First India-Delhi Edition-14th October 2022

Moni Sharma

New Delhi: The Su preme Court on Thurs day delivered a split verdict on the ban on wearing hijab in Karna taka’s educational insti tutions, referring the matter to CJI for consti tuting a larger bench.

Justice Hemant Gup ta, dismissed the ap peals against the Kar nataka HC, which re fused to lift the ban and held that the hijab is not part of the “essential religious practice” in Islamic faith. “There is divergence of opinion,”

Justice Gupta, who was heading the bench, said at the outset while pro nouncing the verdict on a batch of 26 petitions. He said he had framed 11 questions in his judgement.

Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia allowed the pleas and said wearing the hijab is ultimately a “matter of choice”.

NO END TO HIJAB ROW!

n

The SC delivers split verdict in Hijab case

n Justice Hemant Gupta upholds hijab ban

n Matter of choice: Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia

BALL NOW IN CJI’S COURT

T he Supreme Court division bench then said the matter will be placed before the Chief Justice of India for hearing by a three-judge bench. Meanwhile, All India Bar Association (AIBA) has requested CJI UU Lalit that the Hijab issue be referred to a larger bench of a minimum of 5 judges including 1 Muslim judge in SC after split judgments on this issue.

MAJOR HAPPENINGS

l Udupi on Alert, Karnataka government deploys additional security in sensitive areas after SC verdict

l The hijab matter will continue to attract the SC’s attention: Congress leader Jairam Ramesh

l Muslim panel hails Top Court Justice Dhulia’s verdict, asks Karnataka govt to withdraw case

l The questions framed by Justices Gupta and Dhulia may guide the hearing before the new bench

l The hijab matter was first argued on February 2, 2022

Since it’s a judicial matter and since I’ve not read the written document I’ll not be commenting on this. Supreme court verdict is very important in this matter, this not limited to Karnataka, it’s a national issue hence the we will wait for the final Supreme Court verdict.

—Basavaraj Bommai, Karnataka Chief Minister

We welcome the judgment of the Supreme Court. But I had expected an order on the Thursday hearing. The matter will go to a larger bench. As of now, the Karnataka government’s no-hijab rule on campus stays valid. —BC Nagesh, State Education Minister

Mob attacks mosque in village that has only 4 Muslim homes

New Delhi: AAP leader Rajendra Pal Gautam on Thursday said he and his supporters will march from his residence at 2pm to Dr Ambedkar National Memorial and take a pledge to fight casteism and untouchability.

“I and my supporters will take a pledge that we will follow the path shown by Ambedkar and Kanshi Ram till casteism and untouchability are abolished,” Gautam said in a video message.

WOMEN’S IPL SET TO START NEXT YEAR IN MARCH

New Delhi: Women’s Indian Premier League (WIPL) is set to start as a five-team tournament next year after ICC Women’s T20 World Cup on February 26. BCCI’s proposal plan consists of 22 matches and each squad to have 18 players.

SMOKE: SPICEJET MAKES EMERGENCY LANDING IN HYD

Gurugram (PTI): A mob of more than 200 people ransacked a mosque here in a village assaulting people who were praying inside and threatened to expel them from the village.

Police have registered an FIR in the incident that happened in Bhora Kalan village Wednes day night, but no arrests were reported till Thursday evening.

According to a com plaint filed by Subedar Najar Mohammad, Bho ra Kalan village has only four houses of Muslim families.

BY THE TIME POLICE REACHED, THE ATTACKERS HAD FLED

Police have recovered a mobile phone from the spot which may belong to someone part of the attacking mob, officials said. Following Mohammad’s complaint, an FIR was registered against Rajesh Chauhan, Anil Bhadoria, Sanjay Vyas and several others under sections of IPC related to rioting, trying to cause religious strife, and unlawful assembly at Bilaspur Police Station, said ASI Gajender Singh, the investigating officer..

He said that the ruck us began Wednesday morning, when a mob comprising about 200 people reportedly led by Rajesh Chauhan alias Babu, Anil Bhadoria, and Sanjay Vyas sur rounded the mosque

and entered the prayer hall. “In the night again, when we were praying inside, the mob came and assaulted us and even locked the prayer hall. They threatened to kill us,” the Subedar stated.

KERALA HUMAN SACRIFICE CASE

3 accused in police custody till October 24

Ernakulam: Amid the horrifying case of Hu man Sacrifice in Kera la’s Pathanamthitta, Ernakulam First Class Magistrate Court sends all three accused to 12day Police custody till October 24 for allegedly killing two women as a human sacrifice in black magic rituals. Earlier on Wednesday, the Ernakulam magis trate court said the 3 ac cused will be under ju dicial remand for a 14day duration which will end on October 26.

WALK THE TALK, SHUT DOWN TERROR

MODI IN HIMACHAL PRADESH, SHAH IN GUJARAT; TOP BJP HANDS ON DECK FOR THE BIG POLL PUSH

Diwali arrives early in Himachal Pradesh!

PM Narendra Modi launches several projects related to the pharma, education and connectivity in Una, HP

First India Bureau

Shimla: Prime Minis ter Narendra Modi on Thursday laid the foun dation stone of a Bulk Drug Park in Una dis trict during his visit to poll-bound Himachal Pradesh. He also dedi cated to the nation the Indian Institute of In formation Technology (IIIT)-Una.

Modi laid the founda tion stone of the Bulk Drug Park at Haroli which will be built at a cost of more than Rs 1,900 crore. The park will help reduce de pendence on API im ports. It is expected to attract investments of around Rs 10,000 crore and provide employ ment to more than 20,000 people.

He said that the state has played a crucial role in making India the number one medicine manufacturer in the world. “The raw materi als for medicine manu facturing will be pro duced in Himachal Pradesh. India’s de pendency on other countries will decrease significantly.”

The PM added that there was a need for skill and inno vation institutions across country. More on P5

AIIMS MANDATES IN-HOUSE CT SCANS OF WARD, OPD PATIENTS TO SAVE TIME

‘STUDY EQUIPMENT

ONLY ON SUNDAY’

The memorandum also called for operationalising CT equipment at the

Surgical

Hyderabad: A SpiceJet plane coming from Goa made an emergency landing at Hyderabad airport on Wednesday night after smoke was observed in the cabin and cockpit and aviation regulator DGCA is probing the incident, according to officials.

First India Bureau

New Delhi: New AIIMS Director Dr M Srinivas has ordered that CT scan of patients admit ted to wards and regis tered in outpatient (OPD) departments of AIIMS should be done at the institute itself, to avoid unnecessary de lay in their treatment.

Also, steps have been listed in the official or der to increase the num ber of appointments for

such diagnostic imag ing procedures.

Further, Dr M Srini vas has constituted a

research

be used

manpower to meet the institute’s long-term needs, besides explor ing the option of mobile CT scanners.

The committee is re quired to submit its re port by October 15.

The office memoran dum was issued by Dr Srinivas on October 11.

committee to recom mend requirement for computed tomography (CT) equipment and

It listed several meas ures, which included making all the 10 CT scanners at the insti tute functional round the clock and the need to optimise the time taken to do scans.

It is our biggest priority to hone the skills and potential of the youth. The youth of Himachal has served in the army and created new dimensions in the security of the country. Different types of skills will help them take them to higher positions in the army as well.

—Narendra Modi, Prime Minister

Three teens drown in water-logged ditch

New Delhi (PTI):

Three teenagers drowned in a ditch while taking bath in southeast Delhi’s Pul Prahlad Pur area on Thursday afternoon, police said.

The deceased have been identified as Ris bah (16), Piyus (13) and Piyush (16), all resi dents of Khanpur here, they said. Police said they received the infor mation about the inci dent at 2.38 pm.

Deputy Commission er of Police (Southeast) Esha Pandey said, “Our

staff immediately rushed to the spot where they met 16-year-old boy named lucky, resident of Khanpur, who told that he along with his seven other friends had come to take bath in rain waterlogged in an open ground.”

Police said its staff launched a search for the drowned children.

After an intensive search of about 30 min utes, all three teenagers were fished out of the water and sent to hospi tal, where all three were declared brought dead.

Dr M Srinivas, new institute director, has been issuing a slew of directives

M Srinivas, new Director of AIIMS-Delhi, addresses during the AIIMS 67th Foundation Day.

Advocate Ejaz Maqbool, representing the petitioner side, speaks to the media at Supreme Court lawns, on Thursday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Union Minister Anurag Singh Thakur, Himachal Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur, State BJP chief Suresh Kashyap, former CM Prem Kumar Dhumal and other leaders at the laying of foundation stone of Bulk Drug Park and dedicates the Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Una to the nation, in Una, Himachal Pradesh on Thursday.

PHOTO BY ANI

BJP

Addressing a public gathering at Sant Savaiyanath Dham before launching the third leg of the Gujarat Gaurav Yatra, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday expressed confidence that ruling BJP will retain power in Gujarat by winning the upcoming Assembly elections with a two-thirds majority. Also seen here are CM Bhupendra Bhai Patel, State party chief CR Paatil, union minister Mansukh Mandaviya and other leaders. Full Report on P5

Canada-based ganglord’s two hitmen arrested in Delhi

New Delhi (PTI): Del

hi Police’s Special Cell has arrested two al leged shooters who had come to the city for a hitjob at orders of Ar shdeep Dalla, a Cana da-based ganglord, a senior officer said on Thursday.

Ravinder Singh, 21, and Navdeep Singh, 26, both residents of Gur daspur in Punjab, were wanted in a recent of firing outside the house of one Ankit Goel, a Bhatinda-based busi nessman.

They had fired at Goel’s house after mak ing a demand for Rs 1 crore. Ravinder and Navdeep had been sent

to Delhi by Taranjot Singh currently lodged in Firozpur Jail in Pun jab - to kill a man who had filed a police com plaint after he had been

threatened to give Rs 5 crore to the gang.

The extortion bid was made at the behest of Arshdeep Dalla, po lice said.

Flyover in Delhi’s Ja hangirpuri on Septem ber 22, when they came to meet a Delhi-based contact to execute their contract.

“The two have been working under the di rection of Punjabbased Taranjot Singh, who is further working under the direction of Canada-based terror gang operator Arsh deep Dalla.

Gang duping people with FASTag wallets busted, three arrested: Delhi Police

New Delhi (PTI): Delhi Police’s Crime branch has arrested three men who are part of a gang in volved in alleged mo bile frauds using FASTag wallets, offi cials said.

was revealed that Za hid managed the fake accounts arranged by the kingpin of the gang, Pawan Singh.

ag wallets, they said.

Deputy Commission er of Police (Special Cell) Rajiv Rajan Singh said that both shooters were arrested from near Mukarba Chowk

“Taranjot also has close links with Hard eep Nijjar of Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF). Two semi-automatic pistols and nine live cartridges were recov ered from their posses sion,” he said.

LG Saxena approves felling of trees for infra projects

LG had written twice to CM Arvind Kejriwal to get nod from forest department

New Delhi (PTI): LG

VK Saxena has cleared eight files sent for his approval by Chief Min ister Arvind Kejriwal’s office, removing in ef fect a major roadblock in completion of impor tant projects including redevelopment of AIIMS, officials at LG office said.

The LG had written two letters to the CM urging him to get ap proval of the forest de partment for felling or translocation of trees pending for months and years, causing delays in completion of projects.

“The LG’s letters that he has termed as Kar tavya Patras’ have final ly yielded desired re sults as eight pending

files duly signed by the Chief Minister have been sent by Delhi gov ernment for his approv al,” officials said.

The LG approved all eight proposals received on Wednesday, clearing a major roadblock in the redevelopment of AIIMS

Hearing on plea against firecracker ban refused

New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to ac cord urgent hearing to a plea against an order banning storage, sale, and use of all types of firecrackers in the na tional capital till Janu ary 1, 2023.

A bench of Chief Jus tice UU Lalit and Justice Bela M Trivedi asked the lawyer, who men tioned the matter seek ing urgent hearing, to approach the Delhi HC.

“Let the high court

decide, we will not get into this,” the bench said. The lawyer, who sought the urgent hear ing, submitted before the bench that the high court has taken a view that the matter is pend ing before the SC and listed it on October 18.

The Delhi HC had ear lier deferred hearing on the plea of green crack er merchants against an order banning storage, sale, and use of all types of firecrackers till January 1.

(where all other statuto ry requirements and clearances had already been approved), con struction of various stretches of Delhi Metro Phase-IV, construction of MP Flats, and a water treatment Plant in Chan drawal, they said.

