First India Mumbai 18032023.pdf

FACING FLAK?
HC quashes CM Shinde’s decision over recruitment
in co-operative bank; slams him for interference
First India Bureau
Mumbai: The Nagpur
bench of the Bombay
High Court has quashed
the decision of Maha-
rashtra Chief Minister
Eknath Shinde to stay
the recruitment process
of a co-operative bank,
noting that the CM has
no powers to review or
modifythecallstakenby
the minister concerned.
A division bench of
Justices Vinay Joshi
and Valmiki SA Men-
ezes in its order of
March 3 termed Shin-
de’s decision “wholly
unwarranted and with-
out authority of law”.
The order was passed
on a petition filed by
Chandrapur District
Central Co-operative
Bank Ltd. and a busi-
nessman named San-
toshsingh Rawat, who
had been elected as its
chairman, opposing
Shinde’s decision.
According to the plea,
the CM’s order was
passed at the behest of
local politicians. The
court held that the chief
minister has no inde-
pendent power assigned
under the “Rules of
Business and Instruc-
tions” to review or mod-
ify the decision taken by
the in-charge minister.
“The intervention of
the Chief Minister is
wholly unwarranted
and without the author-
ity of law. The Chief
Minister has no inde-
pendent power under
the Business Rules and
Instructions to interfere
into the subject which
was allocated to the In-
charge-Minister,” the
court said in the order.
The CM was not the
head of the “Coopera-
tion Department”, but
the said department
was assigned to a sepa-
rate minister, the
bench said.
Chief Minister Eknath Shinde —FILE PHOTO
FARMERS’ MARCH
`350/quintalforoniongrowers,panelforforestlandclaims:Shinde
First India Bureau
Mumbai: The Maha-
rashtra government
has accepted most of
the demands made by
farmers who are
marching from Nashik
to Mumbai and onion
cultivators will be giv-
en financial relief of
Rs 350 a quintal, Chief
Minister Eknath Shin-
de told the state Assem-
bly on Friday and
urged the protesters to
end their nearly week-
long stir.
Earlier in the day,
representatives of the
agitating farmers and
tribals said their 200km
‘long march’ has been
halted for now, but they
will resume their walk
to Mumbai if the state
government does not
come out with concrete
steps to address their
demands.
The foot march by
thousands of farmers
and tribals, which
started from Dindori
town in Nashik district
in North Maharashtra
on Sunday last, has
reached Vasind town,
around 80km from
Mumbai
The chief minister
informed the House
that he had held discus-
sions with a farmers’
delegation over 14
points, including forest
rights, encroachment
of forest land, transfer
of land belonging to
temple trusts and graz-
ing grounds to cultiva-
tors for farming.
Appealing to the
farmers to withdraw
their long march, Shin-
de said the decisions
taken will be imple-
mented immediately
.
Onion growers, fac-
ing losses due to low
prices of the commod-
ity and damage to crop
by unseasonal rains,
will be given Rs 350 per
quintal as financial re-
lief, he said.
Shinde said a cabinet
sub-committee will be
set up to monitor ap-
peals and claims relat-
ed to the demand of for-
est land up to four hec-
tares in possession of
cultivators. The panel
will prepare a report in
a month.
The panel will moni-
tor the pending claims
of farmers under the
Forest Rights Act,
Shinde said, adding
former MLA Jeeva
Pandu Gavit and sit-
tingMLAVinodNikole,
both belonging to the
Communist Party of
India (Marxist) will be
part of the committee.
The farmers’ protest
was non-political in na-
ture and they had genu-
ine demands, the chief
minister said.
Earlier, CPI(M) MLA
Nikole said the march
of farmers and tribals
has been halted after
assurance from the
government, but the
agitation will resume
if they do not see any
concrete steps to ad-
dress their issues.
“We have halted the
long march. But we
need to see concrete ac-
tion from the govern-
ment that our issues
will be addressed or
else we will head to
Mumbai,” said the leg-
islator. He said the agi-
tators will stay put till
the government issues
official order on their
demands.
The cultivators start-
ed their march in sup-
port of their demands,
which included Rs 600
per quintal relief to on-
ion farmers, 12-hour
uninterrupted power
supply to farmers and
waiver of farm loans,
among others.
Protesting farmers below a flyover. —FILE PHOTO
Mumbai (FIB): Maharash-
tra Chief Minister Eknath
Shinde on Friday said
panchnamas are being pre-
pared to assess crop losses
caused due to unseasonal
rains and his government is
committed to the welfare of
farmers.
Speaking in the Assembly,
Shinde said he has spoken
to the collectors of Nanded
and Nashik districts to take
stock of the extent of losses
caused due to unseasonal
rains on Thursday.
He said the panchnamas
pertaining to crops de-
stroyed by untimely show-
ers last week are almost
complete. The issue was
raised Leader of Opposi-
tion Ajit Pawar who asked
whether the government
was sensitive to the hard-
ships of the farmers.
“There is a yellow alert in
the state. The climate is
gloomy. Farmers are feeling
the pinch of the damage to
their standing crops due to
unseasonal rains, which is
leading to growers ending
their lives,” Pawar said.
He added, “Agriculture
minister Abdul Sattar
speaks insensitively about
the hardships faced by
the farmers. The situation
needs to be taken seriously
by the Assembly. The state
will survive if farmers live.”
Earlier in the day, members
of the Maha Vikas Aghadi,
the opposition bloc of
the Uddhav Thackeray
group, Congress and the
Nationalist Congress Party,
staged a protest on the
stairs of Vidhan Bhavan
and shouted slogans
demanding compensation
for farmers who have lost
their crops.
“What is the use of this
government if they can’t
give adequate price to
farmers for their crops,”
asked the legislators led
by leaders of opposition In
both houses Ajit Pawar and
Ambadas Danve.
Is Maha govt sensitive to
farmers? CM says yes
BSE SENSEX 57989.90 355.06 | NSE NIFTY 17100.00 114.40
MUMBAI l SATURDAY, MARCH 18, 2023 l Pages 12 l 3.00 RNI TITLE NO. MAHENG/2022/14652 l Vol 1 l Issue No. 308
www.firstindia.co.in I https://firstindia.co.in/epapers/mumbai I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia
OUR EDITIONS: JAIPUR MUMBAI
PM MITRA MEGA
TEXTILES PARKS
TO BE SET UP IN
7 STATES
Patna: Former Bihar CM Jitan Ram Manjhi triggered a fresh
row on Friday saying that Ravan was a greater character
than Ram. Manjhi, however, said that Ram and Ravan were
imaginary characters in Ramcharitmanas and Ramayana.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on
Friday announced that PM MITRA mega textile
parks would be set up in Tamil Nadu, Telangana,
Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh
and Uttar Pradesh. P6
ICC ISSUES
ARREST
WARRANT
AGAINST PUTIN
The Hague: The International Criminal Court on Friday
issued an arrest warrant against Russian President
Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s
presidential commissioner for children’s rights for
“unlawful deportation” of Ukrainian children.
MANJHI CLAIMS RAVAN WAS GREATER THAN RAM
PARLIAMENT ADJOURNED TILL
NEXT WEEK AMID UPROAR
First India Bureau
New Delhi: The budget
sessionof Parliamenton
Friday was adjourned
till next week amid an
uproar over Rahul Gan-
dhi’s remarks at Cam-
bridge University
. The
BJP is demanding apol-
ogy from Congress lead-
erRahulGandhioverhis
remarks in the United
Kingdom and the Oppo-
sition parties are press-
ingforajointparliamen-
tary committee probe
into the Adani row.
The second part of
budget session had be-
gun on March 13.
The tussle also played
outside the parliament
with Rahul Gandhi stat-
ing that he wants to re-
spond to the ministers
who had made allega-
tions against him in the
two Houses.
Opposition MPs during a protest over the Adani issue at Parliament House complex in New Delhi, on Friday. —PHOTO BY PTI
BJP is demanding
apology from Rahul
Gandhi over his
remarks in the UK
WON’T LET RAHUL SPEAK IN
LS WITHOUT APOLOGY: BJP
RaGa’s ‘UNFORTUNATELY I’M
MP’ REMARK GETS MIN’S DIG
CONG’S BREACH OF PRIVILEGE
NOTICE OVER PM’S REMARKS
New Delhi: Amid chaos in Parlia-
ment, leading to adjournment
of both houses for the second
consecutive day, sources in the BJP
on Friday said they won’t let Rahul
Gandhi speak in the house unless he
apologises for his remarks on Indian
democracy in London. Both Houses
were adjourned again on Friday.
New Delhi: Taking a jibe at Congress
leader Rahul Gandhi’s
over his “unfortunately
I am MP” remark,
Union IB Minister
Anurag Thakur on
Friday said that some-
times truth comes out and it is really
“unfortunate” that he is an MP.
New Delhi: Congress leader KC Venugo-
pal on Friday gave Rajya Sabha chair-
man Jagdeep Dhankhar a breach of priv-
ilege notice against PM Narendra Modi
over his remarks on why former PM
Jawaharlal Nehru’s family did not use
his surname. The PM’s remarks were
made during his reply to the motion of
thanks on the President’s address.
Court extends Sisodia’s ED
custody for five more days
First India Bureau
New Delhi: Manish
Sisodia’s custody was
extended by five days on
Friday by a local court
after the ED sought a
week more to investi-
gate allegations against
him linked to the Delhi
liquor case.
TheAamAadmiParty
(AAP) leader had argued
that the ED questioned
him “only for 30 minutes
to one hour every day”
and did not need to keep
him in jail any longer.
Earlier, Sisodia had
complained to the court
that the CBI asked him
the“samequestionseve-
ryday”, after which the
agency was ordered not
to repeat its questions.
The court also al-
lowed the former Depu-
ty Chief Minister of
Delhi to sign cheques
for household expenses.
Sisodia has been in
jail since February 26,
when he was arrested
by the CBI over alleged
corruption linked to a
new liquor policy that
was scrapped within
nine months. MORE ON P6
WANT TO CONFRONT SISODIA WITH 1.23
LAKH EMAILS: ED’S LAWYER TO COURT
New Delhi: Seeking further seven days custody of Man-
ish Sidodia, ED’s lawyer Zoheb Hossain stated that the
AAP leader needed to be confronted with his secretary C
Arvind, senior excise policy officials, and with over 1.23
lakh emails and other digital data. “There are some fresh
findings pertaining to parts of investigation revealed by
one Alok Srivastava from the excise department. Sisodia
needs to be confronted with C Arvind. He needs to be
confronted because of new revelations made by Srivas-
tava. We have taken multiple statements of Sisodia, con-
fronted him with officials who were present in all Group
of Ministers (GoM) meetings,” Hossain told the court.
Former Delhi deputy CM Manish Sisodia after appearing before
Rouse Avenue court in the Delhi excise policy case after the 7-day
ED remand expired, in New Delhi, on Friday. —PHOTO BY PTI
Mail dump of 1.23 lakh mails needs
to be analysed and confronted with
the arrestee.
—Zoheb Hossain, ED’s lawyer
Online trolling of CJI: Oppn
leaders seek urgent action
New Delhi: Alleging
interference with the
course of justice, 13 Op-
position leaders wrote
to President Droupadi
Murmu requesting im-
mediate action against
the online trolling of
Chief Justice of India
DY Chandrachud.
The letter is written
by Congress MP Vivek
Tankha and is support-
ed by party MPs Digvi-
jaya Singh, Shaktisinh
Gohil, Pramod Tiwari,
Amee Yagnik, Ranjeet
Ranjan, Imran Pratap-
garhi, Aam Aadmi Par-
ty’s Raghav Chadha,
Shiv Sena (UBT) mem-
ber Priyanka Chatur-
vedi and Samajwadi
Party’s Jaya Bachchan
and Ram Gopal Yadav.
Tankha has also sepa-
rately written to Attor-
ney General of India R
Venkataramani on the
same issue.
CJI DY Chandrachud

