First India-Delhi Edition-27th November 2022

‘Our duties are our first priority’

PM Modi launches various new initiatives like Virtual Justice Clock, JustIS mobile App 2.0, Digital court and S3WaaS Websites under e-court project Moni Sharma

New Delhi: PM Narendra Modi on Saturday paid homage to the makers of the Indian Constitution and reiterated the commitment to fulfil their vision. He said ‘We the People’ in preamble of Constitution is a com mitment, pledge and belief that has made India mother of democracy.

Attending the Constitu tion Day function at the Su preme Court, PM Modi said, “Be it individuals or institutions, our duties are our first priority.” He also said that in today’s global situation, the eyes of the entire world are on India. “Amid the rapid develop ment of India, its quickly growing economy and its strengthening global im age, the world is looking at us with great expectations.”

New opportuni ties are coming up before India. Crossing all hurdles, it’s go ing ahead. A week from now, India will get G20 presiden cy. It’s big! As Team India, all of us should enhance In dia’s prestige before world & bring its contribution before them. It’s our collective duty.

—Narendra Modi, Prime Minister

All the more import ant that representa tion of marginalised communities and women in le gal profession and judiciary is enhanced. It is crucial that we tap into experience of diverse section of people who are part of judiciary. Their knowledge and understanding would strengthen the institution.

—DY Chandrachud,

Chief Justice of India

PRESIDENT DROUPADI MURMU DRAWS ATTENTION TO OVERCROWDED PRISONS

President Droupadi Murmu on Saturday said the legislature, the executive and the judiciary need to have “one thinking” for the country and its people. She suggested decongesting jails by helping poor people languishing there for years for petty crimes. “It is said that jails are getting over crowded and there is a need to set up more jails. Are we moving towards development? What is the need to set up more jails? We need to reduce their numbers,” she said.

14 years of 26/11:

Murmu, Modi, Shah, others pay tribute

New Delhi: PM Narendra Modi on Saturday paid trib ute to those who lost their lives in 26/11 Mumbai ter ror attacks in 2008 & said that 14 years ago when India was celebrating its Consti tution and citizens’ rights, enemies of humanity car ried out biggest terror at tack. President Droupadi Murmu, HM Amit Shah, Union Mins S Jaishankar, Rajnath Singh, Cong leader Rahul Gandhi and others also paid respect to victims.

from Delhi supports terrorism: Yogi

Amreli

Vote for BJP! Sikh body extends support in elections to MCD

New Delhi (ANI): The Del hi Sikh Gurdwara Manage ment Committee (DSGMC) has extended support to the BJP in the upcoming Mu nicipal Corporation of Del hi (MCD) elections.

“We have decided that we all will ensure victory for BJP,” the committee’s chief, Sardar Harmit Singh Kalka, said on Saturday, adding, “We appeal to Sikhs to vote for BJP.”

This came after a meet ing of Delhi BJP President Adesh Gupta with Sikh leader Sardar Manjinder Singh Sirsa and DSGMC members. Kalka said that Sajjan Kumar, the “biggest enemy” of Sikhs, was sent to jail because of BJP. “Even when our Sikh broth ers were in trouble in Af ghanistan, it was the BJP that immediately had the CAA in place,” he said.

New CCTV visuals of Tihar Jail chief with Jain in prison cell

First India Bureau

New Delhi: Despite court directives that any video or information related to the Satyender Jain case not be leaked to the media, anoth er CCTV footage emerged on Saturday, for the third day in a row, of jailed Delhi minister Satyendar Jain in side Tihar Jail.

Today’s CCTV videos show the Aam Aadmi Party leader in conversation in side his cell with Jail super intendent Ajit Kumar, who is currently under suspen sion, and some other people.

In the videos purportedly sourced from Tihar Jail, Jain can been seen lying on his bed with Ajit Kumar seated on a chair nearby, the pair having a conversation. Kumar was suspended as Tihar Jail Superintendant on November 14 for alleg edly providing special treat ment to the Delhi minister.

At the beginning of the footage, which is from Sep tember, the Delhi minister

is seen interacting with sev eral people who leave be fore Ajit Kumar enters Jain’s cell.

BJP spokesperson She hzad Poonawalla tweeted the footage and posted on his Twitter account, “Yet another video of Tihar put out by the media. This time the Satyendar ka darbaar has Jail superintendent who has now been suspend ed.” “After maalish by child rapist & Nawabi meal now this!” Shehzad tweeted.

BJP MP Manoj Tiwari greets an elderly woman while campaigning for MCD elections, at Indra Vikas colony in New Delhi on Saturday. —PHOTO BY ANI

VOTE FROM THE HEART

Aam Aadmi Party supporters attend an MCD election campaign meeting addressed by Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia at Vasant Kunj in New Delhi on Saturday. —PHOTO BY ANI

PM Narendra Modi and CJI DY Chandrachud greet as Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju, SC Judge Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and others look on during the Constitution Day celebrations in the Supreme Court, in Delhi, Saturday.

President Droupadi Murmu being felicitated by CJI Justice DY Chandrachud at the Constitution Day event.

OUR EDITIONS: JAIPUR, NEW DELHI & MUMBAI

Mumbai: Vikram Gokhale, 77, who was undergoing treatment at a hospital in Pune, passed away on Saturday, his family confirmed. His funeral was held at Pune’s Vaikunth Smashan Bhumi. P11

Ahmedabad: 2 jawans of CAPF were shot dead and 2 others injured during a clash that erupted between the personnel in Porbandar district, where they were posted for poll duty.

Raipur: The security forces have shot dead 4 Naxals in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur in a operation on Saturday. Around 50 Naxals had gathered to plan an attack on development works.

Rawalpindi: Imran Khan, to pile pressure on Shehbaz govt, has announced that his party members will resign from all provincial assemblies in country. Khan said his PTI (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf) did not want to remain a part of the current “corrupt” political system.

Salem: An 85-year-old farmer from TN’s Salem dist set himself on fire outside DMK house for protesting Hindi imposition. Thangavel, a former agri union organiser for DMK, protested against the imposition of Hindi in front of DMK office in Thalaiyur, next to Mettur on Saturday.

FROM PRISON New Delhi: In latest development in the Shraddha murder case, a Delhi court on Saturday sent accused Aaftab Amin Poonawala to 14-day judicial custody. Ac cording to sources, Narco test of Aaftab Amin will be conducted on Monday, November 28.

Mumbai: Scholar-activist Anand Teltumbde, an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, was on Saturday released from the Taloja central prison in Navi Mumbai a day after the Supreme Court rejected the NIA’s plea challenging his bail.

CCTV footage showing Tihar Jail superintendent Ajit Kumar, who is now under suspension, with Satyendar Jain inside his prison cell on Sept 12. —PHOTO BY ANI

‘Sample’

(Gujarat): UP Chief Minister Yogi Adity anath on Saturday referred to Arvind Kejri wal as a “sam ple” from Delhi who is an “avowed sup porter of ter rorism” as he suspected the bravery of Indian forces during India’s surgical strike in Balakot and asked for proofs. Yogi said this during his rallies in pollbound Gujarat.

Addl staff deployed to run diagnostics, labs and OPD ’

Shalini Bhardwaj

New Delhi: All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi authorities on Saturday said that they have de ployed additional staff to run diagnostics, labs and OPD services at the national medical insti tute as its servers re mained suspended for the fourth consecutive day due to a suspected ransomware attack.

The institute's medi cal superintendent, Dr DK Sharma said that they have redeployed more staff to handle OPD and Diagnostics services due to in creased manual work. "We have deployed ad ditional staff so that

more people are availa ble in OPD and diagnos tic laboratories," said Sharma, while speak ing to ANI.

He further said that since the day server is down more patients have been seen in com parison to digital re cords. "Patients want

that doctors should see them timely, and we are managing records man ually the way we used to do earlier. In the last three days, we have at tended almost 12,000 patients on a daily basis - which is even more than earlier since the patients are not re

PMLA case: Mahendru in first ED charge sheet

First India Bureau

New Delhi: Liquor businessman Sameer Mahendru was name das an accused in the first charge sheet filed before a court by En forcement Directorate on Saturday in the Delhi Excise policy money laundering case, sourc es said.

Besides Mahendru of Indospirits, the prosecu tion has also listed two other persons in its about 3,000-page com plaint that contains statements of the ac cused and annexures, they said.

Sections of the Pre vention of Money Laun dering Act (PMLA) have been pressed in the charge sheet, they said.

ED said it has so far undertaken 169 search operations in this case, filed after taking cogni

The prosecution has listed two other persons as accused in its charge sheet of about 3,000 pages

zance of a CBI FIR reg istered on the recom mendation of the Delhi lieutenant governor.

The CBI inquiry was recommended on the

findings of the Delhi chief secretary's report filed in July showing prima facie violations of the GNCTD Act 1991, Transaction of Busi ness Rules (ToBR)-1993, Delhi Excise Act-2009, and Delhi Excise Rules-2010, officials had said.

Five people have been arrested by the ED in this case till now.

Mahendru was arrest ed by the Enforcement Directorate on Septem ber 27 following his questioning.

Court dismisses Satyendar Jain's plea for special food in Tihar jail

New Delhi (ANI): A Special Court on Satur day dismissed the plea moved by jailed Delhi minister and AAP lead er Satyendar Jain seek ing direction to provide food as per his religious beliefs during his judi cial custody.

Special Judge Vikas Dhull on Saturday dis missed the petition for special food during judi cial custody. In the mat ter, Tihar Jail adminis tration stated that as per the jail record, there is no request available with the office of the Su perintendent Central Jail where Satyendar Jain had informed about himself observing fast in accordance with his religious beliefs. There fore, the question of al lowing/permitting him for such fast by the pris on administration does not arise.

‘DRY FRUITS NOT PERMITTED’

Tihar lawyer Abhijeet Shankar made clear that the dry fruits in prisons are not permitted to a prison er and also could not be taken as an alternative to a regular meal. However, if the dry fruits are pre scribed by the Medical officer for a certain period of time as a supplement in such circumstances the same may be permitted for such prisoners for a limited period of time.

‘NO

Beware! Your personal data is hardly personal

Abhilasha Saksena

New Delhi: You are eli gible for a personal loan of Rs 5 lakh at very low interest rate. Hurry up. It’s a limited offer. You don’t need to furnish any document.

MANY AGENCIES

No need to pay exorbi tant premiums on insur ance policies. Want to transfer your home or vehicle loan to another bank in minutes? Zero charges for transfer. Has sle-free, paperless pro cess. Apply soon.

Many of us receive messages, emails, phone calls or WhatsApp mes sages like these. Do you know the reason? This is because your personal data is getting breached in many ways.

quired to take an ap pointment."

"We opened our regis ters again and kept their serial no wise. We can see the sample re ports on the computer, earlier we used to send those reports with the help of e-Hospital to dif ferent areas. Now we

Ex-bureaucrat arrested for duping buyers

New Delhi (PTI): A for mer bureaucrat was ar rested for allegedly dup ing his investors of Rs 50 crore on the pretext of offering plots and flats under the land pooling policy of the Delhi De velopment Authority (DDA), police said on Saturday.

The accused has been identified as Neh Srivas tav. A PhD degree holder, he was an Under Secre tary in a Central minis try. He took voluntary retirement (VRS) after an FIR against him was lodged in 2020, and be came an entrepreneur, they said.

