English hansindia amaravathi 24 01 2018 by Mahesh Yadav

www.thehansindia.com

WINDOWS

Daredevils perform on a motorcycle during the full dress rehearsal of the Republic Day parade in Kolkata on Tuesday morning

PM INVOKES ‘VASUDHAIKA KUTUMBAM’ AT WEF

Kentucky school shooting: 1 dead

Modi pitches for global solidarity

Benton (US): Authorities are reporting one person was killed and many were wounded in a high school shooting in rural Kentucky. Governor Matt Bevin tweeted that it happened at Marshall County High School. A shooting suspect was reported in custody. The community is about 120 miles northwest of Nashville, Tennessee.

Sensex crosses 36k, Nifty sweeps past 11k Mumbai: Extending gains for the fifth consecutive session, the key Indian equity indices on Tuesday rode the bulls and escalated to record highs with the BSE Sensex closing above the 36,000-mark and the NSE Nifty50 above the 11,000-mark for the first time.

KTR meets Naidu, Ambani at WEF

Alaska quake prompts tsunami alert

Hyderabad: Telangana IT, Industries and Municipal Administration and Urban Development Minister KT Rama Rao on Tuesday met several business leaders, including Reliance Company Chairman Mukesh Ambani on the ﬁrst day of the World Economic Forum at Davos in Switzerland. KTR, who is leading a delegation from Telangana to the Forum, attended the opening plenary which was also addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The session was hosted by the Forum Chairman Klaus Schwab. The Telangana minister also met Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and IT minister N Lokesh at the plenary. KTR interacted with several business leaders from across the globe at the session.

Washington: A powerful earthquake measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale struck the Gulf of Alaska in the US on Tuesday, prompting a tsunami warning along the coastline that urged people in the affected areas to head to higher ground. The earthquake had previously been measured at magnitude 8.2. It hit 300 km southeast of Kodiak at a depth of 10 km at 12.21 am, the US Geological Survey said.

WEDNESDAY 24 JANUARY 2018 AMARAVATI | PAGES 32 | `5.00

OUR BUREAU

The minister is scheduled to speak at a few sessions during the next three days. KTR will participate in the discussion titled “Leveraging Digital to Deliver Value to Society” on January 25. On the same day, he will also participate in the Roundtable titled “Promoting Design in India” organised by DIPP. The other participants include Suresh Prabhu, Union Minister of Industry and Commerce and DIPP Secretary Ramesh Abhishek. On January 26, KTR will speak at the session titled “Global Tech, Local Solutions: Artiﬁcial Intelligence”. During the stay, the Telangana delegation is slated to meet several high-proﬁle investors and business leaders and explain the initiatives taken to promote industrial sector.

Naidu invites Saudi Aramco to invest in AP

Davos: Prime Minister Narendra Modi took aim at Donald Trump’s ‘America First’ policies at the World Economic Forum’s annual gathering in Davos on Tuesday, in a speech beseeching global leaders to abandon selﬁshness and protectionism and embrace the world’s shared future. Modi is mostly preaching to the choir in Davos, so his words seemed to be tailored as much for his counterparts in Washington, where Trump’s administration has challenged global agreements and restricted immigrants. On Monday, the US hiked tariffs on solar panels and washing machines, a move immediately criticized by Chinese and South Korean leaders who threatened to retaliate. The first Indian Prime Minister to speak at Davos since

MODI@DAVOS India will be a $5 trn economy by 2025

n his epoch-making Davos speech, Modi put India at the centre of the global narrative, underlining it as the only good news in a gloomy world. “If you want wealth with wellness, peace with prosperity, come to India,” the PM said.

HIGHLIGHTS 3 GRAVEST THREATS CONFRONTING THE WORLD TODAY 1997, Modi echoed the antiTrump and pro-globalization sentiments of Chinese president Xi Jinping last year, albeit with a bit more flourish and liberal use of quotes from ancient

Jagan paints himself into a corner: Undavalli

bonds' that can be bought from specified branches of the SBI and used to donate money to political parties. According to the scheme, no person should make a cash donation of over Rs 2000 to a political party. The tax department, in advertisements issued in leading

PM has a vision of creating a new India by 2022, he is saying that why not create a new World at the same time when we create a new India. Suresh Prabhu, Union Minister

It was a very enthusiastic speech, PM talked about how Indian ethos can be a global role model in today's conflicting times Dharmendra Pradhan, Union minister

It wasn't speech of a political leader but that of a statesman, a global leader. He gave a message that we are here not only to speak but what we speak is transformed into action Devendra Fadnavis, Maharashtra CM

PM gave an excellent speech. It is a historical day for India. PM gave very good message to global community especially on geopolitics, terrorism & environmental issues Chandrababu Naidu, AP CM

Modi spoke as a global statesman speaks not only about India but also globalisation & larger issues of climate change & terrorism. Yes, he spoke about reforms Rajan Mittal, VC & MD of Bharti Enterprises

dailies on Tuesday, said a person should not "donate in excess of Rs 2000 in cash to a registered trust/political party." This is the first public advisory that the department or its policy-making body-- the CBDT has issued vis-a-vis political donations.

Now, register marriage via video conference! The Kerala High Court has given its nod for marriage registration of couples living abroad through video conferencing Kochi: The Kerala High Court has given its nod for marriage registration of couples living abroad through video conferencing. Hearing a petition ﬁled by Kollam-native Pradeep and wife Beryly, who are currently living in the US, the High Court said the couple can appear before

the marriage registrar through videoconferencing. According to the petition,

their marriage was solemnised at the St Casimir’s Church at Kadavoor in Kollan on Janury

Highlighting the importance of unity in solving the various global problems, Modi stressed on the age-old mantra of 'Vasudhaika Kutumbam'. Con�nued on P6

Address of PM Modi at the World Economic Forum is a statesman's analysis of the global challenges and unfolding of India story Arun Jaitley, Union Finance Minister

‘Do not donate over `2K in cash to pol parties’ New Delhi: The Income Tax Department on Tuesday cautioned people against indulging in illegal cash transactions, including donating more than Rs 2000 to political parties. In a bid to clean up election funding, the government early this year had notified 'electoral

Indian scripture. “All of us, we are linked together as one family,” Modi said. “Our destiny is a common thread that links all of us.” The world has lost its “feeling of solidarity,” he added.

23, 2000. Pradeep, who was working in the Indian Space Research Organisation, later went to Ireland on o�cial assignment. He took his family with him. The company, in which Pradeep was working, shifted its base to the US in 2006. He, with this family, relocated to the US. The couple said in order to apply for permanent resident status in the US, they need to provide their marriage certificate issued by a competent authority. They filed an application before the Kollam Marriage Registrar through relatives.

4 IAS o�cers transferred OUR BUREAU Amaravati: Amaravati: Four IAS o�cers, including the Special Chief Secretary to the Labour and Employment Training department, have been transferred in the state. Special Chief Secretary to Labour and Employment Training department Neerabh Kumar Prasad was transferred and posted as special chief secretary, Transport, Roads & Buildings Department in the existing vacancy. He is also placed in Full Additional Charge (FAC) of the Labour department. Principal Secretary to General Administration Department (Services & HRM) Gopal Krishna Dwivedi has been transferred and posted as Principal Secretary, Animal Husbandry, Dairy Development & Fisheries Department, vice JSV Prasad transferred. Gopal Krishna Dwivedi is placed in FAC for the General Administration Department until further orders. On transfer, JSV Prasad was directed to report to the General Administration Department for further posting after expiry of

M Padma

AP Brahmin Welfare Corporation MD Padma has been posted as Executive Officer of Sri Durga Malleswara Swamy Varla Devasthanam, Vijayawada his leave. M Padma, who is Managing Director of the AP Brahmin Welfare Corporation, has been posted as Executive O�cer of Sri Durga Malleswara Swamy Varla Devasthanam, Vijayawada, in the existing vacancy. Padma is placed in FAC for the post of MD of Brahmin Welfare Corporation until further orders.

AP 52% villages not getting safe drinking water as yet

2 TODAY HEVALAMBI (1939) Ayana: Uttarayana Ritu: Shishira Masa: Magha Paksha: Shukla Tidhi: Saptami Nakshatra: Revati Durmuhurtham: 12:05 pm to 12:50 pm Raahukaalam: 12:28 pm to 01:52 pm

Varjyam: 04:23 am to 05:58 am ��

Thursday

NAMAAZ TIMINGS Fajr 5.34 am

Zohar Asr 12:28 4:31 pm pm

Maghrib Isha 6:07 7:22 pm pm

INDICES Sensex: NIFTY:

36,139.98 � 341.97 11,083.70 � 117.50

Gold (10g): � 31,170 � Silver (Kg): � 40,000

40 200

�

(Source: NVS)

WEATHER �� (Source: in.weather.com)

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� Chittoor district listed on the top with the highest habitations sans water supply � Government targets at least 737 of total 25,238 habitations to be provided safe drinking by 2017-18, but completed 286 only � 11 out of 13 districts in the State are fluoride-affected � Rs 21,968.50 crore has to be spent to provide 100 % drinking water connections K VARAPRASADA RAO Amaravati: Getting safe drinking water still remains a distant dream to thousands of habitations in rural Andhra Pradesh. According to fresh statistics of AP government, 52 per cent of rural population in the state is without 55 LPCD safe drinking water supply. Chief Minister’ home district Chittoor is listed at top with the highest habitations which are not getting safe drinking water. According to officials, 25,238 habitations across the state are not being provided 55LPCD safe drinking water. The state government has targeted that

at least 737 habitations have to be provided safe drinking by 2017-18, but it could provide drinking water to only 286 habitations by second week of January. However, government maintains that it performed better by providing 55% LPCD safe drinking water to 48 % habitations in the State than the national average of 46 per cent. Gujarat has the highest average of 99 per cent. Though citizens have a right to demand the government for safe drinking water, they are left to their fate. As per data of Union government, 11 of 13 districts in AP, in-

cluding Krishna, Guntur, Prakasam, Nellore, Chittoor, Kadapa, Kurnool, Anantapur and Srikakualmhave been identified as having fluoride levels in excess of 1.5 mg/I, which is the permissible limit as per drinking water standards of Bureau of Indian Standards. Besides, the nitrate content is above the permissible limit of 45 mg/I in all 13 districts in the state. Krishna, Guntur, Nellore, Chittoor, Kadapa, Kurnool and Visakhapatnam districts also have iron content of 0.5mg/I than the permitted level of 0.3 mg/I. As many as 5,003 habitations

in Chittoor district are not provided 55 LPCD safe drinking water which is the highest number in the state. Besides, 3,574 habitations in Visakhapatnam district, 2,804 habitations in Srikakulam, and above 2,000 habitations Kadapa and East Godavari are not covered with 55 LPCD of safe drinking water. The Twelfth Five Year Plan (2012-17) emphasized on piped water supply with the goal of providing at least 55 LPCD water within the household without barriers of social or financial discrimination. But, 46% in Nellore, 40% in East Godavari, 36% in Visakhapatnam, 35 % in Prakasam, 35 % in Guntur, 30% in Srikakulam, 26% habitations in Kurnool district are not fully covered of safe drinking water. According to the state government report, 25 % people in Guntur, Kurnool and East Godavari are not covered 55LPCD safe drinking water. The report also said 445 habitations across the state do not have safe source of water. Though it was estimated that Rs 21,968.50 crore has to be spent to provide 100 % drinking water connections to every household in the state, the government is spending Rs 1,400 crore only for providing water to 3,146 habitations.

No major change in minimum temperatures Hyderabad: The night temperatures were appreciably below normal at one or two places in the coastal districts and below normal at a few places in Rayalaseema during the last 24 hours ending at 8.30 am on Tuesday. The Met department bulletin said there was no large change in the minimum temperatures in both Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra regions. The lowest min-

imum temperature of 15 degrees Celsius was recorded in Bapatla, Kalingapatnam, Visakhapatnam and Arogyavaram. The other night temperatures recorded in the State were: Anantapur, Jangamaheswarapuram & Tirupati 16 each, Nandigama, Kadapa & Nandyal 17 each, Vijayawada & Kurnool 18 each,Kavali, Machilipatnam, Narsapur& Visakhapatnam 19 each, Kakinada, Nellore& Ongole 20 each.

AMARAVATI WEDNESDAY 24 JANUARY 2018

HRD Minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao taking part in the sixth convocation of JNTUK on Tuesday. JNTU Rector Purnanandam, Professor V S S Kumar and Registrar Subba Rao are also seen.

CM striving to provide quality education: Ganta � The focus is to turn the State into a knowledge hub � The HRD Minister participates in the sixth convocation programme of JNTU-K university � He says that 1,385 posts in all 14 universities will be filled OUR BUREAU Kakinada: Minister for Human Resources Development Ganta Srinivasa Rao has said that Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu has been striving to develop Andhra Pradesh into a knowledge hub though the state has been facing ﬁnancial crunch after bifurcation. The minister pointed out this when he participated in the sixth convocation of JNTU University here on Tuesday. Speaking on the occasion, Ganta has stated that a child without education is like a bird without wings. The government is spending Rs 23,209 crore every year to provide education from primary level to post-graduate level. Permission was given to ﬁll up 1,385 posts in all the 14 universities in the state with the aim of providing quality education and Rs 380 crores were sanctioned to develop infrastructure facilities in universities. In his speech, he quoted many names including Swamy Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi, Sachin Tendulkar, P V Sindhu and Malala Yousafzai and asked the students to aim high so that they can become great citizens.

On the occasion, another chief guest and Padma Shree awardee BVR Mohan Reddy has said that he felt very happy to come to Kakinada as he was one of the old students of the engineering college. He points out that receiving an honorary doctorate where he studied and spent the student life is the most exciting moment in his life. He says that 20 billion of things including humans and all types of devices are connected to the Internet. The technology will dominate the future and described that Internet of Things plays a major role in everybody’s life. He described ``Data” has become a lifeline to the world. They are spending 2 per cent of their company's proﬁts on digital literacy, he added. JNTU Kakinada Vice-Chancellor Professor V S S Kumar also spoke in the convocation meeting. Amalapuram MP Pandula Ravindra Babu, Rector Purnanandam, Registrar Subba Rao, JNTU former V-C Allam Appa Rao and others participated in the meeting. A total of 69 gold medals, 191 PhD degrees, 1, 01,715 B.Tech (2016-17), 10,200 M.tech degrees were awarded to the students.

AKNU takes over eight Kandukuri edn institutions OUR BUREAU Rajamahendravaram: All the eight educational institutions of Sri Kandukuri Veeresalingam Panthulu have been taken over by Adikavi Nannaya University (AKNU) along with teaching and non-teaching sta� and the long pending desire of the people of the historical city turned into a reality on Tuesday. Announcing the historical decision at a meeting held at Sri Kandukuri Rajyalakshmi College for Women here on Tuesday evening, HRD Minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao said the merger will help in development of the institutions and resolving the problems of the teaching and non-teaching sta�. Kandukuri Veeresalingam Panthulu started the institutions in 1907 and donated crores worth of properties to Hitakarini Samajam founded by him to run the institutions with 40 acres of land in the heart of the city. There are as many as 5,391 students studying in the educational institutions and nearly 200 teaching and non-teach-

� HRD Minister Ganta says the merger of the institutions with AKNU will not only help in development of the institutions but also resolve problems faced by teaching and non-teaching staff � Health Minister Kamineni says past glory will be restored to the institutions ing sta� in aided and un-aided category are employed in the institutions. The educational institutions are - Sri Kandukuri Rajya Lakshmi College for Women, Sri Kandkuur Veeresalingam Panthulu Degree College, Sri Kandukuri Veeresalingam Panthulu Junior College, Sri Kandukuri Veeresalingam Panthulu High School along with English Medium school, MBA College for women, DED college for women and girls hostel. Gantasaidtheuniversitywillworkout the salaries of the sta� and the teaching quality also will be improved. The edu-

cational institutions are a feather in the cap of the university. A massive meeting willbeorganisedshortlywithChiefMinister N Chandrababu Naidu to celebrate the event, he said. Minister for Health Dr Kamineni Srinivas said merging of the institutions is a great event and helps to bring past glory to the institutions. MP Maganti Murali Mohan said the long cherished desire of the people turned into a reality. University Vice-Chancellor Professor Murru Mutyala Naidu said the university would incur an annual expenditure of Rs 30 crore following the merger of the educational institutions. It is a pride for Nannaya University to take over the institutions started by great social reformer Kandukuri Veeresalingam Panthulu, he said. MLCs Somu Veerraju, Adireddy Appa Rao,Mayor Pantham Rajani Sesha Sai, MLAs Gorantla Butchaiah Choudary, Dr Akula Satyanarayana, Sub-Collector Sai Srikanth Varma and many others participated in the programme.

Misuse of funds alleged in CSI � Two members of Church of South India Trust Association accuse Krishna, Godavari Diocese Bishop of diversion and misappropriation of income from church properties � Demand the state govt to conduct a probe into the irregularities in church OUR BUREAU Vijayawada: Church of South India Trust Association (CSITA) members and stakeholders on Tuesday demanded action against on the Bishop of Krishna and Godavari Diocese Govada Daivaaseervadam and his associates for allegedly swindling money worth crores of rupees. They have alleged the Bishopwasviolatingtherules of the CSI and was not maintaining transparency in mat-

CSI council member Karanam Christopher addressing a media conference in Vijayawada on Tuesday tersrelatedtoincomeandexpenditure. Association members James Joel, V Christopher and others while addressingmediaatthePress ClubhereonTuesday,alleged incomedetailsoftheCSIwere manipulated by Daivaaseervadam and his associates. They said CSI has properties worth hundreds of crores rupeesinsouthIndiaandgets annualincomeincroresofrupees in the form rents and goodwill on the properties. The association members alleged that the Bishop had amassed crores of rupees and was leading a very lavish life

with the income earned on churches. They said when the British people left India in 1947, they had registered properties worthlakhsofcroresinsouth India to the church and constituted the CSITA to take care of them. Accusing the Bishop of diverting the incomeontheCSIpropertiesto other purposes, Joel and Christopher demanded that thestategovernmentconduct a detailed probe into the irregularitiescommittedbythe Bishop and his associates. They alleged the Bishop Govada had sold a property

worth Rs 20 crore in Eluru and other parts of the state against the rules of the CSI. They said the CBCID had identiﬁed the misappropriation of funds by the CSI executive committee and registered a case in this regard. They demanded the government to take measures to get back the properties from the Bishop and his associates and register them to the CSI for the beneﬁt of the poor Christians. They said the CBCIDhasalreadycollectedalot of information about the irregularitiescommittedbythe Bishop and his followers and hoped action would be taken against the guilty. The two trust members demanded a CBI probe into swindling of funds since the irregularities were committed in Tamil Nadualso.Representativesof various Christian organisationsattendedthepressmeet andnarratedhowincomewas misused and diverted by the executive committee.

CITY/REGION 3 Housing projects hit roadblock Lunch box at doorsteps AMARAVATI WEDNESDAY 24 JANUARY 2018

Thousands of poor wai�ng for construc�on of houses S APTIDCO to ﬁnalise tenders next month S

PATIBANDLA SRINIVAS Vijayawada: Of late, the capital city Amaravati is witnessing new trends not only in eating habits but also in lifestyle. Several local medium and small range entrepreneurs are introducing various innovative business ventures. A private jobs consultancy ﬁrm has started delivering lunch boxes at the doorsteps in the city. The service was started at Benz Circle in the city. The service provider is not only supplying food but also preparing. It o�ers 15 days, monthly cards, along with daily orders. It charges Rs 100 for each carriage, said Bharathi, an executive of the service provider. Similarly, another city-based entrepreneur launched Vijayawada Dabbawala service for supplying food packets or boxes to employees. The local businessmen introduced these new food services in the city in view of demand from Amaravati capital city. The entrepreneurs are thinking innovatively for creating a market for their ideas successfully. One B Srinivasa Raju of Ramakrishnapuram in Vijayawada city started Vijayawada Dab-

A private jobs consultancy ﬁrm started delivering lunch boxes at the doorsteps in the city at Benz Circle S The service provider is not only supplying food but also preparing.It charges `100 for each carriage, said Bharathi, an execu�ve of the service provider S

B Srinivasa Raju of Ramakrishnapuram in Vijayawada started Vijayawada Dabbawala service drawing inspira�on from Mumbai Dabbawala S The Dabbawala service was introduced two years ago for supplying carriages to employees at their door steps S

He charges `400 per month for delivering carriage S Nearly, 120 customers are u�lising the services from his establishment S

bawala service drawing inspiration from Mumbai Dabbawala service like carrying and delivering of lunch boxes. The service was introduced two years ago for supplying carriages to employees at their door steps. The citybased new entrepreneur made

e�orts to introduce something new for citizens. He charges Rs 400 per month for delivering carriage. Nearly, 120 customers are utilising the services from his establishment. More than 100 government o�ces were newly

established in the city limits due to shifting of sta� from Hyderabad to Vijayawada city. Several employees are utilising the services as per their convenience, the organisers said and added that now ti�n services are also being o�ered for employees.

Vijayawada: More than ﬁve months passed since foundation stone was laid for the construction of houses in Vijayawada by Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu and Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu, but no there was no progress in the construction of new houses for the poor. The two leaders laid the foundation in August 2017 for the construction of houses under PMAY. On the other hand, the TDP government will complete four years at the helm this summer. But it failed to take up housing project to resolve housing problems in the city. The Central government had sanctioned

Farmer extends deadline for suicide bid

Render justice to AgriGold victims: Justice Chandra Kumar

OUR BUREAU

OUR BUREAU Vijayawada: Retired judge of the High Court Justice B Chandra Kumar lashed out at the government for dragging its feet and deliberating postponing in resolving the AgriGold issue. Participating in a round-table conference on the issues pertaining to the victims of AgriGold here on Tuesday, where he was the chief guest, he said that the state government was falsely calming that the issue was pending in the court, which was not correct. More than 32 lakh victims were su�ering for the past three years and if the government takes initiative to solve any public issue, the courts would not have any objection, he added.. Addressing a gathering, Justice Kumar said that when the property value was more than the loan amount, the property should be sold and justice should be rendered to the victims. He said that the property value was Rs 8,000 crore and Rs 4,000 crore should be paid to 19.52 lakh victims. But the government was delaying things for no reason, he lamented. He mentioned that till now, around 180 victims committed suicide and the government had not taken any step to solve the issue. He urged the government to solve the issue by selling o� the property. Rendering justice to the victims was the ﬁrst and foremost duty of the government, he added. He complimented the AgriGold Customers and Agents Association (AGCAA) for ﬁghting against the government for the past three years to solve the issue. He further complimented the association for achieving exgratia for the victim families. National CPI secretary Dr K Narayana said the AgriGold property value was more and it could be sold easily, but till now nothing was done resulting in 180 suicides. He said that all the victims should further intensify the agitation to put pressure on the government to solve the issue without further delaying.

MD AMEEN

The accident site where a bike was hit by an RTC bus. Two bike-borne youth were killed on the spot at Ajjamuru check-post in Akiveedu mandal on Tuesday

Mishaps claim ﬁve lives OUR BUREAU Eluru: Five persons, including a two-year old, were killed in two separate accidents in West Godavari district on Tuesday. According to police, Jyosyula Suresh, a priest of Manepalli village in Gandepalli mandal in East Godavari, along with his daughters Jyosyula Nischala (two), Jyosyula Suvarchala, his sister Ponna Devi (30) and relative Poduri Surendra Raghunatha Kumar Sarma went to Vijayawada in a Nano car on Monday to hand over the ashes of Suresh’s wife, who died in a road accident two months ago, to his father-in-law Poduri Radhakrishna Murthy Sarma. Radhakrishna Murthy Sarma already reached Vijayawada by train and received the ashes from his son-in-law Suresh. Radhakrishna will be travelling to Kashi to immerse the ashes in the Ganges on Tuesday night. After handing over the ashes, Suresh, along with others, was returning to their native place and reached Anantapalli village

in Nallajerla mon Monday night around 11.40 pm. A speedy lorry hit the Nano car in which all the five members were travelling on National Highway. In this incident Ponna Devi (30), Jyosyula Nischala (two) died on the spot. On receiving information, police reached the spot and shifted the injured to Tadepalliugdem Government Hospital. However, Suresh succumbed to injuries on way to the hospital. The remaining Jyoshula Suvarchala, Poduri Surendranatha Kumar were seriously injured. On receiving information, Suresh’s father-in-law Radhakrishna Murthy Sarma cancelled his tour to Kashi and reached Anantapalli. The injured, who were admitted to Tadepaliugdem, later shifted to Rajahmahendravaram for better treatment. Anantapalli Sub-Inspector V Chandrasekhar registered a case. In another accident at Ajjamuru village in Akiveedu mandal in West Godavari district, two youth were killed on the spot when an APSRTC bus hit

their bike at the check post. The victims were identified as Md Shakeel (18) of Nagar Kurnool in Telangana State and Uda Nagarjuna (18) of Rachampalem in Prakasham district. Both attended a fish festival conducted at Fish Farm Training Centre at Krishi Vignana Kendram in Undi village on Monday. Shakeel was working as a lab technician in Karvyo Kick Biological Labs in Gudiwada. Nagarjuna was working as a salesman in GOWEL BioChemicals at Gudiwada. As the fish festival concluded in the night, both stayed in Bhimavaram and were proceeding towards Gudiwada on Tuesday on a bike. When they reached the check post at Ajjamuru in Akiveedu mandal, an APSRTC bus coming from Eluru-Narsapur hit their bike. In this incident, both died on the spot. Akiveedu SI Sudhakar Reddy and other police personnel reached the spot and sent the bodies to post-mortem. A case has been registered in Akiveedu police station.

