C M Y K - The Pioneer Zuari Agro, Coromandel Fertilisers, Deepak Fertilisers, Petrochemicals Corp...

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I n an attempt to boost agri- cultural production, dou- bling farmers’ income, and reducing the cost of cultivation, the Narendra Modi Government has decided to introduce customised fertilis- ers (CF) across the country. CF is prepared by tweaking the proportions of urea and micronutrients in a way that the end products are suited to meet the special needs of var- ied types of soil, crops, and cli- mate. And it is understood that the use of CF will increase the agriculture production by 30 per cent and also ensure that the soil fertility is safeguarded. According to Department of Fertilisers to address the spe- cial need of a region or crop and to achieve optimise the benefit of fertilisers in a cost- effective manner, farmers and fertilisers companies are being asked to focus on customised fertilisers. Apart from Tata Chemicals, Zuari Agro, Coromandel Fertilisers, Deepak Fertilisers, Petrochemicals Corp and Nagarjuna Fertilisers are some of the companies which are bet- ting big on customised fertilis- ers. It is estimated that over Rs 7 billion investments would be made by these companies to make need-based soil nutrients. Several private companies aim to set up over the dozen of new customised fertilisers’ plants at an approximate investment of Rs 600 million each. Officials said after the introduction of soil health cards in 2015, there has been a paradigm shift in fertiliser use from straight conventional fer- tilisers to CF. “Soil fertility status, cli- mate, and cropping pattern in a region are considered while developing CF formulations. nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) remain the major ones for increased and sustained productivity. Even though, P and K lagged behind N application in many parts of Northern India, stimulating imbalanced plant nutrition and negative P and K input-output balances,” said officials. With the CF, the farmer can do away with DAP, MOP or ZnS and, instead, just apply customised fertilizers. Wheat or rice, for example, require more nitrogen, while phos- phorous is the most important nutrient in pulses and potassi- um is indispensable for toma- to, banana or pineapple. “So far only private companies are keen to produce CF. But there is a serious consideration to boost the manufacture of CF across the county,” said senior officials of the Ministry of Chemical and Fertilisers. Tata Chemical’s CF prod- uct ‘Paras Farmoola’ has been rigorously tested through more than 300 research experiments conducted on the field and at 12 Krishi Vigyan Kendras. Field trials have been con- ducted on over 20,000 samples of crops such as paddy, wheat, potato, maize and sugarcane from 25 districts in western Uttar Pradesh. The fertilisers are produced at the company’s state-of-the-art, 1,30,000 MT capacity facility at Babrala, Uttar Pradesh. Officials said CF units can be set up with low investments in the range of 500-600 million rupees and the gestation peri- od for every unit is only 7-10 months. In comparison, a urea plant typically needs an initial investment of about Rs 4 to 5 billion and has a turn-around period of three to four years.” Defending the use of CF, Binod Pandey of Rashtriya Kisan Mahasanghthan said the use of CF will boost the crops production and reduce expens- es in cultivation. “Currently, I may be applying two bags of urea, which only contains 46 per cent nitrogen. If my field is deficient in sulphur, it might make sense to replace one bag of urea with ammonium sul- phate that has 20.6 percent nitrogen and also 24 percent sulphur,” he said. Research conducted on soils in Raipur has shown that the application of 150 per cent dose of CF produced highest grain yield of wheat (4.4 tonne per hectare ), which was 28.27 per cent higher than that of State recommended dose. Continued on Page 4 A fter 24 years of manhunt, the CBI has arrested Mushtaq Ahmed, a key accused in the 1993 bombing of RSS’ Chennai headquar- ters. Eleven persons were killed in the explosion. Ahmed, 56, was arrested on Friday morn- ing from the outskirts of Chennai. The blast triggered u s i n g RDX brought down the multi-storeyed RSS office at Chetput in Chennai on August 8, 1993. The agency had announced a reward of Rs 10 lakh for providing credible information about him. Ahmed had allegedly procured the explosive material for assembling the bomb and pro- vided shelter to other accused persons. A TADA court in Chennai had convicted 11 per- sons and awarded life term to three of them in 2007 after a 12-year trial. I n a massive blow to Pakistan, the United States has sus- pended all security aid, esti- mated at over $1.15 billion, in retaliation for Islamabad’s fail- ure to crack down on terrorist groups that continue to enjoy a safe haven on its soil. After repeated warnings in recent months, climaxed by President Donald Trump’s stinging New Year Day attack on Islamabad’s “lies and deceit”, his administration announced on Thursday that it would freeze for now all its security aid to Pakistan. Although the precise quan- tum was not mentioned, the frozen aid reportedly includes $900 million under the “Coalition Support Funds” head, and $255 million under the “Foreign Military Financing” head. “No partnership can sur- vive a country’s harbouring of militants and terrorists who target US service members and officials,” State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said, referring to the periodic attacks launched by Pakistan- based Afghan Taliban and Haqqani network on US forces in Afghanistan. While announcing the aid suspension, Nauert, however, signalled that Washington would consider its resump- tion as and when Islamabad takes “decisive action” against the terrorist outfits. “Today we can confirm that we are suspending nation- al security to Pakistan at this time until the Pakistani Government takes decisive action against groups, includ- ing the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani Network,” Nauert said, adding, “We consider them to be destabilising the region and also targeting US personnel.” Continued on Page 4 W ith poor performance of agriculture and manu- facturing sectors, country’s eco- nomic growth is expected to slow to a four-year low of 6.5 per cent in 2017-18, the lowest under the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA Government. “Implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST) and subsequent slowdown in the manufacturing sector is expect- ed to drag down India’s growth to 6.5 per cent in 2017-18,” said the Government’s official data which was released by Central Statistics Office (CSO) on Friday. India’s projected eco- nomic growth rate for 2017-18 will be lower than the 7.1 per cent achieved in 2016-17. Chief Statistician TCA Anant said, “The de-stocking disruption caused due to the GST implementation has impacted the full-year GDP estimates.” The GDP data could be revised upwards as the current projections are based on incomplete output and corpo- rate income data, amid signs that people are buying more goods and companies are adding new capacities to meet growing demand. The second advance estimates to be released on February 28 and the provisional estimate in May 2018 would give a better picture of the health of the economy. According to the GDP esti- mate for 2017-18 released by the CSO, the GDP at constant (2011-12) prices for 2017-18 is likely to attain a level of 129.85 lakh crore. Earlier, the country’s GDP growth for the second quarter of the current fiscal that ended on September 30 was 6.3 per cent — up from 5.7 per cent reported during the first quar- ter of 2017-18. As far economic trend is concerned, a rebound in house- hold spending and corporate investments hold out hopes of rapid recovery from the twin disruptions of imple- mentation of both demoneti- sation and GST. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had earlier estimated the economy would grow around 7.5 per cent in the 2017/18 fis- cal year, generating enough tax to keep the fiscal deficit at 3.2 per cent of GDP after meet- ing spending targets. But before the GDP figures announced, Finance Ministry officials said slower economic growth was likely to hit revenue collections this year, forcing them to resort to borrow from the market to meet spending targets. Unfazed by the official GDP figures showing that the Indian economy will grow at a slower pace compared to the last fiscal, NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar said the GDP growth will become more robust in 2018-19. Kumar’s remarks came after the Chief Statistician announced the CSO data on Friday. Reacting on the growth estimates, Kumar said the GDP growth in the second half of 2017-18 had risen to 7 per cent bringing the annual growth rate to 6.5 per cent. The CSO has primarily used seven-month data to extrapolate for the full fiscal. As per the data, the Gross Value Added (GVA) at basic constant prices (2011-12) is anticipated to increase from 111.85 lakh crore in 2016-17 to 118.71 lakh crore in 2017-18. “Anticipated growth of real GVA at basic prices in 2017-18 is 6.1 per cent as against 6.6 per cent in 2016-17,” it said. The data disclosed that sectors like public administra- tion, defence and other ser- vices, trade, hotels, transport, communication and services related to broadcasting, elec- tricity, gas, water supply and other utility services and finan- cial, real estate and profes- sional services registered a growth rate of over 7 per cent. On the other hand, growth in the agriculture, forestry and fishing, mining and quarrying, manufacturing and construc- tion sectors is estimated to be 2.1 per cent (from 4.9 per cent), 2.9 per cent (from 1.8 per cent), 4.6 per cent (from 7.9 per cent) and 3.6 per cent (from 1.7 per cent), respectively. R ashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat on Friday said that it was India's responsibility to guide the world as footprints of Indian culture were found all over the globe. Speaking at the inaugural function of the three-day Shaiv Mahotsav here, Bhagwat said, "The footprints of our culture are found all over the world. The Indian culture is univer- sal and teaches the art of liv- ing to the entire world.” "Lord Shiva is the symbol of world unity. It is our duty to guide the world," the RSS chief said, adding that the first name of Lord Shiva was Rudra, which means power. There is no point in being Shiva with- out power. Rudra was Shiva who destroyed all evil powers. The character of a nation or an individual should be like Shiva, Bhagwat said. "There is no need of war for peace. For (achieving) this, all selfish- ness needs to be sacrificed," he said. Bhagwat and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan presented Durgadas Ambadas Mule of Maharashtra with the Mahakaleshwar Ved Alankaran award. Shankaracharya of Bhanpura Peeth, Swami Divyanand Teerth inaugu- rated the three-day long reli- gious convention. A postal stamp issued on Shaiv Mahotsav was released on the occasion. Bhagwat said that Bhagwan Ram connected North with South while Bhagwan Krishna linked East with West but Bhagwan Shiva is present all over India. Shiva is worshipped everywhere right from the Himalayas. Indian culture that teaches the art of living to the entire world is spread worldwide. Continued on Page 4 F our students of the Delhi Public School (DPS) and the bus driver were killed when their school bus collided with a truck this afternoon in an acci- dent near bypass. The accident also left four students injured . "The bus was carrying stu- dents of the Delhi Public School (DPS) when it collided with the truck at Kanadiya bypass. Five students and the bus driver were killed in the accident which occurred because of a steering failure," Harinarayanchari Mishra, DIG (Indore), told. The injured were admitted to a private hospital here, he said. Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Manoj Kumar Rai said the school bus was on its way to drop the students their homes when the collision took place. He said the front portion of the bus was badly damaged due to the impact of the crash. Continued on Page 4 RNI Regn. No. MPENG/2004/13703, Regd. No. L-2/BPLON/41/2006-2008 5 C M Y K C M Y K

Transcript of C M Y K - The Pioneer Zuari Agro, Coromandel Fertilisers, Deepak Fertilisers, Petrochemicals Corp...

Page 1: C M Y K - The Pioneer Zuari Agro, Coromandel Fertilisers, Deepak Fertilisers, Petrochemicals Corp and ... Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan presented Durgadas Ambadas Mule

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In an attempt to boost agri-cultural production, dou-

bling farmers’ income, andreducing the cost of cultivation,the Narendra ModiGovernment has decided tointroduce customised fertilis-ers (CF) across the country.

CF is prepared by tweakingthe proportions of urea andmicronutrients in a way thatthe end products are suited tomeet the special needs of var-ied types of soil, crops, and cli-mate. And it is understood thatthe use of CF will increase theagriculture production by 30per cent and also ensure thatthe soil fertility is safeguarded.

According to Departmentof Fertilisers to address the spe-cial need of a region or cropand to achieve optimise thebenefit of fertilisers in a cost-effective manner, farmers and

fertilisers companies are beingasked to focus on customisedfertilisers.

Apart from Tata Chemicals,Zuari Agro, CoromandelFertilisers, Deepak Fertilisers,Petrochemicals Corp andNagarjuna Fertilisers are someof the companies which are bet-ting big on customised fertilis-ers. It is estimated that over Rs7 billion investments would bemade by these companies tomake need-based soil nutrients.Several private companies aimto set up over the dozen of newcustomised fertilisers’ plants atan approximate investment ofRs 600 million each.

Officials said after the

introduction of soil healthcards in 2015, there has been aparadigm shift in fertiliser usefrom straight conventional fer-tilisers to CF.

“Soil fertility status, cli-mate, and cropping pattern ina region are considered whiledeveloping CF formulations.nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P)and potassium (K) remain themajor ones for increased andsustained productivity. Eventhough, P and K lagged behindN application in many parts ofNorthern India, stimulatingimbalanced plant nutrition andnegative P and K input-outputbalances,” said officials.

With the CF, the farmer

can do away with DAP, MOPor ZnS and, instead, just applycustomised fertilizers. Wheator rice, for example, requiremore nitrogen, while phos-phorous is the most important

nutrient in pulses and potassi-um is indispensable for toma-to, banana or pineapple. “So faronly private companies arekeen to produce CF. But thereis a serious consideration to

boost the manufacture of CFacross the county,” said seniorofficials of the Ministry ofChemical and Fertilisers.

Tata Chemical’s CF prod-uct ‘Paras Farmoola’ has beenrigorously tested through morethan 300 research experimentsconducted on the field and at12 Krishi Vigyan Kendras.Field trials have been con-ducted on over 20,000 samplesof crops such as paddy, wheat,potato, maize and sugarcanefrom 25 districts in westernUttar Pradesh. The fertilisersare produced at the company’sstate-of-the-art, 1,30,000 MTcapacity facility at Babrala,Uttar Pradesh.

Officials said CF units canbe set up with low investmentsin the range of 500-600 millionrupees and the gestation peri-od for every unit is only 7-10months. In comparison, a ureaplant typically needs an initial

investment of about Rs 4 to 5billion and has a turn-aroundperiod of three to four years.”

Defending the use of CF,Binod Pandey of RashtriyaKisan Mahasanghthan said theuse of CF will boost the cropsproduction and reduce expens-es in cultivation. “Currently, Imay be applying two bags ofurea, which only contains 46per cent nitrogen. If my field isdeficient in sulphur, it mightmake sense to replace one bagof urea with ammonium sul-phate that has 20.6 percentnitrogen and also 24 percentsulphur,” he said.

Research conducted onsoils in Raipur has shown thatthe application of 150 per centdose of CF produced highestgrain yield of wheat (4.4 tonneper hectare ), which was 28.27per cent higher than that ofState recommended dose.

Continued on Page 4

���� #5,��56 7

After 24 years of manhunt,the CBI has arrested

Mushtaq Ahmed, a keyaccused in the 1993 bombingof RSS’ Chennai headquar-ters. Eleven persons were killedin the explosion. Ahmed, 56,was arrested on Friday morn-ing from the outskirts ofChennai. The blast triggeredu s i n gRDX brought down the multi-storeyed RSS office atChetput in Chennai on August 8, 1993.

The agency hadannounced a reward of Rs 10lakh for providing credibleinformation about him.Ahmed had allegedly procuredthe explosive material forassembling the bomb and pro-vided shelter to other accusedpersons. A TADA court inChennai had convicted 11 per-sons and awarded life term tothree of them in 2007 after a12-year trial.

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In a massive blow to Pakistan,the United States has sus-

pended all security aid, esti-mated at over $1.15 billion, inretaliation for Islamabad’s fail-ure to crack down on terroristgroups that continue to enjoya safe haven on its soil.

After repeated warningsin recent months, climaxed byPresident Donald Trump’sstinging New Year Day attackon Islamabad’s “lies and deceit”,his administration announcedon Thursday that it wouldfreeze for now all its securityaid to Pakistan.

Although the precise quan-tum was not mentioned, thefrozen aid reportedly includes$900 million under the“Coalition Support Funds”head, and $255 million underthe “Foreign MilitaryFinancing” head.

“No partnership can sur-vive a country’s harbouring ofmilitants and terrorists whotarget US service membersand officials,” State Departmentspokesperson Heather Nauertsaid, referring to the periodicattacks launched by Pakistan-based Afghan Taliban andHaqqani network on US forcesin Afghanistan.

While announcing the aidsuspension, Nauert, however,

signalled that Washingtonwould consider its resump-tion as and when Islamabadtakes “decisive action” againstthe terrorist outfits.

“Today we can confirmthat we are suspending nation-al security to Pakistan at thistime until the PakistaniGovernment takes decisiveaction against groups, includ-ing the Afghan Taliban and theHaqqani Network,” Nauertsaid, adding, “We considerthem to be destabilising the region and also targetingUS personnel.”

Continued on Page 4

���� #5,��56 7

With poor performance ofagriculture and manu-

facturing sectors, country’s eco-nomic growth is expected toslow to a four-year low of 6.5per cent in 2017-18, the lowestunder the Prime MinisterNarendra Modi-led NDAGovernment.

“Implementation of Goodsand Services Tax (GST) andsubsequent slowdown in themanufacturing sector is expect-ed to drag down India’s growthto 6.5 per cent in 2017-18,” saidthe Government’s official datawhich was released by CentralStatistics Office (CSO) onFriday. India’s projected eco-nomic growth rate for 2017-18will be lower than the 7.1 percent achieved in 2016-17.

Chief Statistician TCAAnant said, “The de-stockingdisruption caused due to theGST implementation hasimpacted the full-year GDPestimates.”

The GDP data could berevised upwards as the currentprojections are based onincomplete output and corpo-rate income data, amid signsthat people are buying moregoods and companies areadding new capacities to meetgrowing demand. The secondadvance estimates to bereleased on February 28 andthe provisional estimate inMay 2018 would give a betterpicture of the health of theeconomy.

According to the GDP esti-mate for 2017-18 released bythe CSO, the GDP at constant(2011-12) prices for 2017-18 islikely to attain a level of �129.85

lakh crore. Earlier, the country’sGDP growth for the secondquarter of the current fiscal thatended on September 30 was 6.3per cent — up from 5.7 per centreported during the first quar-ter of 2017-18.

As far economic trend isconcerned, a rebound in house-hold spending and corporateinvestments hold out hopes ofrapid recovery from the twin disruptions of imple-mentation of both demoneti-sation and GST.

Finance Minister ArunJaitley had earlier estimated theeconomy would grow around7.5 per cent in the 2017/18 fis-

cal year, generating enoughtax to keep the fiscal deficit at3.2 per cent of GDP after meet-ing spending targets. But beforethe GDP figures announced,Finance Ministry officials saidslower economic growth waslikely to hit revenue collectionsthis year, forcing them to resortto borrow from the market tomeet spending targets.

Unfazed by the officialGDP figures showing that theIndian economy will grow at aslower pace compared to thelast fiscal, NITI Aayog ViceChairman Rajiv Kumar said theGDP growth will become morerobust in 2018-19.

Kumar’s remarks cameafter the Chief Statisticianannounced the CSO data on Friday. Reacting on thegrowth estimates, Kumar saidthe GDP growth in the secondhalf of 2017-18 had risen to 7per cent bringing the annualgrowth rate to 6.5 per cent.

The CSO has primarilyused seven-month data toextrapolate for the full fiscal. Asper the data, the Gross ValueAdded (GVA) at basic constantprices (2011-12) is anticipatedto increase from �111.85 lakhcrore in 2016-17 to �118.71lakh crore in 2017-18.

“Anticipated growth of real

GVA at basic prices in 2017-18is 6.1 per cent as against 6.6 percent in 2016-17,” it said.

The data disclosed thatsectors like public administra-tion, defence and other ser-vices, trade, hotels, transport,communication and servicesrelated to broadcasting, elec-tricity, gas, water supply andother utility services and finan-cial, real estate and profes-

sional services registered agrowth rate of over 7 per cent.

On the other hand, growthin the agriculture, forestry andfishing, mining and quarrying,manufacturing and construc-tion sectors is estimated to be2.1 per cent (from 4.9 percent), 2.9 per cent (from 1.8 percent), 4.6 per cent (from 7.9 percent) and 3.6 per cent (from 1.7per cent), respectively.

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Rashtriya SwayamsevakSangh (RSS) chief Mohan

Bhagwat on Friday said that itwas India's responsibility toguide the world as footprints ofIndian culture were found allover the globe.

Speaking at the inauguralfunction of the three-day ShaivMahotsav here, Bhagwat said,"The footprints of our cultureare found all over the world.The Indian culture is univer-sal and teaches the art of liv-ing to the entire world.”

"Lord Shiva is the symbolof world unity. It is our duty toguide the world," the RSS chiefsaid, adding that the first nameof Lord Shiva was Rudra,which means power. There isno point in being Shiva with-out power. Rudra was Shivawho destroyed all evil powers.

The character of a nationor an individual should be likeShiva, Bhagwat said. "There isno need of war for peace. For(achieving) this, all selfish-ness needs to be sacrificed," hesaid. Bhagwat and MadhyaPradesh Chief Minister ShivrajSingh Chouhan presented

Durgadas Ambadas Mule ofMaharashtra with theMahakaleshwar VedAlankaran award.

Shankarachar ya ofBhanpura Peeth, SwamiDivyanand Teerth inaugu-rated the three-day long reli-

gious convention. A postalstamp issued on ShaivMahotsav was released onthe occasion.

Bhagwat said thatBhagwan Ram connectedNorth with South whileBhagwan Krishna linked East

with West but Bhagwan Shivais present all over India. Shivais worshipped everywhereright from the Himalayas.Indian culture that teaches theart of living to the entire worldis spread worldwide.

Continued on Page 4

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Four students of the DelhiPublic School (DPS) and

the bus driver were killed whentheir school bus collided with atruck this afternoon in an acci-dent near bypass. The accidentalso left four students injured .

"The bus was carrying stu-dents of the Delhi Public School(DPS) when it collided with thetruck at Kanadiya bypass. Fivestudents and the bus driverwere killed in the accident

which occurred because of asteering failure,"Harinarayanchari Mishra, DIG(Indore), told.

The injured were admittedto a private hospital here, hesaid. Additional Superintendentof Police (ASP) Manoj KumarRai said the school bus was onits way to drop the studentstheir homes when the collisiontook place. He said the frontportion of the bus was badlydamaged due to the impact ofthe crash.

Continued on Page 4

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Page 2: C M Y K - The Pioneer Zuari Agro, Coromandel Fertilisers, Deepak Fertilisers, Petrochemicals Corp and ... Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan presented Durgadas Ambadas Mule

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Fight between two femaleactresses of short movies

was reported to police afterthey started using obsceneposts on a Whatsapp group.

The Ayodhya Nagarpolice have registered a casein this connection againstmodel who posted the mes-sages.

Police said that the victimand the accused had workedwith Narendra Sahu who is

director and makes shortmovies. The two have workedwith Sahu around threemonths ago. The accusedSumera Khan posted indecentmessages and abused her onWhatsapp group ‘IndividualMovies Shoot Information’in which the victim andaccused both are members.

Police said that the victimin her complaint had statedthat the accused had postedthe comments as the groupmembers appreciated the vic-

tim and with ill intentionsSumera Khan posted indecentmessage targeting victim and

to defame her. During the investigation

police found that the victimheld a press briefing few daysago and was appreciated forher work and was gettingnew and more assignments ascompared with the accusedand which lead to Sumera’sfrustration and later fuelledwith frustration and dejectionshe posted indecent com-ments.

The victim lodged a com-plaint with the Ayodhya

Nagar police against theaccused.

On Thursday after thepreliminary investigation thepolice have registered a caseunder section 509 of the IPCand have started furtherinvestigation.

Till the filing of the reportnothing regarding the arrestof the accused surfaced. Policesaid that the whereabouts ofthe accused actress would betracked during the furtherinvestigation.

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Valuables worth Rs 40000and Rs 20000 cash were

burgled from Bafna Colonyunder Hanumanganj policestation area on Thursday.

The victim Shamima Bihad gone to meet her relativesin Sarangpur when shereturned the valuables werefound burgled.

A complaint was lodgedwith the police by the victimstating that she had gone to herrelatives in Sarangpur onDecember 28 and on January1 she received information thatthe door of her house wasfound open and when she

returned on Thursday the valu-ables were found burgled.

The victim claimed that thegold and silver jewelry worthRs 40000 and Rs 20000 cashwere found burgled.

