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VIJAYAWADA, SATURDAY JANUARY 11, 2020; PAGES 12 `3

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RNI No. APENG/2018/764698

*Late City Vol. 2 Issue 71*Air Surcharge Extra if Applicable

Established 1864Published From

VIJAYAWADA DELHI LUCKNOW BHOPALRAIPUR CHANDIGARH BHUBANESWAR

RANCHI DEHRADUNHYDERABAD

Total passenger car sales in the domestic market fell 8.4 per cent inDecember, data from industry body SIAM or Society of Indian

Automobile Manufacturers showed on Friday. Sales of passengervehicles - including passenger cars, utility vehicles and vans - declined1.2 per cent to 235,786 units in December, the data showed. Out ofthese, a total of 142,126 passenger cars weresold during the month, as against 155,159 inDecember 2018. This is the second straightmonth of declines for passenger vehicles aftera minor uptick in October.

DOMESTIC CAR SALES DECLINE 8.4%IN DEC; PRODUCTION DOWN 12.5%

ON 80TH BIRTHDAY, SINGER YESUDASPERFORMS AT KOLLUR TEMPLE

HARRY'S WIFE MEGHAN RETURNSTO CANADA AMID ROYAL STORMPrince Harry's wife Meghan has returned to Canada

following the couple's bombshell announcement thatthey were quitting their frontline royal duties, theirspokeswoman said on Friday. The Duke and Duchessof Sussex spent an extended Christmas break inCanada with their baby son Archie, beforereturning to break the news that has rocked theroyal family. "I can confirm reports that theduchess is in Canada," the couple's spokeswomantold AFP, without providing further details.

Veteran playback singer K.J. Yesudas turned 80 on Friday and observedthe day at the famed Kollur Mookambika temple here with his family, a

tradition he has been taking part for many decades. The versatile singerhas been taking part in the musical tribute at the temple for years on hisbirthday, which is considered a revered practice amongperformers in the music and art. In the morning he heldthe customary musical session where he sang hymns. Ina music career extending to six decades now, he hasrecorded close to 80,000 songs in over 14languages, including Arabic, Latin and Russian.

WB BJP TAKES OUT RALLY AGAINST‘WORSENING LAW AND ORDER'The West Bengal BJP on Friday took out a rally in the city against the

"worsening law-and- order situation" and the "rise inincidents of rape" in the state. The rally, which commencedfrom Nandan area - the city's cultural hub - was led byWest Bengal BJP Mahila Morcha president and MPLocket Chatterjee and the party's general secretary RajuBanerjee. With posters and placards in hand, theactivists shouted slogans against the state government.The rally is set to take a round of the Birla Planetarium,around a kilometre away, before returning to Nandan.

Pawan wants BJP to step into defuse ‘Capital’ tensionsPNS n VIJAYAWADA

Expressing serious concernover the developments in theaftermath of the State govern-ment making its intentionsclear over the Capital issue,Jana Sena president PawanKalyan on Friday said that itwas time that all political par-ties come together to defusethe situation, bring back nor-malcy to the region beforematters go out of control.

Interacting with media per-sons at the Jana Sena stateoffice in Mangalagiri, PawanKalyan said the onus was on allthe parties to sit together anddiscuss the problems beingfaced by the farmers who hadparted with their lands for theconstruction of the Capital atAmaravati.

He opined that the BJPshould take the initiative in

organising an all-party meet-ing to bring about a consensuson the Capital issue. He saidthe BJP-led NDA governmentat the Centre had a hugeresponsibility to defuse thesituation in Amaravati as it hadcommitted itself to providing

financial assistance for con-struction of the Capital andalready released about Rs 2,000for the purpose.

"Besides, none other thanPrime Minister NarendraModi had laid the foundation-stone for the Capital at

Uddandarayunipalem in theCapital region. Later, the gov-ernment had spent over Rs5,800 crore over the project,"Pawan Kalyan said.

He continued: "Stalling theCapital half way through citinghuge construction costs is notthe solution. The Centre has anobligation to intervene in thematter as it has the responsibil-ity to fulfil some of the provi-sions mentioned in the APReorganisation Act."

Continued on Page 3

Jana Sena president Pawan Kalyan and senior leader Nadendla Manohar interactwith the media at the party’s state office in Mangalagiri on Friday.

Pawan Kalyan saidthe onus was on allthe parties to sittogether and discussthe problems beingfaced by the farmerswho pooled their land

Jagan appears in CBI court inHyd amidst tight securityPNS n HYDERABAD

For the first time after tak-ing over as the Chief Ministerof Andhra Pradesh, YSRCongress Party president YSJaganmohan Reddy on Fridaypersonally appeared before aspecial court for CentralBureau of Investigation casesin Hyderabad in connectionwith the alleged quid pro quocases.

Elaborate security arrange-ments were made by theTelangana police in andaround the Nampally criminalcourt complex where Jagan,who is the accused No. 1 indisproportionate assets casesfiled by CBI against him in2012, attended the proceed-ings. Earlier, the AP ChiefMinister arrived at theBegumpet airport, Hyderabadby a special f light fromVijayawada and drove straightto the court.

Continued on Page 3

Erstwhile ParlakhemundiKing passes away in Odisha

Internet access is afundamental right: SC

New ‘steel fence’ along Pak, Bangla borders: India PNS n NEW DELHI

India is erecting a new non-cut'steel fence' to plug vulnerableand infiltration-prone patch-es along its sensitive borderwith Pakistan and Bangladesh,officials said on Friday.

They said the single-rowfence, with loops of concerti-na wires on top, is beingerected at a 60-km borderstretch in near Amritsar inPunjab.

A 'pilot project' of this newfence is also being tested at a

7-km stretch in Assam'sSilchar along India's borderwith Bangladesh and is beinganalysed by the BSF, theysaid.

This fence will cost aboutRs 2 crore for a kilometre, offi-cial sources said.

PNS n BHUBANESWAR

Gopinath Gajapati NarayanDeo, head of the erstwhileroyal family of Parlakhemundiand former MP, passed awayat a private hospital inBhubaneswar in the wee hourson Friday. He was 76.

Gopinath Gajapati wasgiven a state funeral atParalakhemundi later.

Family sources said that hewas undergoing treatment ata private hospital inBhubaneswar due to heart-related ailment.

The erstwhile royal was

undergoing treatment inChennai for six months, butwas later shifted toBhubaneswar where he hadbeen staying for more than sixyears, the sources said.

Continued on Page 3

PNS n NEW DELHI

Access to the Internet is a fun-damental right under Article19 of the Constitution, theSupreme Court said in a sig-nificant ruling on Friday andasked the Jammu and Kashmiradministration to review with-in a week all orders imposingcurbs in the Union Territory.

A 3-judge bench, headed byJustice N V Ramana, also saidthat Section 144 CrPC (pro-hibitory orders) cannot beused indefinitely to suppressfreedom of speech and expres-

sion and difference of opinion.The bench, which also com-

prised justices B R Gavai andR Subhash Reddy, asked the J-K administration to restoreInternet services in institutionsproviding essential serviceslike hospitals and education-al places. The bench furthersaid that freedom of press is avaluable and sacred right.

On the prohibitory orders,it said that magistrates, whilepassing them, should applytheir mind and follow doctrineof proportionality.

Continued on Page 3

Gopinath Gajapati Narayan Deo

Cops use canes, stop women on way to temple PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Tension continued to prevail inthe Amaravati Capital regionon Friday, the 24th day of theagitation by farmers against thethree capital proposal.

Women proceeding towardsVijayawada to present ban-gles, turmeric and vermilion tothe presiding deity of theDurga temple were alsostopped at the Poleramma tem-ple and taken into custody. Thewomen said, "Do we needpolice permission to present'Naivedyam' to the Goddess?"

The police stormed into anapartment complex in Man-dadam and arrested them, butnot before resorting to a mildlathi-charge. A few of thewomen were injured in thepolice action.

According to eyewitnesses,the women pleaded with thepolice not to stop them as theywere going to perform pujas atthe temple and not to wage awar on the government. Whenthe cops did not relent, somewomen stepped forward, lead-

ing the police to use force. Withthis, the women raised “CMdown, down” slogans.

Some women who still man-aged to reach the Durga tem-ple in Vijayawada, said, "Thereare more police personnelthan people in the Capitalregion. We somehow man-aged to break the cordon andreach here to perform pujas.Our only wish is to makeofferings to Goddess Durgaand pray that She teaches a les-

son to Chief Minister YSJaganmohan Reddy."

Tempers were kept undercontrol with difficulty inMandadam, the nerve centre ofthe protests, with the policeand the farmers entering intoheated arguments.

The police took scores offarmers into custody whilethey were on their way to joina rally to Vijayawada.

With this, the entire Capitalregion became tense.

Women protesters are arrested and taken to a waiting van during the clampdown on protesters in Amaravati Capital region on Friday.

2 die, capital shifting blamedVIJAYAWADA: Two peopledied on Friday in theAmaravati Capital region,allegedly victims of theongoing protest against theproposal to relocate the cap-ital.

In the first instance, awoman farmer belonging to

Venkatapalem died of a heartattack.

The woman farmer, iden-tified as Nanda Kumari, hadbeen taking part in the agi-tation against the three-Capital proposal.

Continued on Page 3

PNS n HYDERABAD

IT and Industries MinisterKT Rama Rao has urged theCentre to sanction a SouthernIndustrial Corridor (SIC) con-necting Hyderabad, Bengaluruand Chennai on the lines ofthe Delhi-Mumbai IndustrialCorridor. Besides, he pitchedfor two new industrial corri-dors for Telangana Statebetween Hyderabad andNagpur as well as Hyderabadand Warangal.

Rama Rao called on Union

Minister for Industry andCommerce Piyush Goyal inthis connection and submittedproposals relating to variousprojects. He sought allocationof appropriate funds in Budget2020-21.

Continued on Page 3

Telangana IT Minister presents a bouquet to Union Minister for Industry andCommerce Piyush Goyal in New Delhi on Friday.

KTR pitches for SouthernIndustrial Corridor

The SIC will benefitfour states ofTelangana, Karnataka,Andhra Pradesh andTamil Nadu

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Delhi Police on Fridayreleased pictures of nine sus-pects in the JNU violence caseand claimed JNUSU presidentAishe Ghosh was one of them.

Of the nine, seven belong toleft-leaning student organisa-tions while two are affiliated toright-wing students' body, thepolice said. Addressing a pressconference, DCP Joy Tirkey,who is probing the case, said amajority of the students want-ed to register for the wintersemester from January 1 to 5,but the left-leaning students'bodies were not allowing themto do so. About the attack on

January 5, the DCP said thatspecific rooms in the universi-ty's Periyar hostel were targeted.

Several people includingAishe Ghosh attacked stu-dents in the hostel, the policeofficer claimed. Ghosh, whowas injured in the attack, how-ever, refuted the charge sayingthe Delhi Police should makepublic whatever proof it hasagainst her.

JNU VIOLENCE

LEFT-WING STUDENTS INVOLVED IN JNU VIOLENCE: JAVADEKAR

LEFT DESIGN UNMASKED AS DELHI POLICE RELEASES EVIDENCE: IRANI

NEW DELHI: Union Minister Prakash Javadekar onFriday said the Delhi Police's ongoing probe into theJanuary 5 violence in JNU has made it clear thatstudents affiliated to left-wing bodieswere involved in the incident.Attacking the opposition, he saidCPI, CPI(M) and AAP have beenrejected in the Lok Sabha pollsand "they are now using studentsfor their vested interests". He alsoappealed to the agitating studentsof the university to end the stir andallow academic session to commence. "Police hasbrought reality in light. It is clear that left wingstudents' outfits were involved in the attack,"Javadekar said.

NEW DELHI: Union minister Smriti Irani on Fridaycited the information shared by Delhi Police on JNUviolence to say that the "Left design" in the varsityhas been "unmasked" and accused itof turning the campus into apolitical battleground.

"Left design in JNUunmasked. They led mobs ofmayhem, destroyed publicproperty paid for by taxpayers,disallowed new students frombeing enrolled, used the campusas a political battleground.#LeftBehindJNUViolence becomes publicknowledge as Delhi Police releases evidence," theformer HRD minister said in a tweet.

Current Weather ConditionsUpdated January 10, 2020 5:00 PM

ALMANACTODAY

Month & Paksham:Paush & Shukla PakshaPanchangamTithi : Pratipada: 10:40 pm (Next Day)Nakshatram: Punarvasu: 01:30 pmTime to Avoid: (Bad time to start

any important work)Rahukalam: 09:38 am- 11:01 amYamagandam: 01:46 pm – 03:09 pm

Varjyam: 08:56 pm - 10:26 pm

Gulika: 06:52 am - 08:15 amGood Time: (to start any important work)

Amritakalam: 11:14 am - 12:44 pmAbhijit Muhurtham: 12:01 pm - 12:45 pm

VIJAYAWADAWEATHERForecast: Partly CloudyTemp: 30/21Humidity: 81%Sunrise: 06.48Sunset: 05.58

Police release pics of 9 attackers, say Aishe a suspect

8

Majority ofpolitical leadersin J&K free now:Ram Madhav

Prime Ministeron two-dayKolkata visitfrom today

India, US making ‘verygood progress'on trade:Shringla

4

5

Summons to Sabitha, DharmanaHYDERABAD: The CBIcourt on Friday issued sum-mons to Telangana educationminister Sabitha Indra Reddyand YSRCP MLA DharmanaPrasada Rao, directing them toappear before it on January 17.

The CBI had booked casesagainst Sabitha and Dharmana

in 2013, when they were serv-ing as ministers in undividedAP in the N Kiran KumarReddy government.

The CBI Court on Fridaytook up the hearing of the sup-plementary petition filed inPenna Cements case.

Continued on Page 3

n Stays in court for two hours

n Seeks exemption frompersonal courtappearance again

n CBI, ED stronglyoppose exemption

n Case adjourned toJanuary 17

n YS Vijayalakshmi,Sharmila skip court inpoll code violation case

{

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CAPSULE

Vijayawada Divisionplans to publish‘Coffeetable Book'VIJAYAWADA: VijayawadaDivision is planning to publish'Coffee Table Book' showcasingthe history and future plans.Therefore, railways is seekingarticles and photographs ofvintage railway assets, railwayheritage and all the historicalaspects of Vijayawada Divisionsince its inception. VijayawadaDivision holds a prominent placein the history of Indian Railwaysand has witnessed a significantgrowth in infrastructuredevelopment and revenue in thecourse of time. This Coffee TableBook is a small step towardspreserving and presenting thechronological events in acomprehensive format. In thisconnection, they appealed to railusers and rail enthusiasts toprovide relevant articles, stories,anecdotes, experiences,photographs pertaining toVijayawada Division. The samecan be shared through e-mail orby post, so as to make theCoffee Table Book a souvenir tocherish.

‘PranayaKalahotsavam' to becelebrated todayVIJAYAWADA: The annual eventof 'Pranaya Kalahotsavam' willbe celebrated in Tirumala onJanuary 11. As a part offestivities, utsava idols SriMalayappa Swamy and Hisconsorts will be taken out onpalanquins from VaibhavotsavaMandapam and come face toface at Sri Varaha Swamytemple. Priests will chant DivyaPrabandam Pasuras separatelyand later re-enact themythological flower play'Pranaya Kalaham' on a colourfuland grand style. Deities willthrow floral balls at each other. Itwill be a feast to cherishescaping the floral ball jolts ofGoddesses during the fete. TheTTD has cancelled Arjita Seva ofVasantotsavam on the day atSrivari temple and all officialswould participate.

VIJAYAWADA | SATURDAY | JANUARY 11, 2020 vijayawada 02

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(IN VIJAYAWADA)

Most meat-eaters admit veganism is ethical: StudyIANS n LONDON

Most meat eaters admit veg-anism is ethical and good forthe environment,researchers have found.

The study published inthe journal Sustainabilitylooked at public opinion onplant-based diets and foundwidespread support for theethics and environmentalbenefits of veganism andvegetarianism among meat-eaters.

The f indings f romUniversity of Bath, the UKsuggest that 73 per cent ofmeat-eaters surveyed, con-sidered veganism to be eth-ical, 70 per cent said it wasgood for the environmentand half (50 per cent) con-sidered it healthy and 60 per

cent assumed that veganismwas 'acceptable'.

"At a time of year whenmany people are consideringswitching to plant-baseddiets with 'Veganuary', thisstudy shows that most peo-ple already agree with theethics of veganism and areaware of benefits of vegandiets to the environment,"

said study researcher ChrisBryant from the Universityof Bath.

The study, which involved1,000 men and women withan average age of 34, wasconducted in September2018. Participants wererecruited online through thesurvey platform Prolific.

By contrast, over 80 per

cent of respondents thoughtveganism was not easy, 77per cent assumed it is'inconvenient' and over 60per cent say it was not enjoy-able.

Opinions from respon-dents towards vegetarianismwere significantly more pos-itive on almost all counts.

According to researchers,this research is focused onshifting preferences awayfrom animal consumption inview of climate change andreducing animal suffering.

"Many people agree withthe principles of veganism isone thing, but in terms ofchanging behaviours weneed to acknowledge thatfor many it has been seen astoo expensive, inconvenientand a sacrifice in terms of

taste," Bryant said.Interestingly, in the time

since this study was con-ducted, these things have allchanged substantia l ly.Supermarkets, restaurants,and even fast food outletshave developed numeroushigh quality and affordablevegan options, the studysaid.

"Having direct replace-ments for the foods peopleknow and like makes it eas-ier for everybody to con-sume a fewer animal prod-ucts," Bryant said.

"If we are to reduce ani-mal product consumption inthe UK and around theworld, the development ofhigh quality affordable alter-natives to animal products iskey," Bryant added.

The findings from University of Bath,the UK suggest that 73 per cent ofmeat-eaters surveyed, consideredveganism to be ethical, 70 per centsaid it was good for the environmentand half (50 per cent) considered ithealthy and 60 per cent assumed thatveganism was ‘acceptable'

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

People from across the Stateflock to their native places tocelebrate Sankranti, festivalof colours and kites. Kith andkin throng railway stations toreceive their near and dearones.

Hence, in order to regulatethe flow of people to enter theplatforms and avoid inconve-nience to the travelling publicby means of ensuring decon-gestion of platforms, the rateof platform ticket atVijayawada, Rajahmundry andNellore Railway Stations willbe enhanced from present Rs10 to Rs 20 for a period of 10days i.e; from January 11 to 19.

The Vijayawada Division,South Central Railway, isseeking rail passengers' assis-tance for helping rail users tohave comfortable and hassle-free journey duringSankranti. Railways appealedto passengers to avoid crowd-ing platforms during the fes-tive season to receive andsend-off their relatives andfamily members at the con-

course/waiting areas. It wouldnot only help reduce rush atrailway stations but alsoensure that families with chil-dren and elderly can travelwith ease without having toworry about the rush.

To make rail journeys com-fortable, railways takes manysteps like running special trainservices to cater to all class ofrail passengers. There areJansadharan (only secondseating accommodation), ACspecial, Suvidha (special fare)and special trains are beingrun in all directions fromVijayawada.

In all, 207 special trainspassing through Vijayawadastation and 61 special trainsoriginating from division apartfrom Sabarimala specials arebeing run to clear the extrarush of passengers this festiveseason.

Another initiative is the'UTS on Mobile' App that ismade available for rail passen-gers to book unreserved tick-ets on their smart phones toavoid long queues at bookingoffices during peak hours.

FESTIVE RUSH

Platform ticket rate hiked to Rs 20

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Calling upon the members ofDasa Sahitya Bhajan troupes,pontiff of Puttige Mutt ofUdipi SugunendratheerthaSwamy said Dasaparas shouldfollow the divine path laid bythe saintly persons in the prop-agation of Sanatana dharma.

He was participating inTraimasika Metlotsavamorganised under the aegis ofDasa Sahitya Project of TTD in

the wee hours of Friday atPadala Mandapam in Alipiri.

He said devout saint poetslike Purandara Dasa,V y s a r a y a t h i r t h a ,Annamacharya and emperor SriKrishnadevaraya had walked upTirumala hills on foot andspread the glory and signifi-cance of Lord VenkateswaraSwamy to the world.

The pontiff saidMetlotsavam was a divine fes-tival organised by the TTD to

commemorate the holy acts ofgreat devotees. Dasa SahityaProject special officer PRAnandathirthacharyulu said alarge number of devotees fromsouth India and Maharashtragathered to sing bhajans andclimb Tirumala.

Earlier, the TTD organisedspecial programmes like reli-gious discourses, bhajans,Haridasa keertans. Over 3,000Bhajan Mandal members tookpart in the celestial fete.

Call to follow divine pathshown by saintly persons

Pontiff of Puttige Mutt of Udipi Sugunendratheertha Swamy (left) performs puja during ‘Traimasika Metlotsavam’ at Tirumalaon Friday (right) Devotees singing bhajans on the occasion

HDFC launchesmyAppsPNS n VIJAYAWADA

H D F CBank onF r i d a ylaunchedmyApps,a suite ofw h i t e -label appsthat willenable urban local bodies,including Smart Cities andmunicipalities, housing soci-eties, clubs or gymkhanasand religious institutions tocompletely digitise theirecosystem.

Smitha Bhagat, CountryHead, Government andInstitutional Business, Start-ups and e-Commerce, HDFCBank, said that the bank willoffer a customised app as avalue-added service in additionto its complete suite of bank-ing products. Through theapp, which will have the organ-isation's own branding andcontent, members can makepayments for utilities and fees,make online bookings for var-ious facilities, stay updated onlatest announcements, andutilise a host of other featuresoffered by the institutions.

