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HYDERABAD

I THURSDAY I 5 JANUARY 2017

Vol. 80 No. 5 Established 1938 | 40

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COUNTER

POINT

LEFT IN LURCH

US cancels accreditation
panel, Indian students hit
Students

to be denied practical training

J. UMAMAHESHWARA
RAO |DC

OPTIONAL PRACTICAL training

under a US employer is for undergraduate and graduate
students with F-1
(international)
status.

VISAKHAPATNAM, JAN. 4

In a big blow to lakhs of

Indian students, the US
department of education
has revoked its recognition to the Accrediting
Council for Independent
Colleges and Schools
(ACICS).
There
are
about 250 SEVP (student
and exchange visitor
programme) certified
colleges and schools in
the US that were accredited by the ACICS.
Now, following the
revocation of recognition of the US largest
accreditor of for profit
colleges, Indian students
(graduates) of these

institutions are left in

the lurch. They are
denied an extension of
the optional practical
training (OPT) from
December 12.
These students may
also have to migrate to
other colleges as their
institutions have lost
their accreditation and

they will not be eligible

for OPT extension in
future.
Optional
practical
training (OPT) stretches
for a period during
which
undergraduate
and graduate (international) students with F-1
status, who have completed or have been pursuing their degrees for
more than nine months,
are permitted to work by
way of getting practical
training. This is to complement their field of
studies, and would be for
a period of 12 months,
working for a US
employer.
Page 2: Institutions
applying for OPT hard-h
hit

KCR: Fee sop

is impractical

ISRO PUTS OFF

ITS MANNED
MISSION

DC CORRESPONDENT

TIRUPATI, JAN. 4

B.R. SRIKANTH | DC

TS says it inherited `1,880 crore

in arrears from
undivided AP.
In 30 months,
state said it paid
`4,687 crore to
colleges.
It requires `2,500
crore more for the
current academic
year.

HYDERABAD, JAN. 4

UAE seizes
Ds assets
New Delhi: The United
Arab Emirates (UAE)
government on Tuesday
seized assets worth
`15,000 crore of underworld don Dawood
Ibrahim, the mastermind
behind the Mumbai serial
blasts, sources said.
National Security Adviser
Ajit Doval reportedly
pursued the matter with
UAE and requested officials to seize the property. Reports said India
gave a confidential list of
properties belonging to
the don when Prime
Minister Narendra Modi
visited UAE.
Dawood is wanted in
India for the 1993 serial
bomb blasts in Mumbai
in which 257 people
were killed and nearly a
thousand injured. He is
also accused of masterminding other terror
attacks and of money
laundering and extortion.
Agencies

TEAM | MAN

Chief
Minister
K.
Chandrasekhar
Rao
took yet another U-turn
on Wednesday, this
time on his promise of a
fee
reimbursement
scheme for students.
Saying this is found to
be impractical, Mr Rao
cited demonetisation as
one of the reasons for
the change of mind on
his part. Significantly,
he also noted that
numerous substandard
colleges were siphoning
off the government
funds this way.
The Chief Minister
had promised to zero
down the scheme by
clearing all previous fee
arrears, while addressing the Assembly in
March last year. Now,
he made it clear that the

government
would
instead implement the
scheme as it is, meaning the way it was introduced by the former
Congress government.
We have no plan to
scrap the scheme, he
stressed.

Isro has put off by four

years its first experimental manned mission
from 2020 to 2024 on
board a home-grown
GSLV-III rocket.
Speaking on space technology at Indian Science
Congress,
Mr
S.
Somanath,
Director,
Liquid
Propulsion
Systems Centre (LPSC),
Thiruvananthapuram,
said GSLV-III will be
designed to hoist a 10tonne crew module into
low earth orbit. Initially,
the modules will be testflown without a crew, preceded by tests to humanrate the launch vehicle or
make sure that it is safe
for human flight into
space.

P4: Substandard colleges ate up sops: KCR

Page 5: Task at hand to

launch 103 satellites: Isro

Stash estimates go awry,

most old notes deposited
DC CORRESPONDENT
NEW DELHI, JAN. 4

People have deposited

nearly all demonetised
`500 and `1,000 currency
till December 30 which
would mean that government may not realise any
huge bonanza.
Banks have received
`14.97 lakh crore ($220
billion) of the demonetised currency as of

Countrys

The government had

initially estimated that
about `5 lakh crore of
the `15.4 lakh crore rendered worthless by the
sudden move on
November 8 would
remain undeclared.
December 30, according
to a news agency report
on Wednesday quoting
government sources.
It was earlier expected

that a large portion of the

unaccounted money may
not get presented in the
banking system and
hence reduce the RBIs
and the governments liability. This money was
expected to be passed on
to the government by the
Reserve Bank of India in
the form of dividend.
P13: Centre may gain
only `50K-c
cr: Report

successful skipper springs a surprise

Dhoni steps down as ODI, T20 captain

R. MOHAN | DC
CHENNAI, JAN. 4

Mahendra Singh Dhonis

decision to step down as
Indias ODI and T20 captain
came in the same dramatic
fashion associated with the
dashing skipper.
The announcement came
through the BCCIs twitter
handle.
There was the same element of surprise to it as
there had been in Dhonis
decision to quit Test cricket altogether, which he took
suddenly on the eve of a
Test match in Australia in

Dhoni has so far scored 9,110

runs in 283 ODIs at an average of
50.89 with 183 not out being his
highest score.
Besides, the wicket-keeper
batsman has so far made
1,112 runs from 73 T20
Internationals.
the 2014-15 season. The
skipper was never the one
to come up before the
media and make a formal
announcement of his plans.
He has always routed his

retirement
decisions
through the cricket board,
a somewhat conservative
manner to do it as opposed
to his flamboyant style as
leader, batsman and wick-

et-keeper. This is not to

knock down his enormous
contribution to Indian
cricket not only in all the
famous
victories
he
notched up like in the inaugural T20 worlds, the World
Cup of 2011 and the Test
wins which propelled India
to the No. 1 ranking for the
first time back in 2009.
But it does appear he tarried a bit after carrying his
team to sensational performances in the theatre of
limited-overs cricket.
Page 15: Dhoni may play
Champions Trophy

OPINION POLL:
BJP IS ALL SET
TO GAIN IN UP
New Delhi, Jan. 4: If the
opinion poll predictions
are anything to go by,
looks like the 14-year-old
exile of BJP in UP, which
Prime Minister Narendra Modi also referred
to in his speech, is about
to end.
According to the opinion poll done by Axis-MyIndia for a national channel, the BJP is projected
to secure a majority by
bagging between 206-216
seats in UP. This is about
30 seats more than the
number of seats the BJP
was projected to bag in
the first UP opinion poll
done by Axis My India in
October.
The
five
Assembly elections are
the first major test after
demonetisation.
Also, SP, currently
busy with infighting, is
likely to emerge as the
second largest party bagging between 92-97 seats.
Despite the problems in
the party in the last three
months the SPs graph
seems to have risen while
the BSP has slipped from
second to third place.
Agencies

PAGES

| `4.00

EC says will keep strict vigil on black money

Polls in 5 states,
7 phases for UP
DC CORRESPONDENT
NEW DELHI, JAN. 4

The Election Commission

announced on Wednesday
the schedule for Assembly
elections in five states.
Politically crucial Uttar
Pradesh,
Punjab,
Uttarakhand, Goa and
Manipur will go to polls
between February 4 and
March 8.
The polls are considered
significant as their outcomes are likely to reflect
the peoples verdict on
Prime Minister Narendra
Modis
demonetisation
move implemented late
last year. While UP will see
polling in seven phases, it
will be a one-day affair in
Uttarakhand, Punjab and
Goa; and a two-day exercise in Manipur.
Counting of votes will be
taken up together in all
states on March 11, the EC
said.
Making
the
announcement,
CEC

ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS 2017

UTTAR PRADESH
7 phases
Total seats: 403
Voting
February 11
February 15
February 19
February 23
February 27
March 4
March 8

PG 7|

MANIPUR (60 seats)

Two phases
Voting March 4, 8
GOA (40 seats)
Voting February 4
PUNJAB 117 seats
Voting February 4
UTTARAKHAND 70 seats
Voting February 15

COUNTING ON MARCH 11

CENTRE NOT TO DEFER BUDGET

Nasim Zaidi said that the

EC would keep a watch on
the use of black money,
which is expected to come
down due to demonetisation. Steps will be taken to
ensure that other illegal
inducements are not used
to influence voters, he said.
The model code of con-

duct will come into immediate effect, and will apply

to political parties and
state governments concerned, besides the Central
government in terms of
announcements in these
states, Mr Zaidi said.
More report s on Page 7

City

Minister Harish Rao visits

Siddipet to identify site for
government medical college
DECCAN CHRONICLE

I was run out

though it
was not
my fault
K. Pradeep
Chandra,
Former chief
secretary,
on Centre refusing
him extension
of tenure

BRIEF

HUMANS TO
BLAME FOR
HEAT DEATHS
DC CORRESPONDENT
HYDERABAD, JAN 4:

The heatwaves that caused the

deaths of 2,500 people across
the states of Telangana and
Andhra Pradesh, in 2015, were
a result of climate change
caused by humans.
This was the finding in a
study on the heat waves that
hit India and Pakistan in the
months of May to July in 2015.
It was carried out by scientists
from the Berkeley National
Laboratory in California and
the
Indian
Institute
of
Technology, Delhi.
They concluded that both the
heatwaves "were exacerbated
by anthropogenic climate
change". The conclusion was
arrived at after the scientists
ran many simulations on computers of "factual" - meaning
the real situation of climate and "counterfactual", meaning
how the climate would have
been without interference
from humans.
They used the Community
Atmospheric Model (CAM5.1)
developed by the Centre for
Atmospheric Research.
During simulations, there
was a big human-induced
increase in heat index a
measure of how hot it feels
due to effect of relative humidity and actual temperature.

PARASITE
ALERT IN
PIGEONS
DC CORRESPONDENT
HYDERABAD, JAN 4:

Veterinary
parasitologists
now believe there needs to be a
mechanism in place for surveillance on pigeons in the city
to determine what kind of
microbes they are carrying.
A study by researchers from
the Department of Veterinary
Parasitology
at
the
Government
College
of
Veterinary
Science,
at
Rajendranagar in the city,
found that at least 25 per cent
of the pigeon population in the
city were infected with parasites. Parasites are divided
into internal and external parasites. Internal parasites are
those that dwell inside their
host and are further divided
into helminths (macro) and
protozoan (micro) parasites.
In the study in Hyderabad,
which was led by Dr G.S.
Sreenivasamurthy from the
College of Veterinary Science,
370 fresh samples of pigeon
droppings were collected from
in and around Hyderabad. Of
these, 121 were found to be
infected with protozoan infections. Protozoans usually
reside in blood and rupture
red blood cells, leading to
death of the infected bird.
And from the 370 samples, 90
tested positive for helminthic
infections. Helminths, the
macro-parasites are further
categorised into cestodes (tape
worms) and nematodes (flat
worms). Several samples were
also found to be infected with
tapeworms. The worms feed
and grow inside the bird's
body and can cause death.
Our research concludes that
overall incidence of helminthic infection in pigeons is high
and their migratory behavior
is to blame. A better understanding of their role in the
disease epidemiology has to be
gained by using tracking
strategies,
said
Dr
Sreenivasamurthy.
However, humans need not
worry. Dr Sreenivasamurthy
says the parasites Raillietina,
Davainea, Eimeria oocyst,
Capillaria and Ascaridia,
which were found in the
pigeon droppings do not affect
humans. But they can cause
deaths in other birds, including poultry.

OUT OF 370 samples of

pigeon droppings, 121 were
found to be infected with
protozoan infections. The
viruses from pigeons can
infect other birds,
including poultry

THURSDAY | 5 JANUARY 2017 | HYDERABAD

FEARS ABROAD

Some varsities in US
are just visa mills
Institutions have no proper infrastructure or faculty
DC CORRESPONDENT
HYDERABAD, JAN 4:

IN

PAGE

The term US education

usually conjures up
images of extremely
sophisticated infrastructure, quality education
and a window to a world
of opportunities. But the
scenario at some of the
educational institutions
there are often hopelessly bad. In fact, its so bad
that they are known as
Visa Mills, education
being second priority.
Some of these US colleges are smaller than
the usual engineering
colleges in India, and
lack instructional education. U. Vishnu Vardhan
Reddy, CEO of Gurukul
Overseas, a US-based
education consultancy,
has asked Indian students to first check an
institutions credentials
before the paperwork.
In 2015, we saw how
some
Indians
were
denied entry even after
they had taken admission in some of these
institutions. Some US
colleges dont even have
proper infrastructure or
faculty, Reddy added.
The US Education
Department has identified significant areas of
concern including insufficient
institutional
monitoring and lax
enforcement
of
the
agencys
accrediting
standards. All these indicate that some of the
ACICS-accredited institutions were just visa
mills for foreigners.
David North, from the
Center for Immigration
Studies described the
revoking of authority of
the ASICS as a Federal
Agency crackdown on
Crappy Colleges. Many
ACICS-accredited institutions had been gobbling up federal grants to
low-income
students,
who often received thirdrate education. A smaller number of the entities
played the visa mill
role, read his post on
www.cis.org.

SERIAL
CULPRITS

The universities and

colleges which lost
their accreditation
include Stratford
University, Silicon
Valley University and
North-western
Polytechnic
University, which
were in the news in
2015 and 2016 after
Indian students were
deported

BAD
THE UNITED
STATES
consulate in
Hyderabad has
been issuing the
highest number of
student visas

An under-construction structure stands next to a collapsed building that had come

down on Tuesday night at Chaderghat in the city
DC

OPT extensions take big hit

DC CORRESPONDENT
HYDERABAD, JAN 4.

The US department of
education has revoked
its recognition of the
Accrediting Council for
Independent Colleges
and Schools.
Those who have graduated from a US college
or university with a
specific degree in the
STEM (science, technology,
engineering
and mathematics) can
apply for an extension
of their OPT (Optional
Practical Training) for
an
additional
24
months. This brings
their total post-graduation OPT time to up to
36 months.
But, following the
American Education
Departments decision,
officials have already
started denying OPT
extension for graduates
of nearly 250 colleges.
U. Vishnu Vardhan
Reddy, CEO of Gurukul
Overseas, a US-based
consultancy,
gave
detailed insights into
the accreditation procedure in the USA. Many
for-profit institutions
go for national accredi-

PLANET | WORRY Vehicles

US immigration
and customs officials have already
started rejecting
extension
applications of the
F-1 visa-holders
tation to avoid the
regional accreditation
which lays down stringent norms. The students in these institutions, the students
applying for OPT, and
graduates from these
institutions applying
for OPT extensions, are
all affected. US immigration and customs
officials have started
rejecting applications
of the F-1 visa-holders,
who were from these
institutions and who
had applied for OPT
extensions. Indian students are now forced to
study
for
another
degree from an accredited college in the US if
they want an OPT
extension,
added
Vishnu Vardhan Reddy.
Although ACICS is no
longer
a
federally
recognised accrediting
agency, the US depart-

BUILDING

ment of education will

continue to provisionally certify ACICSaccredited institutions
for continued participation in the federal student aid programmes
for up to 18 months.
This 18-month provisional
certification
period allows institutions to seek accreditation from another federally
recognised
accrediting agency. But
experts say this could
be very hard for some
of these institutions as
they will likely fall
short on infrastructure,
faculty requirements
and other norms.
Aaganti
Chandra
Sekhar, a representative from an education
consultancy
of
Visakhapatnam, said:
The
ASICS
has
already started a legal
battle. As there are 18
months time for the
colleges, we are hoping
these colleges will take
care of matters and get
accreditation. This is a
wakeup call for Indian
students in these 250
institutions to make
alternative
arrangements.

Private bus firms using

illegal tricks to skip taxes
KAMALAPATHI
RAO H. | DC
HYDERABAD, JAN 4:

Many techniques have

been adopted by private
bus operators to avoid
road permit and taxes.
Officials
from
the
Telangana
Road
Transport Authority have
registered as many as
2,007 cases against the
erring private operators
(until December 28) and
have seized about 200
buses.
The
Joint
Transport Commissioner
J. Pandurang Naik said
7.6 crore had been collected from private bus operators towards compounding fee and tax penalties.
Rangareddy
District
Transport Officer M.
Praveen Rao said most of
the private bus operators
were violating permit
rules.
They take permits for
fewer seats and later, set
up more seats inside the
vehicle. Most of the cases
booked by Rangareddy
officials are related to permit violations apart from
running buses as stage
carriers against the permit for contract carriages, he said.
Also, Mr. Pandurang
Naik said as per Motor
Vehicle Act, private bus
operators are required to
depute two drivers for one

born before 2000 cause for dangerous pollution

Vehicle recycling yet to take off

DC CORRESPONDENT
HYDERABAD, JAN 4

Air pollution is a matter of

grave
concern
in
Hyderabad and other
cities in the country but
no solution exists for one
important source of pollution vehicles manufactured prior to implementation of the emission control norms in 2000.
However, recycling of
such vehicles is one way to
go which is not just environment-friendly but also
helps in salvaging valuable steel and aluminium.
The Central Pollution
Control Board has come
out with guidelines on
how to go ahead with recycling of End of Life
Vehicles. Unfortunately,
these are just guidelines
which are not of much use
as many roadblocks still
exist.
The hurdles to ensuring
recycling of old vehicles
range from lack of any
regulation that prohibits
ELVs from plying on roads
to the lack of a buy-back
policy so that owners of
old vehicles can be motivated to sell their vehicle
to recyclers for a satisfactory price. An amendment
in the Motor Vehicle Act is
also required because as
per current rules, if an
ELV is located outside the
jurisdiction of the registered RTO, the ELV will
have to be transported
back for de-registration to
its origin RTO, which not
just
discourages
the
owner from recycling it
but also causes delays.
There are around eight
lakh such old vehicles
operating in Hyderabad.
As per CPCB estimates
there are 87 lakh such
vehicles across country
and the figure is expected
to grow to 2.2 crores till
2025. Capt N.S. Mohan
Ram, Chairman of the

POLLUTING
POPULATION

Bus operators were

running two buses
with the same registration numbers, on a
single road permit
Operators would
also take permits for
fewer seats and later,
set up more seats
inside the vehicle
Owners would
obtain permits for
just one or two
districts but end
up plying vehicles
across states.
bus and the second driver
should always be present
in the vehicle.
Most of the private bus
operators do not follow
this rule and we are booking cases against violators. A few others are also
fabricating tax receipts
and during our raids, we
identified such cheating
by comparing the data
with our own tax collections, he said.
And many private bus
operators obtain permits
for just one or two districts but end up plying

DC CORRESPONDENT

8 lakh
87 lakh

The number
of old and
polluting
vehicles that are plying
across Indias cities
The estimated
number of old
vehicles thatll
be plying on Indias roads by the
year 2025

2.2cr

Central Pollution Control Board's guidelines on how to go ahead with the recyONLY ON The
cling of end-of-life vehicles are just rules which are not of much use as many
PAPER? real-world roadblocks still exist. For example, there is still no buy-back policy in place

Auto firms interested but

governments are sleeping
DC CORRESPONDENT
HYDERABAD, JAN 4:

Recycling of automobiles
has been seeing interest
from automobile manufacturers for a while now but
it is the government that
is sleeping on the job.
The Society of Indian
A u t o m o b i l e
Manufacturers, which has
had a group working on
developing a framework
and research in recycling
of vehicles for the past 10
years has a system in
place in its Automotive
Mission Plan, 2016-26. The
system seeks to make it
easier, and also financially
beneficial, for vehicle
owners to scrap their old
vehicles. However, only

Only one scrapping

and recycling unit has
been set up in the
country so far in
Chennai. But thats
just a demo unit
one scrapping unit has
been set up in the country
so far in Chennai. But
thats just a demo unit.
Recycling of ELVs is
standard practice across
Japan, Korea, China and
in several EU nations. In
India, there are no laws
which even define what an
ELV is and what vehicles
needs to be scrapped. As of
now, in Telangana at least,
the only legislation is payment of a green tax by

owners of such vehicles

with ages exceeding 15
years from date of registration. The green tax is
`250 and `500 once in five
years for motorcycles and
private vehicles, respectively. For transport vehicles, it is `200 every year.
An important reason for
ensuring old vehicles do
not ply on Indias roads is
highlighted by the fact
that the latest Bharat
Stage-IV vehicle emission
standards has mandated 1
gram per kilometer of
Carbon Monoxide emission for petrol vehicles,
whereas old vehicles manufactured before the year
2000 CO emission ranges
between 6.2(in 1998) to
even 27.1(in 1991).

vehicles across all districts and even as interstate buses. In such

cases, we immediately
seize the vehicles and
impose compound penalty
as per the Act, he said.
Shockingly, in a few
cases in this year, it was
found that bus operators
were running two buses
with the same registration numbers, on a single
road permit.
Mahbubnagar
DTO
G. Mamata Prasad said
that three separate teams
from
Mahbubnagar,
Wanaparthy and Nagar
Kurnool operating
under her supervision
registered a total of 74
cases against private
buses plying along the
lucrative
Bengaluru
national highway.
From December 21 to 24
last year, we conducted
special drives along these
routes. Most of the cases
registered against private
buses were for the illegal
transportation of goods.
Interestingly, in some
cases, we found that the
buses were moving more
goods than passengers,
she said.
Ms. Mamata Prasad and
Mr. Praveen Rao said
teams of inspectors would
continue their special
drives until private travel
operators stopped such
illegal practices.

Medical faculty
may work till 65
HYDERABAD, JAN 4:

The number of old

vehicles operating
in Hyderabad.

recycling group constituted by the Society of Indian

Automobile Manu-facturers, says: The CPCB rules
are vague. Strong regulations are required to
ensure that the informal
units involved in scrapping of vehicles, which
use crude methods harmful for the environment,
are brought under the
organized sector.
He adds: State governments should develop
recycling parks or estates
for old vehicles outside the
cities where infrastructure such as equipment
required for depollution of
vehicles and buildings
with impervious floors
surrounded by moats are
provided.
Those involved in informal scrapping units can
be allowed to set up centers here as per the standards developed by the
Automotive
Research
Association of India along
with providing training
for staff.

SERIOUS
VIOLATIONS

The Telangana government is all set to raise the

medical faculty retirement age to 62 or 65 to
overcome a severe shortage of faculty across the
states medical colleges.
The retirement age is
currently, 58 years.
The Medical Council of
India has sought opinions
from all states about the
proposal to increase the
retirement age to 70 years
to overcome the staff
shortage. But the state
government is in favour
of increasing the age to
62 or 65.
The state minister for
health C. Laxma Reddy
said the government
would hold elaborate discussions with existing
staff before sending a letter to the MCI on the proposed increase in staff
age limits.
There are some concerns over existing junior
staff losing their promo-

tions if the retirement

age is increased. Some
service-related problems
of existing staff were
also raised during the
various meetings. The
government will duly
address these issues
before taking a final decision over whether to
increase the retirement
age of medical faculty to
62 years or 65 years, Mr
Reddy said.
But rather immediately,
the government is also
planning to take up promotions for existing staff
before increasing the
retirement age so that
there will not be any
resistance for the ageincrease proposal.
Officials also visited
various states and studied how the other governments were dealing with
the problems. It has been
found that several states
are actually implementing different retirement
age limits for faculty
posts. These vary from 60
to 65 years.

CASH REWARDS FOR

WASTE SEGREGATION
DC CORRESPONDENT
HYDERABAD, JAN 4:

You can now segregate

wet and dry waste and
win cash from the
Greater
Hyderabad
Municipal Corporation.
The civic body has
announced a lucky
draw across its circles
and
one
Ms.
M.
Naseema
from
the
Vambay
colony
at
Rajendranagar circle
has already won a gift
for her efforts. Officials

say the Rajendranagar

circle of GHMC has registered 80 per cent doorto-door waste collection.
GHMC worker R. Ravi,
was given a cash award
of `10,000 for regular
door-to-door collections.
The GHMC says that
every month, across the
city, it will award
households and GHMC
auto rickshaw drivers
with cash for proper
wet and dry waste segregation.

City

CPIs Suravaram says demonetisation is a big flop, people are

ready to teach PM a lesson
DECCAN CHRONICLE

TD will adopt
a different
strategy in
Assembly
today on fee
reimbursement
A. Revanth Reddy
TS TD leader

IN

BRIEF

POWER | SHUTDOWN
10 am to 1.30 pm: Lambadibasti, Kanakadurga Apartments, Sunday Market, AP
Dairy area, Nagarjunanagar,
Gharonda Apartments, Mullapudi DTR, David Memorial
College,
Shanta
Sriram
Apartments.
Namalagunda
Ramalayam temple, area near
Sai Balaji provisional store,
Hanuman temple area, Nehru
High School area.
2 pm to 5.30 pm: Mettuguda
Park near Railway Club, BSNL
Exchange, Ashoka Library
area, Bondalagadda, Krupa
Apartments, Skylab, Hanuman temple, Ashoknagar,
Bangaru Maisama temple
area,
Padmashali
Seva
Sangham.

