both Modi and Abe will also hold 12th India-Japan annual summit in the State. Roads in Ahmedabad where convoy of both the leaders are expected to pass have been decked up. Roads damaged due This is for the first time that Union Home Minister has shared his views on threat posed by illegal immigrants from Myanmar ahead of crucial hearing in the apex court on September 18, Singh s statement comes a day after UN human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad al-hussein flayed any attempts by India to deport Rohingyas to Myanmar when the ethnic minority community is facing violence in their country. During his stay in Jammu, to heavy rains have also been resurfaced on war footing. Series of performances would also be held along the route to showcase cultural diversity of the country for the Japanese PM to see. Apart from Sabarmati Union Minister was briefed by different delegations on security threat posed by the illegal immigrants from Myanmar and need to recall Article 35A. Winding up his four-day visit to the State, the Union Home Minister also claimed the manner in which Pakistan is repeatedly violating ceasefire agreement with India it is evident Islamabad is not keen on improving bilateral ties. He said since 2014 Pakistan has violated ceasefire agreement on more than 400 occasions every year. He said, If Pakistan will not mend its ways our brave soldiers are capable of giving them a befitting reply to silence their guns and forcing them to adhere to the ceasefire agreement of November Pakistan will have to stop these violations sooner or later, he asserted. Kochi: Kerala expressed profound gratitude to all those who worked for the rescue and release on Tuesday of Catholic priest Fr Tom Uzhunnalil from the captivity of the Islamic State (ISIS) which had abducted him on March 4, 2016 in war-torn Yemen. The Syro-Malabar Catholic Church celebrated Fr Uzhunnalil s rescue from Yemen with special thanks-giving prayers at its churches. The priest belongs to the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church s Pala Diocese in Kottayam district and hails from Ramapuram in the same district. The Catholic Church conveys Fr Uzhunnalil s release a reality. I thank the Indian and Oman governments. We also thank External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and the Yemen authorities, said Archbishop M Soosapakyam. Expressing joy over the priest s release, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said, Every help would be extended for bringing him back to Kerala and for providing necessary follow-up treatment. The Kerala Assembly had passed a resolution in May to put pressure on the Centre to enhance efforts for the priest s release. Relief and joy filled the atmosphere in Ramapuram, the We had spent the past one-anda-half years in tension. We thank all the parties and people who had worked for the father s release. External Affairs Minister Sushma had assured us that top priority would be given to this case, said Mathew Uzhunnalil, the priest s brother. Union Minister of State Alphonse Kannanthanam, who also hails from Kottayam, told the media that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Sushma Swaraj had been interacting with all the concerned for making the priest s release possible. Entire Kerala has been waiting for this happy news for the past 18 months, said its gratitude to all those priest s native village. We are former Chief Minister who had taken pains to make immensely happy and relieved. Oommen Chandy. PNS Ashram, the top political leaders would also visit to 16th century mosque in the old city Sidi Saiyad Mosque. It is known for iconic window filigree work on the first day. They would end the day with a dinner and assive rally and a meeting Mwas held in Bengaluru on Tuesday to condemn the murder of activist and journalist Gauri Lankesh. Thousands of people coming across the country representing many organisation and Left parties gathered in Bengaluru to protest against the brutal murder of Gauri Lankesh by an unknown assailant recently. Progressive thinkers, activists, writers, students have gathered at central college grounds in the heart of the city to mourn the death of Gauri. It was a scene of emotion and anger run down in the march which condemn coldblooded murder of Gauri. The symbolic spirit of camaraderie with the message, I am Gauri, was everywhere from arm bands and head bands to the slogans that those gathered were chanting. Sporting black badges that read - #IAmGauri the protesters took out a rally from the Sangolli Rayanna Railway Station to the Central College grounds, where a protest meeting was held. Speaking at the rally, Gauri s mother Indira Lankesh, said, Gauri fought with every fibre of her body. For me all of you are Gauris and I want her spirit to live on. Another social activist and close associate of Gauri, Teesta Setalvad recalled her association with her and said Though we are of the same age, she called me her little sister as I had a lot to learn from her. The only thing bearable in the death is the support that has come now. We can t let cohesion resistance go in vain. Well-known Kannada a closed door meeting at a heritage hotel in the proximity of Sidi Saiyad Mosque. On Thursday morning both Prime Ministers will lay a foundation stone for the PM Modi s dream project 1.08 lakh-crore Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train at Sabarmati Raliway Station. Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and India s Railway Ministry has already inked an MoU for the 508-km corridor, with Japan to partially fund the entire project. The much talked about bullet train connecting Ahmedabad with Mumbai will have capacity to carry 750 passengers and complete the distance between to cities in three hours. The project will be completed by The bullet train will pass through 21-km-long tunnel between Boisar and Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) of which 7 km will be under sea. writer and activist Chandrashekar Patil, who is also called Champa, read out a poem as a tribute to Gauri. A few years ago, I was Dabholkar... then, Pansare. And, two years ago, when my classmate, colleague and comrade MM Kalburgi was assassinated, I became Kalburgi. Now, I m Gauri, he said. P Sainath, a veteran journalist, said that in the midst of such a demoralising period, the presence of thousands of supporters was a mark of the fight against a culture of intolerance and hatred. This is the largest machine of hate since the partition and it has spread across various States. Senior leaders gloat over the murder of someone. This culture of intolerance is at the highest level of Government. They have a thought out plan, a coherent strategy, he said. The nature of Gauri Lankesh s murder was a message to all of us - yes it is us, we will do whatever we want, he added. CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury said, I m here as a foot soldier of Indian democracy and idea of India. It isn t abstract. It s concrete and alive. It can coexist only if there is opportunity to discuss and debate without bullets to kill. That s the spirit to kill caste, religious minorities. The battle of ideas is the idea of India. My India doesn t remain if it is killed through bullets. He added that the country had lost a person who disagreed verbally, who was an active participant and who never eliminated ideas. Acclaimed Kannada writer and Dalit rights activist Devanur Mahadeva said when India got Independence, there were dreams of an ideal Indian society, of how it should be in the future. What has happened now? Our mentality is going backwards. The dream has become a nightmare. Now, the majority is Indianness. And Kalburgi, Gauri are being killed as the majority marches on. Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Medha Patkar said that the coming together of so many voices on one stage was reason for optimism. Lucknow: The Gorakhpur police on Tuesday managed to lay its hands on sixth accused of the BRD Medical College tragedy and arrested clerk Sanjay Tripathi from Canmtonment Police Circle. He was wanted in connection with the death of 70 kids on August 10 and 11. Tripathi was later produced in the court and sent to jail. On Monday, former head of anaesthesia department of the hospital Dr Satish surrendered before a court. PNS

10 ith the skyrocketing price Wrise of vegetables and fruits, country s retail inflation went up to a five-month high of 3.36 per cent in August, while industrial output during July slipped to 1.2 per cent due poor manufacturing figures, according to data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) on Tuesday. The muted industrial output numbers in July and rise in the August retail inflation have prompted the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for further rate cuts in its next monetary policy review. Last month, the RBI had cut its key lending rate by 25 basis points to 6 per cent in view of softening inflation. The next monetary policy review is due on October 4. Not at all, in fact, the fact that the prices have gone down to 2.36 per cent from last year was itself a situation that happens often all. The RBI has 4-6 ihar Deputy Chief Minister BSushil Kumar Modi will head a five-member grouping of state ministers to look into technical challenges being faced by the GST registration and tax filing portal. The GST Council, the highest decisionmaking body of the new Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime, had on Saturday decided to form a five-member panel to look into the technical glitches facing GST-Network (GSTN). The GSTN, the information technology (IT) backbone and portal for real-time taxpayer registration, migration, and tax return filing under the GST, had faced downtime when the first deadline for filing of returns approached, forcing the Government to extend the last date. The Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by Modi will monitor and resolve the IT challenges faced in the implementation of GST, an official statement said. Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Isaac is also a member of the group. The other members are Amar Agarwal, Minister for Commercial Taxes, Chhattisgarh; Krishna Byregowda, Minister for Agriculture, Karnataka; and Etela Rajendar, Finance Minister, Telangana. The GoM will be assisted in its work by the Chairman, Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) and the Chief Executive Officer, GSTN, it said. Also, a Committee on Exports has been constituted under Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia to look at the issues of export sector and to recommend to the GST Council suitable strategy for helping the export sector in the post-gst scenario. This Committee consists of the Chairperson, CBEC; Member (Customs), CBEC; Director General, DGFT; Additional Secretary, GST Council; Director General, DG Export Promotion from the Central Government and Commissioners of Commercial Taxes from the States of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. per cent inflation range, we are still below that range also, Union Minister Piyush Goyal said. Factory output, measured in terms of IIP, had declined by 0.2 per cent in June. During April-July, IIP grew by 1.7 per cent, down from 6.5 per cent in the same period last year. Growth of the manufacturing sector, which makes up 77.6 per cent of the index, decelerated sharply to 0.1 per cent in July compared to 5.3 per cent in the same period of However, India Inc feels that the slowdown in manufacturing sector reflects depressing investment outlook. As the slowdown is more pervasive this time in terms of number of sectors, it calls for urgent need to revive investments through reforms especially at the state level and also by bringing down interest rates, FICCI Secretary General Sanjaya Baru said in a statement. As the consumption demand would increase in the festive season and investment too due to the Government measures taken in the last few months, we can expect growth to pick up in coming months, he added. For the output of capital goods, it contracted 1 per cent in July as against a growth of 8.8 per cent in the year-ago period. Consumer durable goods met with similar fate, with production declining 1.3 per cent as against a nominal growth of 0.2 per cent a year earlier. However, electricity generation stood out as it posted a growth of 6.5 per cent in July, up from 2.1 per cent in July Mining output, too, expanded by 4.8 per cent, as against 0.9 per cent in the yearago month. In terms of use-based classification, growth rates in July 2017 over the same month last year stood at 2.3 per cent for primary goods, (-)1.8 per cent for intermediate goods and 3.7 per cent for infrastructure and construction goods. Consumer non-durables have recorded a growth of 3.4 per cent. A total of eight out of 23 industry groups in the manufacturing sector grew in July 2017 compared to the corresponding month last year. According to consumer price index (CPI) data, retail inflation stood at 2.36 per cent in July. The August inflation number is the highest since March 2017, when it was recorded at 3.89 per cent. Overall food inflation in August also moved