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Sri Lanka’s Opposition partieson Sunday decided to form

an all-party interimGovernment after PresidentGotabaya Rajapaksa and PrimeMinister Ranil Wickremesingheagreed to resign in the wake ofunprecedented street protestsduring which both leaders’houses were stormed by irateprotesters over the Government’smishandling of the nation’s worsteconomic crisis.

Earlier in the day the anti-Government protesters whostormed Rajapaksa’s official res-idence claimed to have recov-ered 17.85 million Sri LankanRupees inside his mansion. Avideo was being shared on socialmedia showing the protesterscounting the currency notesthat were unearthed. Protesterssaid they had found 17,850,000Sri Lankan Rupees at thePresident’s official residence onSunday when they stormed intothe mansion after breaking thebarricades. They have handedover the cash to the local policeand vowed not to leave the placetill both the leaders resign.

Meanwhile, throughout theday, Opposition parties heldtalks to seek ways to steer thecountry forward amidst theunprecedented economic crisisafter President Rajapaksa onSaturday informed SpeakerMahinda Yapa Abeywardenafrom an undisclosed locationthat he will step down on

Wednesday.“We agreed in principle to form

a Government of unity with allparties’ participation for aninterim period,” WimalWeerawansa of the ruling SriLanka Podujana Peramuna(SLPP) party’s breakaway groupsaid.

“This will be a Governmentwhere all parties are represent-ed,” he said. VasudevaNanayakkara, another leader ofthe SLPP’s breakaway group, saidthey need not wait for

Rajapaksa’s resignation on July13.

Prime Minister RanilWickremesinghe has alsooffered to resign. The mainOpposition Samagi JanaBalawegaya party said they heldextensive internal discussions.“We aim for an interim govern-ment of all parties for a limitedperiod and then go for a parlia-mentary election,” said RanjithMadduma Bandara, the SJBgeneral secretary.The leaders of political parties

represented in Parliament are tomeet on Monday afternoon todiscuss the convening of theHouse for the transition ofpower for a new Governmentafter Rajapaksa said he willresign.

Abeywardena conveyed toRajapaksa on Saturday thatOpposition party leaders wanthim to resign after anti-Government protesters stormedhis offices and the official resi-dence.

Continued on Page 2

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sundaysaid the blessings of Goddess Kaali are

always with India and “everything is per-vaded by the consciousness of the mother.”He was addressing the centenary celebra-tions of Swami Atmasthananda, who was the15th president of the Ramakrishna Math.The PM chose to speak about Goddess Kaaliamid a raging controversy over TMC MPMahua Moitra’s controversial commentsabout the Goddess.

Remembering Ramakrishna Paramhansand Bengal’s Kaali Puja, Modi said, “SwamiRamkrishna Paramhans was a saint whoexperienced Ma Kaali in front of his eyes.This whole world, this variable and constant,

everything is pervaded by the consciousnessof the mother. This consciousness is seen inthe Kaali Puja of Bengal.” Modi underlined

that a beam of this consciousness and powerwas illuminated by Swami RamakrishnaParamahansa in the form of Yugpurushaslike Swami Vivekananda.

“The spiritual vision that SwamiVivekananda saw of Ma Kaali, had infusedextraordinary energy and power within him”,the Prime Minister said.

Modi also referred to Swami Vivekananda.“Swami Vivekananda had such stature buthe used to become like a child in his devo-tion for Goddess Kaali. Such unwaveringfaith was also there in SwamiAtmasthananda,” Modi said.

“Maa Kaali’s blessings are always withIndia,” he said. The Prime Minister paid histributes to Swami Atmasthananda by rem-iniscing the time he spent with the Swami.

Continued on Page 2

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�� Guwahati/Morigaon: An activistdressed up as Lord Shiva for astreet play on the rising cost offuels, was arrested for allegedlyhurting religious sentiments andlater released on Sunday after astorm on social media. Theactivist Birinchi Bora drove intothe venue of the street play dra-matically on a motorcycle withanother actor dressed as GoddessParvati for their play on Saturdaywhich had several Hindutva out-fits up in arms demanding theirarrest.

Disapproving of the arrest,Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Twitterthat enacting a street play overcurrent issues is not blasphemousand instructions have been issuedto the police to release him.

Continued on Page 2

Missing Lankan Prez resurfaces; orders gas distributionColombo: Embattled LankanPresident Gotabaya Rajapaksa, whose location is still unknownsince the protesters overran both his office and the official resi-dence, has ordered officials toensure the smooth distributionof cooking gas after the fuel-starved country received 3,700metric tonnes of LPG, his officesaid on Sunday.In recent months people have

been blocking roads across the

country in a desperate bid toforce the Government to addressthe issue of acute gas shortages. President Rajapaksa instructedthe officers to carry out theunloading and distribution of gasas the first ship arrived atKerawalapitiya on Sunday after-noon. A second ship carrying3,740 metric tonnes of gas is dueon July 11 and a third carrying3,200 metric tonnes of gas willarrive on July 15, according to Sri

Lankan media. Meanwhile, a large gathering

of protesters continue to occu-py the President and the PrimeMinister’s iconic administrativebuildings which also function astheir official residences. Nomajor breaches of security werereported on Sunday, the policesaid. President Rajapaksa wasnot present in the presidentialHouse when a mob stormed thebuilding on Saturday.

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As the island country is wit-nessing turmoil, External

Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on

Sunday saidIndia hasalways stood bySri Lanka. Healso said therewas “norefugee crisisright now.” TheMinistry ofExternal Affairs (MEA), mean-while, said India continued tofollow closely the recent devel-opments in Sri Lanka.“India stands with the people ofSri Lanka as they seek to real-

ize their aspira-tions for pros-perity andp r o g r e s sthrough demo-cratic meansand values,e s t a b l i s h e dinstitutions and

constitutional framework,” theMEA said. Reaching out to SriLanka, Jaishankar said inThiruvananthapuram that theIndian Government has alwaysbeen supportive of Sri Lanka

and it was trying to help theneighbouring country throughits present economic crisis. Interacting with the media out-

side the Thiruvananthapuramairport Jaishankar said, “Wehave been very supportive of SriLanka. We are trying to help andwe are always very helpfulwhere they are concerned.”“They are right now working

through their problems, so wehave to wait and see what theydo,” he said.

Continued on Page 2

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Amid reports that the GoaCongress unit was rife with

dissension and at least half adozen MLAs were in touch withthe BJP, the Congress onSunday sacked Michael Lobo asthe Leader of the Opposition inthe Goa Assembly for alleged-ly trying to engineer defectionsin connivance with the BJP.

“A conspiracy was hatchedby some of our own leaders —LoP Michael Lobo and formerChief Minister DigambarKamat — with the BJP to weak-en the party and engineerdefection,” said AICC Goa in-

charge Dinesh Gundu Rao.Rao flew into Panjim on

Sunday amid speculation thatsome of the 11 party MLAswere about to jump the ship.

“Both of them had beenworking in coordination withthe BJP. Digambar Kamat didit to protect himself against cor-ruption cases, while MichaelLobo is eager to share power.The BJP wants to finish theOpposition,” Rao said. At least8 MLAs will have to cross thefloor to escape the provisions ofthe anti-defection law. “Manyof our people have been offeredhuge amounts of money. I’mshocked at the amount offered.But our six MLAs stood firm,I’m proud of them,” said Rao,virtually admitting that fiveMLAs were negotiating withthe BJP.

Former Goa Congress pres-ident Girish Chodankar allegedthat his MLAs were offered �40crore each to join the BJP.

Chodankar claimed that indus-trialists and people from thecoal mafia were callingCongress Legislators on thephone.

The Congress suffered asetback in Haryana, too. RebelMLA Kuldeep Bishnoi, who hasbeen warming up to the BJPafter cross-voting in the RajyaSabha polls last month, onSunday met Home MinisterAmit Shah and BJP president JPNadda. He is all set to join theruling side of Haryana.

The Congress is also facedwith internal dissension inJharkhand where it is part of analliance Government with theJMM(S).

Earlier in Goa, Congressdenied any rift, with state unitchief Amit Patkar saying suchrumours were being spread bythe ruling BJP ahead of the two-week Budget Session of theAssembly. According tosources, Continued on Page 2

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From Page 1Addressing the gathering, thePrime Minister said, “This eventis filled with many feelings andmemories. I have always beenblessed by him, there was anopportunity to be with him. It ismy good fortune that I kept intouch with him till the last."He also highlighted the tremen-dous relief and rescue operationsthat were carried out not just inIndia but also in Nepal andBangladesh under his directiveby Belur Math and RamakrishnaMission. Modi also remarked onthe institutions created by Swamifor helping the poor in employ-ment and livelihood.

From Page 1Nagaon Superintendent ofPolice Leena Doley said Bora,was arrested on under bailablesections on two complaints byVishva Hindu Parishad (VHP)and Bajrang Dal."We had arrested him for hurt-ing religious sentiments, show-ing disrespect towards women,attempting to create disharmo-ny among communities andalso under Motor Vehicles Actfor not wearing shoes and hel-met during the play on theroad."As the sections were bailable, he

was released on Sunday morn-ing," she told PTI.The woman, who played thecharacter of Goddess Parvati,could not be traced thus far, andanother person associated withthe play, Dulal Bora, has beenasked to appear at NagaonPolice Station, Doley said.On Saturday afternoon, raisingthe issues of price rise as well asunemployment, Bora and hisassociates performed a streetplay on the road near NowgongCollege Clock Tower Point.In the play, Bora as Lord Shivaslammed the government for

the unabated price hike ofalmost all goods, including fuels,LPG cylinders and other essen-tial items.He also highlighted the unem-ployment woes in the country,reminding people of the unful-filled job promises made topeople.The district units of Bajrang Daland VHP, the wake of the sym-bolic protest, separately lodgedtwo FIRs at Nagaon PoliceStation, alleging that the playcategorically "hurt the dignity of the Hindu gods".The police immediately picked

up Bora, a former general sec-retary of Nowgong CollegeStudents Union, and later arrest-ed him.His arrest was widely con-demned by many on socialmedia.Meanwhile, the CM, taking toTwitter, said, "Nukad Natak oncurrent issues is not blasphe-mous. Dressing up is not acrime unless offensive materialis said. Appropriate order hasbeen issued to @nagaonpolice."Sarma made the statement onthe microblogging platformafter advocate-author Navroop

Singh drew his attention to thematter through a series of tweetsand appealed to him to releasethe activist."Nukad Natak on current issuesis not blasphemous. Dressing upis not a crime unless offensivematerial is said. We need to stopthis! Release that man@himantabiswa!!!"Hey bhagwan… We need tourgently rescue our dharmafrom these morons... Did he dosomething offensive in NukkadNatak!?" Singh said while react-ing to media reports over thearrest of Bora.

From Page 1He was responding to amedia query on India's standon the economic crisis in SriLanka.In New Delhi, in response to

media queries on the situa-tion in Sri Lanka, MEAspokesperson ArindamBagchi said, "India is SriLanka's closest neighbourand our two countries sharedeep civilizational bonds. Weare aware of the many chal-lenges that Sri Lanka and itspeople have been facing, andwe have stood with the SriLankan people as they have

tried to overcome this diffi-cult period."He pointed out that Indiaextended this year over $ 3.8billion to tackle the seriouseconomic situation in SriLanka."We continue to follow close-ly the recent developments inSri Lanka. India stands withthe people of Sri Lanka asthey seek to realize theiraspirations for prosperity andprogress through democrat-ic means and values, estab-lished institutions and con-stitutional framework," hesaid.

From Page 1Under the Constitution, theincumbent Prime Ministerwould automatically get appoint-ed as the acting President for ashort time until Parliament votesand appoint a successor to thePresident.The protesters are also demand-ing the resignation of primeminister Wickremesinghe. Theresignation of both the presidentand prime minister would meanthat Speaker Abeywardenawould become the acting pres-ident.Wickremesinghe has expressed

willingness to resign when a newgovernment is formed.He stressed on Saturday that todeal with the InternationalMonetary Fund on an assistanceprogramme and to deal withshortages of essentials includingfood and fuel, it was importantnot to leave a vacuum.In a statement Saturday night,Wickremesinghe said “thiscountry is gripped with fuel andfood shortages. There will be animportant visit scheduled by theWorld Food Programme nextweek while crucial talks have tobe continued with the IMF. So

if the current government is toquit it must be replaced by thenext."Meanwhile, the protesters whohave occupied the key adminis-tration buildings since Saturday'smass protests said they wouldnot leave until Rajapaksa resigns. Sri Lankans were seen roamingthrough the ransacked presi-dential palace on Sunday. Therewere no reports of violenceunlike on Saturday.The cash-starved island nationwitnessed a tumultuous day onSaturday when protesters brokeinto Rajapaksa's official resi-

dence in Colombo. The protesters were seen in thebedrooms and splashing aroundin the swimming pool of thePresident's House.Protesters did not spare PrimeMinister Wickremesinghedespite his offer to resign and seton fire his private residence inan affluent neighbourhood inthe capital. Police on Sunday arrested threepeople for settingWickremesinghe's residence onfire, which caused extensivedestruction of the property.More arrests are expected, police

said.The Criminal InvestigationsDepartment took over the inves-tigation into the arson attack.A video released by the DailyMirror newspaper showed grimvisuals of Wickremesinghe'scharred residence and a dam-aged sedan. Paintings and other artworks were strewnacross the house and the com-pound.The Speaker would becomethe acting President in theabsence of both the Presidentand the Prime Minister. Later, anelection among MPs must hap-

pen to elect a new President.Meanwhile, five Sri LankanCabinet ministers haveannounced their resignationafter the massive anti-govern-ment protest.The Chief of Defence StaffGeneral Shavendra Silva onSunday called on all Sri Lankansto support the armed forces andthe police to maintain peace inthe country.In May, President Rajapaksa'selder brother and PrimeMinister Mahinda Rajapaksahad to quit in the face of mas-sive anti-government protests.

The Rajapaksa brothers,Mahinda and Gotabaya, werehailed by many in Sri Lanka asheroes for winning the civilwar against the LTTE but theyare now blamed for the country'sworst economic crisis.The expected exit of PresidentRajapaksa on Wednesday andthe resignation of Mahinda Rajapaksa as PrimeMinister in May is a dramatic fallfrom grace for a powerful fam-ily that has dominated SriLankan politics for more than adecade.Sri Lanka, a country of22 million people, is under the

grip of an unprecedented eco-nomic turmoil, the worst inseven decades, crippled by anacute shortage of foreignexchange that has left it strug-gling to pay for essential importsof fuel, and other essentials.The country, with an acute for-eign currency crisis that result-ed in foreign debt default, hadannounced in April that it is sus-pending nearly USD 7 billionforeign debt repayment due forthis year out of about USD 25billion due through 2026. SriLanka's total foreign debt standsat USD 51 billion.

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With an aim to conservewater resources and to

provide an independent watersource to the area under itsjurisdiction, the New DelhiMunicipal Council (NDMC)on Sunday said that it is devel-oping Modular RainwaterHarvesting Pits, in the nation-al capital.

According to the ViceChairman of the NDMC SatishUpadhyay, the modular rain-water harvesting pits consists ofthree chambers wherein therainwater collected from stormwater drains enters the under-ground brick masonry man-holes, which are around 1.2-metre wide and 1.2-meter deep.From the middle of a chamberhere, a pipe goes to the secondchamber called the filter unit,which is around 2-meter deep.

“It has a strainer to catchdirt, silt, and other solids allow-

ing movement of the steelbucket installed on the lowerside of this chamber. The buck-et has a pipe going to the thirdand main chamber. The mainchamber is made of pre-fabri-cated polymer-based blocksthat are placed in an inter-locked configuration. Theseare laid around the bore wellpipe which is 30-35 metersdeep and the whole system iswrapped with geotextile fabricto restrict the entry of soil intothe system. The chamberallows the percolation of rain-water through the borewellpipe via pores made on the pipewhile also storing any excesswater,” he informed.

Upadhyay said that thesepits are not only cost-effectivebut also take a shorter time toinstall and require less main-tenance. NDMC’s RoadDivision had already developed160 modular pits and they areworking on 95 more pits at dif-ferent locations in the NDMC

area, the work order is to beawarded by this month and theproject is to be completed byMarch 2023.

While informing the ben-efits of the pits, Upadhyay saidthat the rainwater in its pureform is captured and added tothe natural ground water tablethrough a bore-well, the watertable will be increased, and thebalance of water can berestored in the reservoir for useof irrigation in lawns and otherplaces, etc. if required, opti-

mum space utilization restor-ing surface to as it was, rain-water harvesting chamberusing the modular technologyare accidentally free and eco-nomic too. “Less time of con-struction is required, No dustpollution in the atmosphereduring construction as no stonedust coarse sand and aggregateis required for construction asreadymade polymer-basedblocks are brought at the siteand placed in interlocked posi-tion,” he claimed.

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Delhi Chief Minister andAAP national convener

Arvind Kejriwal will visitHimachal Pradesh this week toparticipate in a Tiranga Yatraorganised by his party's stateunit in Palampur in the run upto the assembly polls in the hillstate.

Punjab Chief MinisterBhagwant Mann will also visitthe state to join Kejriwal in theevent scheduled to be held inthe assembly constituency onTuesday, the party said onSunday. This will be the secondvisit of the AAP supremo andMann to the poll-bound statewithin a month.

"AAP's national convenerand Delhi Chief MinisterKejriwal will visit HimachalPradesh on July 12 to partici-pate in Tiranga Yatra inPalampur on July 12. PunjabChief Minister Mann will alsoparticipate in the event," the

party said in a statement.The Delhi chief minister

and his Punjab counterparthad on June 11 participated ina town hall meeting organisedin Hamirpur district to delib-erate on the state of educationin Himachal Pradesh. Whileaddressing the gathering,Kejriwal and Mann had urgedthe voters give Aam AadmiParty (AAP) a chance in theupcoming assembly elections,promising to overhaul the edu-cation and healthcare system inthe state, currently ruled by theBJP. "If you want the 8.5 lakhstudents studying in HimachalPradesh government schools tohave a bright future, give achance to the AAP," Kejriwalhad said.

Having tasted success inthe the assembly elections ear-lier this year, the BJP and theAAP are looking to repeattheir strong showing in theHimachal Pradesh polls as welldue later this year while the

Congress, having swept the2021 state bypolls, is hoping fora turnaround after a string ofpoll losses.

The ruling BJP hopes toretain power in the hill state, asit did in Uttar Pradesh,Uttarakhand, Manipur andGoa. Riding high on its stu-pendous victory in Punjabassembly polls, the AAP islooking to make inroads intoHimachal Pradesh, projectingitself as an alternative to the BJP

and the Congress both.To woo the voters in the

hill state, the party has beenshowcasing Kejriwal's Delhimodel of governance, promis-ing to form "an honest gov-ernment" in the hill state andoverhaul the education andhealthcare sector if voted topower.

The AAP has announcedthat it will contest all 68 seatsin the upcoming assembly elec-tions in the state.

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Aman was burnt alive fol-lowing a verdict by a village

kangaroo court in Nagaon dis-trict of Assam for allegedlykilling a woman, police said onSunday.

The police have so farapprehended five persons,including three women, forsetting ablaze Ranjit Bordoloi,35, said SP Leena Doley.

The incident took place atBorlalungaon and BarhampurBamuni under Samaguri policestation on Saturday night.

A 'raij mel' (public hearing)was conducted over the death

of the woman (22), whosebody was found in a pond fewdays ago, after another womanclaimed of witnessing the mur-der, a senior police officer said.

The woman allegedly sawfive persons killing her, includ-ing Bordoloi, he said.

Villagers dragged him outof his home, tied him to a treeand conducted the hearing ofthe 'gram sabha', officials said.

"He was then beaten upand burnt alive. After that,they buried the charred body,"the police officer said.

Bordoloi allegedly con-fessed to killing the woman.

"The villagers claim that

the man killed the woman bypractising witchcraft. So, theydecided to mete out the samepunishment to him," the offi-cer said.

The body, which wasexhumed, has been sent forpost-mortem examination andan investigation is underway.

"When we reached the spotlast night, most of the men inthe village had fled. The 'gaon-burha' (village head) told usthat he did not know about the'gram sabha' and the subse-quent murder," he said.

Security has been bolsteredin the area to maintain peace,the officer added.

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Haryana Congress MLAKuldeep Bishnoi, who had

cross-voted in last month'sRajya Sabha polls, on Sundaymet with Union HomeMinister Amit Shah and BJPpresident J P Nadda, triggeringspeculation that he may jointhe ruling party.

The 53-year-old legislatorfrom Adampur met with theBJP leaders in New Delhi andlater, heaped praises on them.He was expelled by theCongress from all party posi-tions last month.

Since then, he has beenwarming up to the BJP. Bishnoialso removed his pictures withCongress leaders Sonia Gandhiand Rahul Gandhi from his

Twitter profile, replacing themwith photos with his father,former Haryana chief ministerlate Bhajan Lal.

Bishnoi, a four-time MLAand two-time MP, has beensulking ever since the Congressignored him for the post of itsHaryana unit chief during arevamp earlier this year.

The party appointed UdaiBhan, a loyalist of former chiefminister Bhupinder SinghHooda, as its Haryana unitchief.

In a tweet in Hindi, Bishnoisaid it was a "real honor andpleasure to meet Amit Shah".

"A true statesman, I felt hisaura and charisma in my inter-actions with him. His vision forIndia is awe-inspiring," hewrote.

Bishnoi added that he felt"very proud" to meet Nadda.

"His easy-going and hum-ble nature sets him apart," hesaid.

Bishnoi said the BJP hasseen unprecedented heightsunder Nadda, who has ably ledthe party. "I wish him goodhealth and a long life."

A week after cross-voting,Bishnoi posted a cryptic tweetsaying, "I know how to crush asnake's hood. I do not leave thejungle in fear of snakes."

Reacting to being expelledby the Congress from all partypositions on June 11, Bishnoitweeted, "Congress also hasrules for some leaders andexceptions for others. Rules areapplied selectively. Indisciplinehas been repeatedly ignored in

the past. In my case, I listenedto my soul and acted on mymorals."

Last month, Bishnoi saidhe was consulting with hissupporters to decide on hisnext course of action.

Asked if he was in touchwith BJP leaders, Bishnoi hadsaid his next step would be inthe interests of the people ofHaryana and his constituency.

The Congress, which isthe main opposition party inHaryana, was assured of oneRajya Sabha seat by virtue ofthe number of MLAs it has inthe 90-member assembly.However, Congress candidateAjay Maken failed to secure theberth after Bishnoi cross-voted,while the vote of an MLA wasdeclared invalid.

