MUMBAI, SEPT 25Explosions on boardINS Sindhurakshak inAugust 2013 - whichcaused the death of 18sailors and the vessel tosink in Mumbai harbour- happened because crit-ical Standard OperatingProcedures, or SoPs,were violated, an inter-nal inquiry into the inci-dent has revealed.

Speaking on condi-tion of anonymity, sen-ior Navy officials awareof findings of the Board

of Inquiry said,"Processes were floutedwhen torpedoes werebeing loaded on theboat". Confirming thatprocedures had indeedbeen violated, Chief ofNaval Staff AdmiralRobin Dhowan said,"Perhaps in not follow-ing certain proceduresthings could have gonewrong that led to acci-dents". Submarines arehighly complicatedplatforms and detailedStandard Operating

Procedures are there forhandling them. "Wehave found that when-ever SOPs are not fol-lowed, there is room forerror and that could leadto accidents," AdmiralDhowan said. This isthe first time the IndianNavy has officiallyascribed a reason towhat was perhaps theworst-ever accident inthe submarine arm

The INSSindhurakshak, a Kilo-

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HAQSAADDAFIGHT FOR RIGHTFriday, September 26, 2014

‘Mars in Focus’ at NehruPlanetarium

Sony Xperia Z3 and Xperia Z3Compact Launched in India

Hrithik Roshan Did Not Find Any'Interesting' Projects in Hollywood

NEW DELHI, SEPT 25Prime Minister Narendra Modidefined FDI today as he sees it."For Indians FDI is FirstDevelop India...for foreigners,it is an opportunity," the PMsaid to an audience of CEOsthat packed Delhi's VigyanBhawan, where Mr Modilaunched his ambitious "Makein India" campaign.

The campaign, he said, "isthe step of a lion." The logo isa striding lion made of cogs,symbolising manufacturing,strength and national pride.The Make in India campaignaims at turning the country intoa global manufacturing hub bysmoothening business process-es and attracting foreign com-panies to set up factories inIndia and invest in the coun-try's infrastructure. The focus,on creating jobs and helping

the "poor reach the middleclass faster," said the PM.About 500 top CEOs, includ-ing leading lights of India Inc,listened intently as Mr Modioutlined his vision. Good gov-ernance, he said, was notenough. There must be"effective governance thatinvestors must feel."

The PM emphasised on aneed to rebuild investors' trustand provide them with a betterinvestment climate."Incentive isn'tenough, we needa climate forgrowth," MrModi saidpromisingf a s t e rdecisionmakingand abe t t e r

policy environment forglobal and

domestic cor-porates.

Improvingthe ease ofdoing busi-ness was apriority, the

PM said.And that thecountry mustrise to number

50 in thew o r l d

o n

that count. Right now Indiaranks 134th out of 189 coun-tries on ease of doing business,according to the World Bank.

He also launched a website-www.makeinindia.com -through which a dedicated cellwill answer business querieswithin 72 hours.

This evening, the PM leavesfor a six-day visit to the US,where he will meet CEOs ofseveral Fortune 500 compa-nies.

Speaking before the PM,India's richest man MukeshAmbani of Reliance Industriessaid, "PM Modi dreams anddoes, working 14 hours a dayand motivates a billion Indiansto dream and do," and prom-ised that his company wouldcreate 1.25 lakh new jobsover the next 12-15 months

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'This is the Step of a Lion': PM Modion his Make-in-India Campaign

NEW DELHI, SEPT 25A day after India launched theMars Orbiter Mission (MOM),the Indian Space ResearchOrganisation (ISRO) releasedthe first images taken of theRed Planet using its onboardMars Colour Camera.According to ISRO this is the'First Light. ISRO Mars Orbiter

Mission captures its first imageof Mars, taken from a height of7300 kilometers, with 376meter spatial resolution.'

A comment, 'The view is niceup here', accompanied theimage which was also releasedon ISRO's Twitter handle.

The camera takes photos in CONTD. ON PAGE 3

P8

MOM Sends First Pictures ofMars, Says 'View Is Nice'NEW DELHI, SEPT 25

Over 2,000 protesters of theIndian Youth CongressThursday protested againstPrime Minister NarendraModi’s government for failingto fulfill its poll promises,including bringing black money

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Youth Congress protests againstModi govt over black money

LUCKNOW, SEPT 25In a relief to senior UttarPradesh Minister Azam Khan,the Allahabad High Courttoday refused to accept aprayer for issuing directionsfor the lodging of an FIRagainst him over an alleged

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Hate Speech Relief forAzam Khan, High CourtRaises Office-Of-Profit

BURNPUR, SEPT 25At least 21 people have beeninjured, two of them seriously,after a fire broke out in one ofthe units of IISCO steel plantin Burnpur in West Bengal.

IISCO is a subsidiary of thestate-owned Steel Authority ofIndia Limited (SAIL).More details are awaited.

Fire at IISCO Steel Plant inWest Bengal, 21 Injured

Vol. 1 Issue: 12 Price: Rs.3:00 Title No DELENG18507 Delhi Edition Pages: 8 Website: www.saaddahaq.in Email: news.saaddahaq@gmail.com

NEW DELHI, SEPT 25As it seeks consensus amongstpolitical parties on the issue of thewomen’s reservation Bill, the gov-ernment on Thursday said it is com-mitted to getting the legislationpassed in Parliament.

“We have to evolve a consensuson the issue of women’s reserva-tion. We have seen the earlier expe-rience also, but my party is committed to this (theBill), we will see how it can progress,” Parliamentary

CONTD. ON PAGE 3

Committed to women’sreservation Bill: Naidu

NEW DELHI, SEPT 25Home Minister Rajnath Singh willvisit Assam and Meghalaya earlynext month to take stock of rescueand relief operations in the flood-hit states.

Mr Singh has sent Minister ofState for Home Kiren Rijiju andMinister of State (Independencecharge) for Sports Sarbananda Sonowal to Assam

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Rajnath Singh to Visit Assam,Meghalaya in October

NEW DELHI, SEPT 25For the first time, the 100 richesttycoons in India are all billionaireswith Mukesh Ambani topping theleague for the eighth consecutiveyear, according to Forbes.

With a net worth of USD 23.6billion, up by USD 2.6 billion from

last year, RIL Chief Mukesh Ambani topped the list CONTD. ON PAGE 3

India's 100 Richest Are AllBillionaires; Mukesh Ambani Top

KOLKATA, SEPT 25Fresh protests broke out onthe Jadavpur University (JU)campus today when Vice-Chancellor AbhijitChakraborty walked in, aweek after students organiseda massive rally in the cityagainst the alleged molesta

CONTD. ON PAGE 3

Fresh Protests in Kolkata's JadavpurUniversity After VC Enters Campus

WASHINGTON, SEPT 25NASA on Wednesday sent acongratulatory message to itsIndian counterpart ISRO forits successful maiden Marsmission, saying it's a " signifi-cant milestone" for India."We congratulate the Indian

CONTD. ON PAGE 3

Successful Mars Mission'Significant Milestone' forIndia: NASA

NEW DELHI, SEPT 25Japan on Wednesday offeredhelp to India in building roadinfrastructure in strategicallyimportant Northeast, a pro-posal unlikely to go downwell with China. The offerwas made by visiting

CONTD. ON PAGE 3

Japan Keen to HelpIndia Improve RoadNetwork in Northeast

NEW DELHI, SEPT 25The Supreme Court's cancel-lation of all captive coalblocks since 1993 has a comeas a shock to businessman andCongress politician NaveenJindal, who is the singlelargest beneficiary of these

CONTD. ON PAGE 3

Money to Former Coal MinsterWas Not a Kickback, It Was aLoan: Naveen Jindal

NEW DELHI, SEPT 25The Centre on Wednesday toldthe Supreme Court that thegovernment needs the cooper-ation of Ganga-basin states -Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh,Bihar, Jharkhand and West

CONTD. ON PAGE 3

Need States' Cooperation for aClean Ganga: Centre to SC

P6P2

BJP Ends 25-Year-Old AllianceWith Shiv Sena in Maharashtra

MUMBAI, SEPT 25"The alliance with the ShivSena is over", the BJP saidin Mumbai this evening,ending a 25-year-old part-nership.

The end was announcedbriskly after yet anotherday of many meetings."We asked them to be flex-ible, but the Shiv Senastuck to 151 seats. There isvery little time to fill nom-inations. We couldn't comeup with a solution," saidthe BJP's Eknath Khadseafter a meeting of top stateleaders.

The BJP said it took thedecision with a "heavyheart".

The two parties bickeredfor days over allocation ofseats for the Maharashtra

elections now less thanthree weeks away. Toughnegotiations came to astalemate when the BJP

refused to accept less than130 of Maharashtra's 288seats, and the Shiv Sena

CONTD. ON PAGE 3

GUWAHATI, SEPT 25With the recovery of four more bodiestoday, the death toll mounted to 36 inAssam floods that affected about 10 lakhpeople in 13 districts and rendered majorityof them homeless.

Two more deaths were reported fromKrishnai and Kukurkata areas of the worst-hit Goalpara district, while one body eachwas recovered from Tinsukia district andGuwahati which falls in Kamrup Metro dis-trict, officials said.

Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said 35 to 36people have been reported dead so far andthat the toll could be higher.

Though the rains have stopped and waterwas slowly ebbing, huge tracks of humanhabitation and crop fields were under water

CONTD. ON PAGE 3

NEW DELHI, SEPT 25All central governmentemployees have been askedto be present in their officeson October 2 to take cleanli-ness pledge as part of theNarendra Modi govern-ment's 'Clean India' cam-paign. October 2, the birthanniversary of MahatmaGandhi, is otherwise anational holiday.

The employees will beadministered 'SwachhataShapath' (pledge of cleanli-ness) in government offices,

public functions and eventson October 2, said a direc-tive issued byCabinetSecretary Ajit Seth to allcentral government secre-taries. "Each ministryshould participate in thisnational endeavour andundertake cleanliness andawareness campaign in abefitting manner," Mr Sethsaid. The cleanliness drivesled by senior officials willbe undertaken in all govern-ment and public offices, it

CONTD. ON PAGE 3

NEW DELHI, SEPT 25Prime Minister NarendraModi left for New York todayon a six-day visit focused onboosting trade and resettingties with the USA, the world'slargest economy.

In a statement ahead of hisdeparture, Mr Modi said hewas "confident that the visitwill mark the start of a newchapter in our strategic part-nership".

He said he looked forwardto his first meeting withPresident Barack Obama."His life's journey is aremarkable testimony to therights and opportunities thatdemocracies provide, and an

inspiration for people aroundthe world," the PrimeMinister said.

He also said, "I keenlyawait the opportunity to meet

CONTD. ON PAGE 3

MANILA, SEPT 25An envoy who made head-lines with an emotional callfor global action on climatechange said on Thursday thathe will walk 1,000 kilometres(620 miles) to a Philippinecity devastated by last year'ssuper typhoon.

Naderev Sano, thePhilippines' lead negotiator atthe United Nations climatetalks, who went on a hungerstrike at last year's meeting,hopes to start in Manila onOctober 2 and reach the cityof Tacloban on November 8.

The planned end date for hisjourney would mark exactly ayear since Super TyphoonHaiyan struck, causing the

CONTD. ON PAGE 3

NEW DELHI, SEPT 25The two week face-offwith the Chinese armyat Chumur in South EastLadakh ended today fol-lowing a flag meeting inChushul.

Sources said aftertoday's marathon flagmeeting both sides haveagreed to pull backtroops from point 30Rand adjoining areas inChumoor from tomor-row.

The withdrawal oftroops will be carriedout in four phases,sources added.

Besides, both sideshave agreed to restore"status quo ante as onSeptember 10," sources

said. In other words,both India and Chinahave agreed not to con-struct in the disputedarea.

India was objecting toChina constructing aroad in the disputed area- Chebzi to point 30R.

On the other hand Chinahas been objecting toIndian constructions inthe same area.

About 800-1000Chinese Army troopsand 1500 troops of theIndian Army and Indo-

CONTD. ON PAGE 3

India, China Agree on Withdrawal ofTroops From Ladakh, Say Sources

Philippine EnvoyLeads 40-day ClimateChange March

Assam Floods: TollRises to 36; 10Lakh Affected

No holiday on October 2; GovtEmployees to Take Cleanliness Pledge

PM Modi Leaves for US, Says'Obama's Life an Inspiration'

Blast in Submarine Sindhurakshak wasDue to Lapses in Procedure, Says Navy

MUMBAI, SEPT 25It was a day of partingways in the two key campsin Maharashtra. Hoursafter the BJP announced itwas splitting from ShivSena, the NCP ended its15-year-old alliance withthe Congress and declaredit would "go it alone" inthis elections against"communal forces".

The NCP also quit theCongress-led governmentin the state, reducing it to a

minority. Withdrawingsupport from the govern-ment, Deputy ChiefMinister Ajit Pawarblamed Chief MinisterPrithviraj Chavan for thesplit, saying the NCP wasnever neglected by the ear-lier Congress chief min-sters.The Congress saidthey tried their best "tosave the alliance". "But itseems NCP's decision waspre-scripted," Mohan

CONTD. ON PAGE 3

After BJP- Sena Split, NCP-Congress Also Part Ways

NEW DELHI | FRIDAY | SEPT 26, 2014Delhi News2 SAADDA HAQ

NEW DELHI, SEPT 25 Vijay is the tiger most talked-about these days for mauling ayouth who fell into his enclosureat Delhi zoo on Tuesday.

But was it basic instinct of awild species or sheer provocationthat made him act the way he did?

As the video of the incidentwent viral, a series of debateserupted around various issues, oneof which was - did Vijay kill theman out of instinct or was he pro-voked to attack?

Experts say like humans, everytiger has a different behaviour andthe video shows Vijay did notlaunch an attack in the first go,which shows he was not aggres-sive.

His behaviour could have beeninstinctive and he was more curi-ous to begin with.

Tiger conservationist andwildlife expert Belinda Wright,who is also the executive directorof Wildlife Protection Society ofIndia, saw the video and said:“From the video, the tiger appearsto be largely curious.”

Sujoy Banerjee, a forest officerand wildlife expert, elaborated,“The act of mauling looks moreinstinctive.” He does not rule out

that the animal turned aggressivebecause of shouting and stonepelting or the very fact thatMaqsood was cowering.

“The tiger was possibly encour-aged because the man was cower-ing. Tigers tend to attack if the liv-ing being is cowering,” said Mr.Banerjee.

Stating that “white tigers arenow found only in zoos and not inthe wild,” he said that “there is ahuge difference between captive-bred animal and an animal bred inthe wild. A wild-bred animal ismore aggressive and used tokilling and hunting whereas a zooanimal is fed on meat and carcass-es and is not used to killing living

beings. That is why the act ofVijay looks largely instinctive.”

“We should also see that he didnot eat the man. Also, had he beenfrustrated, he would have killedhim instantly. But the video showsand it is not surprising that hewaited for 10 minutes beforeattacking. The zoo animals tend toexperiment. Sometimes, they evenstart playing with the bait. If hewanted to kill, he could havekilled instantly but it was not so,”said Mr. Banerjee.

He also added that there is noth-ing to fear that the animal wouldturn a man-eater “because it was astray incident and he did not eatthe man”.

“Shouting, stone-pelting may have made tiger angry”NEW DELHI, SEPT 25 At least five agencies areresponsible for maintainingthe 4-km-long Press EnclaveRoad and ensuring smoothtraffic on it, yet the road is ina state of utter neglect. Whileit may take time to removeencroachments, nothingstops PWD, the road main-taining agency, from keepingsidewalks and the centralverge clean.

Large parts of the verge areovergrown with weeds andbushes that block trafficlights and signage. Footpathsare strewn with debris, andDelhi Jal Board's contractorhas left pipes on the pave-ment after digging up oneside of the road.

PWD, which took over theroad from the municipal cor-poration last year, says thereis too much encroachment.

"The corporation still ownsthe land and is responsiblefor removing encroach-ments. We can only tackle

the minor offenders but theykeep returning. Agencieslike DJB have ignored ourrequests to remove theirproperty from the road," saida senior official, adding thatPWD is trying to bring theroad under a corridorimprovement plan so thatencroachments can beremoved in a joint exercise.PWD is also planning to re-pave the road and repair itsfootpaths — all long-termplans.

