drainage channels in the city to proposal for amendment of on Friday. would be paid as decided by the BMC Legislative Assembly for formation

Transcription

1 or several days, the refusal Fof the Centre to accept a purported offer of 700 crore aid from the UAE for the flood victims of Kerala has been the focus of a fierce debate. Kerala Chief Minister P Vijayan first made the claim about the UAE s proposed offer. When the Centre said it could not accept the aid due to a policy decision taken by the previous UPA Government against accepting foreign help in such natural calamity, all hell broke loose. The Modi Government was trolled on social media and slammed on TV debates. However on Friday, this turned out to be classic case of much ado about nothing. The UAE had never made such an offer! Much to embarrassment of the various stakeholders, the UAE said it has not taken any decision so far on the amount of the financial aid. UAE s ambassador to India Ahmed Albanna on Friday said, We have set up a national committee for aid to Kerala. The committee will work with the MEA (India s foreign Ministry) and the embassy to ensure the funds reach the needy. No official announcement on the amount has been made by the UAE Government yet, said the Ambassador, adding that the Foreign Ministry had no communication from the Government of the UAE. UAE Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum had first tweeted on August 18 that his country had formed a committee to explore ways to help Kerala. The Kerala BJP has now demanded an apology from the CPI(M) for attacking the Modi Government, the RSS, the ruling party over the imaginary aid offer from the UAE. State BJP president PS Sreedharan Pillai accused Marxist CM Vijayan of misleading entire Keralites with his statement that Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan had made a $100-million ( 700 crore) assistance offer for Kerala in a phone conversation with Modi. Isn t this the biggest lie of the century? What does the CPI(M) have to say about this now? Pillai asked in the context of a clarification offered by Albanna to a newspaper that no specific announcement on assistance for Kerala had been made officially and that processes related to it were only progressing. It has now been proved that no specific assistance for Kerala has been announced by the UAE. The decision not to accept foreign funding for disaster relief was taken by former UPA Government. After telling a lie, the CPI(M) also found a culprit accusing the RSS to be behind the decision not to accept the aid. It is extremely disgusting, Pillai said. Accusing State CPI(M) secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, who had the other day said the Centre was refusing to accept the UAE aid in line with the Sangh Pariwar s Puri: High sea tides on Friday flushed away sands at several places along the 7-km-long Puri beach on Friday triggering panic among tourists and hoteliers on the marine drive road. After being informed, the officials of the district administration rushed the spots and kept the hotels and tourists on alert about the violent condition of sea due to a low pressure. The fishers were restricted from venturing into the sea. It was found that at the Swargadwar and Mangala Muhan (sea-mouth), besides at various other spots on the beach, the high tides of sea had trespassed into sand bed and reached closer to the roads where hotels are situated. The tides had passed almost 15 meters from their normal stays. The waves had also carved into sands at several places. After such a condition of sea, hundreds of temporary shops stretched along the Puri beach stopped business and moved to road in fear. They feared of a Tsunami in Puri. The sea is violent due to effect of a low pressure, said an official, adding that coastal people need to be cautious about the sea. PNS undari, the tigress which has Sbeen released in the Satkosia Tiger Reserve area since August 18, is moving in the Narasinghpur and Satkosia forests coming face to face with some human beings and animal population in he jungle area but reportedly has not attacked anybody yet. Apart from a forest watcher, three forest dwellers including a woman of Bankadharnuagaon village have stated that they had come face to face with the tigress, which seems normal and not in attacking mood. A team of three forest officials has kept vigil on the movement of the tigress since its release. The pawmarks of the tigress were spotted in the Narasinghpur and Satkosia forests on Friday. Forest officials have advised the people of nearby areas not to be panicky as they are keeping an eagle s eye on the movement of the tigress. platform has been created Afor the first time in India where a citizen can rate and review their political leaders through an application called National Editor Trans-forum Application (NETA) App developed by a 27-year-old student Pratam Mittal who completed his education from University of Pennsylvania in The app is available in 16 languages. I congratulate the team behind Neta that their app has done so well to educate the voters, track performance via transparent ratings and help parties select candidates with a good track record. To me, this platform is nothing short of ground breaking and it will take our democracy a notch higher, said former President while addressing the audience at the app launch. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, former Union enmity towards Kerala, the BJP leader said the Marxist party should apologise for its attack on the RSS and Modi. Pinarayi had said he had come to know about the offer from Gulf-based Kerala industrialist MA Yusaffali. The Centre clarified that it was committed to meeting the requirements for relief and rehabilitation through domestic efforts in line with the existing policy. Pillai claimed that the NDA Government at the Centre had given more assistance to Kerala than what it had asked for. Even the Chief Minister had acknowledged this. Even after that, the Left and its Government are trying to find fault with the Centre. The CPI(M) should apologise if it has any sincerity left with it, he added. Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala of the Congress on Friday came out with a demand that the CM should offer an explanation on the UAE aid issue. It is a very serious issue particularly as Kerala has very Minister Murali Manohar Joshi, former Chief Election Commissioners SY Quraishi and Syed Nasim Ahmad Zaidi and Minister of State Social Justice and Empowerment Vijay Sampla were present at the app launch ceremony. The app also has a section where one can raise issues through complaint or video about society to their concerned leaders. Following which Indians will be the first in the world to get such platform where they can openly rate, review and write opinion about their political leaders, including MLAs and local representatives. The app will show all the history about a political leader ranging from property he owns, liability and the work done during their term of service. In a democracy like ours there are so many people who are not able to meet their representatives. Most of the time people minds are washed to vote on the basis close links with that country. The CM has the responsibility to clear the air as that country s envoy has officially explained the matter, he said. Even Union Minister Alphonse Kannanthanam, a Keralite, said he had pleaded with senior Union Ministers that the Centre should make a one-time exception to the UPA Government policy for Kerala in the rules and precedents with regard to accepting foreign funds because it desperately needed money and assistance for reconstruction. of caste and religion. In such atmosphere, the app will definitely help the voter to find their leader and also offer the voters feedback to representatives on their performance. Moreover, through this app parties can also gauge the performance of their leaders and give tickets to them, said Kejriwal. According to the team Neta, the application was earlier launched on a pilot basis in Karnataka during elections where over 1.5 crore verified voters rated and reviewed their local leaders across all 543 parliamentary constituencies and 4120 Assembly constituencies in the country on the app, within eight months. Further, through this App, available in Google Play Store, one can see the rating and write opinion about their MLAs, and local leaders. Nearly 1 lakh people have downloaded the app within hours of its launch. n a setback to the CPI(M) Iand the BJP, the Supreme Court on Friday refused to stay the elections to over 20,000 local body seats in West Bengal where candidates of the ruling Trinamool Congress got elected unopposed. The candidates of the CPI(M) and the BJP claimed they were obstructed from filing nominations, but the Bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra said once election process had begun, the courts would not interfere with the same. It directed the aggrieved candidates to file election petitions to challenge the election of the unopposed candidate. To facilitate this, the Bench used its extraordinary powers to allow filing of election petitions within 30 days from the date on which the election to these over 20,000 seats is notified by the State Election Commission. The order has come as a victory for the ruling Mamata Banerjee Government which had much at stake in the local body polls in which a total of 58,692 seats comprising Gram Panchayats, Panchayat Samitis, and Zila Parishads went to polls. Of these, on 20,159 seats, the TMC candidate was elected unopposed. Dealing with the separate pleas filed by the CPI(M) and the BJP, the Bench also comprising Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud said, We are of the view that challenges in regard to the validity of the elections to the uncontested seats in the Gram Panchayats, Panchayat Samitis and Zila Parishads must also be pursued in election petitions under Section 79(1) of the Panchayat Elections Act. Earlier, the Calcutta High Court too had refused to interfere with the election process. However, the apex court did set aside that part of the Calcutta High Court order by which the aggrieved candidates were allowed to file their nomination papers through e- mail and WhatsApp. Earlier, the apex court had termed the situation prevailing in the State to be grim and asked the West Bengal Election Commission (SEC) not to notify the results of those seats which have been won uncontested by ruling party members. Kolkata: Dubbing the Supreme Court verdict as a victory of democracy and of the people, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday slammed the BJP, the Congress and the CPI(M) for defaming the State. It was a planned move by the three political parties to gain political advantage, Mamata said, adding these parties had deliberately resorted to false propaganda. I think it is a victory of democracy and victory of the people. I want to dedicate it to the people of the country, Mamata said. She said the CPI(M) and the BJP moving the Supreme Court seeking cancellation of elections in over 20,000 uncontested local body seats in West Bengal had brought bad name to the State. PNS (1) of the Constitution, the total number of members in a Legislative Council of a State shall not exceed one-third of the total number of members in the Legislative Assembly of that State and the total number of members in the Legislative on the basis of an online written test and the authority to he Bhubaneswar Municipal n a politically significant Council of a State shall in no Imove ahead of the general case be less than 40. As the total decide the qualifying marks is TCorporation (BMC) has issued a elections, the Odisha number of members in the to be vested with the OPSC. public notice requesting residents Government approved a draft Odisha Assembly is 147, the The Cabinet also approved a having plots or houses along 10 natural drainage channels in the city to for constitution of a State total number of members in proposal for amendment of Legislative Council at a Cabinet the Legislative Council would he State Cabinet, which met subjects under the Serial No III cooperate with it in the development meeting chaired by Chief be 49, Aarukh explained. Tunder the chairmanship of of the Finance Department to of the water channels. Minister Naveen Patnaik here A committee led by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik facilitate implementation of the In case the land is private, the on Friday. Transport Minister Nrushingha here on Friday, approved the GST Act, 2017 in compliance owners should come forward and structed over the land of the natural A resolution would be Charan Sahu had submitted a newly-framed Odisha Medical with the August 2, 2017 GST submit it to BMC for development of drainage channels and compensation brought in the upcoming report to the Chief Minister and Health Services (Method of Council meeting that had the drainage channel required for efficient would be paid as decided by the BMC Monsoon Session of the State recommending formation of a Recruitment and Conditions approved the proposal to issue management of the storm water. Commissioner. All should come for- Legislative Assembly for formation Legislative Council on August of Service) Rules 2018 to avail notifications for imposition of For this, citizens can apply in a preward and apply to the Municipal of the proposed Odisha 3 after visiting Bihar and adequate numbers of specialists new taxes or change of tax rates scribed form on the BMC website. Commissioner to get twin benefits, Legislative Council, informed Telangana to study the functioning and public health experts by order of the Chief Minister. Compensation, if any, would be paid compensation and a solution for Parliamentary Affairs Minister of the Legislative required for serving the grow- Besides, a proposal was also as decided by the BMC ommission- their lifetime, said BMC Deputy BK Aarukh after the Cabinet Councils in those States, the ing number of patients in approved to further amend the er, said he notice. Commissioner Srimanta Mishra. meeting. Minister told the reporters. Government hospitals. Odisha Excise Service (Method It said existing construction on If any land owner will miss the The Assembly session is Earlier, the panel had According to the amendment, of Recruitment and Conditions the drainage channels or development occasion, he/she will never get the scheduled to begin on toured Maharashtra and the Medical Officer cadre of Service of Group-A Officers) along the drain within the CDP area opportunity to have a building plan September 4. Karnataka for the same purpose would consist of three branch- Rules, 2002 so that all the posts would never be regularised and might approval nor regularisation of any Once the Assembly after its constitution in es namely, Specialist, Public of Superintendent of Excise, invite demolition in near future, said structure, he said. As the BMC and approves the resolution, it Health and General Duty, with Group A, would be filled up by the BMC notice. The civic body said the Bhubaneswar Development would be sent for approval of It had three ruling BJD district criteria for promotion. promotion from among the plans have already made to renovate Authority (BDA) have adopted the the Parliament under Article members, Nrusingha Charan Such doctors can be recruited eligible members of the Odisha 10 major drainage channels to ensure zero tolerance policy over the 169 of the Constitution of Sahu, Pramila Mallik and by putting additional marks in Excise Service, Group B, which no water-logging in the city. The 10 encroachment near the banks of the India. Manohar Randhari, and two the written test for the ad-hoc consists of Deputy drainage channels are the carriers of channel or over it, deviations with The proposed Legislative Opposition members, Bhujabal doctors and doctors with PG Superintendents of Excise so as the storm water load, which ultimately respect to the master plan drainage Council would comprise 49 Majhi and Nitesh Gangdev, of degree qualification in clinical to make the excise field administration goes to Gangua `nullah, which joins channels and other water channels members. the Congress and the BJP, and para-clinical subjects. more effective and the Daya river, nearly 20 km from the would be viewed seriously in near As per Article 171 Clause respectively. Recruitments would be made vibrant. city. Storm water drains would be con- future, the notification said.

2 jumbo crisis is staring at AOdisha when human toll in the State owing to man elephant conflict has grown by an elephantine 54 per cent last fiscal to propel Odisha to the top in the dubious list in the country. Odisha with a burden of a 100 human casualties has topped the nation in According to accessed data available with Wildlife Society of India, Odisha recorded 100 human deaths owing to elephant attacks in Even, in the first three months of year , the human casualty has already crossed 26. The latest figures reveal the death rate of human in conflict with elephants have been around 8 in and against around 5 in This shows the rate of human lives lost in human-elephant conflict in Odisha is on the ascent. Data further shows among the around districts affected, Dhenkanal was the he body of a married Twoman, believed to be a local resident, was found in a hotel room at Mancheswar here on Friday morning. The deceased was identified as Laxmipriya Biswal. Sources said the woman was staying with a male friend in the hotel for the last two days. While her body was found in the room, her friend had absconded. On receiving information, police reached the spot and began investigation into the incident. The mystery surrounding worst hit and is followed by Sundargarh, Mayurbhanj, Jharsuguda, Angul, Keonjhar, Baleswar, Nayagarh and Ganjam. However, what looks disconcerting is when neighbouring Jharkhand s around 54 per cent districts are identified as zones of human-elephant conflict areas; Odisha with around 30 per cent districts in the human-elephant conflict zones has recorded 19 per cent more human casualties in Moreover, when North Eastern India accounts the largest elephant population (around 10,000) in the country, the total human toll in man-elephant face-offs was mere 79 in Historically, Odisha despite having a mere 2,700 elephant population has been recording higher human toll than the NE States since Among neighbouring States, the burden of human toll in man-elephant conflict in Odisha is higher since last halfa-decade. According to Wildlife Society of Odisha (WSO) head Biswajit Mohanty, the high human toll in Odisha is attributed to encroachment and destruction of elephant habitats owing to mining and irrigation projects. Dhenkanal is the worst with around 50 per cent of human toll among the districts in Odisha. The reason: Rengali dam and stone quarries. As elephants from Keonjhar the incident further deepened after the cops found a fake Aadhaar card with a name mentioning as Aditya Mohapatra from the hotel room. Though the reason behind the incident was yet to be ascertained, it was suspected that the youth killed her for unknown reasons. The police called the woman s family members and some relatives, who are staying in the Patia area here. Besides, CCTV footage of the hotel room would also be inspected to get some leads in connection with the incident. Meanwhile, the police launched a manhunt to nab the youth, sources added. ongress leader and former CUnion Minister Srikant Jena came down heavily on the Central Government ahead of the foundation stone aying ceremony for the AIIMS satellite centre in Baleswar at Balia under Remuna block. The programme will be held on Saturday by Union Health Minister JP Nadda in presence of several dignitaries and officials of AIIMS, Bhubaneswar. Jena, besides stating that the foundation stone laying is a game plan of the BJP in the electioneering year, alleged that the Central leadership of the party was trying to befool the people of Baleswar. Stating that the AIIMS satellite centre in Baleswar was approved in the year 2014, when Gulam Nabi Azad was the Union Health Minister during the UPA regime, Jena said the project envisaged not only the satellite centre, but establishment of a 350- bedded super specialty facility and an international nursing school in the same campus. For the three projects, Rs 450 crore budgetary provision had been made, Jena informed. The campus will have an OPD centre and staff quarters for eight persons. Rs 36 crore has been allocated for the centre but what about the 350 bedded super-specialty hospital and nursing school, asked Jena. Besides Jena, Congress district president Sarat Raj, former MLA Debi Prasana Chand, Goponaryan Das, Sanjiv Giri, Bikram Panda, Satyanarayan Mohanty and Satyasiba Das among others were present. come here since ages, they couldn t return post construction of canals for Rengali project. Dry canals and stone quarries compel the big mammals to raid villages for food and water, he explained. It needs reminding that water and crops are important factors that necessitate movement of the big mammals. Wild life activists rue that lack of effective measures from the State Government here are acerbating the conflicts and the toll. NE States and Western Ghat States like Karnataka and Kerala have taken many ameliorating measures to minimise human-elephant conflicts, they added. Odisha, though, has made trench walls armoury against elephant raids on villages or crop fields, its disadvantages are many and the cost of construction is also high. As a result, it has not been effective. The State has a lesson or two to learn from Assam that has yielded good results. For instance, Sonitpur in Assam, which has the worst human toll, has reported great pruning in deaths post implementation of conflict mitigation squads. Funded by World Wildlife Fund, around 72 such squads with 15 Kumkis (trained elephants) were stationed at strategic points, which not only averted conflicts but also provided good job opportunity to youths of affected villages. n a bid to help more merito- students who stop Irious enrolling for higher education due to lack of funds, a scheme called Kalinga Shiksha Sathi Yojana (KSSY) has now been extended to all courses being pursued in all educational institutions. The State Cabinet on Friday approved a Modified KSSY under the provisions of the scheme. The State Government would provide education loan at only one-per cent interest per annum to students for higher education. Earlier, the KSSY was favouring students pursuing courses like Management, Law, Engineering and Medicine. Though the scheme was ue to habitat loss, relentless Dconflict with humans and a host of unnatural reasons, Odisha has now turned into a graveyard of elephants. The Wildlife Society of Orissa (WSO) viewed this at a Press meet here on Friday. Members lamented that poaching, electrocution, train accident and open wells have been leading reasons for unnatural deaths of pachyderms. As many as five elephants have been electrocuted in Angul district in since September 2017, they lamented. Odisha has lost 167 elephants due to electrocution in 18 years since the year While there were 77 such deaths between 2000 and April 1, 2010, 90 others were killed in just eight years, averaging more than 11 per year. Live wire poaching traps, sagging overhead lines and electrified fences are the three methods of electrocution of elephants in Odisha. About 63 per cent of the electrocution deaths happen due to live wire poaching only. Out of 90 deaths, 33 were due to sagging lines and 57 happened due to live wire poaching. This reveals absence of patrolling, they said. disha is still backward in Omany senses and needs efforts from all levels for its development. Many areas of the State are backward like sub- Saharan Africa. We all should gear up to make the State developed as we are going to attain 100 years of State formation in year 2036, says Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan at the inaugural session of Odisha Vikash Conclave which began here on Friday. He further added Odisha launched in 2016 to bring down the financial burden on the parents of the students who want to move forward with higher education, it was confined to Management, Integrated Law, Medicine and Engineering. So, more meritorious students were not able to take advantage of the KSSY. Under the Modified KSSY, now a student can avail loan from scheduled banks for pursuing higher studies under any discipline, for which interest subsidy is applicable. The scheme would give them up to Rs 10 lakh to proceed for the higher courses. According to the rules of the scheme, a student can get a maximum of Rs 10 lakh as an educational loan. There is no minimum loan amount mentioned in the scheme. One can get any amount of loan up to Rs 10 lakh. The period of repayment is increased from 10 years to 15 years including the moratorium period. The applicants would have to pay only one-per cent interest on the loan amount. has vast potential of converting cow dung to CNG. We have provisions under National Biofuel Policy unveiled recently. Earlier, we, the political class and the people in administration didn't see eye to eye with the NGOs but today the Government can't do everything without aid of the NGOs, said Pradhan, adding that the NGOs have to play a key role in the State s development. While speaking as keynote speaker, NITI Aayog Vice- Chairman Dr Rajiv Kumar recalled Odisha's mercantile past and said how Odia traders contributed in strengthening Myanmar's economy. He lauded the efforts of the organisers Nearly 15 per cent of the total elephant deaths in Odisha is due to electrocution and among all the unnatural causes of elephant deaths, 41 per cent is due to electrocution. The distribution companies are not maintaining minimum height of spreading live wire at many places and not conducting periodical inspections. There is a need to set up reinforced electric poles fitted with spikes to prevent elephants rubbing against them and lifting of sagging overhead power lines. The overhead wires across all elephant habitats and movement zones should be insulated and defunct solar powered fences should be removed. WSO Secretary Dr Biswajit Mohanty said the organisation has demanded that the Forest Minister monitor progress of steps being taken for protection of elephants on a monthly basis and fix responsibility for officials against unnatural deaths of elephants. ourism a journey from Tegocentrism to geocentrism, said Governor Prof Ganeshi Lal inaugurating the 3rd Odisha Tourism Conclave organised by the Hotel and Restaurant Association of Odisha (HRAO) here on Friday. Prof Lal said tourism is rather a bridge between known relevance of earth, society, nature and unknown earth. He also said there is a need of Fevicol to wed the State Government and the HRAO. Tourism Commissioner-cum-Secretary Vishal Dev said that the Government is working on farmer of Turekela block in Athe district, who had consumed poison on Thursday, died while undergoing treatment at the District Headquarters Hospital (DHH) here on Friday. Sources said Bhagat Sagaria of Kuliadora village succumbed before being shifted to the VIMSAR, Burla for further treatment. Distressed with crop loss and loan burden, Sagaria had consumed poison in his farmland. Family members of Sagaria said he was under mental stress after his crop cultivated in 10 acres of land was destroyed due to scanty rainfall. Besides, he had borrowed 1 lakh from money lenders for agricultural activities and was under tension for not being able to repay the loan following the crop loss. Earlier this week, another farmer, Sarat Majhi, of Kamemunda under Tureikela block in the district had allegedly committed suicide by consuming pesticide due to crop loss. long term plans to bring in strategic investment into the tourism sector with the participation of the private sector. The Secretary also said that the State Government has identified land banks in places like Bhubaneswar for private builders to come and invest in building hotels. Five new hotels are in different stages of construction in Bhubaneswar which are in three to five-star categories. Mentioning about the challenges in developing infrastructure at beach destinations like Konark, he said the Government has identified 1,000 acres land at Shamuga for tourism development. He also said the State Government is in way of setting up infrastructure there before the private investors can come and invest in projects. It is important that there are different activities created around Konark to make it an overnight destination, he added. Terming Odisha as the s many as 24 MLAs bagged Athe Best Legislator Award in three different categories for following parliamentary norms and maintaining discipline in the House. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Assembly Speaker Pradip Amat presented the awards to the best legislators for the years from 2009 to 2016 during a function here on Friday. The awards were presented in the categories of Pandit Nilakantha Samman, Utkalmani Gopabandhu Samman and Utkalgaurab Madhusudan Samman chosen by the Odisha Legislative Assembly (OLA) Selection Committee. Pandit Nilakantha Best Award was conferred on Bishnu Charan Das for 2009, Arun Kumar Sahoo for 2010, Pravat Ranjan Biswal for 2011, Prafulla Majhi for 2012, Amar Prasad Satpathy for 2013, Pramila Mallick for 2014, Ranendra Pratap Swain (2015) and Dr Ramesh Chandra Chyau Patnaik (2016). Surendra Nath Naik for making efforts to use Odisha's human capital. Padmashree Tulasi Munda stressed on decentralised governance and principal role of Gram Sabha. Founder of CYSD Jagadananda delivered the welcome address while Dr Sruti Mahapatra proposed a vote of thanks highlighting the issues of 12 lakh people who are living with disabilities. In the following sessions of the day topics like Inclusive Governance, Fiscal Management and Social Accountability were covered. Development Commissioner cum Additional Chief Secretary R Balkrishnan, Amitav Kind, Tapas Sen and OXFAM Country Director Amitabh Behera spoke. Though invited, State Women Child Development and Social Justice Empowerment Minister Prafulla Samal didn't turn up at the event citing other engagement. Bhubaneswar: A meeting of the Health Department was held under the chairmanship of Secretary Dr Pramod Kumar Meherda here on Friday. Dr Meherda said it has been decided that all steps would be taken to prevent kidney problems in Badamba and Narasinghpur in Cuttack district. Reports of the area from 2006 till date were presented in which it was revealed that as many as 841 and 335 people are affected in Narasinghpur and Badamba, respectively. Dr Meherda said a dialysis unit and analyser machine would be functional in the region soon. The affected people are to be given identification cards by which they can avail free treatment. He also said till now the specific reason behind the disease has been found and many doctors are in the research process. Dr Meherda also said Rs 2, 60,000 from the Chief Minister s Relief Fund has been provided for the treatment of 265 affected people. PNS most progressive State in terms of Government policies, Dev said Odisha has been a pioneer in many areas of business and investment. Questioned about the visibility and awareness of Odisha tourism, the Secretary conceded that the awareness about Odisha has been low historically, and his department was trying to overcome that through publicity, campaigns, promotions and other related works at important places, including airports and railway stations. We are also participating in all the international and domestic events to improve the visibility and awareness, he added. he Mahanadi Coalfield TLimited (MCL) authorities on Friday termed the contractors workers cease-work agitation, which affected mining operations to the tune of 2 lakh tonnes, as unjust and uncalledfor. The workers engaged in the Talcher coalfields, under the banner of the Mahanadi Coalfields Contractual Transport Workers Union, resorted to a cease-work agitation on Friday demanding payment of enhanced HPC (High Power Committee) wages announced on April 1, As per the enhanced HPC wages, unskilled workers wage would be increased from 509 to 514, semi-skilled workers from 550 to 556, skilled ones from 591 to 598 for skilled and highly skilled workers to get Rs 641 instead of 632. The enhanced HPC wages have already been (2009), Bimbadhar Kuanr (2010), Nityananda Pradhan (2011), Umesh Chandra Swain (2012), Bikram Keshari Barma (2013), Rajendra Dholakia (2014), Surendra Prasad Pramanik (2015) and Chakradhar Paik (2016) were awarded with the Utkalgaurab Madhusudan Samman. Eight were presented the Utkalmani Gopabandhu Samman. They included Sanjay Dasburma (2009), Pritiranjan Gharai (2010), Samir Ranjan Dash (2011), Prashant Kumar Muduli (2012), Bijay Kumar Mohanty (2013), Dr Raseswari Panigrahi (2014), Captain Dibya Shankar Mishra (2015) and Pradip Purohit (2016). Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday urged Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu for introduction of direct flights between Bhubaneswar and Surat. In a letter to the Union Minister, Patnaik said lakhs of Odia families have settled in Surat and are engaged in the textile sector there. However presently, there is no direct air connectivity between Bhubaneswar and Surat. During the hours of urgent necessity, Odia people living in Surat face untold difficulties in reaching Odisha in time. Besides, people from both the cities visit places of tourist interest in and around the cities every year. Air connectivity between Bhubaneswar and Surat can give rise to tourist inflow to both the places, Patnaik said. The CM requested Prabhu to impress upon the Air India and private airlines to introduce direct flights between Bhubaneswar and Surat at the earliest. PNS implemented for the tendered works. The Coal India board has also given nod for hike for ESM and PAP companies workers. When things are moving speedily for implementation of enhanced HPC wages, the contractors workers agitation is uncalled for, unjust and detrimental to the national interest, said an official release. The release informed that the MCL is already paying HPC wages to its contractors workers and no external influence is required for implementation of any welfare and training measures, informed the release. Due to the cease-work, production and supply to the tune of about two lakh tonne was affected. As against 2.13 lakh tonne coal supplied to consumer from Talcher coalfields on Thursday, the MCL could dispatch only seven rakes from its departmentally-run Railway Sidings No 3 and No 4 till Friday afternoon.

