19

Friday
Snap POLL
April
2019 Q. Will you buy a foldable YESTERDAY’S POLL RESULT:
phone this year? Are you satisfied with the
Election Commission’s
Yes No Can’t say actions against motormouth
`3.00 Ÿ Pages 14
AHMEDABAD Go to our Twitter handle political leaders?
www.dnaindia.com @dna, look for #DNAPoll
epaper.dnaindia.com and vote. Yes  42%
twitter.com/dna No 52%
facebook.com/dnaindia Can’t say 4%

24°C - 38°C AQI 117 BSE Sensex 39,140.28 135.36 NSE nifty 11,752.80 34.35 R.N.I. No. : GUJENG/2007/22424

hitches in phase two of general elections:

sporadic violence, evm glitches, names missing from rolls On poll day, Sam
Ink leaves stains in WB, J&K
DNA Correspondent correspondent@dnaindia.net
casts EVM doubt
Technocrat-turned-politico also defends NYAY
DNA Correspondent
correspondent@dnaindia.net
Kolkata/Mumbai: Sporadic violence flared in West
Bengal and the insurgency-wracked Jammu and Ahmedabad: Doyen of the
Kashmir as millions across swathes of India cast bal- national telecom revolution,
lots on Thursday in the second phase of the mam- Sam Pitroda, has said that he
moth, staggered general election, which saw some is not satisfied with electron-
EVMs malfunction. ic voting machines (EVMs) in
Road blockades, bombings and police firing marred the country. He said the de-
polling at a few places in Bengal’s Darjeeling, Jalpaig- vices needed to be carefully
uri and Raiganj, with 76 per cent overall voter turnout. studied to find out the flaws.
Raiganj reported the maximum violence, from its “As an engineer, as a tech- ‘need to study it’
Chopra and Islampur areas. Voters of Chopra nical expert, I am not satis- I am not satisfied with
blocked a national highway to protest absence of fied. I cannot pinpoint the EVM. I have not been able
central forces. Police fired in the air and burst tear casue because I don’t have to pinpoint it because I
gas shells to control a one. If we get it for one year, do not have an EVM. If
mob, who threw we can study. One needs to
stones at them. MP: Chor-chowkidar understand the design, soft-
someone gives me an
EVM to study for a year,
Bombs were also ware and other things. But
hurled by miscre- campaign banned we can definitely say that
then I can say something.
—Sam Pitroda
ants, an EC official in Bhopal: The EC Thurs- something is wrong. What it
the district said. day banned the Madhya is, that we don’t know [Kuch
“We have no confi- Pradesh Congress Com- toh gadbad hai, kya hai not be a difficulty as the coun-
dence in state police mittee’s audio and video hamein nahin pata],” said try’s economy was growing at
and want central poll campaign which Pitroda while replying to a 8 per cent annually.
forces here,” said a uses the phrase ‘chowk- Voters, from the 11 states and the Union Territory of Puducherry that went to the polls in the second phase of question during a Congress “The money will go into
voter of Hemtabad idar chor hai’ following the world’s biggest election, show their ink-marked fingers after casting the ballot —AFP party’s media briefing here. economy, will create jobs in
(SC) assembly seg- objections from BJP.  P4 Opposition parties had re- rural areas,” he said.
ment. Later, voters
were escorted by se-
poll metric cently demanded counting of
at least 50 per cent of Voter
He further said that Con-
gress’s scheme, which prom-
curity personnel to polling stations, he said. Verifiable Paper Audit Trail ises a guaranteed income of
Special Police Observer Vivek Dubey, though, de- across country clashes (VVPAT) slips during the Lok Rs 72,000 a year for poor and
scribed the voting as “more or less peaceful”. of 90 crore Overall voter n Security forces fire shotgun Sabha elections, claiming marginal farmers, will help
I
CPI(M) candidate from Raiganj, Mohammad voters were turnout in 95 pellets and live bullets on protest- that EVM’s reliability was the economy just as the Na-
Salim, alleged: “I got to know of rigging in a booth 15.7 II eligible in
67.84% constituencies ers in Srinagar, injuring three doubtful. The Supreme Court tional Rural Employment
at Islampur. After I reached the polling station,
some people attacked my car. I believe the TMC is
cr phase II;
phase I had
across 11 states granted five per cent, in place
of the current one per cent.
Guarantee Scheme did.
On Prime Minister Naren-
and one UT on n Police in Bengal fire tear gas and
behind this.” over 14 cr Thursday baton-charge people in Darjeeling On the feasibility of the dra Modi’s barb that the Con-
In Jammu and Kashmir, where separatists have protesting as they had allegedly NYAY scheme announced by gress was “speaking the lan-
called an election boycott, security forces outnum- Maharashtra been prevented from voting the Congress in its manifesto, guage of Pakistan” over sur-
bered voters in Srinagar and Udhampur, the two seats he said it was framed after gical strikes carried out by
up for voting on Thursday. Srinagar recorded 15 per n Glitches: 140 ballot units, 91 n Woman poll worker killed by consulting experts from Indian forces on Pakistan,
cent turnout, breaking the single-digit jinx. . Au- control units, 195 VVPATs replaced suspected Maoist rebels in the across the world, and makes Pitroda said, “Whatever you
thorities snapped mobile internet services and set up 61.76% eastern state of Odisha hours economic sense. say, the Prime Pinister and
barricades to thwart attacks. Groups of youths still n Nanded records highest turnout at before polling “Time has come for our Amit Shah tag you as anti-
hurled stones at them. Police fired teargas in Srina- 60.88%, followed closely by Hingoli country to think about 50 mil- national. (That) the Congress
gar to disperse them. n Chhattisgarh security forces lion poorest families. It is our party at the right time cut
Several Kashmiri Pandits demanded a probe by the voter turnout across n 4 arrested in Osmanabad for al- raid Maoist jungle camp, kill two moral responsibility to uplift Pakistan into two pieces (in
Election Commission when they found their names state’s 10 constituencies legedly uploading videos from polling insurgents over April 9 attack on them,” he said, adding that for 1971) should tell you enough,”
were missing from the rolls at special polling stations on Thursday centres on social media. election convoy that left 5 dead a three trillion-dollar econo- he added. —With inputs from PTI
set up for Srinagar constituency in Jammu. Turn to P4 my, funding the scheme should Related report, P3

‘We’ve sold wives’ jewels to raise money’ 14 shot dead in Pak by terrorists
New Delhi: Some loaders
have pledged ornaments of
their wives, some engineers
Sunil Kumar, a driver who
has also put in 24 years, said it
was becoming difficult to man-
disguised as paramilitary officers
have sold vehicles and many age daily requirements, add- Islamabad/Karachi: Uni- Balochistan Home Minis-
have defaulted on their ing that many of his colleagues dentified gunmen donning the massacre ter Zia Langove told the me-
monthly payments. They are have pledged their wives’ orna- uniforms of paramilitary dia that the attackers used
The gunmen stopped five
among the 22,000-odd employ- ments to raise money. With soldiers massacred at least 14 the uniforms to make the
to six buses in Balochistan
ees of the now wingless Jet prayers on their lips for passengers on Thursday, in- halting of the bus look like a
and checked passengers’
Airways. funds to restart the air- cluding Pakistan Navy per- ‘routine check’. “One navy
ID cards. They pulled out
As hundreds of employees, line, many employees sonnel, after forcing them to and one coast guard person-
16 people and shot them.
highly-skilled as well as semi-
skilled, assembled for a “silent
jet
are optimistic about
turning around things
disembark from buses on a
highway in Balochistan.
Two escaped, while a navy
nel were among those killed,”
Langove said.
appeal” in the national capital crisis provided enough sup- Around 15 to 20 gunmen
& a coast guard personnel
Prime Minister Imran
are among the dead.
on Thursday afternoon, hope port is coming. stopped five to six buses trav- Khan has strongly condemned
rEUTERS

‘human shield’ Dar
on poll duty in J&K
Farooq Ahmad Dar has left be-
hind his bitter past and is per-
forming ancillary medical du-
ties during polling in the Srina-
was in the air despite an un-
certain tomorrow.
From being clueless on how
to find money for their chil-
dren’s school and college fees,
to paying rent for their accom-
modations, staff are looking
for answers and for most, the
answers lie in immediate
funding from lenders.
“I can’t believe that I don’t
About Thursday’s gath-
ering at Jantar Mantar, sen-
ior pilot Rohit Chaudhary
A Jet employee being consoled during a protest in Delhi on Thursday said the employees’ gather-
ing is not a protest but a “si-
have work today... Hope the airport here, has stories of lent appeal” for reviving the
airline flies again,” Chan- many of his colleagues strug- airline. —PTI
drasekar Mandal, who has gling to cough up money to
served the airline for 24 meet their expenses, includ- inside
years, said. Mandal, who is a ing for college admission of Rescue fares for stranded fliers P14
supervisor of loaders at the their wards.
elling between Karachi and
Gwadar on the Makran
Coastal Highway in Balo-
chistan’s Ormara area. After
checking the identity cards
of some three dozen passen-
gers, they offloaded about 16
people and shot them dead.
Fourteen died, but two man-
aged to escape. The deceased
have not yet been identified.
The motive behind the kill-
ings is yet to be ascertained
and no group has claimed
responsibility.
Balochistan Inspector
General of Police Mohsin
Hassan Butt said the uniden-
tified gunmen were wearing
uniforms of the paramilitary
Frontier Corps.
the killings and sought a re-
port on the incident.
Balochistan, which bor-
ders Afghanistan and Iran, is
Pakistan’s largest and poor-
est province, rife with ethnic,
sectarian and separatist in-
surgencies. In the past, mi-
nority Shia Muslims and
ethnic workers have been
targeted in such attacks.—PTI

While RaGa slams Anil, Mukesh backs Cong’s Deora Father of Malegaon
gar parliamentary seat.  P4

Pragya Thakur
recalls torture
The Malegaon blast accused
broke down while recalling the
‘torture’ she faced in custody.
“When they used to hit me with
a belt, the entire nervous system
would go blank,” she said. P4
Vivek happy with EC
response to Pm biopic
Actor Vivek Oberoi expresses
happiness at response of EC
officials who watched biopic on
Prime Minister Narendra Modi
and says he hopes the film
will be screened soon. P4
beard effect malad bizman is often roped in to campaign for the BJP
Mumbai: Even as the Con-
gress keeps attacking indus-
trialist Anil Ambani over his
alleged connection to the Ra-
fale Jet deal, brother Mukesh
Ambani put his weight be-
hind a Congress candidate.
The industrialist endorsed
the candidature of Milind
Deora from the Mumbai
South Lok Sabha constitu-
ency on Thursday.
“Milind is the man for
South Mumbai,” the Reliance
Industries Limited chairman
says in a video shared by for-
victim moves court
Milind is the man for South
Mumbai. Having represented
it for 10 years, He has in-depth
knowledge of the social, economic and
cultural ecosystem
Mukesh Ambani, Industrialist
mer Union minister Deora on
Twitter. “Having represented
South Bombay for 10 years, I
believe Milind has in-depth
knowledge of social, economic
and cultural ecosystem of the
south Bombay constituency.”
Meanwhile in Vanthli, Gu-
jarat, Congress president Ra-
hul Gandhi raised Anil’s al-
leged closeness to the ruling
party at a public rally when
trying to soothe debt-ridden
farmers. “The Modi govern-
ment was ready to waive
loans of rich industrialists
but not those of farmers,” he
said on Thursday, “We will
not allow formation of two
Indias. If Ambani gets jus-
tice, farmers should also get
justice.”
The Gandhi scion holds
that Prime Minister Naren-
dra Modi favoured the young-
er Ambani brother Anil by
getting him an offset deal
from Rafale jet maker, Das-
sault. “The Prime Minister
took out Rs 30,000 crore from
Indian Air Force and put it
into the pocket of Anil Am-
bani,” Rahul has repeatedly
said.
Deora said he was “hum-
bled” by the support from
Ambani, as well as Uday Ko-
tak, Asia’s richest banker.
Kotak too released video
statement in support of De-
ora. “I’m equally proud that
I’m being endorsed by paan-
walas, small traders,” Deora
said. —Agencies 
Home Ministry
halts trade with
Mumbai/New Delhi: A
Malegaon blast victim’s father
and a political activist Thurs-
day moved the special NIA
court and the Election Com-
mission respectively seeking
barring of prime accused Sad-
hvi Pragya Singh Thakur
from contesting the Lok Sabha
polls, a day after the BJP field-
ed her from Bhopal.
The application before the
National Investigation Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur has
Agency(NIA) court in Mum- been fielded from Bhopal by BJP
bai was filed by Nisar Sayeed,
who lost his son in the blast the applicant said.
in 2008. Six people were killed and

