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Union Home MinisterAmit Shah challengedopposition leaders for a

debate on the Citizenship(Amendment) Act on any pub-lic platform, stating categori-cally that the new citizenshiplaw would never be rolledback.

Addressing a pro-CAArally in Lucknow on Tuesday,Shah said: “Mein danke ki chotpar kehta hoon ki CAA wapasnahi hoga. Modiji CAA lekaraaye, aur CAA ke khilaf, yehRahul Baba and company,Mamata, Akhileshji, BehenMayawati, saari ki saari brigadekau-kau-kau karne lage.” (Ideclare that the CAA will neverbe rolled back. When Modijibrought CAA, Rahul and com-pany, Mamata, Akhilesh,Mayawati, the entire brigadestarted making noise withoutascertaining facts).

“I piloted the CitizenshipBill in Parliament. I challengeanyone who wants to debatewith me on the CAA but thislaw will not be withdrawn atany cost,” Shah said.

The Home Minister added:“Narendra Modi was votedback to office only eightmonths back. There is no rea-son for us to go to the peopleagain as there is no electionround the corner. We wereforced to launch the awarenesscampaign to counter the mali-cious campaign by oppositionparties over CAA aimed atbreaking India.”

“The opposition partiesare trying to confuse Muslims

in the name of CAA evenwhen the new act is only toprovide citizenship and notdivest them of it,’’ Shah said.

Referring to SamajwadiParty chief Akhilesh Yadav,Shah said: “He is only makingstatements by readings others,and has no independent under-standing of the issue. He shouldfirst study and then speak.”

Speaking on Bengal CMMamata Banerjee, Shah said:“The TMC leader raised theissue of giving citizenship toDalit Hindu refugees fromBangladesh staying in WestBengal. But now she is oppos-ing it just for political reasons.”

“During RajasthanAssembly polls, Congress hadalso stressed on providing cit-izenship to only Hindu refugeesfrom Pakistan, but now theyare opposing it,” he said.

“Congress was responsiblefor country’s partition on reli-gion lines in 1947. Now whenwe are trying to rectify theirmistakes, they are opposing it.Even Mahatma Gandhi,Jawaharlal Nehru and IndiraGandhi had said that minori-ties in Pakistan and Bangladeshshould be given Indian citi-zenship. But now, this party isopposing the CAA which isunfortunate and it shows theirdouble standard,” Shah said.

Listing the series ofCongress, TMC and otheropposition leaders’ statements,Shah exclaimed: “How comePrime Minister of PakistanImran Khan and Rahul Gandhispeak the same language andidioms about Kashmir and theCAA.’’

“Opposition leaders arequestioning us on the abroga-tion of Article 370 fromKashmir which gives equalrights to people. These leadersnever feel anything aboutKashmiri Pandits who are nowrefugees in their own country.They never uttered a wordwhen Taliban destroyed ancientBuddha statue at BamiyanValley in Afghanistan,” healleged.

“I want to ask peopleprotesting the CAA as to whereare minorities disappearing inPakistan? Why the populationof minorities dwindled to threeper cent now from 25 per centin 1947. Thousands of Hindusand Sikhs were kidnapped,converted and so many womenwere raped. Hundreds of tem-ples and gurudwaras weredestroyed, who will help thepersecuted minorities?,” Shah

asked.Targeting Congress and

other parties for supporting“anti-national” slogans in JNUand other institutions, Shahasserted: “We will not toleratethis. We are ready to be abusedbut will not spare anyone whoinsults Bharat Mata.”

On the occasion, Shahasked people to dial a pro-CAAtoll free number 8866288662 tosupport the act.

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Chief Minister YogiAdityanath accused the

Congress, Samajwadi Party andother opposition parties ofspeaking in the language andidiom of Pakistan.

“Opposition parties werebehind the violence and protestdemonstrations to disturbpeace aimed at destroying thesocial fabric of the nation. Thegovernment cannot remainmute spectator of attempts byopposition parties to createanarchy,” Yogi asserted.

Addressing a gathering inthe presence of Union HomeMinister Amit Shah in a pro-CAA rally in Lucknow onTuesday, Yogi drew analogyfrom the epic Mahabharataand said: “When Draupadi wasdisrobed, she had askedBhishm Pitamah as to who wasresponsible for the sin. ThenVidur had said all those whowere silent on the ghastly actwere responsible. Congress iscommitting the same crime asDushashan in Mahabharata.But we cannot remain silent tocrimes committed in the nameof opposing CAA. We cannotbe silent to the disrobing ofBharat Mata. We will go meetpeople everywhere and exposethe nefarious games ofCongress and other parties,”Yogi said.

“The CAA should havebeen brought 70 years agosoon after Independence, butthe Congress had no suchideas as its sole intention wasto use the issue for narrowpolitical ends and votebankpolitics. But our PM and HomeMinister had the courage tobring this law to give citizen-ship to persecuted minoritiesfrom Pakistan, Bangladesh andAfghanistan,” he said.

Yogi further alleged thatopposition parties were dis-tributing money to organisedharnas against CAA in thestate but people of the countrywere supporting the PM on thisissue and any conspiracyagainst ‘Ek Bharat-ShreshtBharat’ would be dealt withsternly.

The CM also appealed tothe people to be aware of theopposition’s conspiracy in mis-leading a particular communi-ty by making them feel that theCAA was against them.

“The CAA is only to givecitizenship to minority refugeesfrom Bangladesh, Pakistan andAfghanistan, and not to snatchanyone’s citizenship,” he clari-fied. Large number of refugees,including Kashmiri Pandits,were present at the rally as wereUP BJP chief Swatantra DevSingh, and Deputy CMsKeshav Prasad Maurya &Dinesh Sharma.

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Blaming the Congress forderailing the construction

of Ram temple at Ayodhya,Union Home Minister AmitShah announced on Tuesdaythat it would commence with-in three months.

“Till the time there was aCongress government at theCentre, it did everything todelay the construction of thetemple. Congress MP andsenior Supreme Court advocateKapil Sibal opposed the hearing on Ayodhya issue inapex court and did his best tostall the issue. Apart fromCongress, Samajwadi Party andBahujan Samaj Party alsoopposed Ram temple’s con-struction at Ayodhya,’’ Shahalleged.

“Despite the obstructionby Congress, the SupremeCourt gave its ruling and nowa grand Ram temple will beconstructed there,” he said.During the rally, Shah chant-ed the slogan ‘Jai Shree Ram’,which was repeated by thehuge crowd.

On November 9, 2019, theSupreme Court gave its verdictin favour of Ram temple’s con-struction at Ayodhya and askedthe government to set up aTrust for the purpose. Thegovernment is yet to notify theTrust.

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The Supreme Court wantsParliament to put a full stop

to the unbridled power enjoyedby presiding officers of legisla-tures in deciding disqualifica-tion pleas against lawmakers.

The SC on Tuesdayobserved that a Speaker alsobelongs to a political partyand asked Parliament to thinkover setting up some sort ofpermanent body or indepen-dent mechanism to decide dis-qualification petitions. TheBench pointed out recent caseswhere Assembly Speakers cameunder scanner for their han-dling of disqualification peti-tions and said that MPs orMLAs should not be allowed tocontinue even for a day if theyhave incurred disqualificationfor issues like anti-defection.

In its Tuesday judgment ina case related to the role of theManipur Assembly Speaker innot taking decision on dis-qualification pleas against aState Minister, the SC held thatthe Speaker can’t sit on a dis-qualification petition indefi-nitely and he must act withina reasonable time.

The court’s suggestioncame in the wake of severalcases where the Speakers wereaccused of deciding the dis-qualification pleas to suit theirpolitical preferences, disre-garding norms and conven-tions, and using such pleas asa tool to arm-twist the law-makers to protect or destabliseState Governments.

Last year’s Karnataka polit-ical crisis was a case in point.The Assembly Speaker tookweeks in deciding over thedisqualification plea despitedirection from courts.

The Speaker’s refusal to acton the disqualification pleasagainst the rebel Congress andJD(S) MLAs created such astandoff that the Karnataka

High Court in April 2018issued a direction to theSpeaker and fixed a deadlinefor deciding a plea. TheSpeaker took his own timeand then matter went to the SC.

More often than not, theSpeaker “sit over” such pleas,which remain pending formonths — in some cases foryears — even after

MLAS/MLAs have clearly vio-lated the provision of anti-defection law. By not acting onsuch pleas, Speakers allowMLAs to retain their votingpower despite switching side.This mostly helps the rulingparty in a State.

Such arbitrariness by theSpeakers often facilitated mid-night political coup in North-East States.

Suggesting for an inde-pendent mechanism to dealwith disqualification pleasagainst lawmakers, the SCasked the Manipur AssemblySpeaker to decide within fourweeks the plea of a Congressleader seeking disqualificationof BJP lawmaker and ManipurForest Minister ThShyamkumar.

A Bench headed by JusticeRF Nariman had granted lib-erty to Congress MLA FajurRahim and K Meghachandra toapproach it again if theAssembly Speaker fails to takea decision within four weeks.

The BJP Minister had wonthe Assembly election on aCongress ticket and later joinedthe BJP. This led to filing of thedisqualification plea.

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In one of its biggest crack-down on illegal ticketing in

the railways, the RPF hasarrested a madrassa-educated,self-taught software developerfrom Jharkhand in a racketwhich has links to Pakistan,Bangladesh and Dubai withsuspected involvement in ter-ror financing, a senior officialsaid on Tuesday.

Ghulam Mustafa (28), whowas arrested fromBhubaneswar, has a team ofprogrammers working for him.He started his career in 2015touting counter tickets inBengaluru and then graduatedto e-tickets and illegal software,the RPF official said.

“For the last 10 days, the IB,Special Bureau, ED, NIA,Karnataka Police have interro-gated Mustafa.

“Dimensions of moneylaundering and terror financ-ing are suspected,” RailwayProtection Force (RPF)

Director GeneralArun Kumar said ata press briefing.

Kumar saidMustafa has 563 per-sonal IRCTC userIDs, and a list of2,400 SBI branchesand 600 regionalrural banks wherehe is suspected tohave accounts.

He also saidMustafa used soft-ware to access darknet, andLinux-based hacking systemswere found on his laptop.

An Indian software com-pany with branches across thecountry and abroad has alsocome under the scanner forhaving links to the racket,Kumar said, refusing to nameit. He, however, said the com-pany has been involved in acase of money laundering inSingapore.

“Analysis of Mustafa’s lap-tops, which were highlyencrypted. His phone has manyPakistani, Bangladeshi, Middle-Eastern, Indonesian,

Nepali numbers as well assix virtual numbers. There wasalso an application to create

fake Aadhaar cards,” Kumarsaid.

The DG said Mustafa hasrevealed that he is a follower ofa Pakistan-based religiousgroup. Mustafa’s digital foot-prints were found onGovernment websites, he said.

The RPF chief namedHamid Ashraf as the master-mind of the racket which is sus-pected to generate revenue of�10-15 crore per month.

Ashraf, who is also a soft-ware developer, was involved inthe bombing of a school inUttar Pradesh’s Gonda districtin 2019 and is now suspectedto have fled to Dubai, Kumarsaid.

Continued on Page 4

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In a major step to preventroad accidents, the Centre is

considering to install crashbarriers along its existing NHsand make it mandatory for allfuture highway projects.

A week after RoadTransport Minister NitinGadkari said highway acci-dents lead to loss of 3 per centof GDP annually, the Ministryis exploring ways to bringdown highway crashes andfatalities. Installing crash bar-rier is one of the steps in thatdirection.

Crash barriers are designedto withstand the impact ofeven high speed vehicles. They

are expected to slide and rollguide vehicles back on theroad while keeping the level ofdamage to vehicle as well as tothe barriers within acceptablelimits. It has been found thatless than five per cent of thetotal network of about 1.50 lakhkm of National Highways hascrash barriers installed.

“Ideally a crash barriershould present a continuoussmooth face to an impactingvehicle so that the vehicle isredirected, without overturn-ing, to a course that is nearlyparallel to the barrier face andwith a lateral deceleration,which is tolerable to motorists.To achieve these aims, thevehicle must be redirectedwithout rotation about both itshorizontal or vertical axis(without “spinning out”) andthe rate of lateral decelerationmust be such as to cause theminimum risk of injury to thepassengers,” explained a senior

NHAI official. “We are preparing specifi-

cations to install crash barriers.Different type of crash barriershave to be installed, dependingon the lanes of the highways,”said an official.

The Ministry has alsotaken immediate measures toidentify faulty engineering androad designs across the coun-try and has sought help from all

stakeholders, including theStates.

The Road Ministry is alsoidentifying accident-pronespots. It has set up district-levelcommittees to examine andsuggest immediate repair andattention. The Ministry hasalso formed four separateworking groups based on theprinciple of 4 Es Road Safety —Education, Enforcement,

Engineering (roads as well asvehicles) and Emergency care.These groups would submittheir recommendations onshort-term and long-term mea-sures for immediate imple-mentation so as to curb roadaccidents in the country.

At the National RoadSafety Council and 39thMeeting of TransportDevelopment Council lastweek, it was pointed out thatmore people in India die annu-ally in road accidents thanthose killed in militant strikes.

Gadkari had asked theStates to prepare a roadmap todevelop and reorient roadinfrastructure within theiradministrative limits to cutdown fatalities on road.

A new format on‘Environment and Emergency’care of road accident victimswith tie up with several NGOS,hospitals and stakeholders isalso to be worked on.

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Tragedy struck a group of 15Kerala tourists in Nepal

when eight of them, includingfour children, died after theyfell unconscious probably dueto a gas leak from a heater intheir room at a mountainousresort in Pokhara, amid coldwave in the Himalayan region.

The tourists were airliftedto HAMS hospital inKathmandu where they werepronounced dead on arrival,Superintendent of Police SushilSingh Rathaur said.

Postmortem will be con-ducted on Wednesday andbodies will be taken to Kerala

by Air India on Thursday.“All eight were airlifted

and brought to hospital inKathmandu. A doctor from theIndian mission was also imme-diately sent to the hospital tocheck on welfare of patientsand to provide necessary assis-tance,” said officials of IndianEmbassy in Kathmandu.

The victims were identifiedas Praveen Nair and his wifeSaranya and their kidsSreebhadra, Aarcha andAbhinav Saranya. Other threevictims are Ranjith Kumar andhis wife Indu Lakshmi andtheir younger son Vyshnav.Their elder son Madhav, whowas in other room, survived. It

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�������������������,����������Lucknow: The Uttar PradeshCabinet on Tuesday gave itsnod to the state’s 2020-21 excisepolicy, under which the licencefee for country-made liquor hasbeen increased by 10 per cent,for beer by 15 per cent and forforeign liquor by 20 per cent.

“The government hasmade a simple and transparentexcise policy. Renewal oflicences will be done throughe-lottery. Under the new poli-cy, one person will be allowedto have only two shops in thestate,” Principal Secretary,Excise, Sanjay Bhoosreddy saidwhile briefing reporters at apress conference here after theCabinet meeting.

The beer shops will now beable to sell wines. ■ Details of

Cabinet decisons on Page 2

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While observing that noreligion prescribed use of

loudspeakers for worship,Allahabad High Courtdeclined to quash order ofJaunpur district administrationby which it had denied use ofloudspeaker for purpose of‘azan’ in two mosques ofBaddopur village, Shahganj,of Jaunpur district. JusticePankaj Mithal and Justice VCDixit dismissed a petition filedby Masroor Ahmad of Jaunpur.

In March petitioner hadmoved an application seekingpermission to use loudspeak-ers on two mosques and onMarch 7, 2019, Circle Officer,Shahganj did a spot inspectionand stated in its report that inthe area of both the mosques,there was a mixed populationof Hindus and Muslims and ifany party is allowed to usesound amplifiers tensionbetween the two groups wouldescalate disturbing the peace inthe area On June 12, 2019,sub-divisional magistrate

(SDM) Shahganj of Jaunpurdenied permission/renewal ofthe license to use amplifiersand loudspeakers on twomosques on the ground thatsuch use of sound equipmentis likely to cause animositybetween the two religiousgroups of the village creatinglaw and order situation as thearea had mixed population.The bench after going throughthe order of SDM observed, “itbecomes quite evident thatthe petitioners have beenrefused permission to use

sound amplifying system at themosque not only for the inher-ent reason of noise pollutionbut in order to maintain peaceand tranquillity in the area.”

Court also raised the issueof noise pollution and igno-rance of the general public inthis regard and observed,“People in India do not realisethat noise in itself is a sort ofpollution. They are not evenfully conscious about its illeffect on health, though someconcern is being shown to it inrecent past.”

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On Tuesday, social worker SandeepPandey reached the protest venue

at Clock Tower in Thakurganj in sup-port of the anti-CAA stir and sat on amat in a corner where he put a spinningwheel. He told reporters that there wasa need to save the constitution and thatwas why he chose the Gandhain way toregister his protest.

In the evening, hundreds of womenadvocates reached the protest site.They were accompanied by some malecounterparts. The group of advocateslater pledged to save the Constitution.On the fifth day of the protest, womencontinued to pour in at the venue tosupport those observing protest against CAA.

In view of security, the city wit-nessed a heavy police deployment onTuesday as cops stood guard at each andevery corner around the Clock Tower.At the protest site, the number ofwomen cops was more than it was onMonday. Sources said the police hadapprehensions that the protesters mightmarch towards Parivartan Chowk orHazratganj Crossing like they did in thepast. “In view of Union Home MinisterAmit Shah’s rally in support of CAA, thepolice were apprehensive,” they said.

Meanwhile, the police said theywere identifying the unidentified per-sons who were involved in breachingthe provisions of section 144 of CrPCduring the last three days. The policehad registered three FIRs against above120 persons including daughters offamous poet Munnawar Rana forallegedly violating prohibitory orders byblocking the main road near ClockTower and by assembling unlawfully atthe site.

Earlier, Samajwadi Party chiefAkhilesh Yadav’s daughter Tina joinedthe agitation for some time on Sundayevening. A photo viral on social mediashowed Tina with her friend at theClock Tower.

On Monday night, several Congressleaders, including spokespersonSurendra Rajput, went to the protest siteand spoke to the agitating women. ATV report showing videos also said thatthe protesters were enjoying biryanifrom a famous joint on Monday night.

On the other hand, the BJP accusedopposition parties for sponsoring theanti-CAA protest in Lucknow andother parts of the state.

BJP general secretary VijayBahadur Pathak said on Tuesday that

opposition parties were conspiring todestablise the country by supportingillegal protest against the CAA.

“Why is the opposition seeking tohide behind Muslim women and notcoming to the fore. If they are oppos-ing CAA, they should have the courageto tell people why,” he stated.

“The opposition is claiming that itis a protest by common people but it hasbeen established that the Congress andSP are behind this,” he claimed.

The protests also reached other

parts of Lucknow and around 15women sat on a dharna near a ‘dargah’in Ujariaon in Gomti Nagar police sta-tion area on Monday night. However,a police team rushed to the venue andasked the women to leave, informingthem about Section 144 being in force.

The protest at Clock Tower thatstarted on Friday evening, continued onTuesday morning with the crowdswelled despite cold weather. A ChildRights panel is also monitoring theprotest amid reports of children being

involved in it. Member of the ChildRights Commission ShuchitaChaturvedi said: “There were severalreports of children being present at theprotest site and women bringing alongkids. Many reports also suggested thatchildren were made to chant slogansagainst CAA and NRC, which is a vio-lation of Juvenile Justice Act.”

Anti-CAA and anti-NRC protestsalso continued for the eighth day atMansoor Ali Park in Roshan Bagh areaof Prayagraj.

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Tipplers will have to shell outmore from April 1 as the

state government has increasedthe licence fee for liquor vendsfor all categories of potablealcohol – country liquor, India-made foreign liquor (IMFL),beer and wine. The UP govern-ment on Tuesday announcedthe excise policy for the nextfiscal 2020-21 commencingfrom April 1, making it morerational, transparent and sim-plified.

The new policy proposes10 -20 per centhike in licencefee of liquor outlets. The Excisedepartment, however, claimedthat there would be only mar-ginal hike in the price of liquor,which is likely to be not morethan Rs 5 per bottle. The newpolice was approved in theCainet meeting presided overby Chief Minister YogiAdityanath on Tuesday.

The licence fee for countryliquor shop has been hiked by10 per cent; IMFL, modelshop, and bar by 20 per cent,and beer shop by 15 per cent.Beer bars will also be allowedto sell wine.

Principal Secretary(Excise) Sanjay Bhoosreddysaid that in the new policy,measures have been taken tomake it more transparentwhere only online applicationswill be accepted and vendsallotted through e-lottery

across the state in a single day.From the next fiscal, all

shops will be asked to enforcetrack-and-trade systemthrough QR code to ensurethat customers can get qualityliquor. The system wasenforced from liquor compa-nies to retail outlets. It has nowbeen extended to customers.

Bhoosreddy said that inthe new policy, a vendor willnot be allowed to take morethan two liquor vends in thestate, which was earlier restrict-ed to a district. “A countryliquor shop will get automaticrenewal, if it lifts 20 per centexcess liquor from the targetthis fiscal,” he said.

He said that online appli-cation and e-tendering hasalso been introduced for allot-ment of bhang shops. From thenext fiscal, there will severalnew rules introduced for trans-parency and rationality of the

Excise department.“Under the ease of doing

business, now after giving inaffidavit of the leftover liquorand beer on March 31, 2020, ashop-owner, in case of renew-al, can sell the stock after pay-ing a nominal duty to the gov-ernment. Earlier, there wereproblems which led to less stor-age by outlets in February andMarch every year,” he pointedout.

For promotion of tourism,the government has alsoallowed the sale of IMFL andbeer in special trains, cruiseand airport lounge. The licencefor serving liquor on trains,cruise and airport lounge willbe issued for a fee. Earlier, therewas no fee on the licence forairport lounge. The govern-ment has also relaxed norms sothat a retailer can purchase allbrands from one ware house.Now, liquor label and brandwill be approved in one stagerather than two.

“If nothing is changed inthe brand, it gets approvedautomatically. But if there isany change, they will have toregister their trade mark,” theofficial said.

Meanwhile, the revenuecollection on excise is targetedat around Rs 31,600 crore thisfiscal which has been increasedto Rs 35,000 crore for next fis-cal 2020-21. In 2018-19, thetotal excise collection wasaround Rs 27,000 crore.

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Samajwadi Party chiefAkhilesh Yadav lashed out at

Union Home Minister AmitShah for his statement that theCAA would not be withdrawnat any cost. Slamming the BJPchief, the former Chief Ministersaid that the saffron party wasmaking ‘intolerance’ its identi-ty and hence losing its popular-ity due to its ‘anti-people poli-cies’.

Attacking opposition par-ties for ‘misleading’ people onthe CAA, Shah said the newlaw would not be scrappeddespite protests, at a Lucknowrally on Tuesday.

“Shah’s statement onlyreflected intolerance as theBJP wants to crush peoplewith a road-roller due to itsbrute majority in Parliament.Playing with basic principles ofdemocracy, the ruling party ismaking intolerance its identi-ty,” Akhilesh said in a statementissued in Lucknow on Tuesday.

“Protests are going onacross the country against theCAA and NRC due to whichthe BJP had to plan ‘Jan Jagran’rallies and such programmes,”he said.

The SP chief said thatShah’s address in Lucknowshowed his frustration overthe growing dissent and his

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party would not let the BJP-RSSagenda run in the country. Healleged that BJP leaders ignoredpeople’s interest and aspirationsdue to their “false ego andpride”.

Citing a report, Akhileshsaid that 16 lakh jobs in thecountry were lost in 2016 andas per the National CrimeRecords Bureau, 35 unem-ployed and 36 self-employedpersons committed suicide

everyday in 2018.“In both categories, 26,085

people lost their lives. In thecountry, 1.34 lakh personsended their lives, including10,346 from farming sector,” heclaimed.

Akhilesh further allegedthat the BJP does not have anyintention to solve the problemsof people and that is why it hasbrought the CAA to divertpublic attention.

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Agroup of migrants from EastPakistan—now Bangladesh – sat in

the front row, carrying placards, asUnion Home Minister Amit Shahaddressed a rally here in support of theCitizenship Amendment Act.

Raising slogans of “Jai Shri Ram”,“Bharat Mata ki Jai” and “VandeMataram”, they hailed the amended cit-izenship law, saying now they will haveaccess to all necessary facilities.

“There were 200 families whocame to India in 1952. We were givenfive acres, a one-room house and a pairof bulls,” claimed Anukul Chandra Dasfrom Ramia Behad block in Kheri.

He said in 1964, the land grant wasreduced to 3.5 acres from five acres.

“Those who came after 1964 werenot even registered. Now, we are hope-ful of getting all facilities after theimplementation of the CAA ,” headded. Das said he was just 14 whenhis family migrated from East Pakistan’sFaridpur district.

Initially, they lived in a transit campin Raipur. He claimed that later theywent to Udham Singh Nagar andRudrapur, from where they were sentto Kheri by the government. LikeDas, there were many others claimingto be Hindu refugees and were seen sit-ting in front row.

Nirmal Vishwas (65) fromRavindra Nagar, Kheri, said he cameto India at the age of eight in 1964 andhis father had passed away in Kolkatabefore they could reach here.

He said the new law will help themget their rights.

According to the CAA, membersof Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsiand Christian communities who havecome from Pakistan, Bangladeshand Afghanistan till December 31,

2014 to escape religious persecutionthere will not be treated as illegal immi-grants but given Indian citizenship.

It does not include Muslims. Those opposing the CAA have

contend that it discriminates on thebasis of religion and violates theConstitution. They also allege that theCAA along with the NRC is intendedto target the Muslim community inIndia. However, the central governmenthas dismissed the allegations, maintain-ing that the law is intended to give cit-izenship to the persecuted peoplefrom the three neighbouring countriesand not to take away citizenship fromanyone.

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The Uttar Pradesh govern-ment on Tuesday

announced a new accidentalinsurance scheme for farmersin the state where in case ofdeath, the family will get Rs5 lakh as compensation. Thenew insurance scheme willbenefit around 2.38 crorefarmer families. The schemecalled ‘MukhyamantriKrishak Durghatna JivanBima Yojana’ was approved bythe state Cabinet on Tuesday.

UP governmentspokesperson ShrikantSharma said that a farmerdisabled in any accidentwould get Rs 2 lakh for over60 per cent disability. Thescheme will be enforced withretrospective effect fromSeptember 14, 2019 and willbe applicable to farmers, theirfamily members and‘bataidars’ (sharecroppers).

Sharma said that in thelast fiscal, the governmentspent Rs 675 crore as premi-um for farmers’ insurancebut the insurance companiespaid claims of only Rs 200crore, which forced the gov-ernment to re-introduce this

scheme with a new nameand modifications.

In other decisions, thegovernment approved a newpolicy and forensic universi-ty in Lucknow and alsoapproved letter of comfort totwo mega industrial units —PepsiCo in Mathura andTriveni Engineering inBulandshahr. Both the unitswill invest Rs 679 crore.

The government alsoapproved a 10-metre servicelane along with ‘parikramamarg’ of Giriraj in Mathura.A sum of Rs 177 crore will bespent on 14.427-km road.The government alsoapproved a proposal tochange the allotment ofPatanjali Ayurveda toPatanjali Food and HerbalPark Pvt Ltd.

The governmentapproved expenditure of Rs50 lakh for developing basicinfrastructure in every districtfor tourism purpose. Besides,the government also approvedconstruction of KashiVishwanath Corridor inVaranasi with the cost coming down marginallyfrom Rs 343.27 crore to Rs339 crore.

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Lucknow ranks 14th among 287cities of the country in terms of

air pollution levels due to PM10levels, as per the report released byGreenpeace organisation onTuesday. The data which wasanalysed was that taken by theCPCB for the year 2018. Thereport shows that the air quality inLucknow, Varanasi, Khurja,Gorakhpur, Agra, Meerut andSaharanpur is 3-5 times higherthan NAAQS and 8-10 timeshigher than WHO standards.

The report has identified 231Indian cities out of 287 with morethan 52 monitoring days data in2018 under National AmbientAir Quality MonitoringProgramme (NAMP), where airpollution levels exceeded the 60μg/m3 limits for PM10 as pre-scribed under National AmbientAir Quality Standards (NAAQS).

According to the report, 16cities of Uttar Pradesh have beenidentified as non-attainment cities.Noida and Ghaziabad are themost polluted ones in terms ofPM10 and air quality is aroundfour times the NAAQS and 12-16times the 20 μg/m3 WHO pre-scribed limits.

Similarly, air quality levels inBareilly, Allahabad, Moradabad,Firozabad, Gajraula, Gorakhpur,Lucknow, Khurja, Kanpur, Agra,Varanasi, Anpara, Saharanpur andMeerut are 3-5 times higher thanNAAQS and 8-10 times higherthan WHO-specified standards.

Gajraula, Gorakhpur,Saharanpur and Meerut are thenew non-attainment cities, accord-ing to Greenpeace’s analysis. Thesecities did not find any mention inNCAP. Senior campaigner,Greenpeace, Awinash Chanchalsaid 699 stations across 287 citiesrecorded data for 52 or more daysin year 2018, 631 stations across264 cities recorded data for morethan 78 days, and 510 stationsacross 225 cities were able torecord data for more than 93days, and only 299 stations across145 cities were able to recorddata for 104 or more days in 2018.

“Stations with minimum 50%data recorded compared to thestipulated 104 observations in ayear is considered in the analysis

of prevailing pollution levels andranking the cities for the currentreport,” he added. Commenting onthe worsening state of affairs,Chanchal said: “It’s worrying to seethat more than 80 per cent citieshad PM10 levels exceeding the 60μg/m3 limits for PM10 prescribedunder NAAQS. If we want tomake NCAP truly a national pro-gramme, we have to include allpolluted cities into it and imple-ment it with the addition of spe-cific pollution and emission reduc-tion targets in a time-bound man-ner.” He said that the report is aclear indication that MoEFCCneeds to include all non-attain-ment cities under the fold ofNCAP. “While all the cities listedunder NCAP have submitted cityspecific clean air action planapproved by CPCB for groundimplementation, almost none ofthese action plans till date have adefinite overall percentage reduc-tion target for 2024. The plans alsomiss out on interim targets forabsolute pollution reduction, orsectoral emission load reductiontargets, diesel and coal consump-tion caps and reduction targetsetc,” he added.

He further stated that the citylevel action plans provided by thenon-attainment cities underNCAP also lack regional and air-shed level approach and are toocity-centric, that is, of course,vehicular emissions within thecity are a part of the problem butthe major emitters in the nearby

regions should not be ignored.“More emphasis needs to be

laid on regional and air-shedapproach for air quality control.What is the use of conducting 102source apportionment studies fornon-attainment cities if we aregoing to ignore regional sources ofpollution and only quantifysources with the city’s administra-tive boundaries and are not includ-ing the sectoral targets and poli-cies for emission reductions,”Chanchal added.