3 olice distributed identity P(ID) cards to as many as 516 senior citizens at a special meeting organised jointly by the Senior Citizens Security Cell (SCSC) at the DIB in DIG Southern Division office and the four Brahmpur urban police stations here on Friday. DIG Asish Singh graced the event as chief guest while Brahmapur SP Pinaki Mishra presided over the function. A galaxy of police officers and journalists were present. Among others, DSP (DIB) Ajaya Mishra, Gasaninuagaon PS IIC Kulamani Sethi, Town PS IIC Nihar Ranjan Pradhan, Sadar PS IIC Sibasankar Mahapatra and BN Pur IIC JK Pattnaik were present. In his address, the DIG said, The senior citizens are held in high esteem for their lifelong contributions to their children and the society as well. The present generation should respect the senior citizens and allow them to live with dignity. He said police are trying to register all the senior citizens of the city in a phased manner. The SP too urged upon the youths and police officials to respect senior citizens. Speaking on behalf of the senior citizens, Gandhinagar Senior Citizens Forum president and scribe Prof KC Panda stressed the need of a comprehensive database of senior citizens so that elderly people living in vulnerable conditions can be attended to by police promptly. He hailed the State Government and the Brahmapur district police for hief Minister Naveen CPatnaik on Thursday laid the foundation stone of the OCL India Ltd, Flagship Company of Dalmia Cement (Bharat) Ltd (DCBL), third integrated cement plant at Rajgangpur. The new manufacturing facility would be known as Dalmia DSP Unit. Patnaik unveiled the plaque on video conferencing from the State Secretariat in presence of DCBL Group DEO Mahendra Singhi. Sundargarh district administration along with DCBL Executive Director- Manufacturing (East) Sunil Gupta joined the event at Rajgangpur. The stone-laying ceremony marks a key milestone in DCBL s commitment towards industrial growth and investment in Odisha. The OCL India Ltd had earlier proposed to set up a new unit of 2.25 million tonne per annum (MTPA) cement manufacturing and three MTPA clinker manufacturing capacity at Rajgangpur. With the plant going live, the company s total capacity in Rajgangpur would increase to 6.25 MTPA in cement and 5.9 MTPA in clinker manufacturing. The new Dalmia DSP Unit would entail an investment of Rs 2,000 crore and it is expected to be commissioned by late Speaking on the occasion at Bhubaneswar, Mahendra Singhi, said, On behalf of DCBL, I take this opportunity to sincerely thank Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for his confidence in our ability to support the growth of Odisha s vibrant and growing economy through the new state-of-theart plant at Rajgangpur. There is a growing demand of cement due to infrastructural growth in eastern India and our plan to add fresh capacity through the new unit is an approach to be ready to cater to this growing demand, he added. making efforts to provide security to senior citizens. He urged upon the police to intensify patrolling at strategic places and areas predominantly resided by senior citizens. Among others, Senior Citizens Forum president Rasha Bihari Das also spoke. Earlier, the Brahmapur police had registered 224 senior citizens in two phases. On Friday, a total of 516 senior citizens, who had applied for registration with the SCSC, were issued ID cards along with security logo and a towel as a token of honour Jharsuguda: A five-year-old boy and a 45-year-old woman died after being run over by an express train near the Belpahar railway station in Jharsuguda district on Friday. The tragedy took place in the morning while some members of a family hailing from Brajrajnagar were on their way to a function in Nuapada. The child went towards the railway track being unaware of the danger as the Howrah- Ahmedabad Express train was approaching towards him. PNS ension prevailed at TMajhiguda village under Khairaputa block in Malkangiri district on Friday after a lineman was electrocuted while carrying out a repair work on an electricity pole in the locality. The deceased was identified as Gopal Reddy (40), a resident of the Khairaputa area. He was working with the Southco on contractual basis for last few years. It was alleged that the line was not disconnected when Reddy was engaged in the repair work on an 11-KV electricity pole. When power got ystery shrouded the death Mof a nursing student at Kankadia village under the Kendrapada Sadar police limits in the district after her charred body was found in an under-construction house in the locality on Friday morning. The deceased, identified as Rukmani Swain (20), was undergoing nursing training in a private medical college in Bhubaneswar. Locals said Rukmani was in love with one Kamal Lochan Dash (22) of Angulei village. However, Kamal had also been found dead under mysterious circumstances on Thursday. After getting information, he bodies of a brother-sis- duo were found under Tter mysterious circumstances at their home in Singhapali village under the Attabira police limits of Bargarh district on Friday. The deceased were identified as Bikash Meher and Minati Meher, both teenagers and children of Dasarathi Meher of the village. According to reports, Bikash and Minati slept previous night after having their dinner. However, they didn t respond on Friday morning after their family members tried to wake them up. On being informed, police reached the spot, seized the restored, he died of electrocution. He was found hanging from the pole. Alleging negligence on the part of senior electricity officials, angry locals staged a road blockade on State Highway-57 demanding compensation for the family members of the deceased. Rukmani went to her village on Thursday evening and slept after taking dinner. On Friday morning, her half-burnt body was found in the under-construction building near her house. While some suspected that the girl committed suicide by setting herself on fire, locals believed it to be a case of murder. The girl s maternal uncle Ranjan Behera said, When I asked her mother, she said Rukmani came from Bhubaneswar in night and she was normal. There was no family quarrel also. We don t know why she took the extreme step. Meanwhile, police along with a scientific team reached the spot and began investigating into the incident. bodies and started investigation. The reason behind the hough a team led by Senior TRailway Engineer KVV Narasinghalu visited the Paralakhemundi to take stock of various problems faced in the Nuapada-Paralakhemundi- Gunpur railway junction and take necessary steps for the railway development in this tribal area, yet the team members did not let the common people meet them. The apathetic attitude of the railway officials has spread strong resentment among the masses. More than 100 from various walks of life, starting from senior citizens, mediapersons, farmers and people from various fields were waiting from hours to meet Narasinghalu and his staff, but instead of Parlakhemundi: The District and Sessions Judge on Friday sentenced two persons to life imprisonment in connection with the murder of one Gopal Sabar in Badmasi village under the Garabhand police station in Gajapati district on October 11, Gopal was killed by some villagers on suspicion of practicing witchcraft. Earlier police had arrested three persons in connection with the murder case. While two persons Gangadhar Bhuyan and Narayan Sabar of Badmasi village were found guilty, a woman Sashi Bhuyan was acquitted for lack of evidence, informed Public Prosecutor Rokam Janardan Rao. Earlier, a resident of the village fell sick. Though he got treated at different hospitals his condition did not improve. Some people of the village suspected that Gopa of the village had resorted to witchcraft following which the person got sick. So, they called Gopal from his house and beat him to death with lathis, according to the complaint filed by the deceased s son Madhu Sabar with the police. PNS deaths was yet to be ascertained till last reports came in. meeting the people, they did not even get down from the rail coach. Notably, the public was waiting to meet the officers with a written memorandum regarding various problems faced in the Paralakhemundi railway station but the team s stubborn attitude left them disappointed. They strongly condemned the attitude of Narasinghalu and said that he really did not have any genuine concern towards the development of Odisha, especially the tribal district. The locals demanded action against the team for its recklessness. n two robbery cases, the INimapara police arrested six miscreants and seized five bikes with a cash of Rs 72,800, besides two mobile phones. The first robbery had happened at Nimapara canal road on August 14 in which the robbers had looted Rs 8 lakh from one Ranjan Sahoo, a cattle feed businessman of Rupadeipur village of Balanga area. The police arrested businessman s driver Bhagirathi Panda of Terahal village of Balanga, Sunil Pradhan of Rench village,saubhagya Jena of Harishpur village and Tarakanta Panda in the case. The police also seized Rs 72,800, four bikes and a mobile phone from the looters. Another three persons involved in the crime were absconding. In the second case, which occurred on July 19 at DAV School of Nimapara -Balanga road, two miscreants had snatched a gold chain and a mangalsutra from a lady, identified as Sabita Nayak of Ekamkona village of Nimapara area. The police arrested Alok Behera of Dalabhanapur village. Another involved in the snatching was absconding. The police also arrested Pradipta Bharati of Khelar Mathasahi village who had bought the gold chain from Alok. All the six were court-forwarded, said Nimapara police station IIC Harmohan Nayak. Brahmapur: The Rotary Club, Brahmapur East in association with the Rotary Club, Pune Downtown has decided to provide artificial body parts to the Person with Disabilities (PwDs) free of cost at a programme to be held at the MKCG Medical College Hospital here on September 30. Rotary Club, Brahmapur East president Ajit Kumar Prusty informed this at a Press meet here on Friday. Prusty said the artificial body parts would be fixed in about 110 PwDs of different districts. About 250 beneficiaries are expected to include in the programme, he added. Among others, secretaries Sumit Kumar Patnaik, Sudhansu Sekhar Khadangray, Arun Chand Dash, Ajit Dutta, Dr Pradeep Patnaik, Ranjit Patro, Dr Sambit Buhray, Jawarlal Pal and Kush Patro were present. he recent unprecedented Tflood in Kerala has mostly hit the poor migrant workers from backward States who have gone there to earn their bread. Many of them in hundreds are coming back to their own States in most distressed condition. A sizable number of migrant workers from Odisha is not being rescued and the exact number of casualties has not been assessed due to lack of data about them. The State Government has been proactive in bringing back the workers safe, with arrangement of special trains, but the most important point is their rehabilitation after the flood-hit return home. The Labour Department of the Government of Kerala has opened a coordination centre with helpline for migrant workers and made appeal to the respective States to take care of the migrant workers. Now, the demand is the Government of Odisha must address the issue of the vulnerable sections in the trouble-torn State. It is good that the Government of Odisha has contributed to the relief fund and sent a 240- member rescue operation team and many political parties and social organisations from Odisha have raised contribution from public to support the flood victims. But the State Government must use this as an opportunity to rehabilitate the homecoming workers under its current schemes and make all efforts to minimize the migration in coming days with all economic, social, legal and administrative aid. Studies have found that the migrant workers from about 22 districts of Odisha are working there in textile, seafood export, port, construction and other domestic jobs. The major districts include Ganjam, Puri, Nayagada, Khordha, Rayagada, Malkangiri, Kalahandi, Kandhamal, Sundargarh, Korapurt, Nabarangapur, Balangir, Baleswar, Bhadrak, Jajpur and Kendrapada, etc., with a sizeable presence of tribal, Dalit, women, Muslim and Christian populations. Not just Odisha, but inter- State migration has been emerging as a national issue which needs inter-state coordination too in handling labour exploitation, as the Economic Survey report in says that inter-state migration of workers in India has increased to about 90 lakh annually. It is said that the workers of poor States and also backward pockets are migrating to rich metropolis and hubs of States with export ports, manufacturing, industry, mining, SEZ, textile, construction, and infrastructural work. The States of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Delhi, Kolkata, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Kerala are major a destination of migrant workers. Kerala manages to pay comparatively better wage and social security benefits to migrant workers and also has a relatively better living condition because of its policy, so higher migration of workers from outside there. With lowest population growth, most Keralities prefer higher wage skilled jobs outside and a sizable number is placed in the Gulf. The unskilled domestic jobs are filled with lakhs of migrant workers from backward regions of India like Odisha, Bihar, UP, WB, Chhatisgarh, Assam, besides from Nepal and Bangladesh of South Asia. Kerala is known for its good governance, land reform, social development, health and education, and relatively better inclusive social environment that allow people from different religions to live peacefully. Studies have found that along with economic reasons such as illiteracy, landlessness, low wage and lack of selfemployment and locally unemployment situation, the social discrimination, practices of untouchability, caste and communal violence have perpetuated distress migration. The Dalit and Adivasi Christian people in Kandhamal, Gajapati and other parts of the State have migrated in more numbers after the Kandhamal violence and the migration of Dalit population of the State also has strong link with continued practices of untouchability and caste-based social oppression in rural villages of the State. The Government of Odisha has not yet properly identified the migrant workers in the State though there has been a plan to go for registration at panchayat level but the Panchayats are not doing it seriously. The root cause of distress migration is not being addressed. Many horrible cases of labour trafficking, harassment, cheating, chopping of hands, rape, murder, missing, underpayment and exploitation in many inhuman forms have been reported in Odisha. The Labour Minister in the Assembly reported about death of 112 migrant workers during the last three years from 2014 to It is told that more than half of the deaths have occurred in southern States of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, but it is a fact that many such death cases have gone unreported. The number of inter-state migrant workers as estimated by the Government was about 92,000 in 2011 and it has increased to 1.5 lakh in The number has been increasing every year without control. There are about 3,000 registered labour contractors who are officially engaged in this business. Informal sources estimate that around 20 lakh migrant workers from Odisha are outside the State. The minimum wage rate in Odisha is one of the lowest in the country and employment in agriculture sector is seasonally in nature. The non-implementation of land reform has helped the traditionally land owning communities to avail all kinds of Government facilities, but the condition of agricultural workers and sharecroppers remain unchanged. The MGNRGS, the biggest rural employment scheme, is ineffective in ensuring 100 days wage work. Though there is the Inter- State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Service Condition) Act, 1979, but it is very poorly implemented in the State thanks to a corrupt bureaucracy and lack of political will. Lakhs of migrant workers are out of fold of trade unionism. Labour officials, police, labour contractors and local elected people s representatives have nexus that facilitates lawlessness and accentuates poverty, rather than development of the migrant people who remain at the edge. It is expected that these agencies should collectively monitor the situation, but unfortunately, there is no action at ground level to rehabilitate the migrant workers. (manasbbsr15@gmail.com)

