24122022_ First India New Delhi.pdf

NO STONE UNTURNED
Nadda given toughest task: to cover
half of 160 ‘weak’ Lok Sabha seats
Payal Mehta
New Delhi: With the
BJP focused on the po-
tentially weak Lok Sab-
ha seats ahead of 2024
general elections, the
party’s national presi-
dent JP Nadda will be
going on a 2-day tour to
Tamil Nadu and Odis-
ha, two states where the
BJP has been trying to
find its foothold but has
been unable to form the
government so far.
While the BJP is in
an alliance with AIAD-
MK in Tamil Nadu, in
Odisha the saffron par-
ty has so far not been
able to breach the Pat-
naik bastion.
“The party chief will
travel across two Lok
Sabha seats both in Ta-
mil Nadu and Odisha
spending a day each in
both states,” sources
told ANI. Turn to P8
AmitShah,Rajnath
to cover the rest;
BJP had identified
144 seats initially
Union Ministers Pralhad Joshi, V Muraleedharan and Arjun Ram
Meghwal with BJP National President JP Nadda and others arrive for
the BJP Parliamentary party meeting, in New Delhi on Tuesday.
—PHOTO
BY
PTI
CBI files charge sheet in
NSE phone-tapping case
New Delhi (PTI): The
CBI has filed a charge
sheet against former
Mumbai police commis-
sioner Sanjay Pandey
and former NSE CEO
Chitra Ramkrishna and
other top executives of
thebourseinconnection
with alleged tapping of
phones of executives of
the stock market, offi-
cials said Friday
.
The agency in its
charge sheet, filed be-
fore a special court here,
has alleged that NSE
paid Rs 4.54 crore (ap-
prox) in 8 years to ISEC
Services Pvt Ltd, where
Pandey was a director,
for carrying out illegal
interception of phones.
Itsaidthattherecording
started in 1997 when
then MD (Ravi Narain)
and then DMD/MD
(Ramkrishna) connect-
ed call lines of NSE em-
ployees to a digital voice
recorder provided by a
private company
.
(L) Ex-Mumbai police chief
Sanjay Pandey and (R) ex-NSE
CEO Chitra Ramkrishna.
First India Bureau
New Delhi: Both Hous-
es of the Parliament
were adjourned sine die
on Friday morning, a
weekaheadof thesched-
ule. The Winter Session
of Parliament, which
started on December 7,
was to otherwise end on
December 29. Adjourn-
ing RS Sabha Chairper-
son Jagdeep Dhankhar
talked about the impor-
tance of taking neces-
sary precautions to pre-
vent Covid-19 spread.
Session saw heated de-
batesoverTawangclash.
Winter Session ends, both Houses
of Parliament adjourned sine die
Houses record over
100% productivity
till Wednesday
(L) LS Speaker Om Birla, PM Narendra Modi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and UPA Chairperson
Sonia Gandhi attend customary meeting at end of Winter Session of the Parl on Friday. RS Chairman
Jagdeep Dhankhar greets as he conducts the proceedings of the House in New Delhi on Friday.
During the Tenth Session of the 17th Lok
Sabha, 13 sittings were held and Lok Sabha
sat for 68 hours and 42 minutes. The pro-
ductivity of the House during the Session was 97 per
cent and many important legislative businesses were
transacted. —Om Birla, Lok Sabha Speaker
TRUCK FALLS INTO GORGE IN NORTH SIKKIM
16 ARMY BRAVEHEARTS
‘MARTYRED’
First India Bureau
Zema: As many as 16
Army personnel were
killed and 4 injured on
Friday after a truck they
were travelling in skid-
ded down a steep slope
whilenegotiatingasharp
turn at Zema in North
Sikkim, the Army said.
The “ill-fated vehicle”
was part of a three-vehi-
cle convoy that moved
from Chatten in the
morning towards the
Thangu area. En route
at Zema, the vehicle
skidded down a steep
slope while negotiating
a sharp turn, PRO Lieu-
tenant Colonel Mahen-
dra Rawat said. Prez
Droupadi Murmu, PM
Modi, Amit Shah, Ra-
jnath Singh expressed
grief over the death.
Army personnel seen near the wrecked remains of an Army truck in Zema area of Sikkim on Friday.
A rescue mission was immediately
launched, 4 injured soldiers were
air evacuated from accident spot
President Murmu, PM Modi, HM
Shah, Rajnath, others condole the
deaths of Indian Army personnel
Nasal Covid vaccine cleared
for use; on CO-WIN soon!
First India Bureau
New Delhi: Health
Minister Dr Mansukh
Mandaviya said that
Bharat Biotech nasal
vaccine has been ap-
proved as a booster
dose. Bharat Biotech’s
intranasal Covid vac-
cine will be available in
private centres and will
be introduced on CoW-
IN on Friday evening.
“The government of
India has approved the
Nasal vaccine. It will be
used as a heterologous
booster and will be
available first in private
hospitals. It will be in-
cluded in Covid vacci-
nation program from
Friday evening,” offi-
cial sources said.
CHINA REPORTS 37 MN
COVID CASES IN A DAY
Beijing: China may have
reported 37 million coro-
navirus cases in a day this
week, making it the largest
single-day spike ever, as
per a report which quoted
an estimate from the
government’s top health
authority.
SALIENT FEATURES
l This needless jab
will be India’s first such
booster dose
l It will be adminis-
tered to people above
18 years age
l Pricing of the vac-
cine will be decided
soon by the dept
l It will be made avail-
able in govt and private
facilities
HIGHLIGHTS
l BF.7 variant of coro-
navirus not worrisome
for India, assures senior
scientist Rakesh Mishra
l India fully prepared to
deal with coronavirus situ-
ation: Jyotiraditya Scindia
l India ready to send
fever drugs to China amid
alarming Covid surge
l 3 int’l passengers from
Australia, China, +ve in Guj
NATIONWIDE COVID
MOCK DRILL ON TUE
A mock drill to test Covid
emergency preparedness
would be conducted
in hospitals across the
country on Tue, Dec 27.
Dr Mansukh Mandaviya
will also be participating
in drill. The mock drill is
being conducted amid fear
of a Covid surge in the
wake of a spurt of Covid
cases reported globally.
NEW DELHI l SATURDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2022 l Pages 12 l 3.00 RNI TITLE NO. DELENG/2021/19840 l Vol 2 l Issue No.115
l 80 players sold
for Rs 167 crore
during IPL Mini
auction in Kochi
on Friday
l 405 players
are part of the IPL
2023 auctions,
including 273
Indian players
l Joshua Little
becomes first
Irish player to play
in IPL; GT buy
pacer for
Rs 4.4 crore
l Mohit Sharma
is back in the IPL.
Gujarat Titans
secure his services
for Rs 50 Lakhs
l Mayank Dagar
has a big day,
purchased by
SRH in Rs. 1.8
crore after a huge
bidding war
l Bengal pacer
Mukesh Kumar will
represent DC in
IPL 2023. He joins
them for Rs 5.5 cr
OUR EDITIONS: JAIPUR,
NEW DELHI MUMBAI
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PUNJAB KINGS BREAK
BANK FOR SAM CURRAN
`18.50 CR
Mumbai Indians Owner Akash Ambani, Chennai Super Kings
(CSK) CEO Kasi Viswanathan and SunRisers Hyderabad head
coach Brian Lara during IPL 2023 Auction, in Kochi on Friday.
SAM
CURRAN
CAMEROON
GREEN
BEN
STOKES
CHRIS
MORRIS
PAT
CUMMINS
KYLE
JAMIESON
JASON
HOLDER
ISHAN
KISHAN
HARRY
BROOK
RILEE
ROSSOUW
POORAN
YUVRAJ
PBKS MI CSK RR
KKR
RCB
RR
MI
SH
DC
LSG DC
18.50 CR 17.50 CR 16.25 CR 16.25 CR
15.50 CR
15 CR
5.75 CR
15.25 CR
13.25 CR
4.6 CR
16 CR
CHARLES SOBHRAJ
RELEASED, SAYS “I
FEEL VERY GREAT”
Kathmandu: Confessed
French serial killer Charles
Sobhraj also known as
“The Serpent” was freed
from prison in Nepal on
Friday after serving most
of his sentence for the
murders of American and
Canadian backpackers.
BAIL TO RIYAZ KAZI IN
ANTILIA BOMB SCARE
HIREN MURDER CASE
DELHI COURT EXTENDS
AAFTAB’S JUDICIAL
CUSTODY BY 14 DAYS
Mumbai: The Bombay High
Court on Friday granted bail
to Riyaz Kazi, co accused
with Sachin Vaze in the
Antilia bomb scare and
Mansukh Hiren murder
case. The court directed
Riyaz Kazi’s release on a
bail of Rs 25,000.
New Delhi: Delhi’s
Saket court on Friday
extended the judicial
custody of accused Aaftab
Amin Poonawala in the
Shraddha Walkar murder
case by a further 14 days.
The next date of hearing is
on January 6, 2023.
READ
Crucial
Crucial
CBI ARRESTS FORMER
ICICI CEO CHANDA
KOCHHAR, HUSBAND
VIDEOCON LOAN CASE
New Delhi: The CBI has
arrested former managing
director and chief executive
officer of ICICI Bank Chanda
Kochhar and her husband
Deepak Kochhar in a loan
fraud case. Both Chanda
Kochhar and her husband
were arrested from New
Delhi by the CBI after a
long investigation into a
money laundering case
involving the bank and the
Videocon Group, a consumer
electronics and oil and gas
exploration company. Chanda
Kochhar quit ICICI Bank in
October 2018 over allegations
of irregularities in loans
provided to the Videocon
Group when she was heading
the private sector bank.
KERALA JOURNO
KAPPAN GETS BAIL
AFTER 2 YEARS
First India Bureau
Lucknow: Kerala-based
journalist Siddique Kap-
pan, who was lodged in
a Uttar Pradesh jail after
his arrest in October
2020
while he
was on
his way to
Hathras in
the state,
where a
Dalit woman had died af-
ter allegedly being raped,
has been granted bail by
the High Court on Friday
in a money laundering
case. The Dalit woman
had died at a Delhi hos-
pital a fortnight after she
was allegedly gang-raped
on September 14, 2020.
BSE SENSEX
59,845.29 980.93
NSE NIFTY
17,806.80 320.55
MINI
AUCTION
2023
RAM-SETU TO HELP BJP CROSS OVER
‘ELECTORAL SEA’ TO 2024 VICTORY?
Kartikey Dev Singh
New Delhi: With the
BJP already in 2024
election mode and for
this purpose it is al-
ready treating each and
every election, be it as-
sembly, bypoll or even
local body, with a sense
of extreme importance,
there is a word going
around in party’s ‘top
echelons’ that saffron
party will play its big-
gest masterstroke of
recent times in 2024!
Rumour going on ‘rel-
evantcircles’isthatthere
is a strategy to make
‘ModiSarkar3.0’ through
Ramsetu! Will PM Modi
himself contest from Ra-
manathapuram seat?
It is said that BJP top
leadership is doing ‘ex-
ercise’ on this new
strategy to strengthen
South to compensate for
possible losses in North
India because recently
many constituents of
NDA have separated
from BJP. Probably
Kashi Tamil Sanga-
mam in Varanasi is also
a part of this strategy
However, Ram-
anathapuram is also the
birthplace of former
President Abdul Kalam
and it is from here
where the Ramsetu
starts from which Shri
Ram had crossed into
Lanka. Moreover,
Rameshwaram, one
of 12 Jyotirlingas, is
also located in Ram-
anathapuram, TN.
In such a situation,
if BJP wins from this
seat, then 2 big roads
will open. Firstly, BJP
will make a big dent in
Cong bastion of South
and2ndisthatModiwill
be accepted in Mus-
lim-majority
area.
Amit Shah@AmitShah
Anguished to learn about the tragic road ac-
cident that took away the lives of our brave
Army soldiers in Sikkim. I express my heartfelt
condolences to the bereaved families. The injured have
been provided with every possible assistance.

CAPITOL
NEW DELHI | SATURDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2022
02
www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epapers/delhi I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia
Central Library of the
Municipal Corporation
of Delhi set up in 1958 at
the iconic Town Hall in
the walled city
, has been
shifted to the towering
Civic Centre here, offi-
cials said on Thursday
.
