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A majority of the 1,200 del-egates who called on formerPrime Minister Dr. Manmo-han Singh — heading the Op-position Congress’s J&Kpolicy and planning panel —during his two-day visit toSrinagar, sought “his inter-vention to resolve the Kash-mir issue.”

Speaking to The Hindu,J&K Pradesh Congress Com-mittee chief G.A. Mir saidthe thrust of 60 delegations,comprising 1,200 people,during the interactions withDr. Singh was “resolution ofthe Kashmir issue.”

“Delegates from civil soci-ety referred to the Con-gress’s and Dr. Singh’s pastinitiatives like workinggroups, interlocutors andtalks with Pakistan PresidentPervez Musharraf. Therewas a common refrain thatsuch initiatives lacked fol-low-up. I believe the Con-gress can make it a startingpoint,” said Mr. Mir.

Dr. Singh held a six-hourmeeting on Sunday with law-

yers, traders, writers, partyleaders and leaders of otherOpposition parties.

‘Follow up on demands’ He directed party leaders,comprising Ghulam NabiAzad and Ambika Soni, “tofollow up on the demandsmade by the delegates inNew Delhi once the partystarts to prepare a Kashmirreport.”

Mr. Mir said Dr. Singh was

planning to visit Ladakh too.“We have decided to listento people in the first stage.This exercise will be fol-lowed up vigorously.”

Welcoming the separatistHurriyat’s willingness toback “any meaningful dia-logue,” Mr. Mir said, “TheCongress position is thatNew Delhi should openchannels of dialogue with allstakeholders.”

Manmohan panel asked to‘help resolve Kashmir row’ Members of the public recall Congress’s earlier initiatives

Peerzada Ashiq

Srinagar

Collecting views: Manmohan Singh arriving for an executivecommittee meeting in Srinagar on Saturday. * PTI

CONTINUED ON A PAGE 10

Prime Minister NarendraModi on Sunday dedicatedthe Narmada dam project tothe nation on his birthday,calling it Gujarat’s lifelinethat has been completeddespite many hurdles. Manypeople had “conspired” tostop it so that Gujarat didnot make progress, he said.

Inaugurating the dam forwhich the foundation waslaid by the first Prime Minis-ter Jawaharlal Nehru, Mr.Modi recalled the contribu-tion of Sardar Patel, inwhose memory the projecthas been named, and B.R.Ambedkar, who had propag-ated the benefits of irriga-tion.

There was, however, nomention of Jawaharlal Nehruin his speech at Dabhoi, 55km from the dam site, inVadodara.

Second biggestThe Narmada is the secondbiggest concrete gravity damby volume after the Grand

Coulee Dam in the U.S. andhas faced many hurdles, in-cluding the World Bank’s re-fusal to fund it on grounds ofenvironmental damage anddisplacement of tribalpeople in Madhya Pradesh,Maharashtra and Gujarat.

“No other project in theworld has faced suchhurdles as has the SardarSarovar Dam on the Nar-mada river. But we were de-termined to complete it.Many false allegations werehurled at us. Many people

conspired to stop it. But wewere determined not tomake it a political battle,”Mr. Modi said.

Narmada dam built despiteattempts to stop it, says PMDedicating project to nation, he says many were against Gujarat’s progress

Mahesh Langa

Ahmedabad

Hurdles crossed: Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the inauguration of the Sardar Sarovar Dam at Kevadiya in Narmada district of Gujarat on Sunday. * PTI

GUJARAT WILL SEE A GREEN

REVOLUTION: PM A PAGE 11

MEDHA PATKAR CALLS OFF

JALSATYAGRAHA A PAGE 11

IAF Marshal Arjan Singh

will be laid to rest with

full state honours today

page 7

Modi is bringing about

India’s economic

integration: Amit Shah

page 10

British police make

second arrest over

London train attack

page 12

Sindhu beats Okuhara

to win Korea Open

badminton title

page 15

EDGE A 4 PAGES

DELHI METRO A 4 PAGES

NEARBY

As war clouds gathered overthe Korean peninsula follow-ing the North Korean missiletests, visiting U.S. officialshave asked India to cutdown ties with Pyongyang,senior diplomatic sourceshave said.

American pressure on theissue has been rising over

the last few months even asIndia joined Japan last weekin describing North Korea asa common threat.

An India-Japan joint state-ment issued at the end of Ja-panese Prime MinisterShinzo Abe’s visit last weekcalled upon North Korea toroll back its nuclear and mis-sile programmes.

“They (India and Japan)pledged to work together to

deal with the current serioussituation and called on theinternational community torigorously and fully imple-ment relevant United Na-tions Security Council resol-utions to maximise pressureon North Korea.”

The American messagewas communicated shortlybefore Mr. Abe’s visit.

India under U.S. pressure to scale down ties with North KoreaKallol Bhattacherjee

Suhasini Haidar

NEW DELHI

CONTINUED ON A PAGE 10

Six High Courts in the coun-try are without regular ChiefJustices for the past severalmonths, and at least fourChief Justices of various HighCourts will be retiring in2017.

The acting Chief Justicesin the six High Courts areJustices Nishita Mhatre (Cal-cutta), Gita Mittal (Delhi),

Sanjay Karol (Himachal),D.N. Patel ( Jharkhand), N.Kotiswar Singh (Manipur)and Ramesh Ranganathan inthe High Court of Judicaturefor the States of Telanganaand Andhra Pradesh.

Temporary arrangementActing Chief Justices takeover the responsibilities ofthe top judge of the State ju-diciary as a temporary ar-

rangement. They are meantto fill the vacuum for a shorttime till the formalities forthe appointment of a regularChief Justice are completed.

However, Justice Rangan-athan has been the actingChief Justice of the HighCourt of Telangana andAndhra Pradesh since July30, 2016. That is well over ayear.

Justice Mhatre has been

the acting Chief Justice sinceDecember 1, 2016, JusticeMittal since April 14, 2017,Justice Karol since April 25,2017, Justice Patel since June10, 2017, and Justice Singhsince July 1, 2017.

The year will also see fourcrucial retirements in theState judiciaries. JusticeMhatre is set to retire onSeptember 19.

6 High Courts don’t have regular Chief Justices Krishnadas Rajagopal

NEW DELHI

CONTINUED ON A PAGE 10Gearing up: An artist decorates a pandal ahead of Durga Puja festival in Kolkata on Sunday. * PTI (SEE ALSO PAGE 3)

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Puja shades

AAP �elds former Armyo�cer from GurdaspurCHANDIGARH

The AAP on Sunday named

Maj Gen (retd) Suresh

Khajuria as its candidate for

the Gurdaspur Lok Sabha

by-poll to be held on October

11. The seat fell vacant

following the demise of actor

Vinod Khanna in April.

NORTH A PAGE 2DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

Another encounterkilling in U.P.LUCKNOW

A man carrying a bounty of

₹12,000 was killed in a police

shootout in Muza�arnagar on

Sunday, taking the total

number of encounter killings

under the Yogi government in

U.P. to 16. NATION PAGE A 7DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

Aabha Hanjura’s goal is toput Kashmiri p on the globalmap. Her foot-tapping tunesare already an onlinesensation, and on Saturday,her performance in Srinagarproduced a rare bonding ofMuslims and KashmiriPandits.

Aabha, a migrantKashmiri Pandit herself, hadan audience of 2,000attending her concert titled‘Saaz-e-Kashmir’ on thelawns of the Sher-i-KashmirInternational ConventionCentre here.

The event by her band,Sufistication, stood out inthe Valley, where evencinemas have been shut fornearly three decades now.

Aabha’s music mixes folkKashmiri songs withWestern styles. At herconcert, she said,“Mountains in the backdropand the heavenly Dal lake infront. I couldn’t have askedfor a more serene stage formy first gig in my homeland.It’s a historic one for theband in the valley ofKashmir.” Aabha hails fromBudgam district.

Girls and college studentswere there to listen to her.And the music seemed tobridge the chasm between

the two major communities.Many Pandit families,

who live in and aroundSrinagar were there, singingin chorus with their Muslimcounterparts.

A majority of KashmiriPandits left the Valley asmilitancy erupted in the1990s. Since then, the twocommunities have struggledto reconcile with each other.

“The show reflected thereal Kashmir. I saw studentson their feet. The singer wasrooted in her culture despitethe separation. She couldsing from popular folk tomodern wedding songs withease and connect withpeople,” said State PublicWorks Minister NayeemAkhtar.

Sufistication startedshows in 2012, and becamean instant hit in the Valleyonline. Its latest folk songtrack, Hukus Bukus, isKashmir’s most popularballad.

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Forging bonds in Valleywith fusion musicPeerzada Ashiq

Srinagar

Aabha Hanjura

The Railways is reducingthe ‘official sleeping hours’on reserved coaches intrains in an effort to put anend to quarrels that breakout if passengers in themiddle and lower berthsoversleep. Passengers inthe reserved coaches canonly sleep between 10 p.m.and 6 a.m

Railways cutsleeping timePress trust of india

New Delhi

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DELHI Timings

Monday, September 18

RISE 06:07 SET 18:22

RISE 03:59 SET 17:19

Tuesday, September 19

RISE 06:08 SET 18:21

RISE 05:01 SET 18:00

Wednesday, September 20

RISE 06:08 SET 18:20

RISE 06:00 SET 18:38

‘Swachhta Hi Sewa now apeople’s movement’RAMPUR

Union minister Mukhtar

Abbas Naqvi on Sunday said

today ‘Swachhta Hi Sewa’

(Cleanliness is Service) is a

“historic step” and that the

sanitation drive is becoming a

people’s movement. The

minority affairs minister told

reporters here that the

Narendra Modi government

had pledged to construct

toilets in almost all

madrassas and minority

institutions. PTI

IN BRIEF

Woman, her two childreninjured in acid attack JEHANABAD

A woman and her two

children were injured when

unidentified persons threw

acid on them in Bihar’s

Jehanabad district, a police

officer said on Sunday. PTI

4 children, including 3girls, drown in pond MAHRAJGANJ (UP)

Four children, including three

girls, drowned while taking a

bath in a pond near

Kuwadhari village here, the

police said. The deceased

have been identified as

Sabeena (10), Rubeena (10),

Ruksar (10) and Arman (8),

they said. PTI

The cave shrine of MataVaishnodevi in Jammu andKashmir’s Reasi district is ex-pected to witness a footfallof two million pilgrims dur-ing this year’s Navratri fest-ival beginning from Septem-ber 21, officials said.

The Tourism Departmentin collaboration with variousNGOs and private partieshave planned a series of reli-gious, cultural, sports andfolk events over the 9-dayfestival period to attracttourists from across thecountry.

Calendar of activitiesMinister of State for TourismPriya Sethi unveiled the cal-endar of activities of a megaNavratra festival in Jammuregion at the Sidhra GolfCourse here on Sunday. TheNavratra festival is an annualfestival in Jammu region.

“We have put in place allthe arrangements for a mega9- day-long Navratra festivalin the region particularly atthe Katra, base camp of caveshrine of Mata Vaishnodevi.After many years, this year’sfestival will be a mega one toattract the pilgrims and tour-ists from across the world,”Ms. Sethi said.

“Last year, a total of 77lakh pilgrims visited theshrine to pay their obeis-ance. This year, we have 57lakh tourist arrivals at theshrine so far but we are ex-pecting over 20 lakh moretourists during the Navratrafestival,” Director of TourismJammu Smita Sethi said.

She said this year the de-partment was expecting a re-cord number of tourist ar-rivals in Jammu region but“we are trying to make themstay for a few days so that thelocal economy gets a boost”.

Special package The Tourism Departmenthas been organising eventsduring Navratra festival atKatra since 1996 and thistime it has introduced ‘Mataki Kahani’ (Mata’s story) anda special package of ‘Sam-poorna Manokamna’ yatrafacilitating visits to nine deit-ies, besides reviving ‘RamLeela’ after a gap of over twodecades.

The festival, scheduled tobegin on September 21,would feature a grand‘Shobha’ yatra on the firstday, followed by various pro-grammes, including an inter-national wrestling competi-tion for men and women.

Participants from Be-

larusia, Ukraine and Georgiabesides locals and nationalwrestlers are participating inthe competition.

“The festival provides uswith an opportunity to pro-ject the tourism sector in abig way and the governmenthas decided to cash on it towoo holidaymakers fromoutside the State,” the dir-ector said.

Affecting tourism“Tourists leaving the State ina hurry is affecting our tour-ism industry. Our main ef-fort is that if a tourist comeshere, he or she should stayback for a few days and forthat we are projecting sev-eral places of religious im-portance,” she said.

Ms. Sethi said the govern-ment wanted to revive thepilgrimage tourism in a bigway and efforts are on in thisdirection.

“Hotel industry is alsocomplaining that we are not

getting enough guests. Wehave planned to address thisissue through this festival aswell,” the director said.

Describing ‘Manokamana’yatra as the biggest attrac-tion during the festival, shesaid this was basically an at-tempt to attract people tothe places where Matastayed and the difficultiesshe went through and makethem aware of the signific-ance of these places.

“You are coming to theshrine for prayers but areunaware of the Mata’s his-tory. The yatra is an attemptto highlight the life of Mataand revive the old VaishnoDevi track,” she said.

As per the Manokamanayatra programme, Ms. Sethisaid the first ‘darshan’ willbe at Kol Kondoli in Nagrota,where it is said that she con-verted her spiritual forminto human form and playedwith other children.

Enjoy raftingAsserting that there were alot of places worth visiting,Ms. Sethi said there are somany “pinds” (relics) and avisit to Dansar Baba andDera baba Bandah providesan opportunity to enjoy raft-ing while Shahat Baba is fam-ous for the waterfall.

She said the first of itskind ‘Mata ki Kahani’ is athree-hour show which willshed light on the life of thedeity. “Ram Leela is again anew thing. The practice wasabandoned about 21 yearsago due to some internalreasons. We are reviving itagain this time,” she said.

Vaishnodevi shrine expecting 2 million devotees during NavratraMany events planned during the festival to attract tourists from across the country

Press Trust of India

Jammu

The main entrance to the Vaishno Devi Mandir in Katra,Jammu. * PTI

Haryana Chief Minister Man-ohar Lal Khattar on Sundaysaid his government will fur-ther strengthen the Panchay-ati Raj Institutions in theState.

The ‘Chief Minister’s GoodGovernance Associates’(CMGGAs) will work in thisdirection and prepare de-tails, Mr. Khattar said whilepresiding over a meeting ofCMGGAs at Ashoka Univer-sity here.

Ensuring transparency The CMGGAs were earlierappointed with the “object-ive of ensuring good gov-ernance and transparency inthe working of the districtadministration”.

Reviewing various ser-vices and facilities beingprovided to the citizens bythe government, Mr. Khattarsaid the key objective for thegovernment was to ensuretimely delivery of variousservices and facilities to the

citizens by differentdepartments.

“The CMGGAs should con-tinue to work better with theadministrative and depart-mental machinery in all dis-tricts to further improve thesystems and processes forthe same,” he said.

Information technology“You (CMGGAs) should doyour work more proactivelyto make systems and pro-cesses more efficient andtransparent using the ana-lysis, calculations and skills,besides, to explore morepossibility and areas by us-ing information technologyso that access to services andfacilities could be mademore comprehensive,” headded.

Mr. Khattar exhortedthem to put in place specialefforts for completion of on-going development worksunder the ‘CM’s announce-ments’ in a time-boundperiod.

The Chief Minister said

that providing a corruption-free environment was amongthe top priority of the BJPgovernment.

The CMGGAs can play asignificant role in this direc-tion, he said.

Mr. Khattar, while speak-ing at a separate functionhere, announced that everyyear September 17 wouldnow be celebrated as ‘Ra-jkiya Shram Divas’

He also announced thatthere would be an increasein the minimum wages being

given to unskilled workers ingovernment departments“under DC rate from ₹8,100to ₹9,260, that of semi-skilled workers from ₹ 9,000to ₹10,286, skilled workersfrom ₹10,000 to ₹11,430 andhighly skilled workers from₹11,000 to ₹12,570 permonth”.

The benefit of the in-creased wages would begiven to them from January1, 2016, an official statementsaid.

New ESI hospital Mr. Khattar also announcedthat a new 100-bed ESI hos-pital would be opened at Ba-hadurgarh in district Jhajjarand a 150-bed hospital atBawal.

He said that the 80-bedESI hospital in Jagadhari, 50-bed ESI hospital inFaridabad and 75-bed ESIhospital in Panipat would beupgraded as 100-bedhospitals.

Mr. Khattar inauguratedthe first government canteen

by launching the AntyodayaAahaar Yojana. He also an-nounced that 60,000 sewingmachines would be given towomen labourers.

Direct transferThe Chief Minister also dis-tributed a total of ₹32.12crore to 40,566 labourersunder various schemes in-cluding ₹1.77 crore, whichwere transferred directlyinto the bank accounts of1,525 beneficiaries undervarious schemes.

Mr. Khattar said theamount being given to re-gistered labourers for pur-chasing tools in every threeyears has now been in-creased from ₹5,000 to₹8,000.

Speaking on the occasion,Haryana Minister of State forLabour and EmploymentNayab Singh said at present,more than 5.62 lakh labour-ers were registered whowere availing of the benefitsof various schemes of the de-partment.

PRIs will be strengthened further: Khattar‘Key objective of the govt is to ensure timely delivery of various services and facilities to citizens’


Sonipat

Haryana Chief MinisterManohar Lal Khattar *

Former Haryana Chief Min-ister Bhupinder SinghHooda on Sunday said farm-ers across the country hadrisen against the anti-farmerpolicies of the BharatiyaJanata Party governments inthe State and the Centre andwere on the streets to fightfor their rights.

Speaking at a “Kisan Pan-chayat” in Charkhi Dadri,Mr. Hooda said the BJP had

come to power on the prom-ise to the farmers to imple-ment the Swaminathan com-mittee report and ensure50% profit to them, but theparty has now gone back onits poll promises.’

Brink of penury Mr. Hooda said farmers ofthe State were pushed to thebrink of penury by the BJPgovernments, leaving themwith no choice but toprotest. When the farmers

protest, BJP governments donot hesitate to open fire atthem, he said, adding thatthey first hit farmers in thestomach, now shoots themin the chest.

Rohtak MP DeependerHooda said the BJP govern-ment had offered a marginalincrease in the MinimumSupport Price of crops thatwas not enough to covereven inflation and the in-crease in input costs. “Dur-ing the UPA government the

MSP was increased by 15-24% per annum on an average,but under the BJP govern-ment the average increasehas been around 5%,” hesaid, adding that he hadhighlighted the issues of thefarmers in the Parliamentand would continue to doso.

He said farmers of theState were seeking a loanwaiver because they werenot getting a fair price fortheir produce.

‘Farmers up in arms against BJP policies’BJP govts �rst hit farmers in the stomach, now shoots them in the chest: Hooda

Staff Reporter

GURUGRAM

The Uttar Pradesh govern-ment has revoked the sus-pension of former DistrictMagistrate and Senior Su-perintendent of Police ofSaharanpur, N.P. Singh andS.C. Dubey respectively.Their suspension was re-voked after the State policedirectorate recommendedtheir reinstatement.

Mr. Singh and Mr. Dubeywere suspended after theyallegedly failed to controlthe Thakur-Dalit violence inSaharanpur in May. Na-gendra Pratap Singh, theIAS officer of 2005 batch,was known to have success-fully handled the explosivesituation in the aftermath ofAkhlaq’s lynching in Dadriin 2015 while he was theDM of Gautam Buddh

Nagar. He ensured peaceand law and order in the re-gion.

Efficient stintSenior officials in UP policedirectorate told The Hindu

that “there was an impres-sion that Mr. Singh, whoearlier had an efficient stintin Gautam Buddh Nagarand also in Shamli, was un-fairly treated. He had joined

as the DM of Saharanpur onApril 29 and violence star-ted on May 5 itself. It wastoo early to judge him asthe DM of Saharanpur. So,there was a sense of sym-pathy as he had a provenrecord of an efficient ad-ministrator in the past”.

Three people were killedand over two dozens in-jured in caste violence inSaharanpur.

Action was taken for allegedly failing to control the Thakur-Dalit violence

Staff Reporter

Meerut

Suspension of ex-Saharanpur DM, SSP revoked

The Aam Aadmi Party onSunday named Major Gen-eral (retd) Suresh Khajuriaas its candidate for the Gur-daspur parliamentary bypollto be held on October 11.

The seat fell vacant afterthe demise of actor-turned-politician Vinod Khanna inApril this year.

‘Due consultation’ “The decision to field Mr.Khajuria has been takenafter due consultation withthe Gurdaspur unit of theparty and the Majha regionleaders and volunteers,” saidAAP leader Sukhpal Khaira,while announcing the can-didature.

Mr. Khajuria hails fromPathankot falling in the Gur-daspur Lok Sabha constitu-ency. During his service, hehas served in Punjab.

“We are proud that ourcandidate has had a distin-guished career in the armed

forces. As candidates of bothtraditional parties, includingthe BJP and the Congress,are likely to be outsiders andparachuters, we appeal tothe electorate of Gurdaspurto support the AAP candid-ate in the ensuing election,”said AAP leader SukhpalKhaira, while announcingthe candidature.

Mr. Khaira alleged thatneither the Congress nor theBJP had fulfilled the long-pending demand of ‘OneRank One Pension’ of the ex-

servicemen community.“Ex-servicemen shouldtherefore support the AAPcandidate, who will force-fully raise their issues in Par-liament,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Congressheld a meeting in New Delhito discuss its strategy aheadof the by-election.

Congress plankPunjab Chief Minister Cap-tain Amarinder Singh metAICC in-charge of Punjab af-fairs Asha Kumari and Pun-jab Congress president SunilJakhar. At the meeting, itwas decided that develop-ment works initiated by theCongress government in theState would constitute thekey campaign plank for theparty. Sources said the partycould field Sunil Jakhar.

“The final decision oncandidature for Gurdaspurseat will vest with AICC pres-ident Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi,”said the party’s statement.

AAP to �eld formerGeneral from GurdaspurSeat fell vacant after demise of sitting MP Vinod Khanna

Major General (retd) SureshKhajuria *

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

CHANDIGARH

BJP president Amit Shah onSunday said that the party istrying to transform “Swarajinto Suraj” (self-rule to goodgovernance) because ofwhich tribals are now tast-ing the fruits of freedom forthe first time sinceIndependence.

The country is indebtedto tribals and dalits for thesacrifices they made duringthe freedom struggle andthey should have tasted thefruits of freedom soon afterIndia attained independ-ence, but unfortunately thatdid not happen, he said.

Foundation stone “I am fortunate to visit thebirth place of BhagwanBirsa Munda (a tribal free-dom fighter),” Mr. Shah atUlihatu in Jharkhand’sKhunti district, after layingthe foundation stone forprojects for all-round devel-opment of 19 villages in the

State, including Ulihatu, onthe ‘Seva Day’ the BJP is cel-ebrating to mark Prime Min-ister Narendra Modi’sbirthday.

All these villages are asso-ciated with martyrs fromthe State.

Wishing the Prime Minis-ter on his 67th birthday, theBJP chief said, he felt fortu-nate to lay the foundationstone for the developmentof tribal villages, where allbasic amenities like puccahouses, electricity, water,road connectivity would beprovided.

BJP trying to transform‘Swaraj into Suraj’: Shah‘Tribals �rst time tasting fruits of freedom’


Ulihatu (Jharkhand)

BJP president Amit Shah inRanchi on Sunday.

* MANOB CHOWDHURY

f of KASTURI & SONS LTD., Chennai-600002. Editor: Mukund Padmanabhan (Responsible for selection of news under the PRB Act).


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THE HINDU NOIDA/DELHI

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EE

The ruling Biju Janata Dal(BJD) on Sunday announcedthat it would stage a “hartal”across Odisha on Monday toprotest the steep hike in theprice of petrol and dieseldespite a slide in crude oilprice in the internationalmarket.

Hitting out at the BJP-ledNDA Government at theCentre for the fuel pricehikes, senior BJD leaders toldreporters that five-hourState-wide hartal would beobserved from 7 a.m. till 12noon.

Apart from the state cap-ital, party workers and sup-porters would stage peacefulagitation in all district, sub-division and block headquar-ters, BJD vice-presidentsPrasanna Acharya and UshaDevi and general secretarySanjay Dasburma said.

Demonstrations wouldalso be held in front of of-fices of the Central govern-ment, they said adding theagitation would continue tillthe Centre reduced fuelprices.

While the internationalcrude price had fallen, theNDA government has failed

to take steps to reduce theprice of petrol and diesel,they said. Stating that fre-quent increase in fuel pricehad adverse impact on thecommon people, the BJDleaders said fuel price hikewould have a cascading ef-fect on the prices of essentialcommodities.

BJD hartal today againstpetrol, diesel price hikeParty workers, supporters to stage peaceful agitation

Press Trust of india

Bhubaneswar

An artist busy preparing a pandal for the upcoming Durga Puja festival in Kolkata on Sunday. * PTI


Finishing touches

Odisha has not bothered tofind out causes behind thedeaths of newborns eventhough neonatal mortalityrate in the State is thehighest in the country, saysthe Comptroller and Aud-itor General of India in a re-port placed in the State As-sembly on Saturday.

“Though the neonatalmortality rate (37 per thou-sand) of the State washighest in the country andthere were 16,651 deaths ofneonatal and paediatric pa-tients in the GovernmentMedical College Hospitals(GMCHs) and districtheadquarter hospitals dur-ing 2013-16, the GMCHs hadnot conducted any death re-view to identify the causesof death,” says CAG.

The Health Departmenthad constituted a commit-

tee in 1984 to review thecauses of death occurring inthe GMCHs, which was tomeet regularly, at least oncein a month, and submit theproceedings to the Directorof Medical Education andTraining.

Prescription audit “During 2013-16, the com-mittee did not meet at all.The State government didnot ensure sitting of thecommittee at regular inter-vals,” it says. Moreover, thehealth administration hadnot conducted prescriptionaudit till July 2016.

In another damning find-ing, the CAG found that thegovernment had not givenpriority to infection preven-tion and control in paediat-ric units of hospitals.

During 2013-16, as manyas 427 neonates of the27,804 babies born in

checked hospitals, suc-cumbed to infectious dis-eases like sepsis and pneu-monia. Overcrowding ofwards, unlimited entry of at-tendants and inadequatetraining to health personnelwere the causes of infec-tious diseases, the CAGpoints out.

As per the last Sample Re-gistration System bulletin,2013, the Infant MortalityRate (IMR) in Odisha was 51per thousand in comparisonto the national average of 40and Neonatal Mortality Rate(NMR) was 37 per thousandagainst the national averageof 29.

The minimum bed occu-pancy rate of the medicalcollege hospital should be75% while the Indian stand-ard says the BOR should notexceed 90% for providingquality service toin-patients.

‘No review to �nd out causes behind deaths ‘

Satyasundar Barik

BHUBANESWAR

CAG pulls up Odisha govtover deaths of newborns

Traditional methods of in-vestigation in crime havelost their value and import-ance and hence the policeforce needs to upgrade itsprofessional skills andknowledge to match thenew challenges with thechanging times, said newlyappointed Director Generalof Odisha Police R. P.Sharma after inauguratingthe 65th Odisha Police DutyMeet here over theweekend.

“With the changingtimes, many new and com-plex crimes are being com-mitted now. Cyber crime,organised crimes and eco-nomic offences are the newchallenges before the police.We have to adopt scientificmethods of investigation tosolve them,” Dr. Sharmasaid, adding that criminal in-vestigation was an import-ant function of the police

and participating in DutyMeets would help to honethose skills.

As many as 187 competit-ors and 21 police dogs from37 police districts of theState are participating in thethree-day meet, which willend on Monday. Chief Minis-ter Naveen Patnaik, whoalso holds the home portfo-lio, is scheduled to attendthe valedictory function.

Competitions in policesubjects like observationand police portrait, sci-entific aid to investigation,medico-legal test, finger-print identification, lifting-packing-forwarding of ex-hibits, photography, DNAfingerprinting, technicalsurveillance, cyber crimes,laws and rules and com-puter awareness tests willbe held among the parti-cipants and the winners willbe selected to participate inthe All India Police DutyMeet.

Upgrade skill, knowledge,Odisha DGP tells force

‘Cyber crime, economic o�ences new challenges’

Correspondent

CUTTACK

The situation in theDarjeeling hills re-mained peacefulwith no untowardincident being re-ported anywhere inthe region as the in-definite shutdownfor a separateGorkhaland stateentered its 95th dayon Sunday, the po-lice said.

Several shops andmarkets reportedregular business aspeople came out oftheir homes to pur-chase householdmaterials, a seniordistrict police officersaid.

State-run buseswere operating fromSiliguri to Darjeelingvia Kurseong andbetween Siliguri andMirik.

Police picketingwas continuing atseveral importantpoints of Darjeelingto keep a check onany untoward incid-ent, the official said.

“The situation asof now is pretty nor-mal. There has beenno report of any un-toward incidentfrom anywhere inthe Darjeeling hills.We are keeping astrict vigil on the de-velopments here,”the officer said.

Darjeeling hillssituation peacefulShutdown continues

Press trust of india

Darjeeling

Miscreants on Sundayhurled a crude bomb neara hostel in Utkal Universitycampus here ahead of stu-dents’ union election butnobody was injured in theincident, the police said.

The miscreants fled thespot after hurling the

bomb, apparently after ascufle between two groups,they said. Prohibitory or-ders under Section 144 ofCrPC have been imposedand security tightened inthe area, a police officersaid. “The situation is nowunder control and policepersonnel are maintaininga close vigil to ,” he said.

Bomb hurled at Utkal campus


Bhubaneswar

BJP leaders sweep streetto mark PM’s birthday KOLKATA

BJP national general

secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya

and party Rajya Sabha MP

Rupa Ganguly on Sunday

cleaned a street in front of

Kalighat Temple here to mark

the 67th birthday of Prime

Minister Narendra Modi. PTI

IN BRIEF

Two held for producingfake admit card KOLKATA

Two persons were arrested on

the charge of producing fake

admit card of a girl to the

Presidency university, police

said on Sunday.

One of the two arrested

person was the private tutor

of the girl and the other her

father. The university official

said, “we hope the police will

bust if there is any racket and

arrest the culprits.” PTI

Peace talks between theMizoram government andthe Manipur-based HmarPeople’s Convention(Democratic) are scheduledto resume on Thursday, asenior State Home depart-ment official said.

Additional Secretary inthe Home department, Lal-biakzama said that the talksscheduled to be held thisweek would probably bethe last official level talks,after which the talks wouldbe elevated to politicallevel.

Mr. Lalbiakzama ex-pressed the hope that thecoming talks would finalisethe framework agreementalready deliberated.

The delayThis round of parleys wasdelayed due to the govern-ment’s proposal to holdtalks with the HPC (D) fac-tion led by LalhmingthangaSanate during the last partof August.

Mizorampeace talkson Thursday Press trust of india

Aizawl

Three wagons of a goodstrain derailed near Dhup-guri in Jalpaiguri districton Sunday. The threeempty wagons of the As-sam-bound goods trainjumped off the tracksaround 3 p.m., an NFR of-ficial said.

Goods trainderails Press trust of india

Jalpaiguri (WB)

A senior BJP leader onSunday alleged that theCongress shielded theNaveen Patnaik govern-ment during the just-con-cluded session of theOdisha Assembly as part ofan alleged nexus with theruling Biju Janata Dal.

Senior BJP leader andparty MLA Pradeep Puro-

hit told reporters here thatbecause of the alleged BJD-Congress nexus, the issueof flyover collapse nearBomikhal here on Septem-ber 10 could not be dis-cussed on the last day ofthe monsoon session of theassembly on Saturday.

However, BJD spokes-person Amar Sathpathydismissed the allegationsas baseless.

‘BJD-Cong nexus in Odisha’

Press trust of india

Bhubaneswar

West Bengal Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee onSunday congratulated shut-tler P.V. Sindhu on becom-ing the first Indian womanto win the Korea Open Su-per Series.

“Super#PVSindhu@Pvsindhu1 First Indian towin the Korea (Open)SuperSeries. You make us proud.Congratulations,” MsBanerjee wrote on herTwitter handle.

Mamatahails Sindhu Press Trust of India

Kolkata


CMYK

M ND-NDE

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SOUTH

Nadirsha interrogatedfor �ve hoursKOCHI

The Special Investigation

Team probing the actor

abduction case in Kochi

interrogated filmmaker

Nadirsha, a close friend of

actor Dileep, an accused in

the case, for nearly five hours

on Sunday. The filmmaker

was subjected to a medical

check-up before the

interrogation since he had

fallen ill on Friday.

IN BRIEF

Gram Seva Sangh to stepup ‘Tax Denial Satyagraha’ BENGALURU

Demanding withdrawal of the

Goods and Services Tax (GST)

regime imposed on all

handmade products across

the country, the Gram Seva

Sangh has decided to

continue with the ‘Tax Denial

Satyagraha’ till all

handcrafted products are

brought under ‘zero tax’,

without ceiling.

Draped in colour: A variety of �owers are in full bloom ahead of the Dasara �ower show, at Kuppanna Park in Mysuru. * M.A.SRIRAM


All decked up

As long as Pakistan contin-ues to support cross-borderterrorism, sending militants,India will not hold talks withit. India has friendly rela-tions with all neighbouringcountries except Pakistan,said Union Home MinisterRajnath Singh here onSunday.

Addressing a public meet-ing for the BJP’s SankalpSabha marking ‘TelanganaLiberation Day’, the HomeMinister said India believedin non-violence but wouldnot remain silent if it wasprovoked with gunfire on itsborders.

“India is not a weak coun-try; it is now very strong.From our side, we will notfire first; but will reply withseveral bullets even to asingle bullet from the otherside. I had given clear in-

structions to the BSF chief inSeptember, 2014, when fivecivilians had fallen victim tocross-border firing,” he said.

Quoting Prime MinisterNarendra Modi’s messagedelivered on August 15 thatthe people would see a newIndia by 2022, Mr. Singh saidthe Government aimed at

building a nation that wasfree from corruption,poverty and extremism, andwith houses for all.

‘Not a single scam’Unlike the past when scamsinvolving lakhs of crores ofrupees had taken place,there was not a single scam

during three-years of BJP-ledNDA rule, he said.

September 17 was auspi-cious, as the day when Hy-derabad State under Nizam’srule was liberated and got in-dependence, he said.

In its seven-decade jour-ney, the country had grownstrong. The British, whileleaving, wanted to divide itinto pieces. However, underSardar Vallabhbhai Patel, thecountry was united, mergingthe princely states, he said.

“The Nizam decided tomerge his State withPakistan but people waged ahistoric struggle against hisefforts,” said Mr. Singh.

Union Minister of State forHome Hansraj GangaramAhir, former MinisterBandaru Dattatreya, BJPState president K. Laxmanand party general secretaryP. Muralidhar Raoparticipated.

No talks till Pakistan stopsbacking terror, says RajnathIndia stronger now, will respond with several bullets to one, says Home Minister

Strong message: Home Minister Rajnath Singh at the SankalpSabha in Nizamabad on Sunday * K.V. RAMANA

P. RAM MOHAN

NIZAMABAD The heavy spell of rain thatKerala has experienced overthe past 24 hours is expec-ted to continue over the nexttwo days too, according tothe Meteorological Depart-ment. Very heavy rainfall of12 to 24 centimetres is mostlikely to occur at one or twoplaces in Kerala on Monday.Heavy rainfall of 7 to 11 centi-metres is likely to occur at afew places in Kerala and Lak-shadweep till Tuesdaymorning.

Fishermen have beenwarned about strong windsfrom the southwesterly dir-ection, with speeds occa-sionally reaching 45 to 55kilometre per hour alongand off Kerala coast andover Lakshadweep area tillMonday afternoon.

The State government hasdeclared a holiday for alleducational institutions, in-

cluding professional col-leges, on Monday.

Preventive measuresChief Minister Pinarayi Vi-jayan has issued instructionsto the District Collectors andofficials to take all the re-quired preventive measures.

The Fire and Rescue Ser-vices have been put on alert.Those staying in landslip-prone areas and near rivers

have been advised to be onalert. On Monday, shuttersof dams including Neyyarand Peppara inThiruvananthapuram had tobe opened due to the risingwater levels.

The current spell of heavyrains has come as a major re-lief for many parts of theState which had receivedscant showers this mon-soon.

Downpour expected to continue for two more days

Staff Reporter

Thiruvananthapuram

Major relief: Kochi and its neighbouring areas were witness toincessant rain on Sunday. * THULASI KAKKAT.

