7:C6 2?5 7FCJ 6?8F=7 28?:A2E9 - Daily Pioneer

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P rotests against Agnipath scheme intensified on Friday with the agitation spreading to southern States, and protesters setting 12 trains on fire across the country till now. One person was killed in police firing in Secunderabad in Telangana. Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh witnessed violent protests. Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Renu Devi’s house was attacked in Bettiah. The Bihar and Haryana Governments suspended inter- net and mobile telephone ser- vices in many districts follow- ing the Agnipath protests. In Bihar, internet and tele- com services will remain sus- pended till June 19 in Kaimur, Bhojpur, Aurangabad, Rohtas, Buxar, Nawada, West Champaran, Samastipur, Lakhisarai, Begusarai, Vaishali and Saran. The RJD has called for Bihar bandh on Saturday to protest the Agnipath scheme. Over 80 Express and 134 passenger trains have been cancelled and 61 Express and 30 passenger trains have been partially cancelled as protests over the Agnipath recruitment scheme continue across the country. At least 11 Express trains have been diverted. Telangana police resorted to aerial firing to disperse the angry crowd at the Secunderabad railway station as protests escalated into large- scale violence and arson. Protesters were demon- strating on railway tracks and halted all train movement for the last three hours. Security forces were outnumbered as the railway station was overrun by angry youth, who reportedly set three trains on fire. The railways are diverting trains so that they do not pass through the Secunderabad sta- tion. The disruption began at 9 am when over 350 protesters took over the railway station. East Coast Express, Rajkot Express, and Ajanta Express were set on fire by violent protesters. 71 trains — 65 from Hyderabad Multi-Modal Transport System and six Express trains — have been cancelled so far. Protesters ran amok at Trichy railway station in Tamil Nadu against the Agnipath scheme. They squatted on a railway track before officials moved them from the tracks. In Bihar, where the protests entered the third day, the house of Deputy Chief Minister Renu Devi was attacked. “Such type of violence is very dangerous for society. The protesters should remember that this is a loss for society,” she told a pri- vate television channel. “The large-scale violence and arson is a handiwork of goons instigated by the Opposition parties. What else explains targeted attacks on BJP leaders? My house in Bettiah town was attacked. Window panes and a car parked inside got damaged. Thankfully, none of those inside were injured. Petrol pump owned by a broth- er of Sanjay Jaiswal (State party president) has been van- dalised,” Devi told PTI. In Motihari, the car of BJP MLA Vinay Bihari was pelted with stones and while the leg- islator and his driver were not injured, the vehicle was badly damaged. Two coaches of the Jammu Tawi Express train were set on fire in Bihar’s Samastipur dis- trict. A BJP office was attacked in the Lakhisarai district. A mob set fire to the Islampur- Hatia express train which was stationed at the Islampur sta- tion in Nalanda. Three AC coaches are completely burnt down and several other coach- es have been damaged. Continued on Page 2 A s protests against “Agnipath” policy turned violent on Friday in several parts of the country, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Home Minister Amit Shah reached out to the job aspirants, asking them to start preparing for the recruitment which will start soon after the age limit was increased to 23 years from 21 on Thursday. The age limit was raised as a “one-time” waiver as recruit- ment was put on hold for the last two years due to the coro- na pandemic, denying a chance to the candidates, Rajnath said, adding it is a “golden opportu- nity”. Home Minister Amit Shah said the decision to increase the upper age limit for the recruit- ment in the defence services will benefit the job aspirants in a big way. Union Minister Anurag Thakur posted a video on his Twitter, in which he was seen interacting with a group of youngsters in his constituency Hamirpur and clearing their doubts about the scheme. Army Chief General Manoj Pande too urged the aspirants to avail of this oppor- tunity as they could not do so in the past two years. Raising of the upper age limit for induction under the “Agnipath” scheme would permit a larger section of youth to enroll as “Agniveer”, said IAF chief VR Chaudhari. Shah said the recruitment process in the Army was affect- ed for the last two years due to the coronavirus pandemic, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken a sensitive decision by showing concern for the youth of the country. “The recruitment process in the Army was affected due to the corona pandemic for the last two years, so Prime Minister Shri @narendramodi ji has taken a sensitive decision, showing concern for the youth, to give them two years con- cession in the age limit from 21 years to 23 years in the first year of Agnipath scheme,” Shah said in a tweet in Hindi. A large number of youth will benefit from this decision. Through the “Agnipath” scheme, they will move for- ward in the service to the country and their bright future, he said. “I thank @naren- dramodi ji,” he added. In an attempt to assuage the concerns of the young peo- ple agitating against the “Agnipath” military recruit- ment, Rajnath said the new model is a “golden opportuni- ty” for those wanting to join the country’s defence system. The process will start in a “few days,” Rajnath said. He said the Government’s decision to increase the upper age limit from 21 years to 23 years for recruitment under the scheme in 2022 will allow a sig- nificant number of youths to join the armed forces. Continued on Page 2 A mid rising protests in sev- eral parts of the country against the “Agnipath” scheme, the Army and the Indian Air Force (IAF) have decided to go ahead with the process of recruitment. While the Army will issue a notification on Monday next, the IAF will start the selection process on June 24. Giving details of the process, the Army officials said after the issuance of initial notification for enrolment under the Agnipath scheme, various agencies of the Army will come out with details of the induction process like the number of vacancies, location of recruitment rallies and test schedules, they said. The training of the recruits is likely to commence from December this year, they said. The plan is to deploy the ini- tial batches of recruits under the new scheme in operational and non-operational roles by around June next year. Indian Air Force chief VR Chaudhari said here on Friday the selection process by the IAF for the recruitment under the Agnipath scheme will start from June 24. He also said raising the upper age limit to 23 for induc- tion under the Agnipath scheme for the year 2022 will permit a larger section of the youth to enroll under the new model of recruitment. “The Government has recently come out with the “Agnipath” scheme for enrol- ment in the armed forces. The age bracket for the scheme is 17-and-a-half-years to 21 years. I am pleased to inform you that the upper age limit for the first induction has been increased to 23 years,” Chaudhari said. Continued on Page 2 T he Government on Friday issued four notifications allowing linking of electoral roll data with Aadhaar, making electoral law gender neutral for service voters and enabling young citizens register as vot- ers four times a year instead of the present one. The notifica- tions are part of the Election Laws (Amendment) Act, 2021 passed by Parliament last year. Law Minister Kiren Rijiju took to Twitter to announce that four notifications in this regard have been issued in consultation with the Election Commission. The Union Minister shared a chart to say the notifications will enable “linking of electoral roll data with the Aadhaar ecosystem to curb the menace of multiple enrolment of the same person in different places”. He also said now a citizen who turns 18 on January 1 or April 1 or July 1 or October 1 in a calendar year can imme- diately apply for voter regis- tration. “The four qualifying dates will considerably enhance the voter base,” he said. Continued on Page 2 T he NCERT has removed portions about the 2002 Gujarat riots, Emergency, Cold War, Naxalite movement and Mughal courts from its Class 12 textbooks as part of its “syllabus rationalisation” exercise. The NCERT, an autonomous body of the Union Education Ministry, has cited “overlapping” and “irrelevant” as reasons for dropping those portions from the syllabus. Many of these changes were announced earlier this year when the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) rationalised its syllabi in April. Besides schools under CBSE, some State boards too use NCERT textbooks. Listing the changes, the NCERT, in a note, said, “The content of the textbooks has been rationalised for various reasons, including overlapping with similar con- tent in other subject areas in the same class, similar content included in the lower or high- er classes on the same subject. In Class 12 political science textbook, pages on “Gujarat riots” will be excluded from chapter: “Recent Developments in Indian Politics”. Continued on Page 2 C hina’s decision to block a joint proposal by India and the US to designate Pakistan- based Abdul Rehman Makki as an international terrorist under the UN sanctions committee runs counter to Beijing’s claim of combating terrorism and sig- nals its “double standards”, Government sources here said on Friday. Protecting well-known ter- rorists from sanctioning will only undermine China’s cred- ibility and “risk exposing” even itself more to the growing threat of terrorism, they said. Makki has been involved in raising funds, recruiting and radicalising youths to resort to violence and planning attacks in India, particularly in Jammu and Kashmir, they said. On June 1, India and the US jointly proposed to list Makki under the UNSC’s Al- Qaeda and ISIL Sanctions Committee which is known as the UNSC 1267 Committee. Both India and the US have listed Makki as a terrorist under their domestic laws. China has placed a “tech- nical hold” on the proposal to list Makki and this measure can last for up to six months at a time. “This decision by China is extremely unfortunate given the overwhelming evidence against Makki. Moreover, it runs counter to China’s claims of combating terrorism,” said a source. It was not the first time that China has placed hurdles for the listing of known terrorists as it had repeatedly blocked proposals to designate Maulana Masood Azhar, the chief of Pakistan-based and UN-pro- scribed terrorist entity Jaish-e- Mohammed (JeM), the sources said. Continued on Page 2 A Mumbai Police team is in Delhi in connection with the probe against now sus- pended BJP leader Nupur Sharma for alleged objection- able comments against Prophet Mohammad, an official said on Friday. The team, from Pydhonie police station here, is in the national Capital for the past five days as it needs to physically hand over summons to Sharma to appear before police and to look into other aspects of the probe, he said. D efence Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday set the ball rolling by dropping a clear hint that the first ever Assembly elections in the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir are round the corner and may be held by this year-end. Before winding up his two- day-long visit to Jammu & Kashmir, Singh arrived in Jammu to attend a function marking the 200th coronation ceremony of Maharaja Gulab Singh at Hari Niwas Palace. Speaking in the presence of former Sadr-e-Riyasat and vet- eran Parliamentarian Dr Karan Singh, son of last Dogra ruler Maharaja Hari Singh, Rajnath Singh said the delimitation exercise was completed recent- ly following which the number of seats has increased to 90 with Kashmir division having 47 seats and Jammu 43. “There’s a strong possibil- ity that the electoral process will commence by the end of this year in J&K,” he added. The Union Minister also read out the report card of the Narendra Modi-led Government at the Centre while listing out changes brought in J&K after the abro- gation of Articles 370 and 35A. The Defence Minister also said that the neighbouring country is sowing the seeds of hatred in India. “There’s foreign conspira- cy in recent targeted killings in J&K. We need to foil such attempts. We won’t let the forceful migration happen of any person from any religion or sect,” Singh added. The function was also attended by Lt-Governor Manoj Sinha, Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh, Vikramaditya Singh, BJP leader Ajatshatru Singh, members of the Maharaja Gulab Singh Memorial Trust, Member Parliament Jugal Kishore Sharma, besides many former Ministers, ex-MLAs and prominent dignitaries. After the culmination of the marathon exercise of the delimitation, the Election Commission of India had already initiated the revision of electoral rolls in Jammu & Kashmir. It is mandatory to update the electoral rolls before holding the first ever Assembly polls in the Union Territory. Official sources said the draft rolls are expected to be ready by August 31. Last week, the Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar and Election Commissioner Anup Chandra Pandey had convened a meet- ing where the J&K Chief Electoral Officer was directed to map the redrawn Assembly constituencies. During the revision exer- cise, citizens would be given opportunities to enrol, delete and change their particulars in the electoral rolls.

Transcript of 7:C6 2?5 7FCJ 6?8F=7 28?:A2E9 - Daily Pioneer

Page 1: 7:C6 2?5 7FCJ 6?8F=7 28?:A2E9 - Daily Pioneer

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Protests against Agnipathscheme intensified on

Friday with the agitationspreading to southern States,and protesters setting 12 trainson fire across the country tillnow. One person was killed inpolice firing in Secunderabadin Telangana. Bihar, UttarPradesh, Odisha, West Bengaland Madhya Pradesh witnessedviolent protests. Bihar DeputyChief Minister Renu Devi’shouse was attacked in Bettiah.

The Bihar and HaryanaGovernments suspended inter-net and mobile telephone ser-vices in many districts follow-ing the Agnipath protests.

In Bihar, internet and tele-com services will remain sus-pended till June 19 in Kaimur,Bhojpur, Aurangabad, Rohtas,Buxar, Nawada, WestChamparan, Samastipur,Lakhisarai, Begusarai, Vaishaliand Saran. The RJD has calledfor Bihar bandh on Saturday toprotest the Agnipath scheme.

Over 80 Express and 134passenger trains have beencancelled and 61 Express and30 passenger trains have beenpartially cancelled as protestsover the Agnipath recruitmentscheme continue across thecountry. At least 11 Expresstrains have been diverted.

Telangana police resortedto aerial firing to disperse theangry crowd at theSecunderabad railway stationas protests escalated into large-scale violence and arson.

Protesters were demon-strating on railway tracks andhalted all train movement for

the last three hours. Securityforces were outnumbered as therailway station was overrun byangry youth, who reportedlyset three trains on fire.

The railways are divertingtrains so that they do not passthrough the Secunderabad sta-tion. The disruption began at9 am when over 350 protesterstook over the railway station.

East Coast Express, RajkotExpress, and Ajanta Expresswere set on fire by violentprotesters. 71 trains — 65 fromHyderabad Multi-ModalTransport System and sixExpress trains — have beencancelled so far.

Protesters ran amok atTrichy railway station in TamilNadu against the Agnipathscheme. They squatted on arailway track before officialsmoved them from the tracks. InBihar, where the protestsentered the third day, the houseof Deputy Chief Minister RenuDevi was attacked. “Such typeof violence is very dangerousfor society. The protestersshould remember that this is aloss for society,” she told a pri-vate television channel.

“The large-scale violenceand arson is a handiwork ofgoons instigated by theOpposition parties. What elseexplains targeted attacks on BJPleaders? My house in Bettiahtown was attacked. Windowpanes and a car parked insidegot damaged. Thankfully, noneof those inside were injured.Petrol pump owned by a broth-er of Sanjay Jaiswal (State partypresident) has been van-dalised,” Devi told PTI.

In Motihari, the car of BJPMLA Vinay Bihari was pelted

with stones and while the leg-islator and his driver were notinjured, the vehicle was badlydamaged.

Two coaches of the JammuTawi Express train were set onfire in Bihar’s Samastipur dis-trict.

A BJP office was attackedin the Lakhisarai district. Amob set fire to the Islampur-Hatia express train which wasstationed at the Islampur sta-tion in Nalanda. Three ACcoaches are completely burntdown and several other coach-es have been damaged.

Continued on Page 2

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As protests against“Agnipath” policy turned

violent on Friday in severalparts of the country, DefenceMinister Rajnath Singh andHome Minister Amit Shahreached out to the job aspirants,asking them to start preparingfor the recruitment which willstart soon after the age limitwas increased to 23 years from21 on Thursday.

The age limit was raised asa “one-time” waiver as recruit-ment was put on hold for thelast two years due to the coro-na pandemic, denying a chanceto the candidates, Rajnath said,adding it is a “golden opportu-nity”.

Home Minister Amit Shahsaid the decision to increase theupper age limit for the recruit-ment in the defence serviceswill benefit the job aspirants ina big way.

Union Minister AnuragThakur posted a video on his

Twitter, in which he was seeninteracting with a group ofyoungsters in his constituencyHamirpur and clearing theirdoubts about the scheme.

Army Chief GeneralManoj Pande too urged theaspirants to avail of this oppor-tunity as they could not do soin the past two years. Raisingof the upper age limit forinduction under the “Agnipath”scheme would permit a largersection of youth to enroll as“Agniveer”, said IAF chief VRChaudhari.

Shah said the recruitmentprocess in the Army was affect-ed for the last two years due tothe coronavirus pandemic, andPrime Minister Narendra Modihas taken a sensitive decisionby showing concern for theyouth of the country.

“The recruitment processin the Army was affected dueto the corona pandemic for thelast two years, so PrimeMinister Shri @narendramodiji has taken a sensitive decision,showing concern for the youth,

to give them two years con-cession in the age limit from 21years to 23 years in the first yearof Agnipath scheme,” Shahsaid in a tweet in Hindi.

A large number of youthwill benefit from this decision.Through the “Agnipath”scheme, they will move for-ward in the service to thecountry and their bright future,he said. “I thank @naren-dramodi ji,” he added.

In an attempt to assuagethe concerns of the young peo-ple agitating against the“Agnipath” military recruit-ment, Rajnath said the newmodel is a “golden opportuni-ty” for those wanting to join thecountry’s defence system. Theprocess will start in a “fewdays,” Rajnath said.

He said the Government’sdecision to increase the upperage limit from 21 years to 23years for recruitment under thescheme in 2022 will allow a sig-nificant number of youths tojoin the armed forces.

Continued on Page 2

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Amid rising protests in sev-eral parts of the country

against the “Agnipath” scheme,the Army and the Indian AirForce (IAF) have decided to goahead with the process ofrecruitment. While the Armywill issue a notification onMonday next, the IAF willstart the selection process onJune 24.

Giving details of theprocess, the Army officials saidafter the issuance of initialnotification for enrolmentunder the Agnipath scheme,

various agencies of the Armywill come out with details of theinduction process like thenumber of vacancies, locationof recruitment rallies and testschedules, they said.

The training of the recruitsis likely to commence fromDecember this year, they said.The plan is to deploy the ini-tial batches of recruits underthe new scheme in operationaland non-operational roles byaround June next year.

Indian Air Force chief VRChaudhari said here on Fridaythe selection process by the IAFfor the recruitment under theAgnipath scheme will start

from June 24.He also said raising the

upper age limit to 23 for induc-tion under the Agnipathscheme for the year 2022 willpermit a larger section of theyouth to enroll under the newmodel of recruitment.

“The Government hasrecently come out with the“Agnipath” scheme for enrol-ment in the armed forces. Theage bracket for the scheme is17-and-a-half-years to 21 years.I am pleased to inform you thatthe upper age limit for the firstinduction has been increased to23 years,” Chaudhari said.

Continued on Page 2

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The Government on Fridayissued four notifications

allowing linking of electoral rolldata with Aadhaar, makingelectoral law gender neutral forservice voters and enablingyoung citizens register as vot-ers four times a year instead ofthe present one. The notifica-tions are part of the ElectionLaws (Amendment) Act, 2021passed by Parliament last year.

Law Minister Kiren Rijijutook to Twitter to announcethat four notifications in thisregard have been issued inconsultation with the ElectionCommission. The UnionMinister shared a chart to saythe notifications will enable“linking of electoral roll datawith the Aadhaar ecosystem tocurb the menace of multipleenrolment of the same personin different places”.

He also said now a citizenwho turns 18 on January 1 orApril 1 or July 1 or October 1in a calendar year can imme-diately apply for voter regis-tration. “The four qualifyingdates will considerably enhancethe voter base,” he said.

Continued on Page 2

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The NCERT has removedportions about the 2002

Gujarat riots, Emergency, ColdWar, Naxalite movement andMughal courts from its Class 12textbooks as part of its “syllabusrationalisation” exercise.

The NCERT, anautonomous body of the UnionEducation Ministry, has cited“overlapping” and “irrelevant”as reasons for dropping thoseportions from the syllabus.

Many of these changeswere announced earlier thisyear when the Central Board ofSecondary Education (CBSE)rationalised its syllabi in April.

Besides schools underCBSE, some State boards toouse NCERT textbooks. Listingthe changes, the NCERT, in anote, said, “The content of thetextbooks has been rationalisedfor various reasons, includingoverlapping with similar con-tent in other subject areas in thesame class, similar contentincluded in the lower or high-er classes on the same subject.

In Class 12 political sciencetextbook, pages on “Gujaratriots” will be excluded fromchapter: “Recent Developmentsin Indian Politics”.

Continued on Page 2

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China’s decision to block ajoint proposal by India and

the US to designate Pakistan-based Abdul Rehman Makki asan international terrorist underthe UN sanctions committeeruns counter to Beijing’s claimof combating terrorism and sig-nals its “double standards”,Government sources here saidon Friday.

Protecting well-known ter-rorists from sanctioning willonly undermine China’s cred-ibility and “risk exposing” evenitself more to the growingthreat of terrorism, they said.

Makki has been involved inraising funds, recruiting andradicalising youths to resort toviolence and planning attacksin India, particularly in Jammuand Kashmir, they said.

On June 1, India and theUS jointly proposed to listMakki under the UNSC’s Al-Qaeda and ISIL SanctionsCommittee which is known asthe UNSC 1267 Committee.Both India and the US havelisted Makki as a terroristunder their domestic laws.

China has placed a “tech-nical hold” on the proposal tolist Makki and this measure canlast for up to six months at a

time. “This decision by China is

extremely unfortunate giventhe overwhelming evidenceagainst Makki. Moreover, itruns counter to China’s claimsof combating terrorism,” said asource.

It was not the first time thatChina has placed hurdles forthe listing of known terroristsas it had repeatedly blockedproposals to designate MaulanaMasood Azhar, the chief ofPakistan-based and UN-pro-scribed terrorist entity Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), the sourcessaid.

Continued on Page 2

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AMumbai Police team is inDelhi in connection with

the probe against now sus-pended BJP leader NupurSharma for alleged objection-able comments against ProphetMohammad, an official said onFriday.

The team, from Pydhoniepolice station here, is in thenational Capital for the past fivedays as it needs to physicallyhand over summons to Sharmato appear before police and tolook into other aspects of theprobe, he said.

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Defence Minister RajnathSingh on Friday set the ball

rolling by dropping a clearhint that the first ever Assemblyelections in the Union Territoryof Jammu & Kashmir are roundthe corner and may be held bythis year-end.

Before winding up his two-day-long visit to Jammu &Kashmir, Singh arrived inJammu to attend a functionmarking the 200th coronationceremony of Maharaja GulabSingh at Hari Niwas Palace.

Speaking in the presence offormer Sadr-e-Riyasat and vet-eran Parliamentarian Dr KaranSingh, son of last Dogra rulerMaharaja Hari Singh, RajnathSingh said the delimitationexercise was completed recent-ly following which the numberof seats has increased to 90 withKashmir division having 47seats and Jammu 43.

“There’s a strong possibil-ity that the electoral processwill commence by the end ofthis year in J&K,” he added.

The Union Minister alsoread out the report card of theNarendra Modi-ledGovernment at the Centrewhile listing out changesbrought in J&K after the abro-gation of Articles 370 and 35A.

The Defence Minister alsosaid that the neighbouringcountry is sowing the seeds of

hatred in India. “There’s foreign conspira-

cy in recent targeted killings inJ&K. We need to foil suchattempts. We won’t let theforceful migration happen ofany person from any religion orsect,” Singh added.

The function was alsoattended by Lt-GovernorManoj Sinha, Union MinisterDr Jitendra Singh,Vikramaditya Singh, BJP leaderAjatshatru Singh, members ofthe Maharaja Gulab SinghMemorial Trust, MemberParliament Jugal KishoreSharma, besides many formerMinisters, ex-MLAs andprominent dignitaries.