The 1860s-era Town
Hall in old Delhi’s
Chandni Chowk served
as the headquarters of
the MCD from the time
of its inception till it
was moved to the 28-sto-
rey high complex --
Civic Centre.
Special Officer of the
MCD Ashwani Kumar
on Thursday inaugurat-
ed the library in the
presence of Municipal
Commissioner Gyanesh
Bharti. It is located on
the third floor of the E
Block of the Civic Cent-
er. The Civic Centre, of-
ficially known as SP
MukherjeeCivicCentre,
the headquarters of
MCD was inaugurated
on April 22, 2010.
The state-of-the-art
complex houses five
buildings, the tallest of
which is 28-storey high.
“The old Central Li-
brary of the MCD had
about 8,000 books and
nearly 6,000 books have
been shifted to its new
location. The Central Li-
brary set up in 1958
when the MCD began its
journey, has some very
rare books in its posses-
sion, including an origi-
nal copy of the Constitu-
tion of India. It has now
found a new home,” an
official source told PTI.
The MCD came into
being in 1958 and Town
Hall served as its head-
quarters till 2009, and
fromApril2010thehead-
quarters was formally
shifted to the swanky
and towering Civic Cen-
tre complex in front of
the New Delhi railway
station.
TownHallwasbuiltin
1860s. The building was
earliercalledDelhiInsti-
tute or Lawrence Insti-
tute, and is still consid-
ered one of the iconic
buildings of the city
.
A heritage renewal
project for the over
150-year-old building,
has been planned by the
NDMC for the past sev-
eral years, but it has not
takenoff thegroundyet.
“The Central Library
of MCD was established
in 1958 at Town Hall,
Chandni Chowk. Since
its inception, this li-
brary has been an im-
portant centre of study
for public representa-
tives as well as corpora-
tion officials, employees
and researchers. There
are more than six thou-
sandbooksintheshelves
of the Central Library,
inwhichsomebooksare
timeless and precious,”
a senior official said.
Historic Central Library shifted from Town Hall to Civic Centre
KEEPING UP WITH TIME
lll
A copy of the
original version
of Constitution
of India, civil list
and gazettes
of pre-
independence
era, historical
documents are
also available in
the library
Since its incep-
tion, this li-
brary has been
an important centre of
study for public repre-
sentatives, corporation
officials, employees
researchers.
—Senior official,
MCD
Shelly Oberoi AAP’s
mayoral candidate
Aaley Mohammad Iqbal for deputy
Aam Aadmi Party on
Friday finalised six
names as its candidates
for various MCD posts,
including that of mayor
and deputy mayor,
with Shelly Oberoi
emerging as the choice
for the top post in the
civic body
.
Senior AAP leader
Pankaj Gupta an-
nounced the names at a
press conference. The
party held a meeting of
its political affairs com-
mittee (PAC) and follow-
ing a discussion, the six
names were shortlisted.
The party's mayoral
candidate is Shelly
Oberoi and deputy may-
or candidate is Aaley
Mohammad Iqbal, son
of AAP MLA Shoaib
Iqbal. The four names
shortlisted for Stand-
ing Committee were
Raminder Kaur, Sarika
Chaudhary, Mohini
Jeenwal and Mohd
Aamil Malik. Chief
Minister Arvind Kejri-
wal congratulated the
candidates.
Congratulations n
best wishes to AAP can-
didates @OberoiShelly
n @AaleyIqbal for May-
or n Dy Mayor n AAP
members Standing
Committee members @
SarikaSamar, @iRa-
minderKaur, @Mohini-
Jeenwal n Aamil Malik
God bless u all to make
our beloved Del clean,
he tweeted. AAP MLA
Iqbal said he was happy
with his son getting
this responsibility
.
Shelly Oberoi Aaley Mohammad Iqbal
New Delhi (PTI): Working harmoniously with all
councillors for betterment of the national capital
will be the focus of the MCD, Aam Aadmi Party's
mayoral candidate Shelly Oberoi said on Friday.
Speaking to PTI, She said the AAP councillors
have already started working in their respective
wards and cleanliness and resolving the garbage
menace in the city is their primary focus. My main
focus in MCD will be to work harmoniously with
all the councillors for betterment of the city. We
have started working in our respective wards and
resolving the garbage menace is our primary focus
right now, Oberoi said.
MAIN FOCUS TO WORK HARMONIOUSLY
WITH COUNCILLORS: SHELLY OBEROI
Inshallah,
everything
will be good.
I thank Chief Min-
ister Arvind Kejri-
wal for making my
son deputy mayor
candidate. He
called me personal-
ly to give me this
news..
—Shoaib Iqbal,
AAP MLA
Gauba’smantratosecys:Getto
root cause of ppl’s grievances
First India Bureau
New Delhi: Urging sec-
retaries to get to the
root cause of people’s
grievances, Cabinet
Secretary Rajiv Gauba
on Friday said, “not
merely treat the symp-
toms but treat the dis-
ease” and not get over-
whelmed by the volume
of files.
Addressing a work-
shop on ‘Good Govern-
ance Practices’, Gauba
said government offices
should have creches,
gymnasiums, cafeterias
and efforts should be
made to keep them
clean as physical envi-
ronment had a bearing
on work efficiency
.
“What had been done
during the Swachhta
Special Campaign 2.0
should be turned into a
regular practice,”
Gauba added asking of-
ficials not to wait for
special drives. He also
released Special Cam-
paign 2.0 Assessment
Report at the event,
which was attended by
many secretaries in the
central government.
“Good governance is
ultimately about im-
proving outcomes and
improving the delivery
of services. It is about
effectively addressing
public grievances. I
think officers should go
a step further to ad-
dress the root cause of
public grievances. (Do)
Not merely treat symp-
toms but treat the dis-
ease,” Gauba said.
Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba
New Delhi (PTI): Delhi
Commission for Women
(DCW) has issued a no-
tice to the police, seek-
ing an action-taken re-
port in connection with
the alleged abduction
and sexual assault of a
5-yr-old girl at Bhalswa
Dairy
.
The panel has sought
the details related to the
FIR and the arrest of the
accusedbyDecember26.
“Five-year-old girl
raped in Delhi. She was
picked up from the front
of her residence at
BhalswaDairyandlater,
found near a lake. She
underwent a surgery in
a hospital. My team is
with her. We have issued
a notice to Delhi Police
so that the accused are
arrested soon,” DCW
chief Swati Maliwal
said in a tweet in Hindi.
The girl was allegedly
abducted and sexually
assaulted in north Del-
hi’s Bhalswa Dairy area,
the police had said.
DCW notice to police over 5-year-old
girl’s ‘abduction’,‘sexual assault’
Municipal Corporation
of Delhi (MCD) ap-
proached the Delhi High
Court on Friday against
an order of the Lokpal
of India directing a CBI
investigation against its
officialsonthebasisof a
complaint about alleged
illegalandunauthorised
constructionsinthecity
.
Justice Prathiba M
Singh, while refusing to
pass an interim order of
stay at this stage de-
ferred the hearing till
January 5.
She asked the counsel
for the petitioner to
serve a copy of the peti-
tion to the Lokpal in the
meantime.
Senior counsel Ra-
jshekharRao,appearing
for the municipal body,
urged the court to stay
further proceedings.
The judge, however, said
she will pass an order of
stayif acaseismadeout
against the MCD on the
next date of hearing.
Lokpal is consisting
of threememberswitha
retired high court
judge... Once the Lokpal
has considered the mat-
ter, there are some rea-
sons. I have to hear
them, said the court.
List on January 5.
Advance intimation be
given to the respondent
Lokpal, it ordered.
Rao contended that if
CBI investigation is of-
fered in a case such as
thepresentone,nobody
would be able to do their
work and, by the same
logic, a probe should
also be ordered against
the police for crimes in
the city
.
The court, however,
said, MCD can't be
equated with Delhi po-
lice and voiced its con-
cern with respect to il-
legal structures.
MCD moves HC against Lokpal
order for CBI probe against officials
HC seeks NHAI response on plea
against double toll without FASTag
New Delhi (PTI):A
19-year-oldDelhiUniver-
sity student, jumped
from the fourth floor of
a building to save him-
self from harassment.
According to police,
the student had gone to
his friend’s flat to party
.
The two had befriended
each other through
Blued App -- reportedly
a Gay Dating App. The
duo planned to meet and
party at night.
However,whenthestu-
dentreachedhisfriend’s
flat, some boys already
presentthere,startedbe-
having in an objectiona-
ble manner. When he
decided to leave, the
boys apparently blocked
his way
. Distressed and
fearingthesituation,the
studentjumpedfromthe
fourth floor to escape.
Student jumps
from 4th floor to
escape gay date
New Delhi (PTI):
Delhi government
schools will have a
two-week winter va-
cation from January
1, according to a cir-
cular issued by Direc-
torate of Education.
However, remedial
sessions for Classes 9
to 12 will be held from
January 2 to 14 to re-
vise the syllabi, the
circular said.
All government
schools under the Di-
rectorate of Educa-
tion will remain
closed for winter va-
cation from January
1, 2023, to January 15,
2023. To revise the syl-
labus and enhance
thelearning-levelaca-
demic performance
of the students, reme-
dial classes will be
held for classes 9 to 12.
These classes will en-
able the students in
revising the basic
concepts of the sub-
jects from examina-
tion point of view,
the circular said.
For schools with
double shifts, reme-
dial classes will be
held in separate
wings. However, if
there is space crunch,
heads of evening shift
schools may consult
concerned Deputy Di-
rectors of Education
and opt for evening
timings accordingly,
the circular added.
A video grab of the incident as
captured in the CCTV.
My team is with her. We have issued a
notice to Delhi Police so that the accused
are arrested soon.
—Swati Maliwal, , DCW chief
First India Bureau
New Delhi: Delhi High
Court Friday issued no-
tices to National Haigh-
way Authority of India
and Ministry of Road
Transport and High-
ways, seeking their rep-
sonse on a plea against
double toll tax for those
without FASTag.
The notice was issued
onapleachallengingthe
rule making it compul-
sory for vehicles with-
out FASTag to pay dou-
ble the the toll tax.
A bench of Chief Jus-
tice SC Sharma and Jus-
ticeSubramoniumPras-
ad heard the petition
which contended that
the rule was discrimina-
tory, arbitrary and
against public interest
as it empowers NHAI to
collect toll at double the
rate, if paid in cash.
The HC gave four
weeks to file reply and
listed the matter for fur-
ther hearing on April 18.
Petitioner Ravinder
Tyagi, represented by
advocate Praveen
Agrawal, has sought the
quashing of a provision
of National Highway
Fees (Determination of
Rates Collection)
Amendment Rules, 2020
read with MoRTH let-
ters and NHAI circular
duetowhichcommuters
without a FASTag on
their vehicles are bound
topaydoublethetolltax.
FASTag is a device
that employs Radio Fre-
quency Identification
technology for making
tollpayments.FASTagis
affixed on the wind-
screenof thevehicleand
enables a customer to
make the toll payments
directly from account
which is linked to it.
Govt schools to close for
winter vacation from Jan 1
MCD engineers are a problem. Unau-
thorised construction, encroachment,
everything takes place. Something has
to be done. —Delhi High Court
Commuters not having a functional FASTag are
forced to pay double the toll amount. The petitioner
claimed he had to install a FASTag device in his car
because of the compulsion of paying double toll

CAPITOL
03
New Delhi (PTI): Re-
nowned virologist Gan-
gandeep Kang on Fri-
day said India has re-
ported a few cases of
Omicron sub-variants
XBB and BF.7, but they
have not driven an up-
surge, and she does not
expect a spike in covid
cases.
Her remarks come in
the backdrop on the
highly transmissible
Omicron strains, most-
ly BF.7, causing a spike
in covid in many coun-
tries, including China.
“They are, like all
Omicron sub-variants,
very good at infecting
people because they es-
cape the immune re-
sponse that prevents in-
fection, but are not caus-
ing more severe disease
than Delta,” the profes-
sor at the Christian
Medical College's divi-
sion of gastrointestinal
sciences tweeted. Kang
said, at the moment, In-
dia is doing fine but
maintained surveil-
lance should be ensured
to detect signal of any
changes in the behav-
iour of the virus.
BF.7 is a sub-lineage
of Omicron variant
BA.5 and has the strong-
est infection ability
since it is highly trans-
missible, has a shorter
incubation period and
has a higher capacity to
cause reinfection or in-
fect even those vaxed.
