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WEDNESDAY, 12/10/2016
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News Brief
Modi
compliments
RSS on its 91st
foundation day
New Delhi,
Prime
Minister
Narendra Modi on
Tuesday
complimented the works of
the
Rashtriya
Swayamsewaka Sangh
(RSS) on its 91st foundation day.
“On the ‘Sthapana
Diwas’ of the RSS, my
greetings
to
all
swayamsevaks and
best wishes in their
endeavours to serve
our nation,” Modi
tweeted. The RSS was
launched in September
1925 by Keshav Baliram
Hedgewar and its foundation day is celebrated annually on
Dussehra day.—IANS
Few people
making small
issues big, says
RSS chief
Nagpur,
R a s h t r i y a
Swayamsewak Sangh
(RSS) chief Mohan
Bhagwat on Tuesday
attacked the opposition parties for making
the small incidents into
big and urged the
people to stay alert
from such forces.
“Nowadays, small
incidents are made
big,” Bhagwat said
while delivering his annual speech during the
91st foundation day of
RSS here.
“Kaate ko naasur
banane ka kaam kar
rahe hai (They are trying to make a mountain out of a molehill),”
he said. The RSS was
launched in September
1925 by Keshav Baliram
Hedgewar and its foundation day is celebrated annually on
Dussehra day.—IANS
Pak. encouraging
separatist forces
in Kashmir
Nagpur,
R a s h t r i y a
Swayamsewak Sangh
(RSS) chief Mohan
Bhagwat on Tuesday
accused Pakistan of encouraging separatist
forces in Jammu and
Kashmir and demanded strict action
against those indulging in violence.
“Pakistan is encouraging separatist forces
in Kashmir,” Bhagwat
said while delivering
his annual speech during the 91st foundation
day of RSS.
Bhagwat also reiterated that “entire
Kashmir is ours including
Mirpur,
Muzaffarabad and
Gilgit-Baltistan”.—IANS
Socialite
Parmeshwar
Godrej dead
Mumbai,
Well-known Indian
socialite and philanthropist Parmeshwar
Godrej, wife of Godrej
Group Chairman Adi
Godrej, passed away
here on Monday night,
official sources said on
Tuesday.
She breathed her
last at the Breach
Candy Hospital where
she was admitted recently. No further details were available.
Besides
Adi,
Parmeshwar, a former
air hostess with Air India, is survived by three
children — Nisaba,
Pirojsha and Tanya
Dubash.
The news of her demise was received on
Tuesday with shock
and disbelief by friends
and celebrities.—IANS
Ashwin's Test best seals 3-0Flashfor
India
flood hits Manipur
Indore,
India bundled out New
Zealand for 153 to win the
third and final Test by 321
runs in Indore on Tuesday,
completing a 3-0 whitewash
of the Black Caps.
As a result of the series
sweep, India return to the
top of the Test rankings, replacing Pakistan. Captain
Virat Kohli will be presented
with the ICC Test championships mace at the postmatch presentation ceremony. Offspinner Ravichandran Ashwin was the
pick of India’s bowlers, his six
wickets on Monday helping
secure a 258-run lead for the
hosts. Ashwin was the star
again on Tuesday, taking
seven wickets and conceding 59 runs as the Kiwis lost
nine wickets in one session.
Earlier on Tuesday,
Cheteshwar Pujara registered his eighth Test century
before India declared their
second innings on 216 for
three, setting New Zealand
a mammoth 475-run victory
target.
Along with Pujara’s ton,
Gautam Gambhir struck a
fluent 50 in his comeback
Test as India declared less
than an hour before the tea
interval.
Pujara faced 148 balls for
his 101 not out, which included nine boundaries, as
he added 58 runs off 54 balls
with Ajinkya Rahane (23 not
out) for the fourth wicket.
In the first innings, Kohli
scored the second double
ton of his Test career and
Rahane notched up a career-best 188 for India to
amass a mammoth 557/5
before declaring.
Myanmar border,
bridge washed away
Imphal,
Ravichandran Ashwin put India firmly in command after he claimed six
wickets to help bowl out New Zealand for 299 in their first innings.
Munde siblings massive show of
strength in Maharashtra
Several India-Russia pacts due
at Oct 15 bilateral meet
ugly spat with the head
priest of the Bhagwangad
Temple,
Mahant
Namdeoshastri Sanap since
past few weeks. The controversy arose after the temple
management declined permission to address the annual Dussehra rally at the
temple, but Munde’s supporters said she should be
permitted as her father addressed his supporters for
20 years. Earlier in the day,
Pritam Munde led a motorcade of over a 1,000 big and
small vehicles from Beed to
Bhagwangad with several
thousands of supporters
joining en route.
Later, Pankaja Munde arrived at the base of the
temple in a helicopter sending the huge crowds into
raptures and along with a
handful of people she went
up for a ‘darshan’ of Saint
Several important agreements are likely to be
signed at the India-Russia bilateral summit, to be
held in Goa this month, during Russian President
Vladimir Putin’s visit for the BRICS leaders’ meeting,
the government said on Tuesday.
“At the 17th India-Russia Annual Summit in Goa
on 15 October 2016, the leaders are expected to review the entire gamut of India-Russia bilateral relations and review the progress made since the last
summit held in Moscow in December 2015,” the External Affairs Ministry said in a statement.
“Important bilateral agreements are expected to
be concluded and a joint statement released at the
end of the summit,” it stated.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Putin held the
last summit in Moscow on December 14 last year.
“Further, given that the year 2017 marks the 70th
anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, a number of commemorative celebrations marking the important
milestone is planned,” the External Affairs Ministry
statement said.
India is hosting 8th BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India,
China, South Africa) Summit in Goa on October 1516.
Ahmednagar ,
On
Dussehra,
Maharashtra
Minister
Pankaja Munde and her sister MP Pritam Munde on
Tuesday put up a massive
show of strength, virtually
cementing their claim to the
socio-political legacy of the
late
Union
Minister
Gopinath Munde, leader of
the marginal Vanzari community.
The display of support
took place symbolically at
the Bhagwangad Temple,
on the hills bordering
Ahmednagar-Beed districts
of
the
backward
Marathwada region.
Though estimates varied, more than seven-eight
lakh people from all over the
state turned up, giving a
major boost to the Munde
sisters, especially Pankaja,
who was embroiled in an
Event company behind parentteacher meetings in Delhi: BJP
New Delhi,
The BJP on Tuesday alleged that the Delhi government spent taxpayers
money on advertisements
about the Parent-Teacher
meetings in schools, saying
an event management
company was behind it.
“The advertisements by
the (Arvind) Kejriwal government about the Parent
and Teacher meetings of
Delhi government schools
show that some event management company is working behind the Delhi government,” Delhi BJP General
Secretary Ashish Sood said
in a statement.
“Parent and Teacher
meetings are a normal process in schools but the way
in which the government
has spent crores of rupees
on advertisements, it seems
the government is trying to
show that the education
system will be reformed
with the help of these meetings,” the Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP) leader said.
Sood’s remarks came
following the mega ParentTeacher Meetings (PTMs)
organised by the Delhi government across nearly 1,000
schools run by it on July 30.
“Even today many government schools are run
under tents; there is no
drinking water, sufficient
number of teachers and
proper arrangement for the
security of students,” the
BJP leader added.
Bhagwan Baba. She was accompanied by her husband
Amit Palwe, backward
castes leaders of other
friendly parties including
Raju Shetti, Mahadev Jankar,
Sadabhau Khot and Ram
Shinde.
However, at the temple,
she avoided meeting the
Mahant, who had said she
was welcome to the place of
worship, but would not be
permitted to speak there.
The massive turnout
stumped many in political
circles, prompting former
minister and senior most
BJP leader Eknath Khadse to
throw his weight behind
Pankaja Munde. “I am with
Pankaja-tai (Pankaja sister).
This is not a ‘shaktipradarshan’ (show of
strength) but a ‘bhaktipradarshan’ (show of faith)
here,” Khadse added.
New Delhi,
A flash flood triggered
by torrential rains on Monday night along ManipurMyanmar border washed
away a bridge and destroyed several houses, the
police said on Tuesday.
However, no casualty
was reported.
“The water level of the
Khujairok river along the international border receded
within a few hours,” a police
officer told IANS.
He said there was heavy
downpour lasting over an
hour on Monday night and
the level of the Khujairok
river breached the danger
mark in no time.
Tribal people from
nearby villages said they
were virtually caught napping.
“The flash flood razed six
houses at Chavangphai village near the international
border. But, as we managed
to run uphill, there was no
casualty. Pigs and other domesticated animals are also
safe,” a villager said
One of the engineers
posted in Moreh area along
the border said, “There was
a wooden bridge, connecting Chavangphai village
with Moreh Ward No.5. It got
washed away. Now it will
take some time to construct
another bridge.”
Receding waters came
as a huge relief to the villagers, as they could wade
through the river water
since Tuesday morning.
Government officials
and elected representatives
of people rushed to Moreh
on Tuesday to assess the
damages. A government official said that a report has
been sent to the government and financial assistance could be extended to
the victims to reconstruct
their damaged houses.
Two held over rumours about
Jayalalithaa’s health
Chennai,
Police on Tuesday arrested two persons for spreading
rumours about Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa’s
health on social media.
Satish Kumar and Madasamy were taken into custody
with an intent to create panic among the public following
a complaint from the ruling AIADMK party’s IT Secretary.
The police have registered 43 cases on charges of
spreading rumours about Jayalalithaa’s health.
The 68-year-old Chief Minister was hospitalized on September 22 for fever and dehydration.
The doctors later said she needed a longer stay at the
hospital as she was suffering from infection and put her on
respiratory support.
The police recently registered a case against a resident
of France, also on charges of spreading rumours. Meanwhile,
leaders of political parties continue to visit Apollo Hospital
to enquire about Jayalalithaa’s health.
Kerala to tap renewable energy
to increase power production
Thiruvananthapuram,
Annually spending a
whopping Rs 6,000 crore to
purchase power from outside, Kerala has decided to
step up power generation
through renewable energy
sources like solar and wind-
Pranab greets Spain, Equatorial
Guinea on their National Day
New Delhi,
President Pranab Mukherjee greeted Spain and Equatorial Guinea on their national days and exuded confidence
that India’s relations with both the countries would be further strengthened.
Both Spain and Equatorial Guinea celebrate their National Day on October 12.
In his message to King Felipe VI of Spain, Mukherjee
said relations between India and Spain have gained fresh
momentum in recent years and even expanded to newer
areas of collaboration. “This year marks 60 years of diplomatic relations between our two countries — a significant
landmark in our bilateral partnership. We look forward to
further enhancing and strengthening our warm and
friendly ties for the benefit of our two countries and our
people,” said Mukherjee. In his message to Equatorial
Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema M’basogo,
Mukherjee said:“I am confident that warm and friendly bilateral relations between our two countries will be further
strengthened in the coming years to the mutual benefit of
the people of our countries.”
Women playing with vermillion powder (Sindoor Khela) on the last day of
the Durga Puja festival in Patna
mill, a state minister has announced.
Talking to reporters here
on Tuesday, state Minister
for Electricity Kadakampally
Surendran said in three
years the state will generate 600 MW power through
solar projects.
“Sixtyfive per cent of the
annual power requirements
of the state is sourced from
outside the state and with
the Centre coming out with
new rules that 85 per cent of
the power generated in a
state has to be utilised in the
state, we will now have to
think of alternate sources.
And the best bet is going to
be solar and windmill,” said
Surendran.
“A 200 MW solar park is
getting ready in Kasargode
district and by January next
year the first phase of 30
MW will become ready. We
have identified a suitable
land also in Kasargode district and the proposal is to
set up another 200 MW solar park.”
“Besides, we will also go
ahead with generating 200
MW of solar power on the
land owned by the Kerala
State Electricity Board
across the state,” said the
minister.
He pointed out that micro windmills have been installed on an experimental
basis at the board’s headquarters here.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar pay tribute
to Jai Prakash Narayan on his birth anniversary at
JP Museum in Patna
Toddlers in Kerala learn their
first letters on Vijaya Dashmi
Thiruvananthapuram,
On account of Vijaya
Dashmi on Tuesday, thousands of toddlers across the
state were initiated into the
world of letters.
The largest crowd gathered at the Thunachan
Paramabu near Thrissur,
considered the home of the
Malayalam
litterateur
Thunchathu Ezhuthachan.
Jnanpith award winner M.T.
Vasudevan Nair was the
teacher here, initiating children to their first letters.
“This time the crowds
started to queue up as early
as 3 a.m. and we expect
more than 5,000 kids,” said
an official at Thunachan
Paramabu.
The
Panachikkadu
Temple, dedicated to the
goddess Saraswati, was another busy venue as it is
popularly known as
‘Dakshina
(Southern)
Mookambika’.
This initiation ritual has
transcended boundaries of
caste, creed and religion in
recent times. On this day,
Kerala turns truly secular as
the event is organised in
temples, clubs, media
organisations, churches and
even Muslim’s take part in it.
Vijaya Dashmi is the
chosen day of the ritual as it
is considered auspicious for
NIA arrests five
suspected
terorrists in Bihar
Patna,
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has arrested five suspected terrorists, including two Pakistanis, from the India-Nepal
border in Raxaul, Bihar, police said on Tuesday.
“NIA has recovered a
map of important places of
Patna from the arrested suspects,” a police official said.
According to police, a
team of NIA and Intelligence
Bureau (IB) officials have
been interrogating them to
know more about their
plan.
In August 2013, Indian
Mujahideen Chief Yasin
Bhatkal was arrested from
Raxaul in Bihar’s East
Champaran district.
this event — thousands of
elders (both men and
women) help little toddlers
write their first letters.
Toddlers along with
their parents flock to the
venues from early morning
dressed in typical Kerala
style. They wait in queue for
their turn. When that comes,
the child is seated on the
teacher’s lap, who holds his/
her hand and help them
write Malayalam letters on a
plate of rice.
While the Hindus write
‘Hari Sree Ganapathaye
Namaha’, Christians write
‘Sree
Yesu Mishihaye
Namaha’.
In some places, using a
gold ring, the‘teacher’ writes
a Malayalam word on the
child’s tongue.
Everything gets over in
a matter of minutes and the
final act is when the parents
hand over a token offering
to the ‘teacher’ for his services. Some leading media
houses in the state also held
this ceremony and roped in
retired IAS officials and
popular literary personalities as teachers.
Modi greets
Amitabh Bachchan
on his 74th birthday
New Delhi,
Prime Minister Narendra
Modi on Tuesday greeted
Bollywodd
megastar
Amitabh Bachchan on his
74th birthday.
“Dear
SrBachchan
(Amitabh Bachchan), wishing you a very happy birthday. Your
versatility and
humility
h a s
m a n y
admirers. Praying for
y o u r
long and
healthy
life,”
Modi tweeted.
Bachchan
was
honoured with the Padma
Vibhushan, the country’s
highest civilian honour in
2015, and Knight of the Legion of Honour by France in
2007 for his exceptional career in the world of cinema.
Bachchan has starred in
superhit films like “Deewar”,
“Zanjeer”, “Sholay”, “Don”,
“Black”,“Sarkar”,“Agneepath”,
“Paa” and “Piku” in his illustrious career.—IANS
Ahmedabad, Page 1
2
Editorial
WESTERN TIMES AHMEDABAD
WEDNESDAY, 12/10/2016
Operation resumed against
holed-up militants in Kashmir
From
Editor’s
Desk.......
Srinagar,
SP’s desperate strategy
The truce that Mulayam Singh Yadav brokered
weeks ago in the Samajwadi Party Government, the
party and his family, seems to be holding for now. But
the balance of power has unambiguously shifted in
senior party leader and Minister Shivpal Yadav’s
favour and away from Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister
Akhilesh Yadav. Since taking charge as the party’s
State unit chief, Shivpal Yadav has been systematically
weeding out functionaires known to be close to the
Chief Minister. Now, he has announced the merger
of muscleman Mukhtar Ansari’s Quami Ekta Dal with
the Samajwadi Party, against Akhilesh Yadav’s wishes.
The Chief Minister has protested vehemently when
the merger idea was first floated weeks before he was
stripped of the State chief’s post. Then, he had managed to have his voice heard and the plan was
shelved. Now, the tables have been turned and
Shivpal Yadav is inthe driver’s seat. The powerful Minister does not anymore bother about the Chief
Minister’s reservation nor does he consider it necessary to take his approval. He recently said that the
Chief Mistier had “been informed” of the merger decision.
