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New Delhi, Tuesday, December 17, 2019 Pages 12 + 4 pull out (P16) Price: 3.00Volume No: 6 Issue No: 341

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Indian HorizonRNI No: Deleng/2013/51507

Published from New Delhi & Hyderabad

Rahul is wearing Italian spectacles:

Amit Shah

British-Muslims prepare to leave

UK over Johnson’s election win

I’m just trying to improve everyday:

Rishabh PantP-11P-5 P-8

62.46% voting in Jharkhand poll’s fourth phase

Priyanka takes centre stage as Rahul Gandhi-

in South Korea

Mumbai, Dec 16 (IANS)Students of the University of Mumbai, the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B), the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), and political parties and social organisa-tions staged protests on Mon-day to express solidarity with students of the Jamia Millia Islamia whose campus wit-nessed violence on Sunday.

The IIT-B students, includ-ing many girls, carried torch-es, banners and posters say-ing “In Solidarity With Jamia”

and silently marched around their campuses peacefully, late on Sunday.

On Monday, some IIT-B stu-dents took to social media how they undertook the silent pro-test despite reportedly being refused permission by the IIT-B authorities.

TISS students, includ-ing many women, also took out a procession on Monday and boycotted their lectures to condemn the “brutal vio-lence” against the students in JMI, AMU and the people of

the northeastern states.At the Mumbai University’s Kalina campus, hundreds of students, led by the Chhatra Bharati, also supported the JMI and AMU students and vehemently op-posed the CAA/NRC laws.

The Maharashtra Congress, led by its President and Rev-enue Minister Balasaheb Tho-rat staged a protest outside the Gandhi statue in Variety Chowk, Nagpur, this evening and condemned the brutal police action against the JMI/AMU students.

Kolkata, Dec 16 (IANS)The West Bengal govern-ment has refused the Centre’s offer to rush in paramilitary forces to quell the continuing widespread violence dur-ing protests in the state against the new citizen-ship law (CAA), Chief Minister Mamata Baner-jee said here on Monday.

“They have asked us whether we need CISF,

CRPF and BSF. I have said my police are enough”, Banerjee said at a meet-ing in protest against the CAA and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) after leading a march in the city.

“People of our state will manage the situation by cooperating with the po-lice,” she said.A number of trains, railway stations, train tracks, toll plazas

and buses have been torched and vandalised and train and vehicular movement thrown into jeopardy in the anti-CAA protests that began in Bengal on Friday.

Appealing to the Mus-lims to protest demo-cratically and peacefully against CAB and NRC, she said: “Remember, there are some people who don’t want your move-ment to succeed.“They will indulge in arson and make people turn against you. And then tell the Centre to deploy the Army,” Banerjee said.

She said at least four people have died in po-lice firing in Assam.

“But we have kept full faith in our police,” she said, urging people to inform the police per-sonnel if they apprehend disturbances.

I told Centre my police is enough to handle protests: Mamata

Maharashtra students support Jamia, AMU colleagues

Savarkar row: Maha Oppn seeks Rahul’s apology, targets CM

Nagpur, Dec 16 (IANS)Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party legislators on Monday continued to protest outside the Maharashtra legislature, demanding an apology from Congress leader Rahul Gan-dhi for his remarks on Vi-nayak Damodar alias ‘Veer’ Savarkar.

Ensuring that the first day of the legislature’s Winter Session began on a stormy note, the BJP also target-ed Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray for his stand on

the issue, terming as his “helplessness” to save his government from collaps-ing.When Leader of Oppo-sition Devendra Fadnavis raised the matter in the as-sembly, it was not taken on record by Speaker Nana Patole.Opposing the move, Fadnavis asked: “Is this the British Raj assembly or In-dependent India’s legisla-ture? Why our sentiments on Veer Savarkar cannot go on record?”

...........Continue on Page 4

Protest at Urdu varsity in solidarity with Jamia studentsHyderabad, Dec 16 (IANS)

Students of Moulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU) boycotted their ex-aminations to stage protests on Monday in solidarity with the students of Jamia Millia Islamia and Aligarh Muslim University.

The day-long protest by stu-dents remained peaceful with police keeping a tight vigil from outside the campus.

The students did not try to come out of the campus but squatted at the main gate since morning. They shut the gate from inside to prevent faculty and non-teaching staff from entering the campus, insisting that they also sit with them on

protest.A few faculty members addressed the students, con-demning the police action on the students of Jamila Millia Islamia (JMI) and also Aligarh Muslim University (AMU).

"Inquilab Zinadabad', 'Save democracy' and 'Sanghis quit India' read the placards car-ried by the protesters, who

were raising slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).Dozens of students shouted slogans like 'Dictatorship nahi chalegi, tana shahi nahi chalegi', 'we are with Jamia and AMU'.

.............Continue on Page 3

New Delhi, Dec 16 (IANS) The anti-Citizenship Amend-ment Act (CAA) protests are heating up in Delhi and across several parts of the country but former Congress President Ra-hul Gandhi is missing the action as he has left for South Korea on an offi cial tour. His sister and party General Secretary Priyan-ka Gandhi Vadra led the protest at the India Gate against alleged police crackdown on students of Jamia Millia Islamia.“Rahulji has gone to South Korea on an offi cial tour,” a Congress source told IANS.The former party chief left for South Korea on Mon-day morning, the source said, but did not reveal for how long Rahul Gandhi would be away.Meanwhile, Priyanka Gandhi, in the absence of her brother, took the lead in Congress pro-tests. At the India Gate protest, she was joined by several senior

party leaders like Ahmed Patel, K.C. Venugopal, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ambika Soni and others.But despite her dharna, many party activists questioned the

absence of Rahul Gandhi.On Twitter, Rahul Gandhi’s former aide Pankaj Shankar wrote: “Hope he is not abroad”, and in another tweet, he asked where

Rahul Gandhi was.In the past too, on several occasions, Rahul Gandhi has been criticised for being missing in action when signifi cant developments were unfolding in India.

On some occasions it later emerged that he had gone abroad in such instances.When IANS contacted Rahul Gandhi’s offi ce for details, his staff re-sponded with a “Why are you asking?” and denied any knowl-edge about his whereabouts. “Please send a mail to Rahul Gandhi’s offi cial mail id” was the response. Immediately af-ter the CAA became law, Rahul Gandhi had raised serious ob-jections to it. He had last court-ed controversy on Saturday when he drawn the ire of new ally Shiv Sena for his “I’m not Rahul Savarkar, and I am Rahul Gandhi and I won’t apologise for speaking truth” remarks.

Ranchi, Dec 16 (IANS) Over 62 per cent voting was record-ed in the fourth and penulti-mate phase of the Jharkhand Assembly polls, covering 15 seats across the Deoghar, Giri-dih, Bokaro and Dhanbad dis-tricts, on Monday.

According to the Election Commission data, 62.46 per cent turnout was witnessed in the phase with the highest polling -- 75.50 per cent -- re-ported from Chandankyari constituency.

People came out in large numbers to vote despite the cold and the Maoist boycott call. The state had witnessed rain on Sunday and the weath-er was cloudy in most parts.

In Dhanbad, an old women was brought on a cot so that she could cast her ballot.

Voting, which started at 7 a.m., ended at 3 p.m. on fi ve seats - Bagodar, Jamua, Giri-dih, Dumri and Tundi - in

Maoist-affected areas while in the remaining constituencies, it ended at 5 p.m.

There are a total of 221 can-didates, including 23 women, in the fray in this phase with the maximum -- 25 candidates -- contesting from the Bokaro seat while the minimum (8) were trying their luck from the Nirsa seat.Out of 15 seats, three -- Deoghar, Jamua and Chandankiyari -- are reserved for Scheduled Castes while re-maining 12 are general seats.A

total of 47,81,422 voters were eligible to cast their votes in 6,101 booths, out of which 4,296 were in the rural areas.

In Maoist-affected areas, 587 booths were marked "very sensitive" and 405 "sensitive" while in the non-Maoist ar-eas, 546 booths were "very sensitive" and 2,665 were "sensitive".On nine seats, the fi ght is between the BJP and Congress-Jharkhand Mukti Morcha-Rashtriya Janata Dal alliance and triangular

in the remaining seats, with BJP's NDA allies like the All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU) and the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) contesting sepa-rately in the state.

Prominent candidates who are in the race for these seats include Labour Minister Raj Paliwar, Tourism Develop-ment Minister Amar Kumar Bauri, Ragni Singh, the wife of a sitting MLA who is in jail on charges of murder, and Raj Kishore Mahto of the AJSU.

New Delhi, Dec 16 (IANS) The Supreme Court on Monday said "fear" and "abuse of RTI Act" by vested interests was leading to blackmail and extortion.

A bench headed by Chief Jus-tice S.A. Bobde and comprising Justices B.R. Gavai and Surya Kant also asked the Centre to fi ll all va-cancies in the information commis-sion within three months, and also sought to know if any guidelines can be evolved to address the abuse of the Right to Information Act.

The Chief Justice said the people who are in no way connected to an issue fi le RTI, leading to criminal in-timidation, which is a nice word for blackmail.

"We are not against the right to information. But there is a need for guidelines. It cannot be an unbri-dled right", said the Chief Justice.

The bench's observation came on the argument by lawyer Prashant Bhushan that despite the top court's February 15 judgment, the Centre and state governments have failed to appoint information com-

missioners in Central Information Commission and State Informa-tion Commission. Bhushan told the court he was involved in drafting of the RTI Act.The Chief Justice re-plied, "Why do you think that we are asking you (to develop the guide-lines to fi lter RTI requests)? People fi le RTI after going to you. That is why we need guidelines."The Chief Justice said there may be innumer-able cases of blackmail and extor-tion, and if there is a cognizable offence, then the people concerned should fi le a complaint with the anti-corruption bureau.

SC: Vested interests behind RTI leading to blackmail

City2

NEW DELHI,16th -DEC.--The con-clave also had Namami Gange Art show and prestigious Make in India & Artist of the Year award Ceremony.Chief Guests were Ex-Mayor Narendra Chawla, NDMC Secretary Rashmi Singh, Anjanna Kuthia-la, Seema Midha, Taara Malhotra. Impor-tant Speakers & Make in India Awardees were: Meditation Guru ARCHNA Didi (Meditation), Keshav Murari Das (Spiri-tuality), Sandeep Marwah (Media), IPS Dr Sanjeeb Patjoshi (Wellness), Dr. Pada-rabinda Rath (Wellness), IPS Ilma Afroz (Administration), Dr Ankita Singh (HR), Dr RK Manchanda (Homoeopathy), Prof Rais Ur Rahman (Unani), Dr. Dinesh Chand Katoch (Ayurveda), Ila Singh (Wellness), Dr Mohan K Karki (Yoga), Pooja Nagdev (Ayurveda), Dr Deepti Se-hgal (Nutritionist), Dr Anupam Kshetriya (Ayurveda), Dr Anuradha Bhardwaj (Sci-ence), Madhvi Advani (Luxury Consul-tant), Divya Verma (Jewelry Designing), Dr Tanisha Dutta (Administration), Prof.

Sandhya Chougule (Social Entrepre-neur), Dr Rajesh Srivastav (Vastu). Artist of the Year awardees were: Shuchi Kris-han (Creative Art), Loveleena Labroo Kumar (Music), Padmashri Kishn Kanhai (Creative Art), K Subramaniam (Creative Art), Anjali Kumar (Creative Art), Racha-na Miglani(Creative Art), Sonali Kumar (Creative Art), Dr Anita Goel (Creative

Art), Savita Pandey (Creative Art), Aish-warya Manish (Creative Art), Abhimanyu Sekhon (Creative Art), Kalpana Dhankar (Creative Art), Priya Kumar (Creative Art), Anita Malik (Creative Art), Shobha Jolly (Photography). Ritupparna Bhayana & Vaisshaalii Jainn were conferred with Tarot Diva Award 2019 in the show-Tarot Spectrum 5. Sail,

Bharat Nirman Foundation organized Healthy & Fit India it’s 25th Mystique India Conclave on the support of Health

Ministry, MSME, KVIC & ITPO;

Ordinance on power reforms on cards as states stay divided

New Delhi, Dec 16 (IANS) Unable to introduce amendments to the Electricity Act 2003 due to lack of consensus among states, the Cen-tre has decided to push through the next big power sector reform by pro-mulgating an ordinance by later this month or in early January.

The ordinance will have regula-tions to restrict cross-subsidy sur-charge, ensure timely payment of generation dues by discoms and make power contracts non-nego-tiable. Through the ordinance, the Centre may also strengthen the in-stitution of power regulators, carry out separation of power carriage and content operation of distribu-tors and develop a system of penalty for non-finalisation of cost reflective tariff on time.

The government intended to bring about some changes in the Electric-ity Act 2003, but it has failed to get parliamentary approval for the last five years as states are not on board over various proposals in the draft legislation. "The power sector is also reeling under sluggish demand, reflecting overall slowdown in the economy. The sector needs a booster

and if it's not coming through legis-lation then ordinance is the next best course of action. But the Centre needs to bring all states on board as most changes are to be implemented by them," said a power sector ana-lyst. Among the major changes is likely to be restoration of the sanctity of power contracts.

According to sources, the power purchase agreement between gen-erators and discoms will be made sacrosanct with states limiting their rights to renegotiate PPAs midway of a project cycle. It's expected to be done by empowering power sector regulators, making their operations independent with statutory powers.

Strengthening of regulations for regulators is expected to remove in-vestor uncertainty about contracts and delayed payments by state dis-tribution companies. States, like Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, have been renegotiating PPAs with renewable energy players after the project was awarded to them. It has created a lot of uncertainty and in-vestment in the renewable sector is on decline. The ordinance is also expected to make regulations to pe-

nalise state discoms not finalising cost reflective electricity tariffs on time and delaying payments to gen-erators. Also, the new regulations will restrict cross-subsidisation of consumers to 20 per cent max (the difference between highest and low-est tariff). It could help industrial electricity tariff to fall, but would put more pressure on financially dis-tressed discoms as higher industrial tariffs are biggest revenue earners for them.

The power tariff policy provides that cross-subsidy would be brought down to 20 per cent in the first phase. It will help in reduction of tariff for a section of consumers.

According to government data, discoms dues to power generators stands around Rs 81,000 crore. Of this, Rs 62,000 crore is overdue.

Sources said the Centre might also bring regulations on separation of carriage and content operations of discoms that will allow competi-tion in a distribution circle, enabling consumers to choose their electricity suppliers. States are opposed to the move as it would rob them of a large number of paying consumers.

Indian HorizonTuesday, December 17, 2019

New Delhi, Dec 16 (IANS) Moments after the All India Football Federations (AIFF) Technical Committee met na-tional coach Igor Stimac on November 29, reports emerged that the commit-tee led by Shyam Thapa had spoken to Stimac about the teams performance in the World Cup qualifiers against Ban-gladesh and Afghanistan. In fact, it was also said that the committee had made its displeasure known on Indias failure to win the two games.

Speaking to IANS, Thapa clarified that it was a matter blown out of pro-portion and that it was a mere discus-sion and there were even talks of how the team had improved and there was a sense of fight in the way the boys played on the field. He said that the

coach was just told that there could have been some more attacking foot-ball played and that doesn't amount to disappointment. "We had a discussion and we agreed about the improvement in the current style of play and fighting spirit of the Indian team. But, we told him that we could have played more attacking football against them as they are lower ranked teams.

"We played good football against the higher ranked teams, but then, we played defensive football instead of attacking football against those two teams. It was just about discussing these things and why we didn't capital-ise after we had the upper hand," Tha-pa clarified. Thapa also agreed with the fact that there is a shortage of striker as

there is no one the team can bank on after current skipper Sunit Chhetri.

"I told the coach that you have to prepare someone from the upcoming youngstars otherwise once Chhetri re-tires, there is no striker. How long will Chhetri continue? Though we have got some award recently for our youth development programme, we need to focus on our youth development pro-gramme more," he said. Thapa reiter-ated that what he wanted to mean was that it was important to win against Bangladesh and Afghanistan so as to remain in a competitive position. "We agreed that the coach didn't get proper preparation time. We also spoke to the General Secretary that we should have planned our home calendar in a prop-

Discussion with Stimac was blown out of proportion: Thapa

Farmer singing Justin Bieber hit number 'Baby' goes viral

Vice President, Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu presenting the National Safety Awards (Mines), for the years 2015 & 2016, in New Delhi on December 16, 2019. The Minister of State for Labour and Employment

(Independent Charge), Shri Santosh Kumar Gangwar, the Secretary, Ministry of Labour and Employment, Shri Heeralal Samariya and other dignitaries are also

New Delhi, Dec 16 (IANS) The Supreme Court on Monday gave three months to the Cen-tre and the Delhi govern-ment to set up a 'smog tower' pilot project at Connaught Place, here, to address the menace of air pollution.

A Bench, comprising Justice Arun Mishra and Justice Deepak Gupta, didn't agree with authori-ties' submissions seeking time until August-Sep-tember 2020. "We don't want to waste one more year," said the Bench.

Additional Solicitor General (ASG) A.N.S. Nad-karni, representing the Centre, contended that it had filed an affidavit in this connection. Setting

up of a smog tower under the pilot project would re-quire at least six months, he submitted.

Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, representing the Delhi government, said the smog tower, being a pilot project, would re-quire nearly nine months.

The judges also held a short discussion with the IIT professor, who is part

of the high-level commit-tee examining various technologies, like smog towers and anti-smog guns, to combat air pol-lution.

Nadkarni said, those guns could be installed especially at construction sites.

When the IIT professor submitted that smog tow-er would only be feasible

by August or September 2020, the Bench asked why it couldn't be done in three months.

The apex court asked the authorities concerned to sum up the budgetary allocation for such tech-nology, and sought this information within a day to pass orders. "We are giving you three months for this pilot project," it said.

On December 9, the court partially lifted ban on construction activities in the Delhi-NCR and al-lowed construction be-tween 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., after the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) in-formed the court that the air quality index (AQI) was not in the severe category.

New Delhi, Dec 16 (IANS) Most of us are fans of Justin Bieber's "Baby" song but currently, the internet is in love with a farmer who can be seen singing the singer's hit number, and the internet is gushing that it is bet-ter than the original. Once the video surfaced on social media, netizens hailed the singing of the farmer. "Lis-ten to this Karnataka farmer singing a Justin Bieber song, you will be blown," wrote a user while tweeting the viral video. A fan of Justin bieber

gushed, "Justin bieber is the best don't compare anyone with him ......and the farmer is good but not the best."A netizen commented,"Damn He is killin it..." The video posted on the video sharing platform Youtube captioned, "Listen to this Karnataka farmer singing a Justin Bieber song, you will be blown." The 3.10-minute video features a farmer working on the field when he is interrupted by another shooting the video. After a brief conversation, the man goes on

to play the song on his phone and sings along. Once the video surfaced on social media, netizens hailed the singing of the farmer. "Listen to this Karnataka farmer singing a Justin Bieber song, you will be blown," wrote a user while tweeting the viral video. A fan of Justin bieber gushed, "Justin bieber is the best don't com-pare anyone with him ......and the farmer is good but not the best."A netizen commented,"Damn He is killin it..."

