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T he Lok Sabha passed the Triple Talaq Bill on Thursday with the Congress, the TMC, the Samajwadi Party, the RJD and the AIADMK staging a walkout demanding the Bill be sent to “Joint Select Committee” for “thorough debates” on the provisions of criminal cases against deserter Muslim husbands. Introducing the Bill abol- ishing instant triple talaq, with additional provisions for bail and patch up with spouses, Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad appealed to political parties not to weigh the historic Bill on scales of pol- itics but rather consider pro- viding justice to hapless Muslim women. “Don’t weigh the Bill on the scales of politics. The Bill is about humanity and justice,” he said, urging lawmakers of dif- ferent parties to speak in one voice to support the legislation. Amid a demand by Opposition parties that the Bill be sent to a select com- mittee for study, Prasad said the Government has already taken note of concerns expressed by members earlier and amended the Bill accordingly. Prasad said the Bill has made the offence compoundable, mean- ing that the case can be with- drawn if the man and his estranged wife reach a com- promise, and that only the wife and her close relatives can file an FRI, ruling out the law’s misuse. Parliament had earlier unanimously supported laws, including the one prescribing death in rape cases, aimed at giving justice to women, and the Triple Talaq Bill is also a step towards justice for women, the Law Minister said. Speaker Sumitra Mahajan allotted four hours for the debate on the Bill, which literally witnessed the arguments on political lines, with many Opposition parties raising concerns of “unneces- sary jailing of Muslim men” for a private issue or tussle between a husband and a wife, while BJP and Shiv Sena MPs vociferously argued on the plight of Muslim women who face divorce via SMS and WhatsApp messages. As soon as the House resumed at 2 pm after an adjournment to take up the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, Congress Leader in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge demanded the Bill be referred to a joint select committee of both Houses for greater scruti- ny. He said several provisions of the Bill were “unconstitu- tional”. AIADMK leader P Venugopal, TMC’s Sudip Bandhopadhyay, AIMIM’s Assaduddin Owaisi and Supriya Sule (NCP) too made similar demands. Congress MP Sushmita Deb said the Bill will jeopardise the Muslim families and sole aim of the Bill will lead to sending men to jail. Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said a similar Bill was discussed and passed by the Lok Sabha and therefore members can flag issues during the debate. She said all of a sudden a demand cannot be made to send it to a committee. BJP’s Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Meenakshi Lekhi and Smriti Irani attacked the Opposition for eyeing vote bank by ignoring the plight of the Muslim women who face hardships at the end of the day due to instant triple talaq, which is now banned in many Islamic countries. Intervening in the debate on the Bill, Union Minority Affairs Minister Naqvi said acts like murder are against the law but people still commit such crime and hence there is provision for punish- ment. This is not to victimise anyone but to provide safety and protection to Muslim women, he said, adding, Muslim Personal Law Board and clerics are also against triple talaq. Terming triple talaq as a social evil, he said, the time has come to abolish it. Defending the Bill, BJP member Meenakshi Lekhi said, “I will like to ask those oppos- ing the Bill that in which ‘suraa’ of the Quran is ‘talaq-e-biddat’ mentioned? This is not “he vs she”, these are issues of human rights violation,” she said. “Our constitution talks about a uniform civil code and not a uniform religious code. Do we want to create a society where men have the sole right to divorce women whenever they want, a society where men can change wives like clothes,” she asked. Union Minister Smriti Irani said if Parliament can enact laws to ban dowry and the practice of sati, it can also approve the Bill to ban instant triple talaq. Intervening in the debate, she slammed the Congress saying it missed opportunities to bring a simi- lar law when it was in power. She said there were suggestions that dowry is a social issue between two parties. “Still Parliament enacted a law against it. It brought law against (the practice of) sati,” she said. Referring to a verse of the Quran, she said the issue of instant triple talaq was also dealt by a “khalifa”. When Mohammad Salim of the CPM wanted her to name the “khal- ifa” she was referring to, Irani said she can even take the name of Hazrat Sahib but would want the Opposition leader to chant “Hanuman Chalisa”. She also said the 1986 law to protect Muslim women enacted after a Supreme Court order was not strong enough. “Hence, she said, there is a need for the Bill,” she said. AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi questioned the inten- tion of the Government behind criminalising triple talaq while it has supported decriminali- sation of homosexuality. “Why have you decriminalised homosexuality and criminalis- ing triple talaq? Because it would be used against us. Sexual minority got choice in Section 377, then why not reli- gious minorities,” Owaisi said. “If your faith is your faith, then my faith should also be my faith. Your (Government) intentions are not clean... You can bring your own law, but we will not forfeit our religion,” Owaisi said. While replying, the Law Minister said that it was regret- table that Opposition parties were creating hurdles in its pas- sage due to “vote bank politics”. Prasad pointed out that even after the Supreme Court judg- ment, as many as 477 cases of triple talaq have been reported since January 2017 and cited a case where a professor gave talaq to his wife over WhatsApp. The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill 2018 was passed by the Lower House with 245 votes in favour and 11 against. The Bill will now go to the Rajya Sabha for approval. The fresh Bill will super- sede an earlier Bill passed in the Lok Sabha and pending in the Rajya Sabha. The Bill to make the practice of instant triple talaq among Muslims a penal offence was introduced in the Lok Sabha on December 17 to replace an Ordinance issued in September. A fter electoral debacle in three major States — Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan — in the just- concluded Assembly polls, the Narendra Modi Government is considering several measures to support farmers in distress as pressure mounts for a nation- wide loan waiver scheme ahead of the general election. These include a scheme to direct income support to farm- ers for the purchase of inputs like seeds, fertilisers, pesti- cides, labour and other invest- ments in the field operations of farmer’s choice for the crop sea- son across the country, to pay farmers the difference between the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for their crop and the market rate, doubling collater- al-free loans under Kisan Credit Cards (KCCs) to 2 lakh and changes in the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna (PMFBY) crop insurance scheme to enhance coverage and ensure faster settlement of claims and schemes. The Centre is examining the Rythu Bandhu Investment Support Scheme (FISS) of Telangana for farmers to tackle the agrarian crisis and farmers’ unrest. A high-level meeting was held by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at his resi- dence on Wednesday on a wide-ranging farm relief plan. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, BJP chief Amit Shah, and Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh too attended the meeting. “The Modi Government will announce a new set of measures for farmers before the end of the winter session (of Parliament) on January 5,” said the sources. Sources said the Central Government’s plan is to go beyond loan waivers. Under the direct income support scheme, farmers would be entitled to a periodic payment. The amount will be paid on the monthly basis to carry out farming activities. Under the scheme, there is a possibility that an amount of 2,000-2,500 per farmer per month to be pro- vided directly to their bank account. If implemented, the scheme will benefit 10-12 crore farmers in the country. Continued on Page 4 T he Congress on Thursday indicated it was ready to meet the expectations of the Samajwadi Party (SP) for a ministerial berth in the newly- formed Madhya Pradesh Government to salvage the ongoing talks on grand alliance in Uttar Pradesh to take on BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. After SP chief Akhilesh Yadav expressed his resent- ment over the grand old party’s “attitude” and backed the pro- posed Federal Front being pro- posed by Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, the Congress went out on Thursday for damage control and said it would try and sort out differences between the two parties. “The statement of the SP national president shows his discontent. Discontent is not shown for strangers. The Congress and SP’s leadership will sort out the matter them- selves. People want our parties to fight elections together,” UP Congress chief Raj Babbar told The Pioneer in a brief interac- tion over the stalemate in the Opposition alliance in UP. Babbar, who is also a Rajya Sabha member and has repre- sented both the SP and the Congress in the Lok Sabha from UP that accounts for the highest number of LS MPs, pointed out that both the par- ties fought together in the UP Assembly polls. When asked about the criticism that Congress behaves like “big brother”, Babbar said in politics no one is big or small and the democratic system is guided by people’s mandate. “The people of UP want both the parties to fight the 2019 elections together. His concerns may be genuine and I would definitely discuss it with Congress high command. I am hopeful the concerns will be accommodated in the inter- est of like-minded parties who are ready to defeat the BJP in the LS polls,” Babbar added. Continued on Page 4 T op Chinese leaders have been forced to undergo a self-criticism session, state media said on Thursday, in a further sign of President Xi Jinping’s efforts to enforce party loyalty amid signs of internal dissent over his handling of a trade war with the USA. A tool highly favoured by Mao Zedong and taken to extremes during the Cultural Revolution, self-criticism ses- sions are back in favour under Xi’s presidency as he seeks to consolidate power and tighten discipline in the upper party echelons. Members of the Politburo “were asked to conduct criti- cism and self-criticism in light of work experience” at a meet- ing held on Tuesday and Wednesday, state news agency Xinhua reported. They were also questioned on “how they have taken the lead to implement Xi’s instruc- tions and key party regulations and policies,” it added. The centre of power in China lies with the 25-member Politburo, though its role has lessened since Xi got the top job in 2012 and started con- centrating powers in his own hands. Analysts, however, say the President’s authority has been contested over the last few months due to an economic slowdown triggered by an ongoing trade war with the US. Xinhua’s report of the meeting does not say what self-criticisms the members of the Politburo were expected to make. Self-criticisms were reg- ularly carried out during the Cultural Revolution — a peri- od of intense social and polit- ical upheaval launched by Mao from 1966-76 — and have returned under Xi. Continued on Page 4 A sloth bear slipped into 40- foot deep well while reach- ing out to the honeycombs on the periphery of the well locat- ed almost 700 metres from neighbouring forest, in Thovinakkere near Tumkur in Karnataka. The bear was in search of food and the well is home to a plethora of wildlife species. It required some efforts by the forest officials and vol- unteers of an NGO to pull the bear out of the well. After preliminary assess- ment, the animal was tran- quilised for the rescue opera- tions. A four-member rescue team led by Dr Nithin Gowda, Wildlife SOS veterinarian, along with forest department officials rushed to the location, with the necessary equipment. Elaborating upon the res- cue operation, the Wildlife SOS official said, “A large safe- ty net was lowered down into the well and the animal was safely extricated.” Continued on Page 4 N orth India and several other parts of the country reeled under a heavy spell of cold wave with the minimum temperature dropping to 3.4 degrees Celsius in the nation- al Capital. The temperature in Jammu & Kashmir dropped to minus 5.7 degrees Celcius, while Punjab and Haryana felt the shivering cold. In Delhi, Palam observa- tory registered a minimum temperature of 4.9 degrees Celsius, while areas under Lodhi Road and Ayanagar recorded minimum tempera- tures of 3.4 and 5 degrees Celsius respectively. “The minimum tempera- ture was recorded at 3.4 degrees Celsius, four notches below the season’s average. The max- imum temperature was record- ed at 21.3 degrees Celsius, a notch above the normal,” a Meteorological department official said here, adding the humidity oscillated between 45 and 100 per cent. The Met Department has forecast clear skies along with the possibility of dense fog on Friday morning and haze and smoke thereafter. Srinagar experienced the coldest December night in nearly three decades with a low of minus 7.6 degrees Celsius, while the mercury in most parts of Kashmir Valley and Ladakh region plummeted to below the freezing point result- ing in frozen water bodies and water supply lines. On December 7, 1990, Srinagar had recorded a low of minus 8.8 degrees Celsius. According to a meteoro- logical department official, sev- eral weather stations in the Valley registered record night temperature. While in Srinagar the mer- cury settled a degree down on Wednesday night from the previous night’s minus 6.7 degrees Celsius, Gulmarg and Leh were the only two stations where the minimum tempera- ture increased on Wednesday night, the official said. Qazigund in south Kashmir recorded a low of minus 6.1 degrees Celsius, down from minus 5.9 degrees Celsius the previous night. It was the coldest night of the sea- son at the town and the cold- est December night there in the last eight years. Kupwara in north Kashmir recorded a low of minus 6.7 degrees Celsius, down from minus 6.4 degrees Celsius on Wednesday. It was the coldest of the season at the town and the coldest December night there in the last over a decade. The night temperature in Pahalgam, which serves as one of the base camps for the annu- al Amarnath yatra in south Kashmir, settled at a low of minus 8.3 degrees Celsius on Wednesday night against minus 7.9 degrees Celsius the previous night. Gulmarg in north Kashmir recorded a low of minus 9 degrees Celsius, slightly up from the previous night’s minus 9.4 degrees Celsius. Leh, which recorded the lowest temperature on the Wednesday night at minus 17.1 degrees Celsius, witnessed a increase of nearly nine degrees last night, officials said. Some water bodies, includ- ing the fringes of the famous Dal lake, have frozen. Water supply to many residential areas of Srinagar and other towns in the Valley too has frozen. Kashmir is currently under the grip of Chillai-Kalan — the 40-day harshest period of winter when the chances of snowfall are most frequent and maximum and the temperature drops considerably. Continued on Page 4

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The Lok Sabha passed theTriple Talaq Bill on

Thursday with the Congress,the TMC, the Samajwadi Party,the RJD and the AIADMKstaging a walkout demandingthe Bill be sent to “Joint SelectCommittee” for “thoroughdebates” on the provisions ofcriminal cases against deserterMuslim husbands.

Introducing the Bill abol-ishing instant triple talaq, withadditional provisions for bailand patch up with spouses,Union Law Minister RaviShankar Prasad appealed topolitical parties not to weighthe historic Bill on scales of pol-itics but rather consider pro-viding justice to haplessMuslim women.

“Don’t weigh the Bill on thescales of politics. The Bill isabout humanity and justice,” hesaid, urging lawmakers of dif-ferent parties to speak in onevoice to support the legislation.

Amid a demand byOpposition parties that theBill be sent to a select com-mittee for study, Prasad said theGovernment has already takennote of concerns expressed bymembers earlier and amendedthe Bill accordingly. Prasadsaid the Bill has made theoffence compoundable, mean-ing that the case can be with-drawn if the man and hisestranged wife reach a com-promise, and that only thewife and her close relatives canfile an FRI, ruling out the law’smisuse.

Parliament had earlierunanimously supported laws,including the one prescribingdeath in rape cases, aimed atgiving justice to women, andthe Triple Talaq Bill is also astep towards justice for women,the Law Minister said. Speaker

Sumitra Mahajan allotted fourhours for the debate on the Bill,which literally witnessed thearguments on political lines,with many Opposition partiesraising concerns of “unneces-sary jailing of Muslim men” fora private issue or tussle betweena husband and a wife, while BJPand Shiv Sena MPs vociferouslyargued on the plight of Muslimwomen who face divorce viaSMS and WhatsApp messages.

As soon as the Houseresumed at 2 pm after anadjournment to take up theMuslim Women (Protectionof Rights on Marriage) Bill,Congress Leader in the LokSabha Mallikarjun Khargedemanded the Bill be referredto a joint select committee ofboth Houses for greater scruti-ny. He said several provisionsof the Bill were “unconstitu-tional”. AIADMK leader PVenugopal, TMC’s SudipBandhopadhyay, AIMIM’sAssaduddin Owaisi andSupriya Sule (NCP) too madesimilar demands. Congress MP

Sushmita Deb said the Billwill jeopardise the Muslimfamilies and sole aim of the Billwill lead to sending men to jail.

Speaker Sumitra Mahajansaid a similar Bill was discussedand passed by the Lok Sabhaand therefore members canflag issues during the debate.She said all of a sudden ademand cannot be made tosend it to a committee.

BJP’s Mukhtar AbbasNaqvi, Meenakshi Lekhi and

Smriti Irani attacked theOpposition for eyeing votebank by ignoring the plight ofthe Muslim women who facehardships at the end of the daydue to instant triple talaq,which is now banned in manyIslamic countries. Interveningin the debate on the Bill, UnionMinority Affairs MinisterNaqvi said acts like murder areagainst the law but people stillcommit such crime and hencethere is provision for punish-

ment. This is not to victimiseanyone but to provide safetyand protection to Muslimwomen, he said, adding,Muslim Personal Law Boardand clerics are also againsttriple talaq. Terming tripletalaq as a social evil, he said, thetime has come to abolish it.

Defending the Bill, BJPmember Meenakshi Lekhi said,“I will like to ask those oppos-ing the Bill that in which ‘suraa’of the Quran is ‘talaq-e-biddat’mentioned? This is not “he vsshe”, these are issues of humanrights violation,” she said.

“Our constitution talksabout a uniform civil codeand not a uniform religiouscode. Do we want to create asociety where men have thesole right to divorce womenwhenever they want, a societywhere men can change wiveslike clothes,” she asked.

Union Minister SmritiIrani said if Parliament canenact laws to ban dowry andthe practice of sati, it can alsoapprove the Bill to ban instanttriple talaq. Intervening in thedebate, she slammed theCongress saying it missedopportunities to bring a simi-lar law when it was in power.She said there were suggestionsthat dowry is a social issuebetween two parties. “StillParliament enacted a lawagainst it. It brought law against(the practice of) sati,” she said.

Referring to a verse of theQuran, she said the issue ofinstant triple talaq was alsodealt by a “khalifa”. WhenMohammad Salim of the CPMwanted her to name the “khal-ifa” she was referring to, Iranisaid she can even take thename of Hazrat Sahib butwould want the Oppositionleader to chant “HanumanChalisa”.

She also said the 1986 law

to protect Muslim womenenacted after a Supreme Courtorder was not strong enough.“Hence, she said, there is a needfor the Bill,” she said.

AIMIM leader AsaduddinOwaisi questioned the inten-tion of the Government behindcriminalising triple talaq whileit has supported decriminali-sation of homosexuality. “Whyhave you decriminalisedhomosexuality and criminalis-ing triple talaq? Because itwould be used against us.Sexual minority got choice inSection 377, then why not reli-gious minorities,” Owaisi said.

“If your faith is your faith,then my faith should also bemy faith. Your (Government)intentions are not clean... Youcan bring your own law, but wewill not forfeit our religion,”Owaisi said.

While replying, the LawMinister said that it was regret-table that Opposition partieswere creating hurdles in its pas-sage due to “vote bank politics”.Prasad pointed out that evenafter the Supreme Court judg-ment, as many as 477 cases oftriple talaq have been reportedsince January 2017 and cited acase where a professor gavetalaq to his wife overWhatsApp.

The Muslim Women(Protection of Rights onMarriage) Bill 2018 was passedby the Lower House with 245votes in favour and 11 against.The Bill will now go to theRajya Sabha for approval.

The fresh Bill will super-sede an earlier Bill passed in theLok Sabha and pending in theRajya Sabha. The Bill to makethe practice of instant tripletalaq among Muslims a penaloffence was introduced in theLok Sabha on December 17 toreplace an Ordinance issued inSeptember.

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After electoral debacle inthree major States —

Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradeshand Rajasthan — in the just-concluded Assembly polls, theNarendra Modi Government isconsidering several measures tosupport farmers in distress aspressure mounts for a nation-wide loan waiver scheme aheadof the general election.

These include a scheme todirect income support to farm-ers for the purchase of inputslike seeds, fertilisers, pesti-cides, labour and other invest-ments in the field operations offarmer’s choice for the crop sea-son across the country, to payfarmers the difference betweenthe Minimum Support Price(MSP) for their crop and themarket rate, doubling collater-al-free loans under KisanCredit Cards (KCCs) to �2 lakhand changes in the PradhanMantri Fasal Bima Yojna(PMFBY) crop insurancescheme to enhance coverage

and ensure faster settlement ofclaims and schemes. TheCentre is examining the RythuBandhu Investment SupportScheme (FISS) of Telangana forfarmers to tackle the agrariancrisis and farmers’ unrest.

A high-level meeting washeld by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi at his resi-dence on Wednesday on awide-ranging farm relief plan.Finance Minister Arun Jaitley,BJP chief Amit Shah, andAgriculture Minister RadhaMohan Singh too attended themeeting.

“The Modi Governmentwill announce a new set ofmeasures for farmers before theend of the winter session (ofParliament) on January 5,” saidthe sources.

Sources said the CentralGovernment’s plan is to gobeyond loan waivers. Under thedirect income support scheme,farmers would be entitled to aperiodic payment. The amountwill be paid on the monthlybasis to carry out farmingactivities. Under the scheme,there is a possibility that anamount of �2,000-2,500 perfarmer per month to be pro-vided directly to their bankaccount. If implemented, thescheme will benefit 10-12 crorefarmers in the country.

Continued on Page 4

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The Congress on Thursdayindicated it was ready to

meet the expectations of theSamajwadi Party (SP) for aministerial berth in the newly-formed Madhya PradeshGovernment to salvage theongoing talks on grand alliancein Uttar Pradesh to take on BJPin the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

After SP chief AkhileshYadav expressed his resent-ment over the grand old party’s“attitude” and backed the pro-posed Federal Front being pro-posed by Telangana ChiefMinister K ChandrashekarRao, the Congress went out onThursday for damage controland said it would try and sortout differences between the twoparties.

“The statement of the SPnational president shows hisdiscontent. Discontent is notshown for strangers. TheCongress and SP’s leadershipwill sort out the matter them-selves. People want our parties

to fight elections together,” UPCongress chief Raj Babbar toldThe Pioneer in a brief interac-tion over the stalemate in theOpposition alliance in UP.

Babbar, who is also a RajyaSabha member and has repre-sented both the SP and theCongress in the Lok Sabhafrom UP that accounts for thehighest number of LS MPs,pointed out that both the par-ties fought together in the UPAssembly polls. When askedabout the criticism thatCongress behaves like “big

brother”, Babbar said in politicsno one is big or small and thedemocratic system is guided bypeople’s mandate.

“The people of UP wantboth the parties to fight the2019 elections together. Hisconcerns may be genuine andI would definitely discuss itwith Congress high command.I am hopeful the concerns willbe accommodated in the inter-est of like-minded parties whoare ready to defeat the BJP inthe LS polls,” Babbar added.

Continued on Page 4

��� 41'5'�

Top Chinese leaders havebeen forced to undergo a

self-criticism session, statemedia said on Thursday, in afurther sign of President XiJinping’s efforts to enforce partyloyalty amid signs of internaldissent over his handling of atrade war with the USA.

A tool highly favoured byMao Zedong and taken toextremes during the CulturalRevolution, self-criticism ses-sions are back in favour underXi’s presidency as he seeks toconsolidate power and tightendiscipline in the upper partyechelons.

Members of the Politburo“were asked to conduct criti-cism and self-criticism in lightof work experience” at a meet-ing held on Tuesday andWednesday, state news agencyXinhua reported.

They were also questioned

on “how they have taken thelead to implement Xi’s instruc-tions and key party regulationsand policies,” it added.

The centre of power inChina lies with the 25-memberPolitburo, though its role haslessened since Xi got the topjob in 2012 and started con-centrating powers in his ownhands. Analysts, however, saythe President’s authority hasbeen contested over the last fewmonths due to an economicslowdown triggered by anongoing trade war with the US.

Xinhua’s report of themeeting does not say whatself-criticisms the members ofthe Politburo were expected tomake. Self-criticisms were reg-ularly carried out during theCultural Revolution — a peri-od of intense social and polit-ical upheaval launched by Maofrom 1966-76 — and havereturned under Xi.

Continued on Page 4

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Asloth bear slipped into 40-foot deep well while reach-

ing out to the honeycombs onthe periphery of the well locat-ed almost 700 metres fromneighbouring forest, inThovinakkere near Tumkur inKarnataka. The bear was insearch of food and the well ishome to a plethora of wildlifespecies. It required some effortsby the forest officials and vol-unteers of an NGO to pull thebear out of the well.

After preliminary assess-ment, the animal was tran-quilised for the rescue opera-tions. A four-member rescueteam led by Dr Nithin Gowda,Wildlife SOS veterinarian,along with forest departmentofficials rushed to the location,with the necessary equipment.

Elaborating upon the res-cue operation, the WildlifeSOS official said, “A large safe-ty net was lowered down intothe well and the animal wassafely extricated.”

Continued on Page 4

���� �12�#1,3'

North India and severalother parts of the country

reeled under a heavy spell ofcold wave with the minimumtemperature dropping to 3.4degrees Celsius in the nation-al Capital. The temperature inJammu & Kashmir dropped tominus 5.7 degrees Celcius,while Punjab and Haryana feltthe shivering cold.

In Delhi, Palam observa-tory registered a minimumtemperature of 4.9 degreesCelsius, while areas underLodhi Road and Ayanagarrecorded minimum tempera-tures of 3.4 and 5 degreesCelsius respectively.

“The minimum tempera-ture was recorded at 3.4 degrees

Celsius, four notches belowthe season’s average. The max-imum temperature was record-ed at 21.3 degrees Celsius, anotch above the normal,” aMeteorological departmentofficial said here, adding thehumidity oscillated between45 and 100 per cent.

The Met Department hasforecast clear skies along withthe possibility of dense fog onFriday morning and haze andsmoke thereafter.

Srinagar experienced thecoldest December night innearly three decades with a lowof minus 7.6 degrees Celsius,while the mercury in mostparts of Kashmir Valley andLadakh region plummeted tobelow the freezing point result-ing in frozen water bodies and

water supply lines. OnDecember 7, 1990, Srinagarhad recorded a low of minus8.8 degrees Celsius.

According to a meteoro-logical department official, sev-eral weather stations in theValley registered record nighttemperature.

While in Srinagar the mer-cury settled a degree down onWednesday night from theprevious night’s minus 6.7degrees Celsius, Gulmarg andLeh were the only two stationswhere the minimum tempera-ture increased on Wednesdaynight, the official said.

Qazigund in southKashmir recorded a low ofminus 6.1 degrees Celsius,down from minus 5.9 degreesCelsius the previous night. It

was the coldest night of the sea-son at the town and the cold-est December night there in thelast eight years.

Kupwara in north Kashmirrecorded a low of minus 6.7degrees Celsius, down fromminus 6.4 degrees Celsius onWednesday. It was the coldestof the season at the town andthe coldest December nightthere in the last over a decade.

The night temperature inPahalgam, which serves as oneof the base camps for the annu-al Amarnath yatra in southKashmir, settled at a low ofminus 8.3 degrees Celsius onWednesday night againstminus 7.9 degrees Celsius theprevious night.

Gulmarg in north Kashmirrecorded a low of minus 9

degrees Celsius, slightly upfrom the previous night’s minus9.4 degrees Celsius.

Leh, which recorded thelowest temperature on theWednesday night at minus17.1 degrees Celsius, witnesseda increase of nearly ninedegrees last night, officials said.

Some water bodies, includ-ing the fringes of the famousDal lake, have frozen. Watersupply to many residentialareas of Srinagar and othertowns in the Valley too hasfrozen. Kashmir is currentlyunder the grip of Chillai-Kalan— the 40-day harshest periodof winter when the chances ofsnowfall are most frequent andmaximum and the temperaturedrops considerably.

Continued on Page 4

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In a sanitation drive conduct-ed against littering, South

Delhi Municipal Corporation(SDMC) issued 343 challans onThursday. A senior SDMCofficial said against litteringwas taken simultaneously in 167markets. The maximum 187chalans were issued in SouthZone whereas the 33 challanswere issued in Nazafgarh Zone.

SDMC Commissioner DrPuneet Kumar Goel has asked'Department of EnvironmentMaintenance Services' (DEMS)

to organize special theme basedsanitation drives every day.

The official said that thedrive was organised for thefirst time to make general pub-lic aware about the conse-quences of littering. A cam-paign to create awareness wasalso conducted in markets suchas Nehru Place, Amar Colony,Jangpura, Dwarka (Sector 4and 10).

