The Hindu

WEEKEND EDITION • Delhi sunday, november 13, 2016

www.thehindu.in Weekly Edition Regd. DL(ND)-11/6110/2006-07-08 RNI No. TNENG/2012/49939 ISSN 0971 - 751X Vol. 6 No. 45 CITY EDITION 28 Pages Rs. 8.00 ●

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Printed at Chennai, Coimbatore, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Madurai, Noida, Visakhapatnam, Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi, Vijayawada, Mangaluru, Tiruchirapalli, Kolkata, Hubballi, Mohali, Allahabad, Malappuram and Mumbai

Resignation of Cong MLAs a political stunt, says Badal

Rajasthan government withdraws notification for Meena reservation

Seoul protests call for South Korean President Park Geun-hye to quit

Batra first Indian to head an Olympic sport’s international body

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BRIEFLY Journalist shot dead in Bihar PATNA: A journalist was shot dead at Sasaram, headquarters of Rohtas district of Bihar, on Saturday. Dharmendra Singh, 35, working for Dainik Bhaskar, a Hindi daily, was at a tea stall outside his home when three motorcycle-borne assailants fired at him. He received gunshot injuries in the chest and in the abdomen.

NORTH | PAGE 11

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Ready to work with all, says Mamata KOLKATA: Taking on the BJP over

the demonetisation, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday urged all the Opposition parties, including her arch rival Communist Party of India(Marxist), to “unite” against the Centre. “For the betterment of the people and the country, I appeal to all the Opposition parties to come together,” she said.

NEWS | PAGE 15

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4 killed in Taliban attack at Afghan base KABUL: A Taliban suicide

bomber, dressed as a labourer, blew himself up at the NATO air base at Bagram, north of the Afghan capital Kabul, on Saturday, killing at least four persons.

WORLD | PAGE 16

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SUNDAY MAGAZINE 6 Pages

CLASSIFIEDS On Pages 8 & 9

Stocking of ATMs with new notes to take longer: Jaitley Finance Minister urges people to use electronic transactions

PM hints at more action to unearth black money

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

KOBE (JAPAN): Hinting at more action to unearth black money, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Saturday that those holding unaccounted money would not be spared, and there was no “guarantee” that no further steps would be taken after December 30, the deadline for depositing the demonetised currency notes.

Mr. Modi assured the honest people that they would not face any trouble. “I would like to announce once again that after the end of this scheme, there is no guarantee that something new will not be introduced to punish you,” he said, addressing the Indian community here.

Mr. Modi termed the demonetisation a Swachhata Abhiyan and hailed the undaunting spirit of the people, despite the hardship following the November 8 announcement. “I salute my countrymen. I thought long and hard about the possible diiculties, and it was also important to keep it a secret. It had to be done suddenly, but I never thought I would receive blessings for this,” he said.

— PTI

NEW DELHI: As queues grew

longer outside banks and ATMs across the country, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday said the recalibration required for over two lakh ATMs to dispense the new Rs. 500 and Rs. 2,000 notes would take another two to three weeks.

Announcing the demonetisation on Tuesday, the government had promised that ATMs would start functioning across the country on Thursday and Friday.

Speaking to reporters, Mr. Jaitley said roughly Rs. 2 lakh crore had been deposited across banks in the first twoand-a-half days of the demonetisation announcement on November 8, withdrawing the old Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes as legal tender.

While appealing to the citizens to use electronic means for monetary transactions, the Minister requested people to not to crowd banks to deposit/exchange cash and to stagger it over the deposit window till December 30.

He also rubbished allegations that deposits had spiked before the demonetisation announcement as some people had been informed of the drive before-

NO HURRY: Arun Jaitley asked the public not to crowd banks as there is enough time to exchange old notes. — PHOTO: R.V. MOORTHY hand, calling such statements “irresponsible.”

Massive operation “It is a massive operation ... to replace 86 per cent of currency under circulation… It is a regret that people are being inconvenienced because replacement of this magnitude causes inconvenience as you have to go to the bank, you have to stand in a long queues,” the Minister said.

All ATMs in the country need to be re-calibrated individually to dispense the resized notes of Rs. 2,000 and Rs. 500, in addition to the Rs. 100 note.

The State Bank of India, the country’s largest bank, had reported Rs. 47,868 crore deposits of the old Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 note till 12.15 p.m. on Saturday, Mr. Jaitley said. Given that the SBI and its arms account for about 20-25 per cent of all banking activities in the country, be-

tween Rs. 1.5-Rs. 2 lakh crore had come into the banking system. The SBI has reported 58 lakh transactions involving exchange of old currency notes, 22 lakh ATM transactions and 33 lakh withdrawals from branches.

Mr. Jaitley said the government anticipated that the first few days would see a huge demand for exchange of notes and assured that the RBI and the banks had stocked up enough currency to replace Rs. 14 lakh crore worth of old notes.

‘Long-term advantages’ The Finance Minister conceded that there would be inconvenience for the first few days, “but the long term advantages of this are to the overall economy.”

‘SPIKE IN DEPOSITS DUE TO PAY PANEL ARREARS’ | PAGE 15 USE DIGITAL MEANS, RBI TELLS PUBLIC | PAGE 17

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43 dead in suicide blast at Sufi shrine in Balochistan 14-year-old attacks religious gathering; IS claims responsibility KARACHI: At least 43 people, including women and children, were killed and more than 100 others injured on Saturday in a suicide attack carried out by a 14-year-old boy at a popular Sufi shrine in Balochistan, Pakistan.

The blast occurred in the Hub region in Lasbela district, where devotees were attending a Sufi dance called dhamaal at the Dargah Shah Noorani shrine. The target of the attack was an area where believers would perform the dhamaal.

Balochistan Interior Minister Mir Sarfaraz Bugti confirmed the blast, which happened when about 500 to 600 devotees were present at the shrine. Rescue teams reached the site and started shifting the deceased and the

A boy injured in the blast at a Sufi shrine in Balochistan province of Pakistan on Saturday being taken to a hospital in Hub district, 40 km from Karachi. — PHOTO: AFP injured to hospitals. However, rescuers were facing diiculty in accessing the remote shrine.

“The shrine is located some 250 km from Karachi in the remote mountains of Uthal and our vehicles have been dispatched there to carry out rescue operations and shift the injured to the

hospitals,” said Hakeen Lassi, an oicial of the Edhi Trust Foundation.

President Mamnoon Hussain and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif condemned the blast. The Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for the attack through Amaq, its ailiated news agency. — PTI

Jaya’s infection under control, but no date set for discharge SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa’s infection is fully under control, and while there is no date fixed for her discharge, it depends upon her, Apollo Hospitals Group chairman Prathap C. Reddy said on Saturday.

Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the 16th international symposiumworkshop on ‘Ion Beams in Biology and Medicines’ here,

Apollo Hospitals Group chairman says the Chief Minister can leave when she feels fit Dr. Reddy said the Chief Minister could leave when she felt fit. She needs to reinvigorate herself to go back, he said. Ms. Jayalalithaa was admitted to Apollo Hospitals on September 22. A hospital bulletin then said she had fe-

ver and dehydration.

To questions on shifting her from the Critical Care Unit to a private room and whether she was on a normal diet, Dr. Reddy said the Chief Minister followed the diet she liked and a change of her room would be for her convenience only.

There was no major change in her treatment, he said. Recuperation is now required, and the team of doctors is working towards it, Dr. Reddy said.

‘Black money barons given time to escape’

Long wait

scrap the notes was made oicially.

STAFF REPORTER NEW DELHI: The Delhi Chief

TIME FOR PATIENCE: A large number of women turned up at banks in Daryaganj, New Delhi, on Saturday to exchange their old notes.- PHOTO: R. V. MOORTHY

Minister hit out at the Central government alleging there was a huge scam behind the decision to scrap Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 currency notes.

“In the name of tackling corruption, a scam is being carried out on a large scale. Some evidence has to come to light and TV channels are showing it. I am not saying something new,” Mr. Kejriwal told reporters at a press briefing on Saturday.

“On November 8, when Prime Minister Modi announced that Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes are not legal tender any more, they had already informed all their friends and Bhar-

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal addressing the media in New Delhi on Saturday.- PHOTO: R.V. MOORTHY atiya Janata Party people, who actually have all the black money,” Mr. Kejriwal alleged.

He further alleged that holders of large amounts of black money had enough to time to take care of it, before the decision to

‘Common man sufering’ “In the last three months, money has been deposited in all banks at a large scale, running into thousands of crores of rupees. This arouses suspicion,” he alleged, going on to ask, “When deposits in the quarters before that were in the negative, or there was no growth, how were such high deposits suddenly made between the July and September quarter? Whose money is this and how did such large-scale deposits happen?”

“It is the common man who is sufering due to this as those who have black money have already set

things up. New notes are being home-delivered to them for a commission,” he alleged.

“There are huge queues outside banks. Are there any big industrialists or black marketers in the queue? No. Shopkeepers, rickshaw pullers, autorickshaw drivers, farmers and labourers are in the queue.

Do they have all the black money?” he asked.

Mr. Kejriwal said demonetisation has lead to a system of commissions and provided a fillip to black money instead.

“Gold rate has gone up and black money has increased instead of decreasing,” he alleged.

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RURAL DISTRESS

Bharat surviving on credit as demonetisation hits home Banks low on cash and staf to deal with rush PURUSHARTH ARADHAK BULANDSHAHR: Ìf city dwellers

are living of credit cards following the sudden and unannounced liquidity crisis, rural India is surviving on credit from their neighbourhood grocery stores.

Across villages in Bulandshahr, Hapur and Jewar in western Uttar Pradesh, the story of survival following the government’s decision to withdraw Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, is the same.

Villagers, especially farmers who have taken loan to sow their crop, have turned to local shop owners to keep their hearth burning.

“After getting land on lease from the landlord, we had started vegetable farming CM YK

Demonetisation has left many debt-ridden farmers in western Uttar Pradesh without cash nearly six months back. Neither do we do have buyers for our vegetables nor any money to purchase our daily household needs,” said Vinod Kumar of Sapnawat village in Bulandshahr.

The same is the case with Ram Dass, who grows cauliflowers in the Khanpur area of district.With bountiful rains this season, Mr Dass had hoped to earn a handsome amount from the rich harvest of his vegetable. But the government’s demonetisation has

Cash-driven economy finds it hard to cope

BULANDSHAHR

JHAJJAR

OUT OF WORK: Ashu has no cash to buy raw material.

NO TAKERS: An Easyday store hardly gets any customers.-

- PHOTO: SHANKER CHAKRAVARTY

PHOTO: ASHOK KUMAR

left him in debt. He is now living of the credit given to him by the nearby kirana shop.

Kamal Goyal, a grocery shop owner, said business had dipped since the demonetisation. “Our sales have reduced

by up to 10 per cent. Every person is coming with the old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes”.

(The writer is a freelance journalist) HOW LONG CAN WE GO ON LIKE THIS? | PAGE 15

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ASHOK KUMAR JHAJJAR: For Nehru Lal, a Haryana Roadways bus conductor for the past 20 years, the last four days have been the most trying.

Mr Lal plies mostly on the Jhajjar-Jind route and the government’s decision to withdraw Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes has left his passengers in the lurch as most of them do not have change

Shopkeepers are offering goods on credit, easing the impact of the demonetisation for their ticket.

Mr Lal devised a way to deal with this. He ofers a parchi (paper slip) in return for the change to be encashed later.

“With the Haryana Government allowing use of Rs.500 and Rs.1,000 notes for the bus fare in Roadways buses, most of the passengers ofer the banned notes only to avoid the inconvenience of going to the bank for change.

But it is not possible to provide change to all so I of-

fer them slips which they can get encashed at the depot cashier later,” Mr. Lal said.

Mostly driven by cash, the markets in this predominantly rural district have been hit more than the urban areas. “My sales have reduced to half during the past four days. We have no credit card machines and people do not have cash,” said Deepak, who runs a sweets shop.

The shopkeepers are ofering goods on credit, easing the impact of the demonetisation.

Teeming with customers throughout the week, the lone “Easyday” retail store on Silani Road here wears a deserted look with sales having dipped by more than 80 per cent.

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THE HINDU SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2016

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Crime Branch to take over probe into Najeeb case Police to re-examine evidence after SIT fails to make headway STAFF REPORTER NEW DELHI: The Delhi Po-

lice’s Crime Branch will now investigate the case of missing JNU student Najeeb Ahmed.

The order in this regard had come on Friday, R. P. Upadhyay, Joint Commissioner of Police (South-East), said.

Taking a fresh look “A few days ago, Najeeb’s mother had met Home Minister Rajnath Singh, and requested for a CBI probe into the matter. In order to get a diferent perspective on

A doctor at VIMHANS had told police that Najeeb was suffering from depression

Najeeb Ahmed the case and have a fresh look at the evidence, the matter was transferred from the South district to the Crime Branch,” another senior oicer said.

The development was confirmed by Ravindra Yadav, Joint CP (Crime).

Last month, an SIT was formed to trace Najeeb, who went missing on October 15 following an on-campus scule allegedly with members of

the ABVP the night before. The instructions to set up the SIT were issued by the Home Minister to Delhi Police Commissioner Alok Kumar Verma.

The SIT, headed by Additional DCP-II (South) Manishi Chandra, failed to gain any actionable clues in the matter.

The SIT was reconstructing Najeeb’s personality after a doctor at VIMHANS told the police that the JNU student was sufering from obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and depression.

Following this, the psychiatric angle had gained prominence in the probe.

The team was also considering seeking help from psychiatrists

at AIIMS or RML Hospital in investigating the case.

In solidarity Meanwhile, JNUSU has appealed to all democratic organisations and student unions to hold protests on campuses over the weekend and participate in the “Chalo JNU” march at JNU on November 15.

The protests have been called against what has been claimed is the V-C’s “total abdication of institutional responsibility towards Najeeb” and “against continuing political protection to the assaulters of Najeeb”. They have also accused the Delhi Police of being “non-serious” and providing “misleading media feeds” in the search for Najeeb.

Gangster held for murder

3 hurt in factory blast STAFF REPORTER

Binder Gujjar.

STAFF REPORTER NEW DELHI: The brother of slain

gangster Sandeep Gadoli was on Thursday arrested from west Delhi’s Dwarka in a murder case.

A revolver and cartridges were recovered from his possession, said the police.

‘Revenge killing’ The accused, Kuldeep Gadoli, had gunned down a businessman, Manish Gujjar, on October 17 in revenge for his brother’s killing.

Manish was the elder brother of a rival gangster

Encounter Sandeep, wanted in connection with over 40 cases, was gunned down by the Gurgaon Police in an alleged encounter in Mumbai in February.

His family had questioned the authenticity of his encounter after which five Gurgaon policemen had been booked for murder.

Ravindra Yadav, Joint CP (Crime), said Kuldeep had taken over the reins of the gang after the death of his brother.

NEW DELHI: A blast at a jeans

factory in north Delhi’s Siraspur on Saturday left three labourers grievously injured The victims have been identified as Dilip Kumar, Sukhdev Rai and Rama Kant.

Chemical tub blast They were among a dozen labourers working inside the factory when the blast occurred in a chemical tub. The impact of the explosion was such that it brought down a part of the roof.

DELHI TODAY Music: Pancha Kobir Gaan - vocalist Samik Pal performs the songs of five legendary poets, at Amaltas Hall, India Habitat Centre (IHC), 7 p.m.

Exhibition: Samarpan, an exhibition of paintings and sculptures

by Ramesh Gorjala, at Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre (IHC), 11 a.m. – 7 p.m.

Exhibition: “Semicolon”, a show of paintings by Seema Pandey, at Triv-

eni Gallery, Triveni Kala Sangam, 205, Tansen Marg, Mandi House, 11 a.m. - 7 p.m.

Exhibition: A show of drawings by Bablu Basak, at All India Fine Arts & Craft Society (AIFACS), 1, Rafi Marg, 11 a.m. - 7 p.m.

Photography: A show of photography by Krishnendu Chatterjee, at Delhi ‘o’ Delhi Foyer, IHC, 11 a.m. – 7 p.m.

(Mail your listings for this column at cityeditordelhi@thehindu.co.in)

‘Record witnesses’ statements in audio-video mode’ NIRNIMESH KUMAR NEW DELHI: While acquitting three persons of kidnapping and rape charges, a court here has suggested to the Delhi Police that the statements of witnesses be recorded in audio-visual mode to avoid confusion during trials.

“The provision under Section 161 ( examination of witnesses by police) of the CrPC was amended with efect from December 21, 2009, and it has been brought in the statute book

that statements under Section 161 CrPC may be recorded by audio-video means as contemplated in the proviso to Sub-Section 3,’’ Additional Sessions Judge D.K. said.

‘To cause no problem’ “When all policemen have mobile phones with cameras, the object of this provision can be easily met by recording statements of at least public witnesses through audio-video means, and to avoid any kind of allegation, a copy of

the same may be given to the witnesses for future reference,’’ the judge said.

“This step should have been taken at least in heinous ofences like murder and rape, but I have not come across a single charge sheet where the statements of the witnesses were recorded through audio-video means,’’ the judge stated.

“In the present case, there were allegations and counter-allegations between the prosecution and the complainant on one

hand and the investigating oicers on the other, not only in respect of manner of investigation, but also about the recording of statement by the police under Section 161 of CrPC,’’ the judge further said.

The victim had been allegedly adducted by the trio, and later allegedly raped by one of them in 2008. However, the victim had committed suicide before the trial began. The court acquitted all three as the prosecution could not prove the charges.

Published by N. Ram at Kasturi Buildings, 859 & 860, Anna Salai, Chennai-600002 and Printed by S. Ramanujam at HT Media Ltd. Plot No. 8, Udyog Vihar, Greater Noida Distt. Gautam Budh Nagar, U.P. 201306, on behalf of KASTURI & SONS LTD., Chennai-600002. Editor: Mukund Padmanabhan (Responsible for selection of news under the PRB Act).

The impact of the explosion was such that it brought down a part of the factory’s roof Locals rushed the injured to hospital even as the police, the disaster management and the fire department arrived at the spot.

Rescue and search operations were subsequently carried out on the premises.

The police have registered a case in the matter.

The cause of the blast is being probed.

CASH CRUNCH

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THE HINDU SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2016

SPEAK UP

NO END: Queues outside banks and ATMs at a Mayur Vihar market on Saturday. PHOTO : R. V. MOORTHY

Patients stuck between hospital and bank Many unable to get medicine as pharmacists refuse to take old notes; private hospitals ask govt. for exemption STAFF REPORTER NEW DELHI: Shiv Kumar, a pa-

tient with hip injuries seeking treatment at AIIMS, was in a fix on Saturday. He was unsure if he should stand in queue at the hospital for treatment or outside a bank for withdrawing cash.

He needed money for medical exams and x-rays, the total cost of which was estimated to be around Rs.7,000.

“I have cash in my pocket, but they are all old notes in denominations of Rs.500 and Rs.1,000. The pathological labs have refused to accept them. I have no ATM cards,” said Mr. Kumar, a driver from Bulandshahar.

Mr. Kumar is not alone.

Patients struggled to buy medicines and their kin had no cash to pay for food or accommodation.

Diwan Singh, a relative of a

their notes,” said a stafer there.

The situation was similar at most chemists and path labs outside AIIMS and the nearby Safdarjung Hospital.

“We can’t help you if you ofer Rs.500 and Rs.1,000 notes,” said Chandra Mohan, owner of a chemist shop outside Safdarjung hospital.

Pramod, who works at a path lab, ofered a similar response. “I will take a call depending on the cost of your tests,” he said.

Kin of patients face a tough time; have no cash to pay for food or accommodation patient undergoing treatment at AIIMS for neurological problems, said he was forced to vacate a hotel that refused to accept his money.

“I have been spending my nights at the hospital’s premises,” Mr. Singh said.

No cash Sunil, a native of Bihar, who is at Safdarjung Hospital for treatment of his son for cancerous growth in his head, said he was counting every penny.

“We are leaving for home tonight as it is diicult to continue without cash in this city,” he said.

Ravinder, relative of an-

NO RESPITE: A woman takes rest as people line up outside a bank in Paharganj on Saturday. PHOTO: PTI other patient, said he had fallen short of cash even to buy food.

“For the last couple of days, I have been eating at the Jan Aahar outlet at Rs.15 per meal. But soon I will have no money to buy food from there either,” he said.

There is a canteen at AIIMS, but the staf at the counter won’t accept Rs.500 or 1,000 notes. The canteen does not ofer the facility of paying by card either.

“If I don’t have loose change to return to the customers, how can I accept

Delhiites start prioritising their needs BINDU SHAJAN PERAPPADAN

Sisodia meets Chandni Chowk traders

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia. FILE PHOTO DELHI: Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Saturday visited Chandni Chowk to listen to the problems of the traders in the wake of demonetisation of high-value currency notes by the Centre.

The traders told him that the lack of cash has hit their businesses and they were facing “severe problems” in meeting their daily expenses. “Neither do we have cash nor do the customers.

We are facing a livelihood crisis,” Kishan Kumar, a street vendor, told Mr. Sisodia as he stopped by his stall.

NEW

No business “There is no work. Most of the customers do not have the new bank notes. They are still coming with the old notes. Rumours too are affecting business,” Ajay Babu Saxena, a shop owner, told Sisodia.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that the move to demonetise high-value currency notes will put an end to black money. Do these traders have black money?

They do not even have money to pay the school fees of their children or salaries to their staf,” Mr. Sisodia told reporters.

The traders also expressed concern over rumours of VAT raids by the Delhi Trade Department. Mr. Sisodia assured them that no such raid will be conducted. — PTI CM YK

NEW DELHI: “Prioritise” seems to be the mantra these day for Delhiites struggling to make ends meets since the demonetisation of Rs.500 and Rs.1,000 notes.

Headache for the common man hasbecome all the more severe with ATMs remaining closed.

“We haven’t bought vegetables for a week now.

We cannot buy eggs, bread and butter. Governmentrun stores demand that we spend the entire Rs.500 or Rs.1,000 and not ask for change. Who has that type of money? We aren’t able to deposit money or withdraw. Spending a day in line means having to forgo wages for the day,” said Neelam, a cook. Her husband is a daily wager.

Unfortunately, Ms. Neelam’s story is not unique, many housewives are complaining that they are unable to buy vegetables and other essential items due to lack of currency.

“My husband has been running from pillar to post

Private hospitals At Kalawati Children’s Hospital in New Delhi area, a father was in tears as he had no usable cash. His only son was down with tuberculosis and he wanted him to be treated by doctors of a private hospital. “But I have no money even to take my son from here,” he said in tears.

Meanwhile, leading private sector hospitals, including Fortis Healthcare and Paras Healthcare, have urged the government to allow them to accept Rs.500 and Rs.1,000 denomination notes. The government has authorised only government hospitals to accept these notes from patients.

Salt available a day after panic buying STAFF REPORTER NEW DELHI: A day after a fren-

LEAN DAY: Fruit sellers wait for customers on Saturday. PHOTO: V. V. KRISHNAN to get our Rs.1,000 notes changed for Rs.100 notes.

He was among the many who have been queueing up outside ATMs, banks and post oices across the city to withdraw cash. And like many he returned empty-handed even today.

We are having problems purchasing milk, vegetables and medicines.

Also we can’t spend the entire day trying to deposit and withdraw cash,” said Mamta, a home-maker and mother of an eight-yearold.

Ms. Mamta added that small clinics and grocery vendors in her area have put up boards saying that Rs.500 and Rs.1,000 notes would not be accepted. “I

feel helpless and cheated,” she said.

“It is frustrating when you can’t even buy milk for your daily tea. And when the auto person is charging Rs.500 when the actual rate is half that... you feel robbed,” said Anil Bansal, an IT professional from Janak Puri, who works in Connaught Place.

Amid the chaos, tales of humanity DAMINI NATH NEW DELHI: As reports flood in

of arguments and clashes in the long queues at ATMs and banks, stories about acts of kindness — whether it is filling out a form for a stranger or using plastic money to pay for groceries for someone who doesn’t have access to it — have also started emerging on social media.

Facing empty wallets and uncertainty, some people opted to help out those in need almost as soon as banks re-opened on November 9.

A Twitter user, Harleen, whose handle is @VeiledDesires_, wrote on Thursday that she ofered to help a man fill out the form for currency exchange at a bank and before she knew it he began directing

No takers Ramavati Devi, relative of a patient, hopped from one shop to another in the hope someone would give her loose change for Rs.500. “I need medicines worth Rs.84, but I am willing to give Rs.100. But no one is accepting the Rs.500 I have,” she said. Similar scenes were witnessed at private hospit-

als. The chemists at Mata Chana Devi Hospital in Janakpuri refused to accept the banned notes unless customers bought medicines worth the entire amount.

A HELPING HAND: Some assisted people in filling out bank forms while others helped by paying for groceries. FILE PHOTO others to her for help.

“Spent 2 hours at the bank filling forms for people who can’t read or write. If you have time, do help such people around you,” she tweeted.

As of Saturday evening, the tweet had been retweeted over 3,500 times.

Others chose to help by spreading awareness about the demonetisation programme and its impact.

A Twitter user with the handle @Dishasatra urged people to first educate themselves on how to exchange money and then inform those who don’t

have access to the info. Her message was retweeted over 500 times.

By Saturday, political parties had joined in as well. Volunteers of the Aam Aadmi Party, the BJP, the Akali Dal and the National Students Union of India helped those standing in queues outside banks by filling out forms and ofering refreshments.

Photos of the party volunteers helping out people across the NCR were shared on social media by the evening.