Set up 'smog tower' to fight pollution in 3 months: SC

New Delhi, Dec 16 (IANS) Everyone loves 'free birthday food', free birthday meal' and 'free birthday dinner'. Recently Zomato India asked a question on Twitter about craziest things people have done to get free food and tweeple in resonspe got back with hilarious an-swers.

Zomato India wrote on

@ZomatoIN: "What is the craziest thing you've done to get free food?" The post on December 13 got 15 re tweets and 434 likes. One user posted, "Went to my Ex's wedding!" A post read, "Dude recently I gatecrashed 56th wedding just for food." After getting craziest reply Zomato In-dia wrote, "Thank you for the creative replies, every-

one. Here's another way: opt-in for On-Time or Free when you order online! (and hope that your order runs late)." A tweeple on micro-blogging site wrote, "Bartan Maanjhe Restau-rant Mein."

A tweeple remarked, "Pretending to work in the office until 10.30 p.m. so that HR can order food for everyone, including me."

A post read, "Dude recently I gatecrashed 56th wedding just for food." After getting craziest reply Zomato India wrote, "Thank you for the creative re-plies, everyone. Here's another way: opt-in for On-Time or Free when you order online! (and hope that your order runs late)."

Zomato question on free food gets craziest replies

New Delhi, Dec 16 (IANS) Un-able to introduce amendments to the Electricity Act 2003 due to lack of consensus among states, the Centre has decided to push through the next big power sec-tor reform by promulgating an ordinance by later this month or in early January.

The ordinance will have regu-lations to restrict cross-subsidy surcharge, ensure timely pay-ment of generation dues by dis-coms and make power contracts non-negotiable. Through the ordinance, the Centre may also strengthen the institution of power regulators, carry out sepa-ration of power carriage and con-tent operation of distributors and

develop a system of penalty for non-finalisation of cost reflective tariff on time.

The government intended to bring about some changes in the Electricity Act 2003, but it has failed to get parliamentary ap-proval for the last five years as states are not on board over vari-ous proposals in the draft legis-lation. "The power sector is also reeling under sluggish demand, reflecting overall slowdown in the economy. The sector needs a booster and if it's not coming through legislation then ordi-nance is the next best course of action. But the Centre needs to bring all states on board as most changes are to be implemented

by them," said a power sector an-alyst. Among the major changes is likely to be restoration of the sanctity of power contracts.

According to sources, the pow-er purchase agreement between generators and discoms will be made sacrosanct with states lim-iting their rights to renegotiate PPAs midway of a project cycle. It's expected to be done by em-powering power sector regula-tors, making their operations independent with statutory pow-ers. Strengthening of regulations for regulators is expected to re-move investor uncertainty about contracts and delayed payments by state distribution companies. States, like Andhra Pradesh and

Honouring Indian Civil Servants who made 2019 better with brilliant contributions to the Society

New Delhi, Dec 16 (IANS) Banned United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) lead-ers have started utilizing the demonstration against Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) to their advantage, sources said on Monday.

"ULFA leader Arunoday Dahotia has asked his con-duits to alert the Assamese people not to venture near the pockets of linguistic mi-norities," said the central in-telligence agencies.

The agencies, thereafter, told the security establish-ments: "It indicates the possibilities of occurrence of incidents of arson/torch-ing properties in these ar-eas, which are likely to be committed by ant-national

element." The security and intelligence personnel have been deployed to keep a tap on movements of identified ULFA members.

The banned group has also threatened the Assam government that it would give a befitting reply if the government uses force to subdue the people's pro-

tests. ULFA chief Paresh Barua stated that students and all sections of the soci-ety have come out in large numbers to protest peace-fully but force was used by the authorities in an attempt to repress them. "If this con-tinues, we will not tolerate it and give a befitting reply," Barua asserted.

Thousands of people have come out on the streets to protest against the amend-ment of the Citizenship Act in Assam during which po-lice resorted to firing leading to deaths of few citizens. In Guwahati, curfew was im-posed, the administration has snapped broadband In-ternet services as protests have intensified.

Chief Minister Sarbanan-da Sonowal has been ap-pealing to the citizens not fall into the trap of false ar-mour' that the Citizenship Act would result in lakhs of Hindu Bangladeshis set-tling down in Assam. He had urged people not to fall for such armours' and exer cise restraints. He said those who indulged in violence were bent on creating.

3City

New Delhi, Dec 16 (IANS) The current inflationary trend was still at a benign stage, said Finance Secretary Rajeev Ku-mar, here on Monday.

"Inflationary pressure is still very benign and credit growth is also happening as shown in the outreach programmes. We will factor in all these. The inflation is within the segrega-tion -- rural or urban", he said after the pre-budget meeting between the Finance Minister and the capital markets indus-try representatives.

As per the Finance Minis-try numbers, there has been strong customer outreach by the public sector banks (PSBs) where Rs 4.91 lakh crore was disbursed in October and No-vember. Of this, Rs 2.39 lakh crore was disbursed in Novem-

ber.Total support sanctioned by

PSBs in the form of credit to (including co-origination and on-lending) and pool buyouts from NBFCs, since the IL&FS default in September 2018, till November increased to Rs 4.23 lakh crore. It included pool-buyouts of Rs 1.24 lakh crore.

The retail inflation has been lurking its head gradually. Leading milk supplier Mother Dairy on Saturday raised prices by up to Rs 3 per litre in the Del-hi-NCR, effective from Sunday, due to lower supply and rise in procurement costs. Cow milk prices too has been raised by Rs 3 per litre to Rs 47 per litre.

Earlier the government data showed that retail inflation increased to over 3-year high of 5.54 per cent in November. Food inflation flared up to 10.01 per cent against 7.89 per cent in October on the back of soaring onion prices. The con-sumer inflation of 5.54 per cent streaked past the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) inflation pro-jection of 5.1-4.7 per cent for the second half of FY20.

According to an RBI projec-tion, food inflation in October was at 39-month high of 6.9 per cent. "From KYC (know your customer), bonds market development to taxation, there were a whole lot of issues. Very positive comments have come. We are looking at savings and investment of savings", Kumar said.

New Delhi, Dec 16 (IANS) Unable to intro-duce amendments to the Electricity Act 2003 due to lack of consensus among states, the Centre has decided to push through the next big power sec-tor reform by promulgat-ing an ordinance by later this month or in early January. The ordinance will have regulations to restrict cross-subsidy surcharge, ensure timely payment of generation dues by discoms and make power contracts non-negotiable.

Through the ordinance, the Centre may also strengthen the institution of power regulators, carry out separation of power carriage and content op-eration of distributors and develop a system of penalty for non-finalisa-tion of cost reflective tar-iff on time.

The government in-tended to bring about some changes in the Electricity Act 2003, but it has failed to get parlia-mentary approval for the last five years as states are not on board over various

proposals in the draft leg-islation.

"The power sector is also reeling under slug-gish demand, reflecting overall slowdown in the economy. The sector needs a booster and if it's not coming through leg-islation then ordinance is the next best course of action. But the Centre needs to bring all states on board as most changes are to be implemented by them," said a power sec-tor analyst.

Among the major changes is likely to be res-toration of the sanctity of power contracts.

According to sourc-es, the power purchase

agreement between gen-erators and discoms will be made sacrosanct with states limiting their rights to renegotiate PPAs mid-way of a project cycle. It's expected to be done by empowering power sector regulators, mak-ing their operations in-dependent with statutory powers. Strengthening of regulations for regulators is expected to remove in-vestor uncertainty about contracts and delayed payments by state distri-bution companies. States, like Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, have been renegotiating PPAs with renewable energy play-ers after the project was

awarded to them. It has created a lot of uncer-tainty and investment in the renewable sector is on decline.

The ordinance is also expected to make regula-tions to penalise state dis-coms not finalising cost reflective electricity tar-iffs on time and delaying payments to generators. Also, the new regulations will restrict cross-subsi-disation of consumers to 20 per cent max (the dif-ference between highest and lowest tariff).

It could help industrial electricity tariff to fall, but would put more pressure on financially distressed discoms as higher indus-trial tariffs are biggest revenue earners for them. The power tariff policy provides that cross-sub-sidy would be brought down to 20 per cent in the first phase. It will help in reduction of tariff for a section of consumers. According to government data, discoms dues to power generators stands around Rs 81,000 crore. Of this, Rs 62,000 crore is overdue.

Sources said the Centre might also bring regula-tions on separation of carriage and content op-erations of discoms that will allow competition in a distribution circle, enabling consumers to choose their electricity suppliers. States are op-posed to the move as it would rob them of a large number of paying con-sumers.

A direct benefit transfer (DBT) scheme may also be devised for consumers under which any subsidy that a state wants to give to any category of con-sumers will have to go directly into their bank accounts. The power dis-tribution sector is the last bastion where several at-tempts to reform have not borne results. De-spite numerous schemes to fine-tune operations of discoms and clean their books, their finan-cial losses have risen 89 per cent year-on-year to Rs 28,369 crore in FY19. Also, the discoms' over-dues to power generation companies are around Rs 62,000 crore.

Ordinance on power reforms on cards as states stay divided

Inflation still at benign stage: Finance Secretary

Indian HorizonTuesday, December 17, 2019

Delhi, Dec 16, With ‘Digital Economy’ India is heading to become the Economic Superpower on a very fast note. A few years back cash was the main mode of transaction in India, which has become remarkably limited after Digital Revolu-tion. BANKIT has taken a very meaning-ful initiative to make India an economy of minimum cash and to associate rural areas of country with digital banking sys-tem.

BANKIT, is a platform which can be operated on any smart phone and inter-net enabled computer. It is reaching to all those remote areas and villages where banking and ATM facilities are not eas-ily accessible. People living in these areas have to travel very far and stand in long queues to send and receive money from their loved ones.

BANKIT has been acting not only as an agent to provide digital transaction facili-ties to villagers living in remote areas but also associating them with direct bank-ing services. And because of this villag-ers are getting job opportunities within their village. Moreover small shopkeepers are providing banking facilities to their neighborhood via BANKIT. Now villagers need not stand in long queues of banks because they are availing all banking fa-cilities from their neighborhood grocery shop.

More than 10,000 retailers have been associated with BANKIT and the num-ber is increasing on daily basis. Approxi-

mately one fourth population of India is still not friendly with smart phones, but with BANKIT’s 24X7 active website and app people are availing many services like domestic money transfer, cash with drawl, pre-paid cards, recharge, bill pay-ment and ticket booking in just one or two clicks by these retailers.

Speaking on this initiative, Executive Director and CCO, BANKIT, Shri Amit Nigam said, “ Although we are heading towards digital revolution on a very fast pace but in rural areas, there is still lack of awareness about this.

Farmer singing Justin Bieber hit number 'Baby' goes viral

Women leaders applaud judiciary over Sengar's conviction

Your account with you, Anytime

Anywhere...

ULFA using protests against CAA, NRC to their advantage

New Delhi, Dec 16 (IANS) Most of us are fans of Justin Bieber's "Baby" song but currently, the internet is in love with a farmer who can be seen singing the singer's hit number, and the inter-net is gushing that it is better than the original. "Listen to this Karnataka farmer sing-ing a Justin Bieber song, you will be blown," wrote a user while tweeting the viral vid-eo.

A fan of Justin bieber gushed, "Justin bieber is the

best don't compare anyone with him ......and the farmer is good but not the best."A netizen commented,"Damn He is killin it..." The video posted on the video shar-ing platform Youtube cap-tioned, "Listen to this Kar-nataka farmer singing a Justin Bieber song, you will be blown." The 3.10-minute video features a farmer work-ing on the field when he is in-terrupted by another shoot-ing the video. After a brief conversation, the man goes

on to play the song on his phone and sings along. Once the video surfaced on social media, netizens hailed the singing of the farmer. "Lis-ten to this Karnataka farmer singing a Justin Bieber song, you will be blown," wrote a user while tweeting the viral video. A fan of Justin bieber gushed, "Justin bieber is the best don't compare anyone with him ......and the farmer is good but not the best."A netizen commented,"Damn He is killin it..."

New Delhi, Dec 16 (IANS) Women leaders across the coun-try have applauded the judiciary over Kuldeep Sengar's conviction on Monday. The expelled BJP law-maker was convicted in the notori-ous 'Unnao Rape case' by a Delhi court. Speaking with IANS, Shiv Sena leader Priayanka Chaturvedi said, "I would like to call his con-

viction as the victory of the judicial system. The decision by the court has shown to the people that those who are in a position of power can run but can't hide from the con-sequences of their depravity and crime." Reacting to the news, CPI leader Brinda Karat said, "His con-viction was expected. But the ques-tion is why the party he belongs to

allows him to continue as MLA," she said. Applauding the judiciary, Karat accused the ruling party of defending and protecting Sengar. "His conviction has come in spite of efforts by the ruling party to de-fend and protect him. In this case, it was the courage of the victim and the support she got from her family to stand against.

The Minister of State for AYUSH (Independent Charge) and Defence, Shri Shripad Yesso Naik signing the visitors’ book at the National War Memorial, on the occasion of Vijay Diwas, in New Delhi

South 4Protests in Bengaluru against CAA

IISc students extend support to Jamia students, protest CAA

Students in TN and Puducherry protest

against CAA

Kerala police chief says proposed

shutdown illegal

BJP liquidating Goans with Portuguese passport: Congress

Tata Power helps launch

M’rashtra’s first all-women dairy

Savarkar row: Maha Oppn seeks Rahul’s apology, targets CM

CPI-M and Congress jointly protest against CAA in Kerala

Bengaluru, Dec 16 (IANS) Thousands of Bengalureans protested against the Citizen-ship Amendment Act (CAA), calling the movement another ‘freedom struggle’. The protest took place Sunday evening. “We have another freedom movement... to free India from the real ‘tukde tukde’ gang di-viding Indians on the basis of identity,” tweeted Congress Rajya Sabha member Rajeev Gowda.

The former Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore (IIM-B) professor called on the protesters to take a pledge to fight for an inclusive India and celebrate diversity. “I urge everyone to join the struggle to save the soul of our coun-try,” Gowda said as he partici-pated in the demonstration at the Townhall in Bengaluru. A huge flexi poster was hung to the columns of the Acropolis-styled Townhall facade with

the inscription ‘India Against CAA’ and the preamble of the Constitution of India juxta-posed. The protesters waved the Karnataka state flag, In-dian flag and placards as they shouted slogans against the new law offering citizenship to the persecuted Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and Par-sis from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Muslim mi-nority sects such as Shias, Ah-madiyas and others are perse-cuted in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

A placard at the Townhall read: “Stop attack on the In-dian Constitution. #Against-CAA.” Making his presence felt at the protest, historian Ramachandra Guha said India was founded on the principles of diversity. “We want de-mocracy, we want pluralism,” Guha said. Sowmya Reddy, Karnataka Legislative Assem-bly member from Jayanagara spoke at the CAA protest dem-onstration. She said: “A revo-lution has begun! We will not let India’s diversity die. Thanks

to all the organisers. Wake up.” Many members of the Muslim community also took part in the protest on Sunday.

Earlier on Friday, thousands of Muslims protested across Karnataka after Friday prayers and presented memoranda against the CAA. On Saturday, hundreds of Assamese and people from other northeast-ern states, working and living in Bengaluru, protested against the CAA at Townhall. Usha Agarwalla, Guwahati resident and an employee in Bengaluru said CAA is not in favour of As-samese people and discrimina-tory in nature. “For a long time, Assam has been grappling with the issue of immigration. As-sam Accord of 1985 was drafted to settle the issue. According to clause 5, migrants who came to Assam between 1966-71 will be identified as foreigners and will be given rights according to the Foreigners Act.

Bengaluru, Dec 16 (IANS) A group of stu-dents at the prestigious Indian Institute of Sci-ence (IISc) on Monday extended their solidarity to the Jamia Millia Is-lamia students in Delhi and protested the Citi-zenship Amendment Act (CAA).

One of the multi-lin-gual placards carried by the students read ‘stu-dents of Jamia Millia Is-lamia we are with you’.

Other slogans includ-ed ‘How dare you say we are not Indian’, ‘No place for Islamophobia’ and ‘No to National Reg-ister of Citizens (NRC) no to CAA’.

‘Why the hate for Tam-ils’ said a placard ques-tioning the exclusion

of Tamil Hindus from the CAA privilege which accords citizenship to persecuted Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and Parsis from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangla-desh, excluding Mus-lims.

Muslim minority sects such as Shias, Ahmadi-yas and others are also persecuted in Afghani-stan, Pakistan and Ban-gladesh.

The IISc students also read the preamble of the Constitution of India aloud in unison, “We, the people of India, hav-ing solemnly resolved to constitute India into sovereign socialist secu-lar democratic republic.”

Two videos of the pro-testing IISc students

went viral.Meanwhile, in the

wake of the police attack on Jamia students, the premier Indian Institute of Management - Ban-galore (IIM-B) wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“We call upon you to not trample the demo-cratic rights of citizens to peacefully protest an unjust law,” said a joint IIM-B students and fac-ulty letter.

The management school asserted non-vi-olent civil disobedience is at the heart of Indian republic’s founding and urged Modi to ensure that the students are al-lowed to protest peace-fully.

The letter stood in

solidarity with the stu-dents across the country protesting CAA, and de-nounced violence even from the custodians of the state, wielding im-mense power and re-sponsibility.

According to an IIM-B source, the students avoid voicing their views or taking a stand on al-most every issue directly as it will have a negative bearing on their campus placement prospects.

“Most students do not dare to share protest in-formation even on the social media for fear of facing a backlash from the school’s manage-ment,” the source told IANS.

The open IIM-B letter addressed to Modi was drafted by associate pro-fessor Deepak Malghan and others on behalf of the institute as a whole.

Chennai, Dec 16 (IANS) Col-lege students in Tamil Nadu on Monday protested against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, expressing solidarity with students of Jamia Millia Isla-mia, Delhi, who had clashed with the police on Sunday.

Members of Students Feder-ation of India (SFI) protested outside the Chennai Suburban Railway Terminal against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.

The students shouted slo-gans against the Act as well as state and central govern-ments.

Students of Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM) took out procession inside the campus. Similarly, students of Loyola College here also held protest.

In Tiruvannamalai, a group of students of Government Arts College held protest and shouted slogans.

According to reports reach-ing here, students in Co-imbatore and Madurai also protested against the police crackdown on Jamia students.

In neighbouring Puduch-erry, students of Pondicherry University raised slogans against the CAA, police action against the students of Jamia Millia Islamia.

Meanwhile, DMK President M.K. Stalin has announced his party would protest against the CAA on Tuesday. Mean-while, DMK President M.K. Stalin has announced his party would protest against the CAA on Tuesday.

Thiruvananthapuram, Dec 16 (IANS) Kerala Police chief Loknath Behra on Monday termed a proposed statewide shutdown as illegal.

Around 33 organisations have come forward for the proposed shutdown slated for Tuesday.

The shutdown has been called by small political par-ties which do not have any representation in the Kerala Assembly to protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019.