Srivastav induced home buyers by showing documents purportedly issued by DDA under the land pooling policy. It was represented that the society is managed by the working group ‘A’ of ficers of the Central gov ernment, police said.

Based on their repre sentation, home buyers invested in the Central Secretariat Services Of ficers Society, they said.

are taking those reports and dispatching them directly," the medical superintendent ex plained.

The internet services at the institute are like ly to remain suspended on the recommenda tions from the investi gation agencies. —ANI

The sender has access to your personal and fi nancial data which can be used to snoop on you.

A data breach hap pens when sensitive, confidential or protected data is leaked to an un trusted environment. It puts you under surveil lance. Any surveillance is an intrusion on your

privacy. A survey conducted by LocalCircles, has re vealed 59 per cent of 10,980 respondents with existing loans have been approached with de tailed alternative offers in last 5 years. A total of 34 per cent respondents with existing bank ac count admitted to being given such offers.

Shefali Jain, who runs a coaching centre, said, “I bought an AC last year. Since then, I daily get calls or messages with offers from differ ent numbers. They have made my life miserable.

I have started blocking the numbers now.”

Divya Richa, a media

professional based in Delhi said, “Even when you stop taking calls from the blocked num bers, they start calling you or messaging from other numbers.” She said she had taken a car loan and now got calls, mails and SMSs offering her to transfer the loan to another company.

Dr Vandana Saxena, environmentalist, said she received two-three such calls or messages every week. “Banks and service providers want all personal and finan cial details when we go for a loan. They should be held accountable when personal data is compromised,”she said.

ONE CAN STOP ME FROM FASTING’

Senior Advocate Rahul Mehra appeared for Satyendar Jain after reading Tihar’s reply, and submitted, “Under what provision they say I can’t go for indefinite fasting? We’re in a country where everyone is free to profess their own religion. No one can actually stop me from professing my religion. I am not even getting basic food in jail, are my human rights also taken away?”

Stopped from smoking, man shoots store staff

Gurugram (PTI): An unidentified man alleg edly fired a shot at a worker after he was not allowed to smoke a ciga rette inside a conveni ence store in Gurugram, police said on Saturday.

The man entered the 24-hour convenience store in Sector 22 with a cigarette in his hand around 4 am on Friday. When the security guard requested him not

to smoke inside, he abused the staff, accord ing to a complaint. The man demanded that someone come with him to place the pur chased goods in his vehi

AT SUNDER NURSERY

cle parked outside the store, security manager Rupendra Singh said.

When the goods were being placed in the vehi cle, the man started loading his pistol sud denly and fired at store associate Ashish, who managed to narrowly escape. The man claimed the store work ers insulted him by stop ping from smoking in side and fled from the

spot in his vehicle, the complaint stated.

An FIR has been reg istered at the Palam Vi har police station under Section 307 (attempt to murder) of IPC.

The entire act was captured in CCTV foot age and police are trying to identify the suspect with the help of the ve hicle's number plate, in vestigating officer Ashok Kumar said.

Seven nations join hands at Kathakar fest

First India Bureau

New Delhi: The unique Kathakar festival opened here with ses sions by seasoned sto rytellers from Austral ia, the United King dom, Mongolia and Si erra Leone.

Organised under the aegis of the Ministry of Culture, the festival was inaugurated by Union Minister of Law and Justice Kiren Riji ju at Sunder Nursery.

The festival also hosted a conversation between singer Mohit Chauhan and actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui onthe topic ‘Kissey Ka

hani aur Adakari’.

“I applaud the organ isers of Kathakar for providing a platform to storytellers from around the world. Our society has forgotten

OTHER EVENTS

tally different there...I love folk songs and sto ries that are connected to our lives. Whenever I meet filmmakers, I urge them to make movies based on sto ries from villages,” filmmaker-writer Im tiaz Ali, who is also a patron of the festival, said in a statement.

the importance of our storytelling tradition, so we need to encour age platforms like these,” Rijiju said at the inauguration.

The four-day festival

will hear stories from seven nations, includ ing South Korea and Israel.

“Stories emerging from villages are very powerful as life is to

The festival will also host Sufi musical night by Satpal Wadali, a ses sion with actor Sanjay Mishra at India Gate, Kabir Vani by ac claimed folk singer Prahlad Singh Tipani ya, and shadow puppet show by Ramchandra Pulavar and team.

‘

Med Superintendent Dr DK Sharma says more staff have been deployed due to increased manual work

AIIMS servers remained suspended for the 4th consecutive day due to a suspected ransomware attack

Internet services likely to remain suspended on recommendations from the investigation agencies

FIT INDIA

Secretary (Sports) Sujata Chaturvedi being presented a shawl as former long jumper Anju Bobby George applauds during the 11th edition of FICCI’s Global Sports Summit, TURF 2022, in New Delhi on Saturday.

—PHOTO BY PTI

Tihar mein AAP ka Darbar: BJP

New Delhi (ANI): Af

ter a new video of Saty endar Jain, showing him in conversation with then Tihar Jail Su perintendent Ajit Ku mar and some other people inside his prison cell, surfaced on Satur day, BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla said it showed “AAP ka darbar of Bhrashtachar”.

“It is the third video in the series. First, AAP made a spa in Tihar where Satyendar Jain got a maalish from a child rapist and AAP labeled it as physiother apy,” said Poonawalla.

“Now a video shows how he was allowed to hold a darbar inside the jail. Why Jain was kept as a minister despite getting no relief from the courts… so that he can get VIP maalish?” he asked.

The BJP leader also

demanded sacking of Satyendar Jain and transfer to another pris on, and said that CM Arvind Kejriwal should apologise to the entire nation for defending a child rapist as a thera pist and insulting phys iotherapy.

‘False promises of AAP won't work’

New Delhi (ANI):

Union Minister Anu rag Thakur on Satur day attacked the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and accused its lead ers of engaging in cor ruption and scams.

“All AAP ministers are not only involved in serious allegations of corruption but also jailed. This shows that his (AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal's) politics is only about corrup tion, liquor and scams,” said Thakur

while speaking to ANI during a public rally. “People want to give a

‘BJP’s 10 videos vs Kejriwal’s 10 guarantees’

New Delhi (ANI): AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday said he does not need to respond to the lat est videos of Jain, as peo ple in the national capi tal will decide in the up coming MCD polls whether they need “BJP’s ten videos” or “10 guarantees” of the AAP.

BY PTI

“MCD elections are becoming quite clear, it’s BJP’s 10 videos versus Kejriwal’s 10 guar antees. Let’s wait till December 4, the people of Delhi will give a reply to all those videos,” said Kejriwal addressing a press conference.

Referring to the CBI charge sheet filed in the excise policy case on Friday, Kejriwal said, “Manish Sisodia got a clean chit. Around 800 officers of CBI-ED have been working on it for the last 4 months. They were given just one work: do anything, put Manish Sisodia behind bars.Yesterday’s chargesheet shows they didn’t get any evidence against him.”

Where was CM for last 8 years, asks Gambhir on Delhi landfill issue

Shweta Sharma

New Delhi: With the AAP turning the issue of landfill sites into a poll plank ahead of the municipal election in Delhi, BJP MP Gautam Gambhir has hit out at Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, asking where was he for the last eight years when it came to finding a solution for the massive garbage dump in Ghazipur.

Talking to PTI, Gambhir, who repre sents the East Delhi constituency in the Lok Sabha, blamed the AAP for what he described as “a dismal state” of the national capital.

He said the work done at the Ghazipur landfill site is an exam ple of how a BJP-led MCD can “make a dif ference”.

The cricketer-turnedpolitician said in the last eight years, “we have only heard the Delhi chief minister blame the Centre for everything, but no one asked him what is his responsibility as the chief minister”.

landfill site was three years ago and what has happened to it now. The height has gone down by at least 50 feet, he claimed.

message to Kejriwal that false promises won't work,” he said.

Kejriwal suffering from 'political cataract': BJP

New Delhi (PTI): With his deputy Manish Siso dia’s name not finding a mention in the CBI charge sheet in the ex cise policy case, Chief Minister Arvind Kejri wal on Saturday said he and the AAP were “hardcore honest”.

Addressing a press conference, Kejriwal also asked the BJP if it could say the same about any of its leaders.

“Today I can say, Arvind Kejriwal is hardcore honest. I challenge BJP to say if any of its party leaders is hardcore hon est,” Kejriwal said.

New Delhi (PTI): The BJP on Saturday claimed that Arvind Kejriwal was suffering from “political cata ract” and giving him self a certificate of honesty despite the al leged excise and class room construction scams under his gov ernment.

The entire country now knows that Kejri wal is a “kattar bei man” (hardcore dishon est), BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia said at a press conference here.

With his deputy Man ish Sisodia's name not finding a mention in the CBI charge sheet in the excise policy case, Kejriwal on Saturday said he and the AAP are “hardcore honest”.

“Kejriwal is suffer

The

Reminding that he launched AAP on Con stitution Day 10 years ago, he said, “Today, the Aam Aadmi Party has become the new hope of the people of the country.”

New Delhi (PTI):

The Aam Aadmi Par ty has fielded the max imum 45 candidates with criminal records in municipal elec tions this year while the BJP has 27 such candidates, according to a report by Associa tion for Democratic Reforms (ADR).

He should come out and speak, Gambhir added.

The people of Delhi can see it for themselves what the Ghazipur

He also questioned the chief minister's vis it to the site after eight years. Kejriwal visited the Ghazipur landfill site last month and said the MCD polls will be fought on the issue of

garbage as he promised to clean Delhi in five years if the AAP emerg es victorious in the civ ic body election.

Gambhir said, “I want to ask where was the Delhi chief minis ter for the last eight years? I wrote a letter in 2020 to work on it and find a solution, but he did not even have the courtesy to reply.” —PTI

ing from political cata ract. The classroom scam or the excise scam or Satyendar Jain re taining his ministerial post despite being in jail is no big deal,” Bha tia said.

He said the investiga tive agencies that were once branded as “caged parrots” are free and independent to decide their course of action.

The AAP has pitched 250 candi dates, out of which 248 self sworn-affida vits were analysed by the ADR and 18 per cent of them, i.e., 45 have criminal re cords, the report said.

Moreover, at least eight per cent of the AAP candidates have serious criminal cas es against them, it stated.

Cong candidate’s father, former MLA, held for manhandling cop

First India Bureau

New Delhi: Former Congress MLA Asif Khan, whose daughter is contesting the MCD polls, was arrested ear ly on Saturday for al legedly misbehaving with a police officer and manhandling him, police officials said.

Khan was produced be fore Metropolitan Mag istrate Aditi Rao, who remanded him in judi cial custody for 14 days.

The incident oc curred when Khan and his supporters, who gathered near a mosque

at Shaheen Bagh, were asked by the officer not to do so without per mission of the election commission, they said.

bly in Shaheen Bagh and dragged away the former MLA.

BY ANI

She alleged that po licemen misbehaved with her, too, and broke one of her fingers.

“They also snatched away our phones. The police personnel took away my father and their supporters also,” said Ariba Khan, who is the Congress candi date from the area.

A police officer said

In a video, Khan's daughter Ariba Khan alleged that about 50-60 police personnel en tered their house forci

Asif Khan, the main accused, had been ar rested and two others— Minhaa, 28, and Saabir, 38—detained.