BJP's Krishan Lal Panwarand the saffron party-backedIndependent candidateKartikeya Sharma were electedto the two Rajya Sabha seatsfrom Haryana.

Bishnoi and his fatherBhajan Lal had floated theHaryana Janhit Congress (HJC)in 2007 after the Congresshandpicked Bhupinder SinghHooda for the chief minister'spost following the party'sthumping victory in the 2005assembly polls.

The HJC later entered intoa tie-up with the BJP and twoother parties, who jointly con-tested the 2014 Lok Sabhapolls in Haryana. They weresupposed to contest the assem-bly polls together as well, butthe alliance crumbled.

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The NDRF has begun anationwide survey of pas-

senger cable cars and ropewaysystems to find out possiblesecurity flaws in them and toprepare a structural blueprintthat will help it launch effectiverescue operations in case of anemergency or accident.

The federal contingencyforce has also decided to trainits rescuers in specific ropewayrescue skills apart from pur-chasing an assortment of toolslike pulleys and carabiners to beused for transporting the sal-vager and evacuating strandedpeople from the car hanging in

the air.The move comes as at least

four ropeway-related incidents,including one in Uttarakhandon Sunday, have been report-ed in the country so far thisyear.

Three people were killedwhile 12 were rescued after a40-hour-long operation con-ducted by the Indian Air Force,National Disaster ResponseForce (NDRF), Army, Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP)and local administration aftercable cars got trapped mid-airon a ropeway at Trikut hills inJharkhand's Deoghar district inApril.

Eleven people were strand-

ed for hours after a cable carwas stuck mid-air at ParwanooTimber Trail in HimachalPradesh's Solan district andthey were rescued after a six-hour-long operation under-taken by the NDRF and otheragencies in June.

In a similar incident thattook place in May, pilgrims vis-iting the hilltop goddess'Sharda' shrine in Maihar townof Satna district in MadhyaPradesh were rescued about anhour after they got stuck in thecable cars.

In the latest such incident,over 40 devotees including BJPMLA Kishore Upadhayayremained suspended in the air

for nearly an hour on Sundaywhen a ropeway connecting thefamous Surkanda Devi templenear Mussoorie got stuck mid-way due to a technical snag.

Ropeway operation to thetemple has been resumed,Upadhyay said but suggestedthat it should be properlyexamined so that the lives ofdevotees are not risked.

"We have begun a survey ofall the passenger ropeway andcable car systems in the coun-try to understand their opera-tions and suggest remedialaction. There are more than 50such systems in India which areused for transport of pilgrims,tourists and passengers.

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Over 40 devotees includingBJP MLA Kishore

Upadhayay remained sus-pended in the air for nearly anhour on Sunday when a rope-way connecting Surkanda Devitemple near Mussoorie gotstuck midway due to a techni-cal snag.

Upadhayay said the inci-dent occurred when they werereturning from the temple bythe ropeway.

The devotees had a sigh ofrelief as they got down from theropeway trolley after nearly anhour of being suspended in the

air, he said.Ropeway operation to the

famous temple has beenresumed, Upadhyay said butsuggested that it should beproperly examined so that thelives of devotees are not risked.

Ropeway service to thetemple situated in Tehri districtbegan in May this year.

It is the first importantropeway project started by thestate tourism department afterthe creation of Uttarakhand.The 502-metre long ropewaywas built at a cost of Rs 5 croreand operates betweenKaddukhal and Sukanda Devitemple.

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Digambar Kamat — theparty's Chief Ministerialnominee in the elections heldearlier this year — skipped ameeting of MLAs onSaturday.

However, when asked ifhe was in touch with the BJP,Michael Lobo said these areplain rumours. Lobo didadmit that a couple of MLAswere in touch with the BJP.

"We are also waiting formore news but there aren’tmore than one or two andthese are the ones probablywho are spreading rumorsthat some 10 MLAs ofCongress are in touch with

the BJP and planning to jumpship," the Congress leadersaid.Meanwhile, GoaAssembly Speaker RameshTawadkar on Sunday can-celed the notification for elec-tion to the post of DeputySpeaker, which was scheduledfor Tuesday.

Goa's 40-member assem-bly has 25 legislators from theruling BJP-led NationalDemocratic Alliance (NDA)and 11 from the oppositionCongress. Congress had lastseen a split in 2019 whenmost of its MLAs switched tothe BJP, leaving the partywith only four former ChiefMinisters in its ranks.

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The monsoon embracedDelhi in an impressive

manner on June 30 but rainshave repeatedly given the cap-ital a miss since then. The IndiaMeteorological Department(IMD) had made a series ofinaccurate forecasts for thearrival of monsoon in thenational capital.

On Sunday, the IMD fore-cast said that Delhi is likely toget only light or very light rainover the coming week. Whilean earlier forecast for Sundayindicated moderate rain, it waslater modified to light rain.

Delhi is still witnessing a

dry monsoon season with themaximum temperature settledat 34.9 degrees Celsius, and thetemperature of wet bulb climb-ing up to 30 degree celsius,causing discomfort.

In the last 10 days, Delhi'sbase weather observatory, theSafdarjung Observatory, hasrecorded just 2.6 mm rainfall.The monsoon in Delhi beganon a bumper note with thenational capital receiving veryheavy rainfall between June 30and July 1. It has been a dryspell since then.

But IMD has been issuingrainfall warnings for almostevery day. On July 1, the weath-er office issued the orange

alert. It issued the yellow alertfor the next six days. The cityreceived only 2 mm rainfall inthe next three days.

On July 4, the IMD issueda yellow alert for July 5 and anorange alert for July 6, whichwas later shifted to July 7.

The IMD later predicted"fairly widespread to wide-spread rainfall activity" overwest Uttar Pradesh, Punjab,Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhiand Rajasthan on July 9 andJuly 10, and issued a yellowalert, warning of moderaterainfall in the capital onSunday. But that did not hap-pen either.

"The low pressure area hadpulled the trough towards cen-tral India, leading to heavyrainfall there," said MaheshPalawat, vice president (mete-orology and climate change),Skymet Weather.

"It was expected that thewestern end of the monsoontrough would again shifttowards the north after the lowpressure area degenerated.

However, the developmentof a cyclonic circulation oversouthwest Rajasthan andadjoining parts of southPakistan in the last 24 hours didnot let the monsoon troughcome near Delhi and neigh-bouring areas.

It is still stuck south ofDelhi and passes throughBikaner and Kota," he said.Delhi won't get any rain onMonday and Tuesday. Rain islikely on July 13 and July 14after the low pressure area

crosses Gujarat and the mon-soon trough shifts towards thenorth, the meteorologist said.

According to experts, thereare four factors responsible forrain in Delhi: the monsoontrough line passes through thecity to north-west UP, Haryanaand east Rajasthan; low pres-sure area development; westerndisturbance with moisture; andlocal convective clouds due tolocal heat and moisture. But,even change in wind or differ-ence in pressure created bylocal heat can affect any of fourfactors in a very short time.Oneof the major reasons beingattributed to the continuousfaulty forecast this year is thedifficulty in predicting theinteraction of easterly and west-erly winds. Parts of UttarPradesh and Haryana havebeen receiving moderate toheavy rainfall over the past fewdays, but Delhi has remainedlargely dry. July and August arethe rainiest months in Delhi.

While July sees around187 mm of rain, it is usually232.5 mm in August. Monsoonreached Delhi on June 30 –three days late – and the cityreceived heavy rainfall for acouple of days after.

Since then, however, it hasreceived only light rainfall ortraces. According to the IMD,Delhi has received 89.2 mm ofrain (city average) since June 1this year, which is when themonsoon arrives in Kerala.This is a deficit of 15% which,as per the IMD, is a normaldeviation.

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The Delhi Government'sTransport department is

likely to start sending notices tovehicle owners who do nothave valid PUC (pollutionunder control) certificates andfollow it up with challans of Rs10,000 if the certificates are notobtained.

According to transportdepartment officials, the

department will also intensifyit's drive to ensure that vehicleswithout PUC certificates do notply on the city roads. Presently,over 17 lakh vehicles, including13 lakh two-wheelers and threelakh cars, are plying withoutvalid PUC, they said."The

department is working on asystem to send notices to vehi-cle owners at their homes afterexpiry of PUC certificate. Ifthey do not obtain a valid cer-tificate, challans of fine of Rs10,000 will also reach them attheir home," said officials.

According to CentralMotor Vehicles Rules, 1989,every motor vehicle (includingthose conforming to BS-I/ BS-II/ BS-III/BS-IV as well asvehicles plying on CNG/LPG)is required to carry a valid PUCcertificate after the expiry ofperiod of one year from thedate of its first registration.

However, the validity offour-wheeled BS-IV compliantvehicles is one year and for

other vehicles it is threemonths.PUC certification hasbeen made real time and inte-grated with the vehicle regis-tration database.

This has improved credi-bility of PUC certification byreducing human interventionand helps in identifying pol-luting vehicles for necessarypunitive action, officials said.

If caught without a validPUC certificate, vehicle ownersmay face imprisonment up tosix months or fine up to�10,000 or both as per MotorVehicle Act.

Last year, due to strictenforcement of PUC norm bythe Transport department, over60 lakh certificates were issued,

officials said. Vehicles are peri-odically tested for their emis-sion standards for various pol-lutants such as carbon monox-ide and carbon dioxide afterwhich they are given PUC cer-tificates.

There are over 900 pollu-tion checking centres autho-rised by the transport depart-ment in Delhi. These are set upat petrol pumps and workshopsspread all over the city somotorists can get it done easi-ly. The fee for pollution check-ing in case of petrol and CNG-driven two and three wheelersis �60. It is �80 for four-wheeled vehicles. The fee forpollution checking certificate ofdiesel vehicles is �100.

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YouTuber Gaurav Taneja hasbeen granted bail after

being arrested for organisinghis birthday party with wifeRitu Rathee Taneja at Sector 51,Noida Metro Station of theAqua Line on Saturday.

Taneja is currently one ofthe most popular YouTubers inthe country with millions ofsubscribers across his threeYouTube channels— 'FlyingBeast', 'Fit Muscle TV' and'Rasbhari Ke Papa' where hemakes fitness-related videosas well as his daily life vlogs andlive streams.

He was arrested onSaturday after his followersgathered at Sector 51 metro sta-tion of the Aqua Line in Noidaon Saturday to celebrate hisbirthday upon his request.

The YouTuber, whosefriends had booked the metrocoach under a scheme of theNoida Metro Rail Corporationthat allows renting of coachesfor private celebrations.

Taneja's wife Ritu, who hasover 1.6 million followers onInstagram, told her fans thatshe will meet them at aboutmeeting at 1.30 pm for a birth-day celebration. An earlierInstagram story on Ritu'saccount also said: "We will be

restricted by the maximumcapacity of a Metro given byNMRC! Lekin sabse mileagezaroor!." However, hours later,another post on the Instagramstory informed that celebra-tions were being cancelled "dueto some personal issues."

According to police, afterhundreds of people reached thespot, it created a stampede-likesituation, following which hewas arrested.

He was brought in to thestation for questioning andlater released on bail late in thenight. Restrictions under CrPCsection 144 were imposed inNoida in Gautam Buddh Nagardistrict of UP in view of mul-tiple festivals and other law andorder considerations.

"The YouTuber was heldunder IPC sections 188 (dis-obedience to order duly pro-mulgated by government offi-

cials) and 341 (wrongfulrestraint) after an FIR waslodged at the local Sector 49police station," a senior policeofficial said.

"He was arrested around 2pm, after a large number ofpeople gathered outside theNoida Sector 51 metro station,leading to traffic snarls on theroad in front of it. He wasgranted bail later in theevening," the official said.

The invitation for Taneja'sbirthday was shared in an openinvitation to fans and followerson social media. According toNoida Metro officials, thecoach-for-hire scheme on theAqua Line was aimed at non-fare box revenue for the gov-ernment-run metro service.

Taneja was an Air Asiapilot and claimed that he wassuspended by the airline forpointing out violations at theairline. In a video in 2020, healso pointed out the issuesthat he had flagged.

His wife Ritu Rathee Tanejais also a social media influencerand a pilot. They got marriedin 2015 and have two children.She has over 1.6 million fol-lowers on Instagram. HisYouTube channel Flying Beasthas over seven million sub-scribers. While Taneja has 3.3million followers on Instagram.

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An argument between agroup of boys and a police-

man over skateboarding inSouthwest Delhi’s SafdarjungEnclave on Friday escalatedafter the latter allegedly slappedone of them. A video doing therounds on social media showsthe policeman slapping a boywhile arguing with him.

Taking note of the incident,Delhi police has taken a disci-plinary action against consta-ble Ajeet Singh, for his conduct.The video was posted by one ofthe victim's friend on a socialmedia platform, prompting theDelhi Police to take cognizancethe incident. In the video, theconstable, wearing a policeuniform, can be seen engaging

in a heated argument with agroup of boys and suddenly, ina fit of rage, he slapped one ofthem. The boy says he is bleed-ing from nose and asks hisfriends to ensure that the videoof the act is recorded. He alsoquestions the constable as tohow he raised his hand to himjust because he is a policeman.Later, in the same video, thepoliceman can also be seendenying the accusation.

The Delhi Police from itsofficial Twitter handle taggedDCP southwest and informedits followers on the microblog-ging site that the force hastaken cognizance of the inci-dent of misbehavior by a con-stable. "We have taken cog-nizance of an incident of mis-behavior by a constable with a

minor boy in SafdarjungEnclave. Concerned officialshave been asked to ascertainthe facts and take suitableaction," tweeted the DelhiPolice.

According to the police,complaints were received fromsome senior citizens and otherresidents of B-6 Block,Safdarjung Enclave regardingnuisance by some skateboard-ers in B-6 Market area. Theboys create a lot of disturbanceto residents and also couldcause injury to themselves.

One of the residents, RahulTyagi, also got injured becauseof the skateboarders, policesaid. Based on the complaintsreceived from the residents, abeat staff was sensitized tostop such activities, they said.

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The Delhi Pollution ControlCommittee (DPCC) has

set up a control room to mon-itor the implementation ofthe ban on 19 identified sin-gle-use plastic items. The con-trol room will start fromMonday.

According to an official,the control room will receiveall complaints related to theviolation of the SUP ban anddirect enforcement teams totake action on them. The rev-enue department and theDPCC have constituted 33and 15 teams, respectively, toensure the enforcement of theban.

"Though the DPCC'smandate is to keep a check onthe manufacturing of SUPitems, complaints related tothe violation of the ban inmarkets and other public

places can also be sent to ourcontrol room. We will transferit to the municipal bodiesconcerned," he said.Grievances regarding the

infractions can also be lodgedthrough the Green Delhiapplication of the Delhi gov-ernment or the "SUP-CPCB"application of the Central

Pollution Control Board. "Wewill start closing down unitsviolating the ban fromMonday under relevant pro-visions of the law. No more

warning will be given," theofficial said.

On July 1, when the banon the SUP items came intoeffect, Delhi EnvironmentMinister Gopal Rai said theDelhi government would belenient towards those violatingthe ban for the initial 10 daysand focus on creating aware-ness against the use of suchcommodities and promotetheir alternatives.

The action will include afine of up to Rs 1 lakh or a jailterm of up to five years or bothunder the EnvironmentProtection Act, 1986.

Officials said the DPCChas to ensure compliance withthe ban in conforming areas,while the MCD and otherlocal bodies are responsible forits implementation in theinformal sector. The MCDand other urban local bodieswill act against the defaultingunits according to their

bylaws, while the revenuedepartment will take actionunder the EnvironmentProtection Act.

In the initial 10 days, offi-cials held meetings with indus-trial associations to educateand guide them about theban.

Plastic carry bags of thick-ness less than 75 microns arealso prohibited under thePlastic Waste ManagementRules. Their thickness willhave to be increased to 120microns from December 31.

Plastic wrapping materialless than 50 microns in thick-ness and plastic sachets usedfor selling and storing tobac-co, pan masala and gutkha arealso not allowed.

Delhi generates 1,060tonnes of plastic waste per day.SUP is estimated to be 5.6 percent (or 56 kg per metrictonnes) of the total solid wastein the capital.

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The Delhi Government willlaunch a special drive on

July 15 for online registrationof construction and demoli-tion sites larger than 500square metres for self-moni-toring of compliance of dustcontrol guidelines.

Delhi EnvironmentMinister Gopal Rai said onSunday those who do notregister their sites will faceaction. A portal for the regis-tration of construction anddemolition sites was launched

in October last year in a bidto control dust pollution inthe capital. A special cam-paign will be launched for theregistration of such sites onthe C&D portal between July15 and July 30. As many as600 project proponents haveregistered on the portal so far,Rai said.

"The DPCC (DelhiPollution ControlCommittee) will take actionagainst those who have notregistered their constructionand demolition sites on theportal for self-assessment ofdust control norms," he said.

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Despite the DelhiGovernment's push for

women drivers, only 14 out of743 women applicants have gottheir e-autos registered afterreceiving the letter of intent,with many blaming tediouspaperwork and high rate ofinterest for not buying thethree-wheelers.

The AAP Governmenthad issued the letter of intentto 4,261 people, including 2,855male and 743 female appli-cants.“Out of these 743 appli-cants, only 14 women have reg-istered their e-autos, while 273men have done so,” accordingto official data by the transportdepartment.

Shamshon Nesha, awoman applicant, who got theletter of intent, said, "In the firstplace, it was difficult to get theloan processed. We had sub-mitted our documents, butthey kept dilly dallying it. “We

would check every 15-20 days,but were told that the docu-ments were being processed.We had borrowed Rs 66,000 forthe down payment, but afterseeing multiple delays, wedecided to surrender the letterof intent,” she added.

Another woman applicant,requesting anonymity, said therate of interest for getting an e-auto is quite high and it is unaf-fordable for them. Governmentofficials said there were supplyissues due to some chip prob-lem in the vehicles, which

could be the reason for the lownumber of takers for the ini-tiative. They also said thatsince electric autorickshawsare new in the market, the rateof interest is going to be high,and with the passage of time, anequilibrium will be established.

An official said the Delhigovernment is providing 5 percent interest subvention onthe purchase of e-autos onloans along with a purchaseincentive of Rs 30,000 underthe Delhi Electric VehiclePolicy. The Delhi Transport

Department had in Octoberlast year launched the schemefor registration of 4,261 e-autos, of which 33 per cent --1,406 e-autos — is exclusivelyreserved for women drivers.Rakesh Aggarwal, president,Chhalak Shakti, an autorick-shaw union, said the govern-ment should have been betterprepared.

"We are in favour of par-ticipation of women in econo-my and in running e-autos. Butthe Delhi government reserved1,406 e-autos for women with-out any preparation, and onlya meagre 14 vehicles could beregistered so far," he said.

Under the scheme, onlineapplications were invited inOctober and November lastyear. A total of 19,846 applica-tions were received from maleapplicants against the quota of2,855 e-autos, and 743 appli-cations were received fromfemale applicants against thequota of 1,406 e-autos, officialssaid.

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Days after a 40-year-oldbuilder was shot dead by

unknown assailants outside hisoffice in Paschim Vihar, theDelhi Police Crime Branch hasarrested a 24 year old man inconnection with the case.

The accused, identified asDeepanshu, is a member of aKaala Sahuwasia Gang andallegedly claimed that he killedthe victim for refusing to sellweapons to him.

He is also a close aide ofrenowned gangster Bhupenderalias Monu Dariapur aliasTampu who was murdered bygangster Sonu Dariyapur, theysaid.

The incident took place onJuly 2 around 3 pm on a busystreet in Paschim Vihar A-block. The deceased, AmitGoel, had come out of hisoffice and was entering his carwhen a group of assailantscame in a Toyota Corolla carand fired at Goel. Goel was shotat five-six times and suc-cumbed to the injuries.

After firing multiplerounds, the unidentifiedassailant fled from the spot ina car, which was later foundabandoned, a senior policeofficer said. Goel was previ-ously involved in two casesrelated to arms.

He was a professionalshooter and used to importsophisticated automaticweapons under the guise ofweapons imported for sportrelated shooting, thus misusingthe import policy meant forIndian shooters, police added.

Deputy Commissioner ofPolice (Crime) Rohit KumarMeena said that an input wasreceived about the involve-ment of one Deepanshu in themurder case of the builder.

After technical analysisand scanning CCTV footages,the lead was further developedand the vehicle being used byDeepanshu was identified.

During interrogation,Sharma told police that afterfailing to deliver one of the twoorders, Goel had threatenedhim with dire consequences,which offended him and hedecided to eliminate him.

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The fourth phase of sea tri-als of the first indigenous-

ly designed and manufacturedaircraft carrier Vikrant wassuccessfully completed onSunday. The ship is likely to beinducted into the Navy inAugust by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi.

With this induction, Indiawill become one of the fewcountries having the capabilitiesto design and build its ownsophisticated and state-of-the-art aircraft carrier. At present,India has one aircraft carrierINS Vikramaditya built byRussia.

Giving details of the ongo-ing trials, navy officials saidhere on Sunday, the fourthphase was successfully com-pleted during which integratedtrials of majority of equipmentand systems onboard includingsome of the aviation facilitiescomplex equipment wereundertaken. The ship’s deliveryis being targeted in end July fol-lowed by commissioning ofthe ship in August to com-memorate ‘Azadi ka AmritMahotsav’. The Indigenous

design and construction ofAircraft Carrier by Indian Navyand Cochin Shipyard Ltd is ashining example in the Nation’squest for ‘AatmaNirbhar Bharat’and ‘Make in India Initiative’with more than 76 per centindigenous content.

This has led to growth inindigenous design and con-struction capabilities, besidesdevelopment of large number ofancillary industries, withemployment opportunities for

over 2000 Cochin ShipyardLimited(CSL) personnel andabout 12,000 employees inancillary industries, they said.Maiden Sea Trials of the indige-nous aircraft carrier were suc-cessfully completed in Augustlast year.

This was followed by thesecond and third phases of theSea Trials in October last yearand January 22 respectively.During these three phases ofSea Trials, endurance testing of

propulsion machinery, electri-cal and electronic suites, deckmachinery, lifesaving appli-ances, ship navigation and com-munication systems was under-taken. The aircraft carrierweighs about 40,000 tons and islargest and most complex war-ship to be built in India. Theoverall cost of ship is more than�23,000 crores. The warshipwill operate MiG-29K fighterjets, Kamov-31 helicopters, andMH-60R multi-role helicopters.