Tree transplantation audit by FRI begins in Delhi

New Delhi (PTI): The Dehradun-based Forest Research Institute (FRI) has started conducting an audit to assess the ‘success and survival rate’ of all transplanted trees in the national cap ital, officials said.

The audit will also help ascertain the im pact of the tree trans plantation policy, an of ficial said. The exercise started around a week ago and the trees trans planted in the south divi sion are being covered at present, he said.

In April, the Delhi gov ernment approved a pro

posal to conduct a thirdparty audit to assess the “success and survival rate” of all transplanted trees in the national cap ital. According to data submitted to the Delhi HC in May, only onethird of the 16,461 trees transplanted in the capi tal over the last three years have survived.

The accused would call people up on pre text of providing ser vices like activation of 5G services, or their credit card, and would get necessary details to transfer money in their FAST

The accused were identified as Mohd Za hid, Pawan Singh, and Ravi Mittal, they said.

Special Commission er of Police (Crime) Ravindra Singh Ya dav said that during the investigation, it

The gang used FASTags wallets to receive the defraud ed money. Ravi would withdraw the money from FASTag wallets at petrol and CNG pumps in Har yana and Chandi garh using card swipe machines in connivance with the pump operators.

LG assures development to Chandni Chowk traders

New Delhi (ANI): Lieu tenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena took note of the difficulties faced by the traders and as sured to upgrade the amenities, facilitate smooth conduct of trade and make shopping a pleasing experience in the Chandni Chowk market of the national capital.

Saxena visited this “heritage market” on Wednesday and inter acted with the traders’ associations, Resident welfare associations (RWA) and the visitors here According to an of ficial statement, LG Sax ena interacted with the representatives of more than a dozen Market Traders Association, la bourers’ association, RWAs and several other local traders as they in formed him about sev eral restrictions and problems that have not

LG TAKES ROUND

OF MAIN MARKET

During his visit, the LG, accompanied by the officials, took a round of the main market from the iconic Town Hall to Katra Neel, and back to the Red Fort and inter acted with several local traders and visitors to the market. He also vis ited the historic ‘Ghalib Ki Haveli’ in Gali Qasim Jaan, Ballimaran area.

only affected their daily business but have also caused hardships to a large number of people, particularly the elderly,

women and children, re siding in the area.

The LG was also in formed that apart from over 60 Katras that at tract lakhs of people daily, nearly 60,000 peo ple also reside in the “narrow by-lanes of Chandni Chowk” and the massive congestion often leads to fire and medical emergencies.

To deal with any such emergency, the LG as sured that fire tenders and ambulances will be deployed in and around the Chandni Chowk area “very soon”.

LG Saxena said an ex ercise to identify fireprone locations and the process of deployment of fire tenders and am bulances in the national Capital is being under taken by the Fire De partment. The initiative will be started from Chandni Chowk before Diwali, he said.

Grocer arrested for stealing puja thalis Delhi HC refuses to entertain bail plea of PFI leader Abubacker

New Delhi (ANI): A shop owner in Delhi was nabbed for stealing over a dozen decorative ‘thali’ hampers used in Karva Chauth, the religious fes tival where women fast for their husbands.

The man who owns a grocery shop confessed to police that he was un able to resist the beauti fully decorated plates and flicked them when he saw them ‘unattend ed’ at the Sadar Bazar wholesale market. The Delhi Police made the arrest based on the complaint filed by one

20 SETS OF PLATES STOLEN: POLICE

The Delhi Police made the arrest based on the complaint filed by one Naresh Kumar Gupta, who alleged that his 20 sets of decorative Karva Chauth plates were stolen by an ‘unidentified’ person while he was returning after shopping from the market.

police that he had come to purchase articles from Sadar Market. However, seeing the bag contain ing the decorative Karva Chauth gifts unattended, he stole it.

First India Bureau

Naresh Kumar Gupta, who alleged that his 20 sets of decorative Kar va Chauth plates were stolen.

On basis of a com plaint, police arrested

MONEY LAUNDERING CASE

the thief within three hours. The arrested per son has been identified as Navneet Kumar Sin gh, a resident of Noida. He is a grocery shop owner, who disclosed to

“After registering the complaint, ASI Chatar Singh along with Constable Sachin swung into action and checked the CCTV foot age of the parking, and in the CCTV footage one person was visible stealing the sack of dec orative Karva Chauth of the complainant,” of ficials said.

ED files chargesheet against journo Rana Ayyub

First India Bureau

New Delhi: The En forcement Directorate (ED) has filed a chargesheet against journalist Rana Ayyub under the anti-money laundering probe into alleged irregularities in funds collected by her for relief work, accus ing her of launching three fundraiser cam paigns on ‘Ketto plat form’ starting from April 2020, and collected funds of Rs 2,69,44,680.

The campaigns were named Help in raising funds for slum dwellers and farmers; Relief work for Assam, Bihar and Maharashtra; and Help Rana Ayyub and her team to help those impacted by Covid19 in India, said ED in its charge sheet filed in a special court in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad on Wednesday. The investi gation revealed that the funds raised on the on line platforms were re ceived in the accounts

of Rana Ayyub’s father and sister and subse quently transferred to her personal accounts.

ED said Rana Ayyub

utilized these funds to create a fixed deposit of Rs 50 lakh for her self and also trans ferred Rs 50 lakh to a

new bank account.

The ED investigation also revealed that only approximately Rs 29 lakh was used for relief work. “In order to claim more expenses towards relief work, fake bills were submitted by Rana. Subsequently, bank balances in her ac counts amounting to Rs 1,77,27,704 (including Fixed Deposits of Rs 50 lakh) were attached un der section 5(1) of Pre vention of Money Laun dering Act vide a provi

sional attachment order dated February 4 this year,” the EF said in a statement.

The investigation by ED further revealed that Rana Ayyub illegally raised Rs 2.69 crore by launching three online campaigns in the name of charity by cheating the general public do nors.These funds were not used for the intend ed purpose but instead used for the creation of assets for herself, said the ED.

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Thurs day refused to entertain the bail plea of former chairman of the Popu lar Front of India (PFI) E Abubacker. The peti tioner, who was arrest ed on September 22 by the NIA and is current ly in judicial custody, had sought bail on the ground that he was suf fering from various se rious ailments includ ing cancer, Parkinson’s disease and diabetes.

Justice Anoop Ku mar Mendiratta al lowed the 70-year-old petitioner to withdraw his bail plea, observing his court does not have the requisite “power” to take a decision on it.

Special public prose cutor Akshai Malik, who represented the National Investigation Agency, contended the bail plea was not main tainable as the law man dates the petitioner to move the high court in appeal under the NIA Act after an order has been passed by a trial court, which is then heard by a division bench of the high court.

“The NIA (law) is a spe cial Act. We don’t have the powers (to pass or ders on the bail plea),” the judge told the peti tioner who withdrew his application.

The plea before the high court said the peti tioner moved an appli cation for interim re lease on October 1 due to his deteriorating health but the trial court refused to grant him relief and instead extended his police re mand by six days.

It said the petition er’s fundamental right to personal liberty and health, guaranteed un der Article 21, was be ing violated on account of his continued incar ceration. His medical condition was “criti cal”, it added.

Shooters of gangster Ashdeep Dalla with Delhi Police Special Cell cops in New Delhi on Thursday.

A public protest against the felling of trees in Delhi. —FILE PHOTO

A policeman planting a sapling

Ayyub

Former chairman of the PFI E Abubacker.

Decorative Karva Chouth thali

All in a Day: AAP’s Guj chief summoned, detained, freed

NCW summoned Italia after BJP’s Tajindar Bagga flagged Twitter post

First India Bureau

New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party’s Gujarat president, Gopal Italia, was detained by Delhi Police on Thursday af ternoon from the Na tional Commission for Women’s office, where he had been summoned over a video in which he had allegedly used de rogatory language against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. How ever, after questioning, he was let go by the po lice around 5.15 pm.

After his release, Ke jriwal tweeted: “They had to release him un der immense pressure from the people of Gu jarat. The people of Gu jarat have won.”

Italia was taken away in a police car from the office of the women’s panel. “We received a call from NCW officials alleging that Italia’s supporters were creat ing a ruckus at the NCW office. We went to the spot and had to detain him to control the situ ation. He was released

CROWD THREATENED ME: NCW CHAIRPERSON

New Delhi (ANI): Na tional Commission for Women (NCW) chair person Rekha Sharma on Thursday alleged that over 100 people came outside her office in support of Italia and threatened her. “I had an important meeting at 2pm which is now delayed as I couldn’t step outside. If 100150 people come and

after 2.5 hours,” said a senior police officer. The National Com

AAP supporters outside the NCW office on Thursday.

threaten me, what kind of a leader are they? He was supposed to come

mission for Women (NCW) took cognisance of a video based on a

to the NCW office and only answer a few ques tions,” she said.

NCW chief is threaten ing to send me to jail.

What can the Modi government give to the Patel samaj except jail.

I am Sardar Patel’s descendant, I’m not scared of your jail. Put me in jail.

—Gopal Italia, in a Twitter post

Buddhist groups seek action against AAP’s Gautam

New Delhi (PTI):

Functionaries of sev eral Buddhist organisa tions have written to President Droupadi Murmu, seeking le gal action against for mer Delhi govern ment minis ter Rajindra Pal Gau tam as they accused him of trying to divide the nation.

The Buddhist func tionaries in their letter said they were “greatly disturbed” by the video as what has happened was totally against the teachings of Lord Bud dha and the tenets of Buddhism.

“Buddhism does not teach spewing venom against any other faith. Buddhism does not es pouse ‘rejecting’ or dis respecting other Gods and Goddesses. The teachings of Lord Bud dha epitomise the spirit of ‘Enlightened your self’ and respect for all religions. For centuries, Buddhists and Hindus have coexisted peace fully and there has been rich interfaith dialogue between us,” they said.

Imam Ilyasi gets Y+ security after threatening calls

New Delhi (ANI): All India Imam Organisa tion chief Umer Ahmed Ilyasi has been granted Y+ category security af ter he received multiple threats after he termed Rashtriya Swayamse vak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat as the ‘Father of the Nation’.

Ilyasi met Bhagwat on September 22 and called him ‘Rashtra Pita’. He also said that the RSS chief had visit ed Madarsa Tajweedul Quran in north Delhi at his invitation.

“I thank the Govern ment of India for the Y+ category security which has been granted by the Ministry of Home Af fairs,” Ilyasi told ANI, adding that he still stands by what he had said. Iliyasi further said that he had been receiv ing threats over the phone from England, Dubai and Kolkata and following this, he lodged a case at Tilak Lane po lice station, and also gave this information to the Ministry of Home Affairs.

RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and other sen

Sisodia praises principal training prog

COURT REJECTS BAIL TO ‘PROTEST ORGANISER’

New Delhi: A court here on Thursday rejected the bail plea of an accused in a case related to the 2020 Del hi riots, saying different witnesses have claimed the accused was an organiser of the Chand Bagh protest where inflammatory speeches were made. The court was hearing the bail plea of Shadab Ahmad, accused of being a part of a larger conspiracy.

COURT EXTENDS BUSINESSMAN’S CBI REMAND

New Delhi: The Rouse Avenue Court of Delhi on Thursday extend ed Hyderabad-based businessman Abhishek Boinpally’s CBI remand by two more days in connec tion with the alleged Delhi Excise Policy scam. Abhishek was arrested by CBI in investigation of a case related to alleged irregularities in the excise policy of Delhi.

New Delhi: Jawaharlal Nehru University has started the process for admission to postgraduate pro grammes and candidates can fill out application forms online till Octo ber 25. The classes for first-year postgraduate students will begin on November 28, a university official said. JNU is offering admissions in MA, MSc, MCA, MPH, M.Tech, PG Diploma and Advanced Diploma programmes for the academic session 2022-23 through the Common University Entrance Test (CUET)-PG. This is the first time the university is admitting students to PG courses through CUET.

New Delhi (PTI): Dep uty Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Thursday said five Del hi government schools had ranked among top 10 government schools in India, a feat made possible by training principals at leading in stitutes.

Sisodia, who also holds the education portfolio, said the Delhi government had made training programmes for principals so that other schools could also feature in the list.

Addressing a press conference, Sisodia said two government schools had topped the ranking for state government day schools in a rank ing by Education World -- a portal for educators, teachers and parents which comes out with rankings for schools every year. Three oth ers have also made the top 10 list.