4 A T he Prajapita Brahamkumaris Ishawariya Vishwavidyalaya has urged upon girls and boys to celebrate the upcoming Raksha Bandhan festival in the true spirit of brother-sister relationship. The festival of Raksha Bandhan is celebrated with pure relationship between brother and sister. When purity is upheld in any relationship, it turns into a power of protection. Hence, the Raksha Bandhan should be celebrated in its true spirit of protecting sisters and praying for brothers wellbeing, the message read. Brahmakumaris expressed concern that even though brothers vow to protect the honour of their sisters, many women fall prey to the lust of men. Even males too require married woman of Sundargarh district after delivering a boy child in the Sundargarh District Headquarters Hospital abandoned the child and fled the hospital. Meanwhile, the infant died after nine days of treatment. The husband of woman had no idea about his wife s pregnancy and refused that he was the father as he had married her just four months ago. However, on Friday, the mother of the deceased child came to the Sundargarh DHH to claim the body after police intervention. The police handed over the body after conducting the post mortem and other formalities. Meanwhile,the Sundargarh DHH has kept the femur bone of the deceased child as per advise of the police for a DNA test. According to sources, a pregnant woman, aged about 20 years along with her mother had reached the Sundargarh DHH at around 5 pm on August 13 complaining labor pain and had mentioned her name as Prakasini Jurale, wife of Gatiram Jurale, a resident of Girisoma village under Hemigiri police station. At around am on August 14, she gave birth to a boy child. Since the weight of baby boy was a little more than 1 kg and his health condition was critical, he was shifted to SNCU. n the occasion of the OWorld Photography Day, the Puri Sea Beach Photographers Association celebrated its 11th annual function here on August 19 and 20. During the two-day celebration the photographers held cleanliness and awareness drives for the tourist and welcomed them with roses and also distributed some tourist family photos to the visitors free of cost. A function was also organsied where Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Maheswar Mohanty, Puri Municipality Chairman Jayant Kumar Sadangi, Odisha Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board Chairman Subash Singh, Contract and Construction Labour Union President Naba Kishore Mohanty, Canara Bank ZM Srikant Mahapatra, RUDSET protection now. The Tilak applied on brothers forehead is the symbol of the soul. So let us celebrate this Raksha Bandhan in its true spirit and purity of love to strengthen our bond with the Almighty, the message read. Institute director Niroj Kumar Dora attended as guests. The members also demanded a land for the association office and the demanded the Labour Department for including them in the differnt labour scheme and providing them Labour and Health cards. Besides, a proposal was made for a photo library through the bank. Association president Ranjan Kumar Das, secretary Hemant Kumar Das coordinated the programme. Among others, advisors Srikant Parida, Surjya Prasad Mishra, VP S Shiva Rao, joint secretary Ramchandra Sahu, assistant secretary Soumitra Ghose, treasurer G Ramchandra and Ganeswar Swain were present. The mother of the baby boy was found missing from the hospital bed on August 14 morning. On August 21 at around pm, the child died. Hospital authorities informed Hemgiri police about the death of child and about the unclaimed body. The police after registering a UD case had started an inquiry to ascertain about the mother of deceased. We suspect that she might have pre marital relationship. Since her husband is refusing that he is not father of the child, as per our instruction, femur bone of deceased son of woman has been kept in hospital. If require, we will do DNA test to know the father of child, Hemgiri police station IIC Sradhanjali Subudhi said. hree armed cadre Maoists Tsurrendered before the Rourkela police on Friday along with a Jan Militia member. The surrendered cadres, members of banned outfit CPI(Maoist), were identified as Jagan Singh alias Premchand Munda alias Jagdish,Ratan (23), Matu Buding alias Tejas (31), Sushil Munda alias Maga (15) and one Jan Militia Gomia Munda alias Guma (35) of SDS division. Police said Jagan Singh, son of Sartha Singh of Karda village under the Chandiposh police station in Sundargarh district joined the Maoist fold in 2010 at the age of 15 being motivated by Maoist leader Anmol. After joining the outfit he went to Kolhan, Saranda and took arms training under the leadership of Sandeep and later on was trained in Kandhamal district. ollowing a shocking incident Fof egg-hurling at the Asthi Kalash vehicle of former Prime Minister late Atal Bihari Vajpayee at Chandanpur on Thursday, the Chandanpur police are in search of the miscreant. Police are now searching one Babuna alia Dipak Mahapatra (30) of Chandanpur, who was responsible for egg hurling onto the urn carrier. Stating the egg-hurling to be true, the police said that they had identified the miscreant and search operations were on to nab him. As per preliminary investigation, during the passing of the procession in Chandanpur bazaar, the man threw eggs and fled, said police, During the course he moved in Bundu, Chandil, Kolhan and Saranda till He was involved in exchange of fire with police in Boudh, Kandhamal, Angul, Sambalpur, Deogarh and Sundergarh districts. Due to his fluency in all the native languages in Odisha and Jharkhand, he was an important accomplice of Anmol and in due course he was promoted to the rank of Deputy Commander of SDS Platoon (ACM). He left the Maoists organisation due to constant threat to life, ageing parents and frustration with the Maoists ideology and surrendered before the adding, that they would catch him from his hideout soon. The incident is true. We have detected the culprit and would arrest him soon, said Chandanpur police station IIC Bhabani Sankar Patanaik. Asked about the party affiliation of the egg-hurler on mounting allegation of involvement of BJD, he replied it could be known after the culprit was arrested. Sources said the accused JD supremo and Chief BMinister Naveen Patnaik attending a BJD Mahila Morcha executive committee meeting here on Thursday urged the Morcha members to spread awareness about the different welfare schemes of the State Government at the grassroots level. Patnaik said the State Government has floated a number of schemes for the welfare of women in the State in the health, education and other sectors. The morcha members should ensure that awareness about such schemes reach the doorsteps of the people and particularly the women folk are sensitised about them. The Chief Minister further said the BJD is going to hold Mahila Samavesh in every constituency of the State soon. Besides, the party is going to hold a Padyatra in October. A day would be reserved for the Mahila Morcha during the Padyatra. BJD Mahila Morcha members from all over State attended the meet. he presidents of the Biju TMahila Janata Dal [BMJD] units of Jagatsinghpur municipality, block and Naugaon were appointed after approval of State BMJD chief Pramila Mallick. Informing mediapersons, Jagatsinghpur block Chairperson Bijayalaxmi Behera and BMJD State secretary Minati Das said that Kiranabala Sasmal was appointed as BMJD Rourkela police. He was carrying a reward of Rs 4 lakh on head. Matu Buding,son of Late Mangal Buding of Baduiya village under Chhotnagra PS in West Singhbhum district of Jharkhand joined the CPI (Maoists) organisation in 2009 as a militia. He worked as a party member in SDS division of CPI (Maoists) headed by Anmol until June Due to consistent anti-maoist operations by police forces and harassment by senior Maoists cadres he gave up arms and surrendered before the police. He was carrying a reward of 1 lakh. Jagatsinghpur block president, Samima Begum as Jagatsinghpur municipality BMJD president and Rita Mohanty as Naugaon block BMJD head. Mallick declared the name of new appointees after approval of the BJD higher ups. Meanwhile, a controversy surfaced that though a month back BMJD district president MLA Dr Rajashree Mallick had disclosed names of appointees of BMJD units, the fresh declaration has scraped egg-hurler is a supporter of the BJD and most of the time was seen with ruling party leaders and workers during election. He was a regular drunkard also. Meanwhile, the BJP leaders alleged that the egg-hurler was a BJD supporter. After such grievous allegation, heated exchanges were on between the BJP and the BJD. The saffron party charged that the mindless incident happened in persuasion of the ruling leader. he National Conference Ton Advances in Mining, Mineral Processing and Metal Extraction (AMMME-2018) was held last week under the auspices of the Institute of Advanced Technology and Environmental Studies (IATES) here where recommendations were for best use of minerals. The Government was urged that efforts should be made to mine and use both the high as well as low grade ores. Beneficiation is to be taken up for all low grade ores specifically for those which are not in practice presently. These should be done at the mine site and the wastes like tailings and slimes should be utilised for back filling the mined areas along with over burden and mine wastes. The research and development (R and D) efforts should be made to develop techno-economically viable T he Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT) celebrated its 57th foundation day here on Friday. Agriculture and Farmers Empowerment, Fisheries and Animal Resources Development Minister Pradeep Maharathy emphasised on validation and popularisation of technologies innovated by rural farmers of the State. He impressed upon the scientists to develop technologies for enhancing income of farmers residing in rural areas. He advised the farmers to take up sugarcane, vegetable crops and pisciculture activities for obtaining higher income. OUAT Vice-Chancellor Prof Surendranath Pasupalak presiding over the meeting mentioned about newlyreleased varieties, ragi thresher cum pearler, registration of Hansli chicken bird. He also indicated that Rural Agricultural / Horticultural Work Experience activities were reoriented with Gaoan Ku Jiba Chasinku Bhetiba programme to enable students to be acquainted with socio-economic conditions of the farmers. Agriculture and Farmers Empowerment Secretary Saurabh Garg emphasised on strengthening coordination among research scientists and tal Bihari Vajpayee s demise Ais not only a national loss but a great personal loss, said Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik attending an all-party and public prayer meeting organised in memory of the former Prime Minister at the IDCO Exhibition Ground here on Friday. Patnaik said, Vajpayee was a man of principle and an idealistic poet. He knew the art of managing a coalition Government. His tolerance in politics is praiseworthy. He had a large heart for Odisha. I cherish my association with him. We are all crestfallen by his demise. Leaders cutting across the party lines including Leader of Opposition Narasingha Mishra, OPCC president Niranjan Patnaik, Minister Surjya Narayan Patro, Rajya Sabha BJD member Prasanna Acharya, BJP leaders including Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and leaders of many other political parties recalled their association with the great leader and paid tributes to him. Notably, Union Minister Jual Oram and BJP State vicepresident Samir Mohanty had met Chief Minister Patnaik on Thursday at the Naveen Niwas and invited him to attend the Vajpayee memorial service. the old names. BMJD secretary Minati Das said earlier the appointees declared by Mallick have no participation in Jagatsinghpur BJD activities. BMJD president Mallick after a careful review cancelled their appointments, Das said. However, MLA Mallick informed that the previously appointed BMJD presidents for Jagatsinghpur block, municipality and Naugaon units have been made vice presidents. extension functionaries for effective transfer of technology. While Dean Prof PK Roul welcomed the guests at the outset and Registrar Susamarani Devi proposed a vote of thanks at the end. Earlier in the day, the foundation stone of a techno park cottage had been laid. processes to recover metal values from the industrial wastes like slag, scraps, tailings and slimes. This is of specific importance with respect to a few non-ferrous/base/refractory metals for which there is scarcity of high grade ores, it was said. Mining, mineral-processing and metal-based industries require a lot of water. Therefore, these industries should have their own water sources as far as possible and also recycle the waste water. Rain water harvesting is to be adopted in mined areas and in every mineral based industry and preserved properly for their use. I n - S i t u Leaching (ISL) is to be practiced for low grade as well as difficult-to-mine minerals by conventional mining particularly for high value nonferrous metals like uranium, gold, copper and nickel etc. Mine closure programme as envisaged in the approved integrated mine plan is to be implemented with proper monitoring by the appropriate regulatory authority. Besides, modernisation of mining techniques with proper geo-technical instrumentation must be practiced from safety point of view for all the stakeholders. he joint enforcement team of TBDA, BMC and Commissionerate police on Friday carried out an eviction drive in and around the Kalinga Stadium and cleared unauthorised encroachments for the Odisha Men s Hockey World Cup. Six asbestos houses, seven cabins, two tin shed houses, 12 bamboo framed polythene covered shops and near about 120- feet bamboo fencing from Gulab Resorts to Kalinga Stadium Traffic Square were demolished. In another eviction drive, the civic authorities with the help of the Khandagiri police cleared illegal encroachment along Aiginia to AIIMS Road on the eve of visit of Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu. During the drive, six temporary shops were evicted. However, due to heavy protest by the local people along with the Ward No 66 Councillor the drive was stopped. Later, an FIR was also lodged by the BMC with the Khandagiri police for necessary action. he Kalinga Institute of TIndustrial Technology (KIIT) sent 75 skilled workers to Kerala on Friday to help flood-affected people there. The massive flood in Kerala has devastated the entire State affecting more than 10 lakh people. The ravages require efforts to restore the damages caused by the floods. The team includes electricians, plumbers, welders, carpenters and snake charmers who would stay there for one month and provide support of rehabilitation and restoration in Ernakulam, Alappuzha, Thrissur and Kottayam districts. KIIT and KISS founder Achyuta Samanta appreciated the team s enthusiasm towards their service to the distressed people. Two days back, the KIMS sent a 25-member medical team to Kerala to render health services to the flood-hit.

5 New Delhi: The possibility of getting a televised proceeding of the Supreme Court, beginning with the Chief Justice of India's court, in matters of constitutional importance, seemed close to reality on Friday as the Supreme Court reserved orders on a bunch of petitions raising this demand that has already found the backing of the Centre and senior advocates of the apex court. Even CJI Dipak Misra seemed inclined along with the other judges on the bench - Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud, who were of the firm opinion that there will always be a danger whenever a new technology gets introduced. "But we need to take a positive look at where the world is going and the benefit technology can offer to litigants." Attorney General KK Venugopal who represented the he Supreme Court issued Tnotice to the West Bengal Government on a plea seeking a CBI probe into the killing of three BJP workers in the State following the local body elections in the State. The petition also sought a compensation of 50 lakh for the victims' families and security for each family member. A bench of Justices AK Sikri and Ashok Bhushan sought response from the West Bengal Government and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on a plea filed by BJP leader and advocate Gaurav Bhatia. The petition termed the three murders of Shaktipad Sarkar, Tirlochan Mahato and Dulal Kumar as disturbing as the police was yet to register an FIR even as the family members of victims were being threatened. It is interesting to note that earlier, on a similar plea filed for CBI probe into the killing of two BJP workers in Centre presented the 'Guidelines for Live Streaming of Court Proceedings in Supreme Court' said that a start could be made by live-streaming cases of constitutional and national importance in CJI's courtroom. Later this could be extended to High Courts and other courts. This would not only serve as instruction material for law students but will help de-congest courtrooms of law interns, journalists and other interested persons who come to witness the proceedings. Some lawyers objected to this move claiming that observations made by judges would be presented as if that is the final view of the Court. One lawyer Virag Gupta stated that in the age of fake news, the live streaming broadcast could even be misused. The bench replied, "Why should we feel shy on what goes on here in court unless it involves individual privacy in cases of sexual Purulia district, the Supreme Court had directed the petitioners to approach the Calcutta High Court. In the latest incident, the petitioner alleged that 18-year old Mahato, a BJP worker from Purulia district was found hanging from a tree with a poster written in Bengali struck on his back that said he was killed for canvassing for the BJP during panchayat polls. The incident occurred on May 30 and within days, another BJP worker Dulal Kumar was murdered in a similar manner. Later on July 28, a third BJP worker was hacked to death. assault, matrimonial cases, issues of national security, or matters involving juveniles." However, senior advocate Indira Jaising, who herself is a petitioner in the case, suggested that to start with only constitutional matters may be live streamed. She insisted on having a video recording of proceedings as well along with transcription of proceedings. The bench said, "We are not ruling it out. But for transcription, there are issues of employing technology for interpretation and cost implications to be sorted out. We wish to start with something and keep improving it with time." In addition, the bench felt that litigants need not come to Court as they may witness the proceedings in Court without clogging the courtrooms. Moreover, the bench added, "We are truly interpreting the concept of open courtroom. Why should we adopt a conservative approach?" PNS he Enforcement Directorate Ton Friday again questioned former Finance Minister P Chidambaram for six hours in the Aircel-Maxis money laundering case. This was the third time the agency interrogated Chidambaram for the money trail from Maxis to son Karti's firms. ED is expected to chargesheet Chidambaram soon, as the time limit prescribed by Supreme Court ends by September 12 to finish the probe. According to sources, Chidambaram was evasive to many questions posed by the officers on the violations in the FIPB and CCEA rules regarding the foreign investment. The former Finance Minister also claimed that he was not aware of his son's business or money flow into his firms from Maxis. ED has already chargesheeted Karti in June and s a blame-game erupted Abetween Tamil Nadu and Kerala over the devastating floods, the Supreme Court on Friday directed the panel on the Mullaperiyar Dam to ensure that the water level at the reservoir is maintained at feet till August 31. The Mullaperiyar Dam, built in 1895 on Periyar River in Idukki District of Kerala, came under the spotlight with the Kerala Government accusing Tamil Nadu, which maintains the reservoir, of sudden release of water leading to unprecedented deluge in the State. Kerala's claim was today rebuffed by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami, who said the neighbouring state had suffered the deluge due to the discharge of excess water from 80 reservoirs spurred by heavy rains there. ith the controversy over Wthe vulnerability of Electronic Voting Machines continuing, the Election Commission has convened an all-party meeting on August 27 to discuss preparations for the Lok Sabha polls due next year. Sources in the poll panel said the meeting is not restricted to the issue of electronic voting machines but is part of its annual calendar to meet stakeholders. The EC has sent out invites to seven national and 51 regional parties. The meeting will be held in the national capital. EC officials said that the meeting will discuss preparations for the Lok Sabha polls due next year where the issue year. "The southern peninsula ven as Kerala struggles to has received around 81 per cent Ereturn to normal after the excess rains during the August devastating floods, a rain alert by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has put Assam and other north-eastern States on their toes. The European Centre for Medium- Range Weather Forecasts too has indicated the possibility of North, East and North-East India receiving widespread rainfall over the next 5-10 days. The monsoon is now expected to become active over Indo-Gangetic plains in states normal of mm till August expected to below normal over 16 to August 22 week. This was due to the deluge in Kerala along with parts of Karnataka", the IMD said. As per data, after Kerala, Assam is the second state in the country which has faced devastating flood this year. The flood affected areas in Assam are Dhemaji, Lakhimpur Sonitpur, Nalbari, Biswanath, Udalguri, Barpeta, Chirang, Kokrajhar,Nagaon. Hojai, Karbi-Anglong East, Karbi- Anglong West, Golaghat, like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, 24. At present, the monsoon Kerala, Lakshadweep, Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Majuli, Jharkhand, Odisha, and West deficient is 7 percent till date. Karnataka, Maharashtra, Goa, Charaideo Karimganj, Bengal till August-end and over central India. The IMD said rains would become active over east India and parts of central India due to the influence of a low pressure area likely to formed over the Bay of Bengal. The country has received mm rainfall against the The IMD in its forecast issued a rain alert (above normal rainfall) in northeastern states for the next week. "The normal rainfall is likely over Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, west Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Odisha and Nicobar Islands. The rain is Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, south Chhattisgarh, south Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Jammu & Kashmir next week," it said. The IMD data says that there are 22 States and Union territories have received normal rain while Kerala and Daman Diu received excess rain this Sivasagar, Hailakandi, Cachar and Dima Hasao. The flood has destroyed 27,630 hectare of kharif crops in the State. As per report, over lakh people are affected while 46 people have been killed in the region. A total of 6,000 houses were damaged and 1500 villages affected. The Tamil Nadu Government also filed an affidavit in the apex court on Friday charging Kerala with an "obstructionist attitude and non-cooperation" and alleging that it was helping illegal encroachments. However, the top court steered clear of the dispute between Tamil Nadu and Kerala over the maximum permissible limit of water level of 142 ft in the dam as fixed by it in its 2014 verdict and said that currently, it was concerned with disaster management and maintaining the water level at 139 ft to ensure that the flood situation does not worsen. "Needless to say, the present writ petition has nothing to do with any kind of dispute between the States of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, but it relates to saving of human lives in the obtaining situation of disaster," a bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra said. on July 19, CBI chargesheeted both father and son in the Aircel-Maxis scam. The CBI also chargesheeted former Finance Secretaries Ashok Jha and Ashok Chawla and two serving IAS officers Sanjay Krishna and Dipak Kumar Singh for the FIPB violations to facilitate the illegal takeover of Aircel by Malaysian company Maxis. Around two lakh dollars (Rs.1.16 croe) were received by Karti's firms from Maxis, said CBI and ED in their chargesheets. In September 2017, the ED attached Karti's bank deposits worth 1.16 crore. The trial court is scheduled to start the arguments on cognisance of chargesheets in October after CBI sought time to provide sanction to prosecute the civil servants. The CBI has also chargesheeted Chidambaram's nephew Palaniyappan and family's Chartered Accountant Bhaskar Raman. of vulnerability of EVMs is likely to remain in focus. Some political parties are set to raise the issue of alleged vulnerability of EVMs to hacking and tampering. The issues related to conduct of election including alternative modes of voting for domestic migrants and absentee voters; views and feedback of political parties regarding the operation of the Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot System (ETPBS) scheme; and the views and feedback of political parties regarding efforts to encourage electoral participation of Voters With Disabilities, will also be discussed. "On the subject of election expenditure regulation, issues related to Expenditure Ceiling for Legislative Council Elections and Limiting Political Party Expenditure would be discussed. Discussion on enforcement measures to ensure timely submission of he Enforcement Directorate Ton Friday filed its first charge sheet against RJD chief Lalu Prasad, his wife Rabri Devi, son Tejaswi Yadav and others in connection with the IRCTC hotels allotment money laundering case. The agency has also named RJD leader and former Minister PC Gupta and his wife Sarla Gupta, a firm Lara Projects and 10 others in the prosecution complaint (charge sheet) filed under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) before a special court here. The agency has attached around 45 crore worth assets in this case, said ED officials. annual audited reports, election expenditure reports are also on the agenda. Election campaign silence period which include of print media within the ambit of section 126(1)(b) of the Representation of People Act 1951 and Issue of online canvassing to promote or prejudice the electoral prospects of a party/candidate on social media during the last 48 hours before conclusion of polling will also be discussed. In a similar meeting held last year, the EC had assured parties that paper trail machines would be used in all polling stations. The EC would also update them about the ED said Prasad and IRCTC officials allegedly misused their position for granting sub-lease of the rights of two railway hotels at Puri and Ranchi to Ms Sujata Hotel Pvt. Ltd. Owned by Kochhars. In lieu of the hotels sublease, 358 decimal of prime plot of land in Patna was transferred to Ms Delight Marketing Company Pvt Ltd (a company owned by family of P C Gupta who is a close associate of Prasad and an MP from RJD) in February 2005 at a rate which was much less than the then prevailing circle rates. "The said company possessing valuable chunk of land gradually got transferred to Rabri Devi and her son Tejashwi by way of share ongress MLA from Manipur Yamthong CHaokip was arrested on Friday by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in a missing arms case, according to an official statement. The NIA is probing the case pertaining to theft of 56 pistols and 58 magazines from the Director General (of Police) pool armoury located within the premises of 2nd Manipur Rifles Battalion, Imphal. These weapons went missing between 2016 and early "Yamthong Haokip was arrested today (August 24, 2018) for his involvement in procuring police pistols illegally and distributing them to different terrorist groups to wage war against the State," the NIA said in the statement. Haokip, a member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Manipur's Saikul, was produced before a special court in Imphal. He has been remanded to judicial custody, the probe agency said. "Owing to his recent illness, the NIA judge ordered jail authorities to admit him in a government hospital," it said. During investigation by the NIA, one of the missing pistols, was recovered at Mantri Pukhri, Imphal on July 30, 2018 in the search conducted at the residence of Haokip besides other incriminating articles, the statement said. During investigation, sufficient material and other evidence has been collected which established the complicity of the MLA in the case, it said. The NIA has recovered 14 weapons till date in the case and the investigation is continuing. he Congress on Friday Taccused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of betraying the people of Varanasi by failing to fulfil his promises of cleaning the Ganga river, as pollution level was found to be more than that in Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi alleged that the 'Namami Gange' projects have "miserably faltered" as only one-fourth of them have been completed till date with a few months left for the Modi Government's tenure to end. He said the people of Varanasi and other cities along the Ganga river will never forgive the Prime Minister and his Government for betraying them through unfulfilled promises. decision. At least 17 opposition parties have come together to make a fresh demand that voters in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections exercise their franchise by stamping the ballot paper, not pressing the button on EVMs. "Views and feedback of political parties regarding the Commission's efforts to expand outreach and encourage broad-based, inclusive electoral participation will also be invited," EC said. As of now, results of only one paper trail machine per constituency are matched with EVM. There have been demands to increase the number of polling stations where results would be matched. purchase at nominal prices. "The funds used to acquire the land had dubious origin and had been laundered through 151 group of companies belonging to P C Gupta by using an NBFC named Ms Abhishek Finance Company Limited," the agency charged. Subsequently, the shares of Ms Delight Marketing Company Private Limited, it said, were acquired by Rabri Devi and Tejashwi at less than fair market value. The CBI too had filed a charge sheet in this case sometime back. The ED registered the criminal case against his family members and others under the PMLA, based on this CBI FIR.

