16
B JP’s lone legislator from Bastar region Bhima Mandavi and four policemen were killed as Maoists targeted a group of BJP leaders travel- ling in a convoy in a forested patch in Dantewada district on Tuesday evening. The Naxals blew up the vehicle of the 40- year-old Dantewada MLA with an IED and opened fire at the occupants in Shyamagiri hills when the MLA’s convoy was heading towards Kuwakonda from Bacheli area in Dantewada. Visuals from the blast site showed the mangled remains of the vehicle and a gaping hole on the road on which it passed before Naxals blew it up. TV channels flashed grisly images of body parts strewn along a road bisecting a forest and a vehicle reduced to a heap of metal. The powerful blast left a big crater in the middle of the road. The attack has been described a classic case of a complete intelligence failure. “It was a meticulously planned attack. Maoists specif- ically targeted BJP MLA’s bul- letproof vehicle when he was rushing to Nakulnar to address a public meeting in favour of the BJP candidate from Bastar, Baidu Ram Kashyap,’’ Dantewada police chief Abhishek Pallav told reporters at the blast site. He added that the BJP leg- islator was strongly advised against moving without fool- proof security measures. The brutal killing of the Dantewada MLA triggered outrage in Chhattisgarh with Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel putting off his poll campaign mid-way to chair a high-level meet to assess the law and order situation. Prime Minister Narendra Modi condemned the killing of “dedicated party worker” Mandavi and the police offi- cials and said the sacrifice of those killed will not go in vain. “Shri Bhima Mandavi was a dedicated Karyakarta of the BJP. Diligent and courageous, he assiduously served the peo- ple of Chhattisgarh. His demise is deeply anguishing. My con- dolences to his family. My trib- utes to the security personnel. The sacrifices of these martyrs will not go in vain,” he tweet- ed. Baghel, who is facing flak for allegedly adopting soft approach to armed Maoists, said in a series of tweets, “I am deeply disturbed by killing of one of my MLA colleagues, I don’t have words to express my grief, it’s definitely a major attack on democracy… My Government is consistently working to win people’s confi- dence and Naxals felt upset about that and this brutal attack is basically the result of their frustration.” The State unit of the BJP reacted angrily to the killing and alleged that State’s new Congress regime has nexus with Maoists. BJP national vice-president and former Chief Minister Raman Singh expressed shock over death of his party MLA and said Maoists were freely roaming in Bastar under the new Congress regime. “It’s a failure of State Government, I see a big polit- ical conspiracy in the killing because Mandavi was the lone BJP MLA from Bastar, situation is very pathetic in Bastar dur- ing Congress regime,’’ Singh told reporters in Raipur. I n a daring terror attack, a senior RSS leader and his personal security officer (PSO) were shot dead from close range outside the main gate of outpatient department (OPD) of Kishtwar district hospital on Tuesday morning. According to police, the personal security officer of RSS leader died on the spot, while RSS leader, identified as Chandrakant Sharma, was air- lifted to Government Medical College Hospital in Jammu where he succumbed to his gunshot injuries. Kishtwar Superintendent of Police Shakti Kumar Pathak told The Pioneer that after hit- ting the RSS leader the terror- ists ran away with the service weapon of his PSO martyred in the attack. The PSO has been identified as Rajinder Kumar. Police have launched investigations in the case and is screening CCTV footages to track down the footprints of the terrorists. The SP main- tained the situation is well under control after the impo- sition of the curfew in Kishtwar and nearby areas. Official sources revealed that the RSS leader was hit in the abdomen and his kidneys were punctured by the bullets. According to police, on Tuesday morning around 12.30 pm when Chandrakant Sharma, working as pharma- cist, arrived in the district hospital, Kishtwar, an uniden- tified terrorist, who was already waiting there, opened fire at him from a close range and fled. Bleeding profusely, the RSS leader was carted into the operation theatre and was later airlifted to Jammu where he succumbed to his injuries. P rime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday invoked the Pulwama terror attack and the subsequent Balakot air strikes to seek votes for the BJP from the first-time voters in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Addressing a joint rally with Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray at Ausa in Latur district in Maharashtra, Modi appealed to the millen- nial generation to make best and memorable use of their first vote in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. “I would like to tell the first time voters that it is a historic moment when you vote for the first time. You should make a resolve to exercise your first voting right in a manner that you will remember all your life when you voted for the first time, where did you vote, in which elections you voted and whom did you vote for”. “I would like to ask the first-time voters if they would dedicate their first vote to the brave jawans who participated in the air strikes on terror camps at Balakot in Pakistan. I would also like to ask the first- time voters if they would ded- icate their first vote to those brave jawans who sacrificed their lives in the Pulwama ter- ror attack,” the Prime Minister said, in an apparent disregard to the Election Commission’s diktat to political parties to desist from making references to armed forces in their poll campaign. In continuation, Modi asked the first-time voters in the country if they would ded- icate their first votes for the cause of providing pucca hous- es to the poor people in the country. He asked if they would dedicate their votes to ensure irrigation water to the fields of the poor and good health facil- ities for them through the Modi Government’s National Health Protection Scheme Ayushman Bharat”. “My appeal to you first- time voters in this election is vote for the nation. You have turned 18. The nation has given you so much. The society has given you so much. You give vote to strengthen the nation. You vote to form a strong Government. You will be able to say proud- ly that if you cast vote for lotus symbol (BJP) and bow (Shiv Sena), your vote will directly got to the account of Modi,” Modi said. T he Congress on Tuesday cited a “sting operation” to allege exchange of old notes post-demonetisation for hefty commissions by people claim- ing proximity to the govern- ment and the BJP, but the rul- ing party refuted the allegations and said it would take appro- priate legal action. At a press conference here, senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal also alleged that curren- cy notes worth thousands of crores were printed abroad and transported into India. He alleged that “a team of Government officials drawn from different departments were engaged in the exchange of old notes for new post demonetisation”. He, however, did not authenticate the videos he showed at the conference and said these are in public domain and the agencies concerned should initiate a probe. Sibal also claimed the Election Commission was not acting on their complaints. Responding to the charges, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said in Patna that “Kapil Sibal has made false allegations on our (party) president (Amit Shah) and we will take legal action.” “Demonetisation is the biggest scam in the history of India. Current notes (issued after the old 500/1000 notes were demonetised in November 2016) were printed abroad and transported into India and there can be nothing more anti-nation- al than this,” Sibal told reporters. Mr Modi started his tenure by fooling us and he is ending his five-year-tenure by trau- matising us, the Congress leader alleged. A fter calling the Indian armed forces ‘Modi ji ki sena’ and branding the Muslim League ‘virus’, the BJP leader and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister has now sparked a fresh row by stoking the ‘Ali- Bajrangbali’ debate following Mayawati’s appeal to Muslim voters two days ago. Agar Congress, SP, BSP ko ‘Ali’ par vishwaas hai toh humein bhi ‘Bajrangbali’ par vishwaas hai (If the Congress, Samajwadi Party, and the Bahujan Samaj Party have faith in Ali, then we too have faith in our Bajrangbali),” Yogi said while addressing an election rally in Meerut. Yogi’s statement is seen as an attempt to polarise Hindu voters after BSP chief Mayawati recently appealed to Muslims not to divide their votes. “People of all communities live in western Uttar Pradesh…in Saharanpur, Bareilly where there is a size- able Muslim population and I want to ask them not to divide your votes by voting for the Congress. Give your votes to SP-BSP and RLD alliance,” she had said at the rally jointly held with the Samajwadi Party after two decades in Deoband. The Election Commission last week issued a warning to the UP Chief Minister over his ‘Modi ji ki sena’ remark and asked him to “be careful in your utterances in future”. Congress ke log atankwadiyon ko biryani khilate the, aur Modiji ki sena atankwadiyon ko goli aur gola deti hai. Yahi antar hai. Adityanath had said. T he c-Vigil app was launched by the Election Commission to report cases and incident where people felt the model code of conduct was being violated, through illegal hoardings, hate speeches or other ways. But the people in Delhi have made a mockery of the app as they have been flooding it with useless pic- tures, mostly selfies, pictures of flowers, parks and some other snaps that have nothing to do with poll code violations. “The people in Delhi using the c-Vigil App of the Election Commission, were sending a lot of frivolous pictures, most- ly selfies and images of flowers and parks, which had nothing to do with poll code violations,” said Ranbir Singh, Delhi Chief Electoral Officer (CEO). “People were sending mostly selfies, photos of flow- ers, image of smoke billowing out of a car, parks, fans, and other frivolous things, which had nothing to do with poll code violations,” said another official. “Such entries comprised about “90 per cent of the ‘com- plaints’ sent through this app in initial days, adding, now major- ity of the complaints are gen- uine,” said the official. Alarmed over the trend, the EC has urged concerned citizens not to make mockery of an important app. The Delhi CEO asked the residents of the National Capital to use the app only to report cases related to elections. The c-Vigil app that was launched by the Election Commission provides a plat- form for the citizens, where they can send complaints and geo-tagged videos and photos of illegal gifts, money or liquor being distributed or a hate speech being made by any political party during polls. The Lok Sabha polls will be conducted in seven phases that will begin from April 11 and continue till May 19. Elections in Delhi will be held on May 12 and the overall results will be declared on May 23. There are over 1.41 crore voters on Delhi’s electoral roll. Out of the total electorate size of 1,41,28,795, as many as 77,76,415 are male and 63,51,698 female, while 682 belong to the third gender.

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Page 1: ˘ˇ ˆ˙˝ - The Pioneer · they can send complaints and geo-tagged videos and photos of illegal gifts, money or liquor being distributed or a hate speech being made by any political

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BJP’s lone legislator fromBastar region Bhima

Mandavi and four policemenwere killed as Maoists targeteda group of BJP leaders travel-ling in a convoy in a forestedpatch in Dantewada district onTuesday evening. The Naxalsblew up the vehicle of the 40-year-old Dantewada MLA withan IED and opened fire at theoccupants in Shyamagiri hillswhen the MLA’s convoy washeading towards Kuwakondafrom Bacheli area inDantewada.

Visuals from the blast siteshowed the mangled remains ofthe vehicle and a gaping holeon the road on which it passedbefore Naxals blew it up. TVchannels flashed grisly imagesof body parts strewn along aroad bisecting a forest and avehicle reduced to a heap ofmetal. The powerful blast lefta big crater in the middle of theroad.

The attack has beendescribed a classic case of acomplete intelligence failure.

“It was a meticulouslyplanned attack. Maoists specif-ically targeted BJP MLA’s bul-letproof vehicle when he wasrushing to Nakulnar to addressa public meeting in favour ofthe BJP candidate from Bastar,Baidu Ram Kashyap,’’Dantewada police chiefAbhishek Pallav told reportersat the blast site.

He added that the BJP leg-islator was strongly advised

against moving without fool-proof security measures.

The brutal killing of theDantewada MLA triggeredoutrage in Chhattisgarh withChief Minister Bhupesh Baghelputting off his poll campaignmid-way to chair a high-level

meet to assess the law andorder situation.

Prime Minister NarendraModi condemned the killing of“dedicated party worker”Mandavi and the police offi-cials and said the sacrifice ofthose killed will not go in vain.

“Shri Bhima Mandavi wasa dedicated Karyakarta of theBJP. Diligent and courageous,he assiduously served the peo-ple of Chhattisgarh. His demiseis deeply anguishing. My con-dolences to his family. My trib-utes to the security personnel.

The sacrifices of these martyrswill not go in vain,” he tweet-ed.

Baghel, who is facing flakfor allegedly adopting softapproach to armed Maoists,said in a series of tweets, “I amdeeply disturbed by killing of

one of my MLA colleagues, Idon’t have words to express mygrief, it’s definitely a majorattack on democracy… MyGovernment is consistentlyworking to win people’s confi-dence and Naxals felt upsetabout that and this brutalattack is basically the result oftheir frustration.”

The State unit of the BJPreacted angrily to the killingand alleged that State’s newCongress regime has nexuswith Maoists. BJP nationalvice-president and formerChief Minister Raman Singhexpressed shock over death ofhis party MLA and saidMaoists were freely roaming inBastar under the new Congressregime.

“It’s a failure of StateGovernment, I see a big polit-ical conspiracy in the killingbecause Mandavi was the loneBJP MLA from Bastar, situationis very pathetic in Bastar dur-ing Congress regime,’’ Singhtold reporters in Raipur.

������������� �������������������������������������������� ���������� ����������������� �������������������� ��

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In a daring terror attack, asenior RSS leader and his

personal security officer (PSO)were shot dead from closerange outside the main gate ofoutpatient department (OPD)of Kishtwar district hospital onTuesday morning.

According to police, thepersonal security officer ofRSS leader died on the spot,while RSS leader, identified asChandrakant Sharma, was air-lifted to Government MedicalCollege Hospital in Jammuwhere he succumbed to hisgunshot injuries.

Kishtwar Superintendentof Police Shakti Kumar Pathaktold The Pioneer that after hit-ting the RSS leader the terror-ists ran away with the serviceweapon of his PSO martyred inthe attack. The PSO has beenidentified as Rajinder Kumar.

Police have launchedinvestigations in the case andis screening CCTV footages totrack down the footprints ofthe terrorists. The SP main-tained the situation is wellunder control after the impo-sition of the curfew inKishtwar and nearby areas.

Official sources revealed

that the RSS leader was hit inthe abdomen and his kidneyswere punctured by the bullets.

According to police, onTuesday morning around12.30 pm when ChandrakantSharma, working as pharma-cist, arrived in the districthospital, Kishtwar, an uniden-tified terrorist, who wasalready waiting there, openedfire at him from a close rangeand fled. Bleeding profusely,the RSS leader was carted intothe operation theatre and waslater airlifted to Jammu wherehe succumbed to his injuries.

���� ������������ ������������ � ����� �������� �

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Prime Minister NarendraModi on Tuesday invoked

the Pulwama terror attack andthe subsequent Balakot airstrikes to seek votes for the BJPfrom the first-time voters in the2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Addressing a joint rallywith Shiv Sena presidentUddhav Thackeray at Ausa inLatur district in Maharashtra,Modi appealed to the millen-nial generation to make bestand memorable use of theirfirst vote in the 2019 LokSabha elections.

“I would like to tell the firsttime voters that it is a historicmoment when you vote for thefirst time. You should make aresolve to exercise your firstvoting right in a manner thatyou will remember all your lifewhen you voted for the firsttime, where did you vote, inwhich elections you voted andwhom did you vote for”.

“I would like to ask thefirst-time voters if they would

dedicate their first vote to thebrave jawans who participatedin the air strikes on terrorcamps at Balakot in Pakistan.I would also like to ask the first-time voters if they would ded-icate their first vote to thosebrave jawans who sacrificed

their lives in the Pulwama ter-ror attack,” the Prime Ministersaid, in an apparent disregardto the Election Commission’sdiktat to political parties todesist from making referencesto armed forces in their pollcampaign.

In continuation, Modiasked the first-time voters inthe country if they would ded-icate their first votes for thecause of providing pucca hous-es to the poor people in thecountry.

He asked if they woulddedicate their votes to ensureirrigation water to the fields ofthe poor and good health facil-ities for them through theModi Government’s NationalHealth Protection SchemeAyushman Bharat”.

“My appeal to you first-time voters in this election isvote for the nation. You haveturned 18. The nation hasgiven you so much.

The society has given youso much. You give vote tostrengthen the nation. You voteto form a strong Government.You will be able to say proud-ly that if you cast vote for lotussymbol (BJP) and bow (ShivSena), your vote will directlygot to the account of Modi,”Modi said.

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The Congress on Tuesdaycited a “sting operation” to

allege exchange of old notespost-demonetisation for heftycommissions by people claim-ing proximity to the govern-ment and the BJP, but the rul-ing party refuted the allegationsand said it would take appro-priate legal action.

At a press conference here,senior Congress leader KapilSibal also alleged that curren-cy notes worth thousands ofcrores were printed abroadand transported into India.

He alleged that “a team ofGovernment officials drawnfrom different departmentswere engaged in the exchangeof old notes for new postdemonetisation”.

He, however, did notauthenticate the videos heshowed at the conference andsaid these are in public domain

and the agencies concernedshould initiate a probe. Sibalalso claimed the ElectionCommission was not acting ontheir complaints.

Responding to the charges,Union Minister Ravi ShankarPrasad said in Patna that “KapilSibal has made false allegationson our (party) president (AmitShah) and we will take legalaction.”

“Demonetisation is thebiggest scam in the history ofIndia. Current notes (issuedafter the old �500/1000 noteswere demonetised inNovember 2016) were printedabroad and transported intoIndia and there can be nothing more anti-nation-al than this,” Sibal toldreporters.

Mr Modi started his tenureby fooling us and he is endinghis five-year-tenure by trau-matising us, the Congressleader alleged.

����� -55�/�

After calling the Indianarmed forces ‘Modi ji ki

sena’ and branding the MuslimLeague ‘virus’, the BJP leaderand Uttar Pradesh ChiefMinister has now sparked afresh row by stoking the ‘Ali-Bajrangbali’ debate followingMayawati’s appeal to Muslimvoters two days ago.

“Agar Congress, SP, BSP ko‘Ali’ par vishwaas hai tohhumein bhi ‘Bajrangbali’ parvishwaas hai (If the Congress,Samajwadi Party, and theBahujan Samaj Party have faithin Ali, then we too have faithin our Bajrangbali),” Yogi saidwhile addressing an electionrally in Meerut.

Yogi’s statement is seen asan attempt to polarise Hinduvoters after BSP chief Mayawatirecently appealed to Muslimsnot to divide their votes.

“People of all communitieslive in western Uttar

Pradesh…in Saharanpur,Bareilly where there is a size-able Muslim population and Iwant to ask them not to divideyour votes by voting for theCongress. Give your votes toSP-BSP and RLD alliance,” shehad said at the rally jointly heldwith the Samajwadi Party aftertwo decades in Deoband.

The Election Commission

last week issued a warning tothe UP Chief Minister over his‘Modi ji ki sena’ remark andasked him to “be careful inyour utterances in future”.

“Congress ke logatankwadiyon ko biryani khilatethe, aur Modiji ki senaatankwadiyon ko goli aur goladeti hai. Yahi antar hai.Adityanath had said.

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The c-Vigil app waslaunched by the Election

Commission to report casesand incident where people feltthe model code of conduct wasbeing violated, through illegalhoardings, hate speeches orother ways. But the people inDelhi have made a mockery ofthe app as they have beenflooding it with useless pic-tures, mostly selfies, pictures offlowers, parks and some othersnaps that have nothing to dowith poll code violations.

“The people in Delhi usingthe c-Vigil App of the ElectionCommission, were sending alot of frivolous pictures, most-ly selfies and images of flowersand parks, which had nothingto do with poll code violations,”said Ranbir Singh, Delhi ChiefElectoral Officer (CEO).

“People were sendingmostly selfies, photos of flow-ers, image of smoke billowing

out of a car, parks, fans, andother frivolous things, whichhad nothing to do with pollcode violations,” said anotherofficial.

“Such entries comprisedabout “90 per cent of the ‘com-plaints’ sent through this app ininitial days, adding, now major-ity of the complaints are gen-uine,” said the official.

Alarmed over the trend,the EC has urged concernedcitizens not to make mockery

of an important app. The Delhi CEO asked the

residents of the NationalCapital to use the app only toreport cases related to elections.

The c-Vigil app that waslaunched by the ElectionCommission provides a plat-form for the citizens, wherethey can send complaints andgeo-tagged videos and photosof illegal gifts, money or liquorbeing distributed or a hatespeech being made by anypolitical party during polls.

The Lok Sabha polls will beconducted in seven phases thatwill begin from April 11 andcontinue till May 19. Electionsin Delhi will be held on May 12and the overall results will bedeclared on May 23.

There are over 1.41 crorevoters on Delhi’s electoral roll.Out of the total electorate sizeof 1,41,28,795, as many as77,76,415 are male and63,51,698 female, while 682belong to the third gender.

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Page 2: ˘ˇ ˆ˙˝ - The Pioneer · they can send complaints and geo-tagged videos and photos of illegal gifts, money or liquor being distributed or a hate speech being made by any political

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��� ����� �� 7��4����7

Awave of resentment brewing within the

Congress party over the allo-cation of tickets in Punjab hascompelled the party’s nationalpresident Rahul Gandhi tointervene.

Taking serious note of thesituation, Rahul has, in fact,sought a detailed report fromthe party general secretary KCVenugopal.

So far, the Congress hasdeclared its candidates for nine,out of the total 13 seats, inPunjab, while the decision onremaining four is expected bythis week. The next meeting ofthe central election committeeis expected to be held on April12 or 13.

The Congress is facingresentment against its nomi-nees in Patiala, Jalandhar,Faridkot, and Hoshiarpur con-stituencies, with senior partyleaders and ticket aspirantsgoing public against the lead-ership.

Congress’ sitting MLAfrom Amloh Randeep SinghNabha, who has been seekingticket from Patiala, was the firstone to vent his ire against the

party nominee Preneet Kaur bydeclaring that he would notcampaign for the former UnionMinister.

Jalandhar’s former MPMohinder Singh Kaypee toowashed the dirty linens in pub-lic by describing the party tick-et to sitting Jalandhar MPChaudhary Santokh Singh ashis “political murder”, and gaveenough indications to enter theelectoral field from the con-stituency as independent can-didate, if needed.

Chief Minister CaptAmarinder Singh has inter-vened in the matter and madeattempts to pacify the Congressveteran while assuring him a“suitable” position. However,Kaypee has met senior leader-ship in Delhi on Tuesdayamidst the reports that theparty may put the Jalandharseat for review.

To mollify the angeredCongress leader, intensiveefforts were being made by theparty leadership. After the stateCabinet Minister SukhjinderSingh Randhawa and JalandharCantt MLA Pargat Singh metKaypee, the former MP met theChief Minister and party MLARaj Kumar Verka.

Another senior party

leader, after meeting Kaypee,told The Pioneer that the partywas serious on grievancesraised by him, and may reviewthe seat from Jalandhar. “Notfielding a Valmiki MajhabiSikh candidate from any of thereserved seat is a mistake. Thedecision about this will alsocome soon,” said the leader.

Giving party ticket to sit-ting legislator from Chabbewal,Dr Raj Kumar Chabbewal, toofailed to go down well withother aspirants as the formerUnion Minister of State andformer Hoshiarpur MPSantosh Chaudhary mincedno words to say that the “mon-eyed and powerful” had anadvantage in getting them-selves nominated from thereserved seat.

Questioning party ticket toformer Union MinisterPreneeet Kaur, who lost 2014election, this time again, 76-year-old Chaudhary alsoblamed the Chief MinisterCapt Amarinder for denyingher the ticket from Hoshiarpurwhile asking the party highcommand to explain why shewas “punished for no reason”.

That is not all! TheCongress is also facing problemin Faridkot reserve con-

stituency from where the partydecided to lay its bet on the folksinger-turned-politician MohdSadique — a decision opposedby the leader if Majhabi Sikhcommunity.

Ferozepur Rural MLASatkar Kaur maintained thatthe community wanted thatone ticket from any reservedseats should be given toMajhabi Sikhs — a dominantcommunity in the stateamongst the dalit population.The Congress has so far failedto give the Majhabi Sikh anyrepresentation in the fourreserved seats of Jalandhar,Faridkot, Hoshiarpur, andFatehgarh Sahib.

It has been learnt that theCongress high command hasexpressed dissatisfaction overthe names recommended bythe state election panel forcrucial seats of Bathinda,Ferozepur, Sangrur, and SriAnandpur Sahib consideringthe not-so-favourable reportsabout the shortlisted candidatesin the party’s latest survey.

Now, the high commandhas taken upon itself the taskof deciding on the candidate forthese remaining seats. Notably,the high command has, so far,decided the candidates on nine

seats considering the recom-mendations by the state lead-ership.

Moreover, the state leader-ship is also not speaking in onevoice on the remaining fourseats. Capt Amarinder is back-ing Cabinet Minister RanaGurmeet Singh Sodhi fromFerozepur, while Jakhar isproposing to field the sittingMP Sher Singh Ghubaya whorecently switched sides fromSAD to Congress.

In Sangrur too, CaptAmarinder is recommendingthe name of former MLAKewal Singh Dhillon, but theparty high command is con-sidering him a “weak” candi-date, and backing the stateCabinet Minister and formerMP Vijay Inder Singh’s candi-dature.

For the hot-seat ofBathinda, the party is consid-ering to field a strong candidateagainst SAD’s sitting MPHarsimrat Badal, who isexpected to seek her re-electionfrom the constituency knownas the Badals bastion.

Finance Minister ManpreetBadal was the top choice for theseat, but he has expressed hisreluctance to contest, and con-veyed the same to the party

high command. Besides him,the state panel has recom-mended the name of the stateHealth Minister BrahmMohindra’s son, MohitMohindra, for the seat, but thatwas too overruled by the highcommand.

After being denied ticketfrom Chandigarh Lok Sabhaseat, Dr Navjot Kaur Sidhu’sname was being considered forBathinda or Sri AnandpurSahib constituency, eventhough the former MLA hasmade it clear that shge wouldnot contest from other seatthan Chandigarh or her homeconstituency Amritsar—fromwhere the COnggress hasalready fielded former UnionMinister Pawan Kumar Bansal,and sitting MP Gurjit SinghAujla, respectively.

For Sri Anandpur Sahib,the state Election Committeehas recommended the name offormer Union Minister ManishTewari, while the party chiefRaGa has made clear his inten-tions of not giving him the tick-et after he refused to contest2014 elections.

Besides, party’s nationalspokesperson and young leaderJaiveer Shergill is also beingconsidered for the seat.

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����� '7�-&�

Six Himachal Pradesh-baseduniversities figure in the top

200 rankings given by theUnion Ministry of HumanResource’s under the NationalInstitutional RankingsFramework (NIRF).

Among these are threegovernment universities - DrYS Parmar University ofHorticulture and Forestry,Nauni, CSK KrishiVishvavidyala and HimachalPradesh University and threeprivate universities - ShooliniUniversity of Biotechnologyand Management Sciences,Jaypee University, Waknaghatand Chitkara University,Solan.

An analysis of the rank-ings show that Dr ParmarUniversity slipped from lastyear’s ranking of 71 to 80 thisyear while two other univer-sities - Himachal PradeshUniversity and ChitkaraUniversity- slipped from the101-150 band to 151-200 bandin over-all rankings.

Shoolini University suc-ceeded in obtaining a hattrickof retaining its position in the101-150 band despite anincrease of about 150 institu-tions vying for a slot across thecountry.