Less demand for ‘Mumbai’s Modi’ this election

Dhaval Kulkarni
dhaval.kulkarni@dnaindia.net
Mumbai: Vikas Mahante —
‘Mumbai’s Modi’ — is short
of work this poll season. The
businessman from Vasai be-
gan growing a beard in 2013
to “change his personality”
and people remarked on his
resemblance to Prime Minis-
ter Narendra Modi. Even the
media noticed the similarity
when he attended a celebrat-
ed ‘Rangpanchami’ function.
The next year, the owner
of a packaging unit was on
the road campaigning for the
BJP and Shiv Sena and even
joined the saffron party. Like
the Prime Minister, Mahante
belongs to a backward com-
munity, traces his roots to
Gujarat, and was part of the
Rashtriya Swayamsewak
Sangh (RSS).
“The response is im-
mense,” says the 57-year-old.
“There are shouts of ‘Modi,
Modi’ when I enter. Bounc-
ers and BJP workers have to
form a protective ring
around me. BJP activists are
energised when I enter the
venue; voters are also sur-
prised. I am sure this con-
verts into votes.”
However, five years later,
the demand for the Malad
resident has declined. In 2014,
he shook hands, patted chil-
dren, took selfies and waved
at 22 rallies; this year, he has
participated in only five so
far — in Nashik, Dhule and
north Mumbai.
He attributes this drop to
the proliferation of social
media on which videos of
In 2014, Vikas Mahante attended 22 rallies, while this year, he has been BJP’s star performer circu-
present in only five. He says this is due to proliferation of social media late. Turn to P4
Pak across LoC
New Delhi: All trade across
the Line of Control (LoC) in
Kashmir with Pakistan has
been suspended from Friday
after probe agencies found the
route was being “misused” by
elements from the neighbour-
ing country to smuggle illegal
weapons, drugs and fake cur-
rency, a government order
said Thursday.
The Union Home Ministry
said a stricter regulatory and
enforcement mechanism is
being worked and the issue of
the reopening the trade
routes will be revisited once
they are implemented.
 Report, P14
Special judge V S Padalkar
sought replies from both the
NIA and Thakur and posted
the matter for Monday.
The applicant pleaded that
Thakur, who is out on bail, be
asked to attend court pro-
ceedings in Mumbai and be
barred from contesting the
election as the trial is in pro-
gress. Thakur has spent nine
years in jail and has been out
on bail since 2017 on health
grounds.
If Thakur was “healthy
enough to fight elections in
the crippling summer heat,
then she has misled the
court,” Sayeed alleged.
A petition seeking cancel-
lation of her bail is pending
before the Supreme Court,
over 100 injured in a bomb
blast at Malegaon, a commu-
nally-sensitive textile town in
north Maharashtra, on Sep-
tember 29, 2008.
The Maharashtra Anti-
Terrorism Squad(ATS) ar-
rested Thakur and others in
the case, alleging they were
part of a Hindu extremist
group which carried out the
blast. The NIA later gave
Thakur a clean chit, but the
court did not discharge her.
It dropped charges against
her under the stringent Ma-
harashtra Control of Organ-
ised Crime Act, but she is still
facing trial under the Unlaw-
ful Activities (Prevention)
Act and Indian Penal Code
sections. —PTI
  02
daily news & analysis I Ahmedabad I Friday, April 19, 2019
‘Sardar statue not RaGa wants NYAY moneyCong
built to spite Nehru’
Statue of Unity is to pay tribute to Vallabhbhai Patel for
his efforts to unite the country, says PM Narendra Modi
DNA Correspondent
Correspondent@dnaindia.net
Prime Minister Narendra
Modi claimed on Thursday
that his government built the
statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai
Patel to give him his due, and
not to reduce the stature of
country’s first prime minis-
ter Jawaharlal Nehru. Modi
made the comment while ad-
dressing a public meeting in
Amreli on Thursday morn-
ing.
“The country owes Sardar
Patel. The Britishers wanted
to leave the country divided,
but Gujarat’s own son Sardar
ensured the country’s unity.
Shouldn’t the coming genera-
tions be inspired by Sardar
Patel? This is why I built the
statue,” the BJP’s star cam-
paigner said in the Patidar-
dominated district in Sau-
rashtra.
“Building the world’s tall-
est statue of Sardar Patel
was a matter of faith for me.
I did not build it to reduce
Pandit Nehru’s size. Sardar
Patel’s stature is beyond
such things,” he said further.
Modi said he was happy
that 10-12 thousand people
were visiting the Statue of
Unity every day, but added
that no Congress leader had
visited the statue.
Built at a cost of Rs2,989
crore near Sardar Sarovar
Dam, the 182-metre tall Stat-
ue of Unity was dedicated by
Modi on October 31, the birth
anniversary of Sardar Patel.
Without naming him, the
PM said that leader of Oppo-
sition and Congress’s Amreli
Lok Sabha candidate Paresh
Dhanani had insulted Sardar
by saying that the Statue of
Unity was made of scrap, and
appealed people not to vote
for him.
PM Modi said that the
Farmer denies landing to Hardik’s copter
Ahmedabad: Congress lead-
er Hardik Patel had to cancel
his helicopter ride to
Lunawada in Mahisagar dis-
trict of Gujarat on Thursday
at the last moment after the
farmer on whose field the
chopper was to land did not
give his nod for its use as a
helipad, an official said.
Hardik Patel had to later
travel by road to Lunawada,
around 100km from
Ahmedabad, to address an
election rally.
The 25-year-old, who led
the Patidar reservation stir
in Gujarat since 2015 and
joined the Congress last
tenders & Notices
ah edabad
from PM’s pals
alleges Modi
splitting India in two
Prime Minister Modi receive a gift of a model cut-out of the Parliament
House during his rally in Amreli—Photo Byline
Kashmir issue
Targeting the “Weren’t you all angry at that time? But, do you
Congress,PM think the Congress has improved now? Can we
Modi sought to trust the Congress? And what Modi did after the
know what did Uri attack? You must be aware how we taught a
the grand old lesson to Pakistan through the surgical strike.”
party do after the
2008 Mumbai “Am I responsible for the present situation in
terror attack Kashmir? Just because of the policies of Con-
when it was in gress, we could not solve the Kashmir issue even
power. after 70 years”
Congress, which was re-
duced to its lowest ever tally
of 44 in 2014 elections, was
contesting in the lowest ever
number of seats in the ongo-
ing polls, but was still dream-
ing of coming to power.
In his nearly 55-minute
speech, the PM spoke about
water shortage in Amreli
and Saurashtra, and accused
Congress governments of
delaying completion of Sard-
ar Sarovar project.
“If Sardar Sarovar project
was completed 40 years ago,
Gujarat’s situation would
have been very different. The
money spent on water every
year could have been used for
building better schools, hos-
pitals, and roads. The Con-
Clueless
Farmer Vinay Patel
claimed permission for
the helicopter’s landing
was sought from district
authorities here by a local
Congress leader without
his knowledge.
month, has emerged as a star
campaigner for the opposi-
tion party, criss-crossing the
state in a helicopter to ad-
dress poll rallies.
His helicopter ride to
Lunawada to address an elec-
tion rally for Congress’s
gress did the sin of creating
hurdles in the way of Sardar
Sarovar project. People who
kept Gujarat thirsty cannot
be forgiven,” he said, while
reminding the audience that
he had approved increase in
the dam’s height 17 days after
taking charge as PM.
The PM also said that the
5 acre land-holding cap to be
eligible for relief of Rs6,000
a year would be removed
when his government re-
turned to power so that all
farmers become eligible for
the benefit.
He also said that the coun-
try had not witnessed any
terror attacks in the last five
years because of his strong-
willed government.
Panchmahal Lok Sabha can-
didate Vechatbhai Khant got
into trouble after a farmer,
Vinay Patel, went back on his
permission to allow the chop-
per to land on his private
field, the official said.
Vinay Patel sounded upset
with Hardik Patel, saying he
is “playing politics on the
bodies of those who died”
during the Patidar reserva-
tion agitation. “Hardik was
to attend an election rally at
5 pm Thursday at Lunawada
and two days ago permission
was granted for his helicop-
ter to land at a private land.
—Agencies
DNA Correspondent
correspondent@dnaindia.net
Congress president Rahul
Gandhi on Thursday said
that after coming to power in
2019, the first thing the party
will do is call a surgical strike
on poverty in the country.
“Prime Minister Narendra
Modi had five years ago prom-
ised all of you Rs15 lakh in
your account. He promised to
take the black money from
thieves and put it in your ac-
count. But you are yet to see it
but I won’t promise you Rs15
lakh, I promise to put Rs72,000
every year in the account of
the poorest Indian immedi-
ately after being voted to pow-
er,” said Gandhi, addressing
his second rally in the state
for the day in Bhuj.
He said the party will do a
surgical strike on poverty
through its Nyuntam Aay Yo-
jana (NYAY) programme im-
mediately after coming to
power.
“When we talk of NYAY
the BJP government is quick
to ask us how will we get the
money for the scheme. I tell
them the money will come
from the rich friends of Mod-
iji,” said Gandhi.
He said the Congress came
up with the NYAY scheme af-
ter taking into consideration
the fact that it should not put
pressure on the economy of
the nation.
He said during five years
of Modi’s rule, the Adanis got
six airports lands, while Anil
Amdavadis forget voting rights, talk about parties
Tanushree Bhatia
tanushree.bhatia@dnaindia.com
In a unique classroom assign-
ment, aimed at attempting to
figure out “Why Ahmedabad
Votes”, students of
Ahmedabad University found
that most people talked about
political parties, justifying
their love or hatred for those
rather than voting rights. To
ascertain the mindset of peo-
ple about politics and elec-
tions, for the past few weeks,
12 second and third year BBA
and BCom students visited
Vaghani gets EC notice Election nears, complaints of
for ‘haramzada’ remark code of conduct breach pile up
DNA Correspondent
correspondent@dnaindia.net
State BJP president Jitu Va-
ghani was on Thursday
served a notice by the Election
Commission (EC) for using an
abusive word to target the
Congress party.
“The Election Commission
has issued a notice to Jitu Va-
ghani. He has been asked to
submit his reply by 6:00 pm on
April 20,” state’s chief elec-
toral officer S Murali Krishna,
told DNA.
Krishna said that further
action would be taken in the
matter based on Vaghani’s re-
ply.
Vaghani had stirred a con-
troversy when he used the
word ‘haramzada’ at a public
Congress President Rahul Gandhi during an election campaign rally for the
Lok Sabha polls, at Vanthali in Junagadh district—PTI
Vaghela supports Cong candidate
Former Gujarat Chief
Minister and NCP leader
Shankersinh Vaghela
Thursday came out in
support of Congress
candidate from Gandhinagar
Lok Sabha constituency
Ambani got Rs 32,000 crore.
“If Modiji can give money to
the millionaires, the Con-
gress will give money to the
poor of this country,” said
Gandhi.
He added that against a
promise of creation of 2
crore jobs, what Modi did was
rob the nation of 2.7 lakh jobs
every day. “22 lakh govern-
ment jobs are vacant. We
promise to fill it within a year
of coming to power. 10 lakh
jobless youth can be give jobs
in panchayats itself,” said
Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad
west Lok Sabha constituen-
cies including Asarwa, Dud-
heshwar, Shahpur, Shahiba-
ug, Khanpur, Maninagar, Ve-
jalpur, Prahladnagar and Ja-
malpur, among others, to in-
teract with people and local
party leaders about the up-
coming elections.
Through their field work,
the students not only found
out about the urban-rural di-
vide, but were shocked to dis-
cover that the “educated” lot
in urban areas was unaware
of their local leaders as well as
meeting in Surat on April 7.
The BJP leader later clari-
fied that he had used the
word for Congress leaders
like former minister Mo-
hammad Surti, who was con-
victed for involvement in the
1993 Surat bomb blast case.
Krishna had taken suo
motu cognisance of media
reports and ordered an in-
quiry into the incident. He
had sought more details af-
ter Surat district collector
Dr Dhaval Patel submitted a
report saying that Vaghani
had not violated the model
code of conduct. Patel’s re-
port was sent to the EC,
which issued a notice to Va-
ghani.
www.dnaindia.com I twitter.com/dna I epaper.dnaindia.com I facebook.com/dnaindia
C J Chavda, who is pitted
against BJP president Amit
Shah. Vaghela said UPA 3
government will be formed
at the Centre after the LS
poll results are announced
on May 23.
Gandhi.
He also promised a Kisan
budget for the farmers in the
yearly budget of the nation
where the farmer will get to
know beforehand the Mini-
mum Support Price (MSP),
intendant compensation if
any, for loss of crop at the be-
ginning of the year itself.
He also promised to do
away with permissions for
new businesses that were be-
ing set up and no bureaucrat-
ic tangles for the first three
years of the businesses life.
A team that interacted
with AU students
issues whereas for residents
in other areas, issues were not
so much of a concern.
“More than giving reasons
DNA Correspondent
correspondent@dnaindia.net
With elections just five days
away and political cam-
paigning entering the final
phase, complaints by politi-
cal parties regarding viola-
tion of the Model Code of
Conduct (MCC) are on the
rise. On Thursday, both BJP
and Congress wrote to elec-
File Photo
tion authorities, seeking an
action against the others’
members.
The BJP wrote to the Elec-
tion Commission (EC) and
state’s chief electoral officer
alleging that Baldevji Thakor,
Congress MLA from Kalol
seat, had at an election rally
on April 13 uttered abusive
and foul words against BJP
president Amit Shah. The
complaint said that Thakor
had described Shah as Gen-
eral Dyer.
“This is a clear violation of
MCC. Immediate, prompt,
and severe actions are expect-
ed from EC against Thakor for
DNA Correspondent
correspondent@dnaindia.net
On the first day of his two-
day tour of Gujarat, All India
Congress Committee (AICC)
President Rahul Gandhi ad-
dressed his first rally in Van-
thali of Junagadh district.
Polling is scheduled for the
state on April 23, 2019, and
the star campaigners from
the Congress and BJP are
making their all-out efforts.
During his address, he al-
leged that the Prime Minister
is making two Hindustans for
the last five years. “The Nar-
endra Modi government is
making two Hindustans. One
is for the likes of Anil Amba-
ni, Mehul Choksi, Nirav Modi.
Whatever these people want,
Modi does for them. And there
is another Hindustan of de-
monetization, of Gabbarsingh
Tax, farmers, labourers and
small businessmen.
“Whatever the govern-
ment is doing at the Centre, it
is doing for the 15 to 20 busi-
nessmen. In the last five
years, 3 lakh 50 thousand
crore rupees debt relief was
given only to the 15 business-
men. And when farmers are
asking for a loan, then the
government says they don’t
have money,” said the AICC
about voting and not voting,
people talked about the par-
ties and justified their love
and hate among the parties,”
said Dharmit Mehta, a third
year BCom student.
Interestingly, majority of
police personnel felt that wag-
es and raises were based on
inflation during the Congress
regime which was not the case
later.
Speaking about the same,
professor Sarthak Bagchi
from the School of Arts and
Sciences said, “More than
what they found, for me, it was
Election Commission members watching various rallies for any violation
personal comments against
Amit Shah, and using low and
foul language,” the BJP com-
plained to EC.
In another case, the Con-
gress wrote to the CEO and
complained about voter in-
timidation by a former BJP
MLA and a criminal element.
It alleged that ex-MLA Jaira-
jsinh Jadeja, who was sen-
tenced to life in a murder case,
and is presently out on bail,
and Anirudhsinh Jadeja, who
was released from jail recent-
ly after 17 years in a murder
case, were threatening voters
to vote for BJP candidate.
The party demanded that the
two be barred from the state
till elections were over. Jaira-
jsinh’s wife is the MLA from
Gondal. The party demanded
transfer of Gondal’s prant of-
ficer RM Rayjada alleging he
had summoned government
employees before casting of
postal ballots.
president.
He added that before the
state election in 2017, he had
promised to farmers that
their loans would be waived
off in ten days. However, the
result was different. But in
Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh
and Chhattisgarh, they have
done what was promised be-
fore election.
Gandhi further said that
he had asked his think tank
for a figure on how much
amount they can give to peo-
ple who are needy. And they
came to conclusion that Rs
72,000 to 20% of the poor is a
realistic target and the Con-
gress would do that.
“The fishermen told me that
they are facing many prob-
lems and that many times,
they have been detained by
the Pakistan government. I
promise, we will have a sepa-
rate minister for fishermen,”
remarked Gandhi.
important for them to under-
stand the public pulse. I think
students of Social Sciences
should also learn to see and
experience society closely, on
the ground. While they may
have certain everyday experi-
ences around elections and
political happenings, it is im-
portant for them to go out onto
the field and experience how
campaigns are held and or-
ganized. How voters perceive
leaders and what the different
considerations are for voters
while deciding on their voting
choice.
liquor remark
Congress MLA from Dhanera
constituency in Banaskantha
Nathabhai Patel raked up a
controversy on Thursday
when he told voters to take
money or liquor from BJP,
but to vote for Congress.
Collector Sandip Sagale said
that they have initiated action
Katara violates MCC
BJP MLA from Fatepura seat
Ramesh Katara violated MCC
when he told voters that they
would not get work if they
did not vote for BJP, Dahod
district collector Vijaykumar
Kharadi said in a report to
the state’s CEO. Kharadi said
they would initiate action
against Katara based on
directions of the CEO.
 ah
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in brief
Scrapped notes
worth `13L fished
out of Sabarmati
The Ahmedabad River-
front East police station
recovered Rs 13 lakh
worth of demonetised
notes from the bank of Sa-
barmati river. As per po-
lice officials, they re-
ceived a call at 9.30 am, in-
forming them about a
plastic bag containing the
demonetised currency
notes under the Dhadhi-
chi bridge. Police team
and fished out the plastic
bag. GH Pathan, inspector
of Riverfront police sta-
tion East said, “We sus-
pect that the money was
dumped a couple of weeks
back, as it was stinking.
We have lodged a case
against an unidentified
person right now and fur-
ther investigation is on.”
Hasmukh Patel
shows expenses
of `22.18 lakh
MLA and BJP candidate
from Ahmedabad East
seat Hasmukh Patel has
spent Rs 22.18 lakh on his
election campaign as of
April 16, details submit-
ted by him to the election
authorities show. His ri-
val and Congress candi-
date Geeta Patel submit-
ted expenditure details of
Rs14.61 lakh, as against
Rs3.28 lakh as of April 12.
The remaining 23 candi-
dates in fray from
Ahmedabad East submit-
ted poll expenditure fig-
ures ranging from
Rs17,700 to Rs4.15 lakh.
IITGn hosts talk
on environmental
governance
IIT Gandhinagar hosted
a talk on ‘Environmental
Governance’ on Thurs-
day followed by a panel
discussion on the in-
volvement of scientists
in governance. The ses-
sion aimed to develop
and broaden the scope of
scientific community
and their approaches to-
wards environmental
sustainability.
Break-in at Metro
station, computers
worth `1.49L stolen
DNA Correspondent
correspondent@dnaindia.net
Just about a month after the
Ahmedabad Metro made its
first run after being inaugu-
rated by Prime Minister Nar-
endra Modi, four computers
installed in the cabin of the
New Cotton Mill Metro station
got stolen on Monday morning.
A complaint in this regard
was lodged by Deputy Man-
ager Shakti Mani with the
Gomtipur police station on
Ahmedabad Metro
cops SUSPECT
The accused broke the
window and stole four
computers worth Rs 1.49
lakh. Police suspect the
involvement of at least
two to three people since
is not easy to carry four
computers single-handedly
49 undergrad GNLU students
bag `15 lakh salary package
DNA Correspondent
correspondent@dnaindia.net
Forty-nine students of Guja-
rat National Law University,
who will graduate in 2020,
have made it to prestigious
companies, bagging an annu-
al package of about Rs 15
lakh. According to GNLU, this
is the highest ever placement
of its yet-to-graduate students
in the leading national and
international law firms
The students made it to re-
puted firms like PPOs, Day
Zero and Day One offers,
Training Contracts and Vaca-
tion Schemes by Cyril Am-
archand Mangaldas (13), Tri-
legal (15), Khaitan & Co. (06),
edabad
Pitroda takes a dig at BJP
for trumpeting on Guj model
...says, Gujarat performed well because of Gujaratis’ entrepreneurial skills
DNA Correspondent
correspondent@dnaindia.net
Taking a dig at BJP’s Gujarat
model that was widely pro-
jected as a huge success in
delivering both growth and
development, chairman of
Indian Overseas Congress
Sam Pitroda said that the
state has historically per-
formed well on economic
front because Gujaratis are
entrepreneurial. He also
pointed out that the state’s
performance and prosperity
are not limited to a particular
period. He also refuted Prime
Minister Narendra Modi’s al-
legation that Gujarat has suf-
fered injustice during Con-
gress rule.
“Gujarat has performed
well because Gujaratis per-
form well. This holds true
both in and outside the state.
It is because of the Gujarati
community’s risk-taking at-
titude and entrepreneurial
abilities,” Pitroda told media
persons on Thursday. “This
was true right from the time
of right from the time of
Jivraj Mehta’s (Gujarat’s
first chief minister). We have
seen this for all chief minis-
ters,” he said when asked to
comment on Prime Minister
Narendra Modi’s claims that
Gujarat’s economy was punc-
tured during Congress rule.
To substantiate his claims,
he said that during his trip to
Brazil about 50 years ago, he
met a Gujarati working in a
lab. “He was an expert in fi-
bre optics. Wonder how did
he end up Brazil! It wasn’t so
well-known at that time,” he
said.
Advocating bottom-up ap-
proach for the economic de-
velopment of Gujarat as well
as the rest of the country,
Pitroda said that strengths of
all states need to be har-
nessed for economic growth,
the welfare of masses and
Wednesday. In his complaint,
he stated that on Monday
morning he got a call from
one of his staff regarding a
break-in at the station cabin.
The accused broke the
window to get access to the
cabin and stole four comput-
ers worth Rs 1.49 lakh.
After being informed
about the break-in, Gomtipur
police reached the spot imme-
diately and started an inves-
tigation. The cops are scan-
ning the CCTV footage of the
New Cotton Mill station to
identify the accused.
“We suspect the involve-
ment of at least two to three
people. It is not easy to carry
four computers single-handed-
ly,” said CB Tandel, Inspector
of Gomtipur police station.
In a similar incident, two
copper plates used for the on-
going work near Amaraiwadi
area were stolen. A complaint
in this regard was lodged with
Amraiwadi police station on
February 10. The incident took
place on February 4 at the Am-
raiwadi Metro bridge located
at Rabari Colony area. The
copper plates were installed
near the line to give power sup-
ply to the metro line. It came
into light after the officials
found an error in the system.
Shardul Amarchand Mangal-
das and Co. (05), AZB & Part-
ners (01), J Sagar Associates
(01), and Indus Law (05), Lin-
klaters LLP (01 - Training
Contract), Herbert Smith
Freehills LLP (01) and Allen &
Gledhill LLP (01).
“India needs highly skilled
lawyers, legal advisers, re-
Sam Pitroda, chairman of Indian Overseas Congress during a press meet on Thursday —Pravin Indrekar/DNA
Youth need to be told true history
Ahmedabad: Youth of the
country are being misguid-
ed through false propagan-
da, they need to be told the
real history of the country,
said Sam Pitroda. He said
that it was during Con-
gress’ rule that the country
achieved milestones in
fields of agriculture, vari-
ous industries, science and
technology, space, defence
among other areas. “When
we got independence, the
population of the country
was around 300 million. 77
creation of jobs in huge num-
bers. “India imports edible
oil worth Rs 82,000 crore. Gu-
jarat is known for peanuts.
Why can’t it produce oilseeds
and oils for the rest of the
country? The soil in Kutch is
ideal for palm cultivation. If
put to proper use, it can pro-
duce 10 million jobs,” he said.
Coming down heavily on
Narendra Modi Pitroda said
A 40-feet-high laser projected cut out of Prime Minister Narendra Modi near Vastrapur
Couple nabbed for assaulting cops
DNA Correspondent
correspondent@dnaindia.net
A complaint was lodged with
the Riverfront East police sta-
tion on Wednesday after
three cops including two
women were attacked by a
couple near Riverfront area
after they stopped the couple
for violating traffic rule.
The incident took place on
Wednesday evening at
around 5.15pm near Master
Colony. The complaint was
lodged by Mehboob Rashid
Ahmed, head constable of
Riverfront east police station.
searchers. GNLU’s emphasis
on holistic development -
teaching, research, extension
and training is paying a rich
dividend to students. GNLU
brand is now firmly estab-
lished,” said Dr Bimal Patel,
Director, GNLU.
“The build-up to Day Zero
is taxing for students and fac-
ulty alike. The 2015-20 batch’s
firm grasp over foundational
knowledge, coupled with an
ability to meet challenges has
enabled them to remain ori-
ented in this time of unparal-
leled change and innovation
in the legal industry,” said
Nidhi Buch, faculty and con-
vener of the Committee on
Recruitment Affairs (CRA).
per cent of them were poor.
Now the population stands
at around 2 billion, and
only 20 per cent of them are
poor. We could hold the
country together, preserve
democratic traditions,
made developments in edu-
cation, established scien-
tific labs,” he said. Howev-
er, he lamented that today
social media is spreading
falsehood and those who
oppose the government are
threatened and tagged as
‘anti-national’.
that most of the promises
that were made ahead of last
Lok Sabha elections have not
been fulfilled. “Where are 100
smart cities? What activity is
going on in GIFT City? IL&FS
(a partner in GIFT City pro-
ject) has slipped into bank-
ruptcy. Where are the jobs he
had promised? In fact, small
businesses are facing the
brunt of demonetization and
STANDING TALL
In his complaint, he stated
that on Wednesday he and his
team who were deployed near
Master colony stopped a cou-
ple on a two-wheeler for not
wearing helmet.
When Ahmed
asked them to pay
fine for flouting
traffic rule, the ac-
cused pulled out
his mobile and
started taking his
video. The lady
who was riding pillion got in
the physical confrontation
with them. She started slap-
ping the lady cops, while the
call of duty Patel says, after family, it was time to fulfil duty towards work
Man joins poll duty hours after mother’s last rites
DNA Correspondent
correspondent@dnaindia.net
Dealing with the loss of a
loved one is one of the most
difficult things for most peo-
ple, but a similar tragedy did
not come in the way of elec-
tion duty for a teacher from
Sabarkantha, who reported
for work an hour after per-
forming his mother’s final
rites.
Popatbhai Patel, 51, who
works as a teacher in a gov-
ernment primary school in
Matarvada village of Sabar-
kantha’s Poshina taluka, lost
his mother Shantaben, 78, on
March 30.
Incidentally, in view of
Gujarat has
performed well
because Gujaratis
perform well. It is
because of their risk-
taking attitude and
entrepreneurial abilities.
This was true right from
the time of Jivraj Mehta
(Gujarat’s first chief
minister). We have seen
this for all chief
ministers
Sam Pitroda, chairman of
Indian Overseas Congress
(faulty roll out of) GST,” he
said.
Claiming that the econo-
my of the country has been
ruined in the past five years,
he said that its infrastructure
is in doldrums, while banks
are in deeper debts. Foreign
Direct Investment (FDI) is
being used to buy-out exist-
ing projects and not on new
investments.
man punched Ahmed.
In no time, other cops
reached the spot and the ac-
cused, identified as Chirag
and Monika Panchal, resi-
dents of Shaktina-
gar society in
Isanpura, were
nabbed from the
spot and taken to
the Riverfront po-
lice station.
A complaint
against the ac-
cused duo was lodged with
the Riverfront east police sta-
tion and the incident is being
investigated.
Popatbhai Patel works as a teacher in a government primary school
the Lok Sabha elections, Pa-
tel was posted in the media
centre of Sabarkantha Infor-
mation Bureau for monitor-
ing of paid news and other
Ahmedabad I Friday, April 19, 2019 I daily news & analysis
Sohrabuddin’s
kin challenges
acquittal in
encounter case
The brother of gangster
Sohrabuddin Shaikh, who
was killed in an alleged fake
encounter along with his
wife and an associate, has
filed an appeal in the Bombay
High Court, challenging the
acquittal of all 22 accused in
the case.
Sohrabuddin’s brother,
Rubabuddin, Thursday said
he had wanted the Central
Bureau of Investigation
(CBI) to file appeal against
the acquittals, but since the
agency made no move, he
filed the appeal himself.
In December 2018, a spe-
cial CBI court acquitted the
22 accused, observing that
the prosecution had failed to
establish a cogent case to sug-
gest that there was a conspir-
acy to kill the three persons.
While there is no denying
that Shaikh and the other two
had been killed, “going by the
evidence on record, the court
could not conclude that the
present accused persons
could be questioned, or, held
accountable for those
deaths,” the court had said.
The accused in the case
were mainly police officers,
present and former, from Gu-
jarat and Rajasthan.
Rubabuddin had written to
the Union government in Janu-
ary this year, requesting that
the CBI appeal against the rul-
ing. “I did not receive any reply
to my letter. So I have filed an
appeal in the Bombay High
Court, challenging the trial
court’s order acquitting all the
accused,” he said.
According to the CBI,
Shaikh, his wife and his aide
were abducted by Gujarat
ATI in November 2005.
Rubabuddin Shaikh
New-age communal violence
gains ground in rural Gujarat
DNA Correspondent
correspondent@dnaindia.net
Polarization, a concept earlier
seen only in cities of Gujarat,
has now found its way to small
towns and villages. A report
on “Deepening roots of com-
munalism in Gujarat – A re-
port on communal violence in
2018”, by Buniyaad, an organi-
sation working to promote
conflict transformation pro-
cesses among marginalised
communities in Gujarat has
found that communal violence
has spread to newer areas.
The report was based on
data collected by Alp Sankhyak
Adhikar Manch, a human
rights organisation, through
direct interactions with survi-
vors, the accused, political par-
ties and the administration,
and then corroborated with FIR
copies. The report analyzed in-
cidents of communal violence
in 2018 and found that now, reli-
gious festivals are used for com-
petitive mobilisation.
Hozefa Ujjaini, who leads
Buniyaad, said, “Ghettoisa-
tion was seen in cities earlier
but it is affecting villages now.
Attempts are being made to
end all sorts of interaction be-
tween communities. The data
showed that recent incidents
have taken place in areas unaf-
fected by riots of 2002.”
The report states that in
media content just four days
earlier.
Patel went to his village
Ambawada in Prantij taluka
of Sabarkantha, where his
03
External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj addressing women party workers
in city on Thursday —Pravin Indrekar/DNA
‘No Pak soldier
or civilian died in
Balakot strike’
DNA Correspondent
correspondent@dnaindia.net
External affairs minister Su-
shma Swaraj on Thursday
said that no Pakistani soldier
or civilian died during the
airstrikes in Balakot.
Swaraj, who was in the
city to address a meet of wom-
en party workers, urged them
to highlight the national secu-
rity and development work
done by the BJP government.
“During the 26/11 attack
apart from Indians, foreign
nationals of 14 countries had
died in the terrorist attack
orchestrated by Pakistan. It
was the perfect time to give a
fitting reply to Pakistan and
gather world opinion and ac-
tion against our neighbours
and isolate them but the then
government didn’t do it. We
not only gave a fitting reply to
the Uri and Pulwama attack
but also got an endorsement
from the world to boycott Pa-
kistan. We also got the OIC to
back us and not Pakistan,”
said Swaraj.
She said the Indian mili-
tary was given a “free hand”
in the operation but was
clearly instructed that no Pa-
kistani citizen or soldiers
should be killed.
She urged the women
members to give point by
point information about the
work done by the govern-
ment. “It is upto to you to
Incidents over the years
Picture for representation
Year Communal Killed Injured
incidents
2008 79 5 228
2011 47 3 144
2014 74 7 215
2015 55 8 163
2018 13 3 33
2014-2016 164 — 305 victims
2018, 33 persons were injured
in communal violence, of
whom 24 were Muslim and
nine were Hindus. One Mus-
lim person and two Hindus
were killed. In most cases, the
Muslim community bore the
brunt of property losses. In
fact, of 13 incidents, only in
one case in Sanjeli village,
Dahod, both communities
suffer equal losses. The caus-
al analysis of the incidents
revealed that religious festi-
mother’s last rites were per-
formed the same day. How-
ever, what happened next
came as a shock for many, as
Patel reported for work al-
most immediately, just an
hour or so after his mother
was cremated.
Patel said that he decided
to return to the office almost
immediately after the crema-
tion to carry out his duty.
“A mother’s loss is a big
loss, and I realise that my
family members needed me
after her passing away. My
brothers wanted that we re-
main together for some time
so as to share and lessen our
collective grief and loss. But,
I thought that I had fulfilled
instructions
„„Sushma Swaraj said
that the Indian military
was given a “free hand”
in the operation but was
clearly instructed that
no Pakistani citizen or
soldiers should be killed
convert the person you meet
into a karyakarta and voter
for BJP,” she said.
While highlighting the im-
portance India had gained in
the world, she said that Prime
Minister Narendra Modi to-
day decides the agenda of the
world.
She also touched upon her
own entry into politics and
how early in her life she de-
cided that nothing was impos-
sible for a woman. “I belong to
Haryana where sons are fa-
voured over daughters. It is
common to see mothers put-
ting ghee in the dal of their
sons and not daughters as
they often question a daugh-
ter’s ability to do certain
work,” said Swaraj. She, how-
ever, said that she had benefit-
ed from being the daughter of
a man who was very liberal
and did not differentiate be-
tween daughters and sons.
She also lauded the party
workers for not only working
for the BJP but also juggling
their other commitments in-
cluding family and work.
Hindu
supremacists
enjoy impunity to
perpetuate violence
against marginalised
groups of Muslims
and Dalits
Hozefa Ujjaini,
head of Buniyaad
vals, processions, rallies, in-
ter-religious relationships,
derogatory/controversial
songs, eve-teasing and hate
speeches were trigger-points
for communal riots.
In the report, Hozefa said,
“In Gujarat, in 2018, Hindu
supremacists enjoy impunity
to perpetuate violence against
marginalised groups of Mus-
lims and Dalits. This has re-
sulted in polarisation and
distrust on religious lines.”
my responsibility of per-
forming mother’s final rites,
and it was time to carry out
the duty towards my work.
Hence, I immediately report-
ed for the poll-related work,”
Patel was quoted as saying in
a release issued by the state
information department.
A senior official of the
state information depart-
ment said that Patel’s dedica-
tion to work was exemplary.
“People look at election
work as an additional burden
and find excuses to escape it.
We should salute Popatbhai’s
devotion towards work that
even his mother’s loss could
not keep him away from it,”
the official said.

ball
ballet
lok sabha election 2019-20
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in brief
‘Cong’s promises
on poverty fake’
Bhubaneswar: Union Minister
Nitin Gadkari attacked the
Congress on Thursday, saying
the party has been making
false promises of eradicating
poverty for four generations
since the time of Jawaharlal
Nehru. The BJP leader also
asserted that only PM Narendra
Modi can keep the country safe
by crushing terrorism and also
ensure speedy development and
end woes of the poor. “For four
generations, Congress’ leaders
including Jawaharlal Nehru
pledged to eradicate poverty,
but the promises have been
false,” Gadkari said.
‘AAP candidate’s
affidavit incomplete’
New Delhi: AAP’s West Delhi
candidate Balbir Singh Jakhar’s
affidavit was found to be in-
complete by the district election
office Thursday, which sent him
a notice. Jakhar, who is making
his electoral debut, was among
the 36 candidates who filed
their nominations Thursday
for LS polls.He has declared
movable and immovable assets
worth Rs 3.28 crore.
BJP expels four
rebel candidates
Mumbai: The Maharashtra unit
of BJP on Thursday announced
expulsion of four party lead-
ers who are contesting the
LS election against official
candidates of the BJP. Bhau-
saheb Wakchaure, Anil Gote,
Manikrao Kokate and Suhas
Natavadkar were expelled for
violating the party discipline.
Disqualify candidates Less demand
using religion to get for ‘Mumbai’s
Modi’ this LS
votes: Fresh PIL in SC
Abraham Thomas
abraham.thomas@dnaindia.net
New Delhi: Close on the
heels of the Election Com-
mission, realizing it has pow-
er to ban speeches of political
leaders and candidates who
solicit votes in the name of
religion, caste and commu-
nity, a petition has been filed
in SC to allow the poll panel
to even disqualify or reject
nomination of candidates
who indulge in such acts.
Last week, the apex court
had asked the Commission
on a PIL the reason why it
failed to act tough against
people who openly flouted
law by seeking votes in the
name of religion, caste, com-
munity or language. Under
Section 123(3) of the Repre-
sentation of Peoples Act,
seeking votes in the name of
religion, race, caste, commu-
nity or language amounts to
a corrupt practice.
The Commission told the
Court that it does not have
the power to disqualify or re-
ject nomination of candi-
dates who engage in such
speeches. At best, it can order
registration of a criminal
Dar-k past, but Dar’s village saw a moderate polling, leaving behind horrors of 2017
Burying his stony past, the ‘human shield’ rides on
ground report
Ishfaq-ul-Hassan
h_ishfaq@dnaindia.net
Chill-Brass (Budgam):
From the human shield vic-
tim to foot soldier of democ-
racy, the 28-year-old Farooq
Ahmad Dar has come a long
way leaving behind the bitter
past and perform the ancil-
lary medical duties during
polling in the Srinagar parlia-
mentary constituency.
Dar, a Safai Karamchari,
working in the Health depart-
ment on the consolidated sal-
ary of Rs 840 per month, was
performing his duty with a
t
EC red flags telecast of
Chowkidar Chor Hai ad
Poll body cracks down on Cong following strong objections from BJP MP unit
Saswat Panigrahi
saswat.panigrahi@dnaindia.net
New Delhi: In what has come
as a massive setback for the
Congress, Election Commis-
sion in Madhya Pradesh
on Thursday banned the
broadcast for Pradesh Con-
gress Committee’s audio and
video advertisement cam-
paign having the tagline
‘Chowkidar Chor Hai’
(Watchman is the thief).
The Congress’s adviseme-
nt campaign, titled ‘Chowk-
idar chor hai’ has been
banned with immediate ef-
fect, as the Media Certifica-
tion and Monitoring Commit-
tee (MCMC) of the Election
Commission decided to re-
voke the permission granted
to party on April 5, according
to a letter signed by Joint
Chief Electoral officer, Mad-
hya Pradesh Rajesh Kaul.
The order from the poll
body came following strong
objections from the Madhya
Pradesh unit of the BJP. In its
complaint to the MP Chief
Electoral Officer Kantha Rao,
the BJP representation said,
“Prime Minister Narendra
Modi is well known by the
name ‘chowkidar’ whom the
advertisement has referred as
‘thief ’ which is highly offen-
sive and defamatory.”
“The advertisement is a
violation of Article 19 (2) of
the Indian Constitution,” the
complaint read. The BJP’s
complaint also took note of
the fact that the Supreme
case against the candidate or
political party functionary or
as seen in the recent instance,
bar such persons from mak-
ing any speeches for a limited
time period.
The Commission stated
that disqualification under
Section 123(3) can be ordered
only by a Court on an election
petition where a successful
candidate’s election can be
set aside for indulging in a
“corrupt practice”. Pointing
out the lacuna in the existing
system, the petition filed by
advocate Ashwini Kumar
Upadhyay stated that the ef-
fect of law cannot be nullified
by the result in the election.
He stated that under the pre-
sent regime, corrupt practice
will be held only against the
winning candidate.
Full report: www.dnaindia.com
Dar was allegedly tied by troops of 53 Rashtriya Riffles (RR) with the
bonnet of a jeep before parading him in different villages of Jammu
medical team which had set
up a camp in the Government
Higher Secondary School,
Khan Sahab, in the Central
BJP candidate and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s grand-nephew
Chandra Kumar Bose sips coconut water to get relief from the
scorching sun during his door-to-door election campaign for the
Lok Sabha elections, in Kolkata, on Thursday. Meanwhile, 76 %
votes polled in WB in 2nd phase — PTI
Prakash Javadekar: The BJP is
getting positive feedbacks. From the
first two phases of polling, it appears
that BJP will cross 300 on its own
Hundreds of widows in Vrindavan town of Mathura district voted in second phase on Thursday
The Supreme Court had asked Congress president Rahul Gandhi to give an
explanation by April 22 on the latest jibe
Court is hearing a criminal
contempt petition against
Congress president Rahul
Gandhi for attributing his
‘Chowkidar chor hai’ re-
marks to the Supreme Court’s
recent order on Rafale. The
Supreme Court had asked the
Congress president to give an
explanation by April 22.
From p1
This increased visibility of
the Prime Minister has di-
minished interest in him, his
replica feels. “People also see
Modi-ji on television. Maybe
I will be pressed into the cam-
paign later,” says Mahante
who has also attended a rally
in Amritsar for Finance Min-
ister Arun Jaitley. He has
also campaigned for a BJP
MLA in Valsad, Gujarat.
In 2013, Mahante also met
Modi, who was then Guja-
rat’s chief minister, in Gan-
dhinagar. It comes as no sur-
prise that he’s a fan. “Modi-ji
has taken many decisions
and translated them into ac-
tion. Decisions like the one
about the surgical strike
were not easy to take. We are
lucky to have him as our
Prime Minister. Those oppos-
ing him are doing so for the
sake of it,” he gushes.
from the past
In 2013, Mahante also
met Modi, who was
then Gujarat’s chief
minister, in Gandhinagar.
It comes as no surprise
that he’s a fan.
Kashmir district of Budgam,
which housed model polling
booth.
“He (Dar) was not on elec-
beating poll heat, bose style
Ratnakar Mahajan: Though court
has dropped charges against Sadhvi
Thakur under MCOCA, she faces trial
under other anti-terrorism laws
The Congress, on its part,
looks defiant. Stating that
“there is nothing objectiona-
ble” in the campaign, nor it
has named “any person”,
party spokesperson Shobha
Oza said it will request the
Election Commission to “re-
view” its decision.
Congress president Rahul
Shoe hurled at BJP MP Narasimha Rao
BJP MP GVL Narasimha Rao
Ink washes out in WB, J&K
From p1
Long lines formed outside
polling stations in Karnataka
and Tamil Nadu — the south-
ern states which could be
decisive in choosing the next
prime minister.
The Marwadi trader com-
munity of Bengaluru was in
for a rude shock when many
of them found their names
deleted from the electoral
roll, which several of them
felt was a “conspiracy.”
Mahendra Jain said his
name too was missing from
the electoral roll. “My voter
ID itself is 15-year-old which
Dar had suffered
both physically
and emotionally.
Nobody was ready to
marry their daughter
with him because of
what happened in 2017
bypolls. Later he got
married in Jammu
Fayaz Ahmad Dar,
Dar’s elder brother
tion duty. He was on a medical
duty at Government Higher
Secondary School, Khan Sa-
hab, which housed a model
tit-for-tat message
„„Congress president
Rahul Gandhi has
been repeatedly hurling
the ‘Chowkidar chor
hai’(Watchman is the
thief) jibe at PM Modi
„„Prime Minister
Naren-dra Modi
responded by
launching a massive
campaign called “Main
bhai chowkidar” (I too
am watchman) last
month
Gandhi has been repeatedly
hurling the ‘Chowkidar chor
hai’(Watchman is the thief)
jibe at PM Modi. PM Modi re-
sponded by launching a mas-
sive campaign called “Main
bhai chowkidar” (I too am
watchman) last month.
The origin of the word
‘chowkidar’ in India’s politi-
cal lingua franca dates back
to the electioneering of the
2014 Lok Sabha polls when
Modi had promised to work as
a ‘chowkidar’ to guard the na-
tion. PM Modi has often de-
scribed himself as a ‘chowk-
idar’ who had declared, “Na
khaunga, na khane dunga (I
won’t indulge in corruption
nor allow anyone to do so)?”
On several occasions, PM
Modi has reiterated, “All hon-
est people have faith in
chowkidaar. Lekin jo bhrasht
hain unko Modi se kasht hai
(Those who are corrupt have
a problem with Modi).”
I got the day I shifted to this
place but today it does not ex-
ist,” said Jain. “All the Jains
and Marwadis wereidenti-
fied and their names deleted
from the electoral roll.”
In all, 14 seats in Karna-
taka went to polls along with
10 in Maharashtra, eight in
Uttar Pradesh, five each in
Assam, Bihar and Odisha,
three each in Chhattisgarh
and West Bengal, two in Jam-
mu and Kashmir and one
seat each in Manipur and
Puducherry.
Elections were also held
in 35 assembly constituen-
cies in Odisha while bypolls
polling booth. A medical team
is posted to provide first-aid
in case of an emergency. For
example, someone is injured
or somebody falls ill, this
team is meant to provide med-
ical care. Dar was posted to
maintain the cleanliness,”
said Dr Nazir Ahmad, chief
medical officer, Budgam.
Dar hogged the headlines
when he was allegedly picked
up by the troops of 53 Rash-
triya Riffles (RR) led by Ma-
jor Nitin Leetul Gogoi and
tied with the bonnet of a jeep
before parading him in differ-
ent villages on April 9, 2017,
the day when by-polls for Sri-
nagar parliamentary constit-
We will not allow NRC in
Bengal and the decision for NRC
will boomerang on the BJP and
become the NBC or ‘National Bidaay
(Farewell) Certificate’.
—Mamata Banerjee, West Bengal CM
I came to know that votes are
being cast fraudulently in seven
villages by the burka-clad women.
They’re yet to be identified
—Kanwar Singh Tanwar,
outgoing BJP MP
Ahmedabad I Friday, April 19, 2019 I daily news & analysis
BJP activist’s
son found
hanging from
tree in Purulia
Arsha (West Bengal): A BJP
activist’s son was found hang-
ing from a tree on Thursday
morning in Arsha block of
Purulia district, police said.
Sishupal Singh (22), the son
of a BJP activist and local
panchayat committee mem-
ber, was missing since
Wednesday, Purulia Superin-
tendent of Police (SP) Akash
Magharia said.
“A missing complaint was
filed by Singh’s family mem-
bers Wednesday evening. He
was spotted hanging from a
tree on the outskirts of Sena-
bona village around 9am by
the locals, who then reported
the matter to the police sta-
tion,” he said. It’s a case of
“unnatural death” and the
body has been sent for post
mortem, the SP said, adding
that an investigation has
been initiated into the matter.
Last June, Dulal Kumar, a
member of the saffron party,
was also found hanging from
a power transmission tower
in Purulia’s Dava village.
The state CID started an
investigation into Dulal’s
death, following a huge pro-
test by the BJP. Soon after, Joy
Biswas was replaced by Ma-
gharia as the district superin-
tendent of police. —PTI
case yet hanging
A missing complaint was
filed by the victim’s family.
His body was spotted
hanging from a tree on
the outskirts of Senabona
village by the locals, who
then reported the matter
to the police
DNA Correspondent
correspondent@dnaindia.net
New Delhi: Chaos reigned at
a BJP press conference in
New Delhi on Thursday when
a shoe was hurled at BJP MP
GVL Narasimha Rao.
The shoe was thrown at the
spokesperson when he was
speaking about the candidacy
of Sadhvi Pragya Thakur and
questioning other parties on
having a problem with it. Ac-
cording to police, the person
has been identified as Shakti
Bhargava, a surgeon working
at a private hospital in Kan-
are being held in 18 assembly
segments in Tamil Nadu.
Voting was cancelled in
one Tamil Nadu constituen-
cy after about Rs 10 rore in
cash — believed to be intend-
ed as bribes — was seized by
police. Tamil Nadu regis-
tered 63.73 per cent polling
for the 38 Lok Sabha seats
Thursday even as paramili-
tary forces fired in the air
near Arakkonam in Vellore
district to disperse a restive
crowd.
The bypoll to 18 assembly
constituencies here saw 67.08
per cent voting percentage. 
 — With agency inputs
uency was held. Dar had cast
the vote before he was alleg-
edly made a `human shield’ to
keep the stone pelting mobs at
bay. “My case is sub-judice
and, therefore, I will not offer
any comments. I can’t talk”,
Dar said. Later in July 2017,
J&K State Human Rights
Commission recommended
Rs one million compensation
to Dar for suffering “humilia-
tion, physical, psychological
torture and confinement”.
However, the then Mehboo-
ba Mufti government rejected
the SHRC recommendation
on the grounds that it will es-
tablish the guilt of the ac-
cused.
Maharashtra CM Fadnavis and actor Vivek Oberoi attend the poster launch
of Bollywood film ‘PM Narendra Modi’ in Mumbai — file photo
‘Hope film on PM
hits screens soon’
DNA Correspondent
correspondent@dnaindia.net
New Delhi: A day after the
Election Commission (EC)
watched the biopic on Prime
Minister Narendra Modi on
directions of the Supreme
Court (SC), the film’s lead ac-
tor visited the EC office and
met its officials. The film was
scheduled to release on April
12, but was stalled by the EC
after it received complaints
alleging that it was violating
the election MCC.
The SC bench headed by
Chief Justice of India Ranjan
Gogoi and comprising Jus-
tice Deepak Gupta and Jus-
tice Sanjiv Khanna ordered
the EC on Monday to watch
the film ‘PM Narendra Modi’
and submit its view to the
apex court in a sealed cover
by April 22. The film’s pro-
ducers had moved the SC
against EC’s order stalling
the release of the film. “A
committee is looking into it.
They have heard the view of
the producers and we are de-
liberating over the issue,”
senior deputy election com-
missioner Umesh Sinha told
reporters during a briefing
here on Phase-II voting.
‘whistleblower’
Bhargava’s Facebook
page suggests that he
is a vocal critic of the
Modi government. He
has also called himself a
‘whistleblower’ in multiple
posts on his FB profile.
pur. He was identified on the
basis of an identity card
found at the venue of the
press conference.
There are no details yet
about the motive behind him
hurling the shoe, but Rao held
Sadhvi Pragya Thakur
breaks down in prison
Bhopal: Malegaon blast ac-
cused Sadhvi Pragya Singh
Thakur on Thursday broke
down while recalling the ‘tor-
ture’ she faced in the custody
of law enforcing agencies.
Interacting with BJP
workers here, Thakur said:
“When they took me away il-
legally, they kept me for 13
days. On the first day itself,
they started beating me.
When they used to hit me
with a belt, the entire nerv-
ous system used to go blank.
They used to beat me day and
night.” “They used to hurl
abuses while beating me.
They used to threaten me to
hang me upside down. I was
threatened to be stripped off.
It is unbearable for me to re-
call the torture I suffered in
the custody,” she said in a
choked voice.
Thakur, whom the BJP has
fielded against Congress vet-
eran Digvijaya Singh from
Malegaon blast accused Sadhvi Pragya Singh
04
what ec said
The EC on April 10
said that such creative
contents are a kind of
surrogate publicity by the
candidate or the political
party during MCC
After his visit to the EC of-
fice, Oberoi said he was hap-
py with the response of the
EC officials to the film, how-
ever, he did not reveal what
they had to say about the
movie. “EC officials watched
the movie on Wednesday. The
movie was premiered at the
ECI office yesterday. The first
thing we asked the officials
was how did they find the
movie? However, I cannot re-
veal their answer as it is the
constitutional body and we
ought to respect it. Though
the officials’ answer made us
happy,” Oberoi said.
“I have been reiterating
that neither the movie nor
me are related to the BJP.
There is no intention and fi-
nancial funding involved in
the movie,” the actor said.
“The entire team is sad. We
had hopes. It took one-and-a-
half years to make the film
and we were excited.”
the Congress responsible for
the attack. Rao and his col-
league, Bhupender Yadav,
were speaking about Thakur,
an accused in the 2008 Male-
gaon blasts case, who has
been named the BJP’s candi-
date from Bhopal.
The BJP leaders were criti-
cising the Congress for “de-
faming” Hindus by register-
ing “false cases” against the
saffron-robed Thakur when
the shoe came at them. Police
said that as soon as Rao start-
ed speaking, a man stood up
and hurled a shoe at him.
Full report: www.dnaindia.com
Bhopal Lok Sabha seat, said:
“I am not recalling my pain
before you but all I am saying
is that no sister should un-
dergo what I have faced.”
“Did I indulge in some cor-
ruption or did I snatch some-
one’s post? But this did not
happen due to these reasons.
They told me not to talk about
patriotism. They told me not
to speak for the country,” she
said. She also claimed that
she was beaten because the
interrogators wanted her to
confess that she had carried
out a blast and killed Mus-
lims. “I never knew why they
were beating me? The only
reason which I later got to
know was that they wanted
me to say that I have carried
out an explosion and killed
Muslims. This was their poli-
tics. This was their act of se-
dition. This was their con-
spiracy to break the country,”
she said. — ANI
 money power With feet
in 2 boats
` 2,600cr `543cr 43%
ball t
Cash, contraband seizures since The highest seizures recorded Of the total seizures amounted SP candidate from

