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Shedding its Covid-periodinertia, the Samajwadi Party

is racing ahead with its plan tostitch up alliances with small-er parties to take on the BJP inthe forthcoming Assemblypolls in Uttar Pradesh.

In an attempt to strength-en the caste alliance further,Samajwadi Party presidentAkhilesh Yadav met seniorAam Adami Party (AAP)leader and Rajya Sabha mem-ber Sanjay Singh and Apna Dal(Krishna Group) presidentKrishna Patel separately onWednesday, fuelling specula-tion of further alliances.

Krishna Patel later declaredthat her party will share stagewith the Samajwadi Party innear future but did not elabo-rate on the seat arrangement.

The meeting betweenAkhilesh and Singh took placeat Janeshwar Mishra Trustbuilding in Lucknow and last-ed for about an hour. This wasthe third meeting of the AAPleader and Akhilesh.

“In an attempt to giverespite to the people of UPfrom the BJP, we are trying tocome together and talks regard-ing a possible alliance havebeen initiated,” Singh said.

Recently Singh had visitedthe residence of SP patriarch

Mulayam Singh Yadav andgreeted him on his birthday.

Political pundits believethat if the SP and the AAP forgean alliance, it will boost theirchances in the urban areaswhere the BJP has stronghold.

Earlier in the day, Patel metAkhilesh. She claimed that herdeal with the SP is final nowand very soon leaders of bothparties would share a commonplatform.

Another faction of ApnaDal led by Union MinisterAnupriya Patel has an alliancewith the ruling BJP.

Akhilesh has alreadyforged alliance with SuheldeoRajbhar Bhartiya Samaj Party(SBSP) which has a strongbase among Rajbhar commu-nity in east UP. Besides, the SPalso has tied up with Mahan

Dal, which has influenceamong the Maurya-Kachi andKushwaha community in eastand central UP. Last month, theSP had entered into an alliancewith the Jan Kranti Party dom-inated by Lonia community.

Earlier on Tuesday,Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chiefJayant Choudhury had metwith Akhilesh regardingalliance for the coming UPAssembly elections.

"���� )3'430.�

TMC supremo and WestBengal Chief Minister

Mamata Banerjee onWednesday called on PrimeMinister Narendra Modi todiscuss a range of issues,including demand for with-drawal of the order extendingthe BSF’s jurisdiction in theState. She also invited the PMto inaugurate the GlobalBusiness Meet scheduled inKolkata for April 2022.

Howerver, what caused

more attention during the daywas senior BJP leaderSubramanian Swamy callingon the TMC chief a day afterthe regional party inductedseveral senior party membersof the Congress and the JD(U).

Swamy, however, oblique-ly scotched the possibility ofhim joining the TrinamoolCongress. “I was already withher (Mamata). There is noneed for me to join the party,”he told the media.

Swamy who has oftenpraised Mamata on socialmedia met her at TMC gener-al secretary Abhishek Banerjee’sofficial residence in the nation-al Capital. After meeting theTrinamool Congress chief,Swamy said they discussed thepolitical scenario in Bengal.

Continued on Page 2

�� ���"������ )3'430.�

With a significant improve-ment in the Capital’s air

quality, the Delhi Governmenton Wednesday decided toresume physical classes inschools, colleges and all edu-cational institutions and reopenGovernment offices fromNovember 29.

Addressing the media,Environment Minister GopalRai said CNG and electrictrucks, along with the emer-gency service trucks, will beallowed to enter Delhi fromNovember 27.

To encourage DelhiGovernment employees to usepublic transports instead ofpersonal vehicles, Rai said theAAP Government in Delhi

will provide shuttle bus servicefrom the Delhi Secretariat toITO and Indraprastha metrostations.

“There are colonies andareas like Nimri Colony, GulabiBagh, Timarpur, where amajority of Delhi Governmentemployees come from. In allsuch places, the KejriwalGovernment has decided tostart special buses to facilitate

the employees’ commute,” said Rai.

Stressing his Governmentcommitment to fight air pol-lution in all possible ways, Raisaid violation of 14-pointguidelines by construction anddemolition sites will lead toimmediate termination of workand a penalty.

“Since the last three days,there have been improvements

in Delhi’s pollution levels. If welook at the average air qualityindex from before Diwali,Delhi has reached those levelsagain. The pollution levels hadbeen steadily rising afterDiwali. Considering that, mul-tiple restrictions were put inplace, apart from the routineprocesses. Today, we held areview meeting with the high-er officials of Delhi, and many important decisions were taken.

“We are reopening things,but our fight against pollutionwill continue. Therefore, it isnecessary for everyone to coop-erate, because together we canreduce this pollution further sothat Delhi can have better air.So far 1,221 sites have beeninspected. Out of which con-struction work was stopped at105 places. Close monitoring isbeing done daily by the gov-ernment. Conditions will def-initely improve. But theGovernment will not shy awayfrom taking any tough step ifneeded,” he said.

"���� )3'430.�

In its third chargesheet inconnection with the subma-

rine retrofitting informationleak case, the CBI has chargedtwo Naval commandersJagdeesh and Abhishek Shaw.

In the latest chargesheet inthe case, the CBI has alsonamed Commander AjitPandey and retired Naval offi-cer commodore Randeep Singhfor the alleged leak of infor-mation related to advance pay-ment for INS Sindhuratna-MRLC (Medium Refit Life Certification) project,sources said.

Earlier, the agency hadfiled two chargesheets againstsix persons and Hyderabad-based firm Allen ReinforcedPlastics Limited (ARPL). Thethird chargesheet came afterthe agency completed theprobe against CommanderJagdish, who was arrested onSeptember 21.

The agency has also namedCommander Abhishek Shaw inthe chargesheet filed on

Saturday, they said. Several accused, including

retired officers commodoreRandeep Singh andCommander SJ Singh, servingofficer Commander AjitPandey, Commander Jagdishand the executive director ofHyderabad-based AllenReinforced Plastics Ltd, havealready been granted defaultbail in the matter, they said.

While the CBI admittedthe Officials Secrets Act (OSA)probe was on against theaccused persons, but it did notmention it in the chargesheet,leading to the grant of defaultbail to the accused persons.

An accused becomes eligi-

ble for default bail if the inves-tigating agency does not file achargesheet within the stipu-lated period of 60 days in casesrelating to the Prevention ofCorruption Act or 90 days foroffences under the Indian Penal Code.

The CBI had conductedsearches against retired navalofficers Commodore RandeepSingh and CommanderSatwinder Jeet Singh, a dayafter registering the case onSeptember 2 after gettinginformation that the latter wasgoing to share crucial detailsrelated to a meeting in the Navyon the procurement.

Continued on Page 2

"���� )3'430.�

In view of the upcomingAssembly polls in five States,

the Narendra ModiGovernment on Wednesdayapproved a proposal to extenddistribution of 5kg foodgrainsper month for free under thePradhan Mantri Garib KalyanAnna Yojana (PMGKAY) toover 80 crore ration card hold-ers for four months fromDecember 2021 to March 2022.

The decision to extend thescheme was taken by the UnionCabinet on Wednesday. Thephase V of the scheme will costan additional �53,344.52 croreto the exchequer.

Free foodgrains under the

PMGKAY scheme, which wasannounced in March last yearto provide relief to poor peo-ple during the Covid pandem-ic, is over and above the nor-mal quota provided under theNational Food Security Act(NFSA) at a highly subsidisedrate of �2-3 per kilogram.

Briefing about the decision,

I&B Minister Anurag Thakursaid the Cabinet has extendedthe PMGKAY programme byfour months till March 2022.This will cost an additional�53,344 crore to the exchequer,he said, adding that the totalcost of PMGKAY would reachabout �2.6 lakh crore, includ-ing all five phases of this ongo-ing programme.

The scheme provides 5 kgof rice or wheat per person and1 kg of dal to each family hold-ing a ration card.

Earlier, Delhi ChiefMinister Arvind Kejriwal wroteto Modi requesting him toextend the CentralGovernment’s quota of freeration supply until May 2022.

In the wake of economicdisruptions caused by theunprecedented outbreak ofCovid-19 in the country lastyear, the Government had in

March 2020 announced thedistribution of additional free-of-cost foodgrains (rice/wheat)to about 80 crore NationalFood Security Act (NFSA)beneficiaries.

The Phase-I and Phase-IIof this scheme were operationalfrom April to June 2020 andJuly to November 2020, respec-tively. The Phase-III of thescheme was operational fromMay to June 2021, while Phase-IV of the scheme is cur-rently operational for July-November, 2021.

“The PMGKAY schemefor Phase V from December2021 till March 2022 wouldentail an estimated additionalfood subsidy of �53,344.52crore,” an official statementsaid. The total outgo in termsof foodgrains for PMGKAYPhase V is likely to be about163 lakh tonnes.

"���� )3'430.�

In line with Prime Minister’sNarendra Modi’s announce-

ment, the Union Cabinet onWednesday approved the Bill torepeal the three controversialfarms laws.

“The Cabinet has com-pleted the formalities to repealthe three farm laws,” I&BMinister Anurag Thakur toldreporters. “In the upcomingsession of Parliament, it will beour priority to take back thesethree laws,” he said. The WinterSession will begin onNovember 29 and conclude onDecember 23.

The Bill titled the FarmLaws Repeal Bill, 2021, willseek the rollback of the threelaws, namely, Farmer’s ProduceTrade and Commerce(Promotion and Facilitation)

Act, The Farmers(Empowerment andProtection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Act and TheEssential Commodities(Amendment) Act.

"���� )3'430.�

Two doses of Covaxin, alsoknown as BBV152, are 50

per cent effective against thesymptomatic disease as perthe first real-world assessmentof India’s indigenous vaccineagainst the deadly infection,published in The LancetInfectious Diseases journal.

The number is significant-ly lower than the 77.8 per centefficacy that Bharat Biotech,manufacturer of the Covaxin,had claimed on the basis of theinterim phase 3 trial results ofthe vaccine. It was released ear-lier in November.

The latest study publishedin The Lancet assessed 2,714hospital workers at the AllIndia Institute of MedicalSciences (AIIMS) in Delhi,from April 15-May 15, whowere symptomatic and under-went RT-PCR test for Covid-19

detection.Researchers noted that the

Delta variant was the dominantstrain in India during the studyperiod, accounting for approx-imately 80 per cent of all con-firmed Covid-19 cases.

Covaxin, developed by theHyderabad-based pharma firmin collaboration with theNational Institute of Virology,Indian Council of MedicalResearch (NIV-ICMR), Pune,is an inactivated whole virusvaccine administered in a two-dose regimen, 28 days apart.

"���� 01/�)2'

The Congress and the BSPreceived another setback in

Uttar Pradesh before the cru-cial Assembly polls when rebelCongress MLA Aditi Singhfrom Rae Bareli’s Sadar seatjoined the BJP; and rebel BSPMLA from Sagri seat ofAzamgarh district VandanaSingh did the same.

Vandana was suspended bythe BSP for anti-party activities.She said the BSP never heardher side and suspended herwithout any reason. “ThereafterI met Yogi Adityanath and heasked me to join BJP,” she said.

Leaders of various politi-cal parties took the member-ship of the BJP in the presenceof BJP State president

Swatantra Dev Singh in

Lucknow.Welcoming both the lead-

ers, Singh said joining of thesesitting MLAs gives a clear pic-ture of what will happen in2022 Assembly polls.

Aditi has been criticisingthe Congress and hailing thepolicies of the BJP Governmentfor a long time. Recently, Aditi had said she wanted to bea part of Yogi’s team andclaimed Yogi is the most pop-ular CM.

Aditi had even criticisedPriyanka Gandhi saying she isonly doing drama. “If she hadbeen aware of women’s pride,she would have first actedagainst her personal secretarySandeep Singh, who has beenbooked for molesting awoman,” Aditi had said.

Continued on Page 2

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� �����6�� �����7������-���� �� �������6������&New Delhi/Shillong: TheTrinamool Congress (TMC)received yet another shot in thearm on Wednesday after for-mer Chief Minister ofMeghalaya Mukul Sangma,along with 12 Congress MLAs,joined the TMC giving WestBengal Chief Minister MamataBanerjee’s party presence inthree north-eastern States afterAssam and Tripura.

Sangma met TMC MP andparty’s general secretaryAbhishek Banerjee onSeptember 21 first, fuellingspeculation of him and hisentire team joining the TMC.Congress leaders Kirti Azadand Ashok Tanwar joined theTMC a day earlier in the pres-ence of Mamata, who is innational Capital. The lateevening development came asa huge setback for the grand oldparty in Meghalaya and par-ticularly in NE region as 12 ofthe 18 party MLAs joined theTMC on Wednesday.

Sangma, the Leader of theOpposition in the Assembly,was reportedly unhappy withthe Congress’s top leadership.Reports suggested that Sangmafelt cornered in the party andhe had given enough indica-tions of quitting the party ofthings does not work. PNS

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ADelhi court has directedthe police to register an

FIR against BJP leader SambitPatra for allegedly posting adoctored video of Delhi ChiefMinister Arvind Kejriwal sup-porting the farm laws, saying itmay have resulted in riotinglike situation across the nation.

Metropolitan MagistrateRishabh Kapoor directed theDelhi Police to register theFIR under relevant sections ofthe Indian Penal Code (IPC)and conduct a thorough inves-tigation against the BJPSpokesperson while allowingthe application of Aam AadmiParty (AAP) MLA Atishi.

Atishi had moved the courtseeking registration of FIRagainst Patra claiming that thevideo contained statementsthat were diametrically oppo-site to the stand taken by theDelhi CM and the Aam AadmiParty concerning the farm lawsand caused discontent and dis-satisfaction in the minds offarmers.

The judge noted, “The factthat the video was published onthe Twitter handle of proposedaccused with the caption 'teenofarm bills ke laabh ginate hue(Counting the benefits of the

three farm bills) Sir ji'..., primafacie proves that same was cir-culated with no intention butto cause the farmers to believethat Kejriwal is supporting thefarm laws, which may have per-petuated the State of outragewith the protesting farmersand may have resulted in riot-ing like situation across thenation.”

The court said that a “thor-ough investigation” wasrequired to be conducted con-sidering the seriousness of theallegations and directed theSHO to register the FIR againstPatra and initiate the probe.

The judge noted that in theoriginal video, Kejriwal wasseen replying to a questionasked by a journalist by quot-ing that in the speeches givenby leaders of BJP in support offarm laws, it was stated that dueto the operation of said laws,the farmers will not lose theirlands, the minimum supportprice assured to them will notbe lost, the mandi system willnot overturn.

"In this video itself, at theend of each sentence itself,Kejriwal can be seen saying thatthe above-quoted benefits ofthe farm laws were already inexistence even prior to theoperation of said laws," the

judge said. The chief minister was also

seen responding to the ques-tions regarding the solutionsproposed by the farmers and inthis context and he spoke insupport of MSP measures, thejudge said.

The court also noted thatKejriwal was seen saying that ifMSP comes into operation, itwould be the most revolution-ary law made in the past 70years.

the impugned video cliprunning in 18 seconds, it wasseen that the stances quoted bythe Delhi CM in the originalvideo were placed and doctoredin such a way to give themcolour as if he was speaking insupport of farm laws,” the mag-istrate noted in an eight-pageorder.

The court further said thatthe findings in the ForensicScience Laboratory (FSL)report reflected that the videowas opined to have beenaltered.

Atishi had claimed thatshe gave a formal complaint tothe station house officer (SHO)of IP Estate police station andDCP Darya Ganj in February2021 and was assured that theFIR will be registered.

"���� )3'430.�

The Delhi High CourtWednesday sought

response from the Delhi gov-ernment, ExciseCommissioner, and EDMCCommissioner on a petition bytwo residents challenging theopening of a liquor shop intheir locality.

A bench of Chief JusticeDN Patel and Justice JyotiSingh issued notice on thepublic interest litigation byeast Delhi's Chander Nagarresidents and listed the matterfor further hearing on January

27. The petitioners haveclaimed that ever since the per-sons residing in the localityhave come to know about theopening of a liquor shop nearthem, they are “scared” abouttheir children's future, “mod-esty of the ladies, young girlsand teenagers”, law and ordersituation as well as the welfareof the locality. They argued thatthe opening of the liquor shopin question violates the DelhiExcise Act and Rules as it fallsunder is "restricted area as perthe settled law".The petition hasclaimed that the proposed shopis only 30 meters from the East

Delhi Municipal Corporation(EDMC) Primary School, 60meters from two temples, and50 meters from a governmentdispensary. The petition alsosaid that the shop is locatedwithin 100 meters of a colonyof labourers, chemists, and ageneral store.

“As per norms of theGovernment of Delhi, a liquorshop cannot function within50-100 meters of a school,temple, etc. Any permissionbeyond the permissible limitenvisages appropriate actionagainst the officials,” the peti-tion has stated.

"���� )3'430.�

The Delhi High CourtWednesday asked the

Centre and Delhi Governmentto start the recruitment processfor the appointment of doctorsand paramedical staff inGovernment-run hospitalshere.

The court was hearing apetition which claimed thatthere is an acute shortage ofdoctors and paramedical staffin government-run hospitals inthe city. “You (authorities) startthe recruitment process andappoint them. Show somespeed. This is required,” saidthe bench comprising ChiefJustice DN Patel and JusticeJyoti Singh.