Alert across Kerala asmonsoon pays o� debt

Singer K.J. Yesudas has ap-plied for permission to offerworship at the centuries-oldSree PadmanabhaswamyTemple inThiruvananthapuram,where only believers ofHinduism are permitted.

The temple authoritiessaid, the singer, a Christianby birth, had sent the re-quest letter and declarationof his faith in Hinduismthrough a special messengeron Saturday evening.

Temple executive officer

V. Ratheesan said though Mr.Yesudas did not mention anydate, the messenger in-formed that the singerwould like to visit the temple

on Vijayadasami, which fallson September 30. “As perour custom, anyone who be-lieves in Hinduism can visitthe temple and offer wor-ship. There are no restric-tions for that,” he said.

‘No issue’“We all know about Mr. Ye-sudas’s faith in Hinduismand now he has given a de-claration in this regard. So,as of now, there is no issuefor him to visit the temple,”the official said.

Non-Hindus and foreign-ers are permitted inside the

sprawling temple dedicatedto Lord Padmanabha afteraccepting similar declara-tions, he said.

Hailing from a RomanCatholic family, the singerhad earlier been deniedentry into the Sree KrishnaTemple at Guruvayur inThrissur district and theKadampuzha Devi Temple inMalappuram for being ‘non-Hindu.’ However, Mr. Yesu-das has been a regular vis-itor to the SabarimalaAyyappa temple and theMookambika Devi Temple atKollur in Karnataka.

Yesudas seeks permission to enterSree Padmanabhaswamy templeAuthorities say anyone who believes in Hinduism is welcome to o�er worship

Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM

K.J. Yesudas

Drinking water shortage hasturned acute in the fluoride-affected Prakasam district as232 notified tanks in the dis-trict and the two summerstorage tanks in the citywhich depend upon replen-ishment from the RiverKrishna have dried up.

Denizens are being sup-plied drinking water once inseven days by drawing fromthe dead storage of the sum-mer storage tank-I with thehelp of electric motors andby tapping 35 open wells.

‘Completely dry’“While the storage in tank-Iis only 200 million litres asagainst its capacity of 1,950,the tank-II, which can retain3,850 million litres, hasdried up completely,” saythe Ongole municipal cor-poration officials.

Currently, the Ongole Mu-nicipal Corporation is draw-ing 5 to 6 million litres fromthe Gundalakamma reser-voir and another 1.2 millionlitres from open bore wellsas the dams across theKrishna in the State have notreceived inflows even in thesecond week of Septemberfrom the upper riparianStates, says Municipal Com-missioner S. Ven-katakrishna.

“We will not be able tocontinue drinking water

supply if replenishmentfrom River Krishna is not en-sured from the Nagarjunas-agar reservoir in the next 10to 15 days,” says MunicipalEngineer D. SundaramaReddy.

The district, with 48 of the56 mandals fluoride-af-fected, has been experien-cing a peculiar situation withall the notified and non-noti-fied drinking water tanks be-coming almost empty, evenas the district experiencedexcess rainfall.

Parched Prakasam districtdesperate for Krishna water Faces peculiar situation of excess rainfall and dry tanks

S. Murali

Ongole

Tough situation: The summer storage tank-II in Ongole, whichis almost dry. * KOMMURI SRINIVAS

Telangana Chief Minister K.Chandrasekhar Rao has an-nounced his government’splans to bring milk revolu-tion, ‘paala velluva orksheera viplavam’, in theState by providing one buf-falo each to about twolakhs member farmers ofall cooperative dairies.

“The scheme will begrounded within twomonths and the milk pro-ducers of the cooperativedairies given one buffaloeach with 50% subsidy,” hesaid while addressing milkproducers at his camp of-fice, Pragathi Bhavan, hereon Sunday.

The Scheduled Caste,and Scheduled Tribe mem-bers of the cooperativedairies would, however, begiven 75% subsidy.

Local breedsAs was being done in caseof the sheep units supplyscheme, the beneficiariesof the buffalo schemewould also be given free-dom to make a choice onthe breed of animal theywant and the subsidywould be routed throughthe cooperative dairy soci-eties. He suggested that themilk producers go for localbreeds as those from far-offareas would struggle tocope with the weather con-ditions in the State.

When asked, a few rep-resentatives of milk produ-cers told the Chief Ministerthat one good buffalowould cost anythingbetween ₹50,000 and₹60,000.

Stating that the schemewould require about ₹500crore for implementation,he hoped that it would im-prove milk production inthe State, supply to cooper-ative dairies, from the ex-isting 7 lakh litres a day to10 lakh litres a day in sixmonths’ time.

The Chief Minister alsoasked the milk producersof the cooperative dairiesto raise six plants (seed-lings and saplings) at theirhomes and name themafter the family members.

KCR plans tousher in milkrevolution Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD

Indiscriminate use of poorquality fugitive pigments bythe majority of theKalamkari production unitshere has posed a majorthreat of contamination ofwater table.

Dozens of Kalamkari pro-duction units have come upin the tiny town since early2014 to meet the huge de-mand for the textileproducts across the country,replacing the natural processand colours with fugitive pig-ments. Recently, the civicbody with the support of therevenue and police hasbanned washing of the fab-ric, on which the pigmentsmixed with kerosene are ap-plied, in the Ramaraj Canaland the Krishna river acrossthe Krishna district.

‘No alternative source’Finding no alternativesources, the units are releas-

ing the waste water into thelocal open storm waterdrains in the town, leavingthe water table contamin-ated with toxic effluents.Ironically, there has been nosource to let the water outfrom the Pedana town since1980s and the locals releasethe water into the nearest ag-riculture fields or vacantplaces.

“The waste water fromthe households or Kalamkariunits in our town stagnatesin the open drains. The useof pigment or chemical col-ours in the Kalamkari in-dustry is a cause of worry forus as it will have an adverseimpact on the water table,”Pedana Municipal Commis-sioner T. Nageswara Rao toldThe Hindu.

Bengaluru-based researchscholar Meera Curam says,“The poor quality pigmentsand other ingredients suchas kerosene used by the Ped-ana Kalamkari units are un-natural. The existing prac-tices are harmful to thegroundwater table as well asworkers who are exposed tothose pigments.”

GI guidelinesA recent investigation by theAndhra Pradesh PollutionControl Board has warnedthat the water in which fab-ric with pigments is washedis not advisable to purify fordrinking water purpose. In2013, the Kalamkari art(Machilipatnam Kalamkari)has been registered in theGeographical Indications(GI) Registry. Using chemicalpigments instead of naturalcolours extracted from listedplants and herbs is a blatantviolation of the GIguidelines.

Pigment e�uents pose threat to water tableKalamkari units release waste into local drains at town in Krishna district

T. Appala Naidu

PEDANA

Harmful practice: Workers washing Kalamkari fabric atRamaraju Canal near Pedana in Krishna district. * T. APPALA NAIDU

The Goods and Services Tax(GST) regime appeared tohave thrown the door openfor organised racketeersseeking to rake in hugeprofits by retailing bannedother-State lotteries inKerala.

The so-called lotterymafia is deftly exploiting theflaws in implementing theGST rule to tap into the hugemarket for numbered lotterytickets in the State, accord-ing to the State police andCommercial Taxes Depart-ment (CTD) officials privy tothe matter.

On July 30, barely amonth after the GST regimecame into force, the Kasabapolice in Palakkad districtimpounded dubious lotterytickets worth ₹5.3 crore.

A northeastern State hadpurportedly printed the lot-teries. Investigators saidtheir post-sale processing,including draw, was suspectand the tickets did not con-form to the Central CentralLotteries Act.

Illegal saleA subsequent investigationrevealed that a Kochi-basedagency had imported thebanned lottery for illegalsale.

The firm had receivedGST registration by default aweek after it applied online.The State GST Departmenthad apparently failed to vetthe agency’s application.The GST Network (GSTN)automatically accorded re-gistration to the firm sincethe Kerala GST Departmenthad filed no objection.

The private agency, whichhas challenged the seizure incourt, has argued that theState GST administrationhad not objected to its ap-plication to import and sellin bulk other State lotteries.It demanded the confiscatedtickets be returned andpenal action against the firmdropped.

Investigators said theseizure of prohibited lotter-ies in Palakkad was just thetip of the iceberg. There arean estimated 40,000 author-ised lottery dealers in Ker-ala. Scores of them sellbanned other State lotteries,which offer a higher com-mission, at the expense ofthousands of hopefuls whoare addicted to trying theirluck with printed lotteriesdespite a slim chance ofwinning.

Lottery ma�a seeks toexploit GST �aws in KeralaInvestigators say tickets did not conform to lotteries Act

G. Anand

Thiruvananthapuram

The recent death of a mantrying to take a selfie with anelephant on the rampage inOdisha, or the fact that halfof the “selfie deaths” in theworld were reported fromIndia last year, does notseem to have had a soberingeffect on tourists visiting na-tional parks and wildlifesanctuaries.

This is evident inBandipur where tourists andmotorists heading towardsthe reception centre for a sa-fari, or those driving throughthe forests along the Na-tional Highway 181 en routeto Ooty, or NH 766 to SultanBathery stop midway in viol-

ation of the law to pose for aselfie with wild animals inthe backdrop given the ob-session for posting their im-ages on social media.

“The issue has reached

alarming proportions inBandipur where signageswarning people against stop-ping is ignored by the tour-ists even in the core tigerarea or elephant-crossing

zones,” Santosh, a wildlifeactivist, said.

Spotted deer on highwayThe violations tend to com-mence soon after one passesthrough the Forest Depart-ment check-post atMelkamanahalli Gate andenter the ghat section.

The area happens to be aprime elephant-crossing sec-tion and though elephantsightings may be rare, whatprompts the motorists tostop the vehicles is the pres-ence of spotted deer alongthe highway.

“The probability of a car-nivore lurking nearby andstalking its prey is ignored,”say wildlife activists.

Sel�e mania a cause for worry in Bandipur ‘Signages against stopping in core tiger area, elephant-crossing zones ignored’R. Krishna Kumar

Mysuru

Alarming trend: A tourist in Bandipur stops for a sel�e,violating the law and risking his life. * R.KRISHNA KUMAR





CMYK

M ND-NDE

NATION

The National Green Tribunalhas expressed extreme disap-pointment over the lethargicpace of notifying elephantcorridors — fixed paths whichconnect traditional elephanthabitats — in Odisha.

Adjudicating the case filedby the Wildlife Society ofOrissa, Justice S. P. Wangdi,judicial member, and P. C.Mishra, expert member, ofthe NGT, Eastern ZoneBench, directed the Odishagovernment to give a specifictimeframe for completion ofprocesses before publicationof the notification in respectof the elephant corridors.

Legal sanctityIn 2010, the State govern-ment had identified 14 cor-ridors, which would not onlyhave helped the elephantsmove without any disturb-ances, but also increasedchances of exchange of ge-netic diversity interchange.Later, another nine corridorswere identified. However, thegovernment has been dilly-dallying in notifying the cor-ridors that would have givenlegal sanctity for theirpreservation.

“The State government onJanuary 13, 2017, had categor-ically stated that the work ofassessing habitat viability and

ground-truthing of thealready identified elephantcorridors had been handedover to the Asian Nature Con-servation Foundation(ANCF). The report in respectof which was expected to bereceived by early 2017. Thishas been repeated by the gov-ernment in the subsequentaffidavit filed on February20,” the order says.

“Today being September12, which falls in the laterpart of 2017, it was expectedthat the work would be com-pleted by this time. On beingquestioned as to whether thereport has been filed or not,the government submits thatit has not yet been submitted

but, as per instructions, it isexpected within the firstweek of October,” says NGT’slast Tuesday’s order.

Further complications“Every day’s delay in doingso, would give rise to furthercomplications and a situationmay so arise when traditionalelephant corridors would benon-existent leading to theirgradual extinction. We mayremind ourselves that thisearth is not for the survival ofhuman race alone,” said theNGT.

“We expect the Odishagovernment, one of theStates where the elephantssurvive as their traditional

abode, shall take immediatesteps for protection of thisgentle giant,” emphasises thetribunal in its order.

Shankar Pani, counsel forWildlife Society of Orissa,said the NGT also came downheavily on the State govern-ment for its inaction over il-legal commercial operationsin two identified elephantcorridors.

As per the latest census fig-ure, Odisha had 1976 ele-phants in 2017, 22 more ele-phants compared to 2015.During the past five years(since 2013-14), elephantshave come out of forests reg-ularly in 26 of the 30districts.

Odisha govt rapped for delayin notifying elephant corridors NGT wants govt to give a speci�c timeframe for completion of processes

Rise in numbers: As per the latest census �gure, Odisha had 1,976 elephants in 2017, 22 morethan that in 2015. * FILE PHOTO: LINGARAJ PANDA

Satyasundar Barik

BHUBANESWAR

’Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’has helped sex ratio’SONIPAT

Haryana Chief Minister

Manohar Lal Khattar said the

‘Beti Bachao—Beti Padhao’

campaign has helped improve

the State’s sex ratio which

crossed the 950 girls per

1,000 boys mark. “The sex

ratios in districts such as

Sonipat and Panipat were

quite low, but now it has

crossed the mark of 950 girls

per 1,000 boys,” he said. PTI

IN BRIEF

Wanted criminal arrestedin Jammu, pistol seizedJAMMU

A wanted criminal was

arrested here on Sunday, the

police said, adding that a

country-made pistol and two

live cartridges were seized

from his possession. Paramjit

Singh alias Sunny was

arrested by the Gandhi Nagar

police, they said, adding that

he was involved in many

heinous crimes. PTI

Over 450 kg of poppyseized in Jammu, 2 held JAMMU

The Jammu Police on Sunday

arrested two people who

were smuggling nearly 485

kg of poppy out of the State.

The arrest was made during

routine checking at a road in

Jammu city, when a police

team flagged down a truck.

The police said the poppy was

being transported to Punjab

from Srinagar. PTI

Elderly woman allegesrape by son in Gurdaspur BATALA

An elderly woman was

allegedly raped by her son at

a village in this sub-division

under the Gurdaspur district,

the police said on Sunday.

The 70-year-old alleged that

her 45-year-old son had been

raping her under the influence

of liquor for the last two

years, the police said. The

accused is absconding. PTI

The Delhi High Court hasasked the Centre and otherauthorities to frame a policywithin three months to curbthe practice of celebratoryfiring.

A Bench of Acting ChiefJustice Gita Mittal and JusticeC. Hari Shankar told author-

ities that the plea for strin-gent norms to curb the prac-tice was certainly notadversarial and was in publicinterest.

‘Obnoxious practice’The plea, moved by Mr.Shyam Sunder Kausal,whose daughter died in Aprillast year as a result of celeb-

ratory firing that took placeduring a marriage proces-sion, had contended that theact at weddings and otherfunctions, was an “obnox-ious practice” which “causesterror in the general public”.

The petitioners, Mr.Kausal and NGO Fight forHuman Rights had soughtdirections to the Ministry of

Home Affairs to devolve a ro-bust mechanism to ensurethat these licences were notmisused and “frame strin-gent policyto curb the ob-noxious practice of celebrat-ory firing”.

Deaths on the riseMr. Kausal’s counsel AkashVajpai said the practice was

not under check and con-sequently the numbers ofdeaths were increasing.

He further added that“carrying of a gun in a mar-riage procession is illegal un-der Arms Act, 1959, and In-dian Penal Code, 1860, andterms of the licence also for-bade the taking of the gun topublic assemblage.”

Frame policy to curb celebratory �ring: HC to CentrePetitioners contend that it’s an obnoxious practice; court says plea for stringent norms in public interest


New Delhi

A school principal wasallegedly beaten todeath and his wife in-jured by around sixpeople who barged intotheir rented accommod-ation and fled with cashand jewellery, the policesaid on Sunday.

Couple beat upSSP Bareily JogendraKumar said: “At 2.30am, around six peopleentered their rented ac-commodation in NavaNagla where SubhashChandra (45), a prin-cipal of a primaryschool, and his wifeShalini Gupta (40) wereliving with their three-year- old daughter.”

“They beat up thecouple and fled the spotafter looting ₹50,000 incash and jewelleryworth ₹10 lakh,” the SSPsaid.

Call to brother“Around 3 a.m., Shalinicalled up his brother,who informed the po-lice. The couple wastaken to a hospitalwhere Subhash was de-clared brought dead,”he said. Investigationinto the case is underway, the officer said.

Schoolprincipalbeaten to death Press Trust of India

Bareilly

Weather WatchRainfall, temperature & air quality in select metros yesterday

Temperature Data: IMD, Pollution Data: CPCB, Map: Skymet (Taken at 18.00 Hrs)

Forecast for Monday: Heavy to very heavy rain with extremelyheavy falls likely at isolated places over Konkan, Goa, Odisha,West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram,Tripura, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala.

city rain max min city rain max min

Agartala.................. -.... 30.5.... 27.7 Kozhikode .........100.0.... 30.4.... 24.0

Ahmedabad..........6.4.... 32.2.... 25.5 Kurnool ...............51.4.... 34.1.... 22.7

Aizawl .................7.0.... 31.9.... 15.4 Lucknow................... -.... 35.3.... 27.1

Allahabad ............... -.... 35.5.... 27.6 Madurai.................0.6.... 34.9.... 24.5

Bengaluru ..........17.2.... 29.4.... 20.8 Mangaluru...........47.7.... 26.9.... 23.4

Bhopal.................... -.... 32.2.... 23.5 Mumbai...............32.2.... 29.3.... 25.0

Bhubaneswar .....15.2.... 34.2.... 25.4 Mysuru..................4.0.... 27.1.... 20.6

Chandigarh ............. -.... 34.0.... 25.0 New Delhi ................ -.... 35.3.... 25.4

Chennai ...............9.6.... 32.1.... 24.5 Patna ....................... -.... 36.4.... 27.6

Coimbatore........18.5.... 31.3.... 22.2 Port Blair ............74.0.... 28.6.... 23.7

Dehradun.............0.3.... 29.7.... 23.6 Puducherry............6.5.... 30.3.... 25.1

Gangtok...............3.5.... 25.8.... 18.0 Pune .....................0.4.... 28.8.... 22.6

Goa ........................ -.... 27.0.... 25.0 Raipur ...................1.1.... 32.7.... 27.5

Guwahati ................ -.... 36.4.... 27.6 Ranchi...................... -.... 32.6.... 22.1

Hubballi.................. -.... 26.0.... 21.0 Shillong.................... -.... 27.2.... 16.7

Hyderabad ...........2.4.... 33.0.... 23.3 Shimla...................... -.... 23.3.... 16.8

Imphal...............21.0.... 32.8.... 20.2 Srinagar ................... -.... 29.3.... 11.1

Jaipur ..................... -.... 34.0.... 24.6 Trivandrum .........23.9.... 26.3.... 23.6

Kochi.................58.6.... 29.2.... 23.8 Tiruchi ..................... -.... 30.3.... 25.4

Kohima................1.2.... 28.5.... 18.6 Vijayawada ............... -.... 32.1.... 26.0

Kolkata................... -.... 36.0.... 28.6 Visakhapatnam .......3.1.... 29.0.... 25.9

Particulate matter in the air you are breathing Yesterday

CITIES SO2 NO2 CO PM2.5 PM10 CODE

In observations made at4 p.m., Patna recordedan air quality index (AQI)score of 194, indicatinghigh levels of pollutantsin the air. In contrast,Rajamahendravaramrecorded a healthy AQIscore of 36.

Ahmedabad ....... .....-......-.....-......... - ........- ........-

Bengaluru.......... ...12 ...17 ....8........ 8 ........-.......*

Chennai ............. ...16 ...13 ..64...... 42 ........-.......*

Delhi ................. ...10 ...40 ..30.... 114 ........-.......*

Hyderabad......... .....7 ...33 ..20...... 45 ........-.......*

Kolkata.............. ...20 ...53 ..24......... -......96.......*

Lucknow............ .....5 ...49 ..47...... 83 ........-.......*

Mumbai ............. ...10 ...45 ..20...... 37......55.......*

Pune ................. ...36 ...10 ..72...... 22......40.......*

Visakhapatnam .......8 ...15 ..37...... 47......69.......*

Air Quality Code: * Poor * Moderate * Good

SO2: Sulphur Dioxide. Short-term exposure can harm the respiratory system,

making breathing difficult. It can affect visibility by reacting with other air

particles to form haze and stain culturally important objects such as statues

and monuments.

NO2: Nitrogen Dioxide. Aggravates respiratory illness, causes haze to form by

reacting with other air particles, causes acid rain, pollutes coastal waters.

CO: Carbon monoxide. High concentration in air reduces oxygen supply to

critical organs like the heart and brain. At very high levels, it can cause

dizziness, confusion, unconsciousness and even death.

PM2.5 & PM10: Particulate matter pollution can cause irritation of the eyes,

nose and throat, coughing, chest tightness and shortness of breath, reduced

lung function, irregular heartbeat, asthma attacks, heart attacks and

premature death in people with heart or lung disease





CMYK

M ND-NDE

NATION

Two held; search forHoneypreet continuesCHANDIGARH

The Haryana police have

arrested two persons in

connection with the violence

that broke out on August 25

in Panchkula after Dera Sacha

Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram

Rahim Singh was convicted in

a rape case. Efforts are also

on to trace the Dera chief’s

adopted daughter

Honeypreet Insan and Dera

spokesman Aditya Insan. PTI

IN BRIEF

10 injured in communalclash in West BengalKOLKATA

At least 10 persons were

injured in clashes between

two communities in the

Nakashipara block of Nadia

district in West Bengal. The

clashes allegedly took place

due to acts which “hurt the

religious sentiments” of one

community. Nadia SP Ram

Jhajria said 28 persons were

arrested for creating nuisance

and for unlawful assembly.

38 Vyapam cases movedto other special courtsNEW DELHI

The Madhya Pradesh High

Court has closed nine of the

18 special courts that were

hearing the Vyapam scam

cases in the State, on a plea

by the CBI that 38 cases be

shifted to other special courts

for efficient handling of

proceedings. The CBI has so

far registered over 150 cases

pertaining to the admission

and recruitment scam.

While tributes poured infrom all walks of life for Mar-shal of the Indian Air ForceArjan Singh who passedaway on Saturday, many ofhis successors recalled sev-eral instances of the le-gendary soldier’s abidingrole in shaping the IAF intoone of the finest militaryarms in the world. From en-couraging young pilots towarmly welcoming womenfighter pilots, he set personalexamples in shaping theethos of the IAF, manyformer Air Force chiefs said.

Besides being the firstfour-star general of the AirForce and its only five-stargeneral in its history, Mar-shal Singh also stood out asan icon and legend due to hisleadership values like hon-esty and integrity on whichthe Indian Air Force has builtits structures, many in theIAF recalled.

“Something special to himwas his personal contribu-tions. For instance duringBurma campaign in WW-II,they went quite deep to at-tack the Japanese. It was abrilliant air campaign… Theother part of him is his lead-ership, his style and remark-able patience. I never heardof him losing patience. Hedemanded few things, integ-rity and honesty. He set a tra-dition. We simply followed itdown the line,” former Air

Chief Marshal (ACM) S Krish-naswamy told The Hindu.

Singh formally tookcharge as the Marshal of theAir Force in 2002 when ACMKrishnaswamy was the Chief.He said the IAF had built itsstructures on his ethos, in-tegrity to the military andthe nation and honesty tocolleagues andsub-ordinates.

Another former ChiefACM Arup Raha had a similarobservation: “Marshal of theAir Force Arjan Singh standsout as he had so many cred-its to him. He had shrewdmilitary characters in him.He was loved by everyone.He is an icon and legend.”

Marshal Singh joined theRoyal Indian Air Force in1938 when he was only 19

years old. He went on to be-come the Chief of the IAFwhen he was 44 years oldand soon saw action in the1965 war in which he playedan instrumental role in turn-ing it around. Recalling theseveral firsts of MarshalSingh, ACM Raha said on the1965 war, “In the backdropof the 1962 war, the IAF wasexploring its war-winningpotential. He did exception-ally well in that.”

After retirement, MarshalSingh served as High Com-missioner and LieutenantGovernor earning laurels.

Welcomed women pilotsACM Raha, who steppeddown as Chief at the end ofthe last year, recalled meet-ing him regularly to update

him on the developments inthe Air Force. “When wewere planning to put a pro-posal to the government oninducting women as fighterpilots, I told him about it. Hewas very elated. He said wo-men are as good as men andthey should be given equalopportunity. After the gov-ernment approval, he wasvery happy,” he said.

In June 2016, the firstbatch of three women fighterpilots, Avani Chaturvedi,Bhawana Kanth and MohanaSingh, were commissionedinto the IAF and they latermet Marshal Singh. “He wasso happy to meet them. Theywere like his grandchildren,”ACM Raha recalled.

Last year, the IAF celeb-rated Marshal Singh’s 97th

birthday and Air Force sta-tion Panagarh was renamedAir Force station ArjanSingh. “He was initially re-luctant. But we convincedhim,” ACM Raha added.

Another former ChiefACM A.Y. Tipnis recalled oneof his interactions with Mar-shal Singh in 1962-63 whenthe first Russian MiG-21squadron was inducted intothe Air Force. It was also thefirst supersonic squadron inthe force. Normally when anew squadron is formed,senior officers are posted asa precaution in handling newplatforms. “But we werethere and the only reasonwas the Marshal had insistedthat there must be youngpeople in the squadron,”ACM Tipnis recalled.

‘Air Force built on Marshal Singh’s values’He set personalexamples inshaping its ethos,say ex-chiefs

Saluting a hero: President Ram Nath Kovind pays his last respects to Marshal of the Indian AirForce Arjan Singh in New Delhi on Sunday. * PTI

Dinakar Peri

NEW DELHI

The Railways is reducingthe ‘official sleeping hours’on reserved coaches intrains in an effort to put anend to quarrels that breakout if passengers in themiddle and lower berthsoversleep.

According to a circularissued by the RailwayBoard, passengers in thereserved coaches can onlysleep between 10 p.m. and6 a.m. so that others maysit for the rest of the time.

The new provision re-places paragraph 652 inthe Indian Railways Com-mercial Manual, Volume I,which provides for sleep-ing accommodationbetween 9 p.m. and 6 a.m.

“Sleeping accommoda-tion between 2200 hoursand 0600 hours and sittingaccommodation for therest of the period isprovided for the passen-gers in the reservedcoaches having sleeping ac-commodation,” said thecircular, dated August 31.

The circular, however,makes an exception forcertain passengers. “Pas-sengers are, however, re-quested to cooperate withthe sick, persons with dis-ability, and pregnant ladiesin case they want to sleepbeyond permissible limits,”it says.

“We already have a rulein place. However, wewanted to clarify it and en-sure it is followed,” saidMinistry spokesperson AnilSaxena.

Railways cutsleep time by an hourPress Trust of India

New Delhi

Personnel of the Tripura State Ri�es display arms during the Vishwakarma Puja at their camp in R.K. Nagar, Agartala, on Sunday. * ABHISHEK SAHA


Worship at work

Marshal of the Indian AirForce Arjan Singh, whopassed away on Saturday,will be laid to rest with fullstate honours on Monday.

“The last rites will beperformed at Brar Square,Delhi, at 10 a.m. onSeptember 18. As a mark ofrespect to the departeddignitary, a state funeral willbe accorded and thenational flag will fly half-mast on the day in Delhi onall buildings,” thegovernment said in astatement. A DefenceMinistry statement said agun salute would be given.

Gun salute,funeral todaySpecial Correspondent

NEW DELHI

The Central InformationCommission (CIC) hasserved a show-cause noticeto the Ministry of Culture(MoC) for not replying to aRight to Information (RTI)query filed last year on theproposed regional extensioncentre of the National Lib-rary in New Delhi.

Currently, the sole cam-pus of the National Library islocated in south Kolkata.

“The Commission directsthe respondent authority toprovide point-wise informa-tion to the applicant, free ofcost and also directs theCentral Public InformationOfficer (CPIO) to show-causewhy maximum penaltyshould not be imposed fornot replying properly before21.9.2017,” the CIC said in itsnotice . Calls to N.K. Sinha,the CPIO, went unanswered.

In his application,Biswanath Goswami, a so-cio-legal researcher and act-ivist, sought “complete in-formation and each copy ofrelevant documents relatingto present and final/ulti-mate/long term plan of ac-tion and policy and pro-gramme in future regardingthe establishment of Re-gional Centre/ExtensionCentre of National Library atNew Delhi”.

He also asked for detailsand copies of every meeting,proposal and decision of all

concerned departments andministries. In its reply, datedSeptember 21, 2016, the Min-istry said: “It is informedthat the proposal is underconsideration in the Min-istry of Culture.”

Not satisfied, Mr. Gos-wami appealed to the FirstAppellate Authority (an of-ficer senior in rank to theCPIO) at the Ministry, whichreplied on January 11 that theproposed extension counterof the National Library wasat “nascent stage ofdiscussions”.

Substantiating claimMr. Goswami then appealedto the CIC, alleging that boththe CPIO and the First Ap-pellate Authority not only“suppressed material facts”but “purposefully suppliedfalse, contradictory and mis-leading information”.

“I have got governmentdocuments which show that

the MoC deliberatelyprovided misleading inform-ation about the proposedextension centre” Mr. Gos-wami said.

According to the govern-ment document, a copy ofwhich is with The Hindu, notonly have the aims and ob-jectives of the proposed ex-tension of National Librarybeen decided, but its readercapacity, staff requirementas well as estimated budgethave been fixed. The docu-ment, titled Proposal for Es-tablishment of National Lib-rary ExtensionCentre/Regional Centre atNew Delhi, says that the re-gional centre should be es-tablished at New Delhi for“better coordination and li-aison with publishers”.

The document also statesthat the estimated expendit-ure for the initial one year ofthe extension counter willbe about ₹1.12 crore.

RTI applicant alleges he was given misleading information

Soumya Das

Kolkata

The National Library in Kolkata. * SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Ministry gets notice overNational Library extension

<> We have lost a

brave soldier...

Generations to

come will be

inspired by him

Narendra Modi

Prime Minister

<> It is very rare

for any country

to have a soldier

of that kind of

credentials

Nirmala

Sitharaman

Defence Minister

<> The tales of his

courage will

remain

immortal

Rajnath Singh

Home Minister

<> He led a young

Air Force into

the war in 1965

when he was

hardly 44 years

old

Venkaiah Naidu

Vice-President

<> Arjan Singh’s

extraordinary

contribution

will always be a

source of

inspiration to us

Sonia Gandhi

Congress president

The proprietor of PushpaSales, which supplied oxy-gen to the state-run BabaRaghav Das Medical Col-lege where dozens of chil-dren died last month, wason Sunday arrested in con-nection with the case.

More than 60 children,mostly infants, had died atthe hospital within a weeklast month. There were al-legations that the deathsoccurred due to a disrup-tion in oxygen supply overunpaid bills to the vendor.

With the fresh arrest, allthe nine persons named inthe FIR have been held.“Manish Bhandari, the pro-prietor of Pushpa Sales,was arrested from the De-oria bypass road,” SeniorSuperintendent of PoliceGorakhpur, Anirudh Sid-hartha Pankaj said.

Oxygensupplier held in U.P.Press Trust of India

Gorakhpur

A man carrying a bounty of₹12,000 was killed in a policeshootout in Muzaffarnagaron Sunday, taking the totalnumber of encounter killingsunder the Yogi Adityanathgovernment in Uttar Pradeshto 16.

This comes even as theState government has em-powered police officials toannounce increased cash re-wards to personnel for ar-resting criminals. Theamounts were revised to“keep the morale of the po-lice personnel high” andhelp in the quick arrest ofcriminals, said Arvind Ku-mar, Principal Secretary,Home Department, which isunder the control ofAdityanath.

On Sunday, the policegunned down one Janu, aliasJan Mohammad, of Baghpatduring a vehicle check atKhatauli in Muzaffarnagardistrict. According to a po-lice spokesperson, Jan Mo-hammad and an aide fired atthe police when they were

confronted by the officers.“One criminal died of bulletwounds, while the other es-caped,” the spokespersonsaid. Constables Deepak Ku-mar and Sohan sustainedbullet injuries.

A 315 bore country pistolwith eight live cartridges, a

32 bore pistol and six livecartridges were recoveredfrom the accused. They hadseveral cases of murder, lootand attempt to murder andunder the Arms Act pendingagainst him in Meerut, Bagh-pat and Muzaffarnagar dis-tricts, the police said.

Of the 16 persons killed inpolice encounters, the ma-jority 11 were gunned downin western U.P. The highestnumber of killings was recor-ded in Shamli (4).

‘No place for crime’“There is no place for crimeand criminals under the Yogigovernment,” Cabinet Minis-ter Shrikant Sharma said.

Additional Director-Gen-eral of Police (Law and Or-der) Anand Kumar said theencounters would continue.

Another encounter killing in U.P.With this, the total number of such killings under Yogi government rises to 16

Omar Rashid

LUCKNOW

Crackdown continues: Yogi Adityanath at the launch of‘Phantom’, a new police contingent to check crimes. * PTI





CMYK

M ND-NDE

EDITORIAL

India’s external balance sheet may have improved sig-

ni�cantly since the infamous taper tantrum of 2013,

but there are now signs that warrant more caution

from policymakers. Last week, the current account de-

�cit (CAD) widened to a four-year high of $14.3 billion in

the �rst quarter of the current �nancial year, standing

at 2.4% of gross domestic product, compared to 0.1%

last year. The widening CAD was driven by a greater in-

crease in merchandise imports than exports. A strong

capital account surplus, however, has helped the coun-

try pay for its import bills without much trouble. For-

eign investors starved of yield have been stepping up

their investments in India, which remains one of the

few places o�ering higher yields. Compared to last year,

net FDI almost doubled to $7.2 billion in the �rst

quarter, while net portfolio investment jumped about

six times to $12.5 billion. The strong in�ow of foreign

capital has also led to a signi�cant increase in foreign re-

serve holdings, thanks to the Reserve Bank of India

which has been busy buying dollars to weaken the ru-

pee. Forex reserves were at an all-time high of $400.7

billion for the week ending September 8, while the ru-

pee has appreciated by over 6% against the dollar this

year. Low global oil prices over the last two years have

also helped contain a good portion of its import bills.

All this might change with the impending tightening

of monetary policy by the U.S. Federal Reserve and

other central banks. After all, emerging Asian markets

have been the biggest bene�ciaries of loose monetary

policy in the West, so any change in stance would most

de�nitely a�ect them. Indian companies, for instance,

have aggressively tapped into the market for rupee-de-

nominated foreign debt, which can work against them

if the �ow of foreign capital turns volatile. The RBI has

been regulating the amount and quality of such borrow-

ings, so it may seem like things are under control for

now. Further, India’s total external debt declined by

2.7% during the �nancial year 2016-17, standing at

$471.9 billion, driven by a fall in external commercial

borrowings and deposits by non-resident Indians. The

World Bank, in fact, has said that India’s external dy-

namics remain very favourable given the size of its eco-

nomy and foreign reserve holdings. But a prolonged

period of unfavourable trade balance when combined

with volatile international capital �ows can lead to un-

savoury macroeconomic situations. According to a re-

port by India Ratings & Research earlier this year, a 10%

depreciation of the rupee combined with a 50 basis

point interest rate hike can severely a�ect most Indian

borrowers. It added that as much as 65% of foreign debt

exposure of Indian companies may be unhedged. As

the world looks to withdraw from an era of historically

low interest rates, it would be wise for India’s policy-

makers to be ready with an emergency plan to tackle a

period of signi�cant volatility.

Time for cautionAs the world looks to end the era

of easy money, India must be prepared

Bangladesh’s Parliament raised the stakes in a

stand-o� against the judiciary last week by

passing a unanimous resolution to take “proper

legal steps” over a Supreme Court verdict nullifying the

Constitution’s 16th amendment. The amendment,

passed in 2014, had empowered Parliament to remove

judges of the Supreme Court found incompetent or

guilty of misconduct, based on a two-thirds majority.

This amendment had in a way restored the power of

Parliament to impeach judges and was in line with the

original Constitution of 1972. The Supreme Court had in

July this year scrapped the amendment, suggesting that

it was antithetical to the independence of the judiciary

and restored the Supreme Judicial Council, headed by

the Chief Justice, with powers to remove errant judges.

The Parliament, dominated by the Awami League, not

only resolved to reverse the Supreme Court’s decision,

but also found fault with Chief Justice S.K. Sinha’s com-

ments in this regard. He had said that the Constitution

was a product of the collective will of the people and not

just one individual, which was interpreted as an a�ront

to “Bangabandhu”, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, by the rul-

ing Awami League. The largest party in opposition, the

Bangladesh Nationalist Party, is not represented in Par-

liament as it had boycotted the elections held in 2014.