China is opening up
fast at a time when their
population has low lev-
els of exposure to natu-
ral infection, she said,
adding “the current cir-
culating variants are
Omicron, which have
evolved in vaccinated
populations and are
therefore very infec-
tious. Kang said most
of China's population
has received two doses
of vaccines.
Most infections can
be managed at home,
but sheer numbers
mean that even a small
proportion getting se-
verely ill, means that
many people will have
severe disease and that
a proportion of those
will die, she said.
Atthemoment,India
is doing fine. We have
few cases, we have had
the XBB and BF.7 for a
while and they have not
driven an upsurge in In-
dia. In the absence of an
even more highly infec-
tious variant, I do not
expect a surge, the vi-
rologist tweeted.
“Each new sub-vari-
ant thrives only if it is
better at immune es-
cape than the prior
ones. Therefore, greater
infectiousness of new
variants is a given and
not news,” she said on
Twitter.
New Delhi (PTI): A
Delhi court directed
Aaftab Amin Poonawa-
la, accused of killing
his live-in partner
Shraddha Walkar, to
give his voice sample
for taking forward the
probe in the “sensitive
case”, rejecting vehe-
ment claims by his
counsel that a copy of
the application and the
time to consult the ac-
cused be given before
ordering such a test.
The court said a fair
probe is also required
in the larger public in-
terest.
Referringvariousjudg-
ments, the court said
the consent of an ac-
cused is only required
for tests like narco anal-
ysis,brainmappingand
polygraph and that the
right to refusal was not
available when a voice
samplehasbeensought.
“True, fair trial is
right of an accused but
it is also true that fair
investigation is also re-
quired in the larger
public interest as the of-
fencecannotescapeand
crime cannot go unno-
ticed merely because
accused is not ready to
aid in the investigation.
Thus, the application
moved by investigation
officer seeking nod for
voice sampling test of
accused is allowed,”
Metropolitan Magis-
trate Vijayshree
Rathore said.
Aaftab’s voice sample test on 26
Two suffocate to death after
fire in Gr Noida warehouse
First India Bureau
Noida: Two men died
reportedly due to as-
phyxiation following a
fire in a carton ware-
house in Greater Noi-
da early Friday, police
said. Identified
Baburam (33) and
Avneesh (32), the vic-
tims were natives of
Baduaun district in
UP, the police added.
The fire broke out
in the warehouse in
Milak Lachhi around
1.30 AM. Police and
firefighters rushed to
the spot after which
the blaze was brought
under control, the po-
lice said.
When the teams
checked a room in the
warehouse, two people
were found there and
both were immediately
taken to community
health centre in Bisra-
kh where the doctor
declared them dead,
the official said.
According to police,
the two probably died
of asphyxiation.
New Delhi (PTI): A
Delhi court on Friday
summoned Ratul Puri,
nephew of former
Madhya Pradesh Chief
Minister Kamal Nath,
as accused in a money
laundering case linked
to an alleged fertiliser
scam and payment of
Rs 685 crore as kick-
backs.
Special Judge Vikas
Dhull, while taking cog-
nisance of a supple-
mentary charge sheet
in the case, directed
Puri to appear before
the court on January
18. The judge passed the
order while noting the
submissions made by
the ED's Special Public
Prosecutor Nitesh
Rana that prima facie
there were enough evi-
dence to prosecute Puri
in the case.
Puri is also an ac-
cused in cases related
to the AgustaWestland
chopper scam and Mo-
ser Baer scam.
He is currently out
on bail in cases related
to both the scams.
According to the ED,
the fertiliser scam, also
involving RJD Rajya
Sabha MP Amarendra
Dhari Singh and IFF-
CO Managing Director
and CEO U S Awasthi,
relates to illegal com-
missions worth over Rs
685 crore allegedly paid
to the NRI sons of
Awasthi and Indian
Potash Ltd (IPL) Man-
aging Director P S
Gahlaut, as well as oth-
ers by overseas suppli-
ers during 2007-14.
Indian Farmers Fer-
tiliser Co-operative
Limited (IFFCO) is a
multi-state farmers' co-
operative, while IPL is
its company involved
in supplying fertilis-
ers, for which the gov-
ernment provides sub-
sidies to keep rates af-
fordable, the ED said.
Kamal Nath’s nephew summoned by court in fertiliser scam
New Delhi (PTI): For-
mer Jawaharlal Nehru
University (JNU) stu-
dent Umar Khalid was
released from the Tihar
jail here on Friday after
he was granted interim
bail for a week to attend
his sister’s wedding, of-
ficials said.
According to prison
officials, Khalid was re-
leased on Friday morn-
ing. Additional Ses-
sions Judge Amitabh
Rawat granted the re-
lief to Khalid, who was
arrested in a case relat-
ed to the February 2020
northeast Delhi riots.
Khalid has been
granted bail till Decem-
ber 30. The former stu-
dent leader had moved
an application seeking
interim bail for two
weeks to attend his sis-
ter’s wedding.
JNU’s Umar Khalid released for
a week to attend sister’s wedding
New Delhi (PTI): A shallow layer of fog engulfed
parts of Delhi on Friday morning, reducing visi-
bility to 500 metres, as the city recorded the sea-
son’s coldest morning with the mercury dipping
to 5.3 degrees Celsius. The fog disrupted road and
rail traffic with a railways spokesperson saying 21
trains were running late by 1.30 to 4.30 hours. The
maximum temperature, which settled one notch
below normal at 20.1 degrees Celsius, was also the
lowest this winter.
The Safdarjung Observatory
, the primary weath-
er station in the national capital, recorded the
minimum temperature at 5.3 degrees Celsius, three
notches below the season’s normal, according to
the India Meteorological Department (IMD). This
is the lowest temperature recorded so far this sea-
son. The Palam airport logged the lowest visibility
level of 200 metres at 5.30 am. Visibility dropped to
500 metres at Safdarjung airport at 5.30 am.
At 5.3o
C, Delhi records
season’s coldest morning
New Delhi (PTI): A
man was arrested for al-
legedly killing his wife
by strangulation over
suspiciononhercharac-
ter in Mandawali area,
police said on Friday
.
OnAugust30,a25-year-
old woman was found
dead at her house in
Mandawali’s Saket
block. The body bore in-
jury marks on the fore-
head, a senior police of-
ficer said.
During the investiga-
tion, it was revealed that
the deceased, a native of
Siddarth Nagar district
in UP
, married auto me-
chanic Saddam in 2016,
the officer said, adding
they had a 3-year-old son
who lived with his
grandparents in Sid-
darth Nagar.
Donotexpectsurgeincasesdueto
Omicron sub-variants: Virologist
People without face masks at a crowded Sarojni Nagar Market in
New Delhi on Friday. —PHOTO BY PTI
Worry with
China is not
just the trage-
dy unfolding for them
as they undergo what
we have already experi-
enced, but that high
replication means in-
creased opportunity for
new variants to emerge.
Gagandeep Kang,
Virologist
‘NO SEVERE
DISEASE’
Noting that Omicron
does result in severe
disease in a proportion
of the infected, but it is
not as severe as that
caused by the Delta
variant, she said it is
not mild, but it does
infect the upper
respiratory tract more
than the lower.
Umar Khalid —FILE PHOTO
According to ED, the
scam also involves
RJD MP Amarendra
Dhari Singh
A man warming himself near a bonfire on a cold winter morning,
on banks of Yamuna in New Delhi on Friday. —PHOTO BY ANI
Ghaziabad (ANI): A fire broke out at a marriage
hall in Ghaziabad on Friday, informed the fire de-
partment. We received information about the fire
in a marriage hall. Six fire tenders reached the
spot. The fire has been completely doused. There
has been no loss of life. A lot of material has
been burnt in the fire, said Rahul Kumar, CFO.
Locals at the site on Friday. —PHOTO BY PTI
FIRE BREAKS OUT IN MARRIAGE
FIRE BREAKS OUT IN MARRIAGE
HALL IN GHAZIABAD
HALL IN GHAZIABAD
Man kills wife
over infidelity
suspicion; held
New Delhi (PTI): The Fo-
rensic Science Laboratory
(FSL) in Rohini on Friday
submitted the narco test
report of Aaftab Poonawa-
la to the case’s investigat-
ing officer, officials said.
Police had earlier said that
according to the Central
Forensic Science Labora-
tory (CFSL) report, the
blood samples recov-
ered from Poonawala’s
house were of Shraddha
Walkar’s. The report of
Poonawala’s polygraph
test has already been
submitted to police by the
FSL. According to police
sources, the DNA evidence
will prove to be a critical
evidence in the case.
Narco test
report given to
police by FSL

l Vol 2 l Issue No.115
l RNI TITLE NO. DELENG/2021/19840
Printed and published by
Anita Hada Sangwan on behalf of
First Express Publishers. Printed at
Impressions Printing and Packaging
Limited, C-21, 22 Sector-59,
Noida-201301. Published at G-20,
3rd Floor, 309, Preet Vihar, New
Delhi-110092. Phone 011-49846474.
Editor-In-Chief: Dr Jagdeesh Chandra
Editor: Anita Hada Sangwan
responsible for selection of news
under the PRB Act
PERSPECTIVE
04
Amit Shah
@AmitShah
Former Prime Minister Chaudhary
Charan Singh ji fought for the interests
of farmers throughout his life. He
believed that prosperous farmers and
strong agriculture system are the
foundation of bright India. Remembering
Chaudhary Saheb on his birth
anniversary, I bow down to him and
wish everyone a Happy Farmer’s Day.
Anurag Thakur
@ianuragthakur
The news of the casualties of jawans in
a road accident in Sikkim is extremely
distressing. My heartfelt condolences
are with the families of the victims. I
wish speedy recovery of the injured.
May God give place to the departed
brave souls at his holy feet. Om Shanti!
SPIRITUAL SPEAK
Enter through the narrow
gate. For wide is the gate
and broad is the road that
leads to destruction, and
many enter through it.
—Bible
IN-DEPTH
BHARAT JODO
YATRA IS SET TO
ENTER A DIFFICULT
TERRITORY
harat Jodo Yatra may
notachieveitsgoal(s)
but it continues to
roll on. From Hary-
ana it is expected to
enter Delhi on Saturday and
reach the Red Fort unmindful of
the Covid-19 warning issued by
the Union Health Ministry.
Masks are on but social distanc-
ing is not possible when a crowd
accompanies a leader. It will be
interesting to see if the march-
ers are allowed to enter Delhi
while Covid-19 protocols are not
in place. There is apprehension
that it may be stopped. Will the
Congress gain any political
mileage if it is?
That may not happen and the
BJP may not lose any brownie
points either as it is too strongly
placed. It is the outcome of any
political move that eventually
decides its success or failure.
The Yatra’s objectives of fight-
ing fear, bigotry and prejudice
are laudable but the acceptabil-
ity of those objectives by the
masses is doubtful. That will
make Yatra’s unspoken agenda
of Congress revival difficult.
TOP TWEETS
B
nce again the is-
sue of Muslims’
insecurity has
cropped up. This
time it has been
raised by Rashtriya Janata
Dal’s senior leader Abdul
Bari who said that he has
asked his children to find a
job abroad and, if possible,
settle there as Muslims were
insecure in India. Bari said
that his son was studying at
Harvard University and his
daughter was a graduate of
LSE and it was hard for him
to ask his children to leave
the country
.
His worry was that his
children may not be able to
adjust in the prevailing inse-
cure environment. The BJP
spokesman Nikhil Anand re-
sponded that Bari should go
to Pakistan if he felt sup-
pressed and called his com-
ments an insult to the Hindu
community
.
In 2015 actor Aamir Khan
had also raised the issue of
growing intolerance in the
country and his wife Kiran
Rao wondered if they should
move out of the country
. Like
Bari he was also to either do
ghar wapsi (convert to Hin-
duism) or go to Pakistan.
To malign the actor a fake
video was also circulated
showing him in the company
of two Pakistani terrorists.
There is indeed increased
intolerance. Early release of
Bilkis Bano’s rapists from
prison and the warm wel-
come they were given, the
Dharma Sansad’s call to vio-
lence against Muslims did
not evoke a feeling of safety
in the minority community
and with bulldozer becoming
a new symbol of democracy
the community’s feeling of
insecurity was heightened.
Despite all this there is
harmony in the country and
there’s no reason to emigrate.
