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IN BRIEFN EWS

Huawei hopes US decision onMeng Wanzhou heralds ...

'Not just surviving, thriving'interest in women's sport has ...

Vol. No. VI Issue No. 232 RNI-ASSENG/2014/58385 | GUWAHATI THURSDAY OCTOBER 07, 2021 | PAGES 8 PRICE RS. 7.00

Congress NamesCandidates

Judges of HighCourts

New cases ofCovid-19

AR Staff ReporterGuwahati, October 6:

All India Congress Com-mittee general secretaryMukul Wasik, in a release,named party leader JowelTudu for the Gossaigaonseat, Bhaskar Dahal forTamulpur and MonoranjanKonwar for Thowra.Guwahati: The AssamCongress on Tuesday an-nounced the names of can-didates for by-polls to fiveassembly constituencieson October 30.All IndiaCongress Committee gen-eral secretary MukulWasik, in a release, namedparty leader Jowel Tudu forthe Gossaigaon seat,B h a s k a r D a h a l f o rTamulpur and MonoranjanKonwar for Thowra. Con-gress leaders ShailendraNath Das and LuhitKonwar have been fieldedin Bhabanipur and Mariani,respectively, it said.Theby-polls in Gossaigaon andTamulpur have been ne-cessitated due to the deathof sitting MLAs, while theincumbents in Bhabanipur,Mariani and Thowra re-signed from their seats tojoin the ruling BJP.

AR Staff ReporterGuwahati, October 5:

AR Staff ReporterGuwahati, October 6:

The hit and run caseRajkanya Baruah Re-arrestedAR Staff ReporterGuwahati, October 6:

Chemistry Nobel awardedfor mirror-image molecules

Stockholm, October 6:

Nagaon Central Jailbecomes hotspot of HIV

82 prisoners positiveers of Nagaon Central Jailtested HIV positive in themonth of September while10 other prisoners testedHIV positive in the currentmonth, sources added.Significantly, among thoseHIV positive prisoners, 62prisoners regularly useddrugs through syringe, CONTINUED TO PAGE 6

On Mahalaya that the 'PitruPaksha', or the 16-day lunarday period when Hinduspay homage to their ances-tors (Pitrs), ends - therebybeginning the 'Devi Paksha'("the era of the goddess")which the arrival of GoddessDurga, and the festival cen-tered around her worship -Durga Puja - heralds.Thedawn of Mahalaya holds aspecial significance to themillions of Bengalis in India,Bangladesh, and beyond.At 4am sharp, households

Age-old tradition of Mahalaya starts with full coloursAR Staff ReporterGuwahati, October 6:

tune in to their FM radios,where the All India Radio(AIR) continues to broadcasteditions of the MahishasuraMardini programme everyyear. Although the radio maynow have been replaced byits more modern, easily ac-cessible alternatives - theage-old tradition continues inseveral homes with its pecu-liar mix of nostalgia and hopeas if to defy the passage oftime.Birendra KrishnaBhadra, the late radio broad-caster, playwright, actor, nar-rator, and theatre actor fromKolkata, is undoubtedly still CONTINUED TO PAGE 6

Case Against 36 Teachers In Assam WhoGot Jobs With ‘Forged’ Certificates

Hareswar BoraNagaon, October 6:

AR Staff ReporterGuwahati, October 6:

The post mortem of a farmer,Gurvinder Singh, who losthis life in the Lakhimpur Kheriviolence was performedagain on Wednesday, in-formed Dinesh Chandra, Dis-trict Magistrate of Bahraich.While speaking to ANI,Dinesh Chandra, DM ofBahraich, said, "An expertpanel of doctors had come

Veteran actor ArvindTrivedi, who played the roleof Ravan in RamanandSagar's 1987 iconic TV se-ries Ramayan, passed awayat the age of 82. Trivedi wassuffering from age-relatedillnesses. He suffered heartattack on Tuesday night.Prime Minister NarendraModi and the cast ofRamayan paid tribute to thelate actor.Trivedi's nephewKaushaubh Trivedi con-

Ramayan's Ravan, actor ArvindTrivedi, dies of heart attack

Arun Govil and Dipika Chikhalia pay tribute Mumbai , October 6:

firmed the actor's death toi n d i a n e x p r e s s . c o m ."Arvind uncle was notkeeping well and his healthfurther deteriorated in thelast couple of years. He CONTINUED TO PAGE 6

Accusing the authorities ofplaying with the careers ofaspiring super specialitydoctors to benefit privatemedical colleges, the Su-preme Court on Tuesdaygave 24 hours to the Centre,the National Medical Com-mission and the NationalBoard of Examination inmedical sciences to revert tothe old question pattern forthe NEET-super specialityexams for the 2021-22 aca-demic session.A bench of

With China ramping up itsmilitary might in recent

Taiwan says China couldlaunch 'full scale' invasion by

2025, tensions aggravate

New Delhi, October 6: years, Taiwan stands con-cerned that Beijing mightmount a "full scale" inva-sion by 2025. Taiwan's de-fence minister Chiu Kuo-cheng, faced with alawmaker's question in thecountry's parliament onWednesday, said militarytensions with China are attheir worst in more than 40years - certainly the "mostserious" since he joined themilitary. He noted that therewas an added risk of "mis-fire" across the sensitiveTaiwan Strait; and thatwhile China already has therequired arsenal to take Tai-wan by force, the cost of a"full scale" war for Beijingmight be at its lowest by CONTINUED TO PAGE 6

Lakhimpur Kheri violence: Post-mortemof deceased farmer performed again

New Delhi, October 6: from Lucknow to monitor thepost mortem, which was re-corded in compliance withthe orders from ChiefMinister's Office. The panelwill give the result. The post-mortem is being done againas the satisfaction of the fam-ily is our priority. "He added,"Family of a person who diedin Lakhimpur incident hadraised doubts over postmortem and requested an-

other one. The state govern-ment complied and postmortem was done again toensure it is done impartiallyand transparently."The postmortem was done again ashis family believed that hewas shot dead.A familymember of the deceased,said, "I have no issue now.The team from the Lucknowcame for the post-mortem.

We will accept the result. Af-ter few rituals, the cremationwill take place."The UttarPradesh government had onMonday announced a judi-cial inquiry under a retiredhigh court judge in theLakhimpur Kheri incident.The government also an-nounced that the familyof those who died in the CONTINUED TO PAGE 6

Revert to old NEET-SS pattern in24 hours, Supreme Court says

New Delhi, October 6:

Justices DY Chandrachud,Vikram Nath and BVNagarathna sent out a loudwarning: "You can't be caus-ing prejudice to students. If

there is a sense of obduracy(on the part of authorities innot reverting to the old pat-tern of examination), the armsof law are long enough to deal

with the obduracy. We havegiven you time till Wednes-day to reform. NMC and NBEare not doing any favour tothe students. We are givingyou an opportunity to cor-rect yourself."Pointing outNEET-SS is unlike otherexamina t ions , Jus t iceChandrachud said, "Stu-dents prepare for years, rightfrom their postgraduation inmedicine days to get admis-sion into super specialitycourses after doing their mas-ters. We know the privatesector has invested moneyin offering super speciality

courses and their interest hasto be factored in while doingthe balancing act. However,the interest of students, whowill be the torch bearers ofadvanced healthcare in Indiain future, can't be sidelined."The bench said, "Our edu-cation system is so botchedup. We do not have either aplan or vision. What is thegreat hurry in bringing intoforce the new pattern of ex-amination? Heavens wouldnot have fallen except for afew seats in private medicalcolleges going vacant. Why CONTINUED TO PAGE 6

Punjab chief ministerCharanjit Singh Channi ex-pressed solidarity with thefamilies of the farmers killedduring Sunday’s LakhimpurKheri incident, and an-nounced an ex-gratia of ?50lakh for the next of kin of thedeceased, including journal-ist Raman Kashyap.“On the

50 lakh ex-gratia forfamilies of those killed inLakhimpur Kheri incident

Punjab, Chhattisgarh announce

New Delhi, October 6: behalf of the Punjab govern-ment, I announce ?50 lakheach to the families of the de-ceased including the journal-ist,” Channi told Wednesday.As many as eight people losttheir lives in the LakhimpurKheri incident on Sundaywhen two SUVs moweddown protesting farmers. AFirst Information Report CONTINUED TO PAGE 6

The US State Departmentpublished on Tuesday thenumber of nuclear war-heads the country stock-piles for the first time in fouryears, after former presi-dent Donald Trump placed CONTINUED TO PAGE 6

US reveals nuclear bomb numbers for1st time in 4 years after Trump blackoutNew Delhi, October 6:

07

Accused Rajkanya Baruah inthe hit and run case of 9 PWDlabourers in Guwahati hasbeen finally arrested by theGuwahati Police on Wednes-day afternoon.RajkanyaBaruah has been arrested af-ter the GMCH panel submit-ted a report to the Dispur ACPthat she has no health com-plications and is totallyfine.Earlier, GMCH Superin-

tendent Dr. Abhijit Sharma in-formed the press that the teamhas also had an extensive dis-

cussion with Rajkanya as wellas the doctors of GNRCmedical.A team of 6 doctorsof Gauhati Medical Collegeand Hospital (GMCH) visitedGNRC to re-examine formermodel Rajkanya Baruah whoknocked down 9 PWDlabourers in Guwahati onWednesday morning.Themodel was summoned byAssam police on Tuesdaybut she did not appear beforepolice citing health condition.Her mother sought two weekstime to appear before police

for investigation.Police hadasked Rajkanya Baruah toappear before them on Tues-day after chief ministerHimanta Biswa Sarma’s inter-vention following sharp criti-cism against the police.MukutKakoti, OC of Dispur policestation, said, “Her family mem-bers have sought two-weeks’time to appear as she is un-dergoing treatment at a pri-vate hospital. Time has beengiven on medical grounds.”Police have written to GauhatiMedical College and Hospi-

tal (GMCH) to form a medicalboard to investigate the healthissues claimed by Rajkanya.Inthe meanwhile, sources in thepolice said an application hasbeen moved in the court foradding up sections in the ex-isting case against Rajkanya.Subrajyoti Bora, deputy com-missioner of police (EastGuwahati Police District), said,“New charges may add up inthe case. An internal discus-sion is going on abouthow to move ahead in the CONTINUED TO PAGE 6

Two scientists have beenawarded the 2021 NobelPrize in Chemistry for theirwork on building moleculesthat are mirror images of oneanother.German-born Ben-jamin List and Scotland-bornDavid MacMillan were an-nounced as the winners atan event in Stockholm.Their

chemical toolkit has beenused for discovering newdrugs and making moleculesthat can capture light in so-lar cells.The winners willshare the prize money of 10million krona (£842,611).Thetechnique, called asymmet-ric organocatalysis, hasmade it much easier to pro-duce asymmetric molecules- chemicals that exist in twoversions, where one is a mir-ror image of the other. Chem-ists often just want one ofthese mirror images - par-ticularly when producing CONTINUED TO PAGE 6

The Criminal InvestigationDepartment of Assam Policehas registered a case against36 teachers who got jobs al-legedly with "forged" Teach-ers Eligibility Test (TET) cer-tificates in Bodoland Territo-rial Region (BTR).Chief Min-ister Himanta Biswa Sarmahad directed the CID Assamto register the case followinga complaint that the teachershad submitted "forged" TET

certificates to the Director ofEducation, Kokrajhar in BTRto get the jobs, a statementissued by the police depart-ment said on Monday.Aninquiry was conducted andthe allegation was found tobe true, it said.A TET certifi-cate is mandatory for the ap-pointment of teachers in gov-

ernment schools.Several ac-cused have been brought toCID Headquarters from vari-ous districts of Assam for in-terrogation and verificationof documents, the statementsaid."The investigation con-ducted so far revealed thatforged TET certificates weresubmitted as if the accusedqualified even though theyfailed in the test, in somecases fake roll numbers havebeen used, and in someother cases roll numbers of CONTINUED TO PAGE 6

Nagaon Central Jail unfor-tunately became a bighotspot of HIV positive. Itapparently created sensa-tion among the people ofthe district and also drewthe eyes wide open ofmany. Around 72 prison-

The Union Law Ministryon Tuesday released thelist of as many as 15judges of 11 high courtstransfer on Tuesday. Thetransfers were recom-mended by the SupremeCourt collegium around afortnight back.Accordingto the list tweeted by theDepartment of Justice,Justice Jaswant Singh ofthe Punjab and HaryanaHigh Court stands trans-ferred to the Orissa HighCourt, while Justice Sabinaof the Rajasthan HC hasbeen sent to the HimachalPradesh High Court.

Assam on Tuesday re-ported 385 new cases ofCovid-19, taking the ac-tive caseload to 3,071.The positivity rate is 0.84per cent.Further, sevenCovid-19 fatalities wererecorded today, while,156 discharges weremade, according to thedata of the state NationalHealth Mission.The newcases were detected outof 46,051 Covid-19 testsconducted, of which thehighest cases were re-ported from KamrupMetro (131), Jorhat (41),Golaghat (35), andBarpeta (26).

NATIONAL-INTERNATIONALTHURSDAY, OCTOBER 07, 20212

Engwang Pavilion scenic spot in Nanchang, capital of east China's Jiangxi Province

Washington, October 06 :Former Trump WhiteHouse chief of staff MarkMeadows and other topaides subpoenaed by theHouse select committeeinvestigating the Capitolattack are expected to defyorders for documents andtestimony related to 6January, according to asource familiar with thematter.The move to defythe subpoenas would markthe first major

construction site of the Longmen Bridge in Qinzhou City, south China's GuangxiZhuang Autonomous Region

Top Trump aides set to defy subpoenasin Capitol attack investigation

investigative hurdle facedby the select committee andthreatens to touch off anextended legal battle as theformer president pushessome of his most senioraides to undercut theinquiry.All four Trump aidestargeted by the selectcommittee - Meadows,deputy chief of staff DanScavino, strategist SteveBannon and defensedepartment aide Kash Patel- are expected to resist the

orders because Trump ispreparing to direct them todo so, the sourcesaid.Trump at the rally thatpreceded the riot onJanuary 6. The selectcommittee is expected in thecoming weeks to authorizestill further subpoenas toTrump officials and otherindividuals connected tothe Capitol attack.Theselect committee hadissued the subpoenasunder the threat of criminalprosecution in the event ofnon-compliance, warningthat the penalty for defyinga congressional subpoenawould be far graver underthe Biden administrationthan during the Trumpp r e s i d e n c y . B u tincreasingly concernedwith the far-reaching natureof the 6 Januaryinvestigation, Trump andhis legal team, led by formerdeputy White Housecounsel Patrick Philbin, aremoving to instruct theattorneys for thesubpoenaed aides to defythe orders.The basis forTrump's pressing aides tonot cooperate is beingmounted on grounds ofexecutive privilege, thesource said, over claims thatsensitive conversationsabout what he knew inadvance of plans to stop thecertification of Joe Biden'selection victory should

remain secret.Philbinappears less convincedthan Trump about thestrength of the legalargument, the sourcessaid, in part because thejustice departmentpreviously declined toassert the protection for 6January testimony,suggesting it did not existto protect Trump'spersonal interests.Theformer president's lawyer,sources said, insteadseems to view the strategymore as an effective wayto slow-walk the selectcommittee, which is aimingto produce a final reportbefore the 2022 midtermelections, to keep theinquiry non-partisan.Itwas not clear on Tuesdaywhether Trump wouldpush aides to defy allelements of thesubpoenas, the sourcecautioned - access to someemails or call recordsdemanded by the select

committee might bewaived.But Trump's strategymirrors the playbook heused to prevent HouseDemocrats from deposinghis top advisors during hispresidency. Former WhiteHouse counsel DonMcGahn, for instance, onlytestified to congress aboutthe Mueller inquiry onceTrump left office.Houseselect committeeinvestigators had demandedthat the four Trump aidesturn over emails, call recordsand other documents relatedto the Capitol attack byThursday and then appearbefore the panel for closed-door depositions nextweek.But with the formerpresident expected to insistto Philbin that Meadows,Scavino, Bannon and Patelmount blanket refusalsagainst the subpoenas, thesources said, the selectcommittee at presentappears likely to see none ofthe requests fulfilled.