On Friday night, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had asked AAP workers to help out. “I appeal to AAP volunteers all over the country to help people standing in long queues at banks in filling forms, ofering water etc,” he had tweeted.

zied evening of rumours and panic buying, sale of salt across the Capital came back to normal on Saturday.

With rumours about an impending shortage on Friday, many markets saw customers stocking up on salt. However,

by Saturday morning the demand seemed to have normalised, with people realising that it was just a rumour.

In neighbouring Noida, some shopkeepers stopped selling salt for a few hours on Friday. Manphool, who works as a shop assistant at a grocery store in Noida’s Sector 40, said that while other shops refused to sell salt on Friday night, there was no shortage. “We usually sell under 25kg of salt per day, but we sold over 300kg in just a few hours on Friday. We didn’t increase rates, but customers told us that others were charging Rs.200 per kg,” he said.

He added that the sales returned to usual on Saturday.

Ajay Kumar Kaushik, a resident of Sector 50, said he had bought the usual groceries, with the usual 1kg of salt.

“The shortage was a fabrication,” said Mr. Kaushik.

At a Kendriya Bhandar outlet in Delhi’s Pandara Road area, the staf took precautions nonetheless. A customer, Mary, who works as a domestic help, said she stood in line for over two hours to be able to buy provisions.

“There was no problem in buying salt or any other item from Kendriya Bhandar in the morning, but later in the day they started rationing. After the rumours, they allowed each family two packs of salt,” she said.

No shortage, says govt Meanwhile, the Delhi government on Saturday assured the city that there was no shortage. Food and Civil Supplies Minister Imran Hussain later held an emergency meeting with oicials incharge.

Inspections were carried out to check if shops were selling salt and milk at higher rates, but no such incidents were found, said the government. A helpline number, 011-

Spike in price of tobacco products STAFF REPORTER NEW DELHI: A day after

rumours about shortage of salt led to panic buying in Delhi-NCR, it was the turn of tobacco products on Saturday.

Citing cash crunch and shortage, vendors across Delhi-NCR are selling cigarettes, pan masala and tobacco products at a premium.

A pack of cigarettes is being sold for Rs.50 above the marked price.

Prices of pan masala and related products have been hiked by 50 per cent.

“Most people don’t have cash to pay us and we are providing them cigarettes on credit. As a result, we are unable to pay our suppliers, which has resulted in a shortage,” said a cigarette vendor at ITO. “Prices are only going to get higher in the coming days,” he said.

Many vendors are accepting old Rs.500 notes on the condition that customers buy goods worth the entire amount or pay upfront and keep getting cigarettes or pan masala over the next few days.

23370841, was launched for any complaints of over-charging.

The police also urged people to remain calm. Due to the crowd outside banks and ATMs in Chandni Chowk, a rumour spread about a stampede and people being injured.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (North Delhi) Madhur Verma clarified that this was a rumour, and said that the police would take cognisance of all social media accounts that were spreading rumours as it was an ofence under the Indian Penal Code.

Sporadic violence, police receive 4,500 calls NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police received nearly 4,500 calls till 6 pm on Saturday as cashstrapped people standing in long queues outside banks and ATMs resorted to violence in some parts of the city.

“We received over 4,000 calls today. There were sporadic incidents of violence reported from the city but there were no reports of any grievous injury,” said Sanjay Beniwal, Special Commissioner of Police (Operations).

The police said a case of stone pelting at IDBI bank in Roop Nagar was reported and one person was arrested.

At 12 noon, Imran (44), who had already withdrawn money from the bank once, tried to go inside again and was stopped by a security guard, they said.

He got into a scule with the guard and called sixseven other men who resorted to stone pelting, the police said.

“No one was reported to be injured in stone pelting.

The bank operations resumed after few hours,” said a senior police oicer.

Rumours There were dime a dozen rumours floating about incidents of violence even as Twitter added more fuel to fire, police sources said.

A purported video from Metro Mall in Seelampur area of northeast Delhi went viral where people were “plundering goods" and the police had to intervene.

Ajit Singla, DCP (Northeast) said, “The reports of miscreants taking away stocks from a mall in Seelampur area are false and baseless. It is a self-catering Mall which allows entry to card holders only and routine disbursal of stocks was being done.”

“No complaint of looting received. Regular operations are being carried out in all market places in Delhi. Strict action as per law is being taken any such rumour mongering,” he said. — PTI

BRIEFLY

FAMILIAR SIGHT: Banks had assured that ATMs would start functioning by Thursday but many remained out of service on Saturday.

PHOTO: SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA

April Fool prank comes true RAJKOT: A city-based evening newspaper, which published a news item as a prank on its readers on April Fools Day saying the government will scrap Rs.500 and Rs. 1,000 notes, has been flooded with calls ever since the government demonetised the currency notes. The daily — Akila — is at pains now explaining to one and all that it was just an April Fool prank as the picture of the story published on April 1, 2016, has gone viral on social media after the government’s overnight decision. “We had published the news on April 1, as a prank on our readers. It’s nothing but a coincidence that the news eventually turned out to be true after six months,” owner and editor of the evening paper Kirit Ganatra told PTI. — PTI ND-ND

THE HINDU SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2016

HIGH AND DRY

Going is getting tougher: bank staf Employees rue lack of helping hands, cancelled leaves and dealing with unruly customers STAFF REPORTER NEW DELHI: They weren’t standing in serpentine queues but the average bank employee is just as much, if not more, inconvenienced as the customer. From complaints about the number of staf being inadequate to deal with the rush to leaves being cancelled – bank staf admitted, of the record, that the going was getting tough.

‘Working like machines’ “We have been working like machines. Not only was our second Saturday holiday cancelled, we will be working Sunday too,” complained a staf member at a prominent public bank’s branch in south Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar.

“You go to any branch and

Crowd management is the biggest challenge. Some customers don’t listen to our requests

GRAVEYARD SHIFT: People queue up to withdraw cash at an ATM on Parliament Street around midnighton Saturday. PHOTO: SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR you will see complete lack of crowd management simply because there isn’t enough deployment of bank personnel, including senior oicials.

Despite the management’s

best eforts; the number of people is too much to handle,” said the senior manager of a private bank branch in Noida’s Sector 18.

Many ATMs, which re-

opened four days after the Prime Minister announced the demonetisation, ran out of cash in a few hours, leaving people frustrated and adding to apprehensions of violent

Rush refuses to recede in Gurugram STAFF REPORTER GURUGRAM: Queues outside banks and ATMs in the Millennium City only grew longer on Saturday with more and more people stepping out, making it diicult for banks to handle the rush.

“The rush today [on Saturday] was almost two-three times the usual, making it diicult for us.

People had turned up even before the bank opened in the morning. We had only one queue in the last three days, but today we made separate queues for exchange, deposit and

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withdrawal to manage the crowd better,” said a HDFC oicial in Sector 15 (Part-II) here.

Left with no option The situation was such that most ATMs either remained closed or ran dry within a few hours. “I was expecting the rush to recede by the weekend.

Now I have no option but to stand in the queue to withdraw cash,” said Nitin Goel, a MNC executive.

Lead District Manager R.C. Naik told The Hindu that banks were facing a major cash crunch, a problem compounded by

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CASH CRUNCH

NOIDA/DELHI

the fact that most ATMs were not working. “Many ATMs are not working.

Even those dispensing cash are running dry within a few hours. Banks are also not getting enough cash to cater to the number of people who are coming out. The SBI has demanded Rs.400 crore while private banks have asked for Rs.1,000 crore. The rush in the last four days has been four to five times the usual,” said Mr. Naik.

An Oriental Bank of Commerce oicial added to this saying the situation was not likely to improve

till the ATMs start working to their capacity.

‘Exchange forms being sold’ Social activist Balbir Singh, meanwhile, said customers outside banks in Sector 46 were being sold exchange forms for Rs.10 each and were being charged Rs.5 for photocopies.

“I had gone to visit banks in the locality when the people there told me that they were being asked to pay for exchange forms and also overcharged for photocopies,” said Mr. Singh.

backlashes from visitors.

Scules among customers were reported at some locations after ATMs ran dry.

“Policemen have been deployed outside banks, but not inside. I’ve personally been verbally abused by at least six customers who forgot to carry photo IDs, or when it was pointed out that they had not filled the exchange form correctly,” said another employee.

“Crowd management is the biggest challenge. Customers don’t listen to requests of standing in queues and waiting. Some demand currency notes only in denominations of Rs. 100 and won’t accept the new Rs. 2,000 notes,” the employee added. According to a guard at a bank in central Delhi, leaves had been cancelled and others like him are being made to work overtime even as the management refused to clear arrears. “When we ask the agency which employs us for our salary, we are told to ask the bank. The bank management claims to have disbursed our salary. There’s chaos outside and inside,” he complained.

Sweating it out at banks, ATMs NIRNIMESH KUMAR NEW DELHI: There has been no respite for people queueing up outside ATM kiosks and banks to withdraw money and exchange the demonitised Rs.1,000 and Rs.500 currency notes.

Saturday being a holiday saw even longer lines.

Will take 2-3 weeks Further, with the Union Finance Minister announcing that it will take two to three weeks to recalibrate the machines to dispense the new Rs.2,000 notes, people appeared resigned to their fate.

Sweating it outside the teller machines seems to be the only option.

In fact, at some places people gathered outside the ATMs well before the shutters were upped.

People are gathering outside the ATMs kiosks well before the shutters are upped Several others tried their luck late in the night, hoping to escape the long waits, but they returned without cash as the ATMs were closed.

Resigned Lines — to deposit and exchange money, and the other for withdrawing — outside the Meherchand Market branch of DENA Bank in Lodi Colony had spilled over onto the road.

No respite Pooja Verma, who works at a fast food chain restaurant in the market, was unable to get her Rs.500 notes exchanged

on Friday. On Saturday, she and a colleague took an hour-long break from work, but failed.

‘Bank ran out of cash “If I can’t get the money exchanged, I will have to go back emptyhanded as we only have an hour’s break. Another colleague was in the line for an hour in the morning, but the bank ran out of cash by the time his turn came,” she said.

Housewife Sunny Singh said she had been on the hunt for cash since Friday, but had been unlucky.

“I am left with virtually no cash and an empty kitchen,” she said. Amid this confusion, it was frustrating that the Union Bank’s ATM in the colony had been nonfunctional for about a fortnight, she added.

Disclaimer: Readers are requested to verify & make appropriate enquiries to satisfy themselves about the veracity of an advertisement before responding to any published in this newspaper. Kasturi & Sons Limited, the Publisher & Owner of this newspaper, does not vouch for the authenticity of any advertisement or advertiser or for any of the advertiser’s products and/or services. In no event can the Owner, Publisher, Printer, Editor, Director/s, Employees of this newspaper/company be held responsible/liable in any manner whatsoever for any claims and/or damages for advertisements in this newspaper.

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STATE

THE HINDU SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2016

No appreciation for intelligence in marriage market: HC

Read

F R O N T L I N E

NOIDA/DELHI

DEATH

AKANKSHA JAIN NEW DELHI: “There is no ap-

preciation for intelligence in the market of matrimony where spouses sum up each other according to their own standards in which no marks are awarded for intellect,” the Delhi High Court said while allowing the appeal of a man for divorce.

The court noted that the

man and his estranged wife were engaged in mutual bickering unmindful of their educational and professional qualifications.

The marriage was solemnised only after the horoscopes of the bride and the groom were matched, but it lasted only five months and 20 days with a cohabitation of mere 60 days and was turbulent

from the start, a bench of Justices Pradeep Nandrajog and Pratibha Rani noted.

“We only wish that the astrologer who matched the horoscope was not a novice,” the Bench said.

Sharing its mantra of matrimony, the Bench said, “To keep a marriage afloat requires no great ability.

Little usefulness is enough.

A spouse who can perform

an errand neatly, without attempting to use his/her own judgement over it, is enough.” The man works with a multi-conglomerate company while the wife is a banker.The man accused the wife of being a loner, anti-social and shy who caused humiliation in front of his friends, while she accused him of being a womaniser and an alcoholic.

DEATH ANNIVERSARIES

READ

EVERY WEEK

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ND-ND

THE HINDU SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2016

‘Deregister old diesel vehicles’ Govt writes to Delhi Police to crackdown on 1.91 lakh vehicles older than 15 yrs ing data on diesel vehicles that are older than 15 years to the Delhi Police and asked the force to impound them immediately. These vehicles cannot ply and cannot be parked in public places as per the order of National Green Tribunal,” said a senior government oicial.

STAFF REPORTER NEW DELHI: In a bid to combat

air pollution after directions to this efect from Lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung earlier this month, the Delhi government's Transport Department wrote to the Delhi Police asking them to launch a crackdown against 1.91 lakh diesel vehicles that are older than 15 years across the Capital.

Jung’s order At a high-level meeting to discuss steps aimed at mitigating air pollution in the Capital, at Raj Niwas, on Monday, Mr. Jung issued directions to all registering authorities and Motor Licencing Oicers to start the deregistration of diesel vehicles that are over 15 years

TOUGH MEASURES: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal addressing a press conference at his residence on Saturday. PHOTO: PTI old in a phased manner to bring about a reduction of 2 lakh diesel vehicles on the roads.

The National Green Tribunal (NGT), too, had pulled up the Delhi government in addition to other States over the issue.

K.K. Dahiya, Special

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STATE

NOIDA/DELHI

Commissioner (Transport) has written to the Delhi Traic Police’s Special Commissioner, asking him to comply with the NGT order that states that these vehicles cannot be allowed to ply on the city's roads.

“The Transport Department has sent a CD contain-

Trade fair tickets to be available at Metro stations STAFF REPORTER NEW DELHI: Entry tickets for the India International Trade Fair (IITF), which is set to be opened to the public from November 19, will be available at all Delhi Metro stations starting from November 14.

The entry ticket for the fair is priced at Rs. 60 on weekdays for adults and Rs. 120 on weekends and holidays. For business days, which will be from

November 14 to 18, entry tickets are priced at Rs. 500 and will be available at 33 Delhi Metro stations, which are Dilshad Garden, Shahdara, Inderlok, Rithala, Samaypur Badli, Jahangir Puri, Kashmere Gate, New Delhi, Rajiv Chowk, Central Secretariat, Saket, Huda City Centre, Noida City Centre, Botanical Garden, Pragati Maidan, Barakhamba, Karol Bagh, Kirti Nagar-3, Uttam

Nagar (East), Dwarka Mor, Dwarka Sec-21, Vaishali, LaxmiNagar, Anand Vihar.

Mundka, Peera Garhi, ITO, Mandi House -6, Lajpat Nagar, Govind Puri, Badarpur and Escorts Mujesar.

“IITF tickets for business, as well as general days can be bought from Customer Care Centres of Metro stations from 9.30 am to 5 pm on all days,” said the spokesperson.

“The sale of entry tickets

may be closed earlier if required in the interest of public safety,” he said.

“In order to facilitate the public using Delhi Metro while going back from ongoing IITF at Pragati Maidan, the Delhi Metro will be exclusively operating 21 token/smart card counters from within the premises of IITF, Pragati Maidan near its Gate No. 10 from 1 pm to 9 pm on all general days,” he said.

21 impound sites The oicial also said that the traic police had identified 21 sites across the city where these vehicles will be kept after impounding. As per the green court’s order, the city administration has to deregister diesel vehicles which are older than 10 years, while directing the authority to phase out vehicles first which are older than 15 years.

‘Not even 3 of 10 people in Delhi will vote for AAP’ PANAJI:

The Congress slammed Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday, saying not even three out of 10 voters in the national Capital will support the AAP government at this juncture.

“I am telling you, today not even three out of 10 people in Delhi would vouch for AAP. The plight of the people is the worst,” Congress national spokesperson Ajay Maken told reporters here.

Campaigning for the Goa unit of Congress ahead of the state assembly polls, he released a “charge sheet” of allegations against the AAP government in Delhi.

Mr. Maken alleged that since the AAP took over the regime in Delhi, the people were feeling “cheated and disentranced”.

“I caution the people of Goa not to follow the footstep or commit the same mistake and then later repent the way people in national Capital are doing now,” said Maken. — PTI

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ND-ND

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NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2016

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CM YK

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ND-ND

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2016

NORTHERN REGION

|9

Resignation of Congress MLAs a political stunt: Badal KOIANWALI: Punjab Chief Minister Par-

kash Singh Badal on Saturday described the submission of resignation letters by Congress MLAs, to protest the Supreme Court ruling on SYL issue, as “political stunt” and also claimed that AAP is a party of “hypocrites and opportunists”.

The resignation of “treacherous” Congress leaders is aimed at “deriving political benefit” from this sensitive issue rather than safeguarding the interests of the state, he alleged here.

Speaking at his ‘Sangat Darshan’ programme in Lambi Assembly segment here, Mr Badal claimed it is an open secret that state Congress chief Amarinder Singh wants to contest the Assembly polls, for which he resigned from his Lok Sabha seat.

“Why the MPs had not resigned” The Chief Minister asked him to explain why the other Congress MPs had not resigned to express solidarity with the State “in this hour of crisis”.

“It is ironical that as polls for Punjab Assembly are due within a few months, all Congress MLAs resigned, but the MPs shied away as they have fairly enough time for their tenure to end,” Mr Badal claimed.

All Opposition Congress MLAs submitted their resignation to the Punjab Assembly Secretary on Friday to protest the Supreme Court’s ruling favouring Haryana on the SYL issue.

Justifying SAD leaders’ decision of

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not ofering resignation, he said, “As the custodian of the Punjabis, Akali Dal is duty-bound to protect their interests, which can be done best by remaining at the helms of the afairs.”

The Chief Minister said the state government has called a special session of the Assembly on November 16 to chalk out a strategy to deal with the crisis and also sought time from President Pranab Mukherjee so that the Cabinet can present the case of the state before him.

Hitting out at AAP, the Chief Minister alleged that it is a party with “dual face“.

“The AAP government in Delhi had submitted an aidavit against the state in the apex court on SYL issue.

Disguised in the robe of aam aadmi (common man), these people are working overtime against the interests of the state,” Mr Badal alleged.

Pani Bachao, Punjab Bachao campaign SAD will hold a gathering of Punjabis at Moga on December 8 and start “Pani Bachao, Punjab Bachao” campaign, he said and exhorted for fulsome support and cooperation of people.

On demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 denomination notes, he said this scheme will act as a catalyst to wipe out corruption and black money from the country.

- PTI

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SOUTH

Two prisoners escape from Warangal jail GOLLAPUDI SRINIVASA RAO WARANGAL: Close on the heels

of the Bhopal jailbreak, two prisoners escaped from the Central Prison in Warangal on Saturday, exposing the security lapses.

The fugitives were identified as Rajesh Yadav of Bihar and Sainik Singh of Uttar Pradesh. Sainik Singh, who was working as a craftsman in the Army at Secunderabad cantonment, was convicted for stealing a weapon while Rajesh Yadav was undergoing life imprisonment for committing a murder in Ranga Reddy district.

Rope of bedsheets The duo made a rope of bedsheets to scale and slide down a 20-foot-high wall after successfully managing to sneak out of the inner security layers. They succeeded in slipping through the three-layered security of the prison, which is guarded by armed personnel from four watch towers on the outer wall.

Their escape method was similar to that of the undertrial SIMI activists, who had broken out of the Bhopal jail recently.

Jail superintendent K Newton and other oicers were alerted around 4 a.m.

Mr. Newton said the prisoners escaped between 2.30 a.m. and 3 a.m.

Assistant Commissioner of Police S.M. Surendranath told newspersons that the prisoners broke the lock of their barrack using an iron rod. They tied the rod to a rope of bedsheets and used it as a hook to climb the wall.

The jail oicials said they did not have closed circuit cameras to monitor prisoners’ movements. However, they failed to explain how the prisoners escaped the live electric wires or slipped past the sentries on watch towers.

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TV journalists booked for airing Tanvir Sait’s video clip BJP describes the move as an attempt to ‘stifle freedom of expression’ SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT RAICHUR/BENGALURU: Cases have

been booked against television journalists who captured visuals of Karnataka Minister of State for Primary and Secondary Education Tanvir Sait allegedly browsing through ‘objectionable’ content during the Tipu Jayanti celebrations in Raichur on Thursday.

They have been booked for “intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace” under Section 504 of the IPC. Mr. Sait had lodged a complaint against Siddu Biradar and Prashanth, reporter and video journalist of a private Kannada channel.

The Opposition BJP,

Tanvir Sait is expected to meet CM Siddaramaiah on Sunday. which has been demanding the resignation of Mr. Sait on “moral grounds,” described the cases against the journalists as an attempt to “stifle freedom of expression”.

Additional Superintendent of Police S.B. Patil told The Hindu that the jurisdictional police would investigate the case.

Meanwhile, the complaint lodged by Ashok Kumar Jain, a Kannada activist, against Mr. Sait has been sent to legal experts for their opinion.

Congress divided The Congress appears divided on whether or not Mr. Sait should step down from the Cabinet.

A section of the party defended Mr. Sait, saying that he was only browsing what had landed in his WhatsApp group and it was “unintentional”.

A senior Congress leader argued it was not comparable to the episode of BJP legislators who, in 2012, were watching a porn clip in the Assembly.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is also expected to hold discussions on the issue on Sunday with Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president G. Parameshwara and working president Dinesh Gundu Rao. Mr. Sait is expected to call on the Chief Minister on Sunday to give his explanation.

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2016

2 youths washed away while taking selfies in Khammam SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

The craze for selfies took a tragic turn here on Saturday when two engineering students were washed away in an irrigation canal near Yellendu cross roads.

The duo were reportedly trying to take selfies on their smartphones against the backdrop of the brimming canal.

The police identified the two as Ch. Nagaraju of Yerrupalem mandal in the district and N. Parameshwar Reddy of Krishna district in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh.

Both were B. Tech final year students of a private engineering college at Ammapalem near the town.

According to police sources, Nagaraju and Parameshwar, along with their two friends, had gone to the NSP canal situated in the vi-

KHAMMAM:

20 years with a broken rivet in his lungs G. VENKATARAMANA RAO VIJAYAWADA: In this modern

age of X-rays and CAT scans, a 24-year-old youth lived with a rusted rivet in his lung for over two decades.

Once discovered, the sharp rivet was removed using a ‘basket’ introduced into his left lung using a bronchoscope.

Pulmonologists at the Kamineni Hospital in Vijayawada were taken by surprise when they found that the youngster, who played district-level cricket, had a rusted foreign body in his lung — a broken rivet. They usually encounter peanuts, seeds and pieces of bone.

Dr. Srinivas Kumar displays the rusted rivet.

— PHOTO: CH.VIJAYA BHASKAR

Kamineni Hospital’s interventional pulmonologist Srinivas Kumar Ravipati said that the cricket player consulted him because he

sufered frequently from lung infections. Doctors who treated him earlier had profiled him as sufering from asthma.

This was because the 3-cm-long rivet could not be distinguished clearly in the X-ray because of its proximity to the young man’s heart, which hid it.

Asked how the rivet ended up in the lungs, Dr. Kumar said that the youth recalled trying to pull it out of his mother’s handbag with his teeth when it suddenly came into his mouth and slipped down his throat.

Instead of going down the gullet and into the stomach, the rivet went into the windpipe. This

happened a lot in small children and the elderly because their muscular coordination at the time of swallowing is not perfect, Dr. Kumar said.

‘A miracle’ The doctor noted that it was a miracle that not only had the youngster survived with the rivet in his lung for over two decades, he remained athletic and fit except for frequent bouts with lung infections.

The removal of the sharp and rusted rivet was a diicult task.

Conventionally, a fullfledged operation and nothing less than four weeks of post-op care

would be required to treat such a condition but the patient in this case recovered in few days after an endoscopy.

A basket was introduced into the lungs using a bronchoscope through the nose, and the rivet had to be freed from tissue, put into the basket and removed with great care, Dr. Kumar explained.

The lower section of the left lung had become partially dysfunctional because the rivet had blocked one of the airways.

“We had to wash that part of the lung with a lot of saline water. The washing was full of material that appeared like rust,” Dr. Kumar said.

Swimmers were deployed to look for the two students washed away in a canal in Khammam on Saturday. — PHOTO: G.N. RAO cinity of their private hostel in the morning to take bath.

Soon after reaching the canal, the duo reportedly tried to take selfies while standing on the sloped peripheral edge of the canal embankment.

They suddenly lost balance and fell into the canal before being swept away by

gushing waters.

Their friends, along with locals, tried to save them but in vain.

The Khammam Two Town police requisitioned the services of ace swimmers to aid the search operation to trace the duo.

However, they could not be traced till reports last came in.

CPI (Maoist) appoints new secretary for AOB area RAJULAPUDI SRINIVAS VIJAYAWADA: The CPI (Maoist)

Central Committee has reportedly appointed Kakarala Madhavi as the Andhra Odisha Border (AOB) secretary, according to intelligence sources here. She replaces Bakuri Venkataramana, alias Ganesh, who was killed in the encounter at AOB between October 24 and 26.

A native of Rajamahendravaram in East Godavari district, Ms. Madhavi served the party in diferent roles for about 10 years in Telangana, Odisha, Dandakaranya and other areas. The Central Committee at a high-level meeting reportedly announced the appointment after the party

sufered a major blow with the police gunning down about 30 Naxalites in the encounter. She is the daughter of a veteran Telugu film actor. Another senior Maoist leader Pothula Kalpana has been appointed in-charge of military operations in the area. Ms. Kalpana has been part of the banned outfit for about 10 years. However, it is not clear whether Madhavi has been appointed for Malkangari or East (Visakhapatnam and East Godavari) divisions.

At a brainstorming session, the Central Committee discussed the loopholes which cost the Maoists heavily. It felt that ‘gross negligence’ and ‘overconfidence’ had made the party lose cadres in the shootout.

