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I n the wake of back-to-back killings of two innocents by a terrorist in Kashmir earlier this week, the security forces have launched a major opera- tion to nab Abu Muslim, a top Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT) commander. He is reportedly responsible for the murder of these youths to terrorise the local population of Hajin in North Kashmir. As the terrorist has achieved his aim to some extent as “people are losing faith in the law and order machinery to protect them”, local comman- ders of security forces fear these killings may lead to exo- dus from this densely populat- ed area. Abu Muslim infiltrat- ed into Kashmir from Pakistan in 2016 and has since managed to evade police. He is now one of the emerging leaders of terrorists. Admitting that the “situa- tion is precarious”, officials in the security establishment said here on Saturday that Abu Muslim resorted to the killing of the two youths to send a mes- sage that his writ runs large in the area. Explaining this aspect, sources said he had infiltrated with a group of eight to 10 ultras in 2016 and most of his compatriots were killed in encounters last year. However, he has managed to rope in some foreign and local terrorists into his group and committed these murders, including decapitating Manzoor Ahmed Bhat, in an effort to establish his suprema- cy over other groups, they said. Not ruling out the possi- bility of local people moving out of Hajin, which is about 25 to 30 km from Srinagar, to escape Abu Muslim’s terror, officials said the large-scale operation to nab him is extremely difficult given the high risk of collateral damage. Dotted with at least 20-odd mohallas, Hajin has narrow lanes making it easy for terrorists to evade security forces, officials said, adding the foreign terrorists have some local support to sustain themselves. North Kashmir bordering Line of Control (LoC) is the infiltration route for terrorists and this area at present has nearly 100-odd ultras. Out of them, 60 per cent are foreign terrorists who are highly moti- vated and well trained. They will try to attempt audacious attacks on sensitive locations in Srinagar in the coming days before returning to safe hous- es in Hajin, officials said. Against this backdrop, the anti-insurgency grid compris- ing Army, paramilitary and the local police have stepped up patrolling in Hajin. Turn to Page 4 Gold Coast: Venkat Rahul Ragala extended India’s medal- hunting run in the weightlifting competitions as he clinched the gold medal in the men’s 85kg category at the Commonwealth Games on Saturday. Venkat Rahul, the 21-year- old from Andhra Pradesh, lift- ed a total of 338 kg — 151 kg in snatch and 187 in clean and jerk — to bring maiden gold medal for India in this weight category. Venkat Rahul’s gold medal was India’s fourth in Gold Coast. All of medals for India here have come from weightlift- ing category. Venkat Rahul lift- ed 147 kg in his first effort in snatch to set the lead early. Opeloge and Fazrul were not behind, lifting 144 and 145 kg respectively in their first efforts. Detailed report on P10 I n a fresh development in the leak of the Central Board of Secondary Examination (CBSE) Class XII economics paper, the Delhi Police Crime Branch on Saturday arrested three staff members of a school in Himachal Pradesh. The questioning of the arrested — Rakesh Kumar, Amit Sharma and Ashok Kumar, all from DAV Centenary Public School in Himachal Pradesh’s Una — revealed that the Class XII economics paper was leaked on March 23, three days before the exam date, in Una town, and it was shared on at least 40 WhatsApp groups, police said. Confirming the arrests, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) Alok Kumar told The Pioneer that Rakesh Kumar is a PGT economics teacher at the DAV school while Amit and Ashok worked at the school as clerk and peon respec- tively. Rakesh was the centre superintendent of Jawahar Navodaya Public School in Una, where the CBSE exams were being held, he added. Meanwhile, Special Commissioner of Police (Crime) RP Upadhayay said, “On March 23, three days before the economics paper exam, Rakesh collected bundles of computer science paper, the exam for which was due that day, from the strongroom of Union Bank in Una. He also picked up a bundle of eco- nomics paper.” Explaining how the eco- nomics paper was circulated, the officer said, “While Rakesh took computer science paper bundle to Jawahar Navodaya, he handed over the economics paper bundle to his colleagues — Amit and Ashok.” The duo took out a copy of the economics paper and sent it to Rakesh Kumar via WhatsApp messaging applica- tion. Rakesh Kumar then got it hand written by a student whom he tutored. “The hand-written copy was sent by Rakesh to his rel- ative in Chandigarh, whose son was appearing for Class XII examination. That way, the hand-written copy got leaked on WhatsApp groups,” the police officer said. Later the three accused deleted the WhatsApp mes- sages and destroyed the hand- written copy to hide digital footprints. Turn to Page 4 A mid China’s growing influ- ence in the Himalayan Kingdom, India on Saturday sought to set “game-changing equations” with Nepal as Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his visiting Nepalese counterpart KP Sharma Oli agreed to increase engagement in key areas of connectivity, agriculture, Defence, security and trade. Later while giving the details of the bilateral discus- sions between Modi and Oli, Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said the expansion of electrified rail link between Raxaul to Kathmandu, devel- opment of inland waterway and collaboration in agriculture were the “three new game changers of the relations”. This was the first bilateral visit of Oli to India after taking over as Nepal’s PM for the sec- ond time. Oli had earlier come to India in February 2015 in his previous tenure as PM. The relations between India and Nepal took a nosedive there- after with his Government accusing India of causing insta- bility and economic blockage. However, during his visit this time it is evident that both sides want to bury the past and have a ‘forward looking relationship’. Known for his pro-China tilt, Oli said that he has come to India with an aim to enhance relations to newer heights and build a strong edifice of “trust- based” relationship. “We want to erect a strong edifice of trust- based relations between the two close neighbours that we are. We want to create a model relation- ship, which makes not only us but our posterity equally proud of our accomplishment. A rela- tionship that is cherished forev- er,” Oli said in his media state- ment. It is learnt that during his discussion with Modi, Oli said, “Nepal has entered a new era of stability. I look for India’s support for economic growth of Nepal.” Turn to Page 4 A fter spending two nights in the Jodhpur jail, Bollywood superstar Salman Khan on Saturday walked out of the jail after Jodhpur District and Sessions Judge Ravindra Kumar Joshi granted him bail on a bond of 50,000 and two sureties of like amount in the 1998 blackbuck poaching case in which he was given a five- year prison sentence. Also, the court allowed 52- year-old Salman’s application for suspension of sentence for a month against his conviction. The judge asked the actor to appear before the court after a month on May 7 when it will hear his plea for further sus- pension of the sentence. Meanwhile, the Bishnoi community, which reveres the blackbuck, has decided to move the Rajasthan High Court chal- lenging the bail granted to Salman, according to Ram Niwas, the secretary of the Bishnoi Tiger Force. Immediately after his release, Salman was driven under police escort to the Jodhpur airport, from where he was flown to Mumbai in a spe- cial plane, a police official said. On his return to his Bandra res- idence in north-west Mumbai, Salman was given a hero’s welcome by his fan on Saturday night. Salman was allowed to leave the jail after the prison authorities received the bail documents, the official said. The actor’s long-time body- guard Shera accompanied him to the airport. Hundreds of the actor’s fans, who gathered outside the Jodhpur Central Jail, burst fire- crackers and sang songs from his films as he walked out of the prison. Police had made tight security arrangements. The fans, carrying garland- ed posters of the actor, raised slogans like “Salman zindabad”, “Salman tum sangharsh karo, hum tumhare saath hai”. A few fans even chased the actor’s cav- alcade for some distance. The judge directed Khan not to leave the country with- out the court’s permission. In its 10-page bail order, the court said the trial judge acquitted his Bollywood colleagues Saif Ali Khan, Tabu, Neelam and Sonali Bendre and a local, Dushyant Singh, giving them the “bene- fit of doubt” for the incident. It also cited the differences in the post-mortem reports of the blackbucks with the first say- ing there was no gunshot injury while second stating that the animals were killed by gunshots. Judge Joshi said during the trial, Salman had never misused any condition. He also said he was earlier grant- ed bail in the Mathania Ghoda Farm case in which he was sen- tenced to five years in prison for killing a blackbuck. Later, the high court had acquitted him in the case. Similarly, he was acquitted by the trial court last year in the Bhawad poaching case in which he was accused of killing two chinkara gazelles, the court said. It said the High Court had also raised suspicion over the recovery of a Gypsy car, pellets and arms from the actor in the two other poaching cases against him. The judge also said the complaint of lone eyewitness Poonam Chand on October 2, 1998, was submitted to the court by the forest department six days later on October 8. Earlier in the day, the judge heard the arguments of the prosecution and the defence which lasted about an hour and pronounced the order around 3 pm, a defence counsel said. Salman’s sisters — Alvira and Arpita — were present during the hearing. The actor was convicted by a trial court and sentenced to five years in prison for killing two blackbucks during the shooting of “Hum Saath Saath Hain” in Kankani village near Jodhpur on the night of October 1, 1998. In a late night develop- ment, an order was issued to transfer District and Sessions Judge Ravindra Kumar Joshi to Sirohi, as part of a reshuffle. He was among 134 judges shifted by the HC registrar general. Turn to Page 4

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������������� �2���203/

In the wake of back-to-backkillings of two innocents by

a terrorist in Kashmir earlierthis week, the security forceshave launched a major opera-tion to nab Abu Muslim, a topLashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT)commander. He is reportedlyresponsible for the murder ofthese youths to terrorise thelocal population of Hajin inNorth Kashmir.

As the terrorist hasachieved his aim to some extentas “people are losing faith in thelaw and order machinery toprotect them”, local comman-ders of security forces fearthese killings may lead to exo-dus from this densely populat-ed area. Abu Muslim infiltrat-ed into Kashmir from Pakistanin 2016 and has since managedto evade police. He is now one of the emerging leaders of

terrorists.Admitting that the “situa-

tion is precarious”, officials inthe security establishment saidhere on Saturday that AbuMuslim resorted to the killingof the two youths to send a mes-sage that his writ runs large inthe area. Explaining this aspect,sources said he had infiltratedwith a group of eight to 10ultras in 2016 and most of hiscompatriots were killed inencounters last year. However,he has managed to rope in someforeign and local terrorists intohis group and committed thesemurders, including decapitatingManzoor Ahmed Bhat, in aneffort to establish his suprema-cy over other groups, they said.

Not ruling out the possi-

bility of local people movingout of Hajin, which is about 25to 30 km from Srinagar, toescape Abu Muslim’s terror,officials said the large-scaleoperation to nab him isextremely difficult given thehigh risk of collateral damage.

Dotted with at least 20-oddmohallas, Hajin has narrowlanes making it easy forterrorists to evadesecurity forces,officials said,adding the foreignterrorists have somelocal support to sustain themselves.

North Kashmir borderingLine of Control (LoC) is theinfiltration route for terroristsand this area at present has

nearly 100-odd ultras. Out ofthem, 60 per cent are foreignterrorists who are highly moti-vated and well trained. Theywill try to attempt audaciousattacks on sensitive locations inSrinagar in the coming daysbefore returning to safe hous-es in Hajin, officials said.

Against this backdrop, theanti-insurgency grid compris-ing Army, paramilitary andthe local police have stepped uppatrolling in Hajin.

Turn to Page 4

Gold Coast: Venkat RahulRagala extended India’s medal-hunting run in the weightliftingcompetitions as he clinchedthe gold medal in the men’s 85kgcategory at the CommonwealthGames on Saturday.

Venkat Rahul, the 21-year-old from Andhra Pradesh, lift-ed a total of 338 kg — 151 kgin snatch and 187 in clean and jerk — to bring maidengold medal for India in thisweight category.

Venkat Rahul’s gold medalwas India’s fourth in GoldCoast. All of medals for Indiahere have come from weightlift-ing category. Venkat Rahul lift-ed 147 kg in his first effort insnatch to set the lead early.Opeloge and Fazrul were notbehind, lifting 144 and 145 kgrespectively in their first efforts.

Detailed report on P10

��������������� �2���203/

In a fresh development in theleak of the Central Board of

Secondary Examination(CBSE) Class XII economicspaper, the Delhi Police CrimeBranch on Saturday arrestedthree staff members of a schoolin Himachal Pradesh.

The questioning of thearrested — Rakesh Kumar,Amit Sharma and AshokKumar, all from DAVCentenary Public School inHimachal Pradesh’s Una —revealed that the Class XIIeconomics paper was leaked onMarch 23, three days before theexam date, in Una town, and itwas shared on at least 40WhatsApp groups, police said.

Confirming the arrests,Joint Commissioner of Police(Crime Branch) Alok Kumartold The Pioneer that RakeshKumar is a PGT economicsteacher at the DAV school while

Amit and Ashok worked at theschool as clerk and peon respec-tively. Rakesh was the centresuperintendent of JawaharNavodaya Public School in Una,where the CBSE exams werebeing held, he added.

Meanwhile, SpecialCommissioner of Police(Crime) RP Upadhayay said,“On March 23, three daysbefore the economics paperexam, Rakesh collected bundlesof computer science paper, theexam for which was due thatday, from the strongroom ofUnion Bank in Una. He alsopicked up a bundle of eco-nomics paper.”

Explaining how the eco-nomics paper was circulated,the officer said, “While Rakeshtook computer science paperbundle to Jawahar Navodaya,

he handed over the economicspaper bundle to his colleagues— Amit and Ashok.”

The duo took out a copy ofthe economics paper and sentit to Rakesh Kumar viaWhatsApp messaging applica-tion. Rakesh Kumar then got ithand written by a studentwhom he tutored.

“The hand-written copywas sent by Rakesh to his rel-ative in Chandigarh, whoseson was appearing for Class XIIexamination. That way, thehand-written copy got leakedon WhatsApp groups,” thepolice officer said.

Later the three accuseddeleted the WhatsApp mes-sages and destroyed the hand-written copy to hide digitalfootprints.

Turn to Page 4

%�������������� �2���203/

Amid China’s growing influ-ence in the Himalayan

Kingdom, India on Saturdaysought to set “game-changingequations” with Nepal as PrimeMinister Narendra Modi and hisvisiting Nepalese counterpartKP Sharma Oli agreed toincrease engagement in keyareas of connectivity, agriculture,Defence, security and trade.

Later while giving thedetails of the bilateral discus-sions between Modi and Oli,Foreign Secretary VijayGokhale said the expansion ofelectrified rail link betweenRaxaul to Kathmandu, devel-opment of inland waterwayand collaboration in agriculturewere the “three new gamechangers of the relations”.

This was the first bilateralvisit of Oli to India after takingover as Nepal’s PM for the sec-

ond time. Oli had earlier cometo India in February 2015 in hisprevious tenure as PM. Therelations between India andNepal took a nosedive there-after with his Governmentaccusing India of causing insta-bility and economic blockage.However, during his visit thistime it is evident that both sideswant to bury the past and havea ‘forward looking relationship’.

Known for his pro-Chinatilt, Oli said that he has come toIndia with an aim to enhancerelations to newer heights andbuild a strong edifice of “trust-based” relationship. “We want toerect a strong edifice of trust-based relations between the twoclose neighbours that we are. Wewant to create a model relation-ship, which makes not only usbut our posterity equally proudof our accomplishment. A rela-tionship that is cherished forev-er,” Oli said in his media state-ment. It is learnt that during hisdiscussion with Modi, Oli said,“Nepal has entered a new era ofstability. I look for India’s supportfor economic growth of Nepal.”

Turn to Page 4

��������� 45�3�+

After spending two nights inthe Jodhpur jail,

Bollywood superstar SalmanKhan on Saturday walked outof the jail after Jodhpur Districtand Sessions Judge RavindraKumar Joshi granted him bailon a bond of �50,000 and twosureties of like amount in the1998 blackbuck poaching casein which he was given a five-year prison sentence.

Also, the court allowed 52-year-old Salman’s applicationfor suspension of sentence fora month against his conviction.The judge asked the actor toappear before the court after amonth on May 7 when it willhear his plea for further sus-pension of the sentence.

Meanwhile, the Bishnoicommunity, which reveres theblackbuck, has decided to movethe Rajasthan High Court chal-lenging the bail granted toSalman, according to RamNiwas, the secretary of theBishnoi Tiger Force.

Immediately after hisrelease, Salman was drivenunder police escort to theJodhpur airport, from where hewas flown to Mumbai in a spe-cial plane, a police official said.On his return to his Bandra res-idence in north-west Mumbai,Salman was given a hero’s welcome by his fan on Saturday night.

Salman was allowed toleave the jail after the prisonauthorities received the bail documents, the official said.

The actor’s long-time body-guard Shera accompanied himto the airport.

Hundreds of the actor’sfans, who gathered outside theJodhpur Central Jail, burst fire-crackers and sang songs fromhis films as he walked out of theprison. Police had made tightsecurity arrangements.

The fans, carrying garland-ed posters of the actor, raisedslogans like “Salman zindabad”,“Salman tum sangharsh karo,hum tumhare saath hai”. A fewfans even chased the actor’s cav-alcade for some distance.

The judge directed Khannot to leave the country with-out the court’s permission. Inits 10-page bail order, the courtsaid the trial judge acquitted hisBollywood colleagues Saif Ali

Khan, Tabu, Neelam and SonaliBendre and a local, DushyantSingh, giving them the “bene-fit of doubt” for the incident.

It also cited the differencesin the post-mortem reports ofthe blackbucks with the first say-ing there was no gunshot injurywhile second stating that theanimals were killed by gunshots.

Judge Joshi said duringthe trial, Salman had nevermisused any condition. Healso said he was earlier grant-ed bail in the Mathania GhodaFarm case in which he was sen-tenced to five years in prisonfor killing a blackbuck. Later,the high court had acquittedhim in the case.

Similarly, he was acquittedby the trial court last year in theBhawad poaching case in

which he was accused of killingtwo chinkara gazelles, the courtsaid. It said the High Court hadalso raised suspicion over therecovery of a Gypsy car, pelletsand arms from the actor in thetwo other poaching casesagainst him.

The judge also said thecomplaint of lone eyewitnessPoonam Chand on October 2,1998, was submitted to thecourt by the forest departmentsix days later on October 8.

Earlier in the day, the judgeheard the arguments of theprosecution and the defencewhich lasted about an hour andpronounced the order around3 pm, a defence counsel said.

Salman’s sisters — Alviraand Arpita — were presentduring the hearing.

The actor was convicted bya trial court and sentenced tofive years in prison for killingtwo blackbucks during theshooting of “Hum Saath SaathHain” in Kankani village nearJodhpur on the night ofOctober 1, 1998.

In a late night develop-ment, an order was issued totransfer District and SessionsJudge Ravindra Kumar Joshi toSirohi, as part of a reshuffle. Hewas among 134 judges shiftedby the HC registrar general.

Turn to Page 4

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As Irrfan battles a rarebrain ailment in ahospital abroad, his

latest film Blackmail rolledout this week withoutmuch ado. The film, anattempted black comedy ofblackmail, deceit, infidelityand murder is no BoxOffice ringer even thoughthe genre is new andworked hard upon.

Irrfan is the centrepointof the film and does not letyou down even once buteven his acting acumen isunable to save the film whichhas weak plot, too much ofthe same thing going onthroughout the film, thusnibbling away the interest ofthe viewers.

A middle classadvertising agency employee(Irrfan) loves his beautifulwife who does notreciprocate so he makes dowith other employees wives’pictures in office if you knowwhat I mean. He admires hiswife’s beauty from a wallhole in the bedroom but oneday when he returns earlywith dreams of romancinghis wife, he finds a big burlyguy in her bed. And thusstarts the blackmailing.

The theme of the movieis interesting but it does nothave in it the flesh to keepyou engaged for the length ofa feature film. Fromblackmail No 1 to blackmailNo 4, there is not muchhappening so the film is notexpected to do well at theBox Office, this despiteIrrfan’s fans supporting himin his fight against his diseaseand serenading him in hisefforts on screen.

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�What prompted you to foray intoTV with Tenali Rama?

I always wanted to do ahistorical or a folklore show andplay a mythical character likevishkanya in Tenali Rama thatwould bring a lot of twists andturns in the show. This gives alot of scope to do new thingsand experiment. I had readabout Tenali Rama when Iwas studying in Chennaias he is very popular inSouth. But I neverimagined if I would everbe able to dramatisethe folklore and play anintegral character likethis one. I am lookingforward to more suchgood work on the smallscreen. �What was the biggestchallenge?

To learn shudhHindi. A lot of words thatwere used during thosetimes by the king andcourtesans were fromDevnagri dialect. I had tolearnt all that on the setswhile working withothers. Another challengewas to get in the look ofvishkanya that used totake me two-and-a-halfhours and then to carrymyself in the heavycostume, jewellery andmakeup for the entireday. But the best part is Iget to wear Indian clothes.I love to look as Indian aspossible rather thanwestern. �How was yourexperience working withothers?

It was a funexperience working witheveryone on the set,though a spent moretime chilling withother actresses.�What tookyou so long toforay on TV?

I havebeen lookingfor a goodopportunity to forayinto TV for a while now. But

the right role didn’t come to me at that time.Tenali Rama is a great show to start off myTV journey as I love folklore and costumedrama.�Was it difficult for you to shoot onchroma?

That is the easiest and fastest thingto shoot with. Once you are an actor,you are used to shooting in all kindsof situation and in every circumstance. �Why are TV shows so obsessedwith naagins, dayans, chudails andvishkanyas...

We are making a TV show toentertain the audience as they liketo watch folklore. We are cateringto a demand. I think people loveto watch mythical characters likethat of dayans and naagins and we,as actors, get to experiment withvaried roles which is amazing.�How is TV evolving?

I am learning and taking babysteps in the industry. I have

observed that the number ofhours and the hardwork everyone

puts in is commendable. Peoplework behind the scene withoutany break. It requires a lot ofresilience and stamina. It takesa very strong person to put inthose grueling hours every

single day.�What has been the biggestchallenge for you?

People like to form opinionsand put it out on the social mediaplatform without thinkinglogically and sensibly. Thechallenge is to continue to believein yourself and remain confidentdespite what criticism you readabout yourself online. It is easy tobe confident when you aresuccessful. But it is about when

things are not going well thatis when you face those

challenges. Beconfident in the face

of criticism.Everyone is aprofessional andbecause of thatthey know how tohandle thecrticism and are

here. Being acelebrity is stressful.

But after sometime,you learn how to handle

it and everything becomesa part of who you are.

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This psychological thriller, aptlypropped by heavy duty actorsTabu and Manoj Bajpayee for

most part keeps you interested. It livesup to its tag, keeping the suspense uptill the last two two-three shots andplaying constant mind games, whichmeans the viewers are understandablyperplexed about who is the psycho in

the film.Tabu, as usual, is

brilliant as the mother ofa three-year-old girlcalled Titli who iskidnapped from herresort room in Mauritiusand there is no trace ofher being anywhere. Infact, all through the film, we do not get

to see the face of the littleTitli.

Director MukulAbhyankar does a goodand interesting build-up inthis thriller which haseverything going.Bajpayee, as an edgyphilanderer, is, however, a

wee bit over-stretched in trying to be

histrionically brilliant as just anothermiddle class man bored with hismarried life and indulging in tastelessbut relentless “harmless flirting” whilehis pregnant wife tends to his four-year-old son.

Annu Kapoor as the top cop on thecase is over-cooked and much tootheatrical for the role and hisexaggerated gestures sometimes gets toyou. However, the film is an under-publicised good mount which plays onyour curiousities till the very end andthrows up an interesting climax.

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The bunnies are here with their becominganimations and colourful carrot-lettuce-tomato landscape drawn diligently by the

animators while Peter Rabbit and his clan of threesisters and bro-pal running amok in a farm takenaway from them by a grumpy old man who ate upPeter’s father in a rabbit pie years ago.

Beatrix Potter’s 19th Century creation, thesebunnies in their 2018 avatar are much too raucous,ungainly, in disciplined and creatures of a chaotic worldto honour the originals but for the Indian audience,not very familiar with the before of the story, PeterRabbit is a funny animated movie which may not bea wonder but is no blunder either.

The story revolves around a family of bunnies andtheir love for the girl next door, a village beauty whohas a soft corner for wildlife, the bunnies included. Thefarmhouse is inherited by a stiff upper lip youngLondoner who famously says in the movie: “I havenothing against the countryside, I just find it disgustingthat’s all”. He works for Harrods, is denied a promotionthanks to nepotism, goes amok and is thrown out.

So, he goes to the farmhouse to sell it to the highestbidder so that he uses the money to build his ownHarrods replica and rule the kingdom of big dreams.Not all his plans go the way he wants them too,including him falling for the girl next door as thebunnies fume and fret about her love for them goingaway in the wrong direction.

Thus begins a war of attrition between the bunniesand Tom with episodic hilarity introduced in goodmeasure to carry on the proceedings around electricshocks, butt trappers and some such instruments of war.

The film is colourful, interesting, emotional andhumorous for children to laugh out loud and take outtheir chins from popcorn packs to be with the jacket-clad bunnies of their choice.

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This near silent movie explodes with somuch force that you are startled t thecore by its unexpected pulling strings.

The only explosive sounds you here are ofexcellence, precision, emotion and sheersurvival in the face of a devastating alienmonster invasion which leaves next to nohumanity on Earth.

Now these craftily curated monsters arepredators of sound. They are otherwise blind toeverything but just a tap or even whisper canbring them to the spot in seconds to eat upeverything around. The nearperfection of this movie lies inthe fact that writer-director-actor John Karsinsky iscourageous enough to nattilyshape a 1 hour 95 minutesfeature film without usingdialogues and serenading thesound of silence in any whichway you can imagine.

The actors (there are onlyfive in the entire film) walk barefoot; the wife putsup cloth chimes so that no sound comes out ofthem; the family talks in sign language; laughter,tears and even frightful screams are silent. Nofloors can creek, no baby can cry and no soundsof everyday life can be created, not even a whiffof them.

And yet, the patience with which the viewersare drawn into the absolutely tense proceedings,kept skillfully taut to the end, goading yourinterest relentlessly can’t be anything but a marvelof experimental cinema which the likes ofSteven Spielberg are known to orchestrate on the

big canvas.The brilliance of Kransinsky and his

tantalisingly intricate yet simple movie lies in theway he keeps his canvas utilitarian with no grandmonster, aerial or panning shots used to prop upthe destruction. The landscape is ruinous,almost debris but nothing is done to enhance thefallout of such mass destruction. The characters,including the two children — one boy who showsup fear with distinction and the girl who is deaf,feels betrayed by her father and extremelyheadstrong — add to anxiety levels that the filmhypes up constantly and beautifully.