NEWS
MUMBAI | SATURDAY, MARCH 18, 2023
02
www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epapers/mumbai I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia
CRUCIAL READ
NO TOILETS FOR
WOMEN: 31 HOTELS
TO FACE ACTION
WOMAN DIES BY
SUICIDE AT GOVT
HOSP IN AKOLA
7 YEARS ON RUN,
MURDER ACCUSED
NABBED IN UP
MMRDA TO BUILD
PROTECTION WALL
NR AIROLI HILLOCK
Latur: Seven petrol pumps
and 31 hotels along im-
portant roads in the Latur
district will face action for
failing to provide separate
toilets for women, an offi-
cial said. Following a plea
by a women’s organization
to Collector Prithviraj BP,
the district administration
had ordered an inspection
of such establishments
along prominent roads,
the official said. Officials
inspected 81 hotels and 56
petrol pumps of which 31
eateries and 7 fuel stations
were found either with
no toilets for women or
with toilets in unhygienic
condition, he added.
Akola: A 25-year-old
woman who recently gave
birth to a baby girl was
found dead in an alleged
suicide at a government
hospital. The incident oc-
curred two weeks after the
birth and the infant was
admitted to the hospital’s
critical care unit due to
health complications. The
woman had been missing
since March 15 and was
found hanging in a locked
toilet attached to a hos-
pital ward. The police are
investigating the matter.
The woman was identified
as Godavari Khillare and
was a resident of Washim.
Thane: A 41-year-old man
involved in the killing of
three persons in Thane
district was arrested from
a village in Uttar Pradesh
after being on the run for
seven years, police said on
Friday. Acting on a tip-off,
the Kashimira police appre-
hended the accused from
a village in UP on March
13, an official said. The
accused had killed three
persons over previous en-
mity in July 2016 and had
been on the run ever since,
said SI Aviraj Kurhade.
Earlier. cops had arrested
the three accused involved
in the crime, he said.
Mumbai: The Mumbai
Metropolitan Region Devel-
opment Authority is set to
build a protection wall near
the Airoli Katai Naka hillock
to prevent landslides during
monsoon. The agency has
consulted with IIT-Bombay
for the project, which will
cost an estimated Rs73
crore and is expected to be
completed in nine months.
The wall will be built as a
part of the Mumbai Urban
Transport Project, which
includes the construction
of a 12.3 km long elevated
road that will reduce travel
time between Katai Naka
and Airoli by half an hour.
First India Bureau
Mumbai: The long
march of farmers and
tribals has halted after
assurance from the gov-
ernment,buttheirrepre-
sentativesonFridaysaid
they will continue to
head to Mumbai if they
see no concrete steps
from the government to
address their issues.
“We have halted the
long march. But we
need to see concrete ac-
tion from the govern-
ment that our issues
will be addressed or
else we will head to
Mumbai,” Vinod
Nikole, Communist
Party of India (Marxist)
MLA said.
His party colleague
and former MLA Java
Gavit is spearheading
the long march com-
prising thousands of
farmers who started
their walk from Nashik.
He said till the time the
government does not is-
sue orders to officials
on ground, they will
stayput.Theirdemands
range from Rs600 per
quintal relief to onion
farmers, 12-hour unin-
terrupted power supply
to farmers, and waiver
of farm loans.
The march is cur-
rentlyatVasind,around
80 km from Mumbai.
Chief Minister
Eknath Shinde led the
talks with Deputy Chief
minister Devendra Fad-
navis on Thursday
. The
government on Friday
accepted most of the de-
mandsmadebyfarmers.
Onioncultivatorswillbe
given financial relief of
Rs350 a quintal.
‘Have halted march, but will head to Mum if demands not met’
FARMERS’ PROTEST
First India Bureau
Mumbai: The Maha-
rashtra government has
raised the monthly hon-
orarium for ASHA (Ac-
credited Social Health
Activist) workers by
Rs1,500, state Health
Minister Tanaji Sawant
told the Assembly on
Friday, but members
called it not enough.
Women selected as
ASHA workers are the
interface between the
community and the
public health system.
“Earlier, ASHA workers
used to get Rs6,500 a
month. Now, they will
get Rs8,000. In addition
to that, they get Rs200-
Rs3,000 in lieu of 56 ac-
tivities they work on,”
said Sawant during the
Question Hour. He said
additional funds for
this have been provided
in the recent budget.
Besides, they also get
insurance cover, mobile
bill recharge and pen-
sion, the minister said.
Several members
from the opposition and
treasury benches felt
the increase in hono-
rarium was mearge.
Congress legislator
Nana Patole said the
hike should be more,
especially in mobile re-
charge, while his party
colleague Varsha Gaik-
wad demanded a Diwali
bonus considering the
good work done by the
ASHA workers during
the COVID-19 pandem-
ic. Bharatiya Janata
Party legislator Rahul
Kul also said the hike
was less.
The government on Friday accepted most of the demands made by farmers. —FILE PHOTO
IN MAHARASHTRA ASSEMBLY SESSION...
Mumbai (PTI): Mem-
bers of the Bombay
City Civil and Sessions
Court and All India Fed-
eration of Advocates
and Associations
(AIFAA) on Friday held
a peaceful protest
against attacks on advo-
cates, including the re-
cent attack on lawyer
Prithaviraj Zhala.
Over 300 lawyers in
Mumbai and suburban
areas held a protest on
Monday, requesting
judges not to pass ad-
verseorders.Theprotest
was organized by the All
India Federation of
AIFAA, which also un-
dertookasignaturecam-
paign for the passing of
the Advocates Protec-
tion Act. Led by AIFAA
president advocate Ravi
Prakash Jadhav and
other prominent law-
yers, the advocates gath-
ered peacefully to voice
their concerns and de-
mand better protection
for themselves and their
colleagues.
An advocate, Prithvi-
raj Zhala was on Tues-
day allegedly assaulted
at Kandivali police sta-
tion, where he had gone
with a client, following
an altercation with as-
sistant police inspector
(API) Anant Gite. In
light of the incident,
AIFAA decided to hold
the protest.
First India Bureau
Mumbai: Terming
comments of Karnata-
ka Chief Minister Ba-
savaraj Bommai as
“anti-Maharashtra”,
Nationalist Congress
Party (NCP) legislator
Jayant Patil on Friday
asked the state govern-
ment to take note of it.
The NCP leader told
the Maharashtra As-
sembly that after the
government announced
its plan to extend health
insurance scheme Ma-
hatma Jyotiba Phule
Jan Arogya Yojana to
the 865 Marathi-speak-
ing villages in poll-
bound Karnataka, Bom-
mai has been targeting
the neighbouring state.
“What is the problem
if the health insurance
scheme is provided to
common citizens in the
865 villages?” he asked.
Patil told the House
that Karnataka CM
Bommai has called the
Maharashtra govern-
ment’s decision an “un-
pardonable offence”.
The NCP leader said,
“He (Bommai) also said
Karnataka would give
grants to the Pandhar-
pur and Tuljapur tem-
ple trusts.”
The Karnataka CM
on Thursday urged the
Maharashtra govern-
ment to immediately
withdraw its order on
implementation of the
health insurance
scheme in the Marathi-
speaking villages on
Karnataka’s side of the
border, and said he
would be raising the
matter with Union
Home Minister Shah.
The Eknath Shinde
government recently
announced the alloca-
tion of Rs54 crore for
the health insurance
scheme so that benefits
could be extended to the
border villages in Kar-
nataka that Maharash-
tra has been laying
claim to.
The border dispute
dates back to 1957 after
the reorganization of
states on linguistic
lines.
DCM was target: Police to court on designer case
First India Bureau
Mumbai: While seek-
ing the custody of de-
signer Anishka Jaising-
hani, police told a Mum-
bai court on Friday that
the ultimate aim of the
conspiracy was to “fix”
Maharashtra Deputy
Chief Minister Deven-
dra Fadnavis.
Jaisinghani is ac-
cused of offering bribe
to Fadnavis’s wife Am-
ruta. She was produced
before Additional Ses-
sions Judge DD Almale
who remanded her in
police custody till
March 21.
The accused tried to
extort Rs10 crore from
Amruta by “threaten-
ing to circulate mor-
phed videos”,and hence
they invoked Indian Pe-
nal Code (IPC) Section
385 (putting person in
fear of injury in order
to commit extortion)
against Anishka Jaisin-
ghani and her father
Anil Jaisinghani, the
police said.
Anishka was arrest-
ed on Thursday while
her father, also an ac-
cused in the case, is still
at large. The Malabar
Hill police station had
registered a First Infor-
mation Report (FIR) in
the case on February 20
on Amruta Fadnavis's
complaint.
The FIR was regis-
tered under IPC section
120-B (conspiracy) and
sections of the Preven-
tion of Corruption Act.
Chief Public Prose-
cutor Jaysing Desai told
the court that photos,
videos and other mate-
rial evidence shows
there was a conspiracy
to fix “the informant
(complainant Amruta
Fadnavis) and ultimate-
ly the public servant”
(Devendra Fadnavis).
Theaccusedwantedto
“use of the office of pub-
lic servant”, he added.
Morphed photos and
threeorfourvideoswere
created to blackmail, the
prosecution said. After
Amruta blocked her
number, Anishka de-
manded Rs10 crore to
delete everything she
had and threatened to
circulate those videos if
Amruta did not pay
, the
prosecution claimed.
Anishka was in con-
stant touch with her fa-
ther who is facing 17
criminal cases, the po-
lice said while seeking
Anishka’s custody for
seven days. Advocate
Milan Hebale, ques-
tioned why, if the FIR
was registered on Feb-
ruary 20, the arrest was
made only now.
Anishka’s law exams
were going on, he said,
prayingforashortpolice
custody
. The court after
hearing both the sides
remanded Anishka in
police custody till
March 21.
Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis and wife Amruta. —FILE PHOTO
Anishka Jaisinghani sent to police
custody till March 21 for offering
bribe to Fadnavis’s wife Amruta
WHAT TRANSPIRED
Farmer
organizations
warn of agitation
if govt fails to
make good on
promises
Lawyers stage protest
at courts over attacks
NCP objects to Karnataka CM’s
‘anti-Maharashtra’ remarks
NCP leader Jayant Patil —FILE PHOTO
CM Bommai has
asked Maha to
withdraw its health
insurance scheme
Hold local body polls immediately:
LOP Ajit Pawar in state Assembly
Mumbai (PTI): Lead-
er of Opposition in the
Maharashtra Legisla-
tive Assembly Ajit Pa-
war on Friday de-
manded that long-due
elections to the local
bodies in the state be
held immediately
.
Elections to the Bri-
hanmumbaiMunicipal
Corporation (BMC),
other municipal corpo-
rationsandlocalbodies
are due for several
months now. Initiating
a debate on the issues
of urban development,
housing, public health
andmedicaleducation,
the Nationalist Con-
gress Party (NCP) lead-
er alleged that due to
interference of the
state government
through administra-
tors of local bodies,
croresof rupeesarebe-
ing wasted.
Funds of local bod-
ies are being used to
publish advertise-
ments of the chief
minister, Pawar
claimed. “Due to the
stay on old projects
and development
works, there is resent-
ment among the pub-
lic,” he said.
There are no elected
representatives in mu-
nicipal corporations
for the last two and a
half years and they
are being run by ad-
ministrators, he said,
addingthattheEknath
Shinde-led govern-
ment did not seem to
desire early elections.
In the absence of
electedrepresentatives
in the Mumbai civic
body (BMC), big pro-
jects should not be
takenupasperthecon-
vention, Pawar said.
Leader of Oppn in Assembly
Ajit Pawar —FILE PHOTO
HonorariumforASHAworkersup
by`1.5K;MLAssaynotenough
`260 cr furniture
‘scam’: Aaditya
First India Bureau
Mumbai: Shiv Sena
- UBT MLA Aaditya
Thackeray on Friday
alleged a nearly Rs260
croreworthof “scam”
in the Mumbai civic
body’s plan to buy
street furniture, in-
cluding benches.
He hit out at the
Eknath Shinde-BJP
government in the
Maharashtra Assem-
bly, calling it pro
builders and con-
tractors.
Speaking in the As-
sembly, the Opposi-
tion MLA from Worli
in central Mumbai
called the Shinde-
Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP) govern-
ment as “unconstitu-
tional”.
“Earlier a ruling
party MLA also had
raised the issue (of al-
leged irregularities
in street furniture
project) via a letter,
but the Brihanmum-
bai Municipal Corpo-
ration (BMC) admin-
istration seems to
have the backing of
the unconstitutional
government for cor-
ruption,” Thackeray
alleged while partici-
pating in a debate on
urban issues.