DON’T FEAR, THERE’S
HARMONY IN INDIA
Once again the issue of
Muslims’ insecurity has
cropped up. This time it
has been raised by
RJD’s senior leader
Abdul Bari who said
that he has asked his
children to find a job
abroad and, if possible,
settle there as Muslims
were insecure in India
O
nastrongresponsetoarecent
Twitter poll posted by Elon
Musk, users of the platform
have called for him to relin-
quish his position as CEO.
Muskhasrespondedthathe’ll
step down when he “finds
someone foolish enough” to
take over as CEO, saying he
will run the software and
server teams instead. But any
replacement will need to be
able to steer Twitter back to
calmer waters, with Musk re-
maining majority owner.
It’s been a tumultuous year
for Twitter and Musk. He be-
gan building up shares in the
company in January 2022
and his US$44 billion (£36 bil-
lion) bid to buy the platform
was accepted in April. He
then tried to pull out of the
deal in July, before finally
taking ownership in October.
Since then he has made – and
sometimes walked back – nu-
merous changes to the popu-
lar social media platform.
Indeed, Musk’s reaction to
finally getting his hands on
Twitter has been reminis-
cent of Christmas morning,
when children rip open pre-
sents, display initial excite-
ment and then quickly lose
interest. Musk may have im-
agined that owning the web-
site would be fun and make
him feel powerful.
But the reality has been
rather different. He has been
criticised and abused, both
online and in real life and
now 57.5% of more than 17.5
million Twitter users have
voted for him to stand down
as its CEO.
There has been some spec-
ulation that Musk has come
under pressure from other
Twitter shareholders and
lenders to move on. Further,
Musk has been selling bil-
lions in Tesla stock and its
share price is down by over
60% this year. Shareholders
in the car firm would proba-
bly like their hitherto suc-
cessful CEO back full time.
So, if Twitter wants to find
a new CEO, what sort of per-
son should the troubled so-
cial media platform be look-
ing for? As a student of lead-
ership, I can see three key
requirements for anyone con-
sidering – or being consid-
ered for – this role right now:
1. CONFIDENCE AND
INDEPENDENCE
A new Twitter CEO will want
assurances that they will be
free to take decisions about
the direction of the business
withoutbeingsecond-guessed
by Musk as the majority own-
er. So the new CEO will need
to be confident, perhaps even
arrogant, and ready to stand
their ground.
2. THE ABILITY
TO FACE FACTS
The new leader will have to
“confront the brutal facts” of
the situation – according to
management expert Jim Col-
lins, this is how to begin pro-
ductive change. Twitter is
struggling financially
.
Musk paid US$44 billion to
buy it, perhaps twice what it
was worth. He has borrowed
huge sums and sold large
tranches of Tesla stock to
help fund the acquisition.
But he could now face inter-
est payments to lenders of up
to US$1 billion a year unless
Twitter’s financial health
can be turned around. These
are the brutal facts a new
leader must confront.
3. AN IMAGINATIVE
APPROACH TO
MANAGEMENT
The social media platform’s
current position leads on to a
thirdrequirementforthenew
leader: imagination. Twitter
is a resounding practical suc-
cess. It is influential and pow-
erful. It has certainly sped up
the flow of information (ad-
mittedly
, inaccurate informa-
tionaswellastheusefulkind).
And it can be a force for
good – for example providing
data and advice during the
COVID-19 pandemic or help-
ing to highlight the failings
of politicians or the media –
even with the unpleasantness
and abuse that seem to be an
unavoidable part of tweeting.
This brings us to a very
valuable leadership lesson
that the maverick Musk has
taught everyone in recent
months: we should hesitate
before labelling forceful
people as great leaders in
any setting until we have
seen what their long-term
impact has been.
SOURCE: THE CONVERSATION
I
And this leads us to a major
task for any future Twitter
CEO – and perhaps the
heart of the problem with
Twitter. Musk changes his
mind frequently –
sometimes within hours, as
we saw recently when he
appeared to walk back a
policy change regarding
users’ ability to link to other
social media accounts. He
may rethink stepping down,
or even appoint someone
only to sack them
STICKING
WITH PLAN
Musk has responded that he’ll step down
when he “finds someone foolish enough” to
take over as CEO, saying he will run the software
and server teams instead. But any replacement will
need to be able to steer Twitter back to calmer
waters, with Musk remaining majority owner
LEADERSHIP
QUALITIES
Musk’s
replacement as
Twitter’s CEO will
need to have
3

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www.firstindia.co.in I https://firstindia.co.in/epapers/delhi I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia

First India Bureau
New Delhi: Union Min-
ister of State (MoS) Dr
Jitendra Singh on Fri-
day urged the industry
body, CII to come for-
ward in a big way to
promote Start-ups in
Jammu and Kashmir to
provide gainful employ-
ment to youth.
Dr Jitendra Singh
said, JK has huge un-
explored potential of
Agri-tech Start-ups as
the geography and cli-
matic conditions here
favour the cultivation of
medicinal and aromatic
plants. He said, the suc-
cess of Aroma Mission
or ‘Purple Revolution’
bears testimony to the
win-win proposition for
both farmers and youth
entrepreneurs.
Interacting with JK
Chapter of Confedera-
tion of Indian Industry,
Dr Singh said, the real
stakeholders from all
walks of life should
come out with an open
mind for overall devel-
opment of the UT. The
Minister recalled that
Prime Minister Modi
last year, while meeting
the political representa-
tives from JK called
for removing Dilli ki
Doori (the distance from
Delhi) as well as Dil ki
Doori (the distance from
the heart). He said, after
Prime Minister Naren-
dra Modi took oath for
the second term, ‘Mis-
sion JK’ was strongly
emphasised, of which
one of the important
steps taken has been the
extensive public out-
reach program involv-
ing Union Ministers,
apart from several im-
portant developmental
projects and new invest-
ments bestowed on the
newly created UT.
Sayed Ehsan Javaid,
Chairman of CII UT
Council,JKsaid,since
the abrogation of arti-
cle 370 post august 5th
2019, they have adopted
the theme “Making JK
an Aspirational Desti-
nation” by playing a
proactive role as a cata-
lyst for sustainable de-
velopment of the UT
and making it an aspira-
tional destination for
Investments, Quality
Education, and Ad-
vanced Infrastructure.
‘Come forward to promote start-ups in JK’
MoS JITENDRA SINGH TO CII
Minister of State (MoS) Dr Jitendra Singh during the meeting with
the CII representatives on Friday.
New Delhi (ANI): The
NIA on Friday carried
out searches at 14 loca-
tions in Jammu and
Kashmir against people
involved in the spread-
ing of terrorist activi-
ties by various pro-
scribed terrorist outfits
in the UT by targeting
minorities and security
personnel. The search
operation was conduct-
ed by the NIA in Kul-
gam, Pulwama, Anant-
nag, Sopore and Jammu
districts. Various in-
criminating materials
such as digital devices,
SIM cards and digital
storage devices have
been seized from the
searched premises, the
NIA said in a statement.
NIA raids 14
locations in JK
in case linked to
terror activities
Cabinet approves MSP for
copra for 2023 season
First India Bureau
New Delhi:TheCabinet
CommitteeonEconomic
Affairs chaired by PM
Narendra
Modihasap-
proved Min-
imum Sup-
port Prices
(MSPs) for
copra for 2023 season.
Theapprovalisbasedon
recommendationsof the
CommissionforAgricul-
tural Costs and Prices
andviewsof majorcoco-
nut growing states.
TheMSPforFairAver-
age Quality of milling
coprahasbeenfixedatRs
10860 per quintal and for
ball copra at Rs 11750 per
quintal for 2023. This is
an increase of Rs 270 per
quintal for milling copra
andRs750perquintalfor
ball copra over the previ-
ous season. This would
ensure a margin of
51.82% for milling copra
and 64.26% for ball copra
over all India weighted
average cost of produc-
tion, Union Minister
Anurag Thakur said.
New Delhi (ANI): Un-
ion Minister Jyotiradi-
tya Scindia on Friday
highlighted the ongoing
vaccination drive,
launched by the Centre
government, against
Covid-19 amid the fear
of a covid surge.
Addressing a press
briefing on the BJP gov-
ernment’s efforts to-
wards a ‘Healthy India’
on Friday, the Union
Minister said that 220
crore doses of vaccine
have been administered
till this Monday. “The
focus of our govern-
ment is to transform
health care into holistic
health care. Following
the PM's vision of ‘One
Nation One Health’, we
collectively handled
Covid. 220 crore doses
of vaccine have been
administered till this
Monday,” he said.
Shedding a light on
the Modi govt’s steps in
providing medical fa-
cilities in far-flung are-
as, the Civil Aviation
Minister said, “drones
are being used for the
delivery of blood, vac-
cines, and medicines in
remote areas. In 2014
there were only 6 All In-
dia Institute of Medical
Sciences (AIIMS) and
today we have 22 AIIMS
in the country,” the Un-
ion Minister added.
We have administered 220 cr Covid
vaccine doses till date,says Scindia
First India Bureau
New Delhi: The Win-
ter Session of the Lok
Sabha was adjourned
sine die on Friday.
On this occasion, Lok
Sabha Speaker Om Bir-
la, who was Presiding
the House, said that dur-
ing the 10th session of
the Lok Sabha, 13 sit-
tings were held and Lok
Sabha sat for 68 hours
and 42 minutes. The pro-
ductivity of the House
during the Session was
97percentandmanyim-
portant legislative busi-
nesses were transacted.
DuringtheSession,09
Bills were introduced
and07Billswerepassed.
Some of the important
bills which were passed
are: The Anti-Maritime
PiracyBill,2019;TheAp-
propriation (No.4) Bill,
2022; The Appropriation
(No.5) Bill, 2022; The
Constitution(Scheduled
Tribes) Order (Second,
Third, Fourth and Fifth)
Amendment Bill, 2022;
and The Repealing and
Amending Bill, 2022.
Supplementary De-
mands for Grants - First
Batch for 2022-2023 and
Demands for Excess
Grants for 2019-2020
which were passed on
December 14.
Premature adjournment of LS is with
consensus of all political parties: Birla
During the Session, 13 sittings were held and Lok Sabha sat for 68 hours 42 minute, says LS Speaker
MPs in the Lok Sabha during the Winter Session of Parliament, in New Delhi on Friday. —PHOTO BY PTI
BSF FOILS PAKISTAN DRONE BID TO
SMUGGLE DRUGS, ARMS INTO PUNJAB
Chandigarh: The BSF in Punjab on Friday foiled Paki-
stan’s attempt of smuggling drugs and weapons across
the border through a drone. The BSF personnel deployed
at the border heard the buzzing sound of a flying object
from Pakistan entering Indian territory near Mullakot vil-
lage in Amritsar district. As per the drill, the troops tried
to intercept the drone by firing. The area was cordoned
off and the security agencies were informed.
Kochi: The Kerala High Court has held that search engines
like Google cannot claim to be mere intermediaries with no
control over the content that appears in search results. This
came in a judgment by a division bench of Justices Muahmed
Mustaque and Shoba Annamma Eapen on the right to be
forgotten and the manner in which it applies to publication
of court judgments and proceedings, in the absence of any
specific legislation. The bench observed that even though
making court judgments available in search results cannot be
faulted, it cannot be said that Google has no control over the
information that gets thrown up in search results.
SEARCH ENGINES LIKE GOOGLE CANNOT
CLAIM TO BE 'CONTENT-BLIND': KERALA HC
Kabirdham: Four people were killed while four got injured
after the vehicle in which they were traveling in fell into a
40-feet deep ditch in Chhattisgarh’s
Kabirdham district, on the interven-
ing night of Thursday and Friday.
The police said that there were a
total of eight passengers, including
the driver in the car during the time
of the incident.Those who died were identified as Fagu
Yadav (60), a resident of Sakin, Sati Bai (35), a resident
of Sakin Damakheda, Kaushalya (70), a resident of Sakin
Kusmi and Malti (45), a resident of Sakin Bhanpuri.
4 DEAD, 4 INJURED AFTER VEHICLE FALLS
INTO DEEP DITCH IN CHHATTISGARH
CRUCIAL READ
Speaker Om Birla said that
56 Starred questions were
orally answered in the House
during the
Session. An-
swers to 2760
Unstarred
Questions
were laid on
the Table of
the House.
Besides, 298
matters of public importance
were raised under Rule 377.
Members raised 374 matters
of urgent public importance
during Zero Hour.