The organisation also getseasy access to reports onpayments, facilities bookedby members, requests andcomplaints registered. Theycan also use the app to broad-cast notices and engage withmembers on various events.

She said that these apps area part of the bank's strategyto take digitisation to the nextlevel by focusing on provid-ing value beyond basic bank-ing services and tapping intothe B2B2C space.

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

A three- day internationalconference on 'ArtificialIntelligence and SignalProcessing' (AISP'20) wasorganised under the aegis ofVIT-AP in association withIEEE chapters of Guntur sub-section and IEEE, Hyderabadsection, here on Friday.

Governor Biswa BushanHarichandan delivered inau-gural address online andappreciated the VIT-AP for itsinitiatives on essential subject.

Being the first conferenceorganised by VIT-AP andIEEE chapter of Guntur sub-section received as many as143 papers from across theworld.

With the papers thorough-ly scrutinised by the reviewersfrom 35 different countriesonly 60 full length paperswere selected for oral presen-tation and six extended

abstracts for poster presenta-tion. The three-day conferencewill see innovative researchpapers being presented duringthe 12 technical sessionsplanned for three days onArtificial Intelligence andSignal Processing. The confer-ence will give a deeper insightinto the current trends in thearea of Artificial Intelligence.

The keynote addresses willbe delivered by ProfVisvanathan (Asian Instituteof Technology, Bangkok), ProfBalasubramanian (IIT-Roorkee), Prof LucaCatarinucci (University ofSalento, Italy) and Prof KRama Murty (IIT-Hyderabad).

Two workshops for trainingpurposes are being conductedby Math Works PrivateLimited, India, and IEEESignal Processing andCommunication Chapter ofHyderabad Section.

3-day worskhopon ‘AISP’ begins

Delegates at a three-day workshop on ‘Artificial Intelligence and SignalProcessing’ in Vijayawada on Friday

PNS n VISAKHAPATNAM

G Sambasiva Rao, ManagingDirector of Sravan ShippingServices Private Limited,received the prestigious'Logistics Company of theYear Award' (VisakhapatnamRegion) during Eastern StarAwards for excellence inlogistics and cargo sectorsfrom EXIM on January 9 in Kolkata.

Expressing his delight over

the award, Rao said, "Theaward comes as an honourand a challenge. Growth oflogistics sector is all the moreimportant because it has notonly been a service, revenue-centric growth but has alsoresulted in a simultaneousgrowth in employment. So,with the talent pool availablein the industry, enterprisesshould look for aggressiveexpansion to prepare greatdemand that lies ahead."

30% jump in cybercrimerate across State: NCRBPNS n VISAKHAPATNAM

The number of cybercrimeoffences in the State increasedby 30 per cent in 2018 com-pared to the previous year asper the latest data released bythe National Crime RecordsBureau. Fraud was the primemotive in 60 per cent of the 733cybercrime cases registered inthe State.

A total of 1,207 instances ofcybercrime were recorded in2018 in the State over the pre-vious year's figure of 931, saysthe NCRB report, Crime inIndia-2018. It stated that 2,754cybercrime offences werereported between 2016 and2018.

With 1,207 cases in 2018,

Andhra Pradesh stood fifth inthe country in the cybercrimelist. Uttar Pradesh occupied thetop place with 6,280 cases,followed by Karnataka (5,839),Maharashtra (3,511) andAssam with 2,022 cases.

A senior police officer withthe AP's cybercrime wing, S

Ravi Kumar, said the datarevealed that more than half ofthe incidents in 2018 weredriven by fraud (financialcrimes), followed by sexualexploitation with 92 cases,extortion (45) and revenge(34).

In all, 217 cybercrime cases

were registered against womenin the State. The cases relatedto blackmail or threats,pornography or hosting orpublishing obscene sexualmaterial, cyberstalking orcyberbullying of women,defamation, or morphing andindecent representation ofwomen and others.

A total of 12 cybercrimeoffences against children werereported in the State in 2018.Police said that the cyber-crime detection rate in theState has crossed 40 per centand the conviction rate isaround 20 per cent. Over halfof such cases have been in theinvestigation stage as policeapparently failed to get con-crete clues to solve the crime.

n A total of 1,207 instancesof cybercrime wererecorded in 2018 in theState over the previousyear's figure of 931, saysthe NCRB report, Crimein India-2018. It statedthat 2,754 cybercrimeoffences were reportedbetween 2016 and 2018

n With 1,207 cases in 2018,Andhra Pradesh stood fifth in the country in thecybercrime list. UttarPradesh occupied the topplace with 6,280 cases,followed by Karnataka(5,839), Maharashtra(3,511) and Assam with2,022 cases

Sravan Shipping receivesbest logistic company award

PNS n VISAKHAPATNAM

YR Reddy, former Director(Human Resources), VizagSteel Plant, spoke at the 6thBiennial InternationalConference of IndianAcademy of Management(INDAM)-2020 at IIM Trichy.

He made a presentation on'Corporate turnarounds andthe role of HR: The Vizag Steelexperience', and highlightedthe crucial role of humanresource management func-tion in the turnaround of alarge public sector enterprise.

He enumerated the trans-formational role of varioussub-systems of HRM, includ-ing policies, employee moti-vation schemes, communica-tion, industrial relationsmanagement, employee

development, participativefora, suggestion schemes,

and quality circles, in theorganisation's revival andgrowth.

He acknowledged the greatleadership of Dr BN Singh, thethen CMD, who steeredthrough turbulent times, andgalvanised the large workforcein achieving the historic turn-around of the company.

‘HR plays a vital role incorporate turnarounds'

YR Reddy, formerDirector (HRD), Vizag Steel Plant,highlighted the crucialrole of HR function inthe turnaround of alarge public sectorenterprise

‘Mars is losing water faster than expected’IANS n PARIS

Researchers disclosed thatMars, the red planet, is losingwater more quickly than whattheory as well as past obser-vations would suggest.

The gradual disappearanceof the water occurs whensunlight and chemistry turnwater molecules into thehydrogen and oxygen atomsthat they are made up of.

When they are broken

down, Mars's weak gravity isunable to keep hold of themand they disappear off intospace, according to the study,published in the journalScience.

Previous studies haveshown the red planet wasonce flooded with flowingwater, which has largely dis-appeared in its more recenthistory.

According to findings, aninternational research team,

led part ly by FranckMontmessin from French

National Centre for ScientificResearch in France, revealedthat water vapour is accumulating in large quan-tities and unexpected propor-tions at an altitude of over 80km in the Martian atmos-phere.

It was found using theTrace Gas Orbiter probe thatwas sent to the red planet onboard the ExoMars mission,run by the European SpaceAgency and its Russian coun-

terpart Roscosmos.Measurements showed that

large atmospheric pocketsare even in a state of super-saturation with the atmos-phere containing 10 to 100times more water vapourthan its temperature shouldtheoretically allow.

With the observed super-saturation rates, the capacityof water to escape wouldgreatly increase during cer-tain seasons, the study said.

YR Reddy, former Director (HumanResources), Vizag Steel Plant, speaksat the 6th Biennial InternationalConference of Indian Academy ofManagement (INDAM)-2020 at IIMTrichy on Friday

VIJAYAWADA | SATURDAY | JANUARY 11, 2020 vijayawada 03

CAPSULE

Vizag men andwomen leading incarrom tourneyVISAKHAPATNAM: Carromplayers from across the State aretaking part in various categoriesof Inter-District and State CarromChampionship, which began hereon Thursday. As a part of GoldenJubilee celebrations, thetournament is being conductedby Andhra State CarromAssociation at the SwarnaBharathi Indoor Stadium. Around400 national and state levelplayers from across the Statetook part in the four-day event.AA Reddy and Ch JanardhanaReddy from Vizag trouncedJayachandra Reddy and DChandra from Chittoor in thesecond round competition ofmen's doubles category.Similarly, L Hari Priya andBhavani won in women's doublescategory. K Adi Venkat of Kurnooloutwitted Maria Babu of Gunturin quarter finals of boy's category.L Haripriya and Saraswathy ofVizag were leading in the firstround of junior girl's doublescategory on second day of 45thJunior (boy's and girl's) and 48thSenior (men and women) CarromChampionships. Dr Neeraj KumarSampathy, president of AndhraCarrom Association, said that allthe past and present achievers atnational and state level carromtourneys will be felicitated duringthe event.

Govt will help Capital Regionfarmers, says YSRCP leaderPNSn AMARAVATI

Andhra Pradesh AgriculturalMission Vice-Chairman MVSNagi Reddy here on Friday saidChief Minister YS JaganmohanReddy, the GN Rao Committeeor the Boston Consulting Group(BCG) had never said that theCapital would be shifted fromAmaravati. It was only decen-tralisation of administrationand development that they weretalking about.

He said the proposal for threeCapitals was mooted only for thedecentralisation of developmentin the State. He said the StateGDP had risen to 30% after thebifurcation only because it wassolely dependent on agriculture.Industries, irrigation projectsand all other facilities have to bedeveloped across the State.

However, former ChiefMinister N Chandrababu Naiduhad chosen the green zone inGuntur and Krishna districts toset up the Capital so that his

coterie gets a chance to loot theState, he said. The present gov-ernment was preparing plans todevelop the green zone andcome to the rescue of the famersof the Capital Region.

Jaganmohan Reddy hadnoticed all these issues duringhis padayatra and decided tostrive for all-round develop-ment of the State irrespective ofcaste, creed or region, NagiReddy said and added that thegovernment would go out of its

way to help the farmers ofAmaravati region.

Naidu could not provideuninterrupted power supply foragriculture sector but the ChiefMinister could do in twomonths after he came to power.Road tax has been exempted totractors belonging to farmers.Rythu Bharosa has been given tofarmers and even the lesseefarmers had been covered underthe scheme for the first time inthe country, he said.

n Andhra PradeshAgricultural Mission Vice-Chairman MVS NagiReddy said the proposalfor three Capitals wasmooted only for thedecentralisation ofdevelopment in the State

n The present government was preparing plans to developthe green zone and come to the rescue of famers of theCapital Region

n Former Chief Minister NChandrababu Naidu hadchosen the green zone inGuntur and Krishnadistricts to set up theCapital so that his coteriegets a chance to loot theState, Nagi Reddy said

PNS n AMARAVATI

Coming down heavily onOpposit ion leader NChandrababu Naidu,Minister for AgricultureKurasala Kanna Babu saidthat he was enacting a highdrama for the past onemonth and people in theState were watching it. Hesaid that Naidu declaredAmaravati as the Capital justto increase his own wealth.

The minister said peoplehad given an overwhelmingmandate to the YSRCP byelecting 151 MLAs out of the175 and gave only 23 seats tothe TDP. He said ChiefMinister YS JaganmohanReddy was striving to imple-ment Navaratnas promisedby him in the past sevenmonths.

He said while the ChiefMinister was planning toprovide a decentralised gov-ernment for developing allthe regions of the State,Naidu was inciting farmers.He asked Naidu if he was notin favour of the develop-ment of north Andhra andRayalaseema. He sought to

know if Naidu had forgottenthat he sent backJaganmohan Reddy fromVisakhapatnam when he hadgone there to fight for SpecialCategory Status (SCS) forthe State.

Similarly, when Naidu wasthe Chief Minister, he had gotCPI State Secretar yRamakrishna arrested foragitating for the SpecialStatus for the State.

Naidu was inciting farmersand women in the name ofAmaravati, the minister said."Was it not Naidu, who

directed the agitators toattack Macherla MLAPinnelli Ramakrishna Reddyand Dalit MLA Anil Kumar?"he asked. It was the duty ofpolice to stop Naidu, whowas trying to create a law andproblem, he added.

The minister said his gov-ernment's goal was the devel-opment of all the regions ofthe State. Naidu was trying tocreate regional disparities ashe was unable to bear theprogress being made by theYSRCP government.

Chief Minister

Jaganmohan Reddy was tak-ing steps to render justice toemployees, farmers and peo-ple of all the regions, theminister said and askedNaidu if he could go to northAndhra and Rayalaseemaand tell the people that hewanted only Amaravati to bethe Capital.

He said Naidu's agitationwas just to sustain him inpolitics and to bring his sonLokesh into the limelight.He ridiculed Naidu for seek-ing alms from people as ifwhat he had looted from theState was not enough.

Naidu enacting a drama,alleges Agri Minister

Minister for Agriculture Kurasala Kanna Babu

CM crushing stir with force,says State BJP president PNS n AMARAVATI

BJP president KannaLakshminarayana lambast-ed Chief Minister YSJaganmohan Reddy allegingthat he is attempting tostamp down people's aspira-tions with brute force andobserved that the world hasseen many people like him inthe past.

Addressing a meeting withNon-Political JAC leadersand members, who met himin Guntur on Friday, he saidJaganmohan Reddy hadvoted for the Capital when hewas the Opposition leaderand had now changed tack.

"Jaganmohan Reddy iscontinuing with his faction-ist attitude even after becom-ing the Chief Minister.

Women farmers should berespected. The government isa continuous process. Hecannot change the Capitalonce it was decided to belocated in Amaravati , "Lakshminarayana said.

Stating that the culture ofusing people's money in awanton manner was not cor-rect, he advised the ChiefMinister to shun dictatorialfunctioning. He said the issuewould be taken to the noticeof Prime Minister NarendraModi if required. Earlier,Non-Political JAC leadersapprised the State BJP pres-ident of police excesses inCapital villages.

n Minister for AgricultureKurasala Kanna Babu saidthe Chief Minister wasplanning to provide adecentralised governmentfor developing all theregions of the State, whileTDP chief N ChandrababauNaidu was inciting farmers

n Kanna Babu asked Naidu ifhe was not in favour of thedevelopment of northAndhra and Rayalaseema

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Twitterati extended greet-ings on World Hindi Day onFriday. January 10 is commem-orated every year with the objec-tive to promote the use of Hindilanguage abroad. The first con-ference on Hindi was held from10 to 12 January 1975 in Nagpurto promote the language world-wide. Since then January 10 isbeing observed as World HindiDay. Extending his best wishesto the citizens of India on theoccasion, Information andBroadcasting Minister PrakashJavadekar said Hindi and Indianlanguages are very beautifuland their use on the web andmobile is increasing.

Twitterati since early morningmade #WorldHindiDay the toptrending hashtag. They are

extending greetings with quotes,images and messages. A user onmicro-blogging site Twitterwrote, "Hearty congratulationsand best wishes to all the peopleof India, World Hindi Day.""Oxford Dictionary includedwords like 'Bada Din', (big day)'Acha', (Good) 'Bacha' (Child)and 'Surya Namaskar' in 2017. Itrepresents the importance andacceptance of Hindi", addedanother. A post read, "Elevatingthe Hindi language at a globalstage, which is the 4th most spo-ken language globally; the worldcelebrates #WorldHindiDay onthe 10th of January." A Tweepleremarked, "India is a multicultur-al nation with 22 major lan-guages, written in 13 differentscripts, with over 720 dialects andwhat binds us together is ournational language, HINDI."

ACB trapscorrupt DHMPNS n VISAKHAPATNAM

Acting on a complaint onSpandana programme,sleuths of ACB (Anti-cor-ruption Bureau) laid a trapto catch deputy headmasterof Zilla Parishad HighSchool at Chanduluru vil-lage in L Kota mandal ofVizianagaram district.

He was arrested at hisresidence while taking abribe of Rs 7,000 from thecomplainant on Friday.

E Sai Krishna Rao,deputy head master of ZillaParishad High School andAccredited Institute Co-ordinator for Open SchoolExams (APOSS), haddemanded a bribe of Rs7,000 from a tuition teacherR Venkata Ramana, whocame to col lect SSC marks lists and trans-fer cer t i f icates of nine students appeared forOpen School exams in2017-18.

On receiving the com-plaint, the VizianagaramAnti-corruption Bureauteam led by deputy superin-tendent of police BVSNageswara Rao laid a trapagainst the accused at hishome in Chanduluru vil-lage.

Both his fingers yieldedpositive result when he wassubjected to chemical test.Tainted cash was recoveredfrom the accused. Anti-corruption Bureau officialsseized records from him.

Continued from Page1

The Jana Sena chief saidduring his recent visit toMandadam he was startled bycertain facts. "Most of thepeople who have joined theland pooling scheme are thosewho once owned half-acre oreven less. They had voluntar-ily given their lands. Now, theyknow not what future holdsfor them. They would till theirland and take some on lease toraise various crops," he said.

Stating that a lot of talk wasgoing on over striking a bal-ance in the development of allregions of the State, PawanKalyan said it was a welcometrend but the policymakersshould take enough care toensure that it was achievedwith dedicated efforts talkinginto consideration sensitiveaspects in the State.

"I am of the view that villagesecretariats represent devolu-tion of powers at the grass-roots-level. What is the decen-tralisation the government istalking about?" he asked.

The Jana Sena chief opinedthat all organs of administra-tion should remain at oneplace for better coordination

and logistical convenience.He wondered why the gov-

ernment had deployed hugeforces in the Capital villages,the peaceful protestors espe-cially women were being sub-jected to inconvenience andharassment. "I was witness toan incident where an inspec-tor asked a protestor his name.When he told his name, theinspector slapped him. This isnothing but police highhand-edness," Pawan Kalyan said.

Calling for a rational atti-tude rising above regional,social and communal consid-erations, he underlined theneed for statesmanship to findan amicable and lasting solu-tion to the Capital problem.

Pawan wants BJPto step in to defuse‘Capital’ tensionsContinued from Page1

Apart from Jagan, YSRCgeneral secretary and parlia-mentary party leader V VijayaSai Reddy, who is Accused No.2 in the case, also attended thecourt.

Jagan stayed in the court hallfor nearly two hours as thejudge heard the arguments ofboth the sides.

His counsel again soughtexemption from the personalappearance of the AP ChiefMinister in CBI court.

However, this was stronglyopposed by counsels of the CBIand ED.

After hearing both the argu-ments, the judge adjourned thecase to January 17.

YSRC MLA fromSrikakulam and former minis-ter Dharmana Prasada Raoand a few IAS officers alsoattended the court in connec-tion with the same case.

Though Jagan had beenattending the CBI court pro-ceedings regularly in the past,it has become difficult for himafter he became the ChiefMinister.

Jagan had been avoidingattending the court in personevery Friday by filing a petitionunder Section 317 of theCriminal Procedure Code

seeking exemption from per-sonal appearances, stating thathe was not able to attend thecourt due to compelling rea-sons.

He plea in the court was thathe had the constitutionalresponsibility to govern thestate and also due to huge bur-den on the state exchequer byway of making securityarrangements for him.

However, the CBI stronglyopposed this, stating that Jagancould influence the witnesses,if he was granted personalexemption. The CBI courtagreed with this argument andrefused to grant exemptions.

On January 3, the CBI court,however, refused to entertainmore such petitions by Jaganand directed him to attendcourt on January 10.

Meanwhile, Jagan's motherYS Vijayalakshmi and sister YSSharmila skipped the courthearing on Friday.

The special court for the trialof criminal cases against MPsand MLAs in Hyderabad hadissued summons to both ofthem last week, directing themto appear in court in a case per-taining to poll code violationbooked against them in 2012 inParakala in Warangal district.Their lawyers attended courton their behalf.

Jagan appears in CBI court inHyderabad amidst tight security

Summons toSabitha, Dharmana

Continued from Page1

The summons was alsoissued to IAS officer SriLakshmi, retired officersSamuel and VD Rajagopal,DRO Sudershan Reddy andTahsildar Ellamma who wereasked to be present before thecourt on January 17. Thoughthe charge sheet was filed twoyears back, hearing was sus-pended due to the stayimposed by the High Court.

The CBI court took up thehearing after the High Courtlifted the stay. The CBI courtdismissed the argumentsmade by AP Chief MinisterYS Jaganmohan Reddy whopleaded the court not to takeup hearing on supplementarycharge sheets.

The CBI said that it has theright to file supplementarycharge sheets whenever itcollects key evidence. Thecharge sheet said that therewere irregularities in the allo-cation of lands in Anantapurand Thandur to Penna

Cement. The CBI allegedthat Sabitha, the then miningminister, and Dharmana, thethen revenue minister hadneglected their duties whenthey were part of the cabinetled by late Chief Minister YSRajasekhar Reddy between2004 and 2009.

The CBI had sought judi-cial custody of both the min-isters in August 2013 in thedisproportionate assets casesfiled against YS JaganmohanReddy, which the CBI Courthad rejected then. Sabithawas charged with allotting 407acres in Kadapa district asminister for mines.

Dharmana resigned inAugust 2013 on being namedby the CBI in its fourthcharge-sheet for irregularitiesin land allotment to the VAN-PIC project. Sabitha tooresigned after her name fig-ured in the fifth charge-sheetfiled by the CBI which saidthere were irregularities in thegrant of prospecting licencesto Dalmia Cements.

Internet access is a fundamental right, says SC

Continued from Page1

The verdict came on a batchof pleas which challenged thecurbs imposed in Jammu andKashmir after the Centre's abro-gation of provisions of Article370 on August 5 last year.

These pleas were differentfrom another set of petitionswhich have challenged the con-stitutional validity of abrogationof Article 370, being heard by asperate 5-judge Constitutionbench which will resume itshearing on January 21.

