Prime Minister Narendra Modi has assigned every union cabinet minister to politically incubate two to three districts ahead of the 2024 general elections, starting with ministers in Maharashtra. Meanwhile, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde demoted spokesperson Deepak Kesarkar following controversy with BJP minister Narayan Rane. In other news, the NITI Aayog meeting highlighted the need for states to promote trade, tourism, and technology as India recovers from the pandemic.

1. www.firstindia.co.in I https://firstindia.co.in/epapers/mumbai I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia
MUMBAI l MONDAY, AUGUST 8, 2022 l Pages 12 l 3.00 RNI TITLE NO. MAHENG/2022/14652 l Vol 1 l Issue No. 94
MODI’S 2024 PLAN:
UNION MINISTERS
TO INCUBATE 3
DISTRICTS EACH
Renni Abraham and Satish
Nandgaonkar
Mumbai: Prime Minis-
ter Narendra Modi has
tasked every Union
Cabinet Minister with
an additional responsi-
bility to politically in-
cubate two to three dis-
tricts (parliamentary
constituencies) each
across India to further
improve BJP’s perfor-
mance in the 2024 gen-
eral elections.
Finance Minister
Nirmala Sitharaman,
Commerce Minister Pi-
yush Goyal, Micro,
Small and Medium En-
terprises Minister
Narayan Rane and Anu-
rag Thakur have been
assigned to Maharash-
tra in the first phase of
this rotational political
gambit.
While Sitharaman’s
political brief includes
Baramati, the bastion
of NCP Chief Sharad
Pawar, Goyal, Thakur
and Rane will reach out
to Mumbai’s constitu-
ents creating goodwill
over Union Govern-
ment schemes and ini-
tiatives with an empha-
sis on the 2024 Lok Sab-
ha elections.
The BJP’s south
Mumbai unit will hold
a preparatory meeting
at the Sharada School
auditorium in Opera
House at 4 pm on Mon-
day in anticipation of
the Union ministers’ ar-
rival. The BJP leaders
will be briefed on the
assistance and coopera-
tion expected of them to
make PM Modi’s politi-
cal gambit a success. In
the immediate Turn to P6
Sitharaman, Goyal, Rane, Thakur
assigned to Maharashtra in
Phase 1 of rotational gambit
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
CM SHINDE DEMOTES KESARKAR TO POST OF PARTY WHIP
Renni Abraham
Mumbai: A day after
Chief Minister Eknath
Shinde’s political group
spokesperson, Deepak
Kesarkar, embroiled
himself in a controver-
sy with Bharatiya Ja-
nata Party’s (BJP) Un-
ion Minister for Micro,
Small and Medium En-
terprise, Narayan Rane,
he was demoted to the
post of party whip.
The Shinde-led Sena
(including 40 rebel Shiv
Sena MLAs and 10 inde-
pendent MLAs) had ear-
lier taken issue with the
BJP over criticism tar-
geting the Uddhav
Thackeray family. The
faction had advised re-
straint from directing
any comments against
‘Matoshree’ the Thack-
eray family’s home in
Mumbai city. However,
the shoe is obviously on
the other foot now.
Even as Kesarkar was
demoted by Shinde,
Kiran Pawaskar was ap-
pointed as the political
formation’s secretary
along with Sanjay More,
who was given charge
as the party spokesper-
son. More promptly
paid a visit to the Rane
residence to assuage
feelingsafterKesarkar’s
inadvertent comments.
Other spokespersons of
the Shinde camp in-
clude Gulabrao Patil,
Uday Samant and
Sheetal Mhatre.
Kesarkar told the me-
dia that he would hence-
forth refrain from mak-
ing any comments re-
garding the Rane family
and expressed his will-
ingness to work with
them. Meanwhile, up-
ping the ante against
Kesarkar, Rane’s elder
son Nitesh—who is an
MP--took pot shots at
the former Shinde fac-
tion spokesperson and
said that his vehicle
driver’s post was soon
becoming vacant and
that Kesarkar was wel-
come to take up the job.
The Shinde faction
has been touchy about
the Shiv Sena party
chief Uddhav Thacker-
ay and his family, de-
spite their Turn to P6
Deepak Kesarkar. —FILE PHOTO
His comments against BJP Union
Minister Narayan Rane led to his
withdrawal from position of party
spokesperson
Prime Minister Narendra Modi —FILE PHOTO
‘TAKE PART IN HANDLOOM STARTUP CHALLENGE’
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday urged
youngsters associated with the world of startups to take part in
the handloom startup grand challenge, underlining that it was
an excellent opportunity to ideate and innovate for weavers. P5
VISWANATHAN
ANAND ELECTED
FIDE DEPUTY
PRESIDENT
Chennai: Indian chess legend Viswanathan Anand
was on Sunday elected deputy president of FIDE,
the sport’s world governing body, while incumbent
president Arkady Dvorkovich was re-elected for a
second term.
TOP BODY OF
SCIENTISTS
GETS 1ST
WOMAN BOSS
New Delhi: Senior scientist Nallathamby Kalaiselvi
has been appointed as director general of the
Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR),
the first woman to lead the consortium of 38
research institutes across the country.
OUR EDITIONS: JAIPUR, NEW DELHI MUMBAI
NITI AAYOG MEETING
AMIT SHAH IN
ODISHA TODAY
Bhubaneswar: Union
Home Minister Amit
Shah will be in Odisha
which will be his maiden
visit after becoming HM.
Shah’s programmes
will start with a visit to
the Lingaraj Temple in
Bhubaneswar on the last
Monday of ‘Shravana’. P5
FIRING: CISF JAWAN
IN POLICE CUSTODY
Kolkata: A local court in
Kolkata has remanded
Akshay Kumar Mishra, the
Central Industrial Security
Force (CISF) jawan from
Odisha’s Dhenkanal
district who fired
indiscriminately inside the
Indian Museum premises
on Saturday.
MILITANT KILLED IN
ISRAELI AIRSTRIKE
Gaza City: An Israeli airstrike
killed a senior commander in
the Palestinian militant group
Islamic Jihad, the fighters said
on Sunday, their second leader
to be slain amid an escalating
cross-border conflict. The
killing late on Saturday of
Khaled Mansour, who led the
Iran-backed Islamic Jihad’s
operations in the southern Gaza
Strip, came a day after another
Israeli strike killed the militant’s
commander in the north.
FLYERS WALK ON
AIRPORT’S TARMAC
New Delhi: A significant
number of passengers who
disembarked from SpiceJet’s
Hyderabad-Delhi flight on
Saturday night had to walk
on the airport’s tarmac
as the airline could not
provide a bus for around
45 minutes to take them to
the terminal, sources said.
Aviation regulator DGCA is
investigating the incident.
RAJASTHAN GOVT
BANS CATTLE FAIRS
Jaipur: After the outbreak of
lumpy skin disease among
cattle, the State govt has
banned all cattle fairs to
be held from August 11.