MAHARASHTRA
03
THREE KILLED AS
CAR RAMS INTO
STATIONARY TRUCK
Pune: Three persons died
after the car they were
travelling in crashed into
a stationary truck on the
Mumbai-Pune Expressway
on Friday morning, said an
official. Police said that the
incident took place around
7.30 am near the Talegaon
toll plaza. The impact was
so powerful that the car
nearly went under the
truck. “The car was travel-
ling from Mumbai to Pune.
All three occupants died,”
said an official.
FIVE OF FAMILY
ATTACK RELATIVES
OVER DISPUTE
Thane: Five persons
have been charged with
attacking and injuring
their relatives over a
dispute in Devripada of
Mumbra, Thane district.
The incident occurred on
Wednesday night when
a man, his parents and
siblings attacked his wife’s
family after she went
to her parent’s house
following a dispute. Some
persons were injured in
the attack and were admit-
ted to a hospital.
WOMAN LOSES
MORE THAN `12L
TO CYBER FRAUD
Thane: A 36-year-old
woman was allegedly
defrauded of over Rs12
lakh by cyber scammers.
The victim was befriended
by one of the accused on
social media, claiming to
be working in the UK. The
victim was informed that
she had received a gift,
and a woman posing as a
customs official called her
to demand payment for
the release of the parcel.
The victim paid Rs12.47
lakh in bank transactions
but never received the gift.
TWO HELD WITH
DRUGS WORTH
MORE THAN `10L
Palghar: Two persons
were arrested with
mephedrone and charas
worth more than Rs10
lakh in Palghar district,
police said on Friday. The
police arrested two people
in Nalla Sopara after
receiving a tip-off. The
accused were caught with
50 gm of mephedrone and
08 gm of charas, worth
Rs10 lakh and Rs64,000
respectively. Senior
inspector Sahuraj Ranavre
confirmed the arrest and
seizure of drugs.
MAN GETS 5 YEARS RI FOR INVOLVEMENT
FOR DISPOSING MURDER VICTIM’S BODY
Thane: A man has been sentenced to five years of rigorous
imprisonment for disposing of the body of a murder victim
by a court. Kamlesh Sukuman Bansal was found guilty of
charges under section 201 of the Indian Penal Code. The
other two accused were sentenced to life imprisonment for
murder and disposing of the victim’s body. The accused
killed Katrikumar Indushankar Jaiswal in 2015, cut his
body into pieces, packed it in plastic bags, and dumped it.
NOTORIOUS CRIMINAL DETAINED FOR ONE
YEAR IN NASHIK PRISON, IN THANE DISTRICT
Thane: A 27-year-old criminal involved in several serious
crimes has been detained for a year by the police in Thane
district, an official said on Friday. The accused has been
detained under the Maharashtra Prevention of Dangerous
Activities (MPDA) Act and was sent to Nashik Central
prison on Thursday, he said. The accused has six cases to
his name at MFC police station and one at Bazarpeth police
station in Kalyan, senior inspector AB Honmane said.
MAN BOOKED FOR CHEATING AUTO
DRIVER OF `9 LAKH ON PRETEXT OF JOB
Thane: A man from Kolhapur has been accused of cheating
an autorickshaw driver in Thane city of Rs9 lakh on the
pretext of helping him get a job at Mumbai airport. The
complainant paid the accused Rs10.16 lakh in instalments,
but when nothing happened, he asked for his money back.
The accused returned only Rs1 lakh, and after several
attempts to collect the remaining amount, the complainant
approached the police. A case has been registered.
CRUCIAL READ
After 12 years, Panvel tribal family gets back their land
First India Bureau
Navi Mumbai: A trib-
al family, hailing from
the Panvel taluka has
got back its nearly
3,200 square metre of
land from an outsider
after the intervention
of Vijay Talekar and
several members of an
NGO Uran Samajik
Sanstha (USS).
As per reports, the
land was taken illegally
in 2011 from the illiter-
ate tribal family on a
lease of 99 years by a
man from Rajasthan
who did business in the
village for decades. He
also denied the family
access to their land
since that time.
The land is owned by
one Ananta Pokla and
family. The business-
man from Rajasthan
Surendra Singh had
first illegally done a
lease agreement with
the parents of Pokla
and took over the pos-
session. Tribal-owned
land cannot be trans-
acted without obtaining
due permissions.
In 2016, Singh had il-
legally entered into a
sale agreement of the
land with one of his
tribal aides Hiraman
Ughda. Singh further
constructed houses for
his crusher workers,
opened a garage, and
kept cows and buffaloes
on the land taken by
him illegally
.
Ananta Pokla said,
“Our Chirner Ashram
school teacher Mahadev
Doiphode had asked me
to meet Prof Rajendra
Madhavi, Sudhakar Pa-
til and others from USS.
Thereafter, I com-
plained to Panvel taluka
policestationandtehsil-
dar. The USS even bore
the expenditure for pa-
per works. We had suf-
fered a lot being poor.”
The local circle of-
ficer Santosh Kachare
had filed a report to
Panvel tehsildar and
the Panvel taluka assis-
tant police inspector
recorded the statement
of all parties. Tehsildar
Vijay Talekar finally
ordered that the land
transaction is illegal
after a three-month
hearing process.
SIGH OF RELIEF
Bizman from Rajasthan took
it illegally, denied them access
First India Bureau
Mumbai: Anidtheris-
ingpollutionconcerns
in the city
, the System
of Air Quality Fore-
casting and Research
(SAFAR) has now re-
named two of its mon-
itoringstationsatBKC
and Chembur.
The development
has come three
months after the Ma-
harashtra Pollution
ControlBoard(MPCB)
said that its monitors
did not accurately re-
flect Mumbai’s base-
line pollution levels
and must be relocated
to cleaner locations.
The Brihanmumbai
Municipal Corpora-
tion (BMC)’s environ-
ment department had
requested SAFAR to
rename its BKC moni-
tor as ‘Kalanagar, Ban-
draEast’anditsChem-
bur monitor as ‘Pa-
tilwadi,GovandiEast’.
Though it initially re-
fused, citing issues
with data manage-
ment, later it agreed to
a compromise, the of-
ficial stated.
The ‘BKC’ monitor
is located just outside
BKC at Kalanagar,
which is in Bandra
East. The Chembur
monitor is located on
the Tata Institute of
Social Sciences (TISS)
campus at Patilwadi,
Govandi East, which
is close to Chembur,
official added.
2 AIR QUALITY STATIONS
RENAMED IN MUMBAI
ILLEGAL ARRANGEMENT
In 2016, the businessman had
illegally entered into a sale agree-
ment of the land with one of his
tribal aides Hiraman Ughda. Singh
further constructed houses for his
crusher workers, opened a garage,
and kept cows and buffaloes on
the land taken by him illegally.
First India Bureau
Thane: An offence has
been registered against
a teacher of a private
school for allegedly
beating up a 14-year-old
student in Maharash-
tra's Thane district, po-
lice said on Friday
.
Based on a complaint
lodged by the Class VIII
student'sparents,thepo-
lice have registered a
case under section 323
(voluntarily causing
hurt)of theIndianPenal
CodeandunderJuvenile
Justice Act and Right to
Education Act, senior
inspector Ghanshyam
Adhav of the Vashind
police station said.
As per the complaint,
the incident took place
on March 14, when the
teacher allegedly
slapped the boy for re-
turning late from the
washroom and proceed-
ed to beat him on the
back and pull his ears,
he said. The boy com-
plained of pain and
there was swelling near
his eyes, the official
said, adding that a no-
tice has been served to
the teacher.
First India Bureau
Mumbai: Amid the
statewide agitation
launched by govern-
ment employees, the
Bombay High Court on
Friday pulled up the
state over steps it was
taking to “curb the men-
ace” of illegal strikes.
A division bench of
Acting Chief Justice SV
Gangapurwala and Jus-
tice Sandeep Marne was
hearing an application
filed by advocate Gunra-
tan Sadavarte. It sought
immediate withdrawal
of ongoing strike of
state government em-
ployees,includingteach-
ing and medical staff.
The state government
employees declared an
indefinite strike from
March 14, seeking resto-
ration of the Old Pen-
sion Scheme (OPS) that
was scrapped in 2005.
Advocate General
Birendra Saraf told the
court that the strike
was “illegal” and as-
sured that the state gov-
ernment was making
all endeavours to en-
sure that no person suf-
fers due to the strike.
The bench asked the
government to categori-
cally say what steps it
was taking to ensure
that basic amenities and
essential services are
provided to the public.
“Our anxiety is that
the common citizens
should not be deprived
of essential service.
Common citizens
should not suffer. We
wanttoknowwhatsteps
the state is taking to
curb this menace. What
are modalities and steps
government is taking to
ensure basic amenities
and essential services
are made available to
people,” court said.
While posting matter
for further hearing on
March 23, the bench
noted that people have
the right to protest, but,
the government has to
ensure steps are taken
so that no one suffers.
Sadavarte submitted
to court that he was not
against any person’s
fight for their rights,
but he was concerned
about the lakhs of stu-
dents, especially during
board exams, and other
persons facing difficul-
ties due to the non-avail-
ability of health and
teaching staff.
CITIZENS SHOULD NOT SUFFER: COURT
Pulls up Maha
govt over its
action to ‘curb
menace’ of
illegal strikes
Strike may delay evaluation
of Maharashtra board exams
Pune (PTI): With teach-
ers joining the ongoing
strike of government
employeesinMaharash-
tra, the evaluation of
answer-sheetsof ClassX
and XII examinations of
the state board could be
affected, union leaders
said on Friday
.
While the Class XII
exam conducted by the
Maharashtra State
Board of Secondary
and Higher Secondary
Education ended on Fri-
day, the Class X exam
would end in the last
week of March.
The strike of govern-
ment employees and
teachers’ unions who
want restoration of the
OPS began on March 14.
Santosh Phasge,
President of the Junior
Teachers' Federation,
said all teachers’ un-
ions have lent support
to the demand for the
OPS restoration.
“Teachers’ unions
have stated that they
would not let the ongo-
ing board examinations
be affected due to the
strike. But it has been
decided that after the
exams, all academic
work including evalua-
tion of papers will be
stopped, which will af-
fect the (declaration of)
results,” he said.
Anuradha Oak, Sec-
retary of the Maharash-
tra State Board of Sec-
ondary and Higher Sec-
ondary Education (MS-
BSHSE), said the imme-
diate priority was to
conduct the exams
smoothly
.
Cama Hospital staffers demand restoration of OPS outside the
premises gates in Mumbai on Friday.
—PHOTO
BY
BHUSHAN
KOYANDE
EX GRATIA OR FAMILY PENSION: GOVT
The govt on Friday decided to give the option to
avail one-time ex gratia or family pension to its em-
ployees in case of their death while in service. The
decision was taken in a cabinet meeting chaired by
CM Eknath Shinde here, official sources said.
SCHOOL TEACHER
HELD FOR SEXUALLY
ABUSING TEEN
Palghar (PTI): A 41-year-
old teacher of a school
has been arrested for
allegedly sexually abusing
a teen student in Maha-
rashtra’s Palghar district,
police said on Friday.
The accused, who is from
Nalla Sopara, was arrested
on Thursday evening
under section 376 (rape)
of the Indian Penal Code
and relevant provisions of
the Protection of Children
from Sexual Offences
(POCSO) Act, an official
said. While the incident
took place last month
and the girl informed her
parents about it recently,
following which a com-
plaint was lodged, he said,
adding that further probe
is underway.
Students appear for their Class
XII board exam.
—FILE PHOTO
First India Bureau
Nagpur: A Bombay
High Court has dis-
missed a father's plea to
conduct a DNA test on
his teenage son to prove
paternity
, stating that
childrenhavetherightto
nothavetheirlegitimacy
questioned in court.
The petitioner, em-
ployed with Western
CoalfieldsLimited(WCL),
had married a woman
from the same company
in 2006, and their son was
bornin2007.However,the
couple separated due to
dispute, and woman ap-
proached the man for
maintenance of Rs5000,
which he refused, alleg-
ing that the boy was not
his biological son.
The Chandrapur dis-
trict court had earlier
quashed the order di-
recting the DNA test.
Following this, the peti-
tioner approached the
high court seeking a
DNA test of the boy
.
While hearing the
case, Justice Sanap ob-
served that children
havetherightnottohave
the legitimacy of their
births questioned frivo-
lously in courts of law.
Simplysayingthatthe
applicant (boy) is not his
sonwillnotbesufficient.
In his cross-examina-
tion, he denied the sug-
gestion that after the
birth of the boy
, he sus-
pected his wife's charac-
ter, the court said. Fa-
ther, gainfully em-
ployed, is trying to avoid
his liability to pay main-
tenance to unfortunate
child, court observed.
Relief to teen after Bombay HC
rejects father’s plea for DNA test
First India Bureau
Mumbai: In the shock-
ing Lalbaug murder of
a 55-year-old woman,
Kalachowkie police
have found some pieces
of her body in a carton
and also in the resi-
dence’s drain.
Cops have arrested
the victim, Veena Jain’s
24-year-old daughter
Rimple for allegedly
murdering her mother
and storing her dis-
membered body at their
Lalbaug home.
According to police
sources, Rimple tried to
dispose of tiny parts of
her mother’s body in a
drain a day after alleg-
edly killing her, which
left a stench in her
house.
Her boyfriend—the
manager of an eatery in
the area—got her a
drain suction cup after
she told him that the
clogged drain was
stinking.
Cops said they have
also recovered hand
gloves covered in mag-
gots along with the car-
ton box.
The Kalachowki po-
lice suspect involve-
ment of others, too, and
are questioning people
from the locality
. Teams
have been dispatched to
Uttar Pradesh and West
Bengal to bring two sus-
pects, they said.
Police have also ques-
tioned the manager of
Flavours of China eat-
ery, who they believe is
Rimple’s boyfriend.
Lalbaugmurder:Copsrecover
piecesinresidencedrain,carton
The chawl, where the mother-daughter duo lived.
—PHOTO
BY
BHUSHAN
KOYANDE
Teacher booked
for beating up
Class VIII student

