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RNI No. TELENG/2018/76469

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Tharoorallegesfinancialirregularitiesby AAP govt

4

China virus outbreak maywallop economy,financialmarkets

8

TRS misusedofficialmachinery, saysBJP state unitchief K Laxman

WIFE, CHILDREN PITCH IN TOENSURE HAT-TRICK FOR KEJRIWALIt was in October 2019 that Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's

daughter Harshita took leave from her job and decided to campaignfor her father. Now, wife Sunita and son Pulkit have also hit the streetsto campaign for the AAP national convener who is eyeing a hat-trick in elections. Kejriwal is contesting for the third timefrom the New Delhi Assembly constituency and is aiming tobecome the Delhi Chief Minister for the third time. Thefamily keeps a low profile and stays away from the limelight."It was my decision to take leave and campaign for myfather,” said Harshita.

AS PART OF GAGANYAAN, FIRSTUNMANNED MISSION THIS DECEMBERAhead of the launch of India's maiden human spaceflight venture

'Gaganyaan' in December 2021, the Indian Space ResearchOrganisation will undertake two unmanned missions in December 2020and June 2021, ISRO chairman K Sivan said on Wednesday.Addressing the inaugural session of a symposium on"Human Spaceflight and Exploration - Present Challengesand Future Trends," Sivan said the Gaganyaan missionnot only aims at India's maiden human flight to thespace but also setting up a new space station for'continuous space human presence'.

KARNATAKA CRICKET BODY FINED RS 50,000 FOR USING PLASTIC CUPS

City civic body Bruhat BengaluruMahanagara Palike (BBMP) levied a

penalty of Rs 50,000 on KarnatakaState Cricket Association (KSCA) forusing single use plastic cups duringthe recent India-Australia one dayinternational match. "Despite many

awareness meetings, BBMP has found that single use plastic cups wereused during yesterday's cricket match and has fined KSCA Rs 50,000 aspenalty," tweeted the civic body commissioner B.H. Anil Kumar.

The Union Cabinet on Wednesdayapproved an extension of six months

in the tenure of a commission set up toexamine the issue of sub-categorisationwithin Other Backward Classes in theCentral List. Now the term of the panelwill be till July 31 2020. This is the 8th

extension to the commission, whose term would otherwise have expiredon January 31. Approval was also granted to adding more ToR to studyvarious entries in the ‘Central List of OBCs’ and make recommendations.

CABINET NOD FOR EXTENSION TO OBC SUB-CATEGORISATION PANEL

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Supreme Court made itclear on Wednesday that itwould not stay the operation ofCitizenship (Amendment) Actwithout hearing the Centreand said that a five-judgeConstitution bench woulddecide its validity.

Seeking response of the cen-tral government in four weekson a batch of pleas challengingthe CAA, the top court alsorestrained high courts in thecountry from proceedings withpending petitions on the issue.

"We are not going to passany ex-parte order withouthearing Centre on the aspectsof interim relief," a benchheaded by Chief Justice S ABobde said.

The observation assumessignificance as a battery ofsenior lawyers led by Kapil Sibaland A M Singhvi vehementlysought judicial interventionand demanded that the opera-tion of the CAA and NationalPopulation Register (NPR)processes be stopped for a cou-

ple of months till apex courtdecides the petitions. Takingnote of vehement opposition ofthe Centre, represented byAttorney General K KVenugopal and Solicitor GeneralTushar Mehta, the benchobserved "according to the gov-ernment this relief is akin to

granting stay on the Act". Thebench, also comprising JusticesS Abdul Nazeer and SanjivKhanna, said: "The matter isuppermost in everybody'smind. We will form a five-judge bench and then list thecase. Issue notice on all suchpetitions in which notices were

not issued. Attorney General KK Venugopal seeks time to filereply in four weeks."

It said the court would hearsome of the petitions in-cham-bers for deciding the modali-ties and thereafter a five-judgebench would be constitutedafter four weeks for day-to-dayhearing on a batch of 143petitions.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal,appearing for some petitionerschallenging the validity ofCAA, said the issue be referredto a Constitution bench andthe NPR exercise be post-poned by a couple of months.He also urged the bench to puton hold the operation of theCAA. The bench said, "Evenwe think that the matter shouldbe heard by a Constitutionbench." Venugopal said thatafter the last hearing onDecember 18, the apex courthad issued notice to Centre in60 matters but thereafter 83fresh petitions has been filedand copies of many of themwere not served upon them.

Continued on Page 2

SC refuses to stay CAA, NPR l Centre gets 4 weeks to respond; pleas may be referred to larger Constitution bench

The Supreme Court would hear some of thepetitions in-chambers for deciding the modalitiesand thereafter a five-judge bench would beconstituted after four weeks for day-to-dayhearing on a batch of 143 petitions

KTR clinches deal forTelangana in Davos

PNS n HYDERABAD

The Telangana delegationheaded by Industries MinisterKT Ramarao, on the secondday of its Davos trip, clincheda major deal with major busi-ness conglomerate PiramalGroup.

After a series of delibera-tions at the Telangana Pavilionin Davos, the Piramal Groupagreed to investments totalingabout Rs 500 crore over thenext three years in the state.The proposed investment isexpected to increase produc-tion capacities with creation ofnew manufacturing blocks,warehouse expansion, andutility augmentation, amongother project facilities.

Minister KTR welcomedthe decision of PiramalPharma to expand their oper-ations in the state and assuredthat the government wouldprovide support to the group.

Piramal Pharma is keen on

adding capacities throughacquisitions in and aroundHyderabad, Telangana regionwith an aim to support APImanufacturing, run CSR activ-ities in the areas of primary

healthcare (Piramal Swasthya)& safe drinking water (PiramalSarvajal) in and aroundDigwal village.

Continued on Page 3

Telangana Industries Minister KT Ramarao with Google CEO Sundar Pichai andAmerican attorney and trade expert Karan Krishna Bhatia in Davos

l Piramal Group to invest Rs 500 crore in TS

MUNICIPAL POLLS

Above 70 per centturnout recordedPNS n HYDERABAD

The total percentage of votespolled in the municipal elec-tions held on Wednesday is70.26, according to theState ElectionC o m m i s s i o n .Polling for 120municipalitiesand ninemunicipal cor-porations acrossTelangana com-menced at 7 am onWednesday andended at 5 pm peaceful-ly. About 68.8% men and69.94% women exercised theirfranchise. In all, 3.49 lakhswere polled.

The average polling per-centage in the municipalities

and municipal corporations at3.00 PM was 67.46%. At 5-00pm, the poll percentage was71.37% in 129 ULBs. At95.13%, the highest polling

was recorded inPochampally, while the

lowest -- 39.65% wasrecorded inNizampet. In all,49 ULBs recorded80 percent votingand only 3 ULBs

within ORR record-ed less than 50%. All corporations

except Nizampet recordedover 50 percent polling. By 5pm, 35.5 lakh votes were cast,out of the total 49.74 lakh voters.

Continued on Page 2

Cong candidatebites TRSnominee's nosePNS n NIZAMABAD

In a bizarre incident, aCongress contestant in munic-ipal elections on Wednesdaybit the nose of rival TRS can-didate during a clash betweenthem. According to reports,the fight began with fisticuffsafter the candidates blamedeach other for impersonationin the 32nd ward in Bodhanmunicipality. While rainingblows on each other, Congressnominee Iliyas bit the nose ofTRS candidate Imran, inflict-ing a deep, bleeding injury.

PNS n HYDERABAD

Authorities of medical col-leges have served show-causenotices on at least 30 associ-ate and assistant professorswho have been on leave forover a year now withoutinforming the management.The Directorate of MedicalEducation (DME) has pre-pared the ground to sackthem from service.

The DME has been explor-ing ways and means ofretrenching them from servicewithout inviting legal wran-gles.

The decision has created a

lot of sensation among staff inmedical colleges. Senior pro-fessors with vast experience

have been on leave for wellover one year without intimat-ing the college authorities,

forcing the DME to take dis-ciplinary action against them.

While some professors haveresponded to the notices andsent their replies, at least 20professors appear to have cho-sen not to respond to thenotices. So, grounds are being

prepared for dismissing themfrom service.

In all, 1,561 assistant profes-sors, 614 associate professors,461 professors and 230 tutorsare working in nine medicalcolleges across the State.

Barring the medical col-leges in Hyderabad, the facul-ty members working in col-leges located elsewhere in thestate have been continuouslyon leave. While some of themare apparently busy in theirprivate practice in Hyderabad,others are working in corpo-rate hospitals.

Continued on Page 2

Govt medical professors skip duties for pvt practice

PNS n HYDERABAD

The prices of many vegetables,compared to those a monthago, have eased considerably.Tomato is selling now at Rs 10a kg. Likewise, several lessexpensive vegetables from allover Telangana are floodingcity markets.

The unseasonal rains that

lashed the state two monthsago prompted farmers to takeup cultivation of vegetablecrops like tomato, lady's fingerand ridge gourd. Most of thefarmers have harvestedbumper crops. Like in thecase of onions until recently,tomato was sold at exorbitantrates two months ago.

Continued on Page 2

Vegetable prices ease in cityCouncil restored by dadYSR haunts son JaganL VENKAT RAM REDDYn HYDERABAD

Late Chief Minister YSRajasekhar Reddy restoredthe Andhra PradeshLegislative Council in 2007,after a gap of 22 years.

Now, his son and incum-bent Chief Minister of AndhraPradesh YS JaganmohanReddy is making swiftmoves to abolish thesame LegislativeCouncil, which is setto complete 13 yearsin March.

The council wasabolished by the erst-while Telugu Desamgovernment on May31, 1985 since thethen chief ministerN T Rama Rao feltthat it was redundantand a drain on thestate exchequer.

However, it becameobvious then that the real rea-son was that NTR found it dif-ficult to push through contro-versial pieces of legislationand ratify policy decisions inthe Upper House, which wasat that time dominated by theCongress.

Incidentally, Jagan is facing

a problem com-parable to thatwhich NTR faced

in 1985.When NTR was

chief minister, theo p p o s i t i o nCongress blockedimportant bills ofTDP governmentin the Legislative

Council, where ithad a majority. NTR

had absolute majorityin the Assembly. Now, the

opposition TDP, which has amajority in the LegislativeCouncil, is blocking importantbills introduced by the YSRCP.Incidentally, YSRCP too enjoysabsolute majority in theAssembly.

Continued on Page 2

l 30 associate andassistant professorswent on 'unauthorisedleave' for over a year

l Govt issues noticesto sack professors

PNS n HYDERABAD

After Home Minister AmitShah threw a challenge toleaders like Rahul Gandhi fora public debate over CAA,AIMIM chief AsaduddinOwaisi joined issue and want-ed the former to discuss thelaw with him instead of others.

Addressing a rally inKarimnagar district onTuesday night ahead of themunicipal polls on January 25,the Hyderabad MP said theHome Minister called for apublic debate on CAA with theopposition even as he askedShah to debate with him on thelegislation.

At a rally in Lucknow in

support of the CAA onTuesday, Shahhad emphati-cally said the CitizenshipAmendment Act (CAA) willnot be withdrawn and thoseprotesting can continue to doso even as he challenged oppo-

sition leaders for a publicdebate on the amended leglis-lation.

Accusing the opposition of"misleading" people on theamended citizenship law, Shahthrew the challenge for thedebate to Rahul Gandhi,Mamata Banerjee, AkhileshYadav (Samajwadi Party) andMayawati(Bahujan SamajParty).

Reacting to Shah's chal-lenge, Owaisi said, "I am here..

debate with me.. why(debate) with these people..'Daadi wale se karo na' (Debatewith a bearded man). We willtalk and debate on CAA, NPRand NRC."

Continued on Page 2

Centre moves SC for 7-daydeadline forhanging convicts

Centre moves SC for 7-daydeadline forhanging convicts PNS n NEW DELHI

The government today askedthe Supreme Court for "vic-tim-centric" guidelines indeath penalty cases and time-limit for convicts using theiroptions. The rules are skewedtowards the convicts, thecentre says in its petitionamid anger over a delay in theNirbhaya convicts' hanging.

The petition asks for amodification in SC judgmenton rights available to deathrow convicts and says thereshould be a time limit to filea petition after the SC rejectsthe petition.

Continued on Page 2

l Late CM YSR restoredLegislative Council after 22 yrsl His son Jagan attempts todissolve the same after 13 yrsl NTR dissolved Council in May1985 to overcome oppn Congresshurdlel Jagan faces similar situation

now as oppn TDP isblocking crucial bills

Owaisi dares Shah to debateon CAA with ‘bearded man’

India falls to 51st positionin EIU's Democracy IndexPNS n NEW DELHI

India slipped 10 places to 51stposition in the 2019Democracy Index's globalranking, according to TheEconomist Intelligence Unit,which cited "erosion of civilliberties" in the country as theprimary cause for the down-trend.

India's overall score fellfrom 7.23 in 2018 to 6.90 in

the Index that provides a snap-shot of the current state ofdemocracy worldwide for 165independent states and twoterritories. On India, thereport said, the countrydropped ten places in theDemocracy Index's globalranking to 51st. The primarycause of the democratic regres-sion was an erosion of civil lib-erties in the country.

Continued on Page 2

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HYDERABAD | THURSDAY | JANUARY 23, 2020 hyderabad 02

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MEDARAM JATARA

Jaggery traders jack up pricesPNS n WARANGAL

Jaggery traders have formedinto a syndicate and allegedlyjacked up the prices of thecommodity to exploit the devo-tees, attending the biggest bi-ennial tribal fair Sammakka-Saralakka festival to be held atMedaram from February 5 to8. They have increased theprices of the commodity by atleast Rs 10 a kg. The measurewould help traders earn hugeprofits.

It is a customary practice ofdevotees to offer jaggery equalto their weight to the deities. Atleast nine jaggery tradersformed into a syndicate claim-ing to have the support of anexcise official. It has createdsensation among the businesscircles in the area.

At least 150-200 lorries ofjaggery, each with a capacity of17 tonnes or 22 tonnes, are soldduring the festival period.Traders and officials becominghand-in-glove with each otherhad created a controversy. Incase of a 17 tonne lorry (10-

tyre lorry), the profit margin ofthe trader would be at least Rs1.70 lakh even if the price ofjaggery happened to be hikedby Rs 10 a kg. The devoteeshave been urging the govern-ment officials to take steps toensure that the traders would

not hike the jaggery price byforming into a syndicate.

During the Jatara, devoteeswill offer white jaggery, popu-larly known in the Telugu-speaking states as 'Bangaram',to the presiding deities.Therefore, traders are making

beelines to Karnataka andMaharashtra where the pro-duce is cultivated in largequantities.

The traders hope that scoresof devotees will arrive thistime as well which would helpthem get high profit. In erst-

while Warangal district, whole-sale jaggery traders areequipped with all necessaryequipment.

Traditionlly, a devotee offerswhite jaggery, the quantity ofwhich will be equivalent totheir own weight, as 'thula-baram' for fulfilling theirdesires. As lakhs, sometimescrores, of devotees are expect-ed to arrive at Medaram for theJatara, and most of them willperform thulabaram, thetraders are certain there will bea huge demand for jaggery.

Traditionlly, adevotee offerswhite jaggery,the quantity ofwhich will beequivalent totheir own weight,as thulabaramfor fulfilling theirdesires

PNS n HYDERABAD

The Telangana state Pavilion atDavos has become a centre ofattraction for political andbusiness leaders and mediarepresentatives attending theWEF. The Pavilion is set up onthe main road of Davos calledPromenade.

Only three States from India- Telangana, Karnataka andMadhya Pradesh have set upexclusive pavilions at Davos.Industries, IT and MunicipalAdministration Minister KTRama Rao is leading a delega-tion from Telangana to WorldEconomic Forum, Davos. Thedelegation comprises of IT &Industries Principal SecretaryJayesh Ranjan, T Hub CEORavi Narayan, and DirectorDigital Media DileepKonatham, along with a fewother officials.

The Telangana Pavilion hasa reception area, a waitinglounge, and two meetinglounges, an exclusive state-of-the-art VR lounge, where vis-itors can watch a VirtualReality presentation onTelangana state. TheTelangana Pavilion also hasbeen stocked with all relevantcollaterals like newsletters,industrial and IT Policy book-lets and also Annual Reports ofIT & Industries departments.

A branded photography areais set up where the delegates cantake a photograph. The pavil-ion walls have nicely designedgraphics with interesting titbitsof information about achieve-ments of Hyderabad city andTelangana state. A separatepantry serves snacks, coffee,juices and other refreshments tothe visitors. Head honchos ofseveral global corporations arevisiting the Telangana Pavilionhere in Davos.

Telangana Pavilion grabseyeballs at WEF-2020

PNS n HYDERABAD

IT and Industries Minister KTRama Rao held a series ofbilateral meetings with glob-al industry leaders at theTelangana Pavilion, on thesidelines of World EconomicForum in Davos onWednesday. Alphabet Inc.and Google CEO SundarPichai and Minister KTR metat a business gathering inDavos. Among a host of top-ics discussed were Google'scurrent operations inHyderabad and the scope forfuture expansion.

Rockwell Automation CEOand president Blake D Moretmet KTR at the TelanganaPavilion. Rockwell Automa-tion inc is the largest compa-ny in the world that is dedicat-ed to industrial automationand information and has a his-tory of over 100 years.

In another meeting, TakedaPharma Global VaccineBusiness Unit President Dr.Rajeev Venkayya met MinisterKTR. During the meeting, theMinister informed thatHyderabad is the pharma and

life sciences capital of thecountry. He also gave anoverview of HyderabadPharma City, the country'slargest Pharma manufacturinghub. Takeda Pharma is aJapan-based R&D-driven glob-al biopharmaceutical companythat has a history of 230 years.

Major industry leadersincluding Mahindra andMahindra Limited ManagingDirector Pawan K Goenkaand KPMG Global Chairmanand CEO Bill Thomas alsocalled on Minister KTR.Minister also mentioned thatthe state already has the pres-ence of several global aero-space and defense companies.

Hectic day for KTR

Rise in uptake of digital financial servicesPNS n HYDERABAD

Telangana, one of the largeststates in India, in terms of thedemographics, has lately seen asubstantial growth in the uptakeof digital financial services. Thegrowth has been recordedthrough Payworld, an assistedfinancial services company,which provides a digital platformto semi-urban and rural cus-tomers. With close to 2,00,897retailers registered in their sys-tem, Payworld covers 31 districtsin Telangana with presence ofretailers across major cities in thestate.

Payworld data shows thatthere are over 450 Aadhaar-Enabled Payment (AEPS) trans-actions per day being undertak-en by people in the semi-urbanand rural pockets of Telangana.

This number has been on therise and is increasing constantlyclose to 70,000 per month.Moreover, money remittanceservices have been the biggestgrosser through Payworld, withan average of 9500 transactionsper day with an average ticketsize of Rs 2,900.

This clearly indicates that the

rising trend of adopting digitalfinancial services is due to theincrease in awareness of theseservices as well as the simplicityof using them through assistedmeans. Praveen Dhabhai, COO,Payworld said, "Our entire focussince inception has been to pro-vide complete access of digitalfinancial services to semi-urban

and rural consumers. We arehappy to witness that the effortshave paid off and there is a greatuptake of our services in one ofthe largest States in India,Telangana."

Payworld datashows that thereare over 450Aadhaar-EnabledPaymenttransactions perday beingundertaken bypeople in thesemi-urban andrural pockets ofTelangana

PNS n YADADRI/VEMULAVADA

The VemulavadaRajarajeswara Swamy templereceived unprecedented hundiearnings of Rs 1.51 crore dur-ing the past one week up toTuesday, when the hundiofferings were counted.

The hundi offerings included179 grams of gold, 10.5 kg of sil-ver articles, temple EOKrishnaveni said. The recordlevel temple hundi earnings are

attributed to large turnout ofdevotees at the temple onaccount of the Medaram festival.

Meanwhile, a temple staffmember was caught redhand-ed while stealing Rs 9,000 ofthe hundi offerings concealingthe money in his lungi. Thisapart, the Yadadri LakshmiNarasimha Swamy temple alsoearned Rs 1.04 crore in 29days. The temple hundi offer-ings include cash, 49 grams ofgold and 1.9 kg of silver.

Vemulavada templehundi nets Rs 1.51 crorein one week

No stay on CAA, NPR: SCContinued from Page 1

"We need to reply to thosepetitions and six weeks timeshould be given to us for filingcounter affidavits," the AG said.Senior advocate Vikas Singh,appearing for petitioners chal-lenging the process of grant ofcitizenship under the CAA to40 lakhs Bengali Hindus, whohad migrated from Bangladeshto Assam and Tripura said thatthe Act will create a peculiar sit-uation and huge agitations aregoing on in these states.

He said that the operation ofCAA be stayed as it even vio-lated Assam Accord of 1985,which fixes cut of date forgrant of citizenship as March24, 1971.

"Assam is facing a peculiarsituation due to the migrantscoming from Bangladesh asearlier cut off date for grant of

citizenship was 1950, then cutof date was extended to March24, 1971. This extension hasbeen challenged before theapex court and the matter ispending," he said.