Guntur: Mada Siva Prasanna Babu, a farmer hailing from Bukkapuram village under Nadendla mandal limits in Guntur district, went to the agriculture o�ce for a loan on Tuesday but in vain. It may be recalled that that farmer attempted suicide by dousing his body with petrol in the presence of District Collector Kona Sasidhar during the Grievances Redressal Day as he failed to get the bank loan here on Monday. The farmer was distraught that he had failed to get the loan for setting up a diary though Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu gave his approval for its sanction four months ago. The farmer extended the date of committing suicide to January 29, next Monday. Speaking to the media here on Tuesday, Prasanna Babu said, “I went to agriculture o�ce at the Collectorate for a bank loan here on Tuesday. The o�cials were present. I waited for them for a few hours and returned. The bank o�cials who assured loan to set up a dairy did not sanction loan. I have to repay Rs 7 lakh to the money lenders”. Contradicting Prasanna Babu’s claims, deputy director of horticulture department MG Devamuni Reddy said, “Siva Prasanna Babu availed Rs 1.10 lakh under the crop loan waiver scheme and took Rs 1.3 lakh crop loans from the bank. His wife got Rs 30,000 under the DWCRA loan. He availed various beneﬁts from the state government. Lead Bank Manager M Sudarshana Rao said: “We asked NABARD to sanction loan to Siva Prasanna Babu and it has agreed to sanction Rs 8 lakh loan for purchasing bu�aloes through the Grameena Bank.”

28,152 houses to Vijayawada city under PMAY and housing as part of Housing for All (HFA) scheme. So far, the revenue department handed over land for the construction of 10,000 houses at Jakkampudi village. The government is planning to construct G+7 buildings in three di�erent categories. The State and Central governments will sanction subsidy of Rs 3 lakh to each beneﬁciary. The state government had handed over the responsibility of constructing the houses to Andhra Pradesh Township and Infrastructure Development Corporation (APTIDCO). The department will monitor the works after ﬁnalising the tenders. The department had invited

tenders and it will finalise very soon. When contacted the chief engineer of APTIDCO M Srimannarayana said tenders will be finalised in the first week of February 2018 and e�orts were on to start the construction works. He said shear wall technology will be used for speedy construction of the houses. He said there will be no bricks and modern machinery will be used for speedy construction of sidewalls and slabs of the G+7 buildings, he added. Though the Central government sanctioned 28,152 housing units to Vijayawada, land is available for the construction of only 10,000 houses. The Vijayawada Municipal Corporation in association with the revenue department is trying to get land in Vemavaram village which is adjacent to Jakkampudi village for construction of another 16,000 houses which were sanctioned by the Central government.

SNIPPETS Electronic boards at Rytu Bazaars Vijayawada: The electronic boards would be set up at all the 20 Rytu Bazaars in Krishna district, said Collector B Lakshmikantham. He inspected the Rytu Bazaar at PWD grounds here on Tuesday. Speaking othe occasion, he said basic amenities would be provided in all Rytu Bazaars in the district. The Collector also said the public could know prices of vegetables from display boards. He suggested to the people to observe electronic weighing machines at the time of purchasing vegetables and asked them to complaint to the officials, if they find any irregularities. Especially, the government was taking steps to provide drinking water and maintaining hygiene, he said. The district administration is making plans to import onions from Maharashtra and construct cold storages in Kurnool district for stabilising prices, he said. The Collector assured to open second gate for Rytu Bazaar after discussing the police department. Marketing Yard superintendent M Venkateshwara Rao, estate officers R Ajay Kumar and V Koteshwara Rao were also present.

‘FRDI Bill rumours affect deposits in PDCC Bank’ Ongole: Rumours over the proposed Financial Resolution and Deposit Insurance (FRDI) Bill has affected the deposits in the bank, said Kande Srinivasulu, Chairman of Prakasam District Cooperative Central Bank (PDCCB) Limited. Celebrating the 100 days of his chairmanship and thanking the government, Srinivasulu explained various development programmes planned by the bank. He said that they are convincing the Andhra Pradesh Cooperative Bank (APCOB) to increase the annucal sanctions from Rs 300 crore to Rs 400 crore in 2018-19 and increasing the present Rs 300 crore Karshak Vikas Runa Pathakam loan amount to Rs 350 crore. He assured that the loan disbursement powers are given to the branch managers concerned only and asked the eligible farmers to approach the bank for loans. He said that the deposits in the bank were reduced to Rs 568.99 crore (reduced by Rs 23.03 crore). He said that rumours over gossip on the proposed FRDI Bill affected the bank as the customers are not coming forward to deposit money in the bank. He said that they are offering a 0.5 per cent more interest on the deposits than the corporate banks but are failing to attract new customers. He announced that the senior citizens will get one per cent more interest than the ordinary citizens while the retired employees of the bank get another 0.5 per cent interest more than the senior citizens.

VIDEO-CONFERENCING FACILITY LAUNCHED

Dream come true for Chaparai habitants OUR BUREAU Kakinada: District Collector Karthikeya Mishra on Tuesday launched the video conferencing facility for the tribals living in Chaparai Agency of Boddagandi village in Y Ramavaram mandal in East Godavari district. It may be recalled that this Agency hit the headlines in June 2017 when it was reported that some people died due to lack proper communication facilities for extending medical care. After this incident, the district administration immediately responded and took remedial measures. At the instance of Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, the District Collector took this issue as a challenge and provided communication facilities to the remote Agency habitations in the district. This dream of the people has come true on Tuesday by providing video conferencing fa-

CM LIKELY TO INTERACT WITH TRIBALS TODAY

District Collector Kartikeya Mishra interacting with students of Chaparai through a video conference from Kakinada on Tuesday cility to Chaparai village through AP Fibre Net.

Collector Kartikeya Mishra interacted with local people,

schoolchildren and other o�cials through video conference. Speak-

ing on the occasion, the Collector said that earlier, many of these tribal habitations were not having a road or communication connectivity. But now, with the e�ort of the state government, communication facilities were provided as the AP Fibre Grid has established its hub at Maredumilli, he added. Furthermore, the Collector said that from Maredumilli, this facility was extended to Chaparai, Banda and Jajivalasa habitations. He also said that with the usage of advanced Google X, they made it possible for better signal connectivity in these remote areas. Mishra informed that because of

this revolutionary leap, it would help the tribals to communicate in case of emergency and it is also possible to monitor sta� duties and to conduct digital classrooms. Mishra said that all the households in the village were provided with water taps, a local ration depot and an Anganwadi centre. He said that this facility would be extended to other 50 to 60 villages in a phased manner in the coming days. He said that Chief Minister Chandrababu who was on the Davos tour is likely to interact with Chaparai people on Wednesday through a video conference.

4 NBW issued against MLA, three others Srikakulam: Judicial First Class Magistrate (JFCM) court at Kotturu issued non-bailable warrant (NBW) against Pathapatnam MLA K Venkata Ramana and three others on Tuesday. According to information, while he was in YSRCP, the MLA, along with party workers, organised an agitation against state government’s decisions on 9th June 2015 at Hiramandal mandal headquarters. They staged agitation on Alikam to Battili Road and stopped vehicles. They also burnt the e�gy of Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu. At that time Hiramandal Sub-Inspector E Srinivas registered cases against MLA and 12 others. On Tuesday, the MLA and three others did not attend the court for trial and court considered their absence as serious and issued NBW. The others against whom NBW was issued are S Mohan Rao of Meliaputti, P Ravi of Kotturu and S Kishore Babu of L N Peta mandal headquarters.

AP SRIKALAHASTI TEMPLE

Mahasivaratri Brahmotsavams from Feb 8 to 20 OUR BUREAU

Nellore: BJP leaders staged protest in front of the APIIC zonal o�ce in the city on Tuesday demanding handing over of unused lands to the tune of 18,000 acres to the farmers. They said that farmers had handed over the lands with the hope that their children would get jobs in industries and corporate organisations. But their hopes were dashed with non-utilisation of lands. The BJP leaders pointed out that APIIC acquired lands up to 18,000 acres and allotted them to corporate organisations. Krishnapatnam Port was given 6,800 acres, Krishnapatnam Infratech 4,731 acres, Power Corporation Limited 1,033 acres, Kenetta Power Limited 840 acres, Krishnapatnam International leather Park 536 acres, and Reliance Coastal Andhra Power Limited was given 2,411 acres. In addition, other companies were also given lands by the government. Further, they said that around 2,000 acres of lands are under the possession of some corporate organisations. The companies have

Tirupati: Mahasivaratri Brahmotsavams will be held in a grand manner at Srikalahasti this year with foolproof arrangements. The Utsavams will be held from February 8 to 20. Devotees visiting Srikalahasti temple on Mahasivaratri day, which falls on February 13, will have ‘Maha Laghu Darshan’ only and this applies for both VIPs along with ordinary devotees. It was decided at a high-level committee meeting at the temple on Tuesday chaired by the District Collector PS Pradymuna, that Maha Laghu Darshan will be provided continuously without a break from 3 am on February 13 to 6 am the next day. Speaking to the media, Collector Pradyumna said, “Last year 1.5 lakh devotees visited the temple to worship Kalahasteeswara Swamy on Sivaratri day and this number may cross two lakh this year. This necessitates the need

BJP: Take back lands lying unused under industries OUR BUREAU

AMARAVATI WEDNESDAY 24 JANUARY 2018

mortgaged these valuable lands and got Rs. 20,000 crore with guarantee from the government. They utilised only 25 per cent of the lands and remaining lands were being kept idle. The leaders expressed ire over enjoyment of lands without any tangible e�orts for setting up industries. In fact, the lands had to be handed over to the government if the organisations fail to utilise them within 3 years, as per rule book. The West Bengal state government handed over such lands in Singur to the farmers. The lands were acquired for Tata Group for its proposed car making unit and the state government there took signiﬁcant step after directions from the High Court and the Supreme Court, the leaders pointed out. The BJP leaders demanded to follow the judgment and handover the lands to the farmers in the district too in the interest of farmers. If necessary, APIIC can acquire again as per existing rules, they said. BJP State General Secretary S Suresh Reddy, leaders A Srinivasulu, M Ramesh, M Srinu, and others were present.

SPECIAL CATEGORY STATUS

AP Cong seeks Rahul help New Delhi: APCC president N Raghuveera Reddy and former MLC Rudraraju met AICC President Rahul Gandhi here on Tuesday. Later, they told the media that they had urged Rahul Gandhi to mount pressure on the Centre to implement assurances under AP Reorganisation Act, 2014. They said that they had brought to the notice of Gandhi that the Centre had failed in granting the Special Category Status to the State which would have helped the State to develop in all aspects. Lack of seriousness on part of Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu in securing the Centre's nod had deprived the State of a golden opportunity to develop. The people of the State have been deprived of the beneﬁts under SCS.

Maha Laghu Darshan to be implemented on the occasion of Mahasivaratri on February 13 as about 2 lakh devotees are expected to have darshan of Sri Kalahasteeswara Swamy

District Collector PS Pradymuna holding a highlevel meeting with the temple and other o�cials at Srikalahasti on Tuesday in connection with the arrangements for Mahasivaratri to implement only Maha Laghu darshan like last year to facilitate more devotees to have darshan. VIPs also will have darshan along

YSRCP criticises CM for numerous foreign tours OUR BUREAU Amaravati: The YSRCP has demanded the government to release a White paper on the expenditure incurred for the foreign trips of Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu during his tenure in office and the resultant investments that have flown into the state. The party spokesperson Bathula Brahmananda Reddy said, ``the Chief Minister visited foreign countries on 17 occasions during his term so far. He used chartered flights and his entourage has been a big contingent. But there has been no positive and tangible response in terms of inflow of capital investments for setting up of industries or even creation of employment.” ``Chandrababu Naidu toured Singapore, Japan, China, US, UK, Switzerland, UAE, South Korea and other countries for 17 times taking with him his coterie and bureaucrats using public money and the entire exercise has yielded no positive results,’’ he criticised.

with others and there will be no special arrangements for them. Every devotee should feel happy after darshan.”

Apart from large number of static cameras, 10 drones will be pressed into service this year for surveillance and to prevent un-

Amaravati: Minister for Municipal Administration P Narayana alleged that YSR Congress president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy was eager to forge an alliance with the BJP only to get shielded from CBI and ED cases filed against him. Speaking to reporters at the Secretariat on Tuesday, Narayana said Jaganmohan Reddy was interested in only to get the cases ﬁled against him cleared and not in protecting interests of the State. “Jaganmohan Reddy said he was ready to tie up with the BJP in the next elections if the Centre announced Special Category Status to AP. Jagan was never keen on the Special Category

� The Opposition leader enters Nellore district on the 69th day of his Praja Sankalpa Yatra � The YSRCP to organise ‘Walk with Jagananna’ on Jan 29 on the occasion of Jagan completing 1,000 km of his Padayatra � Party activists will take part in Padayatra in all 13 district headquarters

OUR BUREAU Nellore: On the ﬁrst day of his Praja Sankalpa Yatra in Nellore district, YSR Congress chief YS Jaganmohan Reddy met various sections of people like women, elderly, farmers and children on Tuesday. He entered the district after covering Reddygunta Badava and Suramala in Satyavedu constituency and entered the Sullurpet constituency. Party activists and leaders welcomed him at the border with Purna Kumbham and Harathi at PCT Kandriga. He initially met women at Punabaka in Pellakur mandal and enquired with them about their conditions and ex-

YSR Congress chief YS Jaganmohan Reddy taking out padayatra in Sullurpet in Nellore district on Tuesday plained on what the YSRCP would do if it is voted to power. He reiterated that they would extend a ﬁnancial assistance of Rs 15,000 to each family which sends their children to the schools. He also assured the elderly that they would provide old-age pension of Rs 2,000. He had lunch in the village and received grievances from the local people. Representatives of 108 Contract Employees

Status. He always focused on getting cases filed against him cleared,” he said. Narayana also flayed the Opposition leader for his comments against the government on capital construction. “Jagan is trying to mislead people by saying repeatedly that there was no progress in capital city works. He is denying the facts. He should visit capital area before he makes comments against the government. People know what the government is doing to expedite the capital city works,” he said. Earlier, Narayana visited construction works of housing complex for MLAs and NGOs in Amaravati and directed APCRDA officials to speed up the works.

Jagan has no moral right to demand resignation: Adi OUR BUREAU Kadapa: Marketing Minister C Adi Narayana Reddy has said that YSR Congress president YS Jaganmohan Reddy has no moral right to demand the resignation of MLAs who won the election with YSR Congress ticket in 2014 elections. Addressing the media persons here on Tuesday, he says that the MLA who quit the YSR Congress need not resign, because in the past Nellore MP Mekapati Rajamohan Reddy and Visakhapatnam MP Sabbam Hari who had won the election under Congress banner in 2009 General elections, joined the YSR Congress and resumed their political activity without resigning from Congress party. The minister says the that he won the election with his own personal image from Jammalamadugu constituency, but not with the image of the YSR Congress. He recalled that his family was responsible for strengthening Congress in Jammalamadugu constituency. If YSR family is having good rapport, then why Ramana Reddy who contested the

He strongly advocated that steps will be taken to prevent child marriages. “There is no reference to child marriages in epics and it was not our culture or tradition. Due to some false propaganda child marriages were taking place on Mahasivaratri day which have to be stopped. It was learnt that last year no such case was reported and the same should continue this year also at any cost”, Pradyumna clariﬁed. He instructed the temple authorities that no devotee should be subjected to any kind of hardship and the arrangements should reﬂect those made during Krishna Pushkaralu. Earlier, the Collector worshipped Kalahasteeswara Swamy and Gnana Prasunamba along with Joint Collector Girisha. Temple EO D Bhramaramba received them and made darshan arrangements. Along with them, ASP Swamy, DSP Satyanarayana and other temple o�cials participated in the review meeting.

Jagan promises corporation for Yadavas

‘Jagan for tie-up with BJP only to shield himself from cases’ OUR BUREAU

toward incidents in view of the huge turnout of devotees. Last year only two drones were used and with them the police were able to catch the chain snatchers also. A control room will be established from where the Collector and Superintendent of Police can monitor the situation. Medical camps will be set up and ambulances will be kept ready to meet any exigencies. Temple authorities will arrange 20 mini buses to help the pilgrims come to the temple from bus stand and railway station and private buses and big vehicles will not be allowed into the town during the festival days. Sanitation also will be given a top priority during the festival and for this 300 sanitation sta� will be deployed from February 11 itself. “Through missing child tracking system, all children will be tracked by tagging them so that missing children movements can be easily traced out”, said Collector.

election from Proddaturu constituency was defeated in the hands of Varadarajula Reddy, he asked. The minister recalled that YSR Congress was not popular in the initial stage as it was not having even one ZPTC, MPTC in the district. At the time, his brother C Narayana Reddy contested the election and won the MLC seat. All the MLAs who quit the YSR Congress won the election with their own image but not under party banner, he claims. Adinarayana Reddy found fault with Jaganmohan Reddy announcement at Srikalahasti that YSRCP will support BJP if Prime Minister Narendra Modi assured for providing special status to Andhra Pradesh. Why Jaganmohan Reddy did not raise the issue in the past, he asked. “Jagan Reddy has no moral right to question the credibility of Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, as he was responsible for looting the public money in various methods during his father regime,” the minister further said. He asserts that TDP will win in the forthcoming 2019 elections as the people of the state are happy with Chandrababu Naidu government.

Union met the YSR chief at P T Kandriga village and handed over their representation. They pointed out that they have been working for last 12 years, helping people day and night but the salary they receive is below 15,000. Jagan assured that he will take necessary steps to improve living conditions of the ambulance employees once the YSR Congress forms government in the State.

Local VRAs also met the Opposition leader and explained about their ﬁnancial di�culties. Even though they were working on par with regular employees they were being paid a meagre salary of Rs 6,000 per month. After lunch, representatives of Yadava association met Jagan and explained about their demands. He addressed them for a few minutes and assured that they would form Yadava Corporation soon after coming to power. He was warmly welcomed in Chemedu where women and Asha workers greeted him. He concluded his Yatra at Ummalapet where he stayed overnight. Further, the YSR Congress planned mega State-wide campaign "Walk with Jagananna" on completion of 1000-km mark by YS Jaganmohan Reddy in the district on January 29. In all 13 district headquarters of Andhra Pradesh, walk will be held in line with the completion of his 1,000 km Yatra. MP Mekapati Rajamohan Reddy, legislators K Govardhan Reddy, Gowtham Reddy, Prathap Reddy and others were present.

WHEN KAPUS GET BC TAG, THE DAY IS REAL FEST: MUDRAGADA Guntur/Chirala: Former minister and Kapu Reservation Porata Samiti (KRPS) leaderMudragada Padmanabham said when Kapus gets BC-F certificatefrom the revenue o�cials, that day would be a real festival for them.While proceeding to Chirala, the Kapu leader spoke to reporters atPonnurin Guntur district on Tuesday. He expressed confidence that Chief MinisterN Chandrababu Naidu will implement Kapu reservations and keep up hiselection promise.“Some states are implementing more than 50 per cent reservations andthe state government is releasing notifi-

cations to fillvacancies in various government departments. If reservations areimplemented and B C -F certificate is given, Kapu youth will bebenefited,’’ he said. He requested the Chief Minister N ChandrababuNaidu to try to get reservations for Kapus in the Central governmentjobs also and send proposals to this effect to the Centre. In Chirala, Padmanabham visited residence of AmanchiSwamulu, brother of MLA Amanchi Krishna Mohan who has been bedridden since he met with an accident a few months ago. He also met Chirala MLA Krishna Mohan.

Forest o�cial caught with woman in house

AMARAVATI WEDNESDAY 24 JANUARY 2018

Lokesh invites investors to state ...meets PayPal vice-prez, explains importance accorded to IT by govt

� Following demand by students and neighbours, Kurnool DFO Venkateswara Rao and the woman were shifted to police station � CI says further action will be taken based on the facts OUR BUREAU Kurnool: Kurnool divisional forest officer (DFO), vigilance wing, B V Venkateswara Rao was caught red-handed with a woman in his rented house by Taluka police on Tuesday. He, along with the woman, was shifted to police station. According to sources, Venkateswara Rao is staying alone in a rented house adjacent to pump house near Masa Masjid while his family resides in Hyderabad. They would visit him occasionally. However, neighbours of the DFO, who noticed frequent visits by a woman to his house when he was alone, suspected something fishy. Some of his neighbours, who on learning of the woman in Venkateswara Rao’s company in the house on Tuesday, leaked the matter to some student activists. A

student leader named Sri Ramulu, accompanied by some students, attacked the residence of DFO and tried to expose the activity. Sri Ramulu alleged that the police were trying to save the DFO by misrepresenting the facts. But Taluka police, who learnt about the situation, rushed to the spot and tried to call out the DFO. However, Venkateswara Rao refused to come out for three hours. Later, when he opened the door, he and the woman he was with, were taken into custody by police and shifted to police station. Taluka police station circleinspector Vasu Krishna told The Hans India that they had taken him into custody and were trying to ascertain the facts. “Investigation is under way and will register a case based on the facts,” he said.

Modi should be reined in: Vundavalli OUR BUREAU Rajamahendravaram: Former MP Vundavalli Arun Kumar said the country would have to experience many a problem if Prime Minister Narendra Modi returned to power in the next general elections. Addressing media here on Tuesday, the former MP said the second term for Modi would even distabilise the existing institutions of the nation. Hence, he stressed the need to ‘rein in’ him in the next polls. He said only God can know what happens to the state if TDP and BJP go for elections with alliance. Stating that how can the state government allot construction works of Polavaram project without inviting tenders, he said there was no hope of completing the project in near future. He advised Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu to stop playing dual role on Polavaram project.

Jagan’s padayatra aimless: Atchannaidu OUR BUREAU Srikakulam: Transport Minister K Atchannaidu has criticised that YSRCP chief YS Jaganmohan Reddy’s Padayatra is aimless and useless. After attending ZP general body meeting here on Tuesday, the minister addressed a press conference. He points out that crowd has been reducing gradually and village to village during Jagan’s yatra. Minister questioned why Jagan has failed to stick on to his words on resignation of YSRCP MPs for the cause of special category status (SCS) to AP. With an aim to get free from all criminal cases, he is maintaining relations with BJP. Due to the reason, he is unable put pressure on BJP for SCS. ``Why Jagan has failed to put a pre-condition to BJP on SCS to AP before voting in favour of BJP supported candidates in President and VicePresidents elections previously. Jagan is worried over massive migrations from his party to TDP,’’ Atchannaidu asked. Government whip K Ravi Kumar, MP K Rammohan Naidu, ZP Chairperson Ch Dhanalaxmi and TDP MLAs were present at the press meet.

IT minister Nara Lokesh meeting with PayPal vice-president Richard Nash at Davos on Tuesday

� The IT Minister, on the second day of CM's delegation Davos visit, participates in panel discussion and explains about infrastructure facilities available in the State OUR BUREAU Amaravati: The AP government has been creating investmentfriendly environment and encouraging the industrial sector, explained Minister for IT Nara Lokesh in a panel discussion in Davos on Tuesday. He pointed out that interlinking of rivers in the State helped in addressing water problems.

On the second day of Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and his delegation’s trip to Davos to attend the World Economic Forum summit 2018, a Business Breakfast Session Industrial Corridors in India: Demand-led Planning and Financing – An Interactive Plenary by PwC and CII – was held. Nara Lokesh addressed the meeting which primarily focused on discussing India’s Industrial corridors which will provide opportunities for manufacturing companies, infrastructure developers and financiers. State has sufficient and even surplus power supply for industries and domestic, he said and explained about the incentives that have been offered by State

government to the industries. ``Andhra Pradesh is fortunate to have two industrial corridors: the VisakhapatnamChennai Industrial Corridor and the Bangalore-Chennai Industrial Corridor,” he said. ``Amaravati is a greenfield urban centre, and farmers have come forward to help land pooling and to build the capital under Land Pooling Scheme. The value that is being generated in Amaravati will be given back to them,” he said. The minister explained the development of clusters for the growth of the electronics and solar energy sectors and mentioned that Anantapur is now a hub of industrial activity. ``We are now working on linking of rivers to provide wa-

BJP minister dismisses talk of electoral alliance with YSRCP � Says how can the ‘honest’

PM can be seen with ‘corrupt’ Jagan � A meeting will be held on Kolleru on Feb 6 and 7 to discuss the problems of its residents � DMHOs have been directed to check urban health centres five-six times every week and submit a report on their functioning

OUR BUREAU Eluru (West Godavari district): Health minister and BJP leader Kamineni Srinivas said that the BJP had no proposal for any alliance with YSRCP in the next elections. Addressing media here on Tuesday, the minister said that the people gave a mandate for five years to the TDP-BJP alliance in the state and still oneand-a-half year time was left for the completion of the tenure. “I am not competent to speak on the prospects of BJP-YSRCP alliance. However, to my knowledge, there is no such proposal between the two parties. (YSRCP president Jaganmohan Reddy has made his statement on the alliance. However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP national president Amit Shah have to take a decision on the alliance,” he said .

