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The EnforcementDirectorate (ED) on

Thursday questioned Congresschief Sonia Gandhi in a moneylaundering case related to theNational Herald newspaper.The issue of summons to theCongress president rockedParliament even as theCongress workers took to thestreet to protest her question-ing.

The agency summonedher again on July 25 for fur-ther questioning, officialssaid. She was questioned forabout two hours and was

allowed to leave on herrequest , of f icials said.However, Congress leaderJairam Ramesh said the EDtold Sonia that they had nofurther questions and she

could leave.“The Congress president

told the ED officials that “Iam ready to return, I willanswer your questions, it maytake till 7 pm, 8 pm, 9 pm, I

am ready to sit here”. But fromthe ED side it was said theirdoctor is not available in theafternoon and tomorrow theED is busy with some courtissue, Ramesh said.

�� 102�30*4.�

The Supreme Court onThursday said it will await

the Varanasi District Judge’sdecision on the Gyanvapimosque committee’s applica-tion raising objections to themaintainability of the civilsuit filed by Hindu devotees.

The SC also refused toentertain two writ petitionsseeking permission to worshipShivling found in theGyanvapi mosque premisesduring a court-ordered surveyand carbon dating of theShivling to ascertain its age.

A bench of Justices DYChandrachud, Surya Kant,and PS Narasimha said it isposting for October 20 hear-ing on the appeal of theGyanvapi mosque commit-tee’s plea against the HC orderon the appointment of a courtcommissioner.

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Delhi Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal approached the

Ministry of External Affairs onThursday for visiting Singaporeto attend the World CitiesSummit hours after LieutenantGovernor Vinai Kumar Saxenaturned down his request seek-ing clearance for the travel.

“I do not agree with theadvice of the LieutenantGovernor,” said Kejriwal,adding that if one goes by hislogic, then the Prime Ministerwill also not be able to go any-where”.

The AAP Governmentshared Kejriwal’s reply andthe LG’s letter on Twitter onThursday. After the LG’srejection, Delhi Deputy ChiefMinister Manish Sisodia saidthey will directly go to theMEA to seek clearance forKejriwal.

Later in the evening, the

MEA conf irmed it hasreceived request for politicalclearance for Kejriwal’s visit toSingapore. MEA spokesper-son Arindam Bagchi said the“entry” for the clearance wasmade on the Ministry’s ded-icated online portal thatreceives such requests.

“I was just informed thatan entry has been made in theMinistry’s online portal.There is a system to requestf o rpolitical clearance,” he saidwhile replying to a questionon the issue at his weeklymedia briefing.

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The reported resignation ofUP Minister of State for Jal

Shakti Dinesh Khatik thatraised the political temperaturefrom Lucknow to Delhi forcedChief Minister Yogi Adityanathto extend an olive branch toembattled Minister onThursday when he met himalong with his senior MinisterSwatantra Dev Singh.

The meeting lasted foralmost 45 minutes. “I havetold the Chief Minister aboutthe issues and he has assuredme that he will take redressalsteps soon,” Khatik toldreporters outside the CM’s res-idence here on Thursday.

Khatik had reportedly senthis resignation to Union HomeMinister Amit Shah allegingthat he was “sidelined becausehe is a Dalit”.

In his two-page letter,Khatik had alleged that he wasnot given any importance indecision-making because he

was a Dalit. He said he has no author-

ity as a Minister and was notcalled for any meeting and wasnot briefed about the devel-opment in the Ministry.Without naming Singh, hesaid he was not assigned anywork.

To sort out the differencesbetween the two, the CM invit-ed the two Ministers for ameeting. Around 4 pm, Singhdrove down to the CM’s resi-dence followed by Khatik.

“Everything is settled now.No one has resigned,” DeputyChief Minister Keshav PrasadMaurya said in the evening.

Khatik had earlier gone toDelhi and met BJP president JPNadda at his residence. Naddaassured him a solution wouldbe found but advised that suchissues should be raised at theparty forum only.

After the resignation letterwent viral, the Governmentand the party organisationstarted damage control.

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The Trinamool Congress hasdecided to abstain from

voting in the vice presidentialelections, party national generalsecretary Abhishek Banerjeesaid on Thursday following ahigh-level meeting ofTrinamool MPs with partysupremo and Bengal ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjee.

The TMC, the Congressand all other parties had joint-ly fielded Yashwant Sinha in thepresidential elections.

The TMC’s decision toabstain from voting comesdays after the Left Front andthe Congress raised questionson the “timing, content andlength” of a “secret meeting”between the Chief Ministerand then Bengal Governor andNDA vice presidential nomineeJagdeep Dhankhar atDarjeeling Raj Bhavan.

“The Trinamool Congresshas decided to abstain fromvoting in the vice presidentialelections,” Abhisek Banerjee,who is also the DiamondHarbour MP and nephew ofthe Chief Minister, said. He

accused the Opposition partiesof not consulting MamataBanerjee before deciding on thename of Margaret Alva as theOpposition candidate.

“The way JagdeepDhankhar had conductedhimself — much like a BJPmember — during his stint asthe Bengal Governor it willnot be possible for us to votefor him. And for MadamMargaret Alva, though ourleader Mamata Banerjeeshares extremely cordialchemistry with her, we are of

the view that only good chem-istry should not be consid-ered” as the only guiding fac-tor for taking such decisions,he said.

Proffering his party’s apol-ogy for not supporting Alvajunior, Banerjee said Mamatawas not consulted beforedeciding on the oppositioncandidate. When asked aboutthe invitation she was given byNCP chief Sharad Pawar, theTMC leader said the invitehad come after Alva’s namehad already been decided on.

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Apower outage in the SriLankan Parliament com-

plex stopped the live broadcastof President RanilWickremesinghe’s swearing-inceremony, forcing authorities tolaunch a probe by the CriminalInvestigations Department intothe incident, a media report

said on Thursday.Veteran politician Ranil

was on Thursday sworn in asLanka’s eighth President andwill face the tough task ofleading the country out of itsunprecedented economic crisisand restoring order aftermonths of mass anti-Government protests.

Detailed report on Page 9

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Droupadi Murmu onThursday won the

Presidential election with amassive margin and createdhistory by becoming the firsttribal to occupy the top con-stitutional post in the country.

Mumu, the second womanto reach the RashtrapatiBhawan will be the 15thPresident of India. At 64, she isalso the youngest President ofIndia. Fielded by BJP-led NDA,Murmu beat the Oppositionnominee and former UnionMinister Yashwant Sinha.

A total of 4,754 votes werepolled, out of which 4701 werevalid and 53 were invalid. Thequota sufficient to get a candi-date elected was determined bydividing the number of firstpreference votes secured byboth candidates by two andthen adding one to the quo-tient. The said quota was5,28,491. Droupadi Murmusecured 284 first preferencevotes, value of which was6,76,803, whereas 1,877 firstpreference votes were secured

by Yashwant Sinha, value ofwhich was 3,80,177. As the firstpreference votes secured byDroupadi Murmu was greaterthan the requisite quota, theReturning Officer, declaredDroupadi Murmu duly electedto the Office of the President ofIndia.

In every round of counting,she received more than two-third votes. At least 17 MPsfrom Opposition parties cross-voted in the presidential elec-tion in favour of Murmu,sources said.

After the announcement ofthe result, Opposition’s presi-dential nominee Sinha extend-ed best wishes to Murmu.

“I join my fellow citizens incongratulating Murmu on hervictory in the PresidentialElection 2022. India hopes thatas the 15th President of theRepublic, she functions as theCustodian of the Constitutionwithout fear or favour,” Sinhatweeted.

He said the issues he raisedduring his campaign remainpertinent and despite the out-come of the election, hebelieves it has benefited Indiandemocracy in two important

ways. “It brought mostOpposition parties on a com-mon platform. This is indeedthe need of the hour, and Iearnestly appeal to them tocontinue — indeed, furtherstrengthen — Opposition unitybeyond the Presidential elec-tion. It must be equally evidentin the election of the Vice-President,” he said.

In his congratulatory mes-sage, Prime Minster NarendraModi said, “Murmu’s life, herearly struggles, her rich serviceand her exemplary successmotivates each and everyIndian. She has emerged as aray of hope for our citizens,especially the poor, margin-

alised and the downtrodden.”The new president-elect

will take oath on July 25 asincumbent President RamNath Kovind’s tenure is endingon July 24.

The one-day presidentialvoting ended on Mondaywith over 99 per cent of theelectors exercising their fran-chise which included, amongothers, Modi, former PrimeMinister Manmohan Singhand Home Minister AmitShah.

Given the support extend-ed by many Opposition partiesoutside the NDA fold,Murmu’s victory against Sinhawas a foregone conclusion.

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DEHRADUN | FRIDAY | JULY 22, 2022 uttarakhand 02

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Contractors protest in Nainital against a five-fold increase in royalty by the State government onThursday..........................................................................................................................................................Pioneer photo

24 injured after bus falls off the roadPNS n PAURI

Atotal of 24 passengers wereinjured when the bus they

were travelling in fell down theroad between Chandel bridgeand Bhimgauda trijunctionearly on Thursday morning.The Roadways bus was plyingwith a total of 35 passengersfrom Tanakpur to Rishkesh viaCheela when the mishapoccurred. The police rescuedthe injured persons with thehelp of local residents andadmitted to the nearest hospi-tal in haridwar.

According to informationprovided by the police, theCheela police post receivedinformation that an Uttarakhand Transport Corporation (UTC) bus with

license plate number UK 07 PA3083 fell into a gorge nearBhimgauda after the driverlost control of the vehicle.

The mishap occurred atabout 5 AM on Thursday.

Acting on the informa-tion received, the police postin-charge sub inspector SSemwal along with personnelfrom the Lakshman Jhulapolice station reached the siteof the mishap.

The police personnel res-cued the 24 injured passengerswith the help of the local resi-dents.

The injured persons weretaken by ambulance to a hos-pital in Haridwar for treatmentof their injuries.

PNS n HARIDWAR

AKanwadia is taking his pushing hislimits to express his devotion by

pulling a wheeled Kanwad with hookspiercing his back. The iron hooks pierc-ing his back are pulling the Kanwad weigh-ing about 150 kilogrammes. This devotee

of lord Shiva is pulling the Kanwad fromHaridwar to the border of Haryana.Joginder Gujjar, who hails from Keyodakvillage of Kaithal district in Haryana, said that he was inspired to dothis from his master Deshraj who is a taek-wondo coach who also teaches stunts. He said that like lord Hanuman had shownthat his lord Rama resides in his heart bytearing his own chest, he is pulling theKanwad with iron hooks on his back a signof his love of lord Shiva.Coach Deshraj saidthat Joginder will take this Kanwad fromHaridwar to the Haryana border.

Monsoon sessionof HaryanaAssembly tobegin from Aug 8

PNS n CHANDIGARH

The monsoon session of theHaryana Vidhan Sabha

will commence from August 8.The decision to this effect wastaken in the Cabinet meetingchaired by Chief MinisterManohar Lal Khattar onThursday.Haryana Minister ofState for Sports and YouthAffairs Sandeep Singh sharedthis information whileaddressing media persons afterthe Cabinet meeting. A total of11 agendas were tabled in themeeting. Detailed discussionswere held on the agendas andlater the date for the monsoonsession of the Vidhan Sabhawas also fixed.He further saidthat the Business AdvisoryCommittee of Haryana VidhanSabha will decide the durationof the session. The recom-mendation will be sent to theGovernor.

Kanwadiya pullsKanwad with hookson back to Haryana

DEHRADUN | FRIDAY | JULY 22, 2022 uttarakhand 03

CM orders probeinto Helang incidentPNS n DEHRADUN

Taking cognisance of theHelang incident, the chief

minister Pushkar Singh Dhamihas directed the Garhwal com-missioner Sushil Kumar to setup an inquiry to ascertain thefacts in the matter. The com-missioner has been directed toinvestigate the case without anydelay. On the occasion ofHarela festival,paramilitary andpolice personnel had allegedlysnatched bundles of fodderfrom some women of theHelang village of Chamoli dis-trict. The women were taken tothe Joshimath police stationwhere they were reportedlyheld for hours. The incidentattracted widespread criticismof the State administration andthe manner in which the hydropower companies are operatingin the State. The State govern-ment elicited considerable flakespecially on social media withposts showing the CM washingthe feet of Kanwadiyas on one

side and uniformed personnelmanhandling a native womanwith a bundle of fodder on theother side.

Earlier on Thursday, theChamoli district police on itssocial media page posted arebuttal to the criticism and thepopular view of the incident.The post had also stated thatthe Forest minister had ordered

an inquiry into the matter.Observers have questionedwhy the department first stat-ed its view, accusing a few fam-ilies of causing disturbancebefore adding that the minis-ter had ordered an inquiryinto the matter. It now remainsto be seen if the probe orderedby the chief minister ascertainsthe truth in the case.

Complete all road projectson time: CS Sandhu to NHAIPNS n DEHRADUN

The chief secretary SS Sandhu has said thatif the National Highways Authority of

India (NHAI) changes the alignment ofDehradun- Chandigarh road at some places thanthe distance between the two cities can be cov-ered in two hours. He presided over a reviewmeeting of the different road projects of NHAIin Uttarakhand at the state secretariat onThursday. In the meeting the CS sought infor-mation on the progress of Delhi- Dehradun,Mussoorie - Paonta Sahib, Najibadad- Jaspur,Haldwani- Haridwar, Haldwani- Nageena,Dehradun ring road, Saharanpur Bypass,Khatima Bypass, Gadarpur bypass and Khatimabypass projects of NHAI.

Sandhu directed the officers of NHAI tocomplete all the projects within the stipulatedtime period. He also added that the necessaryclearance for the projects should also be givenin time. The CS also stressed the need to makeprovision for the availability of network in theDehradun- Delhi expressway.He directed thedepartment of mines to ensure that there is ano shortage of the construction material forthese important road projects and said that everypossible help should be provided to NHAI fortimely completion of the roads. The CS direct-ed the officers concerned to expedite theprocess of land acquisition and giving payments.He suggested that the NHAI should develop a

logistics park near highway in Dehradun.The CS was told the Delhi- Dehradun

expressway would be constructed in threepackages. The work on first and second pack-age would be over by October 2023 and whilethe package three would be completed by April2024. The forest clearance for the Dehradun-Paonta raod has been given and the work onland acquisition is going on.The meeting wasattended by additional chief secretary AnandVardhan, Principal secretary R K Sudhanshu,Manoj Kumar of NHAI and other senuir offi-cers.

Godiyal versus Rawat: Dimrithreatens to file defamationcase against GodiyalPNS n DEHRADUN

The ongoing battle of alle-gations and counter alle-

gations between the camps ofcabinet minister Dhan SinghRawat and former PradeshCongress Committee (PCC)president Ganesh Godiyal iscontinuing to escalate. OnThursday, the member of theBadrinath Kedarnath TempleCommittee (BKTC) AshutoshDimri served a legal notice to

Godiyal in which he threat-ened to file a defamation caseagainst him. Dimri is said to beclose to Dhan Singh Rawat.

In the notice the counselof Dimri said that Godiyaladdressed a press conferenceon July 8 in which he leveledserious allegations on his clientDimri which has defamed hisimage. In the notice, the coun-sel of Dimri said that Godiyallevelled false and baseless alle-gations on Dimri gettingadvertisements worth Rs 25lakh and regarding makingPrasad (Laddoos).

In a message, Dimri saidthat Godiyal should seek apublic apology from him forthese baseless allegations fail-ing which he would file a

defamation case on him. Hesaid that if the allegations ofGodiyal are found true, hewould retire from public life.He reiterated his demand foran inquiry on his allegations ofgross irregularities that hadoccurred in BKTC whenGodiyal was its chairman.

The war of words andscoring political pointsbetween Rawat and Godiyalstarted when the former direct-ed the chief secretary to start

an inquiry on the accusationsof gross irregularities and cor-ruption levelled by the mem-ber of BKTC Ashutosh Dimrion Godiyal.

Reacting sharply on theseallegations Godiyal demandedthat a committee headed by aretired judge of the High Court(HC) should investigate thecharges levelled on him. Healso demanded that the chiefminister should also order asimilar high level inquiry onthe charges of corruption andirregularities on the ministerDhan Singh Rawat.

Godiyal also leveled manycharges on Dimri also follow-ing which th

e latter has threatened tofile a defamation case.

Cong stages protest against EDsummoning Sonia GandhiVindictive Modi Govt misusing central agencies to harassleaders of the Congress party: MaharaPNS n DEHRADUN

In protest against what ittermed misuse of central

agencies by the Modi govern-ment to harass its leaders theUttarakhand Congress organ-ised a massive protest outsidethe office of EnforcementDirectorate (ED) on Thursday.The protest was part of anationwide call of agitationgiven by the Congress party.The Pradesh CongressCommittee (PCC) presidentKaran Mahara led a march ofCongressmen from the stateheadquarters to the ED office.Speaking on the occasion,Mahara said that the action ofED on the Congress presidentSonia Gandhi in the NationalHerald case is an example ofhow the central agencies arebeing blatantly misused by theUnion government against theleaders of Congress party andopposition leaders.

He said that the NationalHerald newspaper was startedin the year 1937 by leaders suchas Jawahar Lal Nehru, SardarPatel, Acharya Narendra Devand others. The paper wasbanned during the Quit Indiamovement and it was referredto as a national disaster byMahatma Gandhi. "Faced witha crisis this newspaper washelped by the Congress partyand from the year 2002 to 2011a loan of Rs 90 crore was givento it in 100 installments.National Herald paid a sum ofRs 67 Crore from this moneyfor paying salaries and VRS ofthe employees and the remain-ing amount was used to payelectricity bill, house tax, build-

ing tax and other governmentdues,'' he said. Mahara said thatguided by vendetta the BJPleaders are terming this Rs 90Crore loan as a criminal act. Hesaid that since National Heraldand its parent companyAssociated Journals limitedwere not in position to repaythe loan of Rs 90 crore, its loanwas converted into equityshares of Associated Journalslimited.

Mahara said that theCongress leadership believesthat National Herald is a sym-bol of heritage of Congressparty. Giving examples, thePCC president said that thereare many leaders who are inBJP or have joined BJP againstwhom ED cases were droppedand only Congress leaders arebeing targeted.

The leader of opposition(LoP), Yashpal Arya said thatthe loan given by the Congressparty to the AssociatedJournals Limited is not a crim-inal act and the election com-mission has also cleared thatthere is no provision in the rep-resentation of people act whichprevents or controls theexpenses by a political party.He said that the Modi govern-ment is engaging in politics ofvendetta. Former PCC presi-dent Pritam Singh said that inan attempt to hide its failuresthe Modi government is usingcentral agencies under a polit-ical conspiracy. Former PCCpresident Ganesh Godiyal saidthat the BJP government is notinterested in the developmentand prosperity of the peopleand its only concern is to use

central agencies to stifle thevoice of opposition.

The Congress leaders andworkers courted arrest duringthe protest and they were takento the police lines from the EDoffice.

Renuka Rawat (wife offormer chief minister HarishRawat), former MP PradeepTamta, MLAs Harish Dhami,Mamta Rakesh, FurkanAhmed, deputy leader ofCongress legislature PartyBhuwan Kapdi, MLAs SumitHridayesh, Virendra Jati, RaviBahadur, Anupma Rawat, VicePresident Surya KantDhasmana, former ministerHira Singh Bisht, former MLAsRanjit Rawat,

Manoj Rawat, Vijay PalSajwan and others were presenton the occasion.

