A BILLION DREAMS - First India

Forest dept exam candidate detained with sheet of answers

First India Bureau

Ahmedabad: A candi-date was detained from a centre in Mehsana dis-trict for allegedly pos-sessing a sheet with an-swers to questions asked in the forest guard re-cruitment exam con-ducted on Sunday.

The examination was conducted by Gujarat University on behalf of the state forest depart-ment between 12 noon and 2 pm.

State education min-ister Jitu Vaghani said an investigation was be-ing conducted to ascer-tain whether it was a

case of paper leak, while maintaining it was more of a copying incident.

The opposition Con-gress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) called it “a failure of the Gujarat government and a well-organized conspiracy.”

The AAP said its youth wing will hand over a memorandum to the collectors of all 33 districts demanding proper and thorough in-vestigation and strict action against those re-sponsible.

Vaghani said that

making it look like a paper leak without proper investigation is

“an organized effort to defame the government and mislead the state’s

youth”.“The Gujarat govern-

ment is always prepared to take swift action against paper leak cas-es. The government is taking all efforts to en-sure competitive exams are conducted with au-thenticity,” he told me-dia persons.

“Corruption in gov-ernment recruitment is closely connected to the ruling BJP. The pa-per leak cases are a part of well-organized conspiracy,” said Con-gress Spokesperson

Manish Doshi.An official release

said a candidate went out for a toilet break be-tween 1.45 pm and 1.50 pm, and when he re-turned and was searched, the invigilator found in his possession a paper with all the an-swers keyed into it.

This comes within a few months after a ques-tion paper of an exam for the recruitment of government head clerks got leaked in December, leading to the arrest of several people.

Candidates of police sub-inspector exam conducted in A'bad earlier this month. —FILE PHOTO

EXAMINATION TROUBLE

AAP, Congress slam BJP govt for failing to crackdown on paper leaks, term it “well-organized conspiracy”

PERSPECTIVEJAIPUR | MONDAY, MARCH 28, 2022

04

www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia I facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia

t was decided on the day of

his oath as Prime Minister

that Narendra Modi will

not only win the hearts of

every Indian but also rule

the world. With his mantra

of Neighbours First as

Foreign Policy, he extend-

ed a friendly approach to-

wards the neighbouring

countries. The presence of

the Heads of nations from

neighbouring countries

vindicated his open arms

policy for the world.

The people across the

globe too reciprocated in the

same manner to the Prime

Minister who had taken off

to win global friends. This

was visible first on June 16,

2014 when Narendra Modi

landed at Paro airport in the

neighbouring Bhutan. He

mingled well with general

public of Bhutan on his way

to Thimpu.

“I saw for the first time

that Indian Prime Minis-

ter is making halts to meet

and interact with common

people on foreign soil.

Likewise, when he went to

Kathmandu then thou-

sands of people thronged

the road to get a glimpse of

Narendra Modi, who

stopped and met people

putting security personnel

in a tizzy. I was also pre-

sent when the Prime Min-

ister went to Sri Lanka for

the first time. In 28 years

no Indian Prime Minister

had visited Sri Lanka…

that too Jaffna…where

ever there is a problem, the

fearless take up the chal-

lenge…this was a unique

example of leadership,”

remembered Syed Akba-

ruddin, a former diplomat.

In the same sequence an

unprecedented incident

took place on December 25,

2015. The entire world was

taken by surprise when

Modi, while on his return

journey from Russia

through Afghanistan land-

ed at Lahore airport with-

out any prior schedule. It

was an extreme risk taken

by an Indian Prime Minis-

ter to mend diplomatic re-

lations with arch-rival Pa-

kistan. From the airport,

Modi boarded a helicopter

of Pakistan army and went

straight to the residence of

then Prime Minister of Pa-

kistan Nawaz Sharif to

greet him on his birthday.

But such pleasantries

didn’t change the stand of

Pakistan, which back-

stabbed and masterminded

the Pulwama attacks. Modi

gave strong reply to Paki-

stan through surgical air

strikes…but these military

actions could have cost

dearly to world’s diplomat-

ic and military ecosystem.

“Pakistan always said

that if there would be any

attack on us we will retali-

ate with nuclear weapons.

We have not manufactured

nuclear weapons to keep

them in museums…we will

surely use them. But Modi

put an end to Pakistan’s

nuclear blackmail at one

go. Now Pakistan leader-

ship has stopped saying

that they have nuclear

weapons,” said Ashok Saj-

janhar, a former diplomat.

Modi had taken the deci-

sion of strikes after great

understanding. “It was well

within the limits of inter-

national law. Neither Secu-

rity council nor the United

Nations raised voice

against the strikes…It was

a successful diplomatic re-

sponse, “ Akbaruddin cited.

The way Prime Minister

Modi showed a blow hot

and blow cold diplomacy to

Pakistan, relations with

China turned out to be a

mixed bag. Modi hosted

Chinese President XI Jin-

ping at his home state Gu-

jarat in order to bring reso-

lution to the long-standing

border dispute. But China

didn’t reciprocate the

warm behaviour and tried

out the patience of India

on the border areas of

Doklam and Ladakh. The

Sino army escalated ten-

sion on border and tried to

capture areas over the In-

dian side. But Indian army

failed all its efforts under

the dynamic leadership of

Narendra Modi.

Modi has been handling

the diplomatic relations

with superpowers USA and

Russia with the same dex-

terity which he had shown

while tackling challenges

with neighbouring coun-

tries. While he cemented

the old ties with Russia, he

wrote a new chapter of

friendship with US.

Modi went for the first

time to US on an official trip

in September 2014. US Pres-

ident Barack Obama hosted

a grand reception for him at

the historical White House.

It is a case study for foreign

policy experts and strate-

gists as to how Modi man-

ages to maintain a delicate

balance between two oppo-

site camps - US and Russia

simultaneously.

“First of all, he doesn’t

have double standards. He

speaks the same at all the

places. So, it’s easy to man-

age any contradiction.

Whatever he talks, he

speaks in national interest

and people understand him.

He believes in straight talk,”

said S Jaishankar, minister

of external affairs.

Modi has also been suc-

cessful in protecting In-

dia’s interest with western

countries. He explores new

friendship opportunities

with Israel and takes rela-

tionship with Arab coun-

tries to a new height in the

same breath. Critics of

Modi are astonished with

the fact the Modi has re-

ceived the highest civilian

awards of several Muslim

countries. Apart from that,

he has been successful in

strengthening the strategic

business ties with them,

“Entering into a strategic

partnership with a country

where no Prime Minister

has visited in the last 30-40

years is a grand achieve-

ment. There have not only

been talks of security, en-

ergy and investment with

that country but also re-

sults have been shown on

ground. Then, giving away

such awards is just an ex-

tension to the impression

which you have created on

these countries,” said S

Jaishankar.

Modi has not only been

successful in getting into

bipartite partnership with

countries for strong mili-

tary and business ties but

has also taken lead in rais-

ing important issues like

climate change, interna-

tional global alliance and

reducing carbon footprints

at international forums.

Modi has led from the

front at several platforms

towards global resolution

of these issues. This is the

dawn of new India, which

is on its path of progress

and prosperity unchal-

lenged. To be continued...

PAKISTAN ALWAYS SAID

THAT IF THERE WOULD

BE ANY ATTACK ON US WE

WILL RETALIATE WITH

NUCLEAR WEAPONS.

WE HAVE NOT

MANUFACTURED

NUCLEAR WEAPONS TO

KEEP THEM IN

MUSEUMS…WE WILL

SURELY USE THEM.

BUT MODI PUT AN END TO

PAKISTAN’S NUCLEAR

BLACKMAIL AT ONE GO.

NOW PAKISTAN

LEADERSHIP HAS

STOPPED SAYING THAT

THEY HAVE NUCLEAR WEAPONS.

ASHOK SAJJANHAR,

A FORMER DIPLOMAT

ISHASHIKANT

SHARMAThe writer is Consulting

Editor, First India

oon after Narendra Modi

took over the reins of the

country, he went heavily

after corruption. Right

from tightening the noose

on shell companies to ini-

tiating legal action against

bank loan defaulters, Modi

lived up to and still does,

of his image of “Na Khata

Hun Na Khane Doonga”.

Narendra Modi always

knew the power of new

technology and its inter-

vention towards bringing

transparency in govern-

ance. He introduced tech-

nology and IT-led innova-

tions and initiatives to

make the governance effec-

tive and at the same time

ease the lives of people. He

launched Digital India Mis-

sion and the rest is history.

“Corruption-free gov-

ernance, transparency,

public partnership and

reaching out to people

standing last in the line…

Modi government has ful-

filled all four-five basic

rules of governance…This

also shows Modi ji’s lean-

ing towards new technol-

ogy and scientific temper-

ament. Every reform and

improvement show opti-

mum use of technology,”

union cabinet minister Dr

Jitendra Singh was quoted

as saying.

The Digital India Mis-

sion, which was launched

on July 1, 2015, expanded its

wings and utility with the

introduction of Apps and

digital platforms like

Umang, DG Locker, Bhim,

Rupay and UPI. The coun-

try, which used to rely com-

pletely on physical transac-

tions was ready to embrace

the technology-driven cash-

less transaction system.

The aim was to put a curb

on black money and enforce

transparency in the system,

which Modi had already

initiated through demoneti-

sation. He gave a new di-

mension to the Aadhar

Card scheme launched by

the predecessor UPA gov-

ernment and linked every

government-run schemes

with Aadhar for transfer-

ring benefits directly to the

beneficiaries eliminating

any intermediary.

“Earlier people couldn’t

open bank accounts due to

lack of KYC documents.

Aadhar provided identity to

such people and they start-

ed getting cash benefits and

other subsidies directly in

their bank accounts. Leak-

age was plugged,” said RS

Sharma, CEO of Aayush-

man Bharat Scheme.

The PM Modi also fo-

cused on education, health

and employment to serve

the interests of poor people.

He started new IIMs, IITs

and launched AIIMS in

various parts of the coun-

try. He also launched Skill

India Mission to hone the

skills of youth and make

them employment ready.

On November 7, 2015, Modi

fulfilled one of his impor-

tant poll promises… he re-

alised the dreams of thou-

sands of ex-servicemen by

launching One rank One

pension … a long pending

demand which had not

been fulfilled since 40 years.

It was a tribute to the

Armed forces from a person

who used to dream to join

the Army for serving the

country. Apart from that,

Modi also resolved prob-

lems of Armed forces

which had been hanging on

fire for long. Right from the

slow pace of modernisation

to shortage of modern sub-

marines and fighter planes,

the country was facing

acute shortage of weapons.

“He gave us more than

whatever we had demand-

ed. Now you see we are the

best centre in the world …

centre of excellence…

which are manufactur-

ing everything includ-

ing weapons,” said

Harivansh Narayan

Singh, deputy chair-

man of RS. While

resolving problems

and difficulties of

Armed forces,

Modi celebrated

the festival of Di-

wali with sol-

diers at the fron-

tiers … some-

times in Pun-

jab, some-

times in

Kashmir or

R a j a s t h a n

and some-

times in

Ladakh. The

solider in Modi saluted the

high spirit of Indian Army

deployed in difficult ter-

rains to protect the country.

On September 18, 2016,

in the wee hours of the

morning at 5.30 am, an un-

fortunate incident hap-

pened at Uri when Paki-

stan-sponsored terrorists

carried an ambush against

Indian soldiers, who were

caught sleeping in their

camps. In that operation, 18

Indian soldiers laid down

their lives before killing

the terrorists. That en-

raged the entire nation and

people called for revenge.

Moved by the public senti-

ments PM Modi announced

- “Let the terrorists hear it

out… the country is not go-

ing to forget this ghastly

act.” And within 15 days on

September 29, 2016 the In-

dian army avenged the Uri

attack. “The Indian Army con-

ducted surgical strike last

night at the launch pads, “

Lt General Ranveer Singh,

DGMO, IA declared.

In that operation, the

army conducted sur-

gical strikes in the

P a k - o c c u p i e d

Kashmir and de-

stroyed terror

launch pads kill-

ing a large num-

ber of terrorists.

That was a big

demonstration

of PM Modi’s

courage and

risk-taking abil-

ity. His deci-

sion was

hailed by eve-

ryone in the

country as

Modi defied

the nuclear

threat posed

by Pakistan.

The confi-

dent Modi

then conquered another

front. This time he an-

nounced to roll out GST in

the country, marking the

entry of long awaited One

Nation One Tax system.

This was the biggest re-

form in the field of taxa-

tion in Independent India.

And Modi made it histori-

cal by announcing it at the

stroke of 12 midnight in

the intervening night of

June 30 and July 1, 2017

from the central hall of the

parliament.

Modi never held him-

self back from rolling out

big decisions and mega

reforms. He didn’t shy

away from getting the law

of Triple Talaq passed in

the parliament on Septem-

ber 19, 2018 which brought

great relief in the lives of

Muslim women.

Modi didn’t stop there.

He went on to launch sev-

eral public-friendly

schemes and programmes

including Namami Gange,

Jan Aushadhi Yojana,

Mudra Yojana, Start-up In-

dia and Make in India

among others. Apart from

that he also focused special-

ly on the development of

northeastern states. Under

Look East policy, he set up a

separate ministry DoNER

to develop infrastructure

and establish connectivity

of northeastern states with

rest of the country.

The country was on its

way to economic develop-

ment. Just then Pakistan

came into picture once

again. This time Pakistan

backed militants of JeM

conducted a ‘Fidayin’ at-

tack on the convoy of

CRPF killing 18 jawans in

Pulwama on February 14,

2019. After Uri, this was

the second occasion when

the entire country was

boiling with anger. And

Modi was no exception.

On February 26, 2019,

Indian Air force launched

airstrikes in Pakistan’s

Balakot region and de-

stroyed launch pads of ter-

rorists. A large number of

militants were killed and

spirit of terrorists damp-

ened completely after the

bold move of Modi.

2019 was the election

year and Modi was target-

ing a second term with

more than 300 seats. ‘Abki

baar 300 paar’ was the slo-

gan of BJP when it went

for polls in the biggest fes-

tival of democracy. On

May 23, 2019 when the

counting of votes ended,

BJP emerged a clear win-

ner with 303 seats while

the tally for its coalition

NDA went up to 353 seats.

The decisive majority em-

powered Modi even more,

who looked determined to

roll out bigger reforms and

take big decisions in public

interest at large.

On August 5, 2019, the

Parliament of India voted

in favour of a resolution

tabled by Home Minister

Amit Shah to revoke the

temporary special status,

or autonomy, granted un-

der Article 370 of the In-

dian Constitution to Jam-

mu and Kashmir - an agen-

da which was there in BJP

manifesto for long. With

this Modi also fulfilled his

17-year old promise which

he had made to people of

J&K during his Ekta Yatra.

Just after 3 months on

November 2019 five-judge

bench of Supreme Court

in its ruling ordered con-

struction of Ram Mandir

on the disputed land in

Ayodhya. The path for con-

struction of Mandir was

clear now. On August 5,

2020, Narendra Modi went

to Ayodhya for bhoomi pu-

jan of Ram Mandir. Modi

sent out a message and

clear to everyone - Modi

hai to Mumkin hai.