MINOR FIRE
NEAR AIRPORT
BUILDING
DC CORRESPONDENT
HYDERABAD, JAN. 4

Air travellers panicked as a

storeroom near the passenger
terminal building at the Rajiv
Gandhi International Airport
in Shamshabad caught fire on
Wednesday.
Station fire officer S. Suresh
Reddy said the fire was caused
by an electrical short circuit
and a computer system
utilised for storing entry
records of passengers was gutted. Apart from the computer,
some stationery was damaged.
Fire tenders from the airport,
Maheswaram,
CLP
and
Rajendranagar rushed to the
spot and controlled the fire,
he said.

DOCS, NURSES
FACE NEEDLE
INJURIES
DC CORRESPONDENT
HYDERABAD, JAN. 4

One of the occupational

haazards doctors and nurses
face is needlestick injuries
where they sustain needle
injuries while stitching a
wound after surgery or while
administering an injection.
If the injury occurs after the
needle was used on a patient
suffering from a disease that
spreads through body fluids,
there is a risk of the medical
personnel getting infected.
A recent study by the All
India Institute of Medical
Sciences, New Delhi, conducted over three years at a tertiary care hospital in New
Delhi, said that 73 per cent of
doctors reported needlestick
injuries.
An earlier study in Osmania
Medical College and Hospital
had found that 90 per cent staff
nurses and 60 per cent senior
resident doctors had suffered
needlestick injuries.
Another study conducted
this year by the Konaseema
Institute of Medical Sciences
and Research Foundation,
Amalapuram, AP, found that
53 per cent of 353 healthcare
workers in the hospital reported needlestick injuries.
Two major reasons were stated: young and inexperienced
healthcare professionals not
taking precautions and the
high work pressure due to
poor staff strength.

DC CORRESPONDENT
After strong objections
from the state, the Centre
has reportedly set aside
the proposed road transport and safety Bill, which
had tough provisions for
erring motorists.
The Union ministry of
road transport informed
the Telangana state government that the Bill was
not being considered in its
entirety, and only some
amendments to the Motor
Vehicles Act were being
pursued.
The main objection to the
proposed Bill was that it
would take away the pow-

THURSDAY | 5 JANUARY 2017 | HYDERABAD

After 2 months,
digital unready

LPG, Railways, RTC insist on cash

KAMALAPATHI
RAO H. I DC
HYDERABAD, JAN. 4

Nearly two months after

demonetisation and the
push towards digital
economy and cashless
payments, many government departments are
still insisting that the
people pay cash even as
money is hard to find.
The government is
offering 0.75 per cent
subsidy on online payments for LPG cylinders, but the companies
have not publicised
their online payment
system. Sources said
less than one per cent of
customers pay online.
Due to the errors in a
pilot project, Centralised
Dealers
&
Consumer Management
System, those who pay
online get the refill
cylinder 10-15 days later.
Those who pay cash on
delivery get it in three
days.
This has resulted in
customers having to pay
cash to take delivery of
refill cylinders. But
there is a hassle: LPG
dealers and delivery
personnel do not have
point of sale swipe
cards.
South Central Railway
did a small upgrade for
digital
transactions.
After demonetisation,
the SCR provided PoS
machines at all the
MMTS stations and a
few bigger railway stations. It is still insisting
on cash payments at
other places. Online
booking is available for
long-distance trains but
not all counters are
equipped to accept credit or debit cards.
The Road Transport
Authority, accessed by
5,000 citizens across the
state every day, has
taken all services online
except the payment of
`10 service charge and

SLOW MOVERS
MANY SERVICE PROVIDERS ARE STILL
ILL-EQUIPPED, ACCEPT ONLY CASH

TSRTC
The Road Transport Corporation,
which serves lakhs
of commuters per
day, does not have
digital transaction
systems at bus stations and in buses.
The RTC management has formed a
committee on the
matter and by
Monday will instal
PoS machines
at its ticket
counter at
Siddipet.
An official said
the corporation had
approached SBH for
supply of PoS
machines, and
these will be
installed at all
depots phase-wise.
The RTC will
require at least six
months to go cashless, if the PoS
machines are supplied in time.
The committee
reviewed smart
cards but dropped
the idea as it could
cost the RTC about
`200 crore.
`50 for reservation of
vehicle number.
The GHMC and the
Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and
Sewerage Board have

IT sector cuts
campus hires
MAHESH
AVADHUTHA I DC
HYDERABAD, JAN. 4

Increased focus on
automation and cutting down on bench
strength and the fear
that the number of H1B visas could go
down have resulted IT
service
companies
halving campus recruitments from engineering colleges.
Barring top colleges, campus recruitment has come down
in terms of both the
number of colleges
and number of offers.
Mr K. Sunil Kumar,
general secretary of
the TS Private Engineering College Managements
Association, said the impact
was clearly seen in a
comparison of the
recruitment figures
in the last two years.
Campus hiring is
limited to leading colleges this year. The
Tier-2 colleges have
not figured in the
plans of IT companies, he said.
IT service companies that recruit engineering
graduates
from TS, mostly from

the state capital,

include Infosys, TCS,
Wipro, Tech Mahindra, Accenture and
Capgemini.
Executive director
of the city-based SP
Software
Jayaram
Subramanian
said
achieving complete
automation was not
possible in the IT
industry. At the most,
20 per cent automation can be seen and
that too on the testing
side. The industry
cannot run without
human intervention.
The present dip in
recruitments is due to
external factors.
He said companies
were adopting a waitand-watch attitude. If
the Trump administration cuts down on
H-1B visas, all leading
IT companies would
have to bring back
their Indian employees working on different projects there, he
said.
Osmania
Engineering College chief
placement officer V.
Uma Maheshwar said
the impact was negligible in the OU
College of Engineering.

Centre holds back road Bill

HYDERABAD, JAN. 4

PAGE

ers of state governments.

The TS government had
expressed serious reservations on some of the
amendments proposed in
the Bill, at the recent
Southern Zonal Council
Standing Committee meeting recently.
TS said the amendments
would reduce the power of
state governments to give
licences, fitness certificate
and others.
Reacting to this, a representative of the Union
ministry of road transport
and highways said the Bill
was not being considered
at the moment.
The Centre had published the draft Road

Transport and Safety Bill,

2014 to repeal the Motor
Vehicles Act, 1988.
A senior TS official said
that if the amendment Bill
went through, the state
government would not be
able to formulate schemes
or programmes which
were state-specific.
The control of road
transport, road safety and
planning would be with
the Centre, the officer told
this newspaper.
The officer said vehicle
tax was a major source of
revenue for the governments; taking over this
power from the states
would be against the spirit
of the Constitution.

MEESEVA
MeeSeva accepts payments for more than
300 services, including
municipal taxes, water
and power bills. Of the
110 MeeSeva
centres in the
city, just five
take payment
by cards. While the
MeeSeva makes payments online for the
different services, users
will have to pay cash.
MeeSeva deputy engineer P. Srinivas said
50 PoS machines were
being procured in
Phase-I for the city.

SCHOOL FEE
The primary and secondary education
departments are collecting exam and other
fee from students in
cash. Students pay
their examination fee at
schools, and
the money is
deposited by
headmasters in
the department concerned in the form of
demand drafts.
Universities make do
with demand drafts.
adopted the cashless
payment system but bill
collectors and staff are
accepting cash payments at the doorstep
from residents.

Cops foil
cabbies
hunger stir
DC CORRESPONDENT
HYDERABAD, JAN. 4

The indefinite hunger

strike held at Dharna
Chowk on Wednesday by
the
Telangana
Cab
Drivers and Operators
Association was foiled by
the Gandhinagar police
who took the leaders into
preventive custody.
Association president V.
Shiva along with nine others were taken from the
hunger strike camp and to
the Gandhinagar police
station.
Earlier,
the
leaders
demanded that the Ola
and Uber managements
hold talks with the cab
drivers and redress their
demands. Leaders of a few
trade unions and political
parties extended support
to the drivers and visited
the camp.
By 5.30 pm, Chikkadpally ACP J. Narsaiah and
police personnel visited
the camp and asked the
organisers to vacate the
place as permission was
given from 10 am to 5 pm.
The drivers refused, and
asked the police to allow
them to continue with the
hunger strike.
Mr Narasaiah asked
them to follow the rules
and the police would give
permission for the next
day. The police gave them
time to pack up. At about
6.30 pm, they arrested the
leaders and took them to
the Gandhinagar police
station, where they were
released.
Mr Shiva said he would
continue
his
hunger
strike till the managements redressed their
problems.
Drivers continued their
protests across the city
and tried to block cabs, A
few cab service providers
reportedly changed the
number plates to avoid
inconvenience to the commuters.

CAB services
reportedly changed
number plates on
vehicles to avoid
striking workers.

HEMMED IN
Traffic gets squeezed between barricades put up for Metro Rail work and separators set up by the traffic police near the
MMTS station at Malakpet on Thursday. This led to long traffic jams in the area.
DC

2 student projects
make it to Top-15
DC CORRESPONDENT
HYDERABAD, JAN. 4

Two projects by students

from the state made it to the
Top-15 at the National
Childrens Science Congress
held
recently
in
Maharashtra. About 850 projects had been submitted from
across the country for the
meet.
West Bengal was the only
other state from which two
projects were selected.
In all, the top-15 projects
were shortlisted from 680
best projects that were in
fray from other states and
few neighbouring countries.
One of the two projects
selected from TS was made
by G. Manasa and four students from Devnar School of
the Blind, Begumpet. They

did a project to identify components in an electrical circuit without the touch-andfeel method.
Their
guide,
Mr
R.
Parameshwaran, said they
used infrared radiation sensors to identify electrical
component.
The second project was by
D. Saicharitha and other students from Zilla Parishad
High School, Peddapalli,
Karimnagar district, who
made a project on eco-friendly fungal repellant preservative paper.
Mr Y. Nagesh Kumar, member secretary, TS Council of
Science and Technology said
13 projects from the state
made it to the national fair
conducted by the department
of science and technology
from December 27 to 31.

COPS RESCUE
170 KIDS
Hyderabad: Rachakonda police
rescued 170 child
labourers from
brick kilns in
Yadadri district, a
day after 140
children were
were rescued
from Chotuppal
on Wednesday.
(CA-1146)

Politics

Etela Rajender requests Arun

Jaitley for more small denomination notes for the state
DECCAN CHRONICLE

KCR is
playing with
lives of over
14 lakh
students by
not
reimbursing
fee
Dr K. Laxman
TS BJP chief

FROM

COURTS

HC admits minority
panel plea on pay
Hyderabad: The Hyderabad
High Court on Wednesday
issued notices to the Central,
AP and TS governments on a
petition seeking direction on
release of salaries, budget
and other expenditure
incurred so far and required
for functioning of the
Minorities Commission for
the states of TS and AP.
A division bench comprising
Acting Chief Justice Ramesh
Ranganathan and Justice A.
Shankar Narayana was dealing with a petition by Abid
Rasool Khan, chairman of the
commission, challenging the
failure of the governments to
release the funds.
Mr Khan urged the court to
direct both the governments
to honour the salaries and other bills from May, 2016 onwards till separate commissions are set up for TS and AP.

Notice for JNAFAUs

TS only panel
Hyderabad: The Hyderabad High
Court on Wednesday issued
notices to the Central, AP and
TS governments on a petition
seeking to direct the respondents to reach consensus on filling up the post of V-C of the
Jawaharlal Nehru Architecture
and Fine Arts University.
A division bench comprising
Acting Chief Justice Ramesh
Ranganathan and Justice A.
Shankar Narayana was dealing with a petition by Dr D.
Vijay Kishore and three other
professors of the varsity,
challenging the setting up of
a panel with professors only
from Telangana to select the
candidate the post.
J. Sudheer, counsel for the
petitioners, submitted that
the state government had
issued a notification on June
14, 2016, appointing a search
committee to prepare the
panel. The search committee
prepared the panel only with
the professors from TS.

TS, AP not to send

IAS officers on
election duty
S.N.C.N. ACHARYULU | DC
HYDERABAD, JAN. 4

Both the Telugu states have

informed the Election Commission that they are not in a
position to depute senior IAS
officers for election duty. The
EC had on Wednesday announced the schedule for Assembly
elections in five states.
The EC had written to the
governments of both TS and
AP about a month ago to
depute IAS officers for the
forthcoming Assembly elections in five states.
As per sources, the EC said
that if it was not possible to depute IAS officers for poll duty,
they can depute IFS officers.
AP government has allotted
26 All India Service officers for
election duty four IAS, five
IPS and 18 IFS officers. The TS
government also deputed
about 20 AIS officers, a majority of whom are IFS officers.
The EC has directed officers
deputed for election duty to
attend the meeting to be held
on January 10 in New Delhi.

TS join Centres Uday to put discoms back on track

State takes `8,923cr

debt off its discoms
DC CORRESPONDENT

POWER PLAY

HYDERABAD, JAN. 4

The TS government has

taken over the `8,923
crore debt burden of ailing discoms to improve
the power situation in
state.
Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao told the
Legislative Assembly on
Wednesday that the two
discoms (TSSPDCL and
TSNPDCL) in the state
have a total debt burden
of `11,897 crore. To put
the discoms back on track, the state government on Wednesday signed
MoU in New Delhi to
join the Centres Uday
scheme and took over 75
per cent of debt burden
as part of this, Mr Rao
said.
He said that TS had
2,700 MW of deficit when the state was formed
in June 2014, but within
two years it could add
5,039 MW, thus making
it a power cut free state
within five months.
TSSPDCL has debt

TS to generate
5,880 MW through
the newlyplanned Bhadradri, Yadadri,
Kothagudem
plants

Joining Uday
means the state
will have to
mandatorily revise power charges
every three
months

burden of `7,392 crore

and TSNPDCL `4,505 crore, thanks to the lopsided power policies adopted by rulers in undivided AP, Mr Rao said.
The CM said that by
joining in Uday scheme
on Wednesday, 75 per
cent of debt burden will
be paid by state government.
The remaining `2,974
crore will be given as
bonds with government
guarantee by discoms.
With this, the discoms
will become debt-free.
There will no need for
them to pay `890 crore
interest on loans every
year. They will get an

opportunity to seek
fresh loans. This year,
the state government is
giving `4,584 crore subsidy to discoms. All
these measures are
taken in the larger
interest of consumers,
Mr Rao said.
The CM said that as on
date, TS has power generation capacity of
10,902 MW against 5,863
MW when the state was
formed in June 2014.
In these 10,902 MW,
the power from hydel,
solar and wind sources
comprise 3,531 MW. But
these are not much
dependable. That means, the reliable power

Substandard colleges
ate up fee sops: KCR

OUSTED EARLIER,
NIZAMUDDIN NOW
ON WAKF BOARD

DC CORRESPONDENT

HYDERABAD, JAN. 4

HYDERABAD, JAN. 4

Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao took

yet another U-turn on
Wednesday, this time
on his promise of a fee
reimbursement
scheme for students.
Mr Rao said the previous government got
colleges and students
habituated to live with
fee arrears, year after
year. The TRS government was just allowing
a continuation of this
practice.
Yes, I admit that I
myself made a statement in the Assembly
that we will zero down
on the fee reimbursement scheme by clearing
the arrears of the previous years. The idea
was that from the new
academic year (201617), the payments could
be released on time without giving any scope
for further arrears. But
officials told me that
my promise is imprac-

MLAs denied chance to seek

clarification, stage dharna
DC CORRESPONDENT
HYDERABAD, JAN. 4

Tension prevailed in
the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday
after Opposition Congress and TD MLAs
sat on dharna in the
House for over three
hours, protesting the
adjournment of the
House without they
being given the opportunity to seek clarifications on the reply given by the CM on
fee reimbursement.
tical. This is because
students submit applications and colleges register for the scheme through the year. These
applications need to be
verified to ascertain
their genuineness, and
it will take time, Mr
Rao said.
He said that previous

Even as Opposition
leader K. Jana Reddy
and others sought
the mike to seek clarifications as soon as
CM ended his speech,
Deputy Speaker Padma Devender Reddy
adjourned the House,
inviting protests.
When the House
was adjourned at around 2 pm, the Opposition MLAs refused
to leave and sat on
dharna for over three
hours. They were
physically evicted.
governments had devised the scheme in such
a way that arrears of
the ongoing academic
year were released in
the subsequent year.
Everyone knows this.
Colleges, students, officials and the political
parties know this, he
said.

81,879 availed Gutka sale in

marriage sop state dipping
Hyderabad: As many as 81,879
girls from SC/ ST categories were
given `51,000 each under Kalyana
Lakshmi scheme towards marriage expenses so far, the state
government informed the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday.
Minister for SC development G.
Jagadish Reddy said steps were
being taken to disburse the amount on the day of marriage itself
against existing the method of
giving the amount to parents after
the marriage is solemnised.
He said there were 52,205 beneficiaries were from the SC community and 29,674 from STs.
Mr Reddy said that the government was thoroughly verifying
applicants after complaints of
some brokers misusing the scheme to siphon off the funds were
received.

Hyderabad: Sporadic cases of sale

of gutka and pan masala have been
detected in the state, according to
health minister C. Laxma Reddy.
The minister told the Assembly on
Wednesday that 545 cases were booked for sale of gutka and pan masala in violation of prohibition orders and `50,00,123 collected as fine
as per the Food Safety and
Standards Act 2006.
The minister said that the government has slapped criminal cases on
43 manufacturers for Not of Standard drugs and three criminal cases
against a manufacturer for spurious drugs. Trial is pending.
He said that during 2015 and 2016,
8,293 drug samples were collected by
drug inspectors in the state, of which 46 were declared Not of standard quality which accounts for
0.005 per cent.

Akbar slams KCR on fee sop stop

DC CORRESPONDENT

When I talked about

demonetisation, they
said there is no impact, no effect. What
are they saying now?
AKBARUDDIN
OWAISI,
urging KCR to
take up agitation against note ban

HYDERABAD, JAN. 4

Alleging that tolerance

level of the TRS government has come down,
MIM
Floor
leader
Akbaruddin Owaisi on
Wednesday accused Chief
Minister
K.
Chandrasekhar Rao of
running away from the
fee reimbursement issue
and denying fees to eligible students.
In a strain to the friendly
TRS-MIM ties, Mr Owaisi
announced that the MIM
will fight for the rights of
students, SCs, STs, BCs
along with minorities and
sought their support in
the state and legislature.
In
the
Legislative
Council, Leader of the
Opposition Mohd. Ali
Shabbir threatened to

availability is only 7,371

MW. As on date, the
power demand is 8,282
MW. This shows there is
still a deficit of 1,000
MW. Despite this, we are
able to supply quality
power without any cuts
across the state, he
added.
Mr Rao said the government was going ahead
with the objective of achieving power generation of 5,880 MW through the newly-planned
Bhadradri, Yadadri, Kothagudem power plants.
He said that 4,000 MW
NTPC plant in Kothagudem will also come up
in the state as promised
in AP Reorganisation
Act and the PM had laid
the foundation for the
first phase of this 1600
MW project in August
last year.
Interestingly, with the
state
joining
Uday
scheme, the state government needs to revise
power charges once in
three months as mandated in the scheme.

move contempt of House

proceedings against the
CM for failure to keep
reimbursement promise.
Mr Owaisi said, Time
has come for SCs, STs to
rise and come together in
Legislature to raise their
voices against government.
He alleged that whenever
government was on the
back-foot, it denied the

Opposition the opportunity of seeking clarification

as the mike would be mysteriously switched off, as
it happened on Wednesday,
after the CMs reply.
CM saab has much time
to discuss monkeys coming from forests into the
city, ample time to discuss
fish and fisheries, but no
time for fee reimbursement, Mr Owaisi said.

He added, There is fourpage note on fisheries ...

two-page note on monkeys
... four-page note on trees
but not even one page on
fee reimbursement.
Disputing the CMs statement, Mr Owaisi quoted
the governments official
website which said that
only `984 crore was released towards fee reimbursement and not `1,400 crore.
He said a student admitted in 2014-15 in a course
got scholarship and has to
reapply again in 2015-16,
2016-17. Why? In SC department, 1,69,381 students
are eligible for scholarship
but only 1,40,761 were registered, in minority welfare department 80,000 are
eligible but only 64,510 are
registered. When they are
eligible, all students must
be registered, he said.

DC CORRESPONDENT
Rahul Bojja, Hyderabad
district collector and returning officer for elections to the TS Wakf
Board on Wednesday declared Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi, MIM
MLA Moazzam Khan,
TRS MLC Mohd. Saleem,
member of Bar Council
Zakir Hussain Jawed,
Syed Akbar Nizamuddin
and Anwar Baig unanimously elected as members of the Wakf Board.
Interestingly, Mr Nizamuddin was in the thick
of controversy after he
was removed as mutawalli of a dargah that comes
under the Wakf Board,
following allegations of
irregularities.
Mr Owaisi was elected
from Muslim MPs from
TS, the MIM ML and TRS
MLC under the Muslim
members of the TS Legislature quota, Mr Hussain
from Bar Council quota
and Mr Nizamuddin and
Mr Baig under the
mutawallis category.

PAGE

THURSDAY | 5 JANUARY 2017 | HYDERABAD

Ensure my exit is not seen

negatively: Chandra to state
DC CORRESPONDENT
HYDERABAD, JAN. 4

Senior IAS officer K. Pradeep Chandra, who stepped down on December 31 after
serving for only a month as
Chief
Secretary, openly
expressed his displeasure at
not getting an extension of
service. He said: I came in
as a one-down batsman and
unfortunately got run out
without my fault.
Mr Chandra, the first Dalit
IAS officer in TS to hold the
CS post, urged the government to ensure that his leaving the office in this manner
within a month should not send a message that somebody
committed, competent and
honest will not be rewarded.

Mr Chandras predecessor Rajiv Sharma

got two extensions of
three months each due
to which he lost six
months of his tenure
and was left with only
one month of service
when he was appointed CS on November 30.
The state government organised a farewell function for
Mr Chandra in the Secretariat on Wednesday.
Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao skipped the function, while ministers Kadiam
Srihari, Nayani Narasimha
Reddy, K.T. Rama Rao and Pocharam Srinivas Reddy, alo-

ng with IAS officers and Secretariat staff, were present.

Mr Chandra said: My sincere request to government
representatives here is that
not to let it (his retirement)
be seen as a message that
somebody who is committed,
competent and honest will
not be rewarded The government has to make positive statements, otherwise
we may be demoralising the
entire lot of young officers
on this issue.
His comments in the presence of ministers and IAS
offices created a flutter.
The officer was forced to retire after the Centre refused
to extend his term by three
months as sought by the state
government and the CM.

Special

Isro is eyeing inter-planetary

missions to Jupiter and Venus
and is studying their feasibility.
DECCAN CHRONICLE

Healthcare is
the best
medium to
offer your
services.
Make it costless
with the use of
technology.

DC CORRESPONDENT
TIRUPATI, JAN. 4

For attracting young minds

towards research, Andhra
Pradesh Chief Minister N.
Chandrababu
Naidu
has
announced `100 crore cash
prize for Nobel prize winner
from India.
He made this announcement
while
inaugurating
the
Children Science Congress at
Sri
Padmavati
Mahila
Visvavidyalayam here on
Wednesday.
Unfortunately, nobody from
India has got a Nobel prize
(after Independence). But the
people of Indian origins have
got the prize working outside
the country. If you do research
in any lab in India and get a
Nobel prize, then I am prepared to give you `100 crore on
behalf of the Andhra Pradesh
government, he said.
Explaining further, the Chief
Minister said, I want to
inspire people and now, everybody has to consider it seriously.
Later speaking at the 6th
Women Science Congress he
said he would be the happiest
person if a woman scientist
wins this cash prize.

BRAHMAND
MUSEUM IN
TIRUPATI
DC CORRESPONDENT

U. SUDHAKAR REDDY | DC

TIRUPATI, JAN. 4

Nobel Laureate Prof. Jean Tirole of Toulouse School of Economics comes out of
the venue at Indian Science Congress on Wednesday in Tirupati.
Madhu B.