The BNP had welcomed the Supreme Court decision

but its position seemed to be guided more by schaden-

freude and less by a clear-cut position on the judiciary’s

independence.

It is di�cult for the polarised polity in Bangladesh to

debate any issue without political overtones, let alone

one that pertains to separation of powers between the

judiciary and legislature. The Supreme Court’s conten-

tion is that Bangladesh’s political system is unlike the

parliamentary systems in the United Kingdom and In-

dia, for example, where legislators are empowered to

impeach judges. Bangladeshi MPs do not have the free-

dom to vote on conscience on issues including im-

peachment, bound as they are by Article 70 that pre-

vents legislators from voting against their party’s

decision on any matter. This prevents a dispassionate

deliberation over any prospective impeachment, giving

political parties, and those in the executive undue in�u-

ence over appointments in the judiciary. Instead of tak-

ing a course of confrontation against the judiciary,

Bangladesh’s parliamentarians and its attorney general

would be better o� proceeding with a review petition to

the Supreme Court and presenting their position dis-

passionately. The Supreme Judicial Council might have

had a legacy connecting it to the country’s authorit-

arian past, but the arguments of the Supreme Court

that it is seeking to protect judicial independence from

the executive in light of other laws that bind legislative

work in Bangladesh need to be contested by the govern-

ment point by point — not by a mere resolution.

Confrontational pathBangladesh’s legislature draws

the battle lines against the judiciary

In history, de�ning moments like9/11 that can be identi�ed asmarkers of change are rare.

More often, there are trend lines ofslow-moving geopolitical changeswhich come together at a particu-lar moment in time resulting in anin�exion point. Reading the tealeaves indicates that 2017 may wellbe the year which marked the re-ordering of the Asian strategiclandscape.

Two trend linesThe two slow moving trend linesclearly discernible since the ColdWar ended a quarter century agoare the shift of the geopoliticalcentre of gravity from the Euro-At-lantic to the Indo-Paci�c regionand the rise of China. The U.S. ‘re-balancing’ announced in 2011 wasa belated recognition of thesechanges, driven home by the im-pact of the 2008 �nancial crisis.Most of the rivalries are beingplayed out in the crowded geopolit-ical space of the Indo-Paci�c, andAsian economies now account formore than half of global GDP andbecoming larger in coming years.

China’s rise is re�ected in amore assertive China. According toPresident Xi Jinping’s ‘two guides’policy announced in February,China should guide ‘the shaping ofthe new world order’ and safe-guarding ‘international security’.Much has changed during the lastquarter century when Deng Xiaop-ing advised China ‘to observecalmly, secure its position, hide itscapability, bide its time and notclaim leadership’.

Today’s China is not just willingbut eager to assume leadership andexpects other countries to yieldspace. China has suggested ‘a newtype of great power relations’ tothe U.S. Its assertiveness in the EastChina Sea with Japan and in theSouth China Sea with its Associ-ation of Southeast Asian Nations(ASEAN) neighbours sends a signalthat while multipolarity may be de-sirable in a global order, in Asia,

China is the predominant powerand must be treated as such.

Even though China has been abene�ciary of the U.S.-led globalorder, it is impatient that it doesnot enjoy a position that it feels itdeserves, especially in the BrettonWoods institutions. During the last�ve years, it has set about creatinga new set of institutions (the AsianInfrastructure Investment Bankand the New Development Bank)and launched the Belt and RoadInitiative (BRI) to create a new trad-ing infrastructure that re�ects Chi-na’s centrality as the largest trad-ing nation.

The BRI is also complementedby a growing Chinese naval pres-ence in the Indian Ocean. Begin-ning in 2009, the PLA Navy startedrotating three ship task forcesthrough the Indian Ocean as partof the anti-piracy task force o� theSomalia coast. Visits by nuclear at-tack submarines to littoral portsbegan to take place. In addition toGwadar, China is now convertingthe supply facility at Djibouti into afull-�edged military base.

Accelerating the trendsRecent developments have accel-erated these geopolitical trends.The �rst was the outcome of theU.S. elections last year. By invoking‘America �rst’ repeatedly, Presid-ent Donald Trump has made itclear that the U.S. considers theburden of leading the global ordertoo onerous. American allies, par-ticularly in the Asia-Paci�c, arenervous about Mr. Trump’s har-angues that they are enjoying the

bene�ts of the U.S. security um-brella on the cheap.

Recent nuclear and long-rangemissile tests by North Korea haveadded to South Korean and Japan-ese anxieties. Japan has been par-ticularly rattled by the two missiles�red across Hokkaido. Given theU.S. push for more sanctions thatdepend on China for implementa-tion, most Japanese reluctantly ad-mit that North Korea’s nuclear andmissile capability is unlikely to bedismantled any time soon.

Another signi�cant develop-ment was the Doklam stand-o�between India and China that las-ted from June to August. TheChinese playbook followed the es-tablished pattern — creating a phys-ical presence followed bysharpened rhetoric, together be-coming an exercise in coercive dip-lomacy. This worked in pushingthe nine-dash line in the SouthChina Sea with the Philippines andVietnam even as China built addi-tional facilities on reclaimed landin the area. India, however, choseto block China and a few hundredsoldiers on the plateau maintainedtheir hostile postures even asPrime Minister Narendra Modi andPresident Xi attended the the G-20summit in July amidst heightenedrhetoric recalling the 1962 war.

Di�erences with China did notbegin with Doklam. It was pre-ceded by the stapled visa issue forIndians belonging to ArunachalPradesh and Jammu and Kashmir,growing incidents of incursionsalong the disputed boundary,blocking of India’s bid to join the

Nuclear Suppliers Group last year,ensuring that no language relatingto Pakistan-based terrorist groupsfound mention in the BRICS sum-mit in Goa and preventing the in-clusion of Masood Azhar from be-ing designated as a terrorist by theUN Security Council by exercisinga veto.

Since 1988, India has followed aconsistent China policy based onputting aside the boundary disputeand developing other aspects ofthe relationship in the expectationthat this would create mutual trustand enable a boundary settlement.However, the gap between Indiaand China has grown, both in eco-nomic and military terms, andwith it has emerged a more assert-ive China. The shared vision of anAsian century with a rising Indiaand rising China is long past. Mr.Modi’s personal diplomacy withMr. Xi has had little in�uence onchanging Chinese attitudes or be-haviour. After Doklam, there is �-nally a consensus that the oldChina policy does not serve our na-tional interests and a review is longoverdue.

A new strategic landscapeIt is against this backdrop that Ja-panese Prime Minister ShinzōAbe’s visit to India took place lastweek. The contours of a new rela-tionship were de�ned during Mr.Abe’s earlier tenure, in 2006-07,when annual summits were intro-duced, the relationship became a‘Special Strategic and Global Part-nership’, Japan was invited to joinin the Malabar naval exercises anda Joint Declaration on Security Co-operation was concluded. Sincethen, signi�cant content has beenadded.

A singular achievement was theconclusion of the agreement forCooperation in the Peaceful Usesof Nuclear Energy last year. Undernegotiation for �ve years, this wasa sensitive issue for Japan given thewidespread anti-nuclear senti-ment (though Japan enjoys the U.S.nuclear umbrella) and (misplaced)faith in the Nuclear Non-Prolifera-tion Treaty; it would not have gonethrough but for Mr. Abe’s personalcommitment.

To deepen strategic understand-ing, the two sides initiated a 2+2Dialogue involving the Foreign andDefence Ministries in 2010. A

memorandum on enhancing de-fence and technology/security co-operation was signed and talks onacquiring the amphibious mari-time surveillance ShinMaywa US-2ibegan in 2013. Trilateral dialogueinvolving both the U.S. and Japanand covering strategic issues waselevated to ministerial level in2014. Japanese participation in theMalabar exercises, suspended be-cause of Chinese protests, was re-stored in 2015. Once the agreementfor the 12 US-2i aircraft is con-cluded with a follow-up acquisitionas part of Make in India, the stra-tegic relationship will begin to ac-quire critical mass.

However the strategic partner-ship needs stronger economic ties.Today, India-Japan trade lan-guishes at around $15 billion, aquarter of trade with China whileJapan-China trade is around $300billion. Therefore, the primary fo-cus during the recent visit has beenon economic aspects. The Mum-bai-Ahmedabad high speed railcorridor is more than symbolism,in demonstrating that high-cost Ja-panese technology is viable in de-veloping countries and that Indiahas the absorption capacity tomaster it. Completing it in �veyears is a management challengebut the bigger challenge will be totransfer the know-how of bestpractices to other sectors of theeconomy.

Another major initiative is therecently launched Asia-AfricaGrowth Corridor to build con-nectivity for which Japan has com-mitted $30 billion and India $10 bil-lion. This adds a critical dimensionto the ‘global partnership’ betweenthe two countries. However, tomake this productive, India needsto change its style of implementingprojects abroad, most of whichhave been plagued by cost andtime over-runs.

Ensuring e�ective implementa-tion and setting up mechanisms fordelivery will align Mr. Modi’s ActEast policy with Mr. Abe’s Free andOpen Indo-Paci�c Strategy. Thisalignment sets the stage for the re-ordering of the Asian strategiclandscape.

Rakesh Sood is a former diplomat andcurrently Distinguished Fellow at theObserver Research Foundation. E-mail:[email protected]

Reading the tea leavesThe emerging India-Japan alignment sets the stage for the reordering of the Asian strategic landscape

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Andhra Pradesh Chief Minis-ter N. Chandrababu Naiduhas reportedly sought fur-

ther improvements to the designby the international architectural�rm Foster + Partners for the Am-aravati start-up area. It is furtherreported that he has suggested cer-tain changes and favoured the dir-ect interaction of the architectswith �lm director S.S. Rajamouli toseek his inputs to give �nishingtouches to the plans.

No explanation is to be found ofthe suggested “certain changes” or“�nishing touches”.

There are two issues in the Am-aravati city project — one of profes-sional integrity and the other ofpublic interest. Both are import-ant, and the reason that they are in-terlinked in this article is that thelack of the former has made pos-sible irresponsible and improperadministrative action of majorpublic expense and seriousconsequence.

Many changesTo summarise the murky happen-ings of the Amaravati city project:In March 2016, Maki and Associ-

ates were declared as winners of aninvited competition for the Amara-vati capital complex. The competi-tion was adjudged by a jury of pro-fessionals but the jury’s report onshortcomings or strengths of thewinning design has not been madepublic.

When the design itself was madepublic, it was harshly criticised onseveral counts — that it was similarto the public buildings at Chand-igarh; it was too futuristic; it didnot display any Indian character-istics, etc. Maki and Associatesclaim they had made extensivedesign changes to meet the new de-mands, but in spite of that, the gov-ernment decided to reopen thecompetition and remove the �rmfrom the project. Complaining tothe Council of Architecture (CoA)in December 2016, the principal ar-chitect of the �rm, Fumihiko Maki,a Pritzker Architecture Prize win-ner, questioned the motivations ofthe Andhra Pradesh governmentcommittee, alleging unfair prac-tice, a lack of transparency and his�rm’s ‘fraudulent’ removal fromthe project.

Whether the CoA has recog-nised and taken any action on Mr.

Maki’s complaint is not known.

The ‘Baahubali’ factorIn December, the State appointedthe U.K.-based Foster + Partnersalong with Hafeez Contractor asthe new architects for the project.At the same time, it announcedthat the project would be assistedby three �lm and art directors of In-dian cinema. The reason was thatthe three had done extensive re-search on history, architecture,

and culture for their �lms and theirinputs were likely to be of enorm-ous value in giving a native touch tothe design. There were indicationsthat the powers that be wantedAmaravati to be modelled on thelines of the fantasy city portrayedin the �lm Baahubali.

The city of the �lm is neithercontemporary nor ahead of itstime. It has been set in an ancientkingdom, the form of which is, atbest, drawn from mythologicalstories and depicted in children’scomic books. There is no authenticrepresentation of such cities to useas a reference.

Amaravati itself had earlier beencriticised as an ‘ultra-mega-world-class-city’ that was being rushedthrough by destroying thousandsof acres of prime farm and forestland. Proper environmental im-pact assessment had not beendone, and the Prime Minister wascriticised for participating in thefoundation stone-laying event.

The State has consistently dis-regarded criticism of its fair ap-proach regarding architecturaldesign consultancy and also to theconditions imposed on architectsthat make a mockery of evaluating

city planning issues sensitively. Asarchitect A. Srivathsan has writtenin The Wire, “What is of concernare the frequent and opaquechanges, the lack of professional-ism and accountability. The realdanger in the Amaravati story isthat a serious, positive planningprocess has been turned into a�ight of whimsy and that publicprojects remain captive to statecaprice.”

It is hardly surprising that thingshave come to a head again. This un-scienti�c and irrational approachto city planning and architecturedisplays the extent to which themalaise has spread. Public moneyis being wasted on political hubrisand nonsensical notions of publicarchitecture.

It is time that all right-thinkingcitizens, especially professionals,condemn this situation and de-mand a more rational, transpar-ent, open and fair process in thedesign and construction. It is bet-ter to go back to the drawing boardnow than to su�er the impact ofsenseless design later.

Tara Murali is an architect

Irrationalism in city planningIt is better to go back to the drawing board in designing Amaravati

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Tara Murali

Bridges with TokyoThe animus between Japanand China is centuries old asopposed to our misgivingsover China built over just 50years. To that extent Japanhas a far greater stake inrelations with India. Thepact on the bullet train issizeable in value and Japanwould only be too happy to�ll up its manufacturingledgers, thinned by overtwo decades of economicslack. The agreement couldwell have come through lastyear itself, but the timingseems to have been dictatedby the Gujarat elections.Perhaps the Doklam stand-o� had as much tocontribute to this. The trainproject is but a prologue togreater India-Japancollaboration that wouldtest our mettle to keep thepolitical overtones withreference to China to thebare minimum and focus onbilateral economic ties.R. Narayanan,

Ghaziabad

The hero of 1965In the passing of Marshal ofthe Indian Air Force ArjanSingh, India has lost aneminent war hero whoplayed a determining role inthe 1965 war. He was theembodiment of dedication,professionalism andcommitment. His demiseleaves a void that cannot be�lled, for Arjan Singh wassui generis.Niranjan Sahoo,

Bhubaneswar

Justifying the hikeUnion Tourism MinisterAlphons Kannanthanam hasstirred up a hornet’s nestwith his blunt assertion thatvehicle owners are not sopoor that they should becomplaining about theincrease in fuel prices. Tobe fair, his statement,notwithstanding itsunderlying politicalincorrectness and apparentinsensitivity, is not entirelyuntrue.However, the articulation of

policies and theirjusti�cations, especially inrespect of those imposing ahigher tax burden on thepeople, need to be carriedout in a nuanced andsensitive manner. If taxesand levies can be arbitrarilyhiked to exploit a captivemarket such as that forpetroleum products, it notonly makes the governmentguilty of monopolisticbehaviour but alsoundercuts the principle oftaxation withrepresentation as the pricerevisions do not haveParliament’s approval.V.N. Mukundarajan,

Thiruvananthapuram

Sounding the bugle Tamil Nadu is among thefew States in the countrywhere �lm actors never shyaway from plunging into theworld of politics in the hopeof becoming Chief Ministerof the State one day.However, the successesscripted by M.G.

Ramachandran, M.Karunanidhi andJayalalithaa cannot be fullyattributed to theirassociation with the tinselworld. Their allegiance tothe Dravidian movementand its ideology, coupledwith a direct connect withthe masses at the grass-rootlevel, played a pivotal role intheir emergence as forces toreckon with. Now that actor KamalHaasan has evinced greaterinterest in joining politics,one cannot say withcertainty that people willback him and ensure hissuccess in politics. Hiscriticism of the ruling partymay not have gone downwell with the people as well.Unlike cinema, electoralpolitics is a di�erent gamealtogether where muscleand money have to be takeninto account (“I havearrived in politics”, saysKamal”, September 16).M. Jeyaram,

Sholavandan, Tamil Nadu

n The political confusion inTamil Nadu seems to bespurring those watchingfrom the sidelines to jumpinto the fray. Forming a newparty is an option for Mr.Haasan, but there arebound to be many hurdles.He has a fan followingwhich can be expected towork hard for him in anelection. Though he is afabulous actor, he will haveto work on his image,especially among theeducated middle class. TheCongress has been survivingby joining hands with oneKazhagam or the other. Asthe old guard has rested itsoars, this party o�ers himan opportunity to takecontrol of it. He shouldtherefore join the party andlaunch his bid from here.S. Rajagopalan,

Chennai

n Kamal Haasan has set thesails of his political boat andit is premature to guess howhis vessel would weather

the uncharted territory. Hisdeclaration that his partywould be funded by thepoor sounds immature asthat betrays his order ofpriorities. His celluloid rolesseem to cast their spell onhis political ambitions if hisone-liners, quips, retortsand taunts to questionsposed by the media are anyindication. No doubt he needs to begiven time and space toadjust himself to thedemands of his new role,but new entrants should besmart enough to rememberthe wise counsel of theDMK’s patriarch that all thecheers and applause onegets in a meeting may bedeceptive as none can gaugehow many hands that clapduring a speech wouldactually vote for the partythat the speaker campaignsfor. Sivamani Vasudevan,

Chennai

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters emailed to [email protected] must carry the full postal address and the full name or the name with initials.

more letters online:

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DATA POINT

Scotland Yard yesterday [Sepember 17] snatched a young Rus-sian physicist, Tkachenko, from a Moscow-bound plane afterreports that he had been dragged into a Soviet Embassy car ina busy London street. The man’s call for help resulted in a gen-eral police alert. Just as an Aeroflot jet was about to taxi awayfor take-off, police squad cars ringed it. Officers of ScotlandYard’s special (political) branch and immigration officialsrushed aboard. There was a tussle on the steps of the plane,with the captain of the airliner and the young Russian’s wifetrying to keep him aboard. The police won, and the man wastaken into the airport building. Vladimar Tkachenko, agedabout 25, had been working on low temperature physics atBirmingham University. He was a post-graduate exchange stu-dent and had been due to return to Moscow after about eightmonths in Britain.

FIFTY YEARS AGO SEPTEMBER 18, 1967

U.K. police snatch Russian scientist

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FROM ARCHIVES

It may not be generally known that there are ranches in thegreat south-western part of the United States whose wholebusiness in the fattening of rattlesnakes and other reptiles formarket. The market for these creatures is an active one, in-cluding museum proprietors, circus men, sideshow-actors, zo-ological devotees, and also chemists who wish to study thevarious snake poisons. Probably the biggest of these ranches isthe Armstrong ranch, near Brownsville, Texas, which consistsof ten acres of land, surrounded by a high fence constructed ina manner to prevent the escape of any wriggling wanderer.This enclosure contains pens for different classes of reptiles,and each pen holds at least a thousand snakes. A fat rattler willbring more money than a lean one, for snakes are sold by thepound. Consequently the snake rancher’s work is to make hischarges comfortable and fatten them to the extent of his abil-ity. Then, when the buyer comes along, the snake-poison isscientifically extracted from the boarders who are about toleave the farm, their poison being kept in bottles for chemistsand physicians, and the rattlers go forth to their new homes asharmless as pet canaries.

A HUNDRED YEARS AGO SEPTEMBER 18, 1917

Snake farms in the United States

The secretive land ofNorth Korea has alwaysbeen in the news for allthe wrong reasons: hu-man rights abuses, nuc-leur tests, public execu-tions, and anauthoritarian govern-ment, among others.Given how difficult it is toenter this little-knowncountry, books on it tooare few but varied. Somespeak of a repressive state;some are first-hand ac-counts by travellers; someby North Koreans whohave fled and found refugein other countries, only torecount past horrors; anda few on how North Koreais a lot more than what wehear.

Guy Delisle’s Pyongy-ang: A Journey in NorthKorea (2004) is a black-and-white graphic novelthat focusses mostly onthe landmarks in NorthKorea’s capital. To capturethe colourless world thathe stayed in for twomonths, Delisle’s sketches

are in pencil. He drawsonly what he is allowed tosee, but the book capturesin picture the story of aforeigner with little free-dom to travel.

If Delisle’s book is froma foreigner’s eyes, journal-ist Blaine Harden’s Escapefrom Camp 14 (2012) is aninsider’s account of an au-thoritarian regime. Thisheart-rending, brutal ac-count followed Harden’sprofile of Shin Dong-hyuk,the subject of the book,for The Washington Post.Shin, who is born in aNorth Korean labourcamp, speaks of the tor-ture he endures, the exe-cutions he is witness to,including of his motherand brother, and his finalescape to the U.S. A bookfilled with ghastly details,Escape is as morbidly grip-ping as it is controversial.

A rare attempt to showNorth Korea empathetic-ally, as any other country,was made by British diplo-mat John Everard in OnlyBeautiful, Please: A BritishDiplomat in North Korea

(2012). Everard speaks of acivilisation that hassuffered under thegreatest informationblackout that began in the20th century and that con-tinues until today. Hechanges the names ofthose he interviews, butwrites that North Koreadeals with the usual urbanand rural issues that manydeveloping countries dealwith, including the ex-treme cold in Pyongyangand changing governmentplans. Everard says hefeared that he was movingaround in a huge surveil-lance state, but foundpeople often laughingaway his fears. He speaksof things as mundane asrestaurants that serve fewbut delicious dishes, toshow how life is as normalas yours or mine.

Anjaly Thomas, inThere are no Gods in NorthKorea (2016), writes aeasy-to-read account ofher journey through acontrolling nation whererestrictions galore are im-posed on tourists.

The many North Koreas

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SHELF HELP

Most books speak of a repressive regime

Kallol Bhattacherjee

An assessment of the historic Dravidianmovement and its leadership, which wasresponsible for empowering victims ofcaste discrimination and putting intopractice the ideal of equality, requiressensitivity and understanding. The art-icle by Pulapre Balakrishnan titled “The

federal manoeuvre” (published on September 16) does nottake into account the depth and dimensions of the movementand the progressive world views of those who spearheaded it.

Kalaignar Karunanidhi’s contributions in implementing thisideal, in the form of schemes and programmes of the govern-ment he headed, are very much in the public domain. Prof.Balakrishnan is so caught up with the �lmy world that the illus-ory perception he develops actually blurs his vision to appreci-ate the real world of the Dravidian movement, and the tangibleand substantive contributions that Kalaignar made in trans-forming the lives of poor and deprived people.

Kalaignar was an outstanding product of the movement,who took into account the interests of the people of TamilNadu. He nationalised buses as Transport Minister in 1967, andas Chief Minister in 1971. Among his remarkable accomplish-ments are the land reforms he initiated to bene�t the landlesspoor. He was the chief architect of the Land Ceiling Act of 1972.

Social justiceHe took measures that without any bloodshed ensured socialjustice and equal opportunity to millions who laboured undera hierarchical structure based on caste, priest craft, and super-stition. As Chief Minister, he came up with an innovativescheme that gave priority in education and employment to the�rst graduate of each family. This bene�tted thousands and ex-panded their capabilities to lead a life of dignity. He directedwomen teachers to be recruited for primary schools acrossTamil Nadu. For improving nutritional standards of childrenand mitigating hidden hunger, he introduced a scheme man-dating the provision of �ve eggs a week to schoolchildren intheir midday meals. He started the Women’s Self-Help Group,economically empowering women. He ensured 30% reserva-tion for women in all jobs, and ensured their inclusive repres-entation in the administration of the State.

Dalits in three Panchayats — Pappapatti, Keeripatti and Nat-tarmangalam — were being denied the right to �le nominationsfor elections to those grass roots representative bodies. Thesituation was so bad for them that even after they were electedto head those Panchayats, they were coerced to resign from of-�ce. As Chief Minister, Kalaignar took all the measures to em-power them to �le nominations and enjoy legitimate power inthe event of the elections to those representative bodies. Sucha vision combined with positive action �owed from the legacyof the Dravidian movement, of which he was an integral part.

Today we all lament the commercialisation of education. Itwas Kalaignar who stood against MGR when the latter openedup the education sector to private players on the ground. Hesaid it would make education costly and inaccessible to thosewho are socially, educationally and economically weak.

Tiruchi Siva is a DMK Rajya Sabha MP

Dismantling hierarchyKarunanidhi’s role in addressing castediscrimination and implementing equality

TIRUCHI SIVA


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On December 13, 1931, Periyar set sailon the French ship, Amboise, fromMadras on a voyage that would takehim to the Soviet Union and othercountries in Europe. As the CriminalInvestigation Department observed,“Their visit to Russia was not bonafide, and the lieutenants of [Periyar]have been asked to keep this fact assecret as possible.”

What is referred to in Periyar’sbiographies as the European tourtook him to the Soviet Union via SriLanka, the Suez, Cairo, Athens, andConstantinople. Later, he journeyedthrough Germany, France, Spain,Portugal, and Sri Lanka.

Periyar maintained a tour diary,parts of which were reproduced inhis own lifetime. Many photographstoo have survived. In 1997, V.Anaimuthu, editor of Periyar’s collec-ted writings, partially unearthed Per-iyar’s dairy. Though incomplete, thisis the single-most important sourceof the tour.

The Soviet tourHeralding his Soviet tour, Periyarpublished a part translation, inTamil, of The Communist Manifesto.His co-translator, S. Ramanathan,and his young relative, Ramu, ac-companied him on this tour.

In Athens they had to wait for twoweeks for Soviet permission. It is notclear how contacts were establishedwith the Soviets, but the pass eventu-ally arrived on February 2, 1932.They boarded the S.S. Tchitcherine,and after a seasick crossing of theBlack Sea, arrived at Odessa. Theytook a train at Kiev and reached Mo-scow on February 14.

Periyar promptly reported to theVOKS, the All-Union Society for Cul-tural Relations with Foreign Coun-tries. No record of what transpired inthe first two months of the tour hassurvived, and we are able to piece to-gether their programme only fromfragmentary information.

Soon after his arrival, Periyarmade the mandatory visit to theLenin Mausoleum in Red Square. Hevisited the Baku oilfields inAzerbaijan, Sukhumi in Abkhazia,and Tbilisi in Georgia. Apart fromLeningrad, Periyar also visitedDneprostroi and Zaporizhia — the hy-

droelectric stations that were sym-bols of Soviet power.

From April 19, when he returnedto Moscow, we have Periyar’s day-to-day record of his subsequent 30 daysin the Soviet Union. Here he was hos-ted by what Periyar refers to as theatheist society, the League of the Mil-itant Godless. Some literature wasshared between Periyar and theLeague, including a letter from theGerman International Freethinkers’Association and a bulletin of theAssociation.

Periyar and his associates receivedexcellent treatment wherever theywent, which they contrasted with theprivations of the Great Depression inother parts of the Western world.One of the detailed descriptions thatPeriyar provides of Soviet adminis-tration is that of the Moskva SarkozySakiz District People’s Court.

He also visited the Lefortovoprison, the notorious Soviet prisonassociated with the KGB and the Sta-linist purges. Periyar went to theAMO (Avtomobilnoe Moskovskoe Ob-shchestvo, or Moscow AutomotiveEnterprise). The kitchen and themassive dining area at the AMO fact-ory impressed him. He was alsotaken to the Profintern (Red Interna-tional of Labour Unions) office. Thiswas probably more serious business,as the passage of worker radicals toMoscow was discussed.

It was a coincidence that Periyarwas in Moscow on May Day, and hewas witness to the joyous celebra-tions. Dioramas depicting variousscenes such as those of the haves andhave-nots, which reminded Periyarof the Mariamman temple festivals,were being paraded. Army unitsmarched past the Lenin Mausoleum

where Stalin, Mikhail Kalinin,Yemelyan Yaroslavsky and other im-portant leaders stood, waving to thecrowds. The Turkish Prime Minister,Ismet Inonu, was a state guest on theoccasion. Some days later, a wel-come reception for all foreign deleg-ates who had come for May Day wasorganised by the Society of OldBolsheviks at the Great KremlinPalace, and Periyar too was invited.

Émigrés of various hues werepresent in Moscow at that time andPeriyar met some of them, includingAbani Mukherji, a founding memberof the Communist Party of India.

By the end of April 1932, for reas-ons not entirely clear, there was dis-cussion about concluding the trip.This is not surprising, as there is con-fusing information on what Periyarand his two associates were doing orattempting to do in Moscow. Eventhough Periyar was in touch withCommunist Party of the Soviet Unionofficials, the logistics of the tour werebeing managed by the League of theMilitant Godless.

By May 14, Periyar’s departure forBerlin was confirmed. After somedelay, the papers finally arrived onMay 17, and Periyar departed fromMoscow immediately.

Reactions on the red spectreWhat was the import of Periyar’s So-viet tour, and what impact did it haveon his political career?

The short statement that Periyarreleased immediately on return wasominous. It exhorted members of hisself-respect movement to desist fromusing traditional honorifics such asMaha-ganam, Sri, Thiru, and Thiru-mathi, as prefixes and urged them in-stead to employ ‘Thozhar’, or ‘Com-

rade’. It is a custom in Tamil Nadu toask older and venerated people toname children. Such was his fascina-tion for the Soviet Union that Periyarnamed the daughter of a leadingDravidian intellectual ‘Russia’ andanother child ‘Moscow’.

According to a secret police re-port, Periyar “lost no time in startingthe spread of Communist doctrine”.Within three months of his return hehad addressed over 40 public meet-ings where he “expressed unboundadmiration of the Russian regime”and stated “his intention to end thepresent administration and establisha Socialist form of government.”

Considering that the governmentwas paranoid about the red spectre,reaction was swift. Police action wastaken against him and his family. Per-iyar was soon forced to take a call onthe party’s programme and its imme-diate future. In March 1935, in a pub-lic statement, he declared that hewas withdrawing his socialist pro-gramme in the larger interest of hisself-respect movement.

Periyar remained impressed bythe achievements of the Soviet Unionall through his life. The completecontrol of society and economy bythe state made a deep impact onhim. “It is a new world,” he ob-served. “Such a transformation hasnever ever taken place in any coun-try.” He believed that only a Soviet-style state could rid India of itspoverty. But Periyar either did notfollow what happened in the SovietUnion subsequently or did not carefor the reality of lived Soviet social-ism. He preferred to believe in anidealised version of a socialist soci-ety, for he did not comment aboutthe Moscow show trials, the Stalinistpurges, etc. His engagement with so-cialism, intense during 1932-35,never really surfaced in the next 40years of an eventful political life. Thesocialist fringe of his movement lefthim and joined the still, and forever,nascent Communist Party.

However, Periyar made frequentcomments about his Soviet tour andfavourable statements about the So-viet Union all through his life, whileremaining critical of the Indian com-munist party on the grounds that itwas a Brahminical party. How mod-ern Tamil Nadu would have shaped ifthe brief alliance between Periyar’smovement and socialism had contin-ued remains a most interesting ‘whatif ’ question.

A.R. Venkatachalapathy is a historian of theDravidian movement

On his birth anniversary and the centenary of the Russian revolution, an intriguing ‘what if ’

Periyar’s tryst with socialism

A.R. Venkatachalapathy

Periyar during his trip to Europe and the Soviet Union. * ‘VIDUTHALAI’

I did not imagine that my last column, “Animpunity that can be countered” (Sept. 11),could be provocative. The intention was toprovide a tool to deal with sources who ha-bitually mislead reporters, and to protectjournalistic credibility from the onslaught ofmultiple stories emanating from the cor-ridors of power. I did not realise that acolumn needed caveats to mean what it in-tended to mean.

A section of readers, reporters, and journ-alism students wanted to know whether Ihave changed my opinion about the import-ance of attribution and the rules of grantinganonymity in the present political climate. Inmy journalism classes, I often draw attentionto the searing opening lines from Janet Mal-colm’s The Journalist and the Murderer:“Every journalist who is not too stupid or toofull of himself to notice what is going onknows that what he does is morally indefens-ible. He is a kind of confidence man, preyingon people’s vanity, ignorance or loneliness,gaining their trust and betraying themwithout remorse.” The questions posed bythe students were sharp and honest: how dowe deal with a multiplatform media realitywhere no one likes to miss a story? In anopaque structure, where access has becomea favour provided by those in power, whatoptions are left for reporters to do their jobethically and in a competent manner?

When to grant anonymityThe bedrock of journalism is its role to bearwitness: talking to a political source to un-derstand Cabinet changes that are planned —why someone is preferred and another is re-jected — is an important way of knowingone’s own government and the functioningof political parties. But that does not changemy opinion that granting anonymity is ajournalistic privilege that should be invokedsparingly and only in special unavoidable cir-cumstances to fulfil a public interest role.Why should a statement like “rewarding per-formance” be published without attribution?I agree with David, a reader, who invokedthe idea of caveat emptor, and shifted the re-sponsibility to the journalist. It is importantfor reporters to make it clear to sources whodemand anonymity that they must explaintheir rationale. Reporters should realise thatby granting anonymity to a source, they aredenying the objective space for readers to

make their own informed choices — it isjournalists who are deciding on behalf ofreaders that the information they have se-cured is valid, relevant, and authentic.

My premise on the use of anonymoussources is rooted in the code of the publicbroadcaster, NPR, which calls for a joint de-cision in using this device. It says: “This isnot a solo decision — the editors and produ-cers of these stories must be satisfied thatthe source is credible and reliable, and thatthere is a substantial journalistic justificationfor using the source’s information without at-tribution. This requires both decidingwhether it is editorially justified to let theperson speak anonymously, and being satis-fied that this person is who the piece says heis and is in a position to know about whathe’s revealing.” Many media scholars and ed-itors have been stressing for years the qualit-ative difference between a single ‘off the re-cord’ quote and ‘unattributable backgroundbriefing’ which usually involves a lengthy

and considered statement by a source to atrusted journalist. The former is an opinion,while the latter is an explanation of the con-text in which decisions are being made.

The best distinctions about different typesof relationships between a reporter and asource are in Norman Pearlstine’s book, Offthe Record: “Editors have an obligation toknow the identity of unnamed sources usedin a story, so that editors and reporters canjointly assess the appropriateness of usingthem… That source must understand thisrule.” The important question is, are report-ers following this cardinal principle?

If a reporter has followed all theguidelines that govern the processes ofgranting anonymity to a source, and thendiscovers a deliberate falsehood aimed atmisleading the public, then to invoke theright to out the source becomes a valid de-fense. Otherwise the reporter will be seen asa confidence trickster.

[email protected]

Ethics at source matterThere is a distinction between being a defender ofjournalistic truth and a con�dence trickster

A.S. Panneerselvan

FROM THE READERS’ EDITOR

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SubsidiarityprinciplePolitical economy

A principle in socialthought which states thatsocial problems need to beaddressed by the smallestlocal institutions whichcan tackle them betterthan centralised politicalbodies. Ownership of anyproblem is believed to begreater at the local level,which in turn leads to bet-ter solutions. The subsidi-arity principle is viewed asan argument for limitedgovernment, emphasisingthe power of voluntary in-stitutions to tackle manysocial challenges betterthan a big government.The term has been attrib-uted to French politicalscientist Alexis de Toc-queville, who spoke of itssignificance in Democracyin America.

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CONCEPTUAL

When was the zero first

used in India?

http://bit.ly/2f2QBFZ

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NEWS

FROM PAGE ONE

including “threat to specialstatus, Article 370 and Art-icle 35A.”

‘Develop consensus’“We urged the Dr. Singh-ledCongress panel to developconsensus at the nationallevel to solve the politicalproblems of Kashmirthrough a political ap-proach,” said CPI(M) leaderM.Y. Tarigami.

“Unfortunately, there hasnot been a single initiativeby the Narendra Modi gov-ernment to start a politicaldialogue,” he added.

He said the delegates, whomet Dr. Singh, “portrayed agrim scenario of the Kash-mir valley.”

“Alienation is growing be-cause of the mishandling ofthe situation by the presentCentre and State govern-ment,” he said.

All major Oppositionparties, including NationalConference, CPI(M),Peoples Democratic Front,Democratic Party National-ist, CPI, Panthers Party, andAwami Itihadd Party, metDr. Singh and pointed outthe issues facing Kashmir,

Panel asked to ‘helpresolve Kashmir row’

prove or disapprove the re-commendation and, in thelatter case, send it back tothe collegium.

Dissent note Normally, the governmenthas to convey its decisionon a collegium recommend-ation in three months.Justice J. Chelameswar, oneof the judges in the Su-preme Court collegiums,had even sent a stronglyworded dissent note for notelevating Justice Joseph tothe Supreme Court.

This is the situation evenas the statistics on judicialvacancies in high courtslook bleak at 413 out of atotal approved strength of1079 in all the 24 highcourts as of September 1,2017.