To be continued...

Corruption-free governance,

transparency, public

partnership and reaching out

to people standing last in the

line… Modi government has

fulfilled all four-five basic

rules of governance…This also

shows Modi ji’s leaning

towards new technology and

scientific temperament. Every

reform and improvement

show optimum use of

technology.

Dr Jitendra Singh,

Union cabinet minister

Earlier people couldn’t open

bank accounts due to lack of

KYC documents. Aadhar

provided identity to such

people and they started getting

cash benefits and other

subsidies directly in their bank

accounts. Leakage was plugged.

RS Sharma, CEO,

Aayushman Bharat Scheme

He gave us more than

whatever we had demanded.

Now you see we are the best

centre in the world … centre of

excellence… which are

manufacturing everything

including weapons.

Harivansh Narayan Singh,

deputy chairman, Rajya Sabha

DOWN THE MEMORY LANE … PART 9

NARENDRA MODI AS PRADHAN SEVAK… PM OF INDIA

Majority of 140 crore Indians now believe…

‘MODI HAI TO MUMKIN HAI’

SSHASHIKANT


Editor, First India

LET THE TERRORISTS HEAR

IT OUT… THE COUNTRY IS

NOT GOING TO FORGET

THIS GHASTLY ACT:

NARENDRA MODI

INDIAN ARMY’S SURGICAL STRIKE

“The Indian Army conducted surgical strike last

night at the launch pads, " Lt Gen Ranveer Singh,

DGMO, IA declared. In that operation, the Army

conducted surgical strikes in Pak-occupied Kash-

mir and destroyed terror launch pads killing a large

number of terrorists. That was a big demonstration

of PM Modi’s courage and risk-taking ability. His

decision was hailed by everyone in the country as

Modi defi ed the nuclear threat posed by Pakistan.

RAM TEMPLE'S CONSTRUCTION

Just after 3 months on November 2019

fi ve-judge bench of Supreme Court in its

ruling ordered construction of Ram Mandir

on the disputed land in Ayodhya. The path

for construction of Mandir was clear now. On

August 5, 2020, Narendra Modi went to Ayo-

dhya for bhoomi pujan of Ram Mandir. Modi

sent out a message and clear to everyone -

Modi hai to Mumkin hai.

YOU READ PART-8IN FIRST INDIA ON

MARCH 14, 2022

PRIME MINISTER NARENDRA MODI

PERSPECTIVEJAIPUR | TUESDAY, MARCH 22, 2022

04


Promoted by

APT Media Solutions Pvt. Ltd.

� Vol 3 � Issue No. 283 � RNI NO. RAJENG/2019/77764. Printed and published by Anita Hada Sangwan on behalf of First Express Publishers. Printed at Bhaskar Printing Press, D.B. Corp Limited, Shivdaspura, Tonk Road, Jaipur. Published

at 304, 3rd Floor, City Mall, Bhagwan Das Road, C-Scheme, Jaipur-302001, Rajasthan. Phone 0141-4920504. Editor-In-Chief: Jagdeesh Chandra. Editor: Anita Hada Sangwan responsible for selection of news under the PRB ActYOU READ PART-9IN FIRST INDIA ON

MARCH 22, 2022


Modi has not only been successful in

getting into bipartite partnership with

countries for strong military and business

ties but has also taken lead in raising

important issues like climate change,

international global alliance and reducing

carbon footprints at international forums.

Modi has led from the front at several

platforms towards global resolution of

these issues. This is the dawn of new

India, which is on its path of progress and

prosperity unchallenged

was also present when the Prime Minister went

to Sri Lanka for the fi rst time. In 28 years no

Indian Prime Minister had visited Sri Lanka…

that too Jaffna…where ever there is a problem,

the fearless take up the challenge…this was a unique

example of leadership,” remembered Syed Akbaruddin,

a former diplomat.

“I

MODI LANDED AT PARO

AIRPORT ON JUNE 16, 2014

he people across the globe too recipro-

cated in the same manner to the Prime

Minister who had taken off to win global

friends. This was visible fi rst on June 16,

2014 when Narendra Modi landed at Paro airport

in the neighbouring Bhutan. He mingled well with

general public of Bhutan on his way to Thimpu.

T

NARENDRA MODI BECAME 1st

INDIAN PM IN ALMOST 28

YEARS TO VISIT SRI LANKA

odi went for the fi rst time to US on an offi cial

trip in September 2014. US President Barack

Obama hosted a grand reception for him at the

historical White House. It is a case study for

foreign policy experts and strategists as to how Modi

manages to maintain a delicate balance between two

opposite camps - US and Russia simultaneously.

M

OBAMA HOSTED A GRAND

RECEPTION FOR MODI IN 2014


at 304, 3rd Floor, City Mall, Bhagwan Das Road, C-Scheme, Jaipur-302001, Rajasthan. Phone 0141-4920504. Editor-In-Chief: Jagdeesh Chandra. Editor: Anita Hada Sangwan responsible for selection of news under the PRB Act

Diplomacy Dil Se…Diplomacy Dil Se…Diplomacy Dil Se…

EMERGENCE OF A POWERFUL

GLOBAL LEADER!



P4 AHMEDABAD l MONDAY, MARCH 28, 2022 l Pages 12 l 3.00 RNI NO. GUJENG/2019/79050 l Vol 3 l Issue No. 121

OUR EDITIONS: JAIPUR, AHMEDABAD, LUCKNOW & NEW DELHI www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia I facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia

A two-day nationwide strike, starting Monday, has been called for by a joint forum of central trade unions to protest against central government policies. The All India Bank Employees Association has an-nounced its support to the strike.

TRADE UNIONS, BANKS ASSN CALL

FOR BHARAT BANDH TODAY, TOMORROW

INDIA TO BUILD NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS IN ‘FLEET MODE’ FROM YEAR STARTING 2023With fi rst pour of concrete for 700 MW atomic power plant in Karnataka in 2023, India to put in motion construction for 10 ‘fl eet mode’ nuclear reactors over next three years.

The Amarnath yatra to the holy cave shrine in south Kashmir Himalayas this year will start on June 30 and last 43 days. This was decided during a meeting of the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board (SASB) chaired by Jammu and Kashmir Lt Governor, Manoj Sinha.

AMARNATH YATRA TO BEGIN ON JUNE

30, TO LAST FOR 43 DAYS THIS YR

CBI names 22 in Bengal’s Birbhum massacre case

Kolkata (Agencies): The Central Bureau of Investigation has named 22 people as ac-cused in the Birbhum massacre, in which eight people were beat-en and burnt alive ear-lier this week, trigger-ing political furore. The list of accused is the same as that of the state police, sources said. The agency, however, has questioned the ruling Trinamool Congress’s block president Anarul Hossain, who, Chief Minister Mamata Ba-nerjee had promised, will be arrested.

Around 20 people have been arrested after six women and two chil-dren -- mostly of mem-bers of a single family -- were locked in their homes and burnt alive by a mob at the Bogtui village near Birbhum’s Rampurhat town earli-er this week.

The attack was retali-ation to the murder of a local TMC leader, Bhadu Sheikh, who died in bomb attack.

I t was a heartbreaking loss for the Indian Women’s Cricket

team as penultimate no ball in last over of the match against South Africa by Deepti Sharma turned the game on its head as instead of being a wicket, it was a free hit. Had it not been a no-ball, South Africa would have needed three of the last ball with eight wickets down. With two needed to two, Mignon du Preez took her team home on the last ball, thus, throwing India out of the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2022 in Christchurch.

Chittoor: At least seven people were killed in a bus accident on Satur-day night in Andhra Pradesh’s Chittoor.

As many as 45 people have also sustained in-juries in the accident.

According to the Tirupati Superinten-dent of Police (SP), the driver’s negligence is believed to be the cause of the accident.

“The accident hap-pened as the bus fell off the cliff due to driver’s negligence in Bakrape-ta, 25 kms away from Tirupati,” he said.

Trinamool’s local leader questioned

CM Mamata: Will protest if CBI follows BJP’s diktatsKolkata: West Ben-gal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday said there was a “conspiracy” behind the killing of eight people, includ-ing women and chil-dren, following a local TMC leader’s murder in Birbhum. She also said that the Trina-mool Congress will protest if the CBI “follows the diktats of the BJP” while con-ducting the probe.

A d d r e s s -ing an event at Bagdogra in n o r t h

Bengal, Banerjee said, “I still think there is a conspiracy behind the Rampurhat incident. It was a good decision to hand over the probe to the CBI. But if they only follow BJP’s dik-tats, we will be ready to protest.”

She added, “We have seen in past instances, including the probe

into the theft of Tagore’s Nobel

Prize, the Ne-tai incident and the Ta-pasi Malik case, that the CBI failed to provide jus-

tice.”

Ukrainian rebel region Luhansk may vote to join Russia: LeaderKyiv: The Russian-backed eastern Ukrain-ian rebel region of Lu-hansk’s leader Leonid Pasechnik said it may hold a referendum on joining Russia, draw-ing a warning from Kyiv that any such vote would have no legal ba-sis and trigger a strong-er international re-sponse.

Three days before or-dering the February 24 invasion of Ukraine, President Vladimir Pu-tin recognised the Ukrainian rebel regions of Luhansk and Donetsk as independent states, though the rest of the world considers them part of Ukraine.

IPL 2022: DC GET BETTER OF MI; PUNJAB CHASE MAMMOTH 205

For Mumbai Indians, Opener Ishan Kishan’s 81*(48) heroics went in vain

as Delhi Capitals (179/6) riding on its batting depth defeated MI (177/5) by 4 wickets. In second high-scoring contest, Faf du Plessis 88 (57) and Virat Kohli 41 (29) took Royal Challengers Bangalore to a mammoth 205/2. In reply, Punjab Kings (208/5), powered by O Smith’s 25 (08) late hitting, chased down with ease.

All international flights back on tarmac in IndiaNew Delhi: Scheduled international flight ser-vices resumed in India on Sunday, two years af-ter a ban was imposed on most foreign flights due to the coronavirus pandemic. Reacting to the development, Civil Aviation Minister Jyoti-raditya Scindia said that this will help connect India with the world.

According to the Di-rectorate General of Civil Aviation, six Indi-an airlines and 60 for-eign airlines will start connecting India with 63 countries from Sun-day onwards. Accord-ing to the new summer schedule, foreign air-lines will operate 1,783

weekly flights, while Indian carriers will op-erate 1,466 departures every week. Market leader IndiGo will oper-ate 505 departures per week, followed by Tata Group-owned Air India at 361 weekly flights, and its subsidiary Air India Express at 340 flights per week. Sum-mer schedule refers to period between March 27 until October 29.

‘Can sacrifice govt & life but won’t forgive ‘criminals’ in Opposition’Islamabad: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Sunday ad-dressed a rally in Islama-bad ahead of a no-confi-dence motion to be tabled against him on Monday.

The political turmoil comes as Pakistan faces a recurring economic crisis, and Khan’s gov-ernment is banking on the International Mone-tary Fund to release the next tranche of $6 billion rescue package to shore up dwindling foreign currency reserves.

The military has said

it would remain neutral, leaving it to political par-ties to decide Khan’s fate.

More than 20 law-makers have deserted Khan, leaving him short of minimum 172 needed for a simple ma-jority in parliament.

7 killed in bus accident in AndhraPM announces ex gratia of `2 lakh

PV SINDHU WINS SWISS OPEN 2022Two-time Olympic med-allist PV Sindhu wins the Women’s Singles title at Swiss Open 2022 beating Thailand’s Bu-sanan Ongbamrungpha 21-16 & 21-8 in straight games in Basel.

P laying her second successive fi nal in

the tournament, Sindhu, a double Olympic med-allist, took 49 minutes to get the better of the fourth seeded Busanan. Prime Minister Naren-dra Modi on Sunday congratulated Sindhu on her win and said her accomplishments inspire youth of India.

NO-BALL HORROR ENDS A BILLION DREAMS

UKRAINE CALLS FOR MORE ARMS,SAYS RUSSIA WANTS TO SPLIT NATION

SHOW OF STRENGTH BEFORE NO-CONFIDENCE

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged the West to give Ukraine tanks, planes and missiles to help fend off the Russian forces, which the Kyiv govern-ment said were increasingly targeting fuel and food depots. Meanwhile, Russia wants to split Ukraine into two, as happened with North and South Korea, Ukraine’s military intelligence chief said on Sunday.

CBI offi cers with CFSL team had visited the Bogtui village where eight people were burnt alive in Birbhum of Bengal on Saturday.

A man inspects a crater of a rocket launched by the Russian forces at night in the centre of Kharkiv in Ukraine on Sunday.

Pak PM Imran Khan with Army Chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa.

CM NITISH KUMAR ATTACKED BY MAN DURING FUNCTION AT HIS HOMETOWNPatna: Bihar Chief Min-ister Nitish Kumar was attacked by a man in his hometown Bakhtiyarpur. The man, who was caught in CCTV camera, has been arrested. Footage showed the attack taking place as the Chief Minister was about to pay his respects to the statue of Shilbhadra Yaji, a freedom fi ghter from the state, at the complex of a local hospital. The man, who came from behind, was seen walking up the dais in rapid steps and strike Kumar on the back. He was immediately dragged off by securitymen.

First India Bureau

Surat: Chief Minis-ter Bhupendra Patel and Uttar Pradesh Governor Anandi-ben Patel visited Su-rat on Sunday to at-tend the ground-breaking ceremony of Kiran Medical College. The educa-tional institution will be a part of Kiran Hospital in Katargam area of the city, although its campus will be built in Vadod village of Olpad. The CM also participated in an-other foundation ceremony held at Variav, where a sports complex will be constructed.

Backed by several trusts of the Patidar community, the medi-cal college will have state-of-the-art facili-ties and a capacity of housing 150 patients

across a huge 65,000 square yard campus.

Speaking on the occasion, CM Bhu-pendra Patel said, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi is celebrating Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav and the country is mov-ing forward with a plan of coming 100 years. I congratu-late the founders of Kiran Medical Col-lege for such their generosity. The cen-tral and state gov-ernments have been constantly working

towards ensuring public health through several schemes. But, knowl-edge is most impor-tant. I extend my best wishes to the students who will become future doc-tors. Now, they can chase their dreams in their motherland and not have to go overseas.”

Meanwhile, the Va-dodara district admin-istration organized a one-day camp for in-come certificates and Aayushman cards at

Ekta Nagar on Sunday, after the chief minis-ter’s surprise visit to the area on March 25. He dropped by the area on a surprise visit and interacted with local residents about prob-lems faced by them.

As a positive impact of the CM’s visit, the one-day camp was or-ganized to provide in-come certificates to citizens required to avail the benefits of the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY-MA).

“Income certifi-cates were issued to around 350 people and Maa cards to 219 beneficiaries by the state health depart-ment. Three talatis were also present at the spot to complete all procedures per-taining to applica-tions,” said RB Par-mar, Vadodara city Mamlatdar (East).