PERSPECTIVE
04
l Vol 1 l Issue No. 308
l RNI TITLE NO.
MAHENG/2022/14652
Printed and published by
Anita Hada Sangwan on behalf of
First Express Publishers. Printed at
Dangat Media Pvt Ltd, No.22, Dighe
MIDC, Vishnu Nagar, TTC Industrial
Area, Dighe, Navi Mumbai-400701.
Published at Plot No. 3 Scheme C
of Manglorean Garden Home, CHS
Limited, Survey No. 5, 6C (Part) Ville
Parle East, Mumbai 400057.
Phone 022-46031417.
Editor-In-Chief: Dr Jagdeesh Chandra
Editor: Kartikey Dev Singh
responsible for selection of news
under the PRB Act
SPIRITUAL SPEAK
Sever the ignorant doubt in
your heart with the sword of
self-knowledge. Observe
your discipline. Arise.
—Bhagavad Gita
IN-DEPTH
Piyush Goyal
@PiyushGoyal
Extremely grateful to PM @
NarendraModi ji for this mega push
for Textiles sector. We are all inspired
by your 5F vision (Farm to Fibre to
Factory to Fashion to Foreign) which
will make India a global supplier a
hub for investment, manufacturing and
exports. #PragatiKaPMMitra
Dharmendra Pradhan
@dpradhanbjp
A historic day in India’s development
journey! PM MITRA mega textile parks
in Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Karnataka,
Maharashtra, Gujarat, MP and UP
will be a game-changer in creating an
integrated textiles value chain and in
strengthening India’s position on the
global textiles map.
TOP TWEETS
ONION PRICES MAKE
NASHIK FARMERS
UNDERTAKE LONG
MARCH TO MUMBAI
hen cut, onions bring
tears. In the case of
Nashik farmers,
however, onions have
brought tears be-
cause the prices of their produce
have fallen steeply. Thousands
of onion farmers are marching
from Nashik to Mumbai, a dis-
tance of about 200 km, after they
were reduced to a state of penu-
ry because of the fall in prices.
They are demanding Rs 600 per
quintal immediate relief for
farmers. The government is of-
fering them Rs 300 per quintal
instead. The farmers did not find
the offer acceptable as it was a
pittancecomparedtotheirheavy
losses this season and below
their expectation. They are also
demanding uninterrupted pow-
er supply for 12 hours and waiv-
er of agricultural loans.
Maharashtra Chief Minister
Eknath Shinde and his deputy
Devendra Fadnavis are trying to
resolve the issue, while the
march continues. The opposi-
tion pitched for a Rs 500 to Rs 700
compensation. Besides onion,
farmers are demanding a remu-
nerative price also for cotton,
soyabean and tur.
W
mran Khan who
faced imminent
arrest after a lo-
cal court turned
down the former
Pakistan prime minister’s
plea for suspension of his
non-bailable arrest warrants
in the Toshakhana case got a
reprieve when the court in
Lahore postponed his arrest
until Friday. The leader of
the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf
(PTI) party finally appeared
in the Lahore court to avoid
incurring the court’s wrath.
Imran is facing a criminal
case for not paying for most
of the gifts he took home
from the government’s
Toshakhana, the official
treasure house where gifts
received by Pakistani lead-
ers and other dignitaries are
kept. As per Pakistan Elec-
tion Commission’s estimate,
Imran made PKR 104.78 mil-
lion by selling jewel-studded
watches he got as gifts in his
capacity as Prime Minister.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister
and president can keep gifts
which are worth Rs 30,000 or
pay a certain portion of the
actual cost in case of costlier
items. For making false
statements regarding the
presents, the Election Com-
mission of Pakistan barred
Imran from holding any pub-
lic office for five years.
Imran is not the only Paki-
stan Prime Minister who
faced arrest either after de-
mitting office or after being
removed from power. Former
Prime Minister Nawaz Sha-
rif also spent time in jail after
his removal. Ex-Presidents
Pervez Musharraf, Zulfiqar
Ali Bhutto both were incar-
cerated while the latter who
also served as prime minister
was hanged. Pakistan re-
mains a dangerous place for
politics as the army and ISI
keep lurking in the shadows.
The attempt by Imran’s
supporters to prevent his ar-
rest by organizing wide-
spread violent protests will
fail if the court so decides.
IMRAN KHAN HIS
TOSHAKHANA GIFTS
Imran is not the only
Pakistan PM who faced
arrest either after
demitting office or after
being removed from
power. Former PM Nawaz
Sharif also spent time
in jail after his removal
I
he prominent model of infor-
mation access before search
engines became the norm –
librarians and subject or
search experts providing rel-
evant information – was in-
teractive, personalized,
transparent and authorita-
tive. Search engines are the
primary way most people ac-
cess information today, but
entering a few keywords and
getting a list of results
ranked by some unknown
function is not ideal.
A new generation of arti-
ficial intelligence-based in-
formation access systems,
which includes Microsoft’s
Bing/ChatGPT, Google/Bard
and Meta/LLaMA, is upend-
ing the traditional search
engine mode of search input
and output. These systems
are able to take full sentences
and even paragraphs as in-
put and generate personal-
ized natural language re-
sponses.
At first glance, this might
seem like the best of both
worlds: personable and cus-
tom answers combined with
the breadth and depth of
knowledge on the internet.
But as a researcher who stud-
ies the search and recom-
mendation systems, I believe
the picture is mixed at best.
AI systems like ChatGPT
and Bard are built on large
language models. A language
model is a machine-learning
technique that uses a large
body of available texts, such
as Wikipedia and PubMed
articles, to learn patterns. In
simple terms, these models
figure out what word is likely
to come next, given a set of
words or a phrase. In doing
so, they are able to generate
sentences, paragraphs and
even pages that correspond
to a query from a user. On
March 14, 2023, OpenAI an-
nounced the next generation
of the technology, GPT-4,
which works with both text
and image input, and Micro-
soft announced that its con-
versational Bing is based on
GPT-4.
Thanks to the training on
large bodies of text, fine-
tuning and other machine
learning-based methods,
this type of information re-
trieval technique works
quite effectively. The large
language model-based sys-
tems generate personalized
responses to fulfill informa-
tion queries. People have
found the results so impres-
sive that ChatGPT reached
100 million users in one
third of the time it took Tik-
Tok to get to that milestone.
People have used it to not
only find answers but to gen-
erate diagnoses, create diet-
ing plans and make invest-
ment recommendations.
OPACITY AND
‘HALLUCINATIONS’
However, there are plenty of
downsides. First, consider
what is at the heart of a large
language model – a mecha-
nism through which it con-
nects the words and presum-
ably their meanings. This
produces an output that often
seems like an intelligent re-
sponse, but large language
model systems are known to
produce almost parroted
statements without a real un-
derstanding. So, while the
generated output from such
systems might seem smart, it
is merely a reflection of un-
derlying patterns of words
the AI has found in an appro-
priate context.
This limitation makes
large language model sys-
tems susceptible to making
up or “hallucinating” an-
swers. The systems are also
not smart enough to under-
stand the incorrect premise
of a question and answer
faulty questions anyway
. For
example, when asked which
U.S. president’s face is on the
$100 bill, ChatGPT answers
Benjamin Franklin without
realizing that Franklin was
never president and that the
premise that the $100 bill has
a picture of a U.S. president
is incorrect.
The problem is that even
when these systems are
wrong only 10% of the time,
you don’t know which 10%.
People also don’t have the
ability to quickly validate the
systems’ responses. That’s
because these systems lack
transparency – they don’t re-
veal what data they are
trained on, what sources they
have used to come up with
answers or how those re-
sponses are generated.
For example, you could ask
ChatGPT to write a technical
report with citations. But of-
ten it makes up these cita-
tions – “hallucinating” the
titles of scholarly papers as
well as the authors. The sys-
tems also don’t validate the
accuracy of their responses.
This leaves the validation up
to the user, and users may not
have the motivation or skills
to do so or even recognize the
need to check an AI’s re-
sponses.
STEALING CONTENT –
AND TRAFFIC
While lack of transparency
can be harmful to the users,
it is also unfair to the au-
thors, artists and creators of
the original content from
whom the systems have
learned, because the systems
do not reveal their sources or
provide sufficient attribu-
tion. In most cases, creators
are not compensated or cred-
ited or given the opportunity
to give their consent.
There is an economic angle
to this as well. In a typical
search engine environment,
theresultsareshownwiththe
links to the sources. This not
only allows the user to verify
the answers and provides the
attributions to those sources,
it also generates traffic for
those sites. Many of these
sources rely on this traffic for
their revenue. Because the
largelanguagemodelsystems
produce direct answers but
not the sources they drew
from, I believe that those sites
are likely to see their revenue
streams diminish.
TAKING AWAY
LEARNING AND
SERENDIPITY
Finally, this new way of ac-
cessing information also can
disempower people and takes
away their chance to learn. A
typical search process allows
users to explore the range of
possibilities for their infor-
mation needs, often trigger-
ing them to adjust what
they’re looking for. It also af-
fords them an opportunity to
learn what is out there and
how various pieces of infor-
mation connect to accom-
plish their tasks. And it al-
lows for accidental encoun-
ters or serendipity
.
These are very important
aspects of search, but when a
system produces the results
without showing its sources
or guiding the user through
a process, it robs them of
these possibilities.
Large language models are
a great leap forward for infor-
mation access, providing peo-
ple with a way to have natural
language-based interactions,
produce personalized re-
sponses and discover answers
andpatternsthatareoftendif-
ficult for an average user to
come up with. But they have
severe limitations due to the
way they learn and construct
responses.Theiranswersmay
be wrong, toxic or biased.
While other information
access systems can suffer
from these issues, too, large
language model AI systems
alsolacktransparency
.Worse,
their natural language re-
sponses can help fuel a false
sense of trust and authorita-
tiveness that can be danger-
ous for uninformed users.
—THECONVERSATION
T
Thanks to training on
large bodies of text, fine-
tuning and other
machine learning-based
methods, this type of
information retrieval
technique works quite
effectively. The large
language model-based
systems generate
personalized responses to
fulfill information
queries. People have
found results so
impressive that ChatGPT
reached 100 million users
in one third of time it
took TikTok to get to that
milestone. People have
used it to not only find
answers but to generate
diagnoses
Finally, this new way of
accessing information
also can disempower
people and takes away
their chance to learn. A
typical search process
allows users to explore
the range of possibilities
for their information
needs, often triggering
them to adjust what
they’re looking for
AI
INFORMATION
RETRIEVAL
A search engine researcher
explains the promise and peril
of letting ChatGPT and its
cousins search the web for you