6 elief was continuing to flow Rfrom Telangana to the flood hit Kerala as people from different sections were coming forward to contribute their bit to the Chief Minister s relief fund. While a constable of Hyderabad police donated his entire one month salary of 68,000, 34 members of Telangana legislative Council have also contributed their one months salary for the relief work. Meanwhile the Majlis-e- Ittehadul Muslimeen has sent a consignment of medicines worth 25 lakh to Kerala. Police constable of Charminar police station in Hyderabad Tudi Raju handover his one month salary to the Police inspector K Chandrasekhar Reddy to be sent to Kerala. 33 MLCs of ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti and amil Nadu Deputy Chief TMinister O Panneerselvam, who is also the AIADMK coordinator, has been so deeply wounded by a recent snub from Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman that he was about to resign from his post. Sources said that OPS turned emotional on Thursday evening while addressing the closed door meeting of his party executive held at Chennai. The recent snubbing by Union Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman when I went to meet her in New Delhi recently should be seen an insult not only to me but also to the 1.2 crore AIADMK cadre, said Panneerselvam while making the concluding remarks at the executive committee meeting. Panneerselvam had gone to New Delhi to personally thank the Defence Minister who had reportedly made available to the former a Service helicopter for airlifting his ailing brother to a corporate hospital from Madurai. But Sitharaman did not meet the Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister though she gave an audience to other AIADMK leader Dr V Maythreyan. Panneerselvam even went to the extent of offering his resignation from the Council of Ministers to strengthen the party, sources said. While Sitharaman coldshouldered OPS, BJP President Amit Shah has decided to attend a memorial meeting for DMK's late president M Karunanidhi on August 30 at Chennai. This is seen as BJP's attempt to keep a channel open with the DMK, much to displeasure of the AIADMK. The DMK had kept out both the BJP and the AIADMK from the 75th anniversary functions of Murasoli, the party's mouthpiece, held in August The memorial meeting for Karunandhi would see the who s who of Indian political landscape sans the AIADMK landing at Chennai to pay homage to the late leader. Other leaders who have confirmed their participation in the meeting are senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, former Prime Minister Deve Gowda, former J&K one of the BJP have donated their one month salary. Government Chief Whip Sudhakar Reddy and whip B Venkateshwarulu and MLC Srinivas Reddy met the Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and handed over the cheque to him. Meanwhile Majlis-e- Ittehadul Muslimeen President Asaduddin Owaisi said that medicines worth 25 lakh were being sent to Kerala as there were fears of outbreak of epidemic as the flood water was receding. The medicines were being sent on behalf of the Owaisi Group of Hospitals headed by Akbarudidn Owaisi, he said. MIM has already sent donation of 16 lakh to Kerala CM s relief fund. Addressing a meeting of party leaders and workers Owaisi demanded that the Centre should immediately release an assistance of 20,000 Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah and a galaxy of other political stars including Derrick O'brien, the Trinamool Congress leader. The notable absentee would be Rahul Gandhi, the Congress chief. "This is an apolitical meeting and there is no need to read too much into the coming together of all these leaders. We have invited all leaders who had interacted with Dr Kalaignar in his long spanning political career," said TKS Elangovan, DMK spokesman. R Rangaraj, a veteran commentator, said he does not foresee any major changes in the immediate future. "Both the DMK and the BJP may keep their post poll options open though the latter may be eyeing the DMK," said Rangaraj. Vijayakanth, who heads the DMDK which was an ally of the NDA during the 2014 Lok Sabha election declared on Friday that his party would go it alone in the next Lok Sabha election crore to Kerala in view of the widespread destruction. Pointing out that four hundred people had died, one lakh houses were destroyed, 11 lakh people were rendered homless and 10,000 kms long roads were damaged, Owaisi said, announcement of mere 600 crore assistance by the Prime Minister is highly inadequate. He regretted that the Centre was neither willing to accept the offer of assistance by the United Arab Emirates nor it was ready to provide its own help to the State. if they feel that the UAE assistance will hurt their ego the Centre should provide immediate assistance of 2,000 crore. Rejecting Centre s stand that it can not accept the foreign assistance he said that there was provision in the law that in emergency situation foreign funds can be accepted. Owaisi said that last year efence Minister Nirmala DSitharaman announced a package of 7 crores to rainravaged Kodgau district in Karnataka. The Defence Minister who visited Madikeri on Friday said she has asked the defence forces who are involved in relief work to take up restoration work immediately. This amount includes 1 crore from her MPs fund for the rehabilitation work in the devastated district of Kodagu. She said, I have come here to speak to the people affected by floods and who have lost their homes and are staying in relief camps. It is very disturbing scene that there is so much destruction. I will brief about my visit to Home Minister Rajnath Singh and will also speak to Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari on the urgent need of restoring major roads, she told reporters after her visit. Defence Minister visited various places in Kodagu including relief centers and damaged infrastructure and held an official meeting with top district officials, officials from armed forces involved in relief work and members of NDRF besides State Civil Defence Department officials. She said the armed forces will fully involve in the restoration of some damaged roads, houses, buildings, and water and electricity connections in Kodagu. She went around some parts of ravaged Madikeri and surveyed other places which has seen a spate of landslides in the last week. Rescue and relief erdict on pro-quota Patidar Vleader Hardik Shah s bail application remained pending on Friday as the judge of a local court in Ahmedabad was on leave. Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) leader is accused in a case pertaining to sabotage at BJP leader Paresh Patel s residence in Vastral area on March 20, The hearing on the case has been completed. Now the court is learnt to pronounce its verdict on Monday. Interestingly 25-year-old India had received foreign exchange of 59 million dollars and 40 per cent of it was sent by the Kerala migrants. Similarly he said during 2015 Kerala migrants had sent 1 lakh crore to India and UAE was the number one among the ten countries from where India receives the highest amount of foreign exchange. Kerala gets the biggest share of it followed by Hyderabad and Gujarat. Even then injustice was being done to Kerala, he said. Meanwhile the State public sector undertaking Singareni Collieries Limited has also sent a medical team along with a fully equipped ambulance and a rescue team to Kerala. The rescue team had 18 members and the medical team has 3 doctors and five support staff. They have taken surgical equipment, medicine and dressing material with them. Hardik is goining on indefinite fast agitation from Saturday, August 25 to mark third anniversary of famous mega-rally of 2015 at GMDC ground in Ahmedabad. As authorities in Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar didn t give him ground to conduct fast agitation publicly, he has now decided to initiate fast agitation from his residence situated near Vaishnodevi circle on Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar road. Hardik Patel and PAAS are demanding resevation for Patidar community in Government jobs and educational institutions under OBC category since the past three years. Patel strategically wanted to revive pro-quota agitation keeping upcoming 2019 Lok operations are on-going in the region. We are with the people of Kodagu, she added. Kodagu-Mysuru MP Pratap Simha, In-charge Minister of Kodagu District Sa Ra Mahesh, Kodagu DC Srividya were also present at the press meet. The torrential rainfall that lashed the district last week has left a huge trail of destruction and claimed at least 17 lives. More than 5,000 people have been rendered homeless. The defence Minister was moved by a drawing on a white paper by a small boy who drawn the picture depicting the disaster. Nirmala Sitharaman, a Rajya Sabha member from Karnataka, is the second Union Minister to visit the floodravaged district, after DV Sadananada Gowda, who hails from the State. Her visit comes a day after State BJP Chief BS Yeddyurappa said he had apprised Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the situation in Kodagu. Meanwhile, former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah along with Pradesh Congress chief Dinesh Gundu Rao visited affected areas of the district and took stock of the situation on Thursday. He urged the Prime Minister to visit the rain ravaged Kodagu. According to reports the rain fury has left so far seventeen people dead, hundreds of people lost their houses and Coffee, spices grown in thousands of hectares of land were destroyed. The South West Monsoon that lashed from August 13 to 21 in Kodagu has surpassed 87 year old record. In 1931 Kodagu had received a record rainfall of 1559 mm in the Month of August, but this month the District has received 1,675 mm rain till August 21, according to Indian Meteorological Department sources. Besides, the District received a record 768 mm of rain in three days--august 15,16 and 17. On August 17 single day the rainfall received elangana Chief Minister K TChandrasekhar Rao was leaving for New Delhi to meet the Prime Minister Narendar Modi and other Ministers to discuss some of the pending issues of the State including the nod to the new Zonal system for the recruitment on Government jobs. Significantly this will be KCR s third meeting with the Prime Minister Modi with in two months. The decision of Chief Minister s visit to New Delhi was taken all of a sudden when top officials were already in New Delhi meeting the Election Commission and other officials. The surprise decision to go to Delhi and stay there for a couple of days has again revived the speculations that the Chief Minister has not given up the idea of going for an early elections to the State assembly despite the opposition from majority of his Ministers. Earlier the Chief Minister also held a meeting with the State Governor ESL Narasimhan and discussed the political situations and plans to convene the winter session of the State assembly by the end of September. Speculations are rife that this will be the last session of the assembly and after that the Chief Minister may recommend the dissolution of the House. The fresh speculations amid the flurry of activity suggest that KCR may opt for elections along with the four other States of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram by December. in the District was 300 mm. The administration is now focusing on providing relief and rehabilitating those at the relief camps, clearing blocked roads and restoring electricity.however, a total of 1,019 rescuers from various agencies are stationed in Kodagu and are screening villages along with NGOs and local community. "An amount of 30 crore has been released to Kodagu by the State Government to take up relief works," officials said, adding engineers and personnel from Madras Engineer Group are being deputed to Kodagu for road restoration and debris clearance. Schools that were shut for over 20 days reopened on Thursday, with teachers conducting classes to students at relief camps across the district. Fifty-one relief camps have been set up in Kodagu that are currently housing 5,041 people, including 4,450 who were rescued and brought to safety till Thursday evening. According to preliminary estimates, around 2,200 houses have been damaged. A three-member team from NGRI (National Geophysical Research Institute) headed by Ragavan visited Kodagu set up a seismic monitoring centre in a school to monitor seismic activity around the area. Another team comprising of Dr Srinivasa Reddy, Director, Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre and Dr HMS Prakash (former DDG, GSI) are conducting geo-technical studies in landslide affected region of Kodagu. Sabha polls in mind. Meanwhile, the State Government has decided to section 144 from Saturday and also cancelled leave of police personnel in Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar area. According to Minister of State for Home Pradipsinh Jadeja, the imposition of section 144 has nothing to do with Hardik s proposed agitation, but the State Government had taken the decision in view of festival season to maintain law and order situation in the major cities of Gujarat. Hardik on the other hand criticised the decision of the State Government to impose section 144 saying that it is nothing but to pressurise people who are supporting his fast agitation. What has given further fillip to the speculation was the activities of the State Government s advisor Rajiv Sharma in the national capital. He met the election commissioner in New Delhi to discuss the possibility of an early election. Political circles in Hyderabad were agog with the talk of KCR s proposed meeting with the Prime Minister was also linked to the early elections to the State Assembly as the Chief Minister was keen to have Modi on board. According to an official press release the Chief Minister decided to go to Delhi as he was of the view that despite several appeals from the State Government, the response from the Center was not as expected. Due to non clearance of zonal system by the Central Government delay is taking place in the recruitment of Panchayat secretaries and others. CM wants that Prime Minister should take personal initiative to see that the Central Government gives clearance to the zonal system immediately, the press release said. pset over the allegation by UKerala that the recent flood in that State was caused by the sudden release of water from Mullaperiyar Dam by the Governnment of Tamil Nadu, Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswamy retaliated on Friday by charging that the southern neighbour was spreading misinformation. The Kerala Government in its affidavit filed in the Supreme Court on Thursday had claimed that the sudden release of water from Mullaperiyar Dam by Tamil Nadu was the cause for the recent floods. The controversial Mullaperiyar Dam, situated in the Idukki district of Kerala is owned and operated by Tamil Nadu has been a bone of contention between the two States for the last five decades. The floods in Kerala were caused by the sudden opening of various dams in that State and we do not have any role in it. Kerala received fairly good rain this season, said the Chief Minister while interacting with journalists at Tiruchirappalli on Friday. The water released from the Mullaperiyar Dam flowed only in one part of the State. Water was released only after three warnings and that too in a gradual manner, said Palaniswamy. He also said that the allegation was made by Kerala with an eye on preventing Tamil Nadu from storing water up to a height of 142 ft in the Mullaperiyar Dam. Both the States were engaged in a legal war over the height up to which water could be stored in the dam. While Tamil Nadu ad insisted that it should be allowed to maintain the water level at a height of 152 ft, Kerala wanted the level to be brought down to 139 ft because of safety issues. The suit was filed in the apex court by Subramanian Swamy, senior BJP leader who asked the court to give a directive to Kerala Government to maintain water level up to 152 ft. The court ruled in favour of Tamil Nadu but allowed it to increase the water level only up to 142 ft. The Kerala Government s affidavit in the Supreme Court was filed amidst allegations from dam safety experts that the former delayed the opening of shutters of various dams in the State The simultaneous opening of all the shutters in these dams led to the deluge in the districts of Ernakulam, Kottayam, Alappuzha and Pathanamthitta, they alleged. Chief Advisor to the State Government Rajiv Sharma was camping in New Delhi for quite sometime and monitoring the issue s concerned to the State. The Chief Minister will also discuss the other issues including release of additional funds under FRBM, release of 450 crore for the development of backward districts, release of central share of interest on the loans to be given to women societies and farmer, bifurcation of High Court, funds for regional ring road, allotment of defence lands for the construction of sate secretariat building. Before leaving for Delhi the Chief Minister on Friday visited Kongara Kalan where the TRS was planning a massive public meeting on September 2. He was accompanied by the State Home Minister N Narasimha Reddy, K Taraka Rama Rao and party senior leaders including K Keshav Rao. He asked the party leaders to ensure that the massive gathering of people should not create any traffic problems along the Outer Ring Road.

7 Srinagar: he Congress on Friday tar- Prime Minister Tgeted Narendra Modi for "betraying the people of Varanasi" by failing to clean Ganga as promised, saying that pollution level in the river has increased after "People of Varanasi, people of the Gangetic plains and Ma Ganga shall never forgive and forget how PM Shri Narendra Modi has betrayed them. Only few months are left and people Lucknow: The UP PCS Officers Association has demanded a judicial probe into the dispute between a retired Colonel of Army and a PCS officer in Gautam Buddha Nagar leading to registration of a criminal case against the PCS officer and his suspension. The Colonel was booked under the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 2018, which was recently passed by Parliament, and sent to jail. Later, the case was found to be fake and the state government on Thursday suspended PCS officer Harish Chandra, who was posted as additional district magistrate in Muzaffarnagar. of India shall give a befitting reply to the BJP," Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said in a statement. Citing the RTI reply and a Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report for , senior Congress leader also stated that the pollution levels in Ganga are higher than the levels recorded back in 2014 after Modi launched "Namami Gange" programme an initiative to clean the river. UP PCS Officers Association president Umesh Pratap Singh in a memorandum to the Chief Secretary on Friday expressed his sympathy with the retired Colonel, who is 76 years old. He also condemned what he called repressive action by the police in Gautam Buddha Nagar district against the PCS officer. Umesh Pratap Singh said the District Magistrate and Senior Superintendent of Police of Gautam Buddha Nagar were acting under pressure in a partisan manner, leading to the registration of a case under Section 307 of the Indian Penal Code against the PCS officer. He said the sequence of "Particularly in PM Modi's constituency, Varanasi, lab tests have found that bacterial contamination is now higher than the levels recorded back in 2014," he further added. Singhvi said that the government has been completely neglecting how sewage and carcasses are disposed of in the river. "The slurries, gurgle dark black sewage into the Ganga, littered with plastics, carcasses and trash, the indescribable stink kicks up from this toxic cocktail that also hides germs passed through human and animal excrement in Varanasi sings the sordid saga of utter neglect by the Modi Government," he stated. events of punitive action against the officers of Gautam Buddha Nagar district proved beyond doubt that the district police were acting in a highly partisan manner. He said PCS officer Harish Chandra had been suspended, an inspector of police had been sent to police lines and the circle officer had also been removed and proceedings were being initiated against all the officers of the district involved in the incident. Singh said that PCS officer Harish Chandra, in his representation to the association, had stated that the Colonel was in the habit of hurling caste based filthy abuses against him and his wife. A delegation of political leaders including former Chief Ministers Farooq Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti on Friday bid farewell to former Governor N.N. Vohra, who served for 10 years in the post in Jammu and Kashmir. The leaders called on Vohra at the Raj Bhavan here. The delegation included senior members and former Ministers representing the National Conference, Peoples Democratic party and Congress besides prominent representatives of the Sikh community and leaders of business, trade and travel groups. Abdullah thanked Vohra for his "able guidance, sage advice and sincere service" to the troubled State. Abdullah's sentiments were supported by Mehbooba Mufti, who thanked Vohra for guiding her particularly after her father passed away. Other speakers also expressed appreciation of the "constructive and pro-people role" played by Vohra, particularly over the way he handled various sensitive issues. IANS Amid allegations of lodging a false sexual harassment report against a 76-year-old retired Colonel of the Army and abuse of power, Harish Chandra was suspended on Thursday. On Thursday morning, a team of officials from Noida Development Authority reached the housing society and claimed that illegal structure was demolished. The Colonel in his complaint to the police had said that he had raised objection to the illegal construction by the PCS officer near his flat as it was blocking passage, access to sun light and ventilation in his house. PNS ajasthan Congress leaders Ron Friday came together to start the party's election campaign from Sanwaliyaji temple in Chittaurgarh. The programme to flag off Sankalp yatra was presided over by Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee president Sachin Pilot. Party leaders who shared the dias included state party in-charge Avinash Pandey, former chief minister Ashok Gehlot, senior leader Dr CP Joshi and leader of Opposition in the State Assembly, Rameshwar Dudi. The leaders offered prayers at the Sanwaliyaji temple in the morning and later attended a huge public gathering which was addressed by Pilot. "The people of the state are ready to fight for their rights. They elected BJP by giving it a strong mandate in the last elections. But the state government has failed to fulfil their promises," Pilot said. elangana Chief Minister K TChandrasekhar Rao has come out with fresh rounds of sops for various sections on Friday. The slew of announcements include up to 101 units free electricity supply for domestic consumption by the scheduled castes and scheduled tribe families, self-respect community complexes for all the castes in Hyderabad city, payment of 5,000 per month to all the Imams and Mouezzins of mosques in the State and treating the priests of temples under State Endowments Department on part with the Government employees. According to the official press release the free electricity for the domestic consumption was being increased from existing fifty units to 101 units as the Chief Minister felt that that the earlier limit was not sufficient due to the use of TV n a shocking development, Ithe baby Humboldt Penguin died at the the BMC-run Veermata Jijabai Bhosale (VJB) Udyan and Zoo at Byculla in south Mumbai, just a week after its much-publicised birth. Making a formal announcement about the baby Humboldt Penguin s death, the zoo authorities said here on Friday that the chick passed away on Wednesday night due to newborn anomalies like yolk sac retention and liver dysfunction. The baby Penguin, which was born on August 15, was found to be sinking on Wednesday morning, despite the good care being taken by its parents. All efforts were made by the veterinary team of Humboldt Penguin management. But the chick was found dead on the night of August 22 (Wednesday), the Zoo officials said. An autopsy was performed by a three-member team of the Bombay Veterinary College, Parel on the deceased chick at the zoo hospital. The preliminary report revealed that there were new-born anomalies like yolk sac retention and liver dysfunction which caused the baby Penguin s death. The parents of deceased chick Molt and Flipper as also and other home appliances in the homes of SC and ST families. The electricity bill towards this consumption will be paid by the State Government to the power distribution companies. in view of the increased availability of power in Telangana State its benefits should also reach the downtrodden, the Chief Minister said. On the construction of Atma Gaurava Bhavans for all the castes the Chief Minister said that the land and the funds will be allocated by the State Government. After a review meeting with the officials and the Ministers the Chief Minister said, backward classes in Telangana are in majority and in large numbers. They are are however backward in social educational and financial years, the Chief Minister said adding that the Government will construct such buildings in Hyderabad for every caste for their social, cultural, educational and financial advancement. Self respect building complex benefiting 36 nomad castes will be constructed at a cost of 10 crore and by allocating ten acres of lands, he said. The Chief Minister also other Humboldt Penguins at the VJB Udyan and Zoo -- are in good health and have shown very good parenting behavior. We are hopeful of better breeding and chick survival of Humboldt Penuins at this Zoo in future, a statement issued by the zoo authorities said. Seeking to throw some light on the premature death of baby Penguin at their zoo, the authorities said that references on management of penguins show that 60 per cent mortality is expected because of reasons like infertility of egg, mal-positioning of chick inside the egg, failure to hatch on its own, chick deformity, inability of parents to feed, yolk sac retention, residual albumin among others. Besides, the Association of Zoos and Aquarium Species Survival Plan and a scientific paper on artificial incubation and hand rearing of Humboldt penguins mentions about 30 to 35 per cent mortality rate of chicks less than 30 days of age and the first three months are crucial for survival of penguin chick. It may be recalled that a day after the birth of the baby Penguin at 8.02 pm on August 15, the authorities had celebrated the event by releasing photographs and a short video of the newly-born chick to the media. After mating in captivity with male Penguin Molt, the announced that the monthly remuneration of 5,000 for all the Imamas and Muezzins will be paid from September 1 this year. This will benefit an estimated 9,000 Imams and Muezzins. Telangana was the first State to introduce 1,000 per month honorarium initially which was later increased to 1,500 and now it has been increased to 5,000. At the same time the Chief Minister announced that the Archakas performing priestly duties in the temples under endowment departments will be paid salaries on part with the Government employees from the State Government treasuries from September 1. As and when the par revision is implements for the Government employee the same will be applicable to the priests. The retirement age for them will be increased to 65 years from the present 58 years. He also announced increasing the salaries of employees of 29 mini Gurukuls. The salary of head master and warden will be increased from 5,000 to and sweepers and watchman s salary from 2500 to female Penguin Flipper delivered had delivered an egg last month at the VJB Udyan and Zoo. The mating of Molt and Flipper had happened between March and April this year After the female penguin laid eggs in a month and a half, and both parents took turn to incubate them. Last month, the caretakers at the Byculla Zoo had found that the nest built by the penguin pair Mr Molt and Flipper had an egg. The zoo caretakers, vets and others kept strict vigil for nearly 40 days. Finally, a small fluffy chick had walked out of the egg to freedom in the nest inside the airconditioned enclosure built by the Zoo authorities where the all Penguins have been kept. While Mr. Molt is the youngest male, Flipper is the oldest female in the zoo Penguin colony. JP MP GVL Narasimha BRao found himself in a serious trouble when the car he was travelling was involved in a road accident killing a woman and injuring another. According to Mangalgiri police the accident occurred when the MP was going from Amaravati to Vijayawada on Friday afternoon. While police arrested the driver Rao left for Vijayawada in another car. In an attempt to avoid hitting pedestrians the driver swerved the car and after colliding with the divider it hit the two women. While one of them died on the spot the other was being treated in a local hospital. The first chick was born at the VJB Udyan and Zoo more than a year after eight Humboldt penguins Donald, Daisy, Popeye, Olive, Flipper, Bubble, Mr Molt and Dory were brought here from Seoul in South Korea. Of the eight imported Penguins, female Dory had succumbed to some illness on October 23 last year, after showing symptoms of dullness, inappetance, greenish stools and laboured breathing and was diagnosed with the Gram negative bacteria. The Penguins have been kept in a special enclosure where the temperature was in the range of 16 to 18 degree C. The penguins feed on fish including the Indian mackerals. Water quality is monitored at regular intervals and there are several support systems that has been created. DELHI JAL BOARD: GOVT. OF N.C.T. OF DELHI OFFICE OF THE EXECUTIVE ENGINEER (CENTRAL)-I NEAR UGR & BPS RAMLILA GROUND JLN MARG, NEW DELHI PRESS NIT NO. 29 ( ) S. Name of work Estimated Cost Date of release Last Date/Time No. in Rs of tender on for receipt of e- procurement tender through solution e-procurement solution 01 Hiring of 03 nos sewer manhole desilting machine Item Rate 21/08/ PM 10/09/2018 with operator cum driver for operation of desilter onwards Tender ID : upto 03:00 PM and disposal of silt and including cost CNG at 2018_DJB_157207_1 Kasab Pura in AC-22 under EE(Central)-I Re-invite) Further detail in this regard can be seen at ISSUED BY P.R.O (WATER) Sd/- Advt. No. J.S.V 319/ EE(Central)-I