Venugopal intervened andurged the Court to hear peti-tions relating to Assam sepa-rately from a batch of anti-CAA petitions and assuredthe court that the exercise ofAssam National Register ofCitizenship (NRC) will not becomplete until the nationallist is published by theRegistrar General of India.

To this, the bench said thatthe petitions concerningAssam and Tripura as well asthe matters related to UttarPradesh, which is going aheadwith the implementation ofCAA without framing anyrules, can be dealt with sepa-rately.

Continued from Page 1

It was the Congress govern-ment at the Centre, under RajivGandhi's stewardship, thatenacted AP Legislative Council(Abolition) Act, despite stiffopposition from state Congressleaders who argued that thescrapping the Council wasagainst the party's interests inthe state. Later, in 1990, the thenCongress government made avain attempt to revive the coun-cil. Subsequently, the Congressagain promised revival of theCouncil in its manifesto for the

2004 Assembly polls. Aftersnatching power from theTelugu Desam, YSR made freshefforts to revive the Council.

Basing on a resolution passedby then AP State LegislativeAssembly, the UPA govern-ment enacted the AP LegislativeCouncil Bill in December 2005for revival of the council. TheBill received the President'sassent in January 2006, but ittook almost a year for theElection Commission to com-plete the formalities for consti-tution of the Council and forconduct of elections to fill the

seats under various categories inthe reconstituted Upper House.

Event the dissolution of theAP Legislative Council isexpected to take over a year,considering the proceduralnorms involved in the process.

The MLCs enjoy the sameprivileges and perks as themembers of the LegislativeAssembly. The LegislativeCouncil will have five specialcommittees of its own relatingto privileges, ethics, rules, paperslaid and assurances, while theother committees will be com-mon for both the Houses.

Council restored by Dad YSR...

Continued from Page 1

The CAA allows easier citizen-ship for Hindus, Sikhs,Buddhists, Christians, Parsisand Jains who entered Indiafrom three neighbouringcountries before 2015 after fac-ing religious persecution.Muslim migrants don't figureon this list.

The AIMIM chief hit out atthe BJP over renaming ofplaces, while mentioningabout the 'Halwa' ceemony

ahead of the Union budget."BJP says it will change

names. I want to ask fromwhere did the word halwaoriginate? It is an Arabic word.It is neither Hindi nor Urdu(word). now remove theArabic word..They (BJP) saythey will (continue to) changenames. Inshallah people ofthe country will change you,"the Hyderabad MP saidadding "remember I am nothalwa.. I am lal mirchi (redchilli)."

Owaisi dares Shah...

India falls to 51st positionin EIU's Democracy Index

Continued from Page 1

The index is based on five cat-egories -- electoral process andpluralism; the functioning ofgovernment; political participa-tion; political culture; and civilliberties.

Based on their total score, thecountries are classified as one offour types of regime: "full democ-racy" (scores greater than 8);flawed democracy — scoresgreater than 6 and less than orequal to 8; hybrid regime —scores greater than 4 and lessthan or equal to 6; authoritarianregime — scores less than orequal to 4".

India was included in the

"flawed democracy" category.Meanwhile, China's score fell

to 2.26 in the 2019 index, and thecountry is now ranked 153rd,close to the bottom of the glob-al rankings.

"Over the past year discrimi-nation against minorities, espe-cially in the north-western regionof Xinjiang, has intensified.Digital surveillance of the pop-ulation continued apace in 2019,representing a further constrainton individual freedoms," thereport said.

Among other emergingeconomies, Brazil was ranked52nd with a score of 6.86, Russiastood at 134th with a score of3.11.

Vegetableprices ease

Continued from Page 1

However, the yieldincreased by leaps andbounds across the state.Consequently, city marketshave been sourcing at least150-200 lorry loads of toma-toes daily not only fromTelangana but also AP,Karnataka and Maharashtrastates.

Sourcing of potatoes fromMaharashtra as well as cap-sicum and green chillies fromKarnataka is going on inhuge quantities, floodingwholesale, retail markets andrythu bazaars.

While tomato is beingtraded at prices rangingbetween Rs 10 and Rs 15 a kg,potatoes are being sold at Rs20 a kg. Ridge gourd andlady's finger are selling at Rs20 a kg. However, green chill-ies are selling at rates betweenRs 30 and Rs 40 a kg, whilecapsicum is being sold at Rs30. Beans and cluster beansare being sold at ratesbetween Rs 25 and Rs 20 a kg.

Inflationary tendencies invegetable prices have troubledthe common man for quitesome time. The situationeased following market inter-vention through imports.Observers say this situationwill prevail for about amonth, easing prices of somemore vegetables.

Continued from Page 1

The four convicts sentencedto death in the 2012 Delhigang-rape or the "Nirbhaya"case were initially supposed tohang today, going by a lowercourt order on January 9.

However, the court declareda new time for execution - 6am on February 1 - after oneof the convicts filed a mercypetition last week.

Under the rules, even afterthe mercy petition is rejected by

the President, 14 days have tobe given to the convict until exe-cution. Last week, the SC alsorejected the claim of one of thefour Nirbhaya case convictsthat he was underage at the timeof the incident. The court saidan age claim rejected earlier,cannot be raised again.

Pawan Kumar Gupta's pleahad been rejected by the DelhiHigh Court earlier. "How manytimes will we hear the samethings, you have raised italready many times," the court

said, hearing the petition filedon Friday, the day the seconddate of execution wasannounced. Nirbhaya's parentsare among those who havequestioned petitions filed by theconvicts at the eleventh hour asa way of delaying the sentence.The young woman who cameto be known as Nirbhaya wasgang-raped and tortured withan iron rod on a moving bus onDecember 16, 2012, beforebeing dumped on the roadwith severe internal injuries.

Centre moves SC seeking7-day deadline for hanging...

Above 70 per centturnout recorded

Continued from Page 1

Voters turned up in largenumbers at polling boothsto exercise their franchise.About 55.89% averagepolling percentage wasrecorded till 1pm and theturnout was 36.63% till 11am in 120 municipalitiesand 9 municipal corpora-tions. The average pollingpercentage by 9am was15.40 per cent.

Delay in voting wasreported in some pollingstations in the erstwhile dis-tricts of Nalgonda,Mahbubnagar, Adilabad andin Meerpet Municipality and

Badangpet Corporation. Theresults will be announced onJanuary 25. The averagepolling percentage inDabeerpura by 3pm was27.31%.

Elections to theKarimnagar MunicipalCorporation will be held onJanuary 25 and the resultsdeclared two days later.

A total of 12,846 candi-dates contested from 3,052municipal wards, including2,727 wards in 120 munic-ipalities and 325 divisions innine municipal corpora-tions. About 80 wardsreported unanimous winfor candidates.

Govt medicalprofessorsskip duties...

Continued from Page 1

According to officialinformation, at least 30associate and assistant pro-fessors have been on leavefor over a year withoutassigning any reason, affect-ing the academic curricu-lum of medical colleges andderailing the health ser-vices in affiliated hospitals.

This has attracted criti-cism over the quality ofmedical education in thestate. Some of the studentshave complained to theDME over professorsabstaining from work.

The DME authoritieshave been speaking tothose professors who havenot been on long leave.

Director of MedicalEducation Dr Rameshdirected principals of med-ical colleges not to entertainleave extension by profes-sors, but reject their appli-cations. He asked the prin-cipals not to entertain con-tinuous leave requests. Assome of the professors quitthe colleges unauthorised-ly, the colleges have beenencountering problems inreplacing them with suit-able faculty members.Moreover, their services tomedical college hospitalsremained inaccessible.

Therefore, the DMEdecided to sack the profes-sors who have been onleave for over a year.

Google CEO SundarPichai and KTR met at abusiness gathering inDavos. Among a host oftopics discussed wereGoogle's currentoperations in Hyd andscope for future expansion

HYDERABAD | THURSDAY | JANUARY 23, 2020 hyderabad 03

RIMEORNERC

Dog menace:Balala Hakkula Sanghamapproaches NHRC Balala Hakkula Sangham has

filed a petition to StateHuman Rights CommissionNHRC requesting to direct theGHMC Commissioner to initiateaction on veterinary officials whois responsible for the dogmenace that took place inAmeerpet on Tuesday. Theculprit should also paycompensation to all the victimsof dog menace and to takeimmediate steps to curb it.Around 50 people includingchildren were attacked andinjured by stray dogs onTuesday in Ameerpet. The straydogs menace has becomefrequent in the limits of GHMCand Balala Hakkula Sanghamhas several times demandedthem to eradicate stray dogs andsave the children but it has beenunheard by the corporation.

Gold ornaments worth Rs 3.5 L stolen from jewellery shop Gold ornaments worth Rs 3.5

lakh were stolen from LalithaJewellers in Somajiguda.Though the theft is suspected tohave taken place a week ago, itcame to light on Tuesday duringthe weekly audit by the staff.According to the police, theoffenders diverted the attentionof the sales executive andescaped with nine tolas of gold.Two gold chains and a braceletwere stolen by a group of fivepeople. The group of five,consisting of three men and twowomen, visited the store ascustomers. They pretended tobe interested in another piece ofjewellery after the salesexecutive had shown them afew. After successfully divertingthe attention of sales executive,the gang silently stole the goldornaments. After stealing theornaments, the gang left withoutmaking any purchase, said thePanjagutta Police. Based on acomplaint from Lalitha Jewellersrepresentative, K HaribalaSundar, the Panjagutta policeand lodged a complaint andbegan an investigation. Thepolice registered a case undersection 380 of IPC and aretrying to nab the offenders byverifying CCTV footage.

Officials' apathy turns lakes into aquariumsNAVEENA GHANATE n HYDERABAD

Irrespective of warnings fromHigh Court and numerousappeals from citizens, the offi-cials concerned are neglectingthe plea to protect the lakes inHyderabad. Their apathy isturning lakes into aquariums.

Expressing displeasure overinaction of Greater HyderabadMunicipal Corporation offi-cials in preventing pollution oflakes in the city, a divisionbench of the Telangana HighCourt on Monday asked theofficials concerned, includingthe GHMC commissioner, toresign from their posts if theycannot discharge their dutiesproperly.

The concern for people'shealth is better less talkedabout. An activist LubnaSarwarth questioned, "All lakesare under the governance ofmultiple officials in Hyderabad.

HMDA, GHMC, TSPCB, col-lector, MRO, lake police offi-cials, MPs, MLAs are all themembers of Lake ProtectionCommittee and water, landand trees (WALTA) authority.Why is GHMC Commissioneralone being held responsiblefor a joint crime of water bod-ies' deaths?"

Lubna Sarwarth asked,"What about the numerousrepresentations to Telanganalegal services authority forwhich chief justice is the chiefpatron fell onto deaf ears. Be itMalkam Cheruvu, Bum-Rukn-Ud-Dowla lake, Naya Qila ta-lab, Kukatpally lake, Puppala-guda Lake, Mamasanikunta,

every lake is being playedaround. In spite of lake beingsub judice, constructions insideFTL are ongoing. Despite MA& UD secretary and MP visit-ing the Bum-Rukn-Ud-Dowlalake in June 2019 and the ille-gal activities continue.

From city with abundantpure water we are now broughtdown on our knees to be depe-ndent on water being sourcedfrom rivers 200 kms away. Sheadded that the government isbragging about the achievem-ent of sourcing water instead ofconserving the available ones.

Lubna said, "We have dossierof scores of our petitions onvarious lakes with detailed geo

tagged field and digital evide-nces. Rain water is notimpounded into water bodies.Waste waters are allowed toproliferate through pipes intowater bodies. The run offmakes our ground and lakesdry. Sewage, industry waste,garbage and debris dump findhome in water bodies. So thatthe lake becomes land much tothe delight of money spinnersand power swingers".

In a letter to Chief Justice,Lubna urged to set up a waterbodies-friendly and participa-tive body called 'Long LiveLakes' to handle and restorewater bodies including itshydrology.

Bum-Rukn-Ud-Dowla lake

In a letter to CJ, an activist urged theauthorities to set up a participativebody called ‘Long Live Lakes' tohandle, restore water bodies

Local search engine Just Dial becomes haven for fraudsters DAVE BENNETT SILVERY n HYDERABAD

Touted as one of the localsearch engine, Just Dial isslowly becoming a haven forfraudsters looking to make aquick buck by cheating thosewho use the website. Thesearch engine which claims tohelp users find relevantproviders of products and ser-vices is seemingly not beingthorough when it comes to ver-ifying the authenticity of thecompanies it lists.

Police officials also issued anadvisory to the proprietors,firms and managements regis-tered with Just Dial, followingthe increasing number ofpolice complaints.

In a recent case reported atthe Cyber Crime Police Stationof Cyberabad, a fraudster con-tacted the complainant, theowner of a beauty parlour andwho is registered on Just Dial.The fraudster informed theowner that he is from filmindustry and wanted to havemake up done for 30 femalesas brides and agreed to pay anamount of Rs 5 lakhs.

Believing the fraudster, the

complainant agreed to visitthe house of the caller for themake up. The fraudster thenasked for the bank accountdetails of the complainant andinformed that he will remit theamount into her account andas such the complainant gave

the bank details. The fraudstersaid he had deposited theamount in the account but thesame is not getting reflected inthe bank account of the com-plainant due to some technicalerror. Then the fraudster askedthe complainant to return his

amount back so that he cansend it again. Believing thewords of the fraudster, thecomplainant paid an amount ofRs 2 lakhs into the account ofthe fraudster.

Similar offences are takingplace in Hyderabad on JustDial. The Cyber fraudstersfrom various states are collect-ing the contact details ofHyderabad based firms andagencies who are offering theirservices or products and haveregistered with Just Dial foronline orders.

After collecting the contactdetails, the fraudsters are call-ing the concerned persons andrequesting for their servicesand products in large scale byoffering attractive packages.Once the owners of concernedfirms talk to the fraudsters, theyagree to the attractive businessproposals made by the fraud-sters by believing them to begenuine customers. Fraudstersthen siphon off the funds fromthe bank account of the owners.

In view of the above, thefirms who are registered withJust Dial are advised to followthe following instructions toavoid frauds.

ADVISORY n Never pay anyamount into the

caller’s account inadvance, belie-

ving the words ofthe caller

n The traffic en route,the distance of 9.7 kmsbetween Secunderabadand Banjara Hills wascovered in 12 minutes

n Don't believe the caller,unless seen him/herphysically.n Never share bank details tothe caller unless confirmedthat the caller is genuine.

Chilkur priestre-enacts 2700-year-old ritualPNS n HYDERABAD

Chilkur chief priest CSRangarajan answered the rag-ing Periyar controversy by ac-tions. A wooden image of aDalit Alwar being carried by anArchaka has been worshippedat Chilkur on Wednesday.

Chief Preist CS Rangarajansaid, "Devotees performedPradakshinams along with theimage which reminds us ofreenactment of the 2700-year-old ritual conducted byLokasarangamuni by carryingTiruppanalwar on his shoul-ders. This is an answer toDravidian movements' lies ofPeriyar. He did not talk aboutthe Alwars at all in his slanderagainst Brahmins and theGods worshipped by Hindus".

The wooden image carvedout of teak wood is done byBalakrishna Chari ofMadhavamala village inChittoor district. These arti-sans are preserving the tradi-tion of carving out woodentemple images for centuries.He added that Dr Ambedkarhad visioned that socialreforms of Ramanuja are theneed of the hour not throughdenigration.

To mark the culminationof 1,000 year celebrations ofRamanuja, the 'MunivahanaUtsavam' is being organisedacross different RanganadhaSwamy Temples in Telanganaand Andhra Pradesh by carry-ing the wooden image.

This event happened whenRangarajan carried a Sched-uled Caste devotee AdityaParasri on his shoulders intothe temple from outside atJiyaguda Ranganathaswamytemple on April 16, 2018.

The original event involvedTPM Convenor and ChilkurBalaji Temple head priest CSRangarajan carrying on hisshoulders a Dalit devotee fromoutside the temple up to theDhwajasthambam.

PERIYAR CONTROVERSY

The MunivahanaUtsavam is beingorganised acrossall RanganadhaSwamy templesin Telangana andAndhra Pradeshstates

Cops ensuregreen channelto transportlive heartPNS n HYDERABAD

To facilitate the shifting of alive heart for transplant, theHyderabad Traffic Police cre-ated a green channel betweenYashoda Hospital inSecunderabad and CareHospital in Banjara Hills onWednesday. On being provid-ed non-stop movement to theambulance by stopping thetraffic en route, the distance of9.7 kms between Secunderabadand Banjara Hills was coveredin 12 minutes.

The medical team carry-ing the live organ left at 9:31am from Yashoda Hospitalin Secunderabad andreached Care Hospital inBanjara Hills at 9:43 am.

The efforts of HyderabadTraffic Police in the trans-portation of live heart wereapplauded by the manage-ment of Care Hospital,Banjara Hills and the public asit would help in saving a life.

AWARENESS DDRIVE

Telangana Governor and Indian Red Cross Society president Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan appeals to IT and corporate employeesto enroll as Red Cross members at Darbar hall in Raj Bhavan on Wednesday.

Narayana students win big in NSTSE PNS n HYDERABAD

Narayana school students haveonce again came out with fly-ing colors with Top ranks inNational Science Talent SearchExamination (NSTSE) 2019-20 results by clinchingNational Rank 1 in Classes II,V and IX. They created histo-ry by securing a total of 6ranks in the top 10 and 104ranks in top 50 and 221 ranksin top 100.

Narayana students have alsoclinched a total of 2,276 topranks in top 500. The examwas conducted by UnifiedCouncil for students of class-es 1 to 10. The exam wasattempted by as many as 15lakh students.

Dr Sindhura Narayana,managing director ofNarayana Group said that shewas proud of this victory. Shetold that the result once againproved that the education sys-tem at Narayana is exception-al.

The superior integrated cur-riculum and superlative acad-emic planning is the reasonwhy Narayana students arecoming out in flying colors inall the exams, Dr Sindhurasaid. Speaking at a press con-ference arranged to celebratethe stupendous success, DrSindhura reminded thatNarayana students havetopped almost all of the Nati-onal and International Olym-piads announced in 2019-20.

KTR clinches deal forTelangana in Davos Continued from Page 1

In addition, the Piramal Groupplans to shift their plant fromother states to a new locationin Hyderabad for leveraginginitiatives launched in thearea of ease of doing businessby the Telangana StateGovernment.

This proposed expansion inthe healthcare sector inHyderabad will employ over500 people, while fetchingadditional revenues of up to Rs500 crore. It is designed to beamongst the best facilitiesglobally engaged in manufac-turing life saving medicines.The Piramal leadership teamplans to visit the new site earlynext month.

Piramal Pharma presentlyhas a manufacturing facility inTelangana, cGMP API manu-facturing facility approved by

various regulatory agenciesacross the globe includingUSFDA & EU. It comprises 3units with multiple productionblocks having a total reactorvolume exceeding 1,000 KL.It's fully functional ZeroDischarge facility meeting allenvironmental norms manu-facturing close to 2000 MT offinished goods, including lead-ing APIs like Isoflurane,Diltiazem, Mebeverine,Ketoconazole with exports to60+ countries worldwide.

Presently Piramal employsclose to 1,400 people, includ-ing staff and contract work-men employed at site withplans to add another 600 jobsby FY 23 to support the expan-sion. In addition, close to 300indirect manpower engagedwith the facility on a regularbasis through various servicecontracts.

Four-year-old boy drownedin water sumpPNS n HYDERABAD

A 4-year-old boy was drownedin a water sump at his house inJawahar Colony, Chandanagaron Tuesday. The child wasidentified as B Vishal.

Police said that the boy,who was been playing in fr-ont of his house slipped andfell into the sump.

According to the police,the child's parents realisedthat their boy was missingonly when there was no res-ponse from him to their callsas he did not come inside fora long time. They searchedfor him in the neighbourho-od. They found the body inthe sump. He was taken to anearby hospital, where doc-tors declared him brought de-ad. The Chandanagar policehave booked a case.

PNS n HYDERABAD

Three minor boys, all Class Xstudents of a private school,have been reportedly missingfrom Kushaiguda on Tuesday.

Police said that the trio lefttheir home stating that theywere depressed for scoringpoor in internal examinationsand asked their parents not tosearch for them in letters leftbehind by them.

The three boys, Hemanth,Kiran and Samuel, all aged 15years, had left their houses onTuesday to school but gatheredat the house of one of them atTirumala Nagar in Moula Ali.

According to the police,the trio went missing from th-ere. As they did not return fr-om school even till night, the-ir parents searched for them,but could not find them, fol-

lowing which they approachedthe Kushaiguda police, whobooked a case of missing andtook up investigation.

While Hemanth took Rs5,000 from his house, Samuelhad taken Rs 6000. The trioalso took their Aadhaar cardswith them apart from packingtheir bags with clothes.

"A special team was formedand footage from surveillancecameras in the surroundings isbeing examined," police said.

However, the letters, whichwere found at two of the boyshouses, also stated that theywould return later on.