“It is a matter of great pride and a result of hard work by princi pals, teachers and stu

dents. All the principals of these schools were provided world-class training in leading in stitutes such as IIM Ahmedabad, Cam bridge University among others,” he said.

The press conference was also attended by principals of the five schools.

Sisodia added that a training programme had been made for gov ernment school princi pals so that other schools could also be come world class and compete with the best.

STUDENT MOVES HC OVER DEMAND FOR SPECIAL EDUCATOR

New Delhi (ANI): A Class 10 student with special needs on Thursday moved a petition to Delhi High Court seeking direc tions to New Delhi Mu nicipal Council (NDMC) to provide him with a special educator. The student sought directions to NDMC to post a minimum of two special educators in all schools run by it.

30 PRINCIPALS, TEACHERS VISIT FROM NEPAL

New Delhi: A delegation of 30 school principals, vice principals and teachers from Nepal is on a three-day visit to Delhi government schools. The educators from Nepal’s Municipal ity of Tilottama took note of several activities in the schools. “We are introducing new initia tives to bring changes in our schools. Delhi education model was the first we could think

‘The Corbett Papers’: Unpublished letters, documents of famed naturalist

New Delhi (PTI): A new book, “The Corbett Papers”, has brought together lesser known parts of the famous naturalist-hunter Jim Corbett’s life through unpublished letters, documents and a pri vately-published book.

Published by Hachet te India, the book has been co-edited by educa tor Akshay Shah and writer Stephen Alter. Corbett, born in Nainital in 1875, was known for tracking and hunting down a num

Stephen Alter, who has co-edited the

ber of man-eating ti gers and leopards. The annals of his adven tures were written by him in a series of books, the most famous of

The full text of Corbett’s last will and testament is also reproduced, affording new insights into his character and state of mind at the end of his life, the book’s pub lishers -- Hachette India -- said.

which is “Man-Eaters of Kumaon” (1944).

He also played an im portant role in estab lishing Hailey National Park, India’s first na

tional park in 1936. It was later named after the naturalist in 1956, a year after his death.

According to the pub lishing house, the en tire text of a privately published and long van ished book, “Jungle Sto ries”, is reproduced in the latest book, along with papers that Cor bett’s first biographer, DC Kala, acquired dur ing his research.

The book was written and printed by Corbett for a small group of friends in Nainital with

only a hundred copies that never went into commercial circulation and disappeared with time.

Alter contributed the complete text of Cor bett’s first book, “Jun gle Stories”, which was self-published in Naini tal in 1935. “The Corbett Papers” also includes reminiscences of Cor bett by his sister Mag gie, and rare extracts from a forgotten work, “The Taming of the Jungle”, by his halfbrother Charles Doyle.

of when we were look ing for best practices to be implemented in our schools. We’re curi ous to learn from the

education model and understand the groundlevel implementation process,” a member, Shyam Lal Kharel said.

ior functionaries of the RSS met Umar Ahmed Ilyasi at a mosque in New Delhi. The meeting was held at Kasturba Gandhi Marg and lasted for more than an hour.

“Ever since Mohan Bhagwat has come to our mosque, I have been getting threatening calls continuously. I re ceived a threatening call from England on 23 September saying that now you will burn in the fire of Hell,” Ilyasi said. “I called Mohan Bhag wat to the mosque and called him ‘Rashtra-pi ta’ & ‘Rashtra-Rishi’, so I am being threatened. Some fundamentalists do not like peace, love, or peace.”

23 IITs to showcase R&D projects at IIT Delhi

New Delhi (PTI): An ti-counterfeiting labels, digital preservation and restoration of cul tural heritage, portable digital inverted micro scopes and smart public transport toolkit are among 80 inventions that will be showcased at a two-day fair being organised by 23 Indian Institutes of Technolo gy (IITs).

Beginning Friday, “IInvenTiv” aims at cre ating awareness around research and innova tion work being done at the institutes. It also seeks to create collabo rative avenues among state universities and institutes, industry and the IITs for better devel opment and reach of the innovations at the grassroots level.

The fair is being or ganised at IIT Delhi to mark the 75th year of Independence.

Ex-bureaucrat’s book traces changing state boundaries

New Delhi (PTI): A new book will examine the political history of independent India through its shifting in ternal boundaries on the basis of language, ethnicity and regional assertions.

Written by former bu reaucrat Sanjeev Chopra, “We, the People of the States of Bharat” will be released on Oc tober 30, publisher HarperCollins India has announced.

Touted to be the “quintessential record of the contemporary

political history” of In dia through its geogra phy, the book examines the multiple boundary adjustments for every state and Union Terri tory in India since 1947 to 2022.

“What started as re search into land meas urement instruments for revenue records and land settlements even tually became a narra tive on mapping state boundaries and a re cord of the contempo rary political history of India through its geog raphy,” the publishers said in a statement.

“The political map of a nation is the most po tent symbol of its sover eignty. I argue that In dia has emerged strong er from reorganization of states,” Chopra said.

Twitter post by BJP Yuva Morcha national secretary Tajinder Pal

Singh Bagga and sum moned the AAP leader for a hearing.

Gopal Italia addresses a press conference at party office after his release from detention by police on Thursday. —PHOTOS BY PTI Gopal Italia being detained by the Delhi Police from the NCW office in New Delhi on Thursday.

All India Imam Organisation chief Umer Ahmed Ilyasi

Deputy CM Manish Sisodia addresses a press conference at Delhi Secretariat on Thursday.

Deputy CM Manish Sisodia with the visiting delegation from Nepal at DIET office, Keshavpuram, in New Delhi.

Sanjay Chopra

THE NORD STREAM GAS PIPELINE SABOTAGE

DR N K SOMANI

The Nord Stream gas pipeline leak has put the world on the verge of confrontation, amid world peace already at stake after Russia’s attack on Ukraine. Russia has directly blamed the US-Ukraine for this incident, while the USA has termed a big conspiracy to create an energy crisis in European countries during the winter season.

both the pipelines. Although the pipeline had not been in operation since the time of the Russia-Ukraine war, but both lines were filled with gas. The extent of damage caused to the marine environment is not yet known. But it is estimated that if the entire gas reserves go into the water through the leak, then about 200,000 tons of methane gas will be emitted.

The dangerous way methane gas is leaking in the Baltic Sea has affected the ecosystem of the ocean and it infuses the world into a new environmental crisis. In such a situation, the question is who is responsible for the damage caused to the flora and fauna of the sea due to the strategic competition of the superpowers?

Actually, in 2011, Russia and Germany signed an agreement on a 1222 km long Nord Stream pipeline for easy and safe transportation of natural gas. The pipeline was commissioned in Octo ber 2012. Through this pipe line, Russia supplies 55 bil lion cubic meters of natural gas to Germany per year. This pipeline became chron ic and dilapidated. So Russia started Nord Stream2. This is completed in 2021. USA and some European countries had objected this project. Recently, there were reports of rupture of Nord Stream pipelines and gas leaks from Russia’s Baltic Sea to Europe. There are two gas leaks in

SC’S SPLIT VERDICT ON HIJAB BAN

Natural gas is composed mostly of methane, which is the second most powerful green gas after carbon diox ide. In such conditions, the possibility of major environ mental damage is being ex pressed. This issue is gaining momentum. NATO says that the pipelines have been delib erately targeted. This is an attack on the interests of NATO countries and NATO will retaliate for it. The EU has also taken this seriously. It says it is a well-intentioned conspiracy and is aimed at exacerbating the energy cri sis in Europe. The EU has also warned of retaliation on the lines of NATO.

Both USA and Russia al leged each for sabotage. Be fore the leak there were sev eral explosions in the Baltic Sea one after the other. It is alleged that these explosions have caused damage to the pipeline. The quality and depth of Nord Stream is stateof-the-art. In such a situation, the chances of damage to the pipeline itself are negligible. Then the question arises as to who has done this audacity?

Russia’s reason for suspi cion is that the leak occurred exactly when Norway and Po land announced the commis sioning of the Trans-Baltic

NATO says that the pipelines have been deliberately targeted. This is an attack on the interests of NATO countries and NATO will retaliate for it. The EU has also taken this seriously. It says it is a well-intentioned conspiracy and is aimed at exacerbating the energy crisis in Europe. The EU has also warned of retaliation on the lines of NATO

Pipeline. After the commis sioning, the countries of East ern Europe will no longer be dependent on Russia. So Kremlin may have damaged the Nord Stream to create an energy crisis. Since both the pipelines are built by Russian company Gazprom and it has 51% stake in the entire project.

The cost of project of Nord Stream 2 of $11. In such a situ ation why Russia would harm itself? If Kremlin’s intention was to push Europe into an energy crisis, he could have openly announced a halt to gas supplies. Ukraine has also blamed Russia. Russia has called a meeting of the Secu rity Council to investigate the whole matter, calling the alle gation a ‘stupid and absurd’. Then is this action of USA?

The finger is being raised on America because USA and some countries of Central and Eastern Europe have been op

posing the creation of Nord Stream 2 from the very begin ning. The USA believes that its construction will increase Pu tin’s influence in Europe and put Putin in a bargaining posi tion with big countries such as Germany, Britain and France. US have said on several occa sions that this pipeline is part of Russia’s broader strategy to weaken the West by increas ing European dependence on Russian gas supplies. Presi dent Joe Biden said just before the Russia-Ukraine war that the US would block Nord Stream 2 if it invaded Ukraine.

Poland and Ukraine are also under suspicion. President Putin suspects that Ukraine sabotaged the pipeline to weaken Russia economically and cut its influence on Eu rope. There is another reason to doubt Ukraine. After the start of Nord Stream2, a big source of his income was go ing to end. The Nord Stream One went to Europe via Ukraine. Ukraine used to re ceive an amount of $ 1 billion annually from Russia in the form of transistor fee. Now through Nord Stream 2, Rus sia wants to bypass Ukraine and reach European coun tries. So may have Ukraine damaged the pipeline.

The dangerous way meth ane gas is leaking in the Baltic Sea has affected the ecosystem of the ocean and it infuses the world into a new environmen tal crisis. In such a situation, the question is who is respon sible for the damage caused to the flora and fauna of the sea due to the strategic competi tion of the superpowers?

SOURAV GANGULY GIVEN A RAW DEAL BY BCCI AND IT’S UNFAIR TO HIM

Sourav Ganguly’s likely exit from BCCI has kicked up a con troversy as Jay Shah has been given an other term as the cricket board’s secretary while the former India skipper has been denied the fa vour of continuing as President for a second term. Ganguly’s fans feel that the BCCI has been unfair to him. They believe he has been snubbed. He is also un likely to get the board’s backing for the post of International Cricket Council’s chairman. Ac cording to reports he has de clined to be the Ganguly himself downplayed the controversy. “I was the presi dent of the Cricket Association of Bengal for five years. I have been president of the BCCI for two years. After all these terms you have to leave and go… You cannot play forever and you cannot re main in administration forever.”

One Trinamool Congress lead er said that the BCCI is now packed with relatives of BJP lead ers. There is obviously more to the controversy than meets the eye.

SPIRITUAL SPEAK

India is making a new identity under the leadership of Prime Minister @ narendramodi ji. As the world’s “pharmacy” at the time of global crisis, India helped many countries including America. Today India is supplying food to the world along with its food supply.

Nitin Gadkari @nitin_gadkari

For now the ban on hijab will contin ue in Karnataka schools. The Su preme Court hear ing the petitions challenging the Karnataka High Court’s order upholding the ban im posed by the state govern ment gave a split verdict on Thursday. Justice Hemant Gupta dismissed the peti tions challenging the high court’s order, while Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia said that “wearing hijab is a matter of choice” and struck down the order.

Because of their diver gent views the Bench has re ferred the matter to the Chief Justice of India “for appro priate directions” like wheth er the case should be heard by a three-judge bench or larger.

The Karnataka High Court

Allowing the appeal Justice Dhulia said, “One thing which was topmost (priority) for me was education of girl child. A girl child in (many) areas does household work and chores before going to school and are we making her life any better by doing this (banning hijab).”

had ruled that a prescribed school uniform does not vio late either the right to free dom of speech and expression or the right to privacy under Article 21 of the Constitution.

Allowing the appeal Jus tice Dhulia said, “One thing

which was topmost (priority) for me was education of girl child. A girl child in (many) areas does household work and chores before going to school and are we making her life any better by doing this (banning hijab).”