IMPORTANT BILLS WHICH WERE PASSED
z The Anti-Maritime Piracy Bill, 2019;
z The Appropriation (No.4) Bill, 2022;
z The Appropriation (No.5) Bill, 2022;
z The Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order
(Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth) Amend-
ment Bill, 2022;
z The Repealing and Amending Bill, 2022
QUESTION HOUR
New Delhi (ANI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress MP Sonia Gandhi and
other leaders on Friday attended the customary meeting at Lok Sabha Speaker Om
Birla’s chamber at the end of the Winter Session. Among leaders who attended
the meeting included Union Minister Rajnath Singh and other top leaders. The Lok
Sabha was adjourned sine die on Friday, six days ahead of the schedule.
PM MODI, OTHERS ATTEND CUSTOMARY MEETING HOSTED BY BIRLA
PRODUCTIVITY
OF LOK SABHA
97%
TOTAL
SITTINGS
13
BILLS
INTRODUCED
09
SITTINGS’
DURATION
68:42 Hrs
BILLS
PASSED
07
PAPERS TABLED
IN THE HOUSE
1811
New Delhi (FIB): LS Speaker Om Birla led MPs in paying
floral tributes at the portrait of former Prime Minister
Chaudhary Charan Singh in the Central Hall of Parlia-
ment House on his Birth Anniversary, on Friday. Defence
Minister Raj Nath Singh; Minister of Commerce Piyush
Goyal; Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Pralhad Joshi;
Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha Harivansh; other Min-
isters, MPs and former Members also paid floral tributes
to Chaudhary Charan Singh. A booklet containing the
profile of Chaudhary Charan Singh, brought out in Hindi
and English by the Lok Sabha Secretariat, was presented
to the dignitaries who attended the function.
MPs PAY TRIBUTES TO CHAUDHARY
CHARAN SINGH ON HIS BIRTH ANNIV
New Delhi (ANI): The Rajya Sabha was on Friday
adjourned sine die seven days ahead of the sched-
uled completion of the 258th session. Chairman
Jagdeep Dhankhar adjourned the house sine die
and said he felt privileged to be part of the August
House. The Chairman extended his greetings to the
members of the House for the upcoming festivals,
including Christmas, Pongal, Lohri and others, and
suggested that there is a need to be vigilant of the
rising cases of Covid pandemic and take necessary
precautions. “This session was marked with a dis-
play of wit, sarcasm, humour and intellect. I hope
to experience more of it with greater indulgence
from experienced members,” Dhankhar said.
RAJYA SABHA ALSO ADJOURNED SINE
DIE 7 DAYS AHEAD OF SCHEDULE
Jyotiraditya Scindia
INDIA
06
HasRahulundergoneCovidtestyet?asksThakur
New Delhi (PTI): Union
Minister Anurag
ThakuronFridaysought
to know whether Rahul
Gandhi had got himself
tested for COVID-19 as
HimachalPradeshChief
Minister Sukhvinder
Singh Sukhu, who had
walked “arm-in-arm”
withtheCongressleader
during the Bharat Jodo
Yatra, was infected with
the virus.
“The Himachal
Pradesh chief minister
has tested Covid posi-
tive during the yatra.
That day, Rahul Gandhi
was walking arm-in-
arm with the chief min-
ister. Did Rahul get
himself tested for
Covid,” Thakur told
reporters here.
The Union minister
sought to know whether
other participants of
the Bharat Jodo Yatra
had got their Covid
tests done.
“Will the Congress
not adhere to Covid pro-
tocols? Is one family or
one party above Covid
protocols,” Thakur
asked. He said leaders
of the Congress will be
held responsible if
there is a fresh spread
of Covid in the country
.
“Have Congress lead-
ers decided to continue
spreading misinforma-
tion about Covid as they
did about the vaccines,”
Thakur asked. “The
health infrastructure
of the country has to
bear the brunt when
several people get ad-
mitted to hospitals.”
CBI has filed an FIR
against Abhijeet Group
promoted company
Corporate Power Lim-
ited and its directors for
alleged bank fraud of
Rs 4,000 crore, officials
said on Friday
.
The agency on Thurs-
day searched 16 loca-
tions in multiple cities,
including Nagpur,
Mumbai, Ranchi, Kolk-
ata, Durgapur, Ghazi-
abad, and Vishakhapat-
nam, in connection
with the case, they said.
Corporate Power
Limited, a Kolkata-
based special purpose
vehicle promoted by
Abhijeet Group for set-
ting up a power plant in
Jharkhand, allegedly
committed a bank fraud
of Rs 4037.87 crore in-
volving a consortium of
20 banks, according to a
complaint filed by Un-
ion Bank of India.
Officials said several
companies of Abhijeet
Group are facing CBI
probes in connection
with coal scam cases.
CBI lodges FIR over
`4,037 cr bank fraud
CORPORATE POWER LTD
Kathmandu (PTI):
Charles Sobhraj was de-
ported to France on Fri-
day, hours after being
freed from a Nepalese
prison where he served
most of his sentence for
a string of murders of
backpackers across
Asia in the 1970s.
Sobhraj, 78, was re-
leased from the Central
Jail in Kathmandu on
Friday morning and
taken in a heavily
guarded police convoy
to the Department of
Immigration.
According to Sudesh
Subedi,oneof Sobhraj’s
lawyers, his mother and
daughter were waiting
for his arrival in Paris.
Sobhraj flew to Doha
on Qatar Airways flight
QR647 and will then
leave for Paris.
Although his so-
called spouse Nihita
Bishwas, whom he re-
portedly married in the
jail in 2008, was present
at the immigration of-
fice, she was not al-
lowed to meet Sobhraj.
Sobhraj arranged
money online for his air
ticket.
Fanindra Mani
Pokharel, the joint
secretary and spokes-
person of the Ministry
of Home Affairs, said
Sobhraj will be barred
from entering Nepal
for the next ten years,
The Kathmandu Post
newspaper reported.
Charles Sobhraj
deported to France
on release from jail
Nepal police escort Charles Sobhraj (in brown cap) to the
immigration office in Kathmandu on Friday. —PHOTO BY PTI
Nihita Bishwas,
whom Sobhraj
married in jail
in 2008, was at
the immigration
office but was
not allowed to
meet him
Union Minister Anurag Thakur
speaks during launch of Khelo
India dashboard on Friday.

07
Commodity Price Change % Chg
GOLD 54,853.00 372.00 0.02 (Per 10g)
SILVER 69,413.00 194.00 0.05 (Per 1kg)
COMMODITIES
Currency Price Change % Chg
USDINR 82.86 0.09 0.10
GBPINR 99.9514 0.2.14 0.23
CURRENCIES
India should hike rates carefully: IMF
New Delhi: India’s future
interest rate hikes should
be carefully calibrated and
its intervention in the for-
eign exchange market
should be limited to manag-
ing volatility, the Interna-
tional Monetary Fund
(IMF) said on Friday. The
Reserve Bank of India
(RBI) has raised its key
policy rate by 225 basis
points since May
, taking the
rate to the highest in over
three years.
“Inflation pressures have
led to an appropriate shift
towards policy tightening,”
IMF said in an annual con-
sultation report. The report
is prepared by IMF staff in
accordance with its Article
IV of Agreement, which re-
quires the fund to hold an-
nual consultations with of-
ficials from member states
about economic develop-
ment and policies.
“Additional tightening
should be carefully cali-
brated and communicat-
ed,” it added. Last week,
minutes of the RBI’s mon-
etary policy meeting
showed a majority of rate-
setters were concerned
about elevated inflation
and felt the central bank
could not afford to prema-
turely pause its rate tight-
ening cycle. —AGENCIES
IMF WARNS OF HEADWINDS
‘GDP TO GROW
AT 6.8% THIS FY’
z The IMF projected inflation
at 6.9% for the current fiscal
year that ends on March 31,
2023 and said price gains
would moderate gradually
z Uncertainty around outlook
is high, with risks tilted to the
downside, the IMF said
business
BRIEFS
California: Facebook
owner Meta has agreed to
pay $725m to settle legal
action over a data breach
linked to political consul-
tancy Cambridge Analyti-
ca. The long-running dis-
pute accused the social
media giant of allowing
third parties, including
the British firm, to access
Facebook users’ personal
data. The proposed sum
is the largest in a US data
privacy class action, law-
yers say. Meta, which did
not admit wrongdoing,
said it had “revamped” its
approach to privacy over
the past 3 years. The
company said settling
was “in the best interest
of our community
shareholders”.
—AGENCIES
Bengaluru: Walmart-
owned e-commerce plat-
form Flipkart and digital
payments platform Pho-
nePe, on Friday an-
nounced the full owner-
ship separation of Phone-
Pe as the company gears
up for initial public offer-
ing. As part of this trans-
action, existing Flipkart
Singapore and PhonePe
Singapore shareholders,
led by Walmart, have pur-
chased shares directly in
PhonePe India. Walmart
will remain the majority
shareholder of both
business groups. —PTI
FLIPKART AND
PHONEPE COMPLETE
SEPARATION
CAMBRIDGE
ANALYTICA CASE:
META PAYS $725 MN
Mumbai: The International
Finance Corporation has
extended a $400 million
loan to mortgage major
HDFC for financing green
affordable housing units,
as part of their efforts to-
wards supporting climate
goals. This loan will help
improve access to climate-
smart affordable homes
by boosting green hous-
ing, which will support the
country’s shift towards a
more sustainable growth
path, creating jobs and en-
suring long-term business
growth. —PTI
HDFC GETS $400 MN
LOAN FOR FINANCING
GREEN HOUSING
New Delhi: Buoyed by 5G
push and a high installed
base, the India smart-
phone market is projected
to grow 10 per cent in
2023 to reach 175 million
units, a report showed on
Friday. India currently has
more than 600 million
smartphone users, a
number which is expected
to grow over time as more
feature phone users mi-
grate to smartphones. The
replacement demand from
these users will drive the
market in 2023 and be-
yond, as per Counterpoint
Research. —AGENCIES
SMARTPHONE MKT
TO REACH 175 MN
UNITS IN 2023
*Rates till the edition went to print.
IPO: BHARAT HIGHWAYS
INVIT SEEKS SEBI’S NOD
TO RAISE ` 2,000 CR
New Delhi: Infrastructure
investment trust Bharat
Highways InvIT has filed draft
prospectus
with the capital
markets regu-
lator Sebi to
mop-up `
2,000 crore through an initial
public offering (IPO). Proceeds
of the issue will be used to
repay certain loans obtained
by the Project SPVs (special
purpose vehicles) and for
general corporate purposes,
according to the draft red her-
ring prospectus (DRHP). —PTI
INDIA’S FOREX
RESERVES AT $563.5
BN, SNAP 5-WEEK RISE
New Delhi: India’s foreign
exchange reserves snapped
a five-week rising streak and
fell to $563.5
billion for the
week through
Dec 16, the
Reserve Bank
of India’s (RBI) statistical sup-
plement showed on Friday In
the previous reporting week,
the foreign exchange reserves
were at $564.07 billion. The
foreign currency assets stood
at $500.125 billion during the
week to Dec 9, Weekly Statisti-
cal Supplement by RBI. —PTI
GAUTAM ADANI’S GROUP ENTERS WAREHOUSING
BUSINESS, SIGNS AGREEMENT WITH DA GROUP
New Delhi: Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone has entered
the business of warehousing. It announced that its subsidiary,
Adani Logistics, has signed a joint
venture agreement with DA Group and
its affiliates. The joint venture is a 50:50
partnership, and it will develop and
operate logistics and warehousing parks
in Ahmedabad and Kolkata, according to
the statement from Adani Ports shared
with stock exchanges on Thursday
evening. Adani Logistics will nominate three directors to its board
while DA Group will send two directors for the joint venture. —ANI
AIRLINES TO COMPENSATE PASSENGERS FOR
TICKET DOWNGRADE, SAYS AVIATION WATCHDOG
New Delhi: Passengers will soon be compensated for any involun-
tary downgrade of their tickets for a particular class by an airline,
with aviation regulator DGCA preparing
to put in place new norms. Once the
norms come into force, the airline con-
cerned will have to refund the full value
of such tickets, including taxes, and also
the affected passenger will be flown
free of cost in the next available class,
according to DGCA. —PTI
OTHER STORIES
New Delhi: Concerned
over rising incidence of
mis-selling, the finance
ministryhasdirectedheads
of public sector banks to
put in place strong mecha-
nisms to avoid unethical
practices for selling insur-
ance policies to customers.