First India Bureau

Ahmedabad: Jenny Virjibhai Thummar, the daughter of Lathi lawmaker Virji Thum-mar, was named Presi-dent of the Gujarat Pradesh Mahila Con-gress on Sunday. Those close to the develop-ment said that appoint-ment was made keeping in mind the upcoming election.

Meanwhile, the Guja-rat Congress has re-structured its social media team ahead of the state Assembly elec-tions due this year-end and roped in nearly 200 workers to spread infor-mation about the par-ty's work among voters and counter fake news, a party spokesperson said on Sunday.

The new recruits in-clude 41 presidents at the district and metro-levels, 15 vice presi-dents, 30 general secre-taries, 44 secretaries, and 60 executive com-mittee members, Guja-rat Congress chief spokesperson Manish Doshi said.

“The party has an-nounced a new team to

handle its social media presence ahead of the election. Responsibili-ties of the officials are being determined, and the party is planning to organise a mega meet on social media in com-ing days,” he said.

The team includes dedicated party work-ers and “not a paid army as is the case with other political parties,” he claimed.

“They will motivate and establish a network with our other workers who have the presence

on social media plat-forms so that they could play an effective role in the forthcoming Assem-bly elections by coun-tering fake news and misinformation about the party,” he said.

Doshi said the Con-gress workers will en-gage on all kinds of so-cial media platforms, including booth-level WhatsApp groups.

“Their biggest role will be to expose lies be-ing spread by the BJP and bring out the truth,” he added.

NEWSAHMEDABAD | MONDAY, MARCH 28, 2022

02www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia

First India Bureau

Gandhinagar: As many as 9,46,529 stu-dents of Class X, 4,25,834 of Class XII General Stream and 95,982 of Class XII Science Stream will sit for their first papers of the ex-ams conducted by the Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Edu-cation Board (GSHSB) on Monday.

The exam for Class X will be conducted in of-

fline mode from 10 am to 1.15 pm, beginning with the language pa-per.

Class XII General Stream exams will be held in shifts, from 10.30 am to 1.45 pm and 3 pm to 6.15 pm, while the Science Stream stu-dents will sit for their exams, beginning with the physics paper, from 3 pm to 6.30 pm, GSHSB said in a release.

Officials said ar-rangements have been made--including setting up CCTV cameras and storing question papers in strongrooms at dis-trict headquarters un-der the watchful eye of armed security person-nel--to ensure honest and fair exams without

any scope of paper leaks or cheating.

Two assistant zonal officers will accompany three security guards in arranging to deliver the examination papers to the examination centre.

In addition, GSHSB has formed vigilance squads comprising principals and teachers in some districts to keep a check on cheat-ing in examination cen-tres. The board has also

instructed administra-tors of the examination centre to ensure that trustees or other office-bearers of the school should not be present during the exams, offi-cials said.

First India Bureau

Gandhinagar: It is no secret that bureau-crats and police offic-ers are always keen to oblige their politi-cal masters in order to keep their post-ings. With their sur-vival in question, very often it is the common man who be-comes the victim of the office-bearers’ harassment. In order to prove their worth before the ministers, government servants neglect to think about how their actions will

affect the citizens.A district collector

and prant officer from Central Gujarat recent-ly became the talk of the town when they threatened a farmer with false cases under the Gujarat Land Grab-bing (Prevention) Act. To carry out orders is-sued by the top brass of the ruling party, the man was harassed by officials over land owned by him.

According to the sources from the state secretariat, the two of-ficers were assigned to take possession of

around seven to 10 acres of land. This was because the land in

question was located adjacent to a piece of land owned by a politi-

cal leader, who recently joined the ruling party.

“The collector and

prant officer are both aware that the political leader has illegally en-croached on a farmer’s land, who has even ini-tiated the first round of legal battle. However, the political leader is not ready to give up possession of land. Therefore, to oblige him, the ruling party’s top leaders have or-dered officers to ensure that the farmer’s land goes to the new joiner,” said a source.

Taking to their task, the two officers first tried to lure the farmer by offering an equal

size of piece of land at any other spot, and handover the land he owned. When the farm-er declined, they threatened to trap him in false criminal cases, and even invoke Guja-rat Land Grabbing (Prevention) Act, if re-quired.

Officers like them receive promotions or secure their place in the good books of po-litical leaders. But, the people they harass to get what they want lose their self-respect and sometimes even hope of life.

When bureaucrats cross lines to keep political leaders happyUNREASONABLE

lll

Dist collector and prant

officer recently

threatened a farmer with false cases if

he did not give up his

land

Jenny Thummar named Mahila Congress President

CLASS X, XII BOARD EXAMS TO BEGIN TODAYAll efforts being made to ensure honest and fair examinations, officials say

Opposition party ramps up social media team

Jenny Thummar. —FILE PHOTO

Students check a blackboard bearing information on seating arrangements at a school in Ahmedabad on Sunday, a day before the Board exams begin. —PHOTO BY HANIF SINDHI

3rd

TIME'S THE

CHARMThe Aam Aadmi Party

led by Gujarat unit chief Gopal Italia took out a

rally in Surat's Limbayat area on Sunday. "Former bootlegger CR Patil has tried to stop our event 2 times. However, we

succeeded in taking out a 'Tiranga Yatra'," Italia

tweeted.

CM PATEL BREAKS GROUND FOR MEDICAL COLLEGE IN SURATBacked by Patidars, Kiran Hospital will build an educational institution at Vadod village

(Extreme left) UP Governor Anandiben Patel, (extreme right) CM Bhupendra Patel at the ceremony.

GUJARATAHMEDABAD | MONDAY, MARCH 28, 2022

03www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia I facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia

First India Bureau

Ahmedabad: One of Gujarat’s oldest firms, Sosyo Hajoori Beverage Pvt Ltd has announced its associ-ation with the Royal Challengers Banga-lore franchise as its beverage partner for Season 15 of the Indi-an Premier League, which kicked off on Saturday.

With this in mind, the brand unveiled a marketing campaign

titled Refresh Your Game across digital platforms to encourage players and fans to en-joy a bubbly yet solid drink while supporting their team.

Notably, the 100-year-old brand now has a presence in as many as 15 countries worldwide.

Sharing the news, di-rectors Abbas Mohsin Hajoori and Aliasgar Hajoori explained, “We are delighted to part-ner with the very Royal Challengers Bangalore.

The team is known for pushing its limit, which has been moti-vating for the entire audience. Therefore, we understand that the brand shares the right synergies with the team, and the upcom-ing league would be the best opportunity to present the same. Our most seasoned and most liked brand Sosyo will be seen in the dug-outs invigorating our players during the en-tire period. We are an-

ticipating desired re-sults and breakthrough achievement out of this association.”

Rajesh Menon, Vice President & Head of Royal Challengers Ban-galore, said, “We are happy to partner with Sosyo Hajoori as our official beverage part-ner for the second con-secutive season. As the country is entering summer, Sosyo’s wide range of beverage of-ferings is helping the team stay hydrated.”

Sosyo is beverage partner for Royal Challengers Bangalore againBUSINESS OF ENTERTAINMENT

100-yr-old brand and one

of Gujarat’s oldest firms also

plans special digital marketing

campaign on social media for duration of 15th

edition of IPL RCB’s Virat Kohli is seen against a cooler fi lled with Sosyo drinks. —FILE PHOTO

Guj govt in damage control mode on river link projectFirst India Bureau

Valsad:After protests have erupted over the Par-Tapi-Narmada River Link project, the state government has gone into damage con-trol mode. With the lead opposition Con-gress party holding a rally in Gandhinagar recently, the move-ment against the pro-posed project has spelled trouble for the ruling Bharatiya Ja-nata Party (BJP).

The state government has assigned state Fi-nance and Industries Minister Kanu Desai, Tribal Development Minister Naresh Patel and Valsad BJP MP KC Patel to pacify tribals. In their efforts to quell doubts, leaders have been meeting with trib-als in Valsad district and persuading them to un-derstand the benefits of the project. They have also assured them that it will not render any fam-

ily homeless or require any rehabilitation.

After talks with Pekhad Dam Hatavo Samiti, its president Chintamani Padvi has extended his support to the project. He has claimed that he was misled by misinforma-tion about the river linking project. After receiving assurance

from the ministers, he has decided to give up protesting against the project.

Tribal Development Minister Naresh Patel has proclaimed that the state will construct 500 check dams in tribal ar-eas, to address water scarcity and storage is-sues. “It will serve a dual purpose of meeting the

drinking water and irri-gation water require-ments of the hilly re-gion,” he said.

If the ruling party fails to create awareness about the river linking project among tribals, the movement launched by Congress can poten-tially ruin its prospects in upcoming elections. The tribal seats reserved

in the Gujarat state as-sembly total 27, of which, 12 seats are in South Gu-jarat, in districts such as Narmada, Bharuch, Su-rat, Navsari, Valsad, Tapi and Dang. While the Congress party has incumbent MLAs in sev-en constituencies, three are with the BJP and two with the Bharatiya Trib-al Party.

Tribal communities had held a massive protest against the project in Gandhinagar on Friday.

Assigns 3 ministers to pacify tribals regarding rehabilitation concerns expressed by them

SUCCESS

Naranpura residents up in arms against AMC’s road expansion project First India Bureau

Ahmedabad: A group of residents of the city’s Naran-pura area have launched a cam-paign to raise awareness among other residents, and owners of shops and establishments against the Ahmed-abad Municipal Corporation’s road expansion project.

The civic body has proposed to expand the road connecting Naranpura crossing to Naranpura village from 50 feet to 100 feet. As a result, hundreds of houses and shops falling under the new road alignment plan will lose part of their property.

Residents and Con-gress councillors have representations to the AMC’s office-bearers but in vain.

Now, a newly formed committee, the Naranpura Lok

Hit Rakshak Samiti (NLHRS), has begun to distribute pam-phlets, alleging that the AMC is planning to expand the road to benefit to real estate developers. They also accuse members of the ruling party of be-ing hand in glove with the real-estate lobby.

Several properties on both sides of the road have put up ban-ners opposing the pro-posed plan. “We don’t want FSI, we don’t want bigger roads,” they read.

The NLHRS also ar-gues that hundreds of

trees along the road will be chopped down to make way for the expansion, going against Prime Minis-ter Narendra Modi’s wish to increase green area in the city.

Locals have alleged that politicians are behind the proposal—which will affect more than 50 bungalows and 80 shops—as they “want to see 80-floor buildings on this road”, highlighting the fact that the stretch from Naran-pura crossing to Ash-ram road is hardly 50 feet wide.

“We don’t want FSI, we don’t want bigger roads,” a sign outside a house in the area says.

FRUITY SUMMER

HACKWhen life gives you lemons, make lemonade. But if life gives you an early summer with soaring temperatures, do as Amdavadis do: stock up on summer staples like these watermelons, and chill out.

—PHOTO BY HANIF SINDHI

Woman found hanging killed by brother-in-law to cover up their affair

Guj single-day rise slides into single digits

CBI nabs absconding director of shipping firm in `21 cr fraud

First India Bureau

Vadodara: Cracking the murder of the 19-year-old whose body was found hang-ing in Karjan on Fri-day morning, local police have nabbed her brother-in-law Muke-sh Dungrabhil. He killed her to cover up their affair, which had left her pregnant.

The police investiga-tion revealed that Dun-grabhil and his wife’s teen sister had begun an affair seven months ago. When she fell pregnant, she began to insist that he marry her.

Having kept the preg-nancy for six months, she had recently threat-

ened to tell her parents of the affair, Deputy Su-perintendent of Police Kalpesh Solanki cited Dungrabhil as saying.

In a panic, he took her to Karjan and strangled her with her dupatta.

“It is still unclear if she was raped before the murder. We will know that once the post-mor-tem report comes in,” Solanki added.

According to the case filed by the woman’s fa-ther, she disappeared af-ter going to attend na-ture’s call while harvest-ing the family’s castor crop in a leased field in Mandala village on Thursday evening.

Karjan is about 30km from Mandala.

First India Bureau

Ahmedabad: The Cen-tral Bureau of Investi-gation on Sunday said it has arrested a Gujarat-based shipping compa-ny’s official, who was absconding “for a long time”, for his alleged in-volvement in defraud-ing Canara Bank of Rs 20.68 crore.

The accused, Sanjay Gupta, a director of the firm, was arrested on his arrival from Nairobi in Kenya. He is one of the eight persons named in the case registered on June 27, 2012, based on a complaint lodged by Ca-nara Bank at Ahmedabad, the CBI said in a release.

The FIR was lodged against the Gujarat-

based Nova Shipping and others, including its directors, proprietor, bank officials, among others, for cheating the Jamnagar branch of Canara Bank to the tune of Rs20.68 crore, it said.

“After the investiga-tion was completed, a charge sheet was filed in the special CBI court at Mirzapur in Ahmedabad on Decem-ber 24, 2013, against the eight accused,” the re-lease said.

Gupta was abscond-ing for a long time, and a Look Out Circular (LOC) and a red corner notice were issued against him, the central agency said, adding that he will be produced be-fore a competent court in Ahmedabad.

First India Bureau

Gandhinagar: Guja-rat reported nine new COVID-19 cases in the 24-hour period ended 5 pm on Sun-day, taking its tally to 12,23,871, while the death toll remained unchanged at 10,942, a state health depart-ment official said.

Ahmedabad had four new cases, while Anand, Dahod, Kheda, Surat and Vadodara had one each, he added.

With another 26 pa-

tients being dis-charged from hospitals through the day, the state’s recoveries has climbed to 12,12,670 so far. This leaves the state with an active caseload of 259, with three patients in a crit-ical condition, he said.

A release from the state government said a total of 17,310 people were vaccinated against COVID-19 on Sunday, taking the total number of doses ad-ministered in the state to 10.58 crore.

12,12,670TOTAL RECOVERED

26 MORE IN A DAY

12,23,871TOTAL CASES

09 CASES IN A DAY

04 MAX CASES IN

A’BAD

ACTIVE CASES

10,942TOTAL DEATHS

259

00 DEATHSIN A DAY

COVID-19 UPDATE

—PHOTO BY HANIF SINDHI

PERSPECTIVEAHMEDABAD | MONDAY, MARCH 28, 2022


t was decided on the day of his oath as Prime Minister that Narendra Modi will not only win the hearts of every Indian but also rule the world. With his mantra of Neighbours First as Foreign Policy, he extend-ed a friendly approach to-wards the neighbouring countries. The presence of the Heads of nations from neighbouring countries vindicated his open arms policy for the world.

The people across the globe too reciprocated in the same manner to the Prime Minister who had taken off to win global friends. This was visible first on June 16, 2014 when Narendra Modi landed at Paro airport in the neighbouring Bhutan. He mingled well with general public of Bhutan on his way to Thimpu.

“I saw for the first time that Indian Prime Minis-ter is making halts to meet and interact with common people on foreign soil. Likewise, when he went to Kathmandu then thou-sands of people thronged the road to get a glimpse of Narendra Modi, who stopped and met people putting security personnel in a tizzy. I was also pre-sent when the Prime Min-ister went to Sri Lanka for the first time. In 28 years no Indian Prime Minister had visited Sri Lanka… that too Jaffna…where ever there is a problem, the fearless take up the chal-lenge…this was a unique example of leadership,” remembered Syed Akba-ruddin, a former diplomat.

