SATURDAY
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June 15, 2024
KOCHI
CITY EDITION
16 Pages ₹ 8.00
Printed at » Chennai » Coimbatore
UAPA CASE
Delhi L-G sanctions
prosecution of Roy
NEWS » PAGE 10
Mortal remains of 45 Indian workers
killed in Kuwait blaze brought back
The Hindu Bureau
KOCHI/NEW DELHI
Mortal remains of 45 In-
dian migrant workers who
had perished in a deadly
fire in Kuwait were brought
back in an Indian Air Force
aircraft on Friday.
Meanwhile, one of the
injured persons who was
in a critical condition
passed away taking the to-
tal number of Indians who
died in the incident to 46.
The news was confirmed
by Kuwaiti Foreign Minis-
ter Abdullah Al-Yahya.
The mortal remains of
the men were first flown to
the Kochi airport at 10:30
a.m., where a Kerala go-
vernment delegation led
by Chief Minister Pinarayi
Vijayan and his Cabinet
colleagues paid homage to
the 31 victims who hailed
from Kerala, Tamil Nadu
and Karnataka. The C-130J
Hercules of the IAF next
flew to New Delhi where
the bodies of the remain-
ing 14 victims were re-
NEARBY
쑽 CM: Centre, Kuwait should ensure
Sharp increase in
student migration
from Kerala
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM
Riding high on the rising
student migration from Kerala,
the number of emigrants from
the State climbed to an
estimated population of 2.2
million, closely aligning with
the 2.1 million recorded in the
previous migration survey held
in 2018. The Kerala Migration
Survey 2023 also for the first
time estimated the outward
remittance from Kerala at
₹43,378.6 crore, about 20% of
the inward remittance.
» Page 10
PROPERTYPLUS » PAGE 2
Exports grew but trade gap widened
Vikas Dhoot
NEW DELHI
India’s goods exports grew
9.1% to $38.13 billion in
May, while imports rose
7.7% to $61.91 billion, Com-
merce Secretary Sunil
Barthwal said on Friday,
stressing that things are
looking “more optimistic
for foreign trade this year”.
Even the textiles sector re-
corded a healthy growth of
nearly 10% in May “after
several months of
sluggishness”.
However, despite ex-
ports growing faster than
imports, the merchandise
trade deficit surged to a se-
ven-month high of $23.78
billion in May.
This was 5.5% higher
than the deficit recorded in
May 2023 and 24.5% over
CM
YK
» Bengaluru » Hyderabad
Nation grieves: The victims of the Kuwait fire accident given a guard of honour at the Cochin
international airport on Friday. THULASI KAKKAT
ceived by officials of the
Ministry of External Affairs
and medical teams.
Minister of State for Ex-
ternal Affairs Kirti Vardhan
Singh, the Ministry’s Joint
Secretary of the Gulf Divi-
sion Aseem R. Mahajan,
and other officials who had
travelled to Kuwait to coor-
adequate payout for victims’ kin
The Hindu Bureau
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM
Two days after the massive
blaze in Kuwait which
claimed the lives of 50 peo-
ple, including 46 Indians,
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vi-
jayan said on Friday that
the Union government
should ensure adequate
compensation to the fami-
lies of those who lost their
lives in the tragedy.
Speaking after inaugu-
rating the fourth session of
the Lok Kerala Sabha in the
Assembly, he said the State
is hopeful that the Kuwait
government will take the
necessary steps to ensure
compensation for the vic-
tims.
However, the Centre
should take steps to speed
up the proceedings by tak-
ing up the matter with the
April’s trade gap of $19.1
billion, which in turn was
the highest in four months.
Comaparison
Compared with April,
May’s import bill was 14.4%
higher, while the value of
exports was up 8.9%.
www.thehindu.com
» Madurai » Noida » Visakhapatnam
RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR
Putin offers
truce with
conditions
WORLD » PAGE 12
dinate the humanitarian
airlift operation also re-
turned in the same aircraft.
The bodies of 23 work-
ers from Kerala, seven
from Tamil Nadu and one
from Karnataka were
among the 31 received in
Kochi. “I want to pay my
heartfelt condolences to
Kuwaiti government in a
timely manner.
The Kuwaiti govern-
ment should also look into
the scope of holding the
agencies responsible for
the tragedy and ensure
that the compensation for
the victim’s kin is paid by
the agencies.
Work in tandem
The Centre and State go-
vernments should work in
tandem in this direction in
such a situation.
Paying tribute to the
lives lost, he said all neces-
sary precautions should be
taken to prevent the recur-
rence of such tragedies.
The State government
has decided to provide fi-
nancial assistance of ₹5
lakh each to the family
members of the Malayalis
who died in the fire and ₹1
Asked if the rising trade
deficits could pose a pro-
blem, Mr. Barthwal told
The Hindu that the trend
must be seen in the context
of India growing faster
than the world, and goods
trade deficits should not be
viewed in isolation.
https://newsth.
https://newsth.live/x
https://newsth.live/ig
Regd. KL/EKM/331/2012-14
RNI No. KERENG/2000/49938
Vol. 25 앫 No. 143
» Thiruvananthapuram » Kochi » Vijayawada » Mangaluru » Tiruchirapalli » Kolkata » Hubballi » Mohali » Malappuram » Mumbai » Tirupati » Lucknow » Cuttack » Patna
LOK SABHA POLLS
A saffron sunset
in a temple town
What led to BJP’s loss
PROBE INTO NEET-UG in Faizabad seat, under RED-LETTER DAY
SC asks NTA, Centre which Ayodhya falls USA enters Super 8,
to respond to pleas Pakistan crashes out
GROUND ZERO » PAGE 7
NEWS » PAGE 8 SPORT » PAGE 13
India’s poll results victory
for democratic world: PM
Modi interacts with leaders of U.K., France, Germany, Japan and Italy at the G-7 Outreach Summit,
briefly meets U.S. President Biden, embraces the Pope and shakes hands with Canada PM Trudeau
The Hindu Bureau lier this week, as well as
NEW DELHI upcoming elections in
France, the U.K. and the
ndia’s election results U.S., Mr. Modi said he was
I were a “victory for the
democratic world”,
Prime Minister Narendra
glad to be amongst G-7
leaders as many of them
faced the “excitement of
Modi told G-7 countries elections” as well.
and leaders of other na- “The blessings that the
tions invited to the Out- people of India have given
reach Summit in Italy. He in the form of this historic
praised the electronic vot- victory is the victory of de-
ing machines for their “im- mocracy. It is a victory for
partiality and the entire democratic
transparency”. At the forum: Prime Minister Narendra Modi with U.S. President world,” said Mr. Modi, who
Speaking at a session Joe Biden at the G-7 Summit in Italy on Friday. REUTERS flew to Italy just four days
that focused on Artificial after being sworn in as the
Intelligence (AI) and other the event, being held in Ita- keep working for the “glo- Prime Minister and even
the families of the people issues, including African ly’s Apulia region, and also bal good”, but there was before his party, the BJP,
who lost their lives in this development and the Me- met with the leaders of no formal India-US bilater- which fell short of a major-
accident,” said Mr. Singh diterranean, with Pope U.K., France, Germany, Ja- al meeting. Mr. Modi also ity, proved its strength
speaking to the media in Francis, who addressed pan and Italy during a brief posted a photograph of along with allies of the
Kochi. the G-7 session for the first 24-hour visit. shaking hands with Cana- NDA in Parliament.
time, Mr. Modi said tech- He posted pictures on dian Prime Minister Justin
CONTINUED ON nology must be used to re- social media of a brief ex- Trudeau but gave no de- CONTINUED ON
» PAGE 8 duce inequalities. change with the U.S. Presi- tails of their conversation. » PAGE 8
MORE REPORTS Mr. Modi embraced the dent Joseph Biden, saying Referring to the Euro- SUPPORT FOR UKRAINE
» PAGES 3 & 4 Pope at the beginning of they had committed to pean Parliament polls ear- » PAGE 12
lakh each to the injured
Malayalis.
Expressing gratitude to
NRI businessmen M.A. Yu-
suff Ali and Ravi Pillai, who
had announced that the fa-
milies of the deceased will
be given ₹5 lakh and ₹2
lakh each respectively, he
said they are part of the
Lok Kerala Sabha, and
their contribution will be
disbursed through NoRKA-
Roots, field agency of the
Department of Non-resi-
dent Keralites Affairs
(NoRKA).
Efforts are in progress,
under the auspices of NoR-
KA and benevolent expa-
triates, to provide all possi-
ble assistance to the
accident victims. The Chief
Minister said that the help
desk and global contact
centre are working round
the clock.
“Our economy is grow-
ing over 7%, while the glo-
bal economy is growing at
about 2.6% so there will al-
ways be higher demand
from our country for im-
ports of certain kinds of
items,” Mr. Barthwal point-
ed out
Twin effects
“When your economy is
growing faster than the
world, then obviously
there will be these twin ef-
fects — higher domestic de-
mand will mean less ex-
portable surplus, and your
requirements for imports
from the rest of the world
will be higher than the
world’s requirements from
you,” Mr. Barthwal said.
CONTINUED ON
» PAGE 8
A KI-KIE

2 Saturday, June 15, 2024
Extensive study of Periyar delta
needed to find answers to questions
on Muziris, says Dr. Selvakumar
The Hindu Bureau
KOCHI
There is a need to conduct
extensive studies in the Pe-
riyar delta to have a clearer
understanding of the erst-
while port of Muziris and
Pattanam, the archaeologi-
cal site near North Paravur
where excavations con-
ducted by the Kerala Coun-
cil for Historical Research
(KCHR) a decade ago threw
up artefacts pointing to the
existence of a production
and trade centre between
the first century BC and se-
cond century Common
Era, Dr. V. Selvakumar, As-
sociate Professor in the De-
partment of Maritime His-
tory and Marine
Archaeology at Tamil Un-
iversity, Thanjavur, has
said.
Delivering a talk on the
depictions of ports and set-
tlements of the Chera
country in early Tamil —
read Sangam — literature at
2 taken ill after
suspected
consumption
of oleander
The Hindu Bureau
KOCHI
Two students of Govern-
ment Higher Secondary
School, Kadayiruppu, near
Kolencherry, were admitted
to M.O.S.C. Medical College
Hospital at Kolencherry on
Friday evening following
suspected consumption of
Nerium oleander (Arali).
CM
YK
V. Selvakumar during an
interaction with The Hindu
at Pattanam near Kochi.
THULASI KAKKAT
the KCHR site office at Pat-
tanam on Thursday, Dr.
Selvakumar said such an
exploration would be es-
sential to identify the loca-
tion of Muziris and its lin-
kage with Pattanam. While
the Greco-Roman texts
gave insights on the early
settlements and ports in
the Chera country, the San-
gam poetry richly de-
scribed the landscape,
weather, and social and
political systems in the re-
gion. But the exact location
of Muziris remained unas-
certained, as maps such as
the Peutinger’s table con-
taining what is believed to
be the location of these —
for instance, there is Patine
marked on the Peutinger’s
table, but there is no con-
clusion as to whether it
was Pattanam — could not
be taken as accurate.
The Periyar delta, which
was a dynamic region
prone to flooding would
have undergone many
changes too. Archaeologi-
cal evidence suggests that
the area of Pattanam
would have been a market-
place lined with waterways
and the like. This could
have been part of Muziris.
There could be other plac-
es in this area where the
people lived, Dr. Selvaku-
mar said. While it could be
assumed that the name
Pattanam survived the ag-
es, it was necessary to stu-
dy the later history as well,
THE HINDU
Kochi
from the 10th century Com-
mon Era up to the 20th cen-
tury to understand the re-
gion. Paravur, the nearby
town, is also an old name,
and the area could have
had settlements too.
Dr. Selvakumar said
there was reason to believe
that this was an early trade
centre because the amount
of amphora and material
of foreign origin suggest
that traders came here,
and an exchange took
place.
They were also fabricat-
ing material; there were
warehouses to store pep-
per. There were also quar-
ters for traders from far-off
locations to stay and carry
out trade.
Dr. Selvakumar said
apart from archaeological
evidence, a deeper exami-
nation of the local history
would be beneficial in find-
ing answers to questions
pertaining to Pattanam
and the port of Muziris.
NGT asks govt., Central
and State PCBs to
explain mass fish kill
The Hindu Bureau
KOCHI
The National Green Tribu-
nal (NGT) has issued notic-
es to the Kerala govern-
ment and Central and State
Pollution Control Boards
on the mass fish kill in the
Periyar on May 20 and 21.
The Southern Bench,
which took cognisance of
The Hindu report ‘Another
mass fish kill in Periyar riv-
er in Kerala after suspected
effluent release’, has asked
the respondents to submit
reports before the next
hearing on July 8.
Considering the gravity
of the issue reported in the
newspaper, the tribunal
took cognisance and regis-
tered a suo motu case, said
an order issued by Justice
Arun Kumar Tyagi, judicial
member, and Dr. Satyago-
pal Korlapati, expert mem-
ber.
Notices have been issued
to the Principal Secretaries
of the Departments of Envi-
ronment, Health and Water
Kochi
Resources; Central Pollu-
tion Control Board through
its Chairman; State Pollu-
tion Control Board through
its member secretary; Er-
nakulam District Collector;
Director, Directorate of En-
vironment and Climate
Change; and Secretary, Ko-
chi Corporation.
The Hindu report pu-
blished on May 21 had stat-
ed that the mass fish kill
was reported in the Periyar
on May 20 night following
suspected release of ef-
fluents from industries in
the Eloor-Edayar industrial
area in Ernakulam. Dead
fish was found floating on a
large scale on May 21 morn-
ing from near the Pathalam
bund and downstream.
The State Level Monitor-
ing Committee (SLMC),
which was appointed by
the NGT, had submitted a
report before the Southern
Bench recommending ap-
pointment of an indepen-
dent committee to inspect
industries and institutions
on the banks of the river.
A KI-KIE
 THE HINDU
Saturday, June 15, 2024 3
Kochi
Kochi

Water authority plans KMRL urged to ensure structural ED freezes

cash deposits,
to set up STPs in city integrity of metro stations valuables of
Highrich group
KWA proposes two sewage treatment plants, one each in Ernakulam The Hindu Bureau metro rail systems. Once
North and South, by combining proposals mooted by various agencies KOCHI vulnerable portions are The Hindu Bureau
chipped away and re- KOCHI
Shortly after ‘cracks’ were paired, the metro agency
The Hindu Bureau The Corpn. had The authority has pro- detected at the base of gir- could consider applying The Enforcement Directo-
KOCHI obtained a financial posed one on the 13-acre ders and beams of the rubberised, epoxy paints rate (ED) has frozen
assistance of ₹186 holding owned by the KWA Elamkulam metro station over them so that water is around ₹32 crore cash de-

K
erala Water Auth- at Elamkulam. KMRL has on Wednesday, demand is not absorbed. This will posit and other valuables
ority (KWA) plans
crore under the identified some holdings at rife that Kochi Metro Rail help protect their structu- belonging to Highrich on-
to establish two AMRUT scheme Ernakulam North for the Limited (KMRL) take steps ral integrity since they line group, which, accord-
sewage treatment plants plant. The two units to- to ensure the structural in- have to overcome humid, ing to the agency, were the
(STP) in Kochi, one each in (AMRUT) scheme. gether would have a capac- tegrity of all stations in the rainy and hot weather,” he proceeds from a crime.
Ernakulam North and Mayor M. Anilkumar ity of 105-MLD, said KWA Aluva-MG Road-Thripu- added. The ED search also led
South, by combining the had the other day written officials. nithura metro corridor. Meanwhile, metro to the tracing of immova-
proposals mooted by va- to the KWA seeking the Combining the projects The damage to the sources said many steel ble properties worth ₹15-
rious agencies including speedy implementation of would save time and re- structure had necessitated Vulnerable areas of the Elamkulam metro station that were chipped rods got exposed after the crore, which belonged to
the Kochi Corporation and the project fearing that the sources required for set- the chipping away of away following cracks. SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT outer layer of vulnerable promoters and those asso-
Kochi Metro Rail Limited funds would lapse if it was ting up the units. The worn-off parts of concrete areas of concrete was ciated with the company,
(KMRL). not completed in a year. He funds from the AMRUT from multiple areas, ex- The metro agency to last a century,” said An- chipped away. “There is according to a communica-
While the Corporation had also complained that scheme and other agencies posing the steel rods with- has launched an tony Asanparambil, chair- no cause for concern, and tion from the agency.
has suggested a plant at the KWA could not take the could be pooled for con- in. KMRL had on Thursday internal inquiry into man of Maradu municipal- patch works are being The ED alleged that the
Elamkulam, KMRL too has project further after the structing the units. entrusted the Rail India ity. done. The inquiry that has promoters and stakehol-
how ‘cracks’
come up with similar pro- completion of initial ten- The construction might Technical and Economic “Based on my expe- been ordered will shed ders of the company were
posals. The KWA is the im- der works. take one year. It would re- Service (RITES) to do a sa- developed at the rience in executing civil light on how to prevent involved in trading in cryp-
plementing agency for the However, KWA officials quire around ₹1.5 crore for fety audit of all the 24 me- base of girders and works, I can say that such issues and whether tocurrency on a few ex-
5-million litre per day maintained that it might a 1-MLD unit, the officials tro stations to shed light beams of Elamkulam KMRL ought to have en- rains or any structural de- changes and had sold their
(MLD)-capacity plant of not be financially and tech- said. on structural-safety is- station recently. sured that there is adeq- fect was the cause. It has crypto coin, HR Crypto
the Corporation. The civic nically feasible to set up The KWA would soon sues, if any, of the stations. uate layer of concrete not been decided as yet to Coin.
body had also obtained a fi- small and multiple units in place the proposal before It also launched an inter- around the steel rods to rope in Delhi Metro Rail The crypto coins were
nancial assistance of ₹186 the city. the State government for nal inquiry on how cracks prevent recurrence of prevent rusting due to per- Corporation (DMRC), also part of a Ponzi scheme
crore under the Atal Mis- Hence the authority de- approval as the model developed on the con- such incidents since the colation of water. Such in- which executed the phase- (an investment fraud
sion for Rejuvenation and cided to club the proposals code of conduct had been crete. “The metro agency capital-intensive metro stances of cracks on con- one metro works,” they where the existing inves-
Urban Transformation and set up two mega units. lifted, they added. must take measures to viaduct and stations ought crete structures are rare in added. tors are paid money col-
lected from new investors),
where people were lured
into investing money for
Mother of When a tragedy reduced their Panel orders which they were given 15%
annual interest. The inves-
victim in a matrimony tors would get 30% of the

state of shock identities to a set of numbers site to pay

direct referral income
when they introduced a
new customer, the agency

The Hindu Bureau M.P. Praveen

compensation alleged.
The ED initiated the in-
NEDUMBASSERY (KOCHI) KOCHI vestigation after the Kerala
The Hindu Bureau Police registered com-
Akash Sasidharan Nair, 31, Scenes at the Cochin Inter- KOCHI plaints against the compa-
used to call his mother national Airport where the ny and its directors on
Shobhana Kumari back at mortal remains of victims The Ernakulam District charge of cheating. The
their home at Panthalam, of the Kuwait inferno were Consumer Disputes Re- agency estimated that the
Pathanamthitta, from his flown into on Friday dressal Commission has company had illegally col-
workplace in Kuwait every seemed to drive home the asked Kerala Matrimony, lected around ₹1,500
single day. message that life could be a private matrimony site, crore. A profit of around
But on Thursday, her so fickle that in the end to pay compensation to a ₹250-crore was siphoned
mobile phone remained si- one’s whole identity could youth for deficiency of off by promoters K.D.
lent. Instead, Akash’s be reduced to a set of service and engaging in Prathapan and Sreena
neighbour and relative Vi- numbers. Grim reality: Officials arrange photos of victims of the Kuwait unfair trade practice. Prathapan, the agency
nu, who was also em- Hours before the special inferno at the Kochi airport on Friday. THULASI KAKKAT alleged.
ployed in Kuwait informed aircraft of the Indian Air- Attractive ads
another relative about the force, C-130J Hercules, clearing the corridor lead- pleted. Finally, there was The commission found
tragedy. touched down at the tar- ing to the reception area. activity in the import cargo that the site had given at-
Shobhana Kumari, a mac, 16 tables of same size Even the relatives who had area and chairs were tractive advertisements
diabetic, who works at a lo- identically decorated with come to receive the bodies scraped in anticipation. and failed to provide ne-
cal medical store, had by white flannels bearing and media persons were The first body was cessary services to the
this time come to know numbers 1 to 31 were ar- asked to step back behind brought out at 11:43 a.m. complainant, who had re-
about the inferno and was ranged in the reception the cordoned-off area. and was placed on the ta- gistered his name with
already concerned about area of the import cargo As white jasmine ble numbered 1 bearing the the company. However,
the fate of her son. She was terminal. Except the last ta- wreaths were brought in, image of Arun Babu from the company had not pro-
sent back home. ble, each table was as- there was an expectation Panacode in Thiruvanan- duced any evidence to
By then, a few relatives signed two halves an given that the bodies would ar- thapuram. The remaining prove that it had provided
had reached her house and two numbers each. rive soon. However, there bodies followed, ending the promised services,
disconnected the cable te- Soon, 31 printouts bear- was a delay as Customs, im- with Vijayakumar Prasanna the commission
levision network lest the ing the images of the vic- migration, and the airport from Kalaburagi in Karna- concluded.
news reaches her. Till tims, their names and ad- health authorities complet- taka whose name was 31st The commission noted
then, she was told that dresses were pinned to the ed the formalities for the 45 on the list. that the complainant and
Akash had just sustained a respective halves. As most bodies.For the relatives Once the political lea- several others had similar
knock to his leg and noth- bodies were badly burnt, a waiting at the airport, each dership led by Chief Minis- experience, and there
ing more. But they failed to combination of those num- passing minute was a stab ter Pinarayi Vijayan and was deficiency of service
keep an eye on her and bers with passport and the at their heart with the pain Union Minister of State for on the part of the compa-
when others were preoc- Kuwaiti civil ID numbers reflecting on their grief- External Affairs Kirti Vard- ny. The commission, with
cupied, Shobana plugged proved crucial in identify- stricken faces. han Singh paid their last D.B. Binu as its president,
in the television around 6 ing the victims. As the ar- As if to break that un- respects, the police accord- and Sreevidhia T.N. and V.
p.m. and there was her rival of the flight ap- comfortable air, a cop took ed the victims a guard of Ramachandran as mem-
son’s picture flashing proached, the police to the public announce- honour. It was all over by bers, directed the firm to
among the list of victims. formed a cordon-off area ment system to inform that 12:15 p.m., and the bodies return the registration fee
Shobhana collapsed and around the tables. Then as the victims would be given were handed over to rela- of ₹4,100 to the com-
has not recovered yet. the information emerged a guard of honour. tives. plaint, besides ₹25,000 as
Akash had been working as that the flight had landed at Around 11:27 a.m. news compensation and
a storekeeper in Kuwait for 10:29 a.m. the police came in that the processing SEE ALSO ₹3,000 as the cost of pro-
the past eight years. formed a human chain of 10 bodies had been com- » PAGE 4 ceedings.