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Excessive salt consumptioncomes with a higher risk of

premature death, according toa study involving more than500,000 people, published inthe European Heart Journal. Itsaid that compared to thosewho never or rarely addedsalt, those who always addedsalt to their food had a 28 per-cent increased risk of dyingprematurely.

In the general population,about three in every hundredpeople aged between 40 and 69die prematurely. The increasedrisk from always adding salt tofood seen in the current studysuggests that one more personin every hundred may die pre-maturely in this age group.

In addition, the studyfound a lower life expectancyamong people who alwaysadded salt compared to thosewho never, or rarely added salt.At the age of 50, 1.5 years and

2.28 years were knocked off thelife expectancy of women andmen, respectively, who alwaysadded salt to their food com-pared to those who never, orrarely, did.

The researchers, led byProfessor Lu Qi, of TulaneUniversity School of PublicHealth and Tropical Medicine,New Orleans, USA, say theirfindings have several publichealth implications.

“To my knowledge, ourstudy is the first to assess therelationship between addingsalt to foods and prematuredeath,” he said. “It providesnovel evidence to support rec-ommendations to modify eat-ing behaviors for improvinghealth.

Even a modest reduction insodium intake, by adding lessor no salt to food at the table,is likely to result in substantialhealth benefits, especially whenit is achieved in the generalpopulation.”

For these reasons, the

researchers chose to look atwhether or not people add saltto their foods at the table,independent of any salt addedduring cooking.

“Adding salt to foods at thetable is a common eatingbehavior that is directly relat-ed to an individual’s long-termpreference for salty-tastingfoods and habitual salt intake,”said Prof. Qi. “In the Westerndiet, adding salt at the tableaccounts for 6-20% of total saltintake and provides a uniqueway to evaluate the associationbetween habitual sodiumintake and the risk of death.”

As well as finding thatalways adding salt to foods waslinked to a higher risk of pre-mature death from all causesand a reduction in lifeexpectancy, the researchersfound that these risks tended tobe reduced slightly in peoplewho consumed the highestamounts of fruit and vegeta-bles, although these resultswere not statistically significant.

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The Supreme Court is sched-uled to hear on Monday a

plea filed by Telugu poet and anaccused in Bhima Koregaon-Elgar Parishad case, P VaravaraRao, challenging a BombayHigh Court order that reject-ed his prayer for permanentmedical bail in matter.

A three-judge bench ofjustices U U Lalit, S RavindraBhat and Sudhanshu Dhulia islikely to take up the matter.

Rao, in his appeal againstthe April 13 Bombay HighCourt order filed throughadvocate Nupur Kumar, said,"The petitioner, an 83-year-oldrenowned Telugu poet andorator who has undergone overtwo years of incarceration as anunder-trial and is currentlyenlarged on bail on medicalgrounds by the Bombay HighCourt.

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The Agnipath scheme com-plements the Indian Air

Force's long-term vision tobecome a "lean and lethal"force with the best manpowerand the new recruitment modelwill in no way reduce its oper-ational capability, Air ChiefMarshal V R Chaudhari said onSunday.

The Chief of Air Staff saidthe reform initiative will enablethe IAF to meet all its nation-al security mandate and theforce envisaged its seamlessimplementation with a restruc-tured training pattern that iscontemporary, technology-based and tailor-made for itsoperational requirements.

Air Chief MarshalChaudhari told PTI that 13teams will take care of enrol-ment, employment, assessmentand training of recruits withinthe four-year engagement peri-od.

He said any savings inpensions and other expendi-tures through the implemen-tation of the scheme are onlyincidental and not the reasonfor initiating the reform.

"The Agnipath scheme fur-thers the IAF's manpower opti-misation drive that has beenongoing for a decade whereinwe have reviewed many humanresource policies and organi-sational structures," he said.

Nearly 7,50,000 candidateshave registered for around3,000 positions in the IAFunder the new scheme.

The scheme complementsthe IAF's "long-term vision ofbeing a lean and lethal forcewith the best human resourceas we strongly believe that themen and women behind themachine make all the differ-ence when it matters," theChief of Air Staff said.

The scheme, announced

on June 14, seeks to recruityouths between the age brack-et of 17-and-half years and 21for only four years with a pro-vision to retain 25 per cent ofthem for 15 more years. For2022, the upper age limit hasbeen extended to 23 years.Several parts of India wit-nessed violent protests lastmonth against the scheme withthe agitators demanding itsrollback as the new modeldoes not provide a job guar-antee to 75 per cent of recruits.

"With evolving technolo-gy, the basic requirements froman air warrior have also seen aqualitative shift.

We feel that the youth oftoday brings along a differentand much-required set of skillsas well as adeptness with tech-nology," he said.

Air Chief MarshalChaudhari said the synergy oforganisational requirementsand the aspirations of the youthshall provide the IAF with an"ideal amalgam" to be an effec-tive force in the future.

"With a restructured train-ing pattern that is contempo-rary, technology-based and tai-lor-made for our operationalcommitments, we envisage theimplementation to be seam-less," he said.

The IAF chief noted thatthe need for transformation inthe human resources in the ser-vices has been widely deliber-ated and steps have been takento gradually address the rec-ommendations of the KargilReview Committee.

"This human resourcestransformation caters to therequirements of the impact ofchanging technology, the com-plexity of machines, automa-tion and optimisation ofresources including manpow-er of the IAF," he said.

Describing the Agnipathscheme as a major "humanresources transformation" forthe armed forces, he said theIAF has already received anoverwhelming response forthis scheme.

"The process of selection isin progress. We have formu-lated 13 teams for seamlessenrolment, training, role,

employment, assessment andtraining of Agniveers withinthe four-year engagement peri-od," he said.

"The HR transformation inno way reduces the opera-tional capability that we pos-sess. In fact, this would providethe armed forces with theadvantage of attracting talentand engaging with the youthwho are keen to serve thenation," the IAF chief said.

He said the "objectiveassessment" of Agniveers shallprovide IAF with the bestworkforce. "In the long term,this scheme will benefit theindividual, the Armed forcesand the society as a whole," AirChief Marshal Chaudhari said.

"This scheme shall providea balance to our forces byblending youth with experienceand enable IAF to meet all itsnational security mandates," headded.

"Our experience in modu-

lar training and 'just-in-time'training concepts have given usinsightful knowledge to achievethe necessary skills for our airwarriors," he said.

The Government has beenmaintaining that the Agnipathscheme aims to ensure a youth-ful profile of the armed forces,bring technically adept peopleand make them future-ready todeal with any challenges facingthe nation.

Under the scheme, thethree services are planning torecruit 46,000 soldiers thisyear.The youths to be recruit-ed under the new schemewould be called 'Agniveer'.

A major objective of thescheme is to bring down theaverage age of military per-sonnel.The announcement ofthe new scheme came in thebackdrop of recruitments intothe military remaining stalledfor over two years amid thecoronavirus pandemic.

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Omicron sub-variant BA.2'soffspring BA.2.38 has not

led to any increase in hospital-isation or disease severity, anda few deaths reported recentlyare due to comorbidities,Insacog said in its June 20 bul-letin released on Sunday.

In the bulletin, the IndianSARS-CoV-2 GenomicsConsortium (INSACOG) saidmany BA.2 cases have beenreclassified to BA.2.38. BA.2.38seems to be the prevalent sub-lineage in the latest sequencingbatches, it said.

"However, so far this hasnot led to any increase in hos-pitalisation or any report ofincrease in disease severity. Afew deaths that have beenreported recently, are due tocomorbidities. COVID-appro-priate behavior is likely to

reduce the spread of the infec-tion and hence continues to berecommended,” it said. In itsprevious bulletin dated June 13,which was also released onSunday, the Insacog said BA.2continues to be the dominantlineage in India.

"However, hospitalisationdue to the severity of the dis-ease has not been observed thatmuch. INSACOG is closelymonitoring the current situa-tion," it said.

In another bulletin of May30, the Insacog informed thattill then, five cases of BA.4 andthree cases of BA.5 had beenreported in India.

The Insacog reportsgenomic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 across the countrythrough sequencing of samplesfrom sentinel sites and inter-national passengers arrivingin India.

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The National InvestigationAgency (NIA) has arrested

Farhad Mohammad Sheikhalias Babla, 31, in connectionwith the June 28 Udaipurbeheading case. This is the sev-enth arrest in the case.

The NIA said FarhadMohammad Sheikh was arrest-ed on Saturday. He is the sonof one Azaz Mohammad, res-ident of House Number 143/24,Patel Circle, Diwan Sah Colony,Udaipur, Rajasthan. The caserelates to the killing ofKanhaiyya Lal Teli in Udaipurat his shop in Maldas Street inthat city.The case was initiallyregistered as FIR number81/2022 dated June 28, 2022, atPolice Station Dhanmandi,Udaipur.

The NIA re-registered thecase on June 29 and took overthe investigation into the mat-ter.Earlier, six accused personswere arrested in this case onJune 29, July 1, and July 4.“Farhad Mohammad was aclose criminal associate of themain accused Riyaz Akhtariand was an active part of theconspiracy to kill KanhaiyyaLal, the NIA said in a state-ment.

The probe so far suggestsboth prime accused in the case—Riaz Akhtari and GhouseMohammad— were in touchwith the terror group Al Qaeda.One accused, GhouseMohammad, visited Pakistanin 2014. Riaz Akhtari andGhouse Mohammad hadhacked Teli to death with acleaver at his shop in Udaipurand posted videos onlineclaiming they are avenging an

alleged insult to Islam. The twoaccused had also inflicted mul-tiple injuries to the victim withsharp weapons. The duo wasarrested on the day of incidentitself and booked under strin-gent anti-terror law UnlawfulActivities (Prevention) Act andvarious other sections of IndianPenal Code (IPC) includingmurder, criminal conspiracy,and common intention.

“NIA registers a case in theincident of the brutal murderof Kanhaiya Lal Teli inUdaipur, Rajasthan. The NIAhas re-registered a case RC-27/2022/NIA/DLI on29/06/2022 under Sections 452(house-trespass after havingmade preparation for causinghurt and assault, 302 (murder),153 (A) (promoting enmitybetween different groups ongrounds of caste, religion andplace of birth), 153 (B) (impu-tations and assertions prejudi-cial to national interest), 295(A) (deliberate and maliciousintention of outraging the reli-gious feelings of any class) and34 (acts done by several per-sons for furtherance of com-mon intention) of IPC andSections 16, 18 and 20 ofUnlawful Activities(Prevention) Act, 1967 againstaccused who have conspired,planned and committedheinous murder of KanhaiyaLal Teli on 28.6.2022 inUdaipur, Rajasthan,” the agencyhad said in a statement after re-registering the FIR.

The NIA is also probing asimilar case relating to murderof pharmacist Umesh Kolhe inAmravati on June 21 allegedlyon account of certain socialmedia posts.

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Congress president SoniaGandhi on Sunday

expressed solidarity with SriLanka as the island nationplunged into serious troublewhen fresh protests erupted inthe Capital city over the eco-nomic collapse.

As the condition in theneighbouring country deterio-rates, Sonia Gandhi on Sundayissued a statement saying theCongress has been followingwith concern the evolvingpolitical situation in Sri Lanka.

"The economic challenges,rising prices, and shortages offood, fuel, and essential com-modities have caused enor-mous hardships and distressamong the people there," shesaid.

The Congress presidentfurther said the Congressexpresses its solidarity withSri Lanka and its people in thismoment of grave crisis andhopes they will be able to over-come it.

"We hope India will con-tinue to assist the people andgovernment of Sri Lanka asthey deal with the difficulties ofthe current situation," she said,

adding, "The Congress partyalso urges the internationalcommunity to extend all assis-tance and support to SriLanka." The Congress reactioncame at a time when thousandsof protesters stormed PresidentGotabaya Rajapaksa’s officialresidence in capital ofColombo, forcing him to flee toan unknown location.

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Congress on Sundaydescribed Prime Minister

Narendra Modi as "AdivasiVirodhi” (anti-tribal) and object-ed to the relaxations made inrules related to ensuring forestdwellers’ rights, saying that themove for 'ease of doing businessfor a "chosen few" will end the'ease of living for the "vastmany".

Party sources said Congresswill oppose the changes – allow-ing settlement of rights of forestdwellers after the governmentclearance for diverting forestland for projects – in the upcom-ing Monsoon Session ofParliament, starting July 18.

Union EnvironmentMinister Bhupender Yadav clar-ified in a series of tweets that theallegation by Congress was "anill-informed attempt to showthat the rules don’t care aboutthe provisions of other lawsand that the government underNarendra Modi remains com-mitted to protecting the rights ofthe Adivasis".

The new rules go against theAugust 2009 circular issued bythe Ministry of Environmentand Forests under UPA. It hadstipulated that no clearancesfor diversion of forest landunder the Forest ConservationAct, 1980 would even be con-sidered by it unless rights pro-vided under the Forest RightsAct, 2006 were first settled.

Former Congress presidentRahul Gandhi tweeted, "‘Modi-Mitr’ Sarkar at its crony best! For‘ease of snatching’ forest land, theBJP govt has come up with newFC Rules, 2022 diluting UPA'sForest Rights Act, 2006.Congress stands strongly withour Adivasi brothers and sistersin their fight to protect Jal,Jungle, and Zameen."

Congress General Several(Communications) JairamRamesh said, “this (new rules)destroys the very purpose of theForest Rights Act, 2006 and itsmeaningful use while consider-ing proposals for diversion offorest land. Once forest clearanceis granted, everything elsebecomes a mere formality andalmost inevitably no claims willbe recognised and settled.”

Expressing fear that the stategovernments will be under “evengreater pressure from theCentre” to accelerate the processof diversion of forest land,Ramesh said in a statement,“obviously, this has been done inname of ‘ease of doing business’for a chosen few. But it will endthe ‘ease of living’ for the vastmany.”

Responding to theEnvironment Minister Rameshresponded, "mantri-ji, pleasedon’t evade the main issue—thatis, are you not making the GramSabha irrelevant? You may nothave been briefed properly. Yournew rules go against the 2015note of the Ministry of TribalAffairs of Modi Sarkar..."

"These new rules have beenpromulgated without any con-sultation and discussion withstakeholders includingParliament’s StandingCommittee on Science andTechnology, Environment,Forests, and Climate Change," hesaid.

The Scheduled Tribes andOther Traditional ForestDwellers (Recognition of ForestRights) Act, 2006, popularlyknown as the Forest Rights Act,is a "historic and most progres-sive law passed unanimouslyand enthusiastically byParliament", he said, addingthat it confers land and liveli-hood rights—both individualand community— to Adivasi,Dalit and other families living inforest areas.

As per the 2009 circular, therights of tribal and other com-munities have to be settledbefore a decision can even beconsidered on forest and envi-ronmental clearance by Ministryof Environment, Forests, andClimate Change. It mandatedthat free, prior, and informedconsent of the families affectedbe obtained for such an exerciseto be lawful, Ramesh said.

"This was done to protectand promote the interests oftribal and other communitiestraditionally living in forestareas," he said, accusing theModi government of abdicatingresponsibility to ensure that theForest Conservation Act, 1980 isimplemented in a manner con-sistent with the Forest RightsAct, 2006.

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Maharashtra legislature sec-retary has issued show

cause notices to 53 out of thetotal 55 Shiv Sena MLAs in thestate - 39 of the faction led byEknath Shinde and 14 of theUddhav Thackeray group.

One of the 14 MLAs fromthe Thackeray side, SantoshBangar, joined the Shinde campon the day of the floor test ofthe latter's government on July4.

MLAs from both the sidesconfirmed having received theshowcase notice.

Both the sides haveaccused each other of defyingthe party whip during theSpeaker's election and the trustvote on July 3 and 4, respec-tively, seeking disqualificationof the legislators from both thesides.

The Shinde faction has not

included the name of AadityaThackeray, son of former chiefminister Uddhav Thackeray, inthe list of MLAs against whomthey have sought disqualifica-tion.

The notices have beenissued under the Members ofMaharashtra LegislativeAssembly (disqualification ongrounds of defection) rules.

The legislators have beenasked to explain their standwithin seven days, sources said.The Shiv Sena has 55 MLAs inthe 288-member Assembly,whose current strength is 287due to the death of a Sena leg-islator.

In the trust vote, 164MLAs voted for the motion ofconfidence, while 99 votedagainst it. After winning thetrust vote in the state Assemblyon July 4, the Eknath Shindefaction of the Shiv Sena hadissued a notice to 14 legislators

from the Uddhav Thackeraycamp for violating a whipissued by the Sena whip andShinde loyalist BharatGogawale.

A day before the floor test,Maharashtra AssemblySpeaker Rahul Narvekar hadrecognised Gogawale as theShiv Sena's chief whip, remov-

ing Sunil Prabhu, who belongsto the Thackeray faction.

On July 3, Rahul Narvekarof the BJP was elected Speakerof the Maharashtra Assembly.He had polled 164 votes, andhe defeated UddhavThackeray-led Shiv Sena can-didate Rajan Salvi, who got 107votes.

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There were more exchange ofbarbs between the

Trinamool Congress and theBJP after Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on Sundayinvoked Mother Kaali in hisspeech while delivering a lec-ture on the centenary of SwamiAatmasthananda ji Maharajthe former president ofRamakrishna Mission.

The TMC quickly hit backwondering how many times thePrime Minister had visitedKalighat or Dakshineswarasserting Bengal Chief Ministerand Trinamool supremoMamata Banerjee was herself agreat devotee of the Goddess.

“Statements are beingmade … with political intent …but I must ask how many timethe Prime Minister has visitedKalighat the seat of Kaali,”wondered senior Trinamool

parliamentarian Saugato Royand reminded “MamataBanerjee stays beside theKalighat temple and is a greatdevotee of the Goddess …religiously offering prayers dur-ing special occasions … theBengali New Year’s day tobegin with … no one has toteach TMC, Mamata and thepeople of Bengal how to revereKaali.”

Amid on going row over aCanadian filmmaker’s dis-courteous depiction of Kaaliand subsequently an allegeddenigrating reference of theGoddess by TMC MP MahuaMoitra, the Prime Minister onSunday said how India always

enjoyed the “unlimited bless-ings” of the Mother.

Referring to how SriRamakrishna Paramahansa,the Guru of SwamiVivekananda had the “clearvisions of Mother Kaali” thePrime Minister saidVivekananda himself was inun-dated in reverence of Kaali.

Finding a “connection”between the timing of thePrime Minister’s reference ofthe Goddess and the “intense-ly” polarised atmosphere in thecountry in the wake of certainremarks made by some politi-cians, another TMC MPSushmita Dev wondered why itwas less necessary for Modi torefer to rising inflation and lackof jobs than certain otherissues.

“There are issues likefalling rupee, rising inflation,unemployment, Deb said ask-ing why at this juncture the

Prime Minister had to refer toother issues instead of dwellingon those that were more rele-vant for the country’s youth.

Congress Lok Sabha leaderAdhir Chowdhury too attackedthe BJP and the TMC for try-ing to polarise the atmospherewhen the country was facing asevere economic crisis.

“Is it the time to raiseissues as which God belongs towhich State … Why will it benecessary for one section of thepeople to shout Jai Shri Ramand others to shout Jai MaaKaali for political issues … whysomeone will claim that Ramabelongs to U.P. and Kaalibelongs to Bengal … Godsbelong to the entire universe,”he said adding the politiciansshould better concentrate ondevelopment of the countryrather than creating political-ly tumultuous issues to garnervote,” he said.

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As the ongoing rescue oper-ations in the Amarnath

cave shrine area are nearingcompletion with hopes of find-ing any survivors fast fadingaway, the engineering wing ofthe Indian army supported byjawans drawn from variousother agencies Sunday pressedheavy machinery in to serviceto restore the damaged yatratrek ahead of resuming pil-grimage to the cave shrine atthe earliest.

The commitment dis-played by the Indian armycould be gauged from the factthat over one dozen men fromthe engineering regimentpulled up an excavator weigh-ing 3 Tons using ropes via

Baltal.In addition, heliborne

operations continued to dropthe essential supplies and engi-neering stores at various loca-tions. In a statement, Srinagarbased Defence PRO said,"Indian Air Force haddeployed 2 MI-17 and 04Cheetals for ferrying reliefmaterial and equipment". Atotal number of 43 sorties wereflown despite bad weather con-ditions till 2.00 p.m in the area.34 pilgrims were shifted andNDRF personnel including 6canines were transported fromSrinagar to the holy cave".

On ground zero, the rescueworkers were still looking forany survivors. The locationsidentified by the dog squadwere thoroughly scanned using

sophisticated hand held ther-mal imagers to detect any signof life buried under the debris.Around 40 pilgrims remainuntraceable ever since incessantrains washed away tents, lan-gars near the cave shrine leav-ing at least 16 pilgrims deadand over 100 others injured.

Meanwhile, LieutenantGovernor Manoj Sinha also vis-ited Nunwan base camp inPahalgam where he interactedwith the pilgrims and assuredthem the yatra would beresumed at the earliest.

Office of LG J&k tweeted,"Visited Nunwan, Pahalgamearlier today. Army, CAPFs,NDRF did a commendable jobduring the rescue & relief oper-ation. Efforts are underway torepair the road. We are hope- ful to resume the Yatra as soon as possible". In a separate tweet, the LG said, "Interacted with

yatris staying at the base camp.Reviewed the arrangements athealthcare facilities, langars.Providing better facilities to pil-grims is our top priority".

As the yatra remained sus-pended for the last two con-secutive days, a huge rush ofpilgrims was awaiting the startof the pilgrimage from both theBaltal and Pahalgam route.

In Jammu, the civil author-ities are struggling to cope upwith the increasing rush of pil-grims awaiting their turn toembark on the forward journeyfrom the yatri base camp. Toprevent assembly of a largenumber of pilgrims the entryhas been restricted at the yatribase camp in Bhagwati Nagar.Pilgrims reaching here inJammu were directed to visit

other lodgement centres inand around Jammu but theywere not ready to go there.

"After reaching here inJammu the local administrationis not allowing us to enter theyatri niwas at Bhgawati Nagar'',a pilgrim said.

"The staff deployed hereare directing us to visit otherlodging centres. We are out-siders and in the absence of anydedicated transport facility wefind it difficult to reach there".

"We requested them toallow us to stay here but theyrefused claiming the yatri niwasis already packed with pil-grims and there is no space leftto accommodate more pil-grims", another group memberclaimed on Sunday even asoperations continued.