The 3-judge bench hadreserved the judgement onremoval of curbs on November27 last year.

On November 21, the Centrehad justified restrictionsimposed in Jammu andKashmir after the abrogation of

provisions of Article 370 andsaid that due to the preventivesteps taken, neither a single lifewas lost nor a single bulletfired. Besides Congress leaderGhulam Nabi Azad, the apexcourt had heard the petitionsfiled by Anuradha Bhasin,Executive Editor of KashmirTimes, and few intervenorsquestioning the restrictions inthe Kashmir Valley.

The Centre had referred toterror violence in the Valley andsaid that for the past so manyyears terrorists were beingpushed through from across theborder, local militants and sep-aratist organisation had held thecivilians captive in the regionand it would have been "foolish"if the government would nothave taken preventive steps tosecure the lives of citizens.

2 die, capitalshifting blamed

Continued from Page1

Family members said shewas depressed over the talksthat the Capital would beshifted to Visakhapatnam.

In the second incident, anagricultural labourer hangedhimself at his home inAmaravati on Friday, alleged-ly depressed over the pro-posed shifting of the statecapital.

According to police,Vemuri Gopi (24) eked out aliving as tractor driver. Hisfamily members said he hadgone into depression over thelast few days while participat-ing in the agitation againstthe shifting of the Capital.

With Nanda Kumari'sdeath, the number of farmers,who have died of heart attackallegedly after beingdepressed by the capital shift-ing proposal, has climbed toseven. In all, the death of 12people, including farmers andfarmhands, is being attributedto the ongoing turmoil overcapital shifting.

KTR pitches for Southern Industrial CorridorContinued from Page1

The latter responded positive-ly and directed his officials tosubmit a detailed report based onthe proposals submitted by theTelangana government.

The Telangana IT Minister

informed the Union Ministerthat the state government hadalready written letters to variousneighbouring States seeking sup-port for the Southern IndustrialCorridor. The proposed SIC willinvolve and benefit Telangana,Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and

Tamil Nadu. He also soughtsupport for setting up a dry portas well as multi-model logisticparks in the State.

KTR invited Piyush to partic-ipate in the Bio Asia 2020 con-ference to be held in Hyderabadon February 17. The Union

Minister enquired about the sta-tus of the Hyderabad PharmaCity, which has been envisagedas the world's largest integratedpharma cluster and also theNational Investment andManufacturing Zone (NIMZ)coming up at Zaheerabad.

ErstwhileParlakhemundiKing passesaway in Odisha

Continued from Page1

Born in 1943, he was elect-ed as Berhampur MP onCongress ticket twice in 1989and 1991. He later joined BJPand shifted to Biju Janata Dalin 2009. Political and socialleaders from across the spec-trum mourned the death of theerstwhile King.

Chief Minister NaveenPatnaik expressed his deepgrief at the passing away ofParala Maharaja GopinathGajapati Narayan Deo. TheChief Minister also conveyedhis deep sympathy to thebereaved family. Forest andEnvironment Minister BikramKeshari Arukh attended thefuneral on behalf of the ChiefMinister.

PNS n VISAKHAPATNAM

Acting on the complaintsreceived through toll free num-ber, 14,400, Anti-CorruptionBureau sleuths raided Sub-Registrar offices across theState on Friday.

They not only seized unac-countable cash of Rs 10.3 lakhfrom the 13 SRO offices butalso detected irregularities dur-ing the raid, according to ACBDirector General PSRAnjaneyulu. The bureau is yetto make irregularities public asthe enquiry is in progress.

It may be noted that as partof the fight against corruption,Chief Minister YSJaganmohan Reddy hadlaunched the Citizens' HelpCentre to register complaintsof bribery in governmentoffices two months ago.Citizens' helpline number is14400. Any citizen can call onthis toll-free number to makecomplaints about corruption

in government offices. Thehelp centre will register com-plaints and complete the inves-tigation in 15-30 days.

It is learnt that the briberyamount for the registrationof properties is demandedwhich varies between 1 and2% of the property value.Despite the raids from the

ACB, the corruption is ram-pant in the stamps and reg-istration department. It isalleged that if the propertybuyers won't give the bribe,the staff of the registrationdepartment deliberatelydelay the registration of theproperties citing various rea-sons.

ACB team finds misdeedsin SRO offices during raid

Twitterati extend greetingson #WorldHindiDay

VIJAYAWADA | SATURDAY | JANUARY 11, 2020 nation 04SHORT READS

Delhi needsdevelopment notadvertisements: NaddaNEW DELHI: Weeks ahead of theassembly elections in thenational capital, BJP's workingpresident JP Nadda heldorganisational meetings withparty workers on Friday and saidDelhi needs "development notadvertisement". Nadda told partyworkers to conduct door-to-doorcampaigns to expose the lies ofthe APP government led byArvind Kejriwal. "We will godoor-to-door in Delhi to exposethe injustice done by the Kejriwalgovernment to the people ofDelhi, the lies spoken to themand the scams committed by thegovernment," Nadda tweeted."Delhi needs development notadvertisement," he said. SanjayMayukh, media co-incharge ofthe party, said Nadda has beenholding the organisationalmeeting with party workerssince Friday morning and willcontinue till late in the night. Thestate assembly constituencieswhere the meetings arescheduled to be held areTrinagar, Shalimar Bagh, Burari,Timarpur, Chandani Chowk andBabarpur. The meetings arebeing held to take stock of theparty's election preparednessand motivate the workers for theassembly polls, he said.

Pak Army lobs mortarsin Poonch, 2 Armyporters killed

Thieves break openATM, flee with Rs 8lakh cash in JaipurJAIPUR: Unidentified miscreantsbroke open an ATM of a privatebank and fled with cash worthRs 8 lakh in Harmada area here,police said on Friday. Theincident happened inRadhakishanpura village onThursday night when the thievesbroke the ATM of HDFC Bankand fled with the currencynotes, Harmada station houseofficer Ramesh Saini said. Theyalso broke the CCTV camerasinstalled in the ATM kiosk, headded. The bank has registereda case against unidentifiedpersons, the SHO said. Cashworth Rs 10 lakh cash wasstored in the ATM recently bythe bank and Rs 2 lakh hadbeen withdrawn by customersbefore the theft happened, theofficer pointed out.

JAMMU: Two Army porterswere killed and three othersinjured when the Pakistan Armyfired mortar bombs at forwardposts along the LoC in Jammuand Kashmir's Poonch districton Friday, officials said. TheArmy porters were working inan area along the LoC when thePakistan Army shells hit themdirectly, they said. "Today atabout 1100 hours PakistanArmy initiated unprovokedshelling with mortars along LoCin Gulpur sector in districtPoonch", a defence spokesmansaid. In the shelling, twoporters were killed and threeothers were severely injured, hesaid. The injured have beenhospitalised and efforts are onto recover the bodies of the twoother porters.

‘Porn’ comment made in context ofChhapaak ‘distorted’: Gopal BhargavaPNS n BHOPAL

BJP leader Gopal Bhargava onFriday said his "porn" remarkmade in context of Hindi film'Chhapaak' getting tax-free sta-tus in the Congress-ruledMadhya Pradesh has been "dis-torted", and took potshots atactor Deepika Padukone over hervisit to Delhi's JNU.

The Leader of Opposition inthe assembly said the film - basedon the life of an acid attack sur-vivor - played by actor Padukone- has been made tax-free by theCongress due to politician rea-sons.

Asked about his commentthat even if it was a "porn" film,it would have been made tax-freein the Congress-ruled state, theBJP legislator appeared to dis-tance himself from the controver-sial statement. It was not like that.My statement was distorted. Mysarcastic comment was misinter-

preted," he told. "The film wasnot even released and still it wasmade tax-free. Be it stunt oraction or anything...if porn, theywould have done it even then,"Bhargava told reporters inHoshangabad on Thursdaywhen asked about the Hind filmgetting tax-free status in MadhyaPradesh.

The film, directed by MeghnaGulzar, was declared tax -free in

the Congress-ruled MadhyaPradesh and Chhattisgarh onThursday, a day before its release.

Madhya Pradesh ChiefMinister Kamal Nath took toTwitter on Thursday to make theannouncement, saying the moviegives a "positive message to thesociety about acid attack sur-vivors."

Speaking to reporters in Hardaon Thursday, Bhargava took a dig

at Padukone over her visit to JNUon Tuesday to express solidaritywith students injured in attack bymasked goons over the lastweekend.

A heroin should dance inMumbai. Why should she go toJNU? I dont understand suchpeople who have come up...whoare called activist-artists," hesaid. "The MP governmentdeclared it ('Chhapaak') tax-freebecause activities of its stars suittheir ideology. JNU is a place forstudy and not for promotionalactivities of Bollywood movies,"Bhargava said.

He said the earlier practice wasfor a state government commit-tee to declare a film tax-free, butin case of 'Chhapaak', theBaadshah (a reference to Nath)himself made the announce-ment.

Reacting strongly to Bhargavas"porn" comments, MP Congressmedia department chairperson

Shobha Oza termed them asderogatory towards women.

"On one hand Chief MinisterKamal Nath has decided tomake the film tax-free to give apositive message to the society,while on the other Bhargava hasmade remarks which are too lowand highly derogatory towardswomen," she said. Oza also con-demned Bhargava for describingthe actress, the daughter of bad-minton legend PrakashPadukone, as "nachnewali" andtermed it highly undignified forwomen.

"It reflects not just Bhargavasthinking about women, but alsoexposes the entire BJP," she said.Padukone's visit to the JNUcampus evoked a range of reac-tions. Many appreciated her"silent solidarity" with JNU stu-dents, but some others criticisedher for "supporting Leftists", say-ing it was a promotional stuntahead of her film's release.

PNS n JAMMU

In the first such trip by foreigndiplomats post August 5,envoys of 15 countries includ-ing the US on Friday interact-ed with civil society membersand were briefed by a high levelteam led by Chief SecretaryBVR Subramanian and DGPDilbag Singh.

The team arrived in theKashmir valley on Thursdaywhere they interacted withselect political representatives,civil society members as well asmilitary top brass even as thegovernment rejected criticismthat it a "guided tour".

US Ambassador to IndiaKenneth Juster was among theDelhi-based envoys who spentaround seven hours inSrinagar.

Last October, some mem-bers of the EuropeanParliament had visited Srinagarbut envoys had so far not beenallowed to visit the valley.

The official team led byChief Secretary and DGParrived this morning andbriefed the team on variousaspects of the security situationpost abrogation of Article 370and carving out two UTs, offi-cials said.

It was followed by the meet-ing with various various dele-gations including WestPakistan refugees, ValmikiSamaj and representatives ofGujjars and lawyers, they said.

Financial commissioner,Health Atul Dulloo briefedthe team about the healthfacilities created by the govern-ment and gave a overview ofthe sector.

The meeting is presently onwith delegations, they said.

The team is scheduled tovisit the biggest Kashmirimigrant camp at Jagati on theoutskirts of Jammu city late thisafternoon and will interactwith them.

The envoys flew to Jammu,the winter capital of the newlycarved out union territory, lastevening. Lt Goveror G CMurmu hosted a dinner andinteracted with them.

Earlier, they were flown in achartered aircraft which land-

ed at the technical airporthere. They were taken direct-ly to the army cantonment fora briefing by top military brass,officials said here.

This time there was no har-tal call and shops and businessestablishments were function-ing and civilian traffic was seenon the roads unlike theOctober visit of the delegationof Members of EuropeanParliament, which was organ-ised by a private NGO.

The delegation, accompa-nied by Secretary (West) ofMinistry of External AffairsVikas Swarup, was briefed bya team of top army officersled by Lt Gen K J S Dhillon,who heads the strategically-located XV corps in Kashmir,they said.

The envoys, who are here aspart of the government's diplo-matic outreach to rebutPakistan's propaganda on theKashmir issue, would also bea part of a reception hosted byLt Governor G C Murmu inthe evening at Jammu. Besidesthe US, the delegation includesdiplomats from Bangladesh,Vietnam, Norway, Maldives,South Korea, Morocco, andNigeria. They would return toDelhi on Friday.

PNS n KOLKATA

A delegation of Bengal BJPleaders is likely to meet PrimeMinister Narendra Modi, dur-ing his two-day visit to the cityfrom January 11, to brief himabout the steps taken tocounter the TMC's "misinfor-mation campaign" on the newcitizenship law, party sourcessaid.

The saffron party memberswere also planning to apprisehim of the "deteriorating lawand order situation" in the stateduring the meeting, sched-uled to be held at Raj Bhavan,they said.

"We would like to meet himseparately, during his visit, toapprise him about the worsen-ing law and order situation inthe state. We will tell him thatthe state government hadallowed infiltrators to have afree run during protests inDecember," a senior state BJPleader said.

The prime minister is set toattend 150th anniversary cele-brations of the Kolkata PortTrust (KOPT) on January 12,among other scheduled pro-grammes.

"We plan to brief him aboutthe steps taken by our

state unit to counter the mis-information campaign by

Trinamool Congress and otheropposition parties," he said.

The CAA, which seeks togrant citizenship to non-Muslim minorities who fledreligious persecution inAfghanistan, Pakistan andBangladesh and moved toIndia before December 31,2014, has emerged as the lat-est flashpoint in the state, withthe TMC opposing the legisla-tion tooth and nail, and theBJP pressing for its imple-mentation.

Protests over the new lawand a proposed pan-IndiaNRC had rocked West Bengalmid-December, with incidentsof violence and arson report-ed from various parts of thestate. Chief Minister Mamata

Banerjee has accused the saf-fron camp of dividing masseson religious lines.

Bengal BJP team likelyto meet Modi

PNS n NEW DELHI

Civil Services officers from 13 rail-way zones and around 60 divisionshave submitted written memoran-dums running into more than 250pages against the merger of railwayservices, alleging the decision was"unilateral" and will negativelyimpact the safety of trains opera-tions.

Big brown envelopes containingthe representations against the merg-er of eight services into the IndianRailway Management Service

(IRMS) have been delivered to thedesks of the railway board chairman,the railway minister, DoPT secretary,cabinet secretary and even theprime minister on Wednesday andThursday.

The railways in a press releaseannouncing the merger had statedthat the reform was undertaken with"overwhelming support and consen-sus of railway officers, at a two-dayconference 'Parivartan Sangoshthi'held on December 7 and 8, 2019."

However, the representationsalleged that in the 'Parivartan

Sanghoshti', 12 groups were formed,each headed by general managers(GMs) and the decision was taken"to suit the Engineering Service offi-cers over their civil service counter-parts". The memorandums statedthat there are around 2,500 civil ser-vices officers who will be affected bythe merger.

"All the general managersbelonged to engineering services.The group members were takenfrom the respective zones of theGMs concerned. Only the GMswere allowed to speak. The dissent-

ing views of the group memberswere not allowed by the respectiveGMs who happen to be controllingofficers of the members. In reality,the personal views of the generalmanagers were regarded as theviews of the group," alleged a repre-sentation from the Ambala Divisionof the Northern Railway and the sen-timent echoed in all the memoran-dums.

"If disagreements and differencesof opinion was not allowed to beexpressed, how could the consulta-tion process be considered as demo-

cratic, as desired by the railway min-ister," it stated.

All the representations also high-lighted how the move will compro-mise safety in train operations, stat-ing that to avoid asset failures,expert specialization of that asset isessential. A senior official of railwaystold PTI, "The Indian RailwayPromotee Officers' Federation hasalready given a strong support to themerger exercise. This federationconsists of 3,700 officers out of 8,400officers in the Group A service of theIndian Railway."

Majority of politicalleaders in J&K freenow: Ram Madhav

Work in full swing for world'shighest railway bridge in J-K

PNS n HYDERABAD

Majority of political leaders inJammu and Kashmir detainedfollowing the abrogation ofArticle 370 have been set freenow and the remaining about 20-25 would "hopefully' be releasedin the next few weeks, BJPGeneral Secretary Ram Madhavsaid on Friday.

"Majority of the leaders arefree now. About 20-25 of themare still in detention. I am hope-ful that they will be set free bythe end of this month or maybenext few weeks," he told PTIhere on the sidelines of anevent. He was asked when thedetained political leaders wouldbe allowed to participate innormal activities.

The curbs on internet arebeing "progressively" removedand the services would be fullyrestored in the entire UnionTerritory 'very soon,' he said.

"Mobile services are fullyoperational now, including mes-saging service and I am sure very

soon the internet services willalso be fully restored in the entireUnion Territory," Madhav said.

On the visit of foreign envoys,the BJP leader said it was animportant event to tell the entireworld about the true situation inthe valley.

"The valley is peaceful afterthe important measures that wehave taken. People of the valleylargely are today in a mood towelcome more development,more progress that is what theenvoys who have visited the val-ley must have experiencedthere," he said.

GET BRIEFED BY CS, DGP

The envoys flew to Jammu, thewinter capital of the newly carvedout union territory, last evening. LtGoveror G C Murmu hosted a dinnerand interacted with them

"We would like to meethim separately, duringhis visit, to apprise himabout the worsening lawand order situation in thestate. We will tell himthat the stategovernment had allowedinfiltrators to have a freerun during protests inDecember," a seniorstate BJP leader said

PNS n KAURI (REASI)

Facing challenges and lifethreatening hazards posed byrough terrain and geologicalthrust zones, engineers andworkers are toiling overtime tomeet the last extended dead-line set for 2021 for completionof the world's highest railwaybridge connecting Kashmirwith the rest of the country.

The Udhampur–Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link Project,which is the most challengingrailway infrastructure projectbeing undertaken post-inde-pendence, has missed severaldeadlines amid huge cost esca-lations since 1997, when thethen Prime Minister H D DeveGowda laid its foundation atUdhampur.

"A fresh deadline ofDecember, 2021 was given tous during a recent review meet-ing by the Railway Minister. Itis the most challenging task. Allefforts would be made to com-plete the project by that time,"Chairman and ManagingDirector of Kokan Railways,Sanjay Gupta, told.

Gupta said since the work is

being undertaken at a fastpace and maximum work ofbuilding the arch of the 359-metre high bridge has beencompleted, it is likely that theywill meet the deadline.

Interestingly, the arch of thebridge is 35 metres taller thanthe famous Eiffel Tower inParis. The project, which wasdeclared a national project in2002 with full central fundingto speed up the work, missedseveral deadlines in 2007, 2015,2016, 2017 and 2019. It washalted in 2008 after concernswere raised about its safety andalignment. It is being built ata cost of Rs 12,000 crore.

Chief Engineer,Coordination, KonkanRailways R K Hegde said con-struction of the bridge andtunnels was a tough taskinvolving life threatening haz-ards.

"But our men and machinesare facing such situationsbravely and undeterred to pro-vide to the nation one of thebest technological and engi-neering marvels of the world,"he told PTI. "The constructionof the bridge is the most chal-lenging part of the Kashmirrail link project and once com-pleted, it will be an engineer-ing marvel," Hegde said.

PNS n CHENNAI

Makkal Needhi Maiam(MNM) founder and actorKamal Haasan on Friday saidhis contemporary and super-star Rajinikanth has the"duty" to strive for the devel-opment of Tamil Nadu, muchlike any citizen of the state.

He also expressed concernover the recent attacks on stu-dents at the premierJawaharlal Nehru Universityin New Delhi and called foran a change in the "autocrat-ic" attitude.

Speaking to reporters at theairport here, Haasan said allTamil were duty-bound toinvest their hardwork andenergy towards the progressof the state.

"All Tamils should help...should invest their hardworkand sweat and it is the duty ofall and take it to the levelwhere it has to be. . .he

(Rajinikanth) also has thatresponsibility," Haasan said.

He was responding to aquery on his statement at anevent on Thursday that hewanted Rajinikanth to helpTamil Nadu.

The two actors had last yearexpressed their willingnessto join hands politically in theinterest of the state. WhileHaasan is already headinghis political party MNM,

Rajinikanth had said in 2017that he would take the polit-ical plunge and contest thenext Assembly polls, due nextyear.

On the JNU controversy,Haasan expressed concernover the attacks on the stu-dents and said it has createda 'panic.' "It is also an injus-tice... this should change, thisautocratic (attitude) shouldchange," he said.

Rajini has ‘duty' to strive for TN'sdevelopment: Kamal Haasan

PNS n NEW DELHI

The CPI (M) on Friday said theSupreme Court's judgement onthe restrictions in Jammu andKashmir belie the false claims ofnormalcy that the CentralGovernment has been peddlingto the country and the world.

The apex court on Friday saidaccess to the internet is a funda-mental right under Article 19 ofthe Constitution and asked theJammu and Kashmir adminis-tration to review within a weekall orders imposing curbs in theUnion Territory.

"The Supreme Court hasmade significant comments onthe curbs on civil liberties inJammu and Kashmir whichbelie the false claims of normal-cy that the Central Governmenthas been peddling to the coun-try and the world," the party saidin a statement.

It further said the govern-ment tried to reinforce the offi-cial claims of normalcy by tak-ing a group of foreign envoys ona "farcical" restricted tour to J-

K where they were allowed to seeand hear only what the govern-ment wanted them to, which iswhy none of them could meetthe three former Chief Ministersstill in jail.

"When five months after thelockdown, political leaders, MPsand parties representing thepeople of this country are virtu-ally banned from visitingKashmir, such a tour is insultingto India's parliament," the Leftparty said.

The party demanded thatthe government remove all suchrestrictions, fully restore internetservices, lift prohibitory ordersunder section 144 of CrPC andprotect the democratic rights tofreedom of speech and expres-sion of the people of Kashmir.