After the preliminaryinvestigation the police haveregistered a case under section457 and 380 of the IPC andhave started further investiga-tion.

Meanwhile, gold and silverjewelry worth Rs 50000was burgled from Firdos Nagarunder Hanumanganj policestation area on Thursda.

The victim Amit Dubeyhad gone for some work onWednesday and when he

returned on Thursday the doorwas found open and when heentered the valuables werefound burgled.

Victim approached thepolice and lodged a complaintstating that he had gone forofficial work on Wednesdayand on his returned he foundthat the gold and silver jewel-ry worth Rs 50000 were bur-gled.

The police have registereda case under section 457 and380 of the IPC and have start-ed further investigation. Thevictim works with a privatefirm and used to visit fre-quently regarding work.

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The Bhopalites had a won-derful evening as they

tapped their feet over theFrench music this Friday. Amusical concert was organisedat Antarang Hall of BharatBhavan wherein the youngFrench singer Hyleen alongwith her troupe gave a splen-did performance.

The entire Antarang Hallwas packed with music loversas they seemed excited towitness the performance. Themusic lovers had a gala timeat the hall as Hyleen began herperformance there was a pindrop silence and everybodyseemed engrossed in the per-formance.

The super talented youngartist was accompanied byNicolas Viccaro on drumsand Julien Boursin on key-board and Moog-Bass. Theenergetic performance wasall about the pleasing andcalm music in the most mar-velous manner.

Hyleen began her perfor-mance with the song ‘Lookingat Me’ with lyrics Do I reallyhave to explain, do I really

know? Then she performedsongs The Dark Knight andMy First of All.The Bhopalites

enjoyed every bit of the per-formance. She performed styleof music that involves Soul,

Funk, Neo-Soul and Pop thatalso sometimes includes Jazzthereby giving her a style of

her own leaving the audiencemesmerized and totallyenthralled.

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Page 3: C M Y K - The Pioneer Zuari Agro, Coromandel Fertilisers, Deepak Fertilisers, Petrochemicals Corp and ... Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan presented Durgadas Ambadas Mule

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Kala Utsav, the National-level festival of art, will

come to an end today after itbegan four days ago. Duringthe festival at the RegionalInstitute of Education (RIE)campus at Bhopal, the childrenfrom all across the country haveshowcased their artistic talentin the field of music, theatre,dance, visual arts and crafts ,with the theme ‘Ek BharatSreshtha Bharat’ in focus.

The valedictory functionwill be held on Saturday at 10.30am wherein Union Minister ofState for Human ResourceDevelopment UpendraKushwaha will give awards tothe winning teams. The cere-mony will also be attended bySri Anil Swarup, UnionSecretary, School Educationand Literacy and Prof HKSenapaty, Director, NationalCouncil of EducationalResearch and Training.

On Friday, students fromGujarat performed Suva danceof Chhattisgarh, team fromBihar performed Hojagiri danceof Tripura, Jharkhand present-ed folk dance of Goa, Assamdid Rang Rangilo Rajasthan,Himachal performedThiruvathira Kali (a folk danceof Kerala) and Uttar Pradesh

presented Lok Nryat ofArunachal Pradesh. Such per-formances of dance of somedistant land by these studentswere truly in the spirit of Ek

Bharat Sreshtha Bharat.In Music, students from

Nagaland, Puducherry, Sikkim,Tamil Nadu, Talangana,Tripura, Meghalaya and West

Bengal presented their musicforms of their respective statesin the festival today. Studentsfrom Maharashtra, AndhraPradesh, Arunachal Pradesh,

Chhattisgarh, Dadra and NagarHaveli, Daman and Diu, Goa,Jammu Kashmir, Karnatakaand Mizoram showcased theirdramatic talent.

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Elaborated security arrange-ments are being made for

the two-day visit of the PrimeMinister Narendra Modi whowould address the DGPs of 29States and seven UnionTerritories during the AnnualDGPs’ Conference to be held atthe BSF Academy, Tekanpurfrom January 6 to 8.

Home Minister, RajnathSingh is scheduled to inaugu-rate the conference on Saturday.The Prime Minister will reachthe Air Force Station, Malanpuron the morning of January 7.

Arrangements are beingmade to take the PM by heli-copter to the BSF Academy, buttaking into consideration theweather conditions the admin-istration and the police are alsokeeping the road option open.

The officials of the SPGand IB visited the Air Force air-port, the temporary residenceof the PM at the BSF Academyand the conference hall at theAcademy.

Accompanied by theDistrict Police officials the SPGand IB personnel first visitedthe spot where the PM’s planewill be landing.

They also looked over thearea where the MadhyaPradesh Chief Minister ShivrajSingh and other dignitarieswill receive the PM. Later, theteam inspected the road routewhich is an option in case ofbad weather.

At the BSF Academy,Tekanpur the security teaminspected the spot where thehelicopter, carrying the PM andhis entourage is to land. Theyalso inspected the temporaryresidences of the PrimeMinister and the HomeMinister in the Academy cam-pus.

The city has been turnedinto a fortress as police andpara- military forces aredeployed at every nook andcorner to see that the PM’s visitpasses off peacefully.

All hotels, lodges and dhar-masalas have been asked tokeep extra vigil while enter-taining guests.

�������� ������� ) 0:�6

Leader of the Opposition in theState Assembly Ajay Singh has

said that in Sehore, the home dis-trict of Chief Minister ShivrajSingh Chouhan, sand mafia isrunning a parallel governmentinstead of law of the State.

In a Statement Singh saidthat recently the Chief Ministerhad declared sand policy and

directed to seize those vehiclesengaged in illegal mining ofsand. However, in past onemonth, the sand mafia, by usingforged orders got their vehiclesreleased. The vehicles were afterbeing seized taken into posses-sion by the State Government,but 150 such vehicles werereleased.

He stated that these vehicleswere seized and taken into pos-session in December, 2017, butthe sand mafia managed to getforged orders from districtCollectors and took away theirvehicles. Factually, the same dis-trict Collector had issued ordersto confiscate these vehicles and

how could he give orders torelease the vehicles. Withoutnoticing this fact, the policeofficials released the vehiclesfrom police stations, Singhinformed.

Providing list of such vehi-cles, Singh said that the issuecame to fore when five vehicleswere not found in theNasrullahganj police station.These trucks include, MP 09 HG4019, MP 09 HH 2274, MP 37GA 1264, MP 09 HG 3887 andMP09HG2605. On a complaintby the district mining officer, thepolice have now registered a caseunder section 420, 467, 468 and421 of the IPC.

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The advanced sweepingmachine from Denmark

was inaugurated in city onFriday. The machine whichwill be used to clean the city-was inaugurated by ChiefMinister Shivraj SinghChauhan and Mayor MaliniLaxman Singh Gaud in Indore.

The sweeping machine ismanufactured by Milkis SuperSweeper Company, a companyof Demark. It is manufacturedwith the expenditure of Rs 1crore and is especially import-ed to carry out better cleanli-ness drive in city. Interestingly,this advanced cleaningmachine is being used for thefirst time in the country.

While informing about themachine, CSI Anil Sirsiya saidthat a cleanliness drive was car-ried out in the city using theadvanced cleaning machine onFriday. The drive was held atRajbada around 12:30 pm andfrom Rajbada the drive wascarried out at Bada Sarafa.

He further informed that

from Bada Sarafa, the drive wascarried out at Chhota Sarafa,Bajajkhana Chowk, BartanBazaar, Marothiya Bazaar andnearby area. Elaborating furtherhe said that with the help of this

machine, the crowded marketarea like Sankre Road was alsocleaned without any difficulty.

As Sirsiya informed aboutthe work process of themachine, he said that this par-

ticular machine first spray thewater, then cleans the dustfrom the area and then with thehelp of the back pipe removesgarbage like bottles, leaves andeven the papers in its tank.

Sirsiya further said thatthe machine can easily clean thenarrow streets as well and eventhe footpaths. This advancedsweeping machine takes all thegarbage in through its pipe.

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LMurugan Vice-ChairmanNational Commission for

Scheduled Castes today visitedvarious manufacturing blocks ofBHEL Bhopal. He also held dis-cussion with DK ThakurExecutive Director BHEL Bhopaland all general managers of theunit.

Murugan visited the HydroLab, UHV Lab and SwarnaJayanti Block witnessing thefacilities available in the block.He said that BHEL make prod-uct is trustworthy and is at parwith any international stan-dards. During the meeting healso enquired about the facilitiesbeing provided to the employeesespecially the employees belong-ing to the scheduled caste cate-gory.

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Ruckus was created at RTOoffice on Friday after an

agent entered the office, torn upofficial documents and threat-ened to torch the office. A caseof deterring public servant fromdischarge of his duty, has been

registered.According to RTO Ujjain

Santosh Malviya, the accusedBrijesh Junwal misbehaved withPooja Mukati and DileepSalunkhe employees at the RTOoffice and later entered theoffice and torn documents andthreatened to torch the office.

The other agents have toldthe police that the accused is ahabitual criminal. The policehave registered a case underSection 353 of the IPC and havestarted search for the accused.

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Page 4: C M Y K - The Pioneer Zuari Agro, Coromandel Fertilisers, Deepak Fertilisers, Petrochemicals Corp and ... Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan presented Durgadas Ambadas Mule

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Cyber crime police havenabbed a 48-year-old man

for hacking income tax returnaccount using fake digital sig-natures and forging documentsfor obtaining details of his vic-tim Hemant Jain.

The victim Hemant Jainlodged a complaint stating thathis registered email ID with theincome tax department hasbeen accessed by someone andbased on the complaint it wasfound that Rajneesh Agrawalwas using the income tax ID forobtaining the information byproviding fake documents.

During the investigation,Rajneesh confessed thatMukesh Bajaj was involved inthe crime but before Mukeshcould be nabbed he managedto escape and was nabbed onThursday.

The nabbed accused isuncle of victim’s wife and dueto family dispute complaintagainst victim has been lodgedand a case under section 498 Aof the IPC and 125 CrPC andthe court ordered Rs 3000 asmaintenance to victim’s wifeand in order to increase themaintenance her uncle MukeshBajaj colluded with Rajneesh toobtain income tax return doc-

uments claiming higherincome of the victim.

The nabbed accused wasidentified as Mukesh Bajaj andhe is victim’s relative.

Earlier Rajneesh Agrawalwas nabbed for obtainingincome tax details of the victimand preparing it after re veri-fication. After the preliminaryinvestigation the police haveregistered a case against the twoaccused and have started fur-ther investigation.The forgeddocuments were used to obtainSIM card for the crime butwere nabbed by the police.The details of the nabbedaccused would be searched.

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Public Health and FamilyWelfare Minister and in-

charge of district RustamSingh visited Semri villageunder Kolaras JanpadPanchayat and discussed issuesof villagers and declaredinstallation of two hand-pumps at the village.

Out of the two handpumps, one would be installedwith a single phase motor. Thehomeless villagers would beprovided with houses and poorfamilies would be providedwith free of cost power con-nections.

Providing welfare schemesRustom Singh said that CMChouhan the poor people ofthe state have been providedwheat, rice and salt at Re 1 perkg.

During his visit heinstructed SDM Kolaras toadd names of poor and eligi-ble families in BPL list.

Instructions of diggingwork for hand pump at Madhivillage and resolution of elec-tricity work at Dakkherona vil-lage.

Concerned official wereinstructed to make proposalfor concrete road in Semri vil-lage.

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Ekatm Yatra’ is being con-ducted by the State

Government to apprise peopleabout the incomparable con-tributions of ‘Adi GuruShankaracharya’, reached Datiafrom Sikandara Naka onFriday.

Minister for PublicRelations, Water Resourcesand Parliamentary AffairsNarottam Mishra on the waynear Garera, paid obeisance tothe charan padukas of AdiGuru and accorded welcometo the yatra. Mishra also tookblessings from the saints afterperforming paduka poojan.

Yatra reached Datia cityafter its arrival in the district.Yatra entered Datia After thewelcome accorded on the wayat Udgawan, Palothra, Dong

Karera and Chepra. Datia citywas decorated with toran gates.Yatra reached Baggikhana tra-versing through TrafficChowki Pul, Civil Lines,Rajghat Tiraha, Maa PitambaraPeeth, Gurudwara and RajgarhChouraha. Shobha Yatra wasconducted by placing Padukason the baggi of Santshri fromMaa Pitambhara Peeth to QilaChowk. Yatra was accordedgrand welcome at market.

District President of BJPVikram Singh Bundela, Yatra’sCoordinator MLA PradeepAgrawal, AssistantCoordinator Pramod Pujari,President district PanchayatRajni Prajapati, officers, emi-nent persons of the district andother citizens were presentduring the yatra. SantParmatmanand Saraswati JiMaharaj, Chairman Tourism

Development CorporationTapan Bhoumik, ChairmanChild Rights CommissionRaghvendra Sharma, KabirPanthi Bhagwat Das andBrahamakumari Niketa Behenaccompanied the yatra.

Paduka poojan was per-formed and lamp was lightedin the samvad programmeheld in the campus ofBaggikhana of Datia.Parmatmanand Saraswati saidthat Adi Guru Shankaracharyawas born 1200 years ago inKerala. He worked to uniteBharat Varsha in one bond byleaving his house at the age of8 years. He was incarnation ofGod. He said that soul is onewhich is roving in each livingbeing, this is Adwait. He unit-ed Bharat Varsha in culturalunity by traveling 2,000 km onfoot.

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Asoothsayer, Pandit SivaSankar, who has assumed

international fame and is nowa globe trotter, came with fourGerman scholars - RainerBarth, Gerold Jernej and twoothers - to show them the‘Incredible Odisha’.

Gerold Jernej, who is agreat Buddhist scholar and hasspecialised in BajrajanBuddhism, was astounded toknow that GuruPadmasambhaba’s birthplaceis in Odisha. He has gonethrough the book‘Padmasambhaba of Odiana-Odisha’ authored by formerUtkal University of CultureVice-Chancellor Dr BimalenduMohanty. At a meeting heldhere recently, Rainer Barth

and Jernej shared their experi-ences of visits to several placesin India and said they neverknew about the rich Buddhistheritage of Odisha. Presidingover the meeting, Dr Mohantytold them about Lalitgiri,Udaygiri, Ratnagiri, Dhauliand other Buddhist sites inOdisha. Among others, formerUtkal University of CultureVice-Chancellor NarendraKumar Mishra and MahabodhiSociety, Odisha secretarySourendra Mohapatra werepresent.

The Germans also showedkeen interest to know moreabout Buddhist sites in Odisha.They too desired to meet KIITand KISS founder Dr AchyutaSamanta, who has establishedan International Centre forBuddhist Studies and Researchin Bhubaneswar.

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Chit fund scam accused andSeashore Group of

Companies CMD PrashantDash was released from theJharpada Special Jail here onFriday.

Dash walked out of the jailas he has been granted bail ineight cases against him.

Notably, the CBI, which isprobing into the mega chitfund scam, had filed a 276-page charge-sheet in which ithad named Prashant Dash, hisbrother Pravat Dash and mid-dleman Subhankar Nayak andaccused the company of swin-dling Rs 578.20 crore frominvestors.

Prashant Dash was arrest-ed by State Crime Branchfrom Mumbai on June 20,2013 before the case washanded over to the CBI undera Supreme Court order later.

He was lodged at theJharpada jail since then.However, the release of Dash

evoked strong reactions fromthe duped investors, who havelost their hard-earned moneyin the scam. Though they hadvery high hopes from theCBI, now with the release ofSeashore chit fund scam mainaccused Dash, the probe hasturned into a farce, someinvestors said.

The CBI is to be blamed asit failed to put forth before thecourt ample corroborative evi-dences against Dash. Now,the CBI should challengeDash’s bail in the SupremeCourt, the investors demand-ed.“The people’s financialbackbone was broken afterbeing duped of crores ofrupees. Despite the StateGovernment’s assurances, the

investors are yet to be com-pensated by refund of theirmoney cheated by the chitfund companies like theSeashore Group. Dash’s releasehas come as a shock to thethousands of investors andsends a very wrong message,”they said.

The BJP in its reactionsaid the duped investors havenot got their money back buthave their faith in the judi-ciary. The BJP also has fullfaith in the Indian judicial sys-tem.

Party spokesperson GolakMohapatra said the investorsshould get appropriate justiceand action should be takenagainst the guilty.

But due to the StateGovernment failing to providecorrect information in thecourt, the chit fund accusedare getting acquitted one byone, he alleged.

He said that in theSeashore chit fund scam,many top BJD leaders includ-ing MLAs are involved. TheState Crime Branch trying toshield the BJD leaders gavetoo much time to PrashantDash.

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Chief Minister Raman Singhon Friday participated in

‘Vikas Tihaar’ at Kharibaharvillage on the banks of Eedriver at Farsabahar develop-ment block in Jashpur district.

He addressed a mammothgathering as part of ‘VikasTihaar’ after dedicating andlaying foundation stones andperforming ‘bhoomi pujan’ ofdevelopmental works worth�1,076 crore.

Singh also distributed reliefmaterials to the tune of �1.94crore under the various devel-opment schemes of the StateGovernment.

The Chief Minister per-formed ‘bhoomi pujan’ of theupgradation of NationalHighway linking Pathalgaon-Kunkuri-Jharkhand measur-ing 130 kilometers to be laid ata cost of �859 crore. Singh laidthe foundation stones and per-formed 'bhoomi pujan' ofdevelopment works worth�930.66 crore and dedicatedworks worth �145.66 crore.

He also dedicated theupgraded road linkingBandarchuha-Goriya laid at aa cost of �21.42 crore , roadlinking Sanna-Champa laid ata cost of �21.93 crore up grad-ed road linking Baghbahar-

Kothba laid at a cost of �20.70crore mini-stadium atPathalgaon built at a cost of �4crore, Livelihood College build-ing built at a cost of �4 crore atJashpur and State GovernmentPolytechnic building built atacost of �9 crore at Jashpur.

The Chief Minister also

performed 'bhoomi pujan' ofdevelopment works-electricsub-stations at Ranpur,Sanna,Baturabahar andGanjiyadih, �9 crore BageechaNagar canal diversion project,�435.61 crore NationalHighway (Katni-Gumla) link-ing Pathalgaon-Kunkuri.

Singh said that the confi-dence with which the publichas given opportunity to himand his Government, he willnever let down the trust of peo-ple in him.

The Chief Minister saidunder Bharat Net Project, allthe Gram Panchayats of State

will be connected throughmore than 32,000 kms longfiber cable network, so that vil-lages get easy access to internet.

He said that this initiativewill also allow him to connectdirectly with Panch andSarpanchs of the State throughvideo conferencing.

Singh said that underSanchar Kranti Yojana (SKY),the preparation to distributesmartphones to 50 lakh peopleof the State in next eightmonths.

Smart phones would notonly allow people to commu-nicate with each other but will

also give them access toGovernment schemes relatedinformation so that they maytake benefit, he said.

The Chief MInister saidthat smart phones to be dis-tributed to 50 lakh people ofChhattigath will be linked withJan Dhan Yojana, aadhaar cardand mobile. This would enableyou to do cashless transactionseasily. This smartphone in away work as a mini bank.Payments under MNREGAwould also be done throughsmart phones. Singh said thatthe mobile phones to be dis-tributed under SKY wouldmake lives of people simpler.

He said, “Our aim is toprovide roads, electricity andtelecommunication connectiv-ity till last village of the State.”

The Chief Minister saidthat Central and StateGovernment' schemes arechanging the face of Jashpurdistrict and other districts ofthe state at a rapid pace.

He announced that elec-tricity connection would begiven to 80,000 houses ofJashpur district in nearly sixmonths as New Year gift.

Singh said that now nohousehold, no locality, noMajra-tola will remain deprivedof electricity. "On my instruc-tions, Energy Department

Secretary and CSPDCL MDwill complete the remainingelectrification work, after reach-ing Jashpur and they'll ensure allnecessary work are done."

Singh said that goals underall major schemes of theGovernment are being pursuedin Jashpur district at an accel-erated pace. He especiallypraised the progress doneunder Prime Minister HousingScheme and Clean IndiaMission in the district.

The Chief Minister said thatunder Pradhan Mantri UjjwalaYojana, Jashpur district has set abig benchmark by providingLPG domestic gas connection towomen of 55,000 poor familiesagainst the target of 50,000 fam-ilies in year 2016-17.

He also said that in currentfiscal year 2017-18, there is tar-get of providing LPG gas con-nection to 60,000 women in thedistrict, against which nearly38,000 connections have beendistributed. And what is evenbetter is that more than 10,000women were provided LPGgas connections on Friday.

Singh said that under SaurSujala Yojana, there was a tar-get of providing solar irrigationpumps to 700 farmers in year2016-17, against which 938solar pumps have already beendistributed.

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From Page 1He said that several years ago

when he had been to Kenya, hehappened to visit the BhagwanShiva Swayambhu Ling. .

Earlier, Shankaracharya ofBhanpura Peeth SwamiDivyanand Teerth said that LordShiva is India’s Adi Dev. Onlychanting Har Har Mahadev witha pure heart Swami can completeShiv Upasana. Organizing theShaiv Mahotsav in Ujjain iscommendable as it will providenew direction to the world.Inaugurating the three-day ShaivMahotsav ShankaracharyaSwami Divyanand Teerth saidthat there is no other country likeIndia that has got Gita and itspious messages.

From Page 1Meanwhile, Home Minister

Bhupendra Singh said he hassought a report on the accidentfrom the DIG and the RTO.

Talking to the media,Minister for School EducationDeepak Joshi said the govern-ment will fix responsibility onschools regarding the safety ofstudents.

"The government hadissued guidelines for schoolsafter a school bus accident inBhopal. We will fix responsi-bility on schools to ensure thesafety of children."

Meanwhile, Minister forSchool Education KunwarVijay Shah has described the

bus accident of Delhi PublicSchool of Indore as unfortu-nate. The Minister gatheredinformation from the officersof the school education depart-ment and officers of the edu-cation department posted atIndore immediately afterreceiving the news of the acci-dent.

Shah has expressed pro-found condolences to the par-ents of the children, who losttheir lives in the accident. Hementioned that a strict actionwill be taken against the culpritsby conducting a thoroughenquiry through senior officersof the school education depart-ment.

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Days after the caste riots inMaharashtra involving

Dalits, Prime Minister NarendraModi on Friday invoked Dr BRAmbedkar’s vision for the upliftof the under-privileged andurged Government officials tochallenge themselves by takingpostings in backward districts toserve the poor.

The Prime Minister wasinteracting with Collectors andOfficers-in-charge of some ofthe backward districts at a con-ference organised by NITIAayog at the Dr AmbedkarInternational Centre in NewDelhi. The Government hasembarked upon a major policyinitiative for the rapid trans-formation of 115 districts thatare lagging on specific devel-opment parameters.

Six groups of officers madepresentations on the themes ofnutrition, education, basicinfrastructure, agriculture and

water resources, eradication ofLeft Wing Extremism, andfinancial inclusion and skilldevelopment.

Addressing the gathering,which also included manyUnion Ministers and seniorUnion Government officers,the Prime Minister said this isthe first official programme atthe Dr Ambedkar InternationalCentre, and therefore has a spe-cial significance.He said relativebackwardness of some regionsis an injustice to the people ofthose regions. This effort todevelop 115 backward districtsis in keeping with the vision ofDr Ambedkar, who workedfor the uplift of the under-priv-

ileged, he added.Giving the examples of the

Jan Dhan Yojana, the con-struction of toilets, and ruralelectrification, the PrimeMinister said, “Nothing wasimpossible if we have a firmresolve.” He also gave examplesof success that is being achievedin entirely new initiatives suchas soil testing.

He emphasized that there islimitless potential, limitlesspossibilities and limitlessopportunities now in India. Inthis context, he mentioned theimprovement in ease of doingbusiness. He credited officials ofthe Government — and TeamIndia — for this success.