up, reversing the deflationary trend, to 1.52 per cent, the government data showed. Daily consumables like fruits and vegetables turned costlier during the month, with inflation print coming in at 5.29 per cent and 6.16 per cent, respectively, as against 2.83 per cent and (-)3.57 per cent in July, the data showed. Likewise, prepared meals, snacks and sweets as a category turned pricier, with the rate of price rise at 1.96 per cent, up from 0.43 per cent in July. Also, transport and communication means became costlier during the month, with inflation rising to 3.71 per cent from 1.76 per cent in July. However, items such as cereals and products, meat and fish, oils and fats became cheaper at inflation readings of 3.87 per cent, 2.94 per cent and 1.03 per cent, respectively. NEW DELHI: SBI Life Insurance, a arm of SBI, will hit the capital market on September 20 to raise up to 8,400 crore. The initial share sale offer will open on September 20 and close on September 22, SBI said in a regulatory filing to the stock exchanges. This would be the 2nd listing of a life insurer after ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, which went public last year. Price band for the offer as decided by SBI Life and the selling shareholders, in consultation with the lead managers, has been fixed between 685 to 700 per share of 10 each, a separate filing said. PTI MUMBAI: Niti Aayog chief executive Amitabh Kant on Tuesday said the Reserve Bank should go for a ten-fold increase in the deposit and advances caps on accounts opened through OTP-based ekyc. Such a liberalisation in the caps will help deepen the cashless or digital journey, he said. To my mind the proposal to push OTP-based ekyc is high (priority). For deposit accounts, the present limit is 1 lakh. I think we should increase it to about 10 lakh. For loan accounts, the existing limit is 60,000, my view is that it should be raised to 6 lakh, Kant said addressing a Bankbazaar event here. In order to bring customers on board faster as part of the financial inclusion agenda, the RBI had allowed for the one time password (OTP) based electronic know your customer (e- KYC) of accounts, but set certain caps on the transactions which go through such accounts. Identifying this as an impediment in the growth of the cashless agenda, Kant said more reforms are needed on this with priority. There is a need to allow the OTP-based ekyc for credit cards as well, he said. He asked the RBI to also allow for digital signatures on loan documents, saying the central bank is yet to come up with an express notification on it despite the Government of India taking a decision to allow it. PTI NEW DELHI: More than 1.06 lakh directors will be disqualified for their association with shell companies, according to the government, as it steps up the fight against black money. The latest move comes close on the heels of the corporate affairs ministry cancelling the registration of 2.09 lakh companies that have not been carrying out business activities for a long period. Besides, banks have been asked to restrict operations of these companies' bank accounts by their directors or their authorised representatives. The ministry has identified 1,06,578 directors for disqualification under Section 164(2)(a) of the Companies Act, 2013 as on September 12, 2017, an official release said. Under Section 164, a director in a company that has not filed financial statements or annual returns for three financial years continuously would not be eligible for re- appointment in that company or any other firm for five years. Signalling that more regulatory action is expected, the ministry is further analysing the data of the 2.09 lakh firms available with the Registrar of Companies (RoCs) to identify the directors and the significant beneficial interests behind these entities. Profiles of directors such as their background, antecedents and their role in the operations/functioning of these companies are also being compiled in collaboration with the enforcement agencies, the release said. Further, money laundering activities performed under the aegis of these companies are also under the scanner, it said. The ministry, which is implementing the companies law, has also identified professionals, chartered accountants, company secretaries and cost accountants associated with the defaulting companies. Besides, such people involved in illegal activities have been identified in certain cases and the action by professional institutes such as ICAI, ICSI and ICoAI is also being monitored. The fight against black money shall be incomplete without breaking the network of shell companies. Possibility of using the shell companies for laundering the black money cannot be undermined, Minister of State for Corporate Affairs P P Chaudhary said. According to the release, there are about 11 lakh companies with active status after deregistration of over 2.09 lakh firms. The Minister is also monitoring the situation emerging out of cancellation of registration of the companies and is holding regular meetings with officials of the ministry and various related organisations. These include Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO), ROCs, Department of Financial Services, Indian Banks Association and other departments involved in the crackdown against defaulting companies. The disqualification under Section 164 of the Act is by operation of law. We are identifying the defaulting directors of these shell companies. My officers have assured me that by the end of this month, we would be ready with the relevant details of all defaulting directors of these shell firms, the Minister said. PTI ata Sons will hike its Tholding in Tata Global Beverages and Tata Chemicals by buying shares held by the two companies in each other, entailing an estimated investment of 1,458 crore, as part of its efforts to reduce cross-holdings in group firms. The promoter of major Tata group companies has been on a drive to reduce cross-holdings by different firms of the over $100 billion conglomerate under its new Chairman N Chandrasekaran. Tata Sons will acquire up to 4.31 crore shares or 6.84 per cent stake in Tata Global Beverages Ltd (TGBL) from Tata Chemicals, as a part of he Cabinet on Tuesday Tapproved hiving off about 66,500 mobile towers of staterun BSNL into a separate company with a view to monetising them by either listing the new entity or leasing the masts to private firms. BSNL owns 15 per cent of the 4,42,000 mobile towers in the country. Private telecom service operator have created a separate tower subsidiary and have been offering their services. Today Cabinet has granted approval to Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited also to harness full potential of its mobile towers by creating a separate completely owned subsidiary, Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha told reporters after the Cabinet meet. The Government allows telecom operators and mobile tower companies to mutually share towers for lowering capital and operational expenses. BSNL has 15 per cent towers out of all mobile towers in the country. We have 66,457 mobile towers. Tenancy ratio was 1.14 was in the past. Average tenancy ratio of other service provider is 1.9. This (separate company) will lead to increase in our tenancy ratio as well. Other service provider will be able to use our tower, Sinha said. Tenancy ratio is derived by dividing number of base stations or antenna installed at mobile towers with total number of towers. Sinha said the mobile tower company will be completely owned by BSNL and the process of creating the new subsidiary will be completed in two years. 1,614 people will go on deputation from BSNL and the Department of Telecom. In coming days, when business will increase, new employment opportunities will be created. This work will be completed in two years, he said. A tower restructuring of its investment portfolio, TGBL said in a regulatory filing. As on quarter ended June 2017, Tata Chemicals held 7.10 per cent stake in TGBL. During the period, Tata Sons had 23.5 per cent stake in TGBL and per cent in Tata Chemicals. In a separate filing, Tata Chemicals said Tata Sons will acquire up to 1.11 crore shares or the entire 4.39 per cent stake in the company held by TGBL. Both the companies said the proposed date of acquisition is on or after September 18 and the shares are proposed to be acquired at the prevailing price on the date of acquisition. TGBL said the acquisition price would not be more than NEW DELHI: The Union Cabinet today approved a 3,000 crore project to acquire seismic data for prospecting of oil and natural gas reserves. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by PM Narendra Modi approved a project to acquire 48,243 line kilometer (LKM) 2D seismic data for appraisal of Indian sedimentary basins where limited data is available, an official statement said. National oil companies Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) and Oil India Ltd will implement the project. The project will help in increasing the investments in domestic production of oil and gas, it said, adding OIL will conduct survey in N-E states while the remaining areas would be covered by ONGC. company owns the passive infrastructure and leases it to telecom service providers enabling them to minimise duplication of investments and economise on costs of operation and maintenance, leading to improvement in profitability. The Minister said that tenancy ratio on BSNL towers has improved from 1.14 to 1.32 since the time the proposal to create a separate mobile tower company was floated. When we will execute it, then we will also reach the same level as of other service providers, Sinha said. Indus Towers, a joint venture between Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular, is the biggest telecom tower company in the world with 1,22,920 mobile towers with over 2,97,867 tenancies. Bharti Infratel claims the second spot in mobile tower segment with 90,646 mobile towers. NEW DELHI: India s second largest software services firm Infosys on Tuesday said it will set up a technology and innovation hub in Raleigh in North Carolina, where it is expected to hire 2,000 American workers by In July, Infosys had announced it will set up a centre in North Carolina as part of its plan to hire a total of 10,000 locals for its US operations in the next two years. The move was also seen as a bid to woo the Trump administration that has been critical of outsourcing firms for "unfairly" taking jobs away from the US workers. The first of the four centres -- located in Indiana -- was announced in May this year. Infosys, in a statement today, said the new hub in Raleigh will open in early 2018 and occupy 60,000 sq ft. The company plans to hire the first 500 workers in Raleigh innovation hub within two years, 25 per cent of per share. At the indicated price, the transaction is estimated to be around crore. Similarly, Tata Chemicals also said the acquisition price would not be more than 25 per cent of per share. At the indicated price, the transaction is estimated to be around crore. In June this year, Tata Sons had acquired an additional 2.89 per cent stake in Tata Motors for a little over 3,782 crore from Tata Steel through open market transactions. Shares of TGBL ended the day at apiece, up 1.39 per cent from the previous close on BSE. Likewise, Tata Chemicals shares closed at apiece, up 2.58 per cent. with the remainder to be hired in the state by 2021, it added. Towards its plan of hiring 10,000 people over two years, the company has already hired close to 1,200 American workers, Infosys said. The North Carolina Technology and Innovation Hub. Will focus on delivering cuttingedge solutions in artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, data and advanced analytics, cloud and big data, Infosys President and Deputy COO Ravi Kumar said. He added that the centre will help to serve clients in IT, life sciences, clean technology and advanced manufacturing sectors in a better manner. Infosys, which employs about 2 lakh people globally, will expand its local hiring in the US as it battles visa-related challenges that often make sending engineers to the US costly. PTI