“It is not necessary that allvacancies should be filled (if)you are not getting suitable can-didates. Start the process. Youcan't say that you will neverstart the process,” the benchsaid while hearing a petitionseeking immediate filling up ofvacancies in Government-runhospitals on an urgent basis.

The court issued noticeon the public interest litigationby Dr. Nand Kishore Garg —a social activist and former

Delhi MLA and soughtresponse from the All IndiaInstitute of Medical Science(AIIMS), Safdarjung Hospital,and Ram Manohar LohiaHospital.

The petitioner, representedby lawyer Shashank Deo Sudhi,claimed that there is an acuteshortage of doctors and para-medical staff in Government-run hospitals in the city, whichis resulting in innocent andpoor patients being forced toapproach private hospitals andpay huge amounts of money.

The petitioner has claimedthat the Government authori-ties have not carried out theirconstitutional responsibilitiesand thus violated Articles 14and 21 of the Constitution.

“As per the RTI repliesdated February 7, 2020, 1838doctors have been working inthe health and welfare depart-ment of Delhi while 745 postsof doctors were lying vacantand as per the RTI reply dated

November 2, 2021, thegovernment hospital like GuruTegh Bahadur hospital thesanctioned strength of para-medical officials is 475 and outof which 135 post are vacant,”the petition stated.

�� ���"������ )3'430.�

The Delhi Government willbe sending senior citizens

of the national Capital to payobeisance at Ram Lalla’sDarbar. Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal said on Wednesdaythat the first train will leave forAyodhya on December 3.Kejriwal made the announce-ment while addressing a con-ference, “Our first train forAyodhya will be leaving onDecember 3, registrations havestarted.”

Delhi residents can registerand apply on the e-districtportal -https://t.co/lr56rjpse8?amp=1

“I have very good news forthe people of Delhi. I had vis-ited Ayodhya and paid obei-sance to Shri Ram Lalla at theJanambhoomi. The time Ispent in the darbar of Lord ShriRam engulfed me with divini-ty and peace throughout. As I

stepped out of the premises Ihad only one thought in mymind — Lord, please bestowupon me the strength to helpeach and every citizen of thiscountry visit Ayodhya andoffer prayers in your darbar. Assoon as I came back to Delhi,we revisited our MukhyamantriTirth Yatra Yojna and addedAyodhya to the list of routes,”Kejriwal said.

The Chief Minister furtherstated that the DelhiGovernment has also addedTamil Nadu’s VelankanniChurch in the list of pilgrimagesites under the scheme forsenior citizens of the nationalcapital.

The Delhi Cabinet hadapproved the proposal of inclu-sion of Ayodhya as one of thepilgrimage sites under thescheme.

According to governmentofficials, the first train toAyodhya under the scheme

will carry as many as 1,000senior citizens of Delhi.

Notably, the AAP-led Delhigovernment bears the expen-diture of the pilgrims under the'Mukhyamantri Tirth YatraYojana' for their pilgrimage toa total of 13 religious sites,including Shirdi, Haridwar,Mathura, Vaishno Devi,Vrindavan and Puri, amongothers.Any citizen from thenational capital who is aged 60years or more can avail of thescheme after acquiring a cer-tificate from their local MLA,stating that they live in the leg-islator’s constituency. Since thescheme is for elderly people,one attendant aged 21 or morecan accompany the person andDelhi government will bearhis/her expenses as well.

Kejriwal has promised thesame free pilgrimage schemesin Goa and Uttarakhand aswell, where assembly electionsare scheduled next year.

�� ���"������ )3'430.�

The Delhi PoliceCommissioner Rakesh

Asthana on Wednesday saidaround 7,000 personnel havebeen trained in the last threemonths to handle cyber crimecases in the national Capital.

“We have set up cyber-crime police stations in eachpolice district. The notificationhas been issued and I think,they will start functioning fromDecember 1. Nearly 7,000policemen have been trained inthe last three months to handlethese cases effectively. TheIntelligence Fusion andStrategic Operations unit willsupport them,” Asthana toldthe media during a programmeby the Indian Women’s PressCorps.

“You will find that the paceof registration and investigationof cybercrime cases will beexpedited. We are fully awarethat the cases of cybercrime areshooting up with each passing

day. The Delhi Police has beenin the forefront of handlingcybercrimes expeditiously,” saidthe CP.

The Delhi Government'shome department notificationon November 17 said it is con-sidered necessary to set upcyber police stations in eachnotified police district to inves-tigate cybercrime cases.

Accordingly, cyber policestations will be set up in all 15police districts, Asthana said.

“The Lieutenant-Governorof the National CapitalTerritory of Delhi, in order tofacilitate extension of better

police assistance to the public,hereby, is pleased to direct anddeclare that the cyber policestations in east, northeast,south, southeast, southwest,west, outer, central, north,northwest, Shahdara, Rohini,New Delhi.

Dwarka and outer northshall be the cyber police sta-tions in each notified 15 policedistricts in Delhi from the dateof issue of this notification,” itread.

The cyber police stationsshall have jurisdiction over theentire police district, the noti-fication had stated.

NEW DELHI:Food and CivilSupplies Minister of DelhiImran Hussain Wednesdayreviewed the situation arisingout of the sudden and undueincrease in the retail prices oftomato in the markets of Delhi.

Commissioner, Food andCivil Supplies (CFS), JointCommissioner and senior offi-cers of the intelligence team ofFood and Civil SuppliesDepartment attended the meet-ing. Hussain directed the com-missioner to instruct theMarket Intelligence Unit todepute teams in the market forascertaining the reasons forabrupt increase in the prices.

He also reviewed the pricetrend of other commodities likeOnion, potato and other essen-tial commodities and directedthe officers to take effectiveaction against any essentialcommodity hoarding activityThe minister directed that theintelligence teams should alsogather information aboutinstances of hoarding and/ orblack marketing of tomatoes, ifany, so that the concerneddepartments could initiate nec-essary action against themunder the EssentialCommodity Act.

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The Dialogue andDevelopment Commission

of Delhi (DDC) and WorldResources Institute (WRI),India will be launching the‘Workplace Electric VehicleCharging Guidebook forCorporates in Delhi’ onNovember 29.

The Guidebook aims tohelp employers in their journeyof adopting Electric Vehicle(EV) charging at the workplace.

Delhi governmentannounced the Delhi ElectricVehicle Policy in August, 2020,with a vision to promote theadoption of electric vehicles inthe city and to make Delhi theEV Capital of India.

The policy aims toimprove Delhi’s air quality bydriving the transition to elec-tric vehicles, so that they canreach 25% of all new vehicleregistrations by 2024.

In line with this vision,Delhi Government has takenseveral progressive steps suchas introducing subsidies onthe purchase of EVs and thelaunch of a single-windowfacility to enable the installationof EV charging points in pri-vate and semi-public spaces in

the city.Through the launch of

this guidebook, DelhiGovernment is looking for-ward to encourage corporatesin Delhi to join hands in pro-moting EVs by adopting work-place charging. This guide-book aims to guide corporatesin assessing the scope forworkplace charging, detailsthe processes involved in effec-tive decision-making alongwith setting the way forwardfor its planning and imple-mentation.

Vice Chairperson, DelhiDialogue and DevelopmentCommission of Delhi, JasmineShah said, “Under the vision setby Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal of making Delhi theEV capital of India.

Delhi Government hastaken many pioneering steps topromote adoption of EVs andbuild charging infrastructure atmass scale. Research showsthat 90% of EVs are charged athome or workplace.

By launching this step-by-step guide to install workplacecharging, Delhi governmentaims to become the first stategovernment in India to makecorporates an integral part ofthe EV movement."

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Following the ‘death threatfrom ISIS Kashmir’, the

Delhi Police has tightenedsecurity outside the residenceof BJP, MP Gautam Gambhir.

According to ShwetaChauhan, the DeputyCommissioner of Police(DCP), Central district, a com-plaint was received fromGaurav Arora, personal secre-tary to Gambhir, at RajendraNagar police station onWednesday.

"The complaint alleged thatan unidentified person hassent an email on Tuesday onthe email ID of GautamGambhir threatening to killhim and his family members,"she said. "On receiving thecomplaint, the district policeincreased (Gambhir's) person-al security as well as the secu-rity of his residence in RajendraNagar area. The police are cur-rently enquiring into the source

of the complaint," the DCPadded.

However, no FIR has beenregistered in the matter yet asan enquiry is in process," policesaid.Police said that along withthe Cyber Cell of the police ofthe Central district, an enquiryis also being carried out by theSpecial Cell.The complaint stat-ed that a death threat from"ISIS Kashmir" was received onthe official email ID ofGambhir at 9.32 PM onTuesday.The mail read, "We aregoing to kill you and your fam-ily”, the officials said.In thecomplaint, a request was madeto look into the matter, regis-ter an FIR and make necessarysecurity arrangements, policesaid.

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From Page 1Aditi is the daughter of for-

mer Sadar MLA AkhileshSingh. Akhilesh Singh passedaway in August in the year2019. Akhilesh was a five-timeMLA from Rae Bareli Sadarseat. Aditi left the Congressafter the death of her father.Not only this, she openly spokeagainst the Congress. OnNovember 21, 2019, Aditi gotmarried to Angad Saini,Congress MLA from Punjab.

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From Page 1The duo even posed for

photographs after their meet-ing. Swamy had met state’sGovernor Jagdeep Dhankhar inKolkata early this week.

During her meeting withthe PM, Mamata told Modithat the federal structure of thecountry should not be dis-turbed in any way. Speaking tothe media after the meeting,she said that she invited thePrime Minister to inauguratethe Global Business Summitwhich would be held in WestBengal next year. The chiefminister said that she raised theissue of violence in Tripura inwhich TMC workers wereallegedly assaulted by BJPworkers.On the upcomingUttar Pradesh Assembly polls,the TMC supremo said, “IfAkhilesh (Samajwadi Partychief) needs our help, then weare ready to extend help.”

On media speculation thatduring her this visit she chose

to skip calling on Congresschief Sonia Gandhi, Mamataclarified that she did not seektime with anyone other thanthe Prime Minister, saying sheunderstood that leaders arebusy with the Punjab polls. Inalmost all her visits to thenational Capital in recent years,Mamata always met Sonia. Inher last visit, she had metSonia, former party chief RahulGandhi, and few other seniorparty leaders.The TMC chiefsaid she will meet MaharashtraChief Minister UddhavThackeray and NCP chiefSharad Pawar during her visitto Mumbai on November 30-December 1.On Tuesday twoCongress leaders - Kirti Azad(also a former BJP MP), AshokTanwar and JD(U) leaderPawan Varma joined theTrinamool Congress. Swamylater tweeted, “Of the all thepoliticians I have met orworked with, Mamata Banerjeeranks with JP (JayaprakashNarayan), Morarji Desai, RajivGandhi, Chandrashekhar, andPV Narasimha Rao who meantwhat they said and said whatthey meant. In Indian politicsthat is a rare quality.”

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From Page 1The duo was arrested fol-

lowing the searches onSeptember 3.

The CBI has filed two sep-arate chargesheets against theaccused serving and retiredofficials besides others forallegedly passing on confiden-tial information about India’sKilo Class submarines to“unauthorised persons”.

They were allegedly pass-ing confidential commercialinformation on the MRLC pro-gramme of India’s Kilo Class

submarines to unauthorisedpeople for illegal gratification,the CBI had said after filing twoseparate chargesheets onNovember 3. The case wasregistered following a referencefrom the Intelligence agenciesthat provided inputs that someserving officers in the WesternHeadquarters of Navy workingon retrofitting of Russian Kiloclass submarines were alleged-ly being influenced by retirednaval officers and were receiv-ing pecuniary benefits, theagency had said.

The agency is probing alle-gations into the leak of confi-dential information pertainingto procurements and mainte-nance of naval equipment forthe submarines for pecuniarybenefits and bribery in deal forthe Mine Laying Saddle for thesubmarines from (ARPL).

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New Delhi: In a move that willbenefit owners of lakhs ofcommercial vehicles in thenational capital, the DelhiTransport Department hasfixed the fees for issuing speedlimit device certificates at �500.Commercial vehicles require

the certificate to show they areequipped with a functionalspeed limit device (also calledspeed governors) at the time oftheir fitness test. Currently,�2,500 to �3,000 is charged forissuing speed limit device cer-tificates. PTI

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Two days after PrimeMinister Imran Khan

announced that Indian human-itarian aid of 50,000 metric tonof wheat can be transported toAfghanistan through his coun-try, Islamabad on Wednesdayformally conveyed the decisionto New Delhi in this regard.

Pakistan also said it hasallowed transportation of life-saving medicines from India toAfghanistan via Attari-Wagahborder on an "exceptional basisfor humanitarian purposes."

The decision came weeksafter India urged Pakistan toallow the land route to ferryhumanitarian aid. So far,Pakistan allows onlyAfghanistan to ferry goods toIndia through road but exportsfrom Indian through land isnot permitted.

Meanwhile, India onWednesday reaffirmed theneed for an inclusive negotiat-ed political settlement to theAfghan crisis and said the ter-ritory of Afghanistan shouldnot be used to the detriment ofany other country.

Making this assertion here,Foreign Secretary HarshShringla said New Delhi is in

touch with all countries con-cerned over is in touch with allcountries concerned on theAfghan issue, noting that it willhave to see how best to protectits interests and "make thebest" of a difficult situation. Hemade these observations in avirtual interactive session at theIndian Chamber ofCommerce(ICC).

As regards permission toIndia to ferry aid, "The decisionof the government of Pakistanto this effect was formally con-veyed to the Charge d' Affairesof India at the Ministry ofForeign Affairs," the ForeignOffice (FO) said in a statementin Islamabad on Wednesday.

The FO said wheat andmedicines to Afghanistanwould be allowed to enterthrough “Wagah Border on anexceptional basis for human-itarian purposes”.

Last month, Indiaannounced 50,000 metrictonnes of wheat forAfghanistan as humanitarianassistance and requestedPakistan to ship the foodgrain via the Wagah border.

India has contributed tothe humanitarian require-ments of the Afghan people.This included providing morethan 1 million metric tonnes

of wheat to Afghanistan overthe past decade.

Last year too India assist-ed Afghanistan with 75,000metric tonnes of wheat,External Affairs Minister SJaishankar had said at theUnited Nations High-LevelMeeting on the Humanitariansituation in Afghanistan inSeptember.

Imran Khan on Mondayannounced the decision assoon as modalities are final-ized with the Indian side. Hesaid this while approving ahumanitarian assistance pack-age for Afghanistan.

He visited the newAfghanistan Inter-MinisterialCoordination Cell (AICC) inIslamabad and chaired thefirst apex committee meetingof the cell. The meeting wasalso attended by ForeignMinister Shah MahmoodQureshi, Pakistan Army chiefGeneral Qamar Javed Bajwaand National SecurityAdviser(NSA) Moeed Yousaf.

An official statement afterthe meeting also said“Pakistan will also facilitatethe return of Afghan patientswho had gone to India formedical treatment and arestuck there, the PrimeMinister announced.”

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Regular international flightoperations, which have

remained suspended owing tothe Covid-19 pandemic, isexpected to return to normalsoon. Civil Aviation MinistrySecretary Rajiv Bansal onWednesday said that interna-tional passenger flight servicesare expected to be normalisedsoon and possibly by the endof this year.

As per the DirectorateGeneral of Civil Aviation(DGCA), the internationalflight operations have beensuspended till November 30.The government has beenallowing commercial inter-national flights on a case-to-case basis.

Scheduled internationalpassenger flights to and fromIndia were suspended inMarch 2020 due to the covid-19 pandemic. However, therestrictions will not apply tointernational all-cargo opera-tions and flights specificallyapproved by DirectorateGeneral of Civil Aviation(DGCA), a circular added.

Currently, India hasformed air-bubble pacts with

around 28 countries, includ-ing the US, the UK, the UAE,Kenya, Bhutan and France.Under an air-bubble pactbetween two countries, specialinternational flights can beoperated by their airlinesbetween their territories withspecific restrictions.

After the first wave ofCOVID-19 subsided, a lot ofcountries opened their bor-ders for tourists from India,especially Dubai, Maldivesand Seychelles. However, wethe arrival of second-waveand increasing cases, almostevery country put India on ared list of internationalarrivals. Things, now, areagain going back to normaland with India managing toreduce infection rate drasti-cal ly, international travellers from India holdingtourist visas are being allowedby many countries. With thevaccination meted out andcountries allowing interna-tional travel, there is a greatrelief.

On the other hand,domestic air passenger traffichas seen an uptick, almostreaching pre-Covid levels. OnNovember 23, over 3.59 lakh

domestic air passengers trav-elled via 2743 flights acrossIndia. Last weekend, 3.94 lakhdomestic air passengers trav-elled, which is highest sincethe pandemic.

Last week, Civil AviationMinister Jyotiraditya Scindiasaid the government was eval-uating the process for nor-malising international opera-tions and asserted that itwants to return to normalcywhile keeping in mind thecoronavirus pandemic situa-tion in certain parts of theworld.