Animal Husbandry Secretary
PC Kishan has issued
orders to cancel Gogamedi
cattle fair in Hanumangarh
and Veer Tejaji cattle fair at
Parbatsar in Nagaur with
immediate effect.
READ
Crucial
Crucial
First India Bureau
New Delhi: At the sev-
enthmeetingof theGov-
erning Council of NITI
Aayog, Prime Minister
Narendra Modi said on
Sunday that each state
should focus on promot-
ing its 3Ts — Trade,
Tourism, Technology,
through every Indian
Mission around the
world.
He said the States
must focus on reducing
imports, increasing ex-
ports and identifying
opportunities for the
same in every state.
Highlighting the ef-
forts of state govern-
ments in combating the
challenge of COVID-19,
PM Modi said collective
efforts in the spirit of
cooperative federalism
as a force helped India
emerge from the COVID
pandemic. PM Modi
said, “Every state
played a crucial role ac-
cording to its strength
and contributed to In-
dia’s fight against COV-
ID. This led to India
emerging as an exam-
ple for the developing
nations to look up to as
a global leader.”
Cooperative federalism helped India emerge from
COVIDpandemic,saysPrimeMinisterNarendraModi
PM TELLS STATES TO FOCUS ON
TRADE, TOURISM, TECHNOLOGY
Prime Minister Narendra Modi chairing the 7th Governing Council Meeting of NITI Aayog, in New Delhi on Sunday. Also seen are Union
Ministers Nitin Gadkari, Rajnath Singh, NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Suman Bery and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. —PHOTO BY ANI
NITISH KUMAR, KCR SKIP NITI AAYOG MEET
C’GARH CM BAGHEL
PUTS FIVE DEMANDS
ODISHA CM PATNAIK
LAUDS NITI AAYOG
HIGHLIGHTS
New Delhi: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Telangana CM K
Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) skipped the Niti Aayog governing council
meeting on Sunday, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The
meeting was attended by 23 chief ministers, three Lieutenant Gov-
ernors and two Administrators and Union ministers. This was the
first physical meeting of the governing council since the onset of the
pandemic, with the 2021 meeting held via video conferencing.
New Delhi: Chhattisgarh CM
Bhupesh Baghel made five
demands. He urged the revision
of the royalty rate of the main
minerals, including coal. De-
manded a refund of the deposits
in New Pension Scheme in the
interest of employees. He asked
that MGNREGA be implemented
in rural areas located near cities.
New Delhi: Odisha CM Naveen
Patnaik said NITI Aayog can
resolve disputes between States
and Centre govets in the imple-
mentation of central schemes.
“We all accept that the State and
central governments are political
entities and sometimes there are
disputes in the implementation
of central schemes,” he said.
z Speaking about G20 presidency, Union
Minister of External Affairs, S Jaishankar
said, “The G20 Presidency presents a great
opportunity and a great responsibility. For the
first time in the history of G20, India will host
the G20 meetings over the year, not only in
Delhi but in every State and Union Territory.”
z While highlighting several initiatives
undertaken to boost learning outcomes,
capacity-building of teachers, and skilling,
Union Minister of Education Dharmendra
Pradhan, thanked and requested further support
of the States for the successful implementation
of the National Education Policy.
z Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog, Suman Bery,
reiterated that India’s transformation has to take
place in its states. He reaffirmed the need for
the combined efforts of the Centre and States to
realize the vision of a resurgent India post the
pandemic.
NIA arrests ISIS active
member from Delhi
‘Satellites got placed into
wrong orbit, not usable’
CWG: India win 4 Gold
Medals on penultimate day
New Delhi (ANI): The
National Investigation
Agency (NIA) on Satur-
day arrested a radical-
ised and active member
of Islamic State (ISIS)
from his residence in
Delhiforhisinvolvement
in the collection of funds
for the terrorist outfit in
India as well as abroad
and sending it to Syria
and other places in form
of cryptocurrency
, the
agency said on Sunday
.
The accused, Mohsin
Ahmad, is a resident of
Batla House in Delhi.
“Yesterday, NIA con-
ducted search opera-
tions in the residential
premises of accused
Mohsin Ahmad and
subsequently arrested
him in the case pertain-
ing to online and on-
ground activities of
ISIS,” the agency said.
Sriharikota:Afterthe
launch of newly devel-
oped small satellite
launch vehicle (SSLV)
suffered some data
lossesinthefinalstage
of its maiden flight on
Sunday morning, the
ISRO said that the sat-
ellites were no longer
usable as the SSLV D1
placed them into the
elliptical orbit instead
of circular orbit.
ISRO Chairman S
Somanath said that
both Small Satellite
Launch Vehicle carry-
ingEarthObservation
Satellite(EOS-02)were
injected but the “orbit
achievedwaslessthan
expectedwhichmakes
it unstable.”
Birmingham: Eldhose
Paul won a historic tri-
ple jump Gold in a 1-2
finish for India as the
country bagged four
medals on Sunday at the
2022 Commonwealth
Games in Birmingham.
After the mad rush of
four medals coming
within 30 minutes, In-
dia’s medal tally from
athletics swelled to
eight — 1 Gold, 4 Silver,
3 Bronze — the best in
the CWG history out-
side the country
.
Men’s triple jump Gold medalist Eldhose Paul, right, of India
stands with Silver medalist and compatriot Abdulla Aboobacker
Narangolintevida, left, during the athletics event in the Alexander
Stadium on Sunday.
BJP seeks PGV’s reply on
Gehlot’s rape law remarks
New Delhi (ANI): BJP
spokesperson Shehzad
Poonawala on Sunday
lashed out at Ashok Ge-
hlot-led government in
Rajasthan and demand-
ed Congress general sec-
retary Priyanka Gandhi
Vadra’s response on Ge-
hlot’s rape law remarks.
Poonawalla said that
Gehlot was blaming the
rape laws, which were
made stringent after the
Nirbhayaepisodewhich
took place under the
UPA watch, instead of
blaming the rapists. He
slammed the mindset of
the Congress party and
said it is suffering from
“blamegame”mentality
.
Poonawala said, “In
the past, Gehlot said
that most of the rape
cases filed by SC women
are fake and even
blamed rapes on rising
unemployment and
price rise.”
Shehzad Poonawala

2. NEWS
MUMBAI | MONDAY, AUGUST 8, 2022
02
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Children pose for a picture celebrating Friendship Day, in Mumbai on Sunday. —PHOTO BY ANI
First India Bureau
Panaji: Sculptors in
Goa have been observ-
ing an increase in de-
mand for small idols
of Lord Ganesh for
installation at home
during the 10-day
Ganesh Chaturthi fes-
tival. They have attrib-
uted this to the steady
rise in the number of
Maharashtrians set-
tling in the state.