Technology use to beenhanced for tackling disasters

PNS n DEHRADUN

The State authorities aremaking efforts to make

the management system moreeffective as part of disastercapacity building. Software-based technology will be usedfor this purpose. The IncidentResponse System (IRS) will bestrengthened, as stated in thepast. Suggestions of variousstakeholders were takenregarding this at the DisasterMitigation and ManagementCentre office here onThursday. A presentation oftechnology-based model wasalso made during the meeting.

Despite various efforts andinstructions from the top,assistance is received late by

the disaster affected. With theusual methods having provedunsuccessful, latest technolo-gy can be used to drasticallyreduce the response time,claimed the officials. Morehelp can be sent in much lesstime to the disaster affectedarea using the help of GIS andGPS. In case of landslide orflood situation in any area,information about the samewill be visible on the "high techsystem".

The help of mobile phoneapplication will also be takenfor this purpose. SecretaryRanjit Kumar Sinha, addi-tional secretary AnandSrivastav and other officialsconcerned were also present inthe meeting.

Focus on increasing GST collectionand revenue sources: CM Dhami

PNS n DEHRADUN

Chief minister PushkarSingh Dhami instructed

officials concerned to increaseGoods and Services Tax (GST)collection along with revenuesources in the State. Hestressed that the measuresbeing adopted by neighbour-ing Himachal Pradesh andother mountain States shouldbe studied for this purpose.Dhami said this while chairinga review meeting with senior

officials regarding boostingsources of income for the Stateand investment possibilitieshere on Thursday. He saidthat officials should focus ondeveloping an effective systemto check tax evasion, addingthat they should also work onlinking beneficiaries ofschemes executed by the Stategovernment with Aadhaarcards.

Addressing the officials,the chief minister said thatefforts should be made to

achieve a sector-wise increasein GST collection. As manypeople as possible should bemotivated to file their returnsand focus should also be laidon facilitating a consumerencouragement scheme so thatall people become habituatedto taking a receipt while buy-ing items. He further said thatthe system of informants, intel-ligence system and IT teamshould also be strengthened.Help can also be taken fromthe Information Technology

Development Agency. Thechief minister directed that theaudit wing should be madeeffective to clamp down on taxevasion.

He said that all depart-ments can be helpful inincreasing sources of incomeby implementing a better workculture. Dhami directed prin-cipal secretary RK Sudhanshuto ensure the effective imple-mentation of the single-win-dow system and prepare awork plan for the establish-ment of land bank. If bighotels in large numbers areestablished in the State, thetourism business will receive aboost and the State's economywill be strengthened, heopined. Dhami further claimedthat the environment inUttarakhand is conducive forindustries as there is no dis-content among the workershere. Initiatives should also betaken to boost investment inthis sector in the state, hesaid.

Chief secretary SS Sandhu,additional chief secretariesRadha Raturi, Anand Bardhan,principal secretary RKSudhanshu, L Fenai, secre-taries R Meenakshi Sundaram,Sowjanya, BVRC Purushottamand others were also present inthe meeting.

Yet another heavy rainwarning issued for today

PNS n DEHRADUN

The State meteorological center has issued a warning regard-ing the possibility of heavy rainfall at isolated places in

Bageshwar and Pithoragarh districts on Friday. Apart from this,light to moderate rainfall/thunderstorms are likely to occur atmost places in the mountains and at a few places in the plainsof the State with intense showers at isolated places in the moun-tainous regions of the State today.Dehradun is forecast to expe-rience partly cloudy skies with light to moderate rainfall/thun-derstorms likely to occur in some areas. The maximum and minimum temperatures are likely to be about33 degrees Celsius and 24 degrees Celsius respectively inDehradun today.It is pertinent to mention here that though theState meteorological centre had issued a warning regarding thepossibility of heavy to very heavy rainfall in various districts ofthe State on Wednesday and Thursday due to which schools in10 districts of the State were closed on Wednesday, the rainfallrecorded was not as heavy as forecast in most parts of theState.Meanwhile, the maximum and minimum temperaturesrecorded in different parts of the State on Thursday were 30.9degrees Celsius and 23.5 degrees Celsius respectively inDehradun, 31 degrees Celsius and 25.4 degrees Celsius inPantnagar, 20.3 degrees Celsius and 14.8 degrees Celsius inMukteshwar and 22.8 degrees Celsius and 18.2 degrees Celsiusrespectively in New Tehri.

Chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and BJP State chief Madan Kaushik in a procession held in Kashipur to celebrate Droupadi Murmu's election to the post ofPresident of India on Thursday.......................................................................................................................................................................Pioneer photo

Traffic congestion worsens in DoonPNS n DEHRADUN

With the authorities focusingtheir efforts on attempting to

maintain order in Haridwar in viewof the Kanwad Yatra, traffic con-gestion in Dehradun has escalatedonce again. The situation is espe-cially worse on some roads duringthe afternoon when schools end forthe day and a considerably higher number of vehicles parkedimproperly on main roads and driven in violation of traffic rulesexacerbate the already congested scenario on city roads. As seenon other days, police and traffic police personnel were seen strug-gling to manage the situation despite their efforts on various mainroads of the provisional State capital. One such road, the EastCanal Road witnessed major congestion during the afternoonespecially due to only a couple of schools on a short stretch ofthe road.

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��102�30*4.�

BJP president JP Nadda onThursday made important

organisational appointmentsin some state units of the party,appointing the RSS' Rajesh GV as general secretary (organ-isation) in Karnataka. RajeshG V replaces Arun Kumar, whohas returned to the RSS. AjayJamwal, who was the regionalgeneral secretary (organisa-tion) in charge of northeastern

states, will now look afterMadhya Pradesh andChhattisgarh units of the party

in the same position, accordingto a BJP statement. ManthriSrinivasulu has been movedfrom Telangana to Punjab asgeneral secretary (organisa-tion).

Satish Dhond, general sec-retary (organisation) in chargeof Goa, is now the joint gener-al secretary (organisation) inWest Bengal. Organisationalmembers holding posts in theBJP are mostly RSS membersand go back to the fold after astint in the party.

�� 10230*4.

Union Minister ofInformation and

Broadcasting Anurag Thakuron Thursday informedParliament that in 2021-22 theMinistry has taken strongaction against YouTube chan-nels working against the inter-est of the country.

Responding to a questionin Rajya Sabha, Thakur said theMinistry has acted against 94YouTube channels, 19 socialmedia accounts and 747 URLsand got them blocked. Theseactions have been taken underthe Section 69A InformationTechnology Act 2000, he said.The Minister further said thatthe Government has strongly

acted against agencies workingagainst the sovereignty of thecountry by spreading fake newsand spreading propaganda oninternet. "Those (members ofopposition) standing here (inthe Well of the House) do notraise their voice against ele-ments working against theinterest of the country.

But we have taken actionagainst them," he said, blamingthe Opposition MPs protestingagainst the EnforcementDirectorate’s summons againstCongress president SoniaGandhi in National Heraldcase. The Rajya Sabha for thefourth consecutive day wit-nessed pandemonium with theOpposition raising a din overvarious issues including pricerise and GST. The Question

Hour took place amidst vocif-erous protests and I & BMinister Anurag Thakurcharged the Opposition withnot voicing its concerns in theGST Council meeting aboutessential commodities andinstead disrupting Parliament.

The Upper House wasmarred by two adjournments inthe pre-lunch session and wasfinally adjourned for the dayshortly after lunch break.Cirticising the Opposition,Thakur said "They (represen-tatives of non-BJP state gov-ernments) go to GST Councilmeeting and do not voice theirconcerns, but come here toprotest and show placards."He said this while replying tosupplementary queries onwhether the government is tak-

ing action against false propa-ganda carried on social mediaas well as by some elected rep-resentatives. The Upper Housewas marred by two adjourn-ments in the pre-lunch sessionand was finally adjourned forthe day shortly after lunchbreak. Without naming any-one, Thakur also criticisedsome opposition leaders for cre-ating doubts among the publicregarding Covid vaccines andthe Agnipath scheme.

He said despite this, 200crore vaccine doses have beenalready administered. Thakuralso said some elected membersand former public representa-tives are engaged in creatingconfusion regarding GST onessential items, Covid vaccina-tion and Agnipath scheme for

recruitment in armed forces.Replying to Opposition on thecases against Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair,the Minister said it is importantto differentiate between a factchecker and those who try tospread enmity in the garb of factchecking.

“It is important to under-stand who is a fact checker andwho is trying to spread enmi-ty in society in name of fact-checking. If a complaint is reg-istered against them, thenaction is taken under rule oflaw.” He said this in response toa question by Rashtriya JanataDal (RJD) MP Manoj KumarJha. He had asked minister tooutline procedure to deal withthose who spread hatred andanimosity through their com-

mentaries. “I would like to askthe modus operandi on those

who spread hatred and ani-mosity using their commen-

taries where little to no actionis being taken against them.

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The Government onThursday rejected conclu-

sions of the ‘Reporters WithoutBorders’ ranking India 150thamong 180 nations in theWorld Press Freedom Indexand said it was “questionable”and non-transparent.

Making this assertion inthe Rajya Sabha, Informationand Broadcasting MinisterAnurag Thakur in a writtenreply said the Government didnot agree with the conclusionsdrawn by the organisation forvarious reasons including "verylow sample size, little or noweightage to fundamentals ofdemocracy, adoption of amethodology which is ques-tionable and non-transparent.”

Thakur enunciated theGovernment’s position whileresponding to separate ques-tions put by Leader of theOpposition in the Rajya SabhaMallikarjun Kharge and AAPmember Sanjay Singh. The

minister said the Governmentwas committed to ensuringthe right to freedom of speechand expression enshrinedunder Article 19 of theConstitution. Thakur said thePress Council of India (PCI)has been set up under thePress Council Act, 1978 main-ly to preserve the freedom ofthe press and improve the stan-dards of newspapers and newsagencies in the country.

He said the PCI looks intothe complaints filed 'by thePress' regarding curtailmentof press freedom. Thakur saidthe PCI was also empowered to

take suo moto cognizance inmatters on the pressing issuesconcerning freedom of thePress and safeguarding of itshigh standards.

In response to Kharge'squestion on the arrest of jour-nalists, the minister said theNational Crime RecordsBureau (NCRB) does notmaintain data separately onattacks on journalists.According to the World PressFreedom Index, released inMay, India's ranking droppedto 150th position from lastyear's 142nd rank among 180nations.

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Lok Sabha proceedings wereadjourned for the fourth

consecutive day on Thursdayfollowing a request from theGovernment that the IndianAntarctic Bill, 2022 be taken upfor consideration whenOpposition members are alsopresent in the House.

In a day of vociferousprotest by Congress membersin the Well of the House hold-ing placards of party presidentSonia Gandhi who was inter-rogated by EnforcementDirectorate in the NationalHerald money laundering case,the house proceedingremained disrupted

The question hour andzero hour were run withoutmost of the opposition mem-bers not present and those pre-sent continued to protest. Thehouse was the adjourned forthe day. After the House

reassembled at 2:15 PM fol-lowing adjournment, Unionminister Jitendra Singh said hisrequest is that the bill be takenup for consideration only whenOpposition members are pre-sent as it is an important leg-islation.The chair, BhartruhariMahtab, took the sense of theHouse noting that the presenceof Opposition was negligible,and adjourned the proceedingsfor the day.

"As members are absent inlarge number and Oppositionis not there, so it is my sug-gestion and request that this isa very important bill and forthe first time this issue is to bediscussed... So can we take it upsome other time and nottoday," Singh asked as theHouse re-assembled.

"The government's desireis that the bill should not bepassed without debate,"Mehtab said. BJP MP P PChaudhary said this was animportant bill and the

Congress should have been inthe House for debate as it is theprimary responsibility of law-makers that they stay in theHouse and discuss an impor-tant legislation. "It is a matterof regret that they are not in theHouse. If they would havebeen there, this bill could havebeen discussed," he said.

Mehtab said the sense ofthe House is to defer this billto a different date andadjourned the proceedings tillFriday.

The bill seeks to give effectto the Antarctic Treaty, theConvention on Conservationof Antarctic Marine LivingResources and the protocol onEnvironmental Protection tothe Antarctic Treaty.

Earlier, Union ministerPralhad Joshi asked whetherthe Opposition party believeseveryone is equal before thelaw or not. "Is she some 'superhuman' because she is theCongress president?"

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New Delhi: The Ministry ofCivil Aviation on Thursdaysaid that Airlines can't chargeany additional fee for issuingboarding pass at check-incounters in airports.

According to reports, air-lines such as IndiGo, SpiceJetand Go First currently chargea fee of Rs 200 if a passengerwants the boarding pass to beissued at the check-in counter.

"It has come to the noticeof MoCA that airlines arecharging additional amountfor issuing boarding passesfrom the passengers," the min-istry said on Twitter. Thisadditional amount is not inaccordance with the instruc-tions according to the provi-sions of Aircraft Rules, 1937,it said. In view of the above,

the airlines are advised not tocharge any additional amountfor issuing boarding passes atthe airport check-in counters,as the same cannot be consid-ered within the 'tariff ' as pro-vided under Rule 135 of theAircraft Rules, 1937, it men-tioned.

On May 21, 2020, theministry made it mandatoryfor passengers to do webcheck-in and get boardingpass then itself. However, onMay 9, 2022, the ministryissued an order stating that air-lines should encourage, facil-itate and guide passengers fordoing "timely web check-inand bag tag printing" and"minimise or avoid" imposingpenal charges on passengerswho did not do web check-in.

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Several opposition partiesincluding the Congress on

Thursday accused the ModiGovernment of unleashing arelentless campaign against itspolitical opponents through"mischievous" misuse of probeagencies.

On the day when Congresschief Sonia Gandhi was ques-tioned by the ED in theNational Herald money laun-dering case, leaders of 13 polit-ical parties met at ParliamentHouse and condemned theaction. Leaders of the Congress,DMK, CPI-M, CPI, IUML,NC, TRS (for the first time),MDMK, NCP, VCK, Shiv Sena,RJD and RSP were present in

the meeting. Former Congresschief Rahul Gandhi attackedthe government over its allegedlack of willingness to discussissues such as inflation and"misuse of agencies" inParliament and asserted that"truth will prevail over dicta-torship". "Discuss GST —House adjourned. Discussinflation — House adjourned.Discuss Agneepath — Houseadjourned. Discuss misuse ofagencies — House adjourned,"Rahul Gandhi said in a tweet inHindi.

"Today publicly, the voiceof the people of the country isbeing suppressed. 'Truth' willprevail over this arrogance anddictatorship," the formerCongress chief said. As SoniaGandhi appeared before the

ED, party MPs and CongressWorking Committee (CWC)members "courted mass arrest"outside the AICC headquartersin a show of collective solidar-ity with their party chief. Whenformer party chief RahulGandhi was questioned by theED, the police had made elab-orate arrangements.

A large number ofCongress leaders weredetained, taken to far-awaylocations and released only atmidnight. Congress MPs hadraised strong objections andcomplained to the president,vice president and Lok Sabhaspeaker against the police's"high-handedness".

Congress slammed theModi government for "misus-ing" probe agencies against

opposition leaders and stagedprotests against theEnforcement Directorate'squestioning of Sonia Gandhi,alleging the ruling BJP is treat-ing the opposition as its ene-mies. Senior Congress leaders,including some MPs, courtedarrest outside the party head-quarters here to protest the EDaction. "The Modi 'sarkar' hasunleashed a relentless cam-paign of vendetta against itspolitical opponents and criticsthrough the mischievous mis-use of investigative agencies.

Prominent leaders of anumber of political partieshave been deliberately targetedand subjected to harassment inan unprecedented manner,"the leaders charged in a jointstatement. "We condemn this

and resolve to continue andintensify our collective fightagainst the anti-people, anti-farmer, anti-Constitution poli-cies of the Modi 'sarkar' that isdestroying the social fabric ofour society," they also said inthe statement.

Senior Congress leader andRajasthan Chief MinisterAshok Gehlot said the probeagency should first hold a pressconference to spell out underwhat charges Sonia Gandhi isbeing probed. Former HomeMinister P Chidambaram saidthe ED is not higher than theSupreme Court.

Earlier in the day, Congressleader Jairam Ramesh hadclaimed that the media was alsobeing prevented from enteringthe party headquarters

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In a significant order, theSupreme Court on Thursday

expanded the scope of theMedical Termination ofPregnancy Act to include"unmarried woman" andallowed a woman to abort her24-weeks pregnancy arisingout of a consensual relation-ship.

A Bench of Justices DYChandrachud, Surya Kant, andAS Bopanna directed theAIIMS Director to set up amedical board of two doctorsto examine the woman byFriday under the provisions ofthe Medical Termination ofPregnancy (MTP) Act.

The apex court asked theboard to determine whetherthe pregnancy, if terminated,could risk the life of the womanor not. "We request the AIIMSdirector to constitute a medicalboard in terms of provisions ofsection 3(2)(d) MTP Act bytomorrow (Friday). In theevent the medical board con-

cludes that the foetus can beaborted without any danger tothe life of the petitioner(woman), the AIIMS shallcarry out the abortion in termsof the petition...", the benchsaid.

The top court sought thereport of the medical boardwithin one week of the proce-dure and said that the order ofthe Delhi High Court standsmodified to the above extent.

The bench said that provi-sions of the MTP Act amend-ed in 2021 include the word"partner" instead of "husband"in the explanation to section 3,which shows the intent of

Parliament that it was not toconfine the situations arisingonly out of matrimonial rela-tionships.

It said that the use of theword "partner" ascribes to anintention of the Parliament tocover "unmarried woman"under the Act which is in con-sonance with the constitution.

The apex court added thatthe Delhi High Court hadtaken an unduly restricted viewby not allowing the woman toundergo medical terminationof pregnancy at 23 weeks aris-ing out of a consensual rela-tionship on the ground that shewas "unmarried".

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New Delhi: An Air IndiaBoeing 787 operating as flightAI 934 from Dubai to Cochinhad to be diverted to Mumbaidue to pressurisation loss inthe cabin. According to theDirectorate General of CivilAviation (DGCA), the flightlanded safely. “Two seniorofficers of O/o DAS WR areassigned the task to carry outa preliminary investigation,” itsaid. SR

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New Delhi: The SupremeCourt on Thursday appointedsenior advocate ManinderSingh as an amicus curiae toassist it in the matter related tothe Board of Control for Cricketin India (BCCI) and fixed thehearing on the plea of thecricket body for amending itsconstitution concerning tenureof office bearers on July 28.

A bench comprising ChiefJustice N V Ramana andJustices Krishna Murari andHima Kohli took note of thefact that earlier amicus curiaehas now been elevated as ajudge of the apex court. "We willappoint senior advocateManinder Singh as an amicusin place of P S Narasimha(now Justice P S Narasimha),"said the bench and fixed theplea of BCCI for hearing on July28. The plea of the cricket bodyseeks to amend its constitution

concerning the tenure of itsoffice bearers including itsPresident Sourav Ganguly andSecretary Jay Shah by doingaway with the mandatory cool-ing-off period between tenuresof office bearers across statecricket associations and theBCCI.