Akhilesh Yadav’s sidelining and humiliation is happening in a coordinated manner and apparently without any internal hitch, since party supermo Mulayam
Singh Yadav has thrown his weight behind his brother
Shivpal Yadav, leaving son Akhilesh Yadav to fend for
himself. The Samajwadi Party’s old guard believes
that the party can return to power on the strength of
tried and tested veterans and through the divisive
agendas that were invoked inthe past. Mulayam
Singh Yadav seems to be going along with his theory
-- in a recent conversation, he is reported to have remarked that the party would not have fared badly
inthe 2014 Lok Sabha election had it heeded Shivpal
Yadav’s advice (and not gone by Akhilesh Yadav’s).
With the Bharatiya Janata Party reviving strongly in
Uttar Pradesh and the Bahujan Samaj Party reasserting its primacy, these are desperate times for the
Samajwadi Party.
The question is: Can Shivpal Yadav and group lead
the party to victory in the 2017 Assembly election?
They are a discredited lot. Demography has changed,
voters’ demands and aspirations have changed, the
old guard is viewed with suspicion, and Akhilesh
Yadav, despite his faults, is considered the best that’s
available in the Samajwadi Party It’s difficult to understand how the voters will be driven to support a
party that has yet again propped up power-brokers
and cut to size somebody who tried to inject a new
dose of politics in caste-driven Uttar Pradesh. Besides,
the Chief Minister has built for himself a strong support base within the outside they party in the nearly
five years he has been in office, and that base is not
going to remain silent. Finally, the new and young
Samajwadi Party voters may get turned off by the realization that, even if the party returns to power.
Akhilesh Yadav may not return as Chief Minister.
Railway police officials inspecting the blasted spot after Naxals of Jharkhand railway track near
Jogeshwar-Bihar and Gomoh railway stations under Dhanbad division in Bokarao
Soldiers’ morale would be affected : Ex-servicemen
New Delhi,
With defence ministry
uploading a draft notification on the 7th Pay Commission recommendation,
which when it comes into
effect, will significantly reduce the disability pension
for soldiers, ex-servicemen
say this would affect the
morale of soldiers, coming
at a time when tensions
continue on the border with
Pakistan.
Defence ministry officials were unwilling to officially comment on the matter, with one saying the matter was being taken up with
the anomalies committee.A
Maj. Gen. Satbir Singh
(retd.), Chairman of Indian
Ex-Servicemen Movement,
questioned the need to
publish such a notification
which “downgrades the institution of armed forces”.
Hyderabad,
Telangana will see birth
of 21 new districts on Tuesday, taking the total number
of districts in India’s youngest state to 31.
The new districts will formally come into being from
Dussehra on Tuesday and
their number became clear
on Monday when the government released the list.
The Telangana Rashtra
Samithi (TRS) government
said reorganisation of districts will help take administration to people.
Chief Minister K.
Chandrasekhar Rao will formally inaugurate Siddipet
district, being carved out of
existing Medak district.
Telangana Assembly S.
Madhusudhana Chary will
inaugurate Jayashankar district while Council Chairman
K. Swamy Goud will launch
Jangaon district. Both these
districts are being carved
out of the existing Warangal
district.
Warangal Rural, another
district being carved out of
existing Warangal, will be
inaugurated by Deputy
Chief Minister Kadiam
Srihari.
Another Deputy Chief
Minister
Mohammed
Mahamood Ali will inaugurate Jagitial district, being
created out of existing
Karimnagar district.
Sixteen other districts
will also be inaugurated simultaneously by the ministers. These districts are;
Yadadri,
Peddapally,
Kamareddy,
Medak,
Mancherial, Vikarabad,
The Indian economy
and that of the broader
South Asian Region (SAR) is
a source of considerable interest in policy circles these
days. This is because their
growth performance has
considerably outperformed
that of other regions of the
world.
Another reason is that
two of SAR’s largest economies — India and Pakistan
— are involved in military
tensions that could have a
significant bearing on their
future and of SAR and its
economic growth. The article takes stock of two recent reports that showcase
these developments in recent times. These include
the South Asia Economic
Focus: Investment Reality
Check (SAEF) of the World
Bank and the World Economic Outlook (WEO) of the
Ahmedabad, Page 2
the state, the government
made it clear that there will
be no further addition.
On an average, each district will have population of
two lakh to four lakh families, except Hyderabad
where the number is much
large.
The chief minister said
that the purpose of creating
new districts is to improve
governance, bring transparency and ensure better delivery of welfare schemes.
“The district collectors
will have details of all families on their fingertips,” he
said.—IANS
International Monetary
Fund (IMF) for October both
released during the past
week.
The SAEF offers interesting insights about several
key parameters of the dynamic region.These include,
but are not limited to, the
growth performance of
countries, external position
of countries, inflation, capital inflows, fiscal balances,
export performance and
political and policy uncertainty. Also dealt with in
depth is the issue of investment and the outlook for
the region in general.
On the growth front,
South Asia has maintained
the top spot for eight consecutive quarters. According
to the latest estimates,
South Asia grew at 6.8 per
cent y-o-y for Q2 of 2016.
India’s performance remains
key to the overall performance of South Asia (80 per
London,
shows the government’s response to the pay
commission’s recommendation as“accepted”.A defence
ministry official, unwilling to
be named, said this reflected
only the status of cabinet
approval.
“It is a draft notification,
not a final order,” he said.
Any anomaly can be corrected after a draft is published, he added.
No time frame for the
notification becoming official has been given.
Satbir Singh who has
been spearheading the
movement for One Rank
One Pension questioned
the government’s acceptance of the recommendations.
“It is downgrading the
institution of armed forces.
Why are there slabs for soldiers and percentage for
Britain.
In this study, researchers
compared four common
classes of antihypertensive
drugs and risk of mood disorders.
They collected data on
525,046 patients (ages 4080) from two large secondary care Scottish hospitals.
The researchers selected
144,066 patients being
treated for hypertension
with either angiotensin antagonists, beta blocker, calcium channel blockers or
thiazide diuretics.
They were compared to
a group of 111,936 patients
not taking any of those
drugs.
Researchers followed
the patients for five years
centt of its GDP) and is
slated to grow at 7.6 percent
in over FY 2016-17.
On the external front,
South Asia as a region and
India, in particular, have a
robust position. India’s volatility in general and financial
market volatility in particular is low amongst emerging
market peers. On the inflation front, there’s a recent
uptick in Inflation but remains well below historic
levels and hovers around 5
percent for the region as a
whole. The recent interest
rate cut by the Monetary
Policy Committee of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) can
be seen in the light of these
realities.
Capital flows have
helped individual countries
build solid reserves but continue to slow down, most
notably in the case of FDI
inflows. The import cover for
India at present is close to 13
months, which puts it in a
considerable position of
comfort. Remittance flows
like FDI inflows in recent
times have slowed down
owing to the oil price
squeeze in the Gulf economies.
On the fiscal balances
front, SAR’s performance is
one of the weakest. This is
because boosting government revenues is difficult in
several countries of the region. Another reason is a
high debt to GDP ratio, second only to the Middle East
and North Africa (MENA) region but is broadly sustainable.
Another area of concern is the export performance, which showcases a
persistent weakness. The
trade balances showcase
low exports and low imports. However, there are
signs of this bottoming out.
On the political and
India needs ecosystem to impart
quality skills to youth: Expert
Hyderabad,
India needs a comprehensive ecosystem to impart quality skills to its youth
so as to meet global standards, says an expert in skill
development.
“We have always been
very educational as a country, that somehow made us
very good in the brain but
lacked power in the hands,”
Vijay Ketan Mitra, founder
and Chief Executive Officer,
PositiveShift (PS) International, a company in the
learning and skill development sector, told IANS.
As India progressively
moves toward becoming a
Blood pressure drugs may
increase risk of depression
Some commonly prescribed blood pressure
medications may increase
risk of mood disorders such
as depression or bipolar disorder, say researchers including one of Indian-origin.
“Mental health is underrecognized in hypertension
clinical practice, and the
possible impact of antihypertensive drugs on mental
health is an area that physicians should be aware of
and consider if the treatment of high blood pressure
is having a negative impact
on their patient’s mental
health,” said Sandosh
Padmanabhan, Professor at
University of Glasgow in
cent among the people below officer ranks. In fact the
disability pension of almost
90 per cent of the armed
forces personnel have been
significantly increased.
The disability pension
for sepoy has increased
from Rs 9,282 to Rs 12,000.
The disability pension for
havildar has increased from
Rs 10,542 to Rs 12,000. The
disability pension for Naik
has increased from Rs 9,680
to Rs 12,000, army sources
added.
Defence ministry officials said the notification
had not yet been published
in the Gazette of India,
which would have brought
the decision into effect.
The changes, if notified
in their current form, would
come into effect retrospectively, from January 1, 2016.
The draft notification
civil employees?” he questioned.
“Why should a civil employee of same level get
more salary than an armed
force personnel?” he asked.
An Additional Secretary, he
said, got more salary with
some 22 years of service,
while a Lieutenant General
got almost half after 33
years.
He said if civil servants
decide about salaries of
armed forces, “this is what
you would get” He suggested that a separate committee should decide salaries of armed forces.
“These mistakes can
cost the nation. It will bring
down the morale of the soldiers,” he said.
The armed forces have
raised the issue of several
‘anomalies’ in the recommendations of the 7th Pay
Commission which Defence
Minister Manohar Parrikar
has promised to resolve.
The defence ministry
has already made a presentation to the chairman of the
anomalies committee, according to officials.
Retired Brigadier S. K.
Chatterji meanwhile said
that the notification was not
a final order.A
“It is a draft notification,
not an executive order. That
may not be government’s
stand in the end,” he said.A
Chairman of the Chiefs
of Staff Committee and Air
Force Chief Air Chief Marshal
Arup Raha had last week
said that the defence minister had assured the armed
forces that their interest
would be taken care of, adding that the forces were satisfied with the assurance.—
IANS
India, broader South Asian region remain steady
21 new districts in
Telangana to be launched
Rajanna, Asifabad, Suryapet,
Kothagudem,
Nirmal,
Wanaparthy, Nagarkurnool,
Mahabubabad, Jogulamba
and Medchal (Malkajgiri).
Barring Hyderabad, the
existing 10 districts have
been split into three or four
districts.
The government last
month issued draft notification for creating 17 new districts but later decided to
create four more districts in
view of strong demands
from various sections.
Though the protests
were on for creation of more
districts in different parts of
The notification mentions changing the present
percentage-based disability
pension system to a slab
based system, which will
significantly reduce the
amount of pension.
According to the pay
panel’s recommendation,
for 100 percent disability, an
officer would get Rs 27,000
per month, those in the
ranks of Subedar Major to
Naib Subedar would receive
Rs 17,000 while havildar and
below would get Rs 12,000.
At present a soldier who
gets 100 percent disability is
entitled to a pension equal
to the last drawn salary plus
50 per cent as ‘service component’.
Refuting the decrease in
disability pension, sources
later said, the increase in disability pension ranges from
around 14 per cent to 30 per
Active Voice
By Amit Kapoor
Harvard University professor Oliver Hart reads
congratulatory emails after winning the 2016
Nobel Prize for Economics at his home in Lexington, Massachusetts
Security forces on Tuesday morning resumed operation
against militants holed-up inside a government building
near Pampore town of Kashmir’s Pulwama district.
Two security personnel and a policeman were injured
as the militants fired from inside the Jammu and Kashmir
Entrepreneurship Institute (JKEDI) in the fighting that began on Monday.
“Operation against the holed up militants has been resumed. Floodlights were used during the night to ensure
that the militants were prevented from escaping under the
cover of darkness,” a senior police official said.
Rockets and heavy automatic gunfire were used on
Tuesday morning to engage the militants.
The 70-room, seven-storey building is located at
Pampore on the banks of the river Jhelum and 12 km from
the Srinagar city centre.
The joint operation was launched by the army, the Special Operations Group of the state police and the Central
Reserve Police Force (CRPF).
The main building of the institute was attacked in February when militants captured it and launched a major attack on security forces. Six persons - a civilian, three soldiers and two paramilitary troopers — were killed then
before three militants were shot dead.—IANS
d o c u m e n t i n g
hospitalisation for mood
disorders, such as depression or bipolar disorder.
After more than 90 days
on the antihypertensive
medications, the study published in the American Heart
Association’s journal Hypertension, found that there
were 299 hospital admissions, predominantly due to
major depression, among
the patients studied, at an
average 2.3 years after patients began antihypertensive treatment. Patients on
beta-blockers and calcium
antagonists were at twofold increased risk of hospital admission for mood disorder, compared to patients
on angiotensin antagonists.
global knowledge economy,
it must meet the aspirations
of youth and aim towards
skilling them with the best
possible standards, he said,
adding that youth are the
country’s strength, and, as
the rest of the world is ageing, India is well poised to
become the skill capital of
the world.
“India currently faces a
severe shortage of skilled
workers as compared to
other countries, and the accelerated economic growth
has only increased the demand for skilled manpower.
The challenge is further aggravated by the fact that the
skill ecosystem cuts across
multiple sectors and requires the involvement of
various stakeholders, such
as state and central government departments, training
providers, employers, industry and knowledge partners,
assessment and certification bodies, and the beneficiaries — the trainees.”
An innovation partner
with the National Skill Development Corporation
(NSDC), PositiveShift has a
target to skill one million
youth by 2022.
The company skills the
youth in manufacturing sectors such as telecom, electronics and information
technology and service sectors like healthcare, retail, logistics, tourism and hospitality. Headquartered in London, PS has branch offices in
Hyderabad and Kolkata, and
partner offices in Vizag and
Chennai. “Value-based excellence, trust-based transparency, leadership-based
behaviour and learning-
based growth are our fundamental values and principles,” said Mitra, who has
14 years’ experience in business
change
and
organisational development. He believes competence, credibility and confidence make PS stand out
from the competition.
“At every stage we have
created our role model and
aspired to be like them. We
had companies who were in
the industry for longer than
us. Rather than competing
with them, we started to be
inspired by them and that
helped us a lot in creating
business processes, and
quality systems,” said Mitra,
whose firm has so far
trained and certified about
10,000 people through 53
centres spread across nine
Indian states. The company
also claims to have achieved
65 job placements.“We have
six strategic partners who
bring in different areas of
specialisation in the area of
on-job-training, placement
capability and corporate
consulting assignments in
India,” he said. PS, which is
certified to run management and leadership
courses for London’s Chartered Management Institute, helps corporates improve their business results
by firmly engaging with
employees and driving real
behaviour change through
customised learning solutions. According to Mitra, the
skill development courses
are primarily prescribed by
NSDC Skill Councils. These
industry bodies develop
National Occupational Standards (NOS).
policy uncertainty front, the
countries in the region face
security threats, terrorism,
security transitioning, military tensions and political
unrest — all of which require effective management going ahead.
The report’s focus on investment is also laudable
and broadly mentions that
the private sector and its investments is yet to pick up
in the region. Both in India
and Pakistan (10 per cent of
SAR’s GDP), there is a decline
in private investment. This is
a
crucial
area
for
policymakers to devise
strategies to tackle. The outlook, overall, remains positive but the corporate sector
leverage could be an impediment and needs an active resolution from the
banking sector and their respective regulators. Despite
this, the region is forecasted
to grow 7.5 per cent by 2019
up from the 6.8 percent in
2015.
The WEO update for October mentions in that
India’s projected growth
rate is expected to be 7.6
percent in 2016 and 2017.
The global growth during
the same timeframe is expected to be 3.1 percent in
2016 and 3.4 percent in
2017.
The report also mentions China’s economic transition from a fast-invest-
ment-driven economy to a
slow-consumption-driven
economy. The report also
goes on to note that Chinese policies over the years
have a bearing on the working-age population in China,
which is expected to turn
negative over the next five
years. This is in contrast to
India, where in the decade
ahead, India’s working-age
population is expected to
stay positive.
The report’s analysis of
the Indian economy is spot
on. It goes on to suggest
that while crucial reforms
and several positive measures have been undertaken, there are additional
measures, which could
boost productive capacity.
These include measures to
improve efficiency in the
mining sector and electricity generation, improving
labour market efficiency for
leveraging the working
population ratio and making it a demographic dividend rather than a disaster
and full recognition of the
losses of banks for improving the quality of financial
intermediation.
The analysis in both
these the reports offers
sound reality check to
policymakers and they
should look into these areas
of concern, both at countrylevel and even at the level of
the state governments in
Parul sethi (C) winner of Miss Himalya 2016
contest with 1st runner-up Arushi Patel in
Dharamshala
In the News
WESTERN TIMES AHMEDABAD
WEDNESDAY, 12/10/2016
3
Global Expo on tea and coffee comes
back to Mumbai for 4th time in a row
Ahmedabad,
The “World Tea & Coffee
Expo” is to be held for the
4th time at Bombay Exhibition Centre, Goregaon East,
Mumbai from Thu 20th Oct
to Sat 22nd Oct 2016. WTCE
is a dedicated global trade
event for the Tea, Coffee and
allied sectors and consists of
an Expo, a 2-day hi level conference and workshops.
