Grunge (sometimes referred to as the Seattle sound) is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged during the mid-1980s in the American state of Washington, particularly in the Seattle area. Inspired by hardcore punk, heavy metal, and indie rock, grunge is gen-erally characterized by heav-ily distorted electric guitars,

Any disorderly con-duct whether by words spoken or written or by an act which has effect of teasing, treat-ing or handling with rudeness any junior student, indulging in tough or indisciplined

Anger over the killing of five Indian soldiers in Jammu and Kashmir gripped par-liament Tuesday as mem-bers across political divide condemned the incident and sought strong action, while the government said the army was ready to uphold the sanctity of the Line of Control (LoC).

P.V. Sindhu assured India of at least a bronze medal in the World Badminton Championships Friday de-feating former World No.1 Shixian Wang in the wom-en’s singles quarterfinals event here.The World No.12 beat the seventh seeded Chinese

Vol. 2 Issue 32 10.00 24 PagesRNI Reg. No.: PUNMUL/2012/45041 Postal Reg. No. PB/JL-047/2013-15

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SUNDAY 11 AUGUST 2013 Weekly Newspaper

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Ragging Seniors and Raging Juniors

Peace At

All Costs

?

Page 24

Even as killings continue on the LOC, Government of India is loathe to accept Pakistani deceit and treachery. Full coverage of the martyrdom of Indian soldiers inside. Page 2

Editorial-Reserve Bank of India Gets New Governor

-Hear Us Prime Minister!

Last Monsoon of 15th Lok Sabha

World Championships: Sindhu assures India of Bronze

2 CHANDIGARHSUNDAY 11 August 2013COVER STORY

‘India needs to review battle preparedness at LoC’New DelhiWith frequent border incursions be-ing reported this year, many Indians have raised questions about the level and extent of border vigilance by the Indian Army at the LoC with experts suggesting that the rules of engage-ment and the existing patrol proce-dures may need to be reviewed.These concerns were revived in wake of the audacious raid by Paki-stani intruders Tuesday night that resulted in the death of five Indian soldiers.Commodore (retd) C. Uday Bhas-kar, former deputy director of the In-stitue of Defence Studies and Analy-ses, said the incident certainly raises concerns about our border vigilance and preparedness.“This intrusion into Indian territory by any adversary who can actually kill or behead Indian troops is cause for concern,” Bhaskar told IANS.Bhaskar said it was time for the In-dian Army to review its existing pre-paredness level at the 730 km-long LoC, the de facto border.“The Indian Army will have to re-view its existing procedures/inven-tory/infrastructure/intelligence and plug the gaps. The LoC is very long and the topography does not allow for minute patrolling,” he said.He said the Indian Army should be given the “political support” to raise the costs to the adversary in limited sectors. But he cautioned that Indian’s re-sponse should not be “impulsive”. “..India must not be impulsive and driven by emotive nationalism. Long term objectives and the cost-benefit

analysis must be kept in mind. And the language in public discourse must not be intemperate,” he added.A senior defence officer who spoke to IANS on condition of anonymity said he was convinced that to an ex-tent there was “intelligence failure” that led to the attack.“To some extent there was intelli-gence failure. Such a large number of terrorists can’t infiltrate. Also, I am convinced that the infiltration was aided by the Pakistan regulars. It is not possible for 20 heavily armed terrorists to attack our patrol team. It was a planned incursion. And they knew about the patrol,” said the of-ficer, who has commanded a brigade on the LoC.“I also feel that there should be a re-taliation to this killing. The morale of the soldiers is shaken. As they know our weak points, we know their weak points too. We need to give them a strong message,” the of-ficer added.Colonel (retd) P.N. Khera, edi-tor of Asian Defence News Inter-national (ADNI), heartily agreed, saying that battalion commanders needed greater flexibility to react. It had happened when 16 Corps, in whose operational area the incident occurred, was commanded by Gen. K.V. Krishna Rao, who later rose to army chief.When Gen. Krishna Rao questioned a local commander as to why there had been no retaliation, the reply he received was that permission had to come from the top and by the time this came, the intruders would have retreated, Khera said.

“Well, as your corps commander I am authorising you to retaliate if the situation so warrants,” Khera re-called Gen. Rao as saying.“After this had happened twice or thrice, the Pakistanis themselves asked for a flag meeting and it was all quiet after that,” Khera added. The incident was neither the first nor will be the last, said a former diplo-matic official who also did not like to be named. “In fact, the Indian nation is well ad-vised to prepare itself for an increase rather than decrease of terrorist ac-tivities in foreseeable future, given clear trends in our neighbourhood, especially Afghanistan,” he said. He said legitimate questions may, however, be raised about the pre-paredness of our army and the rules of engagement under which it oper-ates. “People may wonder how the Army will protect the country when it can-not defend itself.”The latest incident was the worst border clash in Kashmir after Janu-ary when two Indian soldiers were killed in Mendhar sector of the LoC. One of the soldiers was then behead-ed while the body of the other was mutilated.Since 2003, when India and Pakistan declared a ceasefire, the guns have mostly been silent on the LoC. But troops of the two countries some-times exchange fire across a live border with tens of thousands of sol-diers massed on either side where re-taliatory firefights are common over trivial incidents.

IANS

Ara/Danapur (Bihar)Shambu Saran Rai, one of the five soldiers killed in Kashmir, was to come home on a holiday in Bihar’s Ara town this week. Now, his grief-stricken family awaits his body.A pall of gloom has descended on Rai’s house at Anaitha in Ara, 60 km from Patna, with hundreds of people thronging it to voice their solidarity with the family -- plus anger and an-guish.Rai’s wife Sapna Devi and mother Kusum Devi fainted several times when they were told about the death. Both were inconsolable. Shambu Rai’s father Vansidhar Rai struggles to control his tears.“We were waiting for his arrival as his holiday had been approved. He would have been here Thursday or Friday. But destiny had something else in store. Now his body will ar-rive, not him,” Rai senior told IANS. Sapna Devi married Rai 12 years ago. They have three daughters and a son. “She is shattered. Her world has crashed. She is unable to say any-thing except cry,” said Rai.The sorrow apart, the father is proud of his son.“It is a rare thing that my son died for India. We are proud of him,” he said.A Non-Commissioned Officer and four soldiers were killed when the attackers, including men in Pakistani military uniform, sneaked into In-dian territory and ambushed an army patrol near the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir early Tues-

Peace At All Costs?Bihar mourns soldiers killed in Kashmir

day. One soldier was injured.Equally distraught is Pushpa Devi, wife of another Martyr soldier Vijay Kumar Rai. She is unable to come to terms that her husband is no more. Vijay Rai had left her at their house in Danapur near Patna July 27 to re-port for duty in Poonch in Jammu and Kashmir.“After TVs reported that five sol-diers had been killed in the border, she tried several times to call him on his phone but failed to get a re-sponse. She was not ready to accept anything negative till Vijay’s brother, who is with the army too, gave her the bad news,” said Vijay’s brother Rajkishore Rai, a resident of Anan-dpur Thehka village.Vijay’s uncle Ramji Singh told IANS that Vijay Rai would be remembered for his bravery for the country. “He is now an icon of sacrifice.”Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has announced a state funeral for all four soldiers of the 21 Bihar Regi-ment who were killed and a compen-sation of Rs.10 lakh for their fami-lies.Besides, Sambhu and Vijay, the oth-er slain soldiers are Prem Nath and Raghunandan Prasad, both from Bi-har’s Saran district, and Naik Punda-lik Mane from Maharashtra.The killings have impacted ties be-tween India and Pakistan, whose prime ministers are widely expected to meet on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly next month.

People join police, armed forces to die: Bihar minister, Reacting to comments Nitish Kumar apologisedPatnaIn a disgraceful and insensitive remark, Bihar’s Rural Works De-partment Minister Bhim Singh on Thursday said that people join po-lice and armed forces only to die. “Jawans (soldiers) are born to be martyred. Why else do people join Army and the police force?,” he told reporters. After being snubbed by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for his insensitive comments, Singh later apologized. Nitish Kumar had reportedly asked Singh to immedi-ately tender an unconditional apol-ogy to the families of the martyred soldiers hailing from Bihar, with-draw the remark and not to repeat such statements in the future. At a time when the whole nation is numb over the killing of five In-dian soldiers, out of which four be-

longed to Bihar, Singh’s thought-less remarks have drawn huge flak. His comments came on a day when the bodies of the five soldiers killed in Jammu and Kashmir by the Pakistani Army were cremated with full state honours in Bihar and Maharashtra.When asked why his party, Janata Dal (United), was not represented at the arrival of bodies of martyrs at Patna airport, Singh asked the reporter if his father or mother went to the airport to receive mar-tyrs. Reacting to Singh’s comment, Ku-mar said it was sad that his Cabinet minister gave such a comment and apologised. “The whole country is indebted to the soldiers; to giver respect to the martyrs is our duty”, he said

CHANDIGARH SUNDAY 11 August 2013 3REVIEW ‘Chennai Express’ a typical sambar and sandalwood creation

Film: “Chennai Express”, Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padu-kone, Director: Rohit Shetty, Rating: ***Dammit! No out-takes!! Is this really a Rohit Shetty film? Every film of the “Gol Maal” director has so far ended with out-takes giving us entertain-ing glimpses from during the mak-ing of the film. Here those trademark Shetty out-takes are replaced by a Honey Singh track which celebrates Rajnikanth and the lungi.The rest of the film resembles those typical sambar-and-sandalwood creations by K. Raghvendra Rao, and worse still, Raj Kanwar’s “Dhai Akshar Prem Ke” where Aishwarya to escape her parental wrath at her elopement, in-troduces to her family a man she has just met as her soul-mate.Of course, there are the flying cars exploding in the air to make sure we know that all said and drummed, this

is a Rohit Shetty presentation.Packaged with pickled precision, peppered with just the right doses of naughty jokes and precocious pranks that go well with Shah Rukh’s 40-year-old brat’s act, “Chennai Ex-press” is the kind of non-toxic comic entertainer where the most damag-ing double-entendres you’d get is a Tamil word that sounds like Angelina Jolie’s name.Come again?That brings me to another major hurdle in the heap of hilarity that Shetty builds so meticulously in the first-half. The generous outflow of Tamil that seems initially engaging (more so, since Shah Rukh shares our non-comprehension of the rapidfire Tamilian cloudburst that accompa-nies Deepika’s quicksilver charac-ter) begins to come in the way as the narration grows older and runs out of energy. But then there is the

sprightly Deepika as the runaway Tamilian girl who piles on to the North Indian mithaiwala stranger to escape marrying the boorish fiancee back home in her village in Tamil Nadu.We’ve seen Kareena Kapoor do the chirpy runaway train traveller in “Jab We Met”. Deepika brings a special filtered-coffee flavour to her chirpy character. Even that broad hammy accent grows on us. Yes, we like! Here she is is the only Ro-hit Shetty team member (and I use the term ‘team’ since Shetty gener-ously credits the direction to himself and his team) who seems to have a firm grip over her rudderless dither-ing character. Deepika plays Meena Amma with flavourful flourish. She is specially delightful in three key se-quences, two of them comic and the other unexpectedly sombre. In the se-quence where her character turns into a sleeping, kicking and convulsive

zombie, she’s unbelievably goofy. It’s not just Shah Rukh who gets a kick out of that scene. Would Rohit Shetty please do a full-fledged out-and-out comedy with Deepika? That, “Chennai Express” is not. It is a half-hearted but laugh-hearted effort that makes the fatal error of taking itself too seriously. Towards the end when the utterly shammed climactic fight ensues, we even have a long speech by Shah Rukh on the social status of the girl child. Not now, please! As we squirm at the attempt to turn comedy into a serious business we look back at the rest of the film with some amount of warmth and affec-tion. Some of the long shots of the train winding through green acres is breathtaking. And Shah Rukh’s first meeting with Deepika’s father over a bridge over a fast-flowing river is shot with amazing brio. There’s a wonderfully-shot sequence where Shah Rukh has to carry Deepika to a temple over hundreds of steps. Deepika here goes from amusement and mockery to a sense of belonging and pride in her man’s arms. It’s a moment built with care and love. But then, such tender affection really has no place in this comedy of cultural dispossession where the Punjabi boy Rahul gets embroiled in Tamil girl Meena’s family affairs and comes out... well not quite wiser. But filled with self-mocking laughter. Shah Rukh pokes a whole lot of good-na-tured fun at his now-aging lover-boy persona. There are tongue-in-cheek references to “Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge” and several other Shah Rukh Khan films and songs including the introductory South Indian lines from the “Jiya jale” song in “Dil Se”.All these self-tributes work better than what Puri Jagganath did with the Bachchan persona “Buddha... Hoga Tera Baap”.Rohit Shetty is more in command of his canvas here than in his last comedy “Bol Bachchan”. But

the self-deprecatory laughter is still not good enough. Somewhere you feel the one-line plot (okay, if not one then two-line plot) is stretched into an unwelcome second-half where noth-ing really happens. Even the humour tracks stops short beyond a point.But there is some genuine steam and spark in the early part of “Chennai Express”. Towards the beginning of the train journey when Deepika and Shah Rukh play a kind of antakshari of Hindi film songs to put the goons off her trail, Deepika completely overshadows her kingly co-star, who should be okay with being upstaged by his female co-star. After all he has given Deepika priority over his own name in the credit titles. And Deepika takes the lead very seriously. She has never looked better and never been funnier on screen without even trying too hard. But then the plot and the situations let her down. The antak-shari-speak that was amusing in the beginning recurs during a stale fight sequence in the second-half. We are no longer laughing. Not when Shah Rukh’s purported big chase sequenc-es end in embarrassing deadends. Not when an item song with incoher-ent words and even more misguided logistics pops up like a joke whose punchline has gone missing.Through all of this, Shah Rukh Khan braves it with a delicious sense of self-mock-ery bordering almost on a masoch-istic absence of heroic pride. Yes, he likes it when the joke is on him. But that happens once too often here. So it’s finally here. The film that all Shah Rukh Khan fans (which covers half the hemisphere) has been waiting for. The good news first. “Chennai Ex-press” is a pleasant and likable film in parts. The bad news is, it does noth-ing for Shah Rukh Khan’s imdomi-table star power except to tell us he can still play a 40-year Rahul without faltering.That we already know.

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CHANDIGARHSUNDAY 11 August 20134 LIFESTYLE

Grunge (sometimes re-ferred to as the Seattle sound) is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged during the mid-1980s in the American state of Washington, par-ticularly in the Seattle area. Inspired by hardcore punk, heavy metal, and indie rock, grunge is generally char-acterized by heavily distorted elec-tric guitars, contrasting song dynam-ics, “growling” vocals and apathetic or angst-filled lyrics. The early grunge movement co-alesced around Seattle independent record label Sub Pop in the late 1980s. Grunge became commercial-ly successful in the first half of the 1990s mainly to the release of Nirva-na’s Nevermind and Pearl Jam’s Ten. The success of these bands boosted the popularity of alternative rock and made grunge the most popular form

Grunge is generally characterized by a sludgy guitar sound that uses a high level of distortion, fuzz and feedback effects. Grunge fuses elements of hardcore punk and heavy metal, al-though some bands performed with more emphasis on one or the other. The music shares with punk a raw sound and similar lyrical concerns. However, it also involves much slower tempos, dissonant harmo-nies, and more complex instrumenta-tion—which is reminiscent of heavy metal. Some individuals associated with the development of grunge, including Sub Pop producer Jack Endino and the Melvins, explained grunge’s incorporation of heavy rock influences such as Kiss as “musical provocation”. In the early 1990s, Nirvana’s signature “stop-start” song format became a genre convention. All music calls grunge a “hybrid of heavy metal and punk.”

Some grunge bands have continued

recording and touring with success,

including, most significantly, Pearl

Jam. While in 2006 Rolling Stone

writer Brian Hiatt described Pearl

Jam as having “spent much of the

past decade deliberately tearing

apart their own fame,” he noted the

band developed a loyal concert fol-

lowing akin to that of the Grateful

Dead. Despite Nirvana’s demise, the

band has continued to be successful

posthumously. Due to the high sales

for Kurt Cobain’s Journals and the

band’s best-of compilation Nirvana

upon their releases in 2002, The

New York Times argued Nirvana

“are having more success now than

at any point since Mr. Cobain’s sui-

cide in 1994.” In the middle of the

first decade of the 21st century, The

Seattle Times made note of grunge-

influenced groups emerging in Seat-

tle, including Post Stardom Depres-

sion, The Valley, and The Weapons.

Similarly, The Guardian reported

of grunge-influenced groups from

Yorkshire, including Dinosaur Pile-

Up, The Old Romantic Killer Band,

The Tempus, Above Them, Pulled

Apart by Horses, and Wonderswan.

Also, in 2003 The New York Times

noted a resurgence in grunge fash-

ion. Soundgarden re-formed in 2010

and released King Animal two years

later which reached the top five of

the national albums charts in Den-

mark, New Zealand and the United

States.

HistoryGrunge’s sound partly results from Seattle’s isolation from other music scenes. As Sub Pop’s Jonathan Pone-man noted, “Seattle was a perfect ex-ample of a secondary city with an ac-tive music scene that was completely ignored by an American media fix-ated on Los Angeles and New York.” Mark Arm claimed that the isolation meant, “this one corner of the map was being really inbred and rip-ping off each other’s ideas.” Grunge evolved from the local punk rock scene, and was inspired by bands such as The Fartz, The U-Men, 10 Minute Warning, The Accüsed, and the Fastbacks. Additionally, the slow, heavy, and sludgy style of the Melvins was a significant influence on the grunge sound.

Mainstream successGrunge bands had made inroads to the musical mainstream in the late 1980s. Soundgarden was the first grunge band to sign to a major label when they joined the roster of A&M Records in 1989. Soundgarden, along with other major label sign-ings Alice in Chains and Screaming Trees, performed “okay” with their initial major label releases, accord-ing to Jack Endino. Nirvana, origi-nally from Aberdeen, Washington, was also courted by major labels, finally signing with Geffen Records in 1990. In September 1991, the band released its major label debut, Nevermind. The album was at best hoped to be a minor success on par with Sonic Youth’sGoo, which Gef-fen had released a year earlier. It was the release of the album’s first single “Smells Like Teen Spirit” that “marked the instigation of the grunge music phenomenon”.

Decline of mainstream popularityA number of factors contributed to grunge’s decline in prominence. During the latter half of the 1990s, grunge was supplanted by post-grunge, which remained commer-cially viable into the start of the 21st century. Post-grunge bands such as Candlebox and Bush emerged soon after grunge’s breakthrough. These artists lacked the underground roots of grunge and were largely influ-enced by what grunge had become, namely “a wildly popular form of in-ward-looking, serious-minded hard rock.” Post-grunge was a more com-mercially viable genre that tempered the distorted guitars of grunge with polished, radio-ready production.

Lyrics are typically angst-filled, of-ten addressing themes such as social alienation, apathy, confinement, and a desire for freedom. Many grunge musicians displayed a general dis-enchantment with the state of so-ciety, as well as a discomfort with social prejudices. Music critic Simon Reynolds said in 1992 that “there’s a feeling of burnout in the culture at large. Kids are depressed about the future.” Humor in grunge often satirized glam metal—for example, Soundgarden’s “Big Dumb Sex”—and other forms of popular rock mu-sic during the 1980s. Grunge concerts were known for being straightforward, high-energy performances. Grunge bands reject-ed the complex and high budget pre-sentations of many musical genres, including the use of complex light arrays, pyrotechnics, and other vi-sual effects unrelated to playing the

music. Stage acting was generally avoided. Instead the bands presented themselves as no different from mi-nor local bands. Jack Endino said in the 1996 documentary Hype! that Seattle bands were inconsistent live performers, since their primary ob-jective was not to be entertainers, but simply to “rock out”.Clothing commonly worn by grunge musicians in Washington consisted of thrift store items and the typical outdoor clothing (most notably flan-nel shirts) of the region, as well as a generally unkempt appearance. The style did not evolve out of a con-scious attempt to create an appealing fashion; music journalist Charles R. Cross said, “[Nirvana frontman] Kurt Cobain was just too lazy to sham-poo,” and Sub Pop’s Jonathan Pone-man said, “This [clothing] is cheap, it’s durable, and it’s kind of timeless. It also runs against the grain of the whole flashy aesthetic that existed in the 80s.”

of hard rock music at the time. Al-though most grunge bands had dis-banded or faded from view by the late 1990s, their influence continues to affect modern rock music.In the late 1980s , Soundgarden was the first grunge band to sign to a ma-jor label when they joined the roster of A&M Records in 1989.A number of factors contributed to grunge’s decline in prominence. During the latter half of the 1990s, grunge was supplanted by post-grun-ge, which remained commercially viable into the start of the 21st cen-tury. During the mid-1990s many grunge bands broke up or became less visible. Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain, labeled by Time as “the John Len-non of the swinging Northwest,” appeared “unusually tortured by suc-cess” and struggled with an addiction to heroin.