Meanwhile, to beat theeffect of pollution in theNational Capital, SDMC alsoissued around 2,579 challans inall its four zones in the month

of December. According to the senior

officials SDMC, in South Zone,around 479 challans were issuedfor open burning during nighttime. While 81 challans wereslapped for violation of con-struction activities resulting indust pollution, around 204 chal-lans were issued for dumpingwaste in drains. Also, 34 chal-lans were issued under SolidWaste Management (SWM)laws. 305 general challans werealso issued in South Zone bySDMC.

Officials informed that ded-

icated teams keep visiting areasunder the civic body and finedthe violators. I may be notedthat the SDMC had constitutedsix teams for conducting nightpatrolling. "A total of �16,44,450 was recovered fromthese challans out of which�211400 was collected againstconstruction activities,�3,01,200 were collected againstdumping waste in drains,�4,51,800 were collected fromgeneral challans and �6, 800, 50was collected for violating SWMlaws," an official said.

Similarly, in Central Zone

during night patrolling 54 chal-lans were issued for open burn-ing and 53 challans were issuedfor construction activities result-ing in dust pollution. Further,86 mobile challans and 421general challans were alsoissued. Night patrolling partiesalso issued another 636 challans.

The officials further saidthat in West Zone, a total of 226challans were issued for build-ing material; open burning dur-ing night and general challans.Interestingly, in Nafgarh Zone,no challan were issued thismonth.

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East Delhi MunicipalCorporation (EDMC) has

issued an order making itmandatory to all restaurantsand shops selling or servingmeat in East Delhi area to dis-play the method of slaughter-ing chicken and meat dishes orface prosecution.

The decision has beentaken considering sentimentsof the people. With the deci-sion, they (restaurants andshops) will have to put a boardin front of their shops specify-ing whether the meat they areselling or serving is of 'jhatka'or 'halal', said EDMC MayorBipin Bihari Singh.

Singh further said that thedirection has been issued by theEDMC in this regard. "Thecivic body will first make themaware of the new rules for thefirst one or two month there-after they would be served ashow-cause notice and prose-cuted accordingly.

The resolution to that effectwas cleared by the standingcommittee of the BJP-led civicbody and passed in the housemeeting later, a senior EDMCofficial said.

The EDMC in the resolu-tion claimed that consumptionof halal meat is "not allowed" asper the Hindu and Sikh reli-gions.

It will be mandatory for alleast Delhi restaurants to displaya written message on the same."The standing committeeresolves that instructions beissued that all restaurants andshops should mandatorily dis-play boards mentioning if themeat being sold or served is halalor 'jhatka'," the resolution said.

Mayor has asked therestaurants and eating joints tomandatorily comply with therequirements. He also directedPublic Health Inspectors(PHIs) and Assistant PublicHealth Inspectors to ensure a proper implementa-tion of this order.

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Aman has been booked forrash driving after he alleged-

ly hit a pregnant dog which diedduring treatment in GreaterNoida, police said on Thursday.

The accident happened inDhoom Manikpur village underBadalpur Police Station limits onTuesday morning, they said.

According to a complaintfiled by Manzoor Ali, his femalepet, Chinky, was hit by the

speeding motorcycle of anoth-er village resident, Binnu, 22.

The impact was such thatthe canine flung into the air andfell into a drain five metres away,said Ali, who works at a truckrepairing shop. ‘The dog, whichwas over two-month pregnant,was severely injured and takento an animal hospital where shedied during treatment,’

Ali said in the complaint,demanding strict action againstthe accused.

A first information reporthas been registered at Badalpurpolice station against Binnu,who has been booked underIndian Penal Code sections 279(rash driving) and 479 (mischiefby killing or maiming animal).

"The matter is being probed.There has been no arrest yet," apolice official said. A village res-ident told PTI that the accused,who would usually ride his bike"very fast", has not been seen inthe village since Wednesday.

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Much awaited 9.7 km longLajpat Nagar to Mayur

Vihar pocket-1 which is anextension of the existing PinkLine of the Shiv Vihar to MaljisPark, will be soon thrown opento the public on December 31as the Commissioner of metroRail Safety (CMRS) has accord-ed the final nod for the com-mencement of the operations.Also, this section will be thestretch in the entire network ofDelhi Metro Rail Corporation(DMRC) that will be providinga direct connectivity to and froEast and South Delhi.

DMRC spokesperson saidthat the extension of DelhiMetro’s Pink Line will be for-mally flagged off by theMinister of State (IndependentCharge) Hardeep Singh Puriand the Deputy Chief Ministerof Delhi, Manish Sisodia on31st December, 2018 at 11 amfrom Metro Bhawan.

"After the inauguration,the train services will bethrown open to the passengeruse for travel will commence

on this section on the same dayfrom 4 pm. Further, this year2018 has remained as an his-toric year for DMRC as arecord of 86.72 kilometres ofnew sections were opened byDelhi Metro," Anuj Dayal,Executive Director (CorporateCommunication), DMRC.

The Hazrat NizamuddinMetro station on this stretchwill connect HazratNizamuddin Railway station aswell as the Inter State BusTerminal (ISBT) at Sarai KaleKhan. Further, 63 metre Footover Bridge (FOB) has beenconstructed on the interchangestation- Mayur Vihar-I.

"Once the station becomesoperational, it will make trav-el easy for the people going toNoida. This section will be amajor boon for this part of thecity as it does not have a metronetwork yet. Also, this sectionwill become an easier routethose who loves shopping asthis corridor will connect thetwo major shopping hubs of thecity-Lajpat Nagar, SouthExtension, INA and SarojiniNagar," said a DMRC official.

The section will consist offive stations at Vinoba Puri,Ashram, Hazrat Nizamuddin,Mayur Vihar-1 and MayurVihar Pocket-1. Among the fivestations, Mayur Vihar-1 andMayur Vihar Pocket-1 will beelevated which will also be amajor interchange to Blue Line.

Offcials at DMRC furtheradded that the opening of thiscorridor will mark the com-pletion of the Majlis Park-ShivVihar Pink Line at 59 kilome-tres. After its opening this sec-tion will become the longestline of Delhi metro networkwith a total of 38 stations.

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As the present strength of 60dogs in the Delhi Police

dog squad is stretched to itslimit, Delhi Police is planningto induct 100 more canines toaugment its fleet. Currently thedog squad has 15 tracker dogsand 45 explosive detector dogs,for all the districts in Delhi.

“A proposal has been sentto the Ministry of Home Affairs(MHA) to induct 100 dogs ofdifferent breeds. We hope to get20 puppies by the next monthso that they could be sent toBorder Security Force’s dogtraining centre at Tekanpur”,said Deputy Commissioner ofPolice (Crime) Rajan Bhagat.

“Apart from visiting crimescenes, tracking suspects,detecting explosives, conduct-ing routine checks in railways,airplanes, metros, shoppingmalls, Government buildings,public places and more, the dogsquad also has to sanitise VIP

routes and guard high-riskevents”, Bhagat added.

According to a seniorpolice official in charge of thedog squad housed in ModelTown police station, “We cur-rently have 20 dogs in this facil-ity, all Labradors. We are hop-ing to engage 20 more dogs ofdifferent breeds in our team.We work around the clock,sometimes in a single day weget called for duty over tentimes, some days we do justone-two routine checking. Itdepends on day to day basis,but we can definitely feel theshortage.”

“With two dogs in thefacility having earned medalsfor Delhi Police in the AllIndia Police Duty Meet, thedogs in the squad are highlytrained and efficient. Babu, afour-year-old Labrador wongold in tracking while his sis-ter Babe won silver in explosivedetection”, Bhagat said.

However, a handler in thedog squad disclosed that it gets

tough for the dogs when theyhave to work multiple hours.“After 2-3 hours the dogs getexhausted, and it is especiallyhard on tracker dogs, since theyhave no set area and might haveto walk for miles and multiplehours to trace a specific scent.Due to high pollution levels inDelhi, there is a risk for ourdogs to become vulnerable tolung diseases.”

“For dogs trained to detect explosives, it is usuallylimited to an area, a building,or a specific vehicle, airplane,metro etc.

Therefore they relativelyexert themselves less comparedto the tracker dogs, neverthe-less after completing a job, wehave to sent them back to restand another set of dogs is sentfor duty,” the handler said.

On acquiring a new batchof puppies, police officials saythat the dogs in Delhi PoliceDog Squad are first trained byBSF for 6 months; they get sep-arate trainings for tracker dogs

and to detect explosives. Thedogs are then handed to DelhiPolice Dog Squad under crimebranch, where they work tillthey reach retirement age,which depending on the dog is

between eight-ten years. “When these canines are

not on duty, the dogs have twopractice sessions, one in themorning and one in theevening. They are fed a bal-

anced diet of protein (meat andmilk) and carbohydrates (rice,dalia and wheat), two times aday. After lunch they are givenrest before resuming theirduties, he said.

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Amulya Patnaik, DelhiCommissioner of Police on

Thursday distributed Sashaktikits and certificates to girls andwomen on the closing ceremo-ny of “Sashakti” programme(Empowerment of Women)organised by East District Policeat Sports Ground, Vinod Nagar.

Speaking on the occasion,Patnaik urged the principals ofschools to make “Sashakti” &“Cyber Awareness” an integralpart of their curriculum.

He also advised the partic-ipants to remain alert whileusing technology, as our depen-dence on modern gadgets will

keep on increasing. He counselled the children

to suspect every stranger incyber space and monitor theirown activities too. A short film

on Sashakti scheme was alsoshown to the participants who presented a demo of tech-niques learnt during the train-ing programme.

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A22 year-old youth whoappeared for a Delhi Police

examination was allegedlystabbed to death by unknownassailants while his friend wasseverely injured after he cameto his rescue in northeastDelhi’s Bhajanpura area onWednesday evening.

The deceased has beenidentified as identified as PremSanu Gaur (22), a resident ofKadipur, Kadi Vihar, and theinjured has been identified asDev Sharma (30), a resident ofBhajanpura.

According to Atul KumarThakur, Deputy Commissionerof Police (DCP), North-Eastdistrict, a Police Control Room(PCR) call was received ataround 9:05 pm on Wednesdayregarding the incident that

occurred near Khajuri Chowkin the Bhajanpura area following which a team rushedto the spot.

“After reaching the spot,police came to know that anunidentified man, in his early20s, had stabbed the two andfled from the spot. The duo wastaken to the Jag PraveshChandra Hospital where Premsuccumbed to injuries. Dev isstill undergoing treatment atGTB hospital,” said the DCP.

“The motive behind theincident is unclear and thevictims have their mobilephones and purses on them,”said the DCP. “Prem was a stu-dent and had recently appearedfor a Delhi Police’s MultiTasking Staff (MTS) examwhile Dev used to work as amechanic in the KashmereGate area,” said the DCP.

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Delhi Cabinet is finalisingthe modalities to approve

the tender for procuring 1,000Electric buses as the tender ison final stage. Expressing theresolve of Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) to augment the fleet ofbuses, Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal said, “We are con-cerned about the health of ourpeople. We are doing every-thing possible within our con-trol to reduce pollution inDelhi. I have seen many con-scious Delhiites doing theirbit too. All of us together canmake it happen.”

Kejriwal congratulated thetransport Minister KailashGahlot for the successful trialrun of third e-bus (AnandVihar Inter State Bus Terminusto Mehrauli — 534) in the city.

At time when Delhi is reel-ing under the high toxicity dueto vehicular emission, thesebuses will be a boon for thelocal environment and with 30

per cent reduction in interiornoise levels of the buses ; theprobability of low traffic noiseis more.

“Tender for procuring e-buses is in the final stage andwill be presented before theDelhi Cabinet very soon forapproval”, Transport MinisterKailash Gahlot said onThursday after flagging off thetrial run of a battery-operatedstandard size bus.

“Transport department isfully prepared to implement carrationing scheme odd — evenwhenever the need arises tocombat deteriorated air quali-ty in the national Capital,adding, “The DelhiGovernment is moving aheadwith procuring e-buses to com-bat high levels of air pollutionin the city,” said Gehlot.

After flagging-off the fullyelectric bus, Gahlot stated,“Flagged off the third ElectricBus. This time it is OlectraBYD company. It will run onRoute no 534 Anand Vihar

ISBT to Mehrauli. Companyclaims that after overnightcharging the bus can run for250 kms.”

In order to assess the per-formance of electric buses inDelhi operating conditions.Delhi Government has

launched trial run of electricbuses of different vehicle man-ufacturers in Delhi.

Two Electric Buses (PMI-Foton & JBM-Solaris) arealready on trial run sinceNovember 2018.”The trial runwould help the Government in

understanding the issuesinvolved in running of electricbuses, including requirement ofcharging infrastructure.Lessons learnt during trial runwould help in formulating thebid document for 1,000 ElectricBuses,” Gehlot added.

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Delhi Health MinisterSatyendar Jain has given

nod to finalise the Delhi HealthBill and it is likely to be pre-sented in the Delhi Cabinet bynext month, a senior officialsaid Thursday.

The bill, once implement-ed, will help regulate clinicalestablishments and pathologi-cal laboratories and in thenational Capital.”The Ministerhas given approval to the Bill,which will be presented in theCabinet in January. Once thebill is implemented, it will helpregulate clinical establishmentsin Delhi,” the official said.

The bill, drafted by a com-mittee, was sent to the DelhiHealth secretary for approval.After being finalised, it was sentto the Minister for confirma-tion, sources said. The com-

mittee, in its draft, has alsodefined emergency care ser-vices for all hospitals and nurs-ing homes.

Incidentally, the DelhiHigh Court recently hadsought response of the Centreand the AAP Government ona public interest litigationclaiming that the law (ClinicalEstablishment Act, 2010) forregistration and regulation of

all clinical establishments hasnot been implemented in thecity despite coming into forcein 2012.

The petition, by a Delhi-based woman, claimed thatthe Act prescribes minimumstandard of facilities and ser-vices to be provided to patients.

“The Act makes it manda-tory for registration of all clin-ical establishments, includingdiagnostic centres and single-doctor clinics, across all recog-nised systems of medicine bothin the public and the privatesector, except those run by thearmed forces,” the plea, filedthrough advocates Sija Nair Paland Deepak Kumar Singh, said.

It claimed that non-imple-mentation of the law has led toinstances of “gross medicalnegligence, malpractices andnegligent attitude” of clinicalestablishments in Delhi.

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Delhi’s air quality turnedsevere again on Thursday

due to unfavourable meteoro-logical conditions like low windspeed that prevented dispersionof pollutants, authorities said.The Central Pollution ControlBoard (CPCB) data showed theoverall air quality index (AQI)at the severe level of 403, whilethe Centre-run System of AirQuality and WeatherForecasting (SAFAR) showedan AQI of 372, which falls inthe ‘very poor’ category.

According to CPCB data,22 areas recorded severe pol-lution, while 13 areas wit-

nessed ‘very poor’ air quality.In NCR, Ghaziabad and

Faridabad recorded severe airquality while Gurgaon andNoida recorded ‘very poor’ airquality.

The overall PM2.5 level —fine particulate matter in the airwith a diameter of less than 2.5micrometer — was recorded at322 and the PM10 level at 485in Delhi, CPCB said.

The national capitalrecorded its second highestpollution level of the yearSunday with an AQI of 450.The air quality remained‘severe’ on Monday andTuesday. There was slight dropin pollution level and the air

quality moved to the ‘verypoor’ category on Wednesday.

On Thursday, the air qual-ity again worsened and turnedsevere.

According to the IndianInstitute of TropicalMeteorology, the air quality islikely to improve marginally onFriday. The ventilation index ismarginally favourable for dis-persion of pollutants at 4,500sqm/second, IITM said.

The ventilation index is thespeed at which pollutants candisperse. A ventilation indexlower than 6,000 sqm/second,with average wind speed lessthan 10 kmph, is unfavourablefor dispersion of pollutants.

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After the Lok Sabha passeda Bill criminalising the

practice of instant Triple Talaqin the community, SanjaySingh, a senior Aam AadmiParty leader accused BhartiyaJanata Party (BJP) for makingpolitical gains by posing itselfas the champion of Muslimwomen’s cause.

Singh, who is a Rajya SabhaMP, said it is beyond compre-hension why the BJP was benton penal provision for tripletalaq when the practice hadalready been ruled illegal by the

Supreme Court.Targeting BJP Singh

said that BJP is seeking political gains through this Bill by posing itself as a champion of Muslim women’scause.

“What about the largenumber of Hindu women whoface rape, murder and dowrydeath across the country,” saidSingh.

“This bill will end all pos-sibilities of reunion of a brokenfamily as a man sent to jail fordivorcing through instant tripletalaq will never go back to hiswife,” he said.

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New Delhi: India’s relationswith China have returned to a“normal track” and there havebeen positive developmentslike Beijing giving market accessto Indian products, but much isyet to be done in addressing thewidening trade deficit, officialsources said.

India’s relationship withChina was severely hit by the73-day face-off between armiesof the two countries at thestrategically sensitive Doklamtri-juction in the Sikkim sectorlast year.

The sources said the polit-ical relationship between thetwo neighbours has just notonly been restored but height-ened in the past one year.

At the same time, they saidIndia was seriously concernedover China’s Belt and RoadInitiative and the way interna-tional norms and standards ingiving contracts under the pro-ject were being flouted.

The sources also said Indiaexpects China to walk the talkon the issue of giving marketaccess to Indian products.

“The positive developmentis that relations with China havereturned to the normal track,”said an authoritative source,while summing up India’sdiplomatic engagement in 2018.

Calling Indo-Pacific as amajor area of India’s interest, thesources said the country waskeen to talk about it with Chinaand the issue was likely to fig-

ure regularly in bilateral talksbetween the two nations.

They said there was no totalunanimity between India andthe US on all issues relating tothe Indo-Pacific and that NewDelhi wants all major powers tobe engaged over key matters.

Prime Minister NarendraModi and Chinese President XiJinping have held bilateralmeetings three times and heldan informal summit in Wuhanthis year, which the sourcesdescribed as “unprecedented”.

They said the second infor-mal summit between leadershipof the two countries is likely tobe held in the second half of2019.

On partnerships with lead-ing powers, the sources saidIndia’s ties with the US pro-ceeded on a positive track,while “significant trust” hasalso been built with Russia.

The sources said the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor(CPEC) is a direct challenge toIndia’s sovereignty and territo-rial integrity and that it is fordual use, including for militarypurposes.

India has been stronglyopposing the CPEC, which ispart of the BRI, as it passesthrough Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir. On BRI, they said itshould follow internationalnorms, ensure transparencyand most importantly, respectsovereignty and territorialintegrity of countries. PTI

Dharamshala (HP): PrimeMinister Narendra Modi onThursday accused the Congressof “befooling” farmers on loanwaivers, saying theGovernments led by the partyhad not fulfilled its promises inthe past.

Addressing a rally here tocelebrate one year of the JaiRam Thakur-led BJPGovernment in HimachalPradesh, Modi also claimedthat the previous Congressgovernment had similarly mis-led ex-soldiers on the imple-mentation of their demand for‘one rank, one pension”.

His criticism comes daysafter Congress chief RahulGandhi said his party will notlet Modi rest till he writes offfarm loans across the country.

The recently electedCongress Governments inMadhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarhand Rajasthan have announcedloan waiver schemes.

The Prime Minister saidthe Congress Governmentwaived loans worth only�60,000 crore when it came topower in 2009 even thoughfarmers’ debts totalled �6 lakhcrore.

He said a report of theComptroller and AuditorGeneral had found that lakhsof people who were not evenfarmers benefitted from thethen Congress Government’sloan waiver scheme.

Modi said the Congress

had made similar promises ofwaiving farm loans beforeAssembly elections in Punjaband Haryana, but claimed theparty had failed to deliver.

While farmers in Punjabgot “nothing”, only 800 farmerswere given token amounts inKarnataka, he claimed.

Speaking in Hindi, Modisaid the Congress had “made afool” of the people through itsloan waiver promises.

The Congress has chal-lenged such claims in the past,insisting its Governments haveimplemented the loan-waiverpromises in the States and atthe Centre.

Modi said the previousManmohan Singh-ledCongress Government had alsomisled the nation by just allo-cating a meagre budget for theone rank, one pension scheme.

But his own Government

at the Centre implemented‘one rank, one pension’ schemein the real sense, he said.

Apparently counteringRahul Gandhi’s jibe that the“watchman” had himselfturned into a “thief”, Modi said,“Chowkidar choro ko chhorneko tayar nahi (The watchmanis not ready to let scamstersgo).”

Remembering formerprime minister Atal BihariVajpayee, Modi said HimachalPradesh was the leader’s secondhome and industries were set upin the hilly State at his initiative.

He said development pro-jects worth �26,000 crore wereunder way in various sectors inHimachal Pradesh.

He described HimachalPradesh as the land of bravesoldiers who were ever ready tomake the supreme sacrifice atthe border. PTI

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From Page 1Akhilesh on Wednesday lauded KCR for “striving hard”

to form a Federal Front of regional parties ahead of the 2019Lok Sabha elections and that he will meet the Telengana CMduring his Hyderabad visit next month. But to a questionon including the Congress in any alliance to take on the BJPunitedly, the SP leader expressed displeasure over the SP’slone MLA in Madhya Pradesh not being made a Ministerin the Kamal Nath-led Government.

Though the Congress, with 114 seats, emerged as thesingle largest party in the 230-member Madhya PradeshAssembly, it failed to cross the halfway mark (116) on itsown and enlisted the support of the BSP and the SP, whichhave won two and one seats respectively. However, no MLAfrom the Mayawati-led BSP or the SP was given place in theCabinet.

Responding to another question, the former UP CM saidas days to polls are approaching all options remain openedas who will join hands with the SP or not.

Meanwhile Karnataka Chief Minister H DKumaraswamy said the JD(S), an alliance partner of theCongress in Karnataka, has not yet discussed with thenational party about the seat-sharing formula for the 2019Lok Sabha elections. The Congress-JD(S) alliance is strongand it would contest the Lok Sabha polls together, he said.

The JD(S) leader’s comment came in the wake ofCongress leader Siddaramaiah in Hubbali on Thursday rub-bishing BJP’s claim that the coalition Government inKarnataka would collapse due to an internal rift.

“There has not been any discussion on this (seat shar-ing) with the Congress so far. When the discussion has notyet taken place, then there is no question of any fight,”Kumaraswamy told reporters when asked if the two par-ties have reached a seat-sharing formula for the 2019 polls.He was in the national Capital to meet Prime MinisterNarendra Modi to discuss issues pertaining to the State.

Siddaramaiah, who is the leader of the Congress-JanataDal (Secular) coalition coordination committee, ruled outany differences between him and Deputy Chief Minister GParameshwara over portfolio allocation to the newly-induct-ed Ministers.

From Page 1Experts said top officials

appear to have wavered fromthe political line imposed bythe strongman President. WillyLam, a professor at the ChineseUniversity of Hong Kong,described the meeting as“extraordinary” because theleadership is “admitting thereis tension within its ranks”.

“It means some of thePolitburo members have doneor said things contrary to XiJinping’s interests,” he added.

According to Xinhua, theleaders “were also urged tostudy the latest speeches givenby Xi” as quickly as possible,and will have to “disciplinethemselves, their families andclose aides at work”.

Xi reportedly made aspeech at the meeting, duringwhich he lauded “democraticcentralism” — one of thefounding principles ofLeninism in which the topleadership is all-powerful —and called for unity within theparty.

Since he came to power, Xihas waged a campaign againstcorruption, punishing morethan 1.5 million officials. Someobservers however say the crack-down has targeted his internalopponents in particular.

From Page 1“Rescues like these can be exceptionally nerve-

wracking as both the safety of the public and theanimal need to be kept in mind,” the official said,adding, “In a two-hour long wearing rescue oper-ation carried out with Karnataka Forest Department,finally the male sloth bear was rescued from thedeep well.”

According to Wildlife officials, “On hearing thedistressed cries of the animal, the landownerinstantly reported the incident to the district for-est department who in turn contacted us.”

Dr Gowda said, “On arrival, we found the bearstruggling at the bottom of the 40-foot deep well.After following the necessary safety measures, ourteam was able to lift the bear from the well.Following that, a complete orthopaedic examina-tion was carried out to assess any internal injuriesthe bear might have sustained owing to its fall. Aftermandatory observation, the sloth bear was releasedback into the wild.”

Explaining about the behaviour of the sloth, DrArun A Sha, Director-Wildlife VeterinaryOperations, said, “There has been a significantincrease in the number of such occurrences. Theinhabited areas on the fringes of the forests usual-ly have uncovered wells that pose a huge risk to thesafety of wildlife and people. We also urge peopleto address the issue of open wells, to evade any suchaccidents in the future.”

Kartick Satyanarayan, Co-founder & CEO,Wildlife SOS said, “Over the years, the natural habi-tat of these sloth bears has deteriorated due toincreasing human encroachment and their popu-lation in the wild is threatened, putting them underthe International Union for Conversation forNature (IUCN) list of vulnerable species.”

From Page 1One step being considered is

to pay farmers the differencebetween the Minimum SupportPrice for their crop and themarket rate. The price differen-tial could be credited directly tothe banks of the farmers. Theidea is inspired by the “bhavan-tar (price difference) scheme” ofthe previous Shivraj SinghChouhan-led BJP Governmentin Madhya Pradesh.

The third step being consid-ered is to doubling collateral-freeloans under Kisan Credit Cards(KCCs) to Rs 2 lakh and changesin the Pradhan Mantri FasalBima Yojna (PMFBY) crop insur-ance scheme to enhance coverageand ensure faster settlement ofclaims and schemes. There areover 40 million KCC accountswith Rs 2.37 lakh crore out-standing. Under KCC guidelines,the Reserve Bank of India hasallowed banks to waive marginrequirements for loans up to Rs1 lakh. Farmers currently have torepay both principal and interestto be eligible for fresh lending.

Sources said that the Centreis also examining the RythuBandhu Investment SupportScheme (FISS) of Telangana forfarmers to tackle the agrarian cri-sis and farmers’ unrest. Aimed atrelieving farmers of debt burdenand cease them from falling intothe debt trap again, the schemeprovides a grant of Rs 4,000 peracre per farmer each season forthe purchase of inputs like seeds,fertilisers, pesticides, labour andother investments in the field

operations of farmer’s choice forthe crop season. A high-levelteam of Central Governmenthas recently visited the Telanganato study the scheme and sub-mitted their report to PrimeMinster Office (PMO).

The Jharkhand Governmenthas also recently announced ascheme called as theMukhyamantri Krishi AshirwadYojana. Under the scheme, theGovernment will give Rs 5,000per acre to farmers. Farmers whohave land holdings of less thanone acre will be entitled to availof assistance of Rs 5,000.

To boost farm sector, theModi Government had launchedPradhan Mantri Annadata AaySanrakshan Abhiyan (PM-AASHA) which is indicatingless effective. The new minimumsupport price (MSP) for kharifand rabi crops that provides acost-plus-50 per cent price alsoseems to be less effective. Despiteannouncing several sops forfarmers, the Government hasfailed to capture agrarian crisisand farmers’ unrest.

The results of the recentAssembly polls indicated thatfarm distress would be a coreissue in the 2019 polls. TheCongress made good on its cam-paign promise to waive farmloans almost immediately aftertaking charge in the three States.Congress chief Rahul Gandhithen told the media that his partyand others would not let PMModi sleep or rest until an all-India loan waiver scheme wasannounced.

From Page 1‘Chillai-Kalan’ ends on

January 31, but the cold wavecontinues even after that inKashmir. The 40-day period isfollowed by a 20-day long‘Chillai-Khurd’ and a 10-day‘Chillai-Bachha’.

The winter this season hasbeen dry so far, although therewas a spell of early snowfall inthe Valley in first and secondweek of November.