8 COMMENT & ANALYSIS Quota quagmire In a bid to highlight the need to protect the environment, several school kids will tie rakhis on trees this Raksha Bandhan. It is wonderful that the Hindu dharmic tradition is flexible enough to include in its interface with modernity measures that most traditional religions baulk at. In the process, maybe we will also realise that we need Briksha Bandhan along with Raksha Bandhan. Drugs menace India far from achieving true equality Iwas in a funk because I felt like I was not a good mom. So said ace tennis champion Serena Williams, a woman whom we associate with great accomplishments, the power of privilege, relevance as a creator of wealth and a benchmark of individual excellence. Yet when it came to motherhood, she slipped into the perennial guilt syndrome of readjusting her life around her child despite the fact that she could afford an alternative support system, an extended family and the comfort of workarounds. Still she felt that the time she gave for her child was not enough. Working women around the world are debating the same question as Serena and given the added issues of gender pay gap, the lack of paid maternity leave and the struggle to claim reproductive rights, they have decided to step off the ramp. A survey of 1,000 qualified women in Delhi/NCR found that only per cent of Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan has made the offer of 700 crore as aid to Kerala while speaking to Narendra Modi. Kerala Chief Minister PINARAYI VIJAYAN Sir This refers to report, Rahul s ISIS analogy in Germany stirs row (August 24). Congress president Rahul Gandhi has the habit of making absurd statements even in foreign lands. This, just to target the Modi Government. Addressing an event in Hamburg, Germany, Rahul Gandhi said that lynching was the result of demonetisation and Goods and Services Tax (GST) and then he went on to link the creation of the Islamic State (IS) with unemployment. However, the Congress chief conveniently forgot that lynching was not married women continued working after having a child. Some other estimates indicate that nearly half of urban working women quit their jobs mid-career for maternity leave or to bring up children. In fact, the career dropout rate of urban educated women is higher than that of their rural counterparts in cases. Even in successful and high profile double income units, once the achieving threshold is crossed, it is the woman who is stepping back, succumbing to the genetically conditioned mindset of a nurturer and care-giver, giving the necessary thrust to the domestic economy as it were by some extra-constitutional power and then slipping back to the normalcy of expectation. In the process, women tend to strengthen the stereotype of a man as the bread-winner and an architect of a goal-oriented career. Though a man is equally responsible for fathering a child and is emotionally capable of being the protector, he has the mantle of a career performance lumped upon him. Even when mid-retiree women develop a sense of stability with their young ones growing up, they scarcely make it back to their original trajectory but take up some part-time ventures or develop a passion-oriented home business. Women who have family support or can afford to pay for child care have a lot of guilt. This is because of social conditioning, says leading businesswoman Anu Aga. The biggest decline in employment has been among two groups illiterate women and post-graduates a phenomenon that took place in Modi s rule. Incidents of lynching took place well before demonetisation and GST and even during the Congress rule. In a single year, 25 people were lynched in 2012 when the Congress-led UPA was in power. He also needs to know that the deadliest terrorist organisation, IS, is the creation of religious fanatism. Many well placed and highly paid youth quit their jobs to join this terror outfit, which is widely known for its videos of beheadings and executions as also for destruction of heritage sites. MC Joshi Lucknow UAE did not announce financial aid. Pinarayi Vijayan must reveal the source who told him about this assistance. BJP leader PS SREEDHARAN PILLAI Ending impasse in Kashmir I n all probability, stalemate in Jammu & Kashmir is heading towards an end. Legislators, hitherto hibernating in suspended animation, are gearing up for resumption of normal function of law-making. Political scenario now unfolding in Srinagar and New Delhi shows that stakeholders were silently working on a formula to break the impasse. It seems that good wisdom prevailed and re-alignment of forces is round the corner. Political parties were given adequate time to cobble a Government that is capable to deliver. Analysing the sequence of events, we notice that the Union Government upheld the dignity of the office of the Governor by allowing NN Vohra complete three months of extended term. He demitted office gracefully. Hopefully, from her nearly three years' stint in office, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti must have learnt at least one far-reaching lesson viz, no covert conciliation or espousal of anti-national elements is going to separate the State from the Indian Union. The hardcore of her vote-bank carved out of radical ideologues was the last arrow in her quivers that is now standing exhausted. Not only that, owing to her political shortsightedness and flawed conviction, she gradually and recklessly paved the way for the disintegration of the PDP, a party which she had built with tacit support of Jamaat-e-Islami. Cracks in the party became visible soon after the PDP-BJP coalition Government fell. She lost the strength which otherwise she would have made use of in projecting her party, to retrieve her image. The question of horse trading, an inevitable consequence of suspended Assemblies, did not arise for her when she found her herd in total disarray. For National Conference (NC) chief Omar Abdullah, too, there is a stark lesson: That he cannot extract unjustifiable concessions from New Delhi by dramatising situations and handing out subtle threats to known or unknown adversaries. He seems to be euphoric about a fair chance of returning to power, something for which he has an inscrutable penchant. However, he needs to realise that sometimes his unpredictable waywardness can become ruinous for him. Now that he is again pandering to nationalist politics after brief honeymooning with a faction of the Hurriyat, he will be faced with the challenge of re-building his and his party's credibility along old parameters. One is tempted to argue that old parameters have collapsed and there is no escape from looking at Kashmir politics through the prism of pragmatism. These realisations of current politics in Kashmir by mainstream parties have to be counted as signals for a positive change in Kashmir's political scenario after three decades of violence and blackmail. In 1975, when Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah returned to power after signing the Accord with Indira Gandhi, a correspondent asked him what the achievement of his long years of political exile was. He quipped that for all those years, they had done only awaragardi. Farooq is known for his whimsical statements and comments. It is difficult to assign him any specific category in the game of politics. Nevertheless, he has never been ideologically comfortable with the Jamat-i-Islami or the Ahle-Hadith factions. True, these rabid communal groups did succeed in diluting some of NC's constituencies in previous election, yet Farooq retains the capability of retrieving the lost ground with some meaningful input when he means it. NC and the BJP have the history of working in unison at the Union level. Farooq's recent statement that while the nation has progressed and moved forward, the State of Jammu & Kashmir remains stagnant, at least gives the impression that the stagnation must come to an end. He candidly holds the separatists and the Jamat responsible for the sordid phenomenon of destruction. Maintaining the pace of development in the State with the rest of the country is possibly only when there is peace and the State's relations with the Union are smooth and congenial. The credit of fostering a re-think of ground situation in the State should actually go to the Jammu BJP electorate that sent in a solid team of the national mainstream party to the State Legislative Assembly. For the first time in the history of the State, Jammu has played the crucial balancing role. Its results will be known after some time. Good deal of spade work has been done behind the curtain during the last couple of months to bring about political stability. The BJP's top leadership was throwing subtle hints to that effect intermittently. One can find the rationale in Modi Government taking Farooq into confidence while contemplating a thorough shake-up in the ground situation in the State in general and Kashmir Valley in particular. A new chapter in current Kashmir politics opens with the appointment of new Governor Satya Pal Malik, who has essentially a political background and is not a bureaucrat or a retired Army officer. His friend Farooq was the only Kashmiri leader present at the airport to receive him. The new Governor has to prioritise his tasks. Restoring the rule of law and denying politicised and polarised bureaucracy the freedom of defiance with impunity, thanks to the intransigence of PDP's pro-jama'at proclivity, is of immediate importance. Entire State Administration must go through a purge of anti-national moles that have created networks and dens. Clean administrative system is largely dependent on improving and strengthening of democratic institutions like Panchayats for which elections are overdue. Developmental works have come to a standstill and public services have become farcical owing to widespread corruption. Yet another area that must receive the attention of the new Governor and the in-coming Government both is that discriminatory treatment of Jammu and Ladakh regions has to be done away with. Disgruntled Jammu and Ladakh are the source of instability of the State and no Government, with the well-being of the entire State at its heart, can afford to become a prey to regionalism. (The writer is former Director of the Centre for Central Asian Studies, University of Kashmir) Sir It is a proud moment for our country that Indian athletes, both boys and girls, are constantly grabbing gold medals at the Asian Games. Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan in particular have made the country proud. They defeated Aleksander Bublik and David Yevsevyev of Kazakhstan in 52 minutes at men s doubles tennis Asian Games I congratulate them and hope for a bright future for them. Mohd Umar Madhya Pradesh Prevailing global geopolitical scenario ranging from bilateral disputes, power blocks strategic interests and the looming threat of terrorism all manifesting towards the revival of a Cold war-like situation, led to the creation of the National Security Council (NSC) in 1947 by various countries with the US taking the lead. Closer home, hostile postures along our international border, Line of Control (LOC), crossborder terrorism and the ongoing Maoists threat too warrant an effective and meaningful outfit to not only preserve the nation s physical integrity but to safeguard our economic interests from outside intervention. India, therefore, created its NSC in 1998, thereby encompassing the broad Charter to rally allies and isolate military threats, marshal economic power and resources, maintain the Armed Forces and optimise its potential in civil defence, counter insurgence and terrorism. One wonders why it took so long for India to think of raising this Charter, knowing it very well that our independence came with inherited hostilities from our neighbours in October 1947, Pakistan ventured military intervention to annex Jammu & Kashmir. Since then, we have had four major wars with Pakistan and China. Ironically, India was also thrust upon the legacy of personality oriented national policies set out by Jawaharlal Nehru. National security is a case in point which was virtually relegated to not so important list when he summarily rejected the Paper on Defence Policy of India prepared by General Robert Lockhart, the first Commanderin-Chief of the Indian Army, in 1947 with the remarks: Rubbish, total rubbish, we do not need a Defence Plan, our policy is non-violence. We foresee no military threats. Scrap the Army! The Police are good enough to meet our security needs. The outcome was evident with China annexing the Aksai Chin, which was followed by India s humiliating defeat in the 1962 Sino- Indian War. Though we reversed this trend during the 1965 and 1971 wars, it somehow got ingrained in our national psyche and took over 50 years to formally concede the significance of national security when on November 19, 1998, NSC was setup with Brijesh Mishra as the first National Security Advisor (NSA). Now, with the NSC being twodecades-old, we need to carry out an audit to assess its performance and streamline procedures to achieve tactical and strategic objectives. There are ample reasons to believe that the NSC was created, like any other organisation, without going into professional imperatives leading to subjective appointments, which further led to amateur decisions like conceding our involvement in Balochistan at Sharm-el Sheikh and allowing Pakistan s Inter- Services Intelligence comprise a team to visit Pathankot air base. These are indelible policy failures. We must be clear that national security and military potential are synonymous to each other. Security of a country is measured by its military potential. Going by this adage, it is axiomatic that our national security mechanism must also be headed and well-represented by those with military background, albeit corresponding representations from other fields, such as economic, intelligence and foreign affairs. Conversely, the ground situation is totally incongruent to its core spirit with minimal or marginal military voice. While both NSA and Deputy NSA are from civil stream, the Armed Forces are relegated as members of the strategic policy group. Prima facie, it appears that we have not been able to come out from the shackles of Nehruvian security model of keeping the Armed Forces out of the National Planning Policy, which was willy-nilly pursued by subsequent regimes. The military high command stood isolated from decision-making. The main Charter of the NSC is to formulate national military strategies. With marginal representation from the Armed Forces, how do we perceive accomplishing it? Forget that, even routine functionig of the Armed Forces has been seriously impinged the NSA is functioning as the de-facto Chief of Defence Staff. The manner in which the Pathankot air base counter-terrorism operation was conducted, and the preferred deployment of the NSG to Army Special Forces located just 150 kms away, are glaring exacerbations into military operations. This set the precedence of such intrusions in the future. Counter insurgencies, as universally accepted, are military-centric operations, and it goes without saying that officers in the Armed Forces are best suited to advise the political set up. As regards appointment of the Security Advisor to Jammu & Kashmir Governor in the wake political reshuffle, the moot point is: Who should have been more suitable: Whether the retired Army/Corps Commanders, who have operated in that area, or an IPS officer without such exposure? Such actions also indicate serious covert attempts to not only clip the wings of the Armed Forces but also superimpose the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) over them. Now look at other countries who uphold military values and impose faith in their Armed Forces. Russia took the lead and appointed General Alexander Lebed as the NSA Chairman in 1996, followed by Israel, where Major General Yaakov Amidror succeeded Netanyahu as Security Chief in They went ahead and on record acknowledged that performance of the NSC had been most effective under the Army according to a 2017 World Bank report. Most successful male CEOs have spouses who are complementary CEOs in home management. Yet given their multi-tasking and adaptive abilities, working women could give a boost to the country s GDP by about 30 per cent if certain policies are in place and a mindset changes. Even when they have exited corporate jobs to forge out on their own, transit professionals have helmed boutique enterprises and start-ups with handsome turnovers. The first of the stereotypes begins at home. Without taking away credit from metrosexual men, fathering is yet to develop as a concept equivalent to mothering, the former limited to a biological function, the latter encompassing multiple and undefined role responsibilities. Even childless women are assigned the mothering role in team management roles at work. It is both prized and abused at the same time. Till mothers, and most of them are educated and enlightened enough today, tell both their sons and daughters that nurturing a life is genderless and a necessary and purposeful human activity, there will be no change in the home dynamics. Till the grandfather, who revels in child care simply because he is at home after a perceived successful career run, asks his son to pick up the tab at home, there won t be a change in mindset. Till fathers spend an equal time with their kids, they will no longer complain that the children naturally gravitate towards mothers. Here is a factoid: Though mothers are intimately bound to the babies physiologically for nine months, dads can bond with them even before they are born as they recognise both parents voices from 32 weeks. As for skin-to-skin contact, warmth has no gender and the child recognises that first. Mothers, too, admittedly in their rush for perfection in role-playing, must cede that territorial space to fathers, who will be willing if allowed to. Also, emphasis should be laid on double parenting. Neither the mother, nor the father needs to step back. And there is no need to glorify what need not be a sacrifice, be it of a stay-at-home mother or a house-husband. Next come workplace policies, which continue to be shaped by traditional mindsets. Malini Saba, a corporate herself, has found that on an average, women today earn just 78 cents for every dollar that men earn, an increase of only 17 cents on the dollar, and that pregnancy discrimination, more than guilt pangs, has pushed women out of the queue. Pregnancy taboos are the reason that most corporate women are bypassed for a promotion or a special project simply because employers think that a maternity break reduces the woman s ability to maintain continuity of functions or bounce back to original efficiencies. Fact is, most new mothers, given the flexibility of home operations, manage not only to deliver but make the perfect pitch at the workplace when required to stand in. Career women are multi-taskers themselves, juggling National security mismanagement The National Security Council in its present form is dependent on a single channel. The need is to give its charter broad representation so it becomes the focus of all decision-making relating to national security General. On the other hand, France has unique security mechanisms. The Estate Major Particular (EMP) is an elite group of high-ranking military officers posted in the President s office as advisors. Additionally, they have a prestigious military think tank who advises the French NSC equivalent on security matters. As a take off step, we must improve the military representation in the NSC. And to start with, it could be the NSA. But most appositely, there is a need to clear the long-awaited appointment of Chief of Defence Staff, who can pursue military interests and assist the NSC in enhancing its operational efficiency. The bottom line is: Armed Forces are sine qua non and must be accepted as the major stakeholder in the National Security Policy Planning. Now look at other aspects one issue where we have maximum beating is our total lack of intelligence, both externally and internally, resulting in unabated deterioration of internal situation, free flow of slush money from the Gulf and indiscriminate expansionism of Wahhabism in the Valley. Elsewhere, of late, agitations have undergone drastic changes and have turned into a violent mob, inflicting avoidable loss to property and life: Dera Sacha Sauda flare up, the Dalit agitation at Bhima Koregaon and the Maratha Sir The death of senior journalist Kuldeep Nayyar is a loss to the nation. He who contributed a lot in keeping democracy alive. He was most fearless in raising voice against Government policies. He felt rightly against the nation s development and kept writing his views about what was good for the country. Present-day journalists must learn from his ideas to keep alive journalism fearless in the true sense. Mahesh Kapasi Via Sir Saurabh Chaudhary s Gold win at the Asian Games has made him the country s youngest-ever individual gold medallist. His performance is astounding for someone so young. Jakarta is turning out to be a happy hunting ground for India s shooting stars. Heartiest congratulations to them. Navya Via between family chores and deadlines, an ability that empowers them with adaptability, innovation, change, fluidity and creativity, mantras that every corporate aspires for. Few employers realise that women, as much as they cherish moments with their new-born, do not want to give up what they have invested their self-worth in their careers. The same pregnancy/motherhood concerns have become barriers for women in physically-oriented jobs like factory floors while there is some headway in the armed forces. Yet for all demonstrable abilities, companies become sexist and archaic when it comes to the muscularity of a given role. They would rather employ a man in his 20s and 30s over a woman of the same age for fear of maternity leave and family roles. They usually think twice about hiring a woman with a child for a senior role, assuming she cannot give her 100 per per cent. If she works reduced hours, they tend to equate it with a financial cost to the company rather than counting the efficiency she packs in her limited hours or that she can be more productive if allowed a bit of flexibility. In fact, more women opt out of jobs because of the sluggishness of their career progression and the assumption that they will be passed over. They may be considered super operators but will always be a step behind the big chair. They yield to the unhappiness at work rather than the imperatives of home duties. Most importantly, if all offices introduced reservation agitations are recent instances of macabrism. It is prudent to assume that these developments have not happened overnight. The Wahhabi movement, for instance, stepped up its operations in the last years and the number of Wahhabi-controlled mosques has now gone upto 2,000 in the Valley. All these developments raise serious questions on the efficacy of the Joint Intelligence Committee. Foremost, the requirement is to induct professionalism, integrate various agencies into one entity to effect collective processing of intelligence inputs. We should also explore tie ups with security agencies of other countries to share or exchange intelligence. Professionalism is inversely proportional to favouritism and yet again, this thumb rule has been repeatedly put on test. The 32- member National Security Advisory Board, the third arm of the NSC, is supposed to have been organised by drawing non- Government personalities with expertise in security, defence, intelligence and strategic affairs. But its purpose got defeated when 26 retired officers were rehabilitated with only six members meeting the criteria. Though later, in January 15, its strength was pruned to four. Overall analysis of the performance of NSC vis-a-vis its objectives leads to one deduction: It must switch over from vacation to vocational mould. Foremost, in order to maintain the continuum as also to ensure accountability, the NSC needs to be legislatively institutionalised as a constitutional body. It must be structured in an objective manner by taking only those with requisite professional culture on whole time basis; tendency to accommodate retired civil servants or the favourites must be curbed. The Charter of all committees and the NSA in particular needs to be redefined. It should open new channels of information so that the political leadership is not dependent on a single channel. The US, Israel and other Western countries have highly developed national security infrastructure. Suiting our requirements and security threats as also keeping in mind the future evolution, we surely can explore inheriting their experience. (The writer is a retired Infantry Officer with vast operational experience) child care services or crèches where mothers could check in on their young ones, the immense relief would automatically lead to more focus at work. We must realise that this is a tiny cost to pay considering that societally care-giving or home-making is an unpaid acknowledgement. Couple this with balanced education; for example women continue to figure extremely low, not higher than 20 per cent, in engineering and other disciplines of merit and excellence. Far too many girls are still making a manageable and practical choice of humanities rather than tough specialities. We don t need role models of women fighting against the odds and conquering the unthinkable in unheard of circumstances. We need everyday examples of girls challenging prescribed choices and mainstreaming themselves instead so that they can stand shoulder to shoulder on the factory floor. It is a myth that a woman s biological processes or a familial orientation is an impediment to a realization of her many talents. Women never bring their family issues to work because they have always had to prove they can do as much as a man if not better. Which is why they are more committed, sorted, detailed and specific. If corporate India wants to acquire the edge, then it must help rid mothers of their guilt syndrome, consider them assets and creators rather than liabilities and procreators. (The writer is Associate Editor, The Pioneer)