GRUNGE

21st century

Characteristics

CHANDIGARH SUNDAY 11 August 2013 5REGION

Mountain bikers hit the road in the Himachal hillsShimlaAiming to woo cycling enthusiasts in the big cities, a local club has been organising adventure events in the Shmila hills to promote mountain biking, which is big in the West.The latest event saw nearly 20 in-trepid bikers, mainly from Punjab, Chandigarh and the hill state, partici-pate in the two-day ‘MTB (mountain biking) Himalaya 2013 Training Camp’ which concluded Sunday.The aim of the event, a first for the country, was to popularise mountain biking, especially among white-col-lar workers in big cities, Mohit Sood, president of the Himalayan Adven-ture Sports and Tourism Promotion Association (HASTPA) which or-ganised the event, told IANS.Sood said the training session in-volved audio-video sessions, theory sessions and practical demonstra-tions. The riders were guided on to some jeep tracks and single tracks around Kufri, a picturesque resort some 13 km from here, he said.The Shimla-based HASTPA every year also organises the Hercules MTB Himachal Expedition, consid-ered one of toughest in the world.This year, it is holding the ninth edi-tion of the off-road event from Sep 27 to Oct 3.Sood said in the mountain biking training camp “the bikers were told about safety tips, use of machines and maintenance of their cycles dur-ing the expedition”.Portuguese rider Luis Canto Moniz, who is the Ferrari India general manager, and local riders Devender Thakur and Gurman Reen gave tips to the bikers about the sport.“I am happy that such events are picking up speed in India. It’s quite popular in Europe, North America

and Canada. Himachal’s terrain of-fers the most challenging environ-ment in the Himalayas,” Moniz told IANS.During the training, participants, both men and women, passed through forest trails, village backtracks and unmetalled and metalled single-lane rural roads, winding through the hills surrounding Shimla.“For us it was more of an adventure weekend. The boulder-riddled ter-rain was challenging. Overall it was a unique experience,” said Prabhjit Singh, a cyclist from Chandigarh.Sood said cyclists from Himachal were trained for free to enable them start their own ventures.The growing enthusiasm among In-dians for mountain biking has also meant growing business for the ad-venture tourism industry.Those in the industry, mainly in

Kullu and Manali, said the best time to pedal in the hills, especially in the higher reaches, was from June till November when the snowfall begins.The 475-km Manali-Leh road link-ing the tourist hill town of Manali to Ladakh attracts the most number of cyclists.The route is tough and the pressure on cyclists is extreme since they have to cycle through the cold des-erts of Lahaul and Spiti and Ladakh.“The Manali-Leh expedition is for 14 days, including three days of acclimatisation,” said Prithvi Raj Sharma of Magic Mountain, a travel agent in Manali.He said the fee per cyclist ranges be-tween Rs.40,000 and Rs.50,000 de-pending upon the kits sought.For newcomers and families, the hills surrounding Narkanda, 65 km from Shimla, and Kasauli in Solan,

around 29 km from here, are the best cycling spots.Hatu Hotel in Narkanda, run by the Himachal Pradesh Tourism Develop-ment Corporation, provides moun-tain bikes.The slopes of Jalori Pass (at an al-titude of 3,223 metres) in Kullu are one of the finest in the world, says Cycling Federation of India member Rakesh Mohindra.

Cyclists can test their endurance, skill and luck on these vertical climbs, he said.The 320-km Shimla-Reckong Peo-Sumdoh-Kaza route also offers a lot of thrills with mild, tough and extremely rugged slopes. But it is strictly for professionals riding bikes of titanium carbon fibre priced be-tween Rs.100,000 and Rs.200,000.

By Vishal Gulati

Sukhbir Badal calls Rahul ‘alien’

ChandigarhPunjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal Wednesday described Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi an “alien” who is “oblivious about the ground level situation in villages”.Slamming Gandhi for saying that “poverty is state of mind”, Badal said: “It is surprising that leaders

who have not fought even panchayat elections are ruling the country. Without any knowledge of ground level situation, they are framing poli-cies from air-conditioned rooms in Delhi.”Badal was addressing a gathering at Fatehgarh Sahib, 60 km from here, after administering oath to newly elected village representatives.Taking a dig at the Congress lead-ership, Badal said: “Indira Gandhi gave the slogan of ‘Garibi Hatao’ (Remove Poverty), and now her grandson (Rahul Gandhi) is bent on removing the poor from the country.”He said the Akali Dal government in-troduced several welfare schemes for the poor but the Congress leadership tried to scuttle these.Badal said it was laughable that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who decried Punjab’s ‘Atta-Dal’ scheme a wasteful expenditure, was copying the scheme in the food secu-rity ordinance.

Man arrested for wife’s murder in KashmirJammuPolice in Jammu and Kashmir’s Ud-hampur Wednesday arrested a man on charges of having murdered his wife, whose semi-decomposed body was found in a rented accommoda-tion in the town.A senior police officer told IANS here Ram Kumar was arrested after the inquest proceedings and post mortem report was received on sus-picion of having murdered his wife

after a domestic quarrel.“During sustained interrogation the accused broke down and admitted having killed his wife. He claimed his wife would often quarrel with him over petty issues and his drink-ing habits,” the officer said.On one such occasion, Ram Kumar hit his wife on the head with an agri-cultural tool and ran away. “It was only after a few days when a bad smell started coming out of the

couple’s rented accommodation that the body of the victim was discov-ered,” the official said.The post mortem report confirmed the victim had died because of a fatal head injury.“Independent witnesses also told the police the couple would often engage in domestic quarrels,” the officer said. Police have also recovered the agricultural tool which is believed to be the murder weapon.

Depressed with son’s illness, property dealer kills family, selfChandigarhDepressed over the condition of his mentally retarded son, a well-to-do Kapurthala property dealer shot dead three members of his family before committing sui-cide, police said Wednesday.Avtar Singh (43) ended his life early Wednesday in his house after killing his wife Roopinder (40), son Gaurav Prateek (13) and daughter Amanat (8).The incident took place around 6 a.m. Avtar used his licensed .12-bore rifle to eliminate his family and himself.Police said that after killing his wife and children, Avtar called up his cousin Karamjit and told him

that he had killed his family and was going to take his own life. He also called up his brother-in-law Sukhraj and told him the same thing. Both rushed to his house and had to scale the wall to get inside. They found the family lying in a pool of blood inside a bedroom.The police were called immedi-ately.Avtar was related to former Pun-jab finance minister Upinderjit Kaur.Kapurthala district police chief Inderbir Singh said investigations were on.

35 kg heroin seized in Punjab

ChandigarhNearly 35 kg of heroin, worth around Rs.175 crore in the international market, was seized Wednesday from a smuggler in Punjab’s border Tarn Taran district, officials said.Based on a tip-off, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) officials had set up a barrier at Buchhar Kalan village in Tarn Taran district, 280 km from here, and stopped a car being driven by Gurcharan Singh. He tried to escape but was intercepted.A search of the vehicle led to the recovery of the heroin, the officials said.

Curfew in J&K town after communal clashesJammuCurfew was imposed and two columns of the army were de-ployed in Kishtwar town in Jam-mu region Friday on Eid-ul-Fitr after about 500 villagers raised pro-independence slogans that led to clashes between two com-munities.A police officer told IANS a pro-cession of around 500 people from Hullar, Bandna, Punoo and Bhata villages took out a proces-sion in Kishtwar town, 220 km from winter capital Jammu, rais-ing pro-independence slogans.

“Following this, stone-pelting clashes broke out between the two communities at Kulid chowk in Kishtwar,” the officer said.“As the news of the clashes spread to the Eidgah grounds where people had gathered to of-fer Eid-ul-Fitr prayers, many of them joined in the violence,” he added.“The mob torched four shops, a truck and a scooter. Police used tear gas and batons to control the situation and fired warning shots to disperse the mob,” the officer said.

CHANDIGARHSUNDAY 11 August 20136 OPINION

EDITORIAL DESK Manu Sharma

Reserve Bank of India Gets New Governor

Hear Us Prime Minister!

Reserve Bank of India, the central bank of India is all set to get its new Governor, Dr. Raghuram Rajan. Dr. Rajan is an illustrious economist with several awards and accolades to this credit. Born in a diplomat’s family, he did his undergraduate de-gree from IIT-Delhi and subsequent did a stint at IIM-Ahmedabad. Mov-ing on to a PhD degree in Economics he was awarded the same in 1991 for the topic ‘Essays on Banking’. A re-cipient of the Fischer Black prize for Young Economist under 40 and hav-ing been appointed as youngest ever

Failure and under-performance are the bywords one would normally associate with initiatives of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. But none has been as spectacular as the so called Indo-Pak peace process being pursued at proverbial all costs by the Prime Minister. Ever since the Lahore thaw pioneered by then PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Pakistan has not scaled down or reverted its policy of proxy war against India. Parliament attack, Mumbai bomb blasts, 26/11 Mumbai attacks and sundry other incidents have gone unpunished and their perpetrators

Chief Economist of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), he brings for-midable knowledge of academia and policy making to the Reserve Bank in today’s turbulent times.Rajan faces two fold pressure of sta-bilizing the inflation levels, particu-larly the food inflation and alleviat-ing the downward pressure on the exchange rate of Rupee. His work as the head of Planning Commission’s Committee on Financial Reforms does inspire much confidence but his lack of interface with Indian political landscape may be a cause of concern.

continue to live happily under Paki-stani state patronage.A corollary to calibrated raising of the threshold of violence by Paki-stan is the continued diffidence and hesitation of Indian camp to call Pakistan’s bluff and point out the obvious. The malefic intent of Paki-stani state cannot be cloaked by co-pious amounts of mushairas, track-II, US prodding or PMO’s blatant interventions. The recent killings of 5 jawans at the LOC in Kashmir val-ley have once again raised the same set of questions to which the Prime Minister and a merry band of peace-

On the face of it Reserve Bank of In-dia stands as an apolitical institution, however this being an election year all public institutions will be brought into play by the government and the opposition. A dismal economic sce-nario and external pressure on the Indian economy may yield questions that could at best be handled by tech-nocrats like Dr. Rajan.All this however bears one caveat, will the system cooperate with an ‘outsider’ to deliver the best? Re-mains to be seen. Nevertheless all the best to Dr. Rajan.

niks are loathe to answer.Washington DC, the weathercock of global diplomacy is rife with speculation of Prime Minister Man-mohan Singh trying to leave behind a legacy of peace in Indian sub-continent to mark his premiership. While peace as an end is laudable but peace at all costs tantamount to violence. Violence against our re-public’s ideals, brave souls defend-ing it and the people who believe in the idea of justice and fair play. Wanton killings of Indian nation-als cannot be condoned to serve the agenda of peace.

LETTER TO THE EDITORLetters may be emailed to the editoruconnect@gmail.com ,with full postal address and the full name or the name with initials.

Will Telengana live up to its people’s expectations?

“At 66, Mother India gets ready for the 29th baby” - so ran the headline in a national daily, high-lighting the Congress party’s de-cision to carve Telengana out of Andhra Pradesh which will be the 29th state of the Indian Union in the 66th year of Independence. The modalities need to be worked out, which could take about four months, before the new state comes into being, but no difficulty is envisaged as the move has wide support across the political spec-trum.The demand for a separate Te-lengana state is about half a cen-tury old with periodic agitations of varying intensity in its support. And it is more than three years since the government announced in December 2009 its firm resolve to address the issue. The Justice Srikrishna Commission, constitut-ed in its wake, was not categorical with its recommendations but its report viewed bifurcation with dis-favour, its preference being greater autonomy and increased resource allocation for the region within the ambit of the existing unified state. However, the government had not acted on the report and continued to dither, bedevilled as it was with multiple corruption scandals, apart from other preoccupations.With the general elections loom-ing (due in May 2014), and fear-ing a rapid erosion of its electoral base, the Congress was probably desperate to get a move on and hence the sudden urge to grant statehood to Telengana. The party seems to have struck a deal with TRS (Telengana Rashtra Samithi), the force behind the latest agita-tion for a separate state. Even if the two parties do not merge im-mediately, they are sure to fight on a common platform and are ex-pected to sweep the polls, captur-ing most of the 17 Lok Sabha seats and 119 assembly seats that the region offers. It is a foregone con-clusion that there will be a back-lash against the party in the rest of the state, comprising coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema, which account for no fewer than 25 Lok Sabha seats, besides 175 assembly seats. That the Congress has virtu-ally given up on this larger area, being content with its prospective hold on Telengana, appears to be indicative of the party’s low mo-rale rather than any well thought-out strategy.In such a scenario, the clear win-ner appears to be Jagan (moniker for Jaganmohan Reddy), chief of the YSR Congress, the party named after his late father and for-mer Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy. Jagan has the advantge of being consistent in his opposition to the formation of Telengana, unlike the major re-gional party, TDP (Telugu Desam Party), and the major national par-

ty, BJP. Jagan has been embroiled in corruption cases and may not even be able to contest elections as per a recent Supreme Court or-der, but that is not likely to come in his way. Notwithstanding the grandstanding of duly “hurt” Con-gress MPs and MLAs from this area, some of whom could in fact be resigning their seats, the Con-gress will have no alternative but to come to terms with him. He will acquire the kind of clout now en-joyed by Mulayam Singh Yadav and Mayawati by virtue of their outside support to the government. If the Congress had been more ac-commodative of Jagan in the wake of his father’s death and not driven him away from its fold, the party may not have had to concede Te-lengana, but history is not about counterfactuals.Arguments like smaller states be-ing more amenable to effective administration are just academic. Issues like division of states will almost invariably be based on po-litical considerations in a democ-racy. Thus, it is futile to deride the Congress’ decision on Telengana as political opportunism. But a major concern here is that the main protagonist, K. Chandrasekhara Rao, chief of TRS, who is sure to wield enormous influence in run-ning the fledgling state, at least in the initial years, is not known for his integrity or administrative ex-perience. And his party seems to have thrived on extortion during the past few years, hence the nu-anced agitation, which permitted the Congress to sit on the issue for years.People from Telengana have often complained about “loss of jobs”. It is not that people from the re-gion are at present discriminated against: what they want is a dis-tinct preference for sons of the soil - and this is where the rub lies. A major national party like the Con-gress owes it to itself to check the parochial tendencies of its ally and ensure peace and harmony.Considering that Hyderabad, which will serve as a joint capital for the two states for the first 10 years and that the city is not even going to be a union territory in the interim period, people from Andhra could suddenly find themselves re-duced to the status of second class citizens in the megalopolis, which has been home to millions of them. Every care should, therefore, be taken to ensure that Andhras do not feel alienated and there is no flight of capital or business from the city.The first few years are bound to be marked by turmoil, but it is to be hoped that Telengana, which is well-endowed in terms of natural resources, will eventually come to occupy a proud place among states and prove that the sacrifices made by thousands to realize the dream have not been in vain.

Will customer centricity ever come to the fore?As one among thousands of news-paper readers who spotted headline ‘Nirmalaya Kumar to join Tata Sons’, I felt happy for the Indian consumer as the news announcing the appointment of celebrated mar-keting professor and author said that he was expected to bring ‘Cus-tomer Centricity’ to the fore across the Tata group companies.As consumers in a scarcity-hit na-tion until a few decade ago, Indians are transitioning from queuing to being served as consumers. How-ever, the sales and marketing man-agers are still striving to understand ‘Customer Centricity’ as the fol-lowing anecdotes exemplify.* Which Indian hasn’t faced service issues with her mobile service pro-vider? From no network to excess billing, from being served valued added services that she never sub-scribed to a barrage of unsolicited calls despite registering on ‘do not call’ registry. * Who hasn’t experienced slow computer networks that bring down the bank branches to a grinding halt as you keep staring at the ser-vice delivery norms signage in the branch?* Why must a customer get groped by clumsy security persons in full public view on entering a mall or wriggle through a 18-inch wide grill door to her favourite bank branch just because they can’t in-stall modern security systems?* How often do we need to get ‘welcome back’ notes from compa-nies one has discontinued services or stopped using their products?All these examples are a telling ac-count of how Indian firms love to chase the customer for her money but shy away from addressing real customer issues. Companies come up with innovative ideas to enhance

market access, often going a long distance to make it easy for her to buy. The product managers too love making changes to the product and invest in proactively offering new product designs and variants to suit changing customer needs.Who owns customer centricity?When it comes to enhancing cus-tomer centricity and addressing customer pain, the enthusiasm of the perky product managers wanes. The head of a large outsourced cus-tomer care centre said this is be-cause Indians are culturally averse valuing ‘people’ in general. And the business leaders don’t realize that the customer is a subset of the same group of ‘people’ that it chooses to ignore.This attitude rules when these com-panies buy ‘customer services’. While they hire the best sales and marketing teams, engage with the best advertising and branding agen-cies to look good in public spaces they engage the cheapest service providers for customer support thus damaging the brand.How else would you explain mul-tiple tele-callers from the same firm calling you for the same product on the same day. And 3 out of 4 times the tele-callers don’t even know the name and age of the person at the other end.Will Tata initiative spur a customer-centricity movement in India?The optimist in me tells me it will, provided the group commits itself to the consumer needs of today. Tata’s have a good record of cus-tomer centricity through its hospi-tality business. Can they bring this experience to the services and com-modity business?Nirmalaya Kumar in a recent in-terview with Mint newpaper said that companies make liberal budget allocations for advertising and pro-

motions as it is easy see the impact in rising sales. However, it is tough for them to commit marketing ex-penditures which are long-term-oriented-customer service, invest-ing in the brand.It is precisely the reason why cus-tomer centricity suffers. It is no use advertising a 1-800 number, a Twitter handle or a Facebook page or anointing a highly respected om-budsman or appointing a marketing legend as an independent director if the idea is solely to dress up your marketing show window. Likewise there is little point in getting a mar-keting head reporting directly to the CEO if she is still going to be measured on revenue per enquiry, billing per guest, revenue per pas-senger, or average revenue per user.The challenge for Nirmalaya Ku-mar would be to scrap the current job description for all the Tata group marketing heads to one sin-gle goal around Customer Centric-ity. And follow this up with two simple steps. Firstly, encourage every marketing head to mandato-rily listen to the “pain of the cus-tomer” each time she calls a call centre, tweets or walks into a Tata store. Secondly, sensitize all Tata employees on customer care and empower them to address customer issues at the first point of contact and resolve them on the spot.A marketing head’s success should be measured not by the absolute number of complaints but by the percentage of customer complaints addressed at the first point of con-tact.If Nirmalaya Kumar can help his boss Cyrus Mistry to agree to an entirely new global framework for bringing customer centricity to the Tata Group, he would have resur-rected the revolution - for Indian firms to see Customer as the King!

Parthasarathy Chaganty

Sanjiv Kataria

CHANDIGARH SUNDAY 11 August 2013 7SCIENCE AND TECH

2013 Volkswagen Jetta Sportwagen TDISome years ago, colleagues and I had an informal discussion about what would be the perfect car from an automotive journalist’s perspec-tive. It would have to be a wagon, because we all appreciate utility combined with carlike maneuver-ability. A diesel engine made the requirements list for superior fuel economy. And it would also need a manual transmission, because we all liked the engagement of driving stick.Well, our dream car is made real in the 2013 Volkswagen Jetta Sportwa-gen TDI.Volkswagen’s Jetta Sportwagen TDI holds a rare place in the U.S. mar-ket, being only one of two diesel wagons available. BMW claims the other spot with its new 328d Sports Wagon.The Jetta Sportwagen shows similar lines to the Jetta sedan update Volk-wagen launched in 2011. Headlights nicely bookend a narrow grille, and the hood drops low toward the front in a graceful curve from the wind-shield. A large graphic holds the side windows in a continuous flow all the

way back to the cargo area, and the hatchback complements the front with the same, fluid curves. The stance is low, as the Jetta Sportwa-gen is not trying to be a crossover.It is an attractive and modern body design.Despite what would seem to be a niche vehicle appreciated primar-ily by automotive journal-ists, Volkswagen offers the Jetta Sportwagen TDI in a number of configurations. First, you get to decide be-tween the six-speed manual or DSG automated manual trans-mission. Then there is the base model, the sunroof model, or the model with navigation and sunroof. I reviewed the middle version, which lacked navigation but still featured a decent LCD in the dashboard for audio and phone screens.

LG gets its mini-Galaxy S4 with G2

LG certainly hopes so and has banked heavily on its latest super smartphone to finally give the com-pany a global blockbuster it is so desperately seeking. The Korean electronics giant has been steadily building up the hype for the device, releasing videos, promoting the event through digital ads (including on this site), and making it known that its next flagship smartphone is just around the corner.The event today -- which thankfully omitted the overly dramatic theatrics of Samsung’s GS4 debut, but did feature a curious spotlight on a single Vienna Boys’ choir singer at the end -- was designed to convey the im-

pression that the G2 belongs among the big boys in the smartphone in-dustry. The company positioned it as the ideal phone designed for the user.“Technology without empathy can no longer be considered in-novation,” LG mobile CEO Jong-Seok Park said during the event on Wednesday. “Innovation for the sake of innovation is old school.”LG, which has long lived in the shadow of larger rival Samsung Electronics, desperately wants its G2 to be uttered in the same breath as the GS4 or Apple’s iPhone 5. The company has a reputation for building affordable and solid -- if unspectacular -- smartphones, but wants more. It’s not enough that LG is the brand customers go to because it offers a nice value; it wants to be the brand customers aspire to own.Such is the dilemma for every smartphone vendor not named Apple or Samsung. While the two leaders benefit from a certain level of built-in hype, the other players continue to clamor for the con-stantly shifting attention of the consumer.For many, the quest for smart-phone relevancy has resulted in continued losses, but it’s here that LG differs. In the second quarter,

the company saw a 34.5 percent in-crease in revenue as it swung back into profitability. LG is looking for a fresh start with the G2. The company said in July that it was dropping the Optimus name, instead relying on the simpler G2 as the follow-up to its flagship Optimus Gfrom last year. (The Optimus name remains as its brand for mass-market smartphones.) Whereas the Optimus G was an exclusive smartphone at AT&T, the G2 will get broader sup-port from multiple carriers.LG is the latest to hop aboard the trend of offering a single flagship de-vice across multiple carrier partners, a strategy that has been successfully employed by Samsung, Apple, and HTC.