The farm house which the family lives inwould have been great if life had been left to

survive on the planet; the simplemores with which the familyembeds the need for sounds ismarvellous, as fantastic as thestunning way in which EmilyBlunt gives birth to a child,somehow dealing with thesound of a crying baby just borninto the world where a monsteris lurking next to its mother’swomb to sniff a sob of pain or

birth.This particular scene is the showstopper of

the film and its prolonged 15-minute sequencedraws the viewers into forgetting to breathe justlike Blunt who has to give birth in a mess of bloodand strain and in the absence of her husband andtwo kids who have gone out to get fish for dinner.

In short, A Quiet Place is a marvelloussurvival film which is near chinkless, entirelyengrossing and a momentous moment-to-moment saga which graces cinema halls acrossthe world only once in a while. Definitely, thisone is the movie of the year.

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Romance has gone out of the systemof cinema and if it comes visitingonce in a while, it is twisted, post

modern and mostly unromantic. Therewere times when the month of Februarythe Hollywood would essentially come upwith a groovy romance which you wouldawait eagerly.

Not anymore. First, our film-makersdo not have romantic inclinations. Second,the complexities of life irritatingly creep intoa story making it complex and boring andeven stressful, at times.

So when a sweet and simple old worldfilm comes along in which there are twoyoungster totally focussed on love, with nointricate sub-plots coming along, yousettle down after initial surprise.

The same goes for Midnight Sunwhere the girl suffers from a one in amillion disease which entails that thesunrays never touch her. She lives her lifebehind special windows and comes aliveonly at night. The boy is someone sheromances as a child by seeing him go pasther window every single day fromkindergarten to graduation.

Once love flowers, there is an ailmentto take care of and a lot of emotions flowout in tears. Still, the film is moving, lovingand interesting.

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In the last six years in nation-al Capital over 7000 buses

have been challaned for flout-ing pollution norms. A major-ity of these buses were fromDelhi's neighbouring StateUttar Pradesh followed byRajasthan. The informationregarding the same was givenby Delhi GovernmentTransport Minister KailashGahlot in the ongoing sessionof the State Assembly.

“A total of 7,219 buseswere challaned for not havingvalid pollution under check(PUC) certificates, from 2012-13 till February 2018,” saidDelhi Transport MinisterKailash Gahlot during theongoing session of theAssembly.

According to the rules, thefine for not having a valid PUCis �1,000.While the StateTransport Authority of Delhihas no power to cancel permitsof buses from other States vio-lating norms in the city underthe Motor Vehicle Act, 1988.The Transport Departmentcorresponds with their coun-terparts in other States in caseoffending buses belong to

Government undertakings.As per a joint agreement

among States sharing theNational Capital Region (NCR),it is mandatory that busesentering Delhi are run on CNG.

The highest number ofbuses, 3,328, that were chal-laned for the lack of valid PUCcertificates, came from UttarPradesh, followed by 2,064from Rajasthan. While thenumber of buses booked forviolating pollution norms inDelhi during the same periodwas just 643.

According to the trans-port Minister, action againstbuses causing pollution picked

up manifold in last one year. Atotal of 5,086 buses were chal-laned for lacking valid PUCcertificates, from 2017-tillFebruary this year. The num-ber was quite low in the previ-ous years -- 244 in 2012-13, 216in 2013-14, 506 in 2014-15, 189in 2015-16,.And 978 in 2016-17, he said in a written reply.

The enforcement wing ofthe Transport Department car-ries out regular checks of pol-lution standards of the busescoming to Delhi from neigh-bouring states. Buses not hav-ing valid PUC certificates arechallaned, said transport Minister.

��������������� �2���203/

In a major stride towardsstrengthening the healthcare

system, 94 dispensaries of theDelhi Government will beremodeled as polyclinics by thePublic Works Department(PWD). The PWD will under-take remodelling work of dis-pensaries as polyclinics whichis a pet project of the AAP dis-pensation. As per the plan, thePWD will also soon start car-rying out expansion andremodeling of around nineGovernment hospitals, in order

to increase the bed capacity.The AAP Government's

ambitious three-tier health carestructure will give a boost to pri-mary healthcare. The first tierthere are mohalla clinics toaddress common healthcareneeds, while patients with spe-cialised needs are referred to thesecond tier which are the poly-clinics. The polyclinics are spe-cialist OPDs where medicine,gynaecology and paediatricsspecialists are available every dayand orthopaedics, eye and ENTspecialists are available on select-ed days of the week. At present,

around 30 polyclinics are oper-ational in the national Capitaland the Government has set atarget of 150 such polyclinics.

Earlier this week, PWDEngineer-in-Chief RakeshKumar Agrawal had held ameeting with officials and dis-cussed the execution of differ-

ent projects.“94 Delhi Government's

dispensaries will be remodelledas polyclinics in various areasof the city,” an official said.

According to the PWD,construction of new buildingand remodelling of existingbuildings for expansion of the

Acharya Shree BhikshuGovernment hospital will becarried out. Among the hospi-tals where expansion andremodelling works will beundertaken are Dr HedgewarAarogya Sansthan, Dada DevMaternity and Child Hospital,Jag Pravesh Chandra Hospital.

��������������� �2���203/

The sanitation workers whowere on hunger strike since

March 20 have broken their faston the assurance from DelhiBJP president Manoj Tiwari tomeet their demands includingregularisation of daily wagesanitation workers.

Addressing workers,Tiwari said “We understandthat your demands are genuineand you deserve it but due toprevailing financial crisis itwas delayed. But now the cor-poration has decided to fulfillyour demands.

Tiwari also expressed hopethat now the workers will putup their efforts to bring thechanges and help in achievingthe objectives of Swachh BharatMission.

Meanwhile, DelhiCongress president AjayMaken on Saturday also metwith sanitation workers. Hesaid the demands such as reg-ularization of temporaryemployees, clearance of theirpending arrears, uniforms;pension, cashless medical cardetc are not new and pending fordecades. “The official or lead-ers of the corporation have alsonot given any assurance to thesanitation workers that thosetemporary sanitation workers

up to 2017 would be regu-larised or not,” he said.

Maken further said thatsanitation workers never wenton strike or agitations to gettheir salaries and for the fulfill-ment of their demands duringthe Congress rule in municipalcorporations. “It is indeed verysad that the sanitation workers,who play a pivotal role in keep-ing Delhi neat and clean, areforced to go on hunger strike.

Randhir Gagat who was onhunger strike along with otherworkers assured that theywould now focus on theirduties and would clear allgarbage as soon as possible.

North Delhi MunicipalCorporation Mayor, Preety

Agarwal said that most of thedemands of sanitation workershave been accepted. She saidthat to provide cashless med-ical facility to them has alsobeen approved.

She also made an appeal tothe workers to make the cityclean by putting extra efforts.

Agarwal further said thatalong with their salary, sanita-tion workers will be paid �5000per month as part of paymentof pending arrear. AttackingDelhi Chief Minister (CM)Arvind Kejriwal for not meet-ing with workers after givingtime, she said that the CM isonly indulging in party politicsby not releasing the due fundsof the corporation.

��������������� �2���203/

Following the case of sexualharassment against head of

Department of Chemistry atDelhi University and many othercases pending with the InternalComplaints Committee (ICC) ofDU, the president of NationalDemocratic Teachers' Front(NDTF) and Executive Council(EC) member AK Bhagi haswritten to the DU Vice-Chancellor Prof Yogesh Tyagi forspeedy enquiry and action insuch cases. The letter is endorsedby several Academic Council(AC) members also.

“It has been noted that uni-versity is constantly failing in itsduty to complete the inquiry andaction in sexual harassmentcases as per the provisions of theAct to deal with sexual harass-ment cases at work place. Theinquiry in such cases must becompleted and report its findingto Executive Council within 90days for suitable action,” saidBhagi in his letter to VC. He saidthat pending cases of sexualharassment has resulted intounrest in university communi-ty especially among women.

“It has also been noted thateven in cases of serious com-plaints against administrators,they are being allowed to con-tinue on their administrativepositions. Their continuation intheir administrative positionsmay give them a chance toinfluence witnesses etc.Therefore, for a fair enquiry dur-ing that period the administra-tor must be removed from hisadministrative position,” saidthe letter.

��������������� �2���203/

Delhi Assembly Speaker RamNiwas Goel on Saturday

denied before a Delhi court theallegations of causing hurt andrioting at the house of a realtorin an East Delhi colony in 2015.Goel made the submissionsbefore Additional ChiefMetropolitan Magistrate SamarVishal, who reserved for April 17the order on whether to put himand six other accused on trial inthe case.

Goel's advocate Mhd Irshad

��������������� �2���203/

In its bid to provide world classinfrastructure at Delhi

Government schools so as tomake them stand at par with thebest private players in the edu-cation sector, Chief MinisterArvind Kejriwal and his DeputyManish Sisodia on Saturdayinaugurated swimming pools attwo Government schools,Rajkiya Sarvodaya Bal Vidyalaya(West Vinod Nagar) and AnnieBesant Sarvodaya KanyaVidyalaya (Pocket-B, MayurVihar- Phase II).

Addressing the gathering,Kejriwal said, “AAP Governmentis committed to provide qualityeducation. By setting up of world

class facilities at DelhiGovernment schools, ourGovernment has set up an exam-ple for other States who want totransform their schools intomodel schools”.

While, Deputy ChiefMinister and Education Minister,Manish Sisodia in his address tothe students said, “We can onlyprovide facilities and infrastruc-ture but it is up to you howwould you take advantage ofthese facilities and make usproud in future.”

“The makeover ofGovernment schools haschanged the mindset of parents

and now they are sending theirkids to Government schools,”said Sisodia.

The Aam Aadmi PartyGovernment has bought a hugetransformation in the overallambience of Governmentschools with proper facilitiesfor the students and the teach-ers, multi-storey school build-ings, well-equipped computerlabs, CCTV surveillance and bigplaygrounds. The efforts of theDelhi Government have startedbearing fruits as a sizeable num-ber of students have joined theseschools, leaving private schoolsin their vicinities.

��������������� �2���203/

Clouds hover over nationalCapital’s sky partly on

Saturday with the mercury dip-ping to 19 degrees Celsius apoint below the season’s aver-age, said the weather office.

“The rainfall recorded lastnight was 5 mm. The sky willremain partly cloudy withchances of light rainfall and driz-zle in some areas within theNational Capital Region,” said anofficial of India MeteorologicalDepartment official (IMD) .

The maximum tempera-ture is expected to hover around36.6 degrees Celsius, two notch-es above the season's average.

The humidity at 8.30 amwas 59 per cent. Friday’s max-imum temperature settled at 37degrees Celsius, five notchesabove the season’s averagewhile the minimum tempera-ture was recorded at 22.5degrees Celsius, three notchesabove the season’s average.

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Two men were killed after amassive fire broke out in a

footwear manufacturing facto-ry in Outer Delhi’s Narela areaon the early hours of Saturday.

According to police, thedeceased have been identified as30 year old Vinay and 25 yearold Kuldeep. Police suspect thatthe two men died to suffocationsince they were not able toescape from the building asthey were sleeping. A senior fireofficial said, “There were no eye-witnesses, but it is likely that thetwo men woke up from theirsleep only after the fire hadspread.”

Police said that a case hasbeen registered under sections285 (negligent conduct withrespect to fire or combustiblematter) and 304 A (causingdeath due to negligence) at theNarela police station.

Earlier this year, 17 factoryworkers were killed in flamesafter a massive fire broke in acracker manufacturing unit in

the Bawana Industrial area.While the factory in Bawana wasbeing run without any legalformality, senior police officerssaid that the Narela factory wasrunning legally.

In the Bawana mishap, thebuilding allegedly had only oneexit route because of which thepeople inside found themselvestrapped and charred to death.

Police said that the latestdeaths occurred at around 2.30am in the DSIIDC (Delhi stateIndustrial and InfrastructureDevelopment Corporation)industrial area, located next toBhorgarh in Narela. The facto-ry manufactures plastic footwearitems on the ground floor andstores the packing material onthe first floor.

“Vinay worked as a guard atthe factory. He slept on the firstfloor. His distant relative,Kuldeep, worked in anotherfactory nearby. He too wouldspend his night here itself,” saida labourer who knew the duobut refused to reveal his identi-ty. The two men were natives ofSultanpur in Uttar Pradesh,”said a senior police officer.

Meanwhile, a senior DelhiFire Service official said that Itwas only when the locals sawflames emanating from the topfloor of the building that theycalled the fire department thatdispatched eight fire tenders tothe factory.

“By the time we broke openthe door and brought the menout, they were already motion-less. The deaths occurred due toinhaling the smoke,” said a fireofficer, adding the packing mate-rial was inflammable and causedthe fire to spread rapidly.

Though police have notruled out foul play in the deaths,they said the initial probe hasindicated it was an accident.

told the court that it was anunique case where the culpritswere let go and those who com-plained were made accused.

“BJP members weredestroying liquor and theaccused were actually the com-plainant and complained againstthe act. Regular calls were madeto the police, but it did notanswer in time.

“Our common intentionwas to prevent the distributionof liquor.

Police was present, the SDMwas present, even the housemembers were present. Howwas it a trespass?” the advocateargued.

Various election-relatedmaterial of the BJP, besides sev-eral bottles of liquor, were recov-ered, which prove the illegalgratification was made, he said.

According to an FIR regis-tered on a complaint by a localbuilder, Manish Ghai, AAP'sShahdara MLA Ram NiwasGoel and his supporters hadallegedly raided one of his hous-es in Vivek Vihar on the nightof February 6, 2015, a day beforethe Delhi Assembly elections.

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� We understand that your demands are genuine and youdeserve it but due to prevailing financial crisis it was delayed.But now the corporation has decided to fulfill yourdemands — BJP president Manoj Tiwari

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Three hours after he walkedout of a Jodhpur jail where

he had spent two nights,Bollywood actor Salman Khanreturned to his Bandra resi-dence in north-west Mumbaito a hero’s welcome on Saturdaynight.

After hundreds of his fansgreeted him at the Mumbai air-port, a rousing reception await-ed Salman when he arrived athis “Galaxy” residence atBandra where thousands offans had been waiting eversince the Jodhpur court grant-ed bail in the backbucks poach-ing case.

Salman, who had drivenstraight from the jail to theJodhpur airport to take a char-tered flight to Mumbai, arrivedat his home at 8 pm. Sportinga dark t-shirt, a cap, the actor

was accompanied by his sistersAlvira, Arpita and his person-al bodyguard Shera.

Thousands of his fans whoincluded mothers with childrenin their arms, youngsters, elder-ly men and women, lustilycheered Salman, as he walkedinside his residence. Many ofhis fans displayed placards andbanners in support of the actor.

Earlier, his fans went on afrenzy seeing Salman step out ofthe Mumbai airport. They

clicked photographs andtook videos of Salman, ashe headed to his car to goto his residence.

Salman was seen car-rying his nephew, Arpita'sone-year old son, in hisarms, from the airportlongue to his car to returnhome.

Another round of cel-ebrations awaited the actor

near his residence where hisfans cheered him, whistled andshouted slogans like “SalmanKhan Zindabad”. They burstcrackers and distributed sweets.

After 15-odd minutes ofhis arrival at his residence,Salman – along with his yes-teryear script writer-fatherSalim Khan and all other fam-ily members – appeared in thebalcony of his residence andwaved at his fans for quite sometime.

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Yet another sporting seasonis coming to an end in

South India devoid of any majorall India football tournaments.The period from January tomid-May used to be the footballseason in Kerala, Tamil Naduand Karnataka. Other than theIndian Soccer League (ISL) fea-turing some foreign players andportrayed as the country’s pro-fessional football circuit, thereare no regular tournaments inSouth India now.

“It is depressing to note thatthe quality of football has gonedown from what it was in the1950s and 1960s,” said BhasiMalapparamba, former player-turned-football writer in Kerala’sKozhikode. Bhasi, the formercaptain of Young Challengers, a

prominent football team of the1960s is a contemporary of for-mer Indian players like InderSingh (Punjab) and Magn Singh(Rajasthan).

“To tell you the truth, we areyet to see the greats like Inderand Magan. We may not havewon any international cups butthese players were rated highlyin other Asian countries,” Bhasitold The Pioneer. He says thatthere was a period during the1960s and 1970s when Keralaalone boasted of seven all-Indiafootball tournaments.

“These tournaments werewidely followed all over thecountry though we did not havesatellite TV sports channels ormodern gadgets like mobilephones and internets.Newspapers and AIR news bul-lets were the only source of infor-mation. But the thrill is gone out

of Indian football,” said Bhasi.Magan Singh, former India

captain who donned the coloursof Rajasthan ArmedConstabulary, Bikaner, duringhis heydays and was a heartthrobamong the fans is a disappoint-ed man. “We had great hopes ofseeing Indian flag flying in inter-national arena. But the tragedyis that we are nowhere near thetop in Asia itself. I have not seenIndian team taking part in inter-national tournaments likeMerdeka Cup in Malaysia or theSultan Marah Halim Cup atMedan in Indonesia,” saidMagan. He said he was reallymoved when one of the footballfans in Kozhikode presentedhim with an album of pho-tographs featuring him playingin the Nagjee Cup, South India’smost glamorous tournamentwhich has become defunct now.

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From Page 1One of the main purpose

for intense patrolling is to putpressure on ultras includingAbu Muslim to commit a mis-take by exposing themselvesand falling into the security net.He has managed to remainhidden in Hajin thereby mak-ing it all the more important forthe security forces to get himbefore Abu Muslim carries outanother strike.

From Page 1Appreciating Oli’s gesture

of choosing India as the firstdestination of his visit, Modiassured him that India willstand with Nepal as reliablepartner and is committed todeepening of relations with it.

“I understand that my basicprinciple of “Sabka Saath, SabkaVikas” for India’s developmentand the vision of PrimeMinister of Nepal for a“Samruddha Nepal, SukhiNepal” are complementary toeach other. So, we both agreethat we have to move aheadwith the hopes and expecta-tions of a public-centeredvision, the common goals ofdevelopment, and the happi-ness and prosperity of the peo-ple of both the countries,”Modi said in the media state-ment after the talks.

In a landmark decision,

India will assist Nepal in devel-oping inland waterway on itsrivers that will connect withIndian waterways and provideNepal additional access to sea.“Apart from building connec-tivity, this new initiative willalso be helpful in the move-ment of cargo,” Gokhale said.The requisite procedures andmodalities for including inlandwaterways as an additionalmeans of transport in theProtocol to the Treaty of Transitbetween India and Nepal willbe worked out soon.

“With our assistance, Nepalwill get an extra connectivity tothe sea. And the country ofEverest will be able to connectdirectly to the ocean. I believethat this is a historical begin-ning. Nepal will not only be‘land-linked’ but ‘water-linked’also,” Modi said in his mediastatement.

In his comments, Oli men-tioned about the enormousimpact this additional con-nectivity would have on thegrowth of business and econ-omy of Nepal. “I thankedPrime Minister Modiji for pos-itively considering our pro-

posal on inland waterways.Enhanced connectivity willdefinitely contribute to ourdesire to be a land-linked coun-try instead of land-locked,” Olisaid.

The electrified rail linkbetween Raxual to Kathmanduvalley is expected to boostconnectivity and trade. Thepreparatory survey work forthis rail link will begin withinan year, and the two sideswould finalise the implemen-tation and funding modalitiesof the project based on theDetailed Project Report.

India is already engaged inimplementation of Phase-I ofthe India-Nepal cross-borderrail link projects. The stretch ofrailway lines from Jayanagar toJanakpur/Kurtha and fromJogbani to Biratnagar CustomYard under first phase is expect-ed to be completed by this year-end. The ongoing FinalLocation Survey of the threelinks under Phase-II of theIndia-Nepal cross-border raillink projects -- New Jalpaiguri-Kakarbhitta, Nautanwa-Bhairahawa, and NepalgunjRoad-Nepalgunj -- too isexpected to be complete soon.

In the agriculture sector,India will undertake a pilotproject on organic farmingand soil health improvement.During their discussions, PMModi mentioned hisGovernment’s initiative of pro-viding soil health cards for thefarmers and how that can bereplicated in Nepal too whichis primarily agriculture domi-nant.

Talking about discussionson defence and security issues,Modi said India and Nepalhave close and deep connectionon the matters of defence andsecurity. “We both agree to pre-vent the abuse of our open bor-der, and to pursue our sharedsecurity interests,” Modi said.Modi and Oli also inaugurat-ed Birgunj-Raxaul IntegratedCheck Post and witnessed theground breaking ceremony ofthe Motihari-Amlekhgunjcross-border petroleum prod-ucts pipeline at Motihari. Thetwo sides also discussed aboutexpediting the post-earthquakereconstruction projects inNepal being implemented withIndia support.

During their discussionson regional issues, the issue ofstalled SAARC Summit alsocame up. It is learnt that Modimentioned to Oli about thecurrent situation on cross-bor-der terrorism from Pakistanand its impact in the SouthAsian region, particularly India.Nepal is the chair of theSAARC and the next summitis scheduled to be held inPakistan which will take overas its chair thereafter.

Earlier, during his meetingwith Oli, President Ram NathKovind said India’s interest liesin the stability and economicgrowth of Nepal and for thatNew Delhi is ready to expandcooperation as per its priorities.Kovind expressed confidencethat under Oli’s leadership,Nepal would chart a new courseof rapid socio-economic trans-formation for its people.

From Page 1The judge had on Friday

reserved his decision on Khan’sbail plea till Saturday after hear-ing arguments on the suspensionof sentence and the bail appli-cation. While defence counselBora had argued for Khan’s bailin the court on Friday, publicprosecutor Pokar Ram Bishnoihad opposed the plea.

After Khan was grantedbail, his friends and well-wish-ers from the film industryexpressed their happiness overthe decision. Director ofSalman’s upcoming film “Race3” Remo D’Souza told PTI, “Iam happy that he has got bail.After working with him soclosely I have become a hugefan of him not only as an actorbut also as a human being.”

“Almost 90 per cent of theshoot for ‘Race 3’ is over andthe remaining portions willmostly be shot in India,” hesaid. Producer of “Race 3”Ramesh Taurani said he is“happy” that the actor hascome out of the jail.

Khan’s “Dabangg” co-actorSonu Sood tweeted, “A Gooddeed is the best Prayer. Welcomebrother Salman Khan.”

Singer Adnan Sami, whocomposed the music of Khan’s“Lucky: No Time for Love”,said, “So happy for the bail ofmy dear brother Salman Khan. Relieved. Come home. JAIHO!”

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Union MinisterThaawarchand Gehlot has

requested HRD MinisterPrakash Javadekar to include thelife and works of JayaprakashNarayan in school syllabus.

Narayan, popularly referredto as JP, is remembered for lead-ing the mid-1970s oppositionagainst the then Prime MinisterIndira Gandhi. In his letter to theHRD Minister, Gehlot alsosought that the period ofEmergency be included in schoolcurriculums. The UnionMinister of Social Justice andEmpowerment said he hasreceived a representation in thisregard from the national presi-dent of the Loktantra SenaniSangh (LSS), Kailash Soni.

Soni also sought that socialand political workers, who par-ticipated in the movement

against the Emergency, be recog-nised and declared as freedomfighters. Gehlot has also writtento Home Minister Rajnath Singhin this regard. The LSS is anorganisation representing polit-ical prisoners jailed during theEmergency.

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In a fresh salvo against PrimeMinister Narendra Modi,

Congress president RahulGandhi on Saturday hit out atthe PM alleging that his friendsraced to find strategic partnersafter the Government “re-ten-dered” $15 billion fighter jetdeal.

“Modi Scam Alert! $15Billion fighter jet deal re-ten-dered. PM’s friends race to tieup strategic partners. Rafale,�40,000 crore loss to exchequerwas ‘Sayonara’ money toFrench, so PM could re-tendercontract and favour friends,”Rahul alleged on Twitter.

The Congress presidentwas citing media reports in thisregard which stated that Indiawas seeking over 100 newfighter jets in the world’s largestdeal.

The Congress leader has,for sometime, been questioningthe BJP Government on theongoing defence deals.

Rahul had earlier launcheda scathing attack on the PrimeMinister and his Governmentover the Rafale deal, allegingthat it was a “scam” as the dis-pensation was not disclosing

details of the deal and was nei-ther making public the price ofthe aircraft .

He had also accused Modiof “helping his friends” in thedefence sector get the contractwithout any experience afterignoring the public-sectorHAL, which was to originally make the Rafale jetsindigenously in transfer oftechnology.

The Congress had alsoalleged that the government hasbrought the aircraft at thricethe price that the UPA regimehad negotiated with the Frenchcompany. Modi-Governmenthas refuted the charges sayingthey have got the best possibledeal.

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The Congress alleged onSaturday that the owner of

Vadodara-based DiamondPower Infrastructure Ltd (DPIL), booked by theCBI for cheating banks to thetune of �2,654 crore, has“active connection” with seniorBJP leaders.

The CBI on Thursday saidit has registered a criminalcase against DPIL and its direc-tors for allegedly cheating var-ious banks of about �2,654crore.

The company deals in elec-tric cable and equipment.

Congress spokespersonPawan Khera said “murky deal-ing and crony business” ofDPIL was exposed now.

“If chhota Modi’s (Nirav Modi) pictures with theprime minister were notenough, there is now a proof of chhota Amit... The photo-graph of Amit Bhatnagar, the owner of the company,with Prime Minister Modi andUnion Minister Piyush Goyal— which are on social media —

are clear proof of BJP havingactive connection with thefraudsters,” Khera toldreporters.

He alleged that Bhatnagarhad been one of the “chieffinanciers” of the BJP inVadodara, Gujarat.

Khera said Saurabh Patel,who was the energy minister of

Gujarat in 2016, and Bhatnagarhad organised a five-day GlobalExpo-SWITCH in Vadodara“at the expense of publicmoney”. He did not offer anyevidence of misuse of publicmoney.