Singapore, October 06 :Singapore has trialledpatrol robots that blastwarnings at peopleengaging in "undesirablesocial behaviour", addingto an arsenal ofsurveillance technology inthe tightly controlled city-state that is fuellingprivacy concerns.Fromvast numbers of CCTVcameras to trials oflampposts kitted out withfacial recognition tech,Singapore is seeing anexplosion of tools to trackits inhabitants.That

'Dystopian world': Singapore patrolrobots stoke fears of surveillance state

includes a three-week trial inSeptember, in which tworobots were deployed topatrol a housing estate and ashopping centre.Officialshave long pushed a vision ofa hyper-efficient, tech-driven"smart nation", but activistssay privacy is beingsacrificed and people havelittle control over whathappens to theirdata.Singapore is frequentlycriticised for curbing civilliberties and people areaccustomed to tight controls,but there is still growingunease at intrusive tech.The

government's latestsurveillance devices arerobots on wheels, withseven cameras, that issuewarnings to the public anddetect "undesirable socialbehaviour".This includessmoking in prohibited areas,improperly parkingbicycles, and breachingcoronavirus social-distancing rules.During arecent patrol, one of the"Xavier" robots wove itsway through a housingestate and stopped in frontof a group of elderlyresidents watching a chess

match."Please keep one-metre distancing, pleasekeep to five persons pergroup," a robotic voiceblared out, as a camera ontop of the machine trainedits gaze on them.FrannieTeo, a 34-year-old researchassistant, was walkingthrough the mall duringthe recent robot patroltrial."It reminds me ofRobocop," she said.Itbrings to mind a"dystopian world of robots... I'm just a bit hesitantabout that kind ofconcept," sheadded.Digital rightsactivist Lee Yi Ting said thedevices were the latestway Singaporeans werebeing watched."It allcontributes to the sensepeople ... need to watchwhat they say and whatthey do in Singapore to afar greater extent than theywould in other countries,"she told Agence France-Presse.But the governmentdefended its use of robots,

saying they were not beingused to identify or takeaction against offendersduring the tech's trial, andwere needed to address alabour crunch as thepopulation ages."Theworkforce is actuallyshrinking," said Ong KaHing, from the governmentagency that developed theXavier robots, adding theycould help reduce thenumber of officers neededfor foot patrols.The island ofabout 5.5 million people has90,000 police cameras, anumber set to double by2030, and facial recognitiontech - which helpsauthorities pick out faces ina crowd - may be installedon lampposts across thecity.There was a rare publicbacklash this year whenauthorities admittedcoronavirus contract-tracing data collected by anofficial system had beenaccessed by police. Thegovernment later passedlegislation to limit its use.

London, October 06 : TheChinese telecommunicationsgiant Huawei hopes that theUS justice department'sdecision to abandon itsefforts to extradite MengWanzhou may mark thestarting point in a new era inrelations between thecompany, China and the USgovernment.Meng, the firm'schief financial officer anddaughter of its founder, wasfreed last month after three

Huawei hopes US decision on MengWanzhou heralds new era in relations

years of house arrest inCanada following anagreement with the justicedepartment to suspendfraud charges againsther.The case poisonedBeijing's relations withWashington and Ottawa,and sources closelyinvolved in Huawei's three-year court battle to block herextradition regard her releaseas removing a roadblock inrelations between the

company and the USauthorities, and evenbetween China and theUS.But the extent to which theMeng case can signal a widerimprovement in bilateralrelations is disputed. Chinesestate-run news agencies havebeen aggressive in theircommentary on her case,citing it as another sign ofAmerican decline.The US isset to engage with Chinashortly on the terms for liftingtrade tariffs imposed byDonald Trump, in an early testof whether the two countriescan find a way to coexisteconomically. One source said:"The US had been so focusedon Huawei and that made itmore complicated, since thecase against Huawei is verydifficult to resolve."Thesources said that althoughMeng had described herdetention as an invaluableexperience, it had at timesmade her very depressed andalmost panicky that the casewould never end.Hours afterher release on 24 September,the Chinese governmentfreed two Canadians, MichaelSpavor and Michael Kovrig.Huawei executives haveinsisted they did not knowabout the two men's releaseuntil Meng was on a planeback from Vancouver toChina. They say anynegotiations over the twohappened on an entirelyseparate track, and was notraised directly in the 18months of talks between theUS justice department andHuawei lawyers.

Nevertheless, the speed withwhich Spavor and Kovrigwere released hours after theUS dropped its extraditionclaim revealed the fictionfrom the Chinesegovernment that their caseswere independent fromMeng.Some Huaweilawyers spent 18 monthsinvolved in the negotiationson her release, largely inWashington, and did notreally believe she would bereleased until about eight ornine weeks before she madea court appearance via videolink to accept a deferredprosecution agreement. Aspart of the agreement shepleaded not guilty to fraudcharges, but accepted shehad in 2013 misled HSBC, thecompany's bankers.

London, October 06 : Tina Turner hassold the rights to her music cataloguespanning six decades, including hitssuch as What's Love Got to Do WithIt, and Private Dancer, to the musicpublishing company BMG.The"queen of rock'n'roll" sold her artist'sand writer's shares of her recordings,

Tina Turner sells rights to hermusic catalogue spanning 60 years

as well as the management of hername, image and likeness, in thelargest deal struck with a single artistin BMG's history. The sums involvedwere not disclosed.Turner, 81, is thelatest big artist to cash in on therocketing value of evergreen hits inthe streaming era, following in the

footsteps of Bob Dylan's $300m dealwith Universal Music, and NeilYoung's agreement with the musiccompany Hipgnosis.The streamingrevolution has created a gold rush forartists' royalty rights, and for ageingstars it is increasingly forming animportant part of estate planning.

London, October 06 : Thetestimony of FrancesHaugen, a former Facebookemployee, is likely toincrease pressure on USlawmakers to undertakeconcrete legislative actionsagainst the formerlyuntouchable tech company,following years of hearingsand circular discussionsabout big tech's growingpower.In a hearing onTuesday, the whistleblower

Facebook whistleblower'stestimony could finally

spark action in Congressshared internal Facebookreports with Congress andargued the company puts"astronomical profitsbefore people", harmschildren and is destabilizingdemocracies.After years ofsparring over the role oftech companies in pastAmerican elections,lawmakers from both sidesof the aisle on Tuesdayappeared to agree on theneed for new regulationsthat would change howFacebook targets usersand amplifiesc o n t e n t . " F r a n c e sHaugen's testimonyappears to mark a raremoment of bipartisanconsensus that the statusquo is no longeracceptable," said ImranAhmed, chief executiveofficer of the Center forCountering Digital Hate, anon-profit that fights hatespeech and misinformation."This is increasinglybecoming a non-politicalissue and one that has cutthrough definitively to themainstream."Throughoutthe morning, Congressmembers leveled questionsat Haugen about whatspecifically could andshould be done to addressthe harms caused byFacebook.With 15 years inthe industry as an expert inalgorithms and design,

Haugen offered a number ofsuggestions - includingchanging news feeds to bechronological rather thanalgorithmic, appointing agovernment body for techoversight, and requiring moretransparency on internalresearch."I think the time hascome for action," SenatorAmy Klobuchar toldHaugen. "And I think you arethe catalyst for thataction."Unlike past hearings,which were frequentlyderailed by partisanbickering, Tuesday'squestioning largely stuck toproblems posed byFacebook's opaquealgorithmic formulas and howit harms children. Such issuescan unite Congress and thereis going to be "a lot ofbipartisan concern about thistoday and in future hearings",said Senator Roger Wicker ofMississippi."The recentrevelations about Facebook'smental health effects onchildren are indeeddisturbing," he said. "Theyjust show how urgent it is forCongress to act againstpowerful tech companies, onbehalf of children and thebroader public."However,activists who have beencalling on Congress to enactlaws protecting children fromthe negative effects of socialmedia are skeptical of suchpromises.

London, October 06 :Boris Johnson will brushoff petrol queues andempty shelves asevidence of a "change ofdirection" towards a high-wage economy onWednesday, as he closesa Conservative conferenceat which supply shortageshave barely beenacknowledged.The primeminister channelledMargaret Thatcher onTuesday to insist "there isno alternative" but to pressahead with the post-Brexittransition to a labour marketless reliant onimmigration.Asked whetherthe UK was facing a crisis,Johnson said "no". "It's notthe job of government tocome in and try and fix everyproblem in business andindustry," he said.Despite

Boris Johnson to brush off petrolqueues as 'change of direction'

warnings from businessgroups of rising prices andcontinued shortages of keyproducts in the run-up toChristmas, he will tell the partyfaithful in Manchester that abright future lies ahead."Thatis the direction in which thiscountry is going - towards ahigh-wage, high-skill, high-productivity economy that thepeople of this country needand deserve, in whicheveryone can take pride in theirwork and the quality of theirwork," he is expected tosay."We are not going back tothe same old broken modelwith low wages, low growth,low skills and low productivity,all of it enabled and assistedby uncontrolledimmigration."Downing Streetsources insisted the primeminister's approach was not"Panglossian optimism" but a

determination to ride out thed i s r u p t i o n . S e n i o rConservatives said focusgroup and polling evidenceis so far telling them thepublic do not blame thegovernment for the supplycrunch, and is "giving themthe benefit of the doubt", forthe time being.But onecabinet minister privatelywarned that if shortagespersist, support for thegovernment could drainaway rapidly. Anotherfrontbencher said they wereconcerned aboutcomplacency, pointing outthat the petrol shortage wasstill gripping theirconstituency.

Pygmy pipehorse discoveredin New Zealand given M?ori

name in 'world first'London, October 06 : A tiny candy-stick coloured pygmypipehorse, discovered in a small area off New Zealand'snorth coast has been given a M?ori name by the local iwi(tribe) - in what is believed to be the first time an indigenousgroup has formally named a new species of animal.The6cm long fish is closely related to the seahorse, andinhabits the rocky reefs off the north-east coast. It is thefirst pygmy pipehorse discovered in the country.TheNg?tiwai tribe worked with biodiversity scientists DrThomas Trnski from T?maki Paenga Hira AucklandMuseum and Graham Short of the California Academy ofScientists to name the pipehorse Cylix tupareomanaia.Cylixis a new genus name and is derived from the Greek and Latinword for a cup or chalice; it refers to the cup-like crest on thetop of the head of the new species.The second prong of thename tupareomanaia refers to "the garland of the manaia" -"manaia" is the M?ori name for a seahorse and also meansancestor, or tupuna.The common name for Cylixtupareomanaia is manaia pygmy pipehorse.The Ng?tiwaitribe said it was pleased to have gifted the new species aname."The naming of this taonga [treasure] is significant toNg?tiwai as we know there are stories from our tupuna aboutthis species, but the original name has been lost as a resultof the negative impacts of colonisation," a Ng?tiwai tribekaum?tua (elder) Hori Parata said.Dr Trnski from theAuckland Museum said it was a privilege to be able toincorporate m?tauranga M?ori (knowledge) into the namingprocess."As far as we know, this is the first animal in theworld to have the naming authority include a tribal name.

3STATE THURSDAY, OCTOBER 07, 2021

Covid-19 claims onemore life in Nagaon

Correspondent, Nagaon, Oct 6: Covid-19 claimed onemore life in the district today, taking the total death toll to106 during the second wave of the pandemic while 5 oth-ers tested positive for COVID 19, sources added.Jogeswari Bordoloi (45) of Raha township tested positiveon Tuesday last and was admitted immediately to NagaonBP Civil Hospital. Due to rapid deterioration of her healthcondition, the doctor on-duty referred her to GuwahatiMedical College Hospital on the same day. But she finallysuccumbed to the virus in the middle on the way toGuwahati, sources added further.

AASU workersmeeting to be held

at JamugurihatA.R Correspondent, Biswanath Chariali, Oct 6: As perthe invitation of All Jamuguri Students’ Union, the workersmeeting of Sonitpur district AASU will be held at BapujiBhawan, Jamugurihat on October 9, stated a press release.The organizational meeting of All Assam Students’ Unionwill be graced by the chief advisor of AASU Dr. SamujjalKumar Bhattacharya, Dipanka Kumar Nath, president ofAASU and Shankarjyoti Barua, secretary of the state com-mittee along with other central leaders. In this connection, apublic meeting was held with Dhurjjat Goswami, presidentof All Jamuguri Students’ Union. Representatives of all orga-nizations of the greater Jamugurihat area attended the publicmeeting and assured all sorts of help to make the event asuccess. Abhijit Nath, president of All Sonitpur district Stu-dents’ Union graced the meeting and delivered about the im-portance and need of the meeting.

larly heinous crimes metedout to the girl children asSpecial Public Prosecutorunder POCSO Act for ADSJBasar and Session CourtAalo ever since her appoint-ment in the year 2019. Wheninteracting, he says that pas-sion for advocacy grew inher from her schooling daysto do something for thecause of unprivilegedclasses of the society whoare not in a position to wagelegal battles for their rights.Financial nor relative con-cerns have never been ableto be dislodged to fight forcases ever since her enroll-ment as Advocate in Decem-ber 2008. She did her school-ing from Govt. Nehru Memo-rial Higher SecondarySchool Aalo, graduated fromNehu Shillong, did LAW

CorrespondentDhemaji, Oct 06 : TMPKof several leading schoolsand colleges in Gogamukharea today at GogamukhAbotani Latta, the unionland of the tribe. The 32ndGogamukh Kankin Kebangwas held in the group's ini-tiative. Gogamukh College,Subansiri College, NCD Thenine-year-old students of

MLA Dharmeshwar Konwar visited ExtensionTraining Centre, State Institute of P&RD Campus On

October 5 In Guwahati

STAFF REPORTERGuwahati, Oct 6: The StateGovernment has decided toamend the British era'Assam Land & RevenueRegulation 1886' to ensurethe land rights of the indig-enous people of the State.Chief Minister HimantaBiswa Sarma has alreadyformed a Cabinet sub-com-mittee with Revenue andDisaster Management(R&DM) Minister JogenMohan as the chairman.The other members of theCabinet sub-committee areEducation Minister RanujPegu, WPT & BC (Welfareof Plain Tribe & BackwardClasses) Minister UGBrahma and Health Minis-ter Keshab Mahanta. ThePrincipal Secretary of the R& DM Department is themember-secretary of theCabinet sub-committee.

STAFF REPORTERGuwahati, Oct 6: Ministerfor Fisheries, Environmentand Forest and Excise,Parimal Suklabaidyalaunched an App Fishwaale,India's first e fish markethere on Tuesday. Launch-ing the App developed byAqua Blue Global Aquacul-ture Solutions Pvt. Ltd. incollaboration with Fisheriesdepartment at a functionheld at Sri Sri MadhabdevBhawan auditorium, Minis-ter Suklabaidya said theApp, a one stop solution forAquaculture, will help thebuyers and sellers to placeorders and sell fish online.He exuded the optimism thatit will help the fish farmingcommunity to get reason-able prices for their produceand lead to elimination ofmiddlemen. Suklabaidyasaid never before fish hasbeen accorded the recogni-tion of an asset by any gov-ernment other than theModi Government throughthe Pradhan Mantri Matysa

India's first e fish marketApp Fishwaale launched

Sampada Yojana. Throughthe App one can not onlysell as well as buy fish butalso quality fish seed andfish feed. Aquacultureequipment and medicinewill also be available in theapp. Aquarium tanks, orna-mental fish and equipmentcan also be placed for or-ders online. Table size fishsuch as bhangon, mrigaland rohu and freshwaterand seawater frozen fish(ice box) are also availablecoupled with dry fish pack-ets, dry fish raw, fish pick-les and processed fishproducts. Director, Fisher-ies, NK Debnath, DeputyDirector, JP Medhi, DeputyDirector, Tapan Das, MD,FISHFED, Dr.Dhruba JyotiSharma, President, SCMorcha, Assam, MoonSarnaker, Secretary,Srimanta SankardevKalakhetra, SudarshanThakur and Fisheries De-velopment Officer attachedto Minister, Pratul Dekawere present in the event.