Reversing brain drain? Better research facilities see Indian scientists returnNew DelhiFinally, the brain drain appears to be reversing. Better research opportuni-ties in India, passion to do something for their native country and family obligations have started to lure back Indian scientists working abroad. Around 500 scientists have come back in the last seven years - and only six have gone back.Going by the figures maintained by the union science and technology ministry, the majority of the reverse brain drain has happened from the US, Germany and Britain. Recently, scientists have also started coming from South Korea and Japan. “About 500 scientists have come back from abroad and are working in various institutions across the coun-try. Of these only six have gone back for various reasons,” T. Ramasami, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology, told IANS.Credit must also be given to the sev-eral schemes run by the Indian gov-ernment to encourage scientists and engineers of Indian origin from all over the world to take up scientific research positions in India, especial-ly those scientists who want to return to India from abroad.The Ramanujan Fellowship, Innova-tion in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE) Programme and the Ramalingaswamy Fellow-ship are among those that provide a platform to scientists willing to re-turn and work in India.An internal analysis by the ministry of the reasons for the reverse brain drain revealed that tough competi-tion abroad, better research opportu-nities in India, love of work for the motherland and aiming to contribute to science were some of the major factors that drew Indian scientists to their homeland.Family obligations was another rea-son that attracted them back home.Sheeba Vasu, who was doing her post-doctoral research at the Uni-versity of Massachusetts Medical School, said she came back as she always wanted to work in India.“I wanted to come back and start my

work in India after getting trained in the US. Moreover, it is not easy to get a job as a faculty in any of the universities in the US as there is a tough competition,” Vasu, who is a Ramanujan Fellow since 2008, told IANS. She was in the US for six years. Vasu, who is now doing her research in the Evolutionary and Organismal Biology Unit of Bangalore’s Jawaha-rlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Sci-entific Research, says there are more research opportunities in Indian uni-versities and elite institutions like the Indian Institutes of Technology, Indi-an Institute of Science (IISc), Banga-lore, and Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISERs), among others.Echoing similar views, another Ra-manujan fellow, Vidya T.N.C., said competition is much higher abroad as compared to India, where there is a shortage of experts and qualified faculties.“There are issues with research fa-cilities in India. Here, we do not have many advanced research labo-ratories. We also face a funds crunch. But overall it’s a good platform that gives you a kind of startup when you return to India,” Vidya, who worked at Columbia University, told IANS.Some scientists feel conducting re-search in India is more relaxed while there is a rat race in the advanced countries. “I think academic work outside India is stressful and it is a bit more re-laxed in India and I am saying that in a positive way,” Ashwin Srinivasan, a professor at Delhi’s Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, told IANS.Srinivasan, who had worked at Ox-ford University, said there is an eco-nomic crunch in the academic setup abroad and it is tough to get research grants.“The research setup is better in India and the opportunity to work in sci-ence in India is not as bad as it being said. Yes, there are things like most of the big science ideas are explored in institutes abroad and lack of op-

tions to do inter-disciplinary research that hurts,” said Srinivasan, who has been abroad for 15 years and took a four-fold cut in salary when he re-turned to India. The figures show that the majority of researchers prefer to work in Karna-taka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal. The reason is that these states have the largest number of good research institutions.“Through various schemes, we pro-vide a platform under which scien-tists in the age-group of 30-45 years can work in any of the scientific in-stitutions and universities in India and would be eligible for receiving regular research grants and a month-ly remuneration,” he said.Srinivasan, who is a US citizen, sug-gests some changes - for instance, schemes should be flexible to ensure people of Indian origin who are not Indian citizens can also take up jobs at central government universities and institutions. “Some more inititiatives are needed to make India a very attractive desti-nation for scientists wanting to work for their motherland,” he said.

IANS

CHANDIGARHSUNDAY 11 August 20138 POLITICS

Congress blames NDA for rise in cross-border terrorismNew DelhiBlaming the erstwhile NDA re-gime for its “muted response” to the country’s security needs and killings of troopers and civilians, Congress leader Ajay Maken Wednesday said the BJP should remember how many armed forces personnel were killed during its tenure.Maken was responding to the main opposition party’s demand that De-fence Minister A.K. Antony apolo-gise for a statement on the killing of five Indian soldiers by terrorists, dressed like Pakistani soldiers, in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch sec-

tor early Tuesday.“The BJP talking about killing of soldiers... should also remember the muted response and killing of 16 BSF soldiers at Bangladesh bor-der in April 2001,” Maken said in a comment on Twitter.Maken said the number of civilians killed in Jammu and Kashmir dur-ing 1998-2004 -- the tenure of the BJP-led National Democratic Al-liance (NDA) government -- was 6,115, an average of 874 per year.He said during the UPA regime, the number of deaths in firing was the lowest in the last two decades, with

15 civilians being killed in 2012.“NDA 1998-2004 - In J&K one of the highest number of terror inci-dents 23,603. Average 3,372. In UPA, lowest in last two decades 220 last year (sic),” he added.“It shows our strong resolve. BJP policies led to failed Agra summit, Lahore Declaration, Kargil infiltra-tion,” Maken said.BJP leader M. Venkaiah Naidu re-torted: “In our tenure, we made then Pakistan president Pervez Mush-arraf say that Pakistan would not allow its soil to be used for terror activities.”

Modi to meet BJP workers in Vrindavan

LucknowGujarat Chief Minister and head of the BJP’s campaign committee for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls Narendra Modi will interact with workers of the Uttar Pradesh unit in Vrindavan in September.Uttar Pradesh BJP president Laxmi-kant Bajpayi told IANS that Modi will address and interact with 15,000 workers of the party at the state ex-ecutive meet in Vrindavan Sep 25, the death anniversary of Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, the founder and idea-logue of BJP parent Jana Sangh.BJP Rajnath Singh will also attend the meeting, in which BJP workers will be trained in booth management and other strategies for the elections, party office bearers said.“Apart from conventional political strategies, the workers would also be

trained in modern technologies and platforms like social media,” party leaders said.Bajpayi said the BJP was inclined to keep up the momentum and convert the groundswell of anger against the Congress-led UPA government into pro-BJP votes.For this, several committees have been formed and state BJP vice president Ashok Kataria has been entrusted with coordinating issues concerning the public. State lead-ers Rajbeer Singh has been tasked to rake up issues concerning farm-ers and villages, while corruption charges against the union and state governments would be handled by Shiv Pratap Shukla. Daya Shankar Singh will handle the youth wing and Haridwar Dubey will cordinate with women cells.

BJP withdraws from Karnataka parliamentary bypollsBangaloreThe Bharatiya Janata Party Wednes-day withdrew its candidates from the Aug 21 bypolls to two Lok Sabha seats from Karnataka, saying it did not want a split in anti-Congress votes.Now it will be a straight contest for the Bangalore Rural and Mandya seats between the ruling Congress and the Janata Dal-Secular.“We have withdrawn our candidates as our aim is to defeat the Congress and we did not want a split in anti-Congress votes,” Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson C. T. Ravi told reporters here.Wednesday was the last day for with-drawal of nominations. Vote count is on Aug 24.The bypolls follow as H.D. Kuma-raswamy and N. Cheluvarayaswamy, both JD-S, quit the Lok Sabha seats after winning the May 5 elections to the Karnataka assembly.Bangalore Rural seat was held by

Kumaraswamy and Mandya, about 80km from Bangalore, by Cheluva-rayaswamy. The two constituencies are considered JD-S strongholds.The JDS has fielded Kumarawamy’s wife Anita from Bangalore Rural and former legislator C. S. Puttaraju from Mandya.Kumaraswamy is the son of JD-S president and former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda.The Congress has pitted D. K. Suresh, brother of party legislator

and former minister D. K. Shivaku-mar, against Anita Kumaraswamy and popular actress Ramya is taking on Puttaraju in Mandya.Through there are 11 independents in Bangalore Rural and seven in Man-dya, the fight is between the Con-gress and JD-S nominees.This is the first bypoll the Congress is facing after returning to power in Karnataka on its own after nine years defeating BJP in the May 5 assembly election.

Maneka Gandhi writes to Akhilesh Yadav about poor quality of mid-day mealLucknowSenior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Maneka Gandhi has written to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akh-ilesh Yadav seeking improvement in the quality of mid-day meals served to school children in the state.In a letter received by the state sec-retariat Wednesday, a copy of which was received by IANS, the member of parliament from Aonla in Uttar Pradesh said the meals served to chil-dren under the mid-day meal scheme were sorry affairs, with worms, liz-ards and insects being discovered in them. Citing a union ministry of human resource development (HRD) report, Gandhi wrote that the health of chil-dren was at risk. The letter comes in the wake of the Bihar tragedy of July 16, in which 23 children of Saran district died after eating a poisonous meal.Maneka Gandhi urged the chief min-ister to ensure that food was cooked in hygienic conditions and served to children under proper supervision.In the last one month, the quality of the mid-day meals served in differ-ent parts of the state had come under a shroud after a lizard, insects and a tadpole were recovered at different schools. The state government has asked prin-

cipals to keep a vigil on meals served to children. Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, during a surprise visit to Rain village in Rae Bareli district Wednes-day was confronted by students at a primary school who complained of the poor quality of food. Yadav tasted the food and transferred a basic education official. Basic Education Minister Ram Go-vind Chaudhary has issued an advi-sory to all school principals and dis-trict education officials to ensure that food served to school children was nutritious and hygienically cooked.

UPA doesn’t want to impose any model on mediaNew DelhiThe government doesn’t want to im-pose any model on the media and its policy is based on “persuasion rather than regulation”, Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari said Tuesday.Taking part in a seminar on need for media regulation, he said: “The question we need to ask ourselves is that do we refine the existing model for media regulation or we look for a new model. Government doesn’t want to impose any model.“Our (UPA government’s) philoso-phy is that our relationship with the media must not be regulated,” Tewari said at the discussion organised by the Observer Research Foundation.“When I came to this job, my prime minister told me one thing very clearly. The philosophy of UPA is that our relationship with the media must be an essay in persuasion and never an essay in regulation.”Speaking in the context of self-reg-ulation mechanisms with statutory backing, Tewari said it had to be as-sessed whether such mechanisms were sufficient.Press Council of India chairperson Markandey Katju sought a “statutory peer review with a power to punish”.He said he always stood for freedom of the press and his views were often misunderstood. He said he had sug-gested a media council of which 80-

90 percent members would be from the media.Broadcasting Content Complaints Council (BCCC) chairman Jus-tice A.P. Shah said a way to ensure freedom of the media was to have a mechanism which would not allow the government to get an excuse to step in.“I would suggest statutory creation of a self-regulatory body by a statute, in which all the appointments should be through a very independent mech-anism, including the chairperson of such a self-regulatory body. The self-regulatory body should frame the norms,” he said.

Political parties are not public authority: CPI-MNew DelhiThe CPI-M Tuesday backed the government’s decision to amend the Right to Information law to ensure political parties do not come under it.“Political parties are not public au-thorities, the decision taken by politi-cal parties do not affect the public,” Communist Party of India-Marxist

leader Sitaram Yechury said.Following a petition by RTI activist S.C. Agrawal, the Central Informa-tion Commission (CIC) ruled that political parties were public authori-ties who now need to respond to RTI queries within six weeks.Six national parties: the Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Na-tionalist Congress Party , the CPI-M, the Communist Party of India and the Bahujan Samaj Party, would come under RTI, according to CIC decision.The union cabinet has approved in-troduction of a bill in the monsoon session of parliament that began Monday to amend the Right to In-formation Act, 2005, to exclude po-litical parties from the definition of a public authority for the purpose of the act.

Congress messed up creation of Telangana: BJPNew DelhiThe BJP Tuesday slammed the gov-ernment for messing up the creation of Telangana.“The government has mishandled and messed up the issue,” BJP leader M. Venkaiah Naidu said.“The Congress is behaving irre-sponsibly, in an immature manner, arousing regional feelings. Congress leaders in Telangana are distributing sweets, and those in Seemandhra are protesting,” he said.“They are also telling people in Seemandhra that they were forced to create Telangana by BJP and TDP, and in Rayalseem region they are telling people that TRS will be merged with Congress,” he added.He said he could not believe this was the same Congress party that fought for India’s independence.

IANSIANS

IANS

CHANDIGARH SUNDAY 11 August 2013 9POLITICS

Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari“I think it is extremely unfortunate, it is repre-hensible. But I would like to appeal to every-body not to play parti-san politics with it.”

Congress President Sonia Gandhi “India cannot be cowed down by such blatant acts of deceit. The en-tire Congress, as in-deed the entire country, stands by them (the killed soldiers). Gov-ernment should take ap-propriate action”.

Defence Minister A.K. Antony “The chief of army staff visited the area and it is now clear that special-ist troops of Pakistan Army were involved in this attack when a group from Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) crossed the Line of Control (LoC) and killed our brave jawans.”

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah “These incidents don’t help efforts to nor-malise or even improve relations with Pak and call in to question the Pak Govt’s recent over-tures.”

Leader of BJP in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley “Today’s incident is condemnable. We join the defence minister in saluting the families of the deceased. We can’t make a spectacle of ourselves in front of the world, we must give a befitting message to Pakistan.”

BJP leader Shahnawaz Hussain“Talks with Pakistan should not be held if even one bullet is fired at the border... You can’t have ... our soldiers be-ing killed and then hold talks side by side. The government should say there will be no talks, which will act as pres-sure on Pakistan.”

QUOTE FIRE

New DelhiDelhi Chief Minister Sheila Dik-shit Wednesday called a meeting of Congress legislators and coun-cillors to “popularise” the UPA’s food security scheme among the people in the election year.“The purpose of this meeting was to brief all Congress legis-lators about the implementation of the scheme,” Food and Sup-plies Minister Haroon Yusuf told IANS.

The Delhi government is set to roll out the scheme Aug 20. The benefits of the scheme will only be availed from Sep 1.The beneficiaries will get wheat at Rs.2 per kg, rice at Rs.3 per kg and coarse grain at Re.1 per kg.Yusuf said that the legislators “were also told to convey to peo-ple that food security is the flag-ship scheme of the UPA”.Opposition Bharatiya Janata Par-ty legislators would invited at the

launch of the scheme. “They will be invited on the for-mal launch of the scheme on Aug 20,” he said.The Congress-led government will bank on the central gov-ernment sponsored scheme for success in the assembly elec-tions due later this year. The pro-gramme has also been dubbed as a “game changer” for UPA II.Below poverty line families, above poverty line card holders

and Jhughi Ration Card holders and beneficiaries under Antodaya Anna Yojna will be included in the scheme in the first phase.More families would be included in the second phase that revolves around the senior-most woman in a household.Homeless people, daily wage earners, rag pickers, people liv-ing in resettlement colonies and slum clusters will be eligible for the benefit under the scheme.

Delhi Congress to popularise food scheme

POLITICAL CAMP NEWSCAMP UPA

New DelhiDemanding that there should be no talks with Pakistan, BJP leader Yashwant Sinha Thursday expressed satisfac-tion over Defence Minister A.K. Antony’s fresh state-ment on the killing of five Indian soldiers on the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir two days ago.Antony Thursday said spe-cialist troops of the Pakistan

Army were involved in the attack and killing of five In-dian soldiers on the Line of Control in the Poonch sector of Jammu and Kashmir Tues-day.“We are happy that govern-ment has rectified its mistake. He said that Pakistan’s army was involved in the killing,” Sinha told reporters.While stating that the minis-ter covered all points raised

by the opposition, he added that the BJP still maintains that there should be no talks with Pakistan.“Our demand to end talks with Pakistan still holds. We also want a debate on the broader issue of terror and intrusions,” Sinha said.Asked if the government has been soft on Pakistan, Sinha said: “There is no govern-ment in India, soft or hard.”

Antony was under attack from the opposition for his earlier statement where he had told parliament that “20 heavily armed terrorists along with persons in Paki-stan Army uniform” were re-sponsible for the killings.The Indian and Pakistani prime ministers are sched-uled to meet on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York September.

Don’t hold talks with Pakistan: Yashwant SinhaCAMP NDA

ChennaiDMK president and the leader of Tamil Eelam Supporters’ Organisation (TESO) M. Karunanidhi Thursday wondered how long the government would remain silent as Indian fish-ermen are being shot daily by the Sri Lankan Navy.Addressing a TESO rally here, Karunanidhi said: “Everyday, the Indian fish-

ermen are being shot at; abducted, their boats are damaged and their catch confiscated by the Sri Lank-an Navy. How long can the fishermen and the people of Tamil Nadu tolerate this?”He said the rulers should re-alise that there is a limit for patience.Urging the central govern-ment not to remain deaf, Karunanidhi added it would

be an insult to Tamils if In-dia participates in the Nov 15-17, 2013 Common-wealth Heads of Govern-ment Meeting (CHOGM) in Colombo.Referring to the resolutions passed at the July 2013 TESO meeting, Karunani-dhi said Sri Lanka should implement the 13th amend-ment to its Constitution in full and not in parts.

The 13th amendment in the Sri Lankan constitu-tion was carried out with Indian backing in 1987. It created Provincial Councils and made Tamil an official language and English a link language.But the regime of President Mahinda Rajapaksa has threatened to dilute its pro-visions, causing dismay in India.

Sri Lanka shooting Indian fishermen unnerves Karunanidhi

Aam Admi Party (AAP) leader Santosh Koli, critically injured in a hit-and-run accident 38 days ago, succumbed to her injuries here Wednesday, a hospital official said.The 28-year-old candidate from Del-hi’s Seemapuri constituency in the coming assembly polls was injured when a speeding car hit a motorcycle she was pillion riding in Ghaziabad’s Kaushambi area June 30.

Koli was going to the party office with party member Kuldeep Panwar when the car rammed the two-wheel-er from behind and sped away.“Koli succumbed to her injuries Wednesday. She had been brought to the Fortis Memorial Hospital in a state of coma following serious head injuries and never regained con-sciousness,” a hospital spokesperson told IANS.

AAP leaders including Arvind Ke-jriwal, Manish Sisodia and Kumar Vishwas along with party activists and family members of the deceased received her body and took it to Del-hi for cremation, said a police officer.Kejriwal said on Twitter: “Santosh passes away. May her soul rest in peace.“We resolve we will not let her sac-rifice go in vain. We have to take her

struggle forward,” he said in another tweet.Ghaziabad Police have failed to identify the car driver.Koli and her colleague were rushed to a Ghaziabad hospital June 30. When Koli did not respond to treat-ment, she was shifted to Fortis Hos-pital in Noida and then to Gurgaon where she died.“She was murdered due to her politi-

cal profile in her constituency,” AAP leader Sisodia said. Koli, who came from a lower mid-dle class family in northeast Delhi’s Sunder Nagri area, was associated with anti-corruption activist Kejri-wal for more than 10 years.According to one report, Koli had earlier been attacked twice - once with blades and surgical knives.

AAP leader injured in accident is dead

Defence expert Major General (Retired) G.D. Bakshi“For the sake of peace talks, we cannot go on sacrificing our national in-terest. ... Additionally, do these five lives martyred have no worth? What mo-tivation is it for the sol-diers if they are placed at the border like deaf and dumb dolls who don’t re-taliate to such incidents?”

IANS

Who said what on Indian soldiers’ killings

NATIONAL NEWS CHANDIGARHSUNDAY 11 August 201310

Raghuram Rajan appointed RBI Governor

New DelhiRaghuram Govind Rajan, chief eco-nomic advisor in the finance minis-try, will be the next governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the government announced Tuesday.At 50, Rajan will also be among the youngest to occupy the high office at Mint Street in Mumbai, where he takes over from incumbent Duvvuri Subbarao Sep 5.“Prime Minister (Manmohan Singh) has approved the appointment of Raghuram Rajan as the Governor of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for a term of three years,” finance ministry said in a statement. Before joining the Indian govern-ment, Rajan had served as chief economist at the International Mon-etary Fund (IMF) and professor at the University of Chicago. He joined as advisor in the finance ministry last year in August. His appointment comes at a time when the Indian economy is pass-ing through rough weather and the government and the central bank are not particularly seen to be in sync on

ways to handle the situation.The RBI is struggling to control the slide in the value of the rupee that hit a record low of 61.86 against a dollar Tuesday. “These are challenging times for the Indian economy, though no one can have any doubt about the country’s promise,” he said after being named governor, adding that the govern-ment and the central bank were working together on this.“The Reserve Bank is a great insti-tution with a tradition of integrity, independence and professionalism,” he said, honoured by the new respon-sibilities rested on him.The RBI has also been under pres-sure from the industry and a section of the government to cut policy rates to revive growth. Rajan has also been advocating a rate cut. In the first quarter review of the mon-etary policy announced July 30, the central bank has left key policy rates unchanged and lowered the growth forecast for the current financial year to 5.5 percent from its earlier projec-tion of 5.7 percent.

For NRIs, Jayalalithaa is the best PM contender

New DelhiTamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jaya-lalithaa is the most qualified to be-come India’s next prime minister, followed closely by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, a survey conducted among NRIs and released here Wednesday has revealed.With a score of 86 out of 100, Jaya-lalithaa ruled the roost and Modi got 81 marks.Congress vice president Rahul Gan-dhi came in third with a score of 53 while other leaders like Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and BJP lead-er L.K. Advani could not even secure the basic score to enter the survey.“We asked 10 basic questions to shortlist the contenders and only Modi, Jayalalithaa and Rahul Gandhi were able to secure the basic score to enter the survey,” Pon Mohaideen

Pitchai, a non-resident Indian (NRI) and one of the researchers told IANS.Around 5,000 NRIs from eight coun-tries including Saudi Arabia, Austra-lia, Britain, Canada and Singapore were interviewed for the “NRI Po-litical research Report” and evalu-ated the leaders on 10 criterions like education, experience, mass support, world network and leadership skills.The 2002 communal riots in Gujarat and the internal bickering of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over Modi seemed to affect the opinions of the NRIs too as Modi lost out to Jayalalithaa in areas like faith in sec-ular democracy and party influence.“She (Jayalalithaa) has an influence over her part whereas it’s the other way round when it comes to Modi. Not everyone in his party supports his PM dream,” said Pitchai.

Durga Shakti Nagpal case: SC to hear PIL Monday

New DelhiThe Supreme Court will hear Mon-day a PIL seeking the stay of the suspension and consequent issuance of charge sheet to IAS officer Durga Shakti Nagpal.The apex court bench headed by Chief Justice P. Sathasivam said this when PIL petitioner advocate M.L. Sharma mentioned the matter before the court.Nagpal was suspended last month ostensibly for breaking down a wall of a mosque, an action the Uttar Pradesh government said could have communal tension.But the widespread belief -- strength-ened by a Samajwadi Party leader’s public claim -- is that action was tak-en against her because she took on a mafia extracting sand illegally from the river bed in Noida.