In January 2019, Ministry ofEnvironment, Forests and ClimateChange (MoEFCC), released thefirst-ever NCAP for India. Underthe programme, the cities areexpected to reduce air pollutionlevels by 20-30% by 2024 from2017 levels. However, the Reporthighlights that CPCB has identi-fied only 122 non-attainment citiesand 102 of them included underNCAP till now. These 122 cities arespread across 28 states and nineunion territories and is incompleteleaving 116 more cities whichexceed 60 μg/m3 limit prescribedby NAAQS, according to 2018annual data and should be includ-ed in the non-attainment catego-ry. Out of 287 cities, more than 80per cent have limits for PM10 pre-scribed under NAAQS by CPCB,implying that all these cities andtowns belong to the non-attain-ment list. This is more than dou-ble the original 102 non-attain-ment cities initially identified byMoEF&CC in 2015.

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Greenpeace organisation,which released the report on

air pollution due to PM10 levels,has also made certain recommen-dations for both the governmentand general public. Greenpeacesenior campaigner AwinashChanchal said that NationalClean Air Programme (NCAP) inits current form and ambition isonly a good first step on a longjourney.

“For the first step to be mean-ingful, it must be followed byother measures and several lacu-nae be addressed. NCAP is notnotif ied under any Act(Environment Protection Act orAir Act) and is only being seen asa guiding document. To make theNCAP effective in achievingbreathable air quality across thecountry, the air quality targets andspecific measures identified in thedocument must be given a prop-er legal status,” he said.

He further pointed out thatcurrently the ambition levelsunder NCAP (20-30% air pollu-tion reduction by 2024) will notlead to breathable air quality inthe country, as the pollution lev-els across much of the country areso high that even a 30 per centreduction will still leave levelsabove the NAAQS, not to men-tion the WHO standards.

“The NCAP, being a dynam-ic document, must set specificcity-wise pollution reduction tar-gets rather than just providing atentative window of 20-30%reduction across the board by2024. NCAP should also expressthe ambition to move to NAAQSin a time-bound manner first andthen have a timeline to movetowards the WHO guidelines.Tentative per cent reduction tar-gets over the next five years areinsufficient without a long-termtimeline to achieve breathableair quality and attain the healthbenefits of reducing pollution

levels below NAAQS and WHOstandards. Minor reductions fromcurrent hazardous levels may notbe able to achieve great healthbenefits because concentrationseven as low as 10 μg/m3 forPM10 and 6 μg/m3for PM2.5impacts human health,” he said.

The report making more rec-ommendations said that thereshould be interim milestones,targets for half-yearly and annu-al progress tracking so that wedon’t just take stock of theprogress in 2024 and will not bein a position to do anything if airpollution levels are not falling asrequired. “To achieve the airquality goals, much stronger sec-toral policies and targets will beneeded on national and statelevel. Pollution across the coun-try originates from the same keysectors – industry and powerplants, household fuels, wasteburning, crop burning and trans-port – with variance in propor-tions. Furthermore, much of thepollution levels in the identifiednon-attainment cities originatesfrom outside the city limits. Theobvious question which arises isthat what is the use of conducting102 source apportionment stud-ies for non-attainment cities ifthere are no sectoral targets andpolicies for emission reductions,”said Chanchal.

He said that the governmentmust prioritise transparency,accountability and stringency inactions proposed under NCAPwhile strengthening it over thenext few months. “Inclusion oflegal provisions and sectoral tar-gets is key to implementation andeffectiveness of air pollutionreduction plans. NCAP should betreated as a dynamic documentthat can be improved into astronger instrument to achieve thedream of blue skies and clean airacross India,” he added. Thereport further points out that pub-lic participation is critical in thefight against air pollution.

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Aday after the murderous assault ona girl at her flat in Chinhat, police

succeeded in identifying the accusedafter she regained consciousness andscribbled his name on a piece of paper,when asked by the police.

Giving the information, ChinhatSHO Sachin Kumar Singh said theaccused was identified as Nandlal ofMaharajganj, to which the victim alsobelongs. Preliminary investigationrevealed that the accused was a frequentvisitor to the girl’s house and was in con-tact with her for a long time. Some timeback, relations between them soured,after which the victim snapped ties withhim. “Despite all this, the accused stillused to visit her flat and she hadrebuked him for this a couple of daysback. She also asked the accused not toshow her his face again,” police sourcessaid.

They said the accused was attract-ed towards the girl and was trying to

force her into submission. The SHOsaid victim’s elder sister, who was outof city on the day of incident, came backand gave us more details about theaccused and the incident. He added thatthe victim was not in a state to speakas of now and doctors also advised usnot to speak to her as there were stitch-es around her throat.

“We are hunting for the accused buthe is yet to be nabbed. A team raidedhis house on Monday night, but in vain.We have got some clues and hope to nabhim anytime soon,” he said. The SHOadded that victim’s elder sister was alsostaying in the same flat.

On Monday, the victim, who ispreparing for competitive exams andalso doing a part-time job in a privateinstitute of the city, was found lying ina pool of blood at her flat in Chinhaton Monday morning. Neha, another girlwho assists her in household chores,had informed the police about the inci-dent and later lodged a case against theunidentified attacker.

���'�)���� )� �Lucknow (PNS): As part ofArmy Day celebrations, thetwo-day ‘Know Your ArmyMela’ kicked off at LucknowRace Course ground onTuesday. The spectacular bandand equipment display was fol-lowed by cultural events like‘Khukhri’ and ‘Gatka’ dance,witnessed by school childrenand general public of Lucknowand adjoining areas. There werestalls put up by NCCDirectorate, RecruitingDirectorate and MedicalAuthorities. Food stalls werealso put up to cater for snacksand refreshments for generalpublic. The theme, ‘Know OurForces’, was aimed at motivatingyouths of the country, deepen-ing the sense of patriotism in themasses and increasing aware-ness about the Armed Forces.

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Having failed to get justice,a victim of gangrape

attempted to immolate herselfat La Martiniere College cross-ing (close to the lane leading toChief Minister’s residence) inGautampalli police station areaon Tuesday afternoon.However, she was overpoweredby cops present there and latertaken to police station forquizzing. Senior officers wereleft red-faced after the incidentcame to light. According to theGautampalli SHO, the womanreached La Martiniere Collegecrossing and got herselfdrenched in kerosene.

“However, before she couldset herself on fire, she wasoverpowered,” he said, refutingreports that the woman man-aged to reach the CM residence.The SHO said the womanaccused one Qamar Taskin ofSaharanpur and two others ofgangraping her. “She had alove marriage with Qamar inAugust 2018. Later, Qamar andtwo of his friends, one of whomshe identified as Rehan ofSaharanpur, raped her by hold-ing her hostage at a house inSaharanpur. The Saharanpurpolice had registered a case ofgangrape at Deoband police station and arrestedQamar,” the SHO said.

The woman alleged that the

police sat on the case afterarresting Qamar and did notinitiate any action against hisaides. “I kept doing rounds ofthe offices of senior police offi-cials and also sent several lettersto senior officials in the govern-ment but failed to get justice,”she said. She said she travelledto Lucknow from Saharanpurto immolate herself as she didnot want to live longer.

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A retired railway employ-ee died under mysterious cir-cumstances in Alambagh onMonday evening. Police cameto know about the incidentwhen the staff of hospital,where he was declared broughtdead, sent a memo to them onTuesday. According to policespokesman, Sooraj Pal (65) ofRudauli in Ayodhya owned ahouse in Garhi Kanaura local-ity in Alambagh and had rent-ed it out. On Monday, Palreached the house to collectrent and fell down when he wasclimbing down the stairs. “Hewas rushed to Rani Laxmi BaiHospital in Rajajipuram wherehe was declared brought dead,”the police spokesman said.According to Alambagh SHOAK Sahi, residents of the local-ity and tenants said it was amishap.

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Vice-Chairman of LucknowDevelopment Authority

(LDA) SK Dwivedi on Tuesdayinspected upcoming residentialcolonies across the city toknow about their progress andwhat is required to providequality shelters to buyers. Healso directed the incharges toensure that projects are com-pleted without any compromisewith quality.

Besides, he also inquiredabout the basic amenities to beprovided to residents. The VCstressed on the need for com-plete change-over from con-ventional power to solar ener-gy in the upcoming housingschemes or other projects.

He reminded engineersand staffers to work with teamspirit with devotion and trytheir best to build quality shel-ters so that the state capital mayattain smart city status.

The VC also expressedconcern over the potable waterproblem in LDA’s residential

colonies. He said efforts shouldbe made to design water recy-cling plants in upcoming anda well as existing colonies sothat residents do not face cri-sis, especially in summers as itwould help in reducing thedependency on governmentand other agencies.

He pulled up engineersand others engaged in con-struction of three mini-STPs onSultanpur Road as the progresshas been slow and the projectis unlikely to be completed intime. The VC was not satisfiedwith the work regarding thelying of road in Gomti NagarExtension. He also asked engi-neers about which technologyis being used in road construc-tion. The VC advised them touse environment-friendly tech-nology to reduce pollution.

The LDA VC, along withchief engineers and a dozenofficials, inspected TransportNagar, Gomti Nagar Extension,Rajni Khand, Vrindavan andSultanpur Road housingschemes.

����������������4��������������*0�.�����!�+�������Lucknow (PNS): Vice-Chancellor of LucknowUniversity Alok Kumar Raiaddressed a gathering of over500 PhD scholars at MalviyaHall on Tuesday. Rai interact-ed with the students, took cog-nisance of their issues andspoke about his plans to makeall processes associated withobtaining a PhD structured andstreamlined.

Stressing the need to joinhands for a brighter future ofthe Lucknow University, theVice-Chancellor asked thescholars to equip themselveswith better knowledge of thenewest research tools, under-standing of how to select thebest sources and write better inorder to get published in com-petitive and recognised jour-nals. He insisted that a goodresearch is one that publishesbetter.

In order to help studentsachieve their potential, theVice-Chancellor said he plansto introduce a structuredframework with proper IT net-working for the best results andstreamlined operation of thewhole PhD process.

“This includes the propos-al to cut down on all paperwastage and send e-thesis (PDFversions of a thesis) to exam-iners instead of hard-boundcopies, procuring consent ofexaminers and experts via tele-phone or electronically, selec-tion of experts from NIRF-ranked institutions only, limit-ing the amount of time for sub-mission of evaluation reportsby external peer reviewers aswell as between submission andaward of PhD, and even con-ducting vivas through Skype.He also spoke of a separatePhD cell that would look intoany and all admission and sub-mission related issues, a sepa-rate area in the central librarydedicated to PhD scholars andresearchers and the proposal tohave a plagiarism checkingfacility in the library.

After his address, Rai invit-ed questions from the stu-dents and assured them time-ly resolution of their problems.

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NABARD has sanctioned asum of Rs 457.96 crore as sup-port out of Rural InfrastructureDevelopment Fund (RIDF) forUttar Pradesh for five flood pro-tection projects, 17 road and 60bridge projects. The five floodprotection projects involvingthe total financial outlay of Rs143.76 crore and RIDF supportof Rs 101.09 crore have beensanctioned for three districts —Bahraich, Shravasti and Gonda.Officials said that the imple-mentation of these projectswill benefit a population of27.56 lakh with an area of39,928 hectares in 187 villagesin these districts. They said thatsimilarly, in order to increasethe rural connectivity, 17 roadprojects have been sanctionedby NABARD with a total out-lay of Rs 295.53 crore andRIDF support of Rs 218.88crore. Implementation of theseprojects will benefit a popula-tion of 12.66 lakh in 289 villagesin 13 districts of the state.“Further, 60 bridge projectshave been sanctioned with atotal outlay of Rs 184.68 croreand RIDF support of Rs 137.98crore. A population of 17.50

lakh in 728 villages in 30 dis-tricts, including Jalaun andLalitpur in Bundelkhandregion, will benefit from theseroad projects with better roadfacilities and reduction of dis-tances by 280 kms,” a seniorofficial said. He said that so far,NABARD has sanctioned Rs508.78 crore under RIDF in thestate during the financial year2019-20. NABARD has releasedRs 804 crore to UP during thecurrent year against the ongo-ing projects sanctioned underRIDF earlier. Besides,NABARD has also released Rs1436.50 crore to the state dur-ing the year under Long TermIrrigation Fund (LTIF) towardsSaryu Nahar and ArjunSahayak projects.

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A five-member team ofCity Montessori School(Kanpur Road Campus) stu-dents has been selected for theprestigious Wipro EarthianAward for excellent work onthe sustainability aspects intheir school and in surround-ing areas. These students con-ducted research work underthe guidance of their teacherShikha Tripathi on sustainabil-ity and spread awareness inpeople for water conserva-tion, biodiversity and wastemanagement and motivatedthem to practise, recycle, reuseand reduce pollution. Thewinning team of CMS com-prises Bhuvi Bhatnagar, Advik

Tripathi, Kashvi Paul, HansikaGautam and Aarna Bajpai.They will be felicitated at aglittering ceremony to be heldin Bengaluru on February 8.CMS founder Jagdish Gandhiexpressed happiness and prideat this accomplishment of stu-dents and congratulated them.He said credit for this feat goesto principal Vineeta Kamranand her teachers whose tirelessefforts made the achievementpossible. Gandhi said thatduring the 60 years of estab-lishment of CMS, new mile-stones have been added everyyear creating a sense of pride,not only for the people ofLucknow but for UP andnation at large at national andinternational level.

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In an open challenge toLucknow police, three bike-

borne unidentified personsshot at a trader and looted cashand scooty from him inBanthra late on Tuesday night.

While initial reports saidthe miscreants looted Rs60,000, police said they werecollecting details. Lalit NarayanShukla runs a grocery shop inthe market area near Banthrapolice station. He was return-ing home when attacked.

According to the victim, hewas intercepted by bike-bornemiscreants when he entered alane behind Banthra policestation. They shouted at him,asking him to stop. Shukla

tried to speed off but the mis-creants hit his scooty frombehind, causing him to falldown into a pit alongside theroad. One of the miscreants gotdown from the bike and jackedup the scooty while the otherlooked on. As they startedfleeing the scene with hisscooty, Shukla cried for helpand ran behind them. At this,the pillion-rider opened fire atShukla hitting him in his leg.Shukla said he had Rs 60,000and two mobile phones in thescooty boot. The police saidShukla sought help of somecommuters who rushed him toa hospital. The police saidShukla was out of danger as hiscondition improved at the hospital.

"�� ��#�!�$�������������������%��Lucknow (PNS): One persondrowned while three others wentmissing after a boat carrying over20 people capsized in Saryuriver in Gonda on Tuesday. Agovernment spokesman said onTuesday that taking note of thetragedy, Chief Minister YogiAdityanath directed the DMand SP to visit the spot and takehelp of National DisasterResponse Force and StateDisaster Response Force to tracethe missing persons. The CMalso directed officials to provideall possible help to the victims.

On Tuesday morning, aboat with 24 people on boardwas on its way from Kaifighat inAyodhya to Dhohadan Purva inGonda. As it neared Aili Parsolivillage, the boat overturned afterhitting a pontoon bridge andlater capsized. While some of thepassengers swam to the bank ofthe river, others were rescued bylocals. However, a man drownedand three others were missing.The police said the body ofschool teacher Sandip Gupta (40)was fished out from the river andefforts were on to trace three others.

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Traffic snarls made life dif-ficult for commuters near

Ram Katha grounds where a‘Jan Sabha’ was addressed byUnion Home Minister AmitShah in support of the CAA onTuesday. The major problemwas faced by those living incolonies close to the rally venueand those going to places nearthe site.

A commuter going towardsthe Telibagh area said the roadleading to the Rae Bareli fromTelibagh was chock-a-blockwith the vehicles. “I had toattend an important meetingbut I got stuck in traffic snarls,”he said. Officials said the prob-lem was caused due to the vol-ume of people moving towardsthe venue. “People walkingtowards the rally site spilled onto the service lanes, causing

traffic jams. However, becauseof diversions, we were able toregulate the traffic,” they said.

They said people did not

park their cars in the designat-ed areas. “There were placesclear marked for the parking ofvehicles and there was suffi-

cient space in the Eco Garden,yet many did not park theirvehicles there,” the traffic offi-cials said.

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Congress president SoniaGandhi and her daughter

and party general secretaryPriyanka Gandhi Vadra willbe visiting Rae Bareli onWednesday. Both theCongress leaders will addressthe training camp ofdistrict/city presidents of UPCongress at Bhue Mau guesthouse. They will also visit theresidence of former partyMLA Ajay Pal Singh toexpress condolence on thesudden demise of his son.Congress sources said onTuesday that Sonia andPriyanka could have anovernight stay in Rae Bareli onWednesday.

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?���1 ���91�*�1)�)...is believed that leak of carbonmonoxide from the heater led to thedeath of the eight members of thetwo families.

The group of 15 from two Keralafamilies were on their way backhome and stayed at EverestPanorama Resort in Daman inMakawanpur district on Mondaynight.

According to the manager of theresort, the guests stayed in a roomand turned on a gas heater to keepthemselves warm. Although theyhad booked a total of four rooms,eight of them stayed in a room andremaining others in another room,the manager said, adding that all thewindows and the door of the roomwere bolted from inside.

Praveen and Ranjit, both ITprofessionals, were engineering col-lege classmates and the tour wasarranged after a get-together with oldfriends in Delhi, a family membersaid. Praveen hails fromThiruvananthapuram, was an engi-neer in Dubai, while his wife,Saranya, was staying at Kochi alongwith 3 children and is a nursing stu-dent.

Ranjit from Kozhikode wasworking in an IT firm atThiruvananthapuram, while his wife,Indu, was an accountant in a coop-erative bank at Kozhikode, a familymember said. Ranjit’s elder sonMadhav had a lucky escape as he wassleeping in another room.

“Deeply distressed by the trag-ic news of the passing away of eight

Indian tourists in Nepal,” ExternalAffairs Minister S Jaishankar tweet-ed. He said the Indian embassy offi-cials are stationed at the hospital andare providing necessary assistance.The Indian mission has assured allnecessary assistance to the familymembers of the victims.

In Thiruvananthapuram, KeralaChief Minister Pinarayi Vijayancondoled the death of Malayalitourists in Nepal. On the directionsof the Chief Minister, officials havetaken steps to expedite proceduresfor the repatriation of the mortalremains of the victims, his office said.

Minister of State for ExternalAffairs V Muraleedharan said theIndian Embassy officials were takingsteps to bring the bodies back toIndia as early as possible. Nepal wit-nesses cold wave condition betweenDecember and January-end. Daman,which sits at an altitude of nearly2,500 metres above the sea level, isa famous hill station situated 70-kmsouth of Kathmandu, where touristsvisit for magnificent mountain view.

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“The first aim of these organisedrackets is to generate cash. Once thatmoney is amassed, then they turntowards terror financing. All theinformation gathered from them hasindicated a link to terror financingand money laundering,” he said.

Describing the operation, theDG said Ashraf is suspected to havea technical team to maintain thecloud-hosted servers. He has 18-20lead sellers or super admins in India

who handle the money and send toHamid through various hawalaaccounts and crypto currency,Kumar said.

Then there are around 200-300panel sellers who buy the softwarepanel from lead developers and for-ward it to agents.

“One panel is a set of 20 IDsbought with Rs 28,000 per month.They forward the IDs and softwareto agents. Roughly 20,000 agents arethere in India who use the illegalsoftware for booking. About Rs 10-15 crore black money is generatedper month in cash through this,” hesaid.

The investigators are now tryingto apprehend another person ofinterest who is called “Guruji” by theorganisation who appears to beinvolved in the finance managementof the gang. “He is higher up thepecking order of the gang and a tech-nical expert. He will be picked upsoon. He uses Yugoslavian numberand VPN (virtual private network).He received around Rs 13 lakhfrom Mustafa recently through banktransfers involving 71 transactions,”the RPF DG said.

Kumar said the illegal software,ANMS, bypasses IRCTC’s logincaptcha, booking captcha and bankOTP to generate tickets.

For a genuine user, the bookingprocess usually takes around 2.55minutes, but for the software ittakes around 1.48 minutes, therebybooking tickets much faster.

It also enables simultaneouslogin through several user IDswith pre-filled data, thus managingto corner most of the confirmedtickets.

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Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) nationalconvener and Delhi Chief Minister

Arvind Kejriwal filed his nominationfrom the New Delhiconstituency onTuesday after waitingfor over six hours. AAPspokesperson SaurabhBhardwaj said Kejriwalfiled his nominationaround 6.30 pm onTuesday.

On the last day offiling nominations,Kejriwal was seen wait-ing and holding tokennumber 45. “Waitingto file my nomination.My token no is 45. There are many peo-ple here to file nomination papers. Amso glad so many people participating indemocracy,” Kejriwal said.

Earlier, alleging a conspiracy, AAPsenior leader Manish Sisodia accusedthe BJP of propping up 44 independentcandidates ahead of Kejriwal to denyhim nomination.

Sisodia said no matter how muchthe BJP conspires they will not be ableto stop Kejriwal from filing his nomi-nation. “The BJP, no matter how muchyou conspire, you will not be able to

stop Kejriwal from filing his nomina-tion or from becoming the ChiefMinister for the third time. Your con-spiracies will not yield any result,” hesaid.

Tagging tweets ofBharadwaj, who alleged35 candidates were sit-ting at the office alongwith the CM withoutproper nominationpapers or even 10 pro-posers.

“They (candidates)are insisting unlesstheir papers are com-plete and they file theirnominations, theywon’t allow the CM tofile his nomination

papers,” he said.“Doesn’t matter. Many of them are

filing for the first time. They are boundto make mistakes. We also made mis-takes the first time. We should handhold them. I am enjoying waiting withthem. They are all part of my family,”Kejriwal said in a tweet.

Delhi goes to polls on February 8and counting will take place onFebruary 11. The BJP has fielded SunilYadav against Kejriwal, while theCongress has fielded RomeshSabharwal.

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Irked over his wife’s excessiveuse of Facebook, a 26-year-

old man strangled his wife to

death and threw her body atan isolated place nearJaipur-Delhi NationalHighway. Police said thewoman, identified as NainaManglani (22) , a l iasReshma, had over 6,000 fol-lowers on her Facebookpage and was very active.This did not go down wellwith her husband whoresented the way she wasconstant ly hooked onFacebook and ignoring thefamily.

The accused identifiedas Ayaz Ahmed Ansari, aresident of Kho Nagaurianarea, who works in a financecompany, was arrested forthe murder by the JaipurPolice on Monday.

Ansari reportedly toldpolice that Naina would staybusy with her phone all thetime and he was suspiciousthat she might be having anextra-marital affair. Theexcessive use of FB by herled to marital discord andfrequent quarrels. Theirrelationship had reached thebreaking point as they hadstarted living separately, saida police official privy to theprobe, adding that Nainahad even threatened Ayazthat she would seek divorcefrom him.

A senior police officialsaid deeply upset, Ayazhatched a plan to kill her

and asked Naina to come toRamgarh Mod on Sunday andconvinced her that he wanted tosort out differences with her.Naina believed his words and

went to meet him at the designat-ed place.“He made her consumebeer and after that they went toAmer hills on a scooty. There hestrangled her to death and

smashed her face and head with astone. After committing the crime,Ayaz went to his uncle’s house. Thebody of Naina was recovered onMonday and police arrested Ayazwithin a few hours,” said a seniorpolice official.

“Naina and Ayaz had met twoyears ago and their friendshipblossomed and it soon turnedinto an affair. Since both werefrom different religions, theysolemnised their marriage twice asper Hindu and Muslim rituals.Their family members didn’t givetheir consent to their relationship.They had eloped from their homesand tied the nuptial knot inGhaziabad in October, 2017,” saidthe police official, adding that thecouple had a three-month-oldson.

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The Defence AcquisitionCouncil (DAC), chaired by

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh,on Tuesday, approved privatesector Larsen and Toubro andpublic sector Mazagon DocksLimited(MDL) for the Navy'sproject to manufacture six con-ventional submarines worth over�45,000 crores within the coun-try.

Approved last year, the pro-ject known as P-75 I will beunder the Strategic Partnershipmodel with the Indian partnerstying up with a foreign manu-facturer. The DAC also approvedthe Original EquipmentManufacturer (OEM)s who arein the race for the project. Theyinclude RosoboronExport(Russia), Daewoo(SouthKorea), Navantia(Spain),Thysenkrup MarineSystems(Germany) and FrenchNaval Group, sources said. TheLarsen and Toubro and MDLwill forge the strategic partner-ship with one of the selectedOEMs after due tender process,they added.

The first DAC meeting ofthis year and after the creation ofthe post of Chief of Defence Staff(CDS)also cleared proposals

worth over �5,100 crores fromlocal industry to promote indi-genisation. General Bipin Rawat,the first CDS, attended the meet-ing along with other top func-tionaries of the defence ministry.

As regards the submarineproject, sources said the DACapproved short-listing of theLarsen and Toubro and MDL asthe Indian strategic partners(SP)and the potential OriginalEquipment Manufacturers(OEMs) that would collaboratewith SPs to construct six con-ventional submarines in India.The MDL is already construct-ing Scorpene submarines in col-laboration with the French.

The DAC nod to the short

listing came days after theCongress last week claimed theNDA Government of "favour-ing" the Adani group in the sub-marine project alleging it waspromoting its "crony capital-ists".

Addressing a Press confer-ence, Congress communicationchief Randeep Surjewala andparty spokesperson JaiveerShergill had charged theGovernment of violating theDefence Procurement Procedure(DPP) of 2016 as well as over-rul-ing the recommendations of the'Empowered Committee' of theIndian Navy that had been set upfor the project.

The Congress claimed that

two key parameters set by theDPP were that the shortlistedcompany to manufacture the sixsubmarines in the deal should beof Credit 'A' rating and theMinistry of Defence shouldapprove the 'Special PurposeVehicle' (SPV) set up for the pro-ject before applying for "requestfor expression of interest".

The EmpoweredCommittee of the Navy, claimedthe Congress, shortlisted thepublic sector unit, MazagonDocks Shipbuilders Limited,and Larsen and Toubro from theprivate sector.

The main Opposition partyalleged that the Government isall set to violate the Committee'srecommendations by allowingthe private entity which neitherhas any experience in submarinemanufacturing nor the requiredcredit rating.

Surjewala also said five com-panies — Larsen & ToubroLimited, Mazagon DockShipbuilders Limited, RelianceNaval and Engineering Limited,Hindustan Shipyard Limited,Adani Defence, and HindustanShipyard Limited Joint Venture— had applied for the project.

The Strategic PartnershipModel was promulgated in 2017to give a major boost to 'Make inIndia' in Defence Sector. The

Strategic partner is expected toplay a transformational role inbuilding an eco-system in thecountry, comprising develop-ment entities, specialised vendorsand suppliers; especially thosefrom the medium and smallscale sector.

The new model also aims atpromoting India as a manufac-turing hub for defence equip-

ment, in addition to establishingan industrial and research anddevelopment eco-system capableof meeting the future require-ments of the armed forcesbesides giving boost to exports.

Meanwhile, the �5,100 croreproposals approved includesophisticated Electronic WarfareSystems for the Army designedby Defence Research and

Development Organisation(DRDO) and manufacturedlocally by the Indian industry.These systems will be used indeserts and plains and will pro-vide comprehensive ElectronicSupport and Counter Measurecapabilities to the field forma-tions in both communicationand other aspects of ElectronicWarfare.

The DAC also approvedprototype testing of trawl assem-blies designed by the DRDO forT-72 and T-90 tanks providingan important indigenous de-mining capability to the Army.

The DAC also accordedapproval for inclusion ofInnovations for DefenceExcellence (iDEX) in DefenceProcurement Procedure.

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The CBI carried out searchesat 13 locations on Tuesday

including the premises of thepresent and former directors ofMumbai-based private firmFrost International which hasbeen booked by the agency forallegedly cheating a consortiumof 14 banks to the tune of Rs3,592.48 crore minus interestsaccrued on the defaultedamount.

The FIR comes following acomplaint from the KanpurZonal office of Bank of India,which alleged that the directorshad worked under the guise ofundertaking merchanting tradewithout genuine business.

This is understood to be thebiggest default reported by pub-lic sector banks to the CBI afterJanuary 2018 when disgraceddiamond traders Nirav Modiand Mehul Choksi fled thenation causing a loss of over Rs13,000 crore to the PunjabNational Bank.

The Bank of India in itscomplaint, which is now part ofthe CBI FIR, stated that Frost

International's account had start-ed showing signs of stress fromJanuary, 2018 and later becamea non-performing asset.

The probe agency carriedout searches at 13 locationsincluding the premises of thecompany, its directors UdayDesai and Sujay Desai and otherformer and present directors and

guarantors in Mumbai, Delhiand Kanpur, officials said.

Besides the company anddirectors, the agency hasbooked 11 more entities whichinclude three Kanpur-basedcompanies — RK Builders,Globiz Exim Pvt Ltd andNirman Pvt Ltd — representedthrough their directors.

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Every time, a natural habitatis converted into a land for

agricultural or residential pur-poses, it is the small predators,especially small invertebrateslike spiders and ladybirds,which lose their homes as wellas lives, as per a first of its kindglobal study on the impacts ofhuman land-use on differentgroups of animals.

The findings published inthe journal, FunctionalEcology, also found that smallectotherms--cold blooded ani-mals such as invertebrates,reptiles and amphibians, largeendotherms like mammals andbirds and fungivores ie animalsthat eat fungi were also dis-proportionally affected.

But, the loss of large her-bivores will also likely to haveimportant effects on ecosystemfunctioning, for exampleincreasing the risk of rodentborne human disease, warn theresearchers who had analysedover one million records ofanimal abundance at sitesranging from primary forest tointensively managed farmlandand cities.

The data represented over25,000 species across 80 coun-tries. Species were grouped bysize, whether they were warmor cold blooded and by whatthey eat. Species ranged fromthe oribatid mite weighingonly 2x10-6g, to an Africanelephant weighing 3,825kg.

"Normally, when we thinkof predators, we think of biganimals like lions or tigers.These large predators did notdecline as much as we expect-ed with habitat loss, which wethink may be because theyhave already declined becauseof human actions in the past(such as hunting). We find

small predators - such as spi-ders and ladybirds - to showthe biggest declines," said DrTim Newbold from UniversityCollege London and leadauthor of the research.

The results indicate thatthe world's ecosystems arebeing restructured with dis-proportionate losses at thehighest trophic levels (top ofthe food chain).

"We know that differenttypes of animals play impor-tant roles within the environ-ment - for example, predatorscontrol populations of otheranimals. If some types of ani-mals decline a lot when welose natural habitats, thenthey will no longer fulfil theseimportant roles." said Dr TimNewbold.