‘SC judgement belies falseclaims of normalcy thatgovt has been peddling’

Envoys in Jammu meetcivil society members

Officers across 13 zones, 60 divisions protest railway services’ merger

VIJAYAWADA | SATURDAY | JANUARY 11, 2020 nation 05SHORT READS

‘What kind of partygets intimidated bymovies on social?’NEW DELHI: Delhi DeputyChief Minister Manish Sisodiahit out at the BJP for being"easily intimidated by" and"fearing" certain films thatinvoke a sense of socialresponsibility among people. Inresponse to a question on aBJP leader's call to boycott theDeepika Padukone-starrer'Chhapaak', Sisodia said it isvery disgraceful to see people"getting intimidated" by filmsbased on social issues. "Howcan they be scared of a moviewhich is based on an acidattack victim?" he asked. "Whatkind of a political party is (BJP)if it is easily intimidated by andfears certain films that invoke asense of social responsibilitiesamong people and otherimportant issues such aseducation," he said.

Agriculture scientistfound dead in hotel inUP's Banda

UP govt consideringpolice commissionersystem for LucknowLUCKNOW: The Uttar Pradeshgovernment is considering theintroduction of the policecommissioner system forLucknow and Noida, the statepolice chief said here on Friday.The senior superintendents ofpolice for Lucknow and GautamBuddh Nagar (Noida) weretransferred on Thursday and nonew officers posted thereimmediately. "The governmentis discussing the commissionersystem for Lucknow andNoida," Director General ofPolice O P Singh said. Thesystem gives more powers,including magisterial powers,to IPS officers of the InspectorGeneral of Police (IG) rankposted as commissioners. Thesystem has been implementedin around 71 cities across 15states in the country. As ofnow, the magisterial powers arewith the IAS officers, a seniorpolice officer said. The movewas initiated earlier also butcould not be implemented asIAS and IPS officers were atloggerheads. In December2018, former UP GovernorRam Naik had suggested thestate government to seriouslyconsider introducing thesystem in the state forimprovement in the law andorder situation. He had giventhe suggestion in the presenceof Chief Minister YogiAdityanath while addressing afunction at the Reserve PoliceLines in Lucknow.

BANDA: A 65-year-year oldagriculture scientist was founddead in a hotel in UttarPradesh's Banda district onFriday morning, police said.According to AdditionalSuperintendent of Police LalBharat Kumar Pal, the scientisthas been identified as RB Rai,who was in Banda toparticipate in a two-dayseminar. "Some empty bottlesof alcohol and a couple ofglasses were recovered fromthe room. The room has beensealed. "Rai is a resident ofBareilly and was in Banda toparticipate in a two-dayseminar organised byBundelkhand Vikas Boardbeginning on Friday," theAdditional SP said. He said thescientist has been the directorof the Animal Husbandry andVeterinary Research Institute inAndaman and Nicobar islands.

PNS n NEW DELHI

She considered JNU one of thesafest campuses for women, butnow Charukeshi Bhatt, pursu-ing her masters in PoliticalScience from the university,feels insecure and disturbed inthe wake of the violenceunleased by a masked mob onthe campus on Sunday.

The 24-year-old Varanasinative says the horrific incidenthas "hit the psyche" of students,affecting their daily lives andinterrupting career plans.

"I consider JNU as one of thebest campuses in the countryas far as the safety of women isconcerned. Prior to the attack,I would feel free and safe toroam around here alone at anygiven time, day or night. Butnow, I generally ask a malefriend to accompany me if I amstepping out at night in thecampus," she said.

On Sunday, a mob ofmasked young people stormedthe JNU campus in south Delhiand systematically targetedstudents in three hostels,unleashing mayhem with

sticks, stones and iron rods, hit-ting inmates and breaking win-dows, furniture and personalbelongings. They also attackeda women's hostel.

"However liberal the women

of JNU may be considered,who step out fearlessly other-wise, the trauma of the violenceis taking a toll on our minds.We feel disturbed," she said.

The young student said shecompleted her Bachelor's inPolitical Science from DelhiUniversity's Miranda Housein 2018 before joining theJawaharlal Nehru Universityand both the campuses have"taught me to live boldly andfearlessly".

An uneasy lull prevailed onthe campus on Friday as veryfew people were seen in the

university streets and eatingjoints, otherwise brimmingwith students.

The unease at the universi-ty's Sabarmati Hostel, whichbore a heavy brunt of the mobviolence, was palpable as afew students were seen leavingthe campus fearing for theirsafety on Thursday evening aswell.

Shards of broken glass win-dow panes lay swept on themain entrance of the residen-tial facility, while inside thepopular hostel's mess, a starksilence welcomed visitors.

Post-violence trauma taking toll on our minds,but spirit unbroken: JNU women students

PNS n VARANASI (UP)

Congress general secretaryPriyanka Gandhi Vadra onFriday visited Prime MinisterNarendra Modi's constituen-cy, meeting activists heldduring protests against theamended Citizenship Act andaccusing the government ofacting against theConstitution.

"They were holding apeaceful agitation," she said.

Priyanka met activist cou-ple Ekta Shekar Singh and herhusband Ravi Shekhar, whowere arrested.

"Ekataji's little daughterwas waiting for her. They toldme everything. Injustice wasmeted out to them. Theywere thrown in jail, keptthere for 15 days and seriouscharges were levelled againstthem.

"I am proud that theystruggled and raised theirvoice for their country.Whatever the government isdoing is anti-constitutional,"Priyanka told reporters.

During her four-hour visit,Priyanka paid obeisance atSant Ravidas temple. Latershe reached Shrimath onboat and met social activistsand those held "illegally andlodged in jail by the YogiAdityanath government," aCongress statement said.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Senior Congress leader PChidambaram on Friday saidthe Supreme Court order onJammu and Kashmir is arebuff to the "unconstitu-tional and arrogant" stance ofthe central government andthe J&K administration onrestrictions imposed there,and asked former stateGovernor Satpal Malik toown responsibility and resignas Goa Governor.

"SC order is a rebuff to theunconstitutional and arro-gant stance of the central gov-ernment and the J&K admin-istration on the restrictionsimposed in J&K," the formerUnion minister said onTwitter.

He demanded that theentire team in J&K thatdesigned and executed "theplan" be changed and a newset of administrators whorespect the Constitution beappointed.

PNS n GANDHINAGAR

The Gujarat assembly onFriday ratified a Constitutionamendment bill passed byParliament to extend reserva-tion to Scheduled Castes (SCs)and Scheduled Tribes (STs) inthe Lok Sabha and state assem-blies by another 10 years.

The resolution seeking thenod of the house for the billwas presented by ChiefMinister Vijay Rupani andunanimously passed withopposition Congress support-ing it at a special session of theassembly. The special sessionwas convened to approve theConstitution (126th)Amendment Bill passed byboth houses of Parliament lastmonth.

As per provisions, at least 50per cent of state assemblies

need to ratify a Constitutionamendment bill before it is sentfor presidential assent.

"This bill would help us inrealising Dr B R Ambedkar'sdream of achieving socialequality and development ofbackward communities,"Rupani said.

"Even after over 70 years ofindependence, it's rare to see acase where an SC/ST candidatefights from a general categoryseat and gets elected.

"However, a tribal candidatehas been winning from theBharuch Lok Sabha (unre-served) seat of Gujarat since

long. This is a matter of prideand happiness for us," he saidwhile tabling the resolution.

Shailesh Parmar (Congress)praised Ambedkar for intro-ducing the reservation systemfor SC/ST members in theLok Sabha and assemblies.

With the Congress support,the bill was passed by a voicevote.

PNS n KOLKATA

Alleging that the decisions ofthe BJP-led government at theCentre have largely been dis-criminatory, TMC MP DerekO' Brien on Friday said theCitizenship (Amendment) Act(CAA), much like demonetisa-tion, would hurt the poormost.

O'Brien, while participatingin a discussion on the CAA ata premier law school in thecity, said the country was fac-ing a "serious crisis" due to theCentre's decision to imple-ment the new citizenship law.

"Demonetisation (in 2016)had hit the poor hard. Theimpact remains the same (withregard to CAA, NRC). Thistime, too, the Centre's decisionwill affect housewives, stu-dents, bankers, farmers -- inshort everybody. It will hit thepoorest of the poor the hard-est," the senior TMC leader

claimed.He urged students to read

the full report of the JointSelect Committee ofParliament on the legislation.

The Anglo-Indian MP in theRajya Sabha, who had last Julycompared the government'smove to pass bills in quick suc-cession with little debate to"pizza delivery", recited thePreamble of the Constitution

at the closing ceremony of amock UN session. He request-ed the students to repeat afterhim.

"I have been in public life for16 years. Never have I seen acrisis like the one that hasbefallen us in the past oneyear," O'brien said.

He commended WestBengal Chief Minister MamataBanerjee for taking the lead inprotests against the amendedcitizenship law and a pan-India NRC.

PNS n JAMMU

The National Conference onFriday welcomed the SupremeCourt order on the restrictionsin Jammu and Kashmir andexpressed hope that therestoration of mobile internetservices will help ease the sit-uation in the Union Territory.

In a significant ruling onFriday, the Supreme Courtsaid access to the Internet is afundamental right underArticle 19 of the Constitutionand asked the Jammu andKashmir administration toreview within a week all ordersimposing curbs in the UnionTerritory.

The verdict came on a batchof pleas which challenged thecurbs imposed in Jammu andKashmir after the Centre'sabrogation of provisions ofArticle 370 on August 5 lastyear.

"The observations of theapex court about snapping ofinternet services indefinitelyare significant and the govern-ment must take a call to reviewand restore the connectivityimmediately", NC provincialpresident Devender SinghRana said here.

Rana said the communica-tion clampdown has hugelyimpacted the people of Jammuand Kashmir in general andthose engaged in trade, com-merce, industry and academicsin particular.

The curbs have "virtuallypushed the peace-loving people

of this part of the country tostone-age era with their normalactivities coming to halt," hesaid. The NC leader expressedhope that the restoration ofmobile internet will go a longway in easing out the situation,saying the curbs have taken tollon youths in their pursuit ofcareer advancement as also inthe academic odyssey of vastmass of students.

The tourism trade has alsoreceived a big hit while busi-nesses too have suffered huge-

ly, he said.The NC provincial presi-

dent also sought immediaterelease of all mainstreampolitical leaders, saying thiswill pave the way for initiationof genuine democratic activ-ities.

He said detention of threeformer chief ministers andscores of senior leaders has cre-ated a political vacuum whichis needed to be filled in truespirit of India's rich democra-tic ethos.

PM on two-day Kolkatavisit from SaturdayPNS n NEW DELHI

Prime Minister NarendraModi will be in the WestBengal capital on Saturdayand Sunday to participate insesquicentenary celebrationsof the Kolkata Port Trust anddedication of heritage build-ings to the nation.

On Saturday, the prime min-ister will dedicate to the nationfour refurbished heritage build-ings in Kolkata to the nation,a statement from the PrimeMinister's Office said.

These are the Old CurrencyBuilding, the Belvedere House,the Metcalfe House and theVictoria Memorial Hall. TheCulture Ministry has renovat-ed these iconic galleries andrefurbished them with newexhibitions, while curating theold galleries.

The ministry is developingcultural spaces around iconicbuildings in various metrocities in the country.

To begin with, Kolkata,Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabadand Varanasi are being taken

up under the project.Modi will also participate in

the sesquicentenary celebra-tions of the Kolkata Port Truston Saturday and Sunday.

He will be handing over acheque of Rs 501 crore towardsthe final instalment to meet thedeficit of pension fund ofretired and existing employeesof the Kolkata Port Trust, thestatement said.

The prime minister will alsobe felicitating two oldest pen-sioners of the Kolkata Port

Trust -- Nagina Bhagat, 105,and Naresh ChandraChakraborty, 100.

He will also launch the Portanthem during the event.

Besides, he will unveil aplaque of 150 years of com-memorative installation at thesite of original Port jetties.

The prime minister will alsoinaugurate the upgraded shiprepair faciility of CochinKolkata Ship Repair Unit atNetaji Subhas Dry Dock.

He will inaugurate the full

rake handling facility whilededicating the upgraded rail-way infrastructure of KolkataDock System of KoPT forsmooth cargo movement andimproving turnaround time.

A mechanisation of berthnumber 3 at the Haldia DockComplex of KoPT and a pro-posed riverfront developmentscheme will also be launchedby Modi. In another event, theprime minister will inaugurateKaushal Vikas Kendra andPritilata Chhatri Avas for 200tribal girl students ofSunderbans.

He will also launchthe Port anthemduring the event.Besides, he willunveil a plaque of150 years ofcommemorativeinstallation at thesite of original Portjetties

"This bill wouldhelp us in realisingDr B R Ambedkar'sdream of achievingsocial equality anddevelopment ofbackwardcommunities,"Rupani said.

"I have been inpublic life for 16years. Never haveI seen a crisis likethe one that hasbefallen us in thepast one year,"O'brien said

"The observations of the apex courtabout snapping of internet servicesindefinitely are significant and thegovernment must take a call to reviewand restore the connectivityimmediately", NC provincial presidentDevender Singh Rana said here

The unease at the university'sSabarmati Hostel, which bore a heavybrunt of the mob violence, was palpableas a few students were seen leavingthe campus fearing for their safety onThursday evening as well

‘Restoration of mobile internetservices would help ease situation’

Violence no solution, peacerequired for progress: NaiduPNS n NAGPUR

Vice President Venkaiah Naidusaid on Friday that peace isnecessary for progress as it hasbeen proven that violence hasnot solved any issues.

He also disapproved ofarson and damage to proper-ty and vehicles saying that ifsomeone wants to oppose anymeasure, then they should"burn the idea" behind thatinstead of engaging in physi-cal violence.

Naidu's statements come inthe wake of violent protests inthe country against theCitizenship Amendment Act(CAA) and the NationalRegister of Citizens (NRC).

He was speaking at the inau-guration of the 100th 'All IndiaOriental Conference' beinghosted by KavikulaguruKalidas Sanskrit Universityhere.

"We have to see to it that weas a nation develop positiveattitude, leave negativism, stopaffliction, destruction and

move towardsconstruction...that should bethe attitude of everybody," hesaid.

"After all it is your owncountry. Burning a bus, burn-ing a train and burning vehi-cles...you will have to burn theidea not the physical things.And violence cannot bringany solution, it has beenproven," he said.

"Peace is very muchrequired for progress and if wehave tension then you cannot

pay attention. So we must allcome together to create apeaceful co-existence, peacefulcountry and peaceful world sothat the entire humanity canlive happily, not only withprosperity," Naidu added.

"Prosperity alone will notgive happiness as you requiresomething more for happi-ness. That is there in ourIndian tradition and youshould see to it that this tradi-tion reaches the new genera-tion," he said.

Sulking Congress ministertakes charge in MaharashtraPNS n MUMBAI

Sulking for days over portfo-lios allocated to him,Maharashtra Congress leaderVijay Wadettiwar took chargeof his ministries on Fridayafter a key department allot-ted to his party was give tohim.

Wadettiwar was given OBC,SEBC, saltpan departmentsalong with earthquake rehabil-itation during allocation ofportfolios to Maha VikasAgadhi ministers on Sundaylast.

The MLA fromChandrapur was also sup-posed to get Relief andRehabilitation Ministry, whichwas in the Congress quota.Wadettiwar was upset over not

getting this ministry, whichhas now been allocated tohim, and had stayed awayfrom taking charge of minis-terial responsibilities.

He told PTI that theDepartment of Relief andRehabilitation, which was ear-lier in the Congress quota,went to the Shiv Sena duringallocation of portfolios.

Maharashtra Congress leader Vijay

CAA to hit poor thehardest: Derek O' Brien

MP Derek O' Brien

Jignesh Mevani tears up acopy of the CAA in HousePNS n GUJARAT

Dalit leader and Vadgam MLAJignesh Mevani today tore upa copy of the CAA in theGujarat Assembly. He alsospoke out against NRC andNPR, asking Gujarat ChiefMinister Vijay Rupani to provehis antecedents before con-ducting NPR in the state. Hewondered how Rupani wouldprove his antecedents when heand his parents migrated toIndia from Burma.

Following is his statementon the occasion:

"Today is a black day in thehistory of the GujaratAssembly. It is a black daybecause today the BJP present-ed a resolution celebrating

the unconstitutional CAA inthe Gujarat Assembly.

Our freedom fighters RamPrasad Bismil and AshfaqullahKhan along with many othershad made several sacrifices inGujarat. These sacrifices weremade so that Hindus, Muslimsand Dalits of India should livetogether in harmony and theyenvisioned a secular countryas enshrined in theConstitution of India.

Priyankameets anti-CAA activistsin Varanasi

‘SC order onJK is rebuff to Centre’

Gujarat House passes bill on SC/ST quota

Diplomatic sabre-rattling on thepart of Washington and Tehranfollowing the unwarrantedkilling of Iranian Major GeneralQassem Soleimani has led to a

strange referencing of “Delhi” in the lead-ership statements of both nations to positcounter-narratives. US President DonaldTrump has fronted his manufactured out-rage against Iran and Soleimani in particu-lar to justify his actions. He declared thatSoleimani was the “world’s number one ter-rorist leader.” Trump tweeted, “Soleimanimade the death of innocent people his sickpassion, contributing to terrorist plots as faraway as Delhi and London.”

Meanwhile, the erudite Iranian ForeignMinister, Javad Zarif, postulated a counterto slam the bullying tactics of the Trumpadministration by asking, “How do they feelabout people chanting in the streets of Iraq,in the streets of Moscow, in the streets of NewDelhi and everywhere else that they shouldleave, how do they feel about that? That’s theprice for arrogance, for ignorance, for lackof respect.” In both these statements, “Delhi”was mentioned when actually, the officialstatement on the brewing situation in thePersian Gulf remained mired in diplomat-ic caution and ropewalk.

The last visit of Iranian PresidentHassan Rouhani to India in February 2018had led to the issuance of an official jointstatement titled, “Towards prosperity withgreater connectivity.” It noted among otherstrategic imperatives, “They (Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and Rouhani) called on theinternational community to end selective orpartial approaches to combat terrorism. Inthis regard, it stressed on the need to makeevery effort to reach an agreement and con-clude a comprehensive convention on inter-national terrorism at the United NationsGeneral Assembly (UNGA).”

Importantly, India “reaffirmed its sup-port for full and effective implementationof the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action(JCPOA), which has been endorsed by theUN Security Council and is a crucial con-tribution to the non-proliferation frame-work and international peace, stabilityand security.” This was something that wasunilaterally torn apart by Trump. Singularly,he imagined ghosts in the Iran nuclear dealand in the adherence of Iranian commit-ments. This was very much in contrast tothe views of other signatories to the deal andmultilateral agencies responsible for over-looking the pact.

Clearly “Delhi”, too, wasn’t aligned toTrump’s view on Iran but India’s ownnational and strategic interests forced it tonot express its opinion. Indian discomfiturein abiding by earlier US sanctions againstbuying oil from Iran had led to delicate dis-cussions, which managed temporary waivers.Ultimately, India complied, not fully con-vinced about the US narrative on Iran butbecause larger stakes were involved.

The Iranian “terror” inDelhi, as mentioned by Trump,could only refer to the 2012 carbomb attack on the then IsraeliDefence Attaché’s wife in Delhi.Back then, a few suspects werearrested and interrogated by theIndian police and the judicial sys-tem but no one was convicted.

Two questions persistedabout this incident. First, if com-pelling evidence was there to nailIranian complicity, then surelythe US-Israeli combine wouldhave had enough heft and stakesin India to see through the con-viction? Second, back then, Indiahad just replaced China as thebiggest market for Iranian oil.Why would an economicallystruggling Iran risk offendingIndia with terror attacks? Yet, thetaint survived and resurfaced inTrump’s questionable attempts toslam Soleimani as a “terrorist”,who conducted operations from“London to Delhi.”

To understand the situation,context is of prime importance.General Soleimani was the com-mander of the Quds Force,which had been at the forefrontof advancing Iran’s strategic sec-tarian interests in an interven-tionist manner. His forces, alongwith a host of supporting mili-tias, played an invaluable role inrouting the Islamic State (IS). Inthe bargain, the reclaimed ter-ritories passed in favour of hisco-sectarian and anti-US ally,Bashar-al-Assad’s SyrianGovernment. This resulted in

the parallel defeat of America,Arab Sheikhdom-sponsoredmilitias and forces both in Iraqi-Syrian lands and Yemen.

However, almost all terrorattacks across the world since9/11 can be traced to the perni-cious support extended by theideological fount of the US alliesin Arab sheikhdoms and not toTehran. Even beyond theMiddle-East, terror set-ups likethe Boko Haram in Nigeria, Al-Shabab in Somalia and theTaliban in Afghanistan amongothers are all irreconcilablyopposed to Shiite Iran. They findfinancial and ideological succourfrom the Arab Sheikhdoms.

Now, Soleimani’s QudsForce is believed to have eightdirectorates, including one clus-ter that conjoins the Pakistan-Afghanistan-India theatre.However, the realistic focus ofSoleimani’s concerns may havebeen directed towards theMiddle Eastern theatre. Even inthis specific directorate, the Shiainterest is most vulnerable inPakistan and Afghanistan andnot in India.