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The General Council meet-ing of the 50-year-old

AIADMK scheduled for 09.30on Monday is going to be a“touch and go” game as theMadras High Court wouldpronounce its verdict about thelegality of the meeting at 09.15hrs. The court verdict is inresponse to a petition filed byparty coordinator OPanneerselvam challenging theconstitutionality of such ameeting. If the verdict is infavour of the GC meeting, theEdappadi Palaniswami factionwhich has convened it wouldgo ahead with it and declare thedual leadership null and void.The meeting would also electEdappadi Palaniswami as theinterim general secretary.

The tussle for the control ofthe party between Palaniswami,Panneerselvam and V KSasikala has reached a cruciallevel and the results would beknown by Monday evening.According to sources in theAIADMK, all senior leadershave dumped Panneerselvam

and rallied behindPalaniswamy which has madethe former to seek the help ofSasikala.

Sasikala, who is on a State-wide tour to wrest the party isa picture of contradictionpointed out Kolahala Srenivaas,AIADMK watcher and author.“Sasikala had made it knowntwice that she was not inter-ested in politics and retiringfrom active politics. But shemoves around claiming thatshe is the general secretary ofthe party despite the GeneralCouncil easing her out by abol-ishing the post in September2017,” said Srenivaas.

Panneerselvam andPalaniswami were appointedcoordinator and co-coordina-tor respectively in an effort towork out a truce in September2017 . But the dual leadershipdid not yield the result theAIADMK had expected. Theparty fared poorly in the 2019Lok Sabha election and man-aged to win just one out of the38 seats from the State. The2021 assembly election toosaw the AIADMK losing thebattle as the DMK returned to

power. Since then, it was DMKall the way as the party wonelection to the local bodies withbrutal majority.

The sidelining ofPanneerselvam that began afterthe assembly election reachedthe peak as the latter startedsinging peans to the DMK andM K Stalin. Panneerselvam alsocozied up to Sasikala in a bid towrest the party fromPalaniswami. But many seniorleaders in the party desertedPanneerselavam. “Had he beenhonest about his respect forAmma (Jayalalithaa) he wouldnot have appreciated Stalin orthe DMK. The byelaws of theAIADMK state that no mem-bers of the party shouldapproach the Court against theparty. Panneerselvam is filingpetitions after petitions andviolating party guidelines,” saida source close to Palaniswami.

K P Munusami, deputycoordinator and a close asso-ciate of Panneerselvamdumped him and joined thePalaniswami camp on June 23,when the General Council met.“Having become the Chiefminister for a couple of times

thanks to Jayalalithaa’s munif-icence, should Panneerselvamnot have been far more virulentin opposing the DMK after herdemise?” asked Munusamiwhile speaking to the media. Itmay be noted that all the for-mer ministers in the previousAIADMK Government whohave been raided by theVigilance and Anti-CorruptionDepartment belong to thePalaniswami camp which isbeing seen as a deal betweenChief Minister Stalin andPanneerselvam.

Panneerselvam’s grouse isthat the BJP leadership was nothelping him like they weredoing in the past. As on date,the only option before him is tojoin the Sasikala camp and tryto seize the party apparatusfrom Palaniswami. But thequestion that remains to beanswered is whether Sasikala,who does not have an office towork from and facing series ofcases filed by the ED andIncome Tax Department hasthe support of the cadres?“Sasikala is not Jayalalithaaand that is the answer,” saidSrenivaas.

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VD Satheeshan, the mercu-rial Leader of Opposition

in Kerala Legislative Assembly,suffered a set back on Sundayas the RSS released a picture ofthe former attending a meetingconvened by the Sangh atThrissur in 2006. The picturefeatured Satheeshan lightingthe traditional lamp in thebackdrop of a portrait of M SGolwalkar, former RSS chief.

Of late, Satheeshan hasbeen issuing statements afterstatements comparing the con-troversial speech made by SajiCherian last Sunday at a CPI-M party function in which thelatter came down heavily onIndian Constitution andtermed it a big hoax commit-ted on the people of India.Within three days Cherian hadto quit as Minister of Fisheriesand Culture following State-wide agitation by the BJP andthe Congress.

Satheeshan termedCherian’s speech as an echo ofthe views of RSS leaderGolwalkar. Upset over the

charge, the RSS leadership inKerala issued a statement con-demning Satheeshan’s chargeand asked him to furnish rea-sons and the logic behind suchcomparison. “I reject the noticewith contempt,” wasSatheeshan’s response to thecharge made by the Sanghleaders.

This could be the reasonbehind the Sangh’s action ofreleasing the picture throughthe social media which hasstirred a hornet’s nest in

Kerala’s political landscape. “Itis unfortunate. Had I been inhis place, I would not haveattended the meeting,” RameshChennithala, senior Congressleader who is upset with theparty High Command fordenying him the coveted posi-tion of the Leader ofOpposition after the 2021assembly election.

Things took a turn for theworse when R V Babu, HinduAikya Vedi leader came out onSunday with the charge that

Satheeshan had approachedthe RSS for help during the2001 and 2006 assembly elec-tions. “I do not want to disclosewhat was the outcome of thosemeetings. Let us keep it foranother day,” said Babu.

This is being seen as a set-back for the Congress leaderwho has been quite vocal in hisattacks on RSS and PrimeMinister Narendra Modi.Satheeshan was not availablefor comments till the time ofgoing to Press.

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TMC MLA Babul Supriyohas been appointed as a

national spokesperson of theparty, sources in the MamataBanerjee-led camp said.

Supriyo, the former unionminister, took to Twitter tothank the party supremo forgiving him the new responsi-bility.

"My sincere gratitude toHon'ble Didi @MamataOfficial& @abhishekaitc for appoint-ing/including me in the illus-trious Team of NationalSpokespersons of@AITCofficial. Shall do myvery best to live up to theresponsibility entrusted uponme," he tweeted.A senior TMCleader said Supriyo's appoint-ment as a national spokesper-son was a part of the strategydevised by the party to expandits base outside Bengal.

"He is a well-known faceacross the country, both as a

singer and a politician. So hecan help us place our views andpolicies on the national stage,"the TMC leader said.

Supriyo, a former BJP MP,was dropped from the Unionministry last year, followingwhich he switched over to theTMC.

He gave up his Asansol LokSabha seat, which he hadbagged on BJP tickets twice.

The singer-turned-politi-cian was then nominated by theruling TMC for the Ballygungeassembly bypoll in April thisyear, and he managed to clinchthe seat by a comfortable mar-gin.

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Union Minister NitinGadkari on Sunday said an

impartial and fair judicial systemis the biggest requirement for afree and fair democracy.

The road transport andhighways minister was speakingat the inauguration of an ameni-ties block of the MaharashtraNational Law University inNagpur. Hailing the four pillarsof democracy - legislative, exec-utive, judiciary and media,Gadkari said, " An independent,impartial and fair judicial systemis the biggest requirement for afree and fair democracy."

Time is the biggest capital,he said, adding that under theleadership of Prime MinisterNarendra Modi many adminis-trative reforms have taken place.

"During cabinet meetings,when discussions on tribunalsand other things are held, I oftentell the law minister and the

prime minister that whatever thedecision may be, it is the rightof the judiciary to give the deci-sion and it should not be influ-enced by anybody," the Unionminister said.

He also pitched for a timelimit for development works andremoving delays, which cansave thousands of crores ofrupees of the country.

Justices Bhushan Gavai andP S Narasimha, both judges ofthe Supreme Court, andMaharashtra Deputy ChiefMinister Devendra Fadnaviswere also present on the occa-sion.

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Heavy rains pounded many parts ofsouth Gujarat, leading to a rise in the

water level of some rivers which causedinundation in various low-lying areas, fol-lowing which over 700 people were shift-ed to safer places in Navsari and Valsad dis-tricts, officials said on Sunday.

There was flooding in some low-lyingareas of Valsad after a rise in the Orsangriver level. Authorities in Navsari districtwere also on alert as the Kaveri andAmbika rivers there were flowing abovethe danger mark, they said.

Very heavy rains lashed Valsad andNavsari districts on Saturday night andSunday morning, the officials said.

Chhota Udepur and Narmada districtsalso witnessed very heavy rainfall, withrivers overflowing and low-lying areas get-ting flooded, they said.

The India Meteorological Department(IMD) on Sunday predicted heavy to veryheavy rainfall with isolated extremelyheavy showers during the next five daysin south Gujarat's districts of Dang,Navsari and Valsad.

Several other districts of south Gujaratand Saurashtra are also likely to receive

heavy to very heavy rainfall during thisperiod, the IMD said.

"The Kaveri and Ambika rivers inNavsari district are flowing above the dan-ger mark. We are carrying out evacuationfrom low-lying areas. So far, over 300 peo-ple have been shifted to safer places andthe operation is continuing with the helpof a company of the National DisasterResponse Force (NDRF)," district CollectorAmit Prakash Yadav said.In Valsad, morethan 400 people were evacuated after theOrsang river level rose and caused flood-ing in low-lying areas, officials said.

On Sunday, there was some respite in

Valsad and the water level receded, fol-lowing which people started returning totheir homes, they said.

Several dams and rivers in south andcentral Gujarat and Saurashtra region havereceived heavy rains since Saturday. Manyof the rivers are flowing near the dangermark, keeping the respective administra-tions on alert.

Dharampur taluka in Valsad districtand Vansda in Navsari received 216 and213 mm rainfall, respectively, in the 24hour period till 6 am on Sunday, as per thedata shared by the State EmergencyOperation Centre (SEOC). In Navsari,Chikhli and Khergam talukas received 197mm and 194 mm downpour respectively,Kaprada in Valsad recorded 194 mmshowers during the same period, theSOEC said.

As per the data, Ahwa, Waghai andSubir areas in Dang district got 180 mm,160 mm and 141 mm rainfall, respective-ly, Umarpada in Surat got 179 mm down-pour and Vyara in Tapi district got 106 mmrain.

Parts of Dang, Tapi, Narmada andChhota Udepur districts continued toreceive very heavy rainfall till Sunday after-noon, as per the SEOC.

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�� Sir – Scientists from Switzerland have cre-ated a brand new plastic that is similar toPolyethylene Terephthalate (PET) and canbe readily produced from inedible plantparts. The plastic is a promising contenderfor the food packaging sectors since it isrobust, heat-resistant and effective at block-ing gases. The new plastic can be chemical-ly recycled because of its structure and canbreak down in the environment into harm-less carbohydrates. Now it is becomingincreasingly clear that moving away fromfossil fuels and avoiding the accumulationof plastic in the environment is essential tomeet the challenge of climate change. In thisdirection, considerable efforts are beingmade to develop compostable or recyclablepolymers made from non-edible plantmaterial called lignocellulosic biomass.

Of course, there’s a reason convention-al plastics are so popular; they combine lowcost, thermal stability, mechanical strength,processability and compatibility. These allare characteristics that any alternative plas-tic must match or surpass. And so far, thetask remains fraught with difficulty.Researchers have produced packaging films,yarns that can be spun into clothing or othertextiles, and fibres for 3D printing. Plasticshave very interesting properties, especiallyfor applications like food packaging, andwhat makes it unique is the presence of anintact road structure.

Vijaykumar H K | Raichur

�� Sir – The effect of hate crimes is that peo-ple victimised by violent hate crimes aremore likely to experience more psycholog-ical distress than victims of other violentcrimes. Specifically, victims of crimes thatare bias-motivated are more likely to expe-rience post-traumatic stress, safety concerns,depression, anxiety and anger than victimsof crimes that are not motivated by bias. Hatecrimes send messages to members of the vic-tim’s group that they are unwelcome andunsafe in the community, victimising theentire group and decreasing feelings of safe-

ty and security. Furthermore, witnessing dis-crimination against one’s own group can leadto psychological distress and lower self-esteem.

Hate crimes are an extreme form of prej-udice, made more likely in the context ofsocial and political change. Public and polit-ical discourse may devalue members ofunfamiliar groups, and offenders may feelthat their livelihood or way of life is threat-ened by demographic changes. Offendersmay not be motivated by hate, but rather byfear, ignorance or anger. These can lead todehumanization of unfamiliar groups andto targeted aggression. With this, any formof hate crime is serious and dangerous forsociety, its people and the country.

Bhagwan Thadani | Mumbai

�� Sir — The 100th anniversary of the iconicCentre Court is a significant milestone inthe history of Wimbledon tennis. Its lushgreen grass, trimmed with precision,snipped to perfection, and orderly and orga-

nized, all conjure up the image of the pris-tine beauty of the most popular and pres-tigious tennis courts of the four GrandSlams. The commencement of Wimbledon,which dates back to 1877, encompassesnearly every aspect of the sport. Perhaps, ofall the unfading images of the CentreCourt, Jana Novotna’s famous cry on theshoulder of the Duchess of Kent after shelost to Steffi Graf in the 1993 Wimbledonfinal when she looked all set to create his-tory can arguably be counted as the best.

The Czech champion, who later diedafter a long fight with cancer, found a placein every sports lover’s heart even as the royalfamily at the Centre Court showed itshuman side, and the moving images dur-ing the presentation ceremony are indeliblyingrained in our memory. With the CentreCourt being the most storied venue in ten-nis, commemorating 100 years of it is akinto commemorating the game itself.

Ranganathan Sivakumar | Chennai

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SOUNDBITE

standards of the impecunious.The steps for preventive

methods would include accel-eration of economic growthand rapid infrastructure devel-opment. Stress on humanresource development, properfunctioning of public distrib-ution systems and growth offarm/non-farm employment.Agricultural growth also has adirect bearing on the wane inpoverty affected conditions.For a long time in the 50s and60s, many growth models likethe Harrod-Domar growthmodel and Mahalanobisgrowth model stressed forrapid economic growth andhigher rate of capital formationfor speedy economic growth.They stressed that rapid eco-nomic growth would addressthe problem. But though therate of growth in GDPachieved the range of 5.5-6 percent per annum in 80s and 90s,it could not have a significantimpact on poverty reductionand employment generation.

What is the remedy? Theremedy as such lies in shiftingthe stress to labour-intensiveprojects and it should be fur-ther ensured that the benefitsof economic growth percolatedown to the target groups(those Below Poverty Line).Montek Ahluwalia had statedthat agricultural growth andpoverty are inversely related.The higher the agricultural

growth, the lower the povertyratio. Punjab and Haryana inthe sixties showed the way inthis direction. But, of late,increased mechanisation ofagricultural operations hasaffected employment genera-tion in this sector.Nevertheless, agriculture beingthe mainstay of our economy,steps to ensure growth anddevelopment in this sector (inrainfed and water scarcityareas through irrigation)would improve the conditionof the small and marginalfarmers.

Speedy development ofinfrastructure would give athrust to growth with directimpact on poverty alleviation.Moreover, growth of non-farm employment like pettytrade, transportation, hindercrafts, dairying etc can havedirect impact on poverty erad-ication. Poor householdsspend about 80 per cent oftheir income on food items.Hence, ensuring food securi-ty and proper functioning ofpublic distribution system is amust for a frontal attack onpoverty. If these methods areseriously and sincerely imple-mented and monitored, thecondition of the poor wouldsteadily improve and pull themout of the poverty trap.

The curative method ismore critical and needs mas-sive endeavour to propel peo-

ple out of the poverty net.Broadly speaking, the stepswould include access to sus-tainable livelihood, universalaccess to basic social services,provision of socio-economicprotection system to supportthose who cannot supportthemselves.

Solutions have to be foundto tackle region-centric pover-ty syndrome. While short-term solutions may revolvearound antipoverty andemployment generation pro-grammes of the Governmentand their speedy implementa-tion, the long-term policyshould take factors like popu-lation control, regional prob-lems and fulfilment of mini-mum needs of the poor intoconsideration. The need of thehour is for a paradigm shift inthe approach to eradicatepoverty. Economists (likeNobel laureate Amartya Sen)having stressed the concept ofdeprivation as the prominentsymptom poverty (over andabove income and consump-tion-level calculation), a frontalattack to tackle the deprivationfactor of the impecunious mayincrease the momentum topull those out from below thepoverty line.

(This is the last part of theseries on poverty.)

(The author is a superan-nuated senior IAS officer. Theviews expressed are personal.)

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Poverty with its penumbramarginalises a nation’sgrowth and development.Since there’s Hobson’s

choice, we must go for its eradi-cation.

Poverty is no longer taken asrestricted to economic factorsonly. A broader view of depriva-tion indicators of poverty like lifeexpectancy, educational index(years of schooling), standard ofliving, inequality in distributionof achievement, gender inequal-ity and, lastly, multidimensionalpoverty index (MPI). MPI statesdifferent factors determiningpoverty beyond income level.Multiple deprivation has manifes-tations in deprivation and back-wardness in health, education andstandards of living. It is clear thatpoverty is (and recognised as) amultidimensional concept basedon deprivation.

The Constitution has manyprovisions which may relate topoverty and its alleviation. Whilethe Preamble mentions the word‘socialist’ in it, Art 14 (equalitybefore law), Art 21 (protection oflife and liberty: life means a lifeof dignity, not just an animal life),Art 23 (prohibition of traffic inhuman beings and forced labour)also directly or indirectly touch-es the issue of poverty. UnderDirective Principles of State Policyin the Constitution, Art 38 (socialorder, welfare of people), Art39(a) (right to adequate means oflivelihood), Art 41 (right towork), Art 42 and Art 43 alsotouch upon poverty-relatedissues. But then why after so manyyears we are still not out of thequagmire of poverty, which hasaffected the economy, societyand all related sectors badly?

A closer look, analysis andunderstanding would reveal as towhich is the right way and there-by we may discern the reason (forour inability also) to wane theeffect of poverty. The steps to betaken to alleviate the predica-ments of the poverty-strickenmay be put into two categories.The two methods can be broad-ly delineated as prophylactic andcurative (in the former, it shouldbe seen that no one from theAbove Poverty Line (APL) sinksinto poverty trap. This is a way tocheck aggravation in the living

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The impact of Covid-19pandemic, the recent geo-political crisis and the

all-pervasive technological inno-vations sweeping acrosseconomies are challenging thetraditional financial intermedi-ation processes…

Over the past few years, thebusiness of banking has wit-nessed a shift from traditionalbranch banking to digital bank-ing. This paradigm shift hasbeen possible due to innovationsin information technology (IT),growth in mobile and internetconnectivity, market-basedfinancial intermediation, andthe advent of Fintech. Financialservice providers are now devis-ing new products and servicesand are adopting new businessmodels for reaching out to thetarget customers.

Improvements in technol-

ogy have also enhanced thecause of financial inclusionand tech-enabled public goodsdelivery. Direct benefit transfer(DBT) through the digitalmode is among the best exam-ples of tech-enabled publicgoods delivery. Digital-mobile-anywhere-anytime banking isbecoming the order of the day.The indigenously developedUnified Payments Interface(UPI) and Aadhaar EnabledPayment Service (AePS) havebecome the backbone of ourretail payments system.

Alongside these advance-ments, the Reserve Bank’s reg-ulatory approach has beenrealigned to support and fostersuch innovations…

With the advent of newtechnologies, we are witnessinga new era of disruption. Giventhe growing role of technology,

data and network effects, thereis a feeling among the banksthat having an ethos of a tech-nology company, while offeringbanking services, is the need ofthe hour. This is an area ofopportunity for the banks; butthere are associated challengeswhich need to be mitigated.Greater attention needs to begiven to building customers’trust by (i) offering productsand services appropriate and fitfor customer’s needs and cir-cumstances; (ii) ensuring robustsecurity controls, reliable andefficient delivery of services,transparency of terms and con-ditions to customers; and (iii)by handling customer griev-ances satisfactorily and build-ing necessary awareness amongcustomers. All of these aspectsneed to be factored in whenfinancial institutions introduce

or enhance technology drivenproducts and services.

Talking about opportuni-ties, it would be relevant to notethat what we have seen untilnow could be just the tip of theiceberg. The use of artificialintelligence (AI) and machinelearning (ML) to determinethe creditworthiness of clientsfor small ticket loans by analyz-ing data from a wide range oftraditional and non-tradition-al data sources, has the poten-tial to enhance access to cred-it for marginalized customers.Here also it would be necessaryto understand the associatedrisks and mitigate them suitablythrough various safeguards andprecautions. Risks relating tocyber security, software devel-opment, limitations in transac-tion capacity, privacy of cus-tomer data, and data security

need to be factored in. Themethodology of algorithmsunderpinning digital financialservices has to be clear, trans-parent, explainable and freefrom exclusionary biases. Thecredit scoring models usinginnovative techniques can beuseful but they should be sub-ject to a robust model gove-nance framework.Comprehensive assessment ofrisks has also to be undertakenwhile planning to move tocloud with customer sensitivedata.

In all these digital initia-tives, the plan should also fac-tor in those sets of customerswho may not be digitally savvyand who may want to engagephysically with the bank. It is,therefore, crucial that whiledriving various tech-enabledinitiatives, the existing systems

and processes do not see fre-quent disruptions and non-availability. We have alreadyseen instances of the damagethat disruptions in technologysystems can bring and the rep-utation risk they carry forfinancial entities…

It has also to be recognisedthat human resources can turnout to be the weakest link intechnology enabled financialservices. There is thus a vitalneed for ongoing training andskill building programmes.

At the end of the day, thebottom-line is how technologyimproves the financial system interms of efficiency, effective-ness, resolving bottlenecks ineconomic functions and pro-viding value addition to the cus-tomers.

Large technology compa-nies (Big Tech) which have

entered into provision of finan-cial services could potentiallybe another source of disruptionto the financial system. Thesecompanies have an enormousamount of customer datawhich has helped them tooffer tailored financial ser-vices to entities and individu-als lacking credit history or col-lateral. Even the banks andother lenders are sometimesutilising platforms provided byfintech companies in theirinternal processes for creditrisk assessment. Such largescale use of new methodologiesin credit risk assessment cancreate systemic concerns likeover-leverage, inadequate cred-it assessment, etc. Authoritiesand regulators have to strike afine balance between enablinginnovation and preventing sys-temic risks.

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(The author is the Governorof the Reserve Bank of India.)

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Thak chuki hun, Thoda AaramChahiye,” (I am tired, I need rest)are the opening lines of the poemwritten by Chandni Parihar. She

is just a 21-year-old girl who feels exhaust-ed by the discrimination she has to facein her society. A resident of remoteJakhera village in Garur block ofBageshwar district in Uttarakhand,Chandni has been fighting to complete hereducation.