The trio took theirAadhaar cardswith them apartfrom their clothes

Three Class X studentsmissing at Kushaiguda

Chilkur chief priest CS Rangarajan and an archaka carry a wooden image of aDalit Alwar at Chilkur on Wednesday.

hyderabad 04URBAN

POLL - 2020HYDERABAD | THURSDAY | JANUARY 23, 2020

JANUARY

22

POLLING PASSES PEACEFULLY ACROSS DISTRICTSPV KONDAL RAOn WARANGAL

The election for the UrbanLocal Bodies went off peace-fully barring a few minor inci-dents here in Warangal onWednesday. District wisedetails indicate thatMahabubabad registered max-imum polling, while theindustrial belt of Bhupalpallyrecorded above 65 per cent bythe end of the day.

In the 35th ward ofMahabubabad Municipality, aminor scuffle took place whenthe local MLA Shankar Naikreached the polling stationand allegedly tried to persuadeand influence the voters forexercising their franchise intheir candidate's favour. Thewomen of the Communistyparty, who were present their,confronted the MLA, follow-ing which Shankar Naikallegedly scolded them in anabusive language. This led toa clumsy scuffle and the MLAalong with his followers were'chased away' from the place.There was some mildtension in the indus-trial township ofB h u p a l p a l l ywhere a multi-c o r n e r e dc o n t e s tcould notentail inthe briskpolling asv o t e r sexercisedtheir fran-chise on avery lowkey. Theonly munici-pality inB h u p a l p a l l yrecorded only 62.4per cent voting. InWarangal rural district,where the municipalities -Wardhannapet, Parakal andNarsampet went to polls,about 65 per cent votersexercised their franchise tillthe evening. The voters inalmost all the areas kept in asilent mode as there was nocompetition for the covetedposts and ward memberposts. In Jangaon municipal-ity, about 68 per cent of vot-ers exercised their franchiseand here too there was noserious interest towards the

elections. Mahabubabad isthe only district in erstwhileWarangal where the pollingwas brisk since morning. InDornakal municipality, about

8 3 . 0 2p e r

cent of voterse x e r c i s e dtheir fran-chise. InMaripeda, ofthe 10,467voters, 82.88per centpolling wasrecordedby theend ofp ol l i ngtime.

AVINASH DEEPAK PULIn MAHABUBNAGAR

The 17 municipalities in theerstwhile Mahabubnagar dis-trict recorded moderate tobrisk polling on Wednesday.Polling was by and largepeaceful with no incident ofmajor scuffles reported fromany part of the five districts.Four of the 338 wards spreadacross these municipalitieswere unanimous and thepolling for 334 wards washeld and about seventy percent of the 5,23,428 voters inthe seventeen municipalitiesexercised their franchise onthe polling day.

BJP senior leader and for-mer Minister DK Aruna exer-cised her franchise in Gadwalmunicipality, while all theleaders representing majorpolitical parties cast their voteright in their respective areas.TRS contested from 333 wardsand it is expected to recordmassive victory in manymunicipalities. In Bhutpoormunicipality ofMahabubnagar district, a totalof 8,949 voters exercised theirfranchise and about 86.12 percent of polling was recorded.The municipality has tenwards.

Since morning, the electionand polling process was

inspected by the SP ofMahabubnagar RemaRajeshwari with her team andthe additional SPVenkateshwarlu and addition-al forces accompanied theofficials. The police strikingforce operated the patrollingmeticulously and no unto-ward incident was reported inany part of the five districtsMahabubnagar, Nagarkurnool, Narayanpet, Wanaparthy andGadwal. There was mild ten-sion in the municipal wardswhere a keen contest was evi-dent and there the polling toohas surpassed 90 per cent. Inall, a total of 43 wards spreadacross these districts recorded90 plus per cent of polling.

RAMAKRISHNA PERALAn KARIMNAGAR

Scuffles between the followers ofprime contenders in the 41st

ward of Jagtial municipality andin the 46th ward ofRamagundam MunicipalCorporation led to a mildtension in the municipal

elections ofKarimnagar on

Wednesday. In Peddapallidistrict, theCongress,

BJP and Independent candidatesalleged that the TRS candidatewas indulging in impersonation ofvotes in the 46th Ward Kakatiyaschool, polling station. Thecandidates staged a protest andas the tension mounted, policeresorted to lathicharge in the city.The candidates objected to thepolice action and the CPSatyanarayana pacified theprotesters. In Jagtial town, thePuranipet polling station in SivaVeedhi area of 41st Wardwitnessed some mild tension andthe TRS candidate Kappula

Srikanth was prevented fromresorting to influencing the votersby the Congress and BJP

activists. The Congress MLCJeevan Reddy rushed to the spotand questioned the inspector ofPolice Jayesh Reddy for being amute witness to the TRS act. TheCongress, BJP activists involvedin a verbal spat with the policeand it led to lathicharge there too.Meanwhile, in KarimnagarMunicipal Corporation, MP Sanjayalleged that his campaign vehiclewas pelted with stones. Howeverthe CP Kamalhasan Reddy refutedthe allegations. Following this, theMP withdrew his additionalprotection.

Voters throngpolling stations inMahabubnagar

Scuffles, lathicharge mark polling in Karimnagar

CANDIDATESCLASH AT POLLINGBOOTH IN GADWAL

PNS n JOGULAMBA GADWAL

Tension prevailed in Gadwal town as Congress candidate andhusband of MIM candidate clashed at the polling station of15th ward of the municipality on the polling day in the districton Wednesday. The incident took place at Ganjipet pollingstation in ward number 15 of Gadwal town during thefirst few hours of polling, when Congress candidate

and former vice-chairman of Gadwal municipalityShankar and MIM candidate B Priyanka's husband

Sudarshan got into a fight, jostling each other.Police personnel stationed at the polling

booth had to use force to control thesituation. PNS n SANGAREDDY

Except for a few stray inci-dents, polling in 15 civic bod-

ies in Sangareddy, Siddipetand Medak districts wentsmoothly on Wednesday.The election was conduct-ed for Sangareddy,Sadhasivapet, Tellapur,Ameenpur, IDA Bollaram,

Jogipet andNarayankhed munici-palities in Sangareddydistrict, Medak,R a m a y a m p e t ,Narsapur and Toopran

municipalities in Medak

district and Cheryal-Dubbak,Gajwel-Pregnapur and Husnabadmunicipalities in Siddipet dis-trict.

In the 4th ward ofNarayankhed municipality, policehad to resort to lathi-charge to

disperse the crowd from thepolling station when the TRS andCongress party workers had aheated argument over some issue.The Congress leaders accusedTRS leader Lakshman Nayak ofinfluencing the voters at thepolling station.

Similar incident took place atOld Bus station in Sangareddymunicipality as an argumenterupted between the Congressand TRS leaders. The leaders of aparty accused the leaders of theother party of casting vote of adead person here. The police dis-persed the clashing groups awayfrom the polling station.

Police resort to lathi-chargen Police resorted tolathi-charge to disperse amob at a polling stationwhen the TRS andCongress workers had aheated argument oversome issue

In four of the338 wards, thecandidates wereelectedunanimously.Polling was heldfor 334 wardsand about 70%voters exercisedtheir franchisein the district

Contestants go the extra mile to woo votersPNS n HYDERABAD

For the first time in the munic-ipal election history of thestate, contestants spent any-thing between Rs 1 crore andRs 3 crore in each ward/divi-sion offering costly gifts to vot-ers to induce them to vote infavour of them.

Gone are the days whenliquor and biryani are offeredto induce voters. The contes-tants are now offering costlygifts such as gold, silver coins,sarees, holiday trips to placeslike Ooty and Kodaikanal andhouse-sites. In some cases,contestants got NRI reach theirnative place to exercise theirfranchise by booking to andfrom air tickets. The induce-ment package for the NRIsvaries.

At some places, the induce-ments offered were Rs 2 lakhand a tola of gold to each fam-ily. In Suryapet district, thereare five votes in a family. Thecandidates vied with each otherto induce the family. The vot-ers in the family refused to

accept Rs 5,000 offered asinducement. The contestanthas no other way but offered 10grams to the family as itbecame inevitable for him.The incident took place in27th ward of Huzurnagarmunicipality.

In Choutuppal municipality,which comes under the limits

of Yadadri Bhongir district, afamily of five voters was givenRs 2 lakh by way of induce-ments at the rate of Rs 33,333per voter since the contest inthe particular ward was verykeen. Each member receivednot less than Rs 50,000 whichis inclusive of the inducementsoffered by other candidates.

Some of the contestants whotook winning the election as amatter of prestige, distributedsheep and liquor among castegroups and youth associationsduring Sankranti. Some of thecontestants went one stepahead and celebrated birthdaysby buying birthday cakes forvoters and also marriage days.

In the 10th ward of Medakmunicipality, candidate of amainstream political party dis-tributed poultry birds amongthe voters, according to a com-plaint lodged with the police byhis rivals. By the time thepolice arrived on the scene, dis-tribution has been almost com-pleted. When the police seizedthe rest of the poultry birds, thelocals resisted. However, the

police rushed over 40 poultrybirds to the police station by athree-wheeler.

In Choutuppal municipality,a candidate booked flight tick-ets to bring in NRI voters of theward. In another ward, a can-didate spent Rs 20,000 to Rs25,000 to induce each voter.The State ElectionCommissioner Nagireddyasked RDO of Choutuppal tosubmit him a report on this asa complaint was lodged withthe SEC in this regard.

To woo women voters, someof the candidates distributedsarees, a pair of ear studs madeof gold and silver coins. InBoduppal municipal corpora-tion, voters in a house that hasfive votes in one of the divisions

were given Rs 1 lakh and twogold coins. In Medchal, votersin a ward were given 0.5 gramgold coins. In some othercolonies, contestants gave post-dated cheques asking the vot-ers to present the cheque in thebank only on the electoral vic-tory of the contestant.

To woo young voters to theirside, contestants inMahabubnagar district doledout promises to arrange forthem picnic in Ooty andKodaikanal. At some places,voters refused to take Rs 500offered as inducement anddemanded Rs 1,000 per vote.They demanded and collectedthe amount from all the fourcandidates that remained in thefray. In some cases, wherethere is acute contest, each fam-ily managed to earn Rs 30,000to Rs 1,00,000. Not only did themain contestants offered induce-ments, but also those contestingthe polls as independents doledout inducements. If the sametrend were to continue, contest-ing t he elections will be out ofreach for the common man.

n Costly gifts like goldand silver coins, sarees,holiday trips to placeslike Ooty and Kodaikanaland house-sites are on offer at differentplaces

In some places, voters allegedlyrefused to take Rs 500 offered as‘inducement’ and demanded Rs 1,000per vote. They demanded andcollected the amount from all thecandidates who were in the fray

TRANSPARENCY AND PRIVACY

NAVEENA GHANATE n HYDERABAD

While Telangana boasts aboutadopting emerging technolo-gies, concerns are being raisedabout transparency in the sys-tem. On Wednesday, duringmunicipal elections, facialrecognition techonology wasused in Kompally municipal-ity. This has raised concernsamong privacy activists. Facialrecognition software is beingused to verify voters in 10polling stations in theMedchal-Malkajgiri districtto "reduce impersonationcases".

Srinivas Kodali, an indepen-dent security researcherterming it as "techno dystopia"on Twitter said, "What's hap-pening in Telangana is a shiftfrom e-governance to real-time governance. In this ideaof real-time governance,everything will be tracked andeveryone has to prove them-selves everywhere. Is it likechina's social credit registry?We are not yet there but yes.The irony though is there is noconsent from the public andno one was told Telangana isissuing these new digital iden-tity systems to people."

On Wednesday, the addi-tional polling officer-in-chargetook the voter's photos anduploaded them to a serverusing a Face Recognition App

installed in mobile phonesprovided to him. He thencompared them with the pho-tographs of all the voters of theconcerned polling station. TheApp displays the result of theverification based on a matchestablished with any one of thevoters with an appropriatemessage

Srinivas added on twitterthat bonus part is there are nodocuments anywhere of whatthis system is. Dystopia's willbe built in secret. He said,"Under the name of innova-tion, IT department hasbecome most secretive. If youintend to develop ethicsframeworks for AI, then pleasestart by making all the detailsrelated to RTDAI public.There are no documents relat-ed to that and Samagra Vedikain public domain."

It may be mentioned herethat on Monday, AIMIM chiefand Hyderabad MPAsaduddin Owaisi on Tuesdayobjected to the facial recogni-tion technology and demand-ed its withdrawal. "We don'thave a privacy law, we don'thave a law on surveillance. YetIT department is pushingFacial Recognition acrossHyderabad. IT Departmenthas not published any docu-ments related to these grandIT projects being developed.No transparency is a prob-lem,"Srinivas said.

‘TRS misused official machinery’PNS n HYDERABAD

BJP state unit president Dr KLaxman has accused theTRS of indulging in misuseof power in the polling formunicipal elections. He fur-ther alleged that the policemachinery and poll officialsremained mute spectatorsas the TRS leaders go aboutinducing voters.

Addressing media at theBJP office here onWednesday, he alleged thatthe TRS leaders adopted allpossible back-door methodsto win the elections actingon the directions from TRSpresident K Chandrasekhar,who wanted to see the TRSflag flying high on munici-palities at any cost.

The election became syn-onymous with spendingmoney like water. He

charged TRS working pres-ident KTR with resorting topoll management methodslike resorting to irregulari-ties and high-handednesson the last day deviatingfrom his stand that thedevelopment and welfareschemes of the TRS wouldromp the party home.

Claims of KCR and KTRon development werereflected in unleashing irreg-ularities and highhanded-ness, he said. KTR went on

record stating that therewould be no threat to theTRS from the BJP, but theTRS left no stone unturnedto resist the BJP in the elec-tions and indulged in large-scale irregularities in wardswhere the BJP has upperhand. Women from otherareas were requisitioned toindulge in impersonation, hepointed out.

Names of fake voters havebeen enrolled in the voters'list and also the BJP voters'

names were removed fromit, he said adding that theTRS indulged in irregulari-ties on the day of the polling.The police arrested 10women belonging to otherareas in Nizamabad oncharges of impersonation, hesaid adding that it reflectsthe sorry state of affairs.Moreover, many peoplefrom other places weredeployed in Tandur toencourage impersonation atthe polling booths.

Further, he alleged thatTRS candidate KappulaSrikant and his aides entereda polling booth in Jagtialmunicipality and influencedthe voters as the police andpoll officials turned a blindeye. In Parakala Municipality,TRS workers clashed with theBJP rivals in 21st ward, hesaid.

Facial recognitiontech raises concerns

Ballot paperalready inked withTRS symbol!PNS n HYDERABAD

A voter in Bandlaguda municipali-ty alleged that the ballot paper wasalready ‘inked’ with TRS symbol.Aishwarya, a first time voter, wasgiven a ballot paper that was alreadyinked with TRS symbol. She went tocast vote at Bandlaguda municipality22 ward, 78 polling booth number. Shesaid, "We have right to vote, we cameto vote. What is the point in skippingcollege and coming to vote? They couldhave casted the vote by themselves. Theink was on the car symbol". When sheand her friend asked the authoritiesabout it, the polling officers reported-ly said that 'nothing will happen, youcan vote. They forcefully made us vote.They didn't even give us time to comeout and ask." She added that even if Ivote on the same paper, vote will beinvalid. This is wrong for anyone.

(Clockwise) MLA Balka Suman and his wife show their inked fingers after casting votes; Voters stand in queue at a polling booth; BJP MP Arvind show his inked finger after casting vote; BJP leader G Vivek casting vote

DK Aruna shows her inked finger after casting vote in Gadwal municipality

KTR went on record stating thatthere would be no threat to the

TRS from the BJP, but the TRS leftno stone unturned to resist the BJP inthe elections and indulged in large-scaleirregularities in wards where the BJP

has upper hand —K LAXMAN, BJP state unit president

TRS will winany election,says PallaPNS n HYDERABAD

MLC Palla RajeshwarReddy said that the results ofMunicipal elections areendorsements for KCR's wel-fare agenda and KTR's per-formance asm u n i c i p a lMinister. In apress meet onWednesday atTe l a n g a n aBhavan, he said,"The first municipalelection after the formation ofTelangana was held peaceful-ly. There are reports that 80per cent of the polling wasrecorded. TRS is going towin the elections. Based onthe polling trend, TRS is goingto win 90 per cent of seats.

HYDERABAD | THURSDAY | JANUARY 23, 2020 nation 05SHORT READS

Maha govt to scrapdirect election ofvillage sarpanchsMUMBAI: The MaharashtraVikas Aghadi government is setto overturn the previousDevendra Fadnavis regime'sdecision of electing sarpanchs(village heads) directly fromamong the people. State RuralDevelopment Minister and NCPleader Hasan Mushrif onWednesday said an ordinancewill soon be placed before thestate Cabinet to pave way forelecting sarpanchs from amongvillage panchayat members.The Fadnavis government in2017 brought an ordinanceto ensure the sarpanchs wereelected directly from among thepeople. "People electedsarpanchs directly in the lastgram panchayat elections. TheMVA has decided that thesarpanch will now be electedfrom (gram panchayat)members. We will soon bringordinance before the Cabinet to ensure there is no directelection," Mushrif told reporters here.

4 killed in head-oncollision between twotrucks in RajasthanJAIPUR: Four people werekilled in a head-on collisionbetween two trucks inRajasthan's Sikar district onWednesday, police said. Theaccident took place near Khudivillage on the NH-58 when atruck going to Gujarat fromKarnal in Haryana collided withanother truck coming from theopposite direction due to poorvisibility, they said.The accidentled to a traffic jam. Trafficmovement resumed after thedamaged vehicles wereremoved from the highway,said Hari Ram, head constableposted at Fatehpur Sadar policestation. He said both the driverand helper died on the spot dueto the massive collision.

AHMEDABAD: The Interpol hasissued a Blue Corner Notice tolocate self-styled godmanNithyananda, who fled Indialast year after a rape case wasregistered against him inKarnataka, Gujarat Police saidon Wednesday. The state policerevealed the move in a chargesheet filed in a local court inconnection with an FIR lodgedagainst Nithyananda inNovember last year, after twogirls went missing from hisashram here. "The Interpolissued the Blue Corner noticeagainst the controversialgodman this month," DeputySuperintendent of Police K TKamariya said. The police saidthey were working that a RedCorner Notice be issued by theInterpol against him now.Nithyananda was earlierdeclared wanted by the GujaratPolice. A Blue Corner notice isissued to locate or obtaininformation about a person in acriminal investigation, whilea Red Corner notice is issuedto seek arrest of a wantedperson.

Unmanned Gaganyaan to carryISRO’s ‘lady’ robot ‘Vyomamitra'PNS n BENGALURU

Even before orbiting astro-nauts on India's first mannedmission to the space inDecember 2021, the IndianSpace Research Organisationwill send 'Vyomamitra', a 'ladyrobot', in unmannedGaganyaan spacecraft.

The robot was the centre ofattraction at the inaugural ses-sion of the "Human Spaceflightand Exploration - PresentChallenges and Future Trends"here on Wednesday.

Vyomamitra, a combina-tion of two Sanskrit wordsVyoma (Space) and Mitra(Friend), took everyone bysurprise when she introducedherself to the audience gathered there.

"Hello everyone. I amVyomamitra, the prototype ofthe half-humanoid, been madefor the first unmannedGaganyaan mission," the robot

said. Explaining about the rolein the mission, she said, "I canmonitor though module para-meters, alert you and performlife support operations. I canperform activities like switchpanel operations..."

The robot said she can alsobe a companion and conversewith the astronauts, recognisethem and can also respond to

their queries. ISRO chairmanK Sivan told reporters thehumanoid will simulate humanfunctions in space and alsointeract with the environmentcontrol life support system.

"It will be simulating exact-ly the human functions there(in space). It will checkwhether the system is right.

This will be very useful to

simulate, as if a human is fly-ing," said Sivan. Earlier,addressing the inaugural func-tion, Sivan said ahead of thelaunch of India's maidenhuman spaceflight venture'Gaganyaan' in December2021, ISRO will undertaketwo unmanned missions in December 2020 and June 2021.

Vyomamitra, acombination oftwo Sanskritwords Vyoma(Space) and Mitra(Friend), tookeveryone bysurprise when sheintroduced herselfto the audience

Mumbai to remain open 24x7 from Jan 27: Aaditya ThackerayPNS n MUMBAI

The Maharashtra Cabinet onWednesday approved its'Mumbai 24 hours' policy allow-ing malls, multiplexes and shopsto remain open round-the-clock in the city from January27.

Noting that London's 'nighteconomy' was five billionpounds, state Tourism MinisterAaditya Thackeray toldreporters here after the Cabinetmeeting that the government'sdecision could help generatemore revenue and jobs, in addi-tion to the existing five lakhpeople working in the servicesector.

He also said keeping shops,

malls and eateries open in thenight was not mandatory.