The Israeli tact of covertglobal actions is an establishedpractice with officially sanctified“hits” to neutralise its stated ene-mies. Murmurs were rife aboutthe Delhi attack being a recip-rocal Iranian revenge for Israelicovert operations to “take out”Iranian scientists. Even if trueand unacceptable on Indiansoil, it does not qualify linearly

as bringing terror infrastructureinto India but as an incidentalpart of the ongoing cloak-and-dagger between Iran and Israelas it plays out globally.

If anything, Iranian andIndian interests converge strate-gically in the sensitive realm ofAfghanistan (much to the con-sternation of Pakistan) as also inthe development of a counter-poise to the Chinese built facil-ity at Gwadar in Pakistan and inthe joint development of theChabahar Port in Iran as analternative artery to CentralAsia and Afghanistan.

Besides, India has had sev-eral decades of experience inunderstanding and documentingthe terror industry and its nurs-eries, benefactors and routes. Insuch a long time, it has neverrecorded or even expressed con-cern about any possible Iranangle on terror as yet. Certainly,the truth is somewhere inbetween as neither can an inter-ventionist force like the QudsForce be expected to abide byinternational rules, nor werethere any mega protests ofmourning, as has been claimed.But the US and its alliedSheikhdoms are crying wolf astheir own record in creating orfacilitating the ongoing mess inthe Middle-East and in fuellingthe terror industry in general faroutstrips that of Iran.

(The writer, a military veteran, is a former Lt Governorof Andaman & Nicobar Islands)

When Britain’s Prince Harry marriedAmerican actor Meghan Markle, hehad already made the transition from

tradition to modernity, casting off his regal aurato be a clutter-breaking, young influencer asa commoner. He made sure that his new wifesported his mother, Princess Diana’s jewels,a tribute to her unassailable appeal as the palaceinsider who conformed and rebelled in partsand one who is still betted upon by global mar-keters to keep the House of Tudor relevant cer-emonially. And it was this populist aura and

her brand ambassadorship that Britain could not and still cannot ignore, usingit to sell the royals as part of an exportable culture, attracting tourists, brandsand the subsidiary economy of memorabilia and lifestyle markers. By decidingto step back as “senior members of the royal family,” refusing some part of theroyal purse that comes from the British public and choosing to run an indepen-dent global foundation, Harry and Meghan are pretty much following her foot-steps. They are not only reinventing their relevance in a fluid world of images,where icons are being created and destroyed daily, but challenging the stiff upperlip of convention. In that sense, their desire to “carve their own path” with the“aim of becoming financially independent” ought to be lauded. And if they choosea profession to reclaim their destiny on their terms, there is nothing wrong withit. Except they would have to make a clean break then as progressives and notbe part-time as they propose now, looking to have the cake and eat it too.

The decision should not have come as a shock to anyone because the youngcouple has right from the beginning of their relationship been straining at the royalleash. Prince Harry was always a wild child and a non-challenger to the throne.And Meghan was not one to let Harry’s title or Queen Elizabeth II intimidate her.Unlike Kate Middleton, who, too, is not of royal blood but has adhered to theQueen’s strict rules and etiquette, she has broken almost every tradition. Rightfrom public displays of affection to moving out of the Kensington Palace and liv-ing in a small cottage, to holding a baby shower and announcing the birth oftheir son Archie on Instagram, the couple has done it all. The monarchy has longbeen a financial burden as it costs over £250 million a year to maintain, a fig-ure which is bound to pinch in times of an economic slowdown and spendingcuts. This will bite even more once Brexit becomes a reality. Surely the Queen-obsessed Britain can see that and not worry how she was hurt by her family?

The Supreme Court has not just relievedbesieged Kashmiris from their ordeal byasking the Government to review inter-

net shutdowns and restrictive orders on theirfree movement. It has re-established the moraltrajectory of what a democracy should be ata time when a nation’s choices and opinionsare swelling with majoritarian emotion ratherthan corrective reason. When the brute forceof arrogance is intolerant of any kind of logi-cal dissent and wants subservience withoutcontrarianism as the only political culture. In

that sense, the ruling is significant as it applies to every oppressive measure inforce and cautions the regime against overreaching itself. The top court cate-gorically asserted that internet use was as much about the freedom of speechand expression under Article 19 (1) (A) of the Constitution, that “suspension offree movement, internet and basic freedoms cannot be an arbitrary exercise ofpower” and that “mere expression of dissent or disagreement against a Governmentdecision cannot be reason for internet suspension.” The court further criticisedthe repeated use of Section 144, a colonial-era rule to ban large gatherings inthe erstwhile State that was downgraded into a Union Territory after Article 370was scrapped. “It can’t be used as a tool to oppress difference of opinion,” thebench said. And lest the Government slacken on relaxations or use the argu-mentative logic of clampdowns being a protective shield against threats fromPakistan-exported militancy, the court has asked that all restrictive orders of thelast five months be made public so that they can be challenged legally. This issignificant, considering the severe detention orders against politicians, business-men, notables and civil society, particularly three former Chief Ministers, whohave forever been considered “friendlies” of New Delhi, sworn by the idea ofIndia and been the buffer against extremist hawks in the Valley. This means thatthey can now seek legal redress, the court implying some concern over theGovernment’s assumption that their continued demand for an autonomous arrange-ment vis-a-vis the Valley was seditious and in conflict with the new arrangement.And nothing could reset the balance with a counterpoint than Justice NV Ramanna’squoting Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities to describe the prevalent situation:“It was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness.” It is the grimmestreminder of how the Government wants to bequeath a legacy in the Valley, as apunisher in a conflict zone or as a healer of history.

The internet shutdown in Kashmir has crippled more than common life, ithas paralysed its economy, pushing away even the most moderate civilians insteadof coopting them. The Kashmir Chamber of Commerce has estimated a loss ofaround `10,000 crore following the stoppage of online business transactions.This comes to around seven per cent of the State’s GDP for 2017-18. Accordingto a 2018 report by Delhi think-tank Indian Council for Research on InternationalEconomic Relations (ICRIER), internet curbs between 2012 and 2017 cost theState economy `4,000 crore. The tourism industry has been the worst hit in aState that depends on it. According to the 2017 economic survey by the thenGovernment, the tourism sector makes for around 6.98 per cent of the State’sGDP. The absence of internet has affected hotel bookings and even allied sec-tors like handicrafts, handlooms and transport, which were hoping to draw sus-tenance from online sales, considering there were very few visitors in the Valley.App-based aggregator services and online businesses have all but wound up.The students, who can actually be used to re-contour politics, are at the worstreceiving end. Without the internet, they have been taking trains to neighbouringareas to register for competitive exams, complete theses and continue onlinestudy courses. Telemedicine, a life-saver in a terrain that’s not conducive for rush-ing patients to speciality centres during major health emergencies, has collapsed.Doctors had established online volunteer networks to share reports and guidecolleagues on-site to treat serious cases and save lives. Draconian lockdownsanywhere have only ended up breeding distrust and strengthened the anti-estab-lishment resolve. If the Government indeed wants to champion the cause of devel-opment, a reason it cited for redefining the status of Kashmir, then it has got toengage with the situation on the ground as is and not craft its new normal. Onlyan evolution of dialogue and not imposition can work in Kashmir.

No real change

Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Finally, a closure” (January 9).After a seven-year-long legal bat-tle, Nirbhaya’s family will finallyheave a sigh of relief and herdeparted soul will be in peace.Perseverance on the part of herparents, media pressure and pub-lic support have all contributed tobringing a closure to this case.

But today is also the time forsome introspection: Could justicehave been delivered faster? Hasour Government done enough toensure women feel safe whiletravelling, especially after sunset?Have CCTVs and policepatrolling covered all such cor-ners of the national capital?

We still have a long way to gobefore we make the country safefor women. Changes have beenthere — more women now feelempowered to speak against gen-der crimes and discrimination.But the security apparatus and thejustice delivery system is marredwith many loopholes. Until andunless the system is strengthened,death penalties can do little tobring any change.

Bal Govind Noida

Take a stand

Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Feisty Deepika” (January10). It is a matter of relief that byendangering their career andlives, popular actors like DeepikaPadukone, who traditionally pre-ferred to remain “politically cor-rect”, are now coming out on the

streets to remain “morally cor-rect.” Deepika’s stance reminds usof Martin Luther King Jr, whohad once said, “There comes atime when one must take a posi-tion that is neither safe norpolitic, nor popular, but he musttake it because conscience tellshim it is right.”

Kajal ChatterjeeKolkata

Courageous actor

Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Feisty Deepika” (January 10). I’msure when actor Deepika Padukonedecided to visit the JawaharlalNehru University (JNU), she knewit would invite hate. She was thereat the campus for 15 minutes butdid not make any grand statements.

Because she felt the need to visit theuniversity not as an actor but as anordinary citizen, who is acutelyconscious of her rights and respon-sibility in these restive times.

As it is, Deepika is no strangerto controversies. Her 2018 film,Padmaavat, had to face a lot ofresistance from Right-wing groupslike the Karni Sena, which called fora ban on the film. BJP leaderKunwar Surajpal Singh Ammueven announced `10 crore awardto behead Deepika. Despite thethreats, Padmaavat earned `585crore at the worldwide box office.

It wasn’t surprising that BJPleader Tajinder Bagga launched a“boycott Chhapaak” campaign.However, Union Minister PrakashJavadekar distanced himself fromhis call. Instead, he invoked“democracy” and said Deepikawas free to support protestingJNU students. One is forced tothink: Is it Deepika who makes theBJP democratic? Her decisionmust provide courage to otherBollywood actors to raise their voic-es because this is not the time tostay quiet.

Bidyut Kumar ChatterjeeFaridabad

P A P E R W I T H P A S S I O N

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op nionVIJAYAWADA | SATURDAY | JANUARY 11, 2020

06

Caught in the crossfire

BHOPINDER SINGH

The US and allied Sheikhdoms are crying wolf as their own record in creating or facilitatingthe ongoing mess in the Middle-East and the terror industry far outstrips that of Iran

I have never been intimidatedby any powerful person andauthority. I have a naturalinstinct to challenge authority and to test them,and it’s very natural.

Actor—Kangana Ranaut

My simple response toPakistan is even though it islate, neighbour, heal thyselfof your malaise. There are no takers here for your malware.

UN Ambassador —Syed Akbaruddin

S O U N D B I T E

L E T T E R S T O TT H E E D I T O R

JNU, Jamia have parallels in German history

The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) is a unique insti-tution that provides an opportunity to the disadvan-taged to pursue their dreams and aspirations. In recent

times, the university complex has come to resonate withopen, often heated, discussion on issues that matter tothe country. The political musings inside constantly clashedwith the politics of the far-right outside. Lacking in intel-lectual capital to conquer the university, the Right-wingindulged in malicious propaganda. The ferocious assaulton the students and teachers in the campus under the coverof darkness needs to be viewed against this backdrop.

In the 1930s, Adolf Hitler refused to trust universityprofessors and the student community as he feared thattheir academic strength could resist the Gleichschaltung(the process of the Nazification of the German population).He wanted to banish humanistic thinking from the univer-sities. University rectors were committed Nazis and wield-ed uninhibited authority to run the institutions on their freewill. When Hitler came to power in 1933, there were 1.28lakh students studying in that country, which dwindled to

58,325 by 1939. The contributions of the Jews were eitherignored or deplored. Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativitywas dumped as a Jewish plot to gain racial supremacyand subjugate the Germans. Many university intellectuals,who dared to speak, ended up in concentration camps.In some ways, incidents at the Jamia Millia Islamia, theAligarh Muslim University and now JNU have parallels inGerman history.

Haridasan RajanKozhikode

BEYOND THEMIDDLE-EAST,

TERROR SET-UPSLIKE THE BOKO

HARAM INNIGERIA,

AL-SHABAB INSOMALIA AND THE

TALIBAN INAFGHANISTAN

AMONG OTHERS,ARE ALL

IRRECONCILABLYOPPOSED TO

SHIITE IRAN. THEYFIND FINANCIAL

AND IDEOLOGICALSUCCOUR FROM

THE ARABSHEIKHDOMS

Send yyour ffeedback tto:letterstopioneer@gmail.com

People’s princeThe Prime Minister’s exten-sive budget consultation isreserved only for his cronycapitalist friends and notfarmers, students, youth,women or the middle class.

Congress leader—Rahul Gandhi

In a relief to Kashmiris, apex court asks Govt to reviewrestrictive orders and internet bans in a week

Britain’s heart may lie with the ‘hurt’ Queen asHarry & Meghan exit but they are being pragmatic

SC’s conscience call

We have to see to it thatwe as a nation developpositive attitude, leave negativism, stop affliction,destruction and movetowards construction...

Vice President—Venkaiah Naidu

Don’t stop information flow

THE GOVERNMENT IS ADOPTING DOUBLE STANDARDSBY ALLOWING FOREIGN ENVOYS TO VISIT JAMMU

& KASHMIR, BUT NOT INDIAN POLITICIANS.—CONGRESS LEADER

JAIRAM RAMESH

ALLEGATIONS OF GUIDED TOURS UNFOUNDED. ASIMILAR VISIT TO KASHMIR CAN BE ORGANISED INFUTURE FOR OTHERS, INCLUDING FOR EU ENVOYS.—EXTERNAL AFFAIRS MINISTRY SPOKESMAN RAVEESH KUMAR

POINTCOUNTERPOINT

In today’s world, the internet is the lifeblood ofsociety and communication. It not only enablesindividuals to connect and communicate with

each other while eroding physical boundaries, italso provides a corridor to generate, broadcast anddisseminate information within seconds to any dis-tant place. Consequently, it has dramaticallytransformed the contours of our personal, social,political and economic life.

The United Nations Human Rights Council(UNHRC) in a report on the promotion and pro-tection of the right to freedom of opinion andexpression 2011, in chapter V notes, “The Internet,as a medium by which the right to freedom ofexpression can be exercised, can only serve its pur-pose if States assume their commitment to devel-oping effective policies to attain universal accessto the Internet.”

In countries like Estonia, France and CostaRica, access to the internet has been declared as afundamental right. In the Shirin RK vs State ofKerala case in 2019, the Kerala High Court main-tained that the right to access the internet is a fun-damental right. The court further mentioned thataccess to the internet is an inalienable part of theright to privacy and right to education underArticle 21 of the Indian Constitution.

Unremitting and equal opportunity for par-ticipation in the digital territory must be pro-nounced as a prime and pressing necessity in thedigital age. Digital media such as Facebook,WhatsApp, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube withminimal constraints emerged as alternative spacesfor people to voice the actual concerns of citizens.

Further, reliance on such channels diminish-es the authority of the mediocre in the mainstreammedia, that masquerades as a champion of citizen’srights. On its website, the Digital India initiativenotes that to digitally empower its citizens the needfor digital infrastructure as a utility to every citi-zen must be fulfilled. Under the nine pillars ofDigital India, the Universal Access to MobileConnectivity, Internet Access Programme andInformation for All, are majorly highlighted.

The mounting pace of internet shutdown nev-ertheless makes us ponder about the seriousnessof the objective envisioned for Digital India. TheGovernment had launched it to advance a pan-dig-ital character of India, however, ironically, theGovernment itself deprives the digital citizenry ofaccessing the internet. When a large part of thecountry was made to gear up for a Digital andonline India, Kashmir was deliberately pushed toremain under continuous digital darkness for 152days.

Having discussed that, the question then aris-es why is the Government blacking out internetacross the country? The simple answer is that inthe name of maintaining “law and order” it is anintentional move to neutralise all kinds of demon-strations and protests, to not let civil society anduniversity students criticize, plan and assemble forpeaceful protests/gatherings/demonstrations.

Internet shutdown is defined by Access Now(AN) — a non-profit that works for digital rightsaround the world — as when someone, usually agovernment, intentionally disrupts the internet ormobile apps to control what people say or do.Shutdowns are also sometimes called “blackouts”or “kill switches.”

According to a report published by AN, the

number of internet shutdowns by thecountry from January to July, 2019, Indiatops the list with total 80 blackouts.

The report distinctly indicates thatevery year there is a continuous alarm-ing rise in internet shutdowns in Indiaas well as across the world, mainly inAsian and African regions. However, thelegal services organisation SFLC.in,records that between 2013-2015 access-es to the internet was blocked only ninetimes across four Indian States.

Financial aspects of internet shut-down cannot be spurned. The IndianCouncil for Research on InternationalEconomic Relations (ICRIER), NewDelhi, conducted a study, prepared andreleased a report about the impact ofinternet shutdown upon the Indianeconomy on April 25, 2018. The reportmaintains that during 2012 and 2017, theeconomy suffered a loss of approximate-ly $3.04 billion. The figure might exceed$11 to 12 billion if we add internet shut-down in 2018 and 2019.

Meanwhile, it is noteworthy that thePersonal Data Protection (PDP) Bill2019, considers the necessity of the col-lective culture that helps to foster a freeand fair digital economy. Considering thescale of data on internet shutdown inIndia, the digital economy and theobjective of Digital India will merelyresult in another chimaera for Indians.

Right after the anti-CAA protestsflared up in Assam and other north-east-ern States, internet was completely shut.In Assam, the internet was shut down formore than a week. However, due to thetimely intervention of the Guwahati HighCourt services were restored.

Internet services were shut downseven times due to the anti-CAA protestsin dozens of districts of Uttar Pradesh(UP), including Lucknow, Ghaziabad,Prayagraj and Kanpur. In Delhi-NCR,Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh internetwas suspended in limited parts for lessthan a day on various days in December.This is paving the way for digital pover-ty, discrimination and divide.Surprisingly there seems to be no abruptdefinite move from the Government tobridge this widening chasm to justify theaims of Digital India.

According to Internet Right (2011)— an initiative of the DigitalEmpowerment Foundation — develop-ment deficits and divide cannot bebridged if information access and servicesare denied. Hence, restricting somebodyfrom accessing the internet is a gross vio-lation of human rights and underminesone's right to information/access toinformation. It is undemocratic andunconstitutional in nature.

Significantly, the Supreme Court onFriday attested the reasonable necessityto access the internet and termed theinternet shutdown in Kashmir as total-ly illegal. The court further reminded theGovernment that it was violating theIndian telecom rules and directed theauthorities concerned to review uneth-ical and unjust curbs on internet andcommunication systems in Kashmirregion within a week.

The Bench, led by Justice NVRamana ruled, “Freedom of internetaccess is a fundamental right.” TheBench also added that freedom to freespeech and expression is proportionate-

ly curtained due to internet shutdown,granted under Article 19 (1) (a) of theConstitution. Reasonable restrictions tocurb free speech and expression are alsopart of the same law. But no practisingdemocracy shall allow the restrictions toaccess internet for this long. Restrictionscould be imposed for a temporary peri-od to prevent foreseen extreme violenceand misfortune of any kind. However,extended internet blackouts not onlyrestrict society from exercising the con-stitutional right to free speech andexpression but also the right to accessinformation actualised through theinternet in the Digital Age. Lack of accessto the internet might result in massivecorruption and lack of transparency. Thisseverely undermines democratic valuesand fundamental rights rooted in theConstitution. Temporary Suspension ofTelecom Services (Public Emergency andPublic Safety) Rules, 2017 and IndianTelegraph Act, 1885, does not permit forthe complete shutdown as witnessed inthe case of Kashmir, but just for a limit-ed and short period to avoid violence insociety. These rules and law have gross-ly been violated by Government.

Unfortunately, India does not evenhave any new Act to respond to variousethical issues arising at the governanceand policy level in the Age of theInternet.

The Government must seriouslydeliberate and declare the internet as afundamental right to strengthen its tan-gible spirit and standing in the world.

(The writer is Assistant Professor,Department of Philosophy, IP College forWomen, Delhi University)

The mounting pace of internet shutdown makes us ponder about the seriousnessof the Government's objective envisioned for Digital India

analysis 07F I R S T C O L U M N

Time for a socialstock exchange? If SSEs could operate in India, they would ensure

efficacious sustainable unity of the people, the planet and profits

MOHAMMAD IRSHAD

THE SUPREMECOURT ON FRIDAY

ATTESTED THEREASONABLE

NECESSITY TOACCESS THE

INTERNET ANDTERMED THE

SHUTDOWN INKASHMIR AS

TOTALLY ILLEGAL.THE COURT

FURTHERREMINDED THEGOVERNMENT

THAT IT WASVIOLATING THE

INDIAN TELECOMRULES AND

DIRECTED THEAUTHORITIES

CONCERNED TOREVIEW

UNETHICAL ANDUNJUST CURBS

ON INTERNETAND

COMMUNICATIONSYSTEMS IN

KASHMIR REGIONWITHIN A WEEK

Since the beginning of the financial year, investments aiming at high-er returns along with a socially-desirable environmental impact arebeing stressed upon. This is why the concept of social entrepre-

neurship becomes even more relevant, especially in the wake of the UN’s17 Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement at the UNFC-CC 2015. The precedence varies from the UK, Canada, Mexico, Mauritius,Singapore and Brazil to the USA. The Indian economy, too, has realisedthe need to shape up entrepreneurship set-ups under SociallyResponsible Investments (SRIs). Social enterprises in the country undoubt-edly have a tendency to flourish, owing to the fact that India holds oneof the highly-developed “social impact” networks among emerging nations.However, there are certain difficulties that such social enterprises dealwith, the predominant one being the lack of funding.