ND-ND

THE HINDU SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2016

Another journalist shot dead in Bihar Three men fired at the scribe who worked for a Hindi daily has been active in the area for long in spite of the massive crackdown on their operations.

“Being a journalist for over a decade, Dharmendra Singh has been writing regularly on police raids against illegal stonecrushers in the area which might not have gone down well with the powerful mafia involved in the trade,” said a local journalist.

AMARNATH TEWARY PATNA: A journalist working for a reputed Hindi daily was shot dead on Saturday morning in Sasaram, district headquarters of Rohtas district in Bihar. The murder takes places exactly six months after another journalist with a Hindi paper was gunned down in Siwan.

According to eyewitnesses, Dharmendra Singh, 35, working for the Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar, was at a tea stall outside his house in Amra Talab area in Sasaram when three motorcycle-borne men fired at him from close range. He was hit on his chest and abdomen.

He was taken to Sadar Hospital in Sasaram where doctors referred him to Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh.

But the journalist succumbed to his injuries on his way to Varanasi.

The incident sent shockwaves in Sasaram.

Police oicials said they were investigating the incident and had launched intens-

Mid-air mishap involving two AI flights averted

Dharmendra Singh ive combing operation to nab the assailants. “The assailants pumped bullets from close range which resulted in death of the journalist…we’re investigating the incident from all angles and will nab the killers soon,” said senior police oicial Alok Ranjan.

‘Stone-crusher mafia’ Local journalists told The Hindu that Mr. Singh might have been killed by the stone-crusher mafia which

Scribes protest Journalists in Sasaram protested against the murder of Dharmendra Singh and demanded immediate arrest of those behind the murder.

“The state government should also pay compensation of Rs. 25 lakh to his family members apart from taking action against those behind the murder,” said local journalist Ajit Kumar.

On May 13, a senior journalist working with the Hindi daily Hindustan, Rajdeo Ranjan was shot dead, allegedly by the men of Siwan strongman Mohammad Shahabuddin.

U.S. man detained for flying drone near Taj Mahal AGRA: A U.S. national has been apprehended by the police after he allegedly flew a drone near the high-security Taj Mahal.

Oicials said that the incident was reported around 2 p.m. on Friday when a white-coloured drone was spotted twice near the historical monument which is a tight security zone.

A joint search was launched by local police and the CISF, entrusted to guard the Taj Mahal, and, after few hours, they spotted a man atop a nearby hotel preparing to fly the machine.

“The man, a tourist from Ohio in the U.S., has been identified as R. Nicholas. He was detained by the police and brought to a local police station. Flying of drones or any other object is prohibited in and around Taj Mahal,” they said.

Nothing suspicious ‘Prima facie, nothing suspicious has been found in the drone and in Nichloas’s activities, they said, adding that the police was investigating the matter.

Police has also informed the United States Embassy in Delhi about the incident, they said. — PTI

India still losing fight against child pneumonia, diarrhoea epidemics RAMYA KANNAN CHENNAI: It is World Pneumonia Day 2016, and India stands pretty much where it stood last year — right on top of the charts with a total of 2,96,279 deaths from pneumonia and diarrhoea, the tally being just short of last year’s figure of 2,97,114 deaths, and the nation desperately needs to reduce those numbers.

The Pneumonia and Diarrhoea Progress Report published annually by the International Vaccine Access Center (IVAC) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, puts India at the top of the list of 15 nations, as it did last year, and the years before.

The report, however, does indicate some consolation can be found in the fact that India is among the 12 nations that have improved their Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Pneumonia and Diarrhoea (GAPPD) score this year.

The report says: “The rate of all-cause mortality in this age group has been cut by more than half worldwide since 1990, from 91 deaths per 1,000 live births to 43 in

Not on cue

NEW DELHI: A mid-air mishap

was averted on Thursday after an automatically generated warning alerted the pilots of two Air India planes that came dangerously close to each other allegedly due to a mistake from the Air Traic Controller (ATC).

The incident apparently occurred due to the mixing up of call signs, assigned to the two flights — AI 142 (Paris-Delhi) and AI 154 (Vienna-Delhi) — by the ATC, sources said, adding that the aircraft were just 700 feet apart, when the vertical separation should be 1,000 feet.

The controller has been taken of duty and the aviation authorities have initiated a probe to ascertain the exact cause of the incident.

Pilots are supposed to ensure a vertical separation of 1,000 feet between the two aircraft at a flight level of 29,000 feet. — PTI

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NATION

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The country witnessed 2,97,114 deaths from the two diseases in 2015, the report says

2015. Although this is an enormous achievement, pneumonia and diarrhoea’s contribution to under-5 deaths remains stubbornly high.

In 2015, these two diseases together were responsible for nearly one of every four deaths that occurred in children under five.”

Nearly 15 years after the introduction of the pneumococcal conjugate vaccines in 2000, five countries among those with the highest pneu-

Rajasthan govt. withdraws notice on tribal quota

monia burden — India, Indonesia, Chad, China and Somalia — are still not using the vaccine in their routine immunisation programmes, the report noted.

Partial introduction India recently announced a partial introduction of the vaccine in five states (Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh) from 2017.

Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda, speaking earlier this

Mumbai man poisons daughters, kills self SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT MUMBAI: A residential locality JAIPUR: The Rajasthan govern-

ment has withdrawn a controversial notification of 2014 by which it had diferentiated between the “Meena” and “Mina” terms for providing reservation to the community as a Scheduled Tribe (ST).

The decision was taken after Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje termed the dispute on quota “totally unwarranted”.

LONG HAUL: Seven-time world billiards champion and Padma Vibhushan awardee Michael Ferreira waiting to board the August Kranti Express at Mumbai Central on Saturday. He is being taken to Delhi by a police team in connection with the multi-crore rupee Qnet scam. — PHOTO: IMTIYAZ SHEIKH

‘No longer in force’ Ms. Raje said in the Global Rajasthan Agritech Meet-2016, which ended here on Friday, that the order on the basis of which the issue had been raised was no longer in force.

She asked the Meena farmers to focus on their agricultural activities and forget about the dispute.

week, said: “Adding life-saving vaccines such as PCV (pneumococcal conjugate) and rotavirus to our immunisation programme will not only improve the health of our children but will also reduce hospitalisation and other conditions associated with diarrhoea and pneumonia, such as malnutrition and delayed physical and mental development among children.”

India introduced rotavirus vaccines in four States in 2015. In addition to thinking of vaccines, the report points out other simple proven interventions in order to prevent these deaths, including antibiotics, exclusive breastfeeding, and access to treatment and care.

Also urging nations to go beyond business as usual, it chronicles innovations that help speed up the process and better chase the goal of cutting down the number of preventable child deaths.

in Saki Naka woke up to tragedy on Saturday morning, as news spread of one of the residents killing his three daughters before committing suicide.

According to the Saki Naka police, the deceased have been identified as Mangesh Anerao (40), his four-year-old daughter Harshita and one-year-old twins Ananya and Arohi.

Police said Mangesh's wife Madhura (38) and son Amey (7), had gone to spend the night at a family friend’s residence in Virar.

The incident was reported to the police at 7.30 a.m. by Mangesh's sister Usha, who lives in Ghatkopar.

“Mangesh called Usha around 6:30 a.m. on Saturday and asked her to come to his house as something very urgent had come up. When

Usha reached his residence, she found the door open and Mangesh, Harshita, Ananya and Arohi lying lifeless on the floor,” said senior police inspector Avinash Dharmadhikari, Saki Naka police station.

Usha raised an alarm and the police was informed, after which all four were rushed to the Rajawadi Hospital in Ghatkopar, where they were declared dead before admission.

Suicide note found The police said that prima facie, Mangesh seems to have given poison to his daughters before consuming it himself.

All the four were found with blood oozing from their mouths.

The police also found a suicide note in the house, in which Mangesh has blamed his father, brother and sisterin-law for the extreme step.

UGC panel to make list of journals for points VIKAS PATHAK NEW DELHI: In its bid to prepare

an exhaustive list of journals in which academics must publish to earn points for publication in the Academic Performance Indicators (API) system, the University Grants Commission (UGC) is planing to set up small subcommittees of experts for each subject.

A high-level committee under V.S. Chauhan of the UGC is already in place to finalise the draft list.

“There are far too many subjects for a single team to be able to come up with a comprehensive list of journals in each. We are looking at setting up subcommittees of two-three experts for each subject to suggest a list to the higher committee,” said a senior oicial.

The API system awards points — counted for promotion as well as while applying for teaching jobs — for publications, which are seen as a sign of seriousness in research. The UGC decided to draw up a list of publications after a widespread percep-

Suggestions are being sought from all universities for the list, which the Commision will vet tion that many academics in colleges and universities were earning points for research published in substandard journals.

Subject-specific panels As per the plan, suggestions are being sought from all universities for the list, and the UGC will vet the lists coming from all these institutions. These lists will first pass through the smaller, subject-specific committees and then be taken up by the higher committee.

As per the UGC’s recent notification, a person gets 30 points for publishing a book brought out by an international publisher, 20 for a book brought out by a national publisher, 15 points for publishing an article in a refereed journal and 10 points for an article in other reputed journals.

Coast Guard rescues 16 Bangladeshis of Odisha The Coast Guard has saved the lives of 16 Bangladeshi fishermen whose fishing boat was sinking due to a technical snag in the Bay of Bengal.

The Coast Guard ship Sucheta Kripalani, while on routine patrol of the Odisha coast, sighted a Bangladeshi fishing boat approximately 35 nautical miles East of Paradip.

The ship immediately BHUBANESWAR:

CM YK

launched its boarding party to investigate, a Coast Guard oicer said.

“The master and crew of the vessel on preliminary investigation reported that the vessel after sailing on November 2 from Alipore Patuakhali district of Bangladesh developed a technical snag during cyclonic weather and had been drifting since November 3,” the oicial said. — PTI ND-ND

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WEEKEND BEING

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU

DR HUMERUS

MULTIDRUG RESISTANCE

Keshav

In Hyderabad, a coup in a coop

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2016

Researchers isolate a bacterium in chicken that may well be the source of transmission of the drugresistant pathogen to humans ROHIT P.S.

In what is the first evidence of multidrug resistance in poultry sold in Indian markets, researchers in Hyderabad have isolated a bacterium in chicken that may well be the source of transmission of the drugresistant pathogen to humans.

The pathogen, called Helicobacter pullorum, was found in broiler and free-range chickens from markets in the city, which — besides being untreatable — could also be cancer-causing.

H. pullorum is commonly found in the liver and gut of poultry birds and is believed to co-evolve with its natural host.

Infected chicken, when consumed, are known to cause gastrointestinal infections in humans. The study by the Hyderabad researchers, published on November 4 in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology, is the first data on prevalence and isolation of H. pullorum in India.

AROUND THE WORLD Bug on the loose A multidrugresistant infection that can cause lifethreatening illness in people with cystic fibrosis and can spread from patient to patient has spread globally and is becoming increasingly virulent, according to new research published today in the journal Science. The study, led by the University of Cambridge and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, also suggests that conventional cleaning will not be sufficient to eliminate the pathogen, which can be transmitted through contaminated surfaces or in the air. Mycobacterium abscessus, a species of multidrug-resistant mycobacteria, has recently emerged as a significant global threat to individuals with cystic fibrosis and other lung diseases. It can cause a severe pneumonia leading to accelerated inflammatory damage to the lungs, and may prevent safe lung transplantation. It is also extremely difficult to treat — fewer than one in three cases is treated successfully.

The surprise findings Corresponding author Niyaz Ahmed, senior director at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Dhaka, said the greatest concern of news of resistance is H. pullorum’s ability to cause cancer. “It is known to produce a cancercausing agent called cytolethal distending toxin, which is the main concern. This toxin damages the DNA and interferes with the cell cycle. Since this bacterium also infects the liver, it increases the risk of cancer in the organ,” he says.

In the study, Dr. Ahmed, a Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar awardee who has also headed the Department of Biotechnology at University of Hyderabad, and his team of researchers described 11 hitherto unknown genetic sequences of the bacterium isolated from broilers and free-range chicken. They found about six well-

Fear in the brain Scientists from The Scripps Research Institute in California, U.S., have for the first time identified a subregion in the brain that works to form a particular kind of memory: fear associated with a specific environmental cue, or “contextual fear memory”. The study, recently published in the journal Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, shows new proteins being synthesised in a specific subregion of the prefrontal cortex, known in rodents as the pre-limbic. In humans, this area corresponds to the anterior cortex, which has been linked to processing emotional responses. They also found that if they prevented new proteins from forming in the prelimbic region right after fear conditioning took place, those memories did not form. But if the researchers waited just a few hours, inhibiting protein synthesis in the prelimbic cortex had no impact and the memories took hold.

CHAIN REACTION Infected chicken, when consumed, are known to cause gastrointestinal infections in humans — PHOTO: AP marked antimicrobial resistant genes in the isolates. Besides administration of antibiotics in broilers, chicken feed is also being suspected to have turned H. pullorum resistant to antibiotics such as fluoroquinolones, cephalosporins, sulfonamides and macrolides.

Not expecting to find such resistance in isolates obtained from free-ranging birds, the researchers were surprised when they found that these birds too harboured multidrug-resistant H. pullorum. “We surmise that the feeding habits of free-ranging birds, including scavenging from the environment which is known to contain antibiotic residues, are driving resistance,” says Dr. Ahmed.

Computer modelling of the data further revealed as many as 182 virulence genes which make the bacterium infectious.

“There a number of possibilities which are currently being investigated, including whether the bacterium can be passed down vertically through the egg, and the

Cooking at temperatures higher than 60° Celsius kills H. pullorum. Eating uncooked or undercooked dishes like pickled chicken carries risk of infection risk of bacterial transmission through the faecal-oral route,” adds Dr. Ahmed.

Not on the radar Instances of human H. pullorum infection aren’t numerous, and clinicians feel they are missing something. “The bacterium may be causing infections in humans and in all likelihood, we remain unaware of it until we test for it,” says Dr. K.S. Soma Sekhar Rao, a gastroenterologist with Apollo Hospitals in Hyderabad.

The National Research Centre on Meat in Hyderabad, which is working to thwart listeria and salmonella outbreaks, does not have H. pullorum on its radar. Addition-

Burning an HIV test HIV can now be tested with a pen drive. The device, created by scientists at Imperial College London and DNA Electronics, uses a drop of blood to detect HIV, and then creates an electrical signal that can be read by a computer, laptop or handheld device.

The disposable test could be used for HIV patients to monitor their own treatment. According to the journal Scientific Reports, the device is not only very accurate but can produce a result in under 30 minutes. A small sample of blood is placed onto a spot on the USB stick.

If any HIV virus is present, this triggers a change in acidity which the device’s mobile phone chip transforms into an electrical signal. This is sent to the USB stick, which produces the result on a computer or electronic device.

DEMYSTIFYING SCIENCE What are pumpkin stars?

A

stronomers have discovered a batch of rapidly spinning stars that produce X-rays at more than 100 times the peak levels ever seen from the sun. The stars spin so fast that they’ve been squashed into pumpkin-like shapes and are thought to be the result of close binary systems where two sun-like stars merge. So far, 18 such stars have been found. They rotate in just a few days on average, while the sun takes nearly a month. The rapid rotation amplifies solar activity such as sunspots and solar flares, and essentially sends it into overdrive. The most extreme member of the group, a K-type orange giant called KSw 71, is more than 10 times larger than the sun, rotates in just 5.5 days, and produces X-ray emission 4,000 times greater than the sun does at solar maximum.

CM YK

rohit.ps@thehindu.co.in

PERSPECTIVE

On the brink of collapse

Make medical education a public good

W

hen thought leaders like Gurcharan Das and leading newspapers root for commercialising medical education, one has to sit up and take note. The justification for commercialising medical education is that it will incentivise investors to set up medical colleges, increase the supply of doctors, induce competition and reduce the cost of tuition fees and services.

Understanding the downside impact of such a policy, as unfolding in the U.S., can be illustrative.

Year of the flu The year an individual was born plays an important role in determining his or her susceptibility to a given strain of influenza, says a study in the journal Science. This solves a long-standing question surrounding flu susceptibility; that is, why are infections with one strain, H5N1, found mainly in children and young adults, whereas H7N9 cases mostly affect older individuals. The scientists found that the year a person was born — and thus, which flu strains they were exposed to during childhood — strongly influenced their future susceptibility to various flu strains. For example, individuals born before 1968 likely experienced their first flu infection from a group 1 virus; those individuals appear protected against viruses of the same group, including H5N1.

ally, studies that described finding H. pullorum in humans attribute the bacterium’s rather low-key presence to the diiculty in distinguishing it from Campylobacter jejuni, a related bacterium that is more commonly seen and is better understood. Dr. Rao attests infections of C. jejuni are seen more frequently.

Though chicken consumption is rising exponentially in Asia, Dr. Ahmed and his team do not consider H. pullorum capable of acute illness or outbreaks but have cautiously termed it an “emerging threat” capable of chronic health issues including malignancy.

All this notwithstanding, the investigators have ofered a silver lining for the chicken aficionado, albeit with a caveat.

“Cooking the Indian way — at temperatures higher than 60° Celsius — kills H. pullorum. However, eating uncooked or undercooked dishes like pickled chicken carries risk of infection,” says Dr. Ahmed.

QUICK FIX Sherphard Mushore, an African doctor, makes a mixture of green and brown substances on the streets of Harare. Zimbabwe's public health system is collapsing along with the economy, with some major hospitals suspending all non-emergency surgeries because painkillers are scarce. Some are turning to the growing number of peddlers of traditional medicines, many of them young men occupying street corners in Harare.— PHOTO: AP

COP 7

Will ENDS justify the means?

The global anti-tobacco conference’s move to allow member nations to prohibit or restrict sale of Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems provokes an outcry from harm reduction experts VIDYA KRISHNAN

The global anti-tobacco conference winded down on Saturday toeing a hard line towards e-cigarettes and other vaping devices. The seventh session of the Conference of the Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) ended with Southeast Asian countries voting for complete prohibition of Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS) and Electronic Non-Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENNDS) in the region.

The clampdown rationale The World Health Organisation’s concern stems from the fact that while public health policy has been slow to catch up, ‘vaping’ — a ‘tobacco-free’ version of the cigarette where smokers inhale the vapour through liquid in a vaporiser — has become extremely popular among smokers as a ‘healthier’ option to smoking.

All vaping devices heat a solution called ‘e-liquid’ to create an aerosol; the e-liquid comes in flavours that are dissolved into propylene glycol or/and glycerine. Health organisations maintain that the toxicants generated by e-liquids can vary enormously — even within brands — due to the increased thermal decomposition of e-liquid ingredients with rising applied temperatures in open system devices.

Arguing that new nicotine replacement devices were not a valid substitute for people trying to stop smoking, the

SUPERSUB? The market for ENDS/ENNDS in 2015 was estimated at $10 billion FCTC has voted in favour of a regulation that allows member nations to prohibit or restrict sale of ENDS/ENNDS devices. “It now depends on national laws but India is likely to opt for complete prohibition. Other countries might choose to restrict access. India has taken a unified stand against ENDS as there are enough tobacco products in the market already. It will take us years to understand the full efects of ENDS products.

There is not enough research and a complete prohibition will help prevent more tobacco-related illnesses,” says a member of the Indian delegation. According to WHO, the global market for ENDS/ ENNDS in 2015 was estimated at almost $10 billion.

Sidestepping wider consultations International harm reduction experts, however, warn that measures to limit access to e-cigarettes will result in nearly a million smokers dying. A re-

cently released documentary film about vaping, ‘A Billion Lives’, has argued that e-cigarettes, whose health risks are far lower, could be useful in saving lives.

Some experts claim the lack of transparent discussions on ENDS could cost lives. “These are closed-door meetings and WHO oicials have drafted proposals to ban less harmful alternatives to cigarettes without consultation with many member countries. Instead of an open and transparent discussion exploring the evidence and science of better, safer, non-combustible nicotine delivery products, countries that do not agree with a ban are being excluded from the process and the FCTC is even withholding documents from delegations,” charges Julian Morris, vicepresident of The Reason Foundation think tank and harm reduction expert.

Alleging that WHO is giving up its responsibility to save lives by recommending prohibition and restriction on ENDS/ENNDS, Riccardo Polosa, another harm reduction expert, says, “If this is true, it is simply outrageous. If the WHO extinguishes e-cigarettes (ENDS), it will have passed up what is clearly one of the biggest public health innovations of the past quarter century — one that could potentially prevent hundreds of millions of premature deaths. It will also have abrogated its responsibility under its own charter to empower consumers to take control of their own health, something that millions are already doing.” vidya.krishnan@thehindu.co.in

Sujatha Rao

The U.S. crisis In a hard-hitting article, “How the Financing of Colleges May Lead to Disaster!”

Rana Foroohar explains how in the U.S., the logic of “markets know best” resulted in the entry of banks, hedge funds, private equity, venture capital, for establishing colleges. Post 2002, student debt has climbed to $1.2 trillion with 44 per cent of loan defaults among the “workingclass students”.

Flawed logic in India The NITI Aayog recommendations for reforming medical education need to be viewed in this backdrop.

The three-point recommendation — allowing private investors to establish medical colleges untrammelled by regulations, freedom to levy fees for 60 per cent of the students to recoup their money, and making the exit examination the marker for quality and for crowding out substandard institutions — is expected to trigger healthy competition, reduce prices and assure quality.

India has 422 medical colleges with 58,000 annual admissions. With the doctor-population ratio at 1:1,500, there is a dire need of doctors. A comprehensive policy framework consisting of a

package of innovative approaches such as use of technology, faculty training in pedagogical skills, permitting foreign faculty to teach and so on is required to optimise churning out of doctors appropriate to our needs from existing colleges besides establishing new ones.

It is pertinent to ask which investor is willing to set up colleges in Bundelkhand or Raipur and why doctors from the surplus States of Tamil Nadu or Karnataka do not go to work in Bastar or Adilabad.

Barely 15,000 doctors may be available to work in rural areas, in the public sector or in public health and primary care.

Reversing this trend will require government intervention making public heath and primary care financially remunerative. The demand-supply equation in imperfect markets like health does not get smoothened by open door policies.

A zero-sum game When public policy encourages high cost of production of doctors only to save on initial investment in setting up colleges, it pays for it in the costly services it procures. It’s a zero-sum game with the government losing much more, both in terms of public finance and welfare.

It is necessary to question why Scandinavian, most European and several developing countries like Thailand provide free medical education and highly subsidised loans, cap the amount of fees and so on. If they are woolly headed socialists, so be it, as these countries have certainly demonstrated better social and economic standards of living.

India has a large cohort of youth who need education to produce wealth and cannot aford to mortgage their lives in seeking it. Pragmatism and national interest must determine public policy.

Sujatha Rao is former Secretary, Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare.

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WEEKEND READING

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2016

ESSAY

SHELF

A global age before globalisation

G

How the world was remade during the 1850s and the early 1860s, as North Atlantic civilisations spread across the globe

HELP

Big on Japan ANURADHA RAMAN

demics are able to do or what readers may realise.

Wilson’s narrative technique of profering linkages across events — a method that 11-12th century Indian logicians called samyogajasamyoga (“connection born from connections” in the words of the great Indologist David Shulman) — is attractive and reveals time and again that one event’s present is pregnant with another event’s future. This, of course, was always the case. But by the 1850s, what had indeed changed was the intensity with which shocks transmitted across the system. The fierce abolitionist John Brown, who Wilson quotes, makes this all the more visceral: “when the price [of cotton] rises in the English market,…the whip [on slaves in America] is kept constantly going.”

KEERTHIK SASIDHARAN

In 1848, as a series of revolutions swept and failed across Europe, the French poet Charles Baudelaire wrote: “The world is drawing to a close… Suppose it should continue materially, would that be an existence worthy of its name and of the historical dictionary?” Ben Wilson’s Heyday: Britain and the Birth of the Modern World is a historian’s response to Baudelaire’s gloomy question (in the airmative, of course) about not just the worth of the ages to emerge but, more prosaically, for human history itself.

Age of invention The decade of the 1850s to the early 1860s, according to Wilson, was unlike any other till then in human history, thanks to an expansion of human experiences courtesy new inventions and process innovations. (“Of all the decades in history, a wise man would choose the 1850s to be young in,” wrote the British historian G.M. Young). The working and lower middle classes in England and parts of Europe suddenly found themselves amidst, if not in actual possession of, tools that reduced labour as well as spatial and temporal distances. The arrival and proliferation of telegraphy, Henry Bessemer’s ‘cheap’ steel, spherical trigonometry, detailed logs of ocean waves, Colt pistol, McCormick’s reaping machines, Charles Goodyear’s vulcanised rubber, and so on not just changed lives and histories, they also prompt the perennial question: why exactly did so many inventions and process innovations burst into European consciousness in so brief a period?

Historians and social scientists have often sought to answer this question by relying on singular causes and the accompanying dynamics to explain the elorescence of lifechanging technologies. These explanatory variables include emergence of bourgeois virtues, availability of geographic endowments, improved institutional design, adoption of best practices and so on. These

ILLUSTRATION: SATWIK GADE

are, however, questions Wilson astutely avoids getting embroiled in.