WTCE gives an opportunity
to showcase products, services & technologies, network with focused buyers,
upgrade knowledge and
find practical solutions to issues faced by this vital sector.
The 2016 edition has
about 70 Exhibitors from 7
countries including Pavilions from Tea Board of India
and Sri Lanka Tea Board. On
display are New-age Tea &
Coffee Products and Brands,
Specialty Tea & Coffee, Vending Solutions, Premixes,
packaging solutions, Machineries, Retail Chains,
Technologies, accessories,
ingredients, Certifications
etc. The Expo offers huge
potential for appointing Distributors, Bulk orders, joint
ventures, franchising, networking, knowledge-sharing, meeting government
officials, marketing alliances
and overall branding. International buying delegations
visit the expo to look for
credible business partners
in India.
Since its inception in
2013, the expo has brought
the global industry players
closer, enabled mega deals
in addition to being the definite launch pad for new
products and technologies
especially for SMEs who aspire for national / international expansion but have
low budgets.
This trade fair is supported by the Ministry of
Commerce (Tea Board of India) and is also supported by
leading national and international bodies.
Says Priti Kapadia, Director, Sentinel Exhibitions Asia
P Ltd, organizers of this
unique Expo, “An integral
part of the Expo is a High
level, 2-day conference by
Industry leaders, academicians and policy makers and
also workshops by Tea &
Coffee experts.” The conference covers diverse topics
like Sustainability, GST impact, Design and Innovation
especially in packaging and
branding, changing prospects due to increasing cafe
culture etc whereas the
workshops shall impart
skills on Tea Tasting, Coffee
brewing, Coffee roasting,
Tea/Coffee pairing etc.
Hot Beverages are getting more popular across
the world and are witnessing positive growth since
the last few years thanks to
intensive marketing campaigns by players, launch of
innovative products, the
emergence of upscale cafes
offering
convenience,
affordability and quality.The
global market for RTD
(Ready-to-Drink) Tea and
Coffee is expected to reach
$150 billion by 2021 with an
annual growth rate of 9%.
The Asia-Pacific region is the
largest market and also
showing maximum growth.
Samajwadi Party leaders Amar Singh and Jaya Prada performing Kumari
Puja at Vindhyavasini Temple in Mirzapur
RSS volunteers in the new uniform, participating in a Pad Sanchalan (march past) on the eve of Vijaya Dhashami festival, in Belagavi
Xi’s Bangladesh
visit will boost ties’
Dhaka,
Chinese President Xi
Jinping’s upcoming visit to
Bangladesh is a diplomatic
boost that heralds a new era
in relations between the
two
countries,
a
Bangladeshi minister said.
Information Minister
Hasanul Huq Inu in an interview to Xinhua news agency
on Tuesday said, “President
Xi Jinping’s visit to
Bangladesh will take the
deep cordial relations between Bangladesh and
China to a new greater
height.”
Xi will be visiting Dhaka
this week at the invitation of
Bangladesh President Abdul
Hamid.
“This upcoming visit
marks the strong bondage
between the two nations as
well as paves the way for future growth of our ties,” said
Inu, who is also President of
the Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal
(JSD), a partner of Prime
Minister Sheikh Hasina’s ruling grand alliance.
“Our two nations support each other on the principles of peace, stability, sovereignty and territorial integrity, mutual trust and respect, mutual interest and
equitable sharing of mutual
benefits,” Inu said.
“We also work closely for
developing a quadrilateral
economic space between
A H M E D A B A D
*
Bangladesh, China, India
and Myanmar — popularly
known as BCIM-EC (Economic Corridor). Definitely
coordinated efforts of
Bangladesh and China on
local and international development issues of mutual
interest will result in great
outcomes,” Inu added.
The minister said over
the last eight years,
Bangladesh has made remarkable progress in economic growth, women’s
advancement and empower ment, education
and health, and other areas of human development, including laying
out communication, production and trading architectures.
“To keep the development on track, we look forward to Chinese cooperation in project financing and
low-cost investment, technology, upgrading management skills, market access,
defence, agriculture, industry, communication, water
resources management and
media modernisation,” Inu
said.
At this very moment, he
said Chinese cooperation in
this sector will be extremely
significant. “Infrastructure
building and ICT adoption
are the two most prominent
sectors where we seek Chinese cooperation in media.”
Samsung tells Galaxy Note 7
owners to stop using devices
Seoul,
After temporarily suspending the production of
Galaxy Note 7 smartphone
amid battery explosion
fears, Samsung on Tuesday
advised Note 7 owners to
stop using the device —
both original and the replaced one.
“Consumers with either
an original Galaxy Note 7 or
a replacement Galaxy Note
7 device should power
down and stop using the
device, and take advantage
of the remedies available,”
Samsung said in a statement.
“We are working with
relevant regulatory bodies
to investigate the recently
reported cases involving the
Galaxy Note 7,” it added.
After incidents of Note 7
device catching fire in various flights, a replacement
Note 7 device also reportedly caught fire on a US
flight, leading to cancellation of the flight after evacuation.
Samsung has recalled
nearly 2.5 million Galaxy
Note 7 smartphones over
battery overheating issues
globally.
“Because consumers’
safety remains our top priority, Samsung will ask all
carrier and retail partners
globally to stop sales and
exchanges of the Galaxy
Note 7 while the investigation is taking place,” the
M A R K E T
*
company said in the fresh
statement on Tuesday.
“We remain committed
to working diligently with
appropriate regulatory authorities to take all necessary steps to resolve the
situation,” it added.
Earlier, Yonhap news
agency reported that
Samsung has temporarily
suspended the production
of the Galaxy Note 7
smartphone.
“This measure includes a
Samsung plant in Vietnam
that is responsible for global
shipments (of the Galaxy
Note 7),” it said, quoting a
company official.
Despite the global recall
of its flagship device,
Samsung Electronics last
week released a positive
forecast for the third quarter
of this year, expecting operating profits of 7.8 trillion
Korean won (approx $7 billion) and revenues of 49 trillion Korean won. The operating profits are a 5.6 per
cent increase on the same
period a year ago when the
company registered 7.4 trillion won in operating profits, Samsung Electronics said
in its earnings guidance for
the third quarter.
Now Colombian government,
ELN rebels to hold peace talks
Bogota,
The Colombian government and the National Liberation Army (ELN), the country’s second-largest guerrilla
group, will begin peace talks on October 27 in Ecuador,
authorities said.
According to a joint statement on Monday, the two
sides have worked out an agenda, including the participation of society in the peace process, democratic reforms,
and reparations for victims, Xinhua news agency reported.
The announcement came following the peace deal
between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the country’s largest rebel group. The peace deal has prompted the ELN to
negotiate with the government although the accord with
FARC was rejected in a national referendum on October 2.
Immediately after the referendum results were revealed, the ELN said that despite the outcome, it would call
on the Colombians to continue to tirelessly fight for peace
with change.
G U I D E
Ahmedabad, Page 3
4
City-State
WESTERN TIMES AHMEDABAD
WEDNESDAY, 12/10/2016
PAAS leaders meet governor
Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) leaders,
led by Atul Patel, meet Gujarat governor O P Kohli on
Thursday over the issue of alleged atrocities on the
community which has been agitating for OBC quota
in the state. The meeting lasted for around half an
hour in which several issues of the community were
discussed. “The Gujarat government has been showing intolerance towards us. Even when we want to
perform dharna programmes or a rally, we are not
granted permission by the state government and its
police,” Patel said.
Goons create ruckus at LG Hospital
Ahmedabad,
A gang of anti-social elements terrorized staff and
patients at LG Hospital late on Sunday evening when
they followed two persons who had been hospitalized after an assault.
Teams of Maninagar police station officials rushed
to the spot after reports of vandalism.
Ismail Latif Shaikh and Ismail Mujib Shaikh, residents of Rasoolabad, Shah-e-Alam, were attacked by
the gang of Shah-e-Alam over a scuffle on Sunday
veining. The duo was taken to the LG Hospital. When
the gang came to know about their hospitalization,
its members followed them to the hospital and
barged into trauma ward despite protests from the
staff.
“The gang went on the rampage and broke window glasses and medical instruments. Many patients
and their relatives were shocked by the incident as
the vandalism terrorized the staff and patients. Several police vehicles were dispatched,” said a hospital
official.
NCP Gujarat chief surrenders
Anand,
A day after he was booked for assaulting public
servants, rioting and damaging public property,
Gujarat chief of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and
Umreth MLA Jayant Patel alias Boskey surrendered
before Umreth police in Anand district on Thursday.
A complaint against Patel and seven others was
registered at Umreth Police station on Wednesday
after NCP workers led by Patel created ruckus at science fair in Ratanpura village.
Patel and his party workers allegedly created
ruckus merely because Patel’s name was missing
from the invitation card for a science fair that the
school had organized at village’s Swaminarayan
temple.Three school teachers were injured when the
party workers, who had reached the temple, waved
black flags inside the exhibition hall. Later they also
broke chairs sofas and table desks meant for the
invitees.
Youth kills friend over petty quarrel
Ahmedabad,
Following a petty quarrel over pan masala, 19year-old youth Nehal Patel, resident of Jay Ambe
Apartment in Naroda, stabbed to death his friend
Krunal Patil, 19, on Saturday night. Patil was also a resident of the same housing colony. Police have arrested the accused, Nehal Patel, and also recovered
the knife with which he stabbed Patil.
Inspector CR Sangada of Krishnanagar police
station said the complainant in the case, Mahendra
Patel, is a mutual friend of the deceased and the accused. Mahendra has stated in his complaint that
along with the deceased, they and others in their
group were winding up after garba on Saturday
night.
“At around 3 am in the night, Nehal came and
asked for pan masala from another youth, Sunil Patel,”
Sangada said.
Man accuses son-in-law of assault
Ahmedabad,
A 54-year-old man from Ghatlodia has filed a
complaint with Vejalpur police for assault against his
son-in-law and his relatives at Jivraj Mehta Hospital
late on Saturday night.
Police said that the investigation would take place
on the basis of the statements of the accused and
CCTV footage.
According to Vejalpur police, Bhanji Chandel, a
resident of Ghatlodia, got to know that his daughter
Parul was hospitalized by her in-laws. When he
reached Jivraj Mehta Hospital at 11 pm on Saturday,
Parul was in ICU and could not talk to him.
“I was very angry as I suspected that Parul’s inlaws approached us only when he condition had become serious. The in-laws had prevented her from
even talking to us,” said Chandel. “Earlier, we had registered a complaint of mental and physical harassment, but had later revoked it after a truce.” However,
his son-in-law Manoj Khatik and his relatives assaulted him.
Pollution sensing satellite delayed
Ahmedabad,
The ‘Next Generation
Earth Monitoring and Observation and Aerosol Monitoring (NEMO-AM) satellite,
which will analyze pollution
levels in Indian cities and
towns is being delayed by a
year. Isro’s Canadian partners in the project, Space
Flight Laboratory (SFL) of
University of Toronto have
demanded a year to develop the satellite’s extremely complicated polarimetric sensors and optics.
NEMO-AM will be ready by
2018, Space Applications
Centre director Tapan Misra
told. NEMO-AM is among
Isro’s most important highperformance nano-satellite
mission in the country. The
nano-satellite, 2x2x1 feet
and weighing 15 kg, will be
launched 500 km above the
earth. It will monitor suspended particles and aerosols that have made the air
of major Indian cities like
Delhi, Ahmedabad, Lucknow,
Amritsar and Allahabad
among the most polluted in
the world. The tiny particles
and aerosols in the exhaust of
vehicles, emissions from industrial chimneys and even
dust particles from construction work fill the air we
breathe. These aerosols and
particulate matter of size 2.5
micrometers (PM2.5) enter
our lungs and restrict the free
flow of air.
SAC is providing the
necessary software for
NEMO-AM while the instruments or payload are being
made in Canada. SAC director Tapan Misra said the
NEMO mission is designed
to cover, each day, up to
50,000 sq km of the
country’s 32.87 lakh sq km.
The NEMO-AM satellite with
its powerful imaging sensor
analyses the sunlight reflected from the earth’s surface. This light, which passes
through the earth’s atmosphere before reaching
NEMO will be analyzed the
satellite from different
angles to determine the nature of suspended particles
and aerosol concentration
in the ambient air of any Indian city.
NEMO’s data can be of
great help in decision-making and environmental
management activities of
both public and private sectors in a city, town or industrial area.
‘Friend’ on adult website
cheats man of Rs 4 lakh
Ahmedabad,
A 50-year-old government servant lost Rs 4.05
lakh from his bank account
when he tried to chat with a
“friend” on an adult website
and attempted to generate
a One Time Password (OTP)
to pay a free of Rs 100. Adding insult to injury, the
conman had the guits to call
up the government servant
and threaten him with dire
consequences if he approached the police.
Police inspector V K
Khant city crime branch’s
cyber call said the victim
had maintained in his complaint that while surfing the
net on October 10, he came
across an adult website
which offered chatting with
“friends”.
“The victim started chatting with of one of the IDs
on the website and was
asked to transfer a fee of Rs
100 from his banks account
to a ‘nwallet account’ if he
wanted to continue chatting,” Khant said.
The police inspector
said that the victim tried to
generate an OTP to transfer
the fee from his SBI account
but could not succeed.
According to sources in
the cyber cell, that same
night Rs 4.05 lakh was
transfer red on-line from
the victim’s account to another account. “The holder
of the other account even
called up the victim and
threatened him with dire
consequences if he approached the police,”
sources in the crime branch
said.
Inspector Khant said
they have the cellphone
number from which the victim was threatened and also
the account number to
which the money was transferred.
A senior crime branch
officials aid they will be able
to crack the case soon.
“However, at the same time
we advise people that they
should avoid such websites
and refrain from paying
fees on-line to such suspicious IDs,” the official said.
Ahmedabad,
For the first time in the
past decade, the ungulate
(hoofed mammal) population in Gir Sanctuary has
registered a decline of
around 15%. This was revealed with data collected
during the summer census
in May was collated by forest department in an internal exercise. Worried at the
decline the forest department has decided to
reconduct the census of
sambhar and other ungulates in Gir forest.
A senior forest department officials said that summer census figures show
that the population of ungulates in Gir had dropped
from 75,000 to 65,000 -- the
sharpest decline in a decade.
“The department has
not been able to find an explanation for the nearly 15%
decline in ungulate population,” said an officer who assisted in the census and
enumeration of data. Another officer, however, said,
“The decline in reported
numbers is due to the
method of enumeration
used.”
Chief conservator of forest, Junagadh, R L Meena
said, “This is an internal
count for the department.
The official census is held
every five years, and the
same was conducted in
2015.” Meena said, “However, we are again conducting the census for a couple
of species in the forest including sambhar, as there
has been a sharp decline in
their numbers.”
A senior forest depart-
ment officer in Gir said the
May census figures had not
been collated until now and
the report was yet to be sent
to the department. Usually,
the department takes two
counts of ungulates - one in
May and the other during
winter. The report is usually
sent to higher officers
within a fortnight.
Principal chief conservator of forest (wildlife) J A
Khan, said,“We are yet to receive the report as the final
count has not been calculated, and hence it would be
too early to comment on the
decline.”
However, experts feel
that a decline in ungulate
numbers would result in
more lions moving out of
the sanctuary to seek prey.
The census 2015 has revealed that there were over
Start,
Ahmedabad, Page 4
160-odd lions outside the
protected sanctuary area.
At present that number has
crossed 250. HS Singh, a lion
expert said, “I feel that the
livestock population within
the sanctuary is competing
with the ungulate population. An increase in livestock
may be related with the decline in ungulates.”
10-year-old boy
wins car at expo
Vadodara,
Ten year-old Shubh
Shah was in for a huge surprise when he turned up at
Switch Global Expo 2016 on
Sunday. The little boy won
a DC Avanti car worth lakhs
from none other than the famous auto designer Dilip
Chhabra. Amit Bhatnagar,
chairman of the organizing
committee said that Shubh
posed many interesting
questions about car manufacturing and technical aspects Chhabria. “Chhabria
got so impressed that he
announced the Avanti car
gift to Shah,”Bhatnagar said.