11 Like many other nations, India is concerned about illegal migrants, in particular, ndia on Tuesday strongly Irejected the criticism by the with the possibility that they UN Human Rights chief over its handling of Rohingya Muslim refugees, human rights situations in Jammu and Kashmir and observation relating to the killing of journalist Gauri Lankesh, saying it was perplexed at the remarks. UN Human Rights chief Zeid Ra ad al-hussein, in his comments at the 36th Session of the UN Human Rights Council yesterday, had criticised could pose security challenges, he said, adding that enforcing the laws should not be mistaken for lack of compassion. Some 40,000 Rohingyas have settled in India, and 16,000 of them have received refugee documentation, the UN estimates. India s Minister of State for Home Affairs, Kiren Rijiju, on September 5 had said Rohingyas were illegal immigrants and India on the issue of deportation of Rohingyas as stand to be deported. It is also surprising that well as on religious intolerance and threat to rights activists. In a strong reaction, India been built under challenging conditions, Ambassador Rajiv K Chander said. individual incidents are being extrapolated to suggest a broader societal situation. India is said it was surprised that individual Chander, India s proud of its independent judiciary, incidents are being extrapolated to suggest a broader societal situation. We are perplexed at some of the observations made by the High Commissioner in his oral update. There appears to be inadequate appreciation of the freedoms and rights that are guaranteed and practised daily in a vibrant democracy that has Permanent Representative to the UN, Geneva, made the statement in response to Hussein s comments. Rejecting the observations by Hussein, Chander said, Tendentious judgements made on the basis of selective and even inaccurate reports do not further the understanding of human rights in any society. freedom of press, vibrant civil society and respect for rule of law and human rights, Chander said. He said a more informed view would have not only recognised this aspect but also noted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself publicly condemned violence in the name of cow protection. akistan s Punjab Government Phas dismissed the plea of Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief Hafiz Saeed to end his detention fearing that it may create a law and order situation in the province, the Lahore High Court was informed on Tuesday. The Home Department of Punjab today submitted a twopage reply to the LHC, informing the court of its decision. Citing different illegal acts of his organisations - JuD and Falah-i-Insaniat - the department said: The act on the part of Hafiz Saeed reaffirms the apprehension of the law enforcement and intelligence agencies that if he is released his activities will create law and order situation. It has been recommended to keep the detenue (Saeed) under detention in larger public interest. The department further said that the activities of Saeed will pose grave threat to the public safety and cause the breach of public order. It said that after hearing the counsel for Saeed and representatives of the Counter Terrorism Department, Special Branch, Lahore police chief, DIG Operations and Security Branch, Home Secretary MaJ (R) Azam Suleiman finds no merits in the representation of Saeed hence it is rejected. Lahore High Court Justice Mazahir Ali Naqvi adjourned the hearing till September 15. Mumbai attack mastermind Saeed and his four aides - Abdullah Ubaid, Malik Zafar Iqbal, Abdul Rehman Abid and Qazi Kashif Hussain - had challenged the extension of their house arrest for another 60 days under section 1 of section 3 of Maintenance of Public Order, orth Korea on Tuesday Nblasted vicious sanctions imposed by the UN over its latest and most powerful nuclear test, threatening revenge against Washington, who it blamed for leading the charge. Yesterday the Washington regime fabricated the most vicious sanctions resolution, Pyongyang s ambassador in Geneva told the UN Conference on Disarmament in the first North Korean reaction to Monday s unanimous vote. My delegation condemns in the strongest terms and categorically rejects the latest illegal... UN Security Council resolution, ambassador Han Tae Song told the gathering. The forthcoming measures by DPRK (the Democratic Republic of Korea) will make the US suffer the greatest pain it has ever experienced in its history, he said. The move by the Security Council slaps a ban on textile exports and restricts shipments of oil products to punish Pyongyang for its sixth and largest nuclear test. The US-drafted sanctions resolution passed just one month after the Security Council decided to ban exports of coal, lead and seafood in response to North Korea s launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). The sanctions follow a series of North Korean missile tests in recent months, culminating in an intercontinental ballistic missile that appeared to bring much of the US mainland into range. It followed up with a sixth nuclear test on September 3, its largest to date, which North Korea said was a hydrogen bomb small enough to fit onto a missile. The United States and its allies argue that tougher sanctions will pile pressure on Kim s regime to come to the negotiation table to discuss an end to its nuclear and missile tests. My hope is that the regime will hear the message loud and clear and it will choose a different path, US ambassador Robert Wood told the Conference on Disarmament. Pyongyang meanwhile appeared to draw a different lesson from the Security Council vote. Instead of making (the) right choice with rational analysis,... The Washington regime (has opted) for political, economic, and military confrontation, Han said. M yanmar s crackdown on Rohingya Muslims marks the death of the Nobel Peace Prize, Iran s supreme leader said today in a sharp attack on Burmese laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. A cruel Government, at the top of which sits a cruel woman who was awarded a Nobel prize, kills innocent people, sets fire to them, destroys their houses and displaces them and no tangible reaction is seen, Ayatollah Syed Ali Khamenei said in a speech in Tehran. Once lauded by the international community for standing up to the Myanmar military, Suu Kyi has been sharply criticised around the world for her failure to condemn brutal attacks on her country s Muslim minority now she is the effective leader. Yes, they condemn it, issue statements, but what good does it do? They should take action. This marks the death of the Nobel Peace Prize, Khamenei said. The United Nations says 370,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Buddhist-majority Myanmar since the army launched a huge security operation in response to attacks by militants late last month. UN human rights chief Zeid Ra ad Al Hussein described the operation as a textbook example of ethnic cleansing. Khamenei said the problem was not about Buddhists and Muslims. Maybe a few religious fanatics play a role, but a government is doing this. This is a political issue, he said. The solution is for Muslim Governments to act. We are not saying they should send troops there, but impose political and economic pressure, Khamenei said. He called on the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to convene for this specific purpose and to discuss what measures can be taken for these Muslims. Dhaka: Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today accused Buddhist-majority Myanmar of committing atrocities on Rohingya Muslims, saying Dhaka will not tolerate any kind of injustice and its protest will continue. She also asked Myanmar to take steps to take back its nationals who have fled to Bangladesh following the violence. We want peace and a friendly relation with neighbouring countries...(but) we cannot allow and accept any kind of unjust and our protest will continue to this end, Hasina said after visiting a Rohingya refugee camp near the border town of Ukhiya in Cox s Bazar district. She assured the refugees that Bangladesh would continue to provide humanitarian assistance to them. As long as they don t return to their country we will remain beside them, she said. PTI ine people, including a sus- who was fatally shot by Npect an officer, have died after a man opened fire during a gathering to watch football at a suburban Dallas home, police says. Plano police Chief Gregory W Rushin said at a last afternoon news conference that one of two people hospitalised after the Sunday night shooting had died. An officer responding to a report of shots fired at about 8 PM confronted the suspected shooter and opened fire, killing the suspect. Police then found the nine gunshot victims seven were dead and two were taken to the hospital. ritish MPs on Tuesday Bvoted in favour of a bill to end the UK s membership to the European Union, a reprieve for Prime Minister Theresa May who hailed the historic decision. Lawmakers voted by 326 to 290 in favour of backing the EU Withdrawal Bill, which will now go forward for further scrutiny by MPs. The bill is aimed at overturning the 1972 European Communities Act, which took the UK into the then European Economic Community (EEC). It will convert all existing EU laws into UK law to ensure there are no gaps in legislation on Brexit day, scheduled for March, May averted a rebellion within her own Conservative party during the post-midnight vote on the EU Withdrawal Bill, which resulted in her government securing a victory at the end of the bill s second reading debate in the Commons. Although there is more to do, this decision means we can move on with negotiations with solid foundations and we continue to encourage MPs from all parts of the UK to work together in support of this vital piece of legislation, May said at the end of the tough vote. Ankara: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has refuted reports claiming that he held a secret meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad, a media report said on Tuesday. I did not meet Assad, and I have no intention of meeting him, Erdogan said, commenting on social media reports about holding secret talks at Russian President Vladimir Putin s request, Hurriyet Daily News reported. On a new military operation to expel Al Qaeda-linked terrorists from Idlib of northern Syria, Erdogan said the situation in Idlib was developing positively. IANS Hemeimeem Air Base: Russia s military says Syrian troops have liberated about 85 percent of the war-torn country territory from militants. Lt Gen Alexander Lapin told reporters today at Hemeimeem air base near the Syrian coastal city of Latakia that Syrian government forces have yet to clear the remaining 15 percent, approximately 27,000 square kilometers from the extremists. AP Gaza City: Hamas says it is ready to talk reconciliation with the rival Government of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas without preconditions. Hamas had previously demanded that Abbas halt a series of measures taken against the Islamic movement before sitting down to discuss a reconciliation deal. Abbas cut electricity in Gaza and slashed the salaries of tens of thousands of public servants in a bid to compel Hamas to dissolve a contentious committee it formed to run the territory in defiance of Abbas government. AP Cairo: An international rights group says the Saudi-led coalition waging an air campaign against Yemen s Houthi rebels in the north are killing children in what amounts to war crimes. Human Rights Watch released a study today documenting the deaths of 26 children killed in five airstrikes since June. The group said that despite promises by the coalition to abide by international law, the airstrikes have failed to do that and urged the United Nations to again place the coalition on its list of shame. AP Hong Kong: Activists gathered in central Hong Kong on Tuesday to protest the visit of US President Donald Trump s former top strategist Steve Bannon, chanting Nazis are not welcome here! as they donned cartoon Trump masks. The protesters stood outside the harbourfront Grand Hyatt hotel in Hong Kong where the 63- year-old was due to speak at a closed-door investors forum, holding a rooster-shaped cardboard cut-out capped with Trump s hairstyle and labelled toxic nationalist. AFP