After the culmination ofthe marathon exercise of thedelimitation, the ElectionCommission of India hadalready initiated the revision ofelectoral rolls in Jammu &Kashmir. It is mandatory toupdate the electoral rolls beforeholding the first ever Assemblypolls in the Union Territory.

Official sources said thedraft rolls are expected to beready by August 31.

Last week, the ChiefElection Commissioner RajivKumar and ElectionCommissioner Anup ChandraPandey had convened a meet-ing where the J&K ChiefElectoral Officer was directedto map the redrawn Assemblyconstituencies.

During the revision exer-cise, citizens would be givenopportunities to enrol, deleteand change their particulars inthe electoral rolls.

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For the second straight day,the Delhiites got a respite

from the heatwave in thenational Capital, as heavy rainslashed parts of Delhi on Friday.The minimum temperatureplummeted by five notches to22.8 degrees Celsius, accordingto the India MeteorologicalDepartment (IMD).

The weather office hadpredicted thunderstorms withlight to moderate intensityrains in the national Capital.

"Thunderstorm with lightto moderate intensity rain andgusty winds with speed of 30-40 Km/h would occur over andadjoining areas of Delhi andNCR (Loni Dehat, Hindon AFStation, Ghaziabad,Indirapuram, Chhapraula,Noida, Dadri, Greater Noida,"the Met office had tweeted at

1:50 PM. The weather officehad earlier said the cityreceived 7 mm of rainfall in thelast 24 hours ending 8.30 AMon Friday. Heavy rains alsolashed parts of Delhi on Fridaymorning, while the maximumtemperature during the day inthe Capital settled at 36.7degrees Celsius, three notchesless than the normal for this

time of the year. According tothe data released by the weath-er station, the observatories atRidge, Ayanagar, Najafgarh,Pitampura, Palam, and LodhiRoad recorded maximum tem-peratures of 36.2 degreesCelsius, 37.2 degrees Celsius, 39degrees Celsius, 37.3 degreesCelsius, 37.6 degrees Celsiusand 37.2 degrees Celsius

respectively. The IMD pre-dicted that Delhi will remaincloudy with moderate rain forthe next four days with themaximum temperature up to36-37 degrees Celsius and theminimum temperature will godown to 25-26 degree Celsius.

“Current spell of intenserainfall is likely to continueover Northeast India and Sub-Himalayan West Bengal andSikkim during the next fourdays and decrease thereafter,”weather department said.Meanwhile Delhi traffic Policedepartment advised com-muters to plan their journeyaccording to weather condition.

The police also took it totwitter and wrote, “As perweather forecast" Cloudy skywith moderate rain" is expect-ed in Delhi. Commuters areadvised to plan their journeyaccordingly,” tweeted at 2:49PM.

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Delhi reported 1,797 coron-avirus cases and one fatal-

ity due to the infection, whilethe positivity rate rose to 8.18per cent, according to datashared by the health depart-ment on Friday.

This is the third consecu-tive day that Delhi has record-ed over 1,300 cases in a day.The capital has logged morethan 1,000 daily cases for thefourth day on the trot.

With the fresh cases,Delhi's tally of COVID-19cases increased to 19,19,025while the death toll rose to26,226, the department said inits latest bulletin. Meanwhile,amid the increasing coron-avirus cases in the national cap-ital, over 5,300 challans wereissued across Delhi betweenJune 10 and 15 and fines to thetune of over Rs 26 lakh were

imposed on those floutingCovid norms. However, thetotal fines collected was Rs14,60,980 almost half of theamount of fines imposed by thedistricts. The officials explainedthat while some people pay thefine amount on the spot, thereare others who pay the finelater in the court.

On many occasions, viola-tors do not have sufficientamount to pay the fine. In thatcase, we issue challans andsend them to the violator'sresidence or email them, saidan official.

The enforcement team ofthe New Delhi district issuedthe maximum number of chal-lans while the southwest dis-trict administration issued theleast number of fines andrecorded single-digit numberon all six days between June 10and June 15. Delhi recorded1,323 new Covid cases and two

deaths on Thursday, while thepositivity rate stood at 6.69 percent, according to data sharedby the health department here.It was the second consecutiveday that Delhi recorded over1,300 cases in a day.

Between June 10 and June15, 5,313 challans were issuedacross revenue districts of Delhiby enforcement teams withthe maximum fines beingimposed in New Delhi districtwhile the least imposed in thenorth district.

In New Delhi districtbetween June 10 and June 15,the number of challans stood at384, 429, 393, 317, 355 and 355respectively while in the sameperiod, the north district sawseven challans being issued onfirst two days, followed by fouron the next two days and thensix challans each on June 14and June 15. Similarly south-west district also recorded sin-

gle-digit figures on three dayswhile on June 10, June 11 andJune 14, 19, 11 and 14 fineswere imposed respectively.

The total fines imposedstood at Rs 26,23,080, accord-ing to official data. In view ofthe current surge in cases, dis-tricts in Delhi have also rampedup measures to ensure that pos-itive cases are detected ontime. An official said there islaxity on the part of people infollowing Covid-appropriatebehaviour despite the spike incases.

However, the official saidthe hospitalisation rate is lowand only those who havecomorbidities or are unvacci-nated are getting hospitalized.

Amid a spike in daily cases,positivity rate too has climbedfrom 1.92 per cent registeredon June 7 to 7.01 per cent onJune 15, according to officialfigures.

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Justice Ranjana PrakashDesai, a former judge of the

Supreme Court, was appoint-ed as the chairperson of thePress Council of India (PCI).

Justice Desai had recentlyheaded the DelimitationCommission on Jammu andKashmir, which was set up toredraw the assembly con-stituencies of the UnionTerritory. A committee com-prising vice-president M.Venkaiah Naidu, Lok SabhaSpeaker Om Birla and PCImember Prakash Dubeyapproved her appointment asthe PCI chairperson at a meet-ing held on Tuesday and the

announcement was made onFriday night . Justice Desai, 72,is also a former judge of theBombay high court. The postwas lying vacant since JusticeChandramauli Kumar Prasad(retd) completed his term asPCI chairperson and demittedoffice in November last year.

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New Delhi: Congress presidentSonia Gandhi has been detect-ed with a lower respiratory tractinfection after her admission toa private hospital in the nation-al Capital last week for Covid-related complications.

Newly appointed Congresschief spokesperson JairamRamesh said Sonia Gandhiwas admitted to the hospital onJune 12 after bleeding from hernose following a recent Covidinfection.

"She was immediately putunder treatment and under-went a related follow-up pro-cedure a day earlier," he said ina statement. Ramesh, who isthe new general secretary in-charge of the party's commu-nications department, said afungal infection in her lowerrespiratory tract was alsodetected upon admission.

New Delhi: India andIndonesia on Friday reviewedthe entire spectrum of theirbilateral ties during the talkshere between External AffairsMinister S Jaishankar and hisvisiting counterpart RetnoMarsudi. The talks weretermed "productive."

The two leaders focusedon bilateral cooperation in sev-eral key areas including defenceand security, trade, and con-nectivity. The talks were heldunder the framework of theIndia-Indonesia JointCommission.

Marsudi is on a visit toIndia primarily to attend aforeign ministerial meeting ofNew Delhi and Association ofsoutheast AsianNations(ASEAN) memberstates that took place onThursday.

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From Page1In Uttar Pradesh, a mob entered

a railway station in Ballia on Fridaymorning and set a train coach on fire.The crowd also damaged railway sta-tion property before the police usedforce to disperse them.

At Firozabad and Varanasi, pro-testers raising slogans “Bharat Mataki Jai” and “Agnipath Vapas Lo,” van-dalised some other trains. Theprotests also compelled the Railwaysto cancel several trains and postponesome as a precautionary measure.

Officials said the protesters alsoerected barriers on the Agra-Lucknow

Expressway to stop buses andpelted stones at them while the traf-fic also briefly came to a standstillon the Yamuna Expressway nearNoida. Protests also erupted inVaranasi, Firozabad and Amethi,causing damage to government busesamong others. In Varanasi, youthsraised anti-Government slogans at

the Cantonment Railway Stationand damaged buses and carts outside.In Amethi too, youths staged aprotest against the Agnipath schemeand blocked the Amethi-Durgapurroad. Police and the district admin-istration faced a tough time inremoving the blockade. The Amethi-Pratapgarh road was also blocked,they said.

As protests snowballed, theNorth-Eastern Railways, North-Central Railways and NorthernRailways cancelled some trains whilethey stopped a few others. PublicRelations Officer (PRO) of North-Eastern Railways Pankaj Singh saidin view of the protests, the North-Eastern Railway has cancelled 12trains.

These include Varanasi-Chhapra,Chhapra-Aurihar, Ballia-Varanasi,Azamgarh-Varanasi, PrayagrajRambagh-Mau, Mau-PrayagrajRambagh, Thave-Chhapra Kacheri,Chhapra-Varanasi, Thawe-Masrakh,

Masrakh-Thave, Varanasi-Ballia andBanaras-Patna Express.

Patna, so far, largely untouchedby the stir, witnessed some commo-tion as controversial former MPRajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadavstaged a demonstration on the DakBungalow crossing along with hun-dreds of supporters, causing hugetraffic snarls.

Barely a couple of kilometresaway, students staged a huge demon-stration at the Kargil chowk andmarched through Ashok Rajpath,flanked on either side by collegesaffiliated to the Patna University andbook shops, coaching centres and res-idential complexes doubling up ascheap hostels.

“It is natural for the youngstersto be outraged at the Agnipathscheme. They do not join the Armedforces, putting their lives at risk, tobe kicked out after four years with nopensionary benefits,” Yadav toldreporters.

From Page1“Due to the lack of recruitment process in the

army for the last two years, many youths could notget the opportunity to join army. Therefore, keep-ing in mind the future of the youths, on the instruc-tions of Prime Minister @narendramodi, theGovernment has increased the age limit forrecruitment of Agniveers from 21 years to 23 years,”the Defence Minister said.

The Government on Thursday night increasedthe upper age limit for recruitment under the“Agnipath” scheme to 23 years from 21 for the year2022 amid widespread protest against the newmodel for enrolment of soldiers into the three ser-vices.

Unveiling the scheme on Tuesday, theGovernment said youths between the age of 17-and-a-half and 21 years would be inducted for afour-year tenure while 25 per cent of the recruitswill be retained for regular service. The new schemefor the recruitment of soldiers in the Army, Navyand Air Force was projected by the Governmentas a major overhaul of the decades-old selectionprocess to enhance the youthful profile of the threeservices.

The Army Chief said the Government’s deci-sion to raise the upper age limit will provide anopportunity to the youth who were preparing tojoin the force but could not be recruited due to theCovod-19 pandemic in the last two years.

Pande said the decision of the Government hasbeen received by the Army to grant the one-timewaiver and that the recruitment process will beannounced shortly.

“The schedule of the recruitment process willbe announced shortly. We call upon our youths toavail this opportunity for joining Indian Army asAgniveers,” Pande said. After scheme was rolledout, the Army said it would ensure an enhancedyouthful profile of force and result in a “reductionin average age from 32 to 26 years over some time”.

From Page1“China should reflect on its

response that signals double standardson combating terrorism. Protectingwell-known terrorists from sanctioningin this manner will only undermine itscredibility and risk exposing even itselfmore to the growing threat of terror-ism,” the source said.

Makki is the head of the politicalaffairs of Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT) andJamat ud-Dawa (JuD), and served ashead of LeT’s foreign relations depart-ment, the sources said.

The LeT has been involved inmajor attacks in India such as the 26/11Mumbai terror attack, Red Fort Attackin 2000, Rampur CRPF Camp attack inJanuary 2008, Khanpora (Baramulla)

attack in 2018, Srinagar attack in June2018 and Gurez/Bandipora attack in2018, the sources said. Makki wasreportedly arrested by the Pakistan gov-ernment on May 15, 2019, and was keptunder house arrest in Lahore. In 2020,he was convicted of terrorism financ-ing and was sentenced to prison by aPakistani court, they said.

The proposal to list Makki underthe UN Security Council sanctionsregime was circulated to all membersof the Council’s 1267 Committee undera no-objection procedure till June 16.

“Regrettably, on June 16, Chinaplaced a ‘technical hold’ on the proposalto list Makki. This measure blocks theadoption of the listing proposal till thehold is withdrawn,” the source said.

From Page1The mention of the

National Human RightsCommission report on the2002 violence and the “rajdharma” remark by then PrimeMinister Atal Bihar Vajpayeehas been dropped from thetextbook.

Also, chapters on Mughalcourts in a history textbook, apoem on the Dalit movementand a chapter on the Cold War,are among the exclusions fromthe political science textbook.In Class 10, the excluded chap-ters included verses of poet Faiz

Ahmed Faiz in ‘Religion,Communalism and Politics -Communalism, Secular State’section of the textbook‘Democratic Politics II’. Also,chapters titled ‘Democracy andDiversity’, ‘Popular Struggleand movements’ and‘Challenges to Democracy’have been dropped.

From Page1Earlier, only January 1 of

every year was the cut-off date.The four cut-off dates for enrol-ment is part of a Bill passed byParliament a few months backto allow linkage of Aadhaarwith the electoral rolls.

Those turning 18 on orbefore January 1 can register asvoters on day one of January.Those turning 18 after thathave to wait for one whole year.

On making electoral lawgender neutral, he said theword “wife” will be substitutedwith the word “spouse” makingthe statutes gender neutralwhich shall allow the wife orhusband of a service voter toavail the voting facility avail-able. Soldiers deployed in farflung areas or members ofIndian missions abroad aresome of the people consideredas service voters.

From Page1Army Chief General Manoj Pande on Tuesday had said

fully-trained ‘Agniveers’ will also serve stints at Line of ActualControl(LAC)facing China and Line of Control(LOC)withPakistan. Under the ‘Agnipath’ scheme, the Army is likely torecruit around 40,000 soldiers, the Navy is expected to inductaround 3,000 sailors and IAF is set to recruit 3,000 air war-riors this year.

The Government plans to have a centralised database onthe ‘Agniveers’ to keep track of the skills that they would acquireduring their four-year tenure, sources said. The recruitmentprocess will start after 90 days since policy was announcedand nearly 46,000 soldiers will be selected on a contractualbasis for a four-year stint. Later, 25 per cent of them will beretained for a permanent stint or regular service of 15 yearsor more with full pension and medical benefits.

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NEW DELHI: The Delhi Policehas busted a syndicate of childtraffickers and arrested eightpeople, including six women inthe National Capital.

The accused have beenidentified as Neetu, Sonia,Vineet and Meena, all residentsof Delhi, Rekha Aggarwal andMoni Begum, residents ofGhaziabad in UP, and PinkuDevi and Digvijay Singh, resi-dents of Haryana.

A case was registered onSunday on the complaint ofcounsellor of DelhiCommission for Women(DCW). In her complaint, shementioned that on Saturday, shereceived information that thecaller sold out her three daysbaby through her friend, policesaid. During investigation, withthe help technical surveillance,role of Neetu and her associates

was surfaced. Verificationrevealed that Neetu in Octoberlast year gave birth to a baby boyat Madan Mohan MalviyaNagar Hospital, Malviya Nagar,a senior police official said.

Sonia got discharged herfrom there on October 27 andtook her to her residence atSangam Vihar. Next day,through Meena, she sold herbaby (handed over custody) ata nursing home (IVF centre),Pratap Vihar, Ghaziabad for aconsideration of Rs five lakh, theofficer said.

Vineet took co-accusedNeetu, Sonia and baby to NehruNagar in Gaziabad, polic said.Later, the accused persons werearrested. On June 7, the childhas been recovered fromaccused couple Digvijay Singhand Pinku Devi from their res-idence. SR

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Page 3: 7:C6 2?5 7FCJ 6?8F=7 28?:A2E9 - Daily Pioneer

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Prime Minister NarendraModi will inaugurate the

main tunnel and five otherunderpasses as part of thePragati Maidan IntegratedTransit Corridor project onJune 19. The inauguration of the1.6-km-long tunnel, which willbe Delhi’s first, will allow com-muters travelling to India Gateand other central Delhi areasfrom east Delhi, Noida and

Ghaziabad to ditch traffic snarlsat ITO, Mathura Road andBhairon Marg.

The project has been builtat a cost of more than Rs 920crore and funded entirely by theCentral Government, the PMOsaid in a statement.

It is aimed at providing has-sle-free and smooth access tothe new world-class exhibitionand convention centre beingdeveloped at Pragati Maidan,thereby facilitating easy partic-ipation of exhibitors and visitors

in the programmes, it said.Public Works Department

(PWD) officials said that oncethe tunnel is operational,motorists travelling from Noida,Ghaziabad and east Delhi areaswill have signal-free access toIndia Gate, Supreme Court,

Mathura Road and vice-versa.The tunnel starts near the

National Sports Complex ofIndia (NSCI) at the PuranaQila Road and passes under-neath the redeveloped PragatiMaidan to culminate at theRing Road near the Pragati

Power station. “It will be Delhi’sfirst tunnel in which traffic willmove. It is equipped with thelatest technologies such as a dig-ital control room with the facil-ity of a public announcementsystem inside the tunnel. Toallay fears of water logging, wehave constructed seven under-ground sumps to collect anddrain storm water automatical-ly,” a PWD official said.

This will be the PWD’s sec-ond big road infrastructureproject that will be thrownopen to the public this year. InApril, Delhi Chief MinisterArvind Kejriwal had inaugu-rated the underpass at theAshram intersection in southDelhi. Another PWD official

said that the tunnel will beunder strict surveillance withnearly 100 CCTV camerasinstalled inside. “We have alsomade arrangements for properventilation in the tunnel.Specially designed German-made large exhaust fans havebeen installed for ventilationpurposes,” the official said.

The official added thatother than easing traffic move-ment in the ITO area, the tun-nel and underpasses will alsoimprove connectivity to thenewly redeveloped PragatiMaidan. Dedicated entry andexit points have been providedfor Pragati Maidan from thetunnel and the underpasses onBhairon Marg.

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The Aam Aadmi Party chief,Arvind Kejriwal on Friday

held a road show in support oftheir party candidate DurgeshPathak for Rajinder NagarAssembly bypoll. During theshow, the Delhi Chief Minister,Kejriwal appealed to the peo-ple of Rajinder Nagar to votefor the Jhaadu on June 23.

Addressing the people,Kejriwal said that there is nobenefit in electing the BJP can-didate because they don’tbelieve in working, but only inthe petty politics of slinging dirton others.

“On the other hand, weguarantee that we will resolveall the issues in your area.Entire Delhi is with the AAPbecause we are a work-orient-ed party. I can see a vast crowdgathered here, and I want tothank each one of you foryour support and blessings,”said Kejriwal.

He bashed the BJP for notrespecting the mandate of thepeople or the rule of law.“People are saying they arehappy under our rule. I want tosay that it is their rule. Peopleare supreme in a democracy. Alot of work has been done in

the past seven years, and nowevery single Delhiite takespride when someone visitsthem. People are fed up withBJP wherever they are in powerbecause they only know how tospread hate,” said AAP nation-al convenor.

“I only know how to bringprogress. When it is the gov-ernment which gets the workdone by bringing policies andimplementing them, it will beadvantageous to have an MLAof the ruling party as he will getthe work done faster. You havea choice between a progressiveparty and hate-spreadingmachinery.

They have started showingtheir true colours even thoughthe elections are yet to takeplace. You have to vote for us,and I guarantee you that we willbring progress in the area,”Kejriwal added.

AAP supporters wearingparty colours, walked alongwith the convoy, holdingposters bearing images ofKejriwal and Pathak and a slo-gan -- ‘Kejriwal ki Sarkar,Kejriwal ka Vidhyak’, and raisedcheers, joined at many placesby local residents, who com-plimented them by wavingbrooms from the balconies oftheir houses.

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Delhi BJP leaders on Fridaymet Delhi Chief Electoral

Officer Dr Ranvir Singh anddemanded action against AAPspokesperson for allegedlyterming their party’s candidate,Rajesh Bhatia, a “Pakistani”.Leader of Opposition in theAssembly Ramvir SinghBidhuri accused AAPspokesperson of “insulting”Bhatia and also violating themodel code of conduct.

In a news channel debate,the AAP spokesperson hadpurportedly said that Bhatia’sancestors “must have come toIndia from Pakistan so he is aPakistani”. He was giving replyto BJP’s attack on AAP candi-date Durgesh Pathak as anoutsider in Rajinder Nagar.

Pathak had contested the2020 Assembly polls from theKarawal Nagar seat and lost to

the BJP’s Mohan Singh Bisht.The bypoll to the Rajinder

Nagar seat was necessitatedafter sitting AAP MLA RaghavChadha was elected to theRajya Sabha from Punjab.

Bidhuri said that lakhs ofHindus and Sikhs came toIndia from Pakistan afterPartition in 1947, and thou-sands of such families are set-tled in Rajinder Nagar.

“By terming BJP candi-date Rajesh Bhatia a Pakistani,the AAP spokesperson hasviolated the model code ofconduct,” he said.

Delhi BJP general secretaryHarsh Malhotra and MLA AjayMahawar said that Aam AadmiParty is trying to “vitiate” theelection campaigning processas it is losing political ground.

The voting for the bypollwill take place on June 23 andthe result will be declared onJune 26.

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The Delhi High Court hasdirected a committee at

the Indian Institute ofTechnology (IIT) in the nation-al Capital to conclude its probeinto the allegations of plagia-rism by a Ph.D. Scholar againsttwo of its professors, and sub-mit a report to it.

Justice Sanjeev Narula,while dealing with the scholar’splea against the termination ofhis registration from the insti-tute on account of unsatisfac-tory performance in two con-secutive semesters, said that thefacts of the case are “quiteunsettling” and also soughtthe report of the StudentGrievance RedressalCommittee in the matter anddeferred passing any interimdirections at this stage.

The petitioner alleged thathis co-guide used two of his

research proposals for obtain-ing a Lok Sabha-sponsoredfellowship worth �10.80 lakhfor herself.

He said that the name ofthe chairperson of the StudentResearch Committee, who washis research supervisor, wasmentioned as the “Co-PrincipalInvestigator” on research pro-posals for the fellowship.

The petitioner claimed thatafter he confronted them aboutthe issue of plagiarism, theyadopted an adversarial atti-tude towards him which ledhim to make complaints to theStudent Grievance RedressalCommittee, Institute LevelPlagiarism Committee and theDepartment of AdministrativeReforms and PublicGrievances.

The counsel for IIT Delhiagreed that the issue of plagia-rism is very serious and thepetitioner’s allegation is viewed

with seriousness by the instituteand informed that the InstituteLevel Plagiarism Committeewould consider the complaintof the petitioner.