Ahmedabad,
Minister of State for Commerce & Industry (I/C) Nirmala Sitharaman addressing at the launch of the new Dashboard on Foreign Trade Data, in New
Delhi
Cops toughest, home-makers
weakest in beating stress: Study
Ahmedabad,
The persistent traffic jam of the past three days
on Sardar Bridge over Narmada river between
Bharuch and Ankleshwar started to dissolve by Sunday afternoon which helped the vehicles to move a
bit faster from Surat to Vadodara on National Highway (NH)-8. The queue of vehicles is still 3 km-long,
but it is staggeringly less to what it was earlier.
A drop in the numbers of cars going towards
Ahmedabad-Vadodara and Saurashtra from south
Gujarat has also help in the smooth flow of traffic on
the segment. An officer of National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) said,“There are large potholes
on the bridge and this affects the speed of heavy
vehicles. The drivers are compelled to drive slowly
and this leads to a traffic snarl. We would be taking
up recarpeting work on the bridge on Monday
morning and expect it to be complete by evening.
Traffic would be allowed from both sides on single
lane for 15 minutes.”
Bharuch district superintendent of police Sandip
Singh said, “We are allowing traffic from Surat to
Vadodara an extra lane and it has helped reduce jam
considerably. Everything will be normal from Monday evening once the repair work is completed.”
Meanwhile, there was no traffic jam on Golden
Bridge over Narmada river. Four-wheel vehicles were
moving at normal speed from the Golden Bridge and
pass through Bharuch town to NH-8 via Zadeshwar
Chowkdi towards Vadodara.
There could be another traffic jam from Tuesday
on this section when people who went from south
Gujarat to Ahmedabad and Saurashtra to enjoy a long
weekend begin to return.
Ahmedabad,
Patidars may give the
cold shoulder to Delhi chief
minister Arvind Kejriwal on
his Oct 15 visit to Gujarat.
Patidar Anamat Andolan
Samiti (PAAS) leaders are
not
impressed
with
Kejriwal’s plans to woo 12%
Patidars voters, who have remained loyal to the BJP, and
termed his visit as “Arvind
Kejriwal of 17” or AK-17.
The Patidars believe that
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)
supremo, who was once
dubbed as ‘AK-49’ by Prime
Minister Narendra Modi
during the 2014 Lok Sabha
elections for Kejriwal’s 49
days’ first stint as the Delhi
Chief Minister, will visit the
state to prepare his party for
the 2017 state assembly
polls.
On Friday, Gujarat AAP
incharge Gulab Singh Yadav
announced that now
Kejriwal would come first to
Ahmedabad on October 15
to meet families of Patidar
stir victims in Ahmedabad
and Mehsana and pray at
Unjha Umiya Mata temple.
He will address a public
meeting in Surat on October
16. PAAS convener Hardik
Patel, who is in exile at
Udaipur, said that the AAP
like any other political party
has been eyeing electoral
benefits in Gujarat. “AAP is
a political party. So obviously
they want to
encash the wrath and
frustrations
of
the
Patidars to gain political
mileage in the elections.
Therefore, Kejriwal is
coming to Gujarat to woo
Patidar voters,” he said. However, the Patel leader later
maintained that every po-
litical party has the right to
propagate its political idea
and campaign.
Hardik’s close aide
Dinesh Bambhania said that
the Patidar community is
wise
to
understand
Kejriwal’s intention. “It can’t
be true that Kejriwal has
sympathy for Patidars. It is
very much clear that he is
coming here with political
intentions. As the 2017 elections are near, political parties are flocking Gujarat,”
said Bambhania who was
booked in sedition case
along with Hardik.
Surat-based PAAS leader
Dharmik Malaviya said that
they would protest in
Kejriwal’s public meet if the
Delhi Chief Minister did not
clarify his stance on atrocities
on Patels and OBC quota issue. “AAP had contested Lok
Sabha polls in Gujarat. However, after that they have remained inactive so far. Now,
Kejriwal has set his tour in
Patidar dominated areas. He
only shows his political interest,” he said.
Rio Paralympic medallist
gets nostalgic at garba
Vadodara,
When Deepa Malik became the first Indian woman
to win silver medal in shootout at Rio paralympic last
month, celebrations broke
out in many Gujarati homes.
Not many would know that
Deepa has a strong Gujarat
connection.
In fact, Deepa used to
play garba in Vadodara
when she was a kid. The
gutsy sports person, who si
bound to wheelchair, said
that she felt nostalgic to be
back in the city.
“My maternal uncle
stays in Vadodara since 40
years and I remember com-
ing here during my school
holidays and playing garba.
My family used to be really
happy wen they watched
me dancing at the garba
venues.
So, I feel very nostalgic
to be here today again during Navratri. Although I am
on a wheelchair now, I have
the paralympic silver
medal, which makes them
doubly happy.
I come to Vadodara
even when we come for
training
at
SA
Gandhinagar,” Malik said
during her visit to Switch
Global Export 2016 on Saturday.
Govt mulls policy for
retail trade in state
Ahmedabad,
Traffic starts
moving on NH-8
Patidars cold to Kejri, see
his visit as poll ploy
Deer numbers drop, foresters worried
Seminar on leprosy held
About 100 dermatologists and venereologists of
Gujarat converged at LG Municipal General Hospital
to hold a one-day scientific discussion on treatment
of leprosy and its new cures on Sunday. The doctors
discussed surgical challenges involved even after the
disease is cured through medicines. President of
World Laparoscope Association and LG Hospital superintendent Dr Rajesh Shah spoke of leprosy’s surgical sequel for treating morbidity. Additional director for leprosy for state health department Dr Paresh
Dave along with Dr Nilaben Shah. Dr Anugrah Parikh,
Dr Anirudh Vyas, Dr Bharat Shah, Dr Raju Chaudhari
were among those present.
Citizen buy Ahmedabad favourite snacks Fafda and Jalebi on the occassion of
Dasshehra in Ahmedabad. (Photo : Jayesh Modi)
Stress of one form or another is experienced every
day but Amdavadis’ capacity to cope with it appears to
be average, claims a study
by city-based BM Institute of
Mental Health (BMIMH).
The study titled,“Survey
of mental toughness of citizens of Ahmedabad” was
done in view of the rising
suicide rate and cases of
depression in the city. A
survey conducted among
990 people of Ahmedabad
across nine different professions revealed that
Amdavadis’ mental toughness -- that is, their ability to
manage stress and deal
with challenging situations
-- was “average”. Incidentally, October 10 is World
Mental Health Day.
Dr Rajul Malik, faculty
BMIMH, who conducted the
study, said there is a lot of
scope for improvement.
“Of the people of nine
professions we surveyed,
police personnel were
found to have the best ability to deal with the stressful
situations while home-makers were the weakest. Over-
all, however, the Amdavadis’
capacity to deal with stress
is average,” said Malik.
Giving reasons for the
‘average’ mental toughness
of reasons, BMIMH director
Dr Madhu Singh said that
lack of emotional stability,
absence of the right attitude
towards setbacks, low levels
of acceptance of setbacks
and lack of patience are
some of the key reasons.
“One must work on these
aspects and develop an
overall positive attitude to
help overcome disturbances and manage stress,”
Singh said.
The study surveyed police personnel, doctors,
sportspersons, home-makers, lawyers, teachers and
government employees,
among others. Some of
the recommendations of
the study to improve one’s
mental toughness include
strengthening of one’s belief systems, being in total
control of oneself and an
optimistic attitude.
After having getting
representations from trade
and industry associations,
the state government has
set the ball rolling to formulate a robust retail trade
policy for Gujarat. States like
Maharashtra,
Andhra
Pradesh and Karnataka already have such policies for
retailers.
As a first step to creating
the retail policy, the state
government has sought
suggestions from industry
associations such as Retail
Trade Association of India
and Gujarat Chamber of
Commerce and Industry
(GCCI). These trade bodies
have been asked to come
up with suggestions before
October 15, 2016, said
sources privy to the devel-
opment.
A meeting will also be
convened in the second half
of this month to consider
suggestions made by industry representatives.
“The policy is under consideration. We will have interactions with various
stakeholders. There are certain issues that need to be
debated. After the consultation process, the policy
will be taken up for approval,” said a senior government official. However,
he refrained from giving a
timeline for the unveiling of
the policy.
In the wake of the clearance of Model Shops and
Establishments Act as well
as increased competition
from on-line retailers, the
trading community in the
state had emphasized then
need for a state-specific
policy for development and
protection of the retail trade
sector, especially the unorganized retail trade segment.
A few months ago, a
draft proposal demanding
the formulation of a
Gujarat retail trade policy
was sent to the government through GCCI.
The trade body had
suggested focusing on
unorganized retail trade,
which is facing tough
competition from deeppocketed organized retail
giants. Traders believe institutional support in form
of a dedicated policy is required for small retailers
to survive amid the fierce
competition.
Man shot dead over old family enmity
Rajkot,
A 22-year-old man was
shot dead when old animosity between two families floated up in Bajana village of Surendranagar district on Saturday night.
The deceased Naresh
Merani’s cousin brother had
eloped with a girl from a
Solanki family six years ago.
The couple had got married
and never returned to the
village after that. However,
the relations between the
Merani and Solanki families
got embittered after the
elopement and subsequent
marriage.
“At around 11pm on Saturday, the thee accused
Khana Solanki, Rama
Solanki and His brother
Meru, met Naresh near the
village outskirts. There was
some heated verbal duel
between them. One of them
fired two shots , one of
which pierced through
Naresh’s chest and he died
on the spot,” said H J Bhatt,
PSI at Patdi police station.
All three accused escaped
from the village.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav launching the portal of
Samajwadi Smartphone Scheme, at Lok Bhawan in Lucknow
International
WESTERN TIMES AHMEDABAD
WEDNESDAY, 12/10/2016
Bill Clinton is a sexual
predator: Donald Trump
Washington,
Devotees at a puja pandal offering prayers to Goddess Durga at Kalibari
temple in Imphal
US Supreme Court
to hear AppleSamsung design
patent lawsuit
New York,
The US Supreme Court is
set to hear a design patent
lawsuit on Tuesday that
Apple filed against arch rival
Samsung in 2011 and is
touted as the longest-running dispute between the
two smartphone giants.
According to a report in
Digital Trends, if Samsung
wins, it will set a precedent
and affect other design
patent cases.
“It
would
mean
Samsung owes less money
to Apple and the case would
be kicked down to lower
courts to decide the final
amount,” the report added.
“If Apple wins, Samsung
pays up. There would be
more trials related to other
design patent cases between the two,” it added.
The ruling can be expected toward the end of
the year. Apple had sued
Samsung for copying the
iPhone’s design. Samsung
also counter-sued for 3G
patents and filed claims in
Germany, Japan, and South
Korea. In 2012, the jury sided
with Apple, awarding the US
company $1 billion in damages. The jury ruled that
Samsung copied the
iPhone’s black rectangle
shape and rounded corners,
the bezel, and a patent that
covered the graphical layout of icons on the iPhone.
Gene therapy may
treat Alzheimer’s
London,
Researchers at the Imperial College here have found
that delivering a specific
gene via an injection directly into the brain may offer a potential new therapy
for
halting
the
progress
of
Alzheimer’s disease,
especially
when
treated in its early
stages.
In the study, published in the journal
Proceedings of the
National Academy of
Sciences, the team
used a type of modified virus to deliver a
gene to brain cells of mice.
“Although these findings are very early they suggest this gene therapy may
have potential therapeutic
use for patients,” said senior
study author Magdalena
Sastre.
Previous studies by the
same team suggest this
gene, called PGC1 - alpha,
may prevent the formation
of a protein called amyloidbeta peptide in cells in the
lab.
Amyloid-beta peptide is
the main component of
amyloid plaques, the sticky
clumps of protein found in
the brains of people with
Alzheimer’s disease. These
plaques are thought to trigger the death of brain cells.
The modified virus used
in the experiments was
called a lentivirus vector,
and is commonly used in
gene therapy explained Professor Nicholas Mazarakis,
co-author of the study.
In the new study, the
team injected the virus, con-
Republican presidential
nominee Donald Trump on
Monday resumed his attacks on Bill Clinton, the husband of his Democratic rival
Hillary Clinton, calling the
former US President a sexual
“predator” in his first campaign event after the second presidential debate.
“Bill Clinton was the
worst abuser of women to
ever sit in the Oval Office. He
was a predator,” said Trump
in Ambridge, Pennsylvania,
on his return to the campaign trail after a pause over
the weekend and the scandal that erupted with the
release of a 2005 videotape
on which the mogul is heard
making lewd and sexist
comments about women,
Efe news reported.
The video, with its highly
offensive language, spurred
many Republican leaders to
withdraw their support, or at
least distance themselves,
from Trump.
The GOP candidate returned to his strategy that
the best defence is a good
offence by saying that for
decades Hillary Clinton has
known about her husband’s
predatory behavior and, instead of stopping it, enabled
him to take advantage of
even more women.
A couple of hours prior
to the Sunday evening debate, Trump appeared together with four women
who had accused the
former president of sexual
harassment:
Juanita
Broaddrick, Paula Jones,
Kathleen Willey and Kathy
Shelton.
In his campaign speech
on Monday, Trump, who is
trailing Hillary Clinton in the
voter surveys, returned to
his regular themes such as
Facebook makes Workplace
app available for all
San Francisco,
taining the gene PGC-1 - alpha, into two areas of the
brain in mice susceptible to
Alzheimer’s disease.
The areas targeted were
the hippocampus and the
cortex, as these are the first
regions to develop amyloid
plaques in Alzheimer’s disease. Furthermore, the
treated mice performed as
well in memory tasks as
healthy mice. The team also
discovered there was no
loss of brain cells in the hippocampus of the mice who
received the gene treatment. In addition to this, the
treated mice had a reduction in the number of glial
cells, which in Alzheimer’s
disease can release toxic inflammatory substances that
cause further cell damage.—IANS
Buoyed by the positive response from over
1,000 companies that are currently using Workplace
(formerly known as Facebook at Work), the company has announced to make the app available to
all. This means you can chat with a colleague across
the world in real time, host a virtual brainstorm in a
Group or follow along with your CEO’s presentation
on Facebook Live.
“People have created nearly 100,000 groups and
the top five countries using Workplace are India, the
US, Norway, UK and France,” Facebook said in a statement on Tuesday.
“We’re announcing that Workplace will now be
available to any company or organisation that wants
to use it,” it added.
Large multinational companies like Danone,
Starbucks and Booking.com, international
nonprofits such as Oxfam and regional leaders such
as YES Bank in India and the Government Technology Agency of Singapore have all embraced Workplace.
“We’ve brought the best of Facebook to the
Workplace a” whether it’s basic infrastructure such
as News Feed, or the ability to create and share in
Groups or via chat, or useful features such as Live,
Reactions, Search and Trending posts,” the company
said. “
We’ve also built unique,Workplace-only features
that companies can benefit from such as a dashboard with analytics and integrations with single
sign-on, in addition to identity providers that allow
companies to more easily integrate Workplace with
their existing IT systems,” Facebook added. ians
criticizing the status quo,
which he says the former
first lady represents, and his
attacks on the media.
He also promised to
bring back jobs that have
shifted abroad - he said due to the economic and
trade policies of President
Barack Obama, whom
Hillary Clinton served as secretary of state from 20092013.
Trump said that Pennsylvania workers will get their
jobs back under his presidency, whereas Clinton
would prefer to give those
jobs to people who enter
the country illegally.
Ambridge is a town near
Pittsburgh, which is the
country’s former steelmaking capital and has been
hard-hit by the twin processes of industrial reconversion and globalization.
—IANS
President greets
nation on Dussehra
New Delhi,
President
Pranab
Mukherjee on Tuesday
greeted the nation on the
eve of Dussehra and urged
“to follow the path of moral
and ethical rectitude”.
“Greetings and best
wishes to my fellow countrymen in India and abroad
on the joyous occasion of
Dussehra,” Mukherjee said
in a series of tweet.
“May this festival inspire
us to emulate the righteousness of the Maryada Purush
(Lord Rama) and loyalty of
Bharath and Lakshmana
(younger brothers of Lord
Rama),” he said. He also
wished that may this festival
inspire us to emulate the virtues of Sita and the valour as
well as humility of
Hanuman. “Let each one of
us resolve to follow the path
of moral and ethical rectitude which has guided us
for centuries,” Mukherjee
said. The President also
stressed that may the celebrations bind the communities and regions of India in
a true sense of brotherhood
and the celebrations motivate us to make renewed
efforts for the unity and
progress of our country.
NZ curbs immigrant numbers
Wellington,
New Zealand on Tuesday announced new curbs
on the number of immigrants to the country following a long-running debate
over the effect of migration
on the economy.
Immigration Minister
Michael Woodhouse said
the changes to the New
Zealand
Residence
Programme (NZRP) for the
next two years were part of
a regular review of the numbers, but opposition lawmakers said the government was running scared of
public opinion polls, Xinhua
news agency reported.