To Receive Free Newspaper
PDF Daily
Whatsapp:
Telegram:
Click the above link☝ subscribe us on your
preferred platform.
https://bit.ly/fiwhatsappmumbai
https://t.me/thefirstindiamumbai

05
INDIA
Cong protest after chaos in Parliament
over Rahul Gandhi’s remarks in London
Amid ruckus over Cong leader’s remarks in UK, both Houses of Parliament have been adjourned till Monday
New Delhi (Agencies):
Congress leaders Sonia
Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi
and Mallikarjun
Kharge joined a party
protest near the Mahat-
ma Gandhi statue in
parliament today. The
protest began soon after
both Houses were ad-
journed for the day in a
standoff over Rahul
Gandhi’s “democracy-
under-attack” remarks
in London.
Sonia Gandhi and
Mallikarjun Kharge sat
on chairs as the MPs
protested holding plac-
ards and chanting slo-
gans pressing for a
Joint Parliamentary
Committee (JPC) in-
quiry into the Adani-
Hindenburg row.
Parliament has been
repeatedly stalled with
the ruling BJP demand-
ing an apology from Ra-
hul Gandhi for his re-
marks in London, and
the opposition aggres-
sivelypushingforaJoint
Parliamentary Commit-
tee inquiry into the alle-
gations of US short-sell-
er Hindenburg against
theAdaniGroupandthe
falloutof thesubsequent
fall in Adani stocks.
BJP sources have
said they won’t let Ra-
hul Gandhi speak in the
House unless he apolo-
gises. The audio of the
proceedings in parlia-
ment were muted this
morning.
After about 20 min-
utes of chaos, Speaker
Om Birla adjourned
Lok Sabha for the day.
Rahul Gandhi, Sonia
Gandhi, Defence Minis-
ter Rajnath Singh and
several other Union
ministers were present
in the House.
The Congress, re-
peating Rahul Gandhi’s
charge that the mics of
opposition leaders were
muted, took a swipe at
PM Narendra Modi.
“Earlier, the mic
used to be turned
off, today even
the proceedings
of the House
were muted.
The house is
mute for PM
M o d i ’ s
friend,” the
Cong ress
tweeted.
Opposition MPs create a ruckus in the Lok Sabha over the Adani-Hindenburg issue and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi’s democracy
remark during the second phase of the Budget Session of the Parliament, in New Delhi on Friday. —PHOTO BY ANI
CONG MUST SMELL
POLITICAL COFFEE
AFTER BJP'S POLL
RESULTS IN NE: IRANI
RAHUL GANDHI NEVER DEMANDED FOREIGN FORCES TO
SAVE OUR DEMOCRACY, IT’S NONSENSE: SHASHI THAROOR
BJP IS BRILLIANT AT POLITICS: THAROOR
ON RAHUL GANDHI’S LONDON REMARKS
New Delhi: Asked about the ruling BJP demand for an
apology from Rahul Gandhi over his comments, the
MP from Thiruvananthapuram said he does not think
the former Congress chief has got anything to apolo-
gise for. “I think that is the amazing thing about
them. The BJP is brilliant, I must say, at politics, and
one of the things they have done is that they have
blamed him (Rahul Gandhi) for something he has
not said and then managed to stick that charge on
his neck and demand that he apologise for some-
thing he has not said,” Shashi Tharoor said.
New Delhi (ANI): With the continuous demand of the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP)
for an apology from Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for his remarks in London
on democracy in India, party MP Shashi Tharoor has said that the Wayanad MP
never demanded foreign forces to save our democracy. “Rahul Gandhi never
demanded foreign forces come to our country to save our democracy. He hasn’t
said anything he should apologise for. It’s nonsense,” Tharoor told
ANI on Friday. “Democracy, in our country, is in danger and eve-
ryone should know about it. I didn’t hear anything wrong in it”,
added Congress MP Tharoor.
New Delhi: Congress
leader Rahul Gandhi’s
comments in the UK did
not come due to his con-
cern over India but for
his political legacy, Union
minister Smriti Irani
said on Friday, stressing
that the opposition party
should take a hint from
the recent poll results in
the northeast and “smell
the political coffee”. The
Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP) retained power on
its own in Tripura and
with its senior ally, Na-
tionalist Democratic Pro-
gressive Party (NDPP),
in Nagaland. “Let us
keep the 2014 and 2019
(Lok Sabha) elections
aside. The Congress
should take a hint from
the recent poll results in
the northeastern states
of Tripura, Nagaland and
Meghalaya, where the
BJP did fairly well, and
smell the political cof-
fee,” the Union minister
for women and child de-
velopment and minority
affairs said at the India
Today Conclave here.
New Delhi: The Delhi HC on Friday granted bail to
Shakti Bhog Foods chairman and managing director
Kewal Krishan Kumar in connection with a money
laundering probe arising from an alleged multi-crore
bank loan fraud. Justice Jasmeet Singh granted relief
to the 70-year-old on account of his health condition
while observing that he had been in custody for over
18 months and although the charge sheet was yet to
be filed, the investigation against him was complete.
SHAKTI BHOG FOODS MD GETS BAIL
IN MONEY LAUNDERING CASE
Ahmedabad: The Gujarat HC fined a man Rs 5,000
for seeking custody of his girlfriend from her
husband on the strength of their live-in agreement.
The man stated that he was in a relationship with
the woman whose custody he was seeking. She was
forced to marry someone else against her will, and
the couple did not get along. The woman abandoned
her husband to live with him after which they stayed
together signed a live-in relationship agreement.
MAN SEEKS GIRLFRIEND’S ‘CUSTODY’
FROM HER HUSBAND, HC FINES HIM
New Delhi: The Supreme Court agreed to hear a plea
filed by a Muslim woman who claimed the provision
of Shariat law to the extent
of not giving equal share
to a female compared to
a male is “discriminatory”
and violative of the rights
guaranteed under the Con-
stitution. A bench of justices
was hearing the appeal against the Kerala High
Court’s January 6 order filed by Bushara Ali.
TOP COURT TO HEAR MUSLIM WOMAN’S
REQUEST FOR EQUAL PROPERTY SHARE
New Delhi (ANI): A Delhi Court on Friday awarded
a compensation of more than `1 crore to a resident
of Haryana’s Gurugram,
who met with an accident
in December 2016 and had
multiple injuries all over the
body. She lost her right leg
in the accident caused by
the negligent driving of the
DTC bus driver. She has suffered 80 per cent perma-
nently disabled in her right limb after the accident.
COURT AWARDS COMPENSATION OF `1 CR
TO GIRL WHO LOST LEG IN ACCIDENT
IN THE COURTYARD Mamata, Akhilesh Yadav agree
on 2024 fight without Congress
Kolkata (Agencies):
The Congress’s plan to
put up a united fight
along with other Oppo-
sition parties against
the BJP in 2024 seems to
be dwindling as both
Mamata Banerjee and
Akhilesh Yadav have
said that they would
keep away from the
Grand Old Party in the
upcoming Lok Sabha
polls. This came after SP
chief Akhilesh Yadav
met the West Bengal CM
in Kolkata on Friday
.
“The Trinamool Con-
gress will go its own
way, maintaining dis-
tance from both the
Congress and BJP,”
senior Trinamool Con-
gress MP Sudip Ban-
dyopadhyay said add-
ing that Mamata Ba-
nerjee will meet power-
ful regional parties to
fight the BJP.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee greets SP chief
Akhilesh Yadav in Kolkata on Friday. —PHOTO BY TWITTER
YADAV SLAMS GOVT
FOR ABUSE OF POWER
Akhilesh Yadav slammed the
BJP-led government at the
Centre for misusing central
agencies to “harass leaders
and public representatives of
opposition parties”, who pose
a threat to the saffron camp.
“The ED, CBI, Income Tax
are political weapons of BJP.
In UP, several of our leaders
MLAs, are in jail in false and
fabricated cases,” he said.
MAIN TARGET IS TO
OUST BJP IN 2024: SP
The one and only target of
Samajwadi Party is to oust
BJP from power in the 2024
Lok Sabha elections at any
cost, the party chief and the
Leader of Opposition in Uttar
Pradesh Assembly Akhilesh
Yadav said on Friday. The Un-
ion government is not ready
to discuss burning issues
like inflation, unemployment
and farmers’ plight.
Congress,AAPslam
BJP'sKirronKherover
‘LaanatHai’remark
Chandigarh (PTI): The
Congress and the AAP
slammed BJP MP from
Chandigarh Kirron
Kher, accusing her of
using “inappropriate”
words while referring to
her constituents at an
event here, and demand-
ed that she apologise.
They claimed that
Kher, a second-time MP
from Chandigarh, used
words such as “laanat
hai” and “chittar ferne
chahiye” while refer-
ring to voters. Kher was
addressing an event in
Kishangarh and she
talked about the devel-
opment works done for
the residents of the
Deep Complex locality
.
In a video, the MP is
purportedly heard say-
ing that “agar Deep
Complex mein ek bhi
banda mere ko vote na
daletohphirbadelaanat
ki baat hai…jaakar chit-
tar ferne chahiye unko,
kyon ki itne paise deke
maine unki sadke ban-
vayi (If not even one
from Deep Complex
votes for me, then it is a
highly shameful thing…
they need to be beaten
up with slippers)”.
The Chandigarh Ma-
hila Congress demands
that “she apologise to
people because of
whom she is the MP”,
Cong leader said.
Kirron Kher
AP CM meets PM,
seeks resolution
of pending issues
New Delhi: Andhra
Pradesh Chief Minister
YS Jagan Mohan Red-
dy today met Prime
Minister Narendra
Modi inDelhitodiscuss
various issues regard-
ing his state, including
special state status,
pending funds from the
Centre, and his inter-
vention in clearing dues
with neighbouring Tel-
angana. He requested
the PM to expedite work
on several issues that
are pending even nine
years after the bifurca-
tion of the state. He also
met Union Home Minis-
ter Amit Shah later to
discuss the same.
Allowelectedgovtto
function,saysKejriwal
New Delhi (ANI): As
the budget session of
the Delhi legislative as-
sembly commenced on
Friday, Delhi CM
Arvind Kejriwal said
that the Aam Aadmi
Party-led government
has performed despite
several “roadblocks”.
“I believe that democ-
racy should be respect-
ed, and if 2 crore people
have elected a govern-
ment, it should be al-
lowed to function. Cre-
ating roadblocks in its
working is not right,”
Kejriwal said adding
that Delhiisprogressing
rapidly because of AAP
.
Arvind Kejriwal
Increase in dowry, rape complaints: Govt
New Delhi (PTI):
There is an increase in
the number of dowry,
rape, and attempt to
rape complaints re-
ceived in the National
Commission for Women
in the last three years,
the Union Women and
Child Development
Ministry said.
Responding to a
question in Lok Sabha,
WCD Minister Smriti
Irani gave data as per
which 357 complaints
of dowry were received
in 2022, 341 in 2021, and
330 in 2020. “There is
an increase in the num-
ber of complaints re-
ceived/registered in
the Commission under
categories ‘Dowry and
Rape/attempt to Rape’
during the last three
years and current
year,” Irani said in a
written response.
The NCW received
1,710 complaints of
rape and attempt to
rape in 2022, 1,681 in
2021, and 1,236 in 2020,
according to the data.
More than 1,98,000 cas-
es are still pending in
these courts, she added.