Speaking about its loss-making carrier Air India,Bansal said it is likely to behanded over to the Tata groupby the end of the year. “We aremaking efforts to handover alloperations of Air India by theend of December’. Air Indiahas been incurring a month-ly loss of more than �600crore, he noted. On October25, the Government signedthe share purchase agreementwith Tata Sons for the sale ofthe airline for �18,000 crore.The amount includes pay-ment of �2,700 crore in cashand take over �15,300 crore ofthe carrier's debt.

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At a time when Statesshould have been closely

monitoring prevalence ofsevere acute respiratory infec-tion [SARI] & influenza-likeillness [ILI])/ respiratory dis-tress symptoms for earlyhotspot identification as win-ter sets in and pollution levelincreases, many of them haveslowed the pace of conductingCovid-19 tests.

Fearing that this poorpace could undermine theactual infection spread with-in the community, the Centrehas taken exception to thisdisturbing and casualapproach, particularly in thebackdrop of multiple surges inthe Covid-19 caes in a major-ity of countries in recent timesand a few developed nationsreporting even fourth andfifth wave despite high levelsof Covid vaccination.

The Union HealthMinistry on Wednesday wroteto at least 13 states includingthe populated one likeMaharashtra, Kerala, Punjab,Rajasthan, West Bengal andthose in Northeast such asNagaland, Sikkim, Manipur,Meghalaya, Mizoram toincrease the pace of testing.The other three States areGoa, Jammu and Kashmir,Ladakh.

The Ministry said that inthe absence of sustained lev-els of sufficient testing, it isvery difficult to determinethe true level of infectionspread in a geography.

“Nagaland has reported342 average daily tests as of theweek ending 22nd November.This is in a stark contrast to ahigh of 1,250 average daily tests conductedin the week of August 23-29.It is also worrying to note thatthe state has recorded a pos-itivity of 1.5 per cent in the

week ending 22nd November,having stagnated over the past4 weeks, with an abysmallylow share of RT-PCR testsi.e.,8.2 per cent,” the Ministrycited the status to the States.

“Further, worrying trendswith regards to tests, testsper million, positivity rateand higher dependence onRapid Antigen tests have beenobserved in various districts ofthe State… The positivity indistricts such as Mokukchongand Peren has been above 2.5per cent, with RT-PCR sharefalling below a decent pro-portion of the total tests.”

The Ministry has direct-ed these states to maintain themomentum and build on theprogress made so far to bringthe pandemic situation undercontrol.

“While there has been asignificant decline in the newcases with 10,195, averagedaily cases reported in theweek ending 22nd November,it has been observed thatthere has also been a declinein weekly testing rates,” wroteUnion Health SecretaryRajesh Bhushan to these statesand territories.

The letter said in theabsence of sustained levels ofsufficient testing, it is very dif-ficult to determine the truelevel of infection spread.“With a majority of countriesseeing multiple surges inCovid cases in recent timesand a few developed countriesfacing even fourth and fifth waves despite high levelsof Covid vaccination, there isa need for continued vigilgiven the unpredictable andcontagious nature of the dis-ease…”

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Army Chief General M MNaravane on Wednesday

lauded the people ofBangladesh for standing upfor their right to liberty andindependence in 1971. He alsoappreciated Bangladesh’s effortsto deny space to terroristgroups who are trying to carryout subversive activities againstIndia.

In a message played outduring an event here onWednesday to mark 50 yearsof India-Bangladesh ties, healso asserted that “the historicLand Boundary Agreement”(LBA) between the two coun-tries has shown how an issuerelated to border can be“resolved with mutual nego-tiations and a constructiveoutlook”.

This, at a time when “cer-tain countries” have been trying

to “alter the status quo by force,and bypassing traditional rulesand protocols, with completedisregard to territorial integri-ty of others,” Naravane said,without naming any country.

The LBA epitomises the3Ms — “mutual respect, mutu-al trust and mutual commit-ment — to a rules-based order”,the Army chief said. He alsosaid the two countries share animportant strategic space inthe Indian subcontinent with aland boundary spanning over4,000 km.

Marking a new high inbilateral ties, India and

Bangladesh in 2015 had sealeda historic deal to settle the oldland boundary dispute throughexchange of territories, remov-ing a major irritant in bilateralties.

“We are conscious ofBangladesh’s efforts to denyspace to terror groups that arecarrying out subversive activi-ties against India,” the Armychief said. In turn, India “con-tinues to prevent any terror out-fit” from using Indian soil toundermine the interests ofBangladesh, he said.

The event was attended byBangladesh HighCommissioner MuhammadImran, former Army chief ofBangladesh and 1971 war vet-eran Lt General (retd) Harun-ar-Rashid, a few 1971 India-Pakistan war veterans fromIndian armed forces, and anumber of senior defence offi-cials, among others.

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The Central Reserve PoliceForce (CRPF) has

enhanced the ex gratia pay-ment from �21.5 lakh to �35lakh for troops killed in com-bat action and from �16.5 lakhto �25 lakh for casualties dueto other causes like accident,suicide or illness while in ser-vice. The ex-gratia amount ispayable to the next of kin of thedeceased personnel.

The decision to enhancethe ex gratia payment wastaken during the annual gov-erning body meeting of theparamilitary force held inSeptember, a senior officialsaid on Wednesday.

These ex-gratia paymentswill be drawn from the volun-tary contribution made by thepersonnel of the force undertwo heads — risk fund andcentral welfare fund.

The officials said a similar

decision is being taken in otherCentral Armed Police Forces(CAPFs) or paramilitary forceson the directions of the UnionHome Ministry.

The CRPF has alsoenhanced the financial assis-tance given to the family mem-bers of its deceased personnelfor the wedding of the daugh-ter or the sister of the slaintrooper. The financial assis-tance has been enhanced from

�50,000 to �1 lakh, they said.The CRPF is the world’s

biggest paramilitary force withabout 3.25 lakh personnel in itsranks and is designated as thelead internal security force forcounter-terrorist and anti-Naxal operations. It is exten-sively deployed for counter-ter-rorist operations in Jammuand Kashmir and anti-insur-gency role Naxal-hit States andthe Northeast.

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Former Congress chief RahulGandhi on Wednesday

demanded that the governmentprovide credible data on Coviddeaths in the country and paya compensation of �4 lakh eachto families of those who losttheir lives due to coronavirus.Stepping up its campaignagainst the BJP in Gujarat,which goes to polls late nextyear, the Congress leader alsoattacked the "Gujarat model"which the BJP has projected asthe best in the country. RahulGandhi shared a video in whichfamilies, who lost their dearones due to Covid in Gujarat,alleged that they did not receivetimely help from the govern-ment. "The Congress party hastwo demands that credible dataon Covid deaths be disclosedand compensation of Rs fourlakh be given to the families ofthose who lost their kin due toCovid-19. The Governmentwill have to ease the pain of peo-ple and they should get com-

pensation," he said in a tweet inHindi, using the hashtag"#4LakhDenaHoga".

In the 4.31 minute video aspart of "Congress Nyay cam-paign", Rahul said the Gujaratmodel is much talked about butthe families whom they talkedto said that during Covid timesthey neither got a hospital bednor a ventilator.

"When you had to helpthem in the hospital, you werenot there and when they lost Rs10-15 lakh in hospital and alsotheir family members, you werestill not there to provide com-pensation. What type ofGovernment is this," he asked.

The former Congress chiefsaid while the Gujarat govern-ment claims that only 10,000people died due to Covid, thetruth is that three lakh peoplehave died due to Covid. Heclaimed that Congress workershave gone house to house toascertain this. "The official tallysays 10,000 people died due toCovid, but the truth is threelakh," he claimed.

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From a replacement-levelfertility rate, rise in women

operating bank accounts from53 per cent to 79 per cent at all-India level to disturbinganaemia prevalence as well asobesity and C-section deliver-

ies, the latest round of theNational Family Health Survey(NFHS 5) has presentedextreme picture of India’shealth status across the States.

In spite of the substantialincrease in the composition ofiron folic acid (IFA) tablets bypregnant women for 180 daysor more, anaemia among chil-

dren and women continues tobe a cause of concern. Morethan half of them, includingpregnant women, are anaemicnationwide, as per the survey.

In the key indicators of thesurvey, exclusive breastfeed-ing to children under age sixmonths has shown an improve-ment in all-India level from 55per cent in 2015-16 to 64 percent in 2019-21.

The child nutrition indi-cators have also shown a slightimprovement at the all-Indialevel as stunting has declinedfrom 38 per cent to 36 per centand underweight from 36 percent to 32 per cent at the all-India level. In all phase-IIStates/UTs, the situation hasimproved in respect of childnutrition, but the change is notsignificant as drastic changes inrespect of these indicators areunlikely in a short span period.

The survey has found thatthe institutional births haveincreased substantially from79 per cent to 89 per cent attheall-India Level. However, theinstitutional delivery is 100per cent in Puducherry andTamil Nadu and more than 90per cent in 7 States/UTs out of12 Phase II States/UTs.

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Asimple, easy to follow, cost-effective meditation rou-

tine, when practised daily forseveral months, can helpreverse grey matter loss inpatients with mild cognitiveimpairment (MCI) or thosewith mild Alzheimer’s disease-— a neurological progressivedegenerative condition—researchers have claimed.

Dr Amitabha Ghosh,Director and Head Departmentof Neurology, ApolloMultispeciality HospitalKolkata, together with Dr SBapi Raju {Cognitive Sciencelab at IIIT Hyderabad}, in col-laboration with otherresearchers had allocatedpatients with MCI or mildAlzheimer’s disease to medita-tion or control groups.

The meditation grouppracticed 30 minutes of silent,sitting meditation daily for 6months. They did MRI scans atbaseline and after 6 months allpatients also underwent neu-ropsychological assessment.The meditation group showedsignificantly increased grey

matter over the frontal brainregions that are responsiblefor control of attention andgoal-directed decision-makingand reduced grey matter pos-teriorly.

“The left hippocampus(memory) and the right thal-amus also showed an increasein grey matter volume. Theteam found a trend towardsimproved attention amongthe meditators,” said theresearchers. The study sup-ported under the SATYAMprogram by the Departmentof Science & Technology ispublished in journal‘Frontiers in HumanNeuroscience’.

However, the researcherssaid that the meditationresearch in MCI andAlzheimer’s disease is stillvery young.

“Much of our waking stateis spent on mind wandering.Excessive mind wandering,especially when loaded withpersistent negative thoughts,damages the brain, predis-posing one to early aging oreven Alzheimer’s disease.Meditation teaches non-judg-mental and non-reactiveawareness of appearingthoughts and improves one'sability to disengage and focuson intended goals,” Dr Ghoshexplained.

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Much to the relief of theMamata Banerjee

Government, a Division Benchof the Calcutta High Court onWednesday granted an interimstay on the CBI investigation —into the School ServiceCommission recruitment scam— ordered earlier by a singlebench of the same Court.

Granting an interim stay ofthree weeks the Division Benchdirected the SSC to submitbefore it all the documentsrelated to the matter in a sealedenvelope which would be keptwith the Registrar General ofthe Court.

Earlier in a damning orderthe single bench of JusticeAbhijit Banerjee had ordered aCBI investigation into thealleged irregularities in theappointment of the Group C

and D (non-teaching) staff inthe Government aided schoolsthat function under the WestBengal Board of SecondaryEducation.

The appointments weremade upon purported recom-mendations coming fromunspecific sources in the SSC.While the Commission latersaid that no such recommen-dation had been made afterMay 4, 2019 the WBSEE whichhad directed the schools to pro-vide appointment letters to therecruited persons said in anaffidavit that it had done so fol-lowing the stated recommen-dations vouching to producesuch letters before the Court ifasked to.

Subsequently the Courtdirected a CBI investigationinto the irregularities asking theinvestigating agency to probethe money trail too if that had

taken place. While the caserelated to the appointment of25 people, the subsequent rev-elations suggested that morethan 500 such people couldhave been appointed throughthe backdoor.

The SSC is already underthe court scanner regardinganother recruitment scandalrelated to the appointment ofteaching staff. Justice Banerjeein his order had earlier direct-ed the CBI to constitution acommittee headed by an offi-cer “not below the rank of aJoint Director with officers notbelow the rank of DIG to ini-tiate the enquiry,” adding it wasexpected that “no person willbe left out of the enquiry … theCBI should also enquire … asto whether there is any moneytrail in issuance of such rec-ommendation letters and sub-sequent issuance of appoint-

ment letters…”Meanwhile, a moribund

Left Front descended on thestreets of Kolkata after manymonths with hundreds of itscadres storming the SSC head-quarters seeking removal of thetop officials of the Commissionand sacking of the StateEducation Minister.

Following a two-hour skir-mish a dozen of Left support-ers were injured and at least 250members of CPI(M)’s studentsand youth arms StudentsFederation of India andDemocratic Youth Federationof India were arrested and thestreets they had blockadedcleared by the police. Presentlythe SFI and the DYFI cadreswere protesting in front of theBidhannagar and RajarhatPolice Stations seeking therelease of the arrested people.

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With Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee out in

Delhi State ministers andsenior officials on Wednesdaypreferred to maintain a studiedsilence on the Centre’s letterasking the State Government toaugment weekly corona tests inview of the increasing numberof cases in many parts of theworld.

“A letter has come fromDelhi and a decision would betaken at an appropriate time,”a senior official of the StateHealth Department said addingthe State Government had beenfollowing guidelines given bythe Centre from time to time.

A Minister on the otherhand said Bengal was one ofthe pioneer states in maintain-ing steady vaccination recorddespite non-cooperation fromthe Centre adding New Delhihad “no right to lecture theStates without itself doing noth-ing on the issue.”

Earlier, the Centre wroteletters to thirteen states includ-ing Bengal expressing its con-cern over the decline in thenumber weekly testing forcorona virus.

A letter from the UnionHealth Secretary RajeshBhushan said that there shouldbe high testing rates consider-ing the fact that internationaltraveling had increased in therecent weeks.

“A decrease in testingwould undermine the actualinfection spread within thecommunity,” the letter said.

Pointing out to the fact thatmany other countries were“seeing multiple surges inCovid cases …” the letterreminded how a few developedcountries were facing evenfourth and fifth waves despitehigh levels of vaccination sug-gesting there was need for con-tinued vigil.

New Delhi: The consortiumfor EducationalCommunication (CEC) in col-laboration with EducationalMultimedia Research Centre(EMRC), University of Mysore,on Wednesday organized theaward ceremony-cum-filmscreening of two national, edu-cational video competitions.

Governor of Kerala, ArifMohamad Khan, was the chiefguest on the occasion. ThePrakriti InternationalDocumentary Film Festivalwill be held between November26 and 27 at the University ofMysore, Mysuru. Director,CEC, Prof. J.B. Nadda, and ViceChancellor of MysoreUniversity, Prof. G. HemanthaKumar, were the keynotespeakers.

CEC, one of the InterUniversity Centres set up by theUniversity GrantsCommission, organizes theEducational VideoCompetition and the PrakritiInternational Documentary

Film Festival to promote ICT-based environment buildingon various social themes, tohelp its learners develop holis-tically by finding symmetry inlearning and evolving theirunderstanding of subjects ofinterest.

During the EducationalVideo Competition, 12 filmswere screened, and in thePrakriti InternationalDocumentary Film Festival,17 documentaries are to bescreened for sensitizing thestudents and other stakehold-ers.

The results of theEducational Video competi-tion are: In the BestEducational Programme of theYear, Subha Das Mollick for herfilm “Calcutta Sonata” andBobbeeta Sharma for her film“A Light that Refuses to FadeOut” jointly share the firstprize, while “Living withAutism” by Vasim Ayub Pathanwill be specially screened andawarded the certificate. PNS

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Amid speculation about the chang-ing political equations in the

metropolis ahead of the crucialFebruary 2022 BrihanmumbaiMunicipal Corporation (BMC) elec-tions, Maharashtra’s former chiefminister and senior BJP leaderDevendra Fadnavis met MNS chiefRaj Thackeray at the latter’s new res-idence “Shiv Thirth” at Dadar innorth-central Mumbai on Wednesdayafternoon.

Fadnavis, who was accompaniedby his banker-wife Amruta, spentnearly two hours at “Shiv Thirth”interacting with the MNS chief and hiswife Sharmila over lunch.

As the speculation over the importof the luncheon meeting between Rajand senior BJP leader, MNSSpokesperson Sandeep Deshpandesaid that Thackerays had invited theFadnavis couple to their new house forlunch. Notwithstanding the clarifica-tion issued by Deshpande, the spec-ulation was rift that the BJP and MNSmay try to forge an alliance for the

crucial BMC polls scheduled to beheld in February 2022.

For many years since they formedan alliance in the late eighties, the ShivSena used to rule the BMC in alliancewith the BJP. However, after the ShivSena broke its alliance with the BJP atthe state and national levels andformed the government in alliancewith the NCP and Congress in thestate in the last week of November2019, the saffron alliance broke at theBMC. Currently, the Shiv Sena rulesthe BMC on its own.

It may be recalled that the BMCpolls held in 2017 had thrown up ahung house. The Shiv Sena hademerged as the single largest partywith 84 seats in the 227-memberBMC, followed by BJP- 82, Congress-31, NCP- 9, MNS- 7 and others-- 14.During the first two and a half yearsin power, the Shiv Sena increased itsstrength to 94, by inducting amongothers seven corporators from the RajThackeray-led NCP.