In the same sequence an unprecedented incident took place on December 25, 2015. The entire world was taken by surprise when Modi, while on his return journey from Russia through Afghanistan land-ed at Lahore airport with-out any prior schedule. It was an extreme risk taken by an Indian Prime Minis-

ter to mend diplomatic re-lations with arch-rival Pa-kistan. From the airport, Modi boarded a helicopter of Pakistan army and went straight to the residence of then Prime Minister of Pa-kistan Nawaz Sharif to greet him on his birthday. But such pleasantries didn’t change the stand of Pakistan, which back-stabbed and masterminded the Pulwama attacks. Modi gave strong reply to Paki-stan through surgical air strikes…but these military actions could have cost dearly to world’s diplomat-ic and military ecosystem.

“Pakistan always said

that if there would be any attack on us we will retali-ate with nuclear weapons. We have not manufactured nuclear weapons to keep them in museums…we will surely use them. But Modi put an end to Pakistan’s nuclear blackmail at one go. Now Pakistan leader-ship has stopped saying that they have nuclear weapons,” said Ashok Saj-janhar, a former diplomat.

Modi had taken the deci-sion of strikes after great understanding. “It was well within the limits of inter-national law. Neither Secu-rity council nor the United Nations raised voice against the strikes…It was a successful diplomatic re-sponse, “ Akbaruddin cited.

The way Prime Minister Modi showed a blow hot and blow cold diplomacy to Pakistan, relations with China turned out to be a mixed bag. Modi hosted Chinese President XI Jin-

ping at his home state Gu-jarat in order to bring reso-lution to the long-standing border dispute. But China didn’t reciprocate the warm behaviour and tried out the patience of India on the border areas of Doklam and Ladakh. The Sino army escalated ten-sion on border and tried to capture areas over the In-dian side. But Indian army failed all its efforts under the dynamic leadership of Narendra Modi.

Modi has been handling the diplomatic relations with superpowers USA and Russia with the same dex-terity which he had shown

while tackling challenges with neighbouring coun-tries. While he cemented the old ties with Russia, he wrote a new chapter of friendship with US.

Modi went for the first time to US on an official trip in September 2014. US Pres-ident Barack Obama hosted a grand reception for him at the historical White House. It is a case study for foreign policy experts and strate-gists as to how Modi man-ages to maintain a delicate balance between two oppo-site camps - US and Russia simultaneously.

“First of all, he doesn’t have double standards. He speaks the same at all the places. So, it’s easy to man-age any contradiction. Whatever he talks, he speaks in national interest and people understand him. He believes in straight talk,” said S Jaishankar, minister of external affairs.

Modi has also been suc-

cessful in protecting In-dia’s interest with western countries. He explores new friendship opportunities with Israel and takes rela-tionship with Arab coun-tries to a new height in the same breath. Critics of Modi are astonished with the fact the Modi has re-ceived the highest civilian awards of several Muslim countries. Apart from that, he has been successful in strengthening the strategic business ties with them, “Entering into a strategic partnership with a country where no Prime Minister has visited in the last 30-40 years is a grand achieve-

ment. There have not only been talks of security, en-ergy and investment with that country but also re-sults have been shown on ground. Then, giving away such awards is just an ex-tension to the impression which you have created on these countries,” said S Jaishankar.

Modi has not only been successful in getting into bipartite partnership with countries for strong mili-tary and business ties but has also taken lead in rais-ing important issues like climate change, interna-tional global alliance and reducing carbon footprints at international forums. Modi has led from the front at several platforms towards global resolution of these issues. This is the dawn of new India, which is on its path of progress and prosperity unchal-lenged.

To be continued...

PAKISTAN ALWAYS SAID THAT IF THERE WOULD

BE ANY ATTACK ON US WE WILL RETALIATE WITH

NUCLEAR WEAPONS. WE HAVE NOT

MANUFACTURED NUCLEAR WEAPONS TO

KEEP THEM IN MUSEUMS…WE WILL

SURELY USE THEM. BUT MODI PUT AN END TO

PAKISTAN’S NUCLEAR BLACKMAIL AT ONE GO.

NOW PAKISTAN LEADERSHIP HAS

STOPPED SAYING THAT THEY HAVE NUCLEAR

WEAPONS.ASHOK SAJJANHAR,

A FORMER DIPLOMAT

ISHASHIKANT


Editor, First India

oon after Narendra Modi

took over the reins of the

country, he went heavily

after corruption. Right

from tightening the noose

on shell companies to ini-

tiating legal action against

bank loan defaulters, Modi

lived up to and still does,

of his image of “Na Khata

Hun Na Khane Doonga”.

Narendra Modi always

knew the power of new

technology and its inter-

vention towards bringing

transparency in govern-

ance. He introduced tech-

nology and IT-led innova-

tions and initiatives to

make the governance effec-

tive and at the same time

ease the lives of people. He

launched Digital India Mis-

sion and the rest is history.

“Corruption-free gov-

ernance, transparency,

public partnership and

reaching out to people

standing last in the line…

Modi government has ful-

filled all four-five basic

rules of governance…This

also shows Modi ji’s lean-

ing towards new technol-

ogy and scientific temper-

ament. Every reform and

improvement show opti-

mum use of technology,”

union cabinet minister Dr

Jitendra Singh was quoted

as saying. The Digital India Mis-

sion, which was launched

on July 1, 2015, expanded its

wings and utility with the

introduction of Apps and

digital platforms like

Umang, DG Locker, Bhim,

Rupay and UPI. The coun-

try, which used to rely com-

pletely on physical transac-

tions was ready to embrace

the technology-driven cash-

less transaction system.

The aim was to put a curb

on black money and enforce

transparency in the system,

which Modi had already

initiated through demoneti-

sation. He gave a new di-

mension to the Aadhar

Card scheme launched by

the predecessor UPA gov-

ernment and linked every

government-run schemes

with Aadhar for transfer-

ring benefits directly to the

beneficiaries eliminating

any intermediary. “Earlier people couldn’t

open bank accounts due to

lack of KYC documents.

Aadhar provided identity to

such people and they start-

ed getting cash benefits and

other subsidies directly in

their bank accounts. Leak-

age was plugged,” said RS

Sharma, CEO of Aayush-

man Bharat Scheme. The PM Modi also fo-

cused on education, health

and employment to serve

the interests of poor people.

He started new IIMs, IITs

and launched AIIMS in

various parts of the coun-

try. He also launched Skill

India Mission to hone the

skills of youth and make

them employment ready.

On November 7, 2015, Modi

fulfilled one of his impor-

tant poll promises… he re-

alised the dreams of thou-

sands of ex-servicemen by

launching One rank One

pension … a long pending

demand which had not

been fulfilled since 40 years.

It was a tribute to the

Armed forces from a person

who used to dream to join

the Army for serving the

country. Apart from that,

Modi also resolved prob-

lems of Armed forces

which had been hanging on

fire for long. Right from the

slow pace of modernisation

to shortage of modern sub-

marines and fighter planes,

the country was facing

acute shortage of weapons.

“He gave us more than

whatever we had demand-

ed. Now you see we are the

best centre in the world …

centre of excellence…

which are manufactur-

ing everything includ-

ing weapons,” said

Harivansh Narayan

Singh, deputy chair-

man of RS. While

resolving problems

and difficulties of

Armed forces, Modi celebrated the festival of Di-wali with sol-diers at the fron-tiers … some-times in Pun-jab, some-times in Kashmir or R a j a s t h a n and some-times in Ladakh. The

solider in Modi saluted the

high spirit of Indian Army

deployed in difficult ter-

rains to protect the country.

On September 18, 2016,

in the wee hours of the

morning at 5.30 am, an un-

fortunate incident hap-

pened at Uri when Paki-

stan-sponsored terrorists

carried an ambush against

Indian soldiers, who were

caught sleeping in their

camps. In that operation, 18

Indian soldiers laid down

their lives before killing

the terrorists. That en-

raged the entire nation and

people called for revenge.

Moved by the public senti-

ments PM Modi announced

- “Let the terrorists hear it

out… the country is not go-

ing to forget this ghastly

act.” And within 15 days on

September 29, 2016 the In-

dian army avenged the Uri

attack. “The Indian Army con-

ducted surgical strike last

night at the launch pads, “

Lt General Ranveer Singh,

DGMO, IA declared.In that operation, the

army conducted sur-

gical strikes in the

P a k - o c c u p i e d Kashmir and de-

stroyed terror launch pads kill-ing a large num-

ber of terrorists. That was a big demonstration of PM Modi’s courage and

risk-taking abil-ity. His deci-sion was hailed by eve-ryone in the country as Modi defied the nuclear threat posed

by Pakistan.The confi-

dent Modi

then conquered another

front. This time he an-

nounced to roll out GST in

the country, marking the

entry of long awaited One

Nation One Tax system.

This was the biggest re-

form in the field of taxa-

tion in Independent India.

And Modi made it histori-

cal by announcing it at the

stroke of 12 midnight in

the intervening night of

June 30 and July 1, 2017

from the central hall of the

parliament. Modi never held him-

self back from rolling out

big decisions and mega

reforms. He didn’t shy

away from getting the law

of Triple Talaq passed in

the parliament on Septem-

ber 19, 2018 which brought

great relief in the lives of

Muslim women. Modi didn’t stop there.

He went on to launch sev-

eral public-friendly

schemes and programmes

including Namami Gange,

Jan Aushadhi Yojana,

Mudra Yojana, Start-up In-

dia and Make in India

among others. Apart from

that he also focused special-

ly on the development of

northeastern states. Under

Look East policy, he set up a

separate ministry DoNER

to develop infrastructure

and establish connectivity

of northeastern states with

rest of the country. The country was on its

way to economic develop-

ment. Just then Pakistan

came into picture once

again. This time Pakistan

backed militants of JeM

conducted a ‘Fidayin’ at-

tack on the convoy of

CRPF killing 18 jawans in

Pulwama on February 14,

2019. After Uri, this was

the second occasion when

the entire country was

boiling with anger. And

Modi was no exception.

On February 26, 2019,

Indian Air force launched

airstrikes in Pakistan’s

Balakot region and de-

stroyed launch pads of ter-

rorists. A large number of

militants were killed and

spirit of terrorists damp-

ened completely after the

bold move of Modi. 2019 was the election

year and Modi was target-

ing a second term with

more than 300 seats. ‘Abki

baar 300 paar’ was the slo-

gan of BJP when it went

for polls in the biggest fes-

tival of democracy. On

May 23, 2019 when the

counting of votes ended,

BJP emerged a clear win-

ner with 303 seats while

the tally for its coalition

NDA went up to 353 seats.

The decisive majority em-

powered Modi even more,

who looked determined to

roll out bigger reforms and

take big decisions in public

interest at large.On August 5, 2019, the

Parliament of India voted

in favour of a resolution

tabled by Home Minister

Amit Shah to revoke the

temporary special status,

or autonomy, granted un-

der Article 370 of the In-

dian Constitution to Jam-

mu and Kashmir - an agen-

da which was there in BJP

manifesto for long. With

this Modi also fulfilled his

17-year old promise which

he had made to people of

J&K during his Ekta Yatra.

Just after 3 months on

November 2019 five-judge

bench of Supreme Court

in its ruling ordered con-

struction of Ram Mandir

on the disputed land in

Ayodhya. The path for con-

struction of Mandir was

clear now. On August 5,

2020, Narendra Modi went

to Ayodhya for bhoomi pu-

jan of Ram Mandir. Modi

sent out a message and

clear to everyone - Modi

hai to Mumkin hai.To be continued...

Corruption-free governance, transparency, public

partnership and reaching out to people standing last in the line… Modi government has

fulfilled all four-five basic rules of governance…This also

shows Modi ji’s leaning towards new technology and

scientific temperament. Every reform and improvement

show optimum use of technology.

Dr Jitendra Singh, Union cabinet minister

Earlier people couldn’t open bank accounts due to lack of

KYC documents. Aadhar provided identity to such

people and they started getting cash benefits and other

subsidies directly in their bank accounts. Leakage was plugged.

RS Sharma, CEO,

Aayushman Bharat Scheme

He gave us more than whatever we had demanded.

Now you see we are the best centre in the world … centre of

excellence… which are manufacturing everything

including weapons.

Harivansh Narayan Singh, deputy chairman, Rajya Sabha



Majority of 140 crore Indians now believe…

‘MODI HAI TO MUMKIN HAI’

SSHASHIKANT


Editor, First IndiaLET THE TERRORISTS HEAR

IT OUT… THE COUNTRY IS

NOT GOING TO FORGET

THIS GHASTLY ACT:

NARENDRA MODI

INDIAN ARMY’S SURGICAL STRIKE“The Indian Army conducted surgical strike last

night at the launch pads, " Lt Gen Ranveer Singh,

DGMO, IA declared. In that operation, the Army

conducted surgical strikes in Pak-occupied Kash-

mir and destroyed terror launch pads killing a large

number of terrorists. That was a big demonstration

of PM Modi’s courage and risk-taking ability. His

decision was hailed by everyone in the country as

Modi defi ed the nuclear threat posed by Pakistan.

RAM TEMPLE'S CONSTRUCTIONJust after 3 months on November 2019

fi ve-judge bench of Supreme Court in its

ruling ordered construction of Ram Mandir

on the disputed land in Ayodhya. The path

for construction of Mandir was clear now. On

August 5, 2020, Narendra Modi went to Ayo-

dhya for bhoomi pujan of Ram Mandir. Modi

sent out a message and clear to everyone -

Modi hai to Mumkin hai.


MARCH 14, 2022


PERSPECTIVEJAIPUR | TUESDAY, MARCH 22, 2022

04


Promoted by APT Media Solutions Pvt. Ltd.


at 304, 3rd Floor, City Mall, Bhagwan Das Road, C-Scheme, Jaipur-302001, Rajasthan. Phone 0141-4920504. Editor-In-Chief: Jagdeesh Chandra. Editor: Anita Hada Sangwan responsible for selection of news under the PRB Act


MARCH 22, 2022


Modi has not only been successful in getting into bipartite partnership with

countries for strong military and business ties but has also taken lead in raising important issues like climate change,

international global alliance and reducing carbon footprints at international forums.

Modi has led from the front at several platforms towards global resolution of these issues. This is the dawn of new

India, which is on its path of progress and prosperity unchallenged

was also present when the Prime Minister went to Sri Lanka for the fi rst time. In 28 years no Indian Prime Minister had visited Sri Lanka… that too Jaffna…where ever there is a problem,

the fearless take up the challenge…this was a unique example of leadership,” remembered Syed Akbaruddin, a former diplomat.

“I

MODI LANDED AT PARO AIRPORT ON JUNE 16, 2014

he people across the globe too recipro-cated in the same manner to the Prime Minister who had taken off to win global friends. This was visible fi rst on June 16,

2014 when Narendra Modi landed at Paro airport in the neighbouring Bhutan. He mingled well with general public of Bhutan on his way to Thimpu.