The conversion of land tohuman use is associated withthe removal of large amountsof natural plant biomass, usu-ally to give space for livestockand crops. As you go up thetrophic levels (food chain),resource limitations are com-pounded through a processknown as bottom-up resource

limitation, said the study whichis part of the PREDICTS pro-ject exploring how biodiversi-ty responds to human pres-sures.

The researchers analysed1,184,543 records of animalabundance in the PREDICTSdatabase, gathered from 460published scientific studies.This database included allmajor terrestrial vertebratetaxa and many invertebratetaxa (25,166 species, 1.8% ofdescribed animals).

Species were sorted intofunctional groups defined bytheir size, trophic level (whatthey consumed) and thermalregulation strategy (warm orcold blooded). The type ofland-use at each of the 13,676sample sites was classifiedfrom the description of thehabitat in the source publi-cation.

The six broad categorieswere primary vegetation, sec-ondary vegetation, plantationforest, cropland, pasture andurban. Three levels of humanuse intensity were also record-ed: minimal, light and intense.

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New Delhi: The CBI hasbooked a former DirectorateGeneral of Foreign Trade(DGFT) Joint Director alongwith directors of a Ahmedabad-based private company in a caseof corruption and cheating theexchequer of over �20.26 crorethrough fraudulent claim of ter-minal excise duty in 2014-15.

According to the FIR reg-istered on January 18, actionhas been taken against A KSingh, the former DGFT JointDirector, Ahmedabad andMohit Kumar Goel, AnkurAggarwal and Nand Kishore

Aggarwal -- all directors ofAhmedabad -based CrystalCrop Protection Pvt. Ltd.

As per the requirements ofthe Prevention of CorruptionAct, the CBI had sought sanc-tion from the CommerceMinistry before proceedingagainst the officer. The sanctionwas granted by the Ministry onJuly 15, 2019.

Besides slapping thePrevention of Corruption Act,the agency has also chargedthem under the Indian PenalCode Sections relating to cheat-ing and criminal conspiracy.

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Reiterating, India's historicties with Nepal, Prime

Minister Narendra Modi saidNew Delhi is committed tosimplifying traffic with allfriendly countries in the neigh-bourhood and to further facil-itate contacts in areas like busi-ness.

He said this after jointlyinaugurating with his Nepalesecounterpart K P Sharma Oli thesecond integrated check post atJogbani-Biratnagar along theborder.

Built with Indian assis-tance, the integrated checkpost is spread over 260 acresand is capable of handling 500

trucks on a daily basis.The Rs140 crore project will improvetrade and people-to-peoplecontact.

The project was launchedjointly by the two leaders via avideo link. The first ICP wasbuilt in Raxaul-Birgunj in 2018.

After inaugurating the ICP,Modi said India is committedto simplifying and smoothen-ing traffic with all friendlycountries in the neighbour-hood, and to "further facilitatecontacts between us in areassuch as business, culture andeducation".

He also said India andNepal are working on severalcross-border connectivity pro-jects such as road, rail andtransmission lines.

"Integrated check posts atmajor places of border betweenour countries are greatly facil-itating mutual trade andmovement," he said.

At the event, both primeministers also witnessed theprogress in Indian-assistedpost-2015 earthquake hous-ing reconstruction projects inNepal.

Out of India's commit-ment to build 50,000 houses inGorkha and Nuwakot districts,45,000 have already been com-pleted.

"The 2015 earthquake wasa painful accident. Naturalcalamities like earthquakes testman's tenacity and determina-tion. Every Indian is proud thatour Nepali brothers and sisters

faced the sad consequences ofthis tragedy with courage,"Modi said.

It is a matter of great satis-faction that 45,000 out of50,000 houses have been con-structed under Indo-Nepalcooperation, he said.

"We hope that the con-struction of the remaininghouses will also be completedsoon. And these houses willsoon be dedicated to Nepalibrothers and sisters," the primeminister noted.

Addressing the event viavideo, Oli invited Modi to visitNepal.

Prime Minister Modi saidhe looks forward to a visit tothe neighbouring country thisyear.

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Congress president Sonia Gandhi set up an 11-mem-ber committee for ensuring better coordination

between the party and the government in Punjab, withAICC in-charge for Punjab Asha Kumari as its chair-person.

The moves comes after she dissolved the OfficeBearers and Executive Committee of Pradesh CongressCommittee (PCC) and District Congress Committees(DCCs) of Punjab with immediate effect. Its State unitpresident, however, remained unchanged.

The coordination committee will have ChiefMinister Amarinder Singh and PCC president SunilJakhar as its members, besides AICC general secretaryAmbika Soni. It will also have Punjab ministersCharanjit Singh Channi, Sunder Sham Arora,Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, Vijay Inder Singla,besides PCC general secretary Sandeep Singh Sandhuand AICC secretaries Kuljit Nagra and Gurkirat Kotlias its members.

The committee was announced after Sonia clearedthe names following deliberations with AmarinderSingh and senior party leaders on Monday. It comes aday after the party announced similar committees forRajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh andPuducherry which are all under Congress rule.

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Sabarimala(Ker): After apeaceful Mandalam-Makaravilakku pilgrimage sea-son of over two-months, theportals of the Lord AyyappaTemple here were closed afterperforming customary ritualsand pujas on Tuesday.

Though the annualMakaravilakku was held hereon January 15, the hill top tem-ple, nestled in a reserve forestin the Western Ghats, wasopen for devotees to offer wor-ship till Mondayevening.

Even the last day of the pil-grimage witnessed heavy rushof devotees, including those

from neighbouring States, atthe Sannidhanam (templecomplex), sources at theTravancore Devaswom Board(TDB), the apex temple body,which manages the shrine,said.

Customary rites like “aash-tadrvya mahaganapathihomam’, ‘abhishekam’ and ‘ushanivedyam’, were performedunder the aegis of tantri (headpriest) Mahesh Mohanaru inthe early hours of Tuesday. Inaccordance with the tradition,the royal designate of thePandalam Palace, whereaccording to legend LordAyyappa had spent his child-

hood, offered prayers beforethe sanctum sanctorum. Helater led the procession carry-ing the sacred jewels ‘thiruvab-haranam’, brought here to beadorned on Lord Ayyappa onthe day of Makaravilakku, backto the Palace.

Melsanthi (chief priest), AK Sudheer Namboothiri per-formed the ‘bhasmabhishekam’,the offering of holy ash, on theidol of the Lord Ayyappa andclosed the doors of the sanctumsanctorum singing ‘hari-varasanam’, the sacred lullaby,marking the culmination ofover 60-day pilgrimage season. PTI

Bareilly (UP): Two-year-old Sanket may not look itbut he is 102-year-old, according to his birth certifi-cate. Shubh (4) is 104.

A Bareilly court recently ordered police to lodgea case against a village development officer and a vil-lage head who allegedly issued wrong documents afterthe children’s family refused to give them abribe.

Pawan Kumar of Bela village under the Khutarpolice station of Shahjahanpur had moved court alleg-ing that birth certificates of his nephews Shubh (4) andSanket (2) were issued with wrong years of birth, SHOTejpal Singh said.

Pawan had alleged that Village DevelopmentOfficer Sushil Chand Agnihotri and head Pravin Misrahad demanded � 500 for each birth certificate for whichhe had applied online two months ago, the SHO said.

When he refused to give bribe, the year of birthwas mentioned in the certificate as June 13, 1916 andJan 6, 1918, instead of June 13, 2016 and Jan 6 2018,Pawan had stated in the court. PTI

Jaipur: The second phase ofpolling in 2,312 village pan-chayats of Rajasthan will beheld on Wednesday and allpreparations have been madefor conducting free, fair andpeaceful elections, officials saidon Tuesday.

Polling in 15,127 wards of2,312 village panchayats of 74Panchayat Samitis will be heldbetween 8 am and 5 pm, StateElection Commissioner PSMehra said.

A total of 77,56,416 peopleare eligible to exercise theirfranchise. Counting forsarpanch posts will be done onWednesday itself.

In the second phase, 21sarpanches and 7,466 pancheshave been elected unopposedin 25 districts. Apart fromthese, 15,334 candidates are inthe fray for sarpanch posts and43,376 candidates for panchposts. PTI

Kota: A POCSO court here on Tuesday sen-tenced a 24-year-old man to life imprisonmentfor raping a minor girl in 2017.

The court also imposed a fine of � 60,000 onthe convict, a public prosecutor said.

Anil Sahariya (24) took the girl, then five-year-old, to his room on the pretext of showingher a cartoon movie and raped her.

A case was registered against Sahariya at theAnantpura police station on the complaint of thevictim’s father.

Protection of Children from Sexual Offences(POCSO) Act court special judge Ajay KumarSharma held Sahariya guilty of raping theminor girl under sections of the IPC and thePOCSO Act and sentenced him to life impris-onment, the public prosecutor said.

He said statements of 16 witnesses wererecorded during the trial of the case and 20 documents were produced before thecourt. PTI

Thane: A 24-year-old man wasarrested on Tuesday for allegedlyraping his five-year-old neighbourin Maharashtra’s Thane city, policesaid. The accused, Deepesh Sutar, anemployee of a courier company,lived in the same chawl as the vic-tim at Lokmanya Nagar Pada no. 2,senior inspector SB Gaikwad ofVartak Nagar police station said.The incident took place at around6 pm on Sunday, when Sutar luredthe victim to his house and sexual-ly abused her when no one was

around, he said.The child, who was in extreme

pain, rushed home and confided inher mother, who lodged a complaintwith the police, the official said.

The minor was sent for a med-ical check-up, after which the policeconfirmed the rape and arrested theaccused, he added. A case has beenregistered against Sutar under sec-tion 376 (rape) of the Indian PenalCode and provisions of Protectionof Children from Sexual OffencesAct, the official said. PTI

Banda (UP): A minor girl was allegedly raped by a 23-year-old man in a village in Uttar Pradesh’s Fatehpurdistrict who was later arrested, police said on Tuesday.

The girl was alone when Jaswant Lodhi, a residentof the same village, apparently lured her to his housepromising to give her sweets where he raped her onSunday, the incharge of the police station in the areasaid.

The girl’s parents, who returned later in the night,found her in grave condition and admitted her to a gov-ernment hospital where she is undergoing treatment,the policeman said.

They lodged a complaint against the accused onMonday who confessed to the crime upon being arrest-ed, the officer added. PTI

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Ahead of the DelhiAssembly elections, senior

Janata Dal(United) leaderPavan K Verma has confront-ed Bihar Chief Minister NitishKumar over the party’s alliancewith the BJP in two seats-Burari and Sangam Vihar- forthe February 8 election despitehaving expressed apprehen-sions ‘in private’ about theBJP-RSS leading the nationinto a ‘dangerous space’. This isfor the first time that the JD(U)headed by Bihar Chief MinisterNitish Kumar is having a tie-upwith the BJP outside Bihar.

In a strongly worded twopage letter to Nitish, Varmasaid he is ‘deeply perplexed’ bythe development amid the cit-izenship law protests and islooking to him for “ideologicalclarity”. Varma, who sharedscreenshots of the missive onhis official twitter handle andFacebook profile, said he was‘perplexed’ by the partys tie-upwith the BJP for the DelhiAssembly polls, accusing thesaffron party of having“embarked on a massive, social-ly divisive agenda.” “On more

than one occasion, you haveexpressed your grave appre-hensions about the BJP-RSScombine,” Pavan Varma said inthe letter on Tuesday.

The BJP had announcedon Monday that it will sparetwo seats for the JD(U) in Delhiand one for another NDA part-ner— the LJP headed by UnionMinister Ram Vilas Paswan.Both the JD(U) and the LJPhad ploughed the lonely furrowin the recent assembly polls inJharkhand, where the saffronparty lost power to the JMM-Congress-RJD alliance.

“If these are your realviews, I fail to understand howthe JDU is now extending itsalliance with the BJP beyondBihar, when even long standing

allies of the BJP, like the AkaliDal, have refused to do so,” hewrote. “This is especially so ata time when the BJP, throughthe CAA-NPR-NRC combine,has embarked on a massivesocial divisive agenda aimed atmutilating the peace, harmonyand stability of the country,”Varma said.

“In my first meeting withyou in Patna in August 2012,even before I had resignedfrom the IFS, you had spokento me at length and with con-viction on why Narendra Modiand his policies are inimical forthe country,” Varma, one of themost articulate spokespersonsof a political party, said.

“When you were leadingthe Mahagathbandhan (a grand

alliance which also had the RJDand the Congress as partners),you had openly made a call forRSS-Mukt Bharat. These views,articulated for a sustained peri-od, are a matter of publicrecord,” Varma wrote.

In comments that mayembarrass Kumar, Varmaclaimed that the JD(U) leader,even after aligning with the BJPagain in 2017, had confessed tohim ‘in private’ how the currentsaffron party leadership had‘humiliated’ him. “You men-tioned on more than one occa-sion that the BJP was leadingIndia into a dangerous space. Itwas your personal view, asconveyed to me, that the BJP isdestroying institutions and thatthere is a need for democraticand socialist forces within thecountry to regroup, a task forwhich you actually assigned asenior party official,” Varmaadded, without disclosing whothe JD(U) leader was.

JD(U) national vice presi-dent Prashant Kishor also hadcome out strongly against theparty’s support to theCitizenship (Amendment) Billwhen it was tabled inParliament last year.

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As advised by the Union HealthMinistry, the Union Civil

Aviation Ministry has directedseven airports Chennai,Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Cochin,Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata tomake arrangements for screeningof passengers arriving from Chinain the wake of outbreak of aninfection caused by a new strain ofvirus there.

The Union Health Ministryhas also sought from the Ministryof External Affairs details of thosewho have applied for Indian visasince December 31 so that theycan be counselled.

Airlines flying in from any air-port in China including HongKong have been asked to make in-flight announcements requesting

passengers with history of feverand cough and travel to Wuhancity in the past 14 days to self-declare at the port of arrival inorder to facilitate early isolation,according to an official statementon Tuesday.

This is in continuation to thetravel advisory issued by the UnionHealth Ministry regarding threatof novel coronavirus in Wuhan,Hubei province of China askingcitizens to follow certain precautionary measures while vis-iting the country.

The action-plan includes thermal screening of passengers tobe undertaken, it said. Thermalcameras will be installed at the pre-immigration area of the sevenidentified airports and airlinesstaff will bring the passengers tothe health counters before the

immigration check.The coronavirus (CoV) is a

large family of viruses that causesillnesses ranging from the com-mon cold to acute respiratorysyndromes, but the virus that haskilled four people in China is anovel strain not seen before.

Also, if an ill passenger or crewmember is confirmed as aprobable case of nCoV, publichealth authorities should be noti-fied about the contacts using thepassenger locator form, the state-ment said.

All travellers who have visit-ed China, particularly throughWuhan during the past 14 daysand show symptoms of acuteonset of fever, cough, shortness ofbreath have been asked to reportto the airport health unit.

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Following the IMF’s loweringof India’s economic growth

estimate, the Congress onTuesday targeted the BJPGovernment with its seniorleaders and former UnionMinisters P Chidambaram andKapil Sibal taking a dig sayingthe IMF and its chief should beready for being attacked by theBJP.

While Sibal launched apersonal attack on PrimeMinister Narendra Modi andHome Minister Amit Shah say-ing they were a “drag on Indiandemocracy”, Chidambaramwho servedas Finance Minister in Manmohan SinghGovernment, said that the NDAregime will now prove the IMFwrong and entire team NDA

will foul mouth the world bodyand its chief economist, GitaGopinath.

“IMF lowers India’s GDPfor 2019 to 4.8%. Calls it a dragon the world economy,” Sibalsaid at AICC Press conference.“Protests of people, young andold, across India (who can’t berecognised by the clothes theywear) Reflect that the duoModiji and Amit Shah are adrag on Indian Democracy,” theCongress leader added.

Sibal said the nationwideprotests against the amendedcitizenship law reflected thatPrime Minister Narendra Modiand Union Home MinisterAmit Shah were a “drag onIndian democracy”.

Ahead of the start of theWorld Economic Forum(WEF) annual summit inDavos, Switzerland, Gopinath

had said growth in the countryslowed sharply owing to stressin the non-bank financial sec-tor and weak rural incomegrowth. Chidambaram claimedan attack on the world body andits chief economist GitaGopinath by government min-isters was imminent. He alsoalleged that the growth figure of4.8 per cent given by theInternational Monetary Fund(IMF) is after some “windowdressing” and he won’t be sur-prised if it goes even lower.

“Reality check from IMF.Growth in 2019-20 will beBELOW 5 per cent at 4.8 percent,” Chidambaram said in aseries of tweets.

“Even the 4.8 per cent isafter some window dressing. Iwill not be surprised if it goeseven lower,” the former financeminister said.

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Rajinikanth, Tamil filmdom’s superstar, has put both the AIADMK

and the DMK in a fix with his state-ment about EV Ramasamy Naiker,founder of the Dravida movement inTamil Nadu.

While addressing the GoldenJubilee meeting of Tamil magazineTuglaq launched by late ChoRamaswamy, Rajinikanth who iscertain to launch his political outfitanytime from now, had said thatNaicker with his followers had takenout a procession in Salem in 1971with nude pictures of Lord Rama andhis consort Sita ‘decorated’ withfootwears. The rallyists had raisedderogatory slogans against therevered couple, Rajinikanth had said,

“While all newspapers and mag-

azines had blacked out the incident,it was Tuglaq which carried thereport in detail with the picture of therallyists. The then KarunanidhiGovernment had tried its best to pre-vent the magazine copies from reach-ing the hands of the readers. But Choprinted additional copies and saw toit that the magazine copies reachedits readers,” Rajinikanth said in hisreminiscences.

Rajinikanth’s declaration fromthe venue of Thuglaq’s function thatit was the intelligentsia who readThuglaq while DMK activists carryMurasoli (mouthpiece of the DMK)has upset the DMK leadership.

The DMK came out with a frontpage article stating that the readersof Murasoli were Dravida youths withself respect and courage. “Our read-ers are people who care about the

suppressed and depressed people inthe society and they are not slaves toany ideology,” the Murasoli stated inan indirect reply to Rajinikanth’s dec-laration that those who read Thuglaqwere intelligentsia while the readersof Murasoli were cadre of Dravisianparty.

“Rajinikanth has succeeded inopening a new battlefront as well aspolitical narrative in the State poli-tics,” said Kolahala Srenivaas, polit-ical commentator.

Nehrudoss, a DK leader , hasapproached Coimbatore Police witha plea to file a complaint against theactor for spreading hatred againstpeople. Nehrudoss alleged thatRajinikanth was peddling lies.

But Thuglaq Ramesh, lead writerof the magazine who has worked withCho Ramaswamy from the day the

Thuglaq was launched said there wasno lies in the speech by Rajnikanththough there was a factual error.“Naicker and his associates had car-ried nude pictures of Lord Shiva andLord Vishnu to denigrate the birth ofLord Ayyappa. The big size photo-graph was adored with footwears andwe have preserved the copies in ouroffice. What Rajinikanth told is cor-rect though the characters differed,”Ramesh told The Pioneer.

He said the action of Naicker andhis associates were nothing surpris-ing as they had hatred for Hindu godswhom they disgraced and insulted atall available opportunities.

Though he was present duringthe 75th anniversary of Murasoli in2018, the superstar did not make anyspeeches despite the pleads by Stalin.

Thiruvananthapuram: KeralaChief Minister Pinarayi Vijayanon Tuesday said hisGovernment will take all stepsto ensure that the mortalremains of eight tourists fromthe State who died at a resortin Nepal are brought back atthe earliest.

The bodies are expected tobe brought to the State onWednesday, a statement fromthe Chief Minister’s Office said.

Union Minister of State forExternal Affairs VMuraleedharan said he hasasked the Indian Embassy inKathmandu to make allarrangements to bring back thebodies.

The tourists, including fourminors, died after they fellunconscious probably due to agas leak from a heater in theirroom at a mountainous resort,police said.

The Indian nationals were

airlifted to HAMS hospital inKathmandu where they werepronounced dead on arrival,they said.

Vijayan expressed “deepgrief ” over the incident, thestatement said. According tothe chief minister’s directions,officials of Department of Non-Resident Keralites Affairs(NORKA) have gotten in touchwith the Indian Embassy inNepal, it said.

The bodies are expected tobe brought to the State onWednesday after post-mortem,it added.

Makwanpur police said thevictims, who were a part of agroup of 15 tourists, might havefallen unconscious due toasphyxiation. Muraleedharantold PTI that he has asked theIndian Embassy in Kathmanduto make all arrangements tobring back the bodies.

He said he has also deput-ed a doctor from the IndianEmbassy to coordinate themedico-legal procedures.

A doctor from the IndianEmbassy also went to the hos-pital where the bodies havebeen kept to examine the causeof the deaths, he added.

“We are in regular touchwith the Indian embassy inKathmandu”, Muraleedharan,who is also a Rajya Sabhamember from Kerala, said.Transport for the remainingtourists of the group is alsobeing arranged, he said.

The victims were identifiedas Praveen Krishnan Nair,Saranya Sasi, SreebhadraPraveen, Aarcha Praveen,Abhinav Saranya Nair, RanjithKumar Adatholath Punathil,Indu Lakshmi PeethambaranRagalatha and VyshnavRanjith. PTI

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Noida (UP): The post-mortem reportof the 20-year-old girl whose familyalleged rape and assault by two men hasconfirmed that she died from multiplefractures and a shock due to an injuryto kidney after an accident on theYamuna Expressway, police said onTuesday.

However, a report of medical diag-nostics involving the vaginal swab ofthe deceased is yet to be out and thatwill confirm if she was raped or not,police said.

“The autopsy has re-confirmed theobservations of a femur bone fractureof the private hospital in Jewar whereshe was first treated before beingreferred to Delhi,” DCP (I) SankalpSharma told PTI.

“The report stated that she died asa result of shock due to injury to kid-ney and multiple fractures produced byblunt force impact, which generallyhappens in cases of road accident,” headded.

“So far there is no evidence of rape.However, the vaginal swab of thedeceased has been taken for observa-tion and we would get its report in about a week,” Sharma said.

The woman had died at Guru TegBahadur Hospital in Delhi on Sundaywhere she was brought on Fridaynight after preliminary medication ata private hospital in Gautam BuddhNagar’s Jewar area, according to police. PTI

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Guwahati: Assam ChiefMinister Sarbananda Sonowalon Tuesday urged youths torealise their potential and com-mit themselves to the develop-ment of society.

Value-based services are ofutmost importance in today’sworld and working for onlyindividual success does notgive much satisfaction,Sonowal said at the concludingceremony of the three-dayChief Minister’s YouthConclave.

“Youths must strive toequip themselves with requiredskills, knowledge through edu-cation and hardwork to achieveexcellence. Students shouldjudiciously utilise time andnot get distracted in pursuit of a successful life,” hesaid.

The State Government iscommitted to making north-east the new engine of growthfor the country and capture themarket in Southeast Asiancountries through the Act EastPolicy, he added. PTI

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Srinagar: The purpose of theCentre’s outreach programmein Jammu & Kashmir is to geta firsthand account of theproblems faced by the peopleand address their concerns,Union Minister MukhtarAbbas Naqvi said on Tuesday.

“The objective of this dia-logue is to go close to people,listen to their problems andneeds and also find solutions totheir problems, “ Naqvi toldreporters here.

Naqvi, who laid the foun-dation stone for a developmentproject at Harwan on the out-skirts of the city, was the firstminister to visit Kashmir as

part of the Centre’s outreachprogramme.

He said Prime MinisterNarendra Modi is keen toensure that benefits of thechanges initiated by the Centralgovernment should reach allthe people of the union terri-tory.

“The aspirations andexpectations of the people werenot upheld (earlier) and cor-ruption had eaten into Jammuand Kashmir... Some peoplehad benefited themselves butwe want prosperity for all peo-ple here, “ Naqvi said.

Asked why only five min-isters were visiting Kashmiragainst 31 going to Jammu, he

said the present outreach pro-gramme was just the beginningof the Centre’s efforts to reachout to the people of the Valley.

“This is not the last pro-gramme. This initiative willcontinue,” he said. Naqvirefused to comment on criti-cism from some quarters aboutthe Ministers not includingseven districts of Kashmir intheir outreach programme.

Addressing a gathering ear-lier, Naqvi said the CentralGovernment wants “a newdawn” of development andaccountability in the function-ing of the Governmentmachinery in Jammu &Kashmir. PTI

Jammu: The Jammu & Kashmir unit of theCongress on Tuesday attacked the BJP-led cen-tral Government over its ongoing public out-reach programme in the Union Territory andalleged that the visit of the Ministers is only tohighlight the agenda of the party at the expenseof the public exchequer.

It also alleged that the visit is aimed at divert-ing the attention of the people from real issuesof unemployment, price rise and “worst ever”economic slowdown besides the social and polit-ical upheavals being witnessed in the country,affecting the political prospects of the BJP inDelhi and West Bengal.

In the aftermath of the abrogation of Article370 provisions and bifurcation of the erstwhilestate into two UTs in August last year, the Centrelaunched a major week-long public outreachprogramme on January 18 to aware people aboutthe benefits of the move and to disseminate

information about the implementation of itspolicies and programmes for the overall devel-opment of Jammu & Kashmir. So far about 24ministers visited different parts of Jammu.

“The visit of Ministers’ brigade is only tohighlight the agenda of the party at the expenseof public exchequer by use of entire officialmachinery, after feedback to the BJPGovernment at the centre that people even inJammu region are fed up with the neglect, espe-cially the treatment meted out to the erstwhilestate depriving it of the identity and rights of thelocals,” Pradesh Congress Committee chiefspokesperson Ravinder Sharma said.

“The BJP should answer why only five min-isters, out of 36, are going to Kashmir to attendeight programmes against 51 programmes in theJammu region to explain the benefits of abro-gation of special status under Article 370 and dis-banding of the erstwhile state,” he said. PTI

Coimbatore: Police havedenied permission to variousMuslim organisations to carryout a procession in the city onFebruary 2 against theCitizenship Amendment Act.

Representatives ofFederation of IslamicOrganisation and the DistrictAll Kamath had submitted apetition to the office of policecommissioner on January 17

seeking permission to take outa 7 km “unity procession”.

Deputy Commissioner ofPolice (Law and order) L BalajiSaravabnan had convened ameeting on Monday with rep-resentatives of SDPI, TMMK,PFI, Manithaneya MakkalKatchi and Jamaath, a releasefrom police department said onTuesday. They were informedthat the procession wouldparalyse movement of vehicles

besides affecting people as itwas being taken out through anational highway and arterialroad. Besides, almost 16 organ-isations had already conduct-ed nearly 50 rallies, protestmeetings, human chain, closureof shops and other mode of agi-tations on the issue.

Against this background,an order denying permissionfor the procession was issued,the release said. PTI

Aligarh: Hundreds of students took out aprotest march against the amended citizen-ship act on the Aligarh Muslim Universitycampus here on Tuesday rasing slogans of“CAA se azaadi” and vowing to boycott class-es until their demands are met.

The protesters including girls andschoolchildren, belonging to the schoolswithin the campus, began their march fromthe Purani Chungi and culminated it at theBabey Sir Syed gate of the university.

They also raised slogans in support ofDelhi’s Shaheen Bagh protesters and theJawaharlal Nehru University.

“Shaheen Bagh Zindabad (Long liveShaheen Bagh)” and “JNU tum sangharshKaro hum tumahre saath hain (keep fight-ing JNU, we are with you)” rent the air alongwith the chants of “CAA se azaadi” (freedomfrom CAA) and “BJP se azaadi” (freedomfrom BJP). The university was closed earlyfor winter vacations from December 16, aday after students clashed with police dur-ing a protest against the CitizenshipAmendment Act (CAA) on campus. It wasto reopen on January 6 but the vacation wasextended owing to persisting tension over thechanges in the citizenship law.

It is reopening in phases from Monday.But after the university reopened on January13, agitation against the law has been goingon and students have devised innovativeways to protest peacefully. PTI

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The Mamata Banerjee Governmentwill call a special session of the

State Assembly on January 27 totable a resolution rejecting theCitizenship Amendment Act. Thedate was given by State ParliamentaryAffairs Minister and TrinamoolCongress general secretary ParthoChatterjee.

The formal announcement camea day after Banerjee declared that shewould soon get a resolution againstCAA passed in the State Assembly.

The development also comes as anaftermath of members of the minor-ity community openly questioning theTMC Ministers — Jyotipriya Mullickand Bratya Basu at various organisa-tional forums as to why the BengalGovernment was not following in thefootsteps of Kerala and Punjab whichhad earlier passed resolutions againstthe controversial Act.

“I don’t have to say anythingabout who said what. But I can onlysay that our Chief Minister has decid-ed to call a special session of theAssembly to pass a resolution againstthe CAA,” Chatterjee said adding theState Government’s credentials couldnot be questioned as it had alreadypassed similar resolutions againstNational Register for Citizens andNational Population Register.

“I have personally spoken toopposition leader Abdul Mannan(Congress) and would also speak toCPI(M) Legislator Party Leader SujanChakrabarty seeking their support forthe resolution which will be tabled onJanuary 27,” Chatterjee said.

The decision which theGovernment had taken on Tuesdayshould have been taken earlierCongress leader in Lok Sabha AdhirChowdhury said reacting to theTuesday’s announcement adding “theCongress and the Left had moved asimilar resolution earlier in theAssembly but the TMC refused to takeit up for discussion now for someunknown reasons they have agreed topass the resolution only after Keralaand Punjab Governments have doneit… it is better late than never.”

Chakrabarty wondered “why theyrejected our move when we wanted totable a similar resolution a few daysin the Assembly denouncing CAA. Itseems that only after getting thegreen signal from her BJP friends inDelhi that the Chief Minister has nowdecided to table the resolution. In anycase we have no problem in support-ing it.”

He added how the TMCGovernment had grudgingly passed aresolution against NRC and NPRtabled by the opposition “but onlyafter tabling it in their party’s name.”

Chatterjee would not dwell muchon the issue but said “We have alreadysubmitted the resolution to theSpeaker on January 20.”

He also would not comment onwhy the TMC was moving theSupreme Court challenging the CAAa la Kerala and Punjab. “I am in Statepolitics and will not be in a positionto take questions on things at nation-al level. Please ask the questions toDerek O’ Brien who will be theappropriate person to take the ques-tion.”

On whether the Chief Ministerwould take up Home Minister AmitShah’s challenge to debate the CAA atnational forum, the senior BengalMinister said “we will take it up fordiscussion in the party forum beforecoming back to you.”

However, another Minister andsenior party leader Tapas Roy saidthere is no problem for any debatebecause it is Mamata Banerjee whohad for the first time given an openchallenge for a debate on NRC, andCAB (before it became an Act).