TET aspirants gherao Ganta for date change Kakinada: Human Resources Development Minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao was gheraoed here on Tuesday. Ganta visited the city to participate in the sixth convocation of the JNTU held at a private hotel here. After the conclusion of the convocation, he went to the hotel. Knowing that the HRD Minister was in the hotel, hundreds of TET aspirants gathered at the hotel and blocked the road. They raised slogans like ‘We want justice’ and ‘We need the postponement of the exam.’ The police tried to stop the students and were unable to stop them as the majority of the TET aspirants who gathered at the hotel were girls. They gheraoed the Minis-

OUR BUREAU

ter’s vehicle and protested against the government. They said that the syllabus for the TET exam was changed and they do not have enough time to prepare for TET. Minister Ganta asked the o�cials to allow some of the students who are protesting and told them that the TET exam was once postponed and it is not possible to postpone the exam again. Ganta further made it clear that candidates who are seeking conduct of the examination are more in numbers than who are asking to postpone it. He suggested to them to prepare well for the exam instead of demanding postponement. He said that he would discuss the postponement issue with the o�cials.

Amaravati: IT Minister Nara Lokesh held a meeting with PayPal vice-president Richard Nash in Davos on Tuesday and invited them to invest in a big way in the State in Information and Technology sector. Responding to the Minister, Richard explained that they have been planning to strengthen their presence in the country and will invest in Andhra Pradesh. The PayPal engaged in FinTech services in India. Lokesh informed that after bifurcation of the united AP, the state government in residuary state has intensified usage of technology in large scale in administration and encouraging public to take advantage of IT in doing business. He further explained that they have been taking initiatives for development of IT and FinTech sectors in the State. The AP has been giving generous incentives and brought ter to various parts of the state which have been deprived of it”, he said. Water was made available to Anantapur and immediately Kia Motors came there. AP has created a positive and an enabling environment for industrial development, he added. The panel discussion was

But he hastened to add that the BJP was not ready for such alliance. “As far as I am concerned, the BJP-YSRCP alliance is not acceptable. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is an honest and sincere leader who served the people with commitment. As far as Jagan is concerned, he has looted the poor people also in the state. How can we see an honest person and the corrupt person side by side?”, h said. Srinivas said that the Centre had assured to solve the problems being faced by Kolleru people. “We are discussing with the Centre about the issue and a meeting will be held on February 6 and 7 on Kolleru where a favourable decision will be taken,” he added. The health minister said that he had directed the district

medical and health officers in the state to inspect five to six urban health centres (UHC) every week and submit a report on the functioning. He said in line with Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu’s aim of extending medical facilities to every person, UHC have been developed and small ailments like fever, cough and cold would be treated in these centres. As many as 222 UHCs are functioning in the state and 30 clinical tests would be conducted in these centres. He said the doctors will treat the patients of nearby places and tele-consultancy has been introduced in these centres. As more than 1,000 outpatients are visiting government hospitals per day, it has been decided to set up these UHCs in every municipal town and city nearer to

the poor people. Earlier, he visited the UHC in Tangellamudi and expressed his ire over the absence of the staff. He found all the rooms empty with no employee attending to the duties. He immediately phoned the DMHO and asked about the maintenance and lack of staff in the UHC. He directed her to visit the UHCs five to six times in a week and submit a report. He also noted that there was not even a sign board for the UHC. MLA Badeti Kota Rama Rao(Bujji), Eluru municipal commissioner A Mohan Rao, AMC chairman Pujari Niranjan, corporator Dakarapu Rajeswara Rao, TDP leader R N R Nageswra Rao and others accompanied the minister during the inspection of the UHC.

held at Dovarstube Hall, Morosani Posthotel, and the panellists were included Manish Agarwal, Leader of Capital Projects & Infrastructure, PwC India, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, CEO of NITI Aayog Amitabh Aayog, Shobhana Kamineni, President of CII and Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General of CII.

Panel to look into woes of Pharm-D graduates � The new panel with

representatives from the depts concerned will submit report in 45 days � Pharm-D students are seeking creation of new cadre in govt hospitals to provide jobs to them

OUR BUREAU

Health minister Kamineni Srinivas expressing anger at absence of sta� at urban health centre during his visit in Tangellamudi in West Godavari district on Tuesday

innovative policies to encourage the industries in the State. The government has bringing the lands of Amaravati under the Blockchain Technology, which would not allow anybody to tamper the land records, Lokesh informed. He further said that as they brought entire lands under the Blockchain Technology, the disbursement of loans for farmers became very easy. The visiting minister explained that the Government has been working with Visa company to make Visakhapatnam as Cashless city in the State and is yielding good results. The government already brought all the departments into cashless transactions system, he added. Under the Smart Village concept, the government has been already working with PayPal, he recalled. He added that the government will provide full support in any initiative of PayPal in Andhra Pradesh.

Vijayawada: The state government has decided to appoint special committee to streamline the education system and is exploring possibilities to utilise the services of doctor of pharmacy (Pharm D) students. The principal secretaries of health and higher education departments, commissioner, technical education, director general, drugs department, NTR Health University vice-chancellor, director of medical education are the members of the committee. Health minister Kamineni Srinivas gave assurance in this regard to Pharm-D students here on Tuesday when they met him seeking solution to their problems. The Pharm-D students have been agitation for a long time seeking creation of a separate cadre of clinical pharmacists in all the government hospitals to provide employment to them. The students said nearly 20,000 students had completed their course in the last 10 years but their services were not being utilised anywhere in the medical and health system. The minister said there were nearly 220 Pharm-D colleges in

Pharm-D students meeting Minister Kamineni Srinivas and Anantapur MLA V Prabhakara Chowdary in Vijayawada on Wednesday the state but the course was introduced without proper exercise by the then Congress government. Now the students are facing challenges from lack of employment, he said and added that the course was being considered related to neither health education nor technical education. The students are having equal qualiﬁcation with regular medicine students but they are not getting justice, he noted. However, the committee will study all problems and conditions of Pharm-D students and submit its report in the next 45 days, the minister reiterated. He also said that he would discuss the issue with human resources department minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao soon. Srinivas further assured to utilise the services of Pharm-D students in health department by taking suggestions from newly-appointed committee. The students of various colleges submitted memorandum detailing their problems.

NATIONAL GIRL CHILD DAY TODAY

Female population size remains low in AP VKL GAYATRI Visakhapatnam: Though the government has been implementing several programmes to increase the female population on par with the male population, there has been no signiﬁcant improvement in Andhra Pradesh. Stressing the importance of conserving the girl population, the Central government has already announced a day (January 24) as National Girl Child Day. According to the available statistics, there are 945 females against 1,000 male population in the state. The literacy rate of the female is also not much encouraging. Due

to lack of coordination between the government agencies and due to the poor implementation of welfare programmes meant for girls, the female population growth rate has not been increasing in AP. According to data available, there are 2.50 crore males and 2.47 crore females in the state. As per government records, the female literacy rate is also very less when compared to the male literacy rate. The male literacy is 80.5 per cent while the female literacy rate is still 59 per cent in the state. The West Godavari District girls are in the top in literacy with 72 per cent while Vizianagaram district stood in the last position

� The growth of female population has not been encouraging owing to lack of coordination between govt agencies � State lags in female literacy rate too with 59% as against 80.5% for males with 50 per cent of literacy rate. The East Godavari district tops in the female population with 965 females against 1,000 males; while Kadapa district is in the lowest po-

sition with 936 females against 1,000 males populace. “There is a major change in the mindset of the people. The young couples are not seeking for a male

baby. They are giving equal priority for girl or boy. However, still there are some sentiments in the rural population. If we observe the girl birth rate in India in the past one decade, there is a big gap between males and females. There are no any scientiﬁc studies on the issue. But in China, some of the scientists are studying the reasons about the decline of the girl birth rate,” said noted Gynaecologist K Rukmini Devi here on Tuesday. According to the statistics in 2016, the birth rate has shot up to 18 per 1,000 people and the death rate has declined from 9.8 to 7. The life span of the people increased from 59 to 68.5 (male) and 69.8 (female) years in the state.

NEWS

AMARAVATI WEDNESDAY 24 JANUARY 2018

Naidu invites Saudi Aramco to invest in Andhra Pradesh Adilabad dist still in grip of cold wave OUR BUREAU Hyderabad: It seems that there is no respite from the biting cold conditions at many places in Adilabad district for the second day on Tuesday. The lowest minimum temperature of 7 degrees Celsius was recorded in Adilabad, the same as that prevailed on Monday. The Met department bulletin said the night temperature in Telangana rose appreciably ranging from 2.1 to 4 degrees Celsius at one or two places during the last 24 hours. They were markedly below normal by 5 degrees Celsius or less. The other night temperatures recorded in the State were: Medak 12, Bhadrachalam, Hakimpet & Khammam 13 each, Hyderabad, Nizamabad & Ramagundam 16 each, Hanamkonda, Mahbubnagar & Nalgonda 17 each.

OUR BUREAU Amaravati: Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has requested petro major Saudi Aramco to invest in petro-reﬁnery industry in the state. Following up with a meeting that was held during his trip last year, Naidu on Tuesday met Saudi Aramco Vice President (International Operations) Said AlHadrami and explained that the Ease of Doing Business in the state has been improving consistently. The Chief Minister explained to the company o�cials about the speed at which the projects have been implemented in Andhra Pradesh, and invited the company to the Partnership Summit in Vizag to be held in February. Hadrami said he was impressed at the e�orts taken by the AP government to attract investors and assured him that their team would meet with the government at the end of this month. The AP has potential for establishment and growth of petroleum reﬁnery companies, Naidu

Former MP Vundavalli Arun Kumar speaking to reporters in Rajamahendravaram on Tuesday

Jagan paints himself into a corner: Vundavalli OUR BUREAU AP Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu with Saudi Aramco Vice-President Said A Al-Hadrami in Davos on Tuesday said, adding that vast petroleum deposits are available in the Krishna Godavari basin and the state has a vast coast of 974 km. He said the government would develop the Krishnapatnam port as the logistics hub to facilitate exports and commercially helpful for the reﬁnery sector. The HPCL and Gail India Ltd have been functioning in AP successfully, he added. The Indian Institute of Petroleum and Energy,

Central Institute of Plastics Engineering and Technology will be established to improve skills and develop human resources, Naidu elaborated. The Saudi Aramco has already expressed its interest to establish a unit in Krishnapatnam. The delegates of the company visited two times the state in the last year to study the feasibility in establishing the company. The Saudi Aramco company

PK exhorts fans to get set for a long journey OUR BUREAU Karimnagar: Gird up your loins, Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan told his followers, gearing them up for what he calls a ‘long journey’. In his opening remark, addressing his followers on Tuesday, he reiterated why he had to start his political campaign from Kondagattu. If Andhra had given me birth, it was Telangana that gave me rebirth, he said, expressing his a�nity and attachment for the region, its people and their dialect. “Jai Telangana slogan inspires me as much as Vande Mataram. The slogan signiﬁes Telangana people’s struggle and their perseverance,” he said. Elaborating his party’s sevenpoint principle, he said there was an imperative need for understanding the role of caste in Indian politics, thus breaking the tradition of power being re-

stricted to some upper castes. “Social justice is not just all about giving political space to all castes but allowing the entire communities ﬂourish on par with that of already developed,” he said. Dwelling at length on his party

line, he mentioned the need for secular politics, ﬁght against corruption, protection of culture, nationalism with due respect to regionalism etc. Further, Pawan Kalyan said he would announce his party line and activity before March 14. “Telangana is just about fouryear-old, and it needs to be fostered. At the moment, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, whom I like immensely, is adept in dispensing good governance,” Pawan Kalyan said. He said the Jana Sena Party would like to play constructive politics. The party would not only point out the loopholes in the governance but also try to provide solutions, he said, asserting that his party would contest 2019 elections in both AP and Telangana. “I may di�er with the present establishments in AP and Telangana, but it’s not my style of func-

Ramp up tax-GDP ratio: V-P OUR BUREAU Hyderabad:Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu said the country needed to signiﬁcantly ramp up its tax to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio to give shape to a modern and 21centruy government. This was important for the country to o�er basic public goods and to provide social security to the citizens, he said. He was speaking as the chief guest at the inaugural session of a two-day national seminar on ‘Contemporary Issues and Challenges in Finance, Marketing and Taxation’, organised by the Department of Commerce, Keshav Memorial Institute of Commence and Sciences, here on Tues-

day. He termed the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) as the biggest ever tax reform since Independence, adding, “India has ﬁnally become one-country and one market.” It also demonstrated the victory of a bipartisanship in the democratic and federal setup of the country. The GST, in its application, had made compliance easy for business and traders and lead to further improvement of Ease of Doing Business (EDB) in the country. Naidu pointed out, “India’s tax to GDP ratio was 16.6 per cent in FY2017 when compared with 26.0 per cent in the USA, 20.1 per cent in China, and 34.3 per cent in OECD countries.”

of renewable energy by 2022 and said 60 gigawatts have been produced in the past three years. Trump pulled the US out of the Paris Climate Accord last summer, making the US the only country that isn’t pledging to reduce its carbon emissions in the coming years. Trump has stacked his cabinet with climate-change deniers and former coal executives. The world’s second biggest challenge is terrorism, Modi said, but didn’t dwell on the subject for too long. He identiﬁed terrorism, and the radicalization of people in many societies, as the secondbiggest threat. Without providing concrete examples, he criticized world powers for, in his eyes, making the problem worse by artiﬁcially distinguishing between "bad terrorists" and "good terrorists." The third is the protectionist turn some countries are taking. “Many societies and countries are becoming more and more focused on themselves,” Modi said. “It feels like the opposite of globalization is happening.” He added, in closing, that “India considers the entire world its family,” and the assembled Davos leaders

Hitachi to set up E-Gov platform in state OUR BUREAU Amaravati: An MoU was signed to facilitate the development of the Hitachi MGRM Citizen Lifecycle E-Governance platform in Andhra Pradesh, said minister for IT Nara Lokesh’s o�ce here in a release on Thursday. As per the MoU entered in Davos by the Hitachi India Ltd and AP Economic Development Board (APEDB), the HIL is committed to input its respective strengths and advantages in terms of technology. The uniqueness and ability to combine extensive proﬁciencies in Operational Technology (OT) with over 50 years of experience in Information Technology (IT) to create novel solutions to social problems into consideration of introducing the Hitachi MGRM Citizen Lifecycle E-Governance platform in the State, explained in the release.

MLAs’ cold war takes an ugly turn Locals complain that aides of Kakinada city MLA damaged newly built road OUR BUREAU Kakinada: The cold war between City and Rural MLAs of Kakinada took an ugly turn when some of the alleged henchmen of City MLA Vanamadi Venkateswara Rao dug the newly built road at Mahalakshmi Nagar which comes under Turangi Panchayat. The cold war between the two representatives intensiﬁed over the years for dominance. On Saturday the residents of Mahalakshmi Nagar witnessed the fury of some people

Modi pitches for global solidarity Continued from P1 "India has always believed in values of integration and unity or 'Vasudhaika Kutumbam' which means the entire world is one family. It is relevant to bridge distances. We have always believed in uniting humanity, not breaking it," he said. His speech focused on what he considers the world’s top three challenges, two of which stand in direct contrast Trump’s nationalistic world view. One is climate change, which Modi described as the “greatest threat to the survival and human civilization as we know it.” Failing to address it shows an “alarming glimpse of our own selﬁshness,” he said. “If we are all children of the earth, why is there today a war between us and the earth?” Rich countries should do more to help emerging markets pollute less without sacriﬁcing economic growth, he added. “Everyone talks about reducing carbon emissions but there are very few people or countries who back their words with their resources to help developing countries to adopt appropriate technology,” Modi said. He touted India’s pledge to produce 175 gigawatts

tioning to make an issue out of everything,” the actor-politician said. Referring to the recently held World Telugu Conference, he justiﬁed the Telangana government ignoring the AP poets, stating that it was not the act of belittling it, but it could be an e�ort to highlight Telangana dialect that faced decades of ignominy. “There were many doubts and questions over how long Jana Sena would exist, but my decision to ﬂoat the party is well thought out and I will not backtrack,” Pawan Kalyan said, appealing to people to own him as their family member. He asked his followers to get ready for a long battle that may even stretch to another 25 years. He vowed to support the aspirations of people in Telangana who displayed unperturbed willingness in achieving separate State. After the meeting, Pawan left for Kothagudem.

has tried to invest $40 billion in Maharashtra, but it was not grounded because of various reasons. At this juncture, the company has found that the Krishnapatnam was a suitable place to locate their unit. In this meeting, Finance Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu, Advisor (Communications) to Government Parakala Prabhakar, IT Minister N Lokesh and were present.

are “always welcome.” Modi argued that networked societies in the era of big data, artificial intelligence and robots probably had all the tools to address current challenges, but it needed a lot of political will and coordination to use these tools for the benefit of all. In the final part of his speech in Davos, the Prime Minister touched upon the economic development of India, now the fastest-growing economy of the world. He said his government had enforced a number of reforms that had made investing and manufacturing in India a lot easier for foreign entrepreneurs by opening up "almost all sectors of the economy to foreign direct investment (FDI) and creating a unified tax system. Modi emphasized that growth needed to be achieved in a sustainable and responsible way. "I see many moving from needbased consumption to greedbased consumption," he said through an interpreter in Davos. Trump is scheduled to speak here at the end of the week, and past performance suggests he’s likely to deliver a very di�erent message to the Davos crowd.

Rajamahendravaram: Chances of YSRCP going with BJP in the next elections appears to be almost nil, opined former MP Vundavalli Arun Kumar. Speaking to reporters here on Tuesday, Arun Kumar said that Jagan, who has been extending unconditional support to BJP since 2014, has now put a condition that he would walk with the sa�ron party if they give special status to Andhra Pradesh now. Special status is an issue which

whom they are alleging that they are the aides of the City MLA Venkateswara Rao. The new road was built on Friday (19th Jan) with a cost of Rs 6 lakhs and it was destroyed on the immediate next day on 20th. Turangi Panchayati Special O�cer P Maneswara Rao complained about this unpredictable incident at the Indrapalem police station. The police registered a case and are probing the issue. Meanwhile, the residents of the Mahalakshmi Nagar staged dharna before the Collectorate on Monday demanding immediate arrest of the aides of the City MLA. The Mahalakshmi Nagar is deprived of basic amenities because of this cold war between the two leaders.

IT Minister Nara Lokesh holding a meeting with the delegates of Hitachi MGRM in Davos on Tuesday The APEDB will facilitate to provide necessary assistance for HIL’s entry to the market in India, including providing necessary assistance in discussions with the Union Government of India. APEDB will facilitate HIL in setting up the E-Governance

OUR BUREAU Amaravati: Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, on the second day of his Davos visit on Tuesday, met delegates of Medtech Innovation Centre, a Swiss based venture investor, specialising in the healthcare sector. The delegation included Chairman of Medtech Innovation, Dr Felix Gresard, Board of Director Dr Hans Florian and CEO Dr Christoph Kausch. Medtech Innovation Centre has already signed an MoU with Andhra Pradesh Economic Development Board last year and plans to

bring close to 150 companies to Andhra Pradesh, informed Chief Minister’s Ofﬁce in a statement here in Amaravati. O�cials reported that the progress has been great till now and a letter of intent with about 50 companies have already been signed. As a part of their phase one plan, they have already lined up 60 companies and at the end of phase two, all the 150 companies are expected to set up their bases in Andhra Pradesh. The Medtech delegation informed the Chief Minister that their primary aim is to

CAMPUS SUICIDES

High Court issues notices to Chaitanya, Narayana colleges Hyderabad: Taking cognisance of the ongoing suicides of students in Narayana and Chaitanya corporate colleges, the High Court at Hyderabad issued notices to the directors of Narayana and Chaitanya groups asking them to explain their case about gross irregularities in running the institutions and irresponsible handling of suicides by their students. The division bench comprising of Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice M Ganga Rao issued these notices on Tuesday while hearing the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition converted from a let-

platform and assist in obtaining necessary permissions, registrations, approvals, clearances and provide adequate support in terms of infrastructure and others from the concerned departments of the government of AP, as per the existing policies, rules and regulations of the state.

CM meets delegation of Medtech Innovation

LEGAL NOTES

LEGAL CORRESPONDENT

the Centre has dumped and is a closed issue. They will not give it at any cost and hence the doors for Jagan to have any alliance with BJP are closed, he said. Now it is for YSRCP to decide whether they will go it alone or will they move closer to Congress, he said. At the Centre, the fight is going to be between NDA and UPA and either of them will come to power. Since the talk of early elections is in the air, it is time for Jagan to decide whom he will support at the central level.

ter written by Dasari Emmanuel of Lok Satta Agitation Society from Prakasam district. The bench also issued notices to super speciality hospitals, NIMS in Hyderabad and SVIMS in Tirupathi, after arraigning them as respondents and asked them to assist the court on how to prevent the spate of suicides in these corporate colleges. It also issued notices to the Chief Secretaries of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, their Home Secretaries, Education Secretaries, Intermediate Boards of both the States. The letter written by the petitioner alleged that the authorities in Andhra Pradesh were not bothering about the gross irreg-

ularities of one of these institutions because its head was a Minister in the State government. It was alleged that in some of the cases these colleges have been acting in such a highhanded manner that they are not providing access to the parents and kin of the deceased students to see the dead bodies of their beloved ones who committed suicides in these campuses and hostels on account of extreme pressure etc. The petitioner also sought immediate closure of the hostels and campuses that have no permissions. He also wanted criminal cases to be registered against these colleges regarding the suicide deaths of students.

create an eco system where companies can ﬂourish. He was also informed that they will be starting with the European segment of the Vizag Medtech Park and will eventually go on to establish their own independent park. This move is expected to bring employment to 45 to 50 thousand highly skilled technicians and scientists. The Chief Minister also met SBI chairman Rajnish Kumar during the World Economic Forum. The meeting was a courtesy call, in which Kumar said that he is keenly following Amaravati progress.

Sadavarti lands: YSRCP MLA petition closed

tating that it has no jurisdiction to examine the ownership issues related to Sadavarthi Satram lands that are pending in Tamil Nadu state, the High Court at Hyderabad closed the Public Interest Litigation petition ﬁled by YSRCP MLA Alla Ramakrishna Reddy challenging the sale of these lands by the Andhra Pradesh government. The division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice M Ganga Rao disposed of the petition on Tuesday while making it clear that it was not expressing any opinion about this issue in this petition. The Tamil Nadu government impleaded in the PIL and submitted before the court that the lands of Sadavarthi Satram being claimed by others actually belong to it and also pointed out about the cases pending in Tamil Nadu state. Other private parties also impleaded in the present petition laying claims to these lands. The counsel for Sadavarthi Satram informed the bench that a local court in TN had declared that these lands belong to Satram in 1924 itself. But a ryotwari patta could not be granted as the revenue authorities had rejected it. An appeal against that decision of revenue authorities is pending in TN. The bench took these submissions into account and observed that this court did not have territorial jurisdiction to go into these issues and accordingly closed the petition.