The Department of Fi-
nancial Services has re-
ceived complaints that
fraudulent and unethical
practices are adopted by
banks and life insurance
companies for procuring
policies from the bank cus-
tomers, a letter ad-
dressed to chairper-
sons manag-
ing directors
o f
public sector banks said.
There have been instanc-
eswherelifeinsurancepoli-
cies were sold to customers
aged above 75 years in Tier
II-III cities. Usually,
branches of the
banks push prod-
ucts of their sub-
sidiary insurers.
When resisted by
customers, bank offi-
cials would sheepishly con-
vince that they are under
pressure. Insurance prod-
ucts are pushed when cus-
tomers go to seek any kind
of loan or buy a term depos-
it. In this regard, it said, the
department has already is-
sued a circular wherein it
hasbeenadvisedthatabank
should not adopt restrictive
practices of forcing custom-
ers for getting insurance.
Also, the Central Vigi-
lance Commission has
raised objection, as incen-
tives for selling insurance
products bring not only
pressureonthestaff butthe
core business of banking
also gets affected and qual-
ityismaygetcompromised.
‘Avoidwrongpracticestosellinsurance’
Govt asks banks to
desist from using
unethical practices
to sell insurance
policies
GIVE LOANS AT LOWER RATES TO
THOSE WANTING TO BUY CLEAN ENERGY
VEHICLES: NITIN GADKARI TO BANKS
Thane (PTI): Union Minis-
ter Nitin Gadkari on Friday
asked banks to give loans
at reduced interest rates to
those seeking to buy vehicles
that run on clean energy,
including flex fuel, electricity
and hydrogen. Speaking at
the golden jubilee celebra-
tions of a cooperative bank
in Kalyan in Maharashtra’s
Thane district, the Union
Minister for Road Transport
and Highways said it was his
dream that vehicles run-
ning on diesel and petrol get
phased out in the next four
to five years. He said banks
must rate industries based on
thee performance on various
parameters over the past five
years and give those scoring
high marks loans within 24
hours, adding credibility and
goodwill would be the biggest
capital in the 21st century.
Gadkari said 406 projects
with a total outlay of `3.85
lakh crore have stalled due
to wrong decisions, but the
minister went on to add that
not taking any decision for
fear of it going wrong is also
undesirable. “Bal Thackeray
once gave me a quote written
in acrylic. It said I like people
who can get things done. I
like honest people who take
the wrong decisions. I am
even ready to appreciate
people who are dishonest and
take wrong decisions. I dislike
people who don’t want to take
decisions,” Gadkari said.
LATEST IRDAI
ANNUAL REPORT
z On the advice of IRDAI,
insurers have also been
taking the issue of mis-selling
seriously by doing a root cause
analysis to identify the major
causes and have taken suitable
steps to prevent mis-selling
z The mis-selling cases
stood at 23,110 in 2021-22.
The number of mis-selling
complaints per 10,000 policies
sold was at 31 during the year
z No. of complaints disposed
in favour of complainant has
increased from 24% in 2020-
21 to 27% over in 2021-2022
India economic growth
‘extremely fragile’, needs
all support: RBI MPC
New Delhi (PTI): India’s
economic growth is now
‘extremely fragile’ and
needs all the support that it
can get, as private con-
sumption and capital in-
vestment are yet to pick up,
RBI Monetary Policy Com-
mittee member Jayanth R
Varma said on Friday
.
Varma also said out of
the four engines of growth
for the economy, exports
and government spending
supported the Indian econ-
omy through the pandem-
ic, but other engines need
to pick up the baton now.
“ I like to think in terms
of the four engines of
growth for the economy: ex-
ports, government spend-
ing, capital investment and
private consumption. “...
While exports cannot be the
main driver of growth be-
cause of the global slow-
down, government spend-
ingisnecessarilylimitedby
fiscal constraints. The criti-
cal question is whether the
fourth engine of private
consumption will remain
buoyant after the pent-up
demand dissipates over the
coming months. ,” he said.
NDTV founders Roys to sell most
of their stake to Adani Group
New Delhi (PTI): NDTV
founders Prannoy Roy and
hiswifeRadhikaRoyonFri-
daysaidtheywillsellallbut
5 per cent of their remain-
ing shareholding in the
news broadcaster to Adani
Group for up to Rs 647.6
crore. Roys, who founded
New Delhi Television Ltd
(NDTV) as India’s first and
largest private producer of
newscurrentaffairsanden-
tertainment television, lost
their status of being the
company’s largest share-
holder in recent weeks.
This follows Adani
Group becoming the ma-
jority shareholding of
NDTV after first buying
out a company backed by
the founders and then ac-
quiring more shares from
the open market. Now,
Roys are selling 27.26 per
cent out of their remain-
ing 32.26 per cent share-
holding in NDTV, accord-
ing to stock exchange fil-
ings by the company
.
The sale will happen on
or after December 30 in one
or more tranches, it said
without disclosing the
price. The volume-weight-
ed average market price of
NDTV in the last 60 trading
days is Rs 368.43, the filing
said. Based on this price,
the sale of 1.75 crore shares
would fetch Roys up to Rs
647.6 crore.
Post acquisition of the
founders’ stake, Adani
Group will control 69.71
per cent of NDTV
.
India received FDI
worth $3.2mn in
def industries in
April-September
New Delhi(PTI): India re-
ceived foreign direct invest-
ment (FDI) worth $3.21 mil-
lion in defence industries
during April-September
period this fiscal year, Par-
liamentwasinformedtoday
.
The sector had attracted
$2.36 million foreign invest-
mentin2021-22,$0.63million
in 2020-21, $2.20 million in
2019-20, $2.18millionin2018-
19 and $0.01 million in 2017-
18, according to data provid-
ed by Minister of State for
Commerce and Industry
SomParkash.Hesaidtopro-
mote FDI, the government
has put in place an investor-
friendly policy
, wherein
most sectors, except certain
strategically important
ones, are open for 100% FDI
under the automatic route.
SENSEX FALLS ABOUT 1,000 PTS AS COVID
CONCERN DAMPENS INVESTORS SENTIMENT
New Delhi (ANI): The loss-
es in the domestic stock in-
dices widened as the ses-
sion progressed on Friday
and they settled sharply
lower, tracking weak global
cues as the fear of the Covid
surge kept investors at bay
.
The benchmark indices
extended losses for the
fourth straight session and
marked the sharpest single-
day fall in about three
months. Sensex closed the
session at 59,845.29 points,
down980.93pointsor1.61%,
whereas Nifty closed at
17,806.80points,down320.55
points or 1.77%. Among the
Nifty50stocks,AdaniPorts,
Adani Enterprises, Hindal-
co, Tata Steel, and Tata Mo-
tors were the top five losers.
As many as 47 of Nifty 50
stocks declined today. Cip-
la, Divis Labs, and Titan
were the only gainers.
“Europeanstockmarkets
edged higher Friday in thin
holiday-affected volumes
while most Asian markets
indexes fell after forecast-
beating US data fuelled ex-
pectations that the Federal
Reserve will lift interest
rates well into next year,”
said Deepak Jasani, Head
of Retail Research at HDFC
Securities.
Jayanth R Varma, Member, RBI
Monetary Policy Committee (MPC)

08
2NDFRONT
It takes one month to fully install
a new habit- reading, exercising,
waking up early- You can be
there in 30 days.
—Dr Jagdeesh Chandra,
CEO Editor-in-Chief, First India
COMMANDOS PERFORM
Delhi Police commandos perform a live demo during the inauguration of newly constructed ‘Commando Obstacles’, at
Parade Ground, New Police Lines, in New Delhi on Friday. (Centre) Delhi Police Commissioner Sanjay Arora felicitates an
awardee during the inauguration of ‘Commando Obstacles’ in New Delhi. —PHOTOS BY ANI/PTI
STRENGTH
AND SKILL
Likely to join: Kamal Haasan,
families of freedom fighters
‘BHARAT JODO YATRA’ IN DELHI TODAY
New Delhi (PTI): Ac-
tor-turned-politician
Kamal Haasan, family
members of freedom
fighters and top Con-
gress leaders are ex-
pected to join Rahul
Gandhi in the Delhi leg
of his Bharat Jodo
Yatra on Saturday, par-
ty sources said.
Delhi Congress presi-
dent Anil Chaudhary
said at least 40,000 to
50,000 yatris are expect-
ed to participate in the
yatra in the national
capital.
“Senior Congress
leaders and parliamen-
tarians, families of
freedom fighters and
Makkal Needhi Maiam
(MKM) president Ka-
mal Haasan are likely
to join the Bharat Jodo
Yatra in the national
capital,” a party source
told PTI on Friday
.
Addressing the MKM
office-bearers last
week, Haasan had said
he has been invited by
Rahul Gandhi and
that, he would par-
ticipate in the
Bharat Jodo Yatra
on December 24 in
the national capital.
“People from
d i f f e r e n t
fields will be
joining the
yatra that
will enter
B a d a r p u r
border at 6
am. We will then walk
towards Ashram via
Apollo hospital and
thereafter, the yatris
will have a lunch break
and will rest for a while.
We will resume our
yatra at 1 pm
from Ash-
ram,” Chaud-
hary said.
After the
lunch break,
the yatra will
resume
a n d
head towards Nizamud-
din and then to the In-
dia Gate Circle ITO
Delhi Cantt-Darya Ganj
and before heading to-
wards the Red Fort.
Thereafter, Rahul
Gandhi and some of the
yatris will visit Rajghat,
Veerbhumi and Shanti-
van by car and pay flo-
ral tributes.
After a short break
beginning Saturday
night, the yatra will re-
sume from January 3
from Uttar Pradesh,
then again head to Har-
yana in the second
phase and then to Pun-
jab and Jammu and
Kashmir.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi leading a sea of padayatris during the party’s Bharat Jodo Yatra in Gurugram on Friday. —PHOTO BY ANI
DMK leader Kanimozhi joins
Faridabad: DMK MP Kanimozhi joined the Congress’s
Bharat Jodo Yatra here on Friday and said she was
delighted to be a part of the foot march that celebrates
India’s diversity. “I was delighted to take part in the
Bharat Jodo Yatra,
which celebrates our
diversity, in Haryana
today. Mr @Rahul-
Gandhi’s vision of
uniting India is an
idea which will be
taken forward by the
people of India,” the
Dravida Munnetra
Kazhagam (DMK)
leader wrote on
Twitter and posted
pictures of her with the former Congress chief on the
microblogging website. The yatra resumed on Friday
from Kherli Lala in Gurugram’s Sohna on the third and
last day of its Haryana leg in the first phase, before
entering Faridabad.
ANKITA
BHANDARI
MURDER: ALL
ACCUSED
REFUSE TO
UNDERGO
NARCO TEST
Dehradun (ANI): All the three accused, includ-
ing expelled BJP leader’s son Pulkit Arya, in the
Ankita Bhandari murder case on Thursday re-
fused to undergo narco and polygraph tests after
filing of the charge sheet.
The counsel appearing for the accused said in
the Judicial Magistrate Court in Kotdwar that
the Special Investigation Team (SIT) did not ex-
plain why it wanted to conduct narco and poly-
graph tests after filing the charge sheet. After the
disagreement by the accused, the Judicial Mag-
istrate, Kotdwar, Bhavna Pandey has fixed the
date of January 3, 2023, for the next hearing.
CAG flags financial ‘irregularities’
in Central govt’s Lalit Kala Akademi
Jeevan Prakash Sharma
New Delhi: The Comp-
troller and Auditor
General (CAG) has
flagged serious finan-
cial “irregularities” in
the Lalit Kala Akademi,
according to officials.
The audit observation
of LKA, a prestigious
art institution under
the Culture Ministry
, by
the CAG for a period
from 2016-17 to 2021-22
points out various
anomalies in violation
of the government’s fi-
nancial rules. —PTI
‘NO RECORD OF `2,568.66 LAKH’
z LKA didn’t receive utilisa-
tion certificates from various
institutions for an amount of
Rs 2,568.66 lakh from 1997-
98 to 2021-22.
z Ramakrishna Vedala,
secretary (in-charge) of LKA,
travelled to Mexico in 2019
without any approval.
z Irregularities in ap-
pointment of an assistant
programme officer (APO)
who doesn’t fulfil the
eligibility conditions.
z Irregularities in hiring
and deployment of vehicles
worth Rs 54.76 lakh from
2016-17 to 2021-22.