However, after it aligned with theNCP and Congress in the state inNovember 2019, the ruling Shiv Sena

has been enjoying the support of thetwo parties for the past two years

Given that all the three con-stituents of the ruling Maha VikasAghadi (MVA) nurse the ambition ofexpanding their base in Mumbai, it isnot clear as yet whether the Shiv Sena,NCP and Congress will contest the2022 BMC polls as an alliance.

Despite the fact that it had won asmany as 92 seats in the 227-membercivic body in the 2017 polls, the BJP– which is the principal Oppositionparty in the state – will have a toughtime in the 2022 BMC polls. No won-der, ahead of the 2022 civic polls, theBJP is cosying up to the MNS, whichhad won seven seats in the 2017 polls.

BJP leaders Ashish Shelar andPrasad Lad had earlier met the MNSchief at the latter’s residence.

On his part, the MNS spokesper-son reiterated that not much shouldbe read into the MNS chief 's meetingwith Fadnavis. He said that every leg-endary cricketer Sachin Tendulkar hadmet Raj Thackeray at the latter's res-idence a few days back.

Amaravati: Pegging the over-all damage caused by the recentheavy rains and floods at�6,054.29 crore, the AndhraPradesh Government onWednesday requested theCentre to immediately release�1,000 crore as interim relieftowards f lood relief andrestoration works.

Chief Minister Y S JaganMohan Reddy wrote an iden-tical letter to Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and UnionHome Minister Amit Shah,detailing the havoc caused byheavy rains and floods betweenNovember 13 and 20, mainly inAnantapuramu, Kadapa,Chittoor and SPS Nellore dis-tricts.

"Despite arranging teamswell in advance and seriousefforts by the government tosave the lives of people, 40,including a State DisasterResponse Force constable, diedand 25 others were reportedmissing. As many as 324 relief

camps have been arranged,accommodating 69,616 per-sons in the affected districtsand they are still continuing,"the Chief Minister said.

He said several high-ways, irrigation tanks andcanals have breached inKadapa, Chittoor,Anantapuramu and SPSNellore districts.

"The worst affected werethe farmers as crops (likepaddy, Bengal gram, cotton,black gram, groundnut andsugarcane) ready for harvestingwere damaged," Jagan added.

Agricultural crops in 1.42lakh hectares suffered damage,with the estimated monetaryloss being �1,353.82 crore.Horticultural crops in 42,299hectares, worth �48.06 crore,were damaged.

Roads and irrigation sys-tems were the worst hit, withthe deluge causing a loss of�1,756.43 crore and � 556.96crore respectively, the Chief

Minister pointed out in the let-ter. Civic infrastructure likeroads, pipelines, drains, schoolbuildings and community cen-tres in municipalities suffereda loss of �1,252 crore.

Panchayat Raj roads to alength of 2,254.32 km were bat-tered, inflicting a loss of Rs381.65 crore.

Rural Water Supplyschemes worth Rs 453.33 crorewere also damaged, the ChiefMinister said. Hundreds ofelectricity feeders, substationsand distribution lines werealso damaged, causing a loss of�252 crore.

"Heavy rains caused inun-dation of low-lying areas anddisrupted normal life. Thegravity was such that 17 teamsof NDRF and SDRF and twohelicopters had to be deployedfor undertaking search andrescue operations. In all, 1,402villages in 196 mandals andfour towns were affected," theChief Minister said.

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Three terrorists, includingone of the commanders of

The Resistance Front (TRF),believed to be involved in thekilling of two minority schoolteachers, were gunned down bythe jawans of the Jammu andKashmir police in a briefencounter near Rambagh areaof Srinagar late Wednesdayevening.

According to the prelimi-nary reports the terrorists weretravelling in a private car whenthey were intercepted by thepolice teams in the middle ofthe road. In the brief exchangeof fire all three terrorists wereneutralised.

The vehicular movementalso remained suspended till

the time police authoritiescleared the area. Several localresidents stepped out of theirhomes and shouted pro-Azadislogans while the securityforces shifted the dead bodiesto the police control room foran identification parade.

Inspector General ofPolice, Kashmir range VijayKumar told a Delhi based newsagency, "one of the three ter-rorists killed in the encounterhas been identified as Mehran.The identities of two others wasyet to be established". Kumarsaid Mehran, a 'C' category ter-rorist, was involved in thekilling of a school principal anda teacher in the month ofOctober in Srinagar.

Highly placed sources inthe Jammu and Kashmir police

also revealed the name of TRFterrorist commander MehranYaseen Shalla had surfacedduring a high level securityreview meeting chaired by theUnion Home Minister. Whilebriefing the Union HomeMinister senior police officershad named Mehran as one ofthe TRF commanders behindthe targeted killings. Directionswere given to the securityforces to identify and neu-tralise perpetrators of terroristviolence involved in the tar-geted killings of minorities inthe Kashmir valley.

Till the time of filing thereport the police had notreleased any official statementas the identities of two otherslain terrorists were yet to beascertained.

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In an effort to end nearly amonth-long agitation by the

employees of the State runMaharashtra State RoadTransport Corporation(MSRTC), State TransportMinister Anil Parab onWednesday announced heftyhikes in the employees’ basicsalaries ranging from �2,500per month to �7,000 permonth, pending a decision oninclusion of the MSRTCemployees in its state govern-ment's payt rolls.

After holding day-long dis-cussions with the leaders of theagitating MSRTC employee,Parab made a formalannouncement about the hikesin the basic salaries of the agi-tating employees.

Talking to media personsafter holding talks with the rep-resentatives of agitatingMSRTC employees, Parab said:“The hikes announced in thebasic salaries of employees

works out to nearly 41 per centwhich is the highest-ever salaryincrease in the history of theMSRTC employees. The high-level committee is expected togive its reports within 12weeks”.

“As far as the inclusion ofthe MSRTC employees in thestate government’s employ-ment roll, we will accept what-ever the Bombay High Courtsuggests in the matter. If theHC-appointed three-memberhigh-level committee recom-mends the inclusion of theMSRTC employees in the rollsof state government, we will doso,” Parab said.

The Minister appealed tothe striking employees toresume work by 8 am onThursday.

As per the decision toeffect hikes in the basis salariesof the MSRTC employees, theemployees with one to 10 years’experience will get a monthlyhike of �5,000 hike in theirbasic salaries.

For instance, those whohave hither-to been getting abasic salary of �12,080 will nowget �17,395 per month.Similarly, those with a basicsalary of �17,070 will now geta basic salary of �24,584 permonth.

In the case of employeeswith an experience rangingfrom 10 to 20 years, there willbe �4,000 increase in the basicsalaries.

As a consequence, theirbasic salaries will go up from �23,040 to � 28,800 permonth.

The employees with anexperience of more than 20years will get an increase of Rs2,500 in basic salary everymonth.

As a result, the employeeswho are currently earning abasic of 26,000 per month andtotal salary of �37,440 willhenceforth get a total salary of�41,040. Similarly, those gettinga basic of �36,000 and totalsalary of 53,280 will now basic

salary of Rs 39,500 basic and atota salary of Rs 56,880 permonth.

Parab said that the MSRTChad suffered huge revenue loss-es during the Covid-19 periodand the State Government hadextended a financial assistanceof � 2,700 crore. “Owing tosome reasons, the disbursal ofsalaries to the MSRRC was get-ting delayed earlier. Henceforththe MSRTC will gert salarieswithin 10th of every month,”the Minister said.

It may be recalled that theMSRTC workers went on anindefinite strike from October28 to press for their variousdemands. The striking employ-ees intensified their agitationfrom November 9 when all theMSRTC depots were shutdown.

Before holding talks withthe striking MSRTC employees,Parab had met chief MinisterUddhav Thackeray, Ajit Pawarand NCP chief Sharad Pawar.

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The Supreme Court onWednesday asked the

Centre and the NCR States tocontinue with their measures tocurb air pollution and called foradvance preventive steps withthe help of IMD which has"sophisticated mechanism andtools" to deal with the situationbefore it becomes severe.

"Why should Delhiitessuffer this severe and verypoor air quality?" the apexcourt said. “This is the nation-al capital. Look at the signal weare sending to the world. Youcan stop these (pollution caus-ing) activities in anticipationitself...” Graded response todeal with the spike in air pol-lution should be taken beforethe situation becomes severe,the apex court said, adding thatit will not close the matter andcontinue to hear it even if pol-lution comes down by "virtue

of God's act" or restrictions.The special bench headed byChief Justice N V Ramana,which discussed the issue ofstubble burning and the prob-lems faced by farmers with thelawyers, once again came downon bureaucrats for their allegedinaction in dealing with thisaspect.

“Mr (Tushar) Mehta(Solicitor General) as aGovernment lawyer or lawyersand judges we are using ourcommon sense and discussingthis issue and what the bureau-cracy has been doing all theseyears and can't they go andmeet the farmers. I do notknow what they are doing.“Let the secretaries of theCentral and State Governmentsit for two days, discuss theissue.

They can go to the fieldand talk to the farmers anddecide,” said the bench whichalso comprised justices DYChandrachud and Surya Kant.“You did not have computers inthose days and now you havesuper computers and if youprepare the statistical model,

namely what is the data for thelast five years and based on thatyou can plan the expected levelof pollution for the next 15days. Why should Delhiitessuffer this severe and verypoor air quality,” the benchobserved.

The SC said the measuressuggested by the Commissionon Air Quality Management todeal with industrial pollution,thermal plants, vehicular emis-sions, dust control, diesel gen-erators as well as encouragingwork from home be continuedfor the time being and it willtake up the matter on Monday.

“Take the measures for thenext two-three days and we willhear this matter next Monday.In the meantime if pollutionbecomes 100 (AQI) etc thenyou can lift some ban,” said theBench. On the issue of con-struction workers, the benchsaid the States have huge fundson account of labour cess col-lected from real estate firmsand that can be used for pay-ing the workmen who havebeen deprived of their liveli-hood due to the ban

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Jammu: Indian border guards on Wednesdaylodged a strong protest with their Pakistanicounterparts during a commandant levelborder meeting held at the Octroi post alongthe International border in RS Pura sectorof Jammu frontier. According to a PublicRelations Officer of BSF, Jammu frontier, "Astrong protest was lodged by BSF regardingviolation of IB by Pakistan based drones andalso apprised the Pak commander to refrainfrom such activities".

The BSF delegation was led by AjaySuryavanshi, Commandant and the Pakistandelegation was led by Wing commander Lt.Col Aquil of 13 Wing Chenab Rangers.

"During the meeting commanders ofboth border guarding forces discussed var-ious issues including maintenance of borderpillars and latest infrastructure activities onthe border, Pakistan Drone operations andother activities", BSF PRO said in a writtenstatement.

During the meeting both the comman-ders also agreed to resolve all the operationalmatters and border issues with a mutualunderstanding. "The meeting was held in acordial & constructive atmosphere andboth commanders agreed to work for main-taining a peaceful atmosphere on the bor-der", spokesman added.

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New Delhi: The Ministry ofHousing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) has approved theconstruction of 3.61 lakh hous-es in 17 States and UnionTerritories under the PradhanMantri Awas Yojana (Urban),taking the total number ofhouses sanctioned under thescheme to 1.14 crore. Thisincludes construction of 19,535units, for urban migrants/poor,involving TechnologyInnovation Grant of �39.11crore in Tamil Nadu andTelangana.

The approval was given bythe Central Sanctioning andMonitoring Committee(CSMC) chaired by UnionHousing and Urban AffairsSecretary Durga ShankerMishra on Tuesday. These hous-es would be constructed underAffordable Housing inPartnership (AHP), Beneficiary-Led Construction (BLC), In-Situ Slum Redevelopment(ISSR) verticals of PMAY-U.Inthe statement, the Ministry saidthat out of the 1.14 crore sanc-tioned houses, over 89 lakh havebeen grounded for constructionand 52.5 lakh completed anddelivered to the beneficiaries.Itstated that the secretary hasasked states and union territo-ries to resolve the issues with-out delay so that construction ofhouses can be expedited.

The total investment underthe Mission is � 7.52 lakh crore,with a central assistance of�1.85 lakh crore, the ministrysaid, adding that so far, �1.13lakh crore has already beenreleased.In the meeting, Mishraalso laid renewed emphasis toaccelerate housing construc-tion and completion across thecountry within stipulated timeunder PMAY-U so that thegoal of 'Housing for All' by 2022can be achieved, the statementstated. At the CSMC meeting,an e-Finance module was alsolaunched by the HUA secretary.

The e-Finance module hasbeen integrated with all mod-ules of the PMAY-U MIS systemand designed, developed with-in PMAY-U MIS System withthe objective to provide uniqueplatform to all stakeholders fordisbursement of funds throughdirect benefit transfer modeand to validate beneficiaries, italso stated.

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ically back. Imagine West Asiawithout petroleum! And imag-ine a business without bankingand lending without interest!

The Viceroy had called anall-India election in December1945 to January 1946. By thattime, Jinnah’s speech preced-ing the passing of the Pakistanresolution on, March 23, 1940,at the Lahore session of theMuslim League was hummingto virtually all Muslim ears inIndia. Incidentally, Jinnahdeliberately made FazlurRahman of Bengal sign theresolution. Rahman was apopular, prominent peasantleader of the eastern wing ofwhat eventually becamePakistan and now Bangladesh.His Two Nation Theory is verybriefly stated here: the Hindusand Muslims have differentreligious philosophies, socialcustoms and literatures. Theyneither intermarry nor inter-dine and, indeed, they belongto two different civilisationswhich are based mainly onconflicting ideas and concep-tions. Their views on life andof life are different. It is alsoquite clear that Hindus andMuslims derive their inspira-tion from different sources ofhistory. They have differentepics, different heroes in dif-ferent episodes. Very oftenthe hero of one is a foe of theother and likewise, their victo-ries and defeats overlap.

History has presented to usmany examples, such as theunion of Great Britain andIreland. We know that the his-tory of the last 1,200 years hasfailed to achieve unity and wehave witnessed, during theages, India was always divid-ed into Hindu India andMuslim India. The termina-tion of the British regime willbe a worse disaster. MuslimIndia cannot accept anyConstitution which must nec-essarily result in a Hindumajority Government. IfHindus and Muslims arebrought together under ademocratic system, it can onlymean Hindu Raj. Muslims arenot a minority; Muslims are anation according to any defi-nition and they must have theirhomelands, their territory andtheir State.

Indeed, Jinnah argued as ifone is prepared to ignore theother. As Dr Rafiq Zakaria hasput it: all throughout hisyounger years, Jinnah showedno interest in Muslims. He was,then, all for the Congress; itsnon-communal, nationalisticprinciple which enthused him.

When he was a youngman, Jinnah worked forHindu-Muslim unity andmade every attempt to see thatthe Congress and the Leaguepresented a united front. Heassured the British that theyneed not be unduly perturbed

as its terms of the LucknowPact if implemented wouldhelp them as well. He wel-comed the declaration madeby the British Government onAugust 20, 1917, whichassured Indians that “the pol-icy of His Majesty’sGovernment, with which theGovernment of India are incomplete accord, is that of theincreasing association of self-governing institutions with aview to the progressive reali-sation of responsibleGovernment in India as anintegral part of the BritishEmpire.” To give effect to it, thenew Secretary of State EdwardMontague visited India in thewinter of that year. He alongwith Viceroy Lord Chelmsfordconferred with the leaders ofdifferent schools of politicalthought to try and find a con-sensus on the future constitu-tional advance. Of all thepoliticians whom Montaguemet, he was most impressed byJinnah. He recorded this in hisdiary: “Young, perfectly man-nered, impressive looking,armed to the teeth with dialec-tics, and insistent upon thewhole of his scheme....”

(This is part of an ongoingseries on Indian Partition.

The writer is a well-knowncolumnist, an author and a for-mer member of the RajyaSabha. The views expressedare personal.)

����������� ���������� ������������Sir — I strongly believe that every indi-vidual has the right to healthy living.Healthy living is not a privilege, but aright. Sadly, however, in our country,healthy living is more like a right in thepocket of people who are able and will-ing to pay for it. Therefore, a chain ofhealth clubs needs to be opened andmade accessible — to make fitness a partof every Indian’s lifestyle. To provide easyaccess to superior quality and affordablefitness regimens that will be an integralpart of every Indian.

Unlike the US, we do not have spe-cial cycling lanes; our offices are notequipped with lockers and shower-rooms that we can freshen up after walk-ing or cycling our way to work. Also, theIndian weather does not permit exerciseall year around — the summers are bad,the rainy season has its own woes and thewinter is practically nonexistent. Suchscenarios don’t leave much scope for exer-cise. We haven’t given due importance tofitness and working out and it’s high timethat we realised the benefit of a brisk walkor a jog in the morning so that we wakeup fresh and sleep well.

MR Jayanthy Subramaniam | Mumbai

����� � ���������������������Sir —Even though Mumbai’s lauded asa business hub, the 26/11 terror attacktells a different story. No commercialCapital of a country would be so illequipped as to not be able to detect andprevent such attacks on time. While somemay argue that Manhattan was a victimof 9/11, too, I point out that Mumbai hasbeen a soft target since times immemo-rial. Terror has sneaked up on us not oncebut thrice — the 1992 riots, 2006 blastsand 2008 attacks; all caught Mumbaiunawares. In short, for Mumbai to trulybecome India’s commercial hub, thequality of life, quality of infrastructure,quality of security and attitude — all needimprovement.