The changes included
temporarily closing the parent category to new applications-a measure that will
directly affect a huge number of Chinese parents
wanting to live with their
migrant offspring.
However, Woodhouse’s
statement did not detail
how temporary the closure
would be.
Overall the number of
residence approvals for the
next two years would be cut
from 90,000-100,000 down
to 85,000-95,000.
The government was
also raising the requirements for skilled migrants
and cutting the number of
places for capped family categories from 5,500 to 2,000.
“Migrants make a valuable contribution to New
Zealand both culturally and
economically, and the government periodically reviews all our immigration
settings to make sure they
are working as intended,”
Woodhouse said.
While, economic forecasters including the Reserve Bank of New Zealand
have credited migration
with
bolstering
the
country’s healthy economic
growth, others have questioned whether the infrastructure is coping with
record numbers of migrants.
The concerns have fuelled disquiet over issues
such as the worsening housing crisis, which is rippling
out from the largest city of
Auckland.
The opposition New
Zealand First party said the
government had been pan-
icked by polls on immigration and had suddenly reversed its stance that the
country’s immigration settings were about right.
“The plain fact is after
years of denial, their polling
is telling them the public are
concerned,” New Zealand
First leader Winston Peters
said in a statement. The government had “created a
massive problem” by bringing in huge numbers of unskilled migrants, and the
parent category meant their
parents had“flooded in also”,
straining the provision of
housing, health and education, said Peters. IANS
Manila,
Zika infections were “highly likely” to keep
spreading across Asia, the World Health
Organisation (WHO) announced on Tuesday.
WHO director
Margaret Chan said
experts were still
looking for ways to
deal with the virus,
the BBC reported.
“Unfortunately, scientists do not yet have
answers to many critical questions,” she told an annual regional WHO
meeting in the Philippines capital, Manila. Hundreds
of cases of the virus were reported in Singapore
while two cases of Zika-linked microcephaly have
already been confirmed in Thailand. Zika generally
has mild effects but is more dangerous for pregnant
women as it has been linked to severe birth defects,
including the brain deformation microcephaly. According to the WHO, the mosquito-borne virus has
been detected in 70 countries worldwide so far.—
IANS
Damaged houses are seen after Hurricane Matthew passes in Jeremie, Haiti, .
17 killed as buildings collapse in
China
Beijing,
Seventeen persons were confirmed dead after
residential buildings collapsed on Monday in
Wenzhou City in east China’s Zhejiang Province.
The disaster happened around 4 a.m. in
Wenzhou’s Lucheng industrial district, Xinhua reported .
As of 7 p.m., 23 people had been pulled from the
debris, but only six survived, according to the district government.
Rescuers said the collapsed buildings were built
by villagers. Five adjacent houses built in the 1970s
remain standing, but rescuers are demolishing them
to avoid secondary disasters. Residents who live
around the collapse site have been relocated to safe
places, according to rescuers.
Rescuers are still verifying the number of people
buried in the debris. The cause of the collapse is still
under investigation.
Zara Larsson takes up yoga
Los Angeles,
Singer Zara Larsson is taking up a healthier
lifestyle by switching to yoga.
“Just went to yoga for the first time and I now
only wanna talk about zen, vegan diets, healthy juices
and finding inner balance, thanks,” tweeted Larsson,
reported femalefirst.co.uk.
The 18-year-old is not the only celebrity yoga fan.
Actress Anna Kendrick recently shared that actor
George Clooney has also showed her some of his
yoga moves.
Even model Elle Macpherson tries to fit in some
yoga every day.
“I feel my best when I spend 45 minutes each
morning doing some sport; I run, do yoga, go paddle
boarding or hiking. Once I’m outdoors, breathing the
fresh air, I feel like I’ve accomplished something,”
Macpherson said. —IANS
Why director used slow motion shots
for ‘The Girl...’?
Los Angeles,
For “The Girl on the Train”, director Tate Taylor has
incorporated some slow motion shots to make actress Emily Blunt’s performance in the thriller, more
realistic and believable.
Blunt plays an alcoholic named Rachel in the
movie, which is an adaptation of Paula Hawkin’s
bestseller novel of the same name.
Taylor has made use of the step fronting technology, in order to add depth to screenplay and emphasize on the various character traits exhibited by
Blunt.
Speaking about the technology, Taylor said in a
statement: “It’s called step fronting. They weren’t
done in the past, it was just kind of adding to the
idea that is she drunk right now? Is this a true
memory? Or boy, this is profoundly affecting her and
this is giving us an insight into her real pain.
“It’s a device that is delivered and pre-planned.”
Timberlake dedicates concert film to
Prince
Los Angeles,
Singer-actor Justin Timberlake has dedicated his
new concert film “Justin Timberlake + the Tennessee Kids” to the late music legend Prince.
“His influence, and I have this in common with I
think every musician of my generation and the generations to come, his influence is all over everyone’s
music and there’s so much that I feel like I’ve maybe
consciously and unconsciously borrowed from him
that it felt...right,” said Timberlake, reported
eonline.com.
“It just feels right to dedicate the film to him.”
Prince, best known for hits like “Let’s go crazy” and
“When doves cry”, had recorded more than 30 albums. He died in April this year.
Director Jonathan Demme agrees.
“The film’s been blessed with that name and that
spirit,” he said.
“Justin Timberlake + the Tennessee Kids” captures
last year’s final performance of Timberlake’s world
tour at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
The movie premiered last month at the Toronto
International Film Festival. —IANS
Be single mom again: Blac Chyna’s
mother tells her
Los Angeles,
People gather to watch the presidential town hall debate at Village
Pourhouse Downtown bar in Manhattan, New York, U.S., .
Zika virus likely to
spread across Asia: WHO
5
‘Global phase down of
a/c coolant now a must’
Kigali (Rwanda),
A British charity on Tuesday warned that if the nearly
200 countries participating
in a climate change conference here don’t agree on an
ambitious date for ending
the
use
of
hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs),
their pledges contained in
the Paris Agreement will be
broken.
The 28th meeting of the
Parties to the 1989 Montreal
Protocol on Substances that
Deplete the Ozone Layer
began in this Rwandan capital on October 10 and is attempting to freeze as early
as 2020 an agreement to
eventually eliminate the use
of HFCs, commonly used in
air-conditioners and refrigerators.
Christian Aid’s Senior
Policy
Officer
Gaby
Drinkwater, who is attending the talks, said it was in
the interest of both the developed and developing
nations to phase out HFCs
as early as possible.
She said as people in
developing
countries
sought more air-conditioners and refrigerators, a
heavy expansion of HFCs
could deal a significant blow
to the ambitions of the Paris
Agreement and set back any
progress made on keeping
global warming at two degrees Celsius.
“HFCs were created to
replace other chemicals,
some of which we discovered were putting a hole in
the ozone layer. But we
didn’t realise that in HFCs
we had created something
which could devastate the
climate,” Drinkwater told
IANS.
“HFCs are thousands of
times more potent than carbon dioxide so it’s essential
that we stop making them.
The good news is we’ve already created their benign
replacements, which are
also more energy efficient.
We now need to start using
them, in conjunction with
controlling the destruction
of existing HFCs in a safe
way,” she added.
Negotiations in Kigali,
which will conclude on October 14, will focus on agreeing to an amendment to the
Montreal Protocol, including
the date when HFCs must
be phased-out.
Some countries are
pushing for a date closer to
2031 while others want a
much more ambitious
timeline in the early 2020s.
Richer countries have already committed funds to
help developing countries
make the transition and
leap-frog to the safer alternatives.
Drinkwater said countries had nothing to fear
from a rapid phase down.
“By leapfrogging polluting HFCs, developing countries can cut their energy
use, reduce their climate impact, ensure they deliver on
their Paris Agreement
pledges and benefit from financial support towards
equipment upgrades.
The combination of removing HFCs and the energy efficiency savings of
new technology could see
global temperatures reduced by a full degree centigrade by the end of the
century,” Drinkwater said in
a statement.
The Christian Aid charity
works in some of the world’s
poorest communities in
around 40 countries at any
one time.
Tina Birmpili, Executive
Secretary of the Ozone Secretariat, said projected increases in demand for cooling mean that, by mid-century, more energy will be
used on cooling than on
heating.
She underlined how this
trend makes reaching an
agreement on an HFC
phasedown, combined with
efforts to improve energy
efficiency, as crucial to mitigating climate change.
“We’re looking to India
and other world leaders to
show greater flexibility on
reaching an amendment to
phase down HFCs,” Nehmat
Kaur, who is India representative on the Natural Resources Defense Council,
told IANS.
“There is an economic
case for countries, including
India, to advance its
timeframe for the phasedown. The new $80 million
dollar fund is a strong signal
for early action. Things are
looking positive for a strong
and ambitious amendment
this week,” she added.
Model Blac Chyna, who has a three-year-old son
with former beau Tyga, has been advised by her
mother to become a single mom again.
The 28-year-old had turned to her mother Tokyo
Toni for support after her fiance Rob Kardashian disappeared and blocked her number following an argument, reports femalefirst.co.uk.
Chyna is pregnant with Rob’s child and is due to
deliver the baby next month. Toni feels Rob has too
many issues to be able to love Chyna properly, and
that she should consider raising their baby by herself.
“You just need to go ahead and be a single mom
again, it’s just simple as that. You gotta believe you
know that you gonna be alright. Have your baby, be
happy, that’s my advice,” Toni added.—IANS
Rihanna disses former beaus
Los Angles,
Singer Rihanna has taken a dig at her former
beaus, saying she wasn’t the “problem”.
“None of my exs are married or in happy relationships so it’s safe to say that I wasn’t da problem lol,”
read an image posted by Rihanna on Instagram.
The 27-year-old also put a trophy emoji in the
caption and didn’t say anything about what triggered her to post the image.
Rihanna had several high-profile relationships,
including with singer Chris Brown who infamously
assaulted her back in 2009. She is currently dating
singer Drake.—IANS
Priyanka is a cool chick: Russell
Los Angeles,
English actor Russell Tovey has heaped praise on
his “Quantico” co-star Priyanka Chopra, saying that
the Indian actress is “just awesome”.
“Priyanka is a cool chick. She is just awesome and
she likes to gossip and she is funny and she is fun
and always organised. She is a great company leader,
she is incredibly proud to be a part of this show,
which in turn makes everyone proud,” Tovey said in
a statement.
Priyanka, who was seen essaying an FBI agent
named Alex Parrish in the first season of the American drama series, is now portraying a CIA agent in
its second season, which airs in India on Star World
and Star World HD. Tovey expressed his views about
Priyanka in a special video for Star World.
He added:“She is incredibly welcoming. It just the
second season and I’ve come in, these other new
characters are just come, she was completely like
‘come in be a part of the nest. “She is brilliant and
what she brings to the show is aside from looking
incredible is just a really natural charm that people
really respond to and want to engage with and follow.” Tovey also said: “I think it’s really exciting for
someone who is a Bollywood star being in the United
States, and heading a show, I think it’s showing great
leaps forward. It’s very exciting.”—IANS
Ahmedabad, Page 5
6
National
WESTERN TIMES AHMEDABAD
WEDNESDAY, 12/10/2016
‘Trip to Mars could cause
dementia in astronauts’
AIFW SS’17 to hold virtual show with
Aneeth Arora
New Delhi,
The Amazon India Fashion Week (AIFW) 2017 will
embrace technology with a virtual showcase by fashion designer Aneeth Arora. It will be done via a walk
at her new studio.
The designer runs the label pero by Arora, and
she will showcase its spring-summer 2017 collection
titled‘Forbidden Garden’ in an alternative way of presentation.
#iloveperoLIVE will be showcased online on the
fourth day of the five-day fashion extravaganza,
which starts on Wednesday.
“With Aneeth Arora’s show, we take a step forward
to offer something creative which is virtual in its appeal, and futuristic in its approach as the show will
be beamed at the exhibition area NSIC Grounds from
Aneeth’s garden,” Sunil Sethi, President, Fashion Design Council of India, said in a statement.
The brand’s new line will celebrate the work of
Pierre Joseph Redoute, a painter and botanist from
Southern Netherlands.
Washington,
Ministers of State for Health and Family Welfare Faggan Singh Kulaste and
Anupriya Patel (2nd I) distributing prizes to winners of the painting and poster
competition, to mark the World Mental Health Day 2016, during Mental Health
Week, in New Delhi
Rain dampens puja spirit in Odisha
Bhubaneswar,
Heavy rain, triggered by a cyclonic circulation over
the Bay of Bengal, played spoilsport at Durga Puja
celebrations in coastal Odisha on Monday.
The intermittent showers kept the pandal hoppers away in the twin cities of Cuttack and
Bhubaneswar.
The rain not only disappointed the revellers but
dampened the spirit of the organisers, who have
spent lakhs of rupees in erecting huge and glittering
pandals (marquees) at various places in the twin cities. They had expected huge crowds to turn up at
their pandals on Mahanavami.
“I had planned to visit several pandals along with
my family and have the darshan of Maa Durga. But
the rain god played spoilsport. Now I have to wait till
tomorrow to enjoy Durga Puja,” said Hrudayananda
Sahoo.
Congress institutes probe into party
workers’ clash
New Delhi,
Taking a serious view of the clash between supporters of former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder
Singh Hooda and the party’s state unit chief Ashok
Tanwar in the capital, the Congress on Monday announced a probe into the incident.
The inquiry into the clash at a party event will be
conducted by former Union Home Minister Sushil
Kumar Shinde, Congress leader Janardan Dwivedi
said in a statement.
The clash took place near Bhairon Mandir ahead
of Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi’s rally in the
capital at the end of his 26-day ‘Kisan Yatra’ in pollbound Uttar Pradesh. Tanwar had to be hospitalised
after the clash that also caused injuries to some other
party workers.
The Congress has been battling factionalism in
its Haryana unit. The party finished third in the state
in the last assembly polls. —IANS
Congress will not ally with any party
in Uttar Pradesh: Surjewala
New Delhi,
The Congress on Monday said that it will not forge
an alliance with any political party for the 2017 Uttar
Pradesh Assembly election.
“Rahul Gandhi has made it clear that the Congress
will not forge alliance with any of the political parties for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections and it
will fight on its own,” Congress spokesperson
Randeep Singh Surjewala told reporters.
“The Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and
the Bharatiya Janata party have formed their governments in the state for over 27 years, and they are responsible for the present condition of the state,” he
alleged. Surjewala’s remarks came when he was asked
if the Congress will forge an alliance with the
Samajwadi Party after Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister
Akhilesh Yadav supported the Congress VicePresident’s remarks accusing Prime Minister
Narendra Modi of doing “dalali” over the blood shed
by Indian soldiers.
The grand old party has been out of power in the
state since 1989. It won 94 seats in 1989, when it lost
power. Since then, the seat graph has gone down: It
won 46 seats in 1991, 28 seats in 1993, 33 seats in
1996, 25 seats in 2002 and 22 seats in 2007.—IANS
Mumbai square named after ‘ghazal
king’ Jagjit Singh
Mumbai,
A Mumbai square was named after the legendary ghazal singer and composer, the late Jagjit Singh,
on the occasion of his fifth death anniversary here
on Monday, an official said.
The plague renaming the junction of KC Marg and
Bandra Reclamation near the bus depot in Bandra
West as “Padma Bhushan Jagjit Singh Chowk” was
unveiled by Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray
in the presence of Mayor Snehal Ambedkar.
Present was his widow and eminent ghazal singer
Chitra Singh, local municipal corporators Asif Zakaria,
Arman Choudhary, Mehraz Shaikh, top civic officials
and other dignitaries.
Conferred with by the Padma Bhushan in 2003,
Singh passed away here on October 10, 2011.—IANS
Suspended Akali lawmaker quits
assembly seat
Chandigarh,
Suspended Shiromani Akali Dal leader Inderbir
Singh Bolaria resigned as a Punjab legislator on Tuesday.
Bolaria, who represents the Amritsar-South assembly seat, sent his resignation to the Assembly
Speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal.
Giving reasons for his resignation, Bolaria said
that he was feeling suffocated in the Akali Dal-run
Punjab government.
He is likely to join the Congress on Tuesday.
Bolaria, who was first elected in 2008 (by-election)
from the Amritsar South seat, was re-elected in the
2012 assembly polls. He was made Chief Parliamentary secretary (CPS) in the Punjab government earlier.—IANS
Prosperity not possible until
terrorism ends: V. K. Singh
Bangkok,
Union Minister of State for External Affairs V. K.