—
REPRESENTATIONAL
IMAGE
AS PER WOMEN’S PANEL IN 3 YEARS
BJP National President JP Nadda speaks on Congress leader
Rahul Gandhi’s remarks on democracy in India, on Friday.
RaGa is a part of
‘Anti-Nationalist
Toolkit’: Nadda
New Delhi (PTI): BJP
president JP Nadda al-
leged on Friday that Ra-
hul Gandhi has become
a “permanent part of
the toolkit” working
against India and said
the Congress leader will
have to apologise for
seeking “interference”
from foreign powers in
India’s internal affairs.
Nadda said anti-India
forces have always had
problems with a strong
India, its robust democ-
racy and decisive gov-
ernment. By criticising
the state of democracy
in India and seeking the
intervention of the
United States and Eu-
rope on foreign soil,
Gandhi has attacked
the country’s sovereign-
ty, he added.
“Rejected repeatedly
by people, Rahul Gandhi
hasbecomeapermanent
partof the‘toolkit’work-
ing against India,” Na-
ddasaid. He accused the
former Congress chief
of insulting India, its
Parliament, its demo-
cratically-elected gov-
ernment and people in
Britain, a country that
ruledoverIndiaforlong,
the BJP president said.
BJP THEMSELVES
ARE ANTI-NAT’LS:
CONGRESS CHIEF
New Delhi: Congress
president Mallikarjun
Kharge on Friday
responding to BJP
national president
J P Nadda attack
on Rahul Gandhi
terming him as a
“permanent part” of
the “anti-nationalist
toolkit” stated that
the BJP, which had
never taken part in
the country’s freedom
movement were anti
nationals themselves.
—PHOTO
BY
ANI