In a statement issued here on Monday, Behra said those who have called for the shut-down have not followed the Kerala High Court ruling which said that seven days notice should be given when

calling for shutdowns. “As such the shutdown is illegal, and hence strict action will be taken against the organis-ers. We urge the organisers to withdraw it,” said Behra.

But one of the organisers of the shutdown, Ravunni of Poratam organisation, said that since the CAA is against the Constitution, we have no other option but to go ahead with the shutdown.

Among the political parties which have given the call for the shutdown are the SDPI and the Welfare Party.

While all the leading po-litical parties have termed the shutdown as unwarranted, the traders’ body has said they will also not stop normal business.

Panaji, Dec 16 (IANS) The Congress in Goa on Monday accused the BJP of trying to “liquidate” non-BJP voters by intro-ducing the National Reg-ister of Citizens (NRC) in the coastal state in order to de-list Goans holding Portuguese passports from Indian citizenship records.

The accusation from Congress spokesperson Trajano D’Mello comes even as state BJP gen-eral secretary Narendra Sawaikar on Wednesday tried to evade questions related to the impact the introduction of the NRC in Goa, would have on the fate of thousands of Go-ans who have opted for the Portuguese citizenship route under a special Por-tuguese citizenship law for

natives of its former colo-nies.

“The agenda of the BJP in Goa is to liquidate Por-tuguese passport holders from the electoral rolls, so that they have a major-ity. Most of the Portuguese passport holders are not BJP voters,” D’Mello told reporters.

Goa, which was a Portu-guese colony for over 450 years, gained indepen-dence from Portuguese rule in 1961. The depart-ing Portuguese, however, offered Goan natives Por-tuguese citizenship. The privilege of availing Portu-guese citizenship was later granted to Goans who had lived in Portuguese-ruled Goa, as well as their off-springs up to three genera-tions down the line.

Thousands of Goans, mostly Christians, have used the opportunity to migrate to Portugal and subsequently to the UK, thanks to the easy access across countries under the aegis of the European Union. Rough estimates suggest that up to 30,000 Goans are living in the UK alone, using the Portu-guese citizenship route, while many have availed of the Portuguese passport facility but continued to re-side in Goa.

Earlier on Monday, BJP general secretary Sawaikar had tried to dodge que-ries about when the NRC would be introduced in Goa and the possible im-pact it would have on Go-ans who hold Portuguese passports.

Pune (Maharashtra), Dec 16 (IANS) The Tata Power has finan-cially supported and helped launch Maharashtra’s first all-women dairy in Maval, Pune, with its prod-ucts sold under the brand name of ‘Creyo’, an official said on Monday.

Called the Maval Dairy Farmer Services Producer Co. Ltd. (MDF-SPCL), its operations started in a modest way in 2015 with 334 women members, which have now grown to around 1,200 women

farmers. The Tata Power helped finance around 40 per cent of the Rs 20-crore enterprise over the past four years with the women graduat-ing from marginal farmers to agro-entrepreneurs who completely run and manage the project.

“In this dairy, the real heroes are the women who adopted the co-operative route to chart their own destinies. Traditionally, the dairy cooperatives have been male-dominated, with the role of women

being restricted to care-providers, feeding and milking the animals. But, today there is a progressive change,” said Tata Power CEO and Managing Director Praveer Sinha at the launch.

The company’s Head-Hydros Ashwin Patil said the motive be-hind starting this project was to “empower the rural women by giving them a platform to com-pletely run and manage” the MDFSPCL show.

“To enable them to assume leadership roles, we provided them orientation training on clean milk production and ani-mal management and awarded ‘Mini Dairy Entrepreneurship’ certificates,” Patil said.

Maval MP Shrirang Barane and MLA Sunil Shelkar were present on the occasion along with a large number of women farmers and the managers of the women’s co-operative.

A spokesperson said that cur-rently, India’s milk production stands at 176.40 million tonnes daily, and women comprise more than 75 per cent of the share with animal husbandry operations like feeding, milking and sale of milk.

The MDFSPCL project has set up 15 advanced milk collection cen-tres covering 26 villages which pro-cure around six-tonne milk daily from various partner villages.

Nagpur, Dec 16 (IANS) Op-position Bharatiya Janata Party legislators on Monday continued to protest outside the Maharashtra legislature, demanding an apology from Congress leader Rahul Gan-dhi for his remarks on Vi-nayak Damodar alias ‘Veer’ Savarkar.

Ensuring that the first day of the legislature’s Winter Session began on a stormy note, the BJP also targeted Chief Minister Uddhav Thac-keray for his stand on the is-sue, terming as his “helpless-ness” to save his government from collapsing.

When Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis raised the matter in the assembly, it was not taken on record by Speak-er Nana Patole.

Opposing the move, Fadna-vis asked: “Is this the British

Raj assembly or Independent India’s legislature? Why our sentiments on Veer Savarkar cannot go on record?”

He also questioned why the CM and Shiv Sena were silent on this and wondered how the Opposition in Maharash-tra could be prevented from speaking on Savarkar like this.

Earlier, sporting saffron coloured Gandhi caps bear-ing the legend - ‘Mee Pan Savarkar’ (I am Savarkar) - the BJP members arrived in the legislature, raising slo-gans demanding that Gan-dhi should say “sorry” for his controversial remarks on Saturday which sparked off a major furore among the BJP circles.

Led by state party chief Chandrakant Patil, Fadnavis, ex-Speaker Haribhau Bag-

ade, and former ministers, they chanted “Savarkarji ke samaan mein, BJP maidan mein” and carried black banners with pictures of Sa-varkar, and placards against Gandhi’s utterances.

In a related development, BJP activists organised pro-tests in Mumbai, Nagpur, Nashil and other places in the state to condemn Gandhi’s statements and burnt his pic-tures and effigies.

Meanwhile, predicting a “major political earthquake” in Maharashtra, Union Min-ister of State for Social Jus-tice Ramdas Athawale also slammed Gandhi and said that the Maha Vikas Aghadi government of Shiv Sena-Nationalist Congress Party-Congress will not survive for long in view of these ideologi-cal contradictions.

Thiruvananthapuram, Dec 16 (IANS) The Kerala political canvas is seeing a rare instance when top leaders of the ruling CPM-led Left and the rival Con-gress-led UDF jointly protested against the Citizenship (Amend-ment) Act, 2019.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijay-an led the Left, while the oppo-sition and Congress leader Ra-

mesh Chennithala led the UDF when the protest started at the Martyrs Column here on Mon-day. Vijayan has reiterated his stand that the CAA will not be implemented in the state.

“The sound that has come from Kerala is we will not allow the secularism stand of ours to be diluted in any way. All this is the work of the RSS to con-

vert India into a religion-based country. At no cost would this be allowed to take place and in Ker-ala, we just cannot accept it and under no circumstances would it be allowed to be implemented here,” said Vijayan.

Chennithala said that this is not what the country needs and the basic tenets of the Consti-tution have been questioned through the CAA.

“The media has been silenced as it’s now owned by corporates, whose only agenda is pro-gov-ernment. The stage is such that today it’s Amit Shah who de-cides who is going to be an In-dian citizen. Our Constitution is one of the best in the world and every institution in the country is a by-product of it and today, one by one these institutions are being destroyed,” said Chen-nithala.

Indian Horizon Tuesday, December 17, 2019

NATION5

Odisha Minister’s kin, actors shoot in restricted Hirakud area

Bhubaneswar, Dec 16 (IANS) Three Odia film actresses and the daughter of Odisha Health Minister Nabakishore Das have courted controversy for allegedly shooting a video in the prohibited area of Hirakud reservoir in Sambalpur.

The video has gone viral on social media after one of the actresses shared it on Instagram.

In the video, actresses Prakruti Mishra, Elina Samantray and Lovina Nayak are seen enjoying themselves in the re-stricted areas of the reservoir with the Health Minister’s daughter Dipali Das.

Sambalpur Superintendent of Police (SP) Kanwar Vishal Singh on Monday asked the Hirakud sub-divisional police of-ficer (SDPO) to submit a report in this regard.

The SP said necessary action will be taken on the basis of the report. “I have not seen the video and don’t have any idea about the same. My daughter is a grown-up girl. You can ask her. Law will take its own course,” said the Health Minister on his daughter’s video with the actresses.

EDMs part of Western plot to destroy Indian culture: Hindu group

Panaji, Dec 16 (IANS) Days after former Goa Minister Vinod Palienkar likened trance music to the music of demons, a right wing group in Goa on Monday demanded a ban on elec-tronic dance music, especially the Sunburn Klassique music festival, alleging such events were a plot to destroy ancient Indian culture.

“The Sunburn festival is encouraging and imposing west-ern ill-influence on society, thereby making it ‘pleasure-seeking’ and immoral! It is destroying the Hindu culture and spoiling the name of Goa and Goans,” Manoj Solanki, conve-nor of Hindu Janajagruti Samiti, told a press conference here on Monday. “This is a plot to destroy our ancient Indian cul-ture by promoting Western culture and their electronic dance festivals,” he said.

MP police launch e-cop app for women’s safety

Bhopal, Dec 16 (IANS) The Madhya Pradesh police have launched ‘MP e-Cop’, a mobile app to facilitate girls to get immediate back-up just by the push of a button.

The MP e-cop app has been introduced amid national debates over women’s safety triggered by a spate of crimes against women all over the country.

“There is SOS (an international code signal for extreme dis-tress) facility in the app, which would trigger the SMS to Dial 100 and phone numbers fed in the app by the girls/women,” Bhopal’s DIG Irshad Wali said.

As soon as the girl in distress pushes the button, the app will send an alert to Dial 100 and also SMSs on the five numbers fed by her in the app, he added. The police will find the location of the person in distress after it re-ceives the alert.

Guv asks Mamata not to take out rally against law

48th Vijay Diwas celebrated in northeast India

UP tense over protests on CAA Jharkhand polls: Voting ends in 5 of 15 seats

30-year-old becomes victim of mob lynching in Kerala

Tension in south Kolkata as police stop BJP march

Kolkata, Dec 16 (IANS) “Extreme-ly anguished” over West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Baner-jee and ministers spearheading a rally against the new citizenship law (CAA), state governor Jagdeep Dharnkhar on Monday called upon her to desist from the “unconstitu-tional and inflammatory act”.

“I am extremely anguished that CM and Ministers are to spearhead rally against CAA, law of the land,” Dhankhar said in the tweet, urging Banerjee to instead devote her time to retrieve the “grim situation” in the backdrop of widespread vio-lence in the state against the legis-lation.

“This is unconstitutional. I call upon CM to desist from this uncon-stitutional and inflammatory act at this juncture and devote to retrieve

the grim situation,” the tweet said.In another tweet, Dhankhar ex-

pressed his gratitude to intellectu-als and cultural personalities who have appealed to the protestors to eschew violence.

“Gratitude to Intellectuals, film-makers, actors and stage artists who urged protestors to shun vio-lence. Hope others in such category would similarly come forward.”

“We are constitutionally obliged to follow law of the land and as Governor enjoined to ensure it and am at it,” he said.

Trains, railway stations, train tracks, toll plazas and buses have been torched and vandalised and train and vehicular movement thrown into jeopardy in the anti-CAA protests that began in Bengal on Friday.

Guwahati/Agartala/Shillong, Dec 16 (IANS) The 48th Vijay Diwas was celebrated in all the northeastern states on Monday by paying tributes to the Indian soldiers who made the supreme sacrifice during the 1971 India-Pakistan war, resulting in the creation of Bangladesh.

Vijay Diwas is celebrated every year to mark the victory of the Indian Army over the Pakistan Army. The signing of the Instrument of Surrender by Paki-stani forces’ Eastern Command Chief Lt Gen A.A.K. Niazi on December 16, 1971, in Dhaka brought the war for the liberation of Bangladesh to an end.

In Assam, Tezpur-based Gajraj Corps celebrated the Vijay Diwas to commemorate the decisive victory of the Indian Army 48 years ago.

To mark the occasion, in a solemn function held in the corps headquarters, GOC Lt Gen Manoj Pande paid hom-age to the fallen bravehearts and laid a wreath at the War Memorial on behalf of

all ranks of the Corps. The event was at-tended by different ranks from the corps headquarters and the veterans frater-nity. In his address the GOC recollected the brave deeds of the army personnel. The Gajraj Corps under its then GOC Lt Gen Sagat Singh had played a key role by launching an extremely daring thrust from the East towards Dhaka.

The day was also celebrated in Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur and other parts of northeast India.

In Tripura, Governor Ramesh Bais accompanied by Tripura social Wel-fare Minister Santana Chakma paid tributes to the valiant personnel of the Armed Forces at the war memo-rial in the heart of Agartala city. The Army and the Assam Rifles also paid homage at Shahid Smarak at Lichu Bagan on the outskirts of the city. Army officers and soldiers of the Agartala Military Station and ex-ser-vicemen of Tripura took part in the commemorative event.

Thiruvananthapuram, Dec 16 (IANS) In a grue-some case of mob lynching, a 30-year-old suc-cumbed to injuries suffered when he was brutally attacked by a mob, here, said the police.

The shocking incident took place last week when the 30-year-old Ajesh was beaten brutally by a group of auto rickshaw drivers on the ground that he stole a mobile phone and some cash. He suc-cumbed to his injuries on Monday.

Ajesh was beaten and brutalised by the mob at his house when a hot metal object was placed on his stomach and genital, after he denied that he committed the theft.

Unable to bear the pain, he managed to flee but collapsed just a few feet away from his house and it was the police who admitted him to the Medical College hospital, last Wednesday.

The Thiruvallam police, now has taken four auto drivers and the neighbour of Ajesh into custody.

Kolkata, Dec 16 (IANS) There was tension in Jadavpur area in the city’s southern outskirts as BJP activists clashed with the police after the security forces stopped the party rally in support of the Citizenship Amendment Act.

The BJP activists broke a po-lice barricade at Bagha Jatin and came to Sulekha crossing, where they were again stopped by the police.

Several BJP activists were seen jostling with the police, who chased them with batons.

BJP leader and former MP Anu-pam Hazra accused the police of

“brutally attacking” the rallyists and baton charging even women activists.

“Ours is a peaceful procession. But look how the police are be-having. Even our women activ-ists were not spared. Contrast this with the way they remained inac-tive for the last three days when a certain community carried out atrocities.

“There has not been a single ar-rest during the disturbances. And they have huge problems when the BJP brings out a peaceful ral-ly. Common people of Bengal are not going to accept all these any more,” he said.

“President’s rule is the only op-tion left for the people to survive,” said Hazra, as the BJP activists squatted on Sulekha crossing, re-fusing to disperse.

The rally began from Garia and was scheduled to go to the 8B bus stand at Jadavpur, where the Jadavpur University students had planned to bring out a rally protesting against the police ac-tion on the Jamia Milia Islamia students in Delhi. Police sources said that the BJP leaders were informed in advance that they won’t be allowed to proceed up to the 8B bus terminus in view of the JU students’ planned protests.

Mumbai, Dec 16 (IANS) Union Minister of State for Social Jus-tice and Republican Party of India (A) Presi-dent Ramdas Athawale has predicted another “major political earth-quake in Maharashtra” very soon in view of the recent developments in the state.

He said after the Oct. 21 elections, the state has already witnessed two major political up-heavals, first was when Devendra Fadnavis was sworn in as Chief Minis-ter along with Ajit Pawar as Deputy CM on No-vember 23, and second, when Shiv Sena Presi-dent Uddhav Thackeray became the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) CM on November 28. “The Shiv

Sena has formed the al-liance government com-prising Nationalist Con-gress Party-Congress with which it has seri-ous ideological differ-ences. Now, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s statements on Savarkar which has created an issue. Under these cir-cumstances, anything is possible. We can expect another political earth-quake in the coming months,” Athawale said.

Echoing the Opposi-tion Bharatiya Janata Party’s sentiments, he said both BJP and Shiv Sena should take one-two steps backward and come together again for a ‘Maha-Yuti’ govern-ment which will give stability for full five-year term.

However, to ques-tions on whether the BJP would agree to the Sena’s demand for CM’s post, the RPI(A) chief remained evasive and non-committal.

“I had suggested a two-three-year power-share formula. Whether to give the Sena two years or half the term or any other formula can only be decided with mutual discussions. For this both parties must make some compromis-es,” Athawale said.

He added if the BJP is prepared to give two years to the Sena, then the problems can be resolved, with the BJP having its CM for the first three years fol-lowed by the Sena CM for two years.

Ranchi, Dec 16 (IANS) Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday said Con-gress leader Rahul Gandhi was wearing “Italian spec-tacles”.

“Rahul Baba and Hemant (Soren) say why talk about Ar-ticle 370 and Kashmir. Rahul Baba, you do not understand because you are wearing Ital-ian spectacles. Thousands of youths of Jharkhand working in CRPF, BSF and Army have laid down their lives for Kash-mir,” Shah said at a rally in Jharkhand’s Pakur.

“The entire country wants Kashmir to be an integral part of the country,” the Home Minister said.

He said that Kashmir has become an integral part of the country after the Central government scrapped Article 370, adding “Kashmir is now crown of India”.

“Congress and JMM say what has Jharkhand to do with the security of the coun-try. Tell me, if the people of Jharkhand are concerned

about security of the country or not?

“In 10 years of UPA govt, ‘Alia, Malia, Chamalia’ used to infiltrate to India from Pakistan and behead army personnel. When Modi be-came Prime Minister, they (Pakistan) did the same in Uri and Pulwama. They forgot it was not ‘Mauni baba govern-ment’ but ‘56 inch Modi gov-ernment’. India did a surgical air strike and destroyed the terrorists.

“Tell me, can the govern-ment of Rahul and Hemant protect the country. India will be safe under the leader-ship of Modi. Vote for BJP to strengthen the hands of Modi to keep the country safe and protected,” Shah said, ad-dressing the rally.

He also slammed the Con-gress for keeping the Ram Janmabhoomi issue pending.

“The Supreme Court has delivered judgment and in four months, a sky-touching grand Ram Temple will be constructed. The Congress party can neither develop the country, nor protect it. If you cannot protect the country or respect people’s mandate then why people will give you power,” said Shah.

Shah, during his rally, also tried to win over the OBCs to gain their votes.

Lucknow, Dec 16 (IANS) The spark of protests over the Citizen-ship Amendment Act (CAA) has ignited unrest in various parts of Uttar Pradesh.

Internet services have been shut down in six districts includ-ing Aligarh, Meerut, Saharanpur and Varanasi.

While students in Aligarh Mus-lim University (AMU) clashed with the police late on Sunday night, students of the Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulama, an Is-lamic seminary, were also out on the roads after midnight in sup-port of the students in the Jamia Milia and AMU.

However, timely action and deployment of a strong police force made the students beat a retreat. Internet services in the state capital were shut down for a few hours. In Varanasi, students in the Banaras Hindu University

also staged protest march on the campus, late on Sunday night.

Meanwhile, students of the Aligarh Muslim University have been asked to vacate their hostel rooms at the earliest as the AMU has been closed till January 5.

The clashes between the AMU students and the police on Sun-day night have left more than 30 students and ten policemen in-jured.

