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16
K arnataka Assembly Speaker KR Ramesh holds the key to the State political crisis after he declared on Tuesday that the resignation letters of 8 of 13 rebel MLAs of the Congress and the JD(S) were not in cor- rect format even as the Congress urged the Speaker to disqualify some of these law- makers under the provision of the anti-defection law. The Speaker will meet five of the rebel MLAs during the next week, giving breathing space to the ruling coalition. The Karnataka Assembly session will begin on July 12. The issue reverberated in both Houses of Parliament on Tuesday. While the Rajya Sabha could not transact any business due to disturbance by the Congress members, in the Lok Sabha the Opposition party expressed dissatisfaction with the Government’s response that resignations by MLAs in Karnataka was an “internal matter” of the Congress. As Congress leader Rahul Gandhi himself joined the slo- gan-shouting, the Congress for the second day on Tuesday raised the issue of alleged destabilisation of the Congress- JD(S) coalition in Karnataka by the BJP by way of “poaching” and staged a walkout. Giving an interesting twist to the resignation drama, Assembly Speaker KR Ramesh said, “First, I will hear them and try to know what is on their mind. If there are complaints, only then I will go for public hearing.” Disclosing that he had “written to the Governor that none of the rebel MLAs has met him”, the Speaker said, “He (Governor) has expressed con- fidence that I will uphold con- stitutional norms. Out of 13 resignations, eight are not according to law. I’ve given them time to present them- selves before me.” The Speaker said no MLA sought an appointment with him since Saturday morning. “I was in office on Saturday (July 6) up to 12.30 pm. No MLA sought an appointment or con- veyed that I should wait for them. On leaving office, 13 of them handed resignation let- ters. Out of 13, eight are not in the prescribed format under the rules. “We have written back to them. If they intend to resign, they have to give it in the prop- er format.” The Speaker said he has asked three of the five MLAs — Anand Singh, Narayan Gowda and Pratap Gowda — to meet him on July 12 and the rest two — Ramalinga Reddy and Gopalaiah — on July 15. Meanwhile, another Congress MLA Roshan Baig put in his papers. “Roshan Baig’s letter reached today and I’ve send it to my Secretary,” the Speaker said. The JD(S)-Congress coali- tion’s total strength is 116 (Congress-78, JD(S)-37 and BSP-1) besides the Speaker. With the support of the two independents, who on Monday resigned from the Ministry, the BJP has 107 MLAs in the 224- member House, where the halfway mark is 113. If the res- ignations of the 14 MLAs are accepted, the coalition’s tally will be reduced to 102. At the same time, the Congress sought the Speaker’s intervention in disqualifying its rebel legislators and accused the BJP of using money power to lure its members after anoth- er MLA quit the party. In a counter offensive after 13 MLAs resigned on Saturday dealing a blow to the 13- month-old Government, a del- egation of Congress leaders met the Speaker and submitted the petition seeking, under the anti-defection law, disqualifi- cation of the rebel legislators in line with the decision taken at a meeting of the Congress Legislature Party on Tuesday. The move comes a day after all the Ministers in the Congress-JD(S) coalition Government resigned, paving the way for a Cabinet reshuffle to accommodate disgruntled legislators. The rebel MLAs, camping in Maharashtra, however, appeared undeterred by the Congress’ disqualification move and said there was no question of them withdrawing resignations. Continued on Page 4 U S President Donald Trump on Tuesday launched a fresh attack on India for impos- ing tariffs on American prod- ucts and said it was “no longer acceptable”, days after he held talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and agreed to sort out the trade related issues. Trump, championing his ‘America First’ policy, has been a vocal critic of India for levy- ing “tremendously high” duties on US products. “India has long had a field day putting Tariffs on American products. No longer acceptable!” Trump tweeted on Tuesday. Trump’s terse comment within a fortnight after his meeting with Prime Minister Modi on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Osaka on June 28 where the two leaders aired their concerns over the bilateral trade disputes and agreed for a meeting of their commerce ministers to sort out the issues. Later this week, US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Energy Secretary Rick Perry are scheduled to address a major India centric conference in Washington DC. Though trade is an impor- tant part of the booming bilat- eral relationship, a row over market access and tariffs has escalated in recent months, leading to fears of a protract- ed dispute. Before his meeting with Modi, Trump tweeted, “I look forward to speaking with Prime Minister Modi about the fact that India, for years having put very high Tariffs against the United States, just recently increased the Tariffs even fur- ther. This is unacceptable and the Tariffs must be withdrawn!” India has raised tariffs on 28 items, including almond, pulses, exported from the US in retaliation to America’s with- drawal of preferential access for Indian products. Trump has also criticised India’s high import tariff on the iconic Harley Davidson motor- cycles as “unacceptable”. President Trump termi- nated India’s designation as a beneficiary developing nation under the key GSP trade pro- gramme from June 5 after determining that India has not assured the US that it will pro- vide “equitable and reasonable access” to its markets. The Generalized System of Preference (GSP) is the largest and oldest US trade preference programme and is designed to promote econom- ic development by allowing duty-free entry for thousands of products from designated beneficiary countries. The Trump administra- tion wants India to lower the trade barriers and embrace “fair and reciprocal” trade. Last February, India slashed the customs duty on imported motorcycles like Harley-Davidson to 50 per cent after Trump called it “unfair” and threatened to increase the tariff on import of Indian bikes to the US. The Government on June 21 last year decided to impose these duties in retaliation to the US decision of significantly hiking customs duties on cer- tain steel and aluminium prod- ucts. America, in March last year, imposed 25 per cent tar- iff on steel and a 10 per cent import duty on aluminium products. Continued on Page 4 I n a nationwide operation, the CBI on Tuesday conducted searches at around 110 places in 19 States/Union Territories, including in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chandigarh, Jammu, Srinagar, besides 11 locations in Lucknow and NCR in connec- tion with the sugar mills dis- investment scam case during Mayawati’s tenure as Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister. The CBI has registered about 30 separate cases relating to corruption, criminal mis- conduct and arms smuggling among others before launching the pan-India search operation. The agency searched the premises of former IAS officers Netram and Vinay Priya Dhune and sons of former MLC Iqbal Singh — Wajid Ali and Mohammed Javed — in the graft case relating to the sugar mills disinvestment case, officials said. Netram also held the posi- tion of secretary to Mayawati during her stint as UP Chief Minister. In April this year, the CBI had registered an FIR in con- nection with the sugar mills scam case besides six prelimi- nary enquiries in which the probe is underway, the officials further said. The search operation also covers an FIR against former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. The operation is underway at Krrish Builders in Jasola in the nation- al Capital, they said. The search operations were conducted in Delhi, Mumbai, Chandigarh, Jammu, Srinagar, Pune, Jaipur, Goa, Raipur, Hyderabad, Madurai, Kolkata, Rourkela, Ranchi, Bokaro, Lucknow, Kanpur and other locations in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Odisha, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Bihar. Officials said details of cases in which the searches are continuing are being kept secret till the operation is over. This is the second massive search operation conducted by the agency in a week. A simi- lar operation was carried out last Tuesday against a host of accused in banking fraud cases. The premises of KA Duggal, the then CMD, BICL, Kanpur, and company secre- tary KV Vajpayee are being searched for alleged irregular- ities in tendering process while selling the properties of BICL. The cases in which search operations are going on also include cheating of a Mumbai- based businessman who was sold 980 acres of land worth 11 crore in Chhindwara dis- trict of Madhya Pradesh on the basis of forged documents. The CBI has taken over inves- tigation into this case following a directive from the Madhya Pradesh High Court. Continued on Page 4 T he Rajasthan Police has sought permission from an Alwar court to investigate fur- ther the cow smuggling case against the two sons of Pehlu Khan, who was lynched two years ago for allegedly trans- porting the animals illegally. The Ashok Gehlot-led Congress Government in Rajasthan had faced criticism a fortnight ago after a charge sheet was filed against Khan’s sons, Irshad Khan (25) Aarif Khan (22), and a truck opera- tor, Khan Mohammad, in the cow smuggling case. Gehlot had then respond- ed that the police could rein- vestigate aspects of the cow smuggling case, registered when the BJP Government was in power. Alwar Superintendent of Police Anil Paris Deshmukh said on Tuesday the police filed an application in the court of additional chief judicial magistrate on Saturday, seeking permission to further investi- gate the cow smuggling case. Continued on Page 4 P Rajagopal, the 71-year-old owner of the famous Saravana Bhavan restaurant chain which has presence in Asia, US, Europe, Australia and Africa, was on Tuesday sent by a Chennai court to Puzhal Central prison to begin life imprisonment for the mur- der of the husband of a woman employee he wanted to marry. The man, whose rags to riches story has become a folk- lore in Tamil Nadu and else- where, tried all tricks to get himself saved from the ignominy of going to jail. However, the Supreme Court early on Tuesday refused to delay his surrender. The SC had in May reject- ed his plea challenging the life term awarded by the Madras High Court and had directed him to surrender before the court in 100 days. Rajagopal got admitted to a hospital citing ill health. The SC on Tuesday refused to entertain his plea for an exemption from jail sen- tence till his recovery. The restaurant baron was brought to a Chennai court on Tuesday afternoon in an ambu- lance with an oxygen mask fit- ted in his face. Though he was carried to the courtroom on a stretcher, the judge was not impressed by the theatrics and ordered that he be taken to the Puzhal prison. Continued on Page 4 T he overall homicide rate in India has decreased by 10 per cent over a period of six years till 2015 but the trend increased “noticeably” in some northern states, according to a UN report. The Global Study on Homicide 2019 published on Monday by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said that about 4,64,000 people across the world were killed in homicides in 2017, an increase from 395,542 in 1992. In India, the number of homicide victims fell from 48,167 in 2000 to 46,460 in 2010, 44,373 in 2015 and 42,678 in 2016. Males consti- tute less than 20 per cent of the total homicide victims in 2016 in India, it said. “In India, the overall homi- cide rate decreased by 10 per cent over the period 2009–2015, from 3.8 to 3.4 per 1,00,000 population. At the same time, the spatial variation in the homicide rate shifted noticeably, with some States in the north registering an increase in the homicide rate, while some large States in the south (e.g. Andhra Pradesh) experienced a decrease,” the report said. It noted while some small- er cities can have very high homicide rates, larger cities tend to have homicide rates that are more closely in line with national homicide rates. There are several large metropolises, particularly in Asia, with populations above 10 million that have homicide rates below 1 per 1,00,000 pop- ulation — rates that are even lower than the national average (e.g. Tokyo: 0.3; Jakarta: 0,3; Seoul: 0,67; Mumbai: 0.9). Asia, which contains 60 per cent of the global population, recorded the lowest rate of homicide in the world in 2017 while the America’s region had the highest homicide rate, according to the report. However, because the glob- al population has risen faster than the increase in recorded homicide victims, the overall risk of being killed in homi- cides has declined steadily. The global homicide rate, mea- sured as the victims of homi- cide per 100,000 people, declined from 7.2 in 1992, to 6.1 in 2017, the report said. In 2016, the female homi- cide rate in India stood at 2.8 per cent. Percentage of women and girls in India aged 15–49 who experienced physical vio- lence (irrespective of perpe- trator) in the past 12 months was 18.9 while 33.5 per cent women experienced physical violence at least once in their lifetime, it said. The report noted that dowry-related killings of women — which occur when brides are killed or are driven to commit suicide after being subjected to continuous harass- ment and abuse by the groom’s family in an effort to extort dowry payment or increased dowry involving cash or goods are widely reported in South Asian countries. Continued on Page 4

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Karnataka Assembly SpeakerKR Ramesh holds the key

to the State political crisis afterhe declared on Tuesday that theresignation letters of 8 of 13rebel MLAs of the Congressand the JD(S) were not in cor-rect format even as theCongress urged the Speaker todisqualify some of these law-makers under the provision ofthe anti-defection law. TheSpeaker will meet five of therebel MLAs during the nextweek, giving breathing space tothe ruling coalition. TheKarnataka Assembly sessionwill begin on July 12.

The issue reverberated inboth Houses of Parliament onTuesday. While the Rajya Sabhacould not transact any businessdue to disturbance by theCongress members, in the LokSabha the Opposition partyexpressed dissatisfaction withthe Government’s response thatresignations by MLAs inKarnataka was an “internalmatter” of the Congress.

As Congress leader RahulGandhi himself joined the slo-gan-shouting, the Congress forthe second day on Tuesdayraised the issue of allegeddestabilisation of the Congress-JD(S) coalition in Karnataka bythe BJP by way of “poaching”and staged a walkout.

Giving an interesting twistto the resignation drama,

Assembly Speaker KR Rameshsaid, “First, I will hear them andtry to know what is on theirmind. If there are complaints,only then I will go for publichearing.”

Disclosing that he had“written to the Governor thatnone of the rebel MLAs hasmet him”, the Speaker said, “He(Governor) has expressed con-fidence that I will uphold con-stitutional norms. Out of 13resignations, eight are notaccording to law. I’ve giventhem time to present them-selves before me.”

The Speaker said no MLAsought an appointment withhim since Saturday morning. “Iwas in office on Saturday (July6) up to 12.30 pm. No MLAsought an appointment or con-veyed that I should wait forthem. On leaving office, 13 of

them handed resignation let-ters. Out of 13, eight are not inthe prescribed format underthe rules.

“We have written back tothem. If they intend to resign,they have to give it in the prop-er format.”

The Speaker said he hasasked three of the five MLAs —Anand Singh, Narayan Gowdaand Pratap Gowda — to meethim on July 12 and the rest two— Ramalinga Reddy andGopalaiah — on July 15.

Meanwhile, anotherCongress MLA Roshan Baigput in his papers. “RoshanBaig’s letter reached today andI’ve send it to my Secretary,” theSpeaker said.

The JD(S)-Congress coali-tion’s total strength is 116(Congress-78, JD(S)-37 andBSP-1) besides the Speaker.

With the support of the twoindependents, who on Mondayresigned from the Ministry, theBJP has 107 MLAs in the 224-member House, where thehalfway mark is 113. If the res-ignations of the 14 MLAs areaccepted, the coalition’s tallywill be reduced to 102.

At the same time, theCongress sought the Speaker’sintervention in disqualifying itsrebel legislators and accusedthe BJP of using money powerto lure its members after anoth-er MLA quit the party.

In a counter offensive after13 MLAs resigned on Saturdaydealing a blow to the 13-month-old Government, a del-egation of Congress leadersmet the Speaker and submittedthe petition seeking, under theanti-defection law, disqualifi-cation of the rebel legislators inline with the decision taken ata meeting of the CongressLegislature Party on Tuesday.

The move comes a dayafter all the Ministers in theCongress-JD(S) coalitionGovernment resigned, pavingthe way for a Cabinet reshuffleto accommodate disgruntledlegislators.

The rebel MLAs, campingin Maharashtra, however,appeared undeterred by theCongress’ disqualificationmove and said there was noquestion of them withdrawingresignations.

Continued on Page 4

���� :*-45�(,"�

US President Donald Trumpon Tuesday launched a

fresh attack on India for impos-ing tariffs on American prod-ucts and said it was “no longeracceptable”, days after he heldtalks with Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and agreed tosort out the trade related issues.

Trump, championing his‘America First’ policy, has beena vocal critic of India for levy-ing “tremendously high” dutieson US products. “India haslong had a field day puttingTariffs on American products.No longer acceptable!” Trumptweeted on Tuesday.

Trump’s terse commentwithin a fortnight after hismeeting with Prime MinisterModi on the sidelines of theG20 Summit in Osaka on June28 where the two leaders airedtheir concerns over the bilateraltrade disputes and agreed for ameeting of their commerceministers to sort out the issues.

Later this week, USCommerce Secretary WilburRoss and Energy SecretaryRick Perry are scheduled toaddress a major India centricconference in Washington DC.

Though trade is an impor-tant part of the booming bilat-eral relationship, a row overmarket access and tariffs hasescalated in recent months,leading to fears of a protract-ed dispute.

Before his meeting withModi, Trump tweeted, “I lookforward to speaking with PrimeMinister Modi about the factthat India, for years having putvery high Tariffs against theUnited States, just recentlyincreased the Tariffs even fur-ther. This is unacceptable andthe Tariffs must be withdrawn!”

India has raised tariffs on28 items, including almond,pulses, exported from the US inretaliation to America’s with-drawal of preferential access forIndian products.

Trump has also criticisedIndia’s high import tariff on theiconic Harley Davidson motor-cycles as “unacceptable”.

President Trump termi-nated India’s designation as a

beneficiary developing nationunder the key GSP trade pro-gramme from June 5 afterdetermining that India has notassured the US that it will pro-vide “equitable and reasonableaccess” to its markets.

The Generalized Systemof Preference (GSP) is thelargest and oldest US tradepreference programme and isdesigned to promote econom-ic development by allowingduty-free entry for thousandsof products from designatedbeneficiary countries.

The Trump administra-tion wants India to lower thetrade barriers and embrace“fair and reciprocal” trade.

Last February, Indiaslashed the customs duty onimported motorcycles likeHarley-Davidson to 50 percent after Trump called it“unfair” and threatened toincrease the tariff on import ofIndian bikes to the US.

The Government on June21 last year decided to imposethese duties in retaliation to theUS decision of significantlyhiking customs duties on cer-tain steel and aluminium prod-ucts. America, in March lastyear, imposed 25 per cent tar-iff on steel and a 10 per centimport duty on aluminiumproducts.

Continued on Page 4

���� �8:�78945

In a nationwide operation, theCBI on Tuesday conducted

searches at around 110 placesin 19 States/Union Territories,including in Delhi, Mumbai,Kolkata, Chandigarh, Jammu,Srinagar, besides 11 locations inLucknow and NCR in connec-tion with the sugar mills dis-investment scam case duringMayawati’s tenure as UttarPradesh Chief Minister.

The CBI has registeredabout 30 separate cases relatingto corruption, criminal mis-conduct and arms smugglingamong others before launchingthe pan-India search operation.

The agency searched thepremises of former IAS officersNetram and Vinay PriyaDhune and sons of formerMLC Iqbal Singh — Wajid Aliand Mohammed Javed — inthe graft case relating to thesugar mills disinvestment case,officials said.

Netram also held the posi-tion of secretary to Mayawati

during her stint as UP ChiefMinister.

In April this year, the CBIhad registered an FIR in con-nection with the sugar millsscam case besides six prelimi-nary enquiries in which theprobe is underway, the officialsfurther said.

The search operation alsocovers an FIR against formerHaryana Chief MinisterBhupinder Singh Hooda. Theoperation is underway at KrrishBuilders in Jasola in the nation-al Capital, they said.

The search operations wereconducted in Delhi, Mumbai,Chandigarh, Jammu, Srinagar,Pune, Jaipur, Goa, Raipur,Hyderabad, Madurai, Kolkata,Rourkela, Ranchi, Bokaro,Lucknow, Kanpur and otherlocations in Uttar Pradesh,Uttarakhand, Odisha,Himachal Pradesh, Punjab,Haryana, Andhra Pradesh,Karnataka and Bihar.

Officials said details of

cases in which the searches arecontinuing are being keptsecret till the operation is over.

This is the second massivesearch operation conducted bythe agency in a week. A simi-lar operation was carried outlast Tuesday against a host ofaccused in banking fraud cases.

The premises of KADuggal, the then CMD, BICL,Kanpur, and company secre-tary KV Vajpayee are beingsearched for alleged irregular-ities in tendering process whileselling the properties of BICL.

The cases in which searchoperations are going on alsoinclude cheating of a Mumbai-based businessman who wassold 980 acres of land worth�11 crore in Chhindwara dis-trict of Madhya Pradesh on thebasis of forged documents.The CBI has taken over inves-tigation into this case followinga directive from the MadhyaPradesh High Court.

Continued on Page 4

���� �*5�30

The Rajasthan Police hassought permission from an

Alwar court to investigate fur-ther the cow smuggling caseagainst the two sons of PehluKhan, who was lynched twoyears ago for allegedly trans-porting the animals illegally.

The Ashok Gehlot-ledCongress Government inRajasthan had faced criticisma fortnight ago after a chargesheet was filed against Khan’ssons, Irshad Khan (25) AarifKhan (22), and a truck opera-tor, Khan Mohammad, in thecow smuggling case.

Gehlot had then respond-ed that the police could rein-vestigate aspects of the cow

smuggling case, registeredwhen the BJP Governmentwas in power.

Alwar Superintendent ofPolice Anil Paris Deshmukhsaid on Tuesday the policefiled an application in the courtof additional chief judicialmagistrate on Saturday, seekingpermission to further investi-gate the cow smuggling case.

Continued on Page 4

� ����!����� ���� .48��*5

PRajagopal, the 71-year-oldowner of the famous

Saravana Bhavan restaurantchain which has presence inAsia, US, Europe, Australiaand Africa, was on Tuesdaysent by a Chennai court toPuzhal Central prison to beginlife imprisonment for the mur-der of the husband of a womanemployee he wanted to marry.

The man, whose rags toriches story has become a folk-lore in Tamil Nadu and else-where, tried all tricks to gethimself saved from theignominy of going to jail.However, the Supreme Courtearly on Tuesday refused todelay his surrender.

The SC had in May reject-ed his plea challenging the lifeterm awarded by the MadrasHigh Court and had directedhim to surrender before thecourt in 100 days. Rajagopal got

admitted to a hospital citing illhealth. The SC on Tuesdayrefused to entertain his plea foran exemption from jail sen-tence till his recovery.

The restaurant baron wasbrought to a Chennai court onTuesday afternoon in an ambu-lance with an oxygen mask fit-ted in his face. Though he wascarried to the courtroom on astretcher, the judge was notimpressed by the theatrics andordered that he be taken to thePuzhal prison.

Continued on Page 4

���� 3�5,87��*,5"�-

The overall homicide rate inIndia has decreased by 10

per cent over a period of sixyears till 2015 but the trendincreased “noticeably” in somenorthern states, according to aUN report.

The Global Study onHomicide 2019 published onMonday by the UN Office onDrugs and Crime (UNODC)said that about 4,64,000 peopleacross the world were killed inhomicides in 2017, an increasefrom 395,542 in 1992.

In India, the number ofhomicide victims fell from48,167 in 2000 to 46,460 in2010, 44,373 in 2015 and42,678 in 2016. Males consti-tute less than 20 per cent of thetotal homicide victims in 2016in India, it said.

“In India, the overall homi-cide rate decreased by 10 percent over the period2009–2015, from 3.8 to 3.4 per1,00,000 population. At the

same time, the spatial variationin the homicide rate shiftednoticeably, with some States inthe north registering anincrease in the homicide rate,while some large States in thesouth (e.g. Andhra Pradesh)experienced a decrease,” thereport said.

It noted while some small-er cities can have very highhomicide rates, larger citiestend to have homicide ratesthat are more closely in linewith national homicide rates.

There are several largemetropolises, particularly inAsia, with populations above 10

million that have homiciderates below 1 per 1,00,000 pop-ulation — rates that are evenlower than the national average(e.g. Tokyo: 0.3; Jakarta: 0,3;Seoul: 0,67; Mumbai: 0.9).

Asia, which contains 60 percent of the global population,recorded the lowest rate ofhomicide in the world in 2017while the America’s region hadthe highest homicide rate,according to the report.

However, because the glob-al population has risen fasterthan the increase in recordedhomicide victims, the overallrisk of being killed in homi-

cides has declined steadily. Theglobal homicide rate, mea-sured as the victims of homi-cide per 100,000 people,declined from 7.2 in 1992, to6.1 in 2017, the report said.