DIGITAL DATA IS
NOT SECURE YET
Eco Nobel winner cautions government
DC CORRESPONDENT
TIRUPATI, JAN. 4

At a time when India is

pulling all stops to make
its economy cashless,
Nobel Prize winner in
economics
Professor
Jean Tirole has a word
of caution for the Indian
government: Online platforms are not investing
enough to make the digital transactions secure.
Digital economy is
full of opportunities and
creates wealth. At the
same time, a lot of difficulties will come with it.
We will be spied upon by
many platforms, said
Prof. Tirole.
Apart from this, he
said there are issues
relating to privacy, data
collection and its use.
While many online
platforms collect enormous data from us as we
use their websites or
apps, they are not investing enough to secure the
data from hackers.
Sometimes we are not
rational. I give my con-

sent when I am in rush

to buy on a certain website. I dont even read the
terms and conditions.
To be honest, even if I
read this, I dont even
know what the consequences
are.
Being
impatient it might be
going against my own
interest as we are not
sure about the contracted resale of data and
non-respect of right to
oblivion, he said.
The same data that
companies like Google,
Facebook, etc store
about us can be used
against us if it was sold
to insurance companies
as they could increase
premium if we have any
health problems.
Prof Tirole is from
Toulouse
School
of
Economics in France.
He was awarded the
Nobel Memorial Prize in
Economic Sciences in
2014 for his analysis of
market power and the
regulation of natural
monopolies.
He warned people that

disruptive changes that

technology could bring
in has become faster
than ever before.
Digital economy, artificial intelligence and
robotics can destroy the
jobs. But they can also
create a lot of jobs. This
is not a new phenomenon. Workers protested
when machines replaced humans in 19th Century. The only difference
between then and now is
that the speed at which
it happens. So we have to
invent solutions.
Explaining further, he
said there is no shortage
of jobs but there would
be shortage of jobs that
people want. So the
solution lies in people
getting adapted to the
new situation.
Think of a Uber driver. He doesnt set prices
any longer. Uber decides
everything. But at the
same time, Uber driver
is independent to decide
on workload and location of work, Prof
Tirole said.

TIRUPATI, JAN. 4

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on

Wednesday laid the foundation
for Brahmand, a world class
science museum.
Speaking at the 6th Women
Science Congress, Mr Naidu
said the museum will have
seven wonder spheres representing seven holy hills of
Tirupati.
The spheres are dedicated
to space technology, missile
technology, marine life and
agriculture sciences, archaeology, ancient sciences and science & technology. We are
going to establish these seven
spheres near the foothills of
Lord Balaji, he said.
He also called for ideas from
the scientists for creating the
best museum in the world. It
will also have the best exhibition and convention halls. The
convention hall will have a
seating capacity of 10,000. The
children can come and do scientific research for two, three
months. We want to create all
facilities for scientists. The
Centre has given the commitment to complete the museum
in 30 months, he said.

ISRO TO
LAUNCH 103
SATELLITES

DC CORRESPONDENT
TIRUPATI, JAN. 4

Isro has put off by four years

its first experimental manned
mission on board a homegrown GSLV-III rocket.
Mr S. Somanath, Director,
Liquid Propulsion Systems
Centre (LPSC), Thiruvananthapuram, said the the immediate task on hand for Indian
space scientists will be the
launch of a record 103 satellites by the Polar Satellite
Launch Vehicle (PSLV) in the
first week of February. While
more than 100 of these satellites belong to foreign space
agencies/ universities, the
workhorse rocket will also put
into orbit the indigenous CARTOSAT 2-D satellite, with all
satellites adding up to about
1,382 kg, he added.
Mr Somnath said during the
current fiscal, Isro planned
eight PSLV flights, up from six
in 2016. Our aim is to steadily
increase the launches between
12 and 20 in phases with creation of necessary infrastructure. And, within the next two
to three months, ISRO will
carry out the pad-abort test
to try out the crew escape system, he said.

THURSDAY | 5 JANUARY 2017 | HYDERABAD

Batteries may run minibus

TAKES

AP TO GIVE
`100 CR FOR
DESI NOBEL

ARCIs supercapacitor battery project is in advanced stages

EXPERT ADVICE

Muhammad Yunus,
Nobel Laureate

SHORT

PAGE

If everything goes as
planned, India could have
batteries that could rival
those made by Tesla and
could power even a
minibus.
Scientists at a Hyderabad-based metallurgy institute are working on developing a super-capacitor
battery to run bicycles.
The project is in the
advanced stage. If it is
successful, this could
allow us to run the metro
rail with the help of batteries in future.
International Advanced
Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New
Materials (ARCI), which is
working on the project,
has already applied for a
patent for the material
that it has developed for
manufacturing
higher
capacity supercapacitor.
The project plays a key
role in the development of
alternative energy sources in the automotive sector as governments look to
contain global warming
caused by buring of fossil
fuels.
Speaking on the sidelines of the 104th Indian
Science
Congress
on
Wednesday here, ARCI
associate director Dr Tata
Narsinga
Rao
said,
Supercapacitor battery
run bicycle has crossed
the state of the proof con-

WHAT IS SUPERCAPACITOR?
CAPACITOR IS a device used to
store small electric charge. Supercapacitors hold and release large
amounts of electricity very quickly.
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN
A BATTERY AND A SUPER-CAPACITOR?
BATTERIES THEY store more
energy per unit mass but
supercapacitors can charge and
release energy more quickly.
Batteries are best for storing large
amounts of energy over long periods of time. But a super-capacitor is
lighter than a battery.

CURRENTLY,
supercapacitors are
being used as temporary
energy stores

SUPERCAPACITOR battery-run bicycle has crossed the state of

the proof concept. It will be demonstrated in a year at the ARCI
campus. It can be operated for two to five km without charging.
cept. We will demonstrate
it in a year at the ARCI
campus. This bicycle can
be operated for two to five
kilometers without charging. The same technology
will be used to make
supercapacitor battery to
run minibuses in next five
years. We need to have
electric charging stations
for five km at least so that
the minibus battery can
be charged quickly while
passengers board the bus.
We have developed the
technology and it is up to
the industry to use it.

A bicycle needs 48 volt

and 6 to 10 amps-hour.
China has already developed a battery bus that
charges in 10 seconds. The
US-based Tesla Motors is
also planning to build batteries to run heavy-duty
trucks.
Scientists at ARCI made
a supercapacitor of 10 F
capacity using indigenously available materials. A carbon material
with moderate surface has
been used to establish the
process of electrode making, an ARCI scientist

COUNTRIES
SEEK INDIAS
SCIENCE HELP
B R SRIKANTH | DC
TIRUPATI, JAN. 4

B. James from Akividu in West Godavari showcases his cycle-cum-washing machine,

U. Chandrasekar from Vepagunta in Vishakapatnam district with floating wind turbine and K.L.N. Sivanarayana from Iragavaram in West Godavari demonstrates his
Janata AC-cum-water cooler at the Indian Science Congress in Tirupati.
DC

Nano tech to cut

diagnosis costs Utility guides students to
come up with innovation
DC CORRESPONDENT

TIRUPATI, JAN. 4

India Inc
for more
tie-ups
DC CORRESPONDENT
TIRUPATI, JAN. 4

For the first time, top

honchos of two big-ticket Indian firms L&T
and Bharat Forge
spoke of their collaboration with the academia
and two premier organisations, Isro and DRDO,
for fruition of several
key projects as ideal
examples to script a success story of the Make
in India initiative.
Mr Jayant Patil, senior
vice-president and head
of defence and aerospace, L&T, and Mr Baba
N Kalyani, chairman
and MD, Bharat Forge,
who addressed a session
on Industry-Academia
interaction at the 104th
edition of Indian Science Congress, explained
the contribution of the
academia, their respective organisations, and
defence and aerospace
experts, in design and
roll out of key systems
and products.
Mr Baba Kalyani said
his companies would,
with help from IIT,
Chennai, attempt to
build an indigenous jet
engine soon. This small
engine could be used to
power unmanned aerial
vehicles,
auxiliary
power units and short
range missiles. A special
lab to design this jet
engine will be established
shortly.
An
advanced towed artillery
gun with a range of 42
km, designed and developed for DRDO within
two and half years, well
ahead of the deadline of
three years, completed
test firing in six hours
instead of three days.

Scientists of Bengalurubased Indian Institute of

Science (IISc) has developed a nanotechnology
platform, which can
bring the cost of diagnosing diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.
The platform will allow
the creation of portable
diagnostic kits which will
have biosensors created using fibre optics and
nano materials.
According to IISc scientist professor Ajay Kumar
Sood the biosensors will
sense glucose, glycolated
hemoglobin and C-reactive protein.
The technology has to
be taken to field trials and
is highly accurate in the
labs. There are similar
foreign technologies that
have hit the market
recently, he said.
Speaking on the sidelines of the 104th Indian
Science Congress here on
Wednesday, Prof. Sood
said, Graphene oxide
a nano material is

used in this technology.

These are the most sensitive detectors that they
sense one nanomolar to a
nano molecule.
The bio sensor platform,
which uses etched Fibre
Bragg Grating, has high
speed connectivity and
detects glucose. The Fiber
Bragg Grating looks like
a cylindrical tube coated
with graphene oxide and
antibodies for detecting
the protein. A change in
reflected wavelength will
be calculated to understand the concentrations.
He said, Recent years
there has been an unprecedented excitement in
the scientific community
related to one and two
dimensional forms of carbon, namely, nanotubes
and grapheme. These
nano forms of carbon and
other 2D nanonmaterials
have not only have fascinating physical properties from the basic science point of view but
has an application value.
We conducted recently
optical experiments on
the 2D Nanosystem.

COLLATERAL | DAMAGE

Women

explained. Long duration

tests as well as further
improvement in design
are under progress. CFCT
has a staple of several
materials which will be
used in the coming
months to build high
capacity
super-capacitors, he said.
He said all the smart
cities that are coming up
can have these supercapacitor-battery run buses.
India has been depending on imports of li-ion
batteries to be used in mobiles and e-automobiles.

A. RAGU RAMAN | DC
TIRUPATI, JAN. 4

From eco-friendly cycle

washing
machine
to
reusing plastic bottles, the
young children have come
up with innovative solutions to various problems
and put their creative
work on display for the
visitors at the Children
Science Congress here on
Wednesday.
B. James, a class 10 student from Akividu in West
Godavari district, has
designed an eco-friendly
cycle-cum-washing
machine which can wash
clothes while cycling.
Washing machines are
too expensive and cannot
be afforded by the poor
and it has only single purpose. So I designed a multipurpose machine for the
poor people. We have
attached a drum to the
cycle tyre and it rotates
while cycling, he said.
Through his innovative

idea, we can also clean the

water. If we attach a
dynamo to the cycle, it can
also produce electricity. It
can also serve as the exercise machine for the men
and at the same time
reduces the burden of
washing for women, he
added.
K.L.N.
Sivanarayana
from Iragavaram mandal
in West Godavari district
has designed a Janata AC cum-water cooler. He created this machine by using the empty drum, a few
waste bottles and a pot.
If we pump the air from
the high pressure to low
pressure, it sustains the
loss of temperature. I
used the same JowlThompson effect on my
machine. If the same air
is pumped into the top it
serves as the water cooler.
It can save a lot of electricity, he said.
U. Chandrasekar, a class
10 student from Vepagunta in Vishakapatnam dis-

trict has designed a floating wind turbine which

can be used offshore.
We have very less land
due to urbanisation. So,
by using floating turbines,
we can produce renewable
energy from the deep sea.
Energy can be saved in
the battery and transmitted to the shore, he said.
The existing offshore
fixed-bottom wind turbine
technology deployments
had been limited to water
depths of 30 metres.
A team of students led
by Vineeth V.S. from
Thiruvananthapuram
have come up with a novel
idea of energy conservation at tea shops. By moving the tap in the boiler
from bottom to top we can
save energy loss due to
evaporation, he said.
Smart dustbins with the
remote alarm system, rail
bridge flood monitoring
system are some of the
innovative ideas found in
the exhibition.

Top scientists of Sri

Lanka, Czech Republic,
Mozambique,
even
Russia, turned to their
Indian counterparts for
help in one form or the
other to address challenges unique to their
respective nations at the
104th edition of the
Indian Science Congress
here on Wednesday.
Sri Lanka, according to
Prof. Manjula Vithanapathirana, general president, Sri Lankan Association for the Advancement of Science, has
been grappling with a
chronic kidney disease
which afflicts people of
all ages in the north central province, resulting
in a significantly high
rate of mortality. One
of the reasons for this
disease could be excessive use of fertilizers,
but we did try to shift to
organic fertilizers, only
to discover a drop in the
yield of crops. So, farmers have returned to fertilisers which they used
earlier. I believe Indian
scientists could collaborate with us to address
this major health issue,
she said.
Sri Lanka also wants
help in digital security.
The Czech Academy of
Sciences reckons Indian
scientists could help in
at least half a dozen
fields such as astronomy,
bio-technology, ecology,
climate change and genetically modified crops.
The Russian Foundation for Basic Research
sought enhanced participation of young Indian
researchers in collaborative projects.

scientists seek change in the mindsets of men and women

Family stunts growth of women scientists

DC CORRESPONDENT
TIRUPATI, JAN. 4

Although the women are

matching the men in
almost all the possible
fields, a few concerned
voices could still be heard
at the Women Science
Congress here as very few
women are occupying the
top positions in the premier science institutions
in our country.
So, what prevents women
from becoming scientists?
Women scientists in biology are as equal as men.
Things are improving and
women are taking up science as a career, said
Shashi Bala Singh, director-general, life sciences,
DRDO.
But women scientists

face a major hurdle when

they get married and start
their family life. They
have to be in the lab to conduct science experiments.
They cannot work from
home like some other
fields like IT, she said.
Asked about the need to
have role models for
women in science, she
agreed that there are very
few women scientists as
role models in our country.
We need to have more
women scientists at the
top. We have fewer women
scientists at the top level
who can be the role
model, she added.
Calling for the change in
the mindset for both
women and men, she said,
I am seeing a lot of positive trends and more

women are now coming to

top positions. Even with
our own organisation
(DRDO), there is 25 per
cent representation of
women in director-general
level, she said.
Sudha Nair, CEO, Golde
Jubilee Bio-Tech Park for
Women and MemberGender Advisory Board,
United Nations Commission on Science and Technology for Development,
blamed it on the upbringing of Indian women.
The way we have been
brought up it takes time
for women to break from
the past and come out. We
have women scientists
performing really well and
their performances have
gone up and they are much
more confident now.

Students queue up to visit DRDOs exhibition at the Indian Science Congress in

Tirupati on Wednesday.
Madhu B.

City

Shabbir Ali says hasty steps to

bring Muslim quota Bill without
legal backing may boomerang
DECCAN CHRONICLE

Opposition
is misleading students, TS
does not
have lakhs
of vacancies
K. Chandrasekhar
Rao, TS CM

IN

BRIEF

Cockfight birds
rescued, 3 held
Hyderabad: Three persons
were arrested thee and rescued 34 roosters being
raised for illegal cockfighting
during a raid in Meerpet.
Police raided the place following a tip off. The gang
had been conducting cockfight discreetly with
Sankranti festival nearing.
There is a ban on the sports
in the state by the police.
"Three people, who have
been organising cockfight in
the area have been arrested.
Of the rescued roosters,
some were brought from
other districts," said Meerpet
Police Inspector N. Ch Ranga
Swami, adding that the birds
will be handed over to
Animal Welfare Board officials. The raids were conducted in Nandanavanam
and Barangpeta area. Police
said that the three persons
also were selling roosters for
Rs. 10,000 each. The trio
has been slapped with
charges of cruelty to animals
and gaming act by the
police. Organisers of cockfights are on the prowl on
the city outskirts.
conducting the sport discreetly to earn lakhs of
rupees. Bets are being
placed in huge amounts by
bookies and punters.
Senior police officials said
that the raids will continue to
nab the offenders till the
Sankranti is over.

Selfie-crazed
student drowns
Hyderabad: An engineering
first year student P. Karthik,
drowned in the Kakatiya
canal on Wednesday when
he fell into the water while
taking a selfie. According to
police, four students of
Kakatiya Engineering College
studying first year EEE went
to the canal near
Muduchintal area for swimming. They tried to take selfie but accidentally slipped
and fell in the water. One of
the students Mekala
Ranadhir of Palivelpula saved
two of his friends and
brought them ashore. But he
could not save Karthik, who
drowned by then. Karthik is
from jubilee hills of
Hyderabad.

DEFAULTING
MILLERS GET
A WARNING
Hyderabad: Telangana Commissioner of Civil Supplies, C
V Anand on Wednesday
warned that cases will be filed
under the stringent Preventive
Detention (PD) Act against the
rice millers who failed to deliver arrears of custom milled
rice (CMR).
Anand, who convened a
meeting with the managers of
Civil Supplies Corporation
and defaulters of
CMR,
informed them that 21 rice
millers of Warangal, Medak,
Nalgonda, Mahabubnagar and
Adilabad districts are yet to
deliver 6000 MTs of CMR
worth of `17 crores against
2015-16.
According to an official
release, the Commissioner of
Civil Supplies directed the
millers to deliver arrears of
CMR against the crop year
2015-16 immediately failing
which cases under Preventive
Detention Act will be filed.
He has also stated that out of
CMR dues of `482 crores,
already amount of `465 crores
(99 per cent) was realised and
instructions were issued to the
officials to realise the balance
amount of `17 crores.
He also cautioned that each
and every paisa due from the
millers to Government will be
recovered without sparing
anybody and if any miller
failed to co-operate with the
Government, stringent action
will be initiated for recovery
under Revenue Recovery Act
(RR Act) and filing PD Cases as
per law.
He informed that 100 per cent
of CMR will be collected from
this year onwards without any
arrears. The reason for getting
back CMR on time is very
important.
PTI

THURSDAY | 5 JANUARY 2017 | HYDERABAD

Attempt to kidnap girl foiled

Two drunk men stopped by 60-yr-old man to rescue Class IX kid
DC CORRESPONDENT

DARING EFFORT HELPS RESCUE

HYDERABAD, JAN. 4

SUSPECTS WERE identified as owner of the

car and his driver
CULPRITS TRIED to drive away but their car
swerved and got stuck in a farm
POLICE SUSPECTS they were waiting for a
chance to catch the girl

Two drunk men followed

a 9th class girl student
and tried to kidnap her
while she was going
home at Hayathnagar on
Wednesday evening. A 60year-old man managed to
save the girl.
The drunk duo pulled
the victim into their car
and tried to drive away,
police officials from
Hayathnagar
said.
Jagadeesh Goud stopped
his vehicle and fought the
drunk men to rescue the
girl. The suspects tried to
drive away, but the Swift

car went off the road and

got stuck in a field. Other
locals gathered, caught
one of
them. They
roughed him up and
handed over to the police.
The other suspect tried to
run away but was arrested by a search party.

LB Nagar DCP Tafseer

Iqubal, The suspects
were identified as R.
Ramesh, 38, who owns
the car, and his driver
Srikanth, 28, he said.
They had got drunk
and were driving through
a village near Mahidpur,

where the girl was walking along the road heading to her home. They
came from opposite direction, stopped the car and
tried to pull her into the
car. The road was deserted, while few other students were walking 100
meters away from the victim, said the DCP.
Jagadeesh Goud, who is
a farmer in the same
area, said that he saw the
screaming girl from a distance. I drove faster and
stopped my bike in front
of their car. Since both
were drunk, they got
scared and fled from the
spot, he said.

He soon called the

police from his mobile
phone and alerted the
locals, who chased the car
on the nearest field and
caught the predator. A
police team came within
few minutes and arrested
the second person also,
said a local person.
Police suspect that the
duo has been waiting for
a chance to kidnap the
girl for a while. It looks
like a planned attempt.
The girls mental health
is not so perfect, and the
duo might have been trying to take advantage of
that, said a senior police
official.

Techie, pal jailed

for teasing girls
DC CORRESPONDENT
HYDERABAD, JAN. 4

DRIVING

MAD

Concrete that has not been cleared near the Metro Rail pillars at Bhoiguda road has
been a cause of skidding of many vehicles, especially bikes, in the area.
DC

TS, AP among the worst

in road mishap records
DC CORRESPONDENT
HYDERABAD, JAN. 4

Telangana and Andhra

Pradesh are among the
top 10 states with the
highest number of road
accidents in the country.
While AP bagged 7th
place
in
the
table,
Telangana scored 9th
place with more than
7,000 deaths in 2015, the
National Crime Records
Bureau revealed.
As per the NCRB data
released recently, as many
as 8297 people were killed
in AP roads in 22839 road

crashes. In Telangana,
21252 road accident were
reported and 7110 commuters
were
killed.
Majority of the fatal accidents were reported in
highways.
Dangerous or careless
driving or overtaking
caused resulted maximum number of deaths in
the country, while 3.7% of
road accidents were due
to poor weather condition. As per the NCRB, 53
cases of road accidents
took place every one hour
and 17 persons were killed
in India.

500 killed by
shock in 1 year
DC
CORRESPONDENT
HYDERABAD, JAN 4

On June 7 last year, a

70 year old man, who
came to give application for a water connection, was electrocuted at a Mee Seva
centre
at
Rajendranagar. The
customer J. Ramulu,
mistakenly touched
an exposed electric
cable on the window
of
the
building.
Police had found
that the exposed cable
was an extra fitting
done by Meeseva
employees to put an
extra light bulb near
the window. The cable
was torn and the
insulation was gone.
The cable was hanging near the window
near the Staircase to
the Mee Seva centre.
This death had created flutter in the area
leading to a police
investigation
and
arrest of three Mee
Seva employees.
Similar to this there
were also incidents of
electrocutions in public places in city and
in Telangana that
attracted public outcry.
Incidents
of
pedestrians getting
electrocuted
at
Nampally in Old city,
and other parts of city
especially in rainy
season had exposed
the dangerous electric
cables hanging on the
streets.
National
Crime
Records Bureau data
shows that electrocutions at public and
private
places
in
Telangana are dangerously frequent. Over

UNSAFE
PLACES
A 70-YEAR-OLD
man was electrocuted at a Mee
Seva centre at
Rajendranagar
INCIDENTS OF
accidents at
Nampally and
elsewhere expose
dangers of hanging electric cables
especially during
the rainy season
500 people were killed
in electrocution in
Telangana in just a
year,
NCRB
data
revealed. The number
is highest among the
southern states. 12 of
the victims were electricity board employees while the rest
were general public .
One of the shocking incident was when
eight people belong to
a marriage party
were electrocuted and
10 others received
critical injuries while
they moving in a
truck at Devula Naik
tanda in Kangti mandal of Medak district
late in the month of
May last year. The low
hanging cable had
touched the truck
killing those unfortunate people, said a
senior police official.
Human
rights
activists claim that
the TSSPDCL and the
local
municipal
authorities, who are
responsible for maintenance of the infrastructure, have not
done much to ensure
safety of public so far.

A private road safety

organisation
analysis
revealed that children
below the age of 18 years
contributed to 10.5 percent of all fatalities.
635% more children died
in road crashes than
crimes committed against
them in 2015, making it as
the biggest single cause of
death of children in the
country, the analysis
stated. ?
The data showed that
maximum fatalities were
reported in Uttar Pradesh
followed by Tamil Nadu
and Maharashtra.

A techie and his friend

were convicted by a
local court for following and catcalling two
girls on New Year eve
at SR Nagar. The court
awarded three days of
jail to E. Upendra, 23, a
techie in a software
firm at Ameerpet, and
N. Suresh, 22, a student, who were allegedly drunk at the time of
offence.
A
CCTV
footage was submitted
to the court.
Police said the offenders were natives of
Prakasam district and
staying in SR Nagar.
SR
Nagar
police

inspector
Md.
Waheeduddin said that
an e-petty case was registered under the City
Police Act. The incident
occurred
at
Bapunagar at 10.30 pm
as the girls were going
on a bike. The duo
started following them
on another bike cat
calling them. One girl
said that the duo tried
to touch her, but they
moved away, said the
Inspector.
Using
obscene language, they
asked the girls if they
wanted to go with them
to celebrate New Year.
The girls noted down
the bikes registration
number, and informed
police over phone.

FIVE DILSUKHNAGAR
CONVICTS IN JAIL
Hyderabad: The five
Indian
Mujahideen
(IM) operatives sentenced to death in the
Dilsukhnagar
twin
blast case and lodged
in Cherlapally Central
prison will not be
moved to other jails
due to threats.
National Investigation
Agency (NIA) wanted
Yasin Bhatkal and the
four others to Tihar
Jail so that they could
be probed for their

suspected
involvement in other cases.
Cherlapally prison has
a
video-conference
court trail facility.
Courts outside the
state have used it during trials of the five
convicted prisoners.
An official from prisons' department said
that so far there was
no request from the
NIA on shifting the
five convicted prisoners to Tihar.