12 avis Cup captain Mahesh Bhupathi Dsays the Canada team, which has 'future star' Denis Shapovalov in the lineup, is stronger than the Czech Republic side to which India had lost in the playoffs stage in The Indian team, which had a weeklong training camp in New York before reaching Edmonton, is set to make a fourth consecutive attempt to qualify for the elite World Group. After dominating the Asia/Oceania zone, India lost to tennis power-houses Serbia (2014), Czech Republic (2015) and Rafael Nadal-led Spain (2016) at the World Group Play-off stage in recent years. Canada have named world number 51 Shapovalov, who reached the US Open fourth round, Vasek Pospisil (82) along with seasoned Daniel Nestor (43 in doubles) and Brayden Schnur (202) for the play-off tie, starting Friday. "Canada is a quality team but of course we are here because we earned the chance to play them. I personally think they are a stronger team than the Czechs when they came to India," Bhupathi told PTI from Edmonton. Shapovalov has made quite a splash he legendary PK Banerjee on TTuesday said India should utilise the FIFA U-17 World Cup to secure its future as a football nation and urged the players to take the team to the next level by giving their best. Banerjee, who was named Indian Footballer of the 20th century by FIFA, urged the country to back the players who will represent India in the megaevent. "I have not seen what they (players) have done. What I know is that they are our future and we have to back them," Banerjee told PTI during an interaction. "The pool needs to be increased. More U-17, U-19 players need to be taken into the fold so that our future as a footballing nation is secured," the 80- year-old added. Banerjee is in sync with the All India Football Federation's plans to develop the team for bigger tournaments. "This bunch needs to be together after the World Cup. They need to play as a team and then can represent India at the U-19 level and maybe at the U-20 World Cup." Banerjee was conferred with the prestigious FIFA Centennial Order of Merit in Despite a tough draw, Banerjee is optimistic about the host nation's chances in its maiden appearance. While India have competed at the AFC U-16 Championship seven times, they could get past the first round only once, in "The stats can wait. I love my country, and it's time to cheer for India in the with his performance in the last few weeks. Before making the US Open fourth round as a qualifier, the 18-year-old had shocked Nadal en route the semifinals of the Montreal Masters. The Czechs had travelled to India with Jiri Vesely (then world number 40 and now 59) and Lukas Rosol (then world number 85) as the main singles players. Radek Stepanek, winner of two Grand Slam titles with Leander Paes, had played only doubles with Adam Pavlasek. Bhupathi said going to the University of Columbia in New York for the camp has helped the team prepare better for the indoor tie. "The week of practice indoors has helped the team. The boys have hit a lot of balls and are feeling good, so we are looking forward to the weekend," he said. Bhupathi, who replaced Anand Amritraj in the captain's chair early this year, said the recent success of both Yuki Bhambri and Ramkumar Ramanthan against high-quality rivals is a tremendous confidence booster. While Yuki had scalped world number 22 Gael Monfils at the Citi Open, Ramkumar had an upset win over top-10 player Domnic Thiem at the Antalya Open. World Cup, it's a moment of pride for all of us." India begin their campaign in New Delhi against USA on October 6, followed by matches against Colombia on October 9 and Ghana on October 12. A second string Colombia had thrashed India 3-0 in a four-nation tour W ho would have guessed at the start of 2017 that Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer would divvy up the year's four Grand Slam titles? And who could possibly pretend to know what 2018 will bring for them? By the time Nadal was biting the handle of the US Open trophy on Sunday night, his usual way of celebrating a tournament victory, he had raised his career Grand Slam championship count to 16: three at Flushing Meadows, an unprecedented 10 at the French Open (including this June, shortly after turning 31), two at Wimbledon and one at the Australian Open. That moved him back within three of Federer, whose 19 is the record among men: an unprecedented eight at the All England Club (including in July, shortly before turning 36), five at the US Open, four at the Australian Open (including in January) and one at Roland Garros. "Of course, (it's) something difficult to imagine, eight months ago or nine months ago, that we will be winning two Grand Slams each," Nadal said. "But here we are." Indeed, in January, it sure appeared that the two greats of the game had left their best days behind. As of Monday, they are ranked 1-2. Federer began this season at No 16, having missed the last half while letting his back and left knee heal. Nadal was No 9, having pulled out after the second round of the French Open and skipped Wimbledon entirely because of an injured left wrist. "When you get (an) injury," Nadal said, "then (it) seems like the season is a disaster." Federer began 2017 having gone four and half years without a Grand Slam title. Nadal's drought without so much as one last month and their most promising result was a 1-1 draw against Chile. The Luis Norton de Matos-coached side, which is among the three debutants alongside New Caledonia and Niger, would be aiming to make the last-16 at least. Banerjee said: "The time has come for the boys to give their life for the World Cup. We never had such a kind of opportunity in our days. Take India to the next level..." Banerjee had played in 84 internationals during the 13 years he had represented India. This included three Asian Games (Tokyo, Jakarta and Bangkok). He was member of the Indian team which finished fourth (the country's best result) in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics and had captained the national team at the 1960 Rome Olympics. "There has been a sea change to the city's infrastructure with the World Cup final slated here. From roads to the stadium, there has been a transformation. It's not a matter of joke," he said of the tournament starting October 6. Banerjee's favourite team is Germany who were knocked out by Croatia in the pre-quarterfinals of the last edition of the tournament. "Every team must be wary of Germany. Be it at this level or senior, they are a very strong side skillfully. You cannot take them for a ride. The African nations are may be strong physically but football is game of skill and tactics. I can't wait to see the World Cup matches at home," he signed off. A Padma Shri, Banerjee was associated as coach of the national team from 1970 to he South African Football TAssociation won't appeal against FIFA's unprecedented decision to strip it of a victory in World Cup qualifying and order a replay because of match-fixing by the referee, the federation said Tuesday. SAFA announced it would not appeal the order that annulled South Africa's 2-1 win over Senegal last November, but said that its "rights to sue for damages remain open." That raised the possibility that SAFA might seek compensation from FIFA, which it believes should take responsibility for the referee, who was appointed by FIFA's referees committee despite some suspicious performances. "Why didn't FIFA do an integrity check on the referee since they have these mechanisms?" SAFA senior legal counsel Norman Arendse said. FIFA's decision on the South Africa-Senegal qualifier was the first time the world body ordered a game to be played again because of match-fixing. FIFA banned Ghanaian referee Joseph Lamptey for life after he awarded South Africa a penalty for a non-existent handball against a Senegal defender. South Africa scored from the penalty and went on to win the qualifier 2-1. FIFA found neither team was involved in the fixing, and the referee was likely manipulating the match for "Wins give you confidence and big wins give you lots of confidence. I am sure it's a stepping stone in their process to make the top 100," Bhupathi said. "Both Yuki and Ram have had very good summers so they have a lot of matches under their belt. Rohan, of course, made the final in Montreal and is a leader in this team. Saketh is getting better every week, it's always hard to come back from a long injury layoff but he is committed," Bhupathi said, giving his assessment of the team. Yuki had to endure tough times after breaking the top-100 barrier late in 2015 due to injuries but has done well this season. Ramkumar was also struggling initially this year but has shaken off the rust to come out stronger. Bhupathi said the players are working very hard and will enjoy more success. "(I am) sure they do (work very hard). It's heading in the right direction," the 43- year-old Bhupathi, India's first ever Grand Slam winner, said. Bhupathi also felt that India can produce top-10 players like other Asian nations. "If Japan, Thailand can produce top 10 players, I believe India can too," he said without elaborating. illegal betting rings. Lamptey had previously been under scrutiny and was suspended by the Confederation of African Football for allowing a crucial goal from a clear handball to stand in an African Champions League semifinal match in The fact that he was still appointed by FIFA's referees committee for the World Cup qualifier is one of two major gripes for South Africa. The other is that SAFA was never invited to make any representation in the process by FIFA, which ultimately ended up in a decision that adversely affected South Africa. South Africa now has little chance of reaching the World Cup in Russia next year. FIFA's unprecedented decision to order a replay because of fixing must be confirmed by its organizing committee for competitions at a meeting on Thursday. It should be rubber-stamped, with no opposition now from SAFA. "SAFA has decided on ethical and moral grounds that if this match was manipulated, we should replay it," the South African federation said. The game will be replayed in November, likely after all the other qualifiers in the group are completed. While FIFA's decision badly hampers South Africa's World Cup hopes, it gives Senegal a second chance. Currently third in the group, a victory in the replay for Senegal could send it to the World Cup at the expense of the other three teams. appearance in a major semifinal had stretched to about two and half years. By the end of the Australian Open, though, they were squaring off to decide the title. It was the pair's ninth Grand Slam final against each other - it's happened at least twice at each major except the US Open, where they have never met - but first since the 2011 French Open. At the time, Nadal said Sunday, "I was surprised." But he wasn't taken aback by what he and Federer were able to do later in the year. It was clear - to Nadal, to everyone - that they were once again capable of being the dominant figures in their sport. "To come back and win all four Grand Slams was quite an achievement, regardless of how good they are. There is a lot of very tough competition," said Kevin Anderson, the first-time major finalist who failed to put up too much of a fight in a 6-3, 6-3, 6-4 loss to the No 1-ranked Nadal. "When they're healthy, I think they have so many skills they can rely on. In addition to that is just the amount of experience they have had," Anderson said. "Playing at this level, I think they feel very comfortable, and obviously they might get nervous, but just like anything, the more you do it, the more used to it you get." It didn't hurt that the three men who are next in the pecking order all had down years and injury issues: Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka. All missed the US Open. All could return to contention for big prizes next year. Add in that trio's major totals (Djokovic has 12, Murray and Wawrinka three apiece), and since the start of the 2005 French Open, the top five men have won 49 of the past 51 Grand Slam championships. Still, after all this time, there are still two who stand alone at the top: Rafa and Roger. "There is just two things that probably we share - that is passion for what we are doing, passion for tennis, passion for the competition," Nadal said, "and the spirit of improvement all the time." The question was put to him Sunday night: How important is it for you to catch Federer in the race for most Grand Slam titles? "I really never thought much about that. I just do my way. He does his way," Nadal responded. "Let's see when we finish, no?" o one saw this one coming. Real Madrid is Nthe team struggling early in the Spanish league. Barcelona is just cruising along in the lead. It was supposed to be the other way around considering how both teams entered the season: Barcelona was in turmoil, Madrid was thriving. Madrid, the defending European and Spanish champion, was considered the early favorite after keeping its top players from a season ago and routing Barcelona 5-1 on aggregate in the Spanish Super Cup. It had also defeated Manchester United 2-1 in the European Super Cup. Barcelona was reeling after the surprise departure of Neymar to Paris Saint-Germain and the failure to sign many top players during the offseason. It also had to deal with the absence of Luis Suarez because of an injury. It all pointed to early success for Madrid and disappointment for Barcelona. But three games into the season, Barcelona has a perfect record and Madrid has only one victory. The Catalan club is the league leader with nine points from three victories, along with Real Sociedad, while Madrid is in seventh place with five points from a win and two consecutive draws, both at home. "It's early in the season and the difference in points is not significant, but it's better to be in front than to be behind," Barcelona coach Ernesto Valverde said after the team's 5-0 rout of Espanyol at Camp Nou Stadium on Saturday. "You never know what may happen later on. It doesn't mean much now, but it's good to be ahead. We will keep focused on winning and adding points." Zinedine Zidane's Madrid could not manage more than a 1-1 draw against minnow Levante at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium on Saturday. "I'm not worried, games like this one are normal in a season," Zidane said. "There will be ups and downs, but the good thing is that we have plenty of time to fix things." Madrid had opened with a convincing 3-0 win at Deportivo La Coruna but then was held to a 2-2 draw by Valencia at the Bernabeu. Next weekend it will face a difficult test when it travels to play co-leader Real Sociedad at Anoeta Stadium. Before that, it makes its Champions League debut against Apoel. Barcelona, which opened with 2-0 victories against Real Betis and at Alaves, hosts Juventus in the Champions League before playing at Getafe in the league on Saturday. Getafe has four points and is yet to win at home.