In 2016, the female homi-cide rate in India stood at 2.8per cent. Percentage of womenand girls in India aged 15–49who experienced physical vio-lence (irrespective of perpe-trator) in the past 12 monthswas 18.9 while 33.5 per centwomen experienced physicalviolence at least once in theirlifetime, it said.

The report noted thatdowry-related killings ofwomen — which occur whenbrides are killed or are drivento commit suicide after beingsubjected to continuous harass-ment and abuse by the groom’sfamily in an effort to extortdowry payment or increaseddowry involving cash or goods— are widely reported inSouth Asian countries.

Continued on Page 4

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Days after a 100-year-oldDurga temple in national

Capital's Lal Kuan was dese-crated by a mob, leading tocommunal tensions, thousandsof people from different parts ofthe national Capital convergedat Lal Kuan area to celebrate theinstallation of new idols in thesanctum sanctorum of the tem-ple. Idols were brought in a pro-cession with people dancing andchanting religious slogans.

On Tuesday at around 10am, the priest of the DurgaMandir performed rituals afterpurifying the temple, followingwhich a procession was startedfrom 11 am in which peoplefrom different parts of the cityparticipated.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)Members of Parliament VijayGoel, Manoj Tiwari and HansRaj Hans also participated in thefunction. "The new idols have

been placed on Tuesday afterthe purification of the temple ataround 10 am," said Anil KumarPandey, the priest of the temple.

"The Durga MandirCommittee has borne theexpenses and we have not takeneven a single penny from anyoutsider," said a resident.

Talking to media persons,Goel said that last week, somepeople, in which Aam AadamiParty MLA Imran Hussain wasinvolved, vandalised of templeand tried to escalate communaltension in the area. "We con-demned his act and asked policeto take action against Hussianbut nothing has happened tillnow," said Goel.

"We appreciate the AmanCommittee's move where theyare welcoming the Hindu com-munity people," said ManojTiwari, Delhi BJP chief and MP.

"We are the followers ofpeace but some people want tocreate tension in the society. We

do not need to worry and haveto live together happily," saidHans Raj Hans, MP fromNorth-west Delhi. The Muslimswere distributing water andfood to the people which was

organised by the Durga MandirStreet Committee . "People fromthe Muslim community alsohelped our Hindu brothers andsisters to successfully mark theirprocession. We have been help-

ing out them since morning,"said Abdul Baqir (55), Presidentof Lal Kuan Resident WelfareAssociation. Lal Kuan wore asaffron look as people weredraped in bright colours and

chanting 'Jai Shree Ram'.Shamin Ahmad (65), a retiredperson and member of AmanCommittee, said, "We con-demned the incident whichhad happened on June 30.People from outside Lal Kuancame here and tried to createcommunal tension in the area".The market opened on Tuesdayafternoon after the processionwas over in Lal Kuan areawhich had witnessed commu-nal tension last week.

So far, the police havearrested seven men and appre-hended eight juveniles in con-nection with the vandalism ofthe temple. More arrests arelikely as search is underway forother suspects.

According to a seniorpolice official, the presence ofpolice and paramilitary per-sonnel will be taken off gradu-ally after the procession. Someofficers would be presentedhere for couple of days.

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The Delhi police has arrest-ed two desperate robbers

who were allegedly involved inrobbing a family in Modeltown and a medical shop inNew Friends Colony at gunpoint. Police said the arrestedcriminals were notorious onesand were on spree of commit-ting robberies. Till now, theyhave confessed to have com-mitted around 100 robberies inand around national Capital.The accused have been identi-fied as Affan (23) and Chand(22) and both are fromMuradnagar in Uttar Pradesh(UP).

Recently, on June 30,CCTV footage of three maskedrobbers robbing a family atgunpoint in Model town hadgone viral on the same nightthey had fired at the policeparty and had managed toescape, the same gang struckagain and robbed a medicalstore in Sarai Jullena of NewFriends colony in the weehours of June 2.

According to Atul KumarThakur, the DeputyCommissioner of Police(DCP), North East district, onJuly 8, a tip off regarding rob-bers was received followingwhich a trap was laid in frontof Gurudwara, Loni Road.

"The police team appre-hended two persons riding ona bike who were comingtowards Durga Puri from LoniGole Chakkar. On their search,one semi-automatic pistol, onecountry-made pistol, six livecartridges were recovered from

their possession. The bike theywere riding was also foundstolen," said the DCP.

"Subsequently, a FirstInformation Report (FIR)under section 25/54/59 ofArms Act was registered atJyoti Nagar police station andboth the accused persons werearrested," said the DCP.

"During interrogation, theaccused revealed that they usedto leave from their hideoutplaces at midnight and targetthe places in and around Ringroad area," said the DCP.

"Their modus operandiwas to rob two wheelers anduse these for committing otherrobberies. They have revealedthe names of other members oftheir group also. The thirdassociate, who was seen in theCCTV footages that had goneviral, have been identified andteams have been formed to nabhim," said the DCP.

Sources in police revealedthat the accused were out onbail as they were arrested in arobbery case earlier in May thisyear. In the past, one and a halfmonth they have committedmore than 15 armed robberies.The accused had 3-4 hide outplaces in the NCR and keptchanging their hideout placesto avoid arrest.

"They used to where capand mask to hide their identi-ties. They wanted lavishlifestyles leading them to usethese shortcuts to earn quickmoney. Affan has two wiveswhile the other members hadseveral girlfriends, they had tomeet their expenses as well,"said a senior police officer.

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The Delhi Police has arrestedthe owner of a chemist shop

and his associate for allegedlyselling medicines without pre-scriptions to minors at inflatedrates in national Capital.

The accused has been iden-tified as Vivek Kumar Singh andhis associates who work as asalesman Ranjit Singh at hisshop in south Delhi's KotlaMubarakpur area. Police saidthat the accused were caught redhanded while selling medicinesto a minor without prescription.

According to Vijay Kumar,the Deputy Commissioner ofPolice (DCP), South district, onMonday, a juvenile hadapproached the police and fileda complaint, saying the owner of'Om Sai Medicos' at Sher SinghBazaar, was selling medicines tojuveniles without prescription.

"Acting on the complaint, aFirst Information Report (FIR)under section 77 of JJ act wasregistered and investigation wastaken up. A police team raidedthe shop and the accused werecaught red handed while sellingmedicines without prescription

to minors," said the DCP "During interrogation, the

accused disclosed that the com-bination of certain drugs andinjections creates a new psy-chotropic effect. These injectionswere meant for relieving pain ofcancer patients. But the duo wereselling it to juveniles and drugaddicts at higher prices withoutprescription," said the DCP.

"The drugs usually costsaround �70-80. But the accusedused to sell them without pre-scription for �250," said theDCP adding that further inves-tigation is going on.

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Amother fled her in-law'shouse after killing her new-

born third girl child. Theshocking incident took placeon Monday night in Abupurlocality under Niwari policestation.

The police said NoorMohammad, a resident ofAbupur was married toRukhsar a resident of Delhiabout four years ago. Duringtheir four year wedlock,Rukhsar gave birth to twogirls, who are now 3, and 2years of age respectively. Abouta month ago Rukhsar gavebirth to third girl child in aDelhi hospital. But she aban-doned the baby in the hospitaland reached to her parentalhouse. During this period thein laws family nurtured thebaby and took her to homeafter she was discharged fromthe hospital.

After a month, on MondayRukhsar reached her in law'shouse along with three fourpersons and asked the husbandfor the custody of the baby girlas she wanted to take the babyto her parental home. Thehusband and family refused todo so. Then Rukhsar decided tostay in his law's house. Findingan appropriate time duringnight, she strangled the child todeath and fled the home. In themorning when the family cameto know that Rukhsar is not inthe house and child is dead,they rushed the child to anearby private doctor where heconfirmed that the child isdead.

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Aman allegedly jumpedfrom the fifth-floor of

Saket Court in south Delhi onTuesday. The man who wasarrested in a chain snatchingcase was taken to court bypolice on Tuesday when theincident occurred.

The deceased has beenidentified as Tayyab, a residentof Shahdara. According toVijay Kumar, the DeputyCommissioner of Police

(DCP), South district, the inci-dent took place at around 4.36pm inside the Court premises.

"Tayyab was rushed to anearby hospital where he wasdeclared brought dead by thedoctors," said the DCP.

"Tayyab was accused in acase of chain-snatching regis-tered at southeast Delhi'sSunlight Colony police station.He was in room number nineof the Court for a hearingwhen he allegedly jumpedfrom the fifth floor of thecourt," said the DCP.

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The Delhi Commission forWomen (DCW) has issued

a notice to the Delhi Police seek-ing details about an incidentwhere a policeman allegedlymisbehaved and threatened alady after hitting her car with hisvehicle.

The Commission has takensuo-motu cognisance of thevideo circulating on the socialmedia, it said. It has been allegedthat the policeman was intoxi-cated at the time of the incident

and after hitting the woman'scar, he tried to threaten andintimidate her, the panel said.

From the video, it is seenthat the the policeman was inuniform and had liquor bottlesin his car, the panel said. "Manypeople can be seen in the videoalleging that when police wascalled on spot, no action wastaken against the drunkenpoliceman. Instead, other policeofficers only supported him," thepanel said.

Noting that it is a "very seri-ous matter", the DCW sought

details of the call made on 100,action taken and a copy of theFIR registered in the matter.

It has also asked for a copyof the medical report of thepoliceman and the inquiryreport in the matter. The DCWalso sought to know whether anyadministrative action has beentaken against the policeman.

"When allegations werereceived regarding the police-man being drunk in uniformand driving, was he made toundergo a test to ascertainwhether he was actually drunk?

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The power distribution com-panies BSES and Tata

Power-DDL have prepapeddetailed plans to deal with themonsoon season through pre-ventive maintenance of equip-ment to avoid chances of elec-tricity-related mishaps and out-ages that are common duringthe rains.

A senior BSES official saidthat the monsoon action planhas an integrated and proactiveapproach which is not onlyaimed at ensuring consumers' orinstallations' safety but also isaimed at minimising the downtime of power supply arising outof exigencies during monsoon.

In an advisory issued by theBSES, it said that people shouldstay away from electrical instal-lation such as poles and trans-formers and stop children fromplaying near them. "The mainswitch should be turned off incase of water logging, and earthleakage circuit breaker shouldbe installed. Consumers shouldkeep a 'tester' at their homes tocheck leakage in case of wetpower switches, he said addingpeople should also prune twigsand greenery close to electrici-ty lines.

"The discoms have also

taken steps to prevent outagesdue to rain related causes likewater logging, uprooted treesand broken branches. Heights ofthe foundation of transformersin low-lying areas have beenincreased to safe levels andtransformers have also beenproperly fenced to prevent peo-ple from going near them, aBSES spokesperson said. Hesaid people should avoid hook-ing wires to electricity lines dur-ing rainy season as it couldresult in fatalities or grievousinjuries.

BSES helpline numbers19123, 399 99 707 ( South &West Delhi) and 19122, 399 99808 (East & Central Delhi) areashave been set up for consumersto report broken cables, poles orexposed wiring, he pointed out.In case of an emergency, apartfrom the 24 x 7 call centre num-bers, consumers can reach BSESthrough its emergency numbers(BRPL 1800 10 39707, BYPL41999808) or through its Mobileapp, he added.

Meanwhile, Tata Power-DDL advised people not totouch electrical appliances withwet hands, check your electri-cal appliances like cooler bod-ies, washing machines, waterpump etc for any leakage cur-rent, ensure the meter box is

adequately protected fromwater, use ISI-marked electricalwires and equipment, and installearth leakage circuit breaker(ELCB) to prevent shocks.

In a drive to check leakageat all installations, Tata Power-DDL has inspected over 14,000installations including poles,fencings, pillar boxes and streetlight poles with rectifications inthe leakages done. "In additionto these electric installationsadjacent to various schoolpremises are also being inspect-ed to ensure safety of childrenduring monsoon. The compa-ny is conducting trimming oftrees to avoid falling on electri-cal installations, poles andwires," a Tata Power-DDL offi-cial said.

"The company is alsochecking leakage of electricity atinstallations by other agenciesand consumers; nearly 400ATMs, more than 2000 poles ofmunicipal corporations and 320park lights have been checked,"he said, adding that it has alsoconducted a safety inspectionwhich includes local bazaars orweekly markets.

Sanjay Banga, CEO of TataPower-DDL said "Public Safetyhas always been a top priority atTata Power-DDL. We have beenproactive in taking measures

aimed at avoiding any untowardelectricity related accidents,"

"We are regularly conduct-ing safety inspections of ourelectric installations at promi-nent public places like schools,malls, hotels and ATMs tocheck and fix any electricityleakage, issuing notices for ille-gal encroachments near powerlines and organising publicawareness sessions on theimportance of proper wiringand precautions to be taken,"Banga added.

Tata Power-DDL is alsoissuing notices to consumershaving illegal encroachments(residential and commercialproperties) near power lines. Atotal of 42510 numbers ofnotices for unauthorized con-struction have been issued, itsaid.

Illegal extension of build-ings and balconies near theoverhead power lines withmuch lower than the prescribedcritical distances mentioned instatutory guidelines can makethe construction hazardous,leading to loss of life due to elec-trocution or flash burns.

In case of sparking in meterrooms or light poles in areasunder Tata Power-DDL, peoplecan call 24x7 Sampark Kendraat 19124 for any assistance.

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Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) president Manoj

Tiwari, along with other sittingMember of Parliament (MPs),carried out Vidhan Sabha tollymeeting with a motive to pre-pare the roadmap ahead of thecrucial Delhi Assembly elec-tions slated to be held inJanuary 2020.

There are pressing issuesbefore the BJP in form ofnever ending sealing drive,Bangladesh immigrants, andcontractual employees that theparty will have to sort outbefore going for the big battleagainst Arvind Kejriwal-ledAam Aadmi Party (AAP).

The meeting was held inthe backdrop of identifyingpotential candidates who willplay vital role during the highvoltage election campaign to

wrest power from the rulingAAP. According to the sourcesin Delhi BJP, the work to iden-tify candidates for the upcom-ing Assembly elections hasstarted. With the launch ofmembership drive, BJP officebearers have been directed tomeet with people and convey

them about party’s achieve-ments.

Among various issues,sealing, regularisation of unau-thorised colonies and issuesconnected to contractualemployees were discussed onthe top priority.

If BJP sources are to be

believed, the Delhi BJP presi-dent is also trying to gel wellwith local MPs. Tiwari andother MPs still need to createa bond required to strengthenparty at the state level," said aleader pleading anonymity.

Delhi's demography playscrucial role during elections.With the time, nature of vot-ers has changed drastically," asenior BJP leader added.

Delhi has seven sittingMPs representing differentcommunities under oneumbrella of the BJP.

Meanwhile, Delhi BJP'smembership drive progrmamewas held at New Shahdara,Mayur Vihar, Outer Delhi ,South Delhi , Najafgarh andMehrauli districts.

Party representative inthese districts emphasised onbooth level work and door todoor campaigning to spread

work done under Central lead-ership.

Delhi BJP president,Manoj Tiwari, in a video saidthat the party is focusing onthe core issues of Delhi. "Fromwater scarcity, electricity toevery household, sealing ,rights of contractual employ-ees will be taken care," saidTiwari.

Citing transport problems,Tiwari said that Delhi trans-port system has been failedcompletely, there should be 100buses for one lakh people butat present only 17 buses areplying," the BJP leader and MPfrom North East constituencyhighlighted the issue in a video.

Tiwari also expressed con-cern over Yamuna pollutionand urged BJP workers towork collectively for cleaningthe river which stretches over21 km before crossing Delhi.

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The Excise department hasdirected the Delhi State

Civil Supplies Corporation(DSCSC) to shift its liquorshop from Hans Bhawan inITO complex to some otherlocation after it received com-plaints about people drinkingopenly and creating nuisance.

In its order issued on July1, the DSCSC has been askedto shift the liquor vend withinone month. According to theExcise department, a com-plaint was filed in the PublicGrievance Commission (PGC)regarding chaotic conditiondue to "open drinking, publicnuisance and congestion" in thevicinity of Vikas Bhawan due tothe presence of the liquor vend.

"Member PGC during thecourse of hearing in the caseexpressed strong displeasure onexistence of liquor (shop) atHans Bhawan and advised thisdepartment to initiate steps forrelocation of the above liquorvend in the interest of safetyand security of the staff andpublic in general and women inparticular," the order stated.

It also said, "DSCSC isdirected to shift the above

liquor vend from HansBhawan, ITO complex, NewDelhi to some other suitablelocation, within one month ofissue of this order."

In Delhi, all liquor vendshave to prominently exhibitthat consumption of liquor ina public place is punishablewith fine or imprisonmentunder Rule 65 of the DelhiExcise Rules, 2010.

In November 2016, theDelhi government hadlaunched a drive against opendrinking. According to ExciseAct, anyone caught drinkingpublicly has to pay a fine of�5,000 and anyone creatingnuisance in public can alsofined �10,000 and awardedimprisonment of up to sixmonths.

�������� ������� �8:�78945

The Delhi Police has claimedto have cracked the mystery

behind the brutal murder ofAnand Singh (43), a SeniorAuditor employed with theGovernment of India. AnandSingh, posted with the receiptsection and dispatch section ofthe Director General of AuditCentral Expenditure, wasallegedly murdered by his ownminor son, who had roped intwo of his friends to carry outthe killing. Anand Singh's 36 -year-old wife Sunita hadhatched the conspiracy tobump off her husband as shewas reportedly pissed off withthe boorish and violent behav-ior.

Senior police officials saidthat they have arrested Sunita,Rishab (20) and Vikas (20) onthe charges of murder whileAnand Singh's minor son hasbeen detained. It has been

revealed that Rishab and Vikaswere promised �1.5 lakh for thejob. Rishab is being interro-gated by the police while hiscohort Vikas is absconding.

Police said that Sunita toldthe investigating officer (IO)that her husband Anand Singhwas alcoholic and used to ill-treat her and children follow-ing which she along with herson conspired to eliminatehim, so that they can livepeacefully thereafter.

Anand Singh's body wasdiscovered by the police after

call was made on the policecontrol room on Saturdaymorning. His body bore mul-tiple stab marks and police sus-pect that he was murderedduring the intervening night ofFriday and Saturday.

According to ChinmoyBiswal, the DeputyCommissioner of Police(DCP), South-East district,during initial investigation,Sunita the wife of the deceasedtried to mislead the police.

"She stated that her hus-band used to come at about 7-

7:30 pm from his office but onthe night of the incident he did-n't come till 11:15 pm. Whenthe family members calledAnand Singh on his phone, hedidn't reply. Thereafter, allfamily members slept," said theDCP.

"Sunita further stated thatshe woke up at around 3 AMto go to toilet and she found herhusband lying dead in a pool ofblood in his room. Thereafter,she woke up other familymembers and other relativeswere called. She further allegedthat the mobile phone of herhusband and Rs 1.5 lakh incash was also missing from thehouse," said the DCP addingthat there were contradictionsfound in the versions of wifeand son of Anand Singh.

"They were again called forquestioning and finally Sunitabroke down and disclosed thatshe along with her son con-tacted Vikas, who was her

son's friend. After Sunitapromised to give Vikas Rs 1. 5lakh, he roped in one of hisfriend Rishabh to eliminateAnand," said the DCP.

"On the night of the inci-dent, accused Sunita along withher son called Vikas andRishabh to their house and hidthem on the roof of the house.At around 11:30pm AnandSingh returned and slept with-out having dinner and he was indrunken state," said the DCP.

"At around 2:30 am, wheneveryone was asleep bothSunita and her son went up tothe roof and signaled Vikas andRishabh. They both stabbedAnand with knives whileSunita and her son kept guardoutside the room in whichAnand was sleeping. Whenthey all ensured that Anandhad died, Vikas and Rishabhfled from the house and thegate of the house was keptopen," said the DCP.

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The Delhi Police has arrest-ed a 21-year-old man who

allegedly created a fake ID ofPay and Accounts officer(PAO) in Government ofIndia's Public FinancialManagement System (PFMS)with objective to siphon offmoney from theGovernment's accountthrough fraud bills.

According to Anyesh Roy,the Deputy Commissioner ofPolice (DCP), Cyber Crime,earlier, the accused NoorMohammad, a resident ofMoregaon in Assam, alongwith his associates, had man-aged to successfully createand get approved, a fake ID ofPAO Officer in the Ministry of

Health and Family Welfareand managed to fraudulentlycreate bills and thus, transfermoney to the tune of �3.86Crores to multiple bankaccounts.

"He came out on bail a fewweeks ago and decided tocommit a similar offenceagain as he thought that hewouldn't be caught this time,"said the DCP

"A complaint was receivedfrom the Ministry of Labourand Employment that on June25, an e-mail was received intheir office from someonepretending to be Lalit Dagarand claiming himself to be thenewly appointed PAO in Payand Accounts Off ice inChennai wherein he had alsorequested to approve his user-ID on PFMS," said the DCP.

"On scrutiny the officialsof the ministry found no suchperson ion their departmentfollowing which a criminalcase under applicable sectionsof IT Act was registered withcyber cell and investigationwas taken up," said the DCP.

"During investigation,technical surveillance led tothe accused who was traced inAssma's Moregaon and wasapprehended by the policeteam," said the DCP.

"During interrogation, theaccused disclosed that helogged on to the website ofPFMS and attempted to createfake ID of PAO of the min-istry. The IDs created onPFMS need to be approved bythe Principal Accounts Officeof the concerned ministryfollowing which the accused

request for approval overemail at the PrincipalAccounts Office," said theDCP.

"The accounts officer grewsuspicious and asked for sup-porting documents and theaccused then sent forged andfabricated documents to tryand pretend to be a newlyappointed PAO in theMinistry," said the DCP.

"Similar complaints havealso been received from otherministries including Coal,Civil Aviation and LawMinistry, in which the sameperson, Noor Mohammad hadattempted to get a fake andbogus PFMS IDs approved.Investigation is being donewith regard to the role of theaccused in those incidents aswell," said the DCP.

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After the national Capitalreported spurt in patients

suffering from vector-bornediseases, the New DelhiMunicipal Council (NDMC)has issued notices to over 240prominent buildings in Delhi'sVIP zone, including thosehousing the offices of theEnvironment Ministry andLady Hardinge hospital aftermosquitoes were found breed-ing in their premises.

"The civic body has issuednotices to 240 to Governmentoffices, hospitals and schoolsafter vector-carrying mosqui-toes were found breeding intheir premises. It has alsoformed a surveillance team toinspect all the buildings," asenior NDMC official said,adding that some of thedefaulters include theParyavaran Bhawan, RajivGandhi Bhawan and Lady

Hardinge hospital. The NDMC has also

planned an intensive sanitationdrive from July 17-19, in whichthe entire its area would bechecked. The total number ofmalaria and dengue casesreported this year till July 6 are60 and 26, respectively. "We hadundertaken an intensive driveto check the rooftops of gov-ernment buildings, privatqebuildings, hospitals, schoolsand residential colonies in theNDMC area for taking pre-cautionary measures to checkand control in spreadingdengue, malaria and chikun-gunya diseases," the officialsaid.

He said as many as 1,140houses were visited during thedrive, out of which 33 werefound positive, whereas a totalof 5,825 containers werechecked and 65 were foundpositive.

According to a data ofSouth Delhi Municipal

Corporation (SDMC) nation-al Capital has witnessed spurtin patients suffering frommalaria with at least 123 per-sons affected till July this year.