PAGE

Nation

Congress does not rule out poll tie-up

with SP, Sheila Dikshit says she ready
to opt out in favour of Akhilesh
DECCAN CHRONICLE

By making
attractive
announcements in the
Budget,
government can
grab votes
indirectly
Uddhav Thackeray,
Shiv Sena chief

IN

BRIEF

EARLY MOVER
ADVANTAGE
FOR AAP

RAJNISH SHARMA AND

TANVEER THAKUR | DC
NEW DELHI, JAN. 4

With Punjab headed for a triangular Assembly elections,

for the first time between
Akali Dal-BJP combine, the
Congress and Aam Aadmi
Party, the political groupings
except AAP will have to
act fast to finalise their list of
candidates.
Punjab goes to polls on
February 4, which gives major
players like the Congress and
Akali-BJP much less time to
release its entire list for 117
Assembly segments.
While the Congress is yet to
finalise candidates for 40 seats,
the BJP has not announced
even a single candidate for 23
segments and Akalis have
declared candidates for only 84
of the 94 Assembly seats. So
far, AAP seems to enjoy an
early mover advantage as it
declared its first list way back
in August 2016 itself.
Besides, the Congress is yet
to finalise on future of former
BJP MP Navjot Singh Sidhu.
While the former cricketers
wife, Navjot Kaur Sidhu, who
has formally joined the party,
is expected to contest from
Amritsar East, it is believed
her husband wants ticket for
the Amritsar Lok Sabha constituency, a seat vacated by the
state Congress chief and chief
ministerial candidate Capt.
Amarinder Singh.

Centre not in a mood

to defer Feb. 1 Budget
Opposition feels government can influence the voters
DC CORRESPONDENTS
NEW DELHI, JAN. 4

Controversy plagues the

presentation of the Union
budget as the ruling NDA
seemed to be in no mood to
defer it even after the
Election Commission (EC)
announced the poll schedule on Wednesday. Moving
away from the tradition of
presenting the Budget on
February 28, the Centre
had on Tuesday officially
advanced the day to
February 1.
While there were apprehensions that the Budget
could influence voters if
presented before the conclusion of the elections in
March, Union finance
minister Arun Jaitley
claimed on Wednesday
evening that there is no
requirement for a delay.
Bracing for a showdown
with the Centre on the
issue, the Opposition parties on Wednesday asked
the EC to prevent the government from presenting
the Budget before the conclusion of the elections.
Claiming
that
the
Budget could influence
voters,
BSP
chief
Mayawati requested the
EC to instruct the Centre
to present the Budget only
after
completion
of
polling in all the five
states in March.
The EC should instruct
the central government
not to present the Budget
on February 1, and just as
2012, it be presented only
after the completion of
polling on March 8, she
said.
In 2012 , the UPA government had deferred the
Union Budget to March 16
when the same five states
Uttar Pradesh, Punjab,
Uttarakhand, Goa and

Expenses above 20K

via cheques, says CEC
DC CORRESPONDENT
NEW DELHI, JAN. 4

The Election Commission of India announced on Wednesday

the
schedule
for
Assembly elections in
five states. Politically
crucial Uttar Pradesh,
Punjab, Uttarakhand,
Goa and Manipur will go
to
polls
between
February 4 and March 8.
CEC Nasim Zaidi said
candidates would have
to open a bank account
for all election expenditures, and expenses
above `20,000 will be
made through cheques
from the new accounts.
He added that donations
above
`20,000
would also be accepted
through cheques.
The family feud and
the split in the ruling
Samajwadi Party have
injected a new dimension in politics in Uttar
Pradesh where the BJP
hopes to capture power
after 14 years on the
back of a sweep in Lok
Sabha elections in 2014.
The BSP and the
Congress, the other
main challengers, hope
Manipur went to polls.
Chief election commissioner (CEC) Naseem
Zaidi said that the EC
would examine the representations made by the
political parties.
That the government is
not willing to budge

to make it a quadrangular fight.

Unlike the last elections, Manipur, which
recently witnessed violence raising questions
whether elections would
be possible now, will
have polling on March 4
(38 constituencies) and
March 8 (22 seats). Here,
the Congress seeks to
retain power.
Polling will be held in
Punjab and Goa together
on February 4, and in
Uttarakhand it will be
held on February 15.
Punjab promises to be
a three-way contest
between the ruling SADBJP
combine,
the
Congress and the new
entrant AAP.
After developments in
Uttarakhand in 2016,
where the Congress was
temporarily dislodged
from power due to defections, the party and the
BJP are set for a virtual
direct fight on 70 seats.
In Goa, where the BJP
seeks to retain most of
the 40 seats to remain in
power, AAP is being seen
as a player which plans
to topple the applecart of
the Congress and BJP.
became somewhat evident
as Mr Jaitley pointed out
that even in 2014 the
Budget was presented
before the polls.
Reacting
to
the
Opposition charges, Mr
Jaitley said that these
are the same parties

which say there has been

no positive effect of
demonetisation so why
are they worried about
date of the Budget.
Former Chief Election
Commissioner
T.S.
Krishnamurthy and N.
Goapalswamy told the
media that the Union
budget would have to be
cut to a vote-on-account
only if this was a Lok
Sabha election.
T.S.
Krishnamurthy
pointed out that any sops
announced for the country
without being specific to
the poll-bound states will
not violate the model code
of conduct code which
came into effect on
Wednesday.
Opposing the Centres
move to present
the
Budget on February 1, the
Congress maintained that
since Independence, the
Budget was traditionally
presented on February 28.
Fearing defeat and leaving aside the good traditions
of
Parliament,
Prime Minister Narendra
Modi wants to present the
Budget before the elections,
Congress
spokesman Ajoy Kumar
said. He pointed out that
in 2012, the BJP had raised
objections on the same
grounds, and the then
UPA government had only
presented
a
vote-onaccount.
Leader of Opposition
Ghulam Nabi Azad also
wrote a letter to the CEC
in which he said, It is a
collective and serious concern of the Opposition
parties that advancing the
presentation
of
the
Budget will provide an
opportunity to the government to make populist
announcements to influence voters.

PAGE

THURSDAY | 5 JANUARY 2017 | HYDERABAD

POLL BUGLE SOUNDED

THE ELECTIONS IN 5 STATES WILL BE THE FIRST MAJOR TEST FOR
PRIME MINISTER NARENDRA MODIS GAMBLE ON DEMONETISATION

PHASE I

73

PHASE II

67

Seats
(Feb 11)

The EC will deploy about

400 expenditure observers,
to check use of black money
in the polls

Seats
(Feb 15)

PHASE V

52

Seats
(Feb 27)

403

PHASE VI

49

Seats
(Mar 4)

TOTAL
ASSEMBLY
SEATS
TOTAL NO
OF VOTERS

13,85,17,026
TOTAL NO OF
POLLING STATINS

1,47,148

PHASE VII

PHASE III

PHASE IV

53

69

Seats
(Feb 23)

Seats
(Feb 19)

PUNJAB (117 SEATS)

Phase

UTTAR PRADESH

Seats

No of Voters

Date

Chief Minister Akhilesh

117

1,92,14,236

Feb 4

Congress leader Sheila

UTTARKHAND (70 SEATS)

Phase

Seats

No of Voters

Date

70

73,81,000

Feb 15

Phase

Seats

Phase I

38

No of Voters
18,07,843

Yadav

Dikshit

Rashtriya Lok Dal leader

Jayant Chowdhary
PUNJAB

Congress' Amarinder

Singh (possible)

MANIPUR (60 SEATS)

Former Army chief

Date
Mar 4

Gen (retd) J.J. Singh

SAD leader Parkash

Singh Badal

Mar 8

SAD leader Sukhbir

GOA (40 SEATS)

MANIPUR

Seats

No of Voters

Date

40

10,85,271

Feb 4

Irom Sharmila
Chief Minister Okrom

Phase II 22

Phase

40

Seats
(Mar 8)

Singh Badal

Ibobi Singh

Career Chronicle

Nation

Former PM H.D. Deve Gowda says West

Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee should go
legal over the arrest of her party MP
DECCAN CHRONICLE

Finally, son rises; Stalin

takes over DMK reins

India will give a

hard response
to terror
activities that will
compel Pakistan
to rethink strategy
on supporting
terrorism

New post created for Stalin as he is named working president

E.T.B. SIVAPRIYAN | DC

Bipin Rawat,
Army chief

IN

CHENNAI, JAN. 4

BRIEF

Akhilesh fan
consumes poison
New Delhi: The nine-year-old
son of an aspiring film producer, who was in the
process of producing a film
on Akhilesh Yadav, allegedly
consumed poison here on
Wednesday as he was apparently upset over the recent
developments in the Samajwadi Party.
The incident occurred in
southeast Delhis Jamia
Nagar area following which
the boy was rushed to a hospital where he was stated to
be out of danger. The child
has been identified as
Muneer, a class IV student.

Portuguese PM to
visit his Goa family
Panaji: A 200-year-old
ancestral house in Margao
town is getting spruced up
to welcome its family member and Portuguese Prime
Minister Antonio Costa, during his Goa trip on January
11-12, which is a part of his
India visit. Christmas has
just concluded, so right now I
have to clean up the house. I
will spruce up the house a
bit. We will prepare meal for
him. But it would be a private affair. During his India
visit, he needs private time
with his family, said Anna
Kaarina Costa, the first
cousin of the PM, who currently lives at the Costa
house located on Abade
Faria Road of Margao.

KHEHAR
SWORN IN AS
44TH CJI
New Delhi, Jan. 4: Justice
Jagdish Singh Khehar, who led
the five-judge constitution
bench in the Supreme Court
which had struck down the
controversial NJAC Act for
appointment of judges, on
Wednesday was sworn in as the
44th Chief Justice of India.
President Pranab Mukherjee
administered the oath of office
and secrecy to Justice Kehar at
the Darbar Hall of Rashtrapati
Bhawan.
Khehar took oath at the ceremony where the Opposition
was conspicuous by its
absence.
CJI T.S. Thakur had last
month recommended the name
of Justice Khehar, the seniormost judge of the Supreme
Court, to be his successor.
Justice Khehar, 64, will be the
first Chief Justice from the
Sikh community.

Epitomising Lord Ramas

pitru devo bhava (Father is
God) philosophy, though his
Dravidian party professes
rationalism, M.K. Stalin
waited patiently for M.
Karunanidhis call to succeed the latter for the DMK
leadership, and refused to
succumb to the temptation of
challenging his father.
And on Wednesday, the
nonagenarian was generous
enough to finally approve his
sons coronation as the working president of the 67-yearold party, a post not found in
its constitution. He, however,
retained the presidents post
with him.
The
closest
that
Karunanidhi
went
in
announcing Stalin as his
political heir was when he
appointed him the deputy
Chief Minister of 2009.
Despite several lieutenants
in the party seeking Stalins
elevation, the father kept
dodging them till now and
waved the green flag, finally,
though only when his poor
health forced the decision
upon him.
As pointed out in his
acceptance speech at the
party general council session, Stalin has slogged
through the climb up, starting with the launch of the
youth wing in 1966 and
becoming its secretary in
1983perhaps his fathers
trait makes him keep the
post with him though he
would be turning 64 on the
first of this March.
The workaholic has been
Chennais mayor (1996-2002),
a minister, a deputy CM in
the DMK government (20062011) and a legislator six
times in his political career
spanning over four decades.
He is presently the leader of
Opposition in TN Assembly.
Karunanidhi had to weather frequent storms within
his family with the Maduraibased elder son M.K. Alagiri
time and again demanding
his pound of flesh. \
Realising Stalins potential
and often having to handle
embarrassing acts of party
indiscipline by Alagiri (to
quote a DMK party statement in January 2014),
Karunanidhi allowed Stalin
to muzzle out his elder brother and bring the party under
his control.

MK Stalin seeks blessings of the DMK patriarch M. Karunanidhi after being elected as the
working president at the partys general council meeting, in Chennai on Wednesday. PTI

Pensive Stalin
moved to tears
N. RAVIKUMAR | DC
CHENNAI, JAN. 4

DMKs treasurer M.K. Stalin

on Wednesday, at the general
council meeting, took over
as the partys working president who will also have all
the powers of the president.
Owing to the absence of the
indisposed party chief, M.
Karunanidhi, a copious flow
of tears marked the major
event.
Thunderous applause from
those gathered led to a celebratory start at the party
headquarters at Anna Salai,
but soon the ambience
turned sombre with Stalin
moved to tears at the mention of his fathers inability
to attend the DMK general
council meeting for the first
time in the partys history.
The much-awaited moment
of Stalins anointment came
after the resolutions at the
meeting were read out by
party spokesperson T.K.S.
Elangovan.
The general council members broke into resounding
cheers and slogans again

DC CORRESPONDENT
BENGALURU, JAN. 4

The CCTV footage of a

young girl being violently groped and molested
by two scooter-borne
men on an empty road on
New Years day, in a residential neighbourhood,
barely
one-and-a-half
kilometers from the

nearest
Banaswadi
police station, has once
again, sent shockwaves
across the country and
added to the sense of disgust and outrage among
Bengalureans, a day
after reports of the mass
molestation on Brigade
Road on New Years eve.
As shocking as the
molestation is the action

Trinamul Congress activists at a protest rally against the arrest of party leader in Lok
Sabha Sudip Bandopadhyay, in Kolkata on Wednesday.
PTI

Minor raped and run over

DC CORRESPONDENT
Crossing all limits of brutality, two people raped a
minor girl and tried to kill
her by running her over
with a motorbike. The incident
took
place
on
December 24 in Sarangsar
town of Rajasthans Churu
district, but came to light
when the girl who is in serious condition was referred
a hospital in Jaipur.
Sources said that the two
accused took the a 15-year-

STALINS
JOURNEY
BORN MARCH 1, 1953
he campaigned for
DMK in the 1967 elections when he was a
14-year old school student.
HE BECAME the
partys Youth Wing
Secretary in 1984 and
since then he has been
holding the post
STALINS GROWTH
has been steady and
he became party
deputy general secretary in 2003 and was
re-elected Treasurer
for the second term
HE BECAME an MLA
for the first time in
1989 from Thousand
Lights constituency in
Chennai

Another molestation rocks Bengaluru

TRINAMUL PROTESTS

JAIPUR, JAN. 4

when DMK general secretary K. Anbazhagan, who

presided over the meeting,
proposed Stalins name for
the post of working president. He said Stalin would
also continue as the party
treasurer.
The senior leader regretted
that his long time friend
Karunanidhi was unable to
preside over the meeting and
recalled Stalins Namakku
naamey campaign, which he
said, fetched the party 89
members in the Assembly.
Stalin, in a pensive mood,
was unable to control his
tears when principal secretary K. Duraimurugan mentioned again about the
absence of Karunanidhi in
the meeting.
Imitating DMK founder
C.N. Annadurais words asking his colleague V.R.
Nedunchezhian to preside
over a party conference,
Duraimurugan told Stalin
Thambi Vaa, thalaimai yaerga vaa (Come younger brother, Take over the leadership).
We are ready to follow your
command.

old girl to a plantation in

their local village of
Sandwa and raped her.
When she cried out for help,
the accused severely beat
her up and even damaged
her eyes. After carrying out
the dreadful act, they even
ran a bike over her in an
attempt to kill her.
The girl was left for dead
along the road and spent the
night in excruciating pain,
said police.
Doctors at Sawai Man
Singh Hospital where the
girl has been undergoing

treatment said that 85% of

her backbone is damaged.
Her ribs along with her
vocal cords have also been
damaged. After the incident
came to light, angry villagers protested and locked
the private school where the
girl is studying. One of the
accused is the owner of the
school while the other one
is his relative. Police, on
Wednesday, arrested the
accused on a complaint
filed by the girls father who
reported the matter on
Monday night.

or should that be inaction of a group of men

gathered on the main
road
who
silently
watched as the girl was
grabbed, groped and battered and thrown to the
ground, and did not lift a
finger to help her.
Even as she is seen
fighting the driver of the
two-wheeler who pulls

her towards his accomplice who also molests

her, the group disperses
and the accused speed
away, switching on the
tail lights so that CCTV
cannot pick up their
number plates.
Police told this newspaper that they had
detained 12 men for questioning.

PAGE

THURSDAY | 5 JANUARY 2017 | HYDERABAD

CENTRE: WILL BRING BACK DAWOOD

New Delhi: Union
home minister Rajnath
Singh said that efforts
are on to bring back
Indias most wanted
fugitive
Dawood
Ibrahim.
The efforts to bring
Dawood Ibrahim are

on, Singh said. The

Ministry of External
Affairs had earlier reiterated that it will continue
to
pursue
Pakistan to handover
Dawood The designated global terrorists
presence in Pakistan

was confirmed by the

UN. Six addresses provided by India were
found to be correct.
India
is
pursuing
China to declare JeM
chief Masood Azhar an
international terrorist,
Singh added.
ANI

World

Turkey President Recep Tayyip

Erdogan says nighclub attack aimed
to set Turks against each other
DECCAN CHRONICLE

This is Gods
test: If we
cant save
some animals
in a wilderness
area, what else
cant we do
Prince Harry,

IN

BRIEF

Israeli soldier guilty

of manslaughter
Tel Aviv: An Israeli soldier
who shot dead a wounded
Palestinian assailant as he lay
on the ground posing no
apparent threat was convicted of manslaughter on Wednesday after a trial that had
divided the nation. The soldier, Elor Azaria, had been on
trial for manslaughter in a
military court since May, with
right-wing politicians defending him despite top army brass harshly condemning the
killing. Sentencing is expected at a later date. He faces
up to 20 years in prison.

Emiratis cant
keep wild pets
Dubai: The private ownership
of wild animals has been outlawed in the UAE, where keeping exotic creatures as pets
is a status symbol for some,
reports said. Wildcats,
including endangered cheetahs, are known to have been
domesticated in the UAE and
neighbouring Gulf countries,
with some even spotted
being taken outside in the
middle of big cities. The new
law bans dealing in and ownership of all types of wild
and domesticated but dangerous animals.

Pak plane in
another mishap
Toronto: A Pakistan
International Airlines plane
has clipped the wing of an
Air France aircraft at the
Pearson International Airport
here, the latest accident to
hit Pakistans ailing flag carrier. The Air France plane was
parked at a gate at Terminal
3 when the PIA plane taxiing
towards a gate nearby when
the airplanes wings touched
on Tuesday night, according
to Natalie Moncur, a spokeswoman for the Greater
Toronto Airports Authority.
No injuries were reported.

Baggage handler
stuck in cargo hold
Chicago: In an unusual security incident, a baggage handler was trapped in the cargo
hold of a regional jetliner in
the US during an hour-long
flight from Charlotte, North
Carolina, to Washingtons
Dulles International Airport.
United Airlines is investigating how the baggage handler
was trapped in the cargo
hold of the jet on New Years
Day. The man was found
unharmed after United
Airlines Flight 6060 landed
at Dulles on Sunday, according to a statement from
United.

WHITE BULLET
TRAINS TURN
BROWN
Beijing, Jan. 4: Chinas
national
observatory
on
Wednesday renewed alerts for
air pollution and fog across the
country as the gleaming white
bullet trains turned dark
brown while travelling in pollution hit areas, major expressways closed and over flights
getting cancelled.
Photos of the trains with
brown stains went viral and
even flashed in the official
media websites as thick smog
shrouded Beijing and 71 cities
for the past five days.
The national observatory
renewed alerts for air pollution
and fog for some areas in
northern, eastern and central
China, including Beijing.
Heavy smog will persist in
parts of Beijing, Tianjin,
Hebei, Henan, Shandong,
Shanxi,
Shaanxi,
Anhui,
Jiangsu, Hubei, Jiangxi and
Hunan till tomorrow the
National Meteorological Centre (NMC), which renewed an
orange alert for those areas
said. The NMC also renewed a
red alert for fog in a number of
northern, eastern and central
regions.
Several
expressways
in
Beijing were closed from the
early hours on Wednesday,
state-run Xinhua news agency
reported.

RUSSIA

HACKING

Trump derides US
intelligence on hacks
President-elect backs Assanges claims on Russia
Washington, Jan. 4:
President-elect Donald
Trump on Wednesday
again cast doubt on US
intelligence findings that
Russia hacked the presidential election, repeating WikiLeaks founder
Julian Assanges assertion that leaked information
damaging
to
Democrats did not come
from Moscow.
It was his latest attack
on a key body he will rely
on as commander in
chief and again put him
at odds with the agencies unanimous conclusion that Russia hacked
Democratic Party groups
and individuals to interfere in the US presidential election.
Mr Trump suggested
that intelligence officials
postponed an intelligence briefing on socalled Russian hacking
that they were set to
deliver to him this week
because they might need
more time to build a
case. He called the
alleged
delay
very
strange.
Julian Assange said a
14-year-old could have
hacked Podesta why
was DNC so careless?
Also said Russians did
not give him the info!
the Republican posted on
his preferred communication platform, Twitter.
Mr Trump was referring to thousands of
emails hacked from the
Democratic
National
Committee and from
Clinton campaign chief
John Podesta, which
were
published
by
WikiLeaks in the weeks
ahead of the November 8
presidential election.
Somebody hacked the
DNC but why did they
not
have
hacking
defense like the RNC
has, Mr Trump added,
referring
to
the
Republican
National
Committee.
The US intelligence
community has concluded that the hack-andrelease of the emails was
designed to put Mr
Trump a political neophyte who has praised
Russian leader Vladimir
Putin into the Oval
Office.
Moscow has repeatedly

GLOBE TROT

MANS FRONT
DOOR WALLED
UP OVERNIGHT
Berlin, Jan. 4: Police
say a man in western
Germany ran into a
wall, literally, as he
opened his front door
to leave the house earlier this week.
The man was heading out of his house
in Mainhausen, near
Frankfurt, but found
that unknown perpetrators had quietly
and without attracting anyones attention built a wall in
the doorway during
the night.
A police statement
said the man must
have felt like a Berliner in August 1961,
referring to East
Germanys sealing of
its border with the
Berlin Wall.
AP

FIGHT FOR OBAMACARE

President Barack Obama arrives on Capitol in a rare

trip to meet with House and Senate Democrats to discuss how to combat the Republican drive to repeal
much of his health care overhaul.
PTI

TRUMP TO HOLD MAJOR PRESS

CONFERENCE ON JANUARY 11
New York, Jan. 4:
President-elect Donald
Trump said he will hold
a press conference on
January 11, during which he has previously
indicated he would unveil plans to avoid any
conflict of interest between the White House and
his business dealings.
Mr Trump has not held
a press conference since
July, and his announcement gave just the latest
date set for the muchdelayed event previously
due
to
take
place
December 15. He was
elected in November.
In a tweet, Mr Trump
said: I will be having a
general news conference
on
JANUARY
ELEVENTH in N.Y.C.