“In light of the foregoingdevelopment, interim direc-tions are deferred till the nextdate of hearing. In the mean-time, the Institute LevelPlagiarism Committee isdirected to conclude the inves-tigation and submit the reportto the Court.

Further, the report pre-pared by the Student GrievanceRedressal Committee is also tobe submitted with the Courtbefore the next date of hearing,with a copy to the Petitioner,”said the court in its orderpassed earlier this month.

The court also issuednotice on the petition andgranted time to the institute tofile its response.

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The Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) urged Prime

Minister Narendra Modi to“immediately” roll back theAgnipath scheme to save thecountry from “burning” in theanger of youth as protestsagainst the Centre’s new planfor recruitment into the armedforces intensified on Friday.

The senior AAP leaderand Delhi’s Deputy ChiefMinister Manish Sisodia onFriday said the protests acrossthe country were proof that theyouth of the country will neveraccept the Agnipath defencerecruitment scheme.

“Every youth has the rightto join the Army and dedicatetheir whole life for the country,but today the BJP is deprivingthem of this right. The demon-strations happening across thecountry are clear proof that theyouth of India will never acceptAgnipath. No policy or law canbe greater than the passion forservice to the nation,” Sisodiasaid in a tweet in Hindi.

Addressing the press brief-

ing, the AAP Rajya Sabha MP,Sanjay Singh said that by intro-ducing the Agnipath scheme,Prime Minister Narendra Modiis trying to make the Indianarmed forces his “privateagency.”

“The Indian armed forcesare the pride of this nation andthey are the key reason for thenation’s security. Each of oursoldiers is incredibly brave andthey are even ready to lay theirlives for the nation,” said Singh.

“In a four-year period a fairamount of time will be spent insoldier training and leave peri-ods, and in the little remainingperiod of time the recruits willwork for the Indian armedforces.

Then when so manyyoungsters will be let go afterthe four-year period, they willhave no other option besidesbegging for jobs in an alreadyscarce market and many ofthese youngsters will only beeligible to work as poorly-paidsecurity officers for privateindustries in our country,”Singh questioned.

He went ahead to say thatthe recruits may end upbecoming ‘security guards’ for

Prime Minister Modi’s friends.“This Narendra Modi-led BJPGovernment has sold off somany of our national resourceslike SAIL, national banks, coal,LIC, BPCL, airports and portsto a handful of private compa-nies in the country,” said Singh.

“There is going to be alarge demand for securityguards to protect these impor-tant institutions that have selec-tively been given to some pri-vate companies. Is the intentionof PM Narendra Modi to con-vert the Indian armed forcesinto a security guard trainingcentre for these private com-panies?,” said Singh.

“This is an insult to theIndian armed forces of thiscountry. It is an insult to theyoungsters of this great nation.First, the Government saysthat it will create two crore jobsin the country, then it says that‘youngsters can sell pakorasand earn their income’. Thenthe Government says that youcan sell gobar and earn yourincome,” said Singh.

Singh also announced theAAP’s support for the youth byprotesting throughout UttarPradesh on Saturday.

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The Delhi Metro RailCorporation (DMRC) on

Friday closed the gates of somestations after scores of studentsalong with the members of theAll-India Students’ Association(AISA) and Aam Aadmi Party’s(AAP’s) Chatr-Yuva SangharshSamiti (CYSS) staged a protestover the Central Government’s‘Agnipath’ scheme for recruit-ment in the armed forces anddemanded its rollback.

In a series of tweets, theDMRC alerted commutersabout the closure of gates of sta-tions due to security reasons.“Due to security reasons, GateNo. 1 at ITO Metro Station andGate No. 1 & 2 at Dhansa BusStand Metro Station are closed,all other gates are operational,”the DMRC tweeted around12:19 PM.

However, around 1: 52 PMDelhi Metro in another tweetinformed that the gates atDhansa Metro Station werealso opened.

Around 12:40 PM, theDMRC tweeted, “All gates ofITO Metro Station are closed.”It further updated and said thatall gates of Delhi Gate and JamaMasjid Metro Stations werealso briefly closed.

Later, at around 12:48 P.M.

the DMRC tweeted that allgates were open for entry/exitat Delhi Gate and Jama MasjidMetro Stations.

Then at 4 PM it tweetedthat all gates were open forentry and exit at ITO MetroStation.

According to Delhi Police,around 17-18 people belongingto AISA had gathered at theITO to hold a protest. Theywere detained and immediate-ly removed from the area.

During their protest, theyraised slogans -- “Agnipathwapas lo, tanashahi nahi chale-gi (take back Agnipath, dicta-torship won’t work) and alsoheld placards which read“Immediately fill all vacantposts in Defence on a perma-nent basis” and “Roll backAgnipath scheme.”

The Delhi unit of the SFIsaid it joined an all-India callagainst the Agnipath Scheme.

Earlier, the Indian YouthCongress (IYC) claimed thatseveral IYC members havebeen detained and the barri-cades had been placed by thepolice without giving any rea-sons.

The police, however, saidthey had just made “adequatesecurity arrangements” as theIYC had no permission to takeout any protest march.

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The Delhi Police on Fridayregistered a First

Information Report (FIR)against unknown persons forallegedly trying to block trafficand damaging a bus duringtheir protest against theAgnipath Defence recruitmentscheme here.

The police said a fewyoungsters tried to block traf-fic on the Wazirabad Road nearthe Khajuri Khas Flyover onFriday to protest against the‘Agnipath’ scheme.

The windscreen of a minibus was also damaged as some-

one from the group threw astone towards the vehicle, asenior police officer said.

As precautionary arrange-ments were already in placeacross the district, a policeteam immediately reached thespot and the youngsters wereremoved, the officer said.

A case under Sections 147(punishment for rioting), 148(rioting, armed with deadlyweapon), 149 (every memberof unlawful assembly guilty ofoffence committed in prose-cution of common object) and427 (mischief causing damageto the amount of fifty rupees)of the Indian Penal Code has

been registered at the KhajuriKhas Police Station, the officersaid.

Police said that they weretrying to identify thoseinvolved in the incident. “Policeteams are scanning CCTVcameras and videos which arebeing circulated on the mediato identify the miscreants andtake appropriate action againstthem,” said a police officer.

Several videos were alsodoing the rounds on socialmedia. In the video, some mencarrying sticks can be seenblocking the road. A protestorcan be seen breaking the wind-screen of a mini bus.

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Gurugram: As many as 100-150 youths havebeen booked by the Gurugram Police for

allegedly disrupting and blocking the Delhi-Jaipur Expressway at Bilaspur Chowk in protestagainst the Agnipath scheme, even as theGurugram district administration imposedSection 144 CrPC as a precautionary measure.

Veer Singh, Assistant Commissioner ofPolice (Pataudi) said around 100-150 youthshave been booked at the Bilaspur Police Stationfor blocking the National Highway and stoppingvehicle movement on both sides of the express-way for several hours on Thursday.

"The police had asked the protesters tovacate the expressway but despite instructions,they continued sitting and disrupted the trafficmovement, which led to major traffic conges-tion on the National Highway," Singh said.

"We are trying to identify the protesters withthe help of videography and CCTVs installedat the spot. Action will be taken against thoseinvolved in the protest as per the law," he added.

Police have registered an FIR in connection

with the incident.Earlier on Friday, the Gurugram district

administration imposed Section 144 CrPCeven though no fresh protest was reported here."Orders were issued as a precautionary measureto maintain the law and order situation in dis-trict Gurugram," SDM Gurugram AnkitaChowdhary said.

Deputy Commissioner Nishant Yadav saidthe order was issued as protests were likely tospread to the second day here and that theadministration anticipated angry crowd at rail-way stations, bus stands, markets, national high-ways and power grids among other places in thedistrict.

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The Congress on Fridaydemanded rollback ofthe Agnipath scheme,

while the BJP went all out todefend the scheme for recruit-ment in defence services.

Senior Rajya Sabha MPand Congress General Secretary(Organisation) KC Venugopaldemanded an urgent meeting ofthe Parliamentary StandingCommittee on Defence to dis-cuss the controversial'Agnipath' military recruitmentscheme, at a time violentprotests have erupted against it.

In a letter to StandingCommittee Chairman JualOram, the Congress MP alsourged that major stakeholdersand defence experts be invitedto seek their opinion on theprogramme.

Congress Rajya Sabha MPDeepinder Singh Hooda saidthe scheme should be takenback immediately and a three-year age relaxation beannounced for youths whocould not join the armed forcesdue to delays in recruitment.

Party general secretaryPriyanka Gandhi too attackedthe government over theAgnipath scheme, saying theBJP dispensation was required

to amend rules under thescheme soon after itsannouncement indicating itwas imposed on the youth in"haste", and demanded itsimmediate withdrawal.

Urging the protesters to bepatient and not resort to vio-lence, Hooda asked the gov-ernment to apologise to theyouth of the country for bring-ing the new short-term recruit-

ment scheme for the armedforces.

"The government shouldimmediately take back theAgnipath scheme. It is neitherin favour of national securitynor national interests and cer-tainly not in favour of thecountry's youth," he toldreporters at a press confer-ence.

Recalling the death of over

700 farmers during the year-long farmer agitation, Hoodaflagged the alleged suicide of aHaryana youth for losing hischance to join the Army.

"Don't make the same mis-take as you (government) didduring the farmers' agitationwhich saw the death of over 700protesting farmers," he said,demanding immediate with-drawal of the Agnipath scheme.

Hooda said the Congressstands by the aspirants for jobsin the defence services andwill fight for their rights anddemands.

The party also demandedthat the government conveneeither a special session ofParliament or an all-party meet-ing to discuss the armed forcesrecruitment issue and build abipartisan consensus on thematter.

Claiming the Agnipathscheme is not suited for India,Hooda alleged the governmentis bringing schemes from othercountries which shows that it isinfatuated with western con-cepts.He alleged there was a dis-connect between the govern-ment policies and rural India,the prime examples of whichare the land acquisition act, thefarm laws and now theAgnipath scheme.

In a tweet in MessagePriyanka Gandhi said "not even24 hours had passed" that theBJP government had to changethe rules of the new armyrecruitment scheme. Thismeans the scheme is beingimposed on the youth in haste,the Congress general secretarysaid.

"Narendra Modi ji, with-draw this scheme immediately.Give appointments and put outthe result of the stalled recruit-ment in the Air Force,"Priyanka Gandhi said."Conduct army recruitment(with age relaxation) as before,"she demanded. The BJP lead-ers lauded the government'sdecision to raise the upper agelimit for recruitment under theAgnipath scheme to 23 years.

BJP president J P Naddasaid it shows that PrimeMinister Narendra Modi isfully seized of the concerns ofthe country's youth and is mak-ing efforts for their brightfuture.

Underlining that the inten-tion of the government is veryclear, and it is sensitive, UnionMinister Giriraj Singh said therecruitment process will start ina few days, and requested allyoungsters to start preparingfor it.

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The CBI on Friday searchedthe Jodhpur home of

Rajasthan Chief MinisterAshok Gehlot's brotherAgrasen Gehlot and 16 otherlocations in three States inconnection with alleged cor-ruption related to the export ofsubsidised fertiliser meant forfarmers. In its FIR, the CBI hasnamed 15 persons, includingGehlot, and entities as accusedin the FIR.

Over 60 officials of the CBIwere engaged in searches at 17locations in Gujarat, Rajasthanand West Bengal, officials said.

A CBI team also reachedAgrasen Gehlot's residence inMandore, Jodhpur, to conduct

searches.The CBI has also named

Deen Dayal Vohra, Amrit LalBandi, Brijesh Jairam Nath,Nitin Kumar Shah, SunilSharma and Praveen Sarafamong others as accused in theFIR, they said.

Reacting to the develop-ment, Rajasthan CM AshokGehlot said he had recentlysought an appointment withthe Director of CBI and the EDand the Chairman of the

Income Tax Department.He said, "On June 13, time

was sought, on 15 the case wasregistered, and on June 17there were raids. What is thisapproach, it is beyond com-prehension?"

"If I am active in Delhi orI participated in Rahul's move-ment then why revenge is takenfrom my brother. When therewas a political crisis here in ourgovernment in 2020, at thattime also the ED had raided mybrother's place," Gehlot toldreporters at the airport.

Gehlot was in Delhi forseveral days to participate inthe Congress' protest againstthe questioning of RahulGandhi by the ED in a moneylaundering case.

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The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Fridayconducted searches at multiple locations in

the national Capital region in connection witha money laundering probeagainst Delhi MinisterSatyendar Jain and his associates.

At least 10 residential and business premis-es were covered in the search operation by theED. The premises linked to the promoters of abusiness group running a prominent school werealso searched, officials said.

Jain, 57, was arrested by the agency on May30 under the Prevention of Money LaunderingAct (PMLA) and he is presently undergoing judi-

cial custody.A decision on his bail plea has been

reserved by a Delhi court.The agency had claimed to have seized

"unexplained" cash worth Rs 2.85 crore and 133gold coins after similar raids were conductedagainst Jain's family and others after his arrest.

Jain, a minister without portfolio in theArvind Kejriwal government in Delhi, is beingprobed by the ED under the PMLA for allegedhawala dealings.

In April, the ED had attached assets worthRs 4.81 crore of Jain's family and companies"beneficially owned and controlled" by him aspart of the PMLA probe.

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After recording 811.6 mm ofrainfall in 24 hours just two

days ago, Cherrapunji inMeghalaya received a bountiful972 mm of precipitation in 24hours ending 8.30 am on Friday,the highest in June since 1995and the third highest in 122years.

Cherrapunji recorded 673.6mm of rainfall on Thursday,811.6 mm on Wednesday, 62.6mm on Tuesday, 293 mm onMonday and 354 mm onSunday. The IndiaMeteorological Department(IMD) data showed thatCherrapunji has received a totalof 4081.3 mm rainfall till Friday.

In 24 hours ending 8:30 am onWednesday, the town nestled inthe East Khasi Hills gauged acopious 811.2 mm of rainfall.

On June 16, 1995,Cherrapunji logged 1563.3 mmof rainfall. A day before, on June15, 1995, it received 930 mm ofprecipitation. “One of thewettest places in the world,Cherrapunji has recorded morethan 800 mm of precipitationon a June day on nine occasionssince the IMD started keepingrecords in 1901, the IMD datashowed.

The hill station reported973.8 mm of precipitation onJune 5, 1956. The spell ofextreme rainfall is likely tocontinue for one or two days.

Thereafter, the intensity willdecrease, the IMD said.

At an aerial distance of 10km from Cherrapunji,Mawsynram, the wettest placein India, gauged 710.6 mm ofrainfall in 24 hours ending8:30 am Wednesday, the max-imum since June 1966.

On June 10, 1966,Mawsynram had recorded717.6 mm of rainfall. On June7, 1966, it had received 944.7mm of precipitation, the high-est on a June day since the IMDbegan maintaining records. Thetown had gauged a 24-hourrainfall of 623.4 mm on June 8,2015.

The IMD has issued a redalert, warning of very heavy to

extremely heavy rainfall inMeghalaya and Assam in thenext two days. "A trough atmean sea level runs from north-west Uttar Pradesh to Manipuracross Bihar, sub-HimalayanWest Bengal and Sikkim andAssam. Moisture incursion isvery likely to continue due tostrong lower-levelsoutherly/southwesterly windsfrom the Bay of Bengal duringJune 17-20," it said in a specialbulletin.

"Under its influence, wide-spread rainfall accompaniedwith thunderstorms/lightning/heavy to very heavy withextremely heavy rainfall at iso-lated places is very likely to con-tinue over northeastern states.

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The Election Commission (EC) has made a fresh push

for amending law to bar peoplefrom contesting from morethan one seat.

The DC has said that if itcannot be done, then a heftyfine should be imposed onthose vacating one of the con-stituencies and forcing a bypoll.

As per the existing elec-toral law, a candidate is allowedto file nominations from twodifferent constituencies in ageneral election or a group ofbye-elections or biennial elec-tions. Since one individual isallowed to represent only oneconstituency in a legislative orparliamentary body, he/she hasto vacate the other seat in casevictories were registered onboth seats.

It has been learnt that in arecent meeting with theLegislative Secretary in the LawMinistry, Chief ElectionCommissioner Rajiv Kumardiscussed this proposal.

Renewing another one ofits long-standing demands, theEC has sought an amendmentof Section 33(7) of theRepresentation of People Act,1951 to restrict the number ofseats a candidate can contestfrom. The Act currently allowsa person to contest a generalelection or a group of by-elec-tions or biennial elections fromup to two constituencies.

Way back in 1996, the gov-ernment had amended theRepresentation of the PeopleAct to bar a person from con-testing elections from morethan two seats.

Prior to the amendment, anindividual was permitted tocontest polls from as manyseats as he wanted.

In 2004, the EC proposedan amendment of Section 33(7)to certain sections of the Act sothat a person cannot fight elec-tions from more than one con-stituency at a time .

The amount of fine thenwas proposed at Rs 5 lakh forstate assembly and legislative

council election and Rs 10 lakhfor Lok Sabha election. Thepoll panel believes the amountshould be appropriately revised.

The Commission believesthat when a candidate contestsfrom two seats, it is imperativethat he has to vacate one of thetwo seats should he win both.This, apart from the conse-quent unavoidable financialburden on the public exchequerand the manpower and otherresources for holding by-elec-tion against the resultantvacancy, would be an injusticeto the voters of the constituencywhich the candidate is quittingfrom.

The Law Commission,which advises government oncomplex legal issues, had sup-ported the proposal of restrict-ing candidates from more thanone seat. However, it had notendorsed the Commission'salternative proposal to requirewinning candidates to depositan appropriate amount ofmoney being the expenditurefor conducting the elections.

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For the second day in a row,India reported more than

12,000 Covid-19 cases. Indialogged 12,847 cases in the last24 hours, the Ministry ofHealth and Family Welfareinformed on Friday. After a gapof more than three months,India witnessed an uptick in thenumber of Covid cases as thecountry recorded as many as12,213 fresh Covid-19 infec-tions on Thursday.

According to the datashared by the Union HealthMinistry on Friday, the coun-try saw a total of 7,985 dis-charges in the last 24 hours,taking the total recovery rate ataround 98.64 per cent andtotal recoveries data reached to4,26,82,697. 14 deaths werereported due to infection.

The top five states thatregistered the maximum num-ber of fresh Covid-19 cases areMaharashtra with 4,255 cases,followed by Kerala with 3,419cases, Delhi with 1,323 cases,Karnataka with 833 cases, andHaryana with 625 cases.

Meanwhile amid risingCovid-19 cases, the Centre hasasked the states and UTs to

complete all activities under theEmergency COVID ResponsePackage (ECRP)-II scheme byDecember 31 this year.

Union Health SecretaryRajesh Bhushan Tchaired avirtual meeting with all statesand Union Territories to reviewthe physical and financialprogress under the NationalHealth Mission (NHM),ECRP-II, Pradhan MantriAyushman Bharat HealthInfrastructure Mission (PM-ABHIM), 15th FinanceCommission grants and thePradhan Mantri NationalDialysis Programme (PM-NDP).

The Centre asked the statesand UTs to complete all activ-ities under the ECRP-II schemeby December 31 this year. Thestates were also advised thatinstead of seeking the approvalof the Union Health Ministry,State Health Societies (SHS)have been authorised to accord

the remaining approvals ofactivities under ECRP-II.

Highlighting the need toexpedite the utilisation of fundsreleased under the ECRP-IIpackage, the states wereinformed that 100 per centCentral share amount has beenreleased to the states.

The Union HealthSecretary highlighted that forensuring implementation ofprogrammes and initiatives,al located governmentresources under the NationalHealth Mission must be expe-dited and utilised efficiently.He urged the states to providenecessary documentation andutilisation certificates corre-sponding to fund utilisationand ensure refund of theunused amount. The stateswere also urged to map thesetransfers on the PublicFinancial Management System(PFMS) portal.

The ministry said that todevelop capacities of healthsystems and institutions acrossthe continuum of care at alllevels -- primary, secondary,tertiary -- and to preparehealth systems in respondingeffectively to the current andfuture pandemics, disasters,

Rs. 64,180 crore for the peri-od from 2021-22 to 2025-26has been allocated under PM-ABHIM.

Given the emphasis onutilisation of these funds forcapital expenditure, the statesand UTs were requested toexpedite proposals and MoUsto be sent to the Union HealthMinistry under PM-ABHIMto enable the ministry torelease funds on time for thestates.

To ensure mapping of thephysical and f inancialprogress, the states wererequested to identify physicalfacilities and complete themapping exercise on theNHM-Progress MonitoringSystem (PMS) portal at theearliest.

To expand the coverage ofthe Pradhan Mantri NationalDialysis Programme(PMNDP) across the country,the states were asked in themeeting to cover all districtsby the Haemodialysis pro-gramme and promote the peri-toneal dialysis programmealongside, as it is less restric-tive for the patients andrequires less technical demandfrom institutions.

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About one in eight people inthe world live with a men-

tal disorder, said the WorldHealth Organisation (WHO) ina landmark report released onFriday calling for urgent actionon transforming mental health-care. The lack of awareness andaccess to care remain the mostsignificant obstacles to mentalhealth care.

Even before the pandemic,in 2019, the number of peopleliving with a mental disorder wasnearly a billion, including 14 percent of the world's adolescents,a number that has been exacer-bated by the Covid-19 pan-demic in the last two years.

In the first year of the pan-demic alone, the rates of thealready-common conditionssuch as depression and anxietywent up by more than 25 percent.

The WHO report revealedthat on average, countries ded-icate less than 2 per cent of theirhealthcare budgets to mentalhealth. As a result, just a smallfraction of people in need getaccess to effective, affordable andquality mental health care.

The report urges mentalhealth decision makers andadvocates to step up commit-ment and action to change atti-tudes, actions and approaches tomental health, its determinantsand mental health care.

"Everyone's life touchessomeone with a mental healthcondition. Investment into men-tal health is an investment intoa better life and future for all,"said WHO Director-GeneralDr Tedros AdhanomGhebreyesus, in a statement.The report also called to end stig-ma, discrimination and humanrights violations against peoplewith mental health conditions,with 20 countries still criminal-ising attempted suicide.

It noted that globally, theremay be 20 suicide attempts toevery one death, and yet suicideaccounts for more than one inevery 100 deaths. It is a majorcause of death among youngpeople.

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People with prior-variantinfection were moderately

protected from Omicron evenafter a year, but vaccine-induced immunity against newinfection appeared to wanerapidly, finds a study pub-lished in the New EnglandJournal of Medicine.

The findings are in linewith studies on Omicron-spe-cific booster studies by Pfizeror Moderna, which althoughprovide good protection butremain temporarily effectiveagainst infection by theOmicron variant.