The 26/11 attacks saw the world ina state of disbelief at one of the most auda-cious acts of terrorism ever committed.Although we have lived with terrorism

for decades, the attacks were frighteningas we learned what that these terror out-fits were capable of. However, over the lastfew years, India has significantlyimproved its intelligence network andanti-terror measures. It’s the need of thehour to save the youth from being influ-enced and brain-washed by these outfits.Every Indian can contribute to nationalsecurity just by staying vigilant.

CK Ramani | Pune

���������� ������� ������������Sir — The repeal of the three farm lawshas inclined many people into thinkingthat the repeal of the CitizenshipAmendment Act (CAA) is not beyondthe realms of possibility. The anti-CAAmovement could not (and did not haveto) go ahead despite gathering momen-tum each day in the face of the COVID-19 outbreak, the Government’s preoccu-pation with the fight against the pandem-ic including national lockdowns and itslukewarm approach to its implementa-

tion due to the unprecedented publichealth crisis and opposition to the legis-lation from unanticipated quarters. Eventhough no rules have been framed toimplement the law, the CAA is ominous-ly still there on the statute book.

The Government cannot be unawareof what the implementation of the CAAwill signal to the outside world —India’s retreat from secularism. Noamount of rationalisation can justifyCAA’s enactment or validate its discrim-inatory provisions. The CAA is whollyunacceptable and it has to go for the sim-ple reason that it does not jibe with sec-ularism and the equality of religionsguaranteed in the Constitution. The lega-cy of the freedom movement and theConstitution do not discriminatebetween the religions that ‘originated’ inIndia and that did not.

G David Milton | Maruthancode

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There were two sides tothe coin of Partition.One was that the Muslimcommunity was well

behind the Hindus as well as theother minorities. They wereabout a third in population orone-third in numbers comparedto the Hindus. Therefore, ifIndependent India adopted auniversal adult franchise, theywould be out-membered bylengths. Secondly, the Muslimswere less educated. As a matter oflong-term strategy, Islam hadplayed down education from itsearly days of the seventh centu-ry. For the last thousand years,Hejaz as well as Caliphs had pro-hibited ijtihad (reinterpretation orchange) and enforced taqlid(orthodoxy). The less educated aperson, the fewer the questionshe/she is likely to think up andask. Thus, ensuring the perpetu-ity of the religion. Incidentally,women’s education was restrict-ed to reading the Quran, especial-ly the prayers.

When the British came toIndia, instead of using English,the clergy exhorted their follow-ers to avoid the study of Englishand Western science. Sir WilliamHunter has made a lucid analy-sis of how and where the Muslimstudents fell back in the 19th cen-tury and even earlier. Then camethe decision of Lt Governor of UPto make English the court lan-guage, Hindi and Persian wasabolished. Such measures,although rational, put theMuslims back. Their fear was ofdiluting their identity which wasdearer to them than their devel-opment.

The other difficulty was thatvery few Muslims took to busi-ness and industry, the only excep-tions were the Khojas, theMemons and the Bohras, allbased in Bombay. The Muslimelites of the rest of India were landbased, whether agricultural,farming vegetables or cultivatingorchards but had very few facto-ries. In short, cultivating theHindus had the economic lead.Timur Kuran, Professor at theUniversity of Duke, has explainedat length the financial disadvan-tage of Islamic communities. Hehas focused on West Asia andhow Islamic ordainments havekept the common folk econom-

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For some time, a round of negotia-tions has been going on in theWTO, in which an agreement isexpected to be made aiming to end-

ing subsidies to curb alleged illegal, unre-ported and unregulated fishing. These talksare said to be the part of the UN’sSustainable Development Goals (SDGs),which seek to end subsidies for illegal,unreported and unregulated fishing whileensuring special and differential treatmentfor developing and least developed coun-tries. But if this agreement is reached, itmay adversely affect the livelihood of smallfishermen in India and other developingand underdeveloped countries.

It is true that the world is facing theproblem of overfishing and depletingmarine resources. If this situation contin-ues, this can impact catch by small fish-ermen and their livelihood. The idea ofthe United Nations that overfishing willaffect sustainable development is alwaysjustified. But the big question is, who isresponsible for overfishing in the ocean?At least the small fishermen of India orother developing countries having verylow fishing capacity are nowhere toblame for this.

Fishing is done in two ways. One, bysmall fishermen who catch fish in theirboats; and second by trawlers and largeships of large companies. Over the pastfew decades, the evidence of fishing bylarge ships and trawlers in a mechanizedmanner by large companies has increasedsignificantly.

Small fishermen in India do not catchfish in the ocean during the rainy season.Know why? Because it is the breeding sea-son for fish. But the big trawlers do notmind fishing during the same period.However, since the big trawlers comeunder the organized sector, the small fish-ermen will be considered as illegal, unre-ported and unregulated; and the subsidygiven to them by the governments willend but the big trawlers and ships willcontinue to be entitled to catch fish fromthe sea by mechanical processes and alsothe government subsidies. In such a sit-uation, the livelihood of small fishermenof India and other developing countrieswill be adversely affected while big com-panies will benefit at their cost.

Unfortunately, under pressure fromdeveloped countries and big corporates,in the WTO, the exercise is going on topush the agreement on this subject.Director General of the World TradeOrganization, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala,says that completing these negotiations onfisheries subsidy is the top priority ofWTO, not only for fisheries but also forthe WTO system. And this is being doneunder the guise of the United NationsSustainable Development Goals.

It is noteworthy that after the grantof fishing licenses to large trawlers inIndia in the early 1990s, due to excessivefishing by them, the availability of fishfrom the sea was getting depleted. As a

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result, the livelihood of smallfishermen was getting adverselyaffected. At that time there weremajor agitations to highlight thisproblem of fishermen, includingthose led by Swadeshi JagranManch and Fr Thomas Kochery,due to which the then governmenthad to stop the renewal of licens-es to large trawlers.

After some time, the trawlersagain started getting permission.Once again, the demand for re-ban-ning of trawlers by environmental-ists is gaining momentum. A com-mittee of the Government of Indiais working towards regulating thesetrawlers. Environmentalists saythat banning these trawlers is theappropriate solution to the problemof overfishing. Although thesetrawlers have not been outrightlybanned, many states includingKerala and Orissa have been ban-ning trawlers in monsoon (rainyseason) on the demand of tradition-al fishermen so that the breeding offish is not affected.

It is being argued that theagreement on fishing subsidywill ensure the availability offish and the protection of marineresources for the future genera-tions. In this regard, if at all anyinternational organization canban subsidies for fishing, it is theWorld Trade Organization. Theexercise to make rules in thisregard has been going on sincethe year 2001, with the start ofDoha Rounds of Negotiations.However, the interesting thing isthat though all the remainingprovisions of the Doha develop-ment Round, under have alreadybeen rejected outright by thedeveloped countries, surprising-

ly, exercise is going on to end thefishing subsidy.

It is true that today 34 percentoverfishing is taking place, where-as in 1974 it was only 10 percent.Due to overfishing, the availabili-ty of fish is gradually reducing, dueto which the livelihood of the peo-ple living in the coastal areas is get-ting adversely affected and theirpoverty is increasing. Today, about40 million people in the worlddepend on the fishing, so thesecurity of their lives is linked withthe protection of marine resources.

Although the current negotia-tions are focused on eliminatingsubsidies for illegal, unreported andunregulated fishing, these effortsare being strongly opposed bydeveloping countries. Developingcountries, including India, believethat ending subsidies on fishing willadversely affect the livelihood andrights of their small fishermen.Although it has been said in theresolution that special and differ-ential treatment for developingand less developed countries is partof the proposals, but it seems thatthe small fishermen of developingcountries will suffer the most fromthis agreement.

Surprisingly, while everythingwas stand still during, these talkscontinued unabated. Therefore,due to restrictions on movements,views of small countries whosemissions are not in Geneva couldnot be appropriately incorporatedin this document. For this reason,also, there is anger in this contextamongst developing countries.Recently, when the DirectorGeneral of the World TradeOrganization came to India, Indiahad clearly stated that although

due to the irrational subsidiesgiven by various countries forfishing, India’s small fishermenhave been suffering the most, dueto overfishing by developed coun-tries. Therefore, it is necessary toeliminate the subsidy being givento big vessels in these developedcountries. Therefore, India hasclearly stated in this context, thatthe draft text is not balanced. Inthis regard, special treatment willbe required for developing coun-tries and this agreement can bebalanced only by incorporatingIndia’s suggestions.

India’s demand is that devel-oped countries stop subsidizingfisheries that go beyond their nat-ural geographical boundaries.Industrial fishing countries arenot ready to concede this. Indiawants that the provision of subsi-dies should continue to protect theinterests of its poor and small fish-ermen. There is no illegal, unre-ported and unregulated fishing inIndia. India maintains that sincethe creation of the WTO, devel-oped countries received specialconcessions, and their agricultur-al subsidies continued unabated,while the rights of developingcountries were restricted. Thatmistake should not be repeated inthis agreement on fisheries subsi-dies.

Today, the need of the hour isthat India and other developingand least developed countriesshould face this bigotry of richcountries and there should be nounbalanced and irrational agree-ment in respect of fisheries subsi-dies, so that we can protect theinterests of our small and poorfishermen.

(The writer is Professor,PGDAV College,

University of Delhi. The views expressed

are personal.)

During the protractedfarmers agitationagainst the three farm

laws, a view was advancedespecially by those in supportof the impugned legislationthat it is not easy to suspendoperation of a parliamentaryenactment or that it is notconstitutionally permissibleto repeal a law by issuing anordinance. Such an argu-ment, besides ex facie spe-cious, stands completely anni-hilated with the announce-ment of the Prime Minister torepeal them.

Article 73 of theConstitution says that theexecutive power of the Unionis co-extensive with the legisla-tive powers of parliament.The Government, in exerciseof its executive power, can sus-pend, amend or repeal an Act

of parliament as long as it com-mands parliamentary majori-ty. Any subsequent statutemay repeal any Act in wholeor in part, either expressly orimpliedly by enacting a newlegislation. Clause 6 of theGeneral clauses Act, 1897 pro-vides that any Act orRegulation can be repealed bythe legislature. Unless a differ-ent intention appears, therepealing Act cannot reviveanything not in force or exist-ing at the time at which therepeal takes effect; or affect theprevious operation of anyenactment so repealed or any-thing duly done or sufferedthereunder, etc.

The executive power of theUnion extends (a) to the mat-ters with respect to whichParliament has power to makelaws; and (b) to the exercise of

such rights, authority andjurisdiction as are exercisableby the Government of India byvirtue of any treaty or agree-ment. So, on matters whichparliament can legislate, it isthe prerogative of the executiveto pilot legislative proposalsand get them enacted, includ-ing an enactment of repeal,with parliamentary support.Laws may also be repealed ifthey are found detrimental in

course of time or in case thereis a ground swell of publicopinion against them.

The three farm laws wereoriginally promulgated as ordi-nances by the governmentand later replaced by the dulypassed Acts of parliament.Since the winter session of par-liament will convene in aweek, it is not an edifying par-liamentary practice to promul-gate an Ordinance for therepeal. The Government willbring a Bill to repeal the threelaws during the ensuing ses-sion. There will be a fiercedebate and the oppositionwould leave no stone unturnedto show that they were right intheir opposition to the origi-nal Bills and the governmentpalpably wrong. The govern-ment, in turn, would say thatthey were unable to convince

the misguided agitating farm-ers. Once passed by both theHouses of parliament, andassented to by the President,the three laws would standrepealed.

The burning question,however, remains: why werethese legislations enacted inthe first place if they were tobe repealed without imple-mentation? It needs to beborne in mind that in a robustdemocracy, public opinion,likened to a rope of multiplefibers capable of taming evenan elephant, matters. It is forthe government to discernwhether the opposition isorchestrated by vested interestor it is genuine, broad-basedand the real voice of all thefarmers of the country.

The Union Governmentcould not have remained

impervious to the farmers'agitation for long especiallywhen elections are round thecorner in the largely affectedStates. But it is also a fact thatagro-economists continue tobe divided over the proposedrepeal. Many nonpartisanexperts consider it a setback toagrarian reforms.Incontestably, the fear of los-ing the impending election isa great deterrent to reforms,regardless of the general per-ception of bold, visionary andtransformative leadership.

It is in this context that thepractice of referring the con-tentious legislation to the com-mittees holds good as thecommittees crystallise differ-ent shades of opinions andhelp build consensus and unityout of plurality. The NationalCommission Bill and the

National Commission forAllied and HealthcareProfessionals Bill were referredto the Standing Committee,and based on the recommen-dations of the Committee,new Bills were introduced andpassed by Parliament. So weremany other legislations. Thegreat hurry in which the farmlaws were passed during theCovid-19 time without refer-ring the Bills to the standingcommittee only added fuel tothe fire. The lesson is clear andunmistakable that in a parlia-mentary democratic set up itis not possible to impose lawson an utterly hostile commu-nity despite the best of inten-sion and the promise of long-term national gains, withoutdue consultation, consensusand credible parliamentaryscrutiny.

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Beijing: Furious over the Biden admin-istration's invitation to Taiwan to takepart in the “Summit for Democracy”,China on Wednesday warned the USthat it will get “hurt” by giving Taipei theworld stage as Beijing slammed the sum-mit itself saying the event was aimed atpursuing Washington's “geopoliticalgames”.

Taiwan, a self-ruling island as itsown territory to be annexed by force ifnecessary, is among 110 invitees to theWashington-led Summit for Democracyto be held December 9-10, the US StateDepartment announced on Wednesday.

President Joe Biden is to host thesummit bringing together leaders fromgovernments and civil society and Chinawas omitted from the list of invitees, theHong Kong-based South ChinaMorning Post reported.

Invitees from the Asia-Pacific regionalso include India, Japan, South Korea,Australia, Pakistan and the Philippines.

Most European countries are alsoinvited, including Serbia, but not Bosniaand Herzegovina or Hungary. C h i n afor some time has been attacking thedemocracy summit, saying that the UScannot hold a patent for it and the eventis aimed at dividing the world.

But Beijing appears to have beensurprised by the invitation to Taiwan totake part in the democracy meeting asit came in the backdrop of the recent vir-tual summit between Chinese PresidentXi Jinping and his US counterpartBiden.

Sharply criticising the US move,Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesmanZhao Lijian told a media briefing herethat China “firmly opposes the invita-

tion to Taiwan by the US authorities forTaiwan to take part in the Summit forDemocracy.”

“There is only one China inthe world and the government of thePeople's Republic of China (PRC) is thesole legal government representingChina,” he said.

Taiwan is an inalienable partof China and the One China principleis a widely-recognised norm of inter-national relations, Zhao emphasised.

“Taiwan has no other internationalstatus in the international law than beingpart of China,” he said.

“We solemnly urge the US to abideby the One China principle, stop pro-viding a platform for Taiwan indepen-dence forces, and stop emboldeningthem. Giving them the stage only makesthe US hurt and puts it in a difficult sit-uation. Playing with fire the pro-inde-pendence forces (of Taiwan) only gettingthemselves burnt,” he said.

He also attacked the Democracysummit, saying that the aim of the USin holding the meeting is to divide theworld.

“Democracy is a common value ofhumanity and not a patent of a few coun-tries. What the US did was that the so-called democracy is just an excuse for theUS to pursue its geopolitical goals, sup-press other countries, divide the worldand serve its own selfish interests ofmaintaining its hegemony in the world,”Zhao said.

“In the name of democracy, the USis creating bloc politics and stoking con-frontation. This is a revisit to the ColdWar mentality. It is questioned andopposed by people holding fair views inthe world,” he said. PTI

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The three parties negotiating toform Germany's next

Government will finalise and pre-sent their coalition agreement onWednesday, two of the prospectivepartners said. The deal paves theway for center-left leader OlafScholz to replace longtimeChancellor Angela Merkel in thecoming weeks.

The center-left SocialDemocrats have been negotiatingwith the environmentalist Greenparty and the pro-business FreeDemocrats since narrowly win-ning a national election on Sept.26. The latter two parties said theagreement will be presented onWednesday afternoon.

If party members sign off onit, the three-way alliance — whichhas never yet been tried in anational government — willreplace the current “grand coali-tion” of the country's traditionalbig parties. The Social Democratshave served as the junior partnerto Merkel's center-right Christian

Democrats. Merkel, who didn't run for a

fifth term, is expected to be suc-ceeded by Scholz, 63, who hasbeen her finance minister and vicechancellor since 2018.

The three would-be governingparties have said they hope par-liament will elect Scholz as chan-cellor in the week beginning Dec.6. Before that can happen, thecoalition deal requires approvalfrom a ballot of the Greens' rough-ly 125,000-strong membershipand from conventions of the othertwo parties.

News of the deal came asMerkel led what was likely to beher last Cabinet meeting. Scholzpresented the 67-year-old, who hasled Germany since 2005, with abouquet of flowers.

The negotiations over thethree-way alliance were relative-ly harmonious and speedy com-pared to previous coalition talks.But the political transition, withMerkel as a lame-duck caretaker,has hampered Germany's responseto the latest rise in coronavirus

cases.Few details have emerged

from the closed-doors talks,including how the parties willdivide up the ministerial portfo-lios. The alliance is a potentiallyuneasy mixture because it bringstogether two traditionally left-leaning parties with one, the FreeDemocrats, that has tended to allywith the center-right.