Parents of Ukraine medical students

urge NMC to withdraw June 7 notice
The Hindu Bureau er or mobility option and the future of tens of thou-
KOCHI joined other available un- sands of students. They
iversities to complete their have requested the author-
The All Kerala Ukraine studies trusting the com- ities to extend the window
Medical Students and Pa- mission. The public notice period for completing the
rents Association has had pointed out that many academic transfer till Sep-
urged the National Medical foreign medical graduates tember 2024.
Commission (NMC) to were “maliciously obtain- Other demands include
withdraw its public notice ing compensatory certifi- permitting internship in
issued on June 7 stating cates from their parent un- approved non-teaching
that it will not accept certif- iversities for online classes hospitals and removing the
icates submitted by foreign carried by them”. The current deadline of 2026
medical graduates related NMC had laid out stipula- fixed by the commission.
to the compensation/sup- tions for foreign medical The authorities need to
plementation of online graduates, especially those grant provisional registra-
theory subjects/classes who had joined medical tion to foreign medical
with offline practical and universities in Ukraine and graduates after qualifying
clinical training. Philippines, and were the Foreign Medical Grad-
Parents of students, forced to opt for the online uates Examination based
who pursued their medical mode following the war on the documents submit-
programmes in Ukraine, and the pandemic. ted at the time of applica-
said here on Friday that The parents blamed the tion. Steps have to be taken
the public notice had put commission for shifting to avoid delay in granting
the future of students in je- their position without giv- slots for internship, they
opardy as they took transf- ing any consideration to said.
Published by N. Ravi at Kasturi Buildings, 859 & 860, Anna Salai, Chennai-600002 and Printed by R. Deepu at Survey No. 224/2C2, 2D & 2E, Vettickal, Mulanthuruthy via.; Maneed Village, Maneed Panchayaat, Pambra Desam, Muvattupuzha Taluk, Piravom Sub District, Ernakulam District Kerala State-682314, on behalf of THG PUBLISHING PVT LTD., Chennai-600002. Editor: Suresh Nambath (Responsible for selection of news under the PRP Act).
ISSN 0971 - 751X

CM A KI-KIE
YK

4 Saturday, June 15, 2024
Fire in Kuwait
triggered by
short circuit,
say police
The Hindu Bureau
NEDUMBASSERY
The fire that broke out in
the labour camp of the
construction firm NBTC
group in Kuwait claiming
50 lives was triggered by a
short circuit that originat-
ed in the security room, ac-
cording to an investigation
by the police and forensic
teams in that country.
The fire claimed 50 lives
of which 46 were Indians.
On Friday, senior execu-
tives of NBTC told the me-
dia here at Kochi airport
that it was an unfortunate
accident and since the inci-
dent happened at night,
the employees were
caught off guard.The camp
was run like a model camp
and had centralised air
conditioning system which
caused the smoke to
spread and the employees
were left suffocated after
inhaling it.
‘Release assistance’
“We will immediately re-
lease an assistance of ₹8
lakh to the families of each
of the victims. In addi-
tion,we will release more
amount by way of addition-
al insurance cover and in-
demnity. We will continue
to stand by the grieving fa-
milies. We had assigned a
team each to the house-
holds of every victim on
Friday as a show of our so-
lidarity and support,” a se-
nior executive said.
Asked whether the com-
pany has introduced addi-
tional safety measures in
the wake of the fatal acci-
dent, the executives said
that being a company with
a legacy of over three de-
cades, it followed a stan-
dard operating procedure
and had internationally ap-
proved systems in place.
“We comply with the sa-
fety requirements of the
municipality and the go-
vernment and follow a sys-
tem of frequent inspec-
tions at our facilities,” the
executives said.
Row over
denial of
clearance for
Minister’s
Kuwait visit
The Hindu Bureau
KOCHI
The Left Democratic Front
and the United Democratic
Front on Friday criticised
the Centre for denying pol-
itical clearance to Health
Minister Veena George to
visit Kuwait in the wake of
the tragic building fire
while the State unit of the
Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP) justified the decision.
Chief Minister Pinarayi
Vijayan said that it was an
accepted tradition to be
with people at the time of
such loss and grief. The
Health Minister would
have been able to under-
stand the problems faced
by the injured and interact
with the Malayali diaspora
in Kuwait, he said.
Terming the denial of
clearance unfortunate,
Leader of the Opposition
V.D. Satheesan said that
there could have been bet-
ter coordination if the Mi-
nister was allowed to go to
Kuwait.
K. Surendran, BJP State
president, said that there
was no need for her visit as
the Ministry of External Af-
fairs had successfully com-
pleted all procedures relat-
ed to the repatriation of
the bodies swiftly.Suresh
Gopi, Union Minister of
State for Petroleum and
Tourism, urged the media
to avoid a controversy over
the issue.
CM
YK
State mourns fire victims with a chorus of heartbreak
As airport staff began bringing the caskets from the import cargo terminal and placing them on a designated podium, stifled sobs gave way to loud cries of grief,
leaving the terminal with heart-wrenching scenes of a tragic homecoming. The bodies were then shifted to ambulances and taken to their respective home towns
M.P. Praveen
KOCHI
A
s the first casket
bearing the body of
Arun Babu was so-
lemnly brought out of the
cargo terminal of the Co-
chin international airport
here on Friday, mourning
families huddled together
to receive the remains of
their loved ones who per-
ished in the devastating
fire tragedy in Kuwait two
days ago. The scene at the
cargo terminal was heart-
wrenching. Stifled sobs
gave way to loud cries of
grief as family members
saw the names of their
loved ones on the caskets,
filling the terminal with a
chorus of heartbreak.
Mathew Thomas, 53,
prioritised the education
of his two daughters more
than anything. That was
why he made sure that his
daughter Merin secured
A grief-stricken father sobs his
heart out, moving many to tears
M.P. Praveen
KOCHI
Abraham Mathai cut a for-
lorn figure with tears
streaming down his face as
he kept staring at the little
piece of paper bearing his
son Cibin T. Abraham’s im-
age stuck to the white
spread on a table set out-
side the reception area of
the import cargo terminal
at the Cochin international
airport on Friday.
A few hours later, when
casket number 4 contain-
ing his son’s mortal re-
mains was brought out and
placed on the table, Abra-
ham lost control of his
emotions and collapsed on
it sobbing inconsolably.
The heart-wrenching sight
also moved many onlook-
ers to tears.
Hardly five months ago,
he had stood beaming by
his son’s side at his grand-
daughter Irene Alice Ci-
bin’s baptism. Little did he
know then that he would
be left a bereaved father,
Poignant scenes as remains
of victims are brought home
The Hindu Bureau
PATHANAMTHITTA
Amid a poignant atmosph-
ere, the mortal remains of
P.V. Muraleedharan, a na-
tive of Vazhamuttom in
Pathanamthitta who died
in a fire accident in Kuwait,
were cremated at his resi-
dence on Friday.
Muraleedharan’s body
was brought home from
the Kochi airport by 4
p.m., but people had been
gathering at his house
since the morning. The
police were deployed to
regulate the crowd.
Muraleedharan had
worked in Kuwait for over
three decades. Although
he returned to India in Fe-
bruary, he had to go back
to honour some work
contracts.
MLAs pay last respects
Among those who paid
their last respects were
Konni legislator K.U. Ja-
neesh Kumar and Ranni le-
gislator Pramod Narayan.
Earlier in the day, Dis-
trict Collector S. Prem
Krishnan received the mor-
tal remains of those from
Pathanamthitta who died
in the accident. The bodies
admission for MBA in Ben-
galuru before he returned
to Kuwait in February.
Merin was yet to join the
course when the dreadful
news that her father was
missing following the Ku-
wait inferno reached their
home at Pandanad in
Chengannur on Wednes-
day. The daily call he made
unfailingly back home also
did not come that day. As
concerned the family was,
it also gave them a glimmer
of hope that he might have
survived the tragedy.
Double tragedy
But that proved short-lived
as their relatives in Kuwait
confirmed that he was
among the dead, said Ba-
van Thomas, a relative
who had come to receive
the body at the Kochi air-
port. Mathew had been
working as a salesman in
Kuwait for the last 33
years. The tragedy further
Abraham Mathai, father of Cibin T. Abraham, is inconsolable as he
sees the coffin containing his son’s body at the Cochin international
airport on Friday. THULASI KAKKAT
and his months-old grand-
daughter without her fath-
er. Cibin, a 31-year-old
from Mallappally in Patha-
namthitta, was among the
victims of the Kuwait infer-
no whose bodies were
flown in to the Kochi air-
port on Friday morning.
In fact, Cibin, was set to
make a visit back home in
August in time for his
daughter’s first birthday.
Cibin’s sister, Seeba, is also
In grief: The wife of P.V. Muraleedharan mourning the death of her
husband in Pathanamthitta on Friday. LEJU KAMAL
were immediately shifted
to the mortuary of a priv-
ate hospital in Thiruvalla.
Relatives said the crema-
tion of Akash S. Nair, a na-
tive of Mudiyoorkkonam,
near Pandalam, will be
conducted on Saturday.
The funeral service for
Thomas Oommen, a native
of Mepral, is scheduled for
3 p.m. on Sunday. The ser-
vices for Saju Varghese, a
native of Attachakkal in
Konni, will be held the next
day.
Meanwhile, a sombre at-
mosphere has enveloped
Kottayam as the remains of
three individuals killed in
the accident were brought
home on Friday. The de-
THE HINDU
Kerala
Last respects: People pay homage to the victims of the Kuwait fire at the Cochin international airport
on Friday. THULASI KAKKAT
deepened when it
emerged that the victim’s
nephew Shibu Varghese
had also fallen prey to the
same accident.
Shameer Umarudheen,
33, of Shooranad North in
in Kuwait and was among
the first to came to know
about the tragedy.
“Initially, he was report-
ed missing in the compa-
ny’s communication. It
was only on Thursday
morning that his death was
confirmed,” said Reji
Varghese, among the rela-
tives who had come to the
airport to receive the body.
Anu Aby, a neighbour,
said the family was hopeful
ceased are Stephin Abra-
ham Sabu from Pampady,
P. Sreehari from Ithitha-
nam, and Shibu Varghese
from Payipad. Their re-
mains arrived in the after-
noon and have been
placed in various hospital
morgues as their funerals
are scheduled for Sunday
and Monday.
Sreehari’s body is kept
at St. Jude Hospital in Thu-
ruthy, near Changanas-
sery, and his funeral will be
held on Sunday at his
home. Shibu’s body is kept
at Pushpagiri Hospital in
Thiruvalla and his funeral
will be held at St. George
Malankara Syriac Catholic
Church on Sunday.
Kollam district, was set to
visit his home later this
month. Instead, the family
received a casket contain-
ing his lifeless body. He
had been working as a driv-
er in Kuwait for the last five
for a long time that Cibin
might have escaped the
tragedy or at worse he was
admitted in a hospital in-
jured. He was on phone
talking to his wife, Anju,
just an hour before the
deadly fire that claimed his
life broke out, he said.
Dream unfulfilled
Stephin Abraham Sabu of
Kottaym loved to play his
keyboard whenever he was
back home from his hectic
life in Kuwait. Now, he will
neither return nor play
keyboard ever again as the
29-year-old was among the
Kuwait fire.
He had booked his ticket
to return home on August
9. His new house was near-
ing completion and he had
planned to move in with
his family this time.
“He was brilliant in stu-
dies and was a very affable
guy,” recollected Jestin Ku-
riakose, Stephin’s child-
hood friend, while waiting
to receive the body at the
Kochi airport.
years. A relative back in Ku-
wait had shared the news
of the fire at 11 a.m. on
Wednesday. But it was not
yet clear then whether he
was among the victims.
“We shared his picture
Biomining finished in 19 legacy
waste sites in State, govt. to HC
The Hindu Bureau
KOCHI
The State government on
Friday informed a Division
Bench of the High Court
that of the 44 legacy waste
disposal sties identified in
the State, biomining has
been completed in 19 sites
and is in various stages at
the remaining sites.
DEATH
T.PADMANABHA RAO (91), Retired
Legal Correspondent, The Hindu, New
Delhi passed away on 14-June-2024.
Address: 32 Samachar Apartments,
Mayur Vihar Phase I Extn, Delhi -
110091 Contact : 9818100966
DEATH ANNIVERSARIES
with a few friends there
who verified and con-
firmed his death. He was
asleep in his room on the
sixth floor and died inhal-
ing smoke,’’ said Safedu
Abdul Rasheed, a relative
who had come to the Kochi
airport to receive the body.
Shameer’s neighbour
back home was on the se-
cond floor of the same ill-
fated building and in his
desperation to escape hur-
led himself down from the
height. He had a hard land-
ing in the parking area but
was fortunate to survive
with only an injury to his
leg, Rasheed said.
Confirmation
For the family of Thomas
C. Oommen, 37, of Thiru-
valla in Pathanamthitta dis-
trict, Thursday’s newspap-
ers came with the
confirmation of the dread-
ed news they so badly
hoped to avoid.
When a suo motu case
initiated in the wake of the
fire breakout at the Brah-
mapuram waste treatment
plant came up before the
Bench comprising Justice
Bechu Kurian Thomas and
Justice Gopinath P., C.E.
Unnikrishnan, special go-
vernment pleader, submit-
ted that the government
had directed the local bo-
Kochi
He was reported mis-
sing since the deadly infer-
no. But his picture pu-
blished in the day’s
newspapers among the list
of victims put paid to wha-
tever little hope they had
harboured. Thomas had
been working in the quali-
ty check wing of the com-
pany for the last five years.
He was planning to visit
home during Onam after
his last visit during the
Christmas.
“He used to call the fa-
mily every day after his du-
ty hours but he did not on
the day of the fire. We were
told that he was dropped
back at the building just
half-an-hour before the fire
by a friend and probably
did not get the time to talk
to his family one last time,”
said Monsy K.J., his
relative.
Later, the bodies were
shifted to ambulances and
taken to their home towns.
dies to establish plastic
bottle collection booths.
Various local bodies had al-
ready set up such booths.
He submitted that the
Education department had
included lessons relating to
waste management in the
syllabus of Classes I, III, V,
VII, and IX to sensitise stu-
dents to avoid dumping of
waste in public.
A KI-KIE
 THE HINDU
Saturday, June 15, 2024 5
Kochi
South

The Hindu’s
former legal Karnataka HC halts arrest MLA’s son
distances
WEATHERWATCH
쑽
Rainfall, temperature & air quality in select metros yesterday

correspondent
T.P. Rao dies or detention of Yediyurappa himself from
bar bribery
The Hindu Bureau The court directs the former Chief Minister to appear before CID on June 17; the BJP leader is row in Kerala
CHENNAI accused of sexually assaulting a 17-year-old girl at his residence in Bengaluru in February this year
The Hindu Bureau
T. Padmanabha Rao, The THIRUVANANTHAPURAM
Hindu’s former Legal Cor- The Hindu Bureau to be a former Chief Minis- voice samples, the High
respondent who had a rep- BENGALURU ter and in the late evening Court asked Advocate-Gen- The Crime Branch of the
utation for covering the Su- of his life, perhaps with ail- eral Shashi Kiran Shetty, Kerala police recorded the

O
preme Court with balance bserving orally ments natural to the age”, who represented CID, the statement of Arjun Rad-
and accuracy, passed away that “the way in the court observed. reason for seeking non- hakrishnan, son of Con-
in New Delhi on Friday due which the investi- Justice Krishna S. Dixit bailable arrest warrant two gress leader and former
to an age-related illness. He gating agency is doing passed the interim order months after he appeared Home Minister Thiruvan-
was 91. things generates doubt in while hearing two separate before the investigation of- choor Radhakrishnan, in
Known as T.P. Rao the mind of court”, the petitions filed by Mr. ficer. connection with the agen-
among his colleagues, he High Court of Karnataka Yediyurappa. Noticing that Mr. Yediy- cy’s investigation into the
joined The Hindu in No- on Friday restrained the In the first petition, he urappa had only sought a alleged bid to raise funds
vember 1962 and served Criminal Investigation De- had questioned the legality few days to appear again from bar owners to bribe
for nearly 40 years. For ov- partment (CID) from either of the first information re- before the CID, the court the State government for a TEMPERATURE DATA: IMD, POLLUTION DATA: CPCB, MAP: INSAT/IMD (TAKEN AT 18.00 HRS)

er two decades on the Su- arresting or detaining B.S. Yediyurappa port (FIR) registered asked “would heavens permissive excise policy. Forecast for Saturday: Heavy/very heavy rainfall likely at isolated
preme Court beat, he was former Chief Minister B.S. against him on March 14, have fallen if there was a The Crime Branch team places over Assam, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Ma-
known for his impeccable Yediyurappa in a criminal written a letter to it on June 2024, and in the second, delay of a few days... he led by Deputy Superinten- nipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Sikkim and Sub-Himalayan West Bengal.
journalism. He retired case. 11, stating that he would do he had sought anticipatory [Mr. Yediyurappa] is not dent of Police Binu Kumar Heat wave conditions likely in isolated pockets over Uttarakhand,
from service on October He is accused of sexually so instead of June 12, as bail as a trial court on June some Tom, Dick, and Har- called on Mr. Radhakrish- Bihar, Jharkhand, north Chhattisgarh and northeast Madhya Pradesh
CITY RAIN MAX MIN CITY RAIN MAX MIN
31, 2002. assaulting a 17-year-old girl was stipulated by the inves- 13 had issued non-bailable ry, or a bandicoot... will he nan at his residence in Thi- Agartala ...................63......30.4...... 23.5 Kozhikode ....................... —......33.8...... 26.0
at his residence at Dollars tigation agency. arrest warrant against him flee from country?” ruvananthapuram to re- Ahmedabad............. —......39.4...... 27.2 Kurnool ........................... —......34.0...... 25.3
Aizawl .....................0.8......30.5...... 22.8 Lucknow.......................... —......45.3...... 31.3
‘Balanced reporting’ Colony, Bengaluru, in Fe- The court “cannot jump on the CID’s plea. Meanwhile, the court cord his statement. The Allahabad ................ —......46.9...... 34.3 Madurai ........................... —......38.1...... 26.1
Former colleagues from bruary this year. to the conclusion that a On noticing that Mr. Ye- ordered issue of notice to Crime Branch had earlier Bengaluru................ —......29.1...... 21.0 Mangaluru....................... —......31.4...... 24.0
The Hindu’s Delhi team re- However, the court di- case is made out for arrest diyurappa had appeared CID and Mr. Yediyurappa issued a notice to Mr. Rad- Bhopal ..................... —......39.0...... 27.0 Mumbai ........................11.3......32.7...... 26.0
Bhubaneswar .........3.2......33.1...... 25.5 Mysuru............................. —......30.8..........—
called Mr. Rao’s ready wit rected Mr. Yediyurappa to and detention or for custo- before the CID on April 12 on a petition filed by vic- hakrishnan on the premise Chandigarh.............. —......44.6...... 29.6 New Delhi........................ —......44.0...... 33.3
and high-pitched voice, appear before the CID on dial interrogation of Mr. Ye- in response to a notice is- tim’s brother complaining that he was the administra- Chennai .....................3......36.4...... 28.0 Patna............................... —......42.8...... 29.4
Coimbatore ............. —......33.4...... 24.2 Port Blair ...........................1......31.0...... 26.6
and also his ready gui- June 17 as he himself had diyurappa, who happens sued to him and given his about delay in the probe. tor of the bar hotel owners’ Dehradun................. —......43.0...... 26.0 Puducherry ..................... —......36.2...... 28.2
dance for budding court WhatsApp group, which Gangtok ...................25......20.0...... 18.5 Pune ................................26......29.4...... 23.2
Goa...........................67......31.0...... 24.2 Raipur.............................. —......41.0...... 30.5
reporters and willingness transmitted the controver- Guwahati .................16......30.6...... 25.2 Ranchi ............................. —......40.0...... 27.0
to explain the nitty-gritty sial “bribe-raising” de- Hubballi................... —......29.0...... 23.0 Shillong ...........................12......23.2...... 17.2

Pawan Kalyan is Andhra Pradesh Dy. CM

while clarifying doubts. He mand as a voice note to its Hyderabad............10.7......33.2...... 23.7 Shimla ............................. —......34.8...... 23.4
Imphal ..................... —......30.7...... 16.7 Srinagar........................... —......27.2...... 13.4
had earned high regards members. Jaipur ........................1......40.7...... 31.6 Thiruvananthapuram .........0.4......33.2...... 25.4
among Supreme Court Kochi.......................0.8......31.8...... 26.0 Tiruchi ............................. —......36.1...... 26.8
Kohima ......................7......24.8...... 17.5 Vijayawada.....................0.6......38.7...... 27.0
judges with his remarkable ‘Bid to defame Cong.’ Kolkata .................... —......38.0...... 29.6 Visakhapatnam...............0.1......34.0...... 28.5
reporting, they said. The Hindu Bureau Mr. Naidu has directly Kandula Durgesh has got Mr. Radhakrishnan said he (Rainfall data in mm; temperature in Celsius)
In a 2007 column, The AMARAVATI updated the list of Cabinet Tourism, Culture and was not in the liquor busi- Pollutants in the air you are breathing Yesterday
CITIES SO 2 NO 2 CO PM2.5 PM10 CODE In observation made at
Hindu’s then Readers’ Edi- Ministers and congratulat- Cinematography. ness, but some of his rela- Ahmedabad ..... ...4 ..45 39 ... 107 ....98 ......* 4.00 p.m., Munger, Bihar
tor K. Narayanan recalled Andhra Pradesh Chief Mi- ed Mr. Pawan Kalyan and BJP’s Satya Kumar Ya- tives were. He had no con- Bengaluru ........ .14 ..22 80 ..... 40 ....51 ......* recorded an overall air
Chennai............ ...5 ....7 86 ..... 56 ....51 ......* quality index (AQI) score of
Mr. Rao’s style of legal re- nister N. Chandrababu Nai- the Cabinet colleagues on dav has been given Health, nection with the Delhi ................. .17 108 46 ... 290 ...281 ......* 285 indicating an
porting that had “won him du has allocated portfolios the social media platform Family Welfare & Medical controversy. Mr. Thiruvan- Hyderabad ....... .29 ..24 36 ..... 49 ....66 ......* unhealthy level of
Kolkata............. ...9 ..22 39 ..... 46 ....67 ......*
accolades from the Bench to his 24 Cabinet col- X. There are 17 first-timers Education. choor Radhakrishnan said Lucknow........... .14 ..49 59 ... 216 ...157 ......*
pollution. In contrast,
Davanagere, Karnataka
and the Bar.” His reporting leagues on Friday. in the Cabinet. The TDP national gener- an attempt was made to Mumbai ............ .26 ..44 53 ..... 26 ....49 ......* recorded a healthy AQI
was always accurate and The Janasena Party pre- Mr. Naidu has retained al secretary Nara Lokesh defame the Congress and, Pune ................. ..— ..29 82 ..... 55 ....49 ......* score of 22
Visakhapatnam ...9 ..49 21 ..... 52 ...108 ......*
gave no room for misinter- sident Pawan Kalyan has the General Administra- has been allocated Human by extension, him.
Air Quality Code: * Poor * Moderate * Good (Readings indicate average AQI)
pretation, he had said. been made Deputy Chief tion, Public Enterprises Resources Development, The Opposition had SO2: Sulphur Dioxide. Short-term exposure can harm the respiratory system, making breathing difficult. It
The cremation will take Minister and allocated Pan- and all other portfolios Pawan Kalyan IT, Electronics and Com- staged a walkout in the As- can affect visibility by reacting with other air particles to form haze and stain culturally important objects
such as statues and monuments.
place at the Lodi Road chayat Raj, Rural Develop- which were not allocated munications and Real sembly on Monday, de- NO2: Nitrogen Dioxide. Aggravates respiratory illness, causes haze to form by reacting with other air
particles, causes acid rain, pollutes coastal waters.
Electric Crematorium in ment and Rural Water Sup- to Ministers. been given the Food and Time Governance. manding an inquiry into CO: Carbon monoxide. High concentration in air reduces oxygen supply to critical organs like the heart
New Delhi at 12.30 p.m. on ply, Environment, Forest, Nadendla Manohar, the Civil Supplies and Urban Anita Vangalapudi has the “behind-the-scenes and brain. At very high levels, it can cause dizziness, confusion, unconsciousness and even death.
PM2.5 & PM10: Particulate matter pollution can cause irritation of the eyes, nose and throat, coughing,
June 15. He is survived by Science & Technology Janasena Political Affairs Development while the been given Home Affairs manoeuvring” to wring chest tightness and shortness of breath, reduced lung function, irregular heartbeat, asthma attacks,
heart attacks and premature death in people with heart or lung disease
two daughters and a son. portfolios. Committee chairman, has other Janasena Minister and Disaster Management. bribes from bar owners.