06
INDIA
New Delhi (PTI): Sen-
ior AAP leader Raghav
Chadha on Friday
claimed that the central
probe agencies only
have malicious and fab-
ricated stories against
former Deputy Chief
Minister Manish Siso-
dia, who has been ar-
rested in a money laun-
dering case related to
the Delhi excise policy,
and have been asking
him the same questions.
Manish Sisodia's cus-
tody was extended by
five days today by a Del-
hi court after the En-
forcement Directorate
sought a week more to
investigate allegations
against him linked to
the Delhi liquor case.
He also said that ED
officers have ques-
tioned Manish Sisodia
for only 15 hours during
his 7-day remand.
Addressing a press
conference, Mr Chadha
claimed the CBI and the
ED don't have any evi-
dence against Mr Siso-
dia and he is behind
bars as a result of BJP's
politics of revenge.
The BJP is scared of
AAP and has started
politics of revenge. CBI
and ED don't have any
evidence against Man-
ish Sisodia. They only
have concocted stories
against him. When
court said that CBI took
Sisodia in remand, in-
terrogated him and did
not find anything
against him, they got
ED to frame more false
cases against him, Ra-
ghav Chadha alleged.
The agencies don't
have any evidence
against Sisodia. They
only have malicious and
fabricated stories
againsthim,healleged.
Kollam (PTI): A group
of school children who
waited on the wayside
in this southern district
of Kerala to greet Presi-
dent Droupadi Murmu
on Friday during her
maiden visit to the state
were in for a treat when
she stopped the convoy
and distributed choco-
lates to them.
A video of the Presi-
dent stepping out of her
official vehicle and giv-
ing the children choco-
lates in Karunagappal-
ly here in the morning
has gone viral on social
media platforms.
Seeing the excited
children waving at her
car, the President
stopped the convoy sud-
denly on the coastal
highway. To the chil-
dren’s surprise, they
saw the President walk-
ing towards them with
a smile.
In the video, she
could be seen distribut-
ing sweets to all the
children gathered
there. She spent a few
minutes with them and
then walked back to
her vehicle bidding
them goodbye.
The happy children
could be heard shouting
“Thank you” in unison.
Prez stops convoy to distribute chocolates
A SWEET INTERLUDE IN KERALA
lll
A video of the
President
stepping out of
her official
vehicle and
giving the
children
chocolates here
has gone viral
on social media
New Delhi (ANI):
Prime Minister Naren-
dra Modi on Friday an-
nouncedthatPMMITRA
megatextileparkswould
be set up in Tamil Nadu,
Telangana, Karnataka,
Maharashtra, Gujarat,
MadhyaPradeshUttar
Pradesh.
Taking to Twitter, PM
Modi said, ‘’PM MITRA
mega textile parks will
boost the textiles sector
in line with 5F (Farm to
Fibre to Factory to Fash-
ion to Foreign) vision.
Glad to share that PM
MITRA mega textile
parks would be set up in
Tamil Nadu, Telangana,
Karnataka, Maharash-
tra, Gujarat, MP UP
.’’
Headded,‘’ThePMMI-
TRA mega textile parks
will provide state-of-the-
art infrastructure for the
textiles sector, attracts
investment of crores and
create lakhs of jobs.
It will be a great exam-
pleof ‘MakeinIndia’and
‘Make For the World’.’’
Investments to the tune
of about Rs 1,536 crore
have been made so far in
the textiles industry un-
der the Production-
Linked Incentive, said
the Ministry of Textiles.
As part of its At-
manirbhar plan, the
Government launched
Production Linked In-
centive (PLI) schemes in
varied sectors to make
Indian manufacturers
globally competitive, at-
tract investments, en-
hance exports, integrate
India into the global sup-
ply chain and reduce de-
pendency on imports.
Forthetextileindustry
,
the government has
launched the scheme
with an approved finan-
cial outlay of Rs10,683
crore for textiles to
achievesizeandscaleand
to become competitive.
Mega textile parks will be
set up in 7 states: PM Modi
PMassertsthattheywillattractmassiveinvestmentscreatelakhsofjobs
—FILE
PHOTO
President Droupadi Murmu meets the students during her visit to
Kochi on Friday. —PHOTO BY ANI
Probeagencieshaveonly
‘fabricated’stories:AAP
An alleged conman
from Gujarat with a
verified Twitter handle
and over a thousand fol-
lowers posed as an ad-
ditional director for
strategy and campaigns
at the Prime Minister’s
Office (PMO).
He managed to travel
to several tourist places
in Kashmir and claimed
that he was sent to im-
prove facilities at hotels
for tourists. He was fi-
nally arrested when de-
tails of the case came to
light. Identified as one
Kiran J Patel , the man
convinced authorities to
provide him with Z-plus
security cover, a bullet-
proof car for traveling.
Conman who posed as PMO official,
got Z-plus cover,bulletproof car; held
As the budget session
of Delhi Assembly be-
gan on Friday, Delhi
Lieutenant Governor
V
.K. Saxena in his inau-
gural address under-
lined the work of the
AAP government in the
education sector.
Saxena said that due
to the Delhi govern-
ment's keen focus on
the education sector,
the students have per-
formed well.
Despite the Covid
pandemic, Delhi's econ-
omy has been doing
well. The government
worked in construction,
real estate, electric ve-
hicles and other sec-
tors. The government
has performed well in
the field of quality of
education. In 12th and
10th classes, 98 and 97
per cent results came
for students. A separate
education board of Del-
hi has been created.
Delhi has performed
well in the education
sector in the past five
years, said L-G Saxena
in his address.
He added, In the field
of social security, the
government is working
for inclusive develop-
ment.Atotalof 4.08lakh
people have been given
pension under old age
assistance scheme. Fi-
nancial assistance has
been provided to 3.50
lakh distressed women.
Delhi L-G underlines govt’s works for edu
Shimla (ANI): Reading
out his first Budget in
the Vidhan Sabha,
Himachal Pradesh
Chief Minister Sukh-
vinder Singh Sukhu on
Friday announced a
slew of green energy
schemes, aiming to pro-
mote green energy and
curbing illegal mining.
During his speech,
the CM said Himachal
Pradesh will be devel-
oped as a “Model State
for Electric Vehicles”.
Electric vehicles will be
encouraged in a phased
manner with the col-
laboration of private
and public sectors.
Sukhu also an-
nounced Rs 50 lakh
subsidy to the youth in
the state to purchase e-
buses. He said 500 e-
buses would be bought
for the state transport
and the state would es-
tablish 12 bus stations.
Congress CM focuses
on ‘Green Himachal’
in his first budget
Himachal Pradesh CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu during the Budget
Session of the State Assembly, at Vidhan Sabha, in Shimla on Friday.
New Delhi (PTI): Delhi
Health Minister Sau-
rabh Bharadwaj on
Friday said the city gov-
ernment has directed
authorities to conduct
early screening to de-
tect cases of influenza
in the national capital.
Addressing a press
conference, he said
though the peak of sea-
sonal influenza is usu-
ally over by March,
many cases are being
registered this time in
parts of the country
.
Bharadwaj also said
that the city govern-
ment has no plan for
making masks manda-
tory. The focus is on
taking precautionary
measures such as avoid-
ing public places, wash-
ing hands etc, Bharad-
waj added.
Not many influenza cases but will
conduct early screening: Delhi HM
New Delhi (PTI): The
China-brokered deal be-
tween Iran and Saudi
Arabia to revive diplo-
matic ties should not be
a matter of concern for
India as the pact would
provide regional stabil-
ity and would be benefi-
cial for New Delhi's in-
terests as well, Iranian
ambassador Iraj Elahi
said on Friday
.
Under the deal, Iran
and Saudi Arabia last
week announced the
full-fledged restoration
of their diplomatic rela-
tions, seven years after
severing the ties follow-
ing a bitter row.
I think agreemen
should not be a concern
for India. It would be of
benefit since it would
help intensify the sta-
bility peace in the Per-
sian Gulf region, the
envoy said adding that
it would be of benefit to
India despite what has
been done at the media-
tion of China, he said.
‘India shouldn’t be
concerned over
China-brokered
Iran-Saudi Deal’
TheCentralgovernment
has announced 10 per
cent reservation for ex-
Agniveers in vacancies
within the Central In-
dustrial Security Force
(CISF). Along with this,
the ex-Agniveers of the
first batch will be given
arelaxationof fiveyears
in the upper age limit.
The notice issued by
the Ministry of Home
Affairs also stated ex-
Agniveers will get age
relaxation of 3 years.
10% reservation
for Agniveers in
CISF, says govt
PM MITRA PARKS TO DEVELOP
WORLD-CLASS INFRASTRUCTURE
Further, the Government had approved the setting up
of 7 (seven) PM Mega Integrated Textile Region and
Apparel (PM MITRA) Parks to develop world-class infra-
structure with an outlay of Rs 4,445 crore for a period
up to 2027-28. The guidelines in respect of the scheme
have been published and there have been multiple inter-
actions with State Governments for inviting proposals.
In response 18 proposals from 13 States have been
received, the ministry said in the year-ender review.
HIGHLIGHTS
z Implementation of the
Green hydrogen policy
z Aim to develop green
state by March 2026
z Solar power projects
ranging from 500 MW
to 1 KW to be set up
z 40% subsidy to youth
for setting up small
hydropower projects
of 200 Kw to 2 MW
z Rs 1,000 crore for
the conversion of
1,500 diesel buses
into electric buses in a
phased manner by the
Himachal Road Trans-
port Corporation
2 TEACHERS BEHIND
CLASS 10 PAPER
LEAK, SAYS POLICE
UP COLD STORAGE
ROOF COLLAPSE
DEATHS RISE TO 10
Guwahati: Two teachers
have been identified as the
masterminds of the Class
10 question paper leak,
Assam Police said on Fri-
day. One of them has been
detained, while the other
accused is still missing,
and “we are confident of
nabbing him soon”, police
said. Pranab Dutta, the
headteacher of a High
School has been detained,
the police added.
Lucknow: The death count
in a roof collapse incident
at a cold storage in Sam-
bhal district climbed to 10
on Friday and state CM
Yogi Adityanath formed
a committee to probe the
reasons behind it. These
10 were among the 21
pulled out from the rubble
at the cold storage located
on Indira Road under
Chandausi police station
limits, as per police.
INDIA TO HOST
NINE-DAY MEGA
MILITARY EXERCISE
UP BOY STAGES HIS
OWN KIDNAPPING
TO BUY IPHONE
New Delhi: The Indian
Army will hold a nine-day
mega military exercise
with militaries of over 20
African countries from
March 21 in Pune with an
aim to significantly boost
overall cooperation, amid
China’s persistent efforts
to expand its strategic
influence in the continent.
Many army chiefs will be
attending the conclave.
New Delhi: A Class 9
student in UP’s Sitapur
staged his own kidnapping
to buy an iPhone with the
ransom money that he
planned to collect from his
father. He took the step
after his father, who owns
a small garment store, ex-
pressed his inability to buy
him the device. The boy
used his friend’s phone to
make a ransom call.
New Delhi: As many as 13,525 posts are lying vacant in the
Delhi Police which is around 14 per cent of the sanctioned
strength of 94,254, a Parliamentary panel has noted. The
Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs, head-
ed by BJP MP Brijlal, noted that the recruitment process to
fill the 3,861 posts is going on and recommended that the
hiring process should be completed within a fixed time-
frame. The panel recommended that the remaining 9,664
vacancies may also be filled as planned by the Delhi Police.
13,525 POSTS LYING VACANT IN DELHI
POLICE, SAYS PARLIAMENT PANEL
CRUCIAL READ
New Delhi (PTI): Over a fortnight after his arrest
by CBI in the Delhi excise policy case, former Dep-
uty Chief Minister Manish Sisodia's bungalow has
been allotted to Atishi, who was inducted into the
Cabinet earlier this month. According to an official
letter by the Public Works Department on March
14, Atishi has been asked to give her acceptance
within eight days of the issuance of the letter.
Sisodia had been staying at the AB-17 bungalow
on Mathura Road, which was earlier with former
Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit. The bungalow
was allotted to Sisodia in 2015, when the AAP
government came to power in Delhi. It is a routine
exercise. Since Sisodia had resigned, his bungalow
will be reallotted to Atishi, said an official. Sisodia
has been asked to vacate the bungalow on or
before March 21, according to the letter.
SISODIA’S BUNGALOW ALLOTTED
TO DELHI’S NEW MINISTER ATISHI
CONGRESS DEMANDS RESPONSE
FROM PM MODI ON GUJARAT CONMAN
Ahmedabad: The Gujarat Congress held a press confer-
ence in Ahmedabad on Friday, calling for strict action
against conman who visited
Kashmir in the guise of an
official from the PM's Office
and moved with Z-plus security.
Gujarat Congress spokesper-
son Manish Doshi said, When
information about Kiran Patel's
visit to the extremely sensitive region of Jammu and
Kashmir as a PMO official came to light, it raised major
concerns for everyone, especially on the nation's security.
ABOUT 20,000 ROOMS WERE MADE IN
GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS: SAXENA
New Delhi (PTI): In the area of infrastructure, Delhi
L-G said, several underpasses, flyovers have been
constructed in Delhi. Total
1,35,000 CCTV cameras
have been installed
across the city. Total 500
national flags were put up
all over Delhi on the 75th
Independence Day. About
20,000 rooms were made
in the government schools. The Kejriwal government
laid a new pipeline of 34 km, WTP scheme of Chan-
drawal and Wazirabad which is about to be completed.
Delhi Health Minister Saurabh Bhardwaj during the surprise
inspection at a Hospital, in New Delhi. —PHOTO BY ANI
—PHOTO
BY
ANI
PM Narendra Modi