The weatherman has pre-dicted light rain or snowfall atisolated places in the valley andLadakh region on Thursday.

In Chandigarh, Punjab andHaryana were under the grip ofa cold wave, with their commoncapital Chandigarh recordingthe season’s coldest night so farat 3.4 degrees Celsius, which areis two notches below the nor-mal.

Adampur in Punjab wasthe coldest place in the twoStates with a low of 0.4 degreesCelsius, followed by Amritsar,where the minimum settled at1 degree Celsius, two notchesbelow the normal limits, themeteorological departmentsaid.

Piercing cold grippedLudhiana too, which recordeda minimum of 2 degreesCelsius, down three notchesagainst normal, while Patiala’stemperature settled at 4 degreesCelsius.

Pathankot (2.9 degreesCelsius), Bathinda (2.5 degreesCelsius), Halwara (degreesCelsius) Faridkot (3.8 degreesCelsius) and Gurdaspur (3.2degrees Celsius) too felt intensechill.

Hisar was the coldest placein Haryana with a minimum of2.8 degrees Celsius, down fournotches against normal limits.Ambala recorded a low of 4.2degrees Celsius, Karnal’s min-imum settled at 3.2 degreesCelsius, the MeT departmentsaid.

Rohtak recorded a low 4degrees Celsius, followed byNarnaul 4.5 degrees Celsius,Sirsa 4.8 degrees Celsius andBhiwani 5.2 degrees Celsius.

Dense fog affected normallife at many places in theregion, including Amritsar,Ludhiana, Patiala, Adampur,Halwara, Bathinda, Ambala,Hisar, Karnal and Bhiwani.The cold wave conditions arelikely to continue in the twoStates over the next few days,the weatherman said.

In Nashik, in northMaharashtra, the temperatureplummeted to 1.8 degreesCelsius in parts of the district.

Nashik city recorded thelowest temperature of this sea-son at 5.7 degrees Celsius onThursday but an early morningtemperature of 1.8 degreesCelsius was recorded at

Kundewadi agriculturalresearch centre in Niphadtehsil, officials said.

This spell of cold wavewill persist for another fourdays in the district.

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Islamabad: Pakistan onThursday described theKartarpur corridor as the “highpoint of diplomacy” for theImran Khan Governmentwhile admitted that there was“no progress” on the con-tentious issues with India.

Foreign Office spokesper-son Mohammad Faisal alsosaid that the Kashmir issueremained “on top of Pakistan’spriority”.

At the weekly media brief-ing here, Faisal said that theKartarpur corridor was the“high point of diplomacy forPakistan’s new Government,along with Afghan (peace)developments.”

He said Prime MinisterKhan in a letter to his Indiancounterpart Narendra Modi inSeptember gave a detailedroadmap to move forward but New Delhi failed to reciprocate.

Faisal said that despiteIndia’s refusal to start a dia-logue, Pakistan went aheadwith the groundbreaking of theKartarpur corridor.

Prime Minister Khan inNovember laid the foundationstone for the corridor linkingGurdwara Darbar Sahib inPakistan’s Kartarpur — thefinal resting place of Sikh faith’sfounder Guru Nanak Dev — toDera Baba Nanak shrine inIndia’s Gurdaspur district tofacilitate visa-free movement ofIndian Sikh pilgrims. PTI

Meerut (UP): The policeclaimed to have arrested onThursday the man allegedlywho shot an inspector deadduring the Bulandshahr mobviolence early this month.

The arrest of Prashant Nat,around 26, in connection withthe killing of Inspector SubodhKumar Singh during the vio-lence in Siyana area of UttarPradesh’s Bulandshahr districton December 3, takes the totalnumber of accused held inthis case to 29, police said.

“During interrogation, hehas confessed to his involve-ment in the violence and alsoadmitted that he had shot thebullet which killed the inspec-tor,” said Atul KumarSrivastava, additional superin-tendent of police (ASP),Bulandhshahr city.

“We are interrogating himfurther to elicit other detailsand expect other informationto emerge during the probe.Based on that information, wewill move ahead with the probein the case,” the ASP said.

A police official said Nat, aresident of Chingrawathi vil-lage of Siyana, was held fromSikandrabad, near the highwaythat leads to Noida, around2.30 pm. He works part time asa driver in Delhi and nearbyareas and, at other times, heworks locally as a labourer, theofficial told PTI.

“With this arrest, the totalarrested in the violence case ofDecember 3 has gone up to 29now,” he said.

Five people were arrestedon December 18 for theiralleged roles in the mob vio-lence and the cow-slaughteringcases.

Three of them -- Nadeem,Raees and Kaala -- were arrest-ed for their alleged involvementin the cow-slaughtering case,while two accused were nabbedby the state special task force(STF) for the subsequent vio-lence after cow carcasses werefound in a field. The inspectorand a youth had died duringthe violence.

The trio was not named inthe initial FIR, which hadseven accused, including twominors, but their namesemerged in the case duringprobe.

An FIR against 27 namedpeople and 50-60 unidentifiedpeople was registered at theSiyana police station for theviolence at the Chingrawathipolice post after cattle car-casses were found strewn out-side nearby Mahaw village.

One of the main suspectsamong the 27 named in theFIR, local Bajrang Dal leaderYogesh Raj, is still at large, whilean Army jawan, Jitendra Malik,has been arrested and remand-ed in custody. PTI

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Reviving his “Vibrant Mumbainightlife” proposal ahead of the New

Year, Yuv Sena president AdityaThackeray has urged Chief MinisterDevendra Fadnavis to permit non-resi-dential zones in Mumbai and other citiesto remain open full night for all legalactivities of entertainment and celebra-tions on the New Year Eve.

Nearly three years after he submit-ted a formal letter to the chief ministerwith a request to put in place the lawswhich make Mumbai a “live 24/7” city,Aditya revived the “vibrant nightlife” pro-posal and requested Fadnavis to allowMumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai, Pune and

other cities “that wish to celebrate NewYear” to remain open all night “for legalactivities of entertainment and celebra-tion, especially in non-residential areas”.

Reminding the chief minister aboutthe proposal that he had made inFebruary last year, Aditya wrote in hisletter to the Chief Minister: “ I take thisopportunity to drop a small reminder ofthe proposal of the BMC, first passed in2013, then approved by theCommissioner and now legislated on bythe state in 2017, to let non-residentialareas in Mumbai and other cities toremain open 24/7. The proposal forMumbai is awaiting your approval fromthe Home department for a few monthsnow and is fool-proof”.

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New Delhi: Some people onThursday interrupted Delhi ChiefMinister Arvind Kejriwal by imi-tating coughing action as he start-ed speaking at an official eventhere, prompting Union MinistersNitin Gadkari and Harsh Vardhanto intervene.

The action ridiculing Kejriwalfor the bouts of coughing he suf-fered till 2016, left the AAP leaderin an awkward position at the

Vigyan Bhawan event as he askedfor some silence from the audi-ence.

The programme was jointlyorganised by the National Missionfor Clean Ganga and the Delhi JalBoard to launch projects to cleanthe Yamuna River.

It was attended by UnionWater Resources MinisterGadkari and EnvironmentMinister Vardhan.

Deputy Chief MinisterManish Sisodia, Minister of Statefor Water Resources SatyapalSingh, and BJP MPs from Delhiand workers were also present.

Some people started mockingKejriwal by coughing as he beganhis speech. As the hecklingbecame louder, Vardhan andGadkari asked them to stop.“Please keep quite. This is an offi-cial event,” Gadkari said. PTI

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Amid speculation of internalfeud, Rajasthan Chief

Minister Ashok Gehlot onThursday claimed that therewere no differences within theState Congress over portfolioallocation, and that the newly-formed Cabinet will meet inJaipur on Friday which is alsothe foundation day of the party.

Gehlot justified the alloca-tion of portfolios, saying itwas a “well-thought out” exer-cise and has been “welcomed”by the people. The newlyinducted Rajasthan Ministerswere allocated portfolios, withChief Minister Gehlot keepingnine departments, includingthe key Finance and Home,with himself, in an exercise lateon Wednesday night.

Speaking to mediapersonsin the national Capital, Gehlotsaid, “The first meeting of newRajasthan state Cabinet will beheld on December 28, which isthe Congress foundation day,and the new Governmentwould make a good start onthis day.”

In Uttar Pradesh andMaharashtra when the BJPcame to power, it took themseven-nine days to announceChief Ministers, he said. TheBJP Government, he alleged,had “blocked” several big deci-sions of the previous CongressGovernment and said his partywould not emulate them.

“We won’t block any gooddecision of the outgoing RajeGovernment. The good workof the Vasundharaji ’sGovernment, we will not block

them in public interest.”Gehlot said the state

Congress had already startedpreparations for the Lok Sabhaelections and a meeting withPCC chief Sachin Pilot andAICC general secretary in-charge for the State AvinashPande has already taken place.

He also expressed hopethat a ‘mahagathbandhan’(grand alliance) of Oppositionparties would soon be formedto take on and defeat the BJP,which he claimed was workingto satisfy “public perception”and not doing any sincere andconcrete work.

“Rahul Gandhiji has saidthat we will exert pressure onthe Prime Minister to waivefarm loans as farmers were themost harassed, besides theyouth of the country, whose

aspirations were left unful-filled.

“If this Government comesagain, then there is a threat tothe country, the country’sdemocracy and itsConstitution. All Oppositionparties feel this and we arehopeful the ‘mahagathbandhan’will be formed soon and will besuccessful,” he said.

Referring to UnionMinister Nitin Gadkari’s recentremark that the BJP “leader-ship” should own up to “defeatand failures” also, days after hisparty lost polls in three states,Gehlot said, “Maybe somemore BJP leaders should speaktheir hearts out in the party’sinterest before the NDAGovernment goes out ofpower,” he said.

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Bhutan Prime Minister LotayTshering arrived here on

Thursday on a three-day visitduring which he will hold talkswith his counterpart NarendraModi on a host of issues,including the Himalayannation’s five-year developmentplan.

On his first visit to thecountry since taking charge lastmonth, Tshering was receivedby Minister of State for FinanceShiv Pratap Shukla.

He will be given a cere-monial reception on Fridayand will hold talks with PrimeMinister Modi the same day.

Sources said a host ofissues, including Bhutan’s five-year development plan, is like-ly to be discussed during thevisit.

The Ministry of ExternalAffairs had earlier said thetwo sides are likely to discussall aspects of bilateral rela-tions, including high-levelexchanges, people-to-peopleties, and economic, develop-ment and hydropower cooper-ation.

The upcoming visit of

Tshering will provide an oppor-tunity to the two sides toreview the progress in themulti-faceted partnership, anddiscuss ways and means toexpand the enduring ties offriendship and cooperation,the MEA had said.

“Time-tested relationship.Dr Lotay Tshering@PMBhutan received warm-ly by MoS Finance@BJPShivPShukla on arrival inDelhi for a 3-day State Visit atthe invitation of PM @naren-dramodi. #IndiaBhutan cele-brate 50th anniversary of estab-lishment of diplomatic relationsthis year,” MEA SpokespersonRaveesh Kumar tweeted afterBhutanese premier’s arrival.

Tshering’s visit comes amonth after Foreign SecretaryVijay Gokhale’s official trip toBhutan.

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The unparalleled martyr-dom of the four sons of the

Sikh Guru Gobind Singh inDecember 1705 AD duringMughal rule was recollectedand remembered in the LokSabha, which also expressed itscondolences.

Lok Sabha Speaker SumitraMahajan on Thursday saidthat the country cannot forgetthe martyrdom of the foursons of the Sikh Guru GobindSingh and the House express-es its condolences.

While BS Mann (AAP)asked the House to pay tributesto the martyrs, ‘Sahibzade’,four Martyred Sons of GuruGobind Singh — Ajit Singh ,Jujhar Singh , Zorawar SinghFateh Singh — who volun-teered for service against over-whelming odds and fell, oneafter the other, battlingMughals.

PS Chandumajra (ShimoniAkali Dal) urged members tostand for 2 minutes and paytributes to the Guru’s sons.

Ranjeet Ranjan (Congress)demanded that condolencemeetings should be held acrossthe country to mark the mar-tyrdom. Union Minister andsenior BJP leader SS Ahluwaliasaid the martyrdom should berespected.

The Speaker sought mem-bers to keep silence in thehouse witnessing bedlam since

the word go in the morning.Congress and AIADMK mem-bers continued their sloga-neering over various issues.

Mahajan said memberswere speaking on a seriousissue and the protesting partiesshould observe silence and lis-ten to them as the matter wasnot only related to the Sikh religion.

“Children were mar-tyred...This is a serious issue.Please listen. I am talking aboutchildren who were martyred.The country joins in payingtributes,” she said adding “Thecountry cannot forget the mar-tyrdom and the House express-es its condolences”.

Four Sikh martyrs metdeath on the battlefield withtwo of them captured , impris-oned and tortured at the handsof Mughals who were offeredthe choice religious conversionto escape death. Both of theGuru’s sons, however, braceddeath as they were known tohave been bricked alive.

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The BJP on Thursdaydescribed as an “admis-

sion of self guilt” a PakistaniMinister’s claim that theNarendra Modi Governmentcan carry out another surgicalstrike for “political gains”.

BJP spokesperson NalinKohli’s sharp retort came fol-lowing Pakistan RailwaysMinister and Prime MinisterImran Khan’s close aide SheikhRashid’s comments at a pressconference in Lahore thatPrime Minister Modi can ordersuch an attack for “politicalgains” ahead of the 2019 elec-tions.

Pakistan has, by default,been figuring in the Indianelectoral scene with a section ofBJP supporters accusing theCongress members of criticis-ing Modi while on a visit to theneighbouring country andplotting his defeat.

“2019 is very important forPakistan. Indian PrimeMinister Narendra Modi’s BJPhas lost elections in five Statesin his country. To appease hisfar-right constituents beforethe next general election in2019, Modi can order surgicalstrikes in Pakistan. This iswhat I am seeing to happen,”Rashid said. Hitting back, Kohlisaid the Pakistani Government

and its functionaries seemobsessed with India despitebeing elected on an agenda ofmaking a new Pakistan.

“The statement should beseen as an admission of selfguilt by the Pakistani estab-lishment that terrorist campsare obviously not only stillexisting but active and there-fore puts an acceptance at theirend that India does have a rightto protect its borders and secu-rity,” the BJP leader said.

Kohli, who is a nationalspokesperson of the BJP, hasbeen given additional respon-sibility of being the party’selection in-charge of Nagalandand Manipur.

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Soon tourists visiting fiveiconic sites — Amer Fort

(Rajasthan), Kaziranga(Assam), Colva Beach (Goa),Kumarakom (Kerala) and

Mahabodhi Temple (Bihar)-will no longer have to dependon the human guide to explorethe historic hotspots. In fact,they can just log in to anaudio-video guide app that isbeing developed by the

Government.On Thursday, Union

Tourism Minister KJ Alphons,at an event here handed over aMemorandum ofUnderstanding to M/s ResbirdTechnologies for developingthe mobile Audio-Video GuideApp under the Centre’s ‘Adopta Heritage’ scheme launched inJune this year.

During the function, theMinister also handed over theLetters of Intent to seven agen-cies shortlisted to become‘Monument Mitras’.

An official from theMinistry said that these agen-cies, if empanelled, will coversites like the Aalampur Temple,Telangana; Bhimbetka RockShelters, Madhya Pradesh;Buddhist Caves, Uparkot,Gujarat; and Rani ki Vav, Patan,Gujarat.

The sites also include theChampaner PavagarhArchaeological Park,Champaner, Gujarat; theEuropean tomb, near KatargamDarwaja, Surat, Gujarat; Lothal,Bhal, Gujarat; the Khajuraho

group of Monuments, MadhyaPradesh; the MahabalipuramGroup of Monuments, TamilNadu and the MaharajaChhatrasal Museum Complexin Madhya Pradesh.

“These agencies would

become ‘Monument Mitras’through the innovative conceptof ‘Vision Bidding’, which willgive them the opportunity toassociate their CSR activitieswith a heritage site if the VisionBid is selected,” the official said.

The move to develop suchan app was felt to ease the visitof the tourists to the hotspotsas they will not have to spendon guided tours which havebeen found quite expensivewith little time for the touriststo do exploring on their own.

The app will give thetourists the ability to take a tourat their own pace as they willnot have to stick to be ingroups, he said.

The ‘Adopt a Heritage:Apni Dharohar, ApniPehchaan’ scheme is a collab-orative effort between the min-istries of Tourism, Culture and

the Archaeological Survey ofIndia (ASI).

It aims to involve publicand private sector companies,corporate citizens or individu-als to make the country’s her-itage and tourism more sus-tainable through development.

The Ministry has previ-ously issued Letters of Intent

(LoI) in five ceremonies to 37shortlisted agencies for theirinterest in 107 sites acrossIndia. As on date, 10 MoUshave been executed with vari-ous ‘Monument Mitras’ fordevelopment, operation andmaintenance of tourist ameni-ties at heritage and tourist sitesacross India.

���� �12�#1,3'

Expressing his anguish overrepeated adjournments of

the House, Rajya Sabha chair-man M Venkaiah Naidu onThursday said some sectionswere “strategising” for stallingthe proceedings.

He said the Chair has “veryfew options” when the partiesthemselves direct their mem-bers to disrupt proceedingsand any action against such“disruptors” can only be takenwith consensus.

The Rajya Sabha wasadjourned for the day withouttransacting any business afterruckus in the House over issuesranging from construction of adam on the Cauvery River toviolence in Uttar Pradesh’sBulandshahr district

Speaking at a meeting withparliamentary affairs minis-ters and leaders of various par-ties before the commencementof the Upper House, Naidu saidhe was forced to adjourn theHouse as some sections weredetermined not to allow theproper functioning ofParliament. He said such sec-tions were also “strategising”for repeated adjournments for“more effect”.

The Rajya Sabha saw dis-ruptions since the start of theWinter session of Parliament

on December 11. The sessionis likely to end on January 8,2019. Naidu urged all parties toarrive at a consensus on takingaction against “disruptors”,adding some outfits were notsupporting such measures for“obvious reasons” and that theChair cannot be selective intaking action against thoseentering the Well of the House.

He noted that the Chairhad very few options whenpolitical parties directed theirmembers to disrupt the Houseas a matter of strategy. TheBusiness Advisory Committeeof Rajya Sabha has allocatedtime to a large number of Billsand it will take about two ses-sions to consider them, theRajya Sabha chairman said.

He also said such repeatedadjournments would adverse-ly impact public perceptionabout Parliament. Naiduexpressed disappointment overnot allowing the Rajya Sabha tofunction even after permittinga discussion on issues likeprice rise, farm sector concerns,Cauvery water and Rafale deal.

He appealed to all sec-tions of the House to removethe hurdles and enable normalfunctioning of Rajya Sabha.

���� �12�#1,3'

Telangana Chief Minister KChandrashekar Rao on

Thursday met Chief ElectionCommissioner Sunil Arora andurged him not to allocate pollsymbols that can be confusedwith his party TRS’ ‘car’ sym-bol by voters in the upcomingLok Sabha general elections.

During a meeting here,Rao informed the CEC that theTelangana Rashtra Samithi(TRS) had to suffer in someconstituencies in the recentAssembly polls because of thesymbol confusion, partysources said. The TRS chief alsodiscussed about brighteningthe colour of the party symbolfor easy recognition by voters,they said.

The Telangana Chief

Minister, in a representationmade to the ElectionCommission, informed “howvoters in Telangana are gettingconfused with party symbolsespecially truck and iron andrequested not to allow suchsymbols in the 2019 Lok Sabhapolls”, a party leader said.

In the recently concludedassembly elections, truck sym-bol was allotted to All IndiaFoward Bloc party, while ironsymbol was given to an inde-pendent. Rao also flagged con-cerns about deletion of namesin the state voters’ list, thesources added.

The Chief Minister is inDelhi for last three days. Hepaid a courtesy call on PrimeMinister Narendra Modi yes-terday and discussed pendingprojects.

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Several Parliamentarians onThursday expressed soli-

darity with UPSC aspirantsdemanding one more attemptto crack the civil services examclaiming they were affected byabrupt changes in rulesbetween 2011 and 2015.

Cutting across party lines,the members of Parliamentsaid it was harsh on the part ofthe Government to deny theaspirants one more chance toappear in the exam. Around100 UPSC aspirants held aprotest at Parliament Street inDelhi, seeking compensatoryattempts irrespective of theirage or category.

In 2011, the Union PublicService Commission intro-duced CSAT, which set off anoutrage among students fromHindi and humanities back-ground as they felt that itwould affect those who werenot from English, Maths andScience backgrounds.

CPI(M) general secretarySitaram Yechury, who led MPsin expressing solidarity withaspirants affected by thechanges, said they have raisedthe issue several times andwritten to the Government butthe response has been “callous”.

RJD leader Manoj Jha,

DMK leader TKS Elangovanand Congress leader BKHariprasad also expressed sol-idarity with the demands of theUPSC aspirants and said theyshould be given anotherchance.

Yechury said UPSC ruleswere changed in the past too -in 1979 and in 1992 — and onboth the occasions, aspirantsaffected by the changes wereallowed to appear for the examheld under the new rules. “Ithink this is inhuman becausethese youngsters are the futureof our country. If these young-sters are denied the opportu-nity then you are having an elit-ist bias and promoting region-al imbalances. We want thegovernment to reconsider this

and give these aspirants anoth-er chance,” Yechury said.

CPI leader D Raja claimedinstitutions such as UPSC andUGC are being undermined bythe government. He also pro-posed that the students shouldsubmit a fresh memorandumto the minister concerned andthe prime minister.

Arun S NigavekarCommittee set up by theCommission and UPSC’s ownannual report have highlight-ed that “due to CSAT, selectionof students from regional lan-guages and from humanitiesbackground has declined dur-ing 2011-2014”, he said. TheCSAT paper was competitive innature during the 2011-14 period.

���� �12�#1,3'

The Union Home Ministryon Thursday banned the

Khalistan Liberation Force(KLF) as a terrorist organisa-tion. The KLF aims to establishan independent country withthe secession of Punjab“through violent means”.

The outfit has been bannedunder the Unlawful Activities(Prevention) Act, 1967 (UAPA)for the group’s alleged involve-ment in killing of innocentpeople and police officers andseveral bombings on civiliantargets in India, according to aGovernment order.

The Khalistan LiberationForce and all its manifestationshave been declared outlawedunder the UAPA, the ordersaid.

Earlier, the Multi-AgencyCentre of the Intelligence

Bureau and the NationalInvestigation Agency had sentdossiers on the anti-nationalactivities of the outfit.

While the NIA listed thecases involving community-specific targeted killings inPunjab by radicals affiliatedwith KLF, the MAC reportpointed out that UK andCanada-based Khalistani rad-icals associated with the KLFand having links with Pakistan’scovert agency Inter-ServicesIntelligence, have committed“huge sum of money” to sup-port the activities of the organ-

isation in India in general andPunjab in particular in their bidto revive militancy in the State.

The MAC input was fur-ther verified by the Researchand Analysis Wing, India’sexternal Intelligence agency,which not only confirmed therole of the outfit in revival ofterrorism in India but alsounderscored an input that aCanada-based Khalistani rad-ical had already handed over �4crore to an ISI handler todeliver it to the conduits inIndia, sources said.

Following this, a note wasmoved for banning the KLF.

The decision to ban theoutfit under the UAPA comesin the backdrop of agenciesunearthing several KLF mod-ules in recent months whichhas led to assessments that it isattempting to revive militancyin the State.

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Jaipur: Newly inductedRajasthan Ministers have beenallocated portfolios, with ChiefMinister Ashok Gehlot assign-ing nine departments, includ-ing the key Finance and Home,to himself.

According to the ordersissued by the CabinetSecretariat here, Deputy ChiefMinister Sachin Pilot has beengiven the charge of PublicWorks, Rural Development,Panchayati Raj, Science andTechnology and StatisticsDepartments.

Apart from the ChiefMinister and his deputy, 13Cabinet and 10 Ministers ofState were allocated portfoliosby Governor Kalyan Singh lateon Wednesday night on theadvice of Gehlot.

The 23 Ministers weresworn in on Monday, a weekafter Chief Minister AshokGehlot and Deputy ChiefMinister Sachin Pilot tookoath.

The allocation of portfolioswas made after Gehlot andPilot held meetings withCongress president RahulGandhi in New Delhi onWednesday.

The decision had beenpending due to reported dis-agreement between Gehlot andPilot over allocation of keyportfolios such as home andfinance.

Besides finance and home,the Chief Minister also kept thecharge of excise, planning, per-sonnel, general administrationand information technologydepartment, among others.

BD Kalla has been givenenergy, public health engi-neering, ground water, art, cul-

ture and archeology depart-ments, while Shanti Dhariwalwas assigned urban develop-ment and housing, law and par-liamentary affairs departments.

Parsadi Lal was namedindustry Minister, and MasterBhanwar Lal Meghwal is incharge of social justice andempowerment department.

Agriculture, animal hus-bandry and fisheries depart-ments are with Lal ChandKataria while medical andhealth, information and publicrelations departments are withRaghu Sharma. Pramod Bhayais the mines Minister.

Vishvendra Singh gottourism and devsthan depart-ment, Harish Chaudhary was

allocated revenue, whileRamesh Chand Meena wasgiven Food and Civil SuppliesDeaprtment.

Besides being made thecooperative Minister, AnjanaUdailal was also given theIndira Gandhi canal projectdepartment. Pratap Singh wasgiven the charge of Transportand Soldier WelfareDepartments while ShaleMohammad was madeMinority Affairs and WaqfMinister.

The portfolios, which areyet to be allocated, will remainwith the Chief Minister fornow.

Among the Ministers ofState, Govind Singh Dotasarawas given Education (inde-pendent charge) as well asTourism and DevsthanDepartments. Mamta Bhupeshwas given Women and ChildDevelopment Department(independent charge) alongwith Minority Affairs andWaqf. Arjun Singh Bamniawas given Tribal AreaDevelopment Department(independent charge) as well asIndustry and Pubic EnterprisesDepartments. PTI

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In a bizarre incident, consid-ered to be the handiwork of

some right wing forces, thou-sands of people queued upbefore tens of post offices andbanks to open “zero balance”accounts after rumour did therounds that come January, theNarendra Modi Governmentwould be transferring cash ineach such account.

People braved biting coldof sub-Himalayan NorthBengal and queued up beforebanks and post offices acrossCoochbehar, Dinhata and else-where to open accounts,sources said adding most ofthem were confirmed that theiraccounts would get fatter fromJanuary when the Centrewould start depositing cash inthem.

“I have no idea but somepeople said that ModiGovernment will give usmoney. But how much I don’tknow,” said a person standingat the end of about 250 peopleoutside a post office atCoochbehar said. A womanwho had come all the way fromTufanganj said the Governmentwould give in excess of �5 lakh.

In Kolkata PMG GautamBhattaacharjee said he too hadinformation about peoplequeuing up before the postoffices “as such accounts can beopened at any postal branches.Our local managers inquired

about the reason behind sud-den spurt in the number ofaccount seekers but nothingextra-ordinary caught theireyes.”

Though the police had noqueue about the mischief mon-gers, sources said that search-es were on to find out such peo-ple. Incidentally Coochbehar isa district bordering Assamwhere the BJP has witnessed ameteoric rise over the pastseveral years — particularly inthe urban regions — with theeffect that it is threatening theruling Trinamool Congress interms of winnability chances.