13 6 G one are the days when a doctor had to he achieves. manage the hospital and Out Patient Entrepreneurial skills: The ability to take initiatives, grab new opportunities, risk taking abili- Department (OPD). Now, is the era of multispecialty hospitals where doctors are busy ties and decision-making in the uncertain situations are the key skills for a successful managers. with treating patients rather than spend time in administrative work of the hospital. With the rise In the current scenario, the scope of healthcare industry is tremendously widening, bring- in the number of multispecialty hospitals, doctors need to concentrate on their core skills and ing in a large pool of opportunities in terms of the management should be taken care of by hospital managers. employment. Besides the doctors and other paramedical staff, the healthcare industry today, looks Hospital managers go through complexities forward to qualified and specialised healthcare of day-to-day working and strategic decisionmaking in the hospital. The demand for profes- administrative and the management needs well. management professionals who can handle the sional managers is high in the other healthcare institutions. They can take care of management aspects that will help doctors focus in clinical work The job profiles offered to healthcare management professionals involve management of the and create conducive environment for them. There is a dire need to train the managers Some of the skills that are in focus in the internal affairs of the hospital or medical institution. Being a professional in health care man- with appropriate skills. There are diploma courses available which is accredited by National Board Interpersonal skills: The ability to interact well agement, you also have to deal with critical man- preparation of healthcare managers are: of Accreditation that makes it equivalent to MBA. with the staff and clients is very important for a agement problems encountered by hospitals and The post graduate courses in Healthcare professional, and healthcare professionals are not other healthcare agencies and respond favorably Management are nowadays gaining a lot of recognition among students owing to its many bene- of any professionals. Some people believe that dates are placed in community hospitals, reha- exception of it. This is the prerequisite of success to such adverse situations. Usually, these candi- fits and the widening scope. Some of the major these skills are innate, but the reality is that with bilitation facilities, outpatient clinics, and hospices benefits that these programmes bring in for the proper training and practice, these skills can also with flexible work timings. students are: be developed. Some of the other job roles that a person can Training and certification open up career Leadership skills: These skills include the ability to delegate authority, motivate others and com- Healthcare Management are as a hospital admin- get placed on, upon pursuing post graduation in opportunities in diverse healthcare segments such as bio-pharmaceutical organisations, health municate effectively. It helps the managers to take istrator, healthcare finance manager, medical insurance organisations, clinical research organisations, Government sectors, financial organi- Analytical skills: These skills enable a profession- pharmaceutical project manager, etc. thoughtful decisions and in meeting the deadlines. director, HR recruiter, blood bank administrator, sations, NGOs, and many others. al to collect, scrutinise and analyse the information effectively. These skills are required in effi- and realised the importance of management pro- Today, the healthcare industry has identified There is a high level of work satisfaction and remuneration in this industry. Also, you have the cient decision-making. Students are engaged in fessionals and specialised administration staff for flexibility to work at varying locations, either in research projects and given research-based improving medical infrastructure and healthcare the non-urban communities or metropolitan assignments and dissertation. facilities. The trained professional develops cities. Goal setting skills: Appropriate goal setting is diverse knowledge and understanding to holistic Students gain practical knowledge about the very important for a professional. Prior to goal management of health/ hospital services. They nuances of what all is required to administer the setting, all the resources must be analysed and are sought after by Government as well as the private/ healthcare facilities from a domestic as well as then goals should be set accordingly. The success corporate sector. global perspective. of the manager also depends on the extent of goals he Indian Institute of TManagement Ahmedabad (IIMA) in partnership with Hughes Education India Limited has kickstarted the first batch of Electronic Mode- Post Graduate Diploma Programme (epgp) The programme was inaugurated by Prof Ashish Nanda, director IIMA, from the Hughes Interactive Onsite Studio located at IIMA new campus. epgp is a two-year programme with an added flexibility of completion in three years. This programme is for working professionals and entrepreneurs having a minimum full-time work experience of three years. The campus module of the epgp batch is scheduled to begin on October 2. The first batch of epgp has 53 participants who will pursue this course from 13 cities across the country. The candidates have been selected from a vast pool of applicants through rigorous selection criteria. For the next batch of epgp starting from May 2018, IIMA will be considering CAT/GMAT scores, so all interested participants are advised to register for CAT igital Media spend in DAsia has been growing over 25 per cent annually. There is an increasing demand for skilled professional who can conceptualise and execute campaigns across search, social, and mobile marketing. The top 10 jobs highlighted by Linkedin for the coming year are centered around technology and marketing. This creates a need gap for our youth to be equipped to ride the wave, Shailendra Dixit, founder, AcademySid, said. As an accredited test centre and education facility, AcademySid is tutoring students on a curriculum which has been endorsed not only by Google, Microsoft, Facebook, LinkedIn and other leaders of the Digital Spectrum, but also by Governments and public sector team across more than 120 countries. It is backed by the curriculum from ICDL International Computers Drivers License based at Ireland. ICDL has a formidable standing having given more than 15 million certifications and having developed course material in 40 languages. The course is spread over 10 weeks and covers theoretical as well as practical and working aspects of the module as well. Right from creating websites to outreach marketing plans for products and services to data analytics of the campaign, the curriculum covers it all. ICDL online test is mandatory for all enrollments. Any graduate with good communication skills can enroll at one of the centers of South Delhi, North Campus, Noida or Gurugram. The academy, however, does not offer any online courses. The Faculty comprises of some of the leading digital marketing experts who have worked on affiliate marketing and online campaigns across industries and not just people with theoretical know how and certifications. AcademySID also hosts an alumni programme for all the passouts that will allow them login to the alumni page to keep them connected and help explore career opportunities over the years. For more information, log on to T he Vijanan Bharati (VIBHA), a movement to promote Science amongst children, is organising Vidyarthi Vigyan Manthan (VVM) the national science talent search on November 26, The aim is to select students with scientific temperament from Class VI to XI across the country. Vigyan Prasar (VP), an autonomous organisation under Department of Science and Technology and NCERT have joined hands in organising this competition. The competition will be held on a digital platform. It will be multi-level competition and the students can register with their respective schools. The schools will have to sign up for the registration by assigning a person-in-charge to coordinate the examination. The school login ID will be created and schools can register as many students still September 20, The syllabus for this competition includes NCERT books of Science and Maths of respective classes, articles published by VIBHA, biographies of Dr Vikram Sarabhai and Dr Homi Jahangir Bhabha, general knowledge, logic and reasoning. The study material will be made available at from October 1. The exam will be conducted for two sections: Junior Classes (VI-VIII) and senior Classes IX-XI. The students from respective classes will be compared separately for the purpose of evaluation. Registered students can also appear in series of mock exam from October 1 to November 20, British Council has Tlaunched myenglish course, an online interactive courses to improve English speaking and writing skills for adult learners. The programme offers total nine courses at three levels preintermediate, intermediate and upper- intermediate. The applicants are first required to take a short online test followed by a consultation with one of the teachers to identify the right course before registration. The course will be starting from September 23, 2017 across India, fee is 8,800 with a class size of 20. The course is designed for the period of six weeks (50 hours) to improve one s fluency, writing skills and to have proper command over English as a language. It will help developing workspace skills like interpersonal communication, time management, interviews and digital skills. Students will be able to access online lectures and study materials, reading and writing tasks that will help them to improve in pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary. This flexible online course consists of numerous module developed by the highly qualified British Council teachers. MyEnglish classes are delivered over Zoom, a low bandwidth consuming video-conferencing platform which is easily accessible from desktop, laptop, smartphone or tablet. The interactive format fulfills the need for real time feedback from the teacher while practicing pronunciation and understanding concepts, critical for learning a language. The course was launched as a pilot programme in Mumbai and Bengaluru to know the response of the learners. Pradeep Kumar, working professional says: The course helped me in improving in English writing and speaking skills. I improved on my fluency with the help of Zoom tool through which we can zoom in and see the teacher s lip movement closely to understand how to pronounce a particular word. The course has helped me gain confidence. I can now speak English fluently. Central Government have recently launched a training programme in the field of Goods and Services Tax (GST) and to train around two lakh people in six months to handle tax compliance issues relating to invoice. This will help businesses areas such as registration and calculation of tax liability. There have been 100 centres inaugurated digitally. The Ministry also launched national portal for assessors and trainers besides 51 new Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana centres. Anyone who want to upgrade their skills can undergo this training programme. Candidates including chartered accountants, company secretaries, graduates and postgraduates in commerce, banking, statistics, financial markets and business administration can get the GST training certificate after successfully undergoing the GST training course. The interested candidates can enroll themselves for GST training course by calling at Pearson and National University of Singapore (NUS) Business School have launched the Emerging Leaders Management Acceleration Programme (ELMAP), a blended executive programme for young business professionals. Commencing on October 14, this programme brings together business skills and superior content from NUS to offer in-depth understanding of various functional areas of Management and Leadership. Working professionals with two to 10 years of work experience, who are keen to work in cross-functional teams or need to coordinate with multiple business functions, would benefit most from the six-month part-time weekend course. The programme will equip participants with the fundamental concepts of leadership, business strategy, marketing and sales management, big data, service operations, supply chain management, business innovation and finance analytics. It will include four to six webinars with industry leaders. Candidates will be awarded with a certificate from NUS Business School upon successful completion of the programme. The direct-to-desktop liveonline classroom sessions with NUS Business School faculty members will provide flexibility to participants to learn from anywhere. The last date to apply is October 6. Interested applicants can find details of the program at The Institute of Management Technology (IMT), invites admissions to its two-year Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM) and MBA programmes for June batch. The curriculum is geared to embed innovation, execution and social responsibility as the key values in the young managers mind. This is being done through core courses on sustainability and social responsibility, design thinking and organisation based projects. After successful completion of the course, the students would also have an opportunity to be a part of entrepreneurial/social/ rural/ international immersion, basis their areas of interest. The aspirants should have taken the CAT 2017/XAT 2018 or GMAT. The final selections process for IMT-FIT candidates will be done through thinking test, group exercise and personal interview (CT-GE-PI). Work experience candidates will be additionally evaluated on the relevance of their work experience in relation to the PGDM programme. Candidates can apply for the globally accredited residential programmes at Ghaziabad, Nagpur, Dubai and Hyderabad campus. They can fill in the common application form at The application fee is 2000 plus taxes. The last date to apply is November 24, Critical thinking test, group exercise and personal interview process will be held in February 2018, post shortlisting the candidate on the basis of CAT/XAT/GMAT. For more details, visit he Team India gears up to Tparticipate at the biggest exhibition WorldSkills Competition which will be organised in Abu Dhabi from October 14 to 19, Around 1,200 competitors from 70-plus countries will compete across 50 skills. WorldSkills India has selected a team of 28 competitors who will compete in 26 skills ranging from car painting, brick laying, hair styling, beauty therapy, proto-type modeling, auto body repair, mobile robotics, welding etc. The National Skill Development Corporation India (NSDC) had identified all the competitors through a series of competitions organised at regional and national levels over the past two years. Post which all the candidates have undergone extensive training with industry partners, which has helped them improve their skills before the competition. NSDC organised a three-day training and team building workshop recently that aimed at equipping the candidates with softer skill such as time management, coping with pressure and other pre-event preparation required to participate at the competition. The workshop was conducted by renowned soft skills training organisation, Tata Strive. Leading sports personalities like Sachin Tendulkar, Deepa Malik, Devendra Jhajharia and Rehan Poncha interacted with the contestants to share their experiences and gave valuable input on coping with the pressure.