"Only those who feel they cando good business can keeptheir establishments open

throughout the night," he said. In the first phase, shops,

eateries and theatres in mallsand mill compounds situated innon-residential areas will be

allowed to remain open. "In theBandra-Kurla Complex andNariman Point near NCPA, alane will be opened for foodtrucks. Food inspectors willkeep a watch on them. If ruleson solid waste management,decibel limits and law and orderare violated, there is provisionof lifetime ban," the Shiv Sena

leader said. He said the policeforce will not be under stressbecause after 1.30 am, their jobtill now was to check if shopsand establishments were shutdown. "But, now they will beable to focus on law and orderonly," said the minister, who isson of Chief Minister UddhavThackeray.

He also said that while takingthe decision, Excise rules havenot been touched and pubs andbars will close as usual at1.30am.

"People can eat food, shopand watch movies even duringthe night," he said.

He said Mumbai is a "24x7functional city". "There are peo-ple who work in night shifts.

There are tourists, too, in tran-sit. Where do they go if they arehungry after 10 pm?" he asked.

Thackeray also said thereare provisions for security andCCTVs in malls and mill com-pounds and they have all thelicenses. If these establishmentsneed additional police security,they will have to pay for it, headded.

Asked about criticism fromthe BJP over this move, the min-ister said the Maharashtra VikasAghadi government was work-ing to fulfil people's aspirations.

"The BJP is against the youth,seeing the way they are handlingstudents," he said, referring tothe recent violence in Delhi'sJNU and Jamia Millia Islamia.

Only those whofeel they can dogood business can

keep their establishmentsopen throughout the night

— AADITYA THACKERAYMaharastra TTourism MMinister

Interpol issues BlueCorner notice againstgodman Nithyananda

‘Kanyashree' to raisebreast cancer awarenessPNS n BALURGHAT (WB)

Beneficiaries of West BengalChief Minister MamataBanerjee's UN award-winningpet project 'Kanyashree' willmake people aware aboutbreast cancer and worktowards early detection of thedisease in South Dinajpur dis-trict, officials said onWednesday.

District Chief MedicalOfficer of Health (CMOH), DrSukumar Dey said that 180students of classes 11 and 12— who have benefitted fromthe conditional cash transferscheme — from various blockswill spread awareness on the disease under the 'Pragya'project.

The district administrationwill soon conduct a workshopto train the volunteers for

early detection of breast can-cer. "Only 10 per cent of breastcancer cases are detected in theearly stages. We hope toincrease the percentage to 30per cent after the drive. TheKanyashree girls had earlierplayed an effective role in cre-ating awareness on dengue," hesaid. Mahadyuti Adhikary,nodal officer of 'Kanyashree' inthe district, said that 'Pragyaproject' is being implementedonly in South Dinajpur.

"Rural women will open upmore to the health workerswhen they are accompanied byyoung local volunteers," he said.

Kanyashree scheme, whichis aimed at reducing drop-outrates of girls and delayingtheir marriage till they attainadulthood, has been awardedby the United Nations.

DELHI POLLS

PNS n NEW DELHI

Congress leader ShashiTharoor on Wednesdayraised questions over theconstruction of classroomsand purchase of anti-pollu-tion masks in Delhi by theAAP government anddemanded answers for alleged financial irregu-larities.

Another Congress leaderSharmistha Mukherjeeal leged that Delhi hadbecome the "rape capital"under the Modi and Kejriwalgovernments.

"The Aam Aadmi Partystarted off claiming to com-bat corruption. Would theycare to explain where thismoney went?" Tharoor askedon Twitter. He said the Delhigovernmet undertook a con-struction of 12,782 class-rooms for a total expenditureof Rs 2,892 crore and soughtto know how much did a

classroom cost. "Our peoplehave estimated that all ofthis could have been donecomfortably for a maximumspending of Rs 800 crore,whereas Rs 2,892 crore have

been spent. Do we have a Rs2,000-crore scam on ourhands here?" he asked in avideo posted on Twitter.

Tharoor also alleged finan-cial irregularities in theAAP's procurement of anti-pollution masks for schoolchildren. "Did they charge thetaxpayer all that they spent?Did they charge the taxpay-er more than they shouldhave spent?" he asked. "Didthey give the children anti-pollution masks that couldactually protect the children?These financial irregularitiesmust be addressed forth-with."

PNS n NEW DELHI

Japan has huge investment ininfrastructure projects in theNortheast and is collaboratingwith several states in the regionin areas like forest, sewerageand disaster management, theCentre said on Wednesday.

The issue was discussedthreadbare when a delegationled by Japanese AmbassadorSatoshi Suzuki called on UnionMinister for Development ofNorth Eastern Region(DoNER) Jitendra Singh hereon Wednesday, an officialstatement said. During themeeting, various issues relatedto mutual collaboration andcooperation between the twocountries were discussed."There is huge Japanese invest-ment in infrastructure projectsin the North Eastern region ofthe country," the DoNERMinistry statement said.

In the area of forest manage-ment, Japan has been collabo-rating with the governments ofTripura, Sikkim and Nagalandand soon it will tie up withMeghalaya. Mutual collabora-tion in the areas of bamboo,disaster management, roadinfrastructure and GuwahatiSewerage Project were some ofthe issues that came up for dis-

cussion at the meeting, it said.The upgradation of Aizwal-

Tuipang Section of NH-54with a length of 372 km isbeing done with the assis-tance of the JapanInternational CooperationAgency (JICA) at a cost of Rs

6,168 crore. The road wouldprovide seamless connectivityto Sittwe port in Mayanmar aspart of the government's 'ActEast Policy'. Singh said Indiashares traditional relationswith Japan and under the lead-ership of Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, new areas ofmutual collaboration are beingadded to it. The minister men-tioned about the bullet trainproject in this regard. Singhsaid during the last five years,Japanese engagement in India'sinfrastructure projects hasincreased. Recently 12 nursingcaregivers from Jammu andKashmir, and Ladakh havebeen taken up for jobs inJapan through initiative of pri-vate agencies, the ministersaid.

Japan aiding NE states inmanagement of forest, sewerage

In the area of forestmanagement,Japan has beencollaborating withthe governments ofTripura, Sikkim andNagaland and soonit will tie up withMeghalaya

Revised costestimate forcampusesof NITsPNS n NEW DELHI

The Union Cabinet onWednesday approved theRevised Cost Estimates (RCE)of over Rs 4371 crore forestablishment of permanentcampuses of new NationalInstitutes of Technology(NITs) till 2022. "Cabinet hasapproved the Revised CostEstimates (RCE) for establish-ment of permanent campusesof new NITs at a total cost ofRs 4371.90 crore for the peri-od till 2021-22," UnionMinister Prakash Javadekarsaid at a press conference.

"NITs were established inthe year 2009 and startedfunctioning from academicyear 2010-2011 in their respec-tive temporary campus withvery limited space and infra-structure. These NITs will befully functional from theirrespective permanent cam-puses by March 31, 2022," headded.

43 flights, over9K passengersscreened forcoronavirusPNS n NEW DELHI

A total of 43 flights and 9,156passengers were screened fornovel coronavirus till Tuesdayat the seven identified airportsincluding Delhi, Mumbai,Chennai and Kolkata, UnionHealth Secretary Preeti Sudansaid on Wednesday.

Till now, no cases havebeen detected through thesescreening efforts, she said.

Sudan further said theIndian Embassy in China hasbeen regularly providing thehealth ministry with updateson the status of the infectedcases in that country.

The Embassy has informedthat a total of 440 cases ofpneumonia with novel coron-avirus were confirmed inChina and nine people havedied till Wednesday.

"Cases have been reportedin 14 provinces (includingTaiwan) and municiplalities aswell," the health secretary said.

PNS n NEW DELHI

The JNU administration onWednesday said it has "the rel-evant information" on thenationality of all the 301 for-eign students enrolled in thevarsity, contrary to the claimsmade by an RTI.

Filed by Kota-based activistSujeet Swami, the Right toInformation (RTI) applicationhad claimed that the JawaharlalNehru University (JNU) didnot have information on thenationality of 82 of its foreignstudents.

The varsity said it "has all therelevant information regardingthe foreign students who haveregistered in the various aca-demic programmes in the uni-versity".

"When an RTI comes, atime limit is given to provide

the answers of the asked ques-tions. The RTI has a set of dif-ferent questions pertaining tothe different branches of theuniversity," the varsity said.

The RTI question was relat-ed to the varsity's admission,evaluation and CIS branch. "Different branches of the uni-versity keep their data in dif-ferent formats. The CentralPublic Information Officedirectly sends the data availablein their respective branch tothe applicant," the varsity said.

Varsity has ‘all relevantinformation' on itsforeign students: JNU

Govt allocates Rs 232 crorefor infra development

CENTRAL ARMED POLICE FORCES

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Centre has approved Rs 232crore for the development ofinfrastructure for jawans of theCentral Armed Police Forces(CAPFs) like the CRPF and BSF,officials said.

The CAPFs, which are thebackbone of internal security,are pressed into service in anti-naxal, anti-terror and anti-insurgency operations acrossthe country in addition to lawand order duties in states andwork in difficult circumstancesaway from their families.

A total of Rs 216.46 crore hasbeen sanctioned by the UnionHome ministry recently for thedevelopment of infrastructure ofthe CAPFs and Rs 16.03 crorehas been sanctioned for acqui-sition of land, a Home ministryofficial said on Wednesday.

Apart from the CentralReserve Police Force (CRPF)and the Border Security Force(BSF), the other CAPFs includethe Central Industrial SecurityForce (CISF), Indo-TibetanBorder Police (ITBP), SashastraSeema Bal (SSB), NationalSecurity Guard (NSG) and theAssam Rifles.

The fund will be spent main-

ly for construction of residen-tial quarters, barracks, officebuildings among others, theofficial said. In the Union bud-get for 2019-20, a total of Rs5,117 crore has been allocatedfor development of police infra-structure, including construc-tions of barracks, residentialquarters, purchase of vehiclesand arms and ammunition.

Centre designates Damanas HQs of 2 merged UTsPNS n NEW DELHI

The Centre on Wednesdaydesignated Daman as the head-quarters of the merged UnionTerritories of Daman & Diu,and Dadra & Nagar Haveli. TheCentral government has alsoapproved amendments orextension or repeal in the leg-islations and regulations deal-ing with Goods and ServicesTax (GST), Value Added Tax(VAT) and State Excise. Thedecisions were taken at a meet-ing of the Union Cabinet,chaired by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, an officialstatement said.

These amendments will leadto 'Minimum Government,Maximum Governance' by wayof having common taxationauthorities, better delivery ofservices to the citizens byreducing duplication of workand improving administrativeefficiency, it said. These willhelp in bringing more unifor-

mity in laws relating to GST,VAT and State Excise and it willalso help to avoid any legalcomplications in the levy andcollection of GST Tax, VAT,State Excise, including recoveryof arrears, it said. Moreover, thesaid amendments not onlybring uniformity in taxationlaws but also strengthen thesystem of laws, it said.

The statement said Damanhas been designated as theHeadquarters of UT of Dadraand Nagar Haveli and Damanand Diu in view of the mergerof the two UTs on January 26,2020.

Speeding car mows downfive women workersPNS n ROURKELA

At least five women labourerswere killed and six othersinjured after a speeding carmowed them down inOdisha's Sundargarh districton Wednesday, police said.

The accident took placewhen, at a sharp turn inRamabahal, the car jumpedthe road divider and ran overa group of women engaged insome work before ramminginto an SUV.

While two women died onthe spot, doctors declaredthree others dead on arrivalwhen all the injured weretaken to Rourkela

Government Hospital, itsChief Medical Officer S KabiSatpathy said.

The car, which was goingtowards Rourkela fromSundargarh, and the SUVwere carrying three occupantseach.

These six injured personswere sent to a hospital atRajgangpur, Satpathy said.

Both the vehicles were badlydamaged.

Sub-Divisional PoliceOfficer, Rajgangpur, BKNanda said a board informingpeople about the ongoingwork on the road had been putup at the spot where the acci-dent occurred.

Tharoor said the Delhi governmetundertook a construction of 12,782classrooms for a total expenditure ofRs 2,892 crore and sought to knowhow much did a classroom cost

Tharoor alleges financialirregularities by AAP govt

Boeing’s internal documents, whichrevealed that executives mockedaviation regulators and airlinesacross the world, including India’sDirectorate General of Civil

Aviation (DGCA), were hugely damaging forthe American planemaker and marked a tor-rid start to 2020 after a horrific 2019. Theyear began in the aftermath of the Lion Air737 MAX crash in Indonesia. Using “friend-ly” media sources, Boeing executives said thatpoor pilot training (and the lack of it) wasthe primary cause of the crash. While theremay have been an element of truth to that,the second 737 MAX crash of an EthiopianAirlines jet, seconds after takeoff fromAddis Ababa, dealt the final blow.

As a result, Boeing’s 737 MAX fleetwas grounded worldwide, some regulatorsdoing it sooner than others, but the air-craft manufacturer kept on producingplanes, even though they could not fly.Planes kept coming off the production lineat over 20 a month, leading to over 200aircraft being parked at Boeing’s plant inRenton, Washington. However, with lit-tle space to keep so many airplanes —Boeing was also forced to park planes inemployee car parking lots — the Americanmanufacturer decided to suspend produc-tion a few weeks ago.

It is extremely fortuitous that thegrounding of the Boeing 737 MAX has notcollapsed the global aviation industry. Itis noteworthy here that the MAX was stilla new aircraft and had not been fully inte-grated with fleets across the world. Thegrounding is now beginning to impactgrowth opportunities for airlines. Withlarge American carriers like AmericanAirlines and Southwest Airlines, which arethe largest operators of MAX, now delay-ing the re-introduction of the plane all theway till the middle of this year, this cri-sis is not going to end anytime soon.Boeing’s nose has been grounded to thetarmac, its reputation ruined.

In most other industries, such a crisismight have been fatal for a company but theglobal airliner manufacturers’ duopolybetween the American Boeing and theEuropean Airbus, where the latter hassmartly and carefully not uttered a word oreven celebrated the former’s woes, makes theCoke-Pepsi duel look like a violent conflictin comparison. While the Chinese and theRussians are trying to up their game in thecivilian airliner market — some could evenargue that Boeing’s fall has given them anopportunity — they are far from being aneffective contender. It takes several billionsof dollars and an army of engineers to devel-op a new aircraft. Right now nothing can beatthe entrenched players.

But at the end of the day, the entire MAXcrisis that has engulfed Boeing comes downto the fact that the manufacturer did not wantto spend a huge sum of money on develop-ing a new plane. The Boeing 737 is a design

that dates back to the early1960s, the airworthiness certifi-cate given to the aircraft is onethat was issued almost sevendecades ago. The Boeing 737 hasbeen an immensely successfulplane. During 2018, Boeingdelivered its 10,000th 737 witha backlog of close to 5,000 air-craft remaining in its books. Ithas been off the competitionover the years as well. TheMcDonnell Douglas DC-9 andDouglas MD80 family could notkeep up with the success of theBoeing and eventually Boeingacquired McDonnell-Douglas.

However, the Airbus A320family, developed by theEuropean planemaker in theearly 1980s, was a different ket-tle of fish. With its highlyadvanced wing and comput-erised fly-by-wire technology,Boeing had to develop newtechnology to keep the 737competitive. So when Airbusdecided to refresh the A320 withmodern new high-bypass ratioengines, which would reducefuel consumption, it got a lot ofinterest from airlines. WhileAirbus has had its share ofproblems over the years, partic-ularly around the A380 super-jumbo, the A320 has been amoney-spinner. With modifica-tions in new engines — the NewEngine Option (Neo) — itwould become even more attrac-

tive. Despite the problems thatIndia’s low-cost carrier IndiGohas suffered with Neo aircraft,nearly a thousand such planesare in service currently. Boeinghad to do something to keep upwith the rising competition.Neo’s efficiency gains over theexisting generation 737 weremassive.

But Boeing had a problem.When it started developingthe 737 in the 1960s, it did nothave to face much in terms ofground clearance and kept rid-ing low to the ground. Thismade it easier for planes to ser-vice at smaller and less pre-pared airports, which were allbut common in the 1960s andthe 1970s. In fact, it was thisvery ability, coupled with it hav-ing lower engines, that made itattractive to the airlines. Evenwhen the 737 was improved,few changes were made to thisend. The problem with high-bypass ratio turbofan enginestoday is that to gain a perfectratio, the front fan has to bemassive. The 737’s basic archi-tecture made fitting such a newengine nearly impossible. Andwhile Boeing should have ide-ally developed a new aircraftaltogether, market realitiesmade that an impossibility. Ittook it over a decade to devel-op the 787 Dreamliner with anoverly optimistic entry into

service schedules. The subse-quent delays left the companywith a bloody nose.

The 787 is an immenselysuccessful aircraft today, hun-dreds of them forming thebackbone of airline fleets acrossthe world. But Boeing did nothave the time and its manage-ment thought of developing anew aircraft. A better option,no matter what the physics,would have been to re-enginethe current airframe withminor modifications.

Well, the modifications werenot simple. In order to fit a larg-er fan, Boeing engineers had tomove the engine further forwardand above the wing. This causedsome major problems to theaerodynamic properties of the737 but these could be solved.Pilots could be trained to dealwith the changes. Then cameanother problem. One majorselling point for airlines is to cal-culate the number of addition-al training pilots needed whenthey move to a new type of air-craft. Pilots trained on the reg-ular Airbus A320 could fly thenew A320 Neo with just a cou-ple of hours of orientation.Boeing promised pretty muchthe same even though it wasobvious — something that thestash of internal emails revealed— that pilots should have takenmany more hours of training for

the MAX, even some hoursinside the simulator.

The issue, as many peopleknow now, is that Boeing decid-ed to integrate much more soft-ware into the MAX to augmentflying characteristics. One ofthose pieces of software was theManeuvering CharacteristicsAugmentation System (MCAS),which in low-speed conditions,usually after take-off, wouldkeep the plane from stalling.With the engines of the 737MAX being shifted so much fur-ther forward, the centre of grav-ity of the plane, too, being farforward, only software couldresolve it. As we know now, theMCAS system depended ongood data from the sensorsoutside the aircraft. Sensors canfail and usually those failuresshould be notified, as on cars, tocite an example. But Boeing justmade an alert system for a sen-sor data mismatch, an optionalextra on the 737 MAX, eventhough it was but a softwareswitch. The MCAS system madesome sudden changes to theplanes flightpath and withoutproper training to recognisethe software intervention, pilotsonboard had no clue how to dealwith the issue. With little alti-tude, the pilots of the Lion Airand Ethiopian Airlines aircraftslammed to the ground.

At the end of the day, a com-pany, once known to beextremely fastidious on the engi-neering front, made a stupidmistake. A firm that almostbankrupted itself while develop-ing the Boeing 707 and thenalmost did so again with theBoeing 747 — which has proventhat it can redefine the marketeven in contemporary timeswith the Boeing 777 and Boeing787 — has ruined its reputation,thanks to the unnecessary short-cuts it took. As is being madeclear in the emails for the pub-lic to see, sheer arrogance of itsexecutives made matters worse.

It is being made apparentthat the Boeing 737 MAX willnot make it back into the servicebefore mid-year. A freshlyempowered Federal AviationAdministration (FAA), the civilaviation regulator in the US, willnot be in the pocket of Boeingas it was once. It is unlikely thata company so vital to America’strading interests and its defenceindustry will be allowed to col-lapse. But the arrogance ondisplay at the company was lit-tle different from that displayedby the bankers before the finan-cial industry collapse of 2008.Boeing has to do a lot to repairits reputation and salvage theimage of Boeing 737. Beinghumble shall make for a verygood start.

(The writer is ManagingEditor, The Pioneer)

It looks like every second year, a new dead-ly contagion emerges in China. First, it wasSARS, then Avian Flu, which was followed

by Swine Flu and now, a new coronavirus hastaken over the Chinese city of Wuhan. This newvirus is estimated to have infected over 400people, nine of whom have died. Thanks in nosmall part to the boom in international air trav-el within and outside China, which connectseven secondary cities such as Wuhan, caseshave spread in several countries now, includ-ing across the Pacific in the US. Earlier virus-

es like Avian Flu or Bird Flu were thought to have originated in illegal poultry farmswhere animals were kept in unhygienic conditions. In the case of Swine Flu, too,the emergence of the virus was in pig farms. Avian Flu led to the killing of mil-lions of birds at poultry farms as they were culled. With the emergence of SwineFlu, where the virus was thought to have passed from domesticated pigs to humans,thousands of pigs were eliminated as well. And now, this latest virus, which doesnot have a moniker as yet, appears to have emerged from the illegal trade inmarine wildlife in that Chinese city.

All of this does raise questions about hygiene standards and food quality issuesthat many towns and villages in China face behind the new glass and concreteskyscrapers. In this part of the world, illegal trading of animals and bird farmsis common, often next to human dwellings. It should not be a surprise then thatwhen pathogens do the dreaded inter-species skip, such an environment becomesan enabler. It is, therefore, contingent upon the Chinese authorities to get to thebottom as to why these new pathogens are emerging. This should be done onan urgent basis because the next outbreak may not be as contained or worsebut more virulent and deadlier. Public health officials have been warning aboutthe potential of a next global pandemic to rival the Spanish Influenza of exactlya century ago when an estimated 50-100 million people died, including around17 million people in India. This is one reason why Indian authorities must be vig-ilant. During the Avian Flu crisis, authorities pre-emptively culled millions of chick-en in poultry farms across the country. It is good to know that passengers arriv-ing from China are being scanned at Indian airports. However, we have to stayon our toes and urge the Chinese to clean up their act.