T

NARENDRA MODI BECAME 1st

INDIAN PM IN ALMOST 28 YEARS TO VISIT SRI LANKA

odi went for the fi rst time to US on an offi cial trip in September 2014. US President Barack Obama hosted a grand reception for him at the historical White House. It is a case study for

foreign policy experts and strategists as to how Modi manages to maintain a delicate balance between two opposite camps - US and Russia simultaneously.

M

OBAMA HOSTED A GRAND RECEPTION FOR MODI IN 2014

� Vol 3 � Issue No. 121 � RNI NO. GUJENG/2019/79050. Printed and published by Anita Hada Sangwan on behalf of First Express Publishers. Printed at Bhaskar Printing Planet Survey No.148P, Changodar-Bavla Highway, Tal. Sanand, Dist. Ahmedabad. Published at D/302 3rd Floor Plot No. 35 Titanium Square, Scheme No. 2, Thaltej Taluka, Ghatlodiya, Ahmedabad. Editor-In-Chief: Jagdeesh Chandra. Editor: Haresh Jhala responsible for selection of news under the PRB Act

Diplomacy Dil Se…Diplomacy Dil Se…Diplomacy Dil Se…EMERGENCE OF A POWERFUL GLOBAL LEADER!



To Receive Free Newspaper

PDF Daily

Whatsapp: http://bit.ly/whatsappahm

Telegram:

https://t.me/firstindiaahmedabad

Click the above link☝ & subscribe us on your

preferred platform.

INDIAAHMEDABAD | MONDAY, MARCH 28, 2022

05www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia

Chandigarh (Agen-cies): After factional-ism in its Punjab unit led to an electoral deba-cle, the Haryana Con-gress is witnessing in-ternal discord between two top leaders. This comes at a time the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is looking to rep-licate its Punjab success and expand in the state ahead of the 2024 As-sembly polls.

Party insiders said

the state unit was di-vided into two camps — one led by Pradesh Congress Committee chief Kumari Selja, the other loyal to former Chief Minister and cur-rent Leader of the Op-position Bhupinder Singh Hooda. Though the two have not openly spoken out against each other, that they are not on good terms is appar-ent as they have not shared the stage at par-

ty events in recent months. For the past few months, Hooda has been touring various districts as part of the “Vipaksh Aapke Sam-aksh (Opposition amidst you)” campaign. Selja, meanwhile, has kept away from the campaign and super-vises other organisa-tional matters of the party.

Hooda is believed to have the support of over

two dozen of the party’s 31 MLAs. Several for-mer MPs and ministers

are also considered Hoo-da loyalists. Kumari Selja, on the other hand,

is seen as someone quite close to Congress presi-dent Sonia Gandhi.

According to party functionaries, Hooda has been trying to oust Selja and get his son Deepender appointed the state unit chief. However, senior lead-ers such as Randeep Surjewala, Kiran Choudhry, and Kuldeep Bishnoi are against such a move. Before the 2019 polls, the Hooda

camp had managed to push out former state Congress chief Ashok Tanwar, who eventual-ly quit the party.

On March 25, former Congress president Ra-hul Gandhi chaired a meeting of the party’s Haryana leadership in New Delhi in an at-tempt to broker peace between the two fac-tions. Senior leaders such as the Hoodas, Selja, Surjewala,

Choudhry and Bishnoi were among those who were present.

Sources said heated arguments occurred at the meeting as the Hoo-das pushed for a leader-ship change in the state. Deepender reportedly urged Rahul to order a survey of the party’s MLAs and cadre to find out which leader, his fa-ther or Selja, was more popular and enjoyed maximum support.

Shah opens Integrated Command and Control Centre in ChandigarhChandigarh (IANS): Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday inaugurated several projects, including the state-of-the-art Inte-grated Command and Control Centre (ICCC), in the joint capital of Punjab and Haryana.

Accompanying Pun-jab Governor Banwar-lilal Purohit, Shah also laid foundation stones of a hostel block of commerce college, a project for constructing 240 hous-es for police personnel

and a bus depot-cum-workshop.

As per the ICCC pro-ject, more than 2,000

CCTV cameras have been installed in the city to keep an eye on traffic violations.

KASHMIR BLEEDS!

Family members mourn the death of Special Police Officer (SPO) Ishfaq Ahmad Dar and his brother Umar Ahmad Dar, who died during an encounter with the militants, in Budgam, Kashmir on Sunday. —PHOTO BY ANI

Lucknow (PTI): The deadline for ‘Operation Vidyalaya Kayakalp’ (OVK) is drawing to close but more than 24 per cent of schools in Uttar Pradesh still lack basic facilities like drinking water, furniture, bound-

ary walls and toilets.The ‘Operation Vidya-

laya Kayakalp’, a highly

ambitious project of the Uttar Pradesh govern-ment, was launched by

Chief Minister Yogi Adi-tyanath in 2018 with an aim of giving primary schools a facelift.

The state government had set a target of satu-rating all 1.3 lakh schools with 19 basic facilities by March 2022.

According to official sources, a self-evaluation report of OVK shows av-erage saturation of 19 indicators in only 76.3 per cent schools across the state. Varanasi (93.5 per cent), Kasganj (93.3

per cent) and Meerut (88.7 per cent) are the top districts where maxi-mum schools have un-dergone transformation.

Gorakhpur, with 63 per cent, is among the worst performing dis-tricts of the state even though it is the home dis-trict of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

Sitapur with 57.4 per cent and Kushinagar with 64.5 per cent are other poor performing districts.

'Op Vidyalaya Kayakalp' in UP fails to meet targets

Reports of split in RLD just rumours, says nal’t secretary

Lucknow (Agencies): The Rashtriya Lok Dal has rubbished all ru-mours of a possible split in the party, fol-lowing its under-per-formance in recent elections.

Dismissing all such "rumours", RLD nation-al secretary Anil Dubey said, "The MLAs have reposed full faith in party president Jayant Chaudhary and have authorised him to elect their leader. Such ru-mours are being spread by vested interests."

Eight newly-elected MLAs of the RLD on Saturday met party president Jayant Chaudhary in Lucknow and later met Samajwa-di Party (SP) chief Akh-ilesh Yadav at the SP headquarters.

KAYAKALP ONLY ON PAPER

Sanjay Raut targets BJP over Mehbooba’s comments on J&KMumbai (PTI): A day after Mehbooba Mufti remarked that peace would be elusive in Kashmir until the Cen-tre holds dialogue with Pakistan and people of Jammu and Kashmir, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut said the PDP chief could make such com-ments as the BJP had given people like her strength by forming gov-ernment with her party in the erstwhile state.

Talking to reporters, Raut said the Mufti-led People’s Democratic

Party (PDP) was a “friend” of the BJP at some point of time. The PDP has been “pro-Paki-stan and sympathises with terrorists” right from the beginning, he claimed.

Notably, the PDP and BJP’s alli-a n c e broke in J u n e 2018.

Hooda vs Selja: Spectre of internal rift haunts Haryana Congress

Haryana Congress leaders Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Kumari Selja and others. —FILE PHOTO

WILL NEVER ACCEPT OFFER OF PREZ POST; IT’S BJP-RSS PROPAGANDA: MAYAWATI

Lucknow (PTI): BSP supremo Mayawati on Sunday asserted that she will not accept the offer of President’s post from any party and alleged that the BJP and the RSS had spread false propa-ganda that she will be “made the President” if BJP comes to power in Uttar Pradesh, mislead-ing her supporters.

In a statement after reviewing the party’s hu-miliating defeat in the state elections, the four-time former chief minis-ter said she is a firm dis-ciple of Kanshi Ram who had also refused the post in the past.

“How can I accept such a post when we know that it will be the end of our party. So I want to make it clear to

every BSP office bearer that in the interest of our party and move-ment, I will not accept any offer for the Presi-

dent’s post from the BJP or other parties and they should never be misled in future,” Mayawati said.

The term of President Ram Nath Kovind ends on July 24 and elections to the post have to held before that.

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah inaugurates various development projects, in Chandigarh on Sunday. Punjab Governor Banwarilal Purohit also present. —PHOTO BY ANI

‘They (BJP) also know that long ago Kanshi Ram ji had rejected this offer and I am his firm disciple’

BSP TO FIELD ITS EX-MLA IN UP’S AZAMGARH LS BYPOLLLucknow (PTI): The BSP on Sunday said it would field its former MLA Guddu Jamali alias Shah Alam in the Lok Sabha bypoll for Azamgarh. Jamali, a BSP MLA between 2017 and 2022, also held the position of its legislature party

leader in the last UP as-sembly but was sacked shortly before polls. He had subsequently con-tested the just-concluded state assembly polls as an AIMIM candidate from the Mubarakpur seat within the Azamgarh Lok Sabha seat but had

lost to the Samajwadi Party candidate. Jamali, however, joined the BSP again recently. The Azamgarh Lok Sabha seat fell vacant on March 22 after Akhilesh quit it to retain the Karhal assembly seat which he won in the recent polls.

—REPRESENTATIONAL PICTURE

Merely 28.3% schools have furniture for children

Pramod Sawant to be sworn in as Goa CM today; PM to attend eventPanaji: Three-time MLA Pramod Sawant, who led the BJP to win 20 seats in the recently concluded elections to the 40-member Goa Assembly, will be sworn as the state's chief minister for the second time on Mon-day in the presence of Prime Minister Nar-endra Modi and other dignitaries, an official said on Sunday.

The swearing-in ceremony would be

held at Dr Syama Pras-ad Mookerjee stadium near here at 11 am.

PM Modi and De-

fence Min Rajnath Singh would be present at the function, a govt spokesperson said.

MUSLIMS PLACING FAITH IN MODI, YOGI: UP’S LONE MINORITY MINBallia (PTI): Danish Azad Ansari, the only Muslim minister in Uttar Pradesh, on Sunday claimed that his community is warming up to the BJP, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. "The BJP is getting the love of Muslim society now and the love for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adity-anath is increasing continuously,” he said.

Let them live as they choose: Miss Universe Harnaaz

Mumbai (Agency): Harnaaz Sandhu has appealed to the soci-ety to stop targeting girls, including on the issue of hijab, saying "Let them live the way they choose to." A three-judge Bench of the Karna-taka High Court re-cently dismissed the petitions which sought permission to wear hijab in class-rooms of educational institutions saying headscarf is not an essential religious practice and uniform dress rule should be followed in educa-tional institutions where it has been prescribed.

In a clip that has gone viral on social media, a reporter asked Ms Sandhu about her views on the issue around hi-jab. The video is part of an event held here on March 17 in the honour of the Miss Universe 2021's homecoming.

Before she re-sponded to the query, the organiser inter-vened and asked the reporter to abstain from asking any po-litical questions and suggested the media to rather ask about her journey, success and how she has been a source of in-spiration.

No hijab, says K’taka Min as board exams begin todayBengaluru: Amid the hijab controversy, Karnataka state board examinations for 10th standard will begin on Monday. The state government has made it clear that hijab would not be allowed in classrooms during exams even as several Muslim girls had said they would boycott the exams if they were not allowed to wear the head scarf. More than 8.76 lakh students are appearing for the exam in over 40,000 halls in 3,440 centres across the state. "After court’s order, we've not allowed that (hijab). We've given clarification that students with hijab can come into the campus wearing the hijab but they cannot put it on in the classroom. The same condition will apply during the exams," Primary and Secondary Edu Minis-ter BC Nagesh said. He had earlier warned the students against skip-ping the exams, saying there would not be any re-examination.

Harnaaz Sandhu

INDIAAHMEDABAD | MONDAY, MARCH 28, 2022


New Delhi (PTI):About 20,000 street chil-dren have been identi-fied across the country till now and are in the process of getting reha-bilitated, according to NCPCR chairperson Priyank Kanoongo. Speaking to PTI on the situation of street chil-dren in India, he said a web portal ‘Bal Swaraj’ has been made for street children where their in-formation can be up-loaded and they can be tracked, and work can

be done towards their rehabilitation.

He said till now, about

20,000 street children have been identified who are in the process

of getting rehabilitated. The senior official, however, rued that states are not working effectively towards identifying and reha-bilitating such chil-dren.

“States are not work-ing as effectively as they must be. We want it to be done as soon as possible. States are be-ing pushed to do it im-mediately. Madhya Pradesh and some areas of West Bengal have done good work for

their rehabilitation, but Delhi and Maharashtra are not doing any-thing,” he said.

Kanoongo also said that due to the inaction of the Delhi govern-ment, only 1,800 chil-dren have been brought into the process, while two years back, we were told that 73,000 children were living on Delhi streets. He estimated that around 15-20 lakh children are living on the streets of India presently.

20K street kids identified, in process of rehabilitationLIVES AT RISK

NCPCR estimated that

around 15-20 L kids are living

on streets; lackadaisical

attitude of some States making it

difficult to rehabilitate kids

About 20,000 street children have been identifi ed.

New Delhi (PTI): A Delhi court has acquitted a man accused of being a member of alleged terror organisa-tion Babbar Khalsa International in relation to the 2005 Satyam Cinema and Liberty Cin-ema bomb blasts, saying police miserably failed to prove the case beyond a shadow of doubt.Additional Sessions Judge Dharmender said that though the prosecution had ascribed meaning to general words like ‘plot’, ‘khet’, ‘fasal’, ‘paani’, etc, in his telephonic con-versation, “the possibility of any police offi cer misinter-preting plain and simple words on account of suspicion and overzealous approach cannot be ruled out”.

New Delhi: The National Testing Agency, NTA, has released the offi cial notifi cation regarding the Central Universities Entrance Test or CUET 2022 on its website--nta.ac.in. As per the notice issued, candidates can register themselves for the CUET 2022 from April 2, 2022, onwards. Once the registration link is active, candidates can register for CUET UG 2022 on the offi cial website — cuet.samarth.ac.in for easy access. Applications can be fi lled between April 2 and April 30, 2022. “Online application forms for under-graduate programmes will open from April 2, 2022. The link for the same will be made available on the offi cial website”.

Beijing: A China Eastern Airlines aircraft with 132 people on board crashed into the mountains outside

the southern Chinese city of Wuzhou on Monday. There were no survivors and an investigation into the cause of the accident is underway. A black box, an electronic recording device placed in an

aircraft, is used to aid investigations in the case of accidents. After the Chinese plane crashed, a search was launched for the two black boxes carried by the Boeing 737-800. The fi rst one - the cockpit voice recorder — was found, although damaged.

COURT ACQUITS ALLEGED TERRORIST IN 2005 DELHI SERIAL BLASTS CASE

NTA RELEASES NOTIFICATION FOR COMMON UNIVERSITY ENTRANCE TEST (CUET 2022)

CHINA PLANE CRASH: SECOND BLACK BOX RECOVERED, SAYS STATE MEDIA

CRUCIAL READ

S Jaishankar calls on Maldivian Prez Solih; discuss partnershipEAM also conveyed personal greetings, good wishes of Prime Minister Modi to President SolihMale (PTI): External Affairs Minister S Jais-hankar on Sunday called on Maldivian President Ibrahim Mo-hamed Solih in Addu City and discussed the special partnership.