9 he National Company Law TAppellate Tribunal on Friday restrained Tata Sons from forcing ousted chairman Cyrus Mistry's family out of the holding firm of the USD 100 billion Tata Group, but refused to stay its conversion to a private company. The tribunal, in an interim order on Mistry's plea for putting on hold the approval for conversion of Tata Sons' into a private company from a public limited company, admitted his petition against the move and posted the matter for hearing on September 24. The Mistry family has also challenged the order of the Mumbai-bench of National Company Law Tribunal that upheld ouster of Cyrus as Chairman of Tata Sons in a boardroom coup in Besides change to a private company, the Mistry family, which is the largest shareholder in Tata Sons, had in NCLAT asemytrip in association Ewith the PhonePe app a Mobile payment platform, has partnered with Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) to facilitate digital payment on the IRCTC Rail Connect Android app. The partnership will enable the PhonePe users to use their bank accounts to pay for their travel bookings made through Easemytrip via UPI, credit and debit cards, and PhonePe digital wallets. PhonePe is already available on MakeMyTrip, ClearTrip, EaseMyTrip, Akbar Travels, Abhibus and several other travel booking platforms as a payment option. We are happy to partner with PhonePe and enable our customers for using their PhonePe app to make payments. This is lined up with our vision to make PhonePe one of the most open payment platforms, where customers can utilize all types of payment instruments of their choice, said Mr. Nishant Pitti, CEO of EaseMyTrip.com. At present, EaseMyTrip.com is one of the fastest growing travel agencies of India with a network of 42,000 Travel agents, 1200 Franchise Outlets, 1800 Corporate, 140 Distributors, and 640 Whitelabel solutions. challenged the move by the company to restrict shareholders from freely selling their stake and the Article 75 of the articles of association that can be used by the board to force a shareholder to sell out. "Taking into consideration the facts and that the appeal is pending and if the Appellants (Mistry) are forced to sell their shares which may affect the merits of the appeal, as they will cease to be member(s) of the company (Tata Sons). "We direct the Respondents (Tata) not take any step in terms of Article 75 for transfer of shares of minority shareholders like Appellants (Mistry) and others during the pendency of the appeal," the tribunal said. Over change of status of Tata Sons, NCLAT said, "No further interim order is required to be passed at this stage". Tata Sons has contended that it was always a closely held private entity but was considered a public limited company due to its size under an old legal provision. The status of the public limited company allowed investors greater flexibility in transferring their shares. A few years back, the law was altered, allowing Tata Sons' shareholders to approve a change to its legal status last year, overriding objections from Mistry. "The appeal is admitted for hearing," the tribunal said while directing the petition filed by the investment firms supporting Mistry to be listed on September 24, 2018, for next hearing. A two-member bench headed by its Chairperson Justice S J Mukhopadhaya has directed Tata Sons and other respondents to file their reply within 10 days. The Mistry family, which derives almost USD 17 billion of their fortune from the 18.4 per cent stake in Tata Sons, had filed several lawsuits challenging ouster of Cyrus. national seminar on A Sustainable Stainless Steel Solutions for Water Management was organized in Delhi on Friday by Indian Stainless Steel Development Association (ISSDA), the apex body of the stainless steel industry. The seminar deliberated on sustainable infrastructural solutions for the growing issue of safe water management with OEMs and policymakers. ndigo and GoAir have Igrounded nine A320 neo planes due to Pratt & Whitney engine issues, aviation regulator DGCA said on Friday. Taking note of the grounding, Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu has sought a detailed report on the matter from the DGCA. "At present, there are 60 A320 neos with P&W engines (41 with IndiGo and 19 with GoAir). As on date, 7 with IndiGo and 2 with GoAir are on ground," the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said in a statement. These groundings are due to combustor distress found during routine scheduled boroscopic inspection, it added. It refers to inspection done using a boroscope an optical device that is used for inspecting parts that are generally inaccessible. The regulator also said there are no safety concerns as such distress is found during routine scheduled boroscope inspections of these engines. Opening the event, Abhyuday Jindal, Managing Director, Jindal Stainless said, A Water Aid report estimates that more than 500 children under the age of five die each day from diarrhoea in India Prabhu has sought a report on the grounding of the A320 neos from the DGCA. Security of the passengers is of paramount importance and at no cost the security should be compromised, he said in the statement. Providing technical details, the ministry said these are all Block B combustors. "As and when combustor distress is found beyond laid down limits, aircraft is removed from service for engine replacement. "A320 neos inducted after March 2018 are coming with P&W engines fitted with Block C combustors which has better life. Engines coming from shop are also fitted with Block C combustors," it noted. IndiGo and GoAir have been grappling with P&W engine problems persisting for many months. The manufacturers have taken measures to address significant problems of engines related to combustion chambers distress and No 3 bearing issues by replacing Block B combustion chambers, DGCA, said. alone. To stop this loss of life and finances, it is pertinent that we switch to stainless steel for integrated water management for treatment, storage, transmission and waste water management. Water leakage and water contamination are major issues which cause huge loss of valuable natural resources and precious lives as well. ISSDA has been working tirelessly to promote stainless steel because it has proven to be the ideal material to ensure safety and purity of water across the world, said President of ISSDA, KK Pahuja. enchmark Sensex shed Babout 85 points to close at 38, on Friday after three straight record-setting sessions on emergence of profit-booking amid caution in global markets. However, both the key indices Sensex and Nifty finished with gains for the fifth straight week. Sentiment took a hit largely in sync with a weak trend in global markets amid escalating trade tensions between the US and China as talks between the two countries ended without any significant progress. The BSE 30-share barometer, after a higher start at 38,366.79, advanced to 38, in morning trade on continued buying by investors. However, across-the-board profit booking at record levels pulled it down to a low of 38, It finally settled points, or 0.22 per cent lower at 38, IC Housing Finance has Lreported 18.4 per cent surge in its standalone net profit to crore for the first quarter ended June 30. The company's net profit was crore in the same quarter of The total income during April-June of this fiscal stood at 4, crore, up from 3, crore in the year-ago period, the company said in a regulatory filing. The main business of the company is to provide loans for purchase or construction of residential houses. Shares of LIC Housing closed 0.33 per cent down at apiece on BSE. The gauge had gained points in the previous four sessions and closed at an all-time high of 38, yesterday. The wider NSE Nifty too slipped from record but managed to close above the crucial 11,550 mark at 11, points, down points or 0.22 per cent. It shuttled between 11, and 11,532 during the session. On Thursday, it had closed at a new life-time high of 11, This was the fifth weekly gain in a row for the benchmarks. During the week, the Sensex gained points, or 0.80 per cent, while the Nifty rose points, or 0.75 per cent. Meanwhile, domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares worth 142 crore on a net basis, while foreign institutional investors (FIIs) accumulated equities to the tune of crore on Thursday, provisional data showed. Market turned to profit booking as the unproductive trade talks between US and China renewed the threat of trade tensions.

10 T he National Company Law Appellate Tribunal on Friday restrained Tata Sons from forcing ousted chairman Cyrus Mistry s family out of the holding firm of the USD 100 billion Tata Group, but refused to stay its conversion to a private company. The tribunal, in an interim order on Mistry s plea for putting on hold the approval for conversion of Tata Sons into a private company from a public limited company, admitted his petition against the move and posted the matter for hearing on September 24. The Mistry family has also challenged the order of the Mumbai-bench of National Company Law Tribunal that upheld ouster of Cyrus as chairman of Tata Sons in a boardroom coup in Besides change to a private company, the Mistry family, which is the largest shareholder in Tata Sons, had in NCLAT challenged the move by the company to restrict shareholders from freely selling their stake and the Article 75 of the articles of association that can be used by the board to force a shareholder to sell out. Taking into consideration the facts and that the appeal is pending and if the appellants (Mistry) are forced to sell their shares which may affect the merits of the appeal, as they will cease to be member(s) of the company (Tata Sons). We direct the respondents (Tata) not take any step in terms of Article 75 for transfer of shares of minority shareholders like appellants (Mistry) and others during the pendency of the appeal, the tribunal said. Over change of status of Tata Sons, NCLAT said, No further interim order is required to be passed at this stage. Tata Sons has contended that it was always a closely held private entity but was considered a public limited company due to its size under an old legal provision. The status of the public limited company allowed investors greater flexibility in transferring their shares. A few years back, the law was altered, allowing Tata Sons shareholders to approve a change to its legal status last year, overriding objections from Mistry. The appeal is admitted for hearing, the tribunal said while directing the petition filed by the investment firms supporting Mistry to be listed on September 24, 2018, for next hearing. A two-member bench headed by its Chairperson Justice SJ Mukhopadhaya has directed Tata Sons and other respondents to file their reply within 10 days. The Mistry family, which derives almost USD 17 billion of their fortune from the 18.4 per cent stake in Tata Sons, had filed several lawsuits challenging ouster of Cyrus. During the hearing, Mistry s side had alleged that the appeal against NCLT Mumbai order was filed before NCLAT in the evening of August 6, 2018, and Tata s hurriedly moved before RoC, Mumbai, who passed certificate converting the Company as Tata Sons Pvt Ltd. Article 75 has been a part of the articles of association (AOA) of Tata Sons since inception in 1917, which was a private limited company then. However, it was changed into a public limited company in 1965, which is when the Mistry side had invested in Tata Sons. It deals with the company s power to transfer shares and says that Tata Sons may at any time by special resolution can resolve that any holder of ordinary shares do transfer his ordinary shares. Such member would thereupon be deemed to have served the company with a salenotice in respect of his ordinary shares in accordance with Article 58 hereof, and all the ancillary and consequential provisions of these Articles shall apply with respect to the completion of the sale of the said shares, Article 75 says. New Delhi (PTI): Power trading solutions provider PTC India on Friday announced that it has operationalised the flow or supply of 126 MW inter-state wind power commissioned capacity to different beneficiary states under government scheme. The power will flow (be supplied) to Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, and Odisha, a PTC India statement said. According to a statement, the commissioned capacities are part of Ministry of New and Renewable Energy Wind Scheme (Tranche-I) of 1050 MW in Jun PTC India has executed power purchase agreements (PPAs) with developers and power sale agreements (PSAs) with seven state utilities, it added. The Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) had conducted the competitive bidding and e-reverse auction for selection of wind project developers in February 2017 and the tariff discovered was 3.46/kWh setting a new benchmark for the wind sector at that time, it said. Deepak Amitabh, CMD, PTC India said this was an important milestone in the journey of renewable energy in India. etals and mining giant MVedanta Ltd. on Friday said it would pump in around USD 8 billion (about 56,000 crore) over the next three years on various projects across businesses. There is immense growth potential in sight, Vedanta Ltd. chairman Navin Agarwal said at the company s Annual General Meeting, where he made the investment announcement. As India s largest private sector oil producer, your company contributes 27 per cent to the domestic production and aspires to take it up to 50 per cent. Towards this, your company will be investing USD 3-4 billion over the next 2-3 years, in various growth projects, he said. This year Vedanta had a record production in its zinclead-silver and aluminium businesses, he said, adding that it would further invest USD 3-4 billion in these businesses in the next 2-3 years. ruit juice maker Manpasand FBeverages on Friday said it had completed the setting up of a new, 180-crore manufacturing facility in Uttar Pradesh. The new facility is located in Varanasi. We propose to focus on manufacturing our existing range of products. With this, we will be better positioned to cater the markets of North and East India, the company said in a BSE filing. This is the company s second plant in Varanasi. With this, it now has seven manufacturing units in Vadodara, Varanasi, Dehradun and Ambala. On Tuticorin unit which has been permanently shut down by the Tamil Nadu government following the death of 13 people in police firing on protesters against the plant, Agarwal said the company was greatly grieved by the tragic loss of lives and had extended all possible support to the impacted families. Your company has been instrumental in the socio-economic transformation of the region. Our copper smelter strongly complies with all environmental norms and is, Investment for this new facility is approximately crore. We have set-up this facility with an intention to further strengthen our position in the Indian and global fruit drink industry. The two facilities in Varanasi will provide strategic leverage in catering to the key markets of North-West, East, North-East and part of Central India, Manpasand Beverages chairman and managing director Dhirendra Singh said. Apart from the existing range of products, this unit will also focus on new product segments like milk based drinks and protein based drinks, he added. amongst the best, globally, he added. In April, the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board had rejected Vedanta Sterlite s plea to renew the Consent To Operate certification, saying the company had not complied with the stipulated conditions. Following this, the government had issued a permanent closure notice to the plant. After Sterlite announced its plans to expand the Tuticorin plant, villagers around it started fresh protests that continued for The company said the facility would lead to capacity addition of 45,000 to 50,000 cases per day from its existing capacity of around 2,25,000 cases per day. Earlier this month, Manpasand said it was planning to invest 1,500 crore to set up 10 new manufacturing plants in the country by 2020 in its effort to drive volume. Over the next three years, Manpasand said it was planning to enter new product segments, including milk based drinks, fruit based sugar free drinks, glucose drinks and protein based drinks which would provide a significant boost in its growth journey across local and global markets. over 100 days, culminating in the May 22 police firing on protestors that claimed 13 lives and left scores injured. The need of the hour is to bring further changes in policies for natural resources sector, particularly the implementation of the much-awaited New Mineral Policy and ensure a level playing ground on imports and duties. During financial year , Vedanta Ltd increased its revenue by 22 per cent, year-onyear to 92,900 crore.

11 hina Friday lashed out at C irresponsible US accusations that Beijing was destabilising cross-strait relations after El Salvador cut ties with Taiwan in favour of the Asian giant. The White House also scolded the Central American country in a statement released on Thursday, warning that the decision was made in a nontransparent fashion and affects the economic health and security of the entire Americas region. Taiwan and China have been engaged for years in a diplomatic tug-of-war in developing countries, with economic support and other aid often used as bargaining chips for diplomatic recognition. The United States will continue to oppose China s destabilisation of the cross- Strait relationship and political interference in the Western ussia will oppose a US Rrequest to the UN Security Council to blacklist two Russian shipping firms and six Russian-flagged vessels over their dealings with sanctionshit North Korea, the Russian ambassador has said. The United States presented a request to a UN sanctions committee on Wednesday -- its third bid in two months to seek UN action and turn up the pressure on North Korea to dismantle its nuclear and missile programs. The request was put forward a day after Washington slapped unilateral sanctions on the two Russian companies Primorye Maritime Logistics and Gudzon Shipping and the six vessels for supplying oil to North Korea in violation of UN sanctions. Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told AFP on Thursday that the US sanctions were illegal and that the evidence put forward by the United States to justify action against the Russian firms was unconvincing. Hemisphere, the White House said. The El Salvadoran government s receptiveness to China s apparent interference in the domestic politics of a Western Hemisphere country is of grave concern to the United States, and will result in a reevaluation of our relationship with El Salvador. Beijing sees self-ruling, democratic Taiwan as part of its territory to be brought back into the fold and has not ruled out using force to do so. Relations between Taipei and Beijing have worsened since Tsai Ing-wen became Taiwan s president in 2016, as her government refuses to acknowledge the island is part of one China. China has stepped up its poaching of Taiwan s dwindling official allies, with El Salvador becoming the fifth diplomatic loss under Tsai s presidency and the third this year. fresh row has erupted Abetween the US and Pakistan with Islamabad taking exception to a State Department statement that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo discussed the issue of terrorism with newly-elected Prime Minister Imran Khan while Washington stands by its version. Pompeo yesterday spoke to Khan for the first time after the cricketer-turned-politician assumed office last week and sought decisive action against all terrorists operating in Pakistan, the US State Department said. Soon after the State Department s statement, Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman Mohammad Faisal said that Pakistan takes exception to the factually incorrect statement issued by the US State Department on today s phone call between Prime Minister Khan and Secretary Pompeo. There was no mention at all in the conversation about terrorists operating in Pakistan. This should be immediately The Empowered Officer, TRRDA, PWD (PMGSY), Tripura, invites e-tender(s) against press NleT No 11/EO/TRRDA/2018/-19 date: 14/08/2018. For Construction & Maintenance of road under PMGSY. Name of work:- Upgradation of road from Kadamtala to Rani Bari (TR (Ug) (Length km) under Kadamtala block (Through route No:T04) (Balance work), (4th call), DPR No.TR With Estimated cost: a) Construction: Rs crore b) Maintenance: Rs crore Earnest money: Rs lakh Time of completion-10 (ten) months. Last Date of dropping of tenders - 28th August, 2018 upto 1500 hrs (the time settings fixed on the server & displayed at the top of the tender site). For details please visit: Pre-bid meeting will be held on 21st August, 2018 at 1130 hrs. in the office of the Empowered Officer, TRRDA, PWD (PMGSY), Block-7, 2nd Floor, New Secretariat Building, Kunjaban, Agartala, Tripura (West). Sd/- Empowered Officer Tripura Rural Roads Development Agency Public Works Department (PMGSY) 7th block, 2nd Floor, ICA/C-1292/18 Secretariat Building, Agartala, Tripura Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said on corrected, Faisal tweeted. The US has long been frustrated with Pakistan s overt and covert support to the Afghan Taliban and other terror groups, forcing the Trump administration to warn Islamabad and slash military aid to the country. State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert said yesterday in a statement that Pompeo, in his talks with Khan, discussed the issue of cott Morrison on SFriday became Australia s new prime minister after emerging victorious in a leadership contest for the Liberal Party following a political coup against Malcolm Turnbull, ending days of political chaos in the country. Morrison, 50, who has been serving as the country s treasurer, defeated former home affairs minister Peter Dutton by 45 votes to 40 at the closed- door leadership vote. The vote was the second challenge this week to the leadership of Turnbull who himself assumed office by leading a party revolt in Morrison is the sixth prime minister of Australia in just over ten years. Friday that El Salvador s decision to adhere to the one terrorism and Pakistan s vital role in promoting the peace process in war-torn Afghanistan. Secretary Michael R Pompeo spoke today with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and wished him success. Secretary Pompeo expressed his willingness to work with the new government towards a productive bilateral relationship, she said in the statement. Turnbull stepped down after receiving a petition from a majority of Liberal lawmakers demanding a ballot to select a new leader. Morrison will lead the conservative party, which is known as the Liberal Party, in a general election expected in the coming months. The governor-general, Peter Cosgrove, sworn-in Morrison as the 30th prime minister of Australia. Morrison promised to bring the Parliament back together. We re an optimistic, we are a passionate, and we are an ambitious people, full of aspiration for ourselves, our families, and for our great nation, Morrison said. China principle was right, proper and above-board. Jakarta: The death toll in the devastating earthquakes that hit Indonesia s Lombok island between July 29 and August 19 was raised to 557 on Friday, authorities said. More than 390,000 people remain displaced due to the quakes, while 76,765 buildings were damaged. The National Agency for Disaster Management spokesperson Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said on Twitter that the majority of the fatalities 466 people were from North Lombok municipality, the most affected area. The rest of the victims were from West Lombok, 40; East Lombok, 31; Central Lombok, two; and nine in the provincial capital Mataram. In addition, seven people were killed on neighbouring eastern Sumbawa island and two others on Bali island, Efe news reported. IANS Some country takes this and makes irresponsible remarks, is this not interfering in the internal affairs of El Salvador? Isn t this, rather, politically meddling in the region? This is self-evident, Lu told a regular press briefing. While most countries have established formal ties with Beijing rather than Taipei in recent decades, Taiwan still has unofficial relationships with powerful countries. Its most important unofficial ally is the US, which remains Taiwan s leading arms supplier, despite switching diplomatic recognition to Beijing in Ties have warmed between the US and Taiwan in recent months, incensing Beijing. Some analysts saw the poaching of El Salvador as an indirect slap in the face to the Trump administration and a warning against further friendly overtures. Washington: Attorney General Jeff Sessions punched back hard at President Donald Trump s latest criticism as their long-running rift exploded into a public smackdown. Trump, concerned by the legal downfall of two former advisers, accused Sessions of failing to take control of the Justice Department, leading Sessions to declare yesterday that he and his department will not be improperly influenced by political considerations. Trump s anger with Sessions boiled over in an interview with Fox News in which the president also expressed frustration with the plea agreement his onetime legal fixer Michael Cohen cut with prosecutors, including implicating Trump in a crime that Cohen admitted. Trump said it might be better if flipping cooperating with prosecutors in exchange S Attorney General Jeff USessions has responded to President Donald Trump s latest attack on him by insisting that the justice department he heads will not bend to political pressure. The apparent rebuke of Trump came after the President said Sessions was not in control of his department, BBC reported on Friday. Trump has been vociferous in his criticism of the Department of Justice. He has been particularly riled by its handling of the inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Sessions, an early supporter of Trump s campaign, has stepped aside from that inquiry to avoid a potential conflict of interest and handed control to his deputy, Rod Rosenstein. for more favorable treatment were illegal because people cooperating with the government just make up lies to get favorable treatment. In the wide-ranging interview, Trump also defended himself against talk of impeachment the market would crash... Everybody would be very poor tried to distance himself from Cohen I would see him sometimes and said anew that he hadn t known in advance about Cohen s hush money payments to silence women alleging sexual relationships with the celebrity businessman. Trump s latest shots against law enforcement came as he appeared increasingly vulnerable to long-running investigations after this week s onetwo punch of Cohen s plea deal and the conviction of Trump s former campaign chair Paul Manafort. AP Sana a: Saudi-led coalition air strikes have killed nearly 30 people in Yemen, including four women and 22 children, Zaydi Shia rebel media reported. But the state media of United Arab Emirates, a key coalition member, disputed the claim and said the rebels launched the attack, killing one child and injuring dozens. Mohammed Abdul-Salam, spokesman for the Houthi rebels, said on Twitter the coalition attack took place in the ad-durayhimi district yesterday, 20 kilometres from the port city Hodeida in the country s west. Other Houthi officials provided lower initial figures saying at least nine were killed. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to brief the media. AP