Progress, the new religion Instead what we get in Heyday is a lucid survey of episodes, diversities of experience, and responses to these innovations as the Northern Atlantic cultures begin to span farflung geographies and histories of peoples. Alongside, what burbles up nicely in Wilson’s chronicle is not just the human (or more accurately, the 19th century ‘English-speaking worlds’) wilfulness to embrace inventions and abandon old hierarchies, but also the democratisation of non-religious ideologies themselves. Thanks to the secularisation of a Christian eschatological world view (as the philosopher Karl Lowith described it elsewhere), ‘progress’ becomes the new religion. Technology is anointed as the midwife to birth the more perfectible future that was to emerge. In Wilson’s telling, this possibility of self-betterment — be it in New Zealand, Australia, California, or Canada — is the true propeller of migrations and histories that eventually emerge. Even Karl Marx, writing in 1851, spell bound by The

Heyday is written with one loving eye towards historical detail and another wary one at the promiscuous attention spans of the reader. Striking a balance, as excellently as Wilson does, is harder than what most academics are able to do THE BOOK

IN MY HAND Ramachandra Guha I am currently reading A Life Misspent, a thinly fictionalised memoir by the great poet Suryakant Tripathi ‘Nirala’, translated

by Satti Khanna. The first few pages are terrific! The last book I read was Sarah Bakewell’s At the Existentialist Cafe, a riveting history of 20th century philosophy that focuses as much on individuals as on ideas. Once I am done with Nirala, I hope to turn to Nandini Sundar’s The Burning Forest. Professor Sundar is a brilliant and brave anthropologist, and her book draws on many years of research in the beautiful and war-torn region of Bastar.

Ramachandra Guha is a historian and biographer based in Bengaluru. His latest book is ‘Democrats and Dissenters’.

Anish Sarkar There are two books currently by my bedside.

Both are thrillers, translated into English from the original. The first is A Midsummer’s Equation by the Japanese author, Keigo Higashino (whose most famous work is The Devotion of Suspect X).

The second is Operation Napoleon by Arnaldur Indridason, arguably Iceland’s most well-known crime fiction writer.

Higashino’s book is a murder mystery; Indridason’s is a thriller set in World War II. In both books, the mood and pace build up gradually, but they are page-turners all the same. For a foreign reader, the imagery and cultural insights into Japan and Iceland are highly evocative and fascinating.

Anish Sarkar works for a consulting firm and is an author.

He lives in Mumbai.

CM YK

Great Exhibition in London’s Hyde Park, was convinced: “There is no more splendid time to enter the world than the present!”

Numbers do the talking Splendid or not, actual real lives were, however, often cut short and misery seemed everywhere. Australia, Canada, California, as well as part of Asia suddenly seemed as an escape as well as arenas brim with possibilities. As clippers ferried migrants from ports like Liverpool at hitherto unimaginable speeds (“Hell or Melbourne”) to win prizes or fame for their captains, the previous inhabitants of these vast lands came face to face with interlopers, colonialists, and homesteaders. The eforts by the latest arrivistes to survive and conquer Nature inevitably also meant contestation with those who had earlier found diferent ways to do the same. As Wilson insightfully

notes, “power over Nature is often a euphemism for power over other people.” The Maoris, Australian aborigines, the Xhosa, Bantu, Ndebele, Zulus, Cheyenne, Comanche, Sioux, et al became embroiled in violent struggles with the European migrants. Wilson lets the numbers do the talking, only for the reader to recognise the stark truth: entire nations of people were often decimated with little moral compunctions. This recognition notwithstanding, in contrast to the diversity of European voices that we hear in Wilson’s telling, we hear little of what the American tribes or Aborigines or Zulus or latterday Mughals thought of their encounters with the Europeans. Perhaps, this is unfair to expect, for Heyday is not a global history of sentiments during the 1850s, but in fact something more tractable — a tale of how North Atlantic civilisations spread around the world. In Wilson’s telling, an extraordinary complexity of factors that consummated frequently in violence runs the risk of appearing as a clash between simple-minded nativist brutality and a complex array of European motivations. Often enough, one comes away with the sense those at the receiving end of this emergent North Atlanticisation of the world are either victims or villains; while the European actors are aforded the luxury of narrative nuance.

In parts, this selectiveness is the peril of trying to squeeze

multiplicities of historically contingent events into a master narrative about a “globalising” age. Every chapter is thus likely to become a wellspring of disagreement or discontent for those who know its contents better than Wilson can find space for the details.

Events with complicated arcs, from their origin to denouement, such as the opening up of Japan in 1853, European domination of China, the First War of Indian Independence in 1857, engorgement of the United States into a continental behemoth, pre-Civil War debates on slavery, peopling of the South Pacific, etc. become breezily told but partial surveys. To describe all this, Wilson’s narrative is chock-ablock with facts which, at one level, arouses admiration at the industry that must have gone to collect and weave them into a fluid narrative. It is a testament to Wilson’s elegant style that he manages to collate facts, chapter after chapter, without devolving into, what John Updike called elsewhere, “the cumulative numbing” of a Guinness Book or turning Heyday into a monumental, but forbidding, work like Jurgen Osterhammel’s The Transformation of the World (also about the 19th century). Heyday is written with one loving eye towards historical detail and another wary one at the promiscuous attention spans of the reader.

Striking a balance, as excellently as Wilson does, is harder than what most aca-

No simplistic narratives Heyday is marketed as a book about ‘the dawn of the global age’. That half-pregnant phrase prompts a question: the global age of what?

Knowledge, capital, people, modernity, capitalism, or something even more playfully self-referential — the conceit of ‘global history’.

Wilson’s work doesn’t engage with such questions of selfcriticality, nor does it think aloud if the idea of global history of an age itself has a history of its own. The absence of these questions do not detract from the pleasures of reading Heyday, but merely reveal that we must be vigilant about invisible carapaces in which historical retellings are ensconced. These days, the term ‘global’ is used to suggest an attitude towards markets and the permeability of borders.

Books of this variety come with their own cheerleaders, think tank agendas, and marketing mantras. Another use of the term ‘global’ intends to ‘historicise’. It tries to show that our collective present was birthed by more than one civilisational parent and was often conceived at the peripheries of cultural interstices. Heyday prefers to align with this latter idea of ‘global’. That Wilson does so with a great flair to keep the pages moving makes it a rare confection of virtues: its ambition, ease of reading, and the willingness to eschew simplistic narratives.

Keerthik Sasidharan was born in Palakkad and lives in New York City.

He’s on Twitter @ks1729.

I often associate Delhi winters with crime. There is something gloomy about sunless days that makes for a perfect crime read.

What can one say about the silent lover who is so devoted that he could kill for you? That killer of a storyline had me hooked from the word go to the Japanese crime writer Keigo Higashino’s The Devotion of Suspect X, when winter descended on Delhi a couple of years ago. It helped that I found the writer good-looking.

Much before the crime genre, I had made tentative forays into Japanese literature, courtesy Yasunari Kawabata, Junichiro Tanizaki, Yukio Mishima, Banana Yoshimoto and, of course, Haruki Murakami. I was hooked to these authors. Here was a maze, with some of the books borne out of the destruction of World War II, and I navigated them out of curiosity and ignorance (actually more of the latter). Love, lust, depression, abandonment were all explored in bewitching ways.

Higashino happened to be the latest entrant. He has perfected the art of beginning his story with a murder and the murderer.

Big deal, you might say. But he spends the rest of the pages establishing the perfect motive for the killing. The killer is ultimately caught, but not before he has you totally under his spell. You are even sympathetic to the killer. This perfect hook, which is the backdrop of Higashino’s bestsellers, for The Devotion... as well, is the devotion of the killer. Devotion begins when a gentle mathematics teacher ofers to help a young woman dispose of the body of her abusive ex-husband.

This gentle, unhurried examination of relationships worked for me. The manner in which the teacher constructs a watertight alibi for his lady-love and the subsequent unravelling is brilliant. It is no wonder that the story has inspired films, including in India. There are no literary flourishes and the mechanical examination of the crime helps the reader. A deeprooted visceral hatred between friends provides grist to malice, which in turn consumes a friendship. Higashino doesn’t ofer you glimpses of Japanese society.

Instead, he plumbs the depths of despair which drive his characters to commit murders. There were other books of his, like Salvation of a Saint and Naoko, that ofered a glimpse into the risks the writer was willing to take in constructing a crime. But none as gripping as Devotion...

I look forward to another such book as yet another winter sets in Delhi. anuradha.r@thehindu.co.in

FACT AND FICTION

Imprisoned in an imagined future Rereading Philip Roth’s ‘The Plot Against America’ in the age of Donald Trump In Roth’s book, as a White supremacist enters the White House, repercussions are felt everywhere, especially in Jewish neighbourhoods

SUDIPTA DATTA

Newark, New Jersey, is now on my must-visit list, with American writer Philip Roth deciding to donate his collection of books to the local public library there, which is in the neighbourhood where he grew up. The 4,000-odd titles will give readers a peek into his reading preferences — Franz Kafka or Saul Bellow or J.D. Salinger, or all three? Future visitors to the library will be able to see what Roth read while researching and writing his own illustrious novels — from Portnoy’s Complaint, to American Pastoral, to I Married a Communist.

But in a year when the Nobel Prize in Literature was denied to Roth, yet again, he has come to haunt American and world imagination with his eerie, sinister reimagining of history in his 2004 novel The Plot Against America, in which Franklin D. Roosevelt doesn’t win the 1940 election; victory is claimed instead by Republican candidate and White supremacist Charles Lindbergh.

George Orwell wrote his 1984 in 1949 and saw a catastrophic future under the gaze of the Big Brother. Written in the backdrop of two devastating world wars, it foresaw a world where no one is free.

Power of imagination In Roth’s book, as a White supremacist enters the White House, repercussions are felt everywhere, especially in Jewish neighbourhoods. Roth

FICTION BECOMES REALITY: “Today it’s impossible to read the book and not think of what is unfolding in America.” President-elect Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Raleigh, North Carolina. PHOTO: REUTERS and his Jewish family never had to sufer what other Jews faced in Europe, but the ‘what if’ situation the writer conjures up is as devastating as it is prescient. “You think Swastikas are only for other countries?”

In one of the most chilling moments of the book, a dream sequence, we are horrified as a seven-year-old’s collection of stamps is desecrated.

Across the face of each National Parks stamp, “across the clifs, the woods, the rivers, the peaks, the geyser, the gorges, the granite coastline, across the deep blue water and the high waterfalls,

across everything in America that was the bluest and the greenest and the whitest and to be preserved forever in these pristine reservations, was printed a black swastika”.

History tells us that in 1940, America was deeply divided between the Republicans who were against another European war and the Democrats who wanted to halt Adolf Hitler in his tracks as he marched ahead with plans to take over most of Europe. The divisions over race, class and war now seem more entrenched than ever, but unlike in 1940, a Republican is in the White House and threatening

to fill up his Cabinet with White supremacists. The Ku Klux Klan is celebrating, even as minorities must be feeling frightened about their future.

In Roth’s book, the Jews are afraid of what Lindbergh might do and it’s palpable from the very first line: “Fear presides over these memories, a perpetual fear.” The story is told by a narrator, Philip Roth — Roth places his fictional and real self in his books quite often — who looks back to 1940 when he is about seven, and hears a radio broadcast of the Republicans’ convention where Lindbergh is nominated. This didn’t hap-

pen in reality, but the dashing aviator’s name did come up among party men as a possible candidate for president.

Roth’s narrator recalls the seven-year-old hearing, “‘No!’ was the word that awakened us, ‘No!’ being shouted in a man’s loud voice from every house on the block. ...No. Not for president of the United States.”

Father Herman, mother Bess and brother Sandy cope in diferent ways with this challenge, while Philip tries to make sense of an increasingly alien world. And sure enough Democratic America takes a beating in the hands of Lindbergh, whose pet project, the “Just Folks” programme, breaks up Jewish families and spreads them far and wide apart in Christian neighbourhoods. Philip’s brother is chosen to be part of the programme and spends some time in Kentucky. When he returns home, he has already been brain-washed into believing that Lindbergh is not all bad.

History appears to be repeating itself in Europe, with right-wing movements gaining popularity by the day, and

in America where Donald Trump has already tweeted that the protests against him as the new President are “very unfair”.

Franz Kafka forewarned the world about Nazi gas chambers, Orwell imagined 1984 as a time when an authoritarian omnipresent government would stifle individualism and freedom, Sinclair Lewis’ It Can't Happen Here (1935) placed democratic America in the hands of a fascist.

It can happen anywhere Reality is sometimes stranger than fiction, it is said.

The scenes playing out on the American streets after an acrimonious presidential election may be a testimony to a fractured right-down-to-themiddle nation, but writers did foretell just such an unbelievable scenario. As Herman says in The Plot against America — Roth’s nod to Sinclair Lewis too — “It can’t happen here? My friends, it’s happening here.”

In 2004 when The Plot Against America came out, in the backdrop of 9/11 and with George Bush at the helm, readers saw parallels in the imagined history with their reality. But Roth insisted the book should be read as an imagined history of the 1940 election; he said what he had imagined hadn’t actually happened. But today it’s impossible to read the book and not think of what is unfolding in America.

Sudipta Datta is a Kolkata-based journalist.

ND-ND

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NEWS

Allahabad High Court gets 11 more judges

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2016

India, Japan difer on nuclear tests Tokyo wants New Delhi to maintain its commitment to voluntary unilateral moratorium

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

KALLOL BHATTACHERJEE SUHASINI HAIDAR

NEW DELHI: The Union Law Ministry on Saturday issued orders for appointment of 11 additional judges to the Allahabad High Court.

The President has approved the appointment of Rajul Bhargava, Siddhartha Varma and Sangeeta Chandra as additional judges of the Allahabad High Court for a period of two years.

Daya Shankar Tripathi, Sheo Kumar Singh, Virendra Kumar, Shailendra Kumar Agrawal, Sanjay Harkauli, Krishna Pratap Singh, Rekha Dikshit and Satya Narain Agnihotri have also been appointed additional judges.

The Allahabad High Court has a sanctioned strength of 160 judges. It had 83 vacancies as on November 1.

The government recently issued orders for the appointment of three Additional Judges — R.M.T. Teeka Raman, N. Sathish Kumar and N. Seshasayee — to the Madras High Court.

While Birendra Kumar was appointed Additional Judge in the Patna High Court, Kempaiah Somashekar, Kotravva Somappa Mudagal, Sreenivas Harish Kumar, John Michael Cunha and Basavaraj Andanagouda Patil were appointed additional judges in the Karnataka HC. Achintya Malia Bujor Barua, Kalyan Rai Surana, Prasanta Kumar Deka, Nelson Sailo and Ajit Borthakur have been appointed additional judges in the Gauhati High Court.

NEW DELHI: In signing the civil

nuclear agreement with India, Japan made a major exception for a non-signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), based on India’s impeccable nuclear record.

But sources say India, too, may have given exceptional commitments on its nuclear sovereignty and right to conduct nuclear tests in order to bag the deal.

According to oicials, while the Nuclear Cooperation Agreement (NCA) signed in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday followed the template set in the India-U.S. civilian nuclear agreement of 2008, a text signed in addition to it is a departure from the past.

In the additional document, called the “Note on Views and Understanding” signed by Indian and Japanese nuclear negotiators after the meeting, Article I (iii) says: “The representative of the Japanese delegation stated that an Indian action in violation of the September 5 statement could be viewed as a serious departure from the prevailing situation. In that situation, reprocessing of nuclear material subject to the Agreement will be suspended in accordance with paragraph 9 of Article 14 of the Agreement,” invoking a section on emergency suspension of nuclear parts or fuel supply. (The reference to the ‘September

TIES ON TRACK: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart, Shinzo Abe, examine a bullet train at a plant in Kobe on Saturday. — PHOTO: PTI 5’ statement was India’s voluntary moratorium on nuclear testing made for the Nuclear Suppliers Group in 2008.)

Binding provisions When contacted by The Hindu, Indian and Japanese oicials seemed to difer on how binding the additional note actually was. A senior MEA oicial privy to the negotiations said that the only “binding provisions are in the bilateral agreement (NCA).” However, in written replies to The Hindu, Japan’s Foreign Ministry Press secretary Yasuhisa Kawamura said Japan had made its intentions clear. “[If India conducts a nuclear

Australia all praise for Super Hornet’s agility MURALI N. KRISHNASWAMY

“Australian interests span the Indian and Pacific Oceans, and stability is essential in this incredibly important trade and fiscal region that the planet relies on. The fighter aircraft F/A-18F Super Hornet plays a vital role in enabling this,” said Group Captain Glen Braz, Oicer Commanding, 82 Wing HQ/6 Sqn at the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) base, Amberley, south-west of Brisbane.

It is the country’s largest air base. He was speaking to a visiting Indian media team in Australia.

BRISBANE

(AUSTRALIA):

Deployed in West Asia Australia is the first country outside the United States to operate this multi-role fighter and deploy it in operations in the West Asian region in 2015. The aircraft, which is made by aerospace major Boeing, is reported to be of interest to India, and now features in ‘Make in India’ ofers.

In a presentation at the base, which focussed on Super Hornet operations and the related aviation ecosystem, he elaborated on a series of salient features of

Jawan killed in Pak. firing in Kupwara SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT SRINAGAR: One soldier was

killed and six injured in fresh ceasefire violations in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district, over 100 km away from Srinagar.

An Army spokesman said the soldier was killed on Friday night when Pakistani rangers fired at Naga Post in Keran Sector. “It was indiscriminate fire,” said an Army spokesman.

Preliminary reports suggest the solider was hit by a bullet in the neck. He was identified as Harsh Batoria, a resident of Rajasthan.

Three soldiers, identified as Manoj Kumar, Naik Sandeep and S. Badoria, were injured in the firing.

Four residential houses were also damaged in the Pakistani mortar shelling.

Three more soldiers were injured in another ceasefire violation in Keran Sector’s Furqian Gali.

CM YK

India and Ukraine to close gap in ties

MULTI-ROLE FIGHTER: The F/A-18F Super Hornet has advanced sensors and radars. — PHOTO: REUTERS the aircraft. He listed as “very impressive” the Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System (JHMCS), used to aim sensors and weapons wherever the pilot is looking by synchronising aircraft sensors with the user’s head movements.

In the Super Hornet, a dual-seat aircraft, each crew member can wear a JHMCS helmet and still perform independent operations with continuous awareness of where the other crew member is looking. Further to this, the plane’s 4.5-gen APG-79 AESA radar ensured optimum mission performance. The fact that the Super Hornet can play the role of a

mid-air refuelling tanker with no modifications necessary was “remarkably beneficial and a key diferentiator”, he said. Importantly, the aircraft can also be used in a maritime strike role.

The aircraft uses the Harpoon missile as part of its extensive weaponry systems.

India is reported to have purchased this missile for integration in the Navy’s Boeing P-8I maritime patrol aircraft.

Group Captain Braz said Australia had a long history of Hornet operations and “understood the Hornet ecosystem more broadly”.

(The writer is in Brisbane at the invitation of the Boeing Company)

test] Japan will give notice notify India of its intension of termination of the treaty and will cease its cooperation based on the treaty.

India also understands this, which is confirmed in the oicial document, “Note on Views and Understanding”, attached to the Treaty,” he said.

According to oicials present at the bilateral meetings in Tokyo, Mr. Abe went further, saying frankly that Japan’s cooperation with India was “on the premise that India maintains its commitment to the unilateral and voluntary moratorium on nuclear test,” and urged India to sign the Non- Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the

Comprehensive NuclearTest-Ban Treaty (CTBT), that India has resisted for decades.

Striking similarities At a press conference in Tokyo on Friday, Foreign Secretary S.Jaishankar said there were “striking similiarities” in the Japan deal with those of other countries.

However, former nuclear envoys say the text signifies India has gone “much further” in commitments to Japan than ever before. In the past, India had rejected direct references to nuclear tests as a trigger for cancelling the deal from the U.S., Canada, and Australia,

amongst a dozen countries India has signed nuclear agreements with.

Next, India has allowed Japan to include the “emergency suspension” clause, which could mean a major shutdown of its nuclear power capabilities given that Japanese companies and spare parts are expected to be a crucial part of all future reactors in India. With the exception of Russian reactors, all the suppliers in negotiation with India at present: GE, Westinghouse and Areva have considerable ownership by Japanese companies Hitachi, Toshiba and Mitsubishi.

Finally, the additional note states that Japan can contest the claims by India for compensation if it suspends its nuclear cooperation with India. “Japan reserves the right to contest India’s claim of compensation for the adverse impact on the Indian economy due to disruption in electricity generation and loss on account of disruption of contractual obligations through the consultations provided for in paragraph 9 of Article 14 of the Agreement,” reads Article I(iv) of the document, available on the Japanese Foreign Ministry website.

The diference in perceptions between the MEA and Ministry of Foreign Afairs in Japan will be significant, given that the Japanese Parliament, Diet, is yet to approve the Nuclear cooperation Agreement. In India, the debate over nuclear sovereignty will be key.

NEW DELHI: After a gap of four years, India and Ukraine are set to begin a new phase of exchanges which is likely to warm up political, military and diplomatic ties.

Speaking to The Hindu, senior Ukrainian diplomatic sources confirmed that Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin is likely to visit India soon even as the Heavy Industries Minister Anant Geete undertook a visit to the country last week.

“Mr. Geete, who was accompanied by representatives of Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited, Heavy Engineering Corporation Ltd., Hindustan Machine Tools, held wideranging talks covering trade, economic, investment and industrial cooperation,” the diplomat said.

The visit of the Indian Minister breaks a gap in bilateral exchanges that had formed due to the ongoing violence in eastern Ukraine.

India had evacuated citizens from Ukraine in 2014 as the disturbance intensified in the region.

The last major visit from Ukraine was by President Viktor Yanukovych who visited Delhi and met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2012. However, another problem in bilateral ties was Ukraine’s military ties with Pakistan.

Despite the hurdles, an initial dialogue was held in June when Ukraine’s First Deputy Secretary of the Council for National Security and Defence met with senior oi-

In U.P., Mann ki Baat is digital blitz OMAR RASHID LUCKNOW: To connect more

deeply with voters in pollbound Uttar Pradesh and assess their “aspirations,” the BJP will now pay attention to their mann ki baat.

The party plans to do this through a multi-pronged U.P. ke mann ki baat campaign, which was launched here on Saturday by party chief Amit Shah. Through the mass-connectivity programme, the party will attempt to know the problems of a wide section of people and take on board their suggestions for solutions.

The information collected through this outreach, aimed at reaching 20 crore people, will be divided into categories and used to draft the party’s “vision document” to be launched before the Assembly polls, Mr. Shah said.

Women, youth, poor, Dalits, backwards classes, farmers and labourers will be its key targets.

Suggestion boxes The U.P. ke mann ki baat campaign will comprise a blend of social media and direct ground-level connect with voters. By giving a missed call on a number, which was released by the party, people can record their suggestions. They can also WhatsApp or text their suggestions, Mr. Shah said.

BJP govt. will protect cows and women: Sangeet Som STAFF REPORTER MEERUT: BJP MLA Sangeet

Som, the party’s prominent face in western Uttar Pradesh, on Saturday told a rally in Muzafarnagar that if his party formed government in the State, it would protect cows and Hindu women.

He also assured party workers that cases registered against them The party will also distribute 15,000 akansha petis (aspiration boxes) across the State’s 403 Assembly seats, in which voters can drop their suggestions and list their problems. The boxes will be available across the State for two months.

A special feature of the campaign are the 75 hi-tech LED raths (vans) that will travel across the State for 45 days and provide voters an opportunity to record their views and suggestions through video facilities. To attract the youths to these raths, they will be enabled with cutouts of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with which people will be al-

during the communal riots in 2013 would be withdrawn.

“We will give you a riot-free, crime-free, corruption-free State...

The next BJP government in the State will protect cows, mothers and sisters,” Mr. Som told the rally, which was part of the Parivartan Yatra flagged of from Saharanpur last week by BJP president Amit Shah. lowed to take selfies. The party had launched similar small raths across all Assembly segments during the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, too.

Direct to home Apart from this, the party will also launch 2000 GPSenabled motorbikes for door-to-door campaigning, with the special motive of reaching out to women in households. “We plan to reach two crore homes though this,” the BJP chief said.

The BJP chief said his party wanted to ensure that the agenda of the State election was “stable on the issue of development.” Taking a

dig at the SP, BSP and the Congress, he said it was time to rise above “dynastic politics, casteism and votebank politics,” in favour of inclusive development.

Exuding confidence that his party would form government in the State next year, Mr. Shah said: “Before placing our development agenda before the people, we will go to every corner of the State to every section to know their problems, take their suggestions for solutions, and underline it to make a roadmap for development of the State. People of U.P. will decide the agenda.”

The U.P. ke mann ki baat campaign will also have a website, presence on Twitter and an interactive Facebook page. The party would also hold panchayats to directly reach out to the youth, women, backwards, dalits and farmers.

The party would also hold 1,500 sabhas in colleges, hostels and universities across the State starting November 19. To engage with women, 1,500 video conferences would be held, while sabhas would also be held for farmers. The party has launched its Parivartan rallies in four regions of the State, which would culminate in a major rally in Lucknow next month to be addressed by the Prime Minister.

Pavlo Klimkin

The ongoing violence in Ukraine and the country’s military relations with Pak. have posed hurdles cials on the sidelines of March 28-31 “DefExpo-India 2016” in Goa. Military modernisation The diplomat said the ongoing round of exchanges were explored during the visit of Secretary (West) Sujata Mehta who was in Kyiv in June.

Ukraine’s diplomatic importance had been growing also due to the rising profile of the country in multilateral platforms. Ukraine is a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and a non-permanent member with twoyear term at the U.N. Security Council.

The diplomat indicated that Ukraine is interested in supporting India’s military modernisation plans and the visit of Mr. Klimkin is likely to take up several key projects in aviation and space research.

Take rumours with a pinch of salt: Jaitley NEW DELHI: Finance

Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday dismissed reports on a shortage of salt in the country as “concocted rumours”, and said adequate quantities of it are available in every State.