Hundreds of AMU students protesting against the amended Citizenship Act had clashed with police on Sunday night at the campus gate to express ‘solidar-ity’ with their counterparts in Jamia Milia University.

Aligarh Muslim University Reg-istrar Abdul Hamid said the police entered the campus late Sunday night and clashes were reported from inside. “Hostels are now be-ing evacuated. The university is

closed from today. This is being done due to disturbances created by some anti-social elements for the last three days,” he said on Monday morning.

All other offices of the AMU, however, will remain open as usual and the closure of the uni-versity is for the purpose of read-ing and examination only. The remaining examinations will be conducted after January 5 and the revised schedule for the same would be notified later.

AMU Proctor Afifullah Khan said some security personnel were injured in brick-batting near the gate.

Aligarh District Magistrate Chandra Bhushan Singh said: “Internet services have been suspended from 10 p.m. on Sunday for the next 24 hours, in view of the protests by the AMU students.”

Ranchi, Dec 16 (IANS) Voting ended in five of the 15 assembly seats that went to the polls in the fourth phase in Jharkhand on Monday. According to the Elec-tion Commission, more than 53.37 per cent polling have been been reported till 3 p.m. Voting ended at 3 p.m. on five seats - Bagodar, Jamua, Giridih, Dumri and Tundi, while on rest of the 10 seats, it will end at 5 p.m.

In Dhanbad, an elderly woman was brought on a cot to cast her vote. Despite cold weather condition and Maoist threat, voters turned out in large num-bers to exercise their franchise. Jharkahnd had wit-nessed rain on Sunday and the weather is cloudy in most part of the state on Monday.

There are a total of 221 candidates including 23 women in the fray in this phase. The maximum, 25 candidates, are contesting from the Bokaro seat while the minimum, eight candidates, are trying their luck from the Nirsa seat. Out of 15 seats, three -- Deoghar, Jamua and Chandankiyari -- are reserved for Scheduled Castes while remaining 12 are general category seats.

Nagpur, Dec 16 (IANS) Senior Bharati-ya Janata Party leader Pravin Darekar was on Monday elected the new Leader of Opposi-tion in the Maharash-tra Legislative Council.

Leader of Opposition in Assembly Devendra Fadnavis announced Darekar’s name for the prestigious post, earlier held by Nation-alist Congress Party’s Dhananjay Munde, who has now been elected to the Assem-bly.

A former Shiv Sena

activist, Darekar, 51, started his political career with the party’s student wing, Bharati-ya Vidyarthi Sena (BVS) then handled by Raj Thackeray.

Later, he quit the Sena to join the Ma-harashtra Navnirman Sena founded by Raj Thackeray where he served as the General Secretary, and led sev-eral agitations for the party.

The MNS gave him a ticket and he was elected as a MLA from Magathane (Mumbai)

in 2009, but lost the election in 2014 after which he switched over to the (then) ruling BJP.

Darekar was elected as a Member of Legis-lative Council in 2016, and expressed a desire to contest the 2019 As-sembly elections, but was not given a ticket.

Active in the coop-erative sectors includ-ing banking coopera-tives, Darekar pipped other BJP hopefuls like Suresh Dhas, Sujits-ingh Thakur and Bhai Girkar to bag the pres-tigious post.

BJP’s Darekar new Leader of Opposition in Maha Council

Athawale predicts ‘political earthquake’ in M’rashtra

Rahul is wearing Italian spectacles: Shah

Indian HorizonTuesday, December 17, 2019

Tuesday, December 17, 2019

Readers Response and contribution Welcome

Indian Horizon

Haryana and Gurugram in particular have an

appalling record

Even as the Supreme Court hearing

on the December 2012 Nirbhaya rap-

ist-killer’s plea is slated for December

17, the significant rise in the crime

rate against women in these seven

years is a sobering pointer to how

things have become worse as also

to the grim and arduous battle still

ahead towards making the country a

safe place for its women. The govern-

ment statistics are alarming: from just

under 25,000 rape cases reported to

the police in 2012, they rose to more

than 38,000 in 2016. In 2017, on an av-

erage, more than 90 rapes a day were

reported. Wrapped in these figures is

the encouraging story of how more

and more women are coming out and

gathering the courage to call out the

criminals who have abused and vio-

lated them.

The regular outpourings of pub-

lic anger against the heinous rapes

have slowly and steadily shifted the

focus from the ‘stigma’ and ‘shame’

attached to the victim. Spotlight is

rightly on the brutal monstrosity of

the rapists and the need to not only

duly punish them but also deter future

criminals. That Nirbhaya became the

‘daughter of the nation’ was hearten-

ing as larger numbers of girls fought

the stifling environment, seeking jus-

tice. No more the cowardly cowering

into a dark corner for them.

At the same time, the shocking sta-

tistics reek of the abject inability of

both the police and justice system

and society to stem gender crimes.

Haryana has the dubious tag of ‘rape

capital’. As per the National Crime Re-

cords Bureau data, Haryana had 191

cases of gang-rape in 2016, the high-

est among all states. While the nation-

al average for gang-rapes was 0.3, it

was 1.5 for Haryana. In the state, Gu-

rugram earned the notoriety of see-

ing the maximum number of rape and

murder cases in the last five years.

Compared to last year, the Millennial

City this year registered a shameful

22.3 per cent rise in rape cases in the

first nine months. For every step for-

ward taken by women, men manage

to push them back half a step.

BY TAPONEEL MUKHERJEE The importance of an effective regu-

latory mechanism for a conducive business environment cannot be over-emphasized. As India looks to push con-sumption and investments further up, a renewed focus on improving the regula-tory framework will help the business climate significantly.

The recent decision of the Govern-ment of India to approve an amendment to the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) to protect successful resolution applicants from criminal proceedings against offences committed by previous managements, will undoubtedly assist the bankruptcy resolution mechanism in India. Not only will the amendment help in generating greater trust amongst the existing investors, but it will also make the bankruptcy markets in India more attractive for larger pools of capital that have so far sat on the side-lines.

Fundamentally speaking, the amend-ment to the IBC is an example of a regulatory change that builds trust in a mechanism to not just unlock new pools of capital but also reduce the time required for bankruptcy resolutions,

thereby eventually improving the recov-ery rates for the creditors involved. The eventual aim of a bankruptcy process is to maximise recovery value for creditors. The amendment to the IBC mentioned above, achieves the same through both accessing greater pools of capital and re-ducing the time required for the resolu-tion process.

Reportedly, the central government is considering laws to protect global inves-tors from contract renegotiation midway through contracts. This law must protect not just global investors, but all inves-tors in general. India’s need to channel its domestic capital into investments is as critical, if not more, than attracting global capital. The aim of the regulation must be to ensure that contracts such as power purchase agreements (PPAs) can-not arbitrarily be re-negotiated midway through the contract period.

While moral hazard and corrupt prac-tices must be ironed out of any auction system, a capricious regulatory climate is highly problematic for India and in-vestors alike. Even as discussions around regulations for large scale infrastruc-ture dominate headlines, the focus on

further simplifying the GST regime has also picked up momentum. To indeed provide India further economic growth momentum a focus on both formalising the economy and yet providing SMEs a conducive business environment is vital. Given the gargantuan size of the econo-my and the complexity of the financial ecosystem in India, any change has sig-nificant impacts on the system. The aim of the GST system to formalise the econ-omy and bring in a more substantial por-tion of the economy in the tax ambit is both required and commendable. How-ever, greater thought is needed around the intricacies of the regulation.

A fundamental issue that small busi-nesses face anywhere is a lack of access to credit, especially working capital. The real challenge for policymakers is to come up with mechanisms that al-low for boosting tax collection and yet not upset the apple cart. An example in point is the recently introduced GST provision that “a buyer may satisfy all conditions to claim input tax credit (ITC) but will only be able to claim 20 per cent of the credit available in respect of in-voices uploaded by suppliers” is one that

needs to be reflected upon. Essentially the provision implies that till a supplier uploads the invoices, only 20 per cent of the invoice value can be claimed as ITC by the buyer. The primary aim for the tax department to enforce this regulation is to prevent the fraud and misuse of ITC in the system, and a crucial one at that, but such a provision is a double-edged weapon: it can concurrently hamper the working capital cycle of businesses.

More disturbing is the question that arises, namely, if the government cannot ensure compliance regarding upload-ing of invoices and ITC availability, how would individual businesses guarantee the same compliance from their ven-dors? While curbing frauds around ITC is necessary to plug leakages in the GST system, but placing the onus of compli-ance of vendors on individual businesses will impede the ability of the GST regime to spur growth and participation. While creating regulations that ensure tax compliance while improving business conditions isn’t necessarily easy, India must look to incentivise and encourage its SMEs to indeed spur further growth.

IANS

Effective regulations as the lynchpin for growth

Rise in rape cases

BY FRANK F. ISLAM There has been much written

and an outpouring of protests throughout 2019 against the Chi-nese internment of more than one million Uighur Muslims in the western Xinjiang region of China. In response, China has continuously rationalized its horrific treatment of the Uighur Muslims as an effort to contain and stop Islamic terrorism. It has also claimed that the internment camps are vocational skill retrain-ing centres. The evidence clearly shows these are falsehoods. In a stunning November 16 feature ar-ticle titled ‘The Xinjiang Papers’, the New York Times published a story based upon 400-plus pages of leaked documents that dis-closed the abhorrent truth about China’s internment camps.

On November 26, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared the Xinjiang Papers show “brutal detention and systematic repres-sion of Uighurs and members of other minority groups in Xinji-ang”. Pompeo went on to state, “We call on the Chinese Govern-ment to immediately release all those who are arbitrarily detained and to end its draconian policies that have terrorized its own citi-zens in Xinjiang.”

Others have called for even more aggressive steps. Emgage, an organization dedicated to mobi-

lizing American Muslims to advo-cate on issues that matter to them, has called for boycotting the 2022 Winter Olympics to be held in Beijing. On December 3, the US House passed the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act (UHRPA) and it is awaiting passage in the Senate. UHRPA calls for tough sanctions if China continues to behave in the egregious and abominable manner that it has toward Uighur Muslims.

As a Muslim Indian American, I endorse the Winter Olympics boycott recommendation and the UHRPA sanctions. The US has a history of speaking out and act-ing against international human rights violations, initiating Olym-pic boycotts; and, sadly, having involvement with internment camps. The UHRPA is an example of US leadership in advancing and protecting human rights. The US has also led an Olympic boycott. In March of 1980, President Jim-my Carter announced that the US would not be going to the Summer Olympics in that year because of the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979. Sixty-four nations joined the US in that boycott.

In contrast to the Olympic boy-cott and a leadership role against human rights violations, the US history with internment camps does not provide a positive exam-

ple. During World War II, the US government forced the relocation and confinement of approximate-ly 1,20,000 Japanese Americans to camps in the US. The only reason for this was their Japanese ances-try. This was not one of the coun-try’s proudest moments. In 1988, the US formally apologized for it, when President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act.

Secretary of State Pompeo has spoken out against China. Presi-dent Trump needs to take an even more assertive stance by signing the UHRPA when he receives it from Congress. As the old saying goes, actions speak louder than words and by adding sanctions to its rhetoric the US would send a strong message to China. By en-listing other countries to use sanc-tions, it could turn up the volume of that message.

One country that I would like to see join with the US in speaking out and possibly using sanctions is my motherland of India. India has been conspicuously silent regarding this matter up to this point. India should step forward because it will demonstrate In-dia’s commitment to protecting human rights for all and reinforce its status as a secular democracy. As importantly, it would counter-act India’s perceptual problems related to its recent treatment of Muslims.

India has not fared well in the free press and media because of its shutdown of the primarily Mus-lim state of Kashmir. It has also received considerable criticism from the human rights communi-ty due to its plans to put as many as two million people -- most of them Muslims -- in the state of As-sam who do not appear on the Na-tional Register of Citizens (NRC) in internment camps and the new Citizenship Act which gives a path to citizenship for minority illegal immigrants in Assam and Tripura but excludes Muslims.

This is an opportunity for India to begin to restore its image which has been stained by these actions while it works to ensure that the resolution in these areas is fair and equitable. It is also an oppor-tunity to do the right thing.

All of the objective evidence in-dicates that China is not doing the right thing when it comes to Ui-ghur Muslims. It is doing the wrong things through brainwashing, in-timidation and ethnic cleansing. That might be acceptable in a com-munist country and in totalitarian and autocratic states. It should not be acceptable to those countries and people who value life, liberty and equal rights. This is the reason these countries must unite in advo-cating for the Winter Olympics boy-cott and sanctions against China.

IANS

China’s inexcusable internment of Uighur Muslims

BY SAEED NAQVI The evening began disas-

trously not only because Boris Johnson won by a landslide but because our host, Lord Megh-nad Desai, could not cook us a meal, having hurt his right hand (it is in plaster); our col-lective viewing of the election results was thrown into further disarray because his TV burnt out. Inexhaustibly stocked row of three refrigerators came in handy: smoked salmon, Italian bread and pizzas. At 10 pm he switched on his IPad. Exit polls had given Boris the biggest vic-tory since Margaret Thatcher in 1987.

A member of the Labour party for 49 years, one would have ex-pected him to become quiet and reflective. Instead he broke into song, wriggling what in leaner bodies would be the waist. We asked for a mini cab. The driv-er turned out to be a big, burly, black young man with a beard which I find disagreeable when it comes without a moustache. He was from Conakry, Guinea, the peaceful West Asian country that I have travelled through in the past to reach Sierra Leone. He opened up because of my name. “We have lived peacefully here,” he said, taking one hand off the steering wheel. “Now we shall live timidly.”

London remains the cosmo-politan hub, where Boris has not made much of an impression. Scottish nationalism always had a mellowness of single malt, lilt of the bagpipes and the quaint-

ness of kilts. This nationalism is not claustrophobic because it also reaches out to the EU. In Northern Ireland, Republican-ism has gained -- so Dublin be-comes closer, not farther from Belfast.

The very first to greet John-son has been Donald Trump, his business cohorts smacking their lips at the prospect of a bur-geoning Anglo Saxon club, par-ticularly now that France’s Em-manuel Macron is thumbing his nose at Trump’s America. And Macron is not alone.

The scale of Boris Johnson’s victory boosts what I call Ban-nonism sky high. Let me explain. George Soros and Steve Ban-non, who is a friend of Trump and the KKK, have been shut-tling around Europe trying to divert popular anger away from socialism which contemporary capitalism paints in lurid co-lours. It is McCarthyism to its tips. While Soros, a liberal capi-talist, seeks an integrated Eu-rope to thwart “leftism”, Steve Bannon, Trump’s conscience keeper, is keen for Italy’s Mat-teo Salvini, France’s Marine Le Penn, Spain’s Santiago Abas-cal and Britain’s Nigel Farage to clasp hands and shift Europe so far right as to be teetering on Fascism. This school received a boost on Thursday night.

It would be irresponsible to describe Johnson as closet fas-cist but his friend Farage is. If one surveys the rise of anti migrant, anti semitic parties from Victor Orban of Hungary

to leaders in Austria, Germany, Poland -- it is a depressing list. In the presence of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Benjamin Netanyahu and others, the Is-raeli Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz accused the Polish leader-ship of antisemitism in almost abusive language: “Poles suckle anti-Semitism from their moth-er’s milk.” This, from a public platform in Warsaw.

The Warsaw incident came to mind as soon as I saw Tory leader Michael Gove appear behind the microphones at the Tory headquarters to prime up the mood before Boris Johnson made his first appearance after the historic victory. It was the sort of time in the morning when people want bed tea. Suddenly, a stern looking Gove is brought slowly into focus. And, lo and behold, the only community he mentions are Jews. “Through this campaign, our Jewish citi-zens have been living in fear.” Then a Churchillian pause: “No longer will Jews live in fear,” he thundered. Why this outburst?

There is a background to this inexplicable intervention. Bar-oness Sayeeda Warsi, former Co-Chair of the Conservative Party has been fairly regular in complaining that “anti Muslim” prejudice had “poisoned” the party. The principal “culprits” in her line of fire were Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Zac Goldsmith. Gove’s generosity of expression in favour of Jews, at the moment of Tory triumph, is designed to send a message to

the Warsis in the party: like it or lump it. How can the Tories have forgotten Gove’s brazenly anti Muslim book Celsius 7/7 published in 2006? Corbyn was battered and bruised not only through this campaign but over the years as a “danger to Brit-ain”, “traitor” a friend of Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro and other “devilish” characters. By sheer incantation, some of it sank in. Of course, Johnson’s message was simpler: “Get Brexit done.”

What the mainstream media will keep mum about, alterna-tives like London Economic, a digital newspaper, publishes and with increasing credibility. The news portal exposed that one of Britain’s leading barris-ters, Jolyon Maughan QC, direc-tor of Good Law Project, alleged that the BBC indulged in show-ing “coded negative imagery” of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn since his election in 2015.

It is universally proclaimed that Johnson, lies, fiddles ex-pense accounts, is seen at Euro-pean airports in a daze after late night parties but he remains the darling of the electorate, as re-sult 2019 has shown.

Another London Economic analysis shows that people gen-erally have another perspective when presented with policy op-tions but the very same people vote in a completely different direction. Why? Because the media is bombarding the voter with high level, right wing pro-paganda.

IANS

We waited for a contest in Britain, we got a massacre

6 EDIT Indian HorizonTuesday, December 17, 2019

7 OP-ED

The views expressed in these columns are the writers’ own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Indian Horizon or its management.-Editor

Could Johnson and Trump become the next Thatcher and ReaganBy Hugh HewittLandslides in politics are not ex-

actly rare in modern Anglo-American politics: Lyndon Johnson had one in 1964, Richard Nixon had his in 1972, and Ronald Reagan had two of them, in 1980 and 1984.

They are less frequent in Britain’s parliamentary system, with two standing out: Margaret Thatcher’s stunning 1983 victory giving the Con-servatives a majority of 144 and Tony Blair’s ‘New Labour’ earthquake of 1997 resulting in his party having 179 more seats than the Conserva-tives. A second category of notable democratic events are “shockers”. We are well acquainted with Don-ald Trump’s 2016 stunner. Indeed, if journalism had a concussion proto-col like the National Football League, most media pundits and certainly all of the #NeverTrump Republicans would still be in the blue tents, mut-tering vaguely about not having seen it coming.

Which leaves us wondering how to classify Prime Minister Boris John-son’s stunning triumph. His new 80-seat majority in the House of Commons, while not quite as large as Thatcher’s or Blair’s zeniths, is nevertheless enormous when mea-sured against the narrow margins of a country whose politics have been deadlocked for a decade.

And for a variety of reasons, al-most no one saw it coming, despite some polling that suggested a Tory majority of more than 20. Somehow the toxic brew of Twitter, elite Brit-ish media, and the eye-catching an-

tics of large crowds and extravagant gestures combined into the British version of the Manhattan-Beltway bubble of 2016 to leave so many pro-fessional pundits agape.

Deeply dividedI had hoped for a Johnson win but

didn’t think this scale of victory was possible. Johnson’s Tories can fash-ion themselves along Benjamin Dis-raeli’s Tories of 150 years ago, seek-ing growth and opportunity for the common citizen but embracing bril-liance and excellence in any sort of achievement.