Chandni was the first girl from her vil-lage to score 65 per cent in Class 10. Shewanted to pursue science, but due to theunavailability of this stream in the villageschools, she could not fulfill her dreams.“I wanted to move out of my village to dohigher secondary in science, but my par-ents objected as they were against idea ofspending money by sending me to aschool far off from the village,” she said.

Chandni was able to finish her 12th,but more difficulties awaited her. “Soonafter finishing school, I had to put up ahuge fight to get admission to a college.My parents and extended family memberswanted me to focus on housework...They agreed to distance learning afterlooking at how adamant I was... However,they approved it by making me swear toget married after I graduated from college.Now, I am about to finish my college thisyear and I dread as the days pass by,” shesaid.

Her brother, on the other hand, whois currently in the 12th standard, has fullsupport from their parents. He was askedwhich stream he would prefer to take. Infact, the parents wanted to send him outof the village, as there was no good fac-ulty in the nearby school.

Chandni made the best use of theopportunities available to her in college.Soon, she aspired to join the Indian Armyand simultaneously played football. Shecould not follow her dreams despitebeing a state-level footballer. “Once, I wentto the jungle to mow the grass. I despiseddoing it but had to go as people consid-ered it our ‘responsibility’. I didn’t realisethat I was on the edge of a hill and slipped,”she lamented.

The accident took place during theday, and the villagers and her parentsfound her in the evening. The backinjury caused by this unfortunate incidenthas shut all doors for Chandni as she canno longer play football and apply for theIndian Army. The villagers consider itproblematic when girls step out of thehouses without any purpose, but it is com-pletely fine for them to send the adoles-cent girls to the jungle and risk their liveswhile mowing grass. Chandni believes thetrue meaning of freedom is to live with-out judgment and to at least get a basiceducation without having to fight so hardfor it.

“The struggle is real and keeps gettingharder as we grow old,” another 21-year-old girl, Geeta Kumari, said. A resident of

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The author is adevelopment workerfrom Delhi (Charkha

Features)

Lamchula village in same dis-trict, Geeta is a powerhouse ofenergy. As she climbs steep moun-tainous path to junior schoolwhere she works as an informalassistant, she tells how despite hav-ing great potential, families do notallow girls to get educated.

“I could complete my studies tillClass 12 (intercollege) as it took mearound 45 minutes on foot to reachnearest school. Other girls had towalk for over one hour to reachschool on time. Others residing infaraway villages would drop outmid-year considering the distanceand the treacherous route theywere required to take even duringextreme weather,” said Geeta.

Parents cite different reasonsfor not supporting their girls’education. For some, the worry issafety, while others believe thatinstead of spending hours travel-ing to school, girls are better offlearning household chores. That iswhat they are born for.

Parents’ regressive thinking issupported by the state’s failure toestablish strong infrastructure in farflung areas. After completing herClass 12, Geeta couldn’t pursuehigher education despite havinggreat interest and enthusiasm. Thedegree college is in Bageshwarcity–around 25 km from Garurblock.

“Reaching Garur is anotherchallenge as the frequency ofavailable private taxi services isquite low. My parents did not seeany benefit in the struggle,” shesaid, adding that she has beengiven the responsibility to take careof her house and farms. On theother hand, her brothers recently

got selected to serve in the Indianarmed forces.

Unequal distribution of house-hold chores impacts girls’ oppor-tunities, and it gets difficult forthem to even think for themselves.Burdened with a thousand respon-sibilities, their aspirations fall topieces. According to a Unicefreport released in 2016, girlsbetween the ages of 5 and 14 spend40 per cent more time on house-hold chores than boys their age.This sets a stage for creating andconfirming the gendered roles ofgirls and building a certain outlookthat limits their potential in life.

Asha Kumari, 18, another girlfrom Lamchula is never to be seenat home. She is either in the fieldsor in the jungle gathering fodder.When at home, she, along with hermother, cooks, cleans and takescare of other household chores. “Iwould prefer to continue my col-lege full time, but it’s far away, sothat’s not an option.”

During Covid-19, the pressureof household chores burdenedthe girls even more in these isolat-ed villages. While boys had all thetime to indulge in sports, take upvarious activities of their interest,girls were sent to mow the grass inthe jungle for their livestock.

If there was one smartphone inthe house, it was given to boys toattend online classes. It is onlywhen elections are around, polit-ical leaders have woken up after astruggle of two years to distributefree mobile, tablet scheme forstudents.

The lockdown was harshspecifically for girls. The littletime they used to spend walking

to school, sharing their lives withtheir friends, was snatched by thelockdown, said ArchanaBahuguna, the head of Space forNurturing Creativity, a modelcommunity and alternative resi-dential learning centre situated inKhumera village in Rudraprayagdistrict of Uttarakhand.

Having experience of leadingseveral projects focusing on chil-dren, Archana emphasised howthe absence of vocational centresin villages affects girls. “It is notunknown that taking care of fam-ilies is considered a ‘duty’ of girlsand women,” Archana said.

Not sharing the load of house-hold chores by most men can beseen everywhere in the country.However, in rural areas with rigidcultural and gendered norms,coupled with lack of opportunities,often cut the wings of girls.

Even if some parents want tosupport their daughters, extremepoverty inhibits them from doingso. “I want to join the IndianArmy,” says Manisha Kapkoti, abright 15-year-old girl fromGairkhet, Kapkot block inUttarakhand. However, she added,there is no coaching centre for theNational Defence Academy hereand my parents do not have theresources to support me to pursuecoaching outside my village.”

There are several other girlswho have dreams—dreams ofhaving a computer centre in theirvillage, a smart phone to attendclasses online, a proper trans-portation service, access to school,freedom to wear whatever theywant, time for themselves. Hopeone day, they have it all.

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Kyiv: At least 15 people werekilled when a Russian rocket hitan apartment building in theeastern Ukraine town of ChasivYar and more than 20 peoplemay still be trapped in the rub-ble, officials said Sunday.

The Saturday night rock-et assault is the latest in a recentburst of high-casualty attackson civilian structures.

At least 19 people diedwhen a Russian missile hit ashopping mall in the city ofKremenchuk in late June and21 people were killed when anapartment building and recre-ation area came under rocketfire in the southern Odesaregion this month.

Russia has repeatedlyclaimed that it is hitting onlytargets of military value in thewar. There was no comment onChasiv Yar at a Russian DefenseMinistry briefing on Sunday.

Pavlo Kyrylenko, gover-nor of the Donetsk region thatincludes Chasiv Yar, said thetown of about 12,000 was hit byUragan rockets, which are firedfrom truck-borne systems.

The Ukrainian emergencyservices later said the death tollhad risen to 15 and that an esti-mated two dozen people wereunder the wreckage. Rescuersmade voice contact with at leastthree people trapped in therubble, it said.

Chasiv Yar is about 20

kilometers (12 miles) southeastof Kramatorsk, a city that isexpected to be a major target ofRussian forces as they grindwestward.

The Donetsk region is oneof two provinces along withLuhansk that make up theDonbas region, where sepa-ratist rebels have foughtUkrainian forces since 2014.Last week, Russia captured thecity of Lysychansk, the lastmajor stronghold of Ukrainianresistance in Luhansk.

Russian forces are raising"true hell" in the Donbas,despite assessments they weretaking an operational pause,

Luhansk governor SerhiyHaidai said Saturday.

After the seizure ofLysychansk, some analysts pre-dicted Moscow’s troops likelywould take some time to rearmand regroup.

But "so far there has beenno operational pauseannounced by the enemy. He isstill attacking and shelling ourlands with the same intensity asbefore," Haidai said. He latersaid the Russian bombard-ment of Luhansk was sus-pended because Ukrainianforces had destroyed ammuni-tion depots and barracks usedby the Russians. AP

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Kyiv: Oleksandr Chubuk’swarehouse should be empty,awaiting the new harvest, withhis supply of winter wheatalready shipped abroad.

Instead, his storage bins incentral Ukraine are piled highwith grain he cannot ship outbecause of the war with Russia.

The green spikes of wheatare already ripening. Soon, thehorizon will look like theUkrainian flag, a sea of goldbeneath a blue sky.

Chubuk expects to reap500 tonnes, but for the firsttime in his 30 years as a farmer,he’s uncertain about what to dowith it.

"Hope is the only thing Ihave now," he said.

The war has trapped about22 million tons of grain insideUkraine, according to PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskyy, a grow-ing crisis for the countryknown as the "breadbasket ofEurope" for its exports ofwheat, corn and sunflower oil.

Before Russia’s invasion,Ukraine could export 6 millionto 7 million tons of grain permonth, but in June it shippedonly 2.2 million tons, accord-ing to the Ukrainian GrainAssociation.

Normally, it sends about30% of its grain to Europe, 30%to North Africa and 40% toAsia, said Mykola Horbachov,

head of the association.With Russia’s blockade of

Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, thefate of the upcoming harvest inUkraine is in doubt.

The U.N. Food andAgriculture Organization saysthe war is endangering foodsupplies for many developingnations and could worsenhunger for up to 181 millionpeople.

Meanwhile, many farmersin Ukraine could go bankrupt.They are facing the most diffi-cult situation since gainingindependence in 1991,Horbachov said.

Turkish President RecepTayyip Erdogan has said hiscountry is working with theU.N., Ukraine, and Russia tofind a solution, offering safecorridors in the Black Sea forwheat shipments.

For now, Ukraine is tryingless-effective alternatives toexport its grain, at least toEurope. Currently, 30% ofexports go via three DanubeRiver ports in southwesternUkraine.

The country also is tryingto ship grain via 12 bordercrossings with European coun-tries, but trucks must wait inline for days, and Europe’sinfrastructure cannot yetabsorb such a volume of grain,Horbachov said.

"It’s impossible to buildsuch infrastructure in one year,"he told The Associated Press.

Russia’s invasion alsocaused transportation costs tosoar.

The price to deliver thisyear’s harvested barley to theclosest Romanian port,Constanta, is now $160 to$180 per tonne, up from $40 to$45. And yet a farmer sellingbarley to a trader gets lessthan $100 per ton.

The losses are piling up,along with the harvest.

"Most of the farmers arerunning the risk of becomingbankrupt very soon. But theydon’t have any other option butto sell their grain cheaper than

its cost," Horbachov said.On top of such challenges,

not all farmers can sell theirgrain. Before the invasion,Chubuk could sell a ton ofwheat from his Kyiv regionfarm for $270. Now he can’tfind a buyer even at $135 perton. "The whole system backsup," including storage options,said James Heneghan, seniorvice president at GroIntelligence, a global climateand agriculture data analyticscompany. The system wasmeant to keep Ukraine’sexports flowing, not storethem.

Without money coming infor grain, future harvests arechallenging. AP

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Kostiantynivka: By the timethe Russians invaded, 43-year-old Mufti Said Ismahilov - oneof the Muslim spiritual leadersof Ukraine - had alreadyresolved that he would stepaside from his religious dutiesto fight for his country.

At the end of last year, aswarnings of an imminentattack grew louder, Ismahilovbegan training with a local ter-ritorial defense battalion. Bythen he had served as a muftifor thirteen years.

Born and raised inDonetsk in eastern Ukraine,Ismahilov had already fledRussia once before, in 2014,when Moscow-backed sepa-ratists captured his city.

He eventually moved to aquiet suburb outside Kyivcalled Bucha - only to find him-self, eight years later, at theheart of Moscow’s assault onKyiv, and the site of atrocities

that shocked the world. It feltas if the threat of Russianoccupation would never end.

"This time I made the deci-sion that I would not run away,I would not flee but I wouldfight" he said in an interviewwith The Associated Press inKostiantynivka, a town close tothe front lines in easternUkraine where a battle forcontrol of the region is inten-sifying. Ismahilov began work-ing as a military driver forparamedics evacuating thewounded from front lines orbesieged towns.

Tasked with driving inhighly dangerous conditions,but also emotionally support-ing the critically injured,Ismahilov says he sees his newjob as "a continuation of myspiritual duty before God."

"If you are not scared andyou can do this, then it is veryimportant. The Prophet was

himself a warrior," Ismahilovsays. "So I follow his exampleand I also will not run, or hide.I will not turn my back on oth-ers." Ismahilov was one ofdozens of Ukrainian Muslimswho gathered at the mosque inKostiantynivka Saturday tomark Eid al-Adha - an impor-tant religious holiday in Islam.

The mosque is now the lastremaining operational mosquein Ukrainian-controlled terri-tory in Donbas. Ismahilov toldthe AP that there are around 30mosques in the region in totalbut that most are now in thehands of the Russians.

Last week, Russia capturedthe city of Lysychansk, the lastmajor stronghold of Ukrainianresistance in the easternprovince of Luhansk. The gov-ernor of the Luhansk regionsaid on Saturday that Russianforces are now pressing towardthe border with the neigh-

bouring Donetsk region. Muslims make up almost 1

per cent of the population inUkraine, which is predomi-nantly Orthodox Christian.There is a large Muslim popu-lation in Crimea - home to theCrimean Tatars and illegallyannexed by Russian in 2014.

Numbers there jump to 12per cent. There is also a sizeableMuslim community in easternUkraine, the result of waves ofeconomic migration as theregion industrialised and manyMuslims immigrated to theDonbas region to work in themines and factories.

The conflict in 2014 forcedmany Muslims from Crimeaand Donbas to relocate toother parts of the countrywhere they joined long-estab-lished Tatar communities orbuilt new Islamic centers along-side Turks, Arabs andUkrainian converts. AP

Berlin: The CanadianGovernment says it will allowthe delivery to Germany ofequipment from a key Russia-Europe natural gas pipelinethat has undergone mainte-nance - equipment the absenceof which Russia’s Gazpromcited last month as a reason formore than halving the flow ofgas.

The return of turbinesfrom the Nord Stream 1pipeline sent to Montreal for ascheduled overhaul has beencomplicated by sanctionsimposed on Russia over the warin Ukraine. Canada’s ministerof natural resources, JonathanWilkinson, said in a statementlate Saturday that "Canada willgrant a time-limited and revo-cable permit for SiemensCanada to allow the return ofrepaired Nord Stream 1 tur-bines to Germany."

That, Wilkinson said in thestatement posted on Twitter,will support "Europe’s ability toaccess reliable and affordableenergy as they continue totransition away from Russianoil and gas."

He said that "absent a nec-essary supply of natural gas, theGerman economy will suffervery significant hardship."

Siemens Energy said afterGazprom started reducing gasflows in mid-June that it hadbeen unable to return a gas tur-bine that powers a compressorstation on the pipeline, whichhad been overhauled after morethan 10 years in service, to thecustomer, Gazprom.

German politicians havedismissed the Russian expla-nation for the 60% reduction ingas flows through Nord Stream1, saying that equipmentshouldn’t have been a signifi-cant issue until the fall and theRussian decision was a politi-cal gambit to sow uncertaintyand push up prices.

The Canadian move comesbefore Nord Stream 1 is due toshut down for annual mainte-nance on Monday.

In previous summers, thework led to a roughly 10-dayshutdown, but German ViceChancellor Robert Habeck hassaid he suspects that Russiamay cite "some little technicaldetail" as a reason not toresume gas deliveries.

The reduction in gas flowscomes as Germany and the restof Europe try to reduce theirdependence on Russian ener-gy imports. AP

Washington: Two weeks afterRussia invaded Ukraine inFebruary, Russian forcesassaulted a nursing home in theeastern region of Luhansk.Dozens of elderly and disabledpatients, many of them bedrid-den, were trapped inside with-out water or electricity.

The March 11 assault setoff a fire that spread through-out the facility, suffocatingpeople who couldn’t move. Asmall number of patients andstaff escaped and fled into anearby forest, finally gettingassistance after walking for 5kilometers (3 miles).

In a war awash in atrocities,the attack on the nursing homenear the village of StaraKrasnyanka stood out for itscruelty. And Ukrainian author-ities placed the fault squarelyon Russian forces, accusingthem of killing more than 50vulnerable civilians in a brutaland unprovoked attack.

But a new UN report has

found that Ukraine’s armedforces bear a large, and perhapsequal, share of the blame forwhat happened in StaraKrasnyanka, which is about 580kilometers (360 miles) south-east of Kyiv. A few days beforethe attack, Ukrainian soldierstook up positions inside thenursing home, effectively mak-ing the building a target.

At least 22 of the 71patients survived the assault,but the exact number of peo-ple killed remains unknown,according to the UnitedNations.

The report by the UN’sOffice of the HighCommissioner for HumanRights doesn’t conclude theUkrainian soldiers or theRussian troops committed awar crime. But it said the bat-tle at the Stara Krasnyankanursing home is emblematic ofthe human rights office’s con-cerns over the potential use of"human shields" to prevent

military operations in certainareas.

The aftermath of the attackon the Stara Krasnyanka homealso provides a window intohow both Russia and Ukrainemove quickly to set the narra-tive for how events are unfold-ing on the ground - even whenthose events may still beshrouded by the fog of war. ForUkraine, maintaining the upperhand in the fight for hearts andminds helps to ensure the con-tinued flow of billions of dol-lars in Western military andhumanitarian aid.

Russia’s frequently indis-criminate shelling of apart-ment buildings, hospitals,schools and theaters has beenthe primary cause of the war’sthousands of civilian casualties.Ukraine and its allies, includ-ing the United States, haverebuked Moscow for the deathsand injuries and called forthose responsible to be broughtto justice.

But Ukraine also mustabide by the international rulesof the battlefield. David Crane,a former Defence Departmentofficial and a veteran of numer-ous international war crimeinvestigations, said theUkrainian forces may haveviolated the laws of armedconflict by not evacuating thenursing home’s residents andstaff.

"The bottom-line rule is

that civilians cannot inten-tionally be targeted. Period. Forwhatever reason," Crane said."The Ukrainians placed thosepeople in a situation which wasa killing zone. And you can’t dothat."

The Associated Press andthe PBS series "Frontline,"drawing from a variety ofsources, have independentlydocumented hundreds ofattacks across Ukraine that

likely constitute war crimes.The vast majority appear tohave been committed byRussia. But a handful, includ-ing the destruction of the StaraKrasnyanka care home, indi-cate Ukrainian fighters are alsoto blame.

The first reports in themedia about the StaraKrasnyanka nursing homelargely reflected statementsissued by Ukrainian officialsmore than a week after thefighting ended.

Serhiy Haidai, the governorof Luhansk, declared in aMarch 20 post to his Telegramaccount that 56 people hadbeen killed "cynically anddeliberately" by "Russian occu-piers" who "shot at close rangefrom a tank." The office ofUkraine’s prosecutor general,Iryna Venediktova, said in astatement issued the same daythat 56 elderly people dieddue to the "treacherous actions"of the Russian forces and their

allies. Neither statement men-tioned whether Ukrainian sol-diers had entered the homebefore the fighting began.

The Luhansk regionaladministration, which Haidaileads, did not respond torequests for comment. TheUkrainian prosecutor general’soffice told the AP on Fridaythat its Luhansk division con-tinues to investigate Russia’s"indiscriminate shelling andforced transfer of persons"from the nursing home. About50 patients were killed in theattack, the office said, fewerthan it stated in March. Theprosecutor general’s office didnot directly respond to the U.N.Report, but said it also is look-ing into whether Ukrainiantroops had been in the home.

Moscow-backed separatistshave been fighting Ukrainianforces for eight years in themostly Russian-speaking east-ern industrial heartland, theDonbas, which includes the

Luhansk and Donetsk regions.They have declared two inde-pendent "people’s" republics,which were recognized byRussia just before the warbegan. After the invasion, theseseparatist fighters came underRussian command.

Viktoria Serdyukova, thehuman rights commissionerfor the Luhansk separatist gov-ernment, said in a March 23statement that the Ukrainiantroops were responsible forcasualties at the nursing home.The residents had been takenhostage by Ukrainian "mili-tants" and many of them were"burned alive" in a fire startedby the Ukrainians as they wereretreating, she said.

The U.N. Report examinedviolations of internationalhuman rights law that haveoccurred in Ukraine sinceRussia invaded on Feb. 24.The Stara Krasnyanka attacktotals just two paragraphs in the38-page report. AP

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Johannesburg: A mass shoot-ing at a tavern inJohannesburg’s Soweto town-ship has killed 15 people andleft others in critical condition,according to police.

Police say they are investi-gating reports that a group ofmen arrived in a minibus taxiand opened fire on some of thepatrons at the bar shortly aftermidnight Sunday.

Those injured have beentaken to Chris HaniBaragwanath Hospital.

The number of cartridgesfound on the scene indicatesthat a group of people openedfire in the bar, said Gautengprovince police commissionerLt. Gen. Elias Mawela.

"The primary investigationsuggests that these people wereenjoying themselves here, in alicensed tavern operating with-in the right hours," Mawela toldThe Associated Press.

"All of a sudden theyheard some gunshots, that iswhen people tried to run out ofthe tavern. We don’t have thefull details at the moment ofwhat is the motive, and whythey were targeting these peo-ple," he said.

"You can see that a highcaliber firearm was used and itwas shooting randomly. Youcan see that every one of thosepeople were struggling to getout of the tavern," Mawela toldThe Associated Press.

The area where the shoot-ing took place was very dark,making it harder to find peo-ple who could identify the sus-pects, he said.

Rifles and a 9 mm pistolwere used in the attack, saidnational police spokeswomanCol. Dimakatso Sello. In a sep-arate incident, four people wereshot dead by unknown gun-men at a tavern in Sweetwaterstownship in the coastal city ofPietermaritzburg on Saturdaynight. According to the police,two men entered the tavernand randomly opened fire onthe patrons, killing two peopleon the scene while two otherswere confirmed dead at thehospital. AP

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Aretired three-star Armygeneral has been suspend-

ed from his duties as an advis-er to active-duty officers, anArmy spokeswoman saidSaturday. The suspension fol-lowed reports that his socialmedia account carried a com-ment critical of first lady JillBiden.

Retired Lt. Gen.Gary Volesky was serving as anHQE-SM, a highly qualifiedexpert-senior mentor, whenhe was suspended by Lt. Gen.Theodore Martin, command-ing general of the CombinedArms Center, according to astatement from Army spokes-woman Cynthia O. Smith. Shedid not give a reason for the

suspension, which was pendingthe outcome of an inquiry,and no other details were pro-vided.

USA Today reportedthat a Twitter account underVolesky’s name carried a replyto a statement by the first ladyfollowing the Supreme Court’saction last month overturningthe abortion rights decisionRoe v. Wade. "For nearly 50years, women have had theright to make our own deci-sions about our bodies. Today,that right was stolen from us,"Biden said.