Gogamukh Abotani Latta's memoirKangkincholai Released

College, Gogamukh HigherSecondary School,Gogamukh Junior Girls Col-lege, Assam Academy andKarpupuli College showedtheir talent by interactingwith the message of coor-dination. At 12 am, thepresident of the 32ndGogamukh Kankin Kebang,Mandeep Doley, unveiledthe door of the meeting with a chorus performed by

the students.The memoir'Kangkincholai', publishedin line with the 32ndKankin Kebang, was thenunveiled by DimbeswarDoley, editor of MissingAgam Kebang, expressinghope that students fromthe Greater Gogamukh re-gion have been able tomaintain the continuedhistory of the organiza-tion besides discussedlanguage literaturethrough memoirs.Gogamukh College princi-

pal Mukheswar Chutiaattended the meeting andgave a comprehensiveanalysis of the course ofaction to be taken by thestudents. NCD CollegePrincipal Dr Surjit Doley,Tulan Milli, GogamukhAncholik StudentsUnion Advisor RituparnaKonch and President,Secretary DeepakGohain, Satyajit Chetia,Dhemaji District Stu-dents Union SecretaryKalyan Gogoi, AnirbanSaikia etc. were present.

Advocate Lingo Vows to work forOppressed and downtrodden Classes

STAFF REPORTERAalo, Oct 6: AdvocateKarken Angu Ligo hailingfrom Angu village of WestSiang district ArunachalPradesh is one of the mostcommitted Advocates whoworks for the oppressedand downtrodden and wasinstrumental in dischargingmany criminal cases particu-

from Banaras Hindu Univer-sity and completed Law in-ternship from SupremeCourt of India, Delhi. En-rolled herself as in Decem-ber 2008, 12 Years of prac-tice as Advocate, Servingstate of A.P as panel Law-yer Since 2014 and suc-cessfully served the stateof A.P in discharging largenumber of criminal casesand ultimately appointedas Special Public Prosecu-tor under POCSO Act forADSJ, Basar and sessionscourt Aalo n the year 2019.Elated Advocate Karkensays she would continueto work relentlessly in tak-ing up the cases undercases under the POCSO Actto give speedy justice to theoppressed classes than tak-ing private cases.

STAFF REPORTERGuwahati, Oct 6: EasternZonal Cultural Centre,Kolkata, Ministry of Culture,Govt of India organised 10days Workshop on KamrupiaDhulia in collaboration withDirectorate of Cultural Affairs,Govt. of Assam, Conductedby ‘CHHAYA-The Shadow’Nalbari, Assam was success-fully concluded at HariMandir, Khelua of NalbariDistrict, Assam on October4. The closing ceremony wasinaugurated by Abha MoniSaikia, Publication officer,Directorate of Cultural Af-fairs, Govt. of Assam by light-ing the lamp ceremony inpresence of Secretary, Presi-dent & Executive Body of‘CHHAYA-The Shadow’Group. A ‘SONG’ (Tradi-tional Dance Drama onKamrupia Dhulia) titled

‘VAISHNAVIR SONG’ writ-ten by Lt. Mohan ChandraBhaoriya (Sangeet NatakAkademi Awardee) alsopresented by 21 NosArtistes Participants, whichwas directed by workshopExpert Lohit Ch Patowari.Before the presentation oftraditional play, the partici-pants also performed‘KUSTHI’ (a traditionalgymnastic form). At last onbehalf of the Director, Di-rectorate of Cultural Af-fairs, Govt. of Assam &EZCC Kolkata Publicationofficer Abha Moni Saikiadistributed the certificateamong the participants.There were more than 200people present at theevent. The event was co-ordinated by Goutam Kr.Das & hosted by NabaKumar Bharali.

Workshop onKamrupia Dhulia

concluded

STAFF REPORTERGuwahati, Oct 6: In a shock-ing incident, a Muslim reli-gious preacher repeatedlyrapped a 10-year-old girl inTeok, Jorhat until he was ar-rested by the police basedon a complaint filed by thevictim's parents. The victim'smother alleged that the ac-cused who is a religiouspreacher of a masjid in theChelenghat area often tookher minor daughter to hisroom under various pretexts.Like the other days, yester-day too, he took the girl tomop his room and raped her.When the girl returned to herhome, her mother repeatedlyasked what had happenedwith her as she noticed the

Assam Govt to amend landregulation of indigenous people

The notification issued re-garding the constitution ofthe Cabinet sub-committeehas spelt out that the com-mittee has to submit its re-port to the Chief Ministerwithin 30 days from the dateof its first sitting. The Cabi-net will make the final deci-sions on the recommenda-tions that the committee willsubmit. Talking to TheAssam Rising, committeechairman Jogen Mohansaid, "The Assam Land &Revenue Regulation 1886

needs amendments. TheBritish era regulation is notin sync with the presentsituation, especially in pro-tecting the land rights ofthe indigenous people ofthe State in some areas.The government led byChief Minister HimantaBiswa Sarma has formedthe Cabinet sub-commit-tee. The amendment aimsto protect the land rightsof the indigenous peopleof the State. It is a hugetask. "In the last five years,it came to light that manyindigenous people of theState have no rights overlands. That made the gov-ernment provide landrights to over two lakh in-digenous people. The in-digenous people of theState will get a great relieffrom the land when weamend the regulation."

Welfare meeting for BSFretirees & dependent per-

sonnel held

STAFF REPORTER, Guwahati, Oct 6: BSF Guwahati Fron-tier organised a welfare meeting for BSF retirees and theirdependents at FTR HQ Guwahati to resolve their pensionand other administrative issues. Aimed at speedy redressalof grievances of BSF retirees and dependent family pen-sioners, on October 5 BSF Guwahati Frontier organised awelfare meeting at FTR HQ Patgaon Guwahati. 50 BSF re-tirees and family pensioners attended the aforesaid meet-ing. The meeting was chaired by Umesh Kumar Nayal, DIG(PSO) of FTR HQ Guwahati who apprised the retirees andfamily pensioners regarding latest welfare schemes beingrun by BSF for retirees and their dependents. He also as-sured them to extend all kinds of help from BSF. Apart fromthat, Pensioners have been asked to contact telephoneNo. 0361-2842970 for any assistance in respect of pensionand other administrative issues. BSF is committed and en-gaged in continuous coordination of all necessary schemesfor welfare of the force members and retirees. Though,these schemes are integrated to the BSF family and retiredpersonnel and their families. The Force conducts aware-ness campaigns by holding meetings to sort out their prob-lems for their better future.

10-Year-Old Minor raped in TeokMuslim Preacher Arrested

back of her pants were wet.Then she revealed to hermother what the religiouspreacher did with her. "Inoticed something suspi-cious on the back of herpant.I repeatedly asked herand she revealed what hedid with her," the mothersaid. She also said that thereligious preacher came totheir area during thelockdown. Based on hercomplaint the Teok policearrested the preacher. De-faming the face of the Stateanother record of crimeagainst women wasbrought to the light whena case was registered atSootea PS underBiswanath district on Sun-

day. The case was registeredagainst one Til BahadurChetry, a resident of No. 2Borbheti under Sootea po-lice station against thecharge of raping a minor of13. According to the infor-mation, Til Bahadur (65)raped a minor from the samevillage when the girl visitedhis house for some personalpurpose. He raped the minorat his home days back butthe incident was brought tolight on the same day as theminor didn't reveal the factdue to fear. However, shestated about the whole inci-dent on Saturday night. Andaccordingly, the family mem-bers of the minor along withother women of the area

lodged an FIR at Sootea po-lice station against TilBahadur and Sootea policeimmediately arrested the ac-cused and pushed him be-hind the bar on Sunday. Alarge number of womengathered inside the pre-mises of Sootea PS and de-manded distinguishingpunishment for the culprit.

Correspondent, Nagaon, Oct 6: Based onthe statement of Islam Uddin, the prime ac-cused of fake certificates of TET teachers, aCID team from Guwahati today arrested DrJahirul Islam, a professor of NagaonAnandaram Dhekial Phukon college, sourcesadded. Dr Islam is a professor of Arabi De-partment in the college. He was earlier too

Fake TET certificates : collegeteacher arrested at Nagaon

allegedly involved in Madrasa TET's scamand could manage to escape from police dueto intervention of a high profile public repre-sentative during the Congress government,sources said. The sleuth of CID brought DrJahirul Islam immediately to its Guwahati Head-quarter for interrogation as well as for furtheraction in this regard, sources added.

CORRESPONDENTDiphu, Oct 6 : We congratu-late all the leaders and cadresof the KLNLF, PDCK, UPLA,KPLT (Ceasefire), KPLT (R) andKPLT (M) on their abjuring vio-lence, signing the MoS onSeptember 4, 2021 and join-ing mainstream of society;and we welcome them all withopen arms to the mainstreamof society. They informed thatthey too are for peace, lastingpeace to prevail not only inKarbi Anglong and WestKarbi Anglong but also in the

Memorandum Submission byopposition parties & social

organisations of Karbi Along

entire North-East areas ofIndia. We are not against theMoS in its entirety; we arenot against the rehabilita-tion, general amnesty anddevelopmental packages,but we are in opposition tothe administrative and con-stitutional changes in-tended to make the SixthSchedule redundant; weare in opposition to the de-nial of the hill people's "le-gitimate aspirations'' Au-tonomous State as pro-vided under Article 244-A

of the Constitution; and weare in opposition to certainclauses, particularly clause2.3, of the MoS. So our con-trasting views, therefore,should not be viewed as anopposition to the MoS in itsentirety. Respecting therights of the indigenoustribes and communities ofKarbi Anglong (bifurcated in2016). We too are for secur-ing the democratic rights ofthe indigenous communitiesalong with that of the indig-enous tribes of these particu-lar hill areas. For the greaterinterest of securing therights, interest and identityof the hill tribes proper ofthese particular hill areas ofAssam, and for the greaterinterest of lasting peace toprevail in these particular hillareas, would hereby ear-nestly request the Govern-ment of India to take initia-tive to invite all stakehold-ers for discussion to find anacceptable solution - addedin a press release.

Pramod Boro reviewed various govtschemes & development progress of BTRCORRESPON-DENTKokrajhar, Oct6 : An urgentmeeting of BTRChief executivemember PramodBoro with Prin-cipal SecretaryBTC ShantanuP. Gotmare & allSecretaries, JtSecretaries, Dy Secretariesand other officers of BTCSecretariat held on Octo-ber 6 in the conference hallof BTC Secretariat ;Hon'ble CEM of BTRchaired meeting and ex-plained & opined relatingto the various matters likepreparation of Flagshipschemes/projects pro-posal, CEM also instructed

further delay CEM toldto the department con-cerned secretary in themeeting. He also askedthe officers to send UCof liability works etc im-mediately to the Govt ofAssam. He also warnedthat officers and staffo f BTC Secre ta r i a t ,those who are not func-tional in their duty orirregular in their workor lapse will be takensevere action againstthem. Hon'ble CEMBTR also observed/ saidon files movement ofBTC Secretariat thatthere is a huge complaintfrom the public that filesare not moving withoutcontacting officials/Of-ficers concerned.

to the Director of P&RDto arrange orientationprogramme on projectslike MGNREGA, NRLMwith all PDs of BTR by thehelp of experts from out-side sources. He also ad-vised to prepare a budgetboth in advance for thecurrent financial year andalso for 2022- 2023. Healso instructed the con-

cerned department toconduct an Orientationprogramme on Liveli-hood, Employment gen-eration, Income genera-tion etc. And also orien-tation programmes to bearranged for the VCDC &TCLC Chairmen. Pro-posal of four lanes fromKokrajhar to Kharigaonto be prepared without

VOL. NO. VI, ISSUE NO. 232 THURSDAY, OCTOBER 07, 2021

THE ASSAM RISINGE D I T O R I A LE D I T O R I A LE D I T O R I A LE D I T O R I A LE D I T O R I A LTHURSDAY, OCTOBER 07, 20214

Lt General Prakash Menon

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Letter to The EditorYou can send us your self-composed article, story, poem, letter

to the editor or any other creative work done by you. We are respon-sible for publishing it in The Assam Rising. We will also find out onebest contributor/writer every week and an attractive prize will be givento encourage him/her. So, without any further delay mail us your ownwork with full name and address to assamrising@gmail.com.

Editor,The Assam RisingGuwahati, Assam

Editor,The Assam Rising

G.N.B. Road, Chandmari Colony,Guwahati, PIN 781003

E-mail Id : assamrising@gmail.com

Are you against of violence or corruption? Do you reallywant revolution in the social, educational, political or economi-cal system? Do you have any questions for the Government,political or non political parties? Don’t worry, be a part of TheAssam Rising family, Be a citizen journalist and write to usabout your problem and we will take the responsibility to pub-lish your voice. We will give you a platform to raise your voice,because your simple voice can change society.

Be a Citizen Journalist

BPH or benign prostatichyperplasia, is the medicalterm for an enlarged prostate.It is a condition associatedwith aging, probably due tohormonal changes. BPH is be-nign. This means it is not can-cer. It does not cause or leadto cancer. However, BPH andcancer can happen at the sametime. BPH symptoms canvary with the individual and they also differ as thecondition progresses. The discomfort and complica-tions associated with an enlarged prostate are related toa combination of problems that develop over time.There are three factors that may increase risk of devel-oping BPH: * Aging, * Family History – If any imme-diate blood relative was diagnosed with BPH, you aremore likely to develop the condition., * Medical Con-ditions – Some research indicates that conditions suchas obesity may contribute to the development of BPH.The prostate goes through two main growth periodswith age. The first occurs early in puberty when theprostate doubles in size. The second phase of growthbegins around age 25 and continues during most of aman’s life. BPH often occurs with the second growthphase. When the prostate is enlarged, it can bother orblock the bladder causing. Lower Urinary Tract Symp-toms (LUTS) which include -frequent urination, feeling

Economic Co-operationand Development

Representatives of 140 countries meeting at theOrganisation for Economic Co-operation and Development(OECD) are expected to sign off on a package of reforms de-signed to change the way in which the world's largest multina-tional companies are taxed. The deal is supposed to ensurethat "the largest multinational tech giants will pay their fairshare of tax in the countries in which they operate".But sadly,this will not be the "huge prize for the British taxpayer" thatwas promised by the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, earlier this year.We are about to get ripped off - big time.To understand why,you need to understand how we got here. It is no accident thatthe majority of big tech is based in the US, which for decadeshas operated a tax system designed to exploit overseasmarkets.US companies have put in place structures that seeprofits and taxes minimised in places like the UK through thepayment of large fees and royalties for the use of intellectualproperty (IP). These payments end up in shell companies in taxhavens with no staff, no offices and no observable economicactivity. The result is that profits accumulate in the offshoresubsidiaries tax-free. Under US tax rules, as long as those prof-its were not brought home, they could remain untaxed for ever.Inthe wake of the 2008 global financial crisis, governments fromthe largest economies agreed that these practices had to cometo an end, committing to negotiate a solution in talks led by theOECD. The key to finding that solution was deciding how todistribute the trillions of dollars US companies had stashedoffshore.For most of the 2010s, negotiations went nowhere.The UK and others such as France, frustrated by the lack ofprogress, decided to go it alone and implement digital servicestaxes to ensure that at least something was paid. In response,the US threatened trade sanctions.In the meantime, US compa-nies continued to hoard cash in tax havens. According to theInstitute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), by 2017 com-panies on the Fortune 500 list had managed to stockpile morethan $2.6tn in profits offshore, where it wasn't subject to tax -all of which will have derived from revenues made from cus-tomers based outside the United States.There was only so longthat this could go on. In 2017, Donald Trump's Tax Cuts andJobs Act imposed a one-off tax on profits accumulated off-shore and introduced a form of minimum taxation on foreignearnings called GILTI.This placed a charge on the profits of UScorporations declared in tax havens. At the same time, the UScut taxes on royalty payments made from overseas to US com-panies. The combination of these tax changes removed theincentive to keep IP offshore. For companies that previouslydeclared billions of dollars of profit a year in countries likeBermuda, their structure became a public relations headachewith no upside, and accordingly they went about dismantlingthem.In 2018, Google's accounts stated that the company made$23bn in profits outside the US. The following year that droppedto $10.5bn. This significant change in the business model wasachieved by the stroke of a pen. Google simply switched itsflow of royalties from a company tax resident in Bermuda to itsheadquarters in California.Google was not the only company todo this. A study published on behalf of the Irish finance ministryshowed royalty payments from Irish companies to the US jumpedfrom €8bn a year on average, between 2014 and 2019, to €52bn in2020. Irish-based companies are frequently used by tech compa-nies as a conduit for US companies moving profits out ofEurope.These changes substantially increased the US tax base,while doing nothing to increase the amount of profit taxed inmarket jurisdictions like the UK.With Joe Biden entering theWhite House in January, the world heaved a sign of relief. Nomore thumping the table with threats of trade sanctions.