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From Page 1“Presently, such fertilisers are

in use for wheat, paddy, sugar-cane, mentha and potato. Everyyear, fertiliser grade is changeddepending upon the condition ofsoil at that point of time. The costof customised fertilisers is thesame as that of normal fertilis-ers,” Pandey said.

On the other hand, officialssaid Nagarjuna Fertilisers, aspart of its expansion project atKakinada plant in AndhraPradesh, is also in the process ofsetting up CF unit at a cost ofRs160-170 million. Pune-basedDeepak Fertilisers is also plan-ning to make a huge investmenton CF.

The production of urea dur-ing 2015-16 was 244.75 lakhmetric tonnes with the contri-bution of Public Sector, cooper-

ative sector and private sector as70.80, 69.36 and 104.59 lakhmetric tonnes respectively. Atpresent, there are 30 urea unitsin our country. Out of these thir-ty urea units, 27 urea units useNatural Gas (using either domes-tic gas/LNG or both) as feedstockand fuel and remaining threeurea units viz (i) MCFLMangalore (ii) MFL, Manaliand (iii) SPIC Turicorin useNaptha as feedstock and fuel.

The total production of ureain 2016-17 was 242.01 lakh met-ric tonnes as compared to annu-al assessment capacity of 207.54lakh million tonnes. In 2015-16,the total production was 244.75lakh metric tonnes with thecontribution of public, cooper-ative and private sectors as 70.80,69.36 and 104.59 lakh metrictonnes respectively.

From Page 1It was a double whammy for

Islamabad on Thursday as theState Department also placedPakistan on a “Special WatchList” because of its “severe vio-lations of religious freedom”,along with redesignating 10other countries of particularconcern on this score.

President Trump had set thestage for the stringent punitiveaction on January 1, when hetweeted, “The United States hasfoolishly given Pakistan morethan 33 billion dollars in aid overthe last 15 years, and they havegiven us nothing but lies &deceit, thinking of our leaders asfools. They give safe haven to the

terrorists we hunt inAfghanistan, with little help. Nomore!”

“We will not be deliveringmilitary equipment or transfersecurity related funds to Pakistanunless it is required by law,”Nauert said while responding toquestions at her briefing.“Pakistan has the ability to getthis money back in the future,but they have to take decisiveaction,” she said in reply toanother question.

At the same time, in anapparently conciliatory tone,Nauert said, “The United Statesstands ready to work withPakistan in combating all ter-rorists without distinction.”

Washington, she added, hopes“to be able to renew and deep-en our bilateral security rela-tionship when Pakistan demon-strates its willingness to aggres-sively confront the AfghanTaliban, the Haqqani networkand other terrorist and militantgroups that operate from with-in its country”.She said the USdecision should not have comeas a surprise to Pakistan since“the President, SecretaryTillerson, and Secretary Mattishave all had conversations withPakistani officials alerting themto our concerns that Pakistan hasnot done enough to…round upterrorist and militant groupsoperating from within Pakistan”

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Page 5: C M Y K - The Pioneer Zuari Agro, Coromandel Fertilisers, Deepak Fertilisers, Petrochemicals Corp and ... Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan presented Durgadas Ambadas Mule

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The Rajya Sabha on Friday bidfarewell to three MPs includ-

ing Karan Singh, JanardanDwivedi and Parvez Hashmi.All the three MPs will retire laterthis month and representedDelhi. Members from theOpposition and ruling benchespraised the contributions madethe three leaders in the UpperHouse and hoped they will con-tinue to serve the nation.

In his farewell speech,Singh,87, who served stints inboth the houses since 1952,lamented the fact that debates

were “rarer now” and “disrup-tions more frequent.” He urgedparliamentarians to introspect.Interspersing his speech with‘shlokas’ and ‘shers(couplets),’the former head of state ofJammu and Kashmir, Singhsaid he had the privilege ofinteracting with all the PrimeMinisters right from JawaharlalNehru to Narendra Modi.

While they had differentideologies, all the PrimeMinisters in a way were engagedin the “exciting adventure ofbuilding a new India as envis-aged by Nehru,” he said. Havingseen Parliament as a minister and

an opposition member, Singhurged the elected representativesto uphold and be faithful to con-stitutional and civilisational val-ues of the country.

Chairman M VenkaiahNaidu quipped that Singh hasseen public life as a “raja” andmantri.” Moreover, Dwivedi’sjourney was from a “reader toleader,” he remarked. Dwivediwas a professor of Hindi inDehi University. Hashmi wasnot present in the House.

Law Minister Ravi ShankarPrasad recalled his interac-tions with Singh and Dwivedi.The Minister said in Karan

Singh, he saw a ‘philospherKing,’ as envisaged by Aristotle.Showering praise on Dwivedi,he said the Congress leaderacted actively in promotingHindi in a simple and easy way.

Leader of Opposition andsenior Congress leader GhulamNabi Azad said his veteranparty colleague Karan Singhhad become the Head of Stateof Jammu and Kashmir at theage of 18 years and was prob-ably the youngest person in theworld to be elected such a post.Despite being born in royalfamily and holding high polit-ical posts, Singh never touched

liquor, cigarettes or even ‘paan’throughout his life and alwaysremained humble, Azad said.

Dwivedi, who completedthree terms as a Rajya SabhaMP, said generally farewellbecame like an “obituary refer-ence” but it was different onFriday. He said he had spent 57years in politics ever since heentered Allahabad University in1960-61. The Congress leadersaid he had a great respect andregard for those who were bornin poor families and emerged assuccessful persons, as also forthe ordinary party workerswho become big leaders.

���� #5,��56 7

In a diplomatic effort to engagemore with the Persons of Indian

Origin (PIOs) living in variouscountries, the Ministry of ExternalAffairs (MEA) will next week hosta conference of 141 lawmakers.The gathering, that will be addressedby Prime Minister Narendra Modi,will give an opportunity to theParliamentarians and Mayors toconnect with their past in India andcontribute to the growth of newIndia. Besides, it will also helpIndia have more friends in foreigncountries rooting for its interest.

The first ever PIOParliamentarian Conference willbe held on January 9, celebrated asPravasi Bhartiya Diwas. A total of124 Members of Parliament and 17Mayors of Indian origin from 23countries will attend the conference.The list includes Bharrat Jagdeo, for-mer President of Guyana, andKamla Persad Bissessar, formerPrime Minister of Trinidad andTobago — both MPs now. Majorcountries including United States ofAmerica, United Kingdom, SouthAfrica, Canada will participate in theevent. The biggest delegations arefrom Guyana (23 persons), Trinidad

and Tobago (20), UK (16) andMauritius (13).

According to an estimate, thereare about 270 PIOs sitting inParliaments of various countries outof which several are holding crucialpositions. For instance, the presentPMs of Portugal, Ireland andMauritius are PIOs. Governmentbelieves that increasing engage-ment with them will help India hav-ing more advocates for its cause onvarious issues. The Indian diaspo-ra and the PIOs in the US haveplayed an important role in push-ing for India-centric policies withthe successive US Governments.Similarly, in the UK and EuropeanUnion the PIOs are very active andstrong advocate of India’s cause.

“Diasporic link has played animportant role in the growth ofIndia. They become our ambas-sadors even without being official-ly appointed as envoys and workwhile keeping in mind the interestof their native land,” saidDnayeshwar M. Mulay, SecretaryOverseas Indian Affairs andPassports. He said the conferencewill help the PIOs to connect withIndia, a country that they had leftgenerations back, and see thegrowth and development here.

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Accusing the Congress ofobstructing the triple talaq

bill in the Rajya Sabha, theGovernment on Thursdayhoped that the Oppositionparty would do a re-think onits stand by the Budget session,beginning January 29. TheGovernment said it was com-mitted to the Supreme Court’sorder on triple talaq.

Addressing newspersonsafter the conclusion of the 14-daywinter session of the Parliament,Parliamentary Affairs MinisterAnanth Kumar said the short-session was “highly successful”

with both the houses passing 22bills - 13 in Lok Sabha and ninein Rajya Sabha. The productiv-ity of the Lok Sabha was 91.58per cent while the Rajya Sabhawith all road-blocks put by theopposition worked at 56.29 per-cent, the Minister said.

“In a way this session waslandmark... 13 bills were passedin the Lok Sabha and nine inthe Rajya Sabha during the 13working days of the WinterSession,” the ParliamentaryAffairs Minister said.Duringthe session, 17 bills were intro-duced and 12 bills were passedby both the Houses.

“I am grateful to all the par-

ties and all members of boththe houses for making thissession fruitful,” Kumar said.

Asked how could he say thatthe session was successful whentwo key bills related to Triple Talqand Backward Classes failed tofind passage in the Rajya Sabha,Kumar said it was the “doublestands” of the Congress whichled to such a situation. He saidCongress backed the bill ontalaq in the Lok Sabha butblocked it in the Rajya Sabha .

Kumar said the cabinetcommittee on Parliamentaryaffairs met under theChairmanship of HomeMinister Rajnath Singh and

finalized the dates for the bud-get session. From January 29 toFebruary 9 would be the firstphase before the recess whichwould stretch from February10 to March 5 when variousstanding committees wouldhave their meetings. Parliamentwill meet again from March 5to April 6, Kumar said.

The Union Budget will bepresented on February 1.President Ramnath Kovindwill address the joint sitting ofthe two Houses on January 29and the Economic Survey willbe tabled on the same day.

The winter session, whichstarted on December 15 and

concluded on January 5, had 13sittings spread over a period of22 days. Both the Houses wereadjourned sine die on Friday.

Ahead of adjourning theHouse sine die at 1 PM in thepresence of Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, Rajya SabhaChairman Venkaiah Naidu saidthe session had its highs andlows, but lamented that it endedup losing some degree of esteemon account of disruptions.

“It is unfortunate thatdespite discharging its respon-sibilities to a great extent, theaugust House ends up losingsome degree of the esteem ofthe people”, he said.

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Union Minister for Civil Aviation AshokGajapathi Raju on Friday said the

Government will look into issue raised bythe Parliamentary Standing Committee onfixing of upper limit of airfare and misbe-haviour by airlines staff. The committee onThursday presented its report in Parliamentand expressed resentment over the arbitrageof airline companies regarding the price oftickets in its report. The committee has alsocriticised the Civil Aviation Ministry in thiscase and said that even though knowingeverything, the Ministry did not take anyactive step in this regard.

“We will have a look at whatever isbeing said in the report. Dynamic pricingis there all over the world. So, the priceskeep varying from time to time. Now, wewill not go into the old regime that we werefollowing. Different strategies are required,”Raju said while reacting on theParliamentary Committee report. .

Echoing similar sentiments, UnionMinister for State (Civil Aviation) JayantSinha on Friday said that the Ministry islooking into the matter. “ The Ministry isalso investigating as to how the airline pric-ing taking place. And we have observed thatthe airlines are doing nothing new and arerunning as per the global practices. Theyare doing it according to the global stan-dards. If anyone thinks that the price isbeing run high and on a predatory man-ner then he can lodge a complaints in DCG

and it will be looked into,” Sinha said whilereacting on the report.

Sinha further said that the airlinepricing in India is very low and nowherein the world people get such cheap air tick-ets. Jayant Sinha said that the airlines arerunning as per the ‘global practices’.

Speaking on the behaviors of the air-line staff, Sinha added, “We are working onthe behaviors of the staff members. All thematter has been taken seriously. As far ascancellation price is concerned we are veryclear that it should not be more than thebase fare and surcharge fare.”

However, Aviation expertHarshvardhan said the panel’s observationto some extent is ‘valid’ and added that air-lines do behave in a cartelised manner dur-ing peak season.

In the past, there have been instancesof employees of airline companies behav-ing in a rude manner and beating pas-sengers. The committee has also shownits concern and resentment on this. Bytaking the name of Indigo, the leading air-line company of the aviation sector, thecommittee has made a strong commentin its report and has instructed its groundstaff and cabin crew to change theirbehavior. During the meetings of the com-mittee, many members, while expressingtheir hopes, claimed that airline staffsthink travelers to be uneducated and evenlike animals. The committee has warnedthat such behavior of employees shouldend.

���� #5,��56 7

HRD Minister PrakashJavadekar on Friday said

that progressive steps havebeen taken by the Governmentin higher education since therehas been a significant gain instudent enrollment, GrossEnrolment Ratio (GER) andGender Parity.

Citing from the annual AllIndia Survey on HigherEducation (AISHE), Javadekartold reporters that quality,autonomy, research and inno-vation are the key pillars ofModi government’s vision forimproving higher education inIndia. The eights AISHE hasdetailed information on 864universities and 40,026 collegesand it is a portal based survey.

Javadekar informed thatthere is an increase in overallenrolment from 27.5 million in2010-11 to 35.7 million in2016-17 and improvement inGER which is a ratio of enrol-ment in higher education topopulation in the eligible agegroup (18-23) years, from 19.4percent in 2010-11 to 25.2percent in 2016-17 which is asignificant achievement. Heexpressed the hope that theGER ratio of 30 percent wouldbe achieved by the year 2022.

He further informed thatGender Parity Index (GPI), aratio of proportional represen-

tation of female and male, hasimproved from 0.86 to 0.94 tothe corresponding period. Togive a further boost to girl-stu-dents, the Minister announcedthat a supernumerary quota inIITs will be increased.

Javadekar informed thatthe number of institutions ofhigher education listed onAISHE portal has alsoincreased significantly - from621 universities in 2010-11 to864 in 2016-17 and from32,974 colleges in 2010-11 to40,026 colleges in 2016-17.MoS HRD Dr. Satya Pal Singhand HRD Special Secretary RSubrahmanyam were also pre-sent on the occasion.

He said that the govern-ment’s vision for the highereducation is based on threeimportant aspects namelyQuality, Autonomy, Research&amp; Innovation. Stating thatfor successful planning andimplementation of any policywe need correct informationand real time survey, theMinister commended the offi-cials involved in this task.

The AISHE Survey was ini-tiated in the year 2011 to preparea robust data-base on highereducation. Keeping in view theusefulness of data collected dur-ing the very first year, Ministrydecided to make this survey anannual exercise of data collectionin higher education sector.

���� #5,��56 7

There are nearly 1.71 crorestray dogs in the country,

according to the 19th live-stock census 2012, theGovernment said on Friday.

Minister of State forEnvironment Mahesh Sharmain a written reply in Lok Sabhasaid that while 25,10,169 straydogs remained in urban areas,in rural parts of the country, thenumber was 1,46,28,180.

The total number of straydogs including urban and ruralareas is 1,71,38,349, Sharma saidreferring to the 19th LivestockCensus Report-2012 by theDepartment of Animal

Husbandry, Dairying andFisheries, Ministry ofAgriculture.He said the NationalRabies Control Programme isbeing implemented in Hisar andGurgaon divisions of Haryanaon pilot basis.

Animal Birth Control(ABC) surgeries and Anti Rabies(AR) vaccination are being doneunder the National RabiesControl Programme to controland prevent human deaths dueto rabies, he added.He said in thelast three years, 74,520 ABCsurgeries and 1,89,300 AR vac-cinations have been done.

Among the states, Sikkimin the northeast is an outlier: itis rabies-free after all its strays

have been neutered, thanks toa successful government-runsterilisation programme.

In 2015, Global Alliance forRabies Control reported thatIndia accounted for 35 percent of human rabies deaths,more than any other country.Globally, around 59,000 peopledie every year from rabiestransmitted by dogs, with thepoorer regions of the worldworst affected, as per the report.

Rabies is a fatal viral infec-tion which is almost 100 percent preventable. The infectioncan infect all mammals, butdomestic dogs cause more than99 per cent of all human deathsfrom rabies, the report said.

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���� #5,��56 7

Delhi witnessed a less pol-luted Diwali in 2017 com-

pared to the previous year butlow level of cracker activity thisyear did not have a lastingimpact on air as PM2.5 andPM10 levels in the Capital wit-nessed a two-fold hike on thefestival day compared to theweek that preceded it.

The findings form part of astudy conducted by the CentralPollution Control Board(CPCB) submitted to theSupreme Court on Friday. Thestudy was conducted by aCommittee, chaired byChairperson of CPCB and com-prising experts from NationalPhysical Laboratory, DefenceInstitute of Physiology andAllied Sciences, Indian Instituteof Technology (Kanpur), FireDevelopment and ResearchCentre (Sivakasi and Nagpur),National EnvironmentEngineering Research Institute,scientists from State PollutionControl Boards and health

experts from Maulana AzadMedical College (MAMC).

On an analysis of air sam-ples recorded on days prior toDiwali and Dussehra, the samewas compared with the samplescollected on the festival daysand days that follow to assessthe change in air quality. Theresults indicated that on Diwaliday, PM 10 and PM 2.5 levelsrecorded two to three foldhigher than the correspondinglevels recorded the previousweek. However, the silver lin-ing was that the PM 2.5 levelsreduced by 39 per cent com-pared to the Diwali day of 2016.

Further, the study revealedthat the harmful and noxiousgases of sulphur dioxide (SO2)and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) on

Diwali was within standardlimits across all locations in theCapital. However, concentra-tion of Aluminium recordedfour to six times high than thecritical value of 40 microgramper cubic metre. But as com-pared to previous year, sulphurlevels dropped by 20 per cent,potassium by 30 per cent, andstrontium, iron, barium byover 50 per cent.

High metal levels were alsoreflected in urine samples,reported MAMC health expertsduring Diwali days that couldbe attributed to fire crackers.However, it added, a long termstudy alone could assess thelong term impact on health dueto firecracker bursting.

The bench of Justices AKSikri and Ashok Bhushandirected CPCB to come outwith a comprehensive studyindicating the larger impactdue to fire crackers that wouldenable the Court to decide onwhether a total ban on fire-crackers across the countrywas essential in public interest.

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Terming the 158-year-oldprovision on adultery con-

tained in IPC Section 497 as“archaic”, the Supreme Courton Friday set up a five-judgeConstitution Bench to whetherit violated the rights of womenvis-à-vis men under Article 14and 15 of Constitution. TheCourt prima facie felt that thelaw recognised adulterybetween a man and a marriedwoman only when the woman’shusband would complain.Further, if a married mancommitted sexual intercoursewith a woman outside his mar-riage, the man’s wife had norecourse to allege adultery.

Two apex court decisionsin the past, one of 1954 andanother of 1985, held the saidprovision to be non-discrimi-natory and this was the reasonfor a three-judge bench head-ed by CJI Dipak Misra to refer

the matter to a ConstitutionBench for effectively overrulingthe said decisions.

The Bench, also compris-ing Justices AM Khanwilkarand DY Chandrachud, was ofthe opinion that although crim-inal law proceeds on “genderneutrality”, the concept wasabsent in Section 497 thatdeals with adultery. It referredto societal transformation andconcepts of “gender equality” tosuggest that affirmative rightshave to be conferred uponwomen and judgments decid-ed at a time when the societywas patriarchal need re-exam-ination.

The issue came for con-sideration before the Court ina PIL filed by Joseph Shine, anIndian living in Italy whoraised the question as to whyadultery offence is directedagainst only the male and notfemale, although she mayequally connive in the crime.

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Page 6: C M Y K - The Pioneer Zuari Agro, Coromandel Fertilisers, Deepak Fertilisers, Petrochemicals Corp and ... Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan presented Durgadas Ambadas Mule

The annual Christmas-New Yearinterlude has ended in the US of A,as in many other countries. The

explosion of rejoicing, celebrations andparties has given way to quotidian life. Yeta residual feeling of warmth and well-being lingers. Memories of merry-mak-ing are fresh and the hope of the new yearbeing kinder than the old, enjoys a newlease of life, the odds notwithstanding.

Every year, a surge of cheer spreadsacross the US at the approach ofChristmas, which people from diversecultural backgrounds celebrate in theirown ways. Whatever the mode, rejoicingand devotion are manifest. Deeply reli-gious, the majority of Americans cele-brate the birth of Christ, come on earthto spread the message of love, forgiveness,faith and salvation.

The psychological overlaps with thereligious. People live neither by faith norby bread alone and need fun and happi-ness, feelings which are often evanescentin life with its many challenges andmetaphorical booby-traps. In countriesthat worship achievement, success is themeasure of worth and failure to achieveself-defined heights spawns despair, if notself-loathing. In market-crestedeconomies, success is increasingly viewedin material terms. Advertisements eulo-gise goods on sale, stoke the desire to pos-sess and project one’s levels of possessionsand the ability to savour the good life, asindicators of success. Failure to consumeand savour what one wants rankle bothon its own account as a pointer to one’slower social status.

There are, besides, the routine has-sles — rising prices, spats in one’s placeof work and with one’s neighbours, ten-sions over promotions and increments,the hire-purchase installments and cred-it card bill that must be paid, and a hostof other chores to be performed. Each ofthese increases stress levels, aggravatingthe quantum jump in it, caused by feel-ing of insecurity that is a perennial back-ground presence.

The US has known terrorist strikesfrom the last quarter of the 18th centu-ry. Nor was 9/11 the first attack on theWorld Trade Centre. A blast in a park-ing area under Tower II had killed six andwounded over 1,000 on February 26,1993. The outrage on 9/11, whichbrought down the World Trade Centre’stwin towers, killing 2,753 persons, anddevastated a block in the Pentagon, lefta total of 2,977 persons dead. It could notwreak more havoc because a hijackedplane crashed as some passengers resist-ed terrorists.

An unprecedented event, it sent outshockwaves the world over. In the US, theseries of terror attacks that followed 9/11

has not let the alarm caused by it to diedown. Just seven days after the attack onthe WTC, letters laced with Bacillus caus-ing Anthrax, which shows symptomssimilar to those of influenza and can befatal, were posted to several persons,including the NBC news anchor, TomBrokaw, and the editor of the New YorkPost. In October, 2001, letters carrying thesame poison were addressed to US sena-tors Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy. Of the18 persons, who were confirmed to havesuffered anthrax infection, five died.

Attacks by people steeped in reduc-tionist Islam and identifying themselveswith organisations like Al Qaeda and theIslamic State of Iraq and Syria, haveoccurred since then. On November 5,2009, firing by Major Nidal Hussein of theUS Army, who had become self-radi-calised, had killed 13 persons and wound-ed 35. On April 13, 2013, twin bomb blastsnear the finishing line of the annualBoston marathon had killed three andwounded 264. On December 2, 2015, ter-rorist attack on a holiday party in SanBernadino, California, had killed 14 per-sons. On June 12, 2016, an attack on a gayclub in Orlando, Florida, had killed 49 per-sons. On October 31, 2017, eight personswere killed in a terrorist strike in New YorkCity, in which a man driving a rented pick-up truck ran over people on a bicycle path.And, as late as December 11, last year, aBangladeshi immigrant set off a home-made bomb, on a walkaway in New Yorkcity wounding several persons and severe-

ly hurting himself.In most cases, the consequent uneasi-

ness, pushed into the sub-conscious byconcerns requiring immediate atten-tion, surfaces — and is aggravated —every time a terrorist attack occurs or isreported to have been foiled, as it hasbeen on a number of occasions, or anincident like the Las Vegas mass shoot-ing is reported.

The ephemerality of fun and the feel-ing of happiness is thus hardly surpris-ing and enhances the intensity withwhich people look forward to periodsthat offer both in large measures — suchas the three days when Goddess Durgais worshiped and the fourth when herimage is immersed in rivers in WestBengal, India. It is when schools, colleges,universities, markets and business andindustrial establishments andGovernment and municipal offices arecompletely shut and cities and villagesburst into frenzied celebrations.

Celebrations during the Christmas-New Year period in the US — as, indeed,in the West generally — tend to be lessexuberant and more private. Yet, as in thecase of Durga Puja, it is identified bysocial consensus as one of festivities andaffirmation of the values of peace andharmony. One tends to look forward toit in anticipation and a sub-consciousconditioning to soak in its feelingsbegins amid preparations for staging theevents that go with it.