CCTV footage showing Satyendar Jain interacting with some people inside his cell in Tihar Jail.

n Kejriwal should apologise to the nation, demands BJP

Union Minister Anurag Thakur campaigns for BJP candidate from Rajinder Nagar, Manika Nischal, on Saturday.

Kejriwal says he and AAP are ‘hardcore honest’

AAP has most candidates with criminal record

AAP made a spa in Tihar where Jain got a maalish from a child rapist and AAP labelled it as physiotherapy. —Shehzad Poonawalla

Gautam Gambhir signs a cricket bat during a Jansabha rally for the MCD elections, at Trilokpuri on Friday. —PHOTO BY ANI ‘SOME CREDIT TO SHEILA JI AS WELL’

entire country now knows that Kejriwal is a ‘kattar beiman’, said BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia

Asif Mohammad Khan speaks during a protest against Citizenship Amendment Act, in New Delhi in December 2019.

—PHOTO

KPS MENON WROTE A LETTER IN DECEMBER, 1980

K NATWAR SINGH The author is Former Minister of External Affairs of India

KPS Menon was born in Ottapalam in Kerala in 1898. He got a first in History at Oxford. In 1921 Menon joined the ICS. After Independence, he became the first Foreign Secretary. From 1952 to 1961 he was Ambassador to the USSR. After retirement, he settled down in his home town, wrote several readable books. He also wrote a monthly letter to his old colleagues and friends. I quote below from a letter he wrote me in December 1980. It is totally none bureaucratic.

ONLY MOTHER’S NAME IN LEGAL AND GOVT FORMS STILL A CHALLENGE

During the tear all the basic conflicts in the world, conflicts between the East and West, the North and the South, the haves and the have-nots, seemed come to a head, and there were comments when it looked as if they would erupt into a third world war, which would doubtless be a nuclear war and spell the destruction of civilization.

Politics livened even the realm of sport. Lord Kalinin, President of the Olympic Council, gently observed that it was for consideration whether in future it would be wise to hold the Olympics in the same year as the American Presidential elections

“I have been trying to keep depression at arm’s length by keeping myself as busy as ever. Unfortunately, I am no longer in a position to indulge in my principal hobby, travelling. Reading, too is becoming difficult on account of the advent of incipient cataract. I have therefore been dictating more than ever before. Apart from gibing the finishing touches to my revised autobiography, “Many Worlds Revisited”, which is to be published by Bhavans in January 1981 and selections from my writings, to be published in Russian by Progress Publishers in Moscow. I have been writing on a variety of themes to a variety of journals. Among the subjects on which I wrote during the expiring year are Hats Off to the Electorate; Frontier Memories; Where do we Stand?; Kabul Cameos; Kampuchea’s Unending Agony; The Living legacy of Lenin; Our new Foreign Secretary; Our Man in Washington’ The First Hundred Days of Nehru; A Historic Visit (on the anniversary of Nehru’s visit to the USSR-1955); A Formative Visit (on the anniversary of Brezhnev’s visit to India in 1973); Towards the Third World War; The Indian and the Chinese; Oxford, Then and Now; Pattom, a politician who a abhorred politicking; Religion and the State; Giri the man; Old Memories of New Delhi; Viceregal Vignettes; Gandhiji’s Guru; Jawaharlal Nehru and Krishan Menon; My Hobbies; the Day I was born; Indians Overseas, some silhouettes; Children a super store house of fun; and Bless the Doctor, but beware of him.

COVID IN CHINA IS AN ALBATROSS

Thinking and writing about our internal affairs and the international situation do not dispel a feeling of gloom but rather deepen it. In India, despite the return of Mrs Indira Gandhi who, events have demonstrated, is the only Indian politician with an all India stature. Politicking, however, is by no means confined to India. I am beginning to share the pessimism, or the cynicism, of Aldous Huxley who said:

‘I become more and more firmly convinced that it is completely pointless to work in the field of politics. Political action is always foredoomed to a partial, sometimes even a complete, selfstultification. The intrinsic nature of the human instruments with which, the human materials upon which, political action must be carried out, is a positive guarantee against the possibility that such action shall yield the results that were expected from it”

As for men of religion, “they who think that they can go into politics and transform the world always end by going into politics and being transformed by the world.” To Toynbee, the world historian, who holds the same view, the only exceptions are Jesus Christ and Mahatma Gandhi. The only hope lies in the man who work on the margin of society. If these ‘men of the margin’ remains on the margin they can do something to mitigate the consequences of the play of politics.

But how few are there who are content to remain on the margin, resisting the siren call of politics, and even if they do how little can

they achieve in the present socio-economic set up. It is more depressing to think of the state of the world. How can one breathe freely, with the world spending 400 billion dollars a year on arms and armaments and the nuclear bomb hanging like a Damocles sword ever the future of mankind?

During the tear all the basic conflicts in the world, conflicts between the East and West, the North and the South, the haves and the have-nots, seemed come to a head, and there were comments when it looked as if they would erupt into a third world war, which would doubtless be a nuclear war and spell the destruction of civilization. Politics livened even the realm of sport. Lord Kalinin, President of the Olympic Council, gently observed that it was for consideration whether in future it would be wise to hold the Olympics in the same year as the American Presidential elections. There is little doubt that these elections, and the militant positions adopted by all the parties in the USA, were substantially responsible for the worsening of the international situation. The elections are over, but it is idle to expect any improvement in the internal situation, especially with Reagan as President of the USA…….”

With warm regards, Yours Sincerely KPS Menon

China’s recurrent Covid outbreaks are like after shocks of an earthquake at its epicenter. Beijing has persis tently denied that the Cov id-19 virus SARS-Cov-2 was created in a Wuhan lab and it spread after it got leaked from there. The world bore the brunt of the alleged lapse but succeeded in getting rid of the virus after fighting it de terminedly. People began to rebuild their lives after suffer ing personal losses and gov ernments all over the world began taking steps to restore complete normality. In China the virus is refusing to go away. The Communist coun try’s zero-Covid policy even small occurrences are being dealt with harsh lockdowns making people agitated.

China’s recurrent Covid outbreaks are like aftershocks of an earthquake at its epicenter. Beijing has persistently denied that the Covid-19 virus SARSCov-2 was created in a Wuhan lab and it spread after it got leaked from there. The world bore the brunt of the alleged lapse but succeeded in getting rid of the virus after fighting it determinedly

In the latest shutdown in eight districts of Zhengzhou in the province of Henan 60 lakh residents have been ordered to stay indoors for the next five days. The lockdown was a con sequence of unrest among peo

ple over lockdowns. Over 32,000 fresh cases were report ed on Friday and a feared surge in cases has led residents even in Beijing to stock up essential commodities.

Frequent shutdowns have started to adversely affect the world’s second largest econo my and its effect on the glob al economy will be visible in 2023. Retail sales and indus trial production are estimat ed to be at their lowest levels since 2020, when the pandem ic hit the world. The National Bureau of Statistics of China report said that manufactur ing, mining and utility sec tors fell to a negative growth of 2.9 percent from 5 percent in March 2022. A comparison with how efficiently India handled the situation is una voidable. Also, Indian econo my is not in a dismal state.

Recently, a petition in the Calcutta High Court argued that “a single mother’s child is also a citizen of this country, and no one can in fringe any of his/her fundamen tal rights which are guaran teed”. The court has sought re sponses from the Bar Council of India and the Bar Council of West Bengal.

This has been a problem for single mothers and their chil dren as patriarchy only allowed the name of father in legal docu ments. The idea of single wom en as parents was unacceptable in society until some years ago. Divorcees and unwed mothers faced nagging by government of ficials, gossip and discrimina tion in society over the absence of name of their child’s father. A long struggle followed. In 2015 it was the Karnataka govern ment which said it was “not mandatory to mention the fa ther’s name while writing the full name of the applicant in le gal documents and government records”. Many single mothers are still fighting against this dis criminatory practice.

SPIRITUAL SPEAK

non-

TOP TWEETS

l Vol 2 l Issue No.88

l RNI TITLE NO. DELENG/2021/19840

Printed and published by Anita Hada Sangwan on behalf of First Express Publishers. Printed at Impressions Printing and Packaging Limited, C-21, 22 Sector-59, Noida-201301. Published at G-20, 3rd Floor, 309, Preet Vihar, New Delhi-110092. Phone 011-49846474.

Editor-In-Chief: Dr Jagdeesh Chandra Editor: Anita Hada Sangwan responsible for selection of news under the PRB Act

Amit Shah @AmitShah

Vikram Gokhale Ji was a very seasoned actor, his demise is deeply saddening. He left an indelible mark on the hearts of all cinema lovers. His work will always be remembered. My condolences to his family, friends and followers. Om Shanti Shanti Shanti.

Anurag Thakur @ianuragthakur

Saddened by the demise of veteran actor VikramGokhale ji. One of the greatest actors who left an indelible mark in Marathi, Hindi Theatre & Film industry with his extraordinary performances. My heartfelt condolences to his family.

Conquer anger with

anger. Conquer badness with goodness. Conquer meanness with generosity. Conquer dishonesty with truth. Buddha

BJP manifesto promises UCC, cell to tackle terror

JP Nadda, Guj CM Patel and state chief CR Paatil release manifesto

Gandhinagar (PTI):

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday released its manifesto for the up coming Gujarat Assem bly polls and promised to implement the Uni form Civil Code (UCC) and also create an ‘Antiradicalisation Cell’ to identify and eliminate potential threats as well as sleeper cells of ter rorist organisations and anti-India forces.

The party’s other promises include crea tion of “20 lakh employ ment opportunities” and take the state's econ omy to USD one trillion in the next five years.

The manifesto was re leased at the state BJP headquarters by party president JP Nadda in the presence of Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupen dra Patel and state unit chief C R Paatil.

The annual cover un der the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (Ayushman Bharat) be ing doubled per family from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh, and girls getting free education from “KG to PG” (kindergar ten to post-graduation) are among other prom ises in the manifesto.

“We will ensure com plete implementation of UCC in Gujarat as per recommendations of a state government committee. We will also create an Anti-radicali sation Cell to identify and eliminate potential threats, and sleeper

cells of terrorist organ isations and anti-India forces,” said Nadda.

On October 29, the Gujarat government had announced that it would form a committee for the implementation of the UCC. The deci sion was taken in a cabi net meeting that day. The manifesto also

promised enactment of the ‘Gujarat Recovery of Damages of Public and Private Properties Act’ to recover the cost of dam age caused to public and private properties by an ti-social elements during riots and protests.

Other key promises include setting up of two seafood parks in

SAD opposes Haryana’s land demand for assembly building

Amrik Singh

Chandigarh: A delega tion of the Shiromani Akali Dal on Saturday met the Punjab Gover nor here and opposed Haryana’s proposed move of setting up an additional building of its state assembly here.

The delegation, which was led by SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal, also raised the issue of alleged deterio rating law and order in the state.

Speaking to reporters after meeting Governor Banwarilal Purohit,

allotment of land

KEY POINTS

Congress never spoke against terror due to vote bank: Shah

Ahmedabad (PTI):

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday said terror attacks were rampant when Con gress was in power and terrorists from Paki stan used to kill Indian soldiers but the then ruling party never con demned them due to “vote bank” politics.