Heavy rains pile up problems for Taj cityAgraSeveral spells of heavy showers in the past two days have exposed the Agra Municipal Corporation’s lack of preparedness to tackle waterlog-ging on roads and in low-lying areas, residents have lamented.“The whole city is in a shambles, mo-hallas and colonies cut off from the main roads and with drains overflow-ing, motorists have to sail through or get stranded,” said insurance agent Sudhier Gupta, after somehow pull-ing his vehicle out from the water-logged Nagar Nigam crossing.“The entire M.G. Road, the lifeline of the city, is under water at six plac-es,” said Vishal, a photo studio own-er at the St John’s College crossing.However, K.P. Tripathi, deputy com-missioner of the municipal corpora-

tion, said: “We are doing our best and have pumps installed for siphoning off rain water. Teams are responding to calls.”Dalit colonies and those along the drains have had a rough time these last few days that the city got heavy showers, said ex-corporator Deepak.“Even tourist vehicles got stuck up on the Yamuna Kinara road coming via the Yamuna Expressway, due to water-logging under the Strachey Bridge,” he said.The Yamuna water level continues to rise after copious discharges from Hathini Kund and Gokul Barrages.“The river is flowing full but fear of its breaching the danger mark ap-pears remote at the moment,” a dis-trict official said.

IANS

Pakistan Army troops killed Indian soldiers: AntonyNew Delhipecialist troops of the Pakistan Army were involved in the attack and kill-ing of five Indian soldiers in Jammu and Kashmir two days ago, Defence Minister A.K. Antony informed par-liament Thursday.Antony said that based on an on-the-spot assessment by Army Chief Gen-eral Bikram Singh, it is now clear that the attack was carried out by Pakistani army regulars.“The chief of army staff visited the area and it is now clear that special-ist troops of Pakistan Army were in-volved in this attack when a group from Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) crossed the Line of Control (LoC) and killed our brave jawans,” Antony said in a statement.“We all know that nothing happens from Pakistan side of the LoC with-out the support, assistance, facilita-tion and often direct involvement of the Pakistan Army,” added Antony.He called upon Pakistan to punish those responsible for this attack and the one early this year when one sol-dier was beheaded and the body of the other was mutilated.“Those in Pakistan who are respon-sible for this tragedy, (and) brutal killing of our two soldiers earlier this year should not go unpunished,” he said.“Pakistan should also show deter-mined action to dismantle the terror-ist networks, organisations and infra-structure and do tangible movement on bringing those responsible for Mumbai terrorist attack in Novem-ber 2008 to justice quickly,” he said.He said the incident will impact re-

lations between the two countries.“Naturally this incident will have consequences on our behaviour on the LoC and for our rela-tions with Pakistan. Our restraint should not be taken for granted nor should the capacity of armed forces and re-solve of the government to uphold the sanctity of the LoC ever be doubt-ed,” he added.The defence minister was making a fresh statement in parliament on Tuesday’s incident in which five In-dian army soldiers were killed on the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir by in-truders from the Pakistani side.Antony was under attack from the opposition for his earlier statement where he had told parliament that “20 heavily armed terrorists along with persons in Pakistan Army uni-

form” were responsible for the kill-ings.An earlier defence ministry state-ment - which was withdrawn later - stated that the ambush was carried out by a Pakistani Border Action Team.It also said that the Pakistan Army was involved in the attack. Pakistani Border Action Teams comprise Paki-stani Army regulars and militants.

Woman jumps to death in mall, injures man belowNew DelhiA woman suffering from jaundice committed suicide by jumping off the 12th floor of a west Delhi mall Wednesday, seriously injuring a man on whom she landed, police said.The incident happened around 11 a.m. at Westend Mall in Janakpuri.Police identified her as Chanchal Shar-ma, 24. The man was a mall employee, Sunil Kumar, 28. Both were rushed to

a hospital where the woman was de-clared dead, a police officer said.Kumar, who suffered head injuries, was later shifted to the Mata Chanan Devi Hospital. His condition was said to be critical but stable.“Chanchal’s father told us that his daughter was sick and tired of jaun-dice for a month but that could not have been the reason she killed her-self,” the officer said.

CBI arrests four for taking Rs.30 lakh bribeNew DelhiThe CBI Wednesday arrested three municipal corporation employees and a Delhi Development Authority official here for taking a Rs.30 lakh bribe from a private firm’s owner for regularisation of a banquet hall, said an official. The accused were arrested from north Delhi’s Pitampura area, po-lice said. Rajesh Aggarwal and Man-ish Tuli, partners of Gurgaon-based private firm Micromax Informatics, have also been arrested for offering the bribe.The bribe was for granting regularisa-tion in an improper manner to a ban-quet hall at Wazirpur Industrial area in north Delhi.

“At least 15 places were raided. Dur-ing the search at the house of a junior engineer of municipal corporation, Rs.40 lakh was recovered. During the search at the residence of one of the ar-rested accused, Rs.30 lakh and jewel-lery was recovered,” said the official.Two of the arrested employees of the municipal corporation were working ‘beldars’. The DDA official was iden-tified as Rajesh Gupta.“It was alleged that the employees of municipal corporation were taking the bribe on behalf of a superintendent engineer, executive engineer, assistant engineer and junior engineer, all of the municipal corporation,” said the offi-cial.

NATIONAL NEWS CHANDIGARHSUNDAY 11 August 2013 11

Five Indian soldiers killed in Kashmir, India-Pakistan ties hit

New DelhiTwo months after Nawaz Sharif took charge in Islamabad, India-Pakistan relations took a new hit Tuesday after “heavily armed terrorists” am-bushed an Indian army patrol in Jammu and Kashmir, killing five sol-diers and triggering angry reactions in New Delhi.While Pakistan denied any involve-ment in the post-midnight attack in Poonch sector, Indian leaders used tough language to denounce the kill-ings with Congress president So-nia Gandhi saying India won’t be “cowed down by such blatant acts of deceit”.“The entire Congress as indeed the entire country stands by them (sol-diers),” she said in a statement, and asked the “government to take ap-propriate action”.Five soldiers were killed when the attackers, including men in Pakistani military uniform, barged into Indian territory and ambushed an army pa-trol at Chakan-da-Bagh sector of the Line of Control (LoC), which divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan. One soldier was injured.The slain soldiers are Naik Prem Nath, Lance Naik Shambu Saran, Sepoy Vijay Kumar Ray, Sepoy Rag-hunandan Prasad and Naik Pundalik Mane.Their bodies will be brought to Jam-mu Wednesday and then flown to their respective hometowns.Army chief General Bikram Singh will visit Poonch Wednesday to re-view the security situation there in the wake of the ambush.Defence Minister A.K. Antony told parliament that about 20 “heavily armed terrorists” and others in Paki-stani military uniform were involved in the bloody ambush. He con-demned the “unprovoked incident” and said the army was ready to take all steps to uphold the sanctity of the LoC.The attack took place around 400 metres inside Indian territory. A wounded soldier was airlifted to Jammu for specialised treatment.

A source in Jammu told IANS that the Pakistanis withdrew after the killings.It was the worst border clash in Kashmir after January when two In-dian soldiers were killed in Mendhar sector of the LoC. One of the soldiers was then beheaded while the body of the other was mutilated.The latest killings sparked off angry responses in India, where there have been high expectations from a possi-ble meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Nawaz Sharif on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in September.Even before the Pakistani foreign ministry denied involvement in the incident, India summoned Pakistan’s Deputy High Commissioner Man-soor Ahmad Khan in New Delhi and lodged a strong protest.The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) asked the government not to talk with Pakistan. BJP leader Arun Jait-ley said India should give “a befitting reply”. His colleague M. Venkaiah Naidu accused the government of being “very soft on Pakistan”. Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav, a former defence min-ister, said both Pakistan and China were not to be trusted. Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah warned that such “inci-dents don’t help efforts to normalise or even improve relations with Paki-stan”.External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said India will take steps

necessary in its national interest in the wake of the ambush.“Whatever we feel is necessary in the national interest, those steps will be taken,” Khurshid said.Activists of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha protested outside Antony’s residence following the attack.In Islamabad, the military denied killing the Indian soldiers. “No such incident has taken place on the LoC,” an official with the army’s Inter-Ser-vices Public Relations said. Later, the foreign office came out with a strong denial of Pakistani official’s complicity in the ambush.“Pakistan rejects allegations of an at-tack across the LoC in Poonch sector in which five Indian soldiers were claimed to have been killed,” it said. “These are baseless and unfounded allegations. Our military authori-ties have confirmed there had been no exchange of fire that could have resulted in such an incident,” it said.Pakistan “remains committed to the ceasefire agreement of 2003 which is an important Confidence Building Measure and should be respected in letter and spirit.“Pakistan is committed to a construc-tive, sustained and result-oriented process of engagement with India, and looks forward to an early re-sumption of the dialogue process.”Since 2003, when India and Pakistan declared a ceasefire, guns have most-ly been silent on the LoC. But troops of the two countries sometimes ex-change fire.

Pakistan Army troops killed Indian soldiers: AntonyNew DelhiSpecialist troops of the Pakistan Army were involved in the attack and killing of five Indian soldiers in Jammu and Kashmir two days ago, Defence Minister A.K. Antony in-formed parliament Thursday.Antony said that based on an on-the-spot assessment by Army Chief Gen-eral Bikram Singh, it is now clear that the attack was carried out by Pakistani army regulars.“The chief of army staff visited the area and it is now clear that special-ist troops of Pakistan Army were in-volved in this attack when a group from Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) crossed the Line of Control (LoC) and killed our brave jawans,” Antony said in a statement.“We all know that nothing happens from Pakistan side of the LoC with-out the support, assistance, facilita-tion and often direct involvement of the Pakistan Army,” added Antony.He called upon Pakistan to punish those responsible for this attack and the one early this year when one sol-dier was beheaded and the body of the other was mutilated.“Those in Pakistan who are respon-

sible for this tragedy, (and) brutal killing of our two soldiers earlier this year should not go unpunished,” he said.“Pakistan should also show deter-mined action to dismantle the terror-ist networks, organisations and infra-structure and do tangible movement on bringing those responsible for Mumbai terrorist attack in Novem-ber 2008 to justice quickly,” he said.He said the incident will impact rela-tions between the two countries.“Naturally this incident will have consequences on our behaviour on the LoC and for our relations with Pakistan. Our restraint should not be taken for granted nor should the ca-pacity of armed forces and resolve of the government to uphold the sanc-tity of the LoC ever be doubted,” he added.The defence minister was making a fresh statement in parliament on Tuesday’s incident in which five In-dian army soldiers were killed on the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir by in-truders from the Pakistani side.Antony was under attack from the opposition for his earlier statement where he had told parliament that

“20 heavily armed terrorists along with persons in Pakistan Army uni-form” were responsible for the kill-ings.An earlier defence ministry state-ment - which was withdrawn later - stated that the ambush was carried out by a Pakistani Border Action Team.It also said that the Pakistan Army was involved in the attack. Pakistani Border Action Teams comprise Paki-stani Army regulars and militants.

CBI probes death of Gurgaon judge’s wifeNew Delhi/GurgaonThe CBI Thursday registered a case and team made a video re-cording at the spot where the body of Geetanjali Garg, wife of Gur-gaon’s Chief Judicial Magistrate Ravneet Garg, was found last month.Geetanjali was found dead in a park in Gurgaon police lines area July 17. She had received three bullet injuries and police have re-covered four bullet shells from the spot. Garg’s licensed firearm was found near the body.An 11-member CBI team headed by Deputy Inspector General Vi-nita Rathore, along with Superin-tendent of Police Rakesh Rathi, visited the police lines area and made a video, a police official said.The team first reached Police Commissioner Alok Mittal’s of-fice around 12.15 p.m. and met members of the Special Investiga-tion Team (SIT) which was prob-ing the case till now, the official said.The federal agency has taken up the investigation of the case after a request of the Haryana govern-ment was notified by the central government.Earlier, a case was registered by Gurgaon police against Garg and his parents on the complaint of Geetanjali’s brother Pradeep Ag-garwal, accusing them of murder. Geetanjali’s family also alleged dowry harassment. The friends and relatives of Geetanjali Sunday blocked the Delhi-Jaipur national highway on Gurgaon’s Rajiv Chowk demand-ing immediate suspension of Garg and his arrest along with his par-ents.

Inmate suicide sparks UP prison riotsLucknowRiots broke out in Kannauj prison in Uttar Pradesh Thursday after a prisoner committed suicide after being allegedly beaten up by a jail guard, officials said.Kamlesh Kumar, 48, was alleg-edly beaten up Wednesday night after which he hung himself in the toilet.As news of the death spread, pris-oners went on the rampage and pelted stones at the guards and of-ficials. They got on to the roof of the prison from where they raised anti-administration slogans. Police reinforcements were rushed to the prison and the pris-oners were brought under control. Senior district officials are camp-ing in the prison to ensure the vio-lence does not escalate. District Magistrate Rupesh Ku-mar told IANS that a probe had been ordered into the rioting. Home department officials lat-er said that based on prelimi-nary findings, deputy jailor Om Prakash had been attached to the the prison headquarters in Luc-know. Five guards have been at-tached to the Fatehgarh prison.Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav represented Kannauj for a long time in the Lok Sabha. The seat is currently held by his wife Dimple.

Gorkhaland stir threatens Darjeeling tea industryNew Delhi/DarjeelingThe reverberations of the decision to creat a separate Telangana are being felt far away in the industry that pro-duces your morning cuppa.A three-day shutdown July 29-31 in support of a movement for the cre-ation of a separate Gorkhaland state out of West Bengal saw the Darjeel-ing tea industry losing Rs.10 crore and the fuel and coal inventory of factories are about to hit rock bot-tom, according to industry insiders. “Everything has come to a standstill and input-output cannot move from the gardens. It is a critical situation. We are hoping the strike will be lifted for a day or two in between, which will help us with some move-ment,” Darjeeling Tea Association (DTA) chairman S.S. Bagaria told IANS from Darjeeling.The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) agitators again called an in-definite strike from Aug 3. Since then, Darjeeling has been on the boil. The tea gardens have been ex-empted but industry stakeholders are apprehensive and keeping their fin-gers crossed.This is the time for the monsoon flush (plucking season) in the Dar-jeeling tea gardens, which account for 30-35 percent of the total exports of the industry. They also account for 15 percent of the annual produc-tion of Darjeeling tea. There are four such plucking seasons - first flush, second flush, monsoon flush and au-tumn flush.Darjeeling has a total of 87 tea gar-dens, employing 50,000 permanent workers and 20,000 seasonal work-ers.“It is a million dollar question when they will lift the bandh. Now each day is critical. With every passing day factories are exhausting stocks of coal and petroleum to run their machines (that process the plucked tea leaves),” Sanjay Bansal, chair-man of the Ambootia Tea Garden, told IANS on phone. The permanent tea workers stay within the estates and “their ration is also at stake,” Bansal added.“Last year the industry suffered with a 20 percent loss of production due to drought. This year the weather was good but the political weather seems to vitiate the industry’s opera-tions,” he said.The stir in Darjeeling was expected after the Telangana statehood issue, Bansal said. “The question now is how the state government handles the situation and how the central government tackles it.”Bagaria said the industry players were in talks with the West Bengal government and the local leaders to find a solution to the impasse and help the industry rebound.Bansal said the stir has pressed the panic button among the international buyers as the industry stakehold-ers could not give them any assur-ance regarding the timeframe for dispatching orders. “This turmoil is going to impact fund flow into the industry,” he said.DTA secretary general Kaushik Basu said the total production of Darjeel-ing tea last year was nine million kg, of which around 70 percent was exported and the rest was consumed domestically. This niche tea is ex-ported to Germany, Britain, Europe, the US and Japan.

IANS IANS

IANS

CHANDIGARHSUNDAY 11 August 201312

Ragging Seniors and Raging JuniorsRagging perhaps began as a friendly gesture of introducing new comers to college seniors but this warm welcome ceremony strangely turned into a brutal outlet of aggression, ego and intolerance. Every year the joy and triumph of nearly 5 lac students upon admission is turned into fear and anxiety. It starts from something as small as missing college on the first day out of fear of ragging to committing suicide.

Allegedly ragged by four girls, faculty member, Bhopal student commits suicideA girl student of a pharmacy college allegedly committed suicide after be-ing ragged by her seniors and a fac-ulty member in Bhopal. Police said four of her seniors, all girls, and the faculty member have been arrested.A note, reportedly written by Anita, blamed her four seniors and the fac-ulty member for the suicide, police said.According to the note, the girl’s se-niors had been allegedly ragging since her admission in the college. They allegedly forced the victim to write their mid-semester copies. Ac-cording to police she complained

against this to one of the faculty members Manish but was allegedly threatened to remain quiet on the is-sue.According to the note recovered the seniors started threatening her with acid attack and rape after they came to know about her complaint.Based on the note all four seniors namely Nidhi, Dipti, Divyanshi and Preeti - and faculty member Manish had been arrested, Additional Su-perintendent of Police (ASP) Dilip Singh Tomar told reporters.They were arrested on the charge of abetment to suicide, he added.

What is Ragging?

Any disorderly conduct whether by words spoken or written or by an act which has effect of teasing, treating or handling with rudeness any junior student, indulging in tough or indis-ciplined activities which causes or is likely to cause irritation, hardship or psychological harm or to raise fear. Or asking the student to do any act or perform something which the student will not do in any ordinary course which generate a sense of shame in the mind of the junior student.The cause of indulging in ragging is deriving a sadistic pleasure or show-ing off power, authority or superior-ity by the seniors over their juniors or freshers.Ragging in India is a damaging

form of interaction of the seniors in college or school with the juniors, newcomers or first years. It is simi-lar to but not same as hazing in the United States, it is not an initiation. It involves insults (simple or sugges-tive sexual, sarcastic and even physi-cal), running errands for seniors, and many other complex activities. Highly reputed Indian colleges have a wistful history of ragging espe-cially Medical colleges. It has be-come increasingly unpopular due to several complaints of serious injury to the victims and strict laws regard-ing ragging. Ragging is now defined as an act that violates or is perceived to violate an individual student’s dig-nity.

Rules & Regulations for Prevention and Prohibition of Ragging

“A coward is incapable of exhibiting love, it is the prerogative of the brave.” – Mahatma GandhiSo, be brave and confront the manace of ragging

Various Types of Ragging

The Hon’ble Supreme Court has, inter-alia, mentioned the follow-ing types of ragging:- 1. Ragging has several aspects with, among others, psychologi-cal, social, political, economic, cultural, and academic dimensions. 2. Any act that prevents, disrupts or disturbs the regular academic activity of a student should be considered with in the academics related aspect of ragging; simi-larly, exploiting the services of a junior student for completing the academic tasks assigned to an in-dividual or a group of seniors is also an aspect of academics related ragging prevalent in many institu-tions, particularly in the technical institutions. 3. Any act of financial extortion or forceful expenditure burden put on a junior student by senior students should be considered an aspect of ragging for ragging economic di-mensions. 4. Any act of physical abuse in-cluding all variants of it: sexual abuse, homosexual assaults, stripping, forcing obscene and lewd acts, gestured, causing bodily harm or any other danger to health or person can be put in the category of ragging with criminal dimensions. 5. Any act or abuse by spoken words, emails, snail-mails, blogs, public insults should be consid-ered with in the psychological aspects of ragging. This aspect would also include deriving per-

verted pleasure, vicarious or sadis-tic thrill from actively or passively participating in the discomfiture to others; the absence of prepar-ing ‘freshers’ in the run up to their admission to higher education and life in hostels also can be ascribed as a psychological aspect of rag-ging – Any act that affects the mental health and self-confidence of students also can be described in terms of the psychological as-pects of ragging. 6. The human rights perspective of ragging involves the injury caused to the fundamental right to human dignity through humili-ation heaped on junior students by seniors; often resulting in the extreme step of suicide by the vic-tims.

Actions to be taken against students for indulging and abetting in Ragging1. The punishment to be meted out to the persons indulged in ragging has to be exemplary and justifiably harsh to act as a deterrent against recurrence of such incidents.

2. Every single incident of ragging a First Information Report (FIR) must be filed without exception by the institutional authorities with the local police authorities.

3. Depending upon the nature and gravity of the offence as estab-lished by the Anti-Ragging Com-mittee of the institution, the pos-sible punishments for those found

guilty of ragging at the institution level shall be any one or any com-bination of the following. (i) Cancellation of admission (ii) Suspension from attending classes (iii) Withholding/withdrawing scholarship/fellowship and other benefits (iv) Debarring from appearing in any test/examination or other evaluation process (v) Withholding results (vi) Debarring from representing the institution in any regional, na-tional or international meet, tour-nament, youth festival, etc. (vii) Suspension/expulsion from the hostel (viii) Rustication from the institu-tion for period ranging from 1 to 4 semesters (ix) Expulsion from the institution and consequent debarring from admission to any other institution. (x) Fine of Rupees 25,000/- (xi) Collective punishment: when the persons committing or abetting the crime of ragging are not identi-fied, the institution shall resort to collective punishment as a deter-rent to ensure community pressure on the potential raggers. 4. The institutional authority shall intimate the incidents of ragging occurred in their premises along with actions taken to the Council immediately after occurrence of such incident and inform the status of the case from time to time. 5. Courts should make an effort to ensure that cases involving ragging are taken up on priority basis to send the correct message that ragging is not only to be dis-couraged but also to be dealt with sternness.