BJP leader SubramanianSwamy impleaded in the caseobjecting BCCI’s petition toamend its constitution to givemore tenure to the office bear-ers. Earlier, the Justice RMLodha-led committee had rec-ommended reforms in theBCCI which have been accept-ed by the top court.

According to recommen-dations, there should be a three-year cooling-off period foroffice bearers of the BCCI aftera tenure of six years once a postcomes to an end at state crick-et association or BCCI level.

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The CBI has chargesheetedthen Collector Kankipati

Rajesh (IAS officer of 2011batch), Surendranagar districtof Gujarat and a proprietor ofSurat-based private firm beforethe Competent Court atAhmedabad (Gujarat) in abribery case.

The CBI had registeredthe case against Rajesh andproprietor of Jeans Corner,Surat, Md. Rafiq Memon andunknown person on the alle-gations of demand and receiptof illegal gratification/briberelated to grant of arm licences,allotment of government landand regularization ofencroached Government landin the name of ineligible ben-eficiaries.

A Preliminary Enquiry(PE) was earlier registered ona request of Gujarat govern-ment in the matter. The case isthe outcome of the PE.Searches were earlier con-ducted at the premises ofaccused in Gandhi Nagar andSurat (both in Gujarat) andRajahmundry (AndhraPradesh) which led to recovery

of several incriminating docu-mentary and digital evi-dence.During the investiga-tion, both the accused werearrested.“It was found duringinvestigation that the allegedbribe money of Rs 98,000 wasdeposited in the account of theproprietor on the directions ofsaid public servant.

The said amount was thepart of the bribe amount,which was demanded by thepublic servant. It was alsofound that the said proprietorhad prepared four fake invoic-es in the name of a private per-son claiming to have sold dressmaterial, whereas the said fourinvoices were in the name ofanother person and “SIR”, theCBI said in a statement.

The four invoices submit-ted by the Proprietor to theEnquiry Officer were forged.Investigation has also revealedthat both the accused enteredinto a conspiracy wherein partof the alleged bribe demandedby the public servant was paidby other person into theaccount of the proprietor ofsaid firm on the directions ofthe public servant (IAS officer),the agency said. It was also

found that the accused creat-ed false documents/false elec-tronic records to shield the

public servant. The propri-etor had allegedly forged doc-uments/electronic record and

also destroyed, deleted/alteredthe information in the com-puter that he used in his shop.

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The EnforcementDirectorate (ED) on

Thursday said it has attachedproperties worth Rs 13.63crore of a company linked toTMC youth wing leader VinayMishra and arrested hisbrother Vikas Mishra in amoney laundering probe.

The money launderinginvestigation is linked to analleged illegal coal mining andpilferage case of West Bengalthat involves the two brothers,local coal operative and king-pin Anup Maji and TMC MPand Abhishek Banerjee,nephew of West Bengal ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjee,and his wife Rujira. BothAbhishek Banerjee and Rujirahave been questioned by theagency in this case. A provi-

sional order for attaching thetwo assets, located inGopinathpur of PurbaBardhaman district of the state,was issued on July 19 under thePrevention of MoneyLaundering Act (PMLA).

The immovable propertiesbelong to Indo-AmericanElectricals Limited (benefi-cially owned by LTB Infraconsultant Pvt. Ltd.) in whichVinay Mishra and VikasMishra are directors andshareholders, the ED said in astatement. "Vinay Mishra andVikas Mishra alias Chotu

delivered proceeds of crimeworth �731 crore with help ofbusiness associates of AnupMaji alias Lala during July,2018-March, 2020," the EDsaid.

The money launderingcase stems from a November2020 FIR registered by CentralBureau of Investigation (CBI)that alleged a multi-crore-rupee coal pilferage scam relat-ed to Eastern CoalfieldsLimited mines in WestBengal's Kunustoria andKajora areas in and aroundAsansol.

The ED has claimed thatMishra brothers received "pro-ceeds of the crime worth �730crore on behalf of some influ-ential persons and for them-selves" in coal case involving anestimated amount of �1,352crore.

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With Justice N SathishKumar of the Madras

High Court pronouncing in hisverdict on Wednesday thatEdappadi K Palaniswami isthe only person entitled or thepossession of the AIADMKheadquarters in Chennai, theformer chief minister who isalso the interim general secre-tary of the party has scored astrategic win in the race for thecontrol of the 1.5 crore strongparty. The judge also declaredas null and void the proceed-ings initiated by the SouthChennai Revenue DivisionOfficer to lock, seal and attachthe party head quarters onJuly 11.

With this verdict, the moveby O Panneerselvam, theexpelled coordinator of thesteering committee to usurpthe party structure has comea cropper. On Monday, theAIADMK had eased outPanneerselvam from the postof deputy leader of the legisla-

ture party and appointed R BUdhaya Kumar, formerRevenue in his place. BothPanneerselvam and UdhayaKumar hail from the Thevarcommunity and the move isexpected to prevent any moreinflux of the community mem-bers to the OPS camp.

The verdict by JudgeSathish Kumar is also a setbackfor the DMK Government rul-ing the State as it came undersevere flak. The judge saidthat the RDO had acted in amechanical faction while thepolice failed to take promptaction to prevent the violencethat took place in the partyheadquarters on July 11 whilethe general council meetingwas in progress at a marriagehall 15 km away.

“The only option availablefor Panneerselvam is to cast hislot with the DMK as he hasbeen defeated in his own gameby Palaniswami and group.OPS has become irrelevant inthe AIADMK,” said KolahalaSrenivaas, author and politicalcritic.

Palaniswami, reacting tothe court verdict said that trai-tors had joined with the DMKto get the party headquarterssealed. “This building is a giftto the AIADMK cadres byparty founder MGR and hisheir Amma. Nobody otherthan the party cadres own thisheadquarters,” declaredPalaniswami, who was chokedwith emotions while address-ing party members at Salem,his home town.

The three-way fight forthe control of the AIADMK hascome to an end, at least tem-porarily, said Srenivaas. “V KSasikala, who travels acrossTamil Nadu, claiming to be thegeneral secretary of theAIADMK has become a per-sona non grata in the party. She

needs the party more than theAIADMK needs her,” saidSrenivaas.

Other political commen-tators are of the view that thejudgment by Justice SathishKumar is a legal recognition forPalaniswami as the interimgeneral secretary of the party.The committee of election offi-cers appointed by the partygeneral council is making elab-orate arrangements for holdingthe election of general secretarywithin the first week of August.

Meanwhile as is the customin Tamil Nadu politics,Palaniswami has been given themoniker of PuratchiThalaimakan by O S Manian,senior leader of the party. Itmeans he is the RevolutionaryCommander and syncs withPuratchi Thalaivar(Revolutionary Leader) MGRand Puratchi ThalaiviJayalalithaa. Sasikala claimsherself as PuratchithaiChinnamma (revolutionarymother) and has sent word toher followers to address her likethat.

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Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP)national convener Arvind

Kejriwal on Thursday gave a"guarantee" that his party willprovide free electricity up to300 units per month to eachhousehold in Gujarat if votedto power. Addressing people ata town hall meet here, the Delhichief minister also promisedround-the-clock power sup-ply without any cuts to peopleof Gujarat, where the Assemblyelections are due in Decemberthis year.

"This is being done for thefirst time in the history ofIndia," claimed Kejriwal, whohas made free electricity amajor poll plank in Gujarat.

He also assured that allpending electricity bills issuedbefore December 31, 2021 will

be waived, saying majority ofthem did not reflect the realpower consumption and elec-tricity companies "harassed"people to settle such matters.

"Electricity was already freein Delhi and the Aam AadmiParty (AAP) made it free inPunjab within three months offorming government in thatstate," he said.

"As people of Gujarat alsowant such a relief, I hereby givea guarantee that we will providefree electricity up to 300 unitsto each family if voted to powerafter the forthcoming Assemblyelections," Kejriwal told thegathering during his secondvisit to the state this month.

The AAP leader said whathe is promising today is hisguarantee and not a "jumla"(rhetoric) which other politicalparties mention in their man-

ifesto ahead of polls."I am giving you a guaran-

tee. If you find any fault after-wards, you are free not to votefor the AAP in subsequentelections. We will fulfil all theguarantees once we come topower," Kejriwal said.

After consumption of 300units of power per month forfree, normal rates will beapplicable, he said. Hitting outat the ruling Bharatiya JanataParty for calling such freebiesas "revadi culture", Kejriwalsaid it was the BJP which hadpromised to provide 200 unitsof free electricity to the peopleof West Bengal ahead of theAssembly polls there.

Before Kejriwal arrived inthe state on Wednesday night,the BJP's Gujarat unit chief CR Paatil, without naming any-one, said people should not get

misguided by the "revadi cul-ture" of freebies as it could

eventually turn the state andIndia into Sri Lanka, which is

currently going through asevere economic crisis.

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BJP MLA JoshuaDe Souza on

Thursday filed hisnomination for thepost of DeputySpeaker in the GoaAssembly, electionsto which will beheld on Friday amidthe ongoing session.

Mapusa MLADe Souza filed his nominationbefore Secretary, Legislature,Namrata Ulman in the pres-ence of Chief MinisterPramod Sawant.

"Joined filing of nomina-tion of @BJP4Goa MLA Shri

@Joshua_De_Souza, for theposition of Deputy Speaker ofthe Goa Legislative Assembly.I am sure he will dispose hisresponsibility with integrityand honesty. My best wishesto him," the CM tweeted.

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Shiv Sena leader and formerMaharashtra minister

Aaditya Thackeray onThursday said he is settingout to build the party organ-isation afresh, and added thatthe current government in thestate led by Eknath Shindewould collapse as it wasformed "illegally".

He was speaking at thelaunch of his three-day 'ShivSamvad Yatra' in Bhiwanditown in Thane district, wherehe received a rousing wel-come by his supporters.

The Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi

(MVA) government compris-ing Shiv Sena, NCP andCongress col lapsed lastmonth after Shinde raised abanner of revolt against theSena leadership with majori-ty of party MLAs. A day afterThackeray resigned as thechief minister on June 29,Shinde took oath of the toppost with BJP's DevendraFadnavis as his deputy.

Speaking at the rally,Aaditya said, "I am embark-ing on this yatra and come toBhiwandi to get the blessingsof people. I have set out tobuild the Shiv Sena andMaharashtra afresh."

"The MVA government

had carried out developmentworks in the state. But in thepresent dispensation, thereonly two members in thecabinet (Shinde andFadnavis). The state is facingfloods, but amid this situa-tion, they (rebels) are tryingto threaten us. But we will notpay heed to such tactics. I amsure this government will col-lapse. It was formed illegally,"the Yuva Sena chief said.

He challenged the rebelMLAs to resign and face theelections again.

"Shinde rebelled when myfather (Uddhav Thackeray)was unwell. They (Senarebels) were given an oppor-

tunity in the state cabinet, butthey betrayed us and desert-ed us. Those who left us arenot Shiv Sainiks.

They are traitors...Seewhat is the condition of therebel MLAs, who have to bebrought into buses for votingas they are kept in hiding," hesaid.

"Our only mistake wasthat we could not play politicsand hence we had to face thissituation.

We did not trouble thosewho were against us,"Thackeray added.

He, however, said if at allthe party rebels want toreturn, the doors of

'Matoshree' (the personal res-idence of Thackerays) arealways open for them.

Political drama and circusis going on in the state andgood people have no place inpolitics. We are good peopleand will do good politics, hesaid.

Their (rebels') only issuewas that Uddhav Thackerayand Aaditya were in the stateLegislature. They could notdigest the fact, the WorliMLA said.

After Bhiwandi,Thackeray is scheduled tovisit Shahapur and Igatpuri,Dindori and Nashik as part ofhis 'Shiv Samvad Yatra'.

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Opposition candidateYashwant Sinha on

Thursday congratulatedDroupadi Murmu on her win inthe presidential polls and saidevery Indian hope that as the15th President she functions asthe "custodian of theConstitution" without fear orfavour.

NDA's presidential candi-date Murmu crossed the 50 percent mark after the third round

of counting to emerge victori-ous in the poll over her rivalSinha. In a statement, Sinhathanked the leaders of theOpposition parties for choos-ing him as their consensuscandidate in this election.

"I also thank all membersof the Electoral College whovoted for me. I accepted theoffer of Opposition partiessolely guided by the philoso-phy of Karma Yoga preachedby Lord Krishna in theBhagavad Gita -- 'Do yourduty without expectation of

the fruits thereof '," Sinhasaid. "I have performed myduty conscientiously out ofmy love for my country. Theissues I had raised during mycampaign remain pertinent,"he said. Sinha also said thattill his last breath, he shallcontinue to serve the cause hebelieves in -- the very causethat guided him to contest theelection for the highest officeof the Republic.

Former Congress presi-dent Rahul Gandhi also con-gratulated Murmu on being

elected as the 15th Presidentof India. He was among thefirst opposition leaders towish Murmu after she crossedthe crucial 50 per cent votesmark, even when counting forthe presidential poll was on.

"Congratulations and bestwishes to Smt. DroupadiMurmu ji on being elected asthe 15th President of India,"Gandhi said on Twitter.Murmu emerged victorious inthe presidential poll, defeatingOpposition's Yashwant Sinhawho conceded defeat.

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The Supreme Court onThursday asked Centre and

States to devise a mechanism sothat people receive food grainswithout ration cards.

The top court alsoobserved that “citizens aredying due to hunger despiteour development and modali-ties should be set out to ensurethat maximum migrant work-ers are given rations.” The apexcourt said the welfare schemes

devised by the Centre shouldreach a maximum number ofworkers and the StateGovernments will have tocooperate and assist the Unionof India.

"As far as our country isconcerned, two people are veryimportant. First is the farmer i.ethe agriculturist and the secondis migrant workers. Migrantsalso play a very important rolein building the nation. Theirrights cannot be ignored at all.

"Therefore you have toreach them. They may be illit-

erate and may not know how toavail benefits of governmentschemes. Concerned states willhave to ensure benefits of thescheme reaches them," a benchof Justices M R Shah and B VNagarathna said.

"The Food and civil ser-vices department in each statemust have a target of howmany ration cards they aregoing to register. This has to beworked locally as each state willhave its own criteria. Theremust be a fixed criterion.

"Ultimately, the aim isthat no citizen should die ofhunger in India. Unfortunately,this (starvation deaths) is hap-pening despite our develop-ment, citizens are dying ofhunger and lack of food. In vil-lages, they tie their stomachtightly so that they do not feelhungry. I know it. They tie theirstomachs with a sari or someother cloth and drink water andsleep. Children and elders do itbecause they cannot affordfood," Justice B V Nagarathnaobserved.

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The Supreme Court onThursday asked the Union

Home Secretary to collateinformation from States andUnion Territories (UTs) regard-ing the compliance of direc-tions given earlier by the apexcourt regarding preventive,corrective, and remedial mea-sures to curb untoward situa-tions, like mob violence andhate speech. The top court,which was hearing a batch ofpetitions concerning hate

speech and rumour-monger-ing, said the Secretary may col-late necessary information bycorresponding directly withthe Secretary of the Homedepartment of respective statesand UTs within three weeksand compile it state-wise.

A bench headed by JusticeAM Khanwilkar referred tosome previous judgmentsdelivered by the apex court in2018 and said they specifical-ly provide for a structure andthe follow-up action to betaken and the collation ofinformation would reflect how

the states and UTs have com-plied with these directions. "Itis not adversarial," the bench,also comprising Justices A SOka and J B Pardiwala, orallysaid.

"The Secretary, HomeDepartment, may collate nec-essary information by corre-sponding directly with theSecretary, Home Department,of the respective states/UTswithin three weeks and compilethe information….," the benchsaid, adding the state-wiseinformation be placed before itwithin six weeks.

�� +/*+5�5

Bengal Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee onThursday called upon

the nation to “banish” the BJPin 2024 general elections hold-ing it responsible for all theodds that India had been fac-ing for the past several years.

Slamming the saffron out-f it from the TrinamoolCongress mega Martyrs’ Dayrally, an annual show ofstrength, Banerjee attackedthe BJP for pulling down gov-ernments all over the countryand dared them to do so

in Bengal.“I have heard some of

their leaders saying afterMaharashtra they will targetChhattisgarh, Rajasthan andthen Bengal … but I mustremind them that Bengal isinfested with the ferociousRoyal Bengal tigers that bitehard as it did in 2021(Assembly elections),”Banerjee said adding “theywant us to mortgage our spineto them like many other par-ties do … but we areTrinamool Congress … our

spine is not made of ED andCBI like that of the BJP.”

Attacking the NarendraModi Government for“destroying the economy ofthe country through itsunplanned tax regimes andbad fiscal policies,” Banerjeesaid “today even there is tax onpoor people’s food like puffedrice, flattened rice and evensweets, curd and batasha …they won’t even spare thepatients … tomorrow theywill charge tax on the deadpeople and the coffins.”

Alleging how Rupee wasfalling to the Dollar and howinflation and unemploymentwas on an all time highBanerjee said “this is a gov-ernment that has declared

direct war on the people byincreasing the price of gas,diesel, petrol.”

To rub salt to injury theGovernment was selling outout of closing down public sec-tor units like the SAIL, CoalIndia, Air India and even theIndian Railways. “They havecut down 80,000 railway jobs… they are selling out PSUs ata time when the country needsjob creation the most,” she saidslamming the saffron outfit forits arrogance.

“They are trying to rewritethe history of the nation suchis their penchant for re-writ-ing history and such is theirarrogance that they are evendiscarding the old parliamentbuilding,” Banerjee said.

�� 1��!0�&��6� ��+�7

��102�30*4.

Amid reports and satelliteimagery indicating that

China has built a village near theDoklam plateau across the Lineof Actual Control (LAC) inSikkim, the Government onThursday said it keeps an eye onall developments having bearingon national security.

Giving this assurance here,External Affairs Ministryspokesperson Arindam Bagchialso said the government takesmeasures accordingly.

"We keep an eye on alldevelopments having bearingon national security and takemeasures accordingly," he said.

Bagchi was replying to aquestion on new satellite imagesthat showed construction of aChinese village east of theDoklam plateau on theBhutanese side.

The Indian and Chinesearmies were locked in a 73-daystand-off at the Doklam tri-junction in 2017 after Chinatried to extend a road in the areathat Bhutan claimed belonged toit.

2��,�� +/'4.

Aday after the Kerala StateMotor Vehicles

Department seized a bus ownedby Indigo Airlines at KozhikodeAirport on charges of non-payment of taxes, the KeralaPolice filed a First InformationReport naming E P Jayarajan,the CPI(M) leader and convenerof the LDF and two others in amurder case.

The gun man and person-al assistant of chief ministerPinarayi Vijayan are the othertwo who figure in the FIR asaccused numbers two and three.

All three have been slapped withcharges of 307, 308 and 506 ofthe Indian Penal Code (attemptto murder and threat to mur-der). The FIR was filed inresponse to an order by theJudicial First Class Magistrate ofTrivandrum.

The FIR states thatJayarajan tried to strangulateFarzeen Majeed, a Congressleader from Kannur who raisedslogans against Chief MinisterPinarayi Vijayan after the lattergot down from the aircraft atThiruvananthapuram airport.Majeed and Naveen Kumar,another Congress leader whoflew in the aircraft from Kannur

to Thiruvananthapuram hadraised the slogan after Vijayanhad come out of the aircraft.Seeing the Congress leadersraising slogans against the chiefminister, Jayarajan, who wasaccompanying Vijayan rushedto them and assaulted themphysically and abused the duoby showering invectives.