14 W e live in a hyper-connected world. We leave a digital footprint wherever we go. Your status updates, tweets, posts and comments are vital clues to know who you really are. Naturally, admissions officers want to know the real you. Are you ready to reveal everything about you? Social media can actually help you get into your dream school. How? Let s look at it this way. The admissions department receives over a hundred applications every day from students with impressive percentile ranking, excellent scores, resumes, and essays. The admissions officer is faced with a difficult choice to identify the right candidate for their school. Merely a strong academic and work profile won t tip the scales in your favour. That s when your social media profile can bring out the real colours that make you unique to the college. Of course, the underlying assumption here is that all information provided on social media is authentic and not crafted for the purpose of leading the admissions director. Your posts, pictures, and comments reveal valuable nuggets of information about you. Here are 5 ways how your social media profile can help you boost your chances of landing that plum admission. Your posts reveal your likes, dislikes, preferences. You enjoy gardening? This skill does not sound as impressive on an essay or resume as it does on a social media platform. If you have been posting pictures of your hobby, this reveals a side of you that may attract the attention of the admission officer. Your comments reveal your passion for social engagement. If you are a sociable person, love to engage with others in your community and share ideas, that s great news. Colleges love candidates who believe in community building and sharing. If you come across as a keen participant in the events going on around your locality, your application will find favour. Your followership reveals your leadership skills. You may not have had many opportunities to showcase your leadership skills. But on social media, there is ample opportunity. If you have a strong band of followers, admissions department will love that. To be a true leader on social media, you have to engage with everyone, accept views, while standing your ground. Your posts reveal your communication skills. Writing an effective message on social network sites with the limitation of character count is a challenge. To be able to communicate effectively, you need to write engaging pieces. You can showcase your ability to communicate with short and long posts through social media. Your choice of groups strengthen your profile. Have you joined the Aerosmith fan page? Or do you follow Gordon Ramsey on Twitter? Did you sign up a petition on Change.org to create awareness about food adulteration? All your activities on social media help flesh out your character. Even more than what you write about, social media reveals all that you don t write about. Admissions officers who are looking deeper to find information would love to know the other side of you. Having understood how social media platforms can assist you in entering your dream school, here are some ideas on how to leverage your social media presence. It is the largest networking site for professionals. Your job profile, your connections and their endorsements about your skills and talents speak a whole lot about you. Who you follow and who follows you are important signals to the admission officer. Moreover, you can engage with people from different industry having diverse expertise. Your engagement reveals your keen interest to learn and develop your skills. Join groups that help you leverage your talent or hone your skills. Learn from the masters, without leaving your chair. People who actively engage on LinkedIn have a higher chance of boosting their employability, as well as securing admission to the college of their choice. If you are an avid FB user, you probably have visited the page of your preferred university. Scan the posts to understand the activities done at the school, the student community, the campus environment, and other important details. Follow the events. If there is a webinar, or online event that you can attend, it is a good idea to be present. Interact with the college professors, the alumni, the admissions board, or other aspirants on their page. Your engagement on their social media pages showcases your keenness to be a part of their community. Also, you can give them a chance to know you even before they have actually met you. Unlike Facebook, Twitter is a great platform to broadcast ideas and opinion. With the 140 limit on characters, Twitter posts are direct, brief, and sharp. If you are Twitter savvy, you will know how to use hashtags to popularise your tweets. Also, you understand the importance of social engagement, and creating followers. Your Twitter profile brings out the best information about you in small packages. There are many other social networking sites that can put to use. Make sure to create an honest profile that supports your interests and reveals your nature to the admissions department. Also, as a safety measure detach or un-tag yourself from posts that don t work in your favour. Employ social media to maximise your chances of getting that coveted college admission. Tell us about the fourstep rigorous teacher scrutiny process? All our tutors undergo a four-step rigorous teacher scrutiny process including a Proficiency Test, an Online or Offline Interview with our team and a full background check conducted by our external partners. The challenges in finding the right tutor for your child. Finding a good tutor was never an easy task. Reliability, track record, safety and quality concerns have always left parents relying on wordof-mouth from other parents or scouring local newspapers and the Internet to find the right tutor for their children. Most of the time students will simply go to the tutors their other friends are using. Thus, we are a unique digital integrated platform where students and parents can scout for tutors in their locality and make an informed choice based on past reviews and ratings for each tutor. Moreover, parents and students also get to rate and review the tutors based on their personal experience. This can help other parents scouting for tutors make an informed decision after going through the reviews and the ratings put up by people who have already learned from the tutor. We also allow parents to evaluate tutors through automatically recorded online sessions so that the feedback can be used to enhance the entire learning ecosystem. What is the starting cost for registering with your portal? There is no starting cost for registering with the portal. Registration is free. We further offers the option of tutors providing free demo classes (online and offline) to first-time students. Do you provide teachers for preparation for entrance exams? At present, we provide reliable tutor options for primary, secondary, higher secondary and undergraduate courses including CBSE, ICSE, GCSE and IB boards along with PSAT, SAT, GMAT and GRE. We will soon be including tutors for all other entrance exams too. Are assignments same for all the students? Each tutor can provide customised assignments based on their students board, course, subject and class. All assignments are proprietary to the tutors. They are shared only between the tutors and their students and are not made public. How this platform is different from other platforms providing tutors? We stand out from the pack because it is India s first platform where one can pick quality-certified and user-rated tutors. What is a better way to learn home tuition/group tuition or online tuition? There is no better way to learn. It all depends on the student and his or her learning ability and comfort with learning method. The Young India Fellowship (YIF), a one-year postgraduate programme in Liberal Studies at Ashoka University, announced the first call for applications for the eighth batch from August 25, 2017 onwards. Eligibility: Those with a recognised undergraduate or postgraduate degree, those who are no more than 28 years of age on 31st May, The admission process is split into two rounds. The first round of admissions will begin on 25th August, 2017 and will close on 17th December, The second round of admissions will begin on 18th December, 2017 and end on 4th March, The selection process for the Young India Fellowship includes an application assessment, interview on the telephone, a comprehension test and a personal interview. Candidates, who are screened through application assessment, will be interviewed over the telephone about the information furnished on their application. The last stage would include a comprehension test followed by a personal interview. Final selection will be based on the cumulative score of all the three rounds. How to apply: Interested applicants can apply on The final offers to selected candidates for the first round will be between February 1- March 25, 2018 and for second round will be between 26 March-June15, The programme begins on July 16, Aakash Institute is conducting Aakash National Talent Hunt Exam (ANTHE) This unique scholarship exam is for Classes VIII, IX and X students and has joined hands with the Kaun Banega Crorepati 9 as its Knowledge Partner. The exam is scheduled on October 29, 2017, Sunday, across 22 States. The last date of application is October 22, 2017 with a minimal examination fee of 300 which can be paid through digital payment mode like PayTM. The exam will be of 360 marks, carrying 90 MCQs. These questions will test the knowledge of Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Mathematics and Mental Ability. From Classes VIII and IX studying students, top 50 students will be eligible for 100 per cent scholarship on tuition fee, admission fee and registration fee, top 150 students will also be eligible for cash awards. From Class X studying students, top 500 students (medical) and top 1,000 students (engineering) will be eligible for 100 per cent scholarship on tuition fee, while top 150 students from each medical and engineering will also be eligible for cash awards. Students below top ranks mentioned above will be eligible for scholarship as per course prospectus. QUERY: I am Siddharth Verma, My date of birth is February 15, I have done post graduation in Political Science. Please suggest the best career options for me. BHATT: You are an Aquarian, the element of your zodiac is water. Hence mundane careers will not appeal to you. You always like to stand apart from the crowd. You have an inner urge to be noticed. You should ideally seek professions and jobs where you are able to use own planning ability and sense of idealism. As you are The Water Bearer' you need to be intellectually engaged and stimulated by the work and work environment. You need to be able to apply the latest technology in your work, in order to be on the cutting edge of the profession. Hence, you cannot be happy compiling data or working on repetitive tasks! You always like to be at ten miles ahead of everyone else in thinking; therefore, at office you require a space that allows you to practice independence of thought and encourage innovation. Political activist: Your natural career choice would be to create havoc and unrest and to stir things up by being a an activist. You can measure the field of public opinion and help small or large communities achieve common goals. Constructive and practical, you work tirelessly to help balance budgets and give muchneeded aid in education, the arts, and culture. You have a trustworthy demeanour and ability to be a good activist that evokes respect and support from your constituents Social activist: Water bearer Aquarians generally do not let things get to them too much emotionally, which works out really well in this field. Job of social activist is apt for you as your planet condition shows your entire life will be consumed by circulating petitions, writing politicians, and lobbying the government. This is your nature to care about others, but also want to keep a certain reserve. Conceptual artist: Conceptual artistry involves being able to rationalise profusely the display of irrational things. Aquarius is the perfect person to discuss such work in an impressive way. With this type of art it's important to be able to talk a lot, use big words, and occasionally look disdainful and you have all these natural qualities. Engineer/technician: Sun in Aquarius makes one happy and wealthy as a scholar or skilled man. Hence you have options to become an engineer, artisan & mechanic also. The beauty of this job is that you will be able to use own planning ability and sense of idealism. Mediator: According to Vedic Astrology of all the signs in the zodiac, Aquarius is best suited to being an objective problem solver. They can work tirelessly on the behalf of others. Their go getter personality gives them the inner motivation to perceive things. Astrologer: Aquarians are able to understand someone at a very deep level without any messy involvement. Hence, believe it or not, the Astrologer can be a perfect career for you. You can be a successful astrologist, astronomer. This profession bridges the gap between space and human being, a worthy career option for an Aquarius.