This will be followed by theretirement of KarnatakaHigh Court Chief Justice S.K.Mukherjee on October 9.Kerala High Court ChiefJustice Navaniti PrasadSingh will retire on Novem-ber 5. Finally, Bombay HighCourt Chief Justice ManjulaChellur will retire onDecember 4.

Again, the transfer ofJustice K.M. Joseph from theUttarakhand HC to the Hy-derabad HC as its ChiefJustice is still believed to beunder consideration by thegovernment.

The Supreme Court col-legium had recommendedthe transfer around May2016. Sources say the gov-ernment cannot “sit on” acollegium recommenda-tion. It has either to ap-

Six High Courts don’thave regular CJs

and has maintained diplo-matic ties with Pyongyang.

In recent years, seniorpublic representatives havebeen spotted in the com-pany of North Korean diplo-mats in Delhi.

However, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi has re-peatedly taken up the issueof North Korea during histours including his latesttrip to Spain earlier thisyear.

In April this year, Indiasupported the U.N. in ban-ning trade with North Koreathough the Ministry of Ex-ternal Affairs has main-tained that Indian trade hasconsisted of humanitarianingredients like food itemsand medicines.

However, a report in 2016had revealed that theDehradun-based Centre forSpace Science and Techno-logy Education in Asia andthe Pacific (CSSTEAP) wasone of the institutes thattrained North Korean scient-ists, in violation of U.N.sanctions.

However, past collabora-tion, said a highly placed In-dian diplomat, is likely to bediscontinued indicating thatties with North Korea is partof the vestiges of the NAM-era diplomacy.

The official also indicatedthat India would like to playa proactive role in the FarEast if the need arises.

An official source fromthe MEA, however, said hewas not aware of such pres-sure from the U.S.

It was the second time intwo months that the U.S.conveyed such a message.The Hindu had reported inJuly that a senior U.S. diplo-mat had visited New Delhiwith the samecommunication.

The American insistencethat India reduce ties withNorth Korea is an importantmove as it aims to draw NewDelhi more strongly into theEast Asian crisis.

Pakistan’s roleThe message also reflects re-cent Indian argumentsabout North Korea as statedby a high-level diplomatwho recounted Pakistan’srole in arming it with nuc-lear knowhow as a reasonfor India’s continuedconcern.

In line with this thoughtthe joint statement statedthat those countries thatsupported the North Koreannuclear programme shouldbe held “accountable.”

Reports indicated thatduring last week’s trip to In-dia, Mr. Abe also discussedthe role of Pakistan’s A.Q.Khan network in supportingthe clandestine nuclear pro-gramme of North Korea.

India has repeatedly de-plored the recent missileand nuclear tests by Pyongy-ang though bilateral tieswith the government of KimJong-un have remainedmore or less undisturbed.

India played a key role inthe resolution of the Koreanwar during the early 1950s

U.S. wants India to cutties with North Korea

India issued more visas toPakistanis in the first twoyears of the NDA govern-ment than in the last twoyears of the UPA govern-ment, according to figuresavailable in the Home Min-istry’s annual report andreplies in Parliament.

During 2014-15, Indiagranted 1,72,536 visas toPakistanis; the number dur-ing 2012-13, when the UPAwas in power, stood at132,590.

Though the number ofvisas issued in 2016 was notavailable, the Ministry’s an-nual report said 1,04,720Pakistanis had visited Indiathat year.

An official said there was a

difference in the number ofvisas issued and those whovisited the country, becausesome could postpone theirvisits or could not visit at all.

The month-wise break-upwas not available, but thenumber of visas issued amonth averaged out at 7,916during 2014.

2012 agreementThe BJP-led governmentcame to power in May 2014.After deducting the averagenumber of visas issued permonth, those issued in theseven months of the NDAgovernment in 2014 came to132,956, marginally higherthan the UPA government’smonthly average of 6,062during 2013.

In 2012, India and

Pakistan agreed to a new visaagreement to promotepeople-to-people contact.

An official put the in-crease down to Hindus and

Sikhs visiting India forpilgrimage.

In August 2016, the HomeMinistry put in place an elec-tronic visa clearance process

for Pakistani citizens. The system was initiated

after the Indian High Com-mission in Pakistan flagged ahuge backlog of visa applica-tions from Pakistani citizensfor want of security clear-ance.

Restricted categoryThe official said that earlier,security agencies were given40 days to do the checks be-fore a visa was issued to aPakistani citizen, but theduration was increased to 60last year.

For the countries in therestricted category, such asPakistan, China and Afgh-anistan, the visa applicationshave to be cleared by theHome Ministry.

During 2015, the Ministry

issued a notification allowingHindus, Christians,Buddhists, Jains, Parsis andSikhs from Bangladesh, Afgh-anistan and Pakistan, whohad fled religious persecu-tion, to stay in India evenafter the expiry of their doc-uments.

The decision was taken, itsaid, on “humanitariangrounds.”

It also issued an executiveorder to grant citizenship tomembers of the minoritycommunity who had enteredIndia on or before December31, 2014.

The Citizenship Amend-ment Bill, 2015, which wouldgive constitutional backing tothe order is being studied bya joint committee of Parlia-ment.

NDA upstages UPA in visas to Pakistanis Delhi issued more papers in the �rst two years of BJP-led government than in the last two years of Congress-led regime

Vijaita Singh

New Delhi

The CPI(M) on Sunday lis-ted four reasons, including“lavish lifestyle” and“moral degeneration in re-lation to women”, for ex-pelling its Rajya Sabhamember Ritabrata Baner-jee.

Mr. Banerjee, 38, is afirst-time MP. He was hand-picked by the party for theposition. He was expelledon Wednesday by theparty’s West Bengal unit.

Mr. Banerjee, accordingto the state committee, wascautioned publicly for viol-ating party discipline inFebruary. He was told torefrain from “misusing so-cial media”.

CPI(M)defends MP’sexpulsionSpecial Correspondent

New Delhi

Bracketing Prime MinisterNarendra Modi with SardarPatel and B.R. Ambedkar,BJP president Amit Shah saidhere on Sunday that Mr.Modi had started India’s eco-nomic integration after Pateland Ambedkar achieved thecountry’s territorial and so-cial unification, respectively.

Lavishing praise on Mr.Modi on his 67th birthday,Mr. Shah said in a blog postthat the Prime Minister’s life,in many ways, was a “per-sonification of the spirit ofIndia”, and said his sensitiv-ity towards the aspirations ofthe poor had led to “historicpoverty alleviation initiat-ives”.

‘Middle class upbeat’Under the Modi government,Mr. Shah said, honest tax-payers, a majority of whombelonged to the middle class,felt they were valued follow-ing crackdowns against blackmoney and corruptionthrough various measures,including demonetisationand the benami law.

Opposition parties hadsharpened their criticism ofthe government’s claims

about demonetisation afterthe RBI said over 99% oldnotes were deposited inbanks, but the BJP insisted ithad increased transparencyand expanded the formaleconomy.

“India remembers SardarPatel for the territorial integ-ration of our nation, and we

recall the role of BabasahebAmbedkar in our social in-tegration. Through initiativesstarting from the Jan DhanYojana to the GST, NarendraBhai has set the ball rollingfor the economic integrationof India,” Mr. Shah said.

Targeting the Prime Minis-ter’s critics, he said Mr. Modi

had ruffled several feathersby his action against the cor-rupt and status quo — “afterall, years of privilege of a se-lect few are now over andthe poor are now gettingtheir due.”

Recalling his decades-longassociation with Mr. Modi,he said the Prime Minister

had never celebrated hisbirthday. Mr. Shah addedthat service or ‘seva’ was thebest way to celebrate thebirthday of Pradhan SevakModi.

Mr. Modi’s heart, he said,“beats for the poor, down-trodden, marginalised andthe farmers of India”.

Mr. Shah said the PM’sdeep concern for their wel-fare had motivated him toimmerse himself in nation-building from a very youngage. “India First is a beliefthat Narendra Bhai has livedat every point of his life,” hewrote.

People saw him as a com-passionate leader, he said.“They see him as their own,a person working round theclock for their and the na-tion’s welfare, without anyself-interest. His popularityhas transcended all bound-aries,” the BJP chief said. Headded that he first met himas a young BJP worker andneither of them was drawnto power as the saffron partythen was far from the force itlater became. Whatmattered, he said, was thatthey devoted every momentof their time for India’swelfare.

Honest taxpayers back note ban: ShahOn Modi’s birthday, BJP president says Prime Minister is working towards ‘economic integration’


New Delhi

Sulabh founder Bindeswar Pathak and others wish the Prime Minister with a 267 kg ladoo inNew Delhi. * R.V. MOORTHY

Rahul Gandhi,Digvijaya greet ModiNEW DELHI

Congress vice-president

Rahul Gandhi on Sunday

extended birthday greetings

to Prime Minister Narendra

Modi. “Best wishes to Prime

Minister Narendra Modiji on

his birthday.

@narendramodi,” Mr. Gandhi

said on Twitter. Congress

general secretary Digvijaya

Singh also wished Mr. Modi.

“My best wishes to Modi ji on

his birthday. May Almighty

give him wisdom to admit his

mistakes and correct them,”

he said on Twitter. PTI

IN BRIEF

Parrikar vows 100 hoursper year on cleanlinessPANAJI

Goa Chief Minister Manohar

Parrikar has pledged to

devote at least 100 hours a

year for cleanliness activities

on ‘Seva Divas’, which was

observed on Sunday to mark

Prime Minister Narendra

Modi’s 67th birthday. Mr.

Parrikar took oath to devote

at least 100 hours every year

towards cleanliness drive and

programmes with maximum

two hours per day. “I pledge

today not to make use of

plastic in my day-to-day

activities. Let us start from

self,” he said here. He said

Goa would become garbage-

free by 2020. PTI

Legal luminary Fali S. Nar-iman remarked that no onecan say BJP leader Sub-ramanian Swamy is not in-teresting. “He is more thaninteresting; he is acutelycontroversial.”

Mr. Nariman was speak-ing on Sunday at the launchof Dr. Swamy’s biographyEvolving with SubramanianSwamy written by his wifeRoxna Swamy.

The book launch was fol-lowed by a panel discussionmoderated by senior journ-alist Priya Sahgal. On thepanel were Mr. Nariman andsenior journalists TavleenSingh and Rajdeep Sardesai.

Coming just days after thelatest Cabinet reshuffle, theone question that was fore-most on everyone’s mindwas why Dr. Swamy did notfind a place in Prime Minis-ter Narendra Modi’s Cab-inet.

Mr. Nariman said thereasons lay in Dr. Swamy’s2009 book Corruption andCorporate governance in In-dia, Satyam Spectrum andSundaram. “In his book headvocated, that if we wereto impose a penalty 99times the bribe taken, itwould not be worthwhile forpeople to be corrupt even if

the detection is low. This isthe reason why he is not inthe Cabinet,” he said.

Ms. Singh said Dr. Swamyhad won himself a powerfulenemy in the Cabinet, en-suring that he does not findspace.

Speaking later, Dr. Swamysaid he never had any dis-cussion with the Prime Min-ister on the issue andneither was he disappointedon missing out.

Mr. Sardesai said, “youmay or may not want Dr.Swamy as your friend butcertainly you do not wanthim as your enemy.”

“I had developed my ideaof Lutyen’s elite in the book,a distinct aristocracy of in-telligentsia, which rules In-dia. The whole agenda is tomake people non-person; towipe them from public con-sciousness,” the authorexplained.

Did not angle for aCabinet berth: Swamy

Moot question at launch of biography


New Delhi

Subramanian Swamy

Union Minister of State forTourism K.J. Alphons onSunday landed at the IndiaGate lawns here as part ofthe fortnight-long “SwachhtaHi Seva” campaign only tofind there was no garbage atthe place where he was sup-posed to kick off the drive.

To the surprise of Ministryofficials and volunteers,mostly college students, whofrantically went about “ar-ranging” some garbage forMr. Alphons, the newly ap-pointed Tourism Ministerbegan collecting litter, in-cluding empty water bottles,pan masala sachets, icecream cups and dry leaveswith his hands.

Many onlookers did not

recognise the Minister as heshook hands with them andpatted some on the back,while asking people to keepthe place clean.

He chatted with street

food vendors such as gol-gappa sellers, enquiringabout their earnings and ad-vising them to ask their cus-tomers to throw the leftoverfood into the dustbin.

Minister on cleanlinessdrive �nds India Gate cleanVolunteers ‘arrange’ garbage for K.J. Alphons


New Delhi

All spick and span: Tourism Minister K.J. Alphons participatingin a cleanliness drive in New Delhi on Sunday. * PTI

The Janata Dal(U) factionled by Sharad Yadav onSunday appeared to bepushing for a split as it ap-pointed ChhotubhaiVasava its acting presidentand formed a disciplinarycommittee to decide on ac-tion against Bihar ChiefMinister Nitish Kumar.

The Yadav faction held a“national executive” meet-ing and took a number ofdecisions targeting Mr. Ku-mar, who is the JD(U) na-tional president, a moveseen largely symbolic dueto the overwhelming sup-port he has in the party.

Arun Kumar Srivastava,who was sacked as theparty’s general secretary,said at a press conferencethat a majority of theparty’s State chiefs andworkers were on their side.

Faction warin JD(U)intensi�es Press Trust of India

New Delhi

A month after Chief MinisterEdappadi K. Palaniswami an-nounced that a Commissionof Inquiry headed by a re-tired High Court judge wouldbe set up to conduct a probeinto the death of formerChief Minister Jayalalithaa,his government is yet to con-stitute the probe panel. Hisannouncement had pavedthe way for the merger of theAIADMK (PTA) headed by O.Panneerselvam with the AI-ADMK (Amma).

Since the merger, Mr. Pan-neerselvam, now DeputyChief Minister, and his sup-porters, who had raised thedemand for ordering a probeinto Jayalalithaa’s death,have not made any public

statement over the issue. Onthe other hand, Ministerswho had previously assertedthat Jayalalithaa’s treatmentwas transparent, have begunto call into question the cir-cumstances leading to herdeath, following the ‘ouster’of Sasikala from the post ofinterim general secretary ofthe AIADMK.

Forests Minister DindigulC. Sreenivasan, who was ap-pointed party treasurer bySasikala following Mr. Pan-neerselvam’s rebellion, onFriday alleged that none wasallowed to see Jayalalithaawhen she remained hospital-ised. However, only a fewmonths ago, Mr. Sreenivasanhad claimed that all and sun-dry including himself hadmet Jayalalithaa while she

was in hospital and she hadinteracted with them. “Shedied despite the best treat-ment administered to her,”he had said in March.

When The Hindu contac-ted him seeking why he hadchanged his position now,Mr. Sreenivasan said he

on consolidating the supportfor the government underChief Minister Edappadi K.Palaniswami. “First, we haveto focus on the stability ofthe government. Then, therecan be an internal pressureto go ahead with the probe,”a source said.

Professor Ramu Manivan-nan of the Department ofPolitics and Public Adminis-tration in the University ofMadras felt suspicions aboutJayalalithaa’s death were be-ing revived by newer ele-ments as the issue is apowerful weapon.

“They need a powerfultool now to kindle the emo-tions of the party cadre, es-pecially when there is a lot ofconfusion in the party,” hesaid.

would not be able to talkover the phone about theissue.

‘Probe can wait’Leaders who were in theerstwhile AIADMK (PTA) saythere is hardly any discus-sion on ordering a probe intoJayalalithaa’s death now, asleaders are busy tackling thechallenges posed by side-lined leader T.T.V. Dh-inakaran. “As for the de-mand for the probe intoAmma’s death, not all Minis-ters were for it, anyway.Though those who suppor-ted Mr. Panneerselvam be-fore the merger insisted on aprobe, it was accepted as anappeasement for the mergerto happen,” a leader said.

The focus was presently

Probe panel on Jaya’s death yet to get o� the groundIn the last few days, signals from within the AIADMK have been mixed

Dennis S. Jesudasan

CHENNAI

Vexed issue: Constituting aprobe into Jayalalithaa’sdeath was a major stickingpoint in the AIADMK’s mergertalks.


CMYK

M ND-NDE




NEWS

Prime Minister NarendraModi, who inaugurated theSardar Sarovar Dam onSunday, said that with theproject’s completion, Gujaratwould see a green revolutionas farmers in the parchednorthern and Saurashtra re-gions would have their landsirrigated.

The dam’s inaugurationjust ahead of the Assemblyelections in the State is seenas an attempt of the Bhar-atiya Janata Party to derivepolitical mileage during thepolls later this year.

Woefully incomplete“Why have the canals notbeen completed by the BJPgovernment in its 22-yearrule [in the State]? Today, wa-ter reaches only 3 lakh hec-tares out of the planned irrig-ation of 19 lakh hectares. Willthe BJP government take re-sponsibility for this and apo-logise to the farmers of Gu-jarat,” asked Congress leaderShaktisinh Gihil, calling thedam dedication event a cam-paign rally of Mr. Modi.

However, though the damhas been completed in Nar-mada district of south Gu-jarat, the massive and sprawl-ing canal network remainswoefully incomplete.

Its potential benefits to thefarmers will, therefore, notbe realised for many years,till the canal network is inplace.

“So far, 50% of the canalnetwork is yet to be built.The main canal and allbranch canals have been

built but distributary andfield channels will take yearsto be completed,” said aformer IAS officer, who wasmanaging director of SardarSarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd.

NBA campaignThe project was delayed by astrong movement by the Nar-mada Bachao Andolan, ledby social activist MedhaPatkar, who opposed thedam on the ground that it dis-placed thousands of familiesin Madhya Pradesh and Ma-harashtra where thousandsof hectares of forest land wassubmerged.

A sustained campaign bythe activists had also led tothe World Bank’s withdrawalfrom funding the multi-pur-pose project, which is oftendescribed as the lifeline ofdrought-prone Gujarat.

In 1985, the World Bankhad agreed to provide $450million as loan to fund themulti-purpose project andsubsequently, a prominentU.S. environmental expert, T.Schudder, was appointedconsultant to oversee rehabil-itation of project-affectedfamilies, mostly tribal com-munities in Madhya Pradeshand Maharashtra.

Bad weatherThe Prime Minister, who wasexpected to reach the damsite at Kevadiya Colonyaround 9.15 a.m. fromGandhinagar after receivingblessings from his octogen-arian mother Heeraba, hadto take a detour due to badweather. He landed in Dab-hoi and travelled to KevadiyaColony by car, reaching alittle over an hour later.

Modi predicts ‘green revolution’ in his home StateCongress leadersays canal networkincomplete

Aiming big: Prime Minister Narendra Modi presented with a bow and arrow by a group of tribal people in Dabhoi on Sunday. * PTI

Mahesh Langa

Ahmedabad

Protests were held in sev-eral parts of Madhya Pra-desh on Sunday, seeking re-habilitation of familiesaffected by the Sardar Saro-var Dam.

Narmada Bachao An-dolan leader Medha Patkarhad been standing in waist-deep water of the Narmadain Barwani district for thepast three days demandingrehabilitation of 40,000families.

However, she ended theprotest on Sunday evening.

“We are keeping a closewatch on the situation andwill intensify our stir in fu-ture, if needed, for rehabil-itation of SSD oustees,” Ms.Patkar said.

“I have come to knowthat today people protestedin other States of the coun-try for the sake of theoustees. Due to ourstruggle, the Chief Minis-ters of Madhya Pradesh,Maharashtra and Rajasthandidn’t attend the SSD dedic-ation function of Modi.”

Hours after the dedica-tion function in Gujarat,CPI(M) leader SubhashiniAli led a demonstrationhere, demanding that the40,000 families be rehabil-itated, the party’s Bhopaldistrict secretary PushanBhattacharya said.

The CPI(M) staged sim-ilar protests in other dis-

tricts of the State.At Navadataudi village in

Khargone district, somepeople affected by the damtonsured their head de-manding rehabilitation.They staged a Jalsatyagrahaby standing in the Narmadariver for some hours,Nagesh Kewat, a member ofthe local Kewat Samaj (fish-ermen community), said.

Rahul Yadav, an aide ofMs. Patkar, said the NBAleader wanted that the af-fected families should berehabilitated at the earliest.

Mr. Yadav said the NBA

would continue its struggle.An official of Madhya

Pradesh’s Narmada ValleyDevelopment Authority(NVDA) said according tothe official figure, 23,614families were affected bythe dam in the four districtsof Madhya Pradesh.

“Ninety-nine per cent ofthe families, who were par-tially affected by the dam’sbackwater, had already lefttheir places and are com-fortably staying in the Stategovernment-run shelterhomes or rehabilitated,” hesaid.

On NBA’s claim that theChief Ministers of MadhyaPradesh, Maharashtra andRajasthan did not attendthe dedication function, hesaid they were preoccupiedwith functions organised tomark the birthday celebra-tions of Mr. Modi.

Greenpeace standGreenpeace India con-demned the inaugurationof the dam, saying it sig-nalled “ruin” and not de-velopment of 10,000 hap-less and poor farmers.

The NGO said the projectwould not bring any devel-opment for Advasis in theabsence of a just and fairrehabilitation programme.

Greenpeace India’s exec-utive director Ravi Chellamsaid it stood in solidaritywith the Narmada BachaoAndolan.

Says NBA will intensify its protest in the future


Bhopal

Medha Patkar

Jalsatyagraha called o�,Medha seeks rehabilitation

<> Chief Ministers of

Madhya Pradesh,

Maharashtra and

Rajasthan didn’t

attend the dam

dedication function

The state-owned Steel Au-thority of India Ltd. saidhere on Sunday that it hadsupplied 80% of the steel re-quired for the constructionof the Sardar SarovarProject.

In a statement, SAIL saidit supplied about 85,000tonnes of steel to SardarSarovar Narmada NigamLtd. and had partnered inone of the most prestigiousand important nationalprojects.

The company said it waspart of the large hydraulicengineering project in-

volving the construction of aseries of large irrigation andhydroelectric multi-purposedams on the Narmada river.Of the 30 dams planned onNarmada river, the SardarSarovar is the largest struc-ture to be built.

Unique recordThe Sardar Sarovar projectis the second largest con-crete gravity dam (byvolume) in the world andhas the world’s third largestspillway discharging capa-city. A part of the NarmadaValley Project, it will help inirrigation and electricalpower supply.

We supplied 80% ofsteel for project: SAILPress Trust of India

New Delhi

The Narendra Modi govern-ment’s claim to ensure end-to-end digitisation of thePublic Distribution System(PDS) is coming to naughteven after three years of be-ing in mission mode. At least11 States have not taken theelementary step of digitisingfair price shops and nineother States, including UttarPradesh, have hardly madeany progress.

The project was launchedin 2012 at a cost of ₹884crore to ensure that, at everystep from field to fork, thegovernment would be ableto track the movement offoodgrains so that theyreached the right beneficiar-ies. As part of the effort, allfair price or ration shopswere to be digitised. But outof 5.26 lakh ration shops,only 51% have been digitisedin three years, it was foundat a review meeting chairedby the Minister of ConsumerAffairs, Food and Public Dis-tribution Ram Vilas Paswan,on Friday.

“When we took over in2014, fewer than 10,000 fairprice shops had been digit-ised even after two years oflaunch. In the last threeyears, we have made signi-

ficant progress,” a seniorMinistry official said.

Connectivity issuesThe numbers are most starkin the northeast. ArunachalPradesh, Assam, Manipur,Meghalaya, Mizoram andNagaland have cited con-nectivity issues for their in-ability to commence the pro-cess of digitisation.

Jammu & Kashmir, Kerala,Punjab and West Bengal fallin this category of non-starters, too.

Another nine States havemade meagre progress. InBihar, less than 1% of rationshops are digitised; the fig-ure is 1% for Tripura, Delhiand Uttarakhand. Uttar Pra-

desh fares better with 16%shops digitised. The projectalso calls for automation ofthe supply chain — onlinemonitoring of stock posi-tions in godowns, trackingthe movement of the foodgrains from the godowns tothe fair price shops, SMSalerts to beneficiaries, etc.Thirteen States are yet totake the first step in this dir-ection.

The Centre, meanwhile,has sought to present the di-gitisation of 23.11 crore ra-tion cards as a great success,in the process uncovering2.48 crore bogus cards,which have been deleted tosave the nation a subsidy of₹15,000 crore per annum.

At least 11 States have not yet taken the elementary step

Sobhana K. Nair

New Delhi

Going nowhere: The project’s aim is to help the governmentensure that foodgrains reach the right bene�ciaries. * FILE PHOTO

PDS digitisationmoving at snail’s pace

Hoping that the United Na-tions will soon designateMasood Azhar as a terror-ist, India’s Permanent Rep-resentative to the UN, SyedAkbaruddin, has said NewDelhi will not sit idle till theJaish-e-Mohammed leaderis brought to justice.

India has identifiedAzhar as the mastermindof the Pathankot terror at-tack on January 2, 2016. Ithas also blamed hisbrother Rauf and five oth-ers for carrying out the at-tack in which seven Indiansoldiers were killed alongwith all six terrorists.

“If I were to use a term,the matter is what wewould call in judicial termssub judice. Currently, thematter is with a UN com-mittee. We hope that thecommittee will be able tofulfil its role in designatingMasood Azhar who wehave tried for quite sometime but have not suc-ceeded yet,” Mr. Akbarud-din said at a press meet onSaturday. “However, wewould like to make it veryclear, we will pursueMasood Azhar so that theends of justice are met,” headded when asked aboutIndia’s effort towards ter-rorist designation of Azhar,which has repeatedly beenblocked by China.

‘India willbring Azharto justice’ Press Trust of India

New York

Veteran Rashtriya JanataDal (RJD) leader and MPfrom Araria, MohammadTaslimuddin, died at a hos-pital in Chennai on Sunday.

He was 74. The RJDleader is survived by hiswife, three sons and twodaughters.

The RJD MP was inChennai in connectionwith a Parliamentary Com-mittee meeting. On August24, he was admitted to thehospital after he com-plained of a breathingproblem, said MLA Sar-faraz Alam, the MP’s son.

The burial may takeplace on Tuesday at hisnative Sisauna village inAraria district, he added.

Illustrious careerTaslimuddin, who was aprominent Muslim leaderhailing from Bihar’sSeemanchal area, was aneight-time MLA and a five-time MP. He has alsoserved as the Union Minis-ter of State for Home. Hebegan his political careeras a sarpanch and was elec-ted to Bihar Assembly forthe first time in 1969.

Expressing grief over thedeath of the MP, BiharChief Minister Nitish Ku-mar said Taslimuddin wasa renowned politician andsocial worker.

RJD leaderTaslimuddinpasses awayPress Trust of India

Patna

GRAPHIC: KARTHICK S.T


CMYK

M ND-NDE




WORLD

Abe could call snapelection in OctoberTOKYO

Japanese Prime Minister

Shinzo Abe is considering

calling a snap election for as

early as next month to take

advantage of his improved

approval ratings and disarray

in the main Opposition party,

government and ruling

party sources said

on Sunday. Reuters

ELSEWHERE

‘No leadership challengeto May from Johnson’LONDON

Britain’s Interior Minister

Amber Rudd said on Sunday

that Boris Johnson was not

starting a leadership bid by

setting out his plans for Brexit

in a newspaper article, adding

that his intervention was

“absolutely �ne”.

When asked if the article was a

leadership challenge, she said

“no, I don’t think it is”. Reuters

6 killed in Pak. blastclaimed by TalibanKHAR

A roadside bomb killed a local

government o�cial and �ve

policemen on Sunday in

Pakistan’s restive

northwestern tribal area

bordering Afghanistan,

o�cials said. The blast took

place in the town of Mamoond.

Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP)

claimed responsibility. AFP

‘Iran will react stronglyto any wrong U.S. move’DUBAI

Iran will not be bullied by the

U.S. and will react strongly to

any “wrong move” by

Washington on Tehran’s

nuclear deal, Supreme Leader

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on

Sunday. His comments came

after U.S. President Donald

Trump said last week that Iran

was violating “the spirit” of the

2015 deal. Reuters

British police arrested asecond man over the bomb-ing of a London commutertrain on Friday that injured30 people and the securityservices lowered the threatlevel for an attack from itshighest setting.

The 21-year-old man wasdetained under Britain’s ter-rorism laws in the west Lon-don suburb of Hounslow justbefore midnight on Sat-urday, London police said ina statement.

Police arrested an 18-year-old man in the departurelounge of Dover port earlieron Saturday in what theycalled a “significant” stepand then raided a propertyin Sunbury, a town near Lon-don and about four miles(six km) from Hounslow.

The home-made bombshot flames through apacked train carriage at westLondon’s Parsons GreenTube station during the Fri-day morning rush hour butapparently failed to detonatefully.

Search in SurreyPolice said on Sunday theywere searching a residentialproperty in Stanwell, Surrey,close to the perimeter ofLondon’s Heathrow Airport,in connection with theHounslow arrest.

The search of the prop-erty in Sunbury, also in thecounty of Surrey next to thecapital, was continuing butthere were no safety risks tolocal residents, they said.

Local media reported thatthe Sunbury home belongsto a couple who havefostered hundreds of chil-dren, including refugees.The BBC said the couple, 88-year-old Ronald Jones andPenelope Jones, 71, had been

honoured by Queen Eliza-beth for their work with chil-dren. Islamic State (IS)claimed responsibility, as ithas for other attacks in Bri-tain this year, including twoin London and one at a con-cert by American singerAriana Grande inManchester in May.

Interior minister AmberRudd said on Sunday thesecond arrest indicated itwas not a “lone-wolf” attack,but there was no evidencethat the IS was involved.

“It is inevitable that so-called Islamic State, orDaesh, will reach in and tryto claim responsibility. Wehave no evidence to suggestthat yet,” she told the BBC’sAndrew Marr Show.

“But as this unfolds, andas the police do their invest-

igations, we will make surethat we find out exactly howhe was radicalised, if wecan.”

She said the threat levelhad been lowered to“severe” from “critical”,meaning another attack washighly likely rather than ex-pected imminently.

No serious injuryThe bomb struck as passen-gers were travelling towardsthe centre of the British cap-ital. Some suffered burnsand others were hurt in astampede to escape. Healthofficials said none wasthought to be in a seriouscondition.

Prime Minister TheresaMay put Britain on itshighest security level of“critical” late on Friday,

meaning another attackmight be imminent. Soldiersand armed police were de-ployed to strategic locationssuch as nuclear powerplants. On Saturday, armedpolice patrolled the streetsnear government depart-ments in Westminster andguarded Premier Leaguesoccer grounds hostingmatches.

The last time Britain wasput on “critical” alert wasafter a suicide bomber killed22 people at the ArianaGrande concert.

On that occasion, thethreat level remained at crit-ical for four days while po-lice established whether thebomber had worked aloneor with others. Prior to thatit had not been triggeredsince 2007.

U.K. police make secondarrest; terror threat loweredInterior Minister Rudd calls it a lone-wolf attack, says no evidence of IS involvement

Terror-struck: The London subway train, which was targeted at Parsons Green station. * AP

Reuters

London

Russia’s Defence Ministry onSunday rejected allegationsit had bombed U.S.-backedmilitias in Syria, saying itsplanes only targeted IslamicState (IS) militants and thatit had warned the U.S. wellin advance of its operationalplans.

U.S.-backed militias saidthey came under attack onSaturday from Russian jetsand Syrian governmentforces in Deir al-Zorprovince, a flashpoint in anincreasingly complex battle-field. The Syrian DemocraticForces (SDF), an alliance ofKurdish and Arab militiasfighting with the U.S.-led co-alition, said six of its fightershad been wounded in thestrike.

But Major-General IgorKonashenkov, a spokesmanfor the Russian DefenceMinistry, dismissed the al-

legations in a statement onSunday. Gen. Konashenkovsaid Russian planes hadonly carried out carefullytargeted strikes in the areabased upon informationthat had been confirmedfrom multiple sources.

The strikes had only hittargets in areas under thecontrol of the IS, he said.

“To avoid unnecessaryescalation, the commandersof Russian forces in Syriaused an existing communic-ations channel to inform ourAmerican partners in goodtime about the borders ofour military operation inDeir al-Zor,” Gen. Konashen-kov said.

“In the last few days, Rus-sian surveillance and recon-naissance did not detect asingle clash between IslamicState and armed represent-atives of any ‘third force’ onthe eastern bank of the Eu-phrates,” he added.

Russia denies bombingU.S.-backed forces

‘Strikes only targeted the Islamic State’

Reuters

Moscow

The U.S. could remain in theParis climate accord underthe right conditions, Secret-ary of State Rex Tillerson saidon Sunday, signalling a shiftin tone from the Trump ad-ministration, which angeredallies with its decision to pullout of the agreement.

President Donald Trumpis willing to work with part-ners in the Paris agreement ifthe U.S. could construct a setof terms that are fair and bal-anced for Americans, Mr.Tillerson said on the CBS’s“Face The Nation”.

Asked if there was achance the U.S. could stay in

the accord, Mr. Tillerson re-sponded, “I think under theright conditions.”

U.S. National Security Ad-viser, H.R. McMaster, strucka similar tone in television in-terviews on Sunday in whichhe said Mr. Trump had al-ways been willing to considerchanges on the climate pact.

U.S. officials attended ameeting on Saturday of min-isters from more than 30 ofthe nations that signed theagreement. The Wall Street

Journal reported on Saturdaythat Trump administrationofficials said the U.S. wouldnot pull out of the agreementand had offered to re-engagein the deal.

U.S. could stay inParis pact: Tillerson‘But only under right conditions’

Reuters

Washington

Hamas said on Sunday thatit had agreed to steps to-wards resolving a decade-long split with PalestinianPresident Mahmud Abbas’sFatah, announcing it woulddissolve a body seen as arival government and wasready to hold elections.

The statement comesafter Hamas leaders heldtalks with Egyptian officialslast week, and with theGaza Strip run by thePalestinian Islamist move-ment facing a mountinghumanitarian crisis.

Hamas said it hadagreed to key demandsmade by Fatah: dissolvingthe so-called “administrat-ive committee” created inMarch, while saying it wasready for elections and ne-gotiations toward a unitygovernment. It called onthe Palestinian Authoritygovernment based in theIsraeli-occupied West Bank“to come to Gaza to exer-cise its functions and carryout its dutiesimmediately”.

Talks in EgyptHamas chief Ismail Haniyaagreed to take such steps intalks with Egyptian officialsin Cairo last week, said aHamas official.

It was unclear, however,whether the steps wouldresult in further concreteaction toward ending thedeep division with Fatah.

Hamas for now contin-ues to run a de facto separ-ate administration in theGaza Strip and is in chargeof the security forces there.

Previous attempts to re-solve the split have re-peatedly failed.

Mr. Abbas’s Fatah wel-comed the announcement,saying it followed “extens-ive meetings” between itsown representatives andEgyptian intelligenceofficials.

Hamas readyto hold pollsin GazaAgence France-Presse

Gaza City

Our lives matter: A protester confronts the police in University City, Missouri, during a demonstration on Saturday against a courtverdict acquitting St. Louis police o�cer Jason Stockley of �rst-degree murder in the death of African American Anthony LamarSmith. Clashes marred the end of what had been a largely peaceful second day of protest rallies in Missouri. * AP


Standing up to injustice

Afghanistan is consideringtraining and arming 20,000civilians to defend territorieswhere Islamist militantshave been driven out, offi-cials say, sparking fears thelocal forces could becomeanother thuggish militia.

The proposal for a gov-ernment-backed armedgroup that would protect itsown communities from theTaliban and the Islamic State(IS) group comes as Afgh-anistan’s security forces, de-moralised by killings anddesertions, struggle to beatback a rampant insurgency.

Human rights concernsBut the proposal has raisedconcerns that the localforces could become unrulyand turn into another abus-ive militia terrorising thepeople it is supposed to de-fend. “The Afghan govern-

ment’s expansion of irregu-lar forces could haveenormously dangerous con-sequences for civilians,” saidPatricia Gossman, a seniorresearcher at Human RightsWatch.

American and Afghan of-ficials said the fighterswould come under the com-mand of the Afghan Army

and be better trained thanthe Afghan Local Police — avillage-level force set up bythe U.S. in 2010 and accusedof human rights violations.

“Right now we rely oncommandos and air strikesto retake the lost territoriesbut after the commandosleave we don’t have enoughforces to hold onto the ter-ritories,” said a senior De-fence Ministry official.

“The force will operateunder an Army corps andwill be used to fill the gaps.They will be recruited fromthe locals and will benumbered around 20,000.”

Defence ministry spokes-man Dawlat Waziri con-firmed to AFP that a plan for“local forces” was being dis-cussed. A spokesman forNATO’s Resolute Supporttrain and assist mission alsoconfirmed a proposal for anAfghan territorial army wason the table.