In a statement, theCongress leader claimedBhatnagar’s “modus operandi” was similar to pre-vious banking frauds whichinvolved false stock statements, extensively utilisingof cash credit limits to obtaina large number of Letters ofCredit.

“About 1,000 such Lettersof Credit issued by Bank ofIndia alone devolved, whichincluded at least 16 LCsamounting to �110.79 croreissued in the name of RubyCables Ltd,” he said.

Amit Bhatnagar and SumitBhatnagar were directors ofRuby Cables between July 2013and August 2015, according tothe statement.

“DPIL managed to get thecredit facilities despite appear-ing in the RBI’s Defaulters Listand ECGC Caution List at thetime of initial sanction ofCredit Limits by theConsortium. DPIL accountsin Bank of India and Bank ofBaroda were declared NPA onFebruary 16, 2016. Other banksdeclared company’s accountsNPA from December, 2017,”Khera alleged.

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Making a reconciliatorygesture after his hostile

conduct in 2015-2016, Nepal’sPrime Minister KP SharmaOli said on Saturday that he hascome to India with a mission to create a ‘modelrelationship’.

He also made it clear thatthe differences of the past areno more hindrance betweenthe two sides and the ‘misun-derstandings’ have beenremoved. He assured theIndian leadership that Nepalattaches great importance to itsrelations with India.

“Being close neighbours,our destiny is intertwined. Prosperity is ourcommon goal. Relationsbetween neighbours are dif-ferent from those of others.Neighbourhood realities makepeaceful coexistence, based onthe principles of equality, jus-tice, mutual respect and bene-fits a necessity for shared des-tiny,” Oli said in a media state-ment after bilateral talks withIndian Prime Minister

Narendra Modi. “We must seize the oppor-

tunity to make our relationsfruitful to the lives of our peo-ples. As close neighbours, weshare a common destiny, whichdemands collective pursuit ofprosperity,” he added.

With Modi, Oli said, therewas a convergence of views onseveral issues when they heldconstructive deliberation on anumber of specific agendas.“We exchanged views on howwe can advance our coopera-tive relations and can make itdeeper and more comprehen-sive,” Oli said.

Oli said the two leadershave agreed on the need of con-tinuation of engagements at thehighest level. “I renewed theinvitation to Prime MinisterModi ji to pay a visit to Nepalat the earliest convenient time.I am hopeful that the visitwould take place soon,” theNepalese PM said.

On the flooding in Indiaand Nepal during monsoonsthat often saw two sides blam-ing each other, Oli said:“Talking about water resources

and its management, inunda-tion has become a repeatedproblem during every mon-soon in Nepal’s lowland. Westressed on the need of findingappropriate solution to thisproblem.”

He appreciated India’s deci-sion to have guidelines and reg-ulation for cross border tradeof electricity to improve trans-parency. “Nepal will havepower surplus in wet seasonand deficit in dry season for afew years to come whereasIndia needs more power insummer. In view of this com-plementarity of energy needs,we discussed about realizationof energy banking. We also dis-cussed about development ofnew transmission lines,” Olisaid.

Oli mentioned progress ofboundary related technicalworks, which are being under-taken by the Surveys of bothsides. He said there is an under-standing that status quo will bemaintained until the two sidesstart to address the problem ofcross border occupation intotality.

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After the washout of theBudget session, Congress

leader Jairam Ramesh has urgedRajya Sabha Chairman MVenkaiah Naidu to persuade theGovernment to convene a spe-cial session of Parliament inMay-June to pass importantlegislations and debate issues ofnational importance.

In a letter to the chairman,he said the special sessionwould send a “different signal”and help retrieve the “lost pres-tige” of Parliament due to thecomplete washout of the BudgetSession. “Why don’t you try andpersuade the Government toconvene a special two-weeksession in late May or early Juneto both pass important legisla-tions and also have debate anddiscussion on burning political,economic and social issues?”Ramesh said in the letter. He,however, made it clear that hissuggestion was “purely in mypersonal capacity”.

In the just concluded sec-ond part of the budget sessionof the Parliament Lok Sabha’sproductivity has been at 4 per

cent while Rajya Sabha’s stoodat mere 8 per cent, according toUnion Minister Ananth Kumarwho squarely blamed Congressfor making Parliament sessionunsuccessful. BJP MPs will beobserving fast in their respec-tive constituencies on April 12to “expose” Congress party’snegative politics. “I’m awarethat the Monsoon Session willbe called sometime in mid-Julybut a special session sends a dif-ferent signal. There is no doubtthat the complete washout hasinflicted great damage to

Parliament as an institu-tion,” Ramesh said. The RajyaSabha member hoped that thechairman would consult withleaders to ensure that this didnot happen again. Ramesh alsolauded Naidu for being carefulabout not putting the entireblame on anyone and insteadcalled it “a collective failure”.

He said he agreed withNaidu on this, but added that itwas the Government’s respon-sibility to communicate andengage in a meaningful and seri-ous dialogue with all politicalparties to ensure the smoothfunctioning of Parliament.

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If the Food Safety andStandard Authority of India

(FSSAI) has its way, schoolsacross the country might haveto shift their morning assem-bly timings between 11 am and1 pm, which is the best timeto soak in the sun for essentialVitamin D.

The proposal to shift theschool assembly timing aims tohelp the children to tap thesolar energy which is consid-ered to be the rich source ofVitamin D. According to sev-eral studies, a large number ofchildren in the country are suf-fering with Vitamin D defi-ciency which can lead to weak-ness of bones and other lifestylerelated disorders.

“One of the ways to get the“Sunshine Vitamin” is expo-sure to the sunlight from 11 amto 1 pm . It has been observedthat with decreasing zenith

angle, conversion to activeform of Vitamin D is higher.The zenith angle decreasesduring 11 am — 2pm (mini-mum is seen at 12 and 1 pm).“Hence, this is the best time forour skin to synthesise VitaminD when exposed to Sun.Therefore, it is proposed toalter simple daily activitieslike shifting morning assemblyto noon in order to get maxi-mum benefits.

“Other way to get VitaminD is by consuming foods for-tified with Vitamin D and Alike milk and edible oil. Theseproducts have +F logo on theirpacks for easy identification,”said the FSSAI ChairmanPawan Agarwal.

In this regard, the FSSAI isholding a joint noon assemblyon Monday with students andprincipal of schools as a simplestrategy that can be imple-mented through schools andthe school curriculum.

Meetings with the NDMCand MCD will be held toencourage them review schoolguidelines to increase the expo-sure of sunlight. Schools will beasked to spread awareness onVitamin D deficiency and theneed for sunlight exposure aswell as introduce more gamesperiod during high sunlightexposure hours. On its part, theDepartment of Biotechnology(DBT) under the UnionMinistry of Science andTechnology too has decided toconduct research on “VitaminD deficiency in India-publichealth significance and inter-ventions”.

“We aim to study the skele-tal and non skeletal benefits,safety and potential adverseeffects of Vitamin D supple-mentation and fortification inIndians. We will also studynon-dietary interventionsincluding sunshine exposure ,”said a senior DBT official.

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Congress president RahulGandhi attacked BJP pres-

ident Amit Shah over his com-ment recently equating theOpposition parties to animals.

Addressing the media onthe sidelines of his crucial fifthleg of election campaign atKolar Gold Field (KGF) onSaturday Congress chief saidit is a very disrespectful state-

ment. He said, “Calling theentire Opposition animals isdisrespectful. See according toAmit Shah and the basic visionof the RSS there are only twonon animals in the country.There is Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and there isAmit Shah.”

“Everybody else as far asthey are concerned are animals.That’s fine this is the way theylook at the world. It is disre-

spectful statement but we don’ttake Amit shah seriously,” headded.

Congress chief is fighting ado or die battle in theKarnataka assembly polls as itis very crucial for the party toretain power to prove a pointhimself to counter the BJP.

He also continued his tem-ple hopping and other religiousplaces to show a theoreticalchange in the perception of

century old party. Gandhi isbetting high on Chief MinisterSiddaramaiah who is playingappeasement politics to thehilt. After Gujarat Karnataka isgoing to be a litmus test for theCongress and its young leader.

Criticising Shah, Rahulsaid it was the mentality of theBJP to call everyone animal andworthless.

“ It was the mentality thatthere were only two or three

people in the country who areworth anything, who under-stand everything and every-body else is a worthless person.It is not only dalits, its tribal stsminorities. It does not stopthere. Its Advani, ManoharJoshi even Gadkari its every-body,” he added.

Gandhi was very sarcasticand said “people in BJP inter-nally does not have guts to sayto you. They say to us.”

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Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)chief Mayawati slammed

BJP president Amit Shah for hisremarks on Opposition unity.She said that even when thepeople of the State have taughtthe BJP leaders a lesson forusing derogatory remarks stillthe party brass was engaged incalling Opposition parties bythe names of animal.

“When the BSP and SP

joined hands to fight Lok Sabhabypolls in Gorakhpur andPhulpur seats, Chief MinisterYogi Adityanath and hisMinisters used unsavouryremarks as a result the voterstaught them a lesson by defeat-ing both BJP candidates,” point-ed out Mayawati. “In fact, BJPleaders are frightened so noweven the Prime Minister andBJP chief were using unparlia-mentary language. The peoplehave by now understood that

chosing the BJP in 2014 was amistake and they were nowdecided on throwing the partyin the next Parliament elec-tions,” asserted the BSP chief.

The BSP chief was reactingto Shah’s statement onOpposition unity in Mumbaiwhere he said that there was acampaign to unit all Oppositionparties as during a flood, snakes,mongooses, cats, dogs and evencheetahs and lions climb up treesto escape rising water levels.

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Alack of enthusiasm hasgripped all the three polit-

ical fronts in Kerala’sChengannur Assembly con-stituency where a by-election isto be held soon and the cam-paigning, which had attained afeverish pitch towards Marchend as the parties were expect-ing the Election Commission toannounce the schedule of theby-poll along with that of theState elections in Karnataka, hasslowed down considerably.

The collapse of that expec-tation, the uncertainty overwhen the by-poll will be heldand the legal experts’ opinionthat the Election Commissionneed not announce the sched-ule in haste are promptingfrontline State leaders of all par-ties, many of who had settleddown in Chengannur by lastmonth-end to lead election-eering, to withdraw from the

scene to return later.Even most local leaders of

the BJP, the party drawing flakfrom opponents for the uncer-tainty over the poll date, are notamused much about the EC’sdecision to put off theannouncement. That party,which had dedicated a lot oftime for planning top leaders’constituency programmes in ameticulous manner, is yet tolaunch those programmes.

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Lucknow: Chief Minister, YogiAdityanath condoled the deathof four residents of Faziabad inJammu and had announced acompensation for the familymembers of the bereaved per-sons. According to an officialcommuniqué released here onSaturday evening, Adityanathwhile condoling the deaths, hasannounced �2 lakh compen-sation to the family membersof each of the four personskilled in Jammu. PNS

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Aday after former INX Mediahead and prime accused in

the Sheena Bora murder caseIndrani Mukerjea was hospi-talised, the doctors attending onher at the State-run JJ Hospitalare trying to ascertain if she hadan overdose of drugs at theByculla Women’s prison whereshe is currently lodged.

Indrani, who was rushedfrom the prison to the JJHospital on Friday night aftershe complained of drowsinessand breathing problems, is inthe Critical Care Unit (CCU) ofthe hospital. On Saturday, sheunderwent a series of medicalinvestigations and an MRI andCT scans.

“We are carrying out sev-eral tests on her. She has justundergone a brain MRI. We areawaiting the reports. Thesereports will help us ascertain

whether she had a drugs over-dose or is it some other issue,”Hospital’s Dean Dr. S. D.Nanandkar said on Saturday.

Dr Nandgaonkar said thatIndrani, who was brought tothe hospital at around 11 pmon Saturday in a semi-con-scious and delirious state, wasresponding well to the treat-ment “All her vital parametersare normal and her healthcondition is stable,” he said.

Dr Nandgaonkar said thatafter studying the reports of dif-ferent tests and scans carriedout on Indrani, the medicalteam attending on her woulddecide the further course oftreatment.

It may be recalled thatIndrani and other two arrest-ed accused — Sanjeev and Rai— had allegedly “kidnapped”Sheena between 6.30 pm and7.30 pm on April 24, 2012,from Bandra (west) in their car.

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Canadian police said earlyon Saturday 14 people were

killed and 14 people wereinjured after a truck collidedwith a bus carrying a juniorhockey team to a playoff gamein Western Canada.

Police said there were 28people, including the driver, onboard the bus of the HumboldtBroncos team when the crashoccurred around 5 pm onFriday on Highway 35 inSaskatchewan.

“We can now confirmfourteen people have died as aresult of this collision,” TheRoyal Canadian MountedPolice said in a release earlySaturday. “The other fourteenpeople were sent to hospitalswith a variety of injuries; threeof these people have injuriesthat are critical in nature.”

No names were released,and police would not say

whether players or coacheswere among the dead. Therewas no mention of the truckdriver. The team president saidparents from across WesternCanada were rushing to thescene as they struggled to copewith the tragedy.

“It’s one of the hardestdays of my life,” said KevinGaringer. “There have beenmultiple fatalities — our wholecommunity is in shock, we aregrieving and we will continueto grieve throughout this ordealas we try to work toward sup-porting each other.”

Michelle Straschnitzki,who lives in Airdrie, said her18-year old son Ryan had beentaken to a hospital inSaskatoon, Saskatchewan.

“We talked to him, but hesaid he couldn’t feel his lowerextremities so I don’t knowwhat’s going on,” she said. “I amfreaking out. I am so sad for allof the teammates and I am los-ing my mind.”

The team was on its way toplay in Game 5 of a semi-finalagainst the Nipawin Hawks.

Darren Opp, president ofthe Hawks, said a semi T-boned the players’ bus.

“It’s a horrible accident, myGod,” he said. “It’s very, verybad.” Opp said the coaching

staff and players from theHawks were waiting to help.

“They are sitting in thechurch just waiting to hear anygood news,” he said. “I’ve got 50phone calls at least saying‘what do you want?’

“There’s uncles and momsand dads waiting to hear

whether their sons andnephews are OK. It’s terrible. It’sabsolutely terrible.”

Pastor Jordan Gadsby atthe Apostolic Church inNipawin said more than a hun-dred people had gathered at thechurch — including parentsand grandparents of the play-

ers who were on the bus.“Lots of them are waiting

for information,” he said.“Some of the families havegotten information and havegone to be with their kids.Some of them are waiting tohear if their kids are alive.”

Garinger said the Broncosare a close-knit team from thesmall city of Humboldt,Saskatchewan, which has apopulation of about 6,000.

Garinger said he still did-n’t know the fate of one of theplayers living in his home.

“We don’t know who haspassed and we don’t expect toknow right away,” he said. “Weknow that the coroner andtheir office needs to do theirwork and let families know.”

Garinger said all the teamcan do now is help the playersand their families any waythey can. “We just need to tryto support each other as wedeal with this incredible loss toour community, to our

province, to our hockey world.”Kevin Henry, a coach who

runs a hockey school in PrinceAlbert, said he knows playerson the team.

“This is I would think oneof the darkest days in the his-tory of Saskatchewan, espe-cially because hockey is soingrained in how we grow uphere,” he said.

STARS air ambulance saidit sent three helicopters to thescene. The SaskatchewanJunior Hockey League is ajunior ‘A’ hockey league underHockey Canada, which is partof the Canadian Junior HockeyLeague. It’s open to NorthAmerican-born playersbetween the ages of 16 and 20.

“I cannot imagine whatthese parents are goingthrough, and my heart goes outto everyone affected by this ter-rible tragedy, in the Humboldtcommunity and beyond,”Canadian Prime MinisterJustin Trudeau tweeted.

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Barcelona: Catalan ex-leaderCarles Puigdemont has said hewants to return to Belgium at theend of German legal proceed-ings. Speaking at a Press con-ference the day after his releaseon bail from a German prison,Puigdemont also again called forfresh dialogue with Spain.

Puigdemont was arrestedin northern Germany lastmonth en route from Denmarkto Belgium, where he nowlives. German courts are stillconsidering whether to extra-dite the former leader, wantedin Spain on sedition charges.

The court in the northernstate of Schleswig-Holstein onThursday set his bail at 75,000euros (£65,000; $90,000).

However, he is not allowedto leave Germany and mustreport to German police on aweekly basis.

Puigdemont had been liv-ing in self-imposed exile inBelgium since Catalonia’s par-

liament unilaterally declaredindependence from Spain inOctober, following an unau-thorised referendum banned bythe constitutional court.

He was arrested on 25March on a European ArrestWarrant issued by Spain.

Agencies

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Russias Ambassador toBritain has requested a

meeting with Foreign SecretaryBoris Johnson to discuss thefallout from last months poi-soning of an ex-spy in theEnglish city of Salisbury, theRussian Embassy said onSaturday.

“We believe that it is hightime to arrange a meetingbetween AmbassadorAlexander Yakovenko andForeign Secretary BorisJohnson in order to discuss thewhole range of bilateral issues,as well as the investigation ofthe Salisbury incident,” aspokesperson told AFP.

“Unfortunately, the cur-rent state of the foreign officeinteraction with the embassy isutterly unsatisfactory.”

The spokesperson saidYakovenko had sent a “personalnote” to Johnson asking for themeeting.

“We hope that the Britishside will engage constructive-ly and that such (a) meeting isarranged shortly,” thespokesperson added.

Britain’s Foreign Office saidit had received the request andwould be “responding in duecourse”.

Relations between Londonand Moscow have plumbednew lows in recent weeks fol-lowing the poisoning of formerdouble agent Sergei Skripaland his daughter Yulia onMarch 4.

The conditions of theSkripals has continued toimprove this week, with the ex-spy no longer in critical con-dition, the hospital treatinghim said, and his daughtersaying Thursday her strengthwas “growing daily”.

Mazar-I-Sharif (Afghanistan):A high-ranking Islamic Statecommander in Afghanistanhas been killed in an airstrike,officials said on Saturday, asAfghan and US forces dial upattacks on the terrorist group.

Qari Hekmat was the topcommander of ISIS Afghanfranchise in the northernprovince of Jowzjan, where thegroup established a strong-hold after coming underintense pressure in the easternprovince of Nangarhar.

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Battered by media reportsthat it “secretly” deleted

CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s postsfrom his recipients’ inboxes,Facebook is now planning tomake its “Unsend” featureavailable to its over two billionusers in coming months.

According to a report intechnology website TechCrunch on Saturday, unlessthe “Unsend” feature is releasedfor everyone, Facebook will notunsend or retract any more ofZuckerberg’s messages.

“We have discussed thisfeature several times. And peo-ple using our secret message fea-ture in the encrypted version ofMessenger have the ability to seta timer — and have their mes-sages automatically deleted,” aFacebook spokesperson was

quoted as saying in the report. “We will now be making a

broader delete message featureavailable. This may take sometime. And until this feature isready, we will no longer bedeleting any executives’ mes-sages. We should have donethis sooner — and we’re sorrythat we did not,” the spokesper-son added.

According to an earlierTech Crunch report on Friday,“Three sources confirm thatold Facebook messages theyreceived from Zuckerberg havedisappeared from theirFacebook inboxes, while theirown replies to him conspicu-ously remain.”

“Facebook never publiclydisclosed the removal of mes-sages from users’ inboxes, norprivately informed the recipi-ents,” the report added.

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APalestinian journalist shotby Israeli forces during

clashes along the Gaza borderhas died, the Health Ninistry inthe Strip said on Saturday.

Yasser Murtaja, a photog-rapher with the Gaza-basedAin Media agency, was hitduring clashes yesterday, theministry said. An AFP photo-

graph taken after he waswounded showed Murtajawearing a Press vest as hereceived treatment.

The Israeli Army declinedto comment, saying it wasreviewing the incident. TheGaza health ministry alsoannounced the death of anoth-er man, 20-year-old HamzaAbdel Aal, saying he was shoteast of Al-Bureij in centralGaza. The deaths brought the

number of Palestinians killedduring Fridays clashes to nineafter thousands gathered alongthe border for the second weekin a row.

Some Palestinians burnedmounds of tyres and threwstones at Israeli soldiers overthe border fence, who respond-ed with tear gas and live fire.

At least 491 Palestinianswere injured by shooting, thehealth ministry said.

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The White House has insist-ed that there was no going

back on its actions againstChina unless Beijing changesits practices of “unfair tradepractices and theft of intellec-tual property”.

This, despite the fact that theDow plummeted 550 points onFriday amid reports of a grow-ing tension between the twolargest economies of the world.

US President DonaldTrump ramped up his tradewar rhetoric with China, seek-ing USD 100 billion in addi-tional tariffs on Chinese prod-ucts. This is in addition to theproposed 25 per cent importtariffs worth $50 billion onsome 1,300 Chinese productsbeing imported into the US.

China has vowed to take“comprehensive countermea-

sures” and fight “at any cost”Trump’s directive.

“The President has saidenough is enough. China has tochange this illegal and unfairpractice that they’ve been in.Previous administrationsshould have stepped up andtried to stop these actions longbefore today,” White HousePress Secretary Sarah Sanderstold reporters at her daily newsconference.

“But thankfully, we have apresident that’s willing to actu-ally stand up, be tough, andtake some really courageous

and bold action, like PresidentTrump has done,” she said.

Responding to a questionon the Dow in New York drop-ping by over 500 points,Sanders said, “We know thatthere could be some fluctua-tion”. Sanders said the Trumpadministration would like tonegotiate.

“(But) we want them tostop participating in unfairand illegal trade practices andintellectual property theft,being a huge detriment to UScompanies and businesses,” shesaid.

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E-TENDER NOTICE NO. 06 FOR 2017-18Main Portal- http://mahatenders.gov.in

Online electronic bids in B-1 form for below mentioned work are invitedFrom the Contractors in India who fulfill the qualifying Criterias. Main TenderDocuments are available for online bid preparation & Submission on above web-site from Dt.13/04/2018 to Dt.17/05/2018

Sr. Name of Work Estimated Earnest Tender Class of Time limit forNo. Cost Money Fee Contractor completion

Deposit

1 Tembhu Lift Irrigation Rs. Rs. 10,000/- Contractors 15Project- 3598.45 18.00 Non in India MonthsConstruction of Pipe Lakh Lakh Refunda- whoLine Distribution ble fulfillNetwork for Dighanchi theDY (ICA - 1500 Ha.) at qualifyingCH 9/750 M on Atpadi criterialeft bank Canal Including Running and Maintenance of the System for Five years and Handing over the same to WUA Tal.Atpadi, Dist. Sangli.

1) Post qualification process is applicable for this tender.

2) Additional details regarding ‘e’ tendering process are available in tender Documenton Portal https://mahatenders.gov.in. If any assistance is required regarding e-Tendering (upload & download ) Please contact NICE- procurement Toll FreeNumber (24*7) 180030702232

3) The Competent Authority reserves the right to reject any or all the bids or allthe process of tender without assigning any reason thereof, and would not beresponsible for the cost incurred by the bidder in preparing his Bid.

4) Name of Officer and Address:- Executive Engineer, Minor Irrigation Division,Wamali, Vishrambag, Sangli, Phone No.0233/2302654 Fax No.233/2302654 E-mail- [email protected]

Sd/-(Er.S.K.Pawar)

Executive Engineer,DGIPR/2018/2019/102 Minor Irrigation Division,Sangli

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At least three people died onSaturday when a vehicle

ploughed into busy cafe andrestaurant terraces in theGerman city of Muensterbefore the driver shot himselfdead. Images on social mediashowed smashed and upturnedtables and chairs strewn accrossthe pavement outside an eateriein the centre of the picturesquemedieval city.

At least 20 people wereinjured, six of them seriously,according to police, whilemedia reports said the driverhad been behind the wheel of

a delivery van.A police spokeswoman in

the western city, Vanessa Arlt,told AFP that the driver of thevehicle “shot himself ”.

“The perpetrator droveinto several cafe and restaurantterraces in a major square inthe centre of Muenster,” Arltadded. Police spokesman,Andreas Bode, said it was “toosoon” to call the incident adeliberate attack.

According to the onlineedition of the Spiegel magazine,German authorities were“assuming” the incident was anattack, though there was noimmediate official confirma-

tion of a motive.“Terrible news from

Muenster,” German govern-ment spokeswoman UlrikeDemmer said in a tweet, say-ing local police were providingregular updates.

“Our thoughts are with thevictims and their loved ones.”Images broadcast by Germantelevision showed police andfirefighting vehicles clusteredaround a street in the centre ofthe city of 300,000 people.

Armed police weredeployed and officers urgedresidents to avoid the city cen-tre to allow investigators to getto work.

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The investment ecosystem inIndia is improving and

investors are ready to take a beton start-ups, according to ven-ture capitalists, who also seepotential in platforms based onfoundational technologies likeArtificial Intelligence andBlockchain.

Participating in a paneldiscussion titled “Funding andInvestment: How and When?”,organised as part of the two-day Huddle Kerala conclave atnearby Kovalam, many of theexperts said they were seeing alot more sanctity to the wholeecosystem compared to previ-ous years.

There is an improvementin the thought process of start-ups and their maturity levelshave gone up.

Earlier, everyone wanted tobe another Flipkart and Quikr,but this mindset has changedand many are beginning tocome into their own, theyobserved.

Atul Hegde, co-founder,Rainmaker Ventures, saidinvestors can bring in tremen-

dous value to the start-upteam, but the founders need tothink about when to rope themin.

“I believe that a foundershould be very cautious thatfunding is resorted to onlywhen he or she is convincedthat they are about to hit rev-enue stage. Seeking an investoris like a marriage, as the selec-tion is very vital,” he said.

Commenting on the activ-ity of his firm, Hegde said thatthey only invest in companies“where we can play a strategicrole.”

“Our role is just to find afunding for the firm. Foundersneed to be extremely clear thatwhat kind of investor theywant.”

On the kind of start-upsthat attract investor attention,Satish Mugulavalli, Director,Technology, YourNest VentureCapital, said their eye was onwhether new horizontal tech-nologies like artificial intelli-gence and Blockchain could bebuilt up as a platform.