The insistence on wearing hijab by a section of Muslim girls is in stark contrast to Iranian women’s defiance against hijab which is sup posed to be mandatory as per Islamic law, though the Kar nataka High Court ruled that it is not a “part of essential religious practice in Islam”. It seems that what is religios ity for one set of Muslim women is a curtailment of women’s freedom for anoth er. Even in India there are Muslim women who prefer to go without hijab.

It’s rightly said, ‘There is enough for everyone’s need, but not greed’. Bhagavad Gita

Dharmendra Pradhan @dpradhanbjp

#GujaratGauravYatra

Bringing Prosperity Through World Class Infrastructure in New India.

Iconic cable-stayed cum suspension bridge across Krishna river in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana has been approved at total cost of Rs 1082.56 Cr with the construction period of 30 months. #PragatiKaHighway

THE VIEWS

BY

AUTHOR ARE PERSONAL

DR SURESH YADAV

writer is Freelancer and

Affairs

To

Previous govts in India did not provide proper facilities: PM

New Delhi: PM Naren dra Modi, who flagged off country’s 4th Vande Bharat Express train that will run from Amb Andaura in Himachal Pradesh & New Delhi, said previous Indian governments did not provide facilities avail able elsewhere even in 20th century.

He was addressing a public meeting at the Indira Gandhi stadium in poll-bound Una dist.

“We will provide you with facilities for the 20th as well as the 21st centuries,” Modi said.

PM Modi laid the foun

IN THE COURTYARD

HC ASKS BMC TO ACCEPT LATKE’S RESIGNATION

Mumbai: In a major relief to ‘Shiv Sena Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray’ party, the Bombay HC on Thursday directed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to accept the resignation of its employee and the party’s candidate for the forthcoming Andheri (East) Assembly bypoll, Rutuja Latke.

ED MOVES TO BENGALURU

COURT AGAINST 6 Bengaluru: ED has filed a Prosecution Complaint before the Principal City Civil and Sessions Judge and Special Court at Bengaluru against 6 individuals on charges of money laundering.

Those individuals are TL Praveen Kumar, Branch Manager, Bank of Baroda; SK Subramanaya Reddy; R Ranganath, Narasimha Murthy K, Santha Kumari K, and R Kavitha. The Special Court (PMLA) has taken cognizance of said Prosecution Complaint, ED said.

SC MIFFED AT GOVT STAND IN ADANI PORT CASE

New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court Thursday took a grim view of the “contradictory” stand taken by two central government ministries in a matter related to a warehouse facility of the Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC) on 34 acres of land within the SEZ area developed by Adani Ports Special Economic Zone Limited (APSEZL). The SC set aside a verdict of the Gujarat High Court which had directed that the CWC agree to the Adani firm’s proposal.

dation stone of two hy dropower projects, the 48 MW Chanju-III Hydroelectric Project and the 30 MW Deothal Chanju

‘NEHRU IS TO BE BLAMED FOR PLAGUING KASHMIR’

He said this during the Gaurav Yatra on Thursday morning which will conclude at Somnath Temple

Zanzarka (Guj): Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday blamed India’s first PM Jawaharlal Nehru for issues plaguing Kash mir & credited Naren dra Modi government for solving them by re moving Article 370.

Speaking at an event to flag off BJP’s ‘Gaurav Yatra’ in poll-bound Gu jarat, Shah also said the Cong used to taunt his party over the construc tion of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya but work on it was now in progress.

“Due to the mistake of (first prime minister) Jawaharlal Nehru of in serting Article 370, Kashmir was in a mess. It could not be properly integrated with country. Everybody wanted re

IAS officer and two others arrested by ED

Raipur: Enforcement Directorate on Thurs day arrested Chhattis garh cadre IAS officer Sameer Vishnoi and two other people after it launched multi-city raids in state early this week as part of a money laundering investiga tion, officials said. Businessman Sunil Agrawal of the Indram ani group and Laxmi kant Tiwari, uncle of “absconding” business man Suryakant Tiwari, have also been taken into custody.

moval of Article 370. PM Modi removed it in one stroke & completed inte gration of Kashmir with the country,” Shah said. Incidentally, Modi had also blamed Nehru

SHAH: PEOPLE OF GUJARAT HAVE GARLANDED BJP WITH VICTORY

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday expressed confidence that ruling BJP will retain power in Gujarat by win ning upcoming Assembly elections with a two-third majority. He said the people of Gujarat have been trusting the BJP for a long time and the party has fulfilled their wishes.

Shah was addressing a public gathering at Sant Savaiyanath Dham, a popular religious place in Zanzaraka of Ahmedabad district, before launch ing the third leg of the Gujarat Gaurav Yatra. The yatra will conclude at Somnath temple in the Gir-Somnath district.

Hydro-electric Project, in Chamba. Both pro jects will generate over 270 million units of elec tricity annually and

Himachal Pradesh is ex pected to get annual rev enue of Rs 110 crore from these projects.

The Prime Minister also launched Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yo jana (PMGSY)-III in Himachal Pradesh for the upgradation of around 3,125 km of road in the state. More than Rs 420 crore has been sanctioned by the cen tral government under this phase for the upgra dation of 440 km of roads in 15 border and far-flung blocks of the state.

According to Prime Minister’s Office

(PMO), running from Amb Andaura to New Delhi, it is the fourth Vande Bharat train that has been introduced in the country and is an advanced version com pared to the earlier ones, being much light er and capable of reach ing higher speed in shorter duration.

It accelerates to 100 km per hour in just 52 seconds. The introduc tion of the train will help boost tourism in the region and provide a comfortable and fast er mode of travel for people of India.

I want to bring a change in the party, says Tharoor

New Delhi (ANI): Con gress presidential can didate Shashi Tharoor on Thursday lamented that some leaders had openly come out in sup port of his poll opponent Mallikarjun Kharge and even summoned meet ings in his favour, say ing it disturbed the lev el-playing field.

He also said several PCC chiefs and senior leaders were not availa ble for a meeting with him during his visits to their respective states, but they warmed up to Kharge when he visited them for support.

for issues plaguing Kashmir while address ing a gathering in Guja rat earlier this week.

Shah, later in day, will flag off 2 ‘gaurav yatras’.

“BJP governments have done innumerable types of works. And therefore, in every election, whether it is corporation, district/ taluka, people of Gujarat have garlanded BJP with a victory,” said Shah.

Justice Ali Mohd Magrey takes oath as CJ of J&K & Ladakh HC

Srinagar: Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Thursday adminis tered the oath of office to Justice Ali Moham mad Magrey as Chief Justice of High Court of J&K and Ladakh here.

Sources told GNS that sitting judges and some retired judges of the HC, judicial officers, Advo cate General, lawyers and other dignitaries from civil and police de partment participated.

Justice Magrey, who was born on Dec 8, 1960, in Wattoo village of

ED gets custody of Chhattisgarh

IAS officer in corruption case

Raipur (ANI): A court has granted Enforce ment Directorate cus tody of IAS officer Sa meer Vishnoi till Octo ber 21 in a case related to the recovery of Rs 47 lakh from his house. Vishnoi was arrested Thursday morning.

ED has also sent Sunil Agarwal of In dramani Group and Laxmikant Tiwari, un cle of absconding Suryakant Tiwari, to eight-day custody. As sistant Solicitor Gener al of India Ramankant

Mishra said, “About Rs 47 lakh in cash has been recovered from IAS Sa meer Vishnoi’s house and Rs 1.5 crore in con cealment has been re covered from Laxmi kant Tiwari’s house”.

He added that gold and diamonds have been recovered from Vishnoi’s house.

The enforcement agency has also arrest ed Sunil Agarwal of In dramani Group and Laxmikant Tiwari, a relative of business man Suryakant Tiwari

who’s currently under the agency’s scanner, they said, adding that raids were carried out on Tuesday in Raigadh, Raipur, Durg and Ma hasamund.

ED found Rs 4 crore in cash during the raids, besides unac counted jewellery and gold, the sources said.

Government officials were running an al leged extortion racket by imposing illegal lev ies and collecting Rs 25 per tonne from coal sup pliers, they said.

Damhal Hanjipora in south Kashmir’s Kul gam dist, is 35th CJ of HC. CJ Magrey received

Seeking votes from delegates at DPCC of fice, He said he wanted to bring a “change” in organisation. He also said aimed to “bring back” the voters who did not support the Con gress in the 2014 and the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

“I want to bring a change in the party,” he told the delegates.

New Delhi: Cong leader Shashi Tharoor has been appointed as chairperson of Parliamentary Standing Committee on Chemicals and Fertilizers, according to a notification issued by LS Secretariat.Tharoor’s appoint ment as chairperson of parliamentary panel came after Cong leadership suggested his name. Recommendation came at a time when he is contesting Cong Prez election.

ALL AICC GEN SECYS, STATE IN-CHARGES, TOLD NOT VOTE IN ASSIGNED STATE

New Delhi: Cong’ central election authority has issued a directive, AICC general secretaries, state in-charges, sec retaries & joint secretaries would cast their vote in party’s presidential polls at their home state & not in assigned state. This has been done in order to “maintain trans parency in election process”, according to directive by central election authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry.

Bharat Jodo Yatra: Rahul says BJP ‘auctioning’ govt jobs in Karnataka

Chitradurga: On 35th day of the Congress’ Bharat Jodo Yatra, par ty leader Rahul Gandhi accused the Karnataka government of auction ing off state jobs. “The twin engine of the BJP is devouring the future of the young,” he add ed, adding that the BJP administration in Kar nataka is busy “selling jobs” while the state’s youth are unemployed.

school education in his native village & did graduation from Uni versity of Kashmir.

Karnataka is the first BJP-ruled state to join the yatra. A day before the yatra arrived in Karnataka, posters of welcoming were ripped.

POLITICAL GAME

Sharat K Verma

New Delhi: Delhi govt’s Dalit Min Rajen dra Pal Gautam has resigned. He resigned at behest of party, which was approved by Lieu tenant Guv VK Saxena.

On other hand, Satyen dra Jain is in jail for several months in the hawala case but he is still a minister and has not resigned. His port folios have been divided

among other ministers but his resignation has not been taken even though he is in jail on

a social and political dispute, but he was quick to resign.

corruption charges.

The controversy in which Rajendra Pal Gautam got involved is

Rajendra Pal Gautam had attended an event in which thousands of Hindus took a pledge not to worship Hindu deities while reiterat ing oath of Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar. Af ter its video went viral, BJP accused Gautam of being anti-Hindu & Ke jriwal hastened his res ignation because Kejri

wal may have got Ambedkar’s photo in stalled in all govt offices but he is doing Hindut va politics. In Gujarat elections, he is asking for votes by claiming themselves to be incar nations of Krishna & on other hand their Min are making a resolution not to worship RamaKrishna. Only then, see ing possibility of loss of votes, Kejriwal to Gau tam to resign.

Self proclaimed ‘Krishna’ Kejriwal gets Gautam to resign for Hindu votes, but keeps jailed Satyendra!

PM Narendra Modi greets the supporters at the flagging off ceremony of Vande Bharat Express from Amb Andaura, Una, to New Delhi. Also seen Ashwini Vaishnaw Jai Ram Thakur. —PHOTO BY ANI

PM Narendra Modi at flagging off ceremony of Vande Bharat Express from Amb Andaura, Una to New Delhi. —PHOTO BY ANI

Union Home Minister Amit Shah with Gujarat BJP President CR Paatil offers prayers at Sant Shree Savaiyanath Samadhi Sthaan temple, Zanzarka, in Ahmedabad on Thursday. —PHOTO BY ANI

CONGRESS’ ‘BHARAT JODO YATRA’ TO PASS THROUGH VILLAGES IN CHITRADURGA

Chitradurga (Karnataka): ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ of Cong led by Rahul Gandhi on Thursday resumed from Bommagondana halli in Karnataka’s Chitradurga district and headed towards Rampura. Hundreds of people gathered on roadside in morn ing to welcome them. According to Cong workers, march started at 6.30 am from the BG Kere underpass in Bomma gondanahalli. The yatra will exit the state on October 20.

Cong presidential candidate Shashi Tharoor addresses a press conference regarding party presidential elections.

Rahul Gandhi interacts with a padayatri as he takes part in party’s Bharat Jodo Yatra, at Bommagundanahalli in Chitradurga.

Manoj Sinha (left) with Justice Ali Mohammad Magrey during the latter’s oath-taking ceremony as Chief Justice.