And now political horizons are open to the British that can prove decisive for the West. Historian Ger-trude Himmelfarb wrote of Disraeli, “In 1878 at the Congress of Berlin, he emerged as the dominant figure and combatant. By being bold and persistent, threatening to break up the congress and even declare war on Russia, he succeeded in reversing Russia’s gains and resolving the cri-sis in favour of Britain and Europe.” Himmelfarb noted that “perhaps [Disraeli’s] greatest tribute came from the prime minister of Prussia. It was affectionately and admiringly — not cynically or derisively, as one might suspect — that Otto von Bis-marck hailed him: ‘Der alte Jude, das ist der Mann.’ “(The old Jew, he is the man.)

The free world hopes Johnson is as successful in dealing with the Chi-nese and the Russians as Disraeli was with the Russians and the Germans of his day. Johnson does not have the vast British fleet of yore, though he

should certainly fulfil his pledge to begin its urgently needed expansion.

What Johnson can most certainly deliver, though, is leadership in craft-ing solutions to the modern “two na-tions” dilemma burdening the West: Vast wealth has accumulated at the intersection of technology and need, resulting in dazzling innovations in many places but despair, often ac-companied by addiction, in many others.

As this crisis of declining oppor-tunity has grown, our politics have become as deeply divided as any time since the Vietnam War, and the organs of media are essentially poi-soned on left and right with a sort of ferocity that frequently blinds each to the other’s point of view and ac-tual, genuine virtues.

There is still hopeYet there is hope that politics can

become joyful again. That is espe-cially hard for the most vocal people on both sides of the American chasm spitting invective at their opposites, about the character of Trump and his supporters or the absurdity of the threadbare rushed and doomed ar-ticles of impeachment. But there is still hope.

It can be glimpsed in Johnson’s ebul-lient win and on Trump’s best days. De-cisive figures such as Trump and John-son can marry their decisiveness and energy to domestic and international innovation and create landslides, despite fierce opprobrium at home. All it takes is a very tough skin and a gambler’s faith in luck. Each needs to continually work to stay on his positive

game, resisting his punitive urges. It can be glimpsed in Johnson’s ebullient win and on Trump’s best days. Deci-sive figures such as Trump and John-son can marry their decisiveness and energy to domestic and international innovation and create landslides, despite fierce opprobrium at home. All it takes is a very tough skin and a gambler’s faith in luck. Each needs to continually work to stay on his posi-tive game, resisting his punitive urges. They will do so if they want more than immediate victories. Thatcher and

Reagan were not hailed as the heroes in their day that many consider them now. Johnson and Trump could not be more temperamentally different than their predecessors.

Together, perhaps, they can reach and enforce an understanding with China and spread opportunity through-out their entire counties. Check back in 30 years. We will know then if there emerged a partnership for the ages out of this pair of shocking wins, and per-haps even a landslide or two.

Gulf News

Indian HorizonTuesday, December 17, 2019

Lebanon is in a dangerous state of paralysis

By Linda S. HeardStreet protests are sweeping capitals

all over the planet. Expressing discontent through slogans and placards is the fash-ionable thing to do. Indeed high profile friends of Jane Fonda who join the celeb-rity’s weekly climate change protests rel-ish being hauled away in handcuffs.

Boris Johnson’s electoral triumph was met with demonstrators in London and Glasgow yelling ‘Not my Prime Minister’

but to what end. The PM is going no-where. Residents of Hong Kong who have brought the territory to a standstill for months driving the once thriving econ-omy into recession risk a confrontation with China’s military forces.

People power rarely brings about the desired result, a premise to which par-ticipants in the 2011 Arab uprisings can surely attest. Just ask an Iraqi, a Syrian or a Libyan.

Bringing down an unpopular leader-ship requires unity and dedication on the part of protesters desperate for change but that is often the easiest stage as the people of Lebanon who railed against the political elite are now discovering. They succeeded in forcing the resignation of Prime Minister Saad Hariri and the dis-mantling of the government. However, their euphoria was shortlived.

Those same faces remain as caretakers until a new cabinet can be formed. The peo-ple rightly want the old guard charged with mismanagement and corruption to be gone and replaced with technocrats. That is going to be an uphill struggle in a country divided between supporters of Iran’s Lebanese-armed proxy Hezbollah and those more in alignment with Western-style values.

Hezbollah and its Shiite partner Amal, propped up with President Michel Aoun’s free Patriotic Movement, rule the roost and call for a unity government refusing any new cabinet without their participation.

Puppet masterIran, which views Lebanon as a ter-

ritorial satellite, is the puppet master as evidenced by a recent statement made by a senior adviser to Iran’s Revolution-ary Guards Corps Morteza Ghorbani who threatened to attack Israel from Lebanese soil. “If the Zionist regime makes the

smallest mistake vis-a-vis Iran, we will level Tel Aviv to the ground from Lebanon without having to launch a single missile or any other device from Iran,” he warned eliciting a backlash from Lebanese offi-cials angered at Tehran’s infringement of Lebanon’s sovereignty.

That said Hezbollah’s Secretary-Gen-eral Hassan Nasrallah has upped the ante saying, “If Israel makes a mistake, we will flush Tel Aviv out of Lebanon”. Israel has countered with a warning to the Lebanese government that if Hezbol-lah is not restrained “all of Lebanon will suffer the consequences”.

The Lebanese are used to such fiery rhetoric and political stalemates, but when the country teeters on economic collapse the political impasse could not have come at a worse moment.

Whereas until now antigovernment protests have been largely peaceful on Saturday supporters of Hezbollah and Amal launched attacks on the protest camps and attempted to force their way through police barriers. Clashes result-ed in 46 being hospitalised. Without a strong hand at the rudder the prospect of an all-out civil war, which neither side wants, cannot be ruled out.

Civil warIn the meantime, Hariri is appealing to

the nation’s traditional foreign donors for financial assistance but this time his requests have been greeted with a dis-

tinct lack of enthusiasm.He has approached the World Bank

and the International Monetary Fund to rescue his country from economic meltdown and December 11 witnessed a meeting of the International Sup-port Group for Lebanon in Paris but it was clear that there would be no rescue monies until the formation of a cred-ible government capable of meeting the aspirations of all Lebanese, one capable of delivering urgent reforms. Friends of Lebanon are tired of throwing good money after bad.

Waiting in the wings is the White House which has thrown its support firmly be-hind “democratic forces” but the US stance is widely viewed in Lebanon with suspicion. The country’s Al Jadeed televi-sion station cites a US-Israeli document that purportedly reached the hands of President Aoun detailing US plans to fo-ment civil war in Lebanon with false flag attacks aimed at creating a pretext for an Israeli invasion targeting Hezbollah.

Whether or not such a document ex-ists or is genuine cannot be confirmed but neither can it be discounted particu-larly when the current US administration has proved its unwavering pro-Israel bias. Hezbollah’s disarming is a worthy goal but America’s interventionist record within the region is absent of good out-comes.

Gulf News

US Congressional rebuke on Israeli colonies is a seismic shiftBy James J. ZogbyThe most stunning rebuke to the

Trump Administration’s unilateral effort to legitimise Israeli colonies didn’t come from Arab and European leaders. Over the years, their state-ments of condemnation have be-come so predictable that both Israel and the US routinely shrug them off.

Instead, the most significant re-sponse came in the form of a letter sent by Members of Congress to Sec-retary of State Mike Pompeo. Drafted by freshman Congressman Andy Levin of Michigan, the letter was co-signed by 106 other Representatives. While it’s true that the Levin letter isn’t a law, and therefore will have no real impact on policy, there are sev-eral reasons why it is worthy of note.

Most important is fact that the let-ter strongly endorses the applicabil-ity of the Fourth Geneva Convention to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands. The third and final paragraph of the letter to Secretary Pompeo reads:

“This State Department decision blatantly disregards Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which af-firms that any occupying power shall

not ‘deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies’ ... If the US unilaterally abandons international and human rights law, we can expect a more cha-otic and brutal twenty-first century for America and our allies ...” This the first time that a substantial number of Members of Congress have embraced the applicability of the Fourth Geneva

Convention to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. In fact, in 1999 and 2009 Congress passed resolutions de-nouncing international efforts to hold Israel accountable for its violations of the Conventions.

The principle reason for this Con-gressional refusal to embrace the Conventions has been in deference to Israel’s insistence that its seizure of

Palestinian lands in 1967 was not an occupation. Instead they refer to the territories as “disputed areas.” That being the case, Israel has long refused to accept that the Conventions apply to Palestinian lands, since if they were to apply, then Israel would be guilty of: “annexing” occupied lands, de-molishing Palestinian properties and homes, building colonies for their own citizens on this land, stealing resources from this land, the expul-sion of and denial of repatriation of Palestinians who inhabited this land, and the whole range of human rights abuses committed against the cap-tive Palestinian population including torture, collective punishment, and illegal detention.

Israel has also used pressure from their Washington lobbyists to insure that not only would Con-gress refrain from taking any mea-sure against Israel, they would also avoid using the term “occupied” in reference to Palestinian lands. [In 2016, I served as one of Bernie Sanders’ representatives on the Democratic Party’s platform draft-ing committee. Our efforts to insert the words “occupation” and “colo-

nies” were met with stiff resistance. We ultimately failed in our efforts.] In recent years we have witnessed some evolution in the policy debate over the Israeli-Palestinian con-flict. Three of the leading Demo-cratic candidates for the presidency have criticised Israeli colonies, denounced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s declared in-tention to annex parts of the West Bank. These Democrats also link future US aid to Israel to Israeli policies toward the Palestinians. And last week, the House of Repre-sentatives passed a bill, that among other things, did support Palestin-ian statehood and strongly opposed Israeli annexation of any part of the West Bank.

But none of these efforts have gone as far as the Levin letter which in an unprecedented manner holds Israel accountable to international law.

While Democrats have been em-boldened on Israeli-Palestinian is-sues as a result of their disgust with the Trump/Netanyahu marriage, what is impressive about the Levin letter is that it isn’t tied to or focused on Democrats revulsion with both

men. Rather, the letter focuses on the importance of the US upholding international human rights law and demands that Israel adhere to its re-quirements — whoever is in office in Israel or the United States.

A final point about the importance of Levin letter was the fact that it was signed 107 Members of Congress. There have been strong principled letters on Israeli-Palestinian issues in the past, but never one that drew the support of so many. While they were all Democrats, the diversity they rep-resented was impressive. There were senior leaders in the party, as well as freshman and there were African American, Latino, Arab Americans and American Jews.

What was troubling was the fact that the Levin letter was largely ig-nored by the US media. Because it was a letter and not a law, some may have failed to grasp the impor-tant shift it represents in the politi-cal landscape. These changes have been percolating under surface for years. Now they are breaking out into the open. This story is still be-ing written.

Gulf News

THE COUNTRY UNLIKELY TO RECEIVE FINANCIAL AID UNTIL THE FORMATION OF A CREDIBLE GOVERNMENT

8internationalindian Horizontuesday, December 17, 2019

Beirut, Dec 16 (IANS) At least 20 people have been injured after clashes erupted between protesters and security forces in the Lebanese capital for a second straight day since anti-government rallies began in the country two months ago.

The violence that started on Sunday and lasted into the early hours of Monday outside the Parliament in central Bei-rut came on the eve of talks the Lebanese President Michel Aoun was expected to hold with parliamentary blocs to name a new premier, reports Efe news.

The Lebanese Civil Defence said on Twitter that they had transferred those "20 injured to hospitals in the region to re-ceive medical attention", add-ing that at least 72 others, in-cluding a photographer, were treated on the ground.

Meanwhile, the Lebanese Red Cross added it transport-ed four injured in the clashes that broke out when the forces fired teargas and water can-nons to disperse demonstra-tors, who started hurling fire-works.

Local media outlets identi-

fied those who triggered the clashes as supporters of the Shiite movements Hezbollah and Amal. The Lebanese secu-rity forces released live footage showing "infiltrators" in the protester ranks "provoking the troops … before the disper-sion started".

On December 14, dozens of people were injured in a similar situation, to which the security forces had responded with using "excessive vio-lence" against protesters.

Raya al-Hassan, the Leba-nese Interior Minister, has ordered an investigation into the clashes. Lebanon has been gripped by street protests since October 17, prompting the previous Prime Minister Saad Hariri to resign after 12 days on October 29.

According to the Lebanese constitution, the premier must always be a Sunni Mus-lim, while the presidency is reserved for a Christian Ma-ronite and the speakership of the lower house is occupied by a Shia Muslim, according to the power-sharing deal between the three main reli-gious sects.

20 hurt in Beirut anti-government protestsLondon, Dec 16 (IANS)

British-Muslims have start-ed the process of leaving the UK over fears for their "per-sonal safety" now that Boris Johnson, who's been ac-cused of Islamophobia, will remain Prime Minister for the next five years, a media report said on Monday.

Among them is Manzoor Ali, the head of the Muslim Barakah Food Aid charity, which provides food parcels for poor people in Man-chester, after saying he was scared for the "future of his children", metro.co.uk said in its report.

Ali told Metro.co.uk: "My charity has been going on for 10 years, we've helped peo-ple from all walks of life, in-cluding former soldiers and white working class English

people. But I'm scared for my personal safety, I worry about my children's future."

He added that Britain was his home and he didn't know where else to go, but his family have agreed that they should move to ensure their safety.

Johnson has been ac-cused of Islamophobia and racism following a number of controversial comments he made in the past, includ-ing his remarks in a 2005 Spectator article in which he claimed it was only "natural" for the public to be scared of Islam.

Johnson also received a considerable degree of criti-cism for comparing Muslim women to "letterboxes and bank robbers" in a column for the Telegraph last year.

The Prime Minister has insisted his comments were taken out of context and also defended the right of Mus-lim women to wear what they like.

During the election cam-paign this year, he also apol-ogised for Islamophobia in his ruling Conservative Par-ty, after a number of candi-dates shared posts referring to Muslims as "scum".

Ali's sentiments were echoed by Eidan, an IT consultant from North Lon-don who said she was "very scared" following John-son's landslide win in the December 12 general elec-tion, especially after being assaulted previously, with her headscarf ripped off and people calling her a "terror-ist" in public.

British-Muslims prepare to leave UK over Johnson's election win

San Francisco, Dec 16 (IANS) Elon Musk smok-ing weed live on air is still fresh in mind and now, an agri-tech company named Front Range Bio-sciences is planning to send marijuana to the In-ternational Space Station (ISS) onboard a SpaceX cargo flight in March next year to understand the impact of gravity on weed.

The plant cell cultures of hemp (a form of can-nabis) and coffee will be shipped off in the SpaceX "CRS-20" cargo flight set for launch in March, re-ports Digitaltrends.

To send the tissue cultures to space, Front Range Biosciences has partnered with tech startup Space Cells and BioServe, a research in-stitute in the University of Colorado, Boulder.

"This is one of the first times anyone is re-

searching the effects of microgravity and space-flight on hemp and cof-fee cell cultures. This is an opportunity to see whether those mutations hold up once brought back to earth and if there are new commercial ap-plications," Dr Jonathan Vaught, Co-Founder and CEO of Front Range Bio-sciences, was quoted as saying.

The cultures will re-main in an ISS incuba-tor for 30 days while BioServe Space Tech-nologies monitors those remotely from the Uni-versity of Colorado, Boulder.

After 30 days, the cells will be sent back to Earth so that the researchers can see how the DNA has been affected by fluctu-ating gravity levels and cosmic radiation.

The aim is to check how microgravity affects plants and if the expo-sure of space radiation can affect their genes.

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine last year said that SpaceX founder Musk will not be smok-ing weed in public again.

Speaking on Musk's infamous marijuana consumption during "The Joe Rogan Experi-ence" podcast, the NASA chief said "that was not appropriate behaviour" and people will not be seeing that again.

Bridenstine said he spoke with Musk that he does not want NASA contractors engaging in questionable behaviour.

elon Musk's SpaceX to carry weed to space next year

Lahore, Dec 16 (IANS) The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday issued a notice to the Pakistan government on former President Pervez Mush-arraf's application urg-ing the former to stay the high treason case pro-ceedings pending before a special court in Islam-abad.

Musharraf in his appli-cation has asked the LHC to declare the proceed-ings pending before the special court and all ac-

tions against him, from initiation of the high treason complaint to the appointment of the prosecutor and constitu-tion of the trial court, as unconstitutional, Dawn news reported.

The three-member special court is expected to announce its verdict in the long-drawn high treason case on Tuesday, despite an earlier Islam-abad High Court (IHC) order stopping it from issuing the verdict it had

reserved in the case last month.

The IHC's order had come on November 27, a day before the spe-cial court was set to an-nounce its verdict. The application was filed on December 14 through advocates Khawaja Ah-mad Tariq Raheem and Azhar Siddique.

Issuing the notice to the government, the LHC decided to hear it along-side the main petition set for hearing on Tuesday.

The high treason trial of the former President for clamping the state of emergency on Novem-ber 3, 2007, has been pending since December 2013. He was booked in the treason case in De-cember 2013. Musharraf was indicted on March 31, 2014, and the pros-ecution had tabled the entire evidence before the special court.

notice to Pak govt on Musharraf's plea to halt treason trial

Sl to launch 1st-ever luxury electric supercar in 2020

Colombo, Dec 16 (IANS) Sri Lanka will launch its first-ever luxury electric supercar named "Vega" in April 2020, marking a new milestone in the island nation's automo-bile industry.

The master builder of the luxury car, techno-entrepre-neur Harsha Subasinghe, who is the chief executive of Code-Gen, said that following a test drive of the Vega last week, the "supercar" will be launched at the annual International Mo-tor Show in Geneva in 2020, reports Xinhua news agency.

Subasinghe said that the 300 kw battery-powered car

with a 240 km range would be the first-ever luxury, all-electric "supercar" made in Sri Lanka and in the Asian region.

"The supercar is presently at test levels. Vega does a quick zero-to-100 mph in 3.1 seconds. It is a 900 bhp super-car and is designed, both inte-rior and exterior, and manu-factured locally," Subasinghe said.

"We are ready to do some-thing new for our country. I am sure it will be a product that will make all Sri Lankans really proud. We also wanted to encourage our youth to take Sri Lanka forward."

New York, Dec 16 (IANS) Low-and middle-income countries have high levels of overweight and obesity along with undernutrition, say researchers, adding that these two issues have become increasingly con-nected.

"Our research shows that overweight and obesity lev-els of at least 20 per cent among adults are found in all low-income countries. Furthermore, the double burden of high levels of both undernutrition and overweight occur primar-ily in the lowest-income countries -- a reality that is driven by the modern food system," said study lead au-thor Barry M. Popkin from University of North Caro-lina in US.

"This system has a global reach and is preventing low- and even moderate-income countries and households from consum-ing safe, affordable and

healthy diets in a sustain-able way," Popkin added. Globally, estimates sug-gest that almost 2.3 billion children and adults are overweight, and more than 150 million children are stunted.