In this backdrop, the concept of a Social Stock Exchange (SSE) isquite ground-breaking but definitely not novel. SSEs already function insome arrangements in the UK, Canada, Kenya and Singapore. However,the models may be different. SSEs are understood to be the platformthat offers prospective investors opportunities to invest in social enter-prises (SEs) so as to facilitate the realisation of welfare objectives in thelarger landscape of financial inclusion and clean energy. SSEs are pro-posed as a key step in achieving the objective of attracting efficient, effec-tive, transparent and scalable capital and investors with the combinedelements of crowdfunding, donation, peer-to-peer lending and so on, soas to equip SEs and voluntary organisations with the wherewithal to meettheir capital structure requirements. The fundamental question that needslooking into is whether SSEs would work like conventional stock exchangesor be governed by social and green businesses. Globally, it is often debat-ed that the idea behind “impact investing” is that those putting in moneycan pursue financial returns while also intentionally addressing social andenvironmental challenges. It is believed that UN SDGs could be an answerto instrumentalise the universal Theory of Change. For the uninitiated,theory of change is a methodology for planning, participation and eval-uation that is used in companies, philanthropy, not-for-profit and gov-ernment sectors to promote social change.

Undoubtedly, SSEs could be considered the response from uncon-ventional actors, namely private fund advisers who foresee real value inthe form of a more holistic investment market by entailing viable SocialReturn on Investments. International markets have already supported bondissuance for social purposes. For instance, green bonds are debt instru-ments intended to raise funds for projects that have a tangible environ-mental benefit. Unlike successful precedents internationally, the Indianeconomy needs to strive even more prudently to accord compliance underenvironmental, social, governance investment standards. These couldbe a tailor-made solution to social woes where markets and governmentsfail. Broadly, such an exchange enables private capital to be mobilisedfor the public good. Indeed, this requires greater capacity-building on thedemand side and education on the supply side of the market, especial-ly in the context of the Indian economy. Additionally, sanctions from allstakeholders including investors, social businesses and the intermedi-aries become a prerequisite. Moreover, the concept of “impact invest-ing” needs to grow exponentially so as to lure mainstream investors alongwith incremental incentives for them that could eventually reflect via reducedinformation and transaction costs. Indubitably, SSEs possess the poten-tial of combining corporate social responsibility, financial prerogatives,venture philanthropy and sustainable development. Despite such a bear-ing, any sort of global framework that could prove to be the best classbenchmarking approach to drive SSEs remains largely absent. The revis-ited philosophy should travel from responsible investments to sustain-able ones to thematic ones to impact first investments. Only then can itrealise competitive (social good) returns on the world stage with simul-taneous independence from foreign aid. To get this right, enabling con-ditions and contextual factors should be vigilantly determined in advancetowards the successful scaling of ecosystem synergies.

Of course, the regulatory, legal and policy implications of “impactinvesting” and SSEs should be the key policy agenda. It is vital that theSEBI, while launching the SSE, also comes out with the guiding princi-ples of recruiting capable impact assessors. Worldwide, the SSEs found-ed so far are building progressively. Yet incremental change can be trans-formative in providing one mechanism to mobilise more capital for organ-isations that seek to address many of the current social and environ-mental problems. Likewise, rules must be put in place to coordinate trad-ing, settlement and clearance to make SSEs a path-breaking move. IfSSEs could operate in India, this would ensure efficacious sustainableunity of the people, the planet and profits.

(Jain is an Assistant Professor and Senior Research Scholar andNagpal is a Senior Research Scholar at Delhi University)

There are various advantages ofspace exploration as it gives usmore information about our

solar system, the galaxy and the uni-verse. It gives us access to new rawmaterials and better understanding ofthe natural world and so on.

Given the global race to exploreand exploit outer space, people arealready talking about capturing therights of taxation on the moon.However, only four countries haveattempted to reach it so far, with justthree of them being successful.

Taxation on Mars may be decadesaway but giving it some thought nowcould give us the early mover advan-tage as we are heading to the red plan-et soon. Taxes are going to play a big

role in getting to Mars and uponarrival there.

“Space law” was largely formulat-ed in the mid-1960s, when explorationbegan in earnest. In 1967, the basictreaty governing space law, the Treatyon Principles Governing the Activitiesof States in the Exploration and Useof Outer Space, including the Moonand Other Celestial Bodies, otherwiseknown as the “Outer Space Treaty”was concluded.

This treaty, ratified by over 100countries, including the major space-faring nations, lays down a series ofbasic rules. However, the Outer SpaceTreaty does not descend into greatdetail about space use. For example,while it does have some valuable state-ments about states being liable fordamage caused by objects they launchinto space, a principle elaboratedupon in a subsequent 1971 treaty, itis largely silent on the commercial useof space.

Commercial exploitation of spacehas become commonplace and plansfor activity beyond our planet arebecoming more ambitious by theday. Space is becoming a big business

and commercial interests are puttingnew pressures on the law governingouter space. For instance, billionaireslike Elon Musk of SpaceX, Jeff Bezosof Blue Origin, Richard Branson ofVirgin Galactic and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, are racing tolaunch commercial rockets that couldtake tourists to space. While theexact point at which the territory ofstates ends and outer space starts isunsettled, there is a significant amountof commercial activity already under-taken and more planned beyond ter-ritorial boundaries.

Certain areas are still open to con-troversies. Such as, in cases where theMoon Agreement (a multilateraltreaty that turns jurisdiction of allcelestial bodies over to the 11 partic-ipating countries) doesn’t apply in theabsence of international law, couldstates adopt unilateral approaches orwhether commercial exploitation ispossible without an internationalregime.

Some years ago, Indian courts andtribunals concluded in a series of cases,that a satellite in geostationary orbitdoes not give rise to a business pres-

ence or permanent establishment inIndia and that payments for the useof transponder capacity do not con-stitute royalties within Article 12(2) ofthe Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)Model Treaty.

In the leading case, Asia SatelliteCommunications Co. Ltd. vs DIT twoHong Kong-owned satellites were ingeostationary orbit that was not with-in Indian orbital slots allocated by theInternational TelecommunicationsUnion and were not positioned overIndian airspace.

The satellites’ transmission foot-prints extended over several countriesincluding India. The satellite operatoragreed to provide the transpondercapacity on the satellites to televisionbroadcasters to relay their pro-grammes to customers in India.

This case sets before us the diffi-culties of taxation in space, the firstissue being the uncertainty over theboundary between space and Earth.While the Outer Space Treaty purportsto regulate the use of outer space, itdoes not define where space begins.

Also, typical tours of duty on the

International Space Station are aroundsix months and Valeri Polyakov, aRussian cosmonaut, holds the record,having stayed aboard the Mir spacestation for more than 14 months. Thisindicates that it is already realistic forindividuals to cease to be residents ofany state when they go to work inspace. Technological advances willlikely extend this ability even further.

If individuals can be so non-res-ident, then it becomes plausible forcompanies whose management andcontrol is exercised in space similar-ly to be residents outside planetEarth.

A concrete example is a situationwhere you have a satellite owned byone country in orbit over anothercountry providing service to a thirdcountry. This clearly raises a numberof issues regarding taxation.

Also, advances in technology willfacilitate longer periods of extra-ter-restrial travel and residence, allowingfor the possibility of legal entities tobe controlled from space.

As residence in space is an inter-esting concept and we are trying toextend the theory of “source vs resi-

dence” to the moon, satellites and soon, do we have to consider the con-cept of the source or residence inspace?

Where is Martian employmentexercised? That is generally the placewhere you physically undertake thetasks; so if those activities are under-taken outside the territory of any state,what does this mean for taxation?

Another concept that becomesapparent is the issue of permanentestablishment. The only reason that asatellite in geostationary orbit is nota permanent establishment is becauseit is outside the territory of all states.However, if a permanent establish-ment is not in any state, then it has norelevance for the international tax sys-tem. So, no possibility of PermanentEstablishments in Geostationary Orbitshould be revised.

There is still some uncertaintyover how activities in outer space willbe treated by taxing authorities.

When we are talking of taxationon the moon and rights of taxation ofsource of income from the moon, weneed to have some authority that willregister entities there. Also, the tax

authorities don’t have a way to audityou in space. Another question forspace-based taxpayers might be,“What’s the appropriate tax year?”

In conclusion, space law does notprovide clear answers to many of thebasic questions that a tax profession-al would need to ask in order to eval-uate whether outer space activities canbe taxed.

International cooperation shouldbe encouraged to come up with a glob-al mechanism for space exploitationand all countries must share in man-agement and benefits derived fromthis.

There are two possible approach-es to it. “Equitable sharing of benefits”that requires a system of internation-al taxation and one where no interna-tional norm exists. Whether countriescould apply source taxation to busi-ness carried out on the moon, whetheran entity can transfer its residency tothe moon and will OECD adopt thesame approach to the moon as it hasadopted for the geostationary orbit.

(The writer is Group HeadTaxation, with an international secu-rity firm)

Obstacles to outer space taxationInternational cooperation should be encouraged to come up with a global mechanism for space exploitation and all countries

must share in management and benefits derived from this

AMIT RUSTAGI

VIJAYAWADA | SATURDAY | JANUARY 11, 2020

www.dailypioneer.com

MEGHAJAIN

AISHWARYANAGPAL

VIJAYAWADA | SATURDAY | JANUARY 11, 2020 money 08

CAPSULE

Lanka to buy 500buses from India forUSD 15 mnNEW DELHI: Sri Lanka willpurchase 500 buses from Indiafor USD 15 million by utilisingthe line of credit extended to itduring President GotabayaRajapaksa's visit to New Delhi,officials said on Friday. Thenew buses for Sri LankaTransport Board would beprocured to strengthen thecountry's public transport,according to a memoapproved by the Cabinet thisweek. "The Cabinet ofMinisters has given theirconsent for procurement of400 new buses with 50–54seating capacity and 100 newbuses with 32–35 seatingcapacity utilising USD 15.03million under the Indian loangrant/scheme," the memo said.Prime Minister Narendra Modiin November announced afinancial assistance of USD450 million to Sri Lankaincluding USD 50 million tofight terrorism after he held"fruitful" talks with the islandnation's newly electedPresident Rajapaksa.

MyGate aims at 10-fold growth inuser base in 2020NEW DELHI: Mobile-basedsecurity solutionsprovider MyGate is aiming at10-fold growth in user base in2020 as the startup firm hasembarked on an ambitiousexpansion plan, a companyofficial said. With its services,the firm enables homeownersand residents of gatedpremises to monitor andcontrol entries andexits of their visitors and iscurrently operating in 14cities across the country, theofficial said. "At present, we aremanaging two million check-ins every day and aiming at 20million by end of 2020. Therevenue will also increase intandem with the expansion,"MyGate CEO and co-founderVijay Arisetty said.The company will expand itsfootprint to 12 more citiesacross the country with a focuson the east, he said, addingthat it started providingservices at the IIM-Calcutta.After Cuttack and Raipur, thefirm will expand itsservices in Bhubaneswar,Guwahati and Rachi, he said. Inthe eastern part of the country,the company isplanning tosecure 8 lakh homes across2,100 gated communitiesby 2020, Arisetty said.

India's oil demand growth toovertake China by mid-2020s: IEAPNS n NEW DELHI

India's oil demand growth willovertake China by mid-2020s,the International EnergyAgency (IEA) said on Fridayasking the world's third-largestenergy consumer to raise thecapacity of strategic oil storagesas insurance against disrup-tions.

IEA Executive Director FatihBirol said India's current strate-gic oil storage of 10 days of itsimports is not enough to pro-tect it in "rainy days".

IEA projected India's oildemand to reach 6 million bar-rels per day (bpd) by 2024 from4.4 million bpd in 2017.China's demand growth is like-ly to be slightly lower than thatof India by the mid-2020s.

"India is the world's third-largest consumer of oil, thefourth-largest oil refiner and anet exporter of refined (petro-leum) products. The rate ofgrowth of India's oil con-sumption is expected to sur-pass that of China in the mid-2020s, making India a veryattractive market for refineryinvestment," IEA said the 'India2020 Energy Policy Review'released here.

Speaking to reporters afterthe release, Birol said Indiatoday is the third-largest oilmarket behind the USand China. Its"demand will go upsignificantly in thenext years tocome" on the backrise in oil con-sumption for mobil-ity, as cooking fueland in the petrochemi-cal industry.

The IEA, which coordinatesthe release of strategic petro-leum reserves (SPR) among

developed countries in times ofemergency, said it is important

for India to expand itsreserves.

"Therefore India'scurrent (strategic)stock equivalentto 10 days ofimports will needto increase in

order to protectIndia in the rainy

days in the oil market,"he said.

India has built undergroundstorages at Padur andVishakapatnam in Andhra

Pradesh and Mangalore andPadur in Karnataka to stock5.33 million tonnes of crudeoil. The storage capacity isequivalent to less than 10 daysof India's oil imports.

In the second phase, similarstorages are planned atChandikhol in Odisha andPadur in Karnataka for anoth-er 6.5 million tonnes of oil.

"I think the current capaci-ty is a good start but, lookingat the growing demand, thishas to increase," he said. "I donot want to give a specificnumber to India but I want togive specific advice, the adviseis there is a need to increasecapacity and increase it con-tinuously."

He said India like othercountries has economic prior-ities, but "has to prepare itselffor rainy days, it is very impor-tant, especially in this world

which is becoming a dangerousworld and many of the oil-exporting countries and chokepoints are being discussed."

IEA member countries main-tain 90 days of strategic stock-pile, he said adding IEA was indiscussion with the Indian gov-ernment on how to improve thecurrent stock capacity so thatthe country can become a full-time member of IEA.

India currently is an associ-ate member.

"In the oil markets, if it is notrainy it is always cloudy," hesaid.

India imports more than 80per cent of its oil needs, of which65 per cent is from the MiddleEast through the Strait ofHormuz, the IEA said, addingthat the country's oil refiningcapacity will rise to about 8 mil-lion bpd by 2025 from about 5million bpd at present.

IEA projected India's oil demand to reach6 million barrels per day (bpd) by 2024from 4.4 million bpd in 2017. China'sdemand growth is likely to be slightlylower than that of India by the mid-2020s

‘Trai's order willjeopardise contentcreation, hit growth’PNS n MUMBAI

Television broadcasters onFriday united against regula-tor Trai's recent order cappingprices for channels, saying itwill "jeopardise" content cre-ation, impact jobs and pulldown economic growth.

The Telecom RegulatoryAuthority of India (TRAI)had last month revisited itstariff order to soften the pricesfor end consumers throughinterventions, includingreducing the maximum priceone has to pay for a channel toRs 12 from the previous Rs 19.

The broadcasters gottogether under the aegis of theIndian BroadcastingFoundation (IBF) to opposethe move in a rare press con-ference here which had topexecutives from all theleading networksspeaking out.

The grouping'spresident and head ofSony Entertainment,N P Singh said therewas no need for the neworder and the regulator shouldhave had ideally given time forthings to settle down after lastyear's tariff order.

He claimed the broadcast-ers, who garner only a fourthof the payments made by endconsumers with a bulk 65 percent going to distributors, hadsupported the last orderdespite reservations andinvested over Rs 1,000 crore toeducate the people on it.

After last year's order, he

said the industry had lost over12 million subscribers.

Star TV's Uday Shankartermed the new order as "ludi-crous" and said the industrywill use all its "constitutionalrights" to challenge the order

in seeking a rethink.TV Today's Aroon

Purie said the new orderwill "strangulate" theindustry and added thatit is an important sector

which the governmentshould encourage and not

suppress.Discovery Networks' Megha

Tata said India is already thecheapest cable market in theworld and the future of the sec-tor will be in jeopardy throughsuch regulatory interventions.

Singh said the broadcastersseek a stable regulatory regimeand interventions like these arecontrary to the NarendraModi government's promise toensure ease of doing businessfor enterprises.

The broadcastersgot together underthe aegis of theIndian BroadcastingFoundation (IBF) tooppose the move ina rare pressconference herewhich had topexecutives from allthe leading networksspeaking out

India, US making ‘very good progress' on trade: ShringlaPTI n WASHINGTON

India and the US are making a"very good progress" on a tradepackage and were looking toengage in a long term frame-work for preferential or freemarket access to goods fromeach other's countries, India'soutgoing envoy here has said.

The Ambassador HarshVardhan Shringla, who wouldtake up his new assignment asIndia's next foreign secretarylater this month, said that thereare a lot of complementarities intrade between India and the US.

In September, the twonations failed to announce alimited trade deal in New Yorkduring the meeting of PrimeMinister Narendra Modi andPresident Donald Trump, dueto still prevailing differences

over the package, includingaccess Washington sought toIndian markets for medicaldevices, such as stents andknee implants, information

and communications technol-ogy (ICT) products and dairyproducts with the removal ofprice caps.

India is keen on a fair and

reasonable trade deal in whichits request for market access issecured while also addressingthe trade deficit issue raised bythe US.

"We are happy that we aremaking very good progress onour trade package between ourtwo sides. But, what we arereally looking at is to engage ina long term framework underwhich our two countries canprovide preferential or freemarket access to goods fromeach other's countries,"Shringla said.

Noting that there are a lot ofcomplementarities in tradebetween the two countries,Shringla said they can open upwindows that are exclusively for"our companies and therebytake our trade" figure from thecurrent USD160 billion to dou-ble it, if the conditions are cor-rect.

"It's a strategic partnershipthat we look to not for the nextfour to five years of an electioncycle, but a long term rela-tionship in which we must seea mutuality of benefits between

the two countries, that have thesame values, same shared prin-ciples and the same way oflooking at how we'd like to seethe rest of the world evolve," hesaid.

Shringla has served as India'senvoy to the US forabout one year.

"In that oneimportant aspectis the fact thatwe must look atways to provide apolicy frameworkand facilitation that

could secure, a partnershipand relationship on the eco-nomic side that is a sustainablein the long term," Shringlasaid at farewell in his honour byUS Chambers of Commerce,and US India Business Council.

In her remarks, USIBC pres-ident, Nisha Desai Biswal,said that Shringla in a veryshort period of timebecame "a very impor-tant fixture" here inWashington DC, in thecorridors of power in

the policy conversa-tions around the city

and alsoa c r o s s

t h ecoun-try.

In that one important aspect is the fact that we must look atways to provide a policy framework and facilitation that couldsecure, a partnership and relationship on the economic side that

is a sustainable in the long term—HARSH VARDHAN SHRINGLA founder of Bamboo House

Mobile test labs atports to check qualityof imported fertilisersPNS n NEW DELHI

The Centre is mulling intro-ducing mobile testing labs at21 ports across the country ina bid to ensure imported fer-tilisers reach farmers on timeafter a quality check, gov-ernment sources said onFriday.

Currently, imported fer-tilisers are tested byFaridabad-based CentralFertiliser Control and QualityInstitute (CFCQI) as well asthree regional centres thatcome under the agricultureministry.

As per the Fertiliser(Movement Control) Order,imported fertilisers are per-mitted for distribution onlyafter testing the commodity.

"However, due to delay intesting on part of CFCQI,

consignments get stuck atports. There were instancesin the past, when some con-signments were releasedwithout waiting for the testreports on pressure to meetfarmers' demand in a par-ticular season," a highlyplaced government sourcesaid.

When the tested sampleswere found to be of inferiorquality after releasing the con-signments from ports, theirdistribution was later stoppedat different levels, the sourcesaid, adding this was one of thecases.

But now the issue is beingaddressed seriously as thegovernment is committedtowards supplying qualityfertilisers to the farmingcommunity, the sourceadded.

PNS n MUMBAI

The BSE benchmark Sensexsettled 147 points higher onFriday, tracking gains in index-heavyweights HDFC Bank andInfosys ahead of the earningsseason.

After rallying 323 pointsduring the day, the 30-shareBSE index pared some gains toend 147.37 points, or 0.36 percent, higher at 41,599.72.

The broader Nifty scaled itslife-time (intra-day) high of12,311.20, before ending 40.90points, or 0.33 per cent, high-er at 12,256.80.

Infosys was the top gainer inthe Sensex pack, rising 1.47 percent, ahead of its quarterlyresults, scheduled for releaseafter market hours.

Other gainers included

Ultratech Cement, Maruti,Kotak Bank, Asian Paints andHUL.

ICICI Bank, IndusInd Bank,Titan and Bharti Airtel wereamong the losers, shedding upto 1.11 per cent.

According to traders, focushas now shifted to quarterlyearnings and the UnionBudget. Investors are expectingmeasures from the govern-ment to revive the economywhich has led to broad-basedparticipation in equities.

Further, easing geopoliticaltensions have also kept marketmood upbeat, they said.

Sensex ends 147 pts higher

Commerce Ministry looking at ways to revamp SEZ policyPNS n NEW DELHI

The Commerce and IndustryMinistry has examinedrevamping of the SpecialEconomic Zone (SEZ) policyto meet the global challengesbeing faced by Indianexporters, an official state-ment said on Friday.

It has also discussed waysfor implementation of the

remaining recommendationsof Baba Kalyani report on SEZto facilitate ease of doingbusiness in the present glob-al market scenario, the min-istry said in a statement.

Commerce and IndustryMinister Piyush Goyal chaireda meeting here on Thursdayto review these issues.

The statement said the rec-ommendations which have

been completed includereview of specific exclusionsproposed in NFE (net foreignexchange) computation inlight of 'Make in India' initia-tive, sharing of duty exempt-ed assets/infrastructurebetween units to be allowedagainst specific approval, andformalisation of de-notifica-tion process for enclaves.

The committee was consti-

tuted by the ministry to studythe existing SEZ policy andhad submitted its recommen-dations in November 2018.