Meanwhile, after the lawyers, stu-dents and civil society it was the turnof the doctors to descend on thestreets against the CAA with hundredsof medicos from NRS Medical Collegeand Hospital on Tuesday taking outprocessions condemning the contro-versial Act.

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An Army jawan and a spe-cial police officer (SPO) of

J&k police on Tuesday sacri-ficed their lives during a fiercegunfight with terrorists in snowclad Khrew area of SouthKashmir’s Pulwama district.

Till the time of filing thereport, the security forces hadnot confirmed whether anyterrorists were neutralised orthey managed to gave a slip tothe security forces during theencounter.

Soon after the operationwas launched, after receiving atip off about the presence ofthree terrorists in the area,joint teams of security forceshad cordoned off Zand villageof Tral.

While searches were goingon in the area, first contact wasestablished with the terrorists.

To avoid any collateraldamage the security forceseven escorted children andothers from the area.

In the initial exchange of

fire an Army jawan and SPOreceived bullet injuries.According to official sources,“SPO of the J&K police died onthe spot while Army jawan succumbed to his fatal injuriesin the hospital”.

Initially, twitter handle ofthe Kashmir zone police post-ed a tweet, “Encounter hasstarted at Awantipora. Police &security forces are on the job.Further details shall follow”.Thereafter, no update was post-ed till late evening nor any pressstatement was issued by thepolice media centre confirmingkilling of terrorists in theencounter.

Meanwhile, Twitter handleof the Udhampur basedNorthern command head-quarters, paid rich tributes to

the martyred solider who sac-rificed his life in the Pulwamaencounter on Tuesday.

“Lt- Gen Ranbir Singh,Army Cdr NC and all rankssalute the supreme sacrifice ofSepoy Rahul Rainswal; offerdeepest condolences to thefamily”, tweeted NorthernCommand.

This is the second majorencounter which took place inKashmir valley ahead ofRepublic day celebrations in thelast 48 hours.

On Monday, joint teams ofsecurity forces killed three ter-rorists including top comman-der of Hizbul MujahideenWaseem Ahmad Wani alongwith Adil Bashir Sheikh inShopian.

According to policerecords, Waseem was involvedin the killing of eight people,including four security men inthe Valley while Adil haddecamped with 7 AK 47 riflesand a pistol from the residenceof former PDP MLA fromWachi Assembly segment.

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Aspoof video made fromthe scenes of latest

Bollywood blockbuster‘Tanhaji — The UnsungWarrior’, in which the faces ofChhatrapati Shivaji and histrusted commander TanajiMalusare have been morphedwith those of Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and UnionHome Minister Amit Shahwent viral in the social mediaon Tuesday.

Fresh from the controver-sy over a Hindi book ‘Aaj keShivaji: Narendra Mod’, liken-ing the current Prime Ministerto Maratha warrior ChhatrapatiShivaji Maharaj, the latest video— in which Delhi ChiefMinister Arvind Kejriwal of theAam Aadmi Party (AAP) hasbeen projected as UdaybhanSingh Rathore — has turnedthe spotlight on the BJP once

again, amid the ongoing cam-paigning the Delhi Assemblypolls.

The spoof video, posted onthe twitter handle named ‘polit-ical kida’ has drawn compar-isons between the battle ofSinhagad Fort with the upcom-ing Delhi elections and thewebsite has said: “Jo Dilli JeetGaya, Samjho Dil Jeet Gaya”.Interestingly, the twitter pagecontaining the spoof videowent missing later in theevening.

Reacting to the spoofvideo, BJP’s Rajya Sabha mem-ber and the 13th direct descen-dant of Maratha kingChhatrapati Shivaji and greatgrandson of Chhatrapati Shahuof Kolhapur SambhajiChhatrapati tweeted: “After thebook (likening Shivaji toModi), we now have videothat indecent, intolerable andcondemnable. The parties con-cerned should expressed itsstand over the video. TheCentre should order an inquiryinto the video and initiateaction against those behind it”

“For us Shiv bakths Shivaji

Maharaj is everything. Thevideo has hurt the Shiva bak-ths. It is the responsibility of theGovernment to take cogni-sance of the sentiments of theShiv bakths and take steps toensure against recurrence ofsuch things in future. Myrequest to all political partiesnot to misuse the image of greatMaratha warrior for their cheappolitics,” Sambhaji Chhatrapatitweeted.

Responding to the objec-tionable video, Shiv Sena MPand spokesperson Sanjay Rautsaid: “ I have sent the video tocontroversial Hindutva leaderSambhaji Bhide and variousBJP leaders. I am waiting fortheir response.”

Alluding to the recentdemand by Sambaji Bhide thataction be taken against him forhis disparaging remarks againstthe descendents of ChhatrapatiShivaji, Raut said: “I want to seethe reaction of those who havecalled for a bandh at Satara andSangli against the Shiv Sena.Not even a single person whomI have sent the video to hasreplied so far”.

Meanwhile, theMaharashtra BJP has disasso-ciated itself from the spoofvideo put out on the twitterhandle of “political kida’. “TheBJP{ has nothing to do withthis video. The BJP is notusing the video in its campaignfor the Delh9i Assembly polls.We condemn this video. It iswrong to elicit the BJP’s reac-tion on this video. ChhatrapatiShivaji cannot be comparedwith anyone,” Maharashtra BJPpresident Chandrakant Patilsaid.

“There is no restriction onany one making anything ofvideo, putting it on socialmedia and letting it go viral.There is a clear cut attempt todefame the BJP by makingsuch a controversial video,”Patil said.

Hitting out indirectly atRaut, Patil said: “The peoplewho are demanding evidencefrom the descendents ofChhatrapati Shivaji have nomortal right left to talk aboutthe Maratha warrior. The BJP’sstand is that there was onlyunique king (Shivaji) and we do

not get to see such a kingagainst. It was because of thisking that Hindu Swaraj wasestablished. No one can becompared chhatrapati shivaji”.

Last week, under severeflak from various politicalquarters, an embarrassed BJPhad distanced itself from acontroversial book “Aaj keShivaji: Narendra Modi”,penned by the party’s JaiBhagwan Goyal, likening thecurrent Prime Minister withMaratha warrior ChhatrapatiShivaji Maharaj.

BJP’s National Media co-head Sanjay Mayukh had saidthrough a video statement:“Whatever that been written inthe book is the author’s per-sonal point of view. It is neitherour party publication nor arewe connected with it in anymanner”

“The writer has clarifiedthat it is his personal writing.He has also said that if the bookhas hurt anybody’s emotions,he is withdrawing the book.We would like to clarify againthat it is not a party publica-tion,” Mayukh had said.

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Amid the ongoing row overthe NPR exercise, the

government on Tuesdayasserted that census data isconfidential and guaranteedunder the law and those vio-lating it will be punished.

In a series of tweets, theRegistrar General and CensusCommissioner of India (RGI)also said the 2021 would bethe first ever census to be con-ducted with a mixed modeapproach — a mobile app(created in-house by RGIoffice).

“While confidentialityabout your data is guaranteedby Census Act, 1948; thesame law specifies penaltyfor BOTH public AND cen-sus officials for non-compli-ance or violation of any pro-vision of the Act,” the RGIsaid.

The National PopulationRegister (NPR) exercise will

be carried out along with thehouse listing phase of thecensus.

During the census exer-cise, there will be facility foronline self enumeration forthe public during populationenumeration phase.

“The Indian census is thelargest administrative andstatistical exercise in theworld, with more than 30lakh functionaries, and at thecost of about 8700 crorerupees,” another tweet by RGIsaid.

The house listing phase ofthe Census 2021 will be car-ried out from April 1 toSeptember 30, 2020.

The census will have itsreference date as March 1,2021, but for snow-boundJammu and Kashmir,Himachal Pradesh andUttarakhand it wi l l beOctober 1, 2020.

A few state governmentshave declared that they will

not participate in the NPRexercise now alleging it is aprelude to a countrywideNational Register of Citizens.

Assemblies of Kerala andPunjab have adopted resolu-tions announcing their oppo-sition to the exercise.

Last week, at a meetingconvened by the Union HomeMinistr y to discuss themodalities to be adopted dur-ing the house listing phase ofthe Census 2021 and theNPR, a few non-BJP-ruledstates raised objections overthe new methodology to beadopted in the NPR exercise.

However, the central gov-ernment defended the stepssaying certain responses to begiven by people are notmandatory but voluntary.

Rajasthan Chief SecretaryD B Gupta had said he andthe representatives of a fewother states raised objectionsto a few questions to be askedby enumerators to people

during the NPR exercise.“We said certain ques-

tions in NPR are impractical,like those related to the birth-place of parents. There aremany people in the countrywho don’t know their birthplace. I don’t know what is thepurpose of such questionsand we have told the meetingto remove such questions,”Gupta had said.

The notification for thehouse listing census and NPRexercise came recently amidfurore over the contentiousCitizenship Amendment Act(CAA). The home ministryofficials said most of thestates have notified provi-sions related to the NPR.

The NPR is a register ofusual residents of the country.It is being prepared at thelocal (village/sub-town), sub-district, district, state andnational levels under provi-sions of the Citizenship Act,1955 and the Citizenship

(Registration of Citizens andIssue of National IdentityCards) Rules, 2003.

The rules have a provisionfor fine of up to �� 1,000 onthose violating it.

The data for NPR was lastcollected in 2010 along withthe house listing phase of theCensus 2011. Updating ofthis data was done during2015 by conducting door todoor survey.

While updating the regis-ter in 2015, the governmenthad asked details like Aadhaarand their mobile number.

This time, the informationrelated to their driving licenceand voter ID card may also begathered, the officials said,adding that PAN card detailswill not be collected as part ofthis exercise.

For the purposes of theNPR, a usual resident isdefined as a person who hasresided in a local area for thepast six months or more, or a

person who intends to residein that area for the next sixmonths. The law compulsori-ly seeks to register every citi-zen of India and issue anational identity card.

Assam has been excludedbecause the National Registerof Citizens exercise hasalready been conducted inthe state.

The demographic detailsof ever y individual arerequired for every usual resi-dent: name, relationship tohead of household, father’sname, mother’s name, spouse’sname (if married), sex, date ofbirth, marital status, place ofbirth, nationality (asdeclared), present address ofusual residence, duration ofstay at present address, per-manent residential address,occupation, educational qual-ification.

The Union Cabinet hasapproved �� 3,941.35 crorefor the NPR exercise.

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Indian airports are likely to incur a revenue loss of �650 croreper annum and could potentially turn defaulters if the com-

merce ministry’s proposals on the sale of liquor and cigarette atduty-free shops are accepted, an industry body warned onTuesday.

The Association of Private Airport Operators (APAO) in astatement said that if non-aero revenues are restricted by an actof government, the new operators will find the airports unviableand may even renege on their contracts.

Flughafen Zurich AG, which is one of the largest Europeanairport operators, has just re-entered the domestic airport space,bagging the contract for the greenfield Jewar Airport in UP whileAdani group has been mandated to run six AAI-owned airportsin the country.

The Commerce Ministry, as part of its proposals to the financeministry ahead of the budget, has recommended restricting pur-chase of tax-free alcohol to one bottle against two at present andprohibiting completely the purchase of cigarette cartons, fromone carton of 100 sticks now, at duty-free shops at the arrivalarea of the international airports in the country.

The Astana Club based inKazakhstan has brought out auseful document which assess-es the top 10 risks for Eurasia in2020. There are contributions

from researchers and thinkers from all overthe world, which have been incorporatedwhile carrying out this assessment.Although the risks identified are specificto Eurasia, in effect, one could identifythese as being applicable to almost anyother part of the world.

The foreword of this document iden-tifies China emerging as a new potentialsuperpower. It also draws attention toChina’s economic strength as signifiedthrough the Belt and Road mega initiative.Eurasia being in the vicinity of China seesthe changes in the balance of power thatare now developing. It also expresses thefact that Russia has finally recoveredfrom the chaos and devastation of the1990s despite several sanctions and restric-tions. As a result of this phase of recovery,it is expanding its influence far beyondpost-Soviet borders. Concurrently, leaderssuch as India, Japan, Turkey, Iran andSaudi Arabia have been identified asshowing bold intentions to influence theinternational order. The documentobserves that no geo-political game cannow play out without the participation ofthese new players.

The first of the 10 risks, which is iden-tified, deals with the aftershock of the USpresidential campaign. It looks at develop-ments within the US and the efforts of thecurrent administration to move in the direc-tion of nationalism with possible isolationfrom global affairs and developments. Theprediction made is that in the coming year,there will be more apparent manifestationsof the unilateral approach to foreign poli-cy, which obviously will have erratic con-sequences in a negative sense. In effect, theassessment of this first risk can be seen asnot entirely related to aftershocks of the USpresidential campaign but possibly more interms of leading up to the presidential elec-tion, which implies several risks during thecampaign itself.

It is obvious that the current process ofimpeachment, which the US Senate will bepursuing, will have major implications forthe presidential election in November,2020, as well as some risks for candidatesrunning for the US Senate. It is also obvi-ous that global developments initiated by theWhite House would be targetted, keepingin view the 2020 elections. While this AstanaClub assessment was produced before thekilling of Iranian Major General Soleimani,it can be concluded that to some extent, thisattack on a very popular and respected gen-eral in Iran was clearly a “macho” act, whichwas perhaps designed to blunt the impactsof the current impeachment process againstUS President Donald Trump.

This document also highlights the fact

that as far as Iran is concerned,Trump will increase sanctionsand the pressure that would beimposed on Tehran. On theother hand, the likelihood of aUS-Iran military conflict, whichposed certain danger in thesummer of 2019, will declinethis year. The opinion is alsoexpressed that Trump is unlike-ly to initiate a military campaignagainst Iran, which could haveuncontrollable consequences.There are other possible devel-opments related to the MiddleEast, which could also constitutea risk politically to Eurasia.But, of course, there will be seri-ous implications for other partsof the world, particularly forSouth Asia, with its proximity toboth Eurasia and the countriesof the Middle East.

The other risks identified inthe study include the effects ofglobal economic recession, esca-lation of the US-China con-frontation, a new stage of thenuclear missile race, exacerba-tion of the battle for technolog-ical dominance, military escala-tion of the conflict around Iran,nuclear crisis on the Koreanpeninsula, a new wave of terror-ism, aggressive nationalism andpopulism as well as large-scaleclimate change problems.

The prospect of a globaleconomic recession is very realand this, combined with aninward looking policy ofnationalism such as in the caseof the US, could cause econom-ic complications worldwide.

Also, in the case of the US, thereis the real prospect of a furtherdivision between theDemocrats and theRepublicans, those who aresupporters of Trump and thosewho are strongly opposed to hiscontinuation as President. Inthe case of the Middle East, itseems unfortunate that Iran andthe US have been at loggerheadsfor over 40 years now, which isaffecting all developments inthe wake of the Iranian revolu-tion. Developments in 2020will continue to be affected byan obvious bias on the part ofthe US openly favouring someMiddle Eastern nations.

The issue of terrorism isalso alive. While the backboneof the Islamic State (IS) has gen-erally been decimated, it isentirely possible that re-group-ing by this terrorist organisationcould lead to several dangers indifferent parts of the world.India is confronted by State-sponsored terrorism in its vicin-ity and this is a subject that theentire global community and itwould need to deal with. Theextent of this threat is likely toincrease as a result of frustrationwithin a country which is ourneighbour. We have to be aliveto this as well as other terroristthreats across the globe.

With respect to climatechange, we need to come upwith scenarios on how we maybe able to bring about a tran-sition from fossil fuels to lowcarbon sources of energy. Far

more immediate is the issue ofimpacts of climate change,which would pose increasingrisks across the globe.Projections of extreme events,which the IntergovernmentalPanel on Climate Change(IPCC) had clearly broughtout 11 years ago, is the increasein intensity and frequency ofdisasters and extreme events. Atypical but unfortunate exam-ple of this is provided by theraging forest fires, whichrecently affected several partsof Australia, followed immedi-ately by extreme precipitationevents which led to floodingand excessive damage.

All in all, it is importantthat the Astana Club has comeup with a comprehensive list-ing of threats, which canemerge during 2020 and, there-fore, extending into this decadeas a whole.

Kazakhstan and severalEurasian countries may liebeyond the Himalayan rangebut in terms of proximity, theyare in some cases very close tous in terms of geographicaldistance. India should, perhaps,engage far more closely withcountries of the region andexercise its soft power, includ-ing the flow of knowledge, edu-cation and research on issuesthat have a bearing on theregion. The threats for Eurasiaapply equally to India as well.

(The writer is former chair-man, Intergovernmental Panelon Climate Change, 2002-15)

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Sir — An Australian developerhas produced an app that allowspeople to upload a photo ofsomeone else and match it withother photos of people and theirlocation. Police in America havealready tested and successfullyused it to arrest one person. Theintroduction of cameras onmobile phones has led to millionsof photos being taken and far toomany being put online for us toignore. The Instagrammers andinfluencers may not realise that bydefault, the location is embeddedin their photos. The technologythat allows facial recognition isunder attack from privacy advo-cates, but why? If you have donenothing wrong, then you havenothing to hide. Although thereality is that some people err intheir life choices. The concern ofpeople being recognised in pho-tos has gone too far with googlemaps and street view blurringnumber plates on cars and peo-ple’s faces. People should behappy to be known and seenalthough not obsessively. Live agood life and be seen doing it.

Dennis FitzgeraldMelbourne

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Sir — Bapu Nadkarni, whopassed away recently, leavesbehind an incredible legacy inbowling. In 1964, he bowled 131consecutive balls without conced-ing any runs during a Test inningsagainst England. He had similar

economical bowling averages inearlier matches against Pakistanin Kanpur and Delhi in the 1960-61 series. His economy rateacross his first-class career wasless than two.

He was one of the finest all-rounders of the time. His maid-en over tally is difficult to match.It is unfortunate that the present

cricketers, who play at a time ofimmense money and fame in thesport, are honoured frequentlywhile players of yesteryear are for-gotten. It would be even better ifa series of postage stamps of oldercricketers with notable contribu-tions could be issued.

SC AgrawalDelhi

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “BJP’s new chief ” (January21). Both Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and HomeMinister Amit Shah wantedsomeone to take charge of theparty who would be a non-chal-lenger to them and JP Nadda wasbest suited for this. What, how-ever, must be complimented isthat Nadda is one leader whogrew from the grassroot level tomake his way to the top.

Nadda has taken charge amidprotests against the CitizenshipAmendment Act (CAA). Moreimportantly, will he be able to stopthe reverses the party has seen inStates? Surely, the BJP is on aweaker footing and the winningthe forthcoming elections in Delhiand West Bengal will be challeng-ing. One thing that will comehandy for him is that he has beenpart of the Modi Government andknows both the organisation andthe Government well. Can be agood catalyst between the two?

Bal Govind Noida

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Having achieved the fiscal deficit (FD) tar-get for three years in a row, the NarendraModi Government missed it in 2017-18

and 2018-19. During 2017-18, the actual FDexpressed as a percentage of the Gross DomesticProduct (GDP) was 3.5 per cent against the tar-get of 3.2 per cent. For 2018-19, the then FinanceMinister, Arun Jaitley had set a target of 3.3 percent as against three per cent sought by a com-mittee under NK Singh, former ExpenditureSecretary and current Chairman of the 15thFinance Commission.

The committee was set up in 2016 to reviewthe Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management(FRBM) Act, 2003, with a mandate to revamp itand recommend a path for the next six years. Itadvocated a FD target of 2.5 per cent, revenuedeficit 0.8 per cent, combined Centre-State debtceiling of 60 per cent and a Central debt ceilingof 40 per cent for 2022-23. It recommended threeper cent FD for 2018-19. It also allowed theGovernment to breach the target in case of “far-reaching structural reforms with unanticipated fis-cal implications.”

Vide the Finance Bill, 2018-19 theGovernment amended the FRBM Act to allow itto achieve three per cent FD by 2020-21 insteadof 2018-19 recommended by the committee.Further, it sought the debt limit of 40 per cent bythe Centre (60 per cent for Centre and States) tobe reached by 2024-25 instead of 2022-23 man-dated by the committee.

During 2018-19, the Government posted 3.4per cent (against the target of 3.3 per cent), thattoo by taking recourse to what is termed as “finan-cial engineering.” It paid �60,000 crore less to theFood Corporation of India (FCI) towards foodsubsidy as reimbursement of the excess of the costof procurement, handling and distribution over thesale price to the beneficiaries under the NationalFood Security Act (NFSA). It paid �32,000 croreless to State-owned oil marketing companies(OMCs) viz. Indian Oil Corporation Limited(IOCL), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited(BPCL) and so on, for selling LPG and keroseneat subsidised prices. Likewise, short payments tomanufacturers for fertiliser subsidy were about�40,000 crore.

The above three so-called “deferred payments”add up to �1,32,000 crore. In addition, publicundertakings like the National Bank forAgriculture and Rural Development (NABARD),Housing and Urban Development Corporation(HUDCO), National Housing Bank (NHB), RuralElectrification Corporation (REC), Power FinanceCorporation (PFC), National Highways Authorityof India (NHAI) and Indian Railway FinanceCorporation (IRFC) borrowed on behalf of theGovernment to fund welfare schemes such as ruraland urban affordable housing, sanitation and irri-gation projects, rural electrification schemes(including free electricity connections to house-holds) highways and railway projects. TermedExtra-Budgetary Resources (EBRs), these totalled�280,000 crore.

All put together, the money, a whopping�412,000 crore, should have been paid by theGovernment from its Budget. But it decided tomake other entities pay for it or borrow on itsbehalf. This translates to about 2.3 per cent of theGDP.

Including this, the FD for 2018-19would have been 5.7 per cent instead of3.4 per cent reported in the Budget.During 2017-18 also, according to theComptroller and Auditor General(CAG), the FD was suppressed by 2.4 percent, courtesy EBRs.

The current year for which the FDtarget is kept at 3.3 per cent (same as thetarget for 2018-19), will also end up witha repeat of the scenario in the previoustwo years.

Let us look at how slippage from thetarget is likely to pan out. First, at thetime of the Budget presentation, the FDprojection at 3.3 per cent or about�700,000 crore in value term was basedon a nominal GDP growth of 12 per cent— from �188,00,000 crore during 2018-19 to �211,00,000 crore during 2019-20.Against this, the actual growth is estimat-ed to be 7.5 per cent implying a GDP ofabout �202,00,000 crore during 2019-20.Even if the deficit were to be kept at�700,000 crore, as percentage of thelower than initially projected GDP or�202,00,000 crore (or “denominator”effect), this will be 3.46 per cent.

That apart, even in absolute terms,the deficit is expected to be much high-er than �700,000 crore. First, given theslow pace of tax collection so far tillNovember 2019 — both direct and indi-rect — and little prospect of any majorrecovery in the remaining four months,the collection during the year is expect-ed to fall short of the Budget estimate byabout �200,000 crore. Second, the pro-ceeds of disinvestment are expected tomiss the target by a whopping �80,000crore (the Budget estimate of �1,05,000crore was based largely on strategic saleof BPCL, Air India and so on which isunlikely to materialise before March 31,2020).

So, the total shortfall in collection —on both these counts — adds up to�2,80,000 crore. Add to this, fertilisersubsidy arrears of about �60,000 crore(according to the industry body FertiliserAssociation of India); unpaid food sub-

sidy bills of the FCI at �60,000 crore andabout �30,000 crore as unpaid fuel sub-sidy bills to OMCs. That takes thegrand total to �430,000 crore. This willpush the actual deficit to �1130,000 crorewhich translates to 5.6 per cent. Thisdoes not capture the EBRs used to fundthe Government’s welfare schemes. If,that is included then, the deficit wouldbe even higher.

Taking a “fair” and “realistic” viewof all receipts and expenditure of theUnion Government, its fiscal deficit isthus turning out to be almost double thethree per cent target handed out by theNK Singh Committee. Though, in thebalance sheet, it may still show a figureclose to the target and brandish that itis sticking to the fiscal consolidation glidepath, that is made possible through anact of skullduggery. But, this is not a sus-tainable situation.

Apart from the spillover effect onPSUs, other agencies of the Governmentsuch as the FCI and others, throughwhom subsidy is administered (e.g. fer-tiliser manufacturers) who are made tobear the brunt by way of liquidity prob-lems, interest cost, recurring losses andso on, the most serious damage is donedue to the “complacency” this breedswith regard to fiscal management. When,the target is achieved without actuallybringing about reduction in expenditureor boosting revenue or a combination ofboth, why would our planners and pol-icymakers take credible measures in thatdirection?

For instance, a major reason for theballooning subsidy on urea is its ridicu-lously low MRP (the current price is just10 per cent higher than it was in 2002).This is despite the recommendation ofthe Expenditure Reforms Commission(ERC) in 2000 to increase steps toeliminate the gap between the cost andprice over five years. No action on thisfront implies increasing subsidy in theface of ever-increasing cost. But, byrolling over payments year-after-year andshowing less in the Budget, the man-

darins in the Finance Ministry skirt thereal issue.

Likewise, by not releasing food sub-sidy dues to FCI and showing lessexpenditure in the Budget, they run awayfrom dealing with the real factors viz.ridiculously low selling price of foodgrain, high inefficiency in handlingoperations by agencies and giving mil-lions of non-deserving access to the foodsecurity system.

The same holds for oil subsidy(mainly LPG and kerosene).

In the backdrop of the slowdown ingrowth, even as commentators are advo-cating some leniency in the fiscal con-solidation drive, the reality is thatalready, there is substantial relaxationthough it is going unrecognised. Underthe “business as usual” scenario, theeconomy may face catastrophic conse-quences. The Government should actbefore it is too late. For that, it shouldrecognise that the problem exists andstop fudging its accounts. But, this byitself won’t help.

This has to be followed up by somehardcore reforms such as removal of con-trols in key areas such as fertilisers, food,fuel and power, giving subsidy throughdirect benefit transfer (DBT), substan-tial pruning of the number of beneficia-ries under welfare schemes and remov-ing inefficiencies at various levels in thesupply chain. This will require sheddingpopulism and cracking down on vestedinterest (especially corrupt politiciansand bureaucrats who are gaining a lotfrom the existing dispensation) withalacrity.

Modi should show the gumption tocrack the whip. Having an absolutemajority in the Parliament and four-and-a-half years to go, he can afford to do.Even so, time and again, he has reiter-ated his commitment to do things in theoverall national interest even if it leadsto a political backlash. Hence, he shouldgo ahead.

(The writer is a New Delhi-based pol-icy analyst)

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Delhi’s urban planning policies havebeen characterised by the inabili-ty of the agencies concerned to

facilitate adequate supply of affordable,formal housing stock for its residents. Asa result, informal housing has crept upacross large parts of the national Capital.Unauthorised Colonies (UACs) are oneform of such informal housing cate-gories and have grown at an unprecedent-ed rate — from 110 in 1961, to nearly1,800 colonies today. These UACs caterlargely to the Economically WeakerSections (EWS) and Low Income Groups(LIG) that reside in the city.

While numerous efforts have beenmade to regularise these colonies to

address problems emanating from theirinformality, the situation has barelyimproved. This has been a result of insti-tutional multiplicity coupled with thepolitical motives of elected representativesat various levels.

Political establishments target theUAC population for garnering votes andmake promises about regularisation anddevelopment. However, once elected,they fail to deliver on them.

In 2008, just before the 2009 LokSabha elections, the then CentralGovernment issued a notification to reg-ularise UACs and invited applicationsfrom these colonies. However, the processwent nowhere post applications.

This time, the Narendra Modi-led BJPGovernment at the Centre, close to theDelhi Assembly elections in February 8,has passed a Bill in the Parliament to con-fer ownership rights on 40 lakh people liv-ing in unauthorised colonies. In thisregard, Prime Minister Modi addressed arally in New Delhi and said, “We took theinitiative to do the work which many pre-vious Governments did not do.”

As per the Bill, these rights will beconferred for built-up plots as well as

vacant plots on payment of nominalcharges.

Subsequently, any owner of a 100 sqmt residential plot in an unauthorisedcolony will have to pay at least �19,980(depending on the zone in which thecolony falls) to acquire the ownership cer-tificate. This addresses the affordabilityconcern in case of the UAC populationwhile attempting to recover the land costfrom the residents of these colonies.

This measure can have positive ben-efits for the city’s economy. Implementingthis notification can provide an entry pointfor the residents into the formal financialmarkets. This affirmed ownership canenable property owners to seek collater-al against their houses. Such a move isexpected to add around 800,000 potentialcustomers to the housing loans market,providing the necessary push to thenational Capital’s economy.

With the registration of UAC house-holds, the decision is likely to boost fur-ther formal transactions, hence adding tothe Government’s stamp duty revenue.

However, the Bill does not offer anyclarity on the status of transaction of aplot/house/property in the existing colony.

This clarity is important to solve the issueof creating a formal and affordable hous-ing market in these colonies. In theabsence of clear information, it may beassumed that with the conferment of theownership rights to a UAC plot owner, thesubsequent registration of sale deed willtake place at the conventional circle ratesof the colony.

In this case, the resident living in anUAC household acquires the ownershiprights of a 100 sq mt plot for at least�19,980; however he/she would be sellingthe same property for �1.6 crore, based onconventional circle rates.

This begs the question — do proper-ties in these localities really merit thisprice, given the inadequate infrastructure?In this regard, to maintain a balancedbuyer-seller dynamics, policymakersshould reconsider the transaction pricesfor these households. Without this neces-sary revision, it is possible that these pricescreate an excess supply condition and con-sequently distort the market.

Another route through which this Billis likely to inflate the Government’s rev-enue is through Property Tax obligationfor the registered UAC households.

Although the notification is silent on theissue of Property Tax collection from thesecolonies, the forthcoming Bill is likely tooffer clarity in this regard. With legal own-ership, the UAC residents will be obligedto pay the annual property tax, which willbe a significant contributor to its main-tenance services.

To reap these possible economic gainsfrom the Bill, it is vital that the implemen-tation of the entire process is not complex.From the perspective of the applicants, thesuggested process involves certain toolsand techniques that are likely to bebeyond their understanding, given theirsocio-economic profile. Thus, training andawareness would be required to make theprogramme successful and the DelhiGovernment must take the lead on it bysubstantiating the need for institutionalcoordination.

Discussions with a few residents ofUACs in Delhi have brought out that giventheir past experience, residents are stillapprehensive about the actual imple-mentation of the Bill and have not goneahead with the application process on theonline portal. In some cases, people arenot even aware of the procedural require-

ment. This is reflected by the fact that there

are only a handful of applications on theDDA’s portal —166 out of around 800,000households in the city. Against this pes-simistic situation, it is imperative that forthe desired success rate of this policy, vol-unteers are appointed to assist the UACresidents in the process. As of now, thereare only 25 help desks and they are veryunlikely to serve the purpose of efficient-ly facilitating the process.