THAROOR APPOINTED CHAIRPERSON OF PARL PANEL ON CHEMICALS & FERTILISERS

—PHOTO BY ANI

—PHOTO BY ANI

IIT Guwahati needs to nurture other institutes in NE: President

Prez spoke after virtually inaugurating & laying foundation stones for various projects

Guwahati (ANI): Pres ident Droupadi Murmu, on Thursday stressed the need to promote a knowledge-based socie ty and the importance of technological solu tions to the problems of the country, while high lighting the role of in stitutes of higher edu cation in this regard.

She was speaking af ter virtually inaugurat ing and laying the foun dation stones for vari ous central and state projects from the cam pus of the Indian Insti tute of Technology (IIT), Guwahati.

These include the in auguration of super

computer ‘Param Kam rupa’, under the Nation al Supercomputing Mis sion, and a laboratory for the design and devel opment of high-power microwave components

CRUCIAL READ

AIFF TO INITIATE ENQUIRY ON LATE ARRIVAL OF BOOTS

Bhubaneswar (PTI): The All India Football Federation will initiate an enquiry on the late arrival of boots of four members of the FIFA Women’s U-17 World Cup, leading to the players wearing them for the first time during the match.AIFF secretary general Shaji Prabhakaran said he has asked for a report from the teams on how the consignment of new boots did not reach.

ODISHA, TELANGANA GOVTS VIOLATE MODEL CODE

New Delhi (PTI): A delegation of Bharatiya Janata Party lead ers met the Election Commission here on Thursday to complain against the “illegal” transfers and postings by Odisha and Tel angana governments ahead of bypolls in both states early next month. The delegation submitted memo randums regarding complaints against both states.

LAW MINISTRY TO ORGANISE ALL INDIA CONFERENCE OF LAW MINS FROM TODAY

New Delhi (PTI): The Union Ministry of Law and Justice will organise an All India Conference of Law Ministers and Law Secretaries from October 14 to 17 to provide a platform for discussion and to help policymak ers upgrade the overall legal system, an official statement said.In a state ment, the Ministry said the conference will be held at Ekta Nagar in Gujarat. The inaugural session will be held on Saturday morning.

ARMY’S ASSAULT DOG, CRITICALLY INJURED, DIES

New Delhi (Agencies): Army assault dog Zoom, who received gunshot wounds during an encounter in Jammu and Kashmir’s Anantnag district, succumbed to his injuries on Thursday noon, news agency ANI reported citing army officials. The dog was under treatment at the 54 Advance Field Veteri nary Hospital (AFVH) in Srinagar.

NAVY MAN BOOKED AFTER TEEN FILES RAPE COMPLAINT

Mumbai (PTI): A Navy engineer has been booked for rape on the complaint of his 19-year-old college friend, a Mumbai police official said on Thursday.The teenage girl, who studies in a private college and stays in a hostel near INHS Asvini in Navy Nagar in south Mum bai, filed her complaint on Tuesday, the Cuffe Parade police station official said.

at IIT-Guwahati.

Murmu also virtual ly inaugurated the Dhu bri Medical College and Hospital and laid the foundation stones for the Zonal Institutes of

The north east should be a torch bearer in spreading knowl edge and inculcating scientific tempera ment. The benefits of technology should reach the remotest corners of society

IIT-Guwahati, the Pres ident stressed the role of the institute in the region.

One cannot stay in admin forever, says Sourav Ganguly

Ganguly says on his future as BCCI president

the National Institute of Virology (NIV) at Di brugarh in Assam and Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh at the same programme. Lauding the achievements of

“Being the only IIT in the North East, it must shoulder the responsi bility to nurture other institutes in the region to work with the state government and defence forces to strengthen our borders and provide technological solutions to prevent recurrence of natural calamities in the region,” she said.

Murmu also exhort ed the people of the Northeastern region to play a leading role in creating a knowledgebased society.

TO HUMAN LIVES’

Maha: ‘Conflict Tiger’ that killed 13 captured

Gadchiroli (Agen cies): The Maharashtra forest department on Thursday tranquilised and captured ‘conflict tiger’ CT-1 after it had killed 13 persons in Gadchiroli and Chan drapur districts in the state’s Vidarbha region, an official said.

The tiger was moving in Wadsa forest range here in Gadchiroli and was becoming a threat to human lives, he added.

“The tiger had killed six persons in Wadsa, four in Bhandara and three in Brahmapuri for est range in Chandrapur district. The Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) Nag

pur had, in a meeting on October 4, directed that conflict tiger CT-1 be cap tured,” he said.

“Accordingly, the Tadoba Tiger Rescue team, the Rapid Re sponse Teams of Chan

drapur, Navegaon-Nagzi ra and other units worked on war-footing to capture the tiger. It was tranquilised and cap tured from Wadsa forest range on Thursday morning,” he informed.

Kolkata (ANI): Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Sourav Ganguly said that he enjoyed his time as a cricket administra tor, but one "cannot play forever, remain in ad ministration forever".

His comments come when he was likely to take over as BCCI presi dent. "I was the presi dent of the Cricket As sociation of Bengal for five years. I have been president of BCCI for years. After all these terms, you have to leave and go. As an adminis trator, you have to con

EAM Jaishankar to pay two-day visit to Egypt

New Delhi (PTI): Ex ternal Affairs Minis ter S Jaishankar will begin a two-day visit to Egypt on Saturday to explore new initia tives in India’s part nership with the Afri can nation.

It will be his first bi lateral trip to Egypt as the external affairs minister. Announcing the visit, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Thurs day that Jaishankar will discuss a range of bilateral, regional and international issues of mutual interest with his Egyptian counter part Sameh Hassan Shoukry. Egypt has been invited as a ‘guest country’ during India’s Presidency of G-20 in 2022-23.

tribute a lot and make things better for the team. Me being a player, who was around for a long time, understood it. I enjoyed my time as an administrator thor oughly. You cannot play forever and you cannot remain in administra tion forever," said Gan guly at an an event.

Former Indian crick eter and member of the 1983 World Cup winning team Roger Binny is likely to be the next BCCI president replac ing Ganguly while BJP MLA Ashish Shelar is likely to be the Treas urer replacing Arun Dhumal as per sources in the BCCI.

AP, Assam, Gujarat top achievers in logistics performance index 2022

New Delhi (PTI): Andhra Pradesh, As sam and Gujarat are among the 15 States and UTs categorised as achievers in the logis tics index chart 2022, ac cording to a report re leased by the commerce and Industry Ministry on October 13, 2022.

The index is an indi cator of the efficiency of logistical services necessary for promot ing exports and eco nomic growth. Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Ra jasthan, Puducherry, Sikkim and Tripura are the other States catego rised as fast movers in the ranking.

The 15 States and UTs ranked in the aspirers category include Bihar,

Chhattisgarh, Goa, Mi zoram, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lak shadweep, Ladakh, Na galand, J&K and AP.

The other States and UTs which are in the achievers category in clude Chandigarh, Del hi, Haryana, HP, Karna taka, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, TN, Telangana, UP and Ut tarakhand.

Will Guj and HP Assembly elections be held together?

New Delhi: It is a big irony that the Election Commission says on one hand that it is capa ble of holding all the elections across the country simultaneous ly and on the other hand it cannot hold elections in two states simultaneously. Elec tions are still held in six-seven phases in many states. The as sembly elections of Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat are an example of this. Last time i.e. in 2017 the elections of both the states were held

separately in a gap of one month. First Himachal Pradesh elec tions were held and after voting, the parties and candidates had to wait for about one and a half months for the results.

This time it is expect ed that both the states elections can be held si multaneously. In 2017, the Himachal Pradesh assembly elections were held on November 9.

Voting for all the 68 as sembly seats in the state was held on the same day on November 9. But after that the results had to wait for about one and a half months as the as

sembly elections were held in Gujarat a month after Himachal Pradesh and the votes of both were counted together. Voting for 182 assembly seats in Gujarat was held in two phases on December 9 and 14.

Four days later, on De

ACROSS THE WORLD

cember 18, the votes of both the states were counted.

Just think, there are two small states, Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat. Together, there are a total of two hun dred and fifty assembly seats, but the Election

Commission had con ducted elections on these two hundred and fifty seats in three phas es and it took two months for the process to be completed.

In Himachal Pradesh, the process of nomina tion had started on Octo ber 18, that is, before that the model code of conduct (MCC) was put in place and the MCC continued till the results were declared on De cember 18. The process of elections in Gujarat began in November.

So, this time there are two questions before the election commission.

First, whether the elec tions to both the states will be held simultane ously and secondly, when will the announce ment of the elections be held? The last time elec tion process was com pleted on December 20. In this regard, the Com mission still has time. If both the elections are to be held together, then the announcement of elections can be done in November also. But recently, Gujarat state BJP president CR Patil had said that the process of election would be completed by the end of November.

Russian missiles target more than 40 Ukraine cities, towns

Kyiv(Agencies): Rus sian missiles pounded more than 40 Ukrainian cities and towns, offi cials said on Thursday, as NATO allies meeting in Brussels unveiled plans to beef up Eu rope’s air defences after committing more mili tary aid to Kyiv.

The new pledges prompted Moscow to renew warnings that Western states’ help made them “a direct party to the conflict” and that admitting

Ukraine to Western military alliance NATO could trigger World War Three.

Three,” deputy secre tary of Russia’s Secu rity Council, Alexan der Venediktov, told media as the United States vowed to defend “every inch” of allied territory.

WANT “EVEN STRONGER” INDIA TRADE TIES: UK FM

NATO HOLDS NUCLEAR TALKS AMID WAR TENSIONS AND PUTIN THREATS

‘PAK MISUSED CICA PLAN TO PROPAGATE FALSE PROPAGANDA’

“Kyiv is well aware that such a step would mean a guaranteed es calation to a World War

Moscow has repeat edly justified the Feb 24 invasion that has killed tens of thousands of people, in what it calls a “special operation”, by saying Ukraine’s ambitions to join the al liance posed a threat to Russia’s security.

London (Agencies): British foreign minister James Cleverly said Britain wanted to have an even stronger trading relationship with India after reports that remarks by a fellow minister about Indian immigrants could put a future deal in doubt. Interior minis ter Suella Braverman about Indian migrants and the pos sible impact, Cleverly said, “We do want to have an even stronger, it’s strong already, an even stronger trading relationship with India.”

BRUSSELS (Agencies): NATO’s secretive Nuclear Plan ning Group met as the military alliance presses ahead with plans to hold a nuclear exercise next week as con cerns deepen over President Vladimir Putin’s insistence that he will use any means necessary to defend Russian territory. Defense ministers which usually happens once or twice a year, at NATO headquarters in Brussels.

SHANGHAI QUIETLY SHUTS DOWN SCHOOLS, GYMS, BARS AS COVID RETURNS

Shanghai (Agencies): Shanghai is quietly shutting down schools and a raft of other venues as officials try to rein in a flareup that’s hit the financial hub just days before one of China’s most important political events. Several schools dotted throughout the city have sus pended in-person classes as the fear of infection spread grows, according to parents and social media posts.

Astana (ANI): India and Pakistan squared off on the issues of Kashmir and mean ingful engagement at a re gional summit in Kazakhstan on Thursday, with minister of state for external affairs Meenakshi Lekhi calling on Islamabad to immediately end cross-border terrorism to create conditions for any dialogue. Addressing the CICA Summit in Astana, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif accused the Indian government.

A view shows an apartment building damaged by a Russian military strike in Mykolaiv on Thurdsay.

—PHOTO BY ANI

Mahesh Sharma

President Droupadi Murmu inaugurates the Supercomputing facility at IIT Guwahati, as Assam Governor Jagdish Mukhi and CM Himanta Biswa Sarma on Thursday. —PHOTO BY ANI

BCCI President Sourav Ganguly signs a cricket bat during a programme, in Kolkata on Thursday. —PHOTO BY ANI

The man eating tiger that killed 13 persons in Gadchiroli and Chandrapur districts. —FILE PHOTO

—Droupadi Murmu, President of India

Piyush Goyal

‘

COAL INDIA

UP 1,190-MW SOLAR

India is a bright light economy, but…’

Jaipur: Coal India Ltd (CIL) will set up a 1,190MW solar power plant in Bikaner district of Ra jasthan. For this, the CIL signed a MoU with the Rajasthan Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Ltd. The solar plant will be set up in a 2,000-MW solar park be ing developed by RVUNL in Poogal, Bikaner. The state government has al lotted 4,846 hectare land to develop the park in which the RVUNL will set up its own solar project of 810 MW, and a power project of 1,190 will be set up by the CIL.