Cases of dengue have alsospiked with 13 cases traced lastweek, taking the total numberof patients to 104 this year tillnow. Also, six new cases ofChikungunya also reported inthe city taking the total num-ber to 33.

However, out of total casesof malaria, 61 cases diagnosedbelong to the neighbouringstates while 65 patients suffer-ing from dengue traced inDelhi belong to other states. Asper the report, hospitals did notprovide address of two patientsdiagnosed of malaria, two ofChikungunya and 13 patientsdiagnosed of dengue.

Last year, 2,798 denguecases and four deaths wererecorded by the SDMC, whichtabulates the data on vector-borne diseases in the city.

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Veteran Congress leaderJanardan Dwivedi on

Tuesday questioned the selec-tion process of a new partypresident and said RahulGandhi should have formulat-ed a mechanism to suggest thename of his successor as tech-nically he is still the partychief.

Dwivedi, who held the all-important position of AICCgeneral secretary (organisa-tion) for over two decades, saidconvention and norms shouldbe followed in electing a newparty president.

"Who is selecting the newCongress president? As far asI understand the Congressparty’s constitution, RahulGandhi continues to be theparty president. Probably, onthat basis, some fresh appoint-ments have also been made," hesaid.

"If he (Gandhi) continuesto be the party chief, on what

basis is the election of the newCongress president being done.Who is doing it?" Dwivediposed.

The credibility of the panelholding informal discussionsabout selecting a Congresschief would have been more ifit was set up formally, the vet-eran Congress leader said.

"There should have beensome mechanism which thepresent Congress presidentRahul Gandhi should haveformulated which could havesuggested a name for the newparty chief and put before theworking committee for it toendorse," Dwivedi said.

He said if Gandhi forms aformal panel, it can hold talkswith party workers and leadersacross the country before sug-gesting a name for the post ofCongress president. TheCongress Working Committee(CWC), the highest decision-making body of the party,could then ratify the appoint-ment.

He cited the example ofSonia Gandhi forming a four-member panel to look afterparty affairs and take decisionswhen she had gone abroad forher treatment.

"But, where is such a com-mittee now? Who constitutedit?" Dwivedi asked, adding,"There would have been cred-ibility, if there was a formal setup and a committee wasformed. Then there would have

been no confusion amongparty workers."

"What kind of committee isit where A K Antony has notgone even once. To my knowl-edge, he is not attending thatmeetings."

Meetings are being con-vened in the name of coordi-nation committee, which wasformed for the Lok Sabha pollswhich are over, the veteranleader said.

He said there is a myth thatan election is held for theCongress president, as that hasbeen done on only four or fiveoccasions in the 134-year his-tory of party.

Lauding Rahul Gandhi’sdecision to resign from the postof Congress president, he said,"Till the time you are ready toleave something, you will notget anything back."

"This country is for thosewho are giving. MahatmaGandhi, Vinobha Bhave couldhave become anything, butthey chose not to accept any

post and set an ideal which wehave followed," the veteranleader noted.

In response to a question,he said, "Rahul Gandhi’s resig-nation establishes an ideal thatother leaders in the partyshould follow."

Dwivedi said had the partyworked on the principle ofsacrifice, as shown by SoniaGandhi who resigned and nowRahul Gandhi, "it could haveprogressed and the present sit-uation would not have come topass.

"But, those holding a posi-tion in the party is not ready toquit."

"I maintain that in a party,organisation, society or coun-try in which the voice of inde-pendent thinking is not heard,healthy democracy cannot pre-vail and democratic principlescannot be safeguarded," henoted.

Dwivedi said he had quit asCongress general secretary onSeptember 15, 2014, which

was not accepted by then partypresident Sonia Gandhi. OnMarch 30, 2018, he wasreplaced as AICC general sec-retary (Organisation) by AshokGehlot.

Making public a letter hehad written in 2014 to thenCongress president SoniaGandhi, Dwivedi said he hadthen suggested that the activeposts of general secretaries andsecretaries should be handedover to the younger generationas they required extensive trav-el and work.

Veterans should be givenother important positions, hesaid.

Asked about a youngleader taking over as partychief, Dwivedi said,

"The idea of suggesting ayoung leader can be madeapplicable in case of Congresspresident too, but you cannotbe rigid on this. The issue ofacceptability has to be seen.You can have young leadershipon other positions."

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Prime Minister NarendraModi on Tuesday discussed

ways to take India-UAE ties tonew heights with the Gulfnation’s Foreign Minister, whoinvited the Indian leader to visithis country.

United Arab EmiratesForeign Minister SheikhAbdullah bin Zayed, who heldtalks with External AffairsMinister S Jaishankar onMonday, called on the PrimeMinister and conveyed thatIndia-UAE relations have neverbeen better.

Modi conveyed to the UAE

Foreign Minister his resolve tostep up cooperation with theGulf country in key sectorssuch as trade and energy.

Recalling the warmth andhospitality extended to himduring his previous visits to theUAE, the prime ministerexpressed happiness at thegrowth of bilateral relationsover the last five years, a state-ment from the PMO said.

The UAE foreign ministeralso outlined his country’svision to enhance bilateralcooperation for mutual bene-fit of the people of both thecountries and also for peace,prosperity and stability in the

region.Prime Minister Narendra

Modi reiterated his strong com-mitment to work with the UAEleadership to take the relation-ship to higher levels in allspheres of cooperation, includ-ing in trade and economy,energy, tourism and people-to-people contact, the statementsaid.

Modi also requested theforeign minister to convey hisbest wishes for health, happi-ness and all-round success tothe UAE President and theCrown Prince, it said.

During the call on with thePM, Sheikh Abdullah con-

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From Page 1“Dowry deaths constitute a

unique category of deaths inthe Indian Penal Code, whichhas been amended in recentdecades to deal specificallywith dowry-related violence,”the report said.

It added that available dataon dowry-related killings fromthe National Crime RecordsBureau indicate that femaledowry deaths account for 40 to50 per cent of all female homi-cides recorded annually inIndia, representing a stabletrend over the period from1999 to 2016.

“Despite legislation adopt-ed by the Indian Governmentin 1961 that prohibits the pay-ment of dowry, the practicecontinues throughout thecountry and dowry deaths con-

tinue to account for a substan-tial share of all female homi-cides,” it said.

Sorcery accusations is alsoone of the driver behind gen-der-related killings in the coun-try.

Data from India on homi-cide resulting from sorceryaccusations show that, albeit insmall proportions, this phe-nomenon still exists, the reportnoted.

“Although the data are notdisaggregated by sex, it is like-ly that women account for alarge share of the victims,” itsaid.

The report also found thatson preference, which “contin-ues to be deeply embedded inIndian society, can make par-ents more likely to neglecttheir female infants and chil-dren, “and even to commitinfanticide”.

Further in South Asia, atleast one in five ever-marriedgirls experienced partner vio-lence, with particularly highrates in Bangladesh (47 percent) and India (34 per cent).

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From Page 1“Certain aspects will be

further investigated. His sonshave said that they were goingto sell the animals in Tapukara(in Alwar) and the truck oper-ator claims that he had sold thevehicle to someone else beforethe incident had taken place,”Deshmukh said.

Earlier, the police had saidthe animals were being taken toHaryana. Also, Mohammadcould be absolved from thecharges if it is proved that thetruck did not now belong tohim. The three have beencharged under the RajasthanBovine Animal (Prohibitionof Temporary Migration orExport) Act. Pehlu Khan’sname was dropped in thechargesheet as he has died,police said.

Pehlu Khan and his sonswere thrashed by a mob on the

suspicion of cow smuggling onAprli 1, 2017. He died at a hos-pital in Alwar on April 3. Theywere on their way to Haryana’sNuh district from Jaipur whenthe cow vigilantes stopped twoof the vehicles on the Jaipur-Delhi national highway.

The Rajasthan police hadregistered a case against thepeople who allegedly lynchedPehlu Khan and thrashed hiscompanions. Six men werenamed in the FIR, which alsomentioned around 200 uniden-tified people.

A separate case was alsoregistered then against PehluKhan and others under theRajasthan Bovine Animal Act,which allows the transportationof cattle only after getting per-mission from the administra-tion. Police had then booked 16people for illegally transporting36 animals in six vehicles.

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From Page 1They also include a case of

a missing woman from Jaipurin Rajasthan, disbursal of 13housing loans worth Rs 3 croreby a SBI branch manager inHaridwar among others.

Sources said the agencyalso searched the premises offormer ED official BollineniSrinivasa Gandhi in Hyderabadand Vijaywada in connectionwith a disproportionate assetscase against him. Gandhi waspresently holding the post ofsuperintendent in Central GSTanti-evasion wing inHyderabad. During his earlierstint in ED, he had probedmoney laundering cases againstpresent Andhra Pradesh CMYS Jaganmohan Reddy.

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The JD(U) on Tuesdaydemanded from the

Government grant of specialstatus category to Bihar fordevelopment of the state.

Party member SunilKumar said development andprosperity of the state is impor-tant for achieving the USD 5trillion economy target.

"Bihar should get specialstatus category for developmentof the State," he said while par-ticipating in the discussion onUnion Budget in the LokSabha.

Saptagiri Sankar Ulaka(INC) said it was not clear inthe Budget what the govern-ment wants to achieve by tak-ing the economy to USD 5 tril-lion.

The real issues are jobs,farmer distress and farmer sui-cides, he said, adding "we aredisappointed by the Budget".

T Chazhikadan KL (M)sought urgent steps to push upprices of natural rubber forgrowers.

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Pop singer Honey Singh andmusic producer Bhushan

Kumar have been booked byPunjab police on the charge ofusing vulgar lyrics againstwomen in their latest song.

The rapper has beenbooked following a complaintlodged by the Punjab StateWomen Commission whichsought action against him forallegedly using vulgar lyrics against women in thesong.

The case has been regis-tered at the Mataur police sta-tion in Punjab’s Mohali district.

Singh has been bookedunder section 294 (punish-ment for obscene song andacts) and section 509 (punish-ment for word, gesture or actintended to insult the modestyof a woman) of the IPC, MohaliSenior Superintendent of PoliceHarcharan Singh Bhullar toldPTI.

���� 0*5�30

Awoman Naxal was killed inan encounter with securi-

ty forces in Chhattisgarh’sSukma district on Tuesdaymorning, police said.

The skirmish took placearound 6 am at a forest nearDabbakonta village when ajoint team of security forceswas out on a counter-insur-gency operation, DeputyInspector General (anti-Naxaloperations) Sundarraj P toldPTI.

Personnel belonging to theCommando Battalion forResolute Action (CoBRA-anelite unit of CRPF), SpecialTask Force and District ReserveGuard were involved in theoperation, he said.

���� �4"�*9

The Anti-Terrorist Squad(ATS) of the Uttar Pradesh

police on Tuesday took a cou-ple, allegedly having links withthe naxals, in its custody here.

Manish and his wife Amitaalias Varsha, who hail fromJaunpur district of UP, wereproduced before a local court.

Judicial Magistrate BharatKumar Vyas granted the ATSthe couple’s transit remand tillJuly 12 so that they could betaken to UP and producedbefore a court there. The cou-ple shouted "Inqilab Zindabad"(long live the revolution) out-side the court.

������� ������� �3��*5

Arare footage of an iconicMarathi film “Vande

Mataram” (1948), in whichlegendary writer and play-wright PL Deshpande playedthe lead role along with his wifeSunita Deshpande, is now partof the Pune-based NationalFilm Archive of India (NFAI)collection.

Dinesh Thakur, nephew ofSunita Deshpande and filmhistorian Satish Jakatdar donat-ed a Video Home system (VHS)cassette containing about 35minute footage of the film‘Vande Mataram’ along withtwo U-Matic tapes containing

rare footage of PL Deshpandeplaying harmonium.

“We are extremely delight-ed to receive this footage of afilm that was considered to belost. It is such a happy coinci-dence to discover this footage ata time when the birth centenaryof PL Deshpande and SudhirPhadke is being celebrated thisyear along with the producer ofthe film PR Bhide”, NFAI’sDirector Prakash Magdum said,while receiving the footage fromThakur and Jakatdar.

The iconic Marathi filmwas directed by renownedfilmmaker Ram Gabale.

Considered a landmarkfilm in Marathi, “Vande

Mataram” is based as the storywas based on India’s freedommovement. While renownedwriter GD Madgulkar had writ-ten the script, dialogue andlyrics for the film, whilerenowned composer SudhirPhadke composed music forthe film.

The iconic film wasreleased a year after indepen-dence and presented narra-tives woven with patriotismand humanist affection. Songslike “Ved MantrahunVandya…” became very popu-lar and are remembered eventoday. The shooting fore thefilm took place in early 1948 atShalini Studio in Kolhapur.

New Delhi: Suicides by farm-ers increased after a loan waiv-er of �70,000 crore wasannounced by the previousUPA Government in 2008,Union Minister ParshottamRupala said on Tuesday.

Rupala, Union Minister ofstate for agriculture, also saidan audit conducted after theannouncement of the megaloan waiver scheme had foundthat people who were not farm-ers were also given the loanwaiver.

"There was an increase infarmers suicides after the Rs70,000 crore loan waiverscheme was announced," hesaid during Question Hour.

PTI

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The Rajya Sabha Committeeon Privileges looking into

the alleged surveillance ofmobile phones of senior BJPleader Arun Jaitley and thenLeader of the Opposition in2013 said on Tuesday unau-thorised collection of callrecords of MPs amounts tobreach of privilege if it hinderstheir functioning. It directedthe Delhi Police to pursuecriminal case filed in the mat-ter with “all sincerity” so thatthe guilty persons could bepunished and inform it aboutthe outcome of the judicial pro-ceedings in the case.

In its previous report, thepanel had termed the unautho-rised access of call data recordsof Jaitley as not breach of par-liamentary privilege. Followingthe opposition to the reportfrom several members of theHouse cutting across party lines,the panel on privileges revisit-ed the report. The committeeheard the Delhi PoliceCommissioner and also tookopinion of the Attorney General

on the issue of collection of calldetail records of MPs.

The report said the panelafter examining the matter wasof the view that “if unautho-rised collection of CDR of sit-ting members of Parliamentcauses any hindrance orobstruction in their parlia-mentary functions, it wouldtantamount to breach of priv-ilege beside being a breach ofprivacy under the criminallaw.” A notice of breach of priv-ilege was given by some mem-bers of Rajya Sabha on allegedmonitoring and surveillance ofmobile phones of Arun Jaitleyin 2013.

In another report tabled inthe house, the committee saidthe matter related to Hindutvaleader Sadhvi Prachi’s “terror-ists in Parliament” remarks beallowed to rest, as pursuing itas ‘breach of privilege’ will notserve any purpose.

The Privileges Committeesaid the matter related to her“terrorists in Parliament”remarks be allowed to rest, aspursuing it as ‘breach of priv-ilege’ will not serve any pur-pose. In 2015, Prachi triggered

a controversy by alleging therewere one or two terrorists inParliament. She was apparent-ly referring to MPs who wereagainst hanging of 1993Mumbai blasts convict YakubMemon.

Following her remarks,many MPs from the UpperHouse, cutting across partylines, sought breach of privilege

proceedings against SadhviPrachi. They gave a notice inthis regard to then Rajya Sabhachairman Hamid Ansari, say-ing her remarks “violated thedignity” of Parliament.

The Rajya Sabha committeeobserved that her remarks were“unfair and had contemptuousundertone” apart from being apersonal attack on Members of

Parliament, even though she didnot name any member. “TheCommittee felt that pursuingthis matter of unwarrantedremarks uttered by SadhviPrachi, as a breach of privilege,would serve no useful purpose,”the Rajya Sabha secretariat saidin a statement. The panel also“recommended that the mattermay be allowed to rest”.

However, the panelobserved that such irresponsibleremarks lead to erosion of val-ues attached to these institutionsand strongly condemned theremarks of Sadhvi Prachi.

In another matter of 2017,the parliamentary panel foundthe Editor-in-Chief ofSudarshan News TV Channel“guilty of committing grossbreach of privilege and con-tempt of the House by hisoffensive conduct” against thenRajya Sabha MP NareshAgrawal.

“The committee was ofthe view that his sole intentionwas to take undue advantage ofthe situation and hog the lime-light by criticising Parliamentand the member and get pub-licity in the process,” the panelsaid in its report.

It also recommended to theInformation and BroadcastingMinistry to issue necessaryguidelines to all TV channelsfor being cautious with regardto the telecasting and reportingthe proceedings of the Houseand to desist from re-telecast ofexpunged portions of the pro-ceedings.

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Prime Minister NarendraModi on Tuesday asked BJP

MPs to undertake a 150-km-long ‘padayatra’ in their respec-tive constituencies betweenOctober 2 and October 31, tomark the birth anniversaries ofMahatma Gandhi andVallabhbhai Patel respectively,and to reach out to the publicin villages. He suggested that150 groups should be formed ineach Lok Sabha constituency totake up the 150-km walk.

Addressing a BJP parlia-mentary party meeting, Modialso asked Rajya Sabha mem-bers to visit constituencieswhere the BJP organisationwas weak. ParliamentaryAffairs Minister Pralhad Joshiquoted Modi as saying so in thesecond Parliamentary partymeet here after BJP’s victory inthe Lok Sabha polls.

“Modi told MPs that every-one should carry out a 150-km-long padayatra in their con-stituencies during the periodstarting from October 2, thebirth anniversary of Mahatma

Gandhi, to October 31, thebirth anniversary of SardarVallabhbhai Patel,” Joshi saidafter the meeting. The ‘Yatra’detail could be worked out bythe party and the MPs.

Sharing details of the pro-posed programme, Ministerof State for ParliamentaryAffairs Arjun Ram Meghwalsaid the prime minister under-lined that these padayatrasshould focus on villages andreaching out to public. “Moditold MPs that 150 groupsshould be formed in each con-stituency which will cover 150km and the party MPs will bepart of these groups. The ideais to reach out to public andseek their feedback on theGovernment’s work and theirexpectations from us,” he said.

Meghwal said Modi under-lined that Gandhi and villageswill be the focus and MPsshould discuss Gandhianthoughts with the people. Modialso suggested that plantationof trees, cleanliness and otherissues related to village can alsobecome part of the plannedmarches, Meghwal said.

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The National InvestigationAgency (NIA) has seized

five fabricated hand grenades,one timer device, three electriccircuits, explosive substance,components used for makingIEDs and rockets besides sev-eral incriminating materialfrom Bengaluru.

The seizure was made fromSoladevanahalli area in northBengaluru based on leads pro-vided by Jamat-ul-MujahideenBangladesh terrorist HabiburRehman, arrested for hisinvolvement in Burdwan (WestBengal) blast case of 2014. Theblast case had unearthed alarger conspiracy to carry outseveral attacks in India andBangladesh. The handgrenades seized in Bengaluruwere fabricated for use in ter-rorist activities in the state, theagency said in a statement.

On June 25, the NIA hadarrested Rehman fromBengaluru and he was later sentto police custody by an NIAcourt. He was charge-sheetedas absconder in the Burdwanblast case being probed by thefederal probe agency.

“While evading arrest asabsconder, he was a part of aJMB module which intended towage war against the democ-ratic set up of the State by con-spiring to commit terroristacts,” the agency said.

He and other JMB membersraised funds through dacoities inBengaluru city in 2018, it said.Following the seizure of handgrenades and other material, afresh case has been registered atSoladevanahalli police station against Rehman andother JMB cadres.

Two persons were killed ina bomb explosion in a rentedhouse in Burdwan on October2, 2014. Later, it came to lightthat those present in the house,suspected to be JMB members,were preparing bombs, ammu-nition/arms, and organisingterrorist training camps for alarger conspiracy to carry outterrorist attacks in India andBangladesh.

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The ruling BJP got the lion’sshare of Rs 915.59 crore as

donations from 1,731 corporatedonors between 2016 and 2018.This is over 16 times more thanwhat the Congress received inthe same period.

According to theAssociation for DemocraticReforms (ADR) that analysedthe donations from corporatesto national parties during theperiod 2016-18, Prudent/SatyaElectoral Trust, Bhadram JanhitShalika Trust, Cadila HealthcareLimited, Modern Road Makers,Janta Nirvachak Electoral Trust,Apex Jewellers AB GeneralElectoral Trust and KakinadaSeaports Limited were amongthe top donors during this peri-od. The report says about 93per cent of the total voluntarycontributions above Rs 20,000received by the six nationalpolitical parties between 2016and 2018 came from corporatesand business houses.

“Out of the six national par-ties, BJP received the maximumdonations of Rs 915.596 crore

from 1,731 corporate donorsfollowed by Congress whichreceived a total contribution ofRs 55.36 crore from 151 corpo-rate donors and NCP with Rs7.737 crore from 23 corporatedonors in financial year 2016-17 and 2017-18,” the report said.

The ADR said electoraltrusts were the biggest donorsto the national parties, con-tributing a total of Rs 488.42crore. The BJP got the most, atRs 458.02 crore, followed by theCongress (Rs 29.40 crore).

Prudent/Satya ElectoralTrust was the top donor to twoof the national parties. “TheTrust donated a total of 46times in two years, amountingto Rs 429.42 crore. The BJPdeclared receiving Rs 405.52crore in 33 donations while theCongress was the recipient ofRs 23.90 crore of funds in 13donations from Prudent/SatyaElectoral Trust. Bhadram JanhitShalika Trust was the secondhighest corporate donor to theBJP and the Congress, donat-ing 10 times, a total amount ofRs 41 crore. Janta NirvachakElectoral Trust was the third

highest corporate donors to theBJP and the Congress with atotal donation amount of Rs 25crore,” the report said.

After Electoral Trust, theManufacturing sector was thesecond highest donors, con-tributing a total of Rs 120 crore.Real estate sector was the thirdhighest donors contributing atotal of Rs 90 crore during thesame period. The BJP receivedthe highest donations from all15 sectors including manufac-turing (Rs 107.54 crore), realestate (Rs 88.57 crore), mining,construction, exports andimports (Rs 57.40 crore).

The report says that Delhiwas among the top in the list ofdonors list which contributedRs 481.37 crore to these political parties, followed byMaharashtra (Rs 176.88 crore)and Karnataka (Rs 43.184crore).

The ADR said duringfinancial years 2016-17 and2017-18, the voluntary contri-butions of BJP and theCongress above Rs 20,000 fromcorporates was 94 per centand 81 per cent respectively.

Between financial years2012-13 and 2017-18, the BJPreceived the maximum corpo-rate donations of Rs 1,621.40crore, constituting 83.49 percent of the total corporatedonations in six years.

According to the ADRanalysis, during the period2016-18 business houses donat-ed a total of Rs 985.18 crore,constituting 93 per cent of thetotal contribution to politicalparties from known sources.

The ADR analysis saiddonations from corporates tonational parties increased by160 per cent between financialyears 2004-05 to 2011-12 and financial years 2016-17 to 2017-18.

Between financial years2012-13 and 2017-18, dona-tions from corporates tonational parties increased by414 per cent, with a major dropin the percentage of corporatedonations in financial year2015-16. Donations from cor-porates to national partiesreduced by 25.07 per centbetween financial year 2016-17and 2017-18.

���� �8:�78945

With information suspect-ed to have been “com-

promised”, the Housing andUrban Affairs Ministry hasasked its officials to strictly fol-low the IT Ministry’s onlinesecurity advisory whichincludes avoiding surfing of“inappropriate websites” anduse of personal USBs in officecomputer. Last week, the gov-ernment informed Parliamentthat over two dozen websites ofcentral ministries, departmentsand state governments werehacked till May this year, as perinformation by IndianComputer EmergencyResponse Team (CERT-In).