Then it arrives. Churches hold spe-

cial Christmas carol services. The facadesof homes, shops, offices, main streets andcity centres are bathed in light. New York,America’s emblematic city, glows withmany splendoured places of illumination— large stretches of the Fifth Avenue,Rockefeller Centre Plaza with its famousChristmas tree overlooking the skatingrink, Radio City Music Hall, the LincolnCentre, the New York Botanical Gardens,Dyker Height’s lights, Rolf ’s Restaurant,and Brookfield Palace Winter Garden,being among the more prominent onesamong them.

Away from New York, cities on theWest Coast girdling the Pacific Ocean,and their adjoining towns, dazzle. LosAngeles city and its satellite towns shim-mer. Not only streets and public places,but gardens and parks are lit up.Descanso Gardens near Los Angelesbecomes an “enchanted forest of light”with 10 different sections lit up inbreath-taking bulbs. Footfalls increase inshops as gifts are bought. A hundred bar-gains boom and a hundred claims ofunprecedented offers contend. Festiveseason ads inundate television channels.Newspapers thicken with additionalpages to take them in.

The crescendo is reached on NewYear’s Eve; festivities subside from themorning after. The world is once againwhere it was, albeit with an aftermath ofwarmth from the interlude left behind.

(The writer is Consultant Editor, ThePioneer, and an author)

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Well begun’s half done”(January 3). Hats off to USPresident Donald Trump tohave given India a true New Yeargift by breaking the beggingbowl of a haughty Pakistan andmaking it squirm by withholding$255 million as aid to fight ter-rorism in its own country and inadjoining Afghanistan.

Trump rightly stated in hisTweet that Pakistan had beenfooling the US for the past 15years in the name of rooting outterrorism and as a prodigal son,it had channeled $33 billionthrough another route to abateterrorism in India. This rebuffhas sent a pall of gloom inPakistan’s administration and itslone all-weather friend, China,which has come to its rescue toassuage its feelings.

This huge amount profferedto the rogue state by the US wasthe hard earned money of the UStax payers’, which the formerblew up.

In the last week itself, around100 people lost their lives inAfghanistan, either with con-nivance of Pakistan or directlyunder its patronage.

Hafiz Saeed, one of the mostwanted global terrorists onwhom there is a bounty of $10million, is aspiring to become alaw-maker by forming a party tocontest the next general electionin Pakistan. This is also one ofthe factors that has led to thefreezing of the US behemothmonetary assistance to Pakistan.

Sagar SinghNew Delhi

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Undermining One India”(January 5). It is welcome thatDalit leaders have called off theprotest in Maharashtra, pavingthe way for calm after the con-flict over the anniversary of abattle in which the Dalit army ofthe Brit ish defeated theMarathas. But this episode hasonce again brought to the forethe complex caste cauldron inMaharashtra politics.

It appears that, the Dalit cel-ebration of the defeat of theMarathas at the hands of theMahar regiment comes at a timewhen socially dominant Marathashave joined similar socially dom-inant groups elsewhere, such asJats and Patels, in demandingquotas for their community.

It is imperative to understandthe sources of this social frictionand address it. The latest incidentin Maharashtra is yet anothercase of the strange history ofclashes — while the Mahar bat-talion fought an army of Peshwas,the latest clashes have beenreported between Marathas andDalits. As if this was not enoughit is unfortunate that vituperativespeeches were addressed by rab-ble-rousing hotheads. JigneshMewani and Umar Khalid, whoare being mentored by the con-troversial NGO, Sahmat’s zealots,such as Shabnam Hashmi, are inthe forefront of igniting divisive caste fires.

KS JayatheerthaBengaluru

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‘Finally the party lets the mask fall andshows what it is……….’

Tomas Transtromer

In India as in other countries, courtesysocial media, there is dearth neither of lit-

erary festivals nor of poetry anthologies.There is more discussion about authors thantheir work; more exhibition of interest incocktail party to follow than what precedesthe cocktails. Many poetry anthologiesbrought out last decade and half are trivial,not lasting and uninspiring mainly becausethese are guided more by personal prefer-ences and aberrations of the compilersrather than a firm yardstick to be firmlyapplied to gauge the beauty and depth of ver-sification. This muzzles the very objective ofconstructing an anthology and reduces it toa haphazard collection of almost deadwoodfit for being consigned to an impenetrablecoffin. Published in 1996, the Vintage BookOf Contemporary World Poetry edited by JDMcClatchy continues to be an anthology thathas remained by far unmatched and peer-less. Modeled on that, A World Assembly ofPoets as edited by Tijan M Sallah, well-knownGambian writer and one of Africa’s most sig-nificant voices working with the World Bank,and Nibir Ghosh, a Fulbright Fellow at theUniversity of Washington, Seattle, USA, is abold and seminal effort to come closer to theVintage anthology. We have poets and poet-ry from Africa, America, Asia, Australia/NewZealand, Europe, Latin America, Caribbean,and the West Asia which ensure geograph-ical representativeness and reflect variationsin styles and themes. It is a zealous and com-mitted enterprise. Why? Is it because of con-tent or form or context? Yes all of these playtheir own role but most important factor isthat selected poems meet some reasonablestandard for versification. Also because of therange of approaches taken by various poetsand lyric narratives. Personal joys or sorrowsor public pronouncements about the chal-lenges of human or natural condition with-in the multifarious contexts of our worldform the warp and woof of this collection.

Organised alphabetically by continents,and then, within continents, alphabeticallyby countries, it removes any presuppositionof geographical bias. It represents globalvoice. Pearls of both pains and pleasuresacross the globe hail enlightened readers. Iam using the word “enlightened” for I knowreading of poetry ought to be a leisurely busi-ness. You are not seeing a play to be finishedwithin two hours. A play ought to be readslowly and fascinatingly within a time withno restrictions from you. Poets included inthis volume demand only two things if youare keen to read them: your time and yourpropensity to be with the words written;emotions involved. In present times ourminds are invaded by agitation and asJames C Coleman aptly writes, “The seven-teenth century has been called the Age ofEnlightenment; the eighteenth the Age ofReason; the nineteenth the Age of Progress;and the twentieth the Age of Anxiety.” To addfurther, the twenty-first century can be calledthe Age of Ideologies: the age of clash amongideologies or clash within ideologies.Collective or individual agitation is a naturaloutcome of such clashes. But while an agi-tated mind might be good enough for anyactivity, it can never be for absorbing liter-ature, more so poetry. With this precautionin place, let me now take the readersthrough this mammoth effort.

African poets, drawing inspiration fromlocal imagery and myths, giving us much rea-son for optimism and rueful pleasures, findprominent place in the book. Ghanaian poetKofi Anyidoho, who hinges his works heav-ily and richly on his native Ewe oral tradi-tions, is worried about things brought fromoutside: things like religions and curesimported in his poem, A Harvest of OurDreams. “There is a ghost/on guard/aMemory’s door/scaring away these pamperedhopes/these spoiled children of our festivedays.” His poems seem more prophetic andless individual and his is lively and inventiveway to approach the theme. There is indeedingenuity as in his poem, Among My Dreams.“Far away from Storms we left behind/amongthe ruins of Haunted Lives?” There is a yearn-ing to recognise the need to alter the past.

Sarcasm is difficult to be divorced frompoetry. This we learn in Nigerian poet TanureOjaide’s irresistible verse, The Fate of Vultures.“They ran for a pocket-lift/in the corridorsof power/and shared contracts at cabals/therecord produce and sales/fuelled the ado-lescent bonfire of fathers.”

The emotions are often times muted butthe outrage out there is amply evident.Gradual loss of the erosion of hard work andtraditional artisanal skills, so very charac-teristic of self-sufficient old Africa and itsreplacement by the colonial “culture of theoffice” and supremacy of bureaucrats overartisans, of pen-wielders over craft-makersmake Ojaide uncomfortable and these cul-minate in icon of sullied images and voicesto convey his sarcasm of the modern “ruralAfrican” — metaphorically a “king” — butwhose foolish regal pride leads him to per-sonal misery and penury.

Julia Amukoshi is a new woman writerfrom Namibia with a sonorous honesty in herdepiction of rural life in Africa and elsewherein the developing world. In her poem,Growing Up, she notes, “Dust used to be nat-ural make-up, and the wind my profession-al hair stylist/…I never understood why mynatural scent was so resented.” The beautynature gives to the body of a woman makesthe poet realise, “But eventually, I foundmyself growing up.” Erratic, exuberant vision

marks the exquisiteness of Julia’s poems. Coming to American poets included in

the anthology, they portray that the imagistmovement of English poetry in the US,Britain and the rest of the English-speakingworld, at the turn of the 20th century, is aliveand somber. Like the imagist poets, theincluded poets like Rita Dove, ChristopherGuerin, Sonia Sanchez, David Ray, to namea few, broke from the metrical strictures ofthe sonnet and blank verse and employed freeverse and the technique of the “image” as theprincipal device in their poetic repertoire.

Sonia Sanchez gives us a moving imag-ist poem, On Passing Thru Morgan Town,reflecting on a fabulous voice teeming withnostalgia when she remembers her father,“steady your hand old man do not trou-ble/yourself with language, stalk his wound/”.Similarly Ethelbert Miller in a compellingpoem which is filled with the despair andsadness of human-caused anguish, We AreNot Alone, writes, “These are descendingdays/the dark nights of our own making/Thedespair comes from the fear/of not knowingwhat door to enter/and what door to lock.”

A short poem of similar imagist sim-plicity, but dense with meaning is SuzanneMattson’s poem, Little Deaths, “I am imposterto/My name/ghost to/your memory/Andyou!/ Failing to appear in your face.” RitaDove uses poetry as mnemonic device: rec-ollections of trials and joys of relationshipsas in The Event, “he closes his eyes/He neverknows when she’ll be coming/but when sheleaves, he always/tips his hat.” Rita Dovepoems can act as an expressive remedy formany. In Belinda’s Petition, with speculativeimagery, she expected “nothing” in “all mychildhood” but she accepts, “I have knownof Men with Faces like the Moon/who wouldride toward me steadily for twelve years.” Onecan wish Rita Dove could have written apoem where there is no memory: there isonly fading and fading as Sean Nevin (notincluded in the anthology) has tried to showin A House That Falls.

As far Asian countries, it is all about pub-lic and spiritual concerns with India andChina dominating the scenario. For India,it is the Hindu spiritual Sanskrit literaturesof the Vedas, Upanishad, Bhagvad Gita,Mahabharata and Ramayana, while forChina, it is the philosophies of Kung Fu Tzu(Confucius) and Lao Tzu that reign supreme.China, because it does not have theentrenched British colonial history thatIndia had, did not have the cultural con-vulsions and soul searching that made Indiaa far-richer terrain for poetry, especially inthe English language.

Poets in the anthology such as Shiv KKumar, Jayanta Mahapatra, and PritishNandy appear more passionately and stylis-tically more accomplished than the restincluded from India. The poetry of PritishNandy is outcome of Nandy as an acute andpassionate observer of social reality. He writespoetry that surprises all. In his sentimentallyand irresistibly powerful poem, I Met HimOne Evening Beside A Secret River, he treatshis readers with contradictions within: “theborders have long been sealed/the villagewhere you worked has been razed to theground and after/all we need you here towork among the refugees/he did not answer.”

Arun Kamal comes out with his Anxiety,“I fear the night/…I am living on countingup each of my breath/ …The earth is crack-ing under my feet.” Kamal captures brilliantlyhis angst and his imagination is rich withpossibilities which makes his poetry an unex-purgated witness to human suffering, “I wasso terribly alone and intact/like the hills inthe night.” Most remarkable poetry comesfrom SK Limbale, who allows himself to beconfronted with the question of identity

within the prevailing orthodoxy of Indiansociety like in his poem, Who Am I?, “Whatis this life?/is pitiful struggle/of surviving inburning of the hut aflame!”

Like Limbale, Aparna Lanjewar toolaments miserable conditions but she is morecomfortable with modernism in her critique,of the culture and society. In the poem, DalitPower, Aparna writes, “but…/Shouldn’t westop blaming/Stratification of society/Andblame inharmonious harmony of power?...Ambedkar tabulated in groups/subgroups-species and genus.” This is poetry of honestydirected at the raw, uncovered social woundsthat directly arrests our pity and compels usto compassionate action and thus thisstrength of the artistry.

The poetry of Chinese poet Liu Hongbinis equipped with the sad nostalgia of theinvoluntary émigré who wants to return butcannot because of inhospitable politics athome. In the poem, The Unfamiliar CustomsHouse, Hongbin despairs, “When I intrudeinto another country, an unfamiliar customshouse appears before me…/the nightmarehas been detected and confiscated by the cus-toms officer.” The upheavals within those inexile make them lonelier and isolatedbecause no sentiments from humanity arewitnessed on the borders.

Poetry in Europe as reflected in theanthology encompasses individual voicesemanating from countries like Germany andRussia involving diverse poetic themes andcharacteristics. Inspired and influenced bysymbolist poets like Baudelaire, Lorca andRilke, poets included in the anthology dealwith new experiments in terms of form,music, lyricism and content. Russian poetAdolf P Shvedehikov’s poem, Can You HearMe, Humanity? I Am Ancient Sequoia, is asoliloquy poem: where the poet pours outtears over the ruins of humanity. “All reli-gions, Judaism, Christianity andIslam,/Promise paradise and love…/Why,then, blood is shed/Why the Dove of peacewill not come to us?”

Adolf explores the failure of religion incalming down enraged raptures. Same waySwedish poet Per Wastberg sounds as if thebeing is seeped entirely into the unknown.See lines from his poem, Death, “Just whenthe party’s over, we get to know the namesof the guests.” Or lines from Dream Life, “Animageless dream filled with prime num-bers/nothing to remember./Firstdespair,/then an absentmindedness thatsees the day out.” The sequencing of image-less dream, first despair and absentmind-edness that sees the day out is no doubt, anindividual experience but it has a bearing onfunctioning of society. Wastberg minces nowords: life and literature are simple facets ofthe same coin. His candidness surpasseseverything else: “The simple is the part of thedifficult to interpret/of a contemporaryprogram-/as when the wick of a candle isspilt/one strand becomes quickly charred/theother burns as before.’ Is not life we livereplete with contradictions and connivances?Life is a tragedy and we await that to hap-pen. “We are all on someone’s list.”Wastberg reminds us of discriminationand divisions leaving us with a dilem-ma and internal upheavals as we lookat “the self-analytical shad-ows pass/over the spiritlevel’s blind life.” The poethitchhikes his readers to azone of some of the sim-plest, clearest and mostdirect poetry.

When it comes to thepoetry of South or LatinAmerica and theCaribbean, unquestion-ably colonial migrations

and trans-Atlantic cross-cultural influencesfrom Europe, Africa and even Asia coupledwith the indigenous cultures of the nativepopulations of the New World; the so-called“American Indians” exercise their deepinfluence over the poets in the anthology. Itis a hybrid of culture mixing. The feeling ofloss and the desire to regain originality agi-tate the mind of poets equipped with self-delusion and self-questioning. ArielDorfman, poet from Chile, is nonplused withthe questions embedded in the term Identitywhich is the name of his poem: “They’re allwaiting together/silent, in mourning/on theriverbank/they took him out of the water/he’snaked/as the day he was born.”

Sense of indigenous rootedness andalienation filling the poem with the soul-searching marks this poem. So he ends thepoem assuring “them”, “Tell them not toworry/I can bury my own dead.” Dorfmanequates birth and self-sufficiency in birthwith death and self-sufficiency in death.Summer Edward, poet from Trinidad &Tobago, indulges through simple languagein complex concepts. It is a sort of entan-glement when he pens Seamen On Land,“Young men, who wade/through theiryears/dragging their life/boats, shadow ves-sels, their tears/you do not see until you/haveloved them/then too late.” We notice herehealing power of language, and an engage-ment with efforts to restore. That is reasongood enough for him to utter in Afterbirth,“now the rains have left/like a wet nurse inthe night…/” highlighting physical andpsychic pains that leave residual questionsto the poet: the observer.

Lastly engagement with poets from theWest Asia (only two poets — Maryam AlaAmjadi from Iran, and Joanna Chen fromIsrael — have been included) exposes us tonomadic and desert sensibility. Their poet-ry has been a reflection on the life peoplehave lived and influenced each other overcenturies. The woman poet from Israel,Joanna Chen, fills us with rays of despairamidst the stasis in the West Asia. So writesshe in her poem By The Time You Read This,“By the time you read this/it will be late/andI will be far away…/you will be far away/andI will be here/with my dog/my cups of cof-fee/my fears.”

It is easy to spot shadows cast byanguish and quiet pleasures of remem-brance. Readers must not miss thepoint that the poet’s obsession iswith the pains of disposses-sion and the need tohave dignified liv-ing. Her resortingto “language”as a meansto seek

unification is justified when she says in Babel,“Language has never felt this close.” In thepoetry of another woman Iranian poet,Maryam Ala Ajadi, we come across voicesof feminism yelling for gender equality. WhatMeets the Eye May Run From The Mouth isa prose poem with cadence and musicaldrowsiness. “A woman can never truly benaked/she wears a skin of many restlesspores/… /She is always too many things intoo many ways/…/she combs for the trail ofa home in the wrinkles of stone-faced hous-es.” The poem abhors admonition; self-pityis unwelcome.

This anthology has the importance of adiscovery; it involves a continuous parallelbetween contemporary and antiquity. Thebest way to round off this anthology is toquote from the massive, erudite, illuminat-ing and subtle introduction penned bylearned guest editor Tijan M Sallah, “Muchis packed here from different corners of theearth to feed us with discovery and surprise.Some poets here are accomplished bards;some are developing poets. We have assem-bled them, like a forester assembles a verdantglobal nursery, hosting fully grown trees andpromising plant sprouts.”

No better way to sum up; no better wayto hope for a better world. No better way tohave an assurance: literature is alive; it is notdead. After all, you get the drift; you drift intoa certain vein of thought. Great poetry is allabout that.

(The writer is a Civil Servant, currentlyworking as Director General in the Office ofComptroller & Auditor General of India, inNew Delhi. He has received global attentionwith his three poetry collections — IneluctableStillness (2005), An Armless Hand Writes(2008 and 2012), and Shadows of the Real(2012). He is a literary reviewer and colum-nist for The Pioneer, The Daily Star andKitaab Singapore. His semi-autobiographicalbook is slotted to be out in April 2018)

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Page 8: C M Y K - The Pioneer Zuari Agro, Coromandel Fertilisers, Deepak Fertilisers, Petrochemicals Corp and ... Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan presented Durgadas Ambadas Mule

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Parts of Kerala’s capital dis-trict Thiruvananthapuram

turned into arenas of streetfights on Friday when thepolice used brutal force againstthe Catholic faithful demand-ing right to perform pilgrimageto the site of a destroyed HolyCross and altar at Kurisumala(Mount of the Cross) inBonacaud forest area comingwithin the Peppara WildlifeSanctuary and the latter resist-ing the cops with stones.

Many, including police-men, priests and women, wereinjured in the clashes and ten-sion prevailed Friday eveningat Vithura in the district evenas discussions continuedbetween Church authoritiesand the State Government onallowing pilgrims to enter theMount of the Cross for offer-ing prayers.

Trouble started in themorning when hundreds ofbelievers from theNeyyattinkara Diocese of theLatin Catholic Church, led byseveral priests, marched to theKanithadam Forest check-postwhere scores of police person-nel had been deployed in orderto block entry to the site of theCross and altar that weredestroyed mysteriously lastAugust.

The priests and the faithfulwho undertook the march toKurisumala reportedly wantedto install a new Cross in theplace of the destroyed one.They said the wooden Crossdestroyed last year was installedmore than 60 years ago. Thefaithful said it was painful tosee people terming demand forright to offer worship as part ofland-grabbing.

The police resorted tolathi-charge after the believers,determined to trek to the Crosssite, broke the barricades.Police officials said they wereforced to use canes after theycame under heavy stone-pelt-ing but the pilgrims denied thecharge. Policemen wieldinglathis could be seen chasingpriests through the bushes inthe area.

Reports said at least 15policemen, including twosenior officials, and 25 pilgrimsincluding three priests suf-fered injuries in the clash. “We

did not start the stone-pelting.It could have been the work ofsome antisocial elements thathad infiltrated the crowd. Weare just peaceful pilgrimsrequesting opportunity to offerprayers,” claimed a seniorpriest.

As tension prevailed in thearea, the Government held dis-cussions with the Churchauthorities and the Tahsildar ofNedumangad agreed to allow15 representatives of the pil-grims to proceed to Kurisumalabut this was not acceptable tothe faithful. However, the offi-cials stuck to the decision notto allow the entire pilgrims tomove on to Kurisumala.

The venue of the clashesbetween the police and thefaithful shifted fromKanithadam to the KallingalJunction in Vithura late Fridayafternoon. As the faithfulblocked traffic along the Statehighway in Vithura, the policeresorted to lathi-charge to dis-perse them and they respond-ed with heavy stone-pelting.Several people suffered injuriesin the clashes.

Opposition LeaderRamesh Chennithala, whointervened in the issue by hold-ing discussions with theGovernment, said ForestMinister K Raju had agreed toallow 50 pilgrims to offer

prayers at the Cross site. TheForest Department said therewas no way the Governmentcould allow the entire pilgrimsto proceed to the Cross site.

“The condition that only50 could be allowed to trek tothe Cross site is not acceptable,”a senior clergy from the diocesesaid. “All of us should beallowed to go there freely. Weshould have the freedom toworship. It is a right theConstitution guarantees andthe officials cannot take awaythat right from us,” he added.

The faithful of the dioceseused to perform pilgrimage toKurisumala on the first Fridayof the year but the ForestDepartment had informed theChurch in advance that the pil-grimage by large number offaithful could not be allowed asthe High Court had orderedstatus quo at the site after thedestruction of the Cross andaltar last August.

“The officials are trying tocreate misunderstanding. Theorder for status quo meansthere cannot be any new con-structions. The court has notbanned worship or pilgrimage,”said a priest. The ForestDepartment has made it clearthat it had nothing to do withthe destruction of the Cross butthe Church claims that therewas a conspiracy behind it.

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The Trinamool Congress hasdared the BJP to proceed

against Mamata Banerjee with“as many FIRs as they want butthose pressure tactics will nothave any impact on our leader.”

Hardening its stance onNational Register of Citizens inAssam, the Bengal ChiefMinister had earlier said that aconspiracy was being hatchedagainst the Bengali-speakingpeople of Assam so that theywere forced to flee that State.

Banerjee told a rally atBirbhum that “they have con-spired to drive away the peoplewho are staying there for thelast 30-40 years. About a croreof people including the largemajority of Bengalis might bedriven away from that Stateafter their names are struck offthe NRC.”

Even as she warned theAssam BJP Governmentagainst “playing with fire whichwill one day burn their owntent,” Banerjee said she wouldcontinue to work for the com-mon people who were deprivedand oppressed.

Out of 3.29 applicantsabout 1.9 crore names appearedin the first NRC draft released

on December 31. Soon a FIRswere lodged against Banerjee inAssam even as a senior BJPleader of that State said “she isusing all these words for herpolitical gain as Mamata andcompany are pretty scared see-ing the rise of the BJP acrossthe country. It seems that shedoesn’t have any knowledge onthe NRC process. The NRCauthorities must lodge a com-plaint against her.”

Reacting sharply to thesteps taken by the authorities inAssam Trinamool CongressMinisters in Bengal said therewas an attempt to brow-beatMamata Banerjee.

“The people who areacquainted with her politicalcareer of the past 40-45 yearsare aware that no such brow-beating will stop MamataBanerjee from taking up thecause of people.

Whenever the people willbe oppressed, their rights willbe taken away she will rise upin rebellion.

FIRs will be of no useagainst her,” said State MinisterPartho Chatterjee.

The Chief Minister whoofficially launched the Statelogo of Bengal in Kolkatawould not however mincewords on the NRC issue.