Though the chief ministerhad told the legislative assem-bly that no case would be filedagainst Jayarajan, the Airlineshad debarred the latter from fly-ing in its aircraft for threeweeks following an investigationby its own staff. Jayarajandeclared that he would not fly

in IndiGo hereafter even if itremains as the one and onlyairlineK in the State.

The seizure of the busowned by the airlines has led toanother uproar in the Statewith many entrepreneurs andbusiness leaders criticizing theaction of the MV department.“This is a deplorable action andwould lead to rethinking on thepart of entrepreneurs andinvestors about their plans to setup shops in the State. Last sixyears have seen many entre-preneurs leaving the Keralashores in search of businessfriendly States ,” said RajmohanPillai, chairman, Beta Group.

Pillai said that the MotorVehicles Department seizingthe bus owned by airlines couldnot be questioned. “It was theresponsibility of the airlines toensure that all payments weremade and papers were in place.But the non-payment of taxes bythe airlines was not a seriousissue which demanded theseizure of the bus. The questionis whether the airlines wereissued notices about the out-standing amount,’ said Pillai.

Meanwhile the LDFGovernment is on a spree ofarresting political leaders whoare critical of the CPI(M) andthe chief minister.

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��Sir — 'MBA chai wala' opens its first outletin Chennai. Sometime back Pakistan askedits citizens to cut the consumption of chaiby drinking less tea. The fact that a Chai walabecame India's PM, Barack Obama workedin a coffee shop has motivated many stu-dents. Many startups have now come upwith serving branded chai and coffee.Cutting chai, which is dividing a cup in halfto share with a friend makes friendshipsstrong. It builds strong relationships"Majbooth rishtey aur kadak chai dheredhere bante hain" and teaches you to see lifewith positivity as the glass is half full.

T.S.Karthik | chennai

�� Sir — Dowry is the Indian practice of giv-ing valuable presents in the form of mate-rialistic items to the girl at the time of hermarriage. In ancient times, dowry helped thenewlywed to settle but gradually with timeit became a condition to marriage, which ifremain unfulfilled, the women were subject-ed to physical and mental torture, harass-ment, insults, acid attacks, and even death.The Dowry system has led to "MarriageLoans" that are often struggled to repay.There is no denying the fact that theDowry System is still practiced but is con-fined to a particular extent. And this is dueto strict governmental laws, a growing lit-eracy rate, social awareness, etc.

According to a recent study conductedby World Bank, it has been found that theDowry Payments in India's villages havebeen stable over the past few decades. 95%of the marriages under study, paid dowryalthough it has been declared illegal in Indiasince 1961.

The study included 17 Indian states con-taining 96% of India's population. The NCBI(National Crime Bureau of India) record-ed nearly 7000 dowry-linked death cases in2020. There is a greater need for socialawareness against such inhuman practicesboth in urban as well as rural areas.Mahatma Gandhi once said, " Any youngman, who makes dowry a condition to mar-

riage discredits his education, country, anddishonors Womanhood"..

Ishita Patidar | Ujjain

��Sir — It has been reported that two gang-sters believed to be involved in the murderof Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala havebeen killed in a five-hour encounter. It isgood that precious time of courts has beensaved. The encounter killing of the gangstersis instant and retributive justice to avengethe heinous crime.

The AK-47 and a pistol along withheavy ammunition recovered from thedead are a gain to the nation whereas thefood supplied in jails to such criminals is anational waste. By firing at the securingforces, the gangsters courted trouble andinvited death for themselves. It took a verylong time for the Nirbhaya killers to go togallows. In many proven cases, the killershave gone scot-free with life imprisonment.

Life imprisonment does not necessar-ily mean that the culprits have to serve sen-

tences till they breathe their last. “Life impris-onment is any sentence of imprisonmentfor a crime under which convicted peo-ple are to remain in prison for the rest oftheir natural lives or indefinitely until par-doned, paroled, or otherwise commutedto a fixed term”. It has been reported thatthe Karnataka Prisons DevelopmentAuthority has proposed to increase theminimum wages of prisoners from thepresent �8000 per month to �14000 permonth. It means an increase of �200 perday. These days some people are not ableto earn �10000 per month even after theytoil from dawn to dusk. If periodicalupward revision of wages is done, then theunemployed youth may find it beneficialto commit a crime and go to jail. A hikein wages for prisoners should not be soattractive that it would be beneficial toserve a jail sentence and find it as a sourceof employment.

K.V. Seetharaiah | Bengaluru

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pass muster as the SCunequivocally indicated inthat case that theConstitution guarantees thesame free speech rights to allcitizens and not journalistsalone: "But to allow a jour-nalist to be subjected tomultiple complaints and tothe pursuit of remedies tra-versing multiple states andjurisdictions when facedwith successive FIRs andcomplaints bearing the samefoundation has a stiflingeffect on the exercise of thatfreedom….. Our decisionshold that the right of a jour-nalist under Article 19(1)(a)is no higher than the right ofthe citizen to speak andexpress."

The vacation benchfinally summed up its deci-sion by claiming "if the con-science of the Court is notsatisfied, the law can bemolded".

Can a judge's conscienceoverrule the Constitution?

And by this decision,the SC has intentionallyincreased Nupur Sharma'svulnerability. In a civilized,democratic society even aserial killer is not left to the

mercies of a mob to belynched. Rather uncaringlythe Justice also remarked:She has (a) threat or she hasbecome a security threat?

In summar y, theHonorable Justice has flout-ed a basic tenet of justicethat holds a person innocentuntil proven guilty, jeopar-dized a fair trial, floutedjudicial precedence, andobliquely justified a murder.

Speaking at an event inSan Fransico, Chief Justice ofIndia NV Ramana recentlyaverred: "As we celebrate75th year of Independencethis year….. we still haven'tlearned to appreciate whol-ly the roles and responsibil-it ies assigned by theConstitution to each of theinstitutions. The party inpower believes that everygovernmental action is enti-tled to judicial endorsement.The opposition partiesexpect the judiciary toadvance their political posi-tions and causes…… It is thevigorously promoted igno-rance among the generalpublic which is coming tothe aid of such forces whoseonly aim is to run down the

only independent organ. i.e.,the judiciary. Let me make itclear. We are answerable tothe Constitution and Consti-tution alone,"

True the SC is answerableto the Constitution andConstitution alone. But theConstitution does not giveanyone including an SC judgea right to dub a person guiltywithout a fair trial or mitigatea barbaric crime. JusticeSurya Kant has erred. He hascrossed the LakshmanRekha.

The Supreme Court ofIndia is the only institutionthat even in these tryingtimes continues to be respect-ed, revered, and held in aweby all Indians. To maintainthe decorum and credibilityof the Supreme Court andabove all to protect ourdemocracy, Justice SuryaKant must retract his words.

(Disclaimer. This articleis not about the merits ordemerits of what NupurSharma said.)

(The author, a US-basedacademic and political com-mentator, frequently writeson current affairs in India.The views expressed are personal.)

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While responding toa plea petitionfiled by the embat-t led Nupur

Sharma (the ex-BJP spokesper-son in the eye of a storm formaking controversial remarksthat have hurt a communityand facing several deaththreats) seeking transfer of allFIRs filed against her to Delhi,Justice Surya Kant made someremarks that not only violatethe spirit and letter of the lawbut just don't seem right com-ing from a Supreme CourtJudge.

At the outset, his honor sur-mised: "The way she has ignitedemotions across the country. Thislady is single-handedly responsi-ble for what is happening in thecountry…

She and her loose tongue haveset the entire country on fire."

Even a layperson is awarethat a person is deemed inno-cent until proven guilty by a fairtrial. In this case, the honorablejudge has pre-empted thewhole process and passed ajudgment of guilt even beforea trial. Such unverified chargescan be a part of an oppositionleader's rhetoric but cannotfind a place in the vocabularyof a learned judge.

The Supreme Court alsosaid that her outburst wasresponsible for the unfortunateincident at Udaipur, where atailor was murdered.

First, it a cold-bloodedmurder. Murder cannot be jus-tified whatever the provoca-tion. By his remarks, JusticeSurya Kant has not only fedinto the frenzy of rabid reli-gious fundamentalism butinadvertently granted a mod-icum of legal sanction to thedeath threats swirling in the air.The decision to refuse relief toNupur Sharma flies in the faceof judicial precedence. Whenthis was pointed out by thedefense counsel citing theArnab Goswami vs Union ofIndia case (2020), the courtcountered that Goswami beinga journalist was privy to reliefwhile Nupur Sharma was not.

That rationale does not

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Nepal is currently experi-encing a credit shortagedue to the liquidity

problem. Nepal witnessed asimilar situation last year also.The credit deposit ratio of near-ly all banks has surpassed 90percent, preventing them fromlending money to clients.During this time span, depositinterest rates have shot up. Thisis despite the fact that depositsare insufficiently substantial.The government is unable toutilise its budget as planned,which has a severe impact onthe flow of funds into Nepal'seconomy.

The current financial crisisin Sri Lanka has set off politicaluncertainty and conflict in theisland nation. It is considered"debt-trapped" and unable toservice the international debtobligation. In this backdrop,

some Nepalese economists arepessimistic about Nepal's econ-omy and compare Nepal'spredicament to that of SriLanka. However, financial indi-cators show that Nepal will notface a situation as dire as SriLanka on account of followingreasons:� The government and NepalRastra Bank have already takenproactive financial measures tostabilise Nepal's foreign curren-cy reserve� Nepal's current currencyreserve can cover imports forapproximately six and a halfmonths, which is a slightlyalarming foreign currency posi-tion but is not cause for concernif certain financial measuresare taken� Nepal's foreign debt is notat an alarming level, and itsrepayment of foreign loans can

be met from its current foreigncurrency reserve. In addition,Nepal has taken out a foreignloan with a nominal interest rateand with a longer repaymentperiod, which ensures that it willnot run out of foreign exchangereserves immediately.� Over the past two months,remittance inflows have begunto increase. This is anticipatedto continue in the coming daysas a result of COVID-19 relax-ation in overseas markets, thelifting of movement restrictionsin the majority of countries, andthe significant increase in out-bound Nepali migrant workersin recent years, which willstrengthen remittances.� The tourism industry hasbegun to recover, which isanother key source of foreigncash for Nepal. To addressNepal's trade deficit, the govern-

ment and central bank haveimposed import restrictions.

However, there is a need toseparate luxury items that willhave an effect on foreign curren-cy reserves.

Foreign liquors: Despitebeing a luxury item in Nepal,tourists are likely to prefer theflavour of alcohol they are famil-iar with, even during their stayin Nepal. So, in a sense, easingthe prohibition on alcoholimports could actually help toincrease the foreign currencyreserve.

Non-essential and necessaryitems: Permanent categorizationof essential and non-essentialitems is required to address thetrade imbalance and preserveforeign currency reserves.

Electric vehicles: Due tothe growing demand for fossilfuels, electric vehicles must be

encouraged in order to save con-siderable amounts of foreigncurrency. In the coming years,the reliance on petroleum prod-ucts must be diminished. In theforeseeable future, Nepal's econ-omy will continue to rely heav-ily on remittances sent homefrom abroad.

Since more than four mil-lion Nepalis work abroad andthe number continues to rise,this has been the country's pri-mary source of foreign money.As a result of Covid-19, thetourism industry has also madeimprovements. However, theforeign currency they createfor the country should not bewasted on the import of luxuryitems.

Major hydro projects arebeing connected to the nation-al grid, which can help thenation earn foreign money by

exporting excess energy to itsneighbours. The hydro energysector can be utilised to boostthe country's foreign currencyreserves. The agriculture sectoris another sector with the poten-tial to add to Nepal's foreign cur-rency reserve by exportingorganic commodities aroundthe world.

Lastly, the export of uniqueNepalese handicrafts and hand-made ornaments can contributeto the country's foreign curren-cy reserves. The latest MCCNepal agreement aims to boostthe supply of electricity andreduce transportation costs inNepal by improving road con-nectivity. These investmentswill aid the Nepalese govern-ment in providing essential ser-vices to its citizens, facilitate themovement of goods around thenation, and provide new oppor-

tunities for private investment.In addition, the MCC Nepal

Compact will boost the avail-ability of power and reduce thecost of transportation, whichwill help in spurring invest-ment, accelerating economicgrowth, and reducing poverty.With the 500 million dollar pro-ject funding supplied by theUnited States, the MCC accordwould pave the road for devel-opment in Nepal. Recentpledges by the United States togive Nepal a donation in install-ments and international finan-cial institutions, namely theWorld Bank, the InternationalMonetary Fund, and the AsianDevelopment Bank, also com-mitting to provide grants tomiddle-income countries mayimprove Nepal's financial con-ditions, including its foreignexchange reserves.

��

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(The author is Director, Indo-Pacific Consortium,

New Delhi.)

��/��01��1#��

��/�0��2��1"�,."��1+4�15�5+ In the draft Electricity (Amendment)Bill or EAB, 2021, proposing amend-ments to the Electricity Act, 2003 intro-duced in February last year, the

Narendra Modi-led NDA Governmentintended to bring about two transformativereforms — de-licensing of the electricity dis-tribution business and direct benefit trans-fer (DBT) of subsidy. Delicensing of the dis-tribution business aims to bring in compe-tition, and give the consumer power tochoose suppliers (or “open access”).

Even as the Union ministry of powerprepares to table a Bill in the upcomingMonsoon session (2022) of Parliament,both the provisions have been dropped.Under the extant arrangements, an over-whelming share of power generated bypublic sector undertakings (PSUs) such asthe National Thermal Power Corporation(NTPC), etc., and independent power pro-ducers (IPPs), besides generating stationsof State Electricity Boards (SEBs) is pro-cured by power distribution companies ordiscoms (these are mostly owned and con-trolled by State governments) under powerpurchase agreements (PPA). Most of thesePPAs are long-term contracts up to 25years. A mere five percent of the electric-ity is traded.

Under instruction from the top politi-cal brass in the State establishment, discomssell a major slice of electricity — thus pro-cured — to some preferred consumers, viz.,poor households (HHs) and farmers, eitherat a fraction of the cost of purchase, trans-mission, and distribution, or even free. Onthe units sold to these target groups, theyincur colossal under-recovery. This isaggravated by aggregate technical andcommercial (AT&C) losses — most of it isplain theft.

Inflated tariff allowed to IPPs/PSUsunder a cost-plus formula (under thePPAs) adds to the revenue shortfall. In a bidto offset the loss, discoms charge high tar-iffs on supplies to industries/businessesbesides non-poor HHs (NPHHs). The for-mer are the sole suppliers of electricity;hence, the latter have no option but to pay.It is a different matter that despite this cross-subsidization, overall discoms continue toincur huge losses.

There is no reason why the industries/businesses and NPHHs should not getaccess to electricity at a 'reasonable' rate. But,this will be possible only when they getaccess to alternative sources by allowing pri-vate firms in the distribution business. Inthis backdrop, the Government's decisionto include a proposal to this effect in thebill was apt. To drop it now, is a retrogrademove.

The trigger behind volte face by theCentre is the resistance to the proposal fromthe Opposition-ruled states which arguedthat this is an attack on federalism and willbe tantamount to an “infringement on thesovereignty of the state.”

Under the Constitution, generation andtransmission (G&T) are under the purview

3�� #��'��0��+�/��1<��'�

(The writer is a policyanalyst. The views

expressed are personal.)

of the Union Government while dis-tribution is a State subject. TheStates are using this broad subjectmatter classification to argue that theCentre has no right to make changesin policies relating to distribution ofelectricity. The generation andtransmission along with the distri-bution are essential components ofan 'integrated' supply chain forensuring uninterrupted supply ofelectricity in required quantity ataffordable price to all consumers. Allneed to be maintained in a robustand healthy state for achieving thedesired objective even as weaknessin any one can lead to malfunction-ing of the entire system.

Power distribution is the biggestweakness in the supply chain andthere is a dire need for reforms inthis segment. The States should letthe Centre proceed with its propos-al and not allow jurisdictional issuesto put a speed-breaker. Meanwhile,the Centre has proposed amend-ments to provide for multiple sup-pliers in a single area. Prima facie,it appears that other suppliers wouldbe there to provide electricity at rateslower than what State discomcharges. This is illusory as the net-work ownership remains with thelatter, its real boss (read: State gov-ernment) won't let any supplier —other than the state discom — comein.

Pertinently, even under theamended Electricity Act (2003),there was a provision for ‘openaccess’, which gave choice to bulkconsumers to choose their suppli-ers. But, another provision in the Actrequired such customers to pay an'open access surcharge' (OAS) to thediscom that they wanted to leave. Byfixing the surcharge at a high level,the States ensured that post-switch,the effective cost of power — tariff

charged by the new supplier plusOAS — was higher than what theypaid to the discom.

That rendered the switchuneconomical. Even two decadesthereafter, nothing has changed. Theother major reform in the bill wasDBT. Under the extant arrange-ments, subsidy to target groups suchas farmers and poor households isembedded in the tariff charged fromthem. For instance, if the cost of pur-chase, wheeling, and distribution issay Rs 5 per unit, instead of askingfarmer to pay Rs 5/-, the discomcharges him 'nil'. The latter in turn,claims reimbursement of thisamount from the State govern-ment.

Under DBT, the discom willcharge Rs 5/- for every unit from thefarmer even as the State governmentwill directly transfer this amount tothe latter's bank account. This willyield multiple dividends. In view ofthe farmers/poor HHs paying thefull cost-based tariff, discoms won'tface any under-recovery on suchsales, thereby helping them avoidlosses.

They need not charge morefrom industries/businesses andNPHH which they do under thepresent regime to cross-subsidizesupplies to target beneficiaries.When the States stop riding piggy-back on discoms for extendingsubsidy, it would be easier to free thelatter from controls. If, discoms canbe turned into autonomous corpo-rate entities, it will help them reducecosts by negotiating lower price ofpower purchased from IPPs underPPAs and reining in theft.Furthermore, in view of discomsstanding on their own feet and ableto compete with private suppliers,there won't be any resistance to 'de-licensing of distribution business'

and it will also be easier to imple-ment "open access".

Yet, DBT is being opposed bythe States. This is because unlike thepresent dispensation of routingsubsidy through discoms wherein,the State government can afford totake things leisurely - not makingreimbursements (albeit to discoms)upfront, not paying in full anddelaying payment - under DBT, theycannot enjoy any of these luxuries.

Adding to pressure on theCentre was a demand by farmersprotesting against the three farmlaws (Nov 2020-Nov 2021) to dropDBT from the EAB, 2022. The twinreforms - DBT and de-licensing ofdistribution - hold the key to pullingdiscoms from the brink and mak-ing them financially viable. Thesewill also ensure supply of power toall consumers at affordable rates.Putting them off will mean 'businessas usual' - ever increasing losses ofthe discoms, their escalating dues toIPPs/PSUs, high tariffs chargedfrom industries/businesses andNPHHs and mounting NPAs (non-performing assets) of banks.