About 20,000 people may be used to defend territoriesAgence France-Presse

Kabul

Afghan Army soldiers inKabul. * AFP

Afghanistan may train, armcivilians to �ght militants

Pakistanis were voting onSunday for the parliament-ary seat vacated by formerPrime Minister NawazSharif following his dis-qualification on July 28 andcontested by his ailing wifeKulsoom Nawaz.

A total of 44 candidates,including those from Im-ran Khan’s Tehreek-e-Insafand the Hafiz Saeed-backed Milli MuslimLeague, were in the fray forthe NA-120 seat in Lahore,said to be the stronghold ofthe Sharifs. The PakistanArmy personnel super-vised the polling process.

Imran Khan asked theresidents of NA-120 to casttheir votes and give verdictagainst the ‘Godfather’(Nawaz Sharif ). Kulsoom isin London where she is un-dergoing treatment for herthroat cancer. In her ab-sence, Maryam had runher mother’s campaign.

Poll held forseat vacatedby SharifPress Trust of India

Lahore

Myanmar’s Army chief hasurged the country to uniteover the “issue” of the Ro-hingya, a Muslim group hesays has no roots in thecountry, and which histroops are accused of sys-tematically purging.

The military says its“clearance operations” innorthern Rakhine State areaimed at flushing out Ro-hingya militants who at-tacked police posts on Au-gust 25. But the violence hasengulfed the border regionand triggered an exodus ofmore than 4,00,000 Ro-hingya to Bangladesh.

UN leaders have de-scribed the campaign ashaving all the hallmarks of“ethnic cleansing” of the Ro-hingya, a stateless groupthat has endured years ofpersecution and repression.

General Min Aung Hlaing,Myanmar’s Army chief, saidon his Facebook page onSaturday that Rohingya wasnever an “ethnic group” inMyanmar. “(The) Bengali is-sue is a national cause andwe need to be united in es-tablishing the truth,” thepost read. Many in Myan-mar insist on referring tothe Rohingya as “Bengalis”.

On Sunday, Myanmar’sgovernment hinted that itmay not take back Rohingyawho fled across the border,accusing those refugees ofhaving links to the militants.

“Those who fled the vil-lages made their way to theother country for fear of be-ing arrested as they got in-volved in the violent attacks.Legal protection will begiven to the villages whoseresidents did not flee,” thegovernment's InformationCommittee statement said.

Army chief urges unityover Rohingya issue

Won’t take back those who �ed: govt.

Agence France-Presse

Yangon

Students in Turkey are re-turning to school on Mondaywhere they will be taughtevolution for the last time intheir biology classes. Nextfall, evolution and CharlesDarwin will be scrappedfrom their textbooks.

Turkey has announced anoverhaul of more than 170topics in the country’sschool curriculum, includingremoving all direct refer-ences to evolution from highschool biology classes.

The upcoming changeshave caused uproar, withcritics calling them a reshap-ing of education along theconservative, Islam-orientedgovernment’s line.

Too advanced?Education Minister Ismet Yil-maz said the new “value-based” programme had sim-plified topics in “harmonisa-tion with students’

development.” He said evol-utionary biology, which hisMinistry deemed was too ad-vanced for high school,would still be taught in uni-versities.

Other changes includeteaching about jihad in reli-gion classes as the “love ofhomeland”, and a lessenedemphasis on Mustafa KemalAtatürk, the founder of theTurkish republic . Atatürk in-

stituted the separation ofstate and religion, but Pres-ident Recep Tayyip Er-doğan’s party has challengedthat strict split with a morereligious approach.

Turkey’s education sys-tem is already reeling fromthe trauma of the failed July15, 2016 coup attempt andthe new scholastic pro-gramme highlights that gov-ernment victory as “a le-

gendary, heroic story”.More than 33,000 of the

nation’s teachers — about 4%of them — have been purgedin a government crackdownafter the coup, nearly 5,600academics have been dis-missed and some 880schools shuttered for allegedlinks to terror groups.

The belief in creationismthat life originated andchanged through divine cre-ation is widespread in Tur-key. Many educators areworried because Turkish stu-dents are already globallyranked “below average” inscience, mathematics andreading compared to theirpeers across the world.

Mehmet Somel, the headof the Ecology and Evolu-tionary Biology Society ofTurkey, says Turkish stu-dents will be unable to un-derstand even basic scienceif their studies make no dir-ect reference to evolution.

Cagri Mert Bakirci, a bio-

logist who founded an onlinelearning project called the“Tree of Evolution”, calls theMinistry’s claim that evolu-tion is too difficult for Turk-ish students an “insult” tothem and their teachers. Hisvolunteer project reachesnearly eight million peopleeach week over Facebookwith videos and articles.

“I can explain evolution in10 seconds,” he said.

Mr. Erdoğan has re-peatedly voiced his desirefor a “devout generation”.Previous changes to the edu-cation system have includedan increase in public schoolsproviding religious studiesand more classes on Islam.

The new curriculum willbe rolled out in steps and as-sessed. This year, students infirst, fifth and ninth gradeswill use the updated pro-gramme. Other classes, in-cluding the changed biologyprogramme, will be fully in-tegrated next fall.

‘Evolution’ purged from Turkish schoolsIt won’t be a part of high school biology from next year as more than 170 topics are overhauled

Associated Press

Istanbul

Blow to secularism: Turkish schoolchildren at the mausoleumof Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in Ankara. * AP

The U.S. ramped up thepressure on North Koreaon Sunday ahead of a weekof high-stakes diplomacy atthe UN, warning Pyongy-ang will be “destroyed” if itrefuses to end its “reck-less” nuclear and ballisticmissile drive.

U.S. President DonaldTrump and South KoreanPresident Moon Jae-inspoke by phone on Sat-urday night and pledged“stronger pressure” onNorth Korea, the presiden-tial office said.

Washington’s Ambas-sador to the United Na-tions, Nikki Haley, kept upthe rhetorical pressureahead of the upcomingmeetings in New York, as-serting that if the Northshould pose a seriousthreat to the United Statesor its allies, “North Koreawill be destroyed.”

‘N. Koreacould bedestroyed’Agence France-Presse

Washington


YK

BUSINESSEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE



IN BRIEF

SEBI to take stock ofsuspected shell �rms NEW DELHI

Markets regulator SEBI will

update its board on Monday

on action being taken against

suspected shell companies

allegedly abetting routing of

illicit funds through stock

markets. Those under

scanner, include over 300

listed �rms as also hundreds

of unlisted entities and

individuals, suspected to be

misusing the stock exchange

platform for tax evasion,

among other wrongdoings, a

senior o�cial said. PTI

Life insurers cut freshexposure to equitiesMUMBAI

The life insurance industry,

led by Life Insurance

Corporation, drastically cut

down its fresh exposure to

equities by 57% during the

�scal 2016-17 to ₹16,793

crore from ₹39,535 crore a

year ago, data collated by

the Life Insurance Council

said. This reduction was

despite the fact that key

indices went up remarkably

during the year with the BSE

Sensex alone rising to

29,620 on March 31 this year

from 25,342 a year ago. PTI

India is looking to plug loop-holes in its Free Trade Agree-ment (FTA) with South Koreafollowing concerns over a re-cent sudden surge in importsof gold and related articlesfrom that country.

Authorities are also learntto be probing a possible‘criminal angle’ behind therecent rapid rise in importsof the yellow metal fromSouth Korea. The rise hashappened due to certainfirms, ‘owned and operatedby some Indians’, allegedlymisusing the India-SouthKorea FTA that allows duty-free import of the preciousmetal and its articles.

GST, the causeGold imports from SouthKorea had shot up to about$340 million in the periodJuly 1-August 3, 2017, com-pared with about $71 millionfor all of FY17. The imple-mentation of the Good and

Services Tax (GST) from July1 led to the import surge.

Pre-GST, gold importsthrough the non-FTA chan-nel attracted a 10% basic cus-toms duty (BCD) and an ad-ditional 12.5% countervailingduty (CVD), while those fromthe FTA route were levied a12.5% CVD (as the FTA elim-inated the customs duty ongold imports) — which dis-

couraged such gold imports.Under the new tax regime, a3% GST replaced the CVD.

This meant gold importsfrom the non-FTA route at-tracted 10% BCD and 3%GST, while those from the (S.Korea) FTA channel paidonly 3% GST, which could belater claimed as input taxcredit. What has raised eye-brows is that South Korea is

not among the world’s lead-ing producers or exportersof gold and related items.

Significantly, the authorit-ies are examining a possiblecriminal angle in such trans-actions as those entities wereallegedly sending goldmedallion directly fromDubai to South Korea andthen exporting to India, viol-ating FTA norms. Under theFTA, duty-free import ofgold medallion into India iscurrently allowed only if ithas met the norm of ‘Changein Tariff Heading’ under theHarmonised System Code.

This means one couldsend gold bars and rods froma third country to SouthKorea, convert them intomedallion there, export toIndia and avail the zero-dutybenefit. Though the Centrehad last month ‘restricted’imports of jewellery, pre-cious metal and relateditems from South Korea, offi-cial sources said it was only atemporary measure.

In an upcoming trademeeting with South Korea,India will push for inclusionof tighter norms in the FTAon imports of gold and itsitems to prevent misuse.

India will insist on a clausein the FTA specifying the cri-teria of (at least 35%) ‘valueaddition’ as well as ‘Changein Tariff Sub-Heading’ to en-sure that the item has under-gone substantial transforma-tion in South Korea, and notbeen just routed throughthat country to take advant-age of duty-free norms.

Only those furnishing therequired certificate, statingthe criteria have been met,will be allowed FTA benefits.Else, such imports fromSouth Korea will attract 10%duty. Since gold is a sensitiveitem for India, the other planis to shift gold and articles tothe negative list in the FTA.Work is also on to imposesafeguard duty (12.5%) ongold imports from SouthKorea.

Tweaks to pact with S. Korea mootedRapid rise in gold imports from Asian nation causes alarm; ‘criminal’ angle comes under lens

Dim show: Interestingly, South Korea is not a leadingproducer or exporter of gold. * GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCK

ARUN S

New Delhi

To take on bigger rivals suchas Amazon and Flipkart,Paytm Mall will be offeringcashbacks worth more than₹500 crore during its four-day online festive sale.

This will be the first fest-ive season sale for the e-commerce player whichstarted operations in Febru-ary this year.

Amit Sinha, chief operat-ing officer, Paytm Mall, said,“... we have collaboratedwith our partner brands andmerchants to bring one ofthe largest assortment ofcashback offers.”

The four day ‘Mera Cash-

back Sale’ will be on fromSeptember 20-23, with cash-backs ranging from 15% to100%. “We will keep the ex-citement up by givingphones and Paytm Goldeveryday,” he added.

Paytm Mall will offer100% cash back to 25 phone

buyers every day and 200customers will receive 100gm Paytm Gold every day.

The orders will be ser-viced by the nearest brand-authorised store, large retailchain or small shopkeeper.“This will drive increasedsales for Paytm Mall’spartnered retailers and willalso lead to shorter deliverytimelines for all festive or-ders and save additional lo-gistics investments likewarehousing,” the firm said.

The platform aims to con-tribute up to 10-15% of retail-ers’ overall festive sales as itis expecting more than five-million new users during thefour-day period.

Paytm Mall to o�er cashbackworth ₹500 cr. in festival saleTo take on bigger rivals such as Amazon and Flipkart

Yuthika Bhargava

New Delhi

GE

TT

YIM

AG

ES/I

ST

OC

K

The country’s gold importsrecorded a three-fold jumpto $15.24 billion during theApril-August period of thecurrent fiscal, CommerceMinistry data showed.

Gold imports, which hasa bearing on the country’scurrent account deficit(CAD), stood at ₹5.08 billionin April-August 2016-17.

In August this year, im-ports of the precious metalrose to ₹1.88 billion from₹1.11 billion in the samemonth of the previous fiscal.

A surge in gold importslast month contributed tothe widening of trade deficitto $11.64 billion as against$7.7 billion in August 2016.

The imports are expectedto increase on account ofthe forthcoming festival sea-son, which will start fromthe end of this month.

Increase in inbound ship-

ments of gold is also one ofthe reasons for higher CAD.

CAD rose sharply to $14.3billion — or 2.4% of GDP — atthe end of first quarter of2017-18. In general terms,CAD refers to the differencebetween inflow and outflowof foreign exchange that hasan impact on exchange rate.

India is the world’ssecond-biggest gold con-sumer after China. The im-ports mainly take care ofjewellery industry demand.

Gold imports increasethreefold to $15 billion

Festive season to push demand


New Delhi

Airtel Payments Bank onSunday announced the in-tegration of the UnifiedPayments Interface (UPI)with its digital platform.

“This would allow allour 20 million bank cus-tomers to create their per-sonalised UPI handles onthe Airtel app, and enablethem to make digital pay-ments in both the offlineand the online space,” saidShashi Arora, managingdirector and chief execut-ive officer, Airtel PaymentBank said. Mr. Arora saidcustomers would be able tolink their bank accounts onthe BHIM app and makeUPI payments.

Airtel bankenables UPIpayments


New Delhi

The Goods and Services TaxNetwork on Sunday an-nounced the opening of theregistration window for theComposition Scheme againtill September 30.

Under the Scheme, smalltaxpayers with a turnover of₹75 lakh can file quarterly re-turns instead of the normalmonthly returns.

“Many taxpayers who mi-grated after August 16 couldnot avail this facility as it wasopen till August 16, 2017only,” the GSTN said in a re-lease. “To make this facilityavailable to all those whocould not opt for Composi-

tion, the facility has beenopened again by the GSTCouncil. This is also open tothose who registered afreshunder GST but did not availthe facility at the time ofregistration.”

“Any person who hasbeen granted registration ona provisional basis or regularbasis and has turnover notexceeding ₹75 lakh, and whowishes to opt for the com-position levy under section10 of the Act, is required toelectronically file an intima-tion, duly signed or verifiedthrough electronic verifica-tion code, at the GST portalon or before September 30,2017,” Prakash Kumar, CEOof the GSTN said.

“The compositionscheme has been designedto simplify and reduce theburden of compliance forsmaller taxpayers,” Mr. Ku-mar added.

GST Composition Schemeregistration open till Sept. 30Move to aid those who could not register before April 16Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI

Prakash Kumar

SBI reviewing minimumbalance charges MUMBAI

The State Bank of India has

said it was reviewing charges

for some types of accounts

for non-maintenance of

monthly average balance

(MAB) after receiving

feedback from customers. In

April, the bank reintroduced

fees on non-maintenance of

MAB after �ve years. “We

have received feedback from

our customers and we are

reviewing those,” the bank’s

MD (national banking group)

Rajnish Kumar said. PTI





CMYK

M ND-NDE

BUSINESS REVIEW

Insolvency resolution isabout the allocation of lossesamong different stakehold-ers in a situation where thereisn’t enough left in the potfor everyone. So far, thestakeholders at the centre ofthe public discourse underthe new and fast evolving In-solvency and BankruptcyCode (IBC) have been banks,trade creditors, promoters,workmen, employees andminority shareholders. TheSupreme Court’s order inthe Chitra Sharma v. Unionof India case earlier thismonth has brought attentionto the rights of a new groupof stakeholders — consumerswho have made advances ongoods or services that are yetto be delivered.

In this case, the petition-ers, who are homebuyers,submitted that insolvencyproceedings against the realestate developer, Jaypee In-fratech, would put on holdtheir cases in consumer for-ums, while not providingthem any remedy in the in-solvency resolution processunder the IBC. The SupremeCourt has responded by al-lowing the insolvency pro-ceedings to continue, butwith conditions.

Among other things, it hasasked Jaypee Associates, theparent company of JaypeeInfratech, to deposit ₹2,000crore with the Court by Oc-tober 27. It has ordered theIRP to present, within 45days, a resolution plan thatwill protect the interests ofboth homebuyers and cred-itors. Further, it has appoin-ted an amicus who will parti-cipate in creditors’committee meetings on be-half of the homebuyers.

Onus on IRPDespite the Court speakingat length on protecting theinterests of homebuyers, itsorder provides little guid-ance on the specific reliefthey would get as it is silenton the priority to be accor-ded to homebuyer dues inrelation to dues owed toother creditors. The Courthas not acceded to the peti-tioners’ request to treathomebuyers at par withbanks nor has it specifiedwhether the ₹2,000 croredeposit will be used solely to

meet homebuyer dues.As things stand, the Court

has entrusted the resolutionprofessional with the task ofprotecting both “homebuy-ers’ and creditors’ interests,”but with little guidance onhow to do so given the lim-ited pool of assets availablefor distribution to all parties.

This case raises thebroader policy question ofhow to deal with consumerprepayments of all kinds,not just in the context of realestate transactions, in theevent of company insolv-ency. In most common lawjurisdictions, this has been asubject of extensive delibera-tion. The U.K., Australia andCanada continue to treatconsumer prepayments asgeneral unsecured credit.

The one exception to thisis the U.S., which accordsconsumer deposits a priorityover taxes and other unse-cured claims, but only up toan amount of $2,600.

However, in all these juris-dictions, while consumersget limited or no special pro-tection under insolvencylaw, they are provided timelyand effective remediesthrough well-enforced con-tracts and consumer protec-tion legislation.

In India, by contrast, thecivil and contract relatedremedies available to con-sumers suffer from delaysand poor recoveries. For thisreason, the IBC, which offersa time-bound resolution,may be considered as a

forward is to amend RERAand other sector-specific le-gislation to extend these con-sumer protection provisionsto cover insolvency events.

Cost to firms, consumersHowever, while this appearsto be an ideal solution fromthe consumers’ point ofview, for firms it reduces theavailability of business cap-ital and increases costs,which would ultimately betransferred to consumers.

A third possible design isto require firms or sectorswith large values of con-sumer prepayments to getinsurance cover for these.But, this will require the in-surance market for suchproducts to evolve organic-ally, before it becomes acredible consumer remedy.

For the Court and policy-makers charged with think-ing about consumer rights, itis important to rememberthat making the IBC theprimary mechanism forproviding consumer reliefwill come at a cost. This costwill be in the form of lowerrecoveries for other credit-ors in the short run, and animpact on credit market de-velopment in the long term.

For this reason, ratherthan placing the entire bur-den on the IBC, improvingthe accessibility and effect-iveness of civil and con-sumer protection remedies,which provide relief muchbefore the commencementof insolvency, may be a moreeffective strategy.

(Aparna Ravi is counsel atSamvad Partners and AnjaliSharma is a researcher at theFinance Research Group atthe Indira Gandhi Institute ofDevelopment Research. Viewsexpressed here are personal.)

mechanism to provide somerelief to consumers. How-ever, the pros and cons ofthe possible designs for do-ing so need to beconsidered.

First, the size of consumerprepayments varies greatlyacross industries, and ac-cording similar insolvencyprotection to all of them maynot be feasible. For example,the quantum and nature ofprotection accorded tohomebuyers may differvastly from that accorded tobuyers of pre-paid giftvouchers from retailers.

A possible design may beto accord preferential status,similar to workmen and se-cured creditors, to con-sumers in sectors wheretheir prepayments form alarge part of overall com-pany indebtedness.

However, this will likelylead to a clamour from con-sumers in more and moresectors to bring themselveson to this list. Further, as thelist of preferential creditorsexpands, other creditors’ re-covery rates will suffer, andthis may show up as lowercredit allocation and higherinterest rates to firms inthese sectors.

A second design is to re-tain consumer prepaymentsin a specified trust to pre-vent misuse of funds, andmake these bankruptcy re-mote. For example, thenewly promulgated Real Es-tate Regulation and Develop-ment Act, 2016 (RERA) re-quires developers to place70% of customer advances ina project-specific escrow ac-count and refund any suchadvances, with interest, ifthe property is not deliveredas per terms of the saleagreement. Perhaps, the way

GUEST COLUMN

Jaypee: consumer angle in IBC playIt costs less to o�er consumers a remedy before insolvency proceedings begin

<> In other countries,

consumers get

e�ective remedies

through consumer

protection laws

Aparna Ravi

Anjali Sharma

GETTYIM

AGES/ISTOCK

The Centre has initiated ac-tion against more than twolakh shell companies as partof Operation Clean Money.Separately, the market regu-lator Securities and ExchangeBoard of India has identified331 companies and initiatedaction against them. Here isall you need to know aboutshell companies.

What are shellcompanies?J The Companies Act, 2013has not defined what a ‘shellcompany’ is and as to whatkind of activities would leadto a company being termeda ‘shell’.

Shell companies are typ-ically corporate entitieswhich do not have any activebusiness operations or signi-ficant assets in their posses-sion. The government viewsthem with suspicion as someof them could be used formoney laundering, tax eva-sion and other illegalactivities.

Is there a law governingshell companies? J In India, there is no spe-cific law relating to “shellcompanies.” However, somelaws help, to an extent, incurbing illegal activities suchas money laundering andcan indirectly be used to tar-get shell companies — Be-nami Transaction (Prohibi-tion) Amendment Act 2016;The Prevention of MoneyLaundering Act 2002 andThe Companies Act, 2013.

Is it easy to strike off ashell company from therecords?J According to AnantMerathia, a Chennai-basedcorporate lawyer, compan-ies can be removed from therolls of the Ministry of Cor-porate Affairs by two means:

strike off by Registrar ofCompanies (RoC) — (Section248 (1) of the CompaniesAct, 2013) and voluntarystrike off — (Section 248 (2)of the Companies Act, 2013).Voluntary closure can bedone with the approval ofthe board and shareholdersand the firm should have nilliabilities.

What scenarios can leadto a company’s name be-ing struck off by the RoC?J The strike off happens incase of companies whichhave failed to commencebusiness within a year ofincorporation.

Also, in case of companiesthat are not carrying on anybusiness or operation for aperiod of two immediatelypreceding financial yearsand have not made any ap-plication within such periodfor obtaining the status of a‘dormant company’ underSection 455 of the Compan-ies Act can be struck off bythe RoC unless cause isshown to the contrary.

The RoC issues a show-cause notice to such com-panies and their directorsseeking their responsewithin 30 days. If the re-sponse is not satisfactory,the company’s name wouldbe removed from theregister.

What is a dormantcompany?J According to Mr.Merathia, as per Section 455of the Companies Act, 2013,a company that does nothave significant financialactivity or has been inactivecan apply to the RoC and ob-tain the status of a dormantcompany.

The company shall be adormant company on therolls of the RoC until it fol-lows all the provisions ofSection 455. If it fails to doso, the RoC shall havepowers to strike of theirnames from the Register ofCompanies.

What is the differencebetween dormant andshell companies?J A dormant company getsits title in two ways: it haschosen to get a ‘dormant’status from the RoC by wayof an application and is incompliance of the require-ments of Section 455.

Further, in case a com-pany has not filed financialstatements or annual re-turns for two financial yearsconsecutively, the RoC shallissue notice and include it inthe register of ‘dormant’companies. But a shell com-pany is one which is typic-ally suspected of illegalactivities.

Decoding shell companiesEXPLAINER CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC

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Sanjay Vijayakumar

GETTYIM

AGES/ISTOCK

How does a market leadercope with mid-life anxietiesabout staying relevant in achanging demographic land-scape? The company thatput India on the automotiveworld map and has churnedout millions of cars over thepast three decades — MarutiSuzuki, which was grapplingfor an answer, seems to havefound it.

“About two years ago, wehad around 46-47% marketshare… the remaining 53-54% customers were notcoming to us,” said R.S.Kalsi, the company’s seniorexecutive director, market-ing and sales.“In our re-search, we found that youngcustomers – the third genera-tion customers, who mayalready have a Maruti Suzukivehicle in their family… theythink of Maruti Suzuki asdad’s car or grandfather’scar,” he said. Mr. Kalsi is theman who spearheaded thestrategy to target, and bringin, the premium segment ofcustomers.

That is how the Nexa wasconceived, he said. Nexa iscompany’s line of show-rooms that sells its premiumcar portfolio.

“Staying relevant is veryimportant. The idea is thatwe don’t get a sense of com-placency… a market leadermay have the tendency toget complacent,” he said.

This attempt by the com-pany to change itself fromthe ‘not-so-premium auto-maker’ was met with scepti-cism from not just outsidethe company, but inside too.This was also not its first at-tempt at dominating the seg-ment. Maruti Suzuki hadearlier failed to capture thehigh-value segment with itsKizashi, and the Vitara.

“In the beginning, thereare always apprehensions…Any disruption is painful interms of investments, a littlediscontinuity in terms ofbusiness and sometimespeople do not accept yourvision,” Mr. Kalsi said.

The move was seen to beinterfering with Maruti Suzu-ki’s core strength — theabout 1,800-strong dealernetwork at the time. “Wehad planned to introduce 50outlets in the first year and Iwas told: ‘You are comprom-ising on the networkstrength’. I was told that it’s

a gamble, some of my peerssaid if this project doesn’t gothrough my career may be atstake.” There were also ap-prehensions that sales ofmodels unveiled through thenew channel may be hit.This was followed by the S-Cross, the first model to beintroduced via the channel,failing to gain traction ini-tially. The crossover vehicle,first priced at ₹8.34 lakh-₹13.74 lakh, soon witnessed aprice cut of about ₹2 lakh onselect variants.

‘Gained footfalls’However, as more modelswere introduced — Ciaz,Baleno and Ignis — and thechannel expanded, footfallsinto Nexa rose, which hasalso reflected in sales.

“After the first 50 show-rooms were in place andfully operational, we saw theNexa bet paying off. Peoplewere appreciating the [valueof the] showrooms. It wasn’ta typical Maruti Suzuki ex-perience… As for the deal-ers… for any new initiative,there a couple of people whoare on board, the others waitand watch for the results be-fore joining. This happenedhere also,” Mr. Kalsi said.

Shrikant Akolkar, re-search analyst (automo-biles), Angel Broking pointedout, “The Nexa chain of re-tail outlets was launched in2015... The financials haveshown a remarkable im-provement with 17% CAGR inrevenue between FY15-FY17compared with 7% CAGRfrom FY13-FY15. Marginshave also risen from lessthan 14% in FY15 to morethan 15% in FY17.”

Investors have also re-sponded positively to thenew strategy. “In the year

the Nexa chain was unveiled,the share price of Maruti ap-preciated about 40%, and inthe last two years it has givenabout 100% returns. Thatspeaks for how the Nexa, aswell as the main business,have helped Maruti Suzuki,”Mr. Akolkar said.

‘3 lakh cars this year’Maruti Suzuki now has 280Nexa showroomsand hassold 300,000 vehiclesthrough the channel till now.Riding on the success of thechannel, the company said itexpected to sell 300,000vehicles through Nexa in thecurrent fiscal.

“There were pain points,we had to convince all stake-holders, including dealersand the internal team tocome on board… but lookingback now it has been a won-derful experience… By 2020we are looking at 20% of outtarget of 2 million vehiclessales to come from Nexa,”Mr Kalsi said.

Abdul Majeed, partner,PwC, said, “There are twoaspects for any firm: productand distribution. Distribu-tion plays a very importantin connecting with the cus-tomers… they had products(like Vitara) earlier but couldnot convey it to the cus-tomer through distribution.”

“Obviously, those buyingentry-level vehicles are verydifferent from those wantingpremium vehicles… theirthinking and aspirations arevery different. Maruti Suzukiwas very strongly associatedwith small cars..,” he added.

Mr. Kalsi agreed, saying,“We brought in a powerfulportfolio of products in thelast 4-5 years.” But thatneeded to be coupled with agreat buying experience.

Digitisation was the firststep. “About 75% of custom-ers research online. Wewanted to provide them witha seamless experience fromwhere they left the research.

“Second, it is a pamperedgeneration. They have trav-elled, been to the best res-taurants... When they go to abank, they deal with a rela-tionship manager. Ours wasa time when we used tostand in three queues just towithdraw money from theteller,” Mr. Kalsi said. Nexahelped combine these kindsof new-age experience.

When a customer re-turned to a showroom, theRM knew whether sheprefers a cup of black coffeeor orange juice, Mr. Kalsisaid, adding that the experi-ence went beyond buying.“For example, we have alounge in the Delhi Airportthat customers can use; theMumbai one is in process.There are fashion shows wedo...We keep them engaged.”

Besides the experience, italso helped the company fo-cus. “Being a company withsuch a widespread productportfolio, we have to segreg-ate the products as per theprofile of the customer.”

For Maruti, the segrega-tion was not just price-based. “Premium is not justprice but also features andfeel,” Mr. Kalsi said. For thecompany, the Nexa cus-tomer is “more sophistic-ated, mature, wants exclusiv-ity, has exposure to a higherclass of life and was earlieruncomfortable visiting ourshowrooms.”

The success has had arub-off effect on its othershowrooms. The company iscurrently re-branding itsmass network of more than2,000 showrooms to attractmore customers.

But what if Nexa had nothappened? Mr. Kalsi terms ithypothetical. “It is one of themost difficult things to saywhat would have happenedif we had not gone withNexa. You can see its advant-age. We have 3,00,000 cus-tomers… and intend to sell3,00,000 cars this yearalone. We were at that pointat 46% market share, todaywe are at 51%. We clocked ahealthy 10% growth last year.This year, we are at 18%-plusin the first five months,while competition has seenmarginal growth so far.”

Nexa: How Maruti hit pay dirtA niche for premium models in its dealer network faced scepticism, but paid o�

Late bloomer: Nexa gained acceptance after the �rst 50showrooms became operational, says R.S. Kalsi.

Yuthika Bhargava

NEW DELHI

Air India’s impending privatisation has not hit its expan-sion plans. While employees are naturally anxious aboutits implications, there is no sense of fear in the ranks, saysthe national carrier’s new CMD Rajiv Bansal in an inter-view on board the airline’s inaugural Delhi-Copenhagenflight. While Air India wants to maintain operationalprofit, it is also looking to raise fresh loans. Excerpts:

How does it feel to takecharge after thegovernment decided toprivatise Air India?

n Privatising is a different is-sue as it is for the sharehold-ers to see. The shareholder isthe Government of India andit is examining it. My job is torun the airline professionallyand profitably. So I am chan-nelling my energy into that.

Have you set goals foryourself, prior toprivatisation?

n My focus is not to enhancevalue for privatisation, whichcould be a side benefit. Myfocus is on running the air-line. I have been here forabout 25 days now and myonly focus is to run the air-line on time. I can’t monitorall the flights, so I’m monit-oring the first flight of theday, inter-metro flights andfive ultra long-haul flights.

How is the mood ofemployees ahead ofprivatisation?

n Employees are naturallyfeeling [that] it’s an uncer-tain future. Any employeewould; they have been in theairline for long and the gov-ernment is now saying thecarrier will be privatised. So,there is an apprehension anduncertainty. My feeling isthat a lot of employees feel

they are good at their job andthey will continue to get em-ployment under the newowners. So, they are not un-duly worried. Another thingis that the average age of myemployees is quite high —about 53-54, and the retire-ment age is 58. So, a largenumber of employees will re-tire in the next 3-4 years. Thegovernment has a reasonablygood experience in privat-ising the Delhi and Mumbaiairports where AAI employ-ees were assured that theywould continue to be in em-ployment till superannuationand I hope that the govern-ment would give such an of-fer to my employees too. Buton the whole, [there is] someuncertainty but no fear.

What progress have youmade in on-timeperformance so far?

n We pushed very hard. Iroughly monitor around 30%of flights. There are about 20inter-metro first flights of theday and there are about fiveultra long haul flights. Wehave witnessed significantimprovement in the on-timeperformance (OTP). Thereare some bad days but onsome good days we havecrossed 90%. My target is toconsistently maintain 90%OTP and towards that end,we have improved ourground handling. We havelooked at all points of delays

and corrected them. We havealso taken action against anyshortcomings on the part ofvendors or our own staff.

Can airlines be run asprofessionally undergovernment control asprivate airlines?

n There are some challengesand some opportunities also.Opportunity... in the sensethat it’s a national carrierand I have a huge commit-ment from the governmentthat all government officialswill fly by Air India. It’s a bigcomfort for me. Running it asa government entity hasother challenges as it’s noteasy to operate a ‘hire andfire’ policy. It’s a matter ofbuilding processes, so if youdo that you can work in thePSU environment also. I see

no reason why we can’t runas a public sector airline.

Is the freeze on inductionof new planes, due todisinvestment talks,affecting expansion?

n I have about 110 planes andfor the winter schedule, wewill be operating about 90aircraft and I think that’spretty good in terms of theimmediate future for aboutsix months.

How do you see thecompetition from IndiGoand SpiceJet that haveplans to operate low-cost,long-haul flights?

n I think we are fortunatethat along with Air India, wehave Alliance Air that oper-ates smaller aircraft feedinginto my destinations. I alsohave Air India Express thatruns on a low-cost model. Ithink we will be able to takeon the low cost carriers(LCCs) in the internationalsector through Air India Ex-

press; and, we are a full-ser-vice carrier, so we will beable to position Air India tocommand better yields be-cause of the value proposi-tion. Passengers don’t mindtravelling on LCCs in theshort-haul but on a long-haulflight, they are naturallylooking for comfort; so, I ambetter positioned.

Any profitability targetsthat you have set?

n I don’t think we are in aposition to earn net profitsbut continuing to earn opera-tional profit is my majorchallenge. If I can close thecurrent financial year withan operating profit, I wouldbe happy.

How have finances beenin the first six months?

n Finances are challengingbecause my debt burden ishuge. Monsoon season is nota tourist heavy time but nowwe are getting into the festiveseason, so we are hopingthat September and Octoberfigures will be better thanJuly and August.

You had floated a tenderfor short-term loans for₹3,000 crore recently.What would that be usedfor? Do you need more?

n Yes, we need more loans tocover our losses. The govern-ment has come forward toguarantee these loans. Thatis why we floated the requestfor proposal. We hope to payoff our dues to various oilcompanies and the airportauthorities.

(The correspondent is inCopenhagen at the invitationof Air India)

‘No reason why Air India can’t run as a PSU’‘My focus is on running the airline, not on privatisation, says the new chairman and managing director

Somesh Jha

<> We have witnessed

signi�cant

improvements

in on-time

performance

INTERVIEW | RAJIV BANSAL


CMYK

M ND-NDE




SPORT

Chelsea defender David Luizwas sent off for an ugly foulon Sead Kolasinac as Arsenalfinally emerged unscathedfrom a trip to Chelsea with a0-0 draw against the cham-pion on Sunday.

The Brazilian saw red inthe closing minutes at Stam-ford Bridge and he couldhave no complaints abouthis dismissal after lunginginto a crude two-footed chal-lenge on Arsenal defenderKolasinac.

“We have great respect forofficials, but it is strange tofinish a third game in a rowagainst Arsenal with 10men,” Chelsea boss AntonioConte said.

In Serie A, a Paulo Dybalahat-trick lifted Juventus backto the summit of Serie Aalongside Inter Milan with a3-1 victory at Sassuolo.The results: Premier League:Chelsea 0 drew with Arsenal 0;Manchester United 4 (Valencia4, Mkhitaryan 83, Lukaku 89,Martial 90+1-pen) bt Everton 0.Bundesliga: Hoffenheim 1

(Wagner 6) drew with HerthaBerlin 1 (Esswein 55); BayerLeverkusen 4 (Volland 21, 34,Aranguiz 29, Brandt 86) btFreiburg 0.

La Liga: Alaves 0 lost to Vil-lareal 3 (Bakambu 32, 62, Bacca52).

Serie A: Sassuolo 1 (Politano 51)lost to Juventus 3 (Dybala 16,49, 63); AC Milan 2 (Kalinic 22,31) bt Udinese 1 (Lasagna 28);Napoli 6 (Allan 3, Insigne 15,Mertens 27, 65-pen, 90-pen,Callejon 32) bt Benevento 0;Torino 2 (Baselli 13, Belotti 15)drew with Sampdoria 2 (Zapata1, Quagliarella 34); SPAL 0 lost

to Cagliari 2 (Barella 17, JoaoPedro 68).

On Saturday: Premier League:Tottenham 0 drew withSwansea 0.

La Liga: Real Betis 2 (Joaquin14, 76) bt Deportivo la Coruna 1(Cartabia 23); Atletico Madrid 1(Griezmann 61) bt Malaga 0.

Bundesliga: RB Leipzig 2(Werner 17, Augustin 31) drewwith Borussia Monchenglad-bach 2 (Hazard 25-pen, Stindl61).

Serie A: Fiorentina 2 (Chiesa 51,Pezzella 69) Bologna 1 (Palacio52); Roma 3 (Nainggolan 22,Dzeko 33, 61) bt Verona 0.