The new study, led byresearchers at Weill CornellMedicine-Qatar, was conduct-ed on more than 100,000Omicron-infected and non-infected individuals.

The results showed thatpeople who took two-dose vac-cination of either the Pfizer orModerna mRNA vaccine, buthad no history of prior infec-tion, had no significant pro-tection against Omicron.

However, having a boost-er dose appeared to be about 60per cent protective, thoughmost boosters were receivedjust weeks before the Omicronwave.

For those with no historyof vaccination, SARS-CoV-2infection during a prior-variantwave appeared to provide about50 per cent protection againstsymptomatic infection duringthe Omicron wave, and this“natural immunity” was asso-ciated with almost the samedegree of protection even a yearafter infection. But the combi-nation of prior, full vaccinationand prior infection was maxi-mally protective: Individualswith prior infection and threedoses of either mRNA vaccinewere, overall, nearly 80 per centprotected from symptomaticinfection during the Omicronwave, the researchers said.

The results also indicatedthat vaccination, prior infectionalone or a combination, wasprotective against severe illnessfrom Omicron infections.

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Congress leader RahulGandhi on Friday

claimed Prime MinisterNarendra Modi does notunderstand what the peopleof the country want as hecannot hear anything exceptthe voice of his "friends". TheBJP, however, stronglydefended the ‘Agnipath’scheme.

Rahul made theseremarks a day after the gov-ernment raised the upper agelimit to 23 years from 21years for recruitment under'Agnipath', amid protests by

youth in several parts of thecountry against the scheme.

The Congress leader alsocited schemes such as GST,note ban, farm laws and nowAgnipath, saying they wereprojected to be for the wel-fare of the people but wererejected by the citizens.

"Agnipath- youth reject-ed. Farm laws- farmersrejected. Noteban- econo-mists rejected. GST- tradersrejected. The PM does notunderstand what the peopleof the country want, as hecannot hear anything exceptthe voice of his 'friends',"Rahul said in a tweet.

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Cherrapunji gets third highest rainfall in 122 years in 24 hrs

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Days after expressing dis-pleasure at the slow

progress of investigations intothe multiple recruitment scamsin Bengal Calcutta High Courton Friday warned the CentralBureau of Investigations withhanding over the charge ofinvestigation to retired JointDirector Upen Biswas so as toexpedite the investigationprocess should the Agency failto comply with its orders.

The Court had earlierordered the CBI to appoint aSpecial Investigation Team ledby a Joint Director to investi-gate recruitment irregularitiesin the appointment of schoolteachers and non-teaching staff.

In recent weeks the Courthas ordered the CBI to inves-tigate at least half-a-dozenappointment “irregular” pro-cedures — at Group D and Clevel, apart from selection testsof Primary, Secondary andHigher Secondary teachers—involving thousands of aspi-rants asking Agency to eveninvestigate top bureaucrats andministers even if it meant tak-ing them in into custody. TheCourt’s Friday’s remarks cameas CBI dilly-dallied with

appointment SIT headed by aJoint Director as directed by theBench of Justice AbhijitGangopadhyay. “The Courttold the CBI counsel if theAgency does not appoint a JtDirector then the Judge woulddo so by appointing UpenBiswas a retired Jt Director,”said an advocate.

Subsequently the CBIcounsel said that the Agencywould indeed appoint a JtDirector to lead SIT. Biswasalso a petitioner in the case hadsuccessfully investigated theBihar Animal Husbandry scamin the 1990s. He had earliercomplained that he wasapproached by a person withoffer providing teachers’ jobs tocandidates in exchange of cash.“I was informed that teachers’

jobs were being sold for Rs 10to Rs 30 lakhs,” Biswas saidadding, “a probe Agency musthave the will to act… as we didin Bihar … we did not listen toany advice … probed our casesand secured conviction in allthe 29 cases.”

The Court also orderedthat no officers of the SITwould be transferred before thecompletion of the investigation.The SIT would function underthe supervision of the Court.

Earlier a judicial commit-tee appointed by Court hadfound massive irregularities inappointment of teachers andGroup D and C level staff.Names of State ministersPartho Chatterjee and PareshAdhikari have got embroiled incase.

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Amid protests in many partsof the country against the

“Agnipath” scheme unveiledby the Narendra Modi gov-ernment, the ruling MahaVikas Aghadi (MVA) leaderson Friday dubbed the BJP as“anti-Army” and said it was“teasing the unemployedyouth” and taking the people ofthe country on a “Jumla-path”.

Coming down heavily onthe ruling BJP at the Centre forits “mindless and arbitrary” todecision tointroduce“Agnipath” scheme,Maharashtra Congress presi-dent Nana Patole said: “Givingemployment for mere four inthe armed forces under the cutename of ‘Agnipath’ means thatthe youth of the country face ableak future. Then, these youngboys and girls will again berendered jobless. TheNarendra Modi government ismaking a mockery of the peo-ple and deceiving the youth andthe jobless of India”.

State Congress’ ChiefSpokesperson Atul Londhe saidthat currently, there were62,29,000 vacancies in theCentral Government, out ofwhich 2,55,000 are in theIndian Army.

“The decision to recruitonly 46,000 of them was madewith great fanfare. After sixmonths training and then threehalf years in the job, those opt-ing will get barely Rs.30,000-Rs.40,000 salary, no job secu-

rity and no future provisions.The BJP government is gam-bling with the careers of ouryouths and Agnipath must berolled back,” Londe said.

In his vehement criticismof the Modi government for its“Agnipath” scheme, State NCP’sChief Spokesperson MaheshTapase said under the BJP rule,the country was witnessing itshighest-ever unemploymentsituation and the Centre wasnot serious about finding along-term solution for the mil-lions of jobless youth.

“The new Agnipathscheme envisages unemployedyouths of the country to jointhe Indian Armed Forces for ashort service tenure of fouryears, and then fails to safe-guard the long-term serviceprospects of these hopefulyoung men and women… Thescheme lacks imagination anddirection, and this is evidentfrom the massive protests thathave erupted all over the coun-try,” Tapase said.

Shiv Sena’s spokespersonDr. Manisha Kayandedebunked the “Agnipath”scheme, saying that it was yetanother instance of how theModi dispensation was provingto be ‘anti-army’ in itsapproach, though our bravesoldiers were always preparedto sacrifice their lives for thenation.

“First there was the con-troversial policy of One RankOne Pension’(OROP) whichwas opposed by the armed

forces also, and now we havethe Agnipath scheme. Till nowthe youth could serve for 16years and then if found physi-cally fit, their tenure could beextended. But Agnipath willcompletely dilute it,” Dr.Kayande said.

“The Agnipath scheme isclearly an injustice on theyoung people who are thefuture of the country… Wedemand that this schemeshould be immediately with-drawn,” Dr. Kayande said.

Tapase said that while ear-lier Modi had promised 'OneRank One Pension’, underAgnipath, there would be ‘NoRank, No Pension’ or even

gratuity for the youth whotake up the 4-year jobs in thearmed forces. “Under such ascenario, how and where willthe youth learn new skills to getthem proper jobs after leavingthe armed forces? Even the pri-vate sector will not acceptthem with full pay scales andthe dignity they deserve,”Tapase said.

Patole, Tapase and Dr.Kayande demanded to know“what happened to Modi’s tallpromise of providing two crorejobs every year” made duringthe 2014 elections, and soughtdetails of exactly how jobswere created in the past 8years of the BJP rule.

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Aweek after stone-peltingand violence at a few places

in Uttar Pradesh, the Fridayprayers passed off peacefullyacross the state. Interestingly, asa mark of communal harmony,the namazis at some places,including the state capital, gaveroses to the policemen on duty.Reports said that unlike lastFriday, no unwanted incidentwas reported in state over the

derogatory remarks againstProphet Mohammed allegedlymade by Bharatiya JanataParty’s suspended leader NupurSharma.

The Uttar Pradesh Police,along with local intelligenceunit (LIU) and IntelligenceBureau (IB) were monitoringthe situation and a force wasdeployed across the state tomaintain peace.

Wasif Hasan, the mutawal-lai of famous Teele Wali Masjid

in Lucknow, gave flowers to allpolicemen, including seniorofficials, who were deployed forFriday prayers.

Many other namazis joinedhim in the goodwill gesture."Keeping in mind current sit-uation, I would like to appealto the people to maintain peaceat every cost.

Those coming to offernamaz should not indulge inany kind of sloganeering norattend any gathering.

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In the Agneepath protest,miscreants ransacked, arson

and pelted stones. Most of theruckus has happened inAligarh. Here the police postwas burnt. The SSP and otherofficers had to run for theirlives and the glasses were bro-ken by stone pelting on theADG's vehicle.

The protest against theAgneepath scheme startedfrom this morning itself. Therewas a fierce ruckus in Aligarhon Friday against the newscheme of army recruitment,Agneepath. The ruckus whichstarted around 11 am contin-ues till now.

Yamuna Expressway andTappal-Jattari area has beenconverted into Agneepath.Protesters opposing the plansetthe police post Jattarionfire. Several vehicles parked inthe outpost were set on fire, thecar of the constable parkedoutside the Jattari police postwas set on fire.

The chairman's car wasalso burnt. Dozens of UP andHaryana roadways busesincluding police-administra-tion vehicles were vandalizedand arson on Yamuna

Expressway and Interchange.Many policemen includingCO Khair have also beeninjured in the ruckus, even theDM-SSP, who arrived to dis-perse the out-of-control crowd,could not handle the situation.

DM-SSP in Jattari escapedafter saving their life in stonepelting. Somehow the miscre-ants were stopped by firing teargas shells, the SSP had to gothrough the fields to save thelives of the officers.

Amidst the tense situation,ADG of Agra Zone, RajivKrishna also reached Tappal.His car was also pelted withstones.

The windshield of the caris also broken. On this matter,ADG Law and Order PrashantKumar said that tyre of aroadways bus has been set onfire in Tappal. Some inputshave been received that stu-dents are being instigated.

Demonstrations are stillgoing on in some places inMathura. Some chaotic ele-ments have entered amongthe students. The students arebeing explained. Public repre-sentatives and village headshave been engaged in thiswork. Eight vehicles have beenset ablaze by the protesters so

far. Officials say, for the timebeing, avoid using the YamunaExpressway to go from Aligarhto Noida or Delhi.

If it is not necessary, pleasepostpone the journey. There isa huge traffic jam on YamunaExpressway due to the protest.Eight vehicles have been setablaze by the protesters so far.

A youth protesting inTappal and Jattari got a rubberbullet Youth protested inTappal and Jattari regardingAgneepath scheme in Aligarh.The police also came on theback foot for the demonstra-tion of the youth.

On the orders of the offi-cers, the police personnel hadto fire with tear shells and rub-ber bullets. After which theprotesting youths dispersedand the police got relief. Inpolice firing, Sumit, 21-year-old son of Buddha Sen, a res-ident of Singroth village, got arubber bullet in back of hishead.

He was admitted to TappalHospital in an injured condi-tion where doctor Mohit, whowas present in emergency,treated him. He has been dis-charged after giving first aid.The family went home withyoung man.

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ABJP corporator of JammuMunicipal Corporation

was trapped and arrested alongwith her husband by the AntiCorruption Bureau (ACB)while accepting a bribe of Rs10,000 for issuance of 'Mulba

clearance certificate' on Friday.In a written statement, AntiCorruption Bureau said, JyotiDevi, Corporator, Ward No.53of Jammu MunicipalCorporation and her husbandSham Lal were trapped andarrested while accepting a bribeof ?10,000 for issuance ofMulba Clearance certificate.

According to a statementissued by the Anti CorruptionBureau, "the complainant hadalleged that Jyoti Devi, corpo-rator of Ward no 53 demand-ed an amount of Rs. 10,000/- asbribe for issuance of mulbaclearance certificate of theworks done by him". She alsodirected the complainant tocontact her husband for pay-ment of bribe money, the ACBstatement said.

"Upon receiving the com-plaint, allegations of the com-plaint were verified.Consequently a case FIR No.10/2022 P/S ACB-J U/s 7 ofPrevention of Corruption Act1988 and 120-B IPC was reg-istered at PS ACB-Jammu",spokesman of the ACB said.

"A trap team was consti-tuted whereupon the accusedSham Lal was caught red hand-ed while demanding and

accepting bribe of Rs. 10,000/-on behalf of his wife Jyoti DeviCorporator of Ward No. 53from the complainant. Both theaccused persons were takeninto custody on the spot.Searches at the residentialhouse of the accused personswere also conducted" the ACBstatement said.

The contractor was allottedwork for upgradation of theopen area along the main roadnear Mastermind Classes byPre-cast of paver tiles andupgradation of open area alongmain road near Easy day atWard No. 53 Trikuta Nagar,Jammu".

As per the existing proce-dure the contractor was sup-posed to submit a Mulbaclearance certificate beforereceiving final payment fromJMC. The certificate is issuedby concerned Corporator.

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Even though the stakes arehigh for Samajwadi Party

and Bahujan Samaj Party in thebypolls to Rampur andAzamgarh Lok Sabha seats,leaders of both the parties,Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati,have not campaigned for theircandidates so far.

Campaigning for both theseats will end on June 21 andpolling will be held on June 23.The BSP has not fielded a can-didate on the Rampur parlia-mentary seat.

The Samajwadi Party facesthe tough task of retainingboth the Lok Sabha seats as

Akhilesh Yadav was electedfrom Azamgarh andMohammad Azam Khan fromRampur in the 2019 Lok Sabhaelections. Both the SP leaderscontested the recent UP assem-bly election and won afterwhich they resigned their LokSabha seats necessitating theby-elections.

The two bypolls will alsodecide the future of theBahujan Samaj Party, which isdesperately trying to make acomeback on the centre stageof UP politics. During the last10 years, the BSP record hasbeen dismal as it lost the 2012,2017 and 2022 UP assemblyelections and its tally in UP

assembly has been reduced toone MLA.

BSP’s performance in the2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha pollswas also far from satisfactory.The Lok Sabha by-elections inRampur and Azamgarh will bea litmus test for the SamajwadiParty which faces the challengeof holding on to its number twoposition in state politics.Samajwadi party has fieldedDharmendra Yadav, cousin ofSP chief Akhilesh Yadav.

Akhilesh, on Thursday,issued an appeal to the votersin both the constituencies tovote for his party. TheSamajwadi Party has the high-est stakes in these by-elections

since both, Azamgarh andRampur were held by SP.

The BSP is playing a spoil-er for SP in Azamgarh where ithas fielded Guddu Jamali, apopular local leader who islikely to eat into the Muslimvotes. Azamgarh has a sizeableYadav and Muslim populationand any dent in these votebanks could upset the applecart for the SP. SamajwadiParty's Maharashtra unit pres-ident Abu Asim Azmi, a nativeof Azamgarh, is leading theparty's campaign in Muslim-dominated areas of the district.However, Akhilesh's absence isnow emerging as a major fac-tor in the constituency.

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Acting on the inputs fromArmy Intelligence, the

Amethi police arrested twopersons from Mawaiya hamletand recovered a satellite phonefrom their possession. Soonafter arrest, the sleuths of ArmyIntelligence, local intelligenceunit and Anti-Terrorists Squadgrilled youths to verify if theyhad any terror link. Sourcessaid that Amethi police got amessage from Army

Intelligence on Thursday aboutactivation of a banned satellitephone in Mawaiya villageunder model police station inRamganj.

The senior officers direct-ed SWAT team in-chargeDhirendra Kumar Verma, sur-veillance cell in-charge VivekSingh and Ramganj police sta-tion in-charge Mithilesh Singhto take action.

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Maharashtra’s incarcerat-ed former ministers Anil

Deshmukh and Nawab Malikon Friday suffered a similarsetback for the second time ineight days, when the BombayHigh Court rejected theirapplications seeking theirrelease for a few hours on June20 to vote in the MaharashtraLegislative Council (MLC)elections.

After hearing the argu-ments made by the petitionersof both the petitioners and alsothe Enforcement Directorate(ED), Justice N. J. Jamdar ofthe Bombay High Courtdeclined to entertain the pleasby the two NCP leaders whoare both members of theMaharashtra Assembly.

Deshmukh and Malik hadmoved the high court on theground that they were bothMLAs and that they ought tobe given an opportunity tovote in elections. By decliningto entertain the pleas by theNCP’s two former ministers,the high court made it clearthat they could not be releasedfrom judicial custody in orderto enable them to cast their

vote in the elections scheduledfor June 20. The lawyers rep-resenting Malik andDeshmukh said that the for-mer ministers would file a spe-cial leave petition against theorder before the SupremeCourt on Monday.

Earlier making a strongcase for the temporary releaseof client Malik, senior advo-cate Amit Desai argued thathis client was not seeking hisrelease on bail but was mere-ly seeking permission to betaken to cast his vote with anescort.

Desai told the court thatthe section 62 (5) of theRepresentation of the PeopleAct did not prevent the highcourt from exercising its dis-cretion to pass an order tofacilitate the process of votingfor Malik and such discretionwas not taken away by any ofthe previous high court orSupreme Court judgments.

Desai argued that the highcourt must therefore exercisediscretion in favour of a fairpolitical process and allow hisclient to exercise his votingright in the MLVC elections.Advocate Vikram Chaudhari,who appeared for Deshmukh,

told the court that the appli-cation was not adversarial andhence ED’s opposition to let-ting his client vote was ques-tionable. He contended thatthe argument made by the EDthat the court could not havea discretion in the matter wasa dangerous one.

He argued that becausethere was an embargo underSection 62(5) of theRepresentation of People Act,the legislators had been com-pelled to approach the court.Chaudhary said thatDeshmukh was only seekingrelease for a short period tovote and the high court hadthe discretion to permit it.

Additional SolicitorGeneral Anil Singh, repre-senting ED, had opposed thepleas citing Section 62(5) ofthe Representation of PeopleAct which the agency claimed,clearly barred the right tovote for prisoners and therewas no question of the courtusing its discretionary powers.

Friday’s was the secondoccasion in a week when thecourt disallowed Deshmukhand Malik to grant temporarybail to them to cast their votein an election.

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���������� �������������Sir — The heads of France, Germany, Italyand Romania have reached Ukraine’s cap-ital, Kyiv, to meet with PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskyy. They have plannedthis trip ostensibly to talk to him, sharesympathy with him and assure him. Thevisit of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz,French President Emmanuel Macron,Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi andRomanian President Klaus Lohannis isnothing new; Ukraine has been receivingonly verbal support from them so far. Yes,these leaders will have to be appreciatedfor their courage since they reachedKyiv after traveling 650 km by rail viaPoland.

This is the first time that foreign lead-ers are visiting any war-torn region.Several major leaders, including AntonioGuterres, Anthony Blinken, Lloyd Austin,Nancy Pelosi, Justin Trudeau, UrsulaLyon, Boris Johnson, have already visit-ed the country. These visits can be com-pared to the visits of acquaintances to ahospital for getting to know the conditionof an admitted patient. The Ukrainian sol-diers are repeatedly pleading that they donot have the basic weapons to fight back.How long will it last? Soon Ukraine willbe annexed and Zelenskyy will either bekilled or taken hostage.

Jang Bahadur Singh | Jamshedpur

��� ������������������ �Sir — The decision by National SecurityAdvisor Ajit Doval to call for a meetingagainst the spreading tentacles of terror-ism could prove to be a laudable steptowards halting it. The significant virtu-al meeting comprised the five strong-mostdeveloping nations of the world, ie Brazil,Russia, India, China and South Africa.The foundation of the robust and resilientrelations among these countries in everyaspect — whether it be communal rela-tions, educational relations, or suchlike —had laid down the introduction of a dif-ferent story in the world of terrorism.

Extermination of terrorism is a major

goal that each and every country is keento achieve. This zeal can be seen from thehistory of past deals and collaborationsregarding strengthening the utmost powerof weapons and ammunition acquisitionto further provide fuel to the ultimate mis-sion as can be seen from the instance ofthe Brahmos missile pact between Indiaand Russia. The summit highlighted thesignificance of the challenges that need tobe combated for reaching the ultimategoal of mission in these pandemic timesby implementing in certain innovativemeasures to proceed with the cooperativeethos in order to impede this global threat.

Sarthak Sharma | Ujjain

����� ��� ����������� ���Sir — Even though as of now the Indiancricket team is playing with the inclusionof young players against the Proteas inT20I but still there are other players likeArshdeep Singh and Umran Malik whoare yet to get a chance in the Playing XIto make their international debut. Sincethe Proteas are leading 2-1 in the ongo-ing series, Arshdeep and Umran may not

get a chance as per Rahul Dravid’s modeof selection for the remaining matches.According to Ganguly’s statement, theIndian team will make no more experi-ments with players who haven't debutedat the international level during the Irishseries.

He has a point since the ICC T20World Cup is fast approaching.Arshdeep, Umran and Rahul Tripathimay not get a chance to play even in theforthcoming Irish series since veteranslike Sanju Samson and Surya KumarYadav will be back in the team. Thisseems to be a totally unfair decision bythe BCCI chairman and the team’scoach. The hearts of Indian cricketlovers will definitely bleed over theBCCI’s decisions. Even for next month’sEngland white ball series, the teammanagement included only players whomay play in Australia for the ICC T20World Cup

Vijaykumar HK | Raichur

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pain. Progress in zoologicaland veterinary sciences hasdebunked his ideas.Nevertheless, the belief thatanimals are not in the sameleague as humans and the lat-ter could do anything withthem is still widely prevalent.

It is utterly wrong. Reasonis one attribute of humans. Asimportant are instinct andemotion. Often an instinctiveor emotional response triggersa chain of rational thought inan effort to understand anevent or formulate an antag-onistic narrative. Second,humans are potentially —and often are — rational. Butthey are notoriously vulnera-ble to irrationality and, underits spell, can commit horren-dous crimes like genocide.Besides, if humans have rea-son, animals have far superi-or faculties of smell, hearing,vision and that intangiblething called sixth sense.

Animals are capable ofexperiencing emotions likejoy, fear, anxiety and grief. In1999, Lawrence Anthony, wellknown author and wildlifeconservationist, persuaded,through establishing closepersonal contact, a herd of ele-phants to stay in his privategame reserve of Thula Thulain South Africa as they wouldhave been killed had they

stepped out. In the process, hehad forged deep bonds withthem and had come to beregarded as part of their herd.They were in another part ofthe sanctuary when he died in2012 and walked 12 hours toreach his house and stand insilent vigil for two days beforereturning, leaving people towonder how they had come toknow of his passing.