PWD officials claim theforest department is respon-sible for maintaining thecentral verge, but pruninghas not been done for weeks."I drive down this stretchfrequently. The growth hashappened over the monsoonand is spilling onto the road.Driving on this stretch hasbecome difficult," said Mahesh Garg, a resident of GK-II.

Outside Malviya NagarMetro station and near the

BRT corridor, the road hasbeen dug up while largepipes meant to improvewater supply in south Delhioccupy the pavement. Theproject stalled in January andthe private company taskedwith it did patchwork repairson the road, leaving the pipesstacked on the pavement.

Unable to handle the grow-ing volume of traffic on thisstretch, PWD has appointeda consultant to study waysfor easing congestion, espe-cially in front of the malls. Asenior official said that threeoptions are being consid-ered: a flyover in front of themalls, a doubledeck flyover,and making the wholestretch or at least part of itone-way."Land records arebeing verified to see whichconstructions are encroach-ments. They will be easier toremove but if the structuresare legal, land acquisitionwill have to be done," hesaid.

Press Enclave road clogged artery -5 caretakers, yet it is a mess

NEW DELHI, SEPT 25Observing that “no doubt investigationshave been seriously lacking and have notbeen conducted professionally…”, a Delhicourt has acquitted three former DelhiPolice personnel and a private person intwo 1984 anti-Sikh riot cases at Nangloi inWest Delhi.

While acquitting the then SHO of theNangloi police station, Ram Pal SinghRana, the then Assistant Sub-InspectorDalel Singh and the then Head ConstableKaram Singh and private person SatpalGupta, Additional Sessions Judge KaminiLau blamed the victims’ family membersfor the fall of the case on whose swornaffidavits the city police had lodged theFIRs.

Five Sikhs — Swaroop Singh, AmrikSingh, Trilochan Singh, Sant Singh andDarshan Singh — were killed in theattacks by the rioters, whose number wasin hundreds, in the wake of the assassina-tion of the then Prime Minister IndiraGandhi.

“When these witnesses, who are eyesand ears of the Court, having themselvesnot supported their earlier versions, there

is little that the State or the courts can doand to shift the entire blame on the prose-cution and investigating agency would behighly unfair,” Ms. Lau said.

There were a total of six accused in thecase. The proceedings against two ofthem, Prem Chand Jain and Ram Niwas,were abated as they expired during thetrial.

Scores of houses of people belonging tothe community were also looted and burntby the rioters.

The prosecution charged that instead ofhelping the victims, the police personnelpresent on the spot were inciting the riot-ers. The police personnel were alsocharged with forcing several Sikhs to havetheir hair cut at the local police stationwhere they had taken shelter to escape thefury of the rioters. Special PublicProsecution argued in the trial that theinvestigations had been conducted in ashoddy manner and the earlier prosecutorconducted the trial in a bad manner.However, Ms. Lau dismissed the chargessaying that “…to shift the blame on theprosecution and the investigating agencywould be highly unfair”.

3 police officers acquittedin anti-Sikh riot cases NEW DELHI, SEPT 25

The continuing trend of low luxu-ry tax collection as a result ofhotel rooms going vacant in theabsence of tourists and businesstravelers to the city is becoming acause of concern for the excisedepartment. This department isin-charge of luxury tax collectionin Delhi government. With a tar-get of Rs 400 crore from varioussources of luxury tax for the cur-rent financial year, the state has sofar managed to collect just aboutRs 130 crore. The department isnow planning to track downhotels that may be evading tax bynot registering with the state.Sources said that the state plans toseek data on hotels that may beout of the tax net from the munic-ipal corporation and Delhi Policeto launch a crackdown. As ofnow, there are 1,143 hotels of allcategories registered with depart-ment of excise covered under theluxury tax bracket. The excisedepartment is also planning tostudy the room occupancy statusto understand causes of low book-

ing. While the economic reces-sion is cited as one common rea-son for fewer tourists and busi-ness travelers, it is also felt thatwith more hotels coming up in theNational Capital Region the busi-ness traveler has a greater choiceand prefers to stay closer to hisplace of conference or work.

Delhi government collectedrevenue of Rs 306.75 crore as lux-ury tax during 2013-2014, agrowth of 4.5% over collectionsin 2012-2013. Though this was anincrease, senior officials feel thatthe impact of the slump in themarket remains as occupancy inhotels remains low. A robust col-lection reflecting booming indus-try is reflected in increase of therange of 12-15% over collectionsof the previous year, say officials.To ensure that tax collectionskeep with timelines and withoutany delay, registered entities havebeen using the Excise SupplyChain Information ManagementSystem (ESCIMS) for online pay-ment of tax and filing of onlinereturns of luxury tax.

Luxury tax hit due to vacant hotel rooms

NEW DELHI, SEPT 25While Indians were gluedto their televisions onWednesday morning, chil-dren from schools acrossDelhi lined up at NehruPlanetarium to watch a livescreening of updates fromMangalyaan in the dome.

The planetarium hasbeen running a “Mars inFocus” show to spreadawareness about the MarsOrbiter Mission. Thelearning-oriented showwill continue for the nextfew months to celebratethe success of the mission.Fun activities

There were fun activitiesplanned for schoolchildrenlike Mars quiz, 3D Mars,interactive sessions withexperts, Mars in the sky: atheatre interaction, hydrorocketry, and a terracottapot painting activity, inwhich students painted thesurface of the red planet onthe pot.

Speaking to reporters,planetarium director N.Rathnasree said she stillremembers the time whenRakesh Sharma went intospace.

“I was in college then

and remember celebratingafter hearing his famousline. It was a huge inspira-tion and I hope the successof Mangalyaan inspires thenext generation to take upspace exploration.”

Kriti Agarwal planned asurprise trip for her sonAnubhav after school toexperience the buzz at theplanetarium. The 11-year-old, who wants to be anastronaut, was visiblyexcited after the 3D exhibi-tion, in which you canview the surface of Mars.

Another parent AnantVishwakame, a marketingprofessional, took the dayoff from work to take hisson for the special Marsshow. “My son has beenpestering me for days now.I decided to take the dayoff to encourage his pas-sion,” said Mr.Vishwakame. Even collegestudents turned up out ofcuriosity to understand in-depth what the missionmeans to the country.Medical student Deepa feltthe show was an eye-open-

er as it introduced her to“various avenues beyondmedical studies”. Duringthe day, many schoolsbrought students to thevenue to encourage andinculcate in them an inter-est in astronomy.For students

The planetarium isencouraging schools tobring students to watch theshow and can be contactedon 011-23014504 fordetails, timings of theshow and availability oftickets and discounts.

‘Mars in Focus’ at Nehru Planetarium

NEW DELHI, SEPT 25The 32 police stations in Delhi thatare operating out of temporary struc-tures will soon have proper build-ings. Lieutenant-Governor NajeebJung on Wednesday directed land-owning agencies to expedite theprocess of allotting land to the saidpolice stations. At a meeting withDelhi Police Commissioner B.S.Bassi, Mr. Jung said: “Policing is thetop-most priority for our govern-ment. With expanding responsibili-ties, there is need to set up policestations in different parts of the city.Land agencies must extend coopera-tion and fast-track the allotment ofland for setting up these police sta-tions at the earliest.”

Among other places, new policestations will come up at BharatNagar, Neb Sarai, SafdarjungEnclave, Govind Puri, PulPrahladpur, Subhash Palace, KotlaMubarakpur, IP Estate, DeshBandhu Gupta Road, Saket, SoniaVihar, Fateh Pur Beri, Chhawla,Ranholla and Harsh Vihar.

The Police Commissioner had ear-lier informed the L-G that of theexisting 181 police stations in theCapital, 32 are currently operatingout of rented buildings, portablecabins and tents, and that these needto be shifted to permanent struc-tures.

At a meeting with the top brass ofDelhi Police as well as other seniorofficers, Delhi Lieutenant-GovernorNajeeb Jung emphasised that noteven a single case of bullying, extor-tion, or any other form of corruptionshould go unchecked.

He demanded that senior policeofficers take it upon themselves toinspire the Station House Officersand constabulary to demonstrateintegrity in their day-to-day dealingsby displaying administrative controlover personnel at their command.

“If the perception about DelhiPolice has to change, dishonesty ofany kind, has to become anathemafor them. This can be done so only ifpride is restored in the uniform,”said Mr. Jung.

Police Patrol: Allot land forpolice stations, directs L-G

NEW DELHI, SEPT 25 Two persons, including aNigerian national, alleged-ly stabbed a SupremeCourt lawyer following anargument at his residencein Malviya Nagar here onWednesday.

The accused duo, whohad come as clients, is onthe run.

The 68-year-old victim,Mohammad ShahidHussain, is undergoingtreatment at the All IndiaInstitute of MedicalSciences Trauma Centre.

According to police, theincident occurred around 7p.m. when the twoassailants visited his flaton the fourth floor of a

building located inJahanpanah Colony.

Azim Afiz, who alsolives in the same buildingand was on the terrace atthe time of the incident,said the two had come withsome documents seekingMr. Husain’s advice. TheIndian visitor was knownto the victim, said thepolice. “Moments later, Iheard him calling out myname as my mother, whowas on the floor abovehim, rushed in. I did not goimmediately as I couldn’tsense that he was in trou-ble. Moments later, I foundthat Mr. Husain had beeninjured on the left side ofhis neck with a pointed

object and the visitors hadfled,” said Mr. Azim. Headded that Mr. Husainrarely allowed visitors tomeet him at his residencebut had made an exceptionon Wednesday evening.

The motive behind theattack is suspected to be anargument between thelawyer and the client overa particular case.

Aam Aadmi Party’sMalviya Nagar MLASomnath Bharti took toTwitter to express his con-cern about the incident thatoccurred in Hauz Rani andsaid he was going to thespot. He said, “I can’t letmy people suffer in thisrut.” Further, he tweeted

that a senior police officialleft the area after the publicstarted complaining ofpolice atrocities.

An area resident, whodidn’t want to be named,said that Mr. Bharti tried togive the incident a local-versus-Nigerian spin byhighlighting the nationalityof one accused.

It is pertinent to mentionthat it was Mr. Bharti, whowhile serving as a Ministerin the Delhi Governmenthad in January conducted a“vigilante raid” in neigh-bouring Khirki Extensionas he alleged that Africantenants were running adrug and sex racket in thearea.

SC lawyer stabbed in Malviya Nagar

Ministry deniesmala fide in re-profiling ofAIIMS CVO job NEW DELHI, SEPT 25 Union Health Minister HarshVardhan on Wednesday main-tained that “there is no malafide in the government’s deci-sion to re-profile the job roleof Indian Forest Service offi-cer Sanjeev Chaturvedi”.

Reacting to reports aboutextraneous considerationsbehind the duties of the ChiefVigilance Officer (CVO) ofAIIMS being assigned to aJoint Secretary in the Ministryof Health, Dr. Vardhan said“selective representationoften leads to obfuscation offacts as has happened in thiscase”.

He said on July 20, 2012,the Central VigilanceCommission (CVC) hadbrought to the previous gov-ernment’s notice that Mr.Chaturvedi’ s appointment asCVO in AIIMS was withoutits approval, which is requiredto be obtained before suchappointments are made as perthe Vigilance Manual.

NEW DELHI, SEPT 25On the recommendationsof the Delhi DevelopmentAuthority, the Ministry ofUrban Development hasapproved the extension ofthe scheme for regularisa-tion of existing farmhous-es up to March 31 on therates already notified.

In order to bring trans-parency and accountabili-ty in the whole process ofsanction of building plans,the MunicipalCorporations have beendirected to accept onlyonline applications andprovide all relevant infor-mation such as date ofsubmission, date ofapproval, fee or penaltycharge, etc., on their web-sites. Self-assessment andcertification has beenmade mandatory for farm-house owners in respect of

building plans and thearea to be regularised.

The regularisationprocess will resume onlyafter online system hasbeen made operational byrespective MCDs.

The move comes aftervarious representationswere received by the DDAconcerning regularisationand sanction of farmhous-es by MCDs.

DDA Vice-ChairmanBalvinder Kumar had con-vened a meeting with theAdditional Secretary,Urban Development andthe Commissioners of allthe three MunicipalCorporations, whereinextending the date wasfelt necessary. Thereafter,the Ministry of UrbanDevelopment approvedthe extension of thescheme.

Scheme for farmhouse regularisation extended

NEW DELHI, SEPT 25Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Wednesday maintained that “there is no mala fide in the government’s deci-sion to re-profile the job role of Indian Forest Service officer Sanjeev Chaturvedi”. Reacting to reports about extrane-ous considerations behind the duties of the Chief Vigilance Officer (CVO) of AIIMS being assigned to a Joint Secretaryin the Ministry of Health, Dr. Vardhan said “selective representation often leads to obfuscation of facts as has happenedin this case”. He said on July 20, 2012, the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) had brought to the previous govern-ment’s notice that Mr. Chaturvedi’ s appointment as CVO in AIIMS was without its approval, which is required to beobtained before such appointments are made as per the Vigilance Manual. The Minister noted: “For reasons unclear,the then government had not only ignored this letter but also two subsequent reminders dated September 3, 2012, andFebruary 13, 2013.” He added: “Mr. Chaturvedi has neither been transferred nor asked to go on leave. A governmentofficer cannot claim certain positions as a matter of right and rush to the media with false allegations when redeployed,even before their terms expire. The right of the Ministry to assign roles is immutable.”

Ministry denies mala fide in re-profiling of AIIMS CVO job

NEW DELHI, SEPT 25The large number of fatalroad accidents on Delhiroads might have forcedthe authorities to takeremedial measures, but thechallenges ahead seemdaunting with the prob-lems ranging from defectsin road engineering, lackof proper road signages toviolation of traffic rules bythe Delhi TransportCorporation bus drivers.

Some of these lacunaeleading to road accidentswere highlighted at a meet-ing of the Delhi RoadSafety Council held underthe Chairmanship ofSecretary andCommissioner (Transport)earlier this month.

As per the minutes of themeeting, it was revealedby the Delhi Traffic Policethat DTC buses “are not

following traffic rules onroads as these buses arefound involved in over tak-ing, high speed and notobserving lane driving”.

Highlighting the fre-quent breakdown cases ofthe city buses, the officershighlighted that wheneverthere is breakdown of DTCbuses on the roads it caus-es traffic jams and createsproblems in VIP move-ments.

The TransportCommissioner directed theDTC management to issuenecessary advisory to itsofficers to ensure that thebuses do not violate anytraffic rule and take imme-diate action to tow awaythe broken down buses,besides installing firefighting equipment in eachDTC bus and the clusterscheme.

‘DTC bus drivers violating traffic rules’

Continuation 3

'This is the Step ...as part of the "Make in India movement." Tata group chairman Cyrus Mistry said

"Key challenges like building critical infra-structure and putting in place transparent taxand Duty structures have to be met...Make inIndia is a unique opportunity for governmentand business to work together."

Other captains of industry also spoke, eachpledging commitment to the Make in Indiacampaign. The Modi sales pitch was beamedsimultaneously in state capitals and Indianmissions abroad.

MOM Sends First...tri-colour and will be used to provide con-

text for the scientific results. The picture has the characteristic red hue,

since the Martian soil is rich in iron. It showsthe billions of year old Martian surface withimpact craters and possibly heads of deadvolcanoes. The dark patch seems to be a min-eral rich part or a portion where light has notpenetrated when the photo was taken. Thestreaks with a head in the darkened patch areeither large 'dust devils' or Martian sandstorms that blow over the surface of mars orsome artefacts.

Experts say these photos are 'excellent' butif co-ordinates were also released by ISROthese would be much more meaningful. OnWednesday, as India entered the historybooks with the insertion of MOM into theMartian orbit, Nasa's 2012 Mars missionCuriosity, Isro's Mars Orbiter and Nasa's2014 Mars mission Maven that entered theMars orbit September 21, also exchanged funtweets.