This is how the unending bond isestabished between seniors and juniors

CHANDIGARH SUNDAY 11 August 2013 13

Last Monsoon of 15th Lok SabhaAnger in parliament over soldiers’ killing

New DelhiAnger over the killing of five In-dian soldiers in Jammu and Kash-mir gripped parliament Tuesday as members across political divide condemned the incident and sought strong action, while the government said the army was ready to uphold the sanctity of the Line of Control (LoC).Both houses of parliament were re-peatedly disrupted over the killings of soldiers.Defence Minister A.K. Antony as-sured the Lok Sabha the army was ready to protect the sanctity of the Line of Control (LoC) and said a strong protest through diplomatic channels had been lodged with Paki-stan.“The ambush was carried out by ap-proximately 20 heavily armed ter-rorists along with persons dressed as in Pakistan Army uniform,” Antony said in his statement.“I assure the house that our army is ready to take all necessary steps to uphold the sanctity of the Line of Control,” Antony said. The proceedings were put off till the next day soon after Antony’s state-ment.Congress spokesperson Bhakta Charan Das said party president So-nia Gandhi and vice president Rahul Gandhi were concerned over the is-sue.“India cannot be cowed down by such blatant acts of deceit,” said So-nia Gandhi, urging the government to take appropriate measures.In the Lok Sabha, Bharatiya Janata Party’s leader Yashwant Sinha’s speech was drowned out by the pro-testing Seemandhra MPs.An angry Sinha asked why his speech was being drowned out when Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh who spoke before him was al-lowed to speak uninterrupted.“Who are these people who are not allowing me to speak...they are all under the Congress, not allowing me to speak, and when I am speaking they are disrupting me,” said Sinha.BJP leaders M. Venkaiah Naidu and Shahnawaz Hussain wanted India to harden its stand vis-a-vis Pakistan.“The government has been very soft on Pakistan. They are being violent, and our government is silent,” Naidu said. “It is a state policy of Pakistan...to cripple India.”“India should immediately stop all

talks with Pakistan. Relations with neighbours cannot be maintained from one side only,” he added.Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh wanted to know what action the government planned to take to thwart violations of LoC.Yadav said there were frequent inci-dents of intrusions by China across the Line of Actual Control and ceasefire violations by Pakistan on the LoC as well as killings of Indian soldiers.“We want to know what the gov-ernment is doing to thwart such at-tacks,” he demanded.The Rajya Sabha also debated the is-sue.The BJP asked the government to give Pakistan a “befitting reply”.“These incidents are not taking place in isolation. We had incidents of soldiers being beheaded, we had Sarabjit (Singh, who died in a Paki-stan prison)...we have a series of in-cidents of cross border terrorism,” leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley.“India needs to modulate its foreign policy to tell Pakistan this will not be accepted. The time has come to give a befitting reply,” Jaitley said.Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawa-ti said: “We need to take firm steps. A lot of soldiers have died, we need to take it seriously and take special steps.”In his reply, Antony said he had spoken to Army chief Gen. Bikram Singh who said the army was confi-dent to handle the situation.“When the question of nation comes, India is one. That is the strongest an-swer to our enemy according to me,” he said.The issues of Telangana and Bodol-and also saw disruptions in both the houses.In a post midnight attack in Kashmir, a Non-Commissioned Officer and four soldiers were killed when the attackers, including men in Pakistani military uniform, barged into Indian territory and ambushed an army pa-trol at Chakan-da-Bagh sector of the LoC, which divides Kashmir be-tween India and Pakistan.The attack took place around 400 metres inside Indian territory. A wounded soldier was airlifted to Jammu for specialised treatment. A source in Jammu told IANS that the Pakistanis withdrew after the kill-ings.

NRIs join campaign to keep political parties under RTIMumbaiTrust India’s honourable Members of Parliament to save their skin when confronted with uncomfortable ques-tions on the proposed amendments to the Right To Information (RTI) Act.This was the experience of scores of NRIs settled in the US who last week initiated a unique Call-A-Thon to Indian MPs, requesting them to save the RTI Act - which is sought to be diluted by the new amendments to keep political parties out of the am-bit of its questioning - and urge them to ensure that, in public interest, po-litical parties be covered by the RTI Act. The activist NRIs, perturbed by the amendments to the RTI Act, decided to take some direct action and at-tempt to stall the tinkering of the law that has brought so much transpar-ency into government functioning and empowered the common man, said its main initiator Suresh Ediga, a software engineer from New Jersey.“Last week, a few of us decided to directly call up the MPs and person-ally request them to vote against the proposed amendments which could make the RTI Act virtually tooth-less,” Ediga told IANS on the phone.He said that ever since the amend-ments were announced, RTI activists across India have been making fran-tic attempts to get the amendments democratically stalled through par-liament.“Our initiative had two prime con-cerns - to complement the activities of the ground activists in India, and register our concerns as ordinary citi-zens with the MPs and urge them not to accord parliamentary sanction for the RTI amendments,” Ediga said.After running a brief pre-event on social networking site Facebook, Ediga managed to garner the support of around five-dozen NRIs who ex-pressed similar concerns and joined the case.Renowned RTI activist and former chief information commissioner Shailesh Gandhi was impressed by

the NRIs’ zeal. “It’s a very innova-tive initiative,” he said in a Facebook post.Ediga went a step ahead and posted on his blog some basic instructions and phone numbers of as many MPs he could lay his hands on to enable the NRIs launch the Call-A-Thon.The response was truly enthusiastic and the participants vigorously start-ed dialing the MPs in India, working late hours after returning home from work (in the US).On the other side of the globe, activ-ists and friends in India kept up the tempo by making their own phone calls to the MPs, notching negligible success.According to Ediga, last week, around 300 MPs got calls from NRIs in the US and a majority of the re-sponses were eye-openers for the long-distance callers.“I don’t have any opinion (on this is-sue). The party will decide,” was the terse response of a few Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party MPs.A vast majority were furious at re-ceiving direct calls from concerned citizens, even though they were NRIs, Ediga said. A handful of Shiv Sena, CPI-M, MDMK and Trinamol Congress MPs expressed plans to vote against the RTI amendments, but did not appear fully committed.By and large, the NRI callers were stonewalled by the MPs’ aides, who asked them many suspicious ques-tions, demanding to know what their interest was in asking such questions when they were not living in India.A few dismissed the calls by asking them to send emails to the MPs concerned - which the callers did, but again with negligible success.A sample conversation with an MP’s secretary:Secretary (suspicious): Who are you?Caller: “I am a con-cerned citizen and want to request the MP not

to vote for these RTI amendments.”Secretary : I’ve never received or heard of a concerned citizen calling an MP. I cannot tell my opinion but will relay your message to the MP. (Bangs down the phone).“Around four dozen MPs from across the country spoke to one of us calling them, but their responses were guarded and most preferred to excuse their stand citing the party directives on the issue,” Ediga said.Besides the NRIs, volunteers from AID INDIA, People for Loksatta and other smaller groups, NGOs and RTI activists also took part in the Call-A-Thon.Among those who spoke were Ra-jya Sabha MPs, Shantaram Naik, Trinamool Congress MP S.S. Roy, JD-U’s Sharad Yadav, TDP’s K.N. Rao and N.M. Rao. Senior BJP lead-er L.K. Advani was not available, cabinet ministers were impossible to approach due to the bureaucratic ring around them and many others ignored repeated calls and emails.“For all of us, it has been a great learning experience since we be-lieved that we could never speak with any MP directly. To that extent, we appreciate all the MPs who ac-tually took out calls, but that is not enough. They are expected to work for the people and the main question still remains: Why don’t the political parties want to come under the RTI Act’s ambit though the public de-mands it,” Ediga said.

Sonia’s food bill dream to come true: CongressNew DelhiA day after the government intro-duced the food security bill in the Lok Sabha, the Congress Thursday said the dream of party chief Sonia Gandhi was about to come true.“Sonia Gandhi’s dream is near com-pletion. The food security bill will be taken up in the Lok Sabha Monday,” Congress spokesperson Raj Babbar told reporters.The bill, he said would not only give right to nutritious food to around 82 crore people but also to pregnant women.Food Minister K.V. Thomas first withdrew the food security bill that had been introduced in the house in 2011 and then introduced the new measure, based on the ordinance which had been tabled for approval in the house Monday.“The bill does not impinge on the rights of states. There is nothing against the federal structure. The bill aims at giving food as a matter of right,” Thomas said in the house.

Getting the food security bill passed is a top priority for the United Pro-gressive Alliance (UPA).The bill could not be passed in the previous budget session of parlia-ment.The bill, expected to be a game changer for the ruling Congress ahead of five assembly polls this year-end and the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, aims to provide 5 kg of foodgrains every month at Rs.1-3 per kg to around 67 percent of India’s 1.2 billion people, numbering around 800 million. The bill costing Rs.124,723 crore to the government initially, will bring an additional burden of only Rs.23,800 crore, the Congress has said.The bill, part of Congress manifesto in the 2009 polls, is expected to bring electoral benefits just as the rural job plan - the Mahatma Gandhi Na-tional Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme - brought in the 2009 gen-eral elections.Several Congress-ruled states, in-

cluding poll-bound Delhi, Haryana and Assam have said they would launch the scheme Aug 20, the birth anniversary of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.Thomas said the government had already procured an average 60.2 million tonnes (mt) of grains in the past four years and would have no difficulty in managing the 61.2 mt needed.

CHANDIGARHSUNDAY 11 August 201314 CELEB

Audiences find me most suitable for action flicks: John Abraham

Chennai Even though actor-producer John Abraham personally likes doing films in different genres, he strongly believes audiences find him most suitable in the action space. “Back home, I’m called ‘action’ Abraham. I love that phrase audiences have coined for me. The rom-com space didn’t work for me. I worked really hard in ‘Jhoota Hi Sahi’, but it didn’t work because audiences mostly per-ceive me in the action space,” John told.“I also enjoy comedy and that’s why

I’m doing ‘Welcome Back’ and ‘Dostana 2’. But, I’m also doing an action film with director Nishikanth of ‘Force’ again and it will be ten times more powerful than our last film. I try to do different cinema because we are commercial actors at the end of the day,” he said. John says he doesn’t hesi-tate to take risks. “I guess I’m the only actor who takes risk. I mean I do a ‘Kabul Express’ in Af-ghanistan or I do a ‘Madras Cafe’ or I do a ‘No Smok-ing’, which nobody under-stood, but I enjoy that space and if some needs to take

risks then it might as well be John Abraham. I’m happy about it,” he added. He was speaking at the pro-motional event of “Madras Cafe”, which is being dubbing in Tamil as well with same name. Both versions of the film are set to hit the screens on Aug 23. In the upcoming film, he plays a RAW agent, who goes on a covert operation in Sri Lanka during the civil war. The film, which is di-rected by Shoojit Sircar, also features Nargis Fakhri and Prosenjit Chater-jee in important roles.

My Hollywood role should make Indians proud: Shah Rukh KhanNew DelhiNot interested in taking up a ste-reotypical role created for Asians in Hollywood, Bollywood’s superstar Shah Rukh Khan says “to get a role not specific to my colour or the way I speak or act is very difficult”. He has been active in Hindi films for over two decades, has featured in more than 80 films and won the tag of “superstar”, but the 47-year-old has yet to find a suitable role in inter-national films. A hugely popular actor in many countries, one whose face has become synonymous with the huge draw of the Indian film industry, particularly the Mumbai-based Hindi film industry, King Khan feels he doesn’t have the USP to work in Holly-wood.Asked what made him think so, he said: “I didn’t talk in terms of fan fol-lowing.”“I think the kind of role I would want to do in a Hollywood film is one that makes India proud. To get a role like that is not specif-ic to my colour, or the way I speak, look or act or my age, it’s very difficult,” SRK told.“I mean you can’t go to a big filmmaking world and say write a role for a 47-year-old actor who is brown, has hair like this, acts this way, dances a bit... the role should be something that Indians should be proud of. It’s too specific for me to have a USP.” He however appreciated Indian faces who are doing well on the interna-tional arena. “There are a few young boys and girls, who are doing really well internationally, and I pray they make it big,” he said.Shah Rukh relishes and cherishes all the love and attention showered on him on the home turf and is set

to woo his fans with “Chennai Ex-press”. In fact, he is right now busy driving the buzz around the comedy drama, coming out Friday, his first film with new age master of com-edies Rohit Shetty.Sharing his experience of working with Shetty, Shah Rukh said: “Rohit is fantastically organised. The best part about him is that he has a group of 200 trained people working under him. Rohit knows what he wants. He

always delivers the best.”“Chennai Express”, Shah Rukh’s second film with Deepika Padukone after the 2007 super duper hit “Om Shanti Om”, has a popular train scene from his “Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge” (DDLJ).Interestingly, in “Chennai Express” the name of Shah Rukh’s character is Rahul, a screen title he has donned in a string of hits. He confesses to being a director’s actor.“I’m a director’s actor. I belong to a world which directors create. I enjoy

being with them in their world. I want the world to see me as an actor who moulds himself ac-cording to the character his director creates for him,” said Shah Rukh. The Hindi film in-dustry, which is celebrating its 100 years this year, has evolved with new filmmakers enliven-ing the silver screen with new subjects, Shah Rukh said, add-ing it’s not a new trend.“There’s ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’, ‘Barfi!’... all kinds of films are being made, which is good,” said Shah Rukh.“There have always been all kinds of filmmakers who make

films like ‘Iron Man’, ‘Batman’ and ‘Chak De! India’. It’s always parallel. When I did DDLJ, there was ‘Maya Memsaab’ too.

“I always try to work on a different genre. I feel the industry has given me name, fame and money and I won’t ever forgive myself if I won’t do anything beneficial for Indian cin-ema and my fans.”From romantic to villainous and from action to superhero - SRK has delved into a variety of roles.Asked how he is in real life, Shah Rukh said: “I am a little like all of them. There are parts and portions of me that you see in my characters also. If I play a father, I do it the way I would do it with my kids. If I play a lover, I behave the same way I am in real life. I would say I am a funny person but also gentle and kind.”

Los AngelesTV personality-model Kendall Jenner says being in the public eye made her and her sister Ky-lie Jenner grow up faster.The teenagers star in their fam-ily’s reality TV show “Keeping Up With The Kardashians” and admit that being in the spotlight hasn’t been easy.“I’m going to be 18 in four months. I’m growing up and so is my little sister. We may be growing up a little faster than other people, but we have older sisters our entire lives who are in their 30s,” radaronline.com quoted Kendall as saying.“We are a little more mature than someone our age but I don’t think we’re growing up too fast in any way. I think we’re doing it right for the situ-ation we’ve been put in. We’ve had to grow up fast just being in the public eye you kind of have to grow up fast,” she added.It was recently reported that their mother, Kris Jenner, and sister Kim want to end their re-ality TV show in the near future.“Both Kim and Kris want to make sure they end on a high note, leaving fans wanting more, rather than try and stretch the show on for another few seasons and watch it die a death. Plus, they are now moving on in their lives... exploring new op-tions and opportunities,” said a source.

Fame made us grow up fast: Kendall Jenner

Los AngelesIt seems singer Miley Cyrus has got herself another tattoo as she was spotted leaving artists Kat Von D’s parlour in Hollywood.The 20-year-old, who apparently has 17 tattoos on her body, was ac-companied by several male friends during the session on Aug 4, re-ports aceshowbiz.com. Cyrus wore a cropped white top teamed it with white shorts, and a pair of gold sneakers. A black ban-dage was taped to her upper right arm. The 31-year-old tattoo artist wrote - “Tattoo time”, on Instagram and though Cyrus retweeted the post, she did not give any detail of the tattoo. Von D has previously made two tattoos for the singer. The artist inked two crossed ar-rows on her right elbow in January 2013 and two months later, she got a mini copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s drawing of heart anatomy inked on her forearm.

Did Miley Cyrus get another tattoo?

IANS

IANS

CHANDIGARH SUNDAY 11 August 2013 15CELEB

New DelhiActress Anushka Sharma will join the cast of upcoming movie “Bom-bay Velvet” in Sri Lanka and is looking forward to the experience.Directed by filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, “Bombay Velvet” brings actor Ranbir Kapoor and Anushka together on the silver screen for the first time.Last seen in director Vishal Bhard-waj’s “Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mando-la”, Anushka said: “I am really ex-cited and looking forward to joining the crew of ‘Bombay Velvet’ in Sri Lanka.” “I have always wanted to work with Anurag and I am glad that I am going to be a part of his biggest celluloid dream yet. I am sure it is going to be an unforgettable experi-ence. Fingers crossed,” she said in a statement.Anushka will be shooting for 40 days in Sri Lanka to complete her first schedule. Co-produced by Fox Star Studios and Phantom Films, “Bombay Vel-vet” is set in Mumbai and the story covers 1950s to 1970s. It is the first film of a trilogy on how the city be-came a metropolis.

Excited Anushka Sharma looking forward to ‘Bombay Velvet’

Superstitious Kim won’t get married in 2013

Beyonceflauntspixielook

Los AngelesSocialite Kim Kardashian reportedly does not want to get married this year because she feels the year 2013 is unlucky.Kim gave birth to her first child with rapper boyfriend Kanye West in July.Even though Kanye has already popped the big question, she wants to wait, reports dailystar.co.uk.“Kanye asked Kim to marry him straight after the birth of their baby daughter North West. He didn’t want any fuss, he just wanted to go and get hitched within the month,” a source

said.Kim, who was married to baskteball player Kris Humphries for 72 days and went through a nasty divorce, feels her marriage to Kanye won’t work out if they wed this year.“But Kim is far too superstitious. She’s crazy and irrational about su-perstitions and is not having any of it,” a source said.“Kim thinks it’s bound to end in di-saster if they get married in 2013 be-cause she believes the number 13 is unlucky,” the source added.

I’m getting ready to come back:SushmitaSen

MumbaiSushmita Sen has lost oodles of weight, and she looks wonderful. The former Miss Universe and ac-tress admits she is readying herself for a comeback to showbiz.On the silver screen, Sushmita was last seen in the 2010 film “No Prob-lem”. During the three-year hiatus, she was busy taking care of her sec-ond adopted daughter, Alisah. She had first adopted Renee in 2000. “I will definitly come back with a film,” the 37-year-old said here on the sidelines of the India Internation-

AbhishekwantsAamirtoplay‘good guy’ in ‘Dhoom 4’Mumbai For actor Abhishek Bachchan, it was an honour to work with Aamir Khan, who plays a villain in “Dhoom 3”. He hopes to work with Aamir again in the fourth in-stalment of the franchise, and says he could play the “good guy”. “’Dhoom’ is ‘Dhoom’ and it’s the third time round. Jai and Ali are back and this time we have Aamir with us! What an honour for any actor to get the opportunity to work with Aamir. You just get to learn so much by just observing him,” the 37-year-old said here at the un-veiling of the Mandate magazine cover, featuring him and his mega-star father Amitabh Bachchan. Ab-hishek only has a string of praises for Aamir. “He (Aamir) is so help-ful and so caring and giving as an actor that I am honoured to have

worked with him. Let’s see, we’ll try and convince him to come back in ‘Dhoom 4’ as a good guy,” he added. Asked about the trend of he-roes playing the bad guy in films, Abhishek said it’s nothing new. “We have had our mainstream heroes do-ing villain roles for very long. I did it in ‘Yuva’ in 2004, my dad did it in ‘Parwana’ (1971). I think heroes have always done it and it’s got to do with the character, it’s not about being a good guy or a bad guy,” Abhishek said. Superstar Shah Rukh Khan played negative roles in movies “Darr” (1993), “Baazi-gar” (1993), “Anjaam” (1994) and the recent “Don” franchise. Akshay Kumar will be seen as a baddie in “Once Upon Ay Time in Mumbai Dobaara!”. Ajay Devgn played a negative character in “Deewangee” (2002).

Los AngelesSinger Beyonce Knowles has got her long locks chopped and she now sports a new short, blonde hairdo.The 31-year-old flaunted her brand new blonde cropped pixie cut through a photograph on her Insta-gram page.The “Single ladies” singer got the new look just two days after wrap-ping up the summer leg of her Mrs. Carter Tour. From the looks it seems she is absolutely loving it.

al Jewellery Week Tuesday.Without giving out too much details, she added: “I will wait for the pro-ducers to officially announce it. I had to take a three-year break to spend time with my daughter Alisah. She is now three years old, so I am back to films, back to that life. Yes, Sushmita Sen is getting ready!”In the past, the 37-year-old has been a part of movies like “Biwi No.1”, “Kyo Kii... Main Jhuth Nahin Bol-ta”, “Main Hoon Na” and “Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya?”.

IANS IANS

KIDS CHANDIGARHSUNDAY 11 August 201316

Here we are giving your childan opportunity to enjoy our funny tongue twisters for kids and have fun trying to say some of the most difficult sentences . To get the full effect of a tongue twister you should try to repeat it several times, as quickly as possible, without stumbling.

• Strict strong stringy StephenStretch slickly snaredsix sickly silky snakes.

• Threegraygeeseinthegreengrass grazing.Graywere thegeeseandgreenwasthegrass.

• Theowner of the inside innwasinsidehisinsideinnwithhis inside outside his insideinn.

• A skunk sat on a stump andthunkthestumpstunk,butthestumpthunktheskunkstunk.

• APATHETIC MEANING : notshowinganyemo-tionornothavinganyfeelingsEXAMPLE:Hisattitudewasincreasinglyapathetictowardshisbrother.

• BONA FIDE MEANING : agesturemadeingoodfaithEXAMPLE:Shemadeabonafidedealtohelphimwithhisstudies.

• CONTRABAND MEANING : goodsthatareprohibitedorillegalEXAMPLE:Themafiaisheavilyinvolvedincontra-bandofallkinds.