5 cops arrested for smuggling drugs into Kashmir
Srinagar (PTI): Five
cops were among 17 per-
sons arrested as a ma-
jor narcotics smuggling
module, originating
from Pakistan, was
busted in Kupwara dis-
trict of JK, police said
on Friday
.
“In one of its biggest
successes against drug
smuggling and peddling
in the district, Police
has arrested 17 persons,
including five police-
men, a political activist,
a contractor and a shop-
keeper from different
areas of the districts of
Kupwara and Baram-
ulla, unearthing anoth-
er narcotics smuggling
module originating
from Pakistan,” a police
spokesman said.
“On a tip-off, one Mo-
hammad Waseem Najar
-- a poultry shop owner
and a resident of Dar-
zipura, Kupwara, was
arrested with some
quantity of narcotics
from his residential
house,” the spokesman
said. After preliminary
investigations, Najar
admitted to be a part of
a big group of drug ped-
dlers and disclosed
names of some of his
associates, the spokes-
man said.
Among the arrested
were 5 policemen who
were identified as spe-
cial police officers
(SPOs) Haroon Rasheed
Bhat, Irshad Ahmed
Khan, Sajad Ahmad
Bhat, Zahid Maqbool
Dar and Constable Ab-
dul Majeed Bhat.
The arrested accused in police custody on Friday, among them
five Special Police Officers (SPOs). —PHOTO BY ANI
FATHER SON
MAIN OPERATIVES
z Shakir Ali Khan, a Paki-
stan-based terrorist handler
originally hailing from Keran,
has surfaced to be the main
supplier of narcotics to his
son Tahmeed Khan on this
side of the Line of Control.
z Shakir Ali Khan first
crossed LoC in the early
1990s. After obtaining
training, he infiltrated back
and remained one of the top
active terrorists of Hizbul
Mujahideen (HM) in Keran.
z Feeling the heat from
security forces, Khan again
crossed the LoC and is now
a top terrorist handler, who
is involved in pushing arms,
ammunition and narcotics.
Presidential
Campaign:
“Kandhamal and Puri
are the two Lok Sabha
seats in Odisha and Nil-
giris and Coimbatore in
Tamil Nadu zeroed
down for the visit of Na-
dda,” the sources said.
“During the visit, the
party’s national presi-
dent will meet the Man-
dal and booth president,
parliamentary team
handling these seats,
and other organisation-
al meetings are on the
agenda,” the sources
said.“The visit for Ta-
mil Nadu is slated for
December 27 and Odis-
ha will be on December
28,” the sources further
said. The BJP was fo-
cusing on 144 weak Lok
Sabha seats initially
but that has now been
expanded to 160 seats.
The additional seats are
from Maharashtra, Bi-
har and Bengal.
“Out of 160 weak
seats, half will be cov-
ered by national presi-
dent JP Nadda and the
other half of seats will
be covered by a combi-
nation of Union Home
Minister Amit Shah
and Defence Minister
Rajnath Singh,” the
sources said.
The idea of the saf-
fron party is to focus on
booth strengthening,
increasing the presence
of party leaders, taking
central govt schemes to
the public, among other
things.
Several union minis-
ters including Dhar-
mendra Pradhan, Sm-
riti Irani, Kiren Rijiju,
Arjun Ram Meghwal,
Pralhad Joshi are
among ministers who
are part of the commit-
tee looking at the
weak Lok Sabha seats.
Vinod Tawde is the
convenor and CT Ravi
the co-convenor of the
committee. —ANI
FROM P1…
The BJP president’s visit
to Puri Lok Sabha seat is
considered to be politically
significant as Odisha Chief
Minister Naveen Patnaik
will address his BJD party
leaders and workers at the
pilgrim town on December
26, when the BJD will hold
its silver jubilee foundation
day function and Patnaik
will set the ball rolling
for the party’s campaign
for the 2024 Lok Sabha
and state Assembly polls.
Nadda had last visited Odi-
sha in September this year
and addressed a public
meeting in Bhubaneswar.
The December 28 visit will
be Nadda’s first trip to the
state after the BJP retained
its Dhamnagar assembly
seat in a by-poll.
PURI VISIT ON DAY OF BJD
FOUNDATION SILVER JUBILEE
Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik launching a book at Adivasi
Exhibition Ground in Bhubaneswar on Friday. —PHOTO BY ANI

www.firstindia.co.in I https://firstindia.co.in/epapers/delhi I twitter.com/
thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia 09
he popular shouty logo fad
from the 1990s, known as
logomania, is returning.
Numerous high-end com-
panies, like Fendi, Gucci,
Burberry, Valentino and
others have discovered a
method to connect with millennials.
The favoured method of appealing
to a generation that thinks “if
you’ve got it, flaunt it” is to embla-
zon big, bright brand logos on cloth-
ing. One of the main forces behind
well-known logos making a come-
back in the fashion world after a 20-
year absence is social media. For a
generation that is dominated by
social media, starting new trends or
reviving existing ones is not diffi-
cult. Logos are a status symbol and
a means to demonstrate your fash-
ion know-how whether worn on t-
shirts or even skirts.
The best approach for companies
to make money and promote them-
selves is to prominently display
their logo. It has evolved into a tool
for celebrities to spread the word
about the company while growing
their fan bases. Logos are a sta-
tus symbol and a means to dem-
onstrate your fashion know-
how whether worn on t-shirts
or even skirts. The best ap-
proach for companies to
make money and promote
themselves is to prominently
display their logo. It has
evolved into a tool for celeb-
rities to spread the word
about the company while
growing their fan bases. As
a fashion statement, people
cover themselves from head
to toe with their opulent in-
signia. Aside from social me-
dia, we also saw logo fe-
ver at Milan Fashion
Week, not just on ap-
parel but also on
footwear and socks.
Kylie Jenner, an
American TV per-
sonality, offered a
great example of
how drawing atten-
tion to yourself by
putting the insignia
of popular busi-
nesses on your
clothing. More than
a million people
liked Kylie’s Insta-
gram image of her
wearing a branded
Fendi outfit.
The second use of
large, strong logos is to
signify a partnership,
like in the instance of
Fendi, which uses a soft
F to signify its partner-
ship with the sportswear
company Fila. Thirdly,
wearing the brand you
decide to represent
yourself by wearing
has always been a sta-
tus signal.
NEW DELHI, SATURDAY,
DECEMBER 24, 2022
ABSTRACT OR
ITTY-BITTY
LOGOMANIA
Fashion is defined by what you purchase whereas
style is defined by what you do with it. City First brings
to you some amazing array of Logomania fashion!
ADITI KUSHWAHA
cityfirst@firstindia.co.in
T

10
ETC
www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epapers/delhi I twitter.com/thefirstindia facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia
ow much new (different) is the sub-
variant BF
.7?
BF.7 is accounted for more than 5 per cent
of Covid-19 cases in the US and 7.26 per
cent in the UK in October 2022. Cases of
this variant are on raising hand from the
last 3 months. BF.7, short for BA.5.2.1.7, is
a sub-lineage of the OMICRON variant BA.5. BF.7
is believed to have an R0, or basic reproduction
number, of 10 to 18.6. BF.7 carries a specific muta-
tion, R346T, in the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 (a
protein on the surface of the virus that allows it
to attach to and infect our cells). This mutation,
which we also see in BF.7’s parent variant BA.5,
has been linked with enhancing the capacity of
the virus to escape neutralising antibodies gen-
erated by vaccines or previous infection.
Since the COVID variant OMICRON emerged
in late 2021, it has rapidly evolved into mul-
tiple subvariants. The subvariant, BF.7,
has been identified as the main variant
spreading in Beijing and is contribut-
ing to a wider surge of COVID infec-
tions in China.
Reports of 2 patients in Gujarat
are coming in showing they re-
covered at home. Does it make
the sub-variant less fatal?
BF.7 is believed to be less fatal as
compared to the previous deadly
delta variant and other sub-variant
of omicron. The symptoms of an
infection with BF.7 are similar to
those associated with other omicron
subvariants, primarily upper res-
piratory symptoms. Patients may
have a fever, cough, sore throat, run-
ning nose and fatigue, among other
symptoms. A minority of people can also
experience gastrointestinal symptoms
like vomiting and diarrhoea. BF.7 may
well cause more serious illness in people
with weaker immune systems.
Is it more infectious than before?
The BF.7 variant is reportedly more infectious
than the other variants of coronavirus known so
far. The R0 value of this mutant as per studies is
approximately 10-18.6 which means that any in-
fected individual can infect 10-18.6 people around
him. Reports from China indicate BF.7 has the
STRONGEST INFECTION ABILITY out of the
omicron subvariants in the country
, being quicker
to transmit than other variants, having a shorter
incubation period and with a greater capacity to
infect people who have had a previous COVID infec-
tion, or been vaccinated or both. To put this into
context, BF.7 is believed to have an R0, or basic re-
production number, of 10 to 18.6. This means an
infected person will transmit the virus to an aver-
age of 10 to 18.6 other people. Research has shown
omicron has an average Ro of 5.08. The high trans-
mission rate of BF.7, taken with the risk of hidden
spread due to the MANY ASYMPTOMATIC CAR-
RIERS, is understood to be causing significant dif-
ficulty in controlling the epidemic in China.
How immunity will play its role with
the new BF
.7 variant?
Compared with the BA.1, BA.2 and BA.5 variants
detected previously, Omicron BF.7 has more im-
mune escape capability, a shorter incubation pe-
riod and a faster transmission rate. These muta-
tions give BF.7 some immune-evasive abilities,
which means it can escape immunity from the vac-
cine or previous infection.
How India can buckle up before the
situation goes out of hand?
India with its focus on the five-fold strategy of test-
track-treat-vaccination and adherence to COVID-
appropriate behaviour has been able to restrict the
transmission of the coronavirus. BF.7 has been
detected in several other countries around the
world including INDIA, the US, the UK and several
EUROPEAN COUNTRIES such as Belgium, Ger-
many, France and Denmark. Despite BF.7’s im-
mune-evasive characteristics, and worrying signs
about its growth in China, the variant seems to be
remaining fairly steady elsewhere. Outside of In-
dia, mRNA vaccines like Pfizer and BioNTech’s
Bivalent vaccine and Moderna’s vaccine are be-
ing used from the point of view of boosting.
India needs to buckle up. BF.7 may well cause
more serious illness in people with weaker
immune systems. At present, no vaccine be-
ing used in India is a bivalent vaccine. India
needs BIVALENT vaccines, which target
omicron alongside the original strain of
SARS-CoV-2.
What age group is highly sensi-
tive to this new sub-variant?
Old age people, immunocompro-
mised patients, pregnant females
etc. are more prone to the infection
by this variant.
Should India impose early
restrictions on international
flights?
BF.7 is highly infectious and has
high transmissibility, hence to pre-
vent the spreading of this highly con-
tagious disease international travel-
ling should be monitored carefully
. The
situation looks different ONLY IN China.
BF.7’s high R0 might be due in part to a
LOW LEVEL OF IMMUNITY in the Chi-
nese population from the previous infection,
and possibly vaccination too. However, we
should be cautious about the data from China
as it’s based on reports, not peer-reviewed evi-
dence yet.
CITY FIRST IN AN EXCLUSIVE CONVERSATION WITH DR SUDHIR BHANDARI, VICE CHANCELLOR – (RUHS) AND
RAJASTHAN UNIVERSITY OF HEALTH SCIENCE, ABOUT THE NEW VARIANT OF COVID 19, BF.7!
BF.7: THE
BF.7: THE
NEWWAVE?
NEWWAVE?
What is the best recommendation to
stay safe at this time?
FDA approved the second booster dose of the
Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine or Mod-
erna COVID-19 Vaccine which may be ad-
ministered to individuals 50 years of age
and older at least 4 months after receipt of
a first booster dose of any authorized or ap-
proved COVID-19 vaccine. The emergence
of BF.7 and other new variants is concern-
ing. But VACCINATION is still the best
weapon we have to fight COVID. India
needs BIVALENT BOOSTERS, which tar-
get omicron alongside the original strain of
SARS-CoV-2. At present, no vaccine being used
in India is a bivalent vaccine. Outside of India,
mRNA vaccines like Pfizer and BioNTech’s Bi-
valent vaccine and Moderna’s vaccine are being
used only from the point of view of boosting.