Thank you.
Precedent has seen
American
presidentselect field numerous
press conferences during
the transition to power to
discuss matters such as
their choices to fill their
cabinet and policy plans
for the incoming administration. Instead Mr
Trump has relied largely
on rallies, photo ops,
select interviews and on
tweets.
PTI

dismissed the allegations

that it was responsible
for the cyber-meddling.
Assange said in an
interview with Fox television broadcast on
Tuesday
that
Mr

Podestas Gmail account

was something a 14year-old kid could have
hacked. He insisted that
Russia was the source of
the hacked material.
Agencies

Washington,
Jan. 4: Former Democratic presidential nominee
Hillary
Clinton will attend the
January 20 inauguration
ceremony
of
President-elect Donald
Trump, her bitter rival
from the 2016 campaign.
Ms Clinton will attend the inauguration
with her husband and
former US President
Bill Clinton.
The
Clintons
announced their decision to attend the
January 20 inauguration shortly after former President George
W Bushs office said he
would attend along
with former first lady
Laura
Bush,
CBS
reported.
PTI

$180M PAYOUT
FROM EXXON
FOR TILLERSON
New
York,
Jan. 4: Rex
Tillerson,
the nominee
of Presidentelect Donald
Trump for secretary of state, is severing ties with Exxon
Mobil through a $180
million
retirement
package ahead of a
Senate confirmation
hearing.
Mr Tillerson will surrender all unpaid stock
that was part of his
pay package, more
than
two
million
shares. In exchange,
the company will make
a cash payment equal
to the value of those
shares to a trust to be
overseen by a third
party, according to a
regulatory filing on
Wednesday.
AP

NEW YORK TRAIN DERAILS, 100 HURT

An injured passenger is taken from the Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn, New York, ,
after a commuter train derailed on Wednesday injuring nearly 100 people and setting
off a panic during the morning rush.
PTI

UNLESSS THEY OPT OUT, ALL

FRENCH ARE ORGAN DONORS
London, Jan. 4: Every
French citizen has automatically become an
organ donor unless they
decide to opt out, due to a
change in the law.
The Independent reported that a new rules,
which came into effect
on January 1, aligned
Frances policy with other European countries
like Spain and Austria,
where presumed consent means anyone can
become a donor of organs and tissues when they
die unless they specifically choose not to.
Those who do not want
all or any of their organs
to be used must now put

HILLARY TO
ATTEND TRUMP
INAUGURATION

their name on a refusal

register or the National
Rejection Register.
Medical teams will
check the register at the
time of death before considering organ or tissue
removal. Over 1,50,000
people have already signed up to the register, the
Guardian said.
Agencies

FRESH | REVELATION

The

PAGE

THURSDAY | 5 JANUARY 2017 | HYDERABAD

Duterte says some of his

kin may have joined ISIS
Manila, Jan. 4: President
Rodrigo
Duterte
of
Philippines,
widely
known for his strict drug
laws and scathing tongue,
said some of his family
members might have
joined the terrorist organisation Islamic State.
Speaking to the news
site Rappler, President
Duterte said, ISIS seems
to be everywhere.
His cousins were earlier
members of local Islamist
groups Moro Islamic
Liberation Front (MI) and
the
Moro
National
Liberation Front (MN), he
said, adding that they
could have possibly joined
the Islamic State.
To be frank, I have
cousins on the other side,
with MI and MN. Some, I
heard, are with ISIS.
Drawing attention to the
two recent attacks that
shook Philippines one
at the night market at
Davao killing 14, wounding 70 and a blast outside
a church in the Cotabato

REBELS RAID
PHILIPPINE JAIL
TO FREE INMATES
To be frank, I have
cousins on the
other side, with MI and
MN. Some, I heard, are
with Isis
RODRIGO DUTERTE
Philippines President
region on Christmas Eve
that wounded around 13
he said, could have
been the doing of the ISIS.
He told Rappler, even
though he had discussed
the issue with other heads
of states, he was not
ready to make the information public. Agencies

Kidapawan, Jan. 4:
Suspected Muslim rebels
staged the Philippines'
biggest jailbreak today
when they stormed a
dilapidated jail in the violence-plagued south of
the country, freeing 158
inmates and killing a
guard, authorities said.
The attack added to a
long history of daring
jailbreaks in the southern
Philippines, home to a
decades-old Muslim separatist insurgency as well
as extremist gangs that
have recently declared
allegiance to the ISIS.
More than 100 armed
men believed to have been
led by a local Muslim
guerrilla
commander
attacked the jail to free
fellow rebels.
PTI

SWEDENS
6-HOUR WORK
DAY A FAILURE

City woman joins

London protest

London,
Jan.
4:
Swedens
experiment
with a six-hour work day
may be doomed after a
two-year
experiment
showed that the costs
outweigh the benefits.
The scheme saw 68
nurses at an old peoples
home in Gothenburg
have their eight-hour
days cut in a bid to
improve staff satisfaction, health and patient
care.
Preliminary
results
showed that it achieved
all of these aims, but the
city had to employ an
extra 17 staff, costing
12m kroner (1.4m),
Bloomberg reported.
City officials have
decided not to make the
scheme
permanent
because of fears costs
could spiral out-of-control, the Independent
said.
Agencies

London, Jan. 4: One of

Britains largest Indian
community organisations held a protest in
Londons iconic Piccadilly Circus, highlighting
the plight of some of the
first generation migrant
Indian women in the UK
who are abused and
exploited by their spouses
and let down by the system.
Members of
Indian
Ladies in UK (ILUK), a
14,000-strong
womens
group made up of first
generation female migrants from India, braved
the December cold and
became homeless for
one night, sleeping rough
on the frigid streets of
London on December 23.
They wanted to shed
light on the plight of
scores of women who
have been left physically,
mentally and emotionally
abused and destitute by
their spouses.

NO VITAMIN D
SUPPLEMENTS
IN FRANCE
Paris, Jan. 4: France
has moved to suspend
sales of a vitamin D
medication
following
the death of a baby who
suffocated after being
given the liquid supplement, health authorities
said on Wednesday.
Frances ANSM agency
that oversees the safety
of medicines and health
products said it had
taken the measure as a
precaution after investigations showed a
probable link between
the death and the administration of Uvesterol
D.
The 10-day-old baby
died on December 21
after being given Uvesterol D, a popular brand
of drops prescribed for
children suffering from
vitamin D deficiency.
The supplement is only
available in France.
ANSM has previously
issued warnings about
how the supplement is
administered with a
pipette following
cases of respiratory
problems, especially among premature babies
and newborns. AFP

Among the protesters

was a woman from
Hyderabad, returned to
London in October after a
visit to India to find that
she had been locked out of
her home by her IT executive husband who claimed
that he had obtained a
divorce
through
the
triple talaq system of
Islamic divorce.
She was left homeless
before she made contact
with ILUK who organised
help for her.
Another woman from
Gujarat whose BritishIndian husband took her
to India in mid 2016 only
to abandon her and kidnap her children and take
them to his parents home
in
Madagascar
was
among the potesters.
Many of the victims
often have little knowledge about how to find
help in what is, for
many, a largely alien
country.
PTI

FB CEO wants to
meet people in real
New York, Jan. 4:
Facebook CEO Mark
Zuckerbergs New Year's
resolution is to meet people in real life in every US
state in an effort to mend
societal
divisions
wrought by the twin
forces of technology and
globalisation.
The tech giants boss on
Tuesday said his personal
challenge for 2017 is to
have visited and met people in every state by the
end of the year. That
means he will travel to
about 30 states in 2017,
according to his Facebook
post.
This is the latest personal challenge Zuckerberg
has given himself. In previous years, he has built
artificial intelligence for
his
home,
learned
Mandarin, read 25 books
and ran 587 kms. After a
tumultuous last year, my
hope for this challenge is
to get out and talk to more
people about how they are
living,
working
and
thinking
about
the
future, he wrote in the
post.

THIS year Mark

Zuckerberg wants to
visit and meet people
in every state in the
US. Hes already visited about 20 states.
According
to
the
Guardian, Zuckerbergs
plan to visit all US states
may hint at his political
ambitions.
In
early
December, it said, unsealed court filings from a
class-action lawsuit filed
in April revealed that
Zuckerberg
and
two
board members had discussed how the CEO
might pursue a political
career while retaining
control of Facebook.
Agencies

mesentery connects the intestine to the abdomen

New human organ identified

London,
Jan.
4:
Scientists in Ireland have
classified a brand-new
organ inside human body,
one that has been hiding
in plain sight in our digestive system, proving the
anatomic description laid
down over 100 years of
anatomy as incorrect.
Researchers hope that
the reclassification will
aid better understanding
and treatment of abdominal and digestive diseases.
The mesentery, which connects the intestine to the
abdomen, had for hundreds of years been considered a fragmented

structure made up of multiple separate parts.

However, new research
by J Calvin Coffey,
Professor of Surgery at
University of Limerick in
Ireland, describes the
mesentery as one, continuous structure. In a review
published in the journal
The Lancet Gastroenterology and Hepatology,
Coffey outlined the evidence for categorising the
mesentery as an organ.
In the paper, which has
been peer reviewed and
assessed, we are now saying we have an organ in
the body which has not

LESSER
COMPLICATIONS
Transverse
mesocolon
Small
intestinal
mesentery

Right
mesocolon

been acknowledged as
such to date, Coffey said.
Better understanding and
further scientific study of
the mesentery could lead

BETTER understanding and further

scientific study of the
mesentery could lead
to less invasive surgeries, fewer complications, faster
patient recovery and
lower overall costs,
say researchers
to less invasive surgeries,
fewer
complications,
faster patient recovery
and lower overall costs.
When we approach it like

every other organ, we can

categorise abdominal disease in terms of this
organ, Coffey said.
According to Coffey,
mesenteric science is its
own specific field of medical study in the same way
as gastroenterology, neurology and coloproctology.
During initial research,
we noticed in particular
that the mesentery, which
connects the gut to the
body, was one continuous
organ. Up to that it was
regarded as fragmented,
present here, absent elsewhere and a very complex
structure.
PTI

cmyk

cmyk

Edit

MIND POWER
RABINDRANATH TAGORE HENRY FORD

Faith is the bird that feels the light Obstacles are those frightful things you see
when the dawn is still dark when you take your eyes off your goal
DECCAN CHRONICLE

PAGE

10

THURSDAY | 5 JANUARY 2017 | HYDERABAD

JANUARY 5 | 2017

Will TMC arrests lead

to relook at CBI role?

Kushal
Bhattacharya

he CBIs arrest of Trinamul Congress Lok Sabha leader Sudip

Bandopadhyay on Tuesday, and of the partys actor-MP Tapas Pal
earlier, on charges of being involved in a chit fund scam due to
their association with Rose Valley, an infrastructure and finance
company with varied business interests, threatens to snowball into a
major political confrontation at the national level. This is mainly because
the CBI has unfortunately acquired the reputation of being a police outfit
that is unleashed by the party in power at the Centre to hound political
opponents in order to advance its political aims by weakening adversaries. This impression was strengthened when the Supreme Court called
it a caged parrot a few years ago.
Since the Modi This is why, no less than the allegations of
government came corruption involving influential elements of
the TMC, the row that has arisen is apt to
to power, the become an examination of the nature of the
impression has institution of the CBI itself in its present form.
gained ground that Questions have already begun to be asked
the BJP has been why Babul Supriyo, a Union minister from
Bengal who does not hide his association
behaving in an West
with Rose Valley, has not been questioned
holier-than-thou or arrested for questioning by the CBI.
fashion, accusing Rose Valley is active in West Bengal, Odisha
its opponents and some neighbouring states. Business enterusually maintain good relations with
of corruption... prises
ruling parties at the state and the Centre. In
order to be fair, before others point this out, it
will be in the fitness of things if the CBI takes a look at political personalities of all parties, including the BJP, to see if they have favoured irregular dealings of Rose Valley or other firms for a consideration the charge
that is levelled at a clutch of high-ranking TMC figures.
Since the Narendra Modi government came to power, the impression
has gained ground that the BJP has been behaving in an holier-than-thou
fashion, accusing its opponents of corruption with the purpose of harassing them and to prevent them from mounting a challenge to the government at the Centre, and disregarding allegations of corruption against its
own leaders and state governments.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who led an unrestrained
attack on top BJP leaders, including the PM and BJP president Amit Shah,
said this openly. With BSP supremo Mayawati, this has been a refrain for
some time in the context of the CBIs activities, specially as in UP the BJP
tended to view the BSP, rather than the incumbency-laden SP, as its main
opponent. It has also been felt in political circles that the ruling party has
been trying to constrain the Congress through the so-called National
Herald case. In contrast, government investigators have thought the better of probing allegations arising from the Birla-Sahara diary jottings.

Banks should give loan relief

he banks got a bonanza of an estimated `13 lakh crore after demonetisation. This gave them a cushion after their balance sheets were
battered by rising non-performing assets. Prime Minister Narendra
Modi has urged banks to offer more schemes to small and marginalised
people as they now have such huge funds. The banks were already funding these sections under RBI guidelines, but funding for small and medium enterprises must be looked at more sympathetically, while keeping
commercial interests in mind. Most banks had already cut lending rates
by hefty amounts, by their standards. Their rate cuts till now were mostly quarter per cent and on some rare occasions by half per cent.
The nations top public sector lender, State Bank of India, set the pace
by dropping rates by 90 basis points, and other banks followed with similar or lower amounts. It is likely that those buying homes or other property could benefit the most. Perhaps banks could go a step further, and be
more generous with monthly instalment payments of home loans and personal loans. Credit growth to corporates arent expected to get a boost as
most of them are still not in a position to borrow. But if retail loans
increase, there will be more money in the hands of people, and this could
boost consumer demand, which could kickstarting production.

DECCAN CHRONICLE
T. VENKATRAM REDDY
Chairman of the Board
O. THOMAS
Printer & Publisher

A.T. JAYANTI
Editor

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UP polls may not be

national bellwether
Parsa
Venkateshwar Rao

here is the general myth that

Uttar Pradesh
is the cockpit
of Indian politics, and whoever wins
the state will rule India.
Through the 1990s and
until the 2014 Lok Sabha
elections, it did not matter who won or lost the
elections in UP. The
state ceased to be the big
player it fancied itself to
be. Even when Atal
Behari Vajpayee won
from Lucknow and led a
BJP-NDA government at
the Centre, UP remained
one of the many players
in the power game, and
it was not a key one. It
was only when the BJP
won 73 of 80 Lok Sabha
seats, when two outsiders, BJP president
Amit Shah and prime
ministerial candidate
Narendra
Modi,
wrought a miracle of
sorts and made a clean
sweep of the states
largest Lok Sabha contingent, that the old
adage of the winner in
UP ruling India revived,
though not fully.
The BJP hopes to ride
on the crest of its 2014
Lok Sabha victory to
win the coming sevenphase Assembly election, from February 11
to March 8. The Opposition seems to be in a
disarray. The ruling
Samajwadi Party is in a
disintegrative
mode.
The other major local
party, the Mayawati-led
Bahujan Samaj Party, is
hoping to seize the reins
of power as it had done
in 2007. The 2007 and
2012 Assembly elections
showed that the people
of the state voted decisively for one or other of
two major local players.
The ostensible national
parties,
BJP
and
Congress, have been relegated to the margins.
The Congress was last in
power in the 1980s.

The BJPs tenure in

power has been patchy
through the 1990s, except in 1991 when the
Babri Masjid was demolished and the Kalyan
Singh government resigned and was subsequently dismissed. The BJP
lost the election that followed. UP then lost its
political sheen because
no one party seemed to
represent the state in the
state and at the Centre.
The decline of the state
in national politics was
complete. What is left of
the big stakes in state
politics is who would
win in the Assembly
elections. It is as good or
as interesting as to who
would win the Assembly
elections in West Bengal, Maharashtra, Tamil
Nadu or Rajasthan.
The unending baroque
family drama of the
Mulayam Singh Yadav
clan in the SP signifies
the roil and turmoil that
marks the politics of the
most populous state in
the country. The battle
between Mulayam Singh
Yadav, the SPs progenitor, and his chosen successor and incumbent
chief minister Akhilesh
Yadav, has undertones
and overtones that mark
the intrigues of any
Asian family. The rivalries, factions, clashes
are much too intertwined for anyone to
unravel them and make
sense of them.
Mulayam Singh Yadav
chose his son Akhilesh

The BJP wants to win

UP to flex its muscle
at the national level.
The SP and BSP
would be fighting for
their survival on
home turf... Thus, the
two regional parties
have an advantage
over the BJP...

as chief minister much

against opposition from
party elders, including
his brother Shivpal
Yadav, and even party
veteran Azam Khan. For
five years, Akhilesh was
hemmed in on all sides
from functioning properly as chief minister.
There have been times
when Mulayam Singh
would chide his CM son.
It would have been an
interesting political satire but for the fact that it
is for real. Akhilesh
wants to fend off not just
his uncle, Shivpal, his
fathers confidant Amar
Singh, but also his stepsister-in-law
Aparna
Yadav. It cannot get
more complicated.
In the last few months,
the internal feuding has
intensified with Akhilesh removing Shivpal
from the Cabinet and
then reinstalling him,
Mulayam Singh throwing out Akhileshs men
from the party and then
relenting,
Mulayam
Singh appointing Shivpal as party in-charge in
the state, Akhilesh holding his own party conference and declaring
himself the president of
the party in the state,
and then going back to
the father to negotiate a
settlement. To call this a
political
soap-opera
would be unjust because
the fight is for real, and
each one of them is fighting a life-and-death political battle.
However riveting the
palace intrigues of the
SP, the silent march of
the BSP, and the vainglorious attempts by the
BJP to ride to power in
Lucknow and the pathetic bid by the Congress to
retain its toehold in the
state, there is not much
doubt that UP is still far
from
retaining
its
prominence in national
politics. If the BJP wins,
and it has to do so convincingly and with substantial numbers as it
did in the 2014 Lok
Sabha polls, the political
fortunes of who reigns
supreme in Lucknow
would remain a matter
of provincial importance. It will indeed be
different if the BJP wins
because it could then tilt

UP has no option
but to look after its
own interests. That
will be the deciding factor, and not
the performance of
the BJPs government at the
Centre. It is a
provincial election,
pure and simple.
the balance in favour of
its own presidential
nominee; the presidential election is due in
July. But if no single
party gets an overwhelming
majority,
then UP legislators vote
the electoral college
which
chooses
the
President comprises the
legislators from all
states and members of
the two Houses of
Parliament will be as
crucial as that of any
other state.
The BJP wants to win
UP to flex its muscle at
the national level. The
SP and BSP would be
fighting for their survival on home turf. They
have no national ambition. Thus, the two
regional parties have an
advantage over the BJP.
People voting in an
Assembly election are
focused on the local
agenda. The UP voter is
only too aware that
he/she needs a government that works well for
him or her, and he or she
is not deluded by national glory as such. Prime
Minister
Narendra
Modi, who represents
Varanasi, might be an
adopted UP-ite but it
may not work any wonders for the BJP in the
Assembly poll. UP has
no option but to look
after its own interests.
That will be the deciding
factor, and not the performance of the BJPs
government at the Centre. It is a provincial
election, pure and simple. It is not a referendum on the Modi government or on demonetisation.
The author is a Delhibased commentator
and analyst

As Mideast simmers, future bleak for Turkey

he heinous Saturday night bloodbath at a swanky

nightclub on the
banks of the Bosphorus
in Istanbul brought what
had already been a terrible year for Turkey to an
exceptionally brutal conclusion.
It was a year peppered
with terrorist attacks, but
its
centrepiece
was
arguably a coup attempt
in July that apparently
came close to succeeding,
followed by a sweeping
wave of state repression
that has deepened fractures in Turkish society
amid shifting allegiances
on the Syrian front that
have resulted in a Nato
stalwart effectively allying itself with Russia.
If the idea behind the
assassination a fortnight
ago of the Russian ambassador to Turkey was to
precipitate a stand-off

between Moscow and

Ankara, it has predictably failed. The assassin, an off-duty policeman, was killed immediately afterwards, so his
precise motivations may
never be known, but his
Remember Aleppo! slogan while performing his
dastardly act offers obvious pointers.
Syrias largest city was
recently wrested from
rebel control by forces
allied to the government
of Bashar al-Assad, with
the
Russians
and
Iranians instrumental in
producing this result. It
has been claimed that
Turkeys President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan helped
out by persuading his
Islamist allies among the
Syrian rebels to facilitate
the evacuation of eastern
Aleppo.
The Erdogan government was involved in the

Syrian
conflict
long
before its troops directly
stepped in, and its assistance to Islamist factions
included turning a blind
eye
to
international
recruits many of them
attracted by the militant
Islamic State group
entering the war-torn
country through the
Turkish border. ISIS
turned against Turkey
once this route became a
lot more restricted, and
after Ankara had second
thoughts about its initial
refusal
to
permit
American and other Nato
forces to use Turkish
bases as a launching pad
for airstrikes against ISIS
on Syrian territory.
Turkey had visibly bristled at Russias intervention in Syria on behalf of
Assad, and things came to
a head after its forces
shot down a Russian warplane that had allegedly

Mahir Ali
strayed into Turkish airspace. Vladimir Putin
resisted any temptation
he may have had to ramp
up the confrontation,
instead using the incident as a lever to forge an
unlikely
informal
alliance that had the twin
advantage of facilitating
his aims in Syria while
driving a wedge between
leading Nato members.
It was thus Russia and
Turkey, alongside Iran,
that jointly announced a
truce in Syria shortly
before the Istanbul atroci-

ty,
and
successfully
sought the imprimatur of
the UN. The cessation of
hostilities
does
not
include ISIS, and is anyhow not expected to last
very long, but it apparently does cover Al
Nusra, an organisation
once formally allied with
Al Qaeda that has played
a key role in the rebellion
against Assad and enjoyed Turkish favours in
the bargain, but is also
likely to have borne the
brunt of Russian bombing campaigns.
By some accounts, the
primary
purpose
of
Erdogans Syrian adventure has always been to
forestall the likelihood of
a de facto Kurdish state
on Turkeys border, and
he strove hard to prevent
Turkish Kurds from aiding their Syrian comrades. A ceasefire between the Turkish state

and
the
Kurdistan
Workers Party (PKK)
broke down in 2015, and
the latter claimed responsibility for some of last
years terrorist attacks,
directed chiefly against
security forces the
PKK claims not to target
civilians and roundly
condemned the Reina
nightclub massacre.
The Americans have
heeded some of Erdogans
concerns while broadly
backing the Kurdish
Peoples Protection Units
(YPG) in their fight
against ISIS (and potentially Assad). But then
the US strategy in Syria
has anyhow been all over
the place, and last
months truce announcement conspicuously excluded Washington, demonstrating the extent to
which it has been sidelined.
Turkey under Erdogan

finds itself besieged on

three fronts by the
Gulenists, Kurds and
ISIS, which belatedly
claimed responsibility
for the 39 deaths at the
Reina nightclub.
The Presidents reaction to Turkeys multiple
woes has largely revolved
around clamping down
on all dissent and extending the breadth and depth
of his autocracy, blaming
everyone but his own
often contradictory policies for all that is going
horribly wrong in a nation that not long ago
seriously aspired to become a fully fledged
European state but has
lately been sucked right
back into the Middle
Eastern cauldron, with
its present blighted and
its future increasingly
uncertain.
By arrangement with
Dawn

LETTERS
SICKENING ATTITUDE
If the molestation of girls in
public was sickening, even
more distressing was the
reaction from some elected
representatives and their
crass remarks and opinions,
with utter disregard to the
dignity of women (Azmi too
blames women, Jan. 3). The
Supreme Court should take
suo motu note of these
remarks and issue show
cause notices to these leaders. After all, responsibility begins with those in governance.
Dr G. Sridevi
Kowkoor

RELIGION & POLITICS

Your editorial Timely judgement to
firm up secular ethos (Jan. 4) has
hit the bulls eye. The Supreme
Court ruling on keeping religion
out elections is a welcome move to
realise dreams of Indias development. To ensure implementation of
its order, the SC should consider
banning sharing of post electionstatistics based on gender, age,
caste, geography and religion to
prevent vote bank politics.
Parikshit
Secunderabad
The SCs landmark judgement is
welcome. It remains to be seen how
the orders are implemented by the
Election Commission.
Gulferoze
Vanasthalipuram, Hyderabad
Most candidates or their agents
seek votes either in the name of
religion or religious symbol. The
SC ruling will ensure that any candidate doing so from now on will be
disqualified. Thus, the question of
mixing politics with religion will
not arise.
P.P. Emmanuel
Secunderabad

SHOCKING DEPOSIT
It is shocking how a man living
below the poverty line could
deposit `17 crore in his account
City BPL man deposits `17cr, Jan.
3). Interestingly, he had deposited
`3 crore before demonetisation.
This raises doubts if he was aware
of demonetisation before it was
announced. The authorities must
be very careful about categorising
people and ensure ineligible dont
avail BPL facilities.
Nihad Reshma
Hyderabad

SERVICE BUSINESS
The very fact that restaurant business is a service obviates the need
for them to levy any service
charge over and above the service
tax. Doing so amounts to a fraud as
the cost of service is already covered in the prices of items sold.
Leaving the decision to pay to customers will only lead to chaos.
Seema Agrawal
Hyderabad

CABS FARING WELL

As more people are using cabs , it
would be impractical for cabbies to
demand an increase in fares (Cab
drivers to begin hunger strike today,
Jan. 4). Any fare hike would drive
customers away to public transport, thereby hitting their business. Owners of cab services must
convince cab drivers to stop their
protests and strike threats.
G.R. Naidu
Nagole, Hyderabad

Every Monday the best letter of

the week wins `300. Email your
letters to [email protected],
[email protected], or fax
them to 27805256. You can also
send them to Editor, Deccan
Chronicle, 36, Sarojini Devi Road,
Secunderabad-500 003. Letters
without full address will not be
considered for the prize.

Oped

Word SPY
CHEMTRAIL ONE-HANDED FOOD
A jet contrail that has been laced with Food that is small enough to hold in
chemical or biological agents one hand and is not messy to eat

DC DEBATE

PMs New Year sops were a poor attempt at diverting attention from demonetisation

Mini-budget speech to heal?

of the Indira Awas Yojana
that ran prior to the NDA
regime. It is the schematic
version of housing for all
commitment of the government under which it wants
to build 20 million houses
by 2022. The provision for
RuPay and other debit
cards against Kisan Credit
Cards has existed since
2012, but it has not been
mandatorily provided to all
farmers taking credit. The
RBI has since May 2012
provided that banks can
give debit cards to farmers
to withdraw credit through
ATMs. In November 2012,
the UPA finance minister
announced that 19 banks
would provide RuPay cards
to farmers availing KCC. A
reply in the Lok Sabha
shows that 56.60 lakh
RuPay cards against KCC
were issued in 2013-14.
Now lets come to micro,
small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), the fact is
that only five per cent of
MSMEs have access to
institutional loans; over 95
per cent of these businesses take loans from informal
sources at steep interest
rates. Besides, this measure should have been
accompanied by a shoring
up of the capital base of
the Credit Guarantee Fund
Trust for micro and small
enterprises.