“A large part of our evalu-ation would be that if you arebuilding a blockchain compa-

ny, are you actually building adistributed app that is solvinga particular problem. A lot ofthe focus is on trying to iden-tify the firms which can builda tech-based platform,” headded.

To a query on whatinvestors bring to the table,apart from money, Anil Joshi ofUnicorn India Ventures said:“From our perspective, wedon’t get into the day-to-dayoperations of start-ups; we tryto help things from givingstrategic help to open rightdoors for networking.”

Manoj Kumar Agarwal,co-founder, Sea Fund;Mayuresh, Managing Partner,Sea Fund and Amit Gupta,CEO, Asianet.com were amongthe panelists.

Startups, investors, acade-micians and industry leadersattended the two-day HuddleKerala was organised by theKerala Startup Mission(KSUM) in association withInternet and MobileAssociation of India (IAMAI)and IAMAI StartupFoundation. The event con-cluded on Saturday.

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Chief Minister SarbanandaSonowal on Saturday said

Assam has the unique geo-graphical advantage making itan ideal destination for oper-ating business in the entireSouth East Asian region.

Delivering the keynoteaddress at the inauguration of‘NSE Investor Fair 2018’ organ-ised by the bourse, Sonowalsaid the state government isfirmly behind entrepreneurs.

“We are committed toencourage entrepreneurs ven-turing into the huge market ofASEAN countries and bringing

economic transformation inthis part of the country,”Sonowal said. The NSEInvestor Fair would also giveexposure to the small andmedium enterprises (SMEs)in the state to gain insightabout the capital market andprovide them a roadmap totake confident steps towardsgrowth, he added.

Highlighting the state gov-ernment’s efforts to providemomentum to the economicactivities in different sectors,Sonowal said that formulatingpolicies such as The AssamStart Up Policy 2017,Information Technology and

Electronic Policy 2017,Handloom Policy 2017-18,Sugar Policy 2018,Biotechnology Policy 2018,Tourism Policy 2017, SolarPolicy 2018 etc would help intransforming Assam into acompetitive destination forinvestments. The state gov-ernment is striving towardscreating a pool of skilled man-power which would open upavenues of employment andcontribute substantially to thecountry’s skilled workforce,Sonowal added.

He also highlighted themajor infrastructural transfor-mation initiatives undertaken

by the state government in theform of expanding Guwahatiinto State Capital Region,building an industrial corridorup to Tihu, construction oftwin tower World Trade Centrebuildings of 65 floors etc whichwould catapult Assam into oneof the top states of the countryin the coming years.

MD and CEO of NationalStock Exchange VikramLimaye outlined the objectivesof the Investor Fair to encour-age the SMEs of the region toventure out and get listed onthe bourse for funding fromequity market to expand theirbusiness.

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The Delhi Metro RailCorporation Ltd (DMRC)

has no plans to operateovernight services as mainte-nance of trains is carried outduring night hours, UnionMinister Hardeep Singh Purihas said.

The minister’s remark,which could disappoint peoplewho need to avail metro ser-vices at night, especially on theairport express line, came inresponse to a query in the LokSabha recently.

BJP MP NatubhaiGomanbhai Patel had asked theminister whether the DMRCwas formulating any plan tostart metro rail services during

the night hours on the lines ofDTC bus services for the con-venience of air passengers asmost international flights arescheduled during that time.

“Delhi Metro RailCorporation Ltd (DMRC) hasinformed that they have noplan to operate metro rail dur-ing night as the maintenance ofthe trains is carried out duringthat time,” the Housing andUrban Affairs minister said ina written reply.

However, it was not clearwhether the minister wasspeaking specifically about theAirport Express Line or for alltrains running on the DMRC’svarious routes.

In July last year, DMRCchief Mangu Singh had said

there was no plan at that timeto operate overnight trains onits airport line, a proposal forwhich was floated in 2016.

“We do not plan to oper-ate trains overnight at thispoint. In any case, even at pre-sent, we get only few hours atnight for maintenance andrelated works,” Singh had said,when asked about the status ofthe plan. The Delhi Metro hadbeen toying with the idea since2008. Services on most of thesix routes, except the airportline, start on or after 5 am,while the last train starts at11.30 pm at some of the sta-tions. The first train on the air-port express line starts at 4.45am, while the last train at11.30 pm.

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The Sikkim government onSaturday lifted the ban on

supply of non-organicallygrown carrot, tomato andgreen chilly from outside dueto acute shortage of thesecommodities in the domesticmarket, officials said.

The notification liftingthe ban with immediate effectwas issued by the AdditionalChief Secretary (Home) SCGupta.

The Pawan KumarChamling government hadbanned the sale and con-sumption of 27 non-organi-cally grown agricultural andhorticultural commoditiescomprising vegetables, fruits,spices with effect from April1 so that people consumeonly organic food items.

Opposition parties andvegetable vendors haveslammed the state govern-ment’s ban on non-organicfood from outside withoutensuring availability of organ-ic vegetables and allied items.

Sikkim Agriculture andCash Crops DevelopmentMinister Somnath Poudyalhas urged the people and veg-etable sellers to cooperatewith the state in making thedrive for consumption oforganic food a success.

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The country’s 100GW solarmission target will be

achieved ahead of its target in2022, Minister for Science andTechnology Harsh Vardhan said

here on Saturday. “The govern-ment has set a target of 175GWof renewable power by 2022and out of it 100GW should bein solar. It will not be a problem,”he said. He was speaking toreporters on the sidelines of aseminar on solar technologiesorganised jointly by NB Institutefor Rural Technology (NBIRT)

and Vikram Solar. The Unionminister, however, did not men-tion how much of the solar mis-sion has been achieved so far. InWest Bengal, roof-top solar pro-ject has not picked up fastenough owing to regulatory hur-dles, a senior solar power expertsaid. According to the presentregulation, net metering is notallowed for single phase roof-topsolar projects below 5KW.

“West Bengal is the only statein the country where net meter-ing is not allowed for roof-topsolar below 5KW as against1KW in other states. Moreover,the same is not allowed for sin-gle phase (residential connec-tions),” he said. “The West Bengalregulatory Commission will haveto bring down the threshold cri-teria to 1KW from 5KW to pushhousehold roof-top solar in thestate,” the expert said.

The first floating solar pro-ject in the city will come up atVikramgarh jheel close to SouthCity Mall. “The state powerminister Shovandeb Chatterjeehad taken an initiative to protectthe lake with a floating solar pro-ject of 350KW to be construct-ed at Rs 2.6 crore at Vikramgarhlake,” NBIRT president S P GonChaudhury said.

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India and Nepal on Saturdayagreed to boost cooperation

in the connectivity sector as thetwo sides decided to developinland waterways for cargomovement, within the frame-work of trade and transitarrangements, the MEA said.

Seeking to reset ties, PrimeMinister Narendra Modi andhis Nepalese counterpart K PSharma Oli held wide-rangingtalks.

They vowed to step upoverall engagement and takethe relationship to newerheights on the basis of “equal-ity, mutual trust and respect”.

“The prime ministers ofIndia and Nepal recognised theuntapped potential of inlandwaterways to contributetowards overall economicdevelopment of the region,” theMinistry of External Affairs(MEA) said in a statement.

Taking cognisance of theirgeographies and noting thedevelopment of inland water-ways in both countries, the twoleaders took the “landmarkdecision to develop the inlandwaterways for the movement ofcargo, within the framework oftrade and transit arrangements,providing additional access tosea for Nepal,” it said.

“This new initiative would

enable cost-effective and effi-cient movement of cargo. Theprime minister of Nepal notedthe enormous impact the addi-tional connectivity would haveon the growth of business andeconomy of Nepal,” the state-ment said.

“To facilitate the move-ment of traffic-in-transit, thetwo leaders directed theirrespective officials to formulateand mutually agree upon therequisite procedures andmodalities for including inlandwaterways as an additionalmeans of transport in theProtocol to the Treaty of Transitbetween India and Nepal,” itadded.

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Rakesh Kumar Vats,Additional Secretar y,

Ministry of Health and FamilyWelfare has been given theadditional charge of chair-man of drug price regulatorNPPA with immediate effect,an official statement said.

He replaces BhupendraSingh who was made chair-person of National Authorityfor Chemical WeaponsConvention under the CabinetSecretariat.

“The CompetentAuthority has approved theassignment of the additionalcharge of the post ofChairman, National

Pharmaceutical PricingAuthority, Ministr y ofChemicals and Fertilisers toRakesh Kumar Vats, IAS...withimmediate ef fect,” theAppointments Committee ofthe Cabinet said in a letterdated April 6, 2018.

Vats is an AdditionalSecretary in the Ministry ofHealth and Family Welfare, itsaid.

The NPPA is mandated tofix/revise the prices of con-trolled bulk drugs and for-mulations and to enforceprices and availability of themedicines in the country.

It also monitors the pricesof decontrolled drugs in orderto keep them at reasonablelevels.

The regulator implementsand enforces the provisions ofthe Drugs (Prices Control)Order. It is also entrustedwith the task of recoveringamounts overcharged by man-ufacturers for controlled drugsfrom the consumers.

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The Expression of Interest(EoI) floated for slump

sale of assets NiccoCorporation which had beenput under liquidation by theKolkata bench of NCLT failedto evince any interest from bid-ders. Liquidator for NiccoCorporation Vinod Kothari inan e-mailed response said“since the slump sale did notincite interest, the assets wouldnow be sold on a piecemealbasis.” He said that the processwould be initiated by puttingup another EoI from eligiblepotential bidders and then e-auction of assets.

After failure of the resolu-tion process at NCLT, thequasi-judicial body orderedliquidation of the company.

The assets of the companyas listed by the liquidator weremanufacturing units inShyamnagar, West BengalBaripada in Odisha, officespaces in Nicco group head-quarters in Kolkata, Vikhroli inMumbai and a guest house alsoin Mumbai and several invest-ments.

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Gold prices bounced back byRs 120 to Rs 31,470 per 10

grams at the bullion markettoday backed by firm globalcues and pick-up in buying bylocal jewellers.

Silver also gained Rs 150 toRs 39,200 per kg due toincreased offtake by industri-al units and coin makers.

Marketmen said, besides afirm trend overseas as the dol-lar weakened against othercurrencies, raising appeal forthe precious metal as a safehaven and pick-up in buyingactivity by local jewellers at thedomestic spot market, mainlyled to a rise in gold prices.

Globally, gold rose 0.54per cent to USD 1,333.40 anounce in New York in yester-day’s trade.

In the national capital, goldof 99.9 per cent and 99.5 percent purity rebounded by Rs120 each to Rs 31,470 and Rs31,320 per 10 grams, respec-tively. The precious metal hadlost Rs 200 on Friday.

Sovereign, however,remained flat at Rs 24,800 perpiece of eight grams in limiteddeals. Silver ready also rose byRs 150 to Rs 39,200 per kg andweekly-based delivery by Rs 15to Rs 38,235 per kg.

Silver coins, however, con-tinued to be enquired at lastlevels of Rs 74,000 for buyingand Rs 75,000 for selling of 100pieces.

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The Maharashtra govern-ment and Tata Trusts have

come together to finance thestate’s first poultry company tobe run and owned by tribalwomen, Finance MinisterSudhir Mungantiwar onSaturday said.

In collaboration with theTata Trusts, one of the country’soldest philanthropic organisa-tions, the state government hasbrought together 1,000 womenin Mool, Ponbhurna and GondPimpri in Chandrapur to formthe Ponbhurna Women PoultryProducers Company Ltd, theminister said. As part of the pro-ject, 300 women have beengiven poultry sheds and each ofthem would be given 400 chicksevery day.

After rearing them for 40days, the poultry will be soldand the project envisages anincome between Rs 6,000 to Rs8,000 for each woman over a 40-day period, officials said.

The state government hascontributed Rs 12 crore whileTata Trusts has given Rs 3 croreto finance the project, officialssaid, adding that an agreementhad been signed with an NGO,Pradhan, to operate the project.

This initiative would beimplemented in other tribaltalukas under the state’s HumanDevelopment Programme, theyadded.

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On the night interveningMarch 31 and April 1,2018, there was a mas-sive movement of secu-rity forces in south

Kashmir’s Shopian district. Pastmidnight, troops of the RashtriyaRifles, Paramilitary Central ReservePolice Force (CRPF) and the Jammuand Kashmir Police fanned out inDraggad-Sugan and Kachdoora vil-lages, located around 20 km apart.

The people were fast asleep.They don’t dare to venture outafter dusk since the area turns intoa hotbed of militancy. Last month,four civilians travelling in two carswere gunned down. The fear is pal-pable. The streets and orchards,alleys and fields lie abandoned in thenight. Those who move around arecombatants armed with sophisti-cated weapons.

Security forces sealed off theentry and exit points to Dragadbefore the hideout was zeroed in on.Once the village was besieged, a col-umn of security men knocked at thehouse of Mushtaq Ahmad Thokar,a 40-year orchardist. The nocturnalknock shocked his wife, 10-year-oldtwins and old parents but he mus-tered the courage to open the door.The soldiers asked him to lead themto a house belonging to RafiqAhmad. Reluctantly, he obliged.

In a few minutes, he was outsideAhmad’s house with soldiers intoe. As he knocked at the door andshouted Ahmad’s name, there wascommotion inside the house. Agroup of militants inside the househurriedly came out and an exchangeof fire took place. Thokar could notfind an escape route. His body wasfound outside the house after theencounter ended. The family allegedhe was taken as a human shield.

Ahmad’s house is in a cluster ofhalf-a-dozen houses built amidapple orchards. From past midnightto around 8 am, the villagers heardintense firing and explosions. It wasfollowed by a lull, indicating that nomilitant was alive inside. The sol-diers called up villagers to go insidethe damaged houses. They foundseven bodies of militants at differ-ent spots.

“We had pinpoint Intelligenceabout the presence of militants. Theoperation was conducted past mid-night to avoid collateral damage,” asenior police officer said. Sourcessaid that 11 militants were hiding inthe house that belonged to thematernal aunt of slain militantZubair Ahmad Turray. Four ofthem, including Zeenatul Islamalias Alqama, managed to escape thecordon.

After the recovery of bodies,locals gathered around theencounter site in large numbers,shouting slogans and hampering thewithdrawal of security forces. Thisled to intense clashes. The securitypersonnel were compelled to fireautomatic weapons and pellet gunsto disperse the protesters. Dozens

were wounded.The police said, accurate human

Intelligence, coupled with mobilephone tracking, helped them trackdown the Hizbul Mujahideen andLashkar-e-Tayyeba group that hadconverged in the village to chalk out‘future strategy’. One of the militantswhose phone was on surveillancewas heard calling others to jointhem in the meeting, he said.

While the operation was on inDragad, security forces simultane-ously cordoned off Kachdoorawhere another group of ultras washiding. This group was tougher todeal with. Despite a tight cordonaround the house, the hiding mili-tants took positions and firedintensely.

A photographer covering theencounter told Sunday Pioneer thata soldier was hit in his chest whichprompted security forces to finishthe encounter. Soon the hideout waspounded with mortars and razed tosmithereens.

From the debris, five bodies ofmilitants were recovered, all iden-tified as locals. There was no for-eigner in the group. Away from theencounter site, two more soldiers,who had been evacuated with crit-ical wounds, succumbed making theKachdoora encounter one of themost intense gunfights in the recentcounterinsurgency history ofJammu and Kashmir. Like in Sugan-Dragad village, hundreds of villagersgathered around the encounter sitein a failed bid to help the militantsescape. They were repulsed by secu-rity forces. Scores were injured in theensuing clashes.

The third encounter of theseries took place in the neighbour-ing Anantnag district at Dyalgamvillage where two local militantswere trapped. The police gave ampletime to the holed up militants to laydown their arms. One of them,Imran Rashid, who had joinedHizbul Mujahideen group only a fewdays ago, complied but the other,Rouf Ahmad Khanday, 19, refusedto surrender. His parents werecalled in to persuade him but herefused and was eventually gunneddown. Altaf Khan, senior superin-tendent of Anantnag police, who hasa long track of counterinsurgencyoperations to his credit, said that heturned emotional when the sonrefused the surrender to the pleas ofhis old parents.

The three encounters took placeon Sunday at a time when theKashmir valley was steadily headingtowards a semblance of normalcy.Hundreds of tourists were arrivingto enjoy the riot of colours in thefamed tulip garden on the banks ofthe Dal Lake. The mustard fields inthe length and breadth of the valleywere in full bloom and almondalcoves at Badamwari in Srinagarand Pulwama plateaus in the southwere enchanting.

The children were tuning in tothe routine of going to school every

morning. From the beginning ofApril, they were ecstatic to follow thenew school timings. The StateGovernment and the people asso-ciated with the tourism trade wereon Cloud 9 on the successful con-duct of 64th annual conclave ofTravel Agents Association of India(TAAI) in Srinagar. The delegateswho enjoyed the hospitality inSrinagar, Pahalagam and Gulmargwere vowing to promote Kashmirtourism by sending hordes oftourists.

But the ‘bloody Sunday’ came asan interruption. The locals who hadplanned to go out for picnics halt-ed where they were. Even as notourist got harmed anywhere, theemerging situation appalled them.Many of them stayed put but lotswere seen rushing to the airportahead of schedule. New arrivals wereaffected.

At the end of the day, the deathcount was staggering. Twenty peo-ple died in three incidents of vio-lence. They included 13 militants,three soldiers and four civilians. Thiswas the highest count of militantskilled in a single day in a more thana decade. The security forcesdescribed it as ‘major victory’.

“Today is a very special day. Weare all glad that our forces have suc-cessfully managed to kill a largegroup of militants in three separategunfights in southern Kashmir.This is probably the biggest strike onthe militants in a decade,” XVCorps commander Lt Gen AnilKumar Bhatt told mediapersons atcounterinsurgency division VictorForce’s headquarters at Awantipora.He was flanked by police chiefShesh Paul Vaid and InspectorGeneral of CRPF, Zulfikar Hassan.

The Corps commander wasmore satisfied on ‘avenging’ thekilling of young Army officerLieutenant Umar Fayaz. He said at

least two militants killed in theSunday (April 1) encounters wereinvolved in abduction and subse-quent killing of Lt Umar in May lastyear. Umar was unarmed and off-duty in the area to participate in amarriage ceremony of his cousinwhen militants kidnapped him andlater threw his body outside the vil-lage. “After his (Umar Fayaz’s)killing in May last year, we were des-perately waiting to avenge the deathof our beloved officer,” Lt GenBhatt said.

The Shopian and Anantnagencounters highlight the grim secu-rity situation in the Valley, especiallyin the southern region. Even asInspector General of Police(Kashmir range) Swayam PrakashPani maintains that recruitment inmilitant ranks had fallen ratherthan increased, official figures saidthat 23 youngsters joined militan-cy in 2018. A few youth have gonemissing and there is a possibility ofthem joining the militants.

This is in tune with the trendobserved in last two years when 214youngsters joined groups like Hizb,Lashkar and Jaish-e-Muhammad.The figures reveal that during thisyear, 44 militants have been killedin the Valley where around 200 mil-itants are active.

During the counterinsurgencyoperations, 20 security forces per-sonnel also lost their lives. InShopian zone alone, 16 militantswere killed while as 17 civilians losttheir lives in the incidents of vio-lence. In 2017, a highest number of206 militants and 81 security per-sonnel were killed.

The fillip in militant recruit-ment began in July 2016 after thekilling of Hizbul Mujahideen leaderBurhan Wani. His death triggered amassive public uprising that crippledthe State machinery for more thanfive months. The uprising was

quelled with force that left scoresdead and thousands injured.

“The peak of recruitment post-Burhan was in Pulwama andShopian When we compare thenumbers with this year’s the recruit-ment has remained manageable, andin addition to it, people are return-ing,” Pani says. He adds this year asmany as 11 youngsters havereturned to their families afterrelinquishing the path of militancy.

Pani’s optimism notwithstand-ing, ground reality indicates thatmilitancy was never on the wane inthe region. During the funeral of theslain militants in Shoipan, a young-ster publicly donned Army fatigue,brandished an automatic rifle andannounced his decision to join the“path of my martyred friend.”

Educated youngsters, too, arejoining the ranks. In March, JunaidSehrai, 30-year son of senior sepa-ratist leader Ashraf Sehrai joinedHizbul Mujahideen. He was pursu-ing MBA in Kashmir University andtook the extreme decision a few daysafter his father was nominatedChairman of Tehreek-e-Hurriyat, aconstituent of Syed Ali Geelani-ledHurriyat Conference. Interestingly,his father refused to make an appealfor his return. A quick look at theprofiles of the slain militants indi-cates that most of them were in theage group of 18 to 25 years and comefrom well-to-do families. UbaidShafi Malla, 19, a resident ofBabkhider-Trenz was preparing forNEET when he joined the militantranks. He had joined the militantgroup on February 3, 2017.

The case of Zubair AhmadTurray is quite interesting. A resi-dent of Bonbazar area of Shopian,Turray was a staunch supporter ofGeelani and played a pivotal role inorganising anti-India rallies in thearea. He was detained umpteentimes and slapped with the PublicSafety Act 11 times. His fatherBashir Ahmad said that 11 monthsago, Turray fled from police custodyand joined the militant ranks. “Hehad no option. He wanted to live anormal life but the police neverallowed him to do so. Often, he wasdetained illegally,” he said.

Nazim Ahmad Dar, 22, a resi-dent of Urpora-Nagbal village wasa student of Class XII when he tookup arms in June 2017. He had mem-orised the entire Quran in a semi-nary. Rayees Ahmad Thoker, a res-ident of Padderpora village wasactive in militancy since October2017. A matriculate, he was runninga readymade garment’s shop buttook up arms to join his cousinGayasul Islam. The duo, along withanother fellow villager, was killed intwo separate encounters the sameday. Gayasul died in the Kachduraencounter, his body charred beyondrecognition. He was active for a yearand a half.

Yawar Ahmad Yatoo, 25, a res-ident of Safnagri village was a mil-itant for the past nine months. He

had pursued religious education invarious seminaries and belonged toa well-to-do family of orchardists.Adil Ahmad Thoker, was anothermilitant in his teens who was amotor mechanic before embarkingon the deadly track five months ago.

Another cadre of the group wasIshfaq Ahmad Malik, 28, a residentof Pinjora village active for two-and-a-half months. He was into the fruitbusiness before taking a plunge intomilitancy.

Sameer Ahmad Lone, a residentof Hillow-Imamsahib had joiningthe militant ranks only a month ago.Sources said that Lone had gone toPakistan on a valid visa to undergotraining. Even his family did notknow about his visits. It was onlyafter sleuths of police Intelligencebegan tracking his activities that heformally joined the militant ranks.

Observers say that more thanthe active involvement of teenagedboys in militancy, the disturbingtrend for the security establishmentis the support of people to militants.“It is because of people’s support thatthe militants are surviving. They aregiven heroic send-off when they arekilled. People risk their lives toattempt their safe passage shouldthey fall into security dragnet,”Showkat Hussain, a college teacher,says.

“The killing of 13 militants insouth Kashmir’s Shopian andAnantnag districts on Sunday is, toall appearances, a major success forthe security forces. Some TV chan-nels also termed it a major boost forthe ruling Bharatiya Janata Partyahead of next year’s GeneralElection. But on a closer look, it isby no means a setback for the sep-aratist movement. Rather it is theopposite,” writes prominent jour-nalist Altaf Hussain. Interestingly, aconversation between a holed upmilitant and his father went viral onthe social media recently, high-lighting the commitment of mili-tants and their families.

The militant, Eitmaad HussainDar, 26, of Amshipora village, hadjoined militancy in November 2017.“I’m trapped. If I have committedany mistakes, please forgive me,” hetells his brother before seeking totalk to his father. “I couldn’t fulfillmy promise. Now I can’t tell it,” themilitant tells his father. He hadapparently promised to meet hisfather. The father tells him that hecould not tell him to lay down hisarms and surrender. “If you canbreak the cordon, try it. If not, thenwhat can be done?” says the mili-tant’s father. “Have courage. Youwere God’s gift to me. Now I willreturn you to Him,” he says.

Hussain then tells his father thatanother militant Abrar was hit in hishead. He too joins the conversationand explains that his voice stutteredbecause of the bullet wound. Hewanted the number of his father tomake his last call before the con-versation ends.

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G O L D P O S T

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Nowhere close to complete fitnessand without a fulltime physio tocare for their niggles, Indian

weightlifters remained leaps ahead of theirCommonwealth Games competitors, tak-ing their gold medal tally to four throughSathish Sivalingam (77kg) and VenkatRahul Ragala (85kg) here on Saturday.

After Mirabai Chanu (48kg) andSanjita Chanu (53kg), Sathish and Rahulcontinued India's gold-collecting spree atthe Games. The yellow metal count isalready one more than the previous 2014edition with two more days of competi-tion left.

On Saturday, Sathish, the defendingchampion, and Rahul overcame the painbarrier posed by their respective unhealedthigh and knee injuries to claim goldmedals.

The 25-year-old Sathish lifted a totalof 317kg (114kg+173kg) and was soahead of competition that he forfeited hisfinal clean and jerk lift. Rahul, on the otherhand, had to wait right till the end owingto close competition from eventual silver-medallist Samoa's Don Opeloge.

Both the boxers were nursing nigglesbut their physio Aakrant Saxena did not

have access to them in thecompetition area

because of thea c c r e d i t a t i o nblunder that has-n't given the req-

uisite access. It's a blunder for which nei-ther the national federation nor the IOAis willing to claim the blame.

"I had no hopes of winning a medalafter I injured my thighs during thenational championships while attempting194kg in clean and jerk. It's a quadricepsproblem, even now I am competing at lessthan ideal fitness but I am glad that wasenough to get me a gold," Sathish said afterhis medal ceremony during which he wasaccorded a warm applause by the packedarena.

The 21-year-old Rahul, who is aCommonwealth Championships gold-medallist, lifted a total of 338kg(151kg+187kg) to finish on top.

"I had been weakened by a knee injuryduring the CommonwealthChampionships last year. But the coach-es supported me immensely to get thismedal. I haven't been able to train thatwell," he said.