15 NEW he Government has notified Tlevy of increased GST cess of up to 7 per cent on mid-size, large and SUV cars. The GST Council on September 9 had decided to hike cess on mid-size cars by 2 per cent, on large cars by 5 per cent and on SUVs by 7 per cent to bring tax rates on these cars at pre-gst levels. The Finance Ministry late last night notified the hike in quantum of cess to be levied on cars, following which the new rates came into effect. The effective GST rate on mid-size cars will be 45 per cent, and on large cars it would be 48 per cent. The rate will be 50 per cent on sports utility vehicles (SUVs), which include cars with length exceeding 4,000mm and having a ground clearance of 170mm and above. Car prices had dropped by up to 3 lakh as the tax rates fixed under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) that came into effect from July 1, was lower than the combined central and state taxes in the pre-gst days. To fix this anomaly, the council raised the cess. The Finance Ministry now has amended the notification 'Compensation Cess (Rate)', dated the June 28, 2017, and brought in the changes in the rate of cess to be levied. However, cess on small petrol and diesel cars, hybrid cars and those carrying up to 13 passengers has not been raised. Under the GST regime, cars attract the highest tax slab of 28 per cent and on top of that a cess is levied. An ordinance was promulgated last week to hike the cess from 15 per cent to up to 25 per cent. The Council then on September 9 decided on the quantum of hike in cess in various segments. After the GST council meet, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said that in large vehicles where afford- ability of consumers is high, the cess has been increased. The pre-gst rate has not been restored. Even though we had a headspace of hiking cess by 10 per cent, it has been hiked by up to 7 per cent, Jaitley had said. The highest pre-gst tax incidence on motor vehicles worked out to about per cent, to which 2.5 per cent was added on account of Central Sales Tax, octroi etc. Against this, post-gst the total tax incidence came to 43 per cent. With the revision in cess quantum with Monday's notification, now the anomalies have been removed to a greater extent. With this, small petrol cars with engine capacity less than 1200cc will attract only 1 per cent cess, while diesel cars with engine capacity of les than 1500cc will attract 3 per cent cess, on top of the 28 per cent GST rate. Cess on hybrid cars, including mid, large and SUVs, have been retained at 15 per cent, likewise those vehicles used for transport of not more than 13 passengers. Automakers such as Mahindra and Mahindra, Toyota Kirloskar Motor, Audi, Mercedes-Benz and JLR India have already said that they are planning to pass on the increased cess to consumers in form of hike in car prices. DELHI: ITC has said tobacco regulation should not be discriminatory to the cigarette industry, while asserting that the FMCG major has no plans to exit the segment despite its ongoing diversification. The Kolkata-based firm said taxes on cigarettes have increased by more than 200 per cent in last few years which has resulted in smuggling of cigarettes and other forms of tobacco in India. If you look at the figures of tobacco consumption in India, over a long period it has not gone down. Tobacco consumption has only increased, ITC CEO & Executive Director Sanjiv Puri said in a media interaction. From cigarettes, it has shifted to illegal cigarettes or arket brimmed with confi- on Tuesday as the Mdence Sensex breached the 32,000 mark again by climbing 276 points to bring up a nearly one-month closing high, with the focus clearly on key macroeconomic data. The broader NSE Nifty scaled a high of 10, before closing up 87 points -- or 0.87 per cent -- at 10,093.05, the highest closing since August 1 when it settled at 10, With this, both benchmarks extended the gains for the fourth day in a row. Risk aversion was clearly relegated to the background after a rally in global markets as the US stocks hit a fresh record high Monday on fading worries about North Korea and impact of Hurricane Irma on the US. The BSE Sensex stayed above the base line throughout the session before settling higher by points, or 0.87 per cent, at 32, on continuous inflow of funds by domestic institutional investors (DIIs). NEW DELHI: The Government has extended tax benefits to 67 startups so far with a view to promoting budding entrepreneurs in the country, Minister of State for Commerce & Industry CR Chaudhary said on Tuesday. In January 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had unveiled a slew of incentives to boost start-up ecosystem, offering them a tax holiday and inspector raj-free regime for three years, capital gains tax exemption and 10,000 crore corpus to fund them. 3,576 startups have been recognised as on September 7 and tax benefits have been given to 67 innovative startups, Chaudhary said here while addressing the startup India states conference. The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), under the ministry, considered 671 startups for income tax exemption NEW DELHI: Steel Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh on Tuesday said India needs to raise per capita consumption of the commodity, while asking the industry to play ethical by differentiating between 'ease of doing business' and 'ease of making money'. It is not just the duty of the government or the steel ministry in specific, each one has a role to play, he said at KATM conference on raw materials for steel & power here. He was speaking on the key role society has to play with regard to various issues be it increasing steel consumption or protecting the domestic steel industry. Singh said: "When there was dumping in our country, many of the producers of steel became traders. Is it fair on the part of a man who...has the responsibility to produce... Why? because there is a possibility that without doing anything you can make easy money." 'Ease of doing business' is very different from 'ease of making money'. Each one has a role to play, he said. India aw and IT minister Ravi LShankar Prasad on Tuesday warned companies of consequences if they release data or information about an individual with name and without his or her consent. Some things are completely private, should not come in public. Today, I would like to gently remind, all the companies dealing with data, that if any data of an individual is released by name you will suffer consequence unless there is specific consent of person whose data you are seeking to make public, Prasad said while launching a nation-wide hackathon. He said the Government is committed to make best use of big data in establishing rule of precision governance. While doing so every care would be taken to to other forms of consumptions, he added. Legal industry has lost volumes to illicit trade... I think that's the concern we have and we really say that regulation should not be discriminatory to the cigarette industry, Puri said. When asked if ITC, which is on a diversification drive into new areas, could exit the cigarettes segment considering the overall challenges in terms of regulations and health issues, he replied in the negative. We have, for sure taken the path of diversification over a period of time but we believe it is neither in our stakeholders' interest nor in the interest of the nation, for us to cede ground to the illicit trade, to smuggling, which has become NEW DELHI: Mergers of PSU banks should be done only after balancesheets are cleaned up and these are nursed back to health with adequate capitalisation, said former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan. I would say restore the banks to health, get active board composed of professionals. There has been a steady attempt to professionalise banks and remove political hacks. Once we have done that, I think there will be an ideal situation for merger, he said in an interview to PTI. He was responding to a question on the Government's push for consolidating public sector banks with an aim to create fewer and larger banks. Rajan also suggested that decisions need to be made by those who understand the banking system rather than necessarily by bureaucrats. It seems to me that cleaning up has been postponed for one reason or the other. We are in a reasonable a big menace in the country, Puri said. Presently, the cigarette industry is 11 per cent of the total tobacco consumption and accounts for 87 per cent of revenues, he added. Stressing that the current policy is hitting the legal cigarettes industry hard and in turn affecting tobacco farmers associated with it, he said it does not serve any purpose for position to do it. We need to actually achieve it and put the capital that is necessary to recapitalise the banks where it is needed and after it seems that some of the (merger) decisions can be made, he added. The statement assumes significance as the Government recently initiated the process of second round of consolidationin public sector banks by constituting an Alternative Mechanism to oversee proposals of amalgamation. Pointing out that going forward, the merger would not be as easy as SBI that had few teething issues, has the potential to equal the world average per capita steel consumption. At present, the world per capita steel consumption is 208 kg and that can be achieved in India, Singh said. The National Steel Policy aims more than doubling the per capita steel consumption to 158 Kg by , from 61 kg at present. The steel consumption in the country will increase with the improvement in lifestyle and development of infrastructure in housing, he said. Steel consumption can grow only when we will improve our lifestyle, living standard. Everybody wants a better life, house and in it I expect 70 per ensure that strict privacy rights of individuals are protected. However, unauthorised use of data would be dealt with iron-hand to ensure that nothing comes in the way of making data-analytics a national movement, he said. The Government has launched open data platform in 2012 for public use. Later, it issued an open licence for people. The Minister said the government has opened up many data sets for developing innovating solutions but the data has anonymity. Please don t confuse. Government data is anonymous. It does have an identity. If data is anonymous. It is free from all the constraints. It should be available for innovation, Prasad said. He said the Supreme Court in its recent judgement has given elaborate consideration the way India is innovating, embarked on digital empowerment with financial inclusion. The Minister said that the apex court has said that right to privacy is not absolute. If an individual data which is private is disclosed without his consent surely consequences will follow and should follow. I want to assure that strict privacy rights of an individual must be protected. We in the Government will the legal industry to cede ground to illicit trade. So, at the end what happens is that Indian farmers lose, government lose revenue and Indian manufactures lose..., Puri said. Commenting on the government's direction over 85 per cent pictorial warnings, he said: Now research has recently shown that consumers prefer packs Rajan said you would be merging banks with fairly different culture, fairly different orientation, system and region. To that extent, you have to be careful about time it will take and what the merger would add in terms of value. Merger requires a fair amount of cultural focus because you are merging banks which have different cultures, he said. There are personnel problems like who becomes the boss, who becomes the subordinates. For example, if you are merging two forex units, then who becomes the boss? So, all these issues come to the fore. It MUMBAI: India Inc s foreign direct investment (FDI) fell by about 15 per cent to $1.34 billion in last month, according to the Reserve Bank data. The overseas investment by Indian companies in August last year ago stood at $1.57 billion. The foreign investments were also down sequentially when compared with $1.77 billion July this year, showed the Outward Foreign Direct Investment (OFDI) data of RBI. The investment break-up included $ million in without warning and they are getting it (in India) because smuggled packs are coming. He further said: China, Japan and US which account for more than 50 per cent of cigarette consumption in the world do not have pictorial warnings. In , ITC's total consolidated income was 60, crore, out of which the cigarettes business had contributed 35, crore. In the April-June quarter this fiscal, ITC's revenue from cigarettes increased 6.60 per cent to 8, crore, from 8, crore in the yearago period despite high taxation. The company, as part of diversification, is moving ahead in non-cigarette segment which contribute 58 per cent of its total revenue. PTI and of this 67 received the benefit. The Minister also assured full support and facilitation from both the centre and state governments. We are here to support you. Whenever you need any assistance or help, we are there for that, he added. The Minister asked young entrepreneurs to work in areas like agriculture, health, biotechnology and animal husbandry. Speaking at the conference, DIPP Secretary Ramesh Abhishek said 15 states have formulated their startup policies and through that they are facilitating the young businesses. States are important partners in this exercise, he said adding startups needs support in areas like infrastructure, funding and marketing. He informed that 1,587 crore funds were given to startups so far besides intellectual property related benefits were extended to 639. PTI occupies enormous amount of the management's time, the ex-governor pointed out. Talking about Asset Quality Review (AQR) initiated during his regime to clean up banking, Rajan said what was unique about the exercise was that for the first time, the regulator went across the banks to see if they were classifying the same promoter and the loan the same way. The RBI had embarked on the AQR journey from December 2015 and asked banks to recognise some top defaulting accounts as NPAs and make provisions for them. This has had a debilitating impact on banks' numbers. Almost all lenders in the system have reported a sharp increase in asset quality stress and heightened provisioning as a result of the AQR, under which banks have been reportedly asked to recognise stressed accounts by March PTI cent steel and 30 per cent rest of the items..., he said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken it as a challenge that everyone has a roof, he said. Singh further said that there was a 'socio-economic caste census' survey, showing there is a requirement of 5 crore houses. The Government has a mission to complete it by 2022, he said. We also want round the clock electricity, clean drinking water, best education for children and health-care for everyone. I do agree that if this kind of infrastructure is made available...then of course the consumption would be on the same level which one can think in any of the developed country, he said. Talking about the approach of the common man, the minister said he thinks that these things will be created or made available by the government may be the state government or the Centre. He further asked the industry to make full use if the resources available in the country. India has surplus power, iron ore reserve which will last for at least next 30 years. PTI the form of guarantees issued, $ million and loan and $ million as equity infusion. Among major investors, Wipro Ltd invested $500 million in a wholly owned unit in the US and Sintex-BAPL Ltd, $ million in a joint venture in Netherlands. Tata Communications invested $78.75 million in a wholly owned subsidiary in Singapore and ONGC Videsh Ltd, $55.54 million in various joint ventures in Myanmar, Russia and Vietnam. PTI NEW DELHI: Overtaking HDFC Bank, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) on Tuesday regained its status as the country's second most valued firm in terms of market capitalisation. Earlier in the day, HDFC Bank had surpassed TCS to become the country's second most valued firm. However, it slipped to third position in the ranking chart at close of trade. In the afternoon trade, market capitalisation (m-cap) of HDFC Bank reached 4,73, crore, crossing that of TCS was 4,72, crore. However, at the close of trade, TCS' market valuation stood at 4,76, crore, which was 2, crore more than HDFC Bank s 4,73, crore valuation. PTI ensure that it is protected, Prasad said. He said the Government will be very tough in any unauthorised use of data in the interest of India s citizen for their right of privacy but in the garb of privacy it should not be hyped that innovation, initiative, entrepreneurship development is restrained. We have to find middle path. On middle path, I have always said that data availability, data utility, data anonymity, data privacy -- on these four principle if we proceed then surely India will emerge as a very important place as a democracy ruled by law, as a beacon for the world as to how India has set up a robust regime which set out benchmark for data utilisation maturity, Prasad said. Ministry of Electronics and IT Secretary Ajay Prakash Sawhney said that the open data platform is a huge opportunity for the country and a brilliant foundation in place to have so much of data already being made available. However, there is big gap between data being available and data being utilised. I believe, there are not only gaps, but we have serious opportunities available. A lot of intellectual effort needs to go into creating that value, Sawhney said.