Many other examples canbe cited. Clearly, the groundson which nonhuman livingbeings have been excludedfrom humans’ moral and legaluniverse do not hold. Not sur-prisingly, a very different viewof human-animal relation-ship has prevailed in Indiasince ancient times. SwamiVivekananda, the great spiri-tual leaders, said in his sem-inal speech on Vedantism inJaffna in January 1897: “Inevery man and in every ani-mal, however weak or wicked,great or small, resides thesame Omnipresent,Omniscient soul. The differ-ence is not in the soul, but inthe manifestation. Betweenme and the smallest animal,the difference is only in man-ifestation, but as a principle heis the same as I am, he is mybrother, he has the same soulas I have. This is the greatestprinciple that India has

preached. The talk of thebrotherhood of man becomesin India the brotherhood ofuniversal life, of animals andof all life down to the little ants— all these are our bodies.”

One hopes that the Westwould come round to thisview as it learns more aboutanimal intelligence and con-sciousness. For this, humansneed to know the language ofanimals, in the absence ofwhich, they can only guesswhat animals are sayingabout their needs, desires,how they see the world andwhat kind of relationshipthey seek with humans andother animals. Unfortunately,Michelle Nijhuis was rightwhen she wrote in a bookreview piece in The NewYork Review of August 20,2020, “Humans have spentdecades trying to teach otheranimals our languages…. butwe’ve made little effort tolearn theirs.” Scientific toolsare now available for under-taking such a venture, whichurgently needs to be done.Enslaving animals can recoilon humans. The Corona pan-demic originated from a liveanimal market in Wuhan,China.

(The author is ConsultingEditor, The Pioneer. The viewsexpressed are personal.)

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According to reports,the New York Court ofAppeals, the highestcourt in New York

State, has rejected, by five votesto two, the plea that Happy, a 51-year-old elephant, be removedfrom Bronx Zoo where she haslived since 1977. The plea wasmade by Nonhuman RightsProject (NhRP), founded bywell-known legal scholar, authorand animal rights advocate SteveM Wise, which had filed ahabeas corpus writ for Happy’srelease, claiming that she shouldbe “recognised as a legal person”and should not continue in“unlawful imprisonment”.Denying the plea, Janet DiFiore,the chief judge, wrote that thewrit of habeas corpus was“intended to protect the libertyright of human beings (italics byher)”. While it was “flexible”,extending it to Happy, “a non-human animal who is not a ‘per-son’ subjected to illegal detentionwould far exceed its bounds”.

The judgment once againbrings into focus the fundamen-tal question whether animals areentitled to be regarded as per-sons. Historically, a negativeanswer has rested on the claimthat their lack of reason andemotion that humans possessexcludes them from the moraland legal universe humans havecreated for themselves. Aristotleheld that animals were inani-mate objects because they lackedreason. St Augustine claimedthat the commandment “Thoushalt not kill” did not apply tobushes because they had no sen-sation, nor “to animals that fly,walk and crawl, because they arenot partners to us in the facul-ty of reason”.

This remains the dominantposition in the western weltan-schauung as defined by the clas-sical Greek, Judaeo-Christianand post-Renaissance andEnlightenment humanistthought. Indeed, Frenchphilosopher Rene Descartes(1596-1650) believed that ani-mals were mere “mechanisms”or “automata” like watches orcuckoo clocks. They showed nosigns of being inhabited byrational souls, had no minds andhence could not experience

Page 7: 7:C6 2?5 7FCJ 6?8F=7 28?:A2E9 - Daily Pioneer

indulged in unfair practices? Havethey violated the guidelines on FDIin e-commerce?

As per the guidelines issuedin early 2016, 100 per cent FDI isallowed under the marketplacemodel. The marketplace is a plat-form where vendors sell theirproducts to consumers even as itsowner merely acts as a facilitatorby providing services such asbooking orders, raising invoices,arranging delivery, accepting pay-ments, handling rejections, etc.He can’t hold inventory or under-take direct selling.

Two conditions are prescribed.First, the entity cannot permit morethan 25 per cent of total sales on themarketplace from one vendor or itsgroup companies. Two, it cannotdirectly or indirectly influence thesale price. Without any mention asto who the vendor is, a firm linkedto the marketplace either its sub-sidiary or a joint venture (JV) withan Indian company is eligible.

As for the second condition, itis not easy to establish that the mar-ketplace owner has manipulatedthe sale price.

Thus, contrary to the statedintent of the policy, these norms per-mitted e-commerce majors as directsellers, albeit through their sub-sidiary/JV. No wonder, Amazonestablished a JV Prione BusinessServices (PBS), in collaborationwith an Indian entity owned byNarayan Murthy of Infosys. PBS inturn, owns a firm Cloudtail IndiaPvt Ltd which is a “preferred” sell-er on Amazon’s marketplace.

Much has been said about thee-commerce giants indulging inanti-competitive behavior; indeedthis is the main complaint of traders.But what often goes unnoticed isthat the 2016 guidelines providedfor the possibility of a total of four

sellers on the marketplace (based ona threshold of 25 per cent of totalsales for each seller) all related to theowner of the platform.

Even as Amazon and otherswent all out to exploit these loop-holes in the guidelines, theCommerce Ministry issued a clar-ification on December 26, 2018. Itsaid: “The owner of the marketplaceor its subsidiary or its JV with anIndian company can’t have owner-ship of the seller.”

Moreover, “a seller on the plat-form can’t source more than 25 percent of its inventory from a firmconnected with the latter.”

The marketplace owner couldget around both the clarifications:first, by having less than 50 per centshareholding in the seller firm,they can argue that they have nocontrol (majority) over the latter,and second by its wholesale armrestricting supplies to the seller with-in the 25 per cent threshold.

The clarification has done littleto rein in the hold of e-commercemajors in direct selling to con-sumers to the detriment of smalltraders. For instance, only threedozen firms out of the 400,000 sell-ers on Amazon platform account for67 per cent of sales on it.

The government has been try-ing to make corrections to bring theextant dispensation in line with thestated policy intent.

In 2020, the Department ofConsumer Affairs (DCA), in theMinistry of Consumer Affairs, Foodand Public Distribution, issued theConsumer Protection (e-com-merce) Rules, under Section 101ofthe Consumer Protection Act, 2019.The rules bar affiliated entitiesfrom selling on e-commerce plat-forms and restrict ‘flash sales,’ anddisallow sellers from using thename or brand associated with that

of marketplace e-commerce entitiesfor promotion of goods.

Last year, the DCA came upwith an amendment to the rules torestrict business-to-business, orB2B, sales (this is to prohibit trans-actions between the owner of themarketplace and seller on his plat-form) in e-commerce and a provi-sion to prevent ‘abuse of dominantposition’ by e-commerce firms.

The sole purpose of the aboveamendments is to undo the damage(to the small traders) caused by 2016guidelines. If the government goesahead with the former, it will be tan-tamount to overturning the latter. Itwill be viewed as a retrospectivechange of policy and send a wrongsignal to foreign investors.

On the other hand, if the 2016guidelines stay intact, small traderswill continue to face unfair and dis-criminatory treatment.

We need to understand the gen-esis behind the present situation.The Modi government was keen toget FDI in retail but didn’t want todisplease small traders. So, itbrought foreign majors through thebackdoor in the garb of the market-place. The result: it is caught‘between the deep sea and the devil.’

It can get out of the mess ifit dispenses with the marketplaceand legitimises 100 per cent FDIin online retail. The governmentshould also allow 100 per centFDI in offline retail sans riders(at present, 51 per cent is allowedin this segment subject to oner-ous riders which is tantamountto a complete bar). This willenable all retailers, online oroffline, big or small, to competewith one another on equal terms.

It will be a win-win for allstakeholders who will also bespared the agony of endlesslitigation.

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India is on course to take amonumental leap in theworld order. It is already seen

as a major pivot in the emerg-ing global order by being a keynation in two security arrange-ments—one in the Indo-Pacificand the another with the US, theUAE, and Israel. The Indian mil-itary has to adapt to the chang-ing strategic interests.

The average age of theIndian military is currently 32years while there are roughlyvacancies of about one lakharmed forces personnel. Indiahas two hostile nuclear-armedneighbours. Our military forcesmust be young and agile to meetchallenges of the changing glob-al order.

The Narendra Modi gov-ernment’s unveiling of theAgnipath scheme seeks to fill thevoid in India’s growing fast-

evolving role in the global order.The initiative to hire 46,000Agniveers this year in the armedforces will immediately bringdown the average age from thecurrent 32 to 26, helping theIndian military to become muchyounger.

Besides, it’s pertinent tolook at the socio-economicimpact of the Agnipath scheme,since India aspires to become a$5-trillion economy, which inturn will throw up newer chal-lenges and opportunities.Economy thrives on a stablesecurity situation, both internaland external. Agniveers willimmediately fill a large portionof the vacancies in the armedforces while also creating a largepool of the militarily trained per-sonnel who could be easilydrafted into the paramilitaryforces, who are engaged in

ensuring peaceful elections andmaintaining peace in strife-tornand insurgency hit areas.

Among the paramilitaryforces, the Central IndustrialSecurity Force (CISF) alone hasseen a major expansion in thescope of its responsibilities toprovide security to industrialunits and transportation sys-tems, including Metro servicesin several cities.

The Agnipath scheme

promises to make trained man-power available that could beeasily drafted for such duties.

Indeed, 25 per cent of theAgniveers would be absorbed inthe armed forces for a longerduration. The Ministry of HomeAffairs has already made it clearthat the paramilitary serviceswould give preferences to theAgniveers in their recruitments.This truly makes sense as theAgniveers would already cometrained and with basic re-skillingthey would be able to take up thenewer responsibilities.

The ambit of national secu-rity is also evolving. Besides safe-guarding territorial integrityand internal peace, nationalsecurity also entails that the eco-nomic forces in the countrydon’t face any security threat.India will have to think aboutproviding a full-proof security

ecosystem to economic activitiesin metropolitan cities and alsoat places where they are nudgedto go, including Jammu andKashmir and the North-Easternstates. Economic disruptionsdue to any reason could pose athreat to national security.

Equally important is thesocial import of the Agnipathscheme as it promises to builda patriotic character among theyouth of the country. Disciplinedyouth is an asset to society.Military training imparts disci-pline. The Ministry ofEducation’s policy of recognis-ing military training of theAgniveers for credits in theirgraduation for in-service cours-es by the Indira Gandhi NationalOpen University (IGNOU) ispraiseworthy.

After four years of militaryservice, 75 per cent of the

Agniveers will come back to thesociety with training, skills andeducation to embark on voca-tions of their choice with capi-tal in hand. This will work as aforce multiplier for theAgniveers to play the role ofchange agents.

A number of countries havesimilar programmes for theirmilitary forces. It has been seenin such countries, includingIsrael, that the former militarypersonnel have engaged in activ-ities which added value to theireconomies. Already formerarmed forces personnel are mostsought-after by the private secu-rity agencies which haveimmensely proliferated in therecent years.

It’s futile to argue that thearmed forces will be burdenedwith the training efforts forAgniveers, because India is no

more a status quoist country;capacity expansion is the mantraof the Modi government. Indianot only has to expand thecapacity but also qualitativelyimprove upon the outcome.

Additionally, the state policetoo are in need of major humanresources training and up-skilling because of the risinginternal security challenges.State governments, whichalready have to fill a large num-ber of vacancies in their policeforces, can begin to look com-fortably at the Agniveers. Thiscan help the state police becomemore agile and also efficient.

Indeed, the social impact ofAgniveers in villages would besubstantial as they could becomerole models for youngsters.Agniveers, by the time theycome out of the military service,will also have enough savings.

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� 8��;������.� �$ Ever since Indian retail was openedto foreign direct investment(FDI)—albeit through the so-calledmarketplace model in 2016—for-

eign giants like Amazon and Walmart-owned-Flipkart have been embroiled inprotracted legal battles.

In a public interest litigation (PIL) filedin early 2018, the Retailers Association ofIndia (RAI) had alleged violation of FDInorms in e-commerce. On October 31,2018, the Enforcement Directorate (ED)had informed the Delhi High Court (DHC)that it was investigating violation of theForeign Exchange Management Act (Fema)against Amazon, et al, but the proceedingsare stuck.

In another petition filed before theCompetition Commission of India (CCI),the All-India Online Vendors Association(AIOVA) had alleged abuse of market dom-inance against Flipkart India Private Limited(it is into wholesale trading/distribution)and e-commerce marketplace FlipkartInternet Private Limited. But, CCI saw noth-ing wrong in this practice; it wondered “howcome any one player in the market com-mand any dominant position.”

Even as the National Company LawAppellate Tribunal (NCLAT) quashedthe CCI ruling and ordered a probe, noth-ing is heard on the subject thereafter. Amost talked about case relates to a com-plaint by the trade body Delhi VyaparMahasangh (DVM) on January 13, 2020,with the CCI alleging anti-competitivebehavior by Amazon Seller Services (itoperates an e-commerce marketplace)and Flipkart Internet.

DVM argued that Amazon and Flipkarthad entered into exclusive sales agreementswith smartphone makers to sell certainphones through a small number of pre-ferred sellers. It also alleged that they hadgiven preferential treatment to certainsellers by giving them higher search rank-ings, and offering to pay for part of the dis-count that such sellers would offer duringkey sales periods such as Flipkart’s BigBillion Days and Amazon’s Prime Day.

The CCI agreed with DVM’s con-tention and ordered a probe. Amazon andFlipkart approached the Karnataka HighCourt (KHC) with a plea to quash the CCIorder. The KHC refused to quash it,which prompted the duo to challenge theorder in the Supreme Court (SC). InAugust 2021, the SC dismissed their appli-cations and ordered that “the CCI DirectorGeneral will complete the probe and sub-mit the findings to the commission whichwill pass final orders.”

Meanwhile, in a complaint filed byAIOVA against Amazon Seller Services, theCCI opined that “the information containsallegations that are devoid ofadmissible/requisite evidence.” In DVM’scase, even if the commission establishesanti-competitive behavior by Amazon, itwill be heading for interminable litigation.

Have Amazon and others really

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The 14th summit of BRICSnations - Brazil, Russia,

India, China and South Africa- will be hosted by ChinesePresident Xi Jinping here onJune 23 via video link andwould be followed by a high-level dialogue on global devel-opment the next day, theForeign Ministry announcedhere on Friday.

China is this year's chair ofthe BRICS.

Prime Minister NarendraModi along with RussianPresident Vladimir Putin,Brazilian President JairBolsonaro and South AfricanPresident Cyril Ramaphosa areexpected to take part in thesummit to be hosted byChinese President Xi.

The Summit will be held invirtual format under the themeof ‘Foster High-quality BRICSPartnership, Usher in a NewEra for Global Development',Foreign Ministry spokespersonHua Chunying said in a state-ment.

BRICS leaders and leadersof "relevant" emerging marketsand developing countries willalso attend a high-level dia-logue on Jun 24 and hold a dia-logue on ‘Foster a GlobalDevelopment Partnership forthe New Era to JointlyImplement the 2030 Agendafor Sustainable Development',Hua said in a statement onFriday.

Xi will also take part in theopening ceremony of theBRICS Business Forum in vir-tual format on June 22 and

deliver a keynote speech, shesaid. In the run-up to the sum-mit, China held a series ofpreparatory meetings, includ-ing the BRICS ForeignMinisters meeting followed bya meeting of the NationalSecurity Advisors (NSAs).

India's NSA Ajit Dovaltook part in the BRICS topsecurity officials meeting heldvirtually on Wednesday.

The top security officials ofthe five countries held an in-depth exchange of views andreached a consensus on issues

such as strengthening multi-lateralism and global gover-nance and responding to newthreats and challenges tonational security, according tothe Chinese official mediareport.

Doval called for bolsteringcooperation against terrorismwithout any reservations as headdressed the meeting of thefive-nation grouping.

The meeting also discussedstrengthening and improvinggovernance in new frontiers,the state-run Xinhua newsagency reported.

All parties expressed theirreadiness to work for fruitfuloutcomes of the 14th BRICSsummit, it said.

The meeting reviewed thework of the working group oncounter-terrorism and cybersecurity, agreed to jointly pro-mote plans and roadmaps forinternational counter-terror-ism and cyber security coop-eration, and uphold the centralcoordinating role of the UnitedNations in the global counter-terrorism cause.

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Israeli forces shot dead threePalestinians and wounded at

least eight others early Fridayduring a military operation inthe occupied West Bank townof Jenin, according to thePalestinian Health Ministry.

The military said its forcescame under attack andexchanged fire with militants.

The Israeli military hasbeen carrying out near-dailyraids in the occupied WestBank since a string of attacksearlier this year killed 19 peo-ple in Israel.

Many of the arrest raidshave been launched in andaround Jenin, the hometown ofseveral of the attackers.

The military said it raidedtwo locations in search ofweapons. At the first, it says sol-diers fired back after Palestiniansopened fire and hurled explosivedevices at them.

On their way to the secondlocation, they exchanged firewith Palestinian gunmen in avehicle, the army said.

Lt. Gen. Aviv Kohavi, themilitary chief of staff, said in aspeech that three militantswere killed.

The military said thetroops confiscated rifles, a sub-machine gun and other equip-ment from inside the vehicle.

Heavy exchanges of gun-fire could be heard in videoscirculated on social media.Later, footage on social mediashowed a bullet-riddled vehi-cle with bloodstains and resi-dents inspecting it.

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Politicians and experts met inMadrid on Friday to discuss

ways to tackle drought and theincreasing spread of desertsacross the globe.

"The consequences ofdrought can affect up to threequarters of humanity by 2050.There is nowhere to hide if weare unable or unwilling toavert the severe alterations weare inflicting on the planet,"Ibrahim Thiaw, executive sec-retary of the U.N. Conventionto Combat Desertification, orUNCCD, said at the opening ofthe meeting.

"Let us be prepared to con-front the new reality,'' he added.

The half-day meeting isbeing held to mark the UnitedNations' World Day to CombatDesertification and Drought.

Thiaw said half the worldpopulation was expected toface severe water scarcity in thenext eight years, adding thatthat could lead to as many as

700 million people — or about10 per cent of the world's pop-ulation — being at risk ofbeing displaced during thatperiod.

The meeting broughttogether numerous experts,

including Kenya's PatriciaKombo, founder of the PaTreeInitiative to help Kenya achieve10% forest cover by getting stu-dents to plant trees.

“I know majority of youhave never come across

drought,” said Kombo. “But Iwould like to tell you howdrought feels like. Clean andsafe drinking water is like a dia-mond. Three meals a day is adream.”

She said communities had

turned to violence because ofthe lack of food and water.

“You are fighting for theonly available resources,” shesaid. “We are fighting forwater.”

Spanish Prime MinisterPedro Sánchez spoke at themeeting and U.N. SecretaryGeneral António Guterres wasto make an address by video.

The UNCCD says thatbetween 1900 and 2019,droughts have impacted 2.7 bil-lion people in the world, andcaused 11.7 million deaths.

Spain's EcologicalTransition ministry says 75% ofSpanish land is vulnerable todesertification and this isincreasing.

The meeting comes asSpain is suffering an unusual-ly early heat wave that hashelped fuel wildfires acrossthe country.

The focus of the meetingwill be on encouraging earlyaction to prevent disastrousoutcomes.

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Basil Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka'sformer finance minister

and the brother of PresidentGotabya Rajapaksa, has beenadmitted to a private hospitalhere, according to a mediareport on Friday. Basil, 71, isthe youngest brother ofPresident Rajapaksa and for-mer prime minister MahindaRajapaksa. However, it is yetknown why he was hospi-talised, the Daily Mirror, anonline newspaper reported.

In April too, BasilRajapaksa was admitted to aprivate hospital in Colomboafter contracting COVID-19.

Widely regarded as theintellectual pillar of theRajapaksa family, Basil wasthe finance minister of SriLanka until April 4 when hewas sacked by President

Gotabaya as the country's eco-nomic crisis worsened.

Basil, a Sri Lankan-American, resigned fromParliament on June 9. He wasaccused of being partiallyresponsible for the economiccrisis in the country.

However, Basil denied thatthe economic crisis was not hismaking and that the countryshould have gone to theInternational Monetary Fund(IMF) for a bailout much ear-lier.

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Japan's top court on Fridayruled that the government

was not liable for the 2011Fukushima nuclear crisis, dis-missing thousands of evacuees'demands that the state, not justthe utility, pay compensation forthe damages inflicted to theirlives. Friday's ruling was the firstSupreme Court decision on thegovernment responsibility for theFukushima disaster in four com-pensation lawsuits filed by about3,700 Fukushima residents.

The four-judge bench head-ed by Hiroyuki Kanno said thatthe government could not beheld liable for the disasterbecause damage from the tsuna-mi of that magnitude could nothave been prevented even if theindustry minister had used hisregulatory authority and orderedthe utility to enhance a seawallbased on a tsunami estimate atthat time.

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Asingle gunman opened fireinside a suburban

Alabama church, killing twopeople and wounding a thirdat a small group meetingbefore being taken into cus-tody, authorities said.

The attack occurred atSaint Stephen's EpiscopalChurch in the Birminghamsuburb of Vestavia Hills onThursday, said Police Capt.Shane Ware. He said dis-patchers got a call at around6:20 p.M. Reporting an activeshooter there.

Ware said a suspect wasdetained and there was “nothreat to the community at thistime." Police declined to iden-tify the suspect or the victims,or provide further details onthe attack, saying anotherbriefing was planned Friday.

At an earlier news confer-

ence, Ware had said one per-son was killed and two othershospitalized.

The church's website list-ed a “Boomers Potluck” forThursday night. “There will beno program, simply eat andhave time for fellowship,” theflyer read.

Thursday's shooting tookplace just over a month afterone person was killed and fiveothers injured when a manopened fire on Taiwaneseparishioners at a church inSouthern California. It alsocomes nearly seven years to theday after an avowed whitesupremacist killed nine peopleduring Bible study at EmanuelAME Church in Charleston,South Carolina.

In Vestavia Hills, investi-gators remained at the scenehours past nightfall, with yel-low police tape cordoning offthe church complex and emer-

gency police and fire vehicleswith flashing lights blockingthe route to the church. TheFBI, U.S. Marshals Service andthe Bureau of Alcohol,Firearms, Tobacco andExplosives dispatched agents tothe scene.

Nearby, people huddledand prayed.

The Rev. Kelley Hudlow,an Episcopal priest in theDiocese of Alabama, toldbroadcast outlet WBRC thatthe shooting had stunnedthe church and the commu-

nity at large.“It is shocking. Saint

Stephen's is a community builton love and prayers and graceand they are going to cometogether,” she said in a liveinterview with the station.“People of all faiths are com-ing together to pray to hope forhealing.”

She said supportive mes-sages were coming in from allover the U.S. And the world."We need everybody out there.Pray, think, meditate and sendlove to this communitybecause we are going to needall of it," she said.