The Pharmacy College ofthe University and itsManagement Departmentwere ranked number one inHimachal Pradesh. ThePharmacy college was rankedat 39 out of 301 while itsManagement Department wasrated at an all India rank of 65out of 555 institutions. Thenine year old University is per-haps one of the youngest pri-vate universities to get suchrankings. No other universityfrom the state figures in thetop 75 list for Pharmacy andManagement.

The state has five govern-ment universities and 17 pri-vate universities. Meanwhile, atotal of 23 universities out of97 in the north of Delhi figurein the top 200 rankings out ofabout 300 universities, whichhad applied for rankings.

Panjab University,Chandigarh tops the list in theregion by attaining the rank of21 followed by ThaparInstitute of Engineering andTechnology (Deemed-to-be-University) and PunjabAgricultural University,Ludhiana.

����� 2��4

Haryana BJP chief SubhashBarala on Tuesday said

that the Sankalp Patra of theparty showed the aspirations of125 crore population and aimed

at strengthening and takingthe country to new heights.

Barala, while addressing ameeting of the panna pra-mukhs (page incharge/volun-teers) here, said that the man-ifesto will convert India into a

new age developed countrycompeting with other worldcountries.

He said that the BJP hadnot made any hollow promis-es in view of the Lok Sabha elec-tions. Keeping in mind thenational interest and various

sections of society, includingfarmers, labourers, dalit, back-ward classes, traders and com-mon citizens, the manifesto isaimed at inclusive develop-ments, he said.

The BJP state chief furthersaid that the way party fulfilled

the promises released ahead ofthe 2014 Lok Sabha elections,the party has assured the peo-ple of fulfilling all poll promis-es, including of national secu-rity and integrity and develop-ment detailed in the SankalpPatra for the 2019 Lok Sabhaelections.

Barala said that the partyhas assured Rs 6,000 annualfinancial aid to the farmerswhich is a major proposal.Besides the farmers would getinterest free loan of Rs one lakhagainst the Kisan Credit Card,he said.

He said that the PrimeMinister Narendra Modi hasassured the country of taking allsteps to firmly deal with ter-rorists and separatists elements.The BJP government has zerotolerance policy towards suchelements and the same would

continue on re-election also, headded.

Among the other propos-als in party’s Sankalp Patraincluded constitution ofNational Traders Commission,pension to small traders onattaining the age of 60 years,digitalisation of land recordand keeping a check on infla-tion so that common citizensdo not suffer.

He said that the countrywill complete 75 years of itsexistence in 2022 and the aimof the party is to increase thestanding of the country toemerge as a world power.

He called upon panna pra-mukhs to work for ensuring thevictory of the party so thatNarendra Modi returns topower for his second term asPrime Minister for taking thenational further forward.

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Aday the poll panel directedtransfer of Punjab Police

Inspector General KunwarVijay Pratap Singh — memberof SIT probing 2015 sacrilegeand related firing incidents,Punjab Government onTuesday decided to approachthe Election Commission ofIndia seeking a review of itsdecision “in the interest of jus-tice and constitutional propri-ety”.

Agitated, the ChiefMinister Capt AmarinderSingh said that the EC’s “biasedorder” was issued in responseto a complaint by an Akali Dalleader, and “tantamount tobeing direct interference inthe investigations into theBargari firing incident”.

“The Akalis have been try-ing unsuccessfully to scuttle theinvestigations into the sacrilegeand subsequent firing casesthat took place during theirtenure, and are now resortingto desperate measures to savetheir skin,” said CaptAmarinder.

Capt Amarinder said thatthe entire premise of the ECorder was based on a “flimsy”complaint, which actuallyamounted to admission of guiltby the complainant. “It is obvi-ous that the complainant wasrunning scared at the thoughtof exposure by the SIT, and hadtaken refuge in the SAD

alliance with the BJP,” he added.Spokesperson said that the

Chief Minister was of thestrong opinion that the EC wasacting in a highly biased man-ner at the behest of the rulingBJP which was indulging in allkinds of cheap tactics, includ-ing witch-hunts and interfer-ence in the state affairs, in adesperate bid to save itself andits allies.

Cognizant of the SAD’spathetic position in Punjab,where the party was facinganother ignominious defeat,the BJP was trying to save it atany cost, according to the ChiefMinister.

“The brazen nexusbetween the BJP-SAD and ECIwas manifest in the latter’sspate of recent orders anddirectives that are clearlyskewed against the Congress,particularly in the states ruledby it,” said the Chief Minister,lamenting the demolition of allmajor Constitutional anddemocratic institutions in thecountry by the ruling party atthe Centre.

Capt Amarinder main-tained that the Government’ssole intention in setting up theSIT, of which the IG was a keymember and instrumental inSIT’s aggressive investigations,was to bring the culprits tobook and take the probe in2015 case to its logical conclu-sion.

“The SIT has been carrying

out its investigations as per thedirections of the Punjab andHaryana High Court, on acivil writ petition and theirreport was placed before theHC, which had reposed fullfaith in the investigations andhad declined to monitor thesame,” he pointed out.

In fact, the High Courthad, vide order dated January25, 2019, had even declined totransfer the probe to the CBI asthe SIT had conducted inves-tigations into four criminalcases in a fair, impartial, inde-pendent and professional man-ner, without being influencedby any extraneous considera-tions, the Chief Minister noted.

The Chief Minister warnedthe BJP and the Akalis againstexploiting important institu-tions like the ElectionCommission and the defenceforces to pursue its political andelectoral agenda. “Destructionof these independent institu-tions would be highly detri-mental to the interests of thecountry and people would notforgive the ruling party for suchindulging in such vicious acts,”he added.

Capt Amarinder also urgedthe Election Commission notto allow its integrity to becompromised in such mannerby the political vested interestsof the ruling BJP and its allies,including SAD. People havefaith in the EC institution butsuch actions are bound to

destroy their trust, he added.

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Strongly condemning IGKunwar Vijay Partap Singh“removal” from the SIT,Bholath MLA and Punjab EktaParty (PEP) president SukhpalSingh Khaira on Tuesdaydemanded immediate cancel-lation of such dictatorial orders.

Khaira alleged that “ECIhas become party to politicalconspiracy hatched by SAD inconnivance with BJP ledCentral Government to removeKunwar Vijay Partap Singh inthe name of model code of con-duct.

“Kunwar Vijay’s removal ata crucial time is mala fide andpolitically motivated when SITwas about to nail Badals fortheir involvement in the casesof sacrilege of Guru GranthSahib and incidents of policefiring in Behbal Kalan andKotkapura,” said Khaira whiledemanding to immediatelywithdraw this 'autocratic' order.

Saying the the ECI has“overstepped its powers” and“interfered” in the process ofinvestigation and delivery ofjustice, Khaira said that it wasclear that Parkash Singh Badaland Sukhbir Badal were deadagainst Kunwar Vijay andwanted his removal by hookand crook.

“Punjab Chief Minister

Capt Amarinder Singh’s role isalso under scanner as he seemsto have buckled down to pres-sure of SAD and BJP to shiftKunwar Vijay,” he said reiter-ating that the Badals and CaptAmarinder were hand in gloveand misusing their powers tosave each other in criminalcases.

Khaira maintained that ifCapt Amarinder had no role in“the murky deal of removingKunwar Vijay from SIT, heshould immediately flash aprotest letter to the ECI andalso move Supreme Court tochallenge the ECI orders”.

He feared that during thecourse of model code is in forcefor about another two months,the evidence collected by SITmay be damaged and othermembers of SIT may also bepressurised to dilute the caseagainst Badals.

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Condemning the ChiefMinister Capt AmarinderSingh for accusing the ElectionCommission of wrongdoing,SAD on Tuesday said that itwas simply because it hadexposed the CongressGovernment’s “conspiracy” totarget the SAD and its top lead-ership and restrained it fromthis act.

“It is shocking that the

Chief Minister has actedagainst constitutional proprietyand challenged the fairness ofthe Election Commissionwhich has adjudicated on acomplaint filed against IGKunwar Vijay Pratap Singh bythe SAD after presenting dig-ital evidence of the same. Themanner in which the chiefminister has vented out hisanger against the EC is proof ofthe frustration of his govern-ment at being caught in the actof politicizing a police actionfollowing the heartbreakingsacrilege at Behbal Kalan andKotkapura in 2015,” said SADsenior vice president Dr DaljitSingh Cheema.

Cheema said that the veryfact that Capt Amarinder didnot dispute the merit of thecomplaint against SIT officeror the digital evidence pre-sented to the EC in the formof a television interviewproved that the EC had actedin an absolutely bonafide man-ner. “Congress party is under-standably perturbed becausethe EC had put a stop to itspolitics of lies. That is whyPradesh Congress presidentSunil Jakhar rushed to defendthe police officer before theChief Electoral Officer,Punjab, and now the CM hasgone on to question theauthority of the EC and eveninsulted it brazenly by callingit a tool of the SAD-BJP com-bine,” he said.

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Even though Congress is yetto come out with its list of

candidates for Haryana, the keycontenders in the party havekick-started their election cam-paign.

While the formalannouncement of their candi-dature is still awaited from theparty high command, HaryanaCongress chief Ashok Tanwar,three-time MP DeependerSingh Hooda, former MPShruti Choudhry have goneinto campaign mode and leav-ing no stone unturned to woothe voters of Sirsa, Rohtak andBhiwani-Mahendragarh par-liamentary constituenciesrespectively.

Former Minister AjayYadav and two-time formerMP Naveen Jindal have alsobeen holding voter contactprogrammes in Gurugram andKurukshetra Lok Sabha seatsrespectively.

From reaching out to thevoters through public meetings,roadshows and social mediaplatforms, these Congress lead-ers have been in the field for thepast many days to muster sup-port for themselves for theLok Sabha polls, slated to beheld on May 12 on all 10 seatsin Haryana. The social mediaplatforms like Twitter andFacebook of these leaders areupdated with hectic schedule oftheir contact programmes andpictures and videos of theongoing election campaign.

The state party chief AshokTanwar also took to socialmedia and appealed to thepeople to donate his Lok Sabhaelection campaign.

“I am seeking financial aidfor political transformationand development of Haryana.You can also give your valuablecontribution in this transfor-mation campaign. This is mysincere effort to clean politics,”Tanwar said in an appeal madeto the public through hisTwitter and Facebook accounts.His campaign programmes

have started and is running tilllate evening in Sirsa con-stituency.

Three-time MP DeependerSingh Hooda, who is facing atough challenge from the BJPto retain his seat for the fourthconsecutive time, is also toilingday and night to connect withthe voters of Rohtak. His father,two-time former ChiefMinister Bhupinder SinghHooda too has embarked onthe campaign to retain theCongress’ bastion- Rohtak thistime.

Shruti Choudhry, daughterof CLP leader Kiran Choudhryis also busy in canvassing. Themother-daughter duo is pullingout all the stops to gain afoothold in Bhiwani-Mahendragarh seat.

Notably, the Congresscould retain only one LokSabha seat i.e. Rohtak out of 10in 2014 Lok Sabha polls. In2009 general elections, theparty had won 9 seats but fiveof Congress’ sitting MPsincluding state unit chief AshokTanwar (Sirsa-SC), NaveenJindal (Kurukshetra), ArvindSharma (Karnal), ShrutiChoudhary (Bhiwani-Mahendergarh) and AvtarSingh Bhadana (Faridabad)had lost in 2014 polls, withShruti and Jindal finishingthird.

This time, the party is des-perately looking for a come-back and keen on fielding itstried and tested faces in mostof the ten Lok Sabha con-stituencies in the state. The can-didature of former ChiefMinister Bhupinder SinghHooda is also under consider-ation for Sonepat seat whileRajya Sabha MP Kumari Seljais likely to contest from Ambalaand former MP Avtar SinghBhadana is frontrunner forFaridabad seat.

The Congress had recent-ly undertaken a six-daystatewide ‘Parivartan Yatra’with an aim to end factional-ism in the state party unit andensuring maximum connec-tivity with the people across

Haryana ahead of the pollingday on May 12. Congress pres-ident Rahul Gandhi had alsovisited the state and joined the‘Parivartan Yatra’ last month togive much-needed boost tothe party’s campaign.

�������������������������������������������������Chandigarh: A meeting of theCongress screening committeeto decide the candidates of 10Lok Sabha seats in Haryanawas held in New Delhi onTuesday. The screening panelchaired by AICC general sec-retary (organisation) KCVenugopal held discussion withsenior party leaders fromHaryana to prepare a list ofprobable candidates.

AICC general secretary incharge of Haryana GhulamNabi Azad, former ChiefMinister Bhupinder SinghHooda, state Congress chiefAshok Tanwar, CLP leaderKiran Choudhry were presentduring the meeting.

MLAs, ex-MLAs, ticketaspirants were called for themeeting. Feedback regardingticket aspirants was soughtfrom the state party leadersand workers. A list of proba-ble candidates will now be for-warded to central electioncommittee of the Congresswhich is likely to meet onApril 11 after which the can-didates will be formallyannounced.

Congress’ main rival—BJP—has already announcedeight candidates in the state.Along expected lines, the BJPgave tickets to its MPs – RaoInderjit Singh from Gurugram,Krishan Pal Gurjar fromFaridabad, Dharambir Singhfrom Bhiwani-Mahendragarh,Rattan Lal Kataria fromAmbala, and Ramesh Kaushikfrom Sonipat. From Sirsa, BJPfielded former IRS officerSunita Duggal, state generalsecretary Sanjay Bhatia fromKarnal and Minister of State forLabour Nayab Singh Saini fromKurukshetra.

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Aday after his meeting withHaryana Chief Minister

Manohar Lal triggered spec-ulations of BJP-INLD alliance,INLD secretar y generalAbhay Chautala on Tuesday said that his partywill contest on its own inensuing Lok Sabha polls and

announce its candidates onApril 15.

Abhay Chautala, along-with INLD state presidentAshok Arora had met CMManohar Lal in New Delhi onMonday.

Chautala, while talkingto the mediaperons said thatthe meeting was on somepersonal issue and not polit-ical.

The BJP has already announced its eightcandidates… The INLD willalso announce its 10 candi-dates on Apri l 15, Chautala said.

“We are holding meetingswith the party workers totake their feedback on prob-able candidates for ensuingpoll,” he added.

Responding to the state-ments of leaders of theCongress and Jannayak JantaParty that INLD is disinte-grating fast, he said that theINLD is in a strong position.

Abhay Chautala hadrecently lost the post ofLeader of opposition inHaryana Assembly and theINLD has been going throughrough times ever since the

party’s split and formation ofthe splinter group-JannayakJanta Party.

Two of party's sittingMLAs Ranbir Gangwa andKehar Singh had joined theBJP recently and the party’sstrength came down to 15MLAs in the 90 memberHouse, lesser than Congress’17 MLAs.

Four INLD MLAs have

already switched sides andannounced their support tothe JJP led by Abhay’s nephewHisar MP Dushyant Chautala.

In 2014 Lok Sabha polls,the INLD had won two seatsof Hisar and Sirsa, BJP sevenout of eight it contested whileCongress had won the Rohtakseat.

The INLD was erstwhilepartner of the BJP and thetwo parties ran a coalitiongovernment led by formerchief minister Om PrakashChautala (1999-2004).However, later the allianceended due to differences.

INLD Har yana chiefAshok Arora on Tuesday alsoinsisted that no talks onstitching an alliance weregoing on between the twoparties for general elections2010.

The INLD founded bylate deputy Prime MinisterDevi Lal and headed by for-mer Chief Minister OmPrakash Chautala, has beenout of power in Haryana forover 14 years now. The 2019Lok Sabha polls are seen as abattle of existence for theINLD in regional politics.

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Punjab Chief Minister CaptAmarinder Singh on Tuesday

castigated SAD presidentSukhbir Badal over his “baseless”allegation of the incumbent gov-ernment being indifferent tothe problems of the people in the state.

Reacting strongly, CaptAmarinder derided him forcomparing the spate of Akali ral-lies with the massive develop-ment and welfare work done bythe government on the ground.He wondered how Sukhbir couldhave the gall to accuse him ofbeing indifferent to the problemsof the people after plunging theState into utter ruin and devas-tation during the 10 years of mis-rule of the BJP-SAD alliance.

“The only thing I am indif-ferent to is the opinion ofSukhbir, who was just a public-ity-seeking politician lookingfor photo-ops to remain in thepublic eye. I have a governmentto run, and unlike Sukhbir, whodoes not believe in positive gov-ernance, my only concern is thepeople’s problems, which wehave been working hard in thepast two years to solve,” said CaptAmarinder.

The people had given himand his party the mandate toaddress their grievances, whichevery citizen of Punjab, exceptSukhbir, was fully aware of, saidthe Chief Minister. “Sukhbirtook 10 years to create the prob-lems, and now wants me tospend all my term identifyingthose problems?” quipped CaptAmarinder, adding that he didnot need to go all over the Stateto find out their problems, as hewas well aware of the woes ofevery section of the society.

“The people of Punjab donot want to see me gallivantingall over the State for 45 days.They want me to spend all thistime constructively, to deliver onour promises,” said the CM.Such antics by Sukhbir did nothelp the SAD in 2017 Assemblypolls, or various by-electionsand other elections in the Statethereafter, and will not helpthem now, the CM said.

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Two days after it "stronglyadvised" the Finance

Ministry to ensure that allenforcement agencies under itbe "absolutely neutral, impartialand non-discriminatory" whilecracking down on illicit moneyuse in elections, the Departmentof Revenue on Tuesday wrote tothe poll watchdog stating thatthe searches were conducted onthe basis of reliable tip-offs andasserted that its actions werealways "neutral", "impartial" and"non-discriminatory" irrespec-tive of any political affiliation.

The Election Commission(EC), for its part, summoned PCMody, chairman of the CentralBoard of Direct Taxes (CBDT)and Revenue Secretary, ABPandey, to discuss the ongoingincome tax raids amid allega-tions by the Congress that theruling BJP was using enforce-ment agencies to target it dur-ing the poll season. So far, theagencies have carried out 55raids across the country. TheIncome Tax Department,Enforcement Directorate andDirectorate of RevenueIntelligence are the executivearms of the RevenueDepartment dealing with finan-cial crimes.

In response to a letter fromVivek Batra, Director (EE) of theEC, Deputy Secretary(Headquarters andAdministration) of Departmentof Revenue, Arvind Saran saidthat it had shared "specificinformation" with the IncomeTax department about illicitmoney in the electoral process."…the department fully agreeswith the observations that thereis a need to conduct operationsruthlessly to contain this mal-practice," the letter said.

The EC's advice had comein the backdrop of the IncomeTax Department's raids inMadhya Pradesh on Sundayand in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu,and Andhra Pradesh in therecent past on Oppositionpoliticians and people con-nected to them.

On the meeting withRevenue Secretary and CBDTchairman, an EC spokespersonsaid that issues arising out of theadvisory of the ElectionCommission of India dated07.04.2019 regarding all enforce-ment actions being neutral,impartial and non-discrimina-tory and its implementationwere discussed in detail.

The CBDT said the depart-ment has also detected a trail of�20 crore suspect cash alleged-ly being moved to the "head-quarters of a major politicalparty in Delhi" from the houseof an important person wholives on Tughlaq Road, home tomany VIPs.

In its letter, the Departmentof Revenue urged the EC toadvise its field officers to take"immediate action" if they comeacross any specific informationabout the use of illicit money inthe electoral process.

"It is the responsibility of theElection Commission as also ofthe revenue agencies to checkand eventually eliminate theuse of unaccounted money inelection, we would also like tourge the Election Commissionto advise its field officersinvolved in the enforcement ofthe model code of conduct totake immediate enforcementaction at their end under the

election and other appropriatelaws, if they come across anyspecific information about theuse of illicit money in electoralprocesses. They may also, ifdeemed fit, pass on the infor-mation confidentially to IncomeTax department for taking fur-ther necessary action," Saranwrote in the letter.

The EC in its letter toRevenue Secretary had on April7 "strongly advised" the depart-ment that any action by itsenforcement agencies duringthe election time should be"neutral" and "non-discrimina-tory" and officials of the shouldbe kept in the loop about suchactions.

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The CPI(M) on Tuesdaywrote to the Election

Commission on Tuesday alleg-ing violation of the poll panel'sdirective after Prime MinisterNarendra Modi at a rally inMaharashtra asked first-timevoters to dedicate their votes tothe brave men who carried outthe air strike in Pakistan'sBalakot. In the letter, the party'spolitburo member NilotpalBasu urged the EC to "strong-ly initiate" appropriate action tostop the pre-election atmos-phere from being vitiated,which is fast degeneratingtowards polarisation.

"With deep anguish, we aredrawing your attention to thelatest violation of Model Codeof Conduct (MCC) by thePrime Minister, NarendraModi. He is also violating thespecific direction of theElection Commission to refrainfrom invoking the armed forcesfor seeking votes," Basu wrote.

Addressing an electionrally in Maharashtra's Latur,Modi said, "I want to tell thefirst time voters, can you ded-icate your first vote to the thebrave men who carried out theairstrike in Pakistan's Balakot?"Can your first vote be dedi-cated to the brave martyrs ofthe Pulwama (terror attack)?"

In another development,the EC ordered the transfer ofpolice chief of West Bengal'sCooch Behar and postedanother officer in his placeahead of polling in the districton April 11.

The EC ordered the trans-fer of Superintendent of Police,Cooch Behar, Abhishek Gupta,and replaced him with AmitKumar Singh. The transferorders came ahead of thepolling in the district onThursday.

The Trinamool Congresswrote to the Chief ElectionCommissioner on the transfersaying its decision was "arbi-trary, motivated and biased".

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Vice Admiral Bimal Verma,who filed a petition in the

Armed Forces Tribunal(AFT)seeking reasons for gettingoverlooked for the Navy chief 'spost despite being the seniormost, withdrew his plea hereon Tuesday after the Tribunalasked him to first appeal beforethe Navy. If not satisfied afterexploring "internal remedies,"he can approach the Tribunal,Verma was told.

The Government onMarch 23 announced that ViceAdmiral Karambir Singh, nowheading the EasternCommand, will be the newChief after incumbent AdmiralSunil Lanba retires on May 31.Singh is the second seniormost officer and the govern-ment for the second timebypassed the tradition ofappointing the senior mostofficer for the top job. In 2016,Bipin Rawat was made theArmy Chief superseding seniormost Lt General Pravin Bakshi.

Verma, commander-in-chief of the strategically impor-tant tri-Service Andaman andNicobar Command,approached the Armed ForcesTribunal (AFT) on Monday,asking why he was overlookedas the next Navy chief despitebeing the senior-most in theline of command.

However, the officer with-drew his petition after the AFTjudges asked him to firstexplore "internal remedies" forhis grievances. The Tribunalalso said Verma should alsofirst file a statutory complaintwith the Defence Ministry asper the Navy Act, sources saidadding the judges also said itwas not an extraordinary situ-ation which warranted admis-sion before the AFT. Verma'sdaughter Rhea along withsenior counsel Ankur Chibberappeared on behalf of the Navyofficer. Incidentally, Verma isthe brother of former Navychief Nirmal Verma.

The superseded officer's

lawyers asked the judges toorder the government toaddress his concerns in a timebound manner. However, thejudges refused his request, stat-ing that they do not act asadvisers to the Government ofIndia.

While announcing Singh'sname for the top navy post, thegovernment had said the selec-tion was made following amerit-based approach. Thismeant that the tradition ofpicking the senior most for theChief 's post was ignored.

Besides Verma, the seniormost officer in the race for theNavy chief 's post, other con-tenders were Vice Chief ofNaval Staff Vice Admiral GAshok Kumar, WesternCommand chief Vice AdmiralAjit Kumar and SouthernCommand chief Vice AdmiralAnil Kumar Chawla.

On reasons for overlookingVerma, sources had said he hadhe had not commanded aschief of operationally impor-tant Western and EasternCommands and these tenuresare considered very importantfor selecting the Navy chief.

He was reportedly over-looked for these postings as hewas the principal director ofnaval operations during the2005 Naval War Room leak inNew Delhi. Several criticalcommercial and some opera-tional documents were leaked.Verma came under scrutiny butwas cleared with a "severe dis-pleasure" note. He later servedas India's naval attaché in Iranand also commanded a ship.Verma retires in Novemberthis year.

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Union Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba onTuesday said the next Census of 2021

will see the use of mobile app for data col-lection and enumerators can use this facili-ty to speed up the process. A total of 33 lakhenumerators, the persons who conduct doorto door counting, would be mobilised for datacollection for which notification has alreadybeen issued, he said at a conference of cen-sus data users here. He was addressing theseminar organised by Registrar General ofIndia on the forthcoming census in 2021.

The home secretary said Census is notjust an exercise of head count but it also pro-vides invaluable socio-economic data whichforms credible basis for informed policy for-mulation and allocation of resources.Thechanging demographics and socio-economicparameters reflected by the census helps inreformulation of country's plans for the eco-nomic development and welfare schemes forits people, he said.

Gauba said the census data caters to theconstitutional requirement of delimitation ofconstituencies and reservation of seats for SCsand STs. The home secretary also urged forexercising caution while using technology fordata collection in Census 2021 and stressedthat data confidentiality should be main-tained. He asked the participants - repre-

sentatives from ministries of central and stategovernments, academic institutions andinternational organisations — to deliberateon the strategy and questionnaire for the cen-sus to maximise the benefits from this exer-cise.

Registrar General of India and CensusCommissioner Vivek Joshi said the Census2021 will be conducted in two phases.

In the first phase, house listing operationswould be conducted in any two months cho-sen by the states between April andSeptember in 2020.In the second phase, actu-al population enumeration would be doneduring February 9-28, 2021, followed by therevision round from March 1-5, 2021.InJammu and Kashmir and snow bound areasof Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand,population enumeration would be conduct-ed during September 11-30, 2020, followedby the revision round from October 1-5,2020, Joshi said.

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Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesdaysaid Prime Minister Narendra Modi is

"scared" of debating with him on corruptionissues, particularly pertaining to Rafale scam,which, according to his party, is the the biggestdefence corruption scandal of IndependentIndia.

Rahul has been repeatedly daring Modi todebate with him on issues of national security,especially the Rafale fighter jets deal, assertingthat when it happens, the truth will be out inthe open.

The BJP has, however, ridiculed theCongress chief 's idea and described him anignorant politician.

"Dear PM, Scared of debating me on cor-ruption? I can make it easier for you. Let's goopen book, so you can prepare: 1.RAFALE+Anil Ambani, 2. Nirav Modi, 3. AmitShah+Demonetisation," Rahul Gandhi tweet-ed with #Scared2Debate.

Later addressing a Press conference fol-lowing Rahul's tweet, a Congress spokesman

said PM Modi, who recently threw an enragedtantrum in a television interview on the ques-tion of Rafale scam , should accept this chal-lenge.