Jaishankar, who ar-rived here on Saturday, also conveyed the per-sonal greetings and good wishes of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to President Solih.

“An honour to be re-ceived by President @ibusolih of Maldives. Conveyed the personal greetings and good wishes of PM @naren-dramodi. Discussed the special partnership be-tween our two coun-tries that has produced so many substantive outcomes during his

tenure,” he tweeted.Jaishankar said he

was privileged to join Solih in the inaugura-tion of the National Col-lege of Police and Law Enforcement (NCPLE), which underlines In-

dia’s strong support for law enforcement.

“The NCPLE will as-sist the Maldives Police Service to train its offic-ers and enhance its crime-fighting capaci-ties,” Jaishankar had

said at a joint Press ap-pearance with Maldives Foreign Minister Ab-dulla Shahid.

“Ground-breaking of the Addu roads project, similarly emphasizes our development part-

nership. Also signed an agreement for Addu reclamation and shore protection. Handing over of coastal radar system strengthens the security of Maldives,” he said in tweet.

EAM S Jaishankar exchanges greetings with Maldives President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih on Sunday. —PHOTO BY ANI

EAM pays homage to Indian soldiers commemorated in MaldivesMale: External Affair Minister S Jaishankar on Sunday paid hom-age to the Indian sol-diers commemorated at the Addu Atoll Me-morial in the Maldives. “From the pages of history, a visit to Gan,” Jaishankar said in a Tweet. EAM Jaishankar went to the Maldives on Saturday. He is on

a two-day visit from March 26 to March 27 after he got an invite from his Maldivian counterpart. India-Maldives’ time-tested relationship is today poised for a quantum jump and New Delhi is strongly committed to further progress of relationship, said Exter-nal Affairs Minister.

MHA soon to announce 100 days annual leaveplan for CAPF jawans

New Delhi (PTI): An ambitious proposal mooted by Union Home Minister Amit Shah to allow CAPF jawans spend at least 100 days with their families is likely to be implement-ed shortly, with officials saying the contours for a comprehensive policy are being worked out.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has held multiple meet-

ings, the latest being early this month, to thrash out the issues delaying the implemen-tation of the policy. The policy aims to reduce work-related stress and enhance the happiness quotient of the about 10 lakh troops who under-take arduous duties in some of the most chal-lenging environmental conditions and in re-mote locations.

FILE PHOTO

Indian Army testfires MRSAM air def missileNew Delhi: Indian Army on Sunday suc-cessfully carried out the test firing of the Medium Range Surface to Air Missile air de-fence system off the coast of Odisha’s Balas-ore, Defence Research and Development Or-ganisation (DRDO) in-formed.

“MRSAM-Army mis-sile system flight tested from ITR Balasore, Odi-sha at around 1030 hours intercepting a high-speed aerial target at long range,” DRDO said in a tweet. As per DRDO, the target was destroyed by the missile in a direct hit.

“The system is part of the Indian Army. In the test, the missile se-cured a direct hit at the target at a very far off distance,” DRDO offi-cials said.

Cong slams Govt over fuel hike, seeks account of `26L cr excise dutyNew Delhi (PTI): The Congress on Sunday at-tacked the government after fuel prices were increased for the fifth time in six days, and de-manded that it should give an account of the Rs 26 lakh crore “ac-crued” through excise duty on petrol and die-sel in about eight years. Petrol price on Sunday was hiked by 50 paise a litre and diesel by 55 paise, taking the total increase in rates since resumption of daily price revision less than a week back to Rs 3.70-3.75 per litre.

In a tweet in Hindi, Congress chief spokes-

person Randeep Sur-jewala said, “Will tell with full force, earned a profit of Rs 26,00,000 crore through tax loot on petrol/diesel. Were silent for 137 days to dupe voters in polls, then in only six days, loot of Rs 3.75 per litre.”

He also posted an old video of PM talking about the Opposition crediting his luck for reduction in fuel prices.

PM Modi calls for adopting of water conservation efforts in ‘Mann Ki Baat’New Delhi (PTI):Prime Minister Naren-dra Modi on Sunday urged the listeners of his monthly radio pro-gramme ‘Mann ki Baat’ to save every drop of water and also recycle and reuse water when-ever possible.

Addressing the 87th episode of ‘Mann ki Baat’, PM Modi said, “I would request the lis-teners of ‘Mann Ki Baat’ to reiterate our resolves that we should save every drop of wa-ter. Also, we must give equal emphasis on recy-cling water. The water used at home can be used in pots, can be used in gardening, and must be reused. With a

little effort, you can make such arrange-ments in your homes.”

He also urged the children to be at the forefront of water con-servation efforts.

“In this task of sav-

ing water, I have high hopes from children. Just as our children made cleanliness a movement, they can help save water by be-coming ‘Water Warri-ors’,” PM Modi said.

PM Narendra Modi addresses at the Ahimsa Yatra Sampannata Samaroh Karykram, in New Delhi on Sunday. —PHOTO BY ANI

PM: Let’s make local ‘global’

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said India achieving its export target of USD 400 billion this fi scal shows that the demand for its items is increasing all over the world, and asserted that when every Indian gets ‘vocal for lo-cal’, it does not take much time for the “local to become global”. In his monthly Mann Ki Baat broadcast.

PROPOSAL MOOTED BY SHAH

Parl panel seeks govt, EC views on commissioners for LS pollsNew Delhi: Asserting that the Election Com-mission (EC) should have optimum man-power, a parliamentary committee has sought views of the govern-ment and the poll panel on appointing re-gional commis-sioners to help the EC in the 2024 Lok Sab-ha elections.

There is a provision in the Constitution to appoint regional com-missioners to assist the EC in various elections. During the first LS polls

in 1951, regional com-missioners were ap-pointed for six months in Bombay and Patna.

In its report on De-mands for Grants

(2022-23) for the legislative de-partment in the Union law ministry, the

Parliamentary Standing Commit-

tee on Law and Person-nel said that it has tak-en note of constitution-al provisions and also the submission by the EC stating commission-ers may be appointed by the President of India.

Govt considering dropping Covid pre-callannouncements from phones after 2 yearsNew Delhi (PTI): The Covid-19 awareness pre-call audio announce-ments set by telecom operators at the start of the pandemic may soon become history.

After almost two years of raising aware-ness about the disease, the government is now actively considering the removal of the Covid-19 pre-call messages after receiving representa-tions that audio clips

have served their in-tended purpose and are delaying critical calls during emergencies.

Official sources said the Department of Tel-e c o m m u n i c a t i o n s (DoT) has written to the

Union Health Ministry requesting it to drop these pre-call an-nouncements.

DIP IN CASES

Allow jawans who cleared UPSC to quit and join as officer: Court to Air ForceNew Delhi (PTI): In a case where the Indian Air Force officials were not allowing jawans who had cleared the UPSC civil services ex-aminations and state level civil services ex-ams, to quit service and join as a class I officer, the Armed Forces Tri-bunal has asked the IAF to let them leave and join the civil service within two weeks.

The bench also asked the IAF to change their rules and conditions for granting permission to air warriors for apply-ing for grade A services exams outside the force.

The case was filed by Corporal Ayush Mau-rya and Sergeant Kul-deep Vibhuti through their counsel Ankur Chhibber as Maurya has cleared UPSC ex-ams for 2021.

BIZ BUZZAHMEDABAD | MONDAY, MARCH 28, 2022


Promoted by AU Small Finance Bank

Ukraine war unlikely to roil `5 tn refinancing next fiscal

Mumbai (PTI): Over 1,400 large companies have to refinance `5 lakh crore next fiscal, but the ongoing global crisis following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in the form rising inflation risks and the resultant likely spike in interest rates, is unlikely to cause any trouble for them given their strong balance-sheets and stable earn-ings, says a report.

According to an analysis by India Rat-ings, the top 1,423 non-financial, debt-heavy

corporates have to refi-nance as much as `5 lakh crore next fiscal, but the refinancing risk is manageable de-spite a challenging en-vironment owing to the tightening monetary policy condition, vola-tile commodity prices and rising geopolitical risks.

Total refinancing re-quirement is estimated

at ̀ 5 lakh crore in FY23 on a blue-sky scenario, marginally up from `4.98 lakh crore in FY22, the agency said, but added that the quantum will go up 33 per cent to `6.6 lakh crore in FY23, based on a hazy-sky scenario.

The blue-sky scenar-io assumes growth in revenue and operating margins, while the

hazy-sky scenario as-sumes a moderation in both along with an in-crease in working capi-tal requirements.

The agency expects refinancing risks to ebb in FY23, largely driven by healthy earn-ings in the past two years and a significant deleveraging by many debt-heavy entities. Under the blue-sky sce-

nario, it estimated that 85 per cent of the refi-nancing requirement is likely to be for the top 100 corporates based on gross debt, which have a better credit quality than me-dium- and smaller ones.

In terms of ratings, 75% of the refinancing is for AA-rated or bet-ter entities.

NO CHALLENGESThe top 1,423 non-financial, debt-heavy corporates have to refinance as much as `5 lakh crore next fiscal

PVR, INOX announce merger of operationsNew Delhi (ANI): Cinema brands PVR Limited and INOX Leisure Limited an-nounced their merg-er on Sunday with a view to "delivering an unparalleled mov-ie-going experience" to the audience.The combined entity will be named PVR INOX Limited with the branding of ex-isting screens to con-tinue as PVR and INOX respectively. New cinemas opened post the merger will be branded as PVR INOX, said a release.

Indian consumers show cautious optimism

New Delhi (PTI): In-dian consumers are showing cautious op-timism and balanc-ing non-discretion-ary spending as they are saving more for the future, according to a report.

Indian consumers are prioritising shop-ping, recreational and entertainment activities, according to the Deloitte Con-sumer Tracker re-port. The consumers surveyed are plan-ning to spend a large share of their wallets on personal care and clothing, recreation, entertainment and leisure travel, fol-lowed by electronics and home furnish-ings and restaurants, it said.

“The analysis indi-cates a ray of positiv-ity amongst consum-ers, who are now cau-tiously balancing their happiness and spending and saving

more for the future,” the report noted.

With corporate In-dia returning to “business as usual” and travel restric-tions gradually eas-ing, Indians have re-sumed their business travels, it added.

According to the report, about 83% of consumers are likely to travel for business within the next three months.

Expressing posi-tive sentiments, the majority of the con-sumers have stated

that they are optimis-tic about their finan-cial situations within the next three years as workplaces are opening and COV-ID-19 cases are de-creasing.

Porus Doctor, said that the first three months of 2022 have been an adventurous roller-coaster ride with Indians witness-ing the third wave of COVID-19, leading to a surge in prices of everyday items and supply chain disrup-tions.

Airtel CTO urges Trai for afforadable 5G spectrum pricesNew Delhi (PTI): Ahead of sector regu-lator Trai’s recom-mendations on spec-trum auctions, tele-com operator Bharti Airtel’s Chief Tech-nology Officer Ran-deep Sekhon has made an emphatic appeal for “affordable” pric-ing of 5G radiowaves.

Sekhon said that the 5G will have a mass ap-peal, and not be con-fined to a niche or pre-mium segment, as more cheaper devices become available in a market prepping for the next generation of services.

While 5G will open up immersive enter-tainment, industrial use cases, unlock new avenues in education

and other areas, its biggest upside will be super-fast mobile con-nectivity. “Spectrum pricing will play a very important role. If operators are made to buy a very expensive spectrum, naturally their cash flows will be limited, they will have to pay. But, if it is very reasonable, then it is very possible that the operator will bring the same money on in-creasing footprint faster,” Sekhon said.

Adani, Tata AIG, ICICI Lombard among 54 bidders for Reliance Capital

New Delhi (PTI): Ada-ni Finserve, ICICI Lom-bard, Tata AIG, HDFC Ergo, and Nippon Life Insurance are among the 54 prominent firms that have expressed in-terest to acquire debt-ridden Reliance Capital Ltd, promoted by the Anil Ambani Group, sources said.

The last date for sub-mission of bids for the debt-ridden firm had been extended to March 25 from March 11 earli-er by the Reserve Bank-appointed administra-tor.

Other bidders in-clude Yes Bank, Band-han Financial Hold-ings, Cholamandam In-vestment, OakTree Capital, Blackstone, Brookfield, TPG, KKR, Piramal Finance and Poonawala Finance, sources said.

The deadline was ex-tended on the request of some prospective bidders who had sought more time to submit the Expressions of Interest (EoI), sources said.

The RBI had on No-vember 29 last year su-perseded the board of Reliance Capital Ltd (RCL) in view of pay-ment defaults and seri-ous governance issues.

This is the third large non-banking financial company (NBFC) against which the cen-tral bank has initiated bankruptcy proceed-ings under the Insol-vency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) recently. The other two were Srei Group NBFC and De-wan Housing Finance Corporation (DHFL).

According to the

sources, a majority of the bidders, who have submitted EOIs, have bid for the entire com-pany, while the others have bid for one or more subsidiaries of RCL.

The bidders had two options - either they could bid for the entire RCL or any one or more than one of the subsidi-aries of Reliance Capi-tal.

Adani Total forays into EV mobility infraNew Delhi (PTI): Adani Total Gas Ltd, a joint venture of Adani group and French en-ergy giant TotalEner-gies SE, has forayed into the electric mobil-ity infrastructure sec-tor by launching its first EV charging sta-tion in Ahmedabad.

The charging sta-tion is located at AT-GL’s CNG station at Maninagar.

The EV charging station “will enable quick turnaround time for EV owners with best-in-class fast

charging technology and convenient use digital platforms.”

ATGL is India’s largest private CNG and piped cooking gas distributor.

The company aims to expand its network by setting up 1,500 EV charging stations across the country, and has kept an expan-sion plan ready to move beyond 1,500 EVCS, based on the de-mand generation and momentum building of the EV ecosystem in the country.

Common portal for different government schemes soonNew Delhi (PTI): To improve the ease of living for the com-mon man, the gov-ernment is working on a proposal to launch a common portal for various schemes run by dif-ferent ministries and departments.

As part of the Nar-endra Modi govern-ment’s vision of min-imum government maximum govern-ance, the new portal will initially onboard 15 credit-linked gov-ernment schemes, sources said. The of-ferings will be gradu-ally expanded, de-pending on compati-bility, as some of the Centrally Sponsored Schemes have in-volvement from mul-tiple agencies, they added.

New Delhi (PTI): Engi-neering, telecom and healthcare sectors are likely to add close to 12 million new jobs by FY26, largely due to the focus on recovery along with technology prolif-eration and digitisation in these segments, ac-cording to a report.

A report by Team-Lease Digital said spe-cialised staff or profes-sional staff with high-

skill and expertise will form nearly 17% of the overall jobs created.

“The Engineer-ing, Telecom & Healthcare sec-tors are on the verge of an In-dustry 4.0 trans-formation. There is a shift from a central in-dustrial control system to one where smart products and processes

a r e at the heart of their operations,” said Sunil C, Head- Spe-cialised Staffing, Team-

Lease Digital.Sunil fur-

ther said that the pro-

d u c t i o n -linked incen-

tive (PLI)

scheme and foreign direct in-

vestment is driving an exponential demand, more so for talent with niche skills across these sectors.