"I am still not fully recovered," said thelifter who wears his later mother's anklet

around his forehead as a goodluck charm."I put this on after she passed away

two years ago. I get inspired bythis," said the lifter who managed a totalof 351kg (156kg+195kg) in theCommonwealth Championships last year.

The Indian was locked in a close bat-tle with Opeloge, who ended with a totalof 331kg (151kg+180kg). Both the liftersopted for 191kg as their final clean andjerk lift and both of them failed butRahul clinched the top prize owing toOpeloge's failed second attempt at a188kg lift.

"This is the most important medal ofmy career," said the CWG debutant,

whose father R Madhu was also a nation-al level weightlifter.

������������������������Seeking to improve their medal

haul from the last edition, India begintheir athletics campaign in the 21stCommonwealth Games with the men'sand women's race walkers competing inthe 20km event here on Sunday.

India had won a gold, silver andbronze in the 2014 Glasgow Games andthe country's athletes are aiming toincrease that haul with the likes of javelinthrower Neeraj Chopra and young highjumper Tejaswin Shankar in impressive

form.The men's 20km race walk event was

introduced in the 1998 Games while thewomen's 20km event was included in the2002 CWG and the Indians are notknown as a force to reckon with in therace walk events.

The only Indian to have won a medalin 20km race walk event was HarminderSingh who clinched a bronze in 2010Delhi CWG.

In a field of 13, Soumya stands atthird among the season's best timingsbehind two Australians- Beki Smith(1:31:23) and Jemima Montag (1:31:26).There are six athletes who have seasonbest timings of less than 1 hour and 32minutes.

In the men's 20km race walk, Indiaare fielding national record holder K TIrfan and Manish Singh Rawat andthey have to improve their timingsdrastically if they want to be on podiumas there are four competitors who canfinish in sub 1 hour and 20 minutes.

Shot putter Tejinder Pal Singh Toorshould qualify for the finals from thequalifying round on Sunday. He had wona gold in the Federation Cup NationalChampionships last month with a throwof 20.24m.

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Star shuttler Kidambi Srikanth ledfrom the front as India thrashed

Mauritius 3-0 to advance to the semifi-nals of badminton mixed team event inthe Commonwealth Games here onSaturday.

Srikanth took just 29 minute to beatGeorges Julien Paul 21-12, 21-14 in themen's singles after the two doubles pairshad given India a 2-0 lead.

The men's doubles duo ofSatwik Rankireddy and ChiragChandrashekhar Shetty hard-ly broke a sweat in their 21-12, 21-3 winover Aatish Lubah and Christopher JeanPaul in the first match before AshwiniPannappa and N Sikki Reddy chalked outan easy 21-8, 21-7 victory over AurelieMarie Elisa and Nicki Chan-Lam in thewomen's doubles.

"We have been playing really wellthroughout the tournament. Going deepinto the tournament, everything getstougher. I think all the other teams,including Malaysia, England andSingapore, are all tough," Srikanth saidafter his match.

2012 London Olympics medallistSaina Nehwal did not have to play her partin the quarterfinal match as India hadalready taken a match-winning 3-0 lead.

India will now take on Singapore inthe semifinals on Sunday. Singapore hadbeaten hosts Australia 3-0 in another quar-terfinal match.

"I think Singapore have been playingreally well, so we cannot rule them out andneed to be at our best," he added.

Asked whether, Malaysian great LeeChong Wei will be his biggest competitorfor the men's singles title, Srikanth said,"In the individual event, there are manyother contenders. Besides Chong Wei,there is Rajiv Ouseph (of England) and HS Prannoy also. All are playing well.

"I need to be at my best to be able tobeat any one of them."

Men's doubles player ChiragChandrashekhar said, "We have playedthem (Mauritius players) before, so I thinkour game went well and we were pretty

comfortable in winning the match. It ishopefully good to play some shortermatches and look forward to (the semi-finals) on Sunday."

Asked about his partner SatwikRankireddy, Chirag said, "We have beenable to work on a few things. After tak-ing the lead we started to lift a little, sowe can refine some of our skills and defen-sive work. It was a good game for us."

�J������������������������Indian boxers' rampaging run con-

tinued unabated as the veteran duo of LSarita Devi (60kg) and Manoj Kumar(59kg) advanced to the quarterfinalsalong with Commonwealth Games debu-tant Mohammed Hussamuddin (56kg)

here on Saturday.Sarita, who claimed a

bronze in the 2014 edition,pummelled Barbados'

Kimberely Gittens in her opening clashto make the last-eight stage.

"I really want to go for gold this time.I've been working so hard to get to thisstage," Sarita said after her triumph.

In evening session, Hussamuddin,the gold-medallist from India Open, hadno trouble in dismantling Vanuatu'sBoe Warawara.

The script was similar in the clashbetween Manoj and Tanzania's KassimMbundwike, a bout that the Indian wonunanimously. The 31-year-old is in pur-suit of his second CWG medal after thegold-winning performance in the 2010Delhi Games.

On Sunday, M C Mary Kom willopen her campaign and a win will assureher of a medal in her debut appearanceat the Games.

Mary Kom will be up againstScotland's Megan Gordon and is thefavourite to claim the gold medal.

��������������������Indian paddlers continued their

impressive run as they outshone Malaysiato cruise into the semifinals of both men'sand women' team events on day three ofcompetitions in the CommonwealthGames here on Saturday.

Both the men's and women's teamscrushed Malaysia 3-0 in their respectivequarterfinal matches at the OxenfordStudios.

In the men's quarterfinal tie,Harmeet Desai started off the proceed-ings with a comfortable 11-4, 12-10, 11-6 victory over Chee Feng Leong before

star paddler Sharath Kamalgave India a 2-0 lead bythrashing Muhammad AshrafHaiq 11-8, 11-7, 11-6.

The duo of Desai and SathiyanGnanasekaran then beat the pairing ofJaven Choong and Chee Feng 11-7, 11-6, 11-7 to make it 3-0 in favour of theIndians.

In the women's quarterfinal tie,Manika Batra registered a comfortable11-9, 11-7, 11-7 win over Ying Ho in theopening match.

In the second singles match,Madhurika Patkar lost the opening game7-11 against Karen Lyne but foughtback to win the next three games 11-9,11-9, 11-3.

Madhurika then paired with MoumaDas in the doubles to notch up a 11-8,10-12, 11-8, 11-7 win against theMalaysian duo of Ying Ho and Ai Xin Teeto to wrap up the tie in style.

���� 50��&5���

All the excitement camedown to the last seven sec-

onds as the Indian hockey team'sperennial problem of concedinglate goals left them with a dis-appointing 2-2 draw against asloppy Pakistan in theirCommonwealth Games openerhere on Saturday.

A penalty cornerearned in the lastseven seconds,thought to be savedwhen taken, rein-stated after an appeal byPakistan, proved to be India'sundoing in what was a lacklus-tre clash for most part.

Dilpreet Singh (13th

minute), Harmanpreet Singh(19th minute) put India aheadbefore Irfan Junior (38thminute) and Mubashar Ali (59thminute) drew parity and helpedtheir team claim moral victory.

"We were not happy withthe performance. We wanted towin this game." said a frustrat-ed Indian defender Rupinder Pal

Singh after the match.On the field, India domi-

nated quite clearly. ForwardDilpreet opened the scoring inthe first quarter, helping the lastedition silver-medallists end thefirst 15 minutes with a 1-0 lead.

In the second quarter,Harmanpreet Singh convertedthe second of the two penalty

corner chances he got to putIndia in control.

The competitive edge miss-ing from their game in the firsthalf, the Pakistani team waspulled back into the game byforward Mohammed IrfanJunior, who scored a field goalto narrow the gap between thetwo sides.

Pakistan turned on theintensity in the final minutes andwith seven seconds left on theclock, Pakistan earned a penal-ty corner, causing some anxietyin the Indian camp, and the oldfears turned out to be true.

The Indians ended up con-ceding the dreaded goal to letslip what should have been acomfortable win.

���� 1+/�1��2

The focus is firmly trained on teen sen-sation Manu Bhaker as the fancied

Indian shooting team eyes a head start at the21st Commonwealth Games and continu-ation of its recent dominance of the disci-pline in the quadrennial extravaganza.

The 16-year-old Manu will be lining upalongside the experienced Heena Sidhu inthe women's 10m air pistol event at theBelmont Shooting Range.

Also in action on the first day of shoot-ing competition will be the impressive RaviKumar and Deepak Kumar in men's 10mair rifle.

Saniya Sheikh and MaheshwariChauhan will represent India, a powerhousein these Games, in the women's skeet, finalsof which will also be held on Sunday fol-lowed by the qualifications.

Smit Singh and Sheeraj Sheikh will alsocompete in men's skeet qualification day 1.

With shooters like Chain Singh,Jitu Rai, Omprakash Mitharwal,

Anjum Moudgil, Tejaswini Sawant,Heena and Shreyasi Singh compet-ing in more than one event, theselectors were able to constructively

utilise the quota of 15men and 12 women tomake a strong squad.

A total of ninemen's and eight

women's events will be held in rifle, pistoland shotgun categories.

Having already stamped their class onthe big stage, the youngest shooters in thenational team will again jostle for space withthe big players, vying for top honours.

The abundance of talent is comple-mented by a confident approach which thelikes of Manu, Mehuli Ghosh, AnishBhanwala and Anjum Moudgil are expect-ed to display.

The likes of Rai, Narang and Chandelaalong with other experienced shooters likeHeena, Tejaswini Sawant, Sanjeev Rajput anddouble trap World Cup gold medallistAnkur Mittal can be a handful for the othercompeting nations, including the shootersfrom hosts Australia and England.

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Kings XI Punjab and Delhi Daredevils will both look to endtheir trophy drought in the Indian Premier League (IPL) by

getting off to a winning start when they clash here on Sunday.Delhi have never lifted the IPL trophy despite having decent

squads on occasions in the past and the same goes for Punjab,who also have their trophy cabinet empty after 10 seasons.

Under new leaders Gautam Gambhir (Delhi) andRavichandran Ashwin (Punjab), both outfits will want to makea fresh start and make the most of the talent pool they have intheir ranks.

Hosts Punjab have theexplosive Chris Gayle in theirranks and his exploits in theIPL are well documented.

Mayank Agarwal will havea point to prove after beingsnubbed by national selectorsfor the Sri Lanka tri-seriesdespite amassing more than2,000 runs during the domes-tic season.

India opener KL Rahul,the most expensive player ofthe franchise who will alsodon the gloves, and YuvrajSingh should also add teeth toPunjab's batting while the fin-ishing responsibilities will lieon the trio of David Miller,Marcus Stoinis, and Axar Patel.

Off-spinner Ashwin,ignored in white-ball cricketsince the advent of wrist-spin-ners Kuldeep Yadav andYuzvendra Chahal, will lead the bowling for his side with Axarbeing the second spinner and the three pacemen Andrew Tye,Mohit Sharma and Ankit Rajpoot.

Coming to Delhi, a lot will depend on Gambhir who hasproved himself to be an astute leader in the T20 format havingled Kolkata Knight Riders to two IPL titles (2012, 2014).

Colin Munro will partner Gambhir up top, while the likesof Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer and Glenn Maxwell will look toadd power to Delhi's batting.

A lot of limelight will also be on India seamer MohammedShami for his recent off field incidents but he is expected to sharethe new ball with the New Zealand pacer Trent Boult.

The two spinners for Delhi will be Amit Mishra and ShahbazNadeem, who have been decent performers for the franchise inthe past as well.

���� ���������������������������Delhi Daredevils have signed England pacer Liam Plunkett

as a replacement for the injured South African fast bowler KagisoRabada for the 11th edition of the Indian Premier League.

Rabada was ruled out of the IPL with a lower back injuryafter he felt tightness and discomfort during the fourth Test againstAustralia in Johannesburg.

The injury will sideline the 22-year-old for up to threemonths.

Plunkett, who has featured in 13 Tests, 65 One-DayInternationals and 15 Twenty20 Internationals for England, waspicked from the Registered Available Player Pool (RAPP) list,according to a media release.

"We are glad to announce that @Liam628 will be joining the#DDSquad as a replacement for the injured @KagisoRabada25.He has loads of experience and hits the deck hard. Can't waitfor him to join the lads soon!" Delhi Daredevils tweeted.

���� >>1�/

Dwayne Bravo batted like a 'champion' asChennai Super Kings made a dreamcomeback in the Indian Premier League

with a thrilling one-wicket victory againstdefending champions Mumbai Indians, hereon Saturday.

Needing 7 off the last over, an injuredKedar Kadhav (24 no) unable to run due tohamstring problem played three dot ballsbefore playing lap shot over fine leg offMustafizur Rahaman followed by a cover driveto end the match on a winning note.

Chasing a tricky target of 166 on a trackthat had seam movement and bounce, CSKwere down in the dumps, but Bravo's incred-ible 68 off 30 balls with seven sixes turned itin favour of the 'Canary Yellow' brigade.

The 18th and 19th overs bowled byMitchell McLenaghan and Jasprit Bumrah weretaken for 20 each including five sixes as Bravoonce again showed why MS Dhoni values himso much.

Hardik Pandya (3/24) bowled through con-siderable pain while rookie leg-spinnerMayank markande (3/23) was briliant on hisdebut but it was Bravo who changed it all.

IPL's highest ever run accumulator SureshRaina (4) didn't stay long as the India all-rounder got one to climb up from back of thelength with the left-hander giving an easy catchto elder brother Krunal Pandya stationed at theedge of 30-yard circle at mid-on.

Leg-spinner Markande then came intoaction. He removed Ambati Rayudu (22) with

a googly as he tried an ambitious slog sweep.Then came the prize wicket of MS Dhoni

(5) as the skipper failed to read the rookie leg-break bowler's wrong 'un trying to defend himoff the backfoot. The result was a plumb leg-before decision leaving CSK reeling at 51 for4.

Ravindra Jadeja, Deepak Chahar,Harbhajan Singh departed in quick successionas Bravo came and conquered.

Earlier, all-rounder Krunal Pandyasmashed a quickfire 41 off 22 balls as MumbaiIndians recovered from a poor start to post achallenging 165 for 4.

Mumbai Indians were struggling at 20 for2 after openers Evin Lewis (0) and skipperRohit Sharma (15) were dismissed cheaply ona track that assisted seamers.

A 78-run-third wicket stand betweenSuryakumar Yadav (43 in 29 balls) and IshanKishan (40 off 29 balls) put MI back on trackbefore Pandya brothers Krunal and Hardikadded 52 in 5.2 overs to take their team past16--run mark.

Krunal stuck two boundaries and a six inthe17th over as he punished Mark Woods (0/49in 4 overs), who conceded 19 runs. He kept onhitting the odd balls and was aided by Hardik.

Krunal was in his element as he again pun-ished Woods hitting two boundaries and a sixin the 19th over, which fetched them another17 runs.

Asked to bat in front of a capacity crowd,right-arm seamer Deepak Chahar trappedLewis in front of the wicket with an outswinger.

Debutant Lewis used the DRS, the first in

the IPL's history, but the decision remained inCSK's favour.

Skipper Rohit as usual struggled against themoving delivery due to lack of feet movementas Shane Watson removed him when he topedged one to Ambati Rayudu.

Surya and Kishan then steered the teamout of trouble with the runs coming in 52 balls.Surya made his intentions clear by striking afour and six off Watson in the sixth over.

Kishan, then stuck two boundaries and sixoff Imran Tahir, as Mumbai amassed 18 runsin the 11th over. Then Surya, who got a lifeon 34, hammered Dwayne Bravo for three con-secutive fours in the 12th over. But as theylooked good for a big total, Watson struckagain removing Surya with a bouncer andKishan was caught at short third-man off Tahir.

For CSK, veteran Watson (2-29) was thepick of the bowlers.

���� 6506���

Kolkata Knight Riders would lookto usher in a fresh era under new

captain Dinesh Karthik with a victorywhen they open theirIndian Premier Leaguecampaign againstheavyweights RoyalChallengers Bangalore,here on Sunday.

As KKR seek tocreate a new identity inthe post-GautamGambhir era, it would not be asurprise to see a packed SundayEden crowd rooting for the starIndian skipper Virat Kohli inthe RCB jersey.

The mood of uncertainty inthe home camp was aptlysummed by their assistantcoach Simon Katich whotermed themselves as "under-dogs" against RCB, despiteKKR leading the head-to-headrecord 12-9.

Karthik's last ball six in theT20 Tri-nation final win overBangladesh last month sent atimely assurance to the KKRloyalists but the Tamil Naduwicketkeeper batsman has anenvious task at hand to matchor better what Gambhir did asthe southpaw led KKR to twotitles in 2012 and 2014.

The first task up front will beto find the right balance in whatseems to be a weak middleorder and a motivate thepace attack which gotdepleted after thepullout of Aussiepace spearheadMitchell Starc.

Karthik has anunknown entity inRinku Singh, and threeuncapped youngsters in ShubmanGill, Shivam Mavi and KamleshNagarcoti, fresh from winningUnder-19 World Cup.

KKR's nucleus is intact in RobinUthappa, Chris Lynn, Andre Russell,

Sunil Narine, Piyush Chawla andKuldeep Yadav.

The support staff is also intact.Head coach Jacques Kallis who hasbeen with the side since their resur-

gence underGambhir in 2011along with Simonwill look to guideand support thenew captain.

The trio ofLynn, Russell andNarine, who are

their obvious choice asforeign players

and form thebackbone, arecoming backfrom respec-tive setbacks.

L y n n( s h o u l d e r )and Russell(hamstring)are recover-ing fromi n j u r i e s ,while theirace spinnerNarine hasremodelledhis action

after his latestcall for a suspect action.

With no Starc, theyhave pace bowling option in

Aussie veteran MitchellJohnson who has not been at

his finest in recent months,while R Vinay Kumar hasn't

made a significant impact inrecent IPL seasons.

Englishman Tom Curran,Starc's replacement, is a handy all-

rounder but he is yet to play in Indiaand will be watched closely.

KKR go into the match withhappy memories of skittling outRCB for the lowest ever IPL total

(49) here last year, while in thereturn leg Narine smashed the tour-nament's fastest fifty (17 ball 54 ) asthey made a double over Kohli's sidein 2017.

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Tennis icon Leander Paes became the mostsuccessful doubles player in the history of

Davis Cup with a record 43rd win beforeyoung guns Ramkumar Ramanathan andPrajnesh Gunneswaran pulled off the must-win rubbers as India advanced to the WorldGroup Play-offs with a sensational 3-2 winover China here on Saturday.

Everything depending on how they faredin the do-or-die doubles rubber, the 44-year-old Paes and Rohan Bopanna downed a fight-ing Chinese pair of Mao Xin Gong and ZeZhang 5-7, 7-6(5), 7-6(3) to keep India afloatin the second round Asia/Oceania Group Itie.

Ramkumar Ramanathan, who coppedcriticism from captain Mahesh Bhupathi forhis lackluster show in the opening singles,redeemed his reputation by defeating Di Wu7-6(4), 6-3. The win levelled the tie 2-2.

Captain Bhupathi then played a master-stroke by playing left-handed PrajneshGunneswaran instead of Sumit Nagal in thetie-deciding fifth rubber against the Chineseteen sensation Yibing Wu and the Chennaiboy did not disappoint as he delivered a 6-4,6-2 win to seal the tie for India.

Prajnesh had come into the side after YukiBhambri pulled out due to an abdomen injury.The southpaw was fluent in his strokes andplayed fearless brand of tennis, going for win-ners.

Prajnesh, playing only his second DavisCup tie, being a left-hander could counterYibing from different angles and he also hadthe experience of playing on slow surfaces inChina. So it proved to be a great tactic fromthe captain.

It is only for the second time in India'sDavis Cup history that the team has emerged

victorious in a tie after being down 0-2.However, this win has come in a new formatin which best of three set matches are beingplayed at zone level ties.

India will now compete in the WorldGroup Play-offs for the fifth time in a row,having failed in four attempts in as manyyears. They lost to Serbia (2014), CzechRepublic (2015), Spain (2016) and Canada(2017).

The last time India competed in the elite16-nation World Group was in 2011 when itlost to Serbia in an away first round tie.

India was trailing 0-2 after RamkumarRamanathan and Sumit Nagal suffered sur-prise tame defeats on Friday.

Paes, India's Davis Cup hero for years, wastied on 42 wins with Italian great NicolaPietrangeli for long but finally surpassed him,albeit in a foreign land.

At the age of 16, Paes had made his DavisCup debut in 1990 alongside Zeeshan Ali,who is now the coach of the side, and grewinto a legend in the company of Bhupathi,who is now the captain of the team.

During his illustrious career, Paes weavedthe longest unbeaten winning streak of 24matches in Davis Cup with Bhupathi, withwhom he ruled the ATP circuit in the late 90s.

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Wearing heart on his sleevewith an aggressive body

language that doesn't fit thepurists' narrative, Virat Kohli isleast bothered about pandering topublic perceptions since he does-n't want to act like a "robot" inintense match situations.

"You cannot be a robot oper-ating for the sake of what peopleare going to write or say aboutyou," Kohli, who's known for hisaggressive brand of leadershipsaid during the launch of crickethistorian Boria Majumdar's latestbook 'Eleven Gods and A BillionIndians'.

India were down and outduring their last big series inSouth Africa facing a possible

whitewash before there wasremarkable turnaround winningthe final Test followed by emphat-ic twin series win in the limited

overs format."The most important is self

belief. You need to have the abil-ity to look at things in a very dif-

ferent way than anyone else. Wekept looking at things from theother perspective like winning thetoss and batting, despite opposi-tion from all quarters."

Decision to bat first on agreen top was criticised by manybut it turned out to be a master-stroke in the end with the pitchslowly deteriorating.

"The team believed it's thebest decision for us and webacked it. In cricket with tech-nique and everything there's noone way of doing something.There's always your way and ifyou believe in your way, you canmake things happen."

Chasing 241, the Proteas col-lapsed from 124 for one to 177 allout, leaving India winner by 63runs.

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�What is your role in Blackmail?She is a crazy, mad and whimsical woman

who is an alcoholic and treats her husband badly.It is a different take on women, not often seenin films. �The movie shows a woman having anextra-marital affair. How do you want view-ers to see the film?

When you pick up a newspaper, you readabout women having affairs among other arti-cles. This film is a situational dark comedy whereyou see a different take changing the life of a manwho finds out about his wife’s infidelity. Hedecides to teach the other man a lesson but itboomerangs on him. The movie has many lay-ers. I want people to look at these layers and havea good laugh.�How was the set atmosphere?

It began with a prawn party. Abhinay(director), Irrfan and I were listening to the scriptamid fun and food. Abhinay gave quirky ideasideas. As an actor, it kept me on the edge as itwas different from what I was doing. I respectdirectors who move differently. Co-actors werefun. Arunoday was a blast, most of my scenesare with him. We had some crazy scenes.�This is the second time that you have donea role that is negative. Was this a consciousdecision?

I will not say that my character in Blackmailis negative. I never plan. I take up the role thatcomes my way instinctively. There was a timein when people would not give me a negativerole as they felt I was sweet looking. I am gladthis has changed and such roles come my way.Babumoshai Bandookbaaz was a sensuous neg-ative role, Irada was a politically negative role.This one is about a situational stuck-up woman.�Is there a character or genre that youwould love to explore?

I have given a lot of emotional perfor-mances. I enjoy comedy and romance.

Fortunately, I am doing both. Someday, if Gulzarsaheb chooses to make a movie, I would love tobe directed by him.�You have authored the book Me & Ma.What is it about?

I shared a special bond with my mother. Sheplayed many roles in my life and was my bestfriend. When I lost her two years back, I want-ed to celebrate the woman who was in my lifeand who impacted me since I was two. Shemoulded my life and there were many anecdotesI wanted to share. When I sat with her in thehospital, I decided to write Me & Ma. It wentthe way I wanted it to go. I wanted Shabanajito write the Foreward and Mr AmitabhBachchan to release it and both happened. Thebook is doing well and it nice that it has founda connect with readers as my movies have done.�Is it correct to call hatke films parallelcinema?

There is nothing called parallel cinema.Cinema is not divided, audience are. Sometimesmovies do well with both kind of viewers, likeQueen or a Hindi Medium.�How has the journey been?

It’s been unconventional. After 20 years, Iam now getting my best. Very few get what I amgetting by way of roles. People are writing rolesfor me. At present, I am like a child in a candystore, having lots of fun while working hard inthe industry.�What about the struggle?

I have had my highs and lows which is partand parcel of the industry. Please don’t use theword ‘struggle’, I hate it. Use highs and lows.�Can you please tell us about your upcomingprojects?

It is a mixed bag of roles. There is FanneKhan with Anil Kapoor. There is Manto withNawazuddin. There is another movie RamsinghCharlie which is being directed by NationalAward winner Nitin Kakkar.

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It is a fight between the Bestversus the Best. The themesong sung by Siddharth

Basrur perfectly puts it out asYeh khel hai veer jawano ka,shows how IPL is, indeed, agame of champions. The 11thedition of IPL kick-starts its sec-ond innings with Star Indiacoming on board to broadcastthe matches live in six lan-guages, targeting a 700 millionfan reach across 10 Star sportschannels and live streamingonline through Hotstar.

Having shifted from SonyEntertainment to Star India,the popular show ExtraaaInnings on Set Max which wasthe live pre and post match talkshow anchored by SamirKochhar, Gaurav Kapur,Archana Vijaya and ShibaniDandekar will no more be there.Instead, a new one titled CricketIPL 2018 Post Show Live Talk willcome on Star Sports, anchoredby TV presenters Jatin Sapruand Mayanti Langer.

“To bring out the best of thiscricket carnival, an interestingline-up of analysts, reporters andcricketers will be sharing insightson the matches. Over the years,having anchored the ChampionsTrophy and many other tour-naments, we’ve build a strongteam and will walk an extra mileto build content for IPL fran-chise. It isn’t just about thematches but about making aconnect with the fans throughnational-wide campaigns,”Langer says.