Paying tributes to the victims of the Novem ber 26, 2008 (26/11) Mumbai terror attack, Shah said it is impossi ble to carry out such an attack under the watch of the Modi govt.

“Today is the anni versary of the 26/11 at tack. On this day (in 2008), Pakistani terror ists killed 164 persons in Mumbai. Though such attacks were ram pant during the Con gress rule, it is not pos sible to carry out a 26/11

type terror attack today because Narendra Modi is the prime minister,” Shah said at a rally in Talaja. Voting on Talaja and 88 other seats will be held on December 1.

“Sonia (Gandhi) and (former PM) Manmo han Singh were in pow er for ten years from 2004 till 2014. During their regime, terrorists

Yogi fires fresh salvos against Congress, AAP

Somnath (PTI): Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adity anath on Saturday dubbed Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Ke jriwal as a 'namoona' or buffoon, and accused him and his party of supporting terrorism and corruption.

from Pakistan used to enter India frequently and kill our soldiers and even decapitated their heads. Despite that, Congress never ut tered a word. Why? Be cause of their vote bank. I hope you know who is Congress’ vote bank,” the senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader said.

20 YEARS AFTER TRAIN CARNAGE, COMMUNAL TENSION

Badal said Union Terri tory Chandigarh be longs to Punjab and they will never allow

south Gujarat and Sau rashtra region, free di agnostic service at health centres and ap proved laboratories for EWS households, set ting up three civil hos pitals or ‘Medi Cities’, two AIIMS-level institu tions, and converting 20,000 govt schools into ‘Schools of Excellence’.

At a rally in Somnath town in Gir Somnath, he also accused main opposition Congress of not respecting other people’s religions be cause of its “Muslim vote bank”.

“A ‘Namoona’ (buf foon) from Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) who is vis iting Gujarat now a days

is a true well-wisher of terrorism. He had also opposed the construc tion of Ram temple in Ayodhya. He had sought proof from our brave soldiers when the Indi an Army carried out a surgical strike in Paki stan,” said Adityanath.

NEED OF WATER

New Delhi (PTI): Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is likely to be the chief guest for the Republic Day cele brations here next year.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar is learnt to have ex tended the formal invi tation to el-Sisi during an official visit to Cai ro last month.

This would be the first time that an Egyp tian president would be the chief guest at the Republic Day cele brations.

THAROOR’S MALABAR TOUR

Thiruvananthapuram

(PTI): The disciplinary panel of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Com mittee (KPCC) on Satur day issued strict direc tive to its leaders not to bypass the respective party forums while at tending programmes in each place and directed the leaders to intimate them in advance.

Senior party leader and MLA Thiruvan choor Radhakrishnan, who heads the panel, said there is no objec

tion for anyone to visit any place and hold party campaigns but it should be done only with the knowledge of party fo rums there including the District Congress Committees (DCC).

This notice comes in the wake of controver sy over party leader and Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor’s recent Malabar tour.

However, Rad hakrishnan made it clear that the discipli nary panel did not re

ceive any specific com plaint regarding Tha roor’s recent tour and so there was no need to

New Delhi (PTI): The Congress on Saturday welcomed the Election Commission’s (EC) ac tion in Karnataka over the voter-fraud charges made by it and said to maintain the sanctity of democracy and free-andfair elections, the poll panel's probe has to cov er all 28 constituencies in and around Bengalu ru and not just three.

Congress’ in-charge of Karnataka Randeep Surjewala also demand ed an FIR against CM Basavaraj Bommai and the chief commissioner of the Bruhat Bengalu

KPCC tells leaders to inform party in advance

give him any individual direction in this regard.

“We did not receive any complaint in con

nection with Tharoor. But the party in general has a decision in this regard. It is an institu tional precedent to in form the respective party forums in ad vance about the pro grammes being attend ed by leaders,” he said.

The very thought that such forums were bypassed (by the lead ers) would erode the strength of the party and so the leaders should take them into faith and inform them

in advance before at tending events, Rad hakrishnan explained.

The senior leader said as head of the dis ciplinary panel, he was just informing this to all party members.

“As there is no com plaint against Tharoor, it would be an insult to call him in person and inform him about this directive. It is a general decision and everyone is equally responsible to abide by it,” Rad hakrishnan added.

ers’ data was

DOMINATES

VOTER MINDS IN THARAD

Tharad: “There is no water, give us water.” As the sun beats down on arid flatlands punctuated by salt marshes, it’s the one demand and paramount need verbalised by voters in this border area when candidates call on them in these polls. In the ebb and flow of life, water is the exi gency, cutting through lines in a society riven by caste, the deciding factor for weddings with parents preferring to fix their daughters’ weddings in villages close to the only Narmada canal in the area.

WILL STAY IN POWER

Cong welcomes EC action in Karnataka on voter fraud charges levelled by it

the electoral rolls. “The Congress wel comes the swift action by ECI on our com plaint of 'VoteFraud' in Karnataka, but for maintaining the sanc tity of democracy, ECI cannot confine its in quiry/action to just three assembly seats of Bengaluru,” Surjewala wrote on Twitter.

He alleged the “king pin” of the “voter fraud”, who is responsible for denial of “right to vote” to Kannadigas is none other than Bommai and also hit out at the BBMP chief commissioner.

BJP National President JP Nadda releases party’s manifesto for Gujarat elections, in Gandhinagar, Saturday. —PHOTO BY PTI

ru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), who is the elec toral officer of the con stituencies where vot

allegedly collected by a private firm and additions and deletions were made in

to Haryana for setting up its Vidhan Sabha here.

—WITH PTI INPUTS

Egypt’s president likely to be chief guest for R-Day celebrations

Prime Minister Narendra Modi calls on President Droupadi Murmu, at Rashtrapati Bhavan, in New Delhi on Saturday.

Randeep Surjewala with Karnataka Cong chief DK Shivkumar and other leaders leave after the meeting with EC, in New Delhi.

The Shiromani Akali Dal delegation led by party chief Sukhbir Badal gives memorandum to Punjab Governor BL Purohit.

Congress Lok Sabha MP Shashi Tharoor. —FILE PHOTO

Amit Shah holds a mace during a public meeting ahead of Gujarat elections, at Rajula in Amreli district, on Saturday. —PHOTO BY PTI

Yogi Adityanath. —FILE PHOTO

Godhra: A road cleaves through, marking divide between Muslim dominated areas and Hindu majority localities, a metaphor perhaps for communal fissures that run deep in a town that instantly recalls the 2002 riots. 20 years after burning of a train in Godhra killed 59 ‘karsevaks’ and triggered one of India’s worst post-Partition riots, the poll-scape reflects the gulf between the two communities.

Ahmedabad (PTI): All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Mus limeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi has hit out at Union Home Minister Amit Shah over his “BJP taught perpetrators of violence a lesson in 2002” remark, saying nobody stays in power forever. Owaisi also accused Shah of being intoxicated with power. Addressing an election rally in Gujarat on Friday, Shah had said that anti-social elements stopped indulging in violence after they were “taught a lesson” in 2002 and that the Bharatiya Ja nata Party (BJP) established “permanent peace” in the state. Parts of Gujarat had witnessed large-scale violence in 2002 following the train burning incident at Godhra railway station in February that year.

NOBODY

FOREVER: OWAISI SLAMS SHAH

‘

BR Ambedkar urged us to march on the road to unity’

Rahul Gandhi

posts video

of

the Indian Constitution being signed by Nehru, Gandhi and others on Nov 26, 1949

New Delhi (ANI): Stressing the impor tance of the Constitu tion and the Father of the Indian Constitution, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi said on the occa sion of Constitution Day that Bhimrao Ram ji Ambedkar urged us to march on the road to unity. He took to Twitter and posted a video of the Indian Constitution being signed by Jawaha rlal Nehru, Mahatama Gandhi and others on November 26, 1949. The video also showed the fundamental rights granted to every citizen in the country.

“Babasaheb urged us to march on the road to unity. I will walk that road long enough, until every word of our Con stitution is upheld, and every citizen stands pro tected by fairness and justice,” he tweeted.

Congress general sec retary Jairam Ramesh said the draft constitu tion was adopted by the constituent assembly on 26.11.1949 and the con stituent assembly de cided that it would come into force from 26.01.1950 which is since celebrat ed as Republic Day.

“Ideological foun tainheads of BJP had nothing whatsoever to do in making the Con stitution,” he said in a series of tweets.

Recalling BR Ambed kar’s speech of Novem ber 25, 1949 while pilot ing the final draft of the Constitution, he said, “I wish to remind the prime minister and his drum beaters of just two paras from that speech.” He shared por tions of the speech.

Kharge said the Con gress has embarked on the Bharat Jodo Yatra

to unite the nation against forces of hatred and divisiveness.

“Let us unitedly take ownership of bringing India back to its consti tutional values and re storing the nation to a time when these values thrived. The only way to control this new hegem onic disposition is to counter it with ideolog ical and moral strength,” he noted.

He also alleged that within the system, the ruling party has re stricted the opposition’s all avenues to express dissent.

“Routine muting of microphones in Parlia ment whenever the BJP’s (in)actions are questioned and spaces

in media that are acces sible to us are shrink ing every day,” he said.

“Illegal has become legal because the fringe has now become main stream. The foremost

MAN BOOKED FOR DOCTORED VIDEO OF CONG’S BJY

Operation Octopus still on in J’khand Naxal bastion

Ranchi (ANI): ‘Opera tion Octopus’ is still continuing to dig out explosives and hidden arms and ammunition from the densely for ested hilly range of the Naxal bastion of ‘Burha Pahar’ — a mountain range spread over 55 square kms touching three districts of Jharkhand and Chhat tisgarh —which was captured by security forces in September.

‘Burha Pahar’, which touches Chhattisgarh’s Balrampur and Latehar as well as Jharkhand’s Garhwa, was captured in a joint operation of CRPF general duty bat talions, its Naxal spe cialised wing CoBRA, Jharkhand Police and

More properties of banned JeL attached in J&K

Jharkhand Jaguar— a special force of Jharkhand Police. Once known for the Naxal op eration base, ‘Burha Pa har’ had been an im pregnable Naxal bas tion for 32 years.

A total of 646 Impro vised Explosive Devices, 18 factory-made regular arms including one light machine gun, 1,588 ammunition, 22 maga

zines, one grenade launcher, 85 grenades, 200 grenade arming rings, 78 pressure cook er IEDs and arrow bombs, Insas Rifles, Car bines, SLR Rifles, LMG with bipod are among several other items have been recovered since the ‘Operation Octopus’ was launched. These re coveries were made in September this year.

NCC to celebrate 74th anniv of its raising today

tangible spirit of our democracy is being dis torted and disrespected by people who are using it as a means to push a completely contrasting agenda,” Kharge said.

Raipur (PTI): The Chhat tisgarh police have reg istered an FIR against a man for allegedly posting a doctored video on social media of pro-Pakistani slogans being raised dur ing the Congress' 'Bharat Jodo Yatra'. A member of the Congress legal cell lodged a complaint in Raipur, following which an FIR was registered against a man, who hails from neighbouring Madhya Pradesh, said the SHO of Civil Lines police station said. The Con gress legal cell alleged that the accused had on Friday posted a doctored video of the yatra on his Twitter handle.