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Senior State NCP leader andformer Deputy Chairman of

Maharashtra LegislativeCouncil Vasant Davkhare diedat the Bombay Hospital late on

Thursday night, following pro-tracted illness. A close aide ofNCP president Sharad Pawar,Dhavkare was cremated withState honours at theVaikunthadham Crematoriumat Thane on Friday evening.

His elder son Prabhod lit thefuneral pyre. Dhavkare, whosewife Shakuntala died of a car-diac arrest in May 2010, is sur-vived by Prabhod, a business-man, and Niranjan, an MLCrepresenting the KonkanGraduates constituency?.

Beginning his politicalcareer as a councillor of theerstwhile Thane MunicipalCouncil, Dhavkare went ontobecome the second mayor ofthe Thane MunicipalCorporation (TMC) in 1987.

After his stint in the TMC,Dhavkare moved to state poli-

tics. He was elected to Maha-rashtra Legislative Council forthe first time in 1992. Subse-quently, he was elected to UpperHouse of the State Legislature forfour more terms.He was thedeputy chairman of MaharashtraLegislative Council Chairman forseveral years.

Mourning Dhavkare’sdeath, NCP chief Sharad Pawarsaid: “”He was one of my closecolleague and he had good rela-tions politicians cutting acrossparty lines”.

Pawar, Shiv Sena presidentUddhav Thackeray, leader of

the Opposition in the AssemblyRadhakrishna Vikhe Patil andMaharashtra Minister VinodTawade visited his Naupadaresidence at Thane and paidtheir homage to the departedleader. Maharashtra ChiefMinister Devendra Fadnavis,who had visited the BombayHospital immediately afterhearing Davkhare’s death onThursday night, was present forthe funeral

Describing Dhavkare as“Jagan Mitra” a man who hadfriendly relations with one andall, said: “We lost him at a

young age. It is unfortunate thathe had not been keeping wellfor quite some time. I hadknown Dhavkare from closequarters. He was very attachedto the MLAs and MLCs andwould gladly solve their prob-lems without cribbing. He hadgood knowledge of legislativeprocedures and would conductthe proceedings in the UpperHouse very well”

Among those present atDhavkare’s funeral wereThane’s Guardian MinisterMinister Eknath Shinde andMayor Menakshi Shinde.

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West Bengal Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee on

Friday unveiled the officialemblem of the StateGovernment, which wasrecently approved by theCentre.

The logo highlights theAshoka emblem on the topwith the theme of “BiswaBangla” at the centre. Banerjeehas also contributed to thedesign of the emblem.

“Bengal begins a newjourney today with a newidentity. . .This historicachievement is indeed a newfeather in Bengal’s cap after along wait of 70 years sinceindependence. You will behappy to know that I havemade a small contribution indesign of the emblem...(sic),”the Chief Minister said in aFacebook post.

She added that the emblemwould feature on all the officialstationery and displays.

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All India Muslim personallaw board has criticised the

Darul Uloom Deoband forissuing fatwa asking Muslimwomen not to marry thoseworking in banks.

“Issuing such kind of weirdfatwa is wrong and createsconfusion in the communityand those who have issued itmust review their decision forthe sake of the society and thecommunity’’, said AIMPLBexecutive president KhalidRasheed Firangi Mahali hereon Friday.

Darul Ifta (Shariat court)of Darul Uloom Deoband cit-ing that the income from bank-ing jobs is considered ‘haram’(forbidden) earnings, hadissued a fatwa asking Muslimwomen to not marry into afamily whose members work inbanks. The logic behind thisparticular fatwa prohibitingmarriage with bank employeesis that earnings through inter-est and any transaction involv-ing interest, particularly invest-ment, is forbidden in Islam.

“A large number ofMuslims are working in thebanking sector. Issuing a Fatwaasking Muslims not marrypeople employed in the bank-ing sector is wrong. People whoissued this Fatwa must reviewthis because it will lead to fur-ther rift and confusion in theMuslim society. There is noneed to issue a fatwa on suchthings,” AIMPLB executivepresident Khalid RasheedFirangi Mahali said here onFriday.

“Weird Fatwa’s defyinglogic never fails to make head-

lines. Muslims are not neces-sarily bound to follow them asFatwa’s are merely a scholarlyopinion on a matter of Islamiclaw and are issued by a recog-nized religious authority. AllFatwa’s are not bizarre or with-out logic, like those prohibitingalcohol and narcotics are in theinterest of the society’’, saidMaulana Firangi Mahli. Theseminary, Darul UloomDeoband, gave the fatwa fol-lowing a query from a personin which he had stated that hehad a few proposals for mar-riage from families where thefather earned money from abanking job in India.

On January 2, DarulUloom Deoband had issued afatwa against a 15-year-old girlAliya Khan from Meerut aftershe dressed up as Lord Krishnaand recited the Bhagwad Gita.Alia Khan, while reacting to thereligious decree issued, saidthat Islam is not so weak thatwe will be dismissed from itjust because we recite theBhagwad Gita

The state president of theMajlis Ittehadul MusalmeenShaukat Ali has welcomed thefatwa saying `` Darul UloomDeoband is correct in its deci-sion. One should avoid havingany social bonds with such aperson because everythingincluding his lifestyle would beconnected with ‘haram’, andthen it would be harmful to the

person religiously, socially aswell as individually,”.

A fatwa by Deoband thismonth forbidding the muslimwomen from wearing “tight”and “fashionable” burqa hadalso hogged the headlines. Thefatwa said wearing tight andrevealing dress is against thetenets of Islam and the religiondoes not permit women to doanything that was unneces-sary and might attract theattention of the men.

“Tight and fashionableburqas expose women’s bodiesand attract men… the womenmust avoid them,” the fatwa,which was issued in responseto a query, said. The Darul Ifta(Department of Fatwa) of theseminary said in the religiousdecree that the objective ofwearing a burqa was to “hide”the body and avoid attentionfrom men. The clerics of theseminary said women shouldnot even venture out of theirhomes unnecessarily. “Theyshould cover their bodies insuch a way that no portion ofit is exposed,” the fatwa said.

The fatwa evoked a mixedreaction from Muslim women.While a section of them agreedwith it, others said that therewas no need for such a fatwa.

“What the fatwa says isright. Tight and designerburqas should not be worn,”said All India Muslim WomenPersonal Law Board chairper-son Shaista Amber.

Women’s activist NaishHasan, however, said there wasno need for issuing such afatwa. She said that it was anattempt to divert the attentionof the community from impor-tant issues it was facing.

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Bihar Chief Minister NitishKumar on Friday inaugu-

rated and laid foundationstones for nearly 200 projectsworth more than �300 crore inthis district as part of his state-wide “Vikas Samiksha Yatra”.

The Chief Minister visitedRaghopur village, which fallsunder a block of the samename, in the north Bihar districtwhere he launched 198 projectsworth �304 crore beforeaddressing a public meeting.

Among the projects inau-gurated by Kumar was a solar-powered mini water supplysystem involving a modest costof �36.91 lakh.

The Chief Minister alsointeracted with women associ-ated with self-help groups andurged them to spread aware-ness about his government'sdrive against dowry and childmarriage. At the public meet-

ing, the Chief Minister saidBihar was the first state wherewomen were provided 50 percent reservation in Panchayatand civic body polls, besides 35per cent quota for the fair sexin police jobs.

“During my visit to variousdistricts as part of VikasSamiksha Yatra, I am givenguard of honour mostly bywomen police personnel. Thishighlights the change that hascome in the society”, he said.

The Chief Minister alsourged the people of the state to“educate your children withoutworrying about the expensesinvolved as the state govern-ment is there to provide youwith all necessary assistance”.

“We have come up with astudents' credit card scheme sothat young boys and girls maypursue their studies withouthaving to trouble theirguardians for money. Underthis scheme, we will be pro-

viding loans up to Rs four lakhto every student”, Kumar said.

“Banks have not been up tothe mark in facilitating thisscheme hence a decision hasbeen taken to set up a statefinance commission throughwhich 12th pass boys and girlswill be provided with loans”, headded.

The Chief Minister alsospoke about the improvementin law and order situation aswell as the standard of living ofcommon people in the after-math of his government's rad-ical step of banning sale andconsumption of alcohol.

Besides the Chief Minister,the public meeting wasaddressed by DeputyChairman of Bihar LegislativeCouncil Mohd Haroon Rashid,state ministers Vijendra PrasadYadav and Ramesh Rishidevand MLAs Aniruddh PrasadYadav, Neeraj Kumar Babluand Beema Bharti.

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Veteran CPI(M) leader andKerala Chief Minister

Pinarayi Vijayan has lavishedpraise on North Korean leaderKim Jong-un for putting up a“tough” resistance against“imperialist” America betterthan the Communist-ruledChina.

Addressing a CPI(M) dis-trict committee meet atKozhikode on Wednesday, hesaid North Korea was show-casing a better example indefending “imperialist” forces.

The CPI(M) polit bureaumember also said there was ageneral criticism that China’sfight against imperialist forceswas not living up to the expectations of the people.“North Korea has been adopt-ing a tough anti-US stand.

North Korea has success-fully withstood the pressureexerted by the US,” Vijayansaid.

The Chief Minister’s statement came days after a flexboard of the North Koreanleader, brought out as part of aprogramme of CPI(M) inIdukki district, was removed bythe party after it triggered acontroversy.

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In a bid to set its house inorder ahead of the crucial

2019 Lok Sabha elections, theopposition Samajwadi Party isdesperate to settle the issue ofLok Sabha seats to be contested by the members ofthe first family of the party.

SP President AkhileshYadav is likely to re enter theLok Sabha from Kanauj parliamentary constituencypresently represented by hiswife Dimple Yadav.

Akhilesh Yadav madedebut in politics in 1999 bywinning his first election fromKanauj Lok Sabha seat.

Presently Akhilesh Yadav isthe Member of the Legislativecouncil and his term is upperhouse of the State Legislatureends on may five this year.

Presently SP has five MPsin Lok Sabha and all are fromthe first family of the party.

They include MulayamSingh Yadav (Azamgarh), hisdaughter in law Dimple Yadav(Kannauj) his grandson

Tejpratap Yadav (Mainpuri)his nephew Dharmendra Yadav(Badaun) and his nephewAkshay Kumar (Ferozabad).

Former national president and SP’s patronMulayam Singh Yadav is all setto desert the Azamgarh LokSabha seat and return to his tra-ditional Mainpuri Lok Sabhaseat.

With MUlayam Singhdeciding to return to Mainpuri,the fate of the sitting MP andhis grandson Tejpratap Yadavis uncertain.

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Page 9: C M Y K - The Pioneer Zuari Agro, Coromandel Fertilisers, Deepak Fertilisers, Petrochemicals Corp and ... Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan presented Durgadas Ambadas Mule

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With superstar Rajinikanthdeclaring his political

dreams on the New Year Eve,Tamil Nadu politics which hadmoved around former ChiefMinisters late J Jayalalithaa ofthe AIADMK and MKarunanidhi of the DMK, isflooded with nearly a dozenchief ministerial hopefuls.

The ruling AIADMK itselfhas many chief ministerialaspirants that include DeputyChief Minister OPanneerselvam, Lok SabhaDeputy Speaker Thambi Durai,senior party leader Semmalaiand of course TTVDhinakaran, nephew of thejailed VK Sasikala, former aideto Jayalalithaa.

Though the DMK’s chiefministerial candidate is theparty’s working president MKStalin, he has a series of hurdlesto cross. Following the acquit-tal of Kanimozhi and A Raja ofall charges in the 2G spectrumcase, there has been a strongdemand from Rajathi Ammalthat her daughter should be ele-vated to a prime position in theDMK on account of the hard-ships faced by her.

Moreover, it is yet to beseen how MK Alagiri, the

Madurai-based son ofKarunanidhi, would react toStalin’s candidature. The DMKhas not won any election with-out the cooperation of Alagiriwho wields considerable influ-ence in southern Tamil Nadu.

Anbumani Ramadoss, sonof S Ramadoss, the founder ofPMK, was projected as theparty’s chief ministerial candi-date during the 2016 Assemblyelection. But the PMK couldnot win even a single seat in thehustings which also sawAnbumani losing to anAIADMK candidate.

DMDK leader and formermatinee idol Vijayakanth wasthe chief ministerial candidateof the People’s Welfare Front, athird alternative up by theVCK, the Lefts, the MDMKand the TMC. Vijayakanth for-feited his security in theVirudachalam constituencywhile the PWF failed to win inany of the 234 seats. The Frontgot disintegrated immediatelyafter the Assembly election.The MDMK and the VCKhave cast their lots with theDMK.

Rajinikanth is the latestaddition to this bouquet ofchief ministerial candidatesmaking the political horizon ofTamil Nadu a buyers’ marketfor the electorate. Kamal

Haassan, another film star,who too had announced hispolitical plans is making nois-es from the sidelines before heplunges into the arena. Haassantoo has not announced thedetails of the political outfit tobe launched by him. Whileprofessional political com-mentators have scoffed at thepolitical plans of Rajinikanth,they are yet to make anyremarks on the political dreamsof Kamal Haassan.

There are strong doubtsabout the stability of theEdappady PalaniswamyGovernment because of theinternal fights in the AIADMK.The 2018 session of the legis-lature begins on Monday withthe customary address by theGovernor. The ruling dispen-sation has just 111 MLAs in theHouse which has an effectivestrength of 234. If the MadrasHigh Court which is hearingthe batch of petitions filed bythe 18 AIADMK MLA’s dis-qualified by the Speaker (fortheir representation to the thenGovernor Vidhyasagar Raowithdrawing support toPalaniswamy), the Governmentmay lose majority in the House.The voters have a number ofchoices as Chief Ministers infront of them in the ensuingelection unlike in the past.

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The dreams of Kerala NCP’ssenior leader AK

Saseendran, who had resignedlast March as Minister follow-ing a sex talk scandal, aboutgetting back to the Cabinet suf-fered a severe setback on Fridaywith the woman who hadlodged a complaint againsthim for allegedly outragingher modesty through lewdphone talk withdrawing thepetition she had filed in theHigh Court seeking permissionto settle the case.

The woman, an employeeof a TV channel which hadaired an audio-clip on March26 in which Saseendran washeard making lewd andobscene remarks to her, with-drew her plea after her lawyerreportedly felt that the court’sdecision might not befavourable to her orSaseendran. He had resigned asTransport Minister withinhours of the TV channel airingthe audio-clip.

The development is a bigsetback for Saseendran as wellas his party as they were wait-

ing for the court’s decision onthe woman’s plea for approach-ing the CPI(M)-led ruling LDF,in which NCP is a partner, witha request for reinstating him inthe Cabinet. A judicial com-mission which had looked intothe matter had already exon-erated him effectively.

In fact, Friday’s develop-ment became the second set-back to hit the NCP within justtwo days. A Vigilance court hadon Thursday ordered a probeagainst its MLA ThomasChandy, who had replacedSaseendran in the Cabinet andhad resigned recently overland-grab charges, blockinghis re-entry into the Cabinet.Saseendran and Chandy are theonly two NCP MLAs in Kerala.

The TV channel, whichhad aired the audio-clip thatcaused Saseendran’s exit fromthe Cabinet, had later admittedthat he was actually a victim ofa honey-trap sting operationmounted by a team of its inves-tigative journalists includingthe woman. The incident hadled to the arrest of severalemployees of the channelincluding its CEO.

The woman, however,chose to stick to her stand thatSaseendran had indeed out-raged her modesty with hislewd remarks on her in thetelephonic talk. She lodged acomplaint in this regard with a

court in Thiruvananthapuramin the form of a confidentialstatement recorded as perSection 164 of the CrPC.

However, the woman laterdecided to withdraw her com-plaint allegedly under high-level political pressure andpromises, especially after thejudicial commission effective-ly exonerated him. Allegationshad come up to the effect thatshe was even promised aGovernment job for with-drawing the complaint.

The woman had said in herpetition that she had com-plained against the formerMinister due to some misun-derstanding and she wanted thecase to be withdrawn as a set-tlement had been reached out-side the court. She hadapproached the High Courtafter the Chief JudicialMagistrate Court inThiruvananthapuram turneddown her request for with-drawing the complaint.

When the argumentsbegan in the High Court onFriday morning, the StateGovernment took a positionthat the case could be settled asthe complainant herself waswithdrawing from that butthose who had applied forimpleading in the case point-ed out by quoting previousjudgements that a case of out-raging the women’s modestycould not be withdrawn inthis way.

Legal experts said therewere indications at the start ofthe arguments itself that adecision in favour of thewoman was unlikely to comefrom the court and that mightbe the reason why her lawyerdecided to withdraw the peti-tion. Also, he might have want-ed to avoid a situation wherethe court would reject the peti-tion with harsh observations,they said.

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The boundary wall of theUttar Pradesh Haj office,

opposite the State legislaturebuilding in the heart of the city,has got a saffron lookovernight, days after theSecretariat building facade wasgiven the same coat.

The Haj office compoundwall got a bright saffron shadewithin days of the BJPGovernment reducing thenumber of holidays allotted toState-recognised madrasas inthe 2018 calendar.

The paint was carried outlate last night by the UttarPradesh estates departmentand the Haj office staff was

not immediately available fora reaction, Friday being aholiday.

The move prompted theOpposition Samajwadi Party toaccuse the BJP Government ofindulging in “blatant saffroni-sation”.

“The BJP is a party knownfor changing colours. It isindulging in these antics onlyto hide its faults and failures. Ifthe BJP really considers the saf-fron colour as sacrosanct, itshould not indulge in politici-sation of the colour and indulge

in blatant saffronisation,” SPspokesman Sunil Singh Sajansaid. All India Shia PersonalLaw Board spokespersonYasoob Abbas took strongexception to the change incolour.

“What is this? The BJP willpaint it saffron, the SP willchoose green and the BSPblue...This is politics of colourand should be avoided,” he said.

When contacted, Ministerof State for Minority AffairsMohsin Raza told PTI, “I fail tounderstand the problem ofthose having issues with thenew colour. Is saffron an anti-national colour? Saffron is acolour which symbolises ujala(brightness) and urja (energy).”

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Denying allegations bysenior Dalit leader Prakash

Ambedkar about his involve-ment in the violence and arsonthat took place at Bhima-Koregaon and also in an allegedatrocities case, Shivpratisthanfounder Sambhaji Bhide onFriday said that was preparedto face any inquiry.

On a day when the policepermission to a lecture that hewas to deliver in Mumbai oncoming Sunday, Bhide Guruji– as he is popularly known –said:”I have been framed in theBhima-Koregaon incident. Ihave absolutely no link with theincident. I am prepared to faceany kind of inquiry. I do notmind even if the inquiry isheaded by Lord Yama Raj”.

Similarly, denying the alle-gation made by a Dalit womanthat he had indulged in anatrocity against her, 86-year-oldBhide Guruji said: “I do notknow if there is something likeatrocity or not. But, all I knowis that the law has been wrong-ly invoked against me”.

Alluding to the atrocitycases registered against him bythe Pimpri and Aurangabadpolice, the Hindu leader said:“For the last two and a half tothree years. I have not visitedthese areas. In spite of the factthat Sambhaji Maharaj’s memo-rial is sacred place of faith forme. I have not gone to the areassurrounding Pimpri. Still thecomplaint lodged with thePimpri police alleges that wasseen hurling stones at thememorial set up at Bhima-Koregaon to pay homage to theDalits killed in the run-up tothe January 1, 1818, victory ofBritish troops over PeshwaBajirao II’s Army”.

“The allegation against meis rather unfortunate. If there areCCTV cameras at the site of vio-lence, I request the police to lookat the footage of the disturbancesat Bhima Koregaon on Mondaylast,” Bhide Guruji said.

“I would like the police toinvestigate all the allegationsmade against me and HinduEkta Aghadi leader MilindEkbote for our alleged role ininstigating or indulging vio-lence at Bhima Koregaon. Theallegation that riots took placeat Bhima Koregaon after mypublic speech is totally false. Ihave a strong to believe that aconspiracy has been hatched tomalign me,” the Hindu leader.

Meanwhile, NCP MP andMaratha warrior ChhatrapatiShivaji’s descendent UdayanrajeBhosale threw his weight behindBhide Guruji, saying: “ BhideGuruji is father-like figure tome. I have huge respect for him.It does not behove well of anyto speak against Bhide Guriji.

In a related development,the Mumbai Police cancelledpermission to a lecture pro-gram organised byShivprathisthan at Lalbaug insouth-central Mumbai onJanuary 7.

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The CPI(M) on Fridayaccused the BJP-led

Government at the Centre ofusing the triple talaq bill for“political gains”. Prime MinisterNarendra Modi was using theMuslim Women (Protectionof Rights on Marriage) Bill,2017 for political gains, KeralaCPI(M) secretary KodiyeriBalakrishnan alleged in anarticle published in party organ“Deshabhimani”.

Besides, the Bill also had ahidden agenda to “harass”Muslims, he alleged, addingthat the “wolf in a deer skin trickis being used for the propagan-da”. Divorce was a civil matterand the move to make it a crim-inal offence was not with anobjective to protect the Muslimwomen, but with a view to tar-get the community, the CPI(M)politburo member alleged.

He clarified that his partywelcomed the Supreme Courtverdict on instant triple talaq,but added that the bill intro-duced by the ModiGovernment was to “cheat”the Muslim women. TheCPI(M) had always opposedthe “primitive” triple talaqpractice, Balakrishnan assert-ed, adding that it denigrated thedignity and honour of women.

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Acache of explosives, sus-pected to be land mines,

have been recovered frombeneath an overbridge atKuttippuram in this Keraladistrict, police said on Friday.

As many as five metal con-tainers with the suspectedexplosive substance, two metalparts and six gunny bags werefound scattered on the sandbanks beneath the bridge over

Bharathapuzha river last night,they said. The containers hadthe wordings “Front TowardEnemy”.

Police said the objectslooked like land mines and thegunny bags were in militarygreen colour.

The Army and NationalSecurity Guard have beeninformed about the recoveryand were expected to visit thespot and examine the objects,they said.

Some local people tippedpolice about the presence of theobjects under the bridge lastnight, following which bombdisposal squads rushed to thespot and collected the objects.

A probe is on in thisregard, police added.

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Page 10: C M Y K - The Pioneer Zuari Agro, Coromandel Fertilisers, Deepak Fertilisers, Petrochemicals Corp and ... Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan presented Durgadas Ambadas Mule

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SBI on Friday said it is look-ing at revising minimum

balance amount and penaltycharges in the wake of all-round criticism for raking ina windfall profit of over �1,771crore from customers in penal-ty for non-maintenance ofmonthly average balances intheir savings accounts.

The country's largestlender which has over 402 mil-lion savings account holders,had reintroduced monthlyaverage balance (MAB)charges from April 2017 aftera gap of f ive years.Accordingly, the bankdemands �5,000 in MAB inmetros and �1,000 in ruralaccounts, failing which itcharges a penalty.

As a result, between Apriland November 2017, the bankhad netted a windfall of�1,771.67 crore, which is morethan its second quarter prof-it, as penalties from customersfor non-maintenance of MAB,Finance Ministry data showed.

“A review of the monthlyaverage balance is somethingwe've been looking at contin-uously since we had brought itback in April and we havealready brought it down inOctober a bit. Now we are in

the process of reviewing itagain,” MD for retail and dig-ital banking PK Gupta toldreporters here on Friday.

He said the bank is doinga comprehensive review ofthe MAB and penalty for non-maintenance of the same,based on the feedback it hasreceived and will soonannounce it.

Currently, the bank has amonthly average balance of

�3,000 for the metro andurban accounts and the non-maintenance penalty variesfrom �30 to �50 plus taxes.

For semi-urban and ruralbranches, the amount is fixedat �2,000 and �1,000, respec-tively and the penalty for non-maintenance is in the range of�20 to �40 plus taxes.