The newspaperreported that the tweet underVolesky’s name stated: "Glad tosee you finally know what awoman is." The tweet was laterdeleted. AP

Rome: The Italian navy onSaturday began relocating thefirst 600 migrants from theSicilian island of Lampedusaafter its refugee identificationcenter became overwhelmedwith new arrivals and photoscirculated of filthy conditions.

July has seen a sustaineduptick in daily migrant arrivalsin Italy compared to recentyears, according to InteriorMinistry statistics. Overall,migrant arrivals are up sharplythis year, with 30,000 would-berefugees making landfall sofar compared to 22,700 in thesame period in 2021 and 7,500in 2020. AP

Tehran: Iran announced onSunday that it has begunenriching uranium up to 20 percent using sophisticated cen-trifuges at its undergroundFordo nuclear plant, state TVreported, an escalation thatcomes amid a standoff with theWest over its tattered atomicdeal.

Behrouz Kamalvandi, aspokesman for Iran’s AtomicEnergy Organisation, said ura-nium enriched to 20 per centwas collected for the first timefrom advanced IR-6 centrifugeson Saturday. He said Iran hadinformed the UN nuclearwatchdog about the develop-

ment two weeks ago.Centrifuges are used to

spin enriched uranium intohigher levels of purity. Tehran’s2015 nuclear agreement withworld powers had called forFordo to become a research-and-development facility andrestricted centrifuges there tonon-nuclear uses.

Iran had previously told theIAEA that it was preparing toenrich uranium through a newcascade of 166 advanced IR-6centrifuges at its undergroundFordo facility.

But it hadn’t revealed thelevel at which the cascadewould be enriching. AP

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Tokyo: Japanese went to thepolls Sunday in the shadow ofthe assassination of formerPrime Minister Shinzo Abe,who was gunned down whilemaking a campaign speech.Abe’s governing party appearedto be cruising to a major vic-tory.

As people voted, police inwestern Japan sent the allegedassassin to a local prosecutors’office for further investiga-tion. A day earlier a top region-al police official acknowledgedpossible security lapses thatallowed the attacker to get soclose and fire a bullet at thestill-influential former Japaneseleader.

In a country still recover-ing from the shock, sadnessand fear of Abe’s shooting - thefirst former or serving leader tobe assassinated in postwarJapan - polling started for halfof the upper house, the lesspowerful of Japan’s two-cham-ber parliament.

Abe was shot in Nara onFriday and airlifted to a hospi-tal but died of blood loss.Police arrested a former mem-ber of Japan’s navy at the scene.Police confiscated a home-made gun and several otherswere later found at his apart-ment.

The alleged attacker,Tetsuya Yamagami, told inves-tigators he acted because ofAbe’s rumored connection toan organization that he resent-ed, police said, but had noproblem with the formerleader’s political view. The manhad developed hatred toward areligious group that his moth-er was obsessed about and thatbankrupted a family business,according to media reports,

including some that identifiedthe group as the UnificationChurch.

Abe’s body, in a blackhearse accompanied by hiswife, Akie, returned to hishome in Tokyo’s upscaleShibuya, where many mourn-ers, including Prime MinisterFumio Kishida and top partyofficials, paid tribute. His wakeand funeral are expected incoming days.

Nara prefectural policechief Tomoaki Onizuka onSaturday said that Abe’s assas-sination was the “greatestregret” in his 27-year career. Hesaid problems with securitywere undeniable, that he tookthe shooting seriously and willreview the guarding proce-dures.

Abe’s assassination aheadof Sunday’s parliamentary elec-tion shocked the nation and

raised questions over whetheradequate security was provid-ed for the former prime min-ister.

Some observers whowatched videos of the attacknoted a lack of attention in theopen space behind Abe as hespoke.

Experts also said Abe wasmore vulnerable standing onthe ground level instead ofatop a campaign vehicle, astandard for premier-classpoliticians, but that option wasreportedly unavailable due tohis hastily arranged visit toNara.

Mitsuru Fukuda, a crisismanagement professor atNihon University, said policewere seen focusing frontwardand paying little attention towhat was behind Abe, notingthat the suspect was approach-ing the former leader unno-

ticed until he fired the firstshot.

“Clearly there were prob-lems,” Fukuda said.

The first shot narrowlymissed Abe and hit an electionvehicle. The second enteredfrom his upper left arm dam-aged his neck artery, causingmassive bleeding and death.

Fukuda said that electioncampaigns provide a chance forvoters and politicians to inter-act because “political terrorism”was extremely rare in postwarJapan. It’s a key democraticprocess, but Abe’s assassinationcould prompt stricter securityat crowded events like cam-paigns, sports games and oth-ers.

On Saturday, when partyleaders went out for their finalappeals under heightened secu-rity, there were no more fist-touches - a COVID-19 eraalternative to handshakes - orother close-proximity friendlygestures they used to enjoy.

After Abe’s assassination,Sunday’s election had a newmeaning, with all political lead-ers emphasizing the impor-tance of free speech and theirpledge not to back down to vio-lence against democracy.

“We absolutely refuse to letviolence shut out free speech,”Kishida said in his final rally innorthern city of Niigata onSaturday amid tightened secu-rity. “We must demonstratethat our democracy and elec-tion will not back down to vio-lence.”

According to the Asahinewspaper, Yamagami was acontract worker at a ware-house in Kyoto, operating aforklift. He was described as aquiet person in the beginning

but started ignoring rules thatled to quarrels with his col-leagues, then he started miss-ing work and quit in April cit-ing health problems. A next-door neighbor at his apartmenttold Asahi he never metYamagami, though he recalledhearing noises like a saw beingused several times late at nightover the past month.

Japan is known for its strictgun laws. With a population of125 million, it had only 21 gun-related criminal cases in 2020,according to the latest govern-ment crime paper. Experts say,however, some recent attacksinvolved use of consumer itemssuch as gasoline, suggestingincreased risks for ordinarypeople to be embroiled in massattacks.

While media surveys hadpredicted a major victory forthe governing LiberalDemocratic Party amid frac-tured and weak opposition, awave of sympathy votes fromAbe’s assassination could bringa bigger victory than Kishida’smodest goal of winning thehouse majority.

Even after stepping downas prime minister in 2020, Abewas highly influential in theLDP and headed its largest fac-tion. His absence could changethe power balance in the gov-erning party that has almostuninterruptedly ruled postwarJapan since its 1955 foundation,experts say.

“This could be a turningpoint” for the LDP over its divi-sive policies on gender equal-ity, same-sex marriages andother issues that Abe-backedultra-conservatives with pater-nalistic family values had resist-ed, said Fukuda. AP

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Bangkok: U.S. Secretary ofState Antony Blinken will paya brief condolence visit toJapan next week following theassassination of formerJapanese Prime MinisterShinzo Abe, the StateDepartment said Sunday.

Blinken will travel to Tokyoon Monday to pay his respectsto the former leader and meetwith senior Japanese officialsbefore returning to Washingtonfrom an Asian tour that he isnow wrapping up.

“Secretary Blinken willtravel to Tokyo, Japan, to offercondolences to the Japanesepeople on the death of formerPrime Minister Abe Shinzoand to meet with seniorJapanese officials,” StateDepartment spokesperson NedPrice said in a statement.

“The U.S.-Japan Alliance isthe cornerstone of peace andstability in the Indo-Pacificand has never been stronger.”

Blinken is in Thailand ona pre-scheduled visit and hadbeen in Indonesia on Fridayattending a Group of 20nations’ foreign ministers meet-ing in Bali when Abe was shotand killed.

He will be the most seniorU.S. Official to visit Japan in theaftermath of Abe’s death. AP

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London: British Indian formerCabinet minister Rishi Sunakmaintained his lead as the raceto replace Boris Johnson asConservative Party leader andnext UK Prime Ministerwidened on Sunday with atotal of nine candidates in thefray, with Trade Minister PennyMordaunt emerging as an earlysecond favourite.

Mordaunt shared a#pm4pm video to announceher candidacy, followingTransport Secretary GrantShapps, former ForeignSecretary Jeremy Hunt andPakistani-origin former HealthSecretary Sajid Javid.

The complete line-up so farfor the leadership race includesGoan-origin Attorney GeneralSuella Braverman, Iraqi-ori-gin Nadhim Zahawi, Nigerian-origin Kemi Bedanoch andTory backbencher TomTugendhat.

Foreign Secretary Liz Trussis expected to declare her can-didacy soon too, taking thetotal to 10 potential candidatesin one of the widest battlefieldsfor a Tory leadership race.

“Our leadership has tochange. It needs to become alittle less about the leader anda lot more about the ship,” saidMordaunt, who is now secondranked in the bookmaker’s

odds with Sunak still ahead.“If I become Prime

Minister, I will protect women’srights and ensure women andgirls enjoy the same freedommost males take for granted infeeling safe from assault andabuse,” the UK-born formerChancellor said on Sunday.

The 42-year-old son-in-law of Infosys co-founderNarayana Murthy hadlaunched his bid with a pledgeto restore trust, rebuild theeconomy and reunite the coun-try. He is yet to lay out hisplans in full but has so far notindicated any immediate taxcuts if elected leader.

For a traditionally low-taxfavouring Conservative Party,the focus of the race is expect-ed to be on the candidates’plans to cut taxes.

Javid - the UK-born son ofBritish Pakistani bus driverwho has also served as a formerChancellor in the Cabinet -promised wide-ranging taxcuts, including cancelling nextyear’s scheduled hike in cor-poration tax from 19 per centto 25 per cent and instead grad-ually reduce it by 1p a year to15 per cent.

“I don’t believe in unfund-ed tax cuts. This is a funded pro-posal,” he told the BBC soonafter launching his bid. AP

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Bangkok: US Secretary of StateAntony Blinken is criticisingSoutheast Asian nations for notdoing enough to pressMyanmar’s military govern-ment to return the country tothe path of democracy follow-ing last year’s power seizure.

But as Blinken lamentedthe lack of progress inMyanmar, also known asBurma, he also moved tostrengthen US ties with keyregional ally Thailand - part ofefforts to counter Chineseinfluence across the Indo-Pacific.

Speaking at a news con-ference in Bangkok, Blinkensaid it was “unfortunate” thatrepression in Myanmar wascontinuing nearly 18 monthsafter the military takeover.And, he said he was disap-pointed that Myanmar’s neigh-bours weren’t applying pressurefor it to end.

“I think it’s unfortunatelysafe to say that we’ve seen nopositive movement,” Blinkentold reporters.

“On the contrary, we con-tinue to see the repression ofthe Burmese people who con-tinue to see violence perpe-trated by the regime.”

He blasted Myanmar’s mil-itary leaders for jailing or forc-ing almost the entire opposi-tion to flee and for worseningthe grim humanitarian situa-tion by not delivering the kindof assistance and supplies thatare needed to improve condi-tions.

Blinken then took aim atMyanmar’s neighbours in theAssociation of Southeast AsianNations, which has beenattempting to convince themilitary into implementing a

five-point plan to return thecountry to a democratic path.

“All countries have to con-tinue to speak clearly aboutwhat the regime is doing in itsongoing repression and bru-tality,” he said.

“We have an obligation tothe people of Burma to hold theregime accountable. Regionalsupport for the regime’s adher-ence to the five-point plandeveloped by ASEAN is alsocritical. That has not hap-pened.”

He added that all membersof ASEAN “need to hold theregime accountable for that,continue to demand an imme-diate cessation of violence, therelease of political prisonersand the restoration of Burma’sdemocratic path.”

Just last week, Myanmarhosted a regional gathering ofofficials in what the oppositionsaid was a direct contraventionof the ASEAN peace plan fol-lowing the ouster of civilianleader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Suu Kyi’s ouster inFebruary 2021 triggered wide-spread peaceful protests thatwere violently suppressed andevolved into armed resistance,and the country has slippedinto what some U.N. Expertscharacterize as a civil war.

Blinken traveled toThailand after attending ameeting of foreign ministersfrom the Group of 20 rich andlarge developing countries inIndonesia, where he accusedChina of siding with Russiaover the war in Ukraine andsaid that support was compli-cating already fraught rela-tions between Washington andBeijing. After meeting China’sForeign Minister Wang Yi in

Bali on Saturday, Blinkenwarned that Chinese supportfor Russia on Ukraine poses athreat to the rules-based inter-national order. Blinken’s visit toThailand was intended to bol-ster at least one small part ofthat order.

In Bangkok, Blinkensigned two cooperation agree-ments with his Thai counter-part, pledging to expand strate-gic cooperation with Thailandand improve the resilience ofsupply chains.

Although modest, the dealsfit into the administration’sbroader strategy for the Indo-Pacific, which is aimed at blunt-ing China’s increasing assertive-ness and offering alternatives toBeijing-sponsored develop-ment that many US officialsregard as a trap for smaller,poorer nations.

Blinken did not mentionChina by name in his com-ments with Thai PrimeMinister Prayuth Chan-ocha orForeign Minister DonPramudwinai. But after signingthe deals, he said the US andThailand “share the same goalof a free, open, interconnectedprosperous, resilient and secureIndo-Pacific.”

American officials use thatphrase often to refer to the pre-vention of Chinese dominancein the region and US DefenseSecretary Lloyd Austin hadsimilar comments when hevisited Bangkok last monthand met Prayuth.

Thailand is already amember of President JoeBiden’s Indo-Pacific EconomicForum, a bloc that was creat-ed earlier this year with the aimof curbing the momentum ofChina’s Belt. AP

Washington: President JoeBiden, preparing for a trip toSaudi Arabia amid criticism ofits poor human rights record,defended his decision in anewspaper opinion piece,insisting that he had long sup-ported reforms and sought to“reorient but not rupture” rela-tions with a longstandingstrategic partner.

In the article posted onlineSaturday night by TheWashington Post, Biden point-ed to developments in theMiddle East that he contendedhad made the region morestable and secure than whenthe Trump administrationended, among them intensediplomacy as well as militaryaction against state-sponsoredattacks. But his framing of theSaudi relationship in particularappeared defensive, especiallywith some in the U.S. demand-

ing that he not lend legitima-cy to the government with avisit.

Biden linked U.S. strengthand security to counteringRussian aggression and com-petition from China, thenargued that engaging directlywith countries like SaudiArabia could help promotethose efforts.

The president said heaimed to strengthen a U.S.-Saudi partnership “going for-ward that’s based on mutualinterests and responsibilities,

while also holding true to fun-damental American values.”

“I know that there aremany who disagree with mydecision to travel to SaudiArabia,” Biden wrote. “Myviews on human rights areclear and long-standing, andfundamental freedoms arealways on the agenda when Itravel abroad, as they will beduring this trip, just as they willbe in Israel and the West Bank.”

It was notable that Biden’sop-ed appeared in the Sundayopinion section of the Post,whose writer Jamal Khashoggiwas murdered by Saudi agentsin 2018.

On that issue, Biden con-tended he had responded withsanctions against the Saudiforces involved in the killingand issued scores of visa bansfor anyone found harassingdissidents abroad. AP

Beijing: All-weather friendsChina and Pakistan on Sundaykicked off their ‘Sea Guardians-2’ drills off the Shanghai coastby deploying their new high-tech naval ships and fighter jetsto “jointly deal with maritimesecurity threats,” as their naviesstepped up cooperation inIndia’s backyard, the Indian

Ocean.The Chinese People’s

Liberation Army (PLA) Navyand the Pakistan Navy, willhold the joint naval exercise inmaritime and aerial spaces offShanghai in mid-July, CaptainLiu Wensheng, a spokespersonfor the PLA Navy, said in astatement.

The two navies held anopening ceremony for the sec-ond edition of the SeaGuardian drills on Sunday,official media here reported.

The exercise is a “normalarrangement according to anannual schedule, and it is notaimed at a third party,” Liu said.

The PLA Eastern TheatreCommand Navy sent thefrigate Xiangtan, the corvetteShuozhou, the comprehensivesupply ship Qiandaohu, a sub-marine, an early warning air-craft, two fighter jets and a heli-copter for the drill while thePakistan Navy’s frigate Taimurjoined the exercise, state-runGlobal Times reported.

Taimur is the second offour powerful Type 054A/Pfrigates built by China. It wasdelivered to the Pakistan Navyin Shanghai on June 23. The

first ship in the Type 054A/P-class, the Tughril, joined thePakistan Navy Fleet in January,according to the daily’s report.

Themed “jointly dealingwith maritime security threats,”the exercise will feature train-ing courses including the jointstrike against maritime tar-gets, joint tactical manoeu-vring, joint anti-submarinewarfare and joint support fordamaged vessels, Liu said.

The drill’s goal is toenhance defence cooperation,conduct professional and tech-nical exchanges, deepen tradi-tional friendship between thetwo countries and the twonavies, and promote the devel-opment of the all-weatherstrategic cooperative partner-ship between China andPakistan, Liu said.

China and Pakistan face

non-traditional security threatsincluding piracy and maritimeterrorists in regions like theIndian Ocean, so it has becomenecessary that the two coun-tries enhance cooperation inthese aspects, Wei Dongxu, aChinese military expert, toldthe Global Times.

The two countries alsoneed to jointly demonstratetheir capabilities in safeguard-ing strategic sea lanes thattransport energy and goods,Wei said. The first edition ofthe ‘Sea Guardians’ exercise washeld in January 2020 in theNorth Arabian Sea off Karachi.

The Arabian Sea region isstrategically important as majorIndian ports including Kandla,Okha, Mumbai, Mormugao,New Mangalore and Kochi arelocated there.

The Arabian sea provides

entry to the Indian Oceanwhere China currently hasbuilt a logistics base at Djiboutiin the Horn of Africa.

Observers say Sino-Pakistan military cooperationin recent years focussed moreon the Navy as China gradual-ly stepped up its naval presencein India’s backyard, the IndianOcean.

Besides building its firstmilitary base in Djibouti in theHorn of Africa in the IndianOcean, China has acquiredPakistan’s Gwadar port in theArabian Sea which connectswith China’s Xinjiang provinceby land in the USD 60 billionChina Pakistan EconomicCorridor (CPEC).

China is also developing SriLanka’s Hambantota port afterit acquired it on 99 years lease. AP

Abuja: Four years ago gunmen attacked Halima Musa’s villagein northwestern Nigeria, killing her husband and the oldest oftheir seven children.

The family fled to the safety of a camp for displaced peo-ple, but now they are hungry, she said.

“It’s been more than one year since the government broughtus food items.” she said from Sokoto camp.

It’s 2 p.M. And she’s preparing the family’s first - and only -meal for the day. She’s not sure where she’ll find food the nextday. “I and my children are usually begging,” she said.

Northwest Nigeria’s escalating violence has claimed thousandsof lives and displaced hundreds of thousands more. Many, likeMusa, are sheltering in camps that often have inadequate food.

The violence has exacerbated the chronic poverty in this partof the West African nation which has a 40% poverty rate, accord-ing to the latest government statistics, including some of the poor-est citizens in the troubled north.

Many families have had to abandon their farmlands as theyare forced to choose their lives over livelihoods.

The attacks have “pushed many communities to their lim-its, including about 500,000 people forced to flee from home,”according to Michel-Olivier Lacharite of Doctors WithoutBorders, the France-based medical charity.

The group is preparing to provide food to up to 100,000 mal-nourished children this year in Nigeria’s Katsina state alone, saidLacharite, head of the group’s emergency operations.

Despite alerting the government to the problem, he said, “Wehave not seen the mobilization needed to avert a devastating nutri-tion crisis.”

The violence in northwest Nigeria is blamed on armed groupsthat authorities say are mostly young semi-nomadic herdsmenfrom the Fulani tribe who are in conflict with settled farmingcommunities over limited access to water and land. Some of therebellious herdsmen are now working with Islamist extremistrebels in the country’s northeast in targeting remote communi-ties.

As Nigeria’s jihadi insurgency in the northeast has abatedsomewhat, the violence in the northwest has worsened, accord-ing to authorities.

“The government gives them (displaced people) more atten-tion in the northwest even now than the northeast,” said MurdakaiTitus with Nigeria’s National Commission for Refugees, Migrantsand Internally Displaced Persons.

“Northwest is given high priority … for intervention activ-ities from the commission - relief materials, livelihood activities,training them to be self-reliant,” he said.

The UN World Food Program Nigeria office is working toprevent acute malnutrition in children by providing nutrition-al assistance to children aged from 6 months to 23 months. Aidis also provided to pregnant and breastfeeding women in vul-nerable households, said Chi Lael, a spokeswoman for the U.N.World Food Program in Nigeria.

Malnutrition remains a source of concern though, Lael said,pointing out that in certain areas, “children under five were twiceas likely to be malnourished compared to those from the gen-eral population.” Manzo Ezekiel, a spokesperson for Nigeria’sNational Emergency Management Agency, said the agency knowsnutrition must be improved to the internally displaced popula-tion.

Hannatu Ahmadu and her four children were on the run fora month after gunmen attacked her Takwo village in the Munyaarea of Niger state. They managed to find safety but they don’thave enough food. “As I speak with you, we have not been ableto harvest our crops and we are currently here starving,” she toldAP from the Munya displacement camp in Niger state whichneighbors Abuja, Nigeria’s capital. Ahmadu said erratic deliver-ies of food aid makes it difficult to feed her children. “We onlyeat once a day,” she said. PTI

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New Delhi: In a global first,the Securities and ExchangeBoard of India (Sebi) is plan-ning to issue regular ‘risk fac-tor disclosures’ on markettrends, including surges andcollapses, to help investorsmake right decisions by learn-ing from the regulator’sinsights, sources said.

The move, which is still ina preliminary stage of discus-sion, can help investors avoida herd mentality that has beenparticularly witnessed duringthe last couple of years -- start-ing with large-scale selloffswhen the pandemic hit theworld in early 2020, followedsoon by a sharp surge in buy-ing of stocks without under-standing the fundamentals andlargely on account of get-rich-quick stories and then subse-quent losses.

Particularly of significancehas been the losses suffered byinvestors in a large number ofIPOs in the recent past and inthe highly complicated futuresand options segment of thecapital market.

“Though the investorshave seen a fixed pattern playout in every single cycle -- thatis, everyone rushes to buyshares when the going is goodand then they indulge in panic-selling when a crisis strikes.

The basics of capital marketinvestments are always thrownout of the window and one keyreason for that is the lack oftruly independent insights,” atop official said.

The official further saidmost of the research materialavailable in the market hasbeen prepared by the marketparticipants who have theirown business interests in mindand therefore it could be a greatidea if the regulator itself makespublic its insights fromupswings or downtrends inthe market.