“Some people are spreading irresponsible rumours, like it happened yesterday regarding salt. It is there in adequate quantity in every State,” Mr. Jaitley told reporters here.

He said that some of these rumours started on day one of the demonetisation of Rs.500 and Rs. 1,000 notes.

“These are all concocted rumours,” the Minister said, adding statements like ‘some people were aware of the demonetisation earlier’ tantamount to “taking liberty with truth.”

The Commerce and Industry Ministry too dismissed the rumour.

The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion tweeted there was suicient stock. — PTI

Ken-Betwa project hangs on forest nod We are not for building walls, says Canada Minister JACOB KOSHY

NEW DELHI: The Rs. 9,000-crore Ken-Betwa river-interlinking project, which will partly submerge the Panna tiger reserve, may be delayed after a key Environment Ministry body tasked with giving it forest clearance has deferred it at least until January, two people familiar with the process told The Hindu.

The project will submerge 6,221 hectares of land— 4,141 hectares of it is core forest inside the reserve. The Forest Advisory Committee’s clearance is required for this diversion of forest land.

Depending on whether a project takes over land in wildlife sanctuaries or notified forest land, it requires separate wildlife, forest and environment clearances.

“There was a only a 20-minute presentation by the project proponents, which is too little to deliberate on a such a large project,” said a person familiar with the clearance process. “A site visit is required and it should take an-

Mr. McCallum said his country does not share the alarmist position of the rightwing parties in the United States and Europe that have made the issue of immigrants a major political issue.

KALLOL BHATTACHERJEE

CRUCIAL LINK: The Betwa in Madhya Pradesh. — FILE PHOTO: MONICA TIWARI other month at least.”

The main feature of the project is a 230-km canal and a series of barrages and dams connecting the Ken and the Betwa to irrigate 3.5 lakh hectares in Madhya Pradesh and 14,000 hectares in the Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh.

Tiger reserve to be hit The key components are the Makodia and the Dhaud-

han dams, the latter expected to be 77 metres high, which will submerge 5,803 hectares of tiger habitat in the tiger reserve.

Chhatarpur, Panna, Tikamgarh, Raisen, and Vidisha districts of Madhya Pradesh and Mahoba, Jhansi and Banda districts of Uttar Pradesh will benefit from irrigation, domestic and industrial water supply and power generation, says a project report

of the Water Ministry. On the other hand, 6,388 people will be afected as water from the Daudhan reservoir will submerge 10 villages and 13,499 in 28 villages will be afected by submergence caused by the Makodia reservoir.

Seventeen lakh residents of nearby towns and villages in both States will benefit from improved drinking water supply and irrigation, the report added.

NEW DELHI: Canada will invite more Indian students and high tech professionals as part of its immigrantfriendly policy said its Minister of Immigration even as he questioned U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s ‘policy of building walls.’

“We do not stand for building of walls. Canada stands for globalisation and we pursue a policy of multiculturalism which is not a bad word for us,” said John McCallum, Canadian Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship.

His comments are significant as they came on Tuesday, when the U.S election process was underway, eventually leading to the election of Mr. Trump, who has opposed immigration from Mexico and Islamic countries to the U.S. “We are going to make it

John McCallum much easier to bring in immigrants as we are going for expansion of our immigration programme. Immigration process for global talent from the high-tech sector and for international students will be made easier and seamless. Students will also be provided ‘express entries’ as part of the new immigration process,” said Mr. McCallum during an exclusive chat.

Welcoming migrants “We have a humanitarian tradition of welcoming refugees and we have a very good system of integrating them in Canada to make them future citizens of the country and we will accept refugees,” he said and explained that Canada would also grant asylum to refugees if they are “indeed fleeing an oppressive regime.”

Mr. McCallum is one of the senior Ministers in the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and has been in news for favouring reforms in the immigration policy of Canada to make it more tuned to address emerging challenges in the world.

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NEWS

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2016

In hunt for big sharks, livelihood of the poor becomes small change With little cash in hand, small traders and shopkeepers are unable to keep their businesses running SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

S

urendar’s move from Bihar to Perambalur in the heart of Tamil Nadu in search of a livelihood has turned sour over the past few days. A school dropout, Surendar, who made a living selling pani-poori from a cart in this town, has seen his business plummet since the November 8 demonetisation announcement. “Everyone brings Rs. 500 notes for eating one plate of masala poori. I had no other option except to dump the food on my cart,” he says.

Pointing to unsold fish in his basket, 45-year-old Antony, a small-time fish vendor of Puthur in Thrissur district in Kerala, wonders what he will do with the remainder. “It's going to be noon. My regular customers refused to buy fish even though I am ready to lend [it to] them. I am taking less than a quarter of the regular stock from the market now [to sell]. This has been happening for the past three days,” he said.

Mary, 40, who runs a grocery shop at Kundannur, a small village in the district, did not open her shop on Saturday. “I can’t deny goods to my regular customers who don’t have cash in hand now. But I am not able to buy stock as I don’t have money,”

Newborn denied treatment, dies MUMBAI: The police have

registered a case in suburban Govandi against a doctor who allegedly refused to treat a premature baby as the parents could not pay the necessary deposit in the wake of demonetisation.

The baby later died.

Jagadish Sharma, father of the newborn,alleged that he requested the doctor for some time to get the Rs. 500 notes changed into lower-value currency, but she turned them away after administering preliminary treatment. — PTI

A lull in smuggling of fake notes KOLKATA: In recent days, there has hardly been any activity along the porous IndiaBangladesh border in Bengal’s southern districts that account for the bulk of cross-border smuggling on the eastern frontier. With no currency transaction taking place, couriers have no incentive to smuggle goods. Over the past four years, the border has grappled with the problem of smuggling, including fake notes.

Since 2013, fake notes worth Rs 6.6 crore have been seized along the border and 85 people have been arrested. — Special Correspondent

Rs. 76 lakh seized in Himachal SHIMLA: The police in Himachal

Pradesh seized approximately Rs.76 lakhs from a private car in Sundernagar in the Mandi district at the Dhanotu barrier.

Police said the Himachal registration car was going from Manali to Delhi. Driver Hardesh Kumar was driving the car of the Manali-based Ski Himalaya Company.

There are also reports of fake currency notes, mainly of Rs. 500 denomination, surfacing from many parts of the State.

— Staff Correspondent

Farmer dies of heart attack ANAND (GUJARAT): A 47-year-old

farmer on Saturday died after suffering a heart attack while he was standing in a queue for more than two hours outside a bank at Tarapur town in the district to exchange demonetised currency notes, the police said.

“Barkat Sheikh died due to a heart attack when he was standing in a queue at the Corporation Bank branch to exchange his demonetised notes,” the police said. Sheikh, who hailed from nearby Moraj village, was rushed to a private hospital where he died.

He apparently needed the money to pay labourers working on his farm. — PTI CM YK

she said. She wonders how many days she will have to keep her shop closed. It is the only source of income for her family.

Rabi sowing hit Demonetisation has not only brought the lives of millions of people to a grinding halt; in rural Rajasthan, it threatens to afect the ongoing sowing of rabi crops. As most of the cash-strapped farmers, labourers and small shopkeepers in villages do not have access to banks, they are simply unable to meet their daily needs of essential items, transport, raw material, seeds, fertilizers and pesticides. Agricultural labourers are the worst-hit.

“Though it is peak season for rabi sowing, I cannot operate a tube-well at my field. There is no work for labourers,” farmer Chiranjilal Maharia told The Hindu from Kudal village, 20 km from Sikar.

Higher up the economic chain, Mahendra Sharma from Katrathal village in Sikar district, who owns a hardware shop, said the demand in the market had shifted to food — edible oils, pulses and vegetables. “Villagers make purchases on a daily basis. When they have little cash, they will obviously first try to meet their basic needs,” he said.

LEFT IN THE LURCH: Daily-wage labourers are unable to work as people are left with little cash in hand to pay them. Scenes similar to this one in Palam, New Delhi, on Saturday have become common across the country. — PHOTO: V.V. KRISHNAN In the desert areas of western Rajasthan, where hamlets and villages are spread out over huge distances, villagers are getting

desperate. The business of wholesalers has come to a standstill, leaving the people worried when their lives will get back on track.

At the other end of the country in the Northeast, where access to modern banking has been severely curtailed by insurgency, it is

Mamata tosses a political coin Wants to join hands with arch-rival CPI(M) and others against demonetisation SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT KOLKATA: Taking on the Centre over demonetisation of Rs. 1,000 and Rs. 500 currency notes, Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday urged all Opposition parties, including the Communist Party of India (Marxist), to unite against the Bharatiya Janata Partyled government.

“For the betterment of the people and the country I appeal to all the Opposition parties to come together. We are ready to work with all, including the CPI(M) with which may have political and basic ideological diferences,” she said at a press conference on Saturday.

This is the first time that the Trinamool Congress chairperson has oicially said that she does not have reservations in joining hands with the CPI(M) to resist the BJP. The CPI(M), however, has

FOR OPPOSITION UNITY: Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee addressing a press conference in Kolkata on Saturday. — PHOTO: PTI not reciprocated the Trinamool’s willingness to join hands over the issue. On Friday, party State secretary Surjya Kanta Mishra said the party “does not want to stand with those who have taken Saradha and Narada money.”

The Trinamool, he said, has “a love- hate” relationship with the BJP. During the day, the Chief

Minister visited a few branches of banks in south and central Kolkata. First, she visited a bank on Sarat Bose Road and then went to visit two other branches on Chowringhee in central part of the city. There, she asked the bank employees if all the customers waiting in the queue were “black marketers.” “This government

has no moral right to continue in power. It is an anti-people, anti-poor government,” she said.

In the evening, she met members of the city’s Sikh community and tweeted: “Just met the members of Sikh community at a function before Guru Nanakji’s birthday. In all the joy of the occasion, people tense, complaining, worried. ‘Bhuka mein martein hain.

Transport aur sub business down hain’ they said [We are starving. Our transport business is down.] Transport is the lifeline of the nation. So sharing with you,” Ms. Banerjee tweeted.

Criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks in Japan that more stringent measures would be adopted after December, Ms. Banerjee asked whether “the Prime Minister is threatening to introduce Emergency or [planning to] use Army against the Opposition parties.”

a similar story. Ask Lalrongbawl Hmar of Mizoram, Melody Marak of Meghalaya, Laishram Ibemcha of Manipur and Joseph

Angami of Nagaland — greengrocer, fruit seller, fish monger and candy kiosk owner, respectively, in rural areas.

Following recurring heists, bank branches in remote rural areas had stopped cash transactions from the early 1980s. After the demonetisation, most shops are shut; small traders, who had very little small denomination currencies, cannot sell anything. People have no money to keep their kitchens running or get medication for the ailing.

Touts and their agents have fanned out to these areas to collect Rs. 500 notes on payment of Rs. 100 each to the people who have no choice but to trade their hardearned money for small change.

On Friday afternoon, some ATMs were open in Meghalaya. But they soon ran out of cash and were not replenished. In Manipur, a few ATMs opened on Saturday afternoon. Cash was airlifted from Kolkata after Chief Secretary O. Nabakishore pursued the matter with RBI oicials. He said, “We sought Rs. 200 crore of Rs. 2,000 denomination. But RBI sent us just Rs 100 crore.”

The disruption of rural markets, which operate on small margins and daily cash turnovers, has been disastrous. The scene in the Malancha market, about 100 km south of Kolkata, in the Sunderbans area, is illustrat-

ive. Malancha in North 24 Paraganas district is the largest wholesale fish market in south Bengal, auctioning about 15,000 kilograms of fish a day. There are at least a dozen other wholesale markets in south Bengal. But all are depressed since the demonetisation announcement.

By about 4 a.m. all shops — about 170 — were open on both sides of an ill-maintained road.

The shops or depots selling fish at a wholesale rate were chocka-block with customers by 5 a.m. but many of them were not trading. The market is 40-50 per cent “dry”.

First in memory Azibor Rahman, the owner of one of the biggest wholesale shops in Malancha, the Sonali Fish Centre, has been in the trade for nearly 50 years but has never witnessed such depression.

“We assembled more as an early morning habit,” said Gorachand Mondal, a small fish farmer from nearby Chaita village. The situation is grim for small players like him. Mr Mondal had Rs. 20 with him and cannot aford to transport goods from the village pond to be paid in “defunct” bank notes.

“I earn about Rs. 400-500 daily and spend about Rs. 200 to run the household. We deal in 100 rupee notes — not 1,000 — which have disappeared,” Mr. Mondal said. In his village, the families are unable to support each other.

(With inputs from Jaipur, Kochi, Perumbalur, Imphal, Shillong, Agartala and Kolkata)

How long can we go on like this, asks shopkeeper PURUSHARTH ARADHAK BULANDSHAHR: “They want us to give them their daily needs on credit. Considering the problem, we have sold things on credit but how long will this go on,” asked Kamal Goyal, a grocery shopkeeper.

The withdrawal of the Rs. 500 and Rs.1,000 notes has hit not only the farmers but also businessmen.

Ashu, who runs an aluminium frames business, said he had no cash to buy raw material.

“We do not have cash to buy raw material for our business. I am buying daily household goods on credit from our locality shop. But how long will the shop owner do us this favour,” he asked.

The banks here are not only short of cash but also staf to deal with the sudden rush to exchange old currency notes. The State Bank of In-

NO CUSTOMERS: A deserted market in Bulandshahr on Saturday.

PHOTO: SHANKER CHAKRAVARTY

dia branch in Gulawathi has 58,000 account holders but has only five employees.

“We don’t have suicient money and staf to deal with the situation,” said Harish Rawat.

Vishant Yadav, the manager at the Allahabad Bank, also had a similar tale. He has only three staf members but has 17,000 customers.

“We do not have suicient cash for exchange. Our

branch is gets only Rs 5 lakh for exchange. This amount vanishes within half an hour,” Mr Yadav said.

Maya Singh, the lone policewoman outside the Allahabad Bank, said the “situation is grim.” “We somehow managed to control the crowd for three days and now situation is getting precarious,” she said.

(The writer is a freelance journalist)

No cash, no tourists in Uttarakhand hill stations Congress asks BJP to KAVITA UPADHYAY DEHRADUN: The streets of Mussoorie and Nainital remained less crowded on Saturday as fewer cash-starved tourists took to the hill towns for the weekend.

Prateek Karnwal, owner of Hotel Nand Residency in Mussoorie, said: “On weekends Mussoorie is generally packed with tourists but many bookings were cancelled due to the current cash crisis. Some bookings were postponed.”

In a tourism-based economy like Uttarakhand, people whose lives depend on their daily income are among the worst hit by the demonetisation.

Jeevan Lal, a boatman from Nainital, has been able to earn only up to Rs. 100 a day

since Wednesday morning.

“The number of tourists has reduced drastically in the past four days. Tourists have Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes for which we do not have any change. Therefore they are not opting for boat rides.”

M.S. Khurana, a tourist from New Delhi, said: “We arrived in Nainital on Friday that too because the bookings were done months ago.

However, when we arrived here the taxi driver refused to accept the old Rs. 500 note. The bank we went to had set its own limit of Rs. 500 beyond which we could not exchange our cash. The ATMs have not been working here. We need change for travelling around the town but we don’t have any.”

Clement Nicholas from France, who, along with

staf did agree to accept the old currency notes but only if we paid them a higher amount. They stopped asking for more money only after we warned them that we would call the police.”

NO MONEY TO FLOAT: Jeevan Lal, a boatman in Nainital, says tourists are avoiding boat rides. — PHOTO: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT Griet Wils from Belgium, was travelling from Nepal to Uttarakhand, said: “The hotel in Haldwani that we

Spike in deposits due to pay panel arrears, says Jaitley SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT NEW DELHI: Union Finance

Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday said a spurt in bank deposits in the last quarter were due to the payment of the 7th Pay Commission arrears to government employees and not because information on the demonetisation drive had been selectively leaked to a few people The Minister said he had seen the RBI data and the

spike is in deposits only in the month of September as pay commission arrears were released on August 31.

‘Obvious disruption’ On the impact of the demonetisation exercise, the Minister said in the short term, some "obvious" disruption would be caused.

However, “once the money is available both in the system and more so in the banking system, the ad-

vantages of that to the economy and businesses will be far more. The capacity of the banks with all this additional capital to lend and support businesses is going to be far higher,” he said.

The Finance Minister also said reports that money has been deposited in Jan Dhan accounts would be verified.

The government is also keeping a close watch on reports of bullion being used to convert cash, he added.

were putting up at said it wouldn’t accept the old Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes. After much persuasion the hotel

‘Temporary discomfort On Thursday, two days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement, Chief Minister Harish Rawat said the demonetisation move had badly hit the State.

Secretary (Tourism) Shailesh Bagauli told The Hindu: “The people who are travelling are being afected by the [demonetisation] move. However, the discomfort is temporary … We will get a study done on whether this could have a long term efect [on the state’s earnings from tourism].”

Currency printing presses running at full capacity: RBI MUMBAI: Currency printing presses are running at “full capacity” to sustain demand for new notes, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said on Saturday. The central bank also asked people to switch to other modes of payment, such as debit and credit cards to reduce strain on bank branches.

Adequate stock of all currency notes has been kept ready at more than 4,000 locations across the country, and bank branches are linked to them for sourcing their re-

quirements, the RBI said.

The RBI said the scrapping of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes has cast a huge responsibility on the banking system to “swiftly withdraw” the currency in a smooth and non-disruptive way and to provide new notes of other denominations.

It also entailed swift withdrawal of the scrapped notes from ATMs within a few hours of the announcement made on evening of November 8 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. — PTI

reveal poll expenses SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT NEW DELHI: Even as Congress

vice-president Rahul Gandhi asked all party workers on Saturday to fan out across the country to help the poor and vulnerable standing in bank queues to exchange their money, senior leader Kapil Sibal demanded that the BJP make public all its expenses in upcoming polls in U.P., Punjab and other states if it was serious about eliminating black money and corruption. Simultaneously, former finance minister P. Chidambaram said the government’s move had only helped touts and middlemen.

Describing the demonetisation move as another “jumla” (gimmick) for political reasons, Mr. Sibal asked the BJP to set up a Commission of Inquiry into all expenses made by it before 2014 Lok Sabha elections prior to Narendra Modi becoming the Prime Minister.

Meanwhile, in a series of tweets, Mr. Gandhi said, “We appeal to all Congress workers to help all those who are standing in long lines outside banks in whatever capacity possible”, adding that the weak, underprivileged and elderly “need our support”.

"Wherever people are standing in line, you should help them get water and help them get their currency exchanged,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mr. Sibal, questioning the Prime Minister’s absence from the

Kapil Sibal country at a time when the public is facing “harassment and inconvenience,” said the decision had been taken “in haste without proper planning”.

He also asked Mr. Modi to make public all expenditure — whether spent on putting up tents and posters, public meetings, for bringing in water tanks — on the forthcoming elections in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab or anywhere else, as well as details of all cheques received. “Who gives the cheque, to whom it is given, all that should be put up on their websites,” he stressed, adding, “Only then will we understand that he is serious about it and this is not an election jumla,” he said.

Demanding a probe on all earlier poll expenses, the Congress leader said: “I would suggest that Narendra Modi ji should set up a Commission of Inquiry on all the money that was spent by the BJP before Mr. Modi became the Prime Minister.”

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WORLD

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2016

Trump signals moderation in stance Indicates that the defining components of ‘Obamacare’ will be protected; assigns to Mike Pence task of transition VARGHESE K. GEORGE WASHINGTON: Pushing Vice-

President-elect Mike Pence to the foreground of his transition eforts and signalling that some defining components of ‘Obamacare’ will be protected when it is overhauled, U.S. Presidentelect Donald Trump on Saturday sought to reach out to his Republican and Democratic detractors.

Mr. Pence is close to Republicans of all hues, particularly the conservatives.

Having spent 13 years in Washington DC as a member of Congress, he is wellnetworked in the capital and, most important of all, is a friend of House Speaker Paul Ryan. Cooperation between the White House and the Speaker will be crucial for Mr. Trump.

Mr. Pence has replaced New Jersey Governor Chris Christie as the head of the transition team. Appearing alongside Mr. Trump this week, Mr. Ryan used the campaign slogan “Make America Great Again” to describe the task ahead.

‘Deal-making’ skills Extreme positions on issues and personal attacks on President Barack Obama and his opponent Hillary Clinton had fired up the campaign that catapulted Mr. Trump to the most powerful oice in the world.

But the self-proclaimed deal-maker now says he could consult the Clintons and Mr. Obama, and signals more moderate views on issues.

Mr. Trump said Ms. Clinton could not have been nicer during a congratulatory call she made to him on Wednesday morning. “It was a lovely call, and it was a tough call for her. She couldn’t have been nicer.

She just said, ‘Congratulations, Donald. Well done.’

And I said, ‘I want to thank you very much. You’re a strong competitor’.”

Talking of a phone call made by former President Bill Clinton, Mr. Trump said: “He couldn’t have been more gracious... He said, ‘It was an amazing run.’ One of the most amazing he’d seen.

He was very, very, really, very nice.”

Adding that he would “definitely think about that” — consulting both of them — Mr. Trump said: “He’s a very talented guy, both of them… I mean, this is a very talented family.”

Islamist arrested over murder of secular blogger

The President-elect has said after a meeting with Mr. Obama that he would meet him “many many more times”.

The President-elect is no longer talking of “repealing and replacing” Obamacare as he used to do in the campaign. He said in an interview that it will be “amended”, but two defining features of the programme, namely coverage for pre-existing illness and allowing adult children to stay on their parents’ plans until they turn 26, could be continued.

Two key features of Obamacare are to be retained, including coverage for pre-existing illnesses Tinkering with the healthcare system is going to be chaotic and cannot be achieved with a mere stroke of the pen.

Mr. Trump has to rework the existing political alignments in DC if he were to push his agenda of scrapping trade deals and investing in infrastructure and defence that will create domestic jobs in America.

While congressional conservatives might resist deficit spending by the government, Mr. Trump could find support from progressive Democrats.

Congressional support Same is the case with trade deals. While many senior Republicans have been supporters of trade deals, Mr. Trump could find support for his proposed protectionist measures from a large section of Democrats.

Senator Bernie Sanders has already declared that he and like-minded members of the Congress will support the incoming President to that extent.

On other crucial questions, like climate change and nominating a Supreme Court judge, Mr. Trump could align more with his own party while resisting the combined Democratic pressure.

Petition against election Altogether, the political divides as they exist in the national capital today will undergo some radical changes as Mr. Trump pushes ahead with his platform and will put to test his deal-making skills.

leader who “directly took part” in the brutal murders of a secular blogger and a publisher in Bangladesh has been arrested here, police said on Saturday.

Khairul Islam alias Fahim, a leader of intelligence wing of the outlawed Ansarullah Bangla Team, was arrested from Kamlapur Rail Station area in Dhaka last night, said Masudur Rahman, Deputy Commissioner of police’s detective branch. Khairul (24) was believed to be involved in the murders of publisher Faisal Arefin Dipan and secular activist Niladri Chatterjee Niloy, besides scores of deadly attacks. — PTI

AGITATIONS CONTINUE: Demonstrations against President-elect Donald Trump in Washington Square Park, New York City, on Friday. — PHOTO: AFP Meanwhile, even as protests continue in many cities against his election, an online petition urging the Electoral College to overlook how their States voted and vote against Mr. Trump has got 3.5 million supporters.

“On December 19, the Electors of the Electoral College will cast their ballots. If they all vote the way their states voted, Donald Trump will win. However, they can vote for Hillary Clinton if they choose.

“Even in States where that is not allowed, their vote would still be counted, they would simply pay a small fine — which we can be sure Clinton supporters will be glad to pay! We are calling on the Electors to ignore their States’ votes and cast their ballots for Secretary Clinton,” the petition says.

The Electoral College consists of 538 electors.

Each State’s number of electors is decided by its number of members in Congress, which is dependent on the State’s total population.

Although Mr. Trump won over the 270 necessary electoral votes to secure the Presidency, Ms. Clinton narrowly earned the nation’s popular vote.

NEW YORK: A U.S.-based professor, who was among the few who predicted Donald Trump’s victory, has made another stunning prediction that he will be eventually impeached by a Republican Congress and replaced by a leader who can be trusted and controlled.

Professor Allan Lichtman has predicted that Mr. Trump (70) would eventually be impeached by a Republican Congress that would prefer a President like Mike Pence — someone whom establishment Republicans know and trust, The Washington Post reported.

“I’m going to make another prediction. This one is not based on a system; it’s just my gut. They don’t want Trump as President, because they can’t control him. He’s unpredictable. They’d love to have Pence — an absolutely down-theline, conservative, controllable Republican,” Mr. Lichtman said.

He said he is “quite certain” that Mr. Trump will give “someone grounds for impeachment, either by doing something that endangers national security or because it helps his pocketbook”. — PTI

Man shot at as anti-Trump protests enter fourth day PORTLAND (OREGON): As protests

against President-elect Donald Trump entered another day, police in Portland, Oregon, said one person was shot at and injured.

Portland police said the victim was taken to a hospital for treatment of non-lifethreatening injuries and they were looking for a male suspect, who apparently fled in his vehicle after the shooting early on Saturday morning on a Willamette River bridge.

The shooting followed Friday night’s protests, when police used tear gas in response to “burning projectiles” thrown at officers, police said on Twitter.

Hundreds of people marched through the city, disrupting traffic and spray-painting graffiti.

Authorities reported instances of vandalism and assault during a rally that organisers had billed as peaceful earlier in the day.

In other parts of the country, spirited demonstrations on college campuses and peaceful marches along downtown streets have taken place since Wednesday. Evening marches

A demonstrator holds up cartridges during an antiTrump protest in Portland, Oregon. — PHOTO: REUTERS disrupted traffic in Miami and Atlanta.