The EAB, 2022, contains anumber of provisions such as‘Payment security mechanism’ forgenerating companies (gencos),empowerment of the grid operatorNational Load Dispatch Centre(NLDC) to stop dispatch of powerto states that do not provide pay-ment security against their contract-ed supply and so on. These aremeant to force discoms to maketimely payments of their dues.

But, alas! without the aforemen-tioned twin reforms which are fun-damental to making discoms'robust' and 'healthy'-now droppedfrom the Bill-imposing such disci-pline will prove to be counter-pro-ductive.

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Russian shelling pounded a denselypopulated area in Ukraine's second-largest city Thursday, killing at least

two people and injuring at least 21 with abarrage that struck a mosque, a medicalfacility and a shopping area, according toofficials and witnesses at the scene.

Police in the northeast city of Kharkivsaid cluster bombs hit BarabashovoMarket. A public bazaar where AssociatedPress journalists saw a woman crying overher dead husband's body. Local officialssaid the shelling also struck a bus stop, agym and a residential building.

The bombardment came after Russiaon Wednesday reiterated its plans to seizeterritories beyond eastern Ukraine, wherethe Russian military has spent months try-ing to conquer Ukraine's Donbas region,which is south of Kharkiv. Ukrainian offi-cials recently aired their plans to try torecapture Russian-occupied areas near thecountry's southern Black Sea coast.

Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said theattacks early Thursday targeted one of themost crowded areas of the city, which hada prewar population of about 1.4 million.

“The Russian army is randomlyshelling Kharkiv, peaceful residentialareas, civilians are being killed,” Terekhovsaid. “Be careful!”

The police claim that cluster bombs hitBarabashovo Market could not be inde-pendently confirmed. The AP journalistsat the scene shortly after the attack report-ed seeing burned-out cards and a buspierced by shrapnel. The Kharkiv region'sgovernor, Oleh Syniehubov, said fourpeople were in grave condition and a childwas among those wounded in the shelling.Russian forces also have shelled wheatfields in the area, setting them on fire, hesaid. Elsewhere, Russian forces shelled thesouthern city of Mykolaiv overnight as wellas the eastern cities of Kramatorsk andKostiantynivka, where two schools weredestroyed after a civilian was killedWednesday, Ukrainian officials said.

As of 8 a.M. Thursday, Russian shellingof cities across Ukraine killed at least fivepeople and wounded at least 17 more in

24 hours, Ukraine's presidential officereported. The scattered attacks illustratebroader war aims beyond Russia's previ-ously declared focus on the Donbasregion's Donetsk and Luhansk provinces,where front line battles mostly unfoldedin recent weeks.

When it invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24,Russia quickly seized territory but with-drew from the capital region and northafter about six weeks to concentrate onseizing Donetsk and Luhansk, which pro-Moscow separatists have partly controlledsince 2014. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrovtold state-controlled RT television and theRIA Novosti news agency in an interviewpublished Wednesday that Russia plans toretain control over more territory, includ-ing the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regionsin the south. Moscow's current strategyalso envisions making gains elsewhere,Lavrov said. His comments indicated thewar could flare up rather than winddown in the weeks to come.

With Western countries providingUkraine with longer-range weapons,Lavrov said Russia's “geographical taskswill be pushed even further from the cur-rent line because we cannot allow the partof Ukraine under control of (UkrainianPresident Volodymyr) Zelenskyy or who-ever comes to succeed him, to haveweapons that will pose a direct threat toour territory and the territories of thoserepublics that have declared their inde-pendence.” Analysts from the Institute forthe Study of War, a think tank based inWashington, said they think the currentRussian offensive in Donetsk may resultin the capture of the cities of Sloviansk orBakhmut, though Moscow's troops havehave not yet made “meaningful” progress.

The think tank's latest analysis t alsonoted that “Russian troops are now strug-gling to move across relatively sparsely-set-tled and open terrain. They will encounterterrain much more conducive to theUkrainian defenders,” the Institute's mostrecent analysis said.

The General Staff of Ukraine's militaryreported Thursday that Russian forcesattempted to storm the Vuhlehirska powerstation in the Donetsk region, but

“Ukrainian defenders made the enemyresort to fleeing.” Ukraine forces also onWednesday struck a key bridge on theDnieper River for the second time in asmany days, apparently trying to loosenRussia's grip on the southern Khersonregion.

“Russia is prioritizing the capture ofcritical national infrastructure, such aspower plants," the British Defense Ministrysaid Thursday. "However, it is probably alsoattempting to break through atVuhlehirska, as part of its efforts to regainmomentum on the southern pincer of itsadvance towards the key cities ofKramatorsk and Sloviansk.”

Fighting also persists in the Luhanskregion, next to Donetsk, but it has not beenfully captured by the Russian military, gov-ernor Serhiy Haidai said.

In other developments on Thursday:� The operator of a major pipeline fromRussia to Europe says natural gas has start-ed flowing again after a 10-day shutdownfor maintenance. But the gas flow wasexpected to fall well short of full capacityand the outlook was uncertain. The NordStream 1 pipeline to Germany had beenclosed since July 11 for annual mainte-nance work. The pipeline is Germany'smain source of Russian gas. German offi-cials had feared that the pipeline might notreopen at all amid growing tensions overRussia's war in Ukraine. Operator NordStream AG said that gas was flowing againThursday morning and its network datashowed gas beginning to arrive.� Swiss technology, industrial productsand robotics company ABB said it is exit-ing the Russian market over the war inUkraine and related sanctions. The com-pany previously suspended accepting neworders from Russia after the invasion ofUkraine. The Zurich-based company,which has two production sites and about750 people in Russia, posted a secondquarter hit of $57 million in financialimpact due to the situation. The compa-ny says Russia accounted for 1%-2% of itsannual revenues – which totaled nearly $29billion last year – before it stopped takingnew orders from Russia.

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The European Unionimposed more sanctions on

Russia on Thursday over thewar in Ukraine after the bloc'smember states backed a seriesof measures that would includegold imports and tighten exportcontrols on some high-tech-nology goods.

European CommissionUrsula von der Leyen said thatthe “reinforced, prolonged EUsanctions against the Kremlin"send "a strong signal toMoscow: we will keep the pres-

sure high for as long as it takes."The details of the sanctions

were still unclear since they stillneed to be posted in the EU'sofficial journal.

EU officials have been seek-ing all week to tighten theextensive package of sanctionson Russia and looking at waysto add a ban on gold exports inhopes that the measures mightfinally start to have a decisiveimpact on the war in Ukraine.

EU foreign affairs chiefJosep Borrell said Monday thatat the moment “the most impor-tant thing is a ban on Russian

gold,” which is Moscow's sec-ond-largest export industryafter energy.

The Group of Seven leadingindustrial nations last monthalready committed to a goldban, arguing the Russia has usedits gold to back up its currencyto circumvent the impact of sev-eral rounds of sanctions thatnations around the world hadalready imposed on Moscow forits Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine.

On top of the restrictivemeasures, the EU also decidedto grant 500 million euros toboost military aid to Ukraine.

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The US and allies committed more rocket sys-tems, ammunition and other military aid to

Ukraine Wednesday, as American defence lead-ers said they see the war to block Russian gainsin the eastern Donbas region grinding on forsome time.

Speaking at the close of a virtual meetingwith about 50 defense leaders from around theworld, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin saidit will be “hard work” to keep allies and part-ners all committed to the war effort as themonths drag on.

“We're pushing hard to maintain and inten-sify the momentum of donations,” Austin said.“This will be an area of focus for the foresee-able future, as it should be, in terms of how longour allies and partners will remain committed... There's no question that this will always behard work making sure that we maintain unity.”

Officials have been reluctant to say how longthe war may last, but Army Gen. Mark Milley,chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, suggest-ed it could be a long slog.

“We have a very serious grinding war ofattrition going on in the Donbas. And unlessthere's a breakthrough on either side — whichright now the analysts don't think is particularlylikely in the near term — it will probably con-tinue as a grinding war of attrition for a periodof time until both sides see an alternative wayout of this, perhaps through negotiation orsomething like that.”

Officials said Wednesday that the U.S. Willsend Ukraine four more High Mobility ArtilleryRocket Systems (HIMARS) and precision-guided rockets for them, as well as additionalartillery rounds. A more detailed announcementis expected later this week.

The aid comes as Russian forces try to solid-ify gains in the two provinces in Ukraine's east-ern Donbas region, Donetsk and Luhansk, whilealso expanding attacks into other areas. RussianForeign Minister Sergey Lavrov told state-con-trolled RT television and the RIA Novosti news

agency that Russia has expanded its “special mil-itary operation” from the Donbas to the Khersonand Zaporizhzhia regions and other capturedterritories.

Austin said Lavrov's comments come as nosurprise to allies who have known Russia hasgreater ambitions in capturing Ukraine.

But Ukrainian troops have been using theHIMARS to strike Russian logistics nodes andcommand and control centers, including behindthe front lines to disrupt supply chains. And onWednesday they struck and damaged a bridgethat is key to supplying Russian troops in south-ern Ukraine, where Lavrov said Moscow is try-ing to consolidate its territorial gains.

Milley said the Ukrainian strikes are “steadi-ly degrading the Russian ability to supply theirtroops, command and control their forces, andcarry out their illegal war of aggression.”

He said that, due to Ukraine's resistance,Russia has been able to gain just six to 10 milesof ground in the Donbas over the past 90 days,with “tens of thousands of artillery rounds” firedin each 24-hour period. And he said he does notbelieve that the Donbas region has been lost toRussia. “It's not lost yet. The Ukrainians are mak-ing the Russians pay for every inch of territorythat they gain and advances are measured in lit-erally hundreds of meters,” Milley said.

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Leaders of Indiana's Repub-lican-dominated Senate on

Wednesday proposed banningabortion with limited excep-tions — a move that comesamid a political firestorm overa 10-year-old rape victim whocame to the state from neigh-bouring Ohio to end her preg-nancy.

The proposal will be takenup during a special legislativesession that is scheduled tobegin Monday, making Indianaone of the first Republican-runstates to debate tighter abortionlaws following the U.S.Supreme Court decision lastmonth overturning Roe v.Wade. The Supreme Court rul-ing is expected to lead to abor-tion bans in roughly half thestates.

The Indiana proposalwould allow exceptions to theban, such as in cases of rape,incest or to protect a woman'slife. Its fate is uncertain, though,because some hardlineRepublicans want to ban allabortions.

Ohio's so-called fetal heart-beat law, which bans abor-tions after a fetus' heartbeat canbe detected — typically inaround the sixth week of preg-nancy — led the 10-year-oldrape victim to go to Indiana toget a medication-induced abor-tion on June 30, according tothe doctor who performed it.

Indiana Republicans havepushed through numerousanti-abortion laws over thepast decade and the vast major-ity signed a letter in March sup-porting a special session to fur-ther tighten those laws. But leg-islative leaders and Republican

Gov. Eric Holcomb had beentightlipped since the SupremeCourt decision over whetherthey would push for a fullabortion ban or allow excep-tions.

Indiana law generally pro-hibits abortions after the 20thweek of pregnancy and tightlyrestricts it after the 13th week.Nearly 99% of abortions in thestate last year took place at 13weeks or earlier, according to astate Health Departmentreport.

Before lawmakers announ-ced their proposal, the leader ofthe state's most prominentanti-abortion group toldreporters that the group wouldpressure legislators to advancea bill “that affirms the value ofall life including unborn chil-dren” while not taking ques-tions on whether any excep-tions would be acceptable.

Indiana Right to LifePresident Mike Fichter saidthe vast majority of Indiana

lawmakers have “campaignedas pro-life, they've run multi-ple election cycles as being pro-life.”

“This is not the time whenlegislators should be draftinglegislation that would appearthat Roe versus Wade is still inplace,” Fichter said. “Roe is nolonger in place. The Roe shieldis no longer there.”

Democrats have criticizedRepublicans for meeting pri-vately for weeks over the abor-tion legislation.

“If anything, what weshould be spending our timeon is preparing, strengtheningour safety net before we beganto take away access to abortioncare in this state,” Democraticstate Sen. Shelli Yoder, ofBloomington, said before theproposal was unveiled.

The state's debate comes asan Indiana doctor has been atthe center of a politicalfirestorm after speaking outabout the 10-year-old rape vic-

tim from Ohio.A 27-year-old man was

charged in Columbus, Ohio,last week with raping the girl,confirming the existence of acase that was initially met withskepticism by some media out-lets and Republican politicians.The pushback grew afterDemocratic President JoeBiden expressed sympathy forthe girl during the signing of anexecutive order aimed at pro-tecting some abortion access.

Dr. Caitlin Bernard, anIndianapolis obstetrician-gyne-cologist, said she gave the girla medication-induced abor-tion on June 30 because thechild couldn't get the procedurein Ohio under a newly imposedstate ban on abortions from thetime a fetus' cardiac activity canbe detected. A judge lifted astay on the Ohio ban after theSupreme Court's ruling.

Indiana's conservativeGOP lawmakers have had ahistory of conflict over socialissues. In May, they overrode aveto by Holcomb of a bill thatbanned transgender womenand girls from participating inschool sports that match theirgender identity.

That came seven years afterIndiana faced a national uproarover a religious objections lawsigned by then-Gov. MikePence that opponents main-tained could be used to dis-criminate against gays and les-bians.

The Republican-dominat-ed Legislature quickly maderevisions blocking its use as alegal defense for refusing toprovide services and prevent-ing the law from overridinglocal ordinances with LGBTQprotections.

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Rishi Sunak has vowed towork "night and day" as he

embarked upon the final andtoughest stretch of his cam-paign on Thursday to win overthe Conservative Party mem-bership to be elected partyleader and British PrimeMinister.

The British-Indian ex-min-ister won a decisive mandatefrom the Tory parliamentaryparty to take on ForeignSecretary Liz Truss in the raceto replace Boris Johnson.

The 42-year-old formerChancellor was a clear fron-trunner among the Tory mem-bers of Parliament – 137 ofwhom voted in favour of himagainst Truss' 113 – but hiscamp knows they face an uphilltask to replicate the winningstreak of every voting roundsince last week with the widerparty membership.

Thursday's latest bookieodds on the betting aggregatorOddschecker after Wednes-day's final round of MP votesshow Truss in a comfortablelead over Sunak.

"I will work night and dayto deliver our message aroundthe country," said Sunak.

He used a column in ‘TheDaily Telegraph' to soften someof the harsh rhetoric of the livetelevision debates by saying he"likes and respects" his oppo-nent after they clashed bitter-ly over key policy issues, specif-ically taxes.

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Europe's recent spate ofwildfires abated amid

cooler temperaturesThursday, with no outbreaksreported in Portugal whileFrench firefighters started toget the upper hand over twomajor blazes and Spain tameda fire that killed two peoplelast weekend.

Spanish firefighters weretackling nine blazes, with twosaid to be especially danger-ous in northwestern Galicia.

Some of the 11,000 peo-ple evacuated because of thefires in Spain began returninghome, and a major highway inthe northwestern Zamoraprovince reopened after twodays.

Temperatures above 40 C(104 F) and a drought haveworsened Spain's wildfiresthis year. Thursday's highesttemperature in Spain wasforecast to be 32 C (90 F).

In France, more than aweek of round-the-clock bat-tling against ferocious flamesby more than 2,000 firefight-ers and up to 10 water-drop-ping planes was slowly win-ning out against two majorwildfires in tinder-dry pineforests in southwest France.

The Gironde region's fireservice said both blazes,which forced the evacuationof tens of thousands of peo-ple, were contained.

Though still fighting hotspots that could reigniteblazes, the fire service said itexpects to have tamped downflare-ups and tamed the fires'embers within days. Officialssaid they will probably be ableto declare the fires complete-ly extinguished within weeks.

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Aman drove his pickup truckinto a family as they walked

in a tourist village borderingGlacier National Park andopened fire with a shotgun,killing one man and mortallywounding a toddler who was inher mother's arms before themother's sister-in-law managedto kill the assailant after he ranout of ammunition, authoritiessaid. Killed in the weekendattack on the Blackfeet IndianReservation in northwesternMontana were David Siau, 39,of Syracuse, New York, andSiau's 18-month-old daughter,McKenzie.

The assailant, Derick AmosMadden, 37, had been in aprior relationship with thewoman who killed him andhad mental health issues, theGlacier County Sheriff 's Officesaid. Authorities on Wednesdaywould not say how he waskilled. Madden plowed aToyota Tacoma onto a sidewalkand into the Siau family justbefore 9 p.M. Sunday as theywalked in the small town ofEast Glacier Park, hitting someof them before crashing into atree, the sheriff 's office said.

Madden got out and shotand killed David Siau andmortally wounded McKenzie.The young girl was being heldby her mother, Christy Siau, 40,who was shot and wounded asshe tried to run away.

Madden then ran out ofammunition and used a knifeto attack the sister-in-law,Christina Siau, 30. But thewoman fought back and fatal-ly wounded Madden, who

authorities said died at thescene, said Capt. Tom Seifertwith the Glacier CountySheriff 's Office.

Seifert declined to releasedetails on how Siau killedMadden or if any otherweapons were recovered fromthe scene. “She fought back andshe won,” he said.

Two other children ofDavid and Christy Siau werepresent but managed to runaway and were not injured.

McKenzie Siau was pro-nounced dead at the IndianHealth Service hospital inBrowning. Christy andChristina Siau suffered criticalinjuries and were flown toanother hospital with a higherlevel of care.

Due to Christy Siau'sinjuries, investigators have beenunable to interview her aboutwhat happened, Seifert said.

Bystanders in the area wit-nessed the attack and reportedit to authorities, Seifert said. Headded that police responded tothe scene within minutes, butthe attack already was over.

The Montana HighwayPatrol was trying to determinethe exact speed Madden wasdriving when he hit the fami-ly. Seifert described it as fasterthan the posted speed limit,which he said was at least 25miles (40 kph) per hour.

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Apower outage in the SriLankan Parliament com-

plex stopped the live broadcastof President RanilWickremesinghe's swearing-in ceremony, forcing authoritiesto launch an investigation bythe Criminal InvestigationsDepartment into the incident,a media report said onThursday.

Veteran politician RanilWickremesinghe was onThursday sworn in as SriLanka's eighth president andwill face the tough task ofleading the country out of itsunprecedented economic crisisand restoring order aftermonths of mass anti-govern-ment protests.

Wickremesinghe, 73, wassworn in as the 8th ExecutivePresident of Sri Lanka at theParliament complex beforeChief Justice JayanthaJayasuriya.

The Criminal Investi-

gations Department will inves-tigate the power outage thattook place on Thursday in theParliament complex when theswearing-in ceremony of thenewly elected PresidentWickremesinghe was proceed-ing, the Colombo Page webportal reported.

The swearing-in ceremonyof Wickramasinghe as the 8thExecutive President was sched-uled to be telecast live by state-run Rupavahini and broad-cast simultaneously by othertelevision channels. However,the live broadcast stopped afterthe President entered theParliament complex on the redcarpet, the report added.

It was later reported thatthe live broadcast was stoppeddue to a power outage in theParliament complex. In theevent of a power outage in theParliament complex, the gen-erators are usually switched onautomatically within two min-utes and it is reported that thepower was out for about 10

minutes at the time of theswearing-in of the President.

Due to this reason, TVchannels could not telecast theswearing-in ceremony.