A preliminary agreement lastmonth indicated that Germanywould bring forward its deadlinefor ending the use of coal-fueledpower from 2038 to 2030, whileexpanding the rollout of renewableenergy generation. At the FreeDemocrats' insistence, theprospective partners said theywon't raise taxes or loosen curbson running up debt, makingfinancing a central issue.

Merkel's Christian Democratsare currently preoccupied with aleadership contest over who willbecome their next leader andrevive the party's fortunes after itsuffered its worst-ever electionresult.

London: Several British politiciansdemanded a change in parliamentary ruleson Wednesday after a lawmaker was toldshe couldn't bring her 3-month-old babyinto the House of Commons.

Labour Party legislator Stella Creasysaid she had received a letter fromCommons authorities after she took herson Pip to a debate.

She said she had previously taken bothPip and her older daughter to Parliamentwithout problems, but had been told therules had changed in September.

Members of Parliament are nowadvised that they “should not take yourseat in the chamber when accompanied byyour child.” Creasy said the ruleundermined efforts to make politics morefamily-friendly.

“There are barriers to getting mumsinvolved in politics, and I think that dam-ages our political debate,” she told the BBC.

Deputy Prime Minister DominicRaab, a Conservative, said he has “a lot ofsympathy” for Creasy, but said the deci-sion is for the House authorities to make.

“I think we do need to make sure ourprofession is brought into the modernworld, the 21st century, and can allow par-ents to juggle the jobs they do with thefamily time that they need.” Raab said.

Green Party lawmaker Caroline Lucassaid the baby ban was “absurd.” She saidbabies were “far less disruptive thanmany braying backbenchers.”

House of Commons Speaker LindsayHoyle said he had asked Parliament's pro-cedure committee to review the rules, andnoted that there were “differing views onthis matter.”

“The advice givenyesterday … correctlyreflects the current rules.However, rules have to beseen in context and theychange with the times,”he said.

“It is extremelyimportant that parentsof babies and young chil-dren are able to partici-pate fully in the work ofthis House.” AP

Nairobi: Ethiopia's NobelPeace Prize-winning PrimeMinister has gone to the bat-tlefront to take charge in a year-long war as rival fightersapproach the capital, hisGovernment announcedWednesday.

State media showed noimages of Abiy Ahmed, a 45-year-old former soldier, and hisspokeswoman Billene Seyoumdismissed a request for detailson his location as “incredible.”

He arrived at the frontTuesday, according to a gov-ernment spokesman.

Tens of thousands of peo-ple have died in the warbetween Ethiopian federal andallied troops and fighters fromthe country's Tigray region.The prospect of the ancientnation breaking apart hasalarmed both Ethiopians andobservers who fear what wouldhappen to the often turbulentHorn of Africa at large.

Countries includingFrance, Germany and Turkeyhave told their citizens to leaveimmediately.

Abiy's trajectory from win-ning the Nobel just two yearsago to now potentially headinginto battle has shockedmany. AP

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Lahore: A thick cloud of smogthat enveloped Pakistan's cul-tural capital on Wednesday hasearned it the ignominious titleof the world's most pollutedcity, according to a Swiss airquality monitoring company.

Platform IQAir said thatLahore now stands at the top ofits polluted cities ranking —with an air quality index of 203on the US AQI scale, versusrunner-up Dehli, India, with183. That standing was at 0949GMT; the two cities had trad-ed places at least once over thecourse of the morning.

Increasing smog and parti-cle-laden air has sickened thou-sands of people with respirato-ry and other illnesses, forcing

many to stay at home on par-ticularly dirty days likeWednesday.

Dhaka, Bangladesh came inthird, with an index of 169, andKolkata, India at fourth, with areading of 168. Lahore stood atthird place a day earlier.

Lahore was once known asthe city of gardens, which wereubiquitous during the Mughalera of the 16th to 19th cen-turies. Intense urbanisation andsurging population growth haveleft little room for greeneryacross the city, Pakistan's sec-ond largest after the capitalKarachi.

Doctors are advising peopleto wear face masks to avoid res-piratory related diseases. AP

Beijing: Fewer people are gettingmarried in China in addition tothe falling birth rates, hasteningthe demographic crisis in theworld's most populous country,according to official data.

The number of marriage reg-istrations in China has fallen forseven consecutive years and hit a17-year low last year, figures fromthe recently released ChinaStatistical Yearbook 2021 showed.

A total of 5.87 million couplesgot married in China in the firstthree quarters of 2021, downslightly from the same period oflast year, according to the datareleased by the Ministry of CivilAffairs.

It is expected that the numberof marriage registrations in Chinawill continue to decline in 2021,state-run China Daily reported onWednesday.

This is in addition to thefalling birth rates. The birth-ratein China last year was 0.852 per-cent, falling below one percent forthe first time since 1978, figuresfrom the China StatisticalYearbook 2021 book revealed.

As the demographic crisisdeepened, China has permitted allcouples to have two children in2016, scrapping the draconiandecades-old one-child policy andrevised it this year permittingthree children, which howeverdrew a poor response.

The decision to permit thethird child came after the latestonce-in-a-decade census showedthat China's population grew atthe slowest pace to 1.412 billionamid official projections that thedecline may begin as early as nextyear. Outlining the reasons for thefalling marriage registrations, HeYafu, a demographic expert iden-tified decline in the number ofyoung people in China as one ofthe reasons.

The population of the post-80s, post-90s and post-2000s inChina has been on the decline, he

said, citing the National Bureau ofStatistics.

Also, the desire of young peo-ple to get married has generallyfallen due to reasons such as highwork pressure and great improve-ment in women's education leveland economic independence, hetold the China Daily.

Another major reason is theunbalanced ratio of male andfemale population. In China, menoutnumber women by 34.9 mil-lion as per the seventh NationalCensus.

Among them, there are 17.52million more men in their 20sthan women of marriageableage.

In addition, the high cost ofliving, including soaring housingprices, is also a big obstacle toyoung people wanting to get mar-ried and have children, he said.

In China, marriage and child-birth are closely linked, and theproportion of children born out ofwedlock is low, He said.

So the decline in marriageregistration is bound to have anegative impact on the birth rate,he said.

Thus, remedial measuresshould be stepped up, He said.Local Governments' reduction ofhousing costs for the young is oneexample. To encourage youngpeople to get married and havechildren, marriage and materni-ty leave should also be extended,He said.

The falling fertility rate, rela-tively early retirement age and thethree-child policy have become amajor concern for China as thecountry is greying faster thanearlier predictions.

The number of people aged 60or above has already touched 264million, accounting for 18.7 per-cent of the total population.

The average annual elderlypopulation growth has been about6.3 million for 21 years, accordingto the latest census. PTI

Moscow: Russian PresidentVladimir Putin said on Wednesdayhe has taken an experimental nasalvaccine against the coronavirus,three days after he received hisbooster shot, as Russia faces itsworst surge of infections and deathssince the pandemic began.

Putin was vaccinated withSputnik V, Russia's domesticallydeveloped Covid-19 vaccine, inthe spring. On Sunday, he said hereceived a booster short of SputnikLight, the one-dose version of thejab, and said he wanted to take partin testing the nasal version ofSputnik V.

Denis Logunov, deputy direc-tor of Russia's state-fundedGamaleya Center that developedSputnik V, told Putin on Sunday thenasal vaccine is yet to be tested onmembers of the public and is cur-rently being studied “off-label most-ly, as usual, we're testing it on staffmembers, monitoring.”

In accordance with establishedscientific protocols, the vaccine

will need to go through several trialphases, including those involvingthousands of people, to establishthat it is safe and effective to use.

Putin told a Government meet-ing Wednesday that “exactly sixmonths after vaccination my titersof protective (antibodies) havedropped, and specialists recom-mended the procedure of revacci-nation, which I did.”

He said he didn't experienceany unpleasant effects after takingthe nasal vaccine. In recent weeks,Russia has been swept by its high-est ever Covid-19 surge, with offi-cials regularly registering record-high numbers of new infections anddeaths.

The surge came amid low vac-cination rates and lax public attitudestoward taking precautions. Fewerthan 40 per cent of Russia's nearly146 million people have been fullyvaccinated, even though the coun-try approved a domestically devel-oped Covid-19 vaccine monthsbefore most of the world. AP

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Union Bank of India hasentered into a co-lending

partnership with Capri GlobalCapital, under which they willdisburse loans to MSMEs.

Capri Global Capital Ltd(CGCL) is a non bankingfinancial company focused onlending to MSMEs and theaffordable housing finance seg-ment. The co-lending agree-ment aims to enhance last-milefinance and MSMEs by offer-ing secured loans between Rs10 lakh to Rs 1 crore, the pub-lic sector lender said in a state-ment. Through this collabora-tion, Union Bank of India andCGCL aim to disburse MSMEloans initially across 100 plustouch points across India, itsaid.

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The Reserve Bank hasimposed penalties on Tata

Communications PaymentSolutions Limited (TCPSL)and Appnit TechnologiesPrivate Limited (ATPL) fordeficiencies in regulatory com-pliance. A penalty of �2 crorehas been imposed on TCPSLand �54.93 lakh on ATPL, thecentral bank said in a statementon Wednesday.

“It was observed thatTCPSL was non-compliantwith the directions issued byRBI on White Label ATMdeployment targets and net-worth requirement. ATPL wasnon-compliant with the direc-tions issued by RBI on main-

tenance of escrow account bal-ance and net-worth require-ment,” it said. The RBI hadissued notice to these twoauthorised Payment SystemOperators (PSOs).After review-ing their written responses andoral submissions made duringthe personal hearing, the RBIconcluded that the charges ofnon-compliance with certaindirections were substantiatedand warranted the impositionof monetary penalty. The cen-tral bank, however, added thatthe penalties are based on“deficiencies in regulatory com-pliance” and are not intendedto pronounce upon the validi-ty of any transaction or agree-ment entered into by the enti-ties with their customers.

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The Indian rupee recoveredits initial losses and settled

2 paise up at 74.40 against thegreenback on Wednesday asexporters’ dollar sales helpedoffset elevated crude oil prices.

Investors also awaited theminutes of the latest FederalReserve meeting, forex traderssaid. At the interbank forexmarket, the local unit openedon a weak note at 74.53 againstthe US dollar and witnessed anintra-day high of 74.31 and alow of 74.54. Snapping itsthree-day losing run, thedomestic currency finallyended at 74.40, registering again of just 2 paise over its pre-viousclose of 74.42.

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Equity benchmarks resumedtheir decline on Wednesday

after a day’s gap, succumbing toa last-hour sell-off triggered bylosses mainly in market heavy-weights Reliance, Infosys andHDFC.

After trading in the greenfor most part of the session, the30-share BSE Sensex settled323.34 points or 0.55 per centlower at 58,340.99 -- markingits fifth decline in the last sixdays.

Likewise, the NSE Niftyfell 88.30 points or 0.5 per centto end at 17,415.05.

On the Sensex chart,Maruti, Infosys, TechMahindra, ITC, RelianceIndustries, L&T, UltraTechCement and HDFC were themajor losers, dropping as muchas 2.62 per cent. On the otherhand, Kotak Bank, NTPC,ICICI Bank, Bajaj Finance,PowerGrid and HCL Tech wereamong the gainers, climbing up

to 1.45 per cent. Of the Sensex constituents,

22 shares ended in the red. “Unable to hold onto its

gains, domestic indices edgedlower in today’s tumultuoussession amid mixed sentimentsacross global peers. Despitesurging inflation, the Euro-zone business activity jumpedto 55.8 in November from 54.2in October, instilling hope ininvestors.

“On the domestic front,gains in banking and financialstocks were offset by losses inoil & gas and auto sectors. Thebanking sector was in the radartoday as the government pro-posed to privatise two banksalong with making bankingamendments for the wintersession to facilitate PSB pri-vatisation” said Vinod Nair,Head of Research at GeojitFinancial Services.

Sectorally, BSE IT indexfell 1.24 per cent, followed byauto, capital goods, FMCGand energy.

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Official data print on theGDP will show a 7.8 per

cent expansion on a year-on-year basis for the September2021 quarter, according to areport.

Real GDP will grow 9.4per cent in FY22 and deceler-ate to 7.5 per cent for FY23 asthe base effects result in thehigher growth in the ongoingfiscal wear-off, according to thereport by economists at HDFCBank released on Wednesday.

In FY21, the GDP hadcontracted 7.3 per cent due tothe pandemic. For FY22, theRBI expects GDP to clock agrowth of 9.5 per cent, whichwill slow to 7.8 per cent inFY23. The GDP had expandedby over 20 per cent for the first

quarter on the lower base. Theofficial data for the secondquarter is set to be released onNovember 30.

The report byHDFC Bank said some part ofthe expected 7.8 per cent GDPgrowth in the second quarterwill be due to a low base froma year when the economy con-tracted by 7.4 per cent but thereis likely to be a sequentialimprovement in GDP growthin Q2FY22.

On a sequential basis, GDPis expected to grow 9.75 percent in Q2 from a contractionof 16.9 per cent in the secondwave-hit previous quarter,reflecting a revival in econom-ic activity.

“With support from pent-up demand and easing ofmobility restrictions in the

country, economic activity (ascaptured by a number of highfrequency indicators) movedabove pre-second wave levels inearly

August and has remainedrobust since then,” the reportsaid.

Agriculture, forestry andfishing growth will come atfour per cent in Q2FY22,industry will be at 6.3 per centand services at 8.6 per cent, itadded.

When looked at from agross value added (GVA) basis,the September 2021 quartergrowth will come at 7.3 percent, the bank estimated,explaining that the gap betweenGDP and GVA is likely to bedriven by higher tax revenuecollection and lower subsidypay-outs in this quarter.

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Government think-tank NitiAayog on Wednesday pro-

posed setting up of full-stack‘digital banks’, which wouldprincipally rely on the internetand other proximate channelsto offer their services and notphysical branches, to mitigatethe financial deepening chal-lenges being faced in the coun-try. The Aayog, in a discus-sion paper titled ‘Digital Banks:A Proposal for Licensing &Regulatory Regime for India’,makes a case and offers a tem-plate and roadmap for a digi-tal bank licensing and regula-tory regime for the country.

Digital banks or DBs arebanks as defined in the

Banking Regulation Act, 1949(B R Act), the paper said.

“In other words, theseentities will issue deposits,make loans and offer the fullsuite of services that the B RAct empowers them to. As thename suggests however, DBswill principally rely on theinternet and other proximatechannels to offer their ser-vices and not physical branch-es,” it said. The paper noted thatIndia’s public digital infra-structure, especially UPI, hassuccessfully demonstrated howto challenge establishedincumbents. UPI transactionsmeasured have surpassed � 4lakh crore in value. Aadhaarauthentications have passed55 lakh crore.

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In view of some scary inci-dents in the country’s e-

commerce business in therecent past, the US giantAmazon has facilitated the saleof - marijuana illegally throughits portal and banned chemicalsin making bombs. And nowthe incident of selling poisonthrough the e-commerce por-tal of Amazon has shocked theCountry. Making a strongprotest against such activities ofthe Amazon, theConfederation of All IndiaTraders (CAIT) Wednesdayheld protests in more than1,200 cities in over 500 districtsof different states of the coun-try.

The protesters demon-strated the anger and resent-

ment of the trading communi-ty by holding dharna anddemonstration and warnedAmazon that either they shouldmake their business modelaccording to the law and rules,otherwise prepare to tie theirsack bed from India.

Now the violation of lawsand rules in e-commerce busi-ness will not be tolerated, CAITsaid, adding that if no concreteaction is taken immediately inthis matter, then the traders ofthe country will organise --‘Bharat Vyapar Bandh’ to raisetheir voice.

The CAIT also said thatAmazon’s love & affectiontowards the sale of marijuanais evident from the fact that ithas asked the US governmentto legalise the sale of marijuana.

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Shares of Paytm’s parent com-pany One97

Communications continued torally for the second consecutiveday on Wednesday and furtherjumped over 17 per cent.

Paytm, India’s leading dig-ital payments and financialservices platform is making acomeback in the stock marketas it crossed the �1,700 markon Wednesday morning trade.The stock zoomed 17.27 percent to close at �1,753.15 on theBSE. During the day, the stockjumped 19.73 per cent to �s1,790. On the NSE, it gained17.28 per cent to close at �1,753. With the rally in thestock price, the company’smarket valuation also wentpast � 1 lakh crore mark on theBSE.

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New Delhi: Online real estateportal Housing.com hasannounced the launch of itslegal assistance services forhomebuyers. REA India-owned Housing.com has part-nered with leading online legalassistance startups LegalKart,Lawrato, Vidhikarya and VakilSearch to assist homebuyers orinvestors in their property buy-ing journey. Consumer surveys have shownthat this is a major pain pointfor consumers and this offeringwill go a long way in address-ing that need.