Effective implementation of this pro-posed policy can unlock the substantialeconomic potential of the city’s land andhousing markets.

The issue of UACs in Delhi has goneon for far too long and it is high time thatit gets resolved for better economic out-comes. Whether the vicious circle aroundpolicy implementation for unauthorisedcolonies — with vote bank politics beingthe central point — will be broken thistime around is likely to get clear after theDelhi Assembly elections.

(The writer is an Associate Fellow atthe National Council of Applied EconomicResearch. The views expressed in this arti-cle are personal)

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Mumbai (PTI): Market bench-mark Sensex furthered losses forthe second straight session onTuesday as investors fretted oversubdued corporate results andIMF revising downwards India’sgrowth forecast. At the closingbell, the 30-share Sensex wasdown 205.10 points, or 0.49 percent, at 41,323.81; while theNSE Nifty settled 54.70 points,or 0.45 per cent, lower at12,169.85 — the third loss for thegauge in a row.

Indian bourses alsoremained under pressure track-ing weaker global markets afterthe outbreak of a new deadlyvirus in China spooked investors.On the Sensex chart, Tata Steelwas the top loser, shedding 3.01per cent, followed by M&M,Maruti, Asian Paints, PowerGrid,ITC and Axis Bank. On the otherhand, Ultratech Cement, KotakBank, Bharti Airtel, HDFC,IndusInd Bank and ONGCended with gains. Sectorally,BSE power, realty, metal, auto,utilities, FMCG, bankex andfinance indices ended up to1.47 per cent. While telecom,teck and energy indices settled inthe green. In the broader market,BSE midcap fell 0.21 per cent,while smallcap closed flat.

Besides rising concerns overgrowth in India, global investorsturned risk-averse after confir-mation of a deadly SARS-likevirus in China. “Indian markets

continued to fall for third con-secutive day on the back ofweak Asian and European mar-kets. Global agencies are slash-ing India’s growth rates asdomestic demand growth hasslowed down more than antici-pated earlier. Earnings season hasstarted and the growth has notbeen very encouraging fromthe few Nifty companies thathave declared their results so far,”Hemang Kapasi, PortfolioManager - Equity InvestmentProducts, Sanctum WealthManagement, said.

All eyes are now on the bud-get and government initiatives torevive the lagging economy, headded. The InternationalMonetary Fund (IMF) onMonday lowered growth esti-mate for India to 4.8 per cent for2019, citing stress in the non-bank financial sector and weakrural income growth as themajor factors for the downwardrevision. “Investors are profitbooking in mid and small capspost the decent pre-budget rally.Some subdued results in Q3compared to the solid expecta-tion has triggered a consolidationin the market. We believe this isa rational reaction of the marketwhich will hold in the short-termand can reverse as per the finaloutcome of Budget & Q3FY20results,” Vinod Nair, Head ofResearch, Geojit FinancialServices Ltd, said.

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Zomato on Tuesday said ithas acquired the Indian

business of Uber Eats in an all-stock deal that will give Uber9.99 per cent stake in theIndian food delivery andrestaurant discovery platform.Uber Eats app in India will dis-continue operations and directrestaurants, delivery partners,and users of the Uber Eatsapps to the Zomato platform,effective Tuesday, Zomato saidin a statement.

The deal marks possibleconsolidation in the highlycompetitive and price-sensi-tive online food delivery mar-ket where most players are inthe red. In a regulatory filingto the BSE, Info Edge (India)- a shareholder in Zomato -said its shareholding inZomato will stand reduced toabout 22.71 per cent on fullyconverted and diluted basisupon closing of the transac-tion. The deal comes daysafter Zomato had raised USD150 million in funding fromexisting investor Ant Financial,an Alibaba affiliate, at a USD3 billion valuation. Post moneyvaluation of Zomato is USD3.55 billion, sources in knowof the matter told PTI, addingthat this transaction will addto a total of over 50 millionorders per month on its plat-

form, giving it around 55 percent market share. “We areproud to have pioneeredrestaurant discovery and tohave created a leading fooddelivery business across morethan 500 cities in India. Thisacquisition signif icantlystrengthens our position in thecategory,” Zomato Founderand CEO Deepinder Goyalsaid.

Uber Eats, which enteredIndia in 2017, has about26,000 restaurants listed on itsplatform from 41 cities. Onaccessing Uber Eats app, userswere shown a message sayingthey can still use Uber Eats ifthey are travelling outsideIndia. Discussions betweenZomato and Uber have beenon for months. Facing stiffcompetition from Zomato andSwiggy, Uber Eats had beenmaking losses. Uber had pro-jected an operating loss of Rs2,197 crore in its food deliverybusiness for the five monthsthrough December 2019,

according to a valuation reportprepared by KPMG affiliateBSR and was part of regulato-ry f i l ings. According tosources, Uber Eats India busi-ness contributed three percent of the global gross book-ings but accounted for over 25per cent of adjusted EBIDTAlosses for the first three quar-ters of 2019. With sale of thefood business in India, Ubercan now focus on the ridesbusiness and driving it towardsprofitability, one of the sourcessaid. They also said that 245full time employees of UberEats will be affected and some of these people could be absorbed in otherroles in Uber.

“India remains an excep-tionally important market toUber and we will continue toinvest in growing our localrides business, which isalready the clear categoryleader. We have been veryimpressed by Zomato’s abilityto grow rapidly in a capital-efficient manner and we wishthem continued success,” UberCEO Dara Khosrowshahi saidin the statement. Zomato is arestaurant review, restaurantdiscovery, food delivery anddining out transactions plat-form, providing in-depthinformation for over 1.5 mil-lion restaurants across 24countries.

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Automobile dealers’ bodyFADA on Tuesday said

retail sales of passenger vehiclesin December 2019 declined 9per cent to 2,15,716 units year-on-year, as even the best offersfailed to lift weak consumersentiments. According to theFederation of AutomobileDealers Associations (FADA),passenger vehicles (PV) salesstood at 2,36,586 units inDecember 2018.

Two-wheeler sales declined16 per cent to 12,64,169 unitslast month as compared with15,00,545 units in December2018. Commercial vehicle salesdeclined 21 per cent to 67,793units as compared to 85,833units in December 2018.

Three-wheeler sales, how-ever, rose one per cent to58,324 units last month. Totalsales across categories declined15 per cent to 16,06,002 unitsin December 2019 as against18,80,995 units in the year-agomonth. FADA President AshishHarsharaj Kale said Decembersales de-growth was not onexpected lines as the inquirylevels all through the monthwere quite robust.

Consumer sentiment con-tinues to be very weak as cus-tomers did not conclude on thepurchase even after taking theefforts of inquiring and despite

the best offers being available,he added. “The sharp decline ingrowth has denied the dealercommunity an opportunity toreduce its BS-IV inventorymaking the transition to BS-VItrickier,” Kale said.

With such weak consumersentiment, FADA recommendsa very cautious approach to itsmembers with serious focus onBS-IV inventory liquidation,he added. “FADA will worktowards seeking relief from theHonourable Supreme Courtfor the BS-IV inventory of itsmembers as with such weakconsumer demand the nearterm retail sales are unpre-dictable, making it extremelydifficult for our members tocontinue the current business

and also ensure a nil BS-IVinventory on March 31,” Kalenoted. The commercial vehicleand two-wheeler inventorystill remains a concern, headded. Besides, liquidity stillremains a concern for thedealers’ community as well asfor the retail customer asbanking industry continuesto be in cautious mode, Kalesaid highlighting the chal-lenges. “Equal importanceneeds to be given to availabil-ity of reasonably liberal cred-it, especially in a developingcountry like ours where thegrowth is driven by first timebuyers or individuals and busi-nesses looking to expandbeyond their current capacity,”he added.

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Script Open High Low LTPSBIN 313.95 316.80 312.10 313.65BHARTIARTL 509.10 515.00 504.40 511.35HINDUNILVR 2063.00 2074.40 2052.15 2056.95RELIANCE 1529.70 1545.95 1523.00 1533.95IDEA 5.34 6.04 5.34 5.92QUESS 561.55 579.50 557.40 571.35HDFCLIFE 595.00 609.80 594.80 601.80IBULHSGFIN 292.00 305.80 292.00 301.10JINDALSTEL 179.00 187.00 176.20 185.75HAVELLS 624.90 632.50 613.25 616.90TATASTEEL 487.10 488.60 473.70 475.90RBLBANK 325.00 342.95 321.80 341.40ICICIBANK 534.85 540.40 530.30 531.00CANFINHOME 396.10 467.20 396.10 464.10TIINDIA 524.30 527.90 522.00 523.55ZEEL 269.50 286.50 267.60 283.95ITC 241.90 241.90 237.95 238.30HDFCBANK 1255.00 1255.00 1239.00 1244.15KOTAKBANK 1608.90 1630.70 1586.50 1625.95AMBUJACEM 206.75 209.85 205.90 207.50INDUSINDBK 1330.00 1350.25 1321.00 1336.80TEAMLEASE 2771.85 2796.40 2721.60 2727.85INFRATEL 225.70 243.30 224.25 240.35STAR 394.70 396.05 388.40 391.70TATAMOTORS 195.80 196.50 190.10 191.45AXISBANK 725.05 729.50 716.20 717.75BAJFINANCE 4150.00 4186.35 4120.00 4137.40CONCOR 551.50 553.60 550.00 551.35YESBANK 38.55 39.20 38.10 38.35DLF 259.00 259.00 255.10 257.05IOC 118.20 118.55 114.25 114.85L&TFH 116.80 119.50 116.20 119.10AVANTI 681.80 712.00 659.05 699.00FEDERALBNK 94.00 96.35 93.55 94.60ASIANPAINT 1847.00 1847.00 1794.75 1810.25BEML 985.10 1019.55 978.30 999.50TATAGLOBAL 382.90 389.60 379.25 385.80LICHSGFIN 462.00 486.40 461.00 478.50PEL 1575.00 1616.55 1562.35 1611.45CHOLAFIN 318.55 318.55 309.10 314.95PFIZER 4011.00 4021.00 3988.05 4012.10JUSTDIAL 574.20 592.40 563.75 575.45MARUTI 7410.00 7434.75 7290.00 7303.10MCX 1395.00 1442.00 1391.00 1399.65HDFC 2451.00 2486.40 2432.40 2464.50ASHOKLEY 84.55 86.60 83.65 86.30TCS 2174.95 2185.00 2160.00 2171.45PIDILITIND 1440.00 1440.00 1412.60 1414.90ICICIPRULI 488.00 496.80 478.70 489.00GRANULES 147.20 152.70 138.00 139.65LT 1307.45 1313.60 1301.00 1302.60CARERATING 639.30 652.00 632.00 643.35SAIL 50.40 51.20 49.60 49.75PIIND 1412.00 1452.30 1412.00 1442.05IRB 115.90 119.70 110.95 116.90PNBHOUSING 530.00 562.80 526.00 551.75CANBK 217.35 221.35 217.30 219.15BPCL 458.80 466.40 455.00 463.80MOTHERSUMI 136.00 139.45 133.95 138.45ACC 1496.05 1508.00 1488.15 1495.05RAIN 120.00 122.70 118.45 121.15HDFCAMC 3229.00 3240.00 3173.40 3178.90TITAN 1185.30 1185.30 1161.20 1176.85SBILIFE 990.00 990.00 970.00 973.05BANKBARODA 94.95 95.75 94.10 94.75PFC 112.35 112.65 106.15 106.70BERGEPAINT 566.00 566.00 547.00 549.80ADANIPORTS 378.00 381.90 375.45 379.90DMART 1934.90 1958.65 1901.15 1916.85ADANIGREEN 199.20 206.75 193.00 202.20SUNPHARMA 449.00 451.60 446.20 447.35JUBILANT 610.00 637.00 604.05 621.75FORCEMOT 1464.00 1502.00 1452.20 1467.15DISHTV 12.79 13.53 12.76 13.42ADANIENT 228.20 228.20 220.50 224.30BHEL 44.95 45.45 43.20 43.35AUROPHARMA 482.85 495.25 475.00 493.05JSWSTEEL 270.00 270.85 264.50 267.30HCLTECH 589.00 593.30 582.15 584.30PVR 1926.00 1959.25 1923.30 1939.15INFY 768.35 770.70 760.55 761.90M&M 566.00 566.00 550.50 553.35MGL 1130.00 1162.20 1129.95 1146.15GAIL 128.60 129.60 126.35 126.75ESCORTS 713.60 713.60 702.00 703.90INDIGO 1478.85 1478.85 1427.00 1438.05FINEORG 2205.00 2270.00 2190.95 2203.80NATIONALUM 45.90 46.50 45.05 45.40CGCL 196.10 198.70 194.50 196.75NBCC 37.90 38.35 36.65 37.05RELINFRA 19.25 20.00 19.25 19.50IDBI 35.30 36.00 35.30 35.75LINDEINDIA 729.70 742.00 725.35 730.60SANOFI 6645.00 6720.00 6645.00 6680.65NAUKRI 2601.00 2676.10 2535.00 2583.20VEDL 156.80 158.30 153.65 153.90BATAINDIA 1782.40 1799.00 1758.30 1786.40GRAPHITE 308.00 309.40 304.00 305.30ADANIPOWER 63.20 63.50 62.40 62.75SIEMENS 1588.70 1611.00 1576.30 1582.15ONGC 123.00 124.45 122.40 122.75BRITANNIA 3097.00 3128.95 3079.45 3114.00BAJAJFINSV 9550.00 9623.95 9511.00 9529.70ABCAPITAL 107.45 108.80 105.80 106.15POLYCAB 1149.00 1149.00 1067.00 1082.45EMAMILTD 341.50 341.50 328.60 334.75EICHERMOT 21359.20 21449.55 20989.00 21047.40

POWERGRID 203.00 204.25 198.95 200.50TATAELXSI 939.00 963.00 926.10 954.70MFSL 520.00 527.00 510.30 524.40RALLIS 227.70 235.70 226.00 234.40IDFCFIRSTB 43.15 43.85 42.95 43.20KEI 532.75 550.50 526.50 530.55NMDC 138.00 138.50 133.85 134.25RAJESHEXPO 718.00 719.15 708.00 714.70HINDALCO 205.30 208.50 204.75 205.25HINDPETRO 249.95 251.75 248.10 249.40STRTECH 135.00 137.55 130.30 131.10NCC 58.05 58.80 56.85 57.40PRESTIGE 419.70 419.70 380.10 381.75ULTRACEMCO 4400.00 4520.60 4400.00 4481.50RADICO 353.80 368.40 344.15 363.75HEG 1110.00 1125.00 1085.00 1096.35PNB 61.60 62.30 61.25 61.45SCI 61.00 61.25 59.80 60.00TATAMTRDVR 80.80 81.30 78.25 78.55TATACOFFEE 100.00 106.90 99.60 102.85IIFL 162.00 175.00 159.45 171.75HEROMOTOCO 2402.00 2409.00 2377.40 2400.60INDIANB 103.95 106.25 103.05 104.75CHOLAHLDNG 540.00 541.50 537.75 540.30UPL 580.00 582.00 572.50 577.65PHILIPCARB 138.45 145.90 137.85 144.15SUDARSCHEM 465.85 490.70 461.90 485.60COALINDIA 202.45 205.20 201.25 202.25BEL 105.40 105.95 103.85 105.10LUPIN 734.00 744.00 728.00 740.95RELCAPITAL 9.84 10.30 9.84 9.84DRREDDY 3059.95 3079.30 3038.50 3057.40ICICIGI 1360.55 1367.95 1324.00 1331.15NIITTECH 1787.00 1817.90 1780.65 1801.70BIOCON 290.15 295.90 290.15 294.45COLPAL 1490.00 1498.50 1483.75 1486.80APOLLOHOSP 1631.00 1641.15 1620.40 1626.20GRASIM 780.10 785.00 763.60 772.15NESTLEIND 15420.00 15500.10 15253.05 15280.20

SPICEJET 102.45 102.65 101.35 101.70TORNTPHARM 2030.85 2057.00 2009.55 2019.95UJJIVAN 325.15 336.70 324.60 334.90SUNTV 477.40 483.40 473.60 480.90BANDHANBNK 486.40 486.40 476.00 476.80REPCOHOME 324.20 365.50 321.90 346.35FORTIS 143.15 146.80 142.10 146.10SPARC 190.40 193.75 184.30 187.15GHCL 206.65 211.00 204.75 209.00IGL 468.00 474.65 465.00 472.05NOCIL 118.20 121.45 116.10 120.90HFCL 17.10 17.20 16.80 17.00IBREALEST 100.10 102.65 98.85 99.95SRTRANSFIN 1070.60 1103.00 1062.90 1089.55VBL 762.20 791.65 762.20 788.00TATACHEM 743.25 755.55 741.15 749.55RNAM 342.90 343.90 338.20 338.75GODFRYPHLP 1404.05 1480.40 1398.20 1417.40WELCORP 171.40 175.40 167.75 168.45JAICORPLTD 112.75 114.50 110.90 111.45GLENMARK 350.75 355.60 346.00 350.80TVSMOTOR 466.85 470.60 458.75 461.05BHARATFORG 515.60 518.25 506.90 510.10WOCKPHARMA 286.00 287.95 279.50 282.10HUDCO 40.05 43.35 40.05 42.65MANAPPURAM 179.20 181.60 178.35 179.15VOLTAS 697.60 704.65 696.05 702.50DCBBANK 202.00 202.00 181.50 182.65ISEC 435.00 439.55 417.50 430.45INOXLEISUR 393.60 409.00 392.10 399.85RAYMOND 680.00 690.25 675.10 679.70BOMDYEING 87.25 87.65 85.50 85.95CASTROLIND 136.00 136.00 131.70 132.30OIL 149.55 149.70 145.30 146.00MRF 68485.40 68559.90 67650.00 67964.40DABUR 486.30 488.25 480.75 486.65NHPC 26.90 26.90 25.65 25.85GNFC 193.55 196.10 192.30 194.00UBL 1295.00 1304.30 1255.75 1271.90JUBLFOOD 1746.00 1770.65 1746.00 1764.30CHAMBLFERT 167.50 174.40 164.00 171.05M&MFIN 349.50 355.80 344.40 352.90RECLTD 136.10 137.90 134.05 134.40WABAG 225.00 232.35 222.70 224.85GODREJCP 750.00 750.00 729.60 731.70INDIACEM 85.00 87.00 84.40 86.40INFIBEAM 57.80 58.95 56.40 57.80

MINDTREE 893.00 906.45 886.65 896.85BAJAJ-AUTO 3087.60 3118.20 3087.60 3096.30HAL 800.80 885.00 800.75 874.20MARICO 346.00 346.00 336.15 336.90ASHOKA 117.65 120.55 114.20 118.85ADANIGAS 171.90 172.55 169.20 169.65PAGEIND 25425.00 25615.85 25189.55 25290.50WIPRO 248.75 248.75 246.25 247.05TECHM 779.00 783.20 775.40 778.85CIPLA 477.10 478.95 472.15 473.25NTPC 119.95 119.95 116.95 117.20KEC 339.00 343.00 334.15 338.15SWANENERGY 122.00 122.05 117.95 118.85SUNTECK 409.85 409.85 392.75 396.40AJANTPHARM 1206.00 1209.60 1169.45 1178.05GUJGAS 270.00 278.00 269.40 276.50DIVISLAB 1881.00 1900.05 1867.15 1870.10TORNTPOWER 313.80 319.20 312.85 314.45JINDALSAW 94.30 96.80 93.60 94.35PCJEWELLER 23.00 23.20 22.65 23.05RPOWER 2.11 2.11 2.11 2.11EQUITAS 102.40 104.45 102.40 103.80VENKYS 1778.95 1809.80 1773.75 1781.30BALKRISIND 1105.00 1107.40 1087.70 1089.50SHOPERSTOP 412.55 446.60 405.00 426.70JKTYRE 82.00 82.00 80.15 80.50APOLLOTYRE 172.00 175.60 172.00 174.90RCF 52.15 53.95 52.10 52.60COROMANDEL 601.85 601.85 582.40 593.90HINDZINC 214.00 215.90 211.75 212.30ITI 101.70 101.80 98.75 99.25SUZLON 2.50 2.58 2.43 2.53TV18BRDCST 26.40 27.95 26.00 26.95SOUTHBANK 11.18 11.40 11.10 11.18NESCO 736.30 760.00 735.00 751.65TATAPOWER 59.90 60.25 59.25 59.55BANKINDIA 67.40 67.70 66.85 67.30GICHSGFIN 157.00 165.00 152.00 160.90PETRONET 273.00 274.85 269.30 274.05DEEPAKNI 385.00 396.00 385.00 389.80NIACL 158.00 168.00 156.90 160.60MUTHOOTFIN 775.55 775.55 761.65 769.05LTI 1899.00 1917.20 1899.00 1908.60DELTACORP 196.00 198.80 195.40 196.70INDHOTEL 143.45 144.55 141.50 144.15ADANITRANS 337.85 344.75 325.00 333.55BALRAMCHIN 185.00 187.15 183.00 183.40UNIONBANK 52.10 52.30 51.60 51.70GMRINFRA 23.25 23.35 22.90 23.10METROPOLIS 1676.00 1676.00 1612.70 1642.75CUMMINSIND 583.80 591.75 578.10 579.85KALPATPOWR 460.00 461.00 445.50 448.65EIDPARRY 224.65 226.60 218.00 218.95DEEPAKFERT 110.55 112.30 106.60 107.95ORIENTBANK 53.55 55.65 53.55 54.90AIAENG 1677.50 1799.00 1669.10 1788.10FRETAIL 347.55 348.70 340.75 343.20CHENNPETRO 153.50 153.50 147.20 148.05EXIDEIND 194.65 195.50 192.70 194.05DIXON 4210.00 4229.75 4140.00 4159.00RVNL 25.00 25.25 24.40 24.60SRF 3610.00 3646.45 3604.00 3610.85CARBORUNIV 339.00 340.40 334.05 336.50SHREECEM 23199.00 23360.00 22840.00 22949.10MIDHANI 166.70 167.50 163.70 164.35NH 362.50 367.40 355.00 357.45AUBANK 888.00 890.70 875.40 888.70KRBL 273.00 287.55 272.85 275.65BIRLACORPN 771.80 773.50 742.35 752.05RITES 317.00 319.00 312.15 313.05BOSCHLTD 14990.00 15100.00 14897.80 14939.70CADILAHC 266.60 270.55 266.15 268.35NATCOPHARM 641.20 650.00 634.95 643.90RAMCOCEM 816.40 830.20 815.00 819.00RESPONIND 91.95 93.50 91.60 92.95WHIRLPOOL 2425.00 2499.20 2425.00 2490.85VINATIORGA 2141.00 2145.10 2076.80 2084.65APLAPOLLO 1941.55 2020.65 1941.55 1986.35HSCL 68.95 69.45 67.50 68.15DBL 412.25 423.00 412.15 415.70MEGH 61.10 61.65 60.25 60.55GODREJPROP 978.40 980.05 950.00 954.15AMARAJABAT 768.30 779.45 768.05 774.95LTTS 1626.00 1630.00 1608.00 1627.60GICRE 253.35 258.45 252.00 255.25COCHINSHIP 439.70 439.70 426.00 427.75MOTILALOFS 853.70 868.00 850.00 858.05SONATSOFTW 326.50 333.45 325.00 332.00JBCHEPHARM 482.80 485.85 468.00 484.65SUPREMEIND 1332.75 1340.00 1309.15 1319.60CESC 756.05 766.10 743.60 746.95EDELWEISS 104.65 105.25 102.30 102.70ENGINERSIN 101.10 101.55 99.75 100.10RELAXO 713.95 713.95 686.15 690.60GSPL 249.00 253.25 247.30 249.50WESTLIFE 379.30 385.40 368.60 381.45GAYAPROJ 77.95 77.95 76.00 76.20VMART 1869.00 1924.70 1869.00 1889.05PARAGMILK 150.50 152.60 149.30 150.15INTELLECT 159.00 164.60 157.00 162.15VSTIND 4625.00 4770.60 4605.00 4644.00JSLHISAR 80.00 82.00 78.45 78.95BBTC 1120.00 1144.00 1120.00 1134.20FCONSUMER 24.50 25.15 24.50 24.80AAVAS 2007.00 2016.00 1950.00 1957.25GSKCONS 8880.00 8975.35 8854.75 8906.55VIPIND 450.50 457.25 446.20 454.15KANSAINER 523.40 524.45 515.00 516.55

LUXIND 1490.80 1537.00 1470.05 1511.15PGHL 4302.10 4368.60 4274.00 4323.90IDFC 38.35 39.30 38.35 38.55CEATLTD 1003.95 1014.00 1000.00 1007.45THERMAX 1063.25 1065.00 1045.85 1053.65NBVENTURES 85.75 93.00 85.45 90.45KTKBANK 74.00 75.30 73.15 74.05TRENT 599.90 600.85 589.15 592.95PTC 61.50 61.50 59.55 59.70AMBER 1291.30 1349.00 1279.00 1318.20IBULISL 117.30 128.75 117.00 128.75WELSPUNIND 49.55 50.60 49.55 49.80GODREJAGRO 546.05 565.00 542.00 559.25GREAVESCOT 141.90 146.45 141.30 142.90PERSISTENT 701.45 727.20 701.45 715.05DALBHARAT 855.85 860.00 835.25 851.20SHANKARA 396.10 406.95 385.65 387.05APLLTD 600.00 601.00 585.00 598.20ASTERDM 162.30 165.45 162.15 163.85ABFRL 231.00 233.65 229.00 229.85INOXWIND 42.55 46.85 42.55 43.80HIMATSEIDE 140.00 143.00 137.15 138.90FSL 42.40 42.85 42.35 42.55IEX 181.55 189.15 181.55 184.45ITDC 307.00 308.70 300.00 301.65HEXAWARE 341.00 344.95 338.00 341.55MASFIN 908.20 940.00 899.15 920.10MAHABANK 14.65 14.96 13.40 13.87JSL 42.95 44.55 42.90 43.45REDINGTON 115.95 120.35 114.10 117.25TVTODAY 252.90 253.25 247.10 249.45KNRCON 293.00 295.90 288.00 295.30BAJAJELEC 395.95 397.70 386.00 387.40TTKPRESTIG 6090.00 6125.10 5982.95 6008.20CUB 238.80 239.40 237.00 237.90DCAL 76.15 77.85 76.10 76.10MAHINDCIE 169.10 172.70 167.55 171.10MINDAIND 380.10 388.25 380.10 385.65IFCI 6.70 6.75 6.45 6.50ALKEM 2350.00 2372.00 2340.00 2350.25SOBHA 449.00 452.35 442.50 443.25JSWENERGY 66.30 67.20 66.10 66.30ASTRAL 1103.00 1110.00 1084.00 1093.50TIMKEN 932.00 939.65 911.60 923.30DHANUKA 470.00 474.00 443.15 448.80JAMNAAUTO 44.50 45.45 44.35 45.15AEGISLOG 210.00 211.75 204.00 208.90CROMPTON 254.40 257.75 253.15 254.95GSFC 83.50 84.50 82.70 83.65TCIEXP 752.10 752.10 730.20 732.95OBEROIRLTY 540.45 551.80 540.45 549.50IPCALAB 1221.00 1228.45 1201.05 1224.75CREDITACC 773.00 777.35 756.90 774.65HINDCOPPER 45.60 45.70 44.95 45.00IRCON 435.00 440.00 431.05 432.25MRPL 46.35 46.50 45.15 45.50BASF 1030.15 1052.55 1007.85 1013.10LALPATHLAB 1651.00 1651.00 1610.95 1619.00SUNDRMFAST 505.00 507.25 500.00 500.10DCMSHRIRAM 413.00 414.00 403.00 408.45GILLETTE 6588.00 6588.00 6317.25 6328.65GLAXO 1628.45 1629.60 1620.00 1622.70JKCEMENT 1284.55 1302.95 1284.55 1289.75NAVINFLUOR 1074.90 1097.85 1074.90 1079.50TRIDENT 7.10 7.25 7.10 7.17GODREJIND 433.00 438.85 429.40 436.70CAPPL 303.45 303.45 285.00 295.75SJVN 27.05 27.15 26.25 26.65MMTC 23.00 23.00 22.10 22.15MOIL 160.35 161.60 158.05 160.35NILKAMAL 1417.40 1483.60 1411.95 1461.00BAJAJCON 237.00 237.60 231.75 232.60TEJASNET 90.00 94.00 89.60 90.20OFSS 2934.70 2971.00 2920.00 2951.60BAYERCROP 4154.80 4207.20 4135.05 4161.00JKLAKSHMI 341.20 344.95 339.80 341.10GRINDWELL 635.00 645.50 625.40 627.70BDL 304.00 311.40 302.00 304.75DHFL 15.40 16.60 15.40 16.05LEMONTREE 55.00 55.10 53.60 53.80BLISSGVS 145.95 147.30 144.90 145.95GESHIP 347.25 347.25 341.00 343.70JISLJALEQS 7.89 8.05 7.80 7.86MPHASIS 883.30 885.50 878.35 879.90UFLEX 222.65 224.00 216.20 222.75CYIENT 461.40 462.30 454.90 461.65TATAMETALI 634.00 658.15 628.90 645.50JMFINANCIL 102.95 104.60 102.45 103.95BLUEDART 2589.60 2670.00 2573.20 2639.95JAGRAN* 68.80 68.80 67.90 68.15PGHH 11280.00 11360.00 11060.00 11204.75PNCINFRA 195.00 196.00 193.40 195.30SYMPHONY 1190.00 1193.85 1155.05 1175.753MINDIA 22083.00 22222.00 22006.05 22095.15SCHNEIDER 82.90 83.70 81.00 81.30FINCABLES 412.50 420.50 407.60 417.85HEIDELBERG 194.45 196.50 193.60 194.30BLUESTARCO 855.45 868.30 836.00 839.45KAJARIACER 558.75 563.00 547.00 549.45TATAINVEST 832.60 836.00 830.35 834.60ATUL 4340.00 4372.95 4315.00 4359.15RATNAMANI 1194.95 1238.50 1181.85 1206.50ASTRAZEN 2511.65 2570.00 2508.80 2538.55ADVENZYMES 176.85 184.70 176.65 183.05VGUARD 228.15 229.40 226.90 227.70TAKE 106.50 107.60 105.20 105.65CRISIL 1810.00 1824.00 1781.90 1788.15INDOSTAR 237.00 238.00 228.50 232.25