Kolkata: Assam Rifles, whichguards vast stretches of theIndo-Myanmar border in thenorth east, is in the process ofoccupying a number of addi-tional locations along the fron-tier, officials said on Thursday.

The paramilitary force hastaken a number of steps toincrease its presence in theremote border areas of thenorth east, the officials said.

"Assam Rifles is now in theprocess of occupying numberof additional locations all alongthe Indo-Myanmar Border," aDefence release said.

The move is aimed at keep-ing a strict curb on illegaltrans-border activities likesmuggling of drugs, weaponsand contraband items, and alsoto check unauthorised crossingof civilians in the border areas,it said.

The large stretch of the bor-der along the states ofArunachal Pradesh, Nagaland,Manipur and Mizoram ismanned by the Assam Rifles,known as the sentinels of thenorth east. PTI

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Bengaluru: Slain journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh's sisterKavitha Lankesh on Thursday

came out against any move tohand over the probe in the caseto the CBI, saying the Special

Investigation Team of theKarnataka police had made a lotof progress, arresting 16 suspects.

Kavitha said if the StateGovernment agreed to the CBIprobe, she would seek toimplead herself in the matter inthe Supreme Court and opposeit. Her comments come in thebackdrop of the apex courtrecently favouring CBI probeinto the murders of GauriLankesh, rationalist MMKalburgi and social activistGovind Pansare if there was a"common thread" in these inci-dents which occurred over thelast five years.

"The SIT led by IG BKSingh and investigation officerMN Anucheth did a brilliantwork by arresting the accusedin the case. It filed two chargesheets also. When there is somuch headway, it does notmake anysense to hand overthe case to CBI," she told here.However, Kalburgi's sonSreevijaya said he was havingfaith in judiciary and whatev-er it did will be in the bestinterest of his family. "We willgo by whatever judiciary feelsgood. At the end of the day wewant justice in the case," hesaid. On December 11, a benchof justices UU Lalit and NavinSinha of the Supreme Courthad asked the CBI to inform itby January first week whetherit would like to investigate thethree other cases also. PTI

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Itanagar: The Uttar PradeshGovernment has invited thepeople of Arunachal Pradesh toattend the Kumbh Mela, sched-uled to be held at Prayagrajfrom January 15 to March 4next year, officials said.

UP's Minister of State(Independent) for RuralDevelopment Mahendra Singhon Thursday extended the invi-tation on behalf of ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath.

"Over 5,000 NRIs will visitthe Kumbh owing to the jointefforts made by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath, andpeople from six lakh villagesacross India along with the

overseas devotees from 92countries will participate," hesaid at a press conference here.

The Minister said the StateGovernment has set up 5,000camps, to accommodate thedevotees.

"The objective of the eventis to make efforts to familiarisethe world with the high quali-ty life, conduct and thoughts ofIndian culture throughKumbhs," the Minister said.

Earlier in the day, the min-ister called on ArunachalPradesh Governor Brig (Retd)Dr BD Mishra at Raj Bhawanhere and Chief Minister PemaKhandu to invite them for theevent. PTI

Shillong: Two teams of a pri-vate pump manufacturingcompany, which has volun-teered to provide equipment todrain out water from the rat-hole coal mine in Meghalayawhere 15 diggers have beentrapped for nearly a fortnight,arrived at the site on Thursday.

Rescuers from the IndianAir Force and Coal India areexpected to reach the mine inEast Jaintia Hills district onFriday.

Superintendent of PoliceSylvester Mongtynger said twoteams from Kirloskar BrothersLtd arrived on Thursday to help

in rescuing the miners trappedin the 370-foot-deep illegalmine. "We are deeply con-cerned about the trapped min-ers in Meghalaya and are readyto help in whichever way pos-sible. We are in touch with theofficials of the Government ofMeghalaya to offer our assis-tance in this regard," KirloskarBrothers Ltd said in a statementlate Wednesday night.

Indian Air Forcespokesperson Ratnakar Singhsaid the National DisasterManagement Authority hasrequested the IAF to airliftrescuers from Bhubaneswar to

either Guwahati or Shillong air-port Friday.

Sources in Coal India Ltdsaid Thursday officers and sur-veyers are on their way to thesite.

A senior Government offi-cial said they will assess the sit-

uation including the road con-dition leading to the mine in aremote area in the district andaccordingly report to theiroffice, which will then take acall on what equipment arerequired to launch a rescueoperation.

The search-and-rescueoperation was suspended onSaturday after water pumpedout of the mine did not lead toa drop in the water level.

On Thursday, the NationalDisaster Response Force con-tradicted media reports whichquoted it as saying that thetrapped minors were suspect-

ed to be dead on the basis of the"foul odour" the force's divershad smelt when they had goneinside the mine.

The NDRF battalion basedin Guwahati, which is carryingout the rescue operation, saidthe statement of its AssistantCommandant Santosh KumarSingh on "foul smell" had been"misinterpreted and he wasmisquoted as saying that foulodour could indicate that theminers were dead and the bod-ies are beginning to decom-pose." The NDRF explained thefoul smell could be of the stag-nant water. PTI

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Chennai: Scores of functionaries from theDMK and TTV Dhinakaran's AMMK inKarur district on Thursday joined the rul-ing AIADMK in the presence of its top lead-ers, Chief Minister K Palaniswami and hisdeputy O Panneerselvam.

More than 3,000 members of the DMK,AMMK, Congress, DMDK and MDMKfrom the district joined the AIADMK, aparty release here said.

Panneerselvam is the AIADMKCoordinator, while Palaniswami is the JointCoordinator.

Welcoming the workers into theAIADMK fold, especially those from theAMMK, the Chief Minister said they hadcome to the right place.

"Those in the AMMK are our brothersand sisters. They struggled and helped in thegrowth of this organisation (AIADMK, ear-

lier). Such people were misled," he said inan apparent reference to Dhinakaran.

The AIADMK had earlier extended aninvitation to AMMK workers to return tothe 'parent organisation', saying they hadbeen 'misled' by Dhinakaran when hefloated the party early this year post his fall-out with Palaniswami in 2017.

The AIADMK has made it clear that itsdoors are open to anyone from the AMMK

other than Dhinakaran and deposed partyleader VK Sasikala.

Training his guns on former AMMKleader V Senthil Balaji, who joined the DMKrecently, Palaniswami charged him with"having no ideology."

Recalling his association with theAIADMK since 1974, besides that of othersenior leaders, Palaniswami said that hardwork and gratitude has brought them tosuch heights. "Hard work and gratitude willalways earn respect," he added.

Panneerselvam, who hit out atDhinakaran, said the AMMK workers, byreturning to the AIADMK, were now"travelling in the right direction." He urgedthe party workers to strive for AIADMK'swin in the bypolls to 20 Assembly con-stituencies, as well as next year's LokSabha polls. PTI

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Unnao (UP): In a fresh twist toa rape case allegedly involvingBJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar,an FIR has been lodged on courtorders against the victim, hermother and an uncle for pro-ducing a forged age certificate toprove she was a minor.

The court ordered regis-tration of a case against thethree on a complaint by thefather of another rape accusedShubham, who is in jail, said SPHarish Kumar on Thursday.

He said complainantHarpal Singh had alleged thatthe victim, her uncle and moth-er had procured a forged agecertificate to implicate his sonShubham in the rape case, saidKumar.

The police said the casewas registered at the Makhipolice station on court’sDecember 17 order against thefamily members for variousalleged offences of cheatringand forgery.

Complainant Singh hadmoved the court saying theschool transfer certificate, pur-portedly made by Raebarelischool and produced as the agecertificate, was forged to framehis son, police said.

The victim’s uncle ispresently in jail in connectionwith another case.

Harpal Singh’s wife Shashiand son Shubham are accusedin the rape case and have beenin jail since April along with themain accused, BJP legislatorKuldeep Singh Sengar.

Sengar, a four-time MLA,was charged by the CBI withraping the girl at his residence inMakhi village on June 4 last year.

The girl was again abduct-ed and raped by a separategroup of accused, allegedlyincluding Harpal Singh’s sonShubhan Singh, his driverNaresh Tiwari and one BrijeshYadav between June 11 andJune 20, 2017.

But in his complaint,Harpal Singh alleged that thevictim had an affair with a mannamed Awadesh Tewari, withwhom she had eloped inSeptember 2017, only to returnsometime later.

After her return, her fam-ily had begun persuading hisson Shubham to marry her,alleged Harpal Singh in hiscomplaint. PTI

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Even though political uncer-tainty persists in the fragile

coalition Government inKarnataka after the Cabinetexpansion with many disgrun-tled Congress MLAs expressingtheir anger openly. However inan attempt to douse the fire,former Chief Minister andchairman of the coordinationcommittee Siddaramaiah rub-bishes the claim of theOpposition BJP that coalitionGovernment in Karnataka willcollapse due to internal rift.

Siddaramaiah has said atHubballi in north Karnatakaon Thursday that the Congress-JD(S) alliance was strong andthey would contest the 2019general elections together inone platform.

He also ruled out any dif-ferences between him andDeputy Chief Minister GParameshwara over portfolioallocation to newly inductedMinisters. However even days

after Cabinet expansion theChief Minister Kumaraswamyis not able to allocate the port-folios to the newly inductedministers from the congress asthe conflict has reached thehigh command.

“They (BJP) don’t want tosit in the Opposition and work.By using some wrong means,they want to form theGovernment,” Siddaramaiahsaid. He was reacting to seniorBharatiya Janata Party (BJP)lawmaker Umesh Katti’s claimthat 15 disgruntled MLAs fromthe ruling coalition were intouch with him and that thesaffron party would form thenew Government in Karnatakaby next week. Siddaramaiahsaid, “Nothing will happen,the Government will not fall.Government will complete itsterm; there is no problem at all.”

Reacting to the views ofJD(S) leaders that the partyshould contest the Lok Sabhapolls alone, the veteranCongress leader said both the

parties had fought the by-elec-tions together and the alliancewill remain intact for the 2019Lok Sabha polls as well.

“I don’t know what you aresaying ... (JD(S) wanting to goalone) is news for me,” the for-mer Karnataka Chief Ministersaid, adding that the seat shar-ing formula was yet to befinalised.

The JDs workers are per-turbed by the “big brother atti-tude” of the Congress partyand pressurising the leadershipto contest all 28 Lok Sabha seatsin 2019 general elections alone.

Meanwhile ruling out anyattempts by his party to desta-bilise the Congress-JD(S)coalition Government inKarnataka, State BJP presidentB S Yeddyurappa said his partywould take “appropriate deci-sion” if there was politicalinstability. He distanced him-self from senior BharatiyaJanata Party (BJP) lawmakerUmesh Katti’s claim that 15disgruntled MLAs from theruling coalition were in touchwith him and that the saffronparty would form the newGovernment in Karnataka bynext week. “Neither me, norour leaders have said we willcarry out operation lotus(BJP’s election symbol).Umesh Katti’s statement is notright,” the former ChiefMinister said.

“I want to say... let’s thinkabout what to be done whenCongress-JD(S) Governmentfalls because of internal squab-ble,” he said. Yeddyurappa saidin Vijayapura, “We will not

indulge in luring Congress-JD(S) legislators, we don’trequire it also.” “No Congressor JD(S) MLA has contactedus, nor have we attempted it,”he added. Yeddyurappa alsoalleged that due to internalsquabble within the rulingcoalition about Cabinet expan-sion and portfolio allocation,development of the State wasgetting hampered.

Another senior BJP leaderKS Eshwarappa said, “Earlierthere was fight among theMLAs of Congress for theposition of Minister. Nowthough the position of minis-ter is offered, there is issue ofportfolio distribution.Siddaramaiah has given theministership to people whoare in his good books. Seniorleaders like ShyamanurShivashankarappa have shownhis dissent and this shows theinternal rift in Congress. Thecoalition Government will fallby itself and BJP Governmentwill assume power in future.”

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In a sensational killing inEtawah, two sisters were

gunned down inside theirhome in connection with aproperty dispute earlyThursday morning.

Senior police officersrushed to the spot upon learn-ing about the incident andlaunched a hunt to nab the sus-pects.

The bodies were sent forautopsy and a case was regis-tered. As per reports, Lakshmi(18) and her elder sister Sunita(35) of Panchawali hamlet ofFriends Colony in Etawah weresleeping in separate rooms intheir home on Wednesday night.

Around 3 am on Thursday,their mother heard gun shotsand rushed out of her roomand first went Lakshmi’s roomon the ground floor and foundher lying in a pool of blood.

Later, she heard gun shotsbeing fired on the first floorwhere her elder daughterSunita was asleep. When sherushed upstairs, she foundSunita lying in a pool of blood.

Both sisters were shot deadby unknown person whoescaped after killing them.

The victims’ brother Sanjayalleged that they had a propertyrelated dispute with theiruncle’s family. He suspectedthat his cousin living in thesame locality might have exe-cuted the killing.

SSP of Etawah, AshokKumar Tripathi, after visitingthe spot said that the police hadpicked up two suspects fromthe neighbourhood and weregrilling them to extract thetruth.

Efforts were also beingmade to round up the victim’scousins, who were absconding.Investigations are on.

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The riders of Kolkata metrorailway had a providential

escape after smoke was detect-ed inside an air-conditionedcoach of the Kolkata Metro.

At least 20 people weretaken ill and 17 of them wereadmitted to Calcutta MedicalCollege and SSKM Hospitalwith nerve and breathing prob-lems after they were rescuedfrom inside the coach thatstood still some 200 metresaway inside the tunnel.

The incident happened atthe Maidan Station. “We were

travelling from New Garia toDum Dum when secondsbefore entering Maidan stationwe heard a huge sound andwatched flame-like things out-side. Then the entire AC coachwas filled with fume and wecould not even breathe,” said apassenger.

Another passenger said thatthe windows had literally to bebroken to get some relief andthe rescuers only came after 30-45 minutes after the incidentwas noticed. “Frantic calls to theauthorities yielded no answers,”angry passengers said.

“There could have been

some fire and there was smoke.But our men immediatelyswung into action dousingthem and it might have takensome time for them to enter thetunnel because they were tak-ing all precautions. But theentire thing will be inquiredinto,” Metro Railway CPROsaid.

The fire was doused by theMetro staff using water fromfire hydrants.

West Bengal Fire Serviceand Kolkata Police DisasterManagement group are attend-ing, the Kolkata Metro subse-quently tweeted.

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Mumbai: At least 14 Nigeriannationals were arrested for drugpeddling and contraband worth�21 lakh and a pistol wereseized from them, police saidon Thursday.

Some of the had illegallyentered India from Bangladesh,they said.

A raid was carried by theByculla police on the railwaytracks of Chinchpokli inCentral Mumbai in which theycaught seven Nigerian nation-als with narcotics on December15.

After interrogation, policegot information about moreNigerian nationals, who areinto drug peddling and hidingat Mira Road in neighbouringThane district, said DineshKadam, senior inspector,Byculla police station.

Acting on the information,a police team later arrestedseven other Nigerians who hadfired on cops, injuring four ofthem, he said. The police recov-ered drugs worth �21 lakh, a 32bore pistol and �41,000 in cashfrom the arrested Nigerians,Kadam said. PTI

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In a bonanza announced forits 20.5 lakh serving and

retired employees in the runup to the 2019 Lok Sabhapolls, the BJP-led MaharashtraGovernment said onThursday that it would imple-ment the 7th pay commissionpay-scale with retrospectiveeffect from January 1, 2016and pay the arrears in fiveequal yearly instalmentsbeginning from 2019-2020.

The decision will benefit20.05 lakh serving and retiredemployees. It will involve anadditional financial burdenof �14,000 on the State exche-quer every year. The servingand retired employees willbegin to reap the benefits

with effect from January 1,2019.

In addition to bearing theexpenditure of arising out ofthe pay hikes promised it, theState Government will incuran additional expenditure of�38,655 crore towards payingrevised wage arrears for threeyears to its employees fiveequal yearly instalments from2019-20.

The Devendra Fadnavisdispensation made anannouncement to this effectafter approving a report on therevision in the pay scales sub-mitted by a high-level com-mittee, headed former addi-tional chief secretary K PBakshi, at the weekly StateCabinet meeting here in theafternoon.

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Prime Minister NarendraModi’s monthly radio pro-

gramme ‘Mann Ki Baat’ may bea big hit in North India, but ithas not created any impact inTamil Nadu, according to seniorBJP leaders in the State.

The response to the PrimeMinister’s video conferencingwith party activists(Karyakarthas) in Tamil Nadutoo was the same. Though it gotwide publicity thanks to themass media, the truth is thatmore than 90 per cent of theaudience have not followed whatthe Prime Minister was telling.

“Language is a major issuein Tamil Nadu. None of uscould understand Hindi. TheDMK and AIADMK

Governments were ‘intelligent’enough not to allow Hindi inGovernment run schools andcolleges in Tamil Nadu. This hasbeen done with the intention tokeep the North Indian politicalparties at bay from the State,”said Narayanan Tiruppati , BJP’sTamil Nadu spokesman.

The Video conference heldby Prime Minister Modi couldnot make any impact among thepeople who attended to thesame. “This was in contrast tothe period when the UPAGovernment was in power. TheUPA Government effectivelymade use of the CentralGovernment’s publicity armslike the Press InformationBureau, All India Radio andDoordarshan,” said UmaAnanthan, a BJP livewire inChennai.

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This writer is yet to come across amasjid, which is a place of prostra-tion to Allah, the merciful, whichis named after any individual. Onthe other hand, a dargah, which is

a tomb of a saint, is named after the holy man.So is a mazhar or a shrine of an importantperson named after him. There are manymaqbaras or places of graves that are gener-ally constructed for rich and ordinary personsmerely to perpetuate their memory. MughalEmperor Aurangzeb, commonly known asalamgeer or conqueror of the world, was hum-ble enough before Allah to name his wife’sgrave as Bibi Ka Maqbara. He did not havethe gumption to even call it a mazhar or a dar-gah, for that matter.

Similarly, it is difficult to think of a masjidwithout a minaret or several of them. As it iswell-known, the function of a minaret is toenable a muezzin to stand as high as possi-ble before he issues the azaan or the call forworship. The higher he can stand, the greaterthe distance his voice or baang would carryand more would be the worshippers, whowould attend the prayer. In the days wherethere were no loudspeakers, the height of theminaret was most crucial. An outstandingexample of height is the masjid built byAurangzeb on the banks of Ganga at Varanasi,which has two extremely tall minarets.

Taking a foreign example, the big mosqueat Istanbul was earlier a church of HagiaSophia. There, the church was converted intoa masjid by raising four minarets as tall as thepinnacle of the dome. In rural Anatolia andits wheat lands, most masjids have a singleminaret. But a minaret was there neverthe-less. Or else, the baang would not carry.

When this writer visited Ayodhya, he hadheard a great deal about the Babri Masjid, asif it was some historic piece of architecture.This was early in 1991. The writer was sur-prised at the uncomely sight of this enormousrough-looking trinity of domes. More surpris-ing was the total absence of anything like aminaret. This made him suspicious enoughto enquire one by one, from three passingMuslim gentlemen, as to whether there wasa mehrab or a mimbar inside, or a wuzooh fora wash before the prayer. A few minutes ear-lier, the writer was categorically informed bya skull cap-wearing gentleman that he couldnot go inside, hence the queries.

Whoever the writer talked to, includingtwo shopkeepers, referred to it as the ‘Babri’Masjid. The writer had not earlier, or evenlater, come across a mosque named after anyindividual. His suspicion continued aboutthe nature of the edifice in the absence of aminaret and the presence of the name Babri.On subsequent contemplation, the writer feltthat perhaps, the edifice was a maqbara ofMir Baqi, one of the military commandersof Babar in the latter’s invasion of India. Thedate of the building has been consistentlygiven as 1528 AD.

Babar won the First Battle of Panipat inApril 1526. He and his immediate men were

new to India and were general-ly busy establishing their rule atAgra. How could Mir Baqi getthe opportunity to visit Ayodhya;have the Ram temple demolishedand have the huge Babri structureconstructed — all in a matter oftwo years? In those days, five cen-turies ago, everything had to bedone manually — breaking,building and all. It must havetaken longer than two years.Babar died in 1530 whilebeseeching Allah, the merciful, tosave the life of his ailing sonHumayun.

Taking all these circum-stances, — the lack of minaretand the presence of the nameBabri among others — could itbe possible that Mir Baqi did notforget the King he was beholdento, and admiring of? He took histime to build this maqbarah,probably larger than any in India,as a compact building in the lov-ing memory of ZaheeruddinMohammad Babar. In short,was the edifice Babri maqbarahrather than a masjid? If so, whyis the Sunni Personal Law Boardmaking so much song and danceabout the edifice and the land onwhich it stood? Up to a dozen ofmaqbarahs were demolishedunder the British rule in order tolay out Delhi’s Golf Course.

Incidentally, Sir ArnoldToynbee had visited Delhi andBombay in the 1950s to deliverthe Azad Memorial Lectures.This was at the personal invita-tion of Jawaharlal Nehru.During the course of his lectures,Arnold expressed surprise athaving seen the masjid with tallminarets, as we mentionedabove, on the banks of the

Ganga, still standing. Thisdespite India’s independence,at the holiest of holy places of theHindus. He went on to say thaton his recent visit to Warsaw inPoland, he saw the cathedral inthat city as a Roman Catholicedifice. When the Russians hadconquered Warsaw a century ormore ago, they had convertedthe earlier Catholic cathedralinto a Russian orthodox church.The poles could not tolerate thisbut were helpless. When theyregained independence towardsthe end of World War I, theydemolished the Russian churchand rebuilt their own.

This pattern of behaviourwas in evidence elsewhere too.Several wars were fought duringthe 1990s after the collapse of theSocialist Federated Republic ofYugoslavia, particularly the 1991-1995 war in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. This was thebiggest conflict in Europe sincethe World War II, causing mas-sive terror and brutality withapproximately 150,000 deathsand several million peopleforcibly resettled. Although theSerbs, Croats and BosnianMuslims, who fought this war,were Europeans of Slavonicancestry, they had significantand irreconcilable differences inreligion. The Serbs are eastern-orthodox Christians, the Croatswere Roman Catholics, and theBosnian Muslims are SlavsIslamised after the Turkish con-quest. The Serbs have alwaysdefended Christian Europe frominvaders, most notably theOttoman Turks. The heroicSerbian defence in the Battle ofKosovo against the Ottoman

invaders in 1389 AD stands outas a landmark.

Conquering militias orarmies in this 1992 inter-Yugoslav conflict destroyed theenemy’s religious symbols andbuilt their own to symbolicallymark the territory. For example,the capital city of what is todaycalled the ‘Serb Republic’ ofBosnia and Herzegovina, wasethnically cleansed of all itsnumerous historic and newermosques, with the Serbs alsoexpelling the local Muslims,ostensibly in retribution for cen-turies of Ottoman humiliation.

Not only that, the OrthodoxSerbs destroyed about 200Catholic churches in Krajina inCroatia during their four yearoccupation of the town. This wasSerb revenge on atrocities againstthe orthodox Church by theCroat Nazi puppet state duringWorld War II. The CatholicCroats had then murdered overa 100 orthodox priests and threebishops, massacred about 1,000Serbs in a town Glina and alsorazed its orthodox Church of thenativity.

Similar is the tale of Córdobain Spain. It was originally acathedral (Cathedral of OurLady of the Assumption) but wasconquered by the invadingMoors and turned into a mosquein 784 AD by Abd al-Rahman.It was reconquered by 1236 ADby King Ferdinand III of Castileduring the Reconquista. Thecentre of the mosque was con-verted into a Catholic cathedral.The kings who followed addedfurther Christian features.

(The writer is a well-knowncolumnist and an author)

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Sir — Union Minister NitinGadkari, in his recent address toIB officers, praised Nehru’sbrand of secularism and inclu-siveness — a strict taboo for hisparty. The headwinds for theBJP within its parivar sharpenedafter three Hindi heartlandStates were lost this December.If its alternative strategy of ton-ing down on Hindutva had theShiv Sena capturing the slot,Rahul Gandhi has now movedinto the soft Hindutva space.

By default or design, the BJPmight have ceded its space toothers. On top of this, achche dinseems to be going the same wayas the shining India campaign of2004. The BJP has an inklingthat a fractured mandate in2019 will force it to seek supportof others beyond traditionalallies. It is in this context thatGadkari’s speech assumes signif-icance. Apart from pitching amore conciliatory ideology, theparty could as well be hinting ata leadership switch in NDA, toensure greater acceptability,within and without.

R NarayananNavi Mumbai

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Annus Horribilis” (December27). After the BJP’s loss in thethree Hindi heartland States, it isabundantly clear that the Modiwave has become a thing of thepast. Further, the Modi-Shahmagic, too, has become non-exis-tent, even though there is no pro-

Congress wave. Though the BJPmay brush aside the risingprospects of a mahagathbandhanor a grand alliance, fact remainsthat the party cannot overlook orunderestimate any front. For, itholds the potential to play aspoilsport in a close finish.

On the other hand, allianceparties have also been giving theBJP a rude jolt by breaking tiesone after the other. Prime

Minister Modi’s speech, dwellingon development and Governmentsops, does not seem to be enoughto change political equations.

In short, even distribution oftickets to deserving candidatesand capitalisation on Modi’s pop-ularity may not be able to changethe BJP’s fortunes. In all likeli-hood, the party may fall short ofa simple majority. As thingsstand today, regional players will

certainly call the shots in the 2019general election. However, asPrime Minister Modi may missan opportunity to lead the nationfor the second time, a strongcommitted leader is all that thenation expects come 2019.

KR Srinivasan Secunderabad

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Sir — The fate of the minerstrapped in a ‘rat-hole’ inMeghalaya is not known. That weare so ill-prepared to deal with acrisis situation such as this isbrought out by the inability of ourdisaster managers to even locatewhere the trapped miners are. Theefforts made in India to rescue thetrapped miners are in sharp con-trast to the Thai cave rescue thatgripped the world. Thailandpooled its resources and prayershelped the nation achieve theseemingly unachievable. Illegalmining should not be blamed onthe labourers but on those whomake big money out of it.

G David MiltonMaruthancode

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In India, an investor who wants totrade in derivatives, has severaloptions at hand. For stocks, one can

trade through the National StockExchange (NSE) and the BombayStock Exchange (BSE). On the otherhand, commodity trading can be donethrough Multi Commodity Exchange(MCX) and National Commodity andDerivatives Exchange (NCDEX).Currency trading can be done on NSE-SX, MCX-SX.

The term ‘derivative’ stands forcontract, whose price is derived fromor is dependent upon an underlyingasset. It can be a financial asset, suchas currency, stock and market index,an interest-bearing security or a phys-ical commodity. Derivative trading inour country comprises four basic

contracts — forwards, futures, swapsand options. The most common deriv-ative that one can trade in is future andoptions (F&O). Further, importantunderlying assets for these F&Os arestocks, commodities, treasury billsand foreign exchange. All future con-tracts have cash settlement over NSE.

Any contract is always madebetween two persons but clearing cor-poration always takes the opposite posi-tion against any order. Thus, there isalways an opposing party by default ineach trade. Unlike forward contracts,in future contract, money transfer takesplace at the time of signing of the deal.

Similarly, while entering an optioncontract, the buyer pays the premium.With this payment, he/she gets the rightto exercise his/her option to buy on theexpiration date. On the other hand, theseller of options receives the premium.Due to this, he/she is obliged tosell/buy the asset in the situation whenthe buyer exercises his/her right.

However, one must be cautious intrading with derivatives as they areassociated with several risks. First,derivative products require large funds.