In low- and middle-in-come countries, however, these emerging issues over-lap in individuals, fami-lies and communities. For the findings, the research team used survey data from low- and middle-income countries in the 1990s and 2010s to estimate which countries faced a double burden of malnutrition, meaning that, in the popu-lation, more than 15 per cent of people had wasting, more than 30 per cent were stunted, more than 20 per cent of women had thin-ness and more than 20 per cent of people were over-weight.

The results, published in the journal The Lancet,

showed that more than a third of low- and middle-income countries had over-lapping forms of malnutri-tion, 45 of 123 countries in the 1990s and 48 of 126 countries in the 2010s.

The problem was par-ticularly common in sub-Saharan Africa, south Asia, and east Asia and the Pa-cific, where 29, seven and nine countries were affect-ed, respectively.

In the 2010s, 14 countries with some of the lowest incomes in the world had newly developed a double burden of malnutrition compared with the 1990s, said the study.

However, fewer low- and middle-income countries with the highest incomes, relative to others in that category, were affected.

The authors said this reflects the increasing prevalence of people being overweight in the poor-est countries, even as seg-

ments of the population still face stunting, wasting and thinness.

"The poorest low- and middle-income countries are seeing a rapid transfor-mation in the way people eat, drink and move at work, home, in transport and in leisure," Popkin said.

According to the re-searchers, the new nutri-tion reality is driven by changes to the food system, which have increased the global availability of ultra-processed foods that are linked to weight gain while also adversely affecting in-fant and preschooler diets.

"These changes include disappearing fresh food markets, increasing num-bers of supermarkets, and the control of the food chain by supermarkets and global food, catering and agriculture compa-nies in many countries," Popkin said.

low income countries facing both obesity, malnutrition

Beijing, Dec 16 (IANS) Vehicular traffic was dis-rupted and flights have been cancelled as moder-ate snow hit the Chinese capital of Beijing on Mon-day, according to authori-ties.

As of 2.30 p.m. on Mon-day, 50 outbound flights and 66 inbound flights had been cancelled at Beijing Capital International Air-port, Xinhua news agency reported.

Twenty-nine bus routes

had been altered or sus-pended due to the snow and frozen roads.

The average precipita-tion from 7 p.m. Sunday to 9 a.m. Monday reached 3.9 mm, and the snow is expected to gradually end around noon, according to the local meteorological authority.

More than 50,000 peo-ple and over 6,500 vehicles are working to remove snow in the city, the au-thorities added.

turkey may shut 2 military bases used by US: erdogan

Snow in Beijing disrupts traffic, flights cancelled

US channel apologizes for pulling same-sex ads

australia 'mega blaze' spreads beyond containment lines

Sydney, Dec 16 (IANS) Australian authorities on Monday issued fresh warn-ings about a "mega blaze" after it spread beyond con-tainment lines and razed 20 houses near Sydney.

The mega blaze, also known as the Gospers Mountain fire, burning over about 400,000 hectares, has moved further into the Blue Mountains - a popular tour-ist area which lies west of the city, reports the BBC.

Firefighters had tried to use cooler temperatures for "back-burning" - a tactic of deliberately starting small fires to remove vegetation before dangerous condi-tions arrive.

But the tactic backfired and crews lost control of the back-burn, said NSW Rural

Fire Service deputy com-missioner Rob Rogers.

About 20 homes were destroyed as a result amid 229-ft flames, he added. Meanwhile, a heatwave forecast for later this week could bring the nation's hottest day on record.

Temperatures could exceed the 50.7 degrees Celsius record set in Ood-nadatta, South Australia, in 1960, according to the Bu-reau of Meteorology.

Since September, six people have died in a bush-fire crisis that has engulfed the eastern states of New South Wales (NSW) and Queensland.

The blazes have de-stroyed more than 700 homes and blanketed towns and cities in smoke.

Ankara, Dec 16 (IANS) Turkey might shut down two military bases where US soldiers were cur-rently stationed if "nec-essary", President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.

"If necessary, we will hold discussions with all our delegations, and if necessary, we may close the Incirlik (air base in Adana) and Kurecik (ra-dar station in Malatya) bases," Xinhua news agency reported citing the President as saying on Sunday in a TV inter-view.

Incirlik air base is a key military compound for the US for regional op-erations. Kurecik Radar Station is a military in-

stallation, established in 2012 for use by NATO as an early-warning radar. "We may need to make some decisions, too," he said, elaborating a recent US resolution passed by the Senate that recog-nized the killings of Ar-menians as "genocide" in 1915.

The resolution was "completely political",

Erdogan said, adding that "it is very important for both sides that the US does not take irreparable steps in our relations". "We regret that the po-larization in US domestic politics has had negative consequences on us and that some groups abuse developments of our country for their own in-terests in order to weak-

en (President Donald) Trump," he added.

On December 12, the US Senate unanimously passed a resolution that formally recognizes the Ottoman Empire's kill-ings of the Armenian people as "genocide".

The resolution asserts that it is US policy to commemorate as geno-cide the killing of Arme-nians from 1915 to 1923.

The resolution was passed in the House of Representatives in October but had been blocked by Republican Senators several times at the request of the White House, which feared that its passage would infuri-ate Turkey.

Hong Kong/Beijing, Dec 16 (IANS) A man from Hong Kong was reported missing since December 13, has been detained by Chinese security officials on sus-picion of smuggling of-fences while travelling to Macau, authorities from mainland China said on Monday.

Security officials from Guangdong said that a 53-year-old man called Chung was held on De-cember 13 by the Zhuhai police and customs, who accused him of being involved in the smug-gling of mobile phones in August 2012, reports

the South China Morn-ing Post newspaper.

He was wanted by customs in the mainland border city of Shenzhen, according to the Guang-dong provincial public security department. "Chung is an important member of the gang, and Zhuhai border control has already transferred him to the relevant au-thority," the depart-ment said in a post on Weibo, a Chinese micro-blogging site. The Hong Kong resident was trav-elling on a coach along the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge when he was detained.

Missing HK man detained by Chinese officials

Washington, Dec 16 (IANS) The US' Hallmark channel has apologized for its decision to with-draw television adver-tisements featuring same-sex couples, it was reported on Mon-day.

The company's cable network pulled the ads for wedding registry and planning site Zola under pres-sure from the conser-vative group, One Mil-lion Moms, the BBC reported.

"We are truly sorry for the hurt and dis-appointment this has caused," Hallmark's president and Chief Executive Mike Perry said, adding that the company would rein-state the adverts.

In a statement,

Perry also said that Hallmark would "be working with (advo-cacy group) Glaad to better represent the LGBTQ community across our portfolio of brands".

The decision to withdraw the adverts drew criticism from a number of high-profile gay figures, including Democratic presidential con-tender Pete Buttigieg and talk show host Ellen DeGeneres. The Netflix US Twitter ac-count also criticised the decision, as did California Governor Gavin Newsom. The #BoycottHallmark-Channel hashtag, which was launched by Glaad, featured in over 16,000 tweets as of Sunday afternoon.

9 business indian HorizonTuesday, December 17, 2019

Now wholesale prices jump in Nov; WPI rises to 0.58%New Delhi, Dec 16 (IANS)

After retail inflation, the prices of essential commodi-ties especially food items such as vegetables showed a massive rise in November on wholesale basis.

Accordingly, India's an-nual rate of inflation based on wholesale prices jumped to 0.58 per cent in November from 0.16 per cent in Octo-ber. However, on a year-on-year (YoY) basis, the Whole-sale Price Index (WPI) data furnished by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry showed a decelerating trend as inflation had risen to 4.47 per cent during the corre-sponding period of 2018.

"Build up inflation rate in the financial year so far was 2 per cent compared to a buildup rate of 4.56 per cent in the corresponding period of the previous year," the Ministry said in its review of

"Index Numbers of Whole-sale Price in India" for No-vember.

On a sequential basis, the expenses on primary arti-cles, which constitute 22.62 per cent of the WPI's total weightage, increased to 7.68 per cent from 6.41 per cent.

The prices of food items increased at a faster rate of 11.08 per cent from 9.80 per cent. Onion price increased by 172.30 per cent in Novem-

ber while it was at 119.84 per cent during October 2019. Overall, vegetable prices in November rose 45.32 per cent against a rise of 38.91 per cent.

However, the cost of fuel and power, which com-mands 13.15 per cent weight-age, deflated by (-)7.32 per cent from a decline of (-)8.27 per cent. On a YoY basis, expenses on primary arti-cles, which constitute 22.62

per cent of the WPI's total weightage, increased to 7.68 per cent from a rise of 0.59 per cent in November last year. The YoY prices of food items increased YoY at a fast-er rate of 11.08 per cent from (-)3.24 per cent.

Onion price increased by 172.30 per cent while it was at (-)47.60 per cent during the corresponding period of last fiscal. Overall, vegetable prices in November rose 45.32 per cent against the decline of (-)26.71 per cent in the same month a year ago.

The cost of the fuel and power category declined (-)7.32 per cent against a rise of 15.54 per cent YoY. Furthermore, the cost of the manufactured products category declined (-)0.84 per cent against a rise of 4.21 per cent YoY. The data trajectory assumes sig-nificance as it fans further

concerns over -- stagflation -- an economic trend which marks rising inflation and falling Gross Domestic Product.

Last week, another key inflation data point -- Consumer Price Index -- showed that a massive rise in food prices lifted India's November retail inflation to 5.54 per cent from 4.62 per cent in October. Inci-dentally, the Reserve Bank in its latest monetary policy review had maintained the key lending rates on ac-count of rising retail infla-tion. "As expected, a further spike in the inflation for primary food articles to a 71 month high 11.1 per cent, drove up the WPI inflation in November 2019, arrest-ing the downtrend seen in the previous two months," ICRA Principal Economist Aditi Nayar said.

New Delhi, Dec 16 (IANS) Product quality, consistency and value for money are the most important criteria which influence brand loyalty of consumers in India, says a new study.

The survey by KPMG revealed that 47 per cent Indian consumers re-main loyal to a favourite brand even after a bad experience.

"The study in India revealed that when a consumer is loyal to a brand, 93 per cent will recommend it to their family and friends," Har-sha Razdan, Partner and Head, Consumer Mar-kets and Internet Busi-ness, KPMG in India, said in a statement.

"The fact that over 55 per cent of consumers in India say they will buy from their favourite com-pany even if it is cheaper and more convenient to buy from a rival company is further proof that loyal-ty endures," Razdan said.

The survey included over 18,000 consumers in 20 countries, with 1,721 being from India. The re-sults showed that 84 per

cent of the respondents in India believe in loy-alty programmes and are more likely to buy new products offered by the company.

Brand loyalty doesn't only earn companies re-peat business from their loyal customers - over 86 per cent of consumers globally said they would recommend a brand they loved to friends and

family, said the study titled "The truth about customer loyalty - The world's consumers reveal what keeps them coming back".

In terms of earning customer loyalty, 59 per cent of the consumers surveyed globally said they are loyal to their fa-vourite brand because of a personal connection compared to 74 per cent in India.

Three in four consum-ers globally said their loy-alty was driven by prod-uct quality compared to 81 per cent in India, 66 per cent consumers globally as compared to 74 per cent in India said their loyalty was driven by value for money.

New Delhi, Dec 16 (IANS) Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman will meet groups of stakehold-ers from Monday to seek inputs from each sector on their concerns and how the growth, consumption, demand and industry will be revived from the 4.5 per cent GDP growth.

To begin with, the Fi-nance ministry said Sith-araman will meet the stakeholder groups of 'New Economy: Start-ups, Fintech and Digital Sec-tor' on Monday morning, and financial sector and capital market represen-tatives later in afternoon.

The capital market players may seek replace-ment of Dividend Distri-

bution Tax (DDT) with the classical system of dividend taxation in the hands of the shareholders with protection for small shareholders and avoid-ing cascading impact of inter-corporate dividends through provision akin to erstwhile section 80M de-duction. This will also re-

move necessity to impose Buyback Distribution Tax.

Officials said the pre-Budget consultations starting Monday will last till December 23. An For-eign Portfolio Investment (FPI) executive said that under the Section 112A, Tax on Long Term Capi-tal Gains Consistent with

the scheme of capital gains chapter, the ben-efit of substitution of FMV (Fair Market Value) as on January 31, 2018 may be extended to the donee or legal heir or merged en-tity, who acquires shares post April 1, 2018, but where the predecessor held qualifying asset as on January 31, 2018.

This will be consis-tent with the capital gain scheme where donee, le-gal heir or merged entity, etc. steps into the shoes of the predecessor as the cost and holding period is substituted. Further, the grandfathering benefit may also be extended to shares held in amalgamat-ing/demerged listed com-

pany on January 31, 2018 in lieu of which shares are received in amalgamated/resulting company post January 31, 2018.

The discussion with the industry on December 19 will revolve around ease of doing business, regulatory environment impacting private investment, export competitiveness, role of state (delayed payments, contract enforcement), and revival of private in-vestment and growth, among others. Sources said these are the defined areas of discussions. With already significant cut in corporate taxes having taken place, expectations and demands are high that it would announce.

Noida, Dec 16 (IANS) HCL Technologies on Monday announced to expand its operation in Lithuania with the open-ing of two new technol-ogy delivery centers in the capital city of Vilnius. HCL currently employs about 500 employees in Lithuania and the num-ber is set to grow with the new announcement, the company said in a state-ment.

"As part of our busi-ness and development strategy we plan to sig-nificantly invest in Lithu-ania," said Sudip Lahiri, SVP and Head of Finan-cial Services, Europe, HCL Technologies.

"The opening of our new offices in Vilnius

marks a significant mile-stone in our ongoing commitment to the re-gion to help our clients play an even bigger part in the nation's growth and innovation agenda," said Lahiri.

According to Simonas Kepsta, Chief Adviser to the President of the Re-public of Lithuania on Economic and Social Policy, companies creat-ing innovation and high added value are making a significant contribution to the development of the digital economy and socially responsible busi-ness culture in Lithuania.

"Financial technology and service companies have already become the cause of pride in Lithu-ania, so we are pleased and appreciate the in-vestments made by in-ternational companies such as HCL in our coun-try", said Kepsta.

Located in the capital city of Vilnius, Lithu-ania hosts one the larg-est HCL technology hubs in the European region, providing end-to-end infrastructure and ap-plication development management services to its nearshore clients. HCL employs more than 10,000 people in Europe, serving over 200 clients, and has been present in Lithuania since 2016.

New Delhi, Dec 16 (IANS) Sounding criti-cal of the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business Index, prominent econ-omist and the Chair-man of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, Bibek Debroy on Monday said that the index on which India has risen signifi-cantly of late is formu-lated after taking into account just two cities in the country.

He further noted that the sample size of research for the index India is just 30. "The World Bank's 'ease of doing business' indica-tors are based on sur-veys in just two cities...and the sample size, for India (is) around 30 and for some other coun-tries the sample size is 2 or 3. Nonetheless, its the World Bank..." Debroy said speaking here at an event organ-ised by the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board

of India. The statement gains significance as In-dia has of late improved its ranking in the World Bank's index. In the lat-est ranking released in October, India jumped 14 ranks to the 63rd position and was also among the top-10 prog-ress-making countries.

The government also cites the improvement in rankings as a reflec-tion of an improving business environment and economy.

The World Bank's survey has so far fea-tured Delhi and Mum-bai but in its latest re-port it has said that the survey will expand its ambit to Kolkata and Bengaluru next year.

He further said that

the doing business in-dex consists of an index on legal infrastructure, which he has not been able to decipher how the World Bank con-structed the index.

"There is a 25 per cent weightage at-tached to a cross country index of legal infrastructure that the World Bank has. I have not been able to find any informa-tion despite this work of transparency about how that index of legal infrastructure is constructed." De-broy, however, said that improvement in the World Bank's rankings is not the primary intention of the government's ini-tiatives for economy. "World Bank's ease of doing business rank-ing is not the primary intention to do what India has done in this area (insolvency) or other area.

Mumbai, Dec 16 (IANS) Sensex slipped in the red after opening over 150 points higher

during the early trade on Monday. Manufacturing com-

pany stocks like SAIL, Jindal Steel fell over 2 per cent.

Bank stocks also traded lower, however, global steel giant Arcelor Mittal has initi-ated payment for acquisition of debt-ridden Essar Steel for Rs 42,000 crore.

At 11.45 a.m., Sensex was 7.07 points at 41,002.64. It opened at 41,168.85, from its previous close of 41,009.71. The Nifty fell nearly 12 points to 12,074.95.

Mumbai, Dec 16 (IANS) Shares of the state-run Punjab National Bank(PNB) on Mon-day fell nearly 3 per cent on the BSE after under it reported bad loans by Rs 2,617 crore for the last fiscal. Gross non perform-ing assets(NPA) according to the RBI, as on March 31 was Rs 81,089.70 crore but it was Rs

78,472.70 crore reported by PNB.The divergence in provision-

ing for bad loans in FY19 was to the tune of Rs 2,091 crore.

Provision for NPAs as on March 31, 2019 as reported by the bank was 48,151.15 crore but the RBI's risk assessment re-port calculated it to Rs 50,242.15 crore.

Further, the PNB reported a loss was Rs 99,75.49 crore but RBI said after taking into ac-count the divergence in provi-sioning it stood at Rs 11,335.90 crore for the last fiscal.

Mumbai, Dec 16 (IANS) Snap-ping a three-day uptick, the benchmark Sensex ended in the red on Monday after hitting a record high of 41,185 intra-day. Markets ended lower over concerns of rising inflation, although further losses were capped as the global cues re-mained supportive.

The benchmark oil price in-dex, Brent, also jumped to a three-month high to over 65 a dollar. The Sensex closed 71 points lower at 40,938.72. The Nifty settled at 12,060.70, lower

by 26 points. "WPI inflation ad-vanced to 0.58 per cent in No-vember from 0.16 per cent in October, driven by an increase in prices of food articles, which weakened market sentiments. We expect the markets to remain range-bound in the near-term," said Siddhartha Khemka, Head, Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services.

Analysts further expected the market to take a cue from the Finance Ministries pre-budget meetings with various industries which began on Monday.

New Delhi, Dec 16 (IANS) State Bank of India (SBI) Chairman Rajnish Kumar on Monday said that National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) is not the right platform for resolution of bankrupt small and medium enter-prises (SMEs)

Speaking to the me-dia on the sidelines of an event here, Kumar said that the platform of the NCLT and the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) should be utilised in the cases which involve large sums of stressed as-sets, and multiple lenders and taking SMEs to the NCLT would burden the system.

"The kind of work you need to do in the IBC and the kind of infrastructure you use, for SME it is not very suitable...SMEs, I have said that they have to be treated differently," he said. "IBC should be used where there is bigger amount and multiplic-

ity of lenders is there," Kumar added. He, was of the view that the model of resolution of SMEs can be decided on a "case-by-case" basis.

Regarding resolution of major bankrupt firms such as Bhushan Power and Steel and Alok Indus-

tries, he said that both the cases are "very close" to resolution. He said that the SBI is likely to recover around Rs 4,000 crore from Bhushan Power and Steel while it would get around Rs 1,700 crore from Alok Industries' res-olution. On the successful resolution of Essar Steel, he said that the "most cru-cial" of the IBC has been resolved on Monday.