DIGVIJAYA SINGH FALLS DURING BHARAT JODO YATRA, UNHURT; BJP, CONG SPAR OVER ROAD CONDITIONS

Manihar (PTI): Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh fell while taking part in the Rahul Gandhiled Bharat Jodo Yatra near Barwaha in Madhya Pradesh's Khargone district on Saturday, the incident igniting a verbal tussle between the op position party and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party on the condition of the state's roads. Singh was unhurt after he fell while moving towards a roadside restaurant during tea break amid the march and was immediately helped to his feet by Congress workers surrounding him, eye-witnesses said. "Digvijaya Singh has fallen to the ground four times so far during the Bharat Jodo Yatra. However, he has fallen for the first time in Madhya Pradesh and the reason is the state also has bad roads," All India Congress Committee media in charge Jairam Ramesh told reporters.

FIFA WORLD CUP 2022

Zielinsk, Lewandowski’s goal guide Poland to win over Saudi Arabia

(ANI): Goals from Piotr Zielinski and Robert Le wandowski and a pen alty save from Wojciech Szczesny gave Poland a 2-0 win in a Group C match against Saudi Arabia here at Educa tion City Stadium.

Coming from the back of a famous win against Argentina, Sau di Arabia started off aggressively as Salem Al Dawsari’s assist helped Mohammed Al Burayk make a rightfooted attempt from outside the box which was blocked. In the 13th

minute, Saud Abdulha mid assisted Moham med Kanno to take a right-footed shot from the right side of the box to be saved in the top right corner.

Two minutes later Jakub Kiwior of Po land was shown a yel low card for a bad foul.

Matty Cash got the yel low card for a foul in the next minute.

In the 39th minute, an assist from Robert Lewandowski Piotr Zie linski’s right-footed shot from the centre of the box went on to the top right corner.

—REPRESENTATIONAL PHOTO

Srinagar: J&K’s State Investigation Agency (SIA) on Saturday got more properties of the banned Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) notified and at tached as properties in unlawful use in Anant nag district. The District Magistrate of Anantnag has notified these prop erties under the unlaw ful use of JeI. The prop erties include orchards, shopping complexes, agricultural land and residential properties. The notified properties also include one kanal and four malras of land with a two-storey build ing housing office of Falah-e-Aam Trust.

First India Bureau

New Delhi: National Cadet Corps (NCC), the largest uniformed youth organisation in the world raised in 1948, will celebrate its 74th anniversary on Satur day (November 27). To mark the occasion, De fence Secretary Girid har Aramane laid a wreath and paid hom age to the fallen heroes on behalf of the entire NCC fraternity at Na tional War Memorial, New Delhi on Friday.

Speaking on the occa sion, the Defence Secre tary said, NCC in the past few years has evolved exponentially, wherein youth in uni form have joined hands in every initiative to contribute to nation building. The NCC Rais ing Day is also being celebrated in all state capitals, where cadets are participating in march past, cultural ac tivities and social devel opment programmes. The event will be held on Saturday.

Cold wave grips parts of J’khand

Ranchi (PTI): Cold wave conditions gripped parts of Jharkhand for the past two days, with the night temperatures falling up to six degrees Celsius below normal, weather officials said on Saturday.

The northwest parts of Jharkhand wit nessed a major fall in the level of mercury. The cold conditions,

however, were being felt across the state, the of ficial said.

“The chill in the air increased due to unre stricted flow of northwesterly to northerly

wind at a lower level over Jharkhand,” a senior meteorologist at Ranchi Meteorological Centre, SC Mandal, told PTI. The average mini mum temperature has dipped by one to six de grees Celsius from the normal across the state. Simdega district shivered at the lowest minimum temperature of 7.5 degrees Celsius.

MOTHER-OF-FIVE FROM KERALA TAKES SOLO TRIP TO WATCH MESSI IN ACTION AT FIFA WORLD CUP

Dubai (PTI): A wom an from Kerala, who hails ‘Messi’ as her hero, has set out on a solo trip in her cus tomised SUV to Qatar to watch her favourite team— Argentina, play in the ongoing FIFA World Cup.

Naaji Noushi, moth er-of-five started her trip to the Gulf coun tries on October 15 from Kerala, and ar rived in the UAE, the Khaleej Times news paper reported.

Although heartbro ken at Argentina’s loss against Saudi Arabia,

the 33-year-old still showed high hopes for her favourite team in the next match. Earlier this week, Argentina lost to Sau di Arabia and is now set to play against

Mexico on Sunday.

“I just want to see my hero Lionel Messi play. The loss to Saudi Arabia was heart breaking for me but I am sure it is only a small hiccup on their

way to lifting the cup,” the newspaper quoted her as saying.

Noushi who is trav elling through the Gulf countries in her SUV, got it shipped to Oman from Mumbai which is incidentally the first Indian-regis tered right-hand vehi cle to be shipped into the country.

She began her jour ney from Muscat and travelled to the UAE in her SUV via the Hatta border and stopped by to see the world’s tall est tower in Dubai, Burj Khalifa.

Al Rayyan [Qatar]

Poland’s Jakub Kiwior in action during the match against Saudi Arabia in the FIFA World Cup 2022, in Doha on Saturday.

Naaji Noushi had started her trip on Oct 15 to Gulf countries.

J’khand DGP Neeraj Sinha reviews anti-naxal operations.

Def. Secy Giridhar Aramane laying wreath at National War Memorial.

Rahul Gandhi with senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh during Bharat Jodo Yatra in Madhya Pradesh.

Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra during Bharat Jodo Yatra.

Rahul Gandhi with supporters during the Bharat Jodo Yatra in Khandwa district of Madhya Pradesh, on Saturday. —PHOTO BY PTI

New Delhi: Elon Musk said that Twitter plans to relaunch its premium ser vice that will offer different coloured check marks to accounts, in a fresh move to revamp the service. It’s the latest change to the so cial media platform. Musk also said he would grant “amnesty” for suspended accounts and causing yet more uncertainty for us ers. Twitter previously sus pended the service, which under Musk granted bluecheck labels to anyone paying $8 a month, be cause of a wave of impost er accounts.

AMAZON TO CLOSE FOOD-DELIVERY BUSINESS IN INDIA

MODI GOVT’S CHALLENGE AMID GLOBAL HEADWINDS

India seeks to shrink budget deficit by 50bps

New Delhi (Agencies): India wants to narrow its budget deficit by at least 50 basis points, according to people familiar with the matter, as authorities bal ance global investor scru tiny with the need for high er spending as the nation enters an election year.

Finance Minister Nir mala Sitharaman will seek to shrink the shortfall to less than 6% of gross do mestic product in the year starting April 1, the people said, asking not to be iden tified as the deliberations are private. Her presenta tion due Feb. 1 will be the final full-year budget be fore citizens elect their new prime minister in the summer of 2024, a time when Indian governments

typically loosen the purse strings.

What complicates mat ters for Sitharaman is that her food and energy bills are inflated by the war in

Ukraine and given India runs a current-account deficit as well, the rupee has been weakening to suc cessive record lows. Subsi dies on food, fertilizer and

AUTHORITIES BEING CAUTIOUS AS INDIA NEEDS FOREIGN INFLOWS TO BRIDGE DEFICITS

New Delhi (Agencies): The people familiar with the matter said that while authorities won’t change domestic policies to facilitate India’s inclusion in global bond indexes, policy makers want to ensure funds see India as an attractive destination and maintaining fiscal discipline is a priority for the government. They added the subsidy bill next year could ease as commodity prices are expected to cool and the government intends to ramp up domestic production of fer tilizers. A free food grains program that fed about 800 million people is also likely to come to an end, the people said. Discussions are ongoing and the final numbers will be decided closer to the budget presentation. A spokesperson for the finance ministry declined to comment. India has budgeted a deficit of 6.4% of GDP in the cur rent year, significantly down from 9.2% during the first year of the pandemic. A longstanding plan aims to shrink the shortfall to below 4.5% of GDP by 2025-26. The govt is confident of meeting this year’s target and will stick to the glide path, the people said.

fuel will cost at least $67 billion in the year ending March 2023 — or 2.1% of GDP — against the budget estimate of 3.2 trillion ru pees ($39.2 billion),

Bloomberg News had re ported earlier. The Reserve Bank of India has already lost $100 billion from its reserves defending the cur rency and, given the

strength of the dollar, it’s perhaps wiser to allow rea sonable amounts of depre ciation and preserve stock piles of the greenback, the people said.

New Delhi: Amazon Inc will shut down a food-de livery business it was test ing in India, the e-com merce giant said, a day af ter it announced the wind ing down of its online learning platform for highschool students in the country. As a part of of an nual operating planning re view process, the company made the decision to dis continue Amazon Food from Dec 29, according to a communication sent by the e-commerce firm to its restaurant partners in the country.

US BANS SALE OF HUAWEI, ZTE TECH OVER SECURITY RISK

RBI asks Paytm to reapply for payment aggregator licence

5G rollout to be fastest in India: Nokia India exec

New Delhi (PTI): India is going to record the fastest 5G rollout in the world and it will be the biggest suc cess of the next -generation telecom service with the support of the government, a senior Nokia India offi cial said.

Speaking at an event or ganised by the Foreign Cor respondent Club, Nokia India Head of Marketing and Corporate Affairs, Amit Marwah, without naming China expressed concern over ‘infiltration equipment’ in telecom sec tor from neighbouring countries.

Work to combat climate change, boost millet production: Fin Min

Bengaluru (PTI): Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday ap pealed to startups to touch upon less glamorous areas including climate change, millet production and im proving the condition of farmers. Addressing a na tional level summit to pro mote startups, Sitharaman emphasised more on cli mate change and asked the startups to find a solution to combat it as that will have a bearing on the agriculture pattern in the country.

glamorous areas as well,” Sitharaman said.

New Delhi: The US has banned the sale and im port of new communica tions equipment from five Chinese companies, in cluding Huawei and ZTE, amid concerns over na tional security. Other com panies listed include Hikvi sion, Dahua and Hytera, which make video surveil lance equipment and twoway radio systems. It is the first time US regula tors have taken such a move on security grounds. Hikvision said that its products present no secu rity threat to the US. Hua wei and others have previ ously denied supplying data to the Chinese gov ernment. AGENCIES

WHATSAPP DATA

LEAK: 500 MN USER RECORDS FOR SALE

New Delhi: Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has rejected to entertain Paytm Pay ments Services’ (PPSL), a wholly owned subsidiary of Paytm, and has asked to resubmit the application to operate as payment aggre gator. The company, how ever, has said it will have no material impact on its business, according to a regulatory filing.

The banking regulator put a pause on onboarding of online merchants by Paytm Payments Services.

The company will not on

board new online mer chants till the time approv als remain pending.

The company in an ex change filing said,” Our 100% subsidiary, Paytm Payments Services Limit ed (“PPSL”), is in receipt of a letter from Reserve Bank of India (“RBI”) in response to an application from PPSL for the authori zation to provide payment aggregator services (“PA application”) for online merchants.

The central bank said that PPSL is required to resubmit its PA application within 120 calendar days.

PHONEPE SET TO ACQUIRE FINTECH START-UP

ZESTMONEY FOR ABOUT $300 MILLION

Bengaluru: Walmart-backed digital payments company PhonePe is all set to acquire buy now, pay later (BNPL) company ZestMoney in a deal pegged at $200 million- $300 million, according to sources. “The talks are on and it will be finalised in another 3-4 weeks,” the sources said. After the acquisition, ZestMoney will continue to operate as a separate entity. ZestMoney, which was founded in 2015 by Lizzie Chapman, Priya Sharma and Ashish Anantharaman, is the fastest growing consumer lending fintech company.