The allies are proving to be an itch againfor the BJP in the run-up to the DelhiAssembly elections and though it may

not be betting big on them, the mutual differ-ences are worsening its arrogant and abrasiveimage. The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), its long-time ally, which was hoping to context six seats,has now decided to withdraw from the racealtogether, citing irreconcilable differences onseveral issues, primary among them being theCitizenship Amendment Act (CAA). The SADis dead against the religion-based condition-

ality in the new law and wants all minority communities (some Ahmadiyyas arein Punjab) to be included. Besides, the BJP was pushing it to contest under thelotus symbol, clearly intended to subsume federal parties under its umbrella thanthat of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Ever since the Akali leadershiphas passed into the hands of Sukhbir Singh Badal and the SAD has been pusheddown the ladder of political dominance in Punjab, it has slowly and steadily beenasserting its independence. By choosing to end the alliance in Delhi, it hopes todouse the fire of criticism in Punjab that it is now being guided by the Hindutvaideology and supporting contentious issues like the abrogation of Article 370and CAA without looking at the bigger picture. Its core constituency feels theseissues serve a predominantly Hindu voterbase and do not find much resonanceamong Sikhs, who have been shortchanged. This has become more pronouncedafter the Akal Takht jathedar, Giani Harpreet Singh, publicly lambasted Hindutva,going so far out as to seeking a ban on the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS).

Already Congress Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, by passing an Assemblyresolution against the CAA, has pushed the Akalis into a corner. As for Delhi,there are around 10 lakh Sikh voters, who could potentially affect the results inabout 10 of the 70 Assembly seats. Question is whether this slippage wouldimpact the BJP vote share. Rifts between the Akali Dal and the BJP have beenwidening ever since the seat-sharing fiasco in the Haryana Assembly elections,with the latter attempting to poach some of its candidates. While all of these movesmay seem hurtful to the coalition dharma, fact is the emaciated SAD needs theBJP’s majoritarian weight to have a stake in both Central and State politics. TheBJP, post the mammoth Lok Sabha verdict of last year, is not looking to be overt-ly dependent on the Punjabi vote in the city. In fact, it doesn’t see too much ofa community drift, arguing that the presence of the Akalis could have led to anideology-based split. It claims the neutral Sikh vote would come its way and is,in fact, hoping to divide the Sikhs as those with Panthic loyalties and those thatare non-aligned. In that sense, it is trying to undercut the Akalis. Besides, theDelhi BJP, which once thrived on the anti-Sikh riots sentiment to draw the Sikhvote towards it from the Congress and had the Punjabi Hindu vote with nego-tiators like Madan Lal Khurana, is now much more dependent on other com-munity votes like the Purvanchalis while consolidating its hold among Baniyas.The shift in the power axis is apparent from the fact that the BJP has accom-modated both the Janata Dal (United) and the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), allo-cating three seats between them, clearly with an eye to the Bihar elections. However,both these allies are not with their fair share of troubles. JD(U) senior leader PavanK Varma has sought “ideological clarity” over the seat-sharing with BJP in Delhiwhile colleague Prashant Kishor continues asking questions on CAA. Other thanthe SAD, the Jannayak Janata Party (JJP), the BJP’s newest ally in Haryana,will also not be contesting the Delhi elections. Led by the fiery young descen-dant of the Chautala clan, Dushyant Chautala, it claims it didn’t get the electoralsymbols of its choice and is, therefore, withdrawing from the race. But therewere murmurs of the party wanting to contest at least 12 seats. There is a size-able Jat population that can swing the results in Najafgarh, Mundka, Mahipalpur,Mehrauli, Nangloi, Badarpur, Devli and Chhattarpur. And while Dushyant may notopenly challenge the CAA, fact is he is finding it hard to justify a relationship ofconvenience politically. The BJP may not need the allies numerically now becauseit has stepped out of the pretend politics of Modi 1.0 and is gung-ho about itssolo majority status. But it cannot consolidate its India map without its federalpartners given its recent drubbing at the State polls. And with its oldest ideolog-ically-friendly ally, Shiv Sena, walking out, it certainly could do without more friendsturning foes and eroding popular trust in the process.

Miffed allies

Righting the wrong

Sir — A peaceful protest byKashmiri Pandits to mark the30th anniversary of their massexodus from the Kashmir Valleygrabbed some attention. Throughit, they appealed to theGovernment to take plausibleand sincere steps to rehabilitatethem in the Valley. SuccessiveGovernments have only paradedtheir cause. Largely, they haveeither ignored the Pandits orused them for their selfish end.Left liberals, rights activists andsecularists, too, have turned ablind eye to their rightful griev-ances though they have beencampaigning for the rights ofminority communities in gener-al. Are Kashmir Pandits not aminority in the Valley? After thenullification of Article 370 and therevocation of special status to theformer State of Jammu & Kashmir,it is the responsibility of the UnionGovernment to restore normalcyin the Valley and rehabilitate thedisplaced Pandits willing to return.Even after the Supreme Court’sdirective, little action has beentaken.

Nimai Charan SwainBhubaneswar

Growth trouble

Sir — Once again, theInternational Monetary Fund(IMF) has slashed India’s growthestimate to 4.8 per cent for thisfiscal year and 5.8 per cent for2020-21. Observers attributesuch grim forecasts to an eco-nomic slowdown.

In the Indian context, thecurrent growth projection fol-lows a downward trend from 7.5per cent last year to 6.1 per centin October. It is dishearteningthat while growth projectionshave continued to decline in therecent past, the Governmenthas taken little cohesive actionfor revival and has instead beendemanding rate cuts from the

Reserve Bank of India (RBI).Yet India is projected to be

the second-fastest growingmajor economy in the worldafter China. There are miles togo for that to happen. TheGovernment has to come upwith a big bang strategy torevive growth.

Srishti MathurUjjain

The clock is ticking

Sir — At a time when the coun-try is faced with severe econom-ic slowdown and given the seri-ousness of the problem of unem-ployment with agrarian crisis,too, at its peak, the common manis expecting relief and progressivemeasures in the Budget that is tobe presented on February 1.

However, Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman is busyattending various forums andmeetings to defend theGovernment’s decision to imple-ment the CitizenshipAmendment Act (CAA). Withjust a few days left for the Budget,one would have expected theFinance Minister to be giving fin-ishing touches to it. Despite thefact that Sitharaman has takenseveral measures to revive theeconomy, the situation isn’t show-ing any signs of improving. TheBudget must focus on revivingdemand, investment and growth.All of this must be done in atransparent manner.

Anna Mary YvonneChennai

P A P E R W I T H P A S S I O N

www.dailypioneer.comfacebook.com/dailypioneer | @TheDailyPioneer | instagram.com/dailypioneer/

op nionHYDERABAD | THURSDAY | JANUARY 23, 2020

06

A never-ending crisis

KUSHAN MITRA

As more details about the Boeing 737 MAX emerge, it is becoming clearerthat a fair dose of arrogance pushed the American plane-maker

With no development onits agenda, the ruling partyis making a completeexposition of its agenda tocreate a Hindu rashtra.

Congress MP—Shashi Tharoor

Growing up in a country likeIndia, you see wealth andpoverty live together in such asymbiotic way…seeing thatyou become desensitised to it.

Actor— Priyanka Chopra

What's going on betweenPakistan and India … if wecan help, we certainly will be willing to. We have beenwatching it very closely.

US President—Donald Trump

S O U N D B I T E

L E T T E R S T O TT H E E D I T O R

Crash barriers will make roads safer

This refers to the report, “Crash barriers planned toslash NH fatalities” (January 22). The Centre’s planto install crash barriers along its existing National

Highways (NH) and make them mandatory for all futurehighway projects is welcome. This step is bound to bringdown the number of crashes and fatalities. Coming close-ly on the heels of the enactment of the Motor Vehicles(Amendment) Act, 2019, that calls for stricter punish-ments for traffic violators, the installation of crash bar-riers will require a big push from the powers that be tomake it a reality.

Crash barriers are designed to withstand the impactof even high speed vehicles and are expected to slideand roll the vehicles back on the road while keeping thelevel of damage to them as well as the barriers withinacceptable limits. As per statistics, less than five per centof the total network of about 1.50 lakh km of highwayshave installed crash barriers. India accounts for the high-est number of road deaths in the world. The total num-ber of accident-related deaths in 2018 stood at

1,51,417, indicating an increase of 2.3 per cent over 2017figures. About 85 per cent of accident-related deaths hap-pen in the most productive age group of 18-60. Costeffective solutions for crash barriers are available world-wide. All we need are implementation and adoption.

ShubhamVia email

Send yyour ffeedback tto:letterstopioneer@gmail.com

Another deadly virusNormalcy acrobatics is infull swing even as Kashmircontinues to reel under acrippling internet shutdownand leaders remain detained.

PDP president—Mehbooba Mufti

Slighted by the BJP over seats, the Akali Dal and Dushyant Chautala refuse to contest Delhi polls

With complex strains emerging in China, we should ask whythis is happening at all when dealing with public health risks

The changemakers

THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS DIALOGUE (IN KASHMIR) ISTO GO CLOSE TO THE PEOPLE, LISTEN TO THEIR

PROBLEMS AND FIND SOLUTIONS TO THEM.—UNION MINISTER

MUKHTAR ABBAS NAQVI

THE VISIT OF MINISTERS’ BRIGADE IS TO HIGHLIGHTTHE AGENDA OF THE BJP AT THE EXPENSE OF PUBLICEXCHEQUER BY USE OF ENTIRE OFFICIAL MACHINERY.— J&K CONGRESS COMMITTEE CHIEFRAVINDER SHARMA

POINTCOUNTERPOINT

One of the dispiriting features of the moderndevelopment model is that despite oceans ofresearch and studies, there has not been a

substantive transformative impact on marginalisedcommunities. Much of the outcomes have beenpurely academic and we need more dedicated, coura-geous and purpose-driven champions who can cre-atively apply their core competencies and newknowledge to enhance people’s well-being. Similarly,we need to design tools and techniques that can helptranslate these insights into effective public policiesand professional practices that can sustainably deliv-er quality outcomes on an exponential scale.

There is now a tribe of passionate entrepreneurswho are collaborating with like-minded allies andwith those with different perspectives, to build a col-leagueship of expertise to address pressing humanchallenges and accelerate the transition of the under-privileged from subsistence to sustainability inemerging economies. Some of them are bright peo-ple working to uncover and scale breakthrough dis-ruptive solutions for leapfrogging meaningful socialchange. They have the vision to see the world theway it should be and create what is missing. Theyare combining business acumen with their con-science to solve problems in the community and fos-ter a fairer society in an efficient and sustainable way.

A brother-sister duo, Manav Subodh and SwatiSubodh, with diverse backgrounds and with careerson the cusp of steady and promising trajectories,decided to change track and pursue something thathad relevance and meaning to the wider world, andin particular to the underserved communities.Manav was Global Manager, Marketing,Entrepreneurship and Corporate Affairs at Intel butfound the canvas dimming his social horizon. Swatiobtained her post-graduate in biotechnology and didher doctoral research in genomics at AIIMS. It washere that she had her moment of epiphany. Her lab-oratory was opposite the outpatients departmentwhere the daily sight of struggling patients stirredher and fired the imagination to furrow a path ofconcrete action. Manav and Swati realised that theirpath was never going to lead to the right level of ful-fillment, because they were not doing something thatexactly fitted the values they had cultivated over time.

Since it wasn’t possible to change their values,they knew they needed to switch their careers.Manav was the first to take the plunge when he con-ceptualised the 1M1B (1 Million for 1 Billion)Foundation, an initiative to inspire a million youngleaders, educators and entrepreneurs to generate jobsthat will create better lives for a billion people in theunderserved communities. The idea was to empow-er entrepreneurs who would undertake socialinnovations, job creation and meaningful develop-ment in their communities so that each in turnwould create jobs and more stable economic livesfor a thousand more.

With Swati’s expertise in healthcare and Manav’sexpertise in entrepreneurship education and ecosys-tems, a social entrepreneurship model was concep-tualised. They visualised that a million entrepreneurs— spanning different geographies and sectors — cancome up with the right solutions that can impactone billion people. Everyone, according to them, isa natural entrepreneur and can play a vital role inpromoting resilience in their communities. Theybelieve that with relatively simple and inexpensivetools we can put the needle on tough problems butinterventions fail to reach the right person at the righttime. Sharing them equitably across the world tomaximise the impact is a big challenge. Addressingthese and other burning social problems requiresunderstanding and reframing them with a fresh view.It is here that entrepreneurs like Manav and Swati

are stepping in and filling the vacuum.With a team of like-minded people whoshare this passion 1M1B started takingshape.

Manav and Swati understand thatinterventions for rural regeneration can-not be played out in the same way thatsociety perceives the poor: Desperate cit-izens who need to be rescued by the elite.“We have to understand the local chal-lenges to improve their composite liveli-hoods. You can’t solve the problems of thelast mile from the headquarters,” explainsManav. According to him, it takes localentrepreneurs, empowered to adapt eas-ily to the nuances of local culture, to cre-ate and drive change sustainably on theground. The 1M1B Foundation is servingas a micro-accelerator for grassrootsentrepreneurs by giving them skill train-ing, access to technologies, finance andthen helping them launch their ownmicro-enterprise. “We scan the localenvironment to get better assessment ofneeds of the area and prospective inter-ventional aspects and partner with theseentities to provide our know-how and exe-cution pipeline to enable last mile accessto maximise impact”, he adds.

There are several interventions beingpromoted by 1M1B across segments.The Skills Accelerator programme helpsindividuals develop relevant skills toensure that they are in line with the mar-ket needs. Fifty per cent of the participantsget formal jobs and 15 per cent of themland up starting their own business.1M1B is honing the leadership skills ofmicro-entrepreneurs along with buildingrural co-innovation labs. It helps acceler-ate the access of indigenous technologiesto rural markets by pairing these entre-preneurs with mentors who help them indeveloping their ideas. It also connectsglobal start-ups to rural markets. Thisaccess and exposure allows them to testtheir solution on the specific populationsthrough other village-level players. Theprogramme provides training in comput-er skills, communication, accounting,

finance, access to technologies and hands-on growth support to help them launchtheir own micro-enterprises. 1M1Bbelieves that communities of artisans, par-ticularly women, deserve economicopportunities and aims to keep alive therich tradition of their craftsmanship. Thefoundation is working with Kalamkariweavers to provide a more robust econom-ic base to the weaver community. It is alsoan implementation partner on providingtraining in Artificial Intelligence (AI) to5,000 schoolchildren in New Delhi,Bengaluru and Hyderabad. Students areencouraged to come up with project ideason how AI can be applied for societalgood. Those selected are given access tothe AI Youth Lab to advance their projectsand create prototypes.

The Future Leaders programme isdedicated to identifying and nurturing thenext generation of leaders committed topositive change. The target group compris-es high school students and undergrad-uates who have the potential to have ameaningful influence on topics of rele-vance. During the course of the pro-gramme, they are imparted high-impactleadership development skills to developthe knowledge, resources and networkneeded to become an inclusive and social-ly-minded changemaker. These skillsinclude thinking critically and from mul-tiple perspectives, collaborating inclusive-ly, communicating effectively and becom-ing empathetic leaders. The coaching alsoexposes them to an array of educationalexperiences that broaden their worldview.

The latest batch participated in thefifth annual 1M1B Activate ImpactSummit at the United Nations (UN)Headquarters in New York. The summitprovided them the opportunity to learnabout leadership through the lens of theexperiences of leaders of civil society, gov-ernment, industry, non-government bod-ies, private entities, venture funds, entre-preneurs and influencers.

The foundation is a UN-accredited

non-profit organisation with special con-sultative status to the UN Economic andSocial Council and associated with the UNDepartment of Global Communications.

The foundation has a very innovativebusiness development programme, calledBusiness Raja (king). An AI-enabledchatbot, it is guiding aspiring entrepre-neurs in rural India to grow their nascentideas, raise funds and run their business-es successfully. It is simple in design. Forthe user, it is just another contact onWhatsApp they talk to about their ideasin three languages — Telugu, Hindi, andKannada — as of now.

The chatbot asks a user about theirideas, how they came up with it, measuresthe person’s personality and attains a com-plete profile. It also assesses their respons-es to tough questions — a sort of psycho-metric test.

An aspiring entrepreneur needs to fol-low a three-step process: First, share a busi-ness idea. The chatbot will provide refer-ence resources that need to be complet-ed. Then, the candidate will have to designa financial plan such as product pricing.Finally, if the idea works well, the chatbotwill help in raising funds. A final score ofinvestment readiness is then sent to thelending institution.

“The idea of Business Raja emergedwhile our team was working with grass-roots innovators and helping them navi-gates the challenging entrepreneuriallandscape. The AI chatbot and theresources associated with it help to do this,at scale so we can enable more entrepre-neurs faster”, explains Swati.

It doesn’t require a flash of genius orinvention of any radical idea to change thestory line. What is ultimately needed ispractical compassion. Most revolutionarysolutions have been evolved by people likeManav and Swati who looked at the famil-iar landscape with fresh eyes. They sawpromise where others saw hopelessness.

(The writer is Member, NITI Aayog’sNational Committee on Financial Literacyand Inclusion for Women)

Young innovators Manav and Swati Subodh are empowering entrepreneurs to undertakesocial experiments, job creation and meaningful development in their communities

analysis 07F I R S T C O L U M N

The tech-savvyroad to health

Technology has not been a disruptive force insenior healthcare but that story is

set to change over the next six years, says Sushant Reddy

MOIN QAZI

IT TAKES LOCAL

ENTREPRENEURS,EMPOWERED

TO ADAPT EASILY TO THE

NUANCES OFLOCAL CULTURE,TO CREATE ANDDRIVE CHANGE

SUSTAINABLY ON THE GROUND.

THE 1M1BFOUNDATION IS

SERVING AS A MICRO-

ACCELERATOR FORGRASSROOTS

ENTREPRENEURSBY GIVING

THEM SKILLTRAINING, ACCESSTO TECHNOLOGIES,

FINANCEAND THEN HELPING

THEM LAUNCHTHEIR OWN

MICRO-ENTERPRISE

We have just celebrated our entry into a new decade. The defin-ing theme of the first two decades of this century was the riseof technology start-ups and their transformative change in our

lives. Just 10 years ago, none of us could have imagined the lifestylechanges created by internet-enabled platforms and aggregators like Uber,Amazon, Swiggy, Zomato, Hotstar or Netflix. However, there are somesectors where technology hasn’t had such a transformative effect, yet.One such is healthcare and more specifically, healthcare for senior cit-izens. What is senior healthcare? This in itself is a very generic term;in fact, the term is so generic that everything, from an Out PatientDepartment to in-hospital care to the pharmacy can be grouped intothis category.

Broadly speaking, senior healthcare can be classified into four areas:Hospital care, preventive care, home care and healthy living.

Hospital care: This is what everyone easily relates to as tradition-al healthcare. Episodic events such as emergencies, illness, injury treat-ments at a hospital come under hospital care.

Preventive care: All aspects of healthcare that are preventive innature such as diagnostic tests, pharmacy, doctor consultations, dis-ease management (diabetes, hypertension), health insurance and soon fall in the category of preventive care.

Home care: Healthcare services delivered at home such as nurs-ing, physiotherapy, home Intensive Care Unit (ICU), dialysis and chemo-therapy services, medical devices and so on come under this.

Healthy living: Services that enable a healthy lifestyle for seniorssuch as custom-designed senior homes, smart tracking devices, com-panionship services and so on come under this tag.

The fact remains that senior healthcare is a massive challenge.India is in the middle of a rapid demographic and cultural transition —senior citizens above 60 years are over a 100 million today and con-stitute eight per cent of the total population. This figure is expected togrow to 350 million, an estimated 20 per cent of the total populationby 2050, a dramatic rise in the older population, both in size and pro-portion.

Another massive factor driving this transition is a mass migra-tion, both domestic and international, of educated, urban youth that hap-pened during the 80s, 90s and the first decade of the 21st century.The country recorded over 30 million international migrants and 139million domestic migrants as of 2017.

These challenges have increased India’s senior healthcare burdenexponentially and the problem is compounded by the fact that despitemassive technological advances in this century, it has not yet createda disruptive impact in the senior healthcare industry. This is becauseof three main reasons, fragmented and localised service providers, lowtech savviness of seniors and language barriers.

Fragmented and localised service providers: Traditionallysenior healthcare services have been very human-intensive. The roleof care provider was and still remains extremely critical and everythingelse was not a deal breaker.

Low tech savviness of seniors: All things equal, technology adop-tion of millennials is much higher than that of senior citizens. While seniorsare comfortable with popular apps like WhatsApp and YouTube, adop-tion of other technology in general has been less than spectacular.