He said that the recov-ery of Essar's dues would help boost profitability in the third and fourth quar-ter of the current fiscal. Last Friday ArcelorMittal, the successful bidder of Essar Steel, transferred Rs 40,000 crore to SBI.

What makes Indians loyal to a brand

Budget: Capital market may seek change in DDT

FMCGs top consumer complaints list post GST roll-out, eateries

Debroy takes dig at World Bank's ease of doing business index

Sensex, Nifty turns red; metal stock fall

PNB scrips fall 3% on NPA divergence disclosure

HCL expands operations in Lithuania

Sensex ends below 41k after hitting a record high

NCLT not right forum for resolving stressed SMEs: SBI Chief

New Delhi, Dec 16 (IANS) Fast-moving con-sumer goods (FMCG) firms have topped the list of customers complaints list for over-charging ever since the new in-direct tax regime Goods and Services Tax (GST) was rolled out on July 1, 2017.

Restaurateurs came second, followed by en-tertainment and media firms. As per official data, as many as 42 consumer complaints were reg-istered against various FMCG companies with many of them found to be not passing the ben-efits of lower tax rates.

As GST rates were cut across various catego-ries in the GST Council meetings to reduce tax incidence on consum-ers, the companies were expected to pass on the benefit by lowering pric-es in proportion to the rate reduction.

It was, however, found that many companies had not passed on the

benefit of lower tax and indulged in profiteering. Complaints were later filed against them and the GST anti-profiteering watchdog National Anti-profiteering Authority (NAA) took up the cases.

Some of the FMCG ma-jors like Hindustan Uni-lever Ltd (HUL), Procter & Gamble India (P&G) and Nestle were found to have profiteered from the lower tax regime.

In the latest case, the NAA last week ordered Nestle to deposit Rs 73.15 crore with Consumer Welfare Fund for not passing GST rate reduc-tion benefit to consum-ers. The FMCG major has, however, said that it will consider appropriate action after studying the

same. Experts said that it is very difficult for FMCG companies to assess the exact impact of the lower tax given that they have multiple similar prod-ucts in one category.

Moreover, they sell products for as low as Rs 2 for a shampoo pouch and when the rate is low-ered they are not in the position to exactly as-sess the impact on price. Even if the assessment is done and it is found that the price should be lower by 30 paise, transaction becomes difficult as cur-rency of that amount is not available.

"Because of multiple products of similar kind it is difficult for FMCG companies to arrive at a particular price.

10businessindian HorizonTuesday, December 17, 2019

Zomato in advanced talks to buy ubereats: ReportNew Delhi, Dec 16 (IANS)

The online food delivery industry in India is set for a big churn as Uber has re-portedly entered advanced stages of talks to sell Uber-Eat's India business to rival Zomato by the end of this year.

According to a Tech-Crunch report on Monday citing sources, the deal "currently values UberEats' India business at around $400 million". As part of the deal, "Uber may invest between $150 to $200 mil-lion in Zomato", the report claimed, citing sources.

As an event in Delhi ear-lier this month, Zomato Founder and CEO Deep-inder Goyal said the com-pany is aiming to raise up to $600 million in a new

funding round. When con-tacted, Zomato said it "does not comment on rumours or speculations". Despite arriving in the Indian mar-ket in 2017, UberEats has not made enough inroads in the online food delivery segment.

Zomato is currently de-livering 1.3 million orders a day from 150,000 restau-rants across India at more than 10 orders per restau-

rant per day. Swiggy has expanded its services to 500 cities in India, match-ing rival Zomato's reach in the country. Swiggy, which has added 60,000 new res-taurants in the past six months, said in October it would expand to 600 cities by December 2019.

Since April 2019, Swiggy has increased the num-ber of restaurant partners by almost 1.8 times to 1.4

lakh restaurants currently. In tier-3 and tier-4 cities specifically, Swiggy has on-boarded over 15,000 restau-rants in the last six months.

The market is piping hot as according to a recent study by business consul-tancy firm Market Research Future, the online food ordering market in India is likely to grow at over 16 per cent annually to touch $17.02 billion by 2023.

UberEats last week launched its operations in Cuttack, its second city in Orissa, saying it Awill part-ner with a number of local restaurants such as Mirchi, Biryani Box, DFC Dada's Biryani, Burger Adda Fac-tory.

In a recent interaction, UberEats told IANS that it

is not only going to stay put in the growing food tech industry in India but is also building strong linkages with restaurant partners for a seamless delivery experi-ence for its customers.

"Right now, we are more focused on delivery with the restaurant partners. We are learning in the In-dia market and making our mark in that space before we can add anything more to it," said Bansi Kotecha who is Head of Operations, Uber Eats.

The deal is reportedly in the works as merger reports of Bengaluru-based Swiggy and Gurugram-based Zom-ato -- two biggest players in the burgeoning online food delivery market - have also resurfaced.

New Delhi, Dec 16 (IANS) After retail in-flation, the prices of essential commodities especially food items such as vegetables showed a massive rise in November on wholesale basis.

Accordingly, India's annual rate of inflation based on wholesale prices jumped to 0.58 per cent in November from 0.16 per cent in October.

However, on a year-on-year (YoY) basis, the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) data fur-nished by the Ministry of Commerce and In-dustry showed a decel-

erating trend as infla-tion had risen to 4.47 per cent during the corresponding period of 2018.

"Buildup inflation rate in the financial year so far was 2 per cent compared to a buildup rate of 4.56 per cent in the correspond-ing period of the pre-vious year," the Min-istry said in its review of "Index Numbers of Wholesale Price in In-dia" for November.

On a sequential ba-sis, the expenses on primary articles, which constitute 22.62 per cent of the WPI's total weightage, increased

to 7.68 per cent from 6.41 per cent. The prices of food items in-creased at a faster rate of 11.08 per cent from 9.80 per cent.

Onion price in-creased by 172.30 per cent in November while it was at 119.84 per cent during Oc-tober 2019. Overall, vegetable prices in November rose 45.32 per cent against a rise of 38.91 per cent. However, the cost of fuel and power, which commands 13.15 per cent weightage, de-flated by (-)7.32 per cent from a decline of (-)8.27 per cent.

Now wholesale prices jump in Nov; WPI rises to 0.58%

New Delhi, Dec 16 (IANS) Unable to intro-duce amendments to the Electricity Act 2003 due to lack of consen-sus among states, the Centre has decided to push through the next big power sector reform by promulgating an ordinance by later this month or in early Janu-ary.

The ordinance will have regulations to re-strict cross-subsidy sur-charge, ensure timely payment of generation dues by discoms and make power contracts non-negotiable.

Through the ordi-nance, the Centre may also strengthen the in-stitution of power regu-lators, carry out separa-tion of power carriage and content operation

of distributors and de-velop a system of pen-alty for non-finalisation of cost reflective tariff on time.

The government in-tended to bring about some changes in the Electricity Act 2003, but it has failed to get par-liamentary approval for the last five years as states are not on board over various proposals in the draft legislation.

"The power sector is also reeling under slug-gish demand, reflecting overall slowdown in the economy. The sector needs a booster and if it's not coming through legislation then ordi-nance is the next best course of action. But the Centre needs to bring all states on board as most changes are to be imple-

mented by them," said a power sector analyst.

Among the major changes is likely to be restoration of the sanc-tity of power contracts.

According to sources, the power purchase agreement between generators and dis-coms will be made sacrosanct with states limiting their rights to renegotiate PPAs mid-way of a project cycle. It's expected to be done by empowering power sector regulators, mak-ing their operations in-dependent with statu-tory powers.

Strengthening of reg-ulations for regulators is expected to remove investor uncertainty about contracts and de-layed payments by state distribution companies.

Ordinance on power reforms on cards as states stay divided

New Delhi, Dec 16 (IANS) A report by the World Bank Group on Monday said that on-line retail sales in India is merely 1.6 per cent of total retail trade in the country.

It noted that in the neighbouring country of Bangladesh, too, the on-line sales a mere 0.7 per-cent of total retail sales, while that in China is 15 percent and around 14 percent globally.

The report titled, "Un-leashing e-commerce for South Asian Integration"

jointly released by World Bank Group and Cuts International said that e-commerce can become a driver of growth across South Asia and boost trade between in the re-gion, but its potential re-mains largely untapped.

Increasing the use of e-commerce by consumers and firms in South Asia could potentially help in-crease competition and firm productivity, and en-courage diversification of production and exports, it said.

"E-commerce can boost a range of economic indi-cators across South Asia, from entrepreneurship and job growth to higher GDP rates and overall productivity," said San-jay Kathuria, World Bank Lead Economist.

A survey of over 2,200 firms in South Asia showed that the top con-cerns on cross-border among the South Asian countries in e-commerce include logistics, e-com-merce and digital regula-tions, and connectivity and information technol-ogy infrastructure.

These barriers are sig-nificantly higher when trading with other South Asian countries, the re-port. The main interna-tional e-partners of firms in South Asia are China, the United Kingdom.

Online retail sales meagre in India: WB Report

Advance tax payment date extended to Dec 31

for Northeast

Paytm becomes only app offering NEFT transactions 24/7

New Delhi, Dec 16 (IANS) With many parts of north-east Indian on the boil dis-rupting internet services across states, the Income Tax (I-T) department has extended the deadline for payment of advance tax there by 15 days to De-cember 31. The relaxation is for all the corporate and non-corporate assessees for payment of December installment of advance tax.

Ever since the contro-versial Citizenship Act was enacted, the northeastern states, especially Assam, have seen violent protests with at least four people reported to have died in police firing. The agitation has spread to neighbouring West Bengal too. In a press statement, the Finance

Ministry said that consider-ing the large-scale disrup-tion of internet services in the northeastern states - Assam, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has extended the cut-off date.

The order was issued exercising of powers con-ferred under clause (a) of sub-section (2) of section 119 of the Income-tax Act, 1961. The relief is available for taxpayers in all the sev-en states of the northeast.

"Considering the large-scale disruption of internet services in the northeast-ern states - Assam, Tri-pura, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Ma-nipur and Mizoram.

London, Dec 16 (IANS) The UK High Court on Monday ruled in favour of Anil Am-bani by dismissing the summary judgment application of Chinese banks against him.

Chinese banks had claimed $680 million from Ambani against corporate loans given to Reliance Communica-tions Limited (RCom). A spokesperson for Am-bani said: "Anil Ambani is pleased with the dis-missal of the summary judgement application filed by the Chinese banks before the UK High Court.

"Ambani's position that the claim made by the Chinese Banks in relation to his alleged

guarantee for corporate loans availed by Reli-ance Communications Limited (RCom) could not be granted by way of a summary judgement has been duly upheld by the UK High Court. Harish Salve appeared for Anil Ambani in the court.

"Ambani has con-tested the proceedings and put up a strong legal defence, and will continue to contest the proceedings and seek leave to defend, with-out any conditions as to making of deposits or payments being im-posed.

"Ambani is confident that he will have an op-portunity to place the necessary evidence be-

fore the UK High Court, in the course of the trial to establish that Chi-nese banks' claims are without any merit.

"At this stage of the proceedings, the evi-dence of the person-nel of RCOM who were dealing with the personnel of the Chi-nese banks could not be placed, which led to certain doubts be-ing expressed in the judgment on account of the evidence being incomplete and thus appearing implausible. However, Ambani is confident that his po-sition would be fully vindicated once all the facts and the entire evi-dence is placed before the court."

New Delhi, Dec 16 (IANS) The venture capital firms and startups, here on Monday, sought support in the next budget to make India top startup nation, while the software and BPO industry urged parity in corporate tax rates for manufacturing and ser-vices firms and tax Esops (employee stock owner-ship plan) at the time of sale and not at the time of exercising the option.

"We have sought on-shoring of the offshore fund. Today 85 per cent of funds are outside India. We have also urged building domestic setups so that In-dian startups remain Indi-an and build the pillars for innovations and success creation in India.

"We are at number three position in startups and have to be number one. The key enablers for the ecosystem are institutional investors, like venture cap-

italists and private equity investors, who have to be supported," Rajan Tandon, president of the Indian Venture Capital Associa-tion (IVCA), told IANS after a pre-budget meeting with the Finance Minister.

Ashish Aggarwal, Senior Director and head of Pub-lic Policy, Nasscom, told IANS, "We have told the Minister that we need par-ity in corporate tax rates for manufacturing and services firms and can be linked with different crite-ria in terms of investment and employment to drive growth in export competi-

tiveness." "For the Deep Tech startup ecosystem, we need to attract capital, and to enable that the gov-ernment should consider setting up a fund for Deep Technology-focussed ar-eas", Aggarwal said.

The Nasscom has also sought the taxation policy on Esops. "The point of collection of tax should be deferred. Taxation comes into play when Esop is ex-ercised. We have sought it should be taxed only at the point of selling to make such Esops more at-tractive. The government should collect tax when an

employee sells it not when he exercises it. This has been a major dampener," Aggarwal said.

The Nasscom has also sought that IT and BPO firms should not be treated as financial intermediaries for the goods and services tax (GST).

"In GST, our industry has been facing problems since one year because we have been treated as financial intermediaries. The gov-ernment issued a circular in July, but it was not well-drafted. At the September GST Council meeting, we were expecting a new cir-cular. But it didn't happen. Few days ago, the July cir-cular was recalled. But it didn't solve the problem. We need a revised circular that will state IT and BPO services are not interme-diary services," Aggarwal said.

Finance Minister Nirma-la Sitharaman started her

pre-budget consultations on Monday. The first meet-ing was with representa-tives of digital economy, fintech and startups.

The issues that dominat-ed the discussion included digital infrastructure and role of government, regu-lation of digital economy especially in privacy, finan-cial regulation, ease of do-ing business environment for startups, infrastructure gaps for digital India and taxation, the Finance Min-istry said in a statement.

Finance Secretary Ra-jeev Kumar, Economic Affairs Secretary Atanu Chakraborty, Revenue Secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey, IT Secretary Ajay Prakash Sawhney, Tele-com Secretary Anshu Prakash, CBDT Chairman Pramod Chandra Mody, CBIC Chairman P.K. Das and Chief Economic Advi-sor K.V. Subramanian were present in the meeting.

Chennai, Dec 16 (IANS) Global credit rating agency Moody's In-vestors Service on Monday said its outlook for the global auto-motive manufacturers and parts suppliers is negative.

In its research report Automo-tive manufacturers and parts suppliers - Global 2020 Outlook released on Monday, Moody's said: "Our 2020 outlook for global automotive manufacturers and parts suppliers is negative, driven by our expectations of a contin-ued decline in global light vehicle sales."

Moody's expects the global car sales to decline for third consecu-tive year. According to Moody's, the global demand for light ve-hicles will remain sluggish amid weakening economic growth in key markets.

Expecting the growth of gross domestic product (GDP) in China and advanced G-20 countries, Moody's said the negative out-

look for the sector is based on its forecast of 0.9 per cent decline in light vehicle sales following a projected 3.8 per cent decline in 2019.

According to Moody's political risks, technological changes and environmental regulation will weigh on sector.

The rating agency said, Chi-nese auto sales should eke out a modest one per cent gain, while the contraction in Western Euro-pean car sales will widen; Japan is

on track to post a fourth consecu-tive year of modest sales growth.

On the US light vehicle sales, Moody's expect it to slip 0.6 per cent in 2020 after falling by a projected 2.9 per cent in 2019; less aggressive incentives and increased competition from the used car market will contribute to the modest contraction in de-mand.

As regards the Western Euro-pean markets, Moody's expects light vehicle sales to fall three per

cent in 2020. "Demand remains constrained by a weakening mac-roeconomic environment and the continued uncertainty over the UK's plans to exit the Euro-pean Union," Moody's said.

"The proposed merger of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (Ba1 positive) and Peugeot S.A. (Baa3 stable) would create the world's fourth-largest automaker, but there are significant uncertainties regarding whether they will reach a definitive merger pact," the re-port added.

Moody's expect China's overall auto sales to rise one per cent in 2020, as supportive policy guid-ance announced during 2019, including relaxation on vehicle-ownership control, bolsters auto demand.

In the case of Japan, Moody's said despite a difficult global sales environment, Toyota Mo-tor Corporation (Aa3 stable) and Honda Motor Co. Ltd.

New Delhi, Dec 16 (IANS) With the Re-serve Bank of India (RBI) making online NEFT transfers 24/7 on all days including weekends and holidays from Monday, India's digital payment leader Paytm has become the only payments app of-fering three ways to pay 24x7 seamlessly, within the same "Mon-ey Transfer" flow via UPI, IMPS and now NEFT mode.

Millions of users can pay up to Rs 10 lakh per transaction instantly from their Paytm App using NEFT powered by Paytm Payments Bank, the company said in a statement.

This extends Paytm's leadership in the pay-ments market where UPI P2P (peer-to-peer)

apps such as Phone Pe and Google Pay are re-stricted to Rs 2 lakh per transaction.

"We offer all-impor-tant payment meth-ods and are the only platform where users can pay instantly using NEFT, IMPS, UPI, Wal-let, and cards. With this increased limit, we are confident that more users will prefer our services for their day to day payments," said Satish Gupta, MD and CEO, Paytm Payments Bank.

This also benefits the corporates and busi-nesses who hold Paytm Payments Bank cur-

rent account as now they can pay up to Rs 50 lakh per transaction 24x7.

So far, IMPS facil-ity allowed 24x7 fund transfers online but it had a limit of Rs 2 lakh that has now been in-creased.

"While other banks have separate inter-faces for different pay-ment modes, Paytm is the only payment app that seamlessly sug-gests the best way to transfer money based on the transaction amount in a hassle-free way," said the com-pany.

It is now the only app offering more than 200 payment use-cases for everyday payment needs, widely accepted at over 14 million of-fline retail stores.

Anil Ambani wins in uK High Court

VCs, startups seek budgetary support, new Esop tax policy

Moody's outlook for global auto makers in 2020 negative

Sports Indian HorizonTuesday, December 17, 201911

ROHIT USES CUSS WORD FOR POLLARD DURING

CHENNAI ODI

Chennai, Dec 16 (IANS) India opener Rohit Sharma and Kieron Pollard have always been known for sharing banters on the field and the recent of it happened during the first ODI between India and West Indies at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium here.The incident took place in the 7th over of the Indian innings when opener KL Rahul, who was batting at the other end, and he enquired Rohit about the conversation between him and Pollard. Rohit in reply used cuss word describing Pollard, who is also his teammate in the Mumbai Indians and are known to share very friendly relation.

I’m just trying to improve everyday: Pant

KIYG an incredible experience for youngsters:

Mehuli Ghosh

Sydney, Dec 16 (IANS) Australian swimmer Shayna Jack has maintained her innocence after testing positive in July to the banned substance, Ligandrol, a non-steroid anabolic agent popular with bodybuilders.

In a tearful interview with Channel 10 on Sunday night, the 21-year-old said that the positive test result may have been a product of cross-contamination from those around her, reports Xinhua news agency.