BIG TECH

New Delhi: In what could be one of the biggest data breaches, phone numbers of nearly 500 million WhatsApp users are put on sale online. As per re port by Cybernews, an ac tor posted an ad on a hacking community fo rum, claiming that it is selling a 2022 database of 487 million WhatsApp user mobile numbers. The database contains con tacts of users from 84 dif ferent countries that in clude the US, the UK, and even India. AGENCIES

TUMBLE

5G services will cover the entire country over the next couple of years—Jio promises to do that by De cember 2023 and Bharti Airtel by March 2024.

“Of course defence pro duction, renewable energy, nuclear, satellites, space technologies, they are all there. You have already touched upon those areas. I am asking you to touch upon some of those less

‘SBI REPORTS HIGHEST PROFIT, BROKING HOUSES LAUDING US’

New Delhi: Chairman of the country’s biggest lender State Bank of India (SBI) Dinesh Khara on Saturday asserted that analysts and broking houses are praising the financial performance of the bank which reported its highest profits recently.

For the first time, SBI registered the highest-ever prof its recorded by any corporate house, Khara said.

“In the recent quarterly results, the bank’s profits are the highest ever. SBI crossed the highest ever profits recorded by any corporate and ana lysts and broking houses are praising this,” the SBI Chairman Dinesh Khara said. In the second quarter of the cur rent financial year, the net profit of the lender stood at Rs 13,265 crore, higher by 74 per cent com pared to the previous similar period.

“My appeal is, more and more innovations coming from the startups for deal ing with climate and cli mate change is going to be absolutely precious,” she said and asked the startups to work towards improving conditions of farmers, ur

OTHER STORIES

ban dwellers and give a so lution through millets for healthy eating. The start ups can also look at mar kets which can fetch much better price for farmers, which can also generate lot of employment for them because of the value addi tions that can be brought in, she explained.

said on Saturday. —PTI

Are big tech giants turning heartless?

New Delhi: 2022 has not been a good year especial ly for the people working in tech giants like Ama zon, Meta, and Twitter among others as the com panies have slashed jobs this year, with some citing the COVID-19 pandemic is sue while others blaming the rising inflation.

And now, thousands of young Indians are sud denly staring at an uncer tain future as several tech nology companies and start-ups announce mass layoffs due to global head

Desks at Meta office in New York.

winds and funding crunches with many re fusing to stay quiet about it. The common reasons for mass layoffs include business closing, cost-re ducing, measures, de

creased operations (Lack of Work), loss of funds, increase in technological advancements, no particu lar position requirement, changing standards and policies, companies una

MASS LAYOFF TREND CONTINUES

z The mass layoffs at Meta, Amazon, and Twitter have started a bloodbath in the United States and India

z Tech giant Google and HP also joining the layoff trend and may let go thousands of employees

ble to adapt to the situa tions after the lockdown and the pandemic, infla tion rising, companies fac ing financial difficulties, funding slowdown, and the Ukraine-Russia war.

ADANI ARM SEEKS LICENCE TO EXPAND POWER DISTRIBUTION IN MUMBAI, INCLUDING

New Delhi: Adani Group company has sought licence for expanding its power distribution business into more areas of Mumbai, including the country’s largest container port JNPT. In an advertisement published in several newspapers in the city on Saturday, Adani Electricity Navi Mumbai (AENM) said it has approached the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) for a distribution licence in some pockets of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region along with its listed parent Adani Transmission.

AGENCIES

AT JNPT

First India Bureau

First India Bureau

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai at the inauguration of Beyonder Emergence and Green Future Summit, at Atria University in Bengaluru on Saturday. —PHOTO BY ANI

Mirch Masala

FIRST INDIA SUNDAY SPECIAL

BY TRIDIB RAMAN

Politics has its own tradition of sunshine and shadow and even the Gandhi fam ily understands this very well. So, Priyanka Gandhi and her family chose Madhya Pradesh very thoughtfully to join in on Rahul’s ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra.’ When Rahul’s Yatra reached Khandwa, Priyanka joined the Yatra for the first time with her husband Robert and son Rehaan. When this Yatra reaches Mhow, Congress National President Mallikarjun Kharge will also participate in it. If sources are to be believed, Priyanka is looking for a number of Lok Sabha seats for 2024 which will not ‘disappoint’ her. Party stalwarts like Kamal Nath and Digvijay Singh have already advocated sending Priyanka to Rajya Sabha from Madhya Pradesh. Congress needs a young leadership in Madhya Pradesh after Jyotiraditya Scindia joined BJP, as both the veteran Congress leaders, Kamal Nath and Digvijaya Singh have become old. If the Ram temple is completed in 2024, then the Uttar Pradesh may witness a ‘full bloom’ of the lotus and in such a situation, Priyanka would not want to take the risk of reconquering the forts of Amethi or Raebareli. Perhaps this is the reason, why Rahul Gandhi is also concentrating heavily on Madhya Pradesh. He is also raising the issue of the core voters of the Congress, the tribal community, and the Congress organisation of the state is also seen united behind him.

IS BEHIND ASSAM CHIEF MINISTER HIMANTA BISWA SARMA?

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma is gearing up to challenge Yogi Adityanath, the big gest champion of Hindutva in BJP. Sarma is consid ered very close to Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Sarma often makes headlines by making strange statements. During Rahul Gandhi’s visit, he compared Rahul Gandhi’s face with Saddam Hussain regarding his grown beard, then he was also challenged by the Congress not to violate the decorum of language. If sources are to be believed, the top leadership of BJP is gradually raising him as the new champion of Hindutva as an option of Yogi so that he can prominently occupy a place among the leaders of the second line of the party. On the other hand, Yogi Adityanath is one of the most sought after leaders for his election meetings, be it Karnataka or Kerala, North East or Odisha, even in Modi-Shah’s home state of Gujarat. Perhaps this thing is bringing stress on the foreheads of the top leadership of the party. So, efforts are on to project Sarma as an alternative to Yogi.

WHICH TWO ‘JOURNALISTS’ DID RAHUL GANDHI CHOOSE?

In his ‘BharatJodoYatra,’ instead of giving interviews to eminent journalists or TV anchors, Rahul Gandhi openly shared his heart with two YouTubers. One of them is Shyam Meera Singh, who made a programme by researching on Adani Group’s un expected flight and Pulwama. The other is Samdish Bhatia, who humorously interviews Rahul for his channel ‘Unfiltered by Samdish’, walks with him on the yatra. Yogendra Yadav and Kanhaiya Kumar are believed to have played an important role in arranging these two interviews. It is believed that Kanhaiya Kumar is going to get the fruits of his hard work soon, as he can be the new President of Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee. Yogendra Yadav can also get some impor tant responsibility in the organisation.

ARVIND KEJRIWAL FOCUSES

BACK ON NEW DELHI

Delhi’s local body elections have taken an interesting turn, with initial trends show ing AAP’s lead in more than 150 seats in the MCD elections. Here a direct fight is being told between Aam Aadmi Party and BJP, while Congress candidates are seen struggling even to join the main fight. Now BJP has started a new ‘game’ in Delhi, as the party has started helping Congress candidates from within. If sources are to be believed, the BJP is not only opening its purse strings to bring the Congress into the fray, but its people have also started campaigning for Congress candidates wearing Congress caps. A similar case was also seen in Laxmi Nagar area of Delhi. The BJP believes that ‘the more Congress grows, it will cut into AAP’s vote, this can create an advantage for the BJP’.

LALU UNDER SON TEJASHWI YADAV’S INFLUENCE

Undoing injustice against the marginalised is our duty: CJI

New Delhi (ANI): Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud on Saturday said that an institution thrives with time only when it func tions democratically.

Speaking at the Con stitution Day celebra tions held at the Su preme Court, CJI said the Constitution en strusts the legislature, executive, and judiciary to bridge the gap be tween institutional ide as and social realities.

He said that the repre sentation of the mar ginalised communities must be enhanced in the legal profession.

“An institution thrives with time only when it functions demo cratically. I believe as Chief Justice of India, it is my responsibility to consult judges in the Supreme Court, High Courts and district judi ciary,” said CJI.

He said that lawyers and judges spend their time and years unravel ling the text of the Con stitution, but the story of the Indian constitu tion is not a story only of legal text.

CALL TO YOUTH

CJ

“It is a story of hu man struggles and sac rifices. It is a story of undoing injustice against the marginal ised sections of our so ciety. The women, the disabled, the Dalits and the members belonging to tribes and segments situated in far-flung ar

eas of the country. It must be remembered that the marginalised communities were the first to plant the seeds of the Constitutional ideas of liberty, equali ty and fraternity, on In dian soil,” said the CJI.

The CJI further said that the first wave of

Shivpal says phone call from ‘bahu’ made him campaign

Mainpuri (PTI): Pra gatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia) president Shivpal Singh Yadav has said it was a phone call from “bahu” (daughter-in-law) Dim ple Yadav that prompt ed him to campaign for her for the upcoming Mainpuri bypoll.

The veteran leader also said he has told Dimple Yadav to be his witness (“gavah”) if Akhilesh Yadav does something wrong with him again.

Amid a deteriorating relationship with neph ew Akhilesh Yadav, the PSPL chief agreed to campaign for the SP chief’s wife in the Main puri bypoll, which was necessitated after party patriarch Mulayam Sin gh Yadav, who repre

—PHOTOS BY ANI/PTI

sented the seat in the Uttar Pradesh Assem bly, died last month.

Shivpal said it was a phone call from Dimple that broke the ice.

“Daughter-in-law

resistance against the colonial power came from the indigenous communities of India.

“The prolonged struggle for independ ence culminated with the demise of the colo nial rule, and the birth of an independent na tion governed by selfrule. However, the death of the colonial regime was not accom panied by a simultane ous birth of Constitu tional values that we hold on to so dearly.

When India gained her independence, she was invested in so cial evils,” the CJI said.

New

Law Minister

LG VK Saxena takes stock of shops gutted in Chandni Chowk

New Delhi (ANI): Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena on Saturday visited Bhagirath Pal ace market in Chandni Chowk where work is still underway to cool the fire that broke out on Thursday night.

More than 150 shops and godowns have come under the grip of this fire and more than 100 fire tenders were en gaged in extinguishing the fire, informed the Fire Department.

dangerously prone to blazes,” the LG tweeted.

The fire department said that smoke is still clearly visible inside the shops and ware houses that are mostly of electrical goods.

called me and said, ‘un cle, I will contest, come with us’, to which I told her to remain my wit ness if Akhilesh does anything wrong again,” Shivpal said.

“Visited the fire site at Bhagirath Palace, Chandni Chowk, where the cooling process is yet on. With hanging wires, overloaded cir cuits, old buildings, wa ter shortage & narrow lanes, such areas are

The LG has consti tuted a committee to look into the matter and report within 30 days. He said the committee will speak with resi dents and other stake holders in areas like Chandni Chowk, Sadar Bazar, Pahar Ganj, etc.