Meanwhile,Wickremesingsays he is not a 'friend' ofRajapaksas, vows to bring in sys-tem change "I am not a friendof the Rajapaksas, I am a friendof the people," PresidentWickremesinghe has told SriLankans, pledging to bring inthe much-needed systemchange they are yearning for.

The anti-government pro-testers, who succeeded in forc-ing the powerful Rajapaksafamily to leave their officialpositions amidst the unprece-dented economic crisis, arealso demanding

Wickremesinghe's resig-nation as he is seen as close toGotabaya Rajapaksa. Afterbeing elected as the President,Wickremesinghe visited theGangarama Temple, one of theoldest Buddhist temples inColombo, on Wednesday.

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Italian Premier Mario Draghi resigned onThursday after key coalition allies boycotted

a confidence vote, signaling the likelihood ofan early election and a renewed period of uncer-tainty for Italy and Europe at a critical time.

Draghi tendered his resignation to PresidentSergio Mattarella during a morning meeting atthe Quirinale Palace. Mattarella, who had reject-ed a similar resignation offer last week, “tooknote” this time around and asked Draghi's gov-ernment to remain on in a caretaker fashion,the president's office said.

Draghi's government of national unityimploded Wednesday after members of hisuneasy coalition of right, left and populistsrebuffed his appeal to band back together to fin-ish the legislature's natural term and ensureimplementation of the European Union-fund-

ed pandemic recovery program.Instead, the center-right parties of Forza

Italia and the League and the populist 5-StarMovement boycotted a confidence vote in theSenate, in a clear sign they were done withDraghi's 17-month government.

“Thank you for all the work done togeth-er in this period,” Draghi told the lowerChamber of Deputies before he went to seeMattarella. Clearly moved by the applause, herepeated a quip that even central bank chiefshave hearts. Italian newspapers on Thursdaywere united in their outrage at the surreal out-come, given Italy is dealing with soaring infla-tion and energy costs, Russia's war againstUkraine and outstanding reforms needed toclinch the remainder of the EU's 200 billioneuros in recovery funds.

“Shame,” headlined La Stampa on thefront page. “Italy Betrayed,” said La Repubblica.“Farewell to Draghi's Government,” saidCorriere della Sera. Mattarella had tapped theformer European Central Bank chief — whowas known as “Super Mario” for his “whatev-er it takes” rescue of the euro — to pull Italyout of the pandemic and lay the groundworkto make use of the EU's recovery funds.

But the 5-Stars, the biggest vote-getter inthe 2018 national election, had been chafing formonths that their priorities of a basic incomeand minimum salary, among other things, werebeing ignored. Last week, the 5-Stars boycotteda confidence vote tied to a bill aimed at help-ing Italians endure the crisis, prompting Draghito offer to resign a first time.

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China's internet watchdogon Thursday fined ride-

hailing firm Didi Global morethan 8 billion yuan ($1.2 bil-lion) following an investigationinto the company's cybersecu-rity practices.

The probe found Didi vio-lated China's network securitylaw, data security law and a lawprotecting personal informa-tion, the CyberspaceAdministration of China saidin a statement.

A separate statementexplaining the fine said Didi's

“illegal operations” hadbrought “serious” nationalsecurity risks, affecting thecountry's information infra-structure and data security.

Didi's chairman ChengWei and president Jean Liuwere fined 1 million yuan($148,000) each as they wereheld responsible for the com-pany's violations, regulatorssaid.

“Didi's violations of lawsand regulations are serious,and in light of the networksecurity review, they should beseverely punished,” the state-ment read.

Didi illegally collectednearly 12 million screenshotsand 107 million pieces of pas-sengers facial recognition dataand more than 167 millionrecords of location data, amongother information, regulatorssaid. The company's violationsfirst began in June 2015.

Didi said in a statementposted to its official Weibosocial media account that it“sincerely” accepted the deci-sion.

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Matthew Pottinger was ajournalist in China, con-cerned about the country's

drift toward authoritarianism, whenhe decided — at age 31 — to enlistin the U.S. Marines after the inva-sion of Iraq.

“Our form of government is notinevitable," Pottinger recalled think-ing during an interview two yearsago with the Ronald ReaganPresidential Foundation andInstitute. "And it shouldn't be takenfor granted. But it's a form of gov-ernment very much worth fightingfor.”

Pottinger had no way of know-ing when he put on his military uni-form for the first time how close tohome that battle for democracywould get. He became deputynational security adviser toPresident Donald Trump, and heresigned after the Jan. 6 attack thattried to stop the peaceful transfer ofpower to President Joe Biden.

On Thursday, he'll be one of thekey witnesses at a prime-time hear-ing of the select House committee

investigating the attack. The otheris Sarah Matthews, who resignedfrom her position as a deputy presssecretary the same day.

Pottinger and Matthews willjoin Cassidy Hutchinson, a formerassistant to Mark Meadows, Trump'sfinal chief of staff, in the exclusiveclub of Trump White House insid-ers who have appeared publicly.Their appearances stand in bluntcontrast to the cadre of Trump loy-alists who have tried to defy thecommittee's subpoenas, remainedsilent or continued to dismiss theinvestigation's findings.

Any details on what Pottingerand Matthews will share onThursday have been kept underwraps, but the hearing is expectedto focus on what Trump did — anddidn't do — as his supportersswarmed the U.S. Capitol and inter-rupted the ceremonial certificationof the election.

Roughly three hours elapsedbetween Trump's speech at a rallynear the White House and hisrelease of a video calling the rioters“very special” but asking them to “gohome now.”

Pottinger, 49, and Matthews, 27,may be able to illuminate what washappening behind the scenes asTrump resisted pleas from family,aides and Republicans to condemnthe riot and urge people to leave thebuilding.

As a member of the press office,Matthews was privy to debates overwhat the White House and Trumpshould say publicly during the riot

and what other aides advised. Andalthough Pottinger was focused onforeign policy, his position placedhim at the crossroads of nationalsecurity matters.

Whatever they saw that day,they decided to quit, helping tobegin an exodus that included otherWhite House staff and variousCabinet officials.

“These are people who believed

in the work they were doing, butdidn't believe in the stolen election,"said Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va., amember of the select committee.

Luria added, “It's just a key pieceof telling the story about that day,because we'll be hearing from peo-ple who were in the White House,what they observed, what theirreactions were."

Alyssa Farah Griffin, the former

White House director of strategiccommunications, said Pottingerand Matthews could make potentwitnesses, particularly because oftheir very different backgrounds.

Pottinger, Griffin said, is some-one with “enormous credibility,”who is “highly respected in thenational security space” and not seenas overtly political. Matthews, incontrast, is “a tried and trueRepublican” who worked forTrump's reelection campaign andwas hand-picked to join the WhiteHouse.

“I think their testimony will beincredibly compelling and carry a lotof weight,” said Griffin, who hasbeen supportive of the committee'swork and has discussed Matthews'testimony with her.

Matthews began working forRepublicans on Capitol Hill as anintern while she was still a studentat Kent State University in Ohio. Shewas so eager to begin a career inWashington that she moved to thecity for her first job a month beforeher graduation, missing her lastweeks of college and finishing herfinal classes online, she told her alma

mater in an interview two years ago.Matthews was hired as a deputy

press secretary for Trump's reelec-tion campaign and was brought overto the White House by press secre-tary Kayleigh McEnany. She workedin the area of the West Wing knownas “upper press,” placing her in clos-er proximity to the Oval Office thanothers in her office.

Sometimes she joined Trumpfor media interviews, but mostly shefielded questions from reporters andhelped prepare for White Housebriefings. When Matthews resignedon Jan. 6, she issued a statement say-ing she was “deeply disturbed bywhat I saw today." On the anniver-sary of the attack, she called it “oneof the darkest days in American his-tory.” “Make no mistake, the eventson the 6th were a coup attempt, aterm we'd use had they happened inany other country, and formerPresident Trump failed to meet themoment,” she tweeted.

Pottinger did not issue a state-ment when he resigned on Jan. 6,but he discussed the decision dur-ing previous, closed-door testimo-ny to the committee.

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Singapore has granted a 14-day short-term visit pass to

former Sri Lankan presidentGotabaya Rajapaksa as heentered the country on a "pri-vate visit" on July 14, accord-ing to immigration authoritieshere. Rajapaksa, 73, on July 13fled Sri Lanka to the Maldivesand then Singapore andresigned after a popular upris-ing against his government formismanaging the economy.

In a statement released inresponse to media queriesabout Rajapaksa's visit toSingapore, the Immigrationand Checkpoints Authoritysaid that he was granted ashort-term visit pass (STVP)on arrival. Rajapaksa wasissued a 14-day visit pass whenhe arrived here on July 14,according to a report by TheStraits Times newspaper.

A Ministry of ForeignAffairs spokesman said lastweek that Rajapaksa has notasked for asylum and neitherhas he been granted any asy-lum.

The ICA said visitors fromSri Lanka who enter Singaporefor social visits will generallybe issued with an STVP with

a duration of up to 30 days.Those who need to extend

their stay here may applyonline for an extension oftheir STVP.

Applications will beassessed on a case-by-casebasis, said the ICA.Meanwhile, Sri Lankans inSingapore remain optimisticabout the situation back home.

But they say a real changehas to go beyond the changingof guards with more decisivepolicies and more engagedvoters, Channel News Asiareported as it interviewed sev-eral Sri Lankans in the coun-try. Some Sri Lankans inSingapore are skipping mealsto save money and sendingitems such as medicine andother essential goods back totheir home country amid theeconomic crisis there.

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Former Israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu testi-

fied on Thursday that he bearsno responsibility for the safetygaps that led to a deadly stam-pede that killed 45 people lastyear.

The incident, which was theworst civilian disaster in thecountry's history, took place onMount Meron in northern Israelduring a Jewish festival in April2021. Around 100,000 wor-shipers, mostly ultra-OrthodoxJews, attended festivities despite

coronavirus regulations limitingoutdoor assemblies to 500 peo-ple, and in spite of longstand-ing warnings about the safety ofthe site.

“I didn't deal with safety,”Netanyahu testified to an inde-pendent commission investi-gating the tragedy, saying heonly stepped in because of thecoronavirus pandemic. As forother safety gaps or measures,he said, “The prime ministerdoesn't deal with that.”

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President Joe Biden said onWednesday that US military officials

believe it's “not a good idea” for HouseSpeaker Nancy Pelosi to visit Taiwan atthe moment. Biden's comments in anexchange with reporters came a dayafter the Chinese Foreign Ministrysaid it would take “resolute and strongmeasures” should Pelosi proceed withreported plans to visit Taiwan in thecoming weeks.

“Well, I think that the militarythinks it's not a good idea right now,"Biden said in response to a questionabout Pelosi's reported trip. “But I don'tknow what the status of it is.”

The president stopped short ofsuggesting that Pelosi not travel toTaiwan.

Pelosi was originally scheduled tovisit in April but had to postpone after

she tested positive for COVID-19. Shewould be the highest-ranking Americanlawmaker to visit the close U.S. Allysince Newt Gingrich, a Republican,traveled there 25 years ago when he wasHouse speaker.

The Financial Times reported onTuesday that Pelosi planned to moveforward with her postponed visit toTaipei in the next month. Her officedeclined to comment, saying the officedoes not confirm or deny the speaker's

international travel in advance, due tolongstanding security protocols.

Chinese Foreign Ministryspokesperson Zhao Lijiang said such avisit would “severely undermine China'ssovereignty and territorial integrity,gravely impact the foundation of China-U.S. Relations and send a seriouslywrong signal to Taiwan independenceforces."

The U.S. Has a longstanding com-mitment to the “One China” policy thatrecognises Beijing as the government ofChina but allows informal relations anddefense ties with Taipei. China hasstepped up its military provocationsagainst democratic, self-ruled Taiwan inrecent years as it looks look to intimi-date it into accepting Beijing's demandsto unify with the communist mainland.

Biden also said that he expected tospeak with Chinse President Xi Jingpingsometime in the 10 next days.

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Market benchmarksmarched higher for thefifth straight session on

Thursday as investors accumu-lated energy, financial and ITstocks amid a mixed trend inglobal equities.

A rebounding rupee andfresh buying by foreign fundsadded to the momentum,traders said.

Clawing back lost ground inearly deals, the 30-share BSESensex climbed 284.42 points or0.51 per cent to settle at55,681.95. During the day, itjumped 340.96 points or 0.61per cent to 55,738.49.

Likewise, the broader NSENifty went higher by 84.40points or 0.51 per cent to16,605.25.

IndusInd Bank was the topgainer in the Sensex pack, rising7.88 per cent, followed by BajajFinance, Bajaj Finserv, AsianPaints, Tech Mahindra, Larsen& Toubro, Axis Bank and PowerGrid.

Shares of IndusInd Bankclimbed 7.88 per cent after thecompany reported a 60.5 percent jump in net profit for thequarter ended June.

On the other hand, HDFCBank, Reliance Industries, KotakBank and Dr Reddy's were thelosers, sliding up to 1.89 per cent.

"With support from FIIbuying, the domestic market wasable to withstand the downwardpressure from global markets toclose on a positive note. Globalindices traded lower on rate hikeworries...," said Vinod Nair,Head of Research at GeojitFinancial Services.

In Asia, markets in Seouland Tokyo ended in the green,while Shanghai and Hong Kongsettled lower.

Markets in Europe weretrading on a mixed note duringmid-session deals. The US mar-kets had ended higher onWednesday.

Meanwhile, internationaloil benchmark Brent crude fell3.90 per cent to USD 102.8 perbarrel.

Foreign institutionalinvestors were net buyers onWednesday, picking up sharesworth Rs 1,780.94 crore, as perexchange data.

The rupee recovered fromits all-time low of 80.06 toclose 20 paise higher at 79.85(provisional) against the USdollar on Thursday followingoverall weakness in crude oilprices.

"FIIs have turned net buy-ers of local shares to the tune ofRs 1,781 crore on Wednesday,extending the buying momen-tum for the third straight ses-sion," said Prashanth Tapse,Vice President (Research),Mehta Equities Ltd.

Almost all the sectoralindices were in the green, led byTelecom (2.16 per cent), CapitalGoods (2.08), Industrials (1.45per cent) and Oil and Gas (1.32per cent). Healthcare was theonly sectoral index that ended inthe red.

"Nifty rose for the fifth con-secutive session on July 21 aidedby encouraging overnight USmarkets cues. Nifty opened flatand rose gradually through theday before breaking out upwardsin the last half hour," saidDeepak Jasani, Head of RetailResearch, HDFC Securities.

In the broader market, theBSE midcap gauge jumped 1.24per cent and smallcap indexclimbed 0.90 per cent.

"Markets managed to gainhalf a per cent amid volatilityon a weekly expiry day. Thebenchmark remained range-bound for most of the day andfinally settled around the day'shigh. Meanwhile, healthy buy-ing in banks, metals, andFMCG pack and buoyancy onthe broader front kept the par-ticipants busy," Ajit Mishra, VP- Research, Religare BrokingLtd, said.

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The rupee, which has plumbed the80-level against the US dollar, is

unlikely to get any tailwind this fiscaland may fall further in the mediumterm due to higher crude prices andimports, says a report.

In the report on Thursday, Swissbrokerage UBS Securities said therupee, which has lost 7.5 per cent sofar this year against the US dollar, willsettle at the 80 level by March.

There will be no tailwind for therupee and it may plumb further in themedium term, given the pressure onthe Current Account Deficit (CAD).This will be due to rising trade gapsand the massive sell-off by foreignfunds.

Foreign funds have pulled outinvestments worth USD 29 billion or4.4 per cent of their India holdingssince the beginning of the year.

UBS India Chief EconomistTanvee Gupta-Jain said at the 80level, the rupee is trading near its fairvalue from the Real EffectiveExchange Rate (REER) basis and by

adjusting for the productivity differ-ential with trading partners.

The rupee is trading near itsequilibrium value and "even as weexpect the rupee to trade at 80 by the

fiscal end, there is a risk of rupee todepreciate more in the near term asthe current account deficit remainshigh, which we see more than dou-bling to 2.9 per cent," she said.

She also noted that compared toits emerging market peers, the rupeehas not under performed due to thestrong underlying macroeconomicfundamentals.

The forex reserves remain rea-sonable at USD 580 billion but downfrom the peak of USD 642.4 billion inSeptember 2021 on valuation adjust-ment and RBI's market interventionof over USD 40 billion plus in the spotand forward markets so far to supportthe rupee.

Currently, the forex reserves cover95 per cent of external debt, up fromaround 70 per cent in FY13. Importscover for reserves is at 10.5 monthscurrently, much better than the sevenmonths in FY13 but below the peakof 14.4 months in FY08, the reportsaid.

The external debt increased byUSD 91 billion in the past five yearsto USD 621 billion, which is 19.5 percent of the GDP but forex reservesrose USD 156 billion during thesame period. This indicates externalbuffers are being created on policy ini-tiatives to withstand global volatility

better than the 2013 taper tantrumepisode.

Even as the size of external debtof USD 621 billion has increased sinceFY17 by around USD 150 billion,most of the increase was led by non-resident deposits, commercial bor-rowings, and the short-term tradecredit.

Gupta-Jain expects widening ofCAD to 3.5-4 per cent of the GDP inthe first half of this fiscal due to slow-ing exports and sticky imports beforemoderating in the second half, assum-ing global commodity prices easefrom the current levels.

For FY23, it expects CAD towiden to 2.9 per cent of GDP from 1.2per cent in FY22 but well below the4.8 per cent touched in pre-tapertantrum level in FY13.

Capital outflows on the back ofthe worsening growth-liquidity mix,deteriorating trade balance, slowingglobal growth amid a tightening glob-al monetary landscape and broad dol-lar strength have been material head-winds for all currencies and the rupeeis no exception, she said.

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The rupee recovered from itsall-time low of 80.06 to close

20 paise higher at 79.85 (provi-sional) against the US dollar onThursday following overallweakness in crude oil prices andfresh foreign fund inflows. At theinterbank forex market, the localunit opened lower at 80.03against the greenback and fellfurther to an intra-day low of80.06. The local unit recoupedlosses later and settled at 79.85(provisional), registering a rise of20 paise over its previous close.

On Wednesday, the rupeefor the first time settled below the80-level against the US curren-cy due to strong dollar demandfrom importers and fiscal slip-page concerns.

The dollar index, whichmeasures the greenback'sstrength against a basket of sixcurrencies, was down 0.04 percent at 107.03.

Brent crude futures, theglobal oil benchmark, fell 4.46per cent to USD 102.15 per bar-rel.

"After the last four days'underperformance, IndianRupee becomes the second best-performing currency amongAsian currencies on probabledollar selling by state banks onbehalf of central banks and mildforeign fund inflows.

"All eyes will be on theEuropean Central Bank (ECB)meeting, which will impact thedollar index. With the Euroholding the major weight in thedollar index, any unexpectedoutcome from the meeting willbe dollar positive and in turn,weigh on other currencies," saidDilip Parmar, Research Analyst,HDFC Securities.

On the domestic equitymarket front, the BSE Sensexended 284.42 points or 0.51 percent higher at 55,681.95, whilethe broader NSE Nifty advanced84.40 points or 0.51 per cent to16,605.25.

Foreign institutionalinvestors remained net buyers inthe capital market on Wednesdayas they purchased shares worthRs 1,780.94 crore, as perexchange data.