"Modiji who screams and scrams on theissue of Corruption must open his mouth onthe 'Loot & Scoot' of 28 Economic Offenderslike Nirav Modi, MehulChoksi, Vijay Mallya,Jatin Mehta among others who looted Rs 1 LakhCrore from our banks. Modiji must tell who inhis PMO was 'managing the money collections'during Demonetisation as shown in the videosting," said AICC spokesman Pawan Khera.

After releasing the Congress manifesto forthe Lok Sabha polls earlier this month, RahulGandhi had challenged the prime minister todebate with him on the issues of national secu-rity, corruption and foreign policy.

The Congress has also accused Modi ofhelping industrialist Anil Ambani make a prof-it of �30,000 crore by favouring him as the off-set partner in the Rafale deal.

The Government has denied any wrong-doing in the fighter jets deal. Ambani has alsorejected all allegations.

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Bypoll to the Panaji Assemblyseat, which fell vacant fol-

lowing the demise of ManoharParrikar, will be held on May19. The Election Commission(EC) also announced bypolls tofour Assembly constituencies inTamil Nadu and one inKarnataka. The notification forthe six by-elections will beissued on April 22, which willstart the nomination process.

According to EC, thebypolls will be held on May 19,coinciding with the last phaseof the Lok Sabha elections.The counting will be held onMay 23, along with that of theparliamentary polls. Parrikarwas sworn-in as the Goa ChiefMinister in 2017 after he wonfrom Panaji. He had earlierbeen the defence Minister in thePrime Minister Narendra

Modi-led BJP Government.Incidentally, It will be the

second bypoll for PanajiAssembly seat since State pollsin 2017. The first one was inAugust that year after BJP MLASiddharth Kunkolienkarresigned from the House toallow Parrikar, then DefenceMinister, to become an MLA.Parrikar died of a pancreatic ail-ment on March 17.

The Assembly constituen-cies in Tamil Nadu where by-election was announced areSulur, Arevakurichi,Thiruparankundaram andOttapidaram. Kundgol inKarnataka will also go for abypoll. The bypoll was neces-sitated after KarnatakaMunicipal AdministrationMinister and three-time MLAfrom the constituency C SShivalli passed away in Marchdue to cardiac arrest.

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������������ ��� �� ��.�"���"������ ����"��������New Delhi: The Supreme Courton Tuesday directed the AssamGovernment to apprise it of"ways and means" that can beadopted to release illegal for-eigners languishing in the State'sdetention centres for almost adecade.

Hearing a PIL filed byactivist Harsh Mander, throughadvocate Prashant Bhushan, onthe plight of foreign detenues,the court also took note of thestate's submissions that thecourt's "loaded observations"during the hearing of the casemay impact Lok Sabha polls inAssam.

It will now be heard onApril 25. A bench of ChiefJustice Ranjan Gogoi and jus-tices Deepak Gupta and SanjivKhanna decided to hear thematter after April 23, when thethree-phase polls in the stateconclude.

The plea has alleged thatprisoners are kept in detentionindefinitely because they are notIndians and are treated as "ille-gal aliens".

The apex court asked theAssam government to consultauthorities and file an affidaviton or before April 23, givingdetails of "ways and means" forreleasing over 900 illegal for-eigners who are languishing insix detention centres in thestate for nearly a decade.

It appointed senior appoint-ed Gaurav Bannerjee as amicuscuriae to assist it on the issue ofidentification and tracing illegalforeigners and their deportationto their country of origin.

The bench rejectedBhushan's submission thatBannerjee be asked to visit thedetention centres and submit areport on the living conditionthere. PTI

��������������������� �������� ��� New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesdaydismissed a petition filed by a Congressactivist seeking stay on the release of biopic onPrime Minister Narendra Modi saying theElection Commission would be an "appropri-ate" place to seek the redressal.

The apex court said it was not entertain-ing the petition for the stay on the release ofthe film as it was "premature" since the movieis yet to be certified by the Censor Board.

It said even if the film is released on April11, as claimed by the Congress activist, it willbe appropriate for him to seek a redressal fromthe Election Commission.

"We, therefore do not consider it fit toentertain the petition", said a bench compris-ing Chief justice Ranjan Gogoi and JusticesDeepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna.

The court had on Monday said that "anykind of order from the court will be possibleif the petitioner states and pleads what the filmis seeking to depict and his objections on thiscount".

The bench said the petitioner has beenunable to append the copy of the biopic andthe video clipping, which is a two minute trail-er, was not sufficient to assess that the filmwould influence or impact the upcoming gen-eral elections. PTI

+#)�������/ �����, ����� New Delhi: CBI on Tuesday vehemently opposedin the Supreme Court the bail plea of RJD supre-mo Lalu Prasad Yadav in the fodder scam casessaying that the ailing leader suddenly claimed tobe "fully fit" to undertake political activities in theupcoming Lok Sabha polls.

Yadav, who has been in hospital instead of jailfor last over eight months, has sought bail on med-ical grounds and for leading his party simultane-ously, CBI said while arguing that granting of bailto him would set "very wrong precedent" in casesinvolving "serious corruption in high offices".

Accusing Yadav of undertaking political activ-ities from a hospital in Ranchi, the probe agencysaid: "Simultaneous raising of pleas for bail on med-ical grounds and bail to guide the party and to carryout all essential responsibilities as a party presi-dent in ensuing Lok Sabha election are mutuallycontradictory and manifests that in the garb of bailon medical ground the petitioner in essence wantsto pursue his political activities which is imper-missible in law."

The bail plea of Yadav would come up for hear-ing on Wednesday before a bench headed by ChiefJustice Ranjan Gogoi.

"It is, in the most humble and respectful sub-mission of the investigating agency, a case wheregrant of bail would set a very wrong precedent incases involving a serious corruption in highoffices," CBI said. PTI

���+�� ���� $0*���� ���� ����� ����������New Delhi: The Supreme Court onTuesday directed the CBI to file thecase diary and the status report ofthe investigation in the 2017 SSCexam paper leak case.

A bench headed by ChiefJustice Ranjan Gogoi said it willtake up the matter for hearing onApril 11.

The apex court on April 1allowed the Staff SelectionCommission (SSC) to declare theresult of a re-examination of SSCCombined Graduate Level (CGL)2017 held last year.

The top court had said thatlakhs of unemployed youths havesuffered because someone from theorganisation was corrupt.

The examination papers ofthe SSC CGL 2017 were allegedlyleaked, leading to huge protests

from job seekers for several days.Amid the protests, the SSC had

recommended a CBI probe into theallegations of paper leak.

On August 31 last year, theapex court stayed the declarationof result of the SSC CGL and CHSLExamination, in which lakhs of stu-dents had appeared, saying itseemed that the entire test and thesystem was "tainted". The apexcourt then favoured cancelling the2017 SSC examination, and hold-ing it afresh by the National TestingAgency or the CBSE "in the inter-est of students".

However, the Centre said thatthere was no need for re-exami-nation of entire paper as the leakwas "extremely localised" and thosebehind the leaks were identifiedand action was taken. PTI

������������� # ��)"�������������� '%����� �%����� #���New Delhi: Nirmohi Akhara, one of the litigantsin the Ayodhya case, moved the Supreme Court onTuesday opposing the Centre's plea which seeks toreturn to the original owners the 67.390 acre of"non-disputed" land it had acquired around the dis-puted Ram Janambhoomi-Babri Masjid site.

The Allahabad High Court in 2010 had decid-ed that the 2.77-acre of disputed land at the sitewould be divided into three equal parts and willbe handed over to — Nirmohi Akhara, Sunni WaqfBoard, and Ram Lalla.

The Nirmohi Akhara, in its fresh plea, hasopposed the Centre's application by which it hadsought modification of the Supreme Court's 2003order so as to allow it to return to original ownersthe 67.390 acre of "non-disputed" acquired landaround the disputed site. The application has saidthat the Centre has proposed returning of acquiredland to Ram Janambhoomi Nyas (RJN) and thatthere are many temples on the acquired land andtheir rights would be affected if the land isreturned to one party. The apex court recentlyappointed mediators to find an amicable solutionto the vexatious land dispute. PTI

�1����������"��������� ��"���� �"��� ������New Delhi: Women can file matrimonialcases, including criminal matters pertainingto cruelty, from the place where they havetaken shelter after leaving or being driven outof their matrimonial home, the SupremeCourt said on Tuesday.

The apex court's verdict came on anappeal filed by Rupali Devi against theAllahabad High Court which dismissed herplea to file a dowry harassment case from herparents' house.

The high court order held that crueltypunishable under Section 498A of the IPC isnot a continuing offence, and thus cannotbe investigated or punished in a jurisdictionoutside the one in which the matrimonialhouse of the complainant is situated.

A bench headed by Chief Justice RanjanGogoi said the impact on the mental healthof the wife by "overt acts" by the husband orhis relatives, mental stress and trauma ofbeing driven away from the matrimonialhome cannot be ignored while understand-ing the meaning of "cruelty" in Section 498Aof the Indian Penal Code. PTI

Page 6: ˘ˇ ˆ˙˝ - The Pioneer · they can send complaints and geo-tagged videos and photos of illegal gifts, money or liquor being distributed or a hate speech being made by any political

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The National Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) have analysedthe self-sworn affidavits of 1266 out of 1279 candidates who are contesting the Lok SabhaPhase I. Out of the 1266 the candidates, 213 (17%) have declared criminal cases against

themselves. 146 candidates have records of serious criminal cases, out of which 10 have declaredcases related to murder. 401 of them are crorepati candidates.

There are 13 candidates who have not been analysed due to unavailability of their proper-ly scanned and complete affidavits.

Four candidates have declared cases related to kidnapping such kidnapping for ransom, etc.(IPC Section-364A), kidnapping or abducting in order to murder (IPC Section-364), Kidnapping, abducting or inducing woman to compel her marriage, etc. (IPC Section-366) etc,against themselves.

16 candidates have declared cases related to crime against women such as rape (IPC Section-376), assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty (IPC Section-354),husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty (IPC Section-498A), etc.,against themselves. 12 candidates have declared cases related to hate speech against themselves.

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The Congress and the BJP have built their electoral narratives onpast records versus electoral promises. While the Prime MinisterNarendra Modi-led BJP has pinned its hopes on “Phir Ek Baar

Modi Sarkar” (once again a Modi Government), on the other, Congresshas pitched its “Ab hoga Nyay” (justice will happen now) slogan — alsoa reference to Nyuntam Aay Yojana, the party’s minimum income guar-antee promise, and its key poll pitch. Both parties have also released theircampaign theme songs for the elections.

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Bijnor: Congress general secre-tary Priyanka Gandhi Vadraresponded with flowers to thechant of ‘Modi-Modi’ by a groupof BJP workers at her roadshowon the last day of campaigningat Bijnore, about 450 kilometresfrom here. According to thereports, Priyanka was holdingher roadshow in support ofCongress nomineeNaseemuddin Siddique, when afew BJP workers started chant-ing ‘Modi-Modi’.

A smiling Priyanka, whowas atop a specially designedvehicle, threw flowers towardthe saffron party workers.

Apparently not expecting sucha response from the Congressleader, the BJP workers weretaken aback.

They, however, continuedchanting ‘Modi-Modi’. Therewas also a scuffle between theCongress and BJP workers.Congress supporters in returnshouted ‘Chowkidar Chor Hai’.Police had to intervene as theyremoved BJP supporters afterquite an effort.

The Congress workers alsoraised slogans against PrimeMinister Narendra Modi and theBJP Government at the Centreand in the State. Agencies

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Campaigning for the firstphase poll in eight Lok

Sabha constituencies of Uttar Pradesh came to an endon Tuesday.

The polling is scheduled onApril 11.

With this, the high profileelectioneering also came to agrinding halt in these con-stituencies and the securitypersonnel rushed to the pollingbooths to take up their dutiesfor the polling to be heldbetween 7 am and 6 pm onThursday.

Security personnel staged flag marches in the sen-sitive pockets while liquorshops were closed till the end of polling in these con-stituencies.

The constituencies, which have inter-state borderswith Delhi, Haryana andUttarakhand, have been sealed off.

Western UP will pave theway for the formation of thenext government at the Centre,when 16 constituencies will goto the polls in the first twophases on April 11 and 18.

With weather playing hideand seek and hailstorm withrains lashing western UP in thepast 48 hours, the temperaturehas come down, much to the relief of campaigningpoliticians.

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Page 7: ˘ˇ ˆ˙˝ - The Pioneer · they can send complaints and geo-tagged videos and photos of illegal gifts, money or liquor being distributed or a hate speech being made by any political

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Mamata Banerjee onTuesday attacked Prime

Minister Narendra Modi call-ing him the “king (samrat) ofthe fascists” to remove whoseGovernment “is my one-pointagenda.”

The Bengal Chief Ministerwho picked up from where sheleft on Monday lambasting thesaffron brigade for “spreadingpolitics of hatred,” said Modiwho had his “baptism in poli-tics through riots and masskillings,” would have put evenAdolf Hitler to shame by his dic-tatorial ways and hateful politics.

“Even Hitler would havecommitted suicide if he werealive and seen his (Modi’s)style of politics,” Banerjee saidadding removal of the PrimeMinister from power was herone-point agenda.

“Throwing the BJP and itsliar Prime Minister out ofpower is my one point-pro-gramme,” Banerjee told aTrinamool Congress electionrally at Raiganj bordering Bihar.

The Chief Minister saidher party would play the pivotalrole in forming a Governmentin Delhi this time round. “TheCongress will not be able tomake a Government on its ownand the TMC will play a pivotal

role in forming the Governmentin Delhi. I wish success to otheranti-BJP parties like SP and BSPin UP,” she said.

Alleging that some pur-chased media houses were play-ing for the BJP she said the saf-fron outfit will “be defeated inBengal where they will get noseat, Bihar, Odisha, UP, MP,Rajasthan, Karnataka, TamilNadu, Kerala, Punjab” addingeven in “Gujarat they will be

only half successful.” So “fromwhere they will manage theirseats. It is just because of somepurchased media houses theyare making themselves rele-vant.”

Attacking the PrimeMinister for “deliveringuntruth” in his meetings andthrough his actions Banerjeesaid “when he came last timeasking for votes he called him-self a chaiwalla. But now when

much of that flavour is gone hecalls himself a chowkidar whilepeople say ‘chowkidar chor hei(watchman is thief).’”

However, “I say apart fromthat this chowkidar is also a liarwho offers promises not to deliv-er on them.” Asking the peopleto make a careful decisionBanerjee warned “if this personreturns to power he will finish allthe democratic institutions of thecountry. He will also drive awayall of us you the country. Onlyhe will live and none else. Suchis his autocratic ways.”

Daring the Prime Ministerto go ahead with his CitizenshipBill as proposed by his party inits next tenure, Banerjee said “wewill allow no NRC in Bengal. Idare them to do this here.Earlier they said that they willonly do it in parts of Assam.Now they have decided to takeit to other parts of India andthreatening to bring it in Bengal.But we will not allow them toimplement NRC here.”

The Chief Minister alsoheld another meeting at neigh-bouring Islampur which falls inRaiganj constituency. Here theTMC’s Kanhaialal Agarwal iscontesting against Congress,Deepa Dasmunshi and CPI(M)Md Salim. The BJP is also con-testing from here making it afour-cornered fight.

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In a swift and unprecedenteddecision, the Election

Commission (EC) on Tuesdaytransferred out theSuperintendent of Police (SP)of Cooch Behar AbhishekGupta barely 30 hours ahead ofthe first phase of elections.

Gupta was transferred anddivested of all election dutyafter the Opposition BJP andthe Left complained againsthim of pro-TMC bias.

The ruling outfit howeveralleged partisan conduct on thepart of the EC.

“It is strange that he wasmoved out a day afterTrinamool leader Mukul Roypublicly said that he will makethe SP suffer for his deeds,” saidsenior Bengal Minister ParthoChatterjee.

Gupta who allegedlyrefused to cooperate with theSPG during Prime MinisterNarendra Modi’s meeting onMonday was also reportedagainst by the Left for remain-ing a mute spectator to its com-rades being attacked by theTMC goons. The SP wasreplaced by AK Singh.

Meanwhile, UnionMinister and Asansol BJP can-didate Babul Supriyo was onTuesday heckled by alleged

Trinamool Congress support-ers even as he went aboutremoving anti-Narendra Modiposters — written chowkidarchor hei (watchman is a thief)— from parts of his Asansolconstituency where he wascampaigning.

Elsewhere in a relateddevelopment alleged TMCgoons beat up CPI(M) candi-date from Asansol andDiamond Harbour: GaurangoChatterjee and Fuad Halim.

Both were badly beatenup while campaigning andwere admitted to governmenthospitals in respective areas.Halim a doctor and the son of former BengalSpeaker HA Halim is contest-ing against sitting DiamondHarbour MP AbhishekBanerjee, then nephew of Chief Minister MamataBanerjee.

In both the cases therespective SPs said they hadreceived oral complaints.

“We have been sustainingphysical attacks on candidatesin local elections but if it hap-pens in parliamentary pollsthen nothing is more shamefulthan this,” CPI(M) leader Sujan Chakrabarty saiddemanding actions from theECI while the TMC denied theallegations.

Shahjahanpur: An election candidate who dressed himself as abridegroom and got atop a horse to file his nomination papersrode right into trouble. The police booked Sanyukt Vikas Partycandidate Vaidh Raj Kishan on Monday night for violating pro-hibitory orders when he tried to lead a “wedding procession” tothe collectorate to file his nomination from the ShahjahanpurLok Sabha seat, Chief Development officer Mahendra SinghTanwar Said.

“Mai rajniti ka damad hoon (I am the son-in-law of politics),”Kishan said when asked about his unusual attire. Kishan said hewas dressed as a bridegroom as it was his marriage anniversaryon Monday. He wore a sherwani, donned a turban and rode ahorse as he was accompanied by his supporters who danced toBollywood numbers.

The “wedding procession” was stopped by the police at SadarBazar area and Kishan had to dismount the horse to reach thecollectorate and file his nomination, Tanwar said.

This is not the first time when this candidate tried an unusu-al way to file his nomination papers. In 2017 Uttar PradeshAssembly elections, Kishan had arrived on a funeral bier to filehis nomination. PTI

Kolkata: In a setback to tigerconservation efforts inSundarbans, a decomposedbody of a big cat was found inthe mangrove forest.

According to ForestDepartment officials, recoveryof the carcass of a full-growntiger was a major “cause of con-cern” and the cause of its deathhas not yet been ascertained.

“A detailed probe has beenordered to find out the actualcause of its death. The autop-sy report could provide someclues to the mysterious death,”an official said.

Forest officials suspectedthat the tiger might have died10-15 days ago.

The Forest Departmenthas been looking at all the pos-sible angles behind the death ofthe big cat including the pos-sibility of an poaching attemptthough the claws, teeth andskin or any other parts of itsbody were recovered.

It was learnt that a trapwhich is generally used forcatching deer was found lyingnear its body and there may besome “foul play” as its deathwas “not seen as natural”.

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The ruling BJP suffered a set-back on Tuesday, as a flying

squad of the ElectionCommission — accompaniedby a group of MaharashtraCongress workers — “raided”an “illegal” make-shift set-upengaged in manufacturing elec-tronic propaganda material forthe party and seized materialworth Rs 6 crore.

“During its raid, theElection Commission has seized

propaganda material worth Rs6 crore from the registeredoffice premises belonging to theUnited Phosphorus Ltd (UPL)at Khar in north-west Mumbai.Major chunk of propagandamaterials are electronic cardsworth Rs 300 each which car-rying message from PrimeMinister Narendra Modi,”Maharashtra Pradesh CongressCommittee (MPCC) spokesper-son Sachin Sawant said.

After the “raid”, the EC fly-ing squad sealed the UPL

premises in the evening. Earlierin the evening, the EC alsolodged a police complaint withthe Khar police. However, theEC had not issued any officialstatement in this regard till latein the evening.

Having taken cognisance ofthe complaint, the police did apanchnama of the site andlaunched investigations intothe complaint.

Sawant claimed that theElection authorities had carriedout “surgical strikes” the BJP’s

“illegal” electronic propagandamaterial manufacturing unit.

According to Sawant, theBJP had not taken permissionfrom the Election Commissionto undertake manufacture ofsuch electronic propagandamaterials. “TheEC’s flying squadalso found pictures of defenceaircraft, Army, Air Force, sur-gical strikes and recorded clipsof voice messages of PrimeMinister Narendra Modi’sspeeches appealing people tovote for the BJP,” Sawant said.

Alluding to the ElectionCommission’s directive to polit-ical parties to desist from usingor making references armedforces in their poll campaign,Sawant said: “In a blatant vio-lation of the EC’s directive, theBJP is engaged in making lakhsof these electronic pamphlets fordistribution without the ECclearance. It looks like the BJPwould not account for in the pollexpenses to be submitted to EC.”

“The pamphlets have spe-cial chips with Modi’s poll

appeal which is played whenthe pamphlets are opened. TheBJP has engaged small childrento stick the chips on the pam-phlets by paying hefty sums tothem daily,” the Congressspokesperson said.

Sawant demanded strictaction against the UPL author-ities for allowing their premis-es to be used for such illegalpoll-related activities andagainst BJP’s national presidentAmit Shah for his alleged com-plicity in the matter.

��������������� 75����

In a rare incident of its kind,one of the top bureaucrats in

Tamil Nadu has approachedthe Government of India witha plea to prosecute the coun-try’s Chief VigilanceCommissioner.

Dr Jagmohan Singh Raju(56) who holds the post ofAdditional Chief Secretary ofTamil Nadu is at the receivingend of victimisation and humil-iation unleashed at him bynone other than the ChiefVigilance Commissioner of thecountry, according to a legalnotice sent to the Governmentof India by senior lawyerPrasant Bhushan on behalf ofDr Raju.

Dr Raju has asked theDepartment of Personnel andTraining (DoPT), Ministry ofPersonnel, Public Grievancesand Pensions that action be ini-tiated for removal of the ChiefVigilance Commissioner interms of Section 6(1) of theCVC Act , 2003, including aPresidential Reference to theSupreme Court for holding aninquiry and registration of FIRagainst the CVCr under theScheduled Caste/ScheduledTribe (Prevention of AtrocitiesAct) 1989 for committingatrocities.

Upset over the spectacularperformance of this IAS officer,some forces in Tamil Nadu orelsewhere had sent anony-

mous/pseudonymous letters tothe Chief Vigilance Commissionwhich were inquired and foundto be false and frivolous by theMinistry of HRD in 2013 itself.

In spite of the clearance bythe ministry, the ChiefVigilance Commissioner hasordered a re-inquiry into thecharges levelled against theofficial in the anonymous/pseudonymous letters , an acthitherto unheard of in theannals of Indian bureaucracy.

The action of the CVCrhas delayed further the empan-elment of Dr Raju as the addi-tional secretary to theGovernment of India.According to PrasanthBhushan, the lawyer repre-senting Dr Raju, the ChiefVigilance Commissioner K VChowdary has acted in a mostinappropriate manner byordering a re-inquiry into acase which was inquired andfound to be false by the con-cerned agencies of theGovernment of India.

Dr Raju, upset over thedelay in his getting empanelled

as the additional secretary tothe Government of India hadapproached the NationalCommission of ScheduledCaste (NCSC) which found toits dismay that the officer hasbecome a victim of high hand-ed behaviour by the CVCr.

The NCSC after a thoroughperusal of Dr Raju’s case opined;“ His case is a sordid reminderof how members of theScheduled Caste continue to bediscriminated against and vic-timised by not only the societyat large but also the governmentand its instrumentalities whichare constitutionally obligated tosafeguard their rights”.

“If such a senior ScheduledCaste officer has to face dis-crimination and injustice lead-ing to impediment in his careerby delay in empanelment,demoralising him as well as thepetitioner having to unnecessarybear the stigma of an officerunder the investigation by theCVC, then what is the recourseof the thousands of ordinaryGovernment servants belongingto the Scheduled Caste .

Tezpur: A Muslim man wasallegedly beaten up and forcedto eat pork by a group of peo-ple who were angry over hisselling beef in Assam, policesaid on Tuesday.

Consumption of pork is ataboo among most Muslims.The AIUDF and Jamiat Ulema’sAssam unit condemned theincident and claimed it was aconspiracy to disturb peace inthe state ahead of the LokSabha polls.

The victim, Shaukat Ali(48), was assaulted by a groupof locals at Madhupur weeklymarket in Biswanath district onSunday and required hospital-isation, Superintendent ofPolice Rakesh Raushan said.

A video of the incident thathas gone viral showed a dazedAli surrounded by some peo-ple who angrily demanded toknow from him where he camefrom and whether his name fig-ured in the contentiousNational Register of Citizensthat intends to weed out illegalmigrants.

Ali, according to Raushan,was beaten up by locals notaligned to any fundamentalistorganisation. The alleged vic-tim, who owns a food stall,claimed he was force-fed porkby the assailants but police didnot confirm it.

“We have also heard aboutthat. It is a matter of investiga-tion. It is only after that has beendone that I will be able to tell,”

the SP said. A man was arrest-ed in connection with the inci-dent and questioned.

Ali claimed he had beenselling beef at the market forover three decades and neverfaced such a situation.

The group also beat up 42-year-old Kamal Thapa, the con-tractor of the market, for allow-ing Ali to sell beef dishes. Cowslaughter and consumption ofbeef is not banned in the statebut the Assam CattlePreservation Act, 1950, permitsslaughter of only cattle above 14years of age after due certifica-tion by a veterinary officer.

A man was beaten to deathand three others were critical-ly injured when villagersassaulted them on suspicion ofbeing cattle thieves inBiswanath district in Augustlast year.

Sunday’s incident came tolight when a video shot by oneamong the group of assailantswent viral on social media. Acase was registered with theBiswanath Chariali police sta-tion on the complaint of thevictim’s brother SahabuddinAli on Monday evening.

The police superintendentsaid raids are on to apprehendothers involved in the incident.

The All India UnitedDemocratic Front (AIUDF) andthe Jamiat Ulema’s Assam unithave demanded an investigationinto the incident and immedi-ate arrest of the culprits. PTI

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Page 8: ˘ˇ ˆ˙˝ - The Pioneer · they can send complaints and geo-tagged videos and photos of illegal gifts, money or liquor being distributed or a hate speech being made by any political

VK Singh, the BJP’s candidatefrom Ghaziabad who polled arecord number of votes in2014 only next to PrimeMinister Narendra Modi, had

got the party’s star speaker and UttarPradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath tocampaign for him last month. Singh is noordinary soldier. He is a former ArmyChief, who distinguished himself in officeby taking his own Government to court ona personal matter, breaking the Army’s codeof “nation first and service before self.”