Anchoring cricket eventscomes naturally to Langer,thanks to her 12-year experiencein such fields. “The easiest thingis to get in front of the cameraand talk about your favouritesport. We have watched crick-et as fans but through anchor-ing, we are going to get differ-ent insights from people on the

site and be in the middle ofaction. I share a great cama-raderie with my co-anchor JatinSapru and we will put thatacross on the show as well,”Langer says.

With the revamp of thetalk show, the challenge lies inmaking it better from previousyears. “It is for the first time thatStar takes over IPL telecast. Sothere might be some pre-con-ceived notions of how you wantthings to be. The challenge willbe to break that mould. Childrenwho were watching IPL at age 15will now be 25 and following thefranchise for the next 10 years.So we will be able to play on fanrelationship and their IPL loy-alty,” Langer says.

For Sapru, it is to strike aright balance between cricketand entertainment. “The IPLattracts a lot of youngsters andmix bag of audiences. We’ve tomake sure that they get theirshare of entertainment andhumour without compromisingon the sport. There are great

back stories and new playersbring new flavour,” Sapru says.

Cheerleaders are the biggestattraction but Sapru likes to seegender neutral team of cheer-leaders. “There will be cheer-leaders on the field but not in thestudio. I would like to see menand women cheerleaders. Theidea of cheerleaders comes fromabroad where they are hardcorefans of teams. There can be menas well if the IPL GoverningCouncil approves,” Sapru says.

To entertain the audience,comedian Sunil Grover will donthe avatar of Professor LaundaBhatinda Wala aka LBW andShilpa Shinde will be Googly intheir web show Jio Dhan DhanaDhan Live. Many other come-dians like Sugandha Mishra,Ali Asgar, Paresh Ganatra,Suresh Menon and Suyyash Raiwill be seen playing multiplecharacters with guest celebritieslike MS Dhoni, Kapil Dev,Virender Sehwag among others.

In the promos, Googlybhabhi is shown as a big crick-

et fan who eyes the hot cricketerswhile professor LBW is cluelessabout the sport. The show canbe watched exclusively on Jioapplication and it will also betelecast on Colors from Sundayat 11 pm.

Apart from the online livestreaming of the match, Hotstarhas launched a virtual realitygame — Watch’N’Play. It is askill-based game that will havemillions of other users tunedinto the match providing run-ning commentary on playerperformance and strategy, intoan actual game where theystand to win big. Only Airtel andReliance Jio network users willbe able to watch IPL withoutsubscribing to the Hotstar AllSports Pack or HotstarPremium.

Star Sports has alsolaunched Select: The Dugoutthat will provide fans with rich-er analytical experience throughVR and augmented reality.

Hosting and debating thesewill be an exclusive and illustri-ous panel of experts, includingformer captains, coaches andmentors such as Brad Hogg,David Hussey, Damien Fleming,Scott Styris, Anil Kumble, DeanJones, Mike Hesson, MarkWaugh, Darren Sammy andothers.

To reach out to cricketlovers across India, Fan Parkshave been set up with free entry.From Kullu in the north toTirunelveli in the south toAgartala in the East and Rajkotin the West, each venue willbroadcast live IPL action ongiant TV screen in fan zones,creating a stadium-like feel forfans.

Those visiting the Fan Parkare eligible for a lucky prizewhich will include exclusiveIPL merchandise and the Vivosmart phone.

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In a career spanning over two decades, shehas done varied roles that have found manyfans. Now, with her kitty full and several

movies releasing this year, includingBlackmail, Dutta talks to Shalini

Saksena about her role in Irrfan star-rer, the book she has penned & how

she hates the word ‘struggle’

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Does the American Dreamhold? Countless books,numerous songs, andmovies have celebrated thisideal. Generations have

grown up on it; hundreds of millionshave flocked to the US of A in pursuit ofthis ultimate guarantor to success andhappiness. The land of the free and bravehas also been the land of milk and honey,the land of opportunities and possibili-ties. The aspiration to be in America, tobreathe its free air, and to live the greatestof all dreams has vitally shapedAmerican culture as much as Americanpolitics for more than a century now.

But does the American Dream con-tinue to hold? Conservatism is on therise. The gyres move, and slowly we areturning our backs to each other. We maybe hyper-connected, but borders arebecoming more rigid, neighbours moreembittered. A near-nativist swerve to theright has occurred across continents, andshaken in its wake many of the givens ofthe global order. Suspicions and hostili-ties are now actively undoing the sacri-fice and work of many millions in bring-ing a modicum of peace, liberty, andequality to the world after the devasta-tions of empire and war. With inequity,tyranny, and terrorism rampant acrossboth sides of the development divide, thegreat dreams of the 20th century — fer-vent gasps from an era of oppression anddictatorship — seem dim, forgottenmemories of an impossible time and animpossible hope.

Is this too the fate of the AmericanDream in our age? Has the DonaldTrump presidency put into motionforces which will alter the meaning ofwhat it is to be American, to belong toAmerica, and to claim a degree ofAmericanness? Is the American Dreamfinally crumbling, is America no longerthe welcoming, migrants’ utopia it hasapparently been?

There do seem to be indications ofthis happening. Almost a century afterJames Truslow Adams coined the term‘the American Dream’ in his iconic, TheEpic of America, the United Statesappears more divided than united. Fromquestions of race to sexuality, ethics topolitics, America is in fervour unseen inthe past many decades. The conse-quences of almost half a century of ill-informed geopolitical machinationsseem to have come home to roost, and

mainstream America seems more mili-tantly afraid of its enemies — perceivedand otherwise — than ever before.Upward social mobility, the key watch-word of the American Dream, seemsincreasingly available only to a narrow-ing minority of the rich and comfortable,while the remaining majority appearsstuck in a vicious cycle of massive loansand crushing underemployment. Theepic truth of frontier America may wellhave turned long back into the epic mythof America, but even that seems to becrumbling in our times.

Amongst these many blocs anddivisions, the position of IndianAmericans is peculiar. Indians firststarted migrating to North America in1905, in the wake of enhancement ofrates on irrigation water in the PunjabCanal Colonies. The ensuing GhadarRevolution and the Hindu-GermanConspiracy Case closed off America forIndians for almost half a century,putting in place a ban not too dissimilarfrom the one currently mooted byTrump. It was only in the mid-1960sthat immigration norms were relaxedand Indians could again cross this fron-tier to the West. However, given the dis-tance between India and America andthe cost of travel, the first wave ofimmigrants, so to say, was highly edu-cated and skilled. This comprised someof the best minds in the country, frompredominantly engineering, medicine,and the sciences; it established a firmreputation abroad of the Indian diaspo-ra being ingenious and industrious inequal measure. While later on, compar-atively low skilled and low educatedpersons were allowed, and so were fam-ily members of already settled immi-grants, this overarching perception ofprowess and prosperity remains a hall-mark of the Indian community inAmerica. As Devesh Kapur, author ofthe recent, The Other One Percent:Indians in America, points out, Indiansare amongst the richest ethnic commu-nities in America because most of themreached it having the support of a con-siderably well-entrenched network interms of education, caste, community,and class. The advantages accruingfrom this more or less privileged back-ground allowed them to settle in moreon their terms, unlike immigrants fromother national and ethnic communities.

This leverage, however, seems to be

producing a backlash. The pros-perity of the Indian community inAmerica, their educational accom-plishments and entrepreneurialskills seem to be becoming flash-points in a raging debate onAmericanism, on the scope andhorizon of what it is to beAmerican. Trump’s electionseems premised largely on thefears and frustrations of a wideswath of Americans. The narra-tive, all too familiar, repeateditself in the States with disturbingease: Erosion of a traditionalmanufacturing base and hyper-concentration of wealth within anüber privileged oligarchy causingwidespread socio-economic distress,leading to frenetic calls for revival ofnational fortunes. Trump has beensuccessful in consolidating this massunease in his favour, in presenting him-self as an autochthonic son of the soildespite the obvious racial and nationalplurality of even the white American lega-cy. This positioning is naturally againstimmigrants and foreigners, who are seento take jobs and money outside the fold ofwhat is seen as legitimately American. Thedoors of America are no longer as wide andwelcoming as they were earlier.

Neelesh, an urban designer in the BayArea, feels this acutely. As a highly skilledfirst generation migrant who went on to doa Masters from UCB, Neelesh is an asset tohis firm as well as to the economy. He feelsthere are a lot of rumours and considerableconfusion within the federal Governmenton what will be the most feasible policy tobalance immigration with job creation.This, he feels, has been the cause of “majoruncertainty” over his and his wife’s futureprospects in the States. He also feels thatsubtle tweaks in the H1B norms will makeit more difficult for not just employers tohire well-educated Indians like him, butalso discourage fresh graduates below acertain income premium to successfullyapply for the visa. While he does not seethese reforms emerging from any pal-pable hostility towards migrants inCalifornia, he feels communities inmany other States may well be gladto see drastic reduction in thenumber and variety of immigrantscoming into America.

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The Indian Railways (IR) servesthe vital function of providingtravel access to millions of peo-ple. In this pursuit, safety of thepassengers automatically

becomes its foremost concern. It is pertinentto analyse certain aspects of rail infrastruc-ture and the status of implementation. Muchof the IR lines have been laid in the Britishperiod. India has laid less than 20 per centof its lines in the post-1947 period, whilethe corresponding increase in freight andpassenger volumes in the same periodremain 1,300 per cent and 1,600 per centrespectively. The burgeoning population ofthe country has led to a huge mismatch withrespect to the passenger demand and sup-ply of infrastructure. Today, many routes areoperating beyond their threshold limits andit is said that the IR is carrying 15 timesmore people than its capacity.

Another aspect in the context of railsafety remains the nature of rolling stockbeing used. Quite often, we observe thecoaches sliding over the other when trainaccidents occur. This sliding nature ofcoaches and subsequently turning turtle hascaused a lot of casualties. The reason forsuch behaviour of coaches has a lot to dowith the nature of a bulk of the presentlyexisting coaches being used. These are thecoaches manufactured at the IntegralCoach Factory in Perambur near Chennai,or popularly called the ICF coaches.

To know more about it, we need todwell a little into the history of coach man-ufacturing in our country. The first ICFcoach was rolled out in 1955 with the helpof Swiss Car and Elevator ManufacturingCompany, Switzerland. These weredesigned with an all steel integrated framewhich was the most advanced technologyof those times.

In 1993-94, after a gap of nearly fourdecades, IR decided to look for a new pas-senger coach design which would belighter and capable of travelling smooth-ly at higher speeds. After a global selectionprocess in 1995, IR finalised the designdeveloped by Linke Hofmann Busch(LHB) (presently Alstom LHB) ofGermany. The coaches were subsequent-ly called LHB coaches and they have beenin use on the broad gauge lines since 2000.

The coaches were initially manufacturedin the Rail Coach Factory (RCF) inKapurthala after the technology transfer in1998 and are now also being manufacturedin ICF and in the recently started ModernCoach Factory in Raebareli.

Among the many positive features that these coaches provide, the one whichstands out is its ‘anti-telescopic’ nature. Itmeans they do not turn over or flip in caseof a collision. LHB coaches use a centrebuffer coupling technique of tight lockingtype to join the coaches unlike the screwcoupling technique used by the ICF coach-es. The overall geometrical shape has alsobeen designed in such a way that the cen-tre of gravity comes out to be at a lowerlevel than what is presently in ICF coach-es. All these factors result in enhanced pas-senger safety in case of derailment.

The results are there for all to see as inthe case of Nagpur-Mumbai DurontoExpress when nine coaches derailed inAugust 2017 and there were no casualties.Similarly, none of the Dibrugarh RajdhaniExpress coaches turned turtle despite aderailment in 2014. The KakodkarCommittee on Rail Safety as well as theSam Pitroda Committee on Modernizationof IR have also recommended completemigration from ICF to LHB coaches.

Apart from enhanced safety mea-sures, LHB coaches also provide anadvanced pneumatic disc braking system,

modular interiors that integrate lightinginto ceiling, improved suspension system,higher capacity of air conditioning andincreased length. The coach exterior madewith stainless steel and interior with alu-minium make it a light-weight structure.All these features enhance passenger com-fort in multiple ways.

Such multi-pronged advantages ofthese coaches made the Ministry ofRailways and senior members of theRailway Board announce in 2016 and alsoreiterate the same in 2017 that ICF coachproduction would be phased out and allcoaches would only be of LHB type.Attempts in this direction have resonateddown the order, as many zonal railways arealso seeking to shift coaches at the earli-est, as the South Central Railway ispresently attempting to. The existing work-shops are also gearing up towards moderni-sation to accommodate periodic overhaulsand other maintenance works for LHBcoaches as visible in the recent inaugura-tion of LHB Airbrake Workshop atPerambur. Presently, LHB coaches arerestricted to Shatabdi, Rajdhani, Durontopremium trains, but are slowly beingextended to other trains. A target of pro-ducing 5,000 railway coaches for the pre-sent year has been set, which is a doublein annual capacity if it happens. In fact, ICFPerambur has recently produced a 100 percent made in India LHB coach which helpsin strengthening the Make in India initia-tive. To take this process further, RCFKapurthala will supposedly be manufactur-ing only LHB coaches from April 1, 2018,onwards. This decision to ramp up produc-tion will also have a positive spillover effectin boosting production capacities of thedomestic steel manufacturing industry.

However, the ground reality remainsthat LHB coaches can be overhauled at onlya few select workshops, which in turn maycreate delays due to a long waiting time.Other workshops like Golden RockWorkshop in Tiruchirapalli are seekingsanctions from Railway Board to mod-ernise their machinery and plant equip-ment to cater to the services of overhaul-ing LHB coaches and more such workshopsare expected to join this list. All these areactivities which involve one to two years

of gestation period and are not going tostart immediately. Similarly, the productioncapacity of LHB coaches, notwithstandingthe ambitious targets set, will still have togo a long way as well over 80 per cent ofthe existing number of coaches are still ofICF variety. The existing coach manufac-turing units may not be enough and as asolution, outsourcing coach manufactur-ing to specialised private players likeAlstom or Bombardier can be considered.While the Ministry, on the one hand, is reit-erating the ambitious plans for replace-ment, there are brand new trains beingintroduced with ICF coaches. And thisadvanced coach with multiple benefitscome with additional costs to the exchequer. But considering the benefits and longer shelf life of 35 years(compared to 25 years’ shelf life of ICFcoaches), we can be assured that the costswill be outweighed.

Then comes the issue of a phasedreplacement and the use of ICF coacheswhen they get gradually phased out orwhen their shelf life of 25 years ends. Asolution in this regard can be to use themas places in railway yards for providingretail space to small merchants (as is beingdone in a few Central Asian countries) orprovide space for the direct sale marketsor cooperative markets like Rythu Bazarsin Andhra Pradesh and Telangana wherevegetables and small groceries are sold byfarmers themselves. It will help in creatingadditional livelihood.

It needs to be remembered that com-plete conversion to LHB coaches, thoughnecessary, will only act as a curative bydrastically reducing casualties but not asa preventive for train accidents. Measureslike incorporating technology by mainte-nance of track infrastructure, replacing alldirect discharge toilets to bio toilets,implementing a Dedicated FreightCorridor to reduce existing track utilisa-tion, and putting in place an empoweredrail safety regulatory body can be consid-ered to achieve a rail accident-free India.

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As rightly said by a renownedGreek philosopher and math-ematician Plato, “Do not train

a child to learn by force or harshness;but direct them to it by what amusestheir minds, so that you may be bet-ter able to discover with accuracy thepeculiar bent of the genius of each.”As matured parents, we should allowour kids to dream big and aid to makethem achieve the same.

Every parent wants to give theirchild the best. There was a time whenparents thought they knew what wasideal for their children. Decisionsright from what the child should studyto what career choice they shouldmake and who they should marry wasmade by the parents. Time changedand parents and children alikeevolved. Today, we have reached astage where parents are more offriends and mentors to their children.They are more sensitive to what theirchild needs and accordingly changetheir way of parenting.

The new age parents are uncon-ventional, ready to experiment andwilling to explore ways to understandwhat their child enjoys doing.Approximately 26 million Gen Y-ersare raising kids today. While thenumbers are expected to grow expo-nentially over the next several years;these bundles of joy certainly don’tcome cheap. As parents, we are alwayspreoccupied with the need to plan abetter and secure future for our kids.

Given the evolving dynamics ofthe society, children of millennialsknown as Generation Alpha willlargely be the most formally educat-ed generation ever, the most technol-ogy supplied generation ever, andglobally the wealthiest generationever. While it will be challenging tobring up kids, it will also be a learn-ing. Thus, making it necessary for mil-lennial parents to engage with theirward to lay the foundation for cogni-tive development and raise smarterand happier kids.

With the changing lifestyle, blud-geoning inflation rate, the cost of liv-ing and most importantly, the com-petition in every sphere of our lives;has increased the pressure on parents.They are worried/ concerned if theywould be able to support their child’seducation, providing them with asphere of opportunities. In such sit-uation, parents need expert guidance,to help them identify and nurture

their child’s passion and accordinglyplan their finances to provide themwith the career of their choice. Theright combination of both indeed willensure a stress-free, secured and a suc-cessful life.

AVIVA Kid-O-Scope does justthat. It is a digital ecosystem, a firstof its kind that helps parents iden-tify and nurture a child’s unique apti-tude & talents, at an early age. Thushelping them to choose a career bestsuited for their passion, in additionto enabling a financial plan for itsfulfillment.

The AVIVA Kid-O-Scope is aplatform specially built with advancedpsychometric tools that will enableparents to #CatchTheEarlySigns ofinherent talents and aptitudes in theirchild’s development. What’s more,these assessments can be initiated asearly as three years of child’s age, andare followed by customized advice tonurture the child unique passion andhone it skills to mature into a chosenfield of profession, as he grows. Theplatform also includes an educationcost calculator that enables parents tofinancially plan for their child byderiving the estimates of the futurecost of education for the chosen fieldof study.

In a time when kids are seeming-ly growing up too fast, it’s essentialto consider the importance of theirchildhood dreams. Therefore, afocused goal and a planned invest-ment from an early stage will helpthem carry on that free spirit andyouthful passion into adulthood –and the world just may become a bet-ter place.

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Similarly, Aditi, whose hus-band is a mechanical engi-neer in the Midwest, feels

that uncertainty over the scope ofthe Employment AuthorizationDocument (EAD) prevents herfamily from cogently planningtheir future. She feels that mostcouples like her — who are intheir late twenties or early thirtiesand have been in the States foraround five years — are in “a con-fused state of mind” and do notknow if their future lies in the USor back in India. She rues the factthat she had to wait for two yearsbefore she could start working,and even then, she cannot bemore than a substitute teacherdespite being a postgraduate fromone of the best universities inIndia. For her, “women who arehere on spouse visa” face greaterchallenges than men because thelegality of their stay is even moretenuous than their husbands’.

Others like Bedatri locatethese challenges in the growinghostility towards foreigners inmainstream America. A versatilescholar of ancient South Asianhistory, Ruby has been in theStates on a similar spouse visa.She feels that “the present politicalregime has certainly fanned preju-

dices, which were perhaps latentearlier”, and that “there seems tobe a general distrust of all residentaliens, even legal ones, and thismanifests in almost all spheres oflife”. Likewise, Seema, a financegraduate from UCL, shares thisanxiety. Seema moved to SanDiego when her father, a publicsector banker, was transferredthere more than a decade agofrom Mumbai. She feels that overthe years, people have become“more racist”, and that though“California is pretty good, thereare definitely parts of the countryI’m afraid of going to”. For her,Trump’s presidency has definitelychanged the environment andmade it harder for even legalimmigrants to be in America.

This deterioration in theatmosphere is palpable to some-one like Rajeshwari, who cameto Louisiana in the late 1980s fora Masters in industrial engineer-ing. Linking hyper-nationalismto closet racism, she suggeststhat the re-surfacing of the KuKlux Clan — “which was in hid-

ing all these years” — reflects thetangible threat to all immigrants,including Indians, underTrump’s presidency. It is onlyunder the present regime thatthese so-called fringe groupsnow feel “emboldened enough tohold parades and rallies”, andwhat seems to be at stake, as theincidence of these eventsincreases, is the very nature ofAmerican democracy.

In a similar manner, Varun,who came to South Carolina in2005 for a Bachelor’s degree incomputer science, feels that “theAmerican Dream has crumbledunder Trump, especially forimmigrants, and that deportationsare at an all time high”. He seesthis as a consequence of theparochial nationalism espousedby Trump, who is “a racist”.Nonetheless, he feels that themajority of America doesn’t sharehis views, and that the economyhas done well so far under hispresidency, adding that, “thingsare not so bad as long as you are awhite American”.

That America seems to bebecoming more colour consciousis also apparent to Jacqueline, awhite American working as aphysician’s assistant in theTriangle. She believes that “thesmall portion of the populationwhose anti-immigration ideas aremotivated by racist feelings aremuch more vociferous than they

were before because they feelsupported”. She asserts that“immigrants have always beenthe life force and strength of theUS, and seeing Trump and hisanti-immigrant cronies in poweris very frustrating”.

This unease is also shared byDeepika, a professor who studiedand taught English literature inTennessee for close to a decadebefore moving back to India in2008. For her, hierarchy and class-consciousness are a part ofAmerican life, the way in whichthe American Dream is struc-tured. She feels that the blindmaterialism of the AmericanDream, focused on social mobilityat any cost, has brought intenseghettoisation of America’s diverseracial, national, and ethnic com-munities even as it has broughtprosperity and comfort to many.

However, even as a cross-sec-tion of Indians seem to perceiveradical changes in policy andpublic attitudes towards immi-grants, some also feel that the pre-sent political dispensation is only

working to discourage illegalimmigration so as to protect itslegitimate national interests.Vimlesh, an engineer with thefederal Government, contendsthat the US is still more open andinviting than most Europeancountries, and that ongoing policyrecalibrations are orientedtowards ensuring that “peopledon’t take shortcuts into the sys-tem”. Having moved to Americamore than three decades ago as analumna of IIT-Delhi, Vimleshfeels that the US is “still a land ofopportunity even as attempts arebeing made to ensure opportunis-tic people do not get in”. Her viewis also shared by Agatha, a whiteAmerican homemaker in NorthCarolina, who feels that thechanges in immigration policyinitiated by the Trump presidencywere “needed for some time tocrack down on those entering thecountry illegally, and we neededpolicies in place to slow the flow”.Even as she clarifies that shewants people from all countries tocome here, she asserts that theymust do so legally in order to“strive for their version of theAmerican Dream”.

Is the American Dreamcrumbling then? Does it seem to

no longer exercise that intoxicat-ing tenacity which fills millionswith hope of a better, more fulfill-ing life? The evidence collectedfor this article seems to suggest asmuch: That America is no longerwhat it used to be, that the civili-sational goals of progress andequality seem to have been super-seded by sectarian interestsfavouring a carefully framed por-tion of the American population.This framing is informed by con-siderations of race and class;though it is often generalised thatthese are wholly white, it wouldbe mistaken to not consider theintersectionality of Trump’sappeal as he attempts to alterAmerican politics and polity.Equivalently, it will be mistakento also attribute this simply to theTrump presidency, for his sup-port seems to emerge from deepchannels of fear and mistrust.Indians in America, or thoseplanning to settle in America,will have to be acutely cognisantof these altered realities: That thisland may well not be theirs to callhome in the future.

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Reading short stories is often like having abreakfast of idlis. Idlis are a simple, quickfare, good to gobble when you don’t real-ly have too much time. They set easily,provided you have the right mould, and

are fairly difficult to go wrong with: even the mostaverage of cooks can conjure a digestible platter.While they necessarily require accompaniments,sambar and chutney, to make them palatable, theythemselves are also readily spiced up with a dash ofvegetable or a judicious shift to rava. Nonetheless,through these alterations and additions, theyremain a healthy and usually wholesome meal:light, fluffy, not too hard on the system.

Collections of short stories also quite oftenappear so. They are mostly quick reads, are usuallynot as provocative as novels, and are perhaps easierto compose. Edited volumes offer more variety thansingle-authored ones, but both are more or lessarranged according to an overarching thematic con-cern. The form too is broadly similar, and innova-tions — as and when they do appear — are along setprecedents. It is, after all, no idle truism that there islittle new which can be written, that everything newis often something familiar presented in a differentform or shape. In the short story, the challenge gen-erally seems to be to make old wine appear new evenif the bottle remains the same.

Woman to Woman: Stories, Madhulika Liddle’s

latest anthology of short stories,inspires such sentiments. It is amotley collection of twelve sto-ries on women’s lives and expe-riences across the spectrums ofclass and creed: women poor,women rich, women in thethick of life, and women atom-ised into isolation and miseryby the dint of circumstances in apatriarchal world. Though thereis no other theme than this, thatall stories are broadly onwomen, this seems to workoverall for the volume. Four ofthese stories have been pub-lished previously, while theremaining eight appear to beoriginal works. Regardless, avariety of plots and motifs are atdisplay through these twelvestories, as is a healthy diversityof narrative techniques.

“Paro”, for instance, experi-ments with multiple narrativevoices to give a surprising twist to what seems to bea heavy tale of oppression and abuse. Similarly,“Poppies in the Snow” works subtly with the cultur-al specificities of Kashmir to unhinge emergent

readerly effects. “Mala”, on theother hand, begins as a tale oflove and joy, but turns promptlyinto a predictable tragedy. If“Two Doors” and “Maplewood”dramatise the stark emotionaldesolation of women’s lives, thewreckage which societal expec-tations and pressures bring intheir wake, then “The SariSatyagraha” gives playful agencyto women in negotiating withthe world on their own terms.“Captive Spirit” is a thrillingfamily saga, almost gothic withits deeply atavistic bondage toheirloom, while “Wronged”nuances notions of familial faithand fidelity from the difficultperspective of children under-standing their parents as adults.