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S&P Global Ratings on Thursday said non-per-forming loans of banks are expected to

decline to 5-5.5 per cent of the total advances byMarch 2024.

As per the latest Financial Stability Reportpublished by the RBI, the gross non-perform-ing assets (GNPA) declined to a six-year low of5.9 per cent in March 2022.

"We project the banking sector's weak loanswill decline to 5-5.5 per cent of gross loans byMarch 31, 2024. Likewise, we forecast the cred-it costs to stabilise at 1.5 per cent for fiscal 2023and further normalise to 1.3 per cent, makingcredit costs comparable to those of other emerg-ing markets and India's 15-year average," the rat-ing agency said in a report.

The small and midsize enterprise sector andlow-income households are vulnerable to risinginterest rates and high inflation, but it expectsthese risks to be limited, the agency added.

With an economic pick-up, residual stress forthese segments should start abating, it said,adding that NPL recoveries are likely to also gainmomentum.

It also said India's economic growthprospects should remain strong over the medi-um term, with GDP expanding 6.5-7 per centannually in fiscal years 2024-2026.

The economy's long-term higher growth rateversus peers highlights its historical resilience.

India's wide range of structural trends, includ-ing healthy demographics and competitive unitlabour costs, work in its favour, it noted.

Additionally, it said, the government is like-ly to remain supportive of the system and thereis a very high likelihood the government will con-tinue to support public-sector banks, notwith-standing plans to privatise two such banks.

In the next few years, the report said, loangrowth to stay somewhat in line with the tra-jectory of nominal GDP, and loan growth to theretail sector to continue to outperform the cor-porate sector.

Corporate borrowing is also picking upmomentum, with both working-capital needsand capital expenditure-related growth drivingdemand, it said.

Still, if risk management does not improve,the coming growth cycle could produce a newcrop of sour loans, the agency added.

Lower credit costs and a pick-up in loangrowth should sustain the turnaround in banks'earnings, it said.

Improving profitability should augmentcapital formation. Capitalisation has increasedin the past few years due to banks' capital-rais-ing and the government's capital infusions intopublic-sector banks, it noted.

Capital ratios are comparable to those ofinternational peers for India's large private-sec-tor banks, though they are lower for public-sec-tor banks, S&P Global added.

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The Reserve Bank of Indiahas postponed the meet-

ing of its interest rate settingMonetary Policy Committeeby a day to August 3 due toadministrative exigencies.

The RBI said the decisionof the MPC will be known onAugust 5 as against the earli-er schedule of August 4.

"Due to administrativeexigencies, it has been decid-ed to reschedule the MPCmeeting from August 2-4,2022 to August 3-5, 2022,"RBI said in a statement onThursday.

The MPC announces thebi-monthly monetary policyafter deliberations on the pre-vailing domestic and eco-nomic situations.

The panel, headed by RBIGovernor Shaktikanta Das,has two representatives fromthe central bank and threeexternal members.

It is widely expected thatthe RBI may increase bench-mark interest rate to cooldown high inflation. Theretail inflation print was 7.01per cent for June, higher thanthe RBI's upper tolerancelevel. The central govern-ment has tasked the RBI toensure that inflation remainsat 4 per cent with a margin of2 per cent on the either side.

The inflation target forthe period April 1, 2021 toMarch 31, 2026 under the RBIAct 1934 is 4 per cent with anupper tolerance of 6 per centand a lower tolerance of 2 percent.

To tame inflation, the RBIhas raised interest rate by 90basis points in the last twomonths. The repo rate hasgone up from 4 per cent to4.90 per cent.

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The Bureau of IndianStandards (BIS) on

Thursday urged consumers tobuy toys bearing 'ISI mark'from the market as such prod-ucts have mandatory qualitycertification.

Also, consumers mustcomplaint if they see any toybeing sold without the 'ISIMark'. Complaints can be filedthrough BIS Care app or writeto [email protected], itsaid in a statement.

ISI mark on a product cer-tifies that product has beenmanufactured as per standards

set by the BIS, which is anational standard setting bodythat functions under theConsumer Affairs Ministry.

Since January 2021, toysare required to mandatorilyhave quality certification.

As a result, no person ispermitted to manufacture,import sell or distribute, store,hire, lease or exhibit for saletoys which do not conform tothe Indian standard and do notbear BIS Standard Mark i.E. 'ISImark' under a licence from BIS.

More than 800 toy manu-facturers, mostly from theMSME sector, have alreadytaken BIS certification.

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Karnataka, Telangana and Haryanahave been ranked as the top three

states among 17 major states in NitiAayog's third innovation index. NitiAayog's India Innovation Index 2021examines innovation capacities andecosystems at the sub-national level.

The index, released by NitiAayog's Vice Chairman Suman Beryin the presence of Chief ExecutiveOfficer Parameswaran Iyer onThursday, has been developed on thelines of the Global Innovation Index.

States and Union Territories were

divided into '17 Major States', '10North-East and Hill States', and '9Union Territories and City States', foreffectively comparing their perfor-mance. Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Biharhave been ranked at the bottom of theindex among major states. Karnatakatopped the index for the third year ina row. Among Union Territories,Chandigarh topped the chart, while inthe North-East and Hill States catego-ry, Manipur occupied the top spot.

"Among the 17 major states,Karnataka, with a score of 18.01, is thetop performer, followed by Telanganaand Haryana. Chhattisgarh has scored

the least, 10.97. And the averagescore for the major states' category is14.02," the index showed.

The overall index score is 14.56.According to the index,

Karnataka's high score can be attrib-uted to its peak performance inattracting FDI and a large number ofventure capital deals. Uttar Pradeshand Haryana have registered signifi-

cant gains in promoting an innovativebusiness environment with a largebase of internet subscribers and a safeecosystem for further investment inthe region, it said. The average scoreof North-East and Hill States' catego-ry was 14.41, the index said, addingthat Manipur with a score of 19.37 wasat the top and Nagaland with a scoreof 11 was at the bottom.

While Manipur scored best in theknowledge workers and safety andlegal environment pillars, Uttarakhandhad the second highest score due tothe state government's high R&Dinvestment.

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India's installed capacities ofwind and solar energy pro-

jects were at 40,788 MW and57,705 MW, respectively, tillJune-end this year, Minister ofState Bhagwanth Khubainformed the Lok Sabha onThursday.

India has set a target of hav-ing 175 GW of renewable ener-gy capacity, including 100 GWof solar and 60 GW of windenergy, by 2022.

The cumulative installedcapacity of wind power projectsin the country was at 40,788MW as of June 30, 2022, the

MoS for New and RenewableEnergy Khuba said in a reply tothe lower house.

In another reply, he saidsolar power projects totalling57,705.70 MW, including over

6,000 MW in rooftop solarinstallations, have been installedas of June 30, 2022.

"Electricity generation fromrenewable energy sources(including large hydro) hasincreased from 227.96 BillionUnits (BU) in the year 2017-18to 322.53 BU in the year 2021-22 in the country," Khuba said.

The minister further saidthat as against the target ofachieving 175 GW of renewableenergy, excluding large hydroinstalled capacity by 2022, atotal of 114.07 GW renewableenergy capacity (excluding largehydro) has been installed in thecountry by June-end 2022.

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The European CentralBank raised interest rates

Thursday for the first time in11 years by a larger-than-expected amount, joiningsteps already taken by the USFederal Reserve and othermajor central banks to targetstubbornly high inflation.

The move raises newquestions about whether therush to make credit moreexpensive will plunge majoreconomies into recession atthe cost of easing prices forpeople spending more onfood, fuel and everything inbetween.

The ECB's surprise hike

of half a percentage point forthe 19 countries using theeuro currency is expected tobe fol lowed by anotherincrease in September, possi-bly of another half a point.Bank President ChristineLagarde had indicated a quar-ter-point hike last month.

The bigger hike was jus-tified by an "updated assess-ment of inflation risks," theECB said, and means thebank leaves an era of negativeinterest rates.

"Economic activity isslowing. Russia's unjustifiedaggression towards Ukraine isan ongoing drag on growth,"Lagarde said at a news con-ference.

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New signings Sadio Maneand Matthijs De Ligt

scored debut goals as BayernMunich thumped MajorLeague Soccer's DC United 6-2 in a friendly on Wednesday.

Senegalese internationalMane, who joined Bayern fromLiverpool last month in a trans-fer worth a reported $42 mil-lion, opened his account for theBundesliga champions fromthe penalty spot after five min-utes.

Mane's spot-kick wasawarded after DC United cen-tre-back Donovan Pines upend-ed Lucas Copado as the teenagestriker surged into the penaltyarea.

The early strike set thetone for a one-sided clash atWashington's Audi Field thatunderscored the work facing

former England andManchester United star WayneRooney, recently installed asmanager of the struggling MLSside.

Elsewhere, however, themid-season form of MLS clubsmade a difference againstPremier League rivals asMinnesota United downedEverton 4-0 and Charlotte FCcame out on top in a pre-sea-son penalty shootout overChelsea after holding theEnglish giants to a 1-1 draw in90 minutes.

Arsenal, meanwhile, usedtwo second half goals to subdueOrlando City 3-1.

Bayern doubled their leadin the 12th minute whenMarcel Sabitzer's shot fromoutside the area wrong-footedDC United goalkeeper JonKempin.

Serge Gnabry made it 3-0

just before half-time, tuckingaway a low cross from Mane inthe 44th minute.

De Ligt then marked hismove from Italy's Juventus ear-lier this week with a goal ondebut after coming on as a sub-stitute at half-time.

The Dutch defendercrashed in a volley from a cor-ner to make it 4-0 after 47 min-utes.

Joshua Zirkzee added atap-in after a patient build upfrom Bayern to make it 5-0 inthe 51st minute before SkageLehland's consolation effort forDC United three minutes later.

Theodore Ku-Dipietroadded a second for DC Unitedthree minutes from time beforeGerman veteran ThomasMueller made it 6-2 deep intoinjury time.

The matches in Charlotteand Orlando both started more

than an hour late because ofsevere weather.

In Charlotte, the excite-ment of seeing Raheem Sterlingin Chelsea colors for the firsttime was tempered as the hostscame out on top 5-3 in theshootout.

In Orlando, Arsenalnotched their fourth straightpre-season win.

Eddie Nketiah scored thego-ahead goal in the 66thminute and Reiss Nelson sealedit in the 80th.

The Gunners had seizedthe lead in the fifth minutewhen Gabriel Martinelli's shotwas deflected in.

Uruguayan Facundo Torrespulled Orlando level in the29th with a blistering shot pastgoalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale,but with their top playersbrought in at halftime Arsenalpulled away after the break.

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England rallied from the brinkof elimination to beat Spain

2-1 after extra time and reachthe semi-finals of Euro 2022thanks to Georgia Stanway'sstunning strike.

Ether Gonzalez's openerhad the hosts heading for anearly exit, but Ella Toone rescuedthe Lionesses six minutes fromthe end of normal time beforeStanway's winner took Englandinto the last four of a fourth con-secutive major tournament.

Sarina Wiegman's side willface Sweden or Belgium in thelast four on Tuesday.

England were given a boostpre-match with the return ofWiegman to the touchline aftershe tested negative for coron-avirus earlier in the day.

The Lionesses had every-thing their own way in thegroup stage as they plundered 14goals without reply againstAustria, Norway and NorthernIreland.

However, despite their ownstruggles to reach the knockoutstages, Spain were a big step upin class.

Spain's ability to keep theball off the hosts frustratedEngland and another sell outcrowd of 29,000 in Brighton forthe vast majority of the first 90minutes.

But they again struggled toturn their possession into goals.

England have still neverlost in now 18 games sinceWiegman took charge inSeptember.

But they have never comeso close to defeat in that time

and had to show admirablefight to battle back from a goaldown.

Spanish substitute AtheneaDel Castillo jinked past RachelDaly and squared for Gonzalez,who had time to take a touchbefore firing low into the far cor-ner.

Mary Earps then had tomake a brilliant save to preventa cross from the lively DelCastillo floating into the far cor-ner to double Spain's lead.

Wiegman did not wastetime in turning to her benchwith White, Fran Kirby and thetournament's top goalscorerBeth Mead surprisingly sacri-ficed for the introduction ofChloe Kelly, Alessia Russo andToone.

Those changes had thedesired effect to keep England'shopes of a first major tourna-ment win in the women's gamealive.

Lauren Hemp's cross washeaded down by Russo for herManchester United teammateToone to fire in from closerange.

Suddenly the momentumcompletely swung in England'sfavour and six minutes intoextra-time they led.

Stanway drove forwardbefore the Bayern Munich-bound midfielder smashed theball past Sandra Panos from out-side the box.

Aitana Bonmati came clos-est to a reply when she firedwide early in the second periodof extra time.

But Spain's wait to win aknockout game at a majorwomen's tournament goes on.

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Serena Williams was included on the entrylist for the US Open on Wednesday as

was Novak Djokovic even though hisrefusal to be vaccinated will bar him fromentering the country.

Williams, who won the first of her sixNew York titles in 1999, remains frustrat-ingly one Grand Slam short of MargaretCourt's record of 24.

The American star won the last of her23 majors at the 2017 Australian Open whilepregnant. Her most recent US Open title tri-umph was in 2014.

Former world number one Williamsonly returned to singles action atWimbledon last month after a year on theinjury sidelines.

Djokovic, fresh from capturing hisseventh Wimbledon title and 21st major, ison the list for the August 29-September 11tournament, the season's final Slam event.

The three-time winner will, however, beunable to enter the United States after refus-ing to be vaccinated against Covid-19.

"Per the Grand Slam Rule Book, all eli-gible players are automatically entered intothe men's and women's singles main drawfields based on ranking 42 days prior to the

first Monday of the event," said a statementby the United States Tennis Association.

"The US Open does not have a vacci-nation mandate in place for players, but itwill respect the US government's positionregarding travel into the country for unvac-cinated non-US citizens."

Men's world number one DaniilMedvedev returns to defend his title.

Medvedev and his fellow Russianswere banned from Wimbledon this year asa result of the invasion of Ukraine.

They can play in New York although notunder their national flag.

Women's champion Emma Raducanuand two-time winner Naomi Osaka are alsoon the entry list.

��2��Belgian tennis coach Wim Fissette

said on Wednesday he was calling a halt toworking with Japan's four-time GrandSlam title winner Naomi Osaka.

The two teamed-up at the end of 2019and together won the 2020 US Open andAustralian Open in 2021.

"It has been a privilege to coach Naomisince 2019 and see her grow into the cham-pion she has become," the 40-year-old wroteon Instagram.

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Robert Lewandowski wasofficially unveiled as a

Barcelona player onWednesday and insisted hestill has the hunger to contin-ue his incredible goalscoringexploits.

The Polish striker, signedfrom Bayern Munich foraround 50 million euros, wasformally introduced as a Barcaplayer alongside club presidentJoan Laporta.

Lewandowski, 33, who leftthe German champions undera cloud after a dispute over anew contract as well as clashingwith coach Julian Nagelsmannover tactical choices, cannotwait to get started.

Lewandowski joinedBayern in 2014, scoring 344goals in 375 competitivematches and broke theBundesliga's single-seasonscoring record.

But he could make hisBarca debut in Las Vegas thisweekend against arch-rivalsReal Madrid and said: "Weworked hard to get to this

moment but we got there in theend.

"I am always hungry to suc-ceed and have the winningmentality. This is a new chal-lenge for me and I have alreadyseen this is a squad with hugepotential.

"There is a lot of quality and

I want to do my best for theclub. I am ready."

"We are doing our best torestructure," said Laporta. "Wedid a lot of work to make thishappen.

"There is a big expectationfor you (Lewandowski). You area football star."

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Caster Semenya's first appearance in a worldchampionships in five years on Wednesday

saw the controversy-mired South African fail toqualify for the women's 5000m finals.

In roasting mid-afternoon temperatures,Semenya finished 13th in the first of tworounds at Hayward Field, Eugene, in 15:46.12,more than 45sec off the 15th and final qualify-ing place.

"Cooking!" said Semenya post-race. "It washot, I could not keep up with the pace, I tried

to stick as much as I can, but you know, it is apart of the game.

"I think it is great to be able to run here," sheadded. "Just being able to finish the 5k, for meit is a blessing. I am learning and I am willingto learn even more."

Her time was far off the heat-winning14:52.64 set by Ethiopian Gudaf Tsegay, freshfrom her Silver in the 1500m.

Semenya sat 13th of the 18-strong field asJapan's Kaede Hagitani set the early pace in herheat.

When a nine-strong pack broke clear, it wasclear Semenya would not be part of the break-away and she quickly fell to a full 80 metres offthe lead with 2km to go.

That has increased to a clear 100 metres asAmerican Karissa Schweizer hit the lead withthree laps to run.

Tsegay kicked and led a pack of five throughthe bell with Semenya a distant figure 300 metreoff the pace.

The South African last competed at a worldchampionships in London in 2017 where she wonher third 800m world crown.

A year later she won double Gold in the800m and 1500m at the Commonwealth Gameswhich is the last time she represented SouthAfrica in a global international competition.

Semenya was forced to switch from herfavoured distance to the longer event due to gen-der eligibility rules that required her to taketestosterone-reducing drugs to compete in racesbetween 400m to a mile.

�� 5.80.

Talented Indian shuttler Tanisha Crasto registeredstraight-game wins to enter the quarterfinals ofwomen's and mixed doubles competition at the Taipei

Open Super 300 tournament here on Thursday.Former Commonwealth Games Gold medallist

Parupalli Kashyap also entered the last eight round butMithun Manjunath and Kiran George missed out after suf-fering narrow defeats in the men's singles second round.

Tanisha and Ishaan Bhatnagar, seeded sixth, beatChinese Taipei's Cheng Kai Wen and Wang Yu Qiao 21-14, 21-17 to enter the mixed doubles quarterfinals.

The 19-year-old Dubai-born Tanisha, who had rep-resented Bahrain in her junior days, then combined withShruti Mishra to get the better of local hope Jia Yin Linand Lin Yu-Hao 21-14, 21-8 in a women's doubles secondround tie that lasted 22 minutes.

Tanisha and Ishaan will face Malaysia's Hoo Pang Ronand Toh Ee Wei next in mixed doubles, while either Taipei'sKuo Yu Wen and Wang Yu Qiao or Hong Kong's sixth seed-ed Ng Tsz Yau and Tsang Hiu Yan will be their opponentin women's doubles.

On a comeback trial, Kashyap, seeded third, prevailed21-10, 21-19 over Chinese Taipei's Chia Hao Lee to set upa clash against Malaysia's Soong Joo Ven.

In other results, Mithun and Kiran suffered heart-breaking losses, while Priyanshu Rajawat too failed to crossthe second round hurdle.

Mithun, who had finished runners-up at OrleansMasters Super 100 tournament, fought for an hour and fourminutes before going down 24-22, 5-21, 17-21 to Japan'sfourth seed Kodai Naraoka.

Odisha Open champion Kiran's gallant fight endedwith a 21-23, 21-16, 7-21 loss to top seed and world num-ber 4 Chou Tien Chen in 58 minutes.

Priyanshu, who was part of India's Thomas Cup win-ning team, suffered a 19-21, 13-21 loss to Chen Chi Tingof Chinese Taipei.

In women's singles, Samiya Imad Farooqui went down18-21, 13-21 to local shuttler Wen Chi Hsu to end her cam-paign.