SBI has close to 40.5crore saving bank accountcustomers.

SBI had reintroducedmonthly average charges fromApril 1, 2017, but had torevise downwards the penal-ties for non-maintenance ofthe minimum balance fromOctober 1, after facing back-lash from customers.

While between April andOctober, the MAB was �5,000for metro accounts, whichwas brought down to �3,000per account. The penalty wasalso reduced from �50-100 to�20 -40, plus taxes.

The bank recently said onan average balance of �3,000in the metros, SBI earnedonly �6 a month whereas fora minimum balance of �1,000in rural, it earned on �2 permonth which is meagre com-pared to the services offeredand the corresponding costsincurred by the bank (freecheque books, 8 free ATMtransactions, free branchtransactions).

The bank had said savingsbank accounts such as PrimeMinister's Jan Dhan Yojana,small accounts and basic sav-ings bank deposit accounts,pensioners, minors and allsocial beneficiary accountsare exempted from monthlyaverage balance requirementand no charges ever havebeen recovered.

���� #5,��56 7

Benchmarks rallied torecord highs on Friday toend the first week of 2018

with gains as investors crankedup fresh purchases in tandemwith bullish global cues.

The BSE Sensex surgedover 184 points to close at itslifetime high of 34,153.85,while the broader NSE Niftyended at record 10,558.85.

Sentiment got a leg-upafter the Lok Sabha onThursday gave its approvalfor �80,000 crore recapitali-sation bonds for strengthen-ing public sector banks(PSBs), traders said.

Global cues were upbeatas well following a record-smashing run at the WallStreet overnight, with DowJones Industrial average goingpast the 25,000-mark for thefirst time.

The 30-share Sensex, afteropening on a strong footing,continued its upward march tohit an all-time high of34,188.85, breaking its previous(intra-day) record of 34,137.97hit on December 27.

It lost some ground on prof-it-booking, before finally ending184.21 points, or 0.54 per centhigher at 34,153.85, smashing itsprevious record close of34,056.83 reached on December29 last year. The gauge hadgained 176.26 points in the pre-vious session.

The NSE Nifty also hit arecord intra-day high of10,566.10 and closed at10,558.85, up 54.05 points, or0.51 per cent.

It bettered its previous clos-ing high of 10,531.50 reachedon December 26 last year.

This was the fifth straightweek of gains for the markets.During the first week of 2018,the Sensex notched up a rise of97.02 points, or 0.28 per cent.

The Nifty gained 28.15 points,or 0.26 per cent.

“Positive US jobs datafuelled optimism in globalmarkets, having a rub-off effectin the domestic market.Additionally, clarity regardingthe time frame of PSBs capitalinfusion provided positivevibes in the domestic market,”said Vinod Nair, Head ofResearch, Geojit FinancialServices.

Meanwhile, foreign port-folio investors (FPIs) boughtshares worth a net �212.05crore, while domestic institu-tional investors (DIIs) madepurchases worth �325.24crore on Thursday, as perprovisional exchange data.

Yes Bank was the biggestgainer in the Sensex pack,spurting 5.03 per cent, fol-lowed by Adani Ports at 3.71

per cent.Other big gainers were

Bharti Airtel, IndusInd Bank,Dr Reddy's, HDFC Ltd, AsianPaints, TCS, Tata Steel, ITCLtd, Axis Bank, MarutiSuzuki, Bajaj Auto, HDFCBank, Coal India, RelianceIndustries, Kotak Bank, TataMotors, Power Grid, HUL,NTPC and M&M, gainingup to 3.36 per cent.

In sectoral terms, the BSEtelecom index rose the most bygaining 2.75 per cent, followedby consumer durables 1.25 percent, teck 0.89 per cent, realty0.75 per cent, FMCG 0.74 percent, healthcare 0.62 per cent,auto 0.60 per cent, bankex0.55 per cent and metal 0.46per cent.

The broader markets tooremained in bullish mode, withthe BSE small-cap index rising0.97 per cent. The mid-capindex ended at fresh recordhighs by rising 0.69 per cent.

Shares of Idea Cellular ral-lied for the second day, rising10.67 per cent, after the com-pany unveiled a plan to raise upto �6,750 crore ahead of itsmerger with Vodafone.

However, shares of state-run oil marketing companiessuch as HPCL, BPCL and IOClost up to 1.01 per cent largelyon soaring global crude prices.

Overseas, Asian boursesdisplayed a strong trend, withJapan's Nikkei rising 0.89 percent, Shanghai Compositegaining 0.18 per cent whileHong Kong's Hang Seng rose0.25 per cent.

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India’s per capita income, agauge for measuring living

standard, is likely to witness aslower growth of 8.3 per centat �1,11,782 in FY 2017-18.

In 2016-17, per capitaincome of Indians had grownby 9.7 per cent to �1,03,219.

“The per capita netnational income during 2017-18 is estimated to be �1,11,782showing a rise of 8.3 per centas compared to �1,03,219 dur-ing 2016-17 with the growthrate of 9.7 per cent,” said

‘First Advance Estimates ofNational Income, 2017-18’released by the CentralStatistics Office (CSO).

The per capita income inreal terms (at 2011-12 prices)during 2017-18 is likely toattain a level of �86,660 ascompared to �82,269 for theyear 2016-17, it said.

The growth rate in percapita income (real terms) isestimated at 5.3 per cent dur-ing 2017-18, as against 5.7 percent in the previous year, itadded.

The economic growth isexpected to slow to a four-year low of 6.5 per cent in2017-18, the lowest underthe Modi-led government,mainly due to poor perfor-mance of agriculture andmanufacturing sectors.

The Gross DomesticProduct (GDP) was 7.1 percent in 2016-17 and 8 per centin the preceding year. It was 7.5per cent in 2014-15.

The Narendra Modi-ledNDA government hadassumed office in May 2014.

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NEW DELHI: A new ConsumerProtection Bill was introduced inthe Lok Sabha on Friday, seek-ing to set up an authority to safe-guard consumer rights in viewof current challenges posed bye-commerce, direct selling, tele-marketing and misleading ads,among others.

The Consumer ProtectionBill, 2018 was introduced byConsumer Affairs MinisterRam Vilas Paswan in the LowerHouse and it seeks to replace the31-year-old law.

The Bill has strong provi-sions to check adulteration andmisleading ads and also pro-vides for fine up to �50 lakhand jail up to 5 years formanufacturers and serviceproviders for false and mis-

leading ads. Against adulter-ation, the Bill has provisionsfor fine up to �10 lakh and lifeterm imprisonment.

The objective of the Bill isto “provide for protection ofinterest of consumers and forthe said purpose to establishauthorities for timely and effec-tive administration and settle-ment of consumer disputes.”

The Bill aims to set up anexecutive agency 'CentralConsumer ProtectionAuthority' (CCPA) to makeintervention when necessaryto prevent consumer detri-ment arising from unfairtrade practice and to initiateclass action including enforc-ing recall, refund and returnof products. PTI

���� #5,��56 7

Markets regulator Sebi onFriday made electronic

platform mandatory for allprivate placement issues ondebt basis that have a thresholdof �200 crore.

Currently, the mechanismis mandatory for all privateplacements of debt securitieswith an issue size of �500crore or more.

The new norms are aimedat achieving better and trans-parent price discovery throughthe bidding process.

In a circular, Sebi said “allprivate placement of debt secu-rities shall be required to bemade through EBP (electron-ic book platform) if it is a sin-gle issue, inclusive of greenshoe option, if any, of �200crore or more”.

Besides, a shelf issue, con-sisting of multiple tranches,which cumulatively amounts to�200 crore or above in a finan-cial year would have to opt forthe electronic platform.

Further, a subsequentissue, where aggregate of allprevious issues by an issuer ina fiscal equals or exceeds�200 crore would need toopt for the platform.

Also, the regulator hascome out with a standard oper-ational guidelines pertaining toKnow Your Client (KYC) andbidding hours for electronicbook providers like stockexchanges.

The new norms wouldcome into force from April 1this year.

According to Sebi, eligibleparticipants bidding on pro-prietary basis, whose bidamount is at least �15 crore or5 per cent of the base issuesize, whichever is lower, canbid directly.

In order to ensure opera-tional uniformity across vari-ous EBP platforms, the biddingon the such platform will takeplace between 0900 hours to1700 hrs, on the working daysof the exchanges.

The regulator said thatparticipants, prior to enteringinto the bidding process will berequired to enroll with EBP.Such enrolment of a participanton an EBP will be one timeexercise and will be valid till thetime such enrolment isannulled or rescinded.

“An issuer, at its discretion,

may withdraw from the issueprocess at any time, howeversubsequent to such withdraw-al, the issuer shall not beallowed to access any of theEBP platform for a period ofseven days from the date ofsuch withdrawal,” Sebi said.

With respect to KYC, theregulator said that verificationwill be undertaken by obtain-ing existing KYCs of clientsfrom KRAs registered withSebi.

For QIB investors biddingdirectly or through arranger,KYCs and enrolment will bedone by the EBP, while for nonQIB investors bidding directly,KYCs will be done by theissuer and enrolment will bedone by the EBP.

Regarding the role ofElectronic Book Providers(EBP), Sebi said that a recog-nised stock exchange can act asEBP and responsible for pro-viding an on-line platform forplacing bids and need to ensuresafety, secrecy, integrity andretrievability of data.

The EBP need to havenecessary infrastructure likeadequate office space, riskmanagement capabilities,manpower and other infor-mation technology infra-structure to effectively dis-charge its activities.

The Securities andExchange Board of India (Sebi)in May last year had come outwith a discussion paper, where-in it was proposed that elec-tronic platform will be manda-tory for all private placementissues on debt basis that havea threshold of �50 crore.

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NEW DELHI: The IT-BPM sector is expect-ed to be impacted the most by digital andautomation trends with 70-75 per cent of thejobs in 2022 requiring new skill sets, a reporton Friday said.

The report by EY, commissioned by Ficciand Nasscom, examined global mega-trends, its impact on Indian economy andanalysed the profile of jobs under threat aswell as identified new emerging job roles.

It noted that by 2022, 60-65 per cent ofIndian workforce in the IT-BPM sectorwould be deployed in jobs that have radi-cally changed skill sets.

Besides, 97 per cent of the respondentsviewed reskilling the current workforce asa key initiative to be prepared for the changedue to the impact of primary forces includ-

ing globalisation and demographic changes.It said, of the 4.5 million jobs of 2022,

10-20 per cent would be new roles like 3Ddesigner, AI research scientist and languageprocessing specialist.

Roles like marketing manager, data-base administrator and data analyst areexpected to undergo change, the reporttitled 'Future of jobs in India: A 2022 per-spective' said.

About 72 per cent respondents said theyfeel that the lack of talent for technologyenablement could pose as a key barrier toautomation. “Indian education system deliv-ered skills which were scarce world over andhelped build the dominance of the servicesindustry,” EY India Partner and TechnologySector Leader Milan Sheth said. PTI

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NEW DELHI: The CreditEnhancement Fund, announced byFinance Minister Arun Jaitley in thelast Budget, is expected to be opera-tional by the end of this fiscal, a seniorFinance Ministry official said.

The IIFCL-anchored fund will helpraise credit rating of bonds floated byinfrastructure companies and facilitateinvestments from long-term investors.

“To ease flow of institutional cred-it to infrastructure projects, what thegovernment has been thinking in thisregard is credit enhancement. IIFCL isplaying a lead role in that proposed insti-tution,” Kumar V Pratap, Joint Secretary

(Infrastructure Policy and Finance) inthe Finance Ministry said.

“We had a meeting yesterday withRBI and the credit rating agencies. Sowe hope to launch this fund within thisfinancial year. Mechanics are beingworked out,” he said at an event organ-ised by India Infrastructure FinanceCompany Ltd (IIFCL) on the occasionof its 12th foundation day.

Raising the credit rating of thesecompanies would help easier access toinstitutional financing, he said.

Jaitley in 2016-17 Budget speechhad proposed that LIC will set up adedicated fund to provide credit

enhancement to infrastructure pro-jects. However, LIC could not anchorthe proposed company because ofregulatory issues.

Some public sector banks, includ-ing SBI and Bank of Baroda, haveevinced interest in picking up stake inthe fund. Public sector LIC, GeneralInsurance Corporation of India (GICRe) also plans to pick up stake in thecredit enhancement fund.

IIFCL Dy MD Sanjeev Kaushik saidthe RBI has agreed to most of the sug-gestions and the final guidelines onCredit Enhancement Fund shouldcome out soon. PTI

Page 11: C M Y K - The Pioneer Zuari Agro, Coromandel Fertilisers, Deepak Fertilisers, Petrochemicals Corp and ... Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan presented Durgadas Ambadas Mule

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Pakistan on Friday reactedsharply to the US’ decision to

suspend over $1 billion securi-ty aid to it for failing to rein interror groups, saying “arbitrarydeadlines and unilateral pro-nouncements” are “counterpro-ductive” in addressing terrorthreats. State Departmentspokesperson Heather Nauert ata news briefing in Washingtonannounced the US move to cutoff aid, days after PresidentDonald Trump made anscathing attack on Pakistan forgiving nothing to America but“lies and deceit” in return for $33billion aid and accusedIslamabad of providing “safehaven” to terrorists.

In a carefully-worded state-ment, Pakistan Foreign Officesaid, “We are engaged with theUS Administration on the issueof security cooperation and awaitfurther details. Impact of the US’decision on pursuit of commonobjectives is also likely to emergemore clearly in due course oftime”. At the same time, the statement made it clear that“arbitrary deadlines, unilateralpronouncements and shifting

goalposts are counterproduc-tive in addressing commonthreats”.

The announcement by theUS led to some protests in thecountry, including in Chaman,one of the two main crossings onthe border with Afghanistanwhere people chanted anti-USslogans. Pakistan, it said, believesthat its cooperation with the USin fighting terrorism directlyserves America’s national secu-rity interests as well as the larg-er interests of international com-munity, as it helped decimate Al-Qaeda and fight other groupswho took advantage ofungoverned spaces and posed acommon threat to peace.

Islamabad: Pakistan on Fridaysaid it is engaged with Americaon the issue of security coop-eration and was awaiting fur-ther details of the announce-ment by the US on suspensionof over $1 billion military aidto Islamabad for failing toclamp down on terror groups.

“We are engaged with theUS administration on the

issue of security cooperationand await further details.Impact of the US’ decision onpursuit of common objectivesis also likely to emerge moreclearly in due course of time,”Pakistan Foreign Office (FO)said while reacting to suspen-sion of aid announcement.

Pakistan, it said, believesthat its cooperation with the

US in fighting terrorismdirectly serves America’snational security interests aswell as the larger interests ofinternational community, as ithelped decimate Al-Qaedaand fight other groups whotook advantage of ungovernedspaces, a long porous borderand posed a common threat topeace. PTI

Beijing: US President DonaldTrump’s recent outburst onPakistan will further boosteconomic and defence tiesbetween Beijing andIslamabad, including Chinaacquiring a Pakistani militarybase close to Iran’s Chabaharport, an official media reporthere said on Friday.

Trump’s January 1 Twitterattack against Pakistan wherehe accused it of providing safehavens to terrorists appears tobe helping boost already closeties between Pakistan andChina, a report in the state-run Global Times said.

It attributed Islamabad’sdecision to allow Chinesecurrency in bilateral trade andfinancing transactions asChina has stepped up itsinvestments in the $50 billionChina-Pakistan EconomicCorridor (CPEC). PTI

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Nuclear-armed North Koreaon Friday accepted the

South’s offer of talks next week,hours after Seoul andWashington agreed to deferjoint military exercises, whichalways infuriate Pyongyang,until after the WinterOlympics.

The meeting, the first sinceDecember 2015, will take placein Panmunjom, the truce vil-lage in the heavily fortifiedDemilitarised Zone that dividesthe peninsula.

Tensions have been highafter the North carried outmultiple missile launches in2017, including a number ofICBMs, and its sixth atomic test,by far its most powerful to date.

The tentative rapproche-ment comes after the North’sleader Kim Jong-Un warned inhis New Year speech that hehad a nuclear button on his

desk, but at the same timeoffered Seoul an olive branch,saying Pyongyang could senda team to next month’s WinterOlympics in the South.

Seoul responded with anoffer of talks between the two,and earlier this week the hot-line between them was restoredafter being suspended foralmost two years.

On Thursday, the South’sPresident Moon Jae-In and hisUS counterpart Donald Trumpagreed to delay the giant FoalEagle and Key Resolve jointmilitary drills until after theWinter Olympics, which beginin Pyeongchang on February 9.

That announcement camehours after Trump said high-level talks between North andSouth would be “a good thing”.

A unification Ministry offi-cial told AFP that the Northfaxed a message to Seoulaccepting the proposal for talkson Tuesday.

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Russia’s Deputy ForeignMinister Sergei Ryabkov

on Friday said Washington is“looking for reasons” to pres-sure Iran on its nuclear pro-gramme.

Ryabkov was responding toUS Vice-President Mike Pencewho this week said Washingtonwill “not remain silent on Iran”and called for a replacement tothe 2015 Iran nuclear agree-ment.

“If (the US) is looking forreasons to increase pressure onIran that have nothing to dowith the (nuclear) deal, andthat’s how it looks like from

what we see, then this is anunworthy method that shouldnot be used by a great power,”Ryabkov said.

The 2015 Iran deal gaveIran sanctions relief inexchange for curbs on itsnuclear programme. “We seeno reason whatsoever to

change the Iran deal,” he added.Earlier this week Ryabkov

warned Washington againstinterfering in Iran’s “internalaffairs” after US PresidentDonald Trump pledged to helpIranians “take back” their gov-ernment following protests.

US President DonaldTrump tried to ramp up pres-sure on what he called a “bru-tal and corrupt regime” in Iranamid anti-government protestsin the country this week.

Much of Trump’s responsehas focused on playing up per-ceived errors in foreign policyby the Obama administration,including the 2015 Iran deal.

The United States imposedsanctions on five Iranian com-panies it alleges are working onpart of the Islamic republic’sillegal ballistic missile pro-gramme.

Treasury Secretary StevenMnuchin linked the measure torecent anti-Governmentprotests, arguing that Iranought to spend more on pub-lic welfare than on bannedweapons.

Protests over economicproblems broke out in Iran’ssecond largest city Mashhad onDecember 28 and quicklyspread across the country, turn-ing against the regime as awhole.

Tens of thousands ofIranians took to the streets inseveral cities on Wednesday forpro-regime rallies.

Ankara: Turkish PresidentRecep Tayyip Erdogan accusedthe United States and Israel onFriday of meddling in Iran afterTurkey’s neighbour wasgripped by several days ofdeadly unrest.

A total of 21 people diedand hundreds were arrested inthe week-long protests whichwere the biggest challenge tothe Islamic regime since the2009 mass demonstrations.

“We cannot accept thatsome countries — foremost theUS, Israel — to interfere in theinternal affairs of Iran andPakistan,” Erdogan toldreporters before heading on atrip to France.

“It is turning the peopleagainst each other in thesecountries. It’s a shame that wehave seen this done in manynations... We saw this in Iraq.”

AFP

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China’s underwater glider hassuccessfully ended

its mission to the Indian Oceanand South China Sea amid reportsthat the country has developed a new underwatersurveillance network to help itssubmarines lock on to targets.

China’s independently-devel-oped underwater glider, Haiyi,which means “sea wings” inChinese, has successfully com-pleted a scientific observation inthe Indian Ocean, marking thefirst time that the country’sindigenous underwater gliderwas used in this ocean, state-runXinhua news agency reported.

The mission, betweenDecember 11 and January 2, wasmeant to observe the interactionbetween global climate changeand marine conditions, YuJiancheng, a research fellow at theChinese Academy of Sciences’(CAS) Shenyang Institute of

Automation, the glider’s devel-oper, was quoted as saying. Theunderwater glider was used tomonitor the deep-sea environ-ment in vast areas, Yu said.

After diving into the IndianOcean on December 11, Haiyiobtained 190 pieces of data on its705-kilometre journey, Yu added.

The news of the glider fol-lowed a recent report that Chinahas developed a new underwatersurveillance network to help itssubmarines lock on to targetswhile protecting the nation’s inter-ests along the its Maritime SilkRoad plan, which includes theIndian Ocean.

The system, which hasalready been launched, works bygathering information about theunderwater environment, par-ticularly water temperature andsalinity, which the navy can thenuse to more accurately track andtarget vessels as well as improvenavigation and positioning, theHong Kong- based South ChinaMorning Post reported onJanuary 1.

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Two Hindu brothers were today shot dead outside theirgrain shop by bike-borne robbers in Tharparkar dis-

trict of Pakistan’s Sindh province, triggering protests fromthe minority community.

The victims, identified as Dileep Kumar and ChandarMaheshwari were grain traders. They were opening theirshop in the grain market in Mithi area of the district whenthe incident took place, the Express Tribune reported.According to police, in the first ever robbery incident inthe city, bike-borne dacoits tried to snatch the money fromthe brothers, but when they resisted, the robbers shot them.

Following the incident, traders shut their business inHindu-dominated areas in the district in protest and peo-ple blocked main roads and staged sit-ins, leading to traf-fic jams.

Local people alleged that police reached late at the spotas most of the personnel have been deployed in Mirpurkhasfor the security arrangement of a rally organised by thePakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP), where former President AsifAli Zardari is supposed to address, the report said.

Meanwhile, Sindh Home Minister Sohail Anwar Siyaldirected the Senior Superintendent of Police of Umerkotto probe the killing.

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India bowlers led by BhuvneshwarKumar continued to get break-throughs despite attacking batting

from South Africa as the hosts werereduced to 230 for 7 at tea on the open-ing day of the first cricket Test.

Debutant Jasprit Bumrah (1/60 in 13overs) and young Hardik Pandya (1/37in 9 overs) removed the dangerous pairof AB de Villiers (65) and skipper Faf duPlessis (62) in quick succession after theirwhirlwind 114-run stand to give the vis-itors an upperhand after the second ses-sion.

The dangerous Quinton de Kock (43)was removed by Bhuvneshwar (4/68 in14 overs) and the Proteas looked uncom-fortable despite maintaining a healthyrun-rate of 4.33 across the 53 overs thathas been bowled over two sessions.

Keshav Maharaj was unbeaten on 23runs alongside Kagiso Rabada (0 not out)at the break.

Post lunch, De Villiers and DuPlessis brought up their 100-partnership

for the fourth wicket off 134 balls.Bumrah got his maiden scalp in De

Villiers as he angled one in whichbreached the defence of the formerskipper after taking an inside edge of hisbat.

Three overs later, Pandya made it adouble breakthrough as Du Plessis wascaught behind. It was payback for the all-rounder, who had trapped the batsmanlbw off the previous delivery, only forDRS to overturn the decision on umpire'scall.

In between, Du Plessis had com-pleted his 16th Test half- century off 98balls.

De Kock and Vernon Philander (23)continued with the attacking mode andput on 60 runs off only 54 balls for thesixth wicket.

In doing so, they helped SouthAfrica cross 200 in the 45th over.

Bhuvneshwar returned for his thirdspell and immediately struck again get-ting De Kock caught behind.

Before tea, Mohammed Shami (1-43)bowled Philander with a delivery that

reversed.The hosts could have lost another

wicket but Shikhar Dhawan droppedKeshav Maharaj (on 0 then) at third slipin the 47th over over of what could havebeen Bhuvneshwar's fifth scalp.

Bhuvneshwar got India off to a rol-licking start as he took three wickets inhis first three overs.

He had Dean Elgar (0) caught behindoff the third ball of the match. An overlater, he trapped Aiden Markram (5) lbwwith a sharp inswinger.

The ever-dependable Hashim Amla(3) too was caught behind off the Meerutspeedster as his first spell figures read 3-1- 5-3.

De Villiers then led South Africa'srecovery as the duo batted out theremainder of the challenging first hour.They looked to counter attack the bowl-ing with the former taking 17 runs off oneBhuvneshwar over.