GARFIBRES 1447.40 1447.40 1376.25 1376.25GMDCLTD 69.00 69.05 66.00 67.05MINDACORP 105.10 108.40 103.95 104.20CENTURYPLY 169.45 171.10 166.10 169.55HONAUT 27274.00 27425.00 27190.10 27227.75SYNGENE 308.35 309.90 306.05 306.65ABBOTINDIA 12590.15 12760.00 12590.15 12727.10NETWORK18 26.50 28.10 26.35 28.00GUJALKALI 436.00 440.75 426.70 428.50BALMLAWRIE 124.90 125.55 124.10 124.50JCHAC 2079.80 2125.00 2063.45 2107.15ECLERX 655.00 673.05 650.20 669.05NLCINDIA 61.20 61.25 60.60 61.00CCL 198.00 202.40 197.80 199.50SADBHAV 138.00 138.00 132.90 133.80LAXMIMACH 3669.80 3724.00 3656.35 3672.30J&KBANK 29.70 29.95 29.15 29.20TNPL 190.75 193.40 190.30 191.10FINOLEXIND 568.50 568.50 558.75 560.40GPPL 89.20 92.45 89.05 91.75SOMANYCERA 230.60 231.80 225.10 229.00ERIS 510.00 510.00 498.75 501.95ALBK 18.75 18.90 18.55 18.65ZYDUSWELL 1510.90 1510.90 1496.10 1498.20ITDCEM 59.95 61.80 59.55 61.15THYROCARE 555.00 555.00 542.95 550.05ALLCARGO 102.90 104.00 101.90 102.20TIMETECHNO 58.00 59.45 58.00 58.15HATHWAY 21.20 21.45 20.70 21.30BRIGADE 227.90 227.90 225.30 225.95MAHSEAMLES 404.45 417.45 404.45 410.35ANDHRABANK 17.00 17.35 17.00 17.00LAOPALA 175.75 177.50 167.85 169.50GEPIL 676.00 697.80 676.00 690.35CENTRUM 22.90 23.45 22.50 22.75PHOENIXLTD 875.20 898.40 864.00 895.00MAHLIFE 409.65 415.15 407.40 413.15MAGMA 66.20 67.95 65.10 65.40LAURUSLABS 405.90 407.40 402.60 403.95CORPBANK 24.80 24.80 24.25 24.35MHRIL 239.95 241.85 239.45 240.20ARVINDFASN 395.00 421.20 392.60 415.35

UCOBANK 16.30 16.40 16.10 16.15DBCORP 145.25 147.50 143.30 145.70ORIENTELEC 209.50 211.00 208.60 209.35GDL 132.00 135.00 131.95 133.95JYOTHYLAB 156.00 156.00 152.90 153.60PRSMJOHNSN 67.60 68.75 66.60 67.15BAJAJHLDNG 3375.40 3378.30 3366.95 3373.75SYNDIBANK 27.75 27.85 27.40 27.65SCHAEFFLER 4480.00 4639.35 4465.00 4624.20IOB 11.34 11.65 11.31 11.46ESSELPRO 174.00 174.85 170.55 173.55WABCOINDIA 6599.95 6599.95 6414.65 6422.35ENDURANCE 1050.00 1070.00 1046.55 1065.20OMAXE 155.45 156.15 155.05 155.30MAXINDIA 79.60 80.05 79.50 79.70KPITTECH 102.10 102.10 97.80 98.15LAKSHVILAS 15.90 16.15 15.65 15.70CENTRALBK 18.05 18.15 18.00 18.15AKZOINDIA 2037.90 2039.15 2011.65 2016.05SKFINDIA 2199.55 2199.55 2172.25 2181.25GALAXYSURF 1493.95 1502.70 1484.70 1497.55VRLLOG 268.45 269.25 265.50 265.85VTL 1040.00 1055.50 1038.45 1047.15VARROC 488.90 492.80 480.00 485.50STARCEMENT 92.50 92.90 90.10 90.70ORIENTCEM 83.75 84.70 82.65 83.90CHALET 343.00 360.00 343.00 353.40GET&D 156.50 158.40 154.45 155.65SHK 114.60 115.60 113.05 114.35EIHOTEL 145.00 147.75 145.00 147.00SUPRAJIT 203.30 204.00 201.60 202.25SOLARINDS 1131.55 1169.65 1131.55 1163.85HERITGFOOD 374.85 374.85 360.00 362.85FDC 230.00 231.10 227.00 228.25ZENSARTECH 187.25 188.75 185.75 186.65SIS 500.10 512.30 493.00 501.45IFBIND 682.80 687.60 678.00 678.25MAHSCOOTER 4328.00 4368.00 4315.00 4338.05UNITEDBNK 9.20 9.20 8.88 8.91GULFOILLUB 836.20 836.50 831.25 831.25FLFL 406.00 416.95 404.00 413.55SHILPAMED 271.00 271.00 265.00 268.75MAHLOG 424.00 430.00 422.35 427.35KPRMILL 663.60 665.90 658.50 661.00TVSSRICHAK 1805.00 1805.00 1750.00 1758.10VAIBHAVGBL 900.00 903.75 895.40 902.05CERA 2650.00 2650.00 2650.00 2650.00TCNSBRANDS 589.20 594.80 585.25 591.60SFL 1390.00 1400.00 1377.00 1400.00SHRIRAMCIT 1370.95 1380.85 1370.95 1376.00

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SCRIP OPEN HIgh LOW LTP CHANGENIFTY 50 12195.30 12230.05 12162.30 12169.85 -54.70INFRATEL 224.40 243.55 224.40 241.00 19.15ZEEL 269.00 286.70 267.15 283.00 12.25BPCL 457.60 466.50 455.05 463.50 6.35COALINDIA 201.15 205.25 201.15 202.35 1.20KOTAKBANK 1605.00 1630.60 1585.20 1627.35 9.45HDFC 2443.00 2485.90 2432.00 2465.00 10.65ULTRACEMCO 4455.00 4520.00 4440.00 4484.00 16.35BRITANNIA 3100.00 3130.00 3077.25 3120.30 9.85TECHM 777.25 783.40 775.00 779.50 1.30RELIANCE 1528.60 1545.85 1522.00 1535.00 2.65INDUSINDBK 1332.00 1350.00 1320.00 1334.05 2.10TCS 2169.95 2186.55 2158.05 2172.35 2.00BAJAJFINSV 9583.95 9625.00 9508.20 9572.45 -0.30SBIN 313.80 316.95 312.00 313.90 -0.10HINDUNILVR 2059.75 2075.00 2052.15 2062.00 -0.85BHARTIARTL 510.00 515.00 504.40 508.35 -0.35ONGC 123.05 124.50 122.40 122.80 -0.10ADANIPORTS 378.80 382.00 375.30 379.70 -0.35DRREDDY 3055.55 3079.80 3035.85 3052.00 -7.60SUNPHARMA 448.00 451.75 446.00 448.00 -1.45BAJAJ-AUTO 3096.00 3119.00 3085.50 3093.00 -10.70GRASIM 779.00 781.10 763.45 770.00 -2.80BAJFINANCE 4149.95 4186.10 4117.05 4135.00 -17.60WIPRO 247.90 248.20 246.00 246.85 -1.15GAIL 128.35 129.55 126.30 127.20 -0.60LT 1304.75 1313.90 1300.45 1302.10 -7.50NTPC 118.40 119.55 116.95 117.50 -0.75ICICIBANK 532.95 540.25 530.20 531.15 -3.70TITAN 1183.45 1183.90 1161.00 1179.15 -8.70HEROMOTOCO2410.00 2412.65 2375.00 2398.00 -17.60YESBANK 38.60 39.20 38.10 38.35 -0.30HDFCBANK 1250.00 1250.00 1238.40 1244.90 -10.00INFY 768.45 770.50 760.75 761.15 -7.30NESTLEIND 15361.05 15501.60 15200.00 15270.25 -147.00HINDALCO 206.00 208.50 204.65 205.10 -2.20HCLTECH 589.30 593.25 582.35 582.75 -6.50UPL 582.80 582.80 572.20 578.00 -6.60AXISBANK 726.35 729.60 716.05 717.45 -9.75ITC 241.45 241.45 238.00 238.45 -3.45CIPLA 478.95 479.55 472.20 473.00 -7.15JSWSTEEL 270.00 270.90 264.35 266.80 -4.55EICHERMOT 21358.00 21475.00 20970.30 21005.00 -360.10POWERGRID 203.65 204.30 199.00 201.05 -3.60VEDL 157.00 158.40 153.55 154.05 -2.85IOC 118.00 118.45 114.25 115.15 -2.35MARUTI 7411.50 7434.65 7287.80 7297.90 -151.70ASIANPAINT 1839.95 1842.55 1793.85 1809.00 -39.75TATAMOTORS 195.50 196.40 190.20 190.25 -4.75M&M 564.00 564.90 550.10 550.95 -16.25TATASTEEL 487.80 487.80 473.50 474.50 -16.15

SE 500B

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SCRIP OPEN HIgh LOW LTP CHANGENIFTY NEXT 50 28699.10 28801.20 28583.85 28617.35 -137.10IDEA 5.30 6.05 5.30 5.95 1.10AUROPHARMA 481.00 495.40 472.00 494.50 11.55IBULHSGFIN 292.80 305.80 291.55 300.90 6.50ASHOKLEY 84.20 86.65 83.60 86.15 1.35PEL 1574.95 1617.00 1560.00 1610.30 24.10NIACL 157.00 168.35 156.10 160.40 2.05SRTRANSFIN 1071.00 1103.80 1062.85 1086.95 13.55OFSS 2944.90 2974.90 2912.00 2950.00 30.80LUPIN 733.00 744.25 727.25 739.80 7.10HDFCLIFE 595.70 609.70 594.15 602.50 4.25BIOCON 291.60 295.90 290.10 294.10 2.05L&TFH 117.55 119.50 116.10 118.90 0.80CADILAHC 266.00 270.50 266.00 268.50 1.55ICICIPRULI 488.15 497.00 478.20 490.45 2.15AMBUJACEM 206.00 209.90 205.70 207.85 0.80MCDOWELL-N 578.10 580.50 570.20 580.35 2.25DABUR 485.40 488.35 480.45 487.50 1.45MOTHERSUMI 136.40 139.45 134.00 138.00 0.35CONCOR 550.50 554.25 550.00 552.15 1.20ACC 1494.95 1509.40 1487.00 1500.00 2.45BANKBARODA 94.70 95.70 94.10 94.80 0.10HINDPETRO 248.85 251.85 248.00 249.00 0.25BAJAJHLDNG 3383.00 3383.00 3362.00 3379.00 3.25PETRONET 272.95 274.95 269.00 273.55 0.15GICRE 254.50 258.60 251.50 254.85 0.00BOSCHLTD 14929.95 15130.00 14890.00 14926.10 -44.25PAGEIND 25377.85 25600.00 25160.60 25260.00 -117.85PNB 61.55 62.30 61.25 61.30 -0.30SIEMENS 1591.70 1611.00 1575.10 1578.25 -13.50PGHH 11222.05 11300.00 11200.00 11210.20 -98.30SBILIFE 980.00 987.00 970.20 972.75 -8.75COLPAL 1499.45 1499.45 1483.20 1486.80 -14.45SHREECEM 23160.10 23398.70 22831.55 22901.15 -231.95DLF 258.00 258.85 255.00 256.10 -2.85DIVISLAB 1892.00 1900.90 1868.00 1868.00 -24.00DMART 1930.00 1959.55 1901.90 1912.00 -24.65BANDHANBNK 481.00 483.90 476.00 477.00 -6.70PIDILITIND 1439.25 1440.00 1412.50 1416.00 -24.40ICICIGI 1357.65 1369.00 1323.00 1331.00 -23.75HAVELLS 623.00 632.65 612.85 614.00 -11.30HINDZINC 214.00 216.80 211.65 212.40 -3.95HDFCAMC 3228.00 3240.00 3172.00 3178.00 -67.00INDIGO 1460.00 1462.80 1426.10 1440.00 -32.35GODREJCP 749.90 749.90 729.80 730.20 -18.35UBL 1300.40 1305.30 1256.00 1271.35 -32.10MARICO 344.00 345.00 336.00 336.50 -9.60NMDC 138.00 138.40 133.80 134.30 -4.50BERGEPAINT 564.60 565.00 547.00 547.90 -19.25NHPC 26.80 26.80 25.65 26.00 -1.05PFC 112.10 112.65 106.20 106.20 -6.15

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Heightened precautionswere being taken in China

and elsewhere Tuesday as gov-ernments strove to control theoutbreak of a new coronavirusthat threatens to spread furtherduring the Lunar New Yeartravel rush.

Anxieties grew afterChinese government expertZhong Nanshan revealed onstate television late Mondaythat the virus can be spreadfrom one person to another.The first cases late last monthwere connected to a seafoodmarket, and transmission wassuspected to be occurring fromanimal-to-human. Authoritiespreviously had not confirmedhuman-to-human transmis-sion.

Four people have died, andmore than 200 have beeninfected, and most of the ill-nesses and all of the fatalitieswere in Wuhan, the centralChinese city where the seafoodmarket is located.

In addition to 198 cases inWuhan, more than 20 havebeen diagnosed in Beijing,Shanghai and southernGuangdong province, and fourcases have been confirmedoverseas among Chinese trav-elers in South Korea, Japan andThailand.

Two cases in Guangdongwere people who had not vis-ited Wuhan but fell ill afterfamily members returned fromthere. Zhong cited those as evi-dence the disease had spreadbetween humans.

Concerned about a globaloutbreak similar to SARS, a dif-ferent coronavirus that spreadfrom China to more than adozen countries in 2002-2003,numerous nations have adopt-ed screening measures for trav-elers arriving from China, espe-cially those from Wuhan.

Stock markets fell in muchof Asia as investors worriedabout the potential impact ontourism and the economy.

“The outbreak of a SARS-like coronavirus in Wuhan isdeveloping into a major poten-tial economic risk to the Asia-Pacific region now that there ismedical evidence of human-to-human transmission,” wroteRajiv Biswas, the Asia Pacific

chief economist at IHS Markit,in an analysis.

He noted that the SARScrisis hurt the economies ofChina, several Southeast Asiannations and as far afield asCanada and Australia.

Australia, Japan and SouthKorea were among countriesincreasing airport screenings.Australia receives a significantnumber of travelers fromChina, including three directflights a week from Wuhan intoSydney, and these flights will bemet by border security andbiosecurity staff for assess-ments, the nation’s chief med-ical officer Brendan Murphytold reporters.

At least three US airportshave started screening incom-ing airline passengers fromcentral China.

“We need to step up ourcaution levels as the number ofpatients is continuing to rise inChina,” Japanese PrimeMinister Shinzo Abe said at ameeting with the health min-ister and others from relatedministries.

“Please take every possibleprecaution,” Abe said.

The coronavirus familyincludes those that cause thecommon cold, but some foundin bats, camels and other ani-mals have evolved into more

severe illnesses. SARS, or severeacute respiratory syndrome,and MERS — Middle East res-piratory syndrome — are in thecoronavirus family.

The possibility the viruscould be spread between peo-ple increases the chances itcould spread faster and morewidely. The Chinese govern-ment has estimated people willmake around 3 billion tripsduring the Lunar New Yeartravel season, but some socialmedia users have said they maystay home due to concernabout the spread of the illness.

Zhong, who helped exposethe scale of SARS, told statebroadcaster CCTV that twopeople in Guangdong provincecaught the virus from familymembers.

Fifteen medical workershave also tested positive for thevirus, the Wuhan MunicipalHealth Commission said.

Chinese President XiJinping instructed governmentdepartments to promptlyrelease information on thevirus and deepen internation-al cooperation. His commentsMonday were his first on theillness.

When SARS first infectedpeople in southern China, theChinese government initiallytried to conceal the severity of

the epidemic, which ended upkilling nearly 800 people. Thecover-up was exposed by ahigh-ranking physician.

Gabriel Leung, dean ofmedicine at the University ofHong Kong, said Chineseauthorities have respondedmuch more quickly this time.

“Our underlying assump-tions are, the force of infectionis very different now ... becauseso many public health mea-sures have been undertakenand so many interventionshave been executed,” Leungtold reporters at a briefing.

Leung, who was heavilyinvolved in the response toSARS, said modeling showsthat cases will multiply over thecoming weeks but the out-break will gradually losemomentum as precautions takeeffect.

Initial symptoms of thenew coronavirus include fever,cough, tightness of the chestand shortness of breath.

Everyone entering BeijingUnited Family Hospital onTuesday was required to havetheir temperature checked assoon as they entered the door.The hospital provided surgicalmasks to all patients, who weretold they had to wear them. Allnurses, doctors and cleaningstaff were also wearing masks.

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Iran has confirmed two mis-siles were fired at a Ukrainian

airliner brought down thismonth, in a catastrophic errorthat killed all 176 people onboard and sparked angryprotests. The country’s civilaviation authority said it has yetto receive a positive responseafter requesting technical assis-tance from France and theUnited States to decode blackboxes from the downed airlin-er.

The Kiev-bound UkraineInternational Airlines planewas accidentally shot downshortly after takeoff fromTehran’s Imam KhomeiniInternational Airport onJanuary 8.

Iran has come under

mounting international pres-sure to carry out a full andtransparent investigation intothe air disaster.

“Investigators... discoveredthat two Tor-M1 missiles...were fired at the aircraft,” Iran’sCivil Aviation Organisationsaid in a preliminary reportposted on its website lateMonday.

It said an investigation wasongoing to assess the bearingtheir impact had on the acci-dent.

The statement confirms areport in The New York Timeswhich included video footageappearing to show two projec-tiles being fired at the airliner.

The Tor-M1 is a short-range surface-to-air missiledeveloped by the former SovietUnion that is designed to tar-

get aircraft or cruise missiles.Iran had for days denied

Western claims based on USintelligence reports that theBoeing 737 operating FlightPS752 had been shot down.

It came clean on January11, with the RevolutionaryGuards’ aerospace commanderBrigadier General AmiraliHajizadeh accepting fullresponsibility.

But he said the missileoperator who opened fire hadbeen acting independently.

The deadly blunder trig-gered days of student-ledprotests mainly in the Iraniancapital.

Supreme leader AyatollahAli Khamenei said on Fridaythat the demonstrations wereunrepresentative of the Iranianpeople and accused the coun-

try’s enemies of exploiting theair disaster for propagandapurposes.

In its report, the CivilAviation Organisation said itwas “impossible” for it to readthe flight data and cockpitvoice recorders — commonlyknown as black boxes —because they are so advanced.

But it suggests Iran wantsto keep them for the timebeing. “If devices are provided,the information (on the blackboxes) can be restored andretrieved in a short period oftime,” it said.

The Civil AviationOrganisation said it had askedits French and US counterparts,the BEA and NTSB respec-tively, to provide a list of theequipment required to read theblack boxes.

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Protest-themed Lunar NewYear fairs have sprung up

across Hong Kong to raise moneyand morale for the city’s pro-democracy movement despitestiff resistance from local author-ities and pro-Beijing politicians.

The fairs are an annual sta-ple in the run-up to the new year,which begins on Saturday andwill see millions around theworld welcome the Year of theRat. Usually the fairs stock flow-ers, fruits, dried goods and othertraditional new year gifts.

In the past, political partiesfrom across the spectrum set upstalls to raise money and aware-ness of their causes — often withsatirical posters and productsteasing their rivals.

But the government bannedsuch stalls this year at the 15 offi-cial fairs after more than sevenmonths of political unrest.

In response, nearly a dozenindependent fairs have been setup across the city, selling mer-chandise laden with references tothe pro-democracy protests.

At a fair on the steep slopesof the city’s Sai Ying Pun district,hundreds of shoppers formedlong queues. One stall was giv-ing away cloth bags with Chinesecalligraphy ambigrams that usethe characters for both “HongKong” and “add oil”, a popularphrase of encouragement.

At another, a vendor was sell-ing traditional “fai chun” newyear greetings that people hangon their doors, blending tradi-tional auspicious wishes withprotest slogans and demands.

Many of the shoppers andvendors criticised the govern-ment’s decision to stop politicalparties setting up stalls at the offi-cial fairs.

“Cutting (them) seems to beone of the measures adopted by

the government to punish thenon-violent supporters of theprotests,” said Tam Kwok-sun, 64,who was making fresh prints onT-shirts and bags at the fair onCentre Street.

Some of the independentfairs have met opposition, foundit difficult to find venues and evenhad to cancel.

The fair in Sai Ying Pun hadits length cut from 100 to 50metres by local officials after pro-establishment politicians said itwas unsafe.

“They rejected our applica-tion after the first meeting of thenewly elected council,” saidCamille Yam, a member of thepro-democracy camp whichswept to victory in municipal-level elections back in November.

A fair at a public housingcomplex in Kwan Chung districtwas cancelled entirely after thelocal Housing Authority revokedits approval three days before the

opening, co-organiser Janis Fantold AFP. The decision came afterpro-Beijing councillors who losttheir seats in November’s localelections criticised the fair organ-isers for “instigating strong polit-ical ideologies within commu-nities”.

“One day after we were sin-gled out and criticised, theauthority revoked its approvals,”Fan said.

One of the objections raisedby the pro-establishment blocwas the presence of a “pig withpolitical meaning” in postersadvertising the fair — a referenceto a cartoon pig that has beenembraced by protesters as a sym-bol of their movement because2019 was the Year of the Pig.

The pig began life as a memeon LIHKG, an online forum thatserves as a virtual command cen-tre for the protests, and now fea-tures heavily in protest mer-chandise.

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Astridently anti-military Thaiparty survived a first legal

attempt to disband it Tuesdayover alleged sedition — includ-ing links to the Illuminati, asecret group conspiracy theo-rists say is seeking global dom-ination.

The Constitutional Courtruled Future Forward — a pro-democracy party which vehe-mently opposes the army-aligned establishment — hadnot shown any intent to over-throw the constitutional monar-chy.

Dismissing the charge, ajudge on the nine-memberbench said there was no sign keyexecutives and the party “hadtaken actions against the con-stitutional monarchy”.

The ruling sparked jubilia-tion at party headquarters, withsupporters cheering “long live

democracy” and “hell to dicta-torship”. But FFP — Thailand’sthird largest party which drawson a deep well of youth support— still faces further threats ofdissolution.

It is loathed by the pro-mil-itary establishment for its crit-icism of the army’s role in pol-itics and for pushing policiessuch as an end to conscriptionand a cut in defence spending.

The same court is still con-sidering a second charge overalleged illegal loans by its charis-matic billionaire founderThanathorn Juangroong-ruangkit, who also faces a bar-rage of cases against him.

“We believe those cases arepolitically motivated,”Thanathorn said to cheers at apress conference after the ruling.

He vowed to push foramendments to the 2017 army-scripted constitution, whichanalysts say tilted last year’s elec-

tion in the favour of military-backed parties.

Calling an end to the “legalwar” against Future Forward,secretary general PitabutrSaengkanokkul said dissolvingparties was “not useful toThailand’s democracy”.

Thailand’s recent politicalhistory has been shaped by thecourts, which routinely abolishparties and unseats premiers inwhat critics say are politicallymotivated cases. The kingdomhas disbanded five parties since2007 — a move that “kicks outpolitical talent”, analyst ThitnanPongsudhirak ofChulalongkorn University toldAFP.

The court considered alle-gations that speeches by seniorFFP members were seditious, aswell as a spurious claim theparty was linked to theIlluminati, a secret societywhose existence has never seri-

ously been proven.That part of the complaint

centered on whether the partylogo — an upside-down trian-gle — resembled the symbol ofthe alleged republican-leaninggroup traced back to 18th-cen-tury Europe.

Thailand’s ultra-wealthymonarchy is at the apex ofpower and is buttressed byharsh royal defamation lawsand the backing of the army.

The kingdom remains in apolitical quagmire with thecountry split over the arch-roy-alist government of PrimeMinister Prayut Chan-O-Cha, aformer army chief who seizedpower in a 2014 coup.

Newly formed FutureForward only came ontoThailand’s political scene in2018, drawing the support ofmillions of mostly young Thaisweary of pro-establishmentforces in government.

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Britain on Tuesday unveiledplans to end the early

release of terrorism prisonersand increase their sentences,following last year’s LondonBridge attack by convicted ter-rorist Usman Khan.

The government said itwould launch a “major review”of how convicted terrorists aremanaged in response to theNovember 29 violence, whichsaw Khan kill two peoplebefore being shot dead bypolice.

The attack, which occurredduring the general electioncampaign, immediately becamehighly politicised as Khan had

already served timed for terroroffences before being releasedearly.

The reforms announcedaim to ensure those convictedof serious offences, such aspreparing acts of terrorism ordirecting a terrorist organisa-tion, spend at least 14 years inprison.

They will also force suchoffenders to serve their wholesentence behind bars — ratherthan be eligible for early release— and overhaul the terroristlicensing rules.

“The senseless terrorattack... in November con-fronted us with some hardtruths about how we deal withterrorist offenders,” Home

Secretary (interior minister)Priti Patel said in a statement.

“Today we are... givingpolice and probation officersthe resources they need toinvestigate and track offenders,introducing tougher sentences,and launching major reviewsinto how offenders are man-aged after they are released.”

Jonathan Hall, the govern-ment’s independent reviewer ofterrorism legislation, will over-see “a sweeping independentreview” of the multi-agencysystem dealing with terrorismoffenders, the statement added.

The proposed bill will dou-ble the number of probationofficers specialising in terror-ism prisoners and introduce

measures such as polygraphtesting.

It will increase the numberof places available in probationhostels so officials can keepcloser tabs on terrorists in theweeks after their release fromprison.

The government said itwould also review the supportavailable to victims of terror-ism, pledging to invest 500,000pounds (USD 650,000, 586,000euros) “to ensure more victimsget the support and advicethey need, faster”.

It will simultaneouslyincrease the counter-terrorismpolice budget by 90 millionpounds to 906 million poundsin the coming financial year.

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Former Interpol chief MengHongwei, who was detained on a

visit to China in 2018, was sentencedTuesday to more than 13 years inprison for bribery in a case thatshook the international police organ-isation.

Meng - a former vice minister ofpublic security - is among a growinggroup of Communist Party cadrescaught in President Xi Jinping’s anti-graft campaign, which critics say hasalso served as a way to remove theleader’s political enemies.

He vanished during a visit toChina from France, where Interpol isbased, and was later accused of accept-ing bribes and expelled from the

Communist Party. His wife was grant-ed political asylum in France last year,after saying she was afraid she and hertwo children would be the targets ofkidnapping attempts.

Meng was sentenced to 13 yearsand six months in prison and finedtwo mil l ion yuan RMB (USD290,000), said the Tianjin FirstIntermediate People’s Court onTuesday.

At his trial last June, he pleadedguilty to accepting USD 2.1 million inbribes, after the court said he used hisstatus and positions to “seek improp-er benefit” and accumulate bribes.

The court statement on Tuesdaysaid Meng had “truthfully confessedto all the criminal facts” and would notappeal the decision.

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Eleven people including 10 Uzbek workersdied when a fire ripped through a one-

storey wooden shack in a remote village inthe Siberian region of Tomsk, officials saidon Tuesday.

“The bodies of 11 people have beenfound,” Russia’s emergencies ministry said ina statement.

Citing preliminary information, region-al authorities said that ten of the victims werecitizens of Uzbekistan.

The fire broke out on the territory of aprivate saw mill in the Prichulymsky settle-ment and the wooden shack was used tohouse workers despite its substandard con-ditions, authorities said.

The regional governor arrived at the sceneof the tragedy and tasked officials with con-ducting a fire safety inspection in the entireregion.

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President Donald Trump’simpeachment trial is set to

unfold at the Capitol, a con-tentious proceeding overwhether to remove him fromoffice for pressuring Ukraine toinvestigate his Democraticrivals and obstructingCongress’ ensuing investiga-tion.

As the Senate reconveneswith Chief Justice John Robertspresiding, a first test will comemidday Tuesday when the ses-sion gavels open to vote onSenate Majority Leader MitchMcConnell’s proposed rulesfor debate.

More than procedure is atstake: Trump’s presidency is onthe line, and the nation isdeeply divided just weeksbefore the first Democraticprimary presidential contests.To complicate matters, fourpresidential candidates areserving as jurors in the Senatetrial, which will keep them offthe campaign trail.

On the eve of the trial, theRepublican leader offered acompressed calendar for open-ing statements, just two days foreach side, as Trump’s lawyersargued for swift rejection of the“flimsy” charges against thepresident and acquittal.

“All of this is a dangerousperversion of the Constitutionthat the Senate should swiftlyand roundly condemn,” thepresident’s lawyers wrote intheir first full filing Monday.

“The articles should berejected and the presidentshould immediately be acquit-ted.”

Democrats — as the Houseprosecutors practiced openingarguments well into the nighton the Senate floor — vowed toobject to a speedy trial as theypressed for fresh witnesses anddocuments.

Senate Democratic leaderChuck Schumer warned of a“cover-up” with McConnell’splan that could lead to back-to-back 12-hour days.

“It’s clear Sen. McConnellis hell-bent on making it muchmore difficult to get witnessesand documents and intent onrushing the trial through,”Schumer said. He called theproposed rules a “national dis-grace.”

The first several days of thetrial are expected to be tangledin procedural motions playingout on the Senate floor or, morelikely, behind closed doors,since senators must refrainfrom speaking during the trialproceedings.

Senators are poised foronly the third presidentialimpeachment trial in U.S. his-tory, coming just weeks beforethe first primaries of the 2020election, with four senatorsrunning for the Democraticnomination sidelined fromcampaigning.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, theVermont independent, toldsupporters in Des Moinesthey’re going to have to “carry

the ball” for him while hetakes his seat in Washington.The Iowa caucuses are in lessthan two weeks.

Trump, meanwhile, is at aglobal conference in Davos,Switzerland. His White Housesaid McConnell’s proposedrules protect Trump’s rights toa fair trial.

White House legislativeaffairs director Eric Uelandsaid the White House looks for-ward “to presenting a vigorousdefense on the facts and theprocess as quickly as possible,and seeking an acquittal asswiftly as possible.”

House Speaker NancyPelosi will also be away for theproceedings, leading a biparti-san congressional delegation toPoland and Israel to com-memorate the 75 years sincethe liberation of Auschwitz atthe end of World War II.

She issued a statementTuesday denouncingMcConnell’s proposed groundrules as a “sham” because of thecompressed schedule and lackof guarantee that witnesseswill be called or that evidencegathered by the House wouldbe admitted in the Senate trial.

“The Senate GOP Leaderhas chosen a cover-up for thePresident, rather than honorhis oath to the Constitution,”Pelosi said.

House Democratsimpeached the Republicanpresident last month on twocharges: abuse of power bywithholding US military aid to

Ukraine as he pressed thecountry to investigateDemocratic rival Joe Biden,and obstruction of Congress byrefusing to cooperate with theirinvestigation.

The Constitution gives theHouse the sole power toimpeach a president and theSenate the final verdict by con-vening as the impeachmentcourt for a trial.

The president late Mondaynamed eight HouseRepublicans, some of hisfiercest defenders, to a specialteam tasked with rallying sup-port beyond the Senate cham-ber in the court of public opin-ion.