Explaining the idea thatSebi is working on, a high-levelsource said, “It’s time for Sebito lead by example by making

disclosures on matters that canhave implications for investorsat large and disclosures ofimportant market-wide data-points.”

“A simple sentence man-dated under the present regu-lations that certain ‘invest-ments are subject to marketrisks’ has become too clichedand it is like a motherhoodstatement that does not workanymore. What is required atthis moment is that investorsget some detailed datasets, thattoo from the regulator and notonly from their wealth man-agers, whose main aim remainsmaximising their businesses,”said the source involved in theproposed move. PTI

Mumbai: Kochi-based mid-sized gold loan playerMuthoottu Mini Financiers islooking to grow its loan sales byover 45 per cent in this fiscal asit embarks on a faster expan-sion and also increasing perbranch productivity as theeconomy returns to near nor-malcy from the Covid-19 pan-demic.

Job losses due to the firstthree waves of the pandemicand the subsequent pick-up ineconomic activities have beendriving demand for gold loansfrom individuals for personalrequirements and small busi-nesses for working capital, cou-pled with a massive spike in thebullion prices since the pan-demic hit the world in March

2020.Muthoottu Mini, hailing

from the Muthoot group,closed FY22 with over 25 percent growth and an AUM of Rs2,500 crore, which grew fromRs 1,994 crore in the previousfiscal.

The larger group entityMuthoot Finance is a listedcompany with over Rs 65,000

crore of AUM, up 11 per centfrom FY21, while the other oneMuthoot Fincorp is the third-largest player with around Rs10,000 crore of live loans andthe No 2 Manappuram Financegrew 11 per cent in FY22 to Rs30,300 crore.

Muthoottu Mini had anaverage loan growth rate of 22per cent in the three years toFY21, and 25 per cent in FY22and hopes to add 45 per centmore new customers this fiscal.This industry normally countsonly fresh loans as loan salesand not pledge renewal.

Muthoottu Mini ManagingDirector Mathew Muthoottutold PTI that he expects newloans sales to clip at 45 per centthis fiscal. PTI

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New Delhi: The skill develop-ment and entrepreneurshipministry has said it will organ-ise a national apprenticeshipfair on Monday as part of thePrime Minister’s Skill IndiaMission to ensure careeropportunities and practicaltraining for the country’s youth.

The one-day event will beconducted at 200 locationsacross the country.

More than 1,000 compa-nies across 36 sectors and 500trades will participate in theevent, an official statementsaid. So far, 1,88,410 applicantshave participated in theapprenticeship fairs held earli-er and 67,035 apprenticeshipoffers have been made on theplatform.

“Participating companiesin the PM NationalApprenticeship Melas have thechance to meet potentialapprentices on a single plat-form and choose applicants on-the-spot. Furthermore, small-scale enterprises with at leastfour employees can hireapprentices during the event. Acredit bank idea will also beadded shortly, with deposi-taries of various credits col-lected by learners for future

academic courses,” the ministrysaid in the statement.

Candidates must have acertificate of 5th-12th gradepass along with a skill trainingcertificate, an ITI Diploma, ora graduate degree to partici-pate. After training, candidateswill earn National Council forVocational Education andTraining-recognised certifica-tions, which will improve theiremployability.

“The major purpose of thisprogramme is to encouragecompanies to hire moreapprentices while also assistingemployers in discovering anddeveloping their potential viatraining and practical skillsets,”the statement said.

Rajesh Aggarwal, secre-tary, ministry of skill develop-ment and entrepreneurship,said: “We hope that theApprenticeship Mela will pro-vide additional job opportuni-ties for talented individualsacross the country. While theprimary purpose of these pro-grammes is to recruit moreapprentices, it is important tonote that apprenticeships suchas these are necessary for prac-tical training, which is what weare striving for here. PTI

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New Delhi: Maruti SuzukiIndia (MSI) plans to protectand enhance its market share inthe non-SUV space whileexpanding presence in the SUVsegment, where it has been lag-ging behind the competition, aspart of a twin-pronged strate-gy to safeguard its position inthe auto sector, as per a seniorcompany official.

The company currentlyhas a market share of 67 percent in the non-SUV space, itshighest in two decades, butlacks muscle in the fast-grow-ing SUV segment with overallmarket share hovering around13 per cent.

“The objective seems to beclear, we need to protect and

enhance market share in thenon-SUV segment while cap-turing more of SUV (share)..Itis very simple, clear and quiteobvious goal,” MSI SeniorExecutive Director (Marketingand Sales) Shashank Srivastavatold PTI in an interaction.

In the SUV segment, the

company plans to launch newmodels, while in the non-SUVspace comprising hatchbacks,sedans and vans, it aims tobring in new features, technol-ogy and aggressive design lan-guage, he added.

Asked if the companywould also look at bringing abrand new entry-level car, hesaid: “It is a possibility but wehave to finalise our plan..Wewill do anything to protect ourmarket share.”

In the SUV space, MSI isalready in the process of takinga slew of measures, includingback-to-back product launch-es to cater to a range of cus-tomers across various emergingsub-segments. PTI

New Delhi: Housing sales inDelhi-NCR jumped 2.5 foldannually during January-Juneon revival in demand andlower base effect, while pricesrose 7 per cent, according toproperty consultant KnightFrank India.

In its latest half-yearlyreport ‘India Real Estate:Residential and Office MarketH1 2022’, the consultant saidsales of residential propertiesrose to 29,101 units in January-June this year from 11,474units in the correspondingperiod of 2021.

The sales in first half of2021 calendar year were hit bythe second wave of theCOVID-19 pandemic.

New launches of homesjumped multi-fold to 28,726units from 2,943 units duringthe period under review.

Housing prices appreciat-ed 7 per cent annually to Rs4,437 per square feet duringJanuary-June 2022.

Unsold inventories of res-

idential properties came downby 6 per cent to 95,811 units onimproved sales performance.

“In H1 2022, NCR’s resi-dential market maintaineddemand momentum with half-yearly sales of 29,101 units.This is the highest sales clockedin any half yearly period sinceH2 2013,” the report said.

With the prevalence of lowhome loan interest rates for themost part of H1 2022, KnightFrank India noted that sus-tained homebuyer interest wasmaintained in the residentialmarket.

Talking about propertyrates, the consultant said manydevelopers have increased res-idential prices in the past fewquarters to absorb the risinginput costs.

In the past six months, theimpact of rising input costs forcement and steel have bumpedup the residential product pric-ing in NCR in a very pro-nounced manner. PTI

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New Delhi: Texas-based ITfirm Accolite Digital plans toraise headcount by over three-fold in India to around 8,500 inthe next three years, a topcompany official said.

Accolite Digital founderand CEO Leela Kaza told PTIthat the company is aiming togrow revenue by five-fold toUSD 500 million and increaseglobal headcount by around 4-fold to 10,000 people by 2025.

“The vision is to scale ourbusiness to half a billion by2025 and double down in ourthree core verticals BFSI(Banking and FinancialServices, Insurance): TMT(Technology, Media andTelecom) and healthcare. Weare deeply entrenched in digi-tal product engineering, cloudand DevOps, data and AI, cus-tomer experience, cyber secu-rity, and design services,” Kazasaid. He said that the compa-ny is consistently growing thebusiness at industry leadinggrowth rates anywhere between35 to 50 per cent. PTI

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New Delhi: Punjab NationalBank will select an actuarialfirm on Monday for calculatingthe embedded value of insur-ance joint venture CHOICE, inwhich the state-owned bankhas to divest its stake as per reg-ulatory requirement.

The New Delhi-basedlender will open financial bidson July 11, 2022 to select theactuarial firm.

At present, PNB has stakesin two insurance firms -- PNBMetLife India InsuranceCompany Limited (PNBMetLife) and Canara HSBCOBC Life Insurance CompanyLtd (CHOICE).

PNB MetLife, a joint ven-ture between MetLifeInternational Holdings LLC(MIHL), Punjab National Bank

(PNB), M Pallonji andCompany Pvt Ltd, Jammu &Kashmir Bank (JKB), and otherinvestors, has been operationalsince 2001, with MIHL andPNB being the promoters ofthe company.

PNB also became a stake-holder in CHOICE after theerstwhile Oriential Bank ofCommerce merged into it.

In March 2020, OBC andUnited Bank of India wereamalgamated into PNB. As all

assets and liabilities of OBCwere subsumed into PNB byvirtue of such amalgamation,PNB became a shareholder ofCHOICE to the extent ofOBC’s stake of 23 per cent.

Established in 2008,Canara HSBC Life InsuranceCompany is a joint venturebetween Canara Bank (51 percent), HSBC Insurance (AsiaPacific) Holdings Limited (26per cent) and Punjab NationalBank (23 per cent).

HSBC’s stake in CHOICEis held through INAH, a whol-ly-owned subsidiary of HongKong and Shanghai BankingCorporation Limited, whichin turn, is a wholly-ownedsubsidiary of HSBC Holdingsplc -- the holding company ofthe HSBC Group.

New Delhi: Retirement fundbody EPFO will consider andapprove a proposal for settingup a central pension disbursalsystem in its meeting on July 29and 30, paving the way forcrediting the benefit into over73 lakh pensioners’ bankaccounts in one go across India.

Presently, over 138 region-al offices of the Employees’Provident Fund Organisation(EPFO) disburse pensions tobeneficiaries in their regionseparately. Thus, the pension-ers of different regional officesare getting pensions at differ-ent times or days.

“A proposal for setting upa central pension disbursal

system will be placed in theEPFO’s apex decision makingbody Central Board of Trustees(CBT) in a meeting scheduledon July 29 and 30,” a source toldPTI.

The source further statedthat the pension would be dis-bursed using a central databaseof over 138 regional offices inthe country and this will facil-itate crediting the benefit intobank accounts of over 73 lakhbeneficiaries in one go.

The source explained thatall regional offices cater to thepensioners in their regionsseparately and that is why pen-sioners across the country getpension on different times ordays. PTI

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New Delhi: Falling up to 13 percent this year so far, BSE small-cap and midcap stocks havelagged behind the benchmarkSensex as experts said theseindices had climbed more thanthe frontline index during the“good times” and a deepercorrection is natural in the cur-rent turbulent times.

Equity markets have facedmany headwinds this year withthe emergence of geopoliticaltensions, inflation concernsand unabated selling by foreignfunds.

Experts said that there hasbeen nervousness across thecapital markets both domesticand globally mainly driven bythese challenges.

The BSE smallcap indexhas tumbled 3,816.95 points or12.95 per cent this year so farwhile the midcap gauge fell by2,314.51 points or 9.26 per cent.In comparison, the 30-shareBSE Sensex declined by3,771.98 points or 6.47 per centthis year.

“The mid and smallcapindices had also gone up a lotmore than the Sensex duringgood times so it is only natur-al that they will fall more thanthe Sensex during bad times.Rise and fall in mid and small-

caps tend to be more pro-nounced than their largecap

counterparts,” said Rahul Shah,Co Head of Research,Equitymaster.

He further said as far asthe current trend is concerned,while the markets are no longerexpensive, they aren’t cheapeither. “This is a market wherequality and growth will berewarded and valuations andbad quality will be rejected,”Shah added. PTI

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New Delhi: Foreign investorscontinue to desert Indian equi-ty markets and have pulled outover �4,000 crore this month sofar amid steady appreciation ofthe dollar and rising interestrates in the US.

However, the pace of sell-ing by foreign portfolioinvestors (FPIs) has beendeclining over the last fewweeks.

“With oil prices breachingthe USD 100 a barrel mark, andrefining margins crackingacross markets, hopes for lowerinflation helped improve mar-ket sentiments. RBI’s measureto help stem the sliding rupeeadded to the building bullishmomentum,” said VijaySinghania, Chairman atTradeSmart.

Himanshu Srivastava,Associate Director - ManagerResearch, Morningstar India,however, believes that thedecline in the pace of net with-drawal by FPIs does not signi-fy a change in trend as there hasnot been any significantimprovement in the underlying

drivers.FPIs have been on selling

mode for the last nine months.FPI inflows will resume

once there are clear indicationsof inflation peaking out, likelyto be manifested in global CPIreadings around August-September, said Hitesh Jain,Lead Analyst - InstitutionalEquities, YES Securities.

“If the high inflation nar-rative takes a back seat, therewill also be a possibility of cen-

tral banks turning soft on theprojected rate hikes, whichagain will bring the risk assetsback in the reckoning,” headded.

According to data withdepositories, FPIs pulled out anet amount of �4,096 crorefrom the Indian equity marketduring July 1 - 8.

However, for the first timein several weeks, FPIs boughtequities worth over �2,100crore on July 6. PTI

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New Delhi: Information tech-nology stocks are likely toremain under pressure in thenear-term amid headwindsemanating from the worseningeconomic situation in key glob-al markets and financial mar-ket volatility, according to ana-lysts.

While the country’s largestsoftware exporter TCS report-ed a 5.2 per cent rise in Junequarter net profit on Friday,kicking off the latest earningscycle, IT shares have been slid-ing, with the BSE InformationTechnology index tumblingnearly 24 per cent so far this

year.Cross-currency headwinds

and large scale talent churnresulting in higher wage hikescould also add to the chal-lenges, especially in terms ofthe impact on operating mar-gins, analysts opined.

Though it is early to drawconclusions, the ongoing polit-ical developments in the UnitedKingdom where Indian-originRishi Sunak has thrown his hatin the ring to be the prime min-ister, are also being closelywatched. Sunak is the son-in-law of Infosys co-founder N RNarayana Murthy. PTI

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New Delhi: With commodityprices peaking out, majorFMGC players, including ParleProducts, Godrej ConsumerProducts and Dabur expect arecovery in demand in bothrural and urban markets goingforward aided by price stabili-ty. Moreover, FMCG makerscan look forward to bettergross margins by the lastmonth of Q2FY23 on a year-on-year basis, as there is a lagof around two months in theirinventory coupled with for-ward contracts, experts say.

Prices of commoditieshave now peaked out and therehas been a 15-20 per centdecline from peak prices inmost commodities, accordingto Parle Products SeniorCategory Head Mayank Shah.

“This has brought somerespite to FMCG companies,whose margins were affected byhigh inflation. Since most com-panies stagger price hikes andtake them in a phased manner,we will not see any further pricehike or package weight reduc-tion which was in the offing.

Despite price hikes taken byFMCG companies, the totalincrease in input cost was notfactored in,” Shah told PTI.

While prices of com-modities have seen a decline inthe last few days, they are stillvery high compared to a sim-ilar period last year, he said.

“Hence at best we will seeno further price hikes. Theprice stability will help in therecovery of the market, bothurban and rural since inflationand price hikes were a majorconcern,” Shah added.

Expressing similar views,Edelweiss Financial ServicesExecutive Director AbneeshRoy said crude oil price is at aone-month low and packagingcost, which is a significant rawmaterial input for all FMCGcompanies, is linked to crudeoil prices.

When asked about marginexpansions, he said in “Q2FY23there will be some benefit, notmajor as there is a lag of 2-3months given there will beinventory, forward contracts. PTI

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New Delhi: Industry body IBAhas invited bids from advisoryfirms and institutes to designand deliver a leadership devel-opment programme for publicsector banks (PSBs) to preparea pipeline of leaders in tunewith the increasing competitivelandscape.

The selected entity willdesign and deliver the trainingprogramme for senior officersof PSBs, including chief generalmanagers (CGMs), generalmanagers (GMs) and deputygeneral managers (DGMs).

The training programmecan be delivered through threemodes -- online as e-learningmodules, online through livewebinars/meetings and

through in-person mode, apublic notice said.

The objective is to devel-op future generation of leaderswho are digitally savvy, strate-gic thinkers with capability tobuild highly collaborativeteams and create customer-centric organisations that thrivein a very dynamic competitiveenvironment, it said.

“The Indian Banks’Association (IBA) has beenrequested by the FinancialServices Institutions Bureau(FSIB) to appoint an Agency/Firm/ Institution to design anddeliver a leadership develop-ment programme for PublicSector Banks in India,” it said. PTI

�.��-�/!��5'�$&��!��',5!'$�5�'��!#"!"#��&��'�)! �� '�#'&$$�5�'� .� New Delhi: The semiconduc-

tor shortage issue and supplychain constraints that haveplagued the auto industry areunlikely to be resolved this yearand the situation may improveonly in 2023, according toMercedes-Benz IndiaManaging Director and CEOMartin Schwenk.

While demand for thecompany’s products continuesto be buoyant with order booksize increasing, he said there isa concern over the global eco-nomic uncertainties andgeopolitical crisis having animpact on India, thus puttinga question mark over howthings would be in the next sixto 12 months. “The supply sit-uation, unfortunately, has notimproved. We still have short-

ages of semiconductors. Wehave congestion in the ship-ments and harbours. We havemissing components in ourproduction. So I would sayunfortunately, the futureremains very hard to predict aswell,” Schwenk told PTI in an

interview.Elaborating on the impact

of the issue, he said, “We havesignificant supply constraintsstill in our entire chain, whichlimits us in delivering as manycars as we would have wantedat the moment. PTI

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Novak Djokovic waited. He wait-ed for Nick Kyrgios to lose focusand lose his way. Waited to find

the proper read on his foe's big serves.Waited until his own level rose to theoccasion.

Djokovic is not bothered by adeficit - in a game, a set, a match. Hedoes not mind problem-solving. Andat Wimbledon, for quite some timenow, he does not get defeated.

Djokovic used his steady brillianceto beat the ace-delivering, trick-shot-hitting, constantly chattering Kyrgios 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (3) on Sunday for afourth consecutive Wimbledon cham-pionship and seventh overall.

The top-seeded Djokovic ran hisunbeaten run at the grass-court GrandSlam tournament to 28 matches andraised his career haul to 21 major tro-phies, breaking a tie with Roger Federerand moving just one behind RafaelNadal's 22 for the most in the historyof men's tennis.

Among men, only Federer, witheight, has won more titles atWimbledon than Djokovic. In theprofessional era, only Federer wasolder (by less than a year) than the 35-year-old Djokovic when winning at theAll England Club.

This comeback on a sun-filledafternoon followed those in the quar-terfinals, when Djokovic erased a two-set deficit against No. 10 seed JannikSinner, and in the semifinals, when No.9 Cam Norrie grabbed the opening set.In last year's title match at Wimbledon,Djokovic dropped the opening set. Inthe 2019 final, he erased two champi-onship points against Federer.

There were two particularly keymoments Sunday, ones that Kyrgioswould not let go as he began engagingin running monologues, shouting athimself or his entourage (which doesnot include a full-time coach), earninga warning for cursing, finding reasonto disagree with the chair umpire he fist-bumped before the match, and chuck-ing a water bottle.

In the second set, with Djokovicserving at 5-3, Kyrgios got to love-40 -a trio of break points. But Kyrgiosplayed a couple of casual returns, andDjokovic eventually held.

When that set ended, Kyrgioswaved dismissively toward his box, sat

down and dropped his racket to theturf, then groused, to no one in partic-ular: "It was love-40! Can it get any big-ger or what?! Is that big enough foryou?!"

And then, in the third set, withKyrgios serving at 4-all, 40-love, heagain let a seemingly sealed game getaway, with Djokovic breaking there.

The 40th-ranked Kyrgios was try-ing to become the first unseeded men'schampion at Wimbledon since GoranIvanisevic in 2001. Ivanisevic is nowDjokovic's coach and was in the CentreCourt guest box for the match.

Kyrgios, the 27-year-old Australian,had never had been past the quarter-finals in 29 previous Grand Slamappearances - and the last time he madeit even that far was 7 1/2 years ago.

In some ways, he stole the showSunday. He tried shots between his legs,hit some with his back to the net,pounded serves at up to 136 mph andproduced 30 aces. He used an under-

arm serve, then faked one later.For all of the significant records and

other factoids logged in the 560-pageWimbledon Compendium - includingcategories such as "ambidextrous play-ers" or "runners-up who wore glassesin a final" - no mention is made of"underarm serves in a gentleman'sfinal," but it seems safe to say that wasa first.

Perhaps, in some ways, it wouldhave been fitting for such a unique play-er to emerge as the champion at sucha unique Wimbledon.

All players representing Russia orBelarus were banned by the All EnglandClub because of the war in Ukraine;among the men that kept out of the fieldwere No. 1-ranked Daniil Medvedev,the reigning U.S. Open champion,and No. 8 Andrey Rublev. In response,the WTA and ATP professional tennistours took the unprecedented step ofrevoking all ranking points fromWimbledon.

There's more: Federer missed thetournament for the first time since thelate 1990s because he is still recoveringfrom a series of operations on his rightknee. The No. 2 man in the rankings,Alexander Zverev, sat out after tearingankle ligaments. Three of the top 20seeded men, including 2021 runner-upMatteo Berrettini, pulled out ofWimbledon after it began becausethey tested positive for COVID-19.

And Nadal withdrew before he wassupposed to face Kyrgios in the semi-finals, the first time since 1931 that aman gave walkover at Wimbledon in asemifinal or final.

As for Kyrgios, his talent is unmis-takable. But over the years, he hasdrawn more notice for his preferencefor style over substance on court, histempestuousness that has earned himejections and suspensions, and histaste for the nightlife.

During the past two weeks alone,Kyrgios racked up $14,000 in fines - onefor spitting at a heckling spectator aftera first-round victory, another for curs-ing during a wildly contentious winagainst No. 4 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas inthe third round - and caught flack forwearing a red hat and sneakers beforeor after matches at a place where all-white clothing is mandated. He and theworld also learned that he is due incourt in Australia to face an assault alle-gation.

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Raheem Sterling looks set tobe the first major signing of

the Todd Boehly era at Chelseaas according to media reportson Sunday they have agreed afee with Manchester City.

Sky says the England inter-national forward will cost £47.5million ($57.1 million) whilstthe BBC believe it is worth upto £50m including add-ons.

New Chelsea chairmanBoehly has thrust himself to thefore of transfer negotiationswith the American also actingas interim sporting director inthe post Roman Abramovichera.

Sterling's signing willendorse Boehly's high profileinvolvement as both Barcelonaand Real Madrid were believedto be keen to buy him.

Sterling, 27, has alreadyreportedly agreed personalterms and subject to a medicalwill sign a five year contract withthe option of a further year.

Chelsea hope the formali-ties will be completed in time forSterling -- who has been capped77 times -- to join them on theirpre-season tour to the UnitedStates.

Sterling is into the final yearof his contract at City and willfill the void left by the departureof record signing Romelu

Lukaku's return on loan toInter Milan -- just a year aftersplashing out £97 million on theBelgian striker.