Artists say that na-
tives of Goa usually opt
for idols of the elephant-
headed god that are an
average of two feet in
size, while people from
Maharashtra—those
who have made the state
their new home —want
idols that are smaller
than 30cm.
There is a growing
trend of people from
Maharashtra, particu-
larly Mumbai, settling
in Goa since the pan-
demic began and made
work-from-home the
new normal.
Goa too has a rich tra-
dition of celebrating the
festival, known as Cho-
voth there.
Artist Ritesh Chari
says there has been a
perceptible rise in the
demand for smaller
Ganesh idols in the past
few years.
There has been an in-
creasing trend of de-
mand for small idols—
as tiny as 10 inches. This
was never seen before,
saidChari,whodisplays
and sells the Ganesh
idols in a makeshift
structure in Margao.
He said that his unit
makes idols in North
Goa’s Ponda town, his
native place, and trans-
ports them to Margao in
South Goa.
Another idol maker,
Ramakant Amonkar,
who is from Marcel in
North Goa, said, “There
is tradition in Mumbai
to install and worship
smaller Ganesh idols at
home during the festi-
val, whereas the idols in
Goa are bigger in size.”
Goa sees rise in demand for small Ganesh idols for Chaturthi festival
NEW TREND
lll
As more
Maharashtrians
sette in the
state, artists say
the newcomers
prefer idols of
the elephant-
headed God
that are less
than 30cm high
PRICE HIKE
Rise in the prices of
raw material has forced
sculptors to increase the
rates. The cheapest idols
are priced at Rs800,
while the expensive ones
are valued at Rs12,000.
Average middle class
family buys Idol costing
Rs2,500 to Rs2,800,
which is a price of
two foot Ganesh, said
Amonkar.
Many Maha natives have chosen to settle in Goa after the COVID-19 pandemic. —FILE PHOTO
UddhavThackeray
sacksNandeddist
SenachiefMunde
Mumbai (PTI): Shiv
Sena President Ud-
dhav Thackeray on
Sunday sacked the
party’s Nanded dis-
trict chief Umesh
Munde for indulging
in “anti-party activi-
ties”, said a senior
party leader.
Incidentally, Maha-
rashtra Chief Minister
Eknath Shinde will be
on a day’s tour of
Nanded on Monday. A
statement from Shiv
Sena Secretary Vinay-
ak Raut said Thackeray
took the decision to re-
move Munde as the
party’s Nanded district
chief in view of his
“anti-party activities”.
In June this year,
Shinde and 39 other
Sena legislators had re-
belled against the par-
ty leadership, leading
to the fall of the Thack-
eray-led Maha Vikas
Aghadi (MVA) govern-
ment, which comprised
the Sena, Nationalist
Congress Party (NCP)
and Congress.
On June 30, Shinde
was sworn in as the
chief minister and
Bharatiya Janata Par-
ty (BJP) leader Deven-
dra Fadnavis took oath
as the deputy CM.
Uddhav Thackeray’s
son and Sena MLA
Aaditya Thackeray on
Saturday claimed the
Eknath Shinde-led gov-
ernment was “illegal”
and would not last
long.
The former state
minister also said he
does not feel anger to-
wards the rebel MLAs
who toppled the gov-
ernment led by his fa-
ther, but feels sad.
HAPPY FRIENDSHIP DAY!
Threat complaint
against Nawab
Malik’s brother
First India Bureau
Mumbai: A Right to
Information (RTI) ac-
tivist has filed a com-
plaint against Iqbal
Malik, younger broth-
er of former Maha-
rashtra Minister
Nawab Malik of
threatening him, a po-
lice official said.
Vinod Sonkamble,
the RTI activist, has
mentioned in his com-
plaint that Iqbal had
threatened him of dire
consequences when he
raised the issue of ille-
gal constructions at the
Brihanmumbai Munic-
ipal Corporation’s
(BMC) ward office in
Kurla last month.
The activist had ap-
proached the BMC au-
thorities and had com-
plainedaboutmorethan
80 illegal structures be-
longing to one Gulam
Mustafa Malik, who was
known to Iqbal. The of-
ficials ordered demoli-
tion of these structures
on July 25.
Sonkamble said that
he was threatened by
Iqbal on July 26, when
he reached the ward of-
fice in Kurla.
Sonkamble has sub-
mitted his complaint at
the Mumbai police com-
missioner and deputy
commissioner of police
(zone 5), informed the
officer.
Malik on the other
hand said that the alle-
gations levelled against
him by the RTI activist
are false.
Shiv Sena demands strict action against
accused in brutal Bhandara gang rape
First India Bureau
Mumbai: The Shiv
Sena on Sunday de-
manded strict action
against the three men
involved in the rape of
a 35-year-old woman
in Bhandara district.
A three-member del-
egation of the party led
by Sena Spokesperson
Manisha Kaiyande vis-
ited the government
hospital in Nagpur
where the victim is un-
dergoing treatment.
The delegation also
met the doctors and the
police probing the case
and demanded that the
absconding culprits be
arrested immediately
.
Kaiyande demanded
financial assistance
and counselling for the
survivor and sought
that the trial in the case
be expedited in a fast-
track court.
The victim was still
unconscious due to
massive bleeding, said
the Shiv Sena leader.
The incident came to
light on August 05.
CMseeksCentralgovt’saidin
agriculture,educationsectors
First India Bureau
Mumbai: Chief Minis-
ter Eknath Shinde on
Sunday urged the cen-
tral government to in-
crease the procure-
ment limit for the
minimum support
price (MSP) to 50% of
the production, and
also sought its support
in the implementation
of the National Educa-
tion Policy (NEP).
Speaking at the Gov-
erning Council meeting
of the NITI Aayog in
New Delhi, chaired by
Prime Minister Naren-
dra Modi, Shinde high-
lighted the steps taken
by the state for imple-
mentation of the NEP
,
andsaidhisgovernment
was fully committed to
the effective rollout of
this education policy
.
He said the state has
made substantial pro-
gress in achieving uni-
versal access to elemen-
tary education.
“The state is commit-
ted to effectively imple-
menting NEP and has
taken definitive steps in
this direction. The gross
enrolment ratio of Ma-
harashtra has improved
steadily in the last dec-
ade.Thestateisalsopro-
moting online and dis-
tance-learning pro-
grammes,” he said.
Tomakehighereduca-
tion affordable to every-
one, the state provides
scholarships to needy
students from backward
castes and economically
weakersections,hesaid,
adding that Maharash-
tra will achieve the tar-
get of 50% gross enrol-
ment ratio well before
2035.
CM Shinde said the
transformation envis-
aged by the NEP can be
effected through a mas-
sive capacity-building
programme of faculty
and supporting staff.
The state has set up the
Maharashtra State Fac-
ulty Development Acad-
emy for providing need-
based training to teach-
ers and academic lead-
ers,andisalsoencourag-
ing higher education in-
stitutions, Shinde said.