T he 1971 War gifted the 49th Regu lar Course at the Indian MilitaryAcademy, Dehradun, three addi-

tional months of commissioned service.Our commissioning was advanced to 31March 1972, instead of June that year,to make up for the war causalities. Thelosses had bequeathed the benefit ofearly commissioning to about 350 of us.Later, it became a topic of debate amongour coursemates whether the benefit weenjoyed was at a cost to the Army. Somethought that the three months of train-ing lost had often shown up in the over-all performance of the batch.While suchdebates will continue life long, here is apersonal story that wouldn't have beenthe same, had it not been for the IndianAir Force (IAF). As the IAF celebratesits raising on 8 October, I say "cheers"to them.I was commissioned as an in-fantryman, into the 7th Battalion, Bri-gade of the Guards. The movement or-der given to me indicated that I was toreport after 21 days' leave to TransitCamp, Pathankot. My inquiries revealedthat the Battalion was in Ladakh. Myparents who were in Cochin, Kerala,could not make it for the passing outparade. The immediate driving force wasgetting home as a commissioned officerand enjoying the home environment.Like all spells of leave, it got over be-fore it started. By the end April 1972, Iwas booked to board the train fromCochin Harbour Terminus (CHT), thesouthernmost railway station in thosedays, to head for Pathankot, the north-ernmost railway terminal. The journeyinvolved two train changes at Madrasand Delhi before arriving Pathankot onday four.The station was about 2.5 kmfrom our home, the 'Marine House', myfather's official residence as the DeputyConservator of the Cochin Port. On theday of my departure, my father was outof town and it was my mother and eldersister Usha, who dropped me off at thestation in our black Standard Ten Carnumbered of KLR 3076. My mother, likeall mothers, ensured that we left thehouse early after seeing to it that wehad avoided 'Rahu Kalam'. My big blacktrunk was protruding from the car'sdickey while my sister cruised at 15kmph, making sure that the luggageladen with accoutrements of a newlycommissioned 2nd Lt did not fall off.We reached the station more than anhour before departure.We were stand-ing outside the train compartment and Iwas receiving my dose of 'precautionsfor safe travel' when I suddenly realisedI had left my Identity Card at home. Westill had about 45 minutes left for depar-ture. So I took the car key and dashedhome. In fifteen minutes, I was drivingback to the CHTS but gripped with asense of hurry. 800 meters before therailway station, I noticed, a little too late,that a bus had turned onto the main road- I swerved left and went bang into apile of bricks. Nothing happened to me.But when I tried to exit, the door wasjammed. I took off the key, and exitedthrough the left door. Meanwhile, thebus had stopped and few people camerunning. After assuring them that I wasfine, I jumped into the bus, and re-quested to be dropped at the CHTS.Thankfully, that was its route.The twoladies were relieved to see me back ontime. I took my sister aside and informedher of the accident and its location, andpleaded that she inform mother only af-ter the train had left.After a tearful

I could serve the Indian Army thanks toIAF 'bounce' party 50 years ago

goodbye, I was on my way, lost in Keralalandscape - greenery, paddy fields, andwater bodies.The journey, via Madrasand Delhi, to Pathankot was coal-fed,sweaty, and uneventful, except for be-ing rooked by the coolies while switch-ing trains. Before reaching Pathankot, Ichanged my dress and wore light-col-ored bell-bottomed trousers, as was thefash-i o nthose days. The Army transport for tran-sients was available at the station and Ireached Transit Camp Pathankot around11am on 29 April, Saturday.As a newlycommissioned officer posted to the 7Guards, I presented myself to the Of-ficer Commanding Transit Camp. Hiseyes traversed my five foot nine incheslean torso and posed the question -which Army are you from? I was speech-less. He broke the silence and gave mea long lecture on how the Indian ArmyOfficers were expected to dress, pour-ing scorn on the bell-bottoms.He thenperused my movement order - the offi-cial document that was my passport toofficial entry into the care of the Army.He looked up and asked - "why haveyou come here"? I brought his atten-tion to my reporting station and themovement order, and received the reply- "Don't you know Zoji La is closed"? Ihad not heard of Zoji la before. Observ-ing the 'lost look' on my face, he explainedthat since it was April, and Zoji La wassnow bound, it wasn't possible to moveto the unit at Budhkharbu, located mid-way between Kargil and Leh. In summer,I would have been transported viaJammu-Srinagar-Kargil. It now dawnedon me that the clerk at the Academy hadnot factored in the early completion ofour course."We shall send you toChandigarh and you will be flown to Leh"

was the immediate solution. The OfficerCommanding Transit Camp reminded meagain that bell bottoms are a no-go. As Iwas to exit his presence, he produced anace - 'wait, let me try and put you on AirForce Transport aircraft that were carry-ing out regular logistics sorties fromPathankot to Kargil'. He asked me to waitoutside, called me in after half an hour,

a n di n -

formed me that I would be put on an IAFPacket aircraft on Monday.Excited at theturn of events, I was about to exit whenthe idea of spending the weekend withmy cousin, Flight Lt Narayan (Nana)Menon, flashed. So I sought permissionto spend the weekend at Adampur AirForce Base. Though the Officer Com-manding readily acceded, he firmly toldme that I must be back on Sundayevening. "Yes sir," and I was soon on myway to Adampur though I forgot tochange out of my bell-bottoms.I reachedthe Adampur Officers mess around4:30pm, enquired about Nana, and wasinformed that he was in the SquadronLunch party that was still in flight. Min-utes later we met, ladies were at lunchand the 'boys' still at the bar. A round ofintroductions was followed by their in-sistence on me having a drink. When oneof them saw me looking at my watch, heexplained that fighter pilots could onlydrink from Saturday to Sunday after-noon, so there was no time to lose. Theheroes of the 1971 War oozed joy andlight heartedness. I learnt that the bar,the fighter pilot and their flailing armsthat describe flight paths areinseparable.At around 6pm, after twodrinks and lunch, I crashed in Nana'sbed until he woke me up around 8pmand asked to get ready fast as they weregoing to 'bounce'. "Bounce" - what is

that? I asked. Nana explained that it is afighter pilot tradition of the IAF. It in-volves picking a target householdwhere the bachelors carrying boozewould descend and declare that theparty was on.Still in my bell bottoms, Iwas now part of a motorcycle-heavybouncing party that descended on thehouse of a Flight Commander of 26Squadron, Sqn Ldr C.S. Doraiswami,VrC. He heard the motorcycles, came outof the front door, flashed a welcomingsmile, and shouted "Come on in guys".The party took off in no time; Mrs.Chitra Doraiswami was no less welcom-ing and soon 'spirited' laughter andmirth rent the air.Though rum was thecommon drink, I preferred whisky, andsoon forgot that I was a novice at spir-ited indulgence, at a gathering wheretwo fighter pilots were dancing on thedining table. We broke off in the weehours and I don't remember my gettinginto bed. I woke up at 11 am and experi-enced a 'hangover' for the first time.Soon, I was sick enough and I had nooption but to stay on at Adampur.OnMonday, at around 11 am, I sheepishlyentered the office of the OC TransitCamp and had just started with my apol-ogy when he cut me short, and show-ered me with expletives, mostly inPunjabi. He called me indisciplined andirresponsible, and went on and on withhis pitch rising with every word. I wasshamefacedly at attention. Somewherein that diatribe, he said - "And you arewalking into my office like Aurangazeb".I wonder even today why he made thatremark. Maybe he connected the bell-bottoms to the emperor.My blastingended with these words - "But you area lucky Bastard". He then told that thePacket aircraft that took off fromPathankot for Kargil that morning hadcrashed at Fotu La, a pass betweenKargil and Leh.Thus, but for the 'spir-its' of the IAF, I would not be here totell you this story.In 2018, accompa-nied by Nana, I was privileged to visitthe home of Chitra Doraswami atBengaluru. I recounted the 'bounce'.She remarked that there were so manysuch instances and her late husbandrelished them. Their son VikramDoraiswami is a distinguished diplo-mat and presently an additional secre-tary in the Ministry of External Affairs.Ithank the IAF for the 'spirits of thebounce' and wish that they continue totouch the skies with glory. Jai Hind!

Enlarged prostate can be the causeof urination problems

Dr. A K Sandilya

that bladder is full even right after emptying, weak streamof urine, need to start & stop urinating several times,trouble starting to urinate, straining etc. To cope withthese symptoms, the patient starts restricting waterand other fluid intake and being conscious of his urina-tion, for example, being on the look-out of toilet loca-tion wherever he goes, urinating before going on longtrips outdoors, where he might not have access to loosesuch as on a long-distance bus journey. These copingstrategies further restrict the patient’s quality of life.According to Dr. A K Sandilya, Consultant UrologistEndourologist & Andrologist, Urovision Hospi-

tal, Dibrugarh “Surprisingly it is a very common condi-tion. Half of all men between the ages of 50 and 60 willdevelop it, and by the age of 80, about 90% of men willhave BPH. Patients are largely unaware of this condi-tion despite high prevalence rates as they consider it anormal part of ageing. Most realized there was a prob-lem when the frequency of washroom visits increasedseemingly sudden and quick onset – not a gradual in-crease. This is how it started for most, described as thefirst symptom.” Further Dr. A K Sandilya, ConsultantUrologist Endourologist & Andrologist, Urovision Hos-pital, Dibrugarh adds, “There is no known link betweenBPH and prostate cancer. But it is important to seeyour health care provider figure out the cause of your

symptoms. Often, men change their daily routines toaccommodate their symptoms instead of finding waysto live their life without interruptions. Whether yoursymptoms are mild, moderate or severe, it is recom-mended that you schedule an appointment with a phy-sician to discuss your condition and appropriate treat-ment options. There are many treatments for BPH.You and your doctor will decide together which optionis best suitable to you. Often, BPH may only requireactive surveillance (sometimes called watchful waiting).In some cases, medications will be effective and forothers minimally invasive procedures are good choices.And sometimes a combination of treatment works bet-ter. Simple lifestyle management techniques are alsoadvised to manage the symptoms such as - Stay active– being inactive can cause problems emptying yourbladder * Try to empty your bladder when going to thebathroom, * Try to urinate on a schedule every day,whether or not you feel you have to go, * Stop drinkingliquids after 8 pm to prevent the urges to urinate atnight,* Limit drinking alcohol. In more serious cases,prostate enlargement can stop urination and lead toworse problems like renal failure. These require imme-diate treatment. Hence, if you have symptoms, it is ofgreat value to get a complete diagnosis and learn whatyou can do to get relief.

(Dr. A K Sandilya, is a consultant UrologistEndourologist & Andrologist, Urovision Hospital,

Dibrugarh)

A s chief ministers come and go in state after state, the political discourse is remarkable for be-

ing mostly divorced from economics.Take Amarinder Singh, the Punjab chiefminister who has resigned in a cloud ofjustified grievance about being humili-ated. But if you were to ask, had Singhearned the right to lead the Congressinto the next state elections, due in afew months, you would have to look athis government's performance. Andhere's the thing. In terms of per capitastate domestic product, the averageresident of Punjab has seen his or hershare of state output go up by all of 3.8per cent over the four years to lastMarch. That's less than 1 per cent im-

Modi, Yogi, Amarinder - why economicunderperformers remain popular with voters

provement annually. To be sure, thereis the effect of the pandemic on thenumbers, and India as a whole has notdone much better. But many stateshave. West Bengal, where MamataBanerjee's Trinamool Congress haswon re-election, recorded an improve-ment of 19.1 per cent. Compare that withUttar Pradesh, where Yogi Adityanathis taking out multi-page advertisementsi n

news-papers, day after day, exhibiting hisgovernment's apparently unprec-edented achievements - prompting theprime minister to call the state UttamPradesh. And yet, the increase in UP'sper capita state domestic product dur-ing the Yogi's four years in office is allof 0.4 per cent. Perhaps it's a differentpicture when it comes to the number oftoilets or expressways built. The ironyis that, despite UP's stagnant economicoutput, the good Yogi is widely ex-pected to be returned to office afterstate elections next year, just as theCongress was seen as being in a goodelectoral position in Punjab. This wasdespite Amarinder Singh having facedflak for inaction in cases involving des-ecration of the Sikhs' holy book. He hadalso presided over massive power short-ages, which shut down industries. Allthis was neutralised (before the Con-gress harakiri) by a bolt of lightning:The BJP and the Akalis split over thereform of agricultural marketing. So doesunderperformance matter? It does if you

care to look beyond electoral outcomes,and at what is happening in other partsof the country. Among the five bigsouthern states, Telangana saw its percapita state domestic product grow bya massive 26.2 per cent in four years,while Tamil Nadu recorded 22.2 per cent.The three other southern states aver-aged about 15 per cent. It is not verydifferent in the two big western statesof Maharashtra and Gujarat, with three-year growth of 14.1 per cent and 26.7per cent, respectively. Both states (alsoKerala) have data only till March 2020;their numbers will drop once the figuresfor Covid-hit 2020-21 becomeavailable.But note that even the poor-est eastern states have done well. Otherthan West Bengal with 19.1 per cent,there is Bihar with an impressive 21.8per cent, and Odisha 16.7 per cent. It isthe heartland that fails to measure up,like Rajasthan with 1.3 per cent percapita output growth over four years.Other states in the region are scatteredaround the 10 per cent mark.Hard con-clusions are difficult. But election re-sults and "wallet economics" seem lesssynchronous in India than elsewhere.Tamil Nadu with a superior performancethrew out its ruling party, while Keralawith relatively bad performance re-elected the Left Front. On the otherhand, look at nationwide elections. In-dia wasn't "shining" enough for the BJPto win in 2004. The subsequent years ofrapid poverty reduction got the Con-gress re-elected in 2009.

Tn Ninan

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 07, 2021 5BUSINESS

L. Gopal Jeweller (Kuber AC Market)announced Spl. Discount for festive seasons

STAFF REPORTERGuwahati, Oct 6 :In viewof the upcoming festiveseasons one of the trustedjewellers in the regionL.Gopal (Kuber AC Mar-ket)- A Unit Of Shankar LalSoni announced spl. Dis-count for every customer.Apart from this L. GopalJewellers also launched anExclusive Collection forupcoming wedding sea-sons at their Showroom atKuber A.C. Market, FancyBazar in Guwahati. Ownerof the showroom Gokul

MISSING INFORMATION

The above is photograph of Smt. Junu Boro (46 Yrs), W/O. Sri RajaniBoro, Vill- Masmakha Bengbari, PS - Harisinga, District- Udalguri who hasbeen missing since- 23/08/2021 from her home.