“While in overall, there will be a 25–27% rise in job opportuni-ties created by the 3 sec-tors together, the de-mand for skilled talent or specialised staff will grow from the current 45,65,000 to more than 90,00,000 (estimated) by

2026,” Sunil noted.The report further

pointed out that tele-com, engineering and healthcare comprise nearly $1.5 trillion in market size by conserv-ative estimates. Togeth-er, they employ about 42 million people – approx-imately 8.7% of India’s entire workforce – to-day and are estimated to create 12 million more jobs by 2026.

Engr, telecom, healthcare to add 12 mn jobs by FY26

Petrol price hiked 50 paise, diesel up 55 paiseNew Delhi (PTI): Petrol price on Sunday was hiked by 50 paise a litre and diesel by 55 paise, taking the total in-crease in rates since resump-tion of daily price revision less than a week back to `3.70-3.75 per litre. Petrol in Delhi will now cost `99.11 per litre as against `98.61 previously while diesel rates have gone up from `89.87 per litre to `90.42, according to a price notifi cation.

Mcap of 7 of top-10 valued firms tumbleNew Delhi (PTI): The com-bined market valuation of seven of the top-10 valued fi rms tumbled `1,14,201.53 crore last week, dragged down by Hindustan Unilever and HDFC twins. While HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, HUL, SBI, Bajaj Finance, HDFC and Bharti Airtel were among the laggards from the top-10 pack, RIL, Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys were the three gainers.

421 infra projects show cost overrunsNew Delhi (PTI): As many as 421 infrastructure projects, each entailing investment of `150 crore or more, have been hit by cost overruns of more than `4.73 lakh crore. The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementa-tion monitors infrastructure projects of `150 crore and above. Of 1,565 such pro-jects, 421 projects reported cost overruns and 647 pro-jects were delayed.

Stock markets likely to face volatility this week

New Delhi (PTI): Stock markets are likely to witness volatility this week amid monthly derivatives expiry, ongoing Russia-Ukraine confl ict and high crude oil prices. Geopolitical tensions & supply-side concerns would continue to dominate investor sentiment. The scheduled monthly expiry of March derivatives contracts would keep volatility high.

FPI outflow shoots past `1 lakh crore markNew Delhi (PTI): Overseas investors have pulled out a net `1,14,855.97 crore from the Indian markets in the current year so far, amid heightened geopolitical ten-sions and infl ation concerns. Foreign portfolio investors have sold domestic equities worth `48,261.65 crore so far this month, taking the year-to-date tally this year to massive `1,14,855.97 crore.

COVID-19 UPDATE

WORLD

61,46,801TOTAL DEATHS

41,56,20,734TOTAL RECOVERED

5,96,08,157ACTIVE CASES

48,13,75,692TOTAL CASES

INDIA

5,21,034TOTAL DEATHS

4,24,82,262TOTAL RECOVERED

16,157ACTIVE CASES

4,30,19,453TOTAL CASES

AHMEDABAD | MONDAY, MARCH 28, 2022www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia I facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia082NDFRONT

Bhavnagar SP draws HC ire for atrocity against man’s family

First India Bureau

Ahmedabad: A divi-sion bench of Guja-rat High Court re-buked the Bhavnagar district superinten-dent of police for poor policing and called out Palitana police for beating up the family of a man. The court has sought more information about the incident from the police and the matter will be heard next week.

Under a habeas cor-pus petition, a man has requested the court to direct police to produce his wife, with whom he eloped, before the court. He has stipulated that if she agrees to live with him then, her family members must let her

do so with her consent.During the hearing,

the presiding judge questioned the superin-tendent of police, whether the officers re-porting to him ever ap-prised him of the hap-penings in their police station. “When the po-lice station CCTV cam-era is not operational and police are unable to produce footage, the court has to believe what the petitioners submit before it,” said the judge.

On December 14, 2021, the petitioner, who belongs to a mi-nority community, eloped with his lover and approached the marriage registrar of-fice to get their mar-riage registered. After being issued a 30-day notice, police picked up the couple and took them to an undisclosed place. When a habeas corpus petition was filed, police dumped them immediately. As the couple had not got

married yet, the girl was sent back to her pa-rental home and the boy returned to his family.

The petitioner has complained that the police picked up his family members and took them to Palitana police station and beat them up. In their defense, police offi-cials have claimed that they do not have the CCTV footage of the station on that particular date.

First India Bureau

Gandhinagar: In Dhoraji of Rajkot, farmers have issued an ultimatum to the state government over lack of power supply for irriga-tion. They have threatened to lock up the Paschim Gu-jarat Vij Company Limited (PGVCL) of-fice in four days if no action is taken to remedy their woes.

There have been re-ports of people scram-bling for drinking wa-ter in the border areas of the state. With the maximum tempera-

ture in Vav district crossing 40 degree Cel-sius, the drinking wa-ter crisis in Chothane-sada village has wors-ened. It has been facing severe drinking water problems for the last 10 days. Locals had writ-ten to Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel but no steps have been tak-en to provide access to drinking water.

Meanwhile, resi-dents of Prabhatpur village in Junagadh district have been suffering due to lack of electricity for the last four days. Farm-ers had issued a no-tice to the local PGV-CL engineer through a lawyer, demanding immediate compen-sation of Rs25,000 per acre. “Crops cannot be irrigated without adequate electrical power supply. Our crops have been se-verely damaged due to the unavailability of power supply for the last four days,” said a farmer.

First India Bureau

Surat: In a good exam-ple of sustainable de-velopment, Surat’s Hazira Industrial Area has now got In-dia’s first road made entirely of steel waste.

Built using processed steel slag, the unique road is a pilot project of just 1km, but has the po-tential to utilize an un-

used resource while also making more durable roads.

Constructed by Arce-lorMittal Nippon Steel India with CSIR India (Council of Scientific and Industrial Re-search) and the Central Road Research Institute (CRRI) and government think tank Niti Aayog, the six-lane road is 30% thinner than traditional

ones. It has so far shown to be more resilient to wear and tear as well, in an area that sees thou-sands of trucks bearing tonnes of materials.

Every year millions of tonnes of steel waste are produced by differ-ent plants around the country go to landfills, where they are exposed to weathering, sparking concerns about leaching

of potentially toxic ele-ments and hyper alka-line runoffs into the soil and water, endangering the local ecological com-munities. Processed steel slag aggregate shows great potential to be a durable and cost-effective replacement for natural construction material, and can re-duce the pressure on landfills, an official said.

Farmers protested, asking the state to remedy their woes.

Palitana police personnel

allegedly beat them up after

he eloped with a girl

State’s farmers angry over non-availability of power for irrigation

First India Bureau

Mumbai: Armed with hard-hitting all-rounders, new en-trants Gujarat Titans and Lucknow Super Giants would aim to start their IPL cam-paign on a winning note when they square off here on Monday.

Gujarat could most likely open with young Shubman Gill and Af-ghanistan batter Rah-manullah Gurbaz, who is also a wicket-keeper.

The duo can take any opposition attack to task, but would need to be wary of the bounce at the Wankhede stadium.

Gujarat would heavi-ly bank on the perfor-mance of their skipper Hardik Pandya, who has loads of experience

playing at the Wankhede with Mumbai Indians.

Known for his six-hitting prowess, Hardik this season will

have to take more re-sponsibility with the bat and also bat higher up the order. Ditto for Rahul Tewatia, who

would need to shed his one match IPL wonder tag. Tewatia has al-ready said that he would need to take more responsibility with the willow.

Another key all-rounder for them is Vi-jay Shankar and his four overs with his me-dium pace could also make the difference. The three on their day can single-handedly win the game and they would hope that come Monday, they can fire in unison.

Someone like Karna-taka’s Abhinav Mano-har would need to shoulder responsibility

in the middle order along with David Miller.

Key pacer Moham-med Shami will lead the bowling attack and would be looking for a successful run to make a strong case for selec-tion in the India squad for the World Cup in Australia later this year.

Another important cog in their wheel is leg-gie Rashid Khan, who could relish bowling on the Wankhede track.

For Lucknow, a lot rests on their skipper KL Rahul, who could open the batting with South African Quinton De Kock. With a wide range of shots at their

disposal, the duo can pummel any attack to submission.

Lucknow too have an array of all-rounders in Deepak Hooda, Krunal Pandya and West Indi-an Jason Holder and seasoned campaigner Manish Pandey. Evin Lewis too is an explo-sive batter.

The bowlers led by Avesh Khan would need to bowl tightly to stop Gujarat batters. How-ever, it remains to be seen whether the team management play an extra pacer or a spinner and considering that the first game was a low-scoring affair.

Gujarat Titans aim for winning start to campaign debut IPL 2022

They square off

against another new entrant, the

Lucknow Super

Giants today at 7.30 pm

First India Bureau

Vadodara: In a touching inci-dent, a medical team at Sayaji Hospital in Va-dodara treated an underweight child of a woman daily labourer and even dropped them at her pa-rental home in a village near the Gujarat-Maha-rashtra border.

Doctors of the paediatric depart-ment at the hospi-tal conducted a 62-day marathon treatment for the woman and her newborn baby. Af-ter her husband left her alone at the hospital on ar-rival of their third daughter, a team of medical person-nel supported her.

Sister Bhanu-ben Gheewala told First India, “I didn’t even know the name of her in-law’s village. At birth, the baby weighed only 1,100 grams. Under guidance of head of the pediatric department Dr Sheila Aiyar, she was treated for 62 days and the weight increased to a satisfactory level of 1,760 grams.”

When it was time for the wom-an to be dis-charged, the doc-tors managed to track down the ad-dress of her pa-rental home in N a r m a d a Mathasar village of Narmada dis-trict and made ar-rangements to drop the mother and child there.

Infant goes home after 62 days in hospital

Hazira ind area gets India’s 1st long-lasting steel-slag road

BCCI secretary Jay Shah, Gujarat Titans’ captain Hardik Pandya and others at the unveiling of the team jersey in Ahmedabad. —FILE PHOTO

The area sees heavy truck traffi c, which causes wear and tear on roads.

Agri workers in Dhoraji have

threatened to lock the PGVCL office in

protest

Life is hard for those who are convinced of their goals but have no experience to reach them.

—Jagdeesh Chandra, CEO & Editor-in-Chief, First India

eha Jaiswal doesn’t just contain multi-tudes, she displays them, boldly. She has earned a huge name in the fashion and glamour indus-

try at a young age, catapult-ing from an ordinary human to a supermodel without missing a beat. For Neha, be-coming a fashion icon seemed to be written in the stars yet she never failed to work hard towards her dreams while seeking inspiration from her everyday life and incidents. Since being a part of the Elite Miss Rajasthan in 2016, Neha has broken barriers throughout her career.

The stunning model, who has graced countless run-ways, magazine covers, and designer campaigns through-out her still-burgeoning ca-reer, has become a defining face for what a new-age super-model not only looks like but thinks like.

When asked about her jour-ney and background, the diva said, “Moving around various cities has always

me evolve into a better hu-man, has helped me develop knowledge about various cul-tures of the country, it adds to your confidence and helps develop a strong personality. This has helped me a lot in beauty pageants.”

She further added, “I have always been very passionate about my art and acing the glamour in-dustry. And though there were many challenges dur-ing the journey, especially with creating my own identi-ty and a space to speak my heart out. With the support of my friends, family and teachers, I managed to excel and tap my po-tential.”

While express-ing grattude, Neha said, “I was slightly scared and low on confidence before Elite Miss Rajasthan but fortunately with the guid-ance and sup-port of my men-tor Gaurav Gaur, director Elite Miss Rajasthan along with senior supermodels who are no less than a family, I managed to grow and learn. Now I walk with more confi-dence and look-ing up to great-er projects in

future.”

AHMEDABAD, MONDAY, MARCH 28, 2022

www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia 09

NEHA JAISWAL, A PASSIONATE SUPERMODEL AND DEFINITELY A BEAUTY WITH BRAINS, HAILING FROM NEW DELHI, IN AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH CITY FIRST TALKS ABOUT HER FAMILY BACKGROUND, MODELLING FIELD, HER ASPIRATIONS AND CHAMPIONING YOUNG WOMEN AND GIRLS!

MITALI [email protected]

BREATHTAKING BEAUTY

N

Sagittarius NOVEMBER 23 - DECEMBER 21

You will manage to ignore distractions and interrup-tions at work to complete a pending task in time. Job

prospects for those freshly out of professional institutes are set to brighten up soon. Those not in a stable job can expect permanency. Health will be satisfactory.

Capricorn DECEMBER 22 - JANUARY 20

Homemakers will get a chance to implement their ideas. You are likely to be recognised for your efforts

on the professional front. Chance of a raise is possible for some. Timely and correct decision will help you in saving a lot of money. You will be able to de-stress yourself completely today.

Aquarius JANUARY 21 - FEBRUARY 18

A major purchase may make a dent in your savings, but will help in keeping up with the flow .

Speculation may not be profitable and you can very well burn your fingers. Some of you may get hard pressed to find a good match for someone eligible in the family.

Pisces FEBRUARY 19 - MARCH 20

A profitable day for entrepreneurs is envisaged. You may be played upon for spending on someone

else’s needs and desires. Homemakers are likely to enjoy the day in the company of neighbors and friends. Fatigue threatens in a long journey, but adequate breaks will keep you going.

10ETC

AHMEDABAD | MONDAY, MARCH 28, 2022www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia

YOUR DAYHoroscope by

Saurabbh Sachdeva

Aries MARCH 21 - APRIL 20

A rethink is in order for those going in for a heavy investment. Recovering a loaned amount from

someone will not pose much difficulty. You will manage to defuse tensions prevailing at home. A work trip is on the cards for some. You manage to weave your magic on the one you love.

Taurus APRIL 21 - MAY 21

A lot of time may be wasted in socialising, but you will love every moment of it. You will succeed in

surmounting the odds to get a stalled job back on the tracks. Something concerning property will work out in your favour. A romantic outing is on the cards.

Gemini MAY 22 - JUNE 21

Satisfaction is foreseen for the image conscious people trying to achieve perfect figure and

physique. Your efforts on the academic front will keep you in contention. You are likely to spend an enjoyable time. Your helping hand to someone in need will be greatly appreciated.

Cancer JUNE 22 - JULY 22

Spirituality will have a special allure for you. Your innovative ideas on the professional front are likely

to be well received. Good health will keep you fit and energetic. You are likely to expand your social circle. You are likely to get immense fulfillment in your current romantic relationship.

Leo JULY 23 - AUGUST 22

Homemakers can exceed budget in doing up their homes. An old friend or a relative is likely to pay you

a visit. You succeed in putting an ambitious project on the tracks and cross all hurdles in making it a success. Love beckons and promises to give immense joy and fulfillment.

Virgo AUGUST 23 - SEPTEMBER 22

It is one of those days when you will feel satisfied with whatever you do today on the social front. Those

seeking love may not get lucky, but persistence will pay! A friend or relative can touch a sensitive nerve and get you all upset. A job switch needs to be considered.