Seeking the Centre’s
support in implement-
ing the NEP
, he said the
Union government
shouldprepareanincen-
tive scheme for the insti-
tutions which are taking
a lead in the implemen-
tation of the NEP
.
Final guidelines of
the University Grants
Commission should be
issued at the earliest so
that they can be imple-
mented in a time-bound
manner, Shinde said,
while urging the Centre
to provide financial as-
sistance to technology
institutions, computer
labs, digital and virtual
labs, and equipment for
animation and gaming.
Shinde says
Maha committed
to effective roll
out of NEP
CM Eknath Shinde
FOR FARMERS
Cabinet expansion by Aug
15; Fadnavis to get Home
New Delhi (PTI):
Maharashtra Chief
Minister Eknath
Shinde is likely to
expand his cabinet
this week by induct-
ing at least 15 min-
isters and Deputy
Chief Minister Dev-
endra Fadnavis is
expected to keep the
crucial Home port-
folio, sources said
on Sunday.
Top government
sources also said the
civic polls in the state,
delayed due to the
OBC reservation is-
sue being heard by
the Supreme Court,
are likely to be held in
October after getting
clarification from the
apex court.
Shinde and Fad-
navis were sworn in
as CM and deputy
CM, respectively, on
June 30 and have
been functioning as a
two-member cabinet
since then.
“The expansion of
the Maharashtra cab-
inet will take place
before you can even
imagine,” Fadnavis
said on Sunday
.
Sources said the ex-
ercise will be carried
out before August 15.
Dy CM Devendra Fadnavis
ALLEGATIONS
EX-LATUR DISTRICT SENA CHIEF
JOINS SHINDE’S REBEL FACTION
Latur: Former Latur district chief of the Shiv
Sena Balwant Jadhav on Sunday said he was
joining the faction of the party led by Chief
Minister Eknath Shinde.Jadhav said his respect
for Uddhav Thackeray had not diminished at
all but he was joining the Shinde faction due to
the inept leadership of former Aurangabad Lok
Sabha MP Chandrakant Khaire.“I am unhappy
with the leadership of Khaire. He tried to dimin-
ish the Sena in Latur. My love and respect for
Uddhav Thackeray will always remain. Eknath
Shinde has taken steps to boost the strength of
the Sena,” Jadhav, considered a close aide of
former state minister Diwakar Raote, said.
Shiv Sena Spokesperson
Manisha Kaiyande.
Three-member
delegation met with
the victim at a govt
hosp in Nagpur on
Sunday

3. Sandip Kolhatkar
Pune: To give trans
persons a better
chance of making a
home for themselves,
the state government’s
Social Welfare Depart-
ment has proposed an
affordable housing
scheme for the com-
munity
, a senior offi-
cial said.
Under the proposed
scheme, around 150 flats
of 450 sq. feet each will
be offered in a dedicated
housing complex in
Nagpur city for the
trans community
. If ap-
proved, this will be the
first dedicated housing
scheme for the commu-
nity in the state.
“The Nagpur Im-
provement Trust (NIT)
has ready flats, which it
has agreed to sell to us.
NIT’s proposal has been
sent to the state govern-
ment for approval. Once
we receive the finance
department’s nod, we
will purchase the flats
and make them availa-
ble to the trans commu-
nity for purchase. Ben-
eficiaries will have to
pay only 10% of the flat
price and the balance
will be paid through the
Pradhan Mantri Awas
Yojana and state govern-
ment funds. If needed,
bank loans will be made
available to pay the 10%
share,”saidDrPrashant
Narnaware, Commis-
sioner, Social Welfare.
Those seeking flats
under the proposed
scheme will need to pos-
sess an identity card
and certificate issued by
the government which
recognizes them as
trans, Narnaware said.
Responding to criti-
cism that the scheme
might “segregate” the
community instead of
bringing it into the
mainstream, Narna-
ware said the ultimate
goal would always be to
assimilate community
members. “However,”
he added, “The issue
they are facing is that
nobody is ready to give
them a house even if
they have the money to
buy or rent it.” —PTI
MAHARASHTRA
MUMBAI | MONDAY, AUGUST 8, 2022
03
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First India Bureau
Mumbai: A 22-year-
old worker, who suf-
fered a critical injury
after a steel rod
pierced through his
chest following a fall
from a tree, has been
rescued by doctors of
a city-based civic hos-
pital in Mumbai.
The doctors of the
city-run Bhabha Hospi-
tal in Bandra recently
performed a complicat-
ed surgery on the work-
er and removed the bro-
ken steel rod that had
got stuck in his chest,
informed an official.
The incident took
place on July 26 in Ban-
dra, when the worker
was doing some work
while climbing on a
tree, he said.
He lost his balance
and fell from the tree
and landed on the fence
of a building com-
pound. A sharp steel
rod pierced through his
chest and a broken
piece remained inside,
he said.
“At the hospital, it
was found that the steel
rod had not damaged
his lungs, but a rib was
broken,” a doctor said.
A team of doctors
comprising Vinod
Khade, Amit Desai and
Shraddha Mone, then
decided to operate im-
mediately. After an
hour-long procedure,
the steel rod was re-
moved, he said.
Post-surgery
, the
worker was kept in the
Intensive Care Unit
(ICU) of the hospital,
and was shifted to the
generalwardafterrecov-
ery
. He went home a
week later.
First India Bureau
Jalna: Police have reg-
istered a case against
a gynaecologist after a
panel of government
doctors indicted her
for negligence leading
to the death of a
26-year-old woman
post delivery at a pri-
vate hospital in April.
The erring doctor had
gone for a morning walk
leaving the woman pa-
tient with inexperi-
enced nursing staff, a
police official said on
Sunday citing a report
of the committee of sen-
ior doctors of Govern-
ment Hospital and Med-
ical College (GHMC)
Aurangabad, which in-
vestigated the matter.
Thepatient,NehaLid-
horiya, died of postpar-
tumhaemorrhage(PPH)
or heavy blood loss after
giving birth on April
13—the same day she
had been admitted to the
hospital for delivery
.
“She delivered a
healthy baby but then
suffered PPH while the
womandoctorwentfora
morning walk leaving
thepatientwiththeinex-
perienced nursing staff.
The erring doctor and
nursing staff did not in-
form the patient about
the need for blood. As a
result of which, Neha
died of excessive blood
loss,” he said.
Thepatient’shusband
had filed a complaint at
theGovernmentDistrict
Hospital demanding an
inquiry into his wife’s
death. The complaint
was then referred to the
GMCH panel.
A case of causing
death by negligence has
been registered.
First India Bureau
Nagpur: The parents
of a five-year-old girl
allegedly beat her to
death while perform-
ing “black magic” on
her to drive away evil
forces in Nagpur city,
police said on Sunday
.