ISRO released the first images taken of theRed Planet using its onboard Mars ColourCamera.

day after India launched the Mars OrbiterMission (MOM), the Indian Space ResearchOrganisation (ISRO) released the firstimages taken of the Red Planet using itsonboard Mars Colour Camera. According toISRO this is the 'First Light. ISRO MarsOrbiter Mission captures its first image ofMars, taken from a height of 7300 kilome-ters, with 376 meter spatial resolution.'

A comment, 'The view is nice up here',accompanied the image which was alsoreleased on ISRO's Twitter handle.

The camera takes photos in tri-colour andwill be used to provide context for the scien-tific results.

The picture has the characteristic red hue,since the Martian soil is rich in iron. It showsthe billions of year old Martian surface withimpact craters and possibly heads of deadvolcanoes. The dark patch seems to be a min-eral rich part or a portion where light has notpenetrated when the photo was taken. Thestreaks with a head in the darkened patch areeither large 'dust devils' or Martian sandstorms that blow over the surface of mars orsome artefacts.

Experts say these photos are 'excellent' butif co-ordinates were also released by ISROthese would be much more meaningful.

On Wednesday, as India entered the historybooks with the insertion of MOM into theMartian orbit, Nasa's 2012 Mars missionCuriosity, Isro's Mars Orbiter and Nasa's2014 Mars mission Maven that entered theMars orbit September 21, also exchanged funtweets.

The first tweet by Isro's Mars Orbiter wasin the early hours of Wednesday, soon afterentering Mars Orbit, saying, "What is red, isa planet and is the focus of my orbit?"

The Twitter handle of ISRO's Mars OrbiterMission has already gained more than 83,000followers despite just these few tweets. Itsprofile description reads, "India's first mis-sion to Mars. Orbiting the Red Planet sinceSep 24, 2014. Explorer. Loves science, pho-tography and long cruises."

Philippine Envoy Leads...deaths of about 7,300 people."This climate walk is just one way of ele-

vating my advocacy. I believe it has a bigpotential to open people's eyes on the realityof climate change," he told AFP in an inter-view.

"(It) is borne out of a deep sense of duty topay homage to communities that confront therealities of climate change, disaster risk,poverty, and environmental abuse," he isquoted as saying on the project's officialwebsite.

To reach Tacloban, the home city of hisfather, on schedule, the 40-year-old scubadiver and former triathlete, said he wouldwalk seven hours daily from 5:00 am for 40straight days.

He will undertake the journey beneath thetropical sun of the country's traditional wetseason, when the majority of at least 20annual typhoons and large storms hit thecountry.

Local churches and schools along the routehave agreed to provide him beds to sleep onat night, he added.

He said he will be joined by a small core offellow walkers, while other like-minded indi-viduals and groups would join him forstretches along his southeasterly trek.

Sano gained worldwide renown at the UNclimate talks in Warsaw last year, days afterHaiyan devastated the Philippines, with adesperate, tear-choked appeal for countries tostrike a deal to avert mass tragedies of thiskind.

He also fasted for two weeks, the durationof the meeting.

He has since gone on other symbolic faststhis year in an attempt to maintain pressureahead of the next UN talks in Peru inDecember.

Sano said his planned ultra-marathon walkdid not really compare to "what people gothrough" in the Philippines, described byexperts as among the countries most vulnera-ble to extreme weather.

"We stare climate change in the face," hesaid.

India, China Agree ...Tibetan Border Police were engaged in

face-off since September 11.Prime Minister Narendra Modi had raised

the issue of transgression with ChinesePresident Xi Jinping during three day officialvisit to India.

Despite the face-off at Ladakh, both sideswere engaged with each other through confi-dence building measures.

A seven member Chinese Army delegationfrom the eastern Chengdu Military commandis visiting Kolkata.

Political Commissar Chengdu MilitaryRegion Command Lieutenant General ZhuFuxi met the Eastern Army CommanderLieutenant General M M S Rae at FortWilliam today.

BJP Ends 25-Year...was adamant on contesting at least 151.

That left only seven seats for smaller allies,who protested.

The BJP today said it had cast its lot withthose smaller allies and would carry themwith it in the elections to be held on October15. Nominations have to be filed bySaturday.

While the two parties will now contest thestate elections separately, the split could trig-ger massive political realignment. Expectedtoday is another announcement that the rivalCongress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)alliance is splitting too.

There are strong indications that the SharadPawar-led NCP is in touch with the BJP.

The BJP's central leaders had indicatedsince Thursday morning that there was notmuch to salvage in the relationship with theSena. On cue, BJP president Amit Shah can-celled his trip to Mumbai today for the sec-ond straight day.

Then, the BJP rejected what the Shiv Senacalled its "one final offer" on seat sharing andsought a fresh proposal. Any fresh proposalwould have need a significant climbdownfrom the Sena on number of seats, anacknowledgment that its status as the seniorpartner in Maharashtra had eroded.

Sena chief Udhav Thackeray's son Aditya'stweets indicated that was not acceptable. "Wehave vowed to work for a better Maharashtraand to fight and win against all those whodestroyed Maharashtra and dashed the hopesof all," he said, and also, "Under the leader-ship of Uddhav ji, we will build theMaharashtra of Balasaheb's dreams- progres-sive, safe, prosperous!".

At stake in the tussle was the chief minis-ter's post which the party with the more seatswould get if the alliance was voted to power.The Shiv Sena wants the seat for its chief.

After BJP- Sena...Prakash, party general secretary in charge

of Maharashtra, told Press Trust of India. Like the saffron block, the state's ruling

allies had been locked in a battle over seats inthe coming elections in Maharashtra and thealliance was hanging by a thread. TheCongress announcement of its first list of 118candidates last night proved the last straw.

The NCP had been in a huddle all day. Latein the evening, at a media conference toannounce the decision, it said the Congress'last night's announcement had come as ashock.

"We didn't even know about the first list ofthe Congress," said Sunil Tatkare, the statechief of the party. "Yesterday they came outwith their list, and they had declared candi-dates for even those seats that we were dis-cussing with them."

The rift between the two parties had grownwider following the NCP's latest demand -135 seats and rotation for the ChiefMinister's post in case the alliance came topower. The Congress, which was ready togive 124 seats to the NCP, called it "unrea-sonable".

The party had left the decision to theCentral leadership and Chief MinisterPrithviraj Chavan went to his hometownKarad, from where he is to contest the elec-tions.

"We rejected the 124-seat offer. We heardfrom the media but sadly not from theCongress," said senior NCP leader PrafulPatel. "The NCP has had big role in bringinga secular government in Maharashtra for thepast 15 years. Sad we could not find a solu-tion this time."

PM Modi Leaves ...the Indian American Community at the

Madison Square Garden in New York. Theirsuccess in diverse fields, their contribution tothe United States, their abiding bonds withIndia and their role as a vibrant bridgebetween the two largest democracies is asource of pride for us."

Mr Modi will kick off his maiden US visitin New York, where he will address the UNGeneral Assembly and address people ofIndian origin at Madison Square Garden, a18,200-capacity Manhattan arena.

He is scheduled to have breakfast in NewYork on Monday with heads of top globalfirms including Google's Eric Schmidt andPepsiCo's Indra Nooyi. "I look forward tomeeting business leaders to invite them toparticipate more actively in India's economicgrowth and transformation," he said in astatement.

On Monday he will head to Washington. Mr Modi headed to New York hours after

launching "Make in India", an initiative toattract global manufacturing to his country,in New Delhi.

This is the Prime Minister's first visit to theUS, which denied him a visa for years overthe riots in Gujarat in 2002 when he waschief minister of the state.

After he led his party the BJP to a spectac-ular victory in the national elections on apromise to revive the country's flagging eco-nomic fortunes, the US has repeatedlyreached out to him.

Assam Floods: Toll..that reached even up to roofs of thatched-

and tinned- roof houses, the officials said.The authorities have opened 162 relief

camps and shelter homes where 1.5 lakh peo-ple have taken shelter.

The National Highway in Goalpara wasstill under water and there was no movementof traffic there, while washing away of awooden bridge on Aagia-Darek Road hasforced the people to come to safety using arope from one bank to the other.

The floods have caused four small childrenin Boko area of Kamrup Rural district tobecome orphans as their parents werewashed away by a swollen river, the sourcessaid.

With the cessation of rains since lastevening in Guwahati, the flood waters weregradually receding from Anil Nagar, NabinNagar and Zoo Road areas, the sources said.

According to the flood report by AssamState Disaster Management Authority(ASDMA), around 3 lakh people were hit inKamrup Rural district.

Essential food items and tarpaulin sheetswere being provided to the relief campinmates, the ASDMA release said.

However, people who took shelter on high-er roads complained that the authorities havenot provided them with food, drinking wateror tarpaulin sheets.

Goalpara district was the worst-hit in thefloods due to heavy rains in Assam,Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh sinceearly this week, while torrential downpourand water running down from the adjacentMeghalaya hills caused heavy waterloggingin Guwahati, the sources said.

Several embankments have been breachedand many roads damaged across the state, theASDMA added.

The worst hit Goalpara district recordedthe maximum death (16), followed byKamrup Rural (12), Kamrup Metro (six),Dhubri and Tinsukia (both one).

The other affected districts are Dhemaji,Barpeta, Udalguri, Kokrajhar, Nalbari,Morigaon, Nagaon, Darrang and Lakhimpur.

The state government had yesterdayannounced an ex-gratia payment of Rs. 3.5lakh to the next of kin of those who died inthe flood.

Meanwhile, Northeast Frontier Railwayhad cancelled eight trains yesterday anddiverted seven others today due to the floodsin Lower Assam and damaged track restora-tion work.

The railway will also operate three specialtrains for transporting flood-affected peopleand helping in restoration work, an NFRailway spokesperson said in a statement.

Rail tracks were breached at 16 places inthe New Bongaigaon-Goalpara-Kamakhyasection of Rangiya Division due to massiveflood during the last few days, the statementsaid.

Track restoration work is also going onbetween Aujuri and Sonuabari in Lumdingdivision, the spokesman added.

Committed to women’s ...Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu said at the

Assocham awards function here.Mr. Naidu, however, declined to give any

time frame for bringing the Bill in Parliamentand said the NDA government would move“forward cautiously” on the issue.

“I cannot give any time frame because it isnot to be decided by one party. It needsbroader support and consensus among allpolitical parties.

You need an amendment as well,” he saidwhen asked whether the Bill would be intro-duced in the upcoming winter session ofParliament.

“We have to talk to different parties, takethem on board and then move forward. Wehave had bitter experiences earlier ... on thediscussion of the Bill. Keeping that in mind,we have to move forward cautiously,” hesaid.

India's 100 Richest...for the eighth consecutive year.Mukesh Ambani was followed by Dilip

Shanghvi, who got richer this year by USD4.1 billion. Mr Shanghvi is the new No. 2,after he displaced steel baron Lakshmi Mittal(USD 15.8 billion), who slipped to the fifthplace.

Wipro's Azim Premji moved up one notchto the number three position as his net wealthincreased to USD 16.4 billion from USD13.8 billion previously. Pallonji Mistry, patri-arch of construction giant Shapoorji PallonjiGroup which is the biggest shareholder inTata Sons with a new worth of USD 15.9 bil-

lion, was placed in the fourth place.Forbes said that "good days are here" for

the India's 100 Richest, as the top 100 richestIndians are all billionaires with combinedwealth of USD 346 billion, up more than athird from USD 259 billion in 2013.

Propelled by the euphoria after theBharatiya Janata Party's landslide victory inMay, the stock market has gained 28 per centsince January, driving the net-worth of theuber-rich people in India.

The biggest dollar gainer is ports magnateGautam Adani, who jumped 11 spots to 11thrank in the list, adding nearly USD 4.5 billionto his wealth which reached USD 7.1 billionon soaring share prices.

"Shares of Adani's companies started soar-ing ahead of the elections on hopes of a BJPvictory. The gains added close to USD 4.5billion to his wealth, more than anyone else,"Forbes said.

Others in the top 10 include NRI business-men Hinduja Brothers who were at the sixthposition with a net worth of USD 13.3 bil-lion, followed by Shiv Nadar (7th, USD 12.5billion), Godrej family (8th, USD 11.6 bil-lion), Kumar Birla (9th, USD 9.2 billion) andSunil Mittal & family (10th, USD 7.8 bil-lion).

As many as 85 of the 89 who returned tothe top 100 from last year are wealthier, andseveral are billionaires for the first time.

Among them are Qimat Rai Gupta (ranked48, net worth USD 1.95 billion), Chairman ofHavells; V G Siddhartha (75, USD 1.27 bil-lion), founder of the Cafe Coffee Day chain;and brothers Harsh Goenka (82, USD 1.18billion) and Sanjiv Goenka (69, USD 1.4 bil-lion), who run their independent empires andare listed separately.

Rajnath Singh to ...today to review the flood situation there."The Home Minister has asked Rijiju to

visit Assam today and take stock of the floodsituation in the state. Rijiju is accompaniedby Sonowal and they will brief the HomeMinister on the situation on their return fromAssam," a Home Ministry official said.

The Home Minister had yesterday assuredall possible assistance to Assam governmentfor rescue and relief of flood-affected peoplein the state.

During a telephonic talk with Assam ChiefMinister Tarun Gogoi, the Home Ministerconveyed to him that the central governmentwas monitoring the flood situation in thenortheastern states and was ready to help allflood-affected states in facing the challenge.

No holiday on ...said. The Prime Minister will on October 2

launch 'clean India' campaign, a mass move-ment aimed at cleaning the country.

A week-long drive has also been startedfrom today to get rid of clutter, garbage andweed out old and unwanted things from gov-ernment office premises, the directive said.

"There is a need to create massive publicawareness and to ensure participation andaction for cleaning homes, governmentoffices, schools, hospitals, work places,streets, roads and markets, railway stationand bus terminals, statues, monuments,rivers, lakes, ponds and other public places,"it said.

Mr Modi had on August 15 announced thelaunch of the campaign.

"I come from a poor family, I have seenpoverty. The poor need respect and it beginswith cleanliness. I, therefore, have to launcha 'clean India' campaign from October 2 this

year and carry it forward in four years," MrModi had said in his speech on IndependenceDay from the Red Fort.

The Cabinet Secretary had earlier alsowritten to secretaries of central governmentdepartments pressing the need for cleanworking spaces.

"There are certain offices where construc-tion material is lying for years. In some officepremises, unused or junked vehicles are alsoparked. The departments have already been

asked to make sure that no clutter, unusedvehicles, rubbles or building material arelying in the office premises," a PersonnelMinistry official said.

There may be surprise inspections toensure the effectiveness of cleanliness drive,he said.

Senior officials have sprung into action andinstructed their concerned supervisors toensure that the office premises are clean.

Blast in Submarine ...class submarine - carried 16 warheads, a

combination of Sut Torpedoes and KlubMissiles.

On August 14, the submarine was beingprepared for a sortie - a dive at sea -- when amajor explosion on board led to its sinkingand the death of the sailors. The explosiontook place in the forward compartmentwhere the weapons bay was located.

Forensic examination of the 14 missilesand torpedoes recovered from the damagedsubmarine ruled out malfunction of ordnancewhich could have caused the explosion.

INS Sindhurakshak, the 9th of the 10 KiloClass diesel-electric powered submarines,was commissioned in December 1997. Itwent through a mid-life upgrade betweenJune 2010 and May 2013, which cost $80million.

Youth Congress protests...back to the country.The protests were held at Jantar Mantar in theheart of the capital. The demonstrators raisedslogans and tried to break police barricades.“We are protesting against the government as

they have not been able to fulfill any of thepromises made, whether it was about wasblack money or border incursions,” AmitMallick, Delhi president of the Indian YouthCongress, saidTo control the crowd, police used force andalso detained few of them.“We had to use force and detain few of them asthey turned aggressive,” AdditionalCommissioner of Police S.B.S Tyagi said.

Hate Speech Relief ...hate speech.

The Lucknow bench of the court alsorefused to issue a writ of 'quo warranto' (rightto hold an office or governmental privilege)against him in the matter.

However, the court issued a notice to AzamKhan and sought a reply from him within sixweeks on whether, being a state CabinetMinister, he can hold the office of theChancellor of Maulana Mohammad AliJauhar University.