05
the announcement of the dates from Gujarat; Tamil Nadu is a to drugs at Rs 1,110.08 crore. Lucknow Poonam
of general election in March as of close second, with seizure of Rs Cash amounted to a little over Sinha with husband
April 17, according to poll panel. 514-crore cash & contraband. 26 per cent (Rs 675 crore). & Congress can-

ballet
didate from Patna
Sahib Shatrughan
AAP had agreed to alliance and we came to an understanding Sinha and SP MP
Dimple Yadav arrives
but today morning AAP is going back (on its words). I don’t to file her nomination
know the reason. AAP has to explain it to the people of Delhi. papers for LS polls in
— PC Chacko, Congress leader Lucknow, Thursday.

lok sabha election 2019-20 Congress says chances of tie-up with AAP in Delhi almost finished; may announce candidates soon

www.dnaindia.com I twitter.com/dna I epaper.dnaindia.com I facebook.com/dnaindia Ahmedabad I Friday, April 19, 2019 I daily news & analysis

TN holds the key BJP rests hopes on 2014 laurels

in brief
Dabbawalas to
back Shiv Sena

to winning Delhi
Manan Kumar Yadav led SP and Ajit Singh contesting in Hathras and
manan.kumar@dnaindia.net run RLD – the BJP is facing a votes, now & then Mathura, respectively, as per
tough fight on all the seats. In 2019 2014 the terms of the alliance.
New Delhi: The eight crucial a couple of seats like Fateh- The BJP has tried very
seats that went to polls in Ut- pur Sikri and Nagina where Overall 62.30% 61.87% hard to make a push in this
tar Pradesh in the Congress has field- Nagina 62.10% 63.12% region through PM Modi’s
second phase of ed Raj Babbar and rallies. The last rally of PM

Mumbai: The famous ‘dab-
bawalas’ (tiffin-box carriers)
in Mumbai have announced
their support for the Shiv Sena
in the Lok Sabha elections. “It
is only the Shiv Sena, which
always stood behind us for our
welfare. It has also promised
to construct a ‘Dabbawala
Bhavan’ for us. Only the Sena
has included Mumbai’s dab-
bawalas in its ‘Vision Mumbai’
campaign and it has been
taking several initiatives for
our betterment,” said Subhash
Talekar, president of Mumbai
Dabbawala Assn on Thursday.
Pawar, Didi not on
same page over PM
Ahmednagar: NCP chief Sharad
Pawar Thursday said he doesn’t
think this ongoing general
elections could be the last one
in India. Pawar was appar-
ently referring to West Bengal
Chief Minister and TMC chief
Mamata Banerjee’s allegation
that PM Modi will throw away
the Constitution to make India a
totalitarian regime if re-elected
and this LS polls could be the
last one. “The entire world is
watching...Some people have
apprehensions that this could
be the last election. They are
saying so in their speeches, but
I don’t think so,” Pawar said.
Slain RSS leader’s
kin make a point
Kishtwar: As soon as the ritu-
als of the 10th day of mourning
period ended, the elderly
mother of slain RSS leader
Chanderkant Sharma, walked
to a polling station with family
members, saying their votes
At 71%, state records lower turnout compared to 2014 Lok Sabha elections Omvati Devi, the Amroha 68.77% 71.00% Modi in Aligarh that wit-
on Thursday wit- fight has turned tri- Bulandshahar 62.14% 58.33% nessed a massive surge in the
nessed 62.30% turn- angular. crowd gave some respite to
DNA Correspondent out, nearly 0.5% In the rest of the Aligarh 62.80% 59.48% the BJP which is witnessing
correspondent@dnaindia.net more than 2014. Uttar Pradesh seats, it is more or Hathras 61.25% 59.78% heat from the caste arithme-
All these seats less a straight fight tic of the Gathbandhan.
New Delhi: In the second are very crucial for 62.30 % between the Gath- Mathura 60.56% 64.33%
Despite winning all 8 seats
phase of Lok Sabha election the BJP as it had polling bandhan and the Agra 59.60% 59.05% by huge margins in 2014, the
on Thursday, Tamil Nadu re-
corded a turnout of 70.95 per
won all of them in
2014 polls by land- 8/80 BJP. The Congress
has also not fielded
Fatehpur Sikri 61.16% 61.29%
BJP changed its sitting MPs
candidates in Agra, Hathras
seats
cent, according to Election slide margins. a candidate in Am- and Fatehpur Sikri either on
Commission (EC) data at 7 But owing to the roha to help the ex- In the second phase, the a performance basis to tackle
pm. In 2014, the state had re- Grand Alliance between general secretary of Karna- BSP has fielded candidates Mahagathndhan’s challenge.
corded a turnout of 73.67%. three key regional parties – taka’s JD(S) Danish Ali who on six of the eight constituen- However, it retained its sit-
Voting concluded in 38 of the Mayawati’s BSP, Akhilesh is fighting on BSP ticket. cies while the SP and RLD are ting MPs on five other seats.
state’s 39 seats and Vellore was Actor Rajinikanth’s wife Latha and daughter Soundarya after casting vote
the lone seat which did not go
to polls. On the recommenda- The state had a total of 67,720 netra Kazhagam are vying
BJD vs BJP: Odisha
tions of the EC, President Ram polling stations and 7,780 for third slot in the state.
Nath Kovind had cancelled booths were categorised as This was also the first gen-
elections in Vellore after cash critical and vulnerable where eral election in the state after
phase-2 faces fight narrows down
to two major parties
worth Rs 12 crore was seized more Central Armed Police the demise of stalwart leaders
from an associate of a DMK Forces personnel and micro- J Jayalalitha and M Karuna-
leader during a raid. observers were deployed. nidhi. Tamil Nadu witnessed
Along with the Lok Sabha The southern state, con- some interesting contests that Saswat Panigrahi
elections, bypolls sidered one of the involved DMK leader Kani- correspondent@dnaindia.net
were held to 18 as- key swing states in mozhi and A Raja.
sembly constituen- the general elec- Karunanidhi’s daughter New Delhi: Five Lok Sabha constitu-
cies too and the tions, saw a four- Kanimozhi, acquitted in 2G encies in Odisha – Bargarh, Sundar-
turnout in those cornered fight. The scam case, is fighting her garh, Bolangir, Kandhamal and Aska
elections was 67.08 AIADMK-led NDA first Lok Sabha election – and 35 Assembly segments under
per cent. Voting in Tamil nadu -- which had apart against BJP’s state unit chief these constituencies – on Thursday
the state was large- from BJP, Vijay- Tamilsai Soundarrajan from went to polls simultaneously in the sec-
ly peaceful with the 70.95 % kanth’s DMDK and Thoothukudi. The coastal dis- ond phase of general elections.
exception of an in- polling PMK led by former trict had witnessed a major According to Odisha Chief Elector-
cident in Arakkon-
am in Vellore dis- 38/39 union health minis- agitation by locals against
ter Dr Anbumani Vedanta’s copper smelter for 1
al Officer Surendra Kumar, an esti-
mated 64 per cent turnout has been
seats
trict where para- Ramadoss -- and their pollution. recorded till 5 pm. State Election Com-
military forces DMK-Congress alli- In Sivaganga, former un- mission sources have suggested that
fired in the air to disperse an ance were the two most im- ion minister P Chidambar- the polling figures are tentative and the
agitated crowd. portant political fronts in the am’s son Karti Chidambar- final figures will
According to EC, over 160 state. Actor-turned-politician am, who is under the lens of be announced on
companies of Central police Kamal Haasan’s Makkal Nee- enforcement agencies for al- Friday. It is be-
forces and one lakh state po- dhi Maiam and TTV Dhina- leged money laundering was lieved that the fi-
lice personnel were deployed. karan’s Amma Makkal Mun- pitted against H Raja of BJP. nal poll turnout
could touch 70 per
cent, sources said. odisha
Black adhesive tapes were stuck In the 2014 elec-
tions, Odisha had
recorded 72.5 per
64.00
polling
%

beside Lotus symbol, says BJP 5/19

were for bringing his killers to
justice. The senior RSS leader
and his security guard were
killed on April 9 when a terror-
ist opened fire inside a health
centre in Kishtwar town.
Bhojpuri actor Ravi
Kishan draws crowd
Gorakhpur: Bhojpuri actor Ravi
Kishan, fighting for the Gorakh-
pur Lok Sabha seat, Thursday
began his campaign, claiming
he will win the poll with Baba
Gorakhnath’s blessings. Kishan
launched his campaign with
a roadshow which he started
from Gorakhnath Temple after
paying his obeisance there with
a huge crowd cheering him.
“Ee Modi ji ke tsunami ba”
(It’s a Modi wave). We will win
more than 73 seats,” he said.
cent polling in the
second phase.
seats
The State Elec-
tion Commission
Arshad Ali was alleged that black adhe- inside the booth at Kalim- sources said the poll body is mulling
correspondent@dnaindia.com sive tapes were stuck beside pong as he went to cast vote. fresh polling in six booths in three LS
the BJP candidate’s name and “The presiding officer of the seats due to “human error” during re-
Kolkata: After the second symbol. Voters at booth was changed 4 placement of VVPAT machines.
phase of polls in West Ben- Dighi colony SSK in later,” Aftab said. Polling was largely peaceful and no
gal, the chief electoral officer Chopra, booth num- At Raiganj, CPM untoward incident was reported from
(CEO), West Bengal Ariz ber 28/180 alleged candidate Md 2 anywhere on Thursday, including the
Aftab said other than a few they were being in- Salim’s vehicle Maoist infested Kandhamal Lok Sabha
minor incidents, polling in timidated and asked came under attack 1. DMK veteran Anbazhagan, 96, after constituency, where the Left ultra
three Lok Sabha constituen- to leave by some West Bengal by some miscreants. casting vote in Chennai on Thursday gunned down a woman election official
cies was largely peaceful.
“The overall poll per cent
leading to a clash.
Voters, demanding 76.42 %
At Jalpaiguri a
group allegedly en-
2. BJP candidate Hema Malini flashes
victory at a polling station in Mathura
and set ablaze three vehicles on elec-
tion duty on Wednesday.
is 76.42, but this figure will Central forces, had polling tered a booth and 3. Infosys Co-founder Narayana Plight of farmers struggling to sell
change after we get the final
statistics,” Aftab said.
put up a road block-
ade on the NH.
3/41 opened fire. CEO
said the presiding
Murthy and wife Sudha Murthy after
casting votes in Bengaluru
paddy, pest attacks on crop are main poll
issues in Bargarh. The constituency has
seats
A ruckus between TMC and In Darjeeling, officer concerned 4. This newly-married couple at Udupi- witnessed maximum farmers’ suicide
BJP led to breaking of EVM in Jan Andolan Party said there had been 3 Chikmagalur constituency, Karnataka, in the state. According to observers, the
Chopra under Raiganj con- chief Harka Bahadur Chetri no such incident but still they had rushed to booth soon after marriage polls in state has narrowed down to a
stituency. At several booths it was seen using a cell phone have started an investigation. BJD-BJP fight on the day of vote.

At above 80%, constituency of Srinagar clocks double-digit vote Much at stake for CM
CM’s son records max turnout Ishfaq-ul-Hassan
h_ishfaq@dnaindia.net Nitish & NDA in Bihar
peaceful in Srinagar this president and three-time
time with no major untoward chief minister Farooq Abdul-
incident. “Polling remained lah defeated PDP candidate
Bengaluru: An estimated turnout of about 80.23%. in these 14 Lok Sabha con- Srinagar: Prestigious Srina- peaceful and there were no Nazir Khan by 10,766 votes. Vithika Salomi was won by late Congress MP
67.89 per cent voter turnout The lowest turnout was stituencies during the 2014 gar LS constituency broke reports of violence,” said Farooq Abdullah is seek- vithika.salomi@dnaindia.net Mohammad Asarul Haque.
was reported in the elections reported in Bangalore Cen- Parliamentary election. the single-digit turnout jinx Shailendra Kumar, chief ing reelection from Srinagar. The JD(U)’s Santosh Kumar
to 14 Lok Sabha seats in Kar- tral constituency with 49.75 In Tumkur, where former when it recorded 14.8 per cent electoral officer, J&K. At 83, Farooq is fighting polls Patna: Around 63% of elec- Kushwaha had won Purnia.
nataka in the first phase per cent, election Prime Minister H D turnout, more than double of In 2017 by polls, to redeem lost glory torate exercised their suf- This time, on behalf of the
Thursday with the polls being officials said. Deve Gowda is 2017 bypolls percentage, amid Srinagar LS con- given his previous frage in the five constituen- NDA, the JD(U) has fielded
by and large peaceful with no “Percentage is locked in a tough visible signs of election boy- stituency recorded victory in 2017. cies of Bihar, which went to candidates on all five seats,
major incident reported. better than last contest with G S Ba- cott in the urban centers. a dismal turnout of Meanwhile, sev- polls in the second phase of hence it has become a contest
The main contest is be- election,” a senior savaraj of BJP, 77% Udhampur seat where sen- seven percent and eral migrant Kash- the Lok Sabha election between Bihar CM Nitish Ku-
tween the ruling Congress- poll official said, turnout was report- ior BJP leader and Minister witnessed large- miri Pandits could Thursday. It is a marginal in- mar’s party and the Grand
JD(S) alliance and the BJP. adding the election Karnataka ed. Hassan where of State in the PMO Dr Jiten- scale violence that J&K not vote as their crease of about 1% compared Alliance (GA). The onus is on
The key constituency of was by and large Gowda’s other dra Singh is locked in a fierce left eight dead. names were found to 2014, when 61.93% turnout the GA to save its seats, espe-
Mandya, where Chief Minis- peaceful, with no 67.89
% grandson Prajwal contest with Congress candi- Separatists’ boy- 45.64
% missing from the was recorded here. cially taking into account
ter H D Kumaraswamy’s son major incident re- polling Revanna is contest- date Vikramaditiya Singh cott call had played polling roll at the special While Katihar witnessed that at least three seats -- Kis-
Nikhil is pitted against ac-
tress Sumalatha Ambareesh,
ported.
Voter turnout 14/27 ing against A Man-
ju of BJP, reported
and others, saw heavy voter
turnout of 70 per cent.
a huge part in the
2017 in which Na- 2/4 polling stations set
up for Srinagar seat
the maximum turnout hanganj, Purnea and Katihar
among the five constituen- -- are minority-dominated.
seats seats
recorded the highest voter was at 68.68 per cent 77.28% polling. Polling was by and large tional Conference in Jammu. cies, where 68.2% In Bhagalpur,
people reached the RJD’s Bulo Mandal
booths, it was fol- is seeking a re-elec-
Underwear jibe: Centenarian Google Doodle Mulayam, Mayawati B’lore techie votes lowed by Purnia
and Kishanganj
tion against JD(U)’s
Ajay Mandal. The
Jaya slams akhilesh leads by example shares guidelines to share dais as wife give birth constituencies at fight here became
64.5% and 64.1% re- Bihar interesting after the

A L A T
ttacking SP chief Akhilesh eaning on a stick for support, t loggerheads for decades, SP he early morning birth of his spectively. Bhagal- BJP denied a ticket
Yadav for inaction over his centenarian Nand Kishore founder Mulayam Singh Ya- second child and immediate pur and Banka con- 62.04 % to two-time MP
candidate Azam Khan’s kha- Agarwal arrived at his polling dav and BSP chief Mayawati medical concerns did not de- stituencies saw polling Shahnawaz Hussain
ki underwear jibe against her,
BJP’s nominee from Rampur
booth to cast vote on Thursday
and advised the next generation
are scheduled to share the dais
at a joint rally of the SP-BSP-
ter Sandeep Mishra, a Banga-
lore-based techie, from casting
least turnout with
only 58.2% and 58% 5/38 as the seat went to
JD(U)’s kitty.
seats
Jaya Prada says it could well be voters to follow his example. RLD alliance in the Samajwadi his vote in the state on Thursday. voting. Barring In Purnia,
the party’s undoing with women Clad in a white dhoti and kurta, Party citadel of Mainpuri on Mishra (37), whose wife gave some minor clash- JD(U)’s Santosh

in the constituency now turning
against it. The actor-politician
said Yadav’s response to Khan’s
insensitive remark shows he is
groomed in an atmosphere
where his thinking mirrors that
of the veteran SP leader from
Rampur. Jaya Prada, who is tak-
ing on Khan in this constituency
on BJP ticket, said the reason for
his animosity against her could
be his insecurity. He is a very
inferior person, so doesn’t like
women progressing, she said.
Agarwal exercised his franchise
at a college under Kishanganj
Lok Sabha seat around 9 am,
saying voting is a “national
duty”. Agrawal said he is 101
years of age though his voter ID
card says he was 74 as on Janu-
ary 1, 1974. He said he has been
voting since 1952, when the first
general elections were held. “I
was 34 during the 1952 elections.
It was an unforgettable experi-
ence. I have been casting my
vote since then,” he said.
G
oogle on Thursday yet again
marked the ongoing Lok Sab-
ha election in India with a
doodle that featured an inked
finger. By clicking on the doo-
dle, users are redirected to a
page explaining the process of
how voting takes place. It also
gives details about how voters
can find out how to take part in
the voting process, apart from
info on polling booths, contest-
ing candidates, poll dates and
timings, ID-cards and EVMs.
Friday. Mulayam Singh Yadav
and Mayawati have been bitter
rivals since 1995 when SP cadres
allegedly attacked the state
guest house where the BSP
chief had been camping with
her supporters. The SP patri-
arch, who is contesting from the
party bastion of Mainpuri was
conspicuous by his absence at
the three joint rallies held earli-
er in Deoband, Badaun and
Agra due to his aversion to his
party’s alliance with the BSP.
birth to their second son at
about 5:45 am at a private hospi-
tal, rushed to his polling booth
in Horamavu road (Bangalore
North constituency) as soon as it
opened at 7 am. “I had ensured
that I carry my voter ID card
when I rushed to the hospital
with my wife and family at
about 3 am after she developed
labour pain. I quickly drove to
polling centre, about 3 km from
the hospital, as soon as saw my
newborn son,” Mishra said.
es, voting was largely peace- Kushwaha fights Congress
ful, election officials said. candidate Uday Singh alias
The second phase of polls Pappu to retain his seat. Kati-
in Bihar was a direct contest har is likely to witness a di-
between the Mahagathband- rect contest between Tarique
han and the JD(U). In 2014, Anwar and JD(U)’s Dulal
the NDA (which did not in- Chand Goswami, an MLA.
clude the JD(U) then), had The contests in Kis-
lost all five seats. While hanganj and Banka are trian-
Bhagalpur and Banka had gular. In Kishanganj, the bat-
RJD MPs, Katihar was tle is among Congress’ Kis-
bagged by NCP’s Tarique An- hanganj MLA Javed Azad,
war, who has now joined the JD(U)’s Mahmood Ashraf
Congress and Kishanganj and AIMIM’s Akhtarul Iman.
 06
Ahmedabad I Friday, April 19, 2019
 opini n
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daily news & analysis

There is no alternative
While the grand alliance has come a cropper, Narendra Modi stands tall & imposing during polls

Bravo Railways
The Lok Sabha
election of 2019
has become presi-
dential. The cam-
The national transporter has finally turned the corner paign theme of the