Luiz sent o� in Arsenal stalemate Dybala hat-trick helps Juventus maintain perfect record

EURO LEAGUES

All routes closed: David Luiz was kept silent during Chelseacorners as he was tightly marked by the Arsenal defence. * AP


London

Frenchman Maxime Vach-ier-Lagrave ended PeterSvidler’s resistance in thesecond rapid game to post a2.5-1.5 victory in theirquarterfinal clash in WorldCup chess here on Sunday.

Lagrave won with blackpieces in 34 moves after thefirst rapid game tie-breakgame ended in a draw.Svidler’s defeat also endedRussia’s challenge in thepremier event.The result: Quarterfinal: Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra) bt Peter Svidler(Rus) 2.5-1.5.Semifinal line-up: LevonAronian (Arm) v Maxime Vach-ier-Lagrave; Wesley So (USA) vDing Liren (Chn).

Lagrave getspast Svidler Sports Bureau

Tbilisi (Georgia)

Jaipur Pink Panthers re-turned to winning ways,convincingly defeating Da-bang Delhi 36-25 in a Zone-Amatch of the ProKabaddiLeague here at HarivanshTana Bhagat Indoor Sta-dium, Ranchi on Sunday.

In a match between thetwo bottom-placed team,Panthers produced a bal-anced show with good per-formances in both attackand defence.

Led by Manjit Chillar andSidharth in the defence,Panthers blunted Delhi’s at-tacks and forged ahead withNitin Rawal and Pawan Ku-mar bringing home the

points with a series of suc-cessful raids.

The two teams went neckto neck for the greater partof the first half before a su-per raid by Rawal helpedPanthers open up a six-pointlead (14-8) by the 15thminute.

Making his second raid ofthe match, Rawal snared allthe three remaining men ofDabang Delhi to inflict an‘all-out’ and picked up twoadditional points for it tomake it a total of five pointsin one raid.

Pathres opened up a nine-point lead (18-9) at the halftime and never looked back.

Dabang tried to make acomeback but found the op-ponent overshadowing itwith better efforts.

The two Iranian attackers,Abolfazl Maghsodlou andMeraj Sheykh, fetched somesuccessful raid points in thesecond half where Delhi col-lected 16 but that was notenough.

Panthers fifth

Pink Panthers tallied 36points from 11 matches to re-main in the fifth spot, whileDabang Delhi continued atthe bottom with 28 pointsfrom 12 matches.

The results: Jaipur Pink Pan-thers 36 (Pawan Kumar 6, Sid-harth 6, Nitin Rawal 6) bt Da-bang Delhi 25 (AbolfazlMaghsodlou 6, Meraj Sheykh4); Patna Pirates 37 (PardeepNarwal 13, Monu Goyat 11) drewwith Bengal Warriors 37(Maninder Singh 15, DeepakNarwal 10).

Panthers back to winning ways The Jaipur team convincingly puts it across Dabang Delhi

Sports Bureau

RANCHI

PKL

Delhi Dragons’ Ronaldinhodid not waste time to getthe crowd behind him atthe NSCI Dome by openinghis account in the secondminute against ChennaiSinghams in the PremierFutsal league on Sunday.

It was his fifth goal in thefive-a-side league; heknocked in one more as histeam handed a 4-2 defeatto the Chennai side that led2-1 in the second quarter.

It was Singhams’ seconddefeat in the league.Things began to look en-couraging for the Singhamswhen Hernan Crespo lev-elled in the fourth minute.After the first break, AngelClaudino increased thetally.

Nicolos Rolon and DiegoCosta got into the act byscoring the second andfourth goals as Dragons re-gistered a resoundingsecond win in as manymatches.

In an action-packedmatch, Ryan Giggs’ Mum-bai Warriors beat KeralaCobras 6-4 with TaironPetchtiam and ChanpreetSingh scoring the last twogoals. Cobras’ RaphaelMathias scored a hat-trick.

Ronaldinhodazzles Special Correspondent

Mumbai

The fearless aggression ofyouth combined with experi-ence and equanimity asHardik Pandya and M.S.Dhoni got India out of amess.

Then, the bowlers were ontarget when Australia, itschase reduced to a 21-overbash, came out to bat. Thehost was home and dry by 26runs in the first ODI at theM.A. Chidambaram Stadiumhere on Sunday.

In the afternoon, India ral-lied from 11 for three to 281for seven. It was an inningsof several shades for thehome side; first darkness,then light.

A continual drizzledelayed the Australian re-sponse by 122 minutes.When play got underway

again, the Aussie target wasrevised to 164 from 126 balls.

Jasprit Bumrah madeshort work of debutantHilton Cartwright with hisquick-arm action.

After his batting heroics,Hardik bowled with somepace and venom, snafflingkey man Steve Smith on thepull; Bumrah held a sensa-tional catch running with hisback to the ball from shortfine leg.

And the two wrist spin-ners, left-armer Kuldeep Ya-dav and leggie YuzvendraChahal delighted. Kuldeepgot the ball to turn, skid and

straighten, took out the dan-gerous David Warner on thecut.

Chahal made his deliver-ies to hiss and spin, mixinghis leg-spinners withgooglies. He scalped arampant Glenn Maxwell —the Aussie had bludgeonedKuldeep for three successive

sixes — by sending a leg-spin-ner deliberately wider.

Dhoni’s fast glovework lif-ted the spin duo. There wereno comebacks for Australia.

Earlier, the chance ap-peared and disappeared in ahurry for Australia. Hardik,on 13, nicked Nathan Coulter-Nile and skipper Smith re-

acted late to a sharp offeringat slip. India was 110 for fivethen. Hardik, subsequently,tore into the bowling for a66-ball 83. The lapse markeda turning point.

Dhoni played an innings ofcraft and heart. He absorbedthe stress, rebuilt the inningsaround him; Dhoni added 118

in 116 deliveries with Hardikfor the sixth wicket and then72 in 54 balls with a pugna-cious Bhuvneshwar Kumarfor the seventh.

The former India captain,cutting loose towards theend, launched into left-armseamer James Faulkner, acover-driven six on-the-walkbeing a top shot. Those oldmemories at Chepauk camegushing back.

Eye of a tiger

The tall, loose-limbed Hardikhas the eye of a tiger and hasthis ability to clear theground with ease. The all-rounder can inflict plenty ofdamage with his bat-speedand reach, has freshness andfreedom in his approach.

Adam Zampa learnt thisthe hard way. In an explosivesequence, Hardik smashedthe leg-spinner for 4,6,6,6with a towering straight hitbeing the pick.

There was movement andbounce for the Aussie pace-men early on after India elec-ted to bat under a cloud-cover. Pat Cummins andNathan Coulter-Nile bowledtight, built pressure. The duocombined control with velo-city; India seemed powerlessin the first PowerPlay.

The tall Coulter-Nile,whose long delivery stridemeans he doesn’t quite de-liver with a high arm, suckedthe batsmen into his trap byswinging the odd deliveryoutside off and testingfootwork.

Ajinkya Rahane, ViratKohli and Manish Pandeyperished to Coulter-Nile play-ing away from the body. Max-well leapt high at backwardpoint to pluck the ball offKohli’s blade, one-handed.

Rohit Sharma and a fluentKedar Jadhav did some dam-age control before falling toshort-pitched deliveries fromseamer Marcus Stonis. Hepulled his weight as a sup-port seamer but Australiamissed a third specialistpaceman.

Hurricane Hardik and vintage Dhoni delight In a chase reduced to 21 overs after a drizzle-induced delay, Australia falls short by 26 runs

Out of the park: Hardik Pandya pulverised the Australian attack to swing the contest India’s way. * V. GANESAN

S. Dinakar

Chennai

India’s Olympic and Worldsilver medallist shuttler P.V.Sindhu exacted sweet re-venge of her World Champi-onship heart-break as shedefeated Nozomi Okuhara ofJapan 22-20, 11-21, 20-18 toclinch the women’s singlestitle at the Korea Open SuperSeries here on Saturday.

It was the 22-year-old’sthird Super Series title of hercareer.

Sindhu started the finalbrightly, holding a 5-2 leadearly. Okuhara equalised atthe seven-point mark.Sindhu, however, held a two-point lead at the mid-gamebreak.

Then the lead changedhands and it became 20-18before the Indian clinchedthe first game 22-20.

In the second game, Ok-uhara opened up an 11-6 leadand easily won 21-11.

In the decider, a 18-14 lead

seemed to be healthy forSindhu but a feisty Okuharamanaged to save two matchpoints. But Sindhu remainedcalm and composed to seal a21-18 win.

Meanwhile, unseeded In-donesian Anthony SinisukaGinting defeated compatriotJonatan Christie 21-13, 19-21,22-20 for the men’s title in anhour and eight minutes toclinch the men’s title.

The results (finals): Women:P.V. Sindhu bt Nozomi Okuhara(Jpn) 22-20, 11-21, 20-18.

Men: Anthony Sinisuka Ginting(Ina) bt Jonatan Christie (Ina)21-13, 19-21, 22-20.

Sindhu outsmarts Okuhara to triumph She exacts revenge for Worlds loss to claim her third Super Series crown

Agencies

SEOUL

Yess! P.V. Sindhu was all �red up as she produced her A-game tobest World champion Nozomi Okuhara on Sunday. * AP

CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC

2017: 32 played; 25 won; 7

lost

Current ranking: 4; Best

ranking: 2 (April 6, 2017).

Super Series titles: 3

(2017: India Open and

Korea Open; 2016: China

Open).CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC

The smiles were back forP.V. Sindhu as she avengedthe loss in last month’s

World Championship finalto Nozomi Okuhara byclaiming the Korea Opentitle on Sunday.

“Honestly, the thoughts

were never on those lines —it is a revenge match, Ishould win. I just wanted tobe patient and control thepace of the game,” said adelighted Sindhu in a chatwith The Hindu.

“It is nice to know that Iam the first Indian to winthe Korean Open and wishto get many more firsts,”said the 22-year-old. “I wasprepared for another longbattle and it was more orless like the Worlds final.Close, intense and it againboiled down to those twofinal points,” Sindhu said.“I just told myself to winthose big points, havingcome close, and I am gladthat I pulled it off.”

Sindhu believed fanshave started billing hercontests against Okuharavery high. “Yes, earlier itwas Sindhu vs Marin(Carolina). Now, it is meand Okuhara. But again, atthe highest level, there isno difference between thebig guns. You have to be at

your best on any given dayto be the winner,” shereiterated.

Asked whether she wastense before the final,Sindhu said: “I don’t thinkthere was any kind ofpressure because of theexpectations and the hugecrowd support, too. I wasdetermined to win.

“It is always importantto win a major final againstsomeone like Okuhara whois a World champion afterall! Frankly, there wasnothing like a ‘change instrategy’ for this final. I justwanted to stay focused,knew it would be anothertough match and also thatpatience would be key insuch an intense struggle,”she said. “There is verylittle time to celebrate as Inext fly off to Japan Openwhere I meet Mitani in thefirst round and thenpossibly Okuhara again. Iam excited with our rivalryand hope to keep winning,”said Sindhu.

‘I wanted to be patient and control pace’ V.V. Subrahmanyam

HYDERABAD

It was a game in which Aus-tralia started well, but wasbeaten rather comprehens-ively. Skipper Steve Smithsaid he would have pre-ferred to play the full 50overs. “I think 160 withone new ball would havemade things a lot easier.”

James Faulkner, whowas returning to interna-tional cricket, looked outof sorts — he tried toomany variations butmissed his lengths.

Smith explained that, insearch of wickets, he hadto use Nathan Coulter-Nileand Patrick Cumminsearlier, which meant hav-ing to use Faulkner at theend.

“Yeah, I think we prob-ably went away from ourplans a little bit. We werehitting such a good lengthbut later we were tryingtoo many things, too manyslower balls.”

With Jasprit Bumrah,Hardik Pandya andKuldeep Yadav taking outthe first four wickets, theAussies were under thepump before a Maxwellcameo gave them somehope.

But leg-spinnerYuzvendra Chahal rose tothe challenge and got thedangerous batsman.

“As the wicket assistedspin, we thought of spin-ning him out. We couldn’tplay defensive. We had tochange our lines and theidea was to bowl well out-side off,” Chahal said.

When asked aboutSmith’s contention that thetwo new balls helped theIndian bowlers, Chahal re-torted: “A 21-over gamewas advantageous to Aus-tralia. But the advantagewe had was the wicket washelping spin and our bowl-ers bowled really well.

“If they had won, theywould have said it was aplus point. Our minuspoint was that we had tobowl 10 overs each withnew balls.”

We lost theplot: SmithS. Dipak Ragav

Chennai


CMYK

M ND-NDE




SPORT

SUDOKU

Solution to puzzle 12114 Solution to yesterday’s Sudoku

DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

The story of King Prthu is told in Srimad Bhagavatam, said P.T. Seshadri in a discourse. Lord Vishnu asked King Prthuwhat he wanted from the Lord. Prthu said, “Why did you tellme to ask You for a boon? Did You think I would ask forworldly joys, as other people do? Do You want to push meback into samsaric life by laying a trap for me?”

Prthu, jnani that he was, knew that senses are given to aperson to use in worship of the Lord. So he asked for tenthousand ears, so that he may hear the Lord’s praises beingsung!

Kulasekara Azhvar in his Mukunda Mala, says that theears are intended for hearing about Him. TirumangaiAzhvar says that ears that don’t hear about His deeds andabout the life of His devotees are not ears at all. Ilango Adigalin his Silappadikaram says that the tongue that does not singof Lord Narayana is not a tongue at all.

Prthu explained why the Lord gives boons to those whoseek worldly pleasures. A cow that wanders far from its shedneeds to be kept in check so that it doesn’t get lost. And so itis sometimes tethered. In the same way, people tend to goastray and to keep them on the right track, the Lord offersthem these pleasures. But these worldly joys are temporary.Prthu knew that the Lord alone should be sought, and yet heapproached the Lord humbly.

This is the spirit in which we should surrender to theLord. Even when we surrender, we must not think that it isdue to our effort. We must give all credit to the Lord. He isthe One who makes us give up what should be given up andto seek what must be sought. Prthu, therefore, sought theLord.

Kulasekara Azhvar says that the only wealth he wants isthe Lord Himself, and here we find echoes of Prthu’slonging.

FAITH

Wealth to be sought3 Couple of soldiers reaching

Titanic (5)

4 Go without a black mark (7)

6 Like a CEO, chap’s starting to

despair after salary's reduced

(2,7)

7 Egg-shaped/round container,

close to stove (5)

8 Wanting to catch freshman for

ragging (8)

11 Healthy food court (4)

15 Top scientist taking over (9)

17 Playing a tennis set, nearly

becomes unconscious (9)

18 Brilliant chess champion came

in without hesitation (8)

20 It is about to chase the old

monster (4)

21 Mary's party ...tucked into

heavenly food (7)

22 Milk product, not fully

covered, essentially injurious

to your health (6)

24 Showers honours (5)

25 Ego breaks model’s self-

con�dence (5)

12 Opening cold port (5)

13 Alert everyone about weapon

— live and loaded, primarily

(5,4)

14 Light breakfast dish, including

a bit of eggplant (6)

16 Escape from criminal so naive

(7)

19 Stiff test? (7)

21 Smart doctor with pretty girl

(6)

23 Former girlfriend hung around,

switching partners, becoming

tired (9)

25 Arrest tramp in cheap housing

(5)

26 Mostly cut through

unimportant stuff (6)

27 Close a bar inside, before it's

too late (8)

28 Badly singed pattern (6)

29 Travelling salesmen could

become bald (8)

n DOWN

1 Scientist's scheme hacked

midway (6)

2 Designate is again here (9)

(set by KrisKross)

n ACROSS

1 Knockabout: A man without a

land (8)

5 Blue clothing is cast off (6)

9 Cheering a software �rm

controlling USA, surprisingly

(8)

10 Cars wrecked near the

outskirts of Pune, creating a

mess (6)

THE HINDU CROSSWORD 12115

Australia’s Bob Hollandpasses awaySYDNEY

Australian Test leg-spinner

Bob ‘Dutchy’ Holland has

died following a battle with

brain cancer, aged 70, his

family said on Sunday.

Holland, who made his Test

debut in 1984 at the age of

38, appeared in 11 Tests,

taking 34 wickets, and in 95

First Class matches, most of

them for New South Wales,

and was still playing state

cricket into his forties. AFP

IN BRIEF

HYDERABAD: Kalinda may scorein the Raja Mehboob Karan Me-morial Cup (1,400m), the mainevent of the races to be held hereon Monday (Sept. 18). There will be no false rails.

1 MALVADO PLATE (Div. I),(1,200m), maiden 3-y-o only

(Cat. II), (Terms), 2-00 p.m.: 1.Aerofoil (4) Sai Kumar 56, 2.Reach The Heights (2) S. Sreekant56, 3. Thundering (3) Hannam 56,4. Wannawin (5) A. Sandesh 56, 5.Cymbal (9) Aneel 54.5, 6.Flowersfromabrook (6) C. Umesh54.5, 7. Platinum Claasz (7) C.Deepak 54.5, 8. Rose Petal (10) G.Naresh 54.5, 9. Royal Green (8)Akshay Kumar 54.5 and 10. Tak-isha (1) Kuldeep Singh 54.5. 1. TAKISHA, 2. ROYAL GREEN, 3.

THUNDERING.

2 MALVADO PLATE (Div. II),(1,200m), maiden 3-y-o only

(Cat. II), (Terms), 2-35: 1. IndianKnight (3) S. Sreekant 56, 2. Star-light (2) N. Rawal 56, 3. Turf Le-gend (5) Deepak Singh 56, 4.Apowerx (6) G. Naresh 54.5, 5.Fabulous Art (10) C. Umesh 54.5,6. Good Strike (9) K. Mukesh Ku-mar 54.5, 7. Jasmine Garden (8)Kunal Bunde 54.5, 8. Limousine(7) A. Sandesh 54.5, 9. SnowCastle (1) Akshay Kumar 54.5 and10. Soaring Sensex (4) Hannam54.5. 1. SOARING SENSEX, 2. LIM-

OUSINE, 3. GOOD STRIKE.

3 BALLO PLATE (2,200m), 4-y-o& over, rated 26 to 46 (Cat. III),

3-10: 1. Brilliant (4) Rafique Sk. 60,2. Penumatcha's Pride (5) Koushik59, 3. Dhool Ka Phool (3) KuldeepSingh 57.5, 4. Valee Tiger (8) Ak-shay Kumar 56, 5. Royal Hero (7)Ajit Singh 55.5, 6. Shivalik Arrow(2) K. Mukesh Kumar 55.5, 7.Bullish Approach (1) Aneel 54 and8. Blaze Of Glory (6) Ajeeth Ku-mar 52. 1. BULLISH APPROACH, 2. VALEE

TIGER, 3. DHOOL KA PHOOL.

4 KARIMNAGAR PLATE

(1,200m), 3-y-o & over, rated42 to 62 (Cat. II), 3-40: 1. BlueEyed Babe (3) Ajeeth Kumar 60,2. Vallee Sceptre (5) KuldeepSingh 57.5, 3. Princess Hina (2) B.R. Kumar 57, 4. Celtic Queen (6)Sai Kumar 56.5, 5. Royal Dynam-ite (7) Shailesh 56, 6. NegressPearl (4) Akshay Kumar 55.5, 7.Ruby's Gift (8) N. Rawal 55.5 and8. Pentagon (1) G. Naresh 54.5. 1. NEGRESS PEARL, 2. ROYAL DY-

NAMITE, 3. PENTAGON.

5 HYDERABAD VETERINARY

COLLEGE DIAMOND JUBILEE

CUP (1,200m), 3-y-o & over, rated26 to 46 (Cat. III), 4-10: 1. On TheFire (5) Rafique Sk. 60, 2. Van-couver (7) A. Sandesh 60, 3. RajaHindustani (8) Ajit Singh 59.5, 4.Ashka Ashka Ashka (9) Aneel 58,5. Agilis (1) Hannam 57.5, 6. NewsO' Star (4) Kuldeep Singh 57.5, 7.Raajneeti (3) Gopal Singh 57, 8.Gladstone (2) Kunal Bunde 56.5and 9. Patron Saint (6) B. Dileep56.5. 1. RAJA HINDUSTANI, 2. ASHKA

ASHKA ASHKA, 3. VANCOUVER.

6 RAJA MEHBOOB KARAN ME-

MORIAL CUP (1,400m), 5-y-o &over, rated 42 to 62 (Cat. II), 4-45:1. Valerian Steel (10) Akshay Ku-mar 60, 2. Atlas Star (2) B. Dileep59, 3. Kalinda (4) Deepak Singh59, 4. Gayle Force (3) Shailesh 58,5. Little Smart Heart (5) KuldeepSingh 58, 6. Wonder Eye (8) Md.Sameeruddin 57, 7. Columbus (6)C. P. Bopanna 56, 8. Island Bird(7) Sai Kumar 54.5, 9. Torremoli-nos (9) Rafique Sk. 54.5 and 10.Strengthandbeauty (1) N. Rawal54.

1. KALINDA, 2. STRENGTHAND-

BEAUTY, 3. GAYLE FORCE.

7 ROYAL TERN PLATE (1,100m),maiden 3-y-o & over, rated

upto 30 (whips are not permittedin this race), (Cat. III), 5-20: 1.Heaven Can Wait (3) A. S. Pawar60, 2. Own Battle (6) B. Dileep59.5, 3. Golden Aliza (10) Sai Ku-mar 59, 4. Vallee Peaks (2) A. A.Vikrant 59, 5. Star Glow (4) N.Rawal 58, 6. Kohinoor Lucy (8)Akshay Kumar 57, 7. Super Grey(7) Kuldeep Singh 57, 8. CannonFury (9) Rafique Sk. 53.5, 9. PrideAnd Joy (5) Kunal Bunde 51 and10. Yes Baby (1) Deepak Singh 51.

1. SUPER GREY, 2. VALLEE PEAKS,

3. HEAVEN CAN WAIT.

Day's best: TAKISHA

Double: SOARING SENSEX - SUPER

GREY

Jkt: 3, 4, 5, 6 & 7; Tr (i): 2, 3 & 4;(ii): 5, 6 & 7; Tla: all races.

Kalinda expected to score

HYDERABAD: Exclusive Wind (K.Mukesh Kumar up) won the ChiefMinister’s Cup (1,600m), the chiefevent of the races held here onSunday. The winner is owned by Mr. G.Narasa Reddy and trained byAnupam Sharma.

1 SWAMY RAMANANDA TIRTHA

PLATE (Div. I), (1,400m), maiden3-y-o only (Cat. II), (Terms): SEVEN

ELEVEN (K. Mukesh Kumar) 1, BeSure (Akshay Kumar) 2, Turf Le-gend (B.R. Kumar) 3, Escobar(Deepak Singh) 4. Not run: Re-union. 2-3/4, 2-1/2 and 5-1/4. 1m,27.19s. ₹8 (w), 5, 5, 9 (p). FP: 15. Q:9. SHP: 15. Tanala: 67. Favourite:Seven Eleven. Owner & trainer: Mr.Anupam Sharma.

2 SWAMY RAMANANDA TIRTHA

PLATE (Div. II), (1,400m),maiden 3-y-o (Cat. II), (Terms):HOPE IS ETERNAL (Hannam) 1, Ex-clusive Striker (K. Mukesh Kumar)2, The Man In Black (Koushik) 3,City Of Sails (Sai Kumar) 4. All ran.2-1/2, 3-3/4 and 3/4. 1m, 26.99s. ₹7(w), 6,5 and 16 (p). FP: 11. Q: 8.SHP: 10. Tanala: 172. Favourite:Hope Is Eternal. Owner: Mr. AdityaP. Thackrersey. Trainer: L.V.R.Deshmukh.

3 HOVERCRAFT PLATE (Div. I),(1,200m), 4-y-o & over, rated

upto 30, (Cat. III): SUNDAY CARNI-

VAL (Akshay Kumar) 1, Sweet Story(Nakhat Singh) 2, Cashel (KunalBunde) 3, Time Is Luck (RafiqueSk.) 4. All ran. 2-3/4, Nk. and 1-1/2.1m ,15.39s. ₹56 (w), 10, 5 and 7 (p).FP: 127. Q: 48. SHP: 14. Tanala: 409.Favourite: Sweet Story. Owners:Messrs Munawar Hussain & MirzaAyub Baig. Trainer: S.S.F. Hassan.

4 DYNAMIC DANCER CUP

(1,400m), 4-y-o & over, rated 26to 46 (Cat. III): SURPRISE PARTY

(Nakhat Singh) 1, Scooby DoobyDoo (Ajit Singh) 2, Ikigai (RafiqueSk.) 3, Chinese Thought (K. SaiKiran) 4. All ran. 3-1/2, 1-3/4 and 1.1m, 27.58s. ₹10 (w), 5,8 and 8 (p).FP: 26. Q: 17. SHP: 14. Tanala: 181.Favourite: Surprise Party. Owner:Mr. M.A.M.Ramaswamy Chettiar ofChettinad Charitable Trust rep. byMr. A.C. Muthiah.

5 CHIEF MINISTER’S CUP

(1,600m), 3-y-o & over (Terms):EXCLUSIVE WIND (K. Mukesh Ku-mar) 1, Mr. Baahubali (Hannam) 2,Vijay Viraaj (P. Gaddam) 3, TimeFor Fun (Akshay Kumar) 4. All ran.1/2, nk. and 6-1/4. 1m, 39.69s. ₹13(w), 5 and 7 (p). FP: 63. Q: 30.

Tanala: Nil. Favourite: Vijay Viraaj.Owner: Mr. G. Narasa Reddy.Trainer: Anupam Sharma.

6 TOTARAM’S CUP (1,200m), 3-y-o & over, rated 58 to 78 (Cat.

II): AMOROUS WHITE (Hannam) 1,Without Makeup (Rafique Sk.) 2,Chase Your Dreams (KuldeepSingh) 3, Dream Vision (DeepakSingh) 4. All ran. 3/4, hd. and 1. 1m,12.40s. ₹13 (w), 7,9 and 6 (p). FP:227. Q: 117. SHP: 23. Tanala: 362. Fa-vourite: Chase Your Dreams.Owner: Mr. M.P. Ananta Vatsalya.Trainer: Laxman Singh.

7 HOVERCRAFT PLATE (Div. II),(1,200m), 4-y-o & over, rated

upto 30 (Cat. III): GOLDEN JOY (Ak-shay Kumar) 1, Divine Heights(Rafique Sk.) 2, In Command (A.A.Vikrant) 3, Invasion (P. Gaddam) 4.All ran. 1-3/4, hd. and 1-1/4. 1m, 15s.₹9, 6,7 and 10 (p). FP: 26. Q: 21.SHP: 18. Tanala: 130. Favourite:Golden Joy. Owners:Mr. MukeshGupta, Mrs. Surekha Gupta and Mr.Sunil Kumar Sethi: Trainer: A.Vatsalya.

Treble: (i): ₹207 (124 tkts.); (ii): 147(349 tkts.)

Jackpot: 70%: ₹7126 (22 tkts.) and30%: ₹1292 (52 tkts.)

RACING

Exclusive Wind triumphs

West Indies: C. Gayle run out40, E. Lewis c Root b Plunkett51, M. Samuels c Root b Plun-kett 10, C. Walton c Willey bRashid 13, K. Pollard c Curran bPlunkett 6, R. Powell c Jordan bCurran 28, C. Brathwaite bRashid 2, S. Narine lbw b Rashid2, A. Nurse (not out) 13, J.Taylor lbw b Jordan 1, K. Willi-ams (not out) 2; Extras (lb-1,w-7): 8; Total (for nine wkts. in20 overs): 176

Fall of wickets: 1-77, 2-106, 3-115, 4-123, 5-127, 6-138, 7-142,8-165, 9-167.

England bowling: Willey 2-0-20-0, Root 2-0-11-0, Curran 4-0-46-1, Jordan 4-0-46-1, Plun-kett 4-0-27-3, Rashid4-0-25-3.

England: J. Roy c Lewis b Taylor0, A. Hales b Brathwaite 43, J.

Root c Brathwaite b Nurse 17, E.Morgan c Lewis b Narine 2, J.Buttler c Powell b Williams 30,J. Bairstow c (sub) Mohammedb Brathwaite 27, A. Rashid cWalton b Williams 1, D. Willeyst. Walton b Narine 1, L. Plun-kett b Brathwaite 18, C. Jordanc Powell b Williams 6, T. Curran(not out) 1; Extras (lb-5, w-4):9; Total (in 19.3 overs): 155.

Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-64, 3-66, 4 -68, 5-118, 6-124, 7-127,8-129, 9-148.

West Indies bowling: Taylor 3-0-40-1, Williams 4-0-35-3,Brathwaite 3.3-0-20-3, Narine4-0-15-2, Nurse 3-0-23-1, Pol-lard 2-0-17-0.

Man-of-the-match: SunilNarine

Toss: England

West Indies won by 21 runs

SCOREBOARD WEST INDIES VS ENGLAND, T20I

Radha Selvaraj of Chennaiwon the Indian Open titleat the MMSC FMSCI IndianNational drag racing cham-pionship here. The cham-pions in various other cat-egories were declaredbased on the points ac-crued after the secondround held last month.The results (Provisional): Indian Open: 1. Sidharth SinhJhala (Zen) 13.450s; 2. RadhaSelvaraj (Esteem) 13.744; 3.Vidya Prakash (Zen) 14.165. Champion: Radha Selvaraj (43points).Indian Touring Cars: 1. BirenPithawalla (Esteem) 15.315; 2.B Vijayakumar (Esteem)15.586; 3. Sivaramakrishnan(Esteem) 15.878. Champion:Sivaramakrishnan (58 points).

Selvaraj bagsIndian OpentitleSpecial Correspondent

Chennai

India signed off with a haulof one gold, four silver, andthree bronze medals at theAhmet Comert boxingchampionships for youthwomen boxers here.

Soniya (48kg) gave Indiathe lone gold by defeatingKazakhstan’s ZhaziraUrakabeva in the summitclash.Other medallists: Silver: Ni-harika Gonella (75kg), ShashiChopra (57kg), Parveen(54kg), Ankushita Boro(64kg). Bronze: TilotamaChanu (60kg), Jyoti Gulia(48kg), Lalita (64kg) andManisha (69kg).

Soniya picksup 48kg goldPress Trust of India

ISTANBUL

India’s Gaurav Gill (co-driver Stephane Prevot ofBelgium) won the 2017Rally of Hokkaido in hisMRF Team Skoda andmoved into the lead of theFIA Asia Pacific RallyChampionship points,ahead of the final round inIndia late November.

There was high dramaon the first morning whenfour of Gill’s main rivals re-tired on Stage 3, includinghis MRF team-mate OleChristian Veiby from Nor-way. Gill, though, com-pleted both days with noproblems.

Behind, it was Mpart’sRobert Blomberg (co-driver Lars Andersson) inthe Mitsubishi Mirage.Third in the APRC classwent to Fuyuhiko Taka-hashi (co-driver Mitsuo Na-kamura) in the Subaru Im-preza.

Gill claimsRally ofHokkaidoSports Bureau

HOKKAIDO

Coimbatore-based ArjunNarendran (Red RoosterPerformance) chalked uphis fifth win-in-a-row andclinched the title in thepremier Indian TouringCars class at the MMRTtrack on Sunday as the cur-tains came down on thefifth and final round of theMRF MMSC FMSCI IndianNational Championship.The results (Provisional win-ners - all 8 laps): MRF F1600:Race 2: Sandeep Kumar13:39.835s.Indian Touring Cars: Race 2:Arjun Narendran (Red Rooster)15:38.832.Indian Junior Touring Cars:Race 2: Mikhail Merchant(Game Over) 18:26.442. Race3: Merchant 17:20.042.Super Stock: Race 2: Varun V.Anekar (Race Concepts)17:52.629. Race 3: R.P. Rajara-jan (Performance) 16:33.909.Esteem Cup: Race 2: AnanthPithawalla (N1) 17:38.690.Race 3: Sankaran 16:11.451.Volkswagen Ameo Cup: Race2: Karminder Pal Singh 16:14.396. Race 3: Anning Sun 15:29.336.

NarendranwinsSpecial Correspondent

CHENNAI

Sanave-Rupesh duoclinches goldKOCHI

India celebrated a rich haul of

21 medals at the Manorama

BWF World senior badminton

championship here on

Sunday, but there was only

one gold through Sanave

Thomas and Rupesh Kumar in

the above-35 men’s doubles

category. The two beat V. Diju

and J.B.S. Vidyadhar.

Shaheen School (Dhaka)overcame its huge loss a dayearlier to bounce back andregister a thumping 6-1 winagainst Coast Guard PublicSchool (Daman & Diu), whileSainik Awasiya Mahavidy-alaya (Nepal) beat HiramaniHSS (Ahmedabad) 5-1 on aday of big margins in the un-der-17 boys’ competition ofthe 58th Subroto Cup foot-ball tournament on Sunday.

Both sides began tentat-ively, trying to gauge the op-position, before theBangladesh side went on theattack. Shafiqul Islamopened the scoring in the14th minute and soondoubled the lead. Shafikatand Mynul scored two eachto round off the tally.

In the evening session, Ut-tam Shahi’s hat-trick — in asmany minutes — cappedNepal’s dominant perform-ance against the Ahmedabad

team. Elsewhere, Y. Kishanstruck four successive goalsas Afros HSS (Manipur)blanked Air Force Bal BhartiSchool (Delhi) 6-0.

The results: Shaheen School(Dhaka) 6 (Safiqul Islam 2,Safikat 2, Mynul 2) bt CoastGuard Pubic School (Daman &Diu) 1 (Jitesh);

Bangladesh Krida ShikshaProtishtan (Dhaka) 1 (AmitHasan) bt Govt. SSS (Sikkim) 0;H. Elias HSS (Shillong) 8

(Iakemian 2, Freestar, N. Ma-hesh, Kongsai, Balskhemlang,Rapbor Lang, Remark) bt Jawa-har Navodaya Vidyalaya (Ma-nipur) 1 (Letmingou).

Sainik Awasiya Mahavidy-alaya, Nepal 5 (Uttam Shahi 3,Aadit Gurung 2) bt Hiramani HSS(Ahmedabad) 1 (Sanjay Tripathi);Afros HSS (Imphal) 6 (Y. Kishan4, H. Prme, Lucky) bt Air ForceBal Bharti School (Delhi) 0;Govt. Bazar HS (Mizoram) 2(Joseph, Vanlalnghakip) btKijidah HSS (Assam) 0.

Shaheen hits backNepal boys hammer Ahmedabad side in another game

Ready to strike: There was action aplenty in the matchbetween Bangladesh’s Krida Shiksha Protishthan and Govt.SSS (Sikkim) before the former won 1-0. * SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI

SUBROTO CUP

VSA Senior SecondarySchool had an easy outing inthe final of the fifth under-15Nehru-Dhyan Chand Cup forDelhi school boys’ hockeytournament, winning thetitle 3-1 against ShaheedBishan Singh MemorialSchool, at the National Sta-dium on Sunday.

Sahil opened the scoringfor the winner in the sixthminute of the game througha penalty corner conversionwith the Khera Garhi teamcontent defending its slimmargin till half time. Postbreak, the opposition at-tacked with renewed vigourand Lal Singh levelled in the41st minute of the match.

That prompted VSA to re-new its scoring attempts,creating chances aplenty up-

front. Nishant restored thelead in the 51st minute be-fore Gaurav completed thetally nine minutes from timeeven as the losing side triedto score but was unable tofind space past a tight VSAdefence.

A lone girls’ matchbetween Sarvodaya Kanya

Vidyalaya, Ranikhera andKendriya Vidyalaya, Ke-shavpuram saw the formerride on braces from Sanaand Sanju to win 5-2.The result (final): VSA SSS(Khera Garhi) 3 (Sahil, Nishant,Gaurav) bt Shaheed BishanSingh Memorial School (Manas-arovar Garden) 1 (Lal Singh).

VSA boys take the honoursSpecial Correspondent

NEW DELHI

Good encounter: Action from the �nal of the 5th Nehru-DhyanChand Cup. * SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Indian squad for shootingWorld Cup FinalsNEW DELHI

As many as 10 Indian shooters

have made the cut for the

World Cup Final in pistol, rifle

and shotgun, to be hosted at

the Dr. Karni Singh Range

here from October 24 to 29.The Indian team: Ravi Kumar(air rifle), Jitu Rai (air pistol,free pistol, mixed air pistol),Amanpreet Singh (freepistol), Shapath Bharadwaj,Sangram Dahiya, Ankur Mittal(all double-trap), PoojaGhatkar (air rifle), DeepakKumar, Meghana Sajjanar(mixed air rifle) and HeenaSidhu (mixed air pistol).