In doing so, they brought up the 50-partnership for the 4th wicket off only 63balls. There was a chance from Du Plessisoff Shami in the 17th over but it bounced

just short of skipper Virat Kohli at secondslip.

Debutant Bumrah, who was pre-ferred over seasoned Ishant Sharma,came on as first change and purchasedawkward bounce at times off the pitch.

He troubled both batsmen in his firstspell but was unable to make the break-through that India desired.

Thereafter, De Villiers brought up his41st Test half- century off only 55 balls,inclusive of 10 fours. The milestone cameoff a cut shot off Shami's bowling.

This helped the run-rate as well, cross-ing four-runs per over mark in the last30 minutes of the first session.

Bhuvneshwar came back from anoth-er spell towards the end of the session, buthe was not able to separate the two bats-men. Hardik Pandya (0-1) bowled an overbefore lunch as South Africa crossed 100in the 26th over. De Villiers then led SouthAfrica's recovery as the duo batted out theremainder of the challenging first hour.They looked to counter attack the bowl-ing with the former taking 17 runs off oneBhuvneshwar over.

In doing so, they brought up the 50-partnership for the 4th wicket off only 63balls.

There was a chance from Du Plessisoff Shami in the 17th over but it bouncedjust short of skipper Virat Kohli at secondslip.

Debutant Bumrah, who was pre-ferred over seasoned Ishant Sharma,came on as first change and purchasedawkward bounce at times off the pitch.

He troubled both batsmen in his firstspell but was unable to make the break-through that India desired.

Thereafter, De Villiers brought up his41st Test half- century off only 55 balls,inclusive of 10 fours. The milestone cameoff a cut shot off Shami's bowling.

This helped the run-rate as well, cross-ing four-runs per over mark in the last30 minutes of the first session.

Bhuvneshwar came back from anoth-er spell towards the end of the session, buthe was not able to separate the two bats-men. Hardik Pandya (0-1) bowled an overbefore lunch as South Africa crossed 100in the 26th over.

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North Eastern Warriors kept their hopesalive in the Premier Badminton League(PBL), beating the formidable Bengaluru

Blasters in the opening match of the Chennai legat the Nehru Indoor Stadium, here on Friday.

The Warriors took an unbeatable 3-0 leadafter three matches.

It was the first win for the Warriors in thisyear's League, having lost its previous threematches. The team from the North-East wontheir trump match and also pulled off a victoryin Bengaluru's trump match.

Canadian Michelle Li did the star turn for theWarriors, by turning the tables on KirstyGilmour after losing the first game to post a 7-15, 15-14, 15-13 win in the team's trump match.

In the third match of the tie, Li bounced backafter losing the first game rather tamely at 7-15to Kirsty Gilmour by winning the second 15-14.

Li, currently ranked 21, got the better of herhigher- rated rival, by pulling off some impres-sive drops and capitalising on Gilmour's errorsat crucial junctures.

Earlier, Bengaluru Blasters got off to a win-ning start when their doubles team of BoeMathias and Kim Sa Rang beat Kim Gi Jung andShin Baek Chol 15-12, 7-15, 15-12.

India's Ajay Jayaram then hit back for theWarriors, hammering Malaysian shuttler ChongWei Feng 15-8, 15-13 in what was the Blaster'strump match.

Chong Wei Feng, who came into the matchat the back of a win against World No 15 Vincent,was entrusted with playing the Blasters' trumpmatch against Jayaram.

However, he could not continue his winningmomentum as he lost out to the Indian in straightgames 15-8, 15-13.

Chong Wei Feng couldn't cope with Jayaram'simpressive defense and impeccable net play andcommitted a series of unforced errors on his fore-hand to give away the first game 15-8 in a fair-ly easy manner.

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Members of your family'solder generations likegrandparents, great-aunts,

and great-uncles have many fasci-nating stories of growing up in dif-ferent eras. Have your kids askthem what life was like in yester-year and use a tape, digital, or videorecorder to capture their tales,voices, and expressions. Then turnthe microphone around andencourage older family members totake turns interviewing someone,including the kids. By collectingpersonal anecdotes and memories,you'll have a time capsule of fam-ily history. As kids learn about theirheritage, they can start thinkingabout their own legacies. Transcribethe interviews to create a book ora CD of photos for a slide show toaccompany the interviews.

There is no greater happinessthan having children. But ifresearch is to be believed, thetruth is rather less optimistic.Spending time with your nearestand dearest makes us far less happythan being with our friends, accord-ing to a survey.

You’ll find that the ways yourfamily is important changethroughout your life, from chang-ing your nappies, to chauffeuringyou around and teaching you todrive. From providing a shoulderto cry on when your first boyfriendor girlfriend breaks your heart toteaching you how to care for yourown children and needing yoursupport as you get older.

However and whenever youneed them, the people you call fam-ily will be there – but it takes effort.

Building the bonds betweenfamily members can be instanta-neous, or it can take work

Don’t just assume it will hap-pen. Just like the meeting you talkabout but never book, there’s alwaysa risk it will fall between thecracks.

Whether it’s a promise to eatdinner together every night (at thetable, not in front of the TV), or aweekly excursion to a museum orthe park, schedule family timeand make plans around it.

It’s easy to think ‘we see eachother all the time, we can do itanother time’, but once you fall outof the routine, it’s much harder toschedule it back in there.Remember that this is not time youget to opt out of.

It’s a lot easier to spend timetogether when you are all doingsomething you enjoy. So take thetime to find out what you all liketo do – or activities you can do withone of your children on their own.

It might be that you support asports team or decide to train fora charity run together.

Or you may find that spend-ing time in the garden or teachingthem to ride a bike suits you more.If you work long hours, try to eatbreakfast in the morning withthem or curl up for a bedtime story– even ten minutes of quality timeis better than nothing!

We’ve all become quite profi-cient at multi-tasking in our busylives, but spending quality timewith your family means notanswering the phone or checkingemails.It means not reading a mag-

azine while you’re watching PeppaPig – we know she can be tedious,but engaging with your child isimportant! Knowing you are laugh-ing alongside them or asking ques-tions at the end means they feel likeyou’re a bigger part of somethingthey enjoy.

Be a role model. Don’t forgetthat your every move is beingwatched. If family time is importantto you, your children are more like-ly to want to join in. So if you wantyour child to join in, lead by exam-ple! If you spend all your time onthe phone during family time,you’re giving them the impressionthat they can pull out their handheld games and not participateeither.

Surprise family members with"holidays" tailored to each person-ality. Just like birthdays and conven-tional holidays, pack these dayswith unique traditions and specialfoods. Thecelebrations can also beclever and unexpected ways tohonor each person.

Encourage everyone to gettheir hands dirty by digging a patchto plant flowers or vegetables in thebackyard. Tuck tender seedlingsinto the ground and watch themgrow and blossom -- like your kidsare doing every day. As they witnessgreen shoots turn into stunningplants, your whole family will gaina new respect for the natural world,all while learning patience and per-severance as you divvy up the tasksof keeping the garden weed-free,well-watered, and strong. And ifsomeone squeals upon discoveringa squirmy garden worm? That's a

hilarious family moment for thescrapbook.

The kitchen is the symbolicheart of a home, the place whereeveryone comes together to smellsimmering sauces, listen to nat-ural chit-chat, and of coursetaste the delicious meals. Eat din-ner together at least three to fournights a week, and you'll bedoing your family a favor:Studies show that kids who dinefrequently with their families eatmore fruits and vegetables, aremore willing to try new dishes,and are even less likely to expe-rience depression or eating dis-orders. Regular dinnertime con-versations are also linked withmore open communicationbetween kids and parents.

You might not be the type toplay family football in the yardas having a regular game time isa terrific opportunity to teachlessons about playing by therules and losing -- or winning -- gracefully. Think about thesports that would benefit yourfamily dynamic and the interestsof all the kids. Does everyone likein door or out doors sports?Recreational or extreme sports?Consider trips to the bowlingalley, mini golf course, battingcage, or indoor climbing wall. Ortry new and unfamiliar sportssuch as croquet and bocce. Evenif no one is a fitness buff, anykind of physical activity, from asimple game of catch to a Frisbeetoss to a walk around town, isfun, healthy, and the foundationof teamwork.

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Noises in the dark disturb the newlyweds in the shortfilm The Cot, a humorous take on a bed which is cen-

turies old making bizarre noises. The fallout is due to anover-anxious husband unable to consummate the mar-riage. Directed by Gaurav Bakshi, the film is a must watchfor the comic element brought to the fore by the stellarcast — Manjari Phadnis and Rahul Bagga.

Sarla, a housewife is miffed with her husband whenhe is distracted from sex by a small squeak (chun-chunsound) emerging from a wooden cot, which makes himbelieve that his parents are listening to them. The audi-ence is privy to his daydreams that not just his parentsbut the police, watchmen and some neighbours are sur-rounding him. In spite of Sarla’s con-stant nagging (with the result that hestarts having nightmares of a divorce),he is unable to get the cot replaced ashis parents’ emotions are attached toit. But one day when he comes homehe is surprised to see the bedreplaced, with the old one beingshifted to his parents’ room. Excited,they finish the dinner soon but when they try to getintimate, he hears the same noise again. On close obser-vation, they figure out that this time it is coming

from the adjacent room. Phadnis spilt beans on how she was

approached for this role. “I have had a long rela-tionship with Humara Movie productions whohave produced this film, owing to the few shortfilms I have done with them. So, when they weremaking this film, they approached me and that’show I got on board. I loved the script and Sarla’scharacter the moment I read it. It was reallyhumorous.” The film has been nominated forFilmfare Short Film Awards and she has herfingers crossed, hoping that it will get itsdue.

Added she, “My only concern was thathow would my parents react to this boldportrayal and how would it be made? But,Gaurav Bakshi is a sensible director withgreat aesthetics. So, I decided to trusthim and follow his instincts. It gave mean opportunity to play a character thatno one imagined me in, includingmyself. I found the role challenging asan actress and took it on.”

The three-day shoot was like arollercoaster ride and Phadnis had anenjoyable time trying new things forit. “We all decided that we are going tohave a blast, enjoy the moment whileshooting it and not think too much.” Theshooting was not a difficult aspect,however, convincing herself for it was.She even donned the singer’s hat as it’sher sensuous voice in the song thatcomes at the end. “I was supposedto sing it in a sultry voice, thewords were funny but had to besung seriously,” she said.

She trusted Bakshi with hisfilmmaking skills and he wouldmake it look classy (not shoddy) andpresent it decently. “I had faith inmyself as an actress that I will make surethat she maintains sophistication,” she said.She warned her parents about this role andtold them not to disown her for her choice.

Recalling a funny incident, Phadnissaid, “I got a call from the producers thatthis film has been nominated forFilmfare Short Film Awards. I was busywith the rehearsal of a play, Double DealReloaded and hadn’t watched the finalcut of the movie. So, I saw the film quitelate, tucked in bed with headphones onand watched it quietly. My parents had

come down from Pune to meet me and I wanted to makesure that I could show it to them.”

However, she didn’t. “My mother saw the film whenI shared it on a social networking site for people to votefor it. And she said, ‘I like the film’, my dad has still notspoken about it but interestingly, he has shared it on hisfacebook account. I am proud of them for always beingsupportive of my choices.”

She believes that the issue of lack of privacy is preva-lent in our country as the culture of a nuclear family stillhasn’t seeped in. In most cases, newly-wedded coupleslive with their parents in small houses or joint family. But,nobody talks about it and The Cot highlights it in a light-

hearted manner. “Intimacy is aneed and a crucial aspect of aman-woman relationship. It’ssuch a hush-hush thing here,especially when one is livingwith in-laws and they hope thatthe noises stay within the closeddoors. In the film, the bed’snoise is creating a panic situation.”

Sarla aptly portrays a modern Indian woman who hasher needs and is vocal about it. Phadnis agrees to it

and added that woman have the right to speakwithout any hesitation about their physical

needs to their partners. Beyond Cot, Phadnis believes in choos-

ing films which have interesting content tooffer to the audience and the ones backedby a strong production team. “I look at thesetup first as it’s important that the filmis backed by a good production house sothat it is marketed well.” This is some-thing she has realised during the last few

years in the industry.“I give a lot of importance to

script and it has always been myfirst priority. It does happen attimes that one chooses a scriptseeing solely the content but if thesetup is not good, the film can godown the drain with our effortsas it’s not presented and pro-moted well,” added Phadnis.Though this is not always thecase as she sometimes goesby her instincts, one suchfilm was Warning, pro-duced by Anubhav Sinha.

The actress is keen to workin a full-fledged romantic

comedy with a good script.Directors Imtiaz Ali and

Rajkumar Hirani are on herwishlist and she can give anarm and a leg to work withthem. Phadnis thinks that

predominantly she is a sponta-neous actor. “I have evolved as an

actress since the time I started mycareer with Rok Sako Toh Rok Lo. Myjourney has been slower than I wouldhave liked it to be but it’s still a beauti-ful one. I have met some wonderful peo-ple along the way as opposed to whatI heard before coming into the indus-try, all the scary stories that people feedinto your system. I feel that becauseBollywood is so glamourised, the neg-ative stories are more interesting to hear.

“And people don’t really care aboutthe positives. It’s not a fairy tale land but

has pros and cons like every otherindustry.” Her forthcoming projectsinclude a murder mystery — Nirdosh thatwill release on January 19 and a dark com-edy titled Baa Baa Black Sheep, which willrelease later this year.

With intense physical presence, actorNonso Alozie defied cultural bar-

riers to embark on a journey toHollywood. Celebrated for his roles inglobal hits like Game of Thrones,Rocknrolla, Cindrella, The Grey andConan the Barbarian, the British actorof Nigerian Descent is excited about therelease of Zoo premiering on AXN onJanuary 8. Based on a best seller byauthor James Patterson, the show chron-icles a wave of violent animal attacksagainst humans. The narrative revolvesaround an apocalyptic event in which agene called defiant pupil in animals haskicked in, causing them to attack thehuman population. The burden falls onzoologist Jackson Oz (James Wolk), jour-nalist Jamie Campbell (Kristen Conolly),safari guide Abraham Kenyatta (NonsoAlozie), intelligence agent ChloeTousignant (Nora Arnezeder) andpathologist Mitch Morgan (Billy Burke)to develop a cure.

Anozie was born in Camden,London. In the summer of 2002, heplayed the lead role in WilliamShakespeare’s King Lear and won the IanCharleson award in 2004 for his perfor-mance in Othello. With the production

company, Shadow Arts, the actor plansto eventually write and direct, both forthe stage and film. He wants to produceNigerian cinema to share stories of peo-ple to understand and comprehend thedifficulties and struggles of ethnicminority.

Portraying the role of AbrahamKenyatta (Abe) in the show was a greatexperience for the actor. “I enjoyed play-ing the character on various levels.Every week on the show, there is aunique storyline and a different animalthat is causing problems all over theworld and we have to tackle the situa-

tion,” he said. The actor feels that thewriters have done a great job in pickingthe cast and the audience would be trulyintrigued and entertained by every sin-gle episode. “The creative brains, JoshApplebaum, Jeff Pinkner, Andre Nemecand Scott Rosenberg have achievedgreat things in their own right,” he adds.The character sketch has been developedin a way that the excitement and sus-pense come alive in every episode. In theshow, Abe is Jackson’s best friend andpartner when giving tours around thebush in Botswana. They share an inter-esting chemistry off screen as well,

talking and hanging out after work. “Weworked together on the first day andclicked instantly.”

There are a lot of extraordinaryscenes in the series like the spoon manmassacre, the Antarctic bat attack and

the wolf pack jail bust, to name a few.But the most memorable scene for theactor was when the secret of his past isrevealed. “I can never forget the momentas it gave me the opportunity to tap intothe emotions and history of the charac-

ter,” he said.As an actor, you come across vari-

ous challenges like self doubt and uncer-tainty from your peers. There are timeswhen you have no money and no workbut you have to pay rent. In order to sus-tain, you have to slog on various kindsof projects. Said Abe, “The pros far out-weigh the cons. In life, we need to havechallenges to create some of our bestwork”. Recognising inequalities thatstill exist for his particular skin colour,he believes that there are more oppor-tunities available today. “In 2010, therewere far less opportunities for actorsfrom minority backgrounds to feature inmainstream movies but after six years,here we are and things have changed alot,” he said.

The series is a blend of fantasy, sci-fi and drama where individualsfrom all walks of life can experience andenjoy the intricacies. While most dramas are about family, relationshipsand situations, this series offers you something rare. The selection of talent coupled with Patterson’s writingsuggests that Zoo will impact the viewers with an unsettling anticipationand tension.

With a major focus onenvironment and climatechange, the 45th edition

of New Delhi World Book Fairwill begin today.

Co-organised by the NationalBook Trust (NBT) and ITPO, theTheme Pavilion will highlightvarious environment-relatedissues like climate change, globalwarming, water pollution andother relevant matters. Said NBTChairperson Baldeo Bhai Sharma:“Environment is a topic whichneeds to be given more attention.We need to focus more on thissubject, generate more awarenessfor our better future. An especial-ly a theme Pavilion has beendesigned this year from environ-mental-friendly material like bam-boo, cane, jute and others.”

The fair also marks the returnof a publisher from Pakistan as lastyear only one distributor had setup a stall. However, Sharmasought to downplay this, statingthat there are many other interna-tional publishers participating inthe book fair and urged visitors toshow equal interest in them.

“Why focus only on Pakistan?There are so many publishersfrom India who have good booksin Urdu; there are many publish-ers from abroad who have goodofferings. The focus should be onall the publishers participating atthe book fair,” Sharma said.

With 13 lakhs individualsushered in last year, the organis-ers have greater expectations thisyear. With an effort to preach HarHaath Ek Kitaab to the youth, “Wehave roped in Akashvani andDoordarshan as our broadcastpartners. All FM channels willpublicise the event. Even autos and

billboards will carry the ad.” To spread awareness among

the masses, a theme calendar hasbeen designed for distributionon important aspects like cleanli-ness and safeguarding animals,birds, water, air and trees. Tostrengthen Prime minister’s BetiBachao, Beti Padhao initiative,publishing courses and MahilaLekhan Protsahan Yojna have beenintroduced exclusively for women.“Our traditions respect womanand their opinions. To help themmove ahead, we need to create anatmosphere with positive percep-tions. Only through their writingscan we understand their strugglesbetter and improve the livingconditions”, said he.

The annual book fair will seearound 800 publishers from acrossthe country in different languages.The event, spread over 30,000 sqm, will have more than 1,500stalls. However, NBT DirectorRita Chowdhary told that thenumber of stalls have marginallyreduced because of the renovation

work at Pragati Maidan. “We havereceived large number of applica-tions for participation this year,but we couldn’t allot stalls to all.The space has been reduced com-pared to last year because of theconstruction work. This has cer-tainly affected us,” Chowdharystated.

This edition will see theEuropean Union as the Guest ofHonour. The specially designedEU pavilion will showcase the richand dynamic European cultureand literature. The EU memberstates will exhibit select publica-tions in English and otherEuropean languages and willorganise panel discussions, talks,workshops, children’s activities,screening of short films, specialphoto exhibits as well as culturaland musical performances.International writers like PalleSchmidt, JL Morin, DavidFeonkinos, Dorothea Nürnberg,Norman Ohler, Evald Flisar, DavidMachado and Osvalds Zebris willgrace the event.

Apart from the EuropeanUnion, the fair will also see partic-ipation from other countries likeEgypt, Mexico, Nepal, Sri Lanka,UAE, Britain and others.

The book fair will also have apavilion dedicated to readingmaterial for children. The pavil-ion will have a number of activi-ties like seminars, panel discus-sions, storytelling sessions, work-shops on creative writing andillustrations among others will beorganised by the National Centrefor Children’s Literature, a wing ofNBT.

Special performances havebeen organised for each day whichwill showcase India’s traditional as

well asclassical art forms. SonalMansingh, first Indian womandancer to be awarded PadmaBhushan will choreograph a classical fusion piece on conserva-tion of our natural resources. MaliniAwasthi will sing folksongs inHindi dialects like Awadhi and Budelkhand spreading sacredmessages of our ancestors. BaldevAnand Sagar, a broadcaster at AllIndia Radio will present a specialshow for booklovers and childrenin Sanskrit. Anupam Mishra, the author of the bestseller Aaj Bhi Khare hain Taalab was anenvironmentalist, water conserva-tionist, Gandhian and journalistwho recently passed away. As a trib-ute to his incredible work, a doc-umentary will be screened and aseminar on his l i fe wil l also be unveiled. From the time ofRigveda, our age old sages have been chanting mantras thathave helped trees grow and flour-ish. With a display panel, themantras will echo in the openspace.

The author’s corner will fea-ture prominent literary faces likeRuskin Bond, Rakshanda Jalil,Jairam Ramesh, Seema Mustafa,Jerry Pinto, Michael Creighton,Paro Anand, Bulbul Sharma, PrernaBindra, Ranjit Lal, Gillian Wrightand many others.

With an aim to impart knowl-edge and instill the habit of read-ing among individuals from the ageof six to sixty, this event will be anexploratory journey for beginnersand a celebration of literature foravid readers.

(Tickets will be available atPragati Maidan Gate number 1and 10.)

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Page 15: C M Y K - The Pioneer Zuari Agro, Coromandel Fertilisers, Deepak Fertilisers, Petrochemicals Corp and ... Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan presented Durgadas Ambadas Mule

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Abit of tissue paper, a scrap of oldfabric, rice paper — it is art thatis certainly unusual. The concept

is out-of-the-box where art is createdusing raw materials such as jute threadsand sacks available at home and there isthe elaborate use of burnt wooden paperas the backdrop. The unusual exhibitionwith around 10 paintings, called Infinity,by Vipin Singh Rajput will be up for pub-lic viewing at Triveni Art Gallery tillJanuary 7.

One piece of work titled Bastargrabbed considerable attention. “Itstheme is inspired by one of the real lifeencounters I had with Naxalites and atribal community wherein the workdepicts the terrifying situation prevailingbetween both the communities in Bastar.The red base colour in the painting sym-bolises the Naxalite and on the other sidegreen signifies the territory of tribals. Thejute sacks and nomadic dots (tradition-al art of tribal community) is used toenhance its mood,” he asserted.

The artist hails from a small towncalled Bastar in Chhattisgarh. He had noclear vision about his goals nor any finan-cial support when he first stepped intothe field. But over a period of time, Rajputhas established himself as a renownedartist who has showcased his work inIndia as well as abroad. “Initially, I wasunclear about what I wanted in life. It wasa challenging phase where I had no fam-ily support or a stable livelihood. I start-ed doing odd jobs to earn a living. Thingstook a turn for the better when one of myclose friends insisted that I learn art pro-fessionally since he was aware that I waspassionate about it,” revealed Rajput.

The most innovative aspect of hispresentation was that the artworks wereframed on partially burnt wooden paper.This was inspired by an event where hewitnessed an attack by the Naxals wherethe houses were put on fire.

However, burning paper to achievethe desired shape was a painstakingprocess. He noted, “While burning, I did-n’t have any prior image set in head about

the shape I wanted. It’s just that I keptburning it until I reached at the designthat suited me best and eventually useda wet cloth to stop the flames.”

The artist has always been inclinedto produce unique and innovative art-works influenced by observations andexperiences. “My paintings are general-ly unique as I prefer using basic house-hold materials for my art. In some of mypaintings, I have used an old saree of mymother, old jute sack of labourers, wastepapers and unwanted torn fabrics to keep

my work grounded”.Coming from an underprivileged

family, Rajput managed to showcase hiswork at different local exhibitions andthat is when he got a scholarship to visitEurope under Camlin Euro Art Tour(2015) to explore the international art.“This exposed me to a variety of expe-riences and helped me to explore art. Itshaped my vision and work to focus moreon creativity”. He further shared that theconcept of jute was one such idea that heincorporated in his artworks, inspired by

the Albert Bury’sexhibit and considers him as his inspi-ration. Rajput has travelled throughEurope, Rome, France, Paris and Veniceto explore the international art exhibi-tions which gave him ample opportuni-ties to enhance his thoughts and innova-tions.