All of these are quick, easyreads, and on the whole thevolume offers just the rightamount of provocation which

moves but does not unsettle. It does verge a littletoo much to the tragic, with almost all storiesshowing women as suffering victims of activeneglect and real physical and emotional abuse, but

readers will be spared from thinking women havelittle agency to fight back and achieve self-deter-mination by the grit, resolve, and ingenuity atwork in “Poppies in the Snow”, “Paro”, and “TheSari Satyagraha” respectively. These three give therequired modicum of balance to the volume, res-cuing it from becoming an excessive potpourri ofpathos. In this sense, Woman to Woman is not anexceptional or exciting departure from the largertend of not just Indian women’s writing but alsoIndian writing in English. Interpretation may wellbe a game which takes two to tango, but authorsdo work within contexts. With our socio-culturalbackground being what it is, it is not really sur-prising that much of our literature is the polaropposite of light, and bright, and sparkling.Woman to Woman seems to mirror faithfullythese framing realities of its background. It givesslices of life as they are for women: no more, noless. Short stories, like idlis, may well be difficultto go wrong with, but they look deceptively easyonly because they are easily consumed. The ener-gy and effort required for both is far from whatappears obvious, and for its careful handling of thedifficulties of giving readers a measured glimpseof the everyday, Woman to Woman stands as yetanother successful milestone for Liddle.

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Agood murder mystery, on a coldwinter night, with a cup of warmcoffee and your mind buzzing

with visions and images of storiesuntold, is pure bliss, if one has experi-enced it. This particular one does jus-tice to that experience without beingaggressively graphic and violent in itsexpression. The novel itself travels fromthe fast — paced cinematic visions ofthe lives of the who’s who of Bollywoodwith all its masala, moving to life in acottage of an idyllic village in theHimalayas with its laid back peacefulsurroundings. The protagonist, Ramola,who is an immensely successful actress,carries the story through her relativestruggle in the film industry from herliaisons with men and brushes with thecasting couch, to her shift to limelightand then to a life of relative reclusewhich she has enjoyed immensely inthe recent past.

One gets a fantastic experience ofthe beauty and serenity of life in thehills and its slow pace where leisurelypursuits are the order of the day.Coming back to Mumbai, the charac-ters are presented in the first few chap-ters one after another. The psychologi-cal make up, frustrations, tensions,emotional associations and their expec-tations with the protagonist can besensed which are further re instatedthrough the novel. Meanwhile, in thehamlet of Ramsar, Ramola has beenwriting an autobiography with the helpof a young journalist who resides withher. They plan a launch of sorts byinviting each of the characters that havebeen an integral part of her story to her40th birthday party in the hills. To addto it is an audience of the local judge,retired army officer, doctor, policeman/detective and their families who are thelocal neighbours and the servants in alltheir ji hazoori, hard work, alcoholicabandon and careless gossip. The stageis set for murder. Let the games begin.

What is interesting is the relativeease with which Podder flows from onecharacter to another and binds the mys-tery where not only can one experiencewhat each entity is going through inter-nally, but also its external manifesta-tions in their behavior while keepingthe secret of the possible murderer/sunder strict lock and key. One seems togo through a parallel detective gamealong with the colonel and the detec-tive/ policeman who play the part of theSherlock — Watson duo in its classicstyle with aplomb. As it happens in thehills, one finds beautiful depictions ofeveryday life, the walks through the

hills, those lovely, homely cottages withflowering creepers on walls and the sur-rounding cottages with their inhabi-tants sitting in their gardens basking inthe sun and the views and idle talkwhich exists in places where there isless to do and more time to kill. Theentire novel is peppered with such visu-als and it is commendable how Podderhas built the story gradually weaving itwith these detailed panoramic depic-tions so much so that the reader actual-ly feels transported there and one canfeel the crisp mountain air and thechirping of the birds!

While the novel runs in a racymanner like a Doyle novel with intriguearound every bend, the familiar idylliccountryside plays well with the contra-dictions between time and space. Thereis too much excitement for a hill town,which in a humourous way, gives some-

thing to the local people living there todo and think about while all the citydwellers who have thronged the hillsfor their various vested reasons enjoythe bounties of nature and rest, ironi-cally around the stage where the mur-der is set! In doing so, the charactersthough very realistic, gain strains of acomic identity through their respectivecircumstances and actions. Unlike thetypical murder mystery, the narrativehere is robust yet gently brought outand has certain lightness to it. The finaldarkness of a brutal murder is not feltin a block of black but in its greys andgets buried under the subtler, grandercircumstances that come into playwhere somewhere one finds the cir-cumstances of the characters lives justi-fying the means and the final actions.In the end it seems like a play of lifeand circumstances which force and

bring about the final tragedy with thepeople as pawns of a grander plan bydestiny itself.

There is a sense to all the dramaand chaos as the successive meetingsand partings happen within the visualnarrative of the novel that one is con-stantly catching up to. One can feel theinner drama and thoughts of the char-acters in a startlingly clear manner andthis lends itself to a premonition thatsomething is not right even though allseems to be on the verge of comingback together with one happy band offriends coming together and makingmerry till sundown. As the novel pro-gresses towards its final act the progres-sion of time and events fastens, a classictool, which Podder uses with dexterityand one waits with baited breaththough one is not totally aware of whenwill the deed happen and who exactlywould have done it.

Podder just about manages to getthe reader engrossed in peeling thelayers of the characters and lookingback in memory constantly, whilemapping the change of events as theyrun through the novel, as active par-ticipants rather than a passive disas-sociated observer, which is a feat initself to be applauded. Tanushree’sstyle of writing is to be credited forher understanding of the land, itspeople, cultural subtleties and themany humourous and interestingidiosyncrasies it brings with it thatshe exploits to the fullest. Her writingis gentle and fluid, and reveals eventsby changing pace when required yet isnot obscure or verbose.

If one wants to really experiencea classic murder mystery which isnot so much a gory splash on thewall as it is the warp and weave oflives of people in all their vagariesand dynamism and the fascinatingcircumstances that delivers the finalplot ending in a masterstroke withgreat flourish, you don’t want to misspicking up this one!

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On the economic developmentfront, inequality and increas-ing unemployment is the

biggest challenge for a fast emergingcountry like India. While self-employment opportunities are onthe decline, jobs too are continuouslydecreasing. According to the LabourBureau statistics, India has todaybecome the nation of the mostunemployed in the world; in theinclusive growth index, we are atnumber 60 and in this case we arefar behind our neighbours. But at thesame time, another picture is thatIndia is one of the fastest growingpeak economies in the world. Atsome point of time, we managed toclimb up 30 places in the ‘BusinessAccessibility Index’. So, the questionarises: What is the path of develop-ment that we are going to follow toensure employment generation andequality for everyone?

Indeed, the pace of increasinginequality in India has reached his-torically high levels. The gapbetween the rich and the poor hasincreased alarmingly. This situationis the result of our unemploymentgrowth and non-public spending ongross domestic product (GDP)growth path. In the last few decades,most countries around the worldhave developed their economies butdue to privatisation, public capitaland resources have been reduced tothe hands of select people.

In India, economic reforms wereimplemented in the 1990s. Sincethen, there has been an unprecedent-ed creation of wealth in the country.According to Credit Suisse, since2000, there has been an increase inthe value of 9.9 per cent annually inIndia, while its global average hasbeen only six per cent. But its

benefits have not been found in thelarge population of the country.Despite India’s share in global assets(sixth), the average assets of Indiansare much lower than the global aver-age. Meanwhile, inequality hasexpanded in the distribution of pub-lic resources and nearly one-third ofthe population is still forced to livebelow the poverty line. The condi-tion is that India has slipped to the100th place in the Global HungerIndex of 2017, and in this case,Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmarand many African countries performbetter than India, while we were at97th in 2016.

According to Oxfam, only oneper cent of the people on the globallevel have only 50 per cent wealth.But this figure stands at 58 per centin India and 57 billionaires haveassets equal to 70 per cent of thecountry’s population. According toanother report from Oxfam, ‘TheWidening Gaps: India InequalityReport 2018’, economic inequality inIndia is increasing rapidly. In thecountry’s GDP, 15 per cent of thewealth is made, while the share was10 per cent five years ago. India isthe second largest country in theworld in terms of population. Sixty-five per cent of the populationin the country has an average age ofless than 35 years. Such a largeyoung population could be ourstrength, but due to lack of adequateemployment in the country largenumber of youth is unemployed.

According to data from the Eco-nomic Cooperation and Develop-ment Organisation, the number ofyoung unemployed is very high. Thisis causing a feeling of dissatisfactionin the society. Similarly, in spite of allefforts, the participation of women

in the total labour force is only 27per cent (in the labour force, house-hold work and care, such as unpaidwork is not included).

Latest estimates from the WorldBank show that in the period from2004-05 to 2011-12, 19.6 per cent ofthe women moved out of labourforce which is a major drop. Theimportance of women’s involvementin labour force can be understood insuch a way that the InternationalMonetary Fund estimates that if thepresence of women in India’s labourforce becomes as much as that ofmen, then it will help in increasingour GDP by 27 per cent.

In the Sustainable DevelopmentGoals (SDGs), a special emphasis ingoal eight has been given to “contin-uous inclusive and sustained eco-nomic development for all, to pro-mote full and productive employ-ment and better work” by 2030. Alsomentioned in the same goal is “by2020, substantially reduce the pro-portion of youth not in employment,education or training”.

India is also working towardsfulfilling this goal and generatingemployment for all. Variousschemes like Skill India, Make inIndia, Prime Minister’s Employ-ment Generation Programme(PMGEP), Pradhan Mantri RojgarProtsahan Yojana and PradhanMantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana playan important role in this. The Min-istry of Skill Development andEntrepreneurship was formed in2014 by the Government; followingthis, the Pradhan Mantri KaushalVikas Yojana was launched in 2015.Its aim was to develop ‘skill’ of theyouth to make them self-employed.But there were many obstacles inthe success of this scheme. Before

the scheme started, there was nopre-assessment done of the require-ment of the industries and the kindof skills that were being provided tothe youth, resulting in a total mis-matchwhen the scheme waslaunched. The level of trainingbeing provided was also belowstandard and not of the highestquality.

Workers of India are passingthrough a kind of transition period.The agricultural sector’s contribu-tion to GDP is around 13 per cent,but still half of India’s populationdepends on agriculture. On the onehand, the agricultural sector is notable to bear this pressure. On theother, people here are not requiredto have the skills required for otherjobs. Perhaps that’s why the cost ofMNREGA increases. MNREGA isthe only law in our country thatguarantees 100 days of employmentto all in rural areas. Although therehave been many questions arisingout of this for being rural-centric,guaranteed for only 100 days, cor-ruption and other problems relatedto implementation, the importanceof MNREGA cannot be denied.

In the concept of inclusive devel-opment, the growth of people of allsections of society, castes and com-munities have been included. In thisscale, aspects like living, health, edu-cation and environmental status arejudged. In the coming days, if wecontinue to follow this model ofdevelopment while ignoring theinclusive growth, inequities will getdeeper. Therefore, it is necessary toincrease public expenditure on basicservices such as education and healthand pay special attention to employ-ment generation.

(Courtesy: Charkha Features)

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The CBSE paper leak scan-dal and related troubles,including the impact on

public goodwill, is a tragedy ofan anachronistic secrecy-basedexamination system. On analy-sis, what is evident is that thevery ‘pricy’ secrecy maintainedaround the question paper hasbeen its own victim. In an ageof microphotography, socialmedia-based rapidly transmit-ted messaging and consumerculture sans any ethical founda-tion, it only takes the cybermatch of a mobile-greedy risk-taking insider in the supplychain, a competent device andWi-Fi to uplink the data tobreak into the vaults of CBSE or

any other exam board. So longas high fidelity microphotogra-phy, cloud-based cyber linkingand electronic transactability isavailable, no paper-based pub-lic exam system is free from thehigh possibility of a cyber/cryp-to breach. This risk is perpetu-ally universal now.

The rational way to counterthe risk of leaking questionpaper is to do away with thenotion of ‘secrecy’ while settingthe question paper. If the syl-labus, textbooks and exammodel question papers can bemade available a priory to thestudents by the board officially,why hesitate to publish a ques-tion bank a month before the

exam? To distinguish betweenaverage, good and superlativestudent performance, 50 percent questions can be carried assuch in the exam; 20-25 percent carried at some minoraspects of detail; and 15-20 percent questioning at the highestlevel of difficulty to get thegranulated differentiation.

Once the question paper ispublished, the exam format canalso be opened up gradually.Assuming 50 per cent ques-tions having application orien-tation, calling for skill andimagination, prescribedNCERT textbooks can also bepermitted for reference.

This will take the exam

pressure off the students andmake scoring and post publicexam academic life more pre-dictable. One legitimate ques-tion is whether the micro gran-ulation achieved in the openquestion/exam mode stack willbe sufficient differentiator inexams like NEET that requiresmicro-segmenting of qualifiers.This will be answered alongwith the process maturing by abit of trial and error.

Anyway, a digitally mediat-ed alternative, which is trans-parent and non-tamperable, isrequired to replace the centuri-on English grammar schoolstyle secret question and closedbook examination which is

founded on lack of faith on thelearner, educator and examiner.One difficulty with the pre-published question paper is theaggressive coaching the insti-tutes might engage in using theinterval. This will lead to a bat-tle of wits and tactics betweenCBSE examiners.

It may be a little too earlyto assimilate the concept ofopen- fully predicted ques-tions and open book answer-ing style initially. This is large-ly due to nonfamiliarity of themode. Indians are too rootedto rote learning and the ideathat it works. We need to poisethe evaluation system largelytowards a twin orientation —

ie, one for measuring essentialfundamental conceptualisa-tion and also measure thedegree of mastery.

Here, the limits of textbo-oks, syllabus and secretquestion must be overcomeby ingenious question design.These are not unknown to theworld of secondary educa-tion. We just need to capi-talise on the present difficultyand do away with the nearimpossibility to maintainsecrecy and resultant surpriseelement in our question set-ting for evaluation.

(The writer is a former Vice-chancellor and Civil Servant.Views expressed are personal)

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Every Christmas, John Lewis,a father of four fromBlacksburg, Virginia, polite-

ly and diligently responds to thebarrage of misdirected tweetsmeant for the British retailer whoshares his name. Donald Trumphas twice fallen into a similartrap on Twitter — mistaking amother-of-three from Bognor forPrime Minister Theresa May, andsending Ivanka Majic, a councilworker from Brighton, a messagemeant for his daughter.

While social media cases ofmistaken identity can have comi-cal and unexpected conse-quences, for companies andcelebrities who find their pre-ferred usernames have alreadybeen taken, such scenarios canquickly become a digital realestate nightmare.

Recently, Carnival CruiseLines took an unorthodoxapproach in convincing aVirginia teenager to give up hiscoveted Snapchat handle,@CarnivalCruise, by offering hima luxury trip to Barcelona — asuccessful tactic that proved to bea positive PR move for the com-pany. Alongside these coinciden-tal cases, brands must also bewary of “username squatting” —the creation of accounts for thepurpose of preventing othersfrom using them or for the pur-pose of selling them on.

������������L������Early adopters of the Internet sawan opportunity in making moneyby registering an Internet domainname of a trademark belonging tosomeone else. In May 1994, Wiredreported only a third of Fortune500 companies had registered an

obvious version of their name as awebsite domain, with journalistJoshua Quittner taking advantageby snapping up mcdonalds.com.He eventually handed it over toMcDonald’s Corporation inexchange for a $3,500 donation toa New York primary school.

In 1999, a US law was passedto prevent cybersquatters actingin “bad faith” and sweeping updomain names before sellingthem at an inflated price. TheWorld Intellectual PropertyOrganization (WIPO), whichadjudicates on domain name dis-putes, revealed such complaintsreached an all-time high of 3,074in 2017. Famous cases includefans of Britain’s Got Talent regis-tering unofficial domain namesfor overnight star Susan Boyle in2009, the BBC buying thebbc.com domain name fromBoston Business Computing in1999, and London departmentstore Harrods successfully takinga group of cybersquatters tocourt over the use ofharrods.com. The explosion ofsocial media companies in theearly Noughties led to the newphenomenon of username squat-ting as users rushed to “landgrab” potentially valuable handlesunder the generally applied “firstcome, first served” rule.

����������L������A US President, the world’s rich-est man, and a $900 billion com-

pany have all been victims of“username jackings”, and whilesome are coincidental, the motivebehind others is financial. In2007, then presidential candidateBarack Obama’s campaign staffstepped in to take control of anunofficial and fast-growingMySpace page being run by acampaign volunteer named JoeAnthony. “We felt [controllingthe profile] was important inorder to have the needs of ourusers met, to be able to providethem answers,” Obama represen-tative Jen Psaki told Forbes at thetime. “Though we had to go

through a process of making itunofficial to official, the end goalis more important.”

Twitter began verifying usersin 2009 in an effort to clampdown on impersonator accounts,following complaints by celebritiesincluding rapper Kanye West.Cupertino-based company Applewas notoriously slow in connect-ing with customers via socialmedia, with the tech giant initiallyfailing to secure the prime@Apple usernames on some of themost popular social media plat-forms — only joining Twitter in2016. Among the early victims of

so-called ‘Twitterjacking’ includedPulitzer Prize-winning composerSteve Reich, actor ChristopherWalken, and former US Secretaryof State Condoleezza Rice.

���������G���� ���� ��2�Twitter rules forbid the buyingand selling of usernames, howev-er, there have been reports of a“black market” in squatting andflipping valuable handles, accord-ing to ReadWrite. Reports sug-gest the State of Israel paidFlorida resident Israel Meléndeza six-figure sum for the username@Israel in 2010, while Texan

graphic designer Chase Giuntareportedly turned down $20,000from banking giant JPMorgan forthe handle @Chase before the siterevoked his access for violatingits parody policy.

Tony La Russa, former man-ager of the St. Louis CardinalsMajor League Baseball team,sued Twitter over a fake accountusing his name. The lawsuit for“trademark infringement, trade-mark dilution and misappropria-tion of name and likeness” waseventually dropped by La Russa.

Separately, cases of mistakenidentity can also be problematic;

@SteveBannon is a HGV driverliving in Swindon, often mistakenfor the former White House chief strategist. Twitter user@GeorgeOsborn has alsoreceived abuse in the past fromusers confusing him with the for-mer chancellor. In 2009, the UScomedian and game show host,Drew Carey bid $100,000 to buythe Twitter account @drew fromtech blogger Drew Olanof to raisemoney for charity.

�����M���������������Username squatting is prohibitedunder Twitter’s rules, which state:“Attempts to sell, buy, or solicitother forms of payment inexchange for usernames are vio-lations and may result in perma-nent account suspension.”Snapchat’s Terms of Service bansusers from buying, selling, rent-ing or leasing access to theirSnapchat account or usernamewithout written permission fromthe company. Facebook statesusernames are generally given tothe first individual or businesswho requests the name; however,users can report potential trade-mark infringements.

“Cybersquatting has histori-cally accounted for, and continuesto account for, an extremely smallpercentage of all domain nameregistrations,” say the InternetCorporation for AssignedNames and Numbers (ICANN).“Trademark owners are also freeto pursue legal action in court ifthey believe their rights havebeen violated. The ICANNrights protection mechanisms donot limit a trademark owner’srights to go to court.”

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Some people are of the opinion that CongressPresident Rahul Gandhi is more comfort-able working with second-generation partyleaders. He had vociferously defendeddynastic politics when he was in the US, fol-

lowing which it was widely believed that he wouldcontinue this tradition of politics. This was also evi-dent by the leaders he surrounded himself with.However, when Rahul made appointments after theratification of his name in the party’s plenary ses-sion, it became clear that he was also pushing for-ward new and first-generation leaders.

Along with second-generation leaders, Rahul isalso giving big responsibilities to leaders without apolitical lineage. Maharashtra MP Rajeev Satav hasbeen made Gujarat in-charge by him. Satav is one ofthe two MPs who had won from Maharashtra on aCongress ticket. In the same manner, Lalji Desai, whowas a social activist, has been given the responsibilityof the Seva Dal. In Gujarat, Amit Chavda — whodoesn’t hail from any political family — has beenappointed as the party president. In the same manner,first-generation leader Paresh Dhanani has beenmade leader of the legislative group. He has furtherappointed Yashomati Thakur from Maharashtra andChandan Yadav from Bihar as secretaries and hasroped them in to help in-charges of Karnataka andChhattisgarh. They are also first-generation leaders.

On one hand, Rahul is promoting the descen-dants of old leaders of the Congress, and on theother hand, he has also been promoting first-gener-ation leaders, who don’t have any political back-ground. He is also expected to follow the same for-mula when he forms the CWC.

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The Lok Sabha tenure remains for more than ayear, but when the second phase of the Budget

Session started on March 5, the Government pushedit into a lame duck mode. That means the LokSabha will run casually henceforth. The Oppositionis now going to start the politics of resignation.When Rajiv Gandhi was the PM, the Oppositionhad pushed Parliament into temporary mode mid-way his tenure, and this Lok Sabha seems to bemoving in the same direction.

The main Opposition party of Andhra Pradesh,the YSR Congress, has decided that its MPs willresign en masse. In fact, they were joining the TDPone by one, so their party decided to tell the remain-ing ones to resign. Some say these seats will remainvacant because the Election Commission would notgo for bypolls in all likelihood. It is also being saidthat Chandrababu Naidu might instruct his MPs toresign to counter the move of the YSR Congress. Itwas the YSR Congress which had first put a no-con-fidence motion against the Government. After that,the TDP followed suit, albeit under compulsion, andthe Congress and CPM also did the same.

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In Bihar, alliance partners of the BJP have startedbuilding pressure. Nitish Kumar’s JDU, Ram Vilas

Paswan’s LJP, and Upendra Kushwaha’s RLSP mightform an informal alliance to put pressure on the BJP

at the time of ticket distribution. Barring Kushwaha,the remaining two parties have already startedworking towards this goal, given the increasingproximity between Nitish and Paswan.

In fact, Nitish had started efforts towards thislast year when he had joined hands with the BJP forthe second time. He didn’t chose a leader eitherfrom Kushwaha’s party or Jitan Ram Manjhi’s party,rather he chose Paswan’s brother, Pashupati Paras,and made him a minister. Interestingly, Paras wasnot even an MLA at that time. Later, he was sent tothe Legislative Council by Nitish. The JDU chiefcontinued his strategy and managed to make a dentinto the Congress too by bringing Ashok Chaudharyand three MLCs into his party fold.

Earlier, Nitish had his eyes set only onMahadalits, for which he tried to keep Paswan outof the picture. But now, he and Paswan are pursuingDalit votes in toto. This is a fact that Nitish is themost popular face amongst the ultra-Dalit votebank. Nitish and Paswan are aware of their strengthand vote banks. Both are equally popular amongstthe forward vote bank of the State. Recently, Nitishhas taken Narendra Singh, a strong Thakur leader ofManjhi’s faction, into his party.

Since the BJP has almost finished the forwardleadership in the State and established backwardleadership, the forwards are said to be unhappy.This was evident in 2015 when the forwards hadvoted for the Congress and JDU despite the fact that

Nitish was with Lalu Yadav at that time. So, if Nitishand Paswan form an informal alliance, its politicalscope will be bright. However, the BJP will try tokeep the relationship with Nitish intact amidst allthe pressure. If Nitish parts ways on the issue ofseat-sharing, then the BJP will try for a triangularfight to avoid a 2015-like situation.

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On one hand, the Congress is ensuring that allits lawyer leaders stay in Parliament, and on

the other hand, the party is trying to keep themaway from the court, which is worrying some of itsleaders. Earlier, the Bar Council of India gave aproposal to stop the practice of advocates who areeither MPs or MLAs. When it became clear thatthe proposal will not bear fruit, then some condi-tions were added. It was said that the MPs whowould sign the proposal of impeachment of theChief Justice will not be able to practice.

Almost all big advocates of the Congress areRajya Sabha members, such as Kapil Sibal, AbhishekManu Singhvi, P Chidambaram, Vivek Tankha, andAnand Sharma. This is quite evident that all of themwill sign on the impeachment proposal for the CJI.And in that case, the condition of the Bar Councilwill apply to all of them and they will be barredfrom practice. This must be noted that they arefighting almost all cases of the Congress and otheranti-BJP parties. When they will be barred from

practicing, their cases will also weaken.On the other hand, all advocate leaders of the

BJP are ministers at the Centre and not in activepractice, such as Arun Jaitley and Ravi ShankarPrasad. If the proposal of the Bar Council is imple-mented, then the advocate MPs of the Congress willnot be able to practice till there is no decision on theimpeachment proposal.

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The ruling party of Delhi, the Aam Aadmi Party(AAP), has done many things that have never

happened in the parliamentary history of the coun-try. It has started many such initiatives, and thereport card of the L-G being presented in the DelhiAssembly is one of them. Recently, the AAPGovernment brought out the Outcome Budget andelaborated on the completed works of the lastBudget. When the AAP Government put forwardthe report card of the L-G, it elaborated on howmany works the L-G had stopped mid-way.

Its leaders say that when the Government has toshow its work before the Assembly, the record ofworks done by the L-G should also be presented. So,the AAP Government prepared a report card of theL-G and presented it before the Assembly. BothOpposition parties, the Congress and BJP, feel thatthis was done only to shift the focus from the failureof the AAP Government. Its motive can be ques-tioned, but this will surely start a new tradition.

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Donald Trump phoned RoseanneBarr to congratulate her afterthe relaunch of her self-titled

sitcom drew an estimated 18.4 millionviewers. The US President also wantedto thank the TV star for her support— both the actor and the character sheportrays are Trump backers. Speakingto ABC’s Good Morning America, Barrsaid the call on Wednesday night waspretty exciting. Barr said Trump con-gratulated her and talked about televi-sion and ratings. She said he washappy for her. “I’ve known him formany years and he’s done a lot of nicethings for me over the years,” she said.

Speaking at an official WhiteHouse event to tout his infrastructureplan on Thursday, Trump touted Barr’sratings. “Even look at Roseanne,” saidTrump. “I called her yesterday. Look ather ratings. Look at her ratings.”Trump told the audience that the show“was about us”. “The fake news hasn’tfigured it out yet,” he added.

The updated sitcom starringRoseanne Barr returned more thantwo decades after the original ended

its hit run. The hour-long debutepisode was watched by 10 per centmore viewers than saw the May 1997finale of ABC’s original Roseanne.