PERSONAL PERSONAL PERSONAL PERSONAL SITUATION VACANT PUBLIC NOTICE

Timings
KOCHI GENERAL
CHANGE OF NAME CHANGE OF NAME CHANGE OF NAME CHANGE OF NAME
SATURDAY, JUN. 15
RISE 06:04 SET 18:46
RISE 13:16 SET 00:54
SUNDAY, JUN. 16
RISE 06:05 SET 18:47
RISE 14:00 SET 01:30
MONDAY, JUN. 17
RISE 06:05 SET 18:47
RISE 14:45 SET 02:05 TENDERS PUBLIC NOTICE

CHANGE OF NAME CHANGE OF NAME

TENDERS

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CM A KI-KIE
YK

6 Saturday, June 15, 2024
Food factor
Policymakers must keep in mind that
inflation hits the poor the hardest
M
ay’s provisional headline retail inflation
may have marginally eased to a 12-
month low of 4.75%, but food price
gains remained unrelenting last month giving lit-
tle reason to cheer. Yet again, vegetables and
pulses were key contributors in keeping food in-
flation as measured by the Consumer Food Price
Index little changed at 8.69%, with urban con-
sumers feeling the heat more than their rural
counterparts as the pace of year-on-year change
in food prices in India’s cities and towns hit a
three-month high of 8.83%. Vegetable inflation
not only continued to hover above 27% for a sixth
straight month, at 27.3%, but month-on-month
gains too accelerated by almost 200 basis points
to a six-month high of 3.22%. Tomato, onion and
potato prices led the charge, with these heavy-
weights in the vegetables sub-group logging se-
quential gains of 1.5%, 0.5% and a bruising 15.1%
in the case of potato. Nor is the outlook for veget-
able inflation particularly reassuring with June’s
retail price trends as well as the lag from escalat-
ing wholesale costs pointing to more pain ahead
for consumers running their household budgets.
Data from the Department of Consumer Affairs
Price Monitoring Division show the all-India aver-
age retail price of tomato, onion and potato, as on
June 14, were 21%, 14% and 8% higher, respective-
ly, month-on-month, and a significantly steeper
35%, 58% and 44% costlier, respectively, when
compared with their year-earlier prices. At the
wholesale level, sequential inflation in tomato,
onion and potato was disconcertingly faster at
28%, 18% and 9%, respectively, underlining the
challenges policymakers face in containing pric-
es through trade measures.
Food inflation also manifested last month with
a quickening in price gains in the category’s lar-
gest constituent — cereals and products — to a
five-month high of 8.69%. Retail cereal prices
from the price monitoring division’s daily dash-
board show rice was 13% costlier than on June 14,
2023, wheat was 5.7% more expensive and infla-
tion in wheat flour (atta) was 4.7%, signalling that
here again the prospects of a let-up in price pres-
sures are remote, at least for now. Pulses saw in-
flation quicken again, after a mild slowing in April
to 17.1% with the pace of sequential price rise hit-
ting a six-month high of 1.53%. Official price data
for June 14 showed gram dal, tur, urad and moong
costlier by 17%, 27%, 13% and 8.5% than a year
earlier, respectively. Rainfall data from the India
Meteorological Department as on June 14 that
show a 12% deficit since June 1 is also a cause for
mild concern, an ‘above normal’ monsoon fore-
cast notwithstanding. With food inflation partic-
ularly hitting hardest the poorer sections, policy-
makers can ill afford to drop their guard.
One more chance
Israel will have to accept the ceasefire
proposal or face isolation
P
resident Joe Biden’s three-phase ceasefire
plan for Gaza got a major boost on Mon-
day with the UN Security Council (UNSC)
resolution asking Israel and Hamas to accept the
proposal. The U.S. says Israel has already agreed
to the deal laid out in the resolution, adding that
Hamas’s tough position was the main hindrance
to a ceasefire. This is the second time since the
war began on October 7, 2023 that the UNSC is
calling for a Gaza ceasefire. In March, the Coun-
cil’s call was ignored by Israel. If the U.S. had ab-
stained from voting then, letting the resolution
pass, this time, Washington is the force behind
the proposal. According to the Biden plan, which
the U.S. President says was laid out by Israel,
there would be a six-week long ceasefire in the
first phase. Israeli troops would pull back from
densely populated areas, allow more aid trucks
into Gaza, and release Palestinian prisoners in ex-
change for 33 hostages held by Hamas. In the se-
cond phase, Hamas is to release the remaining
hostages while Israel is expected to withdraw
from the Gaza Strip. The third phase would see
the enclave’s reconstruction.
While the Biden administration, which backs
Israel’s war on Gaza, is actively pushing for this
plan, there are serious hindrances on both sides.
The U.S. has repeatedly said that the proposal has
the blessings of Israel, but the Benjamin Netanya-
hu government has not publicly endorsed the
plan. Mr. Netanyahu was politically weakened
last week when opposition politician Benny
Gantz quit the unity government, leaving Prime
Minister Netanyahu more dependent on his far-
right allies. And the far-right parties in the ruling
coalition have threatened to break the govern-
ment if he accepted the ceasefire proposal. So the
question is whether Mr. Netanyahu could place
the country’s interests above his political surviv-
al. On the other side, Hamas demands an imme-
diate Israeli withdrawal from Gaza’s Rafah cross-
ing with Egypt, total freedom in choosing the
Palestinian prisoners to be released and guaran-
tees from China, Russia and Türkiye for a final
agreement with Israel. As both sides harden their
stances, truce remains elusive. Since the war be-
gan, at least 37,000 Palestinians have been killed
by Israel and 2.3 million people displaced. Israel
has repeatedly ignored pleas to protect civilian
lives, while Hamas has shown little interest in
making concessions to clinch a ceasefire deal. Is-
rael wants the hostages to be freed. Hamas wants
the war to be over and Israeli troops to be out of
Gaza. They should realise that the only way to
meet these objectives is to strike a negotiated
deal, rather than prolonging the war that has des-
troyed much of Gaza and turned Israel into an in-
ternationally isolated rogue state.
CM
YK
Editorial
Reimagining Indian federalism
O
n June 4, 2024, the Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP) tripped up short of the
majority mark in the Lok Sabha,
compelling it to hobble towards power
by leaning heavily on its partners in the National
Democratic Alliance, all of which are regional
parties. Aside from placing fetters on the BJP’s
overweening arrogance and decelerating our
descent into majoritarian autocracy, the return to
New Delhi of coalition governance offers another
hope: that of revitalising India’s beleaguered
federal structure, which has sustained countless
death blows over the past decade.
A brand of federalism
As I argued in the Lok Sabha last year — while
opposing the Government of National Capital
Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Act, 2023 — what
we have repeatedly seen since 2014 is an
insidious, inexorable effort to curtail the
autonomy of our States. Despite Prime Minister
Narendra Modi’s rhetoric of cooperative
federalism, all we have seen is the rise of a
coercive and combative brand of federalism that
seeks to centralise power at the expense of the
States.
This Modi-fied brand of federalism has been
manifest in seeking to foist Hindi upon our
southern States; deploying independent
regulatory and investigative agencies (such as the
Enforcement Directorate, the Central Bureau of
Investigation and Income-Tax agencies) to clamp
down on political opponents from regional
parties; using an obscure provision of the Disaster
Management Act to impose a nationwide
lockdown without consulting the Chief Ministers
who had to implement it; creating and misusing
the ‘Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief
in Emergency Situations (PM CARES) Fund,
which limited the flow of cash to State-run Chief
Minister’s Distress Relief Funds; and robbing
Jammu and Kashmir of Statehood and abrogating
Article 370 in a manner that sets an ominous
precedent for all other States. One must add to
this litany, the tendency to undermine the careful
balance in our fiscal federalism that previous
governments had maintained, distributing
revenues in a way that left it to our States to
pursue their own priorities. This balance has
been disturbed using a number of cynical tools,
such as levying cess on a large number of items.
Unlike tax, cess does not go into the divisible
revenue pool and does not need to be shared
with States.
Another shadow hangs over the federal system
with the impending lapse of the 91st Amendment
in 2026. This guarantees that the share of
parliamentary constituencies across States would
be based on the 1971 Census, in order not to
punish those States that had empowered their
women, improved human development
indicators and curbed their population. The
ruling party has made it clear that they have no
intention of renewing this provision and are
India growth story has a ‘beneficial ownership’ hurdle
F
oreign investments will play a crucial role
in aiding the government’s goal of a $5
trillion economy by the end of the financial
year 2025-26. But, in order to attract foreign
investment, it is essential to remove all the
bottlenecks for the Indian companies receiving
this investment, and also foreign investors who
are willing to bet on the India growth story.
Amendment conundrum
The amendment to the Indian Foreign Exchange
Management (Non-debt Instruments) Rules, 2019
(“FEMA NDI”) through the press note number 3
of 2020, has posed a significant challenge for
Indian companies, especially start-ups and
smaller enterprises seeking foreign investments.
This amendment stipulates that any investments
in Indian companies, whether direct or indirect,
originating from entities located in countries that
share land borders with India (“Neighbouring
Countries”), or where the “beneficial owner” of
the said Indian investment is situated in, or is a
citizen of any of these Neighbouring Countries
would necessitate prior government approval
(“PN3 Requirement”).
While the aim of the amendment which was
promulgated during the COVID-19 pandemic was
salutatory — i.e., to curb opportunistic takeovers
or acquisitions of Indian companies by
Neighbouring Countries during difficult times
created by a black swan event — it created vast
incertitude as the term ‘beneficial owner’ has not
been explained or defined, and other laws that
have a definition of the term are context-specific.
When the PN3 requirement was first introduced,
the industry in general was comfortable taking a
lenient view, relying on the beneficial ownership
thresholds that were legislated in other laws. But
since the latter half of 2023, the Reserve Bank of
India (RBI) has begun taking a more conservative
view concerning issues on which the law was
silent, especially under FEMA NDI.
For example, last year, numerous Foreign
Owned or Controlled Companies (“FOCCs”)
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Conduct of NEET and the future of lakhs of
I write this letter as a former aspirants, the national test
Member of Parliament. The ought to have been
way a prestigious entrance conducted in a foolproof
examination, for medicine, way. Whatever be the
was conducted this year, directions from the
was most disgraceful (Page judiciary, the government
1, “NTA cancels scorecards must be ashamed for the
of 1,563 NEET candidates”, sorry state of affairs. All the
June 14). Given the hopes loopholes must be plugged
THE HINDU
looking forward with glee to a fresh Census and a
new delimitation exercise. The major concern of
many federalists is that this could lead — given
both demographic realities and the BJP’s own
inclinations — to the Hindi-speaking States of the
“cow belt” acquiring a two-thirds majority by
Shashi Tharoor themselves, in effect disenfranchising the
is the fourth-term southern States. This would give the BJP a
Lok Sabha Member of permanent stranglehold on our Parliament and
Parliament (Congress) would lead to a severe crisis of our democracy as
for well as our federalism.
Thiruvananthapuram, The BJP’s hyper-nationalist desire for
and the Sahitya uniformity was already evident in its decision in
Akademi award 2017 to change the terms of reference of the
winning author of 25 Fifteenth Finance Commission to base allocations
books, including
on the 2011 Census, instead of 1971’s (following
‘Ambedkar: A Life’
the same rationale) This proved pernicious,
sending even more tax money from the south to
the north than previously. Commentators spoke
of the government rewarding “brute
demographic advantage … over a state’s
performance,” adding that the Fifteenth Finance
Commission decisions were “a stunning rebuke
of success”.
The concerns of the southern States
Most people in the south are staunch Indian
nationalists who recognise full well the need to
correct regional imbalances, and for richer States
to subsidise poorer ones. But we must ensure that
this balancing act does not become financial
persecution of our southern States. For, unlike
most federal systems, India’s revenues are going
disproportionately to its worst-performing States,
those with rampant illiteracy, high rates of
fertility and population growth, while the
high-performing southern States get short shrift.
On June 10, 2024, Uttar Pradesh received a
whopping ₹25,069 crore of tax devolution, a
figure greater than all our five southern States
collectively received. Bihar and Madhya Pradesh
got the next largest allocations.
The concerns of our southern States about
delimitation are not unfounded: Uttar Pradesh
and Bihar are likely to together outweigh them all
combined. May we dare hope that one of the
BJP’s two crutches, with 16 seats in the Lok
Sabha, the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, N.
Chandrababu Naidu, will refuse to make the
mistake of allowing such a fate to befall South
India? Whether he does or does not, the other
southern Chief Ministers are bound to be
speaking to each other, to ward off the threat of
political disenfranchisement. The interests of
millions are entwined with the success of this
exercise, in which the principles of equitable
redistribution and representation should weigh
heavily. All States, ultimately, must work together
to devise a solution.
The return of
There are no early signs that the large number
coalition of regional parties in the NDA might bolster
governance India’s federal structure. Most regional members
to New Delhi — chief among them the Telugu Desam Party,
offers hope Janata Dal (United) and Lok Janshakti Party (Ram
began receiving notices from the RBI regarding
their downstream investments. The industry has
since taken the view that FOCCs will be placed
under the same restrictions as non-residents on
the aspects on which the law is silent. However,
when this notion was challenged by the RBI
Dev Jain recently, investors began to question other
is a corporate lawyer industry practices on which the FEMA NDI was
and has previously silent. Even law firms that were once fine with
worked with AZB & adopting a lenient view in cases of beneficial
Partners and TTA ownership thresholds, are now advising clients
that they cannot offer assurance by relying on the
beneficial ownership thresholds legislated under
other laws.
Further, the obstacle of navigating the prior
government approval route is exacerbated by its
time-consuming nature and high rejection rate.
Although consolidated official data on pending or
rejected applications is not published by the
Government of India, some government officials
have stated that proposals worth ₹50,000 crore
from the Neighbouring Countries are either
pending, withdrawn or rejected; and a staggering
201 applications have been rejected in the past
three years.
With the PN3 Requirement, the onus of
compliance is on the Indian company that
receives foreign investment, with the regulatory
authorities having the discretion to impose fines
of up to three times the investment received. The
inherent vagueness within the legislation, along
with severe penalties, can cast doubts on the
survivability of these companies.
Many of these start-ups receive investments far
The amendment beyond their revenue or assets. So, such fines
to the Indian could leave them insolvent, even if they liquidate.
Foreign Non-compliance would likely trigger legal battles,
Exchange adding to India’s already significant backlog of
court cases.
Management
(Non-debt Issues and solutions
Instruments) First, the indemnity challenge. Indian companies
Rules, 2019 is could consider having foreign investors to furnish
a challenge representations backed by indemnities regarding
and accountability fixed. awarded grace marks have only a gigantic exercise but
Dr. D.V.G. Sankara Rao, been cancelled and no will also be inconveniencing
Vizianagaram, Andhra Pradesh other ameliorating action lakhs of aspirants, it is still
taken by the National justifiable to re-conduct the
If grace marks were Testing Agency in respect of test.
awarded according to the the other aggrieved Kosaraju Chandramouli,
extant rules and candidates. This kind of a Hyderabad
normalisation formula, it is piecemeal measure is no
not understandable why the solution to the larger mess. Playing politics?
scorecards of candidates Though a retest for all is not The refusal of political
Kochi
Vilas) — have for now contented themselves with
securing cabinet births (not even major or pivotal
ministries) and greater perquisites for their own
States (such as demanding special status for
Andhra Pradesh and Bihar). While they may keep
the BJP on a relatively short leash, stanching the
tide of the Hindutva project and demanding that
contentious schemes (such as Agniveer) be
reconsidered, they are not necessarily likely to
rally around the cause of strengthening
cooperative federalism. Seeking a larger slice of
the pie for their own States is self-interest, not
federalism.
When he was the Chief Minister of Gujarat,
Narendra Modi was an unwavering federalist who
championed decentralised policy-making. In his
view, in a country as diverse as India, there could
never be a universal, Union Government-devised
panacea for the ills of all States, so, each should
be able to innovate and tailor solutions to their
peculiar problems. Each State in India, argued
then Chief Minister Modi, ought to forge its own
development path, engaging with other States in
a spirit of “competitive” federalism, which meant
attracting investment and improving governance,
and stoutly resisting the encroachment of the
central government on States’ rights. And, in
many ways, Mr. Modi exemplified these tenets —
until he became Prime Minister, that is.
Revive the Inter-State Council
Can Opposition-ruled States, especially in the
south, leverage the BJP’s reduced majority to the
benefit of cooperative federalism? The abolition
of the Planning Commission has deprived them
of a vital forum. If that cannot be undone, a good
starting point would be extracting the Inter-State
Council from the throes of desuetude. Though its
rationale had long been outlined in Article 263 of
the Constitution, it was convened only in the
1990s on the recommendation of the Sarkaria
Commission. But, despite having the potential to
become a formidable forum of deliberation, the
Council has degenerated into a mere appendage
of the Ministry of Home Affairs, in whose shadow
it scarcely has any authority. So the Inter-State
Council must be overhauled and revived to serve
as an independent arena for consultation,
decision-making, dispute resolution, and
coordination between States and various
governmental departments and levels of
government on issues that affect the States.
In a country such as India, whose diversity is
held together by a sense of common belonging
but whose civic nationalism must accommodate a
range of States with divergent levels of
development, it is essential that all feel that their
common nationhood is a winning proposition for
them. In a country where regional, religious, and
linguistic tensions are never far from the surface,
an answer such as, “We have more people, so we
will have more money and power”, risks
rupturing the fragile bonds that hold us all
together.
their compliance with the PN3 Requirement.
However, this may discourage foreign investment
due to potential liabilities.
Therefore, there is a pressing need to amend
the PN3 Requirement to define “beneficial
owners” comprehensively, including ownership
thresholds and control tests.
Second, defining ‘Beneficial Owners’. The
definition of ‘beneficial owner’ should specify a
precise threshold for ascertaining beneficial
ownership, potentially ranging from 10% (as
provided under the Indian company law) to 25%
(as recommended by the Financial Action Task
Force). The selection of the specific threshold can
be customised to align with the government’s
objective of scrutinising varying levels of foreign
investment across different sectors. For example,
sectors such as telecom and defence, which are
sensitive in nature, may warrant heightened
scrutiny when compared to sectors such as
manufacturing and construction, where India
requires additional capital.
The definition should also specify
control-conferring rights, beyond ownership
thresholds, to capture entities with significant
influence. For example, rights regarding board
meeting quorums or veto powers over
operational matters such as incurring any capital
expenditure or availing any loan may confer
control and should be outlined. However,
investor value protection rights, such as veto
powers over mergers or right of first offer, should
be excluded from the definition, as they do not
constitute control.
Third, consultation mechanism. Even with the
clarification of control-conferring rights in the
definition, some ambiguity may persist due to the
skilful drafting of peculiar clauses in the charter
documents. To mitigate this issue, FEMA NDI,
akin to Indian competition law, could be
amended to incorporate a time-bound
consultation mechanism with regulatory
authorities, to determine whether specific clauses
are control-conferring.
clearance for Kerala’s Health
Minister to travel to Kuwait,
is unacceptable, to say the
least. Did the Central
government want to be the
only entity to get the
accolades? Was this the
time to play politics?
Thomas Kunnath,
Changanassery, Kerala
A KI-KIE