So, it is not for those with limitedresources or low-risk appetite. Second,trading in derivatives needs expertknowledge. Trading expertise andexperience are mandatory with high-risk tolerance. Third, as the movementof derivatives depends on the under-lying assets, their progress is deter-mined by movements of the underly-ing asset. Both are like a double-edgedsword. Their movements can be quitevolatile. They may also have hugeupswings or downward spirals. Atrader should accept the fact thathe/she can lose profits. One can incurloss even with the execution of deriv-atives. Let us understand trading inderivatives with a few examples”

Situation I: Derivatives tradingrisk with future index: Suppose abuyer purchased 100 Nifty 50 futuresat �10,724 on May 10. The expirydate is May 28. Total investmentamounted to �10,72,400. The buyerpaid an initial margin of �1,07,240.On May 28, Nifty 50 index futureclosed at 10,678. The buyer’s losswould stand at (1,072,400 -1,067,800)*100 that will be equal to

�4,60,000. In this situation, thebuyer’s entire initial investment (ie�1,07,240) is lost. Additionally,he/she will need to pay �3,52,760(4,60,000 —1,07,240).

Situation II: Derivatives tradingrisk with stocks future: Now supposethe buyer purchased 100 TCS futuresat �1,740 on May 15 and the expiry dateis May 28. He/she made an investmentof �1,74,000. He/she paid an initialmargin of �17,400. On May 28, theprice per shares of TCS was �1,800. Thebuyer would stand to gain (1,800 —1,740) x 100 or �6,000.

Situation III: Derivatives tradingrisk with index options: Suppose thebuyer purchases 100 Nifty 50 calloptions at a strike price of �10,7000 onMay 10. Nifty 50 index was at 10,724.Suppose he/she paid a premium of�10,000 (at �100 per call x 100 calls).The expiry date of the contract is May28. On the expiry date, Nifty index clos-es at 10,678. The call expires worthless.The buyer would possess the entire�10,000 paid as premium.

Situation IV: Derivatives tradingrisk with stocks option: Let us not

assume that the buyer buys 100 TCSput options at a strike price of �1,750on May 10. TCS share price is at 1,740.He/she paid a premium of �5,000 (at�50 per put x 100 calls). The expiry dateof the contract is May 2018. On May28, TCS shares close at �1,800. In thiscase, the put option will expire worth-lessly. The buyer will lose the entire�5,000 paid as premium.

It is a known fact that the stockmarket is extremely risky to begin with.The quantum of risk gets multiplied inF&O trading. Among the many reasonsthat make the market risky is contrac-tual trading. All F&O scripts come witha time-frame. For example, if one entersinto a contract on June 1, for thatmonth’s scrip, his/her contract willexpire on the last Thursday of June.Unlike equity, where one can hold theposition till the desired target isreached, in F&O, one is under theobligation to square off his/her positionon the stipulated time.

However, due to its high-returnpotential, it attracts many retailinvestors. But do they make money?Unfortunately, the answer is no. Most

retail investors, who dabble in F&Otrading, tend to lose a lot of money.

Hence, to dissuade retail investorsfrom trading in F&Os, the Securitiesand Exchange Board of India (SEBI)made few changes in the F&O guide-lines. It increased the lot size from �2lakh to �5 lakh. A bigger lot size sim-ply means that traders have to deposita larger amount with the brokers. Highnet worth individuals may not feel theheat of the higher lot size, but it will def-initely prevent small retail investorsfrom participating in F&O trading.

A study suggested that only twoper cent traders make money inintra-day and F&O trading. One hasto realise that unlike equity market,in the futures market, money doesnot get generated. Hence, if one isearning money, someone is losing it.That’s why futures market is alsocalled a zero-sum market. Afterlearning this, every trader should firstfigure out whether they are goodenough to be in this narrow brack-et of two per cent successful traders.

(The writer is Assistant Professor,Amity University)

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What I wish to do in this article isto situate some versions of theRamayana, such as theMithilabhasha Ramayana byChanda Jha, Rameshwar Charit

Mithila Ramayan by Laldas, Maithili Ramayana byBaiju Mishra ‘Dehati’, Sita Ramayan by KrishnaNandan Singh and Sitayan by Vaidyanath Mallik‘Vidhu’. All these books have been written in mymother tongue, Maithili, in order to foreground theidea of aesthetic along the lines as suggested byancient Indian theoritician, Bharat Muni, inNatyashastra and later by philosopherAbhinavagupta in Abhinavbharati. This article willmake an attempt to contest the formulation of thecreative representation of Ramkatha by distin-guished Ramayana studies scholar Paula Richmanand also dispute the very idea of a nation, as itappeared in the writings of another distinguishedscholar, a historian of subaltern persuasion, ParthaChatterjee. While doing so, this article will aim toestablish the fact that dharma (religion) is centralto the conceptualisation of a nation as it exists out-side literature in the works of MohandasKaramachand Gandhi and Deen Dayal Upadhyayrespectively.

Aesthetic preoccupations have almost alwaysheld centrestage in our country. As a matter of fact,they have charted an extremely impressive trajec-tory since the days of Bharat Muni, who wrote anenormously engaging, encyclopedic treatise on per-forming arts, Natyashatra. His works had a greatdeal of influence on the literary practices of ourcountry due to their highly influential Rasa theo-ry that emphasised that pleasure is, of course, adesirable outcome of artistic performance, but itshould not be understood and interpreted as theprimary purpose. The main objective actually is totransport the audience to a higher realm; a tran-scendental space where one can effortlessly under-go a certain kind of blissful experience about theessence of one’s own being. A place where one canalso reconcile with consciousness that enables oneto make genuine reflections on the moral and spir-itual dimensions of human life.

Later, the 10th century Kashmiri Shaivite lit-erary commentator, Abhinavagupta, who wroteperhaps the finest commentary on Bharat Muni’sNatyashatra, went on to elucidate the Rasa theo-ry in terms of the idea of abhivyakti (expression)as conceptualised by Anandavardhana in hisDhvanyaloka and the principles of pratyabhijna doc-trine of Kashmir. For Abhinavagupta, an aesthet-ic experience was like a spiritual awakening whenan individual is enabled to transcend the limita-tions of one’s own self. It becomes possible for himby virtue of a certain kind of contemplation gen-erating as it does the sense of pure bliss. Lookingat the Rasa theory as the foundation of art and lit-erature, he firmly focussed on the significance ofharmony for the formulation of an aesthetic expres-sion.

Such harmony is conspicuous by its absencefrom the contemporary literary climate in which,for examples, Dalit, feminist and post-colonial lit-eratures, have all largely focussed on conflicts alongthe lines of caste, gender and political categories,called the East and the West. The aesthetic con-sciousness for practitioners of these literaturesappears to be primarily defined by certain ideolog-

ical assumptions that almost completely lost sightof the importance of harmony and confluence. Theyseem to almost exclusively care for conflicts anddifferences alone.

Paula Richman, who tremendously con-tributed to the spread of Ramayana studies world-wide, showed a particular kind of perception aboutit that suggested similar kinds of preoccupationswith which the aforementioned practitioners of con-temporary literature remain occupied. All her majorworks such as Many Ramayanas: The Diversity ofa Narrative Tradition in South Asia, QuestioningRamayanas: A South Asian Tradition andRamayana Stories in Modern South India: AnAnthology are in a significant way defined and deter-mined by those political persuasions that seem tohighlight the North-South conflict. In her opinion,all four southern languages — Tamil, Telugu,Kannada and Malayalam — do have re-tellings ofRamkatha that vehemently challenge the narrativesof Valmiki’s Ramayana or Ramcharitmanas ofTulsidas. In turn, they perhaps successfully supplantthe cultural hegemony of North India.

Revisiting the already mentioned MaithiliRamayanas will enable us to tell a different story.To begin with, they popularised Sitaram Kavya inMaithili as Vidyapati had done with RadhakrishnaKavya among the Maithilis during the late 14th andearly 15th centuries. These writers of Ramayanawere the quintessence for Maithili poets in the sensethat they consolidated during the 19th and 20thcenturies the cornerstone of what we call nowadays‘Maithili literary culture’. They are genuinelyadmired for their creatively satisfying attempts toshowcase the cultural and linguistic distinctivenessof Mithila along with foregrounding the movingcharacter of Sita.

Alongside Vidyapati, Sita is often seen as theuniting force for the otherwise deeply dividedMaithili community. Typically, the Maithili mind-set can opt for unpredictably different pulls andpressures of life. But all the conflicting Maithili traitsand attributes prefer to come together in an unusu-ally harmonious manner on the issue of Sita.

In an arguably multilingual and multicultur-al country like India, where different versions of

the Ramayana are available in modern Indian lan-guages, disseminating enormously interesting,and sometimes even contradictory narratives ofSitaram Katha, the importance of versions of theMaithili Ramayana appears to lie in the depictionof an extremely sensitive but movingly powerfulcharacter of Sita. She always respected the sancti-ty of human love and marital relationship but neverlost an opportunity to question Ram and put himin place whenever it was required. By and large,these Ramayana versions emphasise a definite kindof structural, thematic and aesthetic unity with theSanskrit version of Valmiki and other regional ver-sions from languages such as Assamese, Bengali andothers, which so remarkably underline the existenceof a nationalist outlook and an identical sense ofaesthetic experience.

Against a backdrop of debates on issues relat-ed with nationalism between Western scholars, likeErnest Gellner and Anthony Smith, as well asimmensely popular interventions made by BenedictAnderson, Partha Chatterjee chose to discuss thegenesis and growth of Indian nationalist discourseduring the colonial and post-colonial periods of ourhistory in his influential books such as TheNationalist Thought in the Colonial World: ADerivative Discourse and The Nation and itsFragments: Colonial and Postcolonial Histories. Whatis very noteworthy in these discussions is thatChatterjee places the Gandhian thought outside thescope and parameter of Indian nation and nation-alism. Thus, he separates the concept of nation fromthe idea of religion. His premise as well as percep-tion does not seem to be valid and justifiable in viewof what Gandhi consistently said and successfullydid with the help of religion for the re-awakeningof our national consciousness.

The production, reception and consumptionof Sitaram Katha, particularly in the Maithili lit-erary canon, strengthen the Gandhian understand-ing of dharma and its primacy in the growth storyof a nation. Such inseparable relationship betweenreligion and nation, which was so succinctly for-mulated by Gandhi, who thought about the pos-sibilities of an ideal and citizen-centric political orderthrough the emergence of the metaphorical Ram

rajya, reappears again in the conceptualisation ofIntegral Humanism by nationalist thinker DeenDayal Upadhyay. He unequivocally attachedutmost importance to the notion of dharma for themaking of a just and responsible nation. Centenarycelebrations of Upadhyay and commemorating the150th birth anniversary of Gandhi across the nationmake tremendous sense in the light of their reflec-tions on the inextricably interlinked relationshipbetween religion and nation.

Ramayana editions in Maithili were writtenrather late. The plausible reason for the delay isoften said to be the enduring dominance ofRadhakrishna Kavya since the time Vidyapatibegan to write exhilarating songs about the eter-nal love of Radha and Krishna. But the upsurgeof the creative representations of Sitaram Kathaby those modern poets cited above explains thefact that indigenous cultural traditions enabledthe litterateurs of the Mithila region for quite along time to resist the impact of a colonial edu-cation system which did not feel reluctant toundermine, rather erase the traces of our civili-sational core embedded in the Ramayana story.

A veteran scholar, Avadhesh Kumar Singh, inhis book, Ramayana: Through the Ages, made ahighly pertinent point when he mentioned that theexistence of Ramkatha in numerous Indian lan-guages acted as the “bridge amongst various region-al, linguistic and cultural identities.” I entirely agreewith this perceptive observation and only wish toadd that the different versions of regional Ramayanadrawing upon Avikavi, Valmiki’s Adi Kavya, areindeed the cultural expressions of our nationalistthought in diverse ways. Their availability in themajority of modern Indian languages points to thecultural interconnectedness and, in turn, the per-vasive sense of nation in the pre-colonial Indiamuch before the advent of colonial moment. In fact,these Ramayana versions embody the quintessenceof our collective national consciousness which isbeing so effectively reinforced by the kind of lin-guistic plurality and cultural diversity we have inour country.

(The writer is Assistant professor of English atRajdhani College, Delhi)

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Markets reg-ulator Sebi

on Thursdayrefused to granta stay on theforensic audit ofInter GlobeFinance, whichis suspected tobe a shell com-pany.

In an inter-im order passedin March thisyear, Sebi haddirected thestock exchangesto appoint aforensic auditorto verify anymisrepresentation of financialsand business of Inter GlobeFinance Ltd (IGFL) and its sub-sidiaries as well as any misuseof the books of accounts.

Besides, the company'spromoters and directors werepermitted only to buy the secu-rities of IGFL. However, theshares held by them were notallowed to be transferred forsale, as per the interim order.

Following the interimorder, the company was givenopportunity to submit its expla-nations and it filed replies inthat regard.

In respect of several trans-actions, IGFL has providedinsufficient explanation/justi-fication, which is not backed byindependently verifiable doc-umentary evidence, Sebi said in

its fresh order dated December27.

With regard to the wrongcategorisations in the financialsof IGFL that have been high-lighted in the interim order,IGFL has admitted that thesame were errors. It has offeredno explanation as to why sucherrors (as claimed) had crept inits financials. It also failed togive any reason as to why thesaid errors did not come to itsnotice till the time Sebi high-lighted the same, it added.

Accordingly, the Securitiesand Exchange Board of India(Sebi) has confirmed "thedirections issued against IGFLto the extent that forensic auditdirected vide interim orderdated March 1, 2018 shall con-tinue".

However, Sebi removedthe restrictions placed on thepromoters and directors ofIGFL regarding sale of securi-ties of IGFL after finding "noprima facie evidence of misuseof funds".

IGFL is among the firmsagainst whom Sebi initiatedaction on August 7, 2017 byordering trading restrictionsafter it received a list of 331suspected shell companiesfrom the government. Pursuantto this, IGFL had moved theSecurities Appellate Tribunal(SAT) that stayed tradingrestrictions imposed on thecompany.

However, the regulator andstock exchanges were asked tocontinue their probe and initi-ate appropriate proceedings.

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The Government has pre-pared a revival plan for Air

India that provides for a com-prehensive financial package,differentiated strategies foreach of the airline’s core busi-nesses and robust organisa-tional reforms, UnionMinister Jayant Sinha said onThursday.

Various initiatives to turn-around the national carrier,which is staying afloat on abailout package extended bythe previous government,including monetisation of realestate assets are progressing.

Sinha told the Lok Sabhathat the Government has pre-pared a revival plan for AirIndia which focuses on build-ing a competitive and prof-itable airline group.

A comprehensive finan-cial package, including transferof non-core debt and assets toa Special Purpose Vehicle,implementation of a robustorganisational and governancereforms by the board and dif-ferentiated business strategiesfor each of the core businessesof Air India are part of the plan.

“Higher levels of opera-tional efficiency by strength-ening management and imple-menting best businessprocesses,” are among themajor elements of the plan,

Sinha said.The Minister of State for

Civil Aviation also said thatAir India has planned to mon-etise its unutilised and surplusimmovable real estate assetsover the next few years.

“Till date, Air India hasrealised an amount of �410crore through sale of its non-core assets in various cities inIndia and abroad.

“Air India has also realiseda rental income of �314 croreapproximately,” he said duringthe Question Hour.

The minister also saidthat amount of revenue like-ly to be generated from mon-etisation of land and proper-ties depends on the bidprocess and subject to no-objection certificates fromauthorities concerned.

Air India is estimated tohave a debt worth over�55,000 crore.

In a written reply, Sinhasaid the Government remainscommitted to the disinvest-ment of Air India.

“In this regard, AISAMhas directed to separatelydecide the contours of themode of disposal of the sub-sidiaries — Air IndiaEngineering Services Ltd(AIESL), Air India AirTransport Services Ltd (AIAT-SL) and Airline Allied ServicesLtd (AASL),” he noted.

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The Government’s move totighten norms for sale of

products by e-commerce firmswould not disincentiviseonline players and would haveno bearing on momentum inthe e-marketplace, formerNASSCOM President RChandrashekhar saidThursday.

He said the need to ensurefairplay on e-commerce plat-forms has always been recog-nised as a general propositionand in fact, the CompetitionCommission of India has alsolooked into complaints regard-ing norms on providing alevel playing field.

The GovernmentWednesday took a host ofsteps and barred e-commercefirms from selling products ofthe companies in which theyhave equity stakes or man-agement control.

“To the extent that it barsthe (e-commerce) platformsfrom giving preference to anyparticular product,it definite-ly reduces the ability of plat-forms to play God betweenone product and another.That’s a good thing from theconsumer point of view, aswell as from enabling marketforces to operate”,Chandreshekhar said.

He also welcomed themove to prevent e-commercefirms from having their prod-ucts sold on their platforms,which again is to ensure thatdifferential is not createdbetween their own productsand those of others.

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Traders’ body CAIT onThursday demanded strin-

gent implementation of theguidelines for sale of productsby e-commerce firmsannounced a day earlier, whilepressing for a regulator tomonitor the sector and actagainst companies floutingnorms.

“The Government hasaddressed a majority of issuesraised by us through amend-ments to FDI Policyannounced yesterday. Thecashback sale, discounts, exclu-sive sales, etc. Cannot takeplace under the new norms. Wewelcome the Government’sdecision and believe that itshould be implemented strict-ly,” CAIT Secretary GeneralPraveen Khandelwal toldreporters here.

He alleged that e-com-merce firms were openly flout-ing the Press Note Number 3 ofthe FDI Policy.

“If the revised norms arenot enforced strictly, the out-come will be the same as thatof Press Note Number 3.Therefore, we are demandingthe formation of a RegulatoryAuthority empowered to actagainst companies floutingnorms to monitor the e-com-merce sector,” Khandelwal said.

He reiterated CAIT’sdemand for the scrapping of

the deal involving Walmart’sacquisition of home-grownretail major Flipkart, addingthat the traders’ body willapproach the Supreme Court ifthe NCLT’s decision is not in itsfavour.

“We firmly believe theWalmart-Flipkart deal shouldbe rejected. Our petition ispending in the NationalCompany Law Tribunal(NCLT) and the next date ofhearing is in January. If theNCLT does not listen to us wewill approach the SupremeCourt,” Khandelwal said.

He also urged theGovernment to introduce acomprehensive e-commercepolicy at the earliest to addressthe disparities and anomalies inthe sector.

The Commerce andIndustry Ministry notifies for-eign direct investment (FDI)policies through press notes.Press Note 3, which wasreleased in 2016, enlists guide-lines for FDI in the e-com-merce sector.

Tightening norms for e-commerce firms having foreigninvestment, the governmentWednesday barred online mar-ketplaces like Flipkart andAmazon from selling prod-ucts of companies where theyhold stakes and banned exclu-sive marketing arrangementsthat could influence productprice.

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Commerce and IndustryMinister Suresh Prabhu

has asked his finance counter-part Arun Jaitley to resolve tax-ation issues being faced by star-tups in getting angel funds witha view to promoting buddingentrepreneurs.

In a communication tothe finance minister, Prabhusaid resolution of the taxationissue would help in supportingthe startup ecosystem and nur-turing innovation and entre-preneurship.

The issue assumes signifi-cance as several startups andangel investors have raisedconcerns over notices received

from income tax authorities.“This is one of the key

issues affecting investment intoearly stage startups, common-ly referred to as angel tax.This issue has been a majorimpediment in flow of invest-ment into startups,” Prabhu hassaid.

At the initial stage of astartup, angel investors play asignificant role by not justproviding necessary resourcesbut also business mentoring.They are critical bridgebetween founders’ ownresources and mainstream ven-ture funding.

The government, last week,decided to set up an expertcommittee to look into all tax-

ation issues being faced by star-tups and angel investors.

The Central Board ofDirect Taxes (CBDT) hassaid that “no coercive actionor measures to recover thedemands of completedassessment under income taxwould be taken” against suchfirms.

The committee of expertswill make recommendationson individual cases of recog-nised startups.

Startups have raised con-cerns on taxation of angelfunds under Section 56 of theIncome Tax Act, which pro-vides for taxation of fundsreceived by an entity.

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The country’s fiscal deficittouched 114.8 per cent of

the full-year target of �6.24lakh crore at the end ofNovember on account oflower revenue collections,showed Government data onThursday.

The fiscal deficit, or gapbetween expenditure and rev-enue, stood at �7.16 lakhcrore during April-Novemberof the current financial year,reflecting deterioration inpublic finances.

At the end of November

2017, the deficit was 112 percent of the Budget Estimate(BE).

The Government hasbudgeted to cut the fiscaldeficit to 3.3 per cent of GDPin 2018-19, from 3.53 percent in the previous financialyear.

According to the datareleased by the ControllerGeneral of Accounts (CGA),the total revenue receipts ofthe Government totalled �8.7lakh crore or 50.4 per cent ofBE in 2018-19 till November,compared with 53.1 per centduring the same period last

year.The Government has

budgeted to mop up �17.25lakh crore revenue during thecurrent fiscal. Tax revenuewas 49.4 per cent of BE, com-pared with 57 per cent in thecomparable period of the pre-vious year.

According to the CGAdata, the total expenditure ofthe G overnment atNovember-end was �16.13lakh crore or 66.1 per cent ofBE.

The expenditure in termsof percentage of BE was high-er in the year-ago period.

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New Delhi (PTI): Suzuki Motorcycle India Pvt Ltd (SMIPL)on Thursday launched the 2019 edition of its sportsbikeHayabusa priced at �13.74 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi). The 2019edition of Suzuki Hayabusa, powered by a 1,340 cc engine, willfeature an added pair of side reflectors for Indian conditions, thecompany said in a statement. The new bike will have updatedgraphics and will be available in two new colour schemes —Metallic Oort Gray and Glass Sparkle Black, it added.

Mumbai (PTI): Rising for the secondstraight day, the BSE benchmark Sensex jumped157 points on Thursday amid expiry ofDecember series derivatives contracts and pos-itive global cues. After rallying close to 400 pointsearlier in the session, the 30-share index paredsome gains but finished 157.34 points, or 0.44%,higher at 35,807.28. The broader NSE Nifty rose49.95 points, or 0.47%, to 10,779.80.

The biggest gainers in the Sensex pack wereReliance Industries, Infosys, NTPC, ONGC,HUL, PowerGrid, Asian Paints, ITC and HCLTech, rising up to 2.10%. On the other hand,Hero MotoCorp, Bharti Airtel, Tata Motors, TataSteel and Maruti Suzuki fell up to 1.71%.

Global sentiment improved as tensionsbetween the White House and US Fed eased.Strong consumer spending data in the US alsoadded to the momentum, said Hemang Jani, headadvisory, Sharekhan by BNP Paribas.

With two more trading days to go until theend of the year, liquidity and sentiment are setto drive market in short term, he added.

Banking stocks fell amid reports that the gov-ernment was likely to infuse �28,615 crore intoseven public sector banks (PSBs) through recap-italisation bonds by the end of this month.

The rupee, meanwhile, weakened against theUS dollar, and was trading at 70.28 a dollar, down0.27% from its previous close. Brent crude futuresdropped 3.78% to USD 53.20 per barrel. On anet basis, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs)bought shares worth �80.28 crore on Wednesday,while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) werenet sellers to the tune of �137.63 crore, provi-sional data available with BSE showed.

Elsewhere in Asia, Japan’s Nikkei surged3.88% and Korea’s Kospi ended 0.02% higher,while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.67% andShanghai Composite Index slipped 0.61%. InEurope, Paris CAC rose 0.15%, while Frankfurt’sDAX fell 1.41%. London’s FTSE fell 0.63%.

New Delhi (PTI): Drug major Dr Reddy’s Laboratories onThursday announced the launch of Sevelamer Carbonate for oralsuspension, used for controlling serum phosphorus in patients withchronic kidney disease on dialysis, in the US market. The newlylaunched product is in the strengths of 0.8 g and 2.4 g packets, andis a therapeutic equivalent generic version of Renvela (sevelamercarbonate) for oral suspension, approved by the US Food and DrugAdministration, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories said in a BSE filing.

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The government is work-ing on an integrated goldpolicy, which is expected

to be released soon, to promotegrowth of the yellow metalindustry and exports of jew-ellery, Commerce and IndustryMinister Suresh Prabhu said.

“We are pushing for it(gold policy) as we need anintegrated policy. In the nextfew days, we will have a meet-ing of all concerned people toframe the policy on an expe-ditious basis. We are looking atall elements of gold in the pol-icy,” Prabhu told PTI.

When asked whether itwill consider the demand of theindustry to cut import duty on

gold, he said: “It will also lookat that side of it”.

The domestic industry hasdemanded a cut in importduty on gold to 4 per cent fromthe current 10 per cent.

The minister said that cur-rently, there was no such poli-cy despite the fact that Indiawas the largest consumer andimporter of gold.

India has the potential tobecome a “good exporter ofvalue-added gold”, he added.

The policy is likely to focuson promoting the domesticgold industry and exports ofgems and jewellery, which con-tribute about 15 per cent to thetotal merchandise outboundshipments.

In February, Finance

Minister Arun Jaitley hadannounced formulation of acomprehensive gold policy todevelop gold as an asset class.

Government think-tankNITI Aayog in August sug-gested to the government tobring down import duty ongold from the existing 10 percent and also asked it to slashthe GST rate on the preciousmetal from the current 3 percent.

The NITI Aayog also rec-ommended to review andrevamp the gold monetisationand the sovereign gold bondschemes, besides setting up agold board and bullion

exchanges across the country tohave greater financialisationof the yellow metal.

It also suggested exemptionof 3 per cent integrated goodsand service tax (IGST) to bepaid by exporters in line withcustoms duty with a provisionof bank guarantee.

To promote exports, theGem and Jewellery ExportPromotion Council (GJEPC)has asked for government sup-port in terms of increasingincentives under theMerchandise Exports fromIndia Scheme (MEIS).

Under MEIS, the govern-ment provides duty benefitsdepending on product andcountry.

Rewards under the schemeare payable as percentage ofrealised free-on-board value,and the MEIS duty credit scripcan be transferred or used forthe payment of a number ofduties, including the basic cus-toms duty.

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The government’s move to tightennorms for online marketplaces with

foreign investment will close the “backdoor” that has been “blatantly exploited”by such companies and provide a level-playing field, industry players said onThursday. The changes will mostly affectUS-based Amazon and Walmart-backedFlipkart — the two largest players in theburgeoning Indian e-commerce sector —as one of the norms bars striking exclu-sive marketing arrangements that couldinfluence product prices.

“It (introduction of the new norms)is an acknowledgement that all themajor foreign players have been consis-tently violating the spirit of the policyfrom day one. Almost all the clarificationpoints mentioned in this policy can bedirectly attributed to an active violationby these foreign players,” ShopClues CEOand co-founder Sanjay Sethi said. Headded that the clarification will “finallyclose the back door that has been bla-tantly exploited by these players”.

Snapdeal too has lauded the move,with founder and CEO Kunal Bahl say-ing these changes will enable a level-play-ing field for all sellers and help themleverage the reach of e-commerce.

While Flipkart has not commentedon the changes, Amazon has said it isevaluating the circular.

The new norms — effective February— will also bar online marketplaces fromselling products of companies in whichthey hold a stake. This could potential-ly impact many electronic and smart-phone brands like ASUS, OnePlus, BPLand others that work exclusively witheither of the two giants. The new guide-

lines will also make it difficult for play-ers with FDI investments to offer dis-counts and cashbacks to online shoppers,a development that industry watchers saywill affect business models of thesecompanies.