Fresh Protests in Kolkata's ...tion of a student."The VC today came to the campus at around12 noon and went to his office. We areprotesting against the VC's entry into thecampus. We want him to step down," said amember of JU's students' union.Mr Chakraborty's visit to the JU campuscomes on the day when a proposed march tothe Kolkata Police headquarters at Lal Bazarwas called off by protesting students aftercases against them were withdrawn.Thousands of students had marched throughthe city's streets last Saturday demanding MrChakraborty's resignation.West Bengal Governor KN Tripathi, who isalso the Chancellor of JU, has intervened inthe matter calling for an end to the stalemateat the prestigious institution where studentscontinue to boycott classes.

Successful Mars Mission ...Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for itssuccessful arrival at Mars with the MarsOrbiter Mission ( MOM)," Xinhua quotedNASA Administrator Charles Bolden as say-ing in a statement."It was an impressive engineering feat, andwe welcome India to the family of nationsstudying another facet of the Red Planet."Bolden said he hopes the MOM could add tothe knowledge the world is gathering withthe other spacecraft at Mars."All space exploration expands the frontiersof scientific knowledge and improves life foreveryone on Earth. We commend this signif-icant milestone for India," he added.India successfully put the MOM in Mars'orbit early on Wednesday, becoming the firstAsian country to reach the Red Planet.The arrival came two days after NASA's ownspacecraft, dubbed Mars Atmosphere andVolatile Evolution (MAVEN), entered theplanet 's orbit.The two joined five spacecraft already oper-ating on Mars surface or in orbit, includingthree orbiters - Mars Odyssey, MarsReconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Express -and two rovers on the surface, Curiosity andOpportunity.

Japan Keen to ...Japanese Minister for Land, Infrastructureand Tourism Akihiro Ohta during his meetingwith Road Transport and Highways MinisterNitin Gadkari in the national capital.Mr Ohta said his country, which has expert-ise in constructing roads in mountainousregions, can "actively contribute" in buildingsuch infrastructure in the Northeast.He said "infrastructure is the important keyfor our success and our new government hasgiven maximum importance to infrastruc-ture".The Japanese move comes weeks after PrimeMinister Narendra Modi undertook a suc-cessful visit to the country where he soughthelp in improving India's infrastructure.Infrastructure development in border areashas become a contentious issue in recentyears between India and China.India is now focusing on such projects in abig way after a massive built-up by China inthe region.Japan has promised 3.5 trillion Yen (USD 35billion or Rs. 2,10,000 crore) to Indiathrough public and private funding over fiveyears for various works, including buildingof infrastructure.

Money to Former ...allotments, nine in all.

The court in its order had said that the allo-cations were 'illegal" and "arbitrary".

In an exclusive, Mr Jindal admitted that thecourt's order was a 'setback' for companieswhich have mined coal for the past 20 yearsto generate power and make steel, and nowbeen told that what they are doing is illegal,while they have been creating wealth for thecountry.

Need States' Cooperation ...Bengal - for the successful execution of itsproject to clean the Ganga.

Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar told thebench of Justice T.S. Thakur and Justice R.Banumathi that besides cooperation of thestates, there has to be awareness among thepeople to keep the rivers clear and free frompollutants.

Emphasising on the importance of cooper-ation and coordination from the states, thesolicitor general said the Centre was fundingthe clean Ganga project but the implement-ing agencies were with the states.

From Page 1NEW DELHI | FRIDAY | SEPT 26, 2014SAADDA HAQ

Editorial4 NEW DELHI | FRIDAY | SEPT 26, 2014SAADDA HAQ

After a journey of over 660 million kilometres thattook 10 months, India’s Mars Orbiter Mission hasswept with effortless ease into orbit around the

Red Planet, making this country the first to achieve sucha feat in a maiden attempt. Probes despatched to Earth’ssibling planet over the last half a century have often runinto trouble of one kind or another, with only less thanhalf of those spacecraft ending the voyage successfully.Thus far, only the United States, the former Soviet Unionand the European Space Agency have succeeded in doingso. India and its space agency, the Indian Space ResearchOrganisation (ISRO), now proudly join their ranks.Although ISRO could draw on its experience with thelunar probe, Chandrayaan-1, launched six years back, thechallenges involved in sending a spacecraft all the way toMars are far greater. That includes propelling the space-craft with sufficient velocity to escape Earth’s gravitation-al grasp, guiding it along the proper trajectory over vastdistances, and then slowing it down sufficiently to go intoorbit around that planet. The spacecraft had to be capableof operating autonomously as communication signals toand from ground stations could take minutes to reach it.All of this has gone remarkably smoothly, including theorbit insertion manoeuvre with the spacecraft’s mainengine, which had lain idle for almost 300 days. It is atribute to ISRO and the professionalism of its scientistsand engineers that every minute detail for such a complexmission could be attended to in the course of a projectcompleted in just one and a half years. India’s Mars effortcosts Rs.460 crore, an economical price tag by Westernstandards. The Indian probe joins four spacecraft alreadycircling Mars, including America’s MAVEN (acronym forMars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) that went intoorbit just two days earlier, as well as two U.S. roversexploring the planet’s surface. The Indian and U.S. spaceagencies are holding discussions on possible scientificcollaboration. Success with the Mars Orbiter will giveISRO the confidence and capability to undertake morechallenging missions. However, if the country wants tosend heavier and more powerful spacecraft to Mars, itcannot do so with the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle(PSLV) that was used for the current mission. However,the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV)equipped with an indigenous cryogenic stage made itsfirst successful flight only in January this year, and a fewmore flights will be necessary to establish its reliability.Further improvements to the rocket may also prove essen-tial. ISRO has achieved much, and more will be expectedof it in the years to come.

Mars mission successFriday | September 26, 2014

BY PALLAVA BAGLA

India has created global histo-ry by becoming the firstAsian nation to reach the

Mars orbit in a space mission.The success is sweeter becausethis has been done in its maidenattempt. No other country thathas attempted a mission to Marshas succeeded in reaching theplanet on debut. So, the IndianSpace Research Organisation(ISRO) can claim that it hasdone a shade better than accom-plished space powers such as theUnited States and Russia inreaching Mars.

India’s Mangalyaan has costthe country Rs.450 crore orabout $70 million; it is withoutdoubt the cheapest inter-plane-tary mission ever to be undertak-en since Martian explorationbegan. On September 22, a mis-sion by NASA called the MarsAtmosphere and VolatileEvolution (MAVEN), made at acost of over $670 million,reached Mars. This Indianmarathon took 300 days to covera distance of over 670 millionkilometres — a sprint really in arecord time of 10 months.

The first official hint that Indiawas undertaking a mission toMars came in the budget speechof 2012. Subsequently, PrimeMinister Manmohan Singh for-mally declared in hisIndependence Day speech thatyear that an Indian mission washeading to Mars. The missionitself was launched on a balmyafternoon on November 5, 2013,and the journey from the RedFort to the Red Planet has had adream run.

On his last visit to ISRO, whenhe witnessed the launch of aPolar Satellite Launch Vehicle,Prime Minister Narendra Modisaid India’s Mars orbiter is a“great achievement” since itcosts less than the making of theHollywood blockbuster movie“Gravity” which had a tag of$100 million.

An inexpensive mission

Many have questioned whyIndia should be sending a robot-ic mission to Mars when there isso much poverty, malnutrition,death, disaster and diseasesamong its 1.2 billon population.Some have even called this mis-sion as being a part of India’s“delusional dream” of becominga superpower in the 21st century.There can be nothing farther

from the truth. If one analysesthe cost of the Mars Orbiter mis-sion of Rs.450 crore, for Indiansit works out to be about Rs.4 perperson. Today, a bus ride wouldcost a lot more.

India’s Mars Orbiter missionhas paved the way for cheaperand faster inter-planetary probes.During his upcoming U.S. visit,Mr. Modi and U.S. PresidentBarack Obama are likely to signa new agreement for the makingof the joint Indo-U.S. RadarSatellite Mission. China andIndia recently signed an agree-ment on “peaceful uses of outerspace.” So, many are now want-ing to partner in ISRO’s success.

The mission, within minutes

of reaching Mars, has alreadytaken its first images of theMartian surface. The Marscolour camera, which is essen-tially an Indian eye to trackMars, will bring back the firsttangible truths to Indian taxpay-ers that their money has beenwell spent.

If the 20th century witnessed a“space race” between the U.S.

and the USSR, the 21st centuryis seeing an Asian space race. Inmost aspects of space technolo-gy, China is way ahead of India.It has larger rockets, biggersatellites and several rocketports. It even launched its firstastronaut in space way back in2003 and has a space laboratoryin the making.

In 2008, when India undertookits first mission to moonChandrayaan-1, China racedahead and orbited its Chang’e-1satellite ahead of India. But inthis Martian marathon, India hasreached the finish line ahead ofChina. This now puts India inthe pole position as far as AsianMartian exploration goes. In

2012, the first Chinese probe toMars Yinghuo-1 failed. It wasriding atop a Russian satellitecalled Phobos-Grunt. But theChinese probe failed to evenleave earth. Earlier in 1998, aJapanese probe to Mars ran outof fuel.

Today, India’s Mars orbitermission has shown that theIndian elephant has lumbered

ahead of the Chinese red dragon.For the record, ISRO’s chairmanDr. K. Radhakrishnan has goneon record by saying, “We are notracing with anybody. We are rac-ing with ourselves. We have torace to reach the next level ofexcellence.”

Challenges aheadNow that India has reached

Mars, ISRO has several othergoals and challenges to meet.Coming up in the next fewweeks is the test firing of India’smonster rocket, theGeosynchronous SatelliteLaunch Vehicle Mk III, a rocketcapable of carrying heavy pay-loads into space. This flight will

carry a dummy crew module,which is part of a programme forthe development of critical tech-nologies that ISRO seeks todevelop as part of its humanspace flight programme.

As ISRO says, the first astro-naut could well be a woman. In afew weeks, an Indian navigationsatellite will be also launchedinto space. By 2017, ISROwants to undertake India’s sec-ond mission to moonChandrayaan-2 which will havean Indian lander and a rover.Subsequently, it also wants tolaunch dedicated missions tostudy the Sun and the planetarybodies in the solar system.

Mr. Modi, in his stirringspeech to ISRO, spoke of itscapabilities and efficiencies. It isan eye-opener that a countrywhich can undertake a missionto Mars is unable to provideelectricity to 400 million citi-zens. What is worse is that 600million Indians still don’t haveaccess to toilets. It is hoped thatMr. Modi would have learnt alesson or two from the Indianspace agency on how to under-take cost-effective projects withno time or cost overruns. If onlyMr. Modi internalises this biglearning can his dream of having“Swachh Bharat” by 2019become a reality.

The Orbiter mission undoubt-edly tells the world that India isa space power to reckon with.The more technology wasdenied to India, the more deter-mined it became to master thesetechnologies.

Amid the celebration, if thereis one point of regret, it is thatthe Mars Orbiter Satellite — atruly nationalistic mission —does not carry the Indian tri-colour or the flag. This is oneinexplicable omission ISROmay regret for a long time tocome.

(Pallava Bagla is the co-author of the book Reaching for

the Stars: India’s Journey toMars and Beyond. E-mail:pallava.bagla@gmail.com)

A faster, cheaper Mars orbiter SAADDA HAQ

BY ASHWINI DESHPANDE

The rise of OtherBackward Classes(OBC) and Dalit-Adivasi

leaders in the political sphere iscelebrated as India’s “silentrevolution.” At the nationallevel, this phenomenon hasbeen especially marked sincethe early 1990s, leading tocomments about the“Mandalisation” of the Indianpolity. The political ascendancyof individuals from traditional-ly marginalised groups hasbeen viewed as a large enoughflux that it is believed to haveeither reversed, or certainlyflattened, the centuries-old tra-ditional caste hierarchies. Thecontemporary caste system isoften represented as one wherehorizontally placed entitiescompete for governmentfavours and for a space amongthe elites, often using the trumpcard of marginalisation, despitebeing powerful, rich and domi-nant groups within their localcontexts. The pictures varydepending on the commentator:it is either one of competitionbetween equals; or one wherethe upper castes are now thenew marginalised and the so-called lower castes, especiallythe OBCs, the new elite. A run-ning theme underlying theseanalyses is one that minimisesthe actual extent of disadvan-tage and discrimination, andcelebrates the end of the castesystem, or at least its dehuman-ising, hierarchical and exploita-tive avatar.

Change in political sphereIndeed, the change in the

political sphere is rather strik-ing, especially in the Hindi belt.Until the early 1970s, uppercaste Members of Parliamentrepresented more than 50 percent of North Indian MPs, com-pared to 5 per cent for the inter-mediate castes and at most 10per cent for OBCs. In the South(and also in Maharashtra), dueto a combination of reasons,including a long history ofintense social reform move-ments, upper castes lost their

predominant position in thepolitical sphere rather early on.Even though the implementa-tion of the Mandal Commissionreport is seen as “the” turningpoint, in actual fact, the share ofintermediate castes and OBCsstarted rising in 1977. By 1989,upper caste MPs from UttarPradesh fell below 40 per centfor the first time, and the OBCshare was 21 per cent. Thesame trend was getting reflect-ed in the State Assemblies: e.g.in Uttar Pradesh, the share ofupper caste MLAs decreasedfrom 58 per cent in 1962 to 37.7per cent in 1998.

Has this shift in the socialcomposition of political leadersled to a corresponding changein material conditions of broadcaste groups? The “OBCs-are-the-new-elite” theory certainlybelieves that it has: the person-al enrichment of individualpolitical leaders, coupled withsome rags-to-riches stories areoffered as evidence of thischange. However, like severaldebates, this one has generatedmore heat than light, becausethese individual stories, dra-matic as they are, do not giveany sense of the broader con-tours of change in the relativeranking of the three broadsocial groups — Dalits-Adivasis, OBCs and “Others”(everyone else). In the absenceof jati-specific data, “Others”are often taken as a loose proxyfor upper castes, but it shouldbe noted that the actual dispari-ty between upper and lowercastes would be larger thanwhat is revealed by these broaddata categories. Also, the OBCcategory in these data sets is thelegal one, i.e. all jatis classifiedas OBCs, including dominantcastes. Thus, the gaps betweenthe truly “backward” OBCs andupper castes would be largerthan what are revealed byaggregate data.

Material disparitiesAlong with Rajesh

Ramachandran, I have tried tomap the changing contours ofcaste disadvantage in India

since independence using large-scale national data. Ideally, thebest kind of data to examinechanges over time would belongitudinal or panel data —one that tracks a large set ofindividuals over time.However, in the absence of that,

we use National Sample Surveydata and divide the populationinto birth cohorts, such that theoldest cohort in our data com-prises individuals born between1926 and 1935 and theyoungest cohort are those bornduring 1976-85.

We examine gaps in severalindicators (landholding, urbani-sation, years of education, pro-portions of those with differentlevels of education, variousemployment indicators, wagesand so forth) across castegroups, between each cohort,and see if the gaps are increas-ing or decreasing acrosscohorts. Suppose that uppercastes have a higher proportion(than OBCs) of those who holdelite, white-collar jobs. Thatindicates disparity along tradi-tional lines. But if this gap is

lower for younger cohorts thanit was for older cohorts, itwould mean that OBCs arecatching up with upper castes interms of access to this tier ofoccupation. If, hypothetically,we were to find that among theyounger cohorts, a greater pro-

portion of OBCs had access towhite-collar jobs than uppercastes, it would suggest that theolder hierarchy of access tosuch jobs had been overturned,and the OBCs are indeed thenew elite in this dimension. Weexamined each of our indicatorsusing this methodology, andhere’s what we found.

The overarching pictureshows that there are clear dis-parities in virtually all indica-tors of material well-being,with upper castes at the top,SC-STs at the bottom andOBCs in between. However,the picture is not uniformacross indicators, and there aresigns of change.

Education and occupationWe find evidence of conver-

gence between the three broad

groups in literacy and primaryeducation over successivecohorts. However, in access tohigher education, the groupsare growing further apart. Thefact that for education after theprimary stage, and especiallyfor higher education critical to

achieving social mobility, tradi-tional hierarchies have not onlypersisted, but widened over thelast 50 years is significant. Thissuggests that policies targetedtowards closing the gaps at thehigher education levels are notentirely misplaced, as the gapswould probably have been larg-er in the absence of such poli-cies.