GOLD GAINS `42 BUT SILVER PRICES DROP BY `493

Washington (PTI): India has emerged as “a bright light” at a time when the world is facing imminent prospects of a recession, the chief economist of the IMF said on Wednesday, noting that the country, however, needed key struc tural reforms in order to achieve the ambitious tar get of being a $10 trillion economy.

Pierre-Olivier Gour inchas, chief economist of the IMF said: “Well, India is, I want to say, sort of bright light. The Indian economy has been doing reasonably well.”

Responding to a question on the ambitious goal of India becoming a $10 tril lion economy, Gourinchas said that he certainly be lieves this is achievable.

“I mean, we’ve seen a

number of countries grow at very fast rates in the past and really develop very rapidly. So, I think it’s cer tainly, now it’s not neces sarily an easy task, but I think, yes, there is certain ly an enormous potential for an economy like India,”

he said. To do so, India needs to carry out a num ber of structural reforms, he observed.

“Well, there are certainly a number of structural re forms that are or improve ments are needed in the economy like India. There

India’s deployment of cash transfer scheme is a ‘logistical marvel’: IMF

New Delhi: Gold prices in Delhi rose by `42 to `51,255 per 10 grams on Thursday amid a rise in the prices of the precious metal in the international market, according to HDFC Securities. In the previous trade, the yellow metal had touched `51,213 per 10 grams.

However, silver dropped by `493 to `57,717/kg from `58,210 per kg. In the international market, gold was trading in green at $1,672.2 per ounce while silver was down at $19.03 per ounce.

INDIAN STARTUP FUNDING HITS 2-YR LOW IN Q3 OF 2022

Washington (PTI): The IMF has described India’s deployment of a direct cash transfer scheme and other similar social wel fare programmes as a “lo gistical marvel”, saying there is a lot to learn from the country which is one of the most inspiring exam ples of the application of technology to solve compli cated issues.

The aim of DBT (Direct Benefit Transfer) is to transfer the benefits and subsidies of various social welfare schemes directly in the bank account of the beneficiary on time by bringing efficiency, effec tiveness, transparency and also to eliminate the inter mediary body.

According to the govern ment data, more than `24.8

WHAT IS THE AIM OF DBT?

z The aim of DBT is to transfer the benefits and subsidies of various social welfare schemes directly in the bank account of the beneficiary on time by bringing efficiency, effectiveness, transparency and also to eliminate the intermediary body

lakh crore has been trans ferred through DBT mode since 2013, ` 6.3 lakh crore in the financial year 2021-22

alone; on an average over 90 lakh DBT payments are processed daily as per data of FY22.

“From India, there is a lot to learn. There is a lot to learn from some other ex amples around the world. We have examples from pretty much every conti nent and every level of in come. If I look at the case of India, it is actually quite impressive,” Paolo Mauro, Deputy Director of the Fis cal Affairs Department at the IMF, said.

“In fact, just because of the sheer size of the coun try, it is a logistical marvel how these programmes that seek to help people who are at low-income lev els reach literally hun dreds of millions of peo ple,” he said.

have been a number of re forms already,” he said.

For instance, India is very much at the forefront of digitalisation, he said.

“The way these digital tools can be deployed to im prove financial inclusion or to facilitate access to ad ministrative services, and things like that. And that is a testimony to the sort of innovation in that sector that is happening in India,” he observed. “But beyond that, there are needs for re forms that will actually boost potential growth. It’s not just about stabilising the economy around the potential growth that it has right now. In order to un leash India’s potential, a lot of reforms have to be im plemented that will boost productivity growth,” Gourinchas said.

Washington (PTI): Applauding India’s digitisation efforts, the chief economist of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Wednesday said the move was a game changer as it had al lowed the Indian government to do things that would have been extremely difficult otherwise. “Digitisation is helping along a number of dimensions. One is financial inclusion, obviously because there are a lot of people in countries like India that were unbanked. And having access to digital wallets is a way in which they can enter into transactions that are not just cash transac tions, which are very inefficient,” Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, the chief economist of IMF said in response to a question about India’s digitisation efforts. “I think it (digitisation) has allowed the (Indian) government to do things that would have been ex tremely difficult to do otherwise. Yes (it is a game changer). It is certainly something that is a very welcome development,” Gourinchas suggested. “So that’s a huge plus in terms of bringing people into a more modern economy. That’s a factor for growth,” he said, adding that your market becomes very different if you are plugged into this digital instrument. “The second one which I think has also been important in the case of India is these digital instruments also allow governments to reach and disburse sys tems in ways that are much harder to do sometimes with some of the regular pipes of the safety net,” he said.

Sensex falls 391 points; Nifty closes above 17K

Mumbai (PTI): Bench mark BSE Sensex declined by 391 points on Thursday following heavy selling in banking, finance and capi tal goods stocks due to infla tion and growth concerns.

A weak rupee and rising crude prices also impacted the market sentiment, trad ers said.

The 30-share BSE Sensex declined 390.58 points or 0.68% to settle at 57,235.33.

Likewise, the broader NSE Nifty fell 109.25 points or 0.64% to end at 17,014.35.

Wipro was the top loser in the Sensex pack, shed ding 7.03%, followed by SBI, L&T, ICICI Bank, Asian Paints.

On the other hand, HCL Tech, Sun Pharma, Dr Red dy’s RIL were among the gainers.

RUPEE FALLS 5 PAISE TO CLOSE AT 82.38 AGAINST US DOLLAR

Mumbai (PTI): The rupee traded in a narrow range and settled 5 paise lower at 82.38 against the US dollar on Thursday, track ing a muted trend in domestic equities amid weak domestic macroeconomic data. Besides, risk aversion sentiment among investors weighed on the local unit. At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee witnessed range-bound trading. It opened at 82.30 against the US dollar, then fell further to close at 82.38, registering a fall of 5 paise over the last close. It was moving in a tight range of 82.25 to 82.42.

OTHER STORIES

India’s palm oil imports jump 2.7 times

New Delhi (PTI): India saw more than two-and-ahalf times increase in im port of refined palm oil at 17.12 lakh tonne in the last 11 months due to lower prices in Indonesia, indus try body SEA said on Thursday.

The country had import ed 6.28 lakh tonne of re fined palm oil (RBD palm olein) in the year-ago peri od. The oil year runs from Nov to October, it said.

India, the world’s lead ing vegetable oil buyer, im ported 130.1 lakh tonne of vegetable oils during the November-September pe riod of the ongoing 2021-22 oil year, 4% higher than the year-ago period.

Palm oil shipments com prise 50% of the total veg etable oil imports.

New Delhi: Amid global economic slowdown, startup funding in India hit a two-year low at $2.7 billion in the third quarter of 2022, as per a PwC In dia report. Only two start ups in India attained the unicorn status in the JulySeptember period of 2022, mirroring a global trend in decline in the number of new unicorns this last quarter, said the report titled ‘Startup Deals Tracker - Q3 CY22’.

Globally, the quarter un der review produced 20 unicorns and 45% of them are from the SaaS segment. No new de cacorns were added.

INDEX OF CONSUMER

SENTIMENTS ROSE

BY 7.1% IN SEPT

15 states do well in 2022 logistics index

New Delhi (PTI): Andhra Pradesh, Assam and Guja rat are among the 15 states and UTs categorised as achievers in the logistics index chart 2022, accord ing to a report released by the commerce and Indus try Ministry on Thursday.

The index is an indica tor of the efficiency of lo gistical services necessary for promoting exports and economic growth.

Kerala, Madhya

ON ROBUST FESTIVE DEMAND

Pradesh, Rajasthan, Pu ducherry, Sikkim and Tripura are the other states categorised as fast movers in the ranking.

The 15 states and UTs ranked in the aspirers cat egory include Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Mizo ram, Andaman and Nico bar Islands, Lakshadweep, Ladakh, Nagaland, Jam mu and Kashmir, and Arunachal Pradesh.

The other states and

UTs which are in the achievers category in clude Chandigarh, Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Ma harashtra, Odisha, Pun jab, Tamil Nadu, Telanga na, Uttar Pradesh and Ut tarakhand.

The report ranks the states on the basis of their logistics ecosystem, high lights the key logistics-re lated challenges faced by the stakeholders.

PV wholesales surge 92% in September

New Delhi: The index of consumer sentiments rose by a robust 7.1% to a 30-month high in Sep tember which was the month packed with festiv ities across the nation, the CMIE said. However, the first two weeks of Oc tober have shown a dip and all hopes are now on the week around Diwali.

The unemployment rate dropped to a four-year low of 6.3% and the index of consumer sentiments rose to a 30-month high 7.1% in September.

New Delhi (PTI): Riding on the back of strong fes tive season demand, pas senger vehicle wholesales in India increased 92% to 3,07,389 units last month, as compared to the same month last year, auto in dustry body Society of In dian Automobile Manufac turers said on Thursday.

Passenger vehicle (PV) dispatches from factories to dealerships in Septem ber 2021 stood at 1,60,212 units. As per the latest data by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufactur ers (SIAM), two-wheeler sales also rose 13% to

17,35,199 units, as com pared to 15,37,604 vehicles in September 2021.

Motorcycle sales rose 18% to 11,14,667 units, as against 9,48,161 units in September 2021.

AS PER LATEST DATA BY SIAM

z PV dispatches from factories to dealerships in September 2021 stood at 1,60,212 units

z 2-wheeler sales also rose 13% to 17,35,199 units, as compared to 15,37,604 vehicles in Sept 2021

GOVT ACCORDS INFRASTRUCTURE STATUS TO DATA CENTRES WITH OVER 5 MW CAPACITY

New Delhi: The government has accorded infrastructure status to data centers with more than 5 megawatt capacity of IT load. The move helps data centre companies to get easier access to institutional credit at lower rates.

Scooter sales were up 9% to 5,72,919 units, from 5,27,779 vehicles a year ago.

In the September quarter, PV sales increased by 38% to 10,26,309 units, as against 7,41,442 units in the similar

period of the last fiscal.

Similarly, total twowheeler sales rose 13% to 46,73,931 units, as com pared with 41,36,484 units in the September quarter of the last fiscal.

SIGNIFICANT NO. OF EMPLOYERS LIKELY TO ADD APPRENTICES

Mumbai: A significant percent age of employers are likely to increase their apprentice pool in the second half of 2022, as companies look at lever aging appren ticeships as the key source of talent, says a report. Accord ing to Apprenticeship Outlook Report for H2 by TeamLease Degree Apprenticeship, 77% of employers are likely to increase their apprentice pool in H2 2022, which was 45% in H2

INFOSYS QUARTER 2 NET PROFIT UP 11 PER

CENT TO ` 6,021 CRORE

New Delhi: Infosys on Thursday posted an 11% yearon-year rise in consolidated net profit to `6,021 cr for the Septem ber quarter and also announced a share buyback programme worth `9,300 cr. The IT major will also pay an interim dividend totalling `6,940 cr to the shareholders. The net profit of India’s second largest IT services company stood at `5,421 crore in the same period a year ago.

New Delhi: National Highways Infra Trust (NHAI InvIT) is looking to raise additional `3,800 crore, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said on Thursday. Gadkari said that of the additional fundraise, around `1,500 crores are being garnered through an issue of non-convertible debentures (NCDs) with a long-dated maturity of 24 years.

These InvIT bonds will be listed on BSE and NSE providing an opportunity for investors to invest and trade, he added. Gadkari said that the InvIT, so far, has raised more than `8,000 crore from foreign and Indian institutional investors.

Centre is included in the Harmonized Master List of Infrastructure sub-sectors by insertion of a new item in the category of ‘Communication’,” a notifi cation, said. Data centres that are “housed in a dedicated/centralized building for storage and processing of digital data applications with a minimum capacity of 5 MW of IT load” will be considered eligible for infrastructure status.

NHAI InvIT LOOKS TO RAISE ADDITIONAL `3,800 CRORE, SAYS UNION MINISTER NITIN GADKARI

SC TO HEAR PLEAS CHALLENGING ELECTORAL BOND SCHEME TODAY

New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court is sched uled to hear on Friday a batch of pleas challeng ing laws permitting funding of political par ties through the elec toral bond scheme. Elec toral bonds have been pitched as an alterna tive to cash donations made to political parties as part of efforts to bring transparency in political funding.

A bench of Justices B R Gavai and B V Nagar athna is likely to take up the PILs by NGO, As sociation for Democrat ic Reforms, Communist Party of India (Marxist) and other petitioners.