Given the explosion of platformsand series since then and comparedwith other successful sitcom reboots,that figure is impressive. NBC’s Will &Grace, for example, returned with itsoriginal 1998-2006 cast to a debutaudience of 10.1 million viewers.

Arnold Schwarzenegger hadheart surgery in Los Angeles onThursday, his representative

has confirmed. The former Californiagovernor and Terminator actor under-went surgery to replace a pulmonicvalve, a spokesman, Daniel Ketchell,said in a statement. Schwarzeneggeroriginally had the valve replaced in1997 to counter a congenital heartdefect. Ketchell said Thursday’s opera-tion was a planned procedure toreplace that same valve.

“That 1997 replacement valve wasnever meant to be permanent and hasoutlived its life expectancy, so he choseto replace it yesterday through a less-invasive catheter valve replacement,”Ketchell said. The spokesman claimedSchwarzenegger’s first words upon wak-ing from the operation were “I’m back”.

The celebrity news website TMZhad reported early on Friday thatSchwarzenegger had undergone“emergency open-heart surgery”,sparking a wave of news coverage, butKetchell said that although an open-heart surgery team had attended the

operation, they were only there as aprecaution. “They frequently are inthese circumstances, in case thecatheter procedure was unable to beperformed,” Ketchell said.“Schwarzenegger’s pulmonic valve was successfully replaced.”Schwarzenegger, 70, was 49 when hehad his first heart surgery. “Choosingto undergo open-heart surgery when I never felt sick was the hardest decision I’ve ever made,”Schwarzenegger said at the time.

The first Van Gogh painting togo under the hammer inFrance in more than two

decades has been unveiled. WomenMending Nets in the Dunes, whichthe Dutch artist painted early in hiscareer at Scheveningen near TheHague, is expected to go for around�5m (£4.4m/US$6m) when it is auc-tioned in June.

But with the art market boomingand prices for artists such as VincentVan Gogh rocketing, experts said itwas hard to predict exactly when thebidding would stop. The scene datesfrom the same period in 1882 when

Van Gogh painted View of the Sea atScheveningen, which was stolen bythe Italian Camorra organised crimesyndicate from the Van Gogh muse-um in Amsterdam in 2002 and .

The oil on paper, which belongs toa European collector, also graced thewalls of the Van Gogh museum forseveral years after being previously onshow in Montreal.

Bruno Jaubert, of auction houseArtcurial, said the work comes fromvery early in Van Gogh’s career, whenhe was painting working-class peoplein his homeland. “He had only startedpainting two years before,” he said.

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Astatue of a naked Donald Trumpis going on the auction block.

Julien’s Auction says the sculpture isthe last statue remaining that wasnot vandalized or destroyed whenit was displayed along with othersin New York, San Francisco, LosAngeles and Cleveland in theweeks before theRepublican was electedpresident. The auctionhouse estimates the stat-ue, which was createdby the West Coast anar-chist collective INDE-CLINE, will sell for $20,000 to$30,000. The auction will takeplace on May 2 at ManaContemporary in JerseyCity, New Jersey.

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Afleet of drones were dis-patched in San Francisco,

Los Angeles and New York todeliver pizzas as a promotion

for HBO’s Silicon Valley.The promotion,which ties into theplot of last Sunday’s

season premiere, sawthe drones deliver 714total pizzas in thethree cities on

Monday to Twitterusers who tweeted outa pizza emoji with the

hashtag “#sliceline,” thename of a fictional app

from the show. A videocaptured in San Francisco

shows one of the pizza deliver-ies being made to customerswaiting outside. The customizedpizza boxes bore Silicon Valley

show branding. The promo-tion was executed byFooji, a firm that special-

izes in promotional stuntsfor brands and TV shows.

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Aworld away from Iraq’sbattlegrounds, Basra’s

cat-lovers have found ahaven for their favoritepets. Veterinary studentAhmed Taher Maki has turned hishome in the southern city intowhat he believes is Iraq’s first cathotel. For as little as 5,000 Iraqidinars ($4.20) a night — or halfthat for long stays — the guests canenjoy beds, regular meals, health check-ups and a mini playground, all underthe cooling purr of an air conditioner.

Maki said he was hoping to encour-age more people to adopt cats in the cityand give them a place to leave their petswhen they are away on a trip. Takingcare of animals gives people a “mercifulheart,” he said. “The hotel is a noblething and unprecedented in the south ofIraq and Basra in particular.”

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AVirginia teenager agreed to surren-der his Snapchat handle,

@CarnivalCruise, in exchange for a$5,000 cruise for he and his family.Darian Lipscomb, 15, of Prospect, saidhe picked his Snapchat handle to show

his love of Carnival Cruises,which he has taken four times

previously with his family.“When I was 9 years old, I

went on a cruise and got reallyexcited and wanted to share itwith my friends,” Lipscomb told

the Richmond Times-Dispatch.Carnival officials decided they want-

ed the Snapchat handle for the company,so they made a plan that began withspreading posters around Prospect fea-turing a photo of the company’s “ChiefFun Officer,” retired NBA star ShaquilleO’Neal, with the message, “Hey Prospect,does anyone know Darian?” The compa-ny visited Lipscomb’s home Tuesday witha difficult-to-refuse offer: A free trip forthe teenager and his family on the com-pany’s new ship, the Carnival Horizon. “Ianswered the door, walked outside andsaw my name on a big truck. I was reallysurprised,” Lipscomb said. Lipscombagreed to trade his Snapchat handle forthe trip, which is valued at about $5,000.“We thought this would be a fun way toclaim our handle and reward a ‘superfan’at the same time,” Carnival spokes-woman Robyn Fink said.

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Even Father Jesus isn’t abovethe law of man. A

Mississippi city has denied aproposal for a church by a mannamed Father Jesus, saying hefailed to have a professionalengineer draw up the plans.Jesus said the church he’scalling “Saints of the MostHigh” wouldn’t be very big— just 12-feet by 24-feet (27sq. meters), and he’d beginwith just three members.The Sun Herald of Biloxireports that area residentsquestioned what Jesusstands for during a GulfportPlanning Commission meet-ing on Thursday. Jesus report-edly said he’s been diagnosedas paranoid schizophrenic, andchanged his name to FatherJesus after a revelation that heembodies the spirit of Jesus.Commissioners were moreconcerned about buildingcode compliance.

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Streaming content jug-gernaut Netflix is

seeking applicants forwhat many might con-sider a dream job —paid binge watchers.Netflix announced it is

seeking to fill “editori-al analyst” jobs thatinclude watching, rat-

ing and categorisingoriginal and importedprogramming.

The company saidit requires someone“passionate aboutmovies and TV with adeep knowledge of theentertainment indus-try” who can alsowork with “tight dead-lines”. The listings areseeking analysts fororiginal programmingas well as Spanish andJapanese movies andTV shows.

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Business schools make a bigdeal about mentorship. They‘assign’ mentors from indus-try to students, coach themon how to be ‘good’ mentees,

and explain the difference betweenbosses, mentors, and sponsors. A fewyears ago, I too went through thisordeal during a three-year Masters pro-gramme at the World EconomicForum. It was a pain because it was sounnecessary, so staged. At that time, Ihad already been fortunate to have hada few staunch supporters (which justmight be a better word to replace the B-school jargon) and I had not gone look-ing out for any of them.

When I had first arrived in Paris asa student on a meagre fellowship, I wasall but 21 years of age. ProfessorChristophe Jaffrelot — now known forsome of the finest academic researchon the Hindutva movement — hadoffered me a spot at Paris’ top schoolfor political sciences and he thereafterhad taken it upon himself to get me onto every opportunity that would helpme develop further. Around 17 yearslater, when he visits me in India, hestill sits me down with the best adviceand an occasional introduction to peo-ple within his networks.

It was Jaffrelot who had introducedme to Jerome Monod, 20 years theCEO of Suez and chief counsellor toPresident Jacques Chirac at that time.With a reputation of being politicallyastute and shrewd, Monod was betterknown as France’s ‘shadow President’.

Initially, I worked as an intern at athink tank founded by Monod, butsoon he had taken me under his wings,putting me on to projects at the Elysee.None of these projects would comeeasy. He would throw them at me aschallenges. For example, he would putme in competition with the officialspeech writer at the Elysee to write for

him a speech, with a warning to usboth that he would chose the best ofthe two. I was 23, enthusiastic, andcompletely unintimidated by the con-gregation of French Ministers and VIPsthat I would encounter at the Elyseesevery day as these were not names andfaces I had grown up learning about.He would chide me on my mannerismsof speaking, and take an interest inmeeting my friends and family. Iworked with him for three years, quit-ting because Jaffrelot decided that I wasfar too excited with the work I wasdoing with Monod and therefore terri-bly distracted from my PhD research.He then sent me off for the latter to theUS on research fellowships. As forMonod, until his death two years ago,he continued to send me reports, notes,and books to each of the subsequentseven countries I lived in.

There were some bad experiencestoo. A senior academic misused thetrust I had put in him. There was also an‘assigned’ mentor by the World

Economic Forum who was supportiveand indeed incredibly helpful, but onlyas long as his assignment lasted. Therewere some relationships I wish had last-ed longer — for example with thedeceased Arindam Sengupta, ChiefEditor of The Times of India, who hadgiven me the encouragement and chanceto regularly contribute with travel piecesand opinion editorials for over a decade.

Craving to return to India afterhaving lived abroad too long, I joinedthe top management of Jindal Steel andPower headquartered in New Delhi.Here, I found unwavering support fromthe owner Naveen Jindal, who I hadknown for some years as a friend, aswell as from CEO Ravi Uppal, who Ihad met upon my employment by thecompany. Much of the positive changesI was able to bring at this company ofabout 15,000 sluggish ‘yes men’ wasbecause of the solid support and trustfrom the two men at the top.

I am grateful to all these supportivemen, but I wonder where are thewomen? Indeed, I have spent most ofmy years in spaces dominated by menand I cherish the few instances when Ihave met with strong yet femininewomen who are self-assured enough tosupport others (men and women).These qualities are not necessarily ‘ideal’or need to be considered worthy by all,but these are the ones that I relate to themost, have thus worked to nurturewithin myself, and so I look out forthese in others. Pakistan’s formerMinister of Foreign Affairs, HinaRabbani Khar; Saudi Arabia’s televisionstar, Muna Abu Sulaiman; the formerDanish Minister of Environment, IdaAuken are such women I know and Igreatly admire them. They have raisedchildren (Hina gave birth tohers during her tenure asan elected politician!), areuncompromisingly their

natural self no matter what the context,and are sharp as nails in what they do.

In the past, there have been remark-able Indian women who have given oth-ers — men and women — strength. Andwe would expect economic growth to gohand in hand with some sort of a move-ment where greater numbers of confi-dent women pave the way for others tomarch ahead. But in India, between2004 and 2011, when the Indian econo-my grew at a healthy average of about 7per cent, there was a devastating declinein female participation in the country’slabour force from over 35 per cent to 25per cent. The reasons for this are varied,and include the lack of role models forwomen at the workplace.

One of my earliest published writ-ings was a piece I wrote when I was 19,picked by Shobori Ganguli, who laterwent on to be Editor the Sunday edi-tion of The Pioneer newspaper.Steadfastly supportive towards me foralmost 20 years, I have watched herbattle personal challenges with grit andgrace, emerging each time a winnerwhile keeping her cool and bringingout the best in others around her. She isthe kind of woman I would like to be.

More recently, I shared a panel withwriter Shobhaa De, whose work fewfrom my generation would have missedreading. When I met her on stage, I wasmore in awe of her than I had been ofthe French President at the Elysee. Iwas in admiration of De because of hertalent and her humility; the depth inher words yet her light-hearted andunassuming demeanour; her courage tospeak her mind and heart as well asgenerosity to lend a hand in support toothers. May this tribe flourish.

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Apple founder Steve Woznaik recently comment-ed that Indians, though studious, lack in creativ-ity. A generalization at best, this comment invit-

ed a debate on the creativity quotient of the Indianpeople. But there is need for a serious introspection.What prompted Woznaik to give this blanket condem-nation of the Indian brain has many sides and it maybe related to the attitude of a white man. But thatapart, there is a need to prove him wrong, as there is akernel of truth in the assertion. Our problem may beattributed to an inferiority complex due to a culturalconditioning arising out of our long subjugation. Infact, we have still not come out of the mindset that wewere slaves and subservient to the superior west. It isthis mindset that has to be de-conditioned first. Ofcourse, it will require a lot of efforts, mental and supra-mental, to disprove this generalization but that is acompulsion, not an option. Moreover, what we need tounderstand is that why the same Indians make wavesin the Silicon Valley, NASA and even the top universi-ties of the world. With due apologies to Shakespearethe fault dear friends is not in our genes but in our his-tory that we are underlings. Original thinking is dis-couraged in our country and dissent is treason. Unlessdissent is encouraged, creating new knowledge will notbe easy. We need to understand that change is thegreatest antidote to status quo and to welcome changewe need to think differently. Our fancy for anythingforeign needs to change and we must learn to applyour thought process critically. There is a faulty assump-tion that anything western is superior. Whether it is aproduct, or an idea or a process and it is this assump-tion that has raised our gullibility. The answer to Mr.Woznaik can best come from the Indian universitieswhich must be encouraged to generate thoughts andideas. It is rather strange that the subcontinent thatboasted of the world’s leading centers of learning inNalanda and Takhshashila is now struggling to find aplace in the top universities. While many may contestthe proclaimed excellence of our ancient centers ofhigher learning, they have to understand that the his-torical accounts of those universities were all given bynon Indians. Certainly, when those ratings try to showus the place with regards to higher education, weshould also try to see through the game because rat-ings are business too. And India is still seen as a hugemarket. That is, though, one side of the story. But weneed to think clearly. Just one example- that our cen-ters of higher learning do not merit a place in top glob-al universities is an assertion. But those graduatingfrom these very centers are dons of the universitieswhich ornament the top bracket. Is not it a paradox?We need to see the unseen and hear the unheard, toread between the lines. These are not mere exaggera-tions. It is a fact that all is not as bad as it made out tobe. We too have a legacy we can be reasonably proudof. It is time to assess our strengths and weaknessesand move ahead in the right direction with the rightpeople in the right places. It is this that is important.Our craving for brand West is rather obsessive. Wemust get rid of this brand-o-mania.

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Acommon view about The Gita is thatit carries the gist of all the traditionsin India. So, if one reads it, theywould have an idea about all theimportant Hindu texts. This view

finds support in the popular saying about TheGita that “when all the Indian schools ofthought in India condensed and synthesised,they become The Gita, the encyclopedia of allthe Indian traditions”. The Gita, the eternal ser-mon of Lord Krishna, is of unique value fromthe point of view of its contents. It forms a har-monious synthesis of all the Indian schools ofthought. The vedic rituals (Karma-Kanda) anddogmatic formalities make a unitive appeal tothe masses to become samadhavmi or toleranttowards all the other prevailing religious beliefs.The Gita is essentially a book about Krishnadharma and the philosophical doctrines ofVaishnavism. It also covers other beliefs andconcepts like casteism, which was opposed bysome religious thinkers in India.

Puranic influence on The Gita can be tracedback to the changes in the personality of LordKrishna. Krishna is on similar terms sd that ofthe Bhagavatapurana. He is the Param Purushaand Brahma Himself, the source of all thethings in the Universe. When the PuranicKrishna’s female power Radha takes charge ofnature or Prakriti, endowed with Gunas, it iscalled His lower Power which is set forth byHim in the creation of Gods and men. He iscalled both the Father and Mother of all.

Similarly, the Bhaktivada of the Puranas istaken over by The Gita in its Bhaktiyoga whichlays emphasis over one’s loyalty and loving ado-ration towards Krishna. Thus, after a brief note,the following study would delineate the variousIndian traditions which are amalgamated intoone tradition called Krishna-Dharma orKrishna’s The Gita and

to obtain the desired objective of the study. Thegita will be analysed on the basis of its referenceto the authoritative works or Persons like Vedasand Manu, Janak etc. To start with its referencesto the spiritualism in the Vedas in Ibid. XIII.4;XV.18; XVIII.23, it be stated that these areadhered so religiously in The Gita that even theSamaveda is called the direct vibhuti of Krishnahimself. Even the three upanishadas — Isha,Katha and Mundaka — are quoted verbatim.Besides, the vedic ideals are also referred to inThe Gita like means of self purifications; that ofcharity; penances that of sacrifice[Yajna]. Om,as a symbol of the whole universe; analogy ofthe tree as a universe are all included in the TheGita as forming its main doctrines. On the basisof the vedic doctrines of Agnihotra in terms ofits symbolic meanings as mentioned in The GitaN.27, one can perform symbolic Yajna by offer-ing objects of one’s sense organs in the Yajnagniof the control of mind. In the name of Nivritti,The Gita seems to follow the Jain-ideal.Similarly, The Gita’s reference to NaishakarmyaSiddhi which implies super perfection alsosounds akin to the Buddhist ideal ofNekkhamma which is suggestive of the sameimplication that of “laying suppression of pas-sion”. Besides, in The Gita’s chapters 2,5, and 6,references are made to the practicing of equa-nimity, total detachment and selflessness asgolden means of leading a better life. It also hasBuddhist ideals in it, like adaptation ofBuddhist terms Nirvana as suggestive of theBrahma bhuta state. Moreover, The Gita’s con-cepts of Tapa, also seems based on the Bauddhaview about penances. Besides TheGita’s notion of threefold Tapa —that of body mind and speech—also carries Buddhistinfluence. Next, the doc-trines of the Saamkhya

and Vedanta philosophies find ample place inthe Jnanayoga of the The Gita’s chapters 1V to Xwhich combines in itself views of both thesephilosophies. However, the Saamkhya tenets arelocated in The Gita when it called Yoga ofSaamkhya which implores upon to the people tofollow the path of Sanyasa of action for attain-ing redemption (Moksha) of the world and one’saction; and of wandering (bhramana) as a men-dicant for searching about God as a forms ormodes of worship. The Gita also seems to bearthe influence of the Saamkhyas when it statesthat “discharge all the obligatory secular func-tion as true worship of God”. Finally, when oneattempts to delineate Christian beliefs as amal-gamated in The Gita, one has to admit that thefinal recension of The Gita belongs to 3rdCentury AD References to Christiandoctrines/ideals can be traced in many of itsstanzas. It proves that The Gita not only com-prises synthesis of all Indian religions, but alsothat their existed a common forum of Orientalsfor sharing the doctrines, maxims, and ideals aswell as that the common doctrines prevailed inboth the religions proving the spirit of coher-ence and brotherhood which existed amongpeople although living far apart.

Many similar sentiments can be gatheredfrom The Gita and The Bible. To conclude, TheGita seems to be a composite Gospel wherein var-ied Indian religious traditions have been wilfullyamalgamated with an objective to present TheGita Dharma as a synthesis of all the religioustraditions in a reconciled manner. So, it be betterknown as an eclectic contribution of all the then-

existing different philosophical thoughts(Vedic , Vedanta, Yoga, Samkhya

Buddhist and Christian) in India.They all agree on one point that

the souls go the Heaven or Hellaccording to the Acts(Karmas)

of the Jivas.

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Yes, we do get unhappy forreasons which have no basiswhatsoever. I have taken up

some common reasons here whypeople get sad. I will start withattachment. We get attached tosomeone and begin fearing for thatperson. What will happen if some-thing happens to that person? Sucha person could be one’s husband orwife or son or daughter, etc. Canany person give the ultimate protec-tion like God can give, who hasdeclared in the Geeta that He willhelp in getting what one does nothave and provide security of whatone has? (9.22) Can we ourselveshonestly give such an assurance toanyone? No, we cannot, therefore, itis foolish to become attached to anyhuman being and become sad byfearing for him or her.

Next common cause of sorrowis fear of some disease. Do diseaseshappen just like that, especiallymajor or terminal diseases? No,they don’t; there is a buildup forthat or it is a punishment forsomething sinful done in the past.If someone’s liver is damaged dueto drinking, is he justified in beingdepressed about it? Should he notfeel foolish for having brought thismisfortune upon the self? Same istrue of a sinful activity done earli-er. Saints opine that one should

treat it as good riddance of some-thing hanging over one’s head.Why be sad about it?

Another common cause is fearof death. Has anyone ever escapeddeath? Then, how are we to avoid it?Our scriptures inform us that deathis preordained due to activities inour past life, ie its timing. Why getsad about something as inevitable asdeath, especially for a soul, whichnever dies; the material body does.Same is true of grief or likely griefdue to death of near and dear one.Human beings have a strong senseof survival; the feeling of grief doesnot last very long; one accepts.

Difficult circumstances bringdejection in their wake.Circumstances are also like diseasesbrought upon the self by the selfonly. There is no other cause.Should we not seek relief from onewho can forgive us for our past mis-

deeds? Why not go into sincerepraying mood and seek relief.Surprisingly, this works; God is verymerciful. There is conflict of inter-est between near and dear ones.For example, parents and theirson do not agree upon the choiceof profession. Both sides aredetermined to have their way.This causes unpleasantness andalso unhappiness, if it lasts long.What should one do? Pray to Godfor guidance, He, being omni-scient, knows what is good for us.Why be sad for this reason?

There is monetary loss as inbusiness or drain of resources dueto serious illness of a family mem-ber. According to the karmaphalaprinciple this was unavoidable,caused by our past bad activities.One needs to rationalize and goon; life does not stop for any rea-son. Neither good times stay nor

do bad ones. A person linked withGod realizes this and does not getsad readily or for long.

Overstress for long periods alsocauses dejection. One needs to getto the root of the problem and seeto it that stress is brought to a toler-able level within a reasonable peri-od. Till then, it must be tolerated.

A terminal disease doescause depression in many cases.How does one get over it? Howdid saints and great personali-ties overcome this problem?They accepted it and went onwith their lives. They neverbartered away their peace ofmind for inevitable problemswith the material body, ie dis-ease, old age and death. Does itsound impractical? No, it is notif one is linked with God and isbeing guided by Him. Godmakes us accept this fact in aslow and sure way if we have agood bond with Him. All theseand the fear of future can be avoid-ed if one is linked with God andenjoys. The real remedy for thiskind of unhappiness is seekinganswers from others but essentiallyfrom God, who knows. Don’t getsadness for any reason, seek helpfrom God urgently and sincerely.

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Worried father of a married girlsought my advice on theprospects of her marital stability.

A pundit had hinted turbulence in mar-riage a few years down the line. He hadadvised some puja to salvage the situation.Not sure about the probable outcome ofbelief-driven puja, the old man wished tocountercheck. He approached me with aset of questions: “Is my daughter’s maritalseparation fated? If so, is there any scopeto save it? Can heavenly forces beappeased by conducting puja to changethe course of anybody’s destiny?”

Let me make it clear that destiny isnot something like some independentforce that may strike on our lives unre-strained. In fact, it is a related fallout ofhow we approach life and conduct our-selves. Of course, it is set in motion bykarmic imprints carried over from thepast, which defines our unique character.But at the same time, we enjoy the scopeto modify it through awareness and con-scious efforts. Evidently, if our conduct isreasoned, we become due for a smoothrun of life. Well, if the couple are in love,conscious about caring for each other’ssensibilities and concerns, there remainsno scope for separation. But if weunmindfully submit to our inherent

habits and attitudes, its character willdefine our fate. So, marital separationwill not simply happen because it wouldbe so scripted in one’s destiny. What,therefore, is needed is to live consciously,watch out individual specific karmic bag-gage, and make necessary amendsthrough fresh educative inputs.

Remember, every human being isborn unique, each reflecting varying men-tal orientation — desire trends, likes anddislikes, prejudices and passions, virtuesand attributes, habits and attitudes. So,there is nothing unusual if the couple hap-pen to carry varying mental orientation,even conflicting trends. Here comes therole of interpersonal relationship skill,which shows us the way to be accom-modative, overriding each other’s limita-tions. The irony, however, is that invari-ably we live more in a demanding mode,expecting from the partner to remain trueto one’s expectation. And if per chancethat doesn’t come about, it becomes diffi-cult for the egotistical mind to digest.And then, one gets fixated to few nega-tives in the partner, often ignoring manypositives, becomes overcritical, and theproblem begins.

But remember, human mind isempowered to self-reflect, identify one’s

potentials and vulnerabilities, filter theundesirables, and make right choices.Caught up in our usual mills of life, wedon’t remain live about exercising thisoption, and with obvious consequences.Often, our egotistical mind doesn’t let usacknowledge our own fault-lines either.Here comes the role of Astrology, whichcan dispassionately show your mirrorimage for necessary correction.

Let us now look at astrological point-ers of the partners to figure out theirinherent mind-trends, vital to marital har-mony and stability. The man’s lagna andMoon, both occupying fixed signs, speakof a stubborn character. Saturn being thelord of lagna, implies that he doesn’texpress his emotions as would be usuallyexpected by a female, and so could bemisconstrued as being devoid of love.Moon locks horns with Uranus, Jupiter,and Saturn. In the first place, it speaks ofhis mercurial temperament, and uncon-ventionality of approach. Second, hewould be emotionally over sensitive, whomay get over exercised even on trivialissue, over which he may unnecessarilykeep mulling for long. Third, he would behaving a negative and a suspicious mind-set carrying nagging tendency, and habit-ually overcritical of others. Mars conjunctMercury makes him restless. The positives

too are immense that balance out his neg-atives. Jupiter conjunct Saturn, is beauti-fully aligned to the Sun, Mercury, andMars. That speaks of a well-meaning per-son driven by a value system. He shouldbe clear headed, having clarity in visionand thought. Moon beautifully aligned toNeptune speaks of a refined demeanor.The girl too, seems to be a refined personas Moon is beautifully aligned to Neptune.But her ego level seems to be quite high,given the fact that Mars is placed oppositeJupiter, which makes her stuck to self-assumed dos and don’ts. Anything hap-pening to the contrary, it becomes diffi-cult for her to digest. Saturn conjunctKetu points to her escapist tendency. Ifshe addresses these infirmities, therewould be no scope for separation. Onlysuch remedial measures would work, ascould change one’s thought process, whichthe person alone could do. It is difficultto digest that any third person conductingsome belief-driven puja can encroachupon other’s mind-space.

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