Put your puzzle solving skills to the test with our emotions

word scramble. Look carefully at the jumbled words and try unscrambling as many words

related to Computer SMEUO PLTPAO IPUNT EAYBDOKR MEMYRO

OPSOESRCR

Answers to Word Scramble :MOUSE,LAPTOP,INPUT,KEY-BOARD,MEMORY,PROCESSOR

Sun-catcher Aquarium

Activity

In honor of National Week of theOcean,inviteyourchildtosetupanaquariumfilledwith paper fish thatare a cinch to keep— particularlysincetheynevergethungry.What you’ll need:

•Constructionpaper•Scissors•Plasticwrap•Cardboard•Tape•Whiteglue•Tissuepaper(blueandothercolors)•Googly eyes, small seashells, andsand(optional)How to make it1. Cut out an 11- by 8-1/2-inchaquarium shape from constructionpaper, angling the upper corners asshown.Thencutoutthefrontandtoppanels, leavinga1/2-inchborder toserveasaframe.2.Next,placeapieceofplasticwrap(slightlybiggerthanyourframe)onasheetofcardboardandtapedowntheedges.3. Create a watery background bypainting a solution of 2 partswhiteglueand1partwaterontotheplasticand then pressing on strips of bluetissue paper. Use the same methodto layer on tissue paper seaweed,fish,andanyotherseacreaturesyourchilddesires.4.Gluetheconstructionpaperframeontop.Forafunfinishingtouch,youcanevenaddgooglyeyesandsmallseashellsandsand.5.Allow the assembly to dry com-pletely,thencarefullypeeltheplasticfromthegluedpaper.Trimthetissuepaper edges flush with the frame,andtheaquariumisreadytotapetoasunnywindow.

Color Me......

Interesting Rain Facts

The citywettedwith heavy rainfallthisweek.Sowecomeupwithsomerainfactsforourkidsandinterestinginformationaboutrain.Enjoy!

Did you know that rain occurs onother planets? Or thatAntarctica isthedriestcontinentonEarth?Under-standhowrainworksandwhyitsoimportanttolifehereonEarth.

• Rainfallsfromcloudsintheskyin the form of water droplets,thisiscalledprecipitation.

• Water can also fall from theskyintheformofhail,sleetorsnow.

• Rainisanimportantpartofthewatercycle.

• Rainoccursonotherplanetsinour Solar System but it is dif-

ferenttotherainweexperiencehere on Earth. For example,rainonVenusismadeofsulfu-ric acid and due to the intenseheatitevaporatesbeforeitevenreachesthesurface!

• Weather radar isused todetectandmonitorrain.

• Raingaugesareusetomeasuretheamountofrainoveracertainperiodoftime.

• The highest amount of rainfallever recorded in 24 hours is182.5centimetres(71.9inches)inFoc-Foc,LaRéunionIslandsin the southwest IndianOcean.This occurred during tropicalcyclone Denise on January 8,1966.

• The highest amount of rainfalleverrecordedinoneyearis25.4

meters(1000inches)inCherra-punji,India.

• AntarcticaisthedriestcontinentonEarth.

• Heavy rain can cause floodingandlandslides.

• Rain allows us to create elec-tricitythroughhydropower.

• Plants need water in order tosurvive, they receive much ofthiswaterfromrain.

• Forests that experience highlevelsofrainfallarecalledrain-forests.

• Rain with high levels of acid(a low pH) is called acid rain.Causedbythereleaseofsulphurdioxideandnitrogenoxidesintotheair(oftenfromfactoriesandpowerstations),itcanbeharm-fultoplantsandanimals.

CBSE students’ learning solutions to go online

New DelhiTheCentralBoardofSecondaryEd-ucation (CBSE)would soon launchitspersonalisedonlinelearningsolu-tions tohelp students learnon theirown,saidanofficial.“The content can be accessed any-timeonline.As every student has adifferent pace of learning, the per-sonalisedsolutionwillallowthestu-dents to learnat their level,”CBSEspokespersonRamaSharmatold.Theonlinelearningsolutionswillca-terto11millionstudents.Thee-con-tentwouldbeavailableininteractive2Dand3Danimations,livelectures,virtuallabsandsimulations.“Children find animations interest-ing and can grasp concepts fasterif taught using these. About 3,000animationsforclassesIXandXand1,500 for classes I to VIII will be

available,”addedSharma.The live lectures would be the re-cordings of teacherswhowill sum-marisethecompletecourseofapar-ticularclassandsubjectswithin theallottedtime.She said: “The live lectureswill beof 80 hours for classes IX and 40hoursperclassforVI,VIIandVIII.”However, the board has still to fi-nalise on the distribution of the e-learningcontent.CBSE is theboardofeducation forpublicandprivateschoolsandcon-ducts final examinations for classesXandXII.ItalsoannuallyconductstheAll India Engineering EntranceandAll India Pre-Medical Test ex-aminations for admission to under-graduate courses in engineering,architecture and medical colleges,respectively.

“Always remember where you came from because you can help others that came from the exact same place.”

LEISURECHANDIGARH SUNDAY 11 August 2013 17

W E E K L Y H O R O S C O P EIt is likely to be a bit of a tense week. Mars and Jupiter are in opposi-tion. You can expect to find yourself struggling with a powerful force that does not agree with you - and yet which you

cannot ignore. You may well soon have to let something go, put some-thing down, change an idea and adapt a plan.

Here in the western world, people have odd priorities. We ap-plaud the folk who take action and criti-cise those who don’t - even though some-times it’s both harder

and wiser to do nothing than it is to leap blindly into an ill considered move. Re-member; what counts is what you actu-ally accomplish, not how much noise you make about trying.

When all the world’s swords have been made into plough-shares, when every nation has become a prosperous democra-cy, when all sickness has been cured, all suffering removed.

You are finding it hard to settle now, for anything less than total perfection. Let yourself off the hook. By anyone else’s standards, you are doing brilliantly.

Inside every human, no matter how sophis-ticated they may seem, there’s a tiny child. A part of us just wants to be loved and looked af-ter. We often disguise this need behind com-

plex ideas and justifications. Some-times, we do it so successfully, we fool ourselves. If you follow your con-science, you’ll feel comfortable and all will work out surprisingly well.

Is it time to buck your ideas up? After all, you do have a real-ity to adjust to, don’t you? There is a fact to face, a burden to shoulder and a respon-sibility to uphold, isn’t

there? Well, actually, there may be... but it need not stop you from enjoying life. Venus brings you this week’s astrologi-cal gift. It’s all about making more room for joy in your world.

It seems now, that you need to find the courage to ‘write off’ an old in-vestment of time, emo-tion or money and then channel your resources in a different direction. It may not be easy to do

the latter but it may help to remem-ber that just as we need to exercise our muscles if we want to keep in shape, we need to make use of our brains and hearts.

Many believe this world would be a better place if only people would say three little words to each other more often. Ah yes. But which three? Yet most of prefer to make assertions. We never dare admit to ignorance. All

you need this week is to recognise what you do not know - and what oth-ers don’t know - regardless of what they may be saying!

Two titans stand poised, at opposite sides of the city. Their arms are fold-ed in mutual defiance. Neither will rest till the other is vanquished. Pity those who are caught in the crossfire.

Unless, that is, they recognise that these mighty warriors are shooting golden ar-rows at one another. Then maybe, just maybe, the curse becomes a blessing.

ARIESMar 21-Apr 19

LEOJul 23 - Aug. 22 VIRGO

Aug. 23 - Sep 22TAURUSApr 20 - May 20

The art of prevari-cation is no trivial accompl i shmen t . Whilst it may take little skill to keep things just as they are for a short while, it requires consider-able determination to

indefinitely postpone a change - or a decision. Prevarication, in itself, is no sin. You now suspect that you may be able to follow just such a policy to good effect now.

Roll up your sleeves and prepare for a match. Get ready for a test of strength, a trial of endur-ance, a war of nerves, a battle of brains, a tussle, a scuffle, a showdown. Not PHYSICALLY,

Mentally, Emotionally. Psychologically. What’s really going on now is a conflict between two strong wills. One is your own. The Sun backs Jupiter in its opposition to Mars this week.

Have you ever found yourself staring at an untidy room, wonder-ing just how to begin the process of putting it in order? If so, you’ll know that ultimately, it really doesn’t make

much difference. You can start in a corner or the middle, on the floor or the surfaces. Something seems very difficult. The mo-ment you get to grips with it, it will be-come easy.

Cartoon characters are sometimes granted superhuman powers such as the ability to move at many times the speed of normal people. They can spy a burglary tak-ing place in the next

street, race off, foil the robbery and return before the person they were talking to has even noticed their absence. Psycho-logically you now seem to have a similar ability. All will be fine - in the end

GEMINIMay 21 - Jun 20

CANCERJun 21 - Jul 22

LIBRASep 23 - Oct 22

SCORPIOOct 23 - Nov 21

SAGITTARIUSNov 22 - Dec 21

CAPRICORNDec 22 - Jan 19

AQUARIUSJan 20 - Feb. 18

PISCESFeb 19 - Mar 20

Sudoku Solution 04 Aug, 2013

Sudoku 11 AUGUST, 2013

Crossword Solution 04 Aug, 2013

1R

2A

3N

4S

5H

6A

7R

8E

9C

10A

11W

12O N A

13T A M E R

14A T E

15A G I

16T A T I O N

17S A T

18R E V E R E

19P I G S

21S L E E T

22T E E N A

23G

24E

25S

26C A N

27A V O W

28O

29V

30E

31R

32A L E

33W A D E

34D I N E

35S O D

36S

37D E A D

38P A N

39N

40E

41S

42T

43S

44M O A N

45R O B E R T

46D

47O E

48P O

49L A R B E A R

50I L L

51A V E R T

52M I A

53D E S

54S A G E S

55S L Y

DOWN1. Canvas cover2. French farewell3. Broadway lights 4. Decree5. Rind6. Everybody7. Students8. Actress Merzl____9. In the middle10. Cereal grain11. 2nd amendment Lobby17. Compass dir.19. Greek letter22. Swipe23. Supplement24. Mom’s counterpart26. Artillery shell fragents 28. depot (abbr.) 29. Food fish30. Enormous34. Baseball blunders35. Goes inside36. Payable38. Actor _____ Mckellen40. Goes by bus41. Scornful sound42. Writing assignment44. Small earring45. Soccer’s _____ Hamm46. List-ending (abbr.)47. _____ cream

ACROSS1. Hosiery shade4. October birthstones 9. Scan 12. Summer refresher 13. Lease again 14. Corn unit15. Spanish waterway16. Designer Oscar____ (3 wrds)18. Mail friend (2 wrds)20. Response21. Fish delicacy22. Scoffed 25. Foot part27. Alias letters 28. Chem e.g.31. That woman32. Was ahead33. Male cat34. Wiped clean37. Navy VIP39. Hospital employee43. Old West lawman 45. Pacifist Christian Branch48. Roberto’s “two” 49. That things50. Happen again51. Memorable period52. Fighter pilot53. Winter toys54. Sow’s home

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

12 13 14

15 16 17

18 19 20

21 22 23 24

25 26 27

28 29 30 31 32

33 34 35 36

37 38 39 40 41 42

43 44

45 46 47 48

49 50 5152 53 54

Canshala : A school of hope for kids with cancerMumbaiIt’s called Canshala and is an island of peace and learning for a group of ailing children for whom education had, at one stage, become a distant dream due to their treatment for life-threatening cancer.The children mingle with normal children in the Brihanmumbai Mu-

nicipal Corporation (BMC) school in south Mumbai’s Parel area, where they are taught by regular teachers, two of whom are provided by the civic agency and the remaining by NGO CanKids.This formal education helps them make up the time lost due to staying away from school or dropping out

for treatment.This special school has come about thanks to a public-private partner-ship between the BMC and CanKids, which also has a family support

group for children with cancer.Four rooms in the Jagannath Bhat-ankar Municipal School have been provided by the civic agency for the special school. Two of these serve as classrooms for the brave hearts, one as a therapy room and another as an office.“Now, with continuity of education, the children not only get a feeling of normalcy but they can carry on with education in their regular school af-ter treatment, reducing chances of their becoming dropouts,” Kakar added.Corporation employee Neelima Vi-jaykumar Rawler, who teaches the

children with cancer, said: “They are all hardwork-ing students...after coming to school they forget about their painful brush with cancer.”Of the 80 cancer patients registered with Canshala, at

least 20 attend classes daily.Free books, meals, uniforms and school bags provided by the civic agency add to the attempt to make them feel at par with other normal children in the school.Another BMC teacher, Suvidya Ramchandra Shinde, says there’s not much difference between the two groups of children.

“But the hunger for learning in chil-dren with cancer has to be seen to be believed,” said Shinde, who teaches Marathi, Hindi, English and Math-ematics to the brave hearts.A majority of the cancer-afflicted students of the school hail from Ma-harashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattis-garh and Madhya Pradesh.“We contact parents in hospitals or dharamshalas meant for patients’ families and motivate them to send their kids to our school when they are not required at the OPDs,” Kerr added.Shuba Devi Singh, mother of Gaurav Kumar Singh, 12, a patient of Hodg-

kin’s lymphoma that weakens the immune system, is happy with her son’s exposure at the school.“He is a talented artist and got the first prize in an inter-school BMC art competition in Mumbai,” she said proudly.“Gaurav is always eager to head to the school. Interaction with the other kids has made him forget his trauma and he is no more an introvert,” she added.Niyali D. Chaurasiya, 11, who hails from Madhya Pradesh and is under-going treatment for bone tissue can-cer, acknowledged the gains from Canshala. “On completion of the course, we give them a certificate of our own depending on the standard they have achieved. We are trying for an arrangement under which the certificate would be awarded by the BMC,” she said.While most of the students afflicted with cancer are at the primary level, there is one at the Class 7 and anoth-er at the Class 9 level, Kerr said.Shinde said that as a teacher, she has been experimenting with the curricu-lum’s content. “We need a different approach. The students come after long breaks from formal schooling and need a lot of background mate-rial to cover the lost time.”

Rahul Chhabra

CHANDIGARHSUNDAY 11 August 201318 INTERNATIONAL

Regional organizations must expand cooperation to tackle global challenges

Regional organizations must find ways to expand their cooperation and dialogue to address increasingly interconnected global challenges, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told a high-level debate in the Security Council today. “Regional and sub-regional orga-nizations have deep knowledge, unique insights and strong local net-works. These elements are critical for mediation, planning a peacekeep-ing operation or helping a country to build lasting peace,” Mr. Ban told the meeting on cooperation between the UN and regional and sub-regional organizations in maintaining interna-tional peace and security. “We are better at sharing informa-tion and analysis on brewing crises, but we have to work harder on swift response and long-term prevention,” he noted, asking countries to exam-ine how they can expand their co-operation in pursuit of international peace and security. “We need to learn from the lessons of our collaborations to build ever more innovative and flexible partner-ship arrangements that draw on our respective strengths,” he said. “Only through cooperation will we meet our shared aspirations for a more peaceful world.” The debate, presided over by Presi-dent Cristina Fernández de Kirch-ner of Argentina, which holds the Council’s presidency this month,

seeks to further strengthen dialogue and exchange of information among regional and sub-regional organiza-tions and the UN on issues such as conflict prevention, peaceful settle-ment of disputes, peacekeeping and post-conflict peacebuilding. In his remarks, Mr. Ban highlighted examples of valuable cooperation between the UN and regional and sub-regional organizations across the globe. In Latin America and the Caribbean, he pointed to the joint missions the UN had carried out with the Orga-nization of American States (OAS) to combat illicit trafficking. In Af-rica, he noted that the UN is work-ing with the African Union (AU) in joint peacekeeping and mediation efforts in Sudan’s Darfur region and in facilitating the political transition in Somalia. In addition, the UN and the AU have also worked with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in Côte d’Ivoire and Mali. The Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework for the Democratic Re-public of the Congo (DRC) is also an example of regional cooperation, as it is supported by 11 African leaders, the AU, the Southern African Devel-opment Community (SADC), the In-ternational Conference for the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) and the UN. This effort, Mr. Ban stressed “repre-

sents the best opportunity for years for forging a durable peace.” In the Middle East and North Afri-ca, the UN and the League of Arab States (LAS) are working to sup-port inclusive political processes in Tunisia, Libya and Yemen, and they continue to search for a political so-lution to the crisis in Syria, including through the deployment of the UN-Arab League joint envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi. “Of course, we sometimes face chal-lenges when working together. Our organizations do not always have the same approach to a given crisis. Our diverse mandates and membership can lead to different perspectives,” Mr. Ban said, adding that the open debate “is a welcome opportunity to explore the nature of these chal-lenges and consider how to improve cooperation.” In a statement agreed on by the 15-member body, the Council com-mitted to promote closer and more operational cooperation between the UN and regional and sub-regional organizations in the fields of conflict early warning, prevention, peace-making, peacekeeping and peace-building. It also recognized the need to enhance the coordination of efforts to strengthen the global response to current threats to international peace and security posed by illegal traf-ficking, terrorism, and the prolifera-tion of weapons of mass destruction, among others. In addition, the Council reiterated its commitment to continue to cooper-ate with international, regional and sub-regional organizations and es-tablish arrangements to share experi-ences and lessons learned. The meeting is expected to hear from around 60 speakers today, including a number of foreign ministers, as well as representatives of the AU, the European Union, the LAS, the Com-munity of Latin American and Ca-ribbean States (CELAC), the Union of South American Nations (UN-ASUR), the Southern Common Mar-ket (MERCOSUR), and the OAS.

On anniversary of hiroshima atomic bombing, UN officials urge nuclear disarmamentTrue security is based on people’s welfare and not on military anni-hilation, senior United Nations of-ficials said today, marking the 68th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and later Nagasaki, and honouring the survivors of the bombings known as ‘hibakusha.’ “We are united in countering the erroneous view that security is achieved through the pursuit of mili-tary dominance and threats of mutu-al annihilation,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in his message to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Cer-emony. He added that security is based on a thriving economy, strong public health and education programmes, and on fundamental respect for our common humanity, and not on mili-tary prowess. “I appeal for universal adherence to the United Nations Charter, which emphasizes peace, disarmament, a prohibition on threats or use of force, and social and economic de-velopment,” he said in the message, which was delivered by Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Secretary of the UN Economic and Social Commis-sion for Asia and the Pacific (ES-

CAP). Around 50,000 people reportedly gathered in front of the Hiroshima Peace City Memorial Monument to mark a minute of silence, light in-cense and paper lanterns, and pray near the epicentre of the explosion that took place on 6 August, 1945. The bombing, along with the attack on Nagasaki three days later, killed more than 400,000 people. Sachiko Matsuo was in fifth grade when her home in Nagasaki was hit. “Suddenly, a very strong, yellowish-whitish light flashed up over there and I was thrown back,” she said in an interview given to the Compre-hensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO). “When I came to, I realized I was standing on bare soil with nothing on it, not even grass. “My oldest sister was only 700 me-tres away and was buried under the house. When we found her, all that was left of her was white ash.” The President of the General Assem-bly, Vuk Jeremic, who attended this year’s Peace Memorial Ceremony in Hiroshima, said he felt privileged to be organizing the first-ever high-

level meeting of the Assembly on nuclear disarmament to be held on 26 September. “I hope this will be a significant step forward in fulfilling our goal to ex-cise atomic weapons, so that the suf-ferings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki of sixty-eight years ago may never repeat,” Mr. Jeremic said at the cere-mony. Mr. Ban said there is a “surge of new interest” in nuclear disarma-ment based largely on an increasing awareness of the horrific humanitar-ian consequences of nuclear weap-ons.

Mr. Ban put forward in 2008 a five-point plan that includes rec-ommendations on increasing secu-rity, verification, establishing a legal framework for nuclear disarmament, transparency and conventional weapons. In Geneva, the UN Conference on Disarmament today heard a state-ment by Japan marking the anni-versary of the atomic bombings. Established in 1979 and with a cur-rent membership of 65 countries, the Conference has produced landmark disarmament instruments such as the

Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), the Chem-ical Weapons Convention and the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). The Executive Secretary of the CT-BTO, Lassina Zerbo, said the bomb-ings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are a “reminder of what horrors nuclear weapons can inflict.” He added that while nuclear testing allows countries to develop even more powerful nuclear weapons, “the Comprehensive Test-Ban Trea-ty makes it difficult for countries to proceed with such an endeavour.” The CTBT bans all nuclear explo-sions in all environments, for mili-tary or civilian purposes. It was adopted by the General Assembly in September 1996 but has not yet entered into force. Out of a total listed number of 195 States, 183 have so far signed the CTBT and 159 have ratified it. For the treaty to enter into force, ratifi-cation is required from the so-called Annex 2 States. Of these, China, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Egypt, India, Iran, Israel, Pakistan and the United States have yet to ratify it.

Foreign mediation fails to resolve Egypt crisisCairoEgypt’s presidency announced Wednesday that foreign media-tion has failed to persuade the Muslim Brotherhood to find a peaceful solution to the political deadlock in the country, state-run al-Ahram Online said.“Today, the diplomatic efforts phase ended,” the presidency said in a statement, Xinhua reported.The presidency blamed the Mus-lim Brotherhood for the failure of the talks.“Muslim Brotherhood group is fully responsible for foiling the efforts, and it is also accountable for any resulted developments related to law violation or social peace threat,” the statement said.“In the frame of the state’s keen-ness to give a chance for all dip-lomatic efforts... the Egyptian government allowed visits of the US and UN envoys as well as of-ficials from UAE and Qatar to urge the Brotherhood to respect the public will represented in

demonstrations of June 30 and July 26,” the statement read.“Such efforts have not fulfilled the prospective success despite full support of the interim admin-istration,” it added. Egypt has turned into a desti-nation for Arab and Western diplomats over the ongoing po-litical crisis that hit the country since Morsi’s popular-backed overthrow by the army July 3. Pro-Morsi Islamist leaders have joined an open-ended sit-in for over a month calling for Morsi’s reinstatement. US Republican senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham ar-rived here Monday on a two-day official visit to meet Egyptian in-terim rulers and members of the Muslim Brotherhood, including those from its Freedom and Jus-tice Party.The US officials’ visit overlapped another one of US Deputy Sec-retary of State William Burns to Egypt.

15 killed in Iraq violenceBaghdadAs many as 15 people were killed and 11 injured in a string of bomb-ing and shooting incidents that mainly targetted security forces in Iraq, police said Wednesday.In northern Iraq, a booby-trapped car struck a police patrol in Mosul city, some 400 km from Baghdad, killing four policemen and two passers-by and wounding another policeman, reported Xinhua citing a police source.In a separate incident, a police-man shot dead two gunmen who were caught planting a roadside bomb in Mosul, the source said.In another incident, a child was killed and three policemen were injured in Mosul when a roadside bomb went off near a police pa-trol.