Earlier, Bhushan had sought an urgent listing of the PIL from the apex court on October 4 last year seeking a direction to the Centre not to open any further win dow for sale of electoral bonds during the pen dency of a case pertain ing to funding of politi cal parties and alleged lack of transparency in their accounts.

The NGO, which had filed the PIL in 2017 on the alleged issue of cor ruption and subversion of democracy through illicit and foreign fund ing of political parties and lack of transparen cy in the accounts of all political parties, had filed an interim applica tion in March this year before the assembly polls in West Bengal and Assam seeking that win dow for sale of electoral bonds be not reopened.

The govt notified the Electoral Bond Scheme on January 2, 2018

The NGO, in its fresh application filed in the pending petition, had claimed that there is a serious apprehension that any further sale of electoral bonds before the upcoming Assembly elections, including in West Bengal and As sam, would further in crease illegal & illicit funding of political par ties via shell companies.

In January 2021, the apex court had refused to grant interim stay on the 2018 Electoral Bonds Scheme and sought re sponses of the Centre and the EC on an inter im application by NGO seeking stay on scheme.

‘URGENT HEARING’

Yogi says compensation to farmers after mutual consent

In first phase of the project, the govt acquired 3,300 acre of land

Lucknow (PTI): Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister

Yogi Adityanath has as sured farmers that com pensation for the land to be acquired for the second phase of the Jewar International Airport will be provid ed after mutual under standing. An official spokesperson said Adi tyanath gave this assur ance to farmers of Jew ar, who had come to meet him on Wednes day evening at his offi cial residence here.

SC won’t stay Mirzapur Season 3, rubbishes idea of ‘pre-screening’

New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Thursday wondered how can there be a prescreening committee for web series, films or oth er programmes which are directly released on online platforms.

A bench of Chief Justice Uday Umesh Lalit and Justice Bela M Trivedi was hearing a plea filed by Mir zapur-resident Sujeet Kumar Singh for set ting up a pre-screening committee for web se ries, films or other pro grammes which are di rectly released on on line platforms.

“How can there be a pre screening commit tee for web series?

There is a particular

FIR against UP cops after BJP leader’s wife killed

First India Bureau

Dehradun: Uttara khand Police on Thurs day registered an FIR against 10 Uttar Pradesh policemen under at tempt to murder and other sections of the IPC, following a raid by UP Police on Wednes day in which a local BJP leader’s wife was killed.

The clash took place in Bharatpur village near Kashipur in Ud ham Singh Nagar dis trict. The policemen had come from adjacent Moradabad district looking for Jafar, al leged to be a member of a sand mining mafia.

Acting on a tip-off, a Special Operations Group (SOG) of Thakurdwara police station in Moradabad district reached Bharat pur to raid the house of BJP leader and Jaspur senior block pramukh Gurtaj Bhullar in search of Jafar, UP Po lice said. When they reached Bhullar’s house, an argument broke out. Both sides al legedly resorted to fir ing in which Bhullar’s wife Gurpreet, who was returning home from work, was killed.

Late on Wednesday, angry villagers protest

UP POLICE VERSION

The UP Police received intimation that the wanted mining mafia (Jafar) was trying to flee to Uttara khand. Acting on the tip-off, a team reached the spot and started checking every vehicle on Surajnagar Road, Jaspur Mod to nab Jafar,” a statement released by UP Police said. “Jafar was spotted in a white SUV and after seeing police, he opened fire at the police team in his attempt to flee. Police official Deepak was shot in the arm. The team started following the SUV, which entered a village and Jafar and his companions took shelter inside a house in Bharatpur village,” the statement said. The team following the absconders entered the house where they were attacked by Zafar & unidenti fied persons who started firing at police. 2 cops Shiv Kumar & Rahul were shot in the leg. The accused took police hostage and escaped, UP Police said.

ed and blocked the na tional highway. “UP Po lice came here without informing anyone. They were not in uniform, and were not carrying ID cards. Raids are not conducted this way.

They entered a house, fired, and a woman lost her life. This is wrong.

A case of murder has been registered,” Nilesh

Anand Bharney, DIG, Kumaon Range at Bharatpur, said.

legislation. Unless you say OTT (over-the- top) is also a part of it...you must say that existing legislation must apply to OTT. Various ques tions will arise because transmission occurs from other countries.

“For OTT satellite transmission is from other countries and not this one even though viewers may be here.

Post exhibition redres sal mechanism is dif ferent. Your petition has to be more detailed. File a better one,” the bench said while direct ing the petitioner to withdraw the plea.

The top court also re fused to stay the third season of the popular ‘Mirzapur’ web series, which is currently un der production.

Over 6K unrecognised UP madrasas found in survey

Lucknow (ANI): A to tal of 6,436 unrecogniz ed madrasas have been identified in the state so far, and the survey has been completed of 5,170 madrasas, said State Minority Welfare Min ister Dharampal Singh on Wednesday.

Talking to ANI, Sin gh also said that the time period for the sur vey of unrecognized madrasas of the state has been extended till October 20. “The data of the survey will be made available to the govern ment by November 15,

2022, by the district magistrate. The last date has been extended as some reports were not received,” he said.

He said that survey work should be com pleted at each level within this stipulated time period.

Once the survey is conducted, it has also been instructed to hand over the report to the Additional District Magistrate (ADM) after which ADM will pre sent the consolidated statements to the Dis trict Magistrates (DMs).

The state govern ment wants that farm ers of the state should be happy and those dis placed should be reha bilitated wherever they wanted to, he said add ing suitable arrange

ment for setting up schools, college, reli gious place, sports ground, open gym and markets should be made for them.

Adityanath said ef forts should be made to rehabilitate siblings in the same place. He said jobs for youth of Jewar and skill development centre should be estab lished, and if they can get a diploma in air craft management, they could also get a job at Jewar airport.

In the first phase of the Jewar internation al airport, the state gov ernment acquired 3,300 acre of land. The air port is likely to be inau gurated by Prime Min ister Modi.

Discussions on for possible merger of Vistara, Air India

First India Bureau

New Delhi: Singapore Airlines (SIA) is en gaged in confidential discussions with Tata Sons for the merger of Vistara with Air India, the flagship carrier of the Republic of Singa pore informed the stock exchange in the South east Asian nation on Thursday in a first ac knowledgement of a possible integration of the two airlines.

Tatas has 51% stake in Vistara and the rest is with Singapore Air lines. Tatas is also the

owner of Air India. In a regulatory filing, SIA said discussions with Tatas are ongoing and no definitive terms have been agreed upon between the parties.

SIA owns 49% stake in Vistara and is among

the four airlines run by Tata Group. Others in clude Air India, Air In dia Express, and AirA sia India. A decision on stakes both sides will own in the merged enti ty will be done after com pletion of the exercise.

BETWEEN DELHI-NCR AND MUMBAI

Rlys to launch freight version of Vande Bharat Express

New Delhi (PTI): The Railways has decided to introduce a freight version of the semihigh speed Vande Bharat Express, the first service of which will be operated be tween the Delhi-NCR and Mumbai regions.

Christened “Freight EMU”, these trains will serve as a super fast parcel service aimed at capturing high-value and timesensitive cargo con signments currently being moved via other

forms of transport, ac cording to a letter from the Railway Board to general managers of zonal railways on Oc tober 11.

Vande Bharat freight trains have been de signed for palletised container transporta tion at a speed of 160 km/hour. The 1,800mm wide rakes with automatic sliding doors would have pro visions to load reefer containers for temper ature-sensitive cargo, a pneumatically re

VANDE BHARAT TO BE A GAME CHANGER, SAYS VAISHNAW

The Vande Bharat Express is a game changer for rail development projects in the country, Minister of Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Thursday. Vaishnaw said that railways is working on a plan to fence railway tracks. “Also, we are work ing to build elevated tracks in dense populated areas.

In the coming 3 to 4 years we will implement this plan in many areas,” Vaishnaw said, adding that PM Modi has announced 75 Vande Bharat Trains.

The petitions will be heard by a bench of Justices BR Gavai and BV Nagarathna

In January 2021, the apex court had refused to grant interim stay on the 2018 scheme

A slender loris sits on a tree. Tamil Nadu government has notified the country’s first ‘Kadavur Slender Loris Sanctuary’ covering 11,806 hectares in Karur and Dindigul districts of the state. —PHOTO BY PTI

Yogi Adityanath interacts with people as he visits floodaffected areas of Balrampur and Shravasti on Thursday. —PHOTO BY PTI

Gurtej Bhullar with his wife Gurpreet Kaur.

tractable roller floor system with locking facility for easy han

dling of pallets, and a total payload of 264 tonnes.

Vande Bharat Express train arrives at Azadpur in New Delhi on Thursday.

—PHOTO BY PTI

A SPLASH OF

he emergence of fusion fashion has revolutionised the Indian fashion in dustry. Women want contemporary styles and vintage charm to blend and thus Indo-western wear is fast catch ing up. City First brings to you an over view of the dynamics of this category. Indo-Western Fashion is the amalgamation of western fashion with traditional ethnic wear.

Styling at the top of trends, this fashion state ment is a beautiful mixture of two different cultures and traditions and is commonly re ferred to as fusion fashion, which honours the beauty of both Indian and Western cultures while promoting innovation that transcends

Many famous designers have been expertly combining these two fashion cultures as west ern fashion becomes more well-liked and ac cepted in Indian society.

This beautiful combination of modernity with culture has made a special place in the Indian Fashion World. Young gorgeous girls during the festive season prefer to deck up in various

Combination of ethnic needlework into clothing with a western aes thetic, like Rajasthani mirror work and Punjabi phulkari. Styles like Meenakari, Kundan, Resham, and Zardozi are perfect attires to wear in the festive season. Fashion lovers prefer wearing the shorter form of the kurta, known as the ‘kurti,’ which is typically worn with a pair of denim slacks or trousers.

Newer fusion fashion trends are emerging throughout time, like modern bridal clothing including lehengas worn with halter tops.

The emergence of fusion fashion has revolutionised the Indian Fashion industry. Women want the fusion of modern Styles and vintage charm. City First brings to you an overview of this dynamics fashion!

A DOCTOR WHO TURNED INTO A DIRECTOR

Dr Bose, your books have a medical thread running through them, a reflection of your life, were they fic tional works?

HIGHLIGHTS

Dr Anirban Bose is a nephrologist who got inspired and turned into a director by the true story of a gentleman he met at a fundraising event for organ donation

Dr Anirban Bose is a Nephrolo gist who practices as an Inpa tient Neph rology Attending at Strong Memorial Hospital. He is also the clinical associ ate professor at the University of Roch ester in upstate NY.

He is not only a doc tor but also a musi cian and enjoys writing. He has pub lished 3 books titled Bombay Rains-Bom bay Girls, Mice in Men and The Death of Mitali Dotto.

He is very pas sionate about pro moting ethical or gan donation in In dia and worked in India in the pro gram before moving to the USA. His pas sion for the cause and to do something for the program in India made him look at MOHAN Foundation and ob serve how it has gone about promot ing deceased dona tions over the years.

We speak to the au thor who turned di rector with Aye Zindagi, a Hindi movie releasing on October 14.

‘Aye Zindagi, a fresh perspective to inspire millions on the life-transform ing effect of organ donation.’

Well, it is true, my books do have a medical thread run ning through them, that’s probably my source of in spiration. I feel as a physi cian I am privileged in many ways since patients open up and share incidents and issues that they prob ably wouldn’t even share with their friends. So, it’s a rel atively easy way to begin a story.

Where did the idea of Aye Zindagi come from? Was Aye Zindagi a book in your mind or you decided to jump straight to a script?

The idea of Aye Zindagi... well basically it is a true life story. It is the story of a gen tleman I encountered dur ing a fundraiser for MO HAN USA which raises funds for non-governmental organisations that work in the field of Organ Trans plantation. His story was so powerful that it brought me to tears. I wanted to get the story out to the world, so initially, I wrote an article and a lot of people who read it told me that it would make a great film.

Aye Zindagi is certainly not a book in my mind, it was such an unusual ‘life is stranger than fiction’ kind of story, that I felt if I wrote it as a book, it wouldn’t be believable. In fact, that is the beauty and richness of the story of Aye Zindagi.

What made you turn into Director when you wrote the script for Aye Zindagi?

A doctor who writes is still an acceptable norm but you will agree that one who di rects a full-fledged commer cial Hindi film is out of the box.