In men's doubles, fifth seeds MR Arjun and DhruvKapila were no match for local pair Su Ching Heng andYe Hong Wei, going down 17-21, 15-21, while top seedsLee Yang and Wang Chi-Lin of Chinese Taipei ended therun of Ishaan Bhatnagar and Sai Pratheek K with a 21-19,21-23, 21-9 win.

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Sumit Nagal on Thursday made a comeback to the Indian DavisCup team for the away World Group I tie against Norway while

doubles specialist Divij Sharan was dropped after falling behindin the pecking order.

Expectedly, country's number one singles player RamkumarRamanathan (ranked 196), Prajnesh Gunneswaran (295),Sasikumar Mukund (431), Yuki Bhambri (571), doubles expo-nent Rohan Bopanna (21) have been named in the team as theNandan Bal-led selection committee picked four specialist sin-gles players.

Arjun Kadhe (519) and Sidharth Rawat (566) are rankedabove Yuki but if the Delhi player is to use his Protected Ranking,he would be in top-100. And going by the class of Yuki, it onlymakes sense to have a player of his calibre in the side.

Of the six players, one would be named a reserve by captainRohit Rajpal after assessing conditions in Norway and it will bea five-member unit that will compete on September 16 and 17.

Most likely, Sasikumar, who is yet play a Davis Cup tie, willbe a reserve player.

Sumit Nagal, who underwent a hip surgery in November2021, began competing on the circuit from April this year. In eighttournaments this season, Nagal has won four matches.

The 24-year-old player from Haryana last played a DavisCup tie against Croatia in March 2021 andmissed the subsequent matches againstFinland (September 2021) andDenmark (March 2022).

"The courts are expected to beslow in Norway, so Sumit comes intoplay there. Slow courts suit the gamestyle of Sumit. If courts are faster wehave the option of Yuki andRamkumar. So we have to have foursingles players in the side," Nandan Balsaid.

Divij has lost his place intop-100 doubles rankings.He is now ranked 196 andthere are seven Indianplayers ranked abovehim apart from the top-ranked Rohan Bopanna.

It will be first timethat India and Norwaywill compete againsteach other in DavisCup.

India hadblanked Denmark4-0 in New Delhiin the WorldGroup Play-offs inMarch this year.

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Kevin De Bruyne's doublestrike was enough to help

Manchester City see off ClubAmerica 2-1 in Houston onWednesday as Pep Guardiolamade Erling Haaland wait forhis debut.

The Belgian internation-al's superbly taken brace set-tled a feisty clash at NRGStadium but City's new $61million striker could onlylook on from the bench as thePremier League championsbegan their two-match UStour with a win.

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Seven-time Grand Slam champion VenusWilliams has been handed a wildcard entry to

the WTA 1000 tournament in Toronto in August,Tennis Canada said on Wednesday.

Williams will be playing in Toronto for the firsttime since 2019, and tackling WTA singles for thefirst time since August of 2021.

"I love the city, the tournament, and I look for-ward to being back in Toronto," Williams, ownerof 41 WTA singles titles, said in a statement.

Venus Williams played her first event sinceChicago in August of 2021 when she played mixeddoubles with Britain's Jamie Murray at Wimbledon.

They won their first round match but exitedin the second.

She joins her sister Serena in the main draw atToronto, where Serena Williams will be playing herfirst North American hardcourt tournament in twoyears. In her most recent Toronto appearance in2019 Serena williams retired with back spasmsagainst Canadian Bianca Andreescu, who has alsoreceived a wildcard into the tournament that runsAugust 6-14.

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�� 102�30*4.

Athree-member FIH delegation,led by newly-appointed acting

president Seif Ahmed, is expected tovisit India on August 15 for an emer-gency meeting to assess progressmade with regards to adoption of anew Constitution, which is a must tosalvage the World Cup, the country isscheduled to host in 2023.

FIH CEO Thierry Weil andExecutive Board member TayyabIkram, who is also the CEO of AsianHockey Federation, will be part of theInternational Hockey Federation(FIH) delegation.

The FIH on Wednesday sought a"detailed timeline" from the court-appointed Committee ofAdministrators (CoA) on adoption ofamended Constitution and holding offresh elections of Hockey India.

If Hockey India does not adopt aSports Code-compliant Constitutionat the earliest, the country runs the

risk of losing the hosting rights ofWorld Cup, scheduled to be held fromJanuary 13 to 29.

FIH CEO Weil said they have seta tentative date for the visit and arenow awaiting a confirmation from theCoA, which is running the game inthe country after the Delhi HighCourt suspended Hockey India'sExecutive Board for violation of theNational Sports Code.

"We are planning to visit India onAugust 15 for 2 to 3 days. We will dowhatever is required to solve the mat-ter but we are still awaiting a responsefrom the CoA," Weil said.

"It would be a three-member del-egation led by acting president SeifAhmed. We are ready to meet anyoneand extend all possible help to sort outthe issues."

FIH has written thrice to CoA onthe matter but has not got anyresponse as yet.

Weil said the FIH is still hopefulof hosting the World Cup in

Bhubaneswar and Rourkela but ifthings don't work out next month, apossible ban on Hockey India is a pos-sibility.

"Definitely, there will be penaltiescoming in on Hockey India for non-delivery of commitments and one ofthose will be a ban from internation-al hockey. They have signed an agree-ment for staging the World Cup andthey are obliged to deliver on this.

"But we are not thinking on thoselines yet, as it will be the athletes whowill be the biggest sufferer of anypenalty. Plus the hockey loving Indianfans will be deprived of world-classaction. We don't want this," he said.

The FIH is yet to set in motion a'Plan B' for staging the World Cup andhopes that such situation doesn'tarise at all.

"We have not started to work onthis (alternate venue) because wewant the World Cup to be hosted inIndia. It would be a huge disappoint-ment for the fans," Weil said.

�� 8/,��/=�"85.1

With rain playing spoilsport, the Indiancricket team was forced to train indoors

ahead of the first ODI of three-match series againstthe West Indies here on Friday.

Led by the veteran Shikhar Dhawan, theIndian bowlers and batters sweated it out at theindoor training facility here as rain lashed partsof Trinidad.

"As we have just come from the UK, wethought that it would be nice to have an (outdoor)practice session. But it started raining. So, it'salways better to have a knock in the indoor facil-ities rather than having no session," openerShubman Gill said in a video posted by BCCI onTwitter. "It was a good session as we got to do somespecific things like playing underarm balls. I amfeeling great and we all are really excited and real-ly buzzed about these three ODIs. We feel that itwould be a good series."

Dhawan alongwith other batters spent sometime at the nets, while young pacer ArshdeepSingh rolled his arms.

Dhawan had earlier led India to Sri Lanka for

an ODI series last year.Regular skipper Rohit Sharma, senior batter

Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, star all-rounderHardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah, who led India inthe rescheduled fifth Test against England, andMohammed Shami have all been rested.

It has opened a window of opportunity for thelikes of Ruturaj Gaikwad, Sanju Samson, IshanKishan to make their presence felt.

�� 102�30*4.

The Supreme Court onThursday appointed senior

advocate Maninder Singh asan amicus curiae to assist it inthe matter related to the Boardof Control for Cricket in India(BCCI) and fixed the hearingon the plea of the cricket bodyfor amending its constitutionconcerning tenure of officebearers on July 28.

A bench comprising ChiefJustice N V Ramana andJustices Krishna Murari andHima Kohli took note of thefact that an earlier amicuscuriae has now been elevatedas a judge of the apex court.

"We will appoint senioradvocate Maninder Singh asan amicus in place of P SNarasimha (now Justice P SNarasimha)," said the benchand fixed the plea of BCCI forhearing on July 28.

The plea of the cricketbody seeks to amend its con-stitution concerning thetenure of its office bearersincluding its President SouravGanguly and Secretary JayShah by doing away with themandatory cooling-off periodbetween tenures of office bear-ers across state cricket associ-ations and the BCCI.

Earlier, the Justice RMLodha-led committee had rec-ommended reforms in theBCCI which have been accept-ed by the top court.

According to the recom-mendations, there should be athree-year cooling-off periodfor the office bearers of theBCCI after a tenure of sixyears once a post comes to anend at the state cricket asso-ciation or the BCCI level.�� */13/1

Pakistan pace bowling legendWasim Akram feels ODI

cricket has become "run-of-the-mill" stuff now and wantsthe administrators of the gameto scrap the format for good.

Akram's comments cameclose on the heels of England all-rounder Ben Stokes' suddenretirement from ODIs, whichhas triggered a serious debateover the existence of 50-overcricket.

"I think so (ODIs shouldscrapped). In England you havefull houses. In India, Pakistanespecially, Sri Lanka,Bangladesh, South Africa, one-day cricket you are not going tofill the stadiums," he said inVaughany and Tuffers CricketClub podcast.

"They are doing it just forthe sake of doing it. After thefirst 10 overs, it's just 'OK, justgo a run a ball, get a boundary,four fielders in and you get to200, 220 in 40 overs' and thenhave a go last 10 overs. Another100. It's kind of run-of-the-mill." Akram supported Stokes'decision to quit from ODIs, cit-ing "unsustainable" workload.

"Him (Stokes) deciding thathe is retiring from one-daycricket is quite sad but I agreewith him," said the left-armpacer, who scalped 502 wicketsin 356 ODIs during his career,besides bowling Pakistan tovictory in the 1992 CricketWorld Cup final.

"Even as a commentator …one-day cricket is just a dragnow, especially after T20. I canimagine as a player. 50 overs, 50overs, then you have to pre-game, post-game, the lunchgame," added the cricketer-turned-commentator.

Akram said the 50-overgame has no future in front ofthe ever-growing T20 format.

"T20 is kind of easier, fourhours the game is over. Theleagues all around the world,there is a lot more money - Isuppose this is part and parcelof the modern cricket. T20 orTest cricket. One-day cricket iskind of dying. "It is quite tiringfor a player to play one-daycricket. After T20, one-daycricket seems it is going for days.So players are focussing onmore shorter format. Andlonger format obviously (with)Test cricket," he said.

�� 8/,��/=�"85.1

India's fringe players will getvaluable game time in a formatfighting for context when

Shikhar Dhawan leads the team inthe three-match ODI series againstthe West Indies, beginning here onFriday.

Ben Stokes' surprise announce-ment from ODIs has fuelled thegrowing debate on hectic interna-tional scheduling, especially bilat-eral cricket. The premier Englishall-rounder made it clear that play-ing all three formats regularly is notsustainable anymore.

Sandwiched between Tests andT20s, ODI cricket has been jostlingfor space for a while now.

West Indies came to India forthree ODIs and as many T20s inFebruary and the two teams meetagain for a total of eight limitedovers games (five T20s).

In a T20 World Cup year, ODIsanyway assume less significance butplayers who will be getting theopportunity in the absence of seniorplayers would be eager to make animpact.

Dhawan, who plays only theODI format, will lead India for thesecond time in his career with reg-ular captain Rohit Sharma restedfrom the series.

Mohammad Shami, JaspritBumrah, Rishabh Pant, HardikPandya and Virat Kohli have alsobeen rested.

The England series showedthat it is tough for anyone whodoesn't play at the highest level reg-ularly. Dhawan, who is known forhis consistency, looked far from hisbest.

It will be interesting to see who

opens alongside Dhawan in theseries-opener. Shubman Gillhas been brought back into theteam. He and Dhawan make a left-hand right-hand combination butthe others in the squad who couldopen include Ishan Kishan andRuturaj Gaikwad.

The team management willhave a hard time picking the mid-dle-order. The in-form DeepakHooda is expected to bat at num-ber three and Suryakumar Yadav isalso a certainty in the playingeleven, which leaved the manage-ment to decide among Shreyas Iyerand Sanju Samson.

Pressure will be on Iyer, whowas once again found wantingagainst the short ball on theEngland tour.

In the absence of Hardik,Shardul Thakur is the pace bowlingall-rounder option for India.

The pitch here tends to aid thespinners so it is expected thatYuzvendra Chahal will play in allthree games alongside RavindraJadeja. The third spin option is AxarPatel.

Arshdeep, who could not playthe ODIs in England due to anabdominal strain, could make hisdebut on Friday as he was seen inthe nets on Thursday.

Prasidh Krishna andMohammad Siraj are expected tostart as the two frontline pacers.

West Indies are smarting fromtheir 0-3 loss at home in the ODIsagainst Bangladesh.

All-rounder Jason Holder hasmade a comeback and will givemuch needed balance to the side,led by Nicholas Pooran.

The Caribbean side would liketo improve upon one crucial aspect.

They have struggled to completetheir 50-over batting quota inrecent times.

Since the 2019 World Cup,

they have managed to bat full 50overs just six times in 39 inningsand that should be a concern for theside.

�K��India: Shikhar Dhawan (C), RuturajGaikwad, Shubman Gill, DeepakHooda, Suryakumar Yadav, ShreyasIyer, Ishan Kishan (wk), SanjuSamson, Ravindra Jadeja, ShardulThakur, Yuzvendra Chahal, AxarPatel, Avesh Khan, Prasidh Krishna,Mohd Siraj and Arshdeep Singh.West Indies: Nicholas Pooran (C),Shai Hope, Shamarh Brooks, KeacyCarty, Jason Holder, Akeal Hosein,Alzarri Joseph, Brandon King, KyleMayers, Gudakesh Motie, KeemoPaul, Rovman Powell and JaydenSeales.

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Dane Cleaver's 78 not out andMichael Bracewell's hat trick

powered New Zealand to an 88-runwin over Ireland to clinch their T20Iseries 2-0 at Stormont on Wednesday.

New Zealand posted 179-4 andbowled out Ireland for 91 to secureits fifth straight win over the hosts.The visitors beat Ireland by 31 runson Monday after a 3-0 series win inthe ODIs at Malahide.

New Zealand can sweep the

three-match T20 series on Friday.Cleaver's total came off 55 balls

and included five fours and four sixesin just his second T20I appearance.Finn Allen contributed 35 off 20.

Ish Sodhi took three wickets for21 and Ireland was at 86 for sevenwhen Bracewell came on for his firstover. The off-spinner had Mark Adairand Barry McCarthy caught in thedeep with successive deliveries beforeCraig Young sliced to backward pointfrom the next ball as Ireland was allout for 91.

�� 102�30*4.

Delhi's Feroz Shah Kotla will be hostinglast of the three ODIs against South

Africa in the second week of October whilethe T20 World Cup bound team is set to playthree games against Australia and SouthAfrica before leaving for the ICC event.

It is learnt that India will play Australiain Mohali (Sept 20), Nagpur (Sept 23) andHyderabad (Sept 25).

They will round off their World Cuppreparations with three more T20 againstthe Proteas in Trivandrum (September28), Guwahati (October 1) and Indore(October 3).

The three ODIs will be held in Ranchi(October 6), Lucknow (October 9) and Delhi(October 11).

With the BCCI wrapping up the pend-ing series which were postponed due toCOVID-19, South Africa are coming for a

short three-match ODI series during DurgaPuja where a second string Indian team willbe seen in action.

"As our secretary Jay Shah had saidrecently, we will have two national teams ofequal strength available. So the three ODIswill be played at a time when national teamleaves for the World T20," a BCCI sourcesaid.

While South Africa played five ODIs inIndia in June, the three T20s have beenincluded for quality match time before theWorld Cup.

"The ODI as per rotation was to cometo Kolkata but it was during the time ofDurga Puja and CAB won't be able to orga-nize the police deployment during festivaltime. Hence one match has been allocatedto Delhi," a BCCI source added.

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The BCCI is mulling torestart the prestigious

Duleep Trophy and the IraniCup, while a full Ranji Trophyseason is also on the cards forthe upcoming domestic season.

The Duleep Trophy andthe Irani Cup have not takenplace for at least three seasons,while the BCCI had to cancelthe Ranji Trophy for the firsttime in 2020 due to theCOVID-19 pandemic. Lastseason, BCCI held a curtailedRanji Trophy season.

The BCCI Apex Councilon Thursday discussed variousoptions for the 2022-23 seasonwith Board President SouravGanguly announcing that afull domestic season will takeplace in 2022-23.

The Board is mulling to

start the men's senior seasonwith the Duleep Trophy, whichis likely to be played fromSeptember 8. It is also consid-ering to host the Irani Cupfrom October 1-5.

Earlier, the Duleep Trophyused to be contested betweenfive zones on a knockout basisbut later it became a three teamaffair with the top two sidesadvancing to the final after theround-robin format.

In Irani Cup, the currentRanji Trophy champions takeon the Rest of India squad.

The options to host SyedMushtaq Ali Trophy, the VijayHazare Trophy and the RanjiTrophy were also discussed.

While the Mushtaq AliTrophy (T20) could take placefrom October 11, the VijayHazare Trophy (the ODI for-mat) is expected to take place

from November 12.The Ranji Trophy could

start from December 13,while its knockout matchescould be played fromFebruary 1.

According to one of theformats discussed during themeeting, there could be fourgroups of Eight Elite teamsand one group of six plateteams in Ranji Trophy.

Thus each team would getto play at least seven match-es like earlier times in theGroup stage.

In order to win RanjiTrophy, a team will need toplay a minimum of 10 match-es which makes the tourna-ment more competitive.

Ganguly said the women'sU-16 category would be intro-duced by the Board from theupcoming season.

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The West Indies have struggledto bat for full 50 overs in the

last couple of years and headcoach Phil Simmons said that isone aspect of the game theywould look to improve on in thethree ODIs against India.

To put things into perspec-tive, West Indies have played out50 overs just six times in 39innings since the 2019 WorldCup, and lost nine of their 13ODI series since the showpieceevent.

Simmons' side also faced ahumiliating series defeat againstIreland at home earlier this year.

"The main thing is how webat our 50 overs…we have to bat50 overs and put our inningstogether and partnerships togeth-er," Simmons told reporters in thepre-series press conference.

"Somebody has to be lookingto score a hundred and hold theteam together. Batting-wise thatis it," he added.

Simmons, who has been thehead coach of the West Indies sidesince 2019, also said that he ishopeful of "friendly" surfaces thatwill benefit his side more "than theopposition" team.

"The better wickets we get, thebetter it will be for our batters andbowlers. The conversation is cur-rently on with the concernedindividuals, as always," he said.

Simmons, however, does notseem to be too worried about hisfielding and bowling depart-ments.

"The bowling and the field-ing has been improving daily. Werank ourselves very highly on thefielding," Simmons said.

"The bowling, we had a cou-ple of games on those wicketswhere, yes, people might say weshould have gotten more wicketsbut the wicket got better everytime we fielded because they hadput out the second roller on itand it had dried out from earli-er in the day.

"So, the bowlers have beendoing well and we have to con-tinue restricting and gettingwickets — that's the only way wecan keep totals low and contin-ue to win games," he added.

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Star India batter K L Rahul onThursday tested positive for

COVID-19, which is likely to rulehim out of the upcoming five-match T20 series against the WestIndies, starting July 29 atTarouba.

BCCI president SouravGanguly informed about Rahulafter the Board's Apex Councilmeeting here.

Rahul on Thursday itselfhad addressed the candidates,who attended the Level-3 coachcertification course at NationalCricket Academy in Bengaluru.

Ganguly also informed thata member of the CommonwealthGames-bound India women'steam was also down withCOVID-19. He, however, did notdisclose the name of the player.

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