Singh on Monday said that the resolve to create a
peaceful and prosperous community will fail unless
all partners cooperate with each other to end the
menace of terrorism. Singh was speaking at the second Summit of the Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD)
here. Formed in 2002, the ACD comprises 34 countries.“All our resolve to create a peaceful prosperous
community will fail unless we cooperate with each
other to end this menace (of terrorism). We would be
failing our people if we do not pledge to use all the
mechanisms available to us bilaterally and multilaterally to rid us of this fundamental threat to our societies, communities and nations,” he said. He said that
terrorism continues to remain the single most significant threat to peace and stability in the region.
Ahmedabad, Page 6
Karnataka hopes for
justice from Cauvery
expert team
Mysuru,
Karnataka is hoping for
justice from the expert
team, which studied the depleted water levels in the
reservoirs across the
Cauvery river basin in the
state on October 7-8, Chief
Minister Siddaramaiah said
on Monday.
“I am confident that
Karnataka would get justice
from the expert team that
visited the river basin areas
and understood the gravity
of the distress situation in
the state,” Siddaramaiah
told reporters here.
The Supreme Court on
October 4 directed the
Union Water Resources Ministry to depute an expert
team to assess availability of
water in the reservoirs in
Karnataka and Tamil Nadu
and submit a report by October 17.
The three-member technical team, comprising Central Water Commission
Chairman G.S. Jha, CWC
member S Masood Hussain
and Krishna and Godavari
basin organisation chief engineer R.K. Gupta, visited the
command area in the state’s
southern region spanning
Hassan, Mysuru and Kodagu
districts where its four reservoirs are located.
“I believe the central
team will do justice to the
state in its report to the Supreme Court as we have appraised it of the acute water
shortage in the river basin,
crop loss and the drinking
water requirement in the
region,” said Siddaramaiah,
adding he also hoped the
apex court would take into
consideration the state’s
view during the next hearing on October 18.
On the top court’s direction, the state, however, released 6,000 cusecs of water
per day from October 4-6
and 2,000 cusecs per day
from October 7-18 to Tamil
Nadu. The central team also
visited reservoirs in Tamil
Nadu, including Mettur and
Bhavanisagar in Salem and
Erode districts and met
farmers in the delta region
districts of Thiruchurapalli,
Thanjavur
and
Nagapattinam on October
9-10. One representative
each of the four riparian
states also accompanied the
team on an aerial survey of
the four dams (Hemavathy,
KRS, Kabini and Harangi)
across the river basin and
met the affected people, including farmers. The 765km-long Cauvery originates
at Talakaveri in Karnataka’s
Kodagu district and flows
through Kerala, Tamil Nadu
and Puducherry before joining the Bay of Bengal.
People who have
spent their lives in
dalali, know what it
is: Parrikar
Panaji,
Defence
Minister
Manohar Parrikar on Monday lashed out at Congress
Vice President Rahul Gandhi
over his “dalali” remarks,
even as he decried attempts
to politicise the army’s successful surgical strikes
across the Line of Control in
September.“Some see dalali
in this... Submarine deal in
2002, there was dalali scam.
Then in a helicopter deal,
there was dalali. After that in
the Pilatus training planes
there is a dalali allegation
and Emerr planes, there was
a dalali allegation. Those
people who have spent
most of their life in dalali,
they know what is dalali,”
Parrikar said while speaking
at a public meeting
organised by the BJP in
Mapusa town, a short distance from Panaji. The
meeting was organised to
honour the Indian Armed
Forces for successfully conducting the surgical strikes.
“I do not think people in
this country need proof of a
surgical strike. The chaos
which our neighbouring
country is in (is proof
enough). With the exchange
of speeches there and the
conversations, one can understand that the country’s
soldiers have responded
appropriately. Those who
are hurt, shout. Those who
aren’t, do not,” Parrikar said.
—IANS
Astronauts travelling to
Mars might be at risk of
long-term brain damage
and even dementia due to
galactic cosmic ray exposure, said a new study.
To explore a phenomenon called “space brain,”
researchers from the University of California, Irvine
(UCI) exposed rodents to
highly energetic charged
particles — fully ionized
oxygen and titanium — at
the NASA Space Radiation
Laboratory at New York’s
Brookhaven National Laboratory, Xinhua news agency
reported on Monday.
These particles are
much like those found in the
galactic cosmic rays that will
bombard astronauts during
extended spaceflights, according to the study published in the journal Scientific Reports, which is part of
NASA’s Human Research
Program.
Six months after exposure, the researchers still
found significant levels of
brain inflammation and
damage to neurons, said
Charles Limoli, professor of
radiation oncology in UCI’s
School of Medicine.
Imaging revealed that
the brain’s neural network
was impaired through the
reduction of dendrites and
spines on these neurons,
disrupting the transmission
of signals among brain cells.
These deficiencies were
parallel to poor performance on behavioural tasks
designed to test learning
and memory.
In addition, the Limoli
team discovered that the
radiation affected “fear extinction,” an active process
in which the brain suppresses prior unpleasant
and stressful associations, as
when someone who nearly
drowned learns to enjoy
water again.
“This is not positive
news for astronauts deployed on a two-to- threeyear round trip to Mars,”
Limoli said.
“The space environment
poses unique hazards to astronauts. Exposure to these
particles can lead to a range
of potential central nervous
system complications that
can occur during and persist
long after actual space
travel — such as various performance decrements,
memory deficits, anxiety,
depression and impaired
decision-making. Many of
these adverse consequences to cognition may
continue and progress
throughout life.”
As a partial solution,
Mars-bound spacecraft
could be designed to include areas of increased
shielding, such as those
used for rest and sleep,
Limoli noted.
However, these highly
energetic charged particles
will traverse the ship nonetheless, he added,“and there
is really no escaping them.”
Limoli’s group is also
working on preventive
treatments involving compounds that scavenge free
radicals and protect neurotransmission. —IANS
Venus Williams advances
to second round of Hong
Kong Open
Hong Kong,
US tennis player Venus
Williams kicked off her
Hong Kong Open campaign
in style by beating Japanese
Risa Ozaki on Monday in the
first round of the tournament.
Williams,
secondseeded, defeated her Japanese opponent 6-4, 6-1, reports Efe.
The American managed
to reach the semi-finals last
year, and will now play the
second round against
France’s Alize Cornet, who
upset the other American
Varvara Lepchenko 6-3, 6-2.
On the other hand,
world number one German
Angelique Kerber will begin
her journey at the Hong
Kong Open against Greece’s
Maria Sakkari, ranked 97th
in the world.—IANS
U.S. Consulate General Mumbai celebrated Dussehra at the Consulate with
a small pooja, yummy Indian snacks and garba.
BJP cashing in on army’s valour to get
votes, Congress demands apology
New Delhi,
Security personnel closed Budshah bridge in Srinagar .
Paid federal income tax
annually since 1944
Washington,
American
business
magnate Warren Buffett responded to Donald Trump’s
attacks on his tax payments,
offering income tax information and criticising the
Republican presidential
nominee for not releasing
his own tax records.
“Trump says he knows
more about taxes than any
other human. He has not
seen my income tax returns. But I am
happy to give
him the facts,”
Buffett said in
a statement
on Monday.
Buffett ’s
remarks came
after Trump
d u r i n g
Sunday’s second presidential debate
was asked by
moderator
CNN’s Anderson Cooper if
he had taken
advantage of
the “carryforward” rule,
which allows business
people to offset a big loss
incurred one year against
income made in subsequent years for tax purposes.
“Of course I do. Of course
I do, and so do all of her donors, or most of her donors,”
he said, referring to his
Democrat rival Hillary
Clinton’s supporters, before
going on to name Buffett.
On Monday, Buffett said
that in 2015, he reported an
adjusted gross income of
$11.6 million and took close
to $5.5 million in total deductions. The majority of
those (nearly $3.5 million)
reflected allowable charitable contributions, CNN reported.
He went on to say that
he paid nearly $1.9 million
in federal income taxes last
year.That gives him an effective federal income tax rate
of about 16 per cent.
“I have
paid federal
income tax
every year
since 1944,
when I was
13. (Though,
being a slow
starter, I owed
only $7 in tax
that year.) I
have copies
of all 72 of my
returns and
none uses a
carryforward,”
Buffett said in
the
statement.
Though
Trump is yet
to release any
of his tax returns, the top
pages of his state tax returns
from 1995 were released
anonymously showing that
he reported $916 million in
net operating losses that he
was carrying forward.
Meanwhile, Clinton has
released her 2015 tax return,
showing that she and her
husband and former President Bill Clinton paid a 34
per cent rate of federal tax
and a 9 per cent rate of state
tax on a total income of
$10.5 million.—IANS
Government to
commemorate birth
centenary of Nanaji
New Delhi,
Union Culture Minister
Mahesh Sharma on Monday
said that the government
will commemorate the birth
centenary of social activist
and former RSS leader
Nanaji Deshmukh from October 11 (Tuesday), 2016 to
October 11, 2017. Nanaji
Deshmukh was born in
Kadoli in Maharashtra’s
Hingoli district on October
11, 1916 and passed away
on February 27, 2010.
Speaking at an inaugural programme organised
on the eve of the birth centenary celebrations here,
Sharma said that various
programmes would be
organised during this period including Rashtriya
Sanskriti Mahotsav-2016
from October 15 to 23 in the
premises of IGNCA, Janpath,
New Delhi.
This will showcase Indian culture, traditions and
food through various stalls
besides art and culture
shows by all seven zonal cultural centres (ZCCs) under
the Ministry of Culture.
Addressing the gathering, Sharma said that Nanaji
Deshmukh proved that if
any work is done with a feeling of nationalism, then success is certain. “Nanaji
wanted that the benefit of
all facilities should reach to
the poorest person of the
society,” Sharma said.
Sharma said that the Ministry of Tourism has sanctioned Rs 43 crore for tourism development at
Chitrakoot, where Nanaji
worked extensively for the
welfare of the people.
The Congress on Monday accused the ruling BJP of
trying to encash the valour of
the Indian Army to get votes
and demanded that Prime
Minister Narendra Modi, BJP
president Amit Shah, Defence Minister Manohar
Parrikar and Law Minister
Ravi Shankar Prasad must
apologise publicly.
Congress spokesman
Randeep Singh Surjewala
said that it was the soldiers
who were making sacrifices
for the nation but ministers
in the Narendra Modi government were trying to grab
all the credit for the surgical
strikes through “posters and
hoardings”. “Jaan ki qurbani
sainik de aur 100 inch ka
seena Modi ji ka ho (It is the
soldier who is sacrificing his
life but it is the chest of Prime
Minister Narendra Modi that
is swelling with pride to 100
inches),”Surjewala said referring to the surgical military
strikes the Indian army carried out in Pakistan-administered Kashmir on September
29. “The BJP is insulting the
68 years’ saga of bravery and
valour of the Indian Army by
saying that the Indian Army
could strike across the Line of
Control (LoC) for the first
time, and by saying that the
army was like Hanuman who
did not know its prowess.
“The BJP is shamelessly using the valour and sacrifice of
our brave soldiers in order to
garner votes,” he added.
Attacking Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) president
and Modi, Surjewala said:
“Amit Shah said that for the
first time Indian Army carried
out surgical strike across LoC.
And we will take it across the
country. So it’s clear that they
want to use it for political
gains.
“Even on October 9,
Modiji joined the bandwagon and tried to take political advantage of the surgical strikes carried out by
our forces... It is a crime by
Modiji by giving political
colour to surgical strikes.”
Surjewala’s remarks
came in the political war over
the surgical strikes that came
in wake of the September 18
terror attack on the Indian
army camp in Jammu and
Kashmir’s Uri town, leaving
19 soldiers dead. Congress
Vice President Rahul Gandhi,
concluding his ‘Kisan Yatra’
here on October 6, had accused Prime Minister Modi of
playing politics over the
blood of soldiers. Surjewala
also hit out at the government for denying that surgical strikes were also carried
out earlier.
“The army carried out
Operation Ginger across LoC
in 2011 and it was revealed
by Maj Gen Sanjay K.
Chakravorty (retd),” he said,
noting that several other
generals have also said that
such strikes took place.
“Congress
never
publicised the surgical
strikes for votes, and those
who wanted answers were
instead given a befitting reply by our brave army,” he
said. He said the armed
forces give their lives for the
country’s 125 million people,
not for any political party and
asked the government to
learn from families of martyrs
who urged them not to
politicise the martyrdom.
Questioning the Modi
government’s attitudes, he
said:“On one hand, there is a
competition to take credit for
the surgical strikes while on
the other, the government is
discriminating against the
forces.We want to ask Modiji
that instead of One Rank
One Pension, why did he
launch One Rank, Many Pensions.” Asking why the government didn’t accept the
service chiefs’ recommendations for the Seventh Pay
Commission, Surjewala also
sought to know why disability pension to the forces was
reduced on September 30 a day after the strikes.
“Modiji, Amit Shah and
Parrikar must apologise to
the nation for using the
armed forces for political
gains and commit that they
will never repeat such practice in future,” he
demamnded and also
sought rollback of the order
reducing disability pensions.—IANS
Haryana Health Minister Anil Vij flagging off vaccine vans ‘MAA’ (Mothers
Absolute Affection), to promote breastfeeding programme, in Panchkula
Business
WESTERN TIMES AHMEDABAD
WEDNESDAY, 12/10/2016
India has raised market access
issues with China: Sitharaman
New Delhi,
India has again raised
the issue of greater market
access for its goods and services in China with a view to
increase exports and reduce
the widening trade deficit
against it, Commerce Minister
N i r m a l a
Sitharaman said
on Monday.
“I have spoken
to him (China’s ambassador designate to India) in
detail about various areas on
which I want Chinese to respond to
us ... He has assured me that he
would look into it
and come back to
us,” she told reporters here referring to a recent meeting.
Sitharaman said she has
flagged various issues with
the Chinese side about areas like IT and pharmaceuticals.
“If exports to China
should happen, it should
happen directly from India
to China. There are several
Indian IT companies who
have established business in
China but whose operations
are lagging behind schedule because permissions are
not given easily and inspec-
tions are happening over
and over again,” she said after launching a dashboard
on foreign trade data.
“So there are many such
issues which I have listed
out. We are talking to them
to get the greater market
access. Our companies do
not get market access. So we
are definitely working with
Chinese to see how best we
can increase our goods market access in China,” she
added.
In 2015-16, India’s exports to China were $9 billion, imports were $61.7 billion, leaving a trade deficit of
$52.7 billion.
Earlier this month, India’s
Niti Aayog had said there is
a need to find sustainable
ways to correct the large
imbalance in bilateral trade
flows.
“We have a high level of
trade deficit with China. We
must push investments
abnd change “Made in
China” to “Invested by China,
Made in India,” Niti Aayog
CEO Amitabh Kant tweeted.
Sitharaman also said the
fall in exports has been arrested and its growth is expected to be slow but
steady in the coming
months.
“At the moment, the fall
is arrested... the growth is
happening. We will only be
looking at the steady
growth. It may be slow but
steady,” she said.
India’s exports in August at $21.15 billion fell
marginally by 0.3 per
cent, compared to $21.58
billion expor ted in August 2015, indicating that
the trend of continuous
decline in Indian exports
that had occur red till
June this year has been
halted.
Further, India’s trade
deficit in August this year at
$7.67 billion witnessed a 38
per cent fall compared to
the same month last year at
$12.40 billion, commerce
ministry data showed last
month.—IANS
Minister for Science & Technology, Social Welfare, ARI & Trainings, Jammu
& Kashmir Sajad Gani Lone calling on the Minister of State for Development
of North Eastern Region (I/C), Prime Minister’s Office, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space Jitendra Singh, in New Delhi
Business Brief
US dollar rises after second
presidential debate
New York,
Fateh Jung Singh Bajwa, General Secretary, Punjab Pardesh Congerss Committee (PPCC) with Inderjit Singh Zira, Chairman Kisan and Khet Majdoor Cell,
PPCC submitting a memorandum to Manjit Singh Narang, Additional Chief
Electoral Officer, Punjab in Chandigarh
Facebook makes Workplace
app available for all
San Francisco,
Buoyed by the positive
response from over 1,000
companies that are currently
using Workplace (formerly
known as Facebook at Work)
including in India, the company has announced
it will make the app
available to all.
This means you
can chat with a colleague across the
world in real time,
host a virtual brainstorm in a Group or follow
along with your CEO’s presentation on Facebook Live.
“People have created
nearly 100,000 groups and
the top five countries using
Workplace are India, the US,
Norway, UK and France,”
Facebook said in a statement
on Tuesday.
“We’re announcing that
Workplace will now be available to any company or
organisation that wants to
use it,” it added.