Arrests in California

More than a thousand protesters took to the streets across California after night fell, including in downtown Los Angeles, where over 200 were arrested a night earlier. In Bakersfield, where Mr. Trump is far more popular than in most of the State, some held signs reading “Anti-Trump, Pro-USA.” Small protests also were held in Detroit; Minneapolis; Kansas City, Missouri; Olympia, Washington and Iowa City.

More than 200 people, carrying signs gathered on the steps of the Washington State Capitol. The group chanted “not my President” and “no Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA.” In Tennessee, Vanderbilt University students sang civil rights songs and marched through campus across a Nashville street, temporarily blocking traffic. A protest also occurred in Minneapolis.

In Chicago, multiple groups planned protests through Saturday. Ashley Lynne Nagel (27) said she joined a Thursday night demonstration in Denver.

“I have a leader I fear for the first time in my life,” said Ms. Nagel, a Bernie Sanders supporter who voted for Hillary Clinton.

Demonstrations also were planned Saturday in Las Vegas, Los Angeles and other areas.

Previous demonstrations drew thousands of people in New York and other large urban centres.

The largely peaceful demonstrations were overshadowed by sporadic episodes of vandalism, violence and street-blocking. — AP

TOWARDS SAFETY: Residents fleeing the fighting between the Islamic State and the Iraqi Army in Kokjali, east of Mosul, on Saturday. — PHOTO: REUTERS NICK CUMMING-BRUCE GENEVA: Islamic State (IS) mil-

itants have summarily killed scores of civilians in the Iraqi city of Mosul in recent days, sometimes using children as executioners, and have also used chemical agents against Iraqi and Kurdish troops, UN oicials said Friday.

Video posted by the militants on Wednesday showed four children, who appear to be 10 to 14 years old, shooting four civilians accused of disloyalty at a location near the Tigris River, said Ravina Shamdasani, a spokeswoman for the UN human rights oice in Geneva. The video release identified one of the children as Russian, another as coming from Uzbekistan and two as Iraqis.

Bodies strung on poles U.N. investigators had not identified the time of the killings, citing the surge in executions by IS courts and fighters in and around Mosul in recent weeks and the brutal training the militants have forced on children in the parts of Iraq and Syria they control.

“They are showing they are still in business,” Mr. Shamdasani said of the IS. In one massacre, militants were said to have summarily shot 40 civilians in Mosul, dressing them in orange clothes adorned with words, marked in red, labelling them “traitors and agents of the

ISF,” the abbreviation for Iraqi Security Forces, Ms. Shamdasani said.

Afterward, the militants strung up the bodies of their victims from electricity poles around the city — a practice the Islamic State long used to strike fear into those who live in the group’s strongholds.

35,000 displaced The next day, Islamic State fighters shot 20 civilians at a military base in the north of the city and also strung up their bodies with signs carrying statements like “used cellphones to leak information to the ISF,” she said.

The battle for Mosul, with tens of thousands of security forces bearing down on Iraq’s second-largest city, is now almost a month old.

Over the past week, the largest numbers of civilians so far have fled the fighting, according to aid agencies, with close to 35,000 people displaced.

But that is nowhere near the total that oicials worry could be in danger once the fighting moves to the most populated areas across the Tigris on the west side of Mosul, which is still believed to be home to at least 1 million people. Reports from inside the city indicate that the Islamic State has set up elaborate defences on the banks of the Tigris, including artillery pieces. — New York Times News Service

Taliban suicide bombing in Afghan air base kills 4 Americans KABUL: Four Americans were

DHAKA: An Islamist militant

He will be impeached, says U.S. professor

IS is massacring civilians in Mosul as troops advance: UN

killed on Saturday in a suicide bombing inside the largest U.S. military base in Afghanistan, Pentagon chief Ashton Carter said, in a major breach of security.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the bombing inside the heavily fortified Bagram Airfield, north of the capital Kabul, which left 16 other U.S. service members and a Polish soldier wounded as the insurgents ramp up attacks on Western targets.

The dead included two American soldiers and two contractors, in an assault which highlights rising insecurity in Afghanistan nearly two years after U.S.-

Bomber entered Bagram site, the largest U.S. base in Afghanistan, dressed as a labourer led NATO forces formally ended their combat operations. The blast was caused by a suicide attacker who blew himself up near a dining facility inside the base, said Waheed Sediqi, spokesman for the Governor of Parwan Province where Bagram is located. “The attacker was one of the Afghan labourers working there,” Mr. Sediqi told AFP. The attack represents a brazen security breach in-

side one of the most heavily guarded military installations in Afghanistan.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said one of the insurgent group’s suicide bombers carried out the assault, claiming it inflicted “heavy casualties on U.S. invaders”.

The militants are stepping up attacks nationwide before the onset of winter, when the fighting usually ebbs.

The latest assault came after a powerful Taliban truck bomb struck the German consulate in Afghanistan’s northern Mazar-eSharif city late on Thursday, killing at least six people and wounding more than 100 others. — AFP

Seoul protests call for Park’s resignation SEOUL: South Korean President Park Geun-hye faced mounting pressure to step down on Saturday as hundreds of thousands of demonstrators marched in the capital to protest allegations that she let a friend meddle in state afairs.

Saturday’s rally in downtown Seoul was the largest so far in a crisis engulfing Ms. Park (64) and organisers said some 850,000 people packed streets running through the city centre, including a 12lane thoroughfare. Police estimated the crowd at 260,000.

Third weekend rally Students, families including young couples pushing strollers, and protesters in wheelchairs were among the CM YK

SHE MUST GO: South Koreans take to the streets in Seoul on Saturday to demand President Park Geun-hye to step down. — PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

crowd during the peaceful march.

It was the third weekend protest rally since Ms. Park’s first public apology on Oct. 25 when she admitted she

had sought the advice of her friend, Choi Soon-sil.

Another apology by Ms. Park and an ofer to work with the parliamentary Opposition to form a new

Cabinet and relinquish some power also failed to quell the crisis, prompting opponents to say she did not grasp its severity.

Ms. Park has dismissed some of her most senior and closest advisers, and former aides have been arrested on charges of abuse of power.

Ms. Choi, the friend who is believed to have been acquainted with the President since the 1970s, has been charged with abuse of power and fraud. Members of main Opposition parties joined Saturday's rally, suggesting there is growing support in Parliament for action to remove her from power, although there was no formal move yet to launch impeachment proceedings against her. — Reuters ND-ND

| 17

BUSINESS

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2016

IRDAI questions Max India, HDFC merger

Videocon reports Q2 net loss

EU’s protectionism on steel irks China

The IRDAI on Saturday posed reservations on the present form of amalgamation of Max India and HDFC Life into a single entity. — PTI

Videocon Industries reported a net loss of Rs.381.93 crore for the second quarter, due to lower income from operations. — PTI

China is concerned about the EU’s protectionist measures against Chinese steel products, the nation’s Commerce Ministry said. — Reuters

RBI urges public to adopt ‘digital’ as ATMs run dry

Traders’ association scotches rumours of nationwide strike

Each ATM needs to be recalibrated for the new smaller-sized Rs.500, Rs.1,000

of All India Traders (CAIT) on Saturday denied that it has called a six-day nationwide strike to oppose Centre’s move to demonetise high-value currency notes, but said it has sought a meeting with Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to discuss the current scenario.

“CAIT has been informed about Whatsapp messages stating that we have called a six-day all-India strike,” said Mr Praveen Khandelwal, who is the CAIT National Secretary General, the top traders’ body.

“We strongly reject such messages and inform that we have not called any such strike. However, we have sought an audience with the Finance Minister to apprise him of the current market scenario and augmenting digital payments to ease the situation.”

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT MUMBAI: Amid long queues at

bank branches to trade in old Rs. 500 and Rs.1,000 notes and as automated teller machines ran out of cash, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) urged citizens to switch to alternative modes of payment such as pre-paid, credit and debit cards, mobile banking, and Internet banking.

“Such usage will alleviate the pressure on the physical currency and also enhance the experience of living in the digital world,” the central bank said in a statement on Saturday, as it joined the Finance Minister in trying to calm the public amid a nationwide scramble to exchange the currency denominations that were withdrawn this week.

The government had on November 8 cancelled the legal tender status of existing currency notes of Rs.500 and Rs.1,000 denomination and said at the time that such notes could be exchanged at bank branches and post offices till December 30.

Recalibration challenge Following the announcement, ATMs were closed for two days. Each and every ATM in the country (estimated to number more than two lakhs) had to be recalibrated in those 2 days so that they did not dispense any Rs.500 or Rs.1,000 notes.

ATMs, restarted on Friday, were only disbursing Rs.100 notes. A few of them, however, were also disbursing Rs.50 notes. A new Rs.2,000 denomination note has been issued but that is only available in bank branches. Fur-

CM YK

GO PLASTIC: RBI ‘encourages’ public to use credit or debit cards and mobile banking to make payments. — PHOTO:PTI ther, each ATM needs to be recalibrated so that the new Rs.500 and Rs.1,000 notes, which are of smaller size, can be processed by the cash dispensing machines.

RBI admitted that it was a huge responsibility for the banking system to swiftly withdraw those notes in a smooth and non-disruptive way.

“It entailed swift withdrawal of specified bank notes from the ATMs within a few hours of the announcement, recalibrating these for issuance of other legal tender notes, reloading them in a matter of two days and providing the exchange facility for members of public at all bank branches all over the country, just a day after the announcement,” the RBI said. Bankers said the new Rs.500 and Rs.1,000 notes, as

and when they come into circulation, would initially be dispensed by bank branches.

Recalibrating them for the ATMs would take some time, they added.

The central bank maintained that adequate stocks of notes were kept ready in currency chests located at more than 4,000 places across the country.

Additional counters “To minimise the inconvenience to public the branches of banks and all RBI oices have been working well beyond normal business hours, with additional counters opened to cater to the huge turnout of public,” the RBI said. “On 10th Nov 2016, about 10 crore exchange transactions have been reported. Further, banks and RBI are kept open

on Saturday and Sunday to meet the urgent requirements of public and to ease the situation,” it added.

Close monitoring Even as eforts are on for a smoother exchange of currencies, the RBI asserted that a detailed reporting system for banks had been put in place to track the exchange of Rs.500 and Rs.1,000 currency notes. The RBI said it was also closely monitoring the situation to prevent any misuse of the facility.

“With a view to preventing misuse of the facility, the authorities are closely monitoring the information received through these reports about exchange and deposits of the specified bank notes by the public with the banks, including co-operative banks,” the RBI said.

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT NEW DELHI: The Confederation

CII support The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) came out in support of the Centre’s move.

Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII, said: “After a short period of some pain when the economy adjusts to the sudden withdrawal of cash, CII expects a much stronger economy. India’s cash-dependence is extremely high with a currency-GDP ratio of around 12 per cent compared to 4-5 per cent in other developing countries.”

“As we transition to a greater usage of fintech for payments, spending will rise leading to additional economic growth. This is an economic masterstroke by the Prime Minister and must be allowed time to play out.”

The prevalence of cash use has also made India

NO CLOSURE: The Rs.1,000 and Rs.500 notes amounted to Rs.14.2 lakh crore as of March 2016 or about 85 per cent of total currency in circulation. — FILE PHOTO: SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR prone to high inflation, the CII said, adding that corruption and excessive cash use tends to erode the purchasing power of money.

“Lower cash use will have a dampening impact on inflation and this will be a further positive for India’s macro-fundamentals. The Reserve Bank of India will now have more room to cut interest rates as inflation subsides. Already, the bond market has reacted to the news with a reduction in the bond yields” Mr. Banerjee said.

Banks’ liquidity The Rs.1,000 and Rs.500 notes amounted to Rs.14.2 lakh crore as of March 2016, or about 85 per cent of total currency in circulation, the CII said, adding that if this is converted to current and savings deposits, there will

be an increase in banks’ liquidity. This is also a great opportunity to transition to a “plastic economy”, where there is a prevalence of debit and credit cards for transactions, the CII said.

Scrutiny fears The industry body said that in all likelihood, a fair proportion of the Rs.14 lakh crore in high-denomination currency will not return to the banking system, for fear of accounts being scrutinised.

“If one assumes that about 20 per cent of the cash does not return to the system, this would amount to about Rs.3 lakh crore or $42 billion.

This is a reduction in the RBI’s liability to the public, allowing it to print a similar amount of fresh money or transfer the gain to the government.

“The biggest gain from this move will be greater formalisation of the economy. Currently, the costs of informality are evident in low tax base which impacts government revenues, lack of economic control through monetary instruments, and lower economies of scale,” it said.

India’s tax base is low and its tax to GDP ratio needs to increase from the current level of 16.6 per cent, which is much lower than about 21 per cent in other emerging economies, the CII said.

It added that less than 30 million Indians filed personal income tax with more than half of these paying no tax. The existence of a parallel economy provides unfair competition to organised industry which pays taxes and complies with standards, according to the CII.

ND-ND

BUSINESS

18 | Hindalco Q2 net profit rises threefold to Rs.439.70 crore

U.S. banks’ post-poll rally may be a starter

NEW DELHI: Aluminium maker

Hindalco today reported an over three-fold jump in standalone net profit at Rs.439.74 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2016.

The flagship firm of the Aditya Birla Group had posted a net profit of Rs.123.46 crore in the year-ago period, it said in a BSE filing.

Total standalone income of the company was almost flat at Rs.9,561.91 crore in the July-September quarter this fiscal against Rs.9,561.22 crore during the same quarter in 2015-16.

Its total expenses were lower at Rs.8,757.13 crore from Rs.9,245.48 crore during the period under review.

The company said its Board has approved raising of long term finance by way of public or private oferings through equity or equitylinked instruments of up to Rs 5,000 crore. — PTI

R-Infra net profit increases 34% SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT MUMBAI: Reliance Infrastruc-

ture’s second-quarter net profit rose 34 per cent to Rs.570.5 crore. Its total income, however, fell eight per cent to Rs.6,973 crore due to exceptional gains arising out of sale of its cement assets.

“The company after discussions with Dassault Aviation executed contract worth Rs. 30,000 crore for fighter jets,” said R-Infra’s CEO Lalit Jalan. “Reliance Infra was one of two companies to get clearance for shipyards.”

It has also signed agreements with Adani Transmission to sell three of its transmission assets, valued at Rs.2,000 crore, he said.

Centre’s survey to collect data on firms’ assets, liabilities

NEW YORK: The U.S. banking

sector’s dramatic rally post Election Day is likely just a taste of bigger gains to come, as investors expect banks to reap huge benefits from rising interest rates and lighter regulation under a Donald Trump presidency.

In recent years, bank stocks have been held back by heavy regulation and historically low interest rates which have sapped the earnings potential of their massive cash holdings.

But optimism about the sector’s outlook is growing.

Interest rates are rising and investors are betting that Trump will follow through on his campaign promise to review the increased number of regulations put on the banking system after it nearly keeled over in the 2008 financial crisis.

The S&P 500 bank subsector rose 10.2 percent in the three days following Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential election. This was the index’s best threeday performance since August 2009.

In those three days, Wells Fargo Co shares rose 13.6 percent, JPMorgan Chase & Co climbed 9.5 percent and Bank of America gained 11.9 percent.

Some investors and analysts watching banks say the stocks are likely not near the end of their run.

“They are not close to being expensive yet,” said Peter Kenny, senior market strategist at Global Markets Advisory Group in New York.

The S&P 500 banks are currently trading at about 11.2 times forward earnings estimates as a group, up from about nine times in February,

City Union Bank profit climbs by 15 per cent

TRUMP CARD: Banks may reap gains from higher interest rates, lighter regulation during a Trump presidency. — FILE PHOTO: REUTERS when the index hit its lowest since May 2013.

Valuation is still well of peak levels of over 33 times earnings estimates in May of 2009, though it trades near levels seen between 2002 and 2008, before many current regulations were put in place.

Bank valuations If rates continue to rise and the Trump administration gives some clarity on how regulations will change, then bank valuations “certainly can move higher,” Piper Jafray analyst Kevin Baker said.

Baker stopped short of giving a specific P/E estimate but he pointed to the higher valuations of banks that are not designated as systemically important financial institutions, commonly referred to as “too big to fail".

Today, the minimum asset threshold for too-big-to-fail designated banks is $50 billion. If this threshold is lifted to $250 billion in a regulatory overhaul it would give a lot more flexibility that could likely boost valuations of

banks operating in that range, Mr. Baker said.

Valuations for too-big-tofail designated banks are at around 12.5 times forward earnings compared with multiples of 13 to 15 for banks outside of this category, according to Mr. Baker.

Economic growth Ed Keon, managing director and portfolio manager of QMA, a multi-asset manager owned by Prudential Financial, said he has been buying into the Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund, the ETF that tracks the S&P financial sector, in the last couple of weeks.

He is betting on higher interest rates and a pick-up in economic growth.

The potential for lighter regulation added to his enthusiasm for the sector. “Of course, no one yet knows exactly what policy changes will occur and exactly how much they will help profits, but I think the benefit might be solid enough that I am maintaining my overweight holdings in the sector,” Mr. Keon said. — Reuters

NEW DELHI: The Centre on

November 7 notified the holding of annual survey of industries for 2015-16, which will collect data on assets and liabilities, employment and labour cost, receipts and expenses of companies, among other information.

The exercise is expected to be completed by June 2017.

While the Annual Survey of Industries (ASI) is a regular feature since 1959, the latest edition which might be released towards the end of next year would feature these new elements.

It would be conducted nationwide except the State of Jammu & Kashmir where it will be undertaken under the J&K Collection of Statistics Act, 2010 and J&K Collection of Statistics Rules, 2012.

Information is required to be furnished for the Financial Year commencing from April 2015 and ending on March 31 2016 or for the Accounting Year of a unit ending on any date between April 2015 and March 2016.

The part one of the 2015-16 survey , would throw light on assets and liabilities, employment and labour cost, receipts, expenses, input items – indigenous and imported, products and byproducts, distributive expenses of the registered industries.

The second part would focus on diferent aspects of labour statistics, namely, working days, man-days worked, absenteeism, labour turnover, man-hours worked, earning and social security benefits.

The inspectors would have access to business records of a unit, or any other legal document in support of the information furnished by the unit may be inspected by the statistics oicer.

Kirloskar Oil Engines aims to double its overseas presence

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

ket, said they successfully completed 30,000 installations of high horse power gensets and one million installations of all gensets produced till date.

N. ANAND CHENNAI: City Union Bank

Ltd., (CUB) standalone net profit rose by 15 per cent to Rs.123.76 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, 2016, due to decent growth in net interest income. The bank had reported net profit of Rs.107.84 crore for the corresponding year-ago period.

During the period under review, net interest income rose by 25.45 per cent to Rs.301.21 crore against Rs.240.10 crore and net interest margin stood at 4.20 per cent and return on assets were at 1.50 per cent.

Deposits of the bank increased by 11 per cent to Rs.28,393 crore from Rs.25,616 crore and advances went up by 17 per cent to Rs.22,215 crore from Rs.18,935 crore. There was a slippage in gross non-performing assets to 2.69 per cent from 2.01 per cent. Net NPA fell to 1.63 per cent from 1.36 per cent.

Briefing reporters, N. Ka-

N. Kamakodi makodi, CUB MD and CEO said there have been slippages in gross and net NPAs since last year. When compared on sequential basis, it was only four basis points. It was mainly due to steel sector lending.

“We achieved Rs.50,000 crore in total business in the second quarter. We were able to put in a consistent performance with steady increase in deposits and advances. We were able to maintain our assets quality though the atmosphere was not so conducive. We are looking at achieving 15-18 per cent growth for the current fiscal,” he said.

CHENNAI: Pune -based Kirloskar Oil Engines Ltd., (KOEL), the flagship company of the Kirloskar group, has drawn up plans to become an international company through its products and after sales service, said a top oicial.

Called the Vision 2025, KOEL wants to have significant presence in 60 countries from the present 30. Currently, the company has sizeable presence in the international markets including the U.S., Middle East and Africa.

Recently, KOEL opened office in the U.S. and is in the process opening one in Indonesia.

“Last year, we earned Rs.200 crore through exports and our target is to reach Rs.1,000 crore by 2025,” said Sanjeev M. Nimkar, KOEL vice President and Business Head (Power, Industrial and Service).

“Though, we thought of achieving Rs.500 crore in two years, it has been revised

Sanjeev M. Nimkar due to the ongoing oil crisis in the Arab countries. We might touch Rs.500 crore in nine years, but it is possible to do Rs.1,000 crore too.”

KOEL manufactures diesel engines, agricultural pumpsets and generating sets through four units located in Pune, Nashik, Rajkot and Maharashtra.

It has an annual production capacity of 2.20 lakh and it will be increased to five lakhs by 2025.

Mr. Nimkar, who was in the city to announce introduction of new range of gensets for the Indian mar-

THE HINDU SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2016

Wages of jute, tea workers hit on notes ban, say industries SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT KOLKATA: Two traditional east-

B. MURALIDHAR REDDY

Post-election the S&P 500 bank sub-sector rose 10.2%

NOIDA/DELHI

Product portfolio “In 18 months time, we will strengthen our product portfolio with the introduction of four more high horse power gensets of 1250, 1550, 1850 and 2000 kVA. These products will be manufactured at our Nashik plant. With that, we will have a product line spanning from 30 to 2000 kVA range of gensets,” he said.

The company has a market share of 33 per cent, he said.

Last year KOEL posted a revenue of Rs.2,500 crore and hopes to touch Rs.12,000 crore by 2025.

KOEL also announced its foray into the 750, 910 and 1010 kVA range of gensets for the Indian market. With these additions, KOEL now ofers a wide range of products starting from 2 kVA to 1010 kVA diesel gensets.

ern region industries — jute and tea — are facing problems over the demonetisation move of the Centre, which they say is impacting wage disbursals.

They have appealed to the RBI and the state governments, seeking their intervention in the matter. The two sectors taken together make weekly cash payments to nearly five lakh workers.

While the tea garden workers are scattered over the tea growing areas of North Bengal, the jute workers are concentrated in the south Bengal districts and the industry is fearing a law and order problem in case of an issue over wage payments. Aside from the problem due to demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, a November 8 notification limiting weekly cash withdrawal to Rs.20,000 till November 24, 2016 is creating problems for both the industries.

“In view of the provisions, it will not be possible for the jute mills ( around 90) to pay

CASH SHORTAGE: The two sectors taken together make weekly cash payments to nearly five lakh workers. — FILE PHOTO wages to the 2.5 lakh workers.” the director general of Indian Jute Mills Association S. Majumdar said in his representation to the Regional Director, RBI. This amounts to around Rs.270 crores monthly.

Industrial unrest The issue has been flagged by the IJMA chairman Raghavendra Gupta before the State Finance Minister and the Labour Minister.

There are increasing fears of industrial unrest in the jute mill areas if the situation lingers beyond November 21,

the next scheduled day of fortnightly payment.

The tea industry has appealed to the RBI and the CM seeking their intervention.

The Tea Association of India said that while it welcomes the move, it is facing practical diiculties in meeting its wage payment obligations to the workers in the tea estates. They too are fearing law and order problems in Assam and West Bengal on this account. The tea industry makes weekly payments amounting to around Rs. 90 crores to the workers in Assam and West Bengal.

Expansion of network, product-mix pays of for Britannia in U.P., Bihar INDRANI DUTTA KOLKATA: A strategy of increas-

ing its distribution-network coupled with an appropriate product-mix has enabled biscuit major Britannia Industries Ltd to penetrate the Hindi heartland, where the company had a weak presence.

“We now have a double-digit share – around 14 per cent-- in these markets, against the single-digit share that the company had had two years back ,” Varun Berry, BIL managing director

Varun Berry said, adding that it would like to see it increase to 25 per cent.

Penetration of markets in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bi-

har, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat is also in alignment with BIL’s plans of tapping the rural markets in a big way.

“Our go-to-market strategy, which entails widening our distribution network through a focus on direct reach, rural market and weak states have helped us outpace the market,” he said. Th company has ofered a whole bouquet of products staring from mass-based products like Marie but also including Good Day and some premium products.

Ashok Leyland Q2 net jumps by 71% SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT CHENNAI: Ashok Leyland’s net profit rose 71 per cent to Rs.294.41 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, 2016.

The company had posted a net profit of Rs.172.21 crore in the same period a year ago.

During the year under review, the company’s total income from operations fell seven per cent to Rs.4,911.62

crore against Rs.5274.37 crore. Exports grew by 34 per cent to 3,202 units.

“Total medium and heavy commercial vehicle industry volume for second quarter witnessed a reduction of 14 per cent from 77,249 units to 66,592 units,” said Gopal Mahadevan, Ashok Leyland Chief Financial Oicer.

“Consequently, our volumes were also lower in the second quarter. Despite this,

overall revenues were only lower by seven per cent.

While we will pursue growth, we would want to do it profitability.”

Mr. Mahadevan said profits rose due to a 34 per cent growth in export volumes, defence supplies and spare parts business.

During the quarter, Ashok Leyland’s market share of trucks fell by 1.1 per cent to 31.9 per cent.

Consumer drones stall as commercial markets beckon SAN FRANCISCO: The fledgling

drone industry is in the throes of change as weak consumer demand and falling prices drive start-ups to shift their focus to specialized business applications.

3D Robotics — an early drone start-up that raised more than$125 million from investors — has seen its consumer business all but crash.

This week, it unveiled a new commercial strategy, announcing a cameraequipped drone with imaging software designed for construction companies.