In its written communica-tion to all officials and subor-dinated offices, the HUAMinistry said some malwareand vulnerable issues havecome to the notice where secu-rity of information appear to be“compromised”.

It has also attached “Do’sand Don’ts” advisory receivedfrom the Ministry ofElectronics and InformationTechnology along with writtencommunication issued on June25. “All the officers/person-nel/users of this ministry are tostrictly adhered to Do’s andDon’ts so that any malware andvulnerable issues may not dam-age the systems,” the HUAMinistry stated.

According to the advisoryon ‘Information SecurityAwareness - Do’s and Don’ts”,officials have been asked not tosurf inappropriate websites thatthey are not fully aware of, justout of sheer curiosity. It has alsoasked them not to use person-al USBs or other devices inoffice computer without per-mission from the IT departmentand access sensitive informationfrom a non-secure computer.

“Be aware of surroundingswhen printing, copying, faxingor discussing sensitive infor-mation. Stay alert and reportsuspicious activity to CISO(Chief Information SecurityOfficer) of your department,” Italso stated. It said officersshould not use official emailaddress for accessing personalsocial media accounts.

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Amid reports of increased incidents ofconflict among doctors and patients

and their relatives across the country, theUnion Health Ministry has set up a panel to discuss the Central Protection Act against assaults on the med-ical professionals.

Up in arms against the attacks by rel-atives and patients, the doctors of someGovernment hospitals in the capital pastfew days had gone on strike, hamperinghealth services.

A statement issued by the Ministrysaid on Tuesday that a ten-member com-mittee has been constituted to “examinethe pros and cons of brining out a centrallegislation against assault on doctors onduty and clinical establishments.”

The panel which has representativesfrom RML, AIIMS, MCI and IMA besidesFederation of Resident DoctorsAssociation (FORDA), besides joint sec-retary (Health) will meet on Wednesdayto discuss the matter.

Welcoming the move, the) in a state-ment said that the doctors bear the brunt of angered patients andattendants due poor infrastructure, faultyhealth care policies and inadequate manpower.

“Many a time, doctors have faced lifethreatening assaults followed by variousagitations. The Government has consid-ered the option of Central Protection Actto combat the rising assaults on doctorsand smooth functioning of health caredelivery system,” said a member of theFORDA.

The assaults on health care profes-sionals, especially doctors have increasedconsiderably over the few years.

Inadequate or non existing security,weak legal framework, growing trustdeficit between patients and doctors andpoor human and infrastructure in health are being blamed for increase insuch incidents.

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The Modi Government has paid crop insuranceclaims worth Rs 9,046 crore to 80 lakh farmers for

the kharif 2018 season under Pradhan Mantri FasalBima Yojana (PMFBY) and Restructured WeatherBased Crop Insurance Scheme (RWBCIS).

In a written reply to the Lok Sabha, UnionAgriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said Rs9,046 crore worth claims have been paid to 80 lakh farm-ers under PMFBY and weather index based RWBCISfor the kharif 2018 season. He said this was a provisionaldata and some claims of kharif 2018 have not beenreported. Admissible claims under PMFBY are workedout on the basis of yield data submitted by the state gov-ernment concerned and under RWBCIS on the basisof weather data from weather stations designated in thenotification by the state government, he added.

PMFBY was launched in 2016 under whichfarmers pay very nominal premium and get full claimfor damages. The scheme is being implemented in mostof the States. On whether the Government had a pro-posal to take steps to provide compensation to farm-ers for crop loss under PMFBY by determining a yearin which farmers got bumper crops, the Minister said,“No such proposal is under consideration of theGovernment at present.”

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The Supreme Court onTuesday said it would

accord final hearing in Auguston a batch of petitions chal-lenging the Centre’s decision todeport illegal Rohingya Muslimimmigrants to Myanmar.

The top court is also seizedof petitions which support theGovernment’s stand to deportover 40,000 Rohingyas, whofled to India after violence inthe Western Rakhine State ofMyanmar and are settled inJammu, Hyderabad, Haryana,Uttar Pradesh, Delhi-NCR andRajasthan.

A Bench comprising ChiefJustice Ranjan Gogoi and JusticesDeepak Gupta and Aniruddha

Bose asked the counsel for par-ties to submit their written sub-missions in the meantime.

“Pleadings are complete.Parties are required file briefwritten submissions,” theBench said, adding the date offinal hearing would be notifiedshortly by the registry.

Initially, two Rohingyaimmigrants — MohammadSalimullah and MohammadShaqir, who are registeredrefugees under the UnitedNations High Commission ofRefugees (UNHCR), hadmoved the apex court in 2017challenging the move to deportto Rohingyas on variousgrounds including that it vio-lated international human rightconventions.

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On the second day of Budgetdiscussions in the Lok

Sabha on Tuesday, PreneetKaur (Congress) said it was forthe first time that a FinanceMinister did not speak onDefence allocation. Stating thatheadlines don’t produce results,she said the budget failed to riseto the challenge.

But BJP’s Sunita Duggalsaid her Government in the lastfive years has bandaged thewounds that were inflictedduring the last 70 years. Shealso said the government willachieve the target of USD 5 tril-lion economy.

DMK MP and formerTelecom Minister A Raja, how-ever, said that the budget has noroadmap. “I am not really able

to respect the budget. You gavethe budget...But what are all theassurances given in the budget.In order to achieve the assur-ances there is no roadmap atall,” said Raja.

BJP’s Vinod Shankar saidyouth are being exploited byindustries. “Now is the timethat we should frame a nation-al policy on outsourcing to pre-vent exploitation of youth,” hesaid, adding that there is a needto identify districts whereindustries can be set up. He alsoattacked the Congress for crit-icising some budget provi-sions, saying people who havenever given six paisa to farm-ers are now raising issues overGovernment’s move to give Rs6,000 to farmers.

Nama Nageshwara Rao(TRS) said they were expecting

steps in the Budget for the statefrom the first full-time womanFinance Minister NirmalaSitharaman, who is from SouthIndia. He demanded morefunds for projects in Telangana.

Ram Chandra Paswan(LJSP) also participated in thediscussion.

AIMIM memberAsaduddin Owaisi said budgetallocation to minority affairsministry has not beenincreased for the current fiscal.Owaisi also said subsidy for Hajpilgrimage has been cut to Rs89 crore from Rs 500 crore andthe government should utilisethe unused money in buildingschools for Muslims. He saidthe Government has stoppedcoming out with the figures ofnumber of jobs created forminorities.

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The Supreme Court on Tuesdayagreed to examine the plea of an

original litigant in the RamJanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dis-pute in Ayodhya seeking early hearingof the case as “nothing much” was hap-pening even after a mediation panelwas set up to explore an amicable solu-tion of the contentious matter. GopalSingh Visharad, one of the plaintiffs inthe original civil suit, moved the topcourt for early hearing of the case.

“We will see,” a Bench comprisingChief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and justicesDeepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bosesaid when the submissions for early list-ing of the batch of appeals in the landdispute were advanced by senior lawyerPS Narasimha on behalf of Visharad.

“Have you filed an application forearly hearing,” the Bench asked. Thecounsel replied in the affirmative.

The development assumed signif-icance as a five-judge bench headed bythe CJI on May 10 had extended thetime till August 15 for the three-mem-ber mediation panel, headed by formerapex court judge FMI Kalifulla, tocomplete the mediation proceedings.

The panel, which also comprised

spiritual guru and founder of Art ofLiving foundation Sri Sri Ravishankarand senior advocate and renownedmediator Sriram Panchu, had told theapex court that it was “optimistic”about an amicable solution to the polit-ically sensitive dispute.

“If the mediators are optimisticabout the result and are seeking time tillAugust 15, what is the harm in grant-ing time? This issue has been pendingfor years and years. Why should we notgrant time,” the Bench had said.

The apex court had on March 8referred the matter to the panel ofmediators for exploring possibility ofan amicable settlement. In its March8 order, the top court had asked thepanel of mediators to hold in-cameraproceedings and complete them with-in eight weeks.

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As public discourse on the fourthindustrial revolution and ArtificialIntelligence (AI) gathers momen-

tum, there is a need for a more focussedand a comprehensive look at the 5G-enabled systems. Also, there is an urgentneed to take some hard decisions since 5Gnetworks will remain the basic tool forensuring effective and efficient harnessingof AI. In real terms, it is truly a 21st cen-tury technology, which has the potential tochange our lives or at least lifestyles.

By itself, the fourth industrial revolu-tion-driven AI is completely dependent ondata and its linkages, communication andprocessing, particularly the speed of pro-cessing. It is often said that just as land wasthe raw material for the agricultural age,iron was the raw material for the industri-al age, data is the raw material for informa-tion age. It is, however, quite paradoxicalthat while Indians are virtually at the topof the ladder in IT capabilities, within thecountry, we have given this sensitive sub-ject little thought. Much more is desired.The result is that today, there is hardly anyIndian company on the scene, which con-tinues to be dominated by Google,Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft besidesBaidu, Alibaba and Ten Cents from China.

AI is essentially developed throughdata mined from digital platforms. Suchvoluminous data is analysed for various pat-terns and trends and then turned into intel-ligence. Thus, our economic and commer-cial data, whose ownership is genuinelyIndian, is bound to get into foreign handswhom we can call the AI superpowers.Today, AI can play a significant role of reg-ulating — from each item of our daily rou-tine to complexities of cyber warfare. Rightfrom operating certain models of washingmachines already equipped with a fuzzy logicsystem, to switching on the AC and lightsbefore you are back home or pre-heating thebath or oven. These are all realities. Also, AIcan direct a computer to take evasive action,in case of an attack, it can direct shutting ofa nuclear power plant in case of a comput-er perceived threat. At this rate, in the nearfuture, the Internet of Things (IOT) is boundto take charge of our lives at some stage.

On the flip side, it can also very easi-ly tamper with driverless cars, trafficlights and bring the entire city to a grind-ing halt. In a situation like this, all opera-tions in cyber space, whether personalisedor otherwise, will have to be secure and,hence, encrypted. In future, advanceencryption techniques will ensure that ourcyber space remain secure, for which, wewill have to have well-trained profession-als in cyber security. This would also meanthe creation of additional jobs.

One of the most common examples ofAI is that of high frequency trading in stockexchanges through computers, independentof any human commands. Without anyextraneous intervention, in a fraction of a

second, the computer can spotmarket differentials on a verysmall scale and execute trans-actions, which would makemoney as per instructions.Similarly, specialised algorithmsused in arbitrage trading candetect small differences in mar-ket values to determine oppor-tunities of profitability. Theemerging scenario is a combi-nation of software defined net-works for AI, operating at 5thgeneration (5G) speeds, forapplications through IoT. Thus,5G is the medium, AI gives thecommand and IoT handles itsapplications through enableddevices.

While we are thinking interms of advanced technolog-ical applications, we have torealise that most of our com-puter operations on Googleand Microsoft are subjects oflocal US laws and, hence, vul-nerable. Most vulnerable beingthe email traffic on the net,which is also a subject of USlaws and can be legally inter-cepted. As was brought out inthe Congressional hearings ofAmerican technology entre-preneur Mark Zuckerberg, notmuch could be achieved on thedata leaks from Facebook. Infact, the only thing Zuckerbergcould offer was an apology,which he also repeated before

the European Union. As such, in addition to the

protection of our data, themost important issue is theestablishment of 5G networks.The Chinese electronic giantHuawei has emerged as a bigplayer in this field. This con-glomerate had been trying tomake inroads into India forover a decade, but had beendenied permission on groundsof security-related concerns. Infact, it is understood that at onetime, an adverse advisory hadalso been issued. But later,after a few years, imports ofcheap computer hardware fromHuawei were permitted. Whenthis company had applied for amanufacturing facility in 2013,it was denied.

However, later, under thechanged circumstances in 2015,permission was granted. Butconsidering the geo-politics ofour relations with China andrelated security implicationsalong with vulnerability of oureconomy, caution needs to beexercised. Particularly so as inthe long run, they have showna propensity to virtually over-whelm the recipient.

At the same time, we arealso aware that despite severecriticism, their contract for thedevelopment of 5G networkswas awarded to the Chinese

electronic giant Huawei and inthe ensuing collateral damage,the Defence Secretary of the UK,Gavin Williamson, had to besacked. While the Chinese tradewar with the US is quite recentand has been occupying head-lines only during the last fewweeks, they have already,smoothly and silently made sig-nificant inroads into theEuropean markets.

For instance, during thelast 10 years, their investmentin Europe exceeds over $320billions. It is hard to admit buttheir scale of operations takesthem to the level of an econom-ic superpower with foreignpolicy and security implica-tions in strategic areas.

As the world is already inthe midst of the fourth industri-al revolution, we should not beleft behind. Accordingly, a deci-sion on the establishment of 5Gnetworks has to be considered,keeping in view our security andgeo-political interests. In the areaof AI, all existing players areeither US-based or Chinese andwith our immense IT-relatedinherent strengths, it is high timethat we develop our own digitalsearch engines and do not endup merely as a client state.

(The writer is a retired DelhiPolice Commissioner and formerUttarakhand Governor)

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Sir — This refers to the editor-ial, “Question is when?” (July 9).There is a message in the uned-ifying Congress-Janata Dal(Secular) coalition alliance:Always allow the single largestparty to form a Government. Bynot doing so, the door is leftopen for dissatisfied elements tocreate trouble in the long run.

It’s unfortunate that theCongress and the JD(S) arefighting a desperate battle on twofronts — weaning away therebels while protecting the exist-ing flock, which is ready to fleeany time. If the resignation of allthe 13 lawmakers — who havemarked their exit — is accepted,the Congress and the JD(S)Government, which has a wafer-thin majority, could collapse.

This because most MLAs,who have resigned, are of theunanimous opinion on twopoints: That Karnataka ChiefMinister HD Kumaraswamy hasbeen ineffective. During his ear-lier stint as the Chief Minister, hewas efficient and managed toprotect his flock. HDK 2.0 hasbeen a disaster.

The Congress has accused

the BJP of trying to topple theState Government, dismissingany talk of crisis. This is a clas-sic case of the pot calling the ket-tle black. In May last year, whenthe BJP emerged as the singlelargest party with 104 Assemblyseats, the Congress and theJD(S) — both sworn enemies

with 78 and 37 seats respective-ly — decided to join hands tokeep the BJP out. Well, the shoeis in the other foot now. The lastone year, since the coalitionGovernment assumed power, hasbeen traumatic.

KS Jayatheertha Bengaluru

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Sir — On July 26, 2018, the WestBengal Assembly had passed aresolution unanimously to changethe name of the State as Bangla.In 2011, a suggestion had cometo change the name of the State

as Paschimbanga. But the sugges-tion was turned down by the thenUPA Government. In 2016, it wasreportedly proposed to renamethe State as Bengal in English,Bangla in Bengali and Bangal inHindi. Finally, the State has nowinsisted on changing the name asBangla, which was turned downby the Centre recently.

The NDA Government isjustified in rejecting the propos-al as the name is “part and par-cel” of Bangladesh. There havebeen many changes of names ofIndian cities. But no Governmentin India has thought of changingthe name of India as Bharat. It willbe nice to rename India as Bharat.

KV SeetharamiahHassan

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Sir — Both the Congress and theJD(S) must accept that the allianceGovernment in Karnataka hasbeen a failure. The Assemblymust be dissolved and fresh elec-tions must be conducted.

ArunVia email

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Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s firstmaiden Budget failed to excite the bourses.The Sensex fell 793 points, the biggest crash

in a single day witnessed this year on Monday. Thegeneral feeling after the Budget was that no stim-ulus package was provided to kickstart the econ-omy. No specific announcements were made tolift the sagging economy. The only silver liningwas that fiscal deficit target was brought downfrom 3.4 per cent to 3.3 per cent for FY 2019-20.This indicates that the Government wants to focuson macro-economic variables. The recapitalisa-tion plan of �70,000 crore for public sector bankshas been taken positively by markets as it washigher than what was expected.

In addition, the announcement to cut the cor-porate tax rate from 30 per cent to 25 per cent forfirms having an annual turnover of up to �400 crore,which, in fact, covers 99.3 per cent of the country’scompanies, is welcome. This will provide themuch-needed respite to organisations that are stillgrappling with Goods and Services Tax (GST) blues.This move will also benefit many foreign compa-nies, which have set up manufacturing plants foradvanced technologies like semiconductors, lithi-um batteries and solar charging infrastructure inIndia. These firms will also be the recipients of taxexemptions and benefits, giving much boost to the‘Make in India’ programme.

In a similar move, to encourage foreign com-panies, the Government relaxed regulations requir-ing foreign retailers to source a portion of their rawmaterials locally. This will encourage retailers likeApple, IKEA and Uniqlo to do more business inIndia. We may also consider opening up the avia-tion, media and insurance sectors to foreign invest-ments. The Government plans to offer an investmentoption in exchange-traded funds (ETFs), on the linesof Equity Linked Savings Scheme (ELSS). An ELSSoffers investors a tax deduction of up to �1.5 lakhunder Section 80C and comes with a lock-in peri-od of three years. This move will draw retail investorsto Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSE) ETFs,which have seen strong participation from institu-tional and high net worth investors. It will also havea more concentrated portfolio than an ELSS fundas the universe of companies available to it is small-er. Higher concentration can make performance ofthese ETFs volatile — both on the upside and down-side. Therefore, investors must weigh the merits ofunderlying investment, instead of investing in it justfor tax returns.

The stocks markets were, however, spooked asin a bid to give more teeth to the minority share-holders, the Budget proposed to increase the min-imum public shareholding in listed firms to 35 percent from 25 per cent. If implemented, this will givelarger say to retail investors in influencing the ver-dicts of special resolutions, where till now becauseof higher shareholding percentage, promoters havehad their way. Besides, raising public holding to 35per cent will lead to a supply of high-quality papersin the market and will provide an excellent oppor-tunity for investors waiting on the sidelines for fur-ther investment in stocks. This will also lead to a bet-ter price discovery.

However, this move may lead to MNCs — withlow public float to delist, and many companies withhigher promoter holding — to come out with follow on public offerings to reduce their stakes. Thismay potentially squeeze liquidity in secondary mar-kets. According to Centrum Broking, promoters inas many as 1,174 listed companies will have to offloadtheir stakes to meet this requirement. This is 25 per

cent of the total listed universe.The move to tax the super rich is

straight out of Robinhood tales. TheFinance Minister increased the 15 per centpersonal tax surcharge on high incomebrackets. The new surcharge for incomesbetween �2 crore and �5 crore is at 25 percent and 37 per cent surcharge will belevied to those who earn above �5 crore.The Government should look at incen-tivising wealth generation instead ofpenalising the same. We should aim todevelop as a creative and innovative econ-omy and increase the number of entre-preneurs. The overall economy has to bemore encouraging. The Governmentshould try to make more millionaires.

In the second term, the presentGovernment is trying to make domesticmarkets more attractive to foreigninvestors. India has always been a mar-ket that offers great promise of consump-tion but at the same time, it is marred bycorruption, poor regulatory frameworkswith constant corporate governance issuesand policy drawbacks. To win backinvestors’ trust, it is important to createan environment of improved disclosureand transparency. Making auditors andcredit rating agencies more accountablefor their actions will go a long way in mak-ing equity markets safer. The currentBudget is aimed at boosting India’s attrac-tiveness to foreign investors as it propos-es a slew of reforms as also aims to increasethe statutory limit for FPI investment ina company from 24 per cent to sectoralforeign investment limit with an optiongiven to the concerned corporates to limitit to a lower threshold.

The Government is also permittingFPIs to subscribe to listed debt securitiesissued by real estate investment trusts(REITs) and infrastructure investmenttrusts (InvITs). The Finance Minister has

also proposed to permit investmentsmade by FIIs/FPIs in debt securities issuedby infrastructure debt fund-non-bankingfinancial companies (IDF-NBFCs) to betransferred and sold to any domesticinvestor within the specified lock-inperiod. In addition, the Know YourCustomer (KYC) requirements for FPIshave also been eased. These steps are takento ensure a positive, investor-friendly andhassle free experience to FPIs as they havealways been a vital source of capital.

However, the Budget provided noincentives to the mutual fund industry.This sector, which channelises domesticsavings into equity and debt markets, hasbeen left high and dry. According to theAssociation of Mutual Funds of India(AMFI), the industry was hoping that theFinance Minister would oblige some oftheir demands like the introduction ofdebt-oriented tax saving schemes orDLSS similar to ELSS; exemption fromdividend distribution tax or DDT; andexclusive tax benefits for mutual fundretirement schemes. The introduction ofDLSS could witness more participationfrom retail investors, who are risk averseand would be interested in investing in lessrisky instruments and at the same timebenefit from tax savings.

The same results would also be evi-dent if sops are given for retirementschemes. With a total penetration level ofjust 11 per cent (equity 4 per cent, debt 7per cent), as compared to 114 per cent inAustralia, 91 per cent in the US and 51per cent in the UK, India’s mutual fundindustry remains under-penetrated. TheGovernment has to give definite sops tothe industry to channelise household sav-ings into it and give more options to retailinvestors.

Although the mutual fund industrydid not get DLSS, the Government has

plans to help retail investors to invest insecurities and treasury bills. The Budgethas taken a step further to attract indi-vidual investors towards bond markets.To make the process of investing in trea-suries and Government bonds lesscumbersome and easier for individualinvestors, it was announced that inter-operability between the Reserve Bank ofIndia’s (RBI) depositories and the cap-ital market regulator, the Securities andExchange Board of India’s (SEBI) depos-itories will be introduced in consultationwith both these regulators.

At the moment, buying and selling ofGovernment securities is cumbersome asinvestors do not get g-secs (Governmentsecurities) deposited directly in the demataccount, like other equity instruments.Securities are issued in the SecuritiesGeneral Ledger account and from there,it is a tedious process to get them trans-ferred to demat accounts of investors.

The Government also proposed todeepen the market for long term bonds,including the deepening of markets forcorporate bond repos, credit defaultswaps with a specific focus to infrastruc-ture sector. It plans to deepen the corpo-rate tri-party repo market in corporatedebt securities by working with regulatorslike RBI and SEBI to enable stockexchanges to allow AA rated bonds as col-laterals. Since details of the proposal arestill awaited, initial feeling is that the reposwith AA rated bonds as collaterals wouldimprove liquidity.

The maiden budget presented bySitharaman has been a mixed bag.Although, it was not very flashy, hopeful-ly, it will be able to bring the much-need-ed long-term stability with plans focussedon the fundamentals.

(The writer is Assistant Professor atAmity University)

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Coalition Governments general-ly do not succeed in India. Whyis it so? For multiple reasons,

perhaps — both at the State and fed-eral level. This has historically beenproved not once or twice but numer-ous times. The latest in series is the rul-ing Congress-Janata Dal (Secular)coalition in Karnataka. The HDKumaraswamy-led KarnatakaGovernment is crumbling and this isn’tsurprising. The culture of ‘Aya Ram,Gaya Ram’ continues despite stringentanti-defection laws in place. Horse-trading, too, continues unabashedly.Legislators are taken to resorts and arekept in camps.

Ever since the formation of theKaranataka Government a year ago, the

Congress-JD(S) coalition was on ashaky ground although the entireOpposition graced the occasion ofKumaraswamy’s swearing-in ceremo-ny. Many believed that a beginning ofsorts was made in forging Oppositionunity against the BJP juggernaut butultimately, it remained divided.