Elsewhere, three policemen were killed and another was wounded in a roadside bomb near their pa-trol near the Duluiyah cityy, some 90 km from Baghdad, a police source said. In Iraq’s eastern province of Diya-la, a civilian was killed while six people were wounded in a bomb explosion late Tuesday outside a mosque, a police source said. In the morning, two civilians were killed in separate attacks by gun-men near Baquba city, some 65 km from Baghdad, the source added. In addition, bomb experts defused a car bomb loaded with about 200 kg of explosives on a main road used by security forces near Bani Saad town, some 20 km from Baquba, the source said.

CHANDIGARH SUNDAY 11 August 2013 19INTERNATIONAL

Obama cancels talks with Putin before G-20 summitWashingtonMiffed over Moscow’s decision to grant asylum to classified leaker Edward Snowden, President Barack Obama has cancelled talks next month with Russian President Vladi-mir Putin ahead of the G-20 summit in St. Petersburg.A White House statement Wednes-day announcing the cancellation of Obama’s Moscow visit cited “Rus-sia’s disappointing decision to grant Edward Snowden temporary asy-lum” as a factor.Russia last week granted asylum to Snowden, a former CIA contractor who had been holed up for weeks in the international transit zone of Mos-cow’s airport since fleeing the US for Hong Kong and then Russia after leaking details of several top-secret US and British government mass surveillance programmes.The president looked forward to the G-20 summit on Sep 5-6, the White House said, and a separate statement announced Obama president would visit Sweden before the summit in-stead of going to Moscow.“Following a careful review begun in July, we have reached the conclu-sion that there is not enough recent progress in our bilateral agenda with Russia to hold a US-Russia Summit in early September,” a White House statement said.

“Given our lack of progress on is-sues such as missile defence and arms control, trade and commercial relations, global security issues, and human rights and civil society in the last twelve months, we have informed the Russian government that we believe it would be more constructive to postpone the summit until we have more results from our shared agenda,” it added.Obama confirmed Tuesday night that he still plans to attend the G-20 sum-mit early September, despite calls from some lawmakers for the US to

boycott the gathering.However, the White House also has said it was reconsidering the “utility” of separate talks with Putin in Mos-cow that were to take place before the G-20 gathering.On NBC’s “Tonight Show” Tuesday night, Obama said he was disap-pointed Russia had granted asylum to the former government contractor.Russia’s leaders have a proclivity for slipping into a Cold War mindset, Obama said, adding that it is essen-tial that cooperation between the two nations continues.

‘Gandhi to King’ concert to mark US civil rights marchWashingtonThe American capital is set to begin the 50th anniversary celebrations of Martin Luther King’s famous civil rights march on Washington with a concert named ‘Reflections on peace: from Gandhi to King’.Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi, the US civil rights leader led a March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on Aug 28, 1963 and delivered his icon-ic “I Have A Dream” speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.“Love for Gandhi was a potent in-strument for social and collective transformation,” King wrote in his first book “Stride Toward Freedom”, an account of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the first successful large-scale application of nonviolence re-sistance in America.“It was in this Gandhian emphasis on love and nonviolence that I dis-covered the method for social reform that I had been seeking for so many

months,” he wrote in his chronicle of the struggle against the policy of ra-cial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama.Saturday night’s candlelight pro-gramme on Independence Avenue, which is free and open to the public, will feature sacred songs from the Indian, African, and African Ameri-can traditions. The evening headline performers include Grammy Award winning singer Donnie McClurkin, and internationally renowned Sri Lankan pianist Soundarie David Rodrigo joined by Reverend Nolan Williams, Jr. and the Voices of Inspi-ration.Other artists joining this tribute in-clude Vidya and Vandan Iyer; Shan-kar Tucker with Jonathan Batiste; POEM-CEES, Christylez Bacon and Nistha Raj.“Reflections on Peace from Gan-dhi to King honours two peace and justice leaders through the arts and

celebrates their legacies in a new way,” said Judith Terra, Chair of the DC Commission on the Arts and Hu-manities.“Washington, DC is the national destination for activism and a global destination for expression through the arts,” she said.Explaining the significance of Gan-dhi and King, Indian ambassador Nirupama Rao, said: “The spirit of the peoples of India and the United States is joined by the inspirational call of freedom, peace and non violence. It is a powerful bond that unites us and we should forever hold it sacred in our thoughts and deeds.”‘Reflections on Peace’ represents an important cultural collaboration between the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities and the Indian Embassy, according to a media re-lease. ‘Reflections’ is created and produced by NEWorks Productions and DESHO Productions.

Benazir murder: Musharraf to face charges Aug 20IslamabadA Rawalpindi court Tuesday ruled that former Pakistan president Per-vez Musharraf would be indicted for the murder of former prime minis-ter Benazir Bhutto Aug 20 after he failed to appear before it due to se-curity concerns, a leading Pakistani daily said.Musharraf had been summoned to face charges of criminal conspiracy and the murder of Bhutto, according to The Dawn.Police and Musharraf’s lawyer told the court in Rawalpindi, the city where Bhutto was assassinated, that it was not safe to escort him to the court due to threats on his life.Judge Chaudhry Habibur Rehman adjourned the indictment until Aug 20 and ordered Musharraf to appear then.Musharraf has been under house ar-rest at his plush villa here since April 19. Earlier July 30, he had appeared before the court in person. Bhutto was assassinated in a gun and bombing Dec 27, 2007. Musharraf’s

government had blamed Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud for the murder. However, Mehsud de-nied the charges. He was killed in a US drone attack in 2009.The Benazir Bhutto case is one in a series of court battles that Musharraf has faced over allegations dating back to his 1999-2008 rule, since he returned in March from four years of self-imposed exile.

Foreign mediation fails to resolve Egypt crisisCairoEgypt’s presidency announced Wednesday that foreign mediation has failed to persuade the Muslim Brotherhood to find a peaceful solution to the political deadlock in the country, state-run al-Ahram Online said.“Today, the diplomatic efforts phase ended,” the presidency said in a statement, Xinhua reported.The presidency blamed the Muslim Brotherhood for the failure of the talks.“Muslim Brotherhood group is fully responsible for foiling the ef-forts, and it is also accountable for any resulted developments related to law violation or social peace threat,” the statement said.“In the frame of the state’s keen-ness to give a chance for all diplo-matic efforts... the Egyptian gov-ernment allowed visits of the US and UN envoys as well as officials from UAE and Qatar to urge the Brotherhood to respect the public

will represented in demonstrations of June 30 and July 26,” the state-ment read.“Such efforts have not fulfilled the prospective success despite full support of the interim administra-tion,” it added. Egypt has turned into a destination for Arab and Western diplomats over the ongoing political crisis that hit the country since Morsi’s popular-backed overthrow by the army July 3. Pro-Morsi Islamist leaders have joined an open-ended sit-in for over a month calling for Morsi’s reinstatement. US Republican senators John Mc-Cain and Lindsey Graham arrived here Monday on a two-day official visit to meet Egyptian interim rul-ers and members of the Muslim Brotherhood, including those from its Freedom and Justice Party.The US officials’ visit overlapped another one of US Deputy Sec-retary of State William Burns to Egypt.

9 killed, 22 injured in firing in Pakistan

Bill Clinton, Oprah Winfrey to receive Medal of FreedomWashingtonFormer president Bill Clinton, TV personality Oprah Winfrey and jazz musician Arturo Sandoval are among the 16 people who will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom at a ceremony later this year, the White House said.“The Presidential Medal of Freedom goes to men and women who have dedicated their own lives to enrich-ing ours,” President Barack Obama said in a statement Thursday.“This year’s honourees have been blessed with extraordinary talent, but what sets them apart is their gift for sharing that talent with the world,” he said.This year marks the 50th anniversary

of the presentation of these awards, a yearly event started by president John F. Kennedy.Also receiving the prestigious hon-our will be baseball great Ernie Banks; former Washington Post edi-tor Ben Bradlee; country music leg-end Loretta Lynn; and Mexican-born

scientist Mario Molina, winner of the Nobel Prize for chemistry.In addition, Sally Ride, the first US woman to travel in space, civil rights activist Bayard Rustin and Hawaii Senator Daniel Inouye will be hon-oured posthumously.

IslamabadNine people were killed and 22 oth-ers injured Friday when gunmen sprayed bullets at people pouring out of a mosque in Pakistan’s southwest provincial capital of Quetta, media reports said.Superintendent of Police Saryaab Bashir said the incident took place at around 7.20 a.m. Friday when some gunmen opened fire at people as they were coming out of a mosque after offering Eid prayers in Satellite Town of Quetta, reported Xinhua.Bashir said that around eight terror-ists opened fire at people from two different sides and they fled after the attack.The shooting took place just a day af-ter at least 38 people, including three senior police officers, were killed in a blast at the funeral of a slain police officer in the same city.Local media quoted hospital sources

as saying that the toll rose to nine after five of the injured died while undergoing treatment, adding that at least 22 injured were still in the hos-pital. Hospital sources said the toll may rise further as at least three injured were still in critical condition.Security forces, police and rescue teams rushed to the site and shifted the bodies and injured to the hospital. Local media said the incident was the result of personal enmity and the main target of the assailants was for-mer provincial minister Ali Madad Jattak who remained unhurt in the attack but there was no official con-firmation about it yet. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. At the time of the attack, the city was on high alert as Pakistanis are cel-ebrating Eid.

IANS

IANS

IANS

CHANDIGARHSUNDAY 11 August 201320 BUSINESS

Tata firm to set up 1,000 ATMs across Karnataka

BangaloreLeading banking solutions provider Tata Communications Payment So-lutions Ltd plans to deploy about 1,000 white-label ‘Indicash’ ATMs across Karnataka, a top company of-ficial said Thursday.Customers of any bank holding a debit card or credit card can with-draw cash from the Tata’s ATMs as per the banking regulations.“As Karnataka lags behind other states in per capita ATM penetra-tion, we plan to install about 1,000 ATMs across the state in phases as part of our national plan to rollout 5,000 ATMs by 2016,” TCPSL chief executive Sanjeev Patel told report-ers here.The Tata group firm, first in the pri-vate sector to obtain a license from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to disperse cash through its white-label ATM network, launched its service at Chandrapada village in Maharash-tra’s Thane district June 27, keeping in view the central bank’s vision to improve ATM penetration across the country.“As part of our strategy to financially empower users, especially in tier-two and tier-three towns, we will roll out 150 Indicash ATMs across the state covering Bangalore, Mysore, Hubli-Dharwad and Belgaum in the northern region by September,” Patel said.

The company plans to install about 40 ATMs in urban and rural Banga-lore covering Jigani, Bannerghatta, Devanahalli, Vijayapura, Anekal and Magadi.“Karnataka is a key market for us, as it offers options to drive ATM reach in IT, industrial, educational, com-mercial and tourist zones. We also plan to reach areas where no such fa-cility is available to ensure financial inclusion,” Patel said.Indicash ATMs have been designed to guard against problems customers face when withdrawing cash from ATM networks of banks.“Our ATMs ensure cards are not swallowed unlike other ATMs. An interface has been designed to be intuitive and simple with multi-lin-gual messaging. Privacy screen fil-ters, key pad shields and electronic surveillance enable secure transac-tions,” Patel said.Besides regular services such as cash withdrawals, balance enquiries, mini-statements and PIN changes, Indicash plans to offer value-added and utility services to customers with offers and third party promotions in the second phase of its roll-out.As a market leader in managed ATM services with an order book of over 27,000 ATMs, the company manages around 55 percent of point of sales (PoS) traffic across the country.

Jet Airway’s net loss in Q1 Rs.355 croreMumbaiJet Airways Thursday reported a net loss of Rs.355.38 crore in the first quarter of the current fiscal from a net profit of Rs.24.70 crore in the same period of 2012-13.“The devaluation of rupee versus dollar, steep increase in landing and navigation charges at key metros and high fuel prices has impacted the industry’s profitability,” Captain Hameed Ali, the airline’s acting chief executive, said in a statement.“This (sluggish demand) coupled with the airline’s inability to pass on high input costs fully to the passen-gers, have caused financial strain on airlines. Going forward, we expect the demand scenario to improve in second half of the fiscal.”The company’s total income in the period under review decreased by 13.73 percent to Rs.4,064.3 crore, from Rs.4,711.6 crore in the corre-sponding quarter of last fiscal.However, the company’s fuel cost in the first quarter decreased by 21.55 percent and stood at Rs.1,543.39 crore from Rs.1,967.41 crore in the corresponding period of 2012-2013.While, the aircraft rentals in the quarter under review went up by 31.90 percent at Rs.363.48 crore from Rs.275.57 crore in the like pe-riod of last fiscal.The company’s domestic operations

accounted for 43 percent of total rev-enues and garnered Rs.1,763.5 crore. The earnings from international op-erations accounted for 57 percent of total revenues of Rs.2,300.9 crore.The company is currently looking forward to attract foreign invest-ments from Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways through a stake sale deal.The Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) last month cleared the proposed stake sale in Jet Airways. A final decision on this is now pending with the cabinet.The deal is expected to garner around Rs.2,058 crore ($379 million) for Jet Airways, which will enable the com-pany to service its debts and provide

passengers better connectivity.“The proposed equity infusion by Etihad Airways will significantly change the landscape of the business not only in terms of deleveraging the balance sheet but also reduction in costs due to better bargaining abil-ity as well as higher revenues due to improved connectivity and network reach,” Ali added.The company’s scrip at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) closed higher by 1.90 points and 0.59 percent at Rs.325.60 per share from its previous close of Rs.325.60 after the company announced positive demand outlook for the second half of the fiscal.

Parliament okays new Companies Bill, makes CSR mandatoryNew DelhiParliament Thursday gave its nod to the new Companies Bill that seeks to enhance compliance and trans-parency, make corporate social re-sponsibility mandatory and protects the interest of employees and small investors.The provisions of the bill would ensure prevention of a Satyam-like fraud, the biggest in India’s corpo-rate history running into $1.5 billion detected in 2009. The Rajya Sabha passed the bill Thursday. The Lok Sabha had done so on Dec 18, 2012. The bill will now go to President Pranab Mukherjee for his assent. The new legislation will come into effect with notification by the corporate af-fairs ministry after the presidential assent. The new law will replace the nearly six-decade-old Companies Act of 1956. Replying to the debate on the bill in the Rajya Sabha, Corporate Af-fairs Minister Sachin Pilot said it sought to bring India’s corporate governance in sync with the chang-ing business environment of the 21st century. Pilot said the bill was progressive and the main focus was on enhanc-ing transparency and compliance and it would help growth of the economy. “For the next two to three decades, this (new legislation) will bring positivity in the economy,” said Pi-lot adding that the views of all the stakeholders, including industry chambers, have been taken into con-sideration. “The focus of the bill is to enhance transparency and ensure fewer regu-lations, self-reporting and disclo-sure,” Pilot said. The bill was first introduced in the Lok Sabha in August 2009. It was re-ferred to the standing committee on

finance a month later. It was brought back to the Lok Sabha as Companies Bill 2011, but again referred to the standing committee.The bill was cleared by the Lok Sabha after the standing committee submitted its report in June 2012. “This legislation is indeed a mile-stone in the history of company law and will revolutionise the adminis-tration and management of business-es in the times to come,” said Naina Lal Kidwai, president, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).Kidwai said the Bill had introduced several changes and concepts which would simplify regulations and bring greater clarity and transparency in managing businesses. “The global environment calls for economic laws and regulations that are effective and efficient, have a reasonable compli-ance cost and keep Indian businesses competitive.”“Now that the law is ready, it is time to focus and work on the practical aspects of complying with its pro-visions,” said Chandrajit Banerjee, director general, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).Banerjee said the new Companies Bill is commensurate with “global standards vis-à-vis disclosure re-quirements, increased democratic rights for shareholders, self-regula-tion and accountability.” At the same time, it also sought to restrain the management powers of promoters, who nurture the company during its initial stages and provide the seed capital. “In a country where 75-80 percent of the businesses are family-run/pro-moter-driven, we hope that the new law would be able to achieve the fine balancing between ownership and management, which is crucial for success of any enterprise and also fostering the spirit of entrepreneur-ship,” he said.

Companies are required to spend at least two percent of their net profit on Corporate Social Responsibility

* To help in curbing a major source of corporate delinquency, introduces punishment for falsely inducing a person to enter into any agreement with a bank or financial institution to obtain credit facilities.

* The limit of the maximum num-ber of companies in which a person may be appointed as auditor has been pegged at 20.

* Appointment of auditors for 5 years shall be subject to ratification at every Annual General Meeting

* Independent directors to be ex-cluded for the purpose of computing one-third of retiring directors

* Whole-time director has been in-cluded in the definition of the term key managerial personnel.

* Maximum number of directors in a private company increased from 12 to 15 which can be further increased by a special resolution.

* The term private placement has been defined to bring clarity.

* Financial year of any company can only end on March 31. The only ex-ception is for companies which are a holding/subsidiary of a foreign en-tity requiring consolidation outside India.

Salient features of the new Companies Bill

Power shortage projected at 6.7 percent for 2013-14New DelhiIndia is projected to see an electricity supply shortfall of 6.7 percent in the current fiscal and the southern states are expected to have energy shortage of as much as 19.1 percent during 2013-14, Power Minister Jyotira-ditya Scindia informed parliament Thursday.In view of the latest projections from the Central Electricity Authority, the steps taken and on-going to over-come power shortage include accel-erating generating capacity addition during the 12th Plan (2012-16) with

a proposed target of 88,537 MW, rigorous monitoring of on-going ca-pacity addition and development of Ultra Mega Power Projects of 4000 MW, the minister said in a written reply.Scindia added that to meet the short-fall in coal supplies to thermal power stations from indigenous sources, the power utilities have been advised to import coal.The capacity addition in the current fiscal would be 18,432 MW with majority contribution coming from coal-based power.

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CHANDIGARH SUNDAY 11 August 2013 21BUSINESS

Rajan: Man who predicted the 2008 economic crisisNew DelhiRaghuram Govind Rajan, chief eco-nomic adviser in the finance min-istry, who was Tuesday named the next governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), brings with him wide experience as a banker, academi-cian and technocrat, having served institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and taught at the University of Chicago.At 50, Rajan will also be among the youngest to occupy the high office at Mint Street in Mumbai, where he takes over from incumbent Duvvuri Subbarao on Sep 5. But holding high positions at young age is not new for this Bhopal-born financial econo-mist. An alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in New Delhi, the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad, and the Massa-chusetts Institute of Technology, and a gold medallist all through, Rajan was the youngest economic-counsel-lor and chief economist at the IMF from October 2003 to December 2006.His peers, in a poll conducted by The Economist, called him an economist “with the most important ideas for a post-crisis world”, which was a rare distinction for a person of Rajan’s age. He was all of 48 then. He shot to global fame when his pre-diction of a looming global financial crisis way back in 2005, eventually became a reality three years later - even though, in the interim, he had to face ridicule of such luminaries as then Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan and Nobel laureate Paul

Krugman.What started as a paper titled “Has Financial Development Made the World Riskier?”, resulted in an Academy Award-winning documen-tary called “Inside Job” bringing Ra-jan into global limelight, as also the sights of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who made him honorary eco-nomic advisor. During that tenure, Rajan chaired a panel appointed by the Planning Commission, and his paper is the document which is guiding policy makers on the current financial sec-tor reforms, as also issues like finan-cial inclusion and direct cash transfer of subsidies.His appointment comes at a time when the Indian economy is pass-ing through rough weather and the government and the central bank are not particularly seen to be in sync on ways to handle the situation. But Ra-

jan feels the worst will be overcome. “These are challenging times for the Indian economy, though no one can have any doubt about the country’s promise,” he said after being named Governor-elect, adding that the gov-ernment and the central bank were working together on this.“The Reserve Bank is a great insti-tution with a tradition of integrity, independence and professionalism,” he said, honoured by the new respon-sibilities rested on him.Chairman of the Prime Minister’s economic advisory council C Ran-garajan said Rajan is an excellent choice for the central bank governor position. “Rajan is now familiar with the Indi-an economy, expect him to handle all issues in a mature manner,” Rangara-jan, also a former RBI governor, said while reacting on new appointment.

Hero to make 12 mn units, enter 50 markets by 2020

GurgaonTwo-wheeler major Hero MotoCorp Thursday announced its long-term growth plans till 2020, which envi-sion an annual production capacity of 12 million units per year manufac-tured in over 20 facilities spanning the globe.“We have become the first Indian two-wheeler company to reach the historic milestone of 50 million units production, and today is also the day when we embark on a new journey,” Pawan Munjal, managing director and chief executive, Hero MotoCorp said on the sidelines of an event to mark the production of the compa-ny’s 50-millionth two-wheeler here at its Gurgaon plant.“New Hero will now operate at a scale never seen before - footprints in 50 countries with 20 manufactur-ing facilities across the globe and 100 million cumulative two-wheel-ers sold by 2020.” According to Munjal, By 2020, the company will manufacture 12 mil-lion units from the current 6.9 mil-lion installed production capacity. The company also aims to have a turnover of Rs.60,000 crore per an-num from last fiscal’s turnover of around Rs.25,000 crore. Further, the company is aiming to achieve an EBITDA (Earnings be-fore Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization) margin of 20 per-cent.The production of 12 million units per annum will take place in over 20 manufacturing and assembly plants within and outside India. Currently, Hero MotoCorp has three manufacturing facilities at Gurgaon and Daruhera, both in Haryana, and Haridwar in Uttarakhand. While two new plants will come up at Neem-rana in Rajasthan and in Gujarat, as part of a Rs. 2,500 crore investment plan for increase in production and research and development (R&D) capability. In July, the company launched its op-erations in Kenya, where it has set up its first international assembly unit. It also does assembly of completely knocked-down (CKD) units through distributors in Bangladesh and Co-lombiaIn the short-term, the company plans to launch its brand of products in 10 more international markets by the end of this year. By next year, it plans to have six assembly facilities spread across three continents. “In a weeks time we will enter Peru and next month Ecuador. We plan to enter one or two countries every month. During October-December, 2013, we will enter four more mar-kets most of them in African coun-tries,” Munjal said.“During January-March, 2014, we will enter more markets in Africa, Caribbean and Central America,” Munjal said, adding that the com-pany is aiming for 10 percent of its

sales to come from export markets by 2017.Last fiscal the company shipped out 161,043 units which accounted for about three percent of its overall sales.The company currently assembles or exports its products to Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Colombia, Ke-nya, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal. On product offensive, the company is set to introduce over a dozen prod-uct offerings to shore up its market share which has come down to under 43 percent in 2012-13 from around 49 percent in 2008-09.“For customers, we have lined up 12 new products of variants and up-grades during the course of this fi-nancial year,” Munjal said. On the indigenous technology devel-opment, Munjal said the company recently tested three new engines which were wholly developed in In-dia.“Three new designed, developed engines were fired up recently for the first time last week. Research and development was all done here and there is a huge excitement about these engines. They are in a range between 100-250 cc,” Munjal added.Hero is trying to spur-up its in-house technology development at its R&D centre and has also tied-up with three international companies for technol-ogy alliances. Hero MotoCorp can use erstwhile partner Honda’s tech-nology inputs till 2014. Both the companies ended there 27-year old joint venture two years ago.