Large multinational companies like Danone, Starbucks
and Booking.com, international nonprofits such as
Oxfam and regional leaders
India’s factory output remains
subdued in August 2016
New Delhi,
India’s factory output remained subdued for the
second consecutive month
- decelerating by (-) 0.7 per
cent in August from a decline of (-) 2.49 per cent in
July and a 6.3 per cent rise
in the same month last year,
official data showed on
Monday, while India Inc
called for efforts to address
structural bottlenecks in a
context where private investment remains sluggish.
As per the data on Index
of Industrial Production (IIP)
released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), the fall
was mainly on account of a
(-) 0.3 per cent drop in
manufacturing output,
which also has the maximum weight in the overall
index.
Among the other two
major sub-indices, electricity generation inched up by
0.1 per cent while that for
mining declined by (-) 5.6
per cent.
The cumulative growth
of the country’s factory output declined by (-) 0.3 per
cent in the first five months
of the current fiscal, as
against cumulative growth
of 4.1 per cent during the
corresponding period of last
fiscal.
In addition, the data revealed that among the six
use-based classifications of
the index, the output of consumer durables segment
expanded by 2.3 per cent in
August.
The consumer goods
segment’s output increased
by 1.1 per cent, whereas the
consumer non-durables
segment inched-up by 0.1
per cent.
However, capital goods
segment, which is a key indicator of economic activity
plunged by (-) 22.2 per cent.
The basic and intermediate goods’ output rose by
3.2 per cent and 3.6 per cent,
respectively.
Overall, only seven out
Kesha files order
against Dr. Luke
New York,
Singer Kesha has filed a
protective order against
musician Dr. Luke to protect
her medical records.
Kesha is asking a Manhattan judge
not to let “her
most sensitive
m e d i c a l
records including gynecological, psychiatric, and
rehabilitation
records going
back more
than
ten
years”
be
made public, reports
aceshowbiz.com.
Dr. Luke’s team is allegedly attempting to deny
their confidentiality.
“Ms. (Kesha Rose) Sebert
now fears that Gottwald will
seek to disclose and disseminate her personal
medical records in an attempt to embarrass and harass her, and she seeks the
CHANGE OF NAME
I have changed my old name
from PATELIYA
MUKUNDKUMAR to New
Name PATELIYA
MUKUNDKUMAR
DAHYABHAI Add. : 1/12,
Vankar Faliyu Vavadikhurd Ta.
Godhra, Dist.Panchmahals
B004
of the 22 industry groups in
the manufacturing sector
have shown negative
growth during the month
under review.
Segment-wise, growth
was witnessed in ‘fruit pulp’
(762 per cent), ‘air conditioner (room)’ (59.1 per
cent), ‘instant food mixes
(ready to eat)’ (46.5 per cent),
‘ship building and repairs’
(41.1 per cent), ‘scooter and
mopeds’ (33.3 per cent),
‘stainless/ alloy steel’ (31.8
per cent), and ‘boilers’ (22.8
per cent).
High negative growth
was reported in the ‘cable,
rubber insulated’ ((-) 86.2
per cent), ‘sugar machinery’
((-) 65.5 per cent), ‘wollen
carpets’ ((-) 35.7 per cent)
and ‘gems and jewellery’ ((-)
31 per cent).
Commenting on the
data, industry chamber Ficci
said:“The depressed private
investment climate and global economic growth continues to impact the manu-
Turkey orders arrest
of 125 police
officers
Ankara,
entry of a protective order
precluding him from doing
so,” Kesha’s attorney James
Pearl wrote to Manhattan
Supreme Court Justice
Shirley Werner Kornreich.
Pearl added:
“(Kesha) has disclosed highly
sensitive personal medical
records as part
of this litigation,
and her position as a worldrenowned recording artist in
whom there is
great public interest renders any potential
disclosure of those records
potentially harmful to her
personal and economic interests.”
The order request
comes after Dr. Luke’s legal
team refused to agree to
keep Kesha’s 913 pages of
medical records confidential.
Warrants were issued on
Tuesday to arrest 125 police
officers suspected of having
ties with Islamic preacher
Fetullah Gulen, who was accused by the Turkish government of being the mastermind of the country’s
failed attempted coup in
July. The officers, including
30 deputy divisional chiefs,
are accused of using ByLock,
an encrypted messaging
app that is supposedly developed by the Gulen movement, to allow members to
communicate securely, EFE
news reported. On October
7, arrest warrants against
166 police officers were issued for the same reason.
On October 4, 12,801 officers were suspended for
their alleged membership in
the Fetullah
Terrorist
Organisation. Since the
failed attempted coup, tens
of thousands of soldiers, police officers, judges, teachers
and university professors
have been suspended or arrested for alleged ties to
Gulen.
Disclaimer
CHANGE OF SURNAME
Adverstisement
appeared in this News
Paper have not been
verified factually and
“WESTERNTIMES” does
not stand responsible for
the sales proposition.
I have changed my old
Surname from PANCHAL
MAYANKKUMAR BABULAL
to SUTHAR MAYANKKUMAR
BABULAL
Add. : At. Po: Isari, Ta:
Meghraj, Dist. Arvalli, 383251,
C050
7
facturing sector growth in
India.”
“Private investment activity remains sluggish and
Ficci calls for sustained efforts to address the structural bottlenecks in the
economy,” said its Secretary
General A. Didar Singh.
Industry
body
Assocham described the
data as “a dampener with a
huge drop in capital goods,
meaning thereby the investment cycle is stubbornly
stuck in a shell”.
“Even the manufacturing reporting degrowth and
electricity not making any
move is a matter of concern
and the IIP scenario does
not really gel well with the
big picture target of 7.6 per
cent growth,” Assocham
Secretary General D.S. Rawat
said in a statement, adding
it was “time to consider
some serious measures” to
boost consumption-driven
demand, leading to new investment.—IANS
such as YES Bank in India and
the Government Technology
Agency of Singapore have all
embraced Workplace.
“It’s a whole new paradigm in employee engagement! L&T @Work is leading
our thrust to digital.
Technology is nothing
without people and this platform reflects the perfect synergy of people driving technology,”
said
SN
Subrahmanyam, Deputy
Managing Director and President, Larsen & Toubro.
Facebook also announced a competitive pricing model that is based on a
monthly fee per active user.
“The more active users an
organisation has, the less they
pay per user. So $3 per user is
for first 1,000 monthly active
users, $2 for 1,001-10,000
monthly active users and $1
for 10,000+ monthly active
users,” it said.“We’ve brought
the best of Facebook to the
Workplace a” whether it’s basic infrastructure such as
News Feed, or the ability to
create and share in Groups or
via chat, or useful features
such as Live, Reactions,Search
andTrending posts,”the company added.“We’ve also built
unique, Workplace-only features that companies can
benefit from such as a dashboard with analytics and integrations with single signon, in addition to identity providers that allow companies
to more easily integrate Workplace with their existing IT
systems,” noted Facebook.
The company also announced “Multi-Company
Groups” - shared spaces that
allow employees from different organisations to work together and extend collaboration beyond their companies
in a safe and secure way.
“This will be rolling out to
all customers in the coming
weeks,” Facebook said.
“Workplace will be priced
competitively - companies
only pay for people who are
actively using the product,” it
added.—IANS
Union government to partly fund
gas pipeline project in east
New Delhi,
The Union government
has agreed to partly fund
the Rs 12,940-crore natural
gas pipeline project of staterun Gas Authority of India
Ltd (Gail) from Uttar
Pradesh’s Jagdishpur in
Uttar Pradesh to West
Bengal’s Haldia.
In a regulatory filing to
the National Stock Exchange on Monday, Gail said
the viability gap funding
would be Rs 5,176 crore or
40 per cent of the cost for
the 2,539-km JagdishpurHaldia
and
Bokaro
(Jharkhand)-Dhamra
(Odisha) gas pipeline
project.
The pipeline will carry
gas from western offshore
fields and fuel imported in
Gujarat and Maharashtra up
to Jagdishpur.
The ambitious project,
when completed by 2020,
will provide natural gas to
the industrial, commercial,
domestic and transport sectors across Uttar Pradesh,
Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha
and West Bengal.
The capital grant will
encourage supply of ecofriendly fuel at affordable
tariffs to industries and
boost industrial development in the five states.
The Cabinet Committee
on Economic Affairs, under
the chairmanship of Prime
Minister Narendra Modi, on
September 21 approved the
capital support for the
project, connecting eastern
part of the country with the
national gas grid.
“ The filing also said
that the project will be
implemented
in
synchronisation with the
execution of three anchor
lead fer tiliser plants at
Gorakhpur (UP), Barauni
(Bihar)
and
Sindr i
(Jharkhand), which will
enter into an agreement
with Gail for the gas supply. The project also envisages the development of
city gas distribution networks in Varanasi, Patna,
Ranchi,
Kolkata,
Jamshedpur, Bhubaneswar
and Cuttack, which are
along the pipeline project.
Embassy ties up with Hilton
for star hotel in Bengaluru
Bengaluru,
Leading property developer Embassy Group has
tied up with international
hospitality major Hilton to
build a 586-room dual
branded star hotel in this
tech hub, said the realtor on
Tuesday. “As per the agreement signed recently, the
twin hotel will be developed
and owned by our group,
while Hilton will manage it,”
said Embassy in a statement.
Set to be located in the Embassy Manyata Business
Park in the north-east suburb, the hotel will have 250
rooms at Hilton and 336
rooms at Hilton Garden Inn,
with 46,000 sq.ft. of meetings and events space that
can accommodate up to
1,500 people.
“The hotel complex,
when completed by 2020,
will have a food and beverage hub and two commercial towers. It will also sport
an iconic design drawn by
Singapore-based Andy
Fisher workshop,” said Embassy Chairman and Managing Director Jitu Virwani.
The star hotel will offer
the rooms at two price
points to serve the needs of
global firms located in and
around the sprawling park.
Both the partners, which
run a brand hotel-cum-re-
sorts at Embassy GolfLinks
in the city’s eastern suburb,
plan to build a mega hospitality project at the 100-acre
Embassy Tech-Village in the
nearby suburb.
HC annoyed at failure
to remove illegal
speed breakers
New Delhi,
The Delhi High Court
has pulled up the road
maintaining authorities
here for their failure to completely remove all the speed
breakers which were identified as unauthorised.
A division bench of Justice B.D. Ahmed and Justice
Ashutosh Kumar was irked
at the response of the civic
bodies that they have not
completely removed all illegal speed breakers coming
up without permission, and
directed all agencies to
complete the process by
next date of hearing on November 30. The court was
hearing two petitions filed
in public interest against the
unauthorised construction
of speed breakers on city
roads without complying
with the guidelines of Indian Road Congress or the
Unified Traffic and Transportation Infrastructure Centre.—IANS
“Partnering with Hilton
in developing two more hotels is part of our strategy in
the hospitality business as
it’s a global leader in the sector and known for quality
service and attention to detail,” noted Embassy Chief
Executive Mike Holland.
The partnership will also
help Embassy in providing
synergy with its 175 international corporate occupier
clientele across its commercial parks.
“We see growing awareness of our global brand in
the sub-continent and our
partnership with Embassy
reaffirms our commitment
to India as an important
market where we operate
15 hotels in 11 cities across
the country,” said Guy
Phillips, Hilton senior VicePresident for Asia.
The three decades old
realty group, which has an
extensive land bank, developed a whopping 37-million square feet prime commercial, residential and retail space across the country
and in Malaysia and Serbia.
The US-based 97-yearold Hilton has 4,700 managed, franchised, owned
and leased hotels and timeshare properties, with
775,000 rooms in 104 countries the world over.
The US dollar rose against most major currencies on Monday as investors were digesting the latest information from Sunday’s second US presidential debate. In late New York trading, the euro fell to
$1.1139 from $1.1173, and the British pound declined to $1.2356 from $1.2441, Xinhua news agency
reported. The Australian dollar increased to $0.7605
from $0.7577.
The dollar bought 103.69 Japanese yen, higher
than 103.21 yen in the previous session. The dollar
inched up to 0.9827 Swiss francs from 0.9792 Swiss
francs, and it fell to 1.3170 Canadian dollars from
1.3273 Canadian dollars.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump
and his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton went after
each other relentlessly on Sunday night in the second presidential debate, hitting each other hard
with scandals.
Trump’s campaign has been under fire recently,
after a leaked 2005 video of the billionaire’s vulgar
remarks about women caused uproar.
With no major data from the country, investors
were still sifting through the latest US nonfarm payroll report. US total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 156,000 in September, lower than the
market estimates of 176,000, and the unemployment rate rose slightly to 5 percent, according to
the Labor Department on Friday.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback
against six major peers, was up 0.30 per cent at
96.921 in late trading.—IANS
Oil prices rally on output-cut
expectation
New York,
Oil prices ended higher on Monday after Russia
said it was ready to curb crude output.
“Russia is ready to join in joint measures to limit
output and calls on other oil exporters to do the
same,” said Russian President Vladimir Putin on
Monday at the World Energy Congress in Istanbul,
Xinhua news agency reported.
The West Texas Intermediate for November delivery added $1.54 to settle at $51.35 a barrel on the
New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude
for December delivery increased $1.21 to close at
$53.14 a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.
“In the current situation, we think that a freeze
or even a cut in oil production is probably the only
proper decision to preserve stability in the global
energy market,” he said.
Oil prices had advanced over 11 per cent since
the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries reached a deal last Wednesday to cut crude
output for the first time in eight years. The group’s
oil ministers are expected to hammer out the final
details of an agreement at their next official meeting on November 30 in Vienna.—IANS
Lenovo Z2 Plus: Smartphone that
packs quite a punch
New Delhi,
Touted as one of its premium yet affordable flagship devices, the positioning of Chinese
smartphone
maker Lenovo’s
new Z2 Plus in
the
sub-Rs
20,000 market
makes it lucrative for a simple
reason: It packs
so much that it
will make players
like
Xiaomi,
which has a
strong presence
in India, run for
cover.
Z2 Plus was
launched
in
China earlier this
year as ZUK Z2 but in India, the company is using its
own name to target a huge customer base (the box,
however, carries ‘Powered by ZUK’ branding).
The device, which represents Lenovo’s ZUK family of smartphones, differs from the company’s Vibe
series as it does not carry Vibe UI and runs on ZUI
on top of an Android Marshmallow operating system (OS).
The Lenovo Z2 Plus is priced at Rs 19,999 for the
4GB/64GB and Rs 17,999 for the 3GB/32GB variant.
Here’s what works for the 4GB device we tested.
The Z2 Plus is built differently from other flagship smartphones we have seen so far. The device
does not have a metal finish. Rather, it sports a fibre
glass frame with a 2.5D curved glass that gives it a
refreshing look. The frame also gives it a sturdy feel.
It is not as thin as most premium devices but
uses a 5-inch display, making it the smallest handset among the flagship Android smartphones. The
1920x1080 resolution produced natural-looking
colours on screen.
Being compact, the Z2 Plus can easily be used
with one hand and people who want a small-sized
powerful gadget will love this.
The physical home button also acts as fingerprint sensor that Lenovo calls“U-Touch” and enables
users to programme seven different gestures and
shortcuts into it.
China’s economy better than
expected: PM
Beijing,
China’s economy has so far fared better than
expected this year, Prime Minister Li Keqiang said
on Tuesday, citing the increase of new jobs and contribution of domestic consumption and the service
industry to overall economic growth.
“On the whole, the economy this year, especially
in the third quarter (Q3), is better than expected,”
said Li while addressing the opening of a cooperation conference between China and Macao.
China’s economy in Q3 not only continued the
growth momentum in the first half of this year, but
also featured some positive changes, said Li, adding that China was fully capable of maintaining
medium to high speed growth.
Consumption and the service sector contributed more to economic growth and some important indices, which had previously weakened or
declined, were stabilising and becoming positive,
said the Prime Minister.
Industrial growth, corporate profits and investment, especially private investment, were also
stabilising and recovering, said Li.
In the first nine months, China created more
than 10 million jobs in cities and towns, with the
urban surveyed unemployment rate in 31 big cities
coming in at less than 5 per cent in September, the
first time in recent years, said the premier.
China created more than 13 million new jobs in
cities and towns annually in the past three years
despite the economic slowdown.
China’s economy grew 6.7 per cent in the first
half of the year, within the government’s target
range of 6.5-7 per cent for 2016. —IANS
Ahmedabad, Page 7
8
CMYK
Sports
WESTERN TIMES AHMEDABAD
WEDNESDAY, 12/10/2016
News in a Nutshell
Tsonga cruises into second round of
Shanghai Masters
Shanghai,
French tennis player Jo-Wilfried Tsonga debuted
on Monday at the Shanghai Masters with a comfortable win over Germany’s Florian Mayer.