Saturday, June 15, 2024
Kochi
A couple demolish their house for the widening of the Parikarma marg, in Ayodhya. SANDEEP SAXENA
A saffron sunset in
a temple town
The Ram temple is a symbol of the merger of state and religion in India, with the Prime Minister presiding over
its consecration. Ishita Mishra finds that in the Lok Sabha elections, the politics that propelled the Hindutva
movement took second place to the basic needs of the people who live in Uttar Pradesh’s Ayodhya
n a Tuesday evening, Sonal Gupta
O (name changed to protect privacy),
21, walks over to Hanuman Garhi, an
area with a temple second in popular-
ity only to the Ram Janambhoomi, in Ayodhya,
Uttar Pradesh (U.P.). She stares at the selfie point
adjacent to the ancient Hanuman mandir. She
comes here often. Sometimes, devotees ask her
to take photos of them on the steps of the now-
public place, at the Ram tilak point. Mostly
though, she looks up at the temple, and cries.
“My shop and home used to be here until the
government demolished it under the Ram tem-
ple project,” she says, of her 30x30 foot space.
“My father died in trauma and my mother has
never recovered. She has lost everything: her
husband, our house, the shop.” It has been two
years now, but Gupta tears up quickly.
The family got ₹1.95 lakh as compensation
from the administration, too small an amount to
build a house and a shop, and start afresh. She
wonders whether, in the balance of life, a ‘selfie
point’ was more important than homes and live-
lihoods. In the build-up to the inauguration of the
Ram temple, 10-15 shops were demolished just
for the selfie-point, to make way for wider roads
and ‘beautification’.
The Ram temple, one of the 2014 Lok Sabha
poll promises of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
and a resolution of the Sangh Parivar (RSS)
in 1986, was consecrated amidst political
pomp by Prime Minister (PM) Narendra
Modi in January 2024, months before the
general election mid-year.
It was followed by a massive out-
reach of the BJP, with the party tak-
ing thousands of people from
across the country to Ayodhya on
special trains and buses. The aim
was to keep the noise of the temple ‘tri-
umph’ high, as the party pitched for
“Ab ki baar 400 paar (This time more
than 400 seats [out of 543])”.
When the results were declared, the BJP got
only 240 seats countrywide, lost the Faizabad
parliamentary constituency under which Ayod-
hya falls, and came down to 33 seats out of 80
from its previous 62 in Uttar Pradesh that was
considered its northern fortress.
In the name of Ram
Across three years, since 2020, hundreds of
shopkeepers in Ayodhya, including Santosh Gup-
ta, 49; Suresh Singh, 50; and Gopalu, 34, had
their shops demolished to make the town pili-
grim-ready. The Supreme Court in 2019 Novem-
ber ordered the disputed land — where the Babri
mosque once stood until 1992, when it was
brought down by karsevaks — to be handed over
to a trust to build the Ram Janmabhoomi temple.
The court had also asked the government to allot
five acres of land for the construction of a mos-
que, which the Muslim community has not been
able to build, due to several hurdles.
“After trying all they could, even using the
CM
YK
THE HINDU
GROUND ZERO
name of lord Ram for political gains, the BJP suf-
After trying
all they
could, even
fered an embarrassing defeat in Faizabad. This
shows that even lord Ram warned them against
looting, harassing, and fooling people in his
name,” says Sunil Kumar, 42, whose shop was al-
so demolished for the construction of Ram Path,
a road leading to the temple.
using the
Kumar and his family were BJP supporters;
name of lord this time they have voted for the Samajwadi Par-
Ram for ty (SP) that got 37 seats. He now sets up shop on
political the pavement, and is often evicted by the police,
gains, the BJP leading a difficult life.
suffered an Nine-time MLA and six-time Minister in the
embarrass- U.P. government, Awadhesh Prasad of the SP is
the new parliamentarian of Faizabad. He defeat-
ing defeat in
ed the BJP’s Lallu Singh, two-time MP, in 2014
Faizabad and 2019. “Like us, many have either not voted
SUNIL KUMAR for the BJP or have not voted at all, which caused
Shopkeeper whose
premises were
the party to lose this land of the Ram temple,”
demolished says Nandan Sharma, in his 40s, another shop-
keeper in Ayodhya who sells cloths with prints of
gods and goddess on them.
He says the district administration assured
those whose shops were demolished the allot-
ment of new spaces, but to get them they would
have to deposit ₹25 lakh. “The administration
had said that after 20 years, they would take back
that shop. How can poor people like us get 25
lakh? Even if we take loans, we won’t be able to
pay it back in 20 years and by then, we will also
lose the shop. This is injustice and poor policy,”
Sharma says, still angry.
Political pummelling
Faizabad comprises five Assembly seats: Dariya-
bad, Rudauli, Milkipur, Bikapur, and Ayodhya in
Shopkeepers, some of whose premises were demolished for a selfie point near Hanuman Garhi temple, in Ayodhya. SANDEEP SAXENA
the eastern-most part of the constituency. In the
2022 Assembly polls — the first Uttar Pradesh
elections after the 2019 Supreme Court verdict —
the BJP won four out of the five seats, while the
SP’s Prasad won the Milkipur seat, reserved for
Scheduled Castes (SCs).
This time, Prasad, 77, was declared SP’s Lok
Sabha candidate with the slogan, “Na Mathura,
na Kashi, ab ki baar Awadhesh Pasi’ (Neither
Mathura, nor Kashi; this time it’s Awadhesh Pasi,’
Pasi being a representation of his caste). This was
a reaction to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s post-
Babri slogan: “Ayodhya tho sirf jhanki hai; abhi
Mathura-Kashi baaki hai (Ayodhya is just a
glimpse; Mathura and Kashi are left [to be ac-
quired thereafter].
“This slogan worked wonders for the SP, and
the saffron party lost the temple town around
which they were trying to build their Hindutva
bastion,” says Anil Singh, who teaches Hindi liter-
ature at Faizabad’s K.S. Saket P.G. College. He
adds that Prasad’s victory is significant, because a
Dalit leader has contested from a general seat for
the first time since Independence, winning with a
significant margin (54,567 votes), defeating the
BJP, which is both at the Centre and the State.
Prasad holds law and post-graduate degrees.
Singh feels the election results in Faizabad are
a repeat of 1993, when [SP founder] Mulayam
Singh Yadav decided to keep the communal forc-
es out of UP. “After the Babri mosque demolition
by right wing forces, he joined hands with Bahu-
jan Samaj Party (BSP) founder Kanshiram. The fa-
mous slogan coined at the time was ‘Mile Mu-
layam-Kanshi Ram, hawa mein ud gaye Jai Shri
Ram’. SP-BSP supporters together voted the BJP
out of power from the State,” he says.
Singh believes Prasad was a terrific candidate
choice, considering the population dynamic in
Faizabad that has an over-50% combined voter-
count of SCs/STs, Muslims, and OBCs.
Jeetan Ram Pasi, from Milkipur assembly seg-
ment says the bahujan samaj (traditionally subju-
gated people) felt threatened and unsafe when
BJP MP Lallu Singh gave a speech at a public
meeting in April this year in Faizabad, saying that
for a new Constitution, the party needed a two-
third majority. The video of his speech went viral.
“This was the last nail in the BJP’s coffin,” says
Pasi, adding that the members of the bahujan sa-
maj in Faizabad had collectively decided that if all
upper-caste people could set their differences
aside and vote for the BJP, they could do the same
to vote the party out of power.
Prasad, who is currently in Delhi, however,
7
Modi and Yogi didn’t realise the
administration...had harassed...people in
the name of temple development
RAJU DAS
Chief priest, Hanumangarhi temple
feels that in the land of Ram’s birth, Hindutva still
survives: “I am also a Hindu. When I have won
from here, how can Hindutava lose?” His father
was Dukhi Ram; his grandfather, Ram Naval; his
brother, Ram Awadh; and father-in-law, Ram Se-
vak, he says, reiterating his Hindu-ness. “I won
only because lord Ram wanted to tell the BJP they
shouldn’t be perpetuating injustice in his name.”
Difficult days
Lallu Singh, the former MP has stopped attending
public events and is organising booth-level meet-
ings to understand the reasons for his defeat. His
secretary says he is not speaking to the media
now. People in his constituency though, voice
strong opinions on him.
“He was so arrogant as an MP; he was never
there for the people. Whenever we approached
him with grievances, he would mistreat us. I still
remember he told me once that the people of
Ayodhya had voted for Narendra Modi and not
for him, so we should go to Modi with our pro-
blems,” says Niranjan Pandey, a middle-aged
farmer, who owned a plot in Kusmaha village,
where there was massive land acquisition to
build the Ayodhya airport.
Many in the city recall how Singh refused to
meet the delegation of shopkeepers who went to
give him a letter regarding inadequate compensa-
tion by the administration. “Wo kehte the ek-do
gaon vote nahi bhi dega to unka kuch nahi jayega
(He would say that if one or two villagers don’t
vote for him, it wouldn’t make a difference),” says
Sunita Devi, in her late 50s, whose shop was par-
tially demolished for road widening.
Mohd. Naiem, in his 40s, who runs a tea shop,
is not surprised at the BJP’s defeat. “In the last
civic body elections held in 2023, Sultan Ansari
had won in Ram Abhiram Das ward,” says Naiem.
The ward, where the Ram temple currently
stands, is named after the religious leader who is
said to have placed the idol of lord Ram inside the
Babri mosque. “The victory was a sign that peo-
ple are tired of the Hindu-Muslim divide created
by the BJP,” says Naiem.
While the BJP is analysing its defeat in Ayod-
hya, Raju Das, the chief priest of the Hanuman
Garhi temple, says that people had no complaints
against PM Modi or Chief Minister Yogi; it was the
fault of the bureaucracy.
“Modi and Yogi didn’t realise that the adminis-
tration in Ayodhya had harassed and looted peo-
ple in the name of temple development. They
were shown the best pictures and were never
made to meet people,” Das says. He says the BJP
hasn’t lost in Ayodhya, but has come out 4,000
votes stronger than 2019; it was the other four As-
sembly constituencies where their numbers
dipped. In fact, many whose shops were demol-
ished voted for the BJP.
Hate and hard talk
After the June 4 results, social media was flooded
with hate messages directed towards the people
of Ayodhya. Pilgrims were asked to stop giving
business to local shopkeepers and hoteliers.
“Boycott Ayodhya” was trending on X (formerly
Twitter). “Jo Ram ko laaye tumne unhe hi dhokha
dia,” (You have betrayed those who brought Ram
home),” a social media post reads. A comment on
this says, “History says that people of Ayodhya
have always betrayed its king.” The BJP MP from
Unnao, Sakshi Maharaj expressed shock in a TV
interview that Ayodhya had chosen an SP MP.
Prasad is pragmatic: “Those boycotting Ayod-
hya are not Ram bhakts (devotees). A person who
cannot respect democracy and the democratic
rights of the people can never be a Ram bhakt,”
he says.
Krishna Kant Gupta, a lawyer practising in Fai-
zabad, feels that the cow, considered a universal
mother in Hinduism, was one of the contributing
factors for the BJP’s loss. “Farmers were so angry
here because of stray cattle, destroying their
fields. Even after making tall claims of cow pro-
tection, the BJP was never managed cattle. The
ban on the slaughter of non-milch animals [from
2017] was a problem,” says Gupta.
Nirmala Gautam, in her 50s, who used to sell
tea near Saryu Ghat until her shop was torn
down, says that many temples and mosques were
demolished to make way for a ‘beautiful’ Ayod-
hya. “The gods have cursed the BJP with defeat,”
she says, adding that the city has turned into a
‘curfew’ zone for residents, with daily VIP visits.
“The newspapers are full of reports of deaths
when patients got stuck in traffic jams.”
Dilip Tiwari, 35, who lived in Dharampur vil-
lage, which was acquired for the airport project,
complains that the compensation he got was low-
er than circle rates. It’s not only the money that
troubles him. Tiwari and his family moved to
Ashapur village in Ayodhya district, where the
U.P. government allotted them land. He says he
had to spend over ₹20 lakh to construct a new
house, whose papers still show it as government
land. There are also social problems: “People like
us are not being respected here. They refuse to al-
low us to use their cremation ritual centres, as we
are outsiders for them. The BJP will never know
what they have done to us.”
While a shiny new temple has come up on the
rubble of a medieval mosque, Prerna and Sachin
(names changed), from Mirzapur Mafi village in
Faizabad, live in a two-room home. Sachin is a
construction worker. “After building homes for
others through the day, my husband comes
home every evening to demolish our own house.
A part of it falls on the Parikrama marg (road),”
Prerna explains, clearing the debris.
The couple was given a choice to pay the go-
vernment to break it down or do it themselves.
They have no money to give the government.
A KI-KIE
 THE HINDU
8 Saturday, June 15, 2024

News Kochi

From Page One NTA to reply to pleas for NEET probe

Supreme Courts gives the testing agency and Centre two weeks to submit a response; petitioners seek inquiry by a committee under a retired SC or
Poll results victory for HC judge or by an investigation agency; they highlight the growing demand among doctors’ associations and Opposition leaders as well
democratic world: PM
Mr. Modi met with Ukrainian President Volody-
myr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the summit a
Krishnadas Rajagopal
NEW DELHI Student groups
day ahead of the Swiss Peace Summit on Ukraine,
promising to support a peaceful resolution, even
though he will not travel to Switzerland. T
he Supreme Court
on Friday asked the
National Testing
want retest for all
Sources told The Hindu that MEA Secretary Agency (NTA) and the
(West) Pavan Kapoor would represent India at the Centre to respond to pleas Ashna Butani Secretariat to the Educa-
conference in Burgenstock over the weekend, seeking a probe by a com- NEW DELHI tion Ministry’s main offices
although Swiss and Ukrainian Ministers had tra- mittee chaired by a retired in the capital on Friday af-
velled to Delhi to request Mr. Modi’s presence. In- Supreme Court or High A day after the National ternoon.
dia’s decision to send an official rather than a Court judge or an investi- Testing Agency said that it In a letter to the Union
high-level political representative is seen in line gation agency into allega- would reconduct the government, tje IFMS
with the government’s position thus far on the tions of question paper NEET-UG 2024 examina- called for a retest, a probe
Russia-Ukraine conflict, where it has abstained on leak and discrepancies in tion for 1,563 candidates into alleged irregularities
all resolutions critical of Russia and kept up ties the undergraduate Nation- who were given grace by the Central Bureau of
with both Moscow and Kiev. al Eligibility-cum-Entrance marks, aspirants conti- Investigation (CBI), strict
Earlier, Mr. Modi met with U.K. Prime Minister Test (NEET-UG) 2024. nued to push for their re- action against involved offi-
Rishi Sunak, discussing strategic ties and the “In- Petitioners appearing maining demands, with cials and individuals, and
dia-UK Roadmap 2030” for bilateral relations. An before a Vacation Bench of Some NEET candidates have demanded that the counselling process does not take place until the some marching to the Edu- transparency in the exami-
MEA statement said they “expressed satisfaction Justices Vikram Nath and alleged irregularities in the conduct of the examination are dealt with. SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR cation Ministry asking for a nation process.
with the progress made in the Free Trade Agree- Sandeep Mehta urged the retest. “For greater transparen-
ment negotiations between the two countries,” “imminent need for a CBI to be carried out,” petition- court asked them to file submit that the NTA was Union Education Minis- cy, the total number of
although it is now unlikely to be taken forward un- investigation”. ers Aarsh Samir Vyas and their replies in two weeks. acting on the court’s direc- ter Dharmendra Pradhan questions attempted by
til after the U.K. elections on July 4, where Mr. Su- One of the petitions, re- others pointed out. The petitions were sche- tion on June 13. said that the National Test- each student, in total and
nak’s Conservative Party is trailing far behind the presented by advocate They alleged irregulari- duled for hearing on July 8, The NTA has also sepa- ing Agency was committed categorised by subject,
Labour Party in polls. Charu Mathur, said there ties like students receiving along with several others rately approached the top to taking necessary action, should be included on the
French President Emmanuel Macron, whose was a growing demand, different marks on their filed earlier. A slew of peti- court to transfer petitions following Supreme Court OMR sheet. This must be
party is headed into parliamentary polls on June even within the Indian scorecards compared to tions have been filed in the pending in various High instructions, adding that duly verified by the invigi-
30 after a shock defeat from the far-right in Euro- Medical Association Junior their OMR sheets; unprece- apex court on the NEET- Courts to the Supreme the counselling process lator to prevent any tam-
pean Parliament elections, also met with Mr. Modi Doctors Network, for a CBI dented inflation of cut-off UG exam, including the Court. The Bench issued a will be under way soon. pering or manipulation,”
on Friday. investigation into the “re- and average marks result- award of grace marks. notice in NTA’s transfer “Central govt. will take the IFMS said in its letter.
cord number of students ed in an unprecedented 67 With burgeoning litiga- petitions. all necessary actions for All India Students’ Asso-
scoring perfect scores”. candidates achieving a per- tion and public furore Meanwhile, during the the well-being of students ciation units of Delhi Un-
The petition represent- fect score of 720/720; six of about the exam, Justice hearing, the top court as per the directions of the iversity and Jawaharlal
May exports bounced ed by Ms. Mathur highlight-
ed that the Opposition and
these toppers were from
the same exam centre in
Nath’s Bench, in an order
on June 13, recorded NTA’s
stood firm by its stand
against changing the coun-
Hon’ble Supreme Court,”
Mr. Pradhan said in a post
Nehru University, said in a
statement, “The momen-
9%, trade gap widened other leaders of the coun-
try have demanded a
Haryana; students having
scored 718 and 719 marks,
decision to conduct a re-
test for 1563 candidates
selling date from July 6. A
lawyer wanted it to be
on X on Friday.
Protesting candidates,
tary relief provided to the
applicants by the SC in
probe into the NEET which is “statistically ques- who were given grace shifted to July 9, a day after however, insisted that the scrapping away the ‘grace
“The deficit trends will depend on two factors — results. tionable”; no disclosure of marks. the top court hearing on counselling process should marks’ awarded to the ap-
import substitution and the rate of economic “This clearly shows method/criteria adopted “We did not direct the July 8. not take place until their plicants by NTA are not a
growth. But I don’t consider trade deficit per se as there has been illegality for grant of compensatory NTA... NTA itself decided The NEET (UG) exami- concerns are resolved. solution to the loss of time
a bad thing, as long as you have foreign invest- and arbitrariness in the marks for loss of time, etc. to hold the re-exam. We nation, which is under a Around 20 aspirants and and money suffered by the
ment coming in through FDI, foreign exchange evaluations and results of Issuing formal notice to said in the order that it was cloud, was conducted by 20 parents under the ban- applicants. Justice can only
coming in, and you are balancing it through other the examination which the National Testing Agen- the right way to do things,” the NTA on May 5 at 4750 ner of the Indian Foreign be done once re-examina-
means. Moreover, if our services exports are need to be taken cogni- cy (NTA), which holds Justice Nath corrected a centres in 571 cities for ov- Medical Students (IFMS) tion is conducted for all ap-
growing, we should not be unnecessarily worried sance of and probe needs NEET, and the Centre, the counsel who happened to er 24 lakh candidates. marched from the Central plicants of the exams.”
about merchandise trade deficit alone,” the Com-
merce Secretary asserted.
The top Commerce official also highlighted the
healthier 7.4% growth in exports of engineering
goods in May, with double-digit increases in sever-
al segments, including electronics (23%), drugs
Gujarat Police unearth ‘scam’ Cong. criticises PM’s ‘silence’ over
and pharma products (10.45%), as well as plastics
and linoleum that were up over 16.6% in May.
“We hope this trend should continue this year
at Godhra centre, arrest five NEET, seeks SC-monitored probe
and also hope that there should be no more geo-
political conflicts and no more disruptions in ma- The Hindu Bureau Coaching institute rushottam Sharma, the The Hindu Bureau in Godhra, Gujarat,” he
jor global shipping routes,” Mr. Barthwal said. AHMEDABAD and exam centre school’s principal, and NEW DELHI further asked.
ICRA chief economist Aditi Nayar reckoned helped candidates in Tushar Bhatt, a teacher at Congress general secre-
that 71% of the month-on-month enlargement in As the controversy over the school and the Deputy The Congress on Friday tary Jairam Ramesh
trade deficit was driven by the net oil balance. the alleged irregularities in
exchange for money, Superintendent of the stepped up its attack on claimed that “NEET under
While petroleum imports were $19.95 billion in the National Eligibility- said police NEET centre there. Mr. the Union government ov- this regime is more like
May, the export figure stood at $6.77 billion. cum-Entrance Test (Under- Bhatt was named the er irregularities in the con- CHEAT — Central Hyped
“With the deficit enlarging by $6 billion in graduate) continued, Guja- prime accused in the case. duct of the National Eligi- Entrance Admission Test”,
April-May 2024 relative to last year, we expect the rat Police arrested five per- were reportedly asked to Another key accused bility-cum-Entrance Test but also pointed out that
current account deficit to rise to around 1.5% of sons connected to a NEET skip the questions for was Parashuram Roy, own- (Undergraduate) by ques- the NEET-UG “paper scan-
GDP in this quarter from about 1.1% of GDP in the centre in Godhra on the which they did not know er of the coaching centre – tioning Prime Minister Na- Mallikarjun Kharge dal” was not unique.
same quarter of 2023-24,” Ms. Nayar said. charges of helping stu- the answers and later on Roy Overseas. rendra Modi’s “silence” on “Uttar Pradesh has wit-
dents cheat in the exam. those answers were to be The FIR stated that the the matter. The Opposition the NEET scam” through nessed more than 40 pap-
As per the police com- filled in by the teachers as attempted malpractice was party said that only a fo- Education Minister Dhar- er leaks under BJP rule and
plaint lodged in Godhra, per their arrangement. “thwarted” on May 5 dur- rensic investigation under mendra Pradhan and the Gujarat has emerged as the
Mortal remains of 45 around a dozen students,
their parents and a Vadod-
The scam was allegedly
set to be carried out at the
ing a raid at the NEET
centre by an inspection
the supervision of the Su-
preme Court could protect
National Testing Agency.
“If the paper was not
paper leak capital,” he said
in a post on social media
Indians flown back ara-based NEET coaching
centre run by a group of
Jay Jalaram School, an ex-
am centre at Parvadi vil-
squad.
The investigation re-
the future of lakhs of young
students.
leaked in NEET then — why
were 13 accused arrested in
platform X.
Congress leader Priyan-
teachers were involved in lage in Godhra. The Panch- vealed that parents had Congress chief Mallikar- Bihar due to paper leak?” ka Gandhi Vadra also ac-
Mr. Vijayan, along with Mr. Singh, laid wreaths on the scam. mahal district police paid Mr. Roy, Mr. Bhatt and jun Kharge claimed that Mr. Kharge asked in a post cused the new BJP govern-
the bodies at the airport. The victims were also gi- Those students whose arrested Vibhor Anand, an others, who all together the Modi-led government on X. “Has NEET-UG cheat- ment of attacking the
ven a guard of honour. parents had paid money education consultant, Pu- made ₹2.82 crore. has started “covering up ing racket not been busted dreams of the youth.
Mr. Vijayan dubbed the incident the biggest tra-
gedy involving expatriates and said steps should
be taken to avert similar tragedies in the future.
“Expatriates are the lifeline of Kerala. This is an
unbearable tragedy for the families waiting for the
return of their dear ones. Hopefully, the Kuwait
Last rites of 4
students who
Residents oppose allotment Manipur Naga body
of flat under CM scheme to prescribes social
government will pay due compensation to the fa-
milies of the victims and take necessary measures
to avert a similar tragedy. The Centre should also
drowned in
Russia held
a Muslim woman in Gujarat boycott of MP-elect
make effective intervention,” he said.
Norka Roots, the Kerala government’s outreach
agency for non-resident Keralites, had arranged
ambulances for ferrying the bodies of all the 23 The Hindu Bureau Rahul Karmakar of the trio’s “wilful attempt
Malayali victims to their houses across the State. MUMBAI The Hindu Bureau GUWAHATI to challenge the Naga peo-
The Kerala Police also arranged dedicated an AHMEDABAD ples’ position and its spirit
end-to-end pilot vehicle for all 23 victims up to The bodies of four medical An apex body of the Nagas of unity”. The ‘position’
their homes and up to the border in the case of students from Maharashtra Several residents of a hous- in Manipur has prescribed refers to the pre-poll ap-
victims from Tamil Nadu. who drowned in Volkhov ing scheme built by the Va- a seven-year social boycott peal to consider Mr. Zimik
Tamil Nadu Minister for Minorities Welfare and river in Russia’s Veliky Nov- dodara Municipal Corpora- of Congress MP-elect as the consensus candidate
Non-Resident Tamils Welfare ‘Gingee’ K.S. Mas- gorod city on June 4, ar- tion (VMC) under the Alfred Kanngam S. Arthur and declared support for
than had turned up to receive the mortal remains rived at the Chhatrapati Gujarat government’s and two others who con- him from most of the apex
of the seven victims from the State. Shivaji Maharaj Interna- housing project have tested the Lok Sabha elec- organisations representing
Ambulances from Tamil Nadu had also been tional Airport here on launched protests against tion from the Outer Mani- the 21 Naga tribes of Mani-
deployed. The bodies were then handed over to Thursday night. the allotment of a flat to a A video grab shows residents of the housing society protesting pur constituency as pur. Mr. Arthur and Mr. Zi-
the families. The students were Har- Muslim woman, saying the against the flat allotment in Vadodara. SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT Independents. mik belong to the Tangk-
shal Anantrao Desale, 19, locality is meant “only for Mr. Arthur bagged the hul Naga tribe, while Mr.
from Bhadgaon in Jalgaon Hindus”. was allotted the flat six Hindu inhabitants and falls Outer Manipur seat after John is a Poumai Naga and
district, siblings Jishan The protesters demand- years ago but could not under the Disturbed Areas defeating Kachui Timothy Mr. Abonmai a Liangmai

Kashmiri Pandits take Ashpak Pinjari, 20, and Jia

part in temple fest
Peerzada Ashiq
SRINAGAR
Thousands of Kashmiri
Pandits converged at the
Kheer Bhawani temple in
Kashmir Valley’s Gander-
bal district to attend the
annual festival of Zyestha
Ashtami on Friday. Many
CM
YK
of them had migrated to
different parts of the coun-
try in the 1990s in the wake
of raging militancy.
The temple of Kheer
Bhawani is located amid
chinar trees and has a nat-
ural spring, which is consi-
dered auspicious by
Pandits.
Firoj Pinjari, 20, from
Amalner in Jalgaon, and
Malik Gulamgous Moham-
mad Yakub, 21, from Mum-
bai’s Mira Road.
Yakub’s funeral took
place on Thursday night.
Desale’s uncle, Rajendra
Bhilaji Desale, said the bo-
dy of the boy arrived only
by 8 a.m. on Friday and the
funeral was held an hour
later. The last rites of the
Pinjari siblings also took
place on Friday.
ed the cancellation of the
allotment to the woman.
They told local media in
Vadodara that if the allot-
ment were not revoked,
they would intensify their
agitation and hold protests
in Gandhinagar and Delhi.
The protest has once
again exposed the near-
complete housing segrega-
tion in Gujarat, where Mus-
lims do not get any house
for lease or purchase in
majority of places.
The beneficiary said she
move into it due to opposi-
tion from other residents,
who are unwilling to let
her stay in the flat built for
lower-income groups un-
der the Mukhyamantri
Awas Yojana. “There is no
solution in sight. I current-
ly live at another place
with my son,” she said.
Protesting residents said
houses cannot be allotted
to members of minority
communities because Har-
ni area, where the complex
is located, is a locality of
Act that bans the sale of
property by members of
one religious community
to those from another
community without the
prior approval of the Dis-
trict Collector.
Municipal Commission-
er of Vadodara, Dilip Rana,
said he has received a re-
presentation from the resi-
dents of Motnath Residen-
cy in Harni area and a
decision will be taken after
studying all the relevant
documents.
Zimik of the Naga People’s
Front (NPF) by 85,418
votes. Independent candi-
dates S. Kho John and Ally-
son Abonmai finished
third and fourth.
In a public notification
on Thursday, the United
Naga Council (UNC) said it
took the action against the
three men as they “purpo-
sively defied and failed to
respect and honour the po-
sition” of the organisation
in the parliamentary polls.
The UNC also took note
Naga.
“They are hereby de-
barred from public plat-
forms, and holding any po-
sition or leadership in the
Naga society for a period of
seven years with imme-
diate effect,” the notifica-
tion signed by H. James
Hau, the information and
publicity secretary of the
UNC, read.
The UNC’s action has
been slammed on social
media platforms as “cheap
and immature”.
A KI-KIE
 THE HINDU
Saturday, June 15, 2024 9
Kochi
News

JD(U) leaders dismiss remarks about Law Ministry plans to place

getting ‘inconsequential’ portfolios report on simultaneous polls
Union Minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh says he will fulfil all responsibilities given to him; JD(U) spokesperson K.C. Tyagi points before Cabinet at the earliest
to ‘bitter experience’ the party faced in INDIA bloc, says it will back the BJP’s candidate for the post of Lok Sabha Speaker The Hindu Bureau look into the execution of
NEW DELHI the recommendations
Sobhana K. Nair his past conduct when he will be no change this time made by the committee.
NEW DELHI had publicly snubbed the around too,” he added. The report of the commit- The committee had re-
Prime Minister,” a top JD As the Opposition tee led by former President commended 18 constitu-
mid Opposition re- (U) leader said. Party insid- makes claims that the JD Ram Nath Kovind on “one tional amendments, most