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National Health AuthorityCEO and senior member

of founding team of Aadhaar RS Sharma on Wednesday crit-icised some of the restrictionsimposed by the UniqueIdentification Authority ofIndia (UIDAI) over use of theunique ID due to apprehen-sions around privacy. Sharma,who was the first DirectorGeneral of the UIDAI, said thatthe concept of data vault is fal-lacious which is adverselyimpacting the purpose ofAadhaar.“Aadhaar Act saysAadhaar information should besafely kept. Aadhaar number isnot an identity. It (data vault)is like putting all the numberson the currency notes intosome safe vault saying thatthese numbers will not be dis-closed. This is a fallacious way.Once you start with a fallaciousfoundation then everything

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Lieutenant GeneralPradeep Chandran Nair,

Yudh Seva Medal (YSM),the 21st Director General ofthe Assam Rifles receivedthe prestigious Ati VishishtSeva Medal (AVSM) fromthe President of India ShriRam Nath Kovind at aninvestiture ceremony held atNew Delhi on N ovember22. He has been bestowedwith this prestigious awardfor his successful commandas the Inspector General ofAssam Rifles (North) inNagaland. He has also beendecorated with the YudhSeva Medal during hisCommand of a Brigade inManipur and has also been

commended with the Chiefof Army StaffCommendation Card onthree occasions.

Lieutenant GeneralNair, AVSM, YSM holdsvast combat experiencein the North East. HeCommanded his battalion(18 SIKH) in Assam, hasbeen a brigade comman-der in Manipur. His vastexperience in the NorthEast especially as theInspector General ofAssam Rifles (North) hasbrought in peace andtranquillity in the regionas well as controlled theinsurgency. In his presentappointment as theDirector General ofAssam Rif les , theNortheast region is tobenefit tremendously.

Ashutosh Gangal, the general man-ager of Northern Railway held a

meeting with ministers and MPs ofconstituencies that come under thejurisdiction of Delhi division in NewDelhi. This is in accordance with thedirectives given by the Minister ofRailways, Ashwini Vaishnav, advisingGMs of Zonal Railways to increasepublic outreach to get feedback for pro-viding better service to the nation.Railway related issues in each con-stituency falling under NorthernRailway were discussed with the pub-lic representatives to find solutions forthe benefit of the passengers.

Dimpy Garg, the divisionalRailway Manager, Delhi Division pre-sented a report regarding the complet-ed, ongoing & planned works relatingto passenger amenities, infrastructureand services at stations and trains over22 constituencies in the states of UP,Haryana, Punjab and Delhi NCR, ser-viced by Delhi Division.

Gen VK Singh (retd), the UnionMinister of State, Ministry of RoadTransport & Highways and CivilAviation, MPs from Lok Sabha — DrHarsh Vardhan, Dr Satya Pal Singh,Rajendra Agarwal, Ramesh Bidhuri,Ramesh Chander Kaushik, SunitaDuggal, Sanjay Bhatia, Brijendra Singh,Pradeep Kumar Choudhary and MPs

from Rajya Sabha — Sardar BalvinderSingh Bhunder, Ram Chander Jangraand Narayan Das Gupta put forwardtheir views in the meeting.

The MPs highly appreciated thegood work done by Northern Railwayin their constituencies. They collective-ly thanked the Railways for helping thenation overcome the adversaries of thecorona pandemic in the last two years.They also put forward variousdemands, requirements and aspirationsof the rail users of their respective areas.They also volunteered to help wherev-er there was any co-ordination requiredwith the state administration for time-ly completion of the projects.

Gangal, assured the MPs thatNorthern Railway would resolve thepublic grievances and issues put for-ward by them as early as possible. Hefurther said that Northern Railwaywould always remain committed to thepassengers and rail users.

Inaugurated by Odisha CM onNovember 18, Keonjhar

Handball Ground, located inKendujhargarh Municipality, isfirst of its kind with provision ofoutdoor synthetic court in Odisha.The synthetic handball court hasbeen built as per internationalstandards (as per IHF –International HandballFederation). Additionally, the hand-ball ground campus, with an areaof around 1.6 acres, has beendeveloped with best-in-class land-scaping and provision of play areas.

Dual handball courts (with asynthetic pro-cushion surface),covering an area of 0.5 acres, werebuilt with a seating capacity ofaround 200. The material used forpreparation of the synthetic courthas been certified under ‘category4-medium-fast’ by the International

Tennis Federation (ITF). The ground is armed with the

ability to ensure play at night, withthe installation of sports standard‘high mast lights’. In addition to theworld-class handball courts, thecampus has been developed formulti-disciplinary public use withthe provision of walking path-ways, acupressure track, children’splay area, open-air gym, gymnasi-um, yoga platform, toilet block,seating arena and drinking water.

Shikha Gangal, the pres-i d e nt of Nor t h e r n

Railway Women's WelfareOrganiaation (NRWWO)i n au g u r ate d ab e v e r a g e / r e f r e s h m e n tcounter run by NRWWOat Central Hospital, NewDelhi on November 18.

On this occasion thev i c e - pre s i d e nt ofNRWWO, Anjali Gulati,t he t re asu re r, Anj anaKumar, and other membersof t he committee andMe d i c a l D i re c tor ofNorthern Railway, CentralHospital, New Delhi, DrAmita Jain, doctors andrailway personnel werealso present.

The NRWWO is a vol-

untary organisation, whichruns various welfare activ-ities for the benefit of rail-way workers and their fam-ilies.

With the inaugurationof the beverage/refresh-ment counter operated byNRWWO there has been afurther increase in thefacility of beverages/cater-ing facilities to the patientsand their relatives/rela-tives visiting this hospital.

Department of Education, Lady IrwinCollege, a constituent college of University

of Delhi, is organising the National Conferenceon Learning (NCL 2021) through virtual modeon November 26, 2021. The theme of the con-ference is gender and education.

Education plays a crucial role in spread-ing awareness and providing advocacy to allsections of society. This conference on 'Gender& Education' explores gender related issues andconsiders a broader vision of how investing ineducation can promote gender equality, gen-der equity as well as sensitivity and empathy.

The conference will start with the inau-gural session at 9:30 am. The welcomeaddress will be delivered by the Director of theCollege, Dr Anupa Siddhu. The chief guest ofthe conference is Prof Dr Asha Shukla, Vice-Chancellor of Dr B R Ambedkar SocialScience University, Indore, who will reflect on'Gender & Education'. The guest of honour,is Dr Poonam Aggarwal, NCERT. The guestspeaker, Anuradha Krishnan, gender resourceperson, will also give valuable input on thetheme. After that, tribute will be paid to MsKamla Bhasin (Indian feminist).

Educationists, researchers, teacher educa-tors from various universities and colleges willparticipate and give their presentations on thesubthemes.

POWERGRID, a Maharatna PSU underMinistry of Power, Government of India

under its CSR initiative in Northern Region-I has provided a financial assistance amount-ing to �3.5 crores under a joint CSR supportby Power Sector CPSE’s towards rehabilitationand restoration of Uttarakhand.

Heavy rainfall in Uttarakhand on October17 and 18 led to heavy floods causing chaosand disaster across the hilly state, with flood-ed roads and buildings, destroyed bridges leav-ing locals and tourists stranded — some inremote and dangerous locations. The floodshave resulted in loss of lives and agriculturalland and severely damaged critical infrastruc-ture and public utilities.

The CSR work involves disaster manage-ment, including relief, rehabilitation andreconstruction activities across eight districtsof Uttarakhand majorly covering 58 govern-ment schools and 28 health centers. The

restoration work shall be looked after by theUttarakhand State Disaster ManagementAuthority.

Minister of Power and New andRenewable Energy, RK Singh handed over ajoint cheque amounting to �22.31 crores to

Dhan Singh Rawat, Minister of State forDisaster Management, Uttarakhand on behalfof Power Sector CPSE’s in the presence of theUttarakhand’s CM,Pushkar Singh Dhami,Minister of State for Power, Krishan Pal andother senior dignitaries from the Ministry ofPower. The event was attended virtually by KSreekant, CMD, POWERGRID and othersenior officials of POWERGRID.

As a responsible Corporate Citizen, POW-ERGRID through its never ending efforts, notonly ensures reliable transmission of Power butis also committed in ensuring unfading smilesfor people.

One of the most interestingaspects of tribal life is thearray of authentic dishes,

unique to the different tribes.Authentic tribal cuisine is a majorattraction of the ongoing TribesIndia Aadi Mahotsav at Dilli Haatin New Delhi. The National TribalFestival, an annual affair, showcas-es interesting dishes from acrossthe country. Crowds visiting DilliHaat have been thronging to theAadi Vyanjan section, where foodstalls from across the country,from states such as Sikkim,Uttarakhand, Telangana, TamilNadu, Nagaland and Chhattisgarhhave been put up.

Tribal communities have aclose connection with nature; theirsimplicity and reverence towardsnature is carried over to the food.The same reverence is reflected intheir cuisine; the tribals considertheir food to be sacred. Tribal cui-sine is not only interesting, but alsonutritious and balanced. Be it thedaal baati churma from Rajasthanor the litti chokha or Thapdi rotifrom Jharkhand, or the kadhi fromUttarakhand, tribal food is simple,nutritious and edible. There seemsto be a preference of differenttypes of millets among the tribals,hence dishes made out of majorand minor millets are availablesuch as ragi pakodas and madwarotis from Jharkhand, ragi idlis anddosas from Tamil Nadu.

Over the past few days it hasbeen observed that some dishesattracted more attention than theothers. Chapda chutney or red antchutney had many takers. Chapda

chutney, made from red ants, is saidto be not only tasty but also helpskeep diseases at bay. Mahua dish-es also garnered much interest.Mahua trees are commonly avail-able all over the forests of centraland western India.

One can also enjoy other exot-ic, tasty foods such as dhuska(deep fried snack made of pow-dered rice), banjara biryani, thap-di roti, herbal teas and arakku cof-fee from different parts of thecountry.

GI products came to a specialfocus in the ongoing Tribes IndiaAadi Mahotsav, when BhaskarKhulbe, Advisor to the PrimeMinister of India visited the AadiMahotsav.

GI products occupy a promi-nent place in this edition of theAadi Mahotsav, and more than 50

such identified products are dis-played in stalls across the venue bythe tribals. Many visitors havebeen visiting these stalls with muchinterest. Apart from this sevennew GI-tagged products fromUttarakhand consisting of Aipancraft, Tamta product, Ringal craft,Thulma, Bhutiya Daan Carpet,Chyura oil and Munshiyari rajma,was launched at Aadi Mahotsavtaking the tally of TRIFED promot-ed tribal GI products to 66.

Speaking on the occasion,Khulbe remarked, “I am pleased to

note that TRIFED has activelytaken up the cause to promote GITagged products and transforminto a brand, thus empowering trib-al artisans. This Aadi Mahotsav isan excellent way to bring all trib-al artisans from across the countryin a single place. I urge all Delhi-ites to visit this unique fair.”

The GI products featured at theTribes India Aadi Mahotsav includerenowned, exquisite items such asRajasthan’s blue pottery, the KotaDariya fabric, Madhya Pradesh’sChanderi and Maheshwari silk,Bagh print, Odisha’s Pattachitra,Karnataka’s Bidriware, Banarasisilk from Uttar Pradesh, Darjeelingtea from West Bengal, Kala jeerafrom Himachal Pradesh, theextremely spicy Naga chilli, and thelarge cardamom from the North-east.

Geographical indication tag-ging has acquired a greater signif-icance ever since the focus hasshifted towards Vocal for Local andbuilding an Aatmanirbhar Bharat.TRIFED, Ministry of Tribal Affairshas been facilitating the promotionof GI Tagged products along withtribal products and transform theminto a brand, symbolising empow-erment of tribal artisans. These ini-tiatives are aimed help recogniseand promote age-old tribal tradi-tions and methods that in dangerof being lost due to urbanizationand industrialization.

The Geographical Indicationtechnology, which has been recog-nized by the World TradeOrganization, is used to denote thegeographical territory from where

a product, be it an agricultural pro-duce, natural product or manufac-tured, and also conveys assuranceof qualities or attributes that areunique to that specific geograph-ic region. India became a signato-ry to this convention, when, as amember of the WTO, it enacted theGeographical Indications(Registration and Protection Act),1999, which came into effect fromSeptember 15, 2003.

The Aadi Mahotsav festival isTRIFED’s attempt to familiarise thepeople with the rich and diversecraft, culture and cuisine of tribalcommunities across the country inone place.

Besides these GI products, onecan also find other ethnic tribalhandicrafts and products andorganic items — from the naturaland immunity-boosting tribal pro-duce such as virgin coconut oil,organic haldi, dry amla, wild honey,black pepper, ragi, triphala, andlentil mixes such as moong dal,urad dal, white beans, and dalia toartefacts such as paintings be it inthe Warli style or Patachitras; fromjewellery handcrafted in the Dokrastyle to bead necklaces from theWancho and Konyak tribes of theNorth-East.

The Aadi Mahotsav- ACelebration of the Spirit of TribalCrafts, Culture and Commerce ison at Dilli Haat, INA, New Delhitill the 30th November, 2021 from11 am to 9 pm.

Visit Aadi Mahotsav and sup-port the “Vocal for Local” move-ment and help in building a self-reliant India!

Two iron ore mines of SteelAuthority of India Limited

(SAIL), Kiriburu Iron Ore Minesand Meghahatuburu Iron OreMines, received five-star ratedawards for sustainable miningpractices and all round perfor-mance in the Iron Ore category atthe 5th National Conclave onMines & Minerals held in New

Delhi on November 23. The UnionMinister of Coal, Mines andParliamentary Affairs Shri PralhadJoshi presented the awards to Soma

Mondal, Chairman, SAIL in a glit-tering award ceremony. She wasaccompanied by Kamlesh Rai,Chief General Manager, KiriburuIron Ore Mines and Shri RPSelvam, Chief General Manager,Meghahatuburu Iron Ore Mineswhile receiving the awards.

SAIL’s Kiriburu Iron OreMines was awarded for the year

2017-18 and 2018-19 whileMeghahatuburu Iron ore Mineswas awarded for the year 2018-19and 2019-20. Both these SAILmines are under the JharkhandGroup of Mines of SAIL, BokaroSteel Plant.

SAIL fulfils its entire require-ment of iron ore from its captiveiron mines.

Jabra has announced the launchof Evolve2 75 - the latest in its

Evolve range of professional head-sets, specifically engineered tomake flexible working simplerand more productive for everyone,everywhere.

The Evolve2 75 is the first ofJabra’s Evolve headsets to includefully adjustable Jabra AdvancedActive Noise CancellationTM(ANC), so you can pick and choosehow much (or how little) of yoursurroundings you hear.

Delhi DevelopmentAuthority held its meeting

on November 24 through videoconferencing under the chair-manship of Anil Baijal, LtGovernor of Delhi and thechairman of DDA attended byManish Kumar Gupta, IAS,Vice Chairman, DDA, andother members of the Authorityincluding Vijender GuptaMLA, Somnath Bharti MLA, OP Sharma MLA, Adesh KumarGupta Municipal Councillor,North Delhi MunicipalCorporation and KailashSankla, Municipal Councillor,South Delhi MunicipalCorporation.

Following major decisionswere taken:

Launching of HousingScheme: The Authority hasapproved launching of OnlineSpecial Housing Scheme forapproximately 15,000 flats ofdifferent categories at variouslocations such as Dwarka,Narela, Rohini, Jasola etc. DDAwill soon share the furtherdetails of the scheme on its web-site and leading Newspapers /Social media. The scheme hasthe following main features:-

The flats offered underthis scheme are those whichremain unsold in previousHousing schemes of DDA.

The flats are being offeredat the old rates/cost in relaxationof the costing policy of DDAwhich is updated every finan-

cial year based on the appreci-ation/depreciation of landcost/building as the case maybe.

The flats at Narela sub-cityare being offered after takingseveral remedial measures interms of improvement of infra-structure, security and connec-tivity on the basis of sugges-tions/feedback of the allottees/residents of the area.

The allottees will be eligi-ble for subsidy under PMAYscheme of the central govt. ifthey avail home loan from thebank/financial institution.

The entire process fromapplication to allotment andpossession is being donethrough online mode.

PHDCCI-Rajasthan chapter organiseda Webinar on “Freight Incentives by

Railways for Industries with North WesternRailways” on November 24.

In his welcome address Shri DigvijayDhabriya, Chair, PHDCCI-RajasthanChapter informed that PHD Chamber hasbeen taking numerous initiative and pol-

icy advocacy measures for improvingEase of Doing Business, Reduction in costof Doing Business and providing a levelplaying field for the industry so that IndianEconomy can grow and achieve the targetof USD 5 trillion given by our Hon’blePrime Minister. He observed that logisticcost in India is over 14 per cent as com-

pare to 3-4 per cent in China adverselyaffecting the industry and exports fromIndia. There is a need to reduce to logis-tic cost and transportation through Railwaynetwork can help reducing the freight costwith the proactive approach and incentiveschemes offered by Railways.

Speaking as Chief Guest Narendra,

Divisional Railway Manager, NorthWestern Railway outlined the variousmeasures being taken by Railways forincreasing its freight basket with focus onservice and providing competitive freightsolutions to trade and industry with theultimate objective of facilitating growth ofIndian economy.

Water Supply and GroundWater Minister Dr Mahesh Joshi hassaid that the department's full focuswill be on uninterrupted, regularand adequate supply of clean drink-ing water to the public in the state.Along with this, vigorous efforts willbe made at every level with the helpof common people to preventwastage of water.