India, Morocco ink double taxation avoidance pactNew DelhiIndia and Morocco Thursday signed a protocol amending the Double Taxation Avoidance Convention be-tween the two countries and to en-sure effective exchange of informa-tion on tax matters.The protocol was signed by Sudha Sharma, chairperson, Central Board of Direct Taxes, on behalf of the In-dian government and ambassador

Larbi Reffouh on behalf Moroccan government. “The protocol is based on interna-tional standards of transparency and exchange of information,” the finance ministry said in a statement after its signing. “It provides for effective exchange of information including banking information between tax authorities of the two countries. It also provides

that each treaty partner shall use its information gathering measures to obtain the requested information even though it may not need such information for its own domestic tax purposes,” it said. “The agreement will enhance mutual co-operation between the two coun-tries by having effective exchange of information in tax matters,” the statement added.

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CHANDIGARHSUNDAY 11 August 201322 SPORTS

Star Sports appoint Dhoni as brand ambassadorNew DelhiStar Sports Thursday appointed In-dian cricket team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni as brand ambassador to promote Premier League football in India.A Manchester United fan, Dhoni will invite fans to ‘Join the Game’ in a new campaign which will be launched early next week. This news comes on the back of the sports broadcaster announcing the launch of Hindi commentary for the first time on Premier League. The Hindi commentary will be in addition to the English commentary and will be available for over 100 live matches across the season.Speaking on the occasion, ESPN Software India Pvt. Ltd. chief oper-ating officer Vijay Rajput said: “We are delighted to have M.S. Dhoni come on board as the brand ambas-sador for Premier League in the country. We are targeting to expand the fan base of the football league in India by leveraging the iconic power and fan following of Dhoni to at-tract cricket fans to sample Premier

League.” Speaking on the associa-tion, Dhoni said: “I am an avid Pre-mier League fan and I just played out a real situation in front of the camera. If I am not busy with cricket, I am al-ways busy with Premier League dur-ing weekends. Football is extremely exciting and very close to my heart. I was a goalkeeper during my school days. Even today, I play football as a warm-up game ahead of key cricket

matches.“I feel that Indian sports fans should consume different types of sports. I want them to be passionate about cricket but at the same time one needs to give respect to other disciplines as well. It is critical to spread the mes-sage of overall sports development and promotion in the country.”

Sports minister awards junior hockey girls with Rs.50,000 each

Will the medal change our lives, ask hockey girlsNew Delhi An Olympic or a World Cup medal normally changes the fortunes of an athlete. Will it for the bronze medal winning hockey girls? They are not so sure, and worried about their live-lihood.The historic bronze from the Mon-chengladbach junior World Cup has definitely brought them under the spotlight, but they wonder how long will they be basking under it. For most, the Rs.1 lakh cash award will mean little as eight members of the squad don’t even have a job and they shudder thinking of the grind to make ends meet.“We are happy with what we have achieved. People want to talk to us, interview us, take photos. All this is fine, but unless the success changes our life for the better, the Rs.1 lakh doesn’t mean much for us,” Manjeet Kaur, whose father is a farmer in Shahbad, Kurukshetra, told .“Already, Rs.10,000 has already been cut as tax and much of the re-maining Rs.90,000 would be utilised for buying better equipment and gear. I hope I can save some for my father, who has worked so hard to support my brother and me,” she said.The winning Indian men’s team of the cricket U-19 World Cup 2012 each received Rs.20 lakh. Not tak-ing anything away from their perfor-mance, it should be remembered that they have won it a third time.The divide between cricket and hockey and more importantly men and women, in this case boys and girls is so huge that some of the girls resent it.Most of these girls have faced hard-ships that many other sportspersons may not have experienced. They

play with borrowed shoes and sticks from their seniors and in most cases the equipment is either torn or worn.“My parents told me that our vil-lagers told them that they are really proud of our achievement, and we are thrilled at that. And then, why is it that achievements of the girls are never equated with those of the boys,” Navneet Kaur, 17, one of the youngest lot, told. “When the boys team finished third in the Asia Cup and failed to qualify for the World Cup, they were each given a Tab (Tablet/Computers). While we finished second and hence managed to qualify for the World Cup, we were given a souvenir cup made for the 2010 Commonwealth Games,” she said.Navneet, whose father is an AC me-chanic, said the family’s financial position is making her think whether she should continue playing hockey or think of securing her future by do-ing something else.

“I’m still without a job and I badly want to support my family. I know what my father has done for me to get me to this level and I want to re-turn the favour. Hockey has done a lot for me, but if things carry on like this I might have quit and start look-ing at other avenues,” she lamented.Not too different is the case of the World Cup’s MVP (Most Valuable Player), Rani Rampal. At least the 18-year-old has a job, even if it is a clerk’s in the Railways.“Things are certainly a lot better for me since I have a job. I no longer have to worry about buying shoes or sticks. Even now our shoes only last about two months, so every other month we have to get shoes worth Rs.8,000, the basic synthetic turf shoes.“My salary is Rs.10,000, but now I hope to get a better job with the Haryana government,” said Rani, whose father is a cart-puller.

New DelhiSports Minister Jitendra Singh Wednesday awarded Rs.50,000 to each member of the junior women's hockey team for winning a bronze medal in the World Cup.The 18-member squad led by skipper Sushila Chanu met the minister at his

office and shared their experience about the tournament. Coach Neil Hawgood will also get Rs.25,000."You have made the country proud by winning the bronze medal in the event. The ministry stand commit-ted to supporting your endeavour to bring laurels to India in future," Ji-

tendra Singh told the girls. The minister along with the girls cut a cake to celebrate the occasion. The team presented Jitendra Singh with a t-shirt and a hockey stick, signed by all the members of the squad.

Snooker: India receive six wild card entries

BangaloreIndia has received six wild card en-tries who will join the top 64 in the World Ranking snooker tournament to be held in New Delhi from Oct 14 to 18, offering a prize-money of 300,000 pounds. According to a Bil-liards and Snooker Federation of lndia press release here Wednesday, qualifying rounds to decide the six Indian entries will be played in New Delhi and Bangalore from Aug 22

and Sep 1, respectively. The top four from each venue will be involved in a play-off to decide the six who will make it to the main tournament. Meanwhile, India’s top two cueists, Pankaj Advani and Aditya Mehta will be taking part in the qualifiers to be played at Doncaster (Britain) Aug 11. Advani is scheduled to meet Mathew Selt and Mehta takes on Guo Dung.

IBL: Malaysia’s Liew re-places Wong in Delhi Smashers

Tevez quits Argentina national teamRomeFormer Manchester United striker Carlos Tevez has decided to retire from Argentina international duty.Tevez, who played for Manchester City last season and has scored 13 goals for the national side, chose not to elaborate on his decision Wednes-day, reports Xinhua.“It’s over,” he said. “I have nothing more to add. I have said what I feel and that’s the end of the matter. If I say anything else then it would seem as if I’m asking for a recall.”Since Alejandro Sabello took over the Argentina squad in the summer of 2011, Tevez has always been dropped.Tevez also revealed he could have quit football altogether if he had not been signed by Juventus.“There comes a moment where you get tired, you get tired of football,” he said.“I wanted to leave football but then Juventus, one of the biggest teams in Europe, arrived. I had always said that I would retire at the age of 28 and I was close to retiring after the row with Roberto Mancini,” he said.

New Delhi The $1 million Indian Badminton League (IBL) Thursday announced that men’s singles World No.16 Dar-en Liew of Malaysia has replaced Hong Kong shuttler Wong Wing Ki in the Delhi Smashers franchise.Wong got injured at the ongoing World Championships in Guang-zhou, China. The IBL governing council approved the request from the Smashers after his unfortunate layoff was conveyed to them by the Hong Kong Badminton Association.“Daren Liew is one of the most ex-citing players to watch in the sport and we hope to benefit enormously with this association. We also wish

the injured Wong Wing Ki speedy recovery,” said Delhi Smashers chief executive Kartikeya Rao.On getting selected, Liew said: “It’s a great feeling to be part of the IBL and I’m looking forward to join my teammates at Delhi Smashers.”

CHANDIGARH SUNDAY 11 August 2013 23 SPORTS

Skipping 2014 Indian GP hurts country’s image: Jackie Stewart

Juventus manager happy with new signings’ progress

New DelhiAvowed Indophile and three-time world champion Sir Jackie Stewart feels India skipping its 2014 Grand Prix round -- ostensibly to enable the Formula One organisers to tweak the calendar, clubbing it with rest of Asia the following year -- will hurt the country’s image in the motorsports world. Stewart, whose connection with India dates back to his forays into the car market with his employ-ers Ford Motor Company, gets emo-tional talking about the Buddh Inter-national Circuit (BIC) missing the date in 2014. The ‘Flying Scotsman’ is closely associated with Indian mo-torsports, having cut the first turf of the race track in Madras over two de-cades ago and he should know what it means to take a race away and how difficult it is to recapture the imagi-nation of racing fans. “It is certainly not a good message the Indian Grand Prix is sending out to the motorsports world, and is not positive for India’s image when questions are raised about it. But as I am not aware of the implications involved, so it would be inappropriate for me to comment further,” Stewart told IANS from his Buckinghamshire base. F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone and race promot-ers Jaypee have confirmed that the India-round will now take place in the first half of 2015, amid grow-ing speculations that teams are not comfortable with customs and tax issues in the country. Stewart says all issues must be sorted out to keep India on the F1 calendar. “F1 is now one of the largest sports in the world, simply because from March until the end of November, there is a race almost every two weeks with large car makers involved and a lot of major multi-national corpora-tions joining it. So, I think it would be good and beneficial for India to have a Grand Prix, attracting the world’s attention for that weekend. “I don’t know much about the tax is-sues and as for the customs, F1 has been able to handle the issue in every other country we go to -- whether it’s

Hungary, Korea, Singapore, Malay-sia or China. This is something that your government should, perhaps, study, by visiting one of the Grand Prix races in Europe, to see how their authorities go through the process,” says the 74-year-old, who has been associated with the Lotus F1 team. Among his several visits to India, the champion of 1969, 1971 and 1973 seasons fondly recalls the inaugural race at the $400 million BIC. “The race track was unquestionably built at a very large cost and there is no doubt in my mind that F1 brought a new interest to the outside world in seeing India developing into an arena of a global sport. I was enormously impressed. It’s an impressive layout and the drivers enjoy the challenge.”A few eyebrows were raised when the spectator turnout dropped from 95,000 to 60,000 last year. To add to that, Bernie said 2013 would tell a lot about the popularity of the sport.For Stewart, it is a cultural issue and he sees the sport surviving in India. “It will take some time before the culture of motorsport is fully under-stood in India. We have experienced the same issues in Bahrain, China, Korea, Malaysia, Abu Dhabi and even in America, where Grand Prix race did not take place for many years. “This year’s race is crucial and if the race in 2015 gets right promotion, there’s no reason why it shouldn’t again attract large crowds.”

RomeJuventus manager Antonio Conte has said he was delighted with the prog-ress of his new signings Angelo Og-bonna, Carlos Tevez and Fernando Llorente.Though the Serie A champions’ jour-ney in America ended in disappoint-ment, Conte saw positive signs from the new arrivals, reports.“Carlos (Tevez) is improving game by game,” he said Thursday. “But it is obvious that he, Ogbonna and Llorente need to get to grips with the way we play.”“I’ve liked what I have seen of Og-bonna, I’ve liked that a lot. Llorente too who, once he has recovered from the hard pre-season, will deliver his best,” he said.Conte has warned his side against any complacency as the new season is upcoming.“The point is that this season will be very difficult,” he added. “I’ve told that to the players and myself, see-ing as I never won three Scudetti in a row.“We need to remain focused and de-termined. People on the outside will say that we’ve already won, that it is a formality, that we are the best,” he said. IANS

New DelhiIndia’s top shuttler Saina Nehwal dropped a place to No.4 in the Bad-minton World Federation (BWF) rankings released Thursday.Saina, who advanced to the women’s singles quarterfinal at the World Championships in Guangzhou, was overtaken by Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon. Saina’s city mate P.V. Sind-hu retained her No.12 position.In the men’s singles, Parupalli Kashy-ap slipped four places to No.17 while R.M.V. Gurusaidutt jumped a place to a career-high No.20. Mumbai’s Ajay Jayaram was static at No.24.Sourabh Verma, B. Sai Praneeth, K. Srikanth, Anand Pawar are ranked No.36-39 while H.S. Prannoy jumped five places to be ranked at No.46, making him the eighth In-dian shuttler in the top-50 of men’s singles rankings.No Indian features in the top-25 of the doubles rankings in any category.

Why this hullabaloo about Parvez Rasool?Parvez Ghulam Rasool Zargar, to give his full name, is a decent off-spinner and handy batsman to be considered a bowling all-rounder. It is immaterial whether he came from Kashmir or Kerala, he will play for India if he is good enough to earn his cap. A cap can’t be handed out for sentimental reasons.Parvez not being handed his India cap on the Zimbabwe tour of one-dayers, which ended Saturday, has unnecessarily become the talking point, thanks to his state Chief Min-ister Omar Abdullah going to town criticising his non-selection even when his father Farooq Abdullah, who is the president of the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association, did not react so vehemently.When has Omar Abdullah started taking such keen interest in cricket and what is this specious argument that if 14 players got to play why not the 15th.If only he had shown the same alac-rity in unravelling the mystery of over Rs.50 crores vanishing from the books of the Jammu and Kash-mir Cricket Association, the state’s cricketers like Parvez would have

benefited more. His pleading tweets, “Come on BCCI give the young man a chance to prove himself”, and “Did you have to take him all the way to Zim to demoralise him? Wouldn’t it have been cheaper to do it at home?” may have given him politically a kick, but it is in poor taste, unless he wants to take credit for the young man’s ex-ploits on cricket field. Omar should have also taken to task some people in the valley who make no secret of their dislike of Parvez playing for India and their statements that they would support their crick-eter but not India. Worse, they said they would not even support the lad from Bijbehara, a small town in An-antnag district, if he plays a key role in India beating Pakistan! Not to be left behind, Union Minister Shashi Tharoor joined with his percussion: “Bizarre selection. Could easily have rested Jadeja & Raina for Rasool & Rahane,” he tweeted. “What’s the point leading 4-0 if you can’t give every member of the touring team a chance to play at least once now by reshuffling the deck?”Not taking away their right to express

their views, do they at least concede that the national selectors, coach and captain are competent enough to pick the squad and the playing eleven? Whatever may be their compulsions, political or otherwise, they have trod a dangerous path, though they are not the pioneers of the indiscretion. There have been instances where politicians jumped in to back play-ers from their states and luckily they confined themselves to making only puerile statements.What is more bizarre in this case is that captain Virat Kohli chose to de-fend the selection when there was no need for him to do so and saying that he was not bothered by the criticism.Kohli tried to justify Parvez sitting out, saying Amit Mishra was cool-ing his heels for the last two months and he had to be played and that the Kashmiri young man will get his opportunity when he goes with the India A team to South Africa from Zimbabwe.Surely, Parvez himself may not be complaining too much about not getting to play in Zimbabwe since he did not fit into Kohli’s scheme of things. Coming back to Omar’s

concern for Parvez, he and his father should have taken interest in clean-ing up the state’s cricket administra-tion instead of acquiescing in carry-ing out the obnoxious quota system whereby the valley and Jammu get equal representation in the state’s Ranji Trophy squad And then if Omar is so fond of Parvez, he should have given the 24-year-old a job in the state government, though he may not need one if he has a long run as an international cricketer. What is so special about Parvez? The list of people who waited for the India cap despite their enormous talent is long. Why go far, his own teammate Am-bati Rayudu, who was hailed as the closest to Sachin Tendulkar in class when he was first spotted a decade ago, made his international debut in the fourth one-dayer at 27, though for no fault of his.For the record, Rasool made his first-class debut for J&K in 2008-09 and has played 17 first-class matches, scoring 1,003 runs and taking 46 wickets. Playing against Australia for India A he took seven wickets for 41. He also played for Pune Warriors last season. Veturi Srivatsa

GuangzhouP.V. Sindhu assured India of at least a bronze medal in the World Badmin-ton Championships Friday defeating former World No.1 Shixian Wang in the women’s singles quarterfinals event here.The World No.12 beat the seventh seeded Chinese 21-18, 21-17 in 55 minutes at Tianhe Indoor Stadium.

KievUkrainian champions Shakhtar Donetsk Thursday finalised the transfer of 20-year-old Brazil in-

ternational Bernard from Atletico Miniero.The Brazilian side accepted an offer of 25 million euros for the attacking midfielder, who joins Shakhtar on a five-year contract, reports.Bernard has been playing for Atleti-co Miniero in Brazilian Serie A since 2011, and has scored 22 goals in 100 appearances.Bernard, who had attracted interest from England’s Arsenal, Tottenham and Liverpool, as well as from Por-tuguese Porto, was named among 20-players in the Brazil national squad for the friendly match against Switzerland Aug 14.Bernard is seen in Shakhtar as a re-placement for Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who left the Ukrainian club in the early July. IANS

This will be only the third instance that an Indian will bring home a medal at the Worlds. Prakash Padukone won the men’s singles bronze in 1983 at Copenha-gen while Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa won another bronze in the women’s doubles event in the last edition at London in 2011.

World Championships: Sindhu assures India of Bronze

Ukraine’s Shakhtar signs prom-ising Brazilian midfielder

Saina drops to World No.4

CHANDIGARHSUNDAY 11 August 201324

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FLATS AT SUNNY HEIGHTS AND NRI RETREATS

Muslims offer prayers on the occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr in Bandra Mumbai on August

President Pranab Mukherjee being greeted by Muslims on the occasion of Eid ul-Fitr at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi

EID Celebrated across Country and World with full fervour and gaiety

Muslim women offer prayers on the occasionof Eid ul-Fitr in Chennai

Muslims offer prayer and hug each other on the occasion of Eid ul-Fitr in Patna on August

Muslims hug each other after Eid ul-Fitr prayer at the Nakhoda Mosque in Kolkata

EID MUBARAK Independence Day

Celebration

Independence Day, observed annual-ly on 15 August, is a national holiday in India commemorating the nation’s independence from British rule on 15 August 1947. India attained freedom following an independence move-ment noted for largely nonviolent

resistance and civil disobedience led by the Indian National Congress. In-dependence coincided with the par-tition of India, in which the British Indian Empire was divided along religious lines into the Dominions of India and Pakistan; the partition was

accompanied by violent riots and mass casualties.The flagship event in Independence Day celebrations takes place in Delhi, where the prime minister hoists the national flag at the Red Fort and delivers from its ramparts a speech. The holiday is observed throughout India with flag-hoisting ceremonies, parades and cultural events. Indians celebrate the day by displaying the national flag on their attire, accessories, homes and vehicles; by listening to patriotic songs, watching patriotic movies; and bonding with family and friends. Books and films feature the indepen-dence and partition in their narrative. Separatist and militant organisations have often carried out terrorist at-tacks on and around 15 August, and others have declared strikes and used black flags to boycott the celebration.

Independence Day, one of the three national holidays in India (the other two being the Republic Day on 26 January and Mohandas Gandhi’s birthday on 2 October), is observed in all Indian states and union territories. On the eve of Independence Day, the President of India delivers the “Ad-dress to the Nation”. On 15 August, the prime minister hoists the Indian flag on the ramparts of the historical site Red Fort in Delhi. Twenty-one gun shots are fired in honour of the solemn occasion. In his speech, the prime minister highlights the past year’s achievements, raises important issues and calls for further develop-

governmental and non-governmental institutions throughout the country. Schools and colleges conduct flag hoisting ceremonies and cultural events. Major government buildings are often adorned with strings of lights. In Delhi and some other cities, kite flying adds to the occasion.Na-tional flags of different sizes are used abundantly to symbolise allegiance to the country. Citizens adorn their clothing, wristbands, cars, household accessories with replicas of the tri-colour. Over a period of time, the cel-ebration has changed emphasis from nationalism to a broader celebration of all things India.

“Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall re-deem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance. It is fitting that at this solemn moment, we take the pledge of dedication to the service of India and her people and to the still larger cause of humanity.”

ment. He pays tribute to the leaders of the freedom struggle. The Indian national anthem, “Jana Gana Mana” is sung. The speech is followed by march past of divisions of the Indian Army and paramilitary forces. Pa-rades and pageants showcase scenes from the freedom struggle and India’s diverse cultural traditions. Similar events take place in state capitals where the Chief Ministers of indi-vidual states unfurl the national flag, followed by parades and pageants. A child holding a small sized flagA child holding the Indian national flag. Flag hoisting ceremonies and cultural programmes take place in