AMARAVATI WEDNESDAY 24 JANUARY 2018

It’s her choice VINEETHA SIDDAM SETTY

eminism can be broadly construed as a set of vast movements directed at defining, establishing, and defending equal rights and opportunities. The term could mean different things to different people across the world. “Feminism means equal opportunities”, a few say. Others say, “Fighting for women rights is called feminism.” It is such a subjective word that there is no absolute meaning for it. “It’s about uplifting women, being equal to men so that we don’t get suppressed like we had been facing dowry, discrimination, careers, children”, observes Pritika, a graduate student. When looked at from the standpoint of history, feminism in India consists of three phases: during Sati movement; post-Independence, women’s rights and entry with equal force in politics. Despite the progress made by India, women in the country still face many issues of discrimination. The

Sample these: ‘You are a girl and still you do that’; ‘since you are a girl…’, ‘just because he’s a boy’. Most people need to change their mindsets and refrain from making such patriarchal statements or fragments thereof Sharma’s wedding. The social media was flooded with trolls and insults for various reasons. The renowned actress was insulted for marrying in a foreign country, pointed at for highlighting sindoor during her re-

“It is di�cult to deﬁne feminism in a few lines and I don’t have a personal deﬁnition. However, choice feminism is one of the aspects of feminism which came with a certain context in the west. If a woman wants to have an abortion, it’s her choice on her body. If a Muslim woman wants to wear hijab in a western country, it’s her choice to follow her culture. But, in India we are yet to see more concrete expressions of choice feminism.” -Tejaswini Madabushi, Core member, Hyderabad for Feminism word ‘feminism’ had brought out members lumped as ‘feminists’. This abstract word has given rise to critics, some of whom tag it as a western influence. In such a diverse context, it would be wrong to associate Indian feminism with the western variant, which is marked by radical norms. Merriam-Webster’s word of the year 2017, feminism, also speaks about women’s safety and universality of abuse. Women in India may be treated as goddesses one moment, but could be harassed in the very next moment. Feminists and lesser activists have conducted many movements, asking for justice. Various petitions and protests have highlighted women’s issues over these years. Above all, it stands for two things: women’s equality and efforts to create an enabling environment to make them strong. “Feminism is when a woman is not being judged every single minute from the time they leave home to what they wear, who they hang out with, how they choose to sit to how ladylike they are,” exclaims Prerana, a CA student. She continues, “‘You are a girl and still do that’, ‘since you are a girl’, ‘just because he’s a boy’; and these kinds of statements need to change. Involvement of men is more important in feminism.” The new term expressing this is ‘My choice’. Feminism is not just about equality; it is also about making one’s choices in life. Many actresses and famous personalities are trolled, humiliated for their appearance, and body-shamed. The recent news that bloomed around in 2017 was Anushka

ception, and, overall, she was negatively targeted for being a culturally-bound woman. Feminism, a long-term endeavor for multiple perspectives such as equality, freedom, rights, health and safety; making statements about gender policy and development; and dismantling patriarchy can begin a path to bring a developmental change in the mindsets and attitudes of the people in society. Trisha, a student of St. Francis, says, “The word has so much zeal and energy at-

Woman advocate services under-utilised Says Neeru Mishra, an advocate from Jammu and Kashmir, who recently shifted her base to Vijayawada M V SYAM SUNDAR

n educated woman should be treated as an asset to the society and her services should be utilised in full for the development of the society as a whole, says Neeru Mishra, an advocate of Hyderabad High Court of Judicature, who has recently shifted her base to Vijayawada in preparation of base for her future practice in the AP High Court in view of its forthcoming shift to the capital city of Amaravati. If that educated woman is an advocate she would be more useful for the underprivileged of the society, says Neeru. Born in Jammu into a family with judicial background, naturally, she was interested in joining the legal profession. Her father was the District and Sessions Judge and the mother, a housewife. She started her career practicing in the Jammu and Kashmir High Court. After her marriage with an Indian Services o�cer, she shifted to Hyderabad and started practicing at Hyderabad High Court of Judicature. Along with her husband she went to Canada. But as is her wont, she found herself an international project ‘United Ways’ on community development and leadership. During her nearly half decadelong stay at Toronto, she worked with the underprivileged women of Indian subcontinent including Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and others to make them empowered. Elaborating her work during

“Feminism is when a woman is not being judged every single minute from the time they leave home to what they wear, who they hang out with, how they choose to sit to how ladylike they are - Prerana Pillai The word has so much zeal and energy attached to it. Feminism lives within one’s nature. It is basically propagating the rights of women as equal to men - Trisha

tached to it. Feminism lives within one’s nature. It is basically propagating the rights of women as equal to men.” The enthusiasm and energy carried by the term ‘feminism’ can become a powerful noun in its implementation.

Neeru Mishra her stay in Toronto, Neeru said that the local administration has divided the city into 36 neighbourhoods and prepared plans for the development of the underprivileged. She worked on various projects to make them employable by training them with necessary skills. Commenting on the state of women advocates - Sadly, in India one needs the support of a politician or some godfather even to get

standing counsel post instead of considering their experience and talent, she says. The State bifurcation had also played havoc with the careers of a number of women in various professions, she recalls. Despite her working for the development of the underprivileged in the foreign countries, her services are not well utilised and her experience in society development is wasted in our country, she

points out. Referring to the glaring discrimination of women in Jammu and Kashmir, Neeru says that if a Kashmiri woman marries a man outside of the State, her husband or even children would not inherit the status of Kashmir. However, if a Kashmiri man marries any woman their children would inherit the Kashmiri status. “This is nothing but gross injustice,” she avers.

Pinkathon comes to Hyderabad again M

odel, actor, Ultraman and Pinkathon founder Milind Soman on Tuesday formally announced the launch of the fourth edition of COLORS Pinkathon in Hyderabad. COLORS Pinkathon is an initiative that involves multi-category runs to encourage and promote ﬁtness and health among women, while enhancing awareness about breast cancer. It will be held on Sunday, March 11, 2018 at People’s Plaza ground. Online registrations are open at www.pinkathon.in/hyderabad for the VWashPlus3km, 5km & 10km run, while for the 21-km distance, drop a mail on info@pinkathon.in. The event, supported by United Sisters Foundation, is promoted by Maximus MICE & Media Solutions. Entertainment channel COLORS, committed to encourage progress of women, will partner with the organisers to spread the message of ‘wellbeing of women’ through this initiative. Mann Kaur, a 101-year-old woman athlete, along with Dr Sai Dayana, oncologist at Apollo

Hospitals, Dinaz Vervatwala, ﬁtness expert, Mamata Vegunta, joint secretary of the Society for Cyberabad Security Council, have already expressed their full support for the noble cause. Raj Nayak, COO – Viacom18 said, “Initiatives like Pinkathon are a great way to boost the conﬁdence of women and strengthen the belief that women can do wonders! COLORS has always lauded the contribution of women in a big way, be it at workplace or through the content it showcases.” Inspiring Partners Bajaj Electricals founder Milind Soman said, “We are excited to bring

COLORS Pinkathon to Hyderabad once again for the fourth time. We are confident the city and its people will support us and help make this run a humungous success. Pinkathon is more than a Marathon. It is the seed of change and the beginning of a movement that is carried forward by a growing community of empowered women across India, who share a belief that a healthy family, a healthy nation, and a healthy world begins with empowered women. The first step in empowerment is taking control of your own health, respecting yourself and understanding and celebrating the value you bring to your family and society.” The fitness icon added, “Fitness is liberating. If a culture of regular exercise and fitness must take root in India, our women need to become aware about the benefits of fitness... We now organize Pinkathon in eight cities. More than 10,000 women run at each of these events ... They run in running gear but also in sarees, salwar kameez, hijabs or whatever attire they deem fit and keeps them comfortable.”

GET STYLISH WITH TRENDY COLOUR OF 2018 C

onsidered a complex hue by many, ultra violet holds loads of potential to jazz up any boring look with the utmost panache. Be it with ethnic styles or with the western look, experimenting with this vibrant colour will make the feminine beauty stand out and create a powerful statement amidst the blacks, reds and whites. The market offers many versatile shades and hues of ultra violet that can easily make their way into the wardrobe and jewellery box, whether in dresses, maxis, ethnic suits, saris or necklaces and jewellery pieces. Nidhi Yadav, fashion designer and founder of AKS and

Gaurav Bawa, jewellery designer and Founder of Bawa Jewellers, share tips on how to be stylish with trendy colour of 2018

Flared solid trousers

Pleated long skirts

Velvet wonder

Stripy jumpsuits

Ultra violet pleated long skirts paired with a dull golden choli or a black shirt looks uber elegant and is a perfect option to stand out in the crowd. To add on one can carry a gemstone pendant or silver collar clips of similar shades.

Violet is one colour that looks stunning in velvet. Be it in the weddings or the cocktail parties, velvet suits, lehengas, and dresses look trendy and distinctly royal at the same time. An ultra violet velvet outﬁt with heavy embellishment will work tremendously. Go for a top-to-bottom violet look and break it with gold accessories and multilayered pearl necklaces or brooches.

Jumpsuits of ultra violet hues striped with black, white, grey or blue will give your outﬁt a bold look and add that pop which may be missing earlier. Broad stripes, pinstripes, banker stripes are styles to mention a few. To accessorise with them, try the long and sleek danglers with a silver oxidized peppy nose pin.

The much hyped 1970s flared solid colour trousers look is again in trend, and this time with even more glamorous allure. A fitted high waist ultra violet trouser with kick flares fastened with a button and zip are perfect when paired with pastel coloured o�-shoulder and crop top. One can wear diamond or silver jewellery for a completely elegant look.

Fringe fever: Fringes are the trend going in all lengths and styles, so whether opting for a fringe overlay or going for the tasselled hems the ultra violet hue as the base will surely add that extra grace to your look in 2018. With ultra violet as the main attraction, silver or platinum pastel coloured thread tassel earrings will complement the look well and will add that alluring charm.

EDIT SELLING THE FAMILY SILVER

AMARAVATI WEDNESDAY 24 JANUARY 2018

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CANDID COMMENTS

Glorious feat goes unseen I t is almost three days since India retained the Blind Cricket World Cup, when it vanquished Pakistan in a dream championship clash that went the distance. In normal circumstances and given the rarity with which India achieves anything spectacular in team events, such magnificent showing should have sparked a frenzied celebration with all and sundry joining in and making it a nationwide spectacle. But is it happening? Alas, the accomplishment has failed to inspire honourable gentlemen in the corridors of powers. Bar going overboard in showering praise on twitter, precious little has been done for the boys. It is a sad reflection of the times that for all the talk of ringing in a vibrant sports culture, the policymakers adopt a step-motherly attitude when it comes to rewarding achievers from less glamourous sections of society, even when they win global fame. The double-speak stood exposed when Indians came up with several medals in the Paralympic Olympics at Sochi. Come to think of it, their feats were more incredible than what was brought home by PV Sindhu, Sakshi Malik and Dipa Karmakar. It is the same fate that befalls players produced and protected by Cricket Association for the Blind in India (CABI). It is rather inhuman that neither the Sports Ministry nor the BCCI and not even a single corporate house has spoken about any rewards to these outstanding players, whose sole source of sustenance comes from Samarthanam Trust. The Trust assists the CABI and physically and mentally challenged, with the support it gets from a few corporate partners. One hopes that the self-proclaiming corporate patrons should earmark some funds towards the promotion of CABI and all talented di�erently-abled sportspersons and artistes, at least as part of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). There is no dearth of claims from corporate companies that they support the visually-challenged, disabled and underprivileged. No such things happen at the ground-level. One also fails to understand the way the BCCI and the Centre function when it comes to honouring champions. Even a bronze finish in an international individual event gets a bountiful but there is none to o�er anything of the sort, bar lipservice, to the young lions led by Ajay Kumar Reddy. It is a strange irony that the Mithali Raj-led girls were accorded a royal treatment for ending up second best whereas here we have a team that consolidated its reign at the very top with a fine showing and they don’t even get peanuts! CABI President G Mahantesh was humility personified when seeking some land and infrastructural support for the players to hone their skills. Incidentally, Pakistan Blind Cricket Council did well by inviting ICC boss David Richardson, Zaheer Abbas and Syed Kirmani to witness the finals. The di�erence in attitude and approach between the regulars and the visually-challenged cricketers comes from the emotional tribute paid by Ajay Reddy. Many regular cricketers organised ‘fund raising’ exhibition matches (very few players contributed, though) for Kargil martyrs. Reddy touched every soul with his “we dedicate this victory to the Indian Army because they are working hard to ensure that the country’s common people remain safe.”

Prof K Nageshwar

he government seems to be all set for initiating the process of privatisation of the prestigious Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP). The Central government has dropped indications to this e�ect when the Minister for State in charge of steel told Parliament recently that the Union government has decided to sell 10 per cent stake in the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP). The immediate reason cited for privatisation is the accumulated losses of the steel plant. The plant incurred losses to the tune of Rs 1,421 crore in 2015-16 and Rs 1,236 crore in 2016-17. But, the plant earned gross margins in the months of November and December 2017. This means the government aims at handing over the plant with healthy finances to the private companies. The first phase of the plant was completed with 3.2 million tonnes capacity and the estimated cost was Rs 8,652 crore. The government invested Rs 4,889 crore only. The second phase of the plant was done with an estimated capacity of 6.3 million tonnes and the estimated cost was Rs 12,300 crore. The management plans to expand the capacity to 7.3 million tonnes with a cost of another Rs 4,000 crore. In fact, the government has not extended any fiscal assistance for the second phase of the plant. The second phase of the plant was executed with internal resources and market borrowings only.

Undervaluing the assets The obnoxious part of the privatisation story is the way the company's net worth is calculated. The steel plant has acquired 22,000 acres by paying a compensation of Rs 12,500 per acre in 1970s. This cost is now taken into

account for arriving at the net worth of the plant for selling the stakes. But, the present cost of the land is Rs 4 to 5 crores per acre. Such a faulty calculation would ensure a bonanza for the private players at the cost of people's assets built over a period of time. The SEBI valued the plant net worth as Rs 4,889 crore. Thus, 10 per cent of the stakes in the plant will be given to private players at a paltry amount of Rs 489 crore. The actual net worth of the Visakhapatnam Steel plant is as high as Rs 2 lakh crore. The attempts to undervalue the assets of the public sector units (PSUs) is the political economy of disinvestment and privatisation in India. The steel plant has so far paid Rs 36,000 crores as dividend and taxes besides spending as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

Boost to growth The Gross District Domestic Product of Visakhapatnam is the highest in the state of Andhra Pradesh. Similarly, Gajuwaka leads in the per capita income among all the mandals of the state. All this could not have been possible without the Visakhapatnam steel plant remaining in public sector. The steel plant pays Rs 2,400 crore as salaries to its employees every year. This is generating huge demand in the local market, resulting in the overall demand-induced economic growth of the mandal and the district.

Infuse equity The government is writing o� the bad loans of several big corporates, especially those operating in the infrastructural sector. The loans taken by these big corporate companies are turning out into non-performing assets (NPAs) for the banks or the loans being rescheduled in the name of corporate debt restructuring (CDR). But, if the government extends the same largesse or at least converts the market borrowing taken by the plant into equity, the company would run into proﬁts.

No captive mines TheGovernmentofIndiahasallocated captive iron ore mines for several private steel pants like Tatas, Mittals etc. But, the same

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xfam (Oxford Committee for famine relief ), a rights-based confederation of charitable organisations, has released a shocking report for 2017. It reported that the richest 1 per cent population in India cornered 73 per cent of the wealth generated in the country last year and that there was just 1% rise in the wealth of 50% of population, that is the poorest. Noteworthy is that the situation is worse when compared to the last year’s survey which showed that India's richest 1 per cent held a huge 58 per cent of the country's total wealth. This grim situation is the consequence of just one-year performance of the NDA government at the Centre and the various State governments that implemented neo-liberal agenda which is purely pro-corporate and anti-poor. These statistics alarmingly indicate that an alternative policy direction is the need of the hour. So naturally the onus of responsibility lies with the Prime Minister to hold a meeting of all the CMs in the country and ﬁnalize a pro-people policy framework that averts the same economic tragedy in the next year too. If a Chaiwala PM, whose declared motto is 'Sab Ka Saat Sab Kaa Vikas' and whose cherished dream is ‘Achhe din’ for all, is unwilling to take such an initiative, the opposition combine must come forward to do so. The alternative economic policy so evolved must be the basis for the budget for the ﬁnancial year 2018-19. It would be great and the dawn of the new India, if the Narendra Modi government proposes such a budget. Otherwise, the opposition parties must do this, while making amendments to the budget. Let the people know which party stands where during such an exercise and the debate. Ultimately in 2019, the people will decide what they need or they get what they deserve. A Raghunatha Reddy, Kadapa

Warped ideologies bane for CPI(M)

he Left today is floundering with no real ideology to speak of. India has moved on and Marxist shibboleths no longer resonate with a young aspirational class. The CPI(M) has not been able to reinvent itself or offer any alternative to the parties in power in the states and Centre.The pragmatic Sitaram Yechury realises that his party has in recent times, with its historic defeat in West Bengal, been sliding into national irrelevance with governments only in Kerala and Tripura. Once sought after as an ally by many political formations, it is today a marginal force. The shortsightedness

Unsung hero of freedom struggle

he history of Muthukota Gowdappa, who led the first rebellion against the British rule in Rayalaseema region at Ternekallu village in Kurnool district, has been neglected by historians as well as governments. His fearless struggle in which he attained martyrdom has gone unnoticed, because of the severe drought conditions and backwardness of the Rayalaseema region. Still there are so many historical places like Giddanna Baavi, Kota Veedhi, Vooru Vakili (village gateway) which stand silently as symbols of glorious proud history. Recently, the villagers installed the statue of Muthukota Gowdappa statue in the village. At least now, the archaeological department should recognise the significance of the Ternekallu Rebellion and its sites related to the rebellion. The valour legacy of Muthukota Gowdappa should be taken forward by the present generation. The government should take all steps to protect and preserve the Ternekallu Rebellion sites. The education department also should include the Ternekallu Muthukota Gowdappa’s life history in the school syllabus. S J Ravi Prakash, Kurnool.

Pawan Kalyan not a serious politician

t is a big disappointment for those who kept great hopes on Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan's maiden speach in Telangana on Monday in Karimnagar district (Pawan Kalyan not to pick on KCR, Naidu, January 23) .

government refuses to allocate a captiveironoreminesforVisakhapatnamSteelPlantownedbyitself. Surprisingly,thesteelplantandthe iron ore mines are under the same Ministry of Steel and Mines. Asaresultofnothavingowncaptive iron ore mine, the VSP has to spend at least Rs 2,000 to Rs 3,500 morepertonneofrawmaterialdepending on the rate of iron ore in the market at a given point of time. Thesteelplantwithitspresentproduction capacity requires 7.5 million tonnes of iron ore. Thus , even conservative estimates reveal that thispublicownedsteelplanthasto incur an additional expenditure of Rs 1,500 crore per year on procuring raw material from the market as it does not have any captive mines. If the steel plant gets own captive mines, it would automaticallywipeouttheentirelosses.This also reveals that the losses of this plantareinducedbythewronggovernment policies. TheObulapuramironoremines were handed over to Gali JanardhanaReddyforapittance.Thus,the ironorewaslegallyandillegallyexported,whilethedomesticsteelindustry, especially the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, was deprived of captiveironoremineswhichwould havesubstantiallyreducedthecost of its steel production. Similarly, the steel plant is also asked to pay higher power tari� duringpeakhours.Forinstance,the powertari�forsteelplantsinIndia is50to100percenthigherascompared to even developed nations. Besides, the plant faces severe waterscarcityduringsummerseason.

Cheap imports The deregulation of steel industryledtoindiscriminateimportsof steelintotheIndiandomesticmarket. The dumping of cheaper steel from other countries is proving to

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of Prakash Karat’s line has been in evidence earlier too. The problem in the CPI(M) is compounded by the fact that the top leadership is not on the same page. The theoretician Karat refusing to come to any accommodation with other political formations which could offer the party a lifeline. Jayatheertha SA, Hyderabad

PM must act to avert 2008-type crisis

Faulty policies, indiscriminate expansion, denial of captive iron ore mines etc have forced Visakhapatnam Steel Plant – epitome of Telugu pride – to incur losses. Its net worth is being shown as mere Rs 4,889 crore whereas actual value is around Rs 2 lakh crore. Citing accumulated losses, Centre is hell-bent on its privatisation. AP govt can save it by using only its steel for massive constructions in Amaravati and elsewhere in the state

Many expected that Pawan would reveal his party's ideology and criticise ruling party and/or opposition parties but he merely praised the ruling TRS and did not make any comments on other parties. He indicated that he would take up people's issues to government and play positive politics. He also said his party would contest in places, where it has strength. Then one wonders what prompted Pawan to launch a full-ﬂedged party just to perform the role of a mediator? Kshirasagara Balaji Rao, Hyderabad

beadeath-knellforIndiandomestic steel industry including that of the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant. The NITI Aayog member V K SaraswathassaidthatthoughIndia is the third largest steel maker in theworld,aglobalglutandsurgein cheap imports from China, Russia, Korea and Japan has dented the fortunesofdomesticsteelindustry. This happens at a time when Visakhapatnam Steel Plant is expanding its production capacity.

Fiscal burden Saraswat has further said that steel sector which has long gestation period needs long-term ﬁnance which has the capacity to withstandcyclicalvolatilityofprofits unlike funding from banks, external commercial borrowings or capitalmarkets.But,VSPwasasked to depend on market borrowings. The Steel Plant has to bear a ﬁscal burden of Rs 600 crore on interest payments and Rs 900 crore depreciation cost. Thus, the losses ofthePlantcitedabovearenotreal but manufactured by the wrong policies of the government. If the governmenthadinfusednecessary equityintotheplantfortheexpansion, the company wouldn't have incurred losses.

Uncompetitive input costs The domestic steel industry is becoming uncompetitive due to higher freight costs, higher credit costs,industrialpowertari�s,high iron ore costs, import duties and cessoncokingcoal,theNITIAayog member explained. For example, freight costs from Jamshedpur to Mumbai can be as high as $50 per tonne in comparison with $34 a tonnefromRotterdamtoMumbai. The Visakhapatnam Steel Plant is forced to face the burden of all these factors that make it uncom-

petitive on which the plant has no control.Then,whyblametheSteel plantforthelosses?Isitnottoprepare a ground for blatant privatisation aimed at ushering huge ﬁnancialbeneﬁtforprivateplayers? This is how the crony capitalism works in India.

Faulty marketing The faulty marketing policies also contributed to the ﬁscal mess of the plant. The consumers have to purchase Visakhapatnam Steel mainly from the dealers. This resultsinhugeproﬁtsforthedealers at the cost of both the steel plant, the producer and the consumers of steel.

Induce demand The steel consumption in rural areasismarginal.Itisestimatedat 10 kg per capita. The rural steel consumption can be significantly enhanced by encouraging agrobased industries. The per capita steel consumption of total finished steel stood at 63 kg in India, while for 2016, the world average was at 208 kg. (Source: World Steel Association, which reports data on a calendar year basis) The level of consumption of steel depends on a number of factors, including stage of development, speed of economic growth etc. The reconstruction of Andhra Pradesh post-bifurcation, especially the rising of Amaravati, provides an opportunity for encouraging the prestigious Visakhapatnam Steel Plant which wasachievedasanepitomeofTelugu pride. The Government of Andhra Pradesh should resolve to use Visakhapatnam steel only for the massive construction activity it is taking up in Amaravati and elsewhere in the state. Thus, the expansion of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant would turn into a blessing for the plant. The indiscriminate expansion of the Steel Plant without expanding the market and addressing the factors that make it uncompetitive are the reasons for its fiscal woes. Instead of addressing these factors that cause fiscal strain on the steel plant, the central government seems to be hell-bent on outright privatisation to benefit private players which is nothing but selling the family silver.

taken from Manusmruthi which means where Women are honored, divinity blossoms there, and where women are dishonored, all action no matter how noble remain unfruitful (www.devshoppe.com). When will the society feel a searing shame over such crimes? Madhavi D, Tirupati

Clear backlog of judicial cases

ustice Chelameswar observed that, "only 10 crore people are in direct contact with the judiciary, of the 1.3 billion population, but the decisions made by the Supreme Court, some way or other, touch the lives of this country." It is optimistically hoped that his ﬁgure of 10 crores consists of persons connected with the legal profession and litigants as well, God forbid, not alone of litigants only. However, it is nobody's case to welcome more and more litigation, what with the "almost impossible to clear the backlog of cases" Seshagiri Row KARRY, Hyderabad

Shocking spree of rapes worrying

t is very shocking to learn that a 22-year-old woman was dragged out of a car and sexually assaulted in front of her husband and brother-in-law in Gurgaon on Sunday night. One wonders why Haryana is not able to curb incidents of crime against women in the past few days. In three of the worst cases, young girls were raped, tortured and killed. Though of late a spree of rapes is going on in Haryana, it is a growing phenomenon across the country. Should rapists be castrated? Should those raping children be hanged to death, as some CMs have been demanding? The Justice J S Verma Committee tasked with reviewing the legal position on rapes should come out with practical pieces of advice. The government for its part needs to sensitise police department and other wings to respond to victims. Instant delivery of justice can to a great extent instill fear among potential o�enders. But what is needed at large is that parents should educate their boys to respect women. "Yatra naryastu pujyante ramante tatra Devata, yatraitaastu na pujyante sarvaastatrafalaah kriyaah is a famous sloka

Why Sena severed ties with BJP

he announcement on Tuesday that the Shiv Sena leadership unanimously resolved not to have any truck with the BJP and go it alone in 2019 General Elections and Maharashtra Assembly polls is not surprising in the least. But the reason for severing ties is not a noble one, though. It cut o� the chord with BJP because the latter was not apparently keeping up Hindutva in the state. Sena's objective seems to be emerging a principal opposition by wresting that position from the Congress. It has already opposed the BJP on many an issue, from Metro rail to Maratha agitations to farm crisis. The alliance seemed to be a marriage of convenience, rather than of marriage of minds. Satyanarayana S, Kadapa

BJP govts must enforce rule of law strictly

t would be in the ﬁtness of things to say that the Supreme Court has aptly refused to entertain the plea of BJP-ruled states to stay its earlier order clearing the decks for the nationwide release of 'Padmaavat.' It again reminded in a sort of angry tone that the states have a constitutional obligation to ensure law and order, by not bowing to any mob pressure. With 2018 set to see a number of state elections, the BJP governments are soft on Karni Sena and fringe groups wreaking havoc and threatening even mayhem of artistes involved with the movie. This is highly objectionable and absurd. Fictionalising the past is an artistic licence and there a Censor Board duly set up to look into any gross deviations from the history, which would trigger unrest in the society. As the ﬁlm is cleared, the matter should have been rested. The BJP is clearly bent on cashing in on perceived sense of injustice by certain groups. Otherwise, which government will tolerate fring groups announcing a Rs 5-crore bounty on the heads of Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Deepika Padukone? C Koteshwara Rao, Vizianagaram

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AMARAVATI WEDNESDAY 24 JANUARY 2018

PERSPECTIVES

Get to the bottom of bank NPAs IYR COLUMN

It is very essential to properly investigate all these scams of mammoth proportion and bring the culprits to book. It is not just a question of arresting the accused but to get to the root of the issue as to where all this money has gone and getting it back into the ﬁnancial mainstream. That alone restores the credibility of the government and ensure that the Indian economy does not sink further into a vicious cycle of lack of funds for genuine enterprises

Krishna Rao IYR

he huge non-performing assets (NPAs) of banks is becoming a cause of major concern for the Indian economy. Indiscriminate lending most of the times out of political pressure and the boards of the banks and other financial institutions becoming mere rubber stamps for carrying out the diktats of political bosses has resulted in a situation where public money has been squandered away on unviable and dubious projects by a set of speculative and unscrupulous entrepreneurs. After liberalisation the caged tiger( the Indian entrepreneurial ability) which was supposed to have been released out of the shackles of government controls, quotas and restrictions and was supposed to put the Indian economy into a trajectory of growth – claiming our rightful space in the global economy – has in fact turned out to be a tiger uncaged which went on devouring the public funds and public savings, by investing in unviable and speculative projects which are now up for sale at a fraction of the capital investment made on them.