The incident took
place on the intervening
night of Friday-Satur-
day following which po-
lice arrested the child’s
father Siddharth
Chimne (45), mother
Ranjana (42) and aunt
Priya Bansod (32).
Chimne, a Subhash
Nagar resident who
runs a local news chan-
nel on YouTube, had
gone to a dargah in
Takalghat area along
with his wife and two
daughters—aged five
and 16—on Guru Purni-
ma last month, a senior
police official said.
Since then, the man
suspected behavioural
changes in his younger
daughter. He decided to
perform “black magic”
toridherof theevilforc-
es, which he believed to
be influencing the child.
The girl’s parents and
aunt performed the ritu-
al and recorded a video
of it on their phones,
which the cops later re-
covered. In the clip, the
accused are seen asking
the crying child some
questions, which she
could not understand
and did not answer, the
official said.
During the ritual, the
three accused allegedly
slapped and thrashed
the child severely, fol-
lowing which she fell
unconscious and col-
lapsed on the ground,
the official said.
Theaccusedthentook
the child to a dargah in
the morning hours of
Saturday before shifting
her to the Government
Medical College and
Hospital, and fleeing.
A suspicious security
guardatthehospitalcap-
tured a picture of their
car on his mobile phone,
which helped the police
later arrest the parents
and aunt from their
home, the official said.
Doctorsatthehospital
later declared the girl
dead and alerted the po-
lice, he said.
The accused were
booked under the Indian
Penal Code and the Ma-
harashtra Prevention
and Eradication of Hu-
man Sacrifice and other
Inhuman, Evil and Ag-
hori Practices and Black
Magic Act.
Parents beat 5-year-old to
death in ‘black magic’ ritual
They left daughter’s body at a hospital and fled;
docs alerted cops, who arrested them an aunt
UNDER WRAPS
BIZARRE
With the festival of Ganesh
Chaturthi around the
corner, devotees of Lord
Ganesh transported his
‘Kurla Cha Raja’ idol to
a pandal at Lalbaug in
Mumbai city on Sunday.
The huge idol was covered
with a plastic sheet to
protect it from the rain.
—PHOTOS BY BHUSHAN
KOYANDE
3 held for
evading
GST and
tax fraud
Nigerian
wanted in
drug case
found dead
First India Bureau
Mumbai: Three
partnersof aThane-
based firm were ar-
rested on Sunday for
allegedly evading
Goods and Services
Tax(GST)andfraud-
ulently availing in-
put tax credit (ITC)
worth Rs78 crore,
after the Central
CST Bhiwandi Com-
missionerate un-
earthed the alleged
irregularities, an of-
ficialstatementsaid.
“The action was
taken based on spe-
cific intelligence in-
puts about the non-
paymentof CSRand
fraudulent availing
of ITC against AS
AgriandAquaLLP
,”
it said.
The three ac-
cused—who had
launched the firm
along with 16 oth-
ers—have been sent
to judicial custody
until Friday
.
“The firm has not
discharged the GST
liability worth Rs53
crore on advance
payments amount-
ing to Rs292 crore
received from the
recipients of work
contract services for
the construction of
poly houses,” the
statement said, add-
ing that the firm
availed ITC worth
Rs25 crore on the
work contract ser-
vices for the con-
struction of immov-
able property
.
First India Bureau
Thane: A Nigeri-
an man, who was
wanted by the po-
lice in a drug traf-
ficking case, was
found dead in a
forest in Thane
city, said a police
official on Sunday
.
The police offi-
cial informed that
Joe Izzikil, who was
being chased by the
police on Friday,
had disappeared
into the forest near
Naglabunder.
He was later
found lying on a
pipe after a fall near
a deserted house in
the forest. The man
was rushed to the
hospital, where he
was declared
brought dead.
Izzikil was a resi-
dent of Nalasopara
and many cases of
drug possession
have been regis-
tered against him.
His wife also had
been arrested by
the police in neigh-
bouring Mumbai,
the official said.
The anti-narcot-
ics cell (ANC) had
earlier arrested one
Sandeep Maurya, a
resident of San-
tacruz, with 80gm
of mephedrone
(MD) powder, an of-
ficial from Thane
crime branch said.
He had named two
Nigerian nationals
as his suppliers, of-
ficials said.
Housing scheme proposed for trans community
UNIQUE INITIATIVE
Beneficiaries will only have to pay
10% of the cost for each of the 150
flats of 450 sq. feet each
The trans community faces discrim-
ination while seeking accommoda-
tion in a decent area. But there is
also a possibility that a beneficiary who has
paid a mere 10% of the total cost will sell it
for profit and return to the old address….
Also, as some persons fraudulently declare
themselves as trans only to take benefit of
government schemes, there should be checks.
—Bindu Madhav Khire, Director,
Bindu Queer Rights Foundation
There are about 20,000 trans persons in Maharashtra.
Doctorsremovesteelrod
fromchest,saveman’slife
Post-partum patient bleeds
to death as doc takes a walk
UPS AND DOWNS IN MAHA HEALTHCARE
Gynaecologist left
new mother with
inexperienced nurses,
booked for negligence
After an hour-long
procedure, the steel
rod was removed
from his chest
—FILE
PHOTO

4. PERSPECTIVE
MUMBAI | MONDAY, AUGUST 8, 2022
04
www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epapers/mumbai I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia
l Vol 1 l Issue No. 94
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.
Editor-In-Chief: Dr Jagdeesh Chandra
Editor: Anita Hada Sangwan
responsible for selection of news
under the PRB Act
Amit Shah
@AmitShah
Our Boxers have lived up to the
expectations of every Indian.
Congratulations to Amit Panghal
for bringing laurels to the nation by
clinching the Gold medal at the CWG.
The entire nation is celebrating his
historic accomplishment.
Jagat Prakash
Nadda@JPNadda
Congratulations to our two time World
Youth Champion Nitu Ghanghas
for winning gold at the CWG’22 in
the Women’s 48kg boxing. What a
dominating display by her as she
obliterated all her opponents in the
ring. A truly inspirational victory. We
are all so proud of you.
SPIRITUAL SPEAK
They live in wisdom
who see themselves in
all and all in them.
—Bhagavad Gita
IN-DEPTH
FREEBIES IN BAG,
ARVIND KEJRIWAL
PLAYS SANTA CLAUS
IN MODI’S GUJARAT
n the one hand we
have Prime Minister
Narendra Modi, the
Supreme Court and
the Election Com-
mission of India strongly object-
ing to the culture of freebies
started and nurtured by all the
political parties. The govern-
ment wanted the Supreme Court
to abolish freebies but the apex
court asked the Centre to take a
stand on freebies and wondered
if the Election Commission
could stop the practice.
The court asked the poll panel
to frame guidelines to regulate
distribution of what the prime
minister called “revdis”. The
poll body, on its part, said that it
cannot regulate “state policies
and decisions”. In the end the
Supreme Court decided to set up
a panel to suggest a way out.