AAP Supremo Arvind Kejriwal is well aware of what does the victory in Delhi Municipal Corporation polls means for his party’s new rise. So, when he heard of ‘troubled times’ in his party in Delhi, he left everything, i.e. left the poll campaign of Gujarat midway, returned to Delhi & put all his energy in elections here. Kejri knows that this time his party may not make a big splash in Gujarat, but it can definitely make its Mayor in Delhi. So, in order to corner the BJP, AAP is raising lo cal issues in Delhi, such as mountains of garbage, cleanliness & hygiene, menace of monkeys & stray dogs in Delhi. On the other hand, BJP is bringing its CMs from other states to Delhi for its campaign, who have no special knowledge of the local issues of Delhi. The BJP has come on its ‘winning face’, which means that now Delhi Municipal polls will also be fought on Modi’s face, who has brought the biggest guarantee of winning polls for Saffron Party continuously since 2014.

The new team announced by RJD supremo Lalu Yadav before leaving for Singapore for his treatment, clearly shows the influence of his son and his political heir Tejashwi Yadav on this new team. Unlike Lalu, Tejashwi seems to be an advocate of promoting leaders with a slightly clean im age in his party. Lalu announced a new ex ecutive of 85 members, wherein, 10 Yadav and only 3 Muslim faces have found place.

Among the 10 leaders, who have been made National General Secretaries, only one Muslim face is included in the form of Syed Faisal Ali. Earlier, when the by-elections were being held in Gopalganj, Tejashwi had refused to share the stage with Hina Shahab, widow of the ill-fated Bahubali Sha habuddin. While Hina had left for Gopalganj with her entourage of 50 vehicles to attend the RJD rally, she had to return midway after Tejashwi’s ‘no’.

Annoyed, she fielded one of her candi dates from Owaisi’s party who got more than 12,000 votes and Tejashwi’s of ficial candidate lost the election by just 1,800 votes. Despite this, Tejashwi has tried to present an example.

RAJ CM GEHLOT BLESSES JC SHOW TEAM!

Dr Jagdeesh Chandra, CEO and Editor-in-Chief, Bharat24-Vision of New India and First India, and CMD, First India News along with his team met Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot on Saturday at Surya Palace Hotel in Vadodara, Gujarat. Gehlot, who was in a jovial mood on Saturday evening, blessed all the anchors of the JC Show and some children also. During this, Aditi Nagar, Amit Mishra, Poornima Mishra, Pooja Yadav, Shweta Raje and Astha Khandelwal were present along with Dr Jagdeesh Chandra. CM’s OSD Shashikant Sharma was also there. The JC Show on the topic of Gujarat elections (Modi all the way) will be telecast on First India at 2:25 pm on Sunday.

GOVT DOING EVERYTHING TO STRENGTHEN JUDICIARY: RIJIJU First India Bureau

Delhi:

Kiren Rijiju on Saturday said the government is doing everything possible to strengthen the judicial system and to have a “very close, cordial relationship” with the judiciary. The remarks come close on the heels of the minister attacking the collegium system of appointment of judges and describing it as something alien to the Constitution. Address ing the Constitution Day event at the Supreme Court, Rijiju said he was fortunate to have shared a very cordial re lationship with the CJIs as well as the judges of the Supreme Court and high courts. “We have shared very cordial re lationship and identified those issues we have

Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Constitution Day celebrations in the Supreme Court with CJI DY Chandrachud, Justice Sanjay Kaul, and Law Minister Kiren Rijiju on Saturday. —PHOTO BY ANI

Akhilesh Yadav campaigns with Shivpal Yadav and Ram Gopal Yadav at Jaswantnagar in Etawah district on Monday. (R) Dimple Yadav addressing a public meeting for the Mainpuri by-elections at Saifai, in Etawah on Friday.

The author is a journalist and political commentator and views expressed are his personal

PRIYANKA CONTEST HER FIRST ELECTION FROM MP? BJP TAKING CONGRESS FORWARD

WHO

Bijoux of the SEASON

Supermodels dazzled on the ramp exhibiting exquisite jewellery along with traditional gemstones, by sisters Radhika Khunteta and Ayesha Rawat from Citrine, mesmerizing the audience as they showcased the intricate designs at the First India Fashion Connect Season 13 held at Novotel London Hammersmith on November 20!

fter the success ful season 12 of First India pre sents Fashion Connect and de signers embrac ing old-school glamour in India, seems like the fashion police made the next stop in Lon don in order to bombard our social media with the latest tea on what’s pop ping in the domain of style. Yes, you guessed it right, you’re about to have inside access to some of the ‘can’t miss’ moments at the First India Fashion Connect Season 13, in as sociation with India Fash ion Week London, held at Novotel London Hammer smith, London on Novem ber 20. With the whole aura beaming in style, the front rows occupied by starlets and trends strut ting down the runways,

www.firstindia.co.in I https://firstindia.co.in/epapers/delhi I twitter.com/ thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia 09

it’s almost as if we stepped afoot into the galaxy of glam, rotating in style.

Ravishing models walked on the ramp showcasing the exclu sive works of Radhika

and Ayesha from Citrine during a fashion extrav aganza in London on No vember 20.

A passion for Jewellery and desire for the unortho dox is what brought sisters

Jewellery design from The International Gemological Institute, Mumbai. Experi menting with colour , cut and casting, their aim is to use their Jewellery to make women feel glamor ous and special every sin gle day of their lives . Cit rine brings to you an ex quisite range of handcraft ed semi - precious state ment jewellery. Each de sign is handcrafted by a team of skilled master ar tisans from Jaipur. Unique utilisation of various semi - precious stones and cast ing pieces add an interest ing look to each piece .

Radhika Khunteta and Ayesha Rawat together to launch Citrine in 2013. The duo developed a love for Jewellery at a young age and grew up to pursue the same with a diploma in

The show was a plat form where top models flaunted most alluring designer clothes along with jewellery specially created to compliment with the collection.

MITALI DUSAD mitalidusad01@gmail.com

It feels great to associate with Fashion Con nect and we finally got an opportunity to ex hibit our collection at the First India Fashion Connect Season 13 in London. Unfortunately we could not make it to London, but we’re glad to be a part of the grand show. I extend my heartiest congratu lations to the entire team for putting up a great show.

—RADHIKA KHUNTETA AND AYESHA RAWAT

(L-R) Rishee, Rupal, Akshara, Samant, Manny and Ipsitaa during the UNHEARD book launch

INEQUALITY IS THE ROOT SOCIAL EVIL! OF

parity in both income and wealth. The situation today is the same as it was at the height of Western imperialism in the early 20th century. In many countries, the situation is even worse.

BAIJNATH GARG Senior Journalist

Recently a report on in equality in the world has been released by the global organisa tion United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD). Pointing to the dire consequences of inequality in this, it has been emphasized to create a new eco-social system.

This report, released in Octo ber 2022, points to the growing inequality characteristic of the world. This report comes almost two years after the pan demic. In this era, the global economy has been hit, which for the first time in several decades has pushed the whole world into extreme poverty.

The report says that with the rise of democracy, economic liberalization and free mar kets, there has been a wide dis

The report suggests that while the gap in basic living standards is narrowing for hundreds of millions of peo ple, their needs to thrive in life are also changing. In the cur rent era, new types of inequal ities are taking root, mainly arising out of education, tech nology and climate change. If these ground-shaking changes are not stopped in time, the risk of spreading a giant rift that the world has not seen since the Industrial Revolu tion will increase. According to the report, people are taking to the streets due to many rea sons. Ticket prices, petrol pric es, demands for political free dom, fairness and justice, etc. This is a new face of inequal ity and inequality is not be yond solutions.

According to the report, the Human Development Index (HDI) has seen impressive pro gress since 1990 and has ben efited all sectors, including

the least developed countries. The fastest economic growth was seen from 2000 to 2010, but since then this pace has slowed down. From 1990 to 2018, many countries performed well in terms of human development. The number of countries with high human development has increased from 12 to 62, while the number of countries with low human development has decreased from 62 to 36. The report clarified that the chal lenge of inequality is not be yond the solution and can be dealt with, but bringing ine quality under control will not be easy if the current pattern

continues.

The report says that unequal distribution in education, health and standard of living affects the progress of the country. Several suggestions have been made in the report to improve the situation and deal with the growing problem of inequality. According to the report, inequality starts right from the time of birth. The gap between education and health intensifies and can continue until adulthood, so efforts and policies to ameliorate the situ ation must begin before or even before birth, with a focus on children’s education, health

and well-being. Be nourished. Such investments should be continued especially at that stage of a person’s life when they are making money in the labor market. Policies just to increase the productivity of workers are not enough and other policies including antitrust have to be focused on to overcome the imbalance in the market.

The report also suggested that the tax should be part of a broader policy system, in cluding public spending on health and education, and ex ploring alternatives to carbonbased lifestyles. The report underscores the importance of new international tax prin ciples to ensure equity and avoids the race to lower corpo rate tax rates. The report says that average figures often do not accurately reflect the truth. Furthermore, effective ly tackling inequality requires detailed information, espe cially to combat the various dimensions of poverty and help those left behind.

The report claimed that the nature of inequalities could change in the future and that the climate crisis could be a

major reason for this. Carbon pricing policies can be mis managed, but revenues from carbon pricing, if used for the benefit of taxpayers as part of a social policy package, will help reduce inequality. Renew able energy, energy efficiency, digital finance and health so lutions demonstrate how new technologies and opportuni ties can be used to broadly im prove living standards.

According to the report, deep inequalities emerged even be fore the technological revolu tions and now a similar picture is emerging with artificial intel ligence and digital technolo gies. In such a situation, the need for social protection must be emphasized, which will re quire international consensus on ensuring fair compensation, investing in lifelong learning and taxing digital activities. This will help in building a new, secure and stable digital econo my, which will pave the way for human development. The re port also indicates that if steps are not taken in this direction soon, then the situation will be very dire in the coming times and it will become difficult to deal with them.

YOUR DAY

ARIES

MAR 21 - APR 20

Some clarification will need to be sought on a financial issue, before you take the next step. A project left halfway by someone else may come on your shoulders, but your efforts will be acknowledged. Some of you are all set to enjoy a splendid vacation.

LEO

JULY 24 - AUGUST 23

You will derive great benefit from an exercise routine that you keenly follow. Extra workload is foreseen at work, but nothing that you cannot handle within office hours. Taking the family on a trip seems impossible today due to your professional commitments.

SAGITTARIUS

NOV 23 - DEC 22

Continue doing whatever you are doing to remain healthy. Some of you will have to curb your splurging ways. Family life will cruise along smoothly with much love and bonhomie. Don’t speed up on the road. Chance of moving to a new location on transfer is likely for some.

GEMINI

MAY 21 - JUNE 21

You have a good health and there is nothing to worry as such. To prevent any monetary loss, you should care to read your business proposal twice before taking any decision. In office, you may need to persuade someone to stand in your favour but it will be worth it.

LIBRA

SEPT 24 - OCTOBER 22

Previous investments are likely to give you good returns. Some of you may decide to follow in the footsteps of celebrities and visit the very same exotic destination that they had been to.No amount of excuses will dispel lover’s suspicions about your tendency to stray path.

AQUARIUS

JAN 21 - FEB 19

Keep a close tab on what you eat if you want to remain healthy. You must limit your expenses to only buying essential stuff. In office, your colleagues may not like your upfront nature. Your love may not give the kind of attention you have been

CANCER

JUNE

SCORPIO

OCT 23 - NOVEMBER 22 You may go for a cheat meal all as a reward for maintaining good health. If you have been struggling with money then that’s a thing of a past now as money will flow in from all the directions. In office, you will support your colleague by sharing his/her work pressure.