This refers to Harisinga PS GDE No- 550 Dtd; 28/08/2021 and this officeMan Missing Register Entry No. 119 Dtd. 28/09/2021

Descriptive Roll of the Missing Person :

1. Complexion - Fair2. Age - 46 Years3. Height - 5 Feet4. Built - Medium5. L/Known - Assamese & Bodo6. Wearing apparel - Dakhana

All out efforts may be made to trace out/recover the above noted missingperson at the earliest and result thereof may be intimated to this office at the follow-ing helpline numbers for further necessary action: 8134852559/9859427622(Cell phone).

Sd/-Superintendent of Police,

Udalguri, AssamJanasanyog/D/7174/21

The Addl. Principal Chief Conservator of Forests & ChiefExecutive Officer, State CAMPA, Assam invites bids from reputedFirms/ Agencies for Aerial Survey and Mapping of various CAMPAplantation activities created since 2011-12 to 2019-20.

The last date for submission of bids is 25th Oct, 2021.The complete documents can be collected from the O/o theCEO, State CAMPA, Assam, Lankeshwar, Jalukbari on anyworking day or downloaded from PCCF & HoFF websitehttp://www.forest.assam.gov.in

Janasanyog/C/6386/21

Sd/-Addl. Principal Chief Conservator of Forests &Chief Executive Officer, State CAMPA, Assam

Lankeshwar, Jalukbari, Guwahati - 14

No. FG.27/CAMPA/Drone/Monitoring/2021-22SHORT TENDER NOTICE FOR SURVEYING &MAPPING OF CAMPA PLANTATION WORKS

Soni said that keeping in viewof the upcoming big festivalslike Durga Puja and Deepawali,we are offering 35% discount onmaking charges of GoldJewellery in our showroom. Hefurther said that a flat 10% dis-count will be given on purchaseof branded Diamond Jewellery.This offer is available till Diwalionly at L. Gopal jewellers locatedat Kuber AC Market of FancyBazaar. Soni informed that keep-ing in view the upcoming festi-vals as well as wedding season,a wide range of exclusive col-lections is available in our show-

room where customers canshop for Gold and Diamondjewelry as per their need.Young Businessman PratikSoni said that our show-room offers a wide rangeof Traditional and Contem-porary Polki and KundanJewellery, Solitaire andDiamond Jewellery. We of-fer quality and variety overquantity in our stock. Headded that customers look-ing for Gold and Diamondjewellery can avail thisspecial discount by shop-ping from our showroom.

London, Oct 6: Worldstocks were on the back footon Monday and the dollarstayed close to one-yearhighs on concerns thathigher inflation, supplyshortages and China's prop-erty sector problems wouldput global economic recov-ery at risk. Stock marketsslipped to 2-1/2-month lowslast week, following a torridSeptember that saw themshed more than 4% as U.S.Treasury yields surged 20basis points, the Federal Re-serve signalled its readinessto start unwinding stimulusthis year and Chinese prop-erty giant Evergrandeheaded for default. Thosefactors remain in play, withtrading in Evergrande shares(3333.HK) suspended, daysafter it missed a second setof interest payments on off-

Guwahati, Oct 6 : An ulti-mate, all-consuming love iswhat everyone seeks. Butwhat happens when in thissearch, you come across yourdeepest, darkest desires? Di-rected by Bhaskar Hazarika,the film explores passion,cravings, desires and morals,until it all blends into a dan-gerous, thrilling cocktail. Win-ning awards at the TribecaFilm Festival in New York, andthe South Asian InternationalFilm Festival in Singapore,Aamis is all set to release onSonyLIV on October 1,2021.Set in Guhawati, Aamis traces

Watch the awardwinning movie,

'Aamis' on SonyLIVthe story of Nirmali (LimaDas), a married doctor,who meets Sumon(ArghadeepBarua), a youngPHD student researchingon food eating habits inNortheast India. Slowly afriendship develops andSumon initiates Nirmali intolearning about it too. Re-volving around the themeof forbidden love and thelimits of one's hunger, thedarkest desires of Nirmaliand Sumon's relationshipcome into the forefront. Buthow far can one go to feedtheir burning desire? Wheredo you draw the line? Or doyou, at all? Produced byPoonamDeol and ShyamBora, Aamis stars debu-tantes Lima Das andArghadeepBaruah in thelead, supported by NeetaliDas, SagarSaurabh, andManash K Das in promi-nent roles.

Guwahati, Oct 6: Levi'sannounces the launch ofits collaboration with styleicon and brand ambassa-dor, Deepika Padukone.Levi's x Deepika Padukoneis a collection that trulydefines the icon's fashionsensibility and authenticstyle. Rooted in Levi's au-thentic style and updatedwith Padukone's signaturestyle, this inaugural Levi'sx Deepika Padukone col-laboration exudes fresh-ness and confidence. Thecollection re-imaginesLevi's classics through itsrange of jeans and denimswhile introducingPadukone's signaturefavourites like athleisurepieces, edgy faux leatherpants and oversized shirts.

Levi's® and Deepika col-laborate to create an iconic

capsule collection"The endeavour with my firstever collaboration with Levi'swas for it to be an authenticrepresentation of my per-sonal style. And I believewe've been able to stay trueto that vision." saidPadukone. The collaborationbrings Padukone's ultra-ca-sual style to life through longvarsity jackets, co-ordsweatsuits, crop-tops&bralettes. You will also seeedgy faux leather pants andan all-denim jumpsuit. It alsofeatures modern & updatedinterpretations of Levi's den-ims, with new on-trend 70's-inspired high waist jeans andcut & sew wide leg silhou-ettes to be paired with extra-long or cropped truckerjackets.a range of oversizedshirts, soft romantic topswith organza sleeves, easygraphic t-shirts and elevatedsweatshirts. Overall, the col-lection features quintessen-tial pieces that will stand outin any wardrobe. "We areabsolutely thrilled thatDeepika Padukone's first col-laboration as brand ambas-sador for Levi's is so iconicyet personal. Levi's has al-ways believed in 'authenticself-expression' and the col-laboration is just that. We

wanted to work withDeepika because of hericonic sense of style and itsinfluence on consumers.Her understanding ofcolours, fabrics and silhou-ettes is unique and ex-tremely individual. With thiscollaboration we see the in-clusion of newer fabrics, fin-ishes and fits. The introduc-tion of athleisure pieces, fauxleather pants, long varsityjackets and even the over-sized shirts are a way for usto explore unknown textileterritories and also relate to anewer fashion consumer."Sanjeev Mohanty, SVP &MD- South Asia, MiddleEast and Africa, Levi's TheLevi's x Deepika Padukonecollaboration is responsiblymade, in line with Levi's com-mitment to sustainability.60% of the collaboration lineis sustainably sourced with100% of the line ethicallyproduced. Featuring or-ganic cotton, super-softTencel made from woodpulp, cottonized hemp anddenim produced with thebrand's Water<Less® tech-nology, the line allows con-sumers to make a statement,with sustainability at theforefront.

Guwahati, Oct 06 : In a worldthat is filled with artificial ideasof success, being natural andauthentic is a bold statementto make. Staying true to itsphilosophy, Diageo India to-day launched the renewedlook, taste, and packaging forIndia's rare, aged grain whisky- Signature. The all-new Sig-nature Whisky, crafted fromnature, is as authentic as itgets. The new premium offer-ings, crafted from natural in-gredients by Master BlenderLouise Martin for a uniquewhisky experience, is made forpeople who take pride in em-bracing their true self and tomake a mark for themselves.Signature whisky now has anevolved logo unit, a more nu-anced blend and a sustainable

Inflation and Evergrande keepworld shares on back foot

shore debt readmore . Media re-ports thatEvergrande wouldsell a stake in itsproperty manage-ment unit for over $5billion did little tosooth sentiment.read more Asianshares weakened(.MIAPJ0000PUS),

led by a 2.7% loss in Hong Kong(.HSI) while Japan's Nikkei (.N225)slipped around 1%. Europeanbourses seesawed around flat(.STOXX), (.FTSE) and WallStreet futures were firmly in thered, with those for the tech-heavyNasdaq down 0.7% . A couple ofevents are focusing investors'minds. First up is Monday'sOPEC-plus meeting, which comesas crude prices hover near three-year highs of close to $80 a barrel. Gas pries too show no sign ofeasing, rising to a new high of 96euros per megawatt hour in Eu-rope . More important is Friday'smonthly U.S. payrolls data whicha Reuters poll forecast will show500,000 jobs added last month."All roads this week point to pay-rolls Friday, as unless there is amarked deterioration across thewhole sweep of labour market in-dicators within the report, this willlikely be the catalyst to cement

the November taper,"Deutsche Bank told clients.U.S. economic data on Fri-day showed robust con-sumer spending and factoryactivity, but fears are infla-tion will keep accelerating,due to spiking energyprices, labour shortages andsupply glitches. That couldforce central banks totighten policy sooner andfurther than expected. readmore Already, the core U.S.PCE price index, the Fed'spreferred inflation measure,increased 3.6% in Augustfrom a year earlier, its biggestrise in three decades whileeuro zone inflation hit a 13-year high read more WhileFed boss Jerome Powell andother policymakers insisthigh inflation is transitory,Norihiro Fujito, chief invest-ment strategist at MitsubishiUFJ Morgan Stanley Securi-ties, noted "Powell also re-cently starting to hedge hiscomments too, leading inves-tors to suspect he, too, isworried about inflation"Those concerns kept a sus-tained bid for the dollar, whichis close to one-year highsagainst a basket of curren-cies and looks set for its big-gest annual rise since 2015.

Celebrating the trust of 20 crores users in India, Truecallerlaunches "DeshkaTruecaller" brand campaign

Guwahati, October 06 : Witha promise of safeguarding itsusers from spam, scam andkeep offering hassle free com-munication, Truecaller, the glo-bal platform for verifying con-tacts and blocking unwantedcommunication, is launching abrand campaign today called"DeshkaTruecaller". India isTruecaller's biggest market andthis campaign aims tostrengthen the brand's connec-tion with its Indian users and

reinforce the company'scommitment to make Indiaspam free. The campaignlaunch is also accompaniedby the launch of India-spe-cific handles for Twitter andInstagram. Handles: Twit-ter: @truecaller_in.I n s t a g r a m :@truecaller.india. The cam-paign is crafted around thethought that most relation-ships in India are based ontrust. No matter how inde-

pendent and learned webecome, we still look foropinions of our friends, fami-lies, and confidants beforedeciding on something. Itis a part of our DNA to puttrust in something only af-ter thorough scrutinization.Whether it's looking to thethird umpire for a verdict, toyour parents for their nodof approval on choosingthe right life partner - theword of someone you trust

helps you know you've made theright decision in defining mo-ments in life. Truecaller providesits valuable and efficient ser-vices to over 200 million peoplein India creating a safe commu-nication environment. Comment-ing on the launch, Manan Shah,Director of Marketing,Truecaller India said, India is ourhome market and our communityhas always been like our NorthStar, guiding us and helping usgrow rapidly by spreading apositive word of mouth for us.It gives us great pride that more

than 20 crore Indians trustus, which is nearly half ofthe number of cell phoneusers in India. The mes-sage of this campaign isthat of trust and to reas-sure people usingTruecaller that we will con-tinue to keep their commu-nications safe and effi-cient." The film has beencurated by Mind Fluid, anagency partner ofTruecaller.The idea cameout of the long associationthat the brand has had with

India and its people.Through a duo of filmsand a host of digital andoutdoor creatives, thecampaign follows the sto-ries of people across gen-erations and endearingeveryday real-life in-stances, and howTruecaller's solutionshelps them 'take the rightcall'. Commenting on thenew campaign, HaritaRao,Creative Director at MindFluid said: "There aremany Indias in India - fullof stories, full of insights.And Truecaller as a brandhas been built aroundthese stories and insights.And that is whatDeshkaTruecaller is allabout - little anecdotesfrom life. Our hearts swellwith warmth and there wasa constant smile on ourfaces while creatingDeshkaTruecaller."

SBI and IndianNavy launch

NAV-eCash CardMumbai, Oct 6: Taking Digital India at high seas, IndianNavy and State Bank of India (SBI) launched SBI's NAV-eCash Card that portrays on board India's largest NavalAircraft Carrier INS Vikramaditya. The launch of this cardwas done in presence of Shri C S Setty, Managing Director(Retail & Digital Banking), SBI and Vice Admiral R Harikumar,Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Western Naval Com-mand. The launch of SBI's NAV-eCash Card is an importantmilestone for digital payment solution and SBI's commit-ment towards the GOI's vision of Digital India and a con-scious shift towards less-cash economy. The unique infra-structure at naval ships inhibits traditional payment solu-tions particularly when the ship is in high seas where thereis no connectivity. NAV-eCash Card with its dual-chip tech-nology will facilitate both online as well as offline transac-tions. The Card will obviate the difficulties faced by per-sonnel onboard in handling physical cash during deploy-ment of the ship at high seas. The idea of such a card wasjointly nurtured by SBI and Navy officials and the cardtakes care of the requirements of Navy to provide a seam-less onboard experience. The new journey envisioned inthe form of NAV- eCash Card will change the payment eco-system while the ship is sailing with no dependency oncash for utilization of any of the services onboard.

Crafted from Nature, for those whoembrace their true self and their

craft, the all-new Signature Whisky

packaging with contem-porary and modern designcodes that stand out onthe shelf. Louise Martin,who brings decades ofauthentic Scottish blend-ing craft to the table, is awhisky connoisseur bypassion who has been themastermind behind someof Diageo's most exclusivesingle malts globally. Fromhand-picking grains to per-sonally overseeing theblending process, the magicof her craft shines throughin every drop of the new Sig-nature Whisky. From thepackaging to the liquid, Sig-nature is undeniably au-thentic. Blended with im-ported scotch, aged Indianmalts and grain spirits, the

new Signature Rare prom-ises an authentically richtaste, with distinct hints ofsweetness and fruitiness. Amedley of woody under-tones brought to life, reach-ing its crescendo to leave adeep and lasting Signature.The Signature Premier,blended with 10 scotch whis-kies, is smoothness elevatedto new heights, with a dashof fruitiness and a tinge ofmaltiness. It is a symphonyof floral and vanilla notes,all coming to an epic con-clusion in an exquisite andcreamy blend. Speaking onthis refresh, AmarpreetAnand, EVP Marketing &Portfolio Head, Diageo In-dia, said, " Signature hasbeen one of our most lovedbrands in the upper prestigesegment. However, over theyears, we have realised thatthe consumers desiredsomething more premium,more wholesome, closer tonature. We realised theneed for disruption and re-defining a premium offeringin the segment.

Guwahati, Oct 6: Exemplifyingits commitment to encouragingmental wellness and putting itsemployees at the center of manyof its initiatives, Future GeneraliIndia Insurance has announceda day off for its employees onOctober 11, in light of MentalHealth Day. The aim is to giveemployees some time off to re-lax, rejuvenate and spend timewith their families. In addition,several activities and sessionshave also been planned for em-ployees and family members dur-ing the week leading up to WorldMental Health Day, such as artworkshops for children; andsessions on mental health for

Future Generali India Insurancegives employees a mental health

day off for self-careovercoming fatigue for em-ployees and their familymembers. Anup Rau, MD,and CEO, Future GeneraliIndia Insurance, said, "AtFGII, we strongly believethat mental health is as im-portant as physical healthand have taken several ini-tiatives to start conversa-tions and spread aware-ness on mental health. Simi-larly, we also believe that anorganisation is only asstrong as its people andconstantly endeavor toprovide our employees witha positive and conducivework environment. Just like

they say that change al-ways starts from your ownbackyard, we want to walkthe talk and implement ini-tiatives that allow our em-ployees to focus on theirmental well-being." Sincethe onset of the pandemic,FGII has undertaken mul-tiple initiatives towardsemployee wellness and en-gagement, such as yogaclasses and a one-on-onehelpline for employees andtheir families to counsel andhelp them cope with anxi-ety, stress, or other mentalhealth challenges broughtabout by the pandemic.