In a three way division of alljobs into agricultural, blue col-lar and white collar, SC-STsrecord the highest proportion inagricultural jobs consistentlyfor all cohorts, followed byOBCs and upper castes; where-as for white-collar jobs, uppercastes record the highest pro-portions for all cohorts, fol-lowed by OBCs and then SC-STs. For blue-collar jobs, thepicture is mixed, in that OBCs

record the highest proportions,followed by upper castes andthen SC-STs. Here, change canbe seen in the fact that youngercohorts among OBCs seem tobe closing the gap vis-à-visupper castes in terms of accessto prestigious white-collar jobs,whereas SC-STs continue to lagbehind.

Jobs and discriminationWe find that SC-ST percent-

ages with access to public sec-tor jobs are consistently higherthan those for OBCs, a trend atvariance with access to white-collar jobs. We believe that thedifference in the relative picturebetween SC-STs and OBCsreflects the longer operation ofSC-ST quotas. Note, however,that upper castes as a groupcontinue to have the highestpercentage of public sector jobsacross cohorts.

Here again, the OBCs arecatching up, both with SC-STsand with upper castes. This ismost strikingly true for thecohort born between 1956-1965, individuals who wouldhave been between 35 and 25years old in 1990 and hence eli-gible to take advantage of thenew quotas. This catch up con-tinues onwards to youngercohorts. We see a similar con-vergence between SC-ST andupper castes, which is in con-trast to the picture of diver-gence between SC-ST andupper castes in access to white-collar jobs.

A standard method of esti-mating discrimination in thelabour market is via decompo-sition of the wage gap betweentwo groups. A part of the wagegap between any two groupscan be explained by the factthat members of one group arelikely to be better educated,more skilled or have otherattributes that command higherwages. However, if the entirewage gap cannot be explainedby these factors, the residualgap is taken as a proxy forlabour market discrimination.Comparing the oldest cohortborn after independence to the

youngest cohort, we find thataverage wage gaps betweenOBCs and upper castes havebeen narrowing over the years,but notably, the discriminatorycomponent is rising. The gapsbetween SC-STs and uppercastes are larger than those forOBCs, and the trend is again ofrising discrimination foryounger cohorts.

Traditional hierarchies per-sist

Overall, despite significantgaps in all indicators (consump-tion expenditure, wages, educa-tional attainment, occupationalattainment and so forth), wefind substantial evidence ofcatch up between OBCs andupper castes among youngercohorts (especially in literacy,primary education, access towhite-collar jobs, wages), butwe find continued divergencein all education categories afterthe middle school level. Theconvergence for SC-STs is verylimited, confined only to litera-cy and primary education.However, our disaggregatedregional examination revealsthat the association of thesechanges with political represen-tation is weak, at best. Thatshould not be taken to meanthat political representation hasnot worked or that it is not vitalto achieve an inclusive, andbroad-based structure of gover-nance and decision-making.What the evidence indicates isthat traditional hierarchies aretoo deeply entrenched to bereversed through one singlemeasure; they need a concertedpush, backed by strong willfrom different segments ofsociety, including, but not con-fined to, politicians.

(Ashwini Deshpande isProfessor, Delhi School of

Economics. E-mail: ashwi-ni@econdse.org)

Contours of caste disadvantage

Our team will publish yourthoughts send us your

artices at news.saadda-haq@gmail..com

Indeed, the change in the political sphere is rather striking,especially in the Hindi belt. Until the early 1970s, upper caste

Members of Parliament represented more than 50 per cent ofNorth Indian MPs, compared to 5 per cent for the intermediate

castes and at most 10 per cent for OBCs. In the South (and also inMaharashtra), due to a combination of reasons, including a longhistory of intense social reform movements, upper castes lost theirpredominant position in the political sphere rather early on. Even

though the implementation of the Mandal Commission report is seenas “the” turning point, in actual fact, the share of intermediate castesand OBCs started rising in 1977. By 1989, upper caste MPs from UttarPradesh fell below 40 per cent for the first time, and the OBC sharewas 21 per cent. The same trend was getting reflected in the State

Assemblies: e.g. in Uttar Pradesh, the share of upper caste MLAsdecreased from 58 per cent in 1962 to 37.7 per cent in 1998.

State Watch 5

TIRUCHI, SEPT 25Students and institutionshailed the country’s spacescientists on the successfullaunch of Mangalyaan intothe Mars orbit onWednesday.

No sooner the newsabout the successful entryof the satellite, students,and science teachers ofJegan Matha MatriculationHigher Secondary Schoolin K.K. Nagar in the citycongratulated the IndianSpace ResearchOrganisation.

Standing around aRangoli painting depictingthe satellite entering theMars planet, students ofclasses 6, 7, and 9expressed their joy andpleasure on the occasion.

“We have been closelyfollowing-up the progressof the satellite right fromits launch a year ago,” saysE. Krithika, a scienceteacher who has been guid-ing the students on the sig-

nificance of the space sci-ence in general and theMangalyaan in particular.

Fr. Sahayaraj, correspon-dent of the school, saidthey had anticipated thesuccess of the ISRO mis-sion as they were followingits launch.

“In fact, we held a spe-cial seminar on the launchof the mission a year ago,”he said.

The science teachers had

been keeping a follow-upon the launch and keepingthe students updated.

The mission had servedas an inspiration for stu-dents to take up scienceresearch, he added.

In Pudukottai, membersof the Thulir Illam took outa procession in the town tomark the success of themission.

They distributed pam-phlets and sweets on the

significance of the mission.

“The achievement willenable people to under-stand the scientific truthabout space,” said A.Manavalan, district presi-dent of the Tamil NaduScience Forum, and M.Veeramuthu, district secre-tary of the forum. Theyurged the Centre to encour-age space research by allo-cating more funds.

City's schoolchildren join thecelebration of Mangalyaan success VIJAYAWADA, SEPT 25

Hired killers from Mumbaiwere suspected to beinvolved in the daylightmurder in which three per-sons were shot dead on theNational Highway-5 hereon Wednesday.

The victims -- GandhamNageswara Rao (55) andGandham Pagidi Maraiah(36) Pagidi Maraiah (35) --belonging to Pinakadimivillage in Pedavegi mandalof West Godavari districtwere shot dead by uniden-tified persons on NH-5 ataround 10.30 a.m. Thedriver of their car managedto escape.

Vijayawada City PoliceCommissioner A. B.Venkateswara Rao, whovisited the spot, said fami-

ly rivalry was suspected tobe reason behind the mur-der.

Speaking to The Hindu,the Commissioner said, “Itis quite possible that thosewho executed the killingmight have roped in hired

killers from Mumbai. Weare investigating from allangles.”

According to the police,the assailants waylaid thecar in which the trio wastravelling and fired at themfrom point-blank range.

The victims were on theirway from Gannavaram toEluru to attend a courthearing. The three wereaccused in the murder ofone Durga Rao, who waskilled in Eluru on March 9this year. They subsequent-ly went to Mumbai aftersecuring bail and were pro-ceeding to the court atEluru after landing atGannavaram airport in themorning. According toDCP (Law & Order)Tafseer Iqbal, eight bulletswere recovered near thecar, which belonged to atravel operator from Eluru.“A high alert has beensounded at all check-postsin Krishna and WestGodavari districts to tracethe killers,” the DCP said.

Three shot dead on NH-5 near Vijayawada

HYDERABAD, SEPT 25The four tedious hoursa day without powerare back to haunt thecity. On Wednesdaymorning, many areas inthe city woke up to atwo-hour power cut,resumed after lull ofover a month. Twomore hours followed inthe noon, much to thechagrin of the con-sumers.

The Southern PowerDistribution Companyof Telangana Limited,later in the day, onlyconfirmed the loadreliefs imposed, byannouncing the revisedschedules.

District headquartershave gone back topower cuts of fivehours a day, while fortowns/municipalities itwill be six hours, andmandal headquarters,eight hours per day, the

official informed.Industrial power holi-days, which had beenrevoked a month ago,are very likely to beresumed very soon.

The city has beendivided into threegroups, A, B and C, andimposed with staggeredpower cuts of fourhours a day, enforced intwo spells of two hourseach between 6 a.m.and 6 p.m.

These are, by far, themost lengthy load reliefschedules imposed inthe non-summermonths in the recentpast. Water regulationto both Srisailam andNagarjunasagar hydropower stations is citedas reason for the short-age.

“As long as therewere inflows, we wereallowed to generatepower. Now, the

Irrigation authoritieshave asked bothTelangana and AndhraPradesh States to cutdown the generation, asthere are no inflows,” aDiscom officialinformed. Water alloca-tion for both Statestogether has been cutdown from 60,000cusecs to 25,000cusecs, resulting ingeneration reduced byseven million units.While the TSSPDCLrequires 4,100 MW ofpower, only 3,400 MWis available now, withthe remaining 700 MWcovered through loadreliefs. Meanwhile,power generation wasstalled at the NTPCLimited inRamagundam onWednesday following atechnical snag in the500 MW seventhunit.

Power cuts come to hauntpeople of Telangana again

NEW DELHI | FRIDAY | SEPT 26, 2014SAADDA HAQ

BANGLORE, SEPT 25The count down for themuch awaited third editionof Bangalore LiteraryFestival has begun. Thesecond largest literary con-gregation after Jaipur con-clave will open for literarybuffs on Friday at CrownePlaza, Velakani Tech Parkin Electronic city. The threeday festival will concludeon Sunday.

Festival offers platformfor writers, thinkers, filmmakers, artists from acrossthe globe to share and dis-cuss ideas besides celebrat-ing cosmopolitan characterof Bangalore. Noted writ-ers including, GirishKarnad, ChandrashekaraKambara, Arun Shourie,Ramachandra Guha,Gulzar, Shobha De, ChetanBhagat, Namita Gokhale,Rani Mukharjee and otherswill be major attraction ofthe event. This year’s festi-val is dedicated to notedwordsmith, public intellec-tual Prof. U.R.Ananthamurthy, whosedeath is a loss to the world

of words.Ananthamurthy...not abiography...but a hypothe-sis, award winning docu-mentary by GirishKasaravalli will also bescreened during the inau-gural session. An exhibi-tion of over 100 rare photo-graphs of Prof.Ananthamurthy organisedby the Department ofInformation will be anadded attraction for the lit-erary buffs. “Several writ-ers, painters, film makers,including Girish Karnandand S.G. Vasudev will paytribute of words and visuals

to their departed friend,”said Vikram Sampath,author and co-founderBLF. This year BLF willwitness authors engagingaudience with diversethemes. The special attrac-tion will be the contingentof writers from the North-East who will discuss theliterature and issues of theregion. This literary festi-val has something to offerfor the Kannada world aswell. Highlights includediscussion and debate onthe state of the language, itsfuture and the impact ofclassical language tag.

BLF Third edition from tomorrow

CHENNAI, SEPT 25Chief MinisterJayalalithaa has greetedscientists, engineers andtechnologists associatedwith the mission ofMangalyaan, which hadbeen successfully placedin orbit around Mars.

She termed the devel-opment a historicachievement for India andthe Indian SpaceResearch Organisation,and said the scientificcommunity had done thenation proud. “Thisachievement willundoubtedly inspire andstimulate young minds inIndia to take up scientificresearch and develop-ment,” she said.

Tamil Nadu GovernorK. Rosaiah called it a“momentous occasion inthe annals of Indian spacehistory”. “Today Indiahas made history ofbecoming the first coun-try in the world to make itto Mars in its maidenattempt, which has madeworld nations turn backand see,” he said in astatement.

He congratulated ISRO

chairman K.Radhakrishnan, the scien-tists, and all those associ-ated with the mission.

In north Chennai, thesuccess was marked bystudents of EverwinMatriculation HigherSecondary School. B.Purushothaman, principalof the school, said theyhad made a 15x10 feetcut-out celebrating themission.

“We also made a bannerwith photographs of thescientists involved. It wasvery motivating for thestudents, and will encour-age them to go that extramile,” he said.

Ten-year old FatemaSurti said she watched avideo of the achievementon YouTube. “It was veryexciting and I am veryproud of ISRO,” she said.

State leaders of CPI(M), MDMK, PMK andDMDK — G.Ramakrishnan, Vaiko, S.Ramadoss and actorVijayakanth, respectively— also congratulated thescientists and engineersof ISRO on the historicfeat.

CM, leaders laud Mars mission

BANGLORE, SEPT 25Investment banking firmGoldman Sachsannounced on Wednesdaythat it will be investing$200 million (aroundRs.1,200 crore) on a newcampus in Bangalore.

The new facility, forwhich a ground breakingceremony was held, willseat 9,000 people. “Thestate of the art campus isexpected to be completedin 2018,” a release fromthe company said.

Describing it as a deci-sion to “continue ourgrowth in Bangalore,”Goldman Sachs said theBangalore office now isits second largest globally

with around 5,400 people.They work across busi-nesses, including finance,investment banking oper-ations, securities andtechnology, the companysaid.

The release was issuedat a press meet addressedby Jeffrey W.Schroeder,Chief AdministrativeOfficer of Goldman Sachsand V.Bunty Bohra, ChiefExecutive Officer ofGoldman Sachs Servicesin India. Goldman Sachs,the release said, hasdeployed more than $2billion, by way of privateequity and principalinvestment, in India overabout eight years.

CHENNAI, SEPT 25With the Indian governmentreportedly considering a visa-on-arrival facility for U.S. citi-zens, travel and tour operatorsas well as the hotel industry arelooking forward to an increasednumber of visitors. “Up untilnow, Americans have not con-sidered a holiday in India onshort notice because of the visaformalities. This new proposal will nowopen up India as a destinationfor a new segment of travellers— both those coming for holi-days as well as for casual busi-ness,” said Sharat Dhall, presi-dent, Yatra.com According toTamil Nadu TourismDevelopment Corporation’s sta-tistics, last year, the Statereceived 39.9 lakh foreign visi-tors, making it the second-mostvisited State in India. Expertssay a large number of these —approximately 3 lakh last year— are from the U.S. ForChennai, the move could be

especially significant as the cityattracts 45 per cent of medicaltourists from foreign countries,Mr. Dhall said, adding thatsince the potential visa-on-arrival facility may allow short-term medical treatment, this toocould get a shot in the arm.

“We can expect a good flowof tourists if this facility comesthrough,” said city-based travelagent Priya Menon of AadityaTours and Travels. However,she said, U.S. visitors generallywanted a level of infrastructurethat the country did not yet pro-vide.

“If visa-on-arrival is extendedto Europeans as well, it wouldreally give a boost to tourism asthey are very interested in see-ing Tamil Nadu,” she said.Apart from leisure — with itsbeaches and temples —Chennai is now providing greatMICE (meetings, incentive,conferencing, exhibitions)opportunities, making it anattraction for foreign travellers,

said Prashant Narayan, chiefoperating officer, ThomasCook. The hotel industry, too, islooking forward to the proposedinitiative.

K. Syama Raju, president,South Indian Hotels andRestaurants Association, said ina statement that the hospitalityindustry had faced a fall in mid-2013, with GDP growth slip-ping to five percent. But thismove would boost the tourismand hospitality industry, partic-ularly in the south, ensuringgrowth for the hotel industry, headded.

“If more countries are includ-ed, the potential for growthincreases manifold,” he said.The visa will reportedly be forthose U.S. citizens who nothave a residence or an occupa-tion in India, and will be appli-cable for less than 30 days forpurposes including recreation,sightseeing, visiting friends/rel-atives, short-term medical treat-ment and casual business.

City looks forward tovisa-on-arrival for U.S.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, SEPT 25The city residents, especially the youth, woke up a littleearlier on Wednesday. By 7 a.m., everyone was glued tothe television. A few of them walked to the gates of thePriyadarshini Planetarium at PMG, expecting to watchMangalyaan entering the Mars orbit on big screen.Disappointed, they rushed back home to catch the action.