The best recommendation at this point is to pro-
vide boosters (though the effect is short-lived) to
those who have weak immunological defences.
H
Dr Sudhir Bhandari
GAJRAJ SINGH BHATI
cityfirst@firstindia.co.in

JEWELS OF THE STARRY NIGHT
JEWELS OF THE STARRY NIGHT
The grand launch of the brand named‘Its Ish’took place with much
fervour at Nebula,the rooftop lounge at Hilton Jaipur onThursday.Rajiv
Arora,Chairman of Raj Small Industries Corporation graced the
occasion as the chief guest and launched the brand.Rishee Miglani,
brand ambassador,First India Fashion Connect hosted the glamorous
evening.Brand owner,Ishita Gupta is an aspiring fashion designer and
soon will make her place in the heart of fashion lovers through her
lovely brand.Various people from all spectrums kicked off their day with
signature delicacies from Nebulae,Hilton.
Ravishing Ishita
(Top to bottom) Garima and Shaina
Ayesha, Ishita, Priyambi and Astha Mangal
Ajay, Rishee, Kanakh, Dushyant and Vinodh
Raju, Tina, Nisha and Kewal
Prateek, Ayesha, Sidharth, Ajay, Natasha and Tina
Rajiv Arora, Raj Bansal and Ishita
Ujawal, Karan and Honey
Jagdeep Singh, Meera Kataria and Natasha
Rajiv Arora, JD Maheshwari, Kewal Miglani and Kewal Mehra
Kulsum, Anjana and Ashima
Vijay, Aarti, Reena, Deepak, Amitabh and Jagdeep
Minal and Reema
Nimit, Kavita, Ayesha and Prateek
Rashi Agarwal, Khushi Sonkiya and Khushi Jain
Nishchay, Shaina and Ishita
Vatsal Goyal, Rishee and Ayan
Sidharth and Garima
Anjana and Hemant
Sudhir, Vijaylaxmi and Devraj
Rishee, Ishita
and Raj Bansal
Manish and Dushyant Rishee, Ravi and Kapil
Himmat singh and Rishee
Enthralling performance by Iliyas Khan
Vinay Gupta, Samita Gupta, Ishita, JD Maheshwari and Rishee
Lokesh Sharma and Rishee Miglani
Suvrat Jain
ETC
www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epapers/delhi I twitter.com/thefirstindia facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia NEW DELHI | SATURDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2022
11
—PHOTOS BY MUKESH KIRADOO

12
www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epapers/delhi I twitter.com/thefirstindia facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia
CITY BUZZ
GET VACCINATED
STAY MASKED
CITY FIRST
otel Crowne
Plaza in Great-
er Noida re-
cently hosted
a unique Food
Trail evening
for its patrons,
guests and localities
from Delhi/NCR re-
gion. The idea was to
showcase and traverse
the entire spectrum of
CPGNs food and bever-
age offerings.
The trail began with
the traditional lighting
of the lamp, the ritual
showcased the Indian
values of Atithi Devo
Bhava, the integral
part of CPGN's experi-
ence with fire repre-
senting energy
, passion
and transformation.
The food trail jour-
ney with General Man-
ager, Sharad K.
Upadhayay, Direc-
tor of Food and
Beverage, Amit
Chawla, Executive
Chef, Chef Saurabh
Chandel and Director
of Sales Marketing
Rishabh Jain was
nothing short of an un-
forgettable journey,
showcasing their pas-
sion for FB and class
of hospitality for their
patrons and guests.
Talking about the
initiative Sharad K.
Upadhyay, said, 'Being
in the hospitality do-
main, it's always a
pleasure to host such
evenings, where we are
able to showcase the
best of the best we
have for them. At
CPGN, we believe in
providing the best pos-
sible hospitality to eve-
ryone and this food
trail was an idea to
introduce them to
the available ex-
travaganza at our
Hotel, where they
can choose from a wide
variety of cuisines and
drinks at ease. I would
like to thank our part-
ners, guests and
friends for being there
with us at the launch
of the series. We cele-
brated fine art, exqui-
site food and an ex-
traordinary beverage
experience here.
At CPGN, we have 6
restaurants with a
wide variety of Indian
and International cui-
sines, each one having
its own speciality and
taste. Led by our execu-
tive chef Saurabh Sin-
gh Chandel, we try to
put in great efforts to
deliver an extin-
guished food experi-
ence to all, said Amit
Chawla.
During the specially
curated food trail even-
ing, seen enjoying
were the guests, mem-
bers and patrons that
included; Shamita
Sharma, Prathip Thya-
garajan, Sudeep Jain,
Vishvapreet Singh
Cheema, Samir Kalia,
Nathan Andrews, Kim
Sungi, Jose Marcos,
Crystel Wang, Chris
Read, among others.
UNIQUE FOOD TRAIL EVENING
UNIQUE FOOD TRAIL EVENING
H
PROUD
MOMENT!
CITY FIRST
D
ev Priya, a final
year B.Tech stu-
dent of IIT Del-
hi, scored 99.99
percentile in the Com-
mon Admission Test
(CAT) 2022, the results
of which were an-
nouncedonWednes-
day, December 21.
Dev is the son of
ADG Jyoti Narayan
and he aspires to get a
seat in the Indian Insti-
tute of Management
and excel in a combina-
tion of B.Tech with
management. Sharing
his secrets of scoring
99.99 percentile the
scholar replied, “The
CAT is highly competi-
tive. This year, for in-
stance, logical reason-
ing was very tough. My
CAT exam day strategy
was to remain calm. I
believe in hard work
consistency. I think my
consistent hard work is
behind this success.
Furthermore, the sup-
port that I got from my
family, friends, and
teachers helped me stay
motivated throughout
my CAT prepara-
tion.” A total of 11
students have
scored the perfect
100 percentile in Com-
mon Admission Test
2022. Dev claims that
his parents were sup-
portive throughout his
journey and always mo-
tivate him. He said,
“They never pressur-
ized me for marks and
motivated me to pre-
pare with positivity”.
He claims that he used
to do self-study for 6-7
hours daily
.
CITY FIRST
S
atyug Darshan
Sangeet Kala
Kendra cele-
brated their
fourth annual day
'Aatm Chetna' on De-
cember 16 at the Air
Force auditorium.
The program com-
menced with the cere-
mony of lighting the
lamp by the Sajanji
(Prime Mover), Rash-
ma Gandhi (Managing
Trustee), Anupama
Talwar (Chairperson),
Mike Berry (President
CistulaTulip, film pro-
ducer and critic),
Shankar Sahni
(Celebrity Singer)
and Deependra
Kant (Principal).
The program began
with the performance
of the welcome dance
presented by Ayushi
Bhatnagar and the
song prepared by the
students of Satyug
Darshan Sangeet Kala
Kendra. Teachers and
students of Satyug
Kendra beheld the eyes
of spectators by show-
casing their talent
through the medium of
Kathak Bharatanaty-
am and Vividh dance
performances.
Furthermore, The
Chairperson Anupama
Talwar who herself is
an adept singer and
dancer briefed the au-
dience that Sangeet
Sadhna helps celebrate
life's natural flow with
no inhibitions and is
the easiest way to
connect with our
innate supreme
which can never be
attended through prev-
alent mundane prac-
tices so carrying for-
ward this divine foun-
dation of music Satyug
Kendra was estab-
lished under the aegis
of Satyug Darshan
Trust Vasundhara,
Faridabad back in 2005
and successfully run-
ning its 19 branches
across North India. In
addition, she men-
tioned that SDSKK is
affiliated with Prayag
Sangeet Samiti, Praya-
graj teaching music
since 1926 and happens
to be the most venerat-
ed Institute.
The main aim of this
institute is to instil hu-
man virtues that are
contentment, endur-
ance, truthfulness, con-
tentment, equanimity,
selflessness, and benev-
olence. Deependra
Kant (Principal) later
expressed how he ap-
plauded the efforts of
volunteers for provid-
ing students with a big
platform to perform in
front of such celebrat-
ed personalities.
‘PURITY OF SOUL’
CITY FIRST
A
n ongoing art exhibition
titled 'Apeejay Stya Art
Festival' by Apeejay Edu-
cation has been organ-
ised at Lalit Kala Academy, New
Delhi from December 17 to De-
cember 22. The exhibition is a
joint venture of three prominent
Institutions of Apeejay Educa-
tionnamelyApeejayStyaUniver-
sity (Gurugram), Apeejay Col-
lege of Fine Arts, (Jalandhar)
and Apeejay Institute of Design,
(New Delhi).
The exhibition was inaugu-
rated by Sushma Paul Berlia,
Chairman of Apeejay Education
and Rishi Vashisht, Director of
the Centre for Cultural Resourc-
es and Training.
It is an art exhibition which
celebrates a vibrant galaxy of
art forms including Paintings,
Sculptures, Tapestries, Terra-
cottas, furniture, Digital Art and
Photography. The exhibition
has showcased a rich variety of
media used by the artists to un-
leash their imagination. Marked
with innovations and originali-
ty of expressions, the works on
display would provide a peep
into the impressions and mes-
sages conveyed by the artists
subtly and creatively endowed
with finesse. Sushma Paul
Berlia (President of Apeejay
Education) said this exhibi-
tion celebrates a wide spec-
trum of vibrant Artistic Crea-
tions by the upcoming and es-
tablished artists of Apeejay In-
stitutions. The exhibition would
contribute in spreading the
blissful wonders of Art, espe-
cially amongst the younger gen-
erations and help provide them
the marvellous sensitizing mo-
ments to ponder over some of
the issues grappling society or
their sensitive minds.
Apeejay Stya Art Festival
MOMENT TO SHINE!
Priya Singh, the first woman bodybuilder from Rajasthan won
the gold medal in the International Bodybuilding Championship
held in Pattaya, Thailand. After her magnificent win, she was
also provided with a Pro card.
WHAT’S HAPPENING!
Noida Power Company Limited in association with the Sharda
Welfare Foundation organised a free health check-up camp for
government school children in Greater Noida on Friday as a part
of its CSR initiative. NPCL has selected 12 government schools
in Greater Noida where free health check-ups will be conducted.
Some of these schools are Upper Primary School, Junpat,
Composite School Pipalka, Daudpur etc. Children from class 1 to
10 will be provided with a free health check-up in all these schools.
CITY FIRST
A
diti Jaggi
Rastogi, an
internation-
ally famous
designer, who show-
cased her collection
in India and well as
Dubai Fashion Week
launched her upcom-
ing collection with
showstopper PCS
ADM Ritu Suhas,
Mrs India 2019
walking the
ramp in her de-
signer outfit in
Lucknow Times
Fashion Week held at
The Centrum, Luc-
know on Wednesday,
December 21. Her as-
tonishing collection
attempts to promote
sustainable fashion.
The very unique or-
ganic dying proce-
dure from AMA
herbals is applied to
all the sustainable
fabrics by designer
Aditi Jaggi Rastogi.
The breathable fab-
rics and extraordi-
nary properties of
herbal dying are put
together to make a
collection fresh,
young, soulful and
Commercially Via-
ble. The designer and
the herbal duo are
looking forward
to starting a
Global friendly
Trend! Aditi's ex-
perience varies
from Pret, Luxe
Fashion and sustain-
able fashion to Bol-
lywood Designing.
The designer is cur-
rently working to-
wards the globaliza-
tion of Khadi and
skill training of
weavers and artisans
to help them gener-
ate employment.
WAY TOWARDS
SUSTAINABLE FASHION!
(L-R) Vishvapreet Singh Cheema, Nathan Andrews, Captain
Sanjeev Bhalla, Sudeep Jain and Sharad Upadhyay (L-R) Sharad Upadhyay, Amarjit Bhatia, Krishna Kumar and Sudeep Jain
(L-R) Sagar Kumar, Prathip Thyagarajan and Rishabh Jain Sharad Upadhyay (R) with guests during the program
Abhijit Ray and Nathan Andrews Chris Read with Prathip Thyagarajan
ADG Jyoti Narayan with son Dev Priya
Glimpses of the event
(L-R) Rishi Vashisht, Sushma Paul
Berlia and Dr Sucharita
(L-R) Rishi Vashisht and Sushma Paul
with others during the lamp lightning
ceremony
Ritu Suhas with Aditi Jaggi Rastogi

24122022_ First India New Delhi.pdf

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