Sharing his thoughts about the

advantage of art exhibitions,Rajput believes that solo exhi-

bitions give an artist andviewers more space to inter-act, communicate as well asto express the stories behindthe painting whereas groupexhibitions are morereserved and lack in selfrecognition.

In the era of contempo-rary art, the artist has his

own definition about it andhe emphasised that, “To me

contemporary art doesn’t meanthe use of new techniques and

materials in paintings but to use tra-ditional material like jute sack, leather

in such a creative form to give it shapeof contemporary art.” The artist tries topreserve Indian culture in his work toeasily make people relate to his imagina-tion through his keen observation of ele-ments of nature, variation in colors,human emotions, character and thoughtsof people around him.

The artist is now prepping for hisforthcoming exhibition in Australia.

The Oberoi Group has announced thehighly anticipated reopening of The Oberoi

in the city after comprehensive renovationwhich commenced shortly after the hotel cel-ebrated its Golden Anniversary in 2016. Thehotel was expected to take two years but wascompleted three months ahead of schedule. Themulti-million dollar transformation was direct-ed by the internationally renowned designerAdam D Tihany who took Edward Lutyens’modernist vision as his inspiration.

For over fifty years, the hotel has estab-lished itself as a destination for the world’s mostdiscerning guests; from presidents to globalCEOs and celebrities. Renovations have beenpainstaking, with attention being paid to thefinest details, so that guests have the sensationof ‘coming home’ yet of walking into an entire-ly new hotel.

The 220 rooms, including 34 suites, aremore spacious and luxurious with abundantnatural light. What remains unchanged thoughis the hotel’s enviable location. Striking viewsof Humayun’s Tomb, a UNESCO WorldHeritage Site, and the Delhi Golf Course, India’soldest golf course, can be enjoyed from thehotel. The addition of advanced air filtersthroughout the hotel will provide clean andfresh air.

The hotel has partnered with two interna-tionally acclaimed chefs. At Omya, the newauthentic Indian restaurant with an internation-al flair, diners can enjoy a menu created byacclaimed Chef Alfred Prasad, who held aMichelin star for thirteen years. Chef AndrewWong of the famed “A Wong” Michelin starrestaurant, has designed the menu and is theMentor Chef of the rooftop Chinese restaurant,Baoshuan.

The new rooftop bar, Cirrus9, offers spe-cially curated beverages and panoramic views.Threesixtyo is back with the same fashionableedge that made it the most successful restau-rant in Delhi.

The meetings and events venues feature anew look ballroom, discreet meeting rooms anda 24-hour business centre equipped with cut-ting edge technology.

PRS Oberoi, Executive Chairman, TheOberoi Group said, “We are pleased to re-opena hotel that offers the highest standards of lux-ury and hospitality. The opening is a signifi-cant moment for us. When my late father RaiBahadur MS Oberoi opened the hotel in theautumn of 1965, he wished it to be the most

modern luxury hotel. I am confident that thehotel will continue this tradition.”

Jay Rathore, Vice President and GeneralManager of The Oberoi, New Delhi said,“Everything we have done here is to create anexceptional experience for our guests. From therooms to the dining options, all aspects of thehotel have been honed to offer every guestunparalleled luxury with service which is warmand personalised.”

Wellness offerings include an extensive spamenu with holistic massage and beauty treat-ments that include aromatherapy, Eastern andWestern massages. There is also a sauna, indoorand outdoor temperature controlled swimmingpools and a 24 hour fitness centre with stateof the art equipment.

The principle foundation of the venturewas founded 80 years ago are firmly instilledin the hearts and minds of all employees;integrity, consideration and the conviction toalways place the guest above all else. Thesetreasured principles accompanied by leg-endary service delivered by an attentive andcaring team will make the hotel the preferredchoice for business and leisure travellers whodesire the best.

Tim Burton, the outrageous visionary who tookus to amazing places that can only be described

as cinematic nirvana through his film, MissPeregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.

�Did your childhood inspire you to be filmmak-er?

Yes, I think that you really are formed by what impresses you, what makes an impression on you when you’re younger. Even though I like the new movies, those old ones are part of whatinspires you. When artists say they are inspired bythings in their life or early life, I get that it’s some-thing that never quite leaves you. That’s why Iexplore certain themes and ideas because that iswho I am.

�Did you always like unusual bed time stories?I liked monster movies which sort of formed

bed time stories to me. But it’s certain that thosefilms were like weird bed time stories.

�What were the challenges you faced while adapt-ing the book?

I think adapting a book which people like isalways a challenge. This one was a particular one,one of the things I liked was the way Ransom Riggsconstructed a story around these photographsbecause obviously you are making amovie, you have to condense things,make things different. Ransom was verysupportive of these things.

�What fuses your creative juices?In a world where there is so much

chaos, it’s nice to take a deep breatheand clear your mind by not think-ing about anything. Have a little cleansing moment, where one justobserve things, take a moment andlook at things from a different per-spective.

�How was it like working withsuch an impressive cast?

I like to work with different peo-ple. In this particular case, I lovedworking with Eva. Since I’ve alwayswanted to work with SamJackson so that was a dreamcome true. Judi Denchand Terrence Stamp aregreat actors, and thebest thing aboutthem is that theyreally inspire you.

�Tell us moreabout the film?

They are somany elementsthat I love in thisfilm. But the idea ofthem being labeledas peculiar is ratherdisturbing. However,what I liked the most isthat all the kids have theirpeculiarities but if you arenot aware of them, they’re likenormal kids you know. Also thecharacter of Jake, has all the feelings of ateenager — the feeling that you don’t fit intothe society, seeing monsters, the dilemma ofwhether they are real or not. But I certainly connected with him, especially because when you’re alone, you don’t feel like a part ofthe world.

�What did you love most about the film?The thing I love the most is that with all their

peculiarities, they are basically real kids — the sortof theme I like. Everybody used to think that beingpeculiar is bad but I always thought that it was goodbecause these children are quite, soft spoken, lone-ly, emotional, sensitive and artistic at the same time.According to me, the word peculiar is a synonym

of positivity.

�From CGI to sop motion there aremany elements in the film, what wasthat like?

In this particular film we had morelive locations, real houses and a lot ofit was for several reasons. It was mixedbecause not all the kids were accustomedto movie sets. So, rather than puttingthem in front of a green screen it wasimportant that they feel like they werea part of the house. Also, the film hassuch fantastic elements that it wasimportant to try and make it look as real

as possible. We had a real house, we didreal stunts, all the kids wanted to do their

own stunts because that was the mostexciting thing to do, and it helped as it was part of the story. We did a few stopmotion sequences, probably would’vedone more but it was very time consum-ing. When you are actually shooting in areal house, it not only helps the cast but alsothe crew.

�What did you think about the book?Once I had a look at the illustrations, I fell

in love with it. I love photographs and when onelooks at them it gives a strange feeling — myste-

rious, creepy hauntings or sometimes poetic.When, I read the book at last, I was blown awayby how he constructed the book around these pho-tographs?

�How did you maintain the balance in the film,so that it’s neither too crazy nor too creepy?

Well I always like a mixture of things so evenin all the creepy stuff I always try to add somehumour. So it’s a mixture of things, but I never dosomething just to make it seem weird.

�What is the message the film is trying to con-vey?

All I want people to understand is that oneshould embrace the positive side of themselves. Anddon’t think of yourself as a negative character.

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children airson January 14 at 1:00pm and 9pm on Star Moviesand Star Movies HD

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Serena Williams' decision not to defendher Australian Open title four monthsafter giving birth to her first child had

nothing to do with merely being able to playat Melbourne Park.

The seven-time Australian Open cham-pion confirmed Friday she wouldn't attemptto defend the title she won here last year, say-ing she wasn't convinced she could win it.

Williams played in an exhibition tour-nament last weekend in Abu Dhabi to test hermatch condition, and indicated after her lossto French Open champion Jelena Ostapenkothat she might not travel to Melbourne.

"After competing in Abu Dhabi I realizedthat although I am super close, I'm not whereI personally want to be," Williams said in astatement Friday. "My coach and team alwayssaid 'Only go to tournaments when you areprepared to go all the way.' I can compete -but I don't want to just compete, I want to dofar better than that and to do so, I will needa little more time.

"With that being said, and even thoughI am disappointed about it, I've decided notto compete in the Australian Open this year."

Williams was pregnant when she won atMelbourne Park last year, her Open-erarecord 23rd Grand Slam singles title. She gavebirth to her daughter, Alexis Olympia, inSeptember.

Williams didn't drop a set while winninglast year's title, and her victory helped herregain the world No 1 ranking.

The 36-year-old Williams needs only onemore major title to equal the all-time recordheld by Margaret Court, who won 13 of her24 Grand Slam titles before the Open erabegan in 1968.

Three women have returned after havingbabies to win Grand Slam singles titles in theOpen era, including Court and fellowAustralian Evonne Goolagong Cawley, whowon the 1977 Australian Open seven monthsafter giving birth to daughter, Kelly, and addedher second Wimbledon title in 1980.

Kim Clijsters returned from retirementafter having a daughter, Jada Elle, in February2008, and won the 2009 US Open in her thirdtournament back.

Williams' withdrawal came less than 24hours after fellow former world No 1 AndyMurray withdrew from the men's event witha chronic hip injury.

Other star players, including top-rankedRafael Nadal, six-time champion NovakDjokovic and 2014 winner Stan Wawrinka,also are dealing with injuries.

Williams last year beat older sister Venus

in the final. In terms of total years, it was theoldest Grand Slam women's final in the Openera -Williams sisters combining for 71 years,11 months.

Venus has returned and is playing inSydney next week to prepare for theAustralian Open, which begins January 15.

Serena will sit one out, but is promisingto return in future.

"The memory of last year's Open is one

that I will carry with me, and Olympia and Ilook forward to coming back again," she said."I appreciate the support and understandingof my fans and everyone at the AustralianOpen."

Tournament director Craig Tiley saidSerena Williams waited as long as she couldbefore letting organizers know she wouldn'tbe able to compete.

"I've been in constant contact with Serenaand her team and know this is why she haspushed it and pushed it until the 11th hourto make her final decision," he said.Organizers later announced that FrenchOpen semifinalist Timea Bacsinszky had alsowithdrawn after failing to recover in time fol-lowing surgery on her right hand inSeptember.

With Serena Williams out, the women'ssingles title at Melbourne appears to be wideopen. No 1-ranked Simona Halep and No 3Caroline Wozniacki are bidding to win theirfirst Grand Slam singles titles.

Also in the mix will be No 2-rankedGarbine Muguruza, last year's Wimbledonwinner, US Open champion Sloane Stevensand Venus Williams, who will be aiming towin her eighth major singles title at the ageof 37.

����� ��������������� ������ ����C������C�����Defending champion KaterinaSiniakova defeated Maria Sharapova 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 on Friday in her first meeting withthe five-time major winner to reach thefinal of the Shenzhen Open.

The sixth-seeded Siniakova hit 10 aces toset up a final on Saturday with top-rankedSimona Halep, who beat fourth-seeded Irina-Camelia Begu 6-1, 6-4.

"I'm so happy," Siniakova said. "Youcould see the emotions after I finally won thelast point. It was a tough match for me, andeven tougher to close it."

Sharapova, who is set for a return to theAustralian Open which starts on January 15,struggled with her serve, double faulting fivetimes. Sharapova missed last year's tourna-ment during a doping ban that dated back toa failed test for meldonium at Melbourne Parkin 2016.

In the first semifinal in Shenzhen onFriday, Halep had 15 winners and four ser-vice breaks as she maintained her perfectrecord against her doubles partner, improv-ing to 6-0 against Begu.

"It was a tough match, I know that she'sa very strong player and in the second set, youcould see that she was improving her game,"Halep said. "I was strong enough to hit theball (well) in the end."

�� �� ��-7�

Two penalties helped Real Madridto a healthy 3-0 win in the first leg

of their Copa Del Rey tie with second-tier Numancia on Thursday, whileBarcelona were held to a 1-1 draw asthe La Liga giants rested their stars.

Gareth Bale was one of a handfulof Real first-team regulars on displayat the Estadio Los Pajaritos, and wason hand to slot home the first from thepenalty spot ten minutes before thebreak after Lucas Vazques was clum-sily brought down in the box byCarlos Gutierrez.

They survived a serious scare inthe 76th minute when Inigo Perezsnatched the ball from MarcosLlorente and launched a 40-yard shotover the head of keeper Kiko Casillathat thumped the crossbar and cameagonisingly close to crossing the line.

Real sealed the win with anotherspot kick a minute from the end, againwon by Vasquez but this time slammedhome by substitute Isco, and BorjaMayoral completed the rout a minutelater with a close range header.

"We had a few problems in the sec-ond half but it's the result that counts,"said Real coach Zinedine Zidane. "It'sa good result for us."

Shorn of attacking stars LionelMessi and Luis Suarez, Barca coachErnesto Valverde also left out captainAndres Iniesta and others includinggoalkeeper Ter Stegen, centre-backSamuel Umtiti and midfielder Ivan

Rakitic from the starting line-up fortheir match at Celta.

However striker OusmaneDembele made his first appearance, asa 71st-minute substitute, since tearinghis hamstring at Getafe on September16, just three games into his Barcacareer following a 105-million-euro($124 million) move from BorussiaDortmund.

Despite the raft of absences Barcatook the lead after 15 minutes througha neat Jose Arnaiz finish, but after abright start they ceded control to thehosts.

Celta hit back 16 minutes laterthrough Pione Sisto, who reactedquickest after Iago Aspas hit the barfrom close range and rifled a shot pastBarca keeper Jasper Cillessen from atight angle to give his side a chance inthe return leg at the Camp Nou nextThursday.

In Thursday's other matches,Leganes beat Villareal 1-0, thanks toan Nordin Amrabat goal while strikesfrom José Luis Morales and IvanLopez Álvarez saw Levante comeback from a goal down to win 2-1 atEspanyol.

���� 7: �6

Singam Subash Singh scored a brace tohelp NEROCA FC register a 2-1 win

over Indian Arrows and move up to thesecond position in the Hero I-League,here on Friday.

A first-half brace by Subash Singh(39th, 45th minutes) helped NEROCAoutplay a young Indian Arrows side forthe majority of the game.

Birthday boy Abhijit Sarkar (89th)scored a late consolation goal for theArrows but it couldn't deter the GiftRaikhan-coached team from bagging allthree points at the Khuman LampakMain Stadium.

Young Prabshukhan Singh Gill con-tinued to stand in between the posts forthe Arrows. Up front, Rahim Ali wasdeployed centrally and had supportfrom Nongdamba Naorem and RahulKannoly Praveen on the flanks.

Nigerian striker Felix Chidi lead theline for the home side, with AkhlidinIsrailov in the attacking midfielder posi-

tion. Seasoned striker Subash Singhstarted the game on the left wing.

Felix Chidi was at the forefront ofmost of NEROCA's forays forward. TheNigerian striker, at the half-hour mark,attempted an audacious overhead kick onYumnam Singh's cross from the right. Hefailed to connect properly andPrabshukhan heaved a sigh of relief.

NEROCA's efforts paid off in the39th minute. Akhlidin Israilov releaseda well-weighted through-ball into thepath of Subash Singh who chippedPrabshukhan with aplomb.

Subash Singh doubled his tally at thestroke of half-time with another confi-dent finish and this time, it was FelixChidi who turned provider.

Chidi split the Arrows defence andthe Manipur-born forward slotted theball into the net to end the half with atwo-goal lead for NEROCA.

Luis Norton de Matos replacedSanjeev Stalin with Naorem at the break.The change failed to influence proceed-ings as NEROCA started the second half

from where they left off at the break.Subash Singh sliced a cross into the

box wide of goal in the 53rd minute asthe home side kept up the pressure.

Akhlidin Israilov, the playmakerfrom the Kyrgyz Republic, almost madeit 3-0 as his piledriver from outside thebox struck the crossbar soon after thehour-mark.

Arrows full-back Boris Singh surgedforward and chipped a cross into the cen-tre of the box from the right flank in the75th minute. But it failed to reach theintended target, much like most of theArrows' deliveries into the box on theday.

Boris Singh's late sliding tackle onsubstitute Nedo Turkovic in the 82nd

minute resulted in a spot-kick for thehome side.

Jean Fabien Vorbe hit the net initiallybut was asked to take it again by the ref-eree as Kallon crossed the line before thekick was taken. On the second go, hestruck the bar preventing further miseryfor the Arrows.

Arrows substitute Abhijit Sarkartapped in Rahul Praveen's cross to con-jure some hope for his side in the dyingminutes but it was too late for a magi-cal comeback as NEROCA pocketed fullpoints.

With this win, Neroca FCleapfrogged Minerva Punjab FC to thesecond spot with 14 points from sevenmatches whereas Indian Arrows will stayat the seventh position with as manypoints but having played one matchmore.

Indian Arrows will now travel toShillong to play Shillong Lajong onJanuary 8 and Neroca FC will travel toCoimbatore to clash against ChennaiCity FC one day later.

���� A�-�& 7

Former Pakistan captain Salman Butt and dis-carded wicketkeeper-batsman Kamran Akmal

have called on Pakistan selectors to show the sameconsistency as their Indian counterparts do whilepicking the national team.

Butt and Kamran feel that Indian selectors, com-pared to their Pakistani counterparts, show moreconsistency in giving chances to their players.

"India shows more consistency in allowing theirplayers to play top-level cricket," Butt noted.

"Rohit Sharma's batting average was around 25and 30 at one stage but the Indian selectors gave himconsistent chances and today he has become a worldclass performer," Butt said.

Butt and Kamran also felt that one reason forPakistani not producing the same quality batting asIndia was because of the inconsistent nature of pitch-es used in the first class matches.

"You need to have pitches in domestic cricketwhere batsmen can build their innings and stay forlong. This is only way to give them confidence andprepare them for international cricket," Kamran said.

He noted that in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, thepremier first class event that just concluded, therewere atleast 20 instances where teams were bowledout for less than 100 runs because of the pitches atdifferent venues.

>������������� ���������������������������?Pakistan's former captain and coach Javed

Miandad has called on his country's Cricket Boardto forget about playing India in the near future andinstead focus on improving the game's structure here.

"They don't want to play with us so be it. Ourcricket will not die if we don't play with India. Weshould move on and forget about them," Miandadtold the media at a function in Karachi.

The veteran of 124 Tests said there was no needfor the PCB to "beg" the BCCI for bilateral match-es.

"They haven't played against us since the last 10years, so what? Has our cricket gone down? no wehave done well. The Champions Trophy win is anexample. Cricket cannot die in Pakistan. We havealso survived without international cricket at homesince 2009," he pointed out.

India and Pakistan have not played bilateralcricket since 2012 owing to political tensionsbetween the two countries after the 2008 Mumbaiterror attacks.

� �� )-7$)�#5

Grigor Dimitrov hurdled the net tocheck on the welfare of his rival and

then help him to a courtside chair for treat-ment. Two games later, the defendingchampion had secured his spot in theBrisbane International semifinals.

Top-seeded Dimitrov beat KyleEdmund 6-3, 6-7 (3), 6-4 in the quarter-finals on Friday to set up a meeting withNo 3-seeded Nick Kyrgios, who rebound-ed for a 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 win over former final-ist Alexandr Dolgopolov.

It was Dimitrov's show of concern forEdmund that brought the crowd to its feetat Pat Rafter Arena. At 4-4 in the third set,Edmund tumbled to the court, clutchinghis right ankle with both hands.

Dimitrov leaped over the net from hisside of the court and raced to helpEdmund as he writhed in pain behind thebaseline at the other end, giving theBritish player a hand to get up and thenhelping him limp to the side of the court.

"At the end of the day, health above all(matters). It's very unfortunate what hap-pened," Dimitrov said of Edmund's injury."I've seen this too many times. I know thefeeling. I really hope he gets better.

"In the last two games he wasn't at hisbest. I just had to find a way again."

Asked if he was concerned about injur-ing himself as he crossed the net, Dimitrovsaid it was something he didn't think twiceabout.

"It was just such an instinct for me,"

he said. "I didn't think, 'OK, I'm just goingto go around the net, or I'm going to gothat post.' It was just like such a naturalinstinct for me to go and jump over.

"I do it sometimes at practice just forfun and all that, but obviously it was dif-ferent circumstances today."

Earlier Friday, Kyrgios had his left kneeheavily taped but didn't appear to be ham-pered as he worked his way into the matchafter dropping the first set in 22 minutes.

Teenage wild-card entry Alex DeMinaur followed up his upset victory overMilos Raonic with a routine 6-4, 6-0 winover Michael Mmoh to reach his first tour-level semifinal. The 18-year-old De Minaurwill play Ryan Harrison, who led 7-6 (6),4-2 when Denis Istomin retired from theirquarterfinal match with a hip strain.

���� :@#5

Gilles Simon staged a dramaticcomeback to knock out top seed

and tournament-favourite MarinCilic, making his first ATP WorldTour final in more than two years atthe Tata Open Maharashtra, here onFriday.

In a sensational turnaround, theunseeded Frenchman toppled theworld number six from Croatia 1-6,6-3, 6-2 in a gripping semifinalencounter.

The former world top-10 player,now placed a humble 89th, shruggedoff the opening set debacle to stunCilic, the 2017 Wimbledon finalist, inone hour and 51 minutes.

He will now gun for his 13th ATPtitle, having played his last final inSeptember 2015 when he lost to com-patriot Jo-Wilfred Tsonga at home inMetz.

Cilic, with an intimidating 6'6"frame, was ruthless in the beginningbut Simon effortlessly changed thecomplexion of the game. Fromnowhere, he seized the momentumto rattle Cilic.

His consistent returns, even onthe powerful serves of Cilic, unsettledthe Croat, who started to makeunforced errors and could neverrecover.

Simon came to the match with asuperior 4-1 head-to-head recordagainst Cilic and maintained it. Theylast played in 2016 at the MiamiMasters, where Simon won in athree-setter.

Simon endured a tough 2017 sea-son during which he struggled toreach even quarterfinals on Tour andhis ranking plummeted to 89 from 24at the beginning of the year.

Once ranked world number six,Simon struggled to find his rhythmas his ground strokes were all over theplace in the opening set.

Cilic, as usual, began in an explo-sive manner firing aces and servicewinners while Simon struggled to winpoints on his own serve.

The Frenchman dropped serve atlove in the second game and won onlytwo points in the first three games ofthe match, underlining the dominantstart the Croat made.

After being broken at love, Simonsaved two break chances in thefourth game but netted a backhandon the third while Cilic held his own

to race to a commanding 5-0 lead.Egged on by the crowd and

aided by Cilic's unforced errors,Simon got on board by holding hisserve in the sixth game in which hesaved two set points.

Cilic though remained ruthlessand began serving for the set with an226km ace and closed it with anoth-er on his fourth set point.

In a complete turn around,Simon started to return better in thesecond set.

The Frenchman began to holdhis serve and broke Cilic in the sec-ond game to take a 3-0 lead in the sec-ond set. The break happened in abizarre manner. At 30-30, Simonfound a surprise service return win-ner as Cilic left the ball, thinking it'sgoing out.

On the break point, the Croatnetted a backhand. Simon brokeCilic again when his rival hit a back-hand long on the second breakpoint and found himself leading 4-0.

With momentum on his side,Simon began to dominate rallies ashe stunned Cilic with some amaz-ing winners and served out the setin the ninth game.

With balls becoming heavierafter some hits, Simon mixed it upnicely, sending some short andsome deep returns to engage Cilicin long rallies, enticing errors fromhis opponent to win the match.

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