Language barriers: English is not a preferred conversational medi-um for most senior citizens and as most technology platforms aredesigned for urban, English-speaking customers, this becomes a majormental obstacle not only for senior citizens but also for care providers.

So, the big question is, how can technology transform senior health-care? There are multiple areas where technology can become a realforce-multiplier.

Smart medical alert system: India does not have a reliable 911emergency service that can be accessed by senior citizens. Havingsmart medical alert systems that can provide emergency support atthe push of a button will be a great value addition for seniors.

Doctor-on-call services: Senior citizens usually avoid visiting adoctor for minor health issues because of mobility and logistic issues.A “doctor-on-call” service where general physicians and specialist doc-tors can talk over a voice/video call will be a great value propositionfor senior citizens.

Internet of Things devices and smart tracking: Senior citizenshave a higher risk of falls, rapid heart rate, breathlessness, low bloodpressure and so on. Smart Internet of Things (IoT) devices that cantrack regular health vitals, detect abnormal patterns and alert careproviders is another major opportunity in this space.

Smart senior living homes: The concept of senior living was asocial taboo until recently. With realty developers revisiting the conceptof “senior living”, a lot of Indians are taking a fresh look at this con-cept.

Intelligent voice platforms: Voice is a major breakthrough whenit comes to senior citizens. Easy, intelligent voice-based platforms toorder medicines, schedule doctor appointments or health check-upswill be a major opportunity in future.

Technology has not been a disruptive force in senior healthcarebut that story is set to change over the next five-six years. With rapidadvances in voice-enabled platforms, artificial intelligence and IoT devices,start-ups are burning the midnight oil to come up with smart, easy-to-use technological solutions that create an impact in the senior health-care industry. It is not a question of “if” anymore, it’s just the “when”that needs to be answered.

(The writer is CEO and founder of a leading insurance aggregating platform)

Delhi is heading for polls onFebruary 8 to elect 70 membersto the Legislative Assembly and

needless to say, campaigning by polit-ical parties across the national Capitalis expected to reach a fever pitch soon.Like always, this election, too, will wit-ness a plethora of populist issuesbeing made a poll plank by the candi-dates and their star campaigners as theydo the rounds of the city. Populism hasbecome an integral aspect of electionsmainly due to the fact that the peopleof one of the world’s largest democra-

cies have become used to being wooedwith sops and benefits. Whether it isregularisation of illegal colonies andstructures or subsidised electricity andso on, we just lap it up.

However, do we ever stop to thinkwhat the cost of these sops is and whois footing the bill? The answer is thatwe the people or the electorate are even-tually going to pay for the sops, collec-tively. The sole beneficiary in this willbe the political party we elect, who willbe laughing all the way to the seat ofpower, for the next five years.

We, as voters, must critically eval-uate the promises being made by theGovernment in power and all the othercontending parties and see what theircommitment is for pressing issuessuch as climate change and the envi-ronment. And, we also need to look atthe environmental cost of an election.This also needs to be audited and madepublic in order to ensure that the peo-ple realise the environmental costs of

this democratic exercise and which par-ties have had the smallest carbonfootprint. This will usher in a positivechange in the thinking of the voterwhich will in turn compel the partiesto shun anti-environmental activitiesin the form of excess use of fuel, plas-tic and paper during campaigning. Thepeople of Delhi need to question theGovernment and ask it what it has doneto safeguard the environment and

also asses what the environment-relat-ed promises and assurances othercontesting parties are bringing to thetable. The subject of pollution in Delhihas been a hotly debated matter, withthe ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)claiming tremendous success in rein-ing in the same with the help of thevehicle rationing initiative the Odd-Even Scheme. However, as is the normin politics, these initiatives have been

heavily criticised by the CentralGovernment.

Both the Centre and the DelhiGovernment have been trading chargesover this key issue and blaming eachother for the sad state of affairs in theCapital.

As the common man continued tosuffer the impact of the pollutionshrouding the city in a pall of smog, thejudiciary took it upon itself to expressreservations on the efficacy of thescheme in controlling the spiraling pol-lution levels in Delhi-NCR and pulledup the Centre, the Delhi Governmentand even the neighbouring States ofPunjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh onthe environmental crisis caused bycrop residue burning by farmers.

The Supreme Court also directedthe Central Government to assess thefeasibility of the use of hydrogen-basedfuel technology in the Capital to mit-igate air pollution.

However, the fact remains that

things should not have come to sucha pass. We need clear, tangible andmore-importantly quantifiable resultsagainst efforts undertaken to protectthe environment by all stakeholders.The city is what we will leave to thefuture generations and it cannot beinhospitable due to pollution that hasreached unmanagable levels and turnedit into a “gas chamber”, choking andkilling the people that reside in it.

The spectre of climate change islooming large and pollution cannot bestopped by turning a blind eye to it.Combatting pollution and climatechange need a concentrated and sin-cere effort by the Government inpower that has the resolve and the firmmandate of the people behind it. So thistime let us elect the environment. AGovernment that makes environmen-tal policies its priority will then auto-matically get elected.

(The writer is an environmentaljournalist)

Vote for the environment The spectre of climate change is looming large and pollution cannot be stopped by turning a blind eye to it.

In the February 8 Assembly polls, Delhiites need to elect a Government that makes environmental policies its priority

SRIRAJ KOTA

HYDERABAD | THURSDAY | JANUARY 23, 2020

www.dailypioneer.com

F O R E I G N E Y E

Sounding the alarmunnecessarily has dangersof its own. People may fail topay heed next time, or mayoverreact this time. Equally,muting discussions canbackfire, especially in aworld where information, orunfounded rumours, can beshared so quickly. It isessential that Chineseauthorities at all levels areopen about the coronavirusoutbreak, as well asassiduous in tackling it.

(The Guardian editorial)

BE ALERT, NOTAFRAID

HYDERABAD | THURSDAY | JANUARY 23, 2020 money 08

CAPSULE

Trump calls Boeinga ‘big, bigdisappointment'NEW DELHI: PresidentDonald Trump on Wednesdaycriticized Boeing as a "verydisappointing company"because of the aerospacegiant's recent problems, whichhe said had a knock-on effectfor the US economy. "This isone of the great companies ofthe world, let's say as of ayear ago, and then all of asudden things happen," Trumpsaid in an interview on CNBCfrom the Davos economicforum in Switzerland. This"had a tremendous impact.You know, when you talkabout growth, it's so big thatsome people say it's morethan a half a point of GDP. SoBoeing -- big, bigdisappointment to me," hesaid.

We will do wellonly if others withus do well: PichaiNEW DELHI: Google CEOSundar Pichai on Wednesdaysaid the company will do wellonly if others alongside it dowell as he dismissed any risksfrom the tech giant becomingtoo powerful. "With our scalerightly comes scrutiny. Yes,we've bought start-ups, but wealso invest every year inhundreds of start-ups throughour venture arms," he said atthe WEF 2020 in aconversation with WorldEconomic Forum Founder andExecutive Chairman KlausSchwab. Schwab asked himwhether there is a risk thatGoogle may become toopowerful. "We will do well onlyif others do well alongside us,"Pichai answered.

SBI Life Q3 profit up47 pc at Rs 390 crNEW DELHI: SBI LifeInsurance on Wednesdayreported a 47.4 per cent growthin profit after tax (PAT) at Rs389.44 crore for the thirdquarter ended December 2019.The private insurer's PAT stoodat Rs 264.28 crore during theOctober-December period lastyear, the insurer said in aregulatory filing. Assets undermanagement (AUM) increasedto Rs 1,64,190 crore ascompared to Rs 1,34,150 croreat the end December 31, 2018.Established in 2001, SBI LifeInsurance is a joint venturebetween the State Bank of Indiaand BNP Paribas Cardif SA, andis one of the leading lifeinsurance companies in India.During the period endedDecember 31, 2019, thecompany classified itsinvestment in Dewan HousingFinance Ltd (DHFL) bonds asNPA on account of default ininterest and principalrepayment of non-convertibledebenture (NCDs) held in UnitLinked Funds, it said.

NTT to invest $ 1.5 bnin data centres in IndiaPNS n MUMBAI

Japanese tech major NTT onWednesday said a significantpart of its USD 7 billion glob-al commitment for data centresbusiness would be spent inIndia over the next four years.

The company also feels thatthere will be margin compres-sion issues for the data centresbusiness in India as capacitysupply goes up along with anincrease in competition, NTT'scountry chief executive forglobal data centres and cloudinfrastructure, Sharad Sanghi,told PTI.

In the last few months, astring of corporates, includingthe Adani Group,Hiranandanis and RelianceIndustries have announcedinvestments in data centres, onthe back of regulatory moveslike data sovereignity whichmakes it incumbent uponfinancial institutions to housetheir data locally.

"India is the fastest growingregion for NTT and a sub-stantial amount of the USD 7

billion commitment will beinvested here," Sanghi said.

When asked if the moneywill be equally split betweenthe four regions the companyoperates in, Sanghi said theoverall investments are boundto be shared proportionately,hinting that over USD 1.5 bil-

lion or nearly Rs 11,000 crorewill come into India.

The company, whose rev-enues have been growing at 30per cent every year, is targetingto more than double its capac-ity in the next three yearsthrough the investments,Sanghi said.

Its overall capacity, whichstands at 1.2 million sq ft atpresent spread across Mumbai,Noida, Chennai andBengaluru, will go up by 1.5million sq ft, he said.

The company is looking atgoing to newer locations as welland also adding to its landbank to house the facilities, hesaid.

Demand is coming fromglobal hyperscalers like thecloud service providers, datalocalisation requirements andas a greater number of enter-prises move to the cloud,Sanghi said.

The Adanis have committedRs 70,000 crore for data centresin Andhra Pradesh,Hiranandanis have committedRs 14,000 crore and RIL hasannounced a partnership withMicrosoft for the same.

Sanghi said the high quan-tum of investments in thebusiness will change the char-acteristic of the market, whichhas so far been dictated by sup-pliers, from 2021 onward oncethe capacities come on board.

The Adanis have committed Rs 70,000crore for data centres in Andhra Pradesh,Hiranandanis have committed Rs 14,000crore and RIL has announced apartnership with Microsoft for the same

GDP to grow by 5.5 pc inFY21, but risks persistsPNS n HYDERABAD

India's growth rate is expect-ed to be marginally higher at5.5 per cent in 2020-21 againstthe estimated 5 per cent for thecurrent fiscal on the back ofstrong policy push coupledwith revival in demand, areport said.

Citing an NSO report, IndiaRatings and Research (Ind-Ra)said said the slowdown is acombination of several factorsincluding an abrupt and sig-nificant fall in lending by non-banking financial companiesclose on the heels of a slow-down in bank lending andreduced income growth ofhouseholds coupled with a fallin savings and higher leverage.

Although some improve-ment in FY2020-21 is expect-ed, these risks are going to per-sist, India Ratings andResearch principal economistSunil Sinha said.

As a result, the Indian econ-omy is stuck in a phase of lowconsumption as well as lowinvestment demand, it said.

"A strong policy push cou-pled with some heavy lifting(even if this requires using theescape clause as suggested bythe FRBM Review Committeeheaded by N K Singh) by thegovernment is required torevive the domestic demandcycle and catapult the econo-my back into ahigh growthphase," it said.

The govern-ment hasannounced aslew of mea-sures recently to prop-up theeconomy, but Ind-Ra believesthey will come to aid only inthe medium term.

The shortfall in the tax plusnon-tax revenue to result in the

fiscal deficit slipping to 3.6 percent of GDP (budgeted 3.3 percent) in FY2020, even after

accounting forthe surplustransferred bythe RBI, it said.

"A continu-ance of lowGDP growth

even in FY'21 means subduedtax revenue and limited roomfor stepping-up expenditure.Ind-Ra believes the govern-ment will have to construct theFY21 budget in a way that

expenditure is rationalised andprioritised and all avenues ofrevenue generation aretapped," it said.

While rationalising, thefocus of expenditure has to beon creating direct employ-ment and putting more moneyin the pockets of the people atthe bottom of the pyramid, itsaid, adding since their mar-ginal propensity to consume isclose to one, they are likely tospend what they receive.

"This will support the con-sumption demand. Therefore,budgetary allocation to headssuch as rural infrastructure,road construction, affordablehousing and MNREGA mustbe prioritised and allocationfor non-merit subsidy/expen-diture less critical for growthbe rationalised," it said.

Also, gross fixed capital for-mation (GFCF) has becomegovernment dependent, asincremental private capex hasbeen down and out, it said,adding, despite the fiscal con-straints, the government has notshied away from infrastructurespending in the past and evenresorted to fund them throughextra budgetary resources.

The governmentannounced aslew ofmeasuresrecently to prop-up the economy,but Ind-Rabelieves theywill come to aidonly in themedium term

China virus outbreak may wallop economy, financial marketsAP n BANGKOK

News that a new virus that hasafflicted hundreds of people incentral China can spreadbetween humans has rattledfinancial markets and raisedconcern it might wallop theeconomy just as it might beregaining momentum.

Health authorities across Asiahave been stepping up surveil-lance and other precautions toprevent a repeat of the disrup-tions and deaths during the 2003SARS crisis, which caused $40billion-$50 billion in losses fromreduced travel and spending.

The first cases of what hasbeen identified as a novel coro-navirus were linked to a seafoodmarket in Wuhan, suggesting

animal-to-human transmission,but it now is also thought to bespread between people. As ofWednesday, some 440 people

were confirmed infected andnine had died from the illness,which can cause pneumoniaand other severe respiratory

symptoms. A retreat in financialmarkets on Tuesday was fol-lowed by a rebound onWednesday, as investors snappedup bargains. Share benchmarkswere mostly higher, with HongKong's Hang Seng gaining 1.1%and the Shanghai Compositeindex advancing 0.4%. Japan's

Nikkei 225 jumped 0.7%.While the new virus appears

much less dangerous thanSARS, “the most significantAsia risk could lie ahead as theregional peak travel seasontakes hold, which could multi-ply the disease diffusion," saidStephen Innes, chief Asian

strategist for AxiCorp. “So, while the risk is returningto the market, the lights mightnot turn green until we movethrough the Lunar New Yeartravel season to better gauge thecoronavirus dispersion." The2003 outbreak of Severe AcuteRespiratory Syndrome inChina, along with cases of adeadly form of bird flu, result-ed in widespread quarantinemeasures in many Chinesecities and in Hong Kong. Morethan 8,000 people fell sick andjust under 800 people died, amortality rate of under 10%.

While the ordinary flu killshundreds of thousands of peo-ple each year, such new diseasesraise alarm due to the uncer-tainties over how deadly they

might be and how they mightspread. That's especially trueduring the annual mass travelof the Lunar New Year festival,which begins this week.

“The cost to the global econ-omy can be quite staggering innegative GDP terms if thisoutbreak reaches epidemic pro-portions as until this week, themarket was underestimatingthe potential of the flu spread-ing," Innes said in a report.

In China, health officialsstepped up screening for fevers.“We ask the public to avoidcrowds and minimize the pub-lic gatherings to reduce thepossibility of cross infection,"Li Bin, deputy director of theNational Health Commission,said Wednesday.

Health authorities across Asia havebeen stepping up surveillance andother precautions to prevent a repeatof the disruptions and deaths duringthe 2003 SARS crisis, which caused$40 billion-$50 billion in losses fromreduced travel and spending.

‘AFT Mill in Puducherrywill never be closed’PNS n PUDUCHERRY

Revenue and IndustriesMinister M O H F Shah Jahanon Wednesday said the centu-ry-old Anglo-French TextileMill, a government ofPuducherry undertaking,would never be closed at anycost. He told PTI in the wakeof a proposal issued on January21 by the managing director ofthe Pondicherry TextilesCorporation P Priyatarshnyrunning the AFT Mill, popu-larly known as Rodier Mill,since it was taken over in1985 from the private sector.

The proposal was that `thegovernment is totally in favourof implementing VRS (volun-tary retirement scheme) anddoes not want to close thenow-defunct mill, he said.

The cabinet headed byChief Minister VNarayanasamy decided recent-ly that the mill should makeVRS facility available for theworkers opting for the scheme,Shah Jahan said. "We neverintended to close the mill," hesaid and added that the cabi-net decision was sent to theLieutenant Governor KiranBedi for approval.

The Minister said the Lt

Governor had, however, disap-proved of the cabinet decision.

"The Lieutenant Governortook the stand that the millshould be closed on theground that the mill is in thered," the Minister said. Withthe difference of opinionbetween the cabinet and the LtGovernor on the future of themill the issue was referred tothe Central government.

"Normally, when differencesarise between the governmentand the Lt Governor the issueconcerned should be sent to theCentre for its decision as isenvisaged in the Business Rulesof Puducherry government`, hesaid.

The issue relating to theAFT Mill was thus now pend-

ing clearance from the Centreand hence no decision hadbeen taken by the cabinet toclose the mill, Shah Jahansaid.

Shah Jahan said he wouldagain write to Bedi informingher of the stand of the gov-ernment that the VRS schemealone should be introducedand any decision to close themill should be scrapped.

Earlier, the oppositionAIADMK legislature wingleader A Anbalagan released ata press conference a copy of thenotice issued on January 21 bythe managing director of themill P Priyatarshny under theIndustrial Disputes Act 1947proposing the closure of themillwith effect from April 30.

Normally, whendifferences arisebetween the

government and the LtGovernor the issue concernedshould be sent to the Centrefor its decision as is envisagedin the Business Rules ofPuducherry government

—SHAH JAHAN Revenue and Industries Minister M O H F

AlembicPharma Q3 netprofit up 38%to Rs 234.19 crPNS n NEW DELHI

Drug firm AlembicPharmaceuticals onWednesday reported a 37.89per cent rise in consolidatednet profit to Rs 234.19 crorefor the quarter endedDecember 31, 2019 mainlyon account of robust growthin international markets.

The company had posted anet of Rs 169.83 crore for thecorresponding period of theprevious fiscal, AlembicPharmaceuticals said in aBSE filing.

Consolidated revenue fromoperations of the companyrose to Rs 1,209.13 crore forthe quarter under consider-ation as against Rs 1,018.15crore for the same period yearago.

"It was a good quarter forthe company led by stronggrowth in the Internationalmarkets. We launched 7products in the US marketduring the quarter," AlembicPharmaceuticals MD PranavAmin said.

International formulationsgrew by 48 per cent to Rs 664crore in the December endedquarter, the company said.

PNS n BENGALURU

Despite low consumer spend-ing in recent times, mall devel-opers remain bullish on thegrowth potential of organisedretail as 100 new malls span-ning over 49 mn sq.ft. arescheduled to come up acrossthe country by 2022-end, prop-erty consultant Anarock said.

Of the total new mall supply,the top seven cities alone willsee 69 new malls spread over35.5 mn sq.ft. area.

The remaining 31 malls over13.5 mn sq.ft. will come up intier 2 & 3 cities such asAhmedabad, Lucknow, Indore,Surat and Nagpur, it said in astatement. Region-wise, westand south Indian cities will seealmost equal new supply.

West India will get 36 newmalls over 17.5 mn sq. ft. area,

followed closely by South Indiawith 35 new malls over nearly17 mn sq. ft.

The north region will see asupply of 22 new malls span-ning over 11 mn sq. ft. area.

East India will see a muchmore modest supply of sevennew malls spread over approx-

imately 3.5 mn sq. ft."2019 was defined by sig-

nificantly lower retail leasing,so this generous new upcom-ing mall supply over the nextthree years testifies to the con-fidence of private equityinvestors in Indian retail'spent-up potential," MD & CEO

of Anarock Retail, AnujKejriwal said.

"The retail sector drew overUSD 2.8 bn PE inflows from2015-2019-end, 59 per cent byforeign investors alone.

Despite overall weak con-sumer spends, F&B, familyentertainment centres, cinemasand beauty/wellness serviceoutlets continue to flourishand demand new retail spaces.

PNS n CHENNAI

Digital payments firm Paytm,promoted by One97Communications Ltd, has seta target to achieve more thandouble its business growth inTamil Nadu and Kerala, anofficial said here onWednesday.

The move by the companyfollows the launch of all-in-oneQR Code facility enabling mer-chants to accept unlimited pay-ments through the company'swallet, Rupay Cards and UPI(unified payments interface).

The company has set a tar-get to achieve more than dou-ble business growth in Tamil

Nadu and Kerala within ayear, company senior vice-president Saurabh Sharmasaid. "Tamil Nadu andKerala have witnessed a 50 percent business growth in lastyear and we expect significantgrowth in digital adoptionfrom this region in 2020", hetold reporters.

PayTm looks to double itsgrowth rate in TN, Kerala

Sensex sheds 208 pts;ONGC tanks 5 per centPNS n MUMBAI

Market benchmark Sensexsurrendered early gains to end208 points lower onWednesday as energy, power,auto and financial stocks cameunder selling pressure.

After plunging 473 pointsfrom the day's high in a chop-py session, the 30-share BSEindex settled 208.43 points, or0.50 per cent, lower at41,115.38. It hit an intra-dayhigh of 41,532.29 and a low of41,059.04.