I
national Demo-
t is easy to bash up government institutions when they do not cratic Alliance
perform due to reasons that are too well known to enumerate. (NDA) and the op-
By the same token, when they perform well, they need to be position are both
praised. The Indian Railways is finally turning the corner. Its R Balashankar Modi-centric.
The BJP’s elec-
last 12 months have been very productive and enviable targets
tion slogan is “phir ek bar Modi sarkar
have been met. It has made a surge in profits, ensured better (Modi once again) ”.The opposition has
safety standards and enhanced passenger and freight numbers. reinforced this thrust by launching a uni-
Any public carrier will want that to happen and the Indian Rail- focal attack on the Prime Minister’s per-
ways is no exception. In 2018-19, the railways’ total earnings sona, and by trying to posit the Maha-
went up to Rs 1.89,610.6 crore as against Rs 1,78,701.15 crore. A gathbandhan (grand alliance) as an anti-
Modi front. The grand alliance has so far
large proportion of this was due to increased revenue from
come a cropper, damaging the opposition
goods, while earnings from passenger traffic rose to Rs 51,000.2 plank and derailing its credibility.
crore from Rs 46,643.14 crore. In 2018-19, the number of accidents The election has been turned into a
went from 73 to 59 and deaths came down to 37 from 57, as com- referendum on Modi; The absence of any
pared to the year ago period. All these are good tidings. But let’s towering pan-Indian personality in the
face it. When dealing with hundreds and millions of passengers opposition ranks has added to the sheen
and glamour of the Teflon Modi imagery.
using the network every day, not everyone can be kept happy.
The NDA has come up as a cohesive
There is no doubt that while the quality of services — at least election machinery. The opposition, con-
in the higher classes — have improved, the same cannot be said versely, is at each other’s throat in most
about the lower classes, where question marks persist about states. Their antipathy for Modi has not
cleanliness, punctuality, courtesy and inadequate capacities. helped them sink their differences.
The Modi government, which came to power in 2014, had prom- The much-touted idea of Mahagath-
bandhan has fallen flat and Prime Min-
ised a lot for the Railways. It assured a connection from the hin-
ister Narendra Modi appears invincible The so-called grand alliance is solely focused on stopping PM Narendra Modi at all costs
terland to the ports through strategic new rail networks and as the second phase of polling comes to
establish an agri rail network with train wagons designed to an end. ranks came to the surface in West Bengal, BSP in MP and Chhattisgarh in the De-
cater to the specific needs of perishable agricultural products. Some disgruntled party leaders like Uttar Pradesh, Andhra and three Con- cember 2018 Assembly election.
In addition, it promised a tourist and pilgrimage rail, the assur- Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie, who gress-ruled states in the north. The break down of negotiations with
ance of inducting state-of-the-art technology and other infra- have been strategising with the Congress For the Mahagathbandhan, each state BSP on seat sharing in these states,
chief Rahul Gandhi, wanted one joint op- presented a conflicting picture, as each sealed any chance of adjustment in UP
structural improvements. As can be expected, many of these
position candidate against the NDA in all party wanted to maximise their gain and in the Lok Sabha poll.
changes were aspirational in nature, but there are some identi- the 543 constituencies. expand at the expense of the Congress. In the end, there are at least a dozen
fiable improvements in Indian Railways in the five years of the The so-called grand alliance is solely Senior opposition leaders like N contestants against Narendra Modi’s
Modi regime. It laid down new tracks, doubled existing lines, focused on stopping Modi at all costs. The Chandrababu Naidu in Andhra, Mama- candidates in almost all the 543 Lok Sab-
and converted narrow gauge to broad gauge 11.5 per cent faster template for this is nearly like the 1971 ta Banerjee in West Bengal, Mayawati ha constituencies. Talk about post-poll
during the NDA’s initial three-year rule than the Congress-led Grand Alliance pitched against Indira and Akhilesh Yadav in UP were unwill- adjustments are unconvincing. Voters
Gandhi. The then Prime Minister Indira ing to play second fiddle to the Congress want to know the alternative to Modi.
UPA government. It laid 7,666 km of tracks during 2014-17, which
Gandhi’s famous campaign lines were, “I president. The Congress strategy from the begin-
is 794 km more than the UPA’s between 2009-12. There have been want to remove poverty; they want to re- In Andhra, the attempt failed because respectable partnerships only in Maha- ning was flawed. In their personal at-
other noticeable improvements like launching three social me- move me”. of the humiliating defeat of the Con- rashtra, Tamil Nadu and Bihar. tacks, they only helped to project a larger
dia platforms, providing a public grievance system to travelling Little under five decades later, a simi- gress-TDP alliance in Telangana in the In Tamil Nadu and Bihar, it is the than life image for the prime minister.
passengers, introducing a modern reservation system and above lar situation has emerged in the run-up December Assembly elections. junior partner while in Maharashtra, it Every time the opposition spoke of stop-
all, commissioning 2,828 km of broad gauge lines, the highest to the 2019 Lok Sabha election — the only Leaders like Chief Minister K Chan- is at the mercy of Sharad Pawar’s NCP, ping Modi without offering a convincing
difference being that the protagonist of drashekhar Rao in Telangana, Naveen which has a history of hobnobbing with governance agenda, it has looked power
ever in 2015-16 against an average of 1,528 km between 2009-14,
the new grand alliance now is Indira Patnaik in Orissa and Jagmohan Reddy the BJP. hungry.
the UPA’s second term. However, there is also the charge against Gandhi’s grandson. of YSR Congress in Andhra, were keen- The Congress and the CPM attempted This has helped invest Modi with the
the NDA government that basic issues in the world’s fourth- But it has failed to take off mainly be- er on a federal front, which is yet to take a tie-up in West Bengal but failed. The “underdog image”, gaining voters’ sym-
largest train carrier network have been ignored for more flashy cause of the decline of the Congress as a shape. same seems to be the case in Haryana, pathy.
projects. The schemes introduced under NDA after 2014 are con- central force and the reluctance of other In Uttar Pradesh, which sends the Punjab and Delhi, where its talks with National security and the Balakot air
siderable and credit needs to be given where it is due. The area opposition parties to accept Rahul Gan- largest contingent of MPs to the Lok the AAP are still hazy. strikes proved the defining moments.
dhi as their leader. Sabha, Mayawati and Akhilesh formed a Rahul Gandhi’s decision to also con- Modi stood for taking India forward, pro-
in which they lack behind is the actual implementation of the
In the past one year, Rahul had ap- tie-up without so much as accommodat- test from Wayanad in Kerala, a minority- tecting it from Pak-sponsored terror and
schemes. Clearly therefore on the infrastructural front, the In- proached nearly all regional leaders ing the Congress. dominated, backward constituency in forces hostile to India.
dian Railways need to keep its act going. mooting this idea. After the big show of This irritated the Congress and the Kerala, has spoiled his chemistry with As against this, the Congress mani-
opposition unity in Bengaluru in June party decided to stage a counteroffensive the Left. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi festo, which offered repeal of AFSPA, the
2018, the impression had gained ground by projecting Priyanka Vadra and Vijayan has accused him of fighting the sedition law and expressed a pro-separa-

Right choices
that the Congress was stooping to con- launching a desperate campaign in at Left, “after trying to stop Modi all these tist stand on Jammu and Kashmir, has
quer. least two dozen constituencies, putting years”. convinced the voter that Modi stood for a
The euphoria, however, was up formidable candidates. BSP supremo Mayawati is piqued with strong and united India.
shortlived. Ego clashes in the opposition The Congress was able to work out Rahul Gandhi for failing to accommodate Author is former Editor, Organiser
Shortage of zinc can lead to health complications

I
n a country where health issues hardly, if ever, dominate public
discourse, no ailment is regarded shocking enough, until it
QUOTE HANGER slowburn
claims casualties. It is for this reason why findings by the Har-
vard TH Chan School of Public Health needs the consideration
of the government, policymakers and public alike. Their study
Rishi Kapoor Bill Gates Plastic bottle shirts, with 170 mn pieces
@chintskap @BillGates
P
olo Ralph Lauren on Thursday tion that collects the bottles turned into
revealed that zinc deficiency has been on the rise in India in the
last three decades. As per data, there has been a 25 per cent rise
My heartfelt wishes for the I’ve been fascinated by launched a version of its iconic polo yarn and, ultimately, fabric. The new fib-
shirt made entirely of recycled plastic ers will also be used for existing perfor-
in zinc deficiency between 1983 to 2012 — in numerical terms, it Jet Airways people. You have served us Leonardo da Vinci for decades. bottles and dyed through a process that mance wear already made of polyfibers,
is equivalent to 8.2 crore people. Shortage of this chemical can with utmost love and care. Thank you. Although he died 500 years ago, uses zero water, according to a report by which are popular for their ability to wick
AP. David Lauren, the youngest son of the moisture.
have far-reaching consequences like a decline of the immune Sorry for this chaos. All will be good! there’s still so much to learn from his company’s founder and its chief innova-
system and increased inflammation associated with many health
remarkable life tion officer, said ahead of the announce-
problems, including cancer, heart disease and diabetes. New
studies have revealed that this shortage may decrease protein
Buzz Aldrin ment that the new shirt is part of a broad-
er strategy of fresh environmental goals
First 50 retweets show
@TheRealBuzz
stability and cause clumping, contributing to diseases like Alz-
heimer and Parkinson’s. The lead authors of the report talk of #Mars has been flown by,
throughout the manufacturing process.
“Every day we’re learning about what’s
if a tweet will go viral
Technology, exports and
E
a subject that hardly seems to bother anyone. According to them, happened with global warming and stimating how infectious a tweet is
orbited, smacked into, radar examined, what’s happening all around the world, from the first 50 retweets is the key to
there has been a demographic shift in India with reduced fertil-
ity. The ageing of the Indian population has caused the zinc re-
and rocketed onto, as well as bounced imports all that is going to and our employees and our customers are predicting whether a post will go viral
quirement for the average Indian to increase by 5 per cent be- upon, rolled over, shoveled, drilled happen but cinema is always really feeling that it’s time to step up and or not, a study has found, according to a
make a difference,” Lauren said. The Polo report by PTI. As online social networks
cause adults need more zinc than children. The worst-hit are the into, baked, and even laser blasted. going to be at the isn’t the first of its kind. Smaller brands and media continue to grow, so has the
South and northeastern states, where white rice is the staple diet Still to come: Mars being stepped on. around the world are using repurposed importance of understanding how they
and has poor zinc content. What is of crucial significance is the forefront or art is and recycled materials. In announcing influence our thou-ghts and opinions.
Earth Polo, Ralph Lauren committed to Being able to predict the spread of social
vicious circle of tradition and policy, which would need a lot of
Amitabh Bachchan going to be at the removing at least 170 million bottles from contagions is considered a key goal for
attention if an equitable solution is expected to be arrived at. The
rural population is moving from traditional coarse cereals like @SrBachchan front of people-to- landfills and oceans by 2025. The shirts
are manufactured in Taiwan, where the
those social information networks, ac-
cording to the study published in the
jowar to white rice, which is subsidised by the government, leav- You can accumulate only if people exchanges. bottles are collected. Each uses an aver- journal PLOS ONE. Studies tii date have
ing them with no choices. It makes sense to fortify food as a short you know how to distribute .. whether age 12 bottles. The shirts are produced in not used real data to estimate how infec-
— Shah Rukh partnership with First Mile, an organiza- tious the information is.
term remedy, but the long term solution is to guide people to
make the right food choices.
it is food, love or respect Khan, B’wood actor
send your feedback to editor@dnaindia.net

Strapping technology for a healthier today, tomorrow

How many steps
should one take to
be called fit and
healthy? Well,
with a smart
watch on your
wrist, it’s not dif-
ficult to answer
the question any-
Ali Rizvi more.
Walking, jog-
ging and running have been a healthy
person’s choice and practice since ages
now. And in this generation of fitness
enthusiasts and health conscious peo-
ple, physical activities and exercises
have indeed become an everyday habit.
The regular morning and evening
walks have not just contributed to re-
ducing medical ailments or stress lev-
els, but has also helped in increasing
the fitness factor as well as maintain-
ing an overall healthy system within.
Earlier doctors, dieticians or fitness
experts advised on the quantum of ex-
ercise needed to stay fit and healthy,
but with technology coming to the aid,
it’s the smartwatch strapped on the
wrist that can perform the same task
for anyone intersted.
Apart from encouraging fitness,
smartwatches and wearables also come
in handy in countering medical ail-
ments.
Measuring heart rates can help in
ensuring a timely visit to the doctor, if
there is the slightest chance of a heart
disorder.
With tight work schedules, smart
watches help in calculating the hours
of sleep needed. Over time, wearables
have evolved from being a calculator,
digital clock, translator and game play-
er, to becoming media player, Bluetooth
headset, digital cameras and global po-
sitioning system (GPS) receivers.
With health and fitness conscious-
ness rising across the world, it was in-
deed an obvious choice to make smart
watches and wearables focus on health.
So post-2000, smart watches began to
evolve. Added features like virtual pac-
er, all-day stress monitoring, interval
training, monitoring fitness level and
VO2 Max, built-in Altimeter, barometer
for weather and air pressure, 3-axis
electronic compass and many more
features started attracting customers.
These constant revisions helped in in-
corporating smart watches and fitness
bands as a must-have in the lives of ur-
ban consumers.
In India, the younger generation is
increasingly keeping up with a fitness
regime and healthy living. With more
money in their pockets and affordabili-
ty of technology, they are opting for
smart watches and wearables.
Now, let us look at the factors that
are driving the demand for smart
watches and wearables. With tight
deadlines at work, it is rather difficult
to keep up with the fitness needs and
maintain a healthy lifestyle. This is
where smart watches and wearables
are working wonders.
Add to it an expanding modern life-
style and the increasing urge to own
sophisticated devices, which are con-
tributing to the need to buy smart-
watches and wearables. Interestingly,
such items were considered a luxury
even a few years ago.
Now, people not just own such hi-tech
gears, but also react to their uses. For
example, a 28-year-old corporate execu-
tive actually tracks the steps he has tak-
en throughout the day and is ready to
compensate if the target is not met.
How are the companies coping with
the rising demand and changing re-
quirements of wearables? Initially the
Indian market saw little innovation
and witnessed, instead, more upgrades
of existing features. Moreover, lower
prices of fitness brands compared to
smart watches, attracted more buyers
towards the former.
But soon enough, with growing de-
mand and customer preference for bet-
ter and improved features, smart
watch brands have gradually started
concentrating on enabling the devices
with more features at reduced prices.
According to market trends, with
new and additional features, some ma-
jor brands are expected to be game
changers in smart watches and weara-
ble segment.
While one brand boasts of a water-
proof design, another is offering fea-
tures like heart-rate tracking, a third is
all set with an in-built GPS, while a
fourth is ready with pulse oxygen sen-
sor and body battery feature that meas-
ures one’s body reserves and calculates
how much energy is left.
Also women-specific smartwatches
with features such as period and thy-
roid trackers, among other features,
are expected to join the bandwagon.
With newer features at relatively low-
er prices and an ever-growing demand,
smart watches and wearables are here
to stay and will continue being the pop-
ular choice in the world of devices.
Staying fit is indeed a click away!
Author is National Sales Manager, Garmin India