McConnell is angling for aquick trial and acquittal, andwith Republicans holding theSenate majority, the trial pro-posal is likely to be approved bysenators in the president’s party.

The Republican leader hadpromised to set rules similar tothe last trial, of President BillClinton in 1999, but his reso-lution diverged in key ways,which may leave some senatorsfrom both parties uneasy.

After the four days ofopening arguments, senatorswill be allowed up to 16 hoursfor questions to the prosecutionand defense, followed by fourhours of debate. Only then willthere be votes on whether ornot to call other witnesses.

At the end of delibera-tions, the Senate would thenvote on each impeachmentarticle.

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Young climate campaignerGreta Thunberg on

Tuesday said a lot has hap-pened since her campaigncaught eyes of the world but“nothing has been done” actu-ally to save the planet.

“In one aspect, lots hashappened since last year. Themass mobilisation of youngpeople around the world hasput climate at the top of theagenda,” the 17-year old cam-paigner from Sweden said hereat the WEF Annual Meeting.

“People are more general-ly aware now. The climate andthe environment is a hot topic.But — and it’s a big but: Fromanother perspective, prettymuch nothing has been done,”

she said.It is just the “very begin-

ning” and a lot needs to bedone given the ever increasinggreenhouse gas emissions, shesaid.

Thunberg also said shecan’t complain about not beingheard as she is a person who isbeing heard all the time, draw-ing applause from the audience.

Thunberg and a panel ofother young activists werespeaking at a session on‘Forging a Sustainable Pathtowards a Common Future’about how their efforts toimprove the world can achievethe desired results.

The participants includedSalvador Gómez-Colón, whoraised funds and awarenessafter Hurricane María devas-

tated his native Puerto Rico in2017.

Natasha Mwansa, fromZambia who campaigns forgirls’ and women’s rights, andAutumn Peltier, Chief WaterCommissioner for theAnishinabek Nation of indige-nous people in Canada, werealso present.

In 2018, Thunberg beganprotest ing outside theSwedish parliament duringschool hours with a signpainted with the words,‘Skolstrejk for Klimatet’(School Strike for Climate).She has continued to strikeevery Friday, inspiring hun-dreds of thousands of chil-dren worldwide to follow herexample.

“... why is it so important to

stay below 1.5 degrees celsius?Because even at 1 degree peo-ple are dying from climatechange because that is what theunited science calls for, toavoid destabilising the climateso that we have the best possi-ble chance to avoid setting offirreversible chain reactions,”she said. Thunberg stressedthat every fraction of a degreematters.

Citing parts of theIntergovernmental Panel onClimate Change (IPCC) reportthat came out in 2018, she saidthat if we are to have a 67 percent chance of limiting theglobal average temperature riseto below 1.5 degrees celsius, wehad on January 1st, 2018, about420 gigatons of CO2 left to emitin that budget.

“... of course, that numberis much lower today, as weemit, about 42 gigatons of CO2every year, including in landuse. With today’s emissionslevels, that remaining budget isgone within less than eightyears,” she noted.

According to her, thesenumbers also don’t includemost feedback loops, non-lin-ear tipping points nor addi-tional warming hidden by toxicair pollution.

“Most models, however,assume that future generationswill, however, somehow beable to suck hundreds of bil-lions of tons of CO2 out of theair with technologies that donot exist today in the scalerequired - and perhaps neverwill,” Thunberg noted.

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US President Donald Trumpon Tuesday said the US is

in the midst of an economicboom that has never been seenbefore anywhere in the world.

The American dream isback and it’s better than everand there is no one better thanthe American middle classtoday, Trump said.

In a special address at theWorld Economic Forum(WEF) annual summit, he saidsince he last addressed Davostwo years ago, the US hasenjoyed the “great Americancomeback” that he had pre-dicted.

“Today I am proud todeclare that the United States isin the midst of an economicboom the like of which hasnever been seen before,” hesaid.

According to him, 11 mil-lion jobs have been gained byAmerica since his election andaverage unemployment rate isthe lowest for the tenure of anyUS President in history.

He also noted that the newtrade deal initiated with Chinais very important.

Earlier, Trump had tweet-

ed, “Heading to Davos,Switzerland, to meet withWorld and Business Leadersand bring Good Policy andadditional Hundreds of Billionsof Dollars back to the UnitedStates of America! We are nowNUMBER ONE in theUniverse, by FAR!!”

Two years ago here inDavos, Trump had said, “I willalways put America First ... ButAmerica First does not meanAmerica alone.”

Trump on Tuesday said thesecond phase of negotiationsfor the US-China trade dealwould begin soon and assert-ed that the two countries neverhad a better relationship despitethe recent rough patch.

He also said he has a greatrelationship with ChinesePresident Xi Jinping.

“My relationship with Xi isextraordinary. He’s for China,I’m for the US but other thanthat, we love each other,” theAmerican president said at theWorld Economic Forum(WEF) annual summit here.

He also announced that theUS will join the 1 trillion treesinitiative being launched atWEF.

“This is a time for opti-

mism and not for pessimism.We must reject perennialprophets of doom who havebeen making alarmist predic-tions,” Trump said.

Talking about reformsundertaken by his government,Trump said, “I knew that if weunleashed the potential of ourpeople, cut taxes, slashed reg-ulation, fixed broken tradedeals and fully tappedAmerican energy, that pros-perity would come thundering

back and that is exactly whathappened.”

“Years of economic stag-nation have given way to aroaring geyser of opportunity,”he added.

“We have launched a his-toric step of removing jobkilling regulations. We areremoving all archaic laws.Today I urge the nations to fol-low our example and liberatetheir citizens from the shack-les of bureaucracy and other

archaic laws. There is no bet-ter place on the earth than theUnited States,” he asserted.

Trump further said hisadministration is focussing ontrade, which was neglected byhis predecessors.

“We are also addressingchronic problems that under-mined our trade. Our leadersearlier didn’t do anything onthis. The phase two negotia-tions for our China trade dealis going to start soon. Our rela-tionship with China has neverbeen better. We went througha rough patch, but things aregood now. I’ve a great rela-tionship with President Xi,”Trump said.

“Our relationship withChina right now has probablynever been better. China hasmade on trade, particularly inintellectual property, endingforced technology transfers,lifting trade barriers on agri-cultural goods, opening up thefinancial sector and maintain-ing a stable currency,” Trumpsaid.

The first phase of the dealmarks a de-escalation in thetrade war pitting the two pow-erful economic giants againsteach other for nearly two years.

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Presidents EmmanuelMacron and Donald

Trump have agreed to extendnegotiations on a dispute overa French tax on digital giantsto the end of the year, post-poning Washington’s threatof sanctions against Paris, aFrench diplomatic source hassaid.

The source said the Frenchand US leaders, who spoke onSunday, had agreed to givenegotiations a chance to “finda solution in an internationalframework” and avoid “a tradewar that will benefit no one”.

Macron tweeted earlierMonday that he had had a“great discussion” with Trumpon the issue. “We will worktogether on a good agreementto avoid tariff escalation,” hesaid on Monday.

“Excellent!” replied Trumpon Twitter.

The White House said thetwo men spoke and “agreed itis important to complete suc-cessful negotiations on the dig-ital services tax, and they also

discussed other bilateral issues.”The dispute began last yearwhen Paris approved a levy onup to three percent of revenuesearned by technology compa-nies in France, as internation-al efforts dragged on to find anew model for taxing revenuesearned via online sales andadvertising.

Tech companies often paylittle tax in countries in whichthey are not physically present.

Washington said the taxsingled out US companies suchas Google, Apple, Facebook,Amazon and Netflix, andthreatened duties of up to 100per cent of the value of Frenchimports of such emblematicgoods as Champagne andCamembert cheese.

On January 7, the twosides gave themselves 15 daysto reach a deal to avert the USthreat of duties on up to USD2.4 billion of French goods.

French Finance MinisterBruno Le Maire, who has beenconducting intensive negotia-tions for the last several weeks,was less sanguine than Macron,describing the talks as “very

difficult” earlier Monday.Avoiding sanctions that

could be announced as soon asWednesday is “far fromassured”, he told French televi-sion LCI.

Le Maire is due to meet USTreasury Secretary StevenMnuchin at the WorldEconomic Forum meeting inDavos on Wednesday.

They are expected to con-tinue talks seeking a negotiat-ed agreement in theOrganization for EconomicCooperation and Development(OECD).

“France is pursuing itsobjective of fair taxation ondigital companies and findinga compromise within theframework of the OECD,” theFrench presidency said onMonday.

France has said it woulddrop its tax if an internationalagreement is reached.

After blocking the OECDtalks for several years,Washington relaunched themlast year only to make propos-als in December which Francerejected.

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For the first time, Sri Lanka’sPresident Gotabaya

Rajapaksa has admitted thatthousands of people missingsince the end of the brutal civilwar between the governmentand the Tamil Tiger rebelsover a decade ago are “dead”.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa, theformer wartime defence secre-tary who played a key role inending Sri Lanka’s nearly 30-year civil war with the Tamilseparatist rebels, told UNResident Coordinator HanaaSinger during their meeting lastweek that after the necessaryinvestigations are completedsteps would be taken to issuedeath certificates to these miss-ing persons, the ColomboGazette reported.

According to the govern-ment figures, over 20,000 peo-ple are missing due to variousconflicts including the three-decade separatist war withLankan Tamils in the north and

east which claimed at least100,000 lives.

The Tamils alleged thatthousands were massacred dur-ing the final stages of the warthat ended in 2009 when thegovernment forces killedLiberation Tigers of TamilEelam (LTTE) chief VelupillaiPrabhakaran. The Sri LankanArmy denies the charge, claim-ing it as a humanitarian oper-ation to rid the Tamils ofLTTE’s control.

International rights groupsclaim at least 40,000 ethnicTamil civilians were killed inthe final stages of the separatistwar, but the government hasdisputed the figures.

The President’s Officequoted Rajapaksa as sayingthat he outlined his plans toaddress the issue of missingpersons.

“He explained that thesemissing persons are actuallydead. Most of them had beentaken by the LTTE or forceful-ly conscripted. The families of

the missing attest to it.However, they do not knowwhat has become of them andso claim them to be missing,”President Rajapaksa’s officesaid.

The President said thatafter the necessary investiga-tions are completed stepswould be taken to issue a deathcertificate to these missingpersons.

“Afterwards their familieswould be given the supportthey need to continue withtheir lives. Tamil politiciansreject this solution as it wouldnullify their political agenda.However, this would help theaffected families,” he was quot-ed as saying.

Several mass graves con-taining skeletal remains havebeen found since, but only ahandful have ever been identi-fied.

The UN envoy andPresident Rajapaksa held talkson sustainable peace and har-mony.

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An Indian storekeeper in the UAE has won a luxury car anda whopping 200,000 dirhams in a Dubai raffle, ending a

decade-long wait to hit the jackpot, according to a media reporton Tuesday.

Sreejith has been buying raffle tickets every year for the last10 years, Khaleej Times reported.

The storekeeper claimed an Infiniti QX50 car as well as200,000 dirhams (USD 54,448) cash prize in the Infiniti MegaRaffle, part of the 25th edition of Dubai Shopping Festival (DSF),the report said.

Commenting on winning the jackpot, Sreejith said: “I could-n’t believe my ears. I have diligently purchased a raffle ticket everyyear for the last 10 years, with the hopes to strike lucky one day.This win means so much to me and I now believe that dreamscan come true. I have two boys and a third on the way and thismoney will ensure that my kids have a bright future ahead ofthem”.

The Infiniti Mega Raffle offers DSF visitors the opportu-nity to drive away in an Infiniti QX50 car and 200,000 dirhamsin cash every single day of the festival.

Participants have to buy a raffle ticket for 200 dirhams tostand a chance to win. In addition, one lucky DSF shopper willgo home with a grand prize of 1 million dirhams in cash atthe end of DSF.

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A“merr y-go-round” ofextreme weather was

hampering efforts by fire-f ighters in Austral ia to tackle unprecedented bush-f ires that have ki l led at least 29 people and devas-tated vast swathes of thecountry.

Parts of the country wel-comed heavy rainfal lovernight, but authoritieswarned Tuesday that stormswere bringing added compli-cations, and the fire-dangerrisk could be elevated in thecoming days.

“It has been a merry-go-round of weather over the lastfew days,” the Bureau ofMeteorology’s Kevin Parkinsaid.

“We have gone from firesand storms and floods, andgiant hail — the size oflimes... producing widespreaddamage — to fire dangerescalating on our doorstep,”the senior meteorologist

added.The country has suffered

a col l is ion of extreme climate events in the pastweek, with storms, lightning,thunder and hai l battering areas in the fire-hiteast.

The bushfire season hasbeen made worse by climatechange, experts say.

Victoria state experiencedbursts of intense rain over thepast 48 hours that helped tocontain long-running blazesin some areas, but landslides,fallen trees and lightningstrikes have hampered recov-ery efforts.

The temperature inVictoria is set to climb intothe mid-30 degrees Celsius(95 degrees Fahrenheit) rangeon Wednesday amid fiercewinds, prompting extremeweather warnings in the west-ern parts of the state, whereauthorities say “new start”fires will be difficult to con-tain.

“New starts in unpre-

pared communities are thebiggest r isk,” Victor iaCountry Fire Authority chiefofficer Steve Warrington toldmedia.

“If communities are notprepared for fire — whetherthey live or die, whether theirproperty is saved or not saved— is very much dependent ondecisions people make rightnow.”

A change is expected tobring more rain to the statelate Wednesday.

Further north in NewSouth Wales state, heavy

rains have a lso beenwelcomed in some areas but in others it has left fire-ravaged areastoo damp to undertake preventat ive control ledburns.

Authorities there arebracing for elevated fire dan-ger on Thursday, when tem-peratures in parts of the statewill tip above 40 degreesCels ius (104 degreesFahrenheit).

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The global public over-whelmingly blames global

warming on human activitieswith trust level declining in cli-mate science, but Indians arethe most trusting people in thisregard, a new opinion pollshowed on Tuesday.

Indians and Bangladeshishave topped the charts when itcomes to trust in climate sci-ence as also for keeping them-selves abreast about news andcurrent affairs, while Russiaand Ukraine are among thelaggards on both counts.

The new public opinionpoll published by the WorldEconomic Forum here at its50th annual meeting called forbetter climate education andurgent upskilling.

The global public over-whelmingly blames globalwarming on human activity,with some regions less trusting

of climate science in 2020,according to the survey.

The findings reinforce theurgent need for a collectiveapproach from business, gov-ernment and civil society toadvance societal and environ-mental agendas, the WEF said.

The survey also found thatmajority of people in the worldbelieve schools are under-preparing students for jobs.Outside of the Americas andSouth Asia, education is stillviewed as a privilege for half ofthe population or less.

The WEF said the worldurgently needs to start imple-menting policies and strategiesthat advance societal and envi-ronmental agendas – fromreskilling the population for thefuture to ensuring strong edu-cation and leadership on cli-mate change from all sectors.

The global public-opinionpoll, prepared in collabora-tion with SAP and Qualtrics,

surveyed more than 10,500people in 30 countries account-ing for around 76 per cent ofthe global population.

The findings have beenpresented in two parts —Toward a More SustainableWorld and Toward a MoreCohesive World — which formthe theme of this year’s annu-al meeting. Toward a MoreSustainable World surveyfound that while more than halfof respondents reportedly trustclimate science, those in Indiaare the most trusting where 86per cent said they trusted sci-entists “a great deal” or “a lot”.

India was followed byBangladesh (78 per cent) andPakistan (70 per cent). Chinaand Turkey (both 69 per cent)complete the top five.

By region, almost a fifth ofNorth American adultsexpressed “little” (12 per cent)or “no” (6 per cent) trust in cli-mate science, compared to

South Asia, expressing “little”trust (4 per cent), and “no” trust(2 per cent).

Respondents were alsoasked whether they believedglobal warming exists and whatcauses it. Overall, more thantwo-thirds of people agreedthat it is caused mostly byhuman activity – In LatinAmerica and the Caribbean (78per cent) agreed.

“We look forward to theAnnual Meeting 2020 being abreakthrough moment for cli-mate change. Our participantsmaking a commitment to helptackle this urgent issue is in linewith the stakeholder imperativeof the 2020 Davos Manifestoand the theme of the 50thWorld Economic ForumAnnual Meeting: Stakeholdersfor a Cohesive and SustainableWorld,” said Klaus Schwab,Founder and ExecutiveChairman of the WorldEconomic Forum.

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Prince Harry has left the UKto reunite with his wife

Meghan Markle and their eight-month-old son Archie inCanada where the family willstart a new life after the couple’sbombshell announcement to“step back” from Britain’s royalfrontline and spend more timein North America.

The Duke of Sussex isunderstood to have left the UKfor Canada on Monday eveningfollowing one of his final officialengagements as a working royal,The Telegraph reported.

Harry, 35, was said to bedesperate to be reunited withArchie, whom he had not seenfor two weeks, and his 38-year-old American actress wife inCanada that the young familyplans to make their home.

Queen Elizabeth II’s grand-son was whisked to Heathrowfollowing a morning of bilater-

al meetings with African lead-ers at the first UK-AfricaInvestment Summit inGreenwich, south London. Hisflight to Vancour Island viaMontreal was delayed by 20minutes as he checked inthrough the Windsor suite, thereport said.

Harry left the UK aftermeeting Prime Minister BorisJohnson and world leaders at theUK-Africa Investment Summitin London, which is likely to beone of his few remaining officialengagements before the Sussexestake a “leap of faith” and leavethe monarchy in the spring, theMirror said in a report.

Buckingham Palace, how-ever, has refused to confirm theDuke had fled the UK, saying:“We don’t comment or guide onprivate schedule”.

Prince Harry gave an emo-tional speech on Sunday night,saying he had “no other option”but to give up his official royal

duties and forge a new life inCanada, even as he expressed“great sadness” after beingstripped of their royal titles.

In his first statement after aformal split from the royal fam-ily was finalised by the 93-year-old Queen over the weekend,Harry said when he marriedMeghan, they were “excited” and“hopeful”.

“The decision that I havemade for my wife and I to stepback, is not one I made lightly,”the Prince said in a speech at adinner event for charitySentebale, co-founded by him in2006 to support those affected byHIV in Lesotho and Botswanain southern Africa.

“It was so many months oftalks after so many years of chal-lenges. And I know I haven’talways got it right, but as far asthis goes, there really was noother option. What I want tomake clear is we’re not walkingaway, and we certainly aren’t

walking away from you,” he said.The speech came a day

after the Buckingham Palaceannounced that the couple willbe forsaking their His and HerRoyal Highness titles and nolonger receive any share of theSovereign Grant, or the UK tax-payer funding allocated to seniorroyals.

It followed weeks of talksafter Harry and Meghanannounced their plans earlierthis month to “step back” fromBritain’s royal frontline andspend more time in NorthAmerica.

Meghan, the Duchess ofSussex, is already in VancouverIsland in Canada with Archie.

Meanwhile, Harry will con-tinue with his pending royalduties in the UK until the newagreement struck with the palacekicks in from spring towards theend of March and the couplebegin their new financially inde-pendent roles.

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The National Testing Agency has declaredthe results of Joint Entrance

Examination (JEE Main Jan 2020). The JointEntrance (JEE Main) examinations wereheld in between January 6 and 9, 2020 in 233cities across India.

With the JEE Main Jan 2020 resultsdeclared by NTA, FIITJEE has a reason torejoice and celebrate its students’ feat.

Nishant Agarwal, a student of FIITJEESouth Delhi Centre has been declaredDelhi(NCT) Topper by securing NTA score100.000000 in JEE Main(Jan) 2020. Hescored NTA score 100 in Physics, 100 inChemistry and 99.9846935 in Maths respec-tively.

Nishant Agarwal is NTSE scholar in 2017& KVPY fellow. He is also qualified NationalStandard Examination in Astronomy (NSEA)in 2018.

Another FIITJEE Student, NisargChadha, threeYear classroom programme stu-dent of FIITJEE Vadodara Centre has alsoscored perfect 100 percentile, thereby becom-ing a Gujarat State Topper.

Subsequently, in JEE Main 2020(January), 12 FIITJEE Studentshave Toppedtheir respective States- Chhattisgarh, Delhi,Gujarat, Jharkhand, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh,Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Tripura,Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

A total number of 9, 21,261candidateshadregistered for Paper-I (BE/BTech) in theexamination.

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The FORE School ofManagement, New Delhi

offers a full-time fellowProgramme in Management(FPM) approved by AICTE. Theobjective of this programme is toenhance the body of knowledgein the research domain and itsdissemination.

It is aimed at admittingscholars with exceptional acad-emic background, strong moti-vation, discipline and having astrong inclination towards goodquality research.

Dr Hitesh Arora, Dean(Academic Services), FORESchool of Management says:“The FPM at FORE is built on itsstrong foundation and long expe-rience of eminent FORE Facultymembers in creating industry-ready researchers and academi-cians. FORE scholars are exposedto a carefully designed curricu-lum that prepares them for therigours of the research.Additionally, a full-time fellowprogramme in Managementalways gives an extra edge inknowledge creation and a stronginclination towards good quali-

ty research.”Specialisations offered are in

the areas of economics and busi-ness policy, finance and account-ing, information technology,international business, market-ing, organisational behaviour &human resource, quantitativetechniques and operations man-agement, communication, strat-egy.

The highlights of the pro-gramme are that it providesfinancial assistance, support toattend international/nationalconferences/workshops and acontingency grant.

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The British Council, ownersof IELTS, the global English

Language proficiency test areoffering ten prizes of up to£3,000 to help students who arestudying in autumn/winter2020, and early 2021.

On December 23, 2019,The British Council launcheda campaign for students whoare considering studying nextyear.

For filling in an onlineform with just 500 words,explaining why they deservethe money and where they

plan to go study, studentscould potentially win £3,000toward their study fees. Theonly stipulation is that theymust be studying in the nextacademic year and have takenan IELTS test between January2019 and February 2020.

To be in with a chance ofwinning the IELTS prize, allstudents will need to submittheir details into the applica-tion form and tell why theywould like to win!

For more information logon to https://takeielts.british-council.org/take-ielts/study-work-abroad/ielts-prize.

����� �������The Indian School of

Hospitality in collaborationwith At-Sunrice GlobalChefAcademy, Singapore, invitesapplications for admissionsto its Diploma in Pastry &Baker y and Diploma inCulinary Arts.

Duration: One and a halfyear

Eligibility: Applicantswho have completed ClassXII or equivalent, Graduates,Professionals and PG stu-dents who are planning tochange career or venture inthe exciting world of bakeryor culinary art are eligible toapply for this course.

Also, students with IELTS5.5/TOEFL 46-59/WPLNLevel 5 or at least 75 per centin English in Class XII examscan apply.

How to apply: Log on tohttp:// ish.edu.in/how-to-apply.html .

L ast date to apply :January 31, 2020.

�-� ����-� The JK Business School

(JKBS) invites applicationsfor admissions to its AICTEapproved PGDM programme.

Duration: Two yearsEligibility: Graduate in

any discipline from a recog-nised university with mini-mum 50 per cent score is eli-gible to apply for the PGDMprogramme.

Selection is based onC AT / M AT / C M AT / ot he r

national managemententrance exams, JKBS writtenaptitude test, group discus-sion, personal interview, pastacademic record, extra-cur-ricular activities and workexperience.

How to apply: Log on towww.jkbschool.org or call at18001020240.

L ast date to apply :January 31, 2020.

0������Delhi Collage of Art

(DCA) invites applicationsfor admission to its Fine Art(BFA) and Super ProfessionalDiploma programme in FineArt (DFA) courses.

Duration: Two years forBFA and four years for DFA.

Eligibility: Class XII passfrom any stream who wants towork in Fine arts industry canapply.

How to apply: Log on towww.delhicollageofart.co orthe Application forms &brochure may be obtainedfrom admission office of DelhiCollage of Art.

L ast date to apply :January 31, 2020.

�What is the liberal arts approach to edu-cation?

It is focused on providing students aworld view, empowering them to approachcomplexity, change and diversity in a bet-ter manner, for example through the lensof science, culture and society.

A liberal arts education is needed toimpart key communication skills (writing,speaking and negotiating); expose studentsto many disciplines like arts, humanities,and the social, natural and information sci-ences; and empower students to innovate,be creative and entrepreneurial, and charttheir own paths in becoming engaged cit-izens and community role models.�What are its benefits?

A liberal arts education teaches onehow to learn, how to think creatively, andhow to communicate effectively. These arecritical skills for leadership in the 21st cen-tury.�How does this approach help preparestudents for all the challenges that lieahead?

In a changing world, the most impor-tant skill is to be able to adapt, to take innew information and make sense of the sit-uation. Learning how to learn is consistentwith the liberal arts approach, where stu-

dents learn across many different styles, top-ics and paradigms.

The liberal arts and humanities are vitalto our future, preparing students for thechallenges they will confront in their pro-fessional, political, social and cultural lives. �What should the Indian government doto promote liberal arts education?

The draft new education policy is agreat step to recognise the importance ofthe liberal arts education.

Next will be needed resources devotedto infrastructure, increasing awarenessabout the benefits of such education, sup-porting faculty and students, and perhapseven supporting more internationalexchange programmes to learn from othercountries as well.�How does the approach help in gettingbetter jobs?

If there is one thing common in everyjob, it is human interaction. The humani-ties — the academic fields that study thehuman condition, society and culture —prepare young adults for the most essentialaspects of work: getting along with otherpeople, understanding multiple points ofview and coming to terms with one’s placein the world.

As such, students of all majors need

exposure to the humanities to be adequately— and practically — prepared for the work-ing world. The return on investment of aVassar liberal arts education can be seen inour excellent outcomes, with 95 per cent ofstudents being employed, in graduateschool or on a competitive fellowshipwithin six months of graduation. �Partnership/collaborations that Vassarhas entered into?

In the summer of 2019 Vassar partneredwith the University of Global Health Equity(UGHE) in Rwanda, to teach classes in thehumanities and sciences, helping shape theway medical education is delivered inAfrica in the future; and forged a partner-ship with Columbia University MailmanSchool of Public Health, enabling Vassarstudents to earn a master’s degree in pub-lic health a year after they graduate fromVassar.

Vassar was also in China this summer,exploring opportunities to incorporate a lib-eral arts model in a local context with gift-ed high school students there. In partner-ship with the Diligence & Delight LearningCenter in Beijing, we ran a three-week pro-gram taught by Vassar faculty, exposing stu-dents to a liberal arts classroom environ-ment.

In the early part of the lastdecade, the word outsourc-ing struck fear in the hearts

of professionals in developedcountries. White-collar work-ers feared their jobs would beoutsourced to India, wheresomeone would do them for afraction of the salary thanthose expected in industri-alised countries. Thankfully,outsourcing was a win-win forthose in western countries andIndians because it created morejobs in developed countriesthan were offshored.

Today, there is fear thatjobs of almost every kind willbe automated. Physicians,lawyers, software architects,and others with highly-skilled,well-paying jobs never fearedtheir jobs would be outsourced.Still, today they are concernedthat Artificial Intelligence willbecome sophisticated enoughto make them redundant.Software is becoming excep-tionally advanced: Whatseemed impossible 10 yearsback, today seems just over thehorizon. Self-driving vehiclesare an example. Before 2008,few believed AI would be intel-

ligent ever to drive cars itself.Today while much needs to bedone to improve AI, mostbelieve it is only a matter oftime before it replaces humansbehind the wheel.

The prowess of AI behindthe wheel is only one exampleof machines doing jobs thatwere believed only humanscould. Artificial Intelligence isgetting better every year atwriting its own software code.But AI’s growing prowess does-n’t mean it is only a matter oftime before programmersbecome obsolete. There are alot of programmers that can dowhat AI cannot and may neverbe able to. Programmers anddesigners who have expertise inthe following software can resteasy that their jobs are unlike-ly to be assigned to AI.

�8��6�9Engineers, architects, and

designers who know AutoCADwill remain in demand. Themodelling capabilities ofAutoCAD let virtually anyform and its components bemodelled. What will makeknowledge of AutoCAD so

valuable to employers is itrequires users to have an imag-ination as well as technicalskills. Artificial Intelligencemay be able to replicate humanactions and make accurate pre-dictions using more data pointsthan humans. Still, it cannot,and may never be able to imag-ine. The ability of humans toimagine is a reason profes-sionals who know AutoCADwill always be in demand.

����1The economy of the future

will be data-driven, so therewill continue to be a massivedemand for those who under-stand how to use data sciencetools. Spark is the most popu-lar data science tool. Hence,professionals who know how touse it will have little difficultyworking in well-paying jobs.Using Spark, they will be ableto accurately model consumerbehaviour and make predic-tions that result in higher sales.While AI’s ability to make pre-dictions is uncanny, employersneed people who know how toextract compelling stories fromdata. A critical reason expertise

in Spark will be crucial forfuture success is it will remainthe best data science tool forthe foreseeable future.

��:���8�Software testing is essential

to roll out products that work asexpected. Selenium is a vitalsoftware testing tool becausemuch of it is automated.Software testers need to knowhow to use Selenium to put thesoftware through the right tests.To do so, they must select theproper tests and author com-puterised tests. KnowingSelenium, they can do both.

The software is essentialbecause it saves enormous timeand effort in testing: Thosewith knowledge of the softwarewill enjoy careers that are futureproof.

6@�����8���<Creating games is chal-

lenging, fun, and can beextremely lucrative. Unity isone of the most popular gameengines. Newbie game devel-opers can bring their vision tolife using C# for Unity. In addi-tion to game developers, design-

ers can use C# for Unity to workinside Unity’s IntegratedImmersive Environment andcreate a virtual world. Becauseconsumers have grown accus-tomed to outstanding visualexperiences in games and alsoexpect interactive virtual envi-ronments, knowing how to useC# in Unity is a hugely valuableasset. Those who know how touse C# in Unity will be prizedresources for many organisa-tions.

Depending on whose nar-rative is believed, automation iseither a decimating job or isoverhyped. The reality likelyrests in the middle and shouldbe cause for concern amongprofessionals. Millions of devel-opers are working to make AIsmarter. AI is doing the sameitself as well. While fear of out-sourcing was overblown, AI’sability to replace humans is not.Gradually more jobs will beassigned to AI. Yet, engineersand designers with expertise inthe mentioned software mayremain immune to its encroach-ment for decades, if not longer.

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Every number in numerology indi-cates towards a certain career and

the person should choose his careeraccording to the number of his des-tiny/conductor number. Throughnumerology we also understand therelationship or affinity or enmitybetween various numbers. So, weshould not select that career, whichbecomes a barrier towards our success.

Let us take a few examples.Suppose a person whose destiny num-ber is two, ruled by Moon and whichis soft, artistic, caring, has interest inmusic, singing, and in case if he choos-es the career of marketing, architect,salesman, which are characteristics ofnumber five, then he is bound to fail.So, in this way we can avoid misfor-tunes.