On March 31, at another rally inGhaziabad, Adityanath referred to thearmed forces repeatedly to draw a contrastwith “Congress ke log”. Said he, “Congressleaders would feed biryani to terrorists butModiji’s sena only gave them goli and gola.”This graceless description of the armedforces as Prime Minister Modi’s privatearmy and crude depiction of counter-ter-rorism operations are an attempt to politi-cise our forces. The Opposition raised thered flag even as retired Generals and otherfoot soldiers of the services condemned thecrass politicisation of an apolitical institu-tion despite the Election Commission’s (EC)stricture: “Political parties/candidates/cam-paigners should desist from indulging inpropaganda involving activities of defenceforces’ (presumably military operations).”But all the EC did was to issue the ChiefMinister an advisory of caution, so tooth-less is the commission. The Chiefs of StaffCommittee of the three service Chiefsought to have condemned Adityanath’sremark. Just last month, Gen AngusCampbell, Australian Chief of DefenceStaff, intervened in an interaction betweenhis Defence Minister Christopher Pyne andsoldiers, ticking off the Minister for rais-ing a political issue.

Though Singh pretended that none ofthe Adityanath theatre happened till fourdays later, he spoke up, especially after theEC issued a notice to the Chief Minister forhis offending comment. Singh said, “Thosecalling the Indian Army Modi’s sena werenot only wrong but also traitors to thenation.” He added that he did not know thereference and context of the controversialremarks by Adityanath.

Never in the history of independentIndia has any Government milked the “mil-itary operations” of the armed forces forpolitical or electoral gains as blatantly as theruling establishment does. Prime MinisterModi inaugurates his campaign speecheswith “Mere saath bolo: Sena ki jai” sloga-neering. Further, BJP leaders have openlystated that they would exploit militaryachievements despite the EC’s ban. Afterthe surgical strikes in 2016, BJP presidentAmit Shah said that it would be used in theAssembly polls in Uttar Pradesh and otherStates — and they were. While speaking toparty workers in Mumbai last month,External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj

indicated that the Indian AirForce (IAF) strikes on terrorcamps in Pakistan would be anissue for her party in the LokSabha poll. She said that herparty would come out with twoleaflets — one containing ini-tiatives of her party for welfareof women and the other coun-tering the Opposition regard-ing Balakot air strikes.

The Government’s glorifi-cation of the armed forces is awelcome step but not when thereal motive is not their deifica-tion but that of the politicalleadership enhancing its ownimage. The Government’sclaims of caring for the soldierand the military are highlyexaggerated, merely throughsymbolism and lip-service:Rakhi-tying for soldiers inSiachen or Modi spendingDiwali with ITBP soldiers.With four defence Ministers infive years, lowest defence bud-gets since 1962, stingingrebukes on operational pre-paredness and defence mod-ernisation by the StandingCommittee of Parliament onDefence and the EstimatesCommittee by the BJP’s ownveterans, Maj Gen Khanduriand MM Joshi, no less, every-thing indicates a muddle in thehigher defence management.At a CNN18 programme last

month, Defence MinisterNirmala Sitharaman duckedawkward questions on animperfect One Rank, OnePension scheme and theGovernment blocking NonFunctional Upgrade (NFU) forthe armed forces. Defencereforms, including CDS, havenot moved an inch. Makingnational security a poll plank islike shutting the stable doorafter the horse has bolted.

Yes, Modi delivered on theNational War Memorial butmuddied the event by divinginto a diatribe against theCongress instead of restrictingthe occasion to extol the sacri-fices of the armed forces.“[email protected] have used an event of inau-guration of NWM for pettypolitics. You did not maintaindecorum”, tweeted Col AshokSingh, just one of the many offi-cers who felt the speech was inbad taste and nothing morethan an election pitch. Notedstrategic expert Brig GurmeetKanwal said: “Dear@PMOIndia. Please avoid makingpolitical speeches at a solemnoccasion.”

Systematic efforts havebeen made at politicising themilitary starting with the post-Uri surgical strikes. Brazenly,the BJP unfurled banners and

posters containing pictures ofthe Director General MilitaryOperations, Lt Gen RanbirSingh, flanked by Modi andShah in Lucknow and UttarPradesh. Modi was hailed theinvincible conqueror and so on.Former Defence MinisterManohar Parrikar, an RSSpracharak, would tell storiesabout how he infused theHanuman spirit in the Army(Yogi Adityanath has alsolikened the Army toHanuman). Lt Gen DS Hooda,now retired, the chief architectof the surgical strikes, said: “Weshould have kept the operationunder wraps and not let it getpoliticised.” The BJP hassqueezed the last drop of elec-toral juice from the surgicalstrikes in every Assembly elec-tion in 2017-18. In Karnataka,Modi targeted Nehru for shab-bily treating one of the twoCoorg military icons, botharmy Chiefs, KM Cariappaand KS Thimayya, though hegot the wrong General andmade matters worse by inject-ing politics into a class ofCoorg nobility which has beenhistorically apolitical.

The political antics overBalakot have outclassed surgi-cal strikes. Modi excelled him-self by describing the air strikesgraphically with pictures of

Abhinanadan in the back-ground till EC’s notional pro-hibitory orders. Each BJP cam-paigner is competing to outdohis own party rival in lavishingpraise on Modi’s mythical pow-ers of leadership. The BJP isdrunk on its Balakot brew,refusing to either ponder onPulwama or Balakot andbeyond. The two military oper-ations of the IAF and the Armymay win the BJP another termin Government but will dan-gerously politicise the secularand professional armed forces.

The EC must ensure itsprohibition on the use of mil-itary operations/defence activ-ities in campaign rallies is notflagrantly violated by the gov-ernment. Phrases like “shoulddesist from” are innocuous.Ahead of the Lok Sabha poll, asurvey of public opinion byLokniti and Azim PremjiUniversity indicated that theArmy is the most trusted insti-tution (88 per cent) and polit-ical parties (minus 55 per cent)Just the right time for the threeService Chiefs to make Modiwalk the talk on “Sena ki jai.”

(The writer is a retiredMajor General of the IndianArmy and founder member ofthe Defence Planning Staff, cur-rently the revamped IntegratedDefence Staff)

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Alliance fears in UP” (April 8).There can be no doubt that theroad to New Delhi goes throughUttar Pradesh and the State willplay a big role in deciding whichparty should govern the countryfor the next five years.

The Kairana bypoll successprompted the two arch-rivals —Samajwadi Party (SP) andBahujan Samaj Party (BSP) — toforge an alliance in UP. Bothknow it well that Muslims aretheir core votebank. TheCongress has decided to fight theelections alone. If the Muslim votegets divided, like it happened lasttime, the BJP will stand to bene-fit. This is why BSP chiefMayawati asked the Muslimcommunity to not vote for theCongress but the SP-BSP alliance.

Bal GovindNoida

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Sir — In its election manifesto, theBharatiya Janata Party (BJP) hasmade a plethora of promises,prominent among them being the

expeditious building of the Ramtemple. It is surprising that the rul-ing party is wanting to build thetemple in a haste. This, to reap div-idends with an eye on the elections,which are just a few days away.

However, one of the laudableand highly acceptable poll-promises made by it is the resolveto annul Article 35A of theConstitution, after which out-siders will be able to own prop-

erty in Jammu & Kashmir. True,this special status has made thisborder State remain aloof. TheCongress and other allies mustsupport this move.

Further, the BJP also made amention of the Sabarimala con-troversy in its manifesto, sayingthat it will endeavour to secureConstitutional protection onissues related to faith and beliefs.The party could have solved this

matter once and for all during itscurrent term but lacked the polit-ical will to do so. Its promise nowto secure Constitutional protec-tion is nothing but opportunisticpolitics. After having fished introubled waters, the party isready now. It’s not hard for peo-ple to see through the tricksbeing played by political parties.

TK NandananChennai

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Sir — West Bengal Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee has been cryingfoul over the transfer of police offi-cers. She has made uncharitableremarks on the ElectionCommission (EC), alleging that ithas acted at the behest of the BJP.The EC has asserted that it is wellwithin its powers to transfer andappoint officers when the modelcode of conduct is in force.Banerjee has also accused the ECof taking the decision arbitrarily.Amidst all this, she needs toexplain why she is insisting that thesame police officers continue.What is her problem when the offi-cers posted in place of the trans-ferred ones are of similar seniori-ty and from the same West Bengalcadre only? The decision to trans-fer is said to be based on “cumu-lative feedback” from one of theEC’s top officials and the specialpolice observer. If their recommen-dation for transfers does not carryweight, the very purpose ofappointing them is defeated.

KV SeetharamiahHassan

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Most of us visualise PV NarasimhaRao as a frail old man but he wasa firebrand activist during hisyouth, engaging in guerrilla-typeinsurgency to topple the Nizam of

Hyderabad. The angry young man subsequentlyrose to become the Prime Minister of the world’slargest democracy. Rao’s calibre and competencecan be equated with Jawaharlal Nehru’s gold stan-dards in politics. The tale of perhaps India’s two bestPrime Ministers is contradictory yet fascinating.Nehru and Rao did not have much in commonexcept that both were intellectuals. Nehru’s intel-lectualism was shaped by Harrow, Cambridge andLincoln’s Inn; by Bernard Shaw, Russell and theFabians. He probably dreamt in English. The titleof his book, The Discovery of India, is a disarmingconfession of his need for discovering the land ofhis birth. Rao’s intellectual centre, on the other hand,was India. Unlike Nehru, his knowledge ofSanskrit was profound. He was a man of learning,a scholar, a linguist and a thinker of the first order.His roots were deep in the spiritual and religiousmatrix of India.

Rao was a man of the soil. From humble socialorigins, he rose to become the ninth PrimeMinister from 1991 to 1996. As a teenager, he waspart of the Vande Mataram movement in theHyderabad of the late 1930s. Rao was a polyglot— aside from his mother tongue, Telugu, he hadexcellent command over several other languages— nine Indian and six foreign. His political careerwas shaped by his involvement in India’s strugglefor independence. His early mentors includedNehru and Indira Gandhi. He was the most trust-ed advisor to the latter, having impressed her withhis intellectual prowess. Former Law Minister HRBharadwaj acknowledged that Indira Gandhialways depended on Rao’s intellect to navigate herGovernment’s policies and party’s machinery. Sheappointed him the country’s Foreign Minister in1980. This gave him a big break. With his penchantfor picking up languages, Rao fitted snugly into thehigh-flying world of international diplomacydespite being a teetotaller and a vegetarian. In 1986,Rao, as Human Resources Development Minister,formulated the National Policy on Education onhis newly-acquired word processor in six months.However, he was unable to push for funds to imple-ment the ambitious policy, which included theNavodaya schools.

By the summer of 1990, Rao was preparing toretire from public life and had packed his bags tomove home to Hyderabad when Rajiv Gandhi wasassassinated by LTTE sympathisers. Suddenly, cir-cumstances catapulted Rao into the country’s topjob. His ascendancy to the Prime Ministership waspolitically significant in that he was the first hold-er of this office from a non-Hindi-speakingregion, the South. Rao was supposed to collapsesoon — if not under his advancing age, then frompressure from multiple sources. Instead, he lastedthe full five-year term, turned the economyaround, brought normalcy to Punjab and stampedhis authority by virtually pushing detractors to thewall to be the real centre of power in the Congress.How did he manage this feat? What led to the trans-formation of a timid party worker more willing tofollow than lead as a decisive head of Government?How did the change of heart from a Left-leaning

protectionist to a free market champion happen?What techniques did he apply to have his way ina party that largely had little regard for him? Thishappened in a year of multiple changes and chal-lenges. India and the world were in turmoil andgrappling with change, the historical significanceof which was not immediately understood by many.

Similarly, we hold Rao in high regard for hisRight-wing, pro-capital reform measures for open-ing up the economy to liberalisation, privatisationand globalisation. But he was a fierce advocate andpractitioner of socialism when he was the ChiefMinister of Andhra Pradesh. His bold reforms forredistribution of land to the poor and downtrod-den as also his strict enforcement of the land ceil-ing Act created such a strong backlash from estab-lished big landlords that Indira Gandhi had to takehim back from State politics as a Minister in theUnion Cabinet and declare President’s rule inAndhra Pradesh for some time. So it is extremelywrong to paint Rao as a Right-wing politician justbecause he was an architect of economic reforms.

The economic crisis of 1991 was the conse-quence of a political impasse India found itself in.A series of political and economic events of 1980scame to a head around 1990-91. India was on theverge of defaulting on its external payments oblig-ations, with foreign exchange reserves dwindlingrapidly as oil prices went up, exports went downand non-resident people began withdrawing theirdeposits in foreign currency accounts in India.While this situation can, in part, be attributed tounexpected and extraneous factors like the GulfWar of 1990-91, the difficulty was almost entirelyon account of political brinkmanship and populism.The responsibility for the events that combined topush India to the brink of default must lie with RajivGandhi, VP Singh and Chandra Shekhar and it wasleft to Rao to arrest the slide and clean up the mess.The credit for understanding the seriousness of the

situation and acting in time goes to him alone. Adopted to avert the impending 1991 econom-

ic crisis, the reforms progressed furthest in the areasof opening up to foreign investment, capital mar-kets, deregulating domestic business and alteringthe trade regime. His Government’s goals were toreduce fiscal deficit, privatise the public sector andincrease investment in infrastructure. Tradereforms and changes in the regulation of foreigndirect investment were introduced to open Indiato foreign trade while stabilising external loans. Raochose Manmohan Singh for the job: An acclaimedeconomist, he played a central role in implement-ing these reforms. The impact of these changes maybe gauged from the fact that total foreign invest-ment (including foreign direct investment, port-folio investment and investment raised on inter-national capital markets) in India grew from aminuscule $132 million in 1991-92 to $5.3 billionin 1995-96. Rao began industrial policy reformswith the manufacturing sector. He slashed indus-trial licensing, leaving only 18 industries subject tolicensing. Industrial regulation was rationalised.

Rao, who held the Industry portfolio, was per-sonally responsible for dismantling the Licence Raj,as this came under the purview of the Ministry ofCommerce and Industry. For this, he is often calledthe “father of Indian economic reforms” althoughhis own party refuses to acknowledge it. He was,in fact, the author of the most radical shift in India’seconomic policy since Nehru’s famous IndustrialPolicy Resolution of 1956. Nehru’s resolution haddeclared that India would strive to establish a“socialistic pattern of society.” In 1991, Rao movedaway from that pattern to unleash private enter-prise.

Rao increased military spending and set theIndian Army on course to fight the emerging threatof terrorism and insurgencies as well as Pakistanand China’s nuclear potential. It was during his term

that terrorism in Punjab was finally decimated. Itis said that Rao was “solely responsible” for the deci-sion to hold elections in Punjab, no matter how nar-row the electorate base would be. Rao’s Governmentintroduced the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities(Prevention) Act, India’s first anti-terrorism legis-lation.

He even strengthened diplomacy, making over-tures to Western Europe, the US and China. Wayback in1992, he decided to bring into the openIndia’s relations with Israel, which had been keptcovertly active for a few years during his tenure asa Foreign Minister. Israel got to open an embassyin New Delhi. He ordered the intelligence commu-nity in 1992 to start a systematic drive to draw theinternational community’s attention to Pakistan’ssponsorship of terrorism against India and not tobe discouraged by American efforts to underminethe exercise. Rao initiated the ‘Look East policy’ withthree objectives in mind, namely to renew politi-cal contacts with the ASEAN member nations; toincrease economic interaction with SoutheastAsia in trade, investment, science and technologyand tourism; and to forge strategic and defence linkswith several countries of Southeast Asia. Hedecided to maintain distance from the Dalai Lamain order to avoid aggravating Beijing’s suspicionsand concerns and made successful overtures toTehran. The ‘cultivate Iran’ policy was pushedthrough vigorously by him. These policies paid richdividends for India in March 1994, when BenazirBhutto’s efforts to have a resolution passed by theUN Human Rights Commission in Geneva on thehuman rights situation in Jammu & Kashmir failed,with opposition by China and Iran.

In spite of significant achievements in a diffi-cult situation, the Indian electorate voted out Rao’sCongress party in the 1996 general elections. Soon,Sonia Gandhi’s coterie forced Rao to step down asparty president. Receding into forced oblivion, hedied on December 9, 2004. But the Congress insult-ed a loyalist even in his death, simply because hedidn’t figure in the dynastic paradigm of the party.It is alleged that the closest aides of Sonia Gandhiensured his body was not allowed inside the AICCbuilding and moved to Hyderabad. The grand oldparty ignored the debt it owed to the “Brihaspati(wise man) of Andhra Pradesh.” On multiple occa-sions, Sonia praised contributions of all CongressPrime Ministers except Rao in her various speech-es. Even today, the Congress leadership showsextreme reluctance to acknowledge the role playedby Rao to bail the Indian economy out of a severecrisis.

Rao was India’s first “accidental” PrimeMinister and a path-breaking one. He took chargeof the national Government and restored politicalstability; assumed leadership of the Congress, prov-ing that there was hope beyond the Nehru-Gandhidynasty; pushed through significant economicreforms; and steered India through the unchart-ed waters of the post-Cold War world. While theCongress has distanced itself from him, the cur-rent Prime Minister Narendra Modi has acknowl-edged his contribution in nation-building.

A simple man, Rao deployed Chanakya liketactics and strategies in dealing with the minoritystatus of his Government, winning over supportat times through questionable means. He was a manof simple tastes but with a complex mind.

Vinay Satpati, his biographer, has done anadmirable job of putting up the thought processof the original “accidental Prime Minister” and thegood and bad which came from that accident. Inthe end, though, the good is so overwhelming thatthe bad must take a back seat. To quote Sitapati,“His legacy lives on…his half-burnt body contin-ues to glow.” To sum up PV in a line, “he had PanditNehru’s intellectual capacity and Sardar Patel’sadministrative calibre.”

(The writer has worked closely with the latePrime Minister of India; is Editor-in-Chief ofOpinion Express and a columnist with The Pioneer)

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Change is the only constant — beit in life or business. In thisdynamic landscape, all busi-

nesses, whether small start-ups orlarge organisations, at some point oranother, need to change their strate-gies and vision and go through atransformation process to stay aliveand relevant by aligning people,processes and technology. Althoughchange has been a part of businessesfor long, it is the speed that has ren-dered transformation as an importantand integrated business function.What took radio 38 years to reach auser base of 50 million people wasachieved by television in 13 years andthe internet in just five years. Today,the challenge is speed of transforma-

tion and all organisations have to gearup to face it and come on tops.

The current business world isquite demanding for companies.Faced with a “two-speed world” —rapid growth in emerging economiesand slower growth in developedcountries — firms have to developunique strategies for each environ-ment. In addition, digitisation andglobalisation are blurring the linesbetween sectors as well as between tra-ditional competitor groups. Newtechnology is changing consumerbehaviour, empowering start-ups,making pricing more transparentand reducing product life cycles.Additionally, owing to changing costs,evolving demand and unfolding traderestrictions, companies must rethink— and continually reassess — theiroperational footprint. To survive inthis shifting environment and tokeep up with the pace, most business-es must transform — either in strat-egy, operating model, organisation,people, or processes — and this gen-erally results in the alteration of theirgrowth trajectory. For most compa-nies, it is an ongoing, adaptive process

as market conditions continue tochange.

Nokia is a prime example of ‘ser-ial’ business transformation. Havingreinvented itself several times in its150-year history, this company, whichonce dominated the mobile phoneindustry, embarked on its most rad-ical transformation till date by exitingthe business in 2014. The device busi-ness had been moving towards a dif-ficult stalemate, generating dissatisfac-tory results and requiring increasingamounts of capital, which Nokia nolonger had. When Microsoftexpressed interest in taking overNokia’s device business, it sold itsmobile business for $7.2 billion andsimultaneously orchestrated anotherdeal to buy out Siemens from theNokia Siemens Networks (NSN), a50-50 joint venture with Siemens, giv-ing Nokia 100 per cent control overthe unit and forming the cash-gener-ating core to fund the journey of thenew firm. After surviving a near-deathexperience and abandoning phones,this corporate phoenix has re-emerged as one of the world’s largesttelecom network service providers by

renewing portfolio strategy, corporateand capital structure, robust businessplans and a new management team.Its enterprise value has grown man-ifold since bottoming out in July 2012and the company has returned billionsof dollars of cash to its shareholders.

Since change is the new normalfor corporates today, how can anorganisation embark on this journey?The first critical step is to get the rightstrategic vision and be able to antic-ipate the requirements of customersand strategies to achieve them. Asound strategy is necessary for a broadrange of enterprise-wide investmentdecisions, resource allocations andperformance expectations and helpsto derive value from the transforma-tion. It also includes defining thedepth and scope of the changes andthe redesign of internal processes andstructures.

Even though there are a numberof change management models, thereis only a 30 per cent chance thatchange management in an organisa-tion is successful. In addition, employ-ee resistance is one of the major chal-lenges in change management. So is

something wrong with the employeesor the change management system?In reality, there has been no properdevelopment of the capacity of man-agers to actually implement thechange management programmes.Outsourcing of the change manage-ment process to consultants has beendetrimental to the strengthening ofthe managers’ ability to managechange and be accountable for thesame. This approach is the singlelargest determinant of the failure ofthe change management programmes.

Many large organisations are notcomfortable with any changes astheir main focus is on control ability,routinisation, stability and risk-avoid-ance. How can employees, who areused to these habits, take to changeeasily? Change and stability do not gohand -in-hand and the result will befriction and organisational fatigue.

Since we are discussing changemanagement, traditional changemanagement theories should alsolook at improving or changing them-selves.The traditional top-downapproach does not take into accountany suggestions from general

employees of the company andchange management comes from thetop. This needs to be changed toincorporate ideas of the employees.The organisational environmentshould be open to creativity anddivergent thinking. Critical feedback,that endures detection of flaws andcontinuous learning and adapta-tion, should be an integral part of theprocess. Otherwise, companies canfail big in their effort to bring aboutchange. And most importantly,change management should be acontinuous process and cannot beviewed as an intermittent project,with a beginning and an end.

In this continuously evolvingbusiness environment, change man-agement is important. Making ithappen effectively, however, needs tobe a core competence of managers andtheir role has changed from the abil-ity to complete change projects todesign the organisation in a way thatenables continuous adaptation of anever-evolving environment.

(The writer is Assistant Professor,Amity University)

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Jet Airways domestic pilotsbody, the National Aviators

Guild (NAG) on Tuesdayserved a legal notice to theairline, setting an April 14deadline for the new man-agement to clear their salarydues.

Jet Airways pilots alongwith engineers and senior exec-utives have not been paid forthe last three months amidcash-drought in the airlinethat saw an ownership changelast month with banks takingmajority shares.

Along with these staff, theairline has defaulted on thepayment of March salaries toother employees as well.

“My client (NAG) callsupon the management of JetAirways to pay their outstand-ing salaries for January,February and March, by April14 (and future salaries by thefirst of every month,” NAG saidin a legal notice.

“Failing which my clientshall be constrained to resort toall constitutional and legalmeans available with them toensure payment of theirsalaries,” the notice stated.

The NAG claims to repre-sent around 1,100 of the total1,600 pilots of the carrier.

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India’s aviation regulator hasasked all airlines to come out

with individual medium-termplan by Wednesday on enhanc-ing availability of domesticflights, in a move aimed atcurbing rising airfares,Government officials said.

Airfares have been on anupswing across India for lastfew weeks due to sharp declinein number of flights primarilycaused by grounding of three-fourths of cash-strapped JetAirways’ 119-aircraft fleet.

The availability of flights wasalso hit by pulling out of Spice Jet’s12 “737 Max” aircraft in Marchfollowing safety concerns in thewake of crash of an EthiopianAirlines jet on March 10.

“The Directorate General ofCivil Aviation has been meetingwith the airlines continuously sothat they augment their additionalcapacity, which would be over andabove the flights approved for thesummer schedule,” a seniorGovernment official said.

According to officials, theeach of the airlines was“requested to bring an imme-diate and medium-term plan to

augment the additional capac-ity in the market”, and ways toincrease the overall availabili-ty of flights will be discussed ata meeting on Wednesday.

The DGCA last monthapproved a nearly seven-month-long summer schedulebeginning March 31 forSpiceJet, Vistara, IndiGo, AirIndia and GoAir. However, forJet Airways, the DGCAapproved the summer schedulefor nearly a month only due toits financial crisis.

The DGCA approves win-ter as well as summer schedulesevery year in order to ensuresmooth flights operations.

The airlines were asked tocome out with immediate andmedium-term plan over andabove the summer action plan tomake available additional flightsso that airfares remain in control.

During the last few weeks,the Jet Airways has beengrounding its aircraft in tranch-es due to non-payment of duesto its lessors. While the airlinehas a fleet of about 119 aircraft,civil aviation secretary PradeepSingh Kharola said on April 4that only 26 aircraft of JetAirways are flying “currently”.

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The Commerce Ministryhas recommended an

ant i -dumping duty of$1,633.17 per tonne onSaccharin, a kind of sweet-ener, from Indonesia toguard domestic manufactur-ers from cheap imports fromthe Southeast Asian country.

The Ministry’s investiga-tion arm — DirectorateGeneral of Trade Remedies(DGTR) — has conducted theprobe into alleged dumping ofthis product following a com-plaint from Swati PetroProducts Ltd.

T h e d i re c tor ate h a sconcluded in its findingsthat the product has beenexported to India fromIndonesia below their nor-mal values, due to whichthe domestic industry hassuffered material injury.

Material injury has beencaused by the dumpedimports, the DGTR has saidin a notification.

“The authority recom-mends imposition of defini-tive anti-dumping duty... So asto remove the injury to thedomestic industry,” it said.

The final call to imposethe duty would be taken bythe Finance Ministry.

Saccharin is used in avariety of industry such asfood and beverage, person-al care products, table topsweeteners, electroplatingbrighteners, and pharma-ceuticals. Saccharin is morethan 500 times sweeter thansugar.

Import of the item intoIndia has increased from 421tonne in 2014-15 to 543 tonneduring 2017-18.

Indonesia is a key tradingpartner of India in theSoutheast Asian region. Thebilateral trade between thecountries increased to $20.4billion in 2017-18 from about$17 billion.

In international trade par-lance, dumping happenswhen a country or a firmexports an item at a pricelower than the price of thatproduct in its domestic mar-ket.

Dumping impacts priceof that product in the export-ing country, hitting marginsand profits of manufacturingfirms.