REGIONREGIONREGIONREGIONREGIONTHURSDAY, OCTOBER 07, 20216Contd. From Page 1

STAFF REPORTER, Aalo, Oct 6: The Minister Industries, Textile & HandicraftTumke Bagra took up an elaborate meeting with DC and Head of Offices onvarious vital issues concerning development and Welfare of Aalo town at theConference Hall of the DC Office on October 6. Speaking on the occasion, theMinister took up the issue of TAH in package 8 and 9 and asked the Highwayauthority to make constant monitoring on progress works in package 9 to fulfillthe desire of people to have good connectivity for a long year and constructionworks cannot be delayed and deprived this time too. He also took up the issue ofPWD road from Nigmoi to Aalo, tapping of electricity from Siru Hydel to tidepower crisis from time to time, supply of power line to people who are settled incultivation areas for farming, pending PMGSY roads, its maintenance and newproposals, education and health scenario, devolution of power to PanchayatiRaj, cluster farming in the district, drug menace, fees for documents in officesand wide range of other issues. The crop damage due to monsoon in the entireWest Siang district is a cause of concern for farmers and asked the departmentto assess all damages and send a consolidated report to the government. sothat the government. can give assistance enhancing the PDS distributionsystem to mitigate the crisis. All line departments have to work in closecoordination with each other to sort out many issues concerning the welfareof the district. He also asked all HODs to be present at any meeting withelected representatives for detailed interactions on many issues which aredone occasionally only. The Minister was quite particular about land en-croachment in the town, particularly encroachments in govt. quarters. TheWest Siang Deputy Commissioner Shri Penga Tato briefed the activities be-ing taken up by him after joining as DC of the district recently. All Head ofoffices of departments and Executing agencies also gave detailed briefingson the status of works and schemes being taken up by them.

The hit and run case Rajkanyacase.”Gauhati High Court lawyer Bijan Mahajan said, “In a given case whensomebody is released on bail by a judicial magistrate and thereafter if the investi-gating agency finds materials against the said accused person under other cogni-zable and non-bailable section/sections of law, then it is the bounden duty of theinvestigating agency to follow the authority of the Hon’ble Supreme Court withthe nomenclature of Pradeep Ram versus State of Jharkhand (2019) wherein it hasbeen stated that inter alia that in such a situation, the police is to move an applica-tion under Section 437(5) of the CRPC before the magistrate who granted bail atthe first instance for seeking arrest and custody of such accused person.”BubulChoudhry, son of injured worker Imran Choudhury, filed an FIR against the 29-year-old model on Monday morning after she was granted bail. One of the eightinjured workers is currently undergoing treatment at the GMCH as his left leg wassevered by the impact of the speeding vehicle on Saturday night while the otherleg had to be amputated.GMCH superintendent Abhijit Sarma said, “The patientis now stable after amputation of his right leg. We will have to keep him in thehospital for a few more dayThe Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH)doctors team has revealed that accused Rajkanya Baruah in the drunk and drivecase in Guwahati has no health complications.A report has been submitted by theGauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) medical team in relation to thehealth of Raikanya Baruah to the Dispur ACP on Wednesday.According tosources, the GMCH medical team has not expressed anything about the in-vestigation in their report.The team has also had an extensive discussion withRajkanya as well as the doctors of GNRC medical.The report has been submit-ted by the GMCH medical team to the Dispur ACP after examining all theaspects of Rajkanya’s health.The information has been given to the press bythe GMCH Superintendent Dr. Abhijit Sharma.s. Other injured workers havealready been discharged from the hospital on Monday.”

Chemistry Nobel awardedmedicines - but it has been difficult to find efficient methods for doing this."Thatmeans that our bodies can differentiate between the two mirror images. And thetake-home message here is that... the same will probably be true for drugs that wetake for diseases," Prof Somfai explained during a news conference at the RoyalSwedish Academy of Sciences."Then it becomes important to be able to be ableto make only the mirror image of a drug that has the desired physiologicaleffect."Prof Somfai said an important feature of the research was that List andMacMillan had "rationalised their findings and the rationalisation was so simplethat it was immediately appreciated by the scientific community".He added: "Thisresulted in a 'gold rush' - or an explosion - in this area... It's easy to design newthings given this easy explanation."The Nobel Committee said the technique had"taken molecular construction to an entirely new level".The Swedish industrialistAlfred Nobel founded the prizes in his will, written a year before his death in1896.A total of 187 individuals have received the chemistry prize since it was firstawarded in 1901.Only seven of these laureates have been women. One person,the British biochemist Frederick Sanger, won the prize twice - in 1958 and 1980.Thecountry that has had most chemistry laureates is the United States, with 72 win-ners. Germany and the UK share second place with 34 laureates each.

Nagaon Central Jailsources said adding further that those who tested HIV positive in the cur-rent month, they were all tested HIV positive when they went to donateblood at Nagaon civil hospital based blood bank.

Taiwan says China could launch2025, when a potential invasion seems likely."For me as a military man, theurgency is right in front of me," news agency Reuters quoted the Taiwandefence minister as saying at parliament. "By 2025, China will bring the costand attrition to its lowest. It has the capacity now, but it will not start a wareasily, having to take many other things into consideration."Chiu Kuo-cheng, the defence minister, was answering a Taiwanese parliamentary com-mittee reviewing special military spending of T$240 billion ($8.6 billion) forhomemade weapons including missiles and warships.Taiwan's special mili-tary spending over the next five years will go mostly toward naval weaponsincluding anti-ship weapons such as land-based missile systems. Taiwan isespecially concerned by the recent advances made by China over the pastseveral days when record numbers of Chinese military aircraft repeatedlyflew over Taiwan's air defence identification zone.Over a four day periodbeginning last Friday, Taiwan reported close to 150 Chinese air force aircraftentered its air defence zone, part of a pattern of what Taipei calls Beijing'scontinued harassment of the island.China claims the democratic island ofTaiwan as its own territory and says it should be taken by force if necessary.Taiwan resists, saying it is an independent country and will defend its free-doms and democracy in the face of China's aggression.The United States,Taiwan's main military supplier, has confirmed its "rock-solid" commitmentto Taiwan and also criticised China. Beijing blames Washington's policies ofsupporting Taiwan with arms sales and sending warships through the Tai-wan Strait for raising tensions.

Ramayan's Ravan, actor Arvindpassed away on Tuesday night around 9.30 pm after suffering a heart at-tack. He was 82 years old. He went peacefully at his home in Kandivali(Mumbai), surrounded by his family."The veteran actor was cremated atDahanukar Wadi cremation ground in Kandivali area, early on Wednesdaymorning.Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote: "We have lost Shri Arvind Trivedi,who was not only an exceptional actor but also was passionate about publicservice. For generations of Indians, he will be remembered for his work in theRamayan TV serial. Condolences to the families and admirers of both actors. OmShanti."In the last few days, we have lost two talented actors who won the heartsof people through their works. Shri Ghanashyam Nayak will be remembered for hismultifaceted roles, most notably in the popular show 'Taarak Mehta Ka OoltahChashmah.' He was also extremely kind and humble. Actor Sunil Lahri, who playedthe role of Lakshman in Ramayan, took to his social media platform to pay a tributeto the late actor. "Bahut dukhad Samachar hai ki Hamare Sabke Pyare Arvind bhai(Ravan of Ramayan) Ab Hamare bich Nahin Rahe Bhagwan Unki Atma ko ShantiDe…I am speechless I lost father figure, my guide, well wisher & gentleman."ActorDipika Chikhalia, who essayed the role of Sita in the show, also shared her condo-lences. "my heart felt condolences to his family …a very fine human being#arvindtrivedi #ravan," she wrote on Instagram. Ramayan's Ram, actor ArunGovil, also remembered his late friend as he paid his tribute.

Revert to old NEET-SS patternnot postpone the new examination pattern to the next year to give sufficient timeto the doctors aspiring to acquire a degree in super speciality enough time toprepare? "Repeatedly expressing doubts whether the change of exam patternwas meant to benefit only private medical colleges which demand a high capita-tion fee, it said, "The medical education, profession and the regulatory mecha-nism has become a business."The bench tore into the decision terming it anattempt only aimed at filling seats in private colleges. There are a total of 414medical colleges that offer super speciality courses of which 118 were run by thegovernments while 296 are private institutions. A group of 41 doctors, preparingfor NEET-SS examination scheduled for November 10-11, had complained thatthe authorities had arbitrarily changed the earlier pattern of examination (40%questions from general medicine and 60% from the super speciality courseapplied for) to a new pattern (100% questions from general medicine) more thana month after notifying the exam dates. The Centre and NBE had filed an affidavitstating that the change of pattern was necessitated as many super specialitycourse seats have been going vacant because of the earlier pattern of exam.

Lakhimpur Kheri violenceviolence will be provided Rs 45 lakh and a government job. The injured will begiven Rs 10 lakh each.Eight people including four farmers had died in the vio-lence in the Lakhimpur Kheri district in Uttar Pradesh on Sunday.

Case Against 36 Teacherssuccessful candidates were misused by unsuccessful candidates for generatingforged certificates," the statement said.A Special Investigation Team of CID hasbeen formed for probing the matter, it added.

50 lakh ex-gratia for familiesstated Union minister of state for home Ajay Mishra’s son, Ashish, was sitting in oneof the SUVs which ran over the protesters. The BJP leader’s son has also beenaccused of opening fire on protesters a few minutes later."The minister's son com-mitted the act in a display of hooliganism. The central government also did not takeany action against the Union minister in the wake of the viral video and today(October 3), his son carried out the gruesome act," the FIR added.Another Congressleader and chief minister of Chhattisgarh, Bhupesh Baghel, also announced an ex-gratia of 50 lakh for the kin of the deceased. The Uttar Pradesh government, whichhas come under fire from the Opposition for its handling of the incident, earlierannounced an ex-gratia of ?45 lakh and a government job for the families of the fourfarmers who were killed in the violence.

Age-old tradition of Mahalayathe star of the show. His legacy - the Sanskrit 'Chandi Path' recitation - has beendescribed as "bewitching", and without it, the occasion of Mahalaya remains incom-plete for many Bengalis. They wait for the riveting chant to begin at the onset of theday, eyeing the arrival of Durga Puja with as much enthusiasm. Mahishashura Mardini,the two-hour programme, describes the epic battle of goddess Durga with the demonking Mahishashura; the script for the show was written by Bani Kumar, while the musicwas directed by Pankaj Kumar Mallik. The rendition recorded by Birendra KrishnaBhadra eventually went on to become so popular that even Uttam Kumar, the lateBengali actor of fame, did not receive a favourable reception when he was employed torecite the programme back in 1976. It was later shifted back to Bhadra's original versionof the recitations; his daughter Sujata Bhadra received accreditations from SaregamaIndia Ltd on Mahalaya day in 2006 in recognition of the legacy and royalty of work.A90-minute-long Mahishasura Mardini was first composed in 1931 under the supervi-sion of Pankaj Kumar Mallik. A live performance of the recitations was aired by theradio every year hence, featuring notable artists like ManabendraMukhopadhyay and Arati Mukhopadhyay. The show was first recorded in1966, following which the All India Radio continued to air the recorded version eachyear at the dawn of Mahalaya. The broadcaster also attempted to "re-record"the programme multiple times with several different artists, but those neverreceived popular appreciation among the nostalgic Bengalis, who believe no oneelse could neither emulate nor succeed Bhadra's riveting melody. Birendra Krishna'stour de force remains his enduring legacy for the millions in this land and beyond;one that is not unending, but everlasting.

US reveals nuclear bomb numbersa blackout on the data.As of September 30, 2020, the US military maintained 3,750active and inactive nuclear warheads, down by 55 from a year earlier and by 72 fromthe same date in 2017.The figure was also the lowest level since the US nuclearstockpile peaked at the height of the Cold War with Russia in 1967, when the totalwas 31,255 warheads. The numbers were released Tuesday amid an effort by theadministration of President Joe Biden to restart arms controls talks with Russia afterthey stalled under Trump."Increasing the transparency of states' nuclear stockpilesis important to nonproliferation and disarmament efforts," the State Department saidin a statement.Trump, who pulled the United States from the Iran nuclear deal andthe Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty with Russia, also left anothercrucial pact, the New Start Treaty on the rocks last year before its scheduled expira-tion on February 5.New Start caps the number of nuclear warheads held by Wash-ington and Moscow, and letting it expire could have sparked a reversal of warheadreductions on both sides.Trump said he wanted a new deal that includes China,which only has a fraction of the warheads that the United States and Russiahave.Biden, who came in to office on January 20, immediately proposed a five-yearextension to New Start, which Russian President Vladimir Putin quickly agreed to.Thedeal caps at 1,550 the number of nuclear warheads that can be deployed by Moscowand Washington.Last week Russian and US diplomats held talks behind closeddoors in Geneva to begin discussions on a successor to New Start and also controlson conventional weapons.A US official called the talks "productive," but both sidessaid the mere fact of holding the talks was positive.According to a January 2021 tallyby the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which includes retiredwarheads -- not counted in the State Department's numbers -- the United States had5,550 warheads, compared to 6,255 in Russia, 350 in China, 225 in Britain, and 290 inFrance.India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea have together around 460 nuclearwarheads, according to the institute.

Cabinet Minister Bagra reviewedon Vital Issues of West Siang

District administration met with man-agement committees of Durga Puja

Correspondent , Udalguri, Oct 6: The management committee of 11 Durga PujaCommittees under Khoirabari police station held a special meeting on Wednesday tocelebrate Durga Puja on the invitation of Hasim Ali, the officer in-charge of Khoirabaripolice station as per government SOP. In the meeting, Officer in-charge Hasim Aliappealed to all the puja committees as well as the village guards to celebrate DurgaPuja following the SOP of the government. Today's meeting was moderated bySanjeev Rabha, President of Village Guard Force. The meeting was attended by thecircular secretary of village guard Lakshi Deka and reporter Dipen Deka. ParitoshChoudhury, Secretary of Village Guard Force, explained the purpose of the meeting.

Felicitation to retired headmasterJaykanta Mahanta

Correspondent, Dhemaji,Oct. 6 : The SissiborgaonRegional RetiredEmployee's Conferencerecently implemented agrand function with a day-long programme to felici-tate Jaykanta Mahanta,director and retired head-master of Sri Sri ShravaniSatra at Sissiborgaon inDhemaji district. It may be recalled that the Sissiborgaon Regional RetiredEmployees Association, which was set up in Sissiborgaon in 2015 itself, hasbeen publicly felicitating retired government employees above the age of 80years every year since its inception. In this context, he accepted this programmeto felicitate Jaykanta Mahanta at his residence and Sri Sri Shravani Satra's forthis year. According to the schedule, the festival was lit at the beginning of theevent by retired teacher Nareswar Bhuyan and Sissiborgaon Kath Bapu Satradirector Dharma Kanta Mahanta.This was followed by the seminar chaired byretired principal of Sissiborgaon Higher Secondary School PurnachandraChutia. Rupeswar Saikia, retired principal and staff secretary of Sripani HigherSecondary School, explained the purpose at the meeting. It was then thatJaykanta Mahanta, who was born in Jorhat district and built human resourcesby being involved in a great profession like teaching for a long time, aftercrossing his childhood and adolescence through many sorrows, hardshipsand sufferings, later established a satra at Sissiborgaon in Dhemaji and estab-lished a spiritual environment. Meanwhile, after 20 years of retiring from teach-ing life, all those gathered prayed to Bhagwanta with a kakuti ghosha, wishinghim good health in the coming days of Mahanta, who has already been able tomove forward in the spiritual direction of the society.This was followed byNareswar Bhuyan, Phuleswar Bhuyan, respectively in the same statement,Rupeswar Saikia, Purneswari Saikia, Parama Chutia, Doli Bhuyan, HemantaHazarika, etc. This was followed by a felicitation by the officials of the staff toJaykanta Mahanta with spiritual textbook, seleng, churia, gamocha, sharai etc.in the main felicitation programme of the meeting. In parallel Mahanta's wifeDharmeswari Mahanta was also given the gift. A large number of governmentretired employees from different parts of the greater Sissiborgaon region aswell as young satriya Banmali Mahanta, Hari Mahanta, Ankita Mahanta, SumiMahanta, Bhirendra Nath Goswami of Bihali Bangshabari Satra, JyotimoniGoswami, Janardhan Goswami of Bihpuria Sonaripar Satra, Phulmoni Mahanta,Ditimoni Goswami of Haladhiyawati Satra in Lakhimpur Kherbori, GaurangMahanta of Alengi Satra in Ghilamara, Purnachandra Chutia's poetry readingin the felicitation programme in the presence of Jonmoni Mahanta, PragyanjyotiMahanta's borgeet performance and Prayasi Priyam Mahanta's sattriya danceperformance make the entire event a movements.