It was an evening of footballnostalgia and anecdotes.Launched aptly at the Chit-taranjan Bhawan in theheart of CR Park, footballcommentator Novy Kapa-dia’s Barefoot To Boots: TheMany Lives Of Indian Foot-ball was welcomed by ahorde of enthusiasts whogrew up following the gameat the Delhi Gate Stadium,now named after Ambedkar.

The book, published byPenguin, is only the secondon Indian football after Jay-deep Basu’s Stories From In-dian Football, published in2003. The tone for the livelyevent was set by Mihir Basusinging the iconic MannaDey song Sab Khelar SeraBanaglir Tumi Football.

Compeered by TV anchorDigvijay Singh Deo and au-thor Arunava Sinha, thebook is a tribute to the fam-ous and the little knowncharacters who contributedto the rich legacy of Indianfootball.

The hall echoed tolaughter as some in the audi-

ence indulged in banter sur-rounding the rivalrybetween East Bengal andMohun Bagan. Kapadia re-galed the gathering by takingthem down memory lanewhen October to January inDelhi was “football time.”

“Those days the Presidentof India would entertain thefinalists of the Durand Cupat his residence. Somethingunthinkable now,” saidKapadia.

He also recalled the dayswhen football fans at DelhiGate would vie to cleanseChuni Goswami’s boots. “It

was considered a privilegewhen some footballer wouldask you to clean his boots,”he said.

On a sombre note, Kapa-dia lamented the decline offootball standards in thecountry from the highs ofthe 1960s and 70s. “It wasthe golden age of Indianfootball. Today, we have aprivate league which doesnot feature East Bengal andMohun Bagan. There can’tbe a greater travesty towatch a league without thetwo giants of Indian foot-ball,” said Kapadia.


New Delhi

Nostalgia time: Former footballers Sushanto Roy, ProdipGanguly, and Subhashis Dutta along with author NovyKapadia, second from right, at the book launch. * VIJAY LOKAPALLY

Book on Indian football launched

West Indies beat England by21 runs in the sole T20match on Saturday.

Led by openers ChrisGayle (40) and Evin Lewis(51), West Indies got off to aquickfire start and was 106for one midway through itsinnings before Liam Plun-kett and Adil Rashid tookthree wickets apiece to re-strict the tourists to 176 fornine.

In response Alex Halesstruck 43 as England startedstrongly, but it fell to 68 forfour.

Jos Buttler (30) looked toget England back on trackbut fell to Kesrick Williams,and England was bowledout for 155.

West Indies wins one-o� T20Reuters

Chester-le-Street (Durham)

Chamara Silva bannedfor two yearsCOLOMBO

Former Sri Lanka player

Chamara Silva, who led

Panadura CC, has been

banned for two years from

playing, coaching and

administrating after

misconduct during a domestic

match, SLC announced on

Sunday. AGENCIES


CMYK

M ND-NDE




SPORT

1. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)2:03:23.543, 2. Daniel Ric-ciardo (Red Bull) +00:04.507,3. Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes)00:08.800, 4. Carlos Sainz Jr(Toro Rosso) 00:22.822, 5. Ser-gio Perez (Force India)00:25.359, 6. Jolyon Palmer(Renault) 00:27.259, 7. StoffelVandoorne (McLaren)00:30.388, 8. Lance Stroll(Williams) 00:41.696, 9. Ro-main Grosjean (Haas)00:43.282, 10. Esteban Ocon(Force India) 00:44.795, 11. Fe-lipe Massa (Williams)00:46.536, 12. Pascal Wehrlein(Sauber) 2 laps;.Retired: Kevin Magnussen(Haas) 7 laps, Nico Huelken-berg (Renault) 10 laps, Marcus

Ericsson (Sauber) 22 laps,Daniil Kvyat (Toro Rosso) 47laps, Fernando Alonso(McLaren) 49 laps, SebastianVettel (Ferrari) 57 laps, MaxVerstappen (Red Bull) 57 laps,Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) 57laps. Fastest Lap: LewisHamilton,1:45.008, lap 55. Drivers’ standings: 1. LewisHamilton (Mercedes) 263points, 2. Sebastian Vettel (Fer-rari) 235, 3. Valtteri Bottas(Mercedes) 212, 4. Daniel Ric-ciardo (Red Bull) 162, 5. KimiRaikkonen (Ferrari) 138, 6. MaxVerstappen (Red Bull) 68, 7.Sergio Perez (Force India) 68,8. Esteban Ocon (Force India)56, 9. Carlos Sainz Jr (Toro

Rosso) 48, 10. Nico Huelken-berg (Renault) 34, 11. FelipeMassa (Williams) 31, 12. LanceStroll (Williams) 28, 13. RomainGrosjean (Haas) 26, 14. KevinMagnussen (Haas) 11, 15.Fernando Alonso (McLaren) 10,16. Jolyon Palmer (Renault) 8,17. Stoffel Vandoorne(McLaren) 7, 18. Pascal Wehr-lein (Sauber) 5, 19. Daniil Kvyat(Toro Rosso) 4, 20. Marcus Eric-sson (Sauber) 0, 21. AntonioGiovinazzi (Sauber) 0.

Constructors’ points: 1. Mer-cedes 475, 2. Ferrari 373, 3. RedBull 230, 4. Force India 124, 5.Williams-Mercedes 59, 6. ToroRosso 52, 7. Renault 42, 8. Haas37, 9. McLaren 17, 10. Sauber 5.

THE RESULTS

India’s World Group hopessuffered a huge setback asRohan Bopanna and PuravRaja lost the crucial doublesrubber to hand Canada a 2-1lead in the Davis Cup playofftie here on Saturday.

Bopanna and Raja lost7-5, 7-5, 5-7, 6-3 to DanielNestor and Vasek Pospisil toleave India needing to winboth reverse singles to qual-ify for the World Group.

Pospisil, at 27 the young-est on the court, made ahuge difference to the out-come. He carried the hometeam on his shoulders as 45-year-old Nestor came underpressure often.

Raja was superb at thenet with his deft volleyingbut limitations with hisserve and ground strokeshurt India badly.

He was broken five timesin the match — twice whileserving under pressure at5-6 in the first two sets.

Bopanna’s big servinggame was also missing as he

served five double faults inteam’s total of 12. His back-hand did not fire either.

“We played well enoughto put ourselves in a posi-tion to control the matchbut we didn’t capitalise. Atthis level when you are play-ing two Wimbledon champi-

ons, if you don’t take yourchances you don’t deserveto win,” said team captainMahesh Bhupathi.The results:

Canada 2 leads India 1 [DanielNestor & Vasek Pospisil bt Ro-han Bopanna & Purav Raja 7-5,7-5, 5-7, 6-3].

Nestor & Pospisilgive Canada the leadPurav & Bopanna come up short in the doubles rubber

Crucial advantage: By clinching the doubles on Saturday, Daniel Nestor and Vasek Pospisilensured that India would have to win both of Sunday’s reverse singles rubbers to make theWorld Group. * AP

DAVIS CUP


EDMONTON

Lewis Hamilton won achaotic and rain-hit Singa-pore Grand Prix on Sundayto seize control of the For-mula One World champion-ship as his title rival Se-bastian Vettel crashed out onthe first lap.

Ferrari’s Vettel and KimiRaikkonen, and Red Bull’sMax Verstappen all went outjust after the start of the firstwet race in Singapore, whichsaw three safety cars and fin-ished with only 12 drivers.

It all played perfectly intothe hands of Mercedesdriver Hamilton, who wentfrom fifth on the grid to firstand held off Red Bull’sDaniel Ricciardo to clinch

his third win in a row.With his 60th race victory

and seventh this season,Hamilton — who had said heneeded a “miracle” afterstruggling in qualifying —stands 28 points ahead ofVettel with six Grands Prixleft this year.

“Guys what can I say —what a turn-around today!Fantastic job with the teamstrategy,” Hamilton said overthe radio, before leaping outof his car and hugging hisengineers.

Ricciardo had to settle forsecond, while Hamilton’steammate Valtteri Bottaswas third and Toro Rosso’sCarlos Sainz finished fourth.

Some drivers had ex-pressed concerns about vis-

ibility in the wet underfloodlights, but the nightrace had hardly startedwhen it lost three of the firstfour cars on the grid.

Raikkonen ploughed intoRed Bull’s Verstappen on thefirst corner, taking both carsout of the race and alsoheavily shunting FernandoAlonso’s McLaren.

Pole-sitter Vettel, who hadbeen looking to reclaim theWorld championship leadfrom Hamilton, spun furtherahead and lost his frontwing, a crash that alsoended his race.

“Obviously it sucks beingon the wrong side of thetrack now, but that’s what itis,” Vettel shrugged after re-turning to the paddock.

Hamilton wins chaotic race Vettel, Raikkonen and Verstappen crash out in Singapore

Disastrous start: Sebastian Vettel (5) and Kimi Raikkonen (7) collide at the start at the MarinaBay Street Circuit. * LARS BARON/GETTY IMAGES


Singapore

Host Belgium clinchedboth reverse singlespoints to surge pastAustralia in the semifinalsof the Davis Cup here onSunday.

David Goffin defeatedNick Kyrgios 6-7(4), 6-4,6-4, 6-4 to level things.

In the deciding fifthrubber, Steve Darcisdismissed JordanThompson 6-4, 7-5, 6-2 tosecure Belgium’s comefrom behind victory.

In the other semifinal

in Lille, Jo-Wilfried Tsongabeat Dusan Lajovic 2-6,6-2, 7-6(5), 6-2 in the firstof the reverse singles onSunday to give France anunassailable 3-1 lead overthe visiting Serbians.

The results:

Semifinals: In Lille: France 3bt Serbia 1 [Jo-WilfriedTsonga bt Dusan Lajovic 2-6,6-2, 7-6(5), 6-2].

In Brussels: Belgium 3 beatAustralia 2 [David Goffin btNick Kyrgios 6-7(4), 6-4,6-4, 6-4; Steve Darcis btJordan Thompson 6-4, 7-5,6-2].

Belgium to meet France in �nal AGENCIEs

BRUSSELS

For more than a dozenyears, Lin Gaoyuan was con-sidered the next big thingfrom the Chinese stable oftable tennis champions.However, ever since losingthe World Junior Champion-ship final to compatriot FanZhendong, the stylish south-paw had not won a title onthe big stage.

Fan has since risen toWorld No. 2, while Lin hashad to settle in the secondrung of China’s top-classpaddlers.

The 22-year-old Lincouldn’t have chosen a bet-ter stage than the ITTFAsian Cup final here onSunday, incidentally againstthe same opponent of the2012 final, to break the hoo-doo with an emphaticvictory.

Riding on an aggressivestrategy, Lin defeated hisfancied rival Fan in an in-tense six-game affair 11-7, 7-11, 11-4, 9-11, 11-5, 11-5.

Lin made a strong state-ment about his abilities byconsistently outsmartingFan with his powerful fore-

hand winners.

“This is my first final infive years. In the ChineseNational Games (recently), Ilost to Fan. Hence, I had avery good mindset anddidn’t have too much of bur-den. “ I think I performedvery well today. I am veryhappy with my win,” said anelated Lin.

Mini-upsetThe women’s final also sawa mini-upset with Zhu Yul-ing surprising Liu Shiwen,the most successful playerin Asian Cup history, in athrilling hour-long battlethat went right down to thewire 6-11, 11-9, 11-8, 10-12, 11-7,11-13, 11-6.The results: Men: Final: LinGaoyuan (Chn) bt Fan Zhen-dong (Chn) 11-7, 7-11, 11-4, 9-11, 11-5, 11-5.

Third place: Lee Sangsu (Kor)bt Chen Chien-An (Tpe) 11-7,11-7, 10-12, 11-3, 12-10.

Women: Final: Zhu Yuling(Chn) bt Liu Shiwen (Chn) 6-11,11-9, 11-8, 10-12, 11-7, 11-13,11-6.

Third place: Kasumi Ishikawa(Jpn) bt Miu Hirano (Jpn) 9-11,7-11, 11-9, 11-8, 11-3, 9-11, 11-8.

Lin comes of agewith stunning win Breaks a jinx by overcoming fanciedold foe Fan for men’s titleAmol Karhadkar

AHMEDABAD

Getting even: Lin Gaoyuan couldn’t have chosen a betterstage to settle scores with compatriot Fan Zhendong.

* AMOL KARHADKAR


CMYK

M ND-NDE



LIFE

Salman Khan performs inU.K. after 12 yearsLONDON

Bollywood superstar Salman

Khan broke a 12-year hiatus

with live performances in the

U.K. this weekend alongside

an array of Indian actors.

’Da-Bangg: The Tour’, which

has been on a worldwide

journey across Australia,

Hong Kong and New Zealand,

opened in Birmingham on

Saturday and concluded in

London on Sunday. PTI

IN BRIEF

Ron Weasley’s Howlermay fetch upto £5,000LONDON

An envelope used as a Howler

in the second Harry Potter

movie, bearing a gold-

coloured Weasley wax seal

and accompanied by an

autograph of actor Rupert

Grint is expected to fetch

upto £5,000 at an auction in

the U.K. The envelope is

made of a red card with a

cream printed label. PTI

I’m open to adoptingmore kids, says MadonnaLOS ANGELES

Pop diva Madonna said in an

interview that she would

“never say never” to adopting

more children because she

found motherhood a form of

healing for her. The 59-year-

old singer has Lourdes, 20,

Rocco, 17, Mercy and David,

both 11, as well as five-year-

old twins Stelle and Estere.

“It’s a very healing

experience,” she said. PTI

Britain’s Prince Charles hasno plans of moving intoBuckingham Palace when hetakes the throne as QueenElizabeth II’s heir as he is nofan of a ‘big house’, a U.K.media report has claimed.

The Prince of Wales wantsto give up the iconic Londonroyal residence when he be-comes king and is discussingplans to turn it into a morebusiness-like “MonarchyHQ”, The Sunday Timesquoted royal insiders assaying.

The 68-year-old feels thepalace could be made morecommercially viable byopening it to the public on alarger scale than is possiblewith the Queen in residence.

According to the newspa-per, Prince Charles has re-portedly told staff he doesnot intend to live at what herefers to as the “big house”and is “very comfortable” atClarence House, his Londonhome which wife Camilla,Duchess of Cornwall, alsoprefers.

“I know he is no fan of‘the big house’, as he callsthe palace. He doesn’t see itas a viable future home or ahouse that’s fit for purposein the modern world. Hefeels its upkeep, both from a

cost and environmental per-spective, is not sustainable,”the newspaper quoted asource as saying.

Royal staff have had in-formal discussions over thefuture use of the 775-roompalace, which is mainlyopen to visitors from lateJuly until October while the91-year-old Queen takes herannual break at BalmoralCastle in Scotland.

Refurbishment onUnder Prince Charles asmonarch, the palace mightbecome a museum open forlonger periods with an ex-hibition dedicated to hismother’s record-breakingreign. The palace is under-going a £369 million tax-payer-fundedrefurbishment.

The U.K. Treasury hassaid the building needs an

“urgent overhaul” to pre-vent the risk of fire, floodand damage.

“Buckingham Palace willremain the official Londonresidence of the monarch,” aClarence House spokesper-son said.

The discussion of thepalace’s future comes amidreports of differencesbetween senior courtiers atBuckingham Palace andClarence House over how tomanage the transition ofpower between the Queenand her heir.

The three royal house-holds — Buckingham Palace,Clarence House and Kens-ington Palace — were forcedto release a rare joint state-ment following claims in TheTimes of a power struggle in-volving Sir ChristopherGeidt, the Queen’s long-serving private secretary.

“The Prince of Wales andthe entire royal family arecommitted to supporting theQueen in whatever way theycan at Her Majesty’s request.Beyond that, we are not go-ing to engage with a storybased on rumours from un-named sources,” the jointstatement said.

Prince Charles has beenheir to the throne since hismother became Queen in1952.

Charles won’t live atBuckingham as king‘Prince wants palace to be made more commercially viable’

Prince Charles


London

Scientists have characterisedwind and cloud patterns ofthe night side of planetVenus for the first time, andfound that it behaves verydifferently from the part fa-cing the Sun.

The night side exhibitsunexpected and previously-unseen cloud types, mor-phologies, and dynamics —some of which appear to be

connected to features on theplanet’s surface. “This is thefirst time we’ve been able tocharacterise how the atmo-sphere circulates on thenight side of Venus on aglobal scale,” said Javier Per-alta of the Japan AerospaceExploration Agency.

Impact of topography “While the atmospheric cir-culation on the planet’s dayside has been extensively ex-

plored, there was still muchto discover about the nightside. We found that thecloud patterns there are dif-ferent to those on the dayside, and influenced byVenus’ topography,” said Mr.Peralta, lead author of thestudy published in thejournal Nature Astronomy.

Venus’ atmosphere isdominated by strong windsthat whirl far faster thanVenus itself rotates.

The mysterious night side of Venus Press Trust of India

Tokyo

Stimulating the brain withmagnetic fields can helppeople overcome anxietydisorder and irrationalphobias such as fear ofheights or spiders, a studyhas found.

Anxiety disorders andfears can sometimes affectpeople to a point that theyare unable to follow a nor-mal daily routine.

“Cognitive behaviouraltherapy is an excellenttreatment option,” saidMartin J. Herrmann, fromthe Wurzburg UniversityHospital in Germany.

Magnetictherapy to treat phobiasPress Trust of India

Berlin

In full swing: Visitors enjoy a swing ride during Oktoberfest in Munich on Sunday. * REUTERS

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High time

Just a stone’s throw across anarrow waterway from theworld’s largest gambling hubMacau, a former oysterfarming island is being trans-formed into China’s newesttourism haven.

Dubbed by some as Chi-na’s answer to Florida’s Or-lando — a global tourist mag-net with its cluster of majortheme parks — Hengqin hasseen property prices morethan double over the pasttwo years.

While still a dusty mass ofconstruction sites, Hengqinnow draws millions annuallyto its anchor attraction, the“Chimelong Ocean King-dom” theme park, with aslew of hotels, malls andsprawling residential devel-opments being built nearby.

Spanish soccer club, RealMadrid, announced lastweek they would open an in-teractive “virtual reality”complex in Hengqin, in part-nership with Hong Kong-lis-ted developer, Lai SunGroup .

The 12,000-sq. m. venue,set to open in 2021, will in-clude virtual reality enter-

tainment and a museumshowcasing the club’s his-tory. The transformation ofHengqin, which is threetimes as large as Macau, ispart of Beijing’s efforts tobolster links between HongKong, Macau and nine citiesin the Pearl River Delta re-gion, or so-called “GreaterBay Area”, modelled afterother dynamic global bayareas such as Tokyo and SanFrancisco.

“Hengqin will be the Or-lando of China. Macau is LasVegas [and] Hong Kong isNew York,” said Larry

Leung, an executive with LaiSun that is helping build theReal Madrid complex at its‘Novotown’ project inHengqin. “Within an houryou can have them all.”

Expanding MacauNovotown’s entertainmentmix will also feature China’sfirst Lionsgate movie worldwith theme rides from block-buster films such as the Hun-ger Games and Twilight, aswell as a National Geo-graphic educational centre.And high-end hotel chainsand luxury yacht makers are

building more hotels and amarina on Hengqin.

Chinese officials seeHengqin helping Macau di-versify away from casinos toa more wholesome tourismindustry. More than 80% ofMacau’s public revenuescome from the gambling sec-tor. Businesses in Macauhave been encouraged to in-vest in Hengqin with the gov-ernment providing cheaperrent and tax subsidies.Galaxy Entertainment, ShunTak and Macau Legend havealso earmarked develop-ments for Hengqin.

‘Labour shortage’Realtors expect propertyprices to keep rising once asea bridge linking HongKong, and a high speed railstation are completed.

Hoffman Ma, deputychairman of Success Uni-verse Group, which operatesthe Ponte 16 casino in Ma-cau, said Hengqin could takesome convention and exhibi-tion business away from theformer Portuguese colony.

“It doesn’t make sense forMacau to do that, due to aconsistent labour shortage,”he said.

Hengqin island lies cheek by jowl with world’s largest gambling haven, Macau

Reuters

HENGQIN

In the works: A layout of the island’s development on displayinside a government establishment at Hengqin. * REUTERS

Real Madrid adds lustre to China’swannabe Orlando tourist hub


CM

YKND-X

DELHIMonday • September 18, 2017

0

EDGE::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

www.thehindu.com/education

www.facebook.com/thehinduedge

www.twitter.com/thehinduedge<>In a world that's changing really quickly,the only strategy that is guaranteed tofail is not taking risks. Mark Zuckerberg

A striking feature of education inIndia is our simmering uneaseabout values education. So, wetry out various names for it, butfail to make any progress in en-livening this key componentof education. Not long ago,we used to call it moral in-struction. Then wechristened it values edu-cation. Then, in 2005,we renamed it peaceeducation. Nameschanged; the out-come did not.

I have interactedwith teachers acrossthe country. The onething common tothem is diffidenceabout the feasibility ofvalues education. Theyfeel that what they aremade to do in classroomsis out of tune with the warpand woof of the society.

ClaritySurely, not all schools areapathetic to values education.No, many are struggling to dowhat they can. But even theyseem uncertain if the character-formation they impart to stu-dents would endure beyondtheir boundaries.

They know that there are par-ents who are anxious that theirchildren could be handicappedin the rat race that awaits them ifthey are principled and ideal-istic. There is a need, therefore,to attain clarity on why valueseducation remains sidelined inthe architecture of the education

we practise. Let us begin with the cliché:

values are caught, not taught. Ifvalues are caught, surely theremust be a location, a source,from where they are to becaught? We catch fish from wa-ter; not from street or sky. Thecase of catching values is no dif-ferent. So, what is the environ-

ment from where students may‘catch’ values?

Plato, in Protagoras, makesSocrates wonder why it is rare tocome across teachers of values,whereas instructors in swords-manship or equestrian skills areeasy to come by. This anomaly isthen explained as follows. Vir-tues are not to be taught in

classrooms. They must be taughtby ‘the whole community’. Thisis what is implied in ‘catching’values. To the Greeks, the soci-ety was the pond from wherevalues may be caught. What de-moralises teachers of valueseducation today is the aware-ness that the work they do inclassrooms is continually contra-

dicted by whatever happens inthe society. This explains, be-sides, the anxiety that parentstoo feel in this regard.

Society has two componentsrelevant to values education:public opinion and politics. Wethink of the irresistible power ofpublic opinion as a modern phe-nomenon. No! It is at least three

millennia old. Greek philosoph-ers knew that formal educa-tion could not prevail againstthe might of public opinion.

MediaToday, the media monopol-ises public opinion. Theoverweening influence ofthe media stems, to a largeextent, from the decline offamily traditions and thespiritual stature of religiousleaders.

Exposure especially to theelectronic media — in particu-

lar, prime time talk shows, of-ten rippling with violence and

riddled with palpable misrepres-entations — should be a cause forworry for those who care for thecharacter formation of their chil-dren. If only the media would in-vest part of its huge influence-capital in generating sound pub-lic opinion and fortifying theethical outlook of students!

Lawmakers comprised thesecond pillar of values educa-tion in Athens. In Politics, envis-aged as a handbook for law-makers, Aristotle identifieslegislators as ‘doctors of theState’! A law-giver is one whohas a clear idea of what ought tobe done and how the society canevolve towards greater perfec-tion. He is not one who perfectsthe art of capturing the helm ofthe State by hook or crook, butone who knows how to steer theState steadily to its destination.It would help hugely if our legis-lators became mindful of theharmful impact they have onour children, and the beneficialinfluence they can have!

The author was Principal of St.

Stephen’s College, Delhi, and

former member, National

Commission for Minority

Educational Institutions,

Government of India.

b Valson Thampu

Can values education lead to lasting outcomes? The challenges: themight of public opinion constantly shaped by mass media, andunscrupulous forces at the helm

Why values are neithercaught nor taught

SA

TH

EE

SH

V

ELLIN

EZ

HI

Going digitalU.K.’s Cambridge University is mullingscrapping the centuries old practice ofhandwritten exams in favour ofcomputer-based exams, as a growingreliance on gadgets like laptops andiPads has caused students’ handwritingto deteriorate. Cambridge University hasnow launched a consultation on the topicas part of its “digital education strategy”.

global ed)

Mobile banIn an interview with a magazine, FrenchEducation Minister Jean-Michel Blanquersuggested a plan to have studentsdeposit their phones in secure boxeswhen arriving at school. This has nowsparked off a public debate on the ban ofphones in schools.

Moving onLinguistics professor Noam Chomskywill be joining as a laureate professor inthe Department of Linguistics at theUniversity of Arizona in Tucson. The 88-year-old retains his position as InstituteProfessor Emeritus at the MassachusettsInstitute of Technology.

Even before I entered high school, techno-logy in the classroom was no stranger tome. Both teachers and students used PCsfor their academic work whenever theycould. But things really started to get inter-esting in my second year of secondaryeducation. It started off normally, withhomework being directly assigned in classfrom the teacher to the student. If youdidn’t get the memo, you asked a friend. Ifyou missed it outright, well, tough. Even-tually, the teachers gradually began to in-troduce a new system, one known asSchool Loop.

TransitionIn short, it was a way for teachers to posthomework assignments and other an-nouncements online without ever needingto mention it in class, something they soonbegan to refrain from entirely. The trans-ition was rough. For teens with alreadycrammed schedules, faithfully checking aschool website was one more thing to add.Indeed, I missed more than one assign-ment on days I simply assumed I had littleto no work and forgot to check online.Still, the new system had its uses. Al-though we had to be routine about check-ing up, making it a habit meant we wouldrarely miss assignments, at least not due tolack of attention. Ultimately, the techno-logy was convenient, just as it was meantto be in the first place.

From then on, technology started be-coming a bigger part of our lives. In mylast college economics course alone, all ofour homework was both revealed andcompleted online. It seemed like a sweetdeal. For one, the professor did not haveto worry about notifying us about assign-ments, and for another, grading too hadbeen outsourced to the machine. Not onlyhas the job of remembering assignmentsbecome simpler, but also the job of com-pleting them — homework now being littlemore than typing in numbers and clickingon multiple-choice answers. What’s thereto complain about?

Yet, I’ve always been a little sceptical oflabour-saving innovations. In this in-stance, technology begins to remove theelement of intimacy. The development ofSchool Loop was nothing radical, but even

just automating classwork partially andhomework completely, in my humbleopinion, has made assignment curricula alittle shallow. If I were an economics pro-fessor, I would have my students write es-says, hand-draw models and diagrams,and do other unique activities that wouldrequire much more involvement fromboth students and teachers alike, strength-ening bonds and facilitating the develop-ment of knowledge and skills.

Of course, how much real effort is putinto curricula, offline or online, dependson the instructor herself. The option to de-velop effective, interesting lessons and as-signments has not been taken away. Butwith the advent of online classwork/home-work, the temptation to leave as much of itto the machine as can be diminishes thewholeness of the education experience.It’s like this: automation has not actuallyforced human beings to stop exercising,but nevertheless has discouraged it. I can’thelp but feel that taking away the need towork closely with students and the need toput hard work into developing curriculawill be harmful to the overall quality ofour youth’s education in the long run.What is the teacher’s influence in the over-all development of students? And will fu-ture conversations among alumni includewarm reminiscences like, “Ms. X was thebest teacher ever”, or “I still rememberwhat Y sir said while teachingtrigonometry”?

The author is a student of St. Mary's College,

California, USA.

in first person)

Automation worriesWill digitising certain learning processes diminish thequality of education? b naren pradhan

Aniruddha Mahadevan Sethi

III, Political Science (Honours), HinduCollege, New DelHI

The amount of paper wasted dur-ing elections is nothing but a brazendisplay of money and muscle powerto buy votes, which in the end ma-ligns the aura of DU.

Paper wastage has to be stopped. We want a clean and green cam-

pus. E-election campaigns and the

Election Commission have beenmaking progress in eradacting thispractice.

Marya

III, B.A., Miranda House, New DelHIIt is really saddening that despite

the warnings by the Election Com-mission, the political parties are un-affected. They are still littering theground and spoiling the walls withposters.

The use of paper should be min-imised so as to be eco-friendly. It’shigh time the DU Students’ Unionrealised that student voters wouldrather have them adhere to theircampaign promises than wastepaper.

Kunwar Suryansh Kurb

GRAduated 2017, Political Science(Honours), Hindu College, New Delhi

Civic sense in India is already de-plorable, but what makes it worse isthe fact that those who are entrustedwith the responsibility of correctingthis — the youth, in the Delhi Univer-sity Students’ Union election – in-dulge in grave violation of basic civicduties. Stacks of paper litter thestreets. In the Internet age, the timeis ripe to ponder over better alternat-ives through the use of technology.Paper wastage must be checked.

Ria Sethi

II, Economics (Honours), SGTB Khalsa,Chandigarh

A certain sense of disbelief andhopelessness engulfs you, as youwalk through the campus roads bur-ied under the boisterous display ofcampaigning paraphernalia. E-elec-tions or not, a change needs to bebrought in the ideology of the can-didates wherein they need to focuson the issues that plague Delhi Uni-versity instead of finding loopholesin the existing rules to vandalise thecampus.

voices)

Why not e-elections? The amount of paper wastage witnessed on campus during the Delhi University Students’ Union electionsevery year is tremendous. It was no di�erent on September 12 this year. However, orders from the ElectionCommission helped curb the reckless wastage of paper to some extent. Students discuss.

b Neha Rupeja

b INSPIRE Fellowship

Ministry of Science and Technology,Government of India, announces IN-SPIRE, each year, to attract studentswho wish to pursue doctoral degreein basic and applied sciences — en-gineering, medicine, agriculture,veterinary, pharmacy, and so on,Eligibility: First position holders inpostgraduate degrees in Basic andapplied sciences or graduate degreein engineering sciences, medical sci-ences, pharmaceutical sciences, ag-ricultural sciences or veterinary sci-ences. INSPIRE scholar who has securedminimum 65% marks or 6.5/10CGPA in aggregate at M.Sc. or Integ-

rated M.S. or M.Sc. Prizes and rewards: HRA, medical, andother allowances.Deadline: September 30Application: Onlinehttp://www.b4s.in/edge/IF23

b National Scholarship Exam

Pratibha Education Society, underthe aegis of Government of India, isgiving monetary aid to position bag-gers in the scholarship exam. Thepurpose is to identify and nurturetalented students and prepare themby highlighting their strengths andweaknesses.Eligibility: Classes V - XII studentswith proficiency in English and re-

gional language. Diploma or degree-holders, proficient in English and re-gional language.Prizes and rewards: ₹1,999 to ₹31,000,consolation prize and participationcertificates.Deadline: September 30Application: Online as well as offlinehttp://www.b4s.in/edge/NSE10

b Ministry of Labor and EmploymentPre and Post-Matric Scholarship

Ministry of Labour and Employ-ment, Government of India, is assist-ing wards of labourers or mine work-ers by providing monetary aid forthem from class I to any professionaldegree course.

Eligibility: Wards of beedi workersand mine workers with family in-come not more than ₹10,000, andcine workers with family income notmore than ₹8,000 p.m.

Applicants must have cleared thequalifying examination in a single at-tempt and must be admitted for reg-ular course.Prizes and rewards: ₹250 to ₹15,000depending on the courseundertaken.Deadline: September 30Application: Onlinehttp://www.b4s.in/edge/MOL0

Courtesy: www.buddy4study.com

scholarships)


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MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 20172EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Name:

Dinika SaxenaPlace of internship:

Conseil Européen pour la Recherche

Nucléaire (CERN)Duration:

Two monthsCollege:

Shaheed Rajguru College of Applied

Sciences for Women

Burning at a scorching 40°C, Iwas sitting in my office, close tothe border of Switzerland andFrance — countries where in-habitants are accustomed to do-ing things that helps their spiritdance with nature. And yet, Iwas tucked away in the confinesof an empty building. I was con-stantly wondering how I endedup getting an internship at theworld’s largest and most reveredphysics laboratory — CERN(Conseil Européen pour laRecherche Nucléaire — aEuropean organisation for nuc-lear research). Rather thantrusting my credentials and be-lieving that I truly deserved tobe there, I thought the selectioncommittee had a terrible mix upwhile selecting me.

Dare to dreamMaybe, it happened when a sci-entist from CERN came to talkabout her experience as a nuc-lear physicist. Her wordskindled my excitement. CERNsounded fascinating! Perhaps, itwas the review paper that Iwrote on quantum crypto-graphy in my junior year at col-lege. I read about CERN whileresearching on the topic and itled me to a posting for OpenlabSummer Student Internshipthere.

Maybe, I had a chance to in-tern there. After all, I hadworked on a project on datavisualisation using Java, andbuilt a humble version of aprivate cloud in my sophomoreyear. Also, I worked as an internfor about two years. I studiedconcepts and theories outsidemy curriculum. Rejections frominternships at MSU and AlbertaInternational were a reminderthat I wasn’t a genius worthy of

such a mighty organisation’s in-terest. I may not have much toboast about, but I never fail totry.

It was just two days beforethe deadline that I answeredthose hauntingly introspectivequestions on the applicationform. I had no qualifications toembellish my answers withtrendy tech words but I had totry because I owed it to my deepreverence for CERN. On April 12,2016, I received an acceptanceemail from CERN. I had been se-lected to work on a project onVisualisation of Cloud Re-sources at CERN. I was beyondhappy. Amid the turbulent tor-nado of self-doubts, I stood onstage at CERN to give a presenta-tion and won the second prize.

As to how my internship ex-perience was — it included finefood, fancy cars, incessant dan-cing, extraordinary people,lively parties, amazing and gen-erous supervisors, diverse work-place, breathtaking views, andfree visits to Zurich andLausanne. I loved every mo-ment of it and I am going thereagain — this time, for a year, towork on another project. Theselection committee could notbe wrong twice in a row, right?

Dinika Saxena is a student from

Shaheed Rajguru College of

Applied Sciences for Women,

University of Delhi, and will be

pursuing a technical project for a

year at CERN.

Courtesy: internshala.com

my internship)

On cloud nine at CERN

Every moment of the internshipwas much cherished...

a dream come true

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I loved every moment ofit and I am going thereagain — this time, for ayear, to work on anotherproject.

Last fortnight, I wrote about how weneed to move out of our comfortzone if we wish to challengeourselves and uncover different as-pects of our personality. By andlarge, challenge is a good thing; as Isaid earlier, it forces us to think dif-ferently and sometimes build newrelationships and go into new territ-ory. But there’s also a fine linebetween taking up challenges in or-der to grow, and doing it for…well,just for the thrill of taking up achallenge.

Calculated risksNow don’t get me wrong. There aresituations where the thrill can becompletely worth it. Such as bungeejumping, mountain climbing, or skydiving (I have not tried any of these,so can’t say for sure). Or, closer tothe ground, maybe riding a bicycledownhill just to feel the wind in yourhair (which I have done and can sayis totally worth it). But just as witheverything else, challenging yourselfis good — to a point. There is a differ-ence between pushing yourself to dosomething different in order to learnsomething either about yourself orthe situation you are trying to under-stand, and pushing yourself for noparticular reason other than to testyour limits. Parents are told to letyoung children run around and takerisks on the playground to learn forthemselves what they can and can-not do. Yet the same parents also setboundaries for such risk-taking bymaking sure the playground equip-ment is not rusty and broken, thatthe surfaces are relatively smooth,and that the children are appropri-ately dressed. So even if the childfalls or gets hurt, the injury is usuallynot too bad and in the process she

Let go of those handlebars!

backpacker’s guide)usha raman

College life is about �nding those new, interesting challenges, each ofwhich not only leads to your growth, but also tests your limits.

has learned a little bit about how tohandle her body and hersurroundings.

Life outside the playgrounddoesn’t have such built-in safeguardsand we have to discover those limitsusing a combination of intelligence,common sense, and intuition, andwhere possible, advice from peoplewe can trust. Dislodging ourselvesfrom a comfort zone for intellectualreasons or to help someone else isone thing, but doing it to test phys-ical, emotional or psychologicalboundaries is a completely differentball game, and we have to be awareof the risks we might be taking whenexperimenting with ourselves. Col-lege life in many ways is about find-ing those new, interesting chal-lenges, on all fronts, and choosingthe ones that actually make you gainsomething in each one. Makingfriends with people from vastlydifferent backgrounds,opening your mind todifferent points of viewand empathising witha range of experi-ences can unsettleyou emotionally andpsychologically butalso leads to growth.If it’s your first timeaway from home, sohaving the inde-pendence to set— and break —your ownboundaries isanother chal-lenge, and of-ten it takesa while be-fore you

find ways to use that freedom pro-ductively. Experimentation and risk-taking are par for the course, withhurt and disappointment experi-enced just as often — if not more —than joy and satisfaction. You’ll findyourself in situations where you’rebeing encouraged— even pushed —by peers to do things and engage inexperiences that you are not entirelycomfortable with. We sometimesgive in to that pressure not becauseof some innate curiosity but simplybecause we don’t want to lose thosenew friendships and group member-ships. And that can be a slipperyslope.