One of the reasons for the failureof the Karnataka experiment wasbecause local leaders — of both theCongress and JD(S) — were at logger-heads. Former Chief MinisterSiddaramaiah has been sulking, for hisbête noire, Kumaraswamy, got the toppost. Second, there were allegations thatthe BJP resorted to ‘poaching’ the leg-islators. Third, the unnatural charac-ter of the coalition, where a major party,the Congress, supported a minorparty, JD(S), was not conducive.

In the past one year, many times,news emerged from Bengaluru that theKarnataka Government was shaky. So,the collapse was expected sooner orlater for obvious reasons. This bringsus to the larger issue as to why coali-tions do not succeed. They collapsebecause of their inherent contradic-tions. Both the national parties — the

Congress and the BJP — too, have notsucceeded in coalition experiments ear-lier. While the Congress played thegame of supporting the coalition andpulling out at will, the BJP, too, hasexperimented with coalitionGovernments at some point or theother.

Coalition Governments wereformed at the federal level in 1989,1990, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2004-2009 by several political parties. Thefirst coalition Government, whichcompleted its full-term, was the AtalBihari Vajpayee-led NDA-I thatremained in power for six years because

the BJP provided the spine. The UPAremained in power for a decade for adifferent reason as it allowed coalitionpartners to make money from theirMinistries.

When anti-Indira forces cametogether to throw the Indira GandhiGovernment in 1977, they could co-exist despite a massive majority just forthree years. The VP SinghGovernment, which was supported inan unusual manner by the Left and theRight in 1989, collapsed within months.The two United Front Governmentspropped up by the Congress from out-side also collapsed within two years.

At the State level, the first coalitionexperiment was the SamyuktaVidhayak Dal in 1967. The Jana Sanghwas a partner. The BJP-BSPGovernment collapsed within fourmonths in 1995 due to inherent con-tradictions. The BJP-BSP coalitionGovernment in 1997 and 2002 also didnot last long. In Karnataka, the BJP-JD(S) coalition was formed in 2006 butthat, too, did not last long.

The BJP-PDP coalitionGovernment in Jammu & Kashmirlasted for just three years — from 2015to 2018. It was the BJP, which pulledout of the coalition. There was a cleardivide between the Valley, where thePeoples Democratic Party (PDP) wasstrong and the Jammu region, wherethe BJP won many seats. Ultimately, theBJP felt there was no point in contin-uing the experiment and quit theGovernment in June 2018 after threeyears. The United Democratic Front(UDF) in Kerala is holding primarilybecause it is a coalition led by twominority interests — Muslims andChristians.

Why then do coalitionGovernments fail? Often, they are not

stable because of a lack of a commonminimum programme, as suggestedby the Second AdministrativeCommission. Second, defections areencouraged where the role of theGovernor is important. The SarkariaCommission recommendationsshould be implemented and theoffice of the Governor must be madefree from political hold. Third, coali-tion has come to symbolise instabil-ity in India because the ruling partyhas to pander to the needs of thecoalition partners. It depends on thecompetence of the Chief Minister orthe Prime Minister to run the coali-tion. Political parties need to be clearof each other’s expectations andworking platform.

A coalition Government at theState or federal level will be stable onlywhen national parties lead it. They willact as a glue and bind them. What ishappening is that political partiescome together for power and that is theonly glue that binds them. Thereshould be a common bond among thepartners or else it will be shaky.

(The writer is a senior political com-mentator and syndicated columnist)

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Weak growthprospects for

India will compli-cate theGovernment’s fis-cal consolidationefforts, weighing onthe sovereign’s cred-it quality, Moody’sInvestors Servicesaid Tuesday.

The 2019-20Budget presentedin Parliament lastweek projected tocontain fiscal deficitat 3.3 per cent ofGDP, lower than 3.4per cent estimatedin the interimBudget. It also pro-jected a more grad-ual decline inGovernment debt.

“Weak growth prospectsfor India (Baa2 stable) willcomplicate the Government’sfiscal consolidation efforts,weighing on the sovereign’scredit quality,” Moody’s said ina statement.

The rating agency saiddelivering on fiscal consolida-tion and raising incomes will beextremely challenging forIndia’s authorities, particularlysince growth is likely to remainweak over the coming year,Moody’s said.

It said budget announce-

ments are credit positive forpublic sector banks, non-bankfinance companies (NBFCs),infrastructure sector, propertydevelopers, some domestic pro-ducers and securitisation trans-actions.

The �70,000 crore capital

infusion into public sectorbanks and a temporary creditguarantee facility to alleviatetight liquidity for NBFCs aremeasures that are credit posi-tive for the relevant entities andshould encourage the flow ofcredit to the economy andsupport growth, Moody’s said.

The hike in customs dutieson certain imported productswill increase the competitive-ness of domestic producers,while new incentives for thepurchase of affordable homeswill be credit positive for Indianproperty developers, it added.

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Banks and select financialinstitutions have reported

44,016 cases of fraud in the last11 years beginning 2008-09involving amount of �1,85,624crore, Rajya Sabha wasinformed on Tuesday.

The year 2016-17 wit-nessed reporting of 3,927 casesof fraud involving amount of�25,883.99 crore, which was thehighest in the last 11 years,Minister of State for FinanceAnurag Singh Thakur said in awritten reply to the RajyaSabha.

In the following year, thenumber of such cases rose to4,228 but the amount involveddeclined to �9,866.23 crore.

In 2018-19, 2,836 cases offraud were reported involvingamount of �6,734.60 crore, hesaid.

During 2012-13, banks andselect financial institutionsreported 4,504 cases withamount involving �24,819.36crore.

The Government has takencomprehensive steps to reducethe incidence of frauds in

banks including examination ofall NPA accounts exceeding�50 crore by banks for any pos-sible fraud, he said in reply toa question raised by BJP leaderR K Sinha.

Besides, the Governmenthas enacted Fugitive EconomicOffenders Act, 2018 to deteroffenders from evading theprocess of Indian law byremaining outside the jurisdic-tion of Indian courts, he said.

The Act provides forattachment of property of afugitive economic offender,confiscation of such offender’sproperty and disentitlementof the offender from defendingany civil claim, he added.

In addition, public sectorbanks have been advised toobtain certified copy of thepassport of the promoters ordirectors and other authorisedsignatories of companies avail-ing loan facilities of more than�50 crore and, decide on pub-lishing photographs of wilfuldefaulters.

The heads of these bankshave also been empowered toissue request for Look OutCirculars (LOCs), he said.

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The National Bank forAgriculture and Rural

Development (Nabard) ispreparing a framework tointroduce a risk-based super-vision for all regional ruralbanks and district central co-operative banks.

There are 45 regional ruralbanks (RRBs) and 370 districtcentral co-operative banks(DCCBs) regulated by theNabard now.

“Maybe in the times tocome, risk-based supervisionwhich has been extended byRBI to commercial banks, willalso be extended to RRBs andDCCBs. We are currently work-ing on this as an initial exper-iment,” chairman HK Bhanwalatold reporters Tuesday.

He said the developmentbank is laying the foundationfor such a regulatory frame-

work but the final decision onthe rollout will be taken by theboard.

Currently, Nabard takesaround 20 days to inspect eachbank but if the risk-basedsupervision is implemented,the exercise would take differ-ent durations, based on the risk.

Bhanwala said Nabard,through it portal for elec-tronic submission of returns(Ensure), has started collect-ing data such as assets, badloans, asset liability manage-ment and interest rates,among others from thesecooperative banks.

“So, the entire statistics onwhich we base our probes andinspection is available upfronton the portal. We are betterprepared to carry on ourinspections now. These willultimately pave the way forrisk-based supervision of allcooperative banks in the nextfew years,” Bhanwala said.

Asked about the time linefor implementation, he said itis doable in three years.

The number of RRBs hascome down to 45 from 56 fol-lowing consolidation of ninebanks in FY19.

Bhanwala said Nabard hasalso discussed with certainstates on consolidation of var-

ious DCCBs into a state coop-erative bank because the smallsize of these institutions pose amajor risk to them.

“The entire portfolio ofDCCBs gets affected whenev-er there is a calamity and thatposes huge financial risks to thesystem. We had suggested tothe states to consider amalga-mating DCCBs,” he added.

Kerala and Punjab havealready initiated merger ofDCCBs into a state co-opera-tive bank and the proposals arepending with the RBI, he said.Kerala has 14 DCCBs and 16 inPunjab.

Bhanwala saidNabventures, which is Nabard’ssubsidiary to finance startupsin the farm sector, has short-listed 20 entities to invest in.Nabventures has launched itsfirst fund with a targeted cor-pus of �500 crore and a greenshoe option of �200 crore.Nabard has already invested�200 crore in the fund.

In FY19, Nabard’s assetsgrew 20 percent to �4.87 tril-lion and the net surplus grew14 percent to �3,365 crore. Itborrowed �56,069 crorethrough NCDs last fiscal andexpects bond borrowing inthe similar range in FY20, he said.

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Amid a backlash from for-eign portfolio investors

over the new tax, theGovernment on Tuesday said itis not targeting FPIs by raisingtax on super-rich individuals,and foreign investors have anoption to convert into a corpo-rate entity to avail of lower ratesavailable to such category.

Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman in her maiden bud-get hiked the surcharge onincome tax paid by super-richindividuals.

However, some 40 per centof the FPIs automatically comeunder the higher tax rate as theyhave been investing as a non-corporate entity such as trust orassociation of persons (AOPs),which in the Income Tax laware classified as an individualfor the purpose of taxation.

“A picture is being paintedthat Government has targetedFPIs by increasing surchargeover FPIs only. It is totally false.The surcharge has been increasedfor all super-rich individuals andnon-corporate entities regardlessof whether they are domesticinvestors or foreigner, FPI, FII.The surcharge has not beenincreased for companies — againregardless whether it is domesticor foreign,” a top Governmentsource said.

Sitharaman had in theBudget proposed to increase thesurcharge, charged on top of theapplicable income tax rate, from15 per cent to 25 per cent forthose with taxable incomes ofbetween �2 crore and �5 crore,and to 37 per cent for thoseearning more than �5 crore. Thistakes the effective tax rate forthose two groups to 39 per centand 42.74 per cent respectively.

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The cost of a �2000 curren-cy note fell 65 paise or 18.4

per cent in 2018-19 comparedto the year-ago period, accord-ing to official data.

Introduced after demon-etisation in November 2016,�2000 notes are printed only bythe Bharatiya Reserve BankNote Mudran Pvt Ltd (BRBN-MPL) — a wholly-owned sub-sidiary of the RBI.

According to data provid-ed by the Government to theRajya Sabha on Tuesday, theselling price of �2000 notefrom the BRBNMPL was �3.53apiece in 2018-19.

It declined 65 paise from�4.18 apiece in 2017-18.

The data, provided byMinister of State for FinanceAnurag Thakur in a writtenreply, showed that the sellingprice of a �500 note was �2.13in 2018-19, lower than �2.39 inthe same period a year ago.

The selling price of �200note per piece declined to�2.15 in 2018-19 compared to�2.24 in 2017-18.

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The country’s second-largestcarmaker, Hyundai Motor

India Limited (HMIL) todaylaunched their latest offeringfor the Indian market and theirfirst all-electric vehicle in India,the Hyundai Kona. TheKona is the first electricvehicle offering by amajor internationalbrand in India, and toassure customers that thevehicle will not run out ofcharge, has a certifiedrange of 452 kilometersfrom a 39.2 kilowatt-hour battery, althoughexperts believed that thevehicle will have a real-world range of between250-300 kilometers. TheKona, which is being par-tially assembled in Indiawill be priced at �25.3 lakh andwill be available at only 15Hyundai showrooms in 11cities across India as the car-maker estimates demand.

Hyundai executives saidthat the carmaker has tied upwith IndianOil corporation tobuild by fast-charging Direct

Current chargers at selectpetrol pumps (only four are inoperation currently) withwhich Kona owners can chargetheir vehicle to 80 percentpower in 15 minutes. Hyundaiwill also provide users with aLevel 2, wall charging pointthat will allow faster chargingfrom a regular home connec-tion, charging the car entirelyin around six hours. If userschoose to use a regular wallsocket, the Kona’s battery willtake 15-19 hours to chargefully. To further assuage cus-

tomers, Hyundai Motors isproviding a three-year unlim-ited mileage warranty and a160,000 kilometer, eight-yearwarranty on the main batterywhich the company says will begood for 2000 full-chargecycles.

Hyundai Motor, Research

and Development Chief, Y SKim also highlighted thatHyundai is working on multi-ple technologies and with mul-tiple vendors so as to have a fullfleet of electric, plug-in andhybrid vehicles by 2025. Newerbattery technologies thatHyundai is jointly developingwith other Korean companiessuch as Samsung and LGshould also make batteriesmore durable and have higherenergy density. However,Hyundai is waiting to see howthe Indian market reacts to the

Kona. The Kona has beenbrought in at the current 12 percent GST that electric vehiclesattract, however prices coulddrop if as proposed in theunion budget, GST rates forelectric vehicles drops to fiveper cent at the next GSTCouncil meeting.

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Vayapuri Gopalasamy,known as Vaiko, has

alleged that both Tamil Naduand the Tamil Eelam are indanger as the BJP and the RSShave chalked out a plan todestroy the Tamils. He alsolambasted the Congress gov-ernment for betraying the SriLankan Tamils in their fight fora separate country.

Speaking to reporters atChennai on Tuesday after hisnomination form for theupcoming Rajya Sabha electionwas accepted by the ReturningOfficer, Vaiko said it was thethen Congress Government atthe Centre that betrayed theTamils in Sri Lanka whichresulted in the defeat of theLTTE in the hands of the

island nation’s defence forces.The MDMK general secre-

tary, whas been nominated as amember of the Rajya Sabha asan act of goodwill by the DMKpresident M K Stalin said thathe would raise his voice for theTamils and the formation of aseparate Tamil Eelam. ThoughVaiko did not name theCongress for betrayal of Tamilsin Sri Lanka, he came downheavily on BJP for its efforts todestroy the natural resourcesand wealth of the State.

He said though the State wasbeing robbed of its naturalresources and environment , hewas aghast that there were nouprisings in Tamil Nadu. “TamilNadu is in danger and that is rea-son why I agreed to be a mem-ber of the Rajya Sabha. I’ll fightagainst the BJP and its Hindutwapolitics,” said Vaiko.

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Congress leader RahulGandhi was issued sum-

monses by two Gujarat courtson Tuesday in criminaldefamation complaints filedby BJP leaders for allegedly call-ing Union Minister Amit Shaha “murder accused” and sayingthat “all thieves have Modi assurname”.

Chief Judicial MagistrateBH Kapadia in Surat askedGandhi to appear on July 16,while an Ahmedabad courtordered the Congress leader toappear on August 9. In both thecases, the courts issued sum-monses holding that on the faceof it there was a case of crimi-nal defamation against Gandhiunder Section 500 of the IndianPenal Code.

Rahul Gandhi is facingseveral cases of defamation.Last week, he appeared incourts in Mumbai and Patnaand was granted bail. He hadalleged that the cases were filedby his political opponents to“harass and intimidate” him.The Surat court was on Tuesdayhearing a complaint of BJPlegislator Purnesh Modi whoalleged that the Congress leaderhad defamed the entire Modicommunity with his remarkthat “how come all thieveshave Modi as common sur-name” made during the LokSabha campaign.

On May 2, court hadordered summons be issued toGandhi through LS Speaker ashe was an MP. But since therewas no clarity over who wouldbe the Speaker post-election, nosummons was issued, saidPurnesh Modi’s lawyerHasmukh Lalwala. He had filedan application seeking the courtissue a summons which could bedirectly served on Gandhi,which was accepted by the courton Tuesday, the lawyer said.

Guwahati: The flood situa-tion in Assam turned seriouson Tuesday with over 62,000people getting affected acrosseight districts. The Assam StateDisaster ManagementAuthority (ASDMA) said 145villages are under water and3,435 hectares of crop areashave been damaged.

The situation could turnworse as the IndiaMeteorological Department(IMD) has forecast enhancedrain in the northeastern statesincluding Assam in the nextfew days. Around 62,400 peo-ple are suffering due to flood inDhemaji, Lakhimpur,Biswanath, Barpeta, Chirang,Golaghat, Jorhat andDibrugarh districts.

The ASDMA said author-ities are running five reliefcamps and distribution centresin two districts, where 203people have taken shelter.Embankments, roads, bridges,culverts and many other infra-structure have been damaged atvarious places in Barpeta,Udalguri, Lakhimpur, Sonitpurand Jorhat districts. PTI

���� �8:�78945

In a first, Congress leaderRahul Gandhi on Tuesday

himself joined his slogan-shout-ing party members in the LokSabha over the issue of allegeddestabilisation of the Congress-JD(S) coalition Governmentin Karnataka by the BJP by“poaching”. The Congress,which has been protesting sinceMonday, later staged a walk-out. In the Rajya Sabha too, theproceedings were disrupted bythe Congress on the issue.

In the Lower House, theopposition party expressed dis-satisfaction with theGovernment’s response thatresignations by MLAs inKarnataka was an “internalmatter” of the Congress.

The Lok Sabha experi-enced a repeat ruckus, trig-gered by the ‘exodus’ of rulingcoalition’s MLAs to the BJP’sside with allegations of pur-chase of MLAs flying thick andfast in the state.

With Rahul also joining thesloganeering chorus in the house,several Congress MPs enteredthe Well of the house. Thoughnot raising the full-length slogan,Rahul was heard repeating the

last part of it with his party col-leagues. It is, perhaps, for the firsttime that the Congress presidentparticipated in the shoutingprotest in the house.

The Congress tried to raisethe issue in Lok Sabha duringthe Zero Hour, but was disal-lowed by Speaker Om Birla,who said the matter was dis-cussed in the House onMonday with a response fromDeputy Leader of HouseRajnath Singh. The Speakeralso rejected an adjournmentmotion on the issue.

The Congress members,however, continued to raise

slogans “Down with dictator-ship” (Tanashahi Band Karo),“Stop the politics of poaching”(Shikaar ki rajneeti Band KaroBand karo).

Birla said it was not correctto bring posters in the houseand shout slogans to which oneof the members said “it is ourright”. “No, it is not your right”,the Speaker cut him short.

“The country is watchingyou. This is your House. Don’tmake it the house of a civicbody,” Birla said. The Speakerdisapproved of slogan-shoutingand repeatedly asked membersto go back to their seats. Birla

said the house belonged to allthe members and they need tomaintain its high dignity.

BSP MP Danish Ali wasnot being able to speak asCongress MPs continued theirprotest. When the house camein order, the Speaker allowedthe Congress leader in thehouse Adhir RanjanChowdhury to have his say onthe issue. He said the BJP wastargeting the KarnatakaGovernment and wanted it tostop poaching of MLAs.

Chowdhury said, “The pol-itics of poaching should bestopped. The politics of target-ing should be stopped. Today itis Karnataka and tomorrow itwill be Madhya Pradesh.”

“You (the ruling party) sayyou have no role in (destabilis-ing government) in Karnataka.But when an MLA comes outof Raj Bhavan, there is a carready for him, when he is at theairport, there is an aircraftready for him...The politics ofpoaching and targeting must bestopped,” said Chowdhury.

To this Defence MinisterRajnath Singh, who had com-mented in the house on

Monday too saying resigna-tions in Karnataka were the out-come of the resignation ofRahul Gandhi, said theKarnataka issue was an internalmatter of the Congress. “TheCongress cannot get its Housein order and is disrupting theLower House,” Rajnath said.

Soon after this CongressMPs along with UPAChairperson Sonia Gandhi andRahul walked out and were fol-lowed by DMK members.

BSP MP Danish Ali whoaccused the Government of“murdering” democracy askedas to when was theGovernment bringing anti-lynching law as mandated bythe Supreme Court.

The Congress and theTMC along with the CPI andCPM did not allow the Upper House to run in the pre-lunch session forcing twoadjournments.

The Upper House wit-nessed protests by members ofCongress, TMC, CPI andCPIM as soon as it reconvenedat two pm after lunch break.The House was finallyadjourned for the day.

Kolkata: Amid a controversyover history text book in state-run schools describing a sectionof the freedom fighters as“extremists”, the West BengalGovernment on Tuesdayannounced formation of a com-mittee to review the contents ofsuch books. Headed by educa-tionist Jiban Mukhopadhyay,the “textbook review committee”comprises headmasters andsenior school teachers, EducationMinister Partha Chatterjee saidin the Assembly.

The panel was asked to sub-mit its report to the educationdepartment within threemonths, the minister said.Immediately before the begin-ning of the Question Hour,CPI(M) MLA Pradip KumarSaha said a chapter in the class8 history text book describedseveral freedom fighters such asKhudiram Bose and PrafullaChaki as belonging to an extrem-ist (“santrashbadi”) branch.

In 1908, Bose and Chakihad hurled a bomb to a horse-

drawn carriage aiming at assas-sinating a British judge butended up killing two Europeanwomen, as their target was ina different carriage. Chaki com-mitted suicide before beingarrested while Bose was hangedwhen he was only 18 years old.

The freedom fighters whohad sacrificed their lives for thecountry were labelled as “extrem-ists” in the text book in state-runand aided schools, Saha toldSpeaker Biman Banerjee andproduced a copy of it in theHouse. The speaker took thebook from the Purbasthali NorthMLA and said he will look intoit. The education minister laterannounced in the House the for-mation of the “Textbook ReviewCommittee”.

Committee will take opin-ion of students, parents andteachers on the contents of thebooks and ease of understand-ing of the language used in thebooks, before drawing a con-clusion and submitting itsreport, the Minister said. PTI

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Six children in Bihar’s Gayadistrict are suspected to

have died of Acute Encephalitis(AES) in a week, an official saidon Tuesday. Of the 23 childrenadmitted to Anugrah NarayanMagadh Medical College andHospital (ANMCH) from July2 till date, six have died, ahealth officer said here.

ANMCH SuperintendentVK Prasad told IANS that thedeaths were suspected to becaused by AES. “However,nothing is formed as of now asthe reports are still awaited.”

Four children suspected tobe suffering from AES were incritical condition, Prasad said.More than 160 children diedfrom AES in Muzaffarpur andsurrounding districts of Biharlast month. Most of the deadchildren were under the age ofseven years. According to theBihar State Health Department,more than 700 children havebeen affected by AES this timein 20 of the 38 districts.

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Chicken feathers stuck on agunny bag found near a

burnt body helped Thanepolice in Maharashtra crack thecase and nab the killer fromWest Bengal, an official said on Tuesday.

The partially burnt body ofa woman, aged around 25years, was found beneath a cul-vert inKalyan town here onJune 23, senior police inspec-tor (local crime branch) VenkatAndale told reporters.

During the probe, thepolice noticed chicken feathersstuck on a gunny bag that wasfound near the body and a‘tabiz’ (amulet) with some-thing written in Bengali tiedaround a body part, he said.

The police then tried totrack the chicken shop ownersand those who spoke Bengali inthe area.

They later got informa-tion that a woman fromKhadavali area used to come toa chicken-seller, identified asAalam Shaikh (33), the officialsaid. The police also came toknow that Shaikh had all of asudden left for West Bengalafter the body was found.

A Thane police team thenwent to West Bengal and tracedthe accused to Saidpur village

in Birbhum district.Andale said during ques-

tioning, Shaikh allegedly con-fessed to killing the woman,identified as Moni, with whomhe was in a relationship for lastfew months.