Reasons are not far to seek. Whether it was in the government-controlled quota license permit raj or afterwards what was proclaimed as the great stroke of liberalisation and unshackling of Indian enterprise, the players remained the same with no commitment to industry hard work and ethical business but more interested in seeking speculative short-term profits by manipulating the system. In the control economies of 60s to 90s, this entrepreneurial class made their money with right political and bureaucratic connections by obtaining a licence, not putting up the plant or preventing the competitor from putting up a plant or by obtaining a licence and selling it for a premium to others. These are the types of activities which economists termed as DUPES meaning directly unproductive activity of obtaining a licence or permit and indulging in business of trading in it and making money out of it. Hope was that once the liberalisation happens, genuine enterprises would

grow in the country taking the country forward. But what actually happened was the reverse. The same set of manipulative speculative business class who were earlier the beneficiaries of the quota permit raj this time have taken the general public for a ride in terms of coming with public offers with a lot of publicity and getting public subscription to their projects. All those projects started with the big fanfare are languishing today. As if this is not enough, the same set-up of entrepreneurial business class was able to top up their finances by deceiving statecontrolled financial institutions the banks and were able to get huge funding for their projects, which have today turned out to be non-performing assets putting the whole economy into a major financial crisis. The bankers who used to cry foul about the loan melas that were being organised for supporting the economic activity of the less privileged class have succumbed and released huge funds in most of the cases flouting all established norms. At the

root of the problem is the mindset of the Indian entrepreneurial class which is used to speculative return during the quota licence raj and would like to continue with the same type of speculative returns on enterprises even in the liberalised era. The nexus between this entrepreneurial class and the political class and weak regulatory framework under which they operate helps them to get scot-free even after committing such major financial offences, which in any other better regulated country would have resulted in their being brought to book. These white-collar criminals today are there as part of the ruling network whichever party is in power. It is very essential to properly investigate all these scams of mammoth proportion and bring the culprits to book. It is not just a question of arresting the accused but to get to the root of the issue as to where all this money has gone and getting it back into the financial mainstream. That alone restores the credibility of the government and en-

sure that the Indian economy does not sink further into a vicious cycle of lack of funds for genuine enterprise. If at all there is the mandate given to this government in 2014 by the electorate it is the hope that they would be able to deliver in this direction and put the econ-

omy back on track . Failure to deliver on this front, whatever maybe the achievements of government on other fronts, may not be taken kindly to by the electorate in 2019. (Writer is former Chief Secretary, Government of Andhra Pradesh)

MULTILATERALISM V PROTECTIONISM

WEF to see strong riposte to Trump

Dividend tax

NOAH BARKIN

nder the current regime, Indian companies pay dividend distribution tax (DDT) when they pay dividend and such domestic dividend is exempt in the hands of the recipient shareholders. The government, in the past, introduced a new section to tax dividends in excess of Rs 10 lakh, in the hands of the recipients, at a flat rate of 10%. It is anticipated that the government may change the current method of dividend taxation and make dividends taxable only in the hands of shareholders. This debate is also strengthened given the high effective tax rates on corporates on account of both Income-tax and DDT, in an environment where large economies are talking about tax reforms and bringing down corporate tax rates, according to moneycontrol.com. A dividend is usually a distribution of the profits of the company to its shareholders. The finance ministry may consider doing away with the dividend distribution tax (DDT) in Budget 2018 to be unveiled on February 1, EY India said. In its pre-Budget expectations, EY said dividend distribution tax has become burdensome for corporates due to various factors such as high rate, litigation on disallowance and hence the return on capital employed has significantly diminished. "Corporate income tax rate reduction does not seem likely in light of the fiscal constraints and subdued GST collection. However, government may rationalise the effective corporate tax rate by abolishing dividend distribution tax and restoring the classical system of taxation of dividends in the hands of shareholders," NDTV cites EY India Partner & National Leader, Business Tax Services, Garima Pande, as saying. Dividends paid by a domestic company to shareholders are subjected to dividend distribution tax at 15 per cent of the aggregate dividend declared. The effective rate is 20.358 per cent, including surcharge and cess. Effective rate of DDT, however, can be calculated as tax on distributed profits at 15% + surcharge at 12% + education cess at 2% + SHEC (secondary and higher education cess) at 1% of the amount of dividend. Thus, the effective rate of DDT comes out to be 20.358%, explains ipleaders.in. The dividend income is tax-free in the hands of investors. However, if the amount of dividend income exceeds Rs. 10 lakh on a gross basis, an additional tax of 10 per cent (plus surcharge and cess) applies on dividend income.

JAMES MACKENZIE & HAMID SHALIZI Kabul (Reuters): Exploratory meetings in Pakistan between a high-level Taliban delegation and a representative of a prominent Afghan politician have fuelled speculation of a revival of longstalled talks on ending Afghanistan's 16-year war that kills thousands each year. Similar hopes have repeatedly been dashed since the ﬁrst direct talks between the Westernbacked Afghan government and the Taliban broke down almost as soon as they began in the Pakistani hill station of Murree, outside Islamabad, in 2015. But US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley's remarks this week that talks were closer than ever – coming after Monday's uno�cial meeting in Islamabad – have renewed inter-

avos, Switzerland (Reuters): European leaders will be out in force at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week to defend multilateralism before US President Donald Trump arrives to deliver his "America First" message. Politicians, business chiefs, bankers and celebrities will meet in the Swiss Alps under the banner "Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World" for the fourday gathering against an unsettling global backdrop. A decade after the bankruptcy of US investment bank Lehman Brothers helped trigger a global financial crisis, economic growth has returned and stock markets are hitting record highs. Yet, there is a nagging fear among many in Davos that the brighter economic outlook could turn out to be little more than a mirage if the daunting array of geopolitical threats – from protectionism and climate change to cyberattacks and outright war – gather pace in 2018. "Not all geopolitical threats are threats to financial markets," Axel Weber, the chairman of Swiss bank UBS and former president of the German Bundesbank told Reuters. "But I agree that there may be a disconnect, which has been going on for some time already and may well continue for some time." The Global Risks Report published by the WEF last week showed that many see a heightened risk of political and economic confrontations between major powers this year. Trump, the first sitting US president to attend the forum since Bill Clin-

The charge will be led by French President Emmanuel Macron, the new star of European politics. The former investment banker will o�er his own "diagnosis" of globalisation and set out a vision for addressing widening inequalities, global warming and the rise of nationalism, his advisers say ton in 2000, is a source of much of this anxiety after a volatile first year in o�ce in which he has turned American foreign policy on its head. The forum will open on Tuesday with a speech by India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi and end on Friday, when Trump is due to address the massive auditorium where Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke last year, o�ering to fill the global leadership void created by an inwardlooking Washington. White House o�cials said over the weekend that a government shutdown in the United States was unlikely to prevent Trump from making the trip, although the budget director Mick Mulvaney said it was now "in flux". In the days between Modi and Trump, the leaders of Europe's biggest countries, absent from Davos last year and emboldened by their own economic recovery,

will o�er an alternative vision to Trump and Xi, who the Europeans say has failed to deliver on his promise of a year ago to open China up to foreign investment. Europe's new star The charge will be led by French President Emmanuel Macron, the new star of European politics, who in an audacious move, has invited many of the business leaders who will be in Davos to the Palace of Versailles on Monday to press them to invest in France. When he speaks in Davos on Wednesday, the former investment banker will o�er his own "diagnosis" of globalisation and set out a vision for addressing widening inequalities, global warming and the rise of nationalism, his advisers say. "I don't think Macron will be able to resist being the counterTrump," said Robin Niblett, director of the Chatham House think tank in London. Macron

will be joined by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, returning to the world stage after months of political limbo at home, and Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, back in Davos after a 20-year absence, is also due to speak. The WEF is a marathon of panel discussions, lunches and cocktail parties that delve into subjects as diverse as terrorism, artiﬁcial intelligence and wellness. This year's conference will include several sessions on sexual harassment, a nod to the #MeToo movement that erupted after allegations of sexual misconduct by Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. Criticised in past years for not representing women, the WEF appointed seven female co-

There is a nagging fear among many in Davos that the brighter economic outlook could turn out to be little more than a mirage if the daunting array of geopolitical threats – from protectionism and climate change to cyberattacks and outright war – gather pace in 2018. Trump, the first sitting US president to attend the forum since Bill Clinton in 2000, is a source of much of this anxiety after a volatile first year in office in which he has turned American foreign policy on its head

Will Taliban ﬁnally come to the table? est in a process that had seemed completely stalled. A statement from the Russian foreign ministry on Wednesday called for urgent direct talks between the Taliban and the government, adding that Russia, which has maintained contacts with the insurgent movement, could host them. "I think something is cooking," said Mohammad Ismail Qasimyar, a senior adviser to Afghanistan's High Peace Council, which was established to oversee the peace process. Low-level contacts between the Afghan government, international groups including the UN and groups close to the Taliban have continued even as the insurgency has escalated over the

Obstacles abound for them and Afghan govt as well Many in Afghanistan argue that Pakistan, which has come under heavy pressure from Washington, is simply encouraging hopes of progress in order to buy time. One senior government o�cial in Kabul, noted that speculation about peace talks regularly surfaces in the winter, while the Taliban regroups ahead of its spring o�ensive. "None of these meetings or talks about talks will help achieve peace," he said. past three years. But progress has always been blocked by the deep mistrust between the government and the Taliban, as well as

uncertainty about the position of neighbours including Pakistan, which Afghanistan has long accused of aiding the insurgents.

‘US policy working’ The UN Security Council is due to hold a debate on Afghanistan's future later on Fri-

chairs this year, including Christine Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Ginni Rometty, the CEO of IBM. Among the other leaders attending are British Prime Minister Theresa May, Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu and several African leaders, including Zimbabwe's new president Emmerson Mnangagwa. Last year, the sole envoy from the Trump camp in the week leading up to his inauguration was Anthony Scaramucci, the New York financier who was sacked after just 10 days as White House communications director. This year, Trump will be joined by a large US delegation including Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and his son-in-law Jared Kushner. For the first time in years, Iran will not be represented. WEF officials could not say whether the late cancellation by Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif had anything to do with Trump's decision to speak.

day following a visit to Kabul by council members this week, and is expected to call for a stronger regional partnership between Afghanistan and Central Asian neighbours. It is the latest in a series of steps aimed at building agreement among Afghanistan's neighbours. Under a new strategy announced last year by US President Donald Trump, the United States has stepped up its assistance to Afghan security forces, particularly through air strikes, with the aim of preventing any Taliban military victory and forcing the insurgents to accept peace talks. "The US policy in Afghanistan is working," Hayley told reporters. "We're closer to talks

with the Taliban and the peace process than we've seen before." The Taliban itself, which controls or disputes government control over more than a third of the country, says it wants a peaceful solution but says negotiations would depend on international troops leaving Afghanistan. But, considerable obstacles remain. The government in Kabul is deeply divided, with increasing hostility between rival ethnic and party groups that will make it di�cult to establish a uniﬁed negotiating stance. The Taliban has its own divisions and the ability of its leader Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada to command the a�liated Haqqani network, blamed for major attacks on civilian targets in cities such as Kabul, may be tested.

10 NUTSHELL

NATION

FRINGE GROUPS DEMAND ORDINANCE IN 24 HRS TO BAN ‘PADMAAVAT’

Cartoon Corner

Historians, scions of royals on Karni Sena panel

Distinction of ‘Prabuddha Bharata’ Kolkata: Ramakrishna Mission's 'Prabuddha Bharata' has stepped into its 123th year, making it the "longest-running" monthly English magazine of the country. "We feel inspired that Prabuddha Bharata has stepped into its 123 years of continuous publication, making it the longest-running English magazine of the country," the Mission quoted Swami Narasimhananda as saying in a release on Tuesday. Contrary to impressions that readership of serious magazines are on the decline, it has a growing global presence with regular subscribers in 23 countries, the release said. "Over the years, Prabuddha Bharata has inspired and shaped the thinking of many. At one time, Mahatma Gandhi used to eagerly wait for every issue of the Journal. Dr S Radhakrishnan used to read every issue of this Journal with great interest," it said. The magazine has an online version as well.

Cong to protest fuel price rise Mumbai: The Maharashtra Congress will launch a three-day agitation, beginning January 29, against the rise in the rates of petrol and diesel, which it said amounted to "looting" the common man. The decision was taken at a meeting of senior party leaders here, said state unit Congress president Ashok Chavan. "There is a lot of resentment against the price hike among the people," Chavan told reporters. He reiterated the Congress' demand to bring petroleum products under the ambit of the Goods and Services Tax.

Summons to Sukhbir, Bains Chandigarh: The Committee of Privileges of Punjab Vidhan Sabha has summoned SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal and Lok Insaf party leader Simarjit Singh Bains to appear before it on February 6, sources said on Tuesday. Both leaders were accused of using objectionable language against the assembly speaker during the budget session last year, they added. The committee has 12 members and is chaired by Congress MLA Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa.

Panel to tone up SKIMS Jammu: Jammu and Kashmir government on Tuesday constituted a five-member committee headed by Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu to monitor the functioning of Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) in the summer capital Srinagar. The members of the panel include Principal Secretary, Health and Medical Education Department, Pawan Kotwal, Principal, Government Medical College, Srinagar, Samia Rashid, Director, SKIMS, Omar Javid Shah, and Professor and Head of Department of Gastroenterology, SKIMS, Ghulam Nabi Yatoo. The committee would recommend measures to be taken from time to time to improve the overall functioning of the institute.

AMARAVATI WEDNESDAY 24 JANUARY 2018

S A ‘Janata curfew’ would be imposed and roads and highways blocked S Impact likely on the Jaipur Literature Fes�val being held from January 25-29

Jaipur: Shree Rajput Karni Sena, which has been leading protests against 'Padmaavat', on Tuesday named a six-member panel, which includes erstwhile royals and historians, to watch the ﬁlm ahead of its release even as various outﬁts demanded an ordinance banning the movie. The Supreme Court refused to modify its order that had cleared the movie's nationwide release, following which Rajput groups turned to the Centre demanding an ordinance "within 24 hours" in view of "public sentiments".

DARWIN THEORY ROW

Javadekar tells Singh to refrain from ‘such comments’ New Delhi: Union Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar on Tuesday said he had asked his minister of state Satyapal Singh to refrain from making comments on issues such as Darwin's evolution theory. Singh said in Aurangabad last week that Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution was “scientifically wrong” and needs to be changed in school and college curricula, sparking a row with over 2,000 scientists condemning the remarks. Intervening in the row over the remarks, Javadekar said there are no plans for a national seminar to prove Darwin wrong. “I have discussed the matter with my MoS and I have asked him to refrain from making such comments. We should not dilute science. This is the advice I have given him," Javadekar told PTI. "We are not going to fund any event or don’t have any plan for a national seminar to prove Darwin wrong.

Supreme Court posers to Aadhaar opponents New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought to know from those who have challenged the constitutional validity of Aadhaar how the unique identiﬁcation number of a person makes any di�erence in a networked world when the data was already available with private entities. A ﬁve-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra observed that personal data of citizens were with the private entities and asked the petitioners how insertion of Aadhaar number would make any change. "Our personal data is anyway with the private entities. So, does interpolation of Aadhaar number make any di�erence," the bench asked senior advocate Shyam Divan, who is appearing for some of the petitioners. The bench, which also comprised Justices A K Sikri, A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan, told the lawyer that citizens were living in a networked world now. The apex court also observed that biometric information, which was collected during the process of Aadhaar enrollment, was deposited in a central database and citizens were required to only

give their 12-digit unique identifier number for identification. The bench is hearing a clutch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the government's flagship Aadhaar programme and its enabling Act of 2016. Divan said since private entities were part of the enrolment process for Aadhaar, the data collected by them could be "completely compromised". He said around 49,000 private agencies, involved in the process of enrolment for Aadhaar, were blacklisted last year by the government, which has raised a serious question mark over the sanctity of the data, including biometrics of citizens, collected by them. "The enrolment process is completely compromised. The enroller is a private entity and data is collected without there being any government o�cial present there. 49,000 of these enrollers have been blacklisted," he said. Divan said an "enormous electronic mesh" is being created where the whole profile of an individual was collected, as he referred to the collection of demographic and biometric data like iris and finger prints of citizens.

BJYM ‘exam’ paper blames Nehru’s ‘greed of power’ for Partition Bhopal: A general knowledge exam organised by the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), youth wing of the BJP, kicked up a row on Tuesday, with the prelude to the question paper blaming the "greed of power" of Jawaharlal Nehru and Mohammad Ali Jinnah for Partition. The Madhya Pradesh BJYM later said it was a printing error, and the words "greed of power" were for Jinnah, not for Nehru. The last paragraph of the examination paper's prelude, titled "Akhand Bharat", read: "Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay ka spasht mat tha ki Bharat Mata ko khandit kiye bina bhi bharat kee azaadi prapt kee jaa sakti thi....kintu Pandit Nehru aur Jinnah ke satta lalach aur angrezon ki chaal me aa jane se yah sapna purn nahi hua aur khandit bharat

ko azaadi mili." ("Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay was of ﬁrm opinion that India could gain Independence even without the division of Mother India....But the dream was not realised because of the greed of power of Pandit Nehru and Jinnah and as they fell into the trap of English rulers, and a broken India got Independence.") The BJYM later put it down to printing error. "Nehru was the ﬁrst prime minister of our country. We cannot disrespect him. This was for Jinnah only. Due to misprint, Nehru's name got mentioned along with Jinnah's," BJYM state president Abhilash Pandey told PTI. Opposition Congress termed it a conspiracy to mislead the youth. The Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly Ajay Singh said in a statement: "Peo-

ple of the country will give answer to this conspiracy to mislead the youth. The BJP should ask the youth how many of its own leaders, including those of the RSS, betrayed the country during the freedom movement." Earlier, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan attended a program at one of the examination centres here. The examination paper included questions about BJP ideologue Deendayal Upadhyay besides the schemes of the Central and the Madhya Pradesh governments. Pandey claimed that over 30 lakh students from various schools and colleges participated. Over 30 lakh participants from 14 states of India and 40 countries of the world took part in the event through o�ine and online mode, he claimed.

GETTING A FEEL OF ARMS

NCC cadets trying their hand at weapons and defence equipment during 'Know Your Forces' Army Mela in Allahabad on Tuesday.

Rajasthan minister Gulab Chand Kataria, meanwhile, said that after the apex court order, the state government was left with no option, but to maintain law and order. The controversy-mired Sanjay Leela Bhansali ﬁlm is set to be released on January 25 for which the state police began making arrangements. Karni Sena chief patron Lokendra Singh Kalvi

said that the outfit had named six persons additionally for being empanelled to watch the film before its release as proposed by Bhansali Productions in a letter on January 20: Historians R S Khangarot, B L Gupta, Kapil Kumar, Roshan Sharma and erstwhile Mewar royal family member Vishwaraj Singh and erstwhile Banswara royal family member Jagmal Singh. Khangarot is the principal of Agrawal College in Jaipur, B L Gupta is a retired professor of the History Department of the University of Rajasthan, Jaipur, while Roshan Sharma is a Jaipur-based historian. Kapil Kumar is a Delhi-based historian. "We know that the filmmaker is doing nothing but drama in the name of pre-screening.

Apex court refuses to modify its order on ‘Padmaavat’ New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to modify its earlier order which had cleared the decks for the nationwide release of 'Padmaavat', saying people must understand that they need to abide by the orders of the top court. A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra said this while rejecting pleas filed by Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh seeking modification in its January 18 order. The Supreme Court had paved the way for the nationwide release of 'Padmaavat' on January 25 by staying the ban on the screening in states of Gujarat and Rajasthan. "People must understand that the Supreme Court has passed an order. They must abide by it. It is the obligation of the states to maintain law and order," the

Meghalaya CM to contest from two seats Shillong: Meghalaya Chief Minister Mukul Sangma is keen to contest from two constituencies in the Garo Hills region in the February 27 assembly election, state Congress election committee chief Celestine Lyngdoh said on Tuesday. The committee met at the residence of the chief minister during the day to discuss the names of candidates for the ensuing assembly poll. Lyngdoh said that Sangma wanted to contest from his home constituency Ampati in South West Garo Hills district, besides Songsak in the Garo Hills. Congress sources said that the party was ﬁnding it di�cult to get candidates in certain constituencies, especially those where the Congress MLAs had quit and joined the National People's Party (NPP) or the BJP. The Congress su�ered a blow on Tuesday as 42 party leaders in Resubelpara constituency in North Garo Hills district resigned and are likely to support an Independent candidate. Among those who resigned included presidents, secretaries and other leaders of the district, block and primary committees in the constituency.

bench also comprising Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud said. "We are not inclined to modify our order," the bench said while dismissing the plea. It asked the states to follow its order and gave them the liberty to approach it again "if the situation arises". The bench also dismissed the applications filed by Shree Rashtriya Rajput Karni Sena, which has been staging protest in several states against the release of the movie, and Akhil Bharatiya Kshatriya Mahasabha, seeking to stall the exhibition of the Sanjay Leela Bhansali movie. The apex court had earlier restrained other states from issuing any ban orders on the Deepika Padukonestarrer movie. Maintaining that states were under constitutional obligation

"People must understand that the Supreme Court has passed an order. They must abide by it. It is the obligation of the states to maintain law and order" to maintain law and order, the top court had said this duty also included providing police protection to persons involved in the film, its exhibition and the audience. The film, starring Deepika Padukone, Shahid Kapoor and Ranveer Singh in lead roles, is based on the saga of a historic 13th century battle between Maharaja Ratan Singh and his army of Mewar and Sultan Alauddin Khilji of Delhi.

CLOSURE OF SCHOOLS

NHRC notice to Odisha govt, HRD New Delhi: The National Human report that "a large number of Rights Commission (NHRC) has government-run primary and issued a notice to the Odisha govupper primary schools have been ernment over reports that a large closed in the state due to less number of government-run prinumber of students". mary and upper primary schools The commission had last Dewere allegedly closed due to cember issued a notice to the shortage of students. The rights Maharashtra government over panel has also reports of the sent a notice to In the year 2016-17, as state education the Ministry of many as 828 government d e p a r t m e n t Human Re- primary and upper "closing down" source Develop- primary schools were the zila parishad ment, asking it schools with reportedly shut down in less than 10 stuto look into the issue to "check Odisha for having "less dents and shiftthan 10 students each" this replicating ing them to trend" in di�erother nearby ent states, and give a response in schools. The Odisha governeight weeks. ment was given eight weeks to The report, carried on January respond with a point-wise reply 21, has "raised the issue of the to the issues. The commission Right to Education (RTE) of the has observed that it appears that young students, mostly belongthe government schools are ing to poor families of the Schedlacking basic amenities, and the uled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and number of teachers is also not other backward communities". adequate. "Opening of private The National Human Rights schools cannot be a solution for Commission, in a statement on the shortcomings being faced by Tuesday said, it has issued the the students and the parents in notice through the chief secrethe government schools," it tary of Odisha, quoting a media observed.

‘Govt, opposition must work together on triple talaq bill’ New Delhi: The government and the opposition must work together to bring about a law against triple talaq and not allow their political di�erences to stall it, a Muslim women's rights group spearheading the movement against the practice of instant divorce said on Tuesday. The Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA) made the appeal to the government and the opposition ahead of the Budget session which begins next week. The government is set to push for Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill in the Rajya Sabha in the session, which commences from January 29. The Bill was passed by the Lok Sabha in December last year but was stalled in the Upper House after

opposition parties demanded that it be sent to a Select Committee. According to the Bill, giving instant triple talaq will be illegal and void and will attract a jail term of three years for the husband. It would also be a non-bailable and cognisable o�ence. "The opposition and the government need to work together to bring about a law against triple talaq. They can't allow their political di�erences to stall a law. Muslim women have been denied legal protection for a long time because of abdication of the duty of the elected representatives," said Zakia Soman, cofounder of the BMMA, at a press conference. The BMMA was also one of the petitioners in Supreme Court against instant triple talaq. Soman

said that if the opposition and the government could work together on the GST, then they could do so on triple talaq as well. "They need to demonstrate a similar political will in bringing about this law," she said. The NGO has also written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Congress president Rahul Gandhi, among others, and sent a copy of a proposed legislation to them prepared after holding consultations with over 60,000 Muslim women in di�erent states in the past month. The BMMA has stated that the law must also lay down a legal procedure of divorce which should be based on reconciliation or the 'Talaq-e-Ahsan' method.