12 E ven before the euphoria surrounding Sacred Games could subside, Vikramaditya Motwane is back with another web series, Ghoul. While in the former he directed Saif Ali Khan s journey as Sartaj Singh, in the action horror web television miniseries created by Patrick Graham, he turns producer. Motwane wears many hats all of them successfully. He wrote the script for films like Dev.D (2009) and Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal (2007). His directorial debut Udaan (2010) was selected to compete in the 'Un Certain Regard category at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival and also won seven Filmfare awards. His second film was Lootera, a big-budget Bollywood period romance which saw Ranveer Singh and Sonakshi Sinha put in a nuanced performance. His third film was Trapped (2017), a survival drama where Rajkummar Rao is confined in an abandoned building. His fourth film Bhavesh Joshi, released theatrically in June 2018 and is doing extremely well digitally. Two days before Ghoul started streaming, the film director, producer and screenwriter spoke on how the web has set creative spirits free and more. Digital content is a revolution that is powering creativity. I think it helps because you are able to tell detailed stories which are more layered. These stories have better characters. We didn t have that kind of a medium earlier. We had to tell stories in two and a half hours or two hours. It is improving writing and performance. Why was this not possible in cable TV? Cable TV in India did not have the ambition for it. In US, perhaps, Showtime and HBO have done it. In India, we did not have that kind of ambition to do that kind of a show on this scale, which had detailed storytelling. How will it impact mainline film industry? It will open up as there is another avenue that is a viable option for creative people. It is definitely good for writers, directors and actors. It is an excellent time to be in the industry. How is Ghoul revolutionary? It is the first Indian show which does not have a haunted house scenario. The partnership started between us and Blumhouse Productions to do something new original and creative in the horror genre. This is the first step in that direction. So for the Indian market, it is very fresh and for the international market, it is a new look at Indian horror. What is the inspiration behind Ghoul? It is an Arabic word and the story is taken from an Arabic folklore. The original story is written by Patrick Graham. You film grammar is always revolutionary whether it is Sacred Games or Lootera or Udaan? I try to make the story interesting, I guess. (laughs) What did having two directors on board in Sacred Games add to the show? There are two different periods and two different pieces about two different individuals. So, the two directors gave it their own approach. And as a result, it did not feel that the story was being told by one person. So the two stories appeared to have been told by two individuals. So Sartaj s world is completely differently paced, shot and structured and so is Gaitonde s. That is valuable. Did two point of views make it difficult? We just didn t go on each other s sets. We were far away from each other. It was agreed that I won t go on Anurag Kashyaps s and he won t come on mine. That is the only way it could work. But you would have to be on the same page? There is a point of view that I have and a point of view that he has, which are very different. The written material was there. But we were not fighting on the editing table. Anurag realised that it was more about him shooting, giving me the first cut and letting me take the decision. There is a seamless transition between the two stories. I was writing and editing, and Arti Bajaj, who was editing, has done a marvellous job. How much was Vikram Chandra, the author of Sacred Games involved in the process? How difficult was it to adapt it to the screen? He was a part of the entire process. At no point of time did he ever say that we can t do this or that. He understood that it is a novel and we have to make the series for TV and we are taking it from the novel space and transforming it into the dramatic space. As a result, we were taking some characters and giving them more external conflict. Each episode ends with a cliffhanger. In that terms it was not different from any adaptation of a novel. We were picking out certain conflicts and making them different. It is considered to be Saif s best outing after his role as Langda Tyagi in Omkara He has got his due and people are loving him. I think the medium allows a good performance. It is a medium where it is very difficult to put in a bad performance or a bad writing. It also allows for a layered character and Saif has put in a tremendous performance. demon who eats human flesh, turns your Aguilt into sin and takes over the image of the last person it conquered. The ghoul, naturally has an element of fear associated with it and this Arabic word has become the basis of a new web series being directed by Patrick Graham. The director has cleverly used the Arabic word ghul to describe what the series is about. Horror, as a genre, is popular worldwide but in India is often assicated with creaky doors, old havelis and isolated paths. Graham, the only director of western origin working in the Hindi film industry, is helming a three-part horror action web television miniseries. It was being made as a movie for over three years but was turned into a miniseries after Netflix came on board last year. The series is about a new recruit Nida Rahim played by Radhika Apte who is a consistently high performer in advanced interrogation centre, a secret military facility in the middle of nowhere, summoned to covert detention facility to cross question the mastermind of a terror attack, but the suspect turns the table on the interrogators exposing their secrets. Nida finds out that there is more to the suspect than just terrorism. Radhika who was in the capital to promote the show talked about her success and people trolling her for working too much, It s merely a good coincidence that I m all over Netflix these days, but I m really happy that I m all over it, to be honest, I love watching Netflix every night, it s a part of my daily routine now, so If you get to be on a platform like that, it s exciting, yet people are making fun of that, too much Radhika you see, but doing three back to back series, Lust Stories, Sacred Games and now Ghoul, all on Netflix, was not at all my design. It just happened, and as an actor it doesn t make a difference while performing whether the content is for a smaller screen or bigger but I think as an audience I like the convenience of being able to watch it in my own time, that s why I loved being a part for the shows streaming on Netflix, that doesn t mean I don t love the experience of watching films on the big screen or being a part of the big screen. Ghoul which also stars Manav Kaul of Tumhari Sulu, who was cast perfectly as a sweet loving husband, said, I tried my level best to change the perception of people of being fit for a role like Ashok (Sulu s husband). I think as an actor, it s ones duty to fill the bill and come up with a surprise element for the audiences. In Ghoul he is the head of the Interrogation Centre and claims to be a patriotic army officer. Also present at the web screening was Vikramaditya Motwane, the producer of Sacred Games and now Ghoul. The miniseries premiered on Friday, 24th August.

13 A rmed with smartphones which are loaded with filters aplenty, everyone today has become an ace photographer. So if one revisits the past with its film rolls and their limited number of exposures, is there still room for to preserve history and bring alive stories? And is there any value in such antique and old photographs anymore? Through an extensive repository of images from the Bhuvan Kumari Devi Archives, an exhibition at the Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre, questions this very nuance recreating the visuals from the life of a ruler who hailed from Nepal in the early 20th century and lived in India. The exhibition, Nirvasanama: Portraits of a Life in Exile Through Changing Viewfinders, is curated by Aditya Arya in collaboration with Isha Singh Sawhney. It exhibits 150 vintage cameras by The Museo Camera a vintage camera museum and turn-ofthe-century images from the Bhuvan Kumari Devi Archives showcasing the life of exile of Dev Shumsher Singh Rana, a liberal ruler of Nepal, who was usurped by his own brothers. Sawhney, the great-great-granddaughter of Rana, tells us about how she found the lost treasure. They were lying at my house in Dehradun, in the attic-like store for many decades. When my mother attempted a mammoth clean-up, out came these photos. We have grown up looking at these images and wondering about the people and stories behind them. I used to wonder what kind of era and lifestyle it would have had been. After some time, we pulled them out and decided to do something before they completely decayed as they were getting destroyed by mice and dust, she said. As you take a walk around the gallery, these unseen and archaic photographs spread across the hall can make you visualise the stories behind them. Isha narrates what these photographs depict, The photographs talk about Rana s children living in Mussourie, at the Fairlawn Palace, in the 1920s and 30s, and a few of them from before 1900s to 1910 as well. This is conceptualised to make people understand the history of who Shumsher Singh Rana was, why did he come to India? What was his exile about? The focus of the story is on the things in their life and his siblings living in Mussourie but the story is contextualised around him. Isha believes that there is always a need to showcase old things because they are precious and could get lost with time. It s a glimpse into the past that none of us witnessed or experienced. It s pretty invaluable in that sense. She finds it interesting to see them outside, since these images, photos and art pieces, mostly stay in people s living rooms, nobody gets to see them other than the those who own them and visit their homes. Taking them out and showing them to the public is a kind of service and a way to give it back to the people and bring them alive again. But why is it called the Bhuvan Kumari Devi Archives? Isha has an answer. They decided to call this collection as Bhuvan Kumari Devi Archives since she is the most important person with whom this collection is linked. She was the first collector/saver of these images. That is why they are named after her because a lot of it is a documentation of her life as well. Often people s lives remain a mystery unless there is a bunch of unseen photographs trying hard to narrate something, but often nobody is present to hear them out or comprehend. The same was the case with Isha s family, who did manage to find out some stories. She says, We have heard many stories from our family members but I purposely chose not to bring out those anecdotes and stories as we wanted the focus to be on the photographs in the exhibition. We found out a little bit of political history of Rana by reading books and old papers. She explains the significance of the archive and the importance of a good knowledge of history which forms the core of a responsible and sociallyaware civilisation. It s also important for me since I want people to look at it and visualise about the beautiful era and let them imagine the time and weave their own stories. We didn t want to put any labels. Maybe that is the next phase. Currently, I just want to reflect on the importance of such antique pictures and real-time anecdotes. They need to know about what existed and differentiate between then and today. Arya, who has been a photography afficianado and loves family archives, has always been intrigued by old equipments, which is also reflected in the exhibition. He showcases vintage cameras which are placed in a studio of sorts and the way they during the time when there were no portable cameras. I m always trying to collect the equipment and cameras which were used earlier to make people understand what kind of a setup was done to shoot then. It s not only about images since each image is multi-layered with what you see and what you don t see. You get to see the photographs but not the technology behind it. Hence, there are studios that show how the image was captured then, he said. He reveals about the title of the exhibition. Firstly, it was because of the Nepali significance. Secondly, it was aimed at looking at photography through many angles. Earlier, there were viewfinders in cameras through which the cameraperson would previsualise the images in his mind and see the subject through it. But today, there are no viewfinders and one can see the images immediately after clicking them. Today, people are just randomly capturing. However, these old images were created and with them they even created history. Initially, photography was all about pre-visualisation and detailing, unlike today. The exhibition visually studies anthropology, by giving us a peep into the life of the early 20th century and spins a narrative around the dressing sense, jewellery and costumes, entertainment customs, objects and stories of yore bringing to life long-lost and forgotten idiosyncrasies and anecdotes. iopics, historical events, sports and social issues Gold, BReema Kagti s latest outing combines all that is trending in Bollywood. The movie is centered around an important event in India s sports history. The director, who has made hit films before, believes that bringing historical events to people s conscience makes the culture richer and people aware of their roots. With hits like Talaash,Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd which she directed and Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara and Dil Dhadakne Do which she scripted with Zoya Akhtar, Reema has successfully left a mark in the audience s heart. When asked about what inspired a sports film since that is a genre which she never played with, Reema revealed how the story moved her. A friend of mind, Ankur Tiwari, had told me about the 1948 Olympic field hockey match and I researched about it. I found there was a young Bengali assistant manager of the Indian Hockey squad during the 1936 Berlin Olympics, who felt really demotivated and had pulled out the Indian National Congress flag to inspire the players and was later banned for this. He went on to become one of the most influential administrators and was also the manager 12 years later, for the 1948 team. When I found out about the locker-room scene in Berlin, I knew and strongly felt that I have to make this into a film. I was so inspired by the story. I really wanted to bring it out and narrate it to the people. The film talks about the first gold medal that India won as an independent nation and many other stories that many would not be aware about. How did she narrow down on Akshay Kumar and Mouni Roy to play the leads? Akshay is a terrific actor hence we decided to go with him. Also, it was because of his physicality which would perfectly work for the character, Tapan Das. I have to thank my casting director Nandini Shrikent, who chose Mouni. She did a terrific job, said she. Reema, who is extremely happy with the success of the film, which has become the third highest opener of 2018 and the best opener for Akshay Kumar, said, It feels so good when you work on something sincerely and people like it. The film shows people s way of living and culture during that era. One would wonder how challenging it would have been for the director to create a scene of that era, which was so different from contemporary times. She revealed, The scale to recreate Olympics and the era was indeed a challenge. But with my great crew, we worked it out, revising and changing. We had researched the period and figured out the basic look which I shared with the production and set designers, and then they put their own ideas to design it better. She added, However, the matches were definitely the most challenging. We were shooting them in Europe and the weather there is extremely unpredictable as it literally changes every minutes making the shoot a nightmare. There have been questions about what led to this transition from rom-com film like Honeymoon Travels, to a sports film, she said that it is all about what inspires you, There was no transition as such. It s a germ of an idea that pulls you in. The idea of that gentleman who pulled out the flag hooked me. So it is just the trigger of an idea. Even though the film brings forward the life story of Tapan Das, Reema refused to call it a biopic, rather it is a fictional retelling of what happened. rothers, Raghava KK and Karthik BKalyanaraman, one a multidisciplinary artist, TED speaker, a National Geographic Emerging Explorer and TED curator and another a PHD in Econometrics from Harvard University, were disgruntled with the past-facing nature of most art theory. So they set out to write a thesis about a global aesthetic for the art of the future, influenced by Indian philosophical resources. And thus emerged their exhibition Nature Morte. The show we are doing is part of this effort in trying to get more artists engaged with issues of the future rather than allowing the design of our future to follow the utilitarian logic of technologists and to engage the public in issues of developing technology so that we are not simply passive consumers shaped by utilitarian logic, said the curators. What are the shifts in art processes that you foresee with Artificial Intelligence's (AI) involvement? Firstly, the traditional arts are not going to die out because of AI. This art movement is barely two years old, so it is in its infancy in terms of what it can achieve. We can expect it to become a fullfledged genre like lens-based art. Photography had an indirect but enormous impact on painting. Suddenly, the aim to paint realistically from nature and the importance of linear perspectival composition seemed not so compelling since the camera could do those better, or at least more obviously, than painting. This was the birth of Impressionism, of abstraction, of everything we know as contemporary art. We can expect something similar with AI. As it starts getting good at producing compelling aesthetic images that are also conceptually rich, humans have to start asking what art can humans make? What can we focus on? What will distinguish the mark of the human in art of the future? One way forward at least is provided by the AI artists: work with the machines. Embrace being a cyborg. We have other theories how art can respond, which involve a focus on the undertheorised ethical dimension of art, but that s for another time. How does an AI make art? Can an AI artist be called an artist? There are two kinds of AI the old and the new. The old style is the one from the 1980s, where symbolic manipulation also known as knowledge representation used rules and logic and the new style AI, which took off in 2000s, uses statistics, an example of which is neural networks (NN). The new AI learns how to do some task by observing the task being successfully performed multiple times. These examples are called the training set. In AI art, what the NN is essentially doing is learning what a visual style or an object is by looking at lots and lots of examples of it. Once it has done that, it is able then to create an image or a tune that it has never before experienced simply by the fact that it s formed its own idea of what an image or a tune is from the examples it has seen. So the human artists role is mainly to monitor how much generalisation an AI uses learning its task and to curate the examples it sees. It is not to provide any information about art or style or line or composition or what have you. Certainly, they can be called artists, if being one is to make images that humans respond to. But also we have to remember that the human hasn t disappeared from the process. That s why we say creativity is distributed across human and machine. What are the criteria that you considered when curating the exhibition? The field is very young, just a few years old. The main AI tool called GAN was only available a few years ago commercially. So we found it not that hard to practically interview the entire community. We reached deep into our networks and came up with a list of 40 international artists to consider. A lot of them did not actually fit our intention of curating art where the actual final artwork was made by AI. Of these we interviewed around 15 in the first round and had a further second round of interviews to come up with our final list of seven artists. There are scientists and academics using the same technology to create images. However, we found they were mainly focused on training AI to make interesting patterns and we decided that their work lacked a certain conceptual richness. We ended up focusing on artists alone.we wanted a representative selection, we have seven artists who are from or have studied in seven different countries. Two of them are recognised media artists who have been with the AI art movement from the beginning (Memo Akten and Mario Klingemann) and others represent a younger generation. We also wanted to showcase a variety of media (AI generated sound, video, images) and a variety of algorithms used (CNN, GAN, cgan, RNN, PPGN and so on). What were the challenges during the creation process? It was very challenging to curate a fully international exhibition in such a pioneering space. We first had to understand the field and that involved not just understanding the technology but also the technical details that went into it to make sure we were really finding the true innovators. Other than that it was a really enjoyable experience What sets AI artists apart from traditional artists? The practice of the human artist working with AI is fascinating. Because they have to keep a traditional aesthetic eye on the output they are still working like traditional artists. However a lot of the practice is also that of a data analyst and a computer programmer. So what you see is a confluence of logical practice of the scientist and the creative practice of the traditional artist.