"If India is on the path tobecome a USD 5 trillion econ-omy by 2025 then the presentenvironment of manufactur-ing competitiveness and ser-vices have to undergo a basicparadigm shift," the state-ment said.

Navi Technologiesto buy DHFLGeneral InsurancePNS n NEW DELHI

Sachin Bansal-led NaviTechnologies will acquire DHFLGeneral Insurance Ltd (DHFL-GI) for an undisclosed amount.

DHFLGI, WadhawanGlobal Capital Ltd and NaviTechnologies had enteredinto a share purchase agree-ment dated January 2, 2020for the transaction, accordingto a notice in a newspaper.

"...the acquirer (Navi) pro-poses to acquire 19,00,50,000equity shares representing100 per cent of the paid-upequity share capital of thecompany (DHFLGI) fromthe seller by way of secondarytransfer of shares," it added.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Yes Bank's independent direc-tor Uttam Prakash Agarwalhas resigned citing "seriousconcerns" on "deterioratingpractices" and the state ofaffairs at the private sectorlender.

"I hereby tender my resig-nation from the office of theIndependent Director of YesBank as also Chairman ofAudit Committee and Memberof all other Committees of theBoard with immediate effect,"he said in his resignation let-ter addressed to Non-Executive Part Time ChairmanBrahm Dutt.

There are serious concernsregarding deteriorating stan-dards of the corporate gover-nance, failure of compliance,management practices and themanner in which the state ofaffairs of the bank are beingconducted by CEO and MDRavneet Gill, Rajiv Ubeoi-Senior Group PresidentGovernance & Controls,Sanjay Nambiar- Legal Headand the Board, Agarwal said inthe letter.

"I have raised my concernson these very critical mattersfrom time to time in the over-

all interest of Yes Bank andmillions of its small and largedepositors, investors, share-holders and all other stake-holders.

"I have left no stoneunturned to discharge myduties and thus wrote a letterdetailing all these matters.

Irrespective of my resigna-tion, I hope, our Bank gets sta-bilised and protects the inter-ests of all shareholders andstakeholders, under your ableleadership," he said in the let-

ter also addressed to other keyofficials.

In a separate letter datedJanuary 9, 2020 to SEBIChairman Ajay Tyagi on theseissues, he sought an urgent reg-ulatory intervention from thecapital markets regulator.

Agarwal, a charteredaccountant by profession, inhis letter to SEBI Chairmansaid the bank CEO and MD ina meeting on October 31, 2019had informed orally that thebank had received a commit-ment of USD 1.2 billioninvestment from a globalinvestor.

"No meeting of board ofdirectors was held for consid-ering this proposal," he said inthe letter.

I have raised myconcerns on thesevery critical matters

from time to time in the overallinterest of Yes Bank andmillions of its small and largedepositors, investors,shareholders and all otherstakeholders

—UTTAM PRAKASH AGARWAL Yes Bank's independent director

Airtel's Wi-Ficalling servicecrosses 1 mnuser base

Emami Realty toraise up to Rs 400cr via debenturesPNS n NEW DELHI

Emami Realty Ltd on Fridaysaid it plans to raise up to Rs400 crore through issue ofdebentures on private place-ment basis.

In a regulatory filing, thecompany said its board hasapproved issue of "Unlisted,Redeemable, Non-Convertible Debentures("NCDs") upto Rs 400 croreon private placement basis."

The company has signedterm sheet for issue of NCDs,it added.

The debentures would beissued at 12 per cent couponrate with maturity at 15months from the date ofallotment.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Telecom major Bharti Airtelon Friday said its mobile cus-tomers across the countrycan now use its Wi-Fi callingservice using any Wi-Fi net-work.

Airtel, which had intro-duced voice-over Wi-Fi lastmonth, said the service hascrossed one million users.

The service enables cus-tomers to switch seamlesslyfrom LTE to Wi-Fi-basedcalling when they are insidetheir homes or offices, there-by enhancing indoor voicecalling experience for smart-phone customers. There areno extra charges for makingcalls via Airtel Wi-Fi calling.

"Following the extremelypositive customer feedback,the company has acceleratedthe roll-out of its innovativeservice across the country.Airtel Wi-Fi calling is nowavailable to Airtel mobilecustomers across India," astatement said.

Yes Bank independent directorUttam Agarwal resigns

ith Bollywoodstar, DeepikaPadukone showingsolidarity with theJNU students whoare protesting the

attack on them, a questionon this topic was bound tobe put to other Bollywoodstars — in this case wasKangana Ranaut, who was inthe city to attend an eventorganised by the FICCILadies Organisation at ThePark, Hyderabad, on Friday.

“It is Deepika’s fundamen-

tal right to go wherever shewants to. It is her democraticright. She knows what is bestfor her,” said Kangana.

“There are two sides to thestory. It is a gang warbetween two student groups. Let’s not give a polit-ical colour to it and make ita national issue,”she added.

The 33-year-old actresswas speaking at the‘Reframing WomenEmpowerment’ event hostedby Sona Chatwani,Chairperson of FloHyderabad.

The event began with arapid-fire session thatoffered several interestinginsights about Kangana’s lifeand journey.

When asked about whoher go-to person is when itcomes to seeking advice,Kangana said, “I believeunequivocally that my prob-lem is mine and mine alone.Because fundamentally it isme, dealing with the situa-tions I face. Hence, if there isa person who can figure outsolutions to my problems, itwould ideally and invariably

be me alone. It is importantto listen to yourself beforeanyone else, prioritise one’sown opinion and figure outyour path through situa-tions.”

Speaking about her jour-ney in the industry so far,the Queen actress said, “Thefilm industry in India is con-stantly evolving and steppinginto newer territories whilstconstantly changing its pre-sent narrative. Parallel cine-ma is being led by severaltop-notch actors such asNawazuddin Siddiqui andNaseeruddin Shah amongothers. We see a shift in theportrayal of the male andfemale characters marking aslow rise into equal repre-sentation which is one of thegood things in the industrytoday.”

“International films, irre-spective of the scale of themovie, wrap up their workin a very short period, andthis dedication, I believe, islacking with the Indian filmindustry at present,” sheadded.

Talking about the lowestand highest phases of her

career, Kangana said, “Therewas a time when I was facingan extreme dearth of roles.My career was almost dead.This was a phase just beforeQueen made it to theatres.That period marked the low-est phase. I had even startedlooking for other pathwaysand I almost ventured intomovie direction during mytime in the US.”

Kangana is one of the fewwomen actress in the filmindustry who consistentlypromotes inclusivity andacknowledges the role ofwomen in every walk of life.But she feels this is notenough. “It is sad to see thatthe idea of success for awoman is often essaying therole of a man in theirjob, which in itself iscontradictory to theidea of female empower-ment. I’m glad to have metand worked under AshwiniIyer Tiwari, who is not afraidor uncomfortable with herfeminity,” she said. AshwiniIyer Tiwari is the director

of her upcoming film Pangawhere Kangana plays therole of a mother who makesa comeback as a Kabbadiplayer.

Hyderabad is known asthe city of pearls and whodoesn’t love pearls, especiallyif they are from Hyderabad?“I love Pearls! I have a lot ofthem and bought many dur-ing my earlier visits to thecity,” the actress said whenasked about what she lovesthe most aboutHyderabad.

The actress also saidthat she can’t resistsome Hyderabadi dish-es such as Andhrarasam, biryani,bagara baingan,coconut payasam,among others.

KanganaRanaut, who

was inHyderabad on

Friday, openedup about her

journey in thefilm industry sofar, her take on

the ongoingunrest in JNU,upcoming film

and more,reports

ANUSHKAPRADEEP

W

Techies playto stay healthy

his is this genera-tion of 9 am to 5pm jobs wheretechies are alwaysunder pressure tobe productive and

give results all the time andhave no time to relax throughany physical activities. Inrecent times, we have wit-nessed many youngsters get-ting affected by lifestyle dis-eases due to lack of exerciseand from sitting at the deskfor too long. To help corpo-rate employees become fitand healthy, HyderabadSoftware Enterprises Associ-ation (HYSEA) has been con-ducting corporate sportstournament every year inHyderabad. The logo of thetournament was unveiledrecently.

It is a multi-disciplinarysports tournament for themember companies provid-ing employee engagement,health/wellness offerings andcross functional team build-ing opportunities. This yearthe tournament will feature19 categories including crick-et, football, badminton, tabletennis, chess, carom, chausar,volleyball, basketball, tennis,pool and snooker, throwball,athletics, kabaddi, kho-kho,cycling, step-up dances, andmore.

This year the tournamentwill be held from January 18to February 29 at variousvenues across Hyderabad.The organisers said that morethan 300 registered compa-nies are participating in vari-ous events with one lakhplayers. The results for thetournament will be trackedand updated on the speciallydesigned LifeCykul app.

Speaking to The PioneerDeenanath Harapanahalli,CEO, LifeCykul, says,“HYSEA is a multi-discipli-nary sports tourney conduct-ed for member companies asa way to engage employees

with a health and wellnessplatform every year. To date,this event has successfullyconducted various sportssuch as field cricket, boxcricket, volleyball, tennis,table tennis, football, kabad-di, carrom, basketball,cycling and more.”

He added that even thoughall the corporate companiespit themselves against eachother in the IT sector, theyare also collaborating withother companies by sharingtheir sports arenas. Deenashares, “We are assisting theplayers by providing qualitycoaches in all sports activitiesand the required infrastruc-ture. Every year, we conducta survey in many IT compa-nies to know the employees’interest in sports.”

The HYSEAcorporatesportstournamentaims toimprove thehealth oftechies bymaking themparticipate invarioussportingevents, reportsV SATEESHREDDY

T

Are OSCARSthe ultimate

achievement?Does it bother filmmakers that the Academy haslargely ignored Indian cinema over the years?SIDDHESH SUMAN finds out what it takes to getshortlisted for the Oscars and what that nomination entails

he 92nd Academy Awardsceremony is right aroundthe corner and the officialnominations will beannounced on January 13.Zoya Akhtar’s Gully Boy

(2019) was India’s official entry forthe ‘Best Foreign Language Film’category this year. But it didn’tmake it to the shortlist. Eventhough this category has been apart of the Oscars since 1947,India has managed to get only fournominations — Mother India(1957), Salaam Bombay (1988),Lagaan (2001) and Water (2005)— and secured zero wins in thelast 72 years.

So where do we fall short?Indian cinema has come a longway from the humble beginningsof Dadasaheb Phalke’s RajaHarishchandra in 1913 to the pre-sent day critically acclaimedregional films and pan-India com-mercial blockbusters. India now isthe largest film producer in theworld (in terms of the number offilms produced) with nine differ-ent regions producing more than athousand films in 16 different lan-guages every year, making it one ofthe most diverse film industries inthe world. Even after all this out-put, not one film has been deemedOscar-worthy.

There are several reasonsbehind it. One possible reasoncould be that the Academy,throughout its history, has mostlyfavoured films from Europeancountries for the best foreign lan-guage film award. This is a notice-able practise judging by howaround 80 per cent of foreign lan-guage nominations go to Europeanfilms. But it is also seen that filmsfrom Japan, Israel, Mexico andother non-European countrieshave also managed to get their fairshare of Oscar nominations.

Another more plausible expla-nation is that India isn’t makingany films that match up to the cri-teria that Oscars is looking for. It

is a given fact that 90 per cent ofthe films produced in India arecommercial films, made with thesole intent of pleasing the audi-ence. Hardly around 50 films aremade keeping the artistic vision inmind. But, the trend is changing asnowadays Indian audience isdemanding more content-drivenfilms rather than mindless enter-tainers.

There is also a chance that theIndian panels which select films tobe sent to the Oscars are not doingthe job well. There might be manyOscar-worthy Indian films that theselection committees have over-looked. Such panels must be man-aged by people who are aware ofwhat a film needs to get selectedby the Academy and expert con-sultants should be hired so that theright film can be campaigned inthe right way in order to fall underthe Academy’s radar.

A.J. Aaron, a cinematographerand an FTII graduate, speaks toThe Pioneer about why Indianfilms aren’t being considered forthe Oscars. He says, “Indian filmsnowadays are not what they usedto be in terms of their art andcraft. Films in the 60s and 70s bySatyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak andMani Kaul are recognised world-wide as they are at a higher levelaltogether in terms of art, and Idon’t think this generation film-makers have risen up to their stan-dards yet.”

“But it is also true that there isonly one category at the Oscars forwhich every foreign film has tocompete for as the rest of the cate-gories are for Hollywood films. Ifthere were more categories for for-eign language films there would bemore winners but since there isonly one category not all films gettheir due recognition. But we can’tblame the jury either as going bythe standards of European filmswe have a lot of catching up to do,”he adds.

When asked if being awarded an

Oscar is a mark of quality infilms, he says, “Of course not!Getting an Oscar is not thepinnacle accomplishment offilmmaking. There are a lot ofpolitics involved in the selec-tion as well. There are severalgreat films which deserved anOscar but didn’t get one.” Hecontinues, “Campaigning forthe Oscars is an expensive affairas it requires a lot of marketingin the US. I don’t considerOscars as a testament to greatfilms.”

Ashwin Sarvanan, writer anddirector of Game Over (2019),also agrees that we should nottake nomination for the Oscarstoo seriously as it is not an markof our quality or the lack of it.“The criteria or expectationsfrom a regional movie and inter-national cinema can be different.If you look at the kind of filmsthat have been nominated over theyears they all are very differentand there is no set pattern as towhich film will be picked or not.”He says. “We are making goodfilms which arebreaking barriersinternationally.Just becausethey don’tpick filmsfrom Indiadoesn’t meanwe are mak-ing bad cine-ma. If we geta nominationthat’s great,but if don’t,we have noth-ing to loseeither,” headds.

T

The criteria or expectationsfrom a regional movie andinternational cinema can bedifferent. If you look at thekind of films that have beennominated over the years theyall are very different and thereis no set pattern as to whichfilm will be picked or not. Weare making good films whichare breaking barriersinternationally. Just becausethey don’t pick films fromIndia doesn’t mean we aremaking bad cinema.

ASHWIN SARVANANFILMMAKER

INDIAN PANELSWHICH SELECTFILMS FOR THEOSCARS MAYNOT BE DOINGTHEIR JOB WELL.

‘Let’s not give politicalcolour to JNU issue’

SaturdayJanuary 11, 2020

Follow us on@TheDailyPioneerfacebook.com/dailypioneer

risten Stewart has responded to “silly”calls from fans for her to star asCatwoman opposite former beau RobertPattinson in The Batman.

American actress ZoeKravitz has landed the

role in the movie, set for a2021 release, but fans cham-pioned Stewart for the roleonce it was announcedthat her ex-boyfriend andformer Twilight co-starwas fronting the movie,reports aceshowbiz.com.

“That would be silly.I mean, obviously thatwould (have been cool). I’ve been watchingBatman since I was a little kid, every iteration ofthat series,” Stewart told Entertainment Tonightwhen the idea was suggested to her.

“That would’ve been a blast, but also I am, like,really good friends with Zoe. And obviously, I amso proud of Rob doing this whole (project). I can’twait to see this movie. So, like, sure, that is a funnyidea, but the real version is going to be sick,” shesaid.

Stewart and Pattinson dated for fouryears before Stewart cheated onhim with her Snow White andthe Huntsman director RupertSanders in 2012.

She now identifies herselfas lesbian, and has sincedated the likes of StellaMaxwell, St. Vincent,Alicia Cargile, and DylanMeyer.

10

Vijayawada Saturday January 11, 2020

K

what’s brewing?

rjun Reddy actress Shalini Pandey,

who is all set to step into the Hindi

film industry with Ranveer Singh

starrer Jayeshbhai Jordaar, says she

couldn’t have asked for a better

Bollywood debut.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better

Bollywood debut than Jayeshbhai Jordaar.

I’m fortunate that I could impress my pro-

ducer Maneesh Sharma and my director

Divyang Thakkar in my auditions. I had

worked really hard and it was a huge valida-

tion for my acting when I received the confir-

mation call from Yash Raj Films,” Shalini said.

She says debuting opposite Ranveer gives her

the confidence to express herself as an artiste.

“The fact that I’m debuting opposite a power-

house superstar like Ranveer Singh gives me the con-

fidence to express myself as an artist and prove myself

in the film. I know I have to give it all when I’m acting with

him. In fact, I will give my 200 per cent because he will bring it

on in every single scene and deliver a 200 per cent perfor-

mance,” she added.Shalini feels she will emerge out as a better actor after work-

ing with Ranveer, whom she tagged a “genius”.

“He is a genius at adding layers after layers and nuances after

nuances over what the script originally intended to do. So, it’s

amazing to be just in the same frame as him and pick up

everything that he does and see his process as an actor. I think

I will emerge as a better actor after doing Jayeshbhai Jordaar,”

she said.Jayeshbhai Jordaar is helmed by debutant writer-director

Divyang Thakkar. It will be Ranveer’s next release after ’83, in

which the actor will be seen as former Indian cricket team

captain Kapil Dev.

A

Couldn't have asked

for better Bollywood

debut: SHALINI

Kristen Stewart callsidea of her playing asCatwoman ‘silly’

n HrithikRoshan’s 46thbirthday onFriday, his for-mer wifeSussanne Khan

wished the actor and saidthat he’s the most incredibleman she knows.

Sussanne on Friday tookto Instagram, where sheshared a clip featuringHrithik and their sons —Hridhaan, Hrehaan Roshan.

She even dedicated the Waractor with the “Best DaddyAward”.

“Happiest HappiestBirthday Rye... you are themost incredible Man Iknow... #tothebestoflifea-headofyou#10thjan2020???? #bestdad-dyaward #bestphilosopher-too,” she captioned the clip.

Hrithik married Sussannein December 2000 in a pri-vate ceremony in Bangalore.

The two welcomed theirfirst son Hrehaan in 2006and their second sonHridhaan in 2008.

They two separated inDecember 2013 and theirdivorce was finalised inNovember 2014.

On the work front,Hrithik was last seen in theactioner War, directed bySiddharth Anand. It alsofeatured Tiger Shroff andVaani Kapoor.

SUSSANNE TOHRITHIK: You're the most

incredible man I know

O

FUN

Rules

ARCHIE

GARFIELD

SUDOKU

REALITY CHECK SPEED BUMP CROSSWORD

GINGER MEGGS

NANCY

CALVIN AND HOBBES

l Each row and column cancontain each number (1 to 9)exactly once.

l The sum of all numbers inany row or column mustequal 45.

Yesterday’s solution

he Pioneer hasalreadyreported thatRam Charanwill be play-ing younger

version of Chiranjeevi inthe latter’s next withKoratala Siva. To thisend the latest we hear isthe director is keen onKiara Advani to be castalongside Charan, whowill be seen around 25minutes in the film.“Charan will beginshooting for the filmfrom April for a month.Koratala needs 15 daysof Kiara for the film, soit wouldn’t be much aproblem for her toaccommodate dates evenif she is extremely busyin Hindi. Since she had agreat time working withboth Siva and Charan in

the past, it wouldn’tbe a sur-

prise if she squeezes timefrom her date diary. Thedirector has conceived asong and some romanticsequences on her andCharan,” said a sourceadding, initially thedirector considered SaiPallavi for the part butlater had a change ofheart.

Touted to be a signa-ture Koratala film where-in he will address asocial issue, the film,tentatively titledAcharya, is a joint pro-duction venture betweenKonidela ProductionCompany and MatineeEntertainments.

Trisha will cast along-side Chiru in the film,while Mani Sharma isrendering tunes. Alreadyon sets, it is being con-sidered for a release inAugust.

uperstar Rajinikanth-starrer Darbar,which released on Thursday, is offto a good start in Telugu states.Despite opening to mixed reviews,the film, directed by ARMurugadoss, has managed to regis-

ter 80-90 per cent occupancy across territorieson day one. It has raked in about Rs 4.50 crore

share with a gross of Rs 7.5 crore on dayone. With the film’s theatricals valued at

Rs 14.5 crore, the distributors are ahappy lot with day one figures. “The

film’s overall performance willdepend on how it braves compe-

tition from SarileruNeekevvaru on Saturday andAla Vaikunthapuramlo onSunday. From Saturday, it

stands to lose a major chunk ofits theatres as well. If it attracts

family audience from the week-end, it has a good chance of

doing decent business here,” said atrade source.Darbar, an action-drama produced

by Lyca Productions, also stars SunielShetty, Nayanthara and Nivetha Thomas

in crucial roles.

rom accepting amovie like Oh!

Baby to playinga terrorist in The

Family Man 2,the latter of

which marks her digitaldebut, Samantha Akkineni

has managed to surpriseher audience with her boldchoices of late. Continuingwith her experiments, The

Pioneer has exclusivelylearnt that she will be host-

ing a chat show up next.“It’s for Allu Aravind’s

web platform whoselaunch is around the cor-ner. The show will be on

the lines of some popularUS chat shows and Sam isexcited with the tweak the

show-runners gave it. Itwill involve conversation

with celebs but it will be acut above the rest. It will bestreaming on the web plat-

form from February-endor March,” confirmed a

well-placed source close tothe development.