There have been severalhigh-profile shootings in Mayand June, starting with a racistattack on May 14 that killed 10Black people at a supermarketin Buffalo, New York. The fol-lowing week, a gunman mas-sacred 19 children and twoadults at an elementary school

in Uvalde, Texas. On Saturday thousands of

people rallied in the U.S. Andat the National Mall inWashington, D.C., to renewcalls for stricter gun controlmeasures. Survivors of massshootings and other incidentsof gun violence lobbied legis-lators and testified on CapitolHill earlier this month.

Alabama Gov. Kay Iveyissued a statement lateThursday lamenting what shecalled the shocking and trag-ic loss of life at the church.Although she said she wasglad to hear the suspect was incustody, she wrote: “Thisshould never happen — in achurch, in a store, in the city oranywhere."

Vestavia Hills is a residen-tial community just southeastof Birmingham, one ofAlabama's two most populouscities.

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Donald Trump's closestadvisers viewed his last-

ditch efforts to pressure VicePresident Mike Pence to rejectthe tally of state electors andoverturn the 2020 election as“nuts,” “crazy” and even likelyincite riots, witnesses revealedin stark testimony to the Jan 6committee on Thursday.

Gripping new evidencealso detailed how the mobthat stormed the Capitol thatday came within 40 feet ofwhere Pence and his teamwere sheltering, highlightingthe danger Trump had puthim in.

With live testimony,including from Pence's coun-sel, and other evidence from itsyearlong investigation thepanel is dissecting as unlawfuland unconstitutional the planfrom conservative lawyer JohnEastman to reverse Joe Biden'selection victory. The pressureTrump put on Pence, includingat a Jan 6 rally, led directly tothe insurrection at the Capitol,the panel said.

“Are you out of your effingmind?” said Eric Herschmann,a lawyer advising Trump, toldEastman in recorded testimo-ny shown at the hearing.

“You're going to turn

around and tell 78-plus millionpeople in this country thatyour theory is this is how you'regoing to invalidate their votes?”Herschmann said. He warned:“You're going to cause riots inthe streets.”

A text message from FoxNews' Sean Hannity to Trump'schief of staff Mark Meadowsabout the plan in the run-up toJan 6 read: "I'm very worriedabout the next 48 hours."

Trump campaign adviserJason Miller said those aroundTrump called it “crazy.”

The panel opened its thirdhearing this month demon-strating that Trump's falseclaims of a fraudulent electionleft him grasping for alternativesas courts turned back dozens oflawsuits challenging the vote.

Trump latched ontoEastman's highly unusual planto defy historical precedent ofthe Electoral Count Act, andstarted pressuring Pence inpublic and private as the vicepresident was to preside overthe Jan 6 joint session ofCongress to certify Biden'selection.

The committee has saidthe plan was illegal, and a fed-eral judge has said it is “morelikely than not” Trump com-mitted crimes in his attempt tostop the certification.

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President Joe Biden toldThe Associated Press thatthe American people are

“really, really down” after atumultuous two years with thecoronavirus pandemic, volatil-ity in the economy and nowsurging gasoline prices thatare slamming family budgets.

He said on Thursday thata recession is not inevitable andbristled at claims by Republicanlawmakers that last year'sCOVID-19 aid plan was fullyto blame for inflation reachinga 40-year high, calling thatargument “bizarre.”

As for the overallAmerican mindset, Biden said,“People are really, really down.”

“They're really down," hesaid. "The need for mentalhealth in America, it has sky-rocketed, because people haveseen everything upset.Everything they've counted onupset. But most of it's the con-sequence of what's happened,what happened as a conse-quence of the COVID crisis.”

Speaking to the AP in a 30-minute Oval Office interview,

Biden addressed the warningsby economists that the UnitedStates could be headed for arecession.

“First of all, it 's notinevitable,” he said. "Secondly,we're in a stronger positionthan any nation in the world toovercome this inflation.”

As for the causes of infla-tion, Biden flashed some defen-siveness on that count. “If it'smy fault, why is it the case inevery other major industrialcountry in the world that infla-tion is higher? You ask yourselfthat? I'm not being a wiseguy,” he said.

The president said he saw

reason for optimism with the3.6 per cent unemploymentrate and America's relativestrength in the world.

“Be confident, because Iam confident we're better posi-tioned than any country in theworld to own the second quar-ter of the 21st century,” Bidensaid. “That's not hyperbole,that's a fact.”

Biden's bleak assessment ofthe national psyche comes asvoters have soured on his jobperformance and the directionof the country. Only 39 per centof US adults approve of Biden'sperformance as president,according to a May poll from

The Associated Press-NORCCenter for Public Research,dipping from already negativeratings a month earlier.

Overall, only about 2 in 10adults said the US is heading inthe right direction or that theeconomy is good, both downfrom about 3 in 10 in April.Those drops were concentrat-ed among Democrats, withjust 33 per cent within the pres-ident's party saying the coun-try is headed in the right direc-tion, down from 49 per cent inApril.

The president outlinedsome of the hard choices he hasfaced, saying the US needed tostand up to Russian PresidentVladimir Putin for invadingUkraine in February eventhough tough sanctionsimposed as a result of that warhave caused gas prices to surge,creating a political risk forBiden in an election year. Hecalled on oil companies tothink of the world's short-term needs and increase pro-duction.

Asked why he ordered thefinancial penalties againstMoscow that have disrupted

food and energy markets glob-ally, Biden said he made his cal-culation as commander in chiefrather than as a politicianthinking about the election.

“I'm the president of theUnited States,” he said. “It'swhat's best in the country. Nokidding. No kidding. So whathappens? What happens if thestrongest power in NATO, theorganizational structure weput together, walked away fromRussian aggression?”

Biden spun out the possi-bility of chaos in Europe if anunimpeded Russia kept mov-ing deeper into the continent,China was emboldened to takeover Taiwan and North Koreagrew even more aggressivewith its nuclear weapon ambi-tions.

Biden renewed his con-tention that major oil compa-nies have benefited from high-er prices without increasingproduction as much as theyshould. He said the companiesneeded to think of the world inthe short term, not just theirinvestors.

“Don't just reward your-selves," he said.

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The British government hasordered the extradition of

WikiLeaks founder JulianAssange to the United States toface spying charges. He is like-ly to appeal.

Home Secretary Priti Patelsigned the extradition order onFriday, her department said. Itfollows a British court ruling inApril that Assange could besent to the U.S.

The Home Office said in astatement that “the U.K courtshave not found that it would beoppressive, unjust or an abuseof process to extradite Mr.Assange.” “Nor have they foundthat extradition would beincompatible with his humanrights, including his right to afair trial and to freedom ofexpression, and that whilst inthe U.S. He will be treatedappropriately, including in rela-tion to his health.”

The decision is a bigmoment in Assange's years-

long battle to avoid facing trialin the U.S. — though not nec-essarily the end of the tale.Assange has 14 days to appeal.

A British judge approvedthe extradition in April, leavingthe final decision to the gov-ernment. The ruling came aftera legal battle that went all theway to the U.K. Supreme Court.

The U.S. Has asked Britishauthorities to extradite Assangeso he can stand trial on 17charges of espionage and onecharge of computer misuseover WikiLeaks' publication ofa huge trove of classified doc-uments more than a decadeago. American prosecutors sayAssange unlawfully helped U.S.Army intelligence analyst

Chelsea Manning steal classi-fied diplomatic cables and mil-itary files that WikiLeaks laterpublished, putting lives at risk.

Journalism organisationsand human rights groups havecalled on Britain to refuse theextradition request. Supportersand lawyers for Assange, 50,argue that he was acting as ajournalist and is entitled to FirstAmendment protections offreedom of speech for pub-lishing documents that exposedU.S. Military wrongdoing inIraq and Afghanistan. Theyargue that his case is political-ly motivated.

Assange's lawyers say hecould face up to 175 years in jailif he is convicted in the U.S.,though American authoritieshave said any sentence is like-ly to be much lower than that.

Assange has been held atBritain's high-securityBelmarsh Prison in Londonsince 2019, when he was arrest-ed for skipping bail during aseparate legal battle.

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Ukraine plans to introducea visa regime for Russian

citizens, President VolodymyrZelenskyy said Friday.

The move is likely to beviewed as symbolic given thatthe borders between the neigh-bouring countries are official-ly closed while they are at warin Ukraine. It nevertheless rep-resents a significant change tothe ease of travel previouslypermitted.

In a Telegram post,Zelenskyy said that Russianswill need a visa to enterUkraine from July 1. He saidthe decision, which is due to beformalised through a Cabinetresolution, was motivated by“unprecedented threats to thenational security, sovereigntyand territorial integrity” ofUkraine.

Before Moscow invadedUkraine on Feb 24, Russiansdidn't need visas to enter thecountry. Many Russians haverelatives across the border,while others travelled regular-ly to visit Ukraine's southernbeaches and urban culturalhubs.

The war in UkraineRussia's war on its southernneighbour was in its 17th weekon Friday.

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The European Union's executive arm rec-ommended putting Ukraine on a path to

membership on Friday, a symbolic boost for theembattled country but one that did not slow aRussian onslaught in the east that is taking civil-ian lives and flattening cities.

The possibility of membership in a unioncreated to safeguard peace on the continent andthat stands as a model for the rule of law andprosperity fulfils a wish of President VolodymyrZelenskyy and the many Western-looking cit-izens resisting Russia's invasion.

The latest embrace of Ukraine by itsEuropean allies also marks another setback forRussian President Vladimir Putin, who launchedhis war nearly four months ago, hoping to pullhis ex-Soviet neighbor back into Russia's sphereof influence. Putin was scheduled to addressRussia's showpiece economic forum in St.Petersburg on Friday, but his speech had to bedelayed because the forum's website was hit witha cyberattack.

The European Commission's recommen-dation that Ukraine become a candidate formembership will be discussed by leaders of the27-nation bloc during a summit next week inBrussels. The war has increased pressure on EUgovernments to fast-track Ukraine's candidatestatus. But the process is expected to take years,and EU members remain divided over howquickly and fully to open their arms to newmembers.

Support for Ukraine from Western countries— both political and military — has been keyto its surprising success in the face of larger andbetter equipped Russian forces. Zelenskyy hasalso clamored for more immediate support inthe form of more and better weapons to turnthe tide in the country's eastern Donbas region.

Russia pressed its offensive there Friday,leaving desperate residents struggling to makesense of what the future holds for them.

“We are old people, we do not have a placeto go. Where will I go?” asked Vira Miedientseva,one of the elderly residents grappling with theaftermath of an attack Thursday in Lysychansk,which lies just across the river fromSievierodonetsk, a key focus of battles in recentweeks that Russians have nearly captured.

In other developments:The Ukrainian navy claimed Friday that it

destroyed a Russian boat carrying air defensesystems to a strategic island in the Black Sea. Ina statement on social media, the navy said thatthe Vasily Bekh was used to transport ammu-nition, weapons and personnel to Snake Island,which is vital for protecting sea lanes out of the

key port of Odesa.Snake Island, located some 35 kilometers (20

miles) off the coast, figured memorably early inthe war when Ukrainian border guards stationedthere defied Russian orders to surrender, usingcolorful language that later became a rallying cry.There was no immediate reaction from Russianauthorities about the Ukrainian claim.

The war's disruption to exports of grain andother crops from Ukraine that feed the worldhas captured global attention and sent breadprices soaring across the world. But the pro-duction of other, more niche foodstuffs has alsobeen impacted, including for a Ukrainian snailfarmer.

The organiser of the Eurovision SongContest said Friday that it will start talks withthe BBC on possibly holding next year's eventin the U.K. After concluding that it can't be heldin Ukraine. Last month, Ukrainian band KalushOrchestra won the 2022 contest, buoyingUkrainian spirits. The event is traditionallystaged by the previous year's winner.

After a series setbacks early in the war,including the failure to seize Ukraine's capital,Russian forces have switched their focus to theDonbas, pressing a grinding offensive. In recentweeks, they have moved in on Sievierodonetskand surrounding villages — the last pocket ofthe Luhansk region not yet claimed by Russiaor its allies.

“The Russians are pouring fire on the city,"said Luhansk Gov. Serhiy Haidai. “It's gettingharder and harder for us to fight inSievierodonetsk, because the Russians out-number us in artillery and manpower, and it'svery difficult for us to resist this barrage of fire."

The constant shelling made it impossible for568 people, including 38 children, sheltering inthe Azot chemical plant in the city to escape, hesaid.

Russian forces have destroyed all threebridges leading out of the city, but Haidai saidit still had not been fully blocked off.

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British Prime MinisterBoris Johnson flew out

to Ukraine to meet PresidentVolodymyr Zelensky duringa surprise visit to the capi-tal Kyiv, where he launcheda major training operationfor Ukrainian armed forceswith the potential to train upto 10,000 soldiers every 120days.

Johnson told Zelenskyythat the UK's landmark pro-gramme could fundamen-tally change the equation ofthe war, ensuring the armedforces of Ukraine have theresilience they need to fightthe Russian forces ofPresident Vladimir Putin.

He was due to address asummit in Doncaster innorthern England but tweet-ed to reveal he was in Kyivinstead.

"President, Volodymyr,it is good to be in Kyivagain," said Johnson.

In a statement fromDowning Street, the primeminister stressed that theUK will be with Ukraineuntil they "ultimately pre-vail".

“My visit today, in the

depths of this war, is to senda clear and simple message tothe Ukrainian people: the UKis with you, and we will bewith you until you ultimatelyprevail,” said Johnson.

Johnson and Zelensky aresaid to have discussed thesituation in Ukraine and howthe latest UK-led programmewould train and drill thearmed forces of Ukraine usingbattle-proven British Armyexpertise, allowing them toaccelerate their deployment,rebuild their forces, and scale-up their resistance.

“As Ukrainian soldiers fireUK missiles in defence ofyour nation's sovereignty, theydo so also in defence of thevery freedoms we take forgranted. That is why I haveoffered President Zelenskyy amajor new military trainingprogramme that could changethe equation of this war –har-nessing that most powerful offorces, the Ukrainian deter-mination to win,” Johnsonsaid.

“Two months on from mylast visit, the Ukrainian grit,determination and resilienceis stronger than ever, and Iknow that unbreakable resolvewill long outlive the vainambitions of President Putin,”he added.

The previous OperationOrbital saw the UK train morethan 22,000 Ukrainian per-sonnel from 2015 until thefull-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The new programmewould train forces outside ofthe UK. Each soldier wouldspend three weeks on thetraining course, learning bat-tle winning skills for the frontline, as well as basic medicaltraining, cyber-security andcounter explosive tactics.Alongside the training offer,the leaders also discussed howthe UK can play a “pivotalrole” in ending the blockade ofgrain. Downing Street said thetraining programme buildson the UK's global leadershipin supporting Ukraine in itsvaliant defence of its country.

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The Ukrainian navyclaimed on Friday that itstruck a Russian boat

carrying air defence systemsto a strategic island in theBlack Sea.

In a statement on socialmedia, the navy said theVasily Bekh was used to trans-port ammunition, weaponsand personnel to SnakeIsland, which is vital for pro-tecting sea lanes out of the keyport of Odesa.

It did not say how muchdamage it inflicted with thestrike.

Snake Island, locatedsome 35 kilometres off thecoast, figured memorablyearly in the war whenUkrainian border guards sta-tioned there defied Russianorders to surrender, usingcolourful language that laterbecame a rallying cry.

The flagship of Russia'sBlack Sea fleet, used in theseizure of Snake Island, wassunk in April by Ukraine — amajor coup for the outmannedand outgunned Ukrainianforces, which made effective use

of technology and intelligencefrom the US to target the ship.

The Ukrainian Navy saidon Friday that that after thesinking of the flagship Moskva,the Russians began to install an

anti-aircraft missile systemcalled TOR on the decks oftheir ships.

It said that was not enoughto prevent Ukraine's navalforces from “demilitarising the

Russian occupiers”.There was no immediate

reaction from Russian author-ities about the Ukrainian claim.

Despite the apparent suc-cess, Ukraine has urged its

allies to rush more and betterweapons to the country, sayingit can't hold off Russia's morepowerful forces without moresupport.

Western weapons have beencritical to the embattled nation'ssurprising success so far.

Kyiv has also pushed forincreased political support,including a fast track to mem-bership in the European Union.

On a visit to Ukraine onThursday, four EuropeanUnion leaders vowed to backKyiv's candidacy to eventuallyjoin the bloc.

The EU Commission, theunion's executive arm, is set tomeet on Friday to make its offi-cial recommendation.

The war has increasedpressure on EU governments tomove more quickly onUkraine's candidate status, andThursday's pledge to supportcandidacy status for Ukraineand neighbouring Moldovapushes the whole 27-nationunion closer to doing so.

But the process still isexpected to take years, and EUmembers remain divided overhow quickly and fully to opentheir arms to new members.

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The Ukrainian farmer wasliving a quiet life with the

quietest of creatures: snailsthat she raises for export.Then, skies on the horizonturned flaming red. Russiahad launched its invasion andnearby towns were burning.

Olena Avramenko's vil-lage of Veresnya, northwest ofthe Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, wasquickly occupied by Russianforces. But her snails were tooprecious to leave.

So she stayed, sheltering inher basement and cookingmeals of snails — snail ravio-li, fried snails, snails with gar-lic butter — for herself and theeight other people she took in.

The war's disruption toexports of grain and othercrops from Ukraine that feedthe world has captured globalattention and sent bread pricessoaring across the world. Butthe production of other, moreniche foodstuffs has also beenimpacted.

Before the war threwUkrainian life and its economyinto a tailspin, farmers andartisans in the country weresuccessfully trying their handsnot just with snails but alsowith oysters, edible frogs, veg-etable-based milks, craft beers,cheeses and other products forEuropean markets.

Avramenko and her son,Anton, turned to snail farmingfive years ago. He sold every-thing to invest in the business,which at the time was seen asa risky, exotic business inUkraine. For them, it was anadventure, something new tolearn. They exported the snailsto Spanish restaurants andAvramenko realized she had

found her calling.“I stayed to protect our

farm and home,” she said. “IfI hadn't done it, noting wouldhave been left.”

In France, where snails areeaten piping hot with oozinggarlic butter or mixed intopates, importers had noticedUkrainian snails makinginroads into the market.Exports to the EuropeanUnion of raw Ukrainian snailsmore than doubled between2017 and 2021, from 347 tonsto 844 tons.

“But this number could beunderestimated,” said PierreCommere of the French agro-industry group Adepale. “Forseveral years now there hasbeen a long-running crisis inthe snail industry. It hasbecome more and more diffi-cult to find snails and pricesare rising.”

During the Russian occu-pation of her village,Avramenko found another call-ing: taking her mind off the warby dreaming up new recipes forsnails when peace returned.

Her son, luckily, was not inVeresnya when the Russianinvasion started on Feb. 24 andhe couldn't immediately getback. But Russian soldiers did-n't seem interested in theirsnails. They did come search-ing for fuel, smashing a windowand asking Avramenko for herkeys.

She gently scolded them forbreaking and entering. One ofthem asked her to forgive him.

Russian forces pulled out ofVeresnya at the end of March,part of a general withdrawalfrom the north and around Kyivto head out for a massiveRussian offensive on Ukraine'seast and south, where the fight-

ing still rages. Many villagesin the Kyiv area were litteredwith bodies and internation-al experts are working there todocument suspected warcrimes.

Her son called the dayafter the Russian pullout andsaid they'd get straight back towork. He said because thewar delayed the start of thesnail-rearing season, theirbusiness will at best only breakeven this year. But he didn'twant their seasonal workers tohave no income. And a returnto the slow pace of snail farm-ing, he felt, will do everyonesome good.

“I was somewhere betweenfear and collapse when he saidthat," Avramenko said. “But itwas the right thing to do. Youneed to do something to over-come the state of shock. If not,you can easily lose your mind.”

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Australia's new Prime Minister AnthonyAlbanese said on Friday he would take

advice on whether to accept PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskyy's invitation to visitUkraine during an upcoming European trip.

Albanese will attend a NATO meeting inSpain at the end of this month.

Albanese said he only became aware of theinvitation to visit Ukraine when he read a news-paper report Friday.

“I'll take appropriate advice, and obviouslythere are security issues as well in terms of sucha visit,” Albanese told reporters.

“I appreciate the spirit in which it's beenoffered and one of the reasons why Australia hasbeen invited to NATO is that Australia is thelargest non-NATO contributor to give supportto Ukraine in its defense of its national sover-eignty against Russia's illegal, immoral invasion.And we'll continue to stand with the people ofUkraine,” Albanese added.

Zelenskyy gave the invitation when he wroteto congratulate Albanese on his center-left LaborParty's win at elections on May 21, said UkraineEmbassy in Australia's deputy head of missionVolodymyr Shalkivski.

The invitation was for Albanese to “visit

Ukraine at his convenience,” Shalkivski said, andthe embassy handed the invitation over to thenew administration June 7.

European leaders are increasingly visitingUkraine's capital Kyiv by rail from Poland.

Zelenskyy addressed the AustralianParliament by video in late March when then-Prime Minister Scott Morrison's conservativecoalition was in power. The president appealedfor armored vehicles and tougher sanctionsagainst Russia.

Australia responded by promising 14 M113fully tracked armored personnel carriers and 40Bushmaster four-wheel-drive armored vehicles.The vehicles brought the cost of Australia's con-tribution to Ukraine's defense to 285 millionAustralian dollars (USD 200 million) by late May.

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Mumbai: GovernorShaktikanta Das on Fridayrefuted criticism of the RBIbeing behind the curve in itspolicies, making it clear that theconsequences of focusing onthe 4 per cent inflation targetwould have been "disastrous"for the pandemic-hit economy.

In comments that cametwo days after former ChiefEconomic Advisor ArvindSubramanian co-authored anarticle blaming the RBI for act-ing late on inflation and beingbehind the curve, Das said thecentral bank acted as per theevolving economic develop-ments and also gave out atimeline of its actions to explainthe shift.

"…tolerance of a higherinflation during the pandemicwas a necessity, and we stillstand by our decision," Das saidspeaking at an event organised

by Financial Express here.

He said the RBI switchedinto ultra-accommodation assoon as the country went intothe lockdown and shifted focusto inflation two years later inApril 2022, when it saw that theGDP had gone beyond thepre-pandemic level.

Despite its accommoda-tive policies, the economy con-tracted by 6.6 per cent in FY21and recovered to barely abovethe pre-pandemic levels inFY22, he said, stressing that ashift in policy management tofocus on inflation even 3-4months before April 2022 wasnot apt.

"I feel that we are verymuch in line with the require-ments of our time, the RBI hasacted proactively and I wouldnot agree with any perceptionor any sort of description thatthe RBI has fallen behind thecurve," Das said.