A marks and growing

speculation about
the Janata Dal(U)’s dissatis-
faction with the “inconse-
quential” portfolios that
former national president
Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias La-
lan Singh and Ramnath
Thakur have got in the Un-
ion Cabinet, party leaders
dismissed such conjec-
tures.
Speaking to reporters,
Mr. Singh said, “I will fulfil
with complete devotion
whatever responsibility I
have got.” Mr. Singh is the
Union Minister for Fisher-
ies, Animal Husbandry and
Dairying; and Panchayati
Raj, while Mr. Thakur is the
Minister of State for Agri-
culture and Farmers
Welfare.
The Opposition INDIA
bloc, which currently has
237 members, is 35 seats
Rajiv Ranjan Singh assumes charges as Minister for Fisheries,
Animal Husbandry and Dairying on Tuesday. PTI
short of a simple majority
in Parliament and has
pinned their hopes on rea-
lignment of the NDA partn-
ers, especially Nitish Ku-
mar’s JD(U) and N.
Chandrababu Naidu’s Telu-
gu Desam Party (TDP). In
fact, a section of INDIA
bloc leaders at a meeting in
New Delhi on June 5 want-
ed the joint resolution,
which the group issued at
the end of the meeting, to
specify that the bloc’s
doors would remain open
for the JD(U) and the TDP.
The suggestion was
rejected.
So far, neither the JD(U)
nor the TDP has betrayed
any signs of discord with
the BJP. The JD(U) insiders,
in fact, point to various sig-
nals by Bihar Chief Minis-
ter Nitish Kumar showing a
near complete “surren-
der” to the BJP. “Mr. Ku-
mar nearly touched Prime
Minister Narendra Modi’s
feet during the NDA meet.
This is in sharp contrast to
ers claim that no change is
expected in the coalition
equation till the Bihar As-
sembly election scheduled
to be held next year.
‘Bitter experience’
JD(U) secretary general
and spokesperson K.C.
Tyagi echoed Mr. Singh’s
remarks. Speaking to The
Hindu, he said: “We have
had a bitter and bad expe-
rience in the INDIA bloc.
There is no question of
harming or trying to wea-
ken the NDA. We are in
NDA and shall remain
here.”
He also underlined that
the JD(U) would support
the BJP’s candidate for the
post of Lok Sabha Speaker.
“It is a parliamentary tradi-
tion that the Speaker’s post
goes to the party that is nu-
merically strongest. There
(U) has capitulated in front
of the BJP, there is specula-
tion within the party that
Mr. Kumar has settled for
rather “inconsequential”
portfolios to ensure that
there is no alternate power
centre in Delhi. “In 2019,
JD(U) was similarly offered
one Cabinet berth. At that
time, the Chief Minister
had rejected it saying he
will not settle for symbolic
presence,” a senior JD(U)
leader pointed out. The
party had then argued that
it should have “proportion-
al representation”. The
party wanted at least four
berths in the Cabinet.
Mr. Tyagi dismissed the
speculation. “Mr. Kumar
and Mr. Singh are com-
rades with a relationship
spanning 40 years. Such
speculation is imagina-
tive,” he said.
nation, one election” or si-
multaneous elections
could be placed before the
Union Cabinet as part of
the 100-day agenda of the
Law Ministry.
On Tuesday, Union Law
Minister Arjun Ram Megh-
wal, while interacting with
reporters after assuming
office, said that the high-le-
vel committee under Mr.
Kovind had submitted its
report, and the Law Com-
mission was also working
on the subject. He had gi-
ven no specific timeline
though.
Sources told news agen-
cy PTI on Friday that the
Ministry planned to place
the report on simultaneous
elections “at the earliest”
as part of the 100-day agen-
da of the Ministry’s Legisla-
tive Department.
Prime Minister Naren-
Ram Nath Kovind
dra Modi had directed all
Union Ministries and de-
partments before the Lok
Sabha election to draw up
a 100-day agenda for the
next government. The
committee had submitted
its report to President
Droupadi Murmu on
March 15, recommending
simultaneous elections for
the Lok Sabha and State
Assemblies as the first step
followed by synchronised
local body polls within 100
days.
The panel had also pro-
posed setting up an “Im-
plementation Group” to
of which will not need rati-
fication by the State As-
semblies. However, the
constitutional amendment
Bills would need to be
passed by two-thirds ma-
jority in both Houses of
Parliament. With most of
the INDIA bloc parties op-
posed to the idea of simul-
taneous elections, the go-
vernment will not find it
easy to push through these
amendments.
Separately, the Law
Commission is also ready
with a report which could
recommend holding simul-
taneous elections for all
three tiers of government —
Lok Sabha, State Assem-
blies, and local bodies —
from 2029. It is also likely
to have provision for a un-
ity government in case of a
hung House or no-confi-
dence motion.

Tejashwi attacks Bihar govt. over rising crimes Prerna Sthal will be inaugurated tomorrow
The Hindu Bureau
PATNA
Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)
leader Tejashwi Yadav’s
statement on Friday over
law and order has sparked
a row in Bihar. Mr. Yadav
targeted Chief Minister Nit-
ish Kumar, alleging that pe-
ople from the Yadav com-
munity were being killed.
“The State government
has failed to maintain law
and order. People of the
Yadav community are be-
ing killed. This is not only
in one place, but across Bi-
har crime has increased
manifold. The government
has done nothing (to stop
this),” Mr. Yadav said.
In post-poll violence in
Saran on May 21, Chandan
Yadav, 25, was shot dead.
Two days ago, a man and
his son — Ram Ayodhya
Prasad Yadav, 75, and Sunil
Yadav, 27, — were gunned
down by criminals on their
way to a court in Saran.
In a post on X, Mr. Yadav
wrote, “A few hours of hor-
rifying glimpses of the artif-
icial ‘mangal raj’ of the
double-engine government
in Bihar. Government cri-
minals are shooting
anyone, whenever and
wherever they want. The
government has done
nothing ... criminals are
being protected by the
government.”
The ruling BJP hit back,
saying there was rule of law
now unlike the ‘jungle raj’
during the RJD regime. De-
puty CM Samrat Choud-
hary said the government
was taking all possible ac-
tion against criminals.
The Hindu Bureau
NEW DELHI
Prerna Sthal, an area in-
side Parliament where key
statues, including that of
Mahatma Gandhi and Dr.
B.R. Ambedkar, have been
installed after moving
them from their earlier po-
sitions, will be inaugurated
on Sunday, the Lok Sabha
Secretariat informed the
members in a circular on
Friday.
Removing the statues of
Gandhiji and Dr. Ambed-
kar had drawn severe criti-
cism from the Opposition,
which called it a step to-
wards “de-democratising”
Parliament. The statue of
Mahatma Gandhi within
the parliamentary com-
plex was a venue for Oppo-
sition protests.
The Lok Sabha Secreta-
riat, on the other hand, in-
sists that the relocation
was part of the plan for the
redevelopment of the par-
liamentary precincts after
the construction of the
new Parliament building.
Sharing the circular on
X, Congress general secre-
tary Jairam Ramesh said:
“The whole idea of this re-
location and giving it a
grandiose name is to en-
sure that the statues of Ma-
hatma Gandhi and Dr. Am-
bedkar are not in a
prominent place right in
front of Parliament House
where MPs could conduct
peaceful and democratic
protests as and when re-
quired - and with the Modi
regime they are required
very frequently, almost on
a daily basis.”

Amit Shah reviews J&K

security situation, calls
meeting tomorrow
Press Trust of India
NEW DELHI

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday

reviewed the security situation in Jammu
and Kashmir following several terror inci-
dents there, including an attack on a bus
ferrying pilgrims, sources said.
He called a high-level meeting on Sun-
day, to be attended by National Security
Adviser Ajit Doval, Lieutenant-Governor of
Jammu and Kashmir Manoj Sinha, top offi-
cials of the Army, CRPF and others, to re-
view the prevailing situation in the Union
Territory and steps taken to check terror
incidents. During Sunday’s meeting, the
Home Minister will also take stock of the
preparedness for the Amarnath Yatra
which will begin on June 29, sources said.
He was briefed about the prevailing sit-
uation in Jammu and Kashmir, they said.
Terrorists struck at four places in Reasi,
Kathua and Doda districts of Jammu and
Kashmir over the past four days, killing
nine pilgrims and a CRPF jawan, and leav-
ing seven security personnel and several
others injured.
Two suspected Pakistani terrorists were
also killed in an encounter with security
forces in Kathua district.

Trinamool Congress
names candidates for
Assembly byelections
The Hindu Bureau
KOLKATA

The Trinamool Congress on Friday an-

nounced its candidates for the byelection
to four Assembly seats in West Bengal
scheduled for July 10.
The constituencies going to the polls are
Maniktala in Kolkata, Raiganj, Ranaghat-
Dakshin, and Bagda. Maniktala has been
vacant since the death of former State Mi-
nister Sadhan Pande in 2022.
Krishna Kalyani will be contesting from
Raiganj, while Mukut Mani Adhikari is con-
testing from Ranaghat-Dakshin.
The Trinamool has fielded Madhuparna
Takur, a member of the Matua Thakurbari
community, in the Matua-dominated con-
stituency of Bagda.
For the Maniktala seat, it has picked
Supti Pandey, wife of Sadhan Pandey.
CM A KI-KIE
YK
 THE HINDU
10 Saturday, June 15, 2024

News Kochi

INBRIEF
쑽 Student migration from Kerala Delhi L-G sanctions
prosecution of Roy,
spikes total emigrants to 2.2 m Hussain under UAPA
Total remittances from migration reach a record ₹2,16,893 crore in 2023 from ₹85,092 crore in
The Hindu Bureau
2018, marking a 154.9% rise; survey estimates outward remittance from the State at ₹43,378.6 crore NEW DELHI

Dhinesh Kallungal
Video shows mass cheating THIRUVANANTHAPURAM
in Bihar during IGNOU exam iding high on the
dent emigrants in 2018, the
number has doubled to
about 2.5 lakh in 2023,
around a 100% increase in
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vi-
jayan on Friday, the dra-
matic increase in student
migration calls for an ur-
were found to have com-
pleted degree-level educa-
tion as opposed to only
34.7% of male emigrants.
Delhi Lieutenant-Governor
V.K. Saxena on Friday
sanctioned the prosecu-
tion of novelist Arundhati
Roy and Sheikh Showkat

A video of mass cheating at a government college

in Bihar during examination of Indira Gandhi
R rising student mi-
gration from Kera-
la, the number of emi-
the post-COVID-19 period.
Students constitute
11.3% of total emigrants
gent need to enhance the
State’s educational infras-
tructure and provide re-
Decline in 9 districts
Among the general migra-
Hussain, former professor
of International Law at the
Central University of Kash-
National Open University (IGNOU) has once again grants from the State from Kerala, as per KMS sources that ensure safe tion trends, there is only a mir, under Section 13 of the
raised serious questions about the education climbed to an estimated 2023. migration pathways for fu- slight increase of 32,388 Unlawful Activities (Pre- Arundhati Roy
system in the State. In the video, students can be population of 2.2 million, The significant jump in ture student emigrants. It emigrants in 2023. Howev- vention) Act (UAPA) for
seen leafing through pages of books and using closely aligning with the 2.1 student emigration under- is also important to deve- er, 9 out of the 14 districts their alleged statements at pagated the “separation of
mobile phones during MA and MBA exams million recorded in the scores a shift in the demo- lop new policies that will in Kerala observed a de- an event in 2010. Kashmir from India”.
conducted by IGNOU while invigilators paid no previous migration survey graphics of emigrants from encourage Malayali inter- cline in the number of emi- The first information re- Two other accused —
attention to it. The exam was being conducted at held in 2018. Kerala, with an increase in national students to return grants when compared to port against Ms. Roy and Sayed Ali Shah Geelani, a
Maharishi Vishwamitra College in Buxar and The Kerala Migration the number of emigrants home after acquiring va- 2018, indicating a satura- Mr. Hussain was registered Kashmiri separatist leader,
each student allegedly paid ₹3,000 to the Survey (KMS), 2023, con- leaving the State at a very luable skills abroad, foster- tion of international migra- following the orders of the and Syed Abdul Rahman
invigilators to allow them to cheat. It is said that ducted by the Gulati Insti- young age, as early as 17 ing a wave of brain gain, tion, the survey found. Court of Metropolitan Ma- Geelani, a Delhi University
the video circulating on social media was shot by tute of Finance Taxation years. said Mr. Rajan. North Kerala continues to gistrate, New Delhi, a Raj lecturer — died during the
one of the students who took the exam on (GIFT) with technical sup- The proportion of fe- dominate in the migration Niwas official said. proceedings of the case.
Thursday at IGNOU centre No. 0591. port from the International New preference male emigration in general with Malappuram leading Last October, the L-G
Institute of Migration and There has also been a nota- has also increased from in the table with 3,77,647 ‘Provocative speech’ had granted sanction to
Development (IIMAD), also ble shift in the preference 15.8% in 2018 to 19.1% in emigrants in 2023. The two had allegedly prosecute them under Sec-
for the first time estimated of destination for student 2023. Female migration With regards to the reli- made provocative speech- tion 196 of the CrPC for
CBI takes over ₹5,717-cr. bank the outward remittance
from Kerala at ₹43,378.6
migration with the stu-
dents preferring non-GCC
has further seen a shift
from GCC countries to Eu-
gious distribution, Mus-
lims accounts for 41.9% of
es at a conference organ-
ised under the banner of
commission of offences
punishable under different
fraud case against 28 persons crore, about 20% of the in- (Gulf Cooperation Council) rope and other Western the total emigrants, fol- “Azadi - The Only Way” in Sections of the Indian Pe-
ward remittance, a serious countries. nations as destination lowed by Hindus at 35.2% 2010 at LTG Auditorium in nal Code.
The Central Bureau of Investigation has taken issue which Kerala will According to S. Irudaya countries, accounting for and Christians at 22.3 %. New Delhi. The FIR in the matter
over an alleged bank fraud case against 28 have to discuss in detail in Rajan, chairman, IIMAD, 40.5%. The UAE continues to re- The issues discussed was registered on a com-
persons, including the directors and promoters the coming days. who released the survey In terms of education, tain the prime choice for and spoken about at the plaint filed by Sushil Pandit
of 12 private companies. They have been accused From just 1,29,763 stu- report by giving a copy to 71.5% of female migrants emigrants in 2023. conference allegedly pro- on October 28, 2010.
of deliberately defaulting on loans to the tune of .
₹5,717 crore. The case has been registered
following a direction from the Allahabad High
Court. “Searches are being conducted at 14
places in Mumbai, Kolkata, Raipur,
Bhubaneswar, and Tiruchirappalli,” an agency
CIC upholds response of Defer self-certification ‘Laws curbing
press freedom
Rashtrapati Bhavan on RTI deadline, agencies
official said on Friday. According to the CBI, the
accused indulged in wilful diversion of funds via
bogus share transactions with shell companies
should be
query on Presidential assent urge I&B Ministry withdrawn’
with the intention of gaining wrongfully.

Aroon Deep The rules are currently The Hindu Bureau

ED attaches ₹4,440-crore S. Vijay Kumar
CHENNAI
portant in the light of pro-
moting transparency and
NEW DELHI on track to kick in on June
20. An industry body re-
NEW DELHI

assets in illegal mining case
The Central Information
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has Commission (CIC) has
provisionally attached 121 acres of land and upheld the Rashtrapati
building of Glocal University in Saharanpur Bhavan’s response to a
district of Uttar Pradesh, currently worth about Right to Information (RTI)
₹4,440 crorein connection with an illegal mining Act query on the number
case, the agency said on Friday. The properties of times former President
are registered in the name of Abdul Waheed Ram Nath Kovind returned
Educational and Charitable Trust, which is run any decision taken by the
purportedly by Mohammed Iqbal, a former Prime Minister/Union
Member of Legislative Council. The case is based Council of Ministers for re-
on a first information report by the Central consideration. The Presi-
Bureau of Investigation to probe the alleged dent’s Secretariat had res-
illegal renewal of mining leases in Saharanpur. ponded that no
information was available
on record.
The petitioner Yuvan
Gujarat HC stays release Mitran, a Chennai-based
college student, had
of Netflix film Maharaj moved the CIC challenging
the response of the Rash-
The Gujarat High Court on Thursday stayed the trapati Bhavan. In his first
release of Maharaj, the debut film of Aamir appeal before the First Ap-
Khan’s son Junaid. It was set to be released on pellate Authority he want-
Netflix on Friday. A petition was filed against the ed to know whether the
release of the film by members of the Vaishnavite reply meant that the form-
Pustimargi sect who identify themselves as er President had never re-
devotees of Krishna. The petitioners claimed that turned a decision taken by
the film, based on the Maharaj libel case of 1862, the Union Council of Minis-
would incite feelings of ‘hatred and violence’ ters and others for recon-
against the sect, amounting to a breach of code sideration or whether the
of ethics under the Information Technology information was not availa-
(Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media ble on records.
Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 and the Self-regulation He said the information
Code of Over the Top Technology (OTT). provided was “incomplete,
The petitioner moved the CIC
challenging the response of the
Rashtrapati Bhavan. FILE PHOTO
misleading or false”. In res-
ponse, the Officer on Spe-
cial Duty/FAA referred the
appeal to the concerned
section, which reiterated
its earlier reply that “no in-
formation rests with this
Secretariat”.
Second appeal
In his second appeal be-
fore the CIC, he argued
that satisfactory reply was
not given to him and said
that the President of India,
being a constitutional auth-
ority who is elected, was
accountable to the people.
“Providing information
regarding the legislative ac-
tions of the President is im-
accountability in the work-
ing of the public authori-
ty,” he said.
The stand of the Chief
Public Information Officer/
Deputy Secretary, Rashtra-
pati Bhavan, was that the
appellant was already in-
formed that “no such infor-
mation is available”.
‘No records’
After hearing both sides,
the Chief Information
Commissioner Heeralal Sa-
mariya said that appro-
priate response as per the
provisions of the RTI Act,
2005, had been provided
as only such information
that was held and available
in the records could be
shared, he said.
During his tenure as Pre-
sident, Mr. Kovind gave as-
sent to some important
Bills which included the
Jammu and Kashmir Reor-
ganisation Act, 2019; Tri-
ple Talaq Bill; amend-
ments to the Unlawful
Activities (Prevention)
Amendment Act, 2019; Ci-
tizenship Amendment Bill;
and three farm Bills among
others.
Media bodies and their ad-
vertising agencies have
urged the Information and
Broadcasting Ministry to
defer the implementation
deadline for a “self-certifi-
cation” for advertising.
The requirement was
put in place by the Ministry
in response to a Supreme
Court order on May 7 in
the Indian Medical Asso-
ciation’s case against Pa-
tanjali, which the court
found was endangering pe-
ople’s health by printing
misleading claims on its
products.
In representations to
the Ministry, three indus-
try bodies pushed back on
the rapid implementation
of the court’s order. The or-
der requires advertisers to
reaffirm their advertise-
ments’ compliance with
the Cable Television Net-
work Rules, 1994. “[We]
urge that the compliance
period be extended by 45
days since the transition
would involve practical
challenges and would re-
quire cooperation by va-
rious stakeholders,” the
letter said.
presenting print media
asked the Ministry to keep
the requirements in
“abeyance” until ambigui-
ties in terms of the scope of
advertisements and other
issues are sorted out. The
body also requested that
the requirements be limit-
ed to medical advertising.
A body representing TV
broadcasters said the top
court only imposed re-
quirements on advertising
firms, and not channels. A
grouping of advertising
agencies said that firms
they service “may lose re-
venue due to the inability
to launch campaigns on
time” . While the Ministry
has lined up meetings on a
variety of subjects, there is
no clarity on when adver-
tisers will have an oppor-
tunity to discuss their re-
servations. While
associations had chalked
out a plan to approach the
Supreme Court to clarify
these issues, The Hindu
has learnt, they have cho-
sen to wait longer to decide
whether or not to file inter-
vention applications be-
fore a Vacation Bench.
Several journalist associa-
tions and digital rights or-
ganisations have endorsed
a resolution to intensify
their demand for the with-
drawal of laws that they
said were “aimed at curb-
ing the freedom of press”,
a Press Club of India re-
lease said on Friday.
As stated in the resolu-
tion, passed at a meeting
held on May 28, 2024, the
provisions under laws such
as the proposed Broadcast
Services (Regulation) Bill,
2023, Digital Personal Data
Protection Act, 2023, Press
and Registration of Period-
icals Act, 2023, and the In-
formation Technology
Amendment Rules, grant
authority to the govern-
ment to remove any online
content pertaining to its
business that it deems to
be false or misleading.
“The government must
ensure that the right to
know of the people is not
trampled upon,” said the
resolution, which was en-
dorsed by various press
bodies, the Delhi Union of
Journalists, and the Inter-
net Freedom Foundation.

To solve this puzzle online,

SCAN TO PLAY
SUDOKU
14202 get across to our crossword site. 쑽
@ https://qrgo.page.link/jjpTn
(set by Crescent)

12 Peaking, scoring century of the season (8)

14 Country without a law lacking opening to charge with
crime (6)
15 Big bribe left, bit dispelling gossip (15)
18
20
Awful crash crushing some props (6)
Certain parts withdrawn are primarily such? (8)
22 Fawned after son doodled (8)
24 King and Queen duo consuming only Danish bread (6)
25 Hoopla on base has married women crowding field (6)
26 Popular soprano following overture to Swan Lake,
perhaps sequentially linked (2,6)
Down
1 Jolly duck accompanying Jack through lake (6)
2 Split second in lab saving lecturer and paid
demonstrators (4-1-3)
3 Legal watch, those activated to elude capital
punishment? (5,3,7)
4 Article on vinyl counter daughter took off (4)
5 High jinks, such a grand gala, serving Kingfisher in
Australia? (8,7)
6 Let rest breaks start from Labour Day (6)
Across 7 Just about ordinary, the same reflected in this? (8)
8 Section of vessel in front of her is buckling with pressure 13 Prompt curbs placed over sex doll (5)
(8) 16 Institutes are stopping meals (8)
9 Mock Congress about summits (6) 17 Trace of balmy odour is relaxing in ladies' parlours (8)
10 Ancient Egyptian rattles pole as it runs around (6) 19 King and Queen possibly eating hot vegetables (6)
11 After-dinner drink like Benedictine ultimately leaving 21 Uniform worn by the French team (6)
fellow very high (8)
23 Duck crossing river will be wet (4)
CM
YK
Solution to previous puzzle
FAITH
쑽
Plan for the future
The past is like a broken pot. The present is like a veena,
waiting to be played. The future is like a cat on the wall. It
could jump to the right or to the left. But this does not
mean we can do nothing about the future. Proper plan-
ning can lead to desirable results, said Malayaman in a dis-
course.
We have to plan our expenses carefully. Our present ac-
tions have a bearing on the future. And therefore, it is our
duty to be careful in what we do. If we carelessly cast away
a lit matchstick on a haystack, the result will be a big fire,
which can spread and cause extensive damage. All it takes
is for us to be careful to ensure that a match is extin-
guished, and to throw it far away from the haystack. A few
Solution to yesterday’s Sudoku
seconds of carelessness can have consequences which will
be huge. This is the example Thiruvalluvar gives in one of
his verses to warn us about the dangers of unthinking ac-
tion. In another verse, Thiruvalluvar says that he who fo-
resees the future and protects himself from trouble, will
be spared the shock of experiencing something negative.
A man who is unable to anticipate future problems to
some extent at least, will have to pay a price for his ac-
tions. Thiruvalluvar warns us not to spend more than we
earn. A man’s earnings may be meagre, but if his expenses
do not exceed his income, he will come to no harm.
A KI-KIE
 THE HINDU
Saturday, June 15, 2024 11
Kochi
Business

INBRIEF NSSO survey finds MARKETS

쑽 May WPI inflation 쑽

COVID-19’s second MARKET WATCH

spikes to 15-month wave hit informal

FRIDAY
Sensex dddddddddddddddddddddddddd 76,993 dddddddddddddddddddddddddd 0.24
US Dollar dddddddddddddddddddddddd 83.55dddddddddddddddddddddddd -0.01
Goldddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd 72,080 dddddddddddddddddddddddd -0.09
Brent oil ddddddddddddddddddddddddd 82.77 dddddddddddddddddddddddddd 0.08
% CHANGE

high on food prices economy hard NIFTY 50

PRICE CHANGE

Food inflation surges to 10-month peak of 7.4% driven by steeper fruit,
vegetable, cereal prices; manufactured products see return of price rise
Hyundai recalls 1,744 Ioniq 5 Vikas Dhoot
Adani Enter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . 3261.75. . . . . . . . . . 36.95
Adani Ports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . 1430.70. . . . . . . . . . 26.25
Vikas Dhoot
NEW DELHI
Apollo Hosp. . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . 6207.60. . . . . . . . . . . . 1.40
Asian Paints. . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . 2921.60. . . . . . . . . . 11.60
Axis Bank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . 1181.05. . . . . . . . . . . . 6.40
India’s large informal non-
Bajaj Auto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . 9961.75. . . . . . . . . . 38.35
Bajaj Finserv . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . 1591.75. . . . . . . . . . . . 1.65