According to global tradenorms, a country is allowedto impose tariffs on suchdumped products to providea level-playing f ie ld todomestic manufacturers. Theduty is imposed only after athorough investigation by aquasi-judicial body, likeDGTR in India.

In its probe, the direc-torate has to concludewhether the dumped prod-ucts are impacting domesticindustries.

Imposition of anti-dump-ing duty is permissible underthe World Trade Organization(WTO) regime.

The duty is aimed atensuring fair trading practicesand creating a level-playingfield for domestic producersvis-a-vis foreign producersand exporters.

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Britain’s economy risks aserious shock if the UK

leaves the EU without a deal,the International MonetaryFund said on Tuesday, warningof severe trade disruption andslower economic growth.

In a report marking thecoming spring meeting, pub-lished just days before thescheduled Brexit date of Friday,the IMF looked at the impactof possible “no deal” scenarios.

In the worst-case situa-tion, the fund assumes that adisorderly break betweenBritain and its largest tradingpartner would bring borderdisruption, raising import costsfor businesses and householdsin Britain.

It estimates that the tradedisruptions in that scenariowould cause a decline in Britain’sgross domestic product (GDP)of 1.4 percent in the first year,

and 0.8 percent in the next.The European Union

would not be immune fromthe impact, although it wouldbe less severe, with the bloc’sGDP falling 0.2 and then 0.1percent.

The IMF adds that thetotal impact would be a declineof 3.5 percent of British GDPbetween now and 2021 and 0.5percent for the EU.

The fund notes howeverthat it cannot predict all theeffects of a “no deal” Brexit, orall the mitigating measuresthat might be taken.

The “no deal” scenariosassume that, in the absence ofa new trade agreement, Britishexports to the EU revert tobeing subject to World TradeOrganisation (WTO) rules.

This would see tariffsincrease, while Britain wouldalso lose access to trade agree-ments struck between the EUand other countries.

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Hyundai Motor IndiaTuesday said it is training

a team of over 10,000 profes-sionals for its global connect-ed technology that is all set todebut in its upcoming compactSUV Venue.

The auto major will intro-duce its global technologyBlueLink in the Indian marketwith the launch of the compactSUV which is set to hit roads

in May this year.The company is training

615 ‘Blue Link Wizards’ who inturn would train over 10,000sales consultants across its salesnetwork across the country.

“Our team of Blue LinkWizards and trained sales con-sultants will make the tech-nology truly accessible to allour customers,” HyundaiMotor India Senior GeneralManager Marketing PuneetAnand told reporters here.

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India’s MSME sector has thepotential to create up to 1

crore new jobs in the next 4-5years by focusing on develop-ing the enterprises in certainsegments through partial sub-stitution of imports, a reporthas said.

The report by NomuraResearch Institute (NRIConsulting & Solutions) on thecountry’s micro, small andmedium enterprises (MSMEs)said dedicated focus on devel-oping MSMEs in select seg-ments can create additional 75lakh to 1 crore employmentopportunities in the next 4-5years through partial substitu-tion of imports.

The manufacturing sectorin India needs to shoulder thedual responsibility of accom-modating the shift of labourfrom agriculture, and also caterto the added labour force, thereport said.

As per the annual report2017-18 of the Ministry of

MSME, the sectorc o n t r i b u t e daround 3.6 crorejobs (70 per cent)in the manufac-turing sector.MSMEs arespread across var-ious clusters inIndia.

A detailedlook into theproduct groupsmanufactured invarious clusters such as artifi-cial jewellery, sports goods,scientific instruments, textilemachinery, electric fans, rub-ber, plastic, leather & relatedproducts, among others, sug-gests that a dedicated focus ondeveloping these MSMEs cancreate additional job opportu-nities, the report said.

Ashim Sharma, partnerand group head at NRIConsulting & Solutions, saidthe manufacturing ecosystem isconstantly evolving under theinfluence of several trendsaround changing consumer

behaviour and technologicalshifts happening across theglobe.

“This puts India’s domesticmicro and small-scale indus-tries into the driver’s seat tolead the employment genera-tion. To scale-up, the MSMEsector needs a market-orient-ed strategy based on two keyareas of demand led manufac-turing and advocacy marketingof the products,” Sharma said.

NRI Consulting &Solutions is a Japan-based con-sulting firm with a strong foot-print in Asia.

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PTC India Financial ServicesLtd. has announced their

association as official sponsors ofTeam India North for the StreetChild Cricket World Cup 2019(SCCWC 2019) ahead of theICC Cricket World Cup.SCCWC 2019 is the first everCricket World Cup for street-connected children and India isset to send two teams, with agender equal Team India Northput together by Save the Children

and The Hope Foundation.The tournament is being

organised by Street Child United(SCU), a UK-based organiza-tion, which has a legacy ofholding street child tourna-ments around major sportingfestivals like FIFA World Cup inSouth Africa, Olympics in Brazil,FIFA World Cup Russia andmore. The SCCWC 2019 willgive an opportunity to streetconnected children from ninecountries to play at the presti-gious Lord’s Cricket Ground.

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Bo e i ng on Tu e s d ayreported a 19 per cent

drop in first-quarter com-mercial airplane deliveriesas the global grounding ofits 737 MAX plane hitsresults.

The aerospace g iantdelivered 149 commercialplanes in all in the first

quarter, including 89 of the737 aircraft. That is downfrom 184 commercial deliv-eries and 132 of the 737s inthe year-ago period.

Boeing has been underscrutiny following a March10 Ethiopian Airlines crashon a 737 MAX that killed157 people, the seconddeadly crash involving inthe aircraft in five months.

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Broadcast regulator Trai onTuesday initiated a discus-

sion on entry-level net worthrequirement of multi-systemoperators (MSOs) in cable TVservices.

“The objective of the con-sultation paper is to deliberatewhether there is a need to fixentry-level net worth for MSO?If yes, what should be thevalue of the net worth requiredat the time of registration forMSO,” the Telecom RegulatoryAuthority of India (Trai) said inits latest consultation paper.

Typically, a consultationpaper, where Trai seeks stake-holders’ written comments onmultiple questions, serves asthe starting point for discus-sion on a particular issue, andthe regulator comes out withits views on the matter afterfollowing a consultativeprocess.

A MSO is an authorisedservice provider, providingcable TV services to its sub-scribers.

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The Government has man-aged to meet the revised fis-

cal deficit target of 3.4 per centof the GDP after it cut lastminute expenditure and rolledover fuel subsidies to make upfor the shortfall in tax collec-tion.

The interim Budget pre-sented in February revisedupward the fiscal deficit targetto 3.4 per cent from 3.3 per centof GDP estimated earlier for2018-19.

According to sources, therevised target has been metwith the help of expendituresavings and other measuresincluding the rollover of thefuel subsidy. As a result, theshortfall in tax collection hasbeen matched.

There has also been someincrease in non-tax revenue

collection, especially onaccount of disinvestment pro-ceeds.

About �25,000-30,000crore worth of subsidies due toPSU oil companies for sellingLPG and kerosene oil below thecost during 2018-19 have beenrolled over and will now bepaid in the current fiscal.

Last week, FinanceSecretary Subhash ChandraGarg said the Government isclose to meeting fiscal deficittarget of 3.4 per cent for 2018-19.

"We are very close to meet-ing (fiscal deficit)," he had saidwhen asked whether theGovernment has met the fiscaldeficit target.

The Government is esti-mated to have witnessed ashortfall of �50,000 crore indirect tax collection target of�12 lakh crore for 2018-19, a

senior Finance Ministry officialsaid.

The Government hadrevised the direct tax collectiontarget upwards to �12 lakhcrore from the original BudgetEstimate of �11.5 lakh crore for2018-19. It was expecting high-er collections from corporatetaxes.

The revision was madeduring the interim Budget for2019-20 in February.

As far as non-tax revenuecollection is concerned, theGovernment has exceeded itsdisinvestment target for 2018-19 by �5,000 crore, taking thetotal proceeds to �85,000crore.

Besides, the non-tax rev-enue was boosted by the sec-ond interim dividend collectionfrom various companiesincluding Coal India, IOC andONGC.

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Page 11: ˘ˇ ˆ˙˝ - The Pioneer · they can send complaints and geo-tagged videos and photos of illegal gifts, money or liquor being distributed or a hate speech being made by any political

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New Delhi: Jaguar Land Rover India (JLR) on Tuesday said it has commencedbookings for locally manufactured Range Rover Velar which is priced at �72.47lakh (ex-showroom). The model comes with both petrol and diesel powertrains,priced similarly at �72.47 lakh. “We continue to focus on providing the best ofBritish design, luxury and technology at highly competitive prices and we are surethat local manufacturing of the Range Rover Velar will make it even more desir-able,” JLR India president & managing director Rohit Suri said in a statement.The local manufacturing of the model also reaffirms the company’s commitmentto the Indian market, he added. Deliveries of the model will begin early next month.JLR currently produces XE, XF, XJ,F-Pace, Discovery Sport and Range RoverEvoque locally.

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New Delhi: The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal Tuesdaysaid it may direct global steel major ArcelorMittal to deposit Rs 42,000crore bid amount for acquiring Essar Steel in separate accounts duringnext hearing on April 23. A two-member bench headed by chairmanJustice S J Mukhopadhaya said that ArcelorMittal may have to depositthe money in a separate account either before the NCLAT or NCLTAhmedabad-bench. The bench also asked ArcelorMittal to file an affi-davit before it, detailing the steps to be taken for implementation of theresolution plan of debt ridden Essar Steel. “ArcelorMittal India, successfulresolution applicant, would file an affidavit for implementation of plan,”the bench said. It further said: “The Appellate Tribunal may direct thesuccessful resolution applicant to deposit money in one or anotheraccount in next date of hearing”. The bench also said that original planapproved by NCLT Ahmedabad has to be implemented. The bench alsodirected the operational creditors and financial creditors of Essar Steelto file a chart next week, detailing their claims approved by resolutionprofessional and CoC. “Financial creditors and operational creditors areallowed to file one page affidavit giving details of their claims approvedby RP and its percentage,” it said. Moreover, it has also asked the GujaratState Tax department to file an affidavit over its claims The NCLAT washearing a batch of petitions filed by operational creditors, Gujarat StateTax department and others. ArcelorMittal’s resolution proposal providesfinancial creditors �41,987 crore out of their total dues of �49,395 crore.Operational creditors, under the plan, would get just Rs 214 crore againstthe outstanding of �4,976 crore and are contesting before the NCLAT.Essar Steel owns a 10-million-tonne steel mill at Hazira in Gujarat. Thiswas was among the first 12 cases selected by the Reserve Bank of Indiato be resolved under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code(IBC).

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The benchmark SensexTuesday climbed nearly

239 points to close at 38,939.22amid hopes of a robust earn-ings season and positive cuesfrom global peers.

Besides, sustained buyingin banking and auto stockstowards the fag-end of the ses-sion also pushed the marketsup, brokers said.

After swinging over 350points, the 30-share Sensexindex settled 238.69 points, or0.62 per cent, higher at38,939.22.

In similar movement, thebroader NSE Nifty rose 67.45points, or 0.58 per cent, to11,671.95.

“Market gained after arange bound movement onexpectation of a turnaround inearnings growth led byQ4FY19 results starting thisweek while positive global

peers aided the market,” VinodNair, Head of Research, GeojitFinancial Services, said.

After a highly volatile ses-sion, the market surgedtowards the fag-end of thetrade with BSE bankex, auto,realty and metal indices gain-ing up to 1.40 per cent.

Yes Bank was the biggestgainer in the Sensex pack,climbing 4.08 per cent, fol-lowed by Tata Motors, ICICIBank, Bajaj Auto, Coal India,Hero MotoCorp, HCL Tech,Vedanta, Sun Pharma, AxisBank, Maruti, ITC, IndusIndBank, TCS, HUL and SBI, ris-ing up to 2.67 per cent.

“Banks outperformed asoutlook improved led byreduction in stressed assets,repo rate and pick up in cred-it growth. But valuation is ona premium level while start ofthe first phase of polling maybring volatility in the market,”Nair said.

On the other hand, AsianPaints, Infosys, Bharti Airtel,Bajaj Finance and ONGC werethe losers, shedding up to 3.54per cent.

Foreign institutionalinvestors (FIIs) purchased Rs329.60 crore Monday, whiledomestic institutional investors(DIIs) sold equities to the tuneof Rs 623.81 crore, provision-al data available with stockexchanges showed.

“The mood of domesticinvestors remains fairly cau-tious ahead of elections,although March has witnesseda return of domestic equityinflows. Post a favourableelection outcome, we continueto expect the inflows into equi-ties by domestic investors topick up markedly,” said SunilSharma, Chief InvestmentOfficer, Sanctum WealthManagement.

In Asia, Korea’s Kospi rose0.13 per cent, Japan’s Nikkei

inched up 0.19 per cent andHong Kong’s Hang Senggained 0.27 per cent, whileShanghai Composite Index fell0.16 per cent.

In Europe, Frankfurt’sDAX was up 0.18 per cent,Paris CAC 40 rose 0.35 percent, and London’s FTSEgained 0.30 per cent in earlydeals.

The benchmark Brentcrude futures were trading0.13 per cent higher at USD71.19 per barrel.“Crude oilhas been on a rise due to theconflicts in Libya which threat-ened to disrupt supply, amidUS sanctions on Venezuelaand Iran. Higher oil prices con-tinues to be a Achilles heel forthe Indian markets,” HemangJani, Head - Advisory,Sharekhan by BNP Paribas,said.

Meanwhile, the rupeeappreciated 25 paise to 69.41against the US dollar intra-day

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State-owned telecom firm BSNL has col-lected a record revenue of �6,500 crore

from enterprise segment, making it suffi-ciently funded, which will help in meeting itsvarious requirement.

“We have collected �6,500 crore fromenterprise segment for 2018-19. This ishighest ever that BSNL has collected with 91enterprise making payment. On average,annual collection used to be from 50-60enterprises,” BSNL CMD AnupamShrivastava told PTI.

When asked if this will help BSNL tomake salary payments, he said that financially,the company is in comfortable position andit has seen revenue stabilising in other seg-ments as well.

“Even in consumer and mobility segmentrevenue has stabilised and we have seenslightly increase in it. Worst is behind us. Weare looking for revival only. In my five years,I have realised that BSNL has so much withit that this organisation should never faceproblem,” Shrivastava said.

BSNL has been ailing because of high rev-enue-to-wage ratio as a large number of gov-ernment employees were transferred by thetelecom department to the telecom PSU.

“We are sitting on gold mine. Departmentof Public Enterprise has declared that BSNLhas networth of �83,000 crore which ishumongous. If we start working on assetmonetisation, we will be able to resolve mostof our issues,” Shrivastava said.

Despite being a loss-making telecomfirm, BSNL has the lowest debt of �14,000crore among all telecom operators. The company has been operating in the high-ly competitive telecom market without hav-ing spectrum for 4G services.

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The government is esti-mated to have witnessed

a shortfall of Rs 50,000 crorein direct tax collection tar-get of Rs 12 lakh crore for2018-19, a senior financem i n i s t r y of f i c i a l s a i dTuesday.

The shortfall in direct

tax mop-up coupled withlower GST realisation mayhave implications on fiscaldeficit, which the govern-ment has pegged at 3.4 percent of the GDP.

“Direct tax collectionfor 2018-19 is around Rs11.5 lakh crore...,” the offi-cial said.

The government had

revised the direct tax col-lection target upwards to Rs12 lakh crore from the orig-inal Budget Estimate of Rs11.5 lakh crore for 2018-19.It was expecting higher col-lect ions from corporatetaxes.

he revision was madeduring the interim Budgetfor 2019-20 in February.

The target for GST col-lection was revised down-wards to Rs 6.44 lakh crorefrom the Budget Estimate ofRs 7.44 lakh crore.

The GST mop-up is alsoestimated to have missed therevised target. The GSTCouncil had reduced taxrates on several items dur-ing 2018-19.

Script Open High Low LTPSUZLON 6.67 6.78 6.56 6.71JPASSOCIAT 5.85 5.85 5.62 5.80RPOWER 10.25 10.29 9.62 9.89IBREALEST 96.70 109.55 94.75 108.10DHFL 162.00 168.90 154.10 167.35IBULHSGFIN 853.10 858.00 822.00 831.60YESBANK 262.00 271.95 258.85 270.60STRTECH 215.55 215.55 189.00 208.10TATAMOTORS 200.40 207.55 198.05 206.00DLF 186.00 188.90 183.50 187.55RELIANCE 1330.90 1340.00 1321.60 1335.35JETAIRWAYS 264.95 270.35 261.50 267.65RELCAPITAL 187.70 189.40 177.50 187.30ASHOKLEY 87.90 92.05 86.30 91.45SBIN 313.55 315.95 308.10 315.15ASIANPAINT 1470.00 1474.10 1439.70 1443.50WIPRO 264.00 274.80 263.90 273.45RELINFRA 133.00 133.90 126.60 130.45PCJEWELLER 91.65 93.85 89.15 91.10JAICORPLTD 125.75 128.70 122.50 124.45ZEEL 406.10 412.50 405.00 410.80INFY* 770.00 773.65 758.30 759.85AXISBANK 754.05 766.05 750.60 763.55TATASTEEL 550.05 553.90 540.50 551.80WOCKPHARMA 442.50 446.10 432.80 443.50ITI 101.00 106.85 101.00 103.25PNB 93.50 94.70 91.75 94.30MARUTI 7125.00 7238.00 7089.05 7218.35ICICIBANK 387.10 398.35 387.10 396.90IOC 149.25 155.75 149.00 155.15SPICEJET 96.35 96.40 93.00 95.35LAKSHVILAS 97.35 97.35 92.50 92.50TCS 2074.70 2096.10 2057.00 2088.10BANKBARODA 130.55 132.65 127.90 132.00FSL 49.40 51.85 48.90 51.30BHARTIARTL 358.60 361.15 341.60 351.60IDEA 17.40 17.70 16.70 16.90JINDALSTEL 184.00 184.50 175.70 183.45CANBK 274.00 287.95 272.35 286.30BAJFINANCE 3020.00 3051.00 2978.00 3014.20VEDL 187.45 190.90 184.30 190.15GODREJPROP 929.90 929.90 885.60 908.45SUNPHARMA 458.00 471.40 455.55 469.75LUPIN 792.00 810.95 791.00 809.25RBLBANK 658.80 666.90 651.90 665.70BANKINDIA 99.00 102.70 97.55 102.15HINDPETRO 249.55 257.80 247.45 256.25HCLTECH 1098.70 1128.50 1097.00 1118.55MGL 1012.00 1021.05 1005.05 1016.55CIPLA 526.90 533.50 525.60 531.60JUSTDIAL 592.80 598.20 581.05 594.25TATAPOWER 72.00 73.00 70.80 72.50SOUTHBANK 17.35 17.45 16.85 17.20LT 1375.00 1386.30 1366.60 1374.80TECHM 790.90 797.40 785.00 788.95KOTAKBANK 1342.00 1346.90 1323.00 1342.15BIOCON 607.85 622.40 604.50 619.50NBCC 62.80 62.80 60.25 61.40DELTACORP 268.00 269.00 259.00 261.55M&M 668.00 669.80 660.60 666.60ITC 292.55 296.70 292.40 296.35NCC 105.15 105.65 101.30 103.85IBVENTURES 343.40 343.40 333.90 337.25BPCL 347.00 357.45 345.25 356.10HDFC 2054.00 2070.00 2040.00 2068.00SAIL 58.95 59.10 57.25 58.90ICICIGI 1041.60 1078.10 1041.60 1071.15NTPC 135.00 136.35 134.95 135.85BHEL 72.95 73.10 71.15 71.75BEML 969.70 974.65 948.00 968.20MERCK 3828.95 3990.00 3812.00 3952.10DMART 1484.00 1488.30 1460.00 1482.20BOMDYEING 137.90 137.90 133.65 136.35SUNTV 632.00 632.00 606.30 612.70HEROMOTOCO 2598.00 2635.00 2568.00 2626.55RECLTD 151.00 153.90 149.70 153.35L&TFH 148.75 149.00 145.25 147.85FORCEMOT 1808.00 1840.00 1781.20 1802.85INDUSINDBK 1757.00 1772.40 1731.00 1768.15EDELWEISS 191.25 191.90 185.50 186.00TITAN 1104.10 1107.60 1092.80 1099.10SBILIFE 619.90 628.60 614.65 619.60GRAPHITE 451.10 451.10 441.25 446.85TATAMTRDVR 96.15 100.20 94.95 99.20FEDERALBNK 97.05 98.65 95.40 98.20UNIONBANK 92.95 95.00 91.15 94.65ONGC 158.70 158.90 157.15 157.55ANDHRABANK 29.55 29.90 28.60 29.35COALINDIA 233.30 239.00 232.30 238.25INDIGO 1409.00 1409.15 1384.40 1390.70SRTRANSFIN 1238.40 1257.85 1220.50 1226.05HEG 2062.05 2062.05 2027.40 2040.30BEL 95.35 96.80 93.30 95.95PERSISTENT* 630.00 647.75 612.35 622.65RCOM 2.96 2.96 2.96 2.96IDBI 44.20 44.35 43.30 43.85ESCORTS 760.00 779.90 752.50 774.70HDFCBANK 2290.00 2299.65 2268.40 2290.00NATIONALUM 55.65 57.20 55.25 56.50MRPL 70.05 71.10 69.45 70.10HEXAWARE 352.80 356.60 349.40 351.60CHENNPETRO 248.00 256.65 246.10 253.60IRB 142.00 142.30 135.75 140.75MOTHERSUMI 151.50 151.85 147.65 150.90HINDUNILVR 1669.95 1682.00 1663.90 1678.70BAJAJ-AUTO 2858.00 2930.00 2841.00 2918.50HINDALCO 215.00 217.70 211.60 216.75LINDEINDIA 485.00 514.95 485.00 510.35

MINDTREE 950.05 969.75 950.05 959.80UJJIVAN 320.50 327.80 315.25 325.20TATACHEM 613.00 613.00 603.85 607.95RAIN 104.70 104.70 99.25 101.05IDFCFIRSTB 54.05 54.90 53.60 54.70EICHERMOT 20849.95 21193.75 20394.50 20987.65ABCAPITAL 98.00 98.55 96.70 97.15ADANIPOWER 50.25 50.50 49.25 50.00SIEMENS 1140.90 1157.55 1134.95 1153.65JSWSTEEL 290.65 293.10 285.70 291.85CUMMINSIND 711.00 745.00 709.15 739.35PFC 119.20 121.05 117.20 120.60BRITANNIA 2995.90 2995.90 2948.55 2973.85CENTURYTEX 898.25 900.20 872.00 890.00JUBILANT 699.00 701.00 680.40 681.70ULTRACEMCO 4160.00 4173.10 4110.00 4164.65DABUR 403.00 404.90 400.20 403.45NIITTECH 1301.50 1305.00 1285.40 1298.20MANAPPURAM 118.75 120.50 116.90 119.85INDIACEM 108.90 109.00 105.65 108.60INDIANB 268.10 273.80 262.90 271.65AUROPHARMA 784.00 788.95 772.45 784.95TORNTPHARM 1800.00 1872.05 1800.00 1865.00COROMANDEL 455.65 457.00 435.00 442.85CGPOWER 38.80 39.35 38.10 39.15PARAGMILK 246.75 257.20 246.10 251.20CANFINHOME 362.45 363.00 348.55 354.75JISLJALEQS 55.90 57.00 55.10 56.55SUNTECK 485.75 492.30 473.00 484.35STAR 491.25 493.85 482.95 491.70INTELLECT 222.20 230.30 222.20 228.90KTKBANK 135.20 135.65 130.95 135.05DISHTV 38.15 38.50 37.20 37.85BAJAJFINSV 7370.00 7409.00 7277.95 7382.85SPARC 182.25 184.10 180.65 183.10CEATLTD 1100.00 1100.00 1075.45 1093.55ALBK 52.50 53.60 51.50 53.25PIDILITIND 1275.00 1278.75 1263.95 1273.15FORTIS 136.95 136.95 134.80 135.70PVR 1681.00 1687.45 1658.05 1682.70VIPIND 465.20 470.30 452.90 466.25RAYMOND 796.00 796.00 775.30 782.70

HDFCLIFE 385.50 387.25 378.70 381.20SCI 35.40 36.10 34.85 35.00SUVEN 270.00 272.85 266.40 268.65APOLLOTYRE 219.50 219.55 214.50 215.95GMRINFRA 18.35 18.85 18.10 18.75SHANKARA 483.40 500.95 483.15 486.85GSFC 103.65 104.45 101.20 104.05PETRONET 237.00 241.00 235.55 240.00GODREJCP 670.70 670.70 663.55 664.75ADANIPORTS 381.00 381.05 373.35 379.75ORIENTBANK 108.85 110.90 107.25 110.40LTI 1639.55 1668.00 1635.15 1661.85BANDHANBNK 547.10 557.65 537.50 551.95ACC 1639.10 1658.65 1620.50 1653.90GRASIM 836.55 848.50 828.80 844.85FRETAIL 439.45 439.50 425.65 429.50LTTS 1585.00 1600.00 1563.05 1586.70PEL 2649.05 2655.00 2620.75 2633.90EXIDEIND 217.05 218.80 214.40 218.00NAUKRI 1855.00 1908.00 1826.05 1890.75OMAXE 212.00 213.55 211.60 212.00TATAELXSI 964.05 968.40 953.00 964.65GNFC 323.90 326.50 319.00 322.70JUBLFOOD 1430.00 1435.00 1406.20 1428.85IPCALAB 959.90 959.90 919.05 935.15IGL 315.50 316.65 308.90 310.55PNBHOUSING 890.00 909.00 882.60 892.50EQUITAS 133.00 133.00 129.00 131.90LICHSGFIN 550.00 550.50 541.95 549.50M&MFIN 410.15 415.65 406.00 413.80ISEC 230.20 233.50 226.30 227.05BATAINDIA 1390.10 1415.00 1383.65 1400.35INFIBEAM 41.25 42.15 40.85 41.45MANPASAND 117.00 119.00 112.05 114.25GAIL 340.25 344.80 336.45 343.70DIVISLAB 1695.40 1717.75 1686.00 1715.00AEGISLOG 207.60 216.60 206.10 211.05CHAMBLFERT 162.60 163.50 161.85 162.25HFCL 21.85 22.40 21.85 22.05MCX 765.80 774.00 761.70 765.35