On the work front, Sam,whose next release in

Telugu is Jaanu, is tippedto be the leading lady of

Mahasamudram directorAjay Bhupathi’s next afterRX100. She is also in talks

with Game Over directorAshwin Saravanan for a

thriller. — NG

nlike his previousfilms, TrivikramSrinivas’ last,Aravinda SamethaVeera Raghava,which centred

around two warring familiesfrom Rayalaseema, whichhave shed blood for two gen-erations and how Raghava(played by Jr NTR) tries toforge a peace without resort-ing to arms, was rather lowon humour. The film was hisnext attempt after deliveringAgnyaathavaasi, a disaster.“It’s natural for people aroundme to push me to do my kindof film, which is high onhumour after a flop but I did-n’t do intentional-ly. I’ve just seenthe biggest flop,so what more canmake me fright-ened? I wanted towin that fear andI felt it was theright time. Whichis why, I’veattempted a seri-ous drama likeAravindaSamethaVeeraRaghava. Iwas surethat regularcommercialelementswhichincludesongs,humour and

comedy tracks shouldn’t crossmy mind as I began to writeit and I succeeded.Overcoming my fear was mybiggest take away from thatfilm,” the director states.

Trivikram is ready with hisnext, Ala Vaikuntapuramlo,starring Allu Arjun, PoojaHedge and Tabu in the leadroles. Set to openin cinemastomor-row,the

family entertainer is ridinghigh on expectations and thesongs especially,Samajavaragamana helped togenerate unprecedented buzzaround it. The makers havealso played their part in thenumbers reaching out to theaudience by employing inno-vative promotional strategies.Explaining the origin behindSamajavaragamana which

has emerged as the mostliked Telugu song, he

says, “After briefingthe song’s situationto Thaman, he cameto me with

the tune a couple of dayslater. I liked it immensely andasked him if he can addSamajavaragamana word toit. Sirivennela SeetharamaSastry penned the lyrics for itin less than an hour soonafter.:

He continues, “Bunny wasinstrumental in promotingthem in a unique way. He waskeen on something newinstead of the regular lyricalvideo uploads. During thefilming in Kakinada, I alongwith him and Thamanchalked out strategy on how

to go about promotingSamajavaragamana,Ramulo Ramulo and OhMy Daddy on a sheet ofpaper and it worked.”

Besides healthyhumour, the famedwriter-director’s strongpoint has always been hisability to pen dialoguesthat resonate withyouth, which overtimehave become a part ofpop culture in Telugustates. As far as hiswriting style goes, hedoesn’t believe in fly-ing to an exotic loca-tion to write or getinspired. “I’m aspontaneous writer.I write at homeamid my kidsplaying aroundand my wifeyelling fromkitchen. If the

kids feel that they would dis-turb me with their activitiesat home while I’m on my job,I’d get scared. I don’t wantthat. I’m an easygoing writerwho keeps it simple,” heinforms, adding he can thinkof a pan-India film only if hehas a right story in the firstplace.

Besides AlaVaikuntapuramlo, one com-mon observation in his lastfilms like Attarintiki Daaredhiand A. Aa has been the pres-ence of strong matriarch.Quiz him on it and he adds,“Until 1970s, women used torun families. After 70’s, aspeople started migrating toother places, the hold ofwomen too started to declinegradually. Factors like gettinginfluenced by other culturesalso played its part. Overtime, there was a phase wherethey couldn’t get the respectthey deserved. But times arechanging now.”

His film marks Tabu’scomeback to the industryafter 13 years. He is admitted-ly in awe of the acting powerhouse’s talent. “I got to knowwhy she is a multiple nationalaward winning actor afterworking with her. As soon asshe arrives on sets, she sits ina corner and mingles withcrew and artistes around herbut once the camera is on her,she does some magic. She isnot an ordinary actor,”Trivikram raves, signing off.

Vijayawada Saturday January 11, 2020

U

11

tollywoodAhead of Ala

Vaikuntapuramlorelease, director

TrivikramSrinivas speaks

to the mediaabout how he

overcamehis fears aftera delivering a

flop film,employing

uniquepromotional

strategies alongwith Bunny and

Thaman forAla..

promotions,working with

Tabu, his takeon making a

pan-India filmand much

more, reportsNAGARAJ

GOUD

Overcame my fears with AravindaSametha…, says TRIVIKRAM

SAM tohost achat show

Darbar opens well in Telugu states FS

T

Koratala, Charan to ropein KIARA ADVANI

THE FILM HAS RAKED IN ABOUT RS 4.50 CRORE SHAREWITH A GROSS OF RS 7.5 CROREON DAY ONE

VIJAYAWADA | SATURDAY | JANUARY 11, 2020 sport 12

PTI n PUNE

Shikhar Dhawan silenced his crit-ics, KL Rahul sizzled as usual andthe trio of fast bowlers were

intimidating in India’s lopsided 78-run victory over Sri Lanka in the thirdT20 International on Friday, sealingthe series 2-0.

India were sent into bat by SriLanka captain Lasith Malinga but ona flat track, the hosts managed anabove-par 201 for 6, largely due toDhawan (52 off 36 balls) and Rahul’s(54 off 36 balls) opening stand of 97in little less than 11 overs.

Shardul Thakur (21 not out off8 balls) used his long handle to a goodeffect and Manish Pandey (31 off 18balls) hardly showed any rustinessadding 37 runs in final 2.2 overs totake the score past 200-run mark.

In reply, Sri Lanka managedonly 123 runs in 15.5 overs as therewas simply no resistance from theislanders with the gulf in class beingso evident. Eight Sri Lankan batsmenfailed to reach double figures withDhananjaya De Silva (51) and AngeloMathews (31) adding 68 for the fifthwicket.

They lost four wickets in thePowerplay overs and there was nocoming back from that position. Itwas primarily due to the pace andbounce generated by Jasprit Bumrah(1/5 in 2 overs), Shardul Thakur (2/19in 3 overs) and the ever-improvingNavdeep Saini (3/28 in 3.5 overs),who again bowled an unplayableyorker to get Kusal Perera out.

In fact, skipper Virat Kohli couldbe lauded for promoting SanjuSamson (6) and Pandey, who havebeen benched for the longest time.

While Samson fluffed his lines,Pandey did his case no harm with auseful knock towards the end.

Put into bat, Dhawan, who hasbeen under pressure for some timesmashed seven boundaries and a sixin his 97-run opening stand with thein-form Rahul who also hit an overboundary along with five fours.

However, the hosts suffered a

middle-order collapse with SriLankan wrist spinners WaniduHasaranga (1-27) and chinamanLakshan Sandakan (3-35) spun theirweb around the batsmen on a flattrack.

But Pandey, playing his firstgame of the tournament and Thakuronce again revelling in his role as alower-order pinch-hitter (22 not out

off 8 balls; 1x4, 2x6) ensured that thehosts crossed 200-run mark.

Rahul set the tone playing a cutshot off rival skipper Lasith Malingafor his first boundary. Dhawan got anearly 'life', when Dasun Shanakadropped one at deep square leg.Rahul, then hit two consecutiveboundaries, both drives, off AngeloMathews as India raced to 22/0.

The visitors introduced off-spin-ner Dhananjaya De Silva in thefourth over, but Dhawan welcomedhim with a four over long-on. Rahulthen dispatched a Silva full-toss overlong leg for a maximum as Indiaamassed 13 runs in it.

Dhawan changed his gears as hehammered two boundaries in fifthover as India reached team total of50.

Making optimum use of the life,Dhawan smashed back-to-backfours, slashing one over backwardpoint and another through extra

cover off pacer Lahiru Kumara.The duo was coasting along well asIndia after 9 overs were 82/0.

After two quiet overs, Dhawansmashed Hasaranga over deep mid-wicket for a six.

Soon after completing his 10thT20I fifty, Dhawan perished aftergiving a sitter to DhanushkaGunathilika off Sandakan at deepmid-wicket. However his inningscertainly will make Virat Kohli’schoice of Rohit Sharma’s partner dif-ficult for the upcoming Australiaseries.

Gabbar, Thakur batter Lanka

Shardul Thakur and Jasprit Bumrah celebrate after Oshada Fernando's wicket during the third Twenty20I in Pune AP

PTI n CHENNAI

Afull-strength Tamil Nadubolstered by presence of

seniors like RavichandranAshwin and Dinesh Karthikwill take on a depleted Mumbaiin a marquee Ranji Trophyclash starting Saturday.

Tamil Nadu are currentlyplaced 16th in the cross pooltable (comprising of 18 teamsfrom group A and B) with fourpoints from as many gameswhile Mubai are placed 13thafter three games with sixpoints, courtesy their win in theopening round encounter.

Things won't be easy forAditya Tare and his men in thematch at the M AChidambaram stadium here,where the track is expected tobe on the slower side.

The visiting team led byTare in the absence of regularskipper Suryakumar Yadav,who has been picked in theIndia 'A' squad for the tour ofNew Zealand, will be missingseveral other big names includ-ing Prithvi Shaw (injured),Shardul Thakur, Shivam Dubeand Shreyas Iyer, who are awayon national duty.

Tamil Nadu team hasstruggled to get going afterreaching the finals of the VijayHazare Trophy (50 overs) andSyed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (T20)tournaments and has man-aged only four points from fourmatches so far.

The Vijay Shankar-ledteam has a lot to do if it aimsto qualify for the knockouts.The return of Ashwin and theseasoned duo of Karthik andAbhinav Mukund couldn'thave come at a better timewhile the dependable BabaIndrajith's inclusion will also bea boost for the team.

Ashwin, who returns afterplaying the first two matches,will be expected to lead theattack in which left-arm pacerT Natarajan and left-arm spin-ner R Sai Kishore have beendoing well.

Mumbai too hasn't hadthe best of times, having losttwo matches while winning oneand with its performance draw-ing flak.

'Keeper-batsman Tare willhave to rise to the occasion andlead from the front even as hewill expect the crisis manSiddhesh Lad and others likeJay Bista and the talentedSarfaraz Khan to shine.

A rather inexperiencedbowling attack faces a huge taskas it comes up against a strongTamil Nadu batting unit whichwill be looking to come into itsown.

The teams will be aimingfor victory to keep them in thehunt for qualification for theknockouts and exciting cricketcan be expected over the courseof the four days. Tamil Naducoach D Vasu and captain VijayShankar said the team hadfought back well after two loss-es and hoped to see the seniorsplayers contributing.

Mumbai captain Tare, onhis part, said the team would bemissing a few established play-ers but it was an opportunity forthe youngsters to do well.

"The only way forward is toplay positive cricket. There's alot of energy in the side. A lotof good players from theunder-19 and under-23 sidehave come into the side. Thisgame is going to show what'sthe future of the Mumbai crick-et is. It is exciting times for meas a captain. You will get aglimpse of what the futureis..." Tare said.

PTI n SYDNEY

Australian pace spearheadPat Cummins expects spin-

ners of his team to play a big-ger role in the ODI seriesagainst India even though he isnot expecting dust-bowls dur-ing a limited-overs assignment.

“I think spinners play a big-ger part in India than they doaround the world but it’s rareyou get a big spinning dustbowl for a one day internation-al,” Cummins told reportersahead of Australia’s departure.

Australia made a brilliantcomeback to win the five-match ODI series 3-2 in Indialast year after trailing 0-2.

“Last series I think weplayed two spinners, they alsoplayed two so they are certain-ly important, especially in themiddle overs,” Cummins said.

Australia are travelling withtwo specialist spinners in theirsquad — left arm spinnerAshton Agar and leg spinnerAdam Zampa.

Talking about the tracks inIndia, the 26-year-oldCummins said the ball getssofter as the game progresseswhich makes it easier to bowlas compared to other countries.

But playing in smaller,faster fields come with theirown set of challenges.

“Up front there’s always alittle bit in it with a new ball likeanywhere else in the world. Butthen after that I actually feelthat the ball gets probably a lit-tle bit softer and chewed upmore over there than it does inother parts of the world whichmakes it a little bit easier some-times bowling with a bit of asofter ball.”

“But it’s just a differentchallenge, the fields there are alot smaller and faster than herein Australia, the wickets aren’tas pacey and bouncy but it’s thesame format just a slightly dif-ferent beast,” he added.

IANS n NEW DELHI

The ICC cricket committee isset to discuss the idea of

four-day Test matches, but it will,in all likelihood, get a red flagfrom the Board of Control forCricket in India (BCCI) as theIndian board is set to stand withskipper Virat Kohli and coachRavi Shastri.

Both the captain and thehead coach of the team havemade it clear that they want thetraditional format to not lose itssheen by turning from a five-dayaffair into one of four days.

Speaking to IANS, a BCCIofficial said that while the boardwill discuss the matter withCricket Australia and theEnglish and Wales CricketBoard (ECB) around the BCCIawards on January 12 inMumbai, the board is clearly insupport of skipper Kohli andcoach Shastri.

"See, it is only right that youdiscuss these matters and we willdo the same with CA, ECB andCricket South Africa. But asthings stand now, we are on thesame platform as our skipperand coach and don't see muchsense in cutting Test cricket tofour days from the convention-al five. In fact, it is not just ourcaptain or coach, you have alsoheard the likes of Joe Root(English captain) and Faf duPlessis (South Africa skipper)make their opinions clear on thematter. It might be an option forthe lower ranked teams, but notwhen two big teams clash.Tradition can't be toyed with,"the official pointed.

Kohli made his opinionclear on the eve of the openingT20I between India and SriLanka in Guwahati and said:

"According to me, it should notbe altered. As I said, the day-night is another step towardscommercialising Test cricketand you know, creating excite-ment around it, but it can't betinkered with too much. I don'tbelieve so.

"You know the Day-NightTest is the most that should bechanged about Test cricket,according to me. Then you arepurely only talking about gettingnumbers, entertainment andyou know. I think the intent willnot be right then because thenyou will speak of three-dayTests. I mean where do you end?Then you will speak of Testcricket disappearing.

"So I don't endorse that atall. I don't think that is fair to thepurest format of the game. Howcricket started initially, and youknow five-day Tests was thehighest of tests you can have atthe International level."

Shastri also called the ideanonsensical. "Four-day Test isnonsense. If this goes on we mayhave limited-overs Tests. Thereis no need to tamper with five-day Tests. If at all they want totamper then let the top six sidesplay five-day Tests and the nextsix be allowed to play four-dayTests.

"If you want to preserveTests then let the top six playmore against each other. Youhave the shorter format to pop-ularise the game," he toldNews18.

While the meeting of theBig Three is set to take place nextweek and will see discussions onthe ICC's proposal of 4-dayTests, it looks unlikely that theBCCI will budge from the stancetaken by skipper Kohli andcoach Shastri.

AFP n BRIDGETOWN

Sheldon Cottrell blasted a six offthe penultimate ball to give the

West Indies a thrilling one-wicketvictory over Ireland in the secondone-day international atKensington Oval on Thursday.

Cottrell, best known for his fastbowling where wickets are celebrat-ed with a flamboyant militarysalute, carted Mark Adair overcover for the winning runs as thehome side lived on their nerves tofinish on 242-9.

Victory gave the West Indies a2-0 lead in the three-game seriesafter winning the opener at thesame ground on Tuesday by fivewickets.

Despite Cottrell’s headline-stealing flourish, it was fellow tail-ender Hayden Walsh who was histeam’s saviour.

In just his seventh one-dayer,Walsh, who started his internation-al career last year playing for theUnited States, finished undefeatedon 46.

“We are relieved about the win,we all put in the effort," said WestIndies man of the match AlzarriJoseph who took four wickets forthe second game in a row as wellas hitting a valuable 16 runs in aninth-wicket stand with Walsh.

“We wanted to bat sensibly andget to the score.

“The win means a lot to every-one, but it’s not finished, we haveone game to go.”

Earlier, opening batsman PaulStirling top-scored with 63 asIreland put up a challenging 237-9 off 50 overs on a wearing pitch.

Stirling hit seven boundariesand one six as he claimed his 24thODI half-century. Pace bowlerJoseph finished with 4-32, identi-cal figures from the first game, andalso took two catches.

Dhawan finds form with 36-ball 52 as Shardul’s all-round show help India beat SL by 78 runs, win series 2-0

KL Rahul and Shikhar Dhawan arrive at crease to start Indian innings BCCI/Twitter

Cottrell six seals1-wicket win

TN ready to roll over

depleted Mumbai

MUMBAI: Australian captainAaron Finch on Friday said it isimportant for his team to not“overplay” the Jasprit Bumrahfactor as the ambitious visitorsgear up to face India in a three-match ODI series.

While according India’s leadpacer the respect he deserves,Finch said it’s important for histeam to focus on its ownstrengths.

“I think, the more the guysface him, the more exposure youget, the more you start to under-stand how he bowls. So, it isimportant that we don’t overplaythat too much,” Finch said dur-ing a media interaction.

Opening the innings withthe dashing David Warner,Finch will be facing Bumrah firstup.

“He is obviously a fantasticbowler and someone who, whenyou are not playing against him,you love watching him bowl. He

is fast and aggressive and his exe-cution is pretty spot on.”

The visitors are wary of thethreat Bumrah could pose in theseries starting in Mumbai onJanuary 14. “It is more aboutfocusing on what we are as a bat-ting unit against that and eachplayer has different strengthsand weaknesses. So (we are

Australian captain Aaron Finch & coachAndrew McDonald examine pitch AP

doing) what we have to do formentally being prepared forthat challenge,” Finch said.

The in-form MarnusLabuschagne is set to make hisODI debut after earning a maid-en call-up on the back of hisstellar form in Tests and theskipper is confident aboutLabuschagne translating hisTest form into the 50-over for-mat.

“If you look at his domesticODI record, it is very good, hehas batted in the top four forQueensland and the way ourODI competition is being struc-tured for the last few years, therecan be similar wickets in sub-continents.

“... For him to be averaging40 in domestic cricket is brilliant,and hopefully, he can bring thatfrom the Test series.” PTI

‘It’s important not to overplay Bumrah factor’Finch has filled captaincy voidPTI nMUMBAI

Aaron Finch has maturedimmensely as a cricketer

and filled the “void in terms ofcaptaincy” in limited overscricket, feels Australia’s stop-gap coach Andrew McDonald.

McDonald will stand in forJustin Langer in the three-match ODI series.

“I think the growth ofAaron Finch in his leadershiprole in the last three years hasbeen been tremendous. It hasfilled the void Australia had interms of captaincy. His growthsbeen outstanding, his under-

standing of individuals hasbeen great,” McDonald toldreporters.

What also helped Finchevolve as a skipper is the con-tinuity in team selection.

“He (Finch) has a familiargroup around in terms of con-tinuity of team. From theWorld Cup, there has been acouple of changes.

“I think he has justmatured as a cricketer, under-stands his game, understandsthe opposition and the peoplearound him and all of it hashelped him become a fineleader for the country.”

BCCI want 5-dayTests to stay

PTI n MUMBAI

In-form Australian batsmanMarnus Labuschagne says he

considers the upcoming ODIseries against India a big oppor-tunity in his quest to emulateVirat Kohli and Steve Smithacross all formats.

The 22-year-old right-handed batsman scored back-to-back Test centuries againstPakistan and another ton and adouble hundred against NewZealand in the summer beforeembarking on the ODI tour ofIndia where he will find outwhether he makes his shorter-format debut or not.

Labuschagne, who can behandy with his leg-breaks, sayslong-term consistency acrossformats would be his majorgoals for the future.

"You look at the guys I lookup to and aspire to -- SteveSmith, Virat Kohli, KaneWilliamson, Joe Root. They'vebeen doing it for a very longtime, five, six years they've beenconsistent, not just in one for-mat, but two or more formats,"Labuschagne was quoted assaying by 'ESPNCricinfo'.

Australia will play a three-match ODI series against Indiastarting January 14 in Mumbai.The team landed in the coun-try on Thursday night.

"...I've had some successthis summer but the real chal-lenge for me is to be more con-sistent going on and being ableto keep putting continued per-formances on the board. If I cancontinue to do that, then that'sobviously going to be the chal-

lenge for me," said Labuschagnewho has scored 1459 runs from14 Tests.

Having got his first chanceto be in the white ball squad, hesaid the one-day series in Indiawould be an opportunity toshow a slightly different aspectof his game.

"...That's a really excitingchallenge too. It's going to betough conditions in India andthey're obviously a very strongside. So just about enjoying the

challenge and not getting too farahead of yourself, taking it ballby ball and game by game," hesaid.

"A big part of playing inIndia is how you play spin, so forme being clear with my plansabout how I play spin and thenjust trusting the processes Ihave.

"Batting in the middleorder it's about running reallyhard between wickets and try-ing to get those runs through

the middle, then when you getthe opportunity towards theback end to open the shouldersa bit."

Labuschagne said wouldlike to follow the path of formerAustralia batsman MichaelHussey as far as adapting to dif-ferent conditions is concerned.

"With the opportunitiesthat might come in the next fewmonths, we'll have to see, butdefinitely Michael Hussey is agreat person to learn from,"Labuschagne said.

"The way he played theone-day game, the way he fin-ished off the innings and theway he probably started hisinnings. There are a few simi-larities there, but I'm definite-ly not comparing myself toMichael Hussey."

If he gets a chance to makehis ODI debut in India,Labuschagne may play a some-what different role than his pre-ferred No.3 spot.

With Aaron Finch, DavidWarner and Smith seeminglyconfirmed for the top order,Labuschagne, PeterHandscomb, Alex Carey andAshton Turner may be tried inthe remaining spots.

"Whatever role I'm given isone I'm going to try and keep.If that's batting in the top fouror even outside the top four,whatever that is.

"The whole one-day game'smoved in that more aggressive,positive direction, but I've beenlucky I've been able to movewith that and play in this erawhere one-day cricket is a real-ly high scoring game."

Labuschagne aspires to emulate Virat

Spinners will playbig role: Cummins