Unmindful of the debate on
the issue, Aam Aadmi Party
president Arvind Kejriwal is
playing Santa Claus to win vot-
ers. After Delhi and Punjab, he
is now promising free electricity
and Rs 3000 dole to the jobless in
Gujarat. Who would want free-
bies to be stopped?
TOP TWEETS
O
o far, we have been discuss-
ing the interventions of the
Union government regard-
ing affordable housing in the
urban sector, where the main
hurdle was the astronomical
cost of land. While the cost
of land is not the main con-
straint for rural housing, ti-
tling and ownership is the
stumbling block, because ru-
ral land records were geared
primarily for agricultural
operations and collection of
land revenue. The residential
areas (Abadi) in the village
were never accounted for –
either in the revenue or the
panchayat records. As in the
urban areas, there is a clear
segmentation in rural hous-
ing as well – those who can
afford it, and those who can-
not and constitute the BoP
(bottom of the pyramid).
In this column we will take
both the segments: those in
the BoP, who are eligible for
assistance under the PMAY
(Gramin), and whose dwell-
ing has to come up on public
(panchayat land) and those
who can afford to take a loan
from a bank or an NBFC to
construct their own house.
However, for both categories,
land titling is an outstanding
issue, which the government
is trying to address through
Svamitva, about which we
shall discuss later in the col-
umn.
Let us first look at those
eligible to leverage the PMAY
(G.) Interestingly
, the scheme
is clearer about those who
have to be excluded: people
paying income tax/profes-
sional tax, owning a refrig-
erator or a landline phone,
holding a government job, or
a Kisan Credit Card (KCC)
with a limit greater or equal
to Rs 50,000 and those with a
motorised two-wheeler,
three-wheeler, four-wheeler
and agriculture equipment
or fishing boat. Therefore,
the target group is very clear-
ly spelt out. All those eligible
receive an assistance of Rs
1.20 lakhs in plains, and Rs
1.30 lakhs in hilly and diffi-
cult terrains. This amount is
given for the basic construc-
tion of a 370 square feet
house, in addition to another
twelve thousand for a toilet.
Thanks to the convergence
with the MGNREGA, one
who is eligible for the house
is also entitled to get employ-
ment to work on its construc-
tion as well. Funds are direct-
ly transferred to the Aadhar
linked bank or post office ac-
count of the beneficiary
.
When the PMAY (G) was
envisaged, the ‘unmet de-
mand’ was estimated at 29.5
million. By the close of 2021,
more than 13 million homes
had been built, but nearly 16
million were yet to be cov-
ered. This was perhaps the
reason for the extension of
the PMAY (G) to March 2024
to accomplish the mission of
providing a roof over every
head. But it was an end-to-
end programme, for it also
provided for the skilling of
five lakh rural masons, pro-
posed 200 different housing
designs across the country
based on a detailed study of
housing typologies, environ-
mental hazards and house-
holds’ requirements. The fo-
cus was on use of local mate-
rial, and a composite home -
with cooking space, provi-
sion for electricity, LPG, toi-
let etal through convergence.
We now come to those who
have the wherewithal to im-
prove their existing dwell-
ings. These are villagers who
own their homes, but do not
have any documentation
even if they stayed there for
generations. The key con-
straint in providing institu-
tional financial assistance is
that they have no proof of
being owners of the piece of
land on which they live. The
Svamitva scheme addresses
this issue squarely. It is now
a pan India initiative to es-
tablish clear ownership of
property in rural inhabited
(Abadi) areas, by mapping of
land parcels using drone
technology and providing
‘Record of Rights’ to village
household owners along with
legal ownership cards (Prop-
erty cards/Title deeds. The
Scheme is implemented with
the collaborative efforts of
the Union Ministry of Pan-
chayati Raj, State Revenue
and Panchayati Raj Depart-
ments and the Survey of In-
dia under the Union Ministry
of Science and Technology
. It
will facilitate monetisation
of properties, besides ena-
bling bank loan and reducing
property related disputes.
While banks have been re-
luctant to finance rural hous-
ing, the niche market was
discovered by Mahindra Ru-
ral Housing Finance Limit-
ed. Because of their wide
penetration in the rural mar-
kets because of tractors and
farm machinery and their
experience in financing trac-
tors, this was perhaps the
next logical step for them.
They also realized that many
borrowers are keen to bor-
row small amounts – from Rs
1-2 lakhs to improve their ex-
isting homes. This was a seg-
ment which was not being
addressed by the banks, or
the co-operatives. Now that
the Svamitva will ensure
land titling, one can expect
many financial institutors to
step into rural housing in a
bug way
.
As a senior functionary of
the country’s only rural
housing NBFC, Mahindra
Rural Housing Finance ex-
plained ‘by lowering cost of
land mutation mortgage cre-
ation, and conversion of
land, including ‘deemed ap-
proval’ beyond a certain
Turn-Around-Time (TAT) as
is already being done by
some states like Madhya
Pradesh’ will go a long way in
stabilising this segment.
They have also recommend-
ed that the credit linked sub-
sidy scheme (CLSS) should
be extended to rural areas.
This column recommends
that as rural housing is very
much a part of infrastruc-
ture development, NABARD
may consider funding NBF-
Cs under the RIDF to create a
positive ecosystem for rural
housing – for after all, for
many decades to come, most
of our population will con-
tinue to dwell in the villages.
THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY
THE AUTHOR ARE PERSONAL
S
As a senior functionary of
the country’s only rural
housing NBFC, Mahindra
Rural Housing Finance
explained ‘by lowering cost
of land mutation mortgage
creation, and conversion of
land, including ‘deemed
approval’ beyond a certain
Turn-Around-Time (TAT)
as is already being done by
some states like Madhya
Pradesh’ will go a long way
in stabilising this segment.
They have also
recommended that the
credit linked subsidy
scheme (CLSS) should be
extended to rural areas.
RAJ DHARMA 15
MAKING AFFORDABLE
HOUSING A REALITY
SANJEEV CHOPRA
The writer superannuated as the Director of the
LBS National Academy of Administration,
India’s apex training institution, and curates
Valley of Words: An annual Literature and Arts
festival at Dehradun, where he currently resides
YOU READ RAJ DHARMA 14
ON JULY 25, 2022
THE COLUMN ADDRESSES ISSUES SALIENT
TO THE GOVERNANCE OF THE COUNTRY
Raj Dharma, a fortnightly column, exclusive to this paper
addresses issues salient to governance of the country. After
a discussion on the eco- system of training of civil servants,
it is now asking critical questions about the capacity of the
state to match the expectations of citizens with regard to their
fundamental needs like housing and shelter. Previous Raj
Dharma columns have discussed the link between urbanization,
migration and the acute housing shortage in urban areas.