The new rules could also pull theplug on seller entities like Cloudtail andAppario (that have equity investmentfrom e-commerce companies).

“There are some specific points thatneed greater clarity, especially the fact thatan entity having ‘equity participation’ bye-commerce market place entity or itsgroup company, is not permitted to sellits products on the platform run by mar-ketplace entity,” said Darshan Upadhyay,partner at Economic Laws Practice,adding that this could result in all ven-dors and suppliers where the marketplaceentity (or its group) have insignificantholding being ineligible for selling theirproducts.

Instamojo CEO and co-founderSampad Swain said while the earlier reg-ulations were bound by high caps, MSMEsof the country would now get a fair oppor-tunity to come and participate in the dig-ital economy. “This new development cre-ates a level playing field for smaller play-ers... Now, all the micro-merchants of ourcountry can participate without the fearof being left out,” he added.

The decision came in the backdropof several complaints being flagged bydomestic traders on heavy discountsbeing given by e-commerce players toconsumers. Many sellers had flagged con-cerns that the e-commerce giants wereusing their affiliates and exclusive salesagreements to create an unfair market-place and offering some products at deepdiscounts.

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Script Open High Low LTPRCOM 14.55 14.64 14.12 14.50JPASSOCIAT 7.24 7.80 7.16 7.64SUZLON 5.49 5.52 5.39 5.47IBULHSGFIN 852.20 857.45 831.35 841.80YESBANK 183.00 183.55 177.30 178.55JETAIRWAYS 270.90 274.00 262.95 268.50RELIANCE 1105.00 1125.90 1104.45 1120.00PCJEWELLER 82.70 86.25 81.85 85.00INFY 652.10 663.25 649.30 657.35SUNPHARMA 423.25 424.00 410.60 412.30SPICEJET 86.90 86.95 85.50 86.60BEML 917.90 922.00 894.65 899.65DHFL 241.95 243.30 237.55 239.65SBIN 295.20 297.50 291.05 291.85IOC 134.95 135.15 131.10 134.05BANKINDIA 103.10 103.50 101.05 101.75VEDL 200.00 202.10 195.30 195.95BLISSGVS 138.65 147.30 136.80 140.30TCS 1909.90 1940.10 1892.35 1909.45HEG 3605.00 3745.00 3605.00 3700.70COALINDIA 247.55 252.65 244.00 249.65TATAMOTORS 173.00 173.30 168.05 168.80BHARTIARTL 322.90 326.15 314.00 316.35MARUTI 7645.00 7670.00 7485.35 7505.30RELCAPITAL 215.30 216.60 210.60 214.60ESCORTS 695.00 701.95 682.60 685.95CGPOWER 44.30 45.05 44.00 44.15M&M 795.00 801.00 789.85 795.40HINDPETRO 245.55 253.35 241.85 252.05ASIANPAINT 1362.50 1385.00 1355.10 1380.00BEL 90.15 90.90 86.00 86.45ONGC 147.20 150.90 146.10 149.20LT 1429.00 1433.55 1408.90 1423.30PFC 101.00 103.40 99.30 100.80RECLTD 115.45 118.85 114.30 116.25NCC 85.20 86.70 83.50 84.00AXISBANK 627.00 627.00 615.50 617.50L&TFH 156.00 156.90 152.85 154.20ADANIPORTS 378.50 385.90 373.95 383.60TATASTEEL 519.00 520.50 506.50 507.80INFIBEAM 46.90 48.00 45.75 46.75BPCL 360.50 368.50 355.65 364.45GRAPHITE 760.00 781.70 760.00 772.75JUBLFOOD 1249.90 1254.90 1216.15 1232.20UJJIVAN 277.60 284.85 270.00 272.35PNB 78.50 78.80 77.35 77.90BHEL 72.20 72.40 69.50 69.90JAICORPLTD 107.60 113.15 107.05 110.10BANKBARODA 119.20 119.40 115.90 116.60HINDUNILVR 1806.80 1819.00 1791.35 1819.00BAJFINANCE 2630.00 2630.00 2571.00 2581.80ORIENTBANK 96.70 97.10 94.45 94.85KOTAKBANK 1260.50 1263.00 1235.60 1239.35ZEEL 458.00 467.00 451.80 463.60HDFCBANK 2139.80 2139.80 2101.30 2106.10WIPRO 326.50 331.20 323.35 327.45REPCOHOME 410.95 416.95 389.00 391.65CENTRALBK 35.30 37.55 34.60 36.40CONCOR 675.00 680.00 659.70 667.35JINDALSTEL 164.05 165.25 157.70 158.45SBILIFE 554.00 603.00 540.25 589.20MAXINDIA 81.00 89.60 78.85 83.55ITC 284.00 284.00 277.60 279.75KSCL 570.55 588.00 511.00 579.80ASHOKLEY 105.00 105.00 102.90 103.35OIL 174.00 175.60 169.50 171.55INDIACEM 95.00 95.20 92.60 93.15TATAPOWER 76.25 77.60 75.60 77.00JUSTDIAL 490.90 512.80 490.50 507.70IDFCBANK 44.20 44.20 42.50 43.15CANFINHOME 296.00 296.00 281.85 288.45WESTLIFE 382.00 398.80 377.00 379.75UNIONBANK 84.00 85.20 83.00 83.75SIEMENS 1042.25 1048.85 1023.30 1029.25ICICIBANK 357.30 360.70 354.75 355.40BANDHANBNK 550.25 555.90 538.00 540.55FRETAIL 541.45 547.70 506.35 513.90EQUITAS 128.00 128.90 123.20 124.25DLF 178.95 181.20 175.15 176.05ENGINERSIN 128.00 128.00 123.00 125.85AVANTI 386.50 396.00 382.00 384.90BATAINDIA 1102.65 1135.00 1102.65 1126.00GAIL 354.10 363.35 352.50 356.10IBREALEST 89.60 90.75 86.45 87.00NBCC 55.50 55.90 53.80 54.00BAJAJ-AUTO 2766.00 2768.00 2701.00 2736.05SUNTV 580.05 590.60 577.85 585.70TATAGLOBAL 221.10 224.50 215.80 220.90MPHASIS 999.10 1010.05 970.10 976.30HDFC 1951.00 1953.60 1930.10 1943.00SRF 2000.10 2012.00 1981.90 2003.00EDELWEISS 188.35 189.55 181.00 181.50KEC 294.20 298.25 285.20 287.45RELINFRA 307.70 307.70 302.00 303.15NTPC 147.50 149.50 144.50 148.00EXIDEIND 255.50 268.70 255.50 266.90MANPASAND 88.60 92.25 86.95 88.00STRTECH 291.80 291.80 283.00 284.25TATAELXSI 999.00 1020.00 998.15 1010.00KNRCON 210.00 224.50 210.00 217.00STAR 464.85 464.85 453.60 456.50ABFRL 208.80 213.40 203.70 204.55NMDC 95.25 95.65 91.85 92.50MOTHERSUMI 166.95 166.95 161.45 162.50TATAMTRDVR 94.40 95.70 90.55 91.15BOMDYEING 113.20 114.10 110.60 111.05UPL 751.00 774.90 745.60 748.65TITAN 899.00 899.05 882.00 888.15

PEL 2334.00 2347.25 2270.40 2289.70DMART 1567.85 1578.00 1561.00 1570.35RPOWER 28.00 28.90 27.75 28.50TV18BRDCST 36.55 37.90 36.55 37.50TECHM 696.80 714.30 696.80 708.10BAJAJFINSV 6500.00 6549.90 6355.55 6390.95ICICIGI 855.00 894.60 828.30 864.55NIITTECH 1120.00 1164.00 1120.00 1149.40CANBK 272.00 274.60 270.20 272.05FEDERALBNK 93.10 94.35 91.10 93.95MMTC 30.75 31.20 30.05 30.20INDUSINDBK 1578.00 1592.70 1560.35 1566.35ADANIPOWER 51.20 52.00 51.05 51.30M&MFIN 483.00 483.95 458.65 464.75AUROPHARMA 721.25 726.50 710.00 712.75SRTRANSFIN 1229.95 1247.45 1214.75 1224.20JSWSTEEL 298.70 300.80 292.70 293.25NATIONALUM 63.40 64.35 62.25 62.70HEROMOTOCO 3193.30 3214.20 3118.10 3131.60GODFRYPHLP 865.95 879.70 841.85 870.75RBLBANK 564.65 579.40 560.00 575.90JISLJALEQS 67.10 67.75 66.40 66.65AJANTPHARM 1139.10 1187.35 1127.45 1183.00BIOCON 617.30 620.75 610.40 613.35HCLTECH 949.60 959.20 944.00 952.70SYNDIBANK 38.90 39.00 37.80 37.90CEATLTD 1284.95 1284.95 1246.50 1274.85SUVEN 224.95 229.55 222.65 226.15RADICO 399.95 407.25 392.15 399.70BALKRISIND 916.80 917.35 895.75 904.00APOLLOHOSP 1290.00 1290.00 1233.10 1239.55LICHSGFIN 490.00 491.80 475.20 478.15CENTURYTEX 909.00 917.00 890.25 896.85IDEA 37.50 37.95 37.05 37.10DABUR 426.00 431.50 422.80 430.60ITI 92.80 93.85 91.10 91.65TORNTPOWER 259.35 265.05 257.55 259.85

DELTACORP 243.30 246.15 242.60 243.65RAYMOND 841.20 851.75 824.00 826.90CUMMINSIND 792.00 843.00 792.00 830.10INDIGO 1158.00 1169.90 1129.65 1161.50MAHABANK 14.21 15.40 14.21 15.07IFCI 14.60 15.29 14.51 14.88SAIL 52.75 53.40 51.35 51.65MINDTREE 861.00 872.95 853.65 858.45TATACHEM 706.45 709.90 698.00 703.25TVSMOTOR 560.10 585.00 546.20 548.55VOLTAS 564.00 564.00 545.75 550.30ALLCARGO 108.00 110.45 106.20 107.00BHARATFORG 513.00 513.50 497.05 501.00ACC 1493.35 1497.50 1456.00 1460.50MRPL 76.00 76.00 74.15 74.40DRREDDY 2639.00 2650.00 2583.90 2587.50HINDALCO 221.10 223.60 220.00 220.65GLENMARK 677.30 687.90 663.25 683.40LUPIN 835.00 841.95 830.55 837.30PETRONET 223.00 225.00 221.55 222.35BRITANNIA 3090.00 3128.50 3062.00 3079.00ABB 1300.05 1323.05 1300.00 1310.95INDIANB 242.70 246.05 237.95 238.70HEXAWARE 317.30 326.00 317.15 323.95RCF 64.00 64.50 62.90 63.40MOTILALOFS 660.00 690.00 658.60 675.10CAPF 601.95 601.95 582.20 587.50MCX 713.00 731.00 712.00 721.55HAVELLS 683.75 692.35 677.95 684.50POWERGRID 195.00 198.50 193.70 198.50WOCKPHARMA 509.95 512.00 502.80 505.35MGL 878.85 898.00 872.70 892.40BAJAJELEC 515.90 516.00 494.00 497.30SPARC 202.50 203.85 192.80 194.45GODREJCP 810.00 817.45 797.45 813.55KTKBANK 110.75 111.35 109.20 109.50SREINFRA 35.00 35.70 34.10 35.15PVR 1559.35 1586.00 1536.15 1577.40LTI 1690.25 1704.85 1661.65 1676.75CHENNPETRO 277.00 292.15 277.00 286.70ISEC 262.40 262.70 254.05 260.60FORCEMOT 1620.00 1636.00 1605.00 1614.35PHILIPCARB 201.00 205.95 200.55 201.10HDFCLIFE 386.10 394.00 385.00 390.75DEEPAKFERT 146.30 153.10 145.60 149.00KPIT 219.45 222.45 216.75 220.05CASTROLIND 152.75 155.35 150.80 153.50GRASIM 826.90 829.75 811.20 814.70

ALBK 46.65 46.90 45.50 46.40CIPLA 516.25 521.20 514.00 517.95BHARATFIN 994.45 1009.50 994.45 1003.90COLPAL 1301.50 1324.00 1293.00 1300.95IBVENTURES 380.00 384.00 371.00 373.95ICICIPRULI 324.35 326.95 321.55 323.35MANAPPURAM 91.55 92.25 89.40 89.75UBL 1378.80 1378.80 1277.40 1364.55IRB 161.00 163.85 156.75 158.40VIPIND 515.15 521.55 504.25 506.70ADANITRANS 198.70 200.05 194.50 195.55PIDILITIND 1118.25 1118.90 1101.00 1112.25AMBUJACEM 220.10 222.75 215.95 216.75JSLHISAR 86.20 87.85 85.25 86.95RAIN 133.25 136.55 130.00 130.45PTC 90.00 91.10 88.60 89.70APOLLOTYRE 234.00 235.00 230.45 231.20MUTHOOTFIN 500.45 504.50 491.50 494.05JMFINANCIL 88.70 93.60 88.00 91.60SUNTECK 360.00 362.35 347.00 351.95JSWENERGY 68.35 69.10 66.50 66.85BERGEPAINT 328.00 330.80 324.65 327.05NESTLEIND 10850.00 10971.00 10833.10 10936.30UCOBANK 20.00 20.85 20.00 20.55RAMCOCEM 637.95 646.35 618.00 640.00JAMNAAUTO 63.75 65.25 63.05 64.50DCMSHRIRAM 350.45 351.70 330.00 331.85TATACOMM 505.00 528.00 504.55 522.00VIJAYABANK 49.15 50.50 49.15 50.10FORTIS 135.00 136.45 134.20 134.55GSFC 109.75 110.80 108.25 108.80IDFC 43.45 43.95 42.55 42.85IGL 264.75 268.15 261.45 265.55MARICO 367.45 379.00 367.45 376.70VENKYS 2400.00 2425.00 2378.55 2384.40GNFC 341.50 346.95 337.50 338.90NAVKARCORP 57.50 58.30 55.05 56.00FSL 48.95 48.95 46.95 47.10VGUARD 228.95 236.90 225.85 235.00NAVINFLUOR 707.00 721.35 689.05 692.00HINDCOPPER 51.00 51.90 50.10 50.45CHOLAFIN 1224.00 1262.40 1216.00 1227.85EICHERMOT 23375.00 23375.00 22869.15 23020.05ABCAPITAL 98.20 98.45 97.85 98.10HINDZINC 272.40 276.35 269.35 274.50GMRINFRA 16.25 16.50 15.90 16.00ULTRACEMCO 4019.75 4020.45 3960.00 3986.45DISHTV 37.70 37.80 36.80 37.60LTTS 1691.05 1708.00 1678.80 1681.00GRUH 314.00 317.35 309.60 312.35DBL 420.65 432.05 416.20 418.70GODREJPROP 682.65 683.20 669.00 673.70INFRATEL 262.60 269.00 261.75 266.95OMAXE 215.55 216.50 213.10 214.25RNAM 156.05 162.70 156.05 158.10TORNTPHARM 1762.70 1770.00 1728.35 1740.85JKTYRE 103.50 104.90 103.35 103.65SHANKARA 537.65 543.00 521.05 525.15MFSL 449.00 450.15 435.00 435.00HFCL 21.30 21.45 20.90 21.10DIVISLAB 1475.00 1481.80 1448.00 1481.80GLAXO 1507.25 1518.45 1470.85 1505.00BAJAJHLDNG 2911.90 2984.00 2877.85 2953.15INTELLECT 227.00 227.50 221.30 221.95INDHOTEL 148.40 150.85 146.05 147.25CENTURYPLY 177.00 177.00 170.00 172.20GDL 132.00 132.90 129.30 131.00GODREJIND 526.40 533.00 516.15 530.50PFIZER 2910.00 2910.00 2768.10 2772.70GMDCLTD 87.00 88.80 86.75 87.60KEI 360.00 363.00 355.00 355.10FCONSUMER 47.00 47.20 45.70 45.90NOCIL 164.15 165.00 161.00 162.40SOUTHBANK 15.35 15.35 15.10 15.15MINDACORP 142.00 148.00 141.50 144.10CADILAHC 343.30 343.30 338.00 338.95JINDALSAW 83.40 84.55 82.35 82.70SJVN 25.55 25.55 24.25 24.75JUBILANT 718.85 719.40 705.55 708.60PAGEIND 24000.00 24189.20 23721.25 23850.95QUESS 644.55 648.75 630.10 630.10OBEROIRLTY 448.40 459.40 447.10 453.50HUDCO 43.70 43.95 43.05 43.20DCBBANK 160.55 165.00 160.55 163.10HSCL 132.60 133.35 130.05 130.35MAHINDCIE 246.90 247.65 241.60 242.30BBTC 1275.55 1291.95 1270.15 1276.95NAUKRI 1527.45 1527.45 1475.00 1482.65WABAG 256.90 260.05 255.90 258.25NATCOPHARM* 675.85 705.00 666.40 686.30APARINDS 669.80 685.00 645.85 654.90GREENPLY 137.80 142.80 135.25 138.15PARAGMILK 253.00 253.85 245.15 246.80ASHOKA 126.05 127.55 123.20 124.40CARERATING 974.00 984.00 969.00 980.10TATAINVEST 884.80 884.95 875.00 877.30TRENT 348.00 348.00 339.00 344.65NLCINDIA 67.25 68.80 66.75 67.05SWANENERGY 101.60 102.00 100.65 101.60AEGISLOG 195.50 196.40 188.50 188.50PNBHOUSING 935.05 945.30 910.00 915.70WELCORP 143.30 143.50 138.20 138.30CARBORUNIV 350.00 359.00 350.00 355.00MERCK 2950.00 2999.00 2914.15 2914.15IBULISL 380.10 395.00 365.15 369.80CYIENT 624.95 624.95 602.50 603.70CAPPL 382.00 389.65 380.10 381.75GUJFLUORO 890.05 891.00 870.00 872.45TEJASNET 207.15 211.85 203.00 211.75

SYNGENE 564.05 570.00 557.05 562.80GREAVESCOT 119.00 120.50 118.80 119.70BALMLAWRIE 210.50 211.00 201.15 201.15NILKAMAL 1512.00 1529.85 1485.20 1493.45KAJARIACER 493.95 493.95 486.25 488.00SUPREMEIND 1142.50 1161.40 1125.25 1126.10COCHINSHIP 381.05 382.80 376.10 377.00MEGH 60.20 60.85 59.10 59.40DEEPAKNI 208.30 210.00 208.00 209.25ASTRAL 1083.20 1120.90 1068.10 1116.25FINOLEXIND 539.90 560.90 536.05 550.00OFSS 3600.00 3698.00 3572.05 3669.30GRANULES 89.00 89.75 87.05 89.20WHIRLPOOL 1310.85 1339.10 1310.80 1330.00GUJGAS 683.75 683.75 665.85 669.15ADANIGREEN 42.35 42.75 41.30 41.50KANSAINER 481.55 483.25 477.00 478.05SCI 47.05 47.75 46.50 46.85DENABANK 17.00 17.50 16.95 17.10TATAMETALI 626.00 629.95 615.50 615.50JYOTHYLAB 197.20 205.00 197.20 200.65SYMPHONY 1088.00 1114.00 1080.00 1091.80DBCORP 171.55 171.70 167.00 168.00NHPC 26.10 26.30 25.95 26.20CROMPTON 227.65 228.85 223.65 225.75EMAMILTD 407.05 410.70 402.95 405.65WELSPUNIND 59.20 60.10 59.15 59.50IPCALAB 787.45 789.80 780.50 786.35RALLIS 173.65 174.80 171.70 172.95UFLEX 274.00 274.50 269.80 270.15PIIND 853.00 861.65 846.25 850.00ADVENZYMES 177.00 185.00 176.50 179.75LEMONTREE 69.50 69.50 68.30 68.65GUJALKALI 530.60 539.30 520.25 522.40EIDPARRY 210.00 210.70 203.30 204.00IDBI 61.10 61.35 61.00 61.10COFFEEDAY 271.65 275.20 268.10 268.10GSKCONS 7536.15 7641.95 7409.00 7592.65EIHOTEL 194.30 197.30 193.05 193.05TATACOFFEE 96.80 96.80 95.00 95.25GICRE 259.05 265.00 252.60 261.60MOIL 169.10 171.00 168.00 168.35TIMETECHNO 102.70 104.25 100.10 100.10GESHIP 322.05 322.80 309.00 311.70FLFL 400.60 400.60 388.20 394.00GSPL 175.70 176.85 173.60 175.45CHAMBLFERT 142.45 143.40 142.00 143.00TRIDENT 64.70 65.65 64.45 64.60VINATIORGA 1566.00 1613.00 1566.00 1606.90SUNDRMFAST 525.00 533.05 525.00 528.00J&KBANK 36.10 37.10 36.10 36.90DHANUKA 474.45 474.50 463.50 463.50GODREJAGRO 501.00 503.00 497.00 500.05LINDEINDIA 683.20 686.00 677.15 681.40MAHLIFE 383.00 396.75 381.15 396.00RAJESHEXPO 572.95 575.70 570.05 571.10AMARAJABAT 734.00 739.30 731.00 734.85HSIL 224.70 232.90 224.70 229.65VMART 2615.10 2632.60 2594.00 2594.00TRITURBINE 115.00 116.30 111.60 111.90SOMANYCERA 332.45 332.45 323.80 323.80KALPATPOWR 378.60 381.10 370.50 375.00PERSISTENT 625.50 633.20 625.45 628.00GICHSGFIN 257.10 258.70 251.60 252.75ITDC 310.00 311.80 302.00 302.00TAKE 146.15 152.00 146.15 147.10AUBANK 596.50 604.00 590.15 597.10WABCOINDIA 6831.95 6860.00 6666.00 6761.00ASTRAZEN 1488.05 1528.60 1488.05 1506.55JKCEMENT 732.90 733.00 710.90 724.50KPRMILL 565.00 568.95 556.50 558.00IEX 166.05 167.00 160.60 165.00ZENSARTECH 235.60 237.15 230.05 231.10AARTIIND 1440.00 1450.00 1420.00 1424.00GET&D 286.20 292.05 277.10 290.00INDOSTAR 344.00 357.45 330.75 346.50NIACL 179.00 179.00 175.05 176.60JBCHEPHARM 299.05 299.15 294.10 297.00HERITGFOOD 533.00 565.00 529.00 554.80CORPBANK 29.15 29.25 28.50 28.95GPPL 103.70 103.75 101.85 102.10AIAENG 1644.95 1711.15 1644.95 1667.10ANDHRABANK 29.75 29.75 29.15 29.45ITDCEM 112.00 113.95 110.60 111.00APLAPOLLO 1122.90 1123.00 1097.80 1115.00BOSCHLTD 19650.00 19718.05 19287.30 19356.20ECLERX 1073.95 1120.00 1071.85 1114.90BASF 1565.00 1603.45 1548.10 1555.00SOBHA 451.50 452.30 444.10 444.10FINCABLES 402.00 464.00 402.00 453.00SIS 744.90 770.65 744.90 770.50NBVENTURES 119.30 119.30 117.05 118.00SHREECEM 17379.70 17380.00 16796.60 16943.30DCAL 230.40 233.90 227.55 227.70MRF 67899.00 67899.00 66700.00 67100.00NETWORK18 37.90 38.65 37.70 38.45JKLAKSHMI 284.95 289.00 283.00 288.00THOMASCOOK 231.25 233.60 227.00 230.50AKZOINDIA 1625.00 1655.00 1618.00 1629.00SONATSOFTW 302.00 303.35 300.00 300.00BIRLACORPN 616.00 617.75 595.00 601.05HEIDELBERG 156.05 156.05 150.00 150.05MHRIL 195.20 196.50 193.95 194.90CENTRUM 37.80 37.80 36.05 36.05EVEREADY 193.00 193.00 184.50 187.103MINDIA 20924.95 20968.95 20210.00 20370.95APLLTD 563.80 575.00 563.80 574.00INOXLEISUR 244.25 248.00 240.10 241.40INOXWIND 77.20 77.90 74.95 75.80

REDINGTON 87.50 87.80 86.50 86.50IFBIND 859.00 859.00 828.60 834.55MAGMA 111.30 111.50 109.35 110.35SHARDACROP 308.50 315.00 300.00 306.00ENDURANCE 1158.60 1199.70 1158.60 1199.70KRBL 284.60 289.30 284.60 286.25RELAXO 736.10 738.10 720.00 720.00HAL 777.05 788.20 777.05 784.05HIMATSEIDE 212.00 220.30 212.00 216.60TIINDIA 333.40 339.00 330.00 332.00PRESTIGE 207.25 212.00 205.30 206.80IOB 14.75 15.00 14.75 14.85SHILPAMED 390.05 391.00 381.35 387.00ASAHIINDIA 250.00 250.00 238.50 241.40BDL 277.50 278.80 270.10 278.80ELGIEQUIP 265.00 265.00 253.65 256.40CUB 186.35 186.50 184.30 185.30PRSMJOHNSN 88.90 89.85 86.10 86.50JSL 32.65 32.90 32.30 32.45SUPRAJIT 214.60 220.00 214.25 217.00LUXIND 1404.00 1423.85 1375.00 1377.00FDC 174.50 175.50 172.10 173.15ATUL 3424.00 3470.00 3418.00 3418.00ISGEC 5100.00 5100.00 5010.00 5031.00ERIS 663.60 678.50 656.00 663.35LAXMIMACH* 5770.00 5775.00 5711.00 5712.00SKFINDIA 1897.55 1912.05 1885.00 1892.00GRINDWELL 544.90 552.45 536.00 537.50MINDAIND 325.90 325.90 319.05 324.05COROMANDEL 445.00 447.00 443.20 445.05PGHH 9708.85 9801.00 9700.25 9772.80ALKEM 1855.45 1880.00 1851.00 1867.90BLUESTARCO 644.00 644.00 608.25 612.00VBL 744.35 749.00 733.60 740.95PNCINFRA 145.00 147.00 144.00 145.20TIMKEN 542.25 562.45 542.25 560.00JAGRAN 116.25 116.25 111.40 113.05GULFOILLUB 823.50 823.50 817.00 820.00SHOPERSTOP 510.00 512.00 496.10 503.70ESSELPRO 104.95 109.00 104.60 105.20NAVNETEDUL 105.55 106.00 103.80 105.00LAKSHVILAS 87.10 87.25 86.50 87.10LAURUSLABS 380.40 385.00 380.40 382.00LAOPALA 220.50 224.00 212.50 219.05ABBOTINDIA 7551.30 7551.45 7460.00 7465.00GHCL 239.05 240.95 233.10 235.30TNPL 254.25 254.25 250.20 250.65LALPATHLAB 933.00 950.00 925.00 940.00BAJAJCORP 364.60 365.20 360.00 360.00SCHNEIDER 101.45 101.80 100.00 100.10TIFHL 506.30 519.95 503.50 506.00NH 199.85 202.80 197.60 198.00ZYDUSWELL 1382.00 1393.25 1366.50 1366.50SUDARSCHEM 342.55 342.80 339.15 339.20PHOENIXLTD 565.00 566.65 558.45 564.90ASTERDM 151.25 152.00 147.50 148.00FORBESCO 2359.00 2447.95 2351.30 2351.30SANOFI 6155.90 6288.80 6129.45 6288.80GEPIL 825.65 838.90 825.65 828.75STARCEMENT 102.20 103.90 100.00 100.50BAYERCROP 4248.60 4248.60 4204.70 4230.00BLUEDART 3176.60 3275.00 3176.60 3270.25SCHAEFFLER 5530.25 5619.35 5479.95 5600.00SADBHAV 207.90 208.10 205.30 205.75MAHLOG 515.30 516.45 507.60 507.60CERA 2380.00 2424.90 2356.40 2424.90SUPPETRO 209.60 209.60 200.75 200.75VTL 1028.20 1032.30 1028.00 1028.00CRISIL 1631.25 1637.70 1603.10 1609.40TEAMLEASE 2856.40 2873.75 2831.45 2831.45SOLARINDS 1043.00 1060.30 1043.00 1057.00MONSANTO 2580.00 2615.85 2567.85 2585.00THERMAX 1084.05 1086.00 1078.00 1083.70HONAUT 21855.40 21855.40 21375.00 21375.00TVSSRICHAK 2499.95 2499.95 2463.85 2468.90ORIENTCEM 81.80 82.20 80.00 80.05RATNAMANI 908.05 936.80 905.00 930.00SUNCLAYLTD 3574.95 3574.95 3410.90 3533.00GILLETTE 6497.05 6499.00 6460.00 6499.00SHRIRAMCIT 1570.65 1594.25 1563.05 1593.30TTKPRESTIG 7416.00 7416.00 7310.00 7374.95GALAXYSURF 1199.95 1218.60 1199.00 1207.45KIOCL 149.50 151.90 146.85 147.05SHK 172.55 173.05 170.35 172.90THYROCARE 544.05 545.00 539.05 540.20CCL 274.20 274.20 271.50 273.00SFL 1454.00 1480.00 1440.75 1480.00TVTODAY 375.75 375.75 370.10 370.35HATSUN 619.10 619.10 617.50 618.70