GoPro Inc. this week announced a recall of about 2,500 drones for a refund after just a couple of weeks on the market — some units had sudden power outages — and didn’t say when it would ofer a replacement product. Europe’s Zano, which made mini-drones for consumers, shut down last year.

While many dronemakers overestimated demand from hobbyists, they CM YK

SERVICES PLAY: The smart money is now in being able to use drones to deliver services. — FILE PHOTO: AP now see big opportunities selling to businesses under newly relaxed U.S. regulations.

Beyond flying robots, investors and entrepreneurs see especially strong prospects in software and services that can make aerial imaging useful for industries including insurance, construction, agriculture and entertainment.

Companies including Amazon.com Inc. and Zipline, a drone start-up, are also aggressively developing drones for delivery.

China’s DJI Most start-ups vying to sell consumer drones, often used for racing or photography, have been stung by China-based DJI. The company has dominated by

slashing prices. DJI discounted its popular Phantom 3 drone, for instance, to about $300 from nearly $1,000 at the beginning of the year.

3D Robotics took a beating after releasing its Solo consumer drone last year for about $1,500, said co-founder and CEO Chris Anderson.

“It’s no fun watching prices fall by 70 percent in 9 months,” Mr. Anderson said, referring to DJI’s price-cutting.

After shuttering warehouses and factories and laying of scores of employees, Berkeley-based 3D Robotics has all but scrapped its consumer business, Anderson said, despite having a backlog of drones sitting on Best Buy stores shelves. They now sell for one-third of their original price.

The chill is being felt widely. Venture capital financing for drone companies fell 59 percent in the third quarter, to $55 million from $134 million in the previous year, according to data re-

search firm CB Insights. The drop reflects a widespread funding slump across the tech sector but also heightened caution about drone companies.

Any new company trying to compete with DJI on consumer drones would have “an extraordinarily diicult argument to make” to venture capitalists, said Rory O’Driscoll, a partner at Scale Venture Partners.

“Consumers buy drones, and it’s a disposable item,” he said. “They play with it, and then they are done.”

DJI, which eclipses many Silicon Valley start-ups with a workforce of 6,000, began making commercial drones and pursuing software development more than a year ago.

“Four years ago, it was enough to take something out of a box, you push a button and it flies,” said Adam Lisberg, DJI spokesman for North America. “The smart money is now in drone services.” — Reuters ND-ND

| 19

SPORT

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2016

Sanchez replaces Poyet

Telecast schedule Australia vs South Africa: 2nd Test, STAR Sports 2 & HD 2, 5 a.m.; India vs England: 1st Test: STAR Sports 1, 3 & HD 1 & 3, 9.30 a.m.; ISL: STAR Sports 1, 2, 3 & HD 1, 2 & 3, 6.50 p.m.; World Tour Finals: Sony ESPN & Sony ESPN HD, 7.30 p.m.; F1: Brazilian GP: STAR Sports Select HD 2, 9.30 p.m.; WC Qualifiers: Sony Six & Sony Six HD, 10.30 p.m.; NBA: Sony Six & Sony Six HD, 5.30 a.m. (Monday)

쑺

Gustavo Poyet has been sacked by struggling Spanish outfit Real Betis after just 11 games and replaced by Victor Sanchez del Amo

Struggle against swing 쑺

For us we have just got to be better. It’s a case of when the ball is swinging we struggle — Australia coach Darren Lehmann on the first day’s play

Ashwin’s half-century ensures India narrows the gap

Rohit undergoes surgery

CRICKET / The England openers, however, power their team to 163 ahead at close of play; a final-day victory push is not out of bounds G. VISWANATH RAJKOT: When R. Ashwin came up with another splendid halfcentury on Saturday afternoon, it did not appear that there was any demon in the pitch, contrary to the supposition that it would turn square and play tricks.

India’s frontline spinner did not have a particularly profitable outing on the first two

days, but with willow in hand he looked a batsman from the top draw.

And after Ashwin holed out to Zafar Ansari at deep midwicket of of-spinner Moeen Ali for a well-made 70 — a dismissal that brought an end to a good efort by the Indians to get close to England’s 537 — Alastair Cook (46 bating) and Haseeb Hameed (62 batting) forged a confident opening partnership, using the lead of 49 runs as a launch pad.

With left-arm spinner

dian captain (and 20th player) to be dismissed hit-wicket; the first one was Lala Amarnath, in 1949 against the West Indies.

India slipped from a stable position and it was a grind thereafter for Ashwin and Wriddhiman Saha, occupation of the crease becoming paramount.

The stumper, who took a blow to the back of his head while ducking a Chris Woakes short ball, tried to speed things

Ravindra Jadeja unable to tease and taunt the left-right opening combination, skipper Virat Kohli turned to his seamers Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav to choke the runs with defensive fields. The question now, after 12 sessions of play, is whether the nature of the surface will change dramatically on the last day.

If anyone among the three Indian spinners could have hoped for encouragement from the pitch, it had to be the wrist-spinner Amit Mishra.

There were areas to be exploited just around the righthander’s on-side and the lefthander’s of-side. Jadeja saw a few balls fly past the close-in fielders, but was not really able to conjure up anything.

Desperate measure It seemed quite a desperate measure when Ashwin persuaded Kohli to review a legbefore appeal against Hameed that was turned down by umpire Chris Gafaney. The DRS proved that the Indians were wrong in their judgement.

The Test has entered a stage where England can push for victory by bringing an end to its second innings at some point around lunch time on Sunday. It would probably look to set a target of over 300 and hope its spinners Moeen, Ansari and Adil Rashid deliver.

England will certainly go for the jugular by surrounding the batsmen with a leg-trap and a strong close-in field on the ofside. Cook will also rely on re-

ODD DISMISSAL: Virat Kohli disturbs the base of the leg-stump to become a hit-wicket victim. verse swing from the seamers.

It was an eventful fourth day, with India losing Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane in a manner that both would regret because their departure diminished India’s chances of taking

the lead. After putting up a stout defence for 40 minutes, Rahane misjudged the length from Ansari and was not in any position to play the shot he was aiming for and was bowled of his front pad.

RAJKOT: M. Vijay said he doesn’t

want to talk about a potential outcome to the first Test here, but added that the pitch is still a good one.

“It’s a pretty good wicket, but it’s gone slower. There’s lot of assistance to the spinners now. Hopefully, we can put some pressure in the morning session and get a few wickets and then you never

know. Our intention would be to take wickets rather than wait for what England will do.

We have a very interesting game ahead,” said Vijay.

He acknowledged the efort of R. Ashwin and Wriddhiman Saha after the exit of Ajinkya Rahane and Virat Kohli.

“Their partnership was crucial. They have been doing this job for a while now; from the West Indies tour onwards.

It was good to see Saha and

Time to step up UTHRA GANESAN GURGAON: As the new president

of the International Hockey Federation (FIH), Narinder Batra insists there will be no undue favours for India or Asia. At the same time, he told The Hindu from Dubai, that regardless of whether he holds an oicial post or not, he would continue to be associated with Indian hockey in future.

How does it feel to be the first Indian head of an Olympic sport?

It's humbling to know that people trust me, it's an honour to put India on the world sporting administration map and it's a huge responsibility to make sure that, as an Indian, I do better than ever before and make the country proud.

You have to be a nutcase in India to leave cricket and concentrate on hockey administration, but I love the game.

What made you take the plunge and move from domestic to international hockey administration?

Actually, I hadn't planned CM YK

this. (Outgoing president) Leandro Negre has done good work with the FIH and my support was with him. But, because he could not contest a third term due to the constitution of the federation, I decided to try my hand.

I’ve tried to make Indian hockey strong. Now it's time to step up.

As FIH president, what would be your first plan of action?

I have some ideas specially about the marketing and popularisation of the sport. I feel hockey has a lot of potential that needs to be harnessed properly.

You may not see any drastic changes immediately, but the revenues will definitely grow.

What happens to the Hockey India president's post now?

I have to relinquish that, no doubt. But, I think Indian hockey is now in a good place and will continue to grow.

The HI constitution provides for elevation of someone from within the Board to the presidency after a special general body meeting is called and ratifies the same.

Ashwin put up vital partnership; every time we have been in a tricky situation, they have got us out.”

Talking of the England spinners he said: “They are pretty good bowlers, that’s why they are in the team. Obviously, we have got to give them due respect. At the same time we have to be confident in our skill sets and execute that at a level where we are comfortable, not allowing them to

settle in their line and length.

That was the key for us. Myself and Pujara were trying to execute that while batting.”

England leg-spinner Adil Rashid feels there is a possibility of all three results to the Test: an England win, India win and a draw.

“I think all three are possible. There’s still a lot of cricket to be played. First we got to come out, get the runs on the board and see what position we are at lunch time. If we are in a good position, we might just give it a bowl and see what happens.”

Taking his second consecutive four-wicket haul in six Test matches, Rashid said: “Obviously, the more you play, the more you are comfortable. I’ve been working more on setting fields, the kind of game-plans to get batsmen out in these conditions. Obviously, the pace is the key, the pace which I’m comfortable at and the pace where I can spin the ball, is the most crucial [thing].

What’s important is trying to find out the pace that spins the most and gives the batsmen trouble. Sometimes it can be slower, quicker depending on the wicket and the player. I’m just doing that.”

Rashid also talked about the Virat Kohli wicket. “Probably, when Jonny Bairstow first pointed at the stumps, we all looked and Virat was in a bit of shock that he stood on his wicket. It’s a good feeling for us. That was my first hitwicket scalp.”

Then, Kohli, who looked to be batting with supreme confidence, went too far back in his crease and disturbed the base of leg-stump with his back foot to be out hit-wicket.

Kohli became the second In-

Vineeth magic lifts Blasters Kerala Blasters 3 (Kadio 67, C.K. Vineeth 85 & 89) bt Chennaiyin FC 1 (Bernard Mendy 22).

STAN RAYAN KOCHI: C.K. Vineeth’s two moments of magic in a four-minute spell late in the second half helped Kerala Blasters jolt defending champion Chennaiyin FC 3-1 and move to the second spot in the Indian Super League at the Nehru Stadium here on Saturday.

Three goals from two games!

Vineeth’s sparkling play showed what Steve Coppell’s Blasters had been missing. The 28-year-old from Kannur, who had helped Bengaluru FC to the final of the recent AFC Cup, was all anticipation and reflexes as he produced the two goals which left Chennaiyin breathless.

Beauty of a goal Vineeth’s first goal, in the 85th minute, was a beauty.

Blasters’ Spanish defender Josu Currias Prieto attempted a curling long-ranger from the left which goalkeeper Duwayne Kerr stretched to push back in. And even as defender Jerry Lalrinzuala put out a leg to thwart the danger, the Kerala star, who was lurking close by, scored with a lovely side-volley.

Vineeth was at it again four

Batra elected FIH president SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT Narinder Dhruv Batra on Saturday became the first Indian to head the international federation of an Olympic sport after being voted president of the International Hockey Federation (FIH) at the 45th FIH Congress in Dubai.

Batra polled 68 of the 118 eligible votes in the threecorner election for a near majority, defeating Ireland’s David Balbirnie (29) and Australia's Ken Read (13), both long-time FIH members.

It was the culmination of months of criss-crossing the world, garnering support for an Asian to lead the administration that has been dominated by Europeans.

While Indians have headed international federations before — N. Ramachandran was president of the World Squash Federation for two terms while several Indians have been presidents of the ICC — this is the first time an Indian has taken charge of an

Rohit Sharma. — Credit: @ImRo45 (Twitter) NEW DELHI: India batsman Rohit Sharma has undergone a successful surgery on his right thigh in London and is recovering well, the BCCI said on Saturday.

“The medical team of the BCCI confirms that India batsman Rohit Sharma underwent a surgery on his right thigh on Friday, November 11, 2016, in London. The procedure was successful and Rohit will be discharged from the hospital in the next 24 hours,” the Board said in a statement.

Rohit also tweeted that the surgery had gone well and put up a picture of himself on the hospital bed.

“All went well. Thank you for your good wishes. Can’t wait to be back at it,” he said on his Twitter handle. — PTI

Trump efect at World championship?

— PHOTO: K.R. DEEPAK

An interesting day ahead, says Vijay SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

up and the outcome was a 64run stand that ended with Saha cutting Moeen into his counterpart’s hands.

Ashwin was not required to bat in six innings of the preceding seven home Test matches, with India dominating South Africa and New Zealand, but when called upon in the first session after India had saved the follow-on, he appeared ready and took the India innings till tea-time, in the company of the tail.

TURNING IT AROUND: C.K. Vineeth scored two goals, in the space of four minutes, to help Kerala Blasters garner full points against Chennaiyin. — PHOTO: H. VIBHU minutes later, picking up a long ball from German and shooting into the right corner from just outside the box as Kerr watched in agony.

But it was Chennaiyin, punished 4-1 by Delhi Dynamos just three days ago, which looked the stronger side in the opening session. The visitors maintained discipline in formation and Blasters, playing in front of nearly 55,000 wildly cheering spectators, could do little to disturb this.

It did not take long for Chennaiyin captain Bernard Mendy to realise that the left lane was the best road to the goal.

And an unmarked Mendy gave the visitors the lead in the 22nd minute after a free run on the left. Defender Pratik Chaudhary had moved upfront and desperately tried to chase Mendy. But the Frenchman was quicker, he ran into the box and his shot deflected of central defender Sandesh Jhingan and moved into the far

corner of the net. Goalkeeper Graham Stack could do nothing.

Soon, it was clear that Kadio’s presence was the disruptive force that Blasters were looking for this evening, after the exit of the lively forward Kervens Belfort with an injury a few minutes before the half-hour mark. Kadio, the Ivory Coast player, kept the Chennaiyin defence guessing.

And it was Kadio who brought Blasters’ equaliser in the 67th minute. German, a leading scorer last season who had come in for the injured Belfort, sneaked in through the left and as defender Filho attempted to cut out the space, the Englishman quickly slid the ball to Kadio who tapped it home to the delight of the crowd. And some 20 minutes later came the Vineeth magic which turned the match sharply around.

Kerala now has 15 points while Chennaiyin stays in the seventh spot with 10.

NEW YORK: There had been a lot of speculation about Magnus Carlsen’s choice of opening for the first game against Sergey Karjakin in the final of the World chess championship here.

The two-time World champion from Norway came up with a big surprise at Fulton Market Building on Friday.

And a funny one at that.

He opened with the Trompowsky Attack, which is also sometimes called the Tromp. It is an opening which is not often played at the highest level and he chose it at a time when Donald Trump has won a hard-fought election to become the new President of the United States.

Carlsen’s father Henrik, who taught him the game, said that he was fairly sure that Magnus must have played it as a practical joke. “He’s been in a good mood lately,” he said.

Later, the World champion expectedly had to face a question about his opening. “So the opening had nothing to do with Donald Trump?” he was asked.

“A little bit,” Carlsen said.

When he was asked the same question at the press meet, he smilingly said he would not have played the opening if he had known there would be so many questions about it.

His Russian opponent did not have too much trouble in the game, though. The game was drawn in 42 moves, after reaching a rook-and-minorpiece ending.

Eleven more games, in the classical time control, remain.

If it is a tie after all those games, the crown will be decided by a tie-breaker featuring rapid and blitz games on November 30. — Sports Bureau

India-Pak. issues resolved: Batra GURGAON: With India-

GURGAON:

ON TOP: Hockey India president Narinder Batra becomes the first Indian to head the international body of an Olympic sport.

— FILE PHOTO

Olympic sport.

The election, in a way, is the culmination of Batra's ambitions of not only putting Indian hockey on the world stage on the field but also making it a power centre of it.

For long, Batra has insisted that given the popularity, financial clout and spread that Indian hockey enjoys, it should be a leader in terms of decision-making as well.

“If India helps hockey survive, it should get its due,” he

had said.

Despite his almost twodecade long association with the sport as president of Jammu & Kashmir hockey, Batra first came into the spotlight in 2005 after challenging the might of K.P.S. Gill as the erstwhile Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) president.

He had questioned Gill's decisions, opposed his flouting of the federation constitution and sought financial auditing.

Pakistan relations strained for some time now, newly-elected FIH president Narinder Batra has said all issues between the two countries in hockey have been sorted out.

India and Pakistan have not played against each other except in FIH events since Dec. 2014 after Pakistan players misbehaved with the crowd in Bhubaneswar during the Champions Trophy.

“As Hockey India president, we have met with our Pakistan counterparts. We met yesterday and all old issues have been resolved now. There are no pending problems between us, everything has been sorted,” he said.

— Special Correspondent

ND-ND

20 |

SPORT

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2016

Philander skittles out Australia CRICKET / Starc strikes back to keep the hosts interested HOBART: Mitchell Starc ofered Australia a lifeline with an inspired spell after a record low home total against South Africa on an opening day of carnage in the second Test in Hobart on Saturday.

The left-arm paceman put the brakes on the Proteas with three wickets in 10 balls posttea after the Australians were skittled out for 85.

The tourists reached stumps at 171 for five and a lead of 86.

Temba Bavuma was unbeaten on 38 with Quinton de Kock on 28. Up until Starc’s intervention South Africa had seized control of the first day with a total of 15 wickets tumbling for a combined 256 runs under cloudy skies.

Vernon Philander powered the Proteas with five for 21 as Australia folded for its lowest total at home against South Africa to revive memories of recent catastrophic batting collapses. Only skipper Steve Smith provided any backbone with his unbeaten knock of 48.

The capitulation revisited the nightmares of its miserable 47

SCOREBOARD

in Cape Town in 2011 and England’s demolition for 60 at Trent Bridge last year.

David Warner was the barometer of an approaching Australian maelstrom when he recklessly whooshed at a wide ball in Philander’s opening over and was caught behind.

Things only got worse in Kyle Abbott’s following over when recalled Joe Burns was trapped leg before wicket.

The Australians reached lunch at 43 for six after Usman Khawaja edged Philander to Amla at slip for four and

threatened Adam Voges was out next ball, caught behind by Quinton de Kock.

Philander was forced of the field for shoulder treatment after a mid-pitch collision with Smith during a lbw appeal, but returned after lunch.

He bowled newcomer Joe Mennie for 10 and Duminy took a screamer in the gully to remove Starc, flinging himself to his right of Abbott. de Kock took a blinding one-handed catch across the slips cordon to remove Nathan Lyon and end Australia’s misery. — Agencies

Australia — 1st innings : J. Burns lbw b Abbott 1, D. Warner c de Kock b Philander 1, U. Khawaja c Amla b Philander 4, S. Smith (not out) 48, A. Voges c de Kock b Philander 0, C. Ferguson run out 3, P. Nevill lbw b Rabada 3, J. Mennie b Philander 10, M. Starc c Duminy b Abbott 4, J. Hazlewood c Amla b Abbott 8, N. Lyon c de Kock b Philander 2; Extras (lb-1) 1; Total (in 32.5 overs): 85.

Fall of wickets : 1-2, 2-2, 3-8, 4-8, 5-17, 6-31, 7-59, 8-66, 9-76.

South Africa bowling : Philander 10.1-5-21-5, Abbott 12.4-3-41-3, Rabada 6-0-20-1, Maharaj 4-2-2-0.

South Africa — 1st innings : S. Cook c Nevill b Starc 23, D. Elgar lbw b Starc 17, H. Amla c Nevill b Hazlewood 47, J-P Duminy c Smith b Starc 1, F. du Plessis lbw b Hazlewood 7, T. Bavuma (batting) 38, Q. de Kock (batting) 28; Extras (b-3, lb-6, nb-1) 10; Total (for five wkts. in 55 overs): 171.

Fall of wickets : 1-43, 2-44, 3-46, 4-76, 5-132.

Australia bowling : Starc 15-049-3, Hazlewood 16-7-36-2, Mennie 14-1-47-0, Lyon 10-1-30-0.

Toss : South Africa.

HIGH-FLYER: Quinton de Kock at full tilt, Nathan Lyon the victim. — PHOTO: REUTERS

Azad seeks Administrator to run DDCA’s afairs SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT NEW DELHI: Armed with proof gained through the Right To Information Act (RTI), former Test all-rounder Kirti Azad on Saturday demanded the appointment of an Administrator to run the afairs of the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA).

In a letter to the Lodha Committee secretary, Gopal Sankaranarayanan, Azad, who is also a Member Of Parliament, said, “I have received information from the ROC's (Registrar Of Companies) office (and from) the contents it is quite clear that ROC has not granted any extension to DDCA in the matter of holding its AGM (Annual General Meeting).”

Azad stated, “Further, DDCA has not deposited their Balance Sheets to ROC after 2012-13.

“Technically, all the Directors are now in default and

as per provisions of law, prosecution proceedings should have begun against all the responsible oice bearers for not having submitted audited accounts.”

Provisions of Section 137 Referring to the provisions of Section 137 of the Companies Act, 2013, Azad insisted, “They have been breached so brazenly by DDCA oice bearers.

“From a plain reading of Section 137, it is obvious that the DDCA has failed to file the copy of the financial statements under sub-section (1) or sub-section (2), before the expiry of the period specified in section 403, and hence is punishable with a fine of one thousand rupees for every day during which the failure has continued but which shall not be more than ten lakh rupees.”

Azad continued, “The Secretary/President (cor-

responding managing director and the Chief Financial Oicer of the company), shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to six months or with fine which shall not be less than one lakh rupees but which may extend to five lakh rupees, or with both.”

In view of the establishment of guilt of all oicebearers of DDCA, Azad claimed, “In not having filed Balance Sheets, they now have no locus standi to continue as oice bearers in DDCA. “As it is, every oice bearer has ceased to be an oice bearer, since their tenures have already expired.

“Now with prosecutions imminent, you are requested to kindly help in getting an administrator appointed to carry on the administration of DDCA, without causing disruption of cricketing activities in Delhi.”

FOOTBALL

England beats Scotland PARIS: England shrugged aside

the potential ramifications of sanctions over poppy emblems on Friday with a 3-0 Wembley win over Scotland to bring a 2018 World Cup berth a step closer.

A trio of headers from Liverpool pair Daniel Sturridge and Adam Lallana and Chelsea’s Gary Cahill saw interim coach Gareth Southgate’s side cruise home, the win consolidating England’s leadership of Group ‘F’ as it made it 10 points from four games.

For Southgate the three points was a welcome boost after a nervous draw in its previous outing in Slovenia, aiding his chances of taking the post full time.

Slovenia stayed in touch just two points behind the leader after edging Malta 1-0 away while Slovakia is two points further back after whipping Lithuania 4-0.

The Scot meanwhile now trails England by six points, its hopes of snatching a place in

the finals in Russia seemingly at an end as coach Gordon Strachan hangs on to his job by his fingernails.

Reigning World champion Germany gave no quarter to Group ‘C’ minnow San Marino with debutant Serge Gnabry helping himself to a hat-trick in an 8-0 rout in Serravalle.

Sami Khedira bagged the first on seven minutes and then Gnabry added a quickfire second before Jonas Hector bagged a brace, his second coming in between Gnabry’s second and third strikes.

A Mattia Stefanelli own goal made it seven and Kevin Volland put the icing on the cake as Germany made it four wins in four.

Elsewhere, the Group E match between Romania and Poland in Bucharest was briefly halted after a firecracker thrown from the stands went of near visiting forward Robert Lewandowski.

The results: Europe : Group A: France 2 (Pogba 57, Payet 65) bt

Sweden 1 (Forsberg 54); Group C: Czech Republic 2 (Krmencik 11, Zmrhal 47) bt Norway 1 (King 86); Northern Ireland 4 (Lafferty 27, McAuley 40, McLaughlin 66, Brunt 83) bt Azerbaijan 0; San Marino 0 lost to Germany 8 (Khedira 7, Gnabry 9, 58, 76, Hector 32, 65, Stefanelli 82-og, Volland 85); Group E: Armenia 3 (A. Grigoryan 50, Haroyan 74, Ghazaryan 90+4) bt Montenegro 2 (Kojasevic 36, Jovetic 38); Romania 0 lost to Poland 3 (Grosicki 11, Lewandowski 82, 90+1-pen); Denmark 4 (Cornelius 15, Eriksen 36-pen, 90+2, Ankersen 78) bt Kazakhstan 1 (Suyumbayev 17); Group F: England 3 (Sturridge 24, Lallana 50, Cahill 61) bt Scotland 0; Slovakia 4 (Nemec 12, Kucka 15, Skrtel 36, Hamsik 86) bt Lithuania 0; Malta 0 lost to Slovenia 1 (Verbic 47).

CONCACAF : United States 1 (Wood 49) lost to Mexico 2 (Layun 20, Marquez 89); Honduras 0 lost to Panama 1 (Escobar 22); Trinidad and Tobago 0 lost to Costa Rica 2 (Bolanos 65, Matarrita 90+2).

Africa : Libya 0 lost to Tunisia 1 (Khazri 50-pen).Oceania : New Zealand 2 (Rojas 42, 72) bt New Caledonia 0. — AFP

GOLF

MOTORSPORTS

Good day sees Aditi grab sole lead

Double for Jagan Kumar, IPHS enters semifinals Sofyyan Ahamed

UTHRA GANESAN GURGAON: Aditi Ashok grew

both in confidence and stature, taking the sole lead of the leaderboard after Round Two of the 10th Women’s Indian Open here on Saturday and staying on course to become the first Indian ever to win the marquee event.

The 18-year old Aditi, who was tied ninth overnight after an ever-par first round, was one of only three players to manage a sub-70 score of the day on the par-72 course that stayed true to its reputation of being tricky and not to be taken for granted at the DLF Golf Club here.

More impressive was the fact that despite a poor start on the easier front nine, including a double bogey on the ninth, she managed to overhaul the

Aditi Ashok. deficit with birdies on five of the back nine holes, including the tricky 17th and the 18th.