North-East India AnnualDiabetes Conference held

STAFF REPORTER, Guwahati, Oct 6: Piramal Swasthya Management & Re-source Institute in association with National Health Mission- Assam & WorldDiabetes Foundation organized ‘Let’s Talk Sugar’-a North-East India AnnualDiabetes Conference 2021, in Assam. The conference was held virtually onOctober 6. The annual Diabetes conference set the context for highlighting theDiabetes prevalence in North East India- one of the most pressing publichealth concerns in the region today, both in urban as well in rural counterparts.The distinguished speakers representing national and global organisationsdeliberated upon the current initiatives of the Government, DevelopmentOrganisations and research institutions along with the scope of increasing com-munity engagement processes and leveraging IT & AI solutions for preventionand management of diabetes. Dr. Lakshmanan S, Mission Director, NHM GoAinaugurated the conference with an emphasis on “the alarming rise in diabeticcases in the NorthEast region and the significance of this conference in the timesof Covid-19 Pandemic”. Delivering the keynote address, Dr. Anil Kapur, Chair-man- World Diabetes Foundation highlighted “the need for integrated primaryhealth care that breaks the silos of communicable, non-communicable diseasesand maternal and child health”. The conference hosted panel speakers fromNational Health Mission, Assam State NCD Cell, UNICEF, JHPIEGO, North East-ern Diabetes Society, Joep Langen Institute, Bansara Eye Care Centre-Meghalaya, Research Society for study of Diabetes in India, Piramal Swasthya,Remidio and Yostra Labs Private Limited. This conference brought together avibrant set of stakeholders & created the space for conversations on prevention& management of Diabetes. The conference justly reiterated the urgency to-wards strengthening the Primary healthcare systems in the face of covid-19pandemic, with innovative alternate solutions including simplified technologyinterventions such as telemedicine to bring the advanced diagnostic services tothe doorstep of the masses. Importance of adopting lifestyle & life care ap-proach, routine capacity building of healthcare workforce including ‘patient healtheducation’ and need of strategic & corrective measures such as universal screen-ing are some of the imperatives to address the challenge of Diabetes in theregion. This was the first edition of the series of ‘North East Annual DiabetesConference’; the next conference is scheduled for the year 2022. With this An-nual Diabetes Conference, Piramal Swasthya celebrates a year-long initiative“Strengthening NCD services in Assam”, a collaboration with World DiabetesFoundation and Assam state government to strengthen the NCD services in thestate, with support from National Health Mission.

PhD. Award to ArindomPrince Panging

Staff Reporter,Guwahati, oct 6:Arindom Prince Panginghas received the Hon.Doctorate Degree (Hon-oris Causa) for his re-search book- A Review ofForeign Direct Invest-ment (FDI in India sinceGlobalisation 1991) underthe guidance of DrMadhu Satam S. HoD Economics. at Good Shepherd Auditorium, Bengaluru,Karnataka on 2nd October 2021 in presence of Major General of Indian ArmyGorge TN Swami, High Commissioner USA Embassy Dr Gopal, His Highness,Bollywood Actress Priyanka Trisha Krishnan, VC & Dean of Bharat VirtualUniversity for Peace and Education and others dignitaries. ''FDI inflows havemade a substantial and positive impact on economic development and indus-trialization in India Since 1991 to 2020. Besides FDI has created and sup-plied new products, production technology, machinery, skilled labour, pro-pelling industrial advancement to domestic industries. Domestic Entrepre-neur free face problems regarding marketing of their goods, finance andlabour''- stated by research scholar Dr Arindom Prince Panging. ArindomPrince Panging Adviser in All India Tribal Students Association Assam(AITSAA) has also awarded Assam Govt Bhasha Gaurav LekhokSambardhana Samman 2021 for his books like ('Premor Upotyoka' and 'SabdaSamrat') respectively. Arindom Prince Panging MA in 2011 from EconomicsUniversity of Pune, Maharashtra who has completed his research on FDI inIndia Since Globalisation under the guidance of Dr Madhu Satam HoDEconomics in 2011. Arindom Prince Panging is son of Priyonath Pangingand Gunawoti Yein Panging who was born (31Dec1987) and brought up inMajarbari Gaon under Desangmukh Gaon Panchayat, Sivasagar district.He is now working as an Editor of The Assam Lutad newspaper and Webportal news channel too in Guwahati, Assam.

SPORTS PLUS THURSDAY, OCTOBER 07, 2021 7

Barcelona, October 06 :Barcelona ripped Arsenalapart in style to kickstarttheir Champions Leaguedefence. Goals fromMariona Caldentey, AlexiaPutellas - the newlycrowned European playerof the year, who receivedher trophy before kick-off -Asisat Oshoala and LiekeMartens earned the hometeam a comfortable win,with Frida Maanum scoringa consolation goal from acorner. The scoreline,terrifyingly, flattered theGunners, who had six shotswhile their opponents had35. Arsenal barelyregistered time on theball."I've learned that we

Barcelona pay homage to Cruyff byteaching Arsenal harsh WCL lesson

have a team that never givesup," said the deflatedArsenal manager, JonasEidevall. "It was a really,really tough game. I canprobably do things better inpreparing the team to findthose solutions evenquicker than they didtoday."In the first halfArsenal were forced to ridewave after fluid wave ofBarcelona attack and it wassurprising they clung on forhalf an hour. Within minutesof the whistle the reigningEuropean champions fizzedaround the Arsenal box,pinning back the Women'sSuper League leaders withthe shadow of the famous LaMasia academy looming

over the stadium.Onapproach to the JohanCruyff Stadium, the 6,000-seat ground opened in 2019,a quote by the Dutch masteradorns a wall: "In my teams,the goalkeeper is the firststriker and the striker thefirst defender." ThisBarcelona team were doingtheir best to make thosewords come true. SandraPaños spent much of thefirst 45 minutes closer to thehalfway line than hergoalline as the strikers droveforward, forcing save aftersave from ManuelaZinsberger and denying theGunners any time on theball.Given her heroics,which included a late

penalty save from Putellas,it was cruel then thatZinsberger would be letdown by her defence for theopening goal. Having firmlyparried Oshoala's effort fromthe edge of the area it wasCaldentey who pounced onthe rebound and fired inwithout a yellow Arsenalshirt in sight.Barcelonadoubled their advantagetwo minutes before half-time. Oshoala, who spent aseason with the Gunners in2016-17, was played in behindthe Arsenal defence on theright. The Nigerian forward cutback to Putellas who smashedin from six yards between LeahWilliamson andZinsberger.Prior to this

match Eidevall had brushedaside warnings of thestrength of a Barça side thathad scored 35 goals in theirfirst five Superliga gamesand conceded just once,when he said: "It's a verygood football team, but theyare also beatable. It's 11humans against 11 humans.In Sweden, we say 'a shovelis a shovel'. A football gameis a football game."Theproblem, though, was thatBarcelona lookedsuperhuman, a shoveldigging a hole that theGunners were desperatelytrying to fill back in with barehands.If Arsenal hoped forrespite in the second half itdid not come. Barcelona,who dismantled Chelsea 4-0 in last season'sChampions League final,had come back out with adigger. Within two minutesthey had their third goal andit was disappointingly easyfrom an Arsenal point ofview as Oshoala latched onto a low ball in behind, easilyoutpacing Jen Beattie,before calmly slotting pastZinsberger.

New York, October 06 :Emma Raducanu says shewill endeavour to continueworking in exactly the samemanner as before her shockUS Open victory last monthas she adjusts to theincreased attention and hertransformed status as thenewest grand slamchampion on the women'stour.The 18-year-old willmake her first appearancesince winning the title atFlushing Meadows at theBNP Paribas Open inIndian Wells, California,after being given a wildcardto compete."What got meto this point is not thinkinganything differently," shesaid. "If I just put additionalthoughts in my head, thenthat will just create aproblem. I am just going tokeep going on about mybusiness and stay the

Sydney, October 06 :England's Ashes tour ofAustralia took a significantstep towards beingconfirmed later this weekfollowing positive talksbetween players'representatives, theEngland and Wales CricketBoard, Cricket Australia andthe Australian governmenton Tuesday.The 11-weektrip has been the subject ofprotracted negotiations overthe living conditionsEngland's touring party willbe subjected to, with issuesover quarantine periods forfamilies and off-fieldrestrictions leaving anumber of bubble-wearyplayers uncertain over theiravailability.But despite abriefing with the players onSunday evening leaving anumber of elementsoutstanding, - and leadingthe ECB to suggest the tour

London, October 06 : AmyPieters won a cold and rainysecond stage of the Women'sTour of Britain in a sprint finish,while second-placed ClaraCopponi took the overallleader's jersey.Tuesday's stagebegan and ended in Walsall,with a 10-woman breakawaygroup battling for the stagevictory in what the 30-year-old

Women's Tour of Britain:Clara Copponi takes lead asAmy Pieters wins stage two

Dutch cyclist Pieters describedas "a hectic finale". British 21-year-old rider Pfeiffer Georgi(Team DSM) led into the finalcorner but had to settle for fifthplace, with Movistar's SheylaGutiérrez in third.France'sCopponi (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope)was pipped to the line byPieters but took the generalclassification lead afterfinishing third onMonday's opening stage."The conditions made therace hard, but I liked it,"Pieters said afterwards. "Wewanted to race aggressively,and that side wentwell."Pieters (Team SD Worx),

who is second in the overallstandings, looks the betterequipped to emerge fromWednesday's time trial inAtherstone with the bluejersey. British time trialspecialist Joss Lowden - whorecently broke the hour record- is a contender for the stagevictory.Lowden (Drops-LeCol) is in 25th place overall,52sec behind Copponi. Thetwo-time former winner, LizzieDeignan, is down in 45th placeafter her dramatic triumph inthe Paris-Roubaix onSaturday. The overnightleader, Marta Bastianelli, fellto 10th in the standings afterfinishing 46sec off the pace.

Ashes tour likely to go ahead asEngland and Australia hold positive talks

would not go ahead unlessconditions "enabled theselection of a squadbefitting a series of thissignificance" before Friday'sscheduled board meeting -the feedback from furthertalks on Tuesday was thatthe final logistical issues arebeing ironed out.A full-strength squad will stillhinge on select individualsbut it now looks likely thatthose who travel can bejoined by their families.Reports in the Australianmedia suggested that thoseunable to quarantine withthe squad on Queensland'sGold Coast immediately afterthe conclusion of theTwenty20 World Cup inNovember would be offeredexclusive use of a resort inVictoria's Yarra Valley inDecember, from which theywould emerge in time for theBoxing Day and New Year

Tests. Though Australia'sprime minister, ScottMorrison, had promisedthere would be "no specialdeals" for the touring party,instead of being confined totheir rooms families wouldbe allowed use of aswimming pool and gym as

well as outdoorspace.Following themeeting Joe Root, England'sTest captain, who hadrefused to confirm hisparticipation last week, isapparently now ready tocommit to the tour. Thematch schedule however

remains in doubt, particularlythe fifth and final game of theseries, which is due to startin Perth five days after theconclusion of the fourth Testin Sydney.Though Australiahas promised to relax itsborders once it hits the targetof fully vaccinating 80% ofthe population, which couldhappen as early as mid-November, WesternAustralia's strict controlseven on internal arrivals -with visitors from Sydneyand elsewhere in New SouthWales currently expected toquarantine for 14 days - couldmean it loses its Test.Canberra or Hobart areconsidered the most likely tohost the game should it bemoved.Australia's healthminister, Greg Hunt, said onTuesday that thegovernment had been"flexible and practical" in aneffort to ensure the seriescould be played."Ultimately, it's always in thehands of the touring party,but we've been working tobe flexible and practical," hetold Sky News Australia."On the one hand, make surethat we have safetyarrangements for Australia.On the other hand, bepractical and flexible to givethat touring party everychance of coming here andto have the Ashes played."

Emma Raducanu insists shewill not be dazzled by

spotlight after US Open win

same."With her seeding of17, Raducanu received afirst-round bye and sheawaits either the world No71 María Camila OsorioSerrano or AliaksandraSasnovich, who is rankedNo 100, in the secondround. Raducanu faces apotential third-round matchwith the 11th seed, SimonaHalep, should both playerswin their opening tie.IndianWells also marksRaducanu's firsttournament since optingnot to continue workingwith Andrew Richardson,who had temporarilycoached her during the UShardcourt season. She iscurrently being helped byJeremy Bates, the head ofwomen's tennis at the LTA,and says she is confidentshe will handle herself welluntil she appoints apermanent coach. "I knowthat even though I'm quiteyoung, I've got a lot ofexperience banked," shesaid. "And at the end of theday you're out there onyour own and you have tobe your own coach on thecourt."The enormousamount of popularity andattention Raducanu gainedin New York hasimmediately led toappearances at events suchas the Met Gala and the NoTime To Die James Bond

movie premiere, but shesays that aside from the oddevent, she has been focusedon training since her time inNew York."When I was athome I still didn't really goout,' she said. "I didn't go toa restaurant or anything. Iwas just at home with myfamily, I got some really coolinvitations. It felt nice toreceive the support andeveryone's kind messagesand kind words but, yeah, Ididn't really get too caughtup in it. I just focused on mytennis and mytraining."Despite getting toexperience "some greatthings that I probably neverwould have got to dobefore," Raducanu says thatthe most special moment ofthe past three weeks remainsthe night she shared withher team in New York afterwinning the title."Thehighlight for me still andalways will be the nightthat I won and afterwardsafter the match when wewent back to the hotel andit was just me and theteam, having a really nicemeal and chatting andreflecting on the past threeweeks," she said. "For methat's always going to bethe highlight , eventhough all of theinvitations were very cool Ithink that's what's going tostick in my mind."

Leicester, October 06 : A fifthof UK adults have increasedtheir following of women'ssport during the pandemic,research has found, withmany citing the rise incoverage as a reason for theirgreater interest.A reportpublished by Leaders inSport and Sky Sports foundthat 21% of adults have spentmore time following women's

'Not just surviving, thriving'interest in women's sport has risen since pandemic

sport in the past 18 months,with 68% of those attributingthat to increased coverageand the quality of thecoverage. The biggest risewas among men, with 24% ofthose surveyed saying theywere following more women'ssport.The new Women'sSuper League broadcastrights deal, worth £8m aseason, has Sky Sports

showing up to 44 live games -two fixtures per round - and theBBC one live game per round,with 18 of its 22 matches on BBCOne or BBC Two. The other 75games are also available on theFA Player.Increased visibility ofwomen's football generally hasalso played a role in drawingeyes to games, with 19%saying news reporting onwomen's sport had made them

want to watch games live oron TV and 41% believebroadcasting of women'ssport should be treated thesame as men's.Tracey CrouchMP, chair of the fan-ledreview into football and aformer sports minister, said:"This new research showsthat despite the challenges ofthe pandemic, women's sporthas great resilience and is not

just surviving but thrivingafter an exciting summer ofsport."The managing directorof Sky Sports, Jonathan Licht,said: "The success of[cricket's] the Hundred andthe incredible viewingfigures for the Women'sSuper League at the start ofthe new broadcast dealhighlight the momentumbehind women's sport."