Libra SEPTEMBER 23 - OCTOBER 22

Financial worries evaporate as new avenues of earning open up. You will put in extra efforts to complete a

task entrusted to you. Your academic aspirations may take some time to get realised. A contentious property issue may not show any signs of getting sorted out amicably.

Scorpio OCTOBER 23 - NOVEMBER 22

Sticking to workout routine may benefit you on the health front. Meeting relatives at a marriage or

party cannot be ruled out. Support from the family may seem most encouraging for those aiming an academic pursuit. A passion-filled evening is foreseen, as romantic front brightens.

he recently released figures by the Minis-try of Education deems Rajasthan to be the worst perform-er in the country’s gender parity index

given the declining trend in the number of girls attending schools from primary to ad-vanced classes. According to the report, these numbers start to decline from 102 girls to just 95 for every 100 boys. The reasons behind these have been lack of toilet facili-ties, long distance to the school, financial strain in al-lowing the girl child to con-tinue as well as people’s mind-set and support for child mar-riages. This has only been ex-acerbated by the onset of the pandemic, where the gross enrolment ratio (GER) of stu-dents in state schools record-ed a decline in the student’s intake from 1.79 crores in 2019-20 to 1.78 crore in 2020-21. In the face of these statistics, two girls from rural Rajasthan have managed to overcome the challenges and continue their education.

19-year-old Neelam Kumari from Dholpur, Rajasthan ex-emplifies the transformation positive intervention can make in the lives of young girls on the margins. Neelam was on the verge of quitting school when she attended an E-Mitra camp in her school in 2018. It is dur-ing this camp that this eighth-grad-er (at the time) man-aged to get her scholar-ship docu-ments in place and was able to continue her studies. Otherwise given the poor financial condition of the family, dropping out of school was the only option. Nevertheless, on reach-

ing grade 10, once again her chances of dropping out in-creased as she could not score the grades required to avail of the OBC category pre-matric scholarship for grade 10. She was sure her parents would marry her off. In desperation, she contacted her teacher who along with the Block Scholarship Mitra counselled her parents on the impor-tance of education and the perils of early marriage and mobilised resources to fund her school fees.

Today, Neelam is a second-year student of the Basic School Teaching Course (BSTC), funding her own and her younger sister Radha’s education by working in a par-lour and doing theatrical work (under the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao scheme). In her words, “During covid, our relatives started suggesting to my par-ents to get us both married. However, to my surprise, Rad-ha became our voice against it. She provided scientific rea-soning for not marrying early provided to her during Udaan-TaRa classes and connected it with how their eldest sister suffered as a teen mother and silenced all those who were putting pressure on us. I was so impressed to see my sister so well informed about her rights and our sexual and re-productive health.” An invet-erate learner, Neelam now wants to work towards a posi-tion of authority so that she can help her community fight corruption and stand up for their rights.

Says Ashish Mukherjee, Project Director (Udaan), IPE Global Ltd - a consultancy that works closely with the Ra-jasthan Govt, “NFHS 5 data accentuates the alarming rate of teenage pregnancies in the country. With the potential of the pandemic to undo the

years of progress made con-cerning ending child mar-riages and teenage pregnan-cies; it is crucial to acknowl-edge the multifaceted and interactive effects of per-

sonal and environmental factors that fuels these social

evils and Udaan’s demon-strated success in re-

taining girls in school through the strengthening of pre-matric scholar-ships, behaviour change strategies and SRH inter-ventions.”

Neelam, mean-while, is now a

role model for girls like 16-year-old Ni-sha Verma

from Alai in Al-war, Rajasthan.

Studying in standard XI, she

tells her story of how she aspires to become a col-lege professor. If it hadn’t been for a scholarship with Udaan’s help, she would have dropped out

of school and been married by now. Nisha says, “My parents are daily wage workers and even though my family has been supportive of my stud-ies, our financial condition was not very encouraging.” Due to the help and guidance she received from ‘Project Udaan’, she was able to access a scholarship and convinced her parents to let her continue her education. “The Udaan team has helped me cross so many hurdles and today I can dream of becoming a college professor. I love teaching, and I want to make sure that girls don’t quit their education.”

These stories remind us of the critical importance of educating girls. Data shows that just 39 per cent of rural girls attend secondary school

and unesco.org has noted that 11 million girls may not re-turn to school post the pan-demic in 2020.

Keeping girls in school is at the heart of what IPE Global, a social sector consultancy, has been trying to address through ‘Project Udaan’ in Ra-jasthan. The project strives to strengthen the delivery of the government’s pre-matric scholarship scheme and be-haviour change interventions to keep girls in secondary school apart from providing essential adolescent sexual and reproductive education. Over the last five years, Udaan has prevented over 52,000 girls in Rajasthan from dropping out after grades 8 and 9, there-by preventing an estimated 17,500 child marriages.

School in rural Rajasthan How Neelam and Nisha’s story could help other girls stay in

MITALI [email protected]

TNeelam

Nisha Verma

Cue reaching for the sky

Nisha Verma

Aamir Khan has left his fans briefly in a state of shock. In a recent interview, the actor revealed that he quit films and acting during the COVID-19 pan-

demic. When asked if he wanted to quit, Aamir told ABP, “No I quit. Nobody knows this. I’m saying for the first time, you will be shocked. I

had informed my family that I won’t be

doing any films from now onwards. Nei-ther I’ll act nor I will produce any films.” If I tell people they will say, “This is his marketing scheme as his film Laal Singh Chaddha is about to release, he is announcing his retirement.” —Agency

Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan have been sending their fans into a frenzy with either new announce-ments or their upcoming film looks.

Shah Rukh Khan recently did that as he shared a rather ‘ab-plastic photo from the sets of Pathaan. Now, as SRK gears up to wrap up his Spain shoot and return to India, there’s more exciting news for fans.

According to the latest report in ETimes, Shah Rukh Khan will be shooting for his se-quence in Salman Khan’s Tiger 3 in June. Not just SRK, but the sequence will feature both King Khan and Salman Khan. —Agency

Ayushmann Khurrana, who has become the poster boy of con-tent cinema in India, feels street theatre played an inval-

uable hand in shaping the artist he is today. On World Theatre Day, Ayush-mann looked back on his early days. For the unversed, the actor did seri-ous theatre for five years. During his college days, he did several

plays at the Gaiety Theatre in Shimla. He was also the

founding member of DAV College’s Aaghaaz and Manchtantra, which are active theatre groups in Chandigarh. —Agency

John Legend and Chrissy Teigen are ready to ex-pand their fam-

ily! Before performing at the Ashley and Pandora Home Tour event in Los Angeles on Friday night, the All of Me vocalist spoke to PEOPLE on his wife Chrissy Teigen’s recent journey to conceive again after losing their third child in 2020. The Holly-wood couple already has a daughter, Luna Simone, 5, and a boy, Miles Theodore, 3. When asked whether their children are aware of their hopes to give them a sibling, Legend, 43, told PEOPLE, “They know we’re trying, and they’re excited.” —Agency

AAMIR QUITS FILMS

Sean Penn supports Amy Schumer’s pro-posal of having Ukraine’s President

Zelensky beam into the Os-cars ceremony, even going so far as to suggest that if it doesn’t happen, the show should be boycott-ed. The Oscar winner – who has two statu-

ettes of his own – made the audacious remark Sat-

urday during a CNN inter-view on the human-itarian effort he and his team are doing in

Europe to pro-vide relief and

supplies to Ukrainians.

—Agency

Li n - M a n u e l Miranda re-cently an-nounced on so-

cial media that he won’t be attending Oscars 2022. Miranda is nomi-nated for a Best Origi-nal Song Oscar at this year’s show for his

song Dos Oruguitas from Encanto as well as his directo-rial Tick, Tick...

Boom! which is com-peting for Best Editing category and also has a Best Actor nod for An-drew Garfield. —Agency

Designer Man-ish Malhotra stirred up so-cial media

over the weekend as several Gen-Z kids walked the ramp and even

modeled for his

brand new collec-tion. While his show-stoppers were actors Siddhant Chaturve-di and Shanaya Ka-poor, many others attended the fashion show. A couple of them were Janhvi

Kapoor and Nysa Devgan who attend-ed the show.

Kajol and Ajay Devgn’s daughter Nysa also modeled Manish Malhotra’s outfit from his latest collection. —Agency

Amy Schumer has admitted to having a hair-pulling issue. She has trichotillo-mania, which is the medical term for obsessive hair pulling, and the ac-

tress claimed she’s been too embarrassed to talk about it until now, despite having had it since she was a youngster. Howev-er, The Trainwreck actress, 40, said that she is concerned that the condition will be passed down to her two-year-old son. The comedian and actress, 40, has had the problem since she was in elementary school and once had to wear a wig to cov-er up her hair loss, she said in a new interview pub-lished Friday by The Hol-lywood Reporter. —Agency

Being a part of one of the biggest girl groups, the multi-talented idol has come a long way from where she began. You can’t talk about K-Pop without talking

about their fashion; especially when it comes to BLACKPINK. And maknae Lisa has proved to be as much a style icon as she is the most followed South Korean artist. Our birthday girl is fast becoming one of the world’s most-watched style icons. The global am-bassador for Celine, Lisa was already a part of the models of NONAGON, YG’s clothing brand, even before she debuted. —Agency

ETCwww.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia I facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia AHMEDABAD | MONDAY, MARCH 28, 2022

11

Miley Cyrus took to her Twitter account to share a series

of emotional tweets as she mourned the loss of late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawk-ins. The singer dedicat-ed her next concert in his hon-

our while paying a heartfelt tribute to him. Remembering Hawkins, Cyrus re-ferred to him as the “most badass dude” in her tribute to the late drum-mer.

—Agency

After Salman Khan confirmed in December last year that a sequel of his 2015 comedy-drama, Ba-jrangi Bhaijaan is in the

works, in an exclusive conversa-tion with Pinkvilla recently, writ-er KV Vijayendra Prasad had informed that he will start writ-ing the script of Pawan Putra Bhaijaan around May, and the story of the second part will continue from where the part one ended. Harshaali ex-presses her excitement for part 2. “I am super duper excited. I am waiting for it to start soon, and I hope that

I have a role in it.” —Agency

CYRUS MOURNS CYRUS MOURNS LOSS OF HAWKINSLOSS OF HAWKINS

Sanjay Dutt is one such actor whose looks and personality still impress a thousand people. He enjoys a massive fan following and fans love to see him either on the silver

screen or in real life. The actor was recently spot-ted with his family in Mumbai stepping out of a restaurant and looking dapper in a floral shirt. Even today, he was spotted heading to Mumbai’s private airport in a funky shirt and we are loving his summer fashion. —Agency

SUMMER FASHION

OSCARS BOYCOTT

Birthday Girl Lisa

BAJRANGI BAJRANGI BHAIJAAN 2BHAIJAAN 2

Trichotillomania

NYSA DEVGAN ON RAMP

Miranda Miranda won’t attend won’t attend

OscarsOscars

KHANS TO REUNITE

WORLD THEATRE DAY

NEW KID!

Sanjay Dutt

Shah Rukh Khan

Aamir Khan

Miley Cyrus

Lin-Manuel Miranda

Sean Penn

Amy Schumer John Legend

Nysa Devgn

Ayushmann Khurrana

Salman Khan

Lalisa Manoban

12AHMEDABAD | MONDAY, MARCH 28, 2022www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia I facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia

CITY BUZZGET VACCINATED

STAY MASKED

he FDCI x L a k m é F a s h i o n Week show-cased the e x q u i s i t e collections,

Diffuse, New Order and Nomad by re-nowned, award-winning design-ers, Manish M a l h o t r a , Satya Paul by Rajesh Pratap Singh and Shantnu & Nikhil respec-tively at the Dhyan Chand Stadium on Sunday.

M a n i s h M a l h o t r a ' s Diffuse was a magical col-lection that unfolds in all its glis-tening glo-ry featur-

ing dis-

tinct geometric pat-terns & eccentric prints peppered with metallic details and brought on two of the current hottest celeb-rities, Shanaya Ka-poor and Siddhant Chaturvedi to close the show and play muse to his latest col-lection.

Satya Paul by Rajesh Pratap Singh showcased "New Or-der" - a collection that spells Evening with a capital E & reminds us of the power of art. The smart & sustainable fabrics provid-ed by R|Elan™ gives flight to their line's flow. Music, fashion and the right to creative expression belong in the streets and public institu-tions.

Shantnu and Nikh-il's nomad was a new direction, a way of looking at design as a responsibility, as well as a great power. With this collection, the de-signers seek to turn the art of design into a weapon, a tool, and a refuge, and through it, to imagine newer, more hopeful worlds and to cast our minds into the future.

UTTKARSHA SHEKHAR

Delhi, India's amazing capi-tal, provides a

window into the rest of the country, with its outskirts bursting with a diverse range of cultures from around the subcontinent. Any-one who has spent enough time in the city has a love-hate connec-tion with it, but there's no doubting that Delhi has too many charms

to ignore, and its ec-centricities make it one of the world's best cities. Continue read-ing and be proud!THE MARK OF CENTURIESDelhi’s stately architecture refl ects the city’s rich cultural history. Delhi has been

known as Indraprastha, Tughlaqabad, Shahjahanabad, Lutyens Delhi, and so on over the years, and you can see the city’s evolution all around you. WIDE HORIZONTAL EX-PANSEDelhi prides itself on featuring some of the

country’s best roads. These beautiful, wide roads give us ample driving space and right from the service

lanes to wide footpaths, we have it all. An endless array of fl yovers and elevated corridors only make the journey easier.

NATURE-WISE DILLIThe city has a lot to be proud of. The city is surrounded by immense vegetation practically everywhere, with green patches lining the roadways and countless parks and gardens dotting the terrain. The green belts are a sight to behold, and they allow you to appreciate nature.

HEAVEN ON EARTHSHUBHANSHI

[email protected]

2BHK Diner & Key Club celebrated its third anniversary in a star-studded appearance recently. The club has been the talk of the town for arranging starling night parties by inviting famous celebs and stars almost every week. Actor Arbaaz Khan was present during the event and tunes by the Rockstar Dj A-Yo were also played. Khan also interacted with his fans during the program.

T

TWITTER UPDATES!!

The President of the Police Family Welfare Committee, Anu Asthana visited Surajkund International Crafts Fair on Saturday. A stall themed "Swayam" was set up which showcased the committee's handmade goods.

STAR STUDDED EVENING!

UTTKARSHA SHEKHAR to ignore, and its ec- known as Indraprastha, lanes to wide footpaths, lanes to wide footpaths,

Delhi The Best City In The World

Siddhant Chaturvedi

Shanaya KapoorFrom

collection Diffuse

Siddhant Chaturvedi, Manish Malhotra and Shanaya Kapoor Shantnu and Nikhil

From collection DiffuseFrom collection New Order

From collection New Order From collection NomadFrom collection Nomad

A BILLION DREAMS - First India

Documents

Transcript of A BILLION DREAMS - First India