The accused claimed thatthe woman borrowed Rs 2.5lakh from him sometime backbut was not returning it. Hence,on the night of June 22, Shaikhwent to her house and with thehelp of a friend, allegedly stran-gled her to death with a muf-fler, the official said.

The accused and his friendthen took the body on a motor-cycle to a secluded spot wherethey allegedly poured petrolover it and set it ablaze, he said.

Shaikh was arrested onMonday night and bookedunder relevant sections, hesaid, adding that a search wason for the other accused, iden-tified as Manorudin Shaikh.

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BJP in Karnataka has decid-ed to stage a dharna here on

Wednesday, demanding theresignation of Chief MinisterHD Kumaraswamy, who itclaimed, has lost majority after14 MLAs of the rulingCongress-JD(S) quit.

The coalition has beenrocked by the resignations of 14MLAs — 11 of Congress andthree of JDS. “I have held dis-cussions with our legislatorsand we have decided to hold aprotest in front of the Gandhistatue at 11 AM, demandingthe resignation of ChiefMinister Kumaraswamy whohas lost majority,” party stateunit Chief BS Yeddyurappatold reporters here.

The former Chief Ministerhas been holding a series ofmeetings with party leaders athis residence since morning onthe ongoing political develop-ments and BJP’s plan of action.According to sources,Yeddyurappa is expected to

meet Governor Vajubhai Valaat the Raj Bhavan onWednesday.

BJP’s protest comes a dayafter Congress leaders,includ-ing AICC General SecretaryKC Venugopal and CongressLegislature Party leader SiSiddaramaiah staged a dharnain front of the Gandhi statue,accusing the party of trying todestabilise the Government byundemocratic means, usingmoney and political power.

In a blow to theKumaraswamy led Congress-JD(S) Government, the num-ber of coalition MLAs whohave resigned has increased to14,with the addition of RRoshan Baig on Tuesday.

Of the 14 MLAs,11 arefrom Congress and three fromJD(S). The ruling coalitionfaces the threat of losing itsmajority if the resignations ofthe rebel MLAs are accepted.

The JD(S)-Congress coali-tion’s total strength is 116(Congress-78, JD(S)-37 andBSP-1), besides the Speaker.

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Taking a strong exception tothe Nagpur University’s

move to include “the contri-bution of Rashtriya SwayamSangh (RSS) in nation-build-ing” as a topic in its syllabus forBachelor of Arts (BA)-part-II,the Opposition Congress inMaharashtra on Tuesday askedthe University to explain to thestudents as to how the RSSopposed the “Quit India”movement in 1942 and how itopposed the Constitution andnational flag subsequently.

Demanding to know whatthe Sangh Parivar had got to dowith “nation building”,Maharashtra Pradesh CongressCommittee (MPCC) presidentAshok Chavan condemned theRSS’ act of “misusing” the fieldof education to propagate itsideology.

Alluding the NagpurUniversity’s to incorporate “the

contribution of RashtriyaSwayam Sangh (RSS) in nation-building” as a topic in its syl-labus for its second year BAcourse, Chavan said: “The RSSis the biggest divisive force in thecountry. The RSS has a dark his-tory and it is essential we makestudents aware of its dark past.By colluding with the British,the RSS opposed the Indianfreedom struggle. It discouragedits volunteers from taking partin the freedom struggle”.

“The RSS helped theBritish in sabotaging the ‘QuitIndia’ movement and it came to

symbolise anti-India force. TheRSS attached more importanceto “Manu Smriti” than thecountry’s Constitution. TheRSS considered national tri-colour as inauspicious and itdid not unfurl the national flagfor 52 long years afterIndependence,” Chavan allegedin a statement issued here.

Chavan also charged thatwhile the country for very manyyears practised secularism, theRSS had been openly propa-gating the concept of “HinduRastra”. “If the NagpurUniversity really wants toimpart knowledge about RSS, itshould tell its students as to whythe organisation came to bebanned. This in fact should bemade a part of the RSS topic thatit has prescribed for BA (part-II) students. The RSS may mis-use power to project itself in agood light, but it cannot sweeptruth under the carpet,” the stateCongress chief said.

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The Institute of CompanySecretaries of India (ICSI)

welcomes the Union Budget2019-20 presented by UnionMinister of Finance andCorporate Affairs NirmalaSitharaman on July 5. The bud-get proposals are conducive forthe vision of new India andaspire India to become a $5 tril-lion economy in next few yearsto come.

CS Ranjeet Pandey,President, ICSI welcomes theUnion Budget. He lauded that,the present Budget is a vision-ary step towards New India. Healso expressed that, theGovernment’s vision on build-ing physical and social infra-structure, Digital India,Pollution free India, BlueEconomy and MinimumGovernment and MaximumGovernance will go a long wayin providing desired impetus toIndia’s Growth. He also wel-comes the steps taken by theGovernment towards Make inIndia, Micro, Small andMedium Enterprises and Start-Ups to boost the Indian econ-omy and generate more employ-ment opportunities for theyouth.

CS Ashish Garg, Vice-President, ICSI, opined thatUnion Budget is a revolutionaryand progressive Budget. Hesaid that, keeping in view theemerging economic scenario,the Budget laid emphasis on

measures to make India afavourable destination for FDI,ease in local sourcing norms inSingle Brand Retail Sector,Development of Infrastructurewill definitely drive the growthstory of Indian Economy. Healso welcomes the steps towardsreforms in Corporate DebtMarket, Non-Resident Indianswith access to Indian equities,disinvestment policy and levelplaying field for Non-BankingFinancial Companies.

According to CS AshokKumar Dixit, OfficiatingSecretary, ICSI, the proposal ofthe Government to establish aNational Research Foundation(NRF) to fund, coordinate andpromote research and innova-tion in the country will defi-nitely increase institutional effi-ciency and credibility. It will givea greater focus on research andinnovation in the country.

A significant number ofcorporates as well as individu-als stand to be benefited underthe proposed tax policy of theGovernment, he added.

The ICSI also welcome thebudget proposals pertaining tovarious sections of the societysuch as Youth, Women and peo-ple of Rural India for taking careof their ease of living with pro-vision of Drinking water for all,Khelo India Scheme andScheme for promotion ofInnovation, rural Industry andentrepreneurship (ASPIRE).

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In an attempt to pursue heightened sense of self-governance andstrengthen the practicing side of the profession of Company

Secretaries, The Institute of Company Secretaries of India has rolledout a unique initiative in the form of Unique DocumentIdentification Number or UDIN.

Aimed at strengthening the framework of good governanceUDIN shall serve the following purposes simultaneously:

� Provide ease of maintaining Register ofAttestation/Certification services

�Prevent counterfeiting of various attestations/certifications�Ensure compliance w.r.t ceilings on the number of certifi-

cations/attestations�Enable stakeholders & regulators to verify genuinity of doc-

uments signed or certified by Company Secretaries in Practice.Emphasising on the need of UDIN, CS Ranjeet Pandey,

President, ICSI said: “Under the mechanism, an alpha numeric num-ber shall be generated for the identification of every document attest-ed by Practising Company Secretaries which shall definitely act asa trust enhancer by facilitating verification that the document isgenuinely signed or certified by a Company Secretary in Practice.”

The UDIN will be mandatory for every document except ane-form, signed or certified by a CS with effect from October 1, 2019.

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�$������.���6�"1��+��The High Commissioner of

Namibia, Gabriel P Sinimbo,has welcomed collaboration withIndia in diverse fields includingacademics and medical services.

Inaugurating the five-daySmart India Hackathon —Hardware Edition, 2019 at theSRMIST campus on Monday, hesaid the hackathon event wasimpressive and could be a modelfor Namibia to follow with theparticipation of Namibian min-istries of higher education andtechnology, industrialisation andtrade and small and mediumenterprises development in part-nership with his country’s businesschambers.

“Their partnershipwill be critical to organ-ise something like this(hackathon),” he said.SRMIST ViceChancellor Dr SandeepSancheti presided.

The envoy who interactedwith student participants from 10Indian universities at the FabLabin the SRM campus, lauded thehackathon for bridging the gapbetween research in universitiesand industries as students werefinding solutions to problemsposed by industries. The partici-pating industries are ApolloHospitals, Aurobindo Pharma,

Tata Steel Processing andDistribution Ltd, HindustanUnilever, AICTE, InterInstitutional Inclusive InnovationsCenter (i4c) and PersistentSystems.

The SIH is jointly organised byUnion Ministry of HumanResources Development.

Sinimbo noted that moreaffordable medical services andtechnical expertise made Indiaone of the leaders in the medicalfield in the world. “India is gearedto make it easy for African patientsto come without worrying aboutvisa, transportation and accom-modation. I will sensitise ourNamibian citizens not to feel chal-

lenged when it comes to seekingmedical attention in India,” he said.

High Commissioner Sinimbowho later went around the SRMHospital, said Indian hospitalslike Apollo and Fortis hadexpressed keenness to trainNamibian doctors and students.“Such collaborations will helpNamibia close the gap in medicalservices with other countries,” hesaid. At present, Namibia had justone medical university, he point-ed out adding, there was scope forexpansion with participation ofplayers from India. The envoy saidhe looked forward to collaborationwith SRM Hospital and Institutefor sending students and patients.

With India emerging as a soft-ware giant and making advancesin hardware as well, Informationand Communications Technologywas another major area of collab-oration between the two countries.

He said Namibia was a virtu-al gateway to Africa and had a trea-sure of investment opportunitiesfor Indian manufacturers, energyentrepreneurs particularly in solarenergy, agricultural scientists aswell as welcoming Indian expertisein mining and low cost housing.With a strong democracy andvery low level of crime, Namibiawould be a great investment des-tination for Indian businesses.

The Council ofArchitecture con-

ducts National AptitudeTest in Architecture(NATA) for admissionto first year of 5-yearBArch. Degree Course.The test is conductedonline.

This year the firsttest was conducted onApril 14, 2019 and sec-ond test is conducted onJuly 7, 2019.

With this the council

has successfully con-ducted the second phase.The exam is conductedsmoothly at 190 centresall over India and onecentre at Dubai. 35651candidates have appliedfor the second test and18126 candidates haveappeared for the test.The council appointed its

observers to oversee theconduct of examination.A centre wise list of can-didates applied for testand appeared for the sec-ond test is attached here-with.

Further, the answerkey is also uploaded onthe NATA website, thestudents may submit

their responses, if any, by11:59 pm on July 8, 2019.

The council willmake all efforts toannounce the results ofthe second phase of examon due date or evenbefore that so that thestudents can seek admis-sion to BArch course asper counseling conduct-ed by the competentauthority of the concerned institution oruniversity.

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Hong Kong: Hong Kong'sembattled pro-Beijing leader onTuesday said a China extradi-tion bill that sparked unprece-dented political unrest "is dead"— but protesters immediatelydismissed her comments,threatening more mass rallies.

The international financehub has been plunged into itsworst crisis in recent history bya month of marches and spo-radic violent confrontationsbetween police and pockets ofhardcore protesters.

The rallies were sparked bya draft law that would haveallowed extraditions to main-land China. But they have mor-phed into a wider movementcalling for democratic reformsand a halt to sliding freedomsin the semi-autonomous terri-tory.

In a city unaccustomed tosuch upheaval, police have firedtear gas and rubber bulletswhile the parliament has beentrashed by protesters — asBeijing's authority faces itsmost serious challenge sinceHong Kong was handed back toChina in 1997.

On Tuesday the city's chiefexecutive Carrie Lam admittedher administration's attemptto introduce the bill was a"complete failure", saying thather government would not seekto reactivate it in parliament.

"There is no such plan.The bill is dead," Lam said.

But she once againstrefused to buckle to demands tocompletely withdraw the bill

from the legislative agenda,provoking outcry from the anti-government camp.

Lam's words about the billare "another ridiculous lie"tweeted leading democracyactivist Joshua Wong, who wasrecently released from jail forhis role in protests in 2014.

"The bill still exists in the'legislative programme' untilJuly next year." The CivilHuman Rights Front — whichhas organised some of the massrallies — said it wouldannounce fresh protests overthe coming days.

With calls mounting for herresignation, Lam has made fewpublic appearances in recentweeks.

But on Tuesday she resur-faced, agreeing to meet studentprotesters and adding that sherecognised the swirling eco-nomic, political and social chal-lenges facing the city.

"I come to the conclusionthat there are some fundamen-tal and deep-seated problems inHong Kong society," she said.

Analyst Dixon Sing said herwords would do little to defangthe protest movement. "Trust inthe government has sunk tosuch a record level that if there'snot a clear fulfillment of the(key) demands, the majority ofthe Hong Kong public will still

be very sceptical of the gov-ernment's sincerity," he toldAFP.

Lam has been under pres-sure to appoint an independentjudge as head of a public com-mission of inquiry into thepolice response to the protests.

But she rejected those callsagain on Tuesday, backing anexisting police complaints bodyto investigate claims of excessiveforce.

The anti-extradition move-ment has united an unlikelycross-section of Hong Kongsociety, including major busi-ness, legal bodies as well as reli-gious leaders, activists and jour-nalists.

Protesters are becomingincreasingly creative — chatforums and encrypted mes-senger apps are buzzing withcalls for the mass withdrawal offunds from the Bank of Chinathis Saturday to "stress test" theorganisation's liquidity.

Beijing has thrown its fullsupport behind Lam, calling onpolice to pursue anyoneinvolved in the parliamentstorming and other clashes.

Over the weekend itsambassador to London saidthe extradition bill was neededto "plug loopholes", fuellingfears Beijing still wants the leg-islation to pass. AFP

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Washington: Pakistan is facing"significant economic chal-lenges" due to a weak andunbalanced growth and that itseconomy is at a critical juncturewhere it needs an ambitious andbold set of reforms, the IMF hassaid.

Cash-strapped Pakistan,which currently has a currencyreserve of less than $8 billion —enough to cover only 1.7months of imports —approached the Washington-based International MonetaryFund (IMF) in August 2018 fora bailout package after theImran Khan Government tookover.

The global lender last weekformally approved the $6 billionloan to Pakistan, which is fac-ing "significant" economic chal-lenges on the back of "large" fis-cal and financial needs and"weak and unbalanced" growth.

"Pakistan is facing signifi-cant economic challenges on theback of large fiscal and financialneeds and weak and unbalancedgrowth," David Lipton, FirstDeputy Managing Director andActing Chair of the IMFExecutive Board said.

Last week, the IMFapproved the 13th bailout pack-age for Pakistan since the late1980s.

The latest bailout package isworth $6 billion, of which $1 bil-lion is to be disbursed immedi-ately and the rest in the nextthree years.

A decisive fiscal consolida-tion is key to reducing the largepublic debt and buildingresilience, and the adoption ofthe fiscal year 2020 budget is animportant initial step, Liptonsaid.

Achieving the fiscal objec-tives will require a multi-year

revenue mobilisation strategy tobroaden the tax base and raisetax revenue in a well-balancedand equitable manner, he said.

It will also require a strongcommitment by the provincesto support the consolidationeffort and effective public finan-cial management to improve thequality and efficiency of publicspending, he said.

Observing that protectingthe most vulnerable from theimpact of adjustment policieswill be an important priority,Lipton said that this will beachieved by a significantincrease in resources allocatedto key social assistance pro-grammes, supporting measuresfor the economic empower-ment of women and investmentin areas where poverty is high.

A flexible market-deter-mined exchange rate and anadequately tight monetary pol-

icy will be key to correctingimbalances, rebuilding reservesand keeping inflation low, hesaid, adding that an ambitiousagenda to strengthen institu-tions and remove impedimentsto growth will allow Pakistan toreach its full economic poten-tial.

In an accompanying report,the IMF said that Pakistan'seconomy is at a critical juncture.

The legacy of misalignedeconomic policies, includinglarge fiscal deficits, loose mon-etary policy and defence of anovervalued exchange rate,fuelled consumption and short-term growth in recent years, butsteadily eroded macroeconom-ic buffers, increased externaland public debt, and depletedinternational reserves.

Structural weaknessesremained largely unaddressed,including a chronically weak tax

administration, a difficult busi-ness environment, inefficientand loss making state-ownedenterprises, amid a large infor-mal economy.

"Without urgent policyaction, economic and financialstability could be at risk, andgrowth prospects will be insuf-ficient to meet the needs of arapidly growing population,"the IMF said.

The Fund-supported pro-gramme is expected to coalescebroader support from multilat-eral and bilateral creditors inexcess of $38 billion, which iscrucial for Pakistan to meet itslarge financing needs in thecoming years, it added.

Pakistan has so far receivedbillions in financial aid packagesfrom friendly countries likeChina, Saudi Arabia and theUAE during the current fiscalyear. PTI

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Beijing: China demanded onTuesday that the United States"immediately cancel" a poten-tial sale of $2.2 billion in armsto self-ruled Taiwan, includingbattle tanks and anti-aircraftmissiles, adding fuel to ten-sions between the two powers.

It would be the first big-ticket US military sale to thedemocratical ly-governedisland in decades, and comesas ties between Washingtonand Beijing are alreadystrained by their trade war.

China has lodged formalcomplaints through diplo-matic channels expressing"strong dissatisfaction and res-olute opposition" to the move,foreign ministry spokesmanGeng Shuang said at a regularpress briefing.

The deal includes 108M1A2T Abrams tanks, 250Stinger portable anti-aircraftmissiles, related equipmentand support at an estimatedcost of just over USD 2.2 bil-lion, according to the USDefence Security CooperationAgency (DSCA).

The proposed sale "willcontribute to the moderniza-tion of the recipient's mainbattle tank fleet", improve itsair defense system and "sup-port the foreign policy andnational security of the United

States by helping to improvethe security and defensivecapability (of Taiwan)," DSCAsaid.

It would not alter the"basic military balance in theregion," the agency added,and Congress has been noti-fied. US lawmakers have 30days to object to the sale butare unlikely to do so.

Geng said the proposeddeal "seriously violates theone-China principle" and"grossly interferes" in thecountry's internal affairs.

"China urges the US to...Immediately cancel theplanned arms sale and stopmilitary relations with Taipeito avoid damaging Sino-USrelations and harming peaceand stability in the TaiwanStrait," he said.

Taiwan has been ruledseparately from China sincethe end of a civil war in 1949,but Beijing considers it a partof its territory to be retaken -- by force if necessary.

China has significantlystepped up diplomatic andmilitary pressure on Taipeisince the election in 2016 ofPresident Tsai Ing-wen, whoseDemocratic Progressive Partyrefuses to acknowledge thatthe island is part of "OneChina". AFP

1������'���� ���������'��������<���� Washington: A federal appeals

court ruled on Tuesday thatUS President Donald Trumpcannot legally block users onTwitter based on their politi-cal differences with him,affirming a lower court deci-sion.

The three-judge panel agreed with last year's ruling by a federal judgethat Trump was using "view-point discrimination" in vio-lation of the constitutionalrights of people with opposingviews.

The court sidestepped thequestion of the president'sfree speech rights under theconstitution's FirstAmendment on a privatelyowned internet platform, butaffirmed that Trump hadeffectively created a publicforum for official White Housebusiness. AFP

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Washington/London: In rarepublic disdain for a BritishPrime Minister, US PresidentDonald Trump assailed pre-mier Theresa May for the"mess" she created over herhandling of the crucial Brexitnegotiations with the EU andeven welcomed her impendingdeparture from office.

The US President's digitaltirade against the British PrimeMinister came hours afterDowning Street reiterated theUK's ambassador to the USKim Darroch has May's "fullsupport" following the leak ofdiplomatic cables highly criti-cal of Trump's presidency.

Trump's devastating tweetssent a clear message to Londonthat Darroch, a career diplomatwho was Monday branded ananti-Trump globalist by hisfoes back home, is no longerwelcome in the White House.He was dis-invited from adinner with Trump, the Emirof Qatar and TreasurySecretary Steven Mnuchin onMonday.

Trump also took whatmay be a final swipe at out-going Prime Minister May,accusing her of making a"mess" of Britain's planned exitfrom the European Union -- a28-member bloc Trump dis-dains.

He also made clear thatthe "special relationship"under May's successor whowill take over in a couple of

weeks will be on his terms, asentiment that could haveenormous political and diplo-matic implications in Londonand beyond.

"The good news for thewonderful United Kingdom isthat they will soon have a newPrime Minister," Trump tweet-ed as May's successor will beannounced on July 23 after sheformally resigned last monthafter failing to get the backingof Conservative MPs for herdivorce deal with the EU.

"I have been very criticalabout the way the U.K. AndPrime Minister Theresa Mayhandled Brexit," he said.

"What a mess she and herrepresentatives have created. Itold her how it should be done,but she decided to go anotherway. I do not know theAmbassador, but he is not likedor well....," Trump said. PTI

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Washington: In a Twittertantrum, US President DonaldTrump on Tuesday renewed hisattack on the British ambas-sador labelling him a "very stu-pid guy" and a "pompous fool".

The outburst comes afterthe leak of sensitive diplomat-ic memos by Ambassador KimDarroch detailing the "unique-ly dysfunctional" and "inept"White House under the USpresident.

"The wacky Ambassadorthat the UK foisted upon theUnited States is not someonewe are thrilled with, a very stu-pid guy," Trump wrote in aseries of tweets about Darroch.

Trump also doubled downin attacking May regardingBrexit, saying she "went herown foolish way-was unable toget it done. A disaster!"

He added: "He shouldspeak to his country, and PrimeMinister Theresa May, abouttheir failed Brexit negotiation,and not be upset with my crit-icism of how badly it was han-dled." PTI

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Washington: President DonaldTrump is promoting what he iscalling his administration's"environmental leadership"despite its sweeping rollbacks oflandmark environmental andpublic health protections.Critics are calling it a creduli-ty-straining gesture aimed atwinning over voters worriedabout climate change and pol-lution.

Trump's speech at theWhite House on Monday after-noon will focus on the admin-istration's "practical approachto addressing environmentalchallenges while also support-ing a strong economy," MaryNeumayr, who heads the pres-ident's Council onEnvironmental Quality, toldreporters in previewing hisremarks.

Polls show increasingnumbers of voters are identi-fying the environment and cli-mate change as priorities,although the issues are a muchbigger concern for Democratsrather than for Trump'sRepublican base.

Trump has a tough case to

make as an environmentalsteward given his record,according to former environ-mental advocates and formerfederal regulators.

Mustafa Santiago Ali, aformer official in theEnvironmental ProtectionAgency's Office ofEnvironmental Justice, said theWhite House is recognizingthat "the majority of folks in thecountry are now beginning topay attention to climate issuesand environmental issues."

He said administrationofficials are "trying to reframethe conversation to make peo-ple think they've done some-thing to better protect them.And unfortunately they haven'tdone a single thing." He point-ed to EPA estimates that pro-posed rollbacks for fossil fuelemissions will cause thousandsof additional deaths annuallyfrom air pollution.

In the view of a formersenior EPA transportationengineer, Jeff Alson, the admin-istration's claims of environ-ment leadership are "trulyOrwellian." AP

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Editor’s note: The year marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of thePeople’s Republic of China. Over the past seven decades, China has developedfrom a poor, weak country to becoming the second largest economy in theworld. This issue, we continue the column called “Remarkable 70 years” tohelp you understand the great changes that have taken place in New China.