Tsonga managed to defeat Mayer 6-3, 6-2 in 71
minutes, reports Efe.
The Frenchman, ranked 13 in the world, will now
face Serbia’s Janko Tipsarevic in the second round.
The Shanghai Masters is the penultimate ATP
World Tour Masters tournament of the year, and includes the world’s tennis stars, except the injured
Roger Federer, Kei Nishikori and Dominic Thiem.—
BCCI calls for SGM on Saturday:
Report
New Delhi,
Under pressure from the Supreme Court to implement the Justice R.M. Lodha panel recommendations,
the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has
called for a Special General Meeting (SGM) on Saturday here to discuss the interim order passed by the
apex court last week.
The court had ordered the board and state associations to respond by October 17 whether they
would “unconditionally” comply with the Lodha
Committee’s recommendations.
According to a report in espncricinfo, this week’s
SGM is the second such emergent meeting called by
the BCCI in the last two weeks after the October 1
SGM, where a defiant BCCI board agreed to adopt
some of the recommendations.
Infuriated by the BCCI’s decision, the three-judge
bench warned the board to stop issuing funds to errant state associations which did not implement the
recommendations.
Both BCCI President Anurag Thakur and secretary
Ajay Shirke are currently in Cape Town, South Africa
for the International Cricket Council (ICC) meetings,
which started on Monday and will culminate on Friday.—IANS
England outplay Australia 69-25 in
Kabaddi World Cup
Ahmedabad,
England outclassed Australia with a score of 6925 in a group A match of the 2016 Kabaddi World Cup
here on Monday.
The main architect of England’s win was raider
Tope who single-handedly scored 20 points for his
team. He was followed by another raider, Keshav
Gupta, who bagged eight points and after him came
captain Someshwar Kalia who got his team eight
points. Kalia was also successful in making four pursuits which fetched his team important points. The
pursuits showed that he was alert on the field and
looking for all opportunities to score.
Another important aspect of the match was that
England scored an all-out on five occasions. Of these
three were in the first half and the remaining two in
the second. The half-time score in this match was 3511 in England’s favour. England began dominating the
match right from the start and went on increasing its
lead with every passing minute. During the first half,
Tope got 11 points for his team while Keshav got five.
Keshav was followed by Kalia who got two points.
C
M
Y
K
HOLLAND 0-1 FRANCE: Paul Pogba's venomous 30-yard strike was enough for France to record a slender victory over Holland in Amsterdam. Pogba lashed
France in front, with the Manchester United midfielder picking the ball up from Dimitri Payet before unleashing a swerving shot from 30 yards which Maarten
Stekelenburg couldn't keep out.
ICC to present Test
mace to India after
Indore Test
Indore,
The International Cricket
Council (ICC) announced on
Tuesday it would present
the Test championship
mace to India skipper Virat
Kohli after the end of the
third and final Test against
New Zealand at the Holkar
Stadium here.
India is assured of the
top spot, but will officially
overtake Pakistan at the top
only when the rankings are
updated at the end of the
series. On behalf of the ICC,
former India captain and ICC
Cricket Hall of Famer Sunil
Gavaskar will make the presentation immediately after
the awards ceremony for
the series. The mace was
produced by the then British Crown Jeweller, Asprey
and Garrard, in 2001, which
was commissioned to make
a distinctive prize designed
to stand out from other
cricket trophies. It was valued at $36,894 (30,000
pounds) in 2001 and automatically passes from one
team to another as results
confirm a change of leadership in the ICC Test team
rankings chart.
Inter’s Icardi lashes out at
Maradona for comment on affair
Milan,
Italian Serie A giants Inter Milan and Argentina
striker Mauro Icardi has
lashed out at country’s football icon Diego Maradona
for chastising him as he had
an affair with the wife of
former team-mate Maxi.
Back in 2013, Icardi had
a relationship with Wanda
Nara, who was married to
his then Sampdoria teammate Lopez and then later
went on to have a child together and get married.
Maradona
labelled
Icardi a ‘traitor’ when speaking at a press conference to
promote the Match for
Peace organised by the
Vatican.
“I don’t know if Icardi will
be called-up for the national
team,” Maradona told reporters on Monday.
“I don’t speak about traitors. I’m here for the Match
for Peace and Icardi has
nothing to do with it.”
Icardi said the comments were ‘tasteless’ and
that the Argentina legend
was not an example to anyone off the pitch.
Speaking to Sky Sport
Italia, Icardi said: ‘He was a
great player, but outside of
football I can’t respond to
anything.
“I think he’s come across
badly as he did last year, and
an interview like that has
nothing to do with peace.
Oscar de Marcos to
make 300th appearance
with Athletic Bilbao
Bilbao (Spain)
Midfielder Oscar de
Marcos will play his 300th
official match with Athletic
Bilbao in the eighth round
of La Liga football tournament against Real Sociedad
on Sunday at the San
Mames here.
The Spanish professional player signed for
Bilbao in summer 2009 from
Alaves and debuted under
the leadership of Joaquin
Caparros on August 6 in a
European clash against
Swiss side Young Boys in
Bern, reports Efe.
The 27-year-old played
with Athletic in 212 La Liga
games, 29 in Copa del Rey,
55 in Europe and three in
the Super Cup in which he
scored 28 goals.
Kenya’s Kirui targets London
win after victory in Chicago
Nairobi,
Chicago
marathon
champion Abel Kirui, who
has not won a marathon
since his triumph at the
2011 World Championships,
is eyeing his third title in the
competition, and to become
the first man to do so in London 2017 where the World
Championships will be held.
“I have done well to
show that I still have the energy and the tactics to win
big city marathons,” he said
on Monday.
“What remains is to
prove in another event that
the win in Chicago was no
fluke. I have trained hard
and deserve the credit and
will continue to prove to my
critics that I was in the best
of my shape.”
With the odds against
him Kirui emerged from the
shadows of defending
champion Dickson Chumba
on Sunday to affirm his spot
among the greatest marathon runners to claim the
Chiocago title in 2:11:23,
which is almost eight min-
utes off the course mark set
by Dennis Kimetto in 2014.
It was however, Kirui’s
first marathon win since the
2011 World Championships,
which proved that he has
still got it as it was a victory
in a tactical contest ahead of
reigning champion Dickson
Chumba (2:11:26).
Kirui hopes to race in the
London Marathon next year
ahead of the World Championships where he could aim
for a third gold medal, reports Xinhua. Kenyan runners occupied the top five
places with Gideon Kipketer
(2:12:20), Paul Lonyangata
(2:13:17) and debutant
Stephen Sambu (2:13:35)
next to finish with Ethiopia’s
Ayanleh Abele sixth in
2:13:52. Diego Estrada was
the top American finisher in
eighth in 2:13:56. While the
winning time in the men’s
race was the slowest since
1993, the women’ s race was
one of the fastest in recent
years. Florence Kiplagat
dropped a 16:17 5 km split
between 30-35 km to break
away from the lead group
and defend her title in
2:21:32 to become the first
back-to-back winner of the
women’s race since Berhane
Adere in 2007.
Former World champion
Edna Kiplagat was second in
2:23:28 with Valentine
Kipketer, the sister of
Gideon, third in 2:23:41.
Boston Marathon winner Atsede Baysa from
Ethiopia was sixth in 2:28:53,
one place ahead of top
American finisher Serena
Burla (2:30:40).—IANS
Australia wary of Japan ahead of crucial World Cup qualifier
Melbourne,
With just one point
separating the top four
teams in the group, the 2018
football World Cup qualifying match between Australia and Japan on Tuesday
could prove crucial to both
nations’ hopes of making it
to Russia.
The game, to be played
at Melbourne’s Docklands
Stadium, is shaping as one
of the most important of the
Asian qualification tournament to date with Australia,
currently on top of the
group with seven points
from three games, hoping to
create a substantial gap between themselves and
Saudi Arabia, reports
Xinhua. On the other hand
Japan, currently sitting
fourth in the group on six
points following a shock
loss to the United Arab Emir-
ISL: Pune eye full points from home run
Pune,
FC Pune City are targeting a maximum of nine
points from their next three
matches, all at home, as they
hunt for a place in the semifinals of the third edition of
the Indian Super League
(ISL).
FC Pune City opened
their account with a late
winner against FC Goa last
week and now return home
to tackle NorthEast United
FC at Shree Shiv Chhatrapati
Sports Complex Stadium
here on Wednesday.
This will be followed by
two more home matches
against Kerala Blasters (October 17) and Chennaiyin FC
(October 23) even as assistant coach Miguel made it
known that they would
settle for maximum points
and nothing else.
“We have three games
at home and these games
are very crucial for us to get
the nine points which will
help us to go ahead in the
league and qualify for the
semis. We start with
NorthEast and we know
they are in good form but
we are playing at home and
with the Goa win, it will increase our confidence to
play well,” said Miguel, who
will continue to hold charge
till chief coach Antonio
Habas returns to the side after serving a four-match suspension.
FC Pune City needed a
dramatic 90th minute winner against FC Goa to collect
full points against FC Goa for
their first win. The performance was encouraging,
and
with
marquee
Mohamed Sissoko stamping his authority on debut
alongside Jonatan Lucca in
midfield, there was all-round
appreciation.
“It was the first game
they played together. They
can do better but they performed really well as they
understand each other,”
Miguel said.
NorthEast United FC
were grounded by Mumbai
City FC after two consecutive wins at home and coach
Nelo Vingada will have to do
a lot more to ensure that his
side does not remain giants
only at home.
“I am proud of the players even though we made
some mistakes, missed a
couple of chances? But this
is football, these mistakes
happen because we play
with men and not with robots and machines. I am
leaving with this performance and not the result. I
am leaving Mumbai more
optimistic than I was even
before we lost,” the Portuguese coach said after his
team lost by a solitary goal,
thanks to a penalty from Diego Forlan.
Ravichandran Ashwin celebrates with teammates after the wicket of New
Zealand’s Ross Taylor on the 3rd day of 3rd and last test match between Indian
and New Zealand, at Holkar Cricket Stadium in Indore
Ahmedabad, Page 8
ates (UAE) at home in
Saitama, is determined to
remind the world why they
were widely considered one
of the two best teams in the
group alongside Australia.
The Blue Samurai narrowly managed to keep
their dream of making a
sixth consecutive World Cup
alive with a dramatic win
over Iraq, in which
midfielder
Hotaru
Yamaguchi scored a 95th
minute winner, in Saitama
on Thursday. The top two
teams in the group will
qualify for the 2018 FIFA
World Cup in Russia with the
third-placed team to go into
a playoff against a thirdplaced team from another
region.
Ange
Postecoglou,
coach of the‘Socceroos’, said
that his team needs to be
prepared for a Japanese side
that finds itself in an unfamiliar situation, having previously negotiated the
World Cup qualifying tournaments with little difficulty.
“They probably haven’t
started as strongly from a
performance perspective as
they would have liked,”
Postecoglou said.
“The quality of players
they have. Regardless of
how long we’ve been in
Asia, over 10 years, regardless of the form or fluctuations of either, it’s always
tight and I expect it to be
tight on Tuesday”.
“They’ll see it as a big
opportunity for them to
make up for the loss they’ve
had at home. When you lose
points at home you’ve got
to pick up points somewhere away to make up for
it”. “But we’re at home. Conditions will suit us. Crowd
behind us, I think the players will be looking forward
to it.” Postecoglou flagged a
couple of likely changes to
the Australian team that
drew with Saudi Arabia with
midfielder Massimo Luongo,
the 2015 Asian Cup player of
the tournament, set to reclaim a spot in the starting
11 having been relegated to
the bench for the last two
games. “We’re really strong
(in midfield), Mass was unlucky not to start the other
night. When he came on
again, as in the UAE, he really drove us forward,”
Postecoglou said.
Star Japanese midfielder
Keisuke Honda said
Tuesday’s game was “as important as any he has played
for the national team”.
“The entire squad - from
the players to the coaches to
the team staff - understands
the importance of the
match and we have to fight
this like a cup final,” Honda
told reporters here on Saturday. “It’s crucial, there’s no
two ways about that.” An
expected crowd of more
than 45,000 is expected to
attend the game.—IANS
India’s Virat Kohli celebrates his double century against New Zealand during Third Test cricket
match, in Indore .
Tennis officials to target Asian fans
Melbourne,
The 2017 Australian
Open will be more accessible for tennis fans in Asia
and the Pacific than ever
before, tournament directors said on Monday.
For the first time, Tennis
Australia (TA) will promote
the tournament by hosting
major event launches for
the Grand Slam tournament,
the first of the calendar year,
in China, Singapore and Japan, reports Xinhua.
TA ticket websites will
now be published in Mandarin and Japanese and
broadcast deals will be expanded into Asia, via radio
and television. China will
show the Open on CCTV,
Shanghai TV and Iqiyi.
“The Australian Open’ s
profile as the Grand Slam of
Asia-Pacific has been in
place for more than 15 years.
This is a long-term strategy
to invest in the growth of
the sport and our events in
the region and we are always seeking new promotional opportunities,” Craig
Tiley, director of the tournament, said at the official
launch here.
Tiley announced a number of initiatives aimed at
harnessing the Asian market including the most extensive broadcast deals in
the region in the event’ s history and multi-language
websites allowing Chinese
and Japanese tennis fans to
access tickets more easily.
“Independent tourism
continues to increase and
we want to make it easier
than ever for our international fans to access the
Australian Open,” Tiley said.
“Our broadcast reach in
the region continues to expand with China and Japan
among our biggest markets,
and ongoing negotiations
with a number of broadcasters.
“We are the most relatable of the Grand Slam
events in this region. The
time zone works for attracting viewers on television
and Australia is not that far
away.
“In this digital age you
can access tickets to the
Australian Open from anywhere in the world and create your own experience.
This is a big target market
for us and we are using a
variety of platforms to reach
it.”
Of the 720,363 people
who attended the 2016 Australian Open, 13 per cent
came from overseas and injected $ 211 million into
Victoria’ s economy.
“These numbers prove
CMYK
that our ongoing focus on
in-bound tourism, particularly in the Asia Pacific region, is paying dividends
and contributing incredible
economic benefits to
Melbourne and Victoria,”
Tiley said.
Philip Dalidakis, Victoria’
s Acting Minister for Tourism
and Major Events, said the
Victorian government was
fully committed to continuing support for the event.
“This is exactly why cities around the globe dream
of hosting world class
events like a tennis grand
slam,” Dalidakis said.
“Visitors from all over
the world make their way to
Victoria to see for them-
Argentina to face Paraguay
in World Cup qualifier
Buenos Aires,
Argentina will face Paraguay on Tuesday in a crucial
match where Argentina will need a win to keep their hope
alive to qualify for the 2018 Russia World Cup.
The match will be played in the Mario Alberto Kempes
Stadium located in the Argentine city of Cordoba, Xinhua
news agency reported.
The Argentine side, coached by Edgardo Bauza, enter
the match after drawing 2-2 against Peru in the Peruvian
capital of Lima. So far Argentina are fifth with 16 points on
the standings, behind Uruguay, Brazil, Ecuador and Colombia. Only the top teams earn automatic berths to Russia
while the fifth team has to play in playoff.
The coach confirmed that Mateo Musacchi, Martin
Demichelis and Gabriel Mercado would join defence, replacing Ramiro Funes Mori, Nicolas Otamendi and Pablo
Zabaleta, who are all serving a one-match-ban.
Ever Banega will also join the team in midfield, taking
the place of Matias Kranevitter, while Nicolas Gaitan could
replace Angel di Maria. Angel Correa will take up the offence in Sergio “Kun” Aguero’s place, who is injured.
Paraguay come into the match after a 1-0 defeat against
Colombia at home. They are sixth with 12 points. IANS
selves why we are the sporting capital. It brings opportunities for our visitor
economy and more jobs for
Victorians”.
Tiley confirmed that the
top 100 men’s and women’s
players in the world had
committed to competing at
the 2017 Australian Open,
including China’ s Shuai
Zhang and Qiang Wang and
new event ambassador Kei
Nishikori.
“All the top players have
confirmed they’ll be back in
Melbourne in January,” he
said.
“We are incredibly fortunate to be really the only
sporting event in the country where we get the chance
to see the very best in the
world compete right here in
Melbourne.”
World No. 1 Novak
Djokovic said the Australian
Open would always be of
special significance to him.
“The Australian Open is
where I achieved my first
Grand Slam success and it
will always hold a very special place in my heart. Since
I won for the first time in
2008, I’m always amazed at
the wonderful warm welcome I receive every time I
come back, it’s a bit like coming home,” Djokovic said in
a statement. —IANS
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