The PM added that the

government will not allow
them to pay senior citizens
anything less than eight
per cent on deposits up to
`7.5 lakhs made for 10
years. Fact check: Under
the Senior Citizen Saving
Scheme (SCSS) at post
offices, interest at the rate
of 8.5 per cent per annum
is given on deposits of up
to `15 lakhs with a
maturity period of five
years. There does not seem
to be much of a gain for
senior citizens if one were
to compare interest rates
on deposits of similar or
even shorter tenure offered
currently.
In all, the PM as usual did
not reply to the promise
which he had made that if
things do not normalise
within 50 days he should be
taken to task. All the
restrictions imposed by the
RBI are very much present.
He has just announced
some so-called sops to take
the heat off his government for demonetisation,
which has been a colossal
blunder done by the Modi
government on the poor
farmer and the common
man of this country.
K.C. Mittal is the
Congress legal and human
rights
department secretary

T
Modi has just No reason to
repackaged wait for the
old schemes Budget
K.C. Mittal Rajeev Ahuja
The PM did not reply
to the promise which
he had made that if
things do not normalise within 50
days he should be
taken to task... He
has just announced
some so-called sops
to take the heat off
his government...

Those who
understand Mr Modi
would know that
he is a hands-on
PM who doesnt
shy away from
going to the public
and who is in a hurry
when it
comes to promoting
development...

he shaping of
policies and programmes is a
continuous
process.
These
policies and programmes
get announced or launched
as and when they get
finalised. There is no reason to wait to bundle all
new initiatives with the
Budget, which happens
only once in a year. Yet
Prime Minister Narendra
Modis announcement of
new schemes on the eve of
New Year at a time when
the Budget Session is
around the corner is
bound to create doubts in
some quarters about the
motives
behind
these
announcements. But those
who
understand
Mr Modi would know that
he is a hands-on PM who
doesnt shy away from
going to the public and who
is in a hurry when it comes
to promoting development.
Mr Modis New Year
gift to the public can be
grouped in three broad
categories: (i) interest
subsidy on home loans,
farm loans and on term
deposits by senior citizens;
(ii) credit guarantees and
enhanced credit limits for
small businesses; and (iii)
cash transfers to expectant
mothers. The intended
beneficiaries of
these

Let CAG do reviews, not Aayog

Pradeep S. Mehta
& Abhishek Kumar

ne day a government
doctor gleefully told me
that he can now buy a
petrol jeep, which he
could not have done
under government rules, which
mandate that only diesel jeeps will
be procured. He would use his
powers to do the purchase of a
petrol jeep as ex-officio secretary
of
the autonomous District
Medical and Health Society. Diesel
jeeps are hardier and cost-effective
as compared to petrol jeeps, hence
the
government
diktat.
Establishing such autonomous
bodies has become a regular and
ubiquitous phenomenon, in order
to enable faster implementation. It
is time to review them and their
utility vis--vis their cost.
These district-level societies are
also quasi-government bodies
enjoying all the privileges of the
government. Every state and
Union territory government has
countless numbers of them.
However, we will examine such
bodies only at the Central level.
Autonomous bodies are of different types formed under varying
causes: a) mandated by a law such
as
Electricity
Regulatory
Commissions or Pollution Control
Boards or Wakf Boards; b) established by the department of science and technology, such as the
Council
of
Scientific
and
Industrial Research and its subordinate bodies; c) established by
miscellaneous ministries to deliver research and education on a
subject, such as the National
Institute
of
Agricultural

50

Marketing or the National Power

Training Institute (NPTI); and d)
by a resolution of the government
such as the Niti Aayog or the
National Productivity Council
(NPC), and so on and so forth.
Public sector business enterprises
incorporated under the law are not
in this group.
As
per
the
Expenditure
Management Commission (EMC)
constituted by the Central government in 2014, these agencies guzzle
approximately `60,000 crores
annually and a meaningful review
of their grants could lead to savings of `3,000 crores per annum. In
our opinion, if some of them are
shut down or privatised then the
savings may be much more. Many
of these bodies are used as handmaidens of the concerned ministry. Appointments are made to
favour some people, who may not
even qualify or used for supporting expenditure, which the ministry cannot legally incur. In one
scandalous case, a person was
appointed as a part-time chairperson of a committee at his lastdrawn salary of `3 lakhs paid regularly for the period of 13 months
that the committee existed. The
relevant ministry did not pay it
but an autonomous institute under
it did the payment. Otherwise they
could have faced serious audit
queries, because chairs of similar
committees have been paid `3 to `5
lakhs as one-time lump sum fees
for whatever the duration of the
committee.
That said, lets look at some other
interesting
dimensions
on
autonomous bodies. First, it
appears that there is no exact data
on how many of these bodies exist
or are in the process of being created or being considered for creation. There must be several argu-

I finally managed to give up

vaping
ments floating around for different
causes and therefore one must not
wonder how such bodies have
increased from a mere 35 in 1955 to
approximately 691 now. A more
important point to consider here is
how do we check if they are indeed
performing the functions they are
supposed to?
Clearly, some of them play a crucial role in nation-building. For
instance, no one can doubt the contribution that bodies such as
Indian Institute of Foreign Trade
and NPTI have made, but what
about bodies like NPC. One would
have to look hard to locate NPC in
furthering the agenda of the ease
of doing business, which is what
seems to be the flavour of the day.
So with regards to the question
whether autonomous bodies are
truly delivering on their mandate,
deeper
probing
is
needed.
Incidentally, the findings of EMC
may be of only limited utility here
as it cannot get into the questions
related to the delivery of the mandate of such bodies, but only
review the financial aspects.
A review of the performance of
such bodies appears in order; but

the question is who should do such

a comprehensive review? In the
current scenario it is Niti Aayog
that has been given this responsibility, but should it not be done by
the Comptroller and AuditorGeneral of India?
Recently, delivering a lecture in
Mumbai, former CAG Vinod Rai
made a well-substantiated argument that the CAG is not a mere
accountants office, but rather it is
an accountability institution. It is
perhaps for this reason that performance audits also fall within
the purview of the CAG along with
other types of audits, including
financial audits.
Performance auditing is focused
on improving good performance in
public administration by examining whether public programmes
and services achieve the principles of economy, efficiency and
effectiveness, and identifying conditions or practices that hamper
performance and enable the auditor to make suitable recommendations. In other words, performance
audit is intended to evaluate the
final outcome and let it be also
made clear that audit of
autonomous bodies fall well within the purview of the CAG.
Given this, it is difficult to understand why Niti Aayog has been
asked to review the performance
of autonomous bodies. Niti was
created as an institution for transforming India; it should start
applying itself where the task of
bodies like the CAG end rather
than usurping their mandate. It
might not be a bad idea for the
CAG to evaluate the performance
of Niti and if it is going in the
direction that it was mandated for.
The authors work for
CUTS International

THE NYT CROSSWORD

YEARS AGO IN

Cow Slaughter
Ban Talks Fail
NEW DELHI, JAN. 4.
Another round of discussions between the Union
Home Minister, Mr Y.B.
Chavan, and representatives
of the Sarvadaliya Goraksha
Samithi on the question of a
ban on cow slaughter ended
infructuously tonight.
While the Government was
prepared to set up high power
committee consisting of representatives of the Union
Government.
State
Governments and the Samiti,
the Samithi reportedly was
insistent on its demands that
Government should first
accept in principle the
necessity for a ban on slaughter of cow and its progeny.
On the other hand, it was
the Governments stand that
all matters concerning cow
protection, including the
question of a ban on go
vans should be left to the
decision of the committee.

ACROSS
1 Take stock?
9 Undergoes downsizing
14 By hand
15 Small parlor
piece
16 Leave basically
nothing to chance
17 Household
18 Walkman insert

19 Martian feature
20 Support in a
confessional
21 Caribbean
island that
Columbus visited
in 1493
22 Pollen repositories
23 Foamy drink
25 Ciceros longtime servant and

scribe
26 ___ boy
27 English county
whose seat is
Exeter
28 Flatten
32 Just make (out)
33 Breaking of a
mirror and others
34 Young studs?
35 Slow-burning
firewood

37 Nonprofit
Broadway production grp.
38 TV character
who said Help
always come when
people fight for
right
39 Raid target
43 Character in
Uncle Remus tales
45 Comment often
preceding Lets
47 Gail ___, inventor of condensed
milk
48 Emphatic
agreement
49 Start a bank,
say
50 Other than the
Nationals, only current Major League
Baseball team
never to have
played in a World
Series
51 Turned to anarchy
52
Conservationists
field?
53 Has the gall
54 Under the gun
DOWN
1 Lab wear
2 Premium cigar
3 Hold it!
4 Compact containers
5 Big flap in the
fashion industry
6 Threat from a rat
7 U.S.P.S. option

advertised with the

slogan If it fits, it
ships
?8 Northumberland
river
?9 Jot
10 Entry in a legislative appropriations bill
11 Idle
12 Archenemy of
Optimus Prime in
Transformers
movies
13 Members of
blended families
15 Hit hard
21 Not going by the
book?
24 Occupied
26 Sighs of relief
27 Why did I do
that?!
28 Blade holder
29 Only African

capital named
after a U.S. president
30 Intentionally
hidden
31 Enterprise
standard
36 Device used to
detect radio waves
38 Not flabby
39 2013 Cars
spinoff
40 Popular
arts-and-crafts
brand
41 Take a
sudden turn
42 Prepared
for
impact
44 Grand affairs
46 Black jellybean
flavorer
48 Hookups at a
gig

11

THURSDAY | 5 JANUARY 2017 | HYDERABAD

DECCAN CHRONICLE
bfuscation,
diversion and
s m o ke s c re e n s
have
become
commonplace
with the Narendra Modiled NDA government. The
Prime Minister has given
two speeches in the past
one week. One was the
address to the nation on
New Years Eve while the
other was at the election
rally in Lucknow. In both
these speeches, we wanted
to know details about
demonetisation, but facts
were assiduously avoided
by Mr Modi.
For 50 days the PM led
this nation to standing in
lines to get their own, legitimate and banked money.
Figures show that more
than 100 people lost their
lives in this process. Now
at least we ought to know
whether the stated objectives of demonetisation
have been achieved or not?
How much black money
has been unearthed by the
government post-November 8? What was the amount and volume of counterfeit currency which was
detected? What impact did
it have on terror funding?
What was the total volume
of old currency returned to
banks? These are the questions on which the PM
should have elaborated his
stance. Instead, on New
Years Eve, he appeared as
if he was donning the role
of
finance
minister,
repackaging old schemes.
If we do some back-of-theenvelope checks on the socalled sops announced by
the PM, it will be clear that
all this is repackaged. The
Pradhan Mantri Awas
Yojana is a revised version

PAGE

Kulbir
Kaur

young boy, Joga

from Peshawar, had
come to meet Guru
Gobind Singh. The Guru
asked him, Who are you?
The boy replied, I am
Joga. Kehde joga, the
Guru asked again. In
Punjabi the word joga
means worthy of or simply for whom the person
is. The boy, mesmerised
by the powerful yet serene
appearance of the Guru,
replied, Guru joga (I am
worthy of the Guru).
Overwhelmed
by
the
response,
the
Guru
replied, Tu mere joga,
main tere joga (if you are
for the Guru, then the
Guru is for you).
Guru Gobind Singh,
born in 1666 in the city of
Patna, the creator of the
Khalsa, a protector not
only of Joga, later known
as Bhai Joga Singh, but
was a saviour of the entire
community and humanity.
Born to a martyr father,
Guru Tegh Bahadur, who
had sacrificed his life for
dharma, Guru Gobind
Singh, a father of four
martyr sons, was a great
warrior, poet and saint.
Guru Gobind Singh, the

schemes are the lowincome

people,
small
businesses and farmers,
senior
citizens
and
expectant mothers.
An examination of the
scheme suggests continuity of pro-poor and prodevelopment thrust of the
Modi government. For
example, housing for lowincome people, both in
rural and urban areas, has
been
high
on
Mr Modis development
agenda. Interest subsidy is
a clever way to encourage
people to seek home loans
to buy or build homes for
themselves and their families. Further, the Modi governments ambitious target of housing for all by
2022 just got a little tougher
with his recent announcement of adding 33 per cent
more houses in villages
under the Pradhan Mantri
Gramin Awas Yojana.
Similarly, schemes aimed
at promotion of small
businesses are in keeping
with
the
Modi
governments thrust on
employment
creation.
Given the multitude of
small businesses across the
country, and their role in
employment generation,
doubling
of
credit
guarantee to `2 crores and
raising of cash credit
limits will only make it

easier for such businesses

to run their operations.
The extent of subsidy
that these schemes would
entail is not known as this
would depend on their
scale-up and uptake. But
their analysis suggests that
these are certainly not
designed in a reckless manner as to create unreasonable burden on the exchequer. These are not doles but
smart subsidies with a
strong rationale behind
them.
However, the scheme of
cash transfer of `6,000 to
expectant mothers is an
odd one on the list. If it
were just a maternity benefit scheme, it is fine. But
the scheme is actually
aimed at improving maternal and child health outcomes. Now improvement
in these outcomes is also
dependent on the public
healthcare delivery system, which we all know is
not in good shape, specially
in rural and remote areas.
Yet, its inclusion may have
been to lend some weight to
the package announced by
the PM.
All attention is now
focused on the forthcoming
Budget, which is also the
first Budget post-demonetisation. It would be interesting to watch how the government proposes to allocate collections under the
Pradhan Mantri Garib
Kalyan Yojana.
Rajeev Ahuja is a
development economist, formerly with the Bill and
Melinda Gates Foundation
and the World Bank.
Email:
[email protected]

Guru Gobind Singh:

Sachcha Patshah
Sachcha Patshah, was a
firm believer in one
Supreme Being. He asserts
the unity of all creation.
The Guru, addressing the
Supreme Being, says,
Thou appearest in all
forms and beholdest everything. Thou art like an
ocean rippling with countless waves unbroken and
mysterious. Thou art quintessence of all
things
yet
unformed of the
elements. Thou
makest all things
flourish,
and
then scatterest
away; to Thee I
bow again and
again. Thou art
almighty creator, whose
hand is in all concerns of
the world. To Thee I bow
again and again. Thou art
multifarious and yet One
(anek hain phir ek hain).
In all his writings, Guru
Gobind Singh emphasises
on inclusiveness and universalism.
Guru
Gobind
Singh
strongly condemned the
practices of rituals, superstitions, use of horoscopes
and ceremonies. Instead
he preached a life devoted

to the Supreme Being,

based on love, devotion,
right conduct, sacrifice,
bravery and kindness. The
Khalsa are enjoined to
help the helpless and fight
the evil. Guru Gobind
Singh, in order to re-establish dharma and to save
the downtrodden, defends
the use of the sword.
When all other means have
failed, it is righteous to draw the
sword, says the
Guru.
The
Khalsa is Akal
ki Fauj, Gods
own army, created to fulfil the
divine mission
of the Gurus
dharam chalavan, sant
ubaran, dusht sabhan ko
mul uparan to uphold
dharma, protect the saintly and uproot the wicked.
Guru Gobind Singhs life,
philosophy,
Khande-dipahul ceremony, DeghTegh-Fateh was like a
breath of fresh air for the
disheartened people.
Kulbir Kaur teaches sociology at Shyama Prasad
Mukherji College, Delhi
University

DECCAN CHRONICLE THURSDAY 5 JANUARY 2017 HYDERABAD

F O O D
S P A C E

DeCaf

GRAVITATIONAL
WAVES

A HOME FAR IN SPACE

IF THINGS GET worse here on Earth, we may have a new destination. Its called Proxima Centauri B, located 4.2 light-years
or 25 trillion miles from our Big Blue. The boffins are not sure
about habitability in the purest sense but are confident
because B is close... close enough for contact. And it could be a
good place to work too. On B, a year lasts just 11 days and the
planet exists in a zone in the universe scientists believe encourages water and perhaps, an atmosphere. Its also just a little bigger than Earth. Bs discovery is crucial because it busts a myth
about Red Dwarf stars. Red Dwarfs were not seen as hosts for
life but now, experts believe they could be holding hospitable
planets nearby.

PHOTOSYNTHESIS
HAS BEEN
EXTENDED

IN NOVEMBER, food scientists from the

University of Illinois were able to prove
how photosynthesis can be tweaked to
produce better crop yields. It wasnt easy
though. Photosynthesis appears to be simple but it is a complex total of 140
different processes and the scientists took
decades to prove their theory which
they tested on tobacco plants. Plants shield
themselves from extra sunlight (otherwise
they will be bleached) and it takes them an
hour to come back to full photosynthesis
production under the shade. But the
scientists have figured out how to speed up
the process of recovery, thereby increasing
the photosynthesis period.

8
THE ROAD THAT REPAIRS
NEMKUMAR BANTHIA LEFT for beautiful Canada after a
few years at one of Indias finest finishing schools IIT
Delhi. That was 34 years ago. But Banthia focussed on building a solution that could help his home country. Since 2014, his
team has been busy working 90 kilometres from Bengaluru
on a road that can heal itself. In 2016, that road was deemed
a success. Banthias road is 60 per cent thinner than the usual
car killers and replaces about 60 per cent of cement with flyash. Its also 30 per cent cheaper to build and can last for 15
years! How does it work? Well, just water the cracks and the
nano coating in the road will help it heal itself.

NASAS EM DRIVE engine

wasnt supposed to work. In
theory, you cant generate thrust
without a fuel. And rockets are forced to
carry a lot of fuel just to escape the
Earths gravity over 90 per cent of the
rocket is just a big tank of flammable
liquid. But the EM Drive relies on
microwaves that are pushing into a cone
for propulsion. The technology was first
suggested in 2001 by aerospace engineer
Roger Shawyer but now, in 2016, Nasa is
secretly diving deep into EM drive.
Without the need for fuel, spacecraft can
move deeper into Space. And the best
part is, reactionless drive can help us
reach Mars in three months!

11

A 13-YEAR-OLD CAR firm,

which never has had a year of
profit, is building the worlds largest
factory at a cost of $5 billion. The
facility will be used to build batteries
and the Tesla electric car. Currently,
the factory is bigger than 95 football
fields. The factory will also recycle.
Founder Elon Musk says entire
trains will go into the factory, only to
emerge as batteries!

12

FEEDING
SEAWEED TO
COWS CAN
SAVE THE
PLANET
FARTING cows can
destroy the planet. The
bovine population is
responsible for
44 per cent of all
human-caused methane
a gas that has 36
times the global warming potential of carbon
dioxide. Which means
millions of burps are
responsible for that big
hole in the Ozone layer.
But scientists have
come up with a
solution. They say
feeding cows dried seaweed can cut the
methane production by
over 70 per cent, or 2.17
gigatonnes. Thats the
entire amount of CO2
that India emits each
year!

CRISPR IS THE METHOD

POWER FROM
THE AIR

ALL OUR DEVICES need

electricity and that means carrying
around an extremely annoying
power chord. But two scientists have
deviced a way to transfer power
wirelessly. Shyamnath Gollakota and
colleague Joshua Smith have modified two devices one that emits a
radio signal and the other that modifies that radio signal into electricity.

12

THE MALE PILL

MAN MOVES METAL

FINGERS, FOR METAL

NOW, THIS IS COMING soon. Vasalgel claims

to be a non-hormonal male contraceptive and the
only other stopping device thatll be approved
by the American Food and Drug Administration, since
the condom. Analysts say Vasalgel will be available in the
market from 2018. Its basically a polymer thats injected
into the mans sperm-carrying tubes, via the scrotum. No,
dont worry. Its a procedure carried out under the blessed
protection thats anesthesia. This polymer blocks the
sperm from creating surprises and one injection lasts for
a few years. The process is also reversible. Another injection can be used to dissolve the polymer.

THE UNIVERSITY OF Ohio has achieved something wonderful. The scientists were able to give back
24-year-old Ian Burkhart, who had been a quadriplegic for
six years, the use of his fingers using small chip in his
brain. Once inserted, the chip transmits signals to a terminal, which then fires off that information into an electronic sleeve worn on the mans arm. That sleeve proceeds to use wires to power up specific muscles, making
the fingers move in real time. And this is not some, Oh
look he can move the egg without breaking it experiment. Burkhart was able to play the guitar!

A PRIVATE ROCKET
RETURNS. VERTICALLY

SPACEX HAS BEEN struggling to build a rocket that can

be quickly prepped to fly again. A major requirement for
re-usability of a rocket is that it must land vertically
vertical landings save costs, and time between launches.
Which is why 2016 has been an important year for SpaceX.
On April 8, it was able to land a rocket vertically on top of
a floating drone ship. It was hailed as a big step towards
privatising Space travel. But theres much to go. SpaceX
has had a few setbacks and this year, a Falcon 9 rocket
blew up before it could take off.

A VERY
SWEET
POTATO

THE 360-DEGREE
TYRES

GOODYEAR IS RE-INVENTING the tyre.

The 360-degree tyre debuted in markets in
March. Now, imagine you have to parallel
park and you have run short on space. The
360- degree tyre will allow you to just move
sideways, right into that god-given space at
the local mall. The tyres rely on magnetic levitation. Whereas traditional tires are bolted
to cars, the Eagle 360s hover beneath them,
free from the limits of traditional steering,
says the company. The firm is hoping the tech
will excite those working on autonomous
cars and yes,
they could
be on to
something
there.

THIS HAS BEEN

ONE OF THE MOST
INNOVATIVE
DECADES IN
HUMAN HISTORY.
WE FOUND A
LIKELY
REPLACEMENT
FOR EARTH; ARE
ABLE TO CUT OUT
DISEASES AND
CAN NOW
CONTROL THE
WAY PLANTS
GROW.
FOLLOWING IS A
LIST OF
IMPORTANT
SCIENTIFIC
DISCOVERIES AND
INNOVATIONS
FROM THE
YEAR 2016.

10

IMAGINE EDITING OUT problems within our genes.

CRISPR stands for Clustered Regularly Interspaced
Short Palindromic Repeats. In simpler terms, CRISPR is
the ability to specifically target viruses and bacteria that
threaten an organism. It has been around for years, but
in 2016, China has taken it to a whole new level as experts
there are trying to remove damaged DNA cells from cancer patients. The whole world is waiting for the results
from that op. When viruses attack the body, the system
has to learn how to fight it. This leads to one gigantic war
involving tiny cells. CRISPR however, knows the threats
and immediately after it detects an attack, the system
sends relevant tips and guides to the bodys defence
system helping prevent the attack in the first place.

13

THE WORLDS
BIGGEST FACTORY

15

THE EM DRIVE

PAGE

C L I M A T E

THE
GENIUS

IMAGINE THE
Universe as one
giant, still-spreading
fabric consisting of
space and time.
Einstein first
thought this concept
up back in 1916 and
exactly a hundred
years later, we found
the very ripples that
flow through this
fabric. The gravitational waves were
triggered by a
colossal explosion
between two black
holes and took
their time to reach
Earth where they
were picked up by
the Laser
Interferometer
Gravitational-Wave
Observatory (thankfully shortened to
LIGO). Gravitational
waves can offer us a
deeper peek into the
vast black using
time. You see, light
from the distance
takes time to reach
us and astronomers
limited to using light
to study objects will
have a better access
to the history of
Space using gravitational waves.

H E A L T H

14

IN THE VAST arid

plain of sub-Saharan
Africa, over 43 million
children under the
age of six suffer from
severe Vitamin A deficiency. But now, a
special sweet potato
has been developed by
cross-breeding local
varieties with those
that are rich in
Vitamin A. The new
potatoes are also more
resilient and have
better immunity from
viruses.

15

AI FINALLY
BEATS A HUMAN

MANKIND HAS BEEN playing Go for centuries. Its a game

that needs strategy and Lee Sedol is
one of the best at it. But in March,
Google DeepMinds AI programme,
AlphaGo, beat Sedol to score one of
the most important victories for AI.
AlphaGos makers say the programmes success means it can
soon be applied in climate
modeling and medical services.