Vol 12 n Issue No. 164 RNI: GUJENG/2007/22424. Printed and Published by Rajendra Bathula on behalf of Diligent Media Corporation ltd. Printed at Bhaskar Printing Press, Survey No.148 P, Nagdevta Mandir, Changodar, Bavla Highway, Sanand, Ahmedabad (Gujarat) and Published at Diligent Media Corporation
Limited, Venus Atlantis Building, Unit No. 201 to 208, 2nd Floor, 100 Feet Road, Prahladnagar, Satellite, Ahmedabad 380015. Phone: 079 4060 2000. Editor: Deepak Lokhande Responsible for selection of news under PRB Act.
 w rld
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in brief
EU slams Brunei
over ‘retrograde’
gay sex penalty
London: The European
Parliament on Thursday
strongly condemned
Brunei for introducing
“retrograde” Islamic
laws that punish gay sex
and adultery with death
by stoning. The Muslim-
majority sultanate has
drawn global condemna-
tion from the United Na-
tions, governments and
a host of celebrities for
introducing the latest
stage of Sharia laws on
April 3. It began rolling
out the Islamic criminal
laws in 2014. Along with
stoning for sodomy, the
laws impose the death
penalty on rapists and
punish thieves with am-
putation.
Pak FinMin quits
ahead of IMF deal
Islamabad:Pakistan’s
finance minister Asad
Umar has stepped down,
he announced Thursday,
with no replacement yet
named as Islamabad
seeks a crucial bailout
deal with the Interna-
tional Monetary Fund.
Umar, one of cricketer-
turned-premier Imran
Khan’s most powerful
ministers, had been en-
trusted with the task of
negotiating the long-de-
layed bailout as Paki-
stan’s cash-strapped
economy faces a bal-
ance-of-payments crisis.
Comedian set to
be Ukraine leader
Kiev: Comedian Volody-
myr Zelensky appeared
on track Thursday to be-
come Ukraine’s next
leader as incumbent Pet-
ro Poroshenko fought
for his political survival
three days before a pres-
idential run-off vote.
Polls showed Zelensky, a
41-year-old standup com-
ic and television star
with no political experi-
ence, sailing to victory
in Sunday’s second-
round vote.
Boeing conducts final
test flight of 737 MAX
with software upgrade
Washington: Boeing has
conducted a final test flight
of a 737 MAX model with an
updated anti-stall system
prior to its certification by
aviation authorities, the aer-
ospace manufacturer said
Wednesday.
Reuters
CEO Dennis Muilenberg
tweeted a video where he said
the test flight was carried out
on Tuesday, adding that test
pilots have completed 120
flights totalling more than
203 hours of airtime with the
software fix for the Maneu-
vering Characteristics Aug-
mentation System (MCAS).
Investigators have zeroed
in on the system as a factor
behind the Lion Air and Ethi-
opian Airlines crashes in Oc-
tober and in March respec-
tively, killing nearly 350 peo-
ple in total.
In both cases, the planes
nose-dived shortly after take-
off, signaling a problem in a
system that was deployed to
correct for an aerodynamic
issue that tended to cause the
plane’s nose to pitch up.
“More than 85 percent of
the 50-plus MAX operators
around the globe also have
had the opportunity to see
the update in action during
simulator sessions,” added
bumper production climate change possibly aided the species’ mating spree
World’s fattest parrot has record breeding season
Wellington: The world’s fat-
test parrot, the critically en-
dangered kakapo, has en-
joyed a record breaking
breeding season, New Zea-
land scientists said Thursday,
with climate change possibly
aiding the species’ unique
mating spree.
Less than 50 years after
the flightless nocturnal bird
was thought to have been ex-
tinct, at least 75 chicks are
expected to survive this year,
Andrew Digby, a science advi-
sor to New Zealand’s kakapo
recovery, operation said.
Digby oversees a breeding
programme so precisely
monitored that scientists can
state the last of 249 eggs laid
will hatch on Friday.
Trump tried to seize control of
Mueller probe, report suggests
Special Counsel ‘could not conclusively determine whether US President obstructed justice’
Washington: Public at last,
special counsel Robert Muel-
ler’s report revealed to a wait-
ing nation Thursday that Pres-
ident Donald Trump had tried
to seize control of the Russia
probe and force Mueller’s re-
moval to stop him from inves-
tigating potential obstruction
of justice by the president.
The report said that in June
2017, Trump directed White
House Counsel Don McGahn to
call the acting attorney general
and say that Mueller must be
ousted because he had conflicts
of interest.
McGahn refused — deciding
he would rather resign than
trigger what he regarded as a
potential Saturday Night Mas-
sacre of Watergate firings
fame.
For all of that, Mueller said
in his report that he could not
conclusively determine that
Trump had committed crimi-
nal obstruction of justice.
The Justice Department
posted a redacted version of
the report online Thursday
morning, 90 minutes after At-
torney General William Barr
offered his own final assess-
ment of the findings.
The two-volume, 448-page
report recounts how Trump
repeatedly sought to take con-
trol of the Russia probe. Muel-
ler evaluated 10 episodes for
possible obstruction of justice,
including Trump’s firing of
FBI Director James Comey, the
president’s directive to subor-
dinates to have Mueller fired
and efforts to encourage wit-
nesses not to cooperate.
The president’s lawyers
have said Trump’s conduct fell
within his constitutional pow-
ers, but Mueller’s team deemed
the episodes deserving of crim-
inal scrutiny.
‘End of my presidency’
Mueller reported that Trump
had been agitated at the special
counsel probe from its earliest
A Boeing 737 MAX 8 at the Boeing
plant in Renton, Washington
120 test flights
CEO Dennis Muilenberg
tweeted a video where
he said the test flight was
carried out on Tuesday,
adding that test pilots
have completed 120
flights totalling more
than 203 hours of airtime
with the software fix
for the Maneuvering
Characteristics
Augmentation System
(MCAS)
Muilenberg.
All 737 MAX aircraft have
been banned from the world’s
skies since days after the
Ethiopian Airlines crash on
March 10.
 —AFP
It will significantly boost
the population which has
grown to 147 adults since a
small number of the plump
green, yellow and black birds
was discovered in 1970.
Digby described the kaka-
po as an “unusual” parrot as
the females control the breed-
ing process and only mate
every two to four years when
New Zealand’s native rimu
trees are full of fruit.
“We don’t quite know what
the trigger is but one of the
things we are looking at is
that the rimu berry is really
high in vitamin D, a super
food basically, which is asso-
ciated with fertility and
health,” he said.
The rimu trees have pro-
US Attorney General William Barr (C) speaks about the release of the redacted version of the Mueller report in
Washington on Thursday; a picture tweeted by Donald Trump —AFP/Twitter/donald j trump
days, reacting to Mueller’s ap-
pointment in May 2017, by say-
ing, ‘Oh my God. This is terri-
ble. This is the end of my
presidency. I’m fucked.’
Trump had then become an-
gry at the then-attorney gen-
eral Jeff Sessions for recusing
himself from the Russia inves-
tigation because of his prior
contacts with Russian officials,
it said.
“The president became an-
gry and lambasted the attorney
general for his decision to
recuse from the investigation,
stating ‘How could you let this
easter monkeys
Black capped squirrel monkeys are fed treats from a papier-mache Easter egg at ZSL London Zoo in London on
Thursday —Reuters
Ex-Nazi guard charged for murders
Berlin: German prosecutors
on Thursday charged a 92-year-
old man with aiding and abet-
ting the murder of 5,230 people
as a guard at a Nazi concentra-
tion camp during World War II.
The allegations against the
accused, identified by daily
newspaper Die Welt as Bruno
Dey from Hamburg, concern
atrocities committed at the
Stutthof concentration camp,
near what was then Danzig,
now Gdansk in Poland.
He worked between August
1944 and April 1945 at the camp,
A kakapo seen on Codfish Island,
off the south coast of New
Zealand’s South Island —AFP
duced a bumper crop this
year with Digby saying one
happen, Jeff ?’” the report said.
“Everyone tells me if you
get one of these independent
counsels it ruins your presi-
dency,” Trump was quoted as
saying. “It takes years and
years and I won’t be able to do
anything. This is the worst
thing that ever happened to
me,” Trump added.
As for the question of
whether the Trump campaign
had colluded with Russia dur-
ing the 2016 presidential cam-
paign, Mueller wrote, “While
the investigation identified
numerous links between indi-
A guard tower seen at the former
German Nazi concentration and
extermination camp Auschwitz-
Birkenau —Reuters
which ended up holding 110,000
prisoners, 65,000 of whom per-
ished. Despite his senior age,
theory was that climate
change and temperature fluc-
tuations could be behind the
berry bonanza.
The surviving kakapo --
whose name means “night
parrot” in Maori -- are kept
on four predator-free islands
off the New Zealand coast.
At the start of the breed-
ing season, the males which
weigh about 4.0 kilograms,
put themselves on display
while the females choose a
partner.
They mate and then end
the relationship, shutting the
male out of the incubation
and rearing processes.
The kakapo recovery pro-
gramme is so tightly moni-
tored that although they re-
I am having a good
day. It’s called no
collusion, no
obstruction. There never
was, by the way, and there
never will be ... this
should never happen ... to
another president again
Donald Trump,
US President
viduals with ties to the Russian
government and individuals
associated with the Trump
Campaign, the evidence was
not sufficient to support crimi-
nal charges.”
Mueller also said there
wasn’t sufficient evidence to
charge any campaign officials
with working as an unregis-
tered foreign agent of Russia.
The report included an ap-
pendix that contained 12 pages
of Trump’s written responses
to the special counsel. They in-
cluded no questions about ob-
struction of justice, as was part
the accused will be tried by a
juvenile court in Hamburg, be-
cause he was 17 when he first
worked at Stutthof.
Prosecutors accuse him of
having contributed to the im-
plementation of the Nazis’ or-
der to kill as a “cog of the mur-
der machinery”.
According to Die Welt, Dey
was questioned by Hamburg
prosecutors last year and he
does not deny his presence in
the camp, which was part of
the Nazis’ vast network of con-
centration camps. —AFP
main in the wild, each one
has a radio transmitter at-
tached to its body and there
are monitoring systems em-
bedded in their nests.
Digby knew that of the 50
adult females, 49 produced
249 eggs, of which 89 have so
far hatched and 75 were ex-
pected to make it to adult-
hood. That is more than dou-
ble the success rate from the
last breeding season three
years ago.
“It’s probably one of the
most intensively managed
species in the world,” said
Digby, who wants at least 500
birds before any thought is
given to easing up the inten-
sity of the recovery opera-
tion. —AFP
Ahmedabad I Friday, April 19, 2019 I daily news & analysis
top takeaways
n Special Counsel Robert
Mueller’s probe did not
conclude Donald Trump
committed a crime but
also did not exonerate
him, the report said
n Mueller said he found
at least 10 cases of
possible obstruction of
justice by Trump
n The episodes include
his firing of FBI Direc-
tor James Comey and
actions to protect former
National Security Adviser
Michael Flynn
nInvestigators also
looked into efforts to
remove Mueller, curtail
the Russia investiga-
tion, prevent public
disclosure of evidence,
get former White House
Counsel Don McGahn
to deny the president
had ordered him to have
Mueller removed, and
other conduct involving
Flynn, former campaign
chairman Paul Manafort,
former Trump lawyer
Michael Cohen and one
person whose name is
redacted
of an agreement with Trump’s
legal team. Trump told Mueller
he had “no recollection” of
learning in advance about the
much-scrutinised Trump Tow-
er meeting between campaign
officials and a Russian lawyer.
He also said he had no recollec-
tion of knowledge about emails
setting up the meeting that
promised dirt on Hillary Clin-
ton’s campaign.
He broadly denied knowing
of any foreign government try-
ing to help his campaign, in-
cluding the Russian govern-
ment. —Agencies
French Prez honours ‘exemplary’
firefighters for saving Notre-Dame
Paris: French President Em-
manuel Macron on Thursday
hailed as “exemplary” hun-
dreds of firefighters who saved
Notre-Dame in the devastating
blaze, as efforts intensified to
ensure there was no further
damage to the still fragile ca-
thedral.
Some 600 firefighters
worked throughout the night
Monday to put out the fire at
the Paris landmark and pre-
vent an even worse disaster, in
a blaze that felled the spire and
destroyed two-thirds of its
roof. Sixty firefighters are still
keeping a vigil at Notre-Dame
to ensure no further fire erupts
while France’s culture minis-
ter warned that two gables and
figurines perched high up in
the building were still at risk
of collapse inside.
Dressed in ceremonial uni-
form, the firefighters and other
emergency workers filed into
the Elysee Palace for the
closed-door meeting with Ma-
cron.
“The country and the entire
world were watching us and
you were exemplary,” Macron
said. “You were the perfect ex-
ample of what we should be,”
he added. He said the firefight-
ers would be awarded France’s
golden medal of honour in rec-
ognition of their “courage and
devotion”.
Mayor of Paris Anne Hi-
dalgo was also to pay tribute to
the firefighters and others who
helped save the 850-year-old
gothic masterpiece, in a cere-
mony from 2.30 pm outside the
city hall.
The ceremony saw a read-
ing of Victor Hugo’s celebrated
novel The Hunchback of No-
tre-Dame (called simply Notre-
Dame de Paris in the original
French) about the deformed
Quasimodo that helped turn
the building into a cultural, as
well as religious icon. Culture
Minister Franck Riester said
on Thursday that even three
days after the fire there re-
mained concerns that parts of
the building could collapse.
He said one gable in the
north transept and another be-
tween the two great bell towers
were at risk. He also said that
figures in the southern bell
tower still risked falling and,
if they did, this would dam-
age the organs below. An op-
eration will be undertaken to
remove them. —AFP
07
Kim Jong to meet
Putin as tensions
with America rise
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un —Reuters
Seoul: North Korea’s leader
Kim Jong Un will visit Russia
for talks with Vladimir Putin
this month, the Kremlin said
Thursday, as tensions be-
tween Washington and
Pyongyang reached fever
pitch.
The Kremlin announced
the talks just hours after
North Korea launched an ex-
traordinary attack on US Sec-
retary of State Mike Pompeo,
demanding he be removed
from negotiations over its
banned nuclear programme.
Pyongyang also claimed
Thursday to have tested a new
kind of weapon with a “pow-
erful warhead”.
The Kim-Putin meeting
will be the first between the
two leaders, as Moscow seeks
to play a role in another glob-
al flashpoint.
The Kremlin said Putin
had invited Kim and that the
meeting would take place “in
the second half of April” but
provided no further details.
Russia, South Korean and
Japanese media had reported
this week that preparations
were underway for a summit
in Russia’s Far East.
Russia has relatively
warm ties with Pyongyang
and provides some food aid,
and Putin has long expressed
his readiness to meet with the
regime leader.
Two senior US officials --
presidential advisor Fiona
Hill and special envoy for
North Korea Stephen Biegun
-- were in Moscow this week
for talks with Russian offi-
Parisian Firefighters’ brigade arrives at Elysee Palace for French President
Emmanuel Macron’s speech in Paris on Thursday —Reuters
Worshipers to be given
‘ephemeral’ cathedral
Paris: Catholic worship-
pers feeling orphaned by the
fire that ravaged part of
Notre-Dame will be wel-
comed in an “ephemeral
cathedral” of wood in front
of the Paris monument un-
til it reopens, Notre-Dame’s
chief priest said Thursday.
Speaking to France’s
CNews television channel
Monsignor Patrick Chauvet
said: “We mustn’t say ‘the
cathedral is closed for five
years and that’s it’.
To give the faithful some-
where to congregate next to
Notre-Dame, he suggested:
“Can I not build an ephem-
eral cathedral on the espla-
nade (in front of Notre-
Dame)?”
Paris Mayor Anne Hi-
dalgo had backed the idea
and agreed to give over part
of the esplanade to the
Man with gasoline held at NY church
New York: A New Jersey
man was arrested after en-
tering St Patrick’s Cathe-
dral carrying two cans of
gasoline, lighter fluid and
butane lighters, the New
York Police Department
said, just days after flames
ravaged the Notre-Dame
cathedral in Paris. The
unidentified 37-year-old
man had pulled up Wednes-
‘Powerful war-
head’ tested
„„Adding to tensions,
KCNA reported on
Thursday that Kim had
supervised the test-firing
of a new tactical weapon
„„Wednesday’s test
was “conducted in
various modes of firing
at different targets”
KCNA reported, adding
that Kim described
its development as
one “of very weighty
significance in
increasing the combat
power of the People’s
Army”
cials. Pyongyang and Wash-
ington have been at logger-
heads since the collapse of a
summit between Kim and
President Donald Trump ear-
lier this year.
Pompeo ‘reckless’
Upping the ante in the diplo-
matic standoff, North Korea’s
foreign ministry on Thursday
described Pompeo as “reck-
less” and immature and said
it wanted him replaced.
“I am afraid that, if
Pompeo engages in the talks
again, the table will be lousy
once again and the talks will
become entangled,” the offi-
cial KCNA news agency quot-
ed Kwon Jong Gun, director
general of the ministry’s De-
partment of American Af-
fairs, as saying. —AFP
An aerial shot of Notre-Dame
cathedral shows the extent of
the damage it suffered in the
fire —AP
church for a wooden struc-
ture, he said.
Chauvet said the wooden
“cathedral” would host
priests who could address
some of the millions of
tourists who throng the
original 850-year-old Gothic
cathedral each year.
—AFP
day night in a minivan out-
side the landmark cathe-
dral on Fifth Avenue in
midtown Manhattan,
walked around the area,
then returned to his vehi-
cle at 7:55 pm and retrieved
the gasoline and lighter
fluid, said NYPD Deputy
Commissioner of Intelli-
gence and Counterterror-
ism John Miller. —AP
19
Friday
April
2019
Ahmedabad
www.dnaindia.com
Sensex
39140.28 135.36 q
Gold 10 gram 31432.00
US $ 69.36 0.25 q
news in numbers
moneyedit
Land delays
continue to
haunt projects
I
ndia remains a country
where delays in infra-
structure project as well as
cost overruns are a norm.
The reasons behind
these deadline revisions
too haven’t changed in the
last so many decades.
Land acquisition remains
the biggest factor behind
projects being stuck for
long. Even a day’s delay
translates into certain in-
crease in a project’s cost. A
Care Ratings report stated
that for 1,424 projects be-
ing implemented by the
central government, the
initial cost was Rs 18.17
lakh crore, but due to de-
lays this has shot up to Rs
21.34 lakh crore. This is Rs
3.17 lakh crore or 17.44%
increase in the total cost.
Compare this Rs 3.17
lakh crore cost hike with
Ministry of Road Trans-
port & Highways require-
ment of Rs 5.35 lakh crore
to implement the first
phase of Bharatmala in-
volving construction of
34,800 km in the five years
starting 2017-18.
More than half of
Bharatmala’s funding re-
quirement can be met
with this ‘cost overrun’.
The government is strug-
gling to raise funds for this
very ambitious project. In
fact, recent Toll Operate
Transfer bid had to be
scrapped due to quotes re-
ceived being lower than
the reserve price.
Until January 2019, the
National Highways Au-
thority of India had raised
Rs 41,170 crore to take up
road projects and the debt
level will only increase in
the coming years.
ST smart
Jet ousted from
clearinghouse
International Air Trans-
port Association (IATA)
on Thursday suspended
the membership of the
grounded Jet Airways
of its clearinghouse sys-
tem, a move that is like-
ly to impact the refund
process to passengers.
The suspension of mem-
bership is with immedi-
ate effect, IATA said.
However, those claims
already submitted for
clearance are excluded.
Passengers who pur-
chased Jet Airways tick-
ets through IATA-ac-
credited travel agents
are advised to submit
their refund through the
IATA accredited travel
agent they bought their
tickets from, as soon as
possible, IATA said add-
ing the travel agent will
then liaise with IATA
and Jet Airways to pro-
cess the refund.
Online retail at
$170b by 2029-30
Online retail in the
country that is growing
at a faster pace, is ex-
pected to be $170 billion
by the financial year
2029-30, according to a
Jefferies report. It is
growing at a compound-
ed annual growth rate
of 23%. Online retail,
which is currently
around 25% of the total
organised retail market
in India, can potentially
increase to around 37%
of the total organised re-
tail market during this
period, the report said.
Currently, the total on-
line retail in the country
is pegged at $18 billion.
Spends per online shop-
pers, which is estimated
at Rs 12,800 is expected
to increase to Rs 25,138
by 2029-30, with consum-
ers shopping online for
other segments, beyond
electronics and apparel.
Nifty
11752.80 34.35 q
221.00 q
EURO 78.03 0.65 q
46% — Office space supply rose in January-March to 13.4 million square feet in top cities: CBRE
Net profit rises 9.8% to record Rs 10,362 crore in fourth quarter
Retail, Jio keep RIL flying,
but petchem revenues fall
DNA Money Correspondent
correspondent@dnaindia.net
Mumbai: Oil-to-telecom
conglomerate Reliance In-
dustries Ltd (RIL) on Thurs-
day reported a 9.8% rise in
consolidated profit for the
quarter ended March 31 at Rs
10,362 crore on the back on
the robust growth in the con-
sumer facing retail and tele-
com divisions.
However, its standalone
net profit decreased 1.6% to
Rs 8,556 crore on account of
decreasing margins in its re-
fining and petrochemical
businesses.
When asked to comment
on Saudi Aramco’s reported
discussion over investment
in RIL, the company execu-
tives refused to comment,
calling it speculative. The
reported stake sale to Aram-
co is expected to help the
company in expansion of its
consumer facing business,
which now forms around
25% of its earnings before
interest, depreciation, tax
and amortisation, analysts
claim. RIL has been increas-
ingly moving to expand its
consumer facing business,
which till five years back was
just about 2% of revenues.
Mukesh Ambani, chair-
man and managing director,
RIL said in a statement, “Re-
liance Retail crossed Rs
1,00,000 crore revenue mile-
stone, Jio now serves over
‘Wadia case fallout
of corporate dispute’
Mumbai: Tata Sons former
chairman Ratan Tata told the
Bombay High Court on
Thursday that the defama-
tion case filed against him
and other directors of the
group by industrialist Nusli
Wadia was because of the
fallout of a corporate dispute.
Ratan Tata and the other
directors earlier approached
the high court, seeking to
quash and stay the proceed-
ings initiated against them
by a magistrate court in the
2016 criminal defamation
case filed by Nusli Wadia.
In December 2018, a magis-
trate court in the city issued
notices to Ratan Tata and
other directors of Tata Sons
in the criminal defamation
case filed by Wadia in 2016,
after he was voted out of the
Boards of some Tata
Group companies.
Senior counsel
Abhishek Manu
Singhvi, appearing
for Ratan Tata, on
Thursday told a di-
vision bench of
Justices
Ratan Tata
Stellar show Stocks including Rail Vikas Nigam are commanding up to 38% premium over issue prices
Most IPOs listed this year trading over issue price
Soumonty Kanungo
soumonty.kanungo@dnaindia.net
Mumbai: Stock market list-
ings in the first four months
of calendar year 2019 kicked
off on a positive note with
shares of six out of seven
main companies that went
for initial public offers (IPO)
trading at a price higher than
their listing prices.
However, five of the ten
SME IPOs listed during this
period are trading below
their issue price as they
failed to retain sufficient in-
vestor interest.
The first four months of
2019 witnessed a cumulative
fundraising of around Rs
9,591.71 crore from the main
IPOs as against a whopping
Rs 18,435.66 crore raised dur-
ing the corresponding period
of 2018.
Silver kg 37190.00 No change
British pound 90.26 0.87 q
51.6%
Jump in retail revenues
Another to `36,663 crore
record
quarter $8.2/bbl: Gross refining margin for the reporting quarter
12.7%
rise in quarterly Ebitda
at `20,832 crore
1121.35
Jan 1, 19
300 million consumers and
our petrochemicals business
delivered its highest ever
earnings.”
RIL’s consolidated reve-
nues for the reported quar-
ter stood at Rs 154,110 crore,
which is an increase of
19.4% as compared to Rs
129,120 crore in the corre-
sponding period of the pre-
vious year. Increase in reve-
nue is primarily on account
of strong growth in retail
and digital services busi-
nesses, which grew 51.6%
and 61.6%, respectively,
though higher petrochemi-
cal volumes also contributed
to the growth in revenue.
Ranjit More and Bharati
Dangre that the entire case
was filed with complete non-
application of mind.
“The case is only a fallout
of a corporate dispute be-
tween Ratan Tata and Nusli
Wadia, who is a strong sup-
porter of Cyrus Mistry (for-
mer group chairman of Tata
Sons),” Singhvi told the court.
He further argued that
what the complainant, Wa-
dia, has termed as defama-
tory is wrong and not “de-
famatory per se”.
“The November 2016 let-
ters and minutes of meeting
that was circulated by Tata
Sons to its group companies
only sought for Wadia’s re-
moval as he was acting
against the company’s inter-
est,” Singhvi said. After hear-
ing brief arguments, the
bench posted the peti-
tion for further hear-
ing on June 10.
Wadia was on the
Boards as an inde-
pendent director of
group compa-
nies. —PTI
A K Prabhakar, head – re-
search, IDBI Capital, said
there has been an improve-
ment in the overall IPO senti-
ment, but promoters “must
bring something to table to
attract investors to create de-
mand”.
“More often promoters
alone want to make money. If
they offer some discounts to
investors that would help in-
vestors to make money as
well,” Prabhakar said.
Arun Kejriwal, founder,
Kejriwal Research & Invest-
ment Services, said those
who were in need to tap the
market have done that in the
first four months of this year,
and have done reasonably
well.
“There is always an appe-
tite for IPOs at a fair price.
Whenever an IPO is over-
priced and there is one bad
FTSE 100
7471.32 1.40 p
Brent Crude
61.6%
rise in digital services
revenues at `13,609 crore
11.3%
in petrochemical segment
revenue to `42,414 crore
Reliance Industries
Jio net jumps 65%, but
revenue per user falls
DNA Money Correspondent
correspondent@dnaindia.net
New Delhi: Reliance Jio
posted a 64.7% jump in its net
profit at Rs 840 crore for the
fourth quarter ended March
2019 in spite of continued fall
in average revenue per user
(Arpu), a key matrix for prof-
itability. Operating revenues
stood at Rs 11,106 crore, an
increase of 55.8%.
Jio now has over 300 mil-
Honda recalls
3,669 Accords
to fix airbags
New Delhi: Japanese auto
major Honda said on Thurs-
day it is recalling 3,669 units
of its Accord sedan in India
as part of a global exercise to
rectify faulty airbags.
The company, which is pre-
sent in India through a whol-
ly-owned arm Honda Cars
India Ltd (HCIL), is voluntar-
ily recalling the units manu-
factured between 2003-2006 to
fix faulty front airbag infla-
tors supplied by Takata Corp.
The replacement will be
carried out free of cost at
Honda dealerships across In-
dia from Thursday, HCIL said.
As part of the Takata air-
bag inflator recalls which
have impacted several car
makers globally, the compa-
ny said it continues to urge
owners of vehicles affected
by the recall to get their ve-
hicles repaired at authorised
dealers as soon as possible.
“HCIL reiterates the im-
portance of replacing the af-
fected Takata front airbag in-
flators urgently as they may
deploy with excessive inter-
nal pressure,” it said. —PTI
Running with the bulls
Scrip Name Issue price Close price* % chg
Rail Vikas Nigam `19.00 `26.15 37.63
Polycab India `538.00 `640.45 19.04
Xelpmoc Design and Tech `66.00 `74.85 13.41
Embassy Offic Parks `300.00 `337.34 12.45
Chalet Hotels `280.00 `311.7 11.32
Metropolis Healthcare `880.00 `966.25 9.80
MSTC `128.00 `105.3 -17.73
*As on Apr 18, 2019
issue, the next one suffers.
The performance of one IPO
will affect the other. It is a
chain reaction. It is the same
money that rotates from one
issue to the other,” he said.
According to him, the time
is always right if an issue is
offered at a fair price, and till
the election results, no major
surprise or shock can be seen
in the market.
Nikkei 225
22090.12 187.85 q
$/barrel 71.08 0.26 q
UAE dirham 18.89 0.06 q
15.02%
Operating
margin
6.1%
Jump
rise in cash profit
to `16,349 crore
Share Price On Bse In `
1382.90
Apr 18
lion subscribers and is the
only telecom operator in the
country whose profits are on
a rise. But as the telco contin-
ues to add low-revenue users,
its Arpu fell for the fifth
straight quarter to Rs 126.2,
down from Rs 131.7 in the
October-December period.
The average data con-
sumption per user per
month stood at 10.9 GB while
average voice consumption
was 823 minutes.
RBI’s rate panel concerned over
growth, some flag inflation risks
Suvashree Choudhury
Mumbai: India’s interest rate
setting panel expressed con-
cerns over a slowing economy,
according to minutes of its
latest monetary policy meet-
ing released on Thursday,
even as a few said they feared
a bounce-back in inflation.
Most of the six-member
Monetary Policy Committee
(MPC) agreed on the need to
lower interest rates and boost
growth as inflation stayed
muted, the minutes showed.
The MPC lowered the repo
rate by 25 basis points to 6%
two weeks ago in a 4-2 vote,
the second in a row since Feb-
ruary under new Reserve
Bank of India (RBI) governor
Shaktikanta Das.
“With the inflation out-
look looking benign and
headline inflation expected
to remain below target in the
current year, it becomes nec-
essary to address the chal-
lenges to sustained growth
of the Indian economy,” Das
wrote in the minutes.
A minority of MPC mem-
Metropolis Healthcare and
Polycab India debuted on the
stock exchanges this week at
a premium to their issue
prices. While Metropolis list-
ed on the exchange at a pre-
mium of 9%, Polycab debuted
at a premium of over 21%.
Apart from MSTC, which
listed on the exchange at a
discount of 10.78% and is cur-
rently trading at 17.73% low-
Fares fly as Jet crashes,
AI comes to the rescue
Praveena Sharma
correspondent@dnaindia.net
New Delhi: On Thursday,
as the cash-starved Jet Air-
ways cancelled all flights to
temporarily suspend its op-
eration fares on domestic
sectors soared.
When DNA Money
checked fares on Mumbai-
Jaipur route for today’s one-
way air travel on some of
the online booking portals
late Thursday evening, they
were ranging between Rs
14,000 and Rs 24,000. These
prices were for budget air-
lines like IndiGo and GoAir.
For instance, the portal
threw up a fare of Rs 14,785
for a non-stop 7.55 pm flight
of IndiGo while a ticket for
a GoAir flight at 5.45 pm on
the same day was priced at
Rs 23,991. On a normal day,
last-minute fares rarely
ever go up to these levels.
Meanwhile, coming to
the rescue of the stranded
international passengers
hit by Jet grounding, gov-
ernment-run Air India
Thursday offered special
fares to such passengers.
The “special stranded”
fares have been offered to
passengers at overseas air-
ports such as Paris, London
Heathrow, Singapore, Dubai,
Hong Kong, Abu Dhabi, Jed-
dah, Dammam, and Muscat,
among others, Air India said
in a statement.
Jitender Bhargava, avia-
tion writer and former Air
India senior official, said
the spurt in the fares was
caused by mechanical rev-
time for stimulus
„„Most of the MPC
agreed on the need to
lower interest rates and
boost growth as inflation
stayed muted
„„A minority of MPC
members warned that
a bad monsoon could
push up food prices and
drive up inflation above
the RBI’s 4% target
Governor Shatikanta Das
bers warned that a bad mon-
soon could push up food
prices and drive up inflation
above the RBI’s 4% target.
“Soft food inflation may
not persist for long,” warned
RBI deputy governor and
er than its issue price, all
other stocks such as Xelpmoc
Design and Tech, Chalet Ho-
tels, Embassy Office Parks
REIT, Rail Vikas Nigam, Me-
tropolis and Polycab are trad-
ing between 9.5% and 38%
higher than their issue price.
Metropolis, however, is ex-
pected to see some correc-
tions as the price and valua-
tions look too steep, accord-
Employees of Jet gather to demand clarification on unpaid salaries at
its headquarters in Mumbai on Thursday -Aadesh Choudhari/DNA
Stock nodedives 34%
DNA Money Correspondent correspondent@dnaindia.net
Mumbai: Shares of Jet Airways on Thursday nosedived
34.62% in intra-day trade after the cash-strapped airline
announced that it will suspend all its operations temporarily.
The stock touched an intra-day low of Rs 158.10 on BSE
before recovering slightly and closing at Rs 163.90 per
scrip, 32.23% lower than the previous close. Meanwhile,
rivals InterGlobe Aviation, too, closed 1.8% lower to Rs
1,554.70 than its previous close, though it rose 4.22% to Rs
1,650 intra-day. On the other hand, SpiceJet closed 2.68%
higher at Rs 136.25 per share on Thursday.
enue model that come into bly by keeping fares at “rea-
play when an airline’s plane sonable levels” at a time
load factor shoots over 90%. when flyers are distressed
Considering that all due to the sudden shutdown
flights of Jet have been of the full-service carrier.
pulled out of the market, it “Our airlines are not known
must have caused the load to be compassionate. They
factor of airlines to scale have demonstrated this re-
over 90%. peatedly when there is a
However, Bhargava said natural calamity or total
airlines must show compas- disruption of flights on a
sion and behave responsi- certain sector.”
I-T dept
proposes new
norms for
MPC member Viral Acharya
taxing MNCs
who voted against a rate cut,
adding that it could steer New Delhi: The income tax
“headline inflation away (I-T) department on Thurs-
from the target rate of 4%”.
Monsoons are crucial for
day proposed a change in the
methodology for taxing mul-
food prices and economic
growth with half of the coun-
tinational companies, in-
cluding digital firms, having
try’s farmland lacking irriga- a permanent establishment
tion. Irregular rains could in India by giving weightage
push up food prices that have to factors like domestic sales,
been falling for four months employee strength, assets
and further slow down an eco- and user base.
nomic recovery if the rural The The Central Board of
economy suffers. Direct Taxes (CBDT) Com-
“It wouldn’t hurt to wait mittee on ‘Profit Attribution
for a couple of months to to Permanent Establish-
watch the momentum on ment (PE) in India’ also said
food inflation and other vari- MNCs that are incurring
ables before taking a call on global losses or a global prof-
further rate cuts,” said an- it margin of less than 2%
other MPC member, Chetan and have operations in India
Ghate, who wanted the repo will be deemed to have made
rate to remain unchanged. a profit of 2% of Indian rev-
India grew at 6.6%in the enue or turnover and will be
December quarter, its slow- taxed accordingly.
est in five quarters on weak “The committee noted the
consumer demand and mut- need to protect India’s reve-
ed private investment. The nue interests in cases where
slowdown has continued an enterprise having global
amid weak auto sales, tighter losses or a global profit mar-
financing conditions and gin of less than 2%, contin-
slow growth in jobs. —Reuters ues with the Indian opera-
tions, which could be more
profitable than its opera-
tions elsewhere. The contin-
uation of Indian operations
justifies the presumption of
higher profitability of Indi-
an operations, and in such
cases, a deeming provision
that deems profits of Indian
operations at 2% of revenue
ing to both Prabhakar and or turnover derived from In-
Kejriwal. dia should be introduced,”
Besides, promoters of the the report said.
company had their shares The CBDT committee re-
pledged even on the day of port has proposed that sales,
the listing, Kejriwal said. employees (manpower and
“We hope the valuation wages) and assets in India of
sustains, but it may see some multinational corporations
correction, depending on (MNCs) should be taken into
how the market views once account for determining do-
those share pledge disclo- mestic tax liability.
sures are made on the ex- In the case of digital com-
changes,” Kejriwal said. panies, the weightage will be
On the other hand, there is given to additional fourth
a decline in the number of criteria of ‘user’ base, the
IPOs in the SME segment report said.
compared to the same period An MNC having a fixed
last year. Till March 2019, place of business in India is
around 17 SMEs tapped the considered as having Perma-
market to raise a cumulative nent Establishment (PE) in
Rs 250.59 crore compared to India and is taxed as per do-
52 such companies, which mestic laws.
raised a cumulative Rs 917.42 CBDT on Thursday invit-
crore during the same period ed comments from stake-
last year, as per data available holders on the report within
with Prime Database. 30 days. —PTI
 c mpanies
www.dnaindia.com I twitter.com/dna I epaper.dnaindia.com I facebook.com/dnaindia
L&T’s engineering
arm bags order to
Deal
Street supply reactors
Infrastructure company Larsen & Toubro (L&T)
Thursday said its heavy engineering arm has won
various contracts for supply of critical reactors,
equipment and systems for process plant sector. The
company did not provide value of the contracts but said
the orders fall under “significant” category which
ranges between Rs 1,000 crore and Rs 2,500 crore as per
its classification of contracts. “The heavy engineering
arm of Larsen & Toubro has won significant contracts
for critical reactors, equipment and systems for Process
Plant sector, against stiff global competition,” L&T said
in a regulatory filing.
Xoriant acquires
CloudIO
Xoriant Corporation, with
headquarters in Silicon
Valley, a product
engineering, software
development, and
technology services
company, announced the
acquisition of CloudIO, an
enterprise grade solution
provider in the areas of
IoT, supplier collaboration,
and financial statement
analysis. CloudIO’s digital
transformation framework
enables enterprises to
build custom business
solutions leveraging pre-
built applications.
In brief
ICICI Lombard Q4
profit at `228 cr
ICICI Lombard General
Insurance reported 7.5%
increase in profit at Rs
228 crore for the fourth
quarter of 2018-19
financial year. The
company’s net profit in
the year-ago period
stood at Rs 212 crore.
Total income increased
to Rs 2,519.72 crore as
against Rs 2,066.64 crore
in the last quarter of
the previous fiscal.
Tata Sponge Q4
net falls 47%
TATA SPONGE IRON  tion of customary closing
Share price on BSE in `
972.80
767.55
Apr 2, 18 Apr 17, 19
Tata Sponge Iron
Limited Thursday
reported a sharp fall of
over 47% in its
consolidated net profit
to Rs 24.39 crore during
the fourth quarter
ended March 31, due to
higher expenses. The
company had posted Rs
46.69-crore net profit in
the year-ago quarter,
Tata Sponge said in a
BSE filing. The
company’s total income
stood at Rs 269.05 crore
as against Rs 255.17
crore in the same
quarter of 2017-18.
Schneider-L&T
deal gets CCI nod
The Competition
Commission Thursday
said it has given
approval to Schneider’s
acquisition of Larsen &
Toubro’s electrical and
automation business in
a Rs 14,000-crore deal.
However, the deal is
subject to compliance of
certain modifications,
the Competition
Commission of India
(CCI) said. The green
signal comes after the
regulator had sought
comments from the
public in November last
year on the proposed
acquisition by
Schneider after finding
that it could have an
adverse impact on
competition.
BoB, Srei enter
co-lending space
City-based Srei
Equipment Finance Ltd
and Bank of Baroda will
come together to offer
joint loans for
infrastructure
equipment under a new
agreement, company
officials said on
Thursday. The partners
will be able to leverage
each other’s customers
and cross-sell their
products. The
offerings would
include both business-
to-business and
business-to-customer
propositions, a Srei
release said.
BIGO may infuse
$100 mn in India
BIGO Technology, one of
the fastest growing
Singapore-based Internet
companies dedicated to
technology & innovation,
has announced big
investment plan of over
$100 million for its
business in India over a
span of next three years.
By opening a regional
centre in India, BIGO
Technology is the first
Singapore-based
Internet company to
step outside and
become a growing local
power.
GVK signs deal to sell
49% in airport subsidiary
Mumbai: GVK Power and
Infrastructure Ltd Thursday
said it agreed to offer 49%
stake in GVK Airport Hold-
ings Ltd in favour of Abu
Dhabi Investment Authority
(ADIA) and the National In-
vestment and Infrastructure
Fund (NIIF).
In afiling with BSE, the
city-based infra major said
the transaction is subject to
conclusion of confirmatory
due diligence by ADIA and
NIIF, agreement on defini-
tive documents and satisfac-
1175
conditions including regula-
1065 tory and third party approv-
als and lender consents.
955
“GVK Airports Developer
845 Ltd (GVKADL) and GVK
735 Airport Holdings Ltd
(GVKAHL), subsidiaries of
625
out company have signed a
term sheet and exclusivity
agreement with the Abu
Dhabi Investment Authority
and the National Investment
and Infrastructure Fund for
an investment in new shares
in GVKAHL equating to a 49
Jio, BSNL drive subscriber base to 120.5 cr
Panasonic eyeing
`1,000 cr revenue
from smart solutions
New Delhi: Japanese con-
sumer electronics major Pa-
nasonic, which Thursday
announced its plans to ramp
up smart factory solutions
business in India, is target-
ing a revenue of around Rs
1,000 crore from the segment
in three years.
Panasonic expects its so-
lutions and digital manufac-
turing to contribute around
15% to the total revenue from
the smart factory business,
the company said in a state-
ment.
It has integrated its weld-
ing and surface-mount tech-
nology (SMT) equipment
businesses to consolidate its
software and hardware capa-
bilities and to become an
end-to-end inte g rated
smart manufacturing so-
lutions company, it add-
ed.
“The company targets to
achieve Rs 1,000 crore in rev-
enue from its smart factory
business in the next three
years, with solutions and
digital manufacturing ex-
pected to contribute 15% to
the total smart factory busi-
ness revenue,” said Pana-
sonic.
The smart factory solu-
tions proposition will enable
Panasonic to deliver high
value-added and smart solu-
tions and services along with
hardware to the manufactur-
ing industry.
Panasonic India Presi-
dent and Chief Executive Of-
ficer Manish Sharma said:
“The key technology to real-
ise a smart factory is to con-
nect various equipment
through the internet of
things (IoT), to synchronise
Coal India to ask power
plants to cut coal imports
Co to encourage import substitution with domestic supplies at power plants
Sumit Moitra
m_sumit@dnaindia.net
Kolkata: Surge in coal im-
ports has now forced Coal
India Ltd (CIL) to start meet-
ing power producers indi-
vidually from today and find
ways to help them reduce
their dependence on im-
ports.
“ln order to reduce im-
ports, as advised by Ministry
of Coal, one-to-one meeting
shall be held with coal con-
sumers for substitution of
coal import in 2019-20,” Coal
India recently communicated
to all those consumers, in-
cluding power plants which
have been importing coal.
Discussions would also be
held with those who are even
contemplating imports in
the current financial year,
CIL officials said.
India’s coal and coke im-
ports during 2018-19 grew
8.83% to 233.56 million tonne
(mt) compared to 214.61 mt
imported in fiscal 2018, as
part sale plans
„„All proceeds from the
proposed transaction will
be used by GVK towards
retiring debt obligations
„„Transaction is
subject to conclusion
of confirmatory due
diligence by ADIA and
NIIF
percent stake,” the filing
said.
However, the deal value
was not disclosed.
GVKAHL holds 74% eq-
uity stake in Mumbai Inter-
national Airport Limited
(MIAL).
integrated move
„„Panasonic expects
its solutions and digital
manufacturing to
contribute around 15%
to the total revenue from
smart factory business
„„Smart factory
solutions proposition
will enable Panasonic
to deliver high value-
added and smart
solutions and services
them and collect and con-
trol data from the equipment
in real time for entire pro-
duction processes.”
The company is focused
on building solutions that
cater to the needs of custom-
ers and will aggressively
ramp up its portfolio of
smart factory solutions, he
added.
Panasonic plans to open a
technical centre for its smart
factory solutions also, as it is
focusing to make India as its
innovation hub and create
an ecosystem of component
and automated manufactur-
ing in the country. In Febru-
ary, the company said it ex-
pects 15% rise in AC sales
growth in next fiscal. —PTI
233.56mt 214.61mt 14.10mt
providing coal and coke imports during
ALTERNATIVE 2018-19
per import data from 31 ma-
jor and non-major ports.
Imports of thermal coal,
mainly used in power gen-
eration, were up 13.25% at
164.21 mt in the last fiscal
against 144.99 mt in the pre-
vious year, while coking coal
import remained flat at 47.73
mt.
In March, thermal coal
imports were 14.10 mt, against
13.53 mt in February 2019.
“Representatives of all
the power utilities who are
currently importing coal
and or planning to import
coal in FY20 are requested to
make it convenient to attend
the meeting,” the CIL com-
munique said.
CIL has been trying to en-
courage import substitution
The MIAL has been
awarded a Greenfield airport
project at Navi Mumbai.
“GVK had initiated a pro-
cess to identify and select
preferred investors to raise
capital to reduce debt obliga-
tions of up to Rs 5,750 crore.
ADIA and NIIF were se-
lected as the preferred part-
ners by GVK.
All proceeds from the pro-
posed transaction will be
used by GVK towards retir-
ing debt obligations,” it said.
In the Annual General
Meeting held last year, the
shareholders gave nod to the
Board to dilute equity stake,
in GVKAHL, a step down
subsidiary of the Company
through an initial public of-
fer or private placement or
stake sale so as to utilise the
proceeds for the repayment
of the balance outstand-
ing obligations of
GVKADL.
It was also to meet other
financial needs of the Com-
pany and its associate and
group companies. —PTI
New Delhi: The country’s
telecom subscriber base
grew marginally to 120.5
crore on account of a net ad-
dition of customers by Reli-
ance Jio and state-owned
BSNL, according to data pub-
lished by telecom regulator
Trai on Thursday.
Both Reliance Jio and
BSNL jointly added a net of
86.39 lakh mobile subscrib-
ers but the rest of the tele-
com operators jointly lost a
net of 69.93 lakh wireless
customers with Vodafone
Idea losing the biggest chunk
of mobile connections, as
per the data.
The number of telecom
subscribers in India in-
creased to 120.54 crore at the
end of February from 120.37
comment With reliance on imports, cosying up to the Middle Eastern giant will only make matters worse
Why India should beware of Aramco’s billions
David Fickling
It’s funny how friendly some-
one gets when they’re trying
to sell you something.
Saudi Arabian Oil Co is
doing its best to make nice
with one of its biggest cus-
tomers. With the ink barely
dry on the takeover of 70 per-
cent of the country’s chemi-
cal giant Saudi Basic Indus-
tries Corp and the issuance
of its first-ever corporate
bond, Aramco is looking to
buy a stake in the world’s
biggest oil refinery.
Indian billionaire Muke-
sh Ambani’s Reliance Indus-
tries Ltd is seeking to sell as
much as a quarter of its re-
fining business for at least
$10 billion and is entertain-
ing offers from Aramco and
Abu Dhabi National Oil Co,
people with knowledge of
09
Ahmedabad I Friday, April 19, 2019 I daily news & analysis
M&M, Ford to jointly
develop mid-sized SUV
New Delhi: Mahindra & Ma-
hindra (M&M) and Ford Mo-
tor Company Thursday said
they have signed a definitive
agreement to co-develop a
mid-sized SUV for India and
other emerging markets.
The new agreement rein-
forces the steady progress
made since the announce-
ment of a strategic alliance
thermal coal imports between the two companies common platform
imports in fiscal 2018 in March in September 2017, followed
by an announcement on pow- „„New mid-sized sports
ertrain sharing and connect- utility vehicle will have
this opportunity and are im- ed car solutions in October a common Mahindra
India's coal and coke product platform
porting coal. Therefore, it is 2018.
imports in million tonne again requested that these The new mid-sized sports
Coking Coal Non Coking Coal power plants may apply to utility vehicle (C-SUV) will „„Strategic alliance is
164.21 the marketing division of have a common Mahindra focused on leveraging
144.90 CIL for sourcing of domestic product platform and power- benefits of both
companies
Source: Port and shipping data
coal as a substitute for im- train, thus driving engineer-
port by road mode from ing and commercial efficien-
sources where coal is avail- cies.
able with CIL,” a letter is- “Having identified several Businesses, Technology and
47.22 47.73 sued by the mining major’s areas for joint development, Strategy Jim Farley said that
marketing department in both companies will contin- with the new pact the com-
February said. ue to work together to de- pany will not only strength-
The initiative started in velop products using com- en its ongoing partnership
FY18 FY19
September of 2018 when coal mon product platforms,” with Mahindra, but also
with domestic supplies at as well as power secretaries M&M managing director sharpen its competitiveness
power plants, which so far started meeting with power Pawan Goenka said. in an important emerging
hasn’t been successful as im- producers to devise strate- This will reduce product market like India.