At the Observatory Hill, the lone caretaker pacedinside his room, all the while glancing at the overheadtelevision, as the moment neared. Mission over, happyfaces were seen on the road, heading to schools andworkplaces. At the Indian Institute of Space Science &Tech (IIST) in Valiamala, the students have been closelyfollowing the mission’s progress for the past few days.On Wednesday, the mood turned celebratory on the cam-pus. For Mahima Singh, whose PhD word is related toMars, the celebrations were personal too. “After the suc-cessful launch, we will hopefully get a lot of insight intothe red planet, which will be useful for my research,”says Ms. Singh. P.V. Manoranjan Rao, who retired asgroup director of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centrehere, said that the achievement was a tribute to theskilled manpower in India’s space sector.

Excitement goes sky-high

MANGLORE, SEPT 25Over two-and-a-half yearssince the proposal was firstmooted, the much-awaitedprepaid autorickshaw kioskat the busy MangaloreJunction Railway station isyet to make a beginning.

The outer structure of thekiosk was laid a few weeksago on the cement structurenear the place where theautorickshaw park is locat-ed – outside the railwaystation. The district admin-istration on Monday calledfor applications fromorganisations who are will-ing to operate the kiosk bycollecting a service chargeof Re. 1 per autorickshawhire.

“If anybody comes for-ward, a notification will beissued to start its opera-tion,” said RegionalTransport Officer AfzalAhmed Khan, who is alsothe Member Secretary ofthe Road TransportAuthority. Work of provid-ing a kiosk at theMangalore JunctionRailway station started inApril 2012. For severalmonths, as the TransportDepartment took its owntime to prepare the kioskstructure, even as thecement platform stoodalone as a witness. Thisstructure was prepared withthe funds provided by apublic sector bank.

When an autorickshawunion came forward, therewas objection by theSouthern Railways overthe location of the kiosk,which, they said was tooclose to the entrance and ithad to be shifted. Theplacement of the kiosk nowhas the approval of theRailways, it is said.

The Karnataka RakshanaVedike RickshawChalakara Sangha that hadinitially come forward tooperate the kiosk and offerpre-paid autockshaw serv-ice went back as they foundthe service charge of Re. 1per autorickshaw hired toolow for the functioning ofthe kiosk. “We need an

income of Rs. 1,000 at Rs.2 per head to run the kiosk.We are running the kioskwith great difficulty at theCentral Railway station,”Jayaprakash Shetty, thepresident of the Sanghasaid. DeputyCommissioner A.B.Ibrahim said the servicecharge of Rs. 2 demandedby the autorickshaw unionwas high compared to thecharge taken in other cities.Mr. Ibrahim said a decisionabout the service chargewould be taken after study-ing the kind of responsefrom organisations whohave been requested toapply to operate the kioskat Re. 1 service charge. G.

Hanumanth Kamath of theNagarika HitarakshanaVedike said the time takenby authorities to start thekiosk showed lack of seri-ousness to address the needof commuters.

“You cannot expectautorickshaw union tooperate the kiosk. The gov-ernment has to take a leadin starting the kiosk to endfleecing by autorickshawdrivers of passengers whoarrive at the station late inthe night,” he said.

Meanwhile, the policetoo have raised question ofabsence of governmentnotification regarding theprepaid autorickshawkiosk.

Prepaid autorickshaw counter a non-starter in MangaloreTIRUCHI, SEPT 25Incidence of dengue has come down inthe State, said C.Vijayabaskar, Ministerfor Health and Family Welfare. Presidingover a review meeting with health, localbodies, and education department offi-cials of the five districts in Tiruchi regionhere on Wednesday, he said that 13,204dengue cases were reported in 2012; theycame down to 6,122 in 2013 and to 1,256in the current year. The number ofpatients, who approached governmenthospitals with symptoms of dengue, hadcome down drastically. However, offi-cials should not take fever cases lightlyand they must immediately visit placeswhere such cases are reported, he said.

Remedial measures too must be fol-lowed expeditiously. At Rs.7, 005 crore,the Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, hadtripled fund allocation for HealthDepartment for the year 2014-15, theMinister said. Healthcare delivery to the

poor and rural population had taken a bigleap under the AIADMK regime. Thoughseveral countries have been finding it dif-ficult to control dengue, it had beenbrought under control in the State due tothe rigorous and proactive steps taken bythe government, he said.

Pointing to the forthcoming northeastmonsoon in the State, the Minister saidthat precautionary measures should betaken immediately to keep communicableand waterborne diseases under check inOctober, November, and Decembermonths. The district and taluk hospitalsand primary health centres must be pre-pared to handle the situation during themonsoon. Government WhipR.Manoharan, Collector JayashreeMuralidharan, Mayor A.Jaya, Membersof Parliament T.Rathinavel and P.Kumar,Director of Medical Education S.GeethaLakshmi and Director of Public Health K.Kulandaisamy took part in the meeting.

Goldman Sachs to invest $200million on new Bangalore campus

CHENNAI, SEPT 25The police have made acrucial breakthrough in thePoonamallee double mur-der case.

A couple was founddead in their bungalow onthe morning of August 11.The key suspect, workingin a well-known restaurantin Chennai, has been iden-tified, and his two accom-plices are being interrogat-ed. The victims, K. Babu(62), a retired engineer,and his wife E. Shanti(53), a Hindi teacher, werefound dead in their single-storey house by a neigh-bour. The Poonamalleepolice had registered acase of murder and a spe-cial team had been probingthe case for over a month.According to the police,the couple had planned torent out a portion of theirhouse on the first floor,and had put up a ‘to let’sign on their gate.

Police make head-way in doublemurder case

Dengue on decline: Health Minister

Xiaomi launchedits flagshipsmartphone, the

Mi 4, in July. It is likelyto be made available out-side China starting nextmonth.

However, aC h i n e s ereport

pub-lishedo v e rt h eweekendtips thatthe com-pany mightsoon beready with anew high-endRedmi Notesmartphone. Thereport has listed specifi-cations and price of anew Redmi Note seriessmartphone, which hasnot been named as ofnow.

Reportedly the RedmiNote successor will beunveiled in four storagevariants - 16GB, 32GB,and 64GB priced at$165, $215 and $245respectively, while theprice of 128GB is notavailable.

According to theChinese report viaPhoneArena, the RedmiNote successor will bepowered by MediaTek'socta-core MT6595processor coupled with3GB of RAM. It furthernotes that the chipsetworks on the Big.LIT-TLE architecture with 4Cortex-A17 cores (up to2.2GHz clock speed) and4 Cortex-A7 cores (up to1.7GHz clock speed).

Another report byGadgetz Arena claimedthat the chipset in thealleged Redmi Note suc-cessor has scored an

impressive 47,233 on theAnTuTu Benchmarktests.

Other pur-p o r t e d

speci-f icat ions

of therumoured Redmi

Note smartphoneinclude a 5.5-inch dis-play (unspecified resolu-tion); a 20.7-megapixelrear camera; an 8-megapixel front camera;

a 3500mAh battery; 4GLTE, and NFC sup-

port.While thec o m p a n y ,

o f t e nr e f e r r e d

to ast h e

A p p l eof China,

might be gear-ing up to launch the

rumoured high-end newRedmi Note smartphoneglobally. Mi India is yetto announce the RedmiNote availability for theIndian market.

A report tipped that MiIndia might launch theRedmi Note by end ofSeptember; however, weare yet to hear an officialannouncement from thecompany.

Soon after the launch of the KarbonnTitanium S5U l t r a ,

another sub-Rs.10,000 smart-phone, theTitanium S10from Karbonnhas gone onsale in India,priced at Rs.7,990.

The KarbonnTitanium S10 isnow availablevia an e-com-merce website,and notably hadbeen brieflylisted by thesame retailerlast week. Noannouncementshave been madeby Karbonnabout the offi-cial launch ofthe smartphone.

As per the e-commerce site'slisting page, thesmartphone fea-tures dual-SIM (GSM+GSM) support andruns Android 4.4 KitKat out-of-the-box.The Karbonn Titanium S10 features a 5-inch HD (720x1280 pixel) IPS display andis powered by a 1.3GHz quad-core(unspecified chipset) processor coupledwith 1GB of RAM.

The smartphone comes with an 8-megapixel rear camera along with LEDflash support and there is a 2-megapixelfront-facing camera also onboard. It sup-ports an additional expansion via microSDcard (up to 32GB), apart from the 4GB ofinbuilt storage.

Connectivity options on the handsetinclude 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPRS/EDGE and GPS. It also comes with a G-sensor, proximity sensor, and an ambient

light sensor. TheTitanium S10packs an1850mAh batteryand is listed onSnapdeal in a

Black colour variant.

The company on Wednesday launchedthe Titanium S5 Ultra budget smartphone,priced at Rs. 6,999. The new Titaniumseries smartphone will be exclusivelyavailable on e-commerce site, eBay.

The Karbonn Titanium S5 Ultra is adual-SIM (GSM+GSM) smartphonewhich runs Android 4.4 KitKat out-of-the-box. It comes with a 5-inch (540x960 pix-els) qHD IPS display; 1.3GHz quad-coreMediaTek (unspecified chipset) processor;1GB of RAM; 4GB of inbuilt storage;expandable via microSD card (up to32GB); 8-megapixel rear camera withLED flash; 2-megapixel front-facing cam-era; 3G; GPRS/ EDGE; Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n; Micro-USB; Bluetooth, and2000mAh battery.

Karbonn, taking a big leap forward,launched its first Google-partneredAndroid One smartphone in India calledKarbonn Sparkle V priced at Rs. 6,399.

Gionee has launched its GN715smartphone, priced at CNY 1,699(roughly Rs. 16,900) at the Beijing

C h i n aI n t e r n a t i o n a lE x h i b i t i o nCenter gadgetsexpo this week.The new Gioneesmartphone ise x c l u s i v e l yavailable to buyfrom the compa-ny's onlinestore. No detailsabout globalavailability havebeen provided.

The GioneeGN715 runsAndroid 4.4KitKat out-of-the-box andcomes with a 5-inch HD(720x1280 pix-els) display.

The smart-phone is poweredby a 1.2GHz quad-core QualcommSnapdragon (unspecified version) proces-sor coupled with 1GB of RAM. It comeswith 8GB of inbuilt storage, which is fur-ther expandable via microSD card (up to32GB). It sports an 8-megapixel rear cam-era, while there is a secondary 5-megapix-el front-facing camera also onboard.Interestingly, the Gionee GN715 also fea-tures LED flash for both the front and rearcameras.

On the connectivity front, the GioneeGN715 offers 4G LTE, 3G, GPRS/ EDGE,Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, GPS, Micro-USB 2.0,and Bluetooth 4.0 options. The smart-phone packs a 2000mAh removable Li-ionbattery with no word on talk time and

standby time. Sized at 143x70.7x6.9mm,the smartphone is currently available inWhite colour variant.

Gionee, which still holds the record ofcreating the world's slimmest smartphone,Gionee S5.5, also teased a slimmer devicelast month. The upcoming Gionee S5.1,according to the latest leaked specifica-tions earlier this month, would measure5.1mm in thickness. It is also expected tohouse a 4.8-inch HD AMOLED display; a1.2GHz quad-core QualcommSnapdragon 400 (MSM8926) processor;an Adreno 305 GPU; 1GB of RAM;Micro-SIM support; an 8-megapixel rearcamera; a 5-megapixel front camera;16GB inbuilt storage (non-expandable);4G LTE support; a 2100mAh battery, andAndroid 4.3 Jelly Bean with Gionee'sAmigo 2.0 interface laid on top.

Science & Tech6 NEW DELHI | FRIDAY | SEPT 26, 2014SAADDA HAQ

TODAY’S STARARIES 'One's real life is often the life that one does not lead'. Oscar Wilde's quote is both

interesting and relevant to you now. It implies we don't pursue what we truly want topursue in life. You're aware now of a shortfall in your world or a seemingly obviouserror in judgment. You haven't made an error of judgment. Neither are you having totolerate an intolerable situation for the sake of it. Freedom in some way is comingand you can expect to be taken in a very new and exciting direction shortly.

TAURUS In the same way leaking water causes damage if ignored, so too do certain prob-lems if allowed to fester. Even worse is the way we convince ourselves some-times that the decision to not take action was made for a good reason. There isan issue you cannot ignore now. Summoning effort to undertake a difficult taskis unlikely to be easy. Take one brave step to solving it and you will solve it in awonderful and permanent way. An ongoing issue is finally about to be resolved.

GEMINI You have the option now to give someone a piece of your mind and probablyfeel inclined to do so. Wouldn't you rather have peace of mind? You under-standably have something you want to say or convey to a certain person butchances are they won't thank you for it yet you appear determined to at leastmake someone aware of an issue. Be aware that this story has two sides.Then, be prepared to hear someone else's side before they hear yours.

CANCER Some mirrors inform us that objects may appear closer than they are. Thismeans that what we see reflected back to us in some mirrors is not alwaysaccurate. The same can be said about seeing your reflection now. Someoneclose to your heart would like to see more than the one dimension you seemto make available to them. It is time to deepen a bond by revealing your trueself. It's time to lose a façade and one or two defensive barriers too.

LEO There are times when we take our foot off of the proverbial gas pedal and letmomentum we've created in a particular area to catch up with itself. As much asyou might feel inclined to take a step back and assess where you're at with a plan,you'd be well advised to keep it moving. Don't confuse the need to monitor a situ-ation with a reason to feel negative toward it. You're closer than you probably thinkto a breakthrough. Don't stop now. Keep doing what you've been doing.

VIRGO Have you been overlooked or ignored? Has someone forgotten to acknowl-edge how helpful or integral to something you have been? You have goodreason for drumming your fingers in the hope that your efforts will be recipro-cated. It's just taking someone a bit longer than they'd prefer to make goodon a promise or commitment. Just give them a bit more time. Someone hasevery intention of honoring what you and they agreed they would honor.

LIBRA Do you feel blessed? Do you feel you're being taken care of by a caring cosmos?Many born under your sign might feel neither but that definitely doesn't meanyou're not where you need to be at this time. Forget about monetary and relation-ship issues for the time being. A financial matter that is a bone of contention willpale into insignificance soon enough. As for where you stand with a certain per-son, a very pleasant distraction is about to relieve tension there, too.

SCORPIO Remember when you arrived at an exam and overheard others talking about whatthey studied and how confident they were that what they studied – which you feltwasn't as important – would form the basis of the exam? That's a classic exampleof heeding something from someone we believe to be more authoritative or knowl-edgeable than we are. In the same way you discovered you pursued the right plan,you'll find someone's advice isn't as sound as your instincts.

SAGITTARIUS 'Water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink…' So goes the old strandedsailors' saying. Similarly, abundance exists of something in your world butyou're not reassured it's what you want or need. You seem spoilt for choicein a certain area but want to know that one option exists instead of several.Soon, this scenario will become much less complicated. Expect something tobecome clearer soon as what you truly need makes its way to you.

CAPRICORN Suspicion enjoys a long lifespan. It prefers to be fuelled indefinitely withdoubt, resentment and confusion. It thinks it has something clever, interest-ing or helpful to tell us and doesn't care if we end up losing sleep throughthinking of nothing else. Don't be too quick to believe what suspicion mightbe telling you now. You could be jumping to more than one wrong conclu-sion and risk having to rebuild trust where trust has taken some time build.

AQUARIUS When setting expectations, it's always a good idea to aim a bit higher than whatwe want or need. This ensures a worst case scenario means we end up achiev-ing what we wanted and where we ideally wanted to be. Bear this in mind now withan expectation you're setting. It's fine for it to be inflated but make sure it's inflat-ed for the right reason and realistically. You could be getting carried away with aparticular notion and excitement could lead to over-optimism now.

PISCES Have you been overlooked or ignored? Has someone forgotten to acknowl-edge how helpful or integral to something you have been? You have goodreason for drumming your fingers in the hope that your efforts will be recip-rocated. It's just taking someone a bit longer than they'd prefer to make goodon a promise or commitment. Just give them a bit more time. Someone hasevery intention of honoring what you and they agreed they would honor.