Dr Joshi was interacting withthe media persons after takingcharge as the new Water Supply andGround Water Minister of the Stateat the Government Secretariat onWednesday. Appealing to the com-mon people to save water, he saidthat water is priceless, people shouldunderstand its value and makemaximum use of it their habit.

Work will be done accordingto the needs of the people

The Minister said that the timeis changing rapidly and with this thepriorities of the people have alsochanged, in such a situation, depart-mental projects and programs willbe speeded up according to theneeds of the people in daily life. Hesaid that in the last three years, his-torical works of public interest havebeen done in all the departmentsincluding the water supply depart-ment in the state. During this,despite the circumstances arisingdue to Corona, the works of otherdrinking water projects including JalJeevan Mission (JJM) have beentaken forward in the state. Work inJJM has progressed very rapidly inthe recent past. Under the depart-ment, the work of all the projectsincluding JJM will be speeded upwith the thought that the moneybeing spent on them should be fully

benefited by the common man.

Stop wastage of drinking waterDr Joshi said that at many

places water gets wasted due to leak-age in the pipeline. For this, wher-ever the pipelines have becomeobsolete in the state, they will bereplaced and work will be done witha concrete strategy to preventwastage of drinking water. He saidthat the entire team of the depart-ment would leave no stone unturnedin the service of the public with theco-ordination of administrative offi-cers, engineers and technical andsubordinate personnel.

Dr Joshi was welcomed bysenior officers under the leadershipof Additional Chief Secretary, WaterSupply and Ground WaterDepartment, Sudhansh Pant bypresenting a bunch of flowers.Dignitaries including Dr. Joshi'sson Mr. Rohit Joshi and other wellwishers, fans and supporters werealso present on this occasion.

Dr Joshi's Joint Secretary ofGovernment of Water SupplyDepartment — First Pratap Singh,Joint Secretary, then Pushpa Satyani,Chief Engineer (Urban and NRW)CM Chouhan, Chief Engineer(Administration), Rakesh Luhadia,Chief Engineer (JJM), Dinesh Goyal,Chief Engineer (Special Projects)Dalip Kumar Gaur, Chief Engineer(Technical), Sandeep Sharma,Additional Chief Engineer (Rural)Devraj Solanki, Additional ChiefEngineer (Urban), AmitabhSharma, WSSO Director,Hukamchand Verma, AdditionalChief Engineer (Jaipur-II), ManishBeniwal and Additional ChiefEngineer (Jaipur-I) Arun Srivastava.

Tokens are going to be re-introduced in North –South

and East-West Metro fromtoday. For that, elaborate

arrangements have already beenmade to restore the old tokensystem in the Metro. For the safe-ty of Metro commuters, 40 token

sanitiser machines have alreadybeen installed at all stations.

Collected tokens will besanitised in these machines with

the help of ultra-violet ray forabout four minutes at eachNorth-South and East-WestMetro station. After U-V saniti-zation, these tokens will again beissued.

In each of the big stationstwo token sanitiser machines willbe kept for use. In each of thesmall stations one token sanitis-er machine will be kept.

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Acaptain battling existen-tial crisis, a veteranpacer about to be

phased out and a white-ballmaverick trying to earn his red-ball stripes makes for a headycombination as AjinkyaRahane’s second-string Indiaaim to size up a gritty NewZealand in first Test startingThursday.

Rahane, with his careeron line, gets to lead India maybe one last time while 100-Testveteran Ishant Sharma will bepraying that young turkMohammed Siraj doesn’tnudge him out.

Shreyas Iyer is set for Testdebut and would like to reaf-firm ‘Bombay (not Mumbai)School of Batsmanship’ whosephilosophy transcends beyondthe white-ball riches of IndianPremier League.

“Shreyas Iyer will be mak-ing his debut but I can’t revealanything about combination,”skipper Rahane confirmedahead of the match.

It is indeed a rarity to findan Indian Test team that iswithout its hit opening pair ofRohit Sharma and KL Rahul.Also missing from line-up isskipper Virat Kohli and a gen-uine match-winning keeper-batter Rishabh Pant.

But this also gives headcoach Rahul Dravid a chance tocheck out what his back-upbench strength is before theaway tour of South Africawhich starts in less than amonth’s time.

In the batting line-up forthe first Test, only Rahane,Cheteshwar Pujara andMayank Agarwal have playedmore than 10 Tests.

If Agarwal does well, thatwill keep KL Rahul on his toesand a good show fromShubman Gill will keep theteam management interested inslotting him in the middle-order when the two regularopeners come back.

In any sport, leader of theside is considered to have asecured slot in the side but inthis Indian team, the skipperwill be batting to save hiscareer after an average of 19 in11 Test matches in the currentseason.

Two more failures in twohome games could effectivelymean end of the road forRahane. Even Dravid will alsofind it difficult to justify theMumbaikar’s inclusion in theJohannesburg-bound flightnext month.

A look at Rahane’s net ses-

sion doesn’t inspire much con-fidence. He tried an ugly hoickoff Jayant Yadav’s off break andwas clean bowled. PrasidhKrishna induced an outsideedge which would have beenregulation catch.

But it was scary to see netbowler Shivam Mavi bowling aperfect bouncer and hittinghim on the chest.

It is never easy to lead aside when your own battingform has deserted you. HowRahane strikes a balance in thisTest between being a ruthlesscaptain and also the batter histeam expects him to be willdecide in which direction hiscareer goes from here.

If he plays the game of sur-vival against a Tim Southee orbumper-happy Neil Wagner, itmight bring about downfall butas Pujara said, “being a bit fear-less” will relieve him a bit fromthe gigantic pressure that’s onhis shoulders to save his career.

Similarly, for Ishant, thesenior-most player in the cur-rent set-up with 100 plus gamesand 300 plus wickets, the situ-ation is getting bleak by the day.

He didn’t look in goodrhythm during the net sessionand if Siraj is dropped from theeleven, the lanky pacer willonce again need to prove thatteam management’s decisionisn’t a travesty.

Umesh Yadav howeverremains the first-choice newball bowler. Shreyas, who hasa had a decent red ball recordbut has not played a long for-

mat game since 2019, will havehis task cut-out.

Dravid made him negoti-ate short ball throw-downsfrom left-arm specialist Nuwanin order to simulate NeilWagner’s round the wicket tac-tic. A solid debut with anaggressive mind-set might givethem a shot at permanent mid-dle-order place in future.

If one goes by cues fromnets, the sequence of battersappears to be Gill and Mayank,followed by Pujara and Rahane.Next in line was Shreyas, whichconfirmed that Surya will haveto wait for his Test debut.

While it’s not known ifAxar Patel’s workload is beingmanaged but Jayant Yadav hadan extended run in the nets

under watchful eyes of Dravid.A middle-order with three

defensive players like Pujara,Rahane and supposedlyHanuma Vihari, won’t be agreat proposition when Indiaplays away from home in com-ing days.

But one man, itching to goout there and reaffirm hisstatus as world’s number onespinner will be RavichandranAshwin, who had been lickinghis wounds for the past fewmonths after a royal snub byregular captain Kohli duringthe last series.

The third spinner is like-ly to be Axar Patel, who hada brilliant debut home seriesagainst England (27 wickets)when he last donned the

whites even though Jayantlooked in good rhythm.

For Black Caps, TimSouthee and Neil Wagner willbe the two pacers with left-

arm spin duo of Ajaz Patel andMitchell Santner along withoff-spinner Will iamSomerville likely to completethe attack.

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Tim Paine has the full support of theAustralian team and deserves to

keep his place for the first Ashes Testagainst England, opener Marcus Harrissaid on Wednesday.

Paine suddenly quit as Test captainlast week over a series of lewd text mes-sages with a female colleague in 2017that were about to be made public.Harris said the news came as a shockto the playing group who only learnedabout it 30 minutes before the officialannouncement. But he backed Paine tocome through the scandal and said hedeserved to play in the opening Test atBrisbane on December 8 on his wick-etkeeping abilities alone.

“Yes, absolutely,” Harris said when

asked if he should be in the startingeleven. “He’s done a really good in thelast few years under tough circum-stances, and I think you can still prob-ably argue that he’s the best glovemanin the country.

“I know he’s got the support of allthe players,” he added, with most ofthem personally contacting Paine in thewake of the scandal.

“Obviously Painey is a very pop-ular member of the group, and he wasas skipper as well. So we’re looking for-ward to him getting up here in the nextweek or so and getting on with crick-et.” The 36-year-old Paine has made itclear he still wants to play for Australiawith selectors needing to decidewhether to cut him loose and startafresh or show loyalty.

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India’s double Olympic medallist PV Sindhu showed great determi-

nation to outwit her opponent in thewomen’s singles opening round,while B Sai Praneeth and KidmabiSrikanth also advanced to the men’ssingles second round of theIndonesia Open Super 1000 eventhere on Wednesday.

After a slow start, Sindhu, thereigning world champion, engi-neered a turnaround to register ahard-fought 17-21 21-17 21-17 winover a tenacious Aya Ohori ofJapan in one hour 10 minutes.

With the win, Sindhu improvedher impressive record against the

Japanese shuttler to 11-0. Worldnumber seven Sindhu, who made asemifinal exit after suffering astraight game defeat to Japan’sAkane Yamaguchi here last week,will meet 23-year-old German shut-tler Yvonne Li in the second round.

It will be the first meeting

between the third seed Indian andworld number 26 Li.

In the men’s singles, worldnumber 16 B Sai Praneeth clincheda 21-19 21-18 win over France’sToma Junior Popov.

In a repeat of last week’sIndonesia Masters quarterfinal,Srikanth once again got the betterof compatriot HS Prannoy.

The former world number oneSrikanth, who is coming off twoback-to-back semifinal finishes atHylo Open and Indonesia Masters,continued his good run of form ashe eked out a 21-15 19-21 21-12 vic-tory over Prannoy in 56 minutes.

While Praneeth will next takeon Christo Popov of France in the

second round, Srikanth will meet thewinner of the first round clashbetween Tokyo Olympics goldmedallist second seed Dane VictorAxelsen and Japan’s Koki Watanbe.

The mixed doubles pairing of NSikki Reddy and Dhruv Kapila,however, made a first round exit,falling to the Japanese duo of KyoheiYamashita and Naru Shinoya, 7-2112-21.

It was a bad day in the office forReddy who made a first round exitin the women’s doubles event as well.

Reddy and veteran shuttlerAshwini Ponnappa went down 27-29 18-21 to the fifth seededBulgarian duo of Gabriela Stoevaand Stefani Stoeva.

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India opener KL Rahul gaineda slot to occupy the fifth spot

while middle-order batterSuryakumar Yadav galloped 24places to the 59th position in theICC men’s T20I player rankingsreleased on Wednesday.

Pakistan’s wicketkeeper-bat-ter Mohammad Rizwan, too,gained a slot to occupy thefourth position.

Rizwan’s upward movementis courtesy his 90 runs in thethree-match series againstBangladesh that his side won 3-0, while opener Rahul is only sixrating points behind after scor-ing 80 in two matches againstNew Zealand, a series also won3-0 by India.

New Zealand’s MartinGuptill has gained three slots toreach 10th position scoring 152

runs against India while RohitSharma is 13th, gaining twoplaces after topping the serieswith 159 runs.

Pakistan’s Fakhar Zamanis another one to move up thebatters’ list, from 40th to 35th.

The rankings for bowlers

see Mitchell Santner gain 10slots to reach 13th positionwith four wickets in the seriesagainst India and BhuvneshwarKumar up five to 19th withthree scalps. Deepak Chahar hasmoved up 19 slots to reach 40th position.

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France and Real Madrid for-ward Karim Benzema was

given a one-year suspendedjail sentence and a fine of75,000 euros ($84,000)Wednesday in a sex-tape casethat rocked French soccer.

Benzema was found guiltyof being involved in an attemptin 2015 to blackmail Franceteammate Mathieu Valbuena.

The Versailles court deci-sion is unlikely to affectBenzema’s immediate sportingfuture. The forward is regard-ed as one of the favorites towin the Ballon d’Or award onNov. 29 in Paris following animpressive season withMadrid. French federationpresident Noel Le Great hasalready said Benzema would be allowed to keepplaying with France even iffound guilty.

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The Australian Test team will bewithout a captain for the next 15

years if the country’s cricket administra-tors are looking for someone with a “pre-fect” and unblemished record, feels for-mer skipper Michael Clarke.

Cricket Australia (CA) is set toappoint a new captain after Tim Painestepped down from the post in the wakeof a ‘sexting’ scandal. Fast bowlingspearhead Pat Cummins has emerged asthe frontrunner to succeed Paine and for-mer skipper Steve Smith is also in thereckoning.

Clarke pointed out how RickyPonting became one of Australia’s great-est captains after overcoming an erraticstart to his international career.

“Go back in my time even to RickyPonting. If that’s the case, he never wouldhave captained Australia,” Clarke told‘Big Sports Breakfast’.

“He had a punch up in the middleof a Bourbon & Beefsteak. Are you notgoing to give him the job because of that?

“He’s a great example. He’s shownyou how time, experience, maturity, play-ing at the highest level and even the cap-taincy turned him around.”

Paine is the only specialist wicket-keeper in Australia’s 15-man squad toface England in the upcoming Ashes butchairman of selectors George Bailey saidhe is not final for the first Test startingin Brisbane on December 8.

Clarke admitted that the AustralianTest captain needed to be held to a highstandard, but he said the team would endup with few options if it has unrealisticexpectations.

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Coming off big defeats, both NorthEastUnited FC and Kerala Blasters would look

to open their account and get their campaignup and running when they face off in the IndianSuper League (ISL) here on Thursday.

While the Khalid Jamil-coached NorthEastUnited conceded four goals against an experi-enced Bengaluru FC, Kerala Blasters too lostby a 2-4 margin to last edition’s runners-up ATKMohun Bagan in their opener.

Kerala Blasters’ pre-season performancesprovided hope but they found the going tootough against a strong and thoroughly profes-sional ATK Mohun Bagan.

At the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here onThursday, the southerners will get anotheropportunity to impress and open their accountin this edition of the league.

It is not going to be easy though against theHighlanders who fought hard against a fanciedBengaluru FC outfit. The team from the east-ern part of the country came back twice to levelthings in the first half, but the lack of concen-tration and inexperience at the back cost themdear, as they leaked four goals.

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Manchester United bookedtheir place in the

Champions League last 16 asCristiano Ronaldo scored in a2-0 victory at Villarreal onTuesday, while holders Chelseaalso reached the knockoutphase by thumping Juventus.

Three-time Europeanchampions United went intotheir first game since sackingOle Gunnar Solskjaer at theweekend needing a win toconfirm a top-two finish inGroup F.

But they were under mas-sive pressure as defeat wouldhave left their fate out of theirown hands.

David de Gea made two

crucial saves and United, withMichael Carrick in caretakercharge, took advantagethrough Ronaldo’s 78th-minute lob.

Jadon Sancho, so often aperipheral figure since hisbig-money move fromBorussia Dortmund in theclose-season, capped a fineindividual display with hisfirst goal for the club late on.

Ronaldo’s goal was the799th of his career, his 140thin the Champions League andhis sixth in the competitionthis season.

The other qualificationspot in the group remains upfor grabs after Young Boys andAtalanta played out a thrilling3-3 draw in Bern.

Atalanta face a winner-takes-all match againstVillarreal in Bergamo nextmonth.

�������������'�#�Chelsea romped into the

last 16 and to the top ofGroup H with an impressive 4-

0 thrashing of Juventus atStamford Bridge.

Thomas Tuchel’s menknew that qualification wouldbe secured if they could avoiddefeat or if Zenit SaintPetersburg failed to beatMalmo.

The Blues dominated theearly stages and took the leadthrough young defenderTrevoh Chalobah’s third goalof the season.

It was a defender whodoubled Chelsea’s lead in the56th minute.

England right-back ReeceJames hammered a fine volleyinto the bottom corner to netfor the fifth time already thisterm. Chelsea grabbed theirthird goal less than two min-

utes later, Ruben Loftus-Cheekprodding the ball to Hudson-Odoi, who smashed homefrom close range.

There was still time forTimo Werner, making his firstappearance since an injury lay-off, to come off the bench andscore in added time.

In Group G, Lille madeSalzburg wait to reach the

last 16 as Jonathan Davidscored a first-half winner in a1-0 victory in France.

All four teams in thegroup can still go through,after Sevi l la saw of fWolfsburg 2-0.

������ ������������-��� ����1��� ��2;Barcelona: Barcelona’s hopesof qualifying for theChampions League last 16 godown to the final Group Ematchday after an entertain-ing 0-0 draw against Benficaon Tuesday.

With XaviHernandez takingcharge of his secondgame since replacingRonald Koeman inthe Barca dugout, theCatalan side pro-duced a performancea world apart fromthe sorry outfit

Benfica saw off 3-0 in Lisbonin September.

A win would have earnedBarca qualification alongsideBayern Munich, whomthey must now beat on

December 8, if Benficadown Dynamo Kiev,

to progress. Bayernhad already quali-fied for the last 16before its 2-1 win atDynamo Kyiv andthe result securedthe German cham-

pions first place inthe group. AP

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Benzema handed 1-yearsuspended sentence

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