ports have continued. gies to reduce imports. development costs and The strategic alliance
“It is learnt that some of Shares of Coal India rose gain economies of scale between the two compa-
the power plants having Fuel marginally to end 0.2% for both companies, he nies is focused on leverag-
Supply Agreements with higher at Rs 251.75 a share added. ing the benefits of both
Coal India have not utilised on BSE. President of Ford New companies. —PTI
OYO launches
OPEN to aid
PE, VC fund inflows to surge
past $65 bn-mark by 2025
Reliance Comm
promoters’
asset owners
New Delhi: Hospitality firm
With India emerging as the fastest growing economies,
reforms by the government have helped the country attract
record investments, advisory firm EY said in its report
holding drops
to 22% in Q1
OYO launched its year long
initiative, OYO partner en- New Delhi: Reliance Com-
gagement network (OPEN), munications promoters’
to help its over 8,700 asset stake has come down to 22%
owner partners in India in January-March 2019
reach their business goals. quarter, with family and
OPEN is founded on four group firms jointly losing
key pillars -- promises to more than half of the equi-
partners, supporting growth, ties, the telecom firm said
engagement, and recogni- Thursday.
tion of asset partners, OYO In the October-December
CEO India and South Asia 2018 quarter, the promoters
Aditya Ghosh told reporters. and promoter group of
Commitment to partners debt-ridden RCom had
constitute six core promises 53.08% stake in the com-
$35.8 bn $26.1 bn $26 bn $13 bn
including transparent pay- pany.
ment protocols, financial In the third quarter of
- PE, VC invest- - flows in - worth of - worth of
support, multiple touch 2018-19, Ambani family
points to connect, marketing ments rise 37% domestic PE/VC exits exits members jointly held 145.48
excellence, tech innovation on-year in 2018 market in 2017 seen in 2018 in 2017 crore equity shares, which
and regulatory compliance came down to 59.79 crore in
assistance, he added. Com- last quarter of the same fis-
menting on the launch, Deals are becoming larger cal, according to sharehold-
Ghosh said: “With the launch and more complex. The ing pattern disclosure made
25%
of OPEN, we are laying the year 2018 recorded 78 by the firm.
foundations of a structured deals of value greater than Shares held by promoter
way of exchanging ideas, $100 million, aggregating $26.2 group firm Reliance Com-
providing support and most billion and accounting for 73% of munications Enterprises
jump in PE/VC invest-
importantly, building a rela- Private Limited dropped by
the total value of PE/VC ments in last five fiscal
tionship of trust on which almost half to 36.56 crore
we hope to build the next sev-
investments,"  — The report said years till 2018
from 72.31 crore.
eral decades to come.” —PTI The disclosure shows that
equity holding of Reliance
Ornatus Enterprise and Ven-
tures and Reliance Wind
Turbine Installators Indus-
tries came down to 9.2 crore
and 85 lakh, respectively,
customer base now. from 30 crore shares held by
towering ahead BSNL added around 9 each of them in the third
lakh new mobile customers, quarter.
„„Both Reliance Jio and
BSNL jointly added a taking its total subscriber According to records,
net of 86.39 lakh mobile base to 11.62 crore in Febru- most of the pledged shares
subscribers ary. were sold by lenders in Jan-
“BSNL is the only opera- uary-March 2019 quarter.
„„The number of tor other than Jio that has The company, which is
telecom subscribers gained customers. Our per- reeling under debt burden of
in India increased to formance shows that cus- around Rs 45,000 crore, has
120.54 crore at the end tomers have faith in BSNL. approached the National
of February We are able to compete and Company Law Tribunal to
gain customers with our invoke insolvency against it
much-improved 3G network. as the firm has been unable
crore in January, according 118.36 crore in February In our endeavour to provide to sell assets and pay back to
to the Telecom Monthly Sub- from 118.19 crore in January. service, all our officers and lenders. Reliance Communi-
scriber Report released by Reliance Jio alone added employees are together,” cations shares tumbled 4.8%
the Telecom Regulatory Au- 77.93 lakh customers, taking BSNL chairman and manag- to close at Rs 2.20 a share on
thority of India (Trai). its total subscriber base to ing director Anupam Shriv- BSE. Last month, the debt-
The sector, dominated by 29.7 crore at the end of Feb- astava said. laden company paid Rs
wireless connection, record- ruary. According to a televi- The state-run firm is com- 458.77 crore of dues to Swed-
ed an increase in the mobile sion commercial of the com- peting in the market with 3G ish telecom equipment mak-
services subscriber base to pany, it has crossed 30 crore network. —PTI er Ericsson. —PTI
the matter told Bloomberg from Aramco and its ilk.
News this week. Such a future would pose
That represents quite a some profound risks. Bal-
prize. Reliance’s Jamnagar ance of payments crises are
refinery is about twice the a recurring danger for
size of the biggest US plant, emerging economies, and
Aramco-owned Port Arthur, even at its current stage of
and is so massive that main- development oil typically ac-
tenance work occasionally counts for about a quarter of
skews India’s entire trade India’s imports. If prices spike
balance. higher – as, inevitably, they will
Trade is also the reason from time to time – that’s good
India should be cautious of news for Riyadh, but poten-
Aramco’s embrace. The tially devastating for New
country has a dangerous ad- Delhi. When crude is averag-
diction to imported crude, Caucasus and Siberia. While earlier stage of development ing $85 a barrel – roughly the
and it should be wary of get- China has overtaken Ameri- than either country – ekes level at which Saudi Arabia
ting too cozy with its dealer. ca as the biggest oil importer, out just 30 kilograms. Pro- can balance its budget, ac-
For more than a century, it’s also the biggest producer duction peaked all the way cording to the International
the rise of major economic outside the Middle East after back in 2010, and shows no Monetary Fund – oil imports
powers has been fueled by the US, Russia and Canada. sign of recovery. Industriali- would reduce India’s gross
petroleum. The US is both India is different. The US zation is an energy-intensive domestic product by about
the world’s biggest oil con- produces about 1.8 metric process. If India’s develop- 3.6 percentage points, ac-
sumer and its biggest pro- tons of oil a year per capita ment is going to be powered cording to a study this year
ducer. The Soviet Union was and even China manages 138 by crude oil, it’s going to be by the Reserve Bank of In-
built on its oilfields in the kilograms. India – at a far buying a whole lot more dia. —Bloomberg
 19
Friday
April
2019
Ahmedabad
www.dnaindia.com
FOOTBALL
BALL GAME
Two new teams
for Mumbai T20
Two new teams will be
added to the second edi-
tion of the T20 Mumbai
League to make it an
eight team event which
is to be held from May 14
to 26 at the Wankhede
Stadium. Adding to the
current squad of six
teams, the newly intro-
duced teams will repre-
sent the constituencies
of Mumbai Western Sub-
urbs and Mumbai East-
ern Suburbs, respective-
ly, a media release issued
on behalf of the Mumbai
Cricket Association
(MCA) said on Thursday.
ICC pays tributes
to ex-WICB chief
The International Crick-
et Council expressed con-
dolences on demise of
former West Indies
Cricket Board chief Pat-
rick Rousseau. Rosseau
was 85 and was the Car-
ibbean cricket chief
from 1996 to 2001. He was
also a member of the ICC
Board and is credited
with the Caribbean host-
ing the ICC Men’s Crick-
et World Cup in 2007. In a
statement, ICC Chief Ex-
ecutive Manu Sawhney
said: “The death of Rous-
seau is sad news for the
cricket world. His contri-
bution in the game’s
management has been
widely acknowledged. It
was with great sadness
that we learnt of his
death. On behalf of the
ICC, I would like to offer
our heartfelt condolenc-
es to his friends and fam-
ily and to our colleagues
at the CWI.”
on the tube
(All Live)
Cricket Star Sports 1, 2 &
1 Hindi: 20:00 IPL: Kolkata
Knight Riders vs Royal
Challengers Bangalore
Sony Six: 15:30 Royal
London One-Day Cup
Football Sony Ten 2:
00:30 LaLiga: Alaves vs
Valadolid
Tennis Sony ESPN: 14:30
Monte Carlo Masters
‘Shouldn’t go if you’re not expecting to win WC’
Bengaluru: South Africa’s
veteran paceman Dale Steyn
zis confident his side can end
their World Cup jinx and get
to the final – with “a bit of
luck”.
The Proteas have always
been among the world’s top
cricket teams but have never
got past the semi-final hurdle
– losing four times.
With the Faf du Plessis-
led side winning 11 of their
last 13 one-day series, Steyn
believes the South Africans
can lift the tro-
phy at the
tournament in
England and
Wales starting
May 30.
“We’re going
with good expec-
tations,” Steyn,
who has joined Royal
Challengers Bangalore, told
For me, loyalty matters the most: Kohli stands by Dhoni
New Delhi: Virat Kohli
hasn’t forgotten the times
when Mahendra Singh Dhoni
firmly stood by him as a cap-
tain. Now that the roles have
reversed, he is not going to
back down from supporting
the veteran despite the “unfor-
tunate criticism” that the for-
mer skipper is coping.
The Indian captain also
expressed his happiness with
the composition of the
15-strong Indian squad for the
World Cup in an interview to
India Today.
“It’s unfortunate to see so
many people going after him.
For me, loyalty matters the
most,” Kohli’s words showed
his reverence for his first in-
ternational captain.
FOOTBALL Alex McLeish sacked as
Scotland manager a month after loss to Kazakh-
stan. “The Scottish FA can confirm that Alex
McLeish will leave his role as Scotland National
Head Coach with immediate effect,” the SFA says
Punjab will take on Goa, while Services will lock horns with Karnataka in the two semifinals of Santosh Trophy today
Chahar’s 3 grounds Delhi in Kotla
Leg-spinner wrecks havoc on Capitals’ top-order to hand Mumbai Indians 40-run victory
Match No. 34
Chander Shekhar Luthra
shekhar.luthra@dnaindia.net
New Delhi: Watching vet-
eran Amit Mishra castling
his skipper Rohit Sharma
must have made Rahul Cha-
har even more determined
to repeat the same magic
again later on. And, he did it
in style by sending three
mainstream batsmen –
Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dha-
wan and skipper Shreyas
Iyer – of Delhi Capitals back
to the pavilion to help visi-
tors score a 40-run victory
here at the Ferozeshah Kotla
on Thursday.
Chahar’s 3/19 in his four-
over spell came at a time
when hosts’ opening pair of
Dhawan and Shaw was tak-
ing the game away from the
visitors. Chasing a target of
169, Dhawan came out to dis-
play some fierce hitting on
his well-known surface here.
But a well-set Dhawan tried
to reverse sweep the leg-
spinner Chahar and the ball
hit the stumps after striking
his front pad in the seventh
over.
That pressed the panic
button in Delhi’s camp as
Shaw also departed soon, af-
ter earlier surviving a leg-
before appeal, by giving
catch to Hardik Pandya at
long on to hand Chahar his
second wicket. Delhi needed
a partnership at this stage as
skipper Iyer joined Colin
Munro at the middle. They,
however, could only add
three more to the total before
the other Pandya, Krunal,
stunned the Kiwi with his
speedy left-arm straighter
fired at 108.3 kmph.
Munro’s bat was strand-
ed in the air as he departed
for a nine-ball three.
At this stage, Chahar al-
most ensured Mumbai a vic-
tory by taking his third of
the match. His sharp turn-
Amla returns to South Africa squad
Johannesburg: Senior
opening batsman Hashim
Amla has been named in
South Africa’s 15-member
squad for the World Cup,
Cricket South Africa an-
nounced on Thursday.
Amla, who has
ac- cumulated
“When I walked into the
team, he had the option of try-
ing someone else after a few
games, although I grabbed my
chances but for me to get that
kind of backing, it was very
crucial for me.
“Also, he gave me an oppor-
tunity to bat at No. 3 because
not many youngsters get to
play at No. 3,” the skipper re-
called his formative days in
international cricket.
When an astute brain
meets a superlative performer,
there is bound to be lot of mu-
tual admiration and the Kohli-
Dhoni relationship is no dif-
ferent. “It’s just about the field
placements and bowling
changes and we say you know
the angles, you know the pace
Delhi Capitals’ Rishabh Pant is clean bowled by Mumbai Indians pacer Jasprit Bumrah (not seen) in their IPL game
at the Feroz Shah Kotla in New Delhi on Thursday —PTI
Orange cap
David Warner
(SRH)
450 runs
KL Rahul (KXIP)  387
Jonny Bairstow (SRH)  365
It’s really important for us to win home games,
especially on these tracks. We practise on the
pitches that are also slow. But when you come
here, it’s totally different.
Shreyas Iyer, Delhi Capitals captain
ing delivery foxed Iyer for
just three to make the score-
board reading 63/4 in 10.2
overs.
It was all left to southpaw
Rishabh Pant (7) to try and
take his team near to victory.
But the ever-reliable Jasprit
Bumrah found the gap be-
tween Pant’s bat and pad to
end all hopes for the hosts.
The stumps were shat-
tered and so were the hopes
of Capitals. It was only a
almost 7,910 runs in 174
ODIs at 49.75, has been
struggling for form over the
past year. He has been
bogged down by inconsist-
ency, but his experience
was hard to rule out for the
selectors.
Squad: Faf du Plessis (C),
reporters.
“If you’re not going
to the World Cup ex-
pecting to win, then
you probably
shouldn’t go. But I’m
not going to lie, we have
some fantastic players,”
said Steyn, 35.
Du Plessis and spinner
Imran Tahir, who play for
of the pitch and that’s why
there is so much of trust and
respect between the two of
us,” he said.
As he has said earlier, Koh-
li reiterated that
there are no
peers to Dho-
ni when it
comes to
reading
match situa-
tions. “He is one
person who liter-
ally knows the
game inside out. He
understands the game
from ‘Ball 1 to Ball 300 (50
overs) on the field. I won’t say
its a luxury to have him but I
am fortunate to have a mind
like that from behind the
CRICKET Nepalese sensation Sandeep Lam-
ichhane has called for the World Cup to be expanded
to up to 16 teams, saying limiting it to 10 hurts
players from emerging cricket nations. He says it is
frustrating to miss out the tourney in England
Purple cap
Kagiso Rabada
(DC)
19 wickets
Imran Tahir (CSK)
Yuzvendra Chahal (RCB)
matter of how many runs
Delhi’s later batsmen could
score to decrease the margin
of loss. And, Axar Patel sen-
sible 26 and Chris Morris’s
11 were only helpful in re-
ducing the margin of defeat.
Earlier for the visitors, it
was again left to the Pandya
brothers to take visitors out
of a difficult situation to-
wards the end of their quota
of overs. Hardik smashed 32
off just 15 balls while and
world cup corner
Aiden Markram, Quinton
de Kock (WK), Hashim
Amla, Rassie van der Dus-
sen, David Miller, Andile
Phehlukwayo, JP Duminy,
Dwaine Pretorius, Dale
Steyn, Kagiso Rabada, Lun-
gi Ngidi, Anrich Nortje, Im-
ran Tahir, Tabraiz Shamsi
Chennai Super Kings and
speedster Kagiso Rabada
with the Delhi Capitals are
enjoying good form in the
Twenty20 tournament.
Steyn, who made the
South Africa’s World Cup
squad, singled out Rabada for
special praise. Rabada is cur-
rently the top ranked bowler
in the IPL with 17 wickets fol-
HOW THEY STAND
TEAM M W L T P NRR
CSK 9 7 2 0 14 0.101
MI 9 6 3 0 12 0.442
DC 9 5 4 0 10 0.146
KXIP 9 5 4 0 10 -0.015
SRH 8 4 4 0 8 0.549
15
KKR 8 4 4 0 8 0.350
13
RR 8 2 6 0 4 -0.589
RCB 8 1 7 0 2 -1.114
Six meter
14 1 5
Krunal remained unbeaten
at 37 off 26 deliveries to pro-
vide that late flourish to
Mumbai innings.
This came after skipper
Rohit Sharma didn’t think
twice before opting to bat
first on this slow and low
Kotla square.
And, his decision initial-
ly looked a wise one as he hit
30 off 21 balls to help Mum-
bai off to a good start. In
fact, Sharma made good use
lowed by fellow South Afri-
can Tahir on 15.
“He’s been bowling excep-
tionally well. Kagiso is a
wunderkind. Just hope he
continues that kind of form.”
said Steyn.
“We are led by Faf, who
has been in fantastic form
lately. And in the Indian Pre-
mier League, Imran Tahir
has been right up there in
terms of wickets,” said
Steyn, who joined Bangalore
as a replacement for injured
Australian Nathan Coulter-
Nile.
“From Quinton de Kock
all the way down to number
11, they’re all match-win-
ners,” he said.
“We just need to go there
and hope (for) a bit of luck –
weather, a missed no-ball –
goes your way, and you could
win the tournament.” —AFP
stumps,” Kohli said.
It is Dhoni’s presence be-
hind stumps that has ensured
that Kohli with one of the
strongest arms can afford to
field in the deep. “At the end
of the day, I want to be in-
volved in strategy with the
team management with
Mahi bhai and Rohit.
“In the death overs,
I know that I have to be
on the outfield to try
and make something
work for the team be-
cause that’s my na-
ture that I want to do
something for the
team rather than just
be there.
“After 30-35 overs,
he knows that I will
10
Kolkata fret over
Russell’s fitness
Match No. 35
SCOREBOARD Kolkata: Kolkata Knight Rid-
DC vs MI, Match No. 34; ers’ impact player Andre Rus-
Venue: Ferozeshah Kotla, Delhi Toss: MI, elect to bat sell was forced to skip the
practice session on Thursday,
MI R B 4/6 SR owing to a shoulder injury
R Sharma b Mishra 30 22 3/1 136.36 sustained while batting in the
Q de Kock (run out) 35 27 2/2 129.62 nets on Wednesday. Andre Russell
B Cutting lbw b Patel 2 4 0/0 50.00 KKR will take on Royal
S Yadav c Pant b Rabada 26 27 2/0 96.29 Challengers Bangalore in an of the practice on Wednesday
K Pandya (not out) 37 26 5/0 142.30 IPL game on Friday and Rus- that Russell failed to negoti-
H Pandya c Pant b Rabada 32 15 2/3 213.33 sell’s possible absence could ate a rising delivery from net
K Pollard (not out) 0 0 0/0 -
pave the way for Carlos Brath- bowler Minad Manjrekar and
Extras (LB2, W3, NB1) 6
waite’s inclusion in the play- fell on the ground, writhing
Total (for 5 wkts, 20 ov) 132 (6.6 runs per over)
ing XI. in pain.
Fall of wickets: 1-57 (Sharma, 6.1 ov), 2-62 (Cutting, 7.5
The Barbados all-rounder, It was the same left shoul-
ov), 3-74 (de Kock, 9.5 ov), 4-104 (Yadav, 15.1 ov), 5-158
(H Pandya, 19.3 ov)
who is KKR’s costliest pick of der where Russell was hit by
Rs 5 crore at the auctions, a Harshal Patel delivery dur-
Bowling: I Sharma 3-0-17-0, K Rabada 4-0-38-2 (W2), C
Morris 3-0-39-0 (W1), K Paul 3-0-37-0 (NB1), A Mishra played only one match for ing KKR’s match against Del-
3-0-18-1, A Patel 4-0-17-1 KKR, against Delhi Capitals hi Capitals at the Kotla.
here that they lost by seven Russell had also suffered a
DC (target: 169) R B 4/6 SR wickets. wrist injury in their away
P Shaw c Hardik b Chahar 20 24 2/0 83.33 Fretting over Russell’s fit- match against Chennai as it
S Dhawan b Chahar 35 22 5/1 159.09 ness, KKR skipper Karthik remains to be seen whether
C Munro b Krunal 3 9 0/0 33.33 however did not rule out the the team will risk playing the
S Iyer b Chahar 3 6 0/0 50.00 Jamaican who has been a rev- Jamaican.
R Pant b Bumrah 7 11 0/0 63.63 elation with six explosive 40- KKR have suffered a hat-
A Patel b Bumrah 26 23 1/1 113.04 plus scores on the trot. “He’s trick of losses as Karthik
C Morris c Hardik b Malinga 11 9 0/1 122.22 got a preliminary X ray yes- urged his batsmen and bowl-
K Paul run out (Bumrah) 0 0 0/0 -
terday and it’s not even be 24 ers to buck up. “I’m not going
K Rabada c Pollard b Hardik 9 8 0/1 112.50
hours. By tomorrow, we will a to shy away from the fact that
A Mishra not out 6 8 0/0 75.00
I Sharma not out 0 0 0/0 - get much better idea as to how we can bat better a little better
Extras (LB5, W3) 8 he feels,” Karthik said. definitely and definitely bowl
Total (for 9 wkts in 19.5 Overs) 127 (6.4 runs per It was during the fag end a little better.” —PTI
over)
VS
Fall of wickets: 1-49 (S Dhawan, 6.3 ov), 2-59 (PP Shaw,
8.3 ov), 3-61 (C Munro, 9.4 ov), 4-63 (SS Iyer, 10.2 ov), KKR RCB
5-76 (RR Pant, 13.5 ov), 6-107 (CH Morris, 16.6 ov), 7-107 Match No. 35, Venue: Eden Gardens, Kolkata
(KMA Paul, 17.1 ov), 8-107 (AR Patel, 17.2 ov), 9-125 (K
Rabada, 19.4 ov) Live on Star Sports Network, 8pm
Bowling: H Pandya 2-0-17-1, R Chahar 4-0-19-3, L
Malinga 4-0-37-1, J Yadav 4-0-25-0, J Bumrah 4-0-18-2, kkr hope to bounce back
K Pandya 2-0-7-1
KKR: Dinesh Karthik’s RCB: With seven defeats
Result: MI win by 40 runs Team from eight matches,
side has been off-
News RCB has a tough chance
Man of the match: Hardik Pandya colour after a rocking
start. On top of that to qualify. Nevertheless,
of the power play overs,
amassing 57 runs along with
Andre Russells’s shoulder
injury has given a scare to
captain Virat Kohli will go all
out today too. Express pacer
KKR. Kolkata will hope to Dale Steyn will make a return
Quinton de Kock (25 off 16).
bounce back. to IPL.
It was when Mumbai skip-
per was looking in complete
control that a low kept leg- Sunil Key Dale
spinner of Amit Mishra left Narine contest Steyn
him stranded at the crease.
Sharma’s prized wicket Making an IPL return, Dale Steyn will be looking to make an imme-
also helped Delhi’s veteran diate impact. He will be up against a dashing and unorthodox KKR
leggie Mishra to become opener Sunil Narine.
first spinner in the history
of IPL to pick up 150 wickets. Head to head: Played: 23, KKR: 14, RCB: 9
It was the perfect leg-
break that spun sharply af- Pitch report: The Kol- Weather report: Rain is pre-
ter pitching around middle kata track will continue dicted for Friday. Only prayers
and leg. As the ball kept on to support batsmen. will push them away.
8
the lower side, Sharma was Punter point: Watchability quotient: (1-3: Forget it;
left with no answer and was KKR: 8/11, 4-7: If there is nothing else to watch;
only witnessed it hitting his RCB: 11/10 8 and above: try not to miss it)
off-stump.
Saini may make
debut: Nehra
Amir fails to make
Kolkata: The rapid rise of
uncapped pacer Navdeep
Pakistan squad
Saini could actually see him Karachi: Pakistan left out
making a World Cup debut, experienced but out-of-form
his Royal Challengers Banga- pacer Muhammad Amir
lore bowling coach Ashish from their 15-member World
Nehra said here on Thursday. Cup squad while including
The 26-year-old has been batsman Abid Ali in the
named as a standby for the line-up.
World Cup beginning May 30. Chief selector Inzamam-
“He’s got pace and bounce ul-Haq, announcing the
and the most important thing World Cup squad and two re- Inzamam said hard-hit-
is he’s confident right now serve players, said the 11 ting batsman Asif Ali and
especially in this format be- from the 2017 Champions Aamir were in the reserves
cause it’s really quick,” Neh- Trophy had been retained in for the one-day series against
ra said. the selection process. England and the side match-
“Within two games, his “We are hopeful and con- es before the World Cup.
confidence is high when no- fident that Pakistan will give He said that if both per-
body thought he will do well. a good account of itself in the formed exceptionally well in
That’s the beauty of IPL. World Cup,” Inzamam said. the ODI series and T20 they
Look where he’s today. He is The selectors, while not will be considered as cover
the first standby so if any fast showing faith with left-armer for the World Cup in case of
bowler gets injured he (Saini) Amir who has taken just five injuries to any of the selected
will be the one playing the wickets in his last 14 ODIs players. –PTI
World Cup,” he added. —PTI since the Champions Trophy Squad: Sarfaraz Ahmed (C),
two years back, reposed con- Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-
fidence in seniors Shoaib Ma- Haq, Abid Ali, Babar Azam,
lik and Muhammad Hafeez. Shoaib Malik, Haris Sohail,
Inzamam said that Ha- Muhammad Hafeez, Shadab
feez’s final inclusion in World Khan, Imad Wasim, Hasan
Cup was subject to him being Ali, Faheem Ashraf, Shaheen
be in the outfield and its on the 100 per cent fit before the Shah Afridi, Junaid Khan,
auto mode,” he explained. tournament as he is still re- Muhammad Hasnain. Re-
While he didn’t elaborate covering from a thumb injury. serves: Asif Ali and Md Amir
about his take on the debate on
the World Cup squad, he did
give it his stamp of approval.
“We are very happy with 15
that we have. This is the most
Chandimal, Tharanga miss bus as SL
balanced side we could have name surprise team; Mendis returns
thought of because everyone
is in a good space,” the skipper Colombo: Sri Lanka left out former captains Dinesh
said without getting into the Chandimal and Upul Tharanga and recalled spin-bowling
debate about the much talked all-rounders Milinda Siriwardana and Jeevan Mendis in
about omissions of Rishabh their 15-man squad on Thursday for this year’s World Cup
Pant and Ambati Rayudu. in England and Wales. —PTI
For him, a chilled out Squad: Dimuth Karunaratne (C), Avishka Fernando,
dressing room atmosphere Lahiru Thirimanne, Kusal Perera, Kusal Mendis, An-
with the skipper himself, Dho- gelo Mathews, Dhanajaya de Silva, Jeffrey Vandersay,
ni and vice-captain Rohit Thisara Perera, Lasith Malinga, Isuru Udana, Suranga
Sharma has made it easy for Lakmal, Nuwan Pradeep, Jeevan Mendis, Milinda Siri-
the players to express them- wardana.
selves. —PTI
 sP rt
www.dnaindia.com I twitter.com/dna I epaper.dnaindia.com I facebook.com/dnaindia
Hot on heels
IOC pledges € € € €
500,000 euros for
Notre Dame repair
The International Olym-
pic Committee on Thurs-
day pledged 500,000 eu-
ros $562,0000 to help en-
sure Notre Dame is re-
stored in time for the
2024 Paris Games. “The
aim of completing the
reconstruction in time
for Paris 2024 will be an
extra motivation for all
of us,” IOC president
Thomas Bach told 2024
Games chief Thomas
Estanguet in a letter.
The IOC’s contribution
joins donations totalling
850 million euros made
since the landmark was
gutted by fire.
Irving leads
Celtics fightback
Kyrie Irving scored 37
points as the Boston
Celtics staged a fourth
quarter comeback to de-
feat the Indiana Pacers
99-91 and take a 2-0 lead
in their Eastern Confer-
ence NBA playoff series.
The Pacers appeared to
be closing in on a series-
levelling victory after
taking an 11-point lead
heading into the fourth
quarter. But some su-
perb shot-making from
Irving and a 26-point dis-
play from Jayson Tatum
helped Boston rally.
Tokyo Games
tickets on sale
Tokyo 2020 organisers
on Thursday launched a
portal detailing prices
and timings for Olympic
events, as they prepare
to throw open ticket ap-
plications via lottery for
Japanese residents. The
new website lists prices
for the record 339 events
in 33 sports -- ranging
from the cheapest gener-
al tickets at 2,500 yen
($22) to 300,000 yen for
the best seats at the
opening ceremony.
Badminton league
from April 26
The third edition of the
Women’s Masters Bad-
minton League will be
held at Matunga Gym-
khana from April 26 to
28 this year. After 80 and
90 entries in the first two
editions, this season will
see 135 entries.
1 minute for a goal that sur-
2 Klopp hails Liverpool’s ‘crazy’ run
3 Porto 1 (Militao 68) lost to
Send in your answers to
sportsdna@gmail.com. Names
of the first 10 winners will be
published tomorrow
Djokovic, Nadal march on; Tsitsipas out
Monte Carlo: Top seed No-
vak Djokovic and 11-time
champion Rafael Nadal
showed no mercy in dominat-
ing wins to power into the
Monte Carlo Masters quar-
terfinals on Thursday.
Djokovic extended his
winning streak against US
players with a 6-3 6-0 defeat of
Taylor Fritz.
The two-time tournament
champion has now won nine
in a row over Americans
since losing at Wimbledon in
2016 to Sam Querrey.
“It was very challenging to
play in these (windy) condi-
tions,” Djokovic said. “Taylor
just flattens the ball.
“We had five, six close
games in the first set, I just
managed to break his resist-
ance midway through.
“After that, things went on
my side and I felt more com-
fortable.”
Nadal repeated last year’s
semifinal win over Grigor
Dimitrov, beating the Bulgar-
ian for the 12th time, 6-4 6-1.
“I’m very, very happy, this
is an important victory for
me,” the second seed said af-
ter winning his 23rd consecu-
tive set at the tournament.
4’ City’s Raheem Sterling
opens the game’s account 7’ City’s joy is shortlived as
pretty quickly —Reuters
g als
1 ‘mad’ night
Spurs progress on away goals after City’s late winner
disallowed by VAR in epic 4-3 quarterfinal clash
Tottenham’s Son Heung-min leaps after scoring his team’s second goal in the Champions League second leg
quarterfinal against Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester on Wednesday —Reuters
Serbia’s Novak Djokovic hits a backhand return to Taylor Fritz of the US
during their Round 3 match in Monte Carlo, Monaco, on Thursday —AFP
“Grigor is a super talent
and is very dangerous. It was
a positive match for me.
“I had a good day, I can be
happy with what I did on
court. When you don’t play on
clay for almost a year, every
win is important for the con-
fidence, especially as I’m
coming back from injury.”
Nadal spent almost an
hour in securing the first set
but picked up the pace in the
second as he ran out the win-
ner.
He next faces Guido Pella,
Son Heung-min (2R) of
Tottenham equalises —AFP
who defeated Italy’s Marco
Cecchinato 6-4 4-6 6-4.
World No. 1 Djokovic will
be playing his ninth quarter-
final here from 13 appear-
ances at his home event.
Djokovic turned in a
steady performance with a
dozen winners and unforced
errors, while his opponent
committed nearly 30 un-
forced errors in 68 minutes.
Sixth seed Stefanos Tsitsi-
pas earlier lost 6-2, 1-6, 6-4 as
Daniil Medvedev continued
his run of form.
10’ Heung-min
picture) takes Spurs
ahead soon —AP
Results (round 3)
N Djokovic (1-SRB) bt
T Fritz (USA) 6-3 6-0,
2-R Nadal (ESP) bt G
Dimitrov (BUL) 6-4 6-1,
10-D Medvedev (RUS) bt
6-S Tsitsipas (GRE) 6-2
1-6, 6-4, D Lajovic (SRB)
bt 4-D Thiem (AUT) 6-3
6-3, L Sonego (ITA) bt
C Norrie (GBR) 6-2 7-5,
13-F Fognini (ITA) bt 3-A
Zverev (GER) 7-6(6) 6-1,
G Pella (ARG) bt 11-M
Cecchinato (ITA) 6-4
4-6 6-4
The Russian will next line
up against Djokovic after los-
ing to him in the Australian
Open fourth round. Tsitsipas
was caught on the back foot
facing three match points as
he trailed 0-40 on his serve
late in the second set.
After saving the first two,
the Greek botched the third
to seal his exit after an hour
and three-quarters.
“This was a great achieve-
ment for me,” Medvedev said.
“Everything was perfect to-
day.” —AFP
(not in
11’ Just a minute later,
Bernardo Silva (R) gets 21’ Sterling (R) takes City
City right back in it —Reuters
Stopwatch: Manchester City
4 (Sterling 4, 21, B Silva 11,
Aguero 59) beat Tottenham 3
(Son 7, 10, Llorente 73)
Tottenham advance 4-4 on
away goals
Manchester: More than two
minutes into stoppage time,
Manchester City forward Ra-
heem Sterling slid across the
field and puffed his chest to
the crowd,
roaring in
elation. Tot-
tenham play-
ers collapsed
to the turf,
some flat on
their backs, forlorn and
heartbroken.
From the brink of Cham-
pions League elimination,
Manchester City were cele-
brating their passage to the
semifinals.
Not for long.
As City manager Pep
Guardiola was leaping on the
touchline, Turkish referee
Cuneyt Cakir was receiving
updates in his ear from the
video assistant referee check-
ing replays. The stadium
soon became hushed until
the big screen flashed: “No
goal. VAR. Offside.”
Guardiola threw his head
in his hands, but there was
nothing to argue about.
When Christian Eriksen’s
misplaced back-pass deflect-
ed off Bernardo Silva into
the path of Sergio Aguero,
the City striker was offside
before setting up Sterling in
the penalty area.
There would be no eighth
goal on this breathtaking
night of epic drama. Totten-
ham advanced on away goals
following the 4-3 loss that left
teams tied 4-4 on aggregate.
“It’s cruel,” Guardiola
said.
Son Heung-min, who
scored a brace for Spurs, said:
“I have never seen something
like this, It was a very tough
game, a very crazy game. But
we are very proud of our
team-mates. It was madness.
“Sometimes you are an-
noyed with VAR but today it
is a case of, ‘Thank you and
good decision’.”
Tottenham advanced
thanks to Fernando Llor-
ente’s hip, which nudged the
ball into the net in the 73rd
vived a VAR for possible
Liverpool 4 (Mane 26, Salah
65, Firmino 77, Van Dijk 84)
Liverpool advance 6-1
on aggregate
Porto: Liverpool manager
Jurgen Klopp hailed as “cra-
zy” his team’s achievement
in once again reaching the
semifinals of the Champions
League after they comforta-
bly saw off FC Porto on
Wednesday.
“I’m very, very happy of
course,” said Klopp after his
side’s emphatic 4-1 win in
Portugal that saw them win
Rani assured of
medal, tough
draw for Amit
DNA Correspondent
sports@dnaindia.net
Mumbai: Asian Games gold
medallist Amit Panghal is
likely to face the reigning
Olympic champion Hasan-
boy Dusmatov of Uzbekistan
in the quarterfinals as the
draw of the Asian Boxing
Championships was released
in Bangkok on Thursday.
With the women’s 81kg
draw having only five con-
testants, Pooja Rani (81kg)
finds herself already in the
semifinals and has con-
firmed India’s first medal
from the tournament.
Former world junior
champion Nikhat Zareen
(51kg) begins her cam-
paign against Srey Pov Nao
of Cambodia but her path
gets tricker with the two-
time world champion Na-
zym Kyzaibay waiting in
the quarterfinals.
Lovlina Borgohain (64kg)
could have a possible face-off
with China’s world champi-
on Chen Nien-Chin in the
quarterfinals.
11
Ahmedabad I Friday, April 19, 2019 I daily news & analysis
ahead again with his 59’ Sergio Aguero (L) lights
up the second half 73’ Fernando Llorente
heads the key goal for
2nd goal of the night —AP with City’s 4th goal —Reuters Tottenham —Reuters
N ZONE
5 12
No. of goals Spurs forward Son
No. of goals scored in the first 21 minutes of the game,
Heung-min has scored in Cham-
the shortest amount of time taken for 5 goals to be
pions League, the highest by an
scored in a Champions League match
Asian player, overtaking Maxim Shatskikh
57
No. of years after which Tottenham have reached of Uzbekistan
the semifinals of the Champions League/European
26
Cup after doing so in 1961-62 under Bill Nicholson No. of goals in which Raheem
Sterling has been directly
7
No. of English sides to have reached Champions League involved at the Etihad Stadium
last 4: Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, (17 goals, 9 assists), more than any other
Chelsea, Arsenal, Leeds and Tottenham City player this season
Did you know? My players are heroes.
n Pep Guardiola, a Champions League-winning coach with
Barcelona in 2009 and 2011, has failed to reach the semifi-
We made history
nals for the sixth straight time, his third with City after three
misses with Bayern Munich
Mauricio Pochettino,
Tottenham manager
n England have more than
one club in the Champions
League SF for the first time
since Manchester United, It is cruel but it
Arsenal and Chelsea in 2009
is what it is
and we
Semifinal line-up
have to
April 30 Tottenham VS Ajax
First leg
accept it
May 1 Barcelona VS Liverpool Pep
Guardiola,
Second leg
May 7 Liverpool VS Barcelona
Manchester City
May 8 Ajax VS Tottenham manager
MATCH STATS
City Tottenham
4 Goals 3
20 Total Attempts 11
8 On target 6
63% Possession% 37%
593 Passes 322
111.1km Distance 113.4km
4 Corners 3
3 Offsides 2
8 Fouls 13
0 Yellow Card 4
tenham’s first two goals at
Etihad Stadium, then picked
up a booking for a foul on
Kevin De Bruyne that earned
The giant screen at the Etihad Stadium flashes the decision after City’s him a one-game suspension
injury-time goal was reviewed on VAR and was disallowed —REUTERS for yellow card accumulation.
The South Korean showed
handball. It was the last goal Kane was out through injury. just how influential he is for
of a night that will be long Not when the midfield op- Tottenham in a start unlike
remembered by clubs that tions were so depleted that an anything seen before in the
lived in the shadows of larger injury to Moussa Sissoko be- Champions League.
rivals in their own cities. fore halftime before Pochet- Four goals in the opening
“Today we showed our tino to bring on out-of-favor 11 minutes. The fifth in the
great character, great person- center forward Llorente. 21st minute, after five shots
ality. To score three goals And Tottenham will play on target.
against Manchester City is the first leg against Ajax with- City lit up the second half
not easy,” Tottenham manag- out Son Heung-min, who to take a 4-2 lead, only for
er Mauricio Pochettino said. scored the valuable first-leg Llorente — and the VAR — to
Not when top-scorer Harry goal last week. Son scored Tot- have the last say. —AP
third, that’s ok, no problem,”
n zone
Klopp said.
95
Out of all players to “We had chances, we
have scored more than scored a goal, we had a big
10 goals in Champions chance before half-time and
League knockout stage games, then in the second half it was
Sadio Mane has the best minutes clear that Porto could not
per goal ratio in the history of the keep their level until the end.
Sadio Mane (L) scores Liverpool’s competition “So we won the game and
first goal against Porto —Reuters now another semifinal, it’s
unbelievable really. It is our
their quarterfinal tie 6-1 on before goals from Sadio second time in a row in the
aggregate and set up a last Mane, Mohamed Salah, Rob- semis, that is really some-
four tie against Barcelona. erto Firmino and Virgil van thing crazy!”
“I said it before that it Dijk gave them a comfortable After losing in the final to
would be very difficult so how victory and set up a mouth- Real Madrid last year, Klopp’s
can I be surprised now that it watering semifinal against team are hoping to go one bet-
was difficult,” he added. Barcelona. ter in Europe this season and
The Premier League lead- “We had to defend in the also remain on course for a
ers weathered an early storm first half-hour a lot in the last remarkable double. —Reuters
‘Need to change the way we
treat women in our culture’
Los Angeles: Egyptian football star Mohamed Salah has called for
change in the way women are treated in the Muslim world, in an inter-
view with Time magazine published on Wednesday. The 26-year-old
Liverpool forward was named one of the US magazine’s 100 most
influential figures of the year, alongside other athletes including
Tiger Woods, LeBron James and Naomi Osaka. Salah told Time that
while his attitudes towards gender equality had evolved over the
years, he wanted to see more change.
“I think we need to change the way we treat women in our culture,”
Salah was quoted as saying. “It’s not optional.”
He said the treatment of women “in my culture and in the Middle
East” had changed his opinions on gender issues. “I support the wom-
an more than I did before, because I feel like she deserves more than what
they give her now, at the moment,” Salah told the magazine. Salah is an
icon in Egypt after helping the country qualify for the 2018 World Cup,
the first time they had reached the finals of the event since 1990.
He was named African Footballer of the Year in 2017 and 2018 and
was also English football’s Player of the Year in 2017-2018 following
a dazzling season with Liverpool. He told Time he has learned to
cope with the “little bit of pressure” that
comes with his elevated profile, while
expressing pride at being regarded as
a role model.
“To be the first Egyptian in (this)
situation and no one has done this
before... it’s something different,” he
said, insisting that superstardom had
not changed his lifestyle.
“I just live my life normal,” the star
forward said. “Most of the time I stay at
home, I don’t like to go out.” —AFP
 19
Friday
April
2019
Ahmedabad
www.dnaindia.com
When Alia sang
Varun’s song
Salman Khan
T
he superhit jodi of
Salman Khan and
Katrina Kaif, who
have appeared in
several films such
as Maine Pyar
Kyun Kiya (2005), Partner (2007),
Ek Tha Tiger (2012) and Tiger
Zinda Hai (2017), will return to
entertain audiences this Eid,
with Bharat. The Ali Abbas
Zafar directorial, which is a
remake of the 2014 Korean film
Ode To My Father, opens in
cinemas on June 5. The movie,
which chronicles the journey of
a man and a nation named
Bharat, sees the titular charac-
ter’s journey from a kid to an old
man. The Race 3 actor’s various
looks have already piqued the
curiosity of movie buffs.
However, we have now learnt
that Salman and Kat, who share
a great rapport, will apparently
WILL KRITI AND KARTIK POSE
TOGETHER FOR THE PAPS TODAY?
The actors, who romanced each other in
Luka Chuppi, apparently share cold vibes now
Kriti Sanon
I
t’s ironical that two
actors who delivered a hit
film, Luka Chuppi, 50
days ago, were reportedly
overheard bad-mouthing
each other.
Insiders say that they saw
the cracks in the relation-
ship between Kartik Aaryan
and Kriti Sanon soon after
the film’s release. According
to one source, “Kriti and
some of the people around
her were of the opinion that
Kartik was trying to hijack
the success of the movie.
They felt that the actor was
making it seem like he was
the sole contributor to the
Disclaimer: Note to reader: Some of the content/coverage that appear in our special ‘feature’ page/s may be paid for by the concerned brands. Such page/s will be appropriately declared as ‘features pages’ (e.g. reader engagement feature, etc.)
While filming the special episode of Sa Re Ga Ma Pa to promote their film, Kalank, Alia Bhatt
revealed a secret that on her birthday, her co-star Varun Dhawan made her sing for three hours!
“He also created his own song, Kitne Dinon Ke Baad, Aaya Tu Mujhko Yaad, which I sang,” she
recalled and even crooned a few lines on stage. A source says that Varun then asked her to sing
his favourite number, Yaad Aa Rahi Hai (Love Story), which Alia promptly did!
Rumour Has It
‘At 12, I knew I
Salman-Katrina to become an actor’ wanted
to clash next Eid
While Salman Khan will be seen in Sanjay Leela
Bhansali’s Inshallah opposite Alia Bhatt, Katrina Kaif
will reportedly play Akshay Kumar’s love interest in
Rohit Shetty’s Sooryavanshi, which will also open
in cinemas on the festive occasion
lock horns with each other next
Eid. While the former will be
seen in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s
Inshallah opposite Alia Bhatt,
the latter will reportedly play
Akshay Kumar’s love interest in
Rohit Shetty’s Sooryanvanshi,
which will also open in cinemas
on the festive occasion.
A source says, “If this
happens, it will be a win-win
situation for the audience as
they will be spoilt for choice and
can look forward to not one but
two star-studded films during
success and that others like
director (Laxman Utekar)
and leading lady (Kriti)
were significantly unimpor-
tant to the process.”
Another source adds,
“What started as niggling
unhappiness soon took the
form of an extended silence.
It’s being conjectured that
Kriti did her own damage
control by getting herself
covered in the media be-
cause she had a parallel role
to Kartik in the film. And,
as such, she should also get
equal credit.”
Of course, this whole
process has reportedly
Eid. But it will be interesting to
see how the stand-off between
Sallu and Kat pans out,
considering both the actors are
close friends.” Akshay and Kat,
too, are a formidable pair who
have delivered hits such as
Namaste London (2007), Singh is
Kinng (2008) and De Dana Dan
(2009), to name a few. If they
reunite for Sooryavanshi, then
they will be seen together on
screen after a decade. Their last
outing as a lead pair was Tees
Maar Khan (2010).
Kartik Aaryan
affected whatever camarade-
rie the two Gen-Y actors
showed in Luka Chuppi.
Now, their equation is not-
so-friendly. And the
grapevine suggests it may
be a while before they ‘sort’
things out.
However, since there are
no permanent friendships
or enmities in the industry,
their common friend,
producer Dinesh Vijan,
himself may actually weave
his magic and get these two
youngsters to bury the
hatchet. We’ve seen this
happening so many times
earlier, haven’t we?
After
Karan Kapadia on making his debut with an unconventional film like Blank,
battling anxiety and hailing from an illustrious family
Ashwini Sawant/DNA
Hiren Kotwani Khamnata, narrated the
N
subject of Blank, Karan not
ever mind what the only liked it, but also became
world says about nepo- a part of its journey from the
tism, kids with famous onset. 
surnames will always be Excerpts from a chat with
welcomed by the film industry. the 25-year old debutant... 
And even as we look for and
point out their similarities with l When did you realise you
their star parents, we also wanted to be an actor?
expect them to be their own When I was about 11-12 years
people and root for them. Come old. Earlier, I had a lot of Dimple Kapadia
May 3, another industry kid anxiety issues. I wanted to take
will make his debut with an part in plays, etc but I couldn’t
action thriller, Blank. Karan muster up the courage to do it. I “My mom was
Kapadia, nephew of always regretted it. So, when I with me till I was
yesteryear diva Dimple act or perform on stage,
Kapadia and son of there’s a feeling of personal
15, then my aunt
late actress Simple accomplishment for me (Dimple Kapadia) took
Kapadia (of Anurodh that I was able to overcome over and how. She’s
fame), is making his this barrier. The feeling
debut. Simple, also you get when you perform absolutely incredible.
a famous dress- in front of people is what She never made me
Katrina Kaif designer, was drove me. That’s why, I
Sunny Deol’s started coming out of my feel that I missed out
costume designer shell a lot more. I don’t on anything while
for nearly two know what it was in
growing up
decades. particular, but I
Given that instinctively knew this
every newcom- is what I wanted to do.
er comes the character. It’s not about me
prepared, l Would you say Blank is or the family I come from, it’s
Karan is no an unconventional debut? become about the character, the
different. He Most definitely. Not film and the intrigue behind it.
went through the many people have People are really liking the con-
drill of preparing to come out with their cept and the story.
become an actor. He also first film, in which
assisted director Tony they have portrayed a l Speaking of which, those
D’Souza on Boss (2013), character where there is no who’ve seen the rushes say that
starring Akshay Kumar specification whether he is for a first timer, you’re quite
and acted in a short film that good or bad through the trail- confident. Which is hard to
went to Cannes.  er. There are so many shades believe seeing you talk about
Next, when his friend and of grey. I personally love anxiety.
co-AD from Boss, Behzad Karan Kapadia that, there’s intrigue about I think it’s a great
compliment that people think it
doesn’t look like my first film.
When I was younger, I had a lot of anxiety issues. I wanted to take part in But I know I can grow a lot
plays etc, but I couldn’t muster up the courage to do it. I always regretted more, and have the potential to
do so. When you watch your
it. So, when I act or perform on stage, there’s a feeling of personal work, you think you could have
accomplishment for me that I was able to overcome this barrier done this better or that
differently. Contd on P13
Ajay Devgn’s stand Sophie
Turner
on the Alok Nath wants to
#MeToo controversy
The Bollywood superstar and filmmaker clarifies his stance
be a cop
S
ophie Turner has a
real urge to
become a police
officer. The Game of
L
Thrones star would
ast year, Bollywood love to become a cop, as
was hit by the #MeToo she is fascinated with
Movement. Several crime, and says the
women came forward interrogation process
to name and shame those is something that real-
who had sexually harassed ly interests her.
them at the work place and Speaking to
otherwise. Dr Phil McGraw for his
This ugly issue raised its podcast Phil in the
head again at the recent Blanks, she said, “I
trailer launch of Ajay want to do a lot of
Devgn’s De De Pyaar De. things, and not just in
One of the key actors in the the film world. At the
film is Alok Nath, who has moment, I have a real
been accused of allegedly urge to go to a police
academy and become a
cop. I’m fascinated
with crime and why
people do things and
the interrogation
process, and how you
can manipulate your
words in order to get
someone to confess,
that’s something that
really interests me.’’
Alok Nath Ajay Devgn Sophie previously
admitted she suffered
from a bit of an identi-
raping Vinta Nanda, the By the time the allegations came out ty crisis when filming
writer-producer of the tele- (in October 2018) the actors in the film wrapped on Game of
vision serial, Tara. The Thrones, and she had
senior actor is out on bail including me had already started work on to undergo therapy
in the matter. other films. It would be near impossible to when she stopped play-
On the podium at the ing the character.
trailer launch, a media
get all the dates and combinations of the
several actors in the film and attempt a
person asked the leading
Kriti and some man what his take was on
the inclusion of Alok Nath
re-shoot with some other actor replacing
of the people in the film, especially since Mr Nath Ajay Devgn, actor-filmmaker
the senior artiste has been
around her were of accused of a heinous
the opinion that crime. Ajay clarified think he is in a position to #MeToo Movement
Kartik was trying to that they had finished take a stand. The money happened, I along with
shooting before the riding on the project is the many of my film industry
hijack the success of #MeToo Movement took only dharma for them.” colleagues categorically
the movie. They felt place. Not wanting this to expressed that I respect
However, a fresh round become a ‘she said, he said’ every single woman at the
that the actor was of media reports appeared ongoing war of words, the work place and I would not
making it seem like two days ago. Once again, Bollywood superstar sent stand for any unfairness or
Vinta has expressed her out an open letter to media atrocity against them.
he was the sole disappointment with Ajay persons wherein he Nothing about my stand
contributor to the for not standing by his clarified his stand on the has changed.”
words. She has been quoted issue. His statement read
success A source as saying, “I don’t expect as follows: For the full story, log on to Sophie Turner
anything from Ajay. I don’t “When the entire www.dnaindia.com
 After