NATION

AMARAVATI WEDNESDAY 24 JANUARY 2018

�� Museum in memory of Guru Gobind Singh soon ��

2 arrested for celebratory firing in air

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Probe into lewd dance in college

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OFFICE OF PROFIT

SPIRITUAL COLOURS

AAP MLAs move HC against disqualification New Delhi: The Delhi High Court will on Wednesday hear fresh petitions filed by 20 AAP MLAs challenging the Centre's notification against their disqualification as legislators for holding o�ce of profit. The fresh petitions, which were filed a day after their earlier pleas had become infructuous on account of President giving his assent to the Election Commission's recommendation to disqualify them, said the decision by the President as well as the Election Commission (EC) were taken in "undue haste". The MLAs, whose appointment to the post of Parliamentary Secretaries was held as office of profit, contended that the entire episode leading to their disqualification was a clear manifestation of the process in which they were denied the principle of natural justice of being heard. Their petitions were mentioned on Tuesday before a bench of Justices S Ravindra Bhat and A K Chawla, which listed them for hearing on Wednesday. Advocate Manish Vashisht, appearing for five of the legislators, submitted that "the findings of the EC are contrary to Article 14 (equality before the law) of the Constitution of India, ultra vires, void ab initio and an attack on the basic fabric of democracy." The move came after the AAP MLAs on Monday withdrew their pleas challenging the Election Commission's recommendation which had received Presidential assent. On January 19, the poll panel had made the recommendation for the disqualification of the 20 legislators, which was given assent by the President. On January 20, the Ministry of Law and Justice issued a notification that the President held

that the 20 MLAs stand disqualified under Section 15(1)(a) of the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD) Act. The EC had made the recommendation while deciding a plea by advocate Prashant Patel, who had sought disqualification of 21 AAP MLAs for holding the o�ce of parliamentary secretaries, which he had said amounted to o�ce of profit. The proceedings against Jarnail Singh were dropped after he resigned as the Rajouri Garden MLA to contest the Punjab Assembly polls. The plea by the MLAs sought quashing and setting aside of the January 19 opinion of the EC and the Centre's January 20 notification stating the President had held that the 20 MLAs stand disqualified under the GNCTD Act. The notification came after

the EC wrote to the President recommending disqualification of 20 AAP MLAs for holding office of profit while serving as Parliamentary Secretaries between March 13, 2015 and September 8, 2016. The 20 MLAs include Adarsh Shastri (Dwarka), Alka Lamba (Chandni Chowk), Anil Bajpai (Gandhi Nagar), Avtar Singh (Kalkaji), Kailash Gahlot (Najafgarh) -- who is also a minister -- Madan Lal (Kasturba Nagar), Manoj Kumar (Kondli), Naresh Yadav (Mehrauli), Nitin Tyagi (Laxmi Nagar), Praveen Kumar (Jangpura). The others are Rajesh Gupta (Wazirpur), Rajesh Rishi (Janakpuri), Sanjeev Jha (Burari), Sarita Singh (Rohtas Nagar), Som Dutt (Sadar Bazar), Sharad Kumar (Narela), Shiv Charan Goel (Moti Nagar), Sukhbir Singh (Mundka), Vijendar Garg (Rajinder Nagar) and Jarnail Singh (Tilak Nagar).

Joti sought to please BJP-led govt: CPI New Delhi: The CPI on Tuesday accused former chief election commissioner A K Joti of disqualifying 20 AAP MLAs on charge of holding o�ce-ofproﬁt "to please" the NDA government at the Centre . "It appears that the Commission and in particular the (then) Chief Election Commissioner A K Joti acted in a manner which makes one conclude that the recommendation was a political one taken to please the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre," a CPI statement said. The Central Secretariat of CPI on Tuesday strongly con-

demned what it called the "unilateral and hurried move" of the Election Commission to recommend the disqualiﬁcation of the 20 AAP MLAs for holding o�ce-of-proﬁt. It alleged that the Commission did not "bother to hear the AAP leaders on the issue". The Left party has also alleged that the "decision to disqualify was taken in a hurry on the day of retirement of the CEC who was also seen earlier as proBJP government at the Centre". Joti on Monday demitted o�ce after heading the poll body for six months. He has been succeeded by O P Rawat.

No truck with BJP for LS, Maha polls: Sena Mumbai: The Shiv Sena said on Tuesday it will have no truck with ally BJP in the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly and Lok Sabha polls, but was silent about its continuance in the governments at the Centre and in the state, drawing ridicule from the Congress which dubbed the announcement as "laughable". The Sena, which has been routinely attacking the BJP-led governments at the Centre and in the state over a variety of issues-from demonetisation and GST to the plight of farmers and cross-border assaults by Pakistan-- also said it would now contest elections outside Maharashtra. Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray, who was re-elected as party president today, said it did not contest elections outside Maharashtra to ensure the Hindu votes do not get divided, but would try its luck in all Assembly polls in future, irrespective of the outcome. The resolution to part ways with the BJP and go it alone in the elections next year was tabled by Sena MP Sanjay Raut

at the party's National Executive meeting. "I move the resolution for the Shiv Sena to ﬁght the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha polls on its own in 2019," Raut said, while tabling the document, which was adopted unanimously. "The BJP allied with the Sena in the name of Hindutva and the Sena kept its patience for Hindutva. However, the BJP in the last three years has been demoralising the Sena and using power to do so," Raut said. The opposition Congress and NCP taunted the Sena for the announcement, and asked why it continued to be part of the BJP-led dispensations. Maharashtra Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant termed the Sena's decision "laughable" and "illogical". "The

REMEBERING AN ICON

Three drug peddlers held

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Members of AIFB (All India Forward Block) taking out an awareness rally to mark Netaji Subash Bose's birth anniversary, in Bhubaneswar on Tuesday.

Sena remains an ally in the government and continues to be critical of its policies. The party has scored a century of announcements to pull out of the government which it has not done so far. The people do not take the Sena seriously," he said. NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik demanded that the Sena withdraw from the BJP-led state government and face mid-term polls. "We are ready for elections," he said. The fear of defection from its ranks is stopping the Shiv Sena from pulling out of the government, Malik alleged. "The party is unable to come to terms with being the younger brother in the alliance with the BJP," the NCP leader said. Thackeray, while addressing the party's National Executive, slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for ﬂying kites with his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu instead of focusing on insurgency-hit Jammu and Kashmir. The BJP government was spending money only on advertisements, Thackeray alleged, and said such a dispensation should be brought down.

Assam Guv pays tributes to Netaji Guwahati: Assam Governor Jagdish Mukhi on Tuesday paid rich tributes to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose on the occasion of his 121st birth anniversary. “Netaji will always be remembered with the highest degree of reverence for his immense contribution to the independence struggle," he said, adding the nationalist leader personified unparalleled courage and charisma. His sacrifice for the freedom of the country was "colossal" and his inspiring slogan ‘Give me blood and I shall give you freedom’ arouses patriotism in all. Netaji's work will continue to inspire the young generation and make the youths more cultured, competent and disciplined, the governor said. “We should recall the sacrifices made by Netaji and thousand others by contributing in our own way to the growth of our nation”, he said.

Students of Arvind Mahila College play with colours on the occasion of Basant Panchami in Patna on Tuesday

AAP attacks Rawat on Day One New Delhi: Chief Election Commissioner O P Rawat was targeted by the AAP on his very first day in office on Tuesday with the party terming as "false" his claim that the Delhi MLAs, disqualified on charge of holding office-of-profit, did not seek hearings on the issue. Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Raghav Chadha said that contrary to CEC Rawat's assertion in a newspaper interview that the AAP did not request the EC to hold hearings though it was served notices on September 28 and November 2 last year, the party did "respond twice". Chadha said the AAP MLAs wrote to the EC on October 16 and November 20. "The CEC is lying. We wrote, yes, we want to place our side, both in written and oral. The EC didn't respond. How can you not give us a hearing? "Every judicial and quasijudicial body has to function as

13 naxals held in Chhattisgarh Raipur: Thirteen naxals, including two women, were arrested from insurgency-hit Narayanpur and Kondagaon districts of Chhattisgarh by joint teams of security forces, police said. Nine ultras, including two women, were held from Narayanpur district, while four jan militia members from a forested area in Kondagaon district. "In Narayanpur, a joint team of the Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and the district force apprehended the Maoists from the forests of Becha and Kadenar villages under the Chhotedongar Police Station limits during an antiMaoist operation," Narayanpur SP Jitendra Shukla told PTI. The arrested cadres were identiﬁed as Sitaram Watti, Munna alias Ravishankar, Shankar, Fagu alias Jaisingh, Sonadhar, Sukman Korram, and Lchhuram Netam. The two women are identiﬁed as Jaldai Watti and Budhmati alias Phulbati, Shukla said, adding that an arrest warrant was pending against each of them. The ultras are mainly lower-rung cadres who are wanted for crimes like attempt to murder, attacking police party, loot etc.

per law but what happened with us is unprecedented, where the cardinal principles of natural justice were violated. Nobody can be condemned unheard," he told PTI. In his defence, Rawat said that the "notice was comprehensive. But the AAP did not respond in the context of the notice." "Since the matter is sub judice, let us not talk about it further," Rawat told PTI. How-

ever, Chadha said that the MLAs, in their response, made it clear that apart from an oral hearing, they would also like to cross examine the petitioners and advance arguments on the merits of the case. Chadha also dubbed as "illegal" Rawat's decision to involve himself in AAP-related cases after having recused himself in April 2017 when he was the election commissioner. New Chief Election Commissioner Om Prakash Rawat being greeted by new Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa after he took charge, in New Delhi on Tuesday. Election Commissioner Sunil Arora is also seen in the centre.

FALL-OUT OF VIRAL VIDEO ON HIS OBJECTIONABLE ACT

AKAL TAKHT CLIPS CHADHA’S WINGS Amritsar: The Akal Takhat, the highest temporal seat of the Sikhs, on Tuesday prohibited former president of charitablecum educational body Chief Khalsa Dewan Charanjit Singh Chadha from taking part in any religious, political, educational functions for the next two years. Chadha, who was earlier removed by the Chief Khalsa Dewan trust members after his purported objectionable video with a female principal went viral on social media, appeared before the ﬁve Sikh head priests headed by Jatehdar Akal Takhat herse. After a marathon meeting of the Sikh clergy, Jatehdar Akal Takhat Gyani Gurbachan Singh, in an edict, prohibited Chadha from taking part in any religious, political, educational functions or such activity for a period of two years. The Jathedar Akal Takhat told media that as Chadha resigned from his position before the Akal Takht and the resignation letter would be sent to the honorary secretary Chief Khalsa Dewan for accept-

ance, besides cancellation of his membership from all positions with immediate e�ect and report of compliance to be submitted to the Akal Takhat. After two years, the Akal Takht, upon assessment of his conduct during the period of atonement, would take further decision as per the Sikh tenets. Chadha was booked by police in 2017 under Section 354 A, 506, 509 of the Indian Penal Code and 67, 67A Information Technology Act, when the female principal shown in the purported video, came out with a police complaint, saying that she was with Chadha who had allegedly forced her for "immoral act” with him on pain of being “removed from the job". The principal, in her complaint, had asked for police protection, saying that Chadha was such "inﬂuential person in society and could do anything wrong to her". During that period, Chadha had lost his son Inderpreet Singh who committed suicide with his own licensed weapon.

CPI(M) begins e�orts to table impeachment motion against CJI New Delhi: The CPI(M) on Tuesday kick-started its e�orts to rally opposition parties for bringing an impeachment motion against Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra in Parliament. CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, who met NCP leader Tariq Anwar and rebel JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav to discuss the issue, said it was time that the legislature and the executive come together to resolve the crisis as the judiciary has been unable to address the issues raised by the four senior apex court judges. The four senior judges of the Supreme Court, Justices J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph, had virtually revolted against CJI Dipak Misra on Jan-

uary 12, raising questions on "selective" case allocation and certain judicial orders at a press conference. The unprecedented development had sent shockwaves across the judiciary and polity. Yechury said on Tuesday they were discussing bringing an impeachment motion against the CJI in the coming budget session of Parliament. "Suggestions have come from other opposition parties that we should consider an impeachment motion. Discussions are on. "So, let us see. By the time the parliament session begins on January 29, something concrete will emerge. The issue is being discussed within the opposition parties. By 29 (Jan), the matter will be clear," Yechury told PTI. The CPI(M) leader felt

that even though nearly two weeks have passed since the four senior judges raised issues against the CJI, the crisis has not been resolved within the judiciary. "These are very grave issues which have been raised. We want the integrity and the independence of the judiciary to be established. And in the wake of the issues raised by the four senior judges, we had hoped that the issues will be resolved within the judiciary. Now, nearly two weeks have passed, nothing seems to have happened. So, I think the other wings of our democracy, the executives and the legislature will have to also come together to ensure the integrity and the independence of the judiciary," the Left leader said.

12 SCAN

Eruption of volcano sparks avalanche Tokyo (AFP): A Japanese soldier was killed on Tuesday after a volcano erupted near a popular Japanese ski resort, sparking an avalanche that left several injured and scores stranded up a mountain, officials said. Footage broadcast on Japanese television showed thick black smoke interspersed with falling rocks rolling down the snow-covered side of the volcano towards a ski slope. "One of the six members of the Self Defence Forces (injured in the incident) has died after being caught up in an avalanche," a defence ministry spokesman said. The falling rocks kicked clouds of snow into the air as they made impact. "Black smoke rose from the top of the mountain and we were told to evacuate inside 30 minutes later," a man who was at the ski resort told public broadcaster NHK. "About 100 people have been evacuated," he said.

Indian held with ‘mad drug’ Dhaka (PTI): An Indian national has been arrested in Bangladesh for possessing contraband pills, police said. Lithon Marak, 33, from Meghalaya was arrested on Monday in Netrokona district on a tipoff, it said. "A total of 182 yaba tablets were found on him," a police officer said. Marak frequently sneaked into Bangladesh to sell the contraband, Bdnews.com quoted the officer as saying. Yaba or "mad drug" are tablets containing a mixture of methamphetamine and caffeine. Its side effects include long- term decline of cognitive functions.

Arrest in rape & murder case Lahore (PTI): A 23-yearold neighbour has been arrested in the brutal rape and murder case of a minor girl in Kasur city in Pakistan's Punjab province, days after the heinous crime sparked a national outrage. Police sources confirmed suspect Imran Ali, a neighbour of the seven-year-old victim, had confessed to his crime before an investigation team. Ali was known to the girl's family and would also frequent her house, police sources said. They said Ali had been taken into custody over two weeks ago but was let go on the victim family's plea that 'he could not be a culprit'.

Midair collision leaves 4 dead Berlin (AP): German police say a small aircraft has crashed midair with a helicopter northwest of Stuttgart, killing four persons. Police in Karlsruhe told the dpa news agency Tuesday the two aircraft crashed outside of Philippsburg, about 100 kilometres from Stuttgart. Police couldn't immediately be reached for further details.

WORLD

AMARAVATI WEDNESDAY 24 JANUARY 2018

Trump slaps high tariff on Chinese washing machines Washington (PTI): President Donald Trump has slapped high tariffs on import of solar cells and washing machines to protect the American market badly hit by products from countries like China and South Korea. The move is in line with President Trump's "America First" trade policy. The US Trade Representative (USTR) made the recommendations to the President based on consultations with the interagency Trade Policy Committee (TPC) in response to findings by the independent, bipartisan US International Trade Commission (ITC) that increased imports of washers and solar cells and modules are a substantial cause of serious injury to domestic manufacturers. A spokesman

said the administration would "always defend American workers, farmers, ranchers and businessmen". "These cases were filed by American businesses and thoroughly litigated at the International Trade Commission over a period of several months," said USTR Robert Lighthizer. "The ITC found that US producers had been seriously injured by imports and made several recommendations to the President," he said. The USTR said injury to US washing machine manufacturers stems from a sharp increase in imports that began in 2012. The ITC found that imports of large residential washers increased "steadily" from 2012 to 2016, and that domestic producers' financial performance "de-

China denounces US move Beijing (PTI): China has expressed dissatisfaction over a US move to impose steep tariffs on imported solar cells and washing machines, asking America to refrain from "overusing" trade remedies and play a positive role in promoting the world economy. The US approved tariffs on imported washing machines and solar panels in line with President Donald Trump's "America First" trade policy, which aims to protect local manufacturers from foreign competition. "China hopes the US could refrain from overusing trade remedies, abide by multilateral trade rules to play a positive role in promoting the world economy," Wang Hejun, head of the commerce ministry's trade remedy and investigation bureau said. clined precipitously." The relief will include a tariff of 30 per cent in the first year, 25 per cent in the second year, 20 per cent in the third year, and 15 per cent in the fourth year. Additionally, the first 2.5 gigawatts of imported solar cells will be exempt

from the safeguard tariff in each of those four years, USTR said. The US Trade Representative will engage in discussions among interested parties that could lead to positive resolution of the separate antidumping

and countervailing duty measures currently imposed on Chinese solar products and US polysilicon, it said. According to USTR, the goal of those discussions must be fair and sustainable trade throughout the whole solar energy value chain, which

would benefit US producers, workers, and consumers. Shares in Whirlpool rose 2.5 per cent on the news, and it immediately announced it would employ 200 more people. Shares in US solar panel manufacturers also went up.

Trump signs funding bill, ends shutdown Washington (PTI): Claiming a "big win", President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed a bill to end a three-day government shutdown after striking a deal with Democrats to hold a debate on the future of over 700,000 young undocumented immigrants. Trump signed a bill into law after the House of Representatives voted 266 to 150 to extend federal funding for another three weeks. Senate Democrats dropped their opposition to the plan after receiving a commitment from the ruling Republicans toward securing the fate of hundreds of thousands of so-called "Dreamers" illegally brought to America as children. The stop-gap funding, passed both the Senate and House by large margins on Monday night. The spending bill passed the Senate by 81-18. The measure

“Big win for Republicans as Democrats cave on Shutdown. I am pleased that Democrats in Congress have come to their senses and are now willing to fund our great military, border patrol, ﬁrst responders, and insurance for vulnerable children” Donald Trump, US President funds the government till February 8, before which the Democrats and Republicans need to agree to a long- term solution to the government funding and on issues related to illegal immigration. Claiming victory in his stando� with Democrats, Trump signed the measure into law and government operations would return to normal from Tuesday. Thousands of federal employees who had

been placed on temporary, unpaid leave since Saturday breathed a sigh of relief. "Big win for Republicans as Democrats cave on Shutdown," Trump tweeted. "I am pleased that Democrats in Congress have come to their senses and are now willing to fund our great military, border patrol, ﬁrst responders, and insurance for vulnerable children," Trump said in a statement.

Quake rocks Indonesia, Java Jakarta (Reuters): O�ce workers ﬂed high-rise buildings in the Indonesian capital on Tuesday after a strong earthquake shook the city, causing some injuries and damage to at least 130 buildings elsewhere on the densely populated island of Java. The relatively shallow quake of magnitude 6 struck o� Java, the US Geological Survey said, and authorities ruled out the risk of a tsunami. Many people ran along the streets of downtown Jakarta, pointing at the buildings above them, witnesses said. Metro TV showed patients being evacuated from a hospital. The quake struck about 104 km west of the city of Sukabumi, at a depth of 44 km. Jakarta is about 100 km away. "In Cianjur, six students were seriously injured and two students su�ered light injuries when the (school) roof collapsed," Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, a spokesman for Indonesia's disaster agency, said in a statement, referring to a district of West Java province. Besides schools, more than 130 houses and a mosque were damaged in the provinces of West Java and Banten, the

People gather outside The City Tower building after an earthquake hit Jakarta on Tuesday agency said. The quake was felt for about 10 to 15 seconds in Jakarta, though many residents thought it lasted far longer. "I was just sitting down, then I felt the building swaying," said Rudy Togatorop, 35, who works at the Chilean embassy. "The emergency stairs were very narrow. I was worried if something would happen." Indonesia sits on the geologically active Paciﬁc Ring of Fire and is regularly hit by earthquakes. In 2004, the Indian Ocean tsunami killed 226,000 people in 13 countries, including

Einstein's letter defending murderer pal up for auction Los Angeles (PTI): An autographed letter, in which German physicist Albert Einstein defends the character of a friend accused of murder, is up for auction in the US. Dated April 29, 1917, the letter is addressed to Einstein's close friend and scientific collaborator Michele Besso - the only individual credited in Einstein's paper on the Theory of Special Relativity. In the letter, Einstein addresses different topics, including General Relativity, quantum physics and his friend Friedrich Adler, who had recently assassinated Austrian Minister-President Karl von Sturgkh. Einstein comes to his friend's defence, describing his personality and wondering how he could help him. Adler's trial for

the assassination of von Sturgkh was within days of Einstein's letter, according to the US-based Nate D Sanders Auctions. "A. proved himself a selfless, calm, hard-working, goodhearted, conscientious man who was highly esteemed by everybody, and that it is my heartfelt desire, therefore, to intercede for him," said Einstein wrote in the letter.

more than 120,000 in Indonesia. In December, a quake of 6.5 magnitude killed at least three people when it hit Java, at a depth of 92 km, and buildings in Jakarta swayed for several seconds. The World Bank reckons natural disasters cost Indonesia 0.3 percent of its gross domestic product annually, but a 2015 government report on disaster risk management said a major earthquake, occurring once every 250 years, could cause losses in excess of $30 billion, or 3 percent of GDP.

Astronauts go spacewalking to give new hand to robot arm Cape Canaveral (AP): Spacewalking astronauts gave a hand to the International Space Station's big robot arm on Tuesday. As the federal government geared back up 250 miles below, NASA astronauts Mark Vande Hei and Scott Tingle ﬂoated outdoors to install the new mechanical gripper. Because of the lingering e�ects of the government shutdown, the spacewalk got started in the morning without live coverage on NASA TV. An on-air message simply stated: "We regret the inconvenience." Nearly an hour into the spacewalk, however, NASA TV came alive and began broadcasting the event with typical blow-

by-blow commentary. Space station operations were largely una�ected by the three-day shutdown. Considered essential personnel, Mission Control kept watch as usual at Johnson Space Center in Houston. Vande Hei performed a similar spacewalk last October, when he replaced the ﬁrst of two original hands on the Canadian-built arm. This second new hand "a spare" will go on the opposite end of the 58-foot arm. The bulky bundle of latches "more than 3 feet, or a meter, long and weighing more than 440 pounds, or 200 kilogram" needed to be replaced because of wear and tear. It's been in orbit, grabbing cargo

capsules and performing other chores, since 2001. "Make us proud out there," astronaut Joe Acaba told the spacewalkers from inside. "We'll have hot chow for you when you get back." The spacewalk was delayed briefly because of a problem with the display unit on Vande Hei's suit. He powered the suit o�, then back on, and everything worked. It was the first spacewalk for Tingle, who arrived last month, and the third for Vande Hei. Vande Hei will go back out Monday with another astronaut to finish the job. The space station is home to three Americans, two Russians and one Japanese.

No mediation on J&K unless both parties agree: UN chief United Nations (PTI): UN chief Antonio Guterres has ruled out any mediation to resolve the Kashmir issue unless all parties agree to it and asked India and Pakistan to address their outstanding issues through talks amidst heightened tensions along the border. The UN Secretary- General's spokesman Stephane Dujarric said that in principle good offices of the UN chief are always available for mediation, but everyone needs to agree on involving the world body. Asked about escalating tensions between India and Pakistan due to ongoing skirmishes and firing along the border, Dujarric said, "We're obviously aware. We're following this… what's been going on, really for the last 10 days." Asked why the Secretary-General is not so keen to involve himself in this crisis, Dujarric said, "In principle good offices of Guterres are always available for mediation, but everyone needs to

agree on involving the UN." "As a matter of principle, I'm not talking specifically about this issue, but about any issue where there is conflict between parties, the Secretary-General's good offices are always available," he said. "As in any issue...if there are multiple parties, everyone needs to agree on involving the UN. That is true of any mediation effort," Dujarric said. "The Secretary-General would encourage both sides to address any outstanding issues through dialogue," he said. The relations between India and Pakistan are strained following series of attacks by Pakistan-based terror groups and incidents of ceasefire violations, causing casualties on both sides. India is opposed to any third-party intervention in resolving the Kashmir issue while Pakistan has continuously sought mediation to sort out the differences.