Likewise, the broader NSENifty closed 62.95 points, or0.52 per cent, down at12,106.90.

ONGC was the top loser inthe Sensex pack, tumbling5.13 per cent, followed by

NTPC, Maruti, Kotak Bank,HDFC, Asian Paints, ICICIBank and Axis Bank.

On the other hand, NestleIndia, TCS, Infosys, HCL Tech,SBI and Bharti Airtel endedwith gains of up to 1.86 per cent.

According to experts, majorstocks are in the process of cor-recting to their support levelsahead of the Union Budget.

The remaining 31malls over 13.5 mnsq.ft. will come upin tier 2 & 3 citiessuch asAhmedabad,Lucknow, Indore,Surat and Nagpur, itsaid in a statement

Indian cities to add 100 new malls by 2022

ICICI Lombardgets Irdai nodto pilot 5projectsPNS n NEW DELHI

ICICI Lombard onWednesday said it hasreceived Irdai's approval topilot five innovative applica-tions and programs in itshealth and motor portfoliounder the Sandbox Project.

Insurance Regulatory andDevelopment Authority ofIndia's (Irdai) RegulatorySandbox Project has provid-ed the insurance industrywith the flexibility to explorenew products and servicesthat suit today's technologyand data driven world.

"This is the highest num-ber given to any companyunder the Irdai-introducedproject. ICICI Lombard is topilot the five proposals fromFebruary 1, 2020 to July 31,2020," ICICI Lombard said ina statement.

Adani Groupaims for world'slargest solarpower player tag PNS n NEW DELHI

Billionaire Gautam Adani onWednesday said his group isaiming to become the world'slargest solar power companyby 2025 and the biggest renew-able energy firm by 2030.

In a Linkedin post, theAdani Group chairman saidthe age of renewable energyhas dawned upon the worldfaster than most could haveanticipated.

"Our vision isto becomet h eworld'slargests o l a rpowercompa-ny by2025 andthe largest renewable powercompany by 2030," he wrote.

In 2019, the Adani Groupwas ranked as the sixth largestsolar player globally and as apart of this journey, "we arewell within reach to be India'slargest renewable energycompany by 2020 and one ofthe top three global solarenergy companies by 2021."

igital educationgives students abetter understand-ing of subjectswhen compared toplain reading of

textbooks. Many privateschools have already startedusing digital education. Atthe same time, students ingovernment schools find ittough to get a standard learn-ing experience and basicfacilities. Through our 100Smiles Foundation, we pro-vide digital education for thegovernment school students.We also provide the hardwarefor computer labs and set uplibraries for schools in ruralareas of Telangana,” saidManoj Kumar Chittimalla,founder of 100 Smiles.

Manoj Kumar comes froman agricultural backgroundand did his schooling in gov-ernment schools. Hence,Manoj knows the difficultiesthat students face in theseschools. He shares, “I havealways wanted to bringchange in the quality of edu-cation in government schoolsand contribute towards mak-ing quality education accessi-ble to rural areas in the coun-try. I completed my gradua-tion to become an engineerand made it into a privatefirm. I started the 100 Smilescharity foundation with thesupport of like-minded peo-ple in 2016.”

Manoj said that the mainobjective of 100 Smiles is toimprove the quality of educa-

tion in government schoolsand bring it on par with pri-vate schools. This will makesure every child can fulfiltheir potential, irrespective ofhis or her circumstances andbackground.

He shares, “It all startedwith a monthly donation ofRs 100 from each person inour organisation. Soon hun-dreds joined us. With thesefunds, we set up digital class-rooms that give wider expo-sure to children in variousfields. We have connected theschools to the world with thesupport of digital classroomand converted all school sub-jects into digital format thatcan be displayed to childrenthrough audio-video equip-ment.”

“Soon, we observed thatthe number of studentsincreased and the results alsoimproved. With digital class-rooms, we taught studentsnot just academics but alsoother things like technology,history, yoga, human valuesand many more. Soon, we

applied this other schoolsand witnessed improvementthere as well. We did all theseactivities in the rural areas ofTelangana.”

Till date, more than 6,000students in Telangana bene-fited through these pro-gramme by 100 Smiles, saysManoj Kumar.

Apart from digital class-rooms, they have providedcomputer and science labs to24 government schools ineight districts of Telanganaincluding Warangal,Mahbubabad, Mahbubnagar,Sangareddy, Rangareddy,Medak, Nalgonda andAdilabad.

He shares, “We have doneresearch on the current stateof government schools in thestate and prepared our planto help them out. We target-ed award-winning teachers ina particular district, who canvoluntarily help us in the bet-terment of our cause. Wemotivate children and helpthem know the importanceof education and create a

passion for learning throughmodern learning facilitieslike virtual classrooms.”

Manoj said that they con-duct counselling for parentsabout the importance of edu-cation for their children. Headded that Loksatta founderJ.P. Narayan is the chief advi-sor for their NGO.

He added, “We decided totarget a single school at atime, adopt it for a certainperiod (for six months ormore based on the supportthat is needed) and focus allour energy and resources onthat one school. After all thepromises are fulfilled, we willrun a sustainable mainte-nance model and move ontothe next school.”

Apart from these activitiesand programmes, Manoj andhis team also organise otheractivities such as the SwachhBharat campaign, workshopson the importance of takingcare of health and hygiene,rebuilding school infrastruc-ture, providing sports materi-als and more.

Follow us on@TheDailyPioneerfacebook.com/dailypioneer

D

ThursdayJanuary 23, 2020

Speaking to V SATEESH

REDDY,television actor

AkarshByramudi opens

up aboutstruggles hefaced as an

actor, seekingdifferent roles,

learning Telugu,people's

perceptionabout TV actors,

and more

engaluru-basedtelevision actorAkarshByramudi hasbecome familiarwith Telugu

audience for his role inAttarintlo Akka Chellellu.He made his acting debutwith Kannada serial LaxmiBaramma in 2015. Later heentered the Telugu televi-sion industry with the seri-al Punnaga in 2016.

In the limelightAkarsh said that his

friends, relatives and well-wishers have always toldhim that he is good look-ing and encouraged him toget into modelling. He saidthat, “I was always toldthat I was born for thelimelight. After my B.Com,my sister’s friend advisedme to attend auditions forTV serials. I got selectedfor the Kannada serialLaxmi Baramma in 2015.”

Tough times He said that his debut

into the television industrygot him into trouble. Oncehe found himself in apredicament where he hadto replace a well-estab-lished character in a serial.He explained, “In theLaxmi Baramma serial, Ihad to fill the shoes of arole which was played by awell-established actor upuntil then. But my actingskills were not at par thenand the role didn’t workout for me. Disappointedwith the experience, Ishifted my attention tocompleting my MBA.Later, I got a call fromAnnapurna Studios inHyderabad and they askedme for attend an audition.Even the experience ofworking on my first serialleft a bad taste for me, Iagreed to star in my firstTelugu serial, Punnaga.”

He added, “Once you getinto acting then it is notpossible to get rid of it.With the Punnaga, I creat-ed my own name in theTelugu TV industry. Iworked hard and learnedacting skills from my co-stars.”

Unpredictable role After Punnaga, Akarsh

got into Attarintlo AkkaChellellu serial on ZeeTelugu. About his role inthe serial, Akarsh says, “Inthe serial, I play a high-spi-tited youth called Adityawho doesn’t have controlover his emotions. Whenhe was young, he was bul-lied a lot due to which hewas traumatised. He getsangry or happy for no rea-son and is very unpre-dictable. I have never

played this kind of rolein my life and it was

challenging.”

Learning Telugu Even though he comes

from a Kannada speakingfamily, he can speakTelugu very well. Whenasked about the difficultieshe faced in learning a newlanguage, Akarsh adds,“When I came here, I did-n’t know anything aboutthe Telugu language. Ilearned the language with-in three months. Manypeople said that learningTelugu would not an easybut I did it with ease.Mainly because most ofthe words in Kannada andTelugu are similar in scriptand in meaning.”

Where is your Taylor? About the response for

his roles and stardom thatfollowed, Akarsh informs,“When I go out, peoplecome up to me to talkabout my role and it feelsgreat to be recognised likethat. In the serial, I call the

lead actress Taylor andwhen I go out peopleask me ‘where is yourTaylor?’. At the sametime, she calls meSaaruu in the serialand people tease herby asking her ‘where isyour Saaruu?’ I am

grateful to my audience forthe tremendous reception.”

He informed that hedoesn’t have any dreamroles and added that hewants to give his best toevery role he gets. He alsoinformed that he loves theacting of Mahesh Babu andSamantha.

Change perception He said the serial actors

are not given the samerespect as cinema stars. Heshares, “In Kannada, serialactors get the same nameand fame as cinemaartistes. But, in Telugu it isdifferent. I don’t know thereason for it but peopleperception has to changeabout serial actors.Whatever the field is, everyactor deserves respect.”

OTT impactSpeaking about the OTT

(over-the-top) platforms,Akarsh said, “Every fieldhas its own audience and Ibelieve that the OTT ser-vices don’t have any impacton serials. Digital serialswon’t last long and don’treach every village.Whereas through TV, wereach out to every familyand audience gets to be apart of the journey.”

‘OTT services have noimpact on TV serials’

B

When I came here (Hyderabad), I didn’t know anything about theTelugu language. I learned the language within three months.Many people said that learning Telugu would not an easy but Idid it with ease. Mainly because most of the words in Kannadaand Telugu are similar in script and in meaning.

AKARSH BYRAMUDI, ACTOR

out of the

BOX

Manoj KumarChittimalla

from the cityprovides digital

education forgovernmentstudents in

rural areas ofthe state

through hisNGO, 100

Smiles, writesV SATEESH

REDDY

It started with amonthly donation

of Rs 100 fromeach person in our group.Soon hundreds joined.With these funds, we setup digital classrooms thatgive wider exposure tochildren in various fields.MANOJ KUMAR CHITTIMALLA

FOUNDER, 100 SMILES

Raising the standards of

EDUCATION

PARTY

10

Hyderabad Thursday January 23, 2020

lNe

ha

lJij

ith

lAn

and

After the successful completion of the first phaseof its domestic marketing campaign, KeralaTourism kicked-off the second phase of the

National Partnership Meet in Hyderabad recently. Inits latest event, Kerala

Tourismshowcased acombination of

the state’straditional art

forms andproducts much

to the delight ofthe attendees.

TRADITIONALAESTHETICS

CITY GUIDE

GET YOUR EVENT LISTED: To get your events listed, send your details alongwith a poster and contact number to pioneer.features@gmail.com

COMEDY

lBanyan Tree's Splendor of Masters aims atshowcasing a bouquet of maestros from theworld of Indian music in combinations that arenot only rare but also aesthetic and enriching.Every year this festival has received anoverwhelming response from music lovers invarious cities. The event will be organised atShilpakala Vedika on January 25 at 6 pm.

SPLENDOR OF MASTERS

l Draupadi is a dance drama in Kuchipudi format,with Sravya Manasa playing the lead role asDraupadi. It deals with the less familiar phases ofDraupadi's life along with her inclination towardsKarna. The play shall be held at Pheonix Arena onFebruary 1 at 7 pm.

DRAUPADI - A DANCE DRAMA

l Crowd favourite Rahul Dua starts his countrytour again, this time travelling solo with hisbrand new stand up special ‘Oh Hello!’ He willbe touring multiple venues in the city tillJanuary 25.

l “SPEAK UP” is an intensive weekend workshopon effective Communication and Public Speakingskills. With theatre-based exercises, group activitiesand stage time, this program helps you break outwith confidence and discover your own voice. Thefocus here is on verbal, non-verbal and writtencommunication. The workshop will be conductedon January 25 from 11am to 5pm.

SPEAK UP

THE ACT OF KILLING

PALM LEAF CRAFT

lCinephiles Film Club is screening a film The Act ofKilling on January 29 at Lamakaan from 7.30 pm. Filmmakers expose horrifying mass executions ofaccused communists in Indonesia and those whoare celebrated in their country for perpetrating thecrime.

.

lFor all craft lovers Lamakaan Cultural spacebrings you Palm Leaf Craft, which is the third ina series of workshops named Leela Ten Months,Ten Crafts. This is an initiative to sustaintraditional crafts that are on the verge ofextinction. The workshop will be held at January26 at 11 am.

OH HELLO!

what’s brewing?Ph

otos

bby

SVCh

ary

FUN

Rules

ARCHIE

GARFIELD

SUDOKU

REALITY CHECK SPEED BUMP CROSSWORD

GINGER MEGGS

NANCY

CALVIN AND HOBBES

l Each row and column cancontain each number (1 to 9)exactly once.

l The sum of all numbers inany row or column mustequal 45.

Yesterday’s solution

l Krishna Dasl Satarupa Datta l Muraleedharan

ureshProductions onTuesday eveningannounced thetitle of VictoryVenkatesh’s next,

which is a remake of Tamilsuper hit Asuran, asNaarappa.

The famed productionhouse originally planned tounveil the posters and titleas the clock rung 12 am onWednesday but with sud-den leaks releasing the titleon Tuesday evening itself,they’ve changed their plans.The posters, however,received a thumbs-up fromcinephiles and celebs.

The film’s principal shootbegan on Wednesday at

PaalturuVillage,

Uravakonda in Anantapur.The first schedule will beshot mostly in Rayalaseemapost which the unit willfilm some scenes atRamanaidu cine village,Nanakramguda. DirectorSreekanth Addala got astrong technical team inplace for the project, whichwill narrate the tale of afarmer Narappa and hisfight to save his land andson from the most affluentfamily in the village.

He has roped in ManiSharma for the music,while Sam K. Naidu will becinematographer. PeterHeins will choreographstunts.

Speaking about his deci-sion to remake Asuran lastmonth, Venkatesh had said,“The film’s emotions makeit a hardcore commercialfilm. I was following it upwhen it was under produc-tion as its producerKalaipuli Thanu madeGharshana earlier with me.I took the decision ofremaking it 30 minutesinto watching the film. Itwill be a challenge for me.We are making it on a tightbudget and we will wrap itup in four months for a

summer release.”

ilmmaker ViAnand followedEkkadiki PothavuChinnavada,which braveddemonetisation

and went to register impres-sive numbers, with OkkaKshanam, starring AlluSirish. Although it opened topositive reviews, it failed tolight up the box-office.Anand says he still does-n’t understand whatwent wrong. “I’vemade my mark withthe film and I wascontent with theoverall product.However, I don’tknow why it didn’tperform well. Post therelease, the team was ofthe opinion that therelease date (December28) wasn’t the right oneand I too felt the same,” heshrugs.

Despite Okka Kshanam’sfailure, Anand got Ravi Tejaon board for his next, DiscoRaja. The film is a scientific-thriller which oscillatesbetween the past and the pre-sent, and is set to open incinemas this Friday. It isAnand’s third sci-fi dramaafter his maiden Tamil filmAppuchi Gramam and OkkaKshanam. He is secretiveabout the film’s plotline butadmits to have a thing forsci-fi stories. “It’s myfavourite genre. From ExtraTerrestrial and Abyss toChristopher Nolan’s films, Ilike the world of sci-fi. I hada thin storyline of Disco Raja

ten years ago and I’ve workedon it whenever I got time.But I needed more researchmaterial for a comprehensivescreenplay. This is when Icame across a news, one-and-half years ago, about a exper-iment gone wrong in a bio-chemical lab. Disco Raja isabout what if that experiment

had been suc-cessful,” he

explains.

The film’s storyline itselfhas paved way for humour,twists and turns within itsoffbeat screenplay, making ita packaged commercialentertainer with a new con-cept, he informs. “I’ve writtenit keeping Ravi Teja in mind.He will be seen as a music-loving gangster who hasheroic elevations. He is sar-castic and full of swag. Hetook the film to the next levelwith his performance. In fact,at times he even came upwith one-liners for the filmthat were not on paper. Hewas fully immersed with hisrole. I’ve approached himwith the story when he wason the lookout for a concept-driven film,” he shares.

Anandis

quick to mention that theactor didn’t force him toadd humor, which is usuallyis a given in Teja’s movies,to the story. “‘If the enter-tainment comes organicallywith the story, let be it. Else,no point adding it’”, he hadtold me. He was sure not todisturb the flow of the story.Disco Raja will be one of histop five characters of hiscareer. The film will have allthe elements that one usual-ly expects from his film butthey will be presented in adifferent manner,” he states.

The architect-turned-director, who has a goldmedal from the MadrasUniversity, has filmed anaction sequence in Icelandlast September with thehelp of the stuntmen fromFast and Furious 7. Termingit as the film’s most chal-lenging schedule, he adds,“The temperature at thelocation would vary drasti-cally from morning toevening. It would be freez-ing in the morning but whenthe temperature rose to 0 °C,

the ice would melt. We hadspecial cars to navigate

through

crevices filled with waterwhile returning to hotel. Itwas risky but at the sametime, it was the film’s mostimportant sequence. We shotat the same place

where Christopher Nolanshot Interstellar and thatmade us a happy bunch. Thesequence will last for 10 to12minutes but is important forthe narrative.”

At the film’s pre-releaseevent recently in Hyderabad,Ravi Teja had dropped hintsat the film’s sequel. Anandadmits that he has shared thesequel storyline to his actorwho is “very interested in it”.“But he is a practical manand told me that it will

depend upon how wellDisco Raja fares at the box-office,” the director main-tains.

He is open to helm webseries but believes thatwatching a film in a theatreis irreplaceable.

“Watching web shows is apersonal activity, whilewatching film is a commu-nity activity. Yes, digital isthe way forward but watch-ing it in a theatre cannot bereplaced,” Anand, who willdirect Nikhil next forGeetha Arts, signs off.

Hyderabad Thursday January 23, 2020

I’ve written it (Disco Raja)keeping Ravi Teja inmind. He will be seen asa music-loving gangsterwho has heroicelevations. He is sarcasticand full of swag. He tookthe film to the next level

with hisperformance.

In fact, attimes duringshooting he

even came upwith one-liners forthe film that werenot on paper.

VI ANANDDIRECTOR

S

F

11

tollywood

Making sci-fi movies is noteveryone's cup of tea. Vi Anand

speaks about his dive intofantasy world with the much

anticipated Disco Raja, writesNAGARAJ GOUD

I like the world of sci-fi:

VI ANAND

ASURANremake rolls inUravakonda

fter Aditya Musicforayed into produc-tion recently withEntha ManchiVaadavuraa, anothersouth music compa-

ny Lahari Music has decided tofollow suit.

The reputed music label willbe producing Kannada actorNikhil Kumar’s next flick withTelugu director Vijay Kumar

Konda. Although the duo wassupposed to team up in 2018,the actor’s sudden foray intopolitics meant that Konda hadto get back to Telugu and do afilm Orey Bujji with Raj Tarun.The director has wrapped upthe shooting of Orey Bujji lastmonth and is now in Bengaluruto monitor the pre-productionactivities of his yet-to-be-titlednext film.

A Kannada-Telugu bilingual,the film, we hear, will be a lovestory which revolves aroundbasketball.

Nikhil will be playing a bas-ketball player in the film and hehas been prepping for his role inBengaluru.

“The shoot will begin towardsthe month-end in Bengaluruand it will be shot later inMysore, Hyderabad and in the

US as well. The makers areextremely happy with theresponse the first look posterhas garnered. The leadinglady and other supportingartistes will predominantly befrom Kannada,” said a source.

Kannada’s top music directorArjun Janya is on board to com-pose tunes, while Konda hashanded over the editing job toPrawin Pudi.

Nikhil basketball player in Konda's next

A

alentine’s Day willarrive a little early forTelugu movie buffs.The much anticipatedJaanu — officialTelugu remake of

Tamil super hit ’96 — will releaseon February 7, production houseSri Venkateswara Creationsannounced on Wednesday.Although the Prem Kumar-

directed film, spearheaded bySharwanand and Samantha, waswrapped up long back, producerRaju was waiting for a rightrelease date. He had consideredreleasing the movie on February21 but he advanced it now. Aheart-touching love story, Jaanurevolves around two childhoodsweethearts who meet 20 yearslater in a school reunion. The

original was raved for its repre-sentation of love and its music byGovind Vasantha, who has beenretained for the remake as well.

The film’s first single wasreleased on Tuesday and Raju isplanning to amp up the promo-tional activity from next week.Jaanu will be followed by anotherromantic drama, World FamousLover, on February 14.

V

JAANU BOOKS ITSRELEASE DATE

New scenesto be addedto Sarileru…

he makers ofSuperstar MaheshBabu-starrerSarileruNeekevarru, whichset the box-office

on fire, will be adding a cou-ple of new scenes to the film’sprints starting from thisweekend. Announcing this ata press meet in Hyderabadon Wednesday, the film’sdirector Anil Ravipudi saidone particular comedy scenebetween Mahesh Babu andRao Ramesh running into thelength of one-and-half min-utes will be added from the

weekend. He also clarifiedthey are not removing anyscenes as reported by somemedia outlets recently.