RAJESHEXPO 678.00 678.00 661.50 667.10CADILAHC 342.80 344.85 339.50 342.05TNPL 210.05 222.30 210.05 214.85HAVELLS 763.00 764.60 752.50 761.95INDHOTEL 158.00 158.00 150.40 152.35AMBUJACEM 225.55 228.00 222.00 227.15RADICO 393.00 393.00 380.45 382.35POWERGRID 198.50 199.05 197.00 198.35MUTHOOTFIN 612.25 615.65 602.05 613.75CHOLAFIN 1466.85 1492.15 1450.65 1481.30GRUH 285.45 288.00 280.40 283.85GUJGAS 158.00 158.00 151.60 155.50BALKRISIND 977.25 980.00 961.20 973.25SYNDIBANK 41.80 42.85 41.00 42.65DBL 616.10 620.00 605.00 616.25BLISSGVS 176.10 178.40 175.60 177.70AVANTI 396.70 399.05 394.00 395.85UPL 945.10 948.00 931.10 946.40COCHINSHIP 393.55 408.15 391.60 402.65NOCIL 143.50 144.70 140.90 141.35MOTILALOFS 686.20 695.75 668.45 675.70ALKEM 1749.95 1771.50 1722.60 1738.30VOLTAS 618.00 618.00 607.55 609.30TVSMOTOR 481.20 483.95 474.55 481.90BAJAJCON 325.55 326.05 313.00 319.85DCBBANK 197.15 198.00 194.35 197.10GESHIP 287.45 300.00 287.45 298.15MARICO 363.15 363.15 354.35 356.55BAJAJELEC 529.00 555.00 529.00 545.20NMDC 105.45 105.80 103.90 104.50BHARATFORG 503.20 508.60 499.40 506.90PHILIPCARB 169.70 169.70 167.00 167.65DCMSHRIRAM 408.85 408.90 403.00 406.35PAGEIND 24013.90 24748.40 23789.55 24568.75REPCOHOME 451.10 457.95 439.70 454.55MEGH 61.30 61.50 59.55 60.15RCF 60.80 60.90 59.55 59.95WESTLIFE 419.00 419.00 402.60 410.25ADVENZYMES 194.00 196.50 191.10 192.70ABFRL 214.45 219.75 210.20 217.60IBULISL 360.00 360.50 348.00 351.30QUESS 726.10 732.80 713.15 720.60CASTROLIND 169.65 169.70 166.25 166.85TRIDENT 68.00 68.00 66.60 67.00IDFC 46.70 47.05 45.45 46.85AMARAJABAT 680.00 683.00 673.00 675.35SOBHA 507.00 511.00 494.00 498.30COFFEEDAY 281.50 281.50 274.45 277.15ABB 1400.00 1414.90 1381.40 1408.40TV18BRDCST 35.25 36.05 34.80 35.80OIL 179.50 179.95 177.60 178.50GLENMARK 642.40 643.25 635.15 639.95SKFINDIA 2059.95 2074.00 2021.80 2056.20CONCOR 515.55 520.65 506.05 519.20VENKYS 2142.45 2162.60 2126.55 2148.30CROMPTON 226.00 226.35 221.30 223.85APOLLOHOSP 1238.60 1262.55 1226.90 1258.25COLPAL 1219.90 1235.50 1216.50 1230.95OBEROIRLTY 539.00 544.90 525.75 541.35FCONSUMER 45.10 45.10 44.00 44.20AARTIIND 1643.00 1646.45 1616.75 1636.05HINDCOPPER 50.10 50.50 49.50 49.90IFCI 12.94 13.04 12.80 12.96VGUARD 221.20 222.05 217.00 218.15UBL 1411.80 1429.00 1395.95 1424.05HSIL 276.00 280.15 272.00 274.25MPHASIS 973.00 991.40 968.30 983.65WELCORP 143.40 143.95 137.50 139.15GRANULES 112.00 113.30 110.80 112.90WELSPUNIND 58.25 58.25 57.15 57.45TATAGLOBAL 211.80 211.80 208.10 210.60WABAG 317.95 320.05 308.10 311.05HIMATSEIDE 216.20 221.90 211.25 219.25JMFINANCIL 88.60 90.90 87.75 89.50KSCL 477.00 477.15 464.40 471.35RNAM 199.00 199.55 193.50 197.40JSWENERGY 70.55 72.70 70.50 72.20FINCABLES 493.00 493.00 481.40 485.20MAXINDIA 69.30 72.20 69.25 70.45NESTLEIND 10881.00 10881.00 10735.00 10788.05PRESTIGE 258.00 270.00 252.75 267.20SONATSOFTW 344.40 346.15 333.60 339.35DRREDDY 2754.00 2760.00 2737.20 2753.35AJANTPHARM 1021.60 1025.30 1009.75 1017.70JKTYRE 91.35 92.30 90.55 91.90BERGEPAINT 328.00 328.40 322.00 326.10IEX 161.60 162.35 157.00 159.35REDINGTON 98.50 100.40 97.75 98.75SWANENERGY 114.00 114.00 108.25 110.80PIIND 1025.00 1025.00 1003.20 1008.05ADANITRANS 218.95 225.95 217.50 222.25MAGMA 122.00 123.20 117.10 119.15JSLHISAR 90.90 91.35 88.90 90.35MRF 59074.05 59074.05 57590.00 57702.80KEC 292.40 292.40 285.05 286.30ENDURANCE 1165.95 1171.65 1157.00 1168.30ICICIPRULI 365.00 365.20 359.45 362.25HINDZINC 284.05 286.10 281.00 285.05ENGINERSIN 119.25 119.40 117.25 117.85J&KBANK 59.80 60.10 58.00 59.80KAJARIACER 613.40 626.95 603.45 613.55TORNTPOWER 259.35 260.65 256.80 258.40RAMCOCEM 760.35 760.35 745.00 752.35MFSL 427.20 430.35 421.50 424.10TATACOMM 593.35 595.95 580.60 582.05SRF 2470.00 2472.20 2451.00 2466.70KEI 415.00 415.00 402.00 404.60JINDALSAW 83.55 83.60 82.50 83.20GODREJIND 531.05 533.25 526.50 530.15

GODREJAGRO 513.05 513.75 505.00 507.60HEIDELBERG 182.00 182.00 176.00 177.00CYIENT* 604.00 604.80 595.90 599.60BHARATFIN 1098.00 1112.00 1089.30 1107.90BAJAJHLDNG 3325.60 3339.00 3275.00 3281.65TAKE 142.00 146.35 141.25 143.65NATCOPHARM* 566.50 568.60 563.10 564.00CENTRALBK 35.00 35.00 33.90 34.65SHK 159.00 161.60 156.10 160.00KANSAINER 454.85 458.00 447.40 453.00TEAMLEASE 2997.75 3040.00 2933.35 2951.75SUDARSCHEM 372.80 372.80 361.40 363.75GDL 139.55 140.00 136.20 138.95MOIL 160.55 161.10 158.70 159.15ADANIGREEN 38.00 38.00 36.20 36.90ALLCARGO 109.45 112.60 109.25 112.20OFSS 3566.05 3609.00 3547.50 3569.00GODFRYPHLP 1117.00 1117.00 1100.00 1103.90SYNGENE 578.05 579.80 570.60 576.25INOXLEISUR 320.00 321.00 310.90 314.80AIAENG 1709.00 1789.00 1709.00 1768.15MINDAIND 347.80 351.80 343.00 346.00MMTC 28.05 28.20 27.75 27.95TATACOFFEE 90.60 92.20 90.50 91.20CENTURYPLY 206.10 206.10 201.55 203.00RALLIS 161.40 161.50 156.60 158.00DEEPAKNI 272.00 274.75 268.50 270.80CARBORUNIV 385.00 385.75 379.00 381.45EIHOTEL 197.80 197.80 192.55 194.25GET&D 272.35 281.95 268.20 279.15DCAL 228.30 231.45 228.30 230.60ASHOKA 131.70 133.45 130.35 131.65PRSMJOHNSN 93.95 95.15 92.50 94.35NHPC 24.15 24.40 24.15 24.20CORPBANK 28.85 28.85 27.00 28.15SHOPERSTOP 440.05 442.85 432.25 439.85INDOSTAR 410.05 413.95 399.00 405.35TATAMETALI 648.05 660.00 648.05 657.35ZENSARTECH 229.00 239.00 229.00 234.00NAVKARCORP 37.80 37.95 36.95 37.10JKLAKSHMI 349.20 355.00 339.05 348.65RELAXO 850.00 850.00 828.00 844.95UFLEX 237.75 249.00 231.75 240.55ISGEC 570.35 579.90 552.00 554.80KRBL 331.20 335.00 326.00 330.50HSCL 115.75 116.20 115.00 115.75EVEREADY 185.45 186.90 184.50 185.65HERITGFOOD 532.00 541.50 522.00 527.05PNCINFRA 150.10 152.25 146.30 151.25GUJALKALI 484.45 488.50 481.00 486.30GPPL 97.50 98.65 96.70 97.40JAMNAAUTO 59.20 59.75 58.85 59.40BBTC 1276.25 1295.00 1271.15 1285.45HUDCO 44.80 45.10 44.60 44.75PTC 75.20 75.30 73.80 74.10TIMKEN 577.00 593.95 570.00 582.95EMAMILTD 409.55 410.00 401.30 403.65BOSCHLTD 17950.00 17993.95 17750.35 17876.90GICRE 254.00 254.50 250.55 251.45MAHINDCIE 221.00 224.60 220.60 223.05SREINFRA 29.00 29.30 28.25 29.25GREAVESCOT 145.75 147.30 144.90 146.20GUJFLUORO 1064.15 1080.05 1051.00 1073.80GICHSGFIN 269.25 269.25 261.50 263.35CUB 200.00 201.60 197.50 200.35AUBANK 585.00 588.50 579.00 584.55FLFL 476.60 484.00 462.00 468.35BALMLAWRIE 183.25 184.35 181.30 182.00TRENT 343.60 350.00 340.75 347.60BIRLACORPN 525.00 525.00 498.50 505.85GSPL 178.25 182.00 178.05 179.85GHCL 240.70 244.15 240.25 241.55INFRATEL 316.15 316.45 312.60 315.10SUPREMEIND 1138.50 1145.00 1131.10 1135.45JYOTHYLAB 196.35 196.35 188.60 189.60GREENPLY 172.10 173.90 168.35 170.70UCOBANK 18.80 19.00 18.70 18.90NAVINFLUOR 725.05 732.00 717.45 721.55GILLETTE 6801.00 6999.00 6788.15 6963.45JSL 41.00 41.00 39.50 40.15DEEPAKFERT 131.00 135.35 131.00 133.50ASAHIINDIA 247.00 254.50 243.65 250.30DBCORP 195.00 197.95 190.40 194.95FDC 168.00 169.45 165.00 168.00LALPATHLAB 1030.00 1030.00 1010.00 1017.00FORBESCO 2331.00 2434.95 2331.00 2417.10ESSELPRO 118.45 119.55 116.00 118.50SHREECEM 18750.00 19036.20 18557.20 18956.55THYROCARE 526.55 542.35 523.00 524.60NIACL 190.80 191.65 187.05 187.85EIDPARRY 207.20 207.60 205.20 206.20VINATIORGA 1720.00 1734.05 1720.00 1725.65BLUESTARCO 693.00 694.15 682.00 685.10CAPPL 397.95 397.95 381.00 382.60BDL 293.50 294.85 290.00 293.45NLCINDIA 67.90 68.25 67.65 68.05NETWORK18 35.00 35.40 34.55 35.05GEPIL 841.50 854.00 838.60 850.40SYMPHONY 1352.00 1372.60 1346.40 1352.00PFIZER 3296.00 3296.00 3240.55 3251.50GLAXO 1324.00 1324.00 1295.00 1296.05KPRMILL 572.65 577.40 565.00 568.40SOMANYCERA 452.10 456.70 435.00 441.20WHIRLPOOL 1450.00 1464.00 1438.00 1453.00CRISIL 1465.50 1476.15 1440.00 1448.25MAHABANK 14.25 14.36 13.95 14.19KNRCON 251.30 251.65 246.25 247.30SCHNEIDER 105.45 105.45 102.65 103.75THOMASCOOK 248.25 251.10 248.00 250.70

ASTRAZEN 1967.75 1972.00 1945.65 1963.60JBCHEPHARM 343.60 356.95 340.20 352.55TTKPRESTIG 8469.05 8534.80 8420.15 8462.45HAL 706.30 714.95 706.25 712.70IOB 15.00 15.03 14.66 14.82ECLERX 1126.15 1132.50 1126.00 1130.05KALPATPOWR 476.35 477.50 467.15 471.05LEMONTREE 78.50 79.45 78.30 78.70BASF 1381.15 1412.70 1374.85 1394.10BAYERCROP 4266.00 4319.00 4255.20 4277.30IFBIND 883.85 897.85 858.40 877.45GRINDWELL 574.90 579.50 568.05 578.15TVTODAY 311.00 319.90 308.10 316.60JAGRAN 120.25 120.25 117.55 118.45ABBOTINDIA 7328.30 7358.25 7230.00 7283.30VBL 871.50 882.00 871.50 879.25ORIENTCEM 97.55 98.10 94.75 95.85ITDC 273.30 279.80 273.30 278.00MHRIL 235.00 237.15 232.00 232.70APLAPOLLO 1461.15 1500.00 1436.40 1499.85SANOFI 5868.50 5912.50 5825.05 5871.20SUNDRMFAST 572.30 574.25 567.00 570.15ATUL 3509.95 3522.00 3478.75 3499.25LUXIND 1353.00 1357.10 1322.05 1337.70FINOLEXIND 491.00 492.00 485.00 485.65ASTRAL 1195.70 1201.40 1179.00 1197.10SHILPAMED 338.95 339.80 331.35 332.45PGHH 10691.15 10776.90 10620.65 10704.45TATAINVEST 857.15 863.00 855.10 857.153MINDIA 23811.90 23825.00 23300.00 23374.45JCHAC 1959.00 2071.95 1915.00 2041.95MAHSCOOTER 3595.35 3618.95 3557.40 3578.35GSKCONS 7035.00 7077.50 6995.10 7070.30TIINDIA 391.00 391.00 380.00 383.55WABCOINDIA 6293.35 6345.95 6291.10 6329.20SUNCLAYLTD 2802.00 2890.00 2750.00 2793.60NBVENTURES 103.50 103.60 102.75 103.15THERMAX 972.90 985.00 968.85 973.80GAYAPROJ 167.55 171.95 161.00 166.85ITDCEM 124.70 126.00 122.10 122.70LAURUSLABS 402.00 404.00 398.00 401.45APLLTD 536.85 545.00 533.50 541.00MAHLIFE 372.45 373.20 370.05 371.90GMDCLTD 79.20 79.75 79.05 79.40UNITEDBNK 10.91 11.28 10.91 11.05NILKAMAL 1390.05 1404.25 1390.05 1397.90MAHLOG 517.50 519.55 515.45 517.55TVSSRICHAK 2218.80 2270.00 2190.00 2200.00NH 215.00 220.45 214.50 218.00NAVNETEDUL 110.10 110.85 109.80 110.50AKZOINDIA 1808.25 1811.00 1787.00 1792.25CERA 2874.70 2888.90 2841.00 2875.60SUPRAJIT 239.00 239.00 233.00 234.55CENTRUM 34.55 34.55 33.70 34.05INOXWIND 68.35 68.95 67.70 68.60NESCO 475.55 479.05 467.85 470.10SJVN 24.20 24.20 24.05 24.15TIMETECHNO 95.65 97.25 95.30 95.60JKCEMENT 853.75 865.60 849.10 860.60GALAXYSURF 990.00 1005.00 977.65 985.45TEJASNET 171.60 174.15 171.05 172.10ERIS 630.75 640.00 629.45 632.20SOLARINDS 1062.70 1068.40 1040.25 1044.95BLUEDART 3329.40 3329.40 3262.75 3282.95SHARDACROP 386.00 390.30 386.00 388.00VMART 2580.00 2580.00 2542.00 2559.00LAXMIMACH 6044.10 6098.55 6005.90 6085.90MONSANTO 2542.35 2588.90 2542.00 2585.30GULFOILLUB 865.30 881.95 865.30 873.85CCL 281.80 282.65 276.00 279.95SHRIRAMCIT 1749.10 1749.10 1696.00 1720.10SUPPETRO 221.75 223.60 219.75 221.30MINDACORP 136.00 136.00 132.50 133.55KIOCL 142.50 142.50 138.00 138.60ZYDUSWELL 1295.00 1315.50 1295.00 1307.30LAOPALA 205.40 207.40 201.20 207.30TRITURBINE 109.80 111.00 108.40 108.90APARINDS 702.00 702.00 670.00 671.85SADBHAV 243.65 245.40 243.15 245.05VTL 1086.35 1097.50 1071.85 1093.05HONAUT 23075.00 23300.00 23075.00 23277.60RATNAMANI 900.00 900.00 889.10 895.00HATSUN 764.60 764.60 756.00 760.65ASTERDM 153.40 153.40 153.00 153.00CARERATING 988.00 989.95 985.20 987.30SIS 850.00 855.00 834.00 839.70PHOENIXLTD 647.55 661.00 642.90 653.30SCHAEFFLER 5468.85 5468.85 5420.00 5441.50DHANUKA 394.90 397.45 392.30 393.95SFL 1355.00 1355.00 1346.00 1353.95STARCEMENT 98.15 98.80 98.00 98.70CHOLAHLDNG 492.00 499.95 485.25 488.25ELGIEQUIP 252.50 252.50 248.60 249.55

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SCRIP OPEN HIgh LOW LTP CHANGENIFTY 50 11612.05 11683.90 11569.70 11671.95 67.45YESBANK 261.90 272.00 258.70 271.75 11.70WIPRO 263.50 275.00 263.35 274.75 11.05TATAMOTORS 200.00 207.60 198.15 207.00 6.45COALINDIA 233.00 239.50 232.30 239.25 6.30ICICIBANK 387.40 398.35 387.15 397.15 10.05BAJAJ-AUTO 2860.00 2929.85 2838.00 2920.00 66.65IOC 149.00 156.00 148.80 155.30 3.25HCLTECH 1096.35 1128.85 1096.20 1118.00 21.65VEDL 186.90 190.95 184.10 190.00 3.35HEROMOTOCO 2590.00 2631.95 2568.80 2631.00 44.15ZEEL 406.95 412.40 404.60 411.50 6.75AXISBANK 755.00 766.00 751.00 765.55 10.95MARUTI 7134.00 7235.00 7080.00 7230.00 100.55EICHERMOT 20699.00 21024.00 20355.00 20900.00 287.35SUNPHARMA 457.25 472.40 454.80 468.80 6.35BPCL 346.50 357.40 345.05 355.60 4.60HINDALCO 214.45 217.85 211.60 217.15 2.70CIPLA 526.25 534.50 525.40 531.50 6.10ITC 292.50 296.70 292.25 296.00 3.25INDUSINDBK 1758.00 1772.40 1730.25 1768.00 17.00HINDUNILVR 1668.80 1683.90 1662.25 1681.00 16.10TATASTEEL 551.00 555.00 540.25 553.60 4.55TCS 2070.00 2098.00 2057.65 2087.45 16.70RELIANCE 1328.90 1340.70 1321.00 1338.00 8.75HDFC 2062.50 2073.00 2039.15 2067.00 12.10SBIN 313.95 315.70 308.10 314.60 1.80JSWSTEEL 290.95 293.00 285.65 292.00 1.60NTPC 135.50 136.45 135.05 136.25 0.70BAJAJFINSV 7340.00 7400.00 7272.00 7371.00 23.75GAIL 343.00 345.00 336.10 343.00 1.10GRASIM 837.00 849.10 829.00 843.00 2.55ADANIPORTS 379.75 381.60 373.00 380.85 0.95M&M 667.80 669.80 660.45 668.10 1.10TECHM 790.35 797.70 787.30 788.00 0.85LT 1375.90 1387.00 1366.00 1374.55 0.90KOTAKBANK 1339.95 1347.15 1322.10 1344.00 0.75HDFCBANK 2296.60 2303.00 2267.00 2290.00 0.60POWERGRID 198.95 199.35 197.05 198.25 -0.10BRITANNIA 2973.10 2988.75 2942.50 2967.85 -3.65ULTRACEMCO 4154.00 4174.65 4107.45 4157.60 -9.25ONGC 158.60 158.90 157.05 157.75 -0.35INFRATEL 316.10 318.50 312.50 315.05 -1.05TITAN 1109.00 1109.95 1091.50 1099.85 -4.55DRREDDY 2764.00 2765.95 2736.90 2751.55 -12.15BAJFINANCE 3016.55 3049.10 2979.45 3010.60 -13.50UPL 943.50 945.85 930.00 940.70 -6.10INFY 770.00 773.00 758.20 760.80 -6.45BHARTIARTL 358.55 361.00 341.50 350.80 -4.15ASIANPAINT 1464.70 1474.90 1437.20 1449.80 -46.55IBULHSGFIN 855.00 858.95 821.35 831.95 -27.40

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SCRIP OPEN HIgh LOW LTP CHANGENIFTY NEXT 50 28068.25 28177.25 27885.10 28146.45 107.15ASHOKLEY 87.30 92.80 86.20 92.05 4.80PAGEIND 24100.05 24720.00 23800.00 24590.00 613.95ICICIGI 1042.20 1079.00 1035.65 1075.00 25.90HDFCAMC 1533.00 1560.00 1515.00 1560.00 34.70LUPIN 795.00 813.40 790.20 810.15 17.50BANDHANBNK 548.00 559.00 536.10 559.00 12.00BIOCON 607.00 619.90 603.55 619.05 12.35MCDOWELL-N 533.00 546.00 532.10 544.15 10.60DIVISLAB 1693.00 1719.75 1685.25 1715.75 31.30BANKBARODA 130.40 132.65 127.75 132.30 2.30DLF 186.00 189.50 183.40 187.60 3.00ABB 1391.20 1416.00 1379.35 1415.00 19.00COLPAL 1225.90 1234.80 1216.00 1234.80 14.90HINDPETRO 248.50 258.00 247.05 255.70 2.90MOTHERSUMI 150.50 151.70 147.45 151.70 1.60PETRONET 236.50 241.30 235.50 240.00 2.35DABUR 402.00 404.55 400.00 404.15 3.05SIEMENS 1145.10 1158.00 1134.20 1154.00 8.65UBL 1416.75 1430.00 1396.45 1423.50 10.35ACC 1639.00 1658.45 1620.00 1651.00 10.60HINDZINC 284.10 286.25 280.65 285.60 1.65AMBUJACEM 225.60 227.95 221.80 226.55 0.95SHREECEM 18886.95 19021.70 18508.00 18900.00 74.60DMART 1484.00 1497.00 1459.00 1486.70 4.85GODREJCP 665.00 666.60 663.00 665.10 2.15PGHH 10730.00 10850.00 10535.00 10750.00 30.65CONCOR 516.00 522.00 506.40 518.00 1.45AUROPHARMA 783.90 789.00 771.90 784.00 1.90SBILIFE 629.50 629.50 615.00 621.00 1.20SAIL 59.00 59.10 57.25 58.95 -0.05OFSS 3562.00 3608.75 3543.10 3565.90 -3.30NIACL 190.35 192.00 187.00 190.05 -0.30ICICIPRULI 366.00 366.05 359.45 363.90 -0.65PEL 2647.80 2659.50 2617.40 2636.30 -6.30CADILAHC 342.50 344.50 339.05 341.50 -0.95HAVELLS 764.10 764.75 752.00 760.70 -3.40PIDILITIND 1278.55 1278.90 1263.65 1276.50 -8.45L&TFH 149.40 149.40 145.10 147.80 -1.00MARICO 360.00 360.00 354.10 356.50 -2.85BOSCHLTD 18014.95 18015.00 17729.95 17849.90 -145.05BHEL 73.00 73.15 71.10 72.00 -0.60GICRE 254.80 254.80 250.30 251.70 -2.30BAJAJHLDNG 3316.95 3356.00 3270.90 3285.00 -32.40NHPC 24.40 24.50 24.15 24.15 -0.25HDFCLIFE 386.00 386.35 378.60 380.90 -4.50NMDC 105.60 105.90 103.85 104.50 -1.30IDEA 17.50 17.70 16.80 17.05 -0.25INDIGO 1401.65 1411.25 1382.35 1391.00 -22.15SRTRANSFIN 1247.50 1257.70 1217.60 1220.95 -20.80MRF 59199.00 59350.00 57500.00 57700.00 -1221.30

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President Donald Trump onTuesday lashed out at the

European Union, vowing toslap tariffs on billions in EUimports in retaliation for sub-sidies to aviation giant Airbus.

“The World TradeOrganization finds that theEuropean Union subsidies toAirbus has adversely impactedthe United States, which willnow put Tariffs on USD 11Billion of EU products!” Trumptweeted.

“The EU has taken advan-tage of the US on trade formany years. It will soon stop!”

However, the immediateconsequences from Trump’sTwitter outburst were unclear.

Hours earlier, on Mondayevening, US TradeRepresentative RobertLighthizer had said the finalamount of any tariffs had yet tobe determined and would notbe announced until the out-come of a WTO arbitrationprocess -- expected later thisyear.

Lighthizer’s office pub-lished a preliminary list —including items as diverse asaircraft, swordfish, cheeses andliquors — that he said could be

subject to additional duties inthe future.

The EU and the UnitedStates have been maintaining afragile trade truce since Trumpangered Europe last year byslapping duties on steel and alu-minum imports and threaten-ing new ones on cars.

For more than 14 years,Washington and Brussels haveaccused each other of unfairlysubsidizing Boeing and Airbus,respectively, in a tit-for-tat dis-pute that long predates Trump.

The Boeing-Airbus spat isthe longest and most compli-cated dispute dealt with by theWTO, which aims to create alevel playing field in globaltrade.

The EU fired back onTuesday, saying that theamounts claimed by the USwere “greatly exaggerated.”

Ankara: Turkish PresidentRecep Tayyip Erdogan’s rulingparty said on Tuesday it wantsthe Istanbul mayoral election tobe repeated after the SupremeElectoral Council rejected ademand for a recount of all bal-lots cast in the city.

The AKP had appealedafter results showed its Istanbulcandidate narrowly lost in lastweek’s local election in whatwould be a major setback forthe party after a decade and ahalf in power.

“We will take the path ofextraordinary appeal... We willsay that we want the election inIstanbul to be repeated,” theAKP’s deputy chairman AliIhsan Yavuz told reporters inAnkara.

Electoral authorities wouldhave to decide whether theAKP has a case for a rerun of theIstanbul ballot after a very tightrace for the city’s mayor. AFP

Jerusalem: Israelis began vot-ing on Tuesday in a high-stakeselection that will decidewhether to extend PrimeMinister Benjamin Netanyahu’slong right-wing tenure despitecorruption allegations or toreplace him with an ex-militarychief new to politics.