PISCES

FEB20

Horoscope by Saurabbh Sachdeva

AMIT

A report recently released by UNRISD on inequality in the world says that if steps are not taken to stop inequality soon, then in the coming times the situation will become very serious and it will become difficult to deal with them.

Kriti’s retro glam look

ight from shimmering dresses and sartorial neon numbers, Kriti has been known to fab ulously flaunt her unapologeti cally experimental style. With her latest look, she once again reminds us what’s a party without a little bling as she steps out in her glamorous and glittery mini-dress. Well, when the memo says, party look, you just cannot go wrong with a shiny mini dress and the Bhedi ya actress’s brightest pink Zara Umrigar dress serves as a pure testimony to the fact.

Scroll on as we de code her complete party look. In spired by the ’80s when a party look simply meant bright and blingy, Kri ti Sanon’s Zara Umri gar dress is curated to bring back that retro glam party look.

SARA'S

‘morning facie’

Sara Ali Khan is one of the most loved ac tresses of the current generation. Apart from being a fabulous actress, Sara also makes sure to stay fit and never misses her workout sessions. Yesterday the actress hid her face from the paparazzi after stepping out of her gym which made everyone curious. But, today she took to her Ins tagram stories to give a glimpse of her morning selfie. Taking to her Ins tagram stories Sara Ali Khan shared a boomerang video of her. She can be seen sitting in her car. The actress has left her hair open and can be seen rubbing a piece of ice on her face. Sara has used an Instagram filter which has made her face look even pinker and has changed her eye colour too. Sharing this picture, Sara wrote, ‘Earlie morning facie!’.

GLIMPSE OF ‘DEVI’ FIRST N

6)

Six years of Dear Zindagi

Alia and Ranbir have been trending after they announced the name of their newborn daughter. The actress shared it on her social media handle. Well, the couple welcomed their little bundle of joy earlier this month and since then Alia has been enjoying her maternity break. She often treats fans with updates. And today was one of those days. She shared a pic ture from her balcony as she celebrate 6 years of her and Shah Rukh Khan's starrer Dear Zindagi.

The actress took to Insta gram and shared a video of the beach with the dialogues of the memorable ‘samund ar se kabaddi’ scene. Dear Zindagi is about mental health, insomnia, and de pression.

The story is about Kaira played by Alia, who is a cinematographer by pro fession and she struggles to keep a balance between her personal and professional life. She seeks the help of Jehangir, a psychologist played

Dear Zindagi

been

Casual but chic!

Whoever said casual can’t be chic, has not discovered the power of a stretchy rib midi dress that hugs the body in just the right places and Janhvi Kapoor’s The Label dress serves as just the perfect testimony. Go the Janhvi route when you want to look instantly pulled together and pick a ribbed printed dress that strikes just the right balance of sultry and simple. Janhvi Kapoor paused and posed for the paps when she stepped out in a Hendrix Midi Dress by The Label. The designer dress stood out because of the black and sand zebra stripes and a breathtak ing body-hugging silhouette. Curated with viscose, polyester, and spandex, the knitted dress worth Rs. 6,200 features a midi length, a side slit, and a stunning scoop neckline with thick straps. But, what makes us look twice has to be the statement cut-out details at the waist that went all the way to the back mak ing the dress a sartorial pick.

CELEBS MOURNS VIKRAM’S DEATH

Veteran ac tor Vikram Gokhale has passed away yesterday. The actor was un dergoing treat ment at Pune’s Deenanath Man geshkar Hospital. Yesterday the news was confirmed and celebs including Akshay Kumar, Anupam Kher and many more took to social media and expressed their condolences to the family members.

Akshay Kumar, who worked with Vikram Gokhale in Bhool Bhulai yaa and Mission Mangal, got emo tional as he penned a note on social media. He wrote, “Very sad to know of the de mise of Vikram Gokhale Ji. Worked with him in films like Bhool Bhulaiyaa, and Mission Mangal had so much to learn from him. Om Shanti.”

Anupam Kher shared an incom plete poem written by Vikram Gokhale and also shared heartbro ken emojis to ex press his pain af ter losing his dear friend.

Popular TV star Anirrudh Dave, who worked with Vikram Gokhale in a se ries, wrote, "One of the finest actor

#VikramGokhale Ji, I learned a lot from you... its end of an era baauji.”

by Shah Rukh Khan.

has

directed by Gauri Shinde and bankrolled by Red Chillies Entertainment, Dharma Productions, and Hope Pro ductions.

ew parents in B-Town, Bi pasha Basu and Karan Singh Grover are loving their new role as parents. The beauti ful Bollywood couple was blessed with a baby girl on November 12. Today, for the first time, they shared a glimpse of their baby girl. In the picture shared by Bipasha both her and Karan can be seen look ing at their daughter Devi with warmth and

love. The couple posed for a cute picture.

Captioning this memorable photo, Bi pasha shared “a recipe for her angel”. She wrote, “Our recipe for making a sweet baby angel 1) Quarter cup of you 2) Quarter cup

of me 3) Half cup of Ma’s blessings and love 4) Topped up with magic and awesome ness 5) 3 drops of rain bow essence, angel dust, unicorn sparkles and all things divine.

Seasoning: Yummi ness as per taste.”

Janhvi Kapoor

Sara Ali Khan

Her story...

Alia Bhatt

Her story...

Kriti’s pink Zara Umrigar dress

Kriti Sanon

Late Vikram Gokhale

Bipasha Basu

Her post...

Janhvi in Hendrix Midi dress by The Label

“ART IS AN EXTENSION”

n ongoing solo art exhi

bition titled ‘Revelations’ by Delhibased artist, Shafali R Aanand is being or ganised at the Lalit Kala Akademi, New delhi, from November 22 to 28.

The revelations art exhibition is a selec tion of oil paintings from Artist Shafali R. Anand’s works. These colourful paintings are visual expressions of the emotions that we experience as we ride the roller coast er of life. These emo tions appear on the faces and are felt through the twistingturning bodies of men and women – emotions made of joyous yel lows and greens that

sometimes sink into leaden browns and deep purples; and of the calm blues and aquamarines that crash into violent reds and oranges. The oil

paintings in this col lection are about rela tionships with others and with ourselves, while the pen and ink art renders our own reflection in nature.

Martha Farrell Awards 2022

mony to the courage, perseverance, and pa tience that establish the ambitious frame work for success, and the revelation of the fears and tears that stay hidden in the foundations that are never seen, but with out which there wouldn’t be the edifice of achievement.

Growing up in the far reaches of the Him alayas, Shafali found a close friend and confi dante in her sketch book, and they’ve been inseparable since. She has been painting pro fessionally for a dec ade and a half. Her work has been pub lished internationally in The American Spec tator, The Suit Maga zine, Talk Business and Politics, and other publications.

FELICITATIONS!

‘Dances of India’

CITY FIRST

The third edi tion of Natya Ballet Centre kicked off on No vember, 25. The threeday event celebrating the 75th year of inde pendence will continue till November 27 pre senting India’s diverse culture and traditions.

The festival is being orchestrated for a spe cially curated piece of ‘Dances of India’ for the young school-go ing audience from NDMC and DAV Public Schools as part of their out reach programme.

Martha Farrell Foundation (MFF), Partic ipatory Re search in Asia (PRIA), and Rural Development Trust (RDT) success fully held the 6th edi tion of the Martha Far rell Award for Excel lence in Women’s Em powerment and Gender Equality at India Inter national Center, New Delhi on November 26.

The ceremony was at tended by eminent pro fessionals from vari ous fields, including media, academia and civil society.

Fifty adolescent Fel lows from MFF’s flag ship program Kadam Badhate Chalo and MFF’s women domestic worker champions from Delhi and Haryana put together theatre and musical productions, capturing their pro gress in countering sexual and genderbased violence in their daily lives, workplaces and communities.

The award felicitated and recognised individ uals and institutions who have made signifi cant contributions.

The Awardees were

chosen from over 200 nominations by an emi nent jury comprising 6 members; Dr Rajesh Tandon (Founder Presi dent of PRIA and Chair person of Martha Far rell Foundation), Dr Pankaj Mittal (Secre tary General of the As sociation of Indian Uni versities), Feisal Alkazi (Author, Activist and Theater Person), Na mita Bhandare (Jour nalist_, Deepthi Bopai ah (CEO of GoSports Foundation) and Mon cho Ferrer (Director of Programs at Rural De velopment Trust).

BAGUETTES

PROUD MOMENT!

Renowned filmmaker-actor Rahul Mittra is the latest to join the star cast of talked about new movie File No 323 starring filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, Suniel Shetty, Divya Dutta & Esha Dutta. Directed by Karthik K, this crime drama has been garnering headlines after Suneil Shetty & the makers recently received legal notice from Mehul Choksi.

The perfor mance, which will also be per formed on the upcoming day of the festival, showcased a rich palette of classical and folk dances like Kathak, Bharat natyam, Odissi, Chhau, Kalbelia, Ghoomar, Bhangra, Dandiya, and Lavani that inte grate both flair and verve, gorgeous cos tumes, inspiring music, and historical insights.

Besides the perfor mances, the audience is getting to experience great insights during the panel discussions and lectures, as well as the opportunity to meet three famous Indian

women, Rita Gan guly, Sharon Low en, and Dr Shovana Narayan. Three of them are legends in their own right and a serious panel discus sion called “Tabula Rasa” moderated by the well-known arts entre preneur, Dr Anita Rat nam along with Dr

This session has been curated for the Natya Ballet Centre by Sandhya Raman, Secre tary, Rasaja Founda tion. It will focus on problems faced by the performing arts postCovid while looking for viable solutions.

CITY FIRST

The greatest French restau rants feature hard-to-pro nounce names, crunchy baguettes, and snobby yet kind staff members. Indeed, it sounds a lot like Del hi. This city features

excellent French cui sine because of the vibe. We have a list of the top French eateries that will take you to heaven since we know you want to join us. Take a car and go to the closest one. Don’t forget to chat, dress, most impor tantly, eat excessively.

Artist Shafali R. Anand said These paintings are the testi

THE FOOD STORE – DOUBLETREE BY HILTON

BONHEUR Shahpurjat is skilled at protecting the city’s best-kept secrets. Discover one of the top French eateries in this relaxed café with an indoor and outdoor beauty gallery. In the entire city, their bakery is the greatest for French specialities. Every bite of this little package served on rustic white plates will fulfil all of your French culinary fantasies.

Navina Jafa, Vikram Iyengar and Suanshu Khurana.

Vice President Jagdeep Dhankar will present India’s first Design Innovation National Award to Jaipur’s National Awardee Dharmendra Bhalla on November 28 morning at Uparashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi. Artist Bhalla will be presented with a citation and copper plate, a cash amount of six lakh rupees along with a garment. Artist Bhalla is being given the Design Innovation National Award for her innovative and beautiful inlay work in her mirror frame, purse and walking stick artworks.

—PHOTOS BY SHAZID CHAUHAN

Shafali R Aanand at the exhibition

Artists performing

During the event

During the event

—PHOTO BY SHAZID CHAUHAN