EVs over charging control unit NEW DELHI agricultural sector was Bajaj Finance . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . 7341.55. . . . . . . . . . 46.60
Bharti Airtel . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . 1427.40. . . . . . . . . . . . 1.65
badly hit by the second BPCL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . 626.65. . . . . . . . . . . . 7.30

I
Hyundai Motor India is recalling 1,744 units of its nflation in India’s
electric model Ioniq 5, due to an issue with the wholesale prices ac-
integrated charging control unit, as per the celerated to a 15-
information available with industry body SIAM. month high of 2.61% in
The company is recalling the units manufactured May, more than double
between July 21, 2022, and April 30, 2024, to fix April’s pace, with food in-
the part, according to data on SIAM’s website. flation surging to a 10-
The company’s dedicated teams will be in touch month peak of 7.4% driven
with vehicle owners and guide them through the by steeper prices for veget-
recall process, a Hyundai spokesperson said. PTI ables, fruits, pulses and ce-
reals, and a resurgence of
price rise in manufactured
products after 14 months
of deflation.
TRAI stresses use of 160 series Economists said the ac-
helped fire up the inflation
rate for vegetables to the
highest level in nine
milar concerns about puls-
es prices remaining elevat-
ed in double digits as the
wave of the COVID-19 pan-
demic, but has recovered
gradually since then, with
the number of unincorpo-
rated firms and their em-
ployees rising almost 6%
and 8%, respectively, by
the latter half of 2022-23,
according to findings of an
official survey.
Gross Value Added
(GVA) by such enterprises
grew by 9.83% at current
prices during the period
October 2022 and March
estimated 1.91 crore such
firms with 3.12 crore em-
ployees. The NSSO said the
lower reporting in the first
quarter affected the overall
annual estimates for 2021-
22 of 5.97 crore firms with
almost 9.8 crore workers,
Britannia Ind . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . 5393.65. . . . . . . . . . 14.20
Cipla . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . 1564.75. . . . . . . . . . 20.20
Coal India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . 486.95. . . . . . . . . . -0.95
Divis Lab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . 4588.60. . . . . . . . . . -4.90
Dr Reddys Lab . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . 6085.25. . . . . . . . -10.60
Eicher Motors . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . 4935.10. . . . . . . . 133.60
Grasim Ind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . 2471.20. . . . . . . . . . 13.15
HCL Tech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . 1431.05. . . . . . . . -13.10
HDFC Bank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . 1596.90. . . . . . . . . . 16.15
HDFC Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . 598.35. . . . . . . . . . . . 4.85
Hero MotoCorp . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . 5804.20. . . . . . . . -11.80
Hindalco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . 683.60. . . . . . . . . . . . 2.90
Hind Unilever . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . 2479.75. . . . . . . . . . -7.65
ICICI Bank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . 1105.65. . . . . . . . . . -1.70
IndusInd Bank. . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . 1502.35. . . . . . . . . . -4.90
Infosys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . 1488.90. . . . . . . . . . -5.05
ITC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . 431.15. . . . . . . . . . . . 0.85
JSW Steel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . 921.15. . . . . . . . . . . . 5.40
Kotak Bank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . 1717.20. . . . . . . . . . -9.15
L&T . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . 3687.80. . . . . . . . -15.85
LTIMindtree Ltd. . . . . . . .. . . . . . . 5032.55. . . . . . . . -14.65

for service, transactional calls celeration in wholesale in-

flation in May signals there
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India is room for a further surge
(TRAI) on Friday emphasised the use of the 160 in consumer prices despite
number series exclusively for making all retail inflation easing to a
transactional and service voice calls. TRAI held 12-month low of 4.75% last
that adherence would ensure easy identification month, especially as food
of the calling entity (for customers) and prevent and industrial input prices
duping attempts by fraudsters. The regulator had are spiking globally. May
met representatives from the RBI, SEBI and was the seventh month in a
IRDAI, among others, to contemplate about the row that the WPI rose on a
“effective utilisation of this series”. YoY basis after seven
straight months of defla-
tion, and wholesale infla-
tion is expected to quicken
Rajasthan recalling some more than 3% this month.
batches of MDH, Everest spices Sequential easing
On a month-on-month ba-
Rajasthan has started recalling some batches of sis, the Wholesale Price In-
months at 32.4%, and a six-
month high of 5.8% for
fruits.
Price rise in cereals sped
to 9%, while that for pulses
reversed direction to hit a
six-month high of 22%.
Within vegetables, to-
mato prices were up 64.5%
in May from 40.6% in
April, while inflation in
onion and potato eased
slightly to a tad over 58%
and 64%, respectively.
‘Supply shortfalls’
Bank of Baroda chief eco-
nomist Madan Sabnavis
said the spikes in vegetable
prices were partly due to
new crop would be har-
vested only in October-No-
vember.
‘Worrisome for retail’
“Elevated food inflation at
the wholesale level is wor-
risome as this would keep
retail food prices firm even
going forward,” senior di-
rector and principal eco-
nomist Sunil Kumar and
senior analyst Paras Jasrai
wrote in a note. “Retail
food inflation has been
above 8% for the past se-
ven months,” they added.
India Ratings expects re-
tail food inflation to remain
over 8%, with wholesale
2023, in comparison with
the financial year 2021-22,
as per a fact sheet on the
Annual Survey of Unincor-
porated Sector Enterprises
(ASUSE) conducted by the
National Sample Survey Of-
fice (NSSO) in 2021-22 and
2022-23.
“It appears that the un-
incorporated manufactur-
ing, trade and other ser-
vice activities were hit by
the second wave of the
pandemic badly; however,
the situation improved gra-
dually from July 2021 on-
wards,” the NSSO noted.
‘Lower reporting’
to a great extent.
‘Steep job growth’
Between October 2022 and
March 2023, the number of
estimated informal firms
had risen to 6.5 crore with
11 crore employees. “This
7.84% annual growth [in
jobs] demonstrates the
sector’s capacity to gener-
ate employment,” the
NSSO said, adding that the
maximum growth in em-
ployment during the pe-
riod was observed in other
services (13.42%) followed
by manufacturing (6.34%).
The survey data, re-
leased by the Statistics Mi-
M&M . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . 2928.60. . . . . . . . . . 66.90
Maurti Suzuki . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . 12845.20. . . . . . . . . . -1.65
NestleIndia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . 2542.50. . . . . . . . . . -9.25
NTPC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . 368.45. . . . . . . . . . -1.50
ONGC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . 275.40. . . . . . . . . . -1.15
PowerGrid Corp . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . 321.50. . . . . . . . . . . . 0.05
Reliance Ind . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . 2955.10. . . . . . . . . . 24.60
SBI Life. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . 1469.90. . . . . . . . . . 20.00
State Bank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . 839.20. . . . . . . . . . -4.70
Shriram Finance
Ltd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . 2732.15. . . . . . . . . . 47.85
Sun Pharma . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . 1516.00. . . . . . . . . . . . 5.20
TataConsumerPro-
duct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . 1112.45. . . . . . . . . . -2.15
Tata Motors . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . 993.40. . . . . . . . . . . . 7.55
Tata Steel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . 183.15. . . . . . . . . . . . 0.59
TCS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . 3832.05. . . . . . . . -46.10
Tech Mahindra . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . 1371.45. . . . . . . . -17.50
Titan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . 3530.05. . . . . . . . . . 57.85
UltraTech Cement . . . .. . . . . 11242.80. . . . . . . . . . 69.00
Wipro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . 477.50. . . . . . . . . . -5.10
EXCHANGE RATES
Indicative direct rates in rupees a unit except yen at 4
p.m. on June 14

popular MDH and Everest spices found to be dex (WPI) was up 0.2% in supply shortfalls and that prices expected to rise During April-June 2021, at nistry on Friday, is used in CURRENCY TT BUY TT SELL
US Dollar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . 83.36. . . . . . . . . . 83.68
unsafe for consumption, a top official said, the May, easing from an up- the heatwave aggravated further to 3.5%, in June. Ca- the peak of the most fatal compiling national ac- Euro. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . 89.16. . . . . . . . . . 89.50
latest in growing domestic and global scrutiny of wardly revised 9-month the challenge. reEdge Ratings’ chief eco- COVID wave, the number count statistics as the British Pound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . 105.97. . . . . . . . 106.38
the brands. Rajasthan wrote to the Centre it high of 1.06% a month ear- “This is a major concern nomist Rajani Sinha also of estimated informal en- country’s unincorporated Japanese Yen (100) . . . . . . .. . . . . 53.09. . . . . . . . . . 53.30
Chinese Yuan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . 11.49. . . . . . . . . . 11.53
found a batch of Everest’s cumin powder and a lier, with food prices rising as it will keep up the pres- pointed out that industrial terprises were pegged at non-farm sector plays a Swiss Franc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . 93.31. . . . . . . . . . 93.67
batch each of two MDH spice blends unsafe after 1.14% over April levels and sure on the inflation till the metal prices had risen 50.32 lakh, with 85.6 lakh key role in generating jobs, Singapore Dollar . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . 61.59. . . . . . . . . . 61.83
Canadian Dollar . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . 60.60. . . . . . . . . . 60.85
tests, Reuters reported on Thursday. Those manufactured products’ next crop comes,” Mr. Sab- 9.3% since March-end and workers. By contrast, sur- creating economic value Malaysian Ringitt . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . 17.65. . . . . . . . . . 17.75
batches are now being recalled, senior State prices up 0.64%. navis told The Hindu. food prices were increas- veys carried out between and the overall socio-eco- Australian Dollar . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . 55.16. . . . . . . . . . 55.37

health official Shubhra Singh said. REUTERS The heatwaves in May India Ratings flagged si- ing globally. January and March 2022 nomic landscape. Source:Indian Bank

M&M eyes fivefold ‘CG Power expects

growth in farm
machinery business
The Hindu Bureau
MUMBAI
Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd.
(M&M) is aiming at scaling
up its farm-machinery bu-
siness fivefold in the next
5-7 years, the Mahindra
Group said in a report.
The company would
drive growth in the farm
mechanisation market
with a focus on new pro-
duct introductions, capaci-
ty expansion and interna-
tional growth.
In financial services,
Mahindra Finance has
been positioned as a strong
financial-services platform
for India, with a focus on
diversification, technology,
and data leadership.
The company aims at
improving return on assets
to more than 2.5% and
maintain a market share of
about 12% in the wheels
segment, the Group said in
the report.
Tech Mahindra, on the
path of turnaround, is tar-
geting a 500-basis-point
margin expansion through
growth, deep-tech capabil-
ities and synergies from its
portfolio companies.
strong growth in FY25
in railway business’
N. Anand
CHENNAI
Murugappa group firm CG
Power and Industrial Solu-
tions Ltd. (CG Power) is ex-
pecting strong growth in
the railway business dur-
ing this fiscal, said Manag-
ing Director N. Srinivasan.
“We will have strong
growth this year, at least
we can grow 40% in the to- and were in advanced
pline in railways and the stages.
sales for the full year re- “Currently, the compa-
mains in the same range of ny is serving the traditional
over ₹1,300 crore,” he said locomotive market and by
during an analysts’ call. the end of this year, it will
begin serving Vande Sadh-
Tie-ups for propulsion aran, Vande Metro and
Asked whether there was Vande Bharat [entire pro-
any progress in terms of pulsion system and mo-
tie-ups for propulsion sys- tors],” said CG Power’s
tem of train sets, he said Railways Division Vice Pre-
the efforts were continuing sident C. Balakrishnan.

IRDAI issues
master circular
on returns for
insurers
The Hindu Bureau
HYDERABAD
Insurance regulator IRDAI
has issued a master circu-
lar on submission of re-
turns for insurers, includ-
ing foreign reinsurance
branches, on the 202 regu-
latory returns to be filed.
Superseding 10 circulars
issued since 2014, the mas-
ter circular lists the opera-
tional guidelines on the
regulations issued post a
comprehensive review of
regulatory framework for
the insurance sector.
The master circular is
being issued to create a sin-
gle reference for all re-
turns, IRDAI said.
CM
YK
Microsoft to hire real-estate
lawyers in each State, UT as it
looks to boost data-centre play
Aroon Deep
NEW DELHI
Microsoft is hiring real-es-
tate lawyers everywhere in
India — and the company
does mean everywhere —
from Tamil Nadu and the
Andaman and Nicobar Is-
lands to every single State
in the Northeast (including
Manipur), to Ladakh, Pu-
ducherry and Jammu and
Kashmir. The American
giant appears primed for a
rapid land-buying spree.
“We are looking for a dy-
namic, highly motivated,
and experienced commer-
cial and real estate attor-
ney to support Microsoft’s
global cloud expansion,”
the company said in dis-
tinct job listings for in-
house lawyers in all of In-
dia’s 28 States and 8 Union
Territories, including
Lakshadweep and Daman
and Diu. The listing de-
scribes the job as involving
“land acquisition, leasing,
and [supporting] strategic
partnerships”.
“In India alone, our da-
ta-centre regions added 1.5
million jobs to the econo-
my over five years, includ-
ing 1,69,000 new skilled IT
positions,” Microsoft said
in a blogpost on its expand-
ing data-centre footprint in
2022. It has points of pre-
sence and ‘availability
zones’ in Delhi, Pune,
Chennai, Nagpur, Mumbai,
and Jamnagar with a new
availability zone in Hydera-
bad listed as ‘coming soon.’
Microsoft faces an incre-
mental need for resources
for meeting AI investments
and a push to unveil CoPi-
lot AI assistant.
A KI-KIE
 THE HINDU
12 Saturday, June 15, 2024

World Kochi

AUCKLAND LONDON BEIJING ISLAMABAD

China Premier Li backs ‘dialogue, Kate says she is making ‘good Chinese journalist sentenced to Sharif invites JUI-F chief Maulana
not confrontation’ in New Zealand progress’ in cancer treatment 5 years in prison for ‘incitement’ Rehman to join ruling coalition

AFP AFP
X X
Chinese Premier Li Qiang said on Friday he supported “dialogue, Kate, the Princess of Wales, says she is “making good progress” in
not confrontation” during a visit to New Zealand where he stirred her cancer treatment and will attend Saturday’s royal Trooping the
up hope of new trade avenues. Mr. Li is on a six-day tour of New Colour ceremony, her first public appearance since diagnosis. The
Zealand and Australia, the highest-ranking official to visit either announcement is a significant milestone, but does not mark a
nation since his predecessor in 2017. AFP return to full-time public duties for Kate. AP
AP AP
X X
Supporters say Huang Xueqin, a Chinese journalist who promoted Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has invited his former ally
women’s rights as part of the country’s nascent #MeToo movement, JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman to become a part of the ruling
has been sentenced to five years in prison on charges of incitement coalition led by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and
to subvert state authority, almost three years after she and an play a role in resolving the political tensions in the country,
activist were detained. AP according to a media report on Friday. PTI

Putin vows
truce if Kyiv G-7 leaders say they will back Myanmar’s junta orders
withdraws Ukraine ‘as long as it takes’ evacuations around Sittwe
troops
The group will provide financing to Kyiv that will be serviced and repaid by flows of revenues Agence France-Presse
Associated Press stemming from the immobilisation of Russian sovereign assets held in the EU, says summit draft YANGON
MOSCOW
Myanmar’s junta has or-
Russian President Vladimir Agence France-Presse tions,” the draft statement dered thousands of people
Putin promised on Friday BARI said. “To enable this, we living outside a state capi-
to “immediately” order a will work to obtain appro- tal threatened by ethnic re-

ceasefire in Ukraine and
begin negotiations if Kyiv
started withdrawing
troops from the four re-
gions annexed by Moscow
in 2022 and renounced
plans to join NATO.
Such a deal appears a
nonstarter for Kyiv, which
wants to join the military
alliance and has demand-
ed that Russia withdraw its
troops from all of its terri-
tory. There was no imme-
diate comment from Uk-
raine on Mr. Putin’s
proposal.
Mr. Putin said his propo-
sal is aimed at a “final reso-
lution” of the conflict rath-
er than “freezing it”.
G
-7 leaders recom-
mitted Friday to
support Ukraine
“for as long as it takes”, ac-
cording to a draft state-
ment from a summit where
they agreed a new $50 bil-
lion loan for Kyiv.
“We are standing in soli-
darity to support Ukraine’s
fight for freedom and its re-
construction for as long as
it takes,” said the draft
from the Italy talks.
It said the $50 billion
loan — agreed in the pre-
sence of Ukraine President
Volodymyr Zelenskyy —
sent “an unmistakable sig-
nal to (Russian) President
Vladimir Putin”.
val in these jurisdictions to
use future flows of these
extraordinary revenues to
service and repay the
loans.”
It said the money would
be disbursed through
“multiple channels that di-
rect the funds to Ukraine’s
military, budget, and re-
Show of support: G-7 leaders with Volodymyr Zelenskyy during the construction needs — with-
summit in Fasano, Italy, on Friday. GETTY IMAGES in the constraints of our
respective legal systems
The loan will be backed vide financing that will be and administrative
by profits from the interest serviced and repaid by fu- requirements”.
accrued on Russian central ture flows of extraordinary The leaders tasked mi-
bank assets frozen by West- revenues stemming from nisters and officials to start
ern powers after Moscow’s the immobilisation of Rus- working on the technicali-
February 2022 invasion of sian sovereign assets held ties to start providing the
Ukraine. in the European Union and funds to Ukraine before
“The G-7 intends to pro- other relevant jurisdic- the end of the year.
bels to leave their homes
and head into the city, resi-
dents said on Friday.
Sittwe city is one of the
few holdouts for junta
troops in western Rakhine
state, where the military
has lost swathes of territo-
ry to the Arakan Army (AA)
in recent weeks.
The AA, which says it is
fighting for autonomy for
the state’s ethnic Rakhine
population, has vowed to
capture Sittwe, home to an
India-backed deep sea port
and around 2,00,000 peo-
ple. Residents of 15 villages
around Sittwe were given
five days to leave their
homes and move to the
Destroyed houses and burned trees following fighting between
Myanmar’s military and the Arakan Army (AA). AFP
state capital, a resident of move out for security rea-
one of the villages said. sons” by Saturday. The vil-
“The Army threatened lages were home to around
to shoot and kill if they 3,500 people, the Sittwe
found someone after the resident said.
deadline” which expires They added the military
on Saturday, she said, re- had not arranged for tem-
questing anonymity due to porary shelters in Sittwe.
fear of arrest. “People have to move to
A resident of Sittwe put their relatives’ homes from
the number of villages or- other villages,” they said.
dered to evacuate at A junta spokesperson
around 10, saying that resi- was unavailable for
dents had been told “to comment.

In Burgenstock, leaders seek a peace

framework for Ukraine, without Russia
Smita Sharma
LUCERNE, SWITZERLAND
A 20 minutes drive from
Lucerne, a key city in cen-
tral Switzerland buzzing
with tourists, is a heavenly
resort nestled in the Alps
and overlooking lake Luz-
ern from high above. This
largest integrated modern
hotel resort in the country,
rebuilt in 2014, has its roots
dating back to the 18th cen-
tury. It has played hosts to
celebrities and world lead-
ers. Jawaharlal Nehru and
Jimmy Carter holidayed
here; Audrey Hepburn tied
the knot in a chapel here.
The resort, at times, has
played peacemaker, too.
These past few days resi-
dents here have been sub-
jected to the constant whir-
ring of helicopters as the
lake resort gears up to wel-
come world leaders for the
Summit on Peace in Uk-
raine on June 15-16.
A fractious meeting
Barbed wire, steel fencing,
aerial reconnaissance, sur-
veillance on the lake and
some 4,000 troops de-
ployed to seal off Burgen-
stock as it prepares to wel-
come dozens of world
leaders, including Ukraine
President Volodymyr Ze-
lenskyy and European
heads of governments and
states who will fly in from
the G-7 summit in Italy.
Of the 160 invitations
sent out, some 90 coun-
tries and international or-
ganisations have con-
firmed their attendance,
including several heads of
states and governments.
The conference aims to in-
spire a ‘future peace pro-
cess’ framework.
But the most notable ab-
sentee on the table raises
doubts about what it can
achieve. President Vladi-
mir Putin of Russia has not
been invited to the summit
CM
YK
Flags of the invited countries in front of the peace summit venue in
Stansstad, Switzerland, on Friday. KEYSTONE
that will talk about the Rus-
sia-Ukraine war. Conspicu-
ous in his absence will be
U.S. President Joe Biden,
who will be represented by
Vice-President Kamala
Harris and NSA Jake Sulli-
van. China has chosen to
stay away. And so has Bra-
zil, the current chair of
G-20.
“This is like having an
engagement party without
one of the party getting en-
gaged or a wedding with-
out the bridegroom. With-
out the equal participation
of Russia, this is not an in-
itiative which can be sus-
tained,” says retired diplo-
mat Asoke Mukerji, who
served as India’s Perma-
nent Representative to the
UN in New York.
Swiss Mediation
Language is not the only
barrier to start conversa-
tions on the war and politi-
cal turmoil in Europe with
residents of Lucerne or
strangers in coffee shops.
The Swiss do not talk polit-
ics easily. An Irish woman
who runs a coffee-cum-
book store made Switzer-
land her home more than
three decades ago. She
says the Swiss believe in
‘neutrality’. “They (Swiss)
are interested in politics
and are keenly watching
the summit. But they will
not talk in the open and
rather keep their political
opinions to themselves
since this is a neutral coun-
try.”
Neutrality is a key prin-
ciple of Switzerland’s fo-
reign policy that refrains it
from engaging or picking
sides in a war. However, it
promises to open up space
for dialogue. “It is a gener-
ating source of peace and
stability in Europe and
beyond. It ensures the
country’s independence
and the inviolability of its
territory. According to the
law of neutrality, Switzer-
land must not participate
in a war between states,”
reads the charter.
Swiss diplomats have fa-
cilitated standalone peace
negotiations as well as
through international or-
ganisations such as the UN
and the Organisation for
Security and Cooperation
in Europe (OSCE) in some
20 countries in recent
years.
But Russia has said the
Swiss are no longer neutral
as they applied the ban on
purchase and import of
Russian diamonds as part
of the 12th EU sanctions
agreed to in the December
2023 G-7 summit, despite
Switzerland not being a
member of the bloc.
The Burgenstock confe-
rence raises questions over
Swiss neutrality with the
omission of Mr. Putin from
the talks which will see Mr.
Zelenskyy in attendance.
India’s messaging
The absence of its impor-
tant strategic defence
partner Russia in the room
is also seen as the reason
India has shied away from
a high-level political repre-
sentation despite Ukrai-
nian Foreign Minister Dmy-
tro Kuleba extending the
invite to the top leadership
during his New Delhi visit
earlier in the year. Just last
week, a day after Mr. Putin
spoke to Prime Minister
Narendra Modi following
NDA’s election victory, Mr.
Zelenskyy, too, dialled the
PM. “We discussed the up-
coming Global Peace Sum-
mit. We rely on India’s par-
ticipation at the highest
level. I also invited Prime
Minister Modi to visit Uk-
raine at a convenient
time,” he later wrote on X.
New Delhi has chosen
instead to send Pavan Ka-
poor, India’s senior diplo-
mat and Secretary West in
the Ministry of External Af-
fairs to the Swiss-led confe-
rence.
Switzerland is currently
a non-permanent member
of the Security Council for
the first time since joining
the UN in 2002 and wants
to use its office for further
engagement in peace poli-
cy. But the conference is
likely to raise raise uncom-
fortable questions. “The
Conference will have to
take a position on why the
only UN Security Council
endorsed peace frame-
work for Ukraine, which
are the Minsk Agreements,
are not being implement-
ed,” Mr. Mukerji wrote in a
recent article.
Smita Sharma is an inde-
pendent journalist based in
Delhi.
A KI-KIE
 THE HINDU
Saturday, June 15, 2024 13
Kochi
Sport
CRUCIAL ROLE BIG LEAP SWITCHING IT UP EQUAL CONTEST
Hardik doesn’t look like a The way Pant has improved ‘Mixing-up’ deliveries the secret Expect to see more competitive
part-time bowler: Sreesanth as a ’keeper is impressive: Dilip behind Adil Rashid’s success scores in Super 8 stage: Rabada

K.R. DEEPAK K.R. DEEPAK AP AP

X X X X
Former pacer S. Sreesanth lavished praise on Hardik Pandya, calling Rishabh Pant’s athleticism with the wicketkeeping gloves after his England leg-spinner Adil Rashid feels the judicious use of his South African pacer Kagiso Rabada expects to see “competitive scores”
him a “vital cog”. “The way Hardik is bowling, he doesn’t look like a return from a serious road accident has been impressive, India’s variations was the reason behind his excellent four-wicket burst in the Super 8 stage of the T20 World Cup as the West Indian pitches
part-time bowler. I think he is doing what Stoinis is doing for fielding coach T. Dilip said. “The way he has improved as a ‘keeper is against Oman after starting the T20 World Cup on a lukewarm note. are more consistent compared to the drop-in decks being used in the
Australia, getting crucial wickets and bowling crucial overs. I think it impressive. Lateral movement is hard. He tries everything at Rashid’s four for 11 helped the title-holder bowl out Oman for 47 and US leg of the tournament. Rabada said balanced playing surfaces are
is very important for an all-rounder,” said Sreesanth. practice so that he can use it in matches,” Dilip said. stay in contention for a Super 8 berth. important to ensure an equal contest between bat and ball.