Subramanian’s articleblamed the RBI for beingbehind the curve, pointing outthat the 4 per cent inflation tar-get has not been met sinceOctober 2019 and in 18 of the32 months since then, theheadline consumer price infla-tion has breached even the

RBI’s ceiling of 6 per cent. Italso raised question marksover inflation forecasting.

Disclosing that he has notread the article and making itclear that he does not want tojoin any debate, Das said theRBI’s mandate is that of flexi-ble inflation targeting where itis required to take care of bothprice rise and growth, espe-cially so in extraordinary situ-ations like a pandemic.

"If we had been very firmin maintaining 4 per cent(inflation) and kept the ratesunduly high, I’m sorry, the con-sequences of that approachwould have been disastrous forthe economy.

"If we had attempted tokeep …monetary policy tighterat that time, the economicdamage that you would havecaused to our economy and toour financial markets wouldhave been enormous and itwould have taken years forIndia to come back," he noted.

According to the governor,the RBI was not optimistic withits FY23 inflation estimate of4.5 per cent made public aheadof the Russian invasion ofUkraine, which sent the oilprices rocketing. PTI

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New Delhi: State-owned CIL islooking at green miningoptions by leveraging a slew ofeco-friendly technologies inboth underground and open-cast mines, a move that wouldhelp in augmenting the pro-duction and reduce the adverseimpact on environment.

With land turning out to bea major pain point for expan-sion of coal mining opera-tions, these technologies bypassland acquisition and avoid itsdegradation.

"Coal India Ltd (CIL) istaking a close look on greenmining options in a bid to min-imise adverse environmentalimpact by leveraging a slew ofeco-friendly technologies inits underground and opencastmines," the maharatna firmsaid.

The locked-up coalassets left out earlier due totechno-commercial and safety

concerns can now beunearthed through these tech-nologies, it said.

The Public Sector Unit(PSU) is exploring ramping upits underground productionby four-fold to 100 milliontonnes (MT) by FY30 from25.6 MT in FY22.

Production from under-ground mines is environmen-tally clean, minimally invasiveon land degradation and soci-ety friendly, it said. PTI

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Mumbai: The rupee pared ini-tial gains to settle just 1 paisahigher at 78.09 (provisional)against the US dollar on Fridayamid a muted trend in domes-tic equities and unabated for-eign capital outflows.

A strong dollar overseasand higher crude prices alsokept the domestic unit underpressure, forex dealers said.

At the interbank forexmarket, the rupee openedstrong at 78.03 against thegreenback and witnessed anintra-day high of 78.02 and alow of 78.09.

It finally ended at 78.09,registering a gain of 1 paisaover its previous close of 78.10.

The dollar index, which

gauges the greenback’s strengthagainst a basket of six curren-cies, climbed 0.71 per cent to104.37.

Brent crude futures, theglobal oil benchmark, spurted0.96 per cent to USD 120.96per barrel.

On the domestic equitymarket front, the BSE Sensexended 135.37 points or 0.26 percent lower at 51,360.42, whilethe broader NSE Nifty fell67.10 points or 0.44 per cent to15,293.50.

Foreign institutionalinvestors were net sellers in thecapital market on Thursday asthey offloaded shares worth Rs3,257.65 crore, as per exchangedata. PTI

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N e wD e l h i :G o l dprices inthe nation-al capitalon Fridayrallied by �416 to �50,802 per10 grams, according to HDFCSecurities.

In the previous trade, theyellow metal settled at � 50,386per 10 grams.

Silver also surged by�1,014 to �61,343 per kg from�60,329 per kg in the previoustrade.

"Spot gold prices for 24-carat gold in Delhi were up by�416 reflecting overnight rallyin COMEX gold prices," saidTapan Patel, Senior Analyst(Commodities) at HDFCSecurities.

In the international marketgold was quoting lower at USD1,850 per ounce and silver wastrading flat at USD 21.90 perounce. PTI

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��������!��!��0#�$�0�$�#�!��!��# #!"�����New Delhi: The All India

Power Engineers Federation(AIPEF) on Friday warnedthat its members would go onstrike if Electricity(Amendment) Bill 2021 ispassed without taking theminto confidence.

Union Power Minister R KSingh on Thursday said the Bill,which aims at enabling con-sumers to choose between mul-tiple service providers just likein case of telecom services, islikely to be introduced andpushed for passage in the mon-soon session of Parliamentbeginning July.

AIPEF said it stronglyopposes the statement made bythe minister.

"Any unilateral action toget the Bill passed inParliament without taking the

electricity employees and engi-neers across the country intoconfidence will be stronglyopposed and all 27 lakh elec-tricity employees and engi-neers of the country will beforced to resort to nationwidestrike in protest against themove," AIPEF said in a state-ment.

It said it has also appealedto all chief ministers of statesand Union Territories tostrongly oppose the Bill in thelarger interest of the energy sec-tor and electricity consumers.

"After farmers’ agitationlast year, the government hadgiven a written assurance toUnited Kisan Morcha that theBill will not be placed inParliament without discussionwith all the stakeholders. PTI

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Geneva: After two nights ofintense negotiations, WorldTrade Organisation memberson Friday clinched a deal oncurbing harmful fishing subsi-dies and agreed for a temporarypatent waiver for Covid-19vaccines.

It was also agreed to find afinal solution to the issue ofcontinuation of moratoriumon imposing customs duties onelectronic transmission ofgoods by the next ministerialconference of the WTO or notlater than March 2024.

"All in all, it is a goodpackage," commerce andindustry minister Piyush Goyaltold reporters here.

After a gap of about nineyears, a pact -- fisheries subsi-dies agreement -- was agreed

upon by the members of theWTO (World TradeOrganisation).

The four-day talks, whichstarted on June 12, got overonly on early Friday.

It was in 2013 at the Baliministerial conference of theWTO, the member countriesinked the trade facilitation

agreement to promote seamlessmovement of goods across theglobal borders.

The fisheries subsidiesagreement, which was underdiscussions for over twodecades, was finalised to elim-inate subsidies on overfishing,and illegal, unreported andunregulated fishing. PTI

New Delhi: HDFC LifeInsurance Company on Fridaysaid it will raise debt capital ofup to �350 crore by issuingbonds on a private placementbasis.

The Capital RaisingCommittee of the company’sboard approved a proposal forraising up to �350 crorethrough issuance of 3,500 non-convertible debentures, HDFCLife said in a regulatory filing.

The company said thebonds will carry coupon rate of8.20 per cent per annum.

The bonds will be listed onwholesale debt market seg-ment of NSE, it said.

HDFC Life stock was trad-ing at �550 on BSE, down 3.69per cent from the previousclose. PTI

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The Government is com-mitted to ensure that cap-

ital expenditure will continueto support the economicgrowth momentum regainedafter the third Covid-19 wave,Chief Economic Advisor VAnantha Nageswaran said onFriday.

The government has takenvarious steps -- including low-ering taxes, the continuation ofprivatisation, setting up insti-tutions for sequestering badloans and managing them andlaunching an asset monetisa-tion drive -- to strengthen thereal economy.

"Given the ongoing senseof uncertainty among the pri-vate sector participants, both inbanking and the non-bankingworld, the government is com-mitted to making sure that cap-ital expenditure continues (in)such (a way) that growthimpulse that we have regainedafter the third wave is not sur-rendered," Nageswaran saidwhile speaking at a bankingevent organised by FinancialExpress. In the previous fiscalthe government managed tospend �5.92 lakh crore. PTI

New Delhi: A high-poweredSebi committee on Friday pro-vided facilities to PACLinvestors to update details oftheir mobile numbers andenquire whether SMSs havebeen sent to them to submitoriginal certificates.

The committee in Aprilasked investors, who investedin illegal schemes of PACL, tosubmit their original registra-tion certificates by June 30only after receiving an SMSfrom the panel.

This was applicable only tothose investors whose claimmoney is between �10,001 and�15,000 and whose applicationswere verified.

The markets regulator hadset up a committee headed byformer Chief Justice of IndiaRM Lodha following a

Supreme Court order to refundmoney to investors in the mat-ter of PACL Group.

The panel is overseeingthe process of disposing ofproperties to refund investorsafter verifying their genuine-ness. It has already initiated theprocess of refund in phases.

PACL, also known as PearlGroup, which had raisedmoney from the public in thename of agriculture and realestate businesses, was found bySebi to have collected morethan �60,000 crore through ille-gal collective investmentschemes (CIS) over a period of18 years.

According to a press releaseuploaded on Sebi's website,the committee has been receiv-ing queries from investorsregarding the non-receipt of

SMS calling for original PACLcertificates owing to a changeof mobile number.

Many investors have saidthat mobile numbers providedby them during the submissionof online claims are no longeroperational. Accordingly, thecommittee has now provided fewfacilities to investors or applicantsof PACL on the web portal.

"Investors/applicants ofPACL Ltd can nowupdate/change their registeredmobile numbers online on theweb portal. Investors/appli-cants with claims between�10,001 and �15,000 can nowcheck on the web portalwhether SMS has been sent totheir registered mobile num-bers for submission of originalPACL certificates," according toa release. PTI

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New Delhi: The country'slargest carmaker Maruti SuzukiIndia on Friday said it hasinvested around Rs 2 crore inSociograph Solutions Pvt Ltd(SSPL), a startup specialising inartificial intelligence.

The investment is part ofthe company's MAIL initiativeto support startups withpromising mobility solutions,Maruti Suzuki India Ltd(MSIL) said in a statement.

The company plans to usethe visual artificial intelligence(AI) platform of SSPL calledDave.AI, with an aim toenhance the digital sales expe-rience of its customers, itadded.

"Our investment in SSPLdemonstrates our resolvetowards improving businessmetrics using contemporarytechnology," MSIL ManagingDirector & CEO Hisashi

Takeuchi said.The company has under-

taken the ambitious Mobility &Automobile Innovation Lab(MAIL) programme since 2019to empower the mobility start-up ecosystem in the country.

The Maruti SuzukiInnovation Fund has been setup with an aim to invest inearly-stage startups which arepart of Maruti Suzuki pro-grammes, he added.

"Our intent is to encour-age innovation and promotethe entrepreneurial spirit ofstartups," Takeuchi said. PTI

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Mumbai: RBI GovernorShaktikanta Das on Friday saidthe entry of big tech firms intothe financial sector poses sys-temic concerns like overlever-aging at the borrowers' ends.

The entry of firms likeGoogle, Amazon and Facebook(Meta), referred as big techcompanies, also poses questionmarks around competition anddata privacy.

"They (big tech) carry risks,which need to be properlyassessed and dealt with," Dassaid while speaking at ModernBFSI Summit 2022 organisedby Financial Express.

Such companies caninclude entities in e-commerce,search engines and socialmedia platforms that havestarted to offer financial ser-vices in a "big way" on theirown or through tie-ups, hesaid, adding this is leading tothe use of new methodologiesin credit assessment.

"Such large-scale use ofnew methodologies in creditassessment can create systemicconcerns like overleverage,inadequate credit assessmentand similar other risks," headded.

Das said deploying harshrecovery methods like calling

up at odd hours or using foullanguage is "unacceptable" andassured that the RBI is paying"serious attention" to such hap-penings to ensure necessaryaction is taken to curb suchactivities.

He said most of suchinstances are reported fromunregulated entities, but addedthat the central bank has alsocome across such tactics beingused by entities regulated by theRBI, and urged all players to givespecial attention to the same.

The comments came at atime when there have been alle-gations of suicides by manyborrowers triggered by harshrecovery practices by agents.

The central bank will con-tinue with its role to fosterinnovation while trying to con-tain the systemic challenges, hesaid, adding that the RBI willsoon come out with a discus-sion paper on digital lending. PTI

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New Delhi: In a bid to rein inprivate fuel retailers curtailingoperations to cut losses, thegovernment has expanded thescope of Universal ServiceObligation (USO), mandatinglicensed entities to maintainpetrol and diesel sales at allpetrol pumps, including inremote areas, for specifiedworking hours.

"The government has nowexpanded the horizon of USOby including all retail outlets(petrol pumps) includingremote area ROs under theirambit," the oil ministry said ina statement on Friday.

After this, entities that havebeen granted licences to retailpetrol and diesel will be "oblig-ated to extend the USO to allthe retail consumers at all theretail outlets."

Failure to meet norms canlead to the cancellation oflicences.

"This has been done withan objective to ensure a high-er level of customer services inthe market and to ensure thatadherence to the USO forms apart of the market discipline,"the ministry said.

The move follows somepetrol pumps operated by PSUfirms in states like MadhyaPradesh, Rajasthan, Karnatakaand Gujarat going out of stockfollowing a sudden surge indemand.

This demand followed thecurtailment of operations byprivate fuel retailers who couldnot compete with the heavilyunder-priced rates of publicsector companies.

State fuel retailers haven’tchanged retail prices sinceApril 6 despite crude oil ratesspiking to a decade high. PTI

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New Delhi: The net direct taxcollections till mid-June thisfiscal increased 45 per cent toover �3.39 lakh crore, buoyedby decent advance tax mop-up,the Income Tax departmentsaid on Friday.

The net direct tax collectionof over �3.39 lakh croreincludes Corporation Tax(CIT) at over �1.70 lakh croreand Personal Income Tax(PIT), including SecurityTransaction Tax (STT), at over�1.67 lakh crore.

"The figures of Direct Tax col-lections for the Financial Year2022-23, as on June 16, 2022,show that net collections are at�3,39,225 crore compared to�2,33,651 crore over the cor-responding period of the pre-ceding year, representing anincrease of 45 per cent over thecollections of the precedingyear," the Central Board ofDirect Taxes (CBDT) said.

The advance tax collectionsfor the first quarter this fiscalstand at over �1.01 lakh croreagainst �75,783 crore in thecorresponding period last fis-cal, a growth of more than 33per cent.

This comprises CIT at�78,842 crore and PIT at�22,175 crore. PTI

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Mumbai: Benchmark indicesextended their losing streak tothe sixth straight session onFriday, with the Sensex declin-ing 135 points in choppy tradeamid mixed global markets,unabated foreign fund out-flows, and rising crude oilprices.

The BSE benchmarkdeclined 135.37 points or 0.26per cent to settle at 51,360.42.During the day, the benchmarkfaced volatility and tanked574.57 points or 1.11 per centto its one-year low of 50,921.22.

The NSE Nifty went lowerby 67.10 points or 0.44 per centto end at 15,293.50. From theSensex pack, Titan, Wipro, DrReddy's, Asian Paints, SunPharma, PowerGrid, Larsen &Toubro, UltraTech Cement,Maruti, TCS and HindustanUnilever were the biggest lag-gards.

On the other hand, BajajFinance, Bajaj Finserv, RelianceIndustries and ICICI Bank

were among the gainers.In Asia, markets in Tokyo

and Seoul ended lower, whileHong Kong and Shanghai post-ed gains. European marketswere trading in the green inmid-session deals. Stockexchanges in the US endedsharply lower on Thursday.

"The dominant themeimpacting equity markets glob-ally is the synchronised globalmonetary tightening and theconsequent fears of economic

slowdown," said V KVijayakumar, Chief InvestmentStrategist at Geojit FinancialServices.

Meanwhile, internationaloil benchmark Brent crudejumped 0.96 per cent to USD120.96 per barrel.

Foreign institutionalinvestors (FIIs) remained netsellers in the capital market, asthey sold shares worth Rs3,257.65 crore on Thursday, asper exchange data. PTI

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The Delhi Airport on Fridayhas been awarded as the

‘Best Airport in India andSouth Asia’ in 2022 by SkytraxWorld Airport Awards.

According to the state-ment released by the DelhiInternational Airport Limited(DIAL), Delhi Airport a GMRinfrastructure limited-led con-sortium, today announced thatIndira Gandhi InternationalAirport (IGIA), Delhi, has beenadjudged the ‘Best Airport in

India and South Asia’ in 2022Skytrax World Airport Awards.The airport has received theBest Airport accolade for thefourth consecutive year (2019-2022). “The airport has alsoimproved its overall ranking,moving to the 37th place in2022 from last year’s 45th posi-tion. Delhi Airport continues tobe the only Indian airport to bein the league of the World’s Top50 Airports,” it said.

Commenting on the ocas-sion, Videh Jaipuriar, CEO ofDIAL said that All the airportstaff, stakeholders, and partnersworking at the airport havemade Delhi Airport the BestAirport in India and South Asiawith their constant resilience,focus, and customer-centricity.

This is a proud moment forall of us. We take immensepride in receiving this presti-gious accolade. Delhi Airporthas always set a new bench-mark in providing the best air-port experience to all its pas-sengers and will continue to doso.” The Skytrax World AirportAwards are the most presti-gious accolades for the airportindustry, voted by customers inthe largest, annual global air-port customer satisfaction sur-vey. They are regarded as thequality benchmark for theworld airport industry, assess-ing customer service and facil-ities across over 550 airports.The survey and awards areindependent of any airportcontrol or inputs.

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Adominant Mumbai rodeon impressive hundreds

from Yashasvi Jaiswal andArmaan Jaffer to put UttarPradesh on the back-foot bytaking their overall lead past the600-mark on the fourth day oftheir Ranji Trophy semi-finalhere on Friday.

It was a run-feast on dayfour as the two batted withauthority and it is almost certainnow that the 41-time RanjiTrophy winners would sail intothe summit clash.

The Amol Mazumdarcoached side, in their secondessay, was poised at 449 for fourwhen stumps were drawn andhad an overall lead of stagger-ing 662 runs.

Jaiswal (181), who has hithis maiden hundred in thequarter-final, slammed back-to-

back centuries in the currentone, as he and Jaffer (127), bull-dozed a list-less Uttar Pradeshattack.

Mumbai, which already hada lead of 346 runs, began ontheir overnight score of 133 forone.

And it was sheer domi-nance by their young battingduo of Jaiswal and Jaffer, whowould surely have made hisuncle Wasim proud, by his stel-lar performance.

The two young Mumbaibatters, who started the daywhen they were in their 30s,pummelled the UP attack intosubmission with a variety ofstrokes on display in their 286-run stand for the second wick-et.

It was raining boundaries at

the Just Cricket Academy asJaiswal hammered 23 fours andone maximum in his 372-ballinnings, while Jaffer smashed 15fours and two sixes in his 259-ball knock.

Uttar Pradesh had to waitlong for getting the first-wick-et of the day and pacer ShivamMavi (1/36) dismissed Jaffer inthe 107th over of the innings, tobreak the mammoth stand.

But that did not deterJaiswal, who kept playing shotsat will and spared no bowler.Jaiswal missed a richly deserveddouble-hundred as he wascaught by Aryan Juval off PriceYadav (2/69).

UP did get two wickets inquick succession, that of SuvedParkar (22) and Jaiswal, but tillthen the damage was done.

At stumps, Sarfaraz Khan(23 not out) and Shams Mulani(10 not out) were holding fort.

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Skipper AbhimanyuEaswaran's unbeaten 52

after Shahbaz Ahmed's superball-round show gave Bengal aglimmer of hope even asMadhya Pradesh firmly heldthe upper-hand on the penul-timate day of the Ranji Trophysemi-final here on Friday.

On a difficult fourth daypitch, the India A batter lookedflawless and milked the field atease, slamming six fours in his104-ball knock as Bengal wereprecariously placed at 96 for 4,needing another 254 runs toreach the stiff winning targetof 350.

Madhya Pradesh, on theother hand, need six wickets inpursuit of their first Ranjifinal after 23 years as thematch is headed for a thrillingfinal day finish here onSaturday.

Mumbai Indians' left-armspinner Kumar Kartikeya didthe maximum damage forMadhya Pradesh.

He held on to his end,

bowling 19 overs non-stop toend the day with figures of3/35 to jump to joint-secondin the top wicket-takers' listthis season with Jharkhand'sShabaz Nadeem (25).

Mumbai left-arm spinnerShams Mulani leads the listwith 37 wickets.

Giving Abhimanyu com-pany at the other end was theold warhorse AnustupMajumdar, unbeaten on 8from 25 balls after he wasdropped down to No 6 in atactical move.

Bengal also have a capablebatter in Shahbaz waiting inthe dressing room but it wouldbe an onerous task on a fifthday pitch as the odd ball hasstarted staying low and somedeliveries turning square.

Sloppy umpiring and lackof DRS in Ranji Trophy also letdown Bengal as they lost thewicket of an in-form SudipGharami (19) given lbw byumpire Ravikant Reddy whofailed to notice the ball hittinghis glove to a Saransh Jaindelivery which was also out of

the line.Abhishek Raman contin-

ued his forgettable outing thisseason, getting out for a secondsuccessive duck — this time offthe first ball — as Bengal gotoff to a jittery start in their stiffchase of 350.

Abhimanyu at the otherend looked at ease and battedwith positive intent withGharami before his partnerdeparted in the 12th over.

Bengal however had luckin their favour also andAbhimanyu survived on 31when a Kartikeya deliverykissed his off stump but it wasnot enough to dislodge thebail. Wicketkeeper-batterAbhishek Porel (7) was pro-moted to No 4 but he failed tomake use of the opportunity ashe was done in by one thatturned in sharply. First inningscenturion Tiwary got areprieve on six but he alsocould not make use of it andin his desperation to get goingcame down the track but failedto get proper elevation offKartikeya's bowling.

���■ 5*��E���

England broke its own recordfor the highest-ever score in

the history of one-day interna-tional cricket by making 498-4against the Netherlands onFriday.

The total surpassed the 481-6 made by England againstAustralia at Trent Bridge in June2018.

Jos Buttler, Dawid Malan andPhil Salt all hit centuries in Amstelveen,outside Amsterdam.

Buttler reached three figures in 47 ballsfor the second-fastest hundred for England.His crowd-pleasing knock of 162 not out con-tained 14 of the team's 26 sixes.

Buttler now has the three quickest ODI cen-turies for the national team - off 46 balls, 47 ballsand 50 balls.

Salt made 122 off 93 balls and Malan 125 off

109 balls, while LiamLivingstone weighed inwith a 22-ball 66 not out.

The Netherlands -playing an ODI against

England for the firsttime outside a CricketWorld Cup - hadonly a few momentsto savor amid a bar-rage of big-hitting

from the tourists, which led toa number of balls being lost

outside the stadium.Shane Snater bowled

his cousin, Jason Roy, toleave England 1-1 and

Pieter Seelaar took twowickets off succes-sive balls - includingcaptain EoinMorgan for a goldenduck.

���■ < ���A���

Skipper Dasun Shanaka onThursday said Chamika

Karunaratne remains a trustedperformer for Sri Lanka after thefast bowler helped stun Australiaby 26 runs in a rain-hit secondODI.