The vote is expected to beclose and likely lead to franticnegotiations to form a coalitiongovernment once results are in,with opinion polls havingshown Netanyahu best placedto do so. Polls opened at 0400GMT and were to close at 1900GMT in most areas, with finalresults not expected until earlyWednesday.

Ex-military chief BennyGantz has mounted a strongchallenge to the veteran primeminister by brandishing hissecurity credentials whilepledging to undo damage hesays Netanyahu has inflicted onthe country with divisive pol-itics. AFP

Khartoum: Thousands of defi-ant Sudanese protestersremained camped outside armyheadquarters for a fourth dayTuesday, after security forcesabandoned two separateattempts to disperse themwhen soldiers fired in the air,witnesses said.

Chanting “freedom, free-dom,” crowds of men andwomen, who had spent thenight camped outsideKhartoum’s sprawling com-plex that also houses the pres-ident’s residence, urged topbrass to back them in endingOmar al-Bashir’s three decadesof iron-fisted tule.

It is the largest rally sinceprotests erupted following athree-fold increase in breadprices in December, beforemushrooming into nationwide demonstrationsdemanding that Bashir stepdown. AFP

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Lawmakers named thespeaker of the upper house

as Algeria’s first new presidentin two decades Tuesday, afterthe resignation of AbdelazizBouteflika following massprotests.

The election of AbdelkaderBensalah as interim presidentfollows constitutional rules butgoes against the demands of demonstrators,who have pushed for him andother top politicians to standdown.

“I want to work towardsfulfilling the interests of thepeople,” Bensalah told parlia-ment on taking up the 90-dayinterim presidency.

“It’s a great responsibilitythat the constitution demandsof me,” the 77-year-old added.

Opposition parties refusedto back Bensalah’s election andboycotted the session, as hun-dreds of students protestedagainst him in Algiers.

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An accountability court onTuesday indicted Pakistan

Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief and OppositionLeader in the National Assembly ShehbazSharif on charges he misusedhis authority while he was theChief Minister of Punjabprovince.

Shehbaz’s son Hamza, theOpposition Leader in PunjabAssembly, was also indicted bythe court in the Ramzan SugarMills case.

Both Shehbaz and Hamzapleaded not guilty to thecharges framed against them,which involve the misuse oftheir authority and the illegaluse of public funds.

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Prime Minister Theresa Maybrought her case for a fur-

ther delay to Britain’s departurefrom the European Union toBerlin on Tuesday, whileGerman and French officialsinsisted that any extension tothe deadline must come withstrings attached and assur-ances from London.

May and GermanChancellor Angela Merkel metfor about an hour and a half,shaking hands for photogra-phers but making no remarksto reporters. The German gov-ernment had no comment onthe outcome of the talks. Maywas headed to Paris later tomeet French PresidentEmmanuel Macron, who hasappeared to take a harder lineon cutting Britain more slack.

Britain’s partners in the28-nation European Union saythey want clarity from Mayabout what she will do to breakthe Brexit logjam if anotherdelay is granted. Officials aresignaling that they’re not keento give Britain a blank check,though they also want to avoida chaotic Brexit later this week.

Michael Roth, Germany’sdeputy foreign minister, said ashe arrived at an EU meeting in

Luxembourg that “we are in avery, very frustrating situationhere.” But he also said that a

disorderly Brexit would be “theworst of all options on thetable.”

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Washington: The US StateDepartment on Monday barredentry to 16 Saudi nationalsover what it described as theirrole in the murder of journalistJamal Khashoggi as the admin-istration of Donald Trump con-tinues to face harsh criticismover its handling of the affair.

Dissident writer Khashoggiwas killed and dismemberedOctober 2 in the Saudi con-sulate in Istanbul by a team of15 agents sent from Riyadh,sparking unprecedented international scrutiny of thekingdom’s human rights record.

But despite the fact thatSaudi Arabia’s powerful crownprince Mohammed bin Salmanwas named as “responsible”for the murder by the USSenate, who adopted their res-olution after being briefed bythe CIA, the US president hasrefused to publicly take a stand

against the country’s de factoruler.

Trump has instead empha-sized that Riyadh is a majorarms importer for the UnitedStates and an important region-al ally against Iran.

A statement by the StateDepartment listed the 16 indi-viduals and said that they hadbeen designated under theDepartment of State, ForeignOperations, and RelatedPrograms Appropriations Act.

The section in question“provides that, in cases wherethe Secretary of State has cred-ible information that officials offoreign governments have beeninvolved in significant corrup-tion or gross violations ofhuman rights, those individuals and their immedi-ate family members are ineli-gible for entry into the UnitedStates. AFP

������������������������������>"���'������Luxembourg: The EU’s chiefBrexit negotiator said onTuesday that the length of anydelay to the divorce that thebloc may grant Britain willdepend on what plan PrimeMinister Theresa May bringsto a crunch summit.

The British leader is mak-ing a last-gasp diplomatic dashto Paris and Berlin on the eveof an emergency summit inBrussels, where she hopes theother 27 EU chiefs will agreeto postpone Brexit to June 30.

She needs more time to tryto strike a compromise withthe opposition that will letBritain’s bitterly divided par-liament back an orderlydivorce plan at the fourthattempt. Without such a delay,the United Kingdom is sched-uled to crash out with no dealon Friday.

But the EU has alreadygranted one delay -- the orig-inal deadline was March 29 -- and negotiator MichelBarnier said May must explainwhat another postponementwould achieve. AFP

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Belgium is to host a mini-summit of the EU members

most exposed to the dangers ofa no-deal Brexit on Wednesday,just ahead of a full European

meeting.Prime Minister Charles

Michel will host leaders orsenior officials from north-western Europe before the EUsummit, his spokesman toldAFP.

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Ankara: Turkish police onTuesday detained over 100individuals nationwide for sus-pected ties to the group blamedfor a 2016 attempted coup, statemedia reported.

Tens of thousands of peo-ple have been taken into cus-tody over alleged ties to US-based Muslim preacherFethullah Gulen since the failedcoup while over 140,000 pub-lic sector employees have beensacked or suspended.

After public prosecutorsin several cities including thecapital Ankara and coastal cityof Izmir issued over 400 arrestwarrants, 127 suspects weredetained, according to numbersprovided by state news agencyAnadolu. AFP

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� $����������������/%(����"���, C��� ��" �������������������������� � Saint Petersburg: Russian

President Vladimir Putin saidon Tuesday he knew from thestart that the massive investi-gation into links between USPresident Donald Trump’scampaign and Moscow wouldcome up empty.

“We have said from thebeginning that (special coun-sel Robert Mueller’s) commis-sion would not find anything.Nobody knows better than us,Russia did not meddle in anyelections,” Putin said.

“It was clear ahead of time,”he said at the InternationalArctic Forum. “I talked aboutthis.” The long-awaited reportinto election meddling con-

cluded that no members of thecampaign conspired withRussia to boost Trump in the2016 presidential elections.

At the same time the inves-tigation did find that Russiacarried out a campaign of dis-information and hacked emailsfrom Hillary Clinton’s cam-paign team, and 25 Russianshave been indicted.

Putin on Tuesday againcalled accusations of meddling“total nonsense for the (US)domestic audience”.

A redacted version of theMueller report could bereleased to the public by nextweek, US Attorney GeneralBill Barr said Tuesday. AFP

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Page 13: ˘ˇ ˆ˙˝ - The Pioneer · they can send complaints and geo-tagged videos and photos of illegal gifts, money or liquor being distributed or a hate speech being made by any political

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More than a decade and a halfago, a management degreewas a key to landing lucrative

jobs in India. The employers chasedmanagement students from IndianInstitutes of Management (IIMs) andother top private colleges to bringthem on board. However, in the lastfew years, the number of managementgraduates getting hired has declinedsignificantly.

Apart from the fact that there arenow more than 3500 managementinstitutes in India churning out lakhof MBA students every year and thesupply is more than the demand, onevery relevant reason of unemploya-bility is the lack of quality students.According to a report, only 7 per centof India’s B-schools graduates areemployable because they are not job-ready.

A majority of institutes still impartmanagement education through thetraditional curriculum. The key focusof this curriculum is on theoreticalknowledge of various subjects. So,while students pass out with a strongtheoretical foundation, they areunaware of how to deploy their con-cepts into the practical world scenar-ios. When they enter the corporatejobs, they fumble with real job chal-lenges and are unable to give the per-formance as desired by the organisa-tions.

There have been complaints fromthe industry about the lack of quali-ty students with the right job skills.Organisations are demanding man-agement graduates who have sector-specific skills and knowledge and canstep into the demands of their jobsright from the ground without requir-ing much training. They also wantcandidates who excel in not only tech-nical skills but also soft skills such asleadership, team spirit, communica-tion skills, analytical thinking, prob-lem-solving, ethics and others. Thesoft skills go a long way in ensuringthat the candidate is the right fit forthe organisation and can adapt to thechanging business needs.

Realising that there is a gapbetween the MBA education andindustry skills, B-schools are nowrevising their curriculum and coursestructure to make their studentsemployable and job-ready. Here is

what B-schools have started doing tofix the employment problems formanagement students and also, makemanagement education more relevantto the industry:

�B�����������������There is certainly no better

teacher than experience. Books cangive academic wisdom, but to be ableto see how a certain fundamental orconcept works in the real world, stu-dents require hands-on training. So,B-schools are now incorporatingmore industry project assignmentsand internships and even increasingtheir duration in the curriculum sothat students can spend more timelearning practical skills.

���������������������While marketing, finance, human

resources, operations and others,have been common specialisationsthat MBA students have to choosefrom, B-schools are coming up withniche specialisations too. These nichesubjects enable students to perceivebusiness problems from a closer per-spective, enhance understanding ofthat sector and develop the requiredskill sets. Some of the innovative spe-cialisations that B-schools have comeup with are rural management, digi-tal marketing, tourism management,telecom management, family andbusiness entrepreneurship, big dataand analytics lectures from industryprofessionals

It goes without saying that indus-try professionals have proficientknowledge of corporate skills and areclosed to job market scenarios. Theyhave the latest information on what is

happening in the business world. Inaddition to their academicians astheir core faculty, B-schools are nowinviting the industry professionals andstalwarts as guest lecturers to sharetheir job experiences and give insightinto the business skills.

This change will not happenovernight, but it is definitely in theprocess. The need of the hour for B-schools is to improve their curriculumfrom time-to-time and tailor it to theindustry skills to increase the employ-ability of management students. Also,it is imperative for B-schools to joinhands with the industry to understandtheir business needs and seek theirhelp to design the curriculum.

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)+�)���������,��������������The Goods and Services Tax

Network (GSTN) on the occasionof its foundation day on April, 2019felicitated The Institute of CharteredAccountants of India (ICAI) in recog-nition of its contribution and supportin development of GST ecosystem.

It was presented by Navin Kumar,chief guest, former chairman, GSTN inthe presence of Ajay Bhushan Pandey,chairman, GSTN & revenue secretary,Government of India andKrishnamurthy Subramanian, chiefeconomic advisor. CA. Prafulla PChhajed, president, ICAI, CA. AtulGupta, vice-president, ICAI and CA.Sushil K Goyal, Chairman, GST &Indirect Taxes Committee received

the recognition on behalf of ICAI.The dignitaries discussed the work-

ing of GSTN along with the major focusareas like — linking of E-way Bill withGST Invoices and its data mining andothers. The ICAI has been regularlyproviding its support to GSTN by pro-viding suggestions on various GSTforms.

The Kalinga Institute of IndustrialTechnology (KIIT) Deemed to be

University, Bhubaneswar is among ahandful of Indian universities to enterWorld University Impact Rankings2019 of the Times Higher Education(THE).

The first edition of the TimesHigher Education World UniversityImpact Rankings 2019 was released onApril 3, 2019 and includes more than450 universities from 76 countries. Therankings assess universities against theUnited Nations’ SustainableDevelopment Goals (SDGs).

KIIT Deemed to be university is theonly self-financing university from east-

ern India and Odisha to enter this pres-tigious global university ranking thataims to measure an institution’s impacton society based on its success in meet-ing the UN’s Sustainable DevelopmentGoals (SDGs). Last year, it had achievedan impressive rank in The Times HigherEducation World University Rankings2019 also which assesses research-intensive universities from 86 countriesacross all of their core missions.

According to the ranking report,KIIT has been rated high on sustainabledevelopment parameters such asreduced inequalities (SDG 10), peace,justice and strong institutions (SDG 16),partnership for goals (SDG 17) and

Quality Education (SDG 4). SustainableDevelopment Goals, adopted by the UNin 2016, provide a framework for devel-oping the world in a sustainable way. Interms of other parameters, KIIT has got101-200 position with respect toReduced Inequalities; 201+ in Peace,Justice and Strong Institutions and301+ in Quality Education. Overall it hasgot 301+ position globally in impactrankings.

Staff, students and well wishers ofboth KIIT & KISS profoundly thankedand expressed gratitude to the Founderof KIIT & KISS for his vision to carryout the mission of SDG, reducinginequalities since the inception of KIIT.

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��������The Archaeolog y

Department within theFaculty of Arts andHumanities at the UK-basedUniversity of Southampton isinviting applications forSeptember 2019 intake of itsMSc Business and HeritageManagement programme.

Duration: One yearEligiblity : Bachelors

degree awarded by a recog-nised university or an equiv-alent professional qualifica-tion approved by the univer-sity with an overall qualifi-cation of at least 60 per cent;IELTS 6.5 overall, with min-imum of 6.5 in reading andwriting, 6.0 in listening andspeaking, or an equivalentstandard in other qualifica-t ions approved by theUniversity; students whohave achieved 70 per cent inEnglish in Class XII fromCBSE or CISCE may beexempted from additionalEnglish language require-ments.

Last date to apply: Earlyapplications by April 30,2019.

���������������Cradle Inst itute of

Paramedical Sciences invitesapplications for its certificatecourse in Medical LabTechnology.

The programme aims toprovide efficient and bal-anced training in laboratorymedicine. This course offerschallenging career in a hos-pital, minor emergency cen-ters, private laboratory, blooddonor centers, doctor’s officeor clinics.

Duration: One yearEligiblity : Minimum

qualification for securingadmission to certificate pro-gramme is Class XII passedfrom any recognised board.

How to apply: The appli-cation forms and brochuremay be obtained from admis-sion office of Cradle Instituteof Paramedical Sciences, 988,

Kapashera, New Delhi.Last date to apply: April

15, 2019.

��������������������Manav R achna

International Institute ofResearch and Studies invitesapplications for its BTech —Mechanical Engineering inassociation with JBM.

Duration: Four yearsEligiblity: Pass in Class

XII examination with at least65 per cent marks in aggre-gate in five subjects includingPhysics, Mathematics &English as compulsory sub-jects along with one of thefollowing subject: Chemistry,Biotechnology, ComputerScience, Biolog y, Bio-Technology and one subjectwith the highest score out ofthe remaining subjects.

How to apply: Log on tomanavrachna.edu.in.

Last date to apply: April17, 2019.

����������������Manav R achna

International Institute ofResearch and Studies invitesapplications for its AppliedSciences programme.

Duration: Four yearsE ligiblity : For BSc

Candidates having passedClass XII examination fromany recognised board with 50per cent or more marks inaggregate of three Sciencesubjects Physics, Chemistry,Math and English. For MSccandidates having passedwith 50 per cent or moremarks in relevant subject.

How to apply: Log on tomanavrachna.edu.in.

Last date to apply: April17, 2019.

Has it ever occurred to you howthe big game players know or

predict what you would need evenbefore you searched for it yourself?In today’s day & age, the needs &expectations of customers are seeingan unprecedented high because ofthe myriad options that one isexposed to. It is through theseoptions that organisations across theworld are learning and understand-ing the massive amounts of data thatpotential customers leave behind. Beit online, or through retail, extensiveamounts of behavioural data of con-sumers are being captured to devel-op algorithms & models that canhelp in shaping business perfor-mance with effective distribution ofservices and products.

Predictive Analytics is the prac-tice of drawing patterns to determinefuture trends and outcomes throughextracting viable information fromexisting data sets. PredictiveAnalytics utilises chronicled infor-mation to anticipate future occasions.Regularly recorded information isutilised to construct a scientificmodel that analyses critical pat-terns. The model is then utilised oncurrent information to foresee whatwill occur straightaway or to proposesteps to make for ideal results. Usednormally to conjecture future prob-abilities, Predictive Analytics utilis-es various methods that include thelikes of data mining, measurable dis-

playing and AI to enable experts topredict future business targets.

Driven by the big data metrics,predictive analytics is quickly becom-ing imperative for numerous busi-nesses and organisations, as they cansaddle through colossal amounts ofdata to give the business a morepragmatic vision of where and howto focus.

With expanding challenges, var-ious sectors are looking for an edgein bringing items and administra-tions to swarmed markets. The mostnotable ones include:�Consumer behaviour: PredictiveAnalytics are utilised to decide clientreactions or buys. Online retailers areutilising huge amounts of informa-tion they accumulate on the conductof their clients to modify their coststo predict what will engage their cus-tomers the most.

�Modifying operations: PredictiveAnalytics is empowering organisa-tions to work all the more profi-ciently. A few organisations haveprofited by predictive models bydetermining stock and overseeingassets. This can be widely usedacross the clothing, hospitality andairline industry where inventorymanagement is the biggest challengeat hand.�Healthcare: In healthcare, modelsassociating manifestations and med-ications to results are seeing moreextensive use by suppliers. By usingpattern-detection algorithms, health-care professionals can identify, givefeedback and help patients before-hand.�Anticipate cyber threats:Combining numerous examinationstrategies can improve design dis-covery and avoid criminal conduct

in the digital front. By analysingsocial event data on past assaults anddistinguishing an advanced uniquemark to avoid future invasions canhelp in developing a viable methodto counteract information threats.�Automobile: At a time whereelectric self-driving cars are thefuture, predictive analytics can helpin futuristic automobile innovation.By breaking down sensor informa-tion from associated vehicles, auto-mobile manufacturers can designbased on predictive calculations.�Aviation: Predictive Analytics canhelp the aviation industry by mon-itoring the motor wellbeing of airlinecarriers. To improve the carriers’ up-time and diminish upkeep costs,organisations can utilise predictivemodels to anticipate subsystem exe-cution for oil, fuel, lift-off, mechan-ical wellbeing, and controls.

Predictive modelling forms thefuture of business strategies with itsextensive use of mathematical andcomputational methods. An iterativeprocess that makes one test a data setand validate its results for a futuris-tic time frame. Owing to the direneed of accuracy in forecasting,organisations of the future will lookat individuals with a hands-on exper-tise in predictive analytics making itthe specialisation of tomorrow.

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� ���% �&%'���''The JEE (Main) 2019 (April

Session) Paper — I for thoseaspiring for BE/BTech was held onApril 8, 2019. NTA has successful-ly conducted the JEE Main —Paper 2 on April 7 for which aroundone lakh students have appeared.This is the first day out of the fourdays for April session of JEE Main2019 Paper — 1 to be held on April8 ,9, 10 & 12, 2019.

The reporting time for stu-dents was 7:30 am however theexam started at 9:30 am.

Reactions from Students aboutJEE Main Paper — I held on April8, 2019 (forenoon session) :�There were no changes in the pat-tern of Paper — I of JEE (Main)compared to previous years orJanuary session. Questions coveredalmost all chapters from the threesubjects Physics, Chemistry andMathematics. The spread of ques-tions was from almost all chaptersfrom Class XI and XII.�The paper had three parts :

�Part—I: Physics with 30 ques-tions, marking scheme (+4 for cor-rect response, -1 for incorrectresponse, 0 if not attempted)

�Part—II: Chemistry with 30questions, marking scheme (+4 forcorrect response , -1 for incorrectresponse, 0 if not attempted)

�Part—III: Mathematics with30 questions, marking scheme (+4for correct response, -1 for incorrectresponse, 0 if not attempted)�All questions were of multiplechoice with single correct answer

objective type.The level of difficult as per feedbackfrom students:

�Mathematics: Easy to mod-erate level. Our students reportedquestions were easy. No questionasked from MathematicalInduction.

�Physics: Tougher comparedto Mathematics and Chemistry.But it was of moderate level. Somestudents felt Class XI had moreweightage in the paper.

�Chemistry: Easy. Some ques-tions were directly from NCERTand were fact based. No tricksinvolved as such in any question.

One question on assertion reason-ing was asked.�Overall the paper was of easy tomoderate level as per students.�As compared to last year, this yearpaper was of easy to moderate levelas per students. More focus washowever given to NCERT.�As compared to January sessionthe paper was almost of similar levelas per students. Physics was rela-tively tougher.�No errors were reported from stu-dents as such.�The students left the exam hall at12:30 pm.

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VIT has added yet anotherfeather to its cap by secur-

ing first rank among privateinstitutions in the country inthe Atal Ranking of Institutionson Innovation Achievements(ARIIA 2019) awarded by theMinistry of Human ResourceDevelopment.

VIT Chancellor Dr GViswanathan received theaward from President of IndiaRam Nath Kovind during theaward ceremony and release ofNational Institutional RankingFramework (NIRF) on April 8,2019 at New Delhi. In the

NIRF ranking, in engineeringInstitutions category VITsecured 18th rank including allthe IITs, NITs and leading uni-versities. In the Universityranking category, VIT bagged19th rank among all universi-ties in India.

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IndianInstitute of Arts

and Designis offeringscholarships tho thosewho are enrolled in or

have been accepted for admission to the undergrad-uate/postgraduate -level programmes at IIAD.

The objective of this scholarship is to providefinancial aid to meritorious students who are willingto make their career in fashion and design.

Eligibility: UG level — The applicant must havecleared Class 12, with a minimum of 70% aggregatein any discipline from CBSE/ ISC/ IB or any otherequivalent board are considered eligible to apply.

PG level — The applicant must have clearedtheir Undergraduate Examination (or equivalent)with a minimum of 60% aggregate in any disciplinefrom any recognised Institute or University are con-sidered eligible to apply.

Besides the academic performance in 10+2/graduation, the final selection to avail scholarship,will also depend on performance in the IIADEntrance Tests process. For more info, visithttp://iiad.edu.in

How to apply: For Off-Line Applications (PaperForms) — Fill in the UG/PG Application Form;Download the scholarship form here; Fill in andcomplete all details. Make sure to enter your applica-tion form number on the scholarship form; Send theapplication form along with the Scholarship Form, tothe following address: The Admissions Department,Indian Institute of Art & Design, B-26 Okhla Phase 1New Delhi —110020 India

For Online Application: Download the scholar-ship form. Mention the application number on theform. Fill in all the details. Email the form [email protected]

Required Documents: Attested copies of Class10th Certificate and Mark sheet.

Attested copies of Class XII Certificate and Marksheet (if available). Attested copies of senior sec-ondary or equivalent Degree / Certificate. Attestedcopies of the proof of permanent address

For PG: Self-attested copies of Undergraduatedegree or equivalent degree/Certificate.

Self-attested copies of previous Year’s/Semester'smark sheets.

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The online gaming is upsurging asone of the most rapidly growingindustries in the world, particularly

in India. With an increase in the num-ber of games which are solely based onthe skillset of a particular player, moreand more people are engaging in suchgaming. This digital gaming sector inIndia is estimated to be worth $1.1 bil-lion by the year 2020 and will continueto flourish at a mind-boggling pace. Inaddition to such drastic developments,the country now boasts a huge inclina-tion towards start-ups and entrepre-neurship in the online gaming market.

Such revolutionary games are takingonline gaming to another level of tech-nical interaction. Some big game devel-opers who began humbly have now notonly created a huge fan base for them-selves less but they have even shaped skillbased gaming in India for the better.

Gamers who have a knack for onlinegaming (sport, fighting, poker) andwould love to earn some money out ofit, various games are waiting for you all.Here are some of the key points.

The prospect of money throughsimple games: With simple gamesincluding poker, rummy, trivia quizzes,sports and other Real Money Games(RMG), a lot of online players have beenbenefitted financially. They get their pay-ments either through Paytm wallet or bybank transfer. Such money-relatedprospects have successfully venturedthe popularity of such games in India.

Completely reliable start-ups: Manyentrepreneurs are aiming to bridge thegap between games and cash prizesthrough its online platform. Just like this,other developers like as Moon Frog,99Games, PlaySimple and Mech Mochanot only estimated the potential numberof players, but also implemented theirstrategy excellently.

Smartphone frenzy at its peak: In2019, almost every household owns aSmartphone which is the major reasonfor digital gaming and its proliferation.Fervent players are thereby leading to atwo-fold progress in technical arena.

Widen your gaming horizons: Suchgames have gained huge acclaim in thegaming sphere owing to their exemplarymoney earning capabilities.

Mingle with super players: Withcreative minds coming together on a sin-gle database, there is a huge chance thatyou will come across more-establishedand talented players. The impetus is toearn real cash along with top-notch gam-ing experience.

Entertainment at its par: With a ris-ing youth population, India is evolvingas the hub of mobile gaming and onlineface-offs. In cohesion with the huge mar-ket size, the extent of fervor is alsoincreasing in these online gaming plat-forms. Fun is an indispensable part ofthese applications and is eventuallyresponsible for this gaming outburst.

In today’s digitally active era, earn-ing quick money is highly lucrative forobvious reasons. People sure do spend alot of time gaming online, so using it toearn some real cash is not a bad idea afterall! But experience players would knowthat skills also have a major role to playwhen it comes to winning. Through theireasily retrievable smartphones, the play-ers can expect their financial as well as'fun'ancial goals being fulfilled. However,they must incline on improving theirskills as per the requirement of the gamesas luck is not a good option to rely on.

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Moving in the direction tofulfill its promise of cre-ating a healthy and well-

educated workforce. From givingrelaxation to small businesses inlogistics sector to file GST once inthree months to allocating �64,587 crores for improvement ofrail transport, the Government isworking in favour of the industry.This is to support the ease ofdoing business in India, alongsidecreating job opportunities foryouths, in which logistics indus-try is important.

The ongoing significant pub-lic and private investments in thetransport and warehousing facil-ities have opened ways forMSMEs to reduce the overheadexpenses and focus on improvingthe supply chain efficiency.Rightly pointed out in Teamlease’sreport Indian Logistics Revolution-Big Bets, Big Jobs, public invest-ments and steady evolution of thesector, spurred by snowballingdemands, will continue to drivethe growth of �14,19,000 crorelogistics sector at CAGR of 10.5%.The major impact can be seen inroad freight, rail freight, airfreight, warehousing, packaging,and courier services and the cre-ation of nearly 3 million new jobsis anticipated. With this, employ-ment numbers in the logistics sec-tor may increase up to 13.9 mil-

lion by 2022, which are 10.9presently.