1. Which of the following metals remain in liquidfor under normal conditions?A. Radium B. ZincC. Uranium D. Mercury

2. Potassium Permanganate is used for purifyingdrinking water, becauseA. it is a sterilising agentB. it dissolves the impurities of waterC. it is a reducing agentD. it is an oxidising agent

3. Which of the following is an element?A. Ruby B. apphireC. Emerald D. Diamond

4. What is the unit for measuring the amplitude of asound?A. Decibel B. CoulombC. Hum D. Cycles

5. Reading of a barometer going down is an indica-tion ofA. snow B. stormC. intense heat D. rainfall

QUIZ TIME

Answer: 1(D), 2 (D), 3(D), 4(A), 5(D)

Sony has launched theXperia Z3 (Review |Pictures) and Xperia

Z3 Compact (Pictures) inIndia, priced Rs. 51,990and Rs. 44,990 respective-ly. The smartphones will beavailable from today. Bothsmartphones featureIP65/68 certification,which makes them dust-proof and waterproof.Sony says both smart-phones have 4G LTE sup-port for Indian bands. Bothsmartphones also featurePS4 Remote Play, whichallows users to stream theirPS4 games onto the smart-phone over the home Wi-Finetwork - this functionalitywill only be rolled out inNovember. Sony says aDualShock 4 WirelessController and GCM10Game Control Mount willbe required to play games.

Sony is also bundling 3months free downloads onSony Music JIVE, 3Hollywood movies freedownload from PrivilegeMovies, and 3 monthsBigflix Subscription withboth smartphones. TheSmartWatch 3 andSmartTalk were announcedfor a December launch inIndia, however, no pricinghas been provided.

First unveiled at its pre-IFA 2014 event, the XperiaZ3 comes with 5.2-inchfull-HD (1080x1920 pix-els) Triluminos display andis backed by X-Realitymobile picture engine.Thenew flagship also retainsthe 20.7-megapixel autofo-

cus rear camera of its pred-ecessor. The rear camera isagain capable of 4K (Ultra-HD) video recording, and

features an Exmor RS

apart from pulsed LEDflash. Also onboard is a2.2-megapixel front cam-era.

It runs Android 4.4KitKat out-of-the-box andis powered by a 2.5GHzquad-core Qualcomm

Snapdragon 801 processor alongside 3GB of RAM.

It includes 16GB of built-in storage, which is furtherexpandable via microSD

card (up to 128GB).The smartphone will be

available in Black, Copper,and White colours. It meas-ures 146.5x72x7.3mm andweighs 152 grams.Connectivity features onthe Xperia Z3 include

Bluetooth, Wi-Fi withhotspot, 3G, 4G LTE, GPS/A-GPS, Glonass, Micro-USB, DLNA, and NFC. Itfeatures a 3100mAh bat-

tery that is rated to deliverup to 19 hours of talk time,and 740 hours of standbytime. Unveiled alongsidethe Xperia Z3 at the pre-IFA 2014 event, the SonyXperia Z3 Compact runsAndroid 4.4.4 KitKat out-

of-the-box. It features a4.6-inch HD (720x1280pixels) Triluminos displaywith X-Reality engine.

The Xperia Z3 Compactfeatures a 2.5GHz

q u a d - c o r eQ u a l c o m mSnapdragon SoCwith Adreno 330GPU and 2GB ofRAM. It packs a20.7-megapixel rearcamera with LEDflash and Exmor RSsensor, apart from a2 . 2 - m e g a p i x e lfront facingcamera, just likethe Xperia Z3.The internal storageon the handsetis 16GB, whichcan be expanded viam i c r o S Dcard (up to128GB).

T h eXperia Z3C o m p a c tpacks 2600mAhbattery which israted to deliver upto 14 hours of talktime and 920 hoursof standby time.

C o n n e c t i v i t yoptions on theXperia Z3 Compact

include Wi-Fi,FM radio with

RDS, Bluetooth 4.0,GPRS/ EDGE, A-GPS, 3G,4G LTE (for select mar-kets), 3.5mm audio jack,and Micro-USB. Thesmartphone measures127.3x64.9x8.64mm, andweighs 129 grams.

Sony Xperia Z3 and Xperia Z3Compact Launched in India

Gionee GN715 Launched With 5-Inch HD Display and LTE Support

Karbonn Titanium S10 withAndroid 4.4 KitKat Available

Online at Rs. 7,990

Xiaomi Redmi Note SuccessorPricing and Specifications Tipped

Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, the world's largest telecommunications equipmentmaker, said it would invest more than $4 billion in fixed broadband technologyresearch and development (R&D) in the next three years. Huawei, which has

shifted its focus to the mobile device market in recent years, said in a statement onThursday that fixed broadband - the pipes connecting homes and offices - remained a"key direction for strategic investment." The Shenzhen-based company said it wouldresearch basic technologies such as photonics used in fiber optic cables as well as soft-ware-defined networking. Huawei said investing in fixed broadband technology will beimportant given the rise of high-resolution video technology, which for instance powers4K television sets as well as commercial big data operations that also consume signifi-cant bandwidth. Fixed broadband has largely been overshadowed by the runawaygrowth of mobile broadband, which has grown 20 percent this year in worldwide users,according to a UN report this week. Originally a maker of fixed-line switches, Huaweirode the wave of mobile telecoms growth worldwide during the 2000s to become a glob-al force, winning contracts to build cell networks for carriers around the world.

Huawei to Invest $4 Billion in FixedBroadband R&D in Next 3 Years

Sports 7NEW DELHI | FRIDAY | SEPT 26, 2014SAADDA HAQ

INCHEON , SEPT 25Indian rowers were the star perform-ers, bagging two bronze medals,while the unheralded women shoot-ers added another bronze as Indiamaintained their 15th position in theoverall standings with a tally of 15 inthe 17th Asian Games in Incheon onThursday.

Armyman Swaran Singh Virkrowed his way through exhaustion tothe third spot in single sculls beforethe men’s squad added the eights titleon yet another mixed day for theIndian contingent.

The double trap women’s team ofShagun Chowdhary, Shreyasi Singhand Varsha Varman, brought somecheer for the largely off the markshooters with their bronze medal onthe sixth day of competitions.

India were assured of a silver inarchery while the squash playerswere also assured of a bronze each inthe men’s and women’s team eventsafter making the semifinals.

But it was heartbreak for the Indianmen’s hockey team which went downto arch-rivals Pakistan 1-2 in a groupB encounter. The defeat has putIndia’s chances of progressing to thenext round in jeopardy.

With the addition of three more tothe tally on Thursday, India wereplaced 15th with one gold, a silverand 13 bronze medals.

China continued to lead with 138medals (72-36-30) followed by hostsSouth Korea (28-29-28) and Japan(22-33-28).

In badminton, star shuttlers SainaNehwal and Parupalli Kashyapadvanced to round of last and last 16respectively but P.V. Sindhu bowedafter losing in the preliminary stage.

Rowers were, however, the stars ofThursday’s proceedings for India.

As the rowing events ended at theChungjuTangeum Lake InternationalRowing Centre, India’s modest tallyof medals stood at three bronze, thefirst having been won on Wednesdayby Dushyant Chauhan in men’s light-

weight single sculls.The performance was lower in both

quality as well as quantity to the 2010tally of 1 gold medal, 3 silver and 1

bronze.Naik Subedar Swaran Singh must

be complimented for putting up abrave effort. The timing he clockedhere to win the bronze covering the2000m distance (7 minutes, 10.65seconds), was better than his per-formance at the London OlympicGames two years ago timing wise(7:29.66).

But the extra effort the 24-year-oldformer volleyball player put intowards the end when he tried toward off the challenge from SouthKorean rival Kim Dongyong, whosecured the silver, saw him collapsedue to exhaustion. He fell off the boat

into the water, and had to be taken outby the rescue team to the ambulance.

Later the men’s picked up theeights bronze by securing the third

position behind gold medal winnersChina and Japan who crossed the fin-ish line in 1:27.96 and 1:30.39respectively.

The Indian team of Kapil Sharma,Ranjit Singh, 2010 single sculls goldmedal winner Bajrang Lal Takhar, PU Robin, K Sawan Kumar,Mohammad Azad, Maninder Singh,Davinder Singh and MohammedAhmed started sluggishly to be trail-ing in fourth at the halfway stagebefore making the extra effort toclinch the bronze.

At the faraway Gyeonggido shoot-ing range, the women shooters pro-vided the seventh medal for the coun-

try so far.However, for the second successive

day India drew a blank at the nearbyOngnyeon pistol and rifle range

where hot shot Gagan Narang madehis appearance and flopped individu-ally as well as collectively with histeam—mates in 50m rifle proneevent.

Pistol shooters Gurpreet Singh,Mahaveer Singh and seasonedSamaresh Jung too disappointed.

In archery, atleast another silvermedal was assured after the trio ofAbhishek Verma, Rajat Chauhan andSandeep Kumar entered the final ofthe compound men’s team archeryevent.

The trio of Verma, Chauhan andKumar defeated Iran, comprisingEsmaeil Ebadi, Majid Gheidi and

Amir Kazempour 231—227 in thesemifinal at the Gyeyang AsiadArchery Field.

The team will now face formidableKorea in the gold medal match. Thehosts defeated Philippines 228—227in another semifinal encounter.

It was heartbreak for India in thewomen’s compound women’s teamevent as the trio of Trisha Deb,Purvasha Shinde and Jyothi SurekhaVennam lost to favourites ChineseTaipei in the semifinal.

The Indian trio gave the ChineseTaipei side a run for its money beforegoing down 224—226. The Indianeves, however, have a chance to fin-ish on the podium as they take on Iranin the bronze medal match tomorrow.

The Indian squash contingent,meanwhile, was assured of its bestever showing by reaching the men’sand women’s team semifinals, ensur-ing medals in all four categories onoffer.

The Indian women’s team, includ-ing Dipika Pallikal and JoshanaChinappa, dispatched China 3—0 totop Pool B after the men cruised pastJapan with an identical scoreline atthe Yeorumul Squash Courts here.

While the women face hosts SouthKorea in the semifinals, the men willknow about their semifinal opponentsafter their final league matchagainst Malaysia later in the day. Thewinner of the match will top thegroup.

In any case, both Indian teams willpocket at least a bronze medal for thereaching the semifinals, just like theydid in Guangzhou four years ago.India are also set to surpass their2010 tally of three bronze, havingwon a bronze and silver throughPallikal and Saurav Ghosal, respec-tively.

However, India wasted chancesgalore in their 1-2 defeat againstarch-rivals and defending championsPakistan in a keenly-contested Pool Bmatch of the men’s hockey competi-tion.

For Pakistan, Mohammed UmarBhutta (38th minute) andMohammed Waqas (54th minute)scored, while Nikkin Thimmaiah(53rd minute) netted the consolationgoal.

On the badminton court, Sainasailed into the quarterfinals with acomfortable straight-game win whileKashyap advanced to the pre-quar-ters.

World number seven Sainathrashed Iran’s SorayaAghaeihajiagha (2-0) 21-7 21-6 in awomen’s singles round of 16 matchat the Gyeyang Gymnasium. Seededsixth, Saina would be up against no. 2seed Wang Yihan of China.

However, world number 10 Sindhusuffered a shocking 1-2 reverse toManuputty Bellaetrix, ranked 34th,despite taking the first game.Kashyap made the men’s singles pre-quarters by registering a straight-game win over Afghanistan’s IqbalAhmad Shekib.

Indian tennis players YukiBhambri, Sanam Singh and AnkitaRaina registered comfortable wins intheir respective singles matches tosail into the pre-quarterfinals.

All the three Indians were hardlytested by their opponents as they reg-istered straight set wins withoutbreaking a sweat at the YeorumulTennis Courts.

However, there was disappoint-ment elsewhere with Indian swim-mers with none of the four Indians infray -- Anshul Kothari AaronD’Souza, Neil Contractor andPrathapan Nair -- making the finalsof their respective events.

It was another dismal outing forIndian cyclists with Amarjit Singhand Amrit Singh finishing fifth intheir respective repechage heats to beknocked out of the Men’s Keirinevent.

In sepaktakrow, the Indian men’steam was thrashed 0-3 by hosts SouthKorea in their preliminary group Amatch.

Rowers sign off with 2 more bronze, India 15th at Asiad

INCHEON , SEPT 25India wasted chancesgalore in their 1-2 defeatagainst arch-rivals anddefending championsPakistan in a keenly-con-tested Pool B match of themen’s hockey competitionat the 17th Asian Games, inIncheon on Thursday.

It was touted as thematch to watch out for inthe competition and as perexpectations it turned outto be an exhilarating con-test between the sub-conti-nental rivals.

It was a duel of technicalsuperiority as both theteams showed great skillson the turf while playingfast-paced hockey.

There was hardly any-thing to choose betweenthe two sides as the matchwitnessed end-to-endhockey.

Despite enjoying the bet-ter share of possession, theSardar Singh-led side fin-ished second best on theday, courtesy a string ofmissed chances from theforwards, especiallyRamandeep Singh and thebackline’s perennial prob-lem of buckling downunder pressure.

The win on Thursdayvirtually assured Pakistan’stop position in Pool B,while India made life diffi-cult for themselves and atbest now can only finishsecond in the pool and face

mighty South Korea in thesemfinal.

But for that to happenIndia will have to over-come lower-ranked butdangerous China in theirlast pool match onSaturday. With injuredRupinderpal Singh ruledout of the match, the onuswas on V.R. Raghunath todeliver with penalty cor-ners but the burly drag-flick continued to misfirein the tournament as hewasted two set pieces.

Rocked by Pakistan’sgoal, India went on theoffensive and lookedthreatening in the fourthand final quarter but goalcontinued to elude them asthe forwards lacked finish-ing. Danish Mujtaba cameclose to restoring the parity

in the 49th minute but hisfine deflection fromKothajit Singh’s pass wasbrilliantly kept away byPakistani goalkeeper Butt.

India’s persistent effortsfinally bore fruit whenNikkin Thimmaiah drewlevel in the 53rd minute bytapping home Kothajitcross from the left flank.

But India’s joy wasshortlived as a minute laterthe defending championsrestored lead throughWaqas reverse-hit as theIndian defence was caughtnapping by the pace of thePakistani players.

With three wins from asmany games, Pakistan areleading Pool B and expect-ed to finish unbeaten in thepool as they face lowlyOman in their last match.

Misfiring India loses 1-2 to PakistanINCHEON , SEPT 25Indian badminton ace SainaNehwal sailed into the quarterfi-nals with a comfortable straight-game win after P. Kashyapadvanced to the pre-quarters, butthere was heartbreak for P VSindhu in the 17th Asian Gamesin Incheon on Thursday.

World number seven Sainathrashed Iran’s SorayaAghaeihajiagha (2-0) 21-7 21-6 ina women’s singles round of 16match at the GyeyangGymnasium.

The top Indian shuttler neededjust 18 minutes to seal the matchin her favour. While Saina took 18minutes to win the first game, shepocketed the second in just fourminutes against her hapless oppo-nent.

Seeded sixth, Saina would bewould up against no. 2 seed WangYihan of China.

However, world number 10Sindhu suffered a shocking 1-2

reverse to Manuputty Bellaetrix,ranked 34th, despite taking thefirst game.

Sindhu won the first game 22-20 in 19 minutes but went down16-21 20-22 in the next twogames, to bring an end to hercampaign. Up against a higher-ranked opponent, Bellaetrix

always seemed ready for the chal-lenge in the 62-minute match.

Earlier, Parupalli Kashyap madethe men’s singles pre-quarterfi-nals by registering a straight-game win over Afghanistan’sIqbal Ahmad Shekib.

Glasgow CommonwealthGames gold medallist Kashyap,

having received a bye in the open-ing round, defeated his Afghaniopponent 21-6 21-6 in just 17minutes to book a place in thenext round at the GyeyangGymnasium.

Kashyap breezed through thefirst game, finishing off his oppo-nent in just eight minutes.

The story remained same in thesecond game as well with the 28-year-old Indian taking just aminute longer than the first to seeoff Shekib. In a mixed doublesround of 32 match however, Indiasuffered a reverse with AkshayDewalkar and Pradnya Gadre los-ing 20-22 21-17 13-21 toTriyachart Chayut and Yao Lei ofSingapore. They lost the match in42 minutes.

But Manu Attri and N SikkiReddy won their mixed doublesround of 32 match againstRasheed Aishath Afnaan andSharafuddeen Nasheeu 2-0 (21-821-4) in just 15 minutes.