This is where it helps to developyour own ability to think thingsthrough, to recognise challengesthat will help you learn, even if youfail, and those that may serve noproductive purpose on any level.This doesn’t mean you avoid all chal-lenges that may be con-

sidered trivial.It’s necessaryto do thingsjust for fun,too, but it’s im-portant to besensible aboutit. We need to

develop ourown sensors that

can tell us whenthe risk is going to

lead to a bad injury,and when it’s only going

to lead to some minorscratches that will healquickly. So if you are go-ing to be speeding downthat hill on a bike andhave the impulse to let goof the handlebars, makesure you’re wearing a hel-met, keep your eyesopen, and have a first-aidkit handy!

The author teaches at the

University of Hyderabad

and edits Teacher Plus.

[email protected]

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EAR SHOT

ASHOK RAJAGOPALAN

The Millennial QuestionMillennials are those who areborn between the early1980s and the early 2000s.They are narcissistic,entitled, self-interested, andunfocused; or so we assume.It is no surprise then that

even companies where the millennials spend a large partof their life, hardly understand them. British/Americanauthor and motivational speaker Simon Sinek sets therecord straight in this video where he answers the“millennial question”. He gives his perspective on themisunderstood demographic and why corporates arefailing to help them. In the video, which was originallyrecorded as an inteview with Tom Bilyeu on Inside Quest,Sinek goes on to explain the different factors that makethe millennials who they are: parenting, technology,impatience, and environment. He calls the millennialsvictims of these factors and points that it is theresponsibility of the corporates to look beyond short-term gains and invest in the long-term development ofthe millennials. (https://youtu.be/vudaAYx2IcE)

The Science Behind Mayweather vs. McGregorIn this short video, ESPNSport Science explains thescience behind the power andtactics of the famous UFCboxing rivals — ConorMcGregor and FloydMayweather. McGregor’s

strength lies in his brute force that takes root in histechnique. Using his backfoot as a fulcrum, he lungeshimself at his opponent with 845-pound force. That’ssimilar to a big sledgehammer being swung at a speed of20mph. This punch may not be effective if it does notland on the opponent. That’s where Mayweather’sstrength lies. Using his trademark Pull Counter move, notonly does he dodge a punch effectively, but also lands astrike faster than a viper snake. (https://youtu.be/orr8JffO7a0)

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VIDEO CAFE

b Madhumitha Srinivasan

With placement season under way, it’s time to brush upon happenings around the world to ace those groupdiscussions. Here are three news and news aggregatorapps that present news in a different way — bite-sized,easy to digest, and even fun!

Quartz

What if someone could just textyou the news? You could have aconversation with the ‘news’ ifyou choose to — with a fewsimple emoji or GIFs. This isprecisely what Quartz does,using a chat messaginginterface to get you your dailynews fix. With each story thatappears on your feed, you get acouple of lines of info. You canthen either choose to move onto the next story, or knowmore. And that’s about it — theapp isn’t cluttered withoverwhelming features, makingit a nice change of pace. Quartzis available both on the AppleApp store as well as the Google

Play Store. (http://bit.ly/2enFYxd)

Inshorts

This app has long been afavourite of the mobilemillennial generation since itsintroduction in 2013. The USPof this homegrown app (thecompany is Delhi-based) is thatit consolidates and summarisesany and all content — stories,infographics, videos, blogs —from a variety of sources, in 60words or less. You canpersonalise your feedaccording to your interests —politics, entertainment,business, technology, world,sports, and more. There is alsoa dedicated video and photogallery section. Inshorts isavailable on both the App Store

and Google Play Store. (http://bit.ly/2h3dJbz)

Pocket

This app is for those situationswhen you see an interestingarticle, but don’t have the timeor battery life to check it outimmediately. This app can beused across all your devices —computers, phones (both iOSand Android) and tablets —even without an Internetconnection. On your browser,simply click the Pocket icon onthe toolbar to save. The link isthen immediately availablewherever you’re signed in toPocket. You can also save toPocket within apps likeFacebook and Twitter. (http://bit.ly/2h3N6ja)

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BON APP-ETIT

b Spatika Narayanan

What is the meaning and origin of‘start from scratch’? (K Rajender,Gulbarga)

“Let’s start at the very beginning,a very good place to start.” This isthe opening line of the famous song‘Do Re Mi’ from the movie TheSound of Music. It more or less sumsup the meaning of the expression.When you ‘start from scratch’, youmake a fresh or a new start; you cre-ate something new. If, after readingyour report, your boss tells you tostart from scratch, what he wants

you to do is to rewrite it. He wantsyou to discard the first draft andstart afresh. He wants somethingnew, something better.

Our clients didn’t like any of ourideas. So we had to discardeverything and start from scratch.

Geetha is not interested in run-ning her father’s company. She wantsto build her own from scratch.

According to most scholars, theexpression comes from the world ofsports. The word ‘scratch’ refers tothe starting line of any race. In theold days, this line was scratched onthe ground — a stick or stone wasused to draw it.

How is the word ‘myriad’ pro-nounced? (TN Vijaya, Tirupathi)

The ‘y’ and ‘i’ are pronouncedlike the ‘i’ in ‘bit’, ‘sit’ and ‘kit’, and

the ‘a’ is like the ‘a’ in ‘china’. Theword is pronounced ‘MI-ri-ed- withthe stress on the first syllable. Itcomes from the Greek ‘murias’meaning ‘ten thousand’. Nowadays,the word is used both as an adjectiveand a noun to mean ‘countless’ or‘very large number’. It is mostly lim-ited to formal contexts.

When we moved into this house,we had myriad problems.

There are myriads of English me-dium schools in the city.

What is the difference between‘adjacent’ and ‘adjoining’? (AJadeja, Pune)

Some people use the two wordsinterchangeably, but careful users ofthe language maintain a subtle dis-tinction between them. Two housesthat are adjacent to each other could

be next to each other or near eachother. They are side by side, but arenot touching each other. ‘Adjoining’,on the other hand, suggests that thetwo houses are ‘joined’; they toucheach other. For example, when yousay Andhra Pradesh adjoins Odisha,what you are suggesting is that thetwo States have a common border.One usually talks about somethingbeing ‘adjacent to’ something. ‘To’ isnot used in the case of ‘adjoin’.

Amrit wants the study to be adja-cent to the balcony.

Ganesh lives in a huge house ad-joining the famous golf course.

Is ‘agenda’ followed by a singularor plural verb? (S. Natrajan,Chennai)

There was a time when ‘agenda’,meaning ‘things to be done’, was

considered to be the plural form ofthe Latin ‘agendum’. It was, there-fore, always followed by a pluralverb. But times have changed;‘agenda’ is now considered to be asingular noun - it is always followedby a singular verb. The plural form is‘agendas’.

The agenda for tomorrow’s meet-ing hasn’t been sent as yet.

The agendas are being preparedby my boss.

* * * * * It seems like everyone’s got an

agenda, and the agenda seems to beselling magazines or air time withsensational stories. — Scott Weiland

The author teaches at the English and

Foreign Languages University,

Hyderabad. [email protected]

Start at the very beginning

know your English)S. UPENDRAN

Over the last few columns, wehave been preparing ourselvesto start investing. We havechecked the boxes regardingdocumentation and other pro-cedural work. Today, we will an-swer some of the common ques-tions investing neophytes have.

How long should I invest?Investing is really for the long

haul. When you plant a sapling,you do not expect it to immedi-ately grow and bear fruits. Like-wise, approach the game of in-vesting with a long-termmindset. Long-term here is atleast five years.

What to do if you need themoney suddenly? Here is whatyou do. Set aside a portion ofyour allowance or stipend orsalary that you will not touch forat least five years. If this is a verysmall amount of money, so be it.That “time” in the market is su-per important. Over time, fromsuch tiny acorns, mighty oaktrees of wealth will grow and re-ward you financially. Patience isthe name of the game here.

What should I buy?There are so many stocks.

What should I buy? Basically,you want to fill your financialshopping cart with good invest-ments.

When you go to a super mar-ket or even a Levis showroom,the choices are confusing and attimes overwhelming. The sameis the case with investmentproducts. Here is how to goabout making solid investmentdecisions, as you learn the craftof investing. You should not tryto do a Virendar Sehwag,without learning the unspoken

rules of the games. You will do aRahul Dravid by playing strokesthat give you decent runs whileminimising the risk. As you gainexperience in investing, you canmorph into a Sehwag or Kohli oran AB de Villiers. But when youstart out, it is important to be asteady player.

Index funds are the RahulDravids of the investing world.These are just one type of mu-tual funds. In case you have for-gotten what a mutual fund is,read up on my previouscolumns in this series. Indexfunds invest in large, establishedcompanies in the stock market.The fund is diversified across alarge number of stocks, andmore importantly, the fee paidto the company is really low.Why is this important? It is be-cause the fee comes out of yourpocket. You want to minimisethis. The management fee is de-ducted every year and is not aone-time expense. Index fundsmake sure that you are notcharged high fees.

Where from to buy this In-dex fund? I don’t know anybroker or an agent.

As a motivated reader of thiscolumn, you do not need abroker or an agent. Go to thewebsite of the top mutual fundsin the country (check out thetop three or four fund houses)and search for “index fund”AND “Direct Plan”. A “DirectPlan” lets you invest directlywithout the help of any interme-diary like an agent or a broker.Once again, by going direct, youavoid paying commission to thebroker/agent.

In the next column, we willexplore how to move further inour investing journey. Till then,happy investing.

The writer is an alumnus of IIM

Bangalore and co-founder, Money

Wizards.

[email protected]

Patience is the keyReady to invest? Approach the game witha long-term mindset

money matters)venkatesh varadachari


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Krishnamachari Srikkanth, orKris as he is commonlyknown, has had an illustriouscareer as a cricketer. One ofthe key members of theWorld Cup-winning Indianteam in 1983, he had laterserved as India’s captain,coach, commentator, andcricket analyst.

Srikkanth is now primarilyinvolved in the educationspace through his companyAA Edutech, which is en-gaged in teaching mathemat-ics, science, English and soft-skills to school children“through the language ofcricket”. Not as well-known isthe fact that before his crick-eting journey began in earn-est, Srikkanth was an engin-eer. Excerpts from aninterview.

College and course

I studied electrical engin-eering at the College of Engin-eering, Guindy. I come from atypical south Indian back-ground; so for my family, thefocus was on studies. I alwayswanted to be an engineer;that was my primary ambi-tion. Cricket was my passionfrom childhood, and later on,it became my profession. Idid play for the Tamil Nadustate team while I was in col-lege, but the focus was onstudies; cricket was just forfun. I didn’t aspire to be acricketer at that time.

Balancing college andcricket

I was very clear that Iwouldn’t play cricket duringexam time, and starting fromone month before thesemester exams. I ensuredthat I was at college as muchas possible. Of course, I usedto go on tours here and there.I was probably in my thirdyear of engineering when Iwas appointed the captain ofthe all-India under-19 team.That was a turning point inmy life.

In my third year, I playedfor the Ranji Trophy, in myfourth year I played for SouthZone, and by the time I was inthe final year of engineering,I was on the verge of playingfor India. I still didn’t want tocompromise my engineeringeducation. In those days,cricket was not exactly a well-paying profession; so for me,it was still only a passion. Myfourth year of engineeringwas when my family and Irealised that I could have achance at playing for the na-

tional team.

Applying engineering tocricket

I always believed that en-gineering helped me a lot andin many ways. My style ofplaying had a bit of sciencebehind it. Engineering wouldhelp me decide when to (andwhen not to) take a calculatedrisk. But the most importantthing it gave me was the con-fidence that if not cricket, Istill had engineering. I alwaysknew that I didn’t have to de-

pend on cricket for my living.

Memorable moments

When I was playing for theRanji Trophy, almost my en-tire class came to cheer forme at the Chepauk stadium.Greats like Srinivas Venkat-raghavan and E.A.S.Prasanna too were playingthat day. Venkatraghavan isalso from my college; he wasamazed by the kind of sup-port I got from my class.Awed, he told me, “When Istarted playing, nobody from

college came to cheer forme, but so many people arehere for you!”

Some of my closest friendstoday are those I made inschool and college. I neverthought of myself as acelebrity. I knew that I couldbe dropped from the team atany time. I also knew that ifsomething went wrong withcricket, engineering was al-ways there as a fallback. WhatI am today is only because ofcricket.

Advice to students

You need to have a definit-ive goal in life. Work with pos-itive energy, passion, andmost importantly, try and bean achiever. Everyone is anengineer today, given theframework of our educationsystem. Getting marks isn’t anissue. But if you want tothrive in this competitiveworld, you need soft-skillsand you need to work on per-sonality development. Youhave to be an all-rounder inlife.

My College Years)

Krishnamachari Srikkanth discusses his passion for cricket,ambition for engineering, and balancing both during histime at college

b Spatika Narayanan

‘Strive to be an all-rounder in life’

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Academicshas becomea digital en-terprise.Everythingfrom theprescribedsyllabus toclassroom

notes can now be found on-line. This was the case whenI was pursuing my bachel-or’s degree at Delhi Univer-sity. But the degree to whichtechnology has taken overclassrooms in the Weststruck me when I joined TheParis School of InternationalAffairs (PSIA), Sciences Po inFrance, for my master’s inhuman rights and humanit-arian action.

I discovered there thatPowerPoint presentationsare considered a requisitefor all lectures delivered byprofessors. But PPTs arechild’s play, compared to op-erating some of the equip-ment in classrooms, includ-ing the projector andscreens. I struggled andstumbled quite a bit whiletrying to operate the touch-screen classroom boards onthe campus. Funnilyenough, an American pro-fessor also cursed the touch-screen board regularly… es-pecially when he invariablylost the content he had writ-ten on the board after acci-dentally pressing some but-ton or the other.

Another professor de-voted an entire page of hispersonal website to parody-ing PPTs. One can safelyconclude that the rapidtransformation of the luxuri-ous Western classroom intoa gadget store is contentiousfor both professors andstudents.

Nevertheless, I was quite

relieved at the realisation thatextra money would not haveto be spent on expensivecourse textbooks. Rather thancarrying around heavy text-books in a backpack all day,only the weight of the laptophas to be borne. This is a def-inite advantage consideringhow much people walk anduse public transport inEurope.

The diversity in reading ma-terial provided mainlythrough technology marks animportant difference in theEuropean approach to highereducation, in comparison tothose in India. The emphasison consistently utilising bothtraditional and digital forms ofresources to broaden one’sperspectives is markedly dif-ferent from the spoon-feedingculture that one becomesused to in the Indian educa-tional system, where memor-ising prescribing textbooks isthe norm.

Internet access and Wi-Ficonnections were requisite fa-cilities everywhere on the Sci-ences Po campus, enabling ac-cess to academic resources atany time. While libraries re-main important sources of in-

formation and an integralarea of investment, onlinecatalogues providing accessto research papers and art-icles from all over the worldare also treated as indispens-able. Even ageing professorswho visibly stumbled overclassroom gadgets providedtheir students with lengthyreading lists of both digitalas well as traditional re-sources.

This underscores the un-derlying motto of westernuniversities, which is, themore you read and discoveron your own, the more yougrow as an academic and anindividual. This was the caseat Sciences Po, as I learnedmore about the unique fieldthat I was specialising in,and grew as an individualwho could undertake sub-stantial academic tasks onmy own.

Ankitha Cheerakathil

graduated in master’s in human

rights and humanitarian action

from Sciences Po, Paris, in

2016.

postcard from.. Paris)

Internet is your blackboardDiversity in reading material and digitisation of educationat Sciences Po, paves the way for academic growth

Name:

Ankitha CheerakathilCourse:

Master’s in Human Rights

and Humanitarian Action College:

Sciences Po, Paris

Gone are the days when educationmeant spending six or more hoursof the day in a classroom, tradition-ally equipped with a blackboard,some chalks, benches, textbooks,and ink pens. The 21st century In-dian school is the product of a tech-nologically evolving education sys-tem, where digital facilities coupledwith tech-savvy teachers help stu-dents explore beyond the four wallsof their classroom.

To further illustrate what I mean,let me tell you about a short activitythat we recently conducted as partof the class VIII science curriculum.Teachers and students from Indiacollaborated with those in SouthKorea to explore, identify, and un-derstand the different types of soilsused for plantation in the EastAsian geography. By using the so-cial media platform Twitter, teach-ers in South Korea shared their dataand interacted with students in theIndian classroom, paving the wayfor an experiential and interactivelearning practice over a three-weekperiod.

Students not only understoodthe scientific composition and geo-graphical differences between thesoils in India and South Korea, butalso learned how to convey theirthoughts in a crisp manner to fit the140-character limit of Twitter.

Furthermore, as kids were verycurious about the data gathering

methodologies used by the SouthKorean school, we conducted aSkype call so that students could ex-change information about the pro-cedure of the experiment.

This was our first rendezvouswith social media in a classroom.The practice caught on quickly inother classes, due to the generalpopularity of social media amongstudents and its efficiency in

bridging gaps between theoreticalconcepts and practical application.In this way, the inclusion of socialmedia in classrooms had not onlyexposed students in India to newercultures, but had also diminisheddistance barriers drastically, allow-ing learning to become more enga-ging as well as student-centric.

Easy replication

Such practices can be replicatedand implemented in schools acrossthe country, since they require min-imal investments to facilitate pro-jectors, computer laboratories, andInternet facilities. While mostschools are equipped with basiccomputer lab facilities, one of thefundamental challenges they face isfamiliarising teachers with techno-logy. Thus, having an expert or a

technological co-ordinator forteacher orientation can elevate thequality of education to meet globalstandards, with group-based socialmedia modules for peer learning,social media-enabled feedbackmechanisms and student collabora-tion across geographies and bor-ders.

Social media has its own sets ofpros and cons. However, in the fieldof education, social media hasmore advantages than disadvant-ages, provided there are necessarymeasures to prevent student abuse,such as e-mail tethered Internetsurfing, blocking of irrelevant orabusive websites and installation ofcybersecurity software. Helpingstudents understand the right andthe wrong ways of using social me-dia can not only throw open a newgamut of learning for their holisticgrowth, but also guard themagainst cyber crimes and e-bully-ing.

Additionally, such practices canhelp students become aware aboutglobal issues, national problemsand updates about the fields oftheir interest, so that they are ableto pursue their hobbies, careersand professions as sharper netizensand responsible citizens belongingto a smarter India.

Husien Dohadwalla is the Academic

Director for middle, secondary and

high school at the Fazlani L’Academie

Globale, Mumbai.

e-learning)

Breaking barriers, virtually A geography lesson comes alive, thanks to Twitter

b Husien Dohadwalla

Mobile generation: Technologically evolving education system.

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With over three decades of experience in sports medi-cine, sports physician Dr. Kannan Pugazhendi haslaunched the Indian Institute of Sports Medicine(IISM). “Our country has set high goals to conquer theOlympic gold, focusing on sportspersons and coaches,but the concept of sports medicine is yet to takecentrestage,” he says.

IISM will aim to create overall awareness, providehigh quality education, offer training and enable re-search in the field of sports medicine. There are twofellowships for medical professionals — Fellowship inFitness Medicine & Lifestyle Diseases Management,and Fellowship in Sports Medicine & Sports Rehabilita-tion. “While sports medicine specialists will work withathletes, sportspersons, dancers and martial arts expo-nents, the fitness medicine specialists will be trained tohandle diseases. They will be in the mainstream, butmanage diseases by way of prescribing appropriate ex-ercises with minimal pharmaceutical interventions,”says Dr. Pugazhendi.

IISM also offers a three-year bachelor’s degreecourse — B.Sc in Fitness and Lifestyle Modification.“This is an offbeat course where the focus will be onpractical learning. Each year, participants will be intro-duced to any one of the Indian dance forms, yoga andIndian martial arts.” Students who undergo this coursewill be deployed as trainers, who can also work as mar-tial arts or yoga instructors.

Eligibilityl Fellowship in Fitness Medicine & Lifestyle DiseasesManagement: MBBS degree holders. No age limit.l Fellowship in Sports Medicine & Sports Rehabilita-tion: MBBS degree holders who are sportspersonsthemselves and passionate about sports. No age limit.l B.Sc. in Fitness and Lifestyle Modification: Plus Twoscience stream, preferably with some knowledge indance forms or martial arts. Age limit: 35 years

Overseas applicants can also apply for fellowships,but have to fulfil the Medical Council of India require-ments.

For more details, email [email protected] [email protected] or visit iism-edu.com

courses)

For medicalwarriorsIISM o�ers an o�beat degreecourse in �tness, and twofellowships for medicalpractitioners

b Chitradeepa Anantharam

Practical learning: A martial arts session.

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b JIPMER M.D./M.S.Entrance

Mode: Computer-BasedTest (Online, MCQs)Date: November 19 (10a.m. to 1 p.m.) Centres: Include Chennai,Thiruvananthapuram, Pu-ducherry, Bengaluru,Mumbai, New Delhi,Ahmedabad, Vijayawada,Bhubaneswar and KolkataEligibility: MBBS with 55%marks; completion of ro-tating internship/12-month practical trainingOnline Registration:

Open nowRegistration Deadline: Octo-ber 20, 5 p.m.Application fee: ₹1,500 (forSC/ST ₹1,200) Merit list publication: On orbefore November 30

Counselling Starts: Decem-ber 13Course fees: ₹15,960 (hostelcharges extra) www.jipmer.puducherry.gov.inb Medical Admission atSCTIMST

Institution: Sree ChitraTirunal Institute for Medical Sciences &Technology,Thiruvananthapuram Courses: M.D., M.Ch., post-doctoral certificatecourse, post-doctoral fel-lowships, Ph.D., P.G. dip-loma in paramedical andspeciality nursing, ad-vanced certificate pro-gramme in physiotherapyStipend: Available for allprogrammes Online application deadline:

October 5www.sctimist.ac.in

b NMAT-2017

Date: From October 5 toDecember 18Registration Deadline: Octo-ber 3Centres: Across the coun-try including Chennai, Ko-chi, Tiruchi, Vellore,Vizag, Vijayawada,Bengaluru, Hyderabad,Manipal, Mysore, Delhi,Mumbai, Lucknow,Varanasi, Patna, Ranchi,Pune and Kolkata Registration fee: ₹1,800plus taxesTest Structure: Three sec-tions — Language Skills (32questions, 22 minutes),Quantitative Skills (48questions, 60 minutes),Logical Reasoning (40questions, 38 minutes)Results: Third week ofJanuaryScorecard available: From

March 31, onlinewww.nmat.org.in b JGEEBILS

For research in biology andinterdisciplinary life sciencesin 19 leading scientific re-search institutes in thecountry.Date: December 10Centres: Include Chennai,Cochin, Bengaluru, Madurai,Mangalore, Hyderabad, Mum-bai, Delhi, Visakhapatanamand Kolkata. Application fee: ₹600 (for maleapplicants), ₹100 (for femaleapplicants) Application deadline: October 12Programmes: Ph.D., integratedM.Sc.-Ph.D., M.Sc. by re-search, M.Sc. Neurosciencewww.ncbs.res.in/admis-sions.html

Compiled by

Gopakumar Karakonam

save the date)

Twelve of Canada’s leadingbusiness schools will show-case MBA opportunitiesduring the EduCanadaMBA Showcase Tour fromSeptember 17 to 25 acrossmajor cities in India. Thisvisit by universities is partof their multi-city MBA tourwhich will cover the citiesof Delhi, Hyderabad,Bengaluru, Chennai andMumbai.

This is the fourth editionof the Canadian MBA fairorganised by the HighCommission of Canada inIndia in association withthe Indo-Canadian Busi-ness Chamber (ICBC).

The EduCanada MBAShowcase Tour will provide

an excellent opportunityfor young professionals,entrepreneurs and stu-dents aspiring for a foreignmanagement degree tomeet with representativesof Canadian institutionsand learn about CanadianMBA programmes.

During the course ofeach event, attendees cantake part in interactive ses-sions on a range of subjectssuch as admissions, visaprocedures, and career op-portunities.

Participation is free butregistration is mandatory.

To register, visit: www.e-ducanadaevents.in or sendan email [email protected]

Canadian MBA fair


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MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 20174EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Eureka Prize Madhu Bhaskaran, Associate Professor atRMIT University, Melbourne, won theMacquarie University Eureka Prize forOutstanding Early Career Researcher. Herresearch was in the field of bio-compatibleelectronic devices. This award is consideredthe Oscars of Australian science.

in brief)

Certi�cate in educationThe University of Nottingham (UoN) inpartnership with the TISB Training Academyrecently launched the PostgraduateCertificate in Education (International) forteacher education. An MoA was signedbetween the two institutions in March tointroduce the PGCEi in South Asia. The coursestarts in December 2017.

Swacchta Award In recognition of IIT Hyderabad’s role inuplifting villages under the Unnat BharatAbhiyan initiative, the MHRD presented themwith the Swacchta Award recently. IITHyderabad, under the guidance of Prof.Shashidhar, adopted five villages in Medak.

With dialogues on the import-ance of cultural institutionsand spaces on the rise, thespotlight shifts to the expertsin the field of art manage-ment. With massive, valuablecollections in the storehousesof private and government cul-tural institutions, there is aneed-gap for professionalswho can revitalise the spacesand initiate thoughtful pro-grammes that draw the public.

“There is now recognitionof the importance of mu-seums. With both the govern-ment and private individualsas well as corporates buildingnew art institutions and mu-seums, educational institu-tions and galleries, art studiesare becoming more popular asviable career options. The de-mand for professionals in thisfield is definitely increasing.The need and number of inde-pendent curators is also grow-ing,” says Tasneem ZakariaMehta, museum director of Dr.Bhau Daji Lad Mumbai CityMuseum.

Backed by the awarenessabout the need for profession-als in art management, themuseum offers a graduate dip-loma in modern and contem-porary Indian art and curat-orial studies.

Mehta explains the need forthe course and its relevance.

Most of the courses cur-rently offered by institutionsacross India take a bird’s eyeview of art history startingfrom the ancient period,which does not give studentsenough time and scope to ex-plore the modern and contem-porary period. If India is to en-gage on its own terms with themodern world, it is necessary

to have this larger understand-ing. The course was begun inresponse to this lacuna.

Eligibility

Anyone with a collegegraduate degree, who is inter-ested in learning about art in-terpretation, history and cur-atorial practices, but may nothave been able to pursue aformal education in the field,can opt for this course. This isa one-year theoretical course.The classes are conductedover weekends so that workingprofessionals too can enrol.

Course content

The course covers the the-oretical and critical study ofthe history of Indian art from1850 to the present. It enablesstudents to understand Indianart in the broader context ofIndian history, sociology, polit-ics, gender and cultural stud-ies. Renowned faculty fromuniversities such as JawaharlalNehru University in Delhi, Ma-

haraja Sayajirao University,Baroda, Shanti Niketan inKolkata, Chitrakala Parishad,Bengaluru, besides independ-ent curators, scholars and in-ternational practitioners areinvited to teach the course,giving students a chance tolearn from and interact withthe best in the field.

The curatorial modules en-gage with concepts associatedwith new curatorial practicestaught by some of the fore-most current curators, as well

as provide students withhands-on exhibition experi-ence using the museum as aresource.

Practical learningThe students are introduced

to contemporary artists andtheir practice through regularweekend gallery and artists’studio visits. This format givesstudents an insight into thetechnique and thinking ofsome of the most engagingartists and curators of theirtime. Students are required toprepare a portfolio with theirimpressions, views, and so on,of the current art practicesthat they are exposed to.

In addition to the regularlectures, the students have theadvantage of being present atthe museum, observing be-hind-the-scenes managementand curatorial practices, andgaining hands-on experienceof exhibition curation, installa-tion, and management.

The next stepThe course will enable stu-

dents to seek avenues of em-ployment as independent cur-ators, exhibition managers,museum curators, art histori-ans, conservators, art critics,art writers, art educators, andarts managers. For many, italso provides an opportunityfor making informed decisionsabout collecting and investingin art.

Some of the alumni fromthe course have also appliedfor jobs at the BDL Museum.and some now work at themuseum in different capacitiesas curatorial assistants, con-sultants and docents. Whilesome have gone abroad forfurther study, yet others havestarted their own art busi-nesses or have become con-sultants.

offbeat...art curation)

Get set, curateFor those with a penchant for interpreting art and a fascinationfor history, the course o�ers a plethora of opportunities

b Madhumitha Srinivasan

Interactive session: With artist Bose Krishnamachari; (below) A visit to artist Reena Kallat’s studio.

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The museum o�ers agraduate diploma inmodern and contemporaryIndian art and curatorialstudies.

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Waste management is be-coming a serious concernfor many nations; we areproducing waste at ratesfaster than we know what todo with it. Of course, thefirst step of waste manage-ment should be getting it offthe roads and into thedumpsters. With this, andPM Narendra Modi’s call toaction through the SwachhBharat (Clean India) Mission,in mind, five students fromSandip Polytechnic came upwith a way to incentivisewaste disposal and make In-dia’s streets litter-free.

Elegant solutionTheir premise is simple yeteffective — throw yourgarbage into their smartdustbins, instead of justaround it, and get rewardedwith coupons and/or cash.They named their productKRRYP GarbageATM.“KRRYP expands to our ini-tials — Krithika, Rahul,Rushikesh, Yash andPraksh,” says Yash Gupta,one of the team members.The students devised andworked on the project whilepursuing their diplomas inelectrical engineering,which they recentlycompleted.

It took the students aboutseven months to implementthe prototype, while balan-cing their studies. Theirtime spent on the projectwas not without struggle.“We had to do a lot of com-plex coding for this project.Also, equipment with goodaccuracy wasn’t easily avail-able in Maharashtra,” saysteam member Prakash Son-

awane. Rushikesh Kasar, his

teammate, explains theworking of the smart dust-bin. You get rewarded notonly for trash disposed, butalso based on your generalknowledge (GK). “Our sys-tem consists of two bins – Aand B, an LCD displayscreen and an RFID (RadioFrequency Identification)reader. Users will be given acard, which must be swipedfirst. They are then showntheir details as read by theRFID reader. The screen dis-plays a GK question, withtwo possible answers, A andB. The individual thenchooses which bin to dumpthe garbage, based on whatthey think is the correctanswer.”

Yash continues, “Then,they will get points added totheir card, based on amountof garbage disposed, andwhether they answered cor-rectly. They can use thepoints on their cards to re-charge their phones or forother shopping purposes.”

So far, the students havepresented their GarbageATMprototype at various com-petitions in Maharashtra andDelhi, and have received apositive response. SaysRahul Patil, team member,“People are eagerly waitingfor this project to be fullyimplemented so that theycan earn something and dis-pose of their garbage prop-erly at the same time. Weare searching for sponsorsto help us implement our

project in major Indian cit-ies as early as possible.”

So far, the students say,they have participated in 15competitions in and aroundMaharashtra and won prizesat 12 of them. The team wasplaced third in the ‘NarseeMonjee Award for Best Pro-ject work done by Polytech-nic Students in MaharashtraState’ category, at the Inter-national Society for Techno-logy in Education Confer-ence and Expo 2016.

Rahul signs off, “We areplanning for an improve-ment where it will separatedifferent kinds of waste also.Soon you all will see ourKRRYP GarbageATM at pub-lic places like railway sta-tion, bus stands, airport andso on.”

initiative)

From trash to cashStudents from Sandip Polytechnic have come up with an e�ective way to get thecommunity to participate in waste disposalb Spatika Narayanan

Product prototype: Towards a clean India.

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The mandatory implementation of Na-tional Eligibility cum Entrance Test(NEET) in all states of India, led to ex-treme outrage in Tamil Nadu due to theSupreme Court’s verdict of makingNEET binding to the state despite unre-mitting disapproval from the state gov-ernment that demanded an exemptionfrom this educational reform.

Out of controlThe situation went out of control whenthousands of students were robbed oftheir aim of studying medical sciencefrom good government universities be-cause of their inability to score in NEET,even after fetching exemplary marks intheir class XII board exams. Theycouldn’t score in NEET as the examina-tion is said to be based on the cur-riculum of Central Board of School Ex-amination (CBSE). The suicide of17-year-old medical aspirant Anita is anexample of the anguish of Indian stu-dents who have fallen prey to the educa-tion System. A topper in school, Anithahad set her goals on top medical univer-sities of India until NEET wasimplemented.

Several students protest against theSupreme Court verdict. Honeyshaya Rajfrom Miranda House, a member of theprotest held at Delhi University, said,“NEET will we a dampener on thedreams of many students as not all ofthem have the economic means tospend lakhs on NEET coaching classes.The current level of state board educa-tion is inefficient for the students ofTamil Nadu to appear for NEET.”

On being asked if implementation ofCBSE will solve the matter, she said,“CBSE is an urban elite board that is un-affordable for students around the na-

tion except for those in cities such asDelhi and Hyderabad. The failing infra-structure and lacking education make itnecessary for the government to thinkabout every student of this nation.”

However, other protesters are notagainst the imposition of NEET. Accord-ing to Mohan Prasad JS, pursuing B.Com(H) from SRCC, “The fight is not againstNEET but its sudden imposition. Thegovernment should work towards equal-ity before expansion. Equal opportunit-ies of quality education should beprovided to students at the school levelbefore the implementation of NEET in

Tamil Nadu.”He further believes that a demand

across the nation is to organise a com-mon educational board for all states forthe successful implementation of NEET.“The central government should workin cognisance with the state governmentinstead of the reckless imposition oflaws in an important field of educationwhere thousands of careers are atstake.”

Arun Oly, a student of Bhartiya Vid-hya Bhawan, Tamil Nadu, said, “Thereis a reason why education is under theconcurrent list. Every state has its ownchallenges to face and therefore, themethod of evaluating diverse studentswith a single yardstick is inappropriate.”

Lack of transparency in NEET and anabsence of a fair selection criterion haveresulted in the dwindling trust of thou-sands of medical aspirants.

in focus)

Not a NEET moveThe mandatory implementation of NEET sparked o� protests across thecountry. Students voice their dissent

b Neha Rupeja

Diverse students: Need for a system overhaul?

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Lack of transparency in NEET andan absence of a fair selectioncriterion have resulted in thedwindling trust of thousands ofmedical aspirants.

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b Data generation internat Fractal Analytics

Category: SoftwareLocation: BengaluruStipend: ₹ 10,000/monthWho can apply: All studentshttp://bit.ly/Twenty19TH858

b Business development

intern at The SouledStore

Category: MarketingLocation: Work from homeStipend: ₹ 1,500- ₹10,000/monthWho can apply: All studentshttp://bit.ly/Twenty19TH859

b Content Writer Intern at

Digimyx

Category: Contentwriting/journalismLocation: KolkataStipend: ₹ 4,000/monthWho can apply: All studentshttp://bit.ly/Twenty19TH860

b Social Media Marketing intern at

Panamon Technologies

Category: Social media/SEOLocation: ChennaiStipend: ₹ 10,000/monthWho can apply: All studentshttp://bit.ly/Twenty19TH861

Courtesy: www.twenty19.com

internship)

The Geneva Graduate School ofGovernance (GGSG) and theGlobal Risk Management Insti-tute (GRMI) signed a strategicpartnership agreement re-cently. The alliance would entailknowledge-sharing, exchangeprogrammes for students, andexchange of faculty. The Post-graduate Certificate in Risk

Management (PGCRM) will bejointly issued by GRMI andGGSG. The curriculum with 13specialised segments coversend-to-end fundamentals of riskmanagement across multiple in-dustry verticals such as finance,manufacturing, banking, retail,hospitality, operational, com-pliance and credit. PGCRM stu-dents would have the option topursue a seven to 10-week pro-gramme in advanced risk man-agement or a master’s in riskmanagement with GGSG.

For more details, visitwww.grm.institute.

Risk management certi�cateb Executive Diploma inHuman ResourceManagement

Institution: XLRI - XavierSchool of Management Duration: 16 monthsCommences: January15, 2018Deadline: October 10Email:

[email protected]://acad.xlri.ac.in/edhrm/b PostgraduateDiploma inManagement

Institution: IFIM Busi-ness SchoolDuration: 2 yearsCommences: July 2018Deadline: January 31,2018www.IFIMBSchool.comb MBAs andPostgraduate Diplomain Management

Institution: Indian Insti-tute of ManagementTechnology Duration: 2 yearsCommences: June 2018Deadline: November 24www.imt.edu

admissions)


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