THE EVOLVING INDUSTRYLogistics is backbone of the

nation’s economy but used to beconsidered low-skilled industryearlier. Therefore it remained thelast career choice for many. Theconsequences of which were thelack of well-trained talent andinnovation. The business had toface endless struggles to sourceand retain the right talent for theright job. Thanks to the latest dig-ital technologies and MSMEswho have joined the forces tostreamline and organise theunderdeveloped industry thatlogistics has today become anattractive career path.

The outdated pen and paperprocesses for documentation arereplaced by new modes like E-waybills, the traditional word-of-mouth promotion and marketingis now supported by digital mar-keting. The logistics and supplychain has come a long way con-tributing 13% to India’s GDP. It isslowly getting digitalised spear-heading the emergence of newjobs and transformation of thetraditional ones.

THE NEW ERAIn coming few years, there

will be an enormous shift in

demand management betweentransportation modes. Newnational waterways being built, aplethora of sophisticated 3PL and4PL players revolutionising thewarehousing sub-sector, increas-ing consumption and consumermaturity is providing a big fillipto the packaging sub-sector, lead-ing to more job creation. AsIndian logistics industry is nowadopting the digital technologiesand harnessing its potential, clear-ly evident from the digitalisationof export and import transactions

and popular use of electronic tag-ging technology, there is a recur-rent demand of skilled talents.

Every business today is inneed of well-trained and qualifiedprofessionals who can managetheir inventory and warehouses,keep tracks of accounts, and han-dle the customs and regulatorycompliance, and other processesdepending on the skills availabil-ity. The professionals in thissphere continually strive to ensurethat goods and services are deliv-ered to consumers on time and inproper condition under mini-mum costs to achieve the highlevels of customer satisfaction.The focus is on providing the bestservice to customers and increas-es the supply of goods in the mar-ket. For this, the market playersrequire a large number of trainedmanpower.

Looking at the presentemployment status, over a lakh ofincremental jobs are expected inwarehousing alone.

RISE OF NEW JOB ROLESThe job roles like consign-

ment booking assistant, e-docu-mentation assistant, courier deliv-ery executive, warehouse packer,inventory clerk, logistics and dis-tribution manager, supply chainanalyst, supply chain coordinator,supply chain manager are born

out of the need to stay attuned tothe evolving industry scenario andtech adoption on a large scale. Asintegrated logistics is the newtrend, talents working in the sec-tor bag high compensation pack-ages that vary from skills, expe-rience, and knowledge. In orderto retain them and encourageadding value and innovation inthe business, companies alsoensure the stress-free workingconditions and complete safety toachieve higher employee pro-ductivity and efficiency.

RE-ENGINEERING SKILLSWith tech-oriented logistics

gaining momentum, various uni-versities and private educationalinstitutions offer degree, diploma,and certificate programmes inlogistics and management. Toget jobs, a bachelor or masterdegree or any professional diplo-ma course in Logistics and SupplyChain Management that creditthem with the essential knowledgeand skills of the field or respon-sibility. Even the Government iskeen to equip the youths with theoptimal skill-set and empower theexisting employees in the logisticsand supply chain managementsector through the specialisedtraining centres.

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Revenge will be on theirmind when Mumbai

Indians lock horns with KingsXI Punjab, the hosts looking tostretch their winning run in theIndian Premier League here onWednesday.

The previous encounterbetween the two teams inMohali had ended in a compre-hensive eight-wicket win forKings XI, but home condi-tions at the Wankhede Stadiumare expected to favour MI.

MI enter the match high onconfidence following successivevictories over holders ChennaiSuper Kings and last edition'sfinalists Sunrisers Hyderabad.

Significantly both thesevictories came mostly becauseof MI's all-round bowlingstrength as the bowlers defend-ed totals successfully.

MI are also blessed withsplendid batting firepower inthe end overs from West IndianKieron Pollard and HardikPandya.

Kings XI, who too havebeen given a shot-in-the-armby their six-wicket victoryMonday night over Sunrisers,need to chip away at the top ofthe MI batting as well as ensure

that the big-striking Pollardand Hardik don't take away thegame like they did when carv-ing 45 runs in the last two overs

against CSK to turn the gamearound.

MI don't even have anyonein the top-20 run scorers' listthis season, an indication of thedepth in their batting, andhave a superior fast bowlingattack bolstered by the inclu-sion of West Indian pacer,Alzarri Joseph, who blew awaySunrisers with his record-breaking haul of 6/12 inHyderabad in their previousgame.

The hosts have a formida-ble pace attack with JaspritBumrah and left-arm JasonBehrendorff also there, alongwith Joseph and Hardik, toutilise the bounce and carry onthe Wankhede track.

Kings XI, third on thetable with eight points, havebeen top heavy in batting withK L Rahul and MayankAgarwal leading the way with200-plus aggregates and theindomitable Gayle too not farbehind.

In bowling, skipperRavichandran Ashwin (7 wick-ets) has done well in five out ofsix games that the team hasplayed and has got good sup-port from the likes of SamCurran, Mohammed Shamiand Murugan Ashwin.

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Kings XI Punjab skipper RavichandranAshwin has said his side has a lot of

scope for improvement after they encoun-tered yet another "too close" game in theongoing Indian Premier League.

K L Rahul (71 not out) and MayankAgarwal (55) struck fluent half-cen-turies to guide Kings XI Punjab to a six-wicket win over Sunrisers Hyderabad ina nail-bitting contest here.

Chasing 151 for a win, Kings XI werecoasting at 132 for one before three quickwickets took the game to the wire.

"Too close for comfort. We have hadreally close games, the biggest positive forme is there is scope for improvement,"Ashwin said at the post-match presenta-tion ceremony.

"It will be really harsh to say that weconceded 100 runs in the last 10 overs.The plans were held very well upon. Thereis enough ability to work on it."

Ashwin backed Mujeeb Ur Rahman,saying the Afghan spinner was an assetwho can be used upfront.

"Mujeeb knows Mohali very well andas a spinner you need to know the lengthsand speeds to bowl at. Sometimes the fig-

ures don't do justice, but I think Mujeebbowled well today.

"You do use spinners with the newball and Mujeeb has done it all his life forAfghanistan. And it was a good match-up between (Jonny) Bairstow andMujeeb," he said.

The Sunrisers skipper BhuvneshwarKumar said he was happy with hisbowlers efforts, especially with the dewplaying a major factor in the secondinnings.

"Of course it is hard but I am prettyhappy with the way we bowled with thedew around. It is a bit difficult with york-ers and slower balls, but given the dew,we executed our plans pretty well," he said.

"The yorker is something you can'tbowl and the bowling plans depend onthe length of the boundaries. When wecame to bowl we kept the dew factor outof our minds and all we wanted to do wasstretch it to the last over."

Man-of-the-match Rahul said hewas happy to get his form back after anordinary start to this year's IPL.

"I didn't start off the way I wanted toin the first couple of games. I am justenjoying my batting and happy to end upon the winning side," he said.

�����-@7�&�

Sunrisers Hyderabad's David Warnerwas extra cautious while

Ravichandran Ashwin operated in theIPL Monday night, deliberately drag-ging his bat inside the safe zone to avoidbecoming a victim of 'Mankading'.

The incident happened during theIPL match between SunrisersHyderabad and Kings XI Punjab here.

Warner was seen taking precautionby staying inside the crease duringAshwin's over.

Warner, who was at the non-strik-er's end, kept dragging his bat inside thesafe zone to ensure that he does notbecome Ashwin's 'Mankad' victim.

The Australian's antics was quick-ly picked up by the cameras andreplayed on the big screen.

The clip of the incident was lateruploaded by the official IPL website -- iplt20.Com.

Earlier in the tournament, off-spin-

ner Ashwin had dismissed RajasthanRoyals' Jos Buttler without giving hima prior warning and that had attracteda lot of criticism from across the crick-et fraternity. As per the rules, a bowleris within his right to dismiss a batsmanwho leaves the crease before the ball isbeing released. But the practice has beengenerally deemed as against the "spir-it of the game."

������ -5&*@/��5

Star Australian pacer Mitchell Starc is taking legalroute to get $1.53 million of his Indian Premier

League (IPL) contract paid out after he failed to playany game for his franchise Kolkata Knight Riders(KKR), according to a report in the Sydney MorningHerald.

Starc was injured in last year's ill-fated Test seriesagainst South Africa.

According to the report, Starc filed a lawsuit inthe Victorian County Court last week against theinsurers of his lucrative deal to play for KKR.

Starc was one of the most sought-after Australianplayers at the 2018 IPL auction, snapped up for a pricetag bettered only by Chris Lynn.

The left-arm quick, however, failed to bowl a ballduring the cash-rich T20 meet as he broke down withinjury in the preceding series against South Africa,which was marred by the ball-tampering saga thatled to bans for Steven Smith, David Warner andCameron Bancroft.

Starc, who is represented by Mills Oakleylawyers, is suing a syndicate of Lloyd's of London, theinsurance market where coverage can be bought forunique circumstances, the report added.

The writ states Starc paid a premium of $97,920to be covered between February 27 and March 31 in2018, when the tournament ended.

Going by Starc, he started feeling pain in his rightcalf while bowling during the second Test in PortElizabeth.

"While bowling on uneven footmarks on a wornwicket, the plaintiff suffered a sudden onset of painin his right calf. The pain worsened over the next fewbowling sessions and during the next Test match," thewrit said.

����� 75����

Chennai Super Kingsbowlers delivered yetagain to restrict Kolkata

Knight Riders to 108 for ninein an IPL match here Tuesday.

KKR never recovered fromthe early loss of wickets andfound the going tough to fin-ish with a below par scoredespite an unbeaten 50 off 44balls from Andre Russell.

A lot depended on the in-form Russell after a poor showfrom the batting unit. Heplayed the only way he knows,going for big shots, and suc-

ceeded to a certain extent. He finished with five fours andthree sixes.

The under-rated DeepakChahar, who returned impres-sive figures of 3 for 20 from 4overs, rattled the KKR top-order with early strikes, includ-ing that of the big-hitting ChrisLynn as the visitors struggledto 29 for four in the powerplay.

Harbhajan Singh (2/15),Imran Tahir (2/21) andRavindra Jadeja (1/17) put thebrakes on the KKR battingwith a disciplined effort.

KKR were under pressurefrom the word go as Lynn and

Sunil Narine fell within thespace of five balls. First,Chahar trapped Lynn leg-before wicket for a duck in thefirst over, as the Aussie misseda pull off a delivery that keptlow.

In the next over,Harbhajan tossed one up toNarine, who attempted a bigshot, only to skew it to thepoint region where Chahartook a good catch runningbackwards.

Nitish Rana (0) becameChahar's second victim, takensmartly by Ambati Rayudu.Robin Uthappa (11, 9 balls,

2X4) played a couple of goodshots, before perishing to a pullwhich landed in the safe handsof Kedar Jadhav at deep-squareleg.

A lot was expected of skip-per Dinesh Karthik but he flat-tered to deceive, hammering ashot off Tahir straight into thehands of Harbhajan at mid-wicket, to be dismissed for 19to leave KKR in trouble at 44for five.

That KKR's 50 came uponly in the 12th over, indicat-ing how much their batsmenstruggled to come to grips withthe surface at Chepauk.

����� -/-*��

Young Mumbai Indians bats-man Ishan Kishan hopes to

meet the high expectations histeam has from him, havingreplaced veteran Yuvraj Singh inthe previous game.

"He's such a big player andthe fact that I am playing in hisplace raises expectations fromothers. Playing under such pres-sure will help me in the longterm," said Kishan here ahead ofWednesday's IPL match againstKings XI Punjab.

Kishan batted at numberfour in place of Yuvraj who hadmanaged to tally 98 runs in thefirst four games. He was run outfor 17 against SunrisersHyderabad on Saturday.

Asked whether he was nowsure of his place, Kishan said, "Wehave so many good players in theteam. All, including seniors, haveto be on toes and my focus is thatwhenever I get opportunity I givemy 100 per cent."

The Jharkhand player wascandid in saying that although hewould love to keep wickets too forMI instead of playing just as apure batsman he knew that SouthAfrican Quinton de Kock wasMI's first choice.

"Obviously, I would like toplay as wicket-keeper-batsmanbut with de Kock in the team, Ihave to wait for my chance. I amkeen to learn from him. I havebeen able to learn a lot by seeinghis fitness level and dedication.He's a very good player with goodhand eye co-ordination with thebat, a thorough professional."

Kishan disagreed with thenotion that he had fallen behindin the race for the wicket keep-er's slot for India behind hisdeputy in the Under 19 WorldCup, Rishabh Pant, who hasalready played in Tests and is inthe running to make the squadfor the upcoming World Cup.

"I don't feel I have fallenbehind. My focus is on improv-ing my cricket."

����� '����8@�5

India's Parupalli Kashyap andMugdha Agrey qualified for

the main draw of the men andwomen singles competitions atthe Singapore Open badmintontournament here on Tuesday.

Kashyap, a 2014 GlasgowCommonwealth Games goldmedallist, defeated Japan's YuIgarashi 15-21, 21-16, 22-20 inthe final round of the qualifi-cation to seal his place in themain draw.

Kashyap, who is married toLondon Olympics Bronzemedallist Saina Nehwal, hadearlier defeated Malaysia's JuneWei Cheam 21-5, 14-21, 21-17in his first qualification round.

Kashyap will take onDenmark's Rasmus Gemke inthe opening round of the mensingles event on Wednesday.

Besides Kashyap, youngMugdha also made it to the

main draw of the women's sin-gles event with a come-from-behind 16-21 21-14 21-15 winover Lauren Lam of USA in thequalification round.

Mughda will playThailand's PornpaweeChochuwong in her openinground encounter Wednesday.

Elsewhere, it was curtainsfor men's doubles pair of ArjunMR and Shlok Ramachandranin the opening round after theylost 11-21 18-21 against sixthseeds Kim Astrup and AndersSkaarup Rasmussen ofDenmark.

The other Indian men'sdoubles pair in action onTuesday — NarendranBalasubramannian Geetha andRaphel Sharon — failed toqualify for the main draw afterlosing 15-21 14-21 againstlocal pair of Danny BawaChrisnanta and Loh KeanHean.

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Ole Gunnar Solskjaer enjoyeda charmed life as interimManchester United manag-

er but Barcelona's visit to OldTrafford on Wednesday will showhim the scale of the task he faces asthe new full-time boss.

The Norwegian was rewardedwith a three-year deal after dramat-ically reviving United's fortunessince taking caretaker charge inDecember, lifting them back intocontention for a top-four place andtransforming the mood at the club.

The highlight of his reign so farwas a dramatic 3-1 away victoryover Paris Saint-Germain in the last16 in the Champions League, whichenabled United to overturn a 2-0first-leg defeat to reach the quarter-finals on away goals.

Solskjaer has given his creativeplayers licence to attack, with PaulPogba and Marcus Rashford let offthe leash to devastating effect.

But some of the gloss has comeoff in recent weeks, with threedefeats in four matches badly dent-ing United's chances of qualifyingfor next season's ChampionsLeague and dumping them out ofthe FA Cup.

Solskjaer, who famously scoredthe winning goal for United againstBayern Munich in the 1999Champions League final inBarcelona, was upbeat afterdrawing the Spanish league lead-ers in the quarter-finals lastmonth, before he was con-firmed as the new long-termboss.

"We want these gamesagainst the biggest clubs and the

biggest teams. We had the finalagainst them in 2009 and 2011(both of which Barca won)and the semi-final in 2008when Scholesy (Paul Scholes)scored," Solskjaer said.

"It's these games our fans

and this club crave. We are lookingforward to this one."

Worryingly for Solskjaer,though, some of United's familiarfailings under Jose Mourinho havereturned to haunt them in theweeks since the draw was made.

������They were unfortunate to lose

at Arsenal but appeared short ofinspiration in losing twice to Wolvesin the FA Cup and Premier League,while even Solskjaer admitted theydid not deserve their solitary win

since he was given the permanentjob as Watford enjoyed the better ofthe chances in a 2-1 defeat at OldTrafford.

Solskjaer had a free ride whenhe took over from Mourinho, withmorale at a low ebb and the club 11

points off the top four.Despite recent hiccups, he has

had notable success in his short timeat the club and ultimately has hissights set higher than finishing inthe top four.

"You've got to aim high," he toldESPN. "You cannot aim too low atthis club. You've got to aim to wintitles.

"When I came back here as themanager I thought a lot about whatmakes a winning team. What doesit really take to win on the biggeststage? I'm not one to sit back, reston my laurels."

The 46-year-old will probablybe forgiven if United fall shortagainst a Lionel Messi-inspiredBarcelona.

But if he fails to reverse themini-slump and United suffer aheavy defeat to the Spanish cham-pions there is a danger the seasoncould peter out and momentumcould be lost.

Questions will be asked as towhether United were too quick toput their trust in a likeable leaderand whether Solskjaer has the pro-file needed to bring in the top-levelrecruits that United need, particu-larly in defence, to become seriousPremier League and European chal-lengers again.

But he will lead his team out atOld Trafford on Wednesday for theirfirst Champions League quarter-final since 2014 with the samenever-say-die attitude he had as aplayer.

"We've got a chance, it's going tobe a tough one. We've got a moun-tain to climb, but we've climbed afew mountains before," saidSolskjaer.

� ��■

In the wake of Ajax's stunningvictory against holders Real

Madrid in the Champions Leaguelast 16, the headlines across Europewere mainly about the new gold-en generation emerging inAmsterdam.

The club of Johan Cruyff, andof Louis van Gaal's side that liftedthe trophy in 1995, are into theirfirst Champions League quarter-final since 2003 with a team packedwith products of their famed youthsystem.

Midfielder Frenkie de Jong,aged 21 and headed for Barcelonaat the end of the season, and 19-year-old defender Matthijs de Ligtare the brightest young stars in aside that triumphed 4-1 at theSantiago Bernabeu.

However, the most decisiveplayer in this Champions Leaguecampaign for Ajax -- which con-tinues into Wednesday's quarter-final first leg against Juventus -- isa grizzled veteran by comparison.

Dusan Tadic, at 30, was theoldest member of coach Erik tenHag's line-up in Madrid, with thesole exception of 32-year-old DaneLasse Schoene.

The Serbian internationalattacker scored one of their goalsin Spain, and now has nine alto-gether in a continental campaignthat started with a second qualify-ing-round win over Sturm Graz.

The goal apart, Tadic's displayin Madrid will be best rememberedfor that moment in the first halfwhen he escaped Casemiro with asensational turn.

"As time goes by we will realisewhat we did, but now we just wantto enjoy our football and thesethings will come. It's really special,"said Tadic after that match.

Formerly of Groningen and FCTwente, Tadic came back to theNetherlands in an 11.4 million-euro (£10 million) move fromPremier League strugglersSouthampton last year.

A���� ������������������FHis signing, and that of Daley

Blind, the defender rejoining fromManchester United, highlightedpart of the strategy at the JohanCruyff Arena.

The club's decision-makers,with former players Edwin van derSar and Marc Overmars nowrespectively chief executive andtechnical director, needed experi-ence to surround the youngsters.

The main goal for Ajax wasreclaiming the Dutch title, lastwon in 2014. Ten Hag's team arelevel with PSV Eindhoven at thetop of the table with five gamesleft, having recently beaten their

rivals 3-1 in Amsterdam. They areinto the Dutch Cup final, too.

Tadic has scored 20 leaguegoals, and has added nine assists— those figures make him themost decisive player in theNetherlands since Luis Suarezwith Ajax in 2009/10.

"When he signed, he wasexpected to be the replacement ofHakim Ziyech, but with theMoroccan playmaker still at theclub, the two have struck up apartnership that knows no boundsin terms of creativity," says MichielJongsma, a journalist and an edi-tor with sports analysts Opta,covering the Dutch league.

"It seems like he had settledfor being a big fish in a smallerpond by returning to theEredivisie, but with rumoursswirling that AC Milan andManchester City are interested, hishead might be turned," addsJongsma of Tadic.

Another star turn againstJuventus will only increase thechances of big-money offers com-ing in.

Van der Sar insists Ajax wouldnot need to sell anyway, althoughthe numbers are revealing — theclub's accounts for last year, with-out a European run, showed rev-enue of 92 million euros ($104m).

If Tadic continues his currentform, anything is possible.

����■ �5645&7�

The Indian football team will be play-ing in the invitational King's Cup in

Thailand in June.All matches will be held at the Chang

Arena, Buriram, which has a seatingcapacity of 36000.

Besides India and hosts Thailand, theother teams in the competition areVietnam and Curacao. As per April 2019FIFA rankings, India are ranked 101, withThailand at 114, Vietnam at 98, andCuracao at 82.

The King's Cup is a FIFA-sanctionedinternational 'A' tournament being organ-ised by the Football Association ofThailand since 1968. India's previous par-ticipation in the King's Cup was in 1977.

Two matches will be held on June 5,the winners of whom qualify for the final.The two others teams would be playingthe play-off for the third spot.

This is the first time in 18 years thatthe Blue Tigers will be playing in a FIFARanking tournament, the last being theMerdeka Tournament in Kuala Lumpurin 2001.

Kushal Das, General Secretary, AIFFsaid the King's Cup is the perfect platformfor the new coach to "understand thenucleus of the team".

"The new national coach will be onboard by mid-week of May. With the FIFA2022 World Cup Qualifiers scheduled tokick off in September, the King's Cup willhelp the team get in proper shape for thetough challenges ahead," he stated.

"I am extremely thankful to the

Thailand FA for sending us an invitationto play in the tournament."

The 2018 edition of the King's Cupwas won by Slovakia when they beatThailand 3-2 in a thriller in the final,while Gabon beat UAE 1-0 to clinch the3rd place.

����■ �5645&7�

Former England manager Sven-GoranEriksson headlines a list of 35 names short-

listed for the post of the Indian football teamcoach, which also includes the highly success-ful ex-Bengaluru FC manager Albert Roca.

The much-travelled Sven-Goran, a Swede,and Spaniard Roca apart, Tommy Taylor(England), Hakan Ericson (Sweden), TomislavSivic (Serbia), Lee Clark (England) and LucasAlcaraz Gonzalez (Spain) are some of the othercandidates shortlisted for the coveted post.

Sven-Goran, who was in charge of Englandfor five years until 2006, had last monthexpressed his interest regarding the job to theAll India Football Federation (AIFF).

The Indian team's spirited showings inrecent times had a ripple effect with the posi-tion of the men's coach attracting over 250applications, an unprecedented number thatalso includes some well-known names fromEurope.

The post has been left vacant since StephenConstantine resigned after the Indian team'sfailure to make the knockout round of the AFCAsian Cup.

"The federation has received over 250applications. 125 were selected after that and outof which 80 qualified as per the AIFF's require-ments. After that, around 35-40 names, basedon various criteria, have been forwarded to thetechnical committee. Seven to eight will becalled for the final interviews, following whichthe appointment will be made," an AIFF offi-cial said on the condition of anonymity.

����■ -��4�&��

The Indian women's footballteam on Tuesday missed out an

opportunity to qualify for thethird round of the 2020 Olympicqualifiers after it was held to a 3-3 draw by Myanmar here.

The Maymol Rocky-coachedside, with an average age of 21,needed a win to top Group A of theOlympic qualifiers Round 2 butsquandered the lead twice to playout a draw and bow out of the com-petition at the Mandalar ThiriStadium here.

India and Myanmar got sevenpoints each from three matches butthe home team advanced to thethird round on the basis of supe-rior goal difference (plus 8 ascompared to plus 4 of India).

Only one team qualifies forthird round from each group.

Sandhiya Ranganathan gaveIndia an early lead in the 10thminute but Myanmar's hat-trickwoman Win Tun found theequaliser in the 17th minute. Tunscored again in the 21st minute butSanju cancelled it out in the 32ndminute.

Ratanbala Devi gave India thelead with a 64th minute strike butTun levelled it yet again in the 72ndminute to complete her hat-trick.

The Indian women, ranked62nd in the world, displayed theirattacking intent early on against

Myanmar, ranked 42nd in theFIFA ladder.

Sanju came close to handingIndia the lead as early as in the sec-ond minute when her shot fromclose range, off a Dangmei Gracecross, went out for a corner.

The Indian women had towait eight minutes more beforesurging into the lead. In the 10thminute, Ratanbala burst out on theright flank and released a low crossfor Sandhiya, who made no mis-take to finish from inside the box.

The lead, however, was short-lived as Myanmar scored two goalsin five minutes. First, Tun headedhome in the 17th minute and fourminutes later, scored following aspot Kick.

Myanmar goalkeeper MayNwe fluffed her lines and made a

howler of a clearance that fell toRatanbala, who chested it down forSanju and she made no mistake inburying the chance into the backof the net. Both teams headed tothe interval at 2-2.

In the second half, Myanmardominated the opening minutes,forcing the Indian defence to shutthe opponents with some astutedefending.

India could have sealed thematch in their favour in the 76thminute when Sanju ran clear of thedefensive line, but the Myanmarcustodian made a world-class savefrom close range to tip the Indian'sshot over the bar.

A minute later, Dangmei Graceburst through but this time the cus-todian put her body on the line toshield the ball.

�����■ +@&+���

Sathiyan Gnanasekaran wants tobe among the top 15 players in

the world by the end of this year,but to achieve that, India's topranked paddler knows all too wellthat he has to work on his fitnessto brave the grind in the comingmonths.

"I am looking at top 15 by theend of 2019 if I can continue thisform. I am knocking on the doorof top 20," the World No 28Sathiyan said.

"I need to step up my fitnesslevels as well to match up to thegruelling schedule ahead. That issomething I need to work on if Ihave to get into the top 15," the 26-year old said.

Sathiyan booked a berth at theWorld Cup after finishing sixth inthe ITTF-ATTU Asian Cup held inYokohama last week.

The left-hander stunned WorldNo 14 Chun Ting Wong of HongKong in positions 5-8 match beforelosing to 17-year-old Lin Yun-Ju ofChinese Taipei, who notched up a11-4, 11-8, 11-8, 14-12 win to fin-ish fifth.

"It was a tiring tournament,

playing such high quality matches.All the matches were like playingsemi final and final. I will watch thevideos and comeback with bettershow when I meet him (Yun-Ju)next time," Sathiyan said.

The next few months will begruelling for Sathiyan with theWorld Table TennisChampionships, seven Pro Tours(China, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong,Australia, Bulgaria and the CzechRepublic), Ultimate Table TennisLeague and the CommonwealthChampionships all lined up beforethe World Cup, which is slated tobe held in China from Oct 18 to 20.

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