“I didn’t start of that well

VARIETY

and I didn’t have a good back nine yesterday, so I was looking to improve on it today. It was really good on the back nine and I was more comfortable today. I had good chances for birdies on the front nine, I missed a few putts — the bogey putt on the ninth, a couple of birdie putts that fell short — so I feel better now,” a beaming Aditi said after the round.

Of the four overnight leaders, only Austrian Christine Wolf managed to stay around among the top contenders with a one-over score of 73 for the day for a two-day total of one-under 143 at tied second, along with defending champion Emily Krstine Pedersen of Denmark. Joint leader Anne-Lise Caudal was a stroke behind.

Local pro Vani Kapoor was the next best-placed Indian

with a two-day total of threeover 147. Only five Indians made the cut, applied at 10over 154, including amateur Diksha Dagar.

Aditi, who is also in the reckoning for the Ladies European Tour’s Rookie-of-theYear award (she is currently third), admitted that she was thinking of the same and had a couple more events after this to make the dream come true.

Leading scores (Indians unless specified): 141: Aditi Ashok (72, 69); 143: Belen Mozo (Esp, 73, 70), Emily Kristine Pedersen (Den, 71, 72), Christine Wolf (Aut, 70, 73); 144: Anne-Lise Caudal (Fra, 70, 74), Kiran Matharu (Eng, 71, 73), Kanphanitnan Muangkhumsakul (Tha, 72, 72); 145: Malene Jorgensen (Den, 72, 73), Supamas Sangchan (Tha, 72, 73), Brittany Lincicome (USA, 75, 70); 146: Stacy Keating (Aus, 74, 72), Florentyna Parker (Eng, 70, 76).

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT BENGALURU: Jagan Kumar from

Chennai (TVS Racing) and Bengaluru’s Sofyyan Ahamed (Quick Shift Racing) secured a double each in the first round of the MMSC FMSCI National Drag Racing Championship at the Taneja Aerospace facility near here on Saturday.

Jagan, riding a TVS RTR Apache, clocked 14.250 seconds for the 400-metre sprint in the ‘Up to 165cc’ class, finishing ahead of K.Y. Ahmed. Later, he claimed top spot in the Indian Open class too with a time of 13.484, which was the quickest in the National Championship category.

Also achieving a double was Sofyyan Ahamed, who topped in the 360cc and 225cc classes of

the National Championship.

The championship concludes on Sunday, when the superbikes and cars compete.

Provisional results (National Championship — all 4-Stroke): Indian Open: 1. Jagan Kumar 13.484s; 2.

Ashwin Kumar 13.707; 3. Aiyaz 13.723.

Up to 550cc: 1. Zaker Baig 13.689; 2. Aiyaz 13.725; 3. Anantharaj 13.946.

Up to 360cc: 1. Sofyyan Ahamed 15.410; 2. R. Avinash 15.944; 3. Abdul Hafeez 17.130.

Up to 225cc: 1. Sofyyan Ahamed 15.527; 2. R. Avinash 15.831; 3. V. Harsha 16.604.

Up to 165cc: 1. Jagan Kumar 14.250; 2. K.Y. Ahmed 14.385; 3. Khalid Pasha 15.796.

MMSC Drag Races (2-Stroke — winners only): Kalim Pasha (Indian Open), Attaullah Baiq (350cc), Md. Touheed (165cc), and Khalid Pasha (130cc).

CHESS

Padmini escapes Bala’s grasp; Soumya held

SU | DO | KU

RAKESH RAO NEW DELHI: Usually, in a game

TODAY'S SOLUTION

Sudoku is a mind game and a puzzle that you solve with reasoning and logic. Fill in the grid with digits in such a manner that every row, every column and every 3x3 box accommodates the digits 1 to 9, without repeating any.

CM YK

HOCKEY

involving the leader and the lowest-rated player in the competition, the result is easy to guess. But on Saturday, P. Bala Kannamma had the better of the exchanges before frontrunner Padmini Rout managed to escape with a draw in the ninth round of the National women’s chess championship here.

The fortuitous draw took Padmini’s tally to seven points and she maintained her onepoint lead over Soumya Swaminathan. In the third place was S. Vijayalakshmi (5.5 points), after salvaging a point, and some pride, against Eesha Karavade in the face-of involving the top two seeds.

In fact, the day proved a good one for two other veterans and former champions 37-year-old Swati Ghate and 36-year-old Nisha Mohota.

After the opening lines of Sicilian Defence, Padmini did not expect Bala to play Morra gambit. “For sometime, my position was a bit unpleasant,” admitted Padmini.

Bala, rated at 2073 as compared to Padmini’s 2374, raised visions of ending her rival’s

IN GOOD FORM: Swati Ghate defeated Mary Ann Gomes for her fourth win in five rounds. — PHOTO: RAKESH RAO unbeaten run after temporarily holding a two pawn-advantage. However, under time-pressure, Bala could not find the precise continuation.

Padmini seized the opportunity to exchange the pieces and got back her pawns before the players drew in 46 moves.

Soumya, facing Kiran Manisha Mohanty in Scandinavian Defence, was surprised when her rival traded a bishop for three pawns. Thereafter, what followed was an interesting game where both players fought hard but could not get any distinct advantage.

Eventually, Kiran forced a draw by perpetual checks.

Vijayalakshmi, with her pride bruised after sufering three defeats in the last four rounds, came out looking to beat the top seed with white pieces. She moved closer to her goal after claiming a central pawn on the 24th move in this London System game.

After a series of exchanges, Eesha struggled to check Vijayalakshmi’s extra pawn from advancing menacingly. Thereafter, a hapless Eesha resigned in an endgame involving a knight each and pawns.

Swati, having blown away promising positions in the first half of the competition, cruised to her fourth victory in five rounds. The former champion stopped three-time champion Mary Ann Gomes in Sicilian Defence to jump to the fifth spot.

Nisha, playing from white side of English Opening, managed to win again after five rounds that included three defeats. Vaishali, already playing way below expectations, crashed to her fifth loss after allowing Nisha to launch a powerful kingside attack.

Pratusha Bodda rose from the bottom of the table to overpower M. Mahalakshmi for her third victory.

The results: Ninth round: Swati Ghate (4.5) bt Mary Ann Gomes (4) in 38 moves; Soumya Swaminathan (6) drew with Kiran Manisha Mohanty (3.5) in 58 moves; Nisha Mohota (4) bt R. Vaishali (2.5) in 32 moves; M. Mahalakshmi (4) lost to Pratyusha Bodda (3.5) in 40 moves; S. Vijayalakshmi (5.5) bt Eesha Karavade (5.5) in 52 moves; P. Bala Kannamma (4) drew with Padmini Rout (7) in 46 moves.

10th-round pairings: Mary-Padmini; Eesha-Bala; Pratyusha-Vijayalakshmi; Vaishali-Mahalakshmi; Kiran-Nisha; Swati-Soumya.

NEW DELHI: Vivek Sagar and Ravi Panche scored two goals each as Indira Priyadarshini High School, Bhopal made it to the semifinals of the 45th Nehru junior hockey tournament with a 5-1 victory over St. Mary's High School, Simdega in a Group C super league match here on Saturday.

Alok Kujur scored the lone goal for the Jharkhand side at the Shivaji Stadium.

The semifinal line-up was completed by SGTB Khalsa School, Bakala, after winning its last Group D match 3-2 against Sain Dass AS School, Jalandhar, which had already qualified for the last four.

NCC Directorate thrash

Shah Satnamji Boys School, Sirsa 8-1 in Group B, while Bangladesh side BKSP managed to win its first game with a 4-2 victory over VSA SSS, Delhi.

The results: Group B: NCC 8 (Anugrah Kujur 3, Silanand Lakra 2, Nabin Kujur, Prasad Kujur, Jay Prakash Patel) bt SSBS, Sirsa 0.

Group C: IPHS, Bhopal 5 (Vivek Sagar 2, Ravi Panche 2, Mohd. Alishan) bt SMHS, Simdega 1 (Alok Kujur). Group D: SGTB Khalsa, Bakala 3 (Harmanpreet Singh, Tehal Singh, Arshdeep Singh) bt SDAS School, Jalandhar 2 (Satinder, Gurveer Singh); BKSP, Bangladesh 4 (Shohanur Sobuj 2, Rajib Das, Md. Khalilur Rahman) bt VSA, Delhi 2 (Rajeev, Sahil).

Sea Fairey fancied HYDERABAD: Sea Fairey runs with a good chance in the Chief Justice Trophy (1,200m), the main event of the races to be held here on Sunday (Nov. 13).

Rafique Sk. 52.5, 9. Star Player (6) Md. Sameeruddin 52.5 and 10. Ice Cave (4) N.S. Rathore 50.5.

1. Ice Cave, 2. Roma Rouge, 3.

Aware

1 VEGAVATHI PLATE (1,600m), maiden 3-y-o & over, rated 26 to 50 (Cat. III), 1-45 p.m.: 1.

Ashwa Ashoka (3) P. Gaddam 60, 2.

Nautanki (1) Suraj Narredu 59.5, 3.

Monte Rosa (5) A.A. Vikrant 58.5, 4.

Al Sadr (6) B.R. Kumar 56.5, 5. Magical Skill (2) B. Dileep 56.5, 6.

Darakhshan Setarah (7) Akshay Kumar 54 and 7. Green Memories (4) Aneel 54.

1. Nautanki, 2. Monte Rosa, 3.

Magical Skill

5 ELUSIVE HERO PLATE (1,100m), 5-y-o & over, rated 46 to 70 (Cat. II), 3-50: 1. Camborne (4) A.A. Vikrant 60, 2. Symbol Of Pride (5) Rafique Sk. 58.5, 3. Midnight In Paris (2) N. Rawal 58, 4.

Oathofyourdaughter (10) G. Naresh 58, 5. Vijays Triumph (6) A. Joshi 57, 6. Junior (7) B. Dileep 55.5, 7. Kohinoor Grace (1) Kunal Bunde 55, 8. Bouquet (9) Akshay Kumar 54.5, 9. Dancing Farha (8) A.S. Pawar 54.5, 10. True Pearl (3) K. Sai Kiran 54.5 and 11. Fair And Squre (11) N.S. Rathore 54.

1. Symbol Of Pride, 2. Dancing Farha, 3. Bouquet

2 NAGARJUNA SAGAR PLATE (1,100m), (Cat. II), maiden 2-y-o only (Terms), 2-15: 1. Chase Your Dreams (2) Deep Shanker 55, 2. Jumeira Express (6) Kuldeep Singh 55, 3. Divine Silver (4) G. Naresh 53.5, 4. Roma Rio (5) S. Sreekant 53.5, 5. Sharp Eye (3) P.S. Chouhan 53.5 and 6. Sweet Pistol (1) K. Sai Kiran 53.5.

1. Sharp Eye, 2. Chase Your Dreams 3 ARDENT KNIGHT PLATE (Div. I), (1,100m), 3-y-o & over, rated 26 to 50 (whips are not permitted in this race), 2-50: 1. Patron Saint (3) Koushik 61, 2. Cash Landing (2) Rafique Sk. 59.5, 3. Chinese Thought (5) A.A. Vikrant 59, 4.

King David (7) Suraj Narredu 58, 5.

Amazing Venus (4) B.R. Kumar 57, 6. Born To Do It (6) Md. Ismail 56.5, 7. Sher Afgan (9) Ajeeth Kumar 52, 8. Old Faithful (10) K. Sai Kiran 51.5 and 10. Anne Of Cleves (1) S.S. Tanwar 50.

1. King David, 2. Patron Saint, 3.

Cash Landing 4 SRINIVASA SADAGOPA SHARMA MEMORIAL CUP (1,200m), 5-y-o & over, rated 26 to 50 (Cat. III), 3-20: 1. Aware (10) Koushik 60, 2. Romantic Fire (3) G. Naresh 59.5, 3. Buckshee (2) N. Rawal 56, 4. Trustful (9) Aneel 55, 5.

Field Commander (5) Ajit Singh 54.5, 6. Roma Rouge (7) Ajeeth Kumar 53.5, 7. Globetrotter (1) A.K. Pawar 52.5, 8. Save The Nation (8)

6 CHIEF JUSTICE TROPHY (1,200m), 3-y-o & over, rated 86 & above, (Cat. I), 4-25: 1. Vijays Joy (7) Rafique Sk. 64.5, 2. Vijay Vidhata (5) Kuldeep Singh 63.5, 3.

Gaarswood (3) Koushik 61.5, 4.

Happy Guy (1) P.S. Chouhan 54.5, 5. Sea Fairey (8) Suraj Narredu 53, 6. Commanding Boy (4) Sai Kumar 52, 7. Greek Star (2) Kunal Bunde 50 and 8. Vallee Secrete (6) Akshay Kumar 50.

1. Sea Fairey, 2. Vijays Joy, 3.

Vijay Vidhata 7 ARDENT KNIGHT PLATE (Div. II), (1,100m), 3-y-o & over, rated 26 to 50 (whips are not permitted in this race), (Cat. III),5-00: 1. Bharat Queen (2) B.R. Kumar 60, 2. Seven Colours (8) Ajeeth Kumar 60, 3. Poll Promise (5) C.P. Bopanna 59.5, 4. Manoveg (7) Rafique Sk. 58.5, 5. Good Image (4) Koushik 57.5, 6. Magnum (6) Kuldeep Singh 56.5, 7. Nelly (3) Md. Ismail 54, 8. Bouncer (10) Kunal Bunde 52, 9. Golden Joy (9) G. Naresh 51 and 10. Supurinto (1) Akshay Kumar 50.5.

1. Bharat Queen, 2. Seven Colours, 3. Magnum Day’s best: King David Double: Nautanki - Bharat Queen Jkt: 3, 4, 5, 6 & 7; Tr (i): 2, 3 & 4; (ii): 5, 6 & 7; Tla: all races.

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SPORT

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THE HINDU SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2016

TENNIS ROUND-UP Purav-Divij duo in final

Jenkins (US) bt Sriram Balaji 6-1, 6-1.

ITF grade-2 juniors, Hong Kong: Girls: Final: Zeel Desai bt

Khromacheva (Russia) bt Riko Sawayanagi (Japan) 6-1, 6-1.

BRATISLAVA: Purav Raja and

Thasaporn Naklo (Tha) 6-3, 5-7, 6-2.

Nitin shocks Suraj

Divij Sharan got past Mikhail Elgin of Russia and Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan 3-6, 7-6(3), 10-3 in the doubles semifinals of the €85,000 Challenger tennis tournament here on Saturday.

The results: €85,000 Challenger, Bratislava : Doubles: Semifinals: Purav Raja & Divij Sharan bt Mikhail Elgin (Rus) & Denis Istomin (Uzb) 3-6, 7-6(3), 10-3. $50,000 Challenger, Kobe: Doubles: Final: Daniel Masur (Ger) & Ante Pavic (Cro) bt Christopher Rungkat (Ina) & Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan 4-6, 6-3, 10-6. $25,000 ITF men, Wollongong, Australia: Semifinals: Jarmere

ITF grade-5, Dhaka: Boys: Final:

KOLKATA: Local boy and

Rishabh Sharda bt Chan Woo Park (Kor) 6-4, 7-6(4). Doubles: Final: Gunjan Jadhav & Sacchitt Sharma bt Daehan Kim & Jonghun Lee (Kor) 4-6, 6-4, 10-6. Girls: Final: Jinyi Wang (Chn) bt Tanisha Kashyap 6-2, 6-2.

National under-18 champion Nitin Kumar Sinha continued his good work, shocking fourth seed Suraj Prabodh 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 in the semifinals of the Asian Tennis Tour at the Bengal Tennis Association (BTA) courts here on Saturday.

The results: Semifinals: Vishnu Vardhan bt Nitten Kirrtane 6-2, 6-3; Nitin Kumar Sinha bt Suraj Prabodh 6-3, 3-6, 6-2.

Quarterfinals: Vishnu bt Bhavesh Gour 6-0, 6-1; Suraj bt Ishaque Eqbal 6-2, 6-4; Nitin bt Jatin Dahiya 6-2, 6-2; Kirrtane bt Niki Ponacha 7-6(7), 2-2. — Sports Bureau

Double for Irina PUNE: Irina Khromacheva

(Russia) capped a successful week at the Deccan Gymkhana with a double in the $ 25000 Pune Open ITF women’s championships. She had won the women’s doubles a day earlier.

The result: Final: Irina

ATHLETICS

Tamil Nadu strikes it rich SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT COIMBATORE: Five records took

Depleted Celtics down Knicks

HOCKEY

NEW YORK: New York star Car-

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

melo Anthony was ejected in the second quarter on Friday as Knicks fell 115-87 to the injury-depleted Celtics in Boston.

Anthony was whistled for a non-shooting foul on Boston’s Amir Johnson with 4:44 remaining in the second period.

— AFP

VERY BRIEFLY Prashant More and S. Appoorwa won the men’s and women’s titles in the World carrom championship at Birmingham on Friday. In the men’s final, Prashant defeated compatriot Riyaz Akbar Ali 25-22, 11-25, 25-12, while Appoorwa regained the title she had won in 2004, beating M. Parimala Devi 10-25, 25-10, 25-15 in the summit clash.

CM YK

Sreejesh, Harmanpreet in fray for FIH awards NEW DELHI: P.R. Sreejesh and

Harmanpreet Singh are the only Indians in fray for the annual Hockey Stars awards 2016 in a field dominated by Argentine men and British women after the nominations for the same were announced in Dubai late on Friday.

The nominations were announced on the opening day of the two-day Hockey Revolution Conference and include awards for best players, goalkeepers, rising stars, coaches and umpires for the current calendar year.

The nominations reflect the performances of the teams at the Rio Olympics, where Argentina won the men’s competition and Britain the women’s title, both for the first time ever.

앫 The winners for the player

awards would be decided by combining results of online voting by the public and a peer vote from international athletes

Argentina coach Carlos Retegui has also been recognised for his role in taking the team to an Olympic gold.

While Sreejesh has been nominated for the ‘Goalkeeper of the Year award’ after leading India to a historic silver at the Champions Trophy and the recent Asian Champions Trophy, Harmanpreet has been impressive with the junior team while proving his class and maturity in his few outings with the senior team as well and was named the ‘Upcoming player of the tournament’ at the

Champions Trophy.

While the player, goalkeeper and rising star nominees were selected by a panel consisting of the FIH Athletes’ Committee, continental federations, coaches and the media, the umpire awards would be selected by the FIH Umpiring Committee.

The winners for the player awards would be decided by combining results of online voting by the public and a peer vote from international athletes. Voting for players, goalkeepers and rising stars opens on November 16 and closes on December 2. The Coach of the Year (men and women) would be decided only by a peer vote.

The decisions would be announced in January 2017.

The nominations: Player of the Year: Women: Carla Rebecchi (Arg), Kate Richardson-Walsh (GBr), Sta-

cey Michelsen (Nzl), Alex Danson (GBr), Naomi van As (Ned); Men: Gonzalo Peillat (Arg), John-John Dohmen (Bel), Moritz Fürste (Ger), Tobias Hauke (Ger), Pedro Ibarra (Arg).

Goalkeeper of the Year: Women: Maddie Hinch (GBr), Joyce

Sombroek (Ned), Kristina Reynolds (Ger), Jackie Briggs (USA), Belen Succi (Arg); Men: Juan Vivaldi (Arg), Jaap Stockmann (Ned), Vincent Vanasch (Bel), David Harte (Ire), P.R. Sreejesh (Ind).

Rising Star of the Year (under-23): Women: Maria Granatto

(Arg), Lily Owsley (GBr), Nike Lorenz (Ger), Kathryn Slattery (Aus), Florencia Habif (Arg); Men: Arthur van Doren (Bel), Christopher Rühr (Ger), Jorrit Croon (Ned), Harmanpreet Singh (Ind), Timm Herzbruch (Ger).

Coach of the Year: Women:

Alyson Annan (Aus), Karen Brown (GBr), Janneke Schopman (USA); Men: Carlos Retegui (Arg), Danny Kerry (GBr), Shane McLeod (Bel).

a beating and, for the host, it was a great day out on the third day of the Sri Krishna 32nd National junior athletics championship at the Nehru Stadium here on Saturday.

The throwers had a field day and it was Rohit Yadav who emerged the best out of the crop. The Uttar Pradesh youngster flung the spear to a distance of 72.05m for gold and a new record in the under-16 boys’ javelin. Neeraj Chopra’s (Haryana) four-year-old record of 68.46m finally found its way out the books.

The girls accounted for five of the seven golds that Tamil Nadu gained for the day — Mithravarun (u-20, discus), B. Nithin (u-18, 100m), R. Giridharani (u-16, 100m), V. Subha (u-18, 400m), R. Punitha (u-18, long jump) and V. Revathi (u-20, 100m).

The results: Boys: U-14: 100m: 1. L. Sairaj (Mah) 11.48s, 2. A. Abhinav (Del) 11.58, 3. D. Prakash (Har) 11.63.

Shot put: Dhanveer Singh (Pun) 17.88m (NR), 2. Manoj Katar (Del) 15.45, 3. Lucky Dhima (UP) 14.24.

U-16: 100m: 1. Badal Shoke (Del) 11.11s, 2. C. Abhinav (Ker) 11.27, 3. Bal Kishan (Tel) 11.33. 400m: 1. M. Shivang (Bih) 49.79, 2. K. Aravind (Tel) 50.01, 3. U. Bharath (TN) 50.22.

5,000m walk: 1. Suraj Panwar (UP) 22:37.37s, 2. Mukesh Kumar (UP) 22:48.06, A. Muhammed (Ker) 23:03.

Long jump: 1. Ravi (Har) 6.89m, 2. S. Mohammed (UP) 6.75, 3. C. Praveen (TN) 6.73. Javelin: 1. Rohit Yadav

RECORD THROW: Rohit Yadav hurls the javelin.

— PHOTO: RAYAN ROZARIO

(UP) 72.05m (NR), 2. Vikas Yadav (Mah) 62.98, 3. Irfan Khan (UP) 61.87.

U-18: 100m: 1. B. Nithin (TN) 10.96s; 2. Prajjwal Roy (Del) 10.96; 3.

Libin Shibu (Ker) 11.10. 400m: 1.

Amit Kumar (Jhar) 49.15s, 2. D.K. Rohan (Kar) 49.37, 3. Gaurav (Har) 49.50. Shot put: 1. Dipender D. (Har) 20.63m (NR), 2. Ashish B. (Man) 19.27, 3. Ram Chandran (UP) 18.60m.

Junior men: U-20: 400m: 1.

Pankaj Malik (Har) 47.54s, 2. Amoj Jacob (Del) 47.62, 3. P. Akash (TN) 47.90. 10,000m walk: 1. Eknath Turambe (Pun) 43:16.58s, 2. Hardeep (Har) 43:26.74, 3. Bhagwan Singh (Utk) 43:28.44. Discus: 1. S. Mithravarun (TN) 54.03, 2. P. Nehra (Raj) 52.34, 3. Vazeer (Har) 50.20.

Girls: U-14: 100m: 1. V. Varsha (Kar) 12.74s, 2. Payal (Del) 13.00, 3.

N. Sanika (Mah) 13.03. Long jump: 1.

J. Coleshiya (TN) 5.15m, 2. Nicole Edward (Mah) 5.02, 3. S. Sudipa (WB) 4.80. High jump: 1. Khyati Mathur (UP) 1.62m; 2. Sfurti Mane (Mah) 1.52; 3. Vaidehi Vashishtha (TN) 1.50.

Shot put: 1. Madhushri (WB) 11.60m, 2. M. Agrata (Mah) 11.41, 3.

Vaishali (Kar) 10.66.

U-16: 100m: 1. R. Giridharani (TN) 12.40s, 2. M. Tusya (Kar) 12.63, 3.

Ancy Saojan (Ker) 12.72. 400m: 1.

Soorya Mol (Ker) 57.22s, 2. B. Sumithira (TN) 57.67, 3. K.T. Adithya (Ker) 58.03. 3000m walk: 1. K. Gurpreet (Pun) 15:18.33s; 2. Shani Poulose (Ker) 15:40.59s, 3. Rupali (UP) 15:42.43.

U-18: 100m: 1. G. Nithya (Tel) 12.14s; 2. Rosalin Lewis (Mah) 12.28, 3. Rajashree Prasad (WB) 12.31.

400m: 1. V. Subha (TN) 56.46s, 2.

Linet George (Ker) 57.88, 3. Isabella L (Mah) 58.43. Long jump: 1. R. Punitha (TN) 5.83m, 2. Soma Karmakar (WB) 5.64; 3. Renu (Pun) 5.62.

5000m walk: 1. C.K. Sreeja (Ker) 26:21.80s, 2. K. Suvarna (Mah) 26:32.72, 3. Pushpa (Har) 26:42.72.

Hammer throw: 1. Poonam Jhakar (Har) 54.66m (NR), 2. Aaisha Patel (UP) 49.64, 3. Varsha (Del) 48.14.

Pole vault: 1. Nivya Antony (Ker) 3.32m (NR), 2. Renu Rani (Pun) 3.10, 3. Divya Mohan (Ker) 3.10.

U-20: 100m: 1. V. Revathi (TN) 12.24s; 2. M.V. Jilna (Ker) 12.25; 3. A. Chandralekha (TN) 12.30. 400m: 1.

Rajni Nagar (Har) 56.04s, 2. Pooja (Del) 56.22, 3. V.K. Vismaya (Ker) 56.34. Triple jump: 1. Aleena Jose (Ker) 12.67m, 2. B. Aishwarya (Kar) 12.64, 3. L. Alphy (Ker) 12.55.

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THE HINDU SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2016

CM YK

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