London, October 06 : Newsof a welcome andsubstantial boost in prizemoney for the first women'smajor of the golfing yearhas arrived with the notinconsequential footnote of

Red Sox rush Cole and endarchrival Yankees' season

in AL wild card gameNew York , October 06 : Xander Bogaerts and Kyle Schwarberhomered off Yankees ace Gerrit Cole, and Nathan Eovalditook a shutout into the sixth inning to help the Boston RedSox beat New York 6-2 Tuesday night in the AL wild cardgame.Bogaerts also made a perfect relay to throw out AaronJudge at the plate when the game was still close, sending theRed Sox into the AL Division Series against the Tampa BayRays. Game 1 in the best-of-five matchup is Thursday nightin St Petersburg, Florida.With Bucky Dent in the crowd andAaron Boone in the Yankees dugout, Boston chased Cole inthe third inning and beat New York in the playoffs for thethird straight time. The Yankees, who lead the majors with 27World Series championships, have not won it all since 2009.Ayear after baseball took its postseason into neutral site bubblesto protect against the pandemic, a sellout crowd of 38,324 -the biggest of the year - filled Fenway Park to rekindle one ofthe sport's most passionate rivalries. Enough Yankee fanswere among them to fuel a raucous back-and-forth of insultingchants.It was the fifth playoff matchup between the longtimefoes, with Boston taking a 3-2 edge. That doesn't count the1978 AL East tiebreaker - technically regular season GameNo 163 - that the Yankees won thanks to Dent's homer intothe net above the Green Monster.Boone, the formerinfielder who is now the Yankees manager, added to theheartbreak with his 11th-inning walk-off homer in Game 7of the 2003 AL Championship Series.

Women's golf major gains sponsor andbigger purse amid venue uncertainty

no host venue being inplace after 2022.TheChevron Championship willbe the new name of the ANAInspiration and be held inits traditional location ofMission Hills in California

from 31 March next year.The plan is for the event tosubsequently shift toHouston, base for morethan 8,000 Chevron staff.Yet for now there is a bizarrelack of clarity, includingover a move to later inspring after a deal wasagreed for networktelevision coverage.Chevron has agreed a six-year partnership."We areworking very, very hardwith Chevron and the LPGAto find our future home anddates, likely in Houston,which by the way has anamazing track record inhosting and supportingworld-class golftournaments," said EdMcEnroe of IMG, which co-manages the tournament."So, more to come on thatin the comingmonths."Pressed on thevenue situation, McEnroeadded: "We are taking ourtime on this. We have got

to make the right decisionand it's a collectivedecision. It's Chevron andthe LPGA here. The golfcourse calibre has got to bemajor championship. It'sgot to work well for somany of those other thingsthat we talked about, fromweather to travel flow,network windows, whatkind of experience can wecreate within that golfcourse, not just from aninfrastructure standpointbut for volunteers andmedia and all fans."If we arein Houston, the Chevronemployee base is going tobe important for us."Sobear with us. We areworking hard but it's goingto take a little bit of time tofigure that through."Thegood news comes in theform of a 60% increase inprize fund, to $5m (£3.67m).Still, this is $800,000 lessthan the R&A paid out atthis year's Women's Openand $500,000 short of thisyear's US Women'sOpen.The PGA Tour'sHouston Open found itselfwithout a sponsor in 2018and 2019. It has sincemoved from just before theMasters at the Golf Club ofHouston to November atMemorial Park.

London, October 06 : Areport for Britain's sportscouncils argued last weekthere was no magicsolution that balances theinclusion of trans womenin female sport whileguaranteeing competitivefairness and safety, andurged sports to choosewhich to prioritise. TheGuardian invited twocampaigners with differentviews of the report to givetheir verdicts.NicolaWilliams: 'It cannot beright that a sport couldcontinue to prioritise transpeople's wishes overfairness and safety forwomen'he new report forthe UK sports councils ontransgender participation

Who's included? Views of the reporton transgender participation in sport

in sport confirms what weall know: sex matters insport. That's why we havealways needed a separateprotected category forfemales and still do.Thesports guidance concludesthat female-only sport isbothl awful and necessaryto guarantee the fair andsafe inclusion of women.This puts an end to theidea it is possible to allowpeople who were born maleinto the female sportscategory withoutcompromising fairness andsafety.Sports must nowmake a choice. They cancontinue to prioritise transwomen in female sport atthe expense of women andgirls. Or they can protect

the future of women's sportby restoring the integrity ofthe female category andlooking for new ways toincrease participation oftrans women.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 07, 20218 STOPPAGEcm

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The dispute between Indianand British governments overvaccination certificates andquarantine regulations hasspilled over to the hockey turf.A day after England pulled outof the Junior World Cup, tobe held in Bhubaneswar in

November, India confirmedthe withdrawal of its men'sand women's teams from nextyear's Birmingham Common-wealth Games. Both havecited the mandatory 10-dayquarantine imposed on trav-ellers from the other country

What's there to look up tofor a climber who summitedMount Everest at 21? A lot,in case you happen to beTashi and Nungshi Malik,the adventure-seeking twinswho celebrated their ownunlockdown by scaling theSwiss Alps. Now 30, theoutdoorsy women fromDehradun, after being on theroof of the world, trekked tothe two ends of the earth -South and North poles.Their dazzling CV, a dreamfor all mountaineers, alsohas the conquest of theSeven Summits, the highestpeaks of the seven conti-nents. Their latest expedi-tion to Mount Breithorn andAllalinhorn in the Alps, thetwo 4000m plus summits,had half the ascent as com-pared to Everest but thechallenge didn't get scaleddown in the same propor-tion. "It was night climbingand we could summit in aday and come back. Wehave never had that before.Most of our expeditions inIndia start out with a weekof going ahead to the baseof the mountain and thenstarting the ascent. But thiswas just a one-day summitand return which felt nicebecause it meant we couldcover a lot more peaks in theshort time that we werehere," say the sisters.It wasthe climb to the Riffelhornmountain that tested theirskills the most. "It could bewarm and sunny and thenturn windy at the summit.

New Delhi, October 6 :

Mountaineers Tashi-NungshiMalik get itchy feet to end

lockdown by scaling the AlpsBut Riffelhorn was a purelyrock summit. We are usedto snow peaks. So this wasvery different for us. Wewere scared to death be-cause when we would lookdown, we would see thishuge glacier and the sur-rounding peaks with thatweather. "For these globe-trotting women always insearch of new heights, thereare twists and turns at ev-ery corner. Nungshi saysthat the most arduous ofclimbs has been Denali, MtMcKinley (6,190 m) inAlaska, North America. It'swhere temperatures dip to-50, -60. "There was onemountain where we felt thewind chill was more thanthat on Everest. Those whodo Denali are established asprofessional mountaineersbecause that's quite the ef-fort. Weather changes soquickly, at one point itwould be like 12 degreesand that would dip to -10in a matter of hour."Tashifound Mt Cook in NewZealand very tough. "If youlook at the Summit, it isonly 3,724m but it was sotechnical. The time taken toclimb Mt Cook is equal tothe time taken to climbEverest. So you can imag-ine how hard it is to climbMt Cook. Very few peoplehave had success there.People usually say youhave to climb Everest firstand then come to Mt Cook.But among the Seven Sum-mits, Denali was definitelythe toughest."

New Delhi, October 6 :

After England pulls out of Jr WC,India withdraws from CWG

by their governments as oneof the key reasons for thedecision.Last month, HockeyIndia had said the participa-tion of its teams in the CWGwas 'doubtful' because of thecompetition's proximity to theAsian Games, where anOlympic berth is at stake. Butin a letter to Indian Olympic

Association (IOA) presidentNarinder Batra on Tuesday,Hockey India chiefGyanendro Ningombam citedthe 'discriminatory restric-tions' that are 'biased againstIndia' as an additional reasonto pull out of the CWG. Curi-

ously, the announcementcame barely a couple of hoursafter the government said in amedia release that the men'steam was 'likely to participate'in the tournament.The CWGare scheduled to take place inBirmingham from July 28 toAugust 8. With the with-drawal of the hockey teams,

India's participation will besignificantly reduced giventhat shooting and archery, too,are not a part of the Gamesprogramme.Hockey Indiaalso said they did not want to'risk' the health of the playersby claiming that 'over the last

18 months, England has beenthe worst affected country inEurope' with regards to thepandemic.Ningombam wrotein his letter to Batra: "It is per-tinent to mention that due tothe ongoing Covid-19 situa-tion, England have issuedguidelines that 10 days quar-antine is required (for) Indianarrivals in England even forthose who are fully vacci-nated, since unfortunately In-dian vaccinations are not yetrecognised by the Englishgovernment."He added:"Such discriminatory restric-tions were not imposed onIndian athletes and officialsduring the recent TokyoOlympic Games and this 10days quarantine requirementfor vaccinated sportspersonswill affect their performances.We feel these restrictions arebiased against India and termit as very unfortunate."OnMonday, Hockey Englandhad announced their with-drawal from the Junior WorldCup, which will be held fromNovember 24 to December 5."…with a number ofCOVID-related concerns inplace, and with player andstaff wellbeing in mind, it hasbecome untenable for ourteam to participate. We notethat on Friday the Indian gov-

ernment announced a manda-tory ten-day quarantine for allUK nationals," Hockey En-gland said in a statement.Indiaand Britain have been lockedin a tiff over vaccination cer-tificates and quarantine re-quirements for each other'snationals.The UK had relaxedsome restrictions on all trav-ellers from India but main-tained a mandatory 10-dayquarantine requirement.According to reports, theBritish authorities hadraised concerns over India'svaccination certificate for-mat, which led to fully vac-cinated travellers from Indiabeing treated as unvacci-nated. In tit-for-tat travelcurbs, the Indian govern-ment announced similar re-strictions on travellers fromBritain.When contacted,Batra said the decision notto compete in the CWG isfinal even though it is stillnine months away. "EvenEngland pulled out (of theJunior World Cup) whenthere are almost 60 days togo. Asian Games are impor-tant for us and will takeplace immediately after theCWG. We do not knowwhat kind of conditionswill be put on us at thatstage so we don't want our

players to be under anykind of stress before theAsian Games," Batrasaid.Batra and Hockey In-dia have maintained thatthey will be prioritising theAsian Games ahead of theCWG next year. In hockey,the Asian Games goldmedallists are confirmed ofan Olympic berth, thus sav-ing the team from a trickyqualifying process.The AsianGames will begin inHangzhou, China, on Sep-tember 10, a little over amonth after the CWG con-cludes. For the women's team,the schedule would have beeneven tighter had they takenpart in the BirminghamGames as the World Cup isscheduled to be held in Spainfrom July 1 to 17.The SportsAuthority of India, mean-while, said the men'sprobables began training onMonday as per the revisedStandard Operating Proce-dure. The Tokyo Olympicsbronze medallists underwenta Rapid Antigen Test and havebeen put up in separate rooms'as per quarantine rule'. "Theplayers are undergoing out-door training in a different slotand are not mixing with othercampers of SAI Bangalore,"SAI said in a release.

London, October 6 :

'I didn't really watch any tennis': how MartinParr captured the Grand Slam's real champions

Most people, he points out,visit Wimbledon in the samespirit that they would attendAscot or the Chelsea flowershow: it's a social event, anexcuse to dress up. Theymight spend the entire day inthe grounds at SW19 and gohome without seeing a singleball being served.Parr sug-gests we meet at the office ofhis foundation in Bristol.He's not in good health andcan't travel far. At the age of69, the photographer hasspent the bulk of his life onthe move, bustling from onesocial gathering to the next,shooting on the run, jaywalk-ing into human traffic. Butthese are difficult times: forthe world and for him.Lockdown was a drag in thatit kept everybody indoors.But then in May he was di-agnosed with cancer and isnow having chemotherapy.He nods at his walking frameand barks a short laugh."Hopefully, I can get rid ofthis thing in a few months orso," he says. "But it might bethat I'll need it for the rest ofmy life."We sit on the couchand turn the pages of MatchPoint. It feels like peeringinto a bygone age. Parr took

these pictures back in 2017and 2018, when punterscould pack into FlushingMeadows and RolandGarros like sardines, and itseemed that pretty much ev-eryone was sipping from thesame plastic straw. He tellsme that each of the venueshas its own distinct charac-ter. "Wimbledon is the mostinteresting because of thequeue and the fact that peoplecamp all night. Melbourne'sgood as well. Lots of socialactivity. Always very hot.People carry little fans tocool down." He snorts whenwe get to Paris: "I can't saythat Roland Garros is theleast interesting, but it prob-ably is. Too much tennis formy liking. They take it veryseriously there."Let the offi-cial photographers crouch atthe sidelines and shoot the su-perstar athletes. Parr was therewith a different brief. Hisbook contains one double-page spread of Rafael Nadalsigning autographs. Else-where, though, the top play-ers appear in virtual form,pixelated on giant TV screensor plastered on hoardings be-side the coffee stall. It's an ap-proach that turns the likes of

Andy Murray or RogerFederer into the equivalent ofwallpaper or backgroundmuzak. The punters stroll bywith their attention directedelsewhere. That's what inter-ests Parr: he couldn't give astuff for the stars. "I didn't re-ally watch any tennis at all. Ittakes too long. You get in-

volved in a match and sud-denly three hours havepassed."In his time, Parr'sracked up more than 80photobooks and over 100 ex-hibitions. But his most famouswork remains 1986's The Last

Resort, with its retina-fryingvignettes of working-classNew Brighton, the seasideresort on Merseyside. Parr ranamok on the shingle, at thearcade, inside the chippy andwhipped up a hyperreal visionof Thatcher-era Britain at playthat was so bracing, so tangythat you could almost smell

the vinegar and filled nappies.It was a breakthrough collec-tion that established his repu-tation and set the trajectory ofhis career. "Basically, my onebig project is what the richwestern world is up to in its

leisure time," he says. "That'smy project - but I'm a part ofit, too, I'm not exempt."Parr'sphotography is driven by afiery ambivalence about theUK. He loves it and he hatesit, sometimes within thesame frame. "I mean, I'myour classic remoaner,pissed off that we voted

leave. That's the aspect ofBritain that annoys me. Butthen there are also manyother aspects that I love, likeRadio 4 and the village fete."He barks a laugh. "Which isprobably full of Brexiters."

It's the morning after thenight before at the US Openand the sports sections con-tain images of triumph anddefeat. Ecstatic EmmaRaducanu lying prostrate onthe tennis court. BereftNovak Djokovic sobbinginto his towel. The photog-rapher Martin Parr wouldhave liked to have watchedthe finals, but he's been un-well and incapacitated, stuckon one floor of his house withthe TV on the other. Hebriefly considered watchingon his laptop but it justseemed too much bother. "Ilike tennis tournaments," hesays, a little sheepishly. "Thatdoesn't necessarily mean thatI like tennis per se."In this,one suspects, he is not alone.Parr's new book Match Pointoffers a vivid globe-hoppingtour of the four grand slamtournaments, bounding fromMelbourne to Paris to Lon-don to New York and min-gling with the spectators asthey ogle their iPhones orsunbathe on the grass orguzzle iced coffee at the re-freshment stand (the bookwas commissioned by theItalian coffee firm Lavazza).