Contd from P12

‘I couldn’t have asked for better role
models than my mother and aunt’
l That’s different. That
you’ll be doing even after 100
films.
That’s inevitable, be-
cause hindsight is such a
thing that you’ll always feel
that. But, honestly, I take
pride when people say that.
Obviously, I won’t let that
get to my head. Though I
know I have a lot more work
to do and do better in terms
of performances, better
than what I’ve done, in fu-
ture.
l Talking about family,
you’ve been brought up by
one of the most beautiful
women in the film industry.
Yes, I’m extremely fortu-
nate that I’ve been raised by
women. I always say that I
was very fortunate to have
two mothers. My mom
(Simple) was with me till
I was 15, then my aunt
(Dimple) took over and how!
She’s absolutely incredible
and never made me feel that
I missed out on anything
growing up. Even my
Dimple Kapadia sisters, (Twinkle and Rinke)
and Karan Kapadia have always been protective
of me. Because of the age
Karan and Sunny Deol in Blank
gap between us, there are
maternal vibes. There is an
age-gap of nearly 18-19
years between us, as my
mom got married really
late.
While growing up, as a
kid, I was observing all
this. They set the bar so
high, especially at that
time, because women were
not taken as seriously as
they are now. I’m talking
about the 1980s. So, to do
things like that at that
Etc
time.. of course, they’re the
most inspirational people I
have in my life and I
couldn’t have asked for
better role models.
l Were you ever able to tell
your mom that you wanted to
be an actor?
No. The other day I told
my aunt that was my only
regret that I couldn’t tell
my mom (that I wanted to
become an actor), so I can’t
gauge what her reaction
daily news & analysis
Ahmedabad I Friday, April 19, 2019
would be like. My aunt said
that she would be proud, but
I don’t know what my mom
would have made out of it.
She would have been scared
for me because this is a
scary industry, I feel. And
she was Mr Sunny Deol’s
costume designer, so then to
see her son in the same
frame with him would have
been a big thing for her.
l It would have been a little
overwhelming for her.
Yeah, it sort of hit me
when I was doing a scene
with him. I hadn’t thought
of it until then. So, yeah,
not being able to tell her is
one of the regrets I have.
l Your mom was also known
to call a spade a spade.
Yeah, I liked that. She
was so spunky. She was
opposite of what I am. I
think I’m more like my
aunt. She is more calm and
believes in just staying in
her space. Maybe because
I’ve lived with her for so
long, it has rubbed off on
me. I was a very naughty
child; I was quite a pain.
But I’d like to think that
my aunt’s personality has
influenced me in so many
ways.
l Do you feel fortunate as an
actor that you got the support
of Sunny Deol in the film.
Also, there’s Akshay Kumar
(cousin Twinkle’s husband).
Definitely, that’s a strong
support system. I’m a first-
time actor, working with a
debutant director as well as
the DOP. To have someone
13
who is seasoned like
Mr Deol — I think it’s his
99th or 100th film — and
his experience on the set,
obviously, you’re grateful for
the position you’re in.
On the set, we were a
bunch of newcomers so
much in awe of everything
going on around us. He just
makes everyone better.
When I have a scene, I see it
as a chance to try to match
his level of performance. He
brings out the best in the
cast, crew everyone on the
team.
As for Akshay sir, we
didn’t know he was doing
the song till about two
weeks before we shot it.
They’ve always been en-
couraging. But I think when
they saw some portion of
the film, they were proud
and confident that we did a
good job. After that, maybe
it was his way of saying
good luck. I’m so grateful.
None of us could see it com-
ing. I told him, now, I can’t
sleep. Then, there was so
much anxiety. But we’re
glad everything has worked
out organically.