Men in Blue’s final group game We absorb

what we can
from other
could prove a non-starter sports: Dilip
South Florida has been hit by heavy rain in recent days and a wash out looms large against Canada; a No Result will have no Ashwin Achal
bearing as India has already entered the Super 8 stage; the Indians would, however, hope for at least a shortened match LAUDERHILL

The Indian team’s visit to

T20 WORLD CUP the USA has given players a
chance to watch and learn
Ashwin Achal from American sports like
LAUDERHILL baseball, fielding coach T.
Dilip said. A day to cherish: USA qualified for the Super 8 after its match
he Indian team’s ”We went to the Yankee

T
sojourn in the Un-
ited States of
America could end in a
damp squib. South Flori-
da has been hit by heavy
rain, which could wash
out India’s final Group-A
ICC Men’s T20 World Cup
match against Canada
here on Saturday.
However, there was a
glimmer of hope as the
sun briefly emerged bet-
ween spells of rain here
on Friday. Areas around
the Central Broward Park
& Broward County Stadi-
um received upto two feet
of rain, leading Florida
Governor Ron DeSantis to
declare a state of
emergency.
The first match at the
venue, between Nepal
and Sri Lanka, was aban-
doned without a ball be-
ing bowled.
A No Result will have
no bearing on India’s
prospects. Rohit Sharma’s
men have booked a berth
in the Super 8 and will
next travel to Barbados.
Canada, with two losses in
three games, is on the
brink of elimination.
The Indian team took
the day off on Thursday,
Ominous: Grey skies engulf the Regional Park Stadium in Lauderhill, the venue of the India-Canada match on Saturday. K.R. DEEPAK
and cancelled the sche-
duled practice session on
Friday due to rain. The ef-
ficient stadium drainage
system will kick in if rain
relents. Before the team’s
outing against USA here,
Ireland pacer Mark Adair
had stated that the ground
looked “remarkably dry”.
“The ground was ac-
tually remarkably dry. I
think there were wet
patches on the far side of
the ground, but consider-
ing what the place has
been through in the last
24 hours, it was looking
pretty good,” Adair said.
However, rain had the fi-
nal say.
India will hope to get a
shortened outing on Sa-
turday. The match batting
practice will be useful as
the team moves to bigger
tests in the Caribbean.
Speaking earlier in the
week, bowling coach Pa-
ras Mhambrey was asked
about finding rhythm
when game time is limited
due to rain.
“I hope the weather
clears and we get a game.
We do have optional prac-
tice sessions, so every in-
dividual will assess how
much skills he requires,
and what are the areas
that he needs to focus on.
“If he wants to bat a lit-
tle more, they do come in.
The only way we can work
around (rained out match-
es) is to try and make the
best of those practice ses-
sions.
“In a compressed kind
of a tournament that we
are in, you've got to make
sure that you maximise
every opportunity — bow-
ling or batting,” Mham-
brey had stated in New
York.
Stadium when we were in
New York. We watched
some baseball there. We
tried to absorb what we can
learn from other sports,”
Dilip said here on the eve of
the India-Canada match.
Certain techniques used
in baseball — a flat, power-
ful throw, and taking high
catches — can be used in
cricket, Dilip added.
Dilip explained that the
most heartening aspect of
his tenure has been the im-
proved fielding standards
of the bowlers.
“It is heartening to see
the bowlers doing their
fielding roles very well.
This adds a lot to the whole
fielding group. We see bow-
lers standing in hot spots
(crucial positions). This
gives Rohit the versatility to
keep good fielders in all po-
sitions,” Dilip said.
“To field hard after bow-
ling spells, to attend all op-
tional practice sessions —
this is heartening. The two
important things we focus
on are attitude and atten-
tion to detail. For example,
when the ball is going to the
ropes on this slow outfield,
our fielders never give up
till the last moment,” said
Dilip.
against Ireland was washed out. K.R. DEEPAK
Glorious day for USA;
Pakistan crashes out
Ashwin Achal
LAUDERHILL
Pakistan was knocked out
of the ICC Men’s T20
World Cup after the USA-
Ireland match was aban-
doned due to rain here on
Friday.
World Cup host and un-
derdog USA (5 points),
meanwhile, made a glo-
rious entry into the Super
8 stage as the second-
placed team in Group-A
behind India (6). Pakistan
(2) has no chance of catch-
ing up.
The USA also earned a
spot in the 2026 T20
World Cup.
Pakistan’s only hope of
staying alive was if Ireland
defeated USA at the Cen-
tral Broward Park & Bro-
ward County Stadium
here.
A wet outfield, a result
of heavy rains in these
parts over the last few
days, caused a delay in the
start of the match.
Pakistan would have
been hopeful, as the sun
was out, and the ground
staff did their best to get
proceedings started. A
couple of inspections
raised hopes of play.
Around 45 minutes be-
fore the cut-off time, thun-
der and sharp showers ar-
rived. The umpires called
off the match.
There was celebration
among the small number
of USA fans at the stadium
who waved the ‘Stars and
Stripes’ proudly.
Babar Azam’s Pakistan
paid a big price for losing
to USA in its campaign
opener. A six-run defeat to
India only dug the hole
deeper.
A comfortable win over
Canada on Tuesday was
too little too late. Pakis-
tan’s last Group-A match,
against Ireland here on
Sunday, has become a
dead rubber.

Farooqi and Naib seal Afghanistan’s England makes quick work of Oman,
maiden World Cup Super 8 berth reignites qualification hopes
Press Trust of India
TAROUBA (TRINIDAD)

The pace combination of

Fazalhaq Farooqi and Na-
veen-ul-Haq led Afghanis-
tan’s seven-wicket rout of
Papua New Guinea as it
stormed into the T20 World
Cup’s Super 8 stage for the
first time, knocking out
New Zealand in the
process.
Gulbadin Naib scored an
unbeaten 49 as the Afghans
reached the target of 96 in
15.1 overs after overcoming
early jitters. Put in to bat,
PNG was bundled out for 95
with Farooqi and Naveen
ripping through the line-
up. Afghanistan will face In-
dia in the first Super 8 clash
on June 20 in Barbados.
Farooqi took two wick-
ets in two balls in his se-
cond over and finished with
three for 16 in his four overs
after Rashid Khan opted to
bowl. His partner Naveen
provided the ideal support,
returning with figures of
2.5-0-4-2 as PNG was bow-
led out in 19.5 overs. Semo
Kamea was run out off the
penultimate delivery of the
innings. It would have been
much worse for PNG had
Afghanistan not leaked 25
CM
YK
On a roll: Farooqi, right, has been in exceptional form in this
World Cup. GETTY IMAGES
runs in extras, 13 of them
wides.
“It feels great to qualify
for the next round, the first
time for Afghanistan in the
Super Eight in the T20
World Cup. The boys have
done well, adjusting to the
conditions quickly... that is
something very pleasing for
me," said skipper Rashid
Khan.
However, Afghanistan
stuttered in the small chase
as the in-form openers —
Rahmanullah Gurbaz (11)
and Ibrahim Zadran (0) —
were dismissed by the PNG
new ball bowlers Alei Nao
and Kamea inside three ov-
ers.
But Naib ensured that
there was no more hiccups
as he anchored the chase
with a 36-ball unbeaten 49
(4x4, 2x6).
The scores:
Papua New Guinea 95 in 19.5
overs (Doriga 27, Farooqi 3/16,
Naveen 2/4) lost to Afghanistan
101/3 in 15.1 overs (Naib 49 n.o.).
Toss: Afghanistan; PoM: Farooqi.
Bamboozled: Fayyaz is castled by a Rashid special. AP
Associated Press
NORTH SOUND
Adil Rashid took four for 11
as England boosted its
chances of reaching the
Super 8 stage of the T20
World Cup by bowling out
Oman for 47 en route an
eight-wicket win in a pivo-
tal match for the defending
champion on Thursday.
Phil Salt launched the
first two balls of the En-
gland innings for sixes be-
fore being castled off the
third ball in a dramatic
start as his team chased
the fastest-possible win. It
reached 50 for two in just
3.1 overs — 20 deliveries,
including a no-ball — led by
captain Jos Buttler’s 24 off
eight deliveries.
It was not only the mag-
nitude of the win but the
speed with which it was
achieved that helped im-
prove England’s chances.
It moved up to third spot in
Group B with three points,
behind the already-quali-
fied Australia (six points).
Scotland (five points) is se-
cond. The Scots next face
2021 champion Australia.
Buttler chose to bowl,
hoping that England would
be in a better position to
manage the run-rate equa-
the Sir Vivian Richards Sta- The scores: Oman 47 in 13.2
tion if it was chasing. overs (Archer 3/12, Wood 3/12,
dium.
The plan worked as Adil Rashid 4/11) lost to England
Oman was shot out in 13.2 “Job done today,” But- 50/2 in 3.1 overs; Toss: England;
overs on a glassy surface at tler said. PoM: Adil Rashid.
A KI-KIE

14
INBRIEF
쑽 Familiar foes Spain and Croatia clash
again in Group B opener
While La Roja will be aiming for their fourth European crown, the Modric-led opponent will look to avenge their previous losses
East Bengal ropes in Golden
Boot winner Diamantakos
East Bengal on Friday announced the signing of
Greek striker Dimitrios Diamantakos for the
upcoming Indian Super League season. The
31-year-old has vast experience, including Indian
football, having played for Kerala Blasters since Associated Press
2022. "Everyone knows that East Bengal has one BERLIN
of the greatest fan bases in Asia. I can't wait to
play in front of them," Diamantakos said in a pain’s bid for a
media release after signing for the club.
S fourth European
Championship title
begins against Croatia in
Berlin’s Olympic Stadium.
The other teams in the
group are defending cham-
pion Italy and Albania.
Spain and Croatia have
met in each of the previous
four editions of the Euro-
pean Championship, with
Spain knocking out Croatia
after a 5-3 extra-time win in
the round of 16 at Euro
2020. Spain also defeated
Sinner to play singles and Croatia on penalties to win
the UEFA Nations League
doubles at Paris Olympics last year.
Zlatko Dalic’s Croatia is
Top-ranked Jannik Sinner will compete in both again led by the evergreen
singles and doubles at the Paris Olympics, the Luka Modric, who at 38
Italian tennis federation said in Rome on Friday. will be playing at the tour-
This will be the first Summer Games for the nament for the fifth time.
22-year-old Sinner. He will team up with Lorenzo Modric joins his national
Musetti in doubles for Italy, the federation said. teammates after winning a
The Olympic tennis events start on July 27.
Holder McKeon fails to
qualify for 100m freestyle
Olympic 100m freestyle champion Emma
McKeon will not defend her title in Paris after
missing out on qualifying on Friday with Mollie
O'Callaghan and Shayna Jack securing the two
Australian slots at stake. McKeon could only
manage sixth. The 30-year-old had already
booked a ticket to France in the 100m butterfly
and will still be part of the relay squad.
HI invites registration for the Women’s
Hockey India League recurve
Hockey India on Friday took another step team loses
towards the revival of the Hockey India League
after eight years, inviting interest and registration
from domestic and international players for the Press Trust of India
same. The opening of registrations also confirms ANTALYA
the official window provided by the FIH for the
HIL — last week of December 2024-first week of The Indian women’s re-
February 2025 — ensuring it won’t clash with any curve team of Deepika Ku-
international competition. The HIL, last held in mari, Bhajan Kaur and An-
2017, will feature eight men’s and six women’s kita Bhakat squandered a
teams. While the registrations are open to all 3-1 lead to suffer a shock
Indian players, the federation has also 5-3 loss to a lower-ranked
approached the national associations of the Ukraine in the pre-quarter-
top-15 countries for interested players and staff to finals of the Final Olympic
register by June 30. Qualifier here on Friday.
Having qualified as fifth
seed, India got a bye into
the pre-quarters and need-
Indian teams crash out in ed two wins in the elimina-
tion round to seal the Paris
Asian team squash Olympic team quota place.
The women, however,
Pakistan edged out India 2-1 in the men’s still can make the cut for
quarterfinals of the Asian team squash Paris Olympics via
championships in Dalian (China) on Friday. The rankings.
Indian women’s team lost to Republic of Korea As per a new amend-
3-0 in its last Pool-A contest and failed to enter ment to the qualification
the semifinals. rule, the top-two nations in
World Archery Rankings,
The results: Men (Quarterfinals): Pakistan bt India 2-1
who did not make the cut
(Muhammad Asim Khan bt Rahul Baitha 11-3, 11-4, 11-9; Nasir
Iqbal lost to Velavan Senthilkumar (5-11,7, 11, 6-11; Noor from the Qualifiers, will
Zaman bt Suraj Kumar Chand 11-8, 11-8, 11-6). make the cut before the
Women (Pool-A): Korea bt India 3-0 Hwayeong Eum bt Pooja Games.
Arthi Raghu 11-5, 11-5, 11-8; Ming Yeong Heo bt Rathika South Korea, Germany,
Suthanthira Seelan 11-4, 10-12, 11-7, 11-6; Chaewon Song bt France, Mexico, USA, who
Sunita Patel 10-12, 11-8, 12-14, 11-7, 11-7). are ahead of India in rank-
ings, have already quali-
fied. World No. 2 China
and No. 7 Chinese Taipei
are the two nations ahead
LIVE TELECAST
of India.
쑽 But they are in the quar-
Badminton: Australian Open, Sports 18-1 (SD & HD) & JioCi- terfinals of the Final Olym-
nema, 9 a.m.
pic Qualifier here, and thus
T20 World Cup: India vs Canada, Star Sports 1, 2, 3 (SD & HD) one win away from a team
& Hotstar, 8 p.m., 10.30 p.m. & 6.30 a.m. (Sunday). quota. Should they get the
Football: Euro 2024: Sony Sports Ten 2, 3, 5 (SD & HD) & LIV, team quota, India will be
6.30, 9.30 p.m. & 12.30 a.m. (Sunday). firmly ahead in the race.
CM
YK
THE HINDU
Sport
Future ready: Spain has placed its faith in a lot of youngsters to deliver in the continental
championships. AFP
Spanish league and Cham-
pions League double with
Real Madrid.
Big wins
Spain warmed up with big
wins over Andorra and
Northern Ireland, with
Real Sociedad forward Mi-
kel Oyarzabal bagging four
goals over the two games.
Croatia, meanwhile,
warmed up with an encou-
We have certain objective: women’s coach Muzumdar
CRICKET
N. Sudarshan
BENGALURU
In a World Cup year, all
roads lead to the marquee
tournament. It will be no
different for the Indian wo-
men’s cricket team as it be-
gins its home assignment
against South Africa on
Sunday, in the lead up to
October’s T20 World bash
in Bangladesh.
Though India will start
with the 50-over format,
then change to Test whites
before slipping into T20
mode against the visitors
from the Rainbow Nation,
head coach Amol Muzum-
KERALA ROUND-UP
쑽
Winners: Palakkad’s Bharath Matha boys team and Irinjalakuda’s Don Bosco team that won the State-ranking table tennis U-19 titles on
Friday. SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Ten-wicket win
for AG’s Office
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:
AG’s Office Recreation
Club completed a ten
wicket win over Ranji CC
in the TDCA A division
cricket league here on
Friday.
Half-centuries from Manav
Krishna (71), Jobin P. Joby
(65) and Naresh R.Nair
(50) enabled Shines CC to
score 310 for eight in 70
overs. Little Masters made
a strong reply and was 103
for two at stumps on the
first day.
The scores: Ranji CC 90 & 119 in
35 overs (Arjun Rajesh 46, T.V.
Krishnakumar 4/20) lost to AG’s
Office Recreation Club 186 & 24/0
in 4 overs.
Shines CC 310/8 in 70 overs
(Manav Krishna 71, Jobin P. Joby
65, Naresh P. Nair 50, J.T. Sharath
Chandra Prasad 36 n.o.,
Mohammed Ishaque 4/82) v Little
raging win over Portugal.
Spain midfielder Dani
Olmo played for Croatian
power Dinamo Zagreb bet-
ween 2014-20. During this
time, he played with Croa-
tia players Dominik Liva-
kovic, Bruno Petkovic, Lov-
ro Majer, Josip Sutalo,
Josko Gvardiol, Luka Ivanu-
sec, Marko Pjaca and
Borne Sosa.
While Spain is placing
Preparing well: Muzumdar, head coach, skipper Harmanpreet,
right, and Smirti during a nets session. K. MURALI KUMAR
dar felt every match was
important going into the
World Cup.
“We have certain objec-
Masters CC 103/2 in 22 overs (J.
Ananthakrishnan 33 n.o.).
Bharath Matha, Don
Bosco emerge
champions
IRINJALAKUDA: Palakkad’s
Bharath Matha HSS boys
and Irinjalakuda’s Don
Bosco School girls won the
under-19 inter-school team
titles in the Christ Open
State-ranking table tennis
tournament, the Table
Tennis Association of
Kerala’s season-opener, at
the Christ Vidyanikethan
here on Friday.
Alappuzha’s SDV EM HSS
boys and Irinjalakuda’s
Don Bosco School girls
won the under-15 titles.
The results (inter-school team
finals): Boys: Under-19:
Bharath Matha HSS, Palakkad bt
St. Mary’s Residential School,
Alappuzha 3-0.
Under-15: SDV EM HSS,
its faith in youngsters like
Lamine Yamal (16) and Ni-
co Williams (21) its coach
Luis de la Fuente dropped
teenager Pau Cubarsi and
midfielders Marcos Llo-
rente and Aleix Garcia
from his final 26-man
squad.
De la Fuente opted in-
stead for Real Betis for-
ward Ayoze Perez and 21-
year-old Barcelona midfiel-
tives, and we need to have
a good white-ball series,”
Muzumdar said here on
Friday. “There is also the
Alappuzha bt K.V. Port Trust
School, Ernakulam 3-0.
Under-13: Don Bosco School ‘B’,
Irinjalakuda bt Bharatiya Vidya
Bhavan, Vattiyoorkavu,
Thiruvananthapuram 3-0.
Girls: Under-19: Don Bosco
School, Irinjalakuda bt SDV EM
HSS, Alappuzha 3-1.
Under-15: Don Bosco School,
Irinjalakuda bt Devamatha CMI
PS, Thrissur 3-1.
Under-13: Devamatha CMI PS,
Thrissur bt Don Bosco School,
Irinjalakuda 3-1.
Double
for Shrikanth
KOCHI: Kerala’s Shrikanth
C. Menon defeated Tamil
Nadu’s Rithik Jeyanth 6-4,
7-5 and won the boys’
singles title in the AITA
Championship Series
under-16 tennis
tournament at the KGR
Tennis Academy,
Coimbatore, on Friday.
Earlier Shrikanth and his
der Fermin Lopez.
Spain has won five of
the countries’ previous 10
meetings, with Croatia
winning three.
No anxiousness
“We know that the first
game is important, it’s im-
portant to start on the right
foot,” said Spain forward
Pedri ahead of the game.
“But we’ve already seen
Test match. We cannot say
that we will just concen-
trate on white ball. [Play-
ing] all formats is a good
sign for women’s cricket.
“Continuity is very im-
portant leading into the
T20 World Cup. Here, we
are playing the ODIs first,
then the Test and the T20s.
We [then] go into the Asia
Cup [ July 19 to 28], which
is T20 format. It is very
well scheduled. By the
[end of the] Asia Cup, we
should be ready,” the 49-
year-old added.
The Harmanpreet Kaur-
led side’s last international
series saw a thumping 5-0
win over Bangladesh in the
away T20I series held in
April-May. While Muzum-
twin brother Shrinath
defeated Tamil Nadu’s
Thirumaran and Thibu
Babu 6-2, 6-4 to win the
boys’ doubles title.
EDTA office-bearers
elected
B. Ram Kishore is the new
president of the
Ernakulam District Tennis
Association and T.P.
Sukesh is the new
secretary.
The elections were held at
the EDTA’s AGM here on
Thursday.
The EDTA office-bearers
(2024-2028): President: B. Ram
Kishore; Vice-presidents: Tom
Edward, Rahul Thomas Joseph;
Secretary: T.P. Sukesh; Joint
secretary: Thomas K. Jacob;
Treasurer: R. Rajiv. Committee
members: John Nechupadom,
Saji Chacko, R. Padmakumar,
Vivek Ramadevan, Kalidasan
Kallidil, Dijo Mathew.
Saturday, June 15, 2024
Kochi
that many teams win a big
tournament after losing
the first game, so there’s
no need to be anxious.
“It’s obvious that we’re
going to go out to win and
we’re not going to leave
anything behind, we’re go-
ing to play with a lot of en-
thusiasm.
“We’re very young and
we’re very eager for it to
start.”
dar stated that another se-
ries victory was non-nego-
tiable, he also specified a
couple of areas that he
would like his wards to im-
prove in.
“When I took over last
December, we had said
that fielding and fitness
will be the cornerstones,
and we have been driving
that message to the group.
They have responded nice-
ly to that.
“Our batting is our
strength... and not to for-
get that bowling has also
won us games.
“It is a mix of both de-
partments. The fielding is a
work in progress, and trust
me, you will see some re-
sults.”
Shrikanth who won a double in
Coimbatore.
Ajay, Aadhya
given top billing
PALAKKAD:
Thiruvananthapuram’s
Ajay Satish Kumar and
Thrissur’s Aadhya Shine
have been given the top
billing in the men’s and
women’s singles events of
the K.P.S. Menon
memorial State-ranking
badminton tournament
which begins at Ottapalam
on Saturday.
Ernakulam’s Kiran
Noguchi and Alappuzha’s
Tiffany Dopson are the top
seeds in the boys’ and
girls’ sections.
Competitions for men,
women and under-19 boys
and girls will be
counducted in singles,
doubles and mixed
doubles in the four-day
tournament.
A KI-KIE
 THE HINDU
Saturday, June 15, 2024 15
Kochi
Sport

Indian chess needs sponsors: Divya

So many young players are emerging and much is going right for the game in the country, says the World junior champion
P.K. Ajith Kumar 2456 was 156 more than Hindu. “The fact that it youngsters like D. Gukesh,
GANDHINAGAR the second seed, and that was being held in India Arjun Eriagaisi and R.
meant she could barely af- made my decision easier. Praggnanandhaa often hit-
he had a tough time ford to have a bad game. Many of my opponents, ting the headlines.