07
Commodity Price Change % Chg
GOLD 58,040.00 400.00 0.68 (Per 10g)
SILVER 67,600.00 430.00 0.63 (Per 1kg)
COMMODITIES
Currency Price Change % Chg
USDINR 82.58 0.18 0.21
GBPINR 100.13 0.22 0.22
CURRENCIES
22,907weeklydomesticflightsinsummers
New Delhi (PTI): Indian
carriers will operate a total
of 22,907 weekly domestic
flights during the summer
schedule starting from
March 26.
The number of flights to
be operated is 4.4% higher
compared to 21,941 weekly
flights operated in the win-
ter schedule, according to
aviation regulator DGCA.
The summer schedule is
from March 26 till October
28. As many as 11 airlines
will be operating domestic
services, with maximum
weekly flights by IndiGo at
11,465.
In the 2022 summer
schedule, the airline’s
number of flights is 10,085
flights.
Among the 11 airlines,
Alliance Air, Air Asia,
SpiceJet and Vistara will
be operating fewer flights
in the upcoming summer
schedule compared to the
2022 winter schedule,
which is from October 28,
2022 to March 25, 2023.
INDIAN CARRIERS TO OPERATE
MAJOR
HIGHLIGHTS
z As many as 11 airlines
will be operating domestic
services, with max weekly
flights by IndiGo at 11,465
z Among the 11 airlines,
Alliance Air, Air Asia,
SpiceJet and Vistara will be
operating fewer flights in the
upcoming summer schedule
compared to the 2022 winter
schedule
business
BRIEFS
New Delhi: Steel bars and
wires manufacturer Maid-
en Forgings on Friday
said it will launch IPO to
raise `24 crore. The IPO
will open on March 22
and close on March 24,
Maiden Forgings said in a
statement. Out of the total
37,84,000 equity shares
on offer, not more than
17,97,000 equity shares
have been reserved for
QIB. A total of 5,39,100
shares have been re-
served for Non-Institu-
tional Investors (NII) and
the rest for retail individu-
al investors. —PTI
MAIDEN FORGINGS
TO LAUNCH IPO, AIMS
TO RAISE `24 CRORE
New Delhi: Gold price
climbed `400 to `58,040
per 10 gram in the na-
tional capital on Friday
amid a rise in the pre-
cious metal prices global-
ly, according to HDFC Se-
curities. The yellow metal
had settled at `57,640 per
10 gram in the previous
trade. Silver, however,
tumbled `430 to `67,600
per kilogram. “Spot gold
prices in the Delhi mar-
kets traded at `58,040
per 10 gram, up `400 per
10 gram,” Saumil Gandhi,
Senior Analyst - Com-
modities at HDFC Securi-
ties, said. In the overseas
markets, gold was quot-
ing higher at $1,928
per ounce. —PTI
GOLD CLIMBS `400
PER 10 GM; SILVER
TUMBLES `430/KG
New Delhi: Bharti Airtel
on Friday said it has
rolled out unlimited data
offer for 5G users in 4G
plans starting from `239
onward. “This introducto-
ry offer is in line with the
philosophy of wanting our
customers to be able to
surf, stream, chat and en-
joy multiple benefits at
blazing speeds without
having to worry about
data limits. We hope our
customers enjoy the pow-
er of world-class Airtel 5G
Plus,” Bharti Airtel official
said in a statement. —PTI
AIRTEL’S UNLIMITED
5G DATA IN 4G
PLANS FROM `239
New Delhi: PhonePe, one
of India’s largest fintech
platforms, on Friday said
it has raised an additional
$200 million (around
`1,649 crore) in primary
capital from Walmart, at a
pre-money valuation of
$12 billion. This new
funding comes as a part
of PhonePe’s ongoing
fundraise of up to $1 bil-
lion in capital, following
its domicile shift to India
last year. With this
tranche, the company has
raised $650 million
(around `5,360 crore)
from several global inves-
tors, PhonePe said. —PTI
PHONEPE RAISES
$200 MILLION IN
ADDITIONAL FUNDING
*Rates till the edition went to print.
GAIL SIGNS PACT WITH
SHELL TO EXPLORE
ETHANE SOURCING
New Delhi: India’s largest
gas utility GAIL on Friday said
it has signed an agreement
with Shell
Energy India
Pvt Ltd to
explore ethane
sourcing and
other opportunities along the
energy value chain. GAIL is
planning to import ethane
from the US to replace natural
gas and naphtha as feedstock
at petrochemical plants. In a
statement, GAIL said it has
signed a memorandum of un-
derstanding with Shell Energy
India to “explore opportunities
for infrastructure development
for ethane sourcing.” GAIL
last month floated a tender to
hire a very large ethane carrier
(VLEC) for 20 years. —PTI
SEBI FORMULATES
STRINGENT DISCLOSURE
NORMS FOR FPIs
New Delhi : Capital markets
regulator Sebi has made
stringent norms for Foreign
Portfolio In-
vestors (FPIs),
asking them
to disclose
any material
change in their structure and
common ownership within
seven working days. With
regard to new FPI registra-
tions, the Sebi can ask them
for any additional documents
which may be required.
Under the new rules, FPIs will
inform Sebi and designated
depository about any false or
misleading information about
change in material respect and
any change in their structure
or control within seven work-
ing days in writing. —PTI
INDIA’S APRIL-FEB FERTILIZER IMPORTS FROM
RUSSIA HIGHEST IN 3 YRS AT 34.19 LAKH TONNES
New Delhi: India imported 34.19 lakh tonnes of fertilizers,
including urea and DAP, from Russia during April-February of
the current fiscal, highest in the last three years, according to the
data placed before Parliament. The
imports have risen notwithstanding
the Russia-Ukraine war. “....Import of
urea in the current year up to Febru-
ary (during the ongoing Ukraine war)
is more than double as compared to
the previous year,” Minister of State
for Fertilizers Bhagwanth Khuba said.
Out of total fertilizer import of 34.19 lakh tonnes, about 6.26 lakh
tonnes of urea was imported till February of the ongoing 2022-23
financial year, as against 2.80 lakh tonnes. —PTI
SUGAR OUTPUT FALLS SLIGHTLY TO 28.18 MT
TILL MARCH 15 OF 2022-23 MARKETING YR: ISMA
New Delhi: The country’s sugar output remained marginally
lower at 28.18 million tonne till March 15 of the ongoing market-
ing year, industry body ISMA said on Friday. Sugar production
stood at 28.45 million tonne in the
same period of the 2021-22 market-
ing year. The sugar marketing year
runs from October to September.
According to the Indian Sugar Mills
Association (ISMA), around 336 sugar
factories were in operation in the
period under review against 438 facto-
ries in the year-ago period. After diversion for ethanol production,
the country’s sugar production was 28.18 million tonne during
October-March 15 of the ongoing 2022-23 marketing year, the
industry body said in a statement. —PTI
OTHER STORIES
Govt plans PLI
2.0 for specialty
steel: Scindia
New Delhi (PTI): The gov-
ernment is planning to in-
troduce the second edition
of the PLI scheme for spe-
cialty steel to boost produc-
tion of value-added steel in
the country, Union Minis-
ter of Steel Jyortiraditya
Scindia said on Friday
.
The minister further
asked the industry stake-
holders to share their sug-
gestions and feedback so
the next PLI Scheme for
specialty steel can be pre-
pared at the earliest.
As many as 27 steel com-
panies signed 57 MoUs
with the Ministry of Steel
to produce coated/plated
steel products.
IDBI Bank
privatisation on
track: DIPAM
ernment on Friday said
the disinvestment of IDBI
Bank is on track as per the
defined strategic sale pro-
cess. Debunking media re-
ports which indicated a
possibility of deferment
of IDBI Bank disinvest-
ment, the Department of
Investment and Public As-
set Management (DIPAM)
said the stake sale is in the
post-EoI stage.
The transaction contin-
ues to be on track as per the
defined process in post-EoI
stage following receipts of
multiple EoIs, DIPAM Sec-
retary Tuhin Kanta Pan-
dey tweeted.
Sensex and Nifty extend
gains in see-saw trade
Mumbai (PTI): Equity
benchmarks Sensex and
Nifty overcame bouts of
volatility to settle in the
green for the second
straight session on Friday,
propped up by robust de-
mand for the metal, bank-
ing and financial stocks
amid a firm trend in global
equities.
In a volatile trade, the
30-share BSE Sensex rose
355.06 points or 0.62% to
settle at 57,989.90.
The broader NSE Nifty
gained 114.45 points or
0.67% to end at 17,100.05.
HCL Tech led the Sensex
gainers' chart, spurting
3.58%, followed by Ul-
traCement, Nestle India,
Tata Steel, Kotak Bank,
ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel
and HDFC twins.
In contrast, ITC, Maruti,
NTPC, Asian Paints and
Sun Pharma were among
the main laggards, shed-
ding up to 1.51%.
In the broader market,
the BSE midcap gauge
climbed 0.29% and small-
cap index advanced 0.69%.
` RISES 18 PAISE TO
82.58 AGAINST US $
Mumbai (PTI): The rupee re-
versed its four-day losing streak
and rose 18 paise to 82.58 (pro-
visional) against the US dollar on
Friday. At the interbank foreign
exchange, the domestic unit
opened strong at 82.50 against
the dollar and traded between
82.50 and 82.75. It finally settled
at 82.58 (provisional) against the
American currency, registering a
gain of 18 paise against its previ-
ous close.
No proposal to reduce
subsidy on fertilizer: Govt
ernment on Friday said
that there is no proposal to
reduce subsidies on ferti-
lizers in the country
.
Minister of State for
Chemicals and Fertilizers
Bhagwanth Khuba, in his
written reply to the Lok
Sabha, said, No such study
to understand the impact
of reducing fertilizer sub-
sidy on farmers has been
conducted so far.
In a separate reply, the
minister said the govern-
ment at present has no plan
to control the rates of PK
fertilizers under the Nutri-
ent Based Subsidy (NBS)
scheme. The government
provides subsidy on both
urea and non-urea fertilis-
ers to ensure farmers get
the soil nutrients at afford-
able rates.
With regard to urea fer-
tiliser, the minister said
urea is provided to farmers
at a statutorily notified
maximum retail price of
`242 per bag of 45 kg.
LONDON LORD MAYOR
Digital services to benefit from India-UK FTA
London (PTI): Ahead of
the next round of free trade
agreement (FTA) talks set
to take place later this
month between the UK and
Indian government repre-
sentatives, the Lord Mayor
of London will arrive in
Mumbai on Saturday for a
five-day visit to India to ex-
plore bilateral investment
opportunities.
Alderman Nicholas Ly-
ons, the 694th Lord Mayor,
said the prospect of greater
cooperation in the field of
digital and legal services is
among the expected out-
comes of an FTA.
The UK and India have
been in discussions for an
FTA since January last
year and, according to offi-
cial estimates, the bilateral
trading relationship worth
GBP 34 billion in 2022 is ex-
pected to get a significant
boost with such a deal.
“While free trade agree-
ments are negotiated by
government representa-
tives, my role as Lord May-
or of the City of London is
really around financial and
professional services and
the city can see particular
interest in three areas: in-
vestment, digital and legal
services,” he said.
“I think it's fair to say
that in the aftermath of
Brexit, we are stepping up
significantly our engage-
ment with some of our
most important allies and
trading partners, and In-
dia, of course, is very much
one of those,” he said.
MAJOR
HIGHLIGHT
z The United Kingdom
and India have been in
discussions for an Free
Trade Agreement (FTA) since
January last year
Worstofinflationisbehindus:RBIGuvDas
New Delhi (PTI): Reserve
Bank governor Shaktikan-
ta Das on Friday cautioned
banks against any build-up
of asset-liability mis-
matches, saying both are
detrimental to financial
stability and hinted that
the ongoing crisis in the US
banking system seems to
have emanated from such
mismatches. The governor
was quick to acknowledge
and assure that the domes-
tic financial sector is stable
and the worst of inflation
is behind us.
Amid the continuing
volatility in exchange
rates, especially due to the
excessive appreciation of
the US dollar, and its im-
pact on the external debt
servicing ability of na-
tions, Das said, “We have
nothing to fear as our ex-
ternal debt is manageable
and thus appreciation of
the greenback does not
pose any problem to us”.
The governor focused
most of the speech on In-
dia’s G20 presidency and in
this context, he called for
more coordinated attempts
by the group of the world’s
20 largest economies to
help those countries with
high external debt risks
due to the US dollar rise.
He also said the group-
ing must provide climate
change financing to most
affected countries on a
war footing.
On the US baking crisis
where two mid-sized banks
(Silicon Valley Bank and
First Republic Bank) with
over $200 billion in balance
sheets each went belly up
last week, he said the ongo-
ing crisis drives home the
importance of robust
regulations that focus on
sustainable growth and
not excessive build-up
either on the asset side or
liability side.
Das, without naming the
US bank, said that on the
face of it, one of them had
unmanageable deposits in
excess of their assets side
business.
Das, who has been an
open critic of private digi-
tal currencies, said the on-
going US banking crisis
also clearly shows the risks
of private cryptocurren-
cies to the financial system.
He said that the biggest
monetary dilemma of our
time is to tame inflation
while minimizing a hard
landing for the economy
.
Das also said that the
worst of inflation is behind
us, hinting at pausing the
rate hike cycle.
In the current round of
monetary tightening, RBI
has raised the policy repo
rate from 4% in May last
year to 6.5% now. However,
economists are now expect-
ing a quarter-percentage-
point rate increase in the
April 3-6 MPC meeting.
TOP TALKING
POINT
z Reserve Bank governor
Shaktikanta Das on Friday
cautioned banks against any
build-up of asset-liability
mismatches, saying both
are detrimental to financial
stability and hinted that the
ongoing crisis in the US
banking system seems to
have emanated from such
mismatches

First India Mumbai 18032023.pdf

First India Mumbai 18032023.pdf

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

Similar to First India Mumbai 18032023.pdf

Similar to First India Mumbai 18032023.pdf (20)

More from FIRST INDIA

More from FIRST INDIA (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

First India Mumbai 18032023.pdf