Similarly, a person having destinynumber one, ruled by Sun alwaysaspires for managerial positions, headof the company, bureaucrats, politiciansand if they choose a career in media,film industry, cosmetics, which arecharacteristics of number six, they willnever be successful and will have toleave the job.

A person having destiny numberseven is inclined towards spiritualism,meditation, politics and now if theychoose a career in salesmanship, job indefence forces like army and air force,which are characteristics of numbernine, then they will not gel with the

profile.People having destiny number

eight are good organisers, inclinedtowards justice, good in banking andcommerce, if they choose the career ofshare market, gambling, entertain-ment, which are characteristics ofnumber seven, then their chances ofgrowth will become less.

Hence, if a person chooses a careermatching with his destiny number thenhis/her chances of becoming success-ful increases.

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(#+�&�#��%#���� ����Afellow member of the institute CS Ashish Garg, has been elect-

ed as President of the Institute of Company Secretaries ofIndia for the year 2020 w.e.f. January 19, 2020. A nominatedDirector on the Board of ICSI Institute of Insolvency Professionals,he has also chaired several in-house Committees of the ICSI ofthe likes of Placement Committee, PMQ Committee andDirect Tax Code Committee.

CS Nagendra D Rao, a fellow member of the institute hasbeen elected as the Vice-President of the Institute of CompanySecretaries of India for this year w.e.f. January 19, 2020.

He is a whole time Practising Company Secretary and is theDesignated Partner and Founder of Nagendra D Rao &Associates LLP. He has been elected to the Central Council ofInstitute of Company Secretaries of India for the term 2019-2022.He was also the Chairman of Southern India Regional Councilfor the year 2015.

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The pitches in New Zealand havebecome a lot more batting-friend-

ly over the years, says iconic formerbatsman Sachin Tendulkar, insistingthat India have the “ammunition” totrouble the sprightly hosts during theupcoming series.

Tendulkar, who has been on arecord five New Zealand tours since1990, feels that from seaming tracksduring his early trips years, the tracksbecame high-scoring hard ones duringhis last tour back in 2009.

“Of late, the Tests in New Zealandhave been high scoring and surfaceshave changed,” Tendulkar told PTIduring an exclusive interview.

From 2002, when India played

ODIs and Tests on green tops, to 2009,when India won only their second Testseries in 32 years, Tendulkar has seenit all in New Zealand.

“I remember when we played in2009, the Hamilton pitch was differentcompared to other pitches. Other pitch-es got harder (Wellington and Napier)but not Hamilton. It remained soft.

“But Napier became hard withpassage of time (where GautamGambhir scored an epic match-saving12-hour hundred in 2009). So, frommy first tour (in 1990 till 2009), Irealised pitches got harder with pas-sage of time,” Tendulkar said.

Tendulkar is confident that the

Indian bowling attack, spearheaded byJasprit Bumrah, has the ammunitionto put New Zealand in trouble.

“We have a good bowling attackwith quality fast bowlers as well asspinners. I believe we have the ammu-nition to compete in New Zealand.”

However, in Wellington,Tendulkar wants the team to be well-prepared to counter the breeze factor.

“Wellington, I have played and itmakes a huge difference if you arebowling with the wind or against thewind. The batsman needs to be judi-cious in the choice of which end hewants to attack, it is very important,”he said.

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Top seed Rafael Nadal turnedon the style as he launchedhis bid for a record-equalling

20th Major title at the AustralianOpen on Tuesday, but falling starMaria Sharapova hit a career low.

Australia's Nick Kyrgios alsocantered into the second round,but fourth seed Daniil Medvedevhad to fight his way past AmericanFrances Tiafoe in four sets.

Nadal, one shy of RogerFederer’s Grand Slam mark,dropped only five games as heswatted aside Bolivia's HugoDellien 6-2, 6-3, 6-0 in just overtwo hours at a sunny Rod LaverArena.

“It was a positive start,” said thereigning Roland Garros and USOpen champion, wearing a brightpink singlet and matching trainers.

“What you want in the firstround is just to win, and it’s bet-ter if it's in straight sets.”

He joins Federer and defend-ing champion Novak Djokovic in

round two as the Big Three look totighten a stranglehold that hasbrought them all but one of the last14 Australian Open titles.

Nadal, the first player to beworld number one in three differ-ent decades, is still thriving at 33but it's a different story for five-time Grand Slam winnerSharapova.

The 32-year-old, playing on awildcard as she wrestles with ashoulder injury, lost 6-3, 6-4 toCroatian 19th seed Donna Vekic,making her an opening-roundloser at three straight Grand Slamsfor the first time.

The future looks uncertain forthe former world number one, whowon Wimbledon when she was just

17 but has not reached a GrandSlam final since she lifted the2014 French Open trophy.

“I can speak about my strug-gles and the things that I've gonethrough with my shoulder, but it’snot really in my character to,”Sharapova said.

“I was there, I put myself outthere (playing). As tough as it was,

I finished the match — it wasn’t theway that I wanted.” Britain’sJohanna Konta, a two-time Slamsemi-finalist, also fell at the firsthurdle as she battles to overcomea knee problem, losing 4-6, 2-6 tounseeded Tunisian Ons Jabeur.���� )�0�-�����

On a bumper day of 88 first-

round matches, after rain wipedout half of Monday’s schedule, for-mer US Open champion MarinCilic and Milos Raonic bothmoved safely through.

Italy’s Fabio Fognini, two setsdown against America’s ReillyOpelka when their match was sus-pended on Monday, returned towin it in five after a stormyencounter when both playersargued furiously with the umpire.

A new star emerged in 18-year-old Italian Jannik Sinner, last year'sNextGen champion, who earnedhis first Grand Slam victory againstAustralia’s Max Purcell. Australia'sKyrgios, who has spearheadedfundraising efforts for the country'sdeadly bushfire disaster, kept hisnotorious temper in check despitebeing taken to two tie-breaks in a6-2, 7-6 (7/3), 7-6 (7-1) win overLorenzo Sonego of Italy.

“I feel super-comfortable, youguys are the best. I feel the sup-port.... I am ready to go again,”

Kyrgios told the crowd.Medvedev, the narrow loser to

Nadal in September’s US Openfinal, dropped the second setagainst Tiafoe before recovering towin 6-3, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.

Austria’s Dominic Thiem, whohas reached the last two FrenchOpen finals, went through instraight sets against AdrianMannarino, while 2014 championStan Wawrinka needed four to getpast Damir Dzumhur.

Seventh seed Alexander Zverevbeat Marco Cecchinato in straightsets but there was disappointmentfor France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the2008 finalist, who retired with aback injury against Australia’sAlexei Popyrin.

Elsewhere, women’s fourthseed Simona Halep survived somepainful-looking falls to beatAmerica’s Jennifer Brady, and 2016champion Angelique Kerberdropped only four games againstElisabetta Cocciaretto of Italy.

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Senior India pacer IshantSharma has been ruled out

of next month’s two-Test seriesin New Zealand after sustain-ing an ankle tear during a RanjiTrophy game here, a Delhistate cricket association officialsaid on Tuesday.

“Ishant Sharma’s MRIreport shows a Grade 3 ankletear and it is serious. He hasbeen advised three to six weeksof rest and rehabilitation. It isindeed a big blow,” DDCA gen-eral secretary Vinod Tiharatold PTI.

Another DDCA officialadded: “Luckily there is nofracture. There is an ankletear. The moment he is in aposition to walk, he will trav-el to NCA.”

However, the Indian crick-et board is yet to issue a state-ment on Ishant’s injury.

“It’s a Standard OperatingProcedure (SOP) in BCCI aswe will again do his MRI toascertain degree of tear anddecide on his rehabilitation,” aBCCI source said.

Fellow Delhi pacerNavdeep Saini is likely to

replace the 96-Test veteran inthe Test squad.

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New Zealand are up againsta “powerhouse” in the vis-

iting Indian cricket team, saysformer all-rounder CraigMcMillan who feels the BlackCaps will have to win in two outof three formats to be eligiblefor at least the “pass marks”.

New Zealand will hostIndia for five Twenty20s, threeODIs and two Tests beginninghere on January 24 and thehosts will be desperate tobounce back from the recent 0-3 Test drubbing at the hands ofAustralia.

“It’s big. This whole Indiantour is big after what hap-pened in Australia,” McMillanwas quoted as saying by ‘RadioSport Breakfast’.

“This Indian side are apowerhouse. Doesn’t matter ifit’s Tests, ODIs, T20s, they arethe real deal so it’s going to bea really intriguing tour. For NewZealand to get a pass mark forthis tour they need to win twoof the three series.”

The series against Indiawill start with the T20 rubberon Friday and McMillan feelswith the ICC T20 World Cupscheduled to be held later this

year, it is imperative for NewZealand to win this assignment.

“Five Twenty20s to startand I know it’s not everyone’sfavourite format of the gamebut we’ve got a T20 World Cup

later in the year in October inAustralia so straight away thesefive matches become important.Because of the performance inAustralia we need to start win-ning again and get that support

back," he said.“They’re still trying to find

in T20 what our best side is.We’ve just seen the Super Smash

and there’s an opportunity forsome young guys who per-formed in that to be given achance,”McMillan added.

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Defending champions Indiaoutclassed debutants

Japan by 10 wickets in theirsecond match to all but securea spot in the quarterfinals ofthe ICC U-19 World Cuphere on Tuesday.

Opting to field first, four-time champions India bowledout a hapless Japan for 41 runsin 22.5 overs with leg-spinnerRavi Bishnoi taking four wick-ets. It was the joint secondlowest total by a team in theUnder-19 World Cup andjoint third lowest in theunder-19 cricket history.

Pacers Kartik Tyagi andAkash Singh shared five wick-ets among themselves as noneof the Japanese batsmenentered double digits.

India needed just 4.5 oversto complete the formalitieswith Yashasvi Jaiswal andKumar Kushagra remainingunbeaten on 29 and 13 respec-tively.

India captain PriyamGarg, however, said his fastbowlers could have done abetter job.

“Very happy with the per-formance. The spinners weregood, but the lines and lengthscould have been better fromthe pacers. There’s no pressureas such. We want to do well,we take every game as itcomes,” said Garg.

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Young Sarfaraz Khan hit anunbeaten century as Mumbai

fought back on the third day of theirRanji Trophy Elite Group B gameagainst Uttar Pradesh here onTuesday.

UP had posted a mammoth625/8 declared in their first essay,courtesy Upendra Yadavs unbeatendouble hundred (203 not out).

Mumbai resumed the day ontheir overnight score of 20/2 and hada mountain to climb.

Thanks to herculean effort by‘crisis man’ Siddhesh Lad (98 off 174balls; 10x4x1x6), who lived up to hisbilling and 22-year-old Sarfaraz (132not out off 160 balls; 14x4; 4x6), theduo gave Mumbai the confidencethat UPs first- inning score could beoverhauled.

Overnight batsmen BhupenLalwani (43 off 80 balls; 5x4) andHardik Tamore (51 off 94 balls; 10x4)had an uphill task on hand of surviv-ing the morning session against theexperienced Ankit Rajpoot and Yash

Dayal.They negated the challenge well

and stitched a crucial 75-run standfor the third wicket.

Pacer Wajid Ali gave the visitorsthe much needed break-throughafter he trapped Lalwani in front ofthe wicket as Mumbai lost their thirdwicket at 91.

Tamore then notched up hismaiden first-class fifty by driving Alithrough the covers for a four, butcould not convert it into a big score.

��-��������)�������.��)�Kalyani (WB): Rookie spin all-rounder Shahbaz Ahmed shone witha first-innings hat-trick in a six-wick-et match haul as Bengal thrashed asloppy Hyderabad by an innings and303 runs for their first win of theongoing Ranji Trophy season, hereon Tuesday.

The 25-year-old, who wasbought by Royal ChallengersBangalore for the 2020 edition of theIPL, claimed the feat in his seventhRanji appearance.

Shahbaz (4/26) ran through theHyderabad lower order to help hisside bundle out the visitors for 171in their first innings. Following on,Hyderabad were all out for 161 withShahbaz (2/51) accounting for twobatsmen.

Shahbaz became the seventhplayer from Bengal, and first sinceIndia pacer Mohammed Shami, toclaim a Ranji Trophy hat-trick.Shami had achieved the milestoneagainst Madhya Pradesh in 2012-13.

Rookie pacer Akash Deep (4/38)was the star in Hyderabad’s secondessay as Hyderabad were bundled outin 46.2 overs.

Bengal had scored 635 for sevendeclared in their first innings afterelecting to bat.

�:��������'������������Cuttack: Jammu & Kashmirbounced back superbly after conced-ing first innings lead to pull off afour-wicket win over Odisha on thethird day of the Ranji Trophy Group‘C’match here on Tuesday.

Resuming its second innings at136 for seven, Odisha could add only30 runs as Umar Nazir picked up thelast three wickets—Rajesh Mohanty,Suryakant Pradhan and RajeshDhuper.

Chasing 204 for a win, J&Kopener Suryansh Raina (69) andShubam Pundir (45) added 79 runsfor the third wicket to lay the plat-form for an easy win.

Abdul Samad with a knock of 30

not out and the first-innings bowl-ing hero Aquib Nabi (26 not out) toothe side over the finish line.

For the home team, BasantMohanty bowled his heart out andpicked up four wickets in the secondinnings but could not prevent J&Kfrom romping home.

In Delhi, Services pulled off anexciting one-wicket win overHaryana despite being shot out for97 in the first innings.

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Indian wicketkeeper batsmanWriddhiman Saha, who is

recovering from a finger surgery,has been asked to skip Bengal'snext Ranji clash against Delhi tokeep himself ready for the upcom-ing Test series in New Zealand.

The 35-year-old sustained afracture on the ring finger of hisright hand during the historic

Day/Night Test Test againstBangladesh in Kolkata inNovember and consequentlyunderwent a surgery in Mumbai.

“Wriddhi will not be availablefor Delhi match (at Eden Gardensfrom Sunday). I think the Board(BCCI) has said no to him,”Bengal coach Arun Lal said afterthey scripted an innings and 303win over Hyderabad to brightentheir qualifying hopes.

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Wicketkeeper-batsmanSanju Samson and tal-

ented opener Prithvi Shawreplaced injured India openerShikhar Dhawan for theupcoming T20 and ODI seriesagainst New Zealand respec-tively.

Dhawan dislocated hisshoulder while fielding in thethird ODI against Australia inBengaluru on Sunday.

Shaw returns to the seniorteam after a gap of one year fol-lowing an ankle injury and aneight-month doping ban.Samson, who played in the T20series against Sri Lanka earli-er this month, was back as areserve opener cum keeper.

India’s T20I squad: ViratKohli (C), Rohit Sharma (VC),Sanju Samson, KL Rahul,Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey,Rishabh Pant (WK), ShivamDube, Kuldeep Yadav,Yuzvendra Chahal,Washington Sundar, JaspritBumrah, Mohammed Shami,Navdeep Saini, RavindraJadeja, Shardul Thakur

India’s ODI squad: ViratKohli (C), Rohit Sharma (VC),Prithvi Shaw, KL Rahul,Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey,Rishabh Pant (WK), ShivamDube, Kuldeep Yadav,Yuzvendra Chahal, RavindraJadeja, Jasprit Bumrah,Mohammed Shami, NavdeepSaini, Shardul Thakur, KedarJadhav.

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Quinton de Kock was onTuesday named as South

Africa's one-day internationalcaptain as part of a long termtransition plan.

His first assignment will beto lead the team in a three-match series against WorldCup champions England, start-ing in Cape Town on February4.

Test and Twenty20 captainFaf du Plessis was not in a 15-man squad named by CricketSouth Africa on Tuesdaydespite committing himself tothe organisation until theWorld Cup T20 in October andNovember.

Independent selectorLinda Zondi said Du Plessis'omission did not signal the endof his ODI career.

“We decided to rest Faf andKagiso Rabada for this seriesbecause they have both played

a lot of cricket,” said Zondi.“A different squad will be

picked for a T20 series againstEngland after the one-daygames and after that there arestill T20s and ODIs againstAustralia.”

Zondi said the appoint-ment of De Kock was part ofsuccession planning leadingup to the 2023 Cricket WorldCup.

In his press conferenceafter the third Test againstEngland on Monday, DuPlessis said there was an oppor-tunity to relieve some of thepressure on his captaincy.

quad includes new ODIcaps in batsmen JannemanMalan and Kyle Verreynne, all-rounder Jon-Jon Smuts, fastbowlers Lutho Sipamla andSisanda Magala and left-armspinner Bjorn Fortuin. Of theseMagala and Verreynne have yetto play at any internationallevel.

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Andrea Petagna ignited acome-from-behind vic-tory for struggling SPAL

to hand his former clubAtalanta a shock 2-1 defeat inSerie A on Monday.

The Champions League-chasing side from Bergamohad won their last two homegames against AC Milan andParma with 5-0 scorelines eachtime.

But they slipped up againstSPAL who snatched just theirfourth win of the season tomove off the bottom of thetable.

Gian Piero Gasperini’steam missed the chance toclimb above Roma into thefinal Champions League place,and are now three pointsbehind the side from the cap-ital in fifth.

“Today more than a fewplayers were not at their best,”said Gasperini. “It was clear wewere down a gear.

"But we will have to beready to immediately redeema bad performance, becausethe standings are very tight.”Slovenian forward Josip Ilicicput Atalanta ahead after 16minutes with a clever back-heel flick beating Etrit Berishain the SPAL goal.

But Petagna pulled SPALlevel after 54 minutes by scor-ing his fifth goal in four meet-ings against his former club.

Mattia Valoti snatched thewinner six minutes later withnew signing Bryan Dabo play-ing a role in the goal on his firststart for SPAL.

“I left a piece of heart in

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Kylian Mbappe says he isdreaming of helping

Paris Saint-Germain win afirst Champions Leaguetrophy this year, as well asleading France to the titleat Euro 2020 and theOlympic Games in Tokyo.

The 21-year-old PSGand France star, a WorldCup winner in 2018, wasasked what was on hiswish list for the new yearwhile launching his chari-ty in the Paris suburbs onMonday.

“It would be a treble ofChampions League,European Championshipand Olympic Games. Thatwouldn’t be bad,” saidMbappe, with a smile.

“That seems unattain-able for the time being butI’m going to make sure Ifulfil this dream. It wouldbe a proud moment to beable win the first Europeantitle for PSG and for ourcountry to keep winning”

Mbappe’s charity,“Inspired by KM”, was setup to help 98 children — anod to his birth year —between the ages of nineand 16 from various socialbackgrounds to accom-plish "their dreams”.

Last month, Mbappeput himself forward forthe French team at theTokyo Olympics, whileadding he would not wantto fight his club over takingpart in Japan. “Playing in the Olympics, Idon’t control everything,”he told France Football

magazine.“Of course I want to

go, but if my club, which ismy employer, doesn’t wantme to go, I won’t force aclash.”

He said he would holdtalks with PSG sportingdirector Leonardo, who issaid to be hesitant to allow

Mbappe to play at theOlympics for fears overhis fitness.

Euro 2020 will be heldacross 12 different citiesover the continent fromJune 12 to July 12, with themen’s Olympic footballtournament scheduled forJuly 23 to August 8.

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Their Olympic berths stillnot secured, ace Indian shut-

tlers Saina Nehwal and KidambiSrikanth will hope to put up agood show when they begintheir campaign at the ThailandMasters Super 300 tournamenthere on Wednesday.

Owing to their inconsistentoutings in 2019, Saina andSrikanth are placed at the 22ndand 23rd spots in BWF’s Race toTokyo rankings with April 26being the cut off date forOlympic qualification.

According to the BWFOlympics qualification rules,only two players from each sin-gles category can qualify if theirranking lies within the top-16 byApril 26.

At this moment, worldchampion P V Sindhu (6th) andB Sai Praneeth (11th) and men’sdoubles pair of SatwiksairajRankireddy and Chirag Shetty(8th) have more or less assuredtheir berths for the TokyoGames.

After a series of early exits

last year, which dented theirchances, Saina and Srikanthpulled out of the PremierBadminton League to train andgive themselves a better chance

at the qualification.But Srikanth didn’t

have a good start to thenew year as he fal-tered in the first

round in the first twotournaments — losing to

Chinese Taipei’s Chou TienChen at Malaysia and localplayer Shesar Hiren Rhustavitoat Indonesia.

Saina, a London OlympicsBronze medallist, made it to thequarters at Malaysia but shecouldn’t defend her title atIndonesia Masters, falling atthe first round to Japan’s SayakaTakahashi.

With the Olympic qualifica-tion cut off date ending in April,there are only eight tourna-ments, including the ThailandMasters, left in the calender andthe Indian duo will have to pro-duce consistent performances toearn a ticket to Tokyo.

Saina will begin her cam-paign here against Denmark’sLine Højmark Kjaersfeldt, anopponent against whom shehas a 4-0 record.

Srikanth, on the other hand,will face Shesar Hiren Rhustavitoonce again in the opening roundand would hope to settle thescore this time around.

Among other Indians,Sameer Verma, who also had adisappointing 2019 season, willtake on Malaysia’s Lee Zii Jia,seeded seventh, while H SPrannoy faces anotherMalaysian Liew Daren in theopening round.

����� ����)

World champion PVSindhu said sky-

high expectation fromher makes her work evenharder as she aims at asecond medal in theupcoming TokyoOlympics in July-August.

“From the RioOlympics to now, mylife has changed a lot. Iwon a lot and I lostsome. I have beenimproving step by step.Not much was expectedof me when I went to Riobut now people look fora gold medal from me,”Sindhu, who is here toplay for HyderabadHunters in the fifth edi-tion of PBL, said.

“I look at it in a pos-

itive way when everyoneexpects me to do well. Idon't consider that asadded pressure and thatwill only make me workeven harder. It's notgoing to be easy but I'mprepared for the chal-lenges awaiting me,” sheadded.

Being an Olympicyear, the world No 6 saidit was good to play thePBL because one got toplay with top playerswhich is helpful.

“We get to play withtop quality players inPBL like Tai Tzu Ying,which is helpful in anOlympic-year. We get tolearn a lot from the for-eign players, who comeup with useful inputs.Even I get to improve

some aspects of my gameby interacting with for-eign talent. They offeruseful tips that can helpthe growth of a player.

“There is a lot moretime before theOlympics. We have acouple of importantevents in the run-up toOlympics. For now, myfocus is on helping myteam in the PBL. I justwant to play my gameand enjoy,” she added.

The 24-year oldshuttler, who has had anup-and-down run sincewinning the world title inBasel last year, said shewas working on hermental fitness, adding itwas important to be in apositive frame of mindand come back stronger.

“I have been workingon mental fitness. Therehave been close matchesin the past where I wonand some that I lost. It'simportant to be in a pos-itive frame of mind andcome back stronger andrectify the mistakes,”Sindhu said.

The Hyderabad acealso said it was importantto pick and choosetouramments.

“It is important topick and choose tourna-ments because at timesyou might not be feeling100 per cent. Some peo-ple say that you have toplay as many events asyou can but only if youbelieve you can give yourbest should you play,”she added.

Sindhu said the PBLis a great platform foryoungsters like LakshyaSen and she wasimpressed with herHunters' teammatePriyanshu Rajawat, whomade his debut in theleague yesterday.

“The PBL is a greatplatform for youngsterslike Lakshya Sen. ForPriyanshu, it was his firstmatch on such a bigstage and he played well.It’s a good exposure forthe younger crop becausethey get to learn a lotmore from the seniorpros. It’s a learningprocess and they will getmore familiar with high-pressure matches,” sheadded.

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The Indian men’s tabletennis squad is well

placed to create history atthe Olympic qualifiersbeginning here onWednesday, the fifth seedsneeding just a quarterfinalfinish to ensure its maidenqualification as a team atthe Summer Games.

Unless the team com-prising G Sathiyan (worldrank 30), veteran SharathKamal (WR 33) andHarmeet Desai (WR 86)play badly, India shouldnot have a lot of difficultyin making the Olympiccut. The other members ofthe team are AnthonyAmalraj and fast risingManav Thakkar.

In the past games,Indian players have playedonly in individual eventsbut now three of thembeing in top-100 shows therapid strides India has takenat the highest level.

The men, who havebeen given a first-round byein the draw of 64, take onLuxembourg in their open-er. Sharath and Co effec-tively need to win twomatches to qualify. Theirround of 16 opponent willbe 11th seed Slovenia or20th seed Iran.

The women’s unit, ledby Manika Batra, has amuch tougher task at handas it runs into a muchstronger Sweden in itsopener.

Ahead of the tourna-ment, the entire contin-gent had a camp in Chennaibefore it travelled toGermany to train with itsnational team.

Despite the lack of ahead coach since the 2019Asian Games, Indian play-ers have been producingimpressive performanceson the professional circuit.

The men’s team hadended a 60-year wait bywinning a historic bronze atthe Asian Games in Jakarta.

The contingent’s cam-paign got even betterSharath and Manika, whowon four medals at the pre-ceding CommonwealthGames, bagged a surprisebronze in the mixed dou-bles.

Nine qualifying spotsare on offer at the ITTForganised event. A top-eight finish guaranteesOlympic qualification whilethe last spot available will befought among the teamsthat lose in the round of 16with their eventual winnerfilling the slot.

Korea is the top seed inmen’s category, followed byChinese Taipei, Sweden,France and India.

Hong Kong is the topseed in women's event, fol-lowed by Chinese Taipei,Singapore, Korea andRomania.

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An intriguing duel is on thecards as Bengaluru FC face

Odisha FC square off in a top ofthe table Indian Super Leagueclash here on Wednesday.

Bengaluru FC, the defend-ing champions, are coming offa 2-0 defeat against MumbaiCity FC and will be eager to getback to winning ways. OdishaFC, on the other hand, are on afour-game winning streakwhich has established themfirmly in the top four.

Interestingly, a win onWednesday could see eitherside rise to the top of the table.Bengaluru, currently third onthe table with 22 points, canleapfrog both FC Goa and ATKwho have 24 points each, witha win. Odisha, who have 21, cango level with Goa and ATK.

Carles Cuadrat's side havehad a water-tight defence this

season, conceding just ninegoals in 13 games.

But the Spanish coachwould not be happy after twodefensive errors helped MumbaiCity beat them in the last game.

He will hope that was just anaberration. Moreover, at home,Bengaluru have conceded justfour goals at home.

Another worr y forBengaluru will be their attack.

Apart from Sunil Chhetri, whohas scored eight goals, none ofthe forwards have put in mean-ingful contributions.

Ashique Kuruniyan andUdanta Singh have struggled forform and consistency. Udanta’sform, especially, has droppedwhen compared to last seasonwith just one goal to his name.In fact, Cuadrat has evendropped Udanta from the start-ing XI in the recent matches.

Bengaluru will hope strik-ers Manuel Onwu and DeshornBrown come to the party andprovide some support toChhetri.

Odisha FC will be lookingto cash in on their terrific form.They have scored eight goalsand conceded just two in theirlast four games. If they win inBengaluru and make it 5 con-secutive wins, they will overtakeFC Goa and become the teamwith the most consecutive wins

in the ISL this season.Aridane Santana and Xisco

Hernandez have been key toOdisha’s revival. Santana, specif-ically, has scored nine goals thisseason and has risen to the topof the scoring charts. In fact,five of his goals have come inthe last four games.

Three of their four winshave come at home inBhubaneswar.

Though their last winagainst Hyderabad came awayfrom home, Josep Gombau willwant his team to improve theiraway record. However, to beatBengaluru in Bengaluru is atough task, something onlyMumbai City have been able todo this season.

Odisha do have a couple ofconcerns with Vinit Rai sus-pended and NandhakumarSekar injured but Gombau willhope the rest of the team step upagainst Bengaluru.

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Bergamo because I start-ed here,” said Petagna.

“But today we had towin, now we must contin-ue like this if we want tosave ourselves.”

Duvan Zapata missedchances to equalise for thehosts following a longinjury layoff with fellowColombian forward LuisMuriel coming on for the

final half an hour in placeof defender MattiaCaldara, who started onhis return on loan fromAC Milan.

But despite layingsiege to the SPAL goal thehosts fell to their fifthdefeat of the season andfourth at home.

“You have to givecredit to SPAL, despitebeing last in the stand-ings, they tried to play adecent game,” saidGasperini.

“Once in the lead,SPAL attacked with manymen, but we weren’t goodat fighting them.”

Gasperini’s side havethe best attack in theleague with 50 goalsscored in 20 games.

But he had concededthat his players were suf-fering from fatigue aftertheir surprise elimina-tion from the Italian Cupby Fiorentina.

Atalanta are playingtheir first season in theChampions League andhost Valencia in the last16, first leg at San Siro onFebruary 19.

Champions Juventusbeat Parma 2-1 to openup a four-point advantageon second-placed InterMilan who were held 1-1at promoted Lecce onSunday.

Lazio are third, a fur-ther two points behindwith a game in hand,after hammeringSampdoria 5-1 onSaturday.

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World No. 2 Tai Tzu Ying ofBengaluru Raptors put

up a masterclass on her returnto the Star Sports PremierBadminton League 2020 asshe coasted to an easy win overrising star Ashmita Chaliha ofthe North Eastern Warriorshere in Chennai today. In amuch-anticipated clash ofyouth and experience, the for-mer World No. 1's brilliantanticipation skills and finessewere too much for the SouthAsian Games gold medallist tohandle even though Chalihadid have her moments.

After trailing 0-4, theyoungster rode on her aggres-sion to bag some quickfirepoints and close the gapbetween them to two points at4-6. It was, however, notenough to thwart PBL5's joint-costliest player who soondoused the Chaliha fire to soarto a 15-7, 15-5 win.

Earlier, in an enthrallingbattle between two Olympicmedallists, 2016 Rio Olympicsilver medallist Chan PengSoon beat 2008 Olympic cham-pion Lee Yong Dae to give thedefending champions a verygood start. In partnership withmultiple World Championshipmedallist Eom Hye Won, Soonput up a solid display againstthe Warriors pair of Lee YongDae and former World No. 1Kim Ha Na.

In his fourth consecutiveappearance at the league, Lee,who recently triumphed at theMalaysia Masters, could notfind his champion form as thefirst match of the tie went infavour of the Raptors 15-8, 15-11.

Fresh from reaching thesemi-finals of the IndonesiaMasters, North EasternWarriors' World No. 18 LeeCheuk Yiu showed remarkableresolve to eke out a tight firstgame and then sailed throughthe second to register a 15-14,15-9 win over WorldChampionships bronze medal-list Sai Praneeth. The two hadmet only once before with thematch finishing in favour of theHong Kong shuttler. This timetoo it was no different with Leerefusing to give the Indian anyopening in a performance thatshowed his determination andsteely nerves.

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