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SCRIP OPEN HIgh LOW LTP CHANGENIFTY 50 10817.90 10834.20 10764.45 10779.80 49.95ADANIPORTS 379.25 385.80 373.65 385.00 8.45TECHM 702.00 713.50 696.15 708.90 15.35INFRATEL 262.60 269.20 261.50 268.00 5.40ZEEL 459.45 465.95 451.50 464.30 9.25INFY 652.75 663.25 649.00 656.35 12.30RELIANCE 1107.20 1127.00 1104.00 1118.10 19.75POWERGRID 195.05 199.50 193.50 198.50 3.20IBULHSGFIN 852.00 856.95 830.10 843.00 12.50HINDPETRO 246.00 253.75 241.55 252.55 3.70ONGC 147.35 151.40 146.00 148.70 2.10HINDUNILVR 1802.70 1823.00 1793.15 1816.00 24.40ASIANPAINT 1360.05 1384.75 1354.30 1380.05 17.05CIPLA 518.90 521.00 514.00 520.40 6.10BAJFINANCE 2598.85 2626.75 2570.00 2595.00 27.60TCS 1909.00 1941.70 1872.10 1909.10 19.90NTPC 146.70 149.75 144.20 147.00 1.45HCLTECH 949.00 960.00 942.65 952.10 9.30ITC 279.00 281.65 277.30 279.20 2.55HINDALCO 221.40 223.90 219.60 220.20 1.60M&M 794.50 802.00 788.10 793.05 5.35HDFC 1948.45 1955.00 1930.00 1946.30 12.95GAIL 355.00 363.50 352.30 355.70 2.30INDUSINDBK 1577.00 1593.45 1559.70 1564.20 7.75LT 1429.20 1434.35 1408.50 1425.00 2.35VEDL 199.65 202.25 195.20 196.70 0.30UPL 756.00 759.00 745.25 751.10 0.90BAJAJ-AUTO 2763.90 2764.00 2696.60 2735.45 0.85TITAN 896.00 897.80 881.50 889.10 -0.05IOC 134.60 135.20 131.00 134.60 -0.05WIPRO 327.80 331.35 324.00 325.95 -0.20COALINDIA 249.50 254.00 243.85 246.65 -0.40ICICIBANK 359.50 360.75 354.90 355.25 -0.60SBIN 296.70 297.60 291.50 293.30 -0.85EICHERMOT 23300.00 23383.00 22887.90 22995.00 -86.35KOTAKBANK 1257.25 1258.65 1235.35 1243.00 -5.15YESBANK 183.00 183.45 177.05 178.70 -0.75SUNPHARMA 423.00 423.30 410.00 411.80 -1.85AXISBANK 623.55 626.00 615.60 616.40 -3.10GRASIM 828.00 828.00 810.80 814.90 -4.35ULTRACEMCO 4015.00 4020.50 3955.00 3975.10 -21.00HDFCBANK 2133.00 2138.20 2098.45 2107.00 -15.35BAJAJFINSV 6500.00 6550.00 6350.00 6381.00 -58.05MARUTI 7649.00 7668.85 7479.30 7501.10 -68.00DRREDDY 2641.00 2645.00 2581.35 2597.00 -25.30JSWSTEEL 299.50 300.65 292.10 293.10 -3.20TATASTEEL 518.00 519.80 504.95 506.50 -6.95BHARTIARTL 323.20 323.70 314.00 316.05 -4.40HEROMOTOCO 3208.70 3210.00 3114.65 3129.00 -46.20TATAMOTORS 172.75 173.40 167.70 168.05 -2.85BPCL 361.00 368.75 354.90 359.00 -7.35

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SCRIP OPEN HIgh LOW LTP CHANGENIFTY NEXT 50 27885.75 27959.85 27739.90 27780.95 55.30SBILIFE 544.00 605.00 540.35 595.00 20.15ICICIGI 845.00 898.90 827.95 857.10 28.85OFSS 3585.00 3682.00 3570.00 3676.00 113.70MARICO 370.00 379.00 368.70 378.00 10.25MCDOWELL-N 623.65 634.50 617.15 633.95 14.15SUNTV 578.00 591.35 577.25 587.70 12.40GODREJCP 804.05 818.50 797.25 815.00 15.70DABUR 428.00 432.00 422.35 430.00 7.40CONCOR 664.80 681.90 658.10 663.80 11.20PIDILITIND 1116.25 1123.15 1101.10 1122.00 18.00HINDZINC 271.95 277.20 269.60 275.20 3.75HDFCLIFE 386.70 394.50 385.60 390.00 5.20HAVELLS 682.40 692.55 678.00 685.80 8.60INDIGO 1139.90 1175.75 1139.90 1169.00 12.75ABCAPITAL 97.80 98.40 97.75 98.15 1.05DMART 1565.00 1578.00 1558.05 1571.00 16.15GICRE 257.65 262.50 257.65 260.05 2.60ABB 1310.00 1323.00 1302.45 1306.50 11.20PGHH 9705.05 9800.00 9705.05 9800.00 76.30LUPIN 837.00 841.90 830.10 839.05 5.85NIACL 177.10 179.20 174.50 177.00 0.95ICICIPRULI 326.00 327.55 320.75 323.05 1.60SRTRANSFIN 1224.00 1248.65 1215.50 1224.00 3.95PETRONET 224.90 225.15 221.60 223.25 0.65NHPC 26.10 26.45 25.95 26.15 0.05COLPAL 1303.15 1323.95 1293.00 1302.00 -0.15CADILAHC 342.95 343.00 338.00 338.70 -0.70L&TFH 156.40 156.90 153.20 153.80 -0.55OIL 173.60 175.50 168.55 172.95 -0.65IDEA 37.70 38.00 36.95 37.10 -0.15MRF 67398.90 67699.00 66526.00 66980.00 -339.65BOSCHLTD 19598.60 19739.20 19251.45 19428.90 -97.65SIEMENS 1044.00 1049.00 1021.00 1030.05 -6.10BRITANNIA 3110.00 3124.95 3062.00 3070.00 -18.95BIOCON 618.90 621.00 610.05 610.95 -3.75MOTHERSUMI 164.65 165.70 161.45 162.35 -1.30ASHOKLEY 104.80 105.00 102.70 103.00 -0.90AUROPHARMA 723.00 727.00 710.05 711.85 -6.65SHREECEM 17111.00 17399.00 16800.00 16900.00 -174.45PEL 2328.00 2347.95 2271.00 2285.55 -27.45DLF 179.80 181.40 174.90 175.25 -2.35BANDHANBNK 550.00 557.65 537.00 538.00 -7.35BANKBARODA 119.20 119.40 115.80 116.10 -1.60ACC 1499.00 1499.00 1453.85 1457.90 -21.50LICHSGFIN 490.20 492.00 476.95 479.00 -7.45SAIL 53.00 53.25 51.15 51.65 -0.90AMBUJACEM 217.45 222.80 216.05 216.50 -4.60BEL 90.25 90.50 85.65 86.60 -2.10BHEL 72.00 72.40 69.75 69.85 -1.70NMDC 95.75 95.85 91.80 92.05 -2.75

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The Taliban warned theUnited States Thursday it

would face the same fate as theSoviet Union in the 1980s if itdid not leave Afghanistan, asWashington considers slashingtroop numbers.

In a taunting message senton the 39th anniversary of theSoviet invasion of the war-torncountry, the Taliban said USforces faced “humiliation” andcould “learn a great deal” fromthe experience of their ColdWar foe.

The Soviets pulled out ofAfghanistan in 1989, ending adecade-long occupation andprecipitating a bloody civil warand the emergence of theTaliban.

“Take heed from the Soviet

defeat in Afghanistan andabandon thoughts of testing themettle of the already provenAfghans,” Taliban spokesmanZabiullah Mujahid said in astatement in English, Dari andPashto.

Mujahid said any futurerelations between the Talibanand the United States should bebased on “sound diplomaticand economic principles”rather than conflict.

The Taliban have not for-mally responded to the newsthat Trump had decided towithdraw roughly half of the14,000 US troops inAfghanistan.

But a senior commandertold AFP that the group was“more than happy”. The Talibanhave long insisted on the with-drawal of foreign troops as a

condition for engaging in peacetalks.

The White House has sofar not confirmed the widely-publicised move

that left foreign diplomats and Afghan offi-cials in Kabul stunned and dis-mayed.

It came last week as USpeace envoy Zalmay Khalilzadmet with the Taliban in AbuDhabi, part of efforts to bringthe militants to the negotiatingtable with Kabul.

That was the latest in aseries of meetings between USofficials and representatives ofthe Talian that began in thesummer.

There are fears Trump’sdecision could undermineKhalilzad’s negotiating posi-tion, embolden the Taliban,and further erode moraleamong Afghan forces, whichare suffering record losses.

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US President Donald Trumpis the “worst perpetrator”

of false information on theinternet, according to the UNSpecial Rapporteur onFreedom of Expression andOpinion.

David Kaye said every-body was struggling on how todeal with disinformation andpart of the problem is the gov-ernments are the “real offend-ers” of fake news.

“Governments are puttingout false information. I mean,in my own country, the UnitedStates, the worst perpetrator offalse information is thePresident of the United States,”Kaye told a website onWednesday.

The problem of fake newsemanating from the govern-ments should be covered byjournalists, he was quoted assaying by the Politico.

Kaye said social media

platforms such as Google,Facebook or Twitter can domore “technical things” andhelp the broader fight againstdisinformation.

He said the companies canhelp with “technical things”where they can more and moretreat spam and decrease thenumber of accounts that arebots.

“The platforms, I think,can do things that are moretechnical as long as they are notevaluating content. There arethings they can do. They can’tjust zap it and say, This is fakenews, it’s off the platform,”Kaye said.

“They can do things likeidentify how long is this Twitter account that’s tweetingall of this information, howlong has it been in effect? Wasit created three hours ago?Well then, maybe it should berestricted. You know, howmany followers does this onehave? Are those followers

bots?” he said.Platforms should focus on

reducing spam and botaccounts rather than on polic-ing content, Kaye said, addingthat bots are “tricky, becausethere are good bots and badbots”.

“There are things thateverybody needs to be doing.Civil society has a role to playin this, too. If organisations arenot doing the work themselves,they should be working withfact-checking organisationsand others to try to identifywhich are the bad actors outthere,” he said.

Google, Facebook andTwitter are under intense pres-sure from the EuropeanCommission to tackle fakenews ahead of the Europeanelection in May 2019.

President Trump has fre-quently derided unfavourablemedia reports as “fake news”and attacked journalists as“enemies of the people”.

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Campaigning ends tomor-row for Bangladesh’s gen-

eral election on December 30with Prime Minister SheikhHasina and her Awami Leagueseeking a third straight term inoffice even as main oppositionBNP is in a crippled state as itsleader and former premierKhaleda Zia remains in jail forcorruption.

The BNP has alleged thatthe Awami League govern-ment is trying to push it out ofthe electoral fray.

“The government is apply-ing all its power to oust us fromthe election,” BangladeshNationalist Party spokesmanRuhul Kabir Rizvi said. KamalHossain, convenor of opposi-tion National Unity Front(NUF) in which BNP is a keypartner, called an emergencymeeting of the alliance to decidetheir next course of action.

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Agraft probe into the luxurywatch collection of

Thailand’s junta number twowas dropped Thursday, spark-ing the ire of the public andpolitical opponents of the mil-itary.

The country’s anti-corrup-tion agency cited “no grounds”for an investigation into thescandal surrounding PrawitWongsuwan’s penchant forpricey timepieces, which capti-

vated the kingdom earlier thisyear and drew criticisms in arare lightning rod of dissent asthe Thai public grew weary afterfour years of military rule.

The 73-year-old was caughtlast December wearing a luxu-ry watch in a photo, inspiringonline sleuths to dig up old pho-tos of at least 22 watches col-lectively worth USD 1.2 millionon his wrist, including 11Rolexes, eight Patek Philippesand three Richard Milles.

Questions arose over how a

general on a relatively humblepublic servant’s salary couldafford items undeclared on hisUSD 2.7 million list of assets ontaking office, leading the king-dom’s anti-graft agency to opena probe into his wrist bling.

The National Anti-Corruption Commission(NACC) announced Thursdayin a press conference its eight-person committee voted 5-3 todismiss the case.

“This case has no groundsthat General PrawitWongsuwan had intended...Tohide the truth or had intended

to hide the origins of suchassets,” said NACC deputy sec-retary-general WorawitSukboon.

The investigation found thatall the watches adorning Prawit’swrists belonged to his now-deceased friend, wealthy businessman PattawatSuksriwong. “He had also lenthis luxury watches to his otherfriends.” Worawit added theNACC is still investigating if the general had breached the commission’s rules foraccepting assets worth 3,000baht (USD 92).

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Indonesia on Thursday raisedthe danger alert level for an

erupting volcano that sparked akiller tsunami at the weekend,after previously warning thatfresh activity at the crater threat-ened to trigger another deadlywave.

Authorities also widened ano-go zone around rumblingAnak Krakatoa to five kilome-tres (three miles) -- up from aprevious two kilometres -- and

warned shell-shocked residentsto stay away from the coast, aftermore than 400 were killed bySaturday night's killer wave.

Plumes of ash burst into thesky as pyroclastic flows -- hot gasand other volcanic material --flowed down the crater, threat-ening anyone too close to thevolcano and raising the risk ofrough seas for boats in thevicinity. "There is a danger ofmore eruptions," said nationaldisaster agency spokesmanSutopo Purwo Nugroho.

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Aprincess who tried to fleethe United Arab Emirates

months ago is "a troubled youngwoman", a former UN humanrights chief said on Thursdayafter meeting her this month.

Mary Robinson told BBCradio 4's Today programme thatshe had been invited by PrincessHaya, the wife of Dubai rulerSheikh Mohammed bin RashidAl-Maktoum, to help with hisdaughter, Sheikha Latifa.

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Not all those who wander arelost, says J R R Tolkein in TheLord of the Rings. And it seemsthat the Indian traveller hastaken it to heart and is travel-

ling like never before and in different direc-tions.

���������� !"�#�!��For a Gen X’er or a millennial, travel-

ling to new places, exploring new experi-ences, trying out new cuisines and interact-ing with people from diverse cultural back-grounds have become an intrinsic part oftheir lifestyle. This passionate generation oftravellers is more likely to make its traveldecisions based on the travel posts of theirpeers on social media as it has become anauthentic source of information. At the sametime, it is important for them to capturetheir best travel stories through photos andvideos and inspire their circle of friends andcolleagues to take up travel. Wi-fi enabledplaces and hotels are a bliss for such trav-ellers as it enables them to post liveupdates.

"����! ���$�! What drives travellers to pursue their

travel dream is curiosity. A rising numberof them are keen on exploring what’sbeyond the frequently visited and found atsome of the most remote locations in theworld. On the basis of travel-searchesmade by holidaymakers in 2018, there is anevident trend of rising interest in placesbeyond city centres and conventionaltourist spots. To unravel the hidden secretsand visit the untouched lands are latesttrends. Following the footsteps of CharlesDarwin, a new tribe of travellers is makingits way to the Galapagos archipelago to expe-rience the endemic species and inhabitedislands. Similarly, cruising throughNorwegian fjords to reach the remoteshores of Svalbard, watching the passingshining glaciers and stunning landscapes,are on the wanted list.

%��& !'���#�(Each place, if observed carefully, tells

you multiple stories about its history, cul-ture, biodiversity, geography, food, architec-ture and people. Many travellers considerexploring destinations on foot as the bestway to delve into several intricate aspectsof the place, which one might miss other-

wise. This is why many passionate travellersare relying more on guided walking toursto enjoy the experience. Though city walksare the most common form, there is a grad-ual interest of moving to food walks, cul-tural trails and photography strolls amongothers, according to the specific hobby ofthe traveller. For instance, while a heritagewalk in South Mumbai is common, one canget introduced to unusual sea creatures inthe city during a guided marine walk nearHaji Ali. Similarly, gourmet walking toursin France offer an amazing experience of thefoodies and wine pairing, cooking classes,gourmet restaurants and even a bit of localculture like cheese and truffles. Travellingon foot also offers the opportunity to spendsufficient time at any given place, explorethe local culture and reach inaccessiblespots. Walking tours at Machu Picchu area great window to explore the colossalmountains, lush vegetation and ecologicalwonders while the forest trails of Japan areequally resplendent. We expect this type ofitinerary will feature in the list of more trav-ellers in the coming year.

�#)#�$�������Luxury travel is growing, faster than it

did in the past five years. Over the nextdecade, the growth rate for luxury travel isprojected to be at 6.2 per cent, be it on cruis-es, camps or heritage stays. There are sev-eral factors influencing the decision to optfor luxury travel. While the developingnations are at the forefront of the growthacceleration curve, an increase in the dis-posable incomes in these countries isfavourable to luxury travel. Although cur-rency fluctuations in different nationsslightly affected the segment, it has madethe developed nations seek luxury travel atfurther discounted prices, fuelling thegrowth.

��&���#� (*Curious travellers always want to

explore every nook and cranny, which isfilled with unforeseen surprises and greatadventures. This lot steps out to experiencethings that they have never seen before, evenif it’s something weird. Some people find itthrilling and entertaining to visit mysteri-ous places, like Kuldhara village inRajasthan, that are believed to be haunted.While others may visit tragic sites such asCambodian Killing Fields memorial or

Berlin Wall in Germany, some also visit the9/11 Memorial at Ground Zero when inNew York. Though for most travellers vis-iting the sites of death and disaster is onlya part of a wider range of things to do, somewish to review these chapters in history andremind themselves of these incidents.

���� !'�������#� (*The year 2019 is set to make the holi-

daymakers more discerning and conscious.Although there is a trend of travellers beingmore sensitive towards geopolitical andother related issues, of late these factors havestarted influencing the travellers’ decision.

Spending a holiday stuck in longqueues or crowded streets on a leisure tripis a no-no. While Italy is using phone appsto deal with overcrowding by giving real-time updates, Dubrovnik is experimentingwith dispersing cruise timings through theweek. While such measures are beingundertaken at all major tourist hubs, trav-ellers are modifying their plans to help curbovertourism at an individual level.

In 2019, we will see more travellers tak-ing trips in off-season to ensure visit to theirfavourite place while not being part of thechaos. New destinations near the saturat-ed ones benefit as a result.

��(+�!( ����������There is no running away from the fact

that much devastation has rocked ouroceans, beaches, forests and islands. Sincemost are tourist places, the onus of the sit-uation must be borne by the travellers as wellas operators. Pollution of different forms hasstarted hitting the business as well as non-economic aspects of societies, includingindigenous tribes, local ecology, ecosystemsand more. However, the good part is thatthere are organisations and operators thathave highest regards for sustainability.They will take the centrestage in 2019.Travellers, including majorly the millenni-als, consider themselves equally responsi-ble for the disaster and are duty-bound toreverse it. The New Year will see a spurt inthe number of responsible travellersdemanding sensitive travel packages as wellas sustainable operators to ensure a guilt-free tour. Plastic-free travel, voluntourism,sustainable and green tours are predicted tobe extensively used terms in the travel space.

(The author is the Group CEO of a trav-el company.)

The Maruti-Suzuki Swift wonmost of the ‘Car of theYear’ awards, even the ones

that I take seriously, and it thor-oughly deserved to, despite strongcompetition from the HyundaiSantro, which is a more than acapable bearer of the brand-nameand the second-generation HondaAmaze, whose excellent dieselcontinuously-variable transmis-sion (CVT) was a surprising rev-elation to me. Of course, none ofthese cars was the best carlaunched in India this year, but the‘Car of the Year’ awards have to

factor in affordability and themarket segments that the vehi-cles operate in. The new BMWM2 Competition is by far and

away the most exciting car thatcame to Indian shores this yearbut an 85-lakh car won’t win toomany awards. Nor will the utter-ly brilliant Volvo XC40, which isby far and away the best entry-level luxury SUV out there, albeitone without a much-needed petrolengine for now. In fact, the entirerevamped Volvo range is excitingand with the new S60 due nextyear, the luxury segment is defi-nitely going to hot up particular-ly as BMW brings in its new 3-series.

Of course, my work has ledme to drive a lot of these carsaround India and across the worldand many of them have been quiteexciting indeed. There have beensome surprising advances in auto-

motive technology that I expectwill become even more pro-nounced in the coming year.There is also a fear which I havethat India might lose out onsome important emergingtechnologies because ofpoor traffic enforce-ment and policywriting. One ofthose technologiesthat I believe willbecome morewidespread in thecoming year ishybrid technology,where a car uses acombination of bat-tery-electric power and theinternal combustion engine topropel itself.

So far in India only BMW,Honda, Toyota and Volvo havebrought in proper hybrids, wherethe car can run completely on bat-tery power. A lot of cars feature‘Mild Hybrid’ technology, and ascar makers move from a 12 Voltelectrical system to a 48-Voltelectrical system on their cars, thiswill become even more prevalent.Even a ‘Mild Hybrid’ vehicle candramatically enhance fuel efficien-cy as the battery powers the start-stop system at traffic signals and‘fills in’ additional power andtorque between the gears. Forexample, I have been driving thenew second-generation Ertiga,another vehicle that has surprisedme this year and this long people-

carrier is returning in excess of 14km per litre on a petrol engine,which is remarkable in the mixed-conditions that I drive in. Theadditional two km per litre at theminimum that the car gives is 15per cent more bang for the buck.

One of the first cars that I willdrive in 2019 will be the newToyota Camry Hybrid and theMaruti-Suzuki Chairman R.CBhargava promised that the com-pany will bring in ‘Strong Hybrid’technology among other things in2019. These new hybrids will beat least 30-40 percent more fuel-efficient than their petrol-onlycounterparts. With the impendingBharat Stage 6 rules effectivelykilling off small diesel cars, petrol-hybrids will be the only route tosave money. And one could argue

that theys h o u l d

even become mandatory, at leastmaking it essential in ‘start-stop’technology in cars that will savemoney both for the consumer butalso the government. But evenwithout forcing this on con-sumers, Indians are choosingmore efficient vehicles and evennatural-gas vehicles, sales of whichhave climbed 50 per cent in thepast year despite problems inbuilding new compressed natur-al gas stations. And in 2019, therewill be more hybrids, both mildand strong, alongside more gas-powered cars sold than everbefore.

And these will definitely helpIndia get over the hump when itcomes to reducing vehicular emis-sions, both of carbon as well as

particulate matter and NOx.While moving down an

electric path shouldcontinue to be thegoal, the fact is thatthe infrastructurefor electric vehiclesand the basicpower supply doesnot exist yet,although somesmart policyaround chargingstations and allow-

ing anyone andeveryone to build charging sta-tions is a step forward. But chal-lenges remain, especially the factthat by not having battery-man-ufacturing facilities in India andthe fact that the batteries are 60per cent of a battery-electric vehi-cles cost, we have to also consid-er the impact on jobs and manu-facturing. At the same time, India’senergy mix for electricity gener-ation is still far too focussed oncheap and dirty thermal powerand and that will have to changeif battery-electric vehicles are tohave a lower carbon impact on thenation.

But while India will have tograpple with energy issues aroundvehicular transport, we risk losingout when it comes to vehicularautomation. This past year sever-al vehicles have been launched inIndia, including the newMercedes-Benz S-Class, that havefeatures like adaptive cruise con-

trol and lane assist. Even the farcheaper Volvo XC40 has these fea-tures. But in the chaos of city traf-fic with badly behaved drivers dri-ving everything from cycles tomulti-axle trucks, automatic brak-ing is more of a bane than a boonunless you are careful. And laneassist only works when lane mark-ings are well-defined and correct.Many residential colonies in SouthDelhi have double white divinglines, I wonder how many of youknow what a double-white linemeans? That is all a matter of con-jecture and I’m sure some sort oforder will be imposed on Indianroads going forward.

So which was the best car Idrove this year? I’d have to say itis a toss-up between the BMW i8Roadster I zoomed around theisland of Mallorca back in Mayand the surprising Roewe MarvelX battery-electric car I experi-enced for far too little time dur-ing a visit to China. The BMWwas a mild-blowing representationof what a hybrid car can do andthe Roewe proof that the Chinesecar industry is coming to Indiaand our industry should be wor-ried because our neighbour hascracked the electric car manufac-turing code.

Lastly, have a great 2019 anddrive safe whenever you drive.Follow the rules, wear your seatbeltsand helmets and don’t drive drunkor stoned. Have a great new yearand see you on the other side.

She, along with her siblings, wasthe first in the family to receive amodern education. She became

an avid shooter and won the NationalAir Rifle Championship at the age ofseven. When she was 16 in 1969, shewon the prestigious Arjuna Award.Clearly, there is a lot more toRajyashree Kumari than just beingborn into the royal family of Bikaner.She has recently come out with hermemoir, the third of her books whichexplores the political legacy ofBikaner’s rulers before and afterIndependence.

Evoking the romance of therugged desert kingdom of Bikaner andits Rajput royal family, the book,Palace of Clouds, is a richly woventapestry encompassing five genera-tions of an aristocratic family past andpresent.

The book was launched at theOxford Bookstore in the presence ofGita Devi, Maharani of Kapurtala, whoread out extracts. She was effusive inher praise of the princess as she said,“Rajyashree has brought a treasuretrove of anecdotes and introduced usto a world of elegance, sport and cos-mopolitan culture.”

The book delves into the royalfamily’s tales of valour, battles andcoronation, splendour of the royalcourts and culture and traditions,forts and hunting lodges. The authordescribes her formative years duringthe sixties when seismic changes in theworld were taking place and whichwere to take her on an adventurousjourney from her home in Bikaner tolife in London. Her recollection ofevents gives us a glimpse of a worlddisconnected with and disrespectful ofthe Indian masses. So there areaccounts of several world tours,African safaris, lavish ballroom partiesand hunting excursions.

All that became part of a glorifiedpast with the abolition of privy purs-es of the the princes in India. Theprincess’ formative years were markedby significant changes in the lifestyleof the royals, particularly women, frommedieval to cosmopolitan.