Since the founding of New China, the Party and the Government haveattached great importance to energy development, and the supply has beenguaranteed and the structure has been increasingly optimized.It is said thatChina's natural gas consumption reached 280.3 billion cubic meters in 2018,up 18.1 percent over the previous year. Picture shows workers are busy withtesting the natural gas line of the China-Myanmar Oil and Gas pipelineconstruction base. Photo by Yangzheng

Mahesh Saharia, second from left Photo by YDPG

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Anear perfect effort byIndian bowlers waswashed away by the

Manchester rain on Tuesdaywith the first semi-final of theWorld Cup going into thereserve day on Wednesday,scheduled to start at 10.30 am.New Zealand were at 211 for theloss of five wickets with 23 ballsremaining when play stopped toa constant drizzle.

The game will resume fromwhere it was cut short by the rainwith New Zealand beingrequired to complete theirremaining overs and India play-ing the entire 50 overs. The gamewill be shortened as per the raintoday but a minimum of 20overs will need to be played byIndia for a result.

If the rain does not allowthat too, then India go into theFinal on the basis of having morepoints on the table (15) thanNew Zealand.

Had the rain stopped inplaytime on June 9, India wouldhave had the stiff target of mak-ing 148 runs in 20 overs, or 165in 25 overs or 234 in 46 overs asper the Duckworth Lewis sys-tem's calculation. Virat Kohlithough looked worried throughthe glasses of his dressing room,wondering what the next dayheld for the team. Rain is,indeed, a disruption to mindset,momentum and circumstanceswhich were in India's favour onthe scheduled original matchday.

Rain is expected onWednesday too. According toBBC Weather, there is a rain pos-sibility between 15 per cent and19 per cent from 3 pm onWednesday till 7 pm. TheAccuweather chart for July 10

predicts mainly cloudy; a littlemorning rain, then a shower inspots.

Ticket holders for this matchwould be able to use their orig-inal tickets for the reserve day.

It was an unusual sight that

met the officials on July 9 withsome of the stadium showing upbald patches. This was due to theunexpected change in venueafter Australia lost to SouthAfrica and India were catapult-ed to the top of the table. This

meant a change in venue fromBirmingham to Manchester fortheir semi final clash which wasexpected to be with England ear-lier and not New Zealand on thebasis of table standings.

The rain disruption whichcame around 2 pm, meanwhile,washed away the brilliant showput up by both the Indian pac-ers and spinners giving India awinning chance at the OldTrafford after Kane Williamsonwon the toss and elected to batunder cloudy conditions andthreat of rain.

It was a brave decision to doso, considering the elements,India's ability to chase and thestrength of the Indian bowlers,especially spinners who theKiwis are naturally guardedabout. The bowlers lived up totheir skipper's expectation byrestricting the total to 211 in 46.1overs, even as the NewZealanders struggled to some-how break the cordon.

India lost the review on thevery first ball of the inningswhen Nicholls survived a scare.The cloud cover made the con-ditions trickier than usual andthe first-ball review whichstrayed just inches outside theleg stump as BhuvneshwarKumar was up in the air appeal-ing.

The review didn't go India'sway, but all else did, like twomaidens at the onset making theKiwi batsmen look doubtfuland in a bit of a panic. MartinGuptill scored the first run aftertwo maidens and three balls butthat was his lone run in thesemi-final. Jasprit Bumrah tookhim out on a typical full-lengthTest match ball caught at secondslip by a sharp Virat Kohli in aclassic dismissal and the other-wise roaring scorer walked backfor just 1 run in 14 balls to show

his disgust by throwing his batin the dressing room even asIndia capitalised with the balldoing things and the panic thatthe Black Caps were getting inthe grip of. Bumrah followed itup with a beauty but warhorseKane Williamson left it beauti-fully, hoping the score wouldmove on from a dismal 1 for 1.

The first boundary came offBumrah when Nicholls bringingthe score to 18. Jadeja was nav-igated by ease with one bound-ary and seven runs in his firstover. The calming effect ofWilliamson brought in the NewZealand to 50 in the 14th overwith the skipper looking for acemented partnership and aneventual century perhaps.

Just as the Kiwis wereambling along, Jadeja surprisedall to bowl Nicholls by, well, notturning, not twisting not any-thing actually as a straight ballwent through the bat and pad tounsettle the stumps. It was quitean innocuous one from Jadejabut Nicholls was sent back at 28from 51 balls and New Zealandwere 69/2 in the 19th over,bringing in danger man RossTaylor.

First boundary after the14th over came in the 28thwhen Williamson between midand deep cover and hit the sec-ond one of the over on Chahal'slast ball, bluffing Rohit Sharmaon first slip despite being up andrising before running away tothe boundary. It was an uphillbattle with the bat for the BlackCaps who kept much too quiettill into the death overs.

The New Zealand 100 camein the 27th over and the run ratewas just above three with theWilliamson-Taylor pair look-ing to accelerate. Williamson gothis 50 just then, fifth of the tour-nament. It took him a slow

build-up, patience and a tailor-ing job of 74 balls and fourboundaries. In celebration, hescooped the ball to the bound-ary over the head of Dhoni whenPandya, despite a groin stretchhe had picked up earlier in theinnings, bowling in. He alsobrought in the 50-run partner-ship in 73 balls overall.

This brought back JaspritBumrah into his second spell inthe 32nd over. It was an event-ful over with Dhoni puttingdown a catch that would havesent Taylor back as the ballsomewhat died on him as hewent down for a pick.

Williamson, however, lostconcentration at 67 in 95 ballsand was snapped up by Jadeja offChahal in the 36th over whenthe Kiwis were at a slow and low134. The match, from the Kiwiside, was looking for big shotswith the Indian arm doing thejob to keep it down for an easychase in the second innings.

The runs weren't comingbut rain did, posing difficultqueries over the scoring rate ofthe Black Caps. A fifth gear wasthe need of the hour but theIndian bowlers refused to relent.Finally, Neesham gave way aftertrying to up the ante unsuccess-fully and hit high into the skiesonly give enough time to DineshKarthik to get underneath it aton the leg. At 162/4 in the 42ndover, India were looking at adoable total.

The first six of the gamecame off Taylor's bat and Chahalwas grimacing at the force of it,that's when the drizzle startedmaking its way to the ground butTaylor did not let off, hitting twomore boundaries in Chahal's lastover, bringing in his 50 with thesix.

Rain stopped play whenNew Zealand were 211/5.

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India coach Ravi Shastri felt god was inEngland's dressing room during their

World Cup league stage loss to the hosts,but hoped he will on their side if they meetagain, in the tournament final.

If India beat New Zealand in firstsemifinal, they will play the winner of thesecond last-four clash between Australiaand England, in the summit showdown.

India qualified for the semifinals astable toppers following seven wins.England were the only team to get the bet-ter of Virat Kohli and his men.

Billed as favourites in the run-up to

the showpiece, England overcame a must-win situation against India to keep theirsemifinal hopes alive.

"I thought god was in England'sdressing room that day. Hope if we playEngland next, he sits in ours," Shastri saidin a video posted by the ICC.

Shastri was lavish in his praise for thecurrent tournament top-scorer RohitSharma, who has so far scored a WorldCup record five centuries.

"Rohit is one of the greatest one-dayplayers. Whether he would have scoredruns in this competition or not, just see-ing his record over the years... The threedouble hundreds in ODIs

"No one has done that. He has beenreally consistent for India at the top. Hisform was no surprise. If he chooses a tour-nament like the World Cup to get thatform in, as a coach, I will take it," Shastrisaid.

Rohit's form and consistency hasbenefitted India. The opener entered intothe semi-finals on the back of threeback-to-back hundreds.

Picking Rohit's hundred in the open-ing match against South Africa as one ofhis best batting performances, Shastri said:"It was a tough wicket. It was two-paced(against South Africa). So I thought it wasa special innings from Rohit becauseamong all the ODI hundreds he has got,I thought that was one of his best,"Shastri said.

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The Indian team managementwas on Tuesday criticised on

social media after they did notinclude right-arm pacerMohammed Shami in the playing XIfor the World Cup semi-final clashagainst New Zealand at the OldTrafford in Manchester.

Shami, who has picked up 14wickets in the four matches that hehas played so far, was not includedin the playing XI. Instead, leg-spin-ner Yuzvendra Chahal was includ-ed in the side in place of KuldeepYadav. Shami also did not play inIndia's last league game against SriLanka on July 6.

"Okay with Chahal overKuldeep. Not so much for Shami's

exclusion. Only five bowlers is a pos-sible concern but from that perspec-tive, bowling first isn't that bad athing. India bats deep with this com-bination," said cricketer-turned-commentator Akash Chopra afterformer India skipper SouravGanguly questioned Kohli's move.

"Like Sourav Ganguly, I admitI am surprised by the dropping ofShami. He takes wickets upfront andif you do, the death overs aren't ascritical. India batting very deepwith Jadeja at 8 but it is a big call toleave out Kuldeep against a team hehas done well," tweeted celebratedcommentator Harsha Bhogle.

"India's XI is slightly conserva-tive. Picking Bhuvi & Jadeja aheadof Kuldeep & Shami they've arguablypicked the better all-round playersat the expense of the better bowlers,but on a fresh pitch which has beenhigh-scoring in this comp that bat-ting depth could be precious," wroteone of the Twitter users.

"There are about 20 people sit-ting around me right now, nobodyhas a clue why Bhuvi is playingahead of Shami. And they all knowthe game," tweeted another user.

"Really surprised that Shamiisn't in the squad for this crucialgame," said another user on themicroblogging website.

"Is Shami injured or have wewilfully not picked the guy with 14wickets in 4 games & the best strikerate in the entire tournament?"

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POSTER WIN

An opposition RJD legislator surprised one andall on Tuesday when he stood outside the

main gate of Bihar Assembly with a poster in hishands, saying India will win the semi-final matchof the ongoing World Cup against New Zealandto be played at the Old Trafford in Manchester.Rahul Tiwary, a young RJD legislator known forhis love for cricket, displayed a poster with a signof India winning the World Cup match againstKiwis, minutes before the Monsoon Session of thestate assembly started. "We wish that India winthe match against New Zealand. We are confidentthat India will play the final of the cricket Worldcup and will win it," Tiwary, son of senior RJDleader Shivaband Tiwary, told the media here."We will cheer for the Indian team," he said.Tiwary was not the only person who is cheeringfor the Men in Blue before their semi-final clashagainst the Black Caps. There are dozens of otherlegislators also who are interested to talk, discussand eager to know anything related with cricket,particularly the Indian team.

PAKISTANI TURNS INDIA FAN

Muhammad drives a taxi for a living inManchester, but just like any other Pakistani,

his heart too beats for the game of cricket. In fact,such is his passion that he even plays club cricketon weekends and knows the Old Trafford groundinside out. But this edition of the World Cup hasturned this die-hard Pakistan fan into an Indiansupporter. The reason is the discipline of the Menin Blue. Speaking to IANS, Muhammad said thatit was on the eve of the game between India andPakistan in Manchester during the group stagesof the showpiece event that he became a fan ofthis Indian team. "I have been driving for a whilein this area and when I came to know that theIndian team was staying at the Radisson Blu, Ihappily walked up to the hotel thinking that myproximity with a few hotel staff would help memeet Kohli and some of the other stars. But myown friends put their hands up and said that theIndian team was not willing to be distractedahead of the big game. Disappointed as I was, Irealised what the game meant to them. "I thenwent ahead to the Pakistan team hotel, eventhough I was certain that I would once again beasked to leave without getting a glimpse of theplayers. After all, they too wouldn't wish to bedistracted before such a crucial game. But to mysurprise, they were all over the place and I couldjust walk in, meet and greet whoever. I have neverbeen more disappointed at meeting my heroes,"he recollected. Muhammad says June 15 madehim realise why this Indian team is one of thebest in world cricket. Upset that Pakistan couldn'tmake it to the knockout stages, Muhammad hasdecided to support Kohli and boys as he wantsthe trophy to stay in the subcontinent.

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Mitchell Starc believesAustralia have already

created the blueprint of how tobeat England at this World Cupand has highlighted takingearly wickets as the key to theirmouth-watering semi-final.

The old rivals met at Lord'sduring the group stage of theICC Men’s Cricket World Cup2019, where Australia set a tar-get of 285/7 and then skittledEngland for 221 to complete adominant 64-run win.

In that encounter, JamesVince was removed secondball and the hosts were reducedto 53/4 in their chase, which isthe sort of start that Starc is tar-geting when the sides meetagain at Edgbaston thisThursday, with a place in thefinal on the line.

“The blueprint, if you like,from last time we playedEngland was to get early wick-ets,” explained the left-armseamer, who took 4-43 in thatgame.

“They’ll get Jason Roy backfor the fixture, so we’ll have afew days now to discuss if we'llchange anything but the waywe played England last time isa great blueprint.

“I think the game againstIndia as well, where we didn’t

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What doesn’t kill youmakes you stronger and

Liam Plunkett says that's thestory of England’s campaign atthe ICC Men’s Cricket WorldCup 2019.

The hosts slipped up threetimes in the group stages,suffering defeats to Pakistan,Sri Lanka and Australia, whothey face in a semi-final tosavour on Thursday atEdgbaston.

One consistent factor inthose losses was the absence ofPlunkett, 34, who claims set-backs have only served tobolster England ahead of aclash with Steve Smith’s five-time winners.

“I think those defeats havemade us stronger,” he said.

“We had a few bad gamesand went away from our styleof cricket, but I feel like we’vecaught that in time.

“We’re back to playingour best brand of cricket andwe can still improve.

"I feel like we had a wob-ble at the right time, a bit ofa blip, and it's made usstronger.

"How we're feeling rightnow going into this semi-final, we'd have taken it at the

start of the competition."Plunkett featured at the

2007 tournament, with the 12years and 39 days wait for hisnext World Cup appearancebettered only by Shoaib Malikand Anderson Cummins.

The Teesside product hasbeen a key cog in England'sattack, dismissing India cap-

tain Virat Kohli en route to acrucial win and tying NewZealand down in the finalgroup game.

Eoin Morgan's men havebeen irresistible in the formatover the last four years buthaving won 17 consecutiverun chases at home, they fellshort batting second three

times in the group stage. But far from buckling

under pressure, Plunkett feelsthey have all the tools to dealwith the expectation thatcomes with being a worldnumber one side on homesoil.

"It's a matter of how youdeal with pressure, it's not abad thing that it's there," hesaid.

"People can thrive on it,people step out there andenjoy those moments. Otherpeople have played underpressure, they've played inIPL and competitions aroundthe world.

"It's a World Cup butyou've got to enjoy it and dealwith it as quickly as you can.

"Whether that's frombeing involved in the first ball,it's just finding a way to dealwith it and get involved in thegame as quickly as possible.

"Australia is a game thatgets the juices flowing. We'veperformed really well in thelast two games.

"Even though we weredominant in those games, wefeel like we're stepping up agear as well. We're in a goodplace."

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The ICC Men’s CricketWorld Cup 2019 group

stage has exposed 10 nations toevery possible pressure, exam-ining every nook and cranny oftheir method in the 50-overformat.

India, Australia, Englandand New Zealand have riddenthe wave and reached the finalfour on the strength of clearplans and outstanding individ-uals.

While India wil continueits game against New Zealandin the first semi-final today, andthe second semi-finals loomingin a day time, we look at thenumbers behind the Ashesrivals success and areas ofweaknesses that could provetheir undoing in the knockoutstages.

� �������OPENERS VITALA fascinating factor over

the course of the league stagewas the influence held by thesuccess of opening partnerships— or the lack of it.

Australia averaged 55 fortheir first wicket, with winsover England, Pakistan andBangladesh buttressed by thedovetailing of Aaron Finchand David Warner.

Across the group stage,losing teams only had threeopening partnerships of morethan 50 in total, whereas win-ning teams had 12 centurystands and 10 more over 50.

With Australia's battingline-up set to be rejigged afterthe loss of Usman Khawaja toinjury, separating Finch andWarner early will be high onEngland's agenda on Thursday.

THE BIG SHOWIn Glenn Maxwell,

Australia boast by the far thequickest starter to an innings atthe 2019 World Cup.

The 30-year-old struck at195.45 in the first 15 balls of hisinnings in the group stage - onlyPandya comes close — with SriLanka and Bangladesh bearingthe brunt. Indeed only JosButtler had a lower dot ball per-centage (27.84%) than Maxwell,who scored from two-thirds ofthe deliveries he faced.

England’s middle-oversbowling has been mixed so thework of Maxwell and AlexCarey, who has broken outwith three half-centuries, takeson even greater significance inthe semi-final.

LACK BOWLING DEPTHAustralia’s all-rounders have

underperformed with the ball,meaning they haven't quiteadded up as a bowling unit yetat this World Cup.

Maxwell has bowled 32overs without taking a wicketand while Marcus Stoinis hastaken seven victims, his overalleconomy rate comes in at ashade over a run-a-ball.

This has forced the likes ofFinch and Steve Smith to turntheir arm over and piled pres-sure on Jason Behrendorff, fourof whose ten ODI appearanceshave come at this tournament.

It’s a sore spot that will haveEngland’s powerful middle-order salivating.

�������A FORCE FIRST UPPut simply, no-one does it

quite like England with the batin the Powerplay.

They averaged 54.22 for

the first wicket in the groupstage but crucially scored at 5.43runs an over, faster than everyteam other than Sri Lanka,who shed wickets early on.

Jonny Bairstow and JasonRoy hold the key as the highestaveraging ODI opening pair ofall time to have batted morethan 20 times together.

THEY KEEP ON COMINGIt's not just in the early

stages that England throw cau-tion to the wind — they onlyhave eyes for the boundarythroughout the 50 overs.

Only West Indies (10.7%)had a higher boundary rate inovers 11-40 than the hosts in thegroup stage, who hit 10.3% ofballs they faced in that crucialperiod for four or six.

And with their tail scoringat a higher run-rate than anyteam in the world since the lastWorld Cup — 6.19 an over -they are an irresistible force withthe bat in the right conditions.

BRITTLE WITH THE BALLCutting edge with the ball

is the main area in whichEngland lag slightly behind theother three contenders to lift theWorld Cup.

They bowled more oversthan any other semi-finalistand their strike-rate of 35.2 wasdwarfed by India’s 33.3, NewZealand's 33.8 and Australia's33.9.

And chasing totals has beena chink in the armour of EoinMorgan's men at this tourna-ment — having won 17 consec-utive run chases at home, theyfell short three times in thegroup stage.

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After seven weeks, 45 matches andplenty of standout performanceswith both the bat and ball, the

four semi-finalists for the ICC Men'sCricket World Cup 2019 have been con-firmed.

On the face of it, the top four sidesare as expected - with India, AustraliaEngland and New Zealand going intothe tournament ranked the best fourODI teams in the world.

But as hosts England can attest to,the journey to reach the knockout stagehas not been plain sailing for all of thesides that remain in contention to becrowned champions.

Australia will now continue thedefence of their 2015 crown againstEngland at Edgbaston.

And as the race to reach the tour-nament showpiece at Lord's on 14 Julydraws to a close, here's a look at theWorld Cup records of the Ashes rivalswho are still in contention for silver-ware.

� �������Despite arriving in England as the

defending champions, Aaron Finchand his men found themselves in theunfamiliar position of not being consid-ered frontrunners for the title.

With much of the pre-tournamenthype focused around hosts England andIndia, Australia were still seen by manyas a side still in transition as they slippedunder the radar.

But if the history of the World Cup

has taught us anything, it's that Australiaare serial winners and they were the firstteam to secure their qualification for theknockout stages in the 2019 edition.

Australia will contest the semi-finals for the eighth time and will do so

safe in the knowledge that when theyhave reached the last four in the past,they have never missed out on the final.

And with five World Cup wins from11 played, including a hat-trick of vic-tories between 1999 and 2007, they

unquestionably have the best pedigreeof the sides left in the competition.

Finch now has the opportunity tojoin the illustrious names of AllanBorder, Steve Waugh, Ricky Ponting andMichael Clarke by leading Australia toWorld Cup glory. Don't bet against it.

�������Coming into the tournament as

hosts and the No.1 ODI side in theworld, England have had to deal withhigh expectations in their bid to wintheir first-ever men's World Cup.

The first objective of reaching thesemi-final stages for first time since 1992has been achieved, though, even if therewere a few nerve-shredding momentsalong the way.

Eoin Morgan's troops prevailed intheir final two games against India andNew Zealand to book their last fourplace, taking their overall group stagetally to six wins from nine games.

And while it has been 27 years sincethey last contested a World Cup semi-final, England do have plenty of expe-rience of reaching this stage from whenthe competition was in its infancy.

England progressed to the semi-final stages in the first five editions ofthe tournament, only to see their chal-lenge go no further in 1975 and 1983 -both times when they were the hosts.

But when they have reached thefinal - in 1979, 1987 and 1992 - Englandhave finished runners-up to West Indies,Australia and Pakistan. This time thehosts will be hoping its fourth timelucky.

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take early wickets and they were ableto build an innings before explod-ing towards the end, showed whatwe’ve looked to improve since then.”

Taking consistent early wicketswas exactly what Australia wereunable to do against South Africa atOld Trafford, as the Proteas top fourscored 281 runs between them in atotal of 325/6.

“South Africa performance was-n’t our best — we got a couple ofwickets but they had a partnershipthrough the middle, whereas in thepast few games we’ve been reallygood at taking wickets in that peri-od,” added Starc.

“We were off it out there butwe’re still in the World Cup semi-final which is no mean feat, especial-ly given how a few people aroundthe world were talking about thisteam three or four months ago.

“It’s something to be proud ofbut there’s a lot of work going for-ward to the semi-final and a lot tostill take out of the South Africagame.”

Starc isn’t worried about takingon the hosts, as they look to movea step closer to winning a sixth ICCMen’s Cricket World Cup.

“To win a World Cup you’ve gotto beat everyone,” he explained.“Whether we play England in thesemi-final or the final, or play Indiain the final or whatever, you’ve gotto beat the good teams to win aWorld Cup.

“It’s a big game now in the semi-final and hopefully we can knockthem off and advance to anotherfinal.”

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Dubbed ‘Adonis’ by teammates forhis chiselled frame, Marcus

Stoinis could live up to his mytholog-ical billing if he pushes through thepain barrier and plays a World Cupsemi-final on Thursday with not onebut two side strains.

Peter Handscomb says that ifanyone could do it, it’s Stoinis, who willbe put through an intensive fitness testat Edgbaston two days out fromAustralia’s knockout clash withEngland.

While he hasn’t set the World Cupon fire with his performances, thestrapping allrounder has been inde-structible at this World Cup; hebowled six overs after suffering anuncomfortable left side injury in hisfirst over against India last month andhaving been diagnosed with an injurythat typically takes a month to recov-er from, he was back playing less thantwo weeks later.

Now carrying a right side strainsustained in Australia’s defeat to SouthAfrica, Stoinis didn’t bat or bowl attraining on Monday, but encouraging-ly participated in their running warm-ups and did some light throwing drills.

Mitch Marsh is on standby but theAussies are set to give Stoinis everychance to prove his fitness.

“Have you seen the size of him?”recent call-up Peter Handscomb saidof his former Victorian teammate inan interview with cricket.com.au.

“If there’s anyone that can pullthrough this, it’s the big fella.

“I think his mental strength to beable to shut off pain or outside noiseand really just zone in on the momentis really impressive and I think that’swhy he has gone so far and done sowell with his cricket.

“Hopefully, for his sake, he canfind a way through and play onThursday.

“He’s an up-and-about character,and always ready for a laugh and hav-ing a joke about. He’ll be fine.Obviously, he’s doing everything hecan to get ready. It’s basically in hiscourt. We’ve just got to wait and see.”

Usman Khawaja and Shaun Marshhave already been ruled out of thetournament with wrist and hamstringinjuries respectively, but Handscombis the only official addition to the 15-man squad so far.