“I had a lot of people come forward and tell me that they took this drug. Just general people who go to the gym. Some people were using it as

recovery,” Jack said.“There’s the chance of

it being in a contaminated supplement. The only unfortunate thing is I actually hadn’t taken supplements in the two months prior to that test,” she added.

Bengaluru, Dec 16 (IANS) Mumbai City FC showed great character and a steely resolve as they ended Bengaluru FC’s unbeaten start to the season with a spectacular 3-2 win in the Indian Super League clash at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium here on Sunday.

Subhasish Bose’s (12’) header had given Mumbai City an early lead, but an unfortunate Matic Grgic (58’) own-goal gave the defending champions a lifeline. Diego Carlos (77’) headed in what looked like the match-winner until Sunil Chhetri (89’) converted from the spot to equalise.However, it was Rowllin Borges who scored the winner in the 94th minute

as the Islanders continued their unbeaten run on the road and grabbed their first win since the opening game.Mumbai

climbed to the sixth spot with 10 points from eight matches. Bengaluru’s first defeat of the season has left them third, with

13 points.The visitors broke the deadlock in the 12th minute. Larbi delivered a terrific cross into the box from the left flank

and an unmarked Bose ghosted past the Bengaluru defence to head in at the far post.

Bengaluru were unable to mount an immediate response as Mumbai pressed well. A magnificent defence-splitting pass by Erik Paartalu caught the visitors’ defence unawares midway through the first half.

The Australian found Udanta Singh’s run into the box perfectly, but the winger failed to make use of the chance and lobbed his effort over the crossbar.Mumbai threatened to double their lead before the break. A Modou Sougou strike on target was kept out

by Gurpreet Singh Sandhu before the Senegalese striker set up Mohamed Larbi inside the box who blasted his shot over the bar.

The visitors were awarded a penalty at the stroke of half-time when Amine Chermiti and Juanan ran into each other inside the box but Larbi was denied from 12 yards by the strong gloves of Gurpreet.

The Blues started the second half as the stronger side with an intent to press higher up the field and win the second balls. Dimas Delgado nearly found an equaliser when the Mumbai defence failed to clear a long-throw-in into the box from the right flank.

ISL: Mumbai ends Bengaluru’s unbeaten run in -goal spectacle

Chennai, Dec 16 (IANS) Young wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant, who scored his maiden ODI fifty in the first match which India lost by eight wickets against West Indies, has insisted that he is focusing on improving his performance with each passing day, adding his only aim is to contribute towards team’s win.

On Sunday, Pant scored 71 runs off 69 balls. “There is nothing like the natural game you have to bat according to the situation or team demand. You can only be

good if you bat according to the situation. I want to focus on my process as a player. You have to believe in yourself. I’m only focusing on what I can do whatever team management decides is good for the team,” Pant said at the post-match press conference.

During the course of his innings on Sunday, a section of crowd at the MA Chidambaram Stadium chanted ‘Pant, Pant’ in order to encourage him. This was in contradiction to the earlier incidents where fans

used to chant the name of ‘Dhoni’ in previous games whenever Pant faltered on the field.“Sometimes it is important when crowd support you because as an individual I was thinking of

scoring big runs but I was not getting there. I’m not saying I got there but I’m just trying to improve everyday.

As a team point of view, whatever I can do to help my team win and to have a good score on the scoreboard that’s what I was focusing and in the end I got some runs,” said Pant.

“Personally, if I play for India every inning is important for me. As a youngster, I just want to learn and improve myself each and every day of cricket I’m playing,” he added.

AUSSIE SWIMMER SHAYNA JACK DENIES DOPING ALLEGATION

New Delhi, Dec 16 (IANS) Commonwealth Games (CWG) silver medallist Mehuli Ghosh has lauded the Khelo India Youth Games (KIYG) initiative by the Indian sports ministry.

The third edition of the tournament is set to be hosted in Guwahati between January

9-22 next year. Mehuli said that the competition helps youngsters experience the feel of big international tournaments.

“I participated in the Khelo India Games this year and I had a really good experience. It was nice to see so many sports being hosted in one stadium in Pune. It gave me the feel of how the Games are hosted at the international level.

It was a lovely experience for the youngsters. It’s a plus point for Indian sports,” said the 19-year-old.

B'desh Intl Challenge: Lakshya Sen wins men's single title

Dhaka, Dec 16 (IANS) Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen won the men's singles title at the Bangladesh International Challenge 2019

after registering a straight-game win over Malaysia's Leong Jun Hao in the summit clash here on Sunday. It was also the fifth title of the

season for the 18-year-old Indian.Sen registered a 22-20, 21-18 win over Hao in the final which lasted for 50 minutes."Happy to end the

year on a winning note with my 5th international title here in Bangladesh!! Hope to continue my good form in the next year 2020.

Like to thank all my sponsors @OGQ_India @Herbalifeindia @YonexInd @Sports_PDCSE @ppba @bai_media," Sen tweeted after winning the title.

Sen had won his first title of 2019 at the Belgian International in September before winning the Dutch Open Super 100 and SarrLorLux Super 100 in October. He then went on to claim the Scottish Open crown in November.

Among other Indians, women's doubles pair of Maneesha K and Rutaparna Panda suffered a 20-22, 19-21 defeat to top-seeded Malaysian pair of Tan Pearly Koong Le and Thinaah Muralitharan in the final.

IOA prez to meet presidents, secretary

generals of NSFs

New Delhi, Dec 16 (IANS) Indian Olympic Association president Narinder Batra will be meeting presidents and secretary generals of all the 33 national sports federations (NSF) in the "early part of 2020."

In a notice addressed to all NSFs, Batra said that the meetings will be one on one interactions and the purpose is to discuss their plans for the Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 Olympics.

"The government has opened its heart in supporting athletes in preparation for 2020 and also 2024. I feel it is time for us NSFs to plan our things and strategise (which I am sure you all have done) how we can give our best to make our country proud in 2020 and 2024 Olympics," Batra said in the notice.

The Tokyo Olympics start on July 24 next year and end on August 9. India are looking to improve upon their previous showing at Rio 2016, where PV Sindhu's silver in badminton and Sakshi Malik's bronze in wrestling were the only medals the contingent won, which was in contrast to several projections made before the marquee event.

Bengaluru, Dec 16 (IANS) The TATA Steel Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI) will be staging the Indo-MIM Bengaluru Open Golf Championship 2019 from December 17 at the Karnataka Golf Association (KGA) course.

The race will be on for the top spots in the TATA Steel PGTI Order of Merit at the last. The Bengaluru Open will also determine the players

who make it to the elite field of PGTI's top-60 at next week's season-ending TATA Steel Tour Championship in Jamshedpur.

The tournament, into its third edition, will feature a stellar field including reputed names such as Bengaluru-based international star Rahil Gangjee, former champions Udayan Mane and Sri Lankan Anura Rohana, as

well as other leading golfers such as Honey Baisoya and Karandeep Kochhar.

A total of 121 players will be competing at the event including 118 professionals and three amateurs.

There will be a strong local presence as besides Rahil Gangjee, the likes of M. Dharma, Syed Saqib Ahmed and C. Muniyappa, all Bengaluru-based professionals, will also be part of the field.

The prominent foreign names in the field include the Sri Lankan quartet of defending champion Anura Rohana, Mithun Perera, N Thangaraja and K Prabagaran, Bangladesh's Md. Zamal Hossain Mollah and Australian Kunal Bhasin.

Sumit Rathor, representing Indo-MIM, said:

"I'm delighted to be presenting the Bengaluru Open Golf Championship 2019 at my home club for the second year in succession following the highly successful 2018 edition.

Bengaluru Open Golf C’ship 2019 from Dec 17

Karachi, Dec 16 (IANS) After having played their first ever Test on their home soil in a decade, the Pakistani cricketers are all excited to take on Sri Lanka in the second and final Test of the series at the National Stadium in Karachi, which is also considered the fortress of the Green Brigade.With bad weather and continuous rain forcing both the teams to settle for a draw in the first Test in Rawalpindi, the Azhar

Ali-led Pakistan side will aim to win the last contest at the historic venue.Speaking on the upcoming Test, Ali said: "Pakistan have had an excellent record in Test cricket at the National Stadium and I can't wait for the toss. The whole team is excited about the match."Pakistan have a phenomenal record at this venue in the longest format of the game as they have won 21 out of 41 Tests in Karachi with only two resulting in

defeats for them.Meanwhile, opener Shan Masood, who had grown up in Karachi, has played many first-class cricket matches at the National Stadium and the 30-year-old is eager to open the innings for Pakistan in a Test here.

Masood said: "Growing up we have seen some of the best cricketing action at the National Stadium which developed my interest in the game. I remember missing my school to watch a 1996 World Cup match between Pakistan and South Africa in which Aamir Sohail scored a century.""Then there was an India-Pakistan match in which Rajesh Chauhan struck a six. That match went into the final over," the opener was quoted as saying by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).Pakistan's star batter Babar Azam, who has enjoyed great success with the white ball, is equally excited about the Karachi Test and has urged the people to turn up in large numbers at the National Stadium.

Can’t wait to bat at National Stadium in Karachi: Babar Azam

Printer Publisher & owner By Dr, Rahimmuddin Kemal Printed at Sonu Printer B-180 Okhla Industrial Aria Phase-1-New Delhi-110020-Editor Fahim Arij Kemal.Published From k-556,Bowli Gate, Nizamuddin (w) -Lodhi Road New Delhi-110013- Ph,No +919885003940

Email: indianhorizon2010@gmail.com feedbackhorizon@gmail.com

PRIYANKA'S INSTA POST INFORMS WRAPUP OF 'THE WHITE TIGER' SHOOT

Priyanka Chopra has wrapped up shoot for "The White Tiger", the Netfl ix

movie co-starring Rajkummar Rao and based on Aravind Adi-ga's Man Booker Prize-winning novel of the same name.

Priyanka, who has been shoot-ing in Delhi, took to Instagram to announce the news.

"Happy tired.. but so excited to have wrapped #thewhitetiger," she wrote.Thanking the fi lm's cast and crew, the actress wrote: "It was such a pleasure to work with the best in the business in every department.

The most hard working crew.. and such a delightful cast. Thank you for all your brilliance. I can't wait to see the finished product and share it with the world.."Addressing her co-actors Rajkummar Rao and debutant Adarsh Gourav, Pri-

Shraddha Kapoor never fails to impress with her mind-boggling fashion choices, here's proof!

Tuesday - December 17, 2019 12

EntertainmentIndian HorizonIndian Horizon

Gajendra Verma's new tracks are about moving onTere ghata" singer

Gajendra Verma has come out with four

tracks. These are "Ja ja ja", "Ab aaja", "Main aur tu" and "Jaana jaana", which aim at taking listeners on an emotional ride in the break-up phase of a rela-tionship.

"My heart and emotion are fully showcased in 'Ja ja ja' and the other tracks. I have always been drawn to showing the different facets of love in interest-ing storylines, and this playlist does exactly that. I hope people will reso-nate with this music and open their hearts up to the tracks," said Gajendra, a Qyuki artiste.

Qyuki is a multi-plat-form media network across digital, live, TV and film founded by A.R Rah-man, Samir Bangara and Shekhar Kapur."Gajendra is a very talented artiste

Elakshi Gupta is thrilled about making her Bolly-wood debut with "Tan-

haji: The Unsung Warrior", which is about the battle of Sinhagad in 1670 that was fought between Tanhaji Malu-sare and Udaybhan Singh Ra-thod. She says she felt like she was living in "that moment of the Maratha kingdom".

"I am playing the character of Soyarabai who was the wife of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maha-raj. She was a strong woman. The most amazing part was the grand set of the fi lm and the realistic feel of that era that it gave.

Everyone around was in the Maratha look, in the royal at-tire. I felt like I was living in that moment of the Maratha kingdom," Elakshi told IANS."I am paired opposite Sharad Kelkar who is playing the role of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj in the fi lm.

My scenes were with (ac-tor) Ajay Devgn and it was great working with him. He was very grounded and kind to everyone," she added about Ajay, who plays Tanhaji Malu-sare in the upcoming fi lm.

IANS

yanka further wrote: "thankhank you @gouravadarsh for be-ing an incredible lead( No1)!! I can't wait for the world to see you as Balram.. @rajkum-mar_rao finally!I'm so glad we did this to-

gether. Keep sending me memes!!"She also thanked her film's di-rector Ramin Bahrani and Mukul Deora, who is producing the movie in association with Netflix.

IANS

and we are sure that his EP is go-ing to be welcomed by the audi-ence. With 'Ja ja ja' and the ex-tended playlist, his is extending

himself into a genre in which he can explore many different ideas and interests," Qyuki COO Sagar Gokhale said." IANS

'TANHAJI' SHOOT TRANSPORTED

ELAKSHI TO GLORIOUS PERIOD

OF MARATHAS

The 14th edition of the Global Leaders Awards – Business Awards & Summit 2019,

I N D I A , H y d e r a b a d - -16th,Dec.--The grand cel-ebration of the most awaited and prestigious corporate award ceremony at Baku, Azerbaijan, where elegance and aristocracy met with cor-porate successes.

The Chief Guests of the memorable evening were Mr. Suniel Shetty, Indian Film Ac-tor, Entrepreneur, TV host, Film producers.Mr. Anish Ku-mar, the President of BIZOX Media Network Pvt. Ltd. said, “The Global Leaders Awards - Business Awards & Summit 2019, reward those who pro-mote entrepreneurship and SME and Enterprise business at the Regional ,National and International level.Mr. Avinash Kapri and Mr. Kaushal Kishor, Managing Directors of BIZOX Media Network Pvt. Ltd, said

that, “The organizations that participate are provided with the unique opportunity to benchmark themselves against the top performers globally and recognized as the elite of their industry earning a place amongst a distinguished group by having their products, proj-ects, initiatives, contributions and achievements recognized

on a prominent and far-reach-ing scale thus, provides the ultimate platform for build-ing knowledge,Awardees from Delhi NCR Dr. B S SINGLA Lifetime Achievement Award - Roads & Highways,Mr. Udit Bagga Entrepreneur of the Year TEKNO ELECTRO SOLU-TIONS PVT. LTD. Most Inno-vative & Leading Company of

the Year - Electronic & Hospi-tality Products, Radico Organic Hair Colours Most Promising Brand of the Year - Natural & Organic Hair Products, Talent-Gen Advisory LLP Human Resources Startup Enterprise of the Year, 1000 Bamboo Tours The Leading Tours & Customized Holidays Com-pany of the Year,True Infosys-

tems Pvt Ltd Most Leading Digital Marketing Company of the Year, FarEye Best Sup-ply Chain & Logistics Technol-ogy Company Of The Year,Mr. Naveen Dave Best Astrologer & Vastu Specialist,Dr. Madhu Chandhok Inspiring Youth Enterprise Awards – Hospitali-ty, Dr. Vinay Bhat Business Ex-cellence in Audit & Training.

The actress Shraddha Ka-poor has marked the year 2019 with her back to back

successful fi lms 'Saaho' and 'Chhichhore'. The diva has al-ways come up with subtle fash-ion choices. Let's have a look at some astounding outfi ts she has got into this year.

Shraddha Kapoor is willing to experiment a lot more instead of sticking safe silhouettes and colours. She has nailed it with many kinds of looks like a dress by a mix of Indian and Interna-tional designers. She is not at all fussy and now we fi nd her wearing everything like from a peplum to a 60's and even a 20's style and more elegant dressing.

Going with her fi rst outfi t, an ombre halter dress which is 'fi t-and-fl are' by an international designer. It cinches at the waist which looks super astounding of a tall, skinny girl like Shrad-dha Kapoor. Overall, a feminine look.

Secondly, oversized jeans with a cropped jacket, silver hoops and a messy bun which perfectly gave us an 80's vibe. 'A girl in pink' - her third look where she was going perfectly vibrant in the pink and red out-fi t with nude heels and subtle makeup.

Her next is an "AB" SOLUTE look where she is wearing a tor-so in great shape highlighting with a crop top. By pairing with

a paper bag waist pants with open hair and big gold hoops, it was overall a hippie-chic look.

Red is always a hot colour, and that's a red alert by Shrad-dha on her last look where she is wearing a half blazer jumpsuit with an oversized hoop which gave an absolutely subtle de-cent look.

Shraddha Kapoor never wears anything bizarre.Apart from these looks the actress earlier next year will be seen in Baaghi 3, the franchise fi lms she started with Tiger Shroff in 2016, which will be directed by Ahmed Khan.

Shraddha has been the talk of the town as she is the only actress to give back to back hits with her fi lms in 2019, she has raised the bar for herself with every project and left the audi-ences startled.

Courtesy : Santabanta

Sara Ali Khan is the only actress to feature in most

searched celebrities of , forges her way to the top list!

Actress Sara Ali Khan who has won everyone's heart ever since she made her

silver screen debut has now added another feather to her cap, Sara is the only actress in Bollywood who has got fea-tured in the most searched celebrity list of Google. The actress has made it to the top 5 list leaving a trail for her con-temporaries.Interestingly she is also the youngest actress to feature in the list.A leading portal has reported the same in which Sara occupies the 5th spot leaving behind Shahid Ka-poor, Kiara Advani, Kartik Ary-

an and Vicky Kaushal. The report also in-cludes Bollywood Stalwarts Amitabh Bachchan, Hrithik Ro-shan and Akshay Ku-mar along with Tiger Shroff.Despite having both her respective re-leases 'Kedarnath' and 'Simmba' released last year the actress has still managed to the top 5 list, this speaks a lot about her fandom and the love she has been receiving all this

while. The young ac-tress also has a massive fandom on social me-dia which also keeps her in sync with her fans who want to know more about her, the actress happily obliges them by keeping her fans informed about her whereabouts.Sara has cemented her place in the hearts of people. She makes her presence felt wherever she goes.Courtesy : Santabanta

Mission Mangal" is heading to Hong Kong, and Kirti Kulhari, who

features in the fi lm's ensemble cast, is excited. This, she says, proves that a good story can't be restricted to boundaries.

Directed by Jagan Shakti, "Mission Mangal" revolves around the story of India's Mangalyaan or Mars Orbiter Mission. The fi lm will release in Hong Kong on January 2.

"A story like 'Mission Mangal' might be based in India but the emotions, the struggle, and the victory has a universal appeal," said Kirti, who essays role of Neha Siddiqui, one of the fi ve female scientists at ISRO who were instrumental in making the mission possible..

"I was overwhelmed by the response of the fi lm when it released. And now with the fi lm releasing in Hong Kong, it proves that a good story will never be limited by any kind of boundaries. I am excited about the Hong Kong release.

For them to see our endeavour in bringing the story of Manga-layan to life," she added.

"Mission Mangal" stars Ak-shay Kumar, Vidya Balan, Son-akshi Sinha, Taapsee Pannu, Sharman Joshi, Nithya Menen and HG Dattatreya apart from Kirti. The fi lm released in India on August 15 this year.Kirti will next be seen in the second season of the web series "Four More Shots Please!" and in the Hindi remake of the Hollywood fi lm "The Girl On The Train".

IANS

Kirti excited about Hong Kong release of 'Mission Mangal'