One might imagine that to gath-er the facts and information about gen-erations which dated back to the 15thcentury would be a cumbersomeprocess but Rajyashree said, “Therecords that my family has maintained

over the years are spot on and it was-n’t really laborious as I consulted myforefathers’ files. I also included quotesand photographs to make it more per-sonal.”

Rajyashree also said that theHouse of Bikaner under her father DrKarni Singh, Maharaja of Bikaner,adopted a modern approach and thememoir brings out his role in shapingher personality as an independentwoman way ahead of her time.Rajyashree tries to relive the old-worldcharm, which may interest readerswho are curious to know aboutmaharajas. She feels that there hasbeen a revival of an interest in histo-ry and says, “I feel proud to say thateven the millennials are now taking upthe initiative to acquire knowledge ofthe past. They are much betterinformed than they used to be onceupon a time. There was a time whenpeople said that history doesn’t real-ly matter, but it does in every way pos-sible. A 500-year-old fort is not mere-ly a fort but a treasure that belongs tothe whole country. It’s vital to keepdoing restoration, preservation andrenovation to the old buildings, fortsand palaces, in order to keep historyalive.”

Most chroniclers know that writ-ing a book that is brutally honest canbe a difficult job, especially when it isbased on real people. She said, “It’s noteasy to write in a truthful and honestmanner, and be inoffensive to anyoneand anything at the same time.”

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Every year, the food scene is hit by anumber of trends that change the waywe eat. These trends are everything —bizarre, health-conscious, those whichcelebrate farmers and producers while

at the same time managing to look just so delec-table on the plates.

Regional goes internationalIndia is a treasure trove of food and, in my opin-ion, the only country in the world to have somany regional cuisines. While the Indianregional platter has mainly been represented byPunjabi cuisine to the global audience for overfive decades, I see the coming years focussingon regional Indian fare from across the land-scape, being taken forward to the internation-al audience not just within India, but overseasas well. In every country across the globe per-haps, you will find an Indian restaurant or arestaurant that offers cuisine from a not soknown part of India. Diners are willing to trav-el the world to taste a region on a plate. The chefsare reverting back to Indian local cuisine andcooking techniques to illustrate a region’suniqueness.

Culinary tourismFood connects us with the land, our heritage and

the people around us. In the recent past, we haveseen many chefs of Indian origin being invitedoverseas to showcase Indian cuisine to theWestern audiences and vice versa, the chefs ofinternational origin being invited in India toshowcase their cuisine during specially curatedevents. This form of interchange, although seen

in ancient times as well as effectively done bypeople like Jiggs Kalra, late Tarla Dalal andCamilia Punjabi in the 70s, 80s and 90s, is see-ing a surge in the form of culinary tourism. Thisis set to become bigger and an effective way ofshowcasing authentic cuisines from variouscountries to the Indian audience.

Cocktail connectCocktails take the centrestage, inspired from anamalgamation of different international cultures.From floral touches to smoke and fog, thereseems to be a new trend in the world of boozebut cocktails simply stand the test of time.Cocktail drinkers have much to look forward toin 2019 with many surprising ingredients andrare pairings in store. It’s time to bid adieu toyour bottles of beer and let in some exotic cock-tails, each aimed to make you feel warm andfuzzy on the inside.

At one of my outlets, Bo Tai, the new menuof cocktails — The Gods Of Tiki In Thaipromises to get you grooving to the beats. Thereis a medley of outlandish flavours and ingredi-ents along with the taste. Thailand and thePolynesian islands of the South East Pacific haveintermingled and influenced each other through-out history as the cultures share similarities andbloodlines through centuries of interactions.Mixing the cultures in a fun and playful way is

where the new cocktailmenu takes inspirationfrom.

(The author isFounder and Managing

Director, MassiveRestaurants Pvt. Ltd.)

Food is the ingredient thatbinds everyone together andthere is no denying the fact

that a delicious meal can lift ourmood like nothing else.

This year our social media feedwas flooded with delightful treatsright from charcoal lattes to mirrorcakes, from aloe vera making it toevery meal option possible to peo-ple adapting plant based diets forstaying fit. But with the run-up toNew Year well under way, it leavesus wondering what’s in store for our2019 food trends.

With the power vested in theirtaste buds, the experts have listeddown their prediction for the pop-ular food trends.

� ��������� (����Yes the movie was great and so arethe flavours. Fruits, especiallyberries, made it to our list of dailyconsumables in some or the otherform this year. The year is all set tosee a fresh influx of colourful fruits,including guava, dragon fruit andpassionfruit, in our grocery list.

These fruits are known to behigh in fibre, rich in Vitamin C andanti-oxidants and help us maintainlow cholesterol and boost hearthealth.

�� �#������� ��Termed unhealthy for quite a while,food experts predict that 2019 willgive an upgrade to snacking with anarray of treat options available to thecustomers.

While cheese will continue tobe the favourite, especially prosciut-to and aged mozzarella, gluten andGMO free snacks made from bluepotatoes, beetroot, turnip and thelike will find a place in our kitchencupboards in the coming year.Tasteful and guilt-free binging willset the snacking trend.Commenting on the same, food his-torian Pushpesh Pant added that,“the vegetable chips are one of thebest ways for binge snacking. Whilewe are used to the artificialflavoured ones in the market whichare high on salt, GMO-free chipsmake for the healthier option for allour snacking needs. The flavoursand the colours of the snacks makefor both a visual and tasty treat.”

(���� "����������With people trying to adopt healthyliving as their top priority, vegetar-ianism will still be the talk of thetown in 2019. Foods like legumes,seeds and tofu that are high in pro-tein and derived from vegetable will

be seen on the menu for the health-conscious generation. They are alsoa good option to replace the meaton our plates without affecting thebalance of our diet.

���������#� ���With more and more people

opting for non-alcoholic bever-ages, mixologists predict fruits,flowers and spices making it to ourdrinks in 2019. An easy to adopttrend, the fusion makes up for someof the best flavours and room forexperimentation.

� "������ ��Once considered to be a reason forincrease in cholesterol and weight,fats are officially the in trend for thecoming year. With chefs and foodexperts realising the benefits of gheeand coconut oil, healthy fats willgrace the grocery shop shelves in2019. Their natural propertiesensure that they do not mix withany other oil and that factor makesthem a healthy alternative to thealready available ones in the mar-ket.

�� � ����� ��(�Algae is the new popular oceanicfood trend for 2019. These are pow-erhouses of vitamins and minerals,such as vitamins K and B, zinc andiron, along with anti-oxidants thathelp protect your cells from dam-age. Algae is definitely one of themost sought-after snacks in thecoming year.

������ ��� (����Food lovers love to experiment andtry out new cuisines. Keeping thetradition alive, African cuisine andflavours, especially from the easternpart of the continent, are expectedto be the talk of the food industryin the coming year. Watch out fora variety of spices, marinated orsauces from Tanzania and Ethiopia.

���I�������$��Frozen yogurt has ruled our tastebuds for a while now but the com-ing year will see the addition of anarray of new flavours to this list.Consumers will get to taste thecrazy combinations like avocado,hummus, tahini and coconut waterfor frozen treats. Ice creams withsavoury swirls of cheese will also bea popular choice in the coming year.As good as these sound, we hopethey live up to the promise of tasteas well.

�E�������While healthy fats will see a come-back in 2019, air frying or oxi fry-ing will also be a preferred way ofcooking. This gives us the option ofusing minimal oil as air frying isconsidered a lot healthier, especial-ly for frying snacks and even non-vegetarian food items.

���;���������� �# ����Experts believe 2019 will not onlysee a change in the food trends butalso packaging in the food indus-try with a focus on being more sus-tainable. So there would a rise inenvironment-friendly packaging aswell as an increase in theselling/purchasing/use of steelstraws as an alternative to plasticsones, mason jars to avoid plasticcontainers and the like.

(The author is the OperationsHead of a food company.)

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Stressing on continuity, chief coach StephenConstantine on Thursday has announced a

23-member Indian football team, to be spear-headed by the seasoned Sunil Chhetri, for theupcoming AFC Asian Cup.

The Asian Cup is scheduled to be held inthe UAE from January 5 to February 1.

India play their first match against Thailandon January 6, with matches against hosts UAEand Bahrain slotted for January 10 and January14, respectively.

"It was veryimportant tokeep on thecontinuity. It'llbe silly of me toc o m p l e t e l ychange the waywe do things.Most of theseboys are withus for sometime now,"C ons t ant i n esaid.

"The otherfive boys (fromthe list of 28) will also stay with us until January2. In case of an injury or anything else happens,these five boys will need to step up," he added.

"We are looking forward to the massivetournament. We hope these 23 boys will do agood job for us."

The Blue Tigers were the first among 23visiting teams to arrive in Abu Dhabi onDecember 20. A 28-member squad had trav-elled to Abu Dhabi and has been practicing inan effort to acclimatize themselves to the con-ditions.

Meanwhile, national team's directorAbhishek Yadav said the continental showpieceis a "significant platform" for the side to entertop 8 in Asia.

"We are aiming for top-8 status in Asia formen's and top-3 status in Asia for women'snational teams by 2026. All our programmesare designed to achieve this end, and the AsianCup will massively help in our quest," saidYadav, a former India striker.

He added, "It is a very significant platformfor players to gain recognition as a lot of peo-ple connected to continental or global footballwatch the event closely for talents.

"I feel more people out there need to realisethat this is our equivalent of the Euros or theCopa America. This is a big deal.

�@� �GOALKEEPERS: Gurpreet Singh Sandhu,Vishal Kaith, Amrinder SinghDEFEDERS: Pritam Kotal, Sarthak Golui,Sandesh Jhingan, Anas Edathodika, SalamRanjan Singh, Subhashish Bose, Narayan DasMIDFIELDERS: Udanta Singh, JackiechandSingh, Germanpreet Singh, Pronay Halder,Anirudh Thapa, Vinit Rai, Rowllin Borges,Ashique Kuruniyan, Halicharan NarzaryFORWARDS: Sumeet Passi, Balwant Singh,Sunil Chhteri, Jeje Lalpekhlua.

��� �39')��389�3�

New Zealand's batsmen capitalisedon a record-breaking bowling spellby Trent Boult on Wednesday to

wrest full control of the second Test fromSri Lanka at the end of the second day.

At the close, New Zealand were 231for two, holding a commanding 305-runlead in their second innings with eightwickets in hand.

Sri Lanka's hopes of taking the series-deciding Test were severely dented in a 15-ball masterclass of swing bowling fromBoult when he took six wickets for fourruns.

It gave New Zealand a 74-run first-innings lead, which Latham and Ravalextended to 195 with a century openingstand.

Kane Williamson and Latham addeda further 68 for the second wicket untilWilliamson played a lazy shot to LahiruKumara and was caught at first slip for 48.

At stumps, Latham was on 74 with

Ross Taylor on 25.Latham, who starred in the first Test

with an unbeaten double century, hasfaced 213 deliveries.

He received a life on 32 when he top-edged Suranga Lakmal to fine leg wherethe ball slipped through the fingers of adiving Dushmantha Chameera.

Patel, who worked with Latham toproduce the first wicketless session in theTest when they batted from lunch to tea,was out in the second over after theresumption for 74 when he edgedDilruwan Perera to Kusal Mendis atshort leg.

Earlier, New Zealand was able to buildon a wholly unexpected 74-run firstinnings lead, achieved when Boult tooksix wickets for four runs in the space of15 balls to send Sri Lanka tumbling from96-4 to 104 all out.

His first five wickets came fasterthan any other bowler in Test history;from 11 balls, beating Jacques Kallis'srecord of 12 balls against Bangladesh in

2002.Sri Lanka had looked in a strong posi-

tion when it resumed at 88-4 in reply toNew Zealand's first innings of 178 butBoult's test-best return of 6-30 turned thematch on its head.

The left-armer, who has 224 wicketsin 58 tests, began the day with 0-20 in SriLanka's first innings after struggling forform in the first Test at Wellington wherehe took 2-145. He also managed onlyseven wickets for 262 runs in three Testsagainst Pakistan in the United ArabEmirates.

Suddenly the dry spell of wicketsturned into a flood and Boult went from0-26 to 6-30, narrowly missing a hat trickwhen he took three wickets with four balls.

Boult's first two wickets were caughtby his new ball partner Tim Southee in theslips and his next four fell lbw, three with-in the space of four balls. England umpireMichael Gough gave five decisions in arow in Boult's favor.

His first victim was the overnight bats-man Roshen Silva who fell for 21 in thefifth over of the morning, caught bySouthee at third slip after driving at a ballwhich swung late.

Wicketkeeper Niroshan Dickwellafell next to a brilliant catch by Southee, at

full stretch, from a ball which also enticedthe drive but left him late.

The next four wickets fell at an evenmore frantic pace and to similar lbw deci-sions.

Dilruwan Perera shouldered arms ata ball from Boult which was full andswung back onto middle stump.

Suranga Lakmal received a similardelivery from the very next ball and washit on the toe in front of middle.

Boult had to wait until the next overto chase his hat trick, bowling to the tailen-der Dushmantha Chameera. Chameeramet the hat trick ball with a solid forwarddefensive shot but was out lbw to the nextball, giving Boult three wickets in fourballs and his seventh five-wicket bag intests.

Lahiru Kumara was his final victimfour balls later, also out lbw without offer-ing a shot. Angelo Mathews, almostimmoveable in the first test where hescored 83 and 121 not out, was left unbeat-en on 33.

��� �1��89':�

Amagnificent spell of fast bowl-ing from Duanne Olivier

inspired a Pakistan collapse aftertea on the second day of the firstTest against South Africa atSuperSport Park on Thursday,leaving South Africa needing 149to win.

Pakistan slipped from 100for one at tea to 190 all out, at onepoint losing five wickets for 25 in11 overs.

The last wicket fell shortlybefore the close of play which didnot leave enough time for SouthAfrica to start their chase.

Olivier took two wickets infour balls immediately after the teainterval and went on take five for59 for match figures of 11 for 96following his six for 37 in the firstinnings.

Imam-ul-Haq (57) and ShanMasood (65) gave Pakistan hopeof setting a difficult target for thehosts on a pitch which has helped

the fast bowlers through-out.

But Imam was bowledoff an inside edge in the firstover after tea and Masoodquickly found himself effec-tively fighting a lone battlebefore he was ninth out aftera fighting 120-ball inningswhich included seven fours.

Kagiso Rabada and DaleSteyn supported Olivier withthree and two wickets respec-tively.

It was the second suc-cessive day on which 15wickets fell. Although thepitch appeared to be playingslightly easier than on thefirst day, Pakistan will seek tomake early inroads on Fridayafter restricting South Africato 223 all out in the firstinnings.

Mohammad Amir tookfour for 62 and teenagerShaheen Shah Afridi claimedfour for 64 and together

with Hasan Ali (two for 70)are likely to make SouthAfrica work hard to take a 1-0 lead in the three-matchseries.

Imam and FakharZaman wiped out the deficitwith a first-wicket stand of 44and Masood joined Imam ina 57-run second-wicketpartnership.

������� After a shaky start, the

left-handed Imam hurried to15 off 11 balls but all three ofhis boundaries to that pointwere off the edge of his bat.

He was still on 15 whenhe was dropped low down byHashim Amla at first slip offDale Steyn. But he then bat-ted solidly in reaching fiftyoff 71 balls with seven foursand a hooked six off Olivier.

After bowling Imam,Olivier claimed the wicket ofthe experienced Azhar Ali,

with the help of a divingRabada at midwicket after amistimed pull shot.

The rest of the battingcrumbled, with Steyn havingAsad Shafiq caught behindand Rabada ripping out thenext three batsmen cheaply.

Earlier, Temba Bavumaand Quinton de Kock steeredSouth Africa to a first-innings lead.

Bavuma made 53 and DeKock hit 45 before SouthAfrica were bowled out for223.

Bavuma moved to anassured half-century off 66balls but was then tied downby some accurate bowlingbefore edging Afridi to wick-etkeeper and captain SarfrazAhmed for 53 off 87 ballswith nine fours.

De Kock made his runsoff 53 balls with five foursbefore he was last man out,driving Amir to cover.

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Cheteshwar Pujara has been inprime form in the current

Test series against Australia butthere has been no consciouseffort to silence critics who havepanned him for his under-whelming performance DownUnder in 2014.

"When I play internationalcricket, I don't need to silenceanyone. I just need to keep scor-ing runs and that is what I loveto do. I don't want to get into allsuch things. My job is to scoreruns and I will keep scoring runs,whether it is home or away,"

Pujara said after scoring his17th Test hundred.

However he acceptedthat once a player starts win-ning games for his country,even the critics can be keptat bay.

"Sometimes you do getcriticised and you just haveto accept it. But if you keepscoring runs and if India

keeps winning, ultimatelyeverybody is happy," Pujara said.

J�����$ (��������)�DCheteshwar Pujara is not

known to score at a fast clip butthe slowness of the MCG trackwas something that bogged downeven India's dogged No 3 duringthe first innings of the third Test.

"We have to bat like the waythe wicket is behaving and whatthe situation is. On this pitch,every batsman has to play a lot ofballs to score runs. If it were a dif-ferent wicket maybe I wouldhave scored 140-150 after playingso many deliveries. But in Testcricket it is important to read bothsituation and pitch when batting,"said Pujara, who scored 106 off319 balls in India's first inningstotal of 443/7 declared.

Pujara admitted that the pitchis extremely difficult to bat on andthe runs put on board are goodenough to challenge Australia.

"It is a tough pitch to score on.If we look at first two days num-bers of runs scored are very lessand in a way I would say that 200in a day is a tough task, so I thinkwe have enough runs on theboard," said Pujara.

���� �1,4:89�1�

Australian opener AaronFinch on Thursday said

the MCG pitch is deteriorat-ing quicker than anticipatedand all three results are possi-ble in the third Test despite aslow Indian first innings thatfinished at 443 for seven.

The hosts were eight forno loss at stumps in response.

"It's not your traditionalAustralian wicket where youhave three slips and a gully allday and you bang away, andthe ball seams and carrieslike we saw in Perth. There, alot of dismissals were behindthe wicket," Finch said.

At the end of day's play, headded, "On such pitches, Ithink you've just got to adaptyour game plan and regardlessof what the wicket is, you'vegot to be good enough toadapt and change your plansand execute on the day."

Cheteshwar Pujara strucka classy century and combinedwith captain Virat Kohli (82)to put India in control on thesecond day.

Finch said, "This wicket isprobably deteriorating morethan we thought it would.Even tonight it was skidding

through, there were a couplethat took off. So it's still gameon if we bowl well and putIndia under pressure (in thesecond innings).

"I think all three results arestill on the table, 100 per cent,India (victory), Australia (vic-tory) and a draw."

�����1,4:89�1�

Captain Virat Kohli on Thursdaybettered Rahul Dravid's long-

standing record of most runs scoredby an Indian in a calendar year over-seas, adding another feather to hisillustrious cap.

"With 82 runs today, @imVkohlihas surpassed Rahul Dravid (1137)to register most number of runs ina calendar year in overseas Tests#KingKohli," the BCCI tweeted.

With this 82 at the MCG on thesecond day of the third Test, Kohlinow has 1138 runs to his name.Dravid held the record for scoring1137 runs in Tests away from homein 2002.

Besides Kohli and Dravid,

Mohinder Amarnath notched up1065 runs in 1983 while the greatSunil Gavaskar had scored 918 runsin 1971 to make the top four in thelist. Kohli has had a sensational yearwith the bat, scoring nearly 600 runsin five Tests in England besides mak-ing handsome contributions acrossthree formats in South Africa.

���� �1,4:89�1�

His banter with Virat Kohlibecame a talking point in the

Perth Test and Australian captainTim Paine was at it again frombehind the stumps with RohitSharma at the receiving end here.

Paine was caught on thestump microphone telling team-mate Aaron Finch that he wouldjoin Mumbai Indians IPL team ifthe stylish Indian hits a six at theMCG, during the post-tea sessionof the third Test's second day.

"It has been a tossup for mebetween Royals and Indians. IfRohit hits a six here, I am chang-ing to Mumbai," Paine said toFinch who was the close-in field-er.

Paine's comments behind the

stumps went on for a few overswith Rohit, the Mumbai Indianscaptain, breaking into a smileevery now and then.

"Too many Poms at theRoyals," Paine said, referring toBen Stokes and Jos Buttler play-ing for the Rajasthan franchise.

"You've nearly played forevery team now," Paine contin-ued.

"Except Bangalore," Finchreplied.

"Except Bangalore?" Painequestioned.

In the Perth Test, Paine wasinvolved in a heated verbalexchange with Kohli, which atone point, needed the umpires'intervention.

�����1,4:89�1�

Former Australian cricketerKerry O'Keeffe has apologised

for ridiculing Indian batsmanMayank Agarwal's first-classcareer while commentating dur-ing the ongoing third Test, sayinghe did not intend to demean thedebutant.

The former spinner, whilecommentating for 'Fox Cricket',was quoted as saying thatAgarwal's maiden first-class triplecentury came against "Railwayscanteen staff ".

O'Keeffe was criticised onsocial media for the comment andthe cricketer, who played 24 Testsfor Australia, apologised onThursday for comment onAgarwal, who scored 76 in hismaiden Test appearance.

"I was mentioning the runsAgarwal got in first class cricketin India and there's been a reac-tion," he was quoted as saying bythe local media here.

"There was no way I wasdemeaning the standard, it wastongue in cheek. There are lots ofruns scored so apologies if anyoneout there took offence," he added.

The 27-year-old Agarwalplays for Karnataka in the Indiandomestic circuit and averagesclose to 50.

He was included in the sideafter Prithvi Shaw was forced outof the Test series following poorrecovery of the foot injury that hesuffered while fielding againstCricket Australia XI.

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��1 $ ��� West Indies legend Viv Richards onThursday said India have a "lot of ground to cover" interms of winning series overseas but hoped they willhave the last laugh in the ongoing duel in Australia.

Heaping praise on Indian skipper Virat Kohli'saggressive captaincy, Richards said that sledging some-times helps the team and players bring the best out ofthem.

"Earlier, India used to play with four spinners. Theynow have four fast bowlers. It is good that things havechanged. India realised it needs that attitude. But Indiastill get to do well in overseas," Richards told reportershere.

He said such a good team deserves overseas victo-ries. "Indian infrastructure has improved. IPL has helpedin a big way. It has brought money and the Indian teamhas got substance. But I think India needs to win over-seas and still there is a lot of ground to cover." PTI

���� �1,4:89�1

The redoubtable CheteshwarPujara produced yet anoth-er classy hundred and com-

bined with captain Virat Kohli(82) to put India in command onthe second day of the third Testagainst Australia on Thursday.

The scoring rate was a shadebetter than the overnight effort,which fetched them 215/2, andIndia declared at 443/7 beforeAustralia responded with 8/0 insix overs.

Pujara was the dominant fig-ure with his second century of theseries, a dogged but faultless 106off 319 balls, which ensured thatIndia consolidated the good start.It was though his slowest hundredin Test cricket yet.

Kohli, who contributed a sig-nificant 82 off 204 balls, made asurprising declaration in the 170thover with Rohit Sharma at 63 notout off 114 balls. Kohli's knockhelped him to a personal mile-stone as he surpassed RahulDravid (1137) for most numberof runs in a calendar year in over-seas Tests.

Rohit's knock, included fivefours, while Pat Cummins was thepick of the Australian bowlers,taking 3/72 in a back-breakingeffort of 34 overs.

At stumps, openers AaronFinch and Marcus Harris wereunbeaten on 3 and 5 respective-ly.

It was a solid batting effort bythe Indians, something that wasemphasised endlessly by Kohli inhis pre-match statements. Whatstood out for the visitors was thepatience they showed in the firsttwo sessions, which ultimately leftthem in an assured position atclose.

Post tea, India was also helpedby a comedy of fielding errors byAustralia. The home side missedthree easy chances, all off NathanLyon (1/110), in what proved tobe a frustrating 48 overs fromhim.

First, in the 147th over, sub-stitute fielder Peter Siddle putdown Rohit (on 15 then) at back-

ward square leg as the batsmanplayed a wild sweep. A ball later,Ajinkya Rahane (34) was luckywhen on 32 as Travis Head wascaught napping at short leg whenthe ball sailed past him.

Rahane got unlucky shortlyafterwards though as one deliveryfrom Lyon kept too low and hewas plumb lbw.

Rishabh Pant (39) played anuncharacteristic defensive innings,and the only aerial stroke heplayed was in the 159th over offLyon when Cummins spilled thechance at long on. He was on 15then.

Australia took the third new

ball in the 167th over and itworked as Pant looped upa catch to Usman Khawajabehind the wickets offMitchell Starc (2/87).

The accelerating burstbefore the declarationnever came as skipperKohli called the batsmenin when Ravindra Jadeja(4) was caught behind offJosh Hazlewood (1/86).

Rahane and Rohittook India to 346/4 at teaafter Australia removedboth Pujara and Kohli inthe space of four overs.

Post lunch, Kohli-Pujara took theirthird-wicket partner-ship to 170 runsbefore the gameturned.

The Indian skippertook medication for someback issue and then steppedthrough the gears as he broughtout two pulls against MitchellStarc (1/68) in the 123rd over. Hepressed on the accelerator a tadtoo much, and cut straight tothird man, much to the bowler'sdelight.

Four overs later, in the 126thover, Pujara got a delivery fromCummins that kept a tad low andknocked back his stumps as Indiawere suddenly reduced to 299-4.

Rahane then took charge ofproceedings and played a breezyknock, not allowing theAustralian attack to get on top.

In comparison, Rohit wasmore sedate and took his time atthe crease, even as Tim Paine tar-geted him with some banter.

In the morning session,Pujara scored his 17th hundredas India reached 277/2 at lunch.

Starting from overnight215/2, India looked ready foranother hard day's grind, withKohli reaching his 20th Test half-century, off 110 balls, in the veryfirst over of the day.

The two batsmen scoredquickly in the first hour and keptthe scorecard ticking over, beforeAustralia went back to their tac-tic of cutting runs.

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Former Australian skipperRicky Ponting found India's

slow batting baffling in thethird Test and feels thatCheteshwar Pujara's 106 off319 balls may end up being thereason for their defeat.

India scored at less thantwo-and-a-half runs an overfor most of the first two daysof the Test, registering theslowest first-innings score ofmore than 300 in Australia forthree decades.

Pujara consumed 319deliveries for his 106-runknock as none of India's topfive batsmen scored at a strikerate of more than 50. Even cap-tain Virat Kohli, who paces hisinnings decently, scored his 82off 204 balls with a strike rateof 40.19 on a slow track.

"If India go on and win thegame, it'll be a great innings(but) if they haven't got time tobowl Australia out twice, itcould be what actually coststhem the game," Ponting toldcricket.Com.Au.

"I think it's always hard forIndia to push the run rate

along when Pujara's there.He's just made another hun-dred, his second of the series,so he's playing well and does-n't really look like getting out.

"But he just locks himselfin this little bubble wherescoring doesn't seem to fazehim at all. They have got otherguys in their side who arestroke-makers but if thoseguys don't come off, the scor-ing rate is always going to behovering around that two runsan over mark, which makes itpretty hard to win Test match-es, especially on flat wicketslike we might have here."

The former Test captainRicky Ponting said India's tac-tics was beyond comprehen-sion.

"Even (since Pujara's dis-missal), it just seems like theyhaven't got a lot of directionabout what they're trying toachieve. It looks like they wantto bat long enough to only batonce, but just yet they haven'tgot enough runs to do that.

"Obviously they've talkedlong and hard about what theywant to do, it's just a bit bafflingto us."

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