S
handling the trophy.
It stood nearly as tall
as her.
Divya Deshmukh still
managed to hold it for the
pictures and then carried
it to her room at the Gift Ci-
ty Club. And it was a tro-
phy she had been dream-
ing about since she was
little.
The 18-year-old from
Nagpur said she was more
relieved than happy to win
the World junior girls’
chess championship.
She was not just the top
seed, but her Elo rating of
“If she did, she would
lose her hard-earned Elo
points.
She didn’t have any real
bad games, however. She
won nine of her 11 games
and drew the other two.
She even ended up getting
more than seven Elo
points.
“There was the pres-
sure of the Elo points, but
including this one, I had
the chance to play only
two World junior cham-
pionships and this is a
tournament I always want-
ed to win,” Divya told The
like second seed Mariam
Mkrtchyan (who finished
runner-up), were better
than their rating.”
She is only the fourth
Indian girl to this title — af-
ter Koneru Humpy (2001),
Dronavalli Harik (2008)
and Soumya Swaminathan
(2009).
After 15 years
So it is after a gap of 15
years that India is getting
another World junior
champion.
Indian chess is of course
a talking point, with
“It is great being part of
a golden generation of In-
dian chess,” she said. “So
many young players are
emerging and much is go-
ing right for the game in
the country.”
Divya, who is the reign-
ing Asian women’s cham-
pion, a surprise winner of
the Tata Steel Chess India
rapid champion last year
and individual bronze me-
dallist from the last Olym-
piad, doesn’t have a spon-
sor and her expenses —
and you need a lot of mo-
ney to build an interna-
There was pressure of
the Elo points, but
including this one, I had
the chance to play only
two World junior
championships and this
is a tournament I always
wanted to win. It is great
being part of a golden
generation
DIVYA
tional career — are met by
her father.
“What Indian chess mis-
ses is sponsorship,” said
Divya. World junior girls’ chess champion Divya Deshmukh... a giant feat. FIDE

Alakananda breaks
16-year-old record
AQUATICS

Sports Bureau
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM

Alakananda Raju (Ernaku-

lam) hogged the limelight
by breaking the 16-year-old
record in 100m breast-
stroke in the girls’ group II
category of the State junior
and sub-junior aquatic
championships at the Dr.
B.R. Ambedkar Interna-
tional Aquatic complex
here on Friday.
Alakananda clocked
1:21.91s to break the old re-
cord (1:24.76s) set by Riya
Orison (Ernakulam) in
2008. Alakananda also
won the 400m IM and
picked up a third gold me-
dal of the meet in the
4x100m medley relay.
Apart from Alakanda’s
record, eight other meet
records were set on the
first day of the competi-
tion. Host Thiruvanan-
thapuram led the points ta-
ble in the junior section
with 233 points followed
by Ernakulam (203) and
Kottayam (42).
In the sub-junior sec-
tion, Ernakulam led with
99 points followed by Thri-
uvananthapuram (75) and
Thrissur (14).
The results (winners only):
Boys: Group I: 400m freestyle:
S. Abhinav (Tvm) (4:10.58 — NMR;
OR — S. Abhinav, Ekm, 2023);
50m backstroke: Clifford
Joseph (Ekm) (0:28.54s — NMR;
OR — 0:28.63s, P.J. Jegan Nathan
(Ekm), 2018); 100m
breaststroke: Karthik S.
Pradosh (Tvm) (1:13.13); 200m
butterfly: B.S. Sivanand (Tvm)
(2:10.57s — NMR; OR — 2:12.28,
Adithya S. Nair, Tvm, 2023); 400m
IM: B.S. Sivanand (Tvm)
(5:00.26s); 4x100m medley
relay: 1. Thiruvananthapuram
(4:44.57).
Group II: 400m freestyle: R.
Vaikash (Tvm) (4:51.76); 50m
backstroke: Rehaan Jerry (Ksgd)
Alakananda Raju.
(0:29.88 — NMR; OR — 0:30.10,
Rehaan, 2024); 100m
breaststroke: P.A. Harinandan
(Tvm) (1:19.59); 200m butterfly:
S. Aarosh (Tvm) (2:28.01); 400m
IM: Joy Jose Thoppan (Ktm)
(5:26.27); 4x100m medley
relay: Thiruvananthapuram
(4:24.24).
Group III: 400m freestyle:
Maanav K. Rajesh (Tvm) (5:14.97s
— NMR; OR — 5:24.62, Maanav K.
Rajesh, Tvm, 2023); 50m
backstroke: Aadicc Chackala
(Ekm) (0:36.60); 100m breast
stroke: Gaurishankar (Ekm)
(1:33.41); 4x50m medley relay:
Ernakulam (2:45.60).
Girls: Group I: 400m: Garsha
Saharsha (Tvm) (5:03.89); 50m
backstroke: K. Devika (Koz)
(0:33.15 — NMR; OR — 0:33.48,
Devika, 2024); 200m butterfly:
Vidhya Lekshmi (Tvm) (2:44.39);
400m IM: Nadia Asif (Ekm)
(5:43.30); 4x100m medley
relay: Thiruvananthapuram
(5:05.33 — NMR; OR — 5:08.70,
Ernakulam, 2023).
Group II: 400m freestyle: V.
Abhinanda (Tvm) (5:04.35); 50m
backstroke: Christeena Sojan
(Ekm) (0:32.87); 100m breast
stroke: Alakananda Raju (Ekm)
(1:21.91 — NMR; OR — 1:24.76,
Riya Orison, Ekm, 2008); 200m
butterfly: Malavika Ranjith (Mlp)
(2:46.82); 400m IM: Alakananda
(5:51.37); 4x100m medley
relay: Ernakulam (5:03.60 —
NMR; OR — 5:05.51, Ekm, 2024).
Group III: 400m freestyle:
Gauri Jayendran (Ekm) (5:49.75);
50m backstroke: S.R. Shikha
(Tvm) (0:38.65); 100m
breaststroke: Adya S. Pradeep
(Tvm) (1:42.96); 4x50m medley
relay: Ernakulam (2:45.60).

Indian challenge ends

after Prannoy’s exit
BADMINTON
Press Trust of India
SYDNEY
India’s top-ranked singles
player H.S. Prannoy lost to
higher-ranked Kodai Na-
raoka of Japan 21-19, 21-13
as none among the coun-
try’s shuttlers failed to pro-
gress beyond the quarterfi-
nals of the Australian Open
Super 500 event here on
Friday.
Sameer Verma, mixed
doubles pair of Sikki Reddy
and B. Sumeeth Reddy
along with Aakarshi Kash-
yap in women’s singles al-
so drew a blank.
Prannoy made a rally
from being 10-16 down to
level the proceedings at 18-
CM
YK
all before taking a one-
point lead but Naraoka
held his nerve to seal the
first game.
Naraoka was far supe-
rior in the second game as
he suddenly upped the
ante at 5-5 without giving
Prannoy any scope of a co-
meback to seal the match
in little more than an hour.
Verma was no match for
his world No. 17 opponent
Chinese Taipei opponent
Lin Chun-Yi who cruised to
a 21-12, 21-13 win in 38
minutes.
The results:
Men: Kodai Naraoka bt H.S.
Prannoy 21-19, 21-13; Lin Chun-Yi
bt Sameer Verma 21-12, 21-13.
Women: Yu Po Pai bt Aakarshi
Kashyap 21-17 21-12.
Mixed doubles: Jian Zhen Bang
and Wei Ya Xin bt Sikki Reddy and
B. Sumeeth Reddy 21-12, 21-14.
A KI-KIE

16
Teenagers hog the
limelight in
qualifying sessions
Sarthak, Chiranth complete a 1-2 for TVS Racing in Pro-Stock 301-400cc
category; Abdul takes pole position in the Novice (Stock 165cc) class
Impressive show: Abdul will start from the front in the Novice (Stock 165cc) category.
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
MOTORSPORTS
Sports Bureau
CHENNAI
clutch of teenagers
A stole the limelight
in the qualifying
sessions in the first round
of the MRF MMSC FMSCI
Indian National Motorcycle
Racing Championship
2024 at the Madras Inter-
national Circuit, here on
Friday.
Two 17-year-olds, Sar-
thak Chavan and Chiranth
Vishwanath, among the
hottest two-wheeler racers
in the country, completed
a 1-2 for TVS Racing in the
premier Pro-Stock 301-
400cc category.
CM
YK
Late in the day, Sarthak
went on to cap a brilliant
run as he snatched pole
position in the Pro-Stock
165cc Open category to line
himself for a possible dou-
ble this weekend with a
quick lap of 01:56.772.
Yet again, Chiranth took
second, about 1.4 seconds
behind, with the expe-
rienced Deepak Ravikumar
making it a front-row
sweep for TVS Racing.
Equally impressive was
another 17-year-old, Abdul
Basim, who took pole posi-
tion in the Novice (Stock
165cc) category.
Former National cham-
pion Ann Jennifer (Alpha
Racing) was quickest in the
Girls (Stock 165cc) section.
Kaushik Subbiah Ganesan
qualified on top in the
Stock 301-400cc (Novice)
category.
Mohsin Paramban, 22,
put his experience to good
use to snatch pole position
in the Idemitsu Honda In-
dia Talent Cup (NSF 250R)
category.
In the TVS Racing One-
Make Championship, Ma-
noj Yesuadian was the
quickest in the Open (RR
310) class.
C.S. Kedarnath topped
the charts in the Rookie
(under-23) (Apache RTR
200) category.
Sarah Khan will start
from pole position in the
Girls (Apache RTR 200) ca-
tegory.
THE HINDU
Saturday, June 15, 2024
Sport Kochi
McIlroy shares
lead with
Cantlay
U.S. OPEN GOLF
Associated Press
PINEHURST
Rory McIlroy sent his 20-
foot birdie putt on its way
at the 18th hole on Thurs-
day and started walking to-
ward the cup when the ball
was still some six feet away
from falling. It looked like
the walk of a four-time Ma-
jor champion in control of
his game on a Pinehurst
No. 2 course in North Caro-
lina that demanded every
bit of that in the U.S. Open.
Turns out that it was the
only thing which didn’t go
according to plan. “I
thought I’d left it short.
That’s why I walked after it
— full disclosure,” McIlroy
said. “It looked good,
though.”
McIlroy looked as good
as ever, posting a bogey-
free opening round in a
Major for the first time
since last winning a title 10
years ago, at the British
Open.
His five-under 65 gave
him a share of the lead
with Patrick Cantlay in a
first round that had a little
bit of everything.
Scottie Scheffler was ov-
er par in the opening
round of a Major for the
first time in two years, Col-
lin Morikawa had two dou-
ble bogeys and still shot 70.
Tyrrell Hatton dropped
his club on impact at the
par-3 17th hole, kicked his
club, watched it land on
the green and made birdie.
Top scores:
65: Patrick Cantlay and Rory
McIlroy; 66: Ludvig Aberg; 67:
Matthieu Pavon and Bryson
DeChambeau; 68: Tony Finau,
Tyrrell Hatton and Akshay Bhatia.
A KI-KIE
 THE HINDU
Saturday, June 15, 2024 I
Kochi
Weekend Sport

India-Pakistan: a frenemy story World Cup in South Africa.

This is sport at its most intense where every
moment is infused with a larger-than-life aura.
There was a time when India faltered in World
Cups but solace was found in the good old tri-

for the ages, through the ages

umph over Pakistan. It was akin to finding suc-
cour in a Tendulkar hundred while losing over-
seas Tests.
For all of India’s dominance over Pakistan dur-
ing the last decade and a half, there was a phase
especially in the 1980s and early 1990s, when Pa-
The complex cricketing rivalry, suffocated by history’s embrace, holds up well against other storied sporting face-offs. At their most intense, contests between the kistan seemingly had the edge, especially at Shar-
jah. Aaqib Javed would get a hat-trick, the Pakis-
two countries acquire a larger-than-life aura, full of needle, banter and moments of pure adrenaline — it’s just that they are not played as often as they once were tani batters would score at will and India would
wilt under the desert skies.
GETTY IMAGES In these threads of varying shades, there was
good old banter. Akram once spoke about how
Miandad and Dilip Vengsarkar would be at each
other’s throats during the game but at night they
would sit together and share rotis, curry and
laughter. Miandad once did exaggerated jumps
while mimicking wicketkeeper Kiran More, and it
is another amusing visual linked to Indo-Pak
cricket!
During the 2019 World Cup in England, Akram
and Kapil, fellow commentators, would hang out
together, checking out the sights and sounds of
London. These are all pointers to the warm cliche
of ‘people to people contact’ that the candlelight-
vigil initiators like the late journalistic duo of Kul-
dip Nayar and Vinod Mehta used to propagate.

Wasim Akram once spoke about how

Javed Miandad and Dilip Vengsarkar
would be at each other’s throats
during the game but at night they
would sit together and share rotis,
curry and laughter

But sport isn’t immune from the larger designs

of life, especially geopolitics, terrorism and reli-
gious schisms.
Whenever India and Pakistan play, a parallel
drama ripples into view. The scrutiny around the
two Mohammeds — Shami and Siraj, and the infe-
rences about words uttered on air by Irfan Path-
an and Mohammad Kaif does get stifling. The
quartet are as Indian as anyone else and reflexive-
ly Irfan would overreact and taunt the western
neighbour on X (formerly Twitter).

Old kinships, shared notes

K.C. Vijaya Kumar Sport isn’t the playing fields of the world,” wrote Rama- Kirmani has relatives in Karachi. Sunshine lingers though, as an Akram would im-
immune chandra Guha in his A Corner of a Foreign Field. Pakistan’s great batter Zaheer Abbas, who part his knowledge about left-arm fast bowling to

E
ver since British lawyer Cyril Radcliffe from the Still it is a sporting rivalry that can hold itself relished Indian attacks, is one of Kanpur’s fa- his Indian successors like Zaheer Khan. Moham-
forayed into cartography and drew a well against other storied face-offs like the Ashes, mous sons-in-law. India’s legendary skipper Man- mad Azharuddin would offer batting tips to You-
line that split India and Pakistan in
larger for instance. The latest instalment was dished sur Ali Khan Pataudi and former Pakistan Cricket nis Khan. Perhaps it is all about passing it on, as
1947, the air has always been thick with designs of out during the ICC T20 World Cup fixture in New Board chairman Shaharyar Khan are cousins. once the great Abbas worked on a struggling Az-
tumult and various complexities. Battles were life, York last Sunday. And like it largely happens in The two have left for the pastures of heaven while haruddin’s batting grip and fortunes instantly
fought, blood was shed and it is no surprise that especially ICC events, India prevailed again, with the mar- their ancestors trace back to Bhopal. changed.
cricket between the two nations is often de- geopolitics, gin being a narrow six runs in a low-scoring Old kinships forged while playing county crick-
scribed as war minus the shooting. terrorism match. A bridge of peace? et in England may be lost in nostalgia’s cobwebs
A home that got divided and The diaspora, be it Indian or Pakistani, had In his book Shadows Across the Playing Field, but modern players find their ways to share notes
and threw up estranged enough to root for and there was no mistaking along with co-author Shashi Tharoor, Khan despite an international boundary that is intimi-
cousins is bound to leave
religious what cricket has missed over the past years. An wrote: “Carefully handled, cricket could act as a dating. Presently, India holds the edge over Babar
perennial scars and it is a schisms. India-Pakistan joust is now pinned entirely on bridge of peace.” Meanwhile, Tharoor remained Azam’s men but it is all restricted to limited-overs
baggage that the Indian Whenever ICC tournaments while bilateral skirmishes have cautionary: “In today’s India, even suggesting cricket. Surely it is a tragedy that Virat Kohli, skip-
and Pakistani cricket India and been avoided as governments prefer political that a Pakistani victory deserves congratulation per Rohit Sharma and R. Ashwin will eventually
squads contend with all Pakistan brownie points over sport’s honest sweat and would be decried as anti-national.” And yet hope bow out without having played a single Test
the time. Even if the play, a egalitarian joy. lingers even while the actual game has been re- against Pakistan.
players share a rapport parallel However, there was a time when cricket diplo- duced to sporadic events. Jasprit Bumrah, Rishabh Pant, Shaheen Afridi
and dig into Punjabi pop, macy was the preferred bridge and there were Readers of a certain vintage will all have specif- and Fakhar Zaman inherit a rivalry that is rich
history lends a suffocating
drama enough nuggets to embellish this intense rivalry. ic memories. It could be Javed Miandad’s last-ball with the tales of the past but one that tragically
embrace and the people ripples Kapil Dev pinging Sadiq Mohammad’s helmet six off Chetan Sharma to win the Austral-Asia Cup looks very sparse in terms of future engage-
on either side of the Wagah border want their into view during his 1978 Test debut in Pakistan; or Sachin at Sharjah in 1986. There was the bust-up bet- ments. The odd ODI and T20I is all they might get
respective team to always win. Tendulkar, all of 16, countering Imran Khan, Wa- ween Venkatesh Prasad and Aamer Sohail during for a crack at the neighbour. India last toured Pa-
sim Akram and Waqar Younis during his maiden the 1996 World Cup quarterfinal at Bangalore, as kistan for the 2008 Asia Cup.
Not just another game 1989 tour and also wading into wily leg-spinner it was known then. If pathos is your preferred Since then much water has flowed down the
Nationalism often feeds the official broadcaster’s Abdul Qadir in an exhibition game at Peshawar is mood, then look no further than Sunil Gavaskar’s Indus and while the neighbour had no qualms
jingoistic build-up to any India-Pakistan contest the stuff of legend. last Test innings, a magnificent 96 in a losing playing last year’s World Cup game at Ahmeda-
and it is not just another game, ever. The Siamese-twins analogy for the two na- cause against Imran Khan’s men in the 1987 Ban- bad, there is hesitation from the Indian quarter to
“The disagreements between Hindus and tions was always in vogue as there are ties that galore Test. And if adrenaline shots define you, reciprocate.
Muslims before 1947, and between India and Pa- bind. Kapil’s roots stretch all the way to Sialkot in then there is Sachin Tendulkar’s upper-cut six off Those days of Imran and Gavaskar modelling
kistan since, have thrown a long shadow across Pakistan while iconic Indian wicketkeeper Syed Shoaib Akhtar at Centurion during the 2003 for an Indian soft drink look so utopian.

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STACKING UP

CM S KI-KIE
YK
 THE HINDU
II Saturday, June 15, 2024

Weekend Sport Kochi

GETTY IMAGES

I learned, a little bit later than other players,

to dream is the most important thing in
sport and in life. I never dreamed to be, you
know, No. 1, Grand Slam champion

sive wins over 2019 US Open winner Bianca An-

dreescu and 17-year-old sensation Mirra Andree-
va, who is more than a decade younger than
Paolini. Paolini certainly has the game to trouble
anybody — barring Swiatek at her best — because
her style naturally asks questions of her oppo-
nents. Her ability to get to nearly every ball — she
has terrific foot-speed — and come out ahead in
baseline exchanges makes her a frustrating
player to encounter. She hits a heavy forehand
and can flatten her backhand with a compact
stroke. The only real soft spot is the serve, which
doesn’t win her points outright.
“I wish I was taller, because I could serve bet-
ter,” said the 5’4” Paolini. “But I think, you know,
I accept that I have to do [it] with my own body. I
mean, I’m short. Okay, we try to [not] make it a
problem. We try to do something different to im-
prove other aspects.”
Given the quality of Paolini’s game and the ad-
vantages of her style, observers often wondered
why she was not making more of a mark on the
circuit. “Often, I heard, ‘You play well’ and ‘You
could do more’. But I never really believed it
deep down, which is something that has changed
lately,” she said. “The on-court results are tangi-
ble, more concrete, to me than someone telling
me, ‘You can do great things’. It helps to win
more matches — or even lose ones that were
hard-fought against strong opponents.”
Paolini, who was born in Italy but also has
roots in Poland and Ghana, is something of a late
bloomer. It isn’t, however, her game that has ta-
ken time to bloom but her imagination.
“I learned, I think a little bit later than other
players, to dream is the most important thing in
biggest prizes has stemmed in part sport and in life,” she said. “When I started to

How Jasmine Paolini lived

from quashing the mindset that she play tennis, I was just enjoying. I was not dream-
needed “a miracle” to beat the best. ing too much. I was dreaming to become a profes-
She began to believe that her ability sional, and I never dreamed to be, you know,
was enough, and the results came. number one, Grand Slam champion. Never

a dream she never had

“I think I started to play better dreamed so big.
with more consistency last
year,” said Paolini. “I think Shooting for the stars
match by match I felt more “That, I think, is not so positive, because it’s im-
convinced that I can play portant to dream, but I started to dream, I
As a child, the Italian never imagined she would play in a Grand Slam final — but she has started to believe more at the higher level but it think, step by step. Not, you know, too far
was a process. [It away.” Paolini was shocked to realise
in herself over the last year, sparking an astonishing turnaround, and this belief helped the 28-year-old enjoy a wasn’t] like I that other players did have those
spectacular fortnight at Roland-Garros switch[ed] something. dreams and goals from a young age.
The problem, I think, “For me, it’s surprising to see in-
let’s say ‘problem’, terviews from Nole [Novak Djo-
Reuters ing a WTA 125 event, below the top tier, in [was] that I wasn’t kovic] when he was a kid saying
Associated Press Croatia, some distance away from the ranks of believing that I that he wanted to be world
elite tennis. After her Roland-Garros showing, could reach the re- number one, and [win]

J
asmine Paolini had 12 days to remember I never she has climbed seven spots to enter the top 10 sult that I’m reach- Wimbledon. I
and a weekend to forget, as she sa- really for the first time in her career, peaking at World ing now when I watched this, and I
voured a bittersweet fantasy in Paris, of- believed No. 7. was younger. Be- said, it’s unbelievable
ten finding her best tennis on Roland “It’s been two very intense weeks for me, very fore, when I was that you can dream as
deep down,
Garros’ famous clay. nice but very emotional,” said Paolini. “It’s a playing against top a child. I didn’t dream
The 28-year-old Italian was powerless against which is strange feeling. I just lost the final, but I think I players, I was like it, you know, when I
an imperious Iga Swiatek in the women’s final something have to be happy with the two weeks and my ‘okay, I need a mi- was a child. It’s unbelieva-
last Saturday. Paolini had few chances, as the that has new ranking. A Grand Slam final… it’s beautiful. I racle to win this ble to see Jannik [Sinner] when
World No. 1 needed just 68 minutes to capture changed have a lot of memories. I can’t wait to be back.” match’.” he was 15 years old say that his
her third successive French crown, her fourth in lately... Paolini is enjoying by far the best year of her dream was to be number one, and for me it’s so-
five years, with a 6-2, 6-1 victory. career. She came into 2024 with a losing record Growing conviction mething different. I never dreamed to be in a
Before,
as a pro of 78-87 and one career title. She had Thanks to her streng- Grand Slam final.” So, what’s next for Paolini,
In uncharted waters against top
won a total of four matches in 16 Grand Slam ap- thening belief, Paolini now that her vision for herself has expanded?
Paolini stepped onto the Parisian red dirt again players, I pearances, never having gone beyond the se- registered confidence- She doesn’t need to look too far for inspiration —
on Sunday, this time partnering compatriot Sara was like cond round at any Major. boosting wins over No. 4 the three games she won in the Roland-Garros fi-
Errani in the women’s doubles final. She was un- ‘okay, I need But she is 22-11 this year with one trophy — her Elena Rybakina, No. 10 nal were the fewest since Justine Henin obliterat-
able to find any comfort after Saturday’s crushing a miracle to biggest title to date in Dubai, one of the tourna- Caroline Garcia and ed Ana Ivanovic 6-1, 6-2 in 2007, but Ivanovic re-
loss, as the Italian pair lost 7-6(5), 6-3 to doubles win this ments just below Grand Slam level. She reached No. 11 Daria Kasatkina turned to Paris the next year to win her only
expert Katerina Siniakova and reigning US Open match’ the fourth round at the Australian Open in Janu- last year. This year, she Major crown. Can Paolini dream of something
singles’ champion Coco Gauff. ary, and proved that wasn’t a one-off with her beat No. 4 Ons Jabeur. like that? “I don’t know where this journey is go-
Although the fortnight ended in disappoint- surging run to the final in Paris. At Roland Garros, she ing to take me. But I’m curious to discover,” she
ment for Paolini, she knew she had entered un- Paolini’s astonishing transformation this sea- defeated Rybakina again said. “I don’t know which one is my next dream.
charted waters. This time last year, she was play- son into a player capable of challenging for the and also recorded impres- But I’m enjoying the moment.”

BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB

GAME THEORY PICTURE THIS

Lift and coast FIA’s world championships after

Belgium’s Thierry Neuville and
Martijn Wydaeghe (co-driver)
negotiate the stunning East Afri-
can terrain in Naivasha, Kenya,
during the FIA World Rally
Championship earlier this year.
The World Rally Champion-
ship — the second oldest of the
CM
YK
Formula One — pits drivers
52nd edition of the competition,
comprises 13 rounds crossing
against some of the most chal- Europe, Africa, South America
lenging conditions, including and Asia.
surfaces ranging from gravel and This year’s championship be-
tarmac to snow and ice. gan in January with the Monte
Every season spans a calen- Carlo Rally and is set to con-
dar year, with titles awarded to clude in November with the Ral-
drivers, co-drivers and manufac- ly Japan.
turers. The 2024 season, the After six rounds, Neuville and
Wydaeghe lead the drivers’ and
co-drivers’ championship res-
pectively. Ott Tanak and Martin
Jarveoja are second, with Elfyn
Evans and Scott Martin level on
points in third. Hyundai Shell
Mobis tops the manufacturers’
championship, ahead of defend-
ing champion Toyota Gazoo
Racing.
S KI-KIE