14 T op seeds Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan notched up their maiden men's doubles Gold medal at the Asian Games tennis competition, dominating the final clash with a thoroughly clinical performance here on Friday. The lone Indian in fray in the men's singles event, Prajnesh Gunneswaran, settled for a Bronze after losing 2-6, 2-6 to Uzbekistan's Denis Istomin in a semifinal that was much more competitive than what the scoreline might suggest. Bopanna and Sharan, on the other hand, defeated Aleksander Bublik and Denis Yevseyev of Kazakhstan 6-3, 6-4 in 52 minutes. The two medals claimed on Friday, along with Ankita Raina's Bronze in women's singles, ended India's tennis campaign at the Games. The stars of the final day were without doubt Bopanna and Sharan, competing together for the first time on the international stage. Less than 20 minutes into the match, the Indians were 4-1 ahead, breaking Bublik and Yevseyev at the very first opportunity they got. In no time, the top seeds were serving for the set with a 5-3 lead and Bopanna's booming serve wrapped it up in style for them. The Kazakhs had their moments but were undone by erratic play a brilliant cross-court backhand winner one moment and a powerless return buried in the nets the very next minute. In contrast, Bopanna and Sharan's easy camaraderie shone through in the match and they displayed near-perfect on-court coordination. Bopanna was particularly formidable from the baseline, displaying a good range of strokes to pull off some tough winners, helped by his brute power. India have claimed the men's doubles Gold on four previous occasions at the Games, the last pair being Somdev Devvarman and Sanam Singh in the 2010 Guangzhou edition. Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes remain the most successful Indian men's doubles pair in the Asian Games history, having claimed backto-back Gold medals in the 2002 and 2006 Games. Paes had stunned the Indian team this time by pulling out on the eve of the Games after complaining of not getting a specialist partner of his choice. In 2014, Saketh Myneni and Sanam had ended with a Silver medal. The country's overall medal tally at the Incheon Games stood at one Gold, one Silver and three Bronze medals. he spotlight will be on TNeeraj Chopra and Hima Das while Dutee Chand would look to prove a point when India's track and field athletes begin their campaign in the Asian Games here on Saturday. The rise of young athletes and consistency shown by the established names such as Mohammed Anas, Seema Punia and Jinson Johnson has given hopes of India bettering its medal tally of the last edition. Of India's 57 medals at the last edition, athletics had delivered 13, including two Gold. India has never won a Gold in javelin throw in the Asian Games and Chopra is expected to change this piece of statistics. Hima, on the other hand, has had a sensational rise after starting her career as late as But, she is unlikely to In swimming, Indian swimmer Sandeep Sejwal finished seventh in the men's 50m breaststroke, while Advait Page failed to qualify for the 1500m freestyle final. While, struggling recruve archers were in for more shock with Deepika Kumari and Atanu Das suffering an upset defeat at the hands of lower-ranked Mongolia in the Asian Games here via shootout. Also, compound mixed team of Abhishek Verma and Jyoti Surekaha also narrowly lost its quarterfinal contest against Fereshteh Ghorbani and Nima Mahboubi Matbooe of Iran In boxing arena, Veteran Manoj Kumar clinch a Gold in his first Asian Games unless Bahrain's Salwa Eid Naser goofs up big time. After winning her 'gender case' at the Court of Arbitration for Sports, the 22-year-old Dutee bettered her own 100m national record at the Inter- State National Championships in June by clocking 11.29seconds in semifinals. She won Gold with a timing of seconds. However, these timings are behind China's Wei Yongli (69kg) eased into the pre-quarters but Commonwealth Games Gold-medallist Gaurav Solanki (52kg) went out with a stunning opening-round loss, giving a mixed start to India's boxing campaign at the Asian Games here on Friday. In fencing, India's campaign ended after the women's epee team suffered a loss against formidable China in the quarterfinals. While in golf, young Kshitij Naveed Kaul produced a superb 68 as Indian golfers held on to the second position to put themselves into contention for a medal in men's golf here on Friday. Aadil Bedi, who had a bogey-free round of 69 on Thursday, added a two-under 70 on Friday, while Kaul shot a bogey-free 68 and Rayhan Thomas turned in a 69 as India maintained their second position behind Japan in the race for the team medals at the Pondok Indah Golf Club. Also, the Indian men's handball team defeated Pakistan in a pulsating contest to notch up its second consecutive win in the main round at the Asian Games here on Friday. In Silat,Naorem Boynao Singh went down to Dumaan Dines of Philippines in the men's kg quarterfinal match, thus ending the Indian men's pencak silat campaign. (10.99), Bahrain's Hajar Saad Al Ameeri (11.17) and Viktoria Zyabkina (11.20), who will all be part of the field. Tajinder Pal Singh Toor will be strong contender for a medal on Saturday in the men's shot put. He is the current Asian season leader with 20.24m and he had won a Silver at the Asian Championship. Also in action on Saturday will be Mohammed Anas in 400m qualification round. efending champions India Dcontinued their goal-scoring spree and spanked Japan 8-0 to register their third consecutive win in the men's hockey competition at the Asian Games, here on Friday. The holders have so far scored 51 goals in three matches after demolishing Indonesia 17-0 and registering a record 26-0 win over Hong Kong China in their previous two Pool A games. Drag-flicker Rupinder Pal Singh (17th, 37th minutes) and Mandeep Singh (32nd, 56th) struck twice while SV Sunil (7th), Dilpreet Singh (12th), Akashdeep Singh (45th) and Vivek Sagar Prasad (47th) also registered their names in the score sheet. India conceded only one penalty corner in the 48th minute of the match but Japan, ranked 16th, wasted the opportunity. World No 5 India will next play Korea, ranked 14th, on Sunday before completing their pool engagement against Sri Lanka. "I am not happy with the scoreline. We missed a lot of chances and that is not acceptable in a tournament like this," said India's chief coach Harendra Singh. Rupinder, who has been scoring consistently in this tournament after making a comeback from a hamstring injury, said he was pleased with the way he was shaping up for the big matches ahead. "The injury part was disappointing. I just returned a month back after rehab. I feel strong, the coaches and the teammates have helped. Scoring gives me confidence and it will surely help in bigger matches," said the dragflicker. Rupinder said they used the match as an opportunity to fine-tune their basics and found out that there was still "room for improvement." "There were a lot of mistakes. The mentality is to score (heavy) in each game. We are fitter and we are working on speed," he said. India started on a bright note and attacked the Japanese goal in numbers from the onset. India's first charge came as early as the second minute but Dilpreet's deflection from a Surender Kumar's cross went wide. The defending champions though did not have to wait much to get on board as Akashdeep fed Sunil with a reverse hit pass and the experienced striker easily found the back of the net. Then Dilpreet, waiting in front of the goal post, sent the ball in with a fierce reverse hit to double the lead, five minutes later. The Indian team missed out on converting a penalty corner before Japan made its first real attempt but could not execute. It was Kenta Tanaka, who fired one in from the right but an alert Indian goalkeeper PR Sreejesh blocked the shot. Going into the second quarter, India had a 2-0 cushion and it became 3-0 when Rupinder converted a penalty corer in the 17th minute. Japan kept fighting and foiled India's two more attempts thereafter. India missed out on a penalty corner chance early in the third quarter but two minutes after the change of ends Amit Rohidas set it up for Mandeep, who pushed the ball in from close range past the Japanese goalie Takashi Yoshikawa to make it 4-0. India got a penalty stroke when Vivek was obstructed inside the circle by a Japanese defender and Rupinder made no mistake in converting from the spot as India took a commanding 5-0 lead. Akashdeep, Vivek and Mandeep later added to India's tally with field strikes in the final quarter. new delhi: st louis: mumbai: budapest: sydney: ngland coach Trevor Bayliss has come Eout in support of the woefully out-ofform Alastair Cook at a time when questions are being raised about his future, saying he is "striking" the ball as nicely as ever. "Cook has not changed his demeanour. You wouldn't know there was any difference between now and when he is scoring plenty of runs. He still practises as hard if not harder than anyone else. You watch him play in the nets and he is actually striking the ball quite nicely. "His feet move well. I wouldn't say he is out of form - he is still hitting the ball well - he is out of runs in the middle. But he is giving himself every opportunity. He practises hard and he still plays an active role in his position in the team," Bayliss said. One of England's major concerns is the form of their openers. Cook has gone seven Test innings without a half-century, while Keaton Jennings - his 12th opening partner - is yet to cross that mark in his last 14 Test innings. The coach though backed both of them to do the job in the remaining two Tests against India. "When he was with the Lions in Australia last year, it was about trying to get a little more flow to his batting. He is a very upright player so he is probably never going to be one of those guys who gets well down over the front knee and sniffs the ball. It was about a little more rhythm. "He's been working on his back lift to get a little more rhythm and flow. It's no easy task batting against these guys in these conditions which have been difficult. But that's the job of an opening bat." The hosts collapsed for 161 runs on day two of the third Test and never recovered as India won by 203 runs to pull one back in the five-match series. Reportedly, the coach and captain Joe Root led a charged-up dressing room debate following that batting collapse. Bayliss said that he is aware of the attacking nature of his team's batting line-up and will continue to back them in the near future. "The guys we have in the team play in a certain way. They are attacking-style players, if you like. When you've been playing in a certain way for a number of years, it's not the easiest thing to change in the heat of battle. I don't know if it is good enough, but it is fact. I can't say any more than that," Bayliss said. "We know they have got to play the situation and the conditions like Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes did (in the second innings). They are all aware of what they need to improve. It's just taking a little while longer than they would like and we would like. " I'd love to be able to give them a magic pill and it happens overnight." We believe these guys are our best players and will eventually be very good international cricketers," he added. Bayliss reasoned that it is not easy to change this style of play in a short span of time and that the English line-up has suffered only one bad day in this series so far. "We had a chat on Sunday night and that was what the discussion was around - how it happens, why it happens, what to do about it and not letting it happen again. "It is not the first time it has happened and we speak about it every time. I think the way Ben and Jos played, the way they went about it was exactly the way we spoke on Sunday night about how to go about things." The other question mark is concerning the fitness of Jonny Bairstow. As per reports, his fitness is progressing well, but he might not be able to keep wickets in the next two Tests. "Firstly, I think keeping in the next game (for Bairstow) will probably be the most difficult. We've got to check with the medical guys in the next few days. They are suggesting he may not be able to keep but might be able to bat. "We'll have to see how it responds in the next few days. If that gives someone else another opportunity - it's like any injury, if someone comes in and does well, then you have a decision to make. "The harder thing will be trying to convince Jonny (to give up keeping). That will be a decision that is taken from the team point of view. He is a world-class batsman - we know that and one of the difficult things might be convincing Jonny of that." Perhaps the biggest positive from this heavy defeat was Ben Stokes' return to international cricket and his performance in the second innings that frustrated India in partnership with Jos Buttler. "There was no regret about the actual decision (of playing Stokes). We all felt for Sam Curran, who did fantastically well in the two matches he played. "Unfortunately, sometimes, even when you're in form and you don't get selected, that's just the way it is. I think there was a little rustiness from Ben's point of view. ebastian Vettel topped the times for Ferrari in Friday's Sopening free practice for this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix, the first race since Formula One's summer break. The four-time former champion clocked a best lap in one minute and seconds at the spectacular Spa-Francorchamps circuit in the Ardennes to outpace nearest rival Max Verstappen of Red Bull by one-tenth of a second. Championship leader and fellow-four-time champion Lewis Hamilton was third quickest, three-tenths off the pace in his Mercedes, ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in the second Ferrari. Valtteri Bottas, who will start Sunday's race from the back of the grid after collecting penalties for the installation of a limit-breaking new Mercedes engine, was fifth quickest ahead of Renault-bound Daniel Ricciardo in the second Red Bull, who only took part in the final minutes of the session. Both of the leading teams, Mercedes and Ferrari, introduced upgraded engines. It was the first time that Vettel or a Ferrari had topped the times in a Friday morning session this year and his lap was 1.2 seconds quicker than the fastest at the same time a year ago. Ricciardo's late lap pushed Esteban Ocon down to seventh in the leading Force India ahead of Renault's Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez in the second Force India running under new ownership for the first time. Carlos Sainz, who heads to McLaren to replace Fernando Alonso next season, was 10th in the second Renault ahead of Pierre Gasly of Toro Rosso, who will switch to Red Bull in place of Ricciardo next season.

15 T he Indian rowing contingent redeemed itself by winning three medals, including a historic Gold in quadruple sculls, on the final day of the competition at the 18th Asian Games here. The rowers had to overcome an unexpected and disastrous outing on Thursday, when they were in contention for four medals, to ensure that India doesn't return home empty handed from the Jakabaring lake. All Armymen, most of them from humble background, fought with the neversay-die spirit that soldiers are best known for. They pushed their boats as if there was no tomorrow. "Thursday we had a bad day but soldiers never give up. I told my teammates that we will go for the Gold and we will give it all. It was about karo ya maro (do or die). And we did it," Sawarn Singh, senior most member of the Gold-winning quadruple sculls team said. He not only pushed himself to the limit but his words of encouragement fired up his teammates, including Dattu Baban Bhokanal, who had given up midway into his single sculls race on Thursday after starting as the favourite. The other members of the triumphant team were Sukhmeet Singh, who like Sawarn is from Mansa district in Punjab, and Om Prakash. Like Bhokanal, Sawarn and Prakash also suffered a heartbreak on Thursday, missing out on the Bronze in the men's double sculls. But all of them were able to turn it around in less than 24 hours. Dushyant Chauhan, Bronze medallist in lightweight single sculls at Incheon, defended his third place in the event. Courtesy Bhagwan Singh and Rohit Kumar, India won another Bronze in men's lightweight double sculls. Bhagwan is a son of a truck driver who had to quit journalism in the second year and join Indian Army due to financial issues. Dushyant, who is now an experienced rower, gave his all quite literally. The energy sapping dash in the final 500 metres led to him being carried on a stretcher to the medical centre. He was so drained out that he could not stand properly during the medal ceremony. Minutes later he threw up, prompting the doctors to rush him to the medical centre. "I pushed as if it was the last race of my life. That was the only thing in the mind. May be I pushed a bit too hard but it was worth it. I had a bad cold and throat in the run up to the event, that also affected me a lot during the race. I was gone," said Dushyant, who had not eaten much in the morning ahead of the race as they all have to maintain weight (72kg). "I just had two breads and an apple. It was very hot also. That is why I was completely dehydrated," added the 25-year-old who lives in Gurgaon. In the quadruple sculls, it was a lot more than just a race for the experienced Bhokanal and Sawarn. Bhokanal had to win it for his late mother while Sawarn had to do it to know if he still had gas left in the tank. The 28-year-old had almost quit the sport, having suffered a slip disc following his Bronze medal at the 2014 Asian Games. He only made a comeback last year due to the constant encouragement from chief coach Ismail Baig. "I never thought that I could come back and win a medal for the country again. The federation took care of me, sent me to Chennai for my back treatment. I am thankful to them," said Sawarn. The quadruple sculls squad changed its tactics after the dismal show on Thursday. "We were in the front in the first 1000m but were chased down at the end. Today we made ensure we were steady in the first half and then accelerated in the final 500 metres," Sawarn added. The move did pay off as Sawarn and Co won the race by close to three seconds. Indonesia and Thailand won the Silver and Bronze respectively. The Gold was also India's second at the Asian Games rowing, the first being Bajrang Lal Thakkar's in However, Indian rower Sayali Shelake, who is part of the Asian Games contingent here, has been hospitalised after she complained of pain in the abdomen. "She was complaining of pain since Thursday. After competition on Friday, I had to rush her to the hospital. The doctors say there is some appendicitis issue. She will have to stay back for another two-three days," chief coach Ismail Baig said. The entire contingent will be leaving on Saturday but 21-year-old Shelke will be staying back for treatment. "Our two doctors will stay with her. We are not leaving her alone. We hope she is fine soon," said Baig. Saidisiahbidi were on fire and it was their terrific show which tilted the match in raditional powerhouse India returned their favour. Twithout a Gold in kabaddi for the first After the match, India's coach L time in the history of the Asian Games Srinivas Reddy said the men's defeat did eena Sidhu put behind a modest qual- to win her maiden Asian the final to join their male counterparts "The men team's defeat had come as after Iran shocked their women's team in put pressure on the team. Hification Games individual medal on Friday, her in walking away with the top honours here a shock for me and the players. Bronze in the women's 10m air pistol taking India's haul at the Jakabaring Shooting The Iranian women came from ated double pressure that we have to go on Friday. Somewhere it played in our minds. It cre- Range to nine. behind to shock India 27-24, emulating back with a Gold. The one who holds Sidhu came from behind in the finals their male counterparts, who had shocked nerves win. It was a bad day for us. It's and was just 0.1 from the lead after she seven-time champions India in the semifinals on Thursday. "We made a good start but one miss- time to prove again," Reddy told reporters. produced a 10.8 on the 21st shot. Her next shot was a 9.6 and her overall score of Later in the day, the Iran men's team tackle shifted the momentum. There were could only give her a Bronze. defeated Korea in the final to some technical mistakes and defensive Sixteen-year-old Manu Bhaker was claim their maiden Gold. errors from our side. The umpire also left disappointed again, this time in her The defeat means India will return made a mistake. In all, it was not our day. main event, finishing fifth. without a Gold from the Asian Games for But it was a good match, it was never onesided," he added. The Gold went to China's Wang Qian, the first time since the sport made its halfway break but defensive errors in scored six points in a row to take whose was a Games Record. South debut at the continental event in Beijing the second half cost the team dearly. With just two minutes to go, Indian, said she will head back to the lead with an all out. Iran's coach Shailja Jain, who is an Korea's Kim Minjung took the Silver, in aggregating The men's team had won seven Iran enforced an all out on India Sakshi Kumari earned two points country with pride. It was another medal for Sidhu in a straight titles while women's were twotime defending champions at the Asian raiders were never that effective but the Iranians held their back to India without a Gold. I told them in the second half but the Indian with a successful raid to make it "I had told them I don't want to go major event, having won the Gold and Silver in the 25m pistol and 10m pistol at Games. and played catching up game. nerves to prevail. I don't want any gifts but just Gold. And the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Sidhu was picked for only one event The Indian women led at the After the change of ends, the Iranians Iran raiders Sedigheh Jafari and Azdeh they did it," Jain said. Gold Coast. Bhaker had finished and Bhaker competed in three - 10m ahead of her senior teammate Sidhu at pistol, 25m pistol and mixed team event. Gold Coast in the 10m event. Ahead of the Asian Games, Sidhu had Sidhu, a two-time World Cup said that she should have been in the Gold medallist and former world mixed team as per the selection criteria. number one, had recovered well in the qualification earlier in the day to finish "The competition is over. There is no the one to let things drift, as he strongly came back to take the next three seventh with 571 while Manu was third point talking about it now. Though I think with 574. I should have been in the mixed team," she ndia were on Friday assured of three games with identical scores. "It is all because of my efforts in the added. Imedals in squash competition of the "It was top quality squash with finals (that I have won a medal). The qualification was low. I am not happy with it respectively after the first series of five Ghosal, Joshna Chinappa and Dipika said national coach Cyrus Poncha, Heena and Manu were fifth and sixth 18th Asian Games with Saurav both players stretched to the limits," at all," Sidhu said when asked about her shots each. Bhaker made a slight surge in Pallikal Karthik advancing to the who is with the team. effort in the high-pressure finals. the second series but was still nowhere semifinals of their respective singles Dipika too was in fine touch and "In the finals, I kept fighting from the near a medal. After 14 shots of the 24-shot events here. aggressive as she downed Kobayashi first shot. In the beginning, the group was final, Heena moved to third with a 10.6 As expected in terms of seeding, Misaki in straight games for a place in more on the left (of the bulls eye). I kept and 10.3, and was able to maintain it for top seed Saurav beat compatriot the semifinal. She faces Nicol David giving clicks to my sighter so that I could Bronze. Harinder Pal Sandhu in four games 9- This was India's best performance in the semifinals. beginning, I am sure I would have won time. You need to be mature enough to Ling. Joshna won 11-5,12-10, 5-11, 12- years ago when he had beaten Saurav missed a match point with a shot into the Gold," said the 28-year-old from be winning medals at this level or the 10 to be assured of her first medal in for the title. the tin but ensured victory over extra ndia's campaign in the Asian Games gymnastics ended Ludhiana. Olympics," Rana said. the Asian Games in singles event. But the top seed this time was not points to ensure a personal landmark. Ion Friday without a medal after Dipa Karmakar finished fifth in the women's balance beam event final here. Dipa, who was the fifth gymnast to perform on the beam, finished at the same spot with a score of in the eight-woman final. She had scored in the qualification round. Considering that she was not 100 per cent fit, Dipa's performance was not too bad. The balance of Hong Kong in a 43-minute have to find a way to outwit their failed to produce his best as his beam was also not her favourite event. duel, Prannoy too followed suit next opponents Chinese third dreams of a Asian Games medal She could not qualify for the final in her pet event op Indian shuttlers Kidambi going down 12-21, 21-15, seeds Chen Qingchen and Jia ended after a narrow defeat. of vault in which she had finished fourth in the 2016 TSrikanth and H S Prannoy to Thailand's Kantaphon Yifan on Saturday for a chance to After a reversal in the opening game, Prannoy managed to qualification round as she finished behind compatriots Rio Olympics. Her old knee injury flared up during the vault were knocked out of the 18th Wangcharoen in a 65-minute win a medal. Asian Games after suffering shock defeats in the of Indian fans. number one, who had clinched a ond game. However, he couldn't Dipa also had pulled out of the women's team final, contest, much to the dismay Srikanth, a former world turn the tables winning the sec- Aruna Budda Reddy and Pranati Nayak. second round of the Commonwealth Silver at the Commonwealth find a way to shut out his Thai in which India had finished seventh. men's singles competition here on Friday. pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and team to the coveted Gold, failed minutes. Games. The country has won just one medal in gymnas- Games Bronze medallist Games besides leading the mixed rival in the decider that lasted 23 India thus failed yet again to win a medal in the Asian It was a disappointing end for N Sikki Reddy, however, brought to outwit the 28th ranked Wong P V Sindhu and Saina tics in the history of Asian Games, when Ashish Kumar India's campaign in men's singles some cheers after reaching the Wing Ki. Nehwal will be in contention on clinched a Bronze in the 2010 Asiad in floor exercise. as Srikanth and Prannoy failed to quarterfinals with a thrilling 21- Currently ranked eighth in Saturday in women's singles. Aruna and Pranati had finished in seventh and eighth raise the bar after their early exits 17, 16-21, win over higher-ranked Malaysian combination 23, 22-20, to Indonesia's medallist Sindhu will face local final. the world, Srikanth had lost 21- World Championship Silver positions respectively in the women's individual vault event from the Nanjing World Championship early this month. of Chow Mei Kuan and Lee Anthony Sinisuka Ginting in the player Gregoria Mariska Tunjung, The men's gymnasts failed to make a mark as none of After Srikanth lost 21-23, Meng Yean in women's doubles. men's team event. while CWG Gold medallist Saina the four, including Ashish, could make it to any individual apparatus final to Wong Wing Ki Vincent However, the Indian duo will World No 11 Prannoy too takes on Indonesia's Fitriani. hit the bulls eye but I should have given more clicks. "In the finals you are under pressure. You are not sure that 'are you making the mistake or is it just the grouping that has shifted'. So I was trying to be very defensive. I think if I would have been more decisive and given more clicks in the Bhaker could not meet the rising expectations but would be fired up to do her best at the upcoming World Championships. Her coach Jaspal Rana said Bhaker should be given more time. "She is still very young. She needs to learn how to cope up with the pressure in big finals. The experience will come with 11, 11-7, 11-7, 11-7 in the men's singles quarterfinal before Dipika recorded an easy 11-5, 11-6, 11-8 win over Japanese Kobayashi Misaki in women's singles. Joshna's was the last scheduled among the Indians and she had a fight in hand against Hong Kong's Chan Ho in singles competition in an Asian Games, bettering the two medals won in Incheon four years ago when Saurav secured a Silver and Dipika claimed a Bronze. Winning the first game with a touch of class, Sandhu brought memories of the Mumbai Nationals four In the other match, Joshna started off well but Chan proved to be a fighter, putting pressure on the Indian. This showed in the third game which Joshna conceded with a flurry of unforced errors. In the decider, the Indian raced to a 7-4 lead but Chan caught up. Joshna