pick your brain crossword hidato Baby Blues

Down ball ? (4)
1 Protect 18 Birds in
financially herds (4)
(6) 19 Exquisite
2 Infringes, skill (8)
assaults or 20 First man in
plunders (8) space (7)
3 To tip the 21 Starts to
hat (4) speak freely
4 Attempted (5,2)
(7) 24 To stitch (3)
5 Singer Cal- 25 Accelerates
las (5) (4,2)
6 Make-or- 26 Most unfa-
break time vourable (5) The Pajama Dairies
(4) 29 Anti-Apart-
7 Burial heid activist
clothes (7) Steven (4)
12 “Sea”, in 30 British peer
French (3) (4)
14 Sinks the 8

Across 15 Yes or aye (3) 27 Beget (4)

1 Enter by force (6) 16 High building (5) 28 Army officer’s belt (3,6)
5 Deranged (3) 17 Guides (5) 31 Fries lightly in hot oil (6)
8 Greek peak (4) 20 Acquire (3) 32 An informer (4) The goal of Hidato is to fill the grid
9 Roald ___, children’s author 22 Title for a married woman, in 33 Goad a horse (4) with consecutive numbers that
(4) short (3) 34 Table scrap (3) connect horizontally, vertically, or
23 Flatulent (5) 35 Exaggerate (4,2) diagonally from first to the last
10 Ridicules or derides (6)
24 Jet of water (5) number in the grid. The first and last
11 Domestic quarrel (6,3)
13 Gather (4) 26 Very small (3) numbers of a puzzle and some other Tina’s Grove
numbers are already filled in.

spellathon How good is your vocabulary? Spell out sudoku

as many words of four or more letters
as you can from the letters in today’s To solve a Sudoku
diagram. In making a word, each letter puzzle, every digit
must be used only once and each word must appear once
must contain the letter in the centre. in: Each of the
There should be at least one nine-letter vertical columns;
word! Plurals, foreign words, and Each of the
proper nouns do not qualify. horizontal rows;
Rate yourself Each of the boxes.
15 Average; 17 Good; 19 Wow!

Tinkersons
crossword
solutions

sudoku
hidato

suit, suitcase, suite, tissue

SPACESUIT, spastic, spice, spit, spite,
issue, pica, sepia, septic, site,
aseptic, aspic, cite, epic, escapist,
spellathon

Marjorie Orr
Your year ahead will be pulled in opposite directions since your head will want one thing and your heart another. Make no instant decisions especially
IF IT’S YOUR about close relationships. Weigh all your options before committing yourself to a course of action. Hard work will keep you tied down much of the time
BIRTHDAY TODAY but your efforts will pay off if you persevere. Success will come towards the year end. Your finances will be erratic so save when you can.

ARIES TAURUS GEMINI CANCER LEO VIRGO

Mar 21 - Apr 20
You’ll be reviewing one
partnership. You want more
support but you also want
your independence. It’s a
question of how to fulfil your needs
without making partners feel their needs
are not being met. You’re likely more than
usual to act impulsively where cash is
concerned and disregard advice. However,
you could find that bright inspirations lead
you to new ways of making money. Try to
control your more reckless ideas.
Apr 21 - May 20
Although you really would like
to disappear into a quiet space
to put your feet up, your
conscience is prodding you
to be more helpful. Make sure you are
looking after your health since you need
to boost your stamina if you are pushing
against the grain. There may be upheavals
in your emotional life but you know what
you must do. Even if it feels insecure at
times, you are determined to tread a new
path in your life.
May 21 - June 21
You know you should be
sorting out long term plans
but what you really want is to
enjoy yourself. Balancing the
needs of the future with your desire for fun
is a challenge but there will be a solution.
Maybe you are avoiding confronting
difficulties in relationships. Positive
thinking is good, but there’s a downside
as well. Sometimes you have to shine light
on hidden places, or face the bottom line.
Only then do the answers begin to come.
June 22 - July 23
The Full Moon falling at the
lowest point of your chart is a
warning that you need to draw
back slightly from too much
work and ambition to consider your feelings
more. You can’t allow your head to over-rule
everything and forget your heart. Slow
down and enjoy being instead of constant
doing. You are thinking a good deal about
how to join hands with like-minded people
to improve society. What is certain is that
your outlook is changing dramatically.
July 24 - August 23
The Full Moon in your chart area
of daily communications tends
to get you bogged down in
trivia. Try to stand further back
to see the full picture without losing sight of
details and you’ll reach better judgements.
Your life may not feel stable but it certainly
isn’t dull. There may be sudden changes
which could bring new opportunities for
advancement. But you are on tenterhooks
until you see how everything shakes down.
Grasp chances which come your way.
Aug 24 - Sep 23
You know you are not going to
be secure until your get your
finances in order. Yet you also
are aware that close partners
have a different agenda. But your priority
is to protect your own back as much as
possible. Then you can fit in with joint
schemes that are important. In almost
every area of your thinking, you are eager
to find out about the latest knowledge. You
certainly don’t want to hear about the way
it always was.

LIBRA SCORPIO SAGITTARIUS CAPRICORN AQUARIUS PISCES

Write to Sept 24 - October 22 Oct 23 - November 22 Nov 23 - Dec 22 Dec 23 - Jan 20 Jan 21 - Feb 19 Feb20 - March 20
Marjorie Today’s Full Moon in your Since this is the Full Moon you Although you want the chance Maybe you have been All you really want to do is Your mood will be more intense
Orr own sign is significant for are pulled between conflicting to have fun and enjoy yourself, keeping out of sight at home broaden your horizons and fill than usual, so it’s important not
close partnerships. You really wants and oughts. Your sense you may have niggling thoughts with loved ones in recent your life with more stimulating to overreact to what may be a
with your
want more support than you of duty says service for others about sorting out longer term days, but now you have a yen activities and friends. But the passing cloud. You know you
queries at are getting but also the freedom to please comes first, but you also have your own schemes. So find time for a little planning as mundane details of everyday life still need have to be more self-sufficient but frankly
for more attention at work. So see where
afterhrs@ yourself. Maybe it would be best to back needs to consider. New relationships which well as entertainment. You are finding more you can give your ambitions a nudge. The to be attended to at the same time. Try to you could do with leaning on someone
dnaindia. off just briefly until you have a clearer idea appear now could be very switch-on, switch and more that alternative lifestyles and ways old social activities which used to hold see the big picture without losing sight of close for support. You seem to be having
net of what you can sensibly expect. Your off, but exciting on the way through. There to make a living interest you. Settling into a your attention now seem a drag. You vital details. Maybe you feel that you are more contacts at the moment with people
www. ability to come up with discoveries needs is a definite feeling of change in the air, and traditional working environment does not sit want to open up new paths, to adopt a losing certain aspects of an old emotional who challenge you and test your patience.
star4cast. to be developed. You can turn it to good if you can find the courage to go with it you well with your restless spirit. You need a whole new way of expressing yourself in way of life. But think positively. What will Highly strung it may be, but boring it
com use to come up with inventive ways of will find more interest and stimulation in the space where you have the freedom to live your off duty hours. Excitement means replace it could be sparkling, stimulating certainly isn’t. Just try to pause for breath
making or handling money. days ahead. as you like without too much supervision. more than being seen in the best places. and much more alive. and thought along the way.

14 www.dnaindia.com I twitter.com/dna I epaper.dnaindia.com I facebook.com/dnaindia
snapshot
‘BJP will lose
its Delhi main
engine soon’
Naveen Patnaik, Odisha
Chief Minister
BJPs ‘double engine’
1 is already derailed
in the five states and
its ‘main engine’ is going
to meet the same fate on
May 23, when results of the
(ongoing) general elections
will be declared.
There was double
2 engine government
of BJP in these five
states. What development
did it bring in them?
I also want to know
3 from the BJP leader-
ship who your Odisha
engine is, as you have not
named your chief ministe-
rial candidate ahead of the
Assembly elections.
The BJP leaders visit
4 Odisha only to garner
votes. The party
remembers the poor in the
state only during elections.
No body can stop KALIA
scheme as long as I am alive
as after my new government
takes oath, the farmers will
get two installments on the
first day itself.
The BJP leaders in this coal
belt work for the contractors
and not for the local people.
The Centre has not
5 passed on benefits to
the local people in the
coal belts of the state tough
the government-owned
Mahanadi Coal Limited and
NTPC earns huge profits.
—PTI
Michel is a ‘flight risk’,
denied bail for Easter
DNA Correspondent
correspondent@dnaindia.net
New Delhi: A Delhi court
on Thursday dismissed the
week-long interim bail plea
of AgustaWestland accused
Christian Michel, who
hoped to celebrate Easter
with his family members.
The court dismissed the plea
on the ground that he could
tamper with evidence, and
was also a flight risk since
he had no roots in India.
Michel, through his coun-
sel, filed an interim bail plea
last week wherein he re-
quested that in the holy
week of Easter — from April
14 to 21 — he be permitted
to attend the Easter holy
mass.
However, Enforcement
Directorate counsel object-
ed to the bail on the ground
that Michel is an accused in
a grave economic offence.
“He has no roots in the soci-
ety and his past conduct
makes it clear that there ex-
ists reasonable apprehen-
sion of him evading the pro-
cess of law. Accused also has
close links with influential
people and there is a likeli-
hood of accused tampering
with evidence,” stated the
counsel.
The ED’s counsel added
that India is a country of
accidental discovery skull found in 2010 turns out to be a beast called Simbakubwa kutokaafrika, bigger than polar bear
22 mn years later, largest carnivorous land mammal stumbles out of drawer
Washington: When Ohio Uni-
versity integrative biologist
Nancy Stevens peered into a
drawer on the top floor of the
National Museums of Kenya
in 2010, she saw a chunk of
rock containing massive teeth
and knew she had come across
something important.
The overlooked fossils be-
longed to one of the largest
meat-eating mammals ever to
walk the Earth — a beast
called Simbakubwa kutokaaf-
rika that stalked Africa 22 mil-
lion years ago, according to
research by Stevens and co-
author Matthew Borths pub-
lished on Thursday.
Bigger than any carnivo-
rous land mammal alive today
— even a polar bear — Simba-
I have been arrested for what amounts to Orwellian
‘thoughtcrimes’. The leaders of the world are waging a war
against knowledge. Case against me is based on the books I’ve
read and the technology I have. It will be obvious that there’s
no substance to this case, and it will collapse into nothing.
—Ola Bini, Julian Assange’s friend, arrested by Equador
SpiceJet swoops in to
fill up Jet’s empty slots
Aviation secy says 440 slots being allocated; airline announces fleet upgrade
Mumbai: The crisis at Jet,
long the biggest operator in
Mumbai, has opened a win-
dow of opportunity for ri-
vals. As many as 440 slots are
vacant at Delhi and Mumbai
airports which will be allo-
cated to other airlines in a
transparent manner, a senior
official said Thursday. Civil
Aviation Secretary Pradeep
Singh Kharola also said Jet
Airways is expected to pro-
vide information next week
to the ministry about tickets
booked by passengers and
how it plans to refund them.
Once allotted, an airline
can keep the slot for one fly-
ing season or six months and
Jet can reclaim the slots if it
is revived by the end of the
flying season, the source
said. The current flying sea-
son ends on October 26, ac-
cording to the Indian avia-
tion regulator’s website.
“We are assisting airlines
and airports to bring in ca-
pacity rapidly to ensure that
fares remain stable,” Minis-
try of Aviation said. A gap in
capacity has pushed up fares
by 30-40 percent since Sep-
tember in India, ratings
agency ICRA has said.
India’s biggest airline In-
diGo has been rapidly in-
ducting new Airbus SE
A320neos into its fleet in re-
cent months. Low-cost air-
line SpiceJet on Thursday
pledged it would launch 24
new flights from Mumbai
and Delhi. Of these, 16 will
connect Mumbai, four will
connect Delhi while the rest
will connect the two metros
with each other, it said.
To that end, SpiceJet said
it will dry lease six more
Boeing 737 planes, taking the
religious ground
Last week, Michel
filed an interim
bail plea request-
ing that in the holy
week of Easter —
from April 14 to 21 — he be
permitted to attend the Easter
holy mass.
However, EC counsel objected
to the bail on the grounds
that Michel is an accused in a
grave economic offence.
many festivals and thou-
sands of prisoners follow
various religions. The ac-
cused, therefore, can’t be al-
lowed to leave jail to cele-
brate festivals.
Special CBI Judge Arvind
Kumar concurred and said,
“Thus, considering the over-
all facts and circumstances,
I do not find new ground for
admitting the accused to in-
terim bail. The application
is dismissed.”
Michel’s lawyer had ar-
gued that since the charge
sheet has been filed, there is
no point of tampering with
evidence. He added that the
accused was cooperating in
the case. “Being a Christian,
even during Christmas, he
was not allowed to offer a
holy mass.”
kubwa’s skull was the size of
a rhino’s, its eight-inch canine
teeth as large as bananas. It
weighed about a ton and was 8
feet long snout to rump.
According to the research,
the fossils were excavated
around 1980 in western Kenya
and never closely examined.
“Most of the specimens that I
study are quite small, so you
can imagine my surprise
when I opened a drawer that I
hadn’t examined yet, and saw
the enormous teeth. The spec-
imen had been collected dec-
ades before, and the team that
discovered this fossil was
more focused on other parts of
the fauna, particularly pri-
mates,” Stevens said.
Simbakubwa was a member
filling up the vacuum
how crisis at jet has opened opportunity for rivals like low-cost spicejet
SpiceJet will
induct six more
Boeing 737-800
NG aircraft on dry
lease and it has
applied to DGCA
for a NOC
We are hopeful
30-40% 280 160
that these
inductions will
help considerably
ease the pressure Hike in fares since Sept.
situations
Ajay Singh,
SpiceJet chairman
total tally up to 27 new air-
craft in coming two weeks.
The move comes close on the
heels of the airline announc-
ing expansion by 21 planes
— 16 B737s and five turbo-
prop Boombardier Q400s.
“SpiceJet will induct six
more Boeing 737-800 NG air-
craft on dry lease and it has
applied to the DGCA for a no-
objection certificate (NOC)
to import these planes,” the
airline said in a statement.
Subject to regulatory approv-
als the aircraft would begin
joining SpiceJets fleet in the
next ten days, it added.
“The industry is currently
facing severe shortage of ca-
pacity and SpiceJet remains
committed to minimize pas-
senger inconvenience. We will
induct as many as 27 planes in
less than two weeks,” said
Ajay Singh, SpiceJet’s chair-
man. —Agencies
Spectre of Note 7 haunts Samsung as Ambani, legal eagles
reports of Fold screen damage surface on TIME’s 100 list
In an email a day after
providing the units, Samsung
asked that ‘special protective
layer’ not be removed. The
device’s packaging, however,
didn’t discourage it.
of a group called hyaenodonts
that appeared 62 million years
ago — 4 million years after the
extinction of the dinosaurs
paved the way for mammalian
dominance, and went extinct 9
million years ago.
Hyaenodonts preceded car-
nivore groups like cats, bears,
hyenas and wolves, and were
closely related to none of them.
“At first glance, it would
have looked like a gigantic hy-
ena or long-tailed wolf with a
head that was a little too big
for its body. I imagine some-
thing like the ‘wargs’ from
Lord of the Rings,” said
Borths, a Duke Lemur Center
paleontologist, referring to
fictional monstrous wolves.
Simbakubwa’s name means
changing dynamics
Open slots at
Mumbai airport
27 Aircraft that SpiceJet
plans to induct into fleet
We can lease out 5 Jet
aircraft, AI tells SBI Hum hain na, Swaraj assures man
Mumbai: National carrier
Air India is looking at leas-
ing five of the grounded car-
rier Jet Airways Boeing 777s
and operate them to London,
Dubai and Singapore.
Jet Airways, grounded
since Wednesday night, owns
10 wide-body Boeing 777-300
ER planes, along with a few
Airbus A330s, which it used
to operate on medium and
long-haul international des-
tinations such as London,
Amsterdam and Paris con-
necting New Delhi and Mum-
bai. “We are exploring the
possibility of operating five
of the grounded B777s on the
established routes, hitherto
“big lion” in Swahili though it
was not a cat. It was the larg-
est predator in its ecosystem,
a fragmented forest inhabited
by early apes, hippo relatives
and elephant relatives, and
was probably the largest car-
nivorous land mammal in Af-
rica up to that time.
“It was not an animal built
for long efficient runs across
open ground. Instead, its
foot was flexed. Car-
nivores with this
posture tend to be
ambush hunters
like tigers rath-
er than pur-
suit hunt-
ers like
wolves,”
Borths said. —Reuters
22 B737s to
be added
5 turboprop
Boombardier Q400s
24 New Delhi
and Mumbai
flights on anvil
16 Flights from
Mumbai to
other cities
Open slots at 516 Daily flights
Delhi airport the airline operates
60 Destinations
it touches daily
operated by Jet Airways,”
Air India chairman and
managing director Ashwani
Lohani wrote to SBI chair-
man Rajnish Kumar on April
17 — the day the private car-
rier went belly up.
The grounding of Jet has
caused great inconvenience
to the travelling public, said
Lohani in the letter. “In tune
with our responsibilities as
the national carrier, we
would be happy to alleviate
this inconvenience,” he said.
He said that the move is sub-
ject to approvals and finan-
cial viability, and AI can ex-
amine leasing five B777s on
wet/dry basis. —PTI
New York/Seoul: Samsung
Electronics said it has re-
ceived “a few” reports of
damage to the displays of
samples of its upcoming
foldable smartphone, raising
the prospect of a less-then-
smooth entry for the
splashy $1,980 handset.
The Galaxy Fold, on
sale from April 26 in the
United States, resembles a
conventional smartphone
but opens like a book to re-
veal a second display the
size of a small tablet at 7.3
inches (18.5 cm). The design,
matched by Huawei Tech-
nologies’s Mate X, was
hailed as the future in a field
that has seen few surprises
since Apple’s iPhone in 2007.
Yet ahead of the launch,
journalists supplied with
review samples reported
malfunctions after only a
day or two of use. “We will
thoroughly inspect these
units ... to determine the
cause of the matter,” Sam-
sung said in a statement.
The malfunctions raised
the spectre of Samsung’s
doomed Galaxy Note 7
phone three years ago. Bat-
tery and design flaws in the
Note 7 resulted in some
Ancient
giant
predator
second
front
page
Ahmedabad I Friday, April 19, 2019 I daily news & analysis
India snaps cross-border
trade ties with Pakistan
Sidhant Sibal and Ieshan Wani
New Delhi/ Srinagar: India
on Thursday suspended trade
across the line of control in
Jammu & Kashmir, citing
misuse of the trade route by
Pakistan-based elements to
funnel illegal weapons, fake
currency, and narcotics.
The ministry of home affairs
(MHA) announced that it has
“issued orders to suspend the
LoC trade in Jammu & Kash-
mir from Friday.”
Explaining its rationale be-
hind the action, the MHA
said, “This action has been
taken as the government has
been receiving reports that
the Cross LoC trade
routes are being mis-
used by Pakistan-based
elements for funneling
illegal weapons, narcot-
ics, and fake currency.”
Trade is allowed
through two Trade Facilita-
tion Centres (TFCs) at Sala-
mabad in Uri, part of the
Baramulla district and at
Chakkan-da-Bagh in the
in Riyadh threatening to kill self
New Delhi: External Affairs
Minister Sushma Swaraj as-
sured help to an Indian man
in Saudi Arabia who wishes
to return, after he threatened
to commit suicide in his ap-
peal for aid on Twitter.
The man, identified as Ali,
has claimed that he has been
seeking help from the Indian
Embassy in Riyadh for the
last one year to get back to
India. In his tweet, he said,
“Sir ek bat bateyn app log ki
meri madat kar sakte ho ki
mujhe khud kusi karleni
chahye taqreeban 12 maheeno
se guhar laga raha hun main
units catching fire or ex-
ploding, forcing Samsung to
recall and cancel sales of
the model. The recall wiped
out nearly all profit of Sam-
sung’s mobile division in
the third quarter of 2016.
With the Fold, analysts
said malfunctions from the
first batch of a test model
were of little surprise. More-
over, the handset’s in-folding
design is likely to be less du-
rable than Huawei’s out-fold-
ing approach, they said. “In-
folding is more difficult to
make than out-folding, as it
adds higher pressure to
screens,” said analyst Park
Sung-soon at BNK Securities.
Technology journalists
reported instances of the
screen either cracking or
flickering. Bloomberg’s
Mark Gurman said: “The
screen on my Galaxy Fold
review unit is completely
broken and unusable just
two days in. Hard to know if
this is widespread or not.”
Samsung on Thursday
said that it would clearly
inform customers of the is-
sue, adding there was no
change to its release sched-
ule following the malfunc-
tion reports. —Reuters
Dinosaurs
Died out 65 mn
years ago Eocene 38-54mn yrs ago Oligocene 26-
Simbakubwa n Weight
kutokaafrika
(Big African Lion)
Enormous
South Africa
fangs
Unearthed
in modern
day Kenya
based on barter
Trade is allowed through
two Trade Facilitation
Centres at Salamabad in
Uri, part of the Baramulla
district and Chakkan-
da-Bagh in the Poonch
district. The trade usually
takes place on four days
of a week and is based
Goods-laden trucks en route to
on the barter system.
Pakistan —FILE
Poonch district. Trade usu- ment mechanism and the “is-
ally takes place on four days sue of reopening of LoC
of a week and is based on the trade will be revisited.”
barter system, wherein zero In an ongoing investigation
duty is applicable. by NIA, the MHA said, “per-
One MHA source said, sons closely associated with
“This facility was mis- banned terrorist organiza-
used by some influen- tions involved in fuelling ter-
tial local businessmen rorism and separatism” have
in nexus with unscru- been involved in the trade.
pulous elements to MHA added that some indi-
trade products from viduals, who have crossed
third-party countries. There-
fore, the government has sus-
pended the LoC trade.”
over to Pakistan and joined
militant organisations have
opened trading firms in Paki-
The Centre is also working on stan and are now engaged in
a stricter regulatory enforce- LoC trade.
ing for help for the last 12
months. Would be grateful if
you can send me back, I have
four kids back home).
Responding to the appeal,
Swaraj said on Thursday that
she was there to help and the
entire embassy will lend a
helping hand. “’Khud kusi’ ki
embassy se lekin embassy
baat nahin sochte. Hum hain
na. Hamari Embassy aapki
samjha rahi hai mere ko theek poori madad karegi,” she
agar mujhe India bhejwa wrote on the micro-blogging
sakte ho to maher bani hogi site, and asked Indian author-
kyun ki mere 4bacche bhi hain ities in Riyadh to send a re-
sir (Please tell me if you can port on the matter. However,
help me or should I just com- the post by Ali was later re-
mit suicide? Have been ask- moved from Twitter. —PTI
New York: Reliance Indus- ka Chopra wrote the profile
tries Chairman Mukesh Am- for Katju and Guruswamy,
bani along with public-inter- who led the fight to ensure
est litigators Arundhati equal rights for the LGBTQ
Katju and Menaka Guruswa- community in India and were
my, who spearheaded a his- among the lead lawyers rep-
toric legal battle for LGBTQ resenting gay petitioners to
rights in India, are among the have the ban on consensual
Indians who have been gay sex struck down in the
named by TIME country.
magazine in its “Arundhati and
prestigious list of
india inc Menaka have
the 100 most influ- helped take a gi-
ential people in ant step for LG-
the world for 2019. BTQ+ rights in
Writing the the world’s largest
profile for Amba- democracy. In
ni, Anand Mahin- Mukesh Ambani their committed
dra, chairman of fight for justice,
Mahindra Group, they have shown
said Ambani’s fa- us that we as a so-
ther Dhirubhai ciety must contin-
was a visionary in ue to make pro-
Indian business. Arundhati Katju gress, even after
“But Ambani’s laws are changed,
vision is now even and that we must
more ambitious make an effort to
than that of the understand, ac-
father whose cept and love,”
blessings he un- Menaka Guruswamy Chopra said.
failingly invokes The list also in-
at the launch of each initia- cludes Indian-American co-
tive,” Mahindra wrote adding median and TV host Hasan
that the scale of his Reliance Minhaj, US President Donald
Jio mobile-data network, Trump, Pope Francis, Chi-
which has already connected nese President Xi Jinping,
over 280 million people in In- Pakistan Prime Minister Im-
dia with low-cost 4G, is “im- ran Khan, iconic golfer Tiger
pressive by any standard.” Woods and Facebook founder
Meanwhile, actor Priyan- Mark Zuckerberg. —PTI
Society of vertebrate paleontology/AFP
Early
bats,
rabbits,
beavers, Eagles,
Simbakubwa Human
ancestors
rats Hawks
23 mn 2 mn
38mn yrs ago
years ago years ago
Battle of the jaws
1,500 kg 40 cm
n The extinct
carnivorous mammal
was possibly larger than Simbakubwa kutokaafrika: could
a polar bear prey on elephant-sized herbivores
25 cm Modern
day lion:
Ordinarily
would not attack elephants but
incidents have been known