So, I tried to get this script turned into a movie for quite some years and met a lot of producers in Bom bay... most of them said that

He struggled for two years to find the right person to direct the film and finally decided to direct it on his own Aye Zindagi - An inspiring movie highlighting the trans formative role of organ donation in people’s lives

it is a beautiful story but it didn’t lead anywhere. Then I met Shiladitya (Bora) who said YES and things started rolling. In the search for a director, I felt that they were not ‘grasping the es sence as much as I was like one director that I met, wanted to make it a heart transplant story as it would be perhaps more emotional. But, the truth is that it is a real-life story of a guy who has a liver transplant and visual ly for a medium like cinema a liver transplant is far more interesting. Because you see things on screen like jaun dice, we see the skin blotch es called spider nevi, we see abdominal swelling. The visual transformation for liver failure is far more ‘cin ematic’. It was not an easy decision, I struggled with the whole thing for about 2 years but finally, I decided to direct it myself. I spent some time learning about film directing, writing, editing and other many things.

Was Revathy your first choice to play the lead?

Revathy was always the first choice to play the lead as she has that kind of beauty that I was looking for. In fact, when I wrote the script, I named the character Revathy because I had her in mind. And when she said Yes, I was thrilled.

It turns out that she is the first celebrity in India to sign an Organ Donor card, which is too many coinci dences to not have her play the lead, so I am just very glad she said yes.

Directing a film is a com plete professional change, even though you must have been learning on the go (so as to speak), what was your biggest learning personally?

So, directing a film is a com pletely different thing, it’s like reading a book and then trying to fly a plane. You have no training, you know what the gears do, what the switches and knobs are for but the first time you are sitting in the cockpit and you have to fly this 787 across the Atlantic and that is exactly what di recting first time a fulllength feature film starring big professional actors, felt like. There was a lot of learning but I had excellent support and that is what made everything so good.

The actors were so good, so professional and so com

mitted, I really got to see how intelligent actors are and how they get into the role as they listen to it. I had tremendous help from Shi la my producer, my DOP, my editor and my produc tion designer, anything I wanted they would get for me. So, I was lucky I think, I had lots and lots of sup port. Frankly, at the end of this whole directing pro cess, I feel the director gets too much credit. What the director does is build on the foundation of his team, and it is this team effort that gives life to his imagina tion. I am a lucky man!

Many a time as a film progresses, changes have to be made to make it more acceptable to the masses, any such chang es in Aye Zindagi?

This is a story based on real life and I have tried to stick to the plot points, In fact, the story is so rich and unbelievably beautiful, that for me writing it was really simple. I just had to play up the conflict be cause for cinema to be en grossing for people that conflict has to come out. We have simplified the organ donation process and the brain death protocols a lit tle. Because, if you make it very true to life, it sort of delays the experience or understanding of the elements.

What was the most challenging part of di recting Aye Zindagi?

The most challenging part of directing Aye Zind agi... well, were many! The budget is always an issue, locations were another since we wanted to keep it as true to life as possible so could not use a set. Then we had cast changes because people drop in, then drop out... But at the end of the day, I think that all the challenges and changes were for a good rea son. I can’t imagine the film any other way right now and so if we expect life to be smooth, it’s not really going to be worth it. It’s the chal lenge that makes anything worthwhile.

As the movie releases across India and North America, what do you hope for, apart from a suc cessful run of course? What I am really hopeful about is that people will watch this film and take the underlying message of the film which is that Organ Donation not only saves lives, it is transformative for lives. See Organ dona tion and transplantation are the miracles of medical science like vaccines and antibiotics, but unlike these two, transplantation has this really human element. When we ask someone to donate the organs of a loved one, they are in the midst of a great loss, they are in grief and yet in the middle of their grief they can em pathise with another hu man, a stranger, someone they will never meet, never get anything from him- that is the amazing beauty of organ transplantation.

It brings out the beauty

Dr Anirban Bose

Poster of the film...

COUNTDOWN TO INFINITY & BEYOND!

MRIDULA SHARMA cityfirst@firstindia.co.in

Now that Karwa Chauth has already arrived, the anticipation for the day was pretty great. Everyone including Bollywood couples was looking forward to a great day. On the occasion, married ladies offered prayers for their husband’s long life and well-being. Numerous Bollywood stars fast on this day each year and they post pictures of their celebrations on social media for their fans to see. Bollywood couples have their own unique way of celebrating the festival. Some celebrity couples observed Karwa Chauth for the first time following their nuptials. City First brings to you glimpses from ‘Karwa Chauth’ celebrations from B-Town hit couples.

DEEPIKA PADUKONE AND RANVEER SINGH

After six years of dating, Ranveer and Deep ika married in Italy in November 2018, apart from the spotlight of the media. Ranveer claimed that he first met Deepika during his diffi cult times when spilling the beans on how he met the love of his life. The actor continued by saying that he met her in person at an office and fell in love with her right away. Ranveer went on to explain how he fasted for his bride last year on Karwa Chauth because he wants Deepika to be his life partner for the subsequent seven incarnations. Their pictures of exhibiting romance on the occa sion of Karwa Chauth are still due.

MOUNI ROY AND SURAJ NAMBIAR

Mouni Roy, who is now enjoying the suc cess of her blockbuster movie Brahmastra, wed her longtime partner Suraj Nambiar in Goa. They followed Bengali and South Indian customs during their wedding. On the occasion of their first Karwa Chauth, on Thursday Mouni Roy shared some beautiful pic tures in which she was seen flaunt ing her henna ahead of her first Karwa Chauth. Mouni looked fresh and stunning in the pic tures. She wrote in the cap tion “Firsts are always spe cial... Happy Karwa Chauth beauties.”

PRIYANKA CHOPRA AND NICK JONAS

VICKY KAUSHAL AND KATRINA KAIF

After keeping their romance a secret, Katrina Kaif and Vicky Kaushal shocked everyone by announcing their marriage in December of the previous year. The pair posted on Instagram, saying, “We have nothing but love and gratitude for every thing that has led us to this point.” Katri na loves Indian festivals and we are sure she must be very enthusiastic about her first Karwa Chauth as well. While fans are still waiting for glimpses of Katrina’s first Karwa Chauth celebrations.

Priyanka Chopra wore a red and gold sari to celebrate her first Karva Chauth with Nick Jonas in 2019, the actress was stuck with the same colour scheme last year also. She teamed her outfit, a not-so-basic scarlet drape from Jade by Monica and Karishma, with a strappy gold shirt for a more contemporary look. The sheer ruffles at the hemline gave the en semble a romantic twist. This year Priyanka and Nick is accompanied by their daughter Malti Marie Chopra and we can’t keep calm for their Karwa Chauth pictures this year also.

RAJKUMMAR RAO AND PATAREKHA

Rajkummar and Patralekhaa decided to take the leap and be married in Chandigarh in November last year after 11 years of dating. Additionally, they chose a small wedding. Patralekhaa and Ra jkummar published images from the wedding and stated, “I married to my everything today, my soulmate, my best friend and my family, after 11 years of love, romance, friendship and joy. Be ing referred to as your spouse today makes me happier than anything else, @patralekhaa Count down to infinity and beyond.” Couple this year celebrated their first Karwa Chauth together.

ALIA BHATT AND RANBIR KAPOOR

On April 14 of this year, Alia Bhatt and Ranbir Kapoor be came husband and wife. Attend ed by their close friends and fami ly, they enjoyed a private ceremo ny at Ranbir’s Home Vastu at Ban dra. Bollywood’s A-list couple wore stunning wedding attire. Alia posted the images along with a touching message on her handle. The couple revealed their first pregnancy in June, shortly after getting mar ried. They were prepared to greet their little bun dle of joy following the celebration of Karwa Chauth.

Anushka Sharma, frequently appear in each other's social media posts. The power couple, who wed in a top-secret ceremony in Italy on December 2017, celebrated Karwa Chauth on Thurs day. Fans may get a glimpse into

FDCI x Lakmé Fashion Week 2022

CITY FIRST

The joint fashion week between the Fashion De sign Council of India and Lakme Fashion Week commenced on Wednesday.

Mrunal Thakur and Diana Penty were seen turning showstoppers on the first day and their panache was unmatched as they walked the ramp at the pres

tigious event. Mrunal looked rav ishing as she graced the ramp for Mishru. She was seen wearing a red floral lehenga choli. It was paired with a matching red dupatta with heavy borders which was worn over the shoulder as a veil. Mrunal had her hair styled to give a wet hair effect which elevated the look. She completed the look with a choker necklace and had her make-up game on point. On

the other hand, Diana Penty turned muse for designer Palla vi Mohan. She was a sight to be hold in her ivory, sequenced backless outfit which

lery. The ac tresses owned the ramp like a boss as they walked at the event.

DEassy: A donation platform

A17-year-old resi dent of Guru gram and a stu dent of DPS RK Puram, Manan Khanna has ideated and imple mented the artificial intelligence and videobased mobile applica tion ‘DEassy Donation Platform’.

DEassy platform ena bles mass Donors to seamlessly connect to recipients or Point-ofContacts (PoCs) for eas ily donating food and essentials to underpriv ileged people while sit ting at their homes. One of the other key fea tures is SOS (emer gency alert). If any poor person or fam ily needs urgent help in terms of expen sive medicines, blood, etc., this platform can be used by recipient PoCs to trigger SOS which will be received

by all the people regis tered to this platform and hence can offer help immediately.

DEasyy App is now available on Play store and Appstore.

Talking about his inspiration to de velop this app, Manan said, “The main inspi ration is the feeling of gratification that I re ceive once I’m able to find the look of happi

ness in the eyes of the underprivileged. An other thing that drives me to create and main tain a platform like DEasyy is inequality.

The unfair distribution of resources motivates me to fulfil an unde clared duty to help those with fewer assets.

This initiative is now being launched at the society and school lev els.” cityfirstdel@gmail.com

ndian bestselling author Chetan Bhagat unveiled a book written by the Director of Business Development and In augural Bungy jump er of Jumpin Heightsthe Bungy people at the 4 edition of the Invincible Festival at Gurgaon Cyberhub on Thursday. The book entitled ‘3...2...1... Ju ump is the debut novel by Niharika Nigam that reimagines the Bhagavad Gita played

India. 3...2...1...Jump is an unusual story, when a perfectly aver age life is halted abruptly by a deadly virus on the loose, it brings together some unlikely pairings.

venture! Niharika Nigam has poured her experience of witness ing the journey of her jumpers into a book that will inspire a lot of youngsters to take living at the edge, Niharika Nigam, the author of the book and the Director of Business Develop ment of Jumpin Heights, the Bungy People, said that the event has been a good launchpad for promot ing her book that tells a story of ‘the times we live in’, set in 2020

The metaphoric Ar juna as depicted by Nanki Mehta, a suc cessful brand strate gist, isolates Covid as it decimates the city lying outside her doorway. A cold night paralysed by the cha os of delhi. A Bungy Ad. And a conversa tion that follows with the Jump Master, the metaphoric Krishna: one that spans the distance to the mountains of Rishikesh, and to what it truly means to be alive. Especially when it comes with the burden of such privilege: that of be ing spared amidst a storm. This is a tale of morality and duty; and of authenticity and belonging, as ex perienced in the world of this time. But most ly, this is a tale of how Godliness can still al ways be found in the unlikeliest of times and places. One step at a time.

MENTAL HEALTH

CITY FIRST

Keeping in view with Employee’s mental health be ing, Crowne Pla za, Greater Noida host ed a mental health workshop to mark World Mental Health Day recently in the city. The team including top management partici pated in the workshop addressed by Counsel ling Psychologist Kar ishma Salwan.

In the last few years, we have truly evolved in

the space of mental health and well-being.

Our organisation IHG has launched a pro gram, I AM HERE which endeavours at

creating a culture of recognising issues and symptoms that can be prevented from ad vancement, said Rishabh Tandon, Direc

tor HR, Crowne Plaza, Area Director, HR, IHG. Talking about the workshop Karishma said, “For a long time mental health has al ways been an issue and I’m happy to see that brands are addressing the issue seriously. Once you are open to discuss ing the small issues and struggles it not just helps in addressing mental health issues but also helps to inspire the focus on strong bonding at the work place.

Manan Khanna

During the mental health workshop

Diana Penty and Mrunal Thakur

Pallavi Mohan and Diana Penty

Model showcasing the captivating collections

Niharika Nigam and Chetan Bhagat with others during the book launch —PHOTO BY SHAZID CHAUHAN

—PHOTOS BY SHAZID CHAUHAN

—PHOTOS BY SHAZID CHAUHAN