Film’s producer AnilSunkara said that the film isbest grosser in Mahesh’scareer and that the distribu-tors and exhibitors got morethan what they wished forfrom the film’s collections.“One particular distributortold me it’s the best Sankrantiof the Telugu industry,”Sunkara added.

Meanwhile, Mahesh is cel-ebrating the film’s success inthe US with his family.

T

HYDERABAD | THURSDAY | JANUARY 23, 2020 sport 12

PTI n LINCOLN

The in-form Prithvi Shaw flourishedyet again as India A notched up a con-

vincing five-wicket victory over NewZealand A in the first unofficial ODI hereon Wednesday.

A day after being picked as theinjured Shikhar Dhawan’s replacement inIndia’s ODI squad for the assignmentagainst New Zealand’s senior team, the20-year-old Shaw smashed 48 off 35 ballsto lay the foundation for the visitingteam’s chase.

Wicketkeeper Sanju Samson, whoreplaced Dhawan in India’s T20 squad,blazed away to a 21-ball 39, whileSuryakumar Yadav hammered 35 off amere 19 deliveries.

Chasing 231 after opting to field,India completed the task with more than20 overs to spare at the Bert Sutcliffe Oval.

With the ball, Mohammed Siraj wasthe most successful bowler for India A,picking up three wickets for 33 runs in6.3 overs, while there were two wicketsapiece for Khaleel Ahmed and Axar Patel.

Their efforts helped India A bowl outNew Zealand A for 230 with nine ballsto spare in the 50-over match.

Quite a few home team players gotoff the blocks easily but could not go onto make substantial contributions. RachinRavindra top-scored with 49 off 58 ballsand skipper Tom Bruce made 47 off 55.

India A got their chase off to a briskstart with Shaw and his opening partnerMayank Agarwal (29) picking the gapsat will.

The visitors had raced to 79 in 9.1overs when Shaw fell to James Neesham.The 20-year-old Shaw, who came into thematch after a 100-ball 150 in a practicegame, hit five fours and three sixes.

Captain Shubman Gill (30) got outafter getting his eye in and after that,Samson showed his prowess, smokingtwo maximums and three boundaries.

Mumbai player Suryakumar, whocan also use the big handle to good effect,struck three fours and two sixes to takehis team close to victory.

Vijay Shankar (20) and KrunalPandya (13) then got the job done asIndia A took lead in the three-matchseries.

PTI n NEW DELHI

Nitish Rana played the “bestknock” of his first-classcareer as Delhi shocked

defending champions Vidarbhaby six wickets in an incrediblefinal day run chase in the RanjiTrophy here on Wednesday.

With this memorable runchase on day four, Delhi handedVidarbha their first outrightdefeat in a first class game afterthree years.

Chasing 347, Rana, who hasmade a name with his big-hittingexploits in the IPL, smashed anunbeaten 105 off only 68 balls asDelhi reached the target in 73overs, leaving Vidarbha gutted.

Delhi now have 16 pointsand stay in hunt for a quarterfi-nal berth while Vidarbha stay puton 17 points.

The chase was set up byopeners Kunal Chandela (75 off146) and Hiten Dalal (82 off 146)with a steady stand of 163 inunder 49 overs.

The left-handed Rana thentook charge and sent theVidarbha bowlers including fan-cied Umesh Yadav (0/85 in 19overs) on a leather hunt witheight fours and seven sixes.

“I had promised our coach(KP) Bhaskar sir that if its 75overs and around 320 runs, wewill win. This is the best first classknock that I have played. I haven’tforgotten the 2017 final in Indore,which Vidarbha won withoutplaying outstanding cricket.

“I knew I can hit their spin-ners out of the ground,” Rana toldreporters having ripped opposi-tion off-spinner Akshay Wakhare(64 off 9 overs) with slog sweeps,cuts and drives.

Vidarbha coach ChandrakantPandit took a gamble with asporting declaration but it back-fired as a side with its back to thewall produced the best perfor-mance of the season.

Openers Kunal and Hitenplayed confidently without tak-ing pressure on an eased outtrack.

Once Rana came in,Vidarbha sensing danger,deployed a negative field ‘7-2’(seven on the off side) field.

Their pacers Rajneesh

Gurbani (0/64 in 12 overs) start-ed bowling on an imaginary sev-enth off stump line.

The umpires started callingno ball and then Delhi started

attacking as they were forced tochange the line.

“I knew they would bowlnegative line but what I didn’t likewas time wasting tactic. Once

they started bowling within thestumps, I knew I will blast themif it’s in my arc,” said KKR’sdependable middle-order bats-man.

“This is my natural game andI don’t like advise if people comeand tell me to change my mind-set. I only welcome advise whenI need them,” he said.

MAIDEN TTRIPLE HHUNDREDMUMBAI: Staying true to hiswords, young Sarfaraz Khanstuck his maiden triple hundredto single-handedly give Mumbaithe crucial first-innings lead andgrab three points on the last dayof their Elite Group B matchagainst Uttar Pradesh.

Uttar Pradesh had posted ahumongous 625/8 declared in

their first-essay courtesy wicket-keeper Upendra Yadav’s unbeat-en maiden double-ton.

But Sarfaraz’s (301 not out off391 balls; 30x4; 8x6) herculeantask overshadowed Yadav’sdouble-ton on a flattrack, which hadabsolutely nothing forthe bowlers even onthe final day.

R i g h t - h a n d e dSarfaraz was the cyno-sure of all eyes at theWankhede Stadium, as he battedfor as long as 633 minutes andhammered 30 fours and eightsixes.

What is more special abouthis knock is that the pint-sizedbatsman was suffering from fevertwo nights ago, but he came out

to bat and did the job for histeam.

Sarfaraz, who had played forUttar Pradesh and returned toMumbai, had all shots in thebook.

But more importantly, con-trary to his style, he showedrestraint and respected the goodballs.

Sarfaraz, in the process,became the seventh Mumbaibatsman to score a triple ton infirst-class cricket and joined theillustrious list comprising WasimJaffer (301 and 314 not out),Rohit Sharma (309 not out), AjitWadekar (323), Sunil Gavaskar(340), Vijay Merchant (359 notout) and Sanjay Manjrekar (377).

The hosts resumed the finalday on overnight score of 353/5needing 273 more runs to over-haul Uttar Pradesh’s first inningstotal, with 22-year-old Sarfarazunbeaten on 132 in company ofhis skipper Aditya Tare, who wasunbeaten on 9.

Sarfaraz first got able supportfrom Tare (97 off 144 balls, 14x4)and then Shams Mulani (65 off 82balls; 5x3; 1x6), as they took thegame away from Uttar Pradesh.

While Sarfaraz and Tareadded 179 runs for the sixth wick-et, he and Mulani added 150 runsfor the seventh wicket and it was

their partnership that ensuredMumbai crossed Uttar

Pradesh’s first-inningstotal.

Sarfaraz, who hadcompleted his individual

250, took a single, asMumbai surpassed Uttar

Pradesh’s mammoth total andcelebrated like the team had wonthe match.

Then Mumbai allowedSarfaraz to complete a well-deserved 300.

He completed his triple tonwith a six over wide long on, afterwhich the match was called off.

TOP FFIELD FFOR BB'LURU AATP CCHALLENGERBengaluru: The third edition of the Bengaluru Openfrom February 10 to 16 will see one of the best fields inthe ATP Challenger Tour event with four players fromthe top-100 world rankings taking part in it. LithuanianRicardas Berankis, ranked 69th in the ATP rankings,followed by 74th ranked Stefano Travaglia will lead thetop field. Japanese journeyman Yuichi Sugita (91) andAustralian James Duckworth (94) are the other playersin the top-100 who will be vying for honours in thebiggest ATP Challenge Tour event in Asia which offers atotal prize purse of $ 162,000. Defending championPrajnesh Gunneswaran, currently the highest rankedIndian at 123, will lead the home challenge in companyof 2017 winner Sumit Nagal (131).

NIKHAT, SSHIVA EENTER SSTRANDJA QQUARTERSNew Delhi: Four-time Asian medallist Shiva Thapa(63kg) and defending champion Nikhat Zareen (51kg)on Wednesday sailed into the quarterfinals of theStrandja Memorial Boxing Tournament with resoundingvictories in their second-round bouts in Sofia. Alsomaking the quarters was national medallist DuryodhanSingh Negi (69kg) after a comprehensive 5-0 triumphover Ireland's Kieran Molloy. Zareen was declared thewinner after local favourite Sevda Asenova forfeitedduring the opening round of the contest.Former worldBronze-medallist Thapa defeated Poland's PavelPolakovic 5-0 in his last 16 stage clash.

MEXICAN SSTRIKER HHERNANDEZ JJOINS GGALAXYLos Angeles: Javier Hernandez completed his long-awaited transfer to the Los Angeles Galaxy on Tuesday,saying the lure of playing regular football had promptedhis move to Major League Soccer. The Mexicaninternational striker, who will reportedly become thehighest paid player in MLS, with Sports Illustratedsaying he will earn $6 million (5.41 million euros) a year,joins the Galaxy after a frustrating spell at Spanish sideSevilla. The Mexican star heads to the MLS after asuccessful career in European club football whichincluded stints with Manchester United, Real Madrid,Bayer Leverkusen and West Ham, as well as Sevilla.Hernandez has scored more than 200 goals for club andcountry throughout his career.

AUSTRALIA TTO HHOST IINDOOR CCRICKET WWCMelbourne: Australia is set to host the 11th edition ofthe Indoor Cricket World Cup from October 10 to 17.The tournament will be held at the state-of-the-artindoor cricket venues in Melbourne — Casey Stadium& CitiPower Centre. Last held in 2017, Australia are thereigning men's and women's champions and the hostwill be seeking to continue the run of never losing aWorld Cup in either division in the 25-year history of thetournament. Cricketers from up to 10 countries willcompete in the tournament in four divisions: under-21men and women and open men and women.

GIBSON IIS BB'DESH NNEW PPACE BBOWLING CCOACHDhaka: Bangladesh have appointed Ottis Gibson astheir new pace bowling coach, replacing South AfricanCharl Langeveldt who resigned in December. The 50-year old former West Indies fast bowler signed a two-year agreement. Gibson, who has enjoyed twosuccessful stints as bowling coach with England andhas served as head coach of the West Indies and SouthAfrica, will join the squad for the Pakistan tour whichbegins in Lahore on Friday.

IRAN TTEAMS' AAFC CCL MMATCHES MMOVED TTO UUAEKuala Lumpur: Two Iranian football clubs' AFCChampions League preliminary round matches havebeen moved to a neutral country because of securityfears. The Asian Football Confederation said the ties —Shahr Khodro FC of Iran v Riffa of Bahrain and Iran'sEsteghlal FC v Kuwait SC will now be played in theUnited Arab Emirates on Jan 25. Both the matches werescheduled to be played in Iran on Tuesday but werepostponed and “moved to neutral venues because ofongoing security concerns and the decision of severalgovernments to issue travel warnings to the IslamicRepublic of Iran,” said an AFC statement. AGENCIES

SINGLES

MUMBAI: Playing in a tri-nationtournament before the Women’sWorld T20 will help in strategis-ing and team composition, seniorIndia player Smriti Mandhanasaid on Wednesday.

The marquee event will startin Australia next month butbefore that, the country is host-ing India and England in a tri-series. “Most of them have playedin Australia, I think India A tour-ing Australia last month is alsogoing to be a big help (as) four-

five players were part of that teamas well,” Mandhana told reporters.

She added, “The tri-series isgoing to be a really importanttournament, thinking about theteam composition or what isneeded or what target we need toaim at on Australian wickets.”

The left-handed batswomansaid the tri-series matches couldtell them a lot about what will bea safe target during the WorldCup. “How can our bowlers planbetter, all those things we are

going to understand once we landin Australia and play the tri-series.

“Specially the targets, tri-series will define the targets, likewhat the scoreline will be for theWorld Cup.

“England, Australia andIndia is always going (to be chal-lenging). We are going to aim atgood targets so I think that (tri-series) is an important tourna-ment leading up to the WorldCup,” the 23-year-old said.

According to Mandhana, theteam has been thinking about theWorldT20 for the past one year.

“Last one year, whatever wewere doing during the matches,we were thinking about theWorld Cup, so finally we are leav-ing for the World Cup, it is quiteexciting.

“I’m looking forward to play-ing this World Cup with this teamas it is a new team with a mixtureof experienced and new players,”she said. PTI

DUBAI (PTI): To make up for “lack ofstrength”, India opener JemimahRodrigues is working on increasingher bat speed, which, she hopes, willaid in hitting big shots in the upcom-ing Women’s T20 World Cup.

The lively 19-year-old is alsostriving to hone her backfoot skillsahead of the marquee event, startingin Australia next month.

“I’m working more on my backfoot, developing my back foot moreand trying to increase my bat speed.Because looking at my size, you can

make out I don’t have that muchstrength to hit the sixes ... But I’ve beenworking on that for quite some time,”said Jemimah in a Road To The T20World Cup podcast.

Since making her internationaldebut in 2018, she has consistently putin commendable performances toestablished herself as a key memberof the team.

India take on defending champi-ons Australia in the opening game ofthe tournament in Sydney onFebruary 21, and the youngsterbelieves her side will have to be men-tally strong against the hosts.

“I think when it comes toAustralia, you got to be the best or youcan’t play. That’s the kind of team theyare. My favourite team to play againstis also Australia. It’s more of a mindgame than just skills (when you playthem on the field),” Jemimah said.

Jemimah, who will be playing herfirst World Cup, is looking forward toplay in the final of the tournament,which will mark an important mile-stone in her life.

“I can’t put it in words, howimportant it will be for me to be a partof the Indian team that plays in aWorld Cup final. It’s quite exciting. I’mreally looking forward to it,” she said.

AFP n HARARE

Angelo Mathews struck his highest Testscore with an unbeaten double century

on Wednesday as Sri Lanka left Zimbabwebattling to save the series opener going intothe final day at Harare.

Former skipper Mathews eclipsed hisprevious Test best of 160 and finished 200not out after a marathon knock spanning 468balls, as Sri Lanka declared their firstinnings on 515 for nine.

Zimbabwe, playing their first Test sinceNovember 2018, ended the fourth day on 30without loss and trailing by 127 runs afterBrian Mudzinganyama was drafted in as aconcussion substitute for opener KevinKasuza.

Debutant Kasuza, who made 63 in thefirst innings, suffered a delayed concussionafter he took a blow to the helmet while field-ing at short leg on Tuesday.

Mudzinganyama became the fourthZimbabwean to make his Test debut in thismatch. He was unbeaten on 14 with PrinceMasvaure 15 not out at stumps.

The 32-year-old Mathews brought up his10th Test century, his first since December2018, in the morning session and steadilyadded to his total with considerable supportfrom Dhananjaya de Silva and NiroshanDickwella.

De Silva and Dickwella both scored 63but two quick wickets for Sikandar Raza,who finished with three for 62, hastened thedeclaration as Mathews reached 200 with asweep to the square leg boundary.

With one day remaining, the visitorsappear the only team capable of victoryalthough the pitch looks likely to have thefinal say.

PTI n AUCKLAND

New Zealand’s veter-an seamer Tim

Southee is “looking for-ward” to the India chal-lenge, leaving behindthe disappointment ofbeing dropped for thefinal Test of Australiaseries earlier thismonth.

“It’s about makingthat adjustment. What’sgone is gone and it wasvery disappointing, theguys would have learnt

from it, and now we’vegot to look forward tothe Indian series,”Southee was quoted assaying by stuff.Co.Nz.

Then, coach GaryStead had said it wasfelt Henry would offermore pace thanSouthee.

But the 31-year-oldis expected to lead theNew Zealand attackwhen the five-matchTwenty20 series againstIndia starts at EdenPark on Friday.

He admitted hewas disappointed not tohave played in Sydneybut said he has movedon.

“It’s disappointing.You’re gutted everytime you’re left out. It’san absolute dream toplay for NZ and everytime you do miss out ithurts, but you’ve got torespect the decisionsand try to help out andgive back to the team,even when you’re notplaying.”

IANS n NEW DELHI

It's the year of the World T20and it isn't just Virat Kohli

and the Indian boys who arelooking to take every opportu-nity to prepare for the show-piece event slated to be heldlater in the year. Run-machineSteve Smith is already excitedat the prospect of playinganother ICC event at homeafter the 2015 World Cup. Infact, he believes that his stintin the IPL with RajasthanRoyals will have a major roleto play in the build-up to themega event Down Under.

Speaking to IANS, Smithspoke about the much-debat-ed proposal to have four-dayTests, India skipper Kohli'sgesture to ask fans to supporthim during the 2019 WorldCup, the Indian PremierLeague and how Tim Paine hasdone a brilliant job leadingAustralia in Test cricket.

For a man who has domi-nated batting charts in thelast few years, Smith's numbersin the shortest format of thegame definitely has room forimprovement. But the formerAustralia skipper wants tokeep playing and improving onthe go rather than changing hisstyle of training going into theWorld T20.

"No real specific training,but just playing a lot more T20cricket and just getting theright tempo I guess for thegame is the most importantthing for me. I would love tobe a part of the World Cup, it'sobviously at home in Australia.I was involved in the ODIWorld Cup here in 2015 andhad the most amazing six-weeks of my cricketing careerand loved every minute of it.So yeah would love to be

involved in another WorldCup at home for sure!" hesmiled.

Asked if he was looking athis time with Rajasthan Royalsto try some new stuff as it willbe the perfect training groundfor the World T20, Smith does-n't sound the sort who likes totinker much with his trainingritual. But he does have it on hismind to give his leg-spin skillsa thought.

"Ah, don't want to try toomuch different. I don't reallyknow, maybe a bit more bowl-ing perhaps, but then thattakes time away from my bat-ting. So yeah, it's a difficult onebut we'll wait and see," hereveals.

A chat with Smith cannever move forward withoutdiscussing Kohli. It looks likethese two will go ahead andshare all the records betweenthem when they hang theirboots. The greatness of Smiththough is in his humility. Themoment the talks movetowards the comparison, hedecides to highlight how bril-liant Kohli has been both asbatsman and leader.

"Yeah, he is terrific. His bat-ting numbers just speak forthemselves. I think he's anincredible player in all threeformats and I think we will seehim break many records. He'salready broken plenty of themand I see him breaking manymore over the years. He has gotthe hunger for runs and does-n't stop getting them. Hopefullyhe can stop getting themagainst Australia, that'll benice.

"As a captain he's alreadymade India the number oneside in the world in Test crick-et. From what I have seen hesets really good standards for

them. He is a lot about fitnessand is health conscious andthings like that. He's got theIndian side into a really goodplace and leads them excep-tionally well," the 30-year-oldpointed.

Asked about Kohli's ges-ture to ask fans to show himsupport during the 2019 WorldCup, Smith feels it was reallynice of the India skipper. "In theWorld Cup it was really nice ofVirat to do what he did. He didnot have to do that and yeah itwas a lovely gesture and reallyappreciated that," he smiled.

Kohli, in fact, won the'Spirit of Cricket' award for hisgesture in England.

There have been talks thatSmith is a natural leader andthat the national captaincycould well return to him in thenear future. But for the bats-man, Paine is the captain andsomeone who is doing a goodjob with the boys.

"Yeah, Tim's done a terrif-ic job. He has led the troopsreally well. Obviously retainingthe Ashes in England in twen-ty-odd years was an exception-al effort and yeah he has led theteam exceptionally well," hesaid.

From the Ashes to theICC's proposal to have four-dayTest matches on a regular basisfrom 2023, Smith is a tradition-alist in the matter and wantsthe format to stay as it is.

"I am comfortable withfive days. I like the challenge ofa five-day Test match.Obviously, there has been a lotof talk of the four-day Tests, butmy personal opinion is I likefive days. I don't make the deci-sions obviously of how it allworks out but my opinion isfive-days Tests is what it is allabout," he signed off.

LIGHTNING QUICKRana’s unbeaten 68-ball 105 helps Delhi beat Vidarbha by 6 wickets in 347 run chase

Sarfaraz Khan celebrates after completing his maiden triple hundred during Ranji Trophygame against Uttar Pradesh at Wankhede Stadium on Wednesday PTI

Maharashtra players pose after win against Assam during Ranji Trophy game PTI

HIGHEST SUCCESSFUL CHASES IN RANJIScore Team Opponent Venue Season

372-4 Saurashtra Uttar Pradesh Lucknow 2018-19

371-4 Assam Services Delhi 2008-09

360-4 Rajasthan Vidarbha Jaipur 1989-90

357-5 Rajasthan Services Jaipur 2018-19

348-4 Delhi Vidarbha Delhi 2019-20

344-4 Punjab Bengal Ludhiana 1992-93FAISEL FFEATURES

Shaw, Samson celebratesenior team call up

Tri-series before WC will help in team composition: Smriti

Smriti Mandhana in a file picture

I see ‘incredible' Kohli breakingmore records: Smith

Mathews 200*hurt Zimbabwe

Angelo Mathews celebrates after double hundred AP

Jemi working on increasing

bat speed to hit big shots

Southee ‘looking forward’ to India series

Sanju Samson in a file picture PTI