Coach Justin Langer has indicat-ed Matthew Wade would come in forKhawaja, but Mitchell Marsh could bedrafted into the squad instead to playon Thursday, meaning Stoinis couldbe put on ice for the semi-final andrecalled for the final on Sunday,should Australia make it.

Wade and Marsh trained for thefirst time with the World Cup squadon Monday after departing theAustralia A side in Brighton.

Bowling coach Adam Griffith, aformer fast bowler who played for

Tasmania and Leicestershire, says hecan’t remember anyone bowling withtwo side strains before.

He suggested the allrounder’s per-formance at training on Tuesday willmatter more than the official diag-noses.

“He’s pretty tough, Stoin. He’splayed with the left side (strain)through the tournament and hebowled seven overs against England ina row and got through it okay,” saidGriffith.

“Scans show things, but it will bemore around his ability to perform.We’ll have a good look at that tomor-row when he bowls — not only will itbe on the pace and the GPS numbersbut also his execution. We’ll be able tomake a pretty good assessment fromthere.

“It’s pretty uncommon (to injureboth sides), so I’m looking forward toseeing how he goes. That’s the bestindication we’ll have that he’s not justfit to play, but fit to perform.”

Handscomb, insisted the loss ofShaun Marsh and Khawaja, plus thedoubt over Stoinis, has not been dis-ruptive.

The trio called in as cover have allbeen in good touch in recent AustraliaA 50-over games and, perhaps moreimportantly, have all played extensive-ly at international level.

“For those two guys (Khawaja andShaun Marsh) who have done so muchto go down was pretty gut wrenching,but they’re very excited for us and that’sthe camaraderie in this group,”Handscomb said.

“The guys are a good bunch andboth Mitch and I have played recent-ly in one-dayers (for Australia) sowe’ve been in and amongst the boys.And Wadey has been in and out (of theAustralian team) for years.

“Everyone knows each other real-ly well and we know as soon as youcome in, we’re buying straight in towhat the team needs.

“We’re all ready to go, we’ve beenplaying. It’s not like we haven’t beenplaying, we’ve had one-dayers here inthe Aussie A stuff — it’s a good leadin. We’re ready to go.”

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Semi-finals are always the worst,no one ever remembers losingsemi-finalists and when it comes

to the knockout stages it’s all aboutholding your nerve and finding a wayto get over the line if the game doesget close.

I will always remember our semi-final back in 2017 in the ICC Women’sWorld Cup. We had just under a weekto get ready which gave us a reallygood chance to have a good qualitypreparation leading up to the game.

That obviously makes a real dif-ference but the real key was that wealso had a few days off to just get awayfrom cricket.

I’m sure the boys will have donethe same over the past few days,switching off and forgetting all aboutbatting and bowling.

That’s the great thing about beingthe tournament hosts, you can go andsleep in your own bed and spend timewith your friends and family and thencome fresh and ready to put your fullfocus on the semi-final.

I would be interested to knowhow many of the England guys willwatch the first semi-final.

My guess is that it will be person-

al choice — some of the guys will wantto avoid it altogether, focus on theirsemi-final and let that result take careof itself.

The danger of watching it tooclosely is you can start dreaming ofgetting to the final as well, but I amsure that most of the guys will haveone eye on India vs New Zealand, it’shard not to!

The key to the game will be thenew ball.

Australia took early wickets atLord’s in the group match and thatpretty much decided the game thenand there.

The left-armers Mitchell Starc andJason Behrendorff made hay that day,so it is important that England’sopeners are watchful and nullify thatthreat if the ball is swinging.

South Africa last weekendshowed that there will be balls toattack and runs to be scored up frontas well.

But the key is making sure youpick the right balls to go after andwhich ones to defend or leave alonewith the ball swinging around.

And then when it comes toEngland bowling with the new ball,

I think the key wicket is that of cap-tain Aaron Finch.

David Warner might have scoredmore runs at this World Cup, butwhen Finch goes big, Australia invari-ably win.

The captain is the scalp thatEngland will be itching for and thenit will be interesting to see how whatmight well be a remodelled Australianmiddle order can cope.

Usman Khawaja is out, ShaunMarsh has already gone home andMarcus Stoinis is in a race against timeto prove his fitness.

That means that someone likeMatthew Wade might come intocontention — and England will needto be wary against under-estimatinga guy like him.

He is in fantastic form, with twocenturies already this summer onEnglish soil for Australia A, and healways seems to score runs when hehas got a point to prove.

What an occasion it will be, I can’twait to see how it will play out and Ihave got everything crossed thatEngland can make it through.

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England’s star batsman JoeRoot says they have the abil-

ity to exact revenge for theleague stage loss to Australiawhen the arch-rivals meet inThursday's World Cup semifi-nal.

England were downed inconvincing fashion by theirfiercest rivals at Lord’s lastmonth and looked in seriousdanger of missing out on thesemi-finals at their home tour-nament.

But back-to-back wins overIndia and New Zealand turnedthe tables and have put the No1 ODI side in world on a colli-sion course with Australia atEdgbaston in the second semi-final.

England have lost their lasttwo clashes with Australiaincluding a warm-up gamebefore the showpiece Cupbegan, but before that Root andco had the edge with a series winDown Under and a 5-0 white-wash on home soil.

“If you look at the past 11games against them we havewon nine,” he said.

“These guys and this groupover the last four years, theirexperience against Australiahave been very positive andthey have got a lot of success inthe bank.

“I don’t see that as a bigworry for this group, we will bedrawing on that confidence thatover a long period of time nowwe have been successful againstAustralia and we should takethat into Thursday.”

Add to that the fact thatEngland have found their bestform — with Jason Roy back fir-ing fit at the top of the order —and the mood is clearly buoyant.

Root added: “I feel we are ina good place coming into it, Ifeel like the last two days havealmost been like knockout crick-et for us.

“We have been playing in ahigh-pressure environment fora while now and hopefully thatwill hold us in good stead goinginto this game.

“It doesn’t matter (who arethe favourites). It comes downto who plays their best cricketon the day. If we play in themanner we have the last twogames, we will be a very difficultside to play against.

“You can look at form, sta-tistically who is stronger, but itall comes down to who handlesthe day better, who plays thestronger cricket for the longestperiod and who will stand upand be victorious at the end ofit.”

The left-arm attack ofMitchel l Starc and JasonBehrendorff, who took a five-forat Lord’s, have proved England’sundoing in the last two encoun-ters.

But Root is confident lessonshave been learned ahead of thatencounter.

“They bowled extremely wellwith the new ball, and those earlywickets basically dictated theway the game went,” he added.

“It is about understandingthat will be the main threat earlyon, that ball swinging and if wecan combat that and make agood start then we give ourselvesa better chance.

“It is something that seems tohave been very effective through-out the tournament, that left-armangle and throughout one daycricket for a while now and theyhave exploited that nicely.

“But we have also seen thatwe can score quite nicely if theydon’t get it right. Trying to bevery objective about it, and clearon how you approach it will bevery important.

“The guys have faced a lot ofleft arm stuff over their careersand in build up to last game.There will be a lot talked aboutit and with that comes pressurefor them as well to deliver. Itworks both ways.”

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Australia bared their feet andtheir souls in an emotional

mid-pitch assembly at Edgbastonon Monday, as the injury-ravagedreigning World Cup championsrefuelled belief that they’ll be stand-ing on the Lord’s balcony hoistingthe trophy later this week.

At the behest of coach JustinLanger, the entire Australian trav-elling contingent including theirextensive army of support staffremoved their shoes and walkeda lap of the venue that has seenEngland — their semi-finalopponents on Thursday —win their past 10 gamesacross all three formats.

Langer, a self-described“hippy” and a devotee totranscendental meditation,likes to spend his rare holi-day time walking aroundPerth with no shoes on andhe’s already spread the prac-tice to cricket grounds inDubai, Hyderabad andSouthampton since takingover the Australian coachingjob last year.

After walking aroundthe ground on Monday,the squad sat in a circleon the outfield andeach member of the

touring party spoke about the sig-nificance of Australia’s World Cuprun to date — and what it wouldmean to lift the trophy.

“(It was) just a moment to geta feel for the ground — literally,”said new squad member Peter

Handscomb to cricket.com.au.“It’s something thecoach has done

before at othervenues for a bit of ground-

ing.“It was nice. You get a feel of

the grass on your feet, the posi-tive and negative energy flowingthrough and coming out of theearth.

“It is a nice feeling and youwalk around with the group,have a bit of a laugh while you’regoing and talking.

“It was just an open andhonest conversation and it wasgreat that some of the guys poured

their heart out about what it meantto get to the semi-final. What itmeant for them and their firstmemories of cricket growing. It wasreally nice. It was great to see whatplaying in the finals means to this

group.

“I said out there with the boys— I’ve played so many World Cupsemi-finals and finals in the back-yard with my mates and you’re try-ing to (imitate) different guys anddoing all that stuff.

“So to actually come out here,pardon the cliché, it’s actually liv-ing the dream to be here now.”

Mitch Marsh, who along withHandscomb and Matthew Wadehave been plucked from theAustralia A squad to the senior sideto cover a spate of recent injuries,revealed his wish to get a photo tomatch the one he had taken after hisfather Geoff coached Australia totheir World Cup triumph inLondon 20 years ago.

“He was talking about 1999World Cup with his dad coachingand having a photo done with theWorld Cup trophy. Handscombsaid.

“So Mitch wants to be here, andhe wants to have a photo on the bal-cony at Lord’s, which is pretty awe-some.”

Langer will hope Australiasoaked up all the positive energy onMonday because they’re unlikely toreceive much from the famously

parochial Birmingham crowd comeThursday.

Handscomb could slot intoAustralia’s middle order for hisfirst international game in threemonths following injuries to UsmanKhawaja and Shaun Marsh in recentdays.

The right-hander struck hismaiden century and played inback-to-back away series winsagainst India and Pakistan beforeSteve Smith’s return squeezed himout of the ODI squad, and he’s con-fident he can come in fresh to han-dle the pressure of a knockoutWorld Cup game.

“If I do play … (I’ll be) justtreating it as I would any game. I’mjust going with the same mindsetthat I’ve had for the last couple ofyears,” said the 28-year-old.

“If I do play, hopefully I’ll dosomething towards winning thematch.

“Every time you take that nextstep up and go to the next level,you’re trying to get that self-beliefthat you belong there and that lit-tle period against India andPakistan in the UAE helped mebelieve in myself more than any-thing.

“Now I can back my skills andback my preparation and know thatI have done it so I can continue tomake runs if required.”

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Talismanic Indian cap-tain Sunil Chhetri was

Tuesday named as theAIFF Men’s Footballer ofthe Year for a record-extending sixth time.

The 34-year-old strik-er, who has been in peakform in the last couple ofyears, has earlier won thehonour in 2007, 2011,2013, 2014 and 2017. Hecurrently plays forBengaluru FC in theIndian Super League.

Chhetri is currentlythe second highest inter-national goal scorersamong active players with70 strikes to his name,behind Cristiano Ronaldo(149). He has gone pastLionel Messi (68), who isthird in the list, duringthe 2019 IntercontinentalCup opener againstTajikistan.

He is also the mostcapped player of thecountry with 109 match-es, ahead of former cap-tain Bhaichung Bhutia(107).

“The fact that thiswas voted by the Hero I-League and Hero ISLcoaches makes it all themore special. I am grate-

ful to my club members,coaches, fellow players,the national team staff,and the fans for theirsupport, love, and affec-tion,” Chhetri said.

On being remindedabout winning the awardfor the sixth time, headded: “I never play forAwards. But yeah, it feelsnice when your hard workgets recognised. This is anadded motivation to dobetter.”

India midfielderAbdul Samad was namedthe AIFF Emerging Men’s

Player of the Year.Ace India interna-

tional Ashalata Devi wasnamed the AIFF Women’sFootballer of the Year2018-19, while DangmeiGrace was adjudged theAIFF Emerging Women’sFootballer of the Year2018-19.

Best GrassrootsDevelopment Programmeaward will be given toJammu and KashmirFootbal l Associationwhile R Venkatesh ofTamil Nadu won theaward for the best referee.

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World Cup returneesFabian Allen, Nicholas

Pooran and Oshane Thomashave been handed West Indiescentral contracts for the firsttime while seven players havebeen given all-format con-tracts.

The number of all-formatcontracts for the men has nowincreased from four to sevenwith Darren Bravo, ShimronHetmyer and Keemo Pauljoining those in the Test andODI formats — captain JasonHolder, Shai Hope, AlzarriJoseph and Kemar Roach —on the list.In total, 19 men

have been retained forthe upcoming con-tract year whichruns from

July 1 this year to June 30 nextyear including first-timersAllen, Pooran and Thomaswho were part of the WestIndies team which finishedninth out of 10 teams in theWorld Cup.

Meanwhile, 15 women —an increase of three — havealso earned central contractsincluding veteran all-rounderStacy-Ann King, fellow left-hander Kycia Knight and new-comers Shabika Gajnabi,Shawnisha Hector, Chinelle

Henry, NatashaMcLean andK a r i s h m a

Ramharack.This is the third

year that CWI willaward central contracts

to West Indies men underthree different categories.

!�����!���� ������All-Format Contracts:Darren Bravo, ShimronHetmyer, Jason Holder, ShaiHope, Alzarri Joseph, KeemoPaul, Kemar RoachRed-Ball Contracts: KraiggBrathwaite, John Campbell,Roston Chase, ShaneDowrich, Shannon Gabriel,Jomel WarricanWhite-Ball Contracts: Fabian

Allen, Carlos Brathwaite,Sheldon Cottrell,

Nicholas Pooran,Rovman Powell,OshaneThomas.

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Bangladesh cricket authorities onMonday announced they wouldlet go head coach Steve Rhodes

after a disappointing campaign in theWorld Cup.

“We have decided to part wayswith the head coach by mutual con-sent. The decision will be effectiveimmediately,” Bangladesh CricketBoard chief executive off icerNizamuddin Chowdhury said.

They decision came a day afterBangladesh returned home afterending their campaign in the WorldCup eighth in the league phase withonly three wins in their eight match-es

Bangladesh’s three wins cameagainst fellow strugglers South Africa,West Indies and Afghanistan thoughthey were competitive against majorteams India, Australia and NewZealand.

Head coach Rhodes joinedBangladesh in June last year andguided the team to their first ever titlein a multi-team tournament inIreland just before the World Cup.

He was contracted withBangladesh until the ICC WorldTwenty20 in Australia next year buthis inability to give the team theexpected results appear to have costhim his job.

BCB confirmed coach Rhodewill not travel with the team to SriLanka, where Bangladesh will playthree one-day internationals later thismonth.

The Sri Lankan cricket authori-

ties on Monday announced thatthere will be three matches on July 26,38 and 31 at PremadashaInternational Stadium in Colombo.

"We will shorty name an interimcoach for the Sri Lanka tour," JalalYunus, the chairman of the mediacommittee of the BCB, told AFP.

Jalal confirmed that the BCB alsoplanned a shake-up of other coachingstaff and was unlikely to renew thecontract of pace bowling coachCourtney Walsh. He said there was nodecision on renewal of the contract ofIndian spin-bowling coach Sunil Joshi.

Both Walsh and Joshi had beenunder contract with the BCB until theend of the World Cup.

Walsh replaced formerZimbabwean pacer Heath Streak inSeptember 2016 on a three-year con-tract while Joshi joined last year.

Bangladesh's bowlers strug-gled in the World Cup, leaking2,473 runs in eight matches, anaverage of nearly 310 runs a game.

Chowdhury said they were yetto make final decision aboutJoshi.

"The decision on Joshiwill be finalised in our nextmeeting later this month," hesaid. Nizamuddin saidBangladesh will offer a newcontract to South African bat-ting coach Neil McKenzie andfielding coach Ryan Cook.

"We would like McKenzieand the fielding coach to staywith us. But it does notdepend entirely on us," hesaid.

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Amit Panghal rode on his AsianChampionships Gold to get a direct

entry, while Commonwealth Games Silver-medallist Manish Kaushik edged pastShiva Thapa in India’s eight-strong squadfor the World Boxing Championships inSeptember.

Manish claimed the newly-created63kg category spot in the team ahead offour-time Asian medallist Shiva in thenational trials for the big event to be heldin Ekaterinburg, Russia from September7 to 21.

Amit (52kg) was given a place in thesquad for winning a Gold at the AsianChampionships which was the original cri-terion for selection.

Kavinder Singh Bisht (57kg),Duryodhan Singh Negi (69kg), AshishKumar (75kg), Brijesh Yadav (81kg),Sanjeet (91kg), and Satish Kumar (+91kg)joined him through trials held at NISPatiala last weekend.

Only the top two boxers from each ofthe categories were eligible for the trialswith their recent performances being thecriteria for selecting the face-off names, theBoxing Federation of India (BFI) said ina statement.

Manish claimed a split verdict over the2015 World Championships Bronze-medallist Shiva. Shiva had avenged his2018 India Open loss to Manish at thisyear’s edition in Guwahati to claim the

Gold. “This was a huge confidence-boost-ing win for me after losing to Shiva in theIndia Open final. I had been working hardon my stance and footwork since the lossand I am glad it paid off. I am looking for-ward to giving my best at the WorldChampionships,” Manish said.

In the 57kg category, AsianChampionships Silver-medallist Kavinderedged Mohammed Hussamuddin in a split

verdict to claim his place.Kavinder had made a splash in his

maiden appearance at the last WorldChampionships in 2017 when he upsettwo-time World Championships medallistMohamed Flissi of Algeria to advance tothe quarter-finals.

“I lost out on a golden opportunity towin a medal the last time. This time Iwould like to make amends and am tar-geting nothing less than a Gold,” saidKavinder.

In 75kg, Ashish Kumar outpunchedPrayag Chauhan to claim a unanimous vic-tory. Duryodhan Singh Negi defeatedAshish Kulhari in the 69kg category in asplit verdict.

Brijesh Yadav re-asserted his suprema-cy in 81kg by beating Harsh Lakra whileSanjeet dominated CWG Bronze-medal-list Naman Tanwar in the 91kg category.

Satish Kumar did not have to enter thering for the +91kg bout with his opponent,Naveen suffering an injury.

India will be eager to improve upontheir performance from the last WorldChampionships where they won a Bronzethrough Gaurav Bidhuri.

The big event was to double up as anOlympic qualifier but was stripped off thatstatus after the International OlympicCommittee decided to bar theInternational Boxing Association (AIBA)from conducting the competition in the2020 Olympics due to governance andfinancial mismanagement issues.

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Seven-time champion Serena Williamsis just two wins away from equallingMargaret Court’s Grand Slam titles

record of 24 but she wobbled several timesin her Wimbledon quarter-final againstAlison Riske on Tuesday.

The 37-year-old, who recorded her 97thsuccess at Wimbledon to move second onthe women’s all-time list, came under enor-mous pressure from her fellow Americanbefore prevailing in an engrossing contest,6-4, 4-6, 6-3 in just over two hours.

Standing in Williams’s way in what is her12th Wimbledon semi-final will be unseed-ed Czech veteran Barbora Strycova.

The American will be wise not to takethe 33-year-old lightly as she has ousted fourseeds on her run to the last four.

It says a lot about the unpredictabilityof the women’s game that Williams was theonly player in the last eight who reached thesame stage last year.

“It was really satisfying,” said Williams,whose clay court campaign was affected bya knee injury.

“I wouldn’t have won that match a cou-ple of weeks ago."

Also joining her in the last four wasRomania’s former world number oneSimona Halep, who fought back from 4-1down in the first set to beat China's ZhangShuai 7-6 (7/4), 6-1.

For Halep — who aside from Williamswas the only player in the quarter-finals tohave won a Grand Slam, taking the FrenchOpen last year — it is her secondWimbledon semi-final.

Halep will play Elina Svitolina, theUkraine eighth seed, after she came backfrom a break down in each set to beatKarolina Muchova 7-5, 6-4.

It will be the 24-year-old Ukrainian’s firstGrand Slam semi-final.

Williams, whose total of 97 Wimbledon

match wins compares to the 82 combinedof the other seven quarter-finalists, will lookback on her victory with some relief.

Riske converted all five of her breakpoints while Williams succeeded with justsix of her 16 opportunities.

However, she relied on her power tokeep her in the match.

In doing so she managed to avoid thefate that befell world number one AshleighBarty at the hands of Riske on Monday.

“I’m glad that I was able to comethrough,” said Williams.

“She beat so many great players. She wasreally so close to taking the win today.”

Williams was constantly cajoling herselfand letting out roars of come on during thematch.

Having sealed the match she turned tothe players box where she was supported byolder sister Venus and her husband, Redditco-founder Alexis Ohanian, and yelled,pumping her fists.

“I was really pumped, it was for a placein the semis at Wimbledon — that doesn’thappen every day and it's a long, arduousroad,” said Williams.

“I just had to just button up and playhard. She was playing her heart out and shehad nothing to lose and I realised neitherdid I.”

Strycova, whose previous best at aGrand Slam was the 2014 quarter-final alsoat Wimbledon, out-played Britain's JohannaKonta once she extricated herself from a 4-1 deficit in the first set.

“It sounds crazy, it’s happening but I can’treally believe it,” said Strycova.

“I am extremely happy and my voice iseven shaking still right now.”

Seventh seed Halep, who ended the runof 15-year-old Coco Gauff on Monday, tookthe match by the scruff of the neck once shewon the first set.

“I fought hard in the first set, even if Iwas down 4-1,” said 27-year-old Halep.

“I have energy, I feel fresh, I feelhealthy, I feel confident when I step on thecourt.”

For Svitolina breaking new ground interms of her career is exciting enough.

“It feels amazing,” she enthused. “It is thefirst time in the semi-finals for me and I did-n’t expect it would happen here.

“It’s exciting and I’m looking forward tomy semi-final already.”

�������������'����Wimbledon got its first 12-12 final set

tie-break on Tuesday when Henri Kontinenand John Peers defeated Rajeev Ram and JoeSalisbury in a men’s doubles match.

The eighth-seeded pair won 7-6 (7/2),6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 13-12 (7/2) in four hours and29 minutes.

The third round match was suspendeddue to bad light on Monday and resumedTuesday on the 1,750-seater Court 12 showcourt.

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Former world champion MirabaiChanu led the Indian medal rush by

notching up a Gold on the opening dayof the Commonwealth WeightliftingChampionship here on Tuesday.

The Indian contingent won 13medals that included eight Gold, threeSilver and two Bronze medals in senior,junior and youth categories.

Mirabai lifted a total of 191kg (84kg+ 107 kg) in the senior women’s 49 kgevent to win the gold medal in theOlympic qualifying event, the pointsfrom which will come in handy for thefinal rankings of the 2020 TokyoOlympics.

Mirabai last took part at the AsianChampionship in Ningbo, China inApril where she l if ted 199kg(86kg+113kg) to miss out on a medal bya whisker.

The qualification process for the 2020Olympics is based on the performancesof the weightlifters in six events over aperiod of 18 months out of which thefour best results logged by a lifter will beconsidered.

Jhilli Dalabehra also clinched the firstplace on the podium with a lift of 154kg(70kg+94kg) in the senior women's 45 kgevent which is not an Olympic weightcategory.

In the senior women’s 55kg,Soroikhaibam Bindyarani Devi andMatsa Santoshi won the Gold and silvermedals respectively.

In the senior men’s 55kg category,Rishikanta Singh grabbed the Gold witha total lift of 235kg (105kg+130kg).

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