Saina in quarterfinals, disappointment for Sindhu

NEW DELHI, SEPT 25The all-powerful working committee meeting of theBCCI will take place in Chennai on Friday to discussabout deferring the AGM and a longer tenure for TeamDirector Ravi Shastri, who in all likelihood would berequested to guide India till next year’s World Cup.

There are two meetings scheduled to be held in presi-dent-in-exile, N Srinivasan’s hometown.

First the finance committee will meet for one last timeto clear the annual accounts and other financial transac-tions.

Then the working committee will be meeting in theafternoon where the decision to defer the AGM will beunanimously taken until Mukul Mudgal ProbeCommittee’s final report on IPL spot-fixing and betting issubmitted in the Supreme Court in the first week ofNovember.

The decision to defer the AGM will be in the interest ofSrinivasan, who is in running to retain the post of thepresident and is currently debarred from discharging hisduties as the head of BCCI due to court verdict.

Srinivasan is supposed to be nominated and secondedby two east zone states -- Odisha and Jharkhand -- beingthe two likely units which is headed by his loyalistsRanjib Biswal and Amitabh Chaudhary. Even Assam CA,CAB, NCC and Tripura CA are not going to swim againstthe tide at this moment.

With the Tamil Nadu strongman enjoying a two-thirdmajority among the affiliated units of the board, themajority would want to wait till the Supreme Court givesits final verdict on Mudgal committee report.

The rival faction led by Vidarbha lawyer ShashankManohar doesn’t have the numbers to support its claim.Also with Manohar not ready to throw his hat in the ring,there aren’t too many names in the fray at the moment asfar as rivals are concerned.

Working committee set to dis-cuss AGM, Shastri’s contract

LONDON, SEPT 25Indian cricket legendKapil Dev has been hon-oured with a LifetimeAchievement award at aceremony in the Houseof Lords in London.

The award, constitutedby the Indo-EuropeanBusiness Forum (IEBF),was presented to the for-mer India World Cup-winning captain onWednesday evening forhis contribution to thesport and for his work inthe field of upliftment ofpoor and destitute com-

munities through theKhushii society.

“I am very proud to beIndian. Today India isready to do business withanybody in the world,”Dev said in his accept-ance speech.

“I used to hate Englandbecause they ruled mycountry but I am happythey gave us the game ofcricket, which they can’tplay very well, and theEnglish language, whichI can’t speak very well,”he added on a lighternote.

Arguably the greatestpacer bowler and all-rounder India has pro-duced, Dev led the coun-try to its maidenWorld Cup triumph in1983, beating the thenformidable West Indiesin the title clash atLord’s.

With 434 scalps, the55-year-old Dev held therecord for most numberof wickets in Tests forsome years before beingeclipsed by former WestIndies captain CourtneyWalsh in 2000.

Kapil Dev wins LifetimeAchievement award in UK

INCHEON , SEPT 25India assured themselvesof at least another silvermedal in the 17th AsianGames after the trio ofAbhishek Verma, RajatChauhan and SandeepKumar entered the final ofthe compound men’s teamarchery event in Incheonon Thursday.

The trio of Verma,Chauhan and Kumardefeated Iran, comprisingEsmaeil Ebadi, MajidGheidi and AmirKazempour 231-227 inthe seimfinal at theGyeyang Asiad ArcheryField.

The Indian men’s teamwill now face formidableKorea in the gold medalmatch. The hosts defeatedPhilippines 228-227 inanother semifinalencounter.

It was heartbreak forIndia in the women’s com-pound women’s teamevent as the trio of TrishaDeb, Purvasha Shinde andJyothi Surekha Vennamlost to favourites Chinese

Taipei in the semifinal.The Indian trio gave the

Chinese Taipei side a runfor its money before goingdown 224-226.

The Indian women,however, has a chance tofinish on the podium asthey take on Iran in thebronze medal match onFriday.

Iran lost to Korea 222-229 in another women’steam semifinal.

Earlier in the day, theIndian men’s team defeat-ed Qatar 233-218 in theround of 16 eliminationbefore getting the better ofMalaysia 234-229 in thequarterfinals.

The eves, on the otherhand, overcameKazakhstan in a shoot-offto set up a semifinal clashwith Chinese Taipei.

India were levelled 223-223 against Kazakhstanwhich took the match intoshoot-off, where the com-bination of Trisha,Purvasha and Surekhs pre-vailed 29-25 over theirspirited opponents.

Compound men archers assuredof silver, women play for bronze

Sanam, Bhambri,Ankita in singlespre-quartersINCHEON , SEPT 25India’s Sanam Singh, YukiBhambri and Ankita Rainaon Thursday reached thepre-quarterfinals of themen’s and women’s sin-gles tennis competition ofthe 17th Asian Games atthe Yeorumul TennisCourts here.

Men’s fourth seedBhambri had little difficul-ty in disposing off JaborMohammed Ali Mutawa,beating the Qatari player6-1, 6-0 in 54 minutes.

Bhambri, who in theabsence of defendingAsiad champion SomdevDevvarman, is the top-seeded Indian in the com-petition will face 13thseeded IndonesianChristopher BenjaminRungkat in the next round.

Sanam Singh strolled toa 6-1, 6-2 straight sets winover AbdulhameedAlshatti in just 48 minutesto book his place in thepre-quarters.

Kareena Kapoor, who has done her share of female-centric dramas, says she wouldn't accept a biopicor a woman-oriented script just because others are

doing it. It won't be saying wrong that this year is ridinghigh on women centric dramas. Be it Kangana Ranaut'ssleeper hit Queen or Alia Bhatt's road movie Highway orRani Mukerji's Mardaani or boxing champ Mary Kom'sbiopic starring Priyanka Chopra in the title role - all cameand conquered the box office. When asked Kareena aboutthe same, she said, "I have done female-centric films. Idid Chameli at 22, then Jab We Met and then Heroine."

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Bollywood/Fashion8 NEW DELHI | FRIDAY | SEPT 26, 2014SAADDA HAQ

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Well-groomed eyebrowscan do wonders to yourface. Here are a few

ways to keep them looking greatalways

As much as you would carefor your skin, eyes and hair,taking care of your eye-brows is equally important.Eyebrows help frameyour face well and alsoenhances your overalllook. So if you wish toflaunt those gorgeousbrows, make sure to fol-low certain dos anddon'ts for it:

1. VISIT A PROFES-SIONAL

If achieving a perfectbrow shape at home is a lit-tle difficult, what adds toyour woes is not knowinghow to keep them groomed.At such times, it's best get aprofessional to work on yourbrows for you. When you areseated with your head bentbackwards, the beauticiancan work on your eye-brows, keeping your faceshape in mind.

2. OPT FOR THREAD-ING

There are many salonswhere they use wax to removethe extra hair growth around youreyebrows. You should never usewax on the area. Not only can thewax enter your eyes, but causeinjury around the eye area. Theskin around the eyes is very sen-sitive and if waxed, can tear anerve around your eyes.

3. INVEST IN A GOOD PAIROF TWEEZERS:

For the upkeep of your eye-

brows at home, buy apair of tweezers.Tweezers come handywhen you

have to go out for a party or anoffice meeting, and don't haveenough time to visit a salon. Aword of caution though -be care-ful while using the tweezer sothat you don't end up causinginjuries to your eyes.

4. DON'T MAKE THEM TOOTHIN OR TOO BOLD

You must always keep yourface shape in mind when gettingyour eyebrows groomed. Going

too thin or too bold with yourbrows may make your face looklarge or small. Innocuous as theylook, the shape of your eyebrowscan make your face look thinneror larger.

5. BRUSH YOUR BROWSINTO PLACE

When you wake up in themorning, take a thin-tooth softcomb and brush your eyebrows

into place. Youcan also dothis beforeyou step outof your housefor work. Youcan also spritza little hair-spray on yourbrows to keepthem intact fora longer dura-tion of time.

6. FILL THEMIN

If you havesparse eyebrows,take a pencil eye-liner in brown or

black and shade youreyebrow. Fill it in

depending

on how dark you want your eye-brows to be. To enhance youreyes, apply a little mineral com-pact powder around the eye areaand with the help of a make-upbrush, blend it in.

7. HIGHLIGHT THEM

Using a little highlighter justunder the arch of your eyes willaccentuate your brow line. Thiswill make you look younger and

your eyes look bigger.

CHECK THE SPACINGBETWEEN YOUR EYES

If you have close-set eyes,make sure that your brows aren'ttoo short from the tail. Whilethose with wide-set eyes shouldensure that they leave more hairin the inner parts of their brows

INTERESTING FACTSABOUT EYEBROWS

The average lifespan of aneyebrow hair is approximatelyfour months. It is also the slow-est growing hair on the humanbody.

The type of eyebrow definesyour personality. For example,those with curved eyebrows aresaid to be people-oriented, whilethose with straight eyebrows areones who are direct, factual andlogical in life.

Our eyebrows help to formexpressions. Thus, they are con-sidered to be a very crucialaspect of human communica-tion.

The real function of an eye-brow is to keep moisture out ofthe eyes when you are perspiringor when it's raining outside. Thisis because the arched shape ofthe brow helps divert liquid tothe other side of your face.

It is believed that when youthread or define your eyebrows,you are actually taking part in avery ancient method of facialgrooming.

In ancient times, every cultureand race had their own way ofgrooming their eyebrows.

According to beauticians andmake-up professionals world-wide, the eyebrows shape theface and give definition to theeyes and forehead.

7 ways to care for your eyebrows

Bollywood star HrithikRoshan often getsHollywood offers, but

says he hasn't found any interest-ing script yet. "Hollywood proj-ects are always there. I keep get-ting Hollywood scripts everynow and then. I read them, but Ihave not found anything interest-ing so far," Hrithik told reportersin a group interview. So far, hehas got five or six scripts fromHollywood. After a string of hitsin the form of Zindagi Na MilegiDobara, Agneepath and Krrish 3in the last three years, he is set toreturn to the silver screen toentertain his fans with BangBang, which he feels is one of theeasiest films of his career.

"Yes, it's one of the easiestfilms I have done in my life.

Once you go through the biggesttrouble in your life everythinggets easy. You don't get afraid ofchallenges you only try to getbetter," said the actor who will beseen romancing Katrina Kaif inthe film. Slated for an October 2release, the film has been helmedby director Siddharth Anandwhose last endeavour AnjanaAnjani was a dud. But Hrithikdoesn't judge a person on thebasis of success or failure.

"Everyone said why are yousigning Siddharth's film, but aman should be judged for what heis right now. To judge a man byhis past films is not right. Filmsare about exploring and not aboutimage. If you are stuck with yourimage, then it will not help," saidthe 40-year-old.

HrithikRoshan DidNot FindAny'Interesting' Projects inHollywood

Actor-filmmaker GeethuMohandas says it was hershort film Are You

Listening that paved the way forher debut feature film Liar's Dice,which is India's official Oscar pickfor the best foreign language filmcategory.

Geethu completed the script forLiar's Dice nearly six years ago butshe had trouble 'finding finances'for it.

But things changed for the goodpost Are You Listening that pre-miered at the Rotterdam film festi-val in 2010.

"My short fiction film Are YouListening had its world premiere atthe Rotterdam film festival and italso won three internationalawards in 2009," Geethu said.

"The wide recognition that myshort film received gave me theplatform to submit Liar's Dice atseveral international film fests forfunding. My project was selectedand granted funds by Huberat BalsFund at Rotterdam," she said.

The funds helped Geethu to gether project "started". Having gonethrough a lot of co-productionmarkets internationally, it was easyfor her to secure financing for herproducers, Ajai Rai and AlexMcAlex of Jar Pictures.

Liar's Dice is the story of awoman (Geetanjali Thapa) whosets out in search of her missinghusband along with her daughterand a pet lamb. Actor NawazuddinSiddiqui plays an important role in

the film.Geethu says it's a "very simple

story" with a "political undercur-rent". Asked if Liar's Dice iswoman-centric, she said: "I'm not afeminist from any angle. I just seemy actors as characters. The jour-

ney of the woman and the man,who offers help in finding themissing husband, is equally impor-tant.

"My main motive is not to showwoman power or a woman-centriccharacter. The lamb that you findin the film is as important as thewoman," she added.

Talking about her cast, Geethusaid that she didn't rope inNawazuddin because of his associ-

ation with filmmaker AnuragKashyap or her husband RajeevRavi, who is also the cinematogra-pher of Liar's Dice."I feelNawazuddin is a brilliant actor andsuits the role best. And because wehad budget constraints and the lim-

ited number of days to shoot, Ineeded a seasoned actor and espe-cially somebody who can act withreal people in real locations and gounnoticed," she said.

"People were unaware that wewere actually shooting withNawazuddin in the crowd. I need-ed an actor to carry forward some-thing like this and someone withthe presence of mind to emote in acertain way when surrounded by

real people for the camera," sheadded.

According to Geethu, she hasn'tseen "a finer actor than Geetanjaliin India"."She will go places afterthe release of our film. She's some-body people should watch out for.With a seasoned actor likeNawazuddin opposite her, she wasbrilliant in her role," she said.

Made in true independent style,Liar's Dice is a film for all and it'snot targeted at a certain section ofthe audience.Before Geethu wield-ed the megaphone, she was a suc-cessful actress in the Malayalamand Tamil film industries. Some ofher best films include Akale,Shesham and Nala Damayanthi.

She said as an actress she wasalways "interested to go behind thecamera", but her biggest inspira-tion has been her husband.

"Being with Rajeev over theyears, I've been inspired. I used towrite a lot and he encouraged meto write more. But somewhere Ifelt I should do something morecreative than just facing the cam-era. I also prefer to give ordersthan take orders," she said.

The film, which was shot in partsof Himachal Pradesh and Delhi, isexpected to hit the Indian theatreslater this year.

Liar's Dice has already beenscreened at several internationalfilm festivals such as Sundanceand Sofia. It also won twoNational awards for Best Actressand Best Cinematographer.

Liar's Dice is a Film for All, Says Director Geethu Mohandas

Sporting biopics seemto be the flavour ofthe season for film-

makers. Actor SushantSingh Rajput is all set tofeature in director NeerajPandey's film based on thecaptain of Indian cricketteam Mahendra SinghDhoni, which is titled MSDhoni - The Untold Story.

MS Dhoni's biopic wasshelved due to the report-edly high cost (which wasclose to Rs 45 crore) ofacquiring the rights for thefilm. Neeraj Pandey was ina fix as the producerswould have found it diffi-cult to make profit fromthe film made on such ahuge production budget.

However, the skipper's

wife took to Twitter onSeptember 25, to put anend to all the rumours:

In the poster, Sushant isseen with his back to theviewers in the Indian ODIjersey sporting MS Dhoni'sname and number, all set tostun the crowd with his'helicopter shots'.

Sushant had earlierplayed a cricket fanatic inAbhishek Kapoor's Kai PoChe.

Sushant has recentlycompleted DibakarBanerjee's DetectiveByomkesh Bakshi and iscurrently preparing forShekhar Kapur's Paani.

MS Dhoni - The UntoldStory is set for 2015release.

First Look: SushantSingh Rajput in MS

Dhoni Biopic

Shahid Kapoor'sHaider with VishalBhardwaj is ready to

come out, but that is notenough for the actor. Hiswish is that the filmmakershould make Kaminey 2with him.

While reports are doingthe round that Shahid is, infact, already a part ofKaminey 2, the actor said:"I would be very happy ifKaminey 2 happens."

Released in 2009,Kaminey featured Shahid

in a double role and hewon accolades for his per-formance from all quarters.

"I had an amazing expe-rience with Vishal sirworking on Kaminey andnow Haider. I just hope hecasts me in his next filmand I hope that this film isKaminey 2," the 33-year-old said here on the sets ofreality show Cine Stars KiKhoj on September 24.

In fact, Vishal Bhardwajhas already locked a story.

"He has an amazing

story and I think everyoneshould tell him to make itbecause he is difficult toconvince. But he has astory and a romantic ver-sion of Dhan Te Nan also. Ihave been telling himhe should do it, but heis a filmmaker and he hashis own thoughts," headded.

An adaptation of WilliamShakespeare's playHamlet, Haider also starsShraddha Kapoor. The filmwill release on October 2.

Why Kareena Kapoor Won't AcceptBiopics or Female-Centric Films

Shahid Kapoor Would BeHappy if Kaminey 2 Happens