In this edition the focus is on rural housing. The author
superannuated as the Director of the LBS National Academy
of Administration, India’s apex training institution, and curates
Valley of Words: an annual Literature and Arts festival at
Dehradun, where he currently resides.

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6. MUMBAI | MONDAY, AUGUST 8, 2022
05
INDIA
www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epapers/mumbai I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia
Renni Abraham
Mumbai: Recently ex-
pelled Janta Dal (Secu-
lar) spokesperson Dr
Ajay Alok’s tweet on
Sunday pulled up his
formerpartyChief Min-
ister of Bihar Nitish Ku-
mar for failing to attend
the meeting of the Regu-
latory Council of Niti
Ayog convened by Indi-
an PM Narendra Modi.
“Will not go to the
meeting of PM’s NITI
Aayog because “Nash
Kumar” has (just) come
out of Corona, but will
go to other ceremonies,
hold meetings of MPs,
even openly sing words
of Lalu ji. The season of
reversal has come and
every single day Kumar
remains in power is tak-
ing Bihar back by 1-1
years,” Dr Alok tweeted.
AdaybeforeJD(S)Ra-
jya Sabha member RCP
Singh and Union Minis-
ter, till a few days back,
resigned his party affili-
ation after first being
denied a fresh Rajya
Sabha tenure (after July
7) and then having a
case under Dispropor-
tionate Assets launched
against him by CM Nit-
ish Kumar who directed
state’s Anti-Corruption
Bureau to probe it.
RCP Singh has now
demanded that a similar
DA probe be initiated by
the CBI against CM Ku-
mar, his long-time politi-
cal ally and friend from
their younger days.
Both politicians belong
to the same Kurmi caste
of the influential agri-
culturist community of
Bihar
Very surprisingly
, La-
loo Prasad’s Rashtriya
Janata Dal (RJD), that
matched Nitish’s poli-
tics step for step in the
recent agitations over
Agneepathanddemands
for special status for Bi-
har, maintained a stoic
silence over RCP ’s exit
from the JD(S). Yadav
probably is hoping that
Singh may join up with
his party and bring an
important caste dynam-
icalongwithhimtoRJD
underLaloothatwasthe
originator of the Mus-
lim-Yadav political gam-
bit in India (along with
Mulayam Singh Yadav).
For the BJP this is po-
etic justice after having
witnessed its own depu-
ty CM in Bihar, Sushil
Modi, who despite being
in the BJP had forged
tooclosetieswithNitish
Kumar in the erstwhile
Bihar government. Sub-
sequently the BJP did
not repeat him as DCM
although it went along
with Kumar’s leader-
ship in the state al-
though he had fewer
MLAs to show.
Modi was first disem-
powered and the right to
pick BJP MLA candi-
dates in Bihar taken
away from him before
he was kicked upstairs
to New Delhi by PM
Modi. With the RCP
chapter playing out in
Bihar, the BJP feels the
shoe is on the other foot
now and will tacitly en-
courage Singh to battle
it out with Nitish to the
latter’s political detri-
ment or, if he chooses to
exit the alliance, which-
ever comes first.
RCP factor: In Bihar The Shoe is on the other foot now
Chennai (PTI): Inaleg-
up to the Indo-US strate-
gic partnership, US
navy ship Charles Drew
on Sunday arrived at
LarsenandToubroship-
yard at Kattupalli here
for undergoing repairs
and allied services.
The US Navy had
awarded a contract to
LT Shipyard for un-
dertaking maintenance
of the ship. The event
signifies the capabilities
of the country’s ship-
yards in the global ship
repairing market. Indi-
an shipyards offer wide
ranging and cost-effec-
tive ship repair and
maintenance services,
using advanced mari-
time technology
.
United States’ Mili-
tary Sealift Command’s
Lewis and Clark-class
dry cargo ship USNS
Charles Drew provides
critical support to the
U.S.Navyfleetoperating
in the Indo-Pacific Re-
gion, it said.
Defence Secretary
Ajay Kumar, Vice Chief
of Naval Staff Vice Ad-
miral SN Ghormade,
Flag Officer Command-
ing Tamil Nadu Pu-
ducherry Naval Area
Rear Admiral S Venkat
Raman and other senior
officials of Ministry of
Defence visited the ship-
yard to welcome the ves-
sel. Consul General of
US Embassy Judith
Ravin and Defence At-
tach at the US Embassy
at New Delhi Rear Ad-
miral Michael Baker
were also present.
Terming the event as
‘very significant,’ De-
fence Secretary, Ajay
Kumar said, “We are in-
deed pleased to welcome
US Naval Ship USNS
Charles Drew to India,
for making her voyage
ready
. India’s initiative
alsoassumesspecialsig-
nificance in furthering
of the strategic partner-
ship between India and
the US.”
In a first, US Navy ship at
LT facility in TN for repair
PM urges youth to take part
in handloom startup challenge
New Delhi (PTI):
Prime Minister Naren-
dra Modi on Sunday
urged youngsters asso-
ciated with the world of
startups to take part in
the handloom startup
grand challenge, under-
lining that it was an ex-
cellent opportunity to
ideate and innovate for
weavers.
On National Hand-
loom Day, the PM paid
tribute to India’s rich
cultural diversity and
all those working to cel-
ebrate our artistic tra-
ditions. Modi tagged a
tweet by Piyush Goyal
in which the Textiles
Minister had urged peo-
ple to participate in the
handloom startup
grand challenge, saying
it was a golden opportu-
nity to innovate cost-
effective solutions for
developing technologi-
cally upgraded hand-
looms for better quality
products with lesser
drudgery for weavers.
Goyal also posted a
link for applying in the
competition.
Pays tribute to India’s cultural diversity all those working to celebrate art traditions
NATIONAL HANDLOOM DAY
PM MODI’S PAKISTANI ‘SISTER’ SENDS
HIM RAKHI, WISHES FOR 2024 ELECTIONS
New Delhi: Ahead of the auspicious occasion of
Raksha Bandhan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s
Pakistani sister Qamar Mohsin Shaikh
sent the sacred thread--Rakhi and wished
him for the 2024 general election. Shaikh
said she has made all preparations and
expected to meet PM Modi this time. “I
hope he (PM Modi) will call me Delhi this
time. I have done all the preparations. I
made this rakhi by myself by using a Reshmi ribbon
with embroidery design,” she added. She wrote a letter
and prayed for his good health and long life.
HANDLOOM SECTOR SIGNIFIES
OUR RICH, DIVERSE CULTURAL
HERITAGE: AMIT SHAH
New Delhi: Home
Minister Amit Shah
on Sunday greeted
the people on National
Handloom Day and said
that India’s Handloom
sector signifies the rich
and diverse cultural
heritage of the country.
In a series of tweets,
Shah said Prime Minis-
ter Narendra Modi de-
clared August 7 as the
National Handloom Day
to commemorate the
Swadeshi movement.