Sensex

Nifty

Gold

26,633

8,190

`28,095

10.11
CURRENCY

1 EURO `70.97
$1.03

`83.93
$1.22

INDICATORS

FII NET BUY:

$18.54 mn (Jan. 3)

FOREIGN RESERVES:

$359.67 b (Dec. 23)

INFLATION:

3.63% in Nov. 2016

BIZ

BRIEFS

HDFC Bank cuts

MCLR by 0.90%
Mumbai: Country's second
biggest private sector lender
HDFC Bank on Wednesday
cut its benchmark lending
rate by up to 0.90 per cent,
joining over a dozen banks
and housing finance companies that have slashed rates
in last few days. The banks
asset liability committee
decided for a cut of 0.750.90 per cent in marginal
cost of funds-based lending
rate across multiple tenures.
When contacted, executive
director Kaizad Bharucha
confirmed the move and said
this has primarily been driven by the huge amount of
liquidity in the system due to
demonetisation. PTI

DHFL reduces
home loan rates
New Delhi: Mortgage firm
DHFL on Wednesday
reduced its home loan lending rates by 0.5 per cent in
line with competitors.
Following the reduction,
rates on home loan for various maturities will vary from
8.60 per cent to 9.10 per
cent. The government's
recent decision to provide
interest rate relief to home
buyers and to those who
wish to plan a home in 2017,
as well as several past initiatives have created a growthenabling and conducive
environment for the housing
finance sector, DHFL CEO
Harshil Mehta said. PTI

`245

Silver
`40,420

`980

`68.05
`0.28

1.75

Business

Dollar
DECCAN CHRONICLE

UNDER PRESSURE

Services contract for

two months in a row
Heavy toll in services sector due to cash shortage
New Delhi, Jan. 4:
Reeling
under
cash
LENDING RATE
MOODYS RETAIN STABLE
crunch, services sector
contracted for the second
OUTLOOK FOR INDIAN FIRMS CUTS TO HELP
consecutive month in
December as the demonetisation move took a
heavy toll on business
activities and led to the
sharpest fall of over
three years in new
orders, a monthly survey
showed on Wednesday.
The
Purchasing
Managers Index (PMI)
survey further showed
that the business confidence slumped to the
third-lowest level in its
11-year history, while
suggesting that any
imminent recovery was
unlikely from the demonetisation-triggered downturn.
The
Nikkei
India
Services PMI, which
tracks services sector
companies on a monthly
basis, stood at 46.8 in
December,
largely
unchanged
from
November's 46.7 reading.
A reading above 50
shows expansion while a
score below this level
denotes contraction. The
index had slipped into
the contraction territory
in
November
and
remained in that zone in
December as the demonetisation move, involving
scrapping of high-value
old currency notes, led to
the sharpest fall in new
business
since
September 2013. This follows another PMI dataset
released on Monday that
showed that the manufacturing sector also con-

CENTRE MAY
GAIN ONLY
`50,000 cr

DC CORRESPONDENT
MUMBAI, JAN. 4

Despite
concerns
regarding the impact of
demonetisation on corporate earnings growth,
global rating agency
Moodys
Investors
Service on Wednesday
said that its stable outlook for non-financial
corporates in India over
the next 12-18 months
reflects in large part the
countrys sustained economic growth.
Strong GDP growth,
capacity additions and
stabilizing commodity
prices will support
EBITDA growth of 6 per
cent-12 per cent over the
next 12-18 months," said
Laura Acres, managing
director in Moody's
Corporate
Finance
Group.
In a joint release with
Icra, Moodys pointed
out that the capex cycle
for Indian corporates
has peaked, as projects
tracted in December its
first shrinkage in a year,
which together suggested towards a slowdown
in the overall GDP
growth rate.
"The Indian service
economy ended 2016 on a
grim note, with the average PMI activity index
reading for the October-

are nearing completion,

and declining investments will slow the pace
of borrowing over the
next 12 to 18 months.
Moreover, refinancing
needs are manageable
for most corporates in
2017, given their better
access to the capital
markets and large cash
balances.
Both agencies also
said that the distribution utilities would benefit from lower cost of
power purchases, due to
improved domestic coal
availability, the subdued tariff level of
short-term
traded
power, and flexibility
provided by the Centre
to generating companies for the optimal utilisation of coal.
Moodys stable outlook for exploration
and production companies reflects higher production volumes, low
subsidy burdens and a
recovery in oil prices.
December quarter the
lowest since early 2014,"
said Pollyanna De Lima,
economist at IHS Markit
and author of the report.
With factory production also softening, activity across the private sector saw the biggest drop
in over three years.
PTI

REDUCE NPAs
Mumbai, Jan. 4: The
ongoing sharp reduction
in lending rates will not
be margin dilutive for
the banks but rather
help them tide over the
bad loans pains as it will
help the struggling corporates begin to pay
back their loans, says a
Jefferies report.
We dont think the 3090 bps MCLR reduction
by banks led by SBI is
margin dilutive for the
banks. In the shorter
term of one to two quarters, we dont think these
reductions could be
NIM-dilutive, and even if
it is, it would be relatively small, Jefferies said.
Explaining its view, it
said the implication of
the rate cut on corporate
profitability
and
improvement in interest
coverage ratio can be
material for certain corporates given the extent
of MCLR cuts and hence
the bad loan outlook can
turn slightly better for
the banks. It also argues
the difference between
base rate and MCLR is
that under the latter,
banks have the ability to
choose interest reset
dates and as a result, a
change in MCLR doesnt
translate to a higher or
lower borrowing cost
soon for customer. PTI

ENERGY GENERATION

DC CORRESPONDENT
NEW DELHI, JAN. 4

Ignis now open

for online booking
New Delhi: The country's
largest carmaker, Maruti
Suzuki India (MSI), today
opened online booking for
its premium hatchback 'Ignis'
that it plans to launch next
week. "India's largest passenger vehicle maker opens
online booking for #IGNIS,
the premium urban compact
vehicle, for the millennials,"
the company said in a statement. The model will be
launched at an EDM concert
on January 13, featuring
Axwell, Swedish DJ, record
producer and remixer, it
added. PTI

SHIPMENT OF
DEVICES TO BE
FLAT GLOBALLY
New Delhi: Shipment of
devices like PCs, smartphones and tablets is
expected to remain flat this
year to total 2.32 billion
units, according to research
firm Gartner. Worldwide,
combined shipments of PCs,
tablets, ultramobiles and
mobile phones are projected
to remain flat in 2017.
Worldwide shipments for
these devices are projected
to total 2.32 billion units in 2017,
the same as 2016
estimates, it said
in a report.
Gartner added
that shipment is
expected to
touch 2.35 billion
units in 2018 and
2.38 billion units in the following year. There were
nearly seven billion phones,
tablets and PCs in use in the
world by the end of 2016.
The global devices market
is stagnating. Mobile phone
shipments are only growing
in emerging Asia-Pacific
markets, and the PC market
is just reaching the bottom
of its decline, Gartner
Research Director Ranjit
Atwal said. PTI

People have deposited

nearly all demonetised
`500 and `1,000 currency
till December 30 which
would mean that government may not realise
huge bonanza.
The government had
initially estimated about
`5 lakh crore of the `15.4
lakh crore rendered
worthless by the sudden
move on November 9 to
remain undeclared as it
may have escaped the
tax net illegally.
With almost 95 per cent
of the scrapped notes
finding their way to
banks, the government
may at best gain around
`50,000 crore only by
way of additional surplus transfer from the
RBI, said Bank of
America-Merrill Lynch
in a report.
How much can budget
2017 raise from the
demonetisation drive?
`1,500 billion, we estimate, down from `2,000
billion earlier, Bank of
America-Merrill Lynch
said in a note. It also
nearly halved its estimate of the RBI dividend from black money
not returned to banks to
`500 billion from `950
billion, as the banks had
collected over `14 trillion out of the `15.55 trillion in demonetised
notes
deposits
by
December 19, it said.

TRACKING | TRENDS

DC CORRESPONDENT
The Centres move to
increase the wage ceiling
for employee coverage
under the Employees
Provident Funds and
Miscellaneous Provisions
Act, 1952, to `25,000 per
month from the existing
`15,000 per month limit is
expected to benefit a larger working population and
include approximately 30
lakh more workers to the
Employees
State
Insurance (ESI) pool.

THE MOVE will help 1.2

crore people who will now be
eligible for health care benefits at more than 1,500 clinics
and hospitals run by the ESIC
The move would also benefit 1.2 crore more people
who will now be eligible
for health care benefits at
more than 1,500 clinics
and hospitals run by the
ESIC directly or indirectly.
Earlier as of March 31,
2016, there were around 2.1
crore persons who were

insured under the ESI Act

and a total of over 6 crore
beneficiaries.
Employees and employers contribute to the
Employees
State
Insurance Corporation at
the specified rates, which
are currently, 1.75 per cent
of the wages (employees

GST council fails to reach

consensus on high seas tax
DC CORRESPONDENT
NEW DELHI, JAN. 4

GST council meeting on

Wednesday failed to reach
a consensus on who will
have jurisdiction over tax
payers in the country and
who will have right to tax
products and services on
high seas under the new
indirect tax regime.
These issues will be once
again discussed in the
next meeting of the GST
Council on January 16.
States want exclusive
right to assess small tax
payers be it for products
or services and also want
the right to impose tax on
products and services in
sea.
The failure of states and
Centre to thrash out their
differences even after
series of meetings mean
that it is virtually impossible to roll out GST by
April 1.
However the Centre and
the states will have to
reach a middle ground by
September to roll out GST
as without it they will lose
the right to tax as per the
GST
constitutional
amendment passed in the
parliament.
Stating that the issue of
territory is a complex one,
finance minister Arun
Jaitley said the area within 12 nautical miles into
the sea is an Indian terri-

MAJOR PROBLEM
The failure of states and
Centre to thrash out
their differences even
after series of meetings
mean that it is virtually
impossible to roll out
GST by April 1
CENTRE and states will
have to reach a middle
ground by September
to roll out GST as without it they will lose the
right to tax
tory and a question is
whose territory is it.
"Conventionally service
tax and customs are
charged by Government
of India in those areas.
Some states had, as far as
fishing business is concerned the Constitution
provides for fishing rights
to states in that area.
Some states have been
levying taxes in the
nature of sales tax/VAT,"
he said. Mr Jaitley said
since states have been
levying these taxes, they
want to continue to levy
them, but the contra argument is that high sea area
strictly doesn't fall within
the definition of state and
as per Constitution is an

New Delhi, Jan. 4: To

further tap into the 51million strong small and
medium
businesses
(SMBs) market in the
country, Googles Indiaborn chief Sundar Pichai
on Wednesday announced
a number of initiatives to
help these enterprises go
digital.
Mr Pichai, who is scheduled to visit his alma
mater IIT Kharagpur on
Thursday, said the company is working on products
for India that can be
expanded globally.
When we solve for a
place like India, we solve
for everyone around the
world. That has led us to
grow our team here and
spend more time and
ensure the products are
useful for everyone, he
said at a Google event.
He added that SMBs are
a growth driver for the
Indian economy. It is
important that they have
the right tools and skills
to digitise. We believe it is
important for us to invest
in training and equipping
these individuals and
small businesses to accelerate their journey of
growth, he said.
Over 80 lakh Indian
SMBs are already using
Google's platforms. A
joint research study by

INDIA exports nonbasmati rice to African

countries and basmati
rice to the Middle East.
India exported 3.79
million tonnes between
April and October
said. Supply pressure has
been
building
up...
Exports
demand
is
improving, but it is not
sufficient to counter supply pressure, said an
exporter
based
at
Kakinada in southern

Indian state of AP.

India mainly exports
non-basmati
rice
to
African countries and premier basmati rice to the
Middle East. India exported 3.79 million tonnes of
rice between April and

Union Territory. This

issue is currently before
the Supreme Court.
With regard to the issue
of dual control which has
been held up for long, he
said a majority of states
want to find a solution to
the issue but the Centre
would want to take every
decision by consensus. "I
have been consciously
avoiding the voting. GST
Council is a federal institution and a federal institution is a very delicate
organisation. The fact
that we have so far been
able to resolve the issue by
discussion, we want to
establish this as a precedent of how the Council
functions," he said.

DIGITAL
INITIATIVES
GOOGLE
LAUNCHED Digital
Unlocked a training programme to
enable SMBs get
online and start
using internet
PRIMER a free
mobile app uniquely
designed to teach
digital marketing
skills in an interactive way. Available
for Android and
Apple phones, it will
also work offline
Google-KPMG estimates
that 68 per cent of the 51
million Indian SMBs are
offline.
It also states rising
Internet penetration and
greater uptake for digital
by SMBs could help
increase their contribution to Indias GDP by 10
percentage points, taking
it up to 46-48 per cent by
2020.
Profits
of
digitally
engaged SMBs grow twice
as fast (compared to their
offline peers) and they are
also able to grow their
customer base significantly, it added.
PTI

contribution) and 4.75 per

cent of the wages (employers
contribution)
paid/payable in respect of
the employees in every
wage period.
However, the increased
wage ceiling is expected to
pose a challenge to
employers in terms of the
wage costs to be borne by
them, said Nishith Desai
Associates, legal and tax
councillors.
Employers, it noted,
would now be required to
make provisions of cash
benefit and health insur-

ance for an extended

employee population who
draw wages up to `21,000
per month. It also sees this
as a challenge for the government to ensure that the
quality of medical facilities (including hospital
infrastructure) provided
under the ESI Act are
improved such that the
desired
benefit
is
achieved.
It is a positive move with
the objective of expanding
the ambit of social security schemes to a larger
working population.

Weaker rupee is also playing a crucial role in the recent dip in prices

depreciated against the

dollar.
In November, the Indian
government scrapped `500
and `1,000 notes to crack
down on corruption. The
move disrupted trading of
farm commodities such as
cotton, rice and soybean
as most farmers prefer
payments in cash.
Indias
summer-sown
rice output is seen at a
record 93.88 million tonnes
in the crop year to June
2017, 2.81 percent higher
than last year, as a good
monsoon
help
boost
yields, the farm ministry

STATING THAT the

issue of territory is
complex, Arun Jaitley
said the area within 12
nautical miles into the
sea is an Indian territory

SMEs get Googles

help in marketing

Bountiful harvest pulls down rice prices

Mumbai/Hanoi, Jan. 4:
Rice prices in India fell
due to ample supply and
recent slide in the rupee,
while the Thai and
Vietnamese
markets
remained subdued in the
first week of the new year,
traders
said
on
Wednesday.
In India, the worlds
biggest rice exporter, 5 per
cent broken parboiled rice
dropped $2 this week to
$341 to $345 per tonne as a
cash crunch in December
prevented farmers from
offloading a summer-sown
crop, and as the rupee

13

THURSDAY | 5 JANUARY 2017 | HYDERABAD

30 lakh to benefit from new EPF limit

MUMBAI, JAN. 4

PAGE

October, down 3.1 per cent

from a year ago.
In Thailand, the worlds
second-biggest
rice
exporter, 5 per cent broken
rice stood pat at $355-$360 a
tonne, free-on-board (FOB)
Bangkok, unchanged from
last week.
Prices at the start of the
year are still the same;
there isnt any change due
to the long holiday, said
Kiattisak Kallayasirivat, a
Bangkok-based director at
Ascend Commodities-SA.
If there are buyers from
overseas, the price will
move up as rice production

starts
to
thin
out,
Kiattisak said, expecting
purchase orders from the
Philippines and Africa to
move prices up by $4 to $5 a
tonne before the monthend.
Traders in Vietnam, the
worlds
third-biggest
exporter of the grain,
quoted 5 per cent broken
rice at $335-$345 a tonne,
free-on-board basis, the
same as a week ago.
Buyers are still on a holiday mood. We may not have
any new offer until next
week, said a Vietnamese
trader.
Reuters

TRAI SEEKS
VIEWS ON NET
NEUTRALITY
DC CORRESPONDENT
NEW DELHI, JAN. 4

Trai on Wednesday came

out with a consultation
on controversial net-neutrality issue on which
telecom operators and
Internet-based firms are
at loggerheads.
The purpose of this
second stage of consultation is to proceed
towards the formulation
of final views on policy
or regulatory interventions, where required,
on the subject of net
neutrality, Trai said.
Last date for public
comments on the paper
is February 15 and for
counter comments is
February 28.
The regulator has
already conducted the
first round of consultation to understand key
issues that need to be
looked at for framing
rules around net neutrality. A DoT panel on
net neutrality has proposed regulation of
domestic
calls
on
Internet-based apps like
Skype, Whatsapp and
Viber by putting them at
par with services offered
by telecom operators, a
recommendation that
came under immediate
attack from industry
bodies.
The Department of
Te l e c o m m u n i c at i o n
(DoT)
Committee
opposed platforms like
Facebooks Internet.Org
that allow access to certain websites without
mobile data charges,
while suggesting that
similar plans by Bharti
Airtel be allowed with
prior clearance from
Trai. However, the committee suggested liberal
approach to app-based
international calls.
The government has
said that it will decide
on framework for net
neutrality after getting
recommendations
of
Trai on the subject.

A DoT panel on net

neutrality has proposed regulation of
domestic calls on
Internet-based apps
like Skype, Whatsapp
and Viber by putting
them at par with services offered by telcos

Games

Benin and Aston Villa striker Rudy

Gestede signs with Middlesbrough
for reported fee of 6 million
DECCAN CHRONICLE

C. SANTHOSH KUMAR | DC
Tamil Nadus hopes of making it
to the Ranji Trophy final have
sprung back to life as brilliant
hundreds from skipper Abhinav
Mukund (122) and B. Indrajith
(138) saw Tamil Nadu turning the
heat on Mumbai here on
Wednesday. After conceding a 101run lead in the first innings, a
desperate Tamil Nadu stepped on
the accelerator and made 356 for
six declared in their second essay,
to set a challenging target of 251
for Mumbai.
An absorbing final day is in the

offing at the Saurashtra Cricket

Association Stadium as Mumbai,
who weathered the storm in the
final 15 minutes of play to go five
for no loss at stumps, need to
chase down the remaining 246
runs or see through the day, for
around 90 overs, to set up a final
showdown with Gujarat.
The pitch, which has been of no
assistance to the bowlers for four
days, still looks in favour of the
batsmen, but Tamil Nadu are pinning the hopes on their spinners
Aushik Srinivas and B. Aparajith
to put pressure on Mumbai.
Mumbai coach Chandrakant
Pandit was confident that

SCOREBOARD
Tamil Nadu (1st innings): 305
Mumbai (1st innings): 411
Tamil Nadu (2nd innings): V Ganga
Sridhar Raju lbw b Sandhu 28, A
Mukund c Shaw b Girap 122, B
Indrajith c Lad b Thakur 138, KD
Karthik c Shaw b Sandhu 24, V
Shankar c & b Gohil 24, KM Gandhi
(not out) 10, B Aparajith st Tare b
Gohil 2. Extras (lb 2, w 3, nb 3) 8.

Mumbai batsmen would pull

through on a wicket that hasnt
changed alarmingly. For the
entire penultimate day, we can
take credit for just one wicket and

Total (for six wickets decl; in 78

overs) 356. FoW: 1-64, 2-249, 3283, 4-330, 5-347, 6-356.
Bowling: Thakur 13-0-60-1, Sandhu
15-1-67-2, Nayar 7-1-32-0, Girap 152-62-1, Gohil 22-0-110-2, Lad 5-019-0, Shaw 1-0-4-0.
Mumbai (2nd innings): PP Shaw
batting 2, PG Waghela batting 3.
Total (for no loss in 5 overs) 5.

the remaining five TN dismissals

were a result of them going for
runs, said Pandit. Mumbais
approach in the crunch situation
would be the key.

14

THURSDAY | 5 JANUARY 2017 | HYDERABAD

TN, Mumbai head for last day thriller

RAJKOT, JAN. 4

PAGE

Gujarat in Ranji final

Nagpur: Pacer Jasprit Bumrah
produced his career-best spell in
first-class cricket as Gujarat
staged a sensational comeback to
beat Jharkhand by 123 runs and
reach their second ever final of
the Ranji Trophy cricket tournament, here on Wednesday.
Bumrah finished with 6 for 29
and alongside R.P. Singh plotted
the downfall of Jharkhand.
Brief scores: Gujarat 390 and
252 (Juneja 81; Nadeem 5/69)
bt Jharkhand 408 and 111 in 41
overs (Kaushal Singh 24;
Bumrah 6/29).

SEISMIC SHOCK IN AUCKLAND

Auckland, Jan. 4: Serena
Williams suffered a shock
second-round defeat at the
Auckland
Classic
Wednesday following her
sister Venuss earlier withdrawal with an arm
injury.
Top seeded Serena blamed
the wind for a string of
unforced errors in her first
event after a four-month layoff as she was sent packing
6-4, 6-7 (7/3), 6-4 in a twohour, 14-minute arm wrestle

with World No. 72 Madison

Brengle. Second-seed Venus
decided to quit after suffering a sore right arm during
her struggle to a 7-6 (7/2), 6-2
first-round victory over Jade
Lewis playing in her first
WTA tournament.
Serena, playing in her first
tournament since losing in
the semifinals of the US
Open in September, was
looking for a bold showing
in Auckland, to prepare for
the Australian Open. AFP

Cricket

Pakistan coach Mickey Arthur is upset

with his teams inept fielding in the third
Test against Australia at Sydney
DECCAN CHRONICLE

Its been a nice

start and
definitely
something I didnt feel
was going to happen,
taking that next step
up to this level
Peter Handscomb
Australian batsman
reacts after
notching up
his second Test
century

SHORT

TAKES

Windies Smith
calls time on ODIs
Bridgetown: Dashing former
West Indies batsman
Dwayne Smith will retire
from domestic One-Day
cricket for Barbados Pride,
ahead of this months
Regional Super50.
The 33-year-old said he was
no longer part of the selectors plans and though he
was hurt by not being able
to finish his career at home
in this years 50-Over tournament, he had little choice
but to call it quits, reports
CMC.
Barbados and Antigua are
the hosts for the 2017
Super50 which runs from
January 24 to February 18.
I basically have to make
one big decision now for
sure and thats Im going to
send in my resignation from
50-overs cricket for
Barbados Pride, banking on
the back of not being given
the opportunity to finish my
career at home, Smith said.
I really wanted to, Ive
asked the selectors, Ive
spoken to them but obviously they had their different plans and I guess I didnt
fit in.
It was touching, it hurt me
a lot because I really wanted
even if it was one game I
played in the 50-overs competition coming up I
would have been happy, he
added.
Smith has garnered 3,500
runs from 183 List A games
at an average of 23 but had
a disappointing outing in
last years Super50 when he
managed just 116 runs from
eight innings at an average
of 14. The right-handed
Smith said he had been
encouraged to end his Pride
career at home and was hurt
he could not bow out in this
way. Agencies

15

THURSDAY | 5 JANUARY 2017 | HYDERABAD

CAPTAIN COOL QUITS

MSD chooses to step down as captain,
will continue to play limited overs game
New Delhi, Jan. 4: In a surprise
move, Mahendra Singh Dhoni has
stepped down as limited overs
captain of the Indian cricket
team, thereby drawing curtains
to his glorious leadership career.
The BCCI today said in a statement that Dhoni has informed
the Board that he wishes to step
down as the captain of the Indian
cricket team from the One-Day
Internationals and T20
Internationals.
While expressing his
desire to quit captaincy,
Dhoni however conveyed to the selection
committee that he will be
available for selection for
the three ODIs and as many
T20s against England starting
January 15.
Commenting on Dhonis sudden
announcement, Rahul Johri,
Chief Executive Officer of the
BCCI said, On the behalf of
every Indian cricket fan and the

BCCI, I would like to thank MS

Dhoni for his outstanding contribution as the captain of the
Indian team across all formats.
Under his leadership, the
Indian team has touched new
heights and his achievements
will remain etched forever in the
annals of Indian cricket.
Dhoni, 35, had earlier suddenly
quit Test captaincy during the
Australia tour in
2014
in

KAPIL WOULD LIKE TO

SEE MSD PLAYING
NEXT WORLD CUP
I am not surprised by his decision.
He surprised everyone with his
retirement in Tests. I always
respect him for taking decisions on
his own, rather than being forced to
take.
He is good
enough to continue playing
till the next
World Cup. I
would like him
to
continue
because
No
body is better
than him. He
is still sharp as
a wicket-keeper. He is one of the
finest cricketers India has ever produced. If Kohli takes over captaincy
in all formats, we are putting pressure on him. If he can handle, I will
be happy.
Kapil on TV

Dhoni made 6633

ODI runs as captain
at an average of 54
and a strike rate of
86. As captain in
T20Is, Dhoni scored
1112 runs at a
strike rate of 122.60

ODI RECORD
M

NR

199

110

74

11

59.57

T20 RECORD
M

NR

72

41

28

59.28

72

The number of T20s played by

Mahendra Singh Dhoni as captain of
the Indian T20 team. It is the most
by any cricketer with William
Porterfield of Ireland (49 matches) in second
and Darren Sammy of West Indies (47 matches) in third position

DHONI MAY PLAY

CHAMPS TROPHY
R MOHAN | DC
CHENNAI, JAN. 4

199

The number of
ODIs Mahendra
Singh Dhoni
played as
India's captain. It is the third
highest by any cricketer
after Ricky Ponting
(Australia) and Stephen
Fleming (New Zealand)

Mahendra
Singh
Dhoni's decision to
step down as India's
ODI and T20 captain
came in the same
dramatic fashion
associated with the
dashing skipper.
Dhoni set Indian
cricket alight with
the T20 win in 2007
in South Africa
which led to the revolutionising of the game
with the birth of the
cash-rich IPL. He inspired
India to the 2011 World Cup
win, which the nation dedicated to the old battler of
Indian cricket, Sachin
Tendulkar.
He seemed to lose the sting
after that as continuous losses
in T20 worlds and in the World
Cup of 2015 saw his captaincy
stock plummet to its lowest
level.
Dhoni's decision to carry on
as a limited-overs player is logical and quite welcome too
from the perspective of his
willingness to play under Virat

110

The number
of ODI victories as captain for Mahendra Singh
Dhoni. It is the second
highest in cricket history
after Ricky Ponting of
Australia

183*

MS Dhoni's
explosive
innings
against
Sri Lanka in 2005 is the
highest individual score by
a wicketkeeper in ODIs.