‘Good morning’ messages cluttering smartphones in India Washington (IANS): With millions of "good morning" texts, spiced with colourful images and even videos sent and received every morning across India, one in three smartphone user in India runs out of space daily, as compared to one in 10 in the US, the media reported. According to Google, there has been a 10-fold rise in the number of searches for "Good Morning images" over the past ﬁve years. It is because Indians have a habit of sending millions of 'good morning!' texts along with sundappled ﬂowers, adorable toddlers and birds to friends, family and strangers, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. Inexpensive smartphones and data plans have brought an un-

likely group of users online who begin their typical day -- before sunrise and reaches a crescendo before 8 a.m. -- by sending good morning greetings. "We were trying to deconstruct what is the DNA of a good morning message for months. It's been a lot of hard work to get it right," Josh Woodward, the Google product manager in Mountain View, California, was quoted as telling the Wall Street Journal. Currently, there are nearly 400 million Internet users in India, along with over 300 million smartphone users and about 650 million mobile phone users. The company used its giant image database and artiﬁcial intelligence tools to train the app to weed out good morning mes-

sages. The key to spotting them was looking for a certain size and type of image ﬁle, Woodward said, adding that early versions were picking out photos of chil-

dren wearing T-shirts with words on them. To counter such storage problem, Google in December launched a new app called "Files Go" that will help free up space, find files faster and share files offline on smartphones that come with less internal storage. "The average 'Files Go' user is saving 1GB of space so they can do more on their phone. It was built for Android Go devices, but we're also making it available on the Google Play Store," the company said, at the launch of the product in New Delhi. The app has more than 10 million downloads so far, with more users in India than any other country. It has cleared up on average more than 1 gigabyte of data per user, Google said.

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BUSINESS

AMARAVATI WEDNESDAY 24 JANUARY 2018

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India offers growth opportunities

UK regulator discards Fox takeover of Sky

Jio hikes per day data limit

“

Britain’s competition regulator on Tuesday provisionally rejected the proposed $15.5 bn acquisition by 21st Century Fox of the British satellite broadcaster Sky on the grounds that it was not in the public interest. The CMA had been assessing whether the deal, announced in Dec 2016, would negatively affect media plurality.

Stepping up the tariff war, Reliance Jio has decided to offer 500 MB extra data to its subscribers using 1GB and 1.5GB per day data packs with effect from Jan 26, according to company sources.

We in India offer great opportunities in terms of large infrastructure investment that we need. There is an infrastructure deficit that we have in India. We want India's domestic manufacturing to grow.

BIZ BRIEFS AMI expo in Hyd Hyderabad: Apparel Manufacturers of India, a leading apparel group of manufacturers and traders, is gearing up for its upcoming trade fair in Hyderabad, next month. The 13th edition of the fair is a four-day event which will take place at Hitex Convention Centre from February 6. For the first time, AMI will be conducting a zonal trade fair, which will see participation from retailers, MBOs, manufacturers and chain stores across Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. More than 135 brands from Mumbai will be presenting their latest collection here to the retailers and MBOs.

Home loans from ICICI Hyderabad: Private sector ICICI Bank said it disbursed over Rs 6,700 crore in the last four years to first-time home buyers under the affordable housing segment. Under ‘Pratham’ loans, ICICI bank enabled more than 51,000 home buyers from EWS and LIG in the last four years to purchase their first home of upto Rs 30 lakh. Anup Bagchi, ED, ICICI bank said: “We disbursed more than Rs 6,700 crore of ‘Pratham’ home loans in the affordable housing segment. To make our home loans widely accessible, we have expanded our distribution by opening over 100 new loan processing centres in Tier II, Tier III cities.”

NCMS unveils online portal Hyderabad: Warehousing player National Collateral Management Services ltd (NCML) on Tuesday launched their online portal MktYard.com and, also released their ninth edition of ‘India Commodity Year Book 2018.’ NCML’s online portal MktYard.com is a trading platform, and the portal takes care of price discovery, price risk and trade settlement. The portal also assists commodity market participants to buy or sell commodities and create tradable liquid warehouse receipt. The platform also connects clients and their stocks in warehouses and collateral management location through e-market link. The event also witnessed the release of India Commodity Year Book edited by Sanjay Kaul, CEO, NCML.

DCM Shriram's Q3 net up Hyderabad: DCM Shriram has reported a 56 per cent jump in its net profit at Rs 213 crore in the third quarter ending December 2017. The profit after tax was Rs 137 crore in the OctoberDecember quarter of 201617. Net revenues stood at Rs 1,784 crore in the third quarter of the current fiscal as compared to Rs 1,365 crore a year earlier, it said in a statement. In the chemical vertical, the company said volumes gain was of 34 per cent on account of full utilisation of expanded capacities at Bharuch, supported by firm prices.

Arun Jaitley, Finance Minister

Sensex scales 36,000

WEF@DAVOS

When tweeting was done by birds and Amazon was a jungle

Institutions-led bull party on D-St; Nifty tops 11K in 6mths from 10k; Investor wealth rises by over Rs 1 lakh cr Mumbai (PTI): Domestic equities continued euphoric run for the fifth straight day riding a wave of optimism, with the BSE Sensex surging past the 36,000-level and the NSE Nifty breaching 11,000 on Tuesday for the first time ever following IMF’s GDP forecasts for India coupled with positive global cues. The total market capitalisation (m-cap) of BSE-listed companies surged by Rs 108,019.59 crore to Rs 156,56,592 crore. Both benchmark indices were driven strong gains as FIIs turned net buyers. Mostly metal, banking, IT and infra shares surged on earnings optimism. The major trigger behind the boost in investors optimism was the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) forecast that India’s GDP growth will hit 7.4 per cent in 2018-19 and the country will regain the status of the world’s fastest growing major economy. Continuing its record-setting run for the fifth straight session, the BSE benchmark Sensex hit a new high of 36,170.83 (intra-day) on the back of widespread gains in metal, PSU, oil and gas and financial counters. Finally, the 30share index settled at 36,139.98, up 341.97 points, or 0.96 per cent. The gauge had risen 1,026.96 points in the previous four sessions. The Sensex took just five trading sessions (January 17- 23) to reach the historic 36,000-level from 35,000, while the NSE Nifty advanced to 11,000-mark from

Amplify workforce with AI: Infy Bengaluru, (PTI): Infosys President Mohit Joshi on Tuesday said, Industry disruption from Artificial Intelligence (AI) was already on and organisations not using it to amplify their workforce will fall behind or find themselves irrelevant. "Industry disruption from AI is no longer imminent, it is here. The organisations that embrace AI with a clearly defined strategy and use AI to amplify their workforce rather than replace it will take the lead and those that don't will fall behind or find themselves irrelevant," he said. Joshi said this in a statement while releasing the company's global research on the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) at Davos, where the world Economic Forum is currently underway. The research findings says, enterprises are moving beyond the experimentation phase with AI, deploying AI technologies more broadly and realizing benefits across their business.

Davos: Harry Potter was an unheard name, tweeting was done only by birds and Amazon referred to dense forests in 1997, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday to stress upon the changes the world has seen in the past 20 years. Addressing the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting, Modi said he is the ﬁrst Indian Prime Minister to come here since H D Deve Gowda in 1997. The Indian economy has changed signiﬁcantly since then and so has the rest of the world, he noted. Speaking mostly in Hindi, Modi thanked WEF and the Swiss government for the reception accorded to him. He also recalled that when Deve Gowda came here in 1997, the theme of the WEF summit was building a networked society. That theme now looks centuries-old as the world today is about big data and so many other new developments, the prime minister said. Modi said very few people in 1997 had heard of Osama bin Laden and even Harry Potter was an unheard name. "Also, chess players did not have any big fear of the computer while Google was not there in cyber space and Amazon of that time was about dense forests. Tweeting was done by birds at that time and not by humans," he said. Modi, however, said at that time also, Davos was ahead of

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10,000 in six months (July 26, 2017 to January 23, 2018). The Nifty touched a new high (intra-day) of 11,092.90 on Tuesday. It closed the session with a hefty rise of 117.50 points, or 1.07 per cent, at a fresh life high of 11,083.70, bettering its previous record close of 10,966.20 reached in Monday’s trade. Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 1,567.51 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) sold equities worth Rs 461.87 crore on Monday as per provisional data.

Modi recalls 1997 to stress upon the changes the world has seen in past 20 years

Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacting with the top global CEOs at the International Business Council event in Davos on Tuesday its time and was known for WEF. It is ahead of the times today as well with the theme of 'Creating a shared future in a fractured world'. "The world is changing fast today and there are new and serious challenges related to peace and security and various other matters. "We believe in linking people, not bending them or breaking them. But the challenges the world faces are as numerous as they are daunting. "Mountains of data are getting created and there is a race to control those as the feeling is that the one who gets control of this data would rule the world," he said.

India should focus on women's inclusion: IMF Davos: IMF chief Christine Lagarde said on Tuesday India must continue with reforms especially in the ﬁnancial services sector and should urgently focus on broad-based and true inclusion of women in its economy. Addressing a press conference as part of the all women cochairs of the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meet, Lagarde said, ‘IMF research has showed that raising women's participation in the workforce to the level of men can boost Indian

AI can boost revenues by 38%

Heritage Foods CFO bags ICAI award

economy by 27 per cent.’ She also expressed concern over the high level of discrimination faced by women in rural India and emphasised that there is an urgent need to address this issue. Lagarde reiterated IMF's forecast of 7.4 per cent growth for India and said it is obviously one of the fastest growing large economies of the world. According to her, future growth would depend on how the country carries forward the reform process. Lagarde said India must con-

Davos: If businesses invest in Artiﬁcial Intelligence (AI) and human-machine collaboration at the same rate as top-notch companies, they could boost revenues by 38 per cent by 2022 and raise employment levels by 10 per cent, a new report said on Tuesday. Collectively, this would lift profits by $4.8 trillion globally over the same period, said the Accenture Strategy report released here dur-

"To achieve higher rates of growth in the age of AI, companies need to invest more in equipping their people to work with machines in new ways," said Mark Knickrehm, Group Chief Executive, Accenture Strategy. More than two thirds (69 %) of the 14,000 workers surveyed said it is important to develop skills to work with intelligent machines. Yet, a disconnect between work-

Rajan was speaking at a session on the power of economic narratives and how policymakers can address the challenges of the 21st century. He said some governments such as Singapore have done something to address the problems arising out of income inequality and the divisions in the society by setting up housing projects where middle class and lower middle-class families can live together. Rajan said he's not sure about the US but some countries are doing things in this area and certainly the governments can play a role here. The Chicago University professor is known for his frank views on various economic and monetary policy matters and is credited with having predicted the global ﬁnancial crisis of 2007. ers' embracing AI and their employers' e�orts to prepare workers puts potential growth at risk. While a majority (54 %) of business leaders say that human-machine collaboration is important to their strategic priorities, only three percent noted that their organisation plans to signiﬁcantly increase its investment in reskilling their workers in the next three years.

Launches India Innovation Hub Accelerator programme on AR/VR space BUSINESS BUREAU

Hyderabad: Dairy ﬁrm Heritage Foods on Tuesday said its CFO Prabhakara Naidu won an award at 11th ICAI Awards 2017 presented by Institute of Chartered Account of India. Union Commerce & Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu presented the award to Naidu under the agriculture and allied services segment. He was honoured for his excellence in CA-CFO. Brahmani Nara, Executive Director, Heritage Foods, said: “We would like to thank ICAI for recognizing our CFOs excellence in his ﬁeld. It will boost the morale of the management and our employees to strive for greater achievements like these in near future”. ICAI recognises exemplary achievements of its members every year. These awards are

Hyderabad: T-Hub, an initiative of Telangana government and India's largest incubator for startups, on Tuesday announced its partnership with Facebook for pushing augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR) and extended reality (XR) applications in several industry verticals. As part of this initiative, T-Hub and Facebook jointly have launched India Innovation Hub Accelerator Programme and for this they have already listed 10 startups, which will have to develop Proof of Concept (PoC) on the prioritized solution and submit to Facebook and T-Hub Innovation Hub. Subsequently, qualiﬁed startups will be inducted to FbStart programme thus getting access to T-Hub’s network of mentors, investors, service providers and ecosystem.

aimed at honouring the CFOs who have demonstrated excellence in the professional life and are role models for others.

ing the WEF. "For the average S&P500 company, this equates to $7.5 billion of revenues and a $880 million lift to proﬁtability," the report noted. Seventy two percent of the 1,200 senior executives surveyed said intelligent technology will be critical to their organisation's market di�erentiation and 61 per cent noted that the share of roles requiring collaboration with AI will rise in the next three years.

Davos: Former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan on Tuesday said the Western world must realise they cannot go a long way without the help of the emerging economies and warned that no one would be able to resolve any problem of a 'fractured world' if things are not set right soon. Without naming any country, he said the West must realise that their population is ageing and the demand for their products would mostly come from the emerging world. Speaking at a session of the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting, Rajan said there is a risk that by the time the West goes to the emerging world for their support, they may have to answer quite a few questions about why they did not share the beneﬁts earlier. He warned that the approach of the Western world must change soon for the good, or else there may be a chance that we are not able to solve any of the problems of the 'fractured world'. About issues facing the Western world, he listed technology, ageing population and climate change.

T-Hub teams up with Facebook

BUSINESS BUREAU

Prabhakara Naidu, CFO, Heritage Foods, with ICAI award

tinue with its reforms, especially in ﬁnancial services sector and the one area that needs special focus is gender equality. "I genuinely hope there will be a focus on inclusion of Indian women in the economy. We have research to show that India's GDP can grow by 27 per cent if the women are brought to the same level of men in terms of economic and workforce participation," she said.

West needs emerging economies: Rajan

Satyajeet Singh (L), Head of Platform Partnerships, India & South Asia, Facebook, and Jay Krishnan, CEO, T-Hub, exchanging MoU for promoting startups in AR/VR technologies at T-hub in Hyd on Tuesday The ﬁnalists will be invited to participate in a three-month accelerator program at T-Hub. And the accelator programme will take o� in April. Jay Krishnan, CEO, T-Hub, and Satyajeet Singh, Head of Platform (India-south Asia) at FB, ex-

changed the documents of agreement on India Innovation Hub Accelerator programme at T-Hub campus on Tuesday. Jay Krishnan said: “Our intent, as an ecosystem enabler is to partner with pioneers like FB and explore new frontiers that are rele-

vant for India like healthcare, education, etc, with AR/ VR and XR technologies.” Satyajeet Singh adds: “We have 2K FB development members in Hyd. We understand the challenges start-ups face to get their ideas o� the ground and we are committed to paving the way for the next generation of startup success in the country. Through our program with T-Hub, we want to provide the right support, training and mentorship they need to explore the potential of emerging technologies. With 10 startups, this is just a beginning. Facebook is keen on investing in emerging technologies in India. We hope this will help grow business of startups and other companies in di�erent sectors.” The Indian AR/VR market, yet nascent, is expected to grow at (CAGR) of 76 per cent over the next ﬁve years.

Groom the young to take interest in astronomy: Kasturirangan For India to be “right in the forefront” of astronomy, it is important to draw the interest of the youth. We need a large number of youngsters from the university system, institutions, observational institutes, he stresses SUDIPTO CHOWDHURY Kolkata: Indian students can reach for the skies if an interest in astronomy is instilled in them right from their school days, former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief K Kasturirangan has said. He said, India would be one of the leaders in the field of astronomy in the future. "I think this is an extraordinary period of astronomy for India but what is important now is that we need to groom the younger generation to take an interest in astronomy, to bring them into astronomy and do justice to all the investments we are making," Kasturirangan said. For India to be "right in the forefront" of astronomy, it was important to draw the interest of the youth, he told PTI. Predicting that planetary explorations would further grow in the coming years, the scientist said there was a great scope for youngsters in this field. To generate interest in astronomy among the youth, the government should promote activities right from the schools, in colleges as well as universities and other research areas, he said. "I think even areas such as planetary explorations will further grow. And so there is a lot of scope and a lot of excitement in this but the youngsters have to be motivated... right from the schools. We should promote astronomical activities in the universities, research areas, institutions. We need a large number of young-

To generate interest in astronomy among the youth, the government should promote activities right from the schools, in colleges as well as universities and other research areas

sters from the university system, institutions, observational institutes," he stressed. Asked if India was capable of taking up space expeditions and research works on its own, Kasturirangan said ISRO would need to partner other nations after a certain point. "I would say up to a point India is capable of taking up space expeditions single-handedly. But I think at a cer-

tain stage India must move towards international collaboration and cooperation. "Chandrayaan had six instruments from abroad and six from India... I am sure that future Mangalyan and other planetary explorations will have (collaboration). And afterwards I believe we will be a part of an international expedition to planetary exploration,"

Kasturirangan said. He, however, advised the government not to go in for loans to facilitate space research programmes. “We should not take loans because investments are very large and the resources can be very demanding. And I don’t think there is any reason why we should when the international community also looks to collaboration with India because Indians are easy to collaborate with, are capable and can contribute substantially to major programmes. We have demonstrated that in the past,” the space scientist said. Underlining India’s strong presence in international space programmes, the Padma Vibhushan awardee of 2000 predicted tremendous opportunities for the country in this field. He referred to India's participation in the Thirty Metre Telescope (TMT) project, a proposed astronomical observatory, mentioned the Square Kilometre Array, a large multi radio telescope project and said India was a partner for the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) to detect cosmic gravitational waves. "I think others will come here and they will be partners here of an Indian-inspired thing. And may be tomorrow there will be an astrostat in which others will come and participate. So just look at the things we are doing. So I think there is tremendous opportunity and the international community is very much inclined to do this,” he stated.

IPE to conduct ‘Sanskriti’ on Jan 27 OUR BUREAU Hyderabad: Admissions into courses of PGDM, PGDM-BIF, PGDM-RM, PGDM-IB PGDM-HR, and Ex-PGDM for academic year 2018, run by the Institute of Public Enterprises (IPE) are under progress, said Prof R K Mishra, Director. Addressing a press conference at the press club in Somajiguda on Tuesday, he said. The first round of group discussions and personal interviews for PGDM programmes are going to start from February 2, said the professor. The last date for submitting applications for the first phase of admissions is January 31. He briefed the unique accomplishments of IPE highlighting the many new grounds it has broken in research, long term education, consulting, publications and networking. The professor explained that for the IPE is adopting innovative pedagogical tools in classroom teaching with the help of digital support systems. Placements coordinator Dr M Meher Karuna said Placements at IPE are an outcome of its highly proficient academics. Most of the MNCs are looking towards IPE for its talent acquisition. Students, who dream high, join IPE to acquire the required skills to fulfill their dreams by taking part in various activities of IPE including placements.

IPE is adopting innovative pedagogical tools in classroom teaching with the help of digital support systems There is an inspirational track record of placements at the Institute. V Anji Raju, coordinator, student affairs said Sanskriti’18 a two –day ﬂagship national event to all the B-School students in India is scheduled to be commenced on January 27 at its campus. More than 5000 students across India including, IIMs, IITs and other leading B-schools will participate. V Rajanna, Vice-President & Global Head - Technology Business, TCS and Chairman of CII Telangana State to inaugurate the fest. Mohammed Rafatullah, CEO, Dukes Products India Ltd. would be the guest of honour. Dr N K Nanda, Director (Technical), NMDC Ltd. would be the chief guest for the valedictory function. Dr Shulagna Sarkar, conference convener, said the institute is organising the ﬁfth International conference on Corporate Social Responsibility on February 1 and 2. The event is organised under the aegis of NLCIL chair on CSR. The meet aims to discuss CSR issues and challenges and also unveils the impact of the Sec 135 of Companies Act, 2013.

Machines with AI will outsmart humans in 25-30 yrs: Yunus

Punjab team hails TSWREIS e�orts The Telangana residential model of education is the best in the country, and the government of Punjab is keen on emulating this model, said Ripu Daman Singh OUR BUREAU Hyderabad: A high proﬁle team from Punjab Social Welfare Department led by Ripu Daman Singh, visited Telangana Social welfare residential school, Gowlidoddi and its IIT Academy. The team impressed with the different curricular and extra-curricular activities being implemented by the TSWREIS in providing quality education to poor children. The team appreciated the Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao for his vision for the holistic development of marginalised communities. The Telangana residential model of education

is the best in the country, and the government of Punjab is keen on emulating this model, said Ripu Daman Singh. The team members also held meeting with Dr RS Praveen Kumar, Secretary, TSWREIS, and P. Karunakar, Director, SCDD. The TSWREIS Secretary and the Director, SCDD, briefed various schemes and programmes being implemented by for the welfare of Scheduled Caste communities. Speaking to the team members, Dr Kumar said, close to eight lakh poor children will study in residential schools by 2020 under the KG-PG mission, and the government is planning to spend more than 15000 crore in the coming years to give a major push to residential schools. Dr Kumar thanked the Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and the Minister for Scheduled Caste Development Department G. Jagadish Reddy for approving a number of schemes unheard of in the country’s education sector and for helping poor SC children to pursue higher studies, besides providing nutritious diet and laptops under the KG.-PG Mission.

Kolkata: Nobel laureate and microfinance pioneer Muhammad Yunus has expressed concern over the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) and said machines may outrun humans in terms of e�ciency and usefulness in the next 25-30 years. AI robots will able to develop on their own without human intervention beyond a point, he told PTI yesterday on the sidelines of Tata Steel Literary Meet 2018. "There should be some global regulatory guidelines on the development and research on this technology, which is primarily driven by greed," Yunus, the founder of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, said. AI should be used for social issues like healthcare, flood and drought, Yunus opined. "There is no gatekeeper, no social guidelines… Even when a new medicine is introduced, it has to seek regulatory approvals. Why can't same rules apply for AI?" he asked.

UoH professor bags award OUR BUREAU Hyderabad: Prof. Ramana Murthy Rupakula, senior faculty in the School of Economics at the University of Hyderabad (UoH) has received an award for his distinguished contribution in Political Economy. The World Association of Political

Economy (WAPE) presented the award to the professor at 12th forum held recently at Moscow State University of Law and Finance, Russia. He was awarded for his articles published in World Review of Political Economy, titled "Class Di�erentiation and Crisis of Agrarian Petty C ommodity Producers in India" (2016).

STATE-LEVEL ENGINEERING COLLEGES SPORTS MEET HELD OUR BUREAU Hyderabad: The VIII Inter-engineering Colleges State-level sports meet was conducted by G.Narayanamma Women’s Institute of Technology & Sciences (GNITS), concluded here on Tuesday. In the Throw ball GNITS-B Team beat GNITS-A team with 11-15 and 915.BVRIT won the Volley ball competition after beating GNITS engg studnets bring out sports prowess in

them with 2 points. In BasketballVNRVJIET beat GNITS with 2 points for winners spot. In Table Tennis GNITS - A team beat SNIST with 3-0 points and emerged champions. Table Tennis singles was bagged by SNIST after beating GNITS with 3-0.CBIT won Badminton singles and doubles titles by beating GNITS – A with 11-4 and 11-5. 11-3 and 11-5 respectively. The twoday event concluded with the valedictoryfunction in which Ar-

MirKhasim Ali along with the winners in Hyderabad on Tuesday

juna Awardee and renowned Table Tennis Player MirKhasim Ali was the chief guest. Prizes were distributed to the winning teams from various engineering college across the state. The programme was attended by Malladi Haripriya, Associate Manager in Accenture, G Srividya Reddy, Joint Secretary of GNITS, Dr. KRamesh Reddy, Principal of GNITS, and the Physical Director Dr.MVL Surya Kumari.

Ramana Murthy currently teaches Political Economy and Development and Macroeconomics at the School of Economics. He has been working in the area of agrarian transformation in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. The professor is an o�cial signatory of Indian Political Economy Association (IPEA).

National seminar on Sanskrit OUR BUREAU Hyderabad: The Department of Languages of Bhavan's Vivekananda College, Sainikpuri is organising a twoday national seminar on the theme`VartamankaaleSamskrut a S a h i t a s y a A a v a s h y a k t a a Ta syaAacharaneeyataa" from Wednesday. I Y R Krishna Rao, Chairman, Bhartiya VidyaBhavan and J L N Sastry, the Vice Chairman, will grace the occasion. Dr. K Arvinda Rao, DGP, Andhra Pradesh is the chief guest and Prof. A Ramulu, Head of the Department of Sanskrit, Osmania University will be the guest of honour. Seminar Chairman & Principal Prof. Y Ashok and seminar convener & HoD of Languages Dr C Kameswari will coordinate the programme. The uniqueness of the seminar is that all the research papers will be presented in Sanskrit. Asst. Professors and research scholars from various universities and colleges will present at the seminar. Valedictory session will be organised on Thursday.