Chasing a rain-revised tar-get of 216 in 43 overs, Australiasuffered from regular wicket fallsto get bowled out for 189 in 37.1overs as Sri Lanka bouncedback from their opening loss inthe five-match series in Pallekele.

Karunaratne returned fig-ures of 3-47 including SteveSmith, for 28, and GlennMaxwell, for 30, and was ablysupported by fellow quickDushmantha Chameera whogot the final batsman to bringthe raucous home crowd to itsfeet. Spinners Dhananjaya deSilva, Dunith Wellalage andChameera took two wicketseach.

"We were a few runs short.But when we went onto the field,I had a feeling and the trust thatour bowlers would defend," said

Shanaka.On man of the match

Karunaratne, he said, "Chamikais a born warrior. He deliverswhenever I throw the ball tohim."

De Silva also scored 34 withthe bat and put on 61 runs forthe third wicket with KusalMendis, who made 36, to guideSri Lanka to 220 for nine whenrain forced play to stop and lateend the innings.

Pat Cummins returned fig-ures of 4-35 but his effort wentin vain. Australia lost theiropeners Aaron Finch, on 14, andDavid Warner, on 37, to De Silvaas the tourists faltered in theirtricky chase on a seeminglytough pitch to bat.

Smith and Travis Headattempted to rebuild the innings

and put together 31 runs beforeKarunaratne broke through.

Karunaratne got Smith for28 and Wellalage's two wicketsof Head (23) and MarnusLabuchagne (18) in his two

overs put the Aussies in troubleat 132-5.

Maxwell hit back to unset-tle the bowlers in his brief stayat the wicket but finally mist-imed a shot to get caught at

cover off Karunaratne. He made30 off 25 balls.

Wicketkeeper-batsmanAlex Carey was run out for 15as wheels came off theAustralian chase.

"The guys got starts and did-n't convert and that was the dif-ference. It was unfortunate,"said Finch, whose team chaseddown 282 in the opener.

"Chasing in these conditionswhere the wicket is slow andspinning is something we needto keep improving on. It is a partof the game we could be betterat."

Cummins rattles Sri LankaEarlier Australia's bowlers

backed up their captain's call tofield first, as they removed theopeners inside 10 overs and SriLanka suffered from a lack of

partnerships.Debutant left-arm spinner

Matthew Kuhnemann struckin his third over of internation-al cricket to send back PathumNissanka, who was caughtbehind for 14.

Kuhnemann returned fig-ures of 2-48 and took two catch-es.

Cummins, Australia's Testcaptain who returned to the sideafter recovering from an injuryat the start of the series, got theleft-handed DanushkaGunathilaka caught in the deepfor 18.

Wicketkeeper-batsmanMendis and de Silva attemptedto rebuild with a stand that wasbroken by Cummins.

Cummins took down DeSilva and Mendis fell toMaxwell's caught and bowledeffort. Maxwell took one wick-et with his off-spin to rattle theopposition middle order.

Wickets kept falling despiteShanaka's attacking cameo of 34,which ended with a mishit topoint off leg-spinner MitchellSwepson.

���■ �*D�

Kraigg Brathwaite's pon-derous progress towards

an 11th Test century put theWest Indies in control at 159for three in reply toBangladesh's paltry f irstinnings total of 103 at lunch onthe second day of the first Teston Friday.

Resuming on 42 with histeam at 95 for two after thebowlers' demolition job onthe opening day, the WestIndies captain continued withhis calm but snail pace mannerin getting to 75 at the interval.

He has already faced 239deliveries, stroking eight fours,in more than five hours at thecrease from the start of theinnings when he opened thebatting in partnership withJohn Campbell.

Campbell absorbed 72deliveries before being dis-missed for 24 late on day onewhile Jermaine Blackwood,the vice-captain, resumes afterlunch in partnership withBrathwaite with nine runs tohis name off 43 deliveries.

Bangladesh's lone successon the second morning wasnevertheless fully deserved asNkrumah Bonner lived acharmed life until beingbowled off the inside-edge for33 by Bangladesh captainShakib Al Hasan.

Having started the morn-

ing alongside Brathwaite,Bonner never looked comfort-able against the seam bowlersand could have departed muchearlier but for two moments ofoutrageous good fortune.

He should have been givenout caught behind off EbadotHossain except that the play-ers' appeal lacked convictionwhile Shakib opted not toreview the decision, only fortelevision replays to confirmthat Bonner did indeed edgethe ball into the gloves of wick-etkeeper Nurul Hasan.

There was more frustra-tion for Bangladesh whenKhaled Ahmed replacedEbadot and took a healthyedge off Bonner's bat.

However the bowler couldonly look on in dismay as theball flew past the left shoulderof an unresponsive NajmulHossain at first slip.

By the time he was even-tually removed, the third-wicket partnership withBrathwaite was worth 62 runs.

Earlier on Thursday,Bangladesh's well-establishedvulnerability to fast bowlingwas in evidence again with thevisitors crashing to 103 all outoff fewer than 33 overs afterbeing put in to bat.

Jayden Seales and AlzarriJoseph were the most success-ful West Indies bowlers withidentical figures of three for33.

� ��■ C 9AB*

Dinesh Karthik played aknock to rememberbefore Avesh Khan

gave his dad a "perfect birth-day present" with a fiery spellas India steam-rolled SouthAfrica by 82 runs here onFriday to level the five-matchseries 2-2.

Karthik (55 off 27) scoredhis maiden fifty close to 16years after his T20 debut andalongside vice-captain HardikPandya (46 off 31 ) took Indiato a fighting 169 for six.

For the second game in arow, South African battersfaltered and collapsed to 87 fornine in 16.5 overs with skip-per Temba Bavuma retiredhurt. Avesh (4/18) led India'sbrilliant display with the balland recorded his career-bestfigures in the process. It wasan away team's lowest total inT20 Internationals in India.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar andAvesh were impressive withthe new ball as South Africaslipped to 35 for two in thepowerplay. After a hit on theshoulder, Temba Bavuma (8)injured his left elbow with adive on the run and had toleave the field. He didn't evencome out for the post-match

presentation ceremony.Quinton de Kock (14),

who missed the last two gamesdue to a wrist injury, was runout after getting a 'yes and no'from Dwaine Pretorious at thethe other end.

The pitch remained trickyto bat on even in the secondinnings with the odd ballgripping and rising sharplyfrom good length, makingstrokeplay difficult.

South Africa could neverget into the chase with wick-ets falling regularly.

The series decider will beplayed in Bengaluru onSunday.

Earlier, the Indians werestruggling at 81 for four beforea 65-run stand betweenHardik and Karthik broughtthe home team back into thegame.

India were able to amass73 runs in the last five overs.

Having won their fourthtoss in as many games, SouthAfrica put the Indians on theback-foot in the powerplaydespite the absence of theirlead bowler Kagiso Rabadadue to an injury.

The other pacer, whomissed due to an injury wasWayne Parnell while staropener Quinton de Kock

made a welcome return at theexpense of Reeza Hendricks.

The first ball after the

powerplay made mattersworse for India as the hostsstruggled to 40 for three in 6.1

overs.Ishan Kishan, who played

some fine strokes en route to

his 27 off 26, was dismissed onthe ver y bal l of AnrichNortje's opening spell.

The southpaw tried toguide a short ball to third manbut got himself in an awkwardposition to top edge it to deKock.

India's top three has notlooked comfortable againsthigh quality pace in the seriesand it was evident here onceagain.

Ruturaj Gaikwad, whohad found form in the previ-ous game, was the first one todepart after the extra bouncefrom Lungi Ngidi inducedthe outside edge.

Iyer, who has been trou-bled by the short ball in thisseries, missed a good lengthball from Marco Jansen thatpitched on middle andseamed back a little.

The Proteas had to take aDRS review for a LBW to sendIyer back in the hut, givingJansen his first wicket on hisT20 debut.

Post the powerplay, skip-per Rishabh Pant and Hardik,gave the innings a move onwith a 41-run stand.

Indian batters have target-ed South Africa's weak link,the spinners, throughout theseries and that trend contin-ued on Friday.

Hardik hammered TabraizShamsi for successive sixes

while a struggling RishabhPant was trying to find hisrange at the other end.

However, the India skip-per once again went for thebig one against a wide ball andthat led to his downfall. Onthis occasion, Maharaj pur-posely bowled wide and Panttook the bait only to edge itback to short third man.

It was the fourth time inthe series Pant perished to aball wide of off stump.

The momentum changingstand came via Hardik andKarthik who swept his way toa memorable knock.

Having made his T20debut back in December 2006when India played their maid-en game in the shortest for-mat, the man of comebacksfinally completed his first halfcentury.

Standing deep in thecrease, Karthik relied on thesweeps -- conventionaltowards square-leg, slogs overcow corner and reverse over'45' both against spinners andpacers, to get the bulk of hisboundaries.

The most attractive strokeof his innings was the slogsweep off pacer DwainePretorius that sailed over deepsquare leg.

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Tottenham announced the signing on Friday of midfielderYves Bissouma from Brighton for a reported fee of £25 mil-

lion ($30 million), giving manager Antonio his third signingof the transfer window.

The highly rated Mali international shone as Brightonachieved their best-ever Premier League finish of ninth lastseason.

Bissouma has signed a four-year deal and will join newarrivals Ivan Perisic and Fraser Forster at the London club.

"The transfer is a very good one for the club and player,"said Brighton manager Graham Potter.

"Yves has shown his undoubted ability and been an impor-tant player for us during his time with us.

"Now he has a new challenge with Tottenham, includingthe opportunity to play Champions League football, and every-one at the club wishes him well."

���� ��������� ���������RB Leipzig on Friday signed Austria central midfielder

Xaver Schlager from Bundesliga rivals VfL Wolfsburg afteractioning an release clause in his contract.

According to reports, Leipzig will pay around 12 millioneuros ($12.5 million) for the 24-year-old, who has signed a con-tract until 2026.

"RB Leipzig are one of Germany's top teams and are con-sistently in Europe, they have now won their first major titlewith the German Cup," said Schlager in a statement.

"I'm really pleased I can continue my development here."The Austrian made 81 appearances, scoring three goals,

for Wolfsburg, who he joined in 2019 from Leipzig's sister clubRed Bull Salzburg.

���■ < �

Spanish tennis legend RafaelNadal said on Friday he

intends to play at Wimbledonbut his final decision rests onhow his troublesome left footfeels after training in Londonnext week.

"My intention is to play atWimbledon," Nadal said at apress conference in Mallorca.

"The treatment and thelast week of training tells methere is a chance. I will travelto London on Monday, play anexhibition at Hurlingham anddo a week of training to see ifit's possible."

Nadal said injectionsmeant his left foot felt "asleep"during the French Open finalon June 5 -- he still beat CasperRuud to claim a record-extend-ing 22nd Grand Slam title.

Nadal travelled toBarcelona last week to begin"pulsed radiofrequency stimu-lation", a treatment aimed at

reducing nerve pain.Nadal's spokesperson said

the treatment would leave thenerves in his foot "temporari-ly numb".

The 36-year-old then hadhis first session on grass onMonday at the MallorcaCountry Club in Santa Poncaand has steadily increased the

intensity of his training thisweek.

"I have noticed a difference,some slightly strange feelings tobe honest," said Nadal.

"With the treatment in thenerves, things happen in yourfoot, sometimes one part of thefoot goes numb, sometimesanother.

"It's normal apparently andafter a few weeks the nervesreorganise themselves.

"I'm happy. I've felt a bit ofpain, but it's different to whatI had before, which for me isprogress."

Nadal has won Wimbledontwice in his career, in 2008 and2010.

He missed last year's tour-nament due to pain in the sameleft foot while the 2020 tourna-ment was cancelled due to thepandemic, meaning Nadal ishoping to make his firstappearance at the All EnglandClub in three years.

"I will travel to London,play two matches there beforethe tournament and follow mynormal schedule to prepare forWimbledon," Nadal said.

"Who knows what canhappen in a couple of days —if the situation changes orsomething more negative (hap-pens), there will be a momentto explain.

���■ 9 A C*

India's HS Prannoy contin-ued his impressive run ashe sailed into the semi-

finals of the Indonesia OpenSuper 1000 badminton tour-nament with a straight-gamewin over world number 13Rasmus Gemke of Denmarkhere on Friday.

A little over a month afterhis heroic win over Gemke inthe decisive fifth rubberagainst Denmark whichensured India's entry into theThomas Cup final, Prannoyproduced yet another finely-crafted performance to outwitthe Danish world number 1321-14, 21-12 in a 40-minutequarterfinal clash.

It is the second semifinalappearance for world number23 Prannoy at the Indonesiaevent.

He had reached the lastfour in the 2017 edition dur-ing which he had stunned for-mer Olympic Gold medallistChen Long and Malaysiangreat Lee Chong Wei on wayto the semifinals.

Prannoy, who had reachedthe Swiss Open Super 300final in March, will next faceChina's Zhao Jun Peng.

Coming into the matchwith a 2-2 head-to-headcount, Prannoy didn't put afoot wrong as he played someangled cross court shots andreverse slices to good effect tokeep a firm grip on the match.

The match saw short ral-lies with Gemke bothered bya knee issue. Prannoy waitedfor his opponent to make

mistakes and unleashed hisattacking returns wheneverthere was an opportunity.

The result was Prannoygalloped to a 5-0 lead beforeentering the break with a 11-7 cushion. He kept thingsunder check to led the firstgame all throughout.

In the end, a service faulthanded the Indian six game

point opportunity and hesealed it with a smash on hisrival's forehand corner.

The first half of the sec-ond game was a roller-coast-er ride as Gemke produced asuperb fightback. He startedmoving well and clawed backat 6-6 with a smash after lag-ging 3-6 initially.

Prannoy kept the pressureon his opponent but Gemkeagain drew parity at 9-9 witha prompt net shot but theIndian ensured a two-pointcushion at the interval.

Prannoy continued todominate the rallies after thebreak as his precise returns onhis rival's forehand and back-hand earned him points. Asimilar shot took the Indian toeight match points and heconverted it with Gemke'sreturn hitting the net.

���■ ����4BCA

Mexico City's iconic AztecaStadium and the Los

Angeles Rams' multi-billion-dollar SoFi Stadium wereamong 16 venues named onThursday to stage games at the2026 World Cup being held inthe United States, Canada andMexico.

At a televised announce-ment in New York, officialsconfirmed 11 US cities as hostvenues, along with three venuesin Mexico and two in Canadafor what will be the first ever 48-team World Cup.

The United States venuesare all stadiums used by NFL

teams, and include the NewYork Giants' MetLife Stadiumand the Los Angeles Rams' $5billion SoFi Stadium, whichhosted this year's Super Bowl.

Both venues are seen ascontenders to host the 2026final.

The 2026 tournamentmarks the first time three coun-tries have hosted a World Cup,with the bulk of the games tak-ing place in the United States.

Mexico will be hosting thefinals for a third time after serv-ing as solo hosts in 1970 and1986.

Mexico City's AztecaStadium, named on Thursdayas one of the venues, will be the

first stadium to feature in threeseparate World Cups.

Other Mexican venuesinclude Guadalajara's EstadioAkron and Monterrey's EstadioBBVA.

Canada's venue citiesinclude Vancouver's BC Placeand Toronto's BMO Field.

The list of US venuesstretch from coast to coast, fea-turing several cities that host-ed games in the 1994 WorldCup finals.

Other venues include theDallas Cowboys giant AT&TStadium in Arlington and theMiami Dolphins' Hard RockStadium.

The Kansas City Chiefs'

Arrowhead Stadium — theloudest stadium in the worldaccording to the GuinnessBook of World Records —also made the cut.

NFL venues in Seattle, SanFrancisco, Atlanta, Houston,Boston and Philadelphia werealso on the list.

However the venue for the1994 World Cup final — theiconic Pasadena Rose Bowl insuburban Los Angeles — wasnot included.

The identity of the citiesthat will host the opening gameand 2026 final were not dis-closed on Thursday.

FIFA President GianniInfantino said in an interview

on Fox Television following thevenue announcement that deci-sions on the opening game andfinal would be taken at a laterdate.

"We will take our timewith that decision," Infantinosaid.

"There are still some dis-cussions to go on and we'll cer-tainly choose the best cities forthe openings and the finals.

"But every match will be afinal at this World Cup."

While all three host coun-tries will share games from thegroup stage through to thelast 16, the United States willhost all games from the quar-ter-finals onwards.

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Top seed Viktor Axelsenadvanced to the semi-final

of the Indonesia Open afterbeating Indonesia's AnthonySinisuka Ginting in a thrillingmatch held at the IstoraSenayan sporting arena inJakarta on Friday.

The badminton worldnumber one overcame a faststart from Ginting to claim thefirst game 21-13.

Cheered on by the homecrowd, Ginting stormed backto clinch the second game 21-19 to force a decider.

But the Tokyo Olympicchampion dominated the third

game, winning 21-9 to securea place in the semis.

Axelsen said handling thepressure from Ginting andthe home crowd was key to hiswin.

"I really tried to focus onmy game today and tried toplay the right game," saidAxelsen after the match.

"Ginting was playing welltoday. He's (playing) on homesoil so he had the whole sta-dium with him but it was agreat experience for me."

In the semis, Axelsen will

face Malaysia's rising star LeeZii Jia, who beat Singapore'sLoh Kean Yew 21-18, 16-21,22-20.

In the women's singles,world number two Tai TzuYing breezed through to thesemi-finals after beatingDenmark's Line HojmarkKjaersfeldt.

The Taiwanese's ace sealedher place in the top four afteroutplaying Kjaersfeldt 21-13,21-13 to set up a match againstTokyo Olympic championChen Yu Fei.

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Teenager Coco Gauffreached her first WTA

grass-court semi-final afterposting a straight sets winover former world number oneKarolina Pliskova in Berlin onFriday.

The 18-year-oldAmerican, who reached herfirst Grand Slam final at theFrench Open earlier thismonth, sealed a 7-5, 6-4 winover fourth seed Pliskova.

"It took me a while to findmy rhythm, the forehand sliceisn't something I use a lot, butI did today," said Gauff.

"Her shots were pretty lowon the grass and sometimes itwas enough to change thedirection of the point."

In Saturday's semi-finals,Gauff faces top seed OnsJabeur or Aliaksandra

Sasnovich.Second seed Maria

Sakkari also reached her firstgrass-court semi-final afterbrushing past Daria Kasatkinafor a 6-0, 6-3 victory in just 72minutes.

Sakkari will face BelindaBencic after the Swiss Olympicchampion rallied to beatVeronika Kudermetova 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 in their hard-fought tie,which lasted just over twohours.

���■ #C �A#�C*

Bayern Munich will start itsbid for a record 11th con-

secutive Bundesliga title with apotentially tricky game away atEuropa League winnerEintracht Frankfurt.

Frankfurt has won two ofits last three games againstBayern ahead of their meetingAugust 5, which will kick offthe Bundesliga's 60th anniver-sary season.

The league's 2022-23schedule, released on Friday,has last season's second-placeteam Borussia Dortmundopening against BayerLeverkusen on either August 6or 7. Of the promoted teams,Schalke visits Cologne andWerder Bremen starts away atWolfsburg.

There will be more thantwo months with no games in

the middle of the seasonbecause of the World Cup inQatar. The Bundesliga willinstead start its winter breakNovember 13 and returnJanuary 20.

���������'�� Defending champion Paris

Saint-Germain begins its bidfor a record 11th French leaguetitle at modest Clermont in aseason where games will beplayed on New Year's Day.

The opening round is overAugust 5-7 and the league willhave games on January 1 and2 for the first time because ofa break for the World Cup inQatar.

There will be a six-weekhiatus; the winter break start-ing on November 14 andresuming on December 28with a midweek round.

PSG shares the record fortitles with 10-time championsMarseille and Saint-Etienne,which was relegated last seasonalong with six-time winnerBordeaux.

Clermont finished in 17thplace last season to avoid rele-gation.

PSG could have a newcoach when the league begins,with Mauricio Pochettino tout-ed to be replaced.

Marseille was runner-uplast season to qualify automat-ically for the ChampionsLeague, and starts the season athome to Reims.

Monaco, which finishedthird to enter the ChampionsLeague qualifying rounds, hasa tough match at Alsace-basedStrasbourg.

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Their eyes firmly set on apodium finish in the

upcoming CommonwealthGames, India would look toutilise their final 2021-2022FIH Pro League tie against theNetherlands, starting here onSaturday, to address the greyareas.

In their previous tie againstTokyo Olympic championsBelgium in Antwerp last week,India won the first match 5-4(3-3) in shoot-out before losing2-3 to slid to the third positionin the Pro League standingswith 29 points from 14 games.

Belgium moved to the topwith 31 points from 14 games-- on par with Netherlands --

who have played 12 matches.Still in with an outside

chance of finishing at the topof the standings, the Indianmen would be hoping to signoff their campaign on a highagainst the mightyNetherlands.

But it is easier said thandone as world No. 3 and reign-ing World Cup runners-up,the Netherlands are a formida-ble outfit and are expected togive the Indians a tough time

in the double-leg tie.Playing against such world-

class opponents in Europeanconditions can only benefitthe Indians as they prepare forthe Birmingham CWG, to beheld from July 28 to August 8.

These matches are provid-ing valuable insights to theIndian team's think tank onwhere it stands currently andwhat more needs to be done tofinish on the podium inBirmingham.

Against world No.1Belgium, the Amit Rohidas-ledIndian team showed tremen-dous fighting spirit in both thematches, and the visitors wouldlook to continue in the samevein against the Netherlands.

India's vice-captain andace drag-flicker HarmanpreetSingh believed that the twooverseas ties against Belgiumand Netherlands will hold theside in good stead in theBirmingham Games.

"Playing back-to-backmatches in Pro League hasbenefited us a lot. In ProLeague you are playing againstthe 12 best teams in the world.After every match the thinkingchanges, the strategy changesand it is helping us a lot.

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Pioneer Stereo Catalog 1980 - WordPress.com

Pioneer Stereo Catalog 1980 - WordPress.com

PIONEER CONVENT SR. SEC. SCHOOL

PIONEER CONVENT SR. SEC. SCHOOL

2021-unclaimed-final.pdf - Pioneer Electric

2021-unclaimed-final.pdf - Pioneer Electric

Budget session to start on March 7 - Daily Pioneer

Budget session to start on March 7 - Daily Pioneer

Persevere. Pioneer. Prosper. - DevelopmentAid

Persevere. Pioneer. Prosper. - DevelopmentAid

Biology Exemplar Problems - Pioneer Mathematics

Biology Exemplar Problems - Pioneer Mathematics

Water Heater Unit Installation Instructions Citroen C6 2.2 l HDI

Water Heater Unit Installation Instructions Citroen C6 2.2 l HDI