SPOTLIGHT

Kohli, who is the universal

choice to take over in all formats now. There is no saying
how long the 35-year-old will
continue in the game but it
appears certain he will play in
the Champions Trophy in
England this summer, a competition he won even at a time
when team India was going
through a lean patch.
Shocking as some of the
defeats under him may have
been in dashing the huge
expectations of Indian fans,
the victories under him were
dramatic and stunning, the
2007 T20 triumph being a leading example of a dynamic skipper who was willing to trust his
instincts and do the unpredictable in complex game situations.
Dhoni leaves the remnants of
captaincy he had clung on to
after retiring from Test cricket
at a good time when everyone
is convinced Kohli is the one
destined to take Team India
forward. And yet there is no
denying his accomplishments
as India's most successful skipper ever, including in Test
cricket, which may not always
have been his favourite format.

THERE IS NO NEED FOR ME TO QUIT: SHAH

A file photo of Kirti Azad (left) and Bishan Bedi.

Olympians back Bedi,

Azad to oversee reforms
New Delhi, Jan. 4:
Hailing the decision
of the Supreme Court
to appoint a two-member committee to oversee reforms in the
Cricket Board after
the removal of two
top BCCI officials,
some Olympians and
Arjuna
Awardees
from other disciplines
on Wednesday backed
ex-cricketers Bishan
Bedi
and
Kirti
Azad to undertake the
task.
The Hon. Supreme
Court has given the
onerous responsibility
of
suggesting
names of eminent
people who shall comprise a committee to
oversee reforms in
BCCI and state bodies
which
have
been
bedevilled by controversies and malfeasance, they said in a
media statement following
the
apex
courts ejection of
Anurag Thakur and
Ajay
Shirke
as president and secretary
of
the BCCI.
Kirti Azad and
Bishan
Bedi
are
amongst the two most
eminent
cricketers
and administrators
who have done yeoman service to the
game of cricket by
helping in the cleanup of the BCCI and
should be first choices
for being made members of the proposed
committee to be sug-

India have won the

ICC T20 World Cup
in 2007, the ICC ODI
World Cup in 2011,
ICC
Champions
Trophy in 2013 and
also reached the top
of the Test rankings
in 2009.
Indias Test skipper
Virat Kohli is likely
to take over.

DHONI IN
NUMBERS

Melbourne.
Dhoni has been
Indias most successful
captain. Under his leadership

Proteas on verge of
a series victory
Cape Town: Vernon
Philander and Kagiso
Rabada grabbed two wickets apiece on Wednesday to
set South Africa on the road
to victory over Sri Lanka in
the second test at Newlands.
After South Africa set Sri
Lanka a mammoth 507 to
win, Philander took 2-34 and
Rabada claimed 2-22 before
Sri Lanka reached stumps on
the third day on 130-4.
While Philander bowled
Dimuth Karunaratne and
then dismissed Kusal
Mendis, Rabada had Kaushal
Silva (29) caught at short
leg and then trapped
Dhananjaya de Silva (22)
lbw to reduce Sri Lanka to
69-4.
Faced with the prospect of a
three-day defeat, captain
Angelo Mathews and vicecaptain Dinesh Chandimal
dug in for the final hour as
Sri Lanka lived to fight
another day.
South Africa (1st innings)
392
Sri Lanka (1st innings) 110
South Africa (2nd innings):
SC Cook c Karunaratne b
Lakmal 30, D Elgar c
Mathews b Herath 55, HM
Amla c Chandimal b Lakmal
0, JP Duminy lbw b Lakmal
30, F du Plessis c Chandimal
b Lakmal 41, T. Bavuma (run
out) 0, Q de Kock c
Chandimal b Kumara 29, KA
Maharaj (not out) 20, VD
Philander (not out) 15.
Extras (w 1, nb 3) 4. Total
(for seven wickets decl; in
51.5 overs) 224.
FoW: 1-64, 2-64, 3-110, 4136, 5-137, 6-170, 7-192.
Bowling: Lakmal 19.5-2-694, Pradeep 11-0-46-0,
Kumara 12-0-62-1, de Silva
3-0-15-0, Herath 6-0-32-1.
Sri Lanka (2nd innings): F.
Karunaratne b Philander 6,
K. Silva c Cook b Rabada 29,
K. Mendis c Elgar b
Philander 4, D. de Silva lbw
b Rabada 22, A. Mathews
(batting) 29, D. Chandimal
(batting) 28. Extras (b 6, lb
5, nb 1) 12. Total (for four
wickets in 40 overs) 130.
FoW: 1-11, 2-25, 3-66, 4-69.
Bowling: Abbott 10-3-23-0,
Philander 10-1-34-2,
Rabada 10-3-22-2, Maharaj
10-2-40-0.

PAGE

Kirti Azad and

Bishan Bedi are
amongst the two
most eminent
cricketers and
administrators who
have done yeoman
service to the
game of cricket by
helping in the
clean-up of the
BCCI.
FORMER
OLYMPIANS
AND ARJUNA
AWARDEES
gested by Shri Anil
Divan and Shri Gopal
Subramanian, they
said further.
We request the Hon
Supreme Court to
kindly
nominate
Bishan Bedi and Kirti
Azad, two experienced and fearless
cricketers, in the proposed
committee
which will signal
major reforms in
BCCI
and
other
Sports in due course,
they added.
Among those backing Bedi and Azad
were
hockey
Olympians
Ashok
Kumar, M.K. Kaushik,
Gurbax Singh, Balbir
Singh,
Joaquim
Carvalho,
athletes
Ashwini Nachappa,
Reeth
Abraham,
Vandana Rao and
Edward
Sequeira,
swimmer
Nisha
Millet and shuttler
Jwala Gutta.
PTI

New Delhi, Jan. 4:

Veteran
administrator
Niranjan Shah, who has
ruled Saurashtra cricket
for over four decades, says
he is as good as out of the
state body post the
Supreme Courts latest
order on the implementation of Lodha reforms in
Indian cricket.
Shah said there is no
need for him to resign as
secretary
of
the
Saurashtra
Cricket
Association (SCA) with
Lodha recommendation
making him ineligible to
hold any post in cricket
administration.
Among other recommendations, Lodha panel has
put an age cap of 70 years
for the officer-bearers in
the BCCI as well its state
associations. Shah is 72
years old.
I am out (of Saurashtra
cricket) post the Supreme

SCINDIA,
JAGDALE ARE
OUT OF MPCA,
SAYS CEO
Indore, Jan. 4: Madhya
Pradesh
Cricket
Association
chairman
Jyotiraditya
Scindia,
president Sanjay Jagdale
and two others have
ceased to be in the office
following the Supreme
Courts directive to implement the Lodha Panel
reforms, said MPCAs
CEO.
In the light of the
Lodha Committee recommendations and Supreme
Courts orders, Scindia,
Jagdale along with two
vice presidents of MPCA,
M K Bhargava and Ashok
Jagdale have automatically
demitted
their respective offices,
MPCA CEO Rohit Pandit
said.
Since Scindia and
Jagdale held different
posts in MPCAs management committee for more
than nine years, they
cant
remain
MPCA
office-bearers for a further
period,
he
added.
PTI

Niranjan Shah
Court order. There is nothing much to say really and
there is no need to resign.
The court order very
clearly states the eligibility criteria, Shah said on
Wednesday.
Would he be open to any
advisory role with the
SCA, Shah said: That is
for the next set of office
bearers to decide. All I can
say is that I leave
Saurashtra cricket as a

satisfied man. The SCA is

one of the best run associations in the country, he
added.
Besides
ruling
Saurashtra cricket, Shah
has also held various positions in the BCCI including the post of secretary
and vice-president.
Talking about the road
ahead for SCA, Shah said
confusion remains over
how the Lodha reforms
need to be implemented,
especially the three-year
cooling off-period after
each term.
Confusion also prevails
in Tamil Nadu Cricket
Association (TNCA), headed by N Srinivasan.
TNCA secretary Kasi
Viswanathan said the
Supreme Court also said
that the court order has
made him ineligible to
continue in his existing
post.
PTI

Names of office-bearers
wiped off BCCI website
New Delhi, Jan. 4:
Summing up the state of
affairs in turmoil-hit
BCCI, names of officebearers have been wiped
off the cricketing bodys
official website.
While the names of the
sacked BCCI president
Anurag Thakur and
Ajay Shrike were taken
off bcci.tv on Tuesday,
the website has removed
the entire list of its
office-bearers and various
committees
on
Wednesday.
A click on all important committees including the working and
selection
committee
drew a blank.
The development also
casts a doubt on the
scheduled selection committee meet later this
week to pick the Indian
team for three ODIs and
as
many
T20
Internationals against
England
starting
January 15.
In its latest order on
Monday, the Supreme

Court removed Thakur

and Shrike from their
positions for obstructing
the implementation of
the Lodha panels sweeping reforms in the BCCI.
Thakur
also
faces
charges of contempt of
court and perjury.
The apex court also
directed that all office
bearers of BCCI and
state associations will
have to give an undertaking that they will abide
by the recommendations
of the panel headed by
former chief justice of
India, R M Lodha. The
recommendations have
rendered most of the
office-bearers ineligible
to continue their role.
The court ordered the
senior most vice-president of the BCCI and
joint secretary to perform the duties of president and secretary till
January 19 when a new
set of administrators
will take charge of the
worlds richest cricket
board.
PTI

Josh Hazlewood celebrates with Nathan Lyon.

AP

Azhar and Younus

stall Oz in Sydney
Sydney, Jan. 4: Pakistans
Azhar Ali and Younus
Khan forged a 120-run partnership to stall a rampant
Australia on day two of the
third and final test on
Wednesday after a Peter
Handscomb century had
helped drive the hosts to
538-8 declared.
Opener Azhar, who hit a
double century in the second
test
defeat
in
Melbourne
that
lost
Pakistan the series, had
contributed 58 to his sides
126 for two at close of play,
while veteran Younus had
forged ahead of his partner with 64 not out.
Handscomb had earlier
completed the third century of Australias innings,
matching openers David
Warner and Matt Renshaw,
as Steve Smiths men
poured on the runs before
the declaration, which
came seven overs before
tea.
Paceman Josh Hazlewood
immediately drove home
the advantage by removing
debutant Sharjeel Khan
and Babar Azam cheaply
inside five balls to leave the
hapless tourists reeling at
16-2 at the second break.
Half
centuries from
Azhar and Younus may
have raised Pakistans flagging spirits but the
Australians will still be
confident of victory and a
series sweep going into day
three at the Sydney Cricket

Ground with a lead of 412

runs.
Handscomb had resumed
on 40 with Australia 365-3
and never looked like missing out on his second test
hundred, becoming only
the second Australian to
score 50 or more in his first
four tests along the way.
Brought into the side
with Renshaw in the wake
of the Hobart humiliation
at the hands of South
Africa in November, the 25year-old has proved a rock
in what had become a fragile Australian middle
order.
He brought up the milestone with a single off the
194th ball he faced and had
nine fours on the board
when he was out for 110 in
bizarre circumstances.
A TV review showed he
had got too deep into his
crease when facing a
Wahab Riaz delivery and
his bat had dislodged a
bail, resulting in a rare hit
wicket dismissal.
Australias fielders had
the opposite problem as
they tried to break up
Pakistans third wicket
partnership in the final
session and Handscomb
rued two missed run-out
chances.
AFP
Brief scores: Australia (1st
innings) 538/8 decl. in 135
overs (M. Renshaw 184, D.
Warner 113, P. Handscomb
110, Wahab Riaz 3/89) vs
Pakistan (1st innings) 126/2.

Games

Mike Phelan became the third Premier

League manager in a fortnight to lose his job
after being sacked by Hull City on Tuesday
DECCAN CHRONICLE

Paul Clement
(new manager)
came down for
some moral
support, he made
his presence
felt at half-time.
We would have
surprised a lot of
people with our
performance
today.
Alan Curtis
Swansea caretaker boss
after their
2-1 EPL win over
Crystal Palace

SHORT

PREMIER

New Delhi: Dangmei Grace,

Sasmita Malik and Indumathi all
scored to hand India their
fourth consecutive Saff
womens football championship
title beating Bangladesh 3-1 in
the final at the Kanchenjunga
Stadium in Siliguri on
Wednesday.
The win meant that India stay
unbeaten for 19 matches, with
18 wins and a draw.
Grace opened the scoring in
the 12th minute but Bangladesh
equalised in the 40th minute
through Shopna.
India went ahead again in the
60th minute when Bala Devi
was pushed inside the box as
the referee pointed to the spot
and Malik converted it.
Indumathi sealed the win with a
long shot in the 67th minute.

French team
steamroll Britain
Perth: Frances Richard Gasquet
and Kristina Mladenovic overcame extreme heat to sweep
Great Britain 3-0 and near the
final of the Hopman Cup tournament on Wednesday.
The duo were too good for
Britains Dan Evans and Heather
Watson, winning both singles
matches and the mixed doubles
for their second successive win.
Mladenovic ground down World
No. 75 Watson 6-4, 5-7, 6-3 in
the womens singles match.
Gasquet was too good for Evans,
cruising through their encounter
6-4, 6-2. Mladenovic and
Gasquet then completed the
rout with a 4-3 (5/4), 4-3 (5/2)
win in the Fast Four mixed doubles rubber. AFP

Former YMCA, hoop

official Egbert dead
DC CORRESPONDENT
HYDERABAD, JAN. 4

Former vice-president of the

Hyderabad District Basketball
Association and national secretary of the YMCA J. Egbert
Samraj passed away in
Hyderabad on Tuesday. He was
77 and leaves behind his wife,
son, two daughters and grandchildren. His mortal remains
would be laid to rest on
Thursday. A keen sports lover,
Egbert organised many basketball tourneys and was a broadcast commentator in the 1980s.
He also played tennis.

200 RUSSIANS
IN DOPING
REPORT: IAAF
Monaco: The world athletics
body said Tuesday that it has
been sent the names of 200
Russians
by international doping investigators who will be checked if
they apply to compete as neutral competitors this year.
The International Association of
Athletics Federations said it
had been given the names by
investigators working for
Canadian lawyer Richard
McLaren, who has alleged there
was a state-sponsored doping
system in Russia. As the list of
names emerged, IAAF president Sebastian Coe decried a
system, which he said had let
down Russian athletes. Russia
has been suspended from international competition since 2015
and the IAAF said it had sent
new criteria to the Russian federation for athletes to take part
in international competition as
neutrals. Taking part as neutrals
may be the only way for
Russians to take part in the
world athletics championships
in London in August. AFP
Regd. No. SDHO-08/15-17
Printed and Published by O. Thomas
on behalf of Deccan Chronicle Holdings
Limited printed at Deccan Chronicle Press
situated at Plot No. 9 Alwal Village, Vallabh
Nagar Taluk, Malkajgiri Mandal, Ranga
Reddy Dist. Telangana.
RNI Registration No. 3081/57.
Editor: A.T. Jayanti

16

THURSDAY | 5 JANUARY 2017 | HYDERABAD

LEAGUE

Giroud holds Gunners

London, Jan. 4: Arsenal
staged a sensational fightback from three goals
down as Olivier Girouds
last-gasp equaliser rescued
a
draw
at
Bournemouth,
while
Swansea welcomed new
boss Paul Clement with a
crucial 2-1 win at Crystal
Palace on Tuesday.
Arsene Wengers
side were facing their first
defeat and
a major set-

Slovakias Jozef Kovalik returned to Croatias Marin Cilic

in their Chennai Open second round match on wednesday. Kovalik won 7-6(5), 5-7, 7-5.

Kovalik sends top

seed Cilic packing

TAKES

India women are

Saff champions

PAGE

back to their
P r e m i e r
League title
hopes

to
Bournemouth
after goals from
Charlie
Daniels,
Callum Wilson and Ryan
Fraser
stunned
the
Gunners at Dean Court.
But Arsenal scored
three times in the last 20
minutes
as
Alexis
Sanchez and Lucas Perez
netted
before
Bournemouth
captain
Simon Francis was sent
off, setting the stage for
Girouds headed equaliser in the second minute of
stoppage time.
The Gunners gritty 3-3
draw left them in fourth
place, eight points behind
leaders Chelsea.
We refused to lose the
game, Wenger said.
At
Selhurst
Park,
Clement saw Swansea
climb off the bottom of
the table just hours after
his appointment and in
the days other match
Stoke won 2-0 against a
Watford side on the slide.
Wenger had bemoaned
the fixture schedule that
had Arsenal back in
action just 48 hours after
their victory against
Palace
and
the
Frenchman wore a furious expression as his
sluggish side were torn
apart in the first half.
Clement, who had been
working
as
Bayern
Munichs assistant coach,
is Swanseas third boss
this season following the
sackings of Bob Bradley
and Francesco Guidolin.
Having been appointed
earlier
in
the
day,
Clement was at Selhurst
Park to watch his new

SRINIVASA N.V. | DC
CHENNAI, JAN. 4

Arsenals Olivier Giroud (left) in action against FC Bournemouth

in their English Premier League match at the Vitality Stadium in
Bournemouth on Tuesday. The match ended 3-3.
AP

THE RESULTS
Bournemouth
3
(Daniels 16, Wilson 21pen, Fraser 58)
Arsenal
3
(Sanchez 70, Perez 75,
Giroud 90+2)
Crystal Palace
1
(Zaha 83)
Swansea
2
(Mawson 42, Rangel 88)
Stoke
(Shawcross 45+3,
Crouch 49)
Watford

2
0

team, although Curtis

picked the starting lineup, and the presence of
their new boss energised
Swansea.
Their pressure was

rewarded in the 42nd

minute
when
Gylfi
Sigurdssons
free-kick
was headed in by Alfie
Mawson for his first
Premier League goal.
Sam Allardyce, taking
charge of his first home
match as Palace boss,
trudged off with boos
ringing in his ears at halftime.
Palace drew level in the
83rd
minute
when
Wilfried Zaha met Martin
Kelly cross in midair with
a superb 15 yards kick .
But, Clement who was
in the dug-out since halftime, was celebrating five
minutes later when Angel
Rangel smashed the winner for Swansea to 19th
place, one point behind
Palace.
AFP

WENGER IN ALL PRAISE FOR

HIS SIDES GREAT RESILIENCE
London,
Jan.
4:
Arsenal
manager
Arsene Wenger praised
his sides resilience but
was left to rue their failure to turn a 3-0 deficit
into
a
victory
at
Bournemouth
on
Tuesday.
It was a physical test
and a mental test for us.
A physical test because
we had problems to start
to cope with the pace of
Bournemouth, Wenger,
who again complained
about his side having to
play twice in 48 hours,

Supreme disorder in HCA

Boardroom battle on interpretation of top court order
MOSES KONDETY | DC

I leave it to their conscience (of elevating me

as president). Those
seeking clarifications
should approach the
Supreme Court.
M. NARENDER
GOUD
senior VicePresident of the
Hyderabad Cricket
Association

HYDERABAD, JAN. 4

Mondays
Supreme
Court order on restructuring cricket administration in the country
has sent officials of the
Hyderabad
Cricket
Association into a tizzy.
While some are reading
the order as is, others are
interpreting it as per
their own understanding.
Most of
the buzz
revolves around 9, number of years the apex
court has set as the limit
for an official to be part
of administration. The
order says A person
shall be disqualified
from being an Office
Bearer if he or she has
been an Office Bearer for
a cumulative period of 9
years. While some are
going by the technical
definition that OfficeBearers implies president, vice-president/s,
secretary, joint secretary/ secretaries and
treasurer others are
interpreting it as everyone who has served on
the committee, including
Executive
Committee
members.

A faction of HCA members are pointing to the

Cricket Associations of
Tripura and Vidarbha,
who have adopted the
Lodha recommendations
that form the basis of the
Supreme Court order
and
have
included
Office bearer/ member
of the Executive committee of the Association for
a cumulative period of 9
years in the disqualification clause in their
constitutions.
By that measure, quite
a few of HCA committees standing members
would have to demit
office as they would have
served as EC members
for more than nine years.
However, according to
HCAs
(amended)
Memorandum, Rules and

Regulations
2012,
Chapter-II, xiii. Office
Bearers
of
the
Association shall be:
President, five Vice-presidents, Hon. Secretary,
Two
Hon.
Joint
Secretaries,
Hon.
Treasurer. The entire
officiating body, along
with 12 other members
elected, is categorised as
the
Executive
Committee.
Even otherwise, senior
most Vice-President M.
Narender Goud, a natural claimant to the
Presidents post after the
top courts order which
disqualifies
Arshad
Ayub on the nine-year
rule, says years put in
as executive committee
member before the 2012
amendment would not

count as Clubs from different divisions, not individual members, were

given seats on the EC. We
were only representing
those clubs.
Chapter
IV

Management, point 2 in
the old rule book terms
EC members as Six
clubs from A Division
and two clubs from each
of the other (three B,
C, D) Divisions. Its
another matter that now
the entire league falls
under A Division with
sub-categories suffixed
by numbers graded up to
A-9.
Goud is confident the
top court order is clearly
in his favour and expects
fellow
officials
to
endorse it. I leave it to
their conscience. Those
seeking
clarifications
should approach the
Supreme Court, he says
referring to a section
that is not in favour of
his elevation.
Be that as it may, the
two groups were in talks
late into Wednesday
evening to thrash out a
truce when this edition
went to bed. Its time for
the HCA to wake up and
smell the coffee.

Vengsarkar quits as Mumbai VP

Mumbai,
Jan.
4:
Former India captain
Dilip Vengsarkar has
submitted his resignation as vice president of
the Mumbai Cricket
Association
following
the Supreme Court order
of January 2.
In
view
of
the
Honourable
Supreme
Court order dated 2nd

January 2017, I hereby

tender my resignation
for the post of Vice
President of the association, said the ex-chief
selector in a short letter
addressed to the MCA
Tuesday.
The
decision
of
Vengsarkar to quit follows the resignation tendered by Sharad Pawar

as president of the MCA

much before the latest
verdict of the apex court
of the land.
Pawar resigned on
December 17, saying as
per the Supreme Court
order of July 18, 2016, he
was ineligible to continue as he had crossed 70
years age.
PTI

told reporters.
But we succeeded
because we have a great
resilience in the team
and
great
mental
strength and that came
out. In the end you are
even frustrated not to
win the game.
We
missed
some
opportunities in the end.
These are the details
that you have to keep
composure and play
until the last minute.
Thats down to keeping
your head cool.
Reuters

Neither Marin Cilic nor

Jozef Kovalik would have
imagined the outcome of
their match in the Chennai
Open here on Wednesday.
Slovakias
Kovalik
knocked out the tournaments top seed
and world no.
6 Cilic 76(5), 5-7, 75 in a cataclysmic upset in the second
round.
For Cilic, playing a qualifier must have been just
another day at office, but
the Croat had to encounter
deuce and break point in
his first service game.
The former US Open
champion relied on his
strong serve with eight aces
in all but couldnt prevent
his opponent edging it in
tie-breaker. The match went
to the tie-breaker only as a
result
of
Kovaliks
resilience as the Slovak
clinched the fifth game
after saving two break
points.
For someone who is six
feet tall, on the shorter side
in tennis, Kovaliks serve
packed a punch and his
strong double-handed backhand troubled the top seed
no end. At 2-2 in the tiebreaker, he served a double
fault to hand the advantage
to Cilic and it did look that
all his hard work in the previous games had gone down
the drain. But Kovalik
steadied his nerve through
penetrating forehands to
pocket the set.
The Croat showed why he
is part of the top 10 in the
world as he broke Kovaliks
first service game in the
second set. Kovalik, ranked

The former US Open

champion served strong
to get eight aces in all
but could not prevent
his opponent wrapping
up the tie-breaker.
The match went into
the tie-breaker only as a
result of Kovaliks
resilience as the Slovak
clinched the fifth game
after saving two break
points.
117th in the world, had
nothing lose; he was out
there to give his all.
More important, he was
not intimidated by the reputation of his opponent.
Kovalik managed to break
Cilics serve in the seventh
game but it wasnt enough
to stop the Croat from taking the set.
Two hours into the match
and after engrossing end-toend tennis, the question
was about who wanted it
more. Credit must be given
to the players for giving
every ounce of their energy.
Just when it appeared that
the Slovak had taken his
foot off the gas, he produced brilliant down the
line backhands to stun his
opponent.
Cilics serves were getting
better as the set progressed
and all he had to do was
play percentage tennis to
force a break. But it was he
who blinked first, as the
crowd threw its weight
behind the underdog. In the
11th game, Kovalik gained a
vital break for a 6-5 lead.
Cilic got an opportunity to
break back but he squandered it to lose his first
match of the season.