AMARAVATI WEDNESDAY 24 JANUARY 2018

Rajasthan IITians launch education start-ups Young ex-IITians are returning to take a shot at creating jobs through their tech ventures particularly in the field of education

MODEL PAPERS MATHEMATICS PAPER-I PART – A SECTION – I Answer to all:1. Without performing actual division state whether is terminating or repeating decimal. 2. Why has no zeroes? Explain. 3. Hansa said “Set of Primes and Set of Composites are disjoint”. Is it true? Justify. 4. Find the value of ‘K’ for which the pair of equations and represent parallel lines. 5. Find two consecutive odd positive integers whose product is 143. 6. Check whether – 35 is a term of the A.P 15, 11, 7, - - -7. Taking any two points on the line y = x + 5, find its slope. SECTION – II Answer to all:-

ARCHANA SHARMA Jaipur: With a view to giving back to their home towns, young ex-IITians are returning to take a shot at creating jobs through their tech ventures in Rajasthan, particularly in the ﬁeld of education. Many of these tech-savvy youngsters realised that education was in dire need of a major change in the state. "One day, we discussed that if travel, banking, hotels and food can be on phones, why not education? That was the trigger. We wanted to build a one-point communication between teachers and students," Madhup Bansal, from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IIT-D), and co-founder and Managing Director of Myly, told IANS. Gaurav Mundra, the other cofounder and CEO of Myly, realised that his son's school circulars sometimes went missing. "So we brought a centralised app where parents had access to kids' timetable, results, fee deposits and other information via one mobile app," he says. Currently working with 800 academic institutions in India, he said they have operations in Dubai and the Philippines and were planning to be in Malaysia soon. Rishabh Jain, from IIT, Bombay, and COO of Qriyo, India's managed home tuition app, claimed to be ﬁrst of its kind, says: "Me and Mudit, CEO of Qriyo, had envisioned to be job creators for around 500 people in our hometowns. So we started operations in Jaipur and Jodhpur. Now, it's heartening to see that we have evaluated over 15,000 tutors who are serving over 5,000 students in six cities of India." Mudit Jain was at the India division of Finmechanics as Country Head and had worked with the consulting arm of PricewaterhouseCoopers, US. "The idea

6 x 2 = 12

8. Find the number of digits in 2735 if log3 = 0.4771. 9. If 5 times of 5th term of an A.P. is equal to 4 times of 4th term then show that 9th term is zero. 10. The larger of two supplementary angles, exceeds the smaller by 18O. Find the angles. 11. Solve X2-10x+9=10 by the method of completing the square. 12. Find the values of y for which the distance between the points P(2, -3) and Q(10, y) is 10 units. 13. Verify that 1, -1 and -3 are the zeroes of the polynomial and check the relationship between zeroes and the coefficients. SECTION – III Answer to all with internal choice:14. a) Prove that

4 x 4 = 16

is an irrational number.

(or) b) Solve the following by reducing them to a pair of linear equations. &

Madhup Bansal, co-founder and Managing Director of Myly, Gaurav Mundra, the other co-founder and CEO of Myly

15. a) Find the zeroes of

of Qriyo originated while searching for a yoga teacher. Despite hundreds of providers listed online, I could not find a suitable match." In January 2016, Qriyo was born, o�ering over 400 courses in academics, co-curricular, extra-curricular and fitness activities, Mudit said. The returnees are all youngsters who wanted to pursue their dreams in distant lands, after finishing the most sought-after degree in the country. But a feeling for their roots and a conducive business atmosphere brought them back home, to use their knowledge about the cyber world for the benefit of their fellow residents. Nishant Patni, founder and CEO of CultureAlley, had finished his IIT from Bombay, his post-graduate degree from the US and worked with the Boston Consulting Group in Chicago and two start-ups in Delhi and California when he went to China and struggled to learn a new language. "If I am struggling this hard to learn a new language, what might be the case with others, I thought, and came up with 'Hello English', which is now India's No. 1 educational app with over 35 million learners," Patni told IANS. According to him, Hello English was part of Google's Editor's Choice 2017

and the year before, it was named Google's Best Apps of 2016. It now teaches several other languages. "We got infrastructural support from our hometown, Jaipur, and this city houses good engineering talent and hence we came here," he said, adding that the "real Bharat is outside top cities; the people you encounter here give you a real insight into everything". The company has also got funding from a global venture capital ﬁrm. SRJNA, which brings modern, innovative aids and methodologies into teaching of science, maths and astronomy, is among a few players helping schools to set up "tinkering labs". They create a design studio kind of place where students can learn via Robotics and 3-D tools. "We help in setting up innovation labs where teachers demonstrate to ensure students learn quickly by using real practical tools," says Sharad Bansal, CEO of SRJNA and an IITian from Delhi. So impressed was NITI Aayog by the approach that it had decided to set up 500 such labs across the country calling them Atal Tinkering Labs under the Atal Innovation Mission, named after the former Prime Minister. It provides Rs 10 lakh for setting up such a lab in a school and

a similar amount each year for ﬁve years, for operational expenses. Amitabh Kant, CEO of NITI Aayog, had said at the time of launching the programme that "it will provide school students the opportunity to work with tools and equipment, fostering inventiveness". SRJNA got some beneﬁt from a Rajasthan government's incubation scheme. Start-up Oasis has been extending a helping hand to provide start-ups with Rs 25 lakh every year for three years, and a built-up area of 25,000 square feet, to make their ventures operational. According to Tarun Agrawal, portfolio manager at Start-Up Oasis, there were 15 IITians who had come back to their hometown to set up tech ventures. But not all took the help of the incubator. Moinee Foundation, which supports "right to quality education", was set up by Arvind Thanvi, its Chief Mentor. Thanvi, an IITian from Kharagpur, left his corporate career with Accenture, Mumbai, where he worked for a decade as account director. He started smart class intervention with 12 schools in a district, by reviving their existing ICT labs. That has now reached over 1,500 schools in nine districts of three states.

through graph and justify the answers. (or) b) The sum of the reciprocals of Rehman’s ages, (in years) 3 years ago and 5 years from now is Find his present age.

16. a) Find the coordinates of the points of trisection of the line segment joining (4, -1) and (-2, -3). (or) b) If A = {2,3,5,7}, B = {3,4,5,6} and C = {1,2,3,4} then show them in venn diagram and also find A- (B C). 17. a) Find the sum of all three digit numbers that are divisible by ‘7’. (or) b) Find the area of the quadrilateral whose vertices, taken in order are (-4, -2), (-3, -5), (3, -2) and (2, 3). PART – B Choose the correct answer:-

5 marks

1. H.C.F. of two co-primes is A) 0 B) 1 C) 2 D) 5 2. If then value of x. A) 1 B) 2 C) 3 D) 4 3. Distance between the origin and the point (aSin , aCos ) is A) 1 B) a C) D) 4. Which term of the progression 10, 7, 4, - - - - is – 8 A) 7 B) 9 C) 11 D) 13 5. If V = {vowels} then no. of subsets of V. A) 5 B) 10 C) 18 D) 32 6. The discriminant of is A) 2 B) 5 C) 7 D) 24 7. Sum of first three terms of an A.P. is 30 then middle term is A) 10 B) 15 C) 20 D) none 8. The number of solutions for 2x-3y+5 = 0 and 4x – 6y + 10 = 0. A) 1 B) Infinite C) 2 D) None 9. Centroid divides each median in the ratio of A) 1 : 2 B) 1 : 3 C) 2 : 1 D) 2 : 3 10. If a, b, c are in G.P. then will be in A) A.P B) G.P C) H.P D) None

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Nagarjuna High School, SR Nagar, Hyderabad

NEWS digest

Greenland’s ice sheet shrinking fast London: Researchers have found that the loss of heat that comes up from the interior of the Earth melts the Greenland's ice sheet from below and triggers the sliding of glaciers towards the sea. Greenland's ice sheet is becoming smaller and smaller. The melting is taking place with an increased strength and at a speed that no models have previously predicted. As a result, the deep bottom water of the north-eastern Greenland's �ords is also warming up, the research showed. "North-East Greenland has several hot springs where the water becomes up to 60 degrees warm and, like Iceland, the area has abundant underground geothermal activity," said Soren Rysgaard, Professor at the Aarhus University in Denmark. In the study, appearing in the journal Scientiﬁc Reports, the team focussed on an isolated basin in the �ord with a depth range between 200 and 340 me-

tre and measured how the deep water is heated over a 10-year period.

Based on the data, researchers estimated that the loss of heat from the Earth's interior to the

New AI system can predict corruption London: Scientists have developed a new artificial intelligence system that can predict the likelihood of corruption in a government. The computer model based on neural networks developed by researchers from the University of Valladolid in Spain predicts provinces in which cases of corruption are more likely to appear, as well as the conditions that favour their appearance. The system also confirms that the probabilities increase when the same party stays in government more number of years. The study, published in the journal

Social Indicators Research, does not mention the provinces most prone to corruption so as not to generate controversy. Researchers explained that "a greater propensity or high probability does not imply corruption will actually happen." The data indicates that real estate tax, exaggerated increase in the price of housing, opening of bank branches and the creation of new companies are some of the variables that seem to induce public corruption, and when they are added together in a region, it should be taken into account to carry out a more rigorous control of the public accounts.

�ord is about 100 MW m-2 (milliWatt per square metre). This corresponds to a 2 megawatt wind turbine sending electricity to a large heater at the bottom of the �ord all year round. If the Earth releases heat to a �ord, heat also seeps up to the bottom part of the glaciers. This means that the glaciers melt from below and thus slide more easily over the terrain on which they sit when moving to the sea, the researchers said. "There is no doubt that the heat from the Earth's interior affects the movement of the ice, and we expect that a similar heat seepage takes place below a major part of the ice cap in the north-eastern corner of Greenland," explained Soren Rysgaard from the varsity. The ﬁndings may help improve the models of ice sheet dynamics, allowing better predictions of the stability of the Greenland ice sheet, its melting and the resulting global water rise.

Bacterial changes early in life cause cystic fibrosis in kids New York: Bacterial changes begin in the first few years of life leading to the formation of cystic fibrosis, which makes children repeatedly prone to bacterial infections and inflammation and shortens their lifespan, says a study. Cystic fibrosis is an inherited life-threatening disorder that damages the lungs and digestive system -- the pancreas, liver, kidneys and intestines. Therapies to break up mucus in toddlers could postpone the increase in bacterial burden as well as o�er the best route to a longer life for such patients, the researchers said. "Lung symptoms in kids with cystic fibrosis are likely due to an increased burden of bacteria. This implies there's an opportunity for early intervention that could dramatically increase the quality of life for these kids," said Matthew Wolfgang, Associate Professor at the University of North Carolina, US. For the study, published in PLoS Pathogens, the team analysed bacterial DNA in samples of lunglining fluid gathered from young children. While babies with cystic fibrosis who were less than a year old exhibited only a little or no signs of bacteria or inflammation, infants between ages one and two showed significant amounts of bacterial DNA -- which provoke inflammation. In toddlers aged three to five, the samples contained increasing evidence of more

worrisome bacteria, particularly Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus and Haemophilus influenzae -- commonly found in older cystic fibrosis patients with more severe lung disease. As the bacterial burden worsened, molecular signs of inflammation increased and lung X-ray studies of the children revealed mounting signs of structural lung disease. "This tells us lung bacterial infections start much earlier than we had expected in children with cystic fibrosis, and these infections are likely the earliest drivers of structural lung disease," Wolfgang said, adding "therapies aimed at breaking up mucus very early in life might be very beneficial to these kids".

Smartphone use may make teens unhappy: Study Washington: Teenagers who are habitually glued to their smartphones are more likely to be unhappier than their peers, a study has found. Researchers from the University of Georgia in the US, analysed data from a survey of over a million US teens. The survey asked students questions about how often they spent time on their phones, tablets and computers, as well as questions about their in-the-ﬂesh social interactions and their overall happiness. On average, they found that teens who spent more

time in front of screen devices playing computer games, using social media, texting and video chatting - were less happy than those who invested more time in non-screen activities like sports, reading newspapers and magazines, and face-to-face social interaction. Researchers believe this screen time is driving unhappiness rather than the other way around. "Although this study can't show causation, several other studies have shown that more social media use leads to

unhappiness, but unhappiness does not lead to more social media use," said Jean M Twenge, professor at San Diego State University in the US. Total screen abstinence does not lead to happiness either, Twenge found. The happiest teens used digital media a little less than an hour per day. However after a daily hour of screen time, unhappiness rises steadily along with increasing screen time, according to the study published in the journal Emotion.

SPORTS Harman to lead T20 team in South Africa

Rafael Nadal getting treatment at Rod Laver Arena on Tuesday

Nadal retires hurt, Cilic in semifinals Melbourne: Rafael Nadal`s drive towards a second Australian Open title came to a shuddering injuryinduced halt Wednesday on a day of upsets that saw unseeded Kyle Edmund and Elise Mertens make the semi-finals. The world number one retired against Marin Cilic after an upper right leg problem began troubling him the fourth set on Rod Laver Arena, with the Spaniard wincing in pain and limping as he struggled to continue. His 3-6, 6-3, 6-7 (5/7), 6-2, 2-0 exit set up a last-four clash for the former US Open champion against Britain`s Edmund, who stunned third seed Grigor Dimitrov 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. Mertens, who is yet to drop a set, was equally convincing in blasting past world number four Elina Svitolina 6-4, 6-0 to become the first Belgian to make the semis since Kim Clijsters in 2012. She will play second-seeded Dane Caroline Wozniacki or veteran Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro for a place in Saturday`s final.

Little separated Nadal and bighitting Cilic until the injury struck, as they traded ferocious groundstrokes in an intense battle. But the Spaniard, who was beaten in last year`s final by Roger Federer, called the physio at 1-4 in the fourth set and again at the changeover when two sets apiece and the writing was on the wall. "It was an unbelievable performance from both us," said Croat Cilic, the sixth seed. "It is really unfortunate for Rafa to finish this way." Nadal`s retirement follows the departure on Monday of Novak Djokovic, with his immediate playing future uncertain after an elbow injury flared. He also appeared to have a hip problem. There were no such troubles for Edmund against Dimitrov, as he became only the fourth British man to reach the Australian Open semi-finals in the post-1968 Open Era. "It`s an amazing feeling. I`m very happy," said the overwhelmed 23-year-old, ranked 49.

"It was a hard match and I`m really trying to enjoy the moment. It was my first match on Rod Laver Arena and it`s very special." He is the only British man in the draw after Andy Murray`s injury withdrawal before the tournament, raising the prospect that it will be him, rather than the Scot, who breaks through to win in Australia. Murray has been a five-time finalist but lost them all.World number 37 Mertens is on a hot streak of form, unbeaten in 10 matches after winning in Hobart this month. She was too physical for Svitolina as she stormed into the semis, incredibly on her Australian Open debut. Romania's Halep plays her quarter-final against sixth seed Karolina Pliskova on Wednesday. Wozniacki last made the semi-finals at Melbourne Park in 2011 and she faces a familiar foe late Tuesday in Suarez Navarro, whose two wins in seven career meetings with her were both on clay. "Obviously hard courts are a little di�erent," said Wozniacki.

New Delhi: Star all-rounder Harmanpreet Kaur will lead the Indian women's team in the five-match T20 rubber against South Africa, starting February 13 at Potchefstroom. Ahead of the T20I series, the Indian women under Mithali Raj will play South Africa in a three-match ODI series, which starts at Kimberly on Feb 5. "The All-India women's selection committee has named the T2OI squad for women's tour to South Africa. The Indian women's team will play five T20Is against South Africa women after the completion of the ODI series," the BCCI said in a statement. While the opening two ODIs will be played on February 5 and 7 at Kimberley, the third ODI will be played on February 10 at Potchefstroom, where the first T20I will also be played on February 13. The second T20I will be played on February 16 in East London followed by the third game on February 18 in Johannesburg. The final two T20Is will be played on February 21 at Centurion and February 24 in Cape Town. T20I squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (Captain), Smriti Mandhana (vice-captain), Mithali Raj, Veda Krishnamurthy, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Anuja Patil, Taniya Bhatia (wicket-keeper), Nuzhat Parveen (wicket-keeper), Poonam Yadav, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Jhulan Goswami, Shikha Pandey, Pooja Vastrakar, Radha Yadav.

Harmanpreet Kaur

Pride at stake for India Johannesburg: India will aim to avoid an embarrassing series whitewash and salvage some pride when they meet a confident South Africa in the third and final Test match which starts at the Wanderers Stadium here on Wednesday. In the first two Test matches, India were outplayed in every department of the game. Skipper Virat Kohli also agreed that their opponents were way better. But in the upcoming match, India will like to turn the tables and like to finish the series on a positive note. However, it will not be an easy job for the Indians. With the conditions and pitch favouring the hosts, the visitors may find it tough to survive the full five days. India could witness an archetypal South African wicket -- hard and dry with plenty of bounce -which often provides lots of seam movement up front. Spinners could also play an important role on the fourth and fifth days, so the inclusion of a tweaker could be helpful in the second innings. In the batting department, apart from Kohli, all the other

batsmen have totally failed to step up to the occasion. Some of them are guilty of playing reckless shots -- which would have worked on a slow pitch -- in the ﬁrst two Tests and coming into the third game, they will have got a measure of the task ahead. The Indian team is full of stroke-makers like Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya. Their attitude of dominating the bowlers with a ﬂurry of strokes will not work in the third match. Instead, they must harness the art of controlling the South African pace quartet by curtailing

their habit of going after each and every delivery. Calls for the inclusion of Ajinkya Rahane, known for his quiet approach, instead of fellow Mumbaikar Rohit Sharma have grown over the last few days. It will not be a surprise if either Lokesh Rahul or Rohit sit out, while Parthiv Patel may ﬁnd himself in the openers' slot. In ther bowling department, seamers Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Hardik Pandya, alongwith lone spinner Ravichandran Ashwin played sensibly but the ﬁelding let them down.

HAMMERS IN PWL SEMIFINALS Vanesa Kaladzinskaya exults after defeating Pooja Gahlot. Haryana Hammers’ Sun Yanan and Roublejit Rangi won the last two bouts against UP Dangal, which helped Hammers seal a semiﬁnal berth in the third Pro Wrestling League (PWL) at Siri Fort Stadium in New Delhi on Tuesday. In the semiﬁnals, Haryana Hammers clash with UP Dangals while NCR Punjab Royals take on Veer Marathas

On the other hand, South Africa will depend upon Dean Elgar, Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers and Faf du Plessis to score the bulk of their runs. Rookie pacers Lungi Ngidi, who was the man of the Match in the last game will be crucial once again along with Vernon Philander, Morne Morkel and Kagiso Rabada. Keshav Maharaj will be the lone spinner for the hosts and may play a crucial role in the second innings. Squads: India: Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli (captain), Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma, Wriddhiman Saha (wicket-keeper), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Parthiv Patel, Umesh Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Hardik Pandya, Lokesh Rahul; South Africa: Faf du Plessis (Captain), Hashim Amla, Temba Bavuma, Theunis de Bruyn, Quinton de Kock (wicket-keeper), AB de Villiers, Dean Elgar, Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, Morne Morkel, Chris Morris, Andile Phehlukwayo, Vernon Philander, Kagiso Rabada. Duanne Olivier, Lungi Ngidi.

AMARAVATI WEDNESDAY 24 JANUARY 2018

Indian eves to fly early to SA Mumbai: The Indian Women's team is going to South Africa early, and skipper Mithali Raj, on Tuesday, said it would help the side to get used to the conditions there. The women's squad will tour South Africa for a three-match ODI series, which starts at Kimberly on February 5, followed by a five-match T20 series beginning on February 13 at Potchefstroom. The team will fly on Wednesday. Asked whether going early to South Africa will help, Mithali said here, "We had (also) gone early for the World Cup in England (last year) to get acclimatised. "It helps (because) we try and organise practise games...get used to the bounce, because normally you don't get to see that bounce in subcontinental wickets and the lateral movement which we are probably expecting, because this time we are playing with two new balls," she told reporters. "This is our first international tournament where we will be playing with two new balls. So it is important, we are going early so that we get used to these conditions," the 35-year-old batswoman added. Coach Tushar Arothe echoed her views. "We need to get acclimatised, that is very important, and are playing a couple of practise games before the first ODI. We went to the World Cup 10 days early....which helped us," Arothe said. Incidentally, Indian men's team, currently on South Africa tour, has come in for criticism after losing the Test series for not having enough practise in those conditions. Mithali concedes that the coming tour won't be easy. "I would tell the young girls to start fresh, it is an important tour and it is not going to be easy,

Mithali Raj because we have played South Africa before, we have toured South Africa for the quadrangular series.” "The South Africa team is a very good side and we have seen in the World Cup, they almost made it to the finals, so it's going to be competitive cricket and it will test each and every player," she said. The Indian women's team rose to fame after ending as runners-up in the World Cup, but they have not played after that. However, Mithali said the break helped them focus on fitness. "See, before the World Cup, we have been busy with the qualifiers and the Quad-triangular series and the preparation for the World Cup, so its been a long season for us.” "And after the World Cup, it was important for girls to recover, we had few injuries, ideally we as players would have preferred to have a continuation...but when you have injuries in the side, you need to recover and get back your fitness levels," she said. She also said the girls were in match mode, as they have played enough domestic cricket, and also worked hard on fitness. "...they look agile and fit," she added.

Man United sign Sanchez London: Manchester United signed Chile forward Alexis Sanchez from Arsenal in a swap deal with midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan after a protracted transfer saga finally ended on Monday. The 29-year-old Sanchez, who was out of contract at Arsenal at the end of the season, has joined the Old Tra�ord club after local rivals Manchester City had pulled out of the race. British media reported that Sanchez, who will wear United's iconic No. 7 shirt, has joined the club on a 41/2-year deal, while Arsenal announced that Armenia captain Mkhitaryan, who turned 29 on Sunday, had signed a long-term contract. Sanchez said: "I am thrilled to be joining the biggest club in the world. The chance to play in this historic stadium and to work with Jose Mourinho was something I could not turn down. “Alexis is one of the best attacking players in the world and he will complete our very young and talented group of attacking players," said Mourinho. He scored 80 goals in 166 appearances after the London club paid 35 million pounds ($48.83 million) for him in July 2014, and won the FA Cup in 2015 and 2017, scoring in both finals.

Alexis Sanchez

Manav, Archana bag hnours Durgapur: Archana Kamath and Manav Thakkar stole the limelight in the 11Sports 79th Junior and Youth National Table Tennis Championships that concluded at the Sidhu Kanu Indoor Stadium here on Tuesday.Archana enjoyed a double while Thakkar won a triple.

Select Results: Junior girls Finals: Archana Kamath (PSPB) Surbhi Patwari (WB) 4-3; Semiﬁnals: Surbhi Patwari bt Nikita Sarkar (NB) 12-10, 12-10, 11-7, 117; Archana Kamath bt Varuni Jaiswal (TS) 11-9, 11-6, 11-5, 9-11, 11-9; Junior Boys ﬁnal: Jeet Chandra (PSPB) bt Manav

Thakkar (PSPB) 11-6, 4-11, 12-10, 11-4, 3-11, 11-9; Doubles ﬁnal: Manav Thakkar-Chinmaya Somaiya bt SFR Snehit-Mohammad Ali (TS) 11-9, 12-10, 11-6; Youth Girls: Final: Archana Kamath bt Moumita Dutta 11-4, 911, 11-9, 11-4, 11-4; Youth Boys ﬁnal: 4-0.

Md Ali-SFR Snehit from Telangana State flaunt their junior boys doubles silver medal in the National Junior and Youth National and inter-dist Championships in Durgapur (Right) Varuni Jaiswal with her Junior girls singles bronze. She lost to eventual champion Archana Kamath 1-4 in the semifinals. SnehitAli lost to Manav Thakkar- Sonya Chinmaya 0-3 in the finals.

Rajasthan stun Karnataka Kolkata: Pacer Deepak Chahar took five wickets as Rajasthan pulled o� an upset by beating the more fancied Karnataka by 22 runs in a Group A Super League clash of the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament at the Jadavpur University campus ground here on Tuesday. Chahar bagged career-best figures of 5/15 from four overs to skittle Karnataka out for 138 in 20 overs after Rajasthan posted 160/8 being put in to bat first. For Karnataka -- who have a famed batting line-up only Aniruddha Joshi (73 not out) and K. Gowtham (13) -- could manage double-digit scores in a disappointing run chase. With this win, Rajasthan have eight points from two games, while Karnataka remained winless after the same number of matches. Batting first, Rajasthan's Aditya Garhwal (31) and Ankit Lamba

(58) gave their side a good start. Lamba also added 67 runs for the second wicket with Salman Khan (20), but Rajasthan didn't find too many contributors after that as Karnataka skipper R.Vinay Kumar (2/29) and Sreenath Aravind (3/25) picked up the wickets to put a lid on their rivals' run flow. The Rajasthan bowlers showed their intent from the very beginning as Lamba got rid of Karun Nair o� the fifth ball of the opening over. Chahar then accounted for R.Samarth and the promoted Abhimanyu Mithun o� the fourth and fifth deliveries of his second over. Chahar, who played a vital role in Rajasthan winning their opener against Jharkhand with an allround e�ort on Monday, was on a hat-trick once again in his third over as he removed C.M. Gautam and Stuart Binny o� the first two

Deepak Chahar deliveries, only to miss out again, but by then, Karnataka were reduced to 24/5 inside Powerplay. Joshi deﬁed the odds and kept Karnataka in the game with a scorching 45-ball 73 with three sixes and eight fours, but none of the other batsmen rose to the occasion.

In another Group B match at the same venue, Bengal recovered from a disappointing loss on Monday against Uttar Pradesh to snap Delhi's two-game winning run. Bengal won by three runs riding Kanishk Seth's 3/25. Chasing 171 for victory, Dhruv Shorey (84 o� 46 balls) racked up his second ﬁfty on the trot hitting seven fours and four sixes but it was still not enough for the visitors. Brief Scores: Rajasthan 160/8 (Ankit Lamba 58, Aditya Garhwal 31; Sreenath Aravind 3/25, Vinay Kumar 2/29) beat Karnataka 138 (Aniruddha Joshi 73 not out; Deepak Chahar 5/15, Chandrapal Singh 2/31); Bengal 170/6 (Sudip Chatterjee 51, Vivek Singh 32, Manoj Tiwary 25; Pradeep Sangwan 2/27, Kulwant Khejroliya 2/25) beat Delhi 167/8 (Dhruv Shorey 84, Lalit Yadav 45; Kanishk Seth 3/25, Sayan Ghosh 3/24).