16 A ustralia warmed up for the limited-overs series against India in style by crushing Board President's (BP) XI by 103 runs in the lone practice match, here on Tuesday. Marcus Stoinis hammered a 60- ball 76 to build on half centuries by Travis Head (65), David Warner (64) and captain Steve Smith (55) to power the visitors to a formidable 347 for 7 after winning the toss and electing to bat. Young all-rounder Washington Sundar impressed with the ball for India, picking up 2 wickets for 23 in his eight overs. In reply, young left-arm spinner Ashton Agar returned with figures of 4 for 44 as Australia bowled out BP XI for 244 in 48.2 overs. The home team, consisting mostly of rookies, was never in the hunt despite a 79-run partnership for the second wicket between opener Shreevats Goswami (43) and Mayank Agarwal (42). After the early exit of opener Rahul Tripathi (7), Goswami and Agarwal struggled to force the pace against some accurate bowling from the Australians. The duo took 15 overs to add 79 runs as the required run-rate kept climbing. Agarwal, who was dropped early in his innings by Glenn Maxwell, fell for 42 while going for a big hit against legspinner Adam Zampa, caught in the deep by Warner. The BP XI's innings floundered after Agarwal's exit as wickets kept falling at regular intervals. Goswami followed soon, bowled by Stoinis. Nitish Rana, who had a good IPL season for Mumbai Indians, showed some sense of urgency and struck three fours but was run-out in a mix-up with captain Gurkeerat Mann. Shivam Chaudhary, Mann, Govind Poddar and Sundar were dismissed in the space of 18 runs as Australia's took hold over the game. There was a big cheer from the spectators when local lad Sundar walked in, after his heroics with the ball. The tall left-hander struck a couple of boundaries but was caught by Agar when going for a big shot off Kane Richardson's (2/36) bowling. There was some late resistance from Akshay Karnewar (40) and Kushang Patel (41 not out), who indulged in lusty hitting to take the score past 200. Besides Agar and Richardson, a replacement for the injured Josh Hazlewood, James Faulkner, Zampa and Stoinis got picked up one wicket ndia's batting line-up poses a "big Ithreat" and Australia need to score huge runs to counter the hosts during the five-match ODI series beginning on September 17, all-rounder Marcus Stoinis said on Tuesday. Stoinis on tuesday hammered a 60-ball 76 to guide Australia to a 103- run crushing win over Board President's (BP) XI. "I think we have to score a lot of runs in this series," he said when asked if scores over 300 would be the norm in the upcoming ODI series."they (India) are batting really well. I think heavy runs, 350 it will be for sure." Asked who he considers a threat in the India team, Stoinis quipped: "All of them are a big threat. Every single one of them are great players, very good players." Stoinis, who also grabbed a wicket, said there were a lot of positives for the team. "Positives with the bat is, the batters made good runs early and in terms of spinners Ashton Agar bowled beautifully. Just understanding the conditions and the lengths one has to bowl," he said. each for Australia. Pacemen Pat Cummins bowled only four overs as the Australians apparently thought it fit to conserve his energies after his exertions in the Bangladesh Test series. Earlier, the Australian batsmen enjoyed a good hit-out with Stoinis' aggressive knock providing the impetus to the innings after the team appeared to stutter slightly following a superb century partnership between Warner and Smith, who both made half-centuries. Coming in at No 6, Stoinis hit some big shots off the spinners, especially Karnewar. He was involved in a quick 88-run stand with Head, who made 65. He also put on 85 runs with Matthew Wade, who smashed 45 off 24 balls, slamming four sixes in the process. Stoinis was in punishing form and hammered two consecutive sixes in an over from Karnewar and took a liking to Gurkeerat Mann's bowling. The Aussies were 158 for 4 in 28.2 overs at the fall of Glenn Maxwell's wicket and the home team appeared to be coming back after a brisk start. However, Stoinis seemed to have other ideas as he got going after a slowish start. Along with Head, he helped the World Cup (50-overs) champions regain momentum and then in the company of Wade took the attack to the BP XI bowlers, who struggled as the two went on the rampage. For BP XI, Sundar, who made a mark in this year's IPL for Rising Pune Supergiant, was the best bowler. Kushang Patel also picked up two wickets, but he was expensive giving away 58 runs in six overs. After Sandeep Sharma bowled a maiden over first up, the visitors suffered a jolt when all-rounder Hilton Cartwright, pushed up the order in the absence of regular opener Aaron Finch, fell to promising paceman Avesh Khan for a duck. Warner and Smith, after a cautious start, opened up with the latter outpacing his partner initially. The duo raised the team 50 in the 10th over and began to score freely. The flamboyant southpaw fell when he appeared set for a big score, caught behind by Goswami off Kushang Patel for a strokeful 64 which came in just 48 balls. The Warner-Smith partnership of 106 runs set the tempo for the visiting side. Smith too hit form and played some delightful shots on both sides of the wicket to keep the scoreboard ticking. He fell to Sundar, caught at square-leg by his opposite number Mann. The aggressive Maxwell didn't look convincing in his knock of 14 and was caught and bowled by Sundar. achin Tendulkar on Tuesday said SIndian cricket had possibly touched its lowest ebb leading upto the 2007 World Cup before recovering to move in a new direction. "I think we were possibly (at) lowest (phase)," the legendary batsman recalled at a programme here. "We didn't qualify for the Super 8 stage of the 2007 World Cup. But we got back from there and started fresh thinking, we started moving in a new direction." It was the phase during which Greg Chappell was at the helm as India coach, perhaps the most turbulent tenure in Indian cricket marred by his public fallout with senior Indian players. "We had to make a lot of changes. And once we had planned what we had to achieve as a team, we were committed to it and the results followed. We had to change a lot of things. Whether they were right or wrong we didn't know. The change did not happen overnight. We had to wait for results. In fact it took me 21 years of my career to lift that beautiful World Cup trophy," he added. Tendulkar was part of the Indian squad which lifted the 2011 World Cup under the captaincy of Mahendra Singh Dhoni. ahendra Singh Dhoni might Mbe firmly occupying the wicketkeeper's slot in ODIs but India's Test glovesman Wriddhiman Saha on Tuesday said he has not given up on his World Cup dreams and is pushing hard to play in the 2019 quadrennial event. Saha said, in fact, it's his wife Romi who wishes to see him play in the World Cup. "My wife badly wants me to play in the World Cup," Saha, who will turn 33 next month, said. "She insists that I must push harder to achieve that. I am also trying, but ultimately the decision lies with the selectors." Fresh from their 9-0 clean-sweep over Sri Lanka, India will take on Australia in a five-odi, three T20Is limited overs series beginning in Chennai on September 17 and Saha feels Virat Kohli and Co will be tough to beat at home. "Beating India in India will always be tough. Australia has done well last time but I will put India ahead," said Saha. "India's bench strength is very strong. The team is preparing for the 2019 World Cup. That's why the rotation of players is happening. India has been performing well with all sets of players which is a good sign." ith the experienced duo of WRavichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja being rested, former Indian batting great VVS Laxman is of the opinion that the upcoming series against Australia is a great opportunity for youngsters to prove their mettle. Starting from 17th of this month, India are set to play five ODIs and three T20s against Steve Smith's side. Keeping up with BCCI's rotation policy, the experienced spinners were given a rest to allow the youngsters, who performed remarkably well in the 9-0 demolition (5 ODIs, 3 Tests and 1 T20) of Sri Lanka, to test their abilities against a stronger side in Australia. "I believe that Ashwin and Jadeja have been communicated to by the selectors that they want to give opportunity to youngsters, who did well against Sri Lankan batting lineup. They want to give them a chance against a formidable batting line-up of Australia," Laxman said. "So it doesn't mean that Ashwin is dropped or Jadeja is dropped - it's an opportunity for the youngsters," he told reporters on Tuesday during a panel discussion ahead of Australia's tour of India. On the reserve strength, he added, "The bench strength is so strong. The stronger the bench side, the better the opportunity if you have to be a champion side." Spinners Yuzvendra Chahal and Axar Patel impressed during the Lankan tour. Chahal bagged eight wickets in the four ODIs and one T20 he played, while Patel took six wickets from his four ODI matches. Laxman felt the case was same with senior Indian batsman Yuvraj Singh. "They want to try with youngsters like Manish Pandey, KL Rahul and Kedar Jadhav to see what they can do against a good bowling opposition," explained the stylish righthanded batsman. The 42-year-old former star reckoned the great form of openers Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma is the reason why Ajinkya Rahane, who played all three Tests, but only the one ODI in the Sri Lankan tour, is struggling to find a spot in the team. Hence, he doesn't believe Rahane's future in limited overs is in doubt. "Ajinkya is one of the leaders within the team. Rahane, more often than not in the ODI or T20 format, is an opener but right now Dhawan-Rohit are doing really well and have a solid right-left combination. But players like Rahane will add ndia's batting sensation Virat IKohli is a better limited-over player than his counterpart Steve Smith, feels former Australian skipper Michael Clarke. On who is a better player, Clarke replied, "Virat is a better limited overs batsman, but only just. However in Test cricket, Smith is better than Kohli." When it came to captaincy, he felt both are on even keel. "They both are very even. They are two very young captains, two very good players and they both continue to improve. But Kohli's team is winning and Smith needs to find a way to grab that momentum," he added. However, VVS Laxman, who was also present here on Tuesday during a panel discussion organised by broadcasters Star Sports, had no doubt in his mind who was the better among the two when it came to leading their team. "I think Kohli is a better captain both of them are young in their captaincy career. Virat is learning with each and every match. He also has a very big advantage of having someone like MS Dhoni on the field, probably one of the most successful captains. Also with the way he managed the young bowlers and senior bowlers at the same time in Sri Lanka was impressive," he said. The team which once dominated the world cricket is enduring a little bit of struggle of late. The Kangaroos managed to only draw the series against Bangladesh, despite traveling to the sub-continent as heavy-favourites. But, Clarke believes the current side has the potential to do well, but he wants more consistency from Smith's boys. "I think this Australian team has huge potential. It's time to turn that potential into consistent performance. I think they have to play at their best to beat India. They will miss Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood, but there are enough talented players in the squad to beat any team in the world," he added. value to the team and that's why he is in the squad," he explained. The owner of 17 Test hundreds, Laxman, had special praise reserved in his locker for all-rounder Hardik Pandya. "One player who impressed me the most was Hardik Pandya. There was a lot of burden on Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina to finish the games, but the way he (Pandya) finishes the innings is very crucial. It's a very important role a tough role. Hardik is a player who is very exciting and with each and every match he is improving. If at all he can be more consistent with bowling, in which he is showing positive signs, he will be my MVP (most valuable player)," he added. Despite being the heavy favourites, he issued a warning to the Indian side, reminding them about Australia's batting strength. "Their batting department is very strong. They got match-winners right from the top with David Warner. They have Maxwell and Faulkner, who is a good finisher. Whereas, their bowling department is weak because they are inexperienced, it doesn't mean they don't have experience," he concluded.