Sterling joined City for£49m in 2015 from Liverpooland has won four PremierLeague titles among nine majortrophies in his time there.

A key player in the earlyyears of Pep Guardiola's reign atCity, Sterling has scored 131goals in 337 appearances for theEnglish champions.

However, his regular placein the starting line-up at City hascome increasingly under threatfrom the signing of JackGrealish for a Premier Leaguerecord £100 million last year,plus the emergence of PhilFoden from the club's academy.

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Indonesia's Chico Aura DwiWardoyo captured the

Malaysia Masters badmintontitle on Sunday with a sensation-al upset after defeating HongKong star Angus Ng Ka-long instraight sets.

Chico Aura, ranked 45th inthe world, outclassed favouriteNg, who was eyeing his secondMalaysia title after his 2017win.

The 24-year-old Indonesiantriumphed over 28-year-old Ng22-20, 21-15 in 45 minutes.

The victory in Malaysia isChico Aura's biggest career title.

During the first game,Chico Aura faced a tense sessionwith Ng who is world number

13. Both players traded point forpoint until Chico Aura foundthe cutting edge when it mat-tered for the lead.

But Ng did well to matchChico Aura in the second game,

until his Indonesian opponentmoved up a gear with excellentshot placements in successionfor a strong 15-10 lead.

After that it was homebound for Chico Aura who

sealed the second set with anamazing cross court flick that leftNg stumped.

The Indonesian, who onlymade it to the main draw follow-ing the withdrawal of several topnames including Viktor Axelsenand Anders Antonsen, said itwas a "dream come true" to winthe tournament.

"I remained focused fromstart to finish and I think thatplayed a big part. I'm proud ofmyself, and this victory will bean inspiration for me to aim formore success in the future," hetold reporters. The women'ssingles saw South Korea's risingstar An Se-young crownedchampion after she breezed pastChina's Chen Yufei 21-17, 21-5in one-sided final.

��■ ��

Newly crowned Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakinabroke down in tears on Saturday after she was again con-

fronted by questions over her Russian roots.Rybakina, born in Moscow but representing Kazakhstan

after switching allegiances in 2018, defeated Ons Jabeur inthe women's final.

Her triumph came at a tournament where her Russiancompatriots were banned following the invasion of Ukraine.

"I don't know what's going to happen. It's always somenews, but I cannot do anything about this," said the 23-year-old when asked if the Russian government would be tempt-ed to politicise her Grand Slam triumph.

"I'm playing for Kazakhstan a very long time. I representthem on the biggest tournaments, Olympics, which was adream come true."

Russian tennis chief Shamil Tarpischev, however, hailedRybakina's victory as a triumph for Russia, describing the play-er as "our product".

"It's very nice! Well done Rybakina! We win theWimbledon tournament,"Tarpischev was quoted as say-ing by Russian news agency,Ria Novosti.

Rybakina's parents live inMoscow. She has been reluctantthroughout the tournament toelaborate on how much time shespends in the country.

When she was pressed fur-ther on Saturday and invitedto condemn RussianPresident Vladimir Putinand the invasion,Rybakina pleaded forunderstanding.

"I didn't choosewhere I was born.People believed inme. Kazakhstansupported meso much.

"Even todayI heard so muchsupport. I saw theflags. So I don'tknow how to answerthese questions."

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India's Arjun Babuta, Paarth Makhijaqualified for the men's 10m Air Rifle

final at the ISSF Shooting World Cup hereon Sunday.

Arjun scored an impressive 630.5 inthe 60-shot qualification stage to finishsecond in the 53-strong field. Paarth, onthe other hand, finished fifth with a scoreof 628.4.

The third Indian shooter in theMen's 10m Air Rifle event, Shahu Tusharshot 624.4 to finish 30th.

Veteran Israeli shooter Sergey Richtertopped the chart with a score of 631.6.

Shooters from Australia, Austria,Korea, Thailand and the USA claimed theother five qualifying spots, prominentamong them being Tokyo OlympicsSilver medallist American LucasKozeniesky.

The finals of the men's 10m Air Rifleevent are scheduled on Monday.

In the women's 10m Air Rifle event,it was a disappointment for the Indianshooters as none of them could make thecut for the finals.

It was the 21-year-old Mehuli Ghoshwho came closest with a score of 628.7 tofinish 11th in the field, but she lost outon a qualifying spot by just 0.1 point.

Senior debutant Ramita shot 627.4 tofinish 17th while former world numberone and Olympian Elavenil Valarivan fin-ished 24th with a score 626.3.

Meanwhile, Indian shooters partici-pating in the Trap and Air Pistol eventswill kick-off their campaigns on Monday.

India has fielded a 32-member strongcontingent in the Changwon World Cup.

More than 432 athletes from 44countries are taking part in this editionof the World Cup.

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The Indian compoundmixed team archery duo

of Abhishek Verma and JyothiSurekha Vennam won aBronze medal by getting thebetter of their rivals fromMexico by one point at theWorld Games here.

Having started off with aperfect first round, the Indianduo faced some resistancefrom Andrea Becerra and

Miguel Becerra, who levelledthe second end.

But Verma and Jyothi heldtheir nerves to return strong-ly in the third end before slot-ting in a perfect final round toclinch it 157-156 in theirBronze medal playoff onSaturday.

According to an ArcheryAssociation of India state-ment, this was India's firstever medal at the WorldGames and for former WorldCup Gold medallist Verma,this was his 50th podium fin-ish at the international level.

Verma is now the onlyIndian archer to win medals atall stages of compoundarchery -- World Games,World Championship, WorldCup Final, World Cup, AsianGames, Asian Championship.

Verma's individual cam-paign however ended in dis-appointment following hisdream run that saw him elim-inate world No. 1 and worldchampion Mike Schloesser ofUSA in the quarters.

Verma failed to overcomethe semifinal hurdle, sufferinga 141-143 loss to Jean PhilippeBoulch, the French world No.4 who is one place ahead ofthe Indian.

Then, in the bronze play-off he lost to lower-rankedCanadian Christopher Perkins145-148.

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Veteran midfielders JackieGroenen of the Netherlands

and Italy's Valentina Cernoia wereamong players at Euro 2022 testingpositive for Covid-19 on Sunday.

England defender LotteWubben-Moy, a substitute in theopening win against Austria, alsotested positive and has left thesquad. Groenen who was part of theDutch team that won the last Euro'sin 2017, collected her 88th capplaying the full match Saturday as theDutch drew 1-1 with Sweden.

The Manchester United player"has tested positive for Covid and hasisolated. She will be back once shetests negative," the Dutch teamtweeted.

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Ferrari's Charles Leclerc held off worldchampion Max Verstappen to win the

Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday and reboothis world championship challenge.

Lewis Hamilton took third ahead of hisMercedes teammate George Russell in carsthat had both needed hefty repairs aftercrashes in Friday qualifying.

This was Leclerc's third win of the yearand Ferrari's first at the Red Bull Ring sinceMichael Schumacher in 2003.

After a series of disappointing resultsLeclerc was thrilled to finally get another winunder his belt. He had to retain his compo-

sure, though, in the closing laps as he report-ed an issue with a sticking throttle pedal.

"I definitely needed that, to finally showwe've got the pace in the car is incredible,"said a relieved Leclerc.

Verstappen was far from dishearteneddespite failing to take the chequered flag infront of his 'orange army' of expectant 50,000travelling Dutch fans. "I couldn't give thema win today but second isn't too bad," saidthe Red Bull driver who didn't leave the cir-cuit empty handed after winning Saturday'ssprint. Verstappen still has a comfortablelead in the overall standings — leadingLeclerc by 38 points at the halfway point oifthe championship.

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Matthew Ebden and Max Purcelldefeated defending champions

Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic —playing with a broken wrist — to winthe Wimbledon men's doubles titleon Saturday.

The 14th-seeded Australianscame out on top 7-6 (7/5), 6-7 (3/7),4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (10/2) after more thanfour hours of action on CentreCourt.

Ebden and Purcell made the finalafter saving three match points in thefirst round and five more in theirsemi-finals.

They spent more than 20 hours

on court in winning the title.Pavic had broken his right wrist

in the semi-finals and playedSaturday with the injury heavilystrapped.

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Former captain Dinesh Chandimalhit a gritty century to steer Sri

Lanka to a lead of 67 on Sunday andpush Australia on to the backfoot onday three of the second Test.

The hosts reached 431 for six atstumps after the Australian spinnershit back with late wickets at the GalleInternational Stadium.

Chandimal, on 118, and RameshMendis, on seven, were batting at theclose of play on a pitch which held firmand witnessed a brief spell of morn-ing and afternoon rain.

Chandimal's 133-run fifth-wick-et stand with debutant KaminduMendis, who made 61, remained thehighlight of the day's play as SriLanka surpassed Australia's firstinnings total of 364.

"I thought Australia bowled real-

ly well," the Galle-born Kamindu toldreporters.

"Loose balls were rare. Good sup-port from Chandi. The main idea ofus was to rotate the strike and pick upsingles. Then we started picking upboundaries."

The 23-year-old all-rounder said,"The wicket has lot of assistance forspinners today compared to the firsttwo days. Our plan is to get a decentlead and put pressure on Australia."

Chandimal was lucky to survive areprieve on 30 when Mitchell Starc hadhim caught behind only for the umpireto deny the call but ultra-edge showeda spike when the ball passed the bat.

Australia were left frustrated asthey had exhausted their three umpirereviews and Chandimal went on to tireout the bowlers.

Spinners Nathan Lyon, MitchellSwepson and left-arm quick Starc

worked hard to claim two wickets each.Chandimal reached his 13th Test

century and second against Australiaas he screamed in delight and raised hisbat to an applauding dressing room.

Leg-spinner Swepson soon struckto send back the left-handed Kamindu,who survived a missed stumping on 43,bowled and Lyon took down wicket-keeper-batsman Niroshan Dickwellafor five.

But Chandimal and Ramesh, whowas given out caught behind and suc-cessfully reviewed the call in his favour,saw the day through.

Earlier another veteran batsmanAngelo Mathews contributed with 52before falling to Starc's left-arm pacein the second session.

Australia lead the two-match series1-0 after a crushing opening wininside three days at the same venue ona vicious turner.

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South Africa's Rilee Rossouwled the way as Somerset

enjoyed a record-breaking 191-run win over Derbyshire in anEnglish T20 Blast quarter-finalon Saturday.

Rossouw top-scored with93 off just 36 balls as southwestcounty Somerset posted acolossal 265-5 -- the highesttotal in English domestic T20history -- in front of their ownfans at Taunton.

That surpassed the 261-2the Birmingham Bears, asWarwickshire are known inT20 cricket, made againstNottinghamshire last month.

Derbyshire, faced with ahuge chase, collapsed to 74 allout inside 12 overs with formerAustralia fast bowler PeterSiddle taking 3-10 forSomerset.

The 191-run margin ofvictory was the highest byruns in a T20 match inEngland.

Former Proteas interna-tional Rossouw, 32, smashedseven sixes and eight fours tobecome Somerset's most pro-lific scorer in a T20 season with600 runs at an average of 50,

with a strike rate of 197.36.Tom Banton weighed in

with 73 from 41 balls, whileTom Lammonby struck 31from nine.

Amid all the blazing hit-ting, George Scrimshaw,recently called up to the sec-ond-string England Lions, tooka hugely creditable 2-16 and itmight have been a differentstory had the toweringDerbyshire quick bowled hisfour overs straight throughfrom the start of the innings.

By contrast, Derbyshireleg-spinner Mattie McKiernanwent for 82 in his four overs,the most expensive figures inmen's T20 cricket history,including 36 off one overwhich saw Rossouw strike fivesixes and a four -- with the bar-rage of boundaries only inter-rupted by a no-ball off thefourth delivery.

Defeat was tough on aDerbyshire side who havemade huge strides this seasonunder Mickey Arthur, theirmuch-travelled South Africancoach.

Victory meant Somersetjoined Yorkshire, Hampshireand Lancashire in next week'sfinals day at Edgbaston.

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The government has sent a proposal tothe Board of Control for Cricket in

India (BCCI) to organise a cricket matchon August 22 between India and the restof the world as part of celebrations to mark75 years of India's independence, sourcessaid.

The sources indicated that the Ministryof Culture, which sent the proposal, is intalks with BCCI officials to try and ropein top Indian players as well as popularcricketers from abroad to play the matchas part of the Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsavcampaign.

BCCI sources said at this point of time,the proposal is still being discussed as thereare a lot of "operational and logistical ele-ments" associated with procuring the ser-vices of international players.

"We have received a proposal from thegovernment to organise a cricket matchbetween India XI and World XI on August22. For a rest of the world squad, we wouldneed at least 13-14 international playersand their availability is something that weneed to check on," a source said.

He added during that time, Englishdomestic cricket would be underway andthe Caribbean Premier League would alsobegin. The BCCI is checking if interna-tional players would have to be compen-sated financially for their participation.

As far as services of internationalcricketers are concerned, top BCCI offi-cials will be in Birmingham for the ICCannual conference (July 22-26), where theymight speak to officials of other boards torelease a few of their players for the matchin India.

Getting top stars of the Indian teamwon't be a problem, the sources said.

BCCI sources stated that all Indianplayers will be requested and they are like-ly to join the squad for the match.Thecause of concern at this time is to ensurethat the quality of the World XI team istop-notch, they said.

As of now, it is unclear whether thematch will have the status of an interna-tional T20 or a friendly.

While it is yet to be confirmed, thematch, if conducted, is likely to be held atDelhi's Feroz Shah Kotla ground.

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Suryakumar Yadav gave a360 degree masterclassenroute to a special hun-

dred but England pulled off aconsolatory 17-run win overIndia in the third T20International here on Sunday.

Dawid Malan made a sub-lime 77 off 39 balls as Englandput India's second string attackto sword to finish with a mam-moth 215 for seven.

Surykumar (117 off 55 balls)kept India in the hunt with hisclassy effort but lacked supportfrom other batters while chasingthe huge target. India's inningsended at 198 for nine in 20 overs.

India sealed the three-matchseries 2-1, having won inSouthampton and Birmingham.

India were on the backfootat the start of the run chase,struggling to 31 for three in fiveovers.

Openers Rohit Sharma (11)and Rishabh Pant (1) perishedcheaply and it was another fail-ure for Virat Kohli (11), who wascaught at cover while trying tomanufacture a third consecutivehit after collecting a four and astraight six off David Willey.

Suryakumar brought Indiaback into the game with a 119-run stand with Shreyas Iyer (28off 23) who was a spectator to hispartner's brilliance for the majorpart of the partnership.

As he often does,Suryakumar toyed with theopposition bowlers and pickedhis shots all around the ground.

The highlights of his glori-ous innings was the two lofted

square drives off pacers RichardGleeson and Chrish Jordan thatwent all the way for six.

He became the fifth Indianto score a hundred in T20Internationals by opening theface of the bat and guiding a lowfull toss off Willey betweenbackward point and short thirdman.

His innings comprised 14fours and half a dozen sixes.

Suryakumar single-hand-edly brought the equation downto gettable 66 off 30 balls beforerunning out of partners at theother end.

Earlier, skipper Jos Buttler(18 off 9 balls) and Jason Roy (27off 26) helped England reach 52for 1 in six overs. Malan andLiam Livingstone (42 not out off29) then shared an entertaining84-run partnership to set theplatform for a massive total.

Having already sealed theseries, India rested their front-line bowlers in Jasprit Bumrah,in-form Bhuvneshwar Kumarand Yuzvendra Chahal, besidesstar all-rounder Hardik Pandya.

The Indian next gen weretaken to the cleaners by a power-packed England batting lineupwhich had disappointed in thefirst two games. Ravi Bishnoi'seffort of two for 30 in four overswas the only silver lining in anotherwise ordinary bowling per-formance.

Buttler punished the inexpe-rienced Umran Malik during hisbrief stay, collecting two foursand a six off the Indian's open-ing over that yielded 17 runs.

Avesh Khan foxed Buttlerwith a slower ball that he played

on to the stumps.After Roy was caught

behind off Malik, Malanchanged gears and played prop-er cricketing shots that he isknown for.

He comfortably swept thespinners for maximums andwas quick on the pull and cutagainst the pacers.

Out of the five sixes, Malan'sslog sweep off Ravindra Jadejaover square leg and pick up shotover cow corner off a low fulltoss from Avesh stood out.

As he often does,Livingstone dealt in sixes as hehit four of them and alongsideHarry Brook (19 off) and ChrisJordan (11 off 3) fired Englandpast 200.

Livingstone got a life when

he was dropped by Virat Kohliin the deep.

England amassed as manyas 129 runs in the last 10 overs.

Malik leaked the most runsfor India, ending with figures ofone for 56 in four overs.

��CDelighted to have put up a

brilliant display against Indiaon debut, England quickRichard Gleeson feels if hekeeps performing he mightget a shot at playing the T20World Cup later this year.

Gleeson dismissed themuch-revered trio of Indiaskipper Rohit Sharma, starbatter Virat Kohli and wicket-keeper Rishabh Pant with hisfifth, seventh and eighth deliv-

eries in the second T20I, whichthe tourists won by 49 runs.

The 34-year-old finishedwith impressive figures of 3/15.

"Great to make my debut,but it's all about winning gamesof cricket really, at the end ofthe day. So it's disappointing tolose, but on a personal note,great start," Gleeson said at thepost-match press conference.

With the T20 World Cuparound the corner, Gleeson,who started playing profes-sional cricket at 27, hopes hecan make the cut for the mar-quee event.

"You want to play in the bigoccasions, don't you? So, yeah,why not? I'll just look towardsthe next game and go fromthere.

"(England selection) was-n't anywhere near my radar. Itwas just to play the higheststandard that I could. I justwant to keep playing cricketand enjoying it, playing for aslong as I can. Who knows? IfI keep performing, anythingcould happen."

After putting up a 171-runtarget, the Indian bowlers, ledby Bhuvneshwar Kumar,bowled beautifully to bundleout the hosts for 121 and takean unassailable 2-0 lead in thethree-match series.

"I think maybe they (India)were a little bit over-par.

"And then they startedwell with the ball. So that'salways going to put us on theback foot, and they bowledwell. But that can be the wayT20 cricket goes at times.

"You play the game hard,so sometimes you come off,sometimes you don't. It's justyou've got to take the roughwith the smooth if you're goingto play that way, and I don'tthink we'll be taking a back-wards step in the next game."

The right-armer had suf-fered a career-threateningstress fracture of the lowerback in 2020. Reflecting on theinjury, Gleeson said "It wasn'tme contemplating retirement.It's something that would havebeen forced upon me.

"(The recovery) was a long,slow process. Unfortunately,because of my age, it takes a lit-tle bit longer to heal fromthings like that. But (playingagain) makes it all worth-while."

�� 7� �E�+�

World Cup-winningcaptain Mahendra

Singh Dhoni was seeninteracting with theIndia players after theteam's series-clinchingwin in the second T20International againstEngland here.

Rohit Sharma'sinspirational leadershipand an aggressive brandnew approach saw Indiaoutclass England by 49runs in the secondmatch to seal the rubberon Saturday.

After the gameDhoni, who was inattendance atEdgbaston, interacted

with the likes of IshanKishan and YuzvendraChahal.

The pictures of theinteraction wereuploaded on Twitter bythe BCCI and wicket-keeper-batter RishabhPant too posted a photoof him with the leg-endary former captain.

"Always all earswhen the great @msd-honi talks!" the BCCItweeted alongside aphoto of the discussionthat took place in thedressing room.

Dhoni is in theUnited Kingdom andwas recently seen enjoy-ing a match at theWimbledon.

��

India have "a real powerhouse ofa T20 team" available at their dis-

posal that looks strong from top tobottom with an equally capablebench, feels former England spin-ner Ashley Giles.

India cantered to a 49-run winin the second T20I against hostsEngland, taking an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.

"It's a real powerhouse T20team India have available," Gilestold 'ESPNCricinfo'.

The visitors had won the pre-vious T20I in similar fashion.Without the likes of star playersVirat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah andRishabh Pant in the team, India had

notched a 50-run win in the seriesopener.

"India look a really strong unit

from the top to the bottom. If youlook at the changes from the firstT20I to this one (second T20I). Youcould have easily played that teamand the result would have been sim-ilar," Giles said.

"You look at that bowlingattack, it was incredibly strong."

In both T20s, India showed astart-to-finish aggressive intentdespite losing wickets, which ulti-mately formed the cornerstone ofthe wins.

"You got to keep pressuringbowlers. Some time bowlers canhave their days but no matter howmany wickets you lose you have tokeep going and get as many runs asyou can and this India side is morethe capable of doing that."

�� 6��

New Zealand were done and dust-ed at 120 for 5, before out came

Michael Bracewell and slammed 127off 82 balls to get his side over theline. The Kiwi hammered 4, 4, 6, 4,6 in the final over of the run chaseto help his side beat Ireland by 1wicket in the first ODI of three-matchseries.

Earlier, Harry Tector struck amaiden one-day international centu-ry as Ireland posted 300-9 in theirseries opener against New Zealand onSunday.

The 22-year-old converted hisfourth successive half-century at thislevel -- and eighth in his last 11 ODIinnings -- to a score of 113 off just117 balls, including 14 fours andthree sixes.

His latest impressive innings atthis level delighted home fans at theMalahide ground near Dublin.

Tector came in with Ireland introuble at 26-2 in the seventh overagainst New Zealand, runners-up inthe last two men's ODI World Cupfinals.

But having played himself inagainst testing opening spells fromBlack Caps quicks Lockie Fergusonand Matt Henry during a 71-ball fifty,he completed a 109-ball hundred insome style with four successive foursoff seamer Blair Tickner.

The bowler, however, had hisrevenge when he dismissed Tector toleave Ireland 251-6 in the 44th over.

Tector's highest ODI score camejust two weeks after he produced hisbest T20 international score - 64 notout off 33 balls - against an Indiaattack featuring Bhuvneshwar Kumarand Yuzvendra Chahal.

On Sunday, he received usefulsupport from Andy McBrine (39)and Curtis Campher (43), withGeorge Dockrell (18) and Simi Singh(30) taking Ireland to 300 after theylost three wickets in 11 balls.

Ferguson took 2-44 in a maxi-mum 10 overs in his first ODI sinceMarch 2020, bowling the experiencedPaul Stirling with an inswinger beforehaving McBrine caught behind.

Ireland were without coachHeinrich Malan after the SouthAfrican tested positive for Covid-19.

SKY’S 117 GOES IN VAIN AS ENGLAND WIN

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