“India’s Handloom
sector signifies our rich
and diverse cultural
heritage. In 2015, PM
Modi declared August 7
as Nat’l Handloom Day
to commemorate the
Swadeshi movement
that began in 1905
on the same day and
to revive this ancient
Indian art,” he said.
Shah in Odisha today on
first visit as Home Minister
Bhubaneswar (PTI):
Preparations are in full
swing in Odisha to wel-
come Home Minister
Amit Shah who will
reach Bhubaneswar on
Sunday night.
The twin cities of
Bhubaneswar and Cut-
tack are bedecked with
posters, banners and
placards of Shah, who
will visit the state for
the first time after
becoming the home
minister.
Shah’s programmes
will start with a visit to
Lingaraj Temple here
on the last Monday of
‘Shravana’. He will
then go to Cuttack to
visit Netaji Subhas
Bose’s birthplace.
He will also lead a
roadshow from Odia
Bazar to the Indoor Sta-
dium where he will at-
tend the 75th anniver-
sary of Odia daily ‘Pra-
jatantra’, founded by
former chief minister
Harekrushna Mahatab.
The newspaper’s an-
niversary programme
will also be attended by
Chief Minister Naveen
Patnaik, and BJD work-
ers have also planned
to give him a big recep-
tion when he reaches
the area, setting the
stage for a face-off.
Shah will then re-
turn to Cuttack and
hold a meeting of state
BJP’s core committee
at its headquarters,
they said. Later, he will
launch the Odisha edi-
tion of ‘Modi@20:
Dreams Meet Delivery’,
a book on Prime Minis-
ter Narendra Modi’s
completion of 20 years
in office — from becom-
ing the chief minister
of Gujarat in 2001.
He will leave Odisha
on Monday night.
“There is a lot of en-
thusiasm among the
party workers in the
state,” state BJP presi-
dent Samir Mohanty
said, adding that Shah
will be welcomed by
party workers at differ-
ent places when he
travels from Bhubane-
swar to Cuttack on
Monday.
Bhubaneswar
bedecked with
posters, banners
placards of Shah
A hoarding welcoming Amit Shah in Bhubaneswar.
‘ENTHUSIASM HIGH IN PARTY WORKERS’
Managing friction in Rajya Sabha will be
Dhankhar’s biggest challenge as V-P
New Delhi (Agencies):
For Jagdeep Dhankhar,
the win in the Vice Pres-
idential poll was easy,
but his biggest chal-
lenge will be to manage
the friction in the Rajya
Sabha.
As the Chairman of
the Rajya Sabha -- the
Upper House of Parlia-
ment -- running the
House smoothly, after
he takes the oath, will
require all his manag-
ing skills.
As the tenure of the
current Vice Presi-
dent Venkaiah Naidu is
ending on August 10,
Dhankhar will take
over as the new Vice
President of the coun-
try on August 11.
Jagdeep Dhankhar meets V-P Venkaiah Naidu, in New Delhi.
CREDIBILITY OF
SOME OPPN PARTIES
DAMAGED: ALVA
New Delhi: Opposition’s
Vice-Presidential candi-
date Margaret Alva said
some opposition parties
chose to support BJP
which damaged their
credibility. “It is my belief
that by supporting the
BJP, some opposition
parties and their leaders
have damaged their own
credibility.” she said.
‘JD(U) not to join Union council of
ministers again; all well with BJP’
Patna (PTI): Bihar CM
Nitish Kumar’s Janata
Dal (United) on Sunday
made it clear that it will
not join the Union coun-
cil of ministers again,
but rebuffed specula-
tions of a rift with ally
BJP. JD(U) national
president Rajiv Ranjan
Singh alias Lalan, how-
ever, dismissed queries
about Kumar’s absence
at the NITI Aayog meet-
ing chaired by PM Modi.
While there has been no
official word on the rea-
son behind Kumar’s ab-
sence, sources said he
has excused himself cit-
ing post-COVID debility
.
Bihar CM Nitish Kumar and Industries Min Shahnawaz Hussain.
Nitish Kumar with RCP Singh. —FILE PHOTO
PM Modi meets Paralympian Deepa Malik at the third meeting of
the National Committee of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav in New Delhi.
Defence Secretary Ajay Kumar with US officials after arrival of US Navy Ship Charles Drew.
TMC has no
right to rule:
AAP protests
in Kolkata
Kolkata: Aam Aadmi
Party supporters hit the
streets here on Sunday,
protesting against the
TMC government in
West Bengal over the
school jobs scam.
Armed with placards
stating ‘Durnitir Sarkar
Aar Nei Dorkar’ (don’t
want this corrupt gov-
ernement), around 2,000
AAP supporters started
the march at Ramlila
Maidan and walked till
Mahatma Gandhi statue
on Mayo Road, a dis-
tance of 2 km. ED has
arrested former Educa-
tion Minister Partha
Chatterjee and aide
Arpita Mukherjee after
recovery of cash and
valuables at properties
linked to them.
“After the arrest of a
TMC heavyweight and
the recovery of huge
amounts of cash from
the two flats of his fe-
male friend, this gov-
ernment has no moral
right to stay in power
for a single day
,” said an
AAP leader.
RAKHIS COSTING
`5L ATTRACT
CUSTOMERS
CUET-UG 2022:
EXAM DATES FOR
PHASE II OUT
NATIONAL FLAG
SALES THROUGH
POST OFFICES
Surat: A shop here is
selling some really good
collections of Rakhis.
Starting from thread
rakhis to rakhis made up
of gold, silver, platinum to
diamond-studded rakhis,
people are admiring them
in awe. But the most at-
tractive thing is the most
expensive rakhi worth
Rs 5 lakh.
New Delhi: The second
phase of the Common
University Entrance Test
for Undergraduates (CUET-
UG) is now scheduled to
be conducted between
August 24 to August 28
and a new Admit Card
will be issued before the
exam, UGC chairman M
Jagadesh Kumar informed
on Sunday.
Kolkata: As part of the ‘Har
Ghar Tiranga’ campaign by
the Centre to encourage
citizens to hoist tricolour
from August 13 to 15, total
9,087 post offices across
West Bengal, Sikkim, An-
daman Nicobar Islands
are selling the National flag
for Rs 25. Around 90,000
flags have been sold from
the post offices from Aug 1
in West Bengal circle.
CRUCIAL READ
UP CM Yogi Adityanath
meets Home Minister Amit
Shah in Delhi on Sunday.
In 2015, PM Modi declared
Aug 7 as National Handloom
Day to commemorate Swadeshi
movement that began in 1905 on the
same day. —Amit Shah, Union Home Minister
—PHOTO BY TWITTER
—PHOTO BY ANI
—PHOTO BY ANI
—PHOTO BY PTI

7. MUMBAI | MONDAY, AUGUST 8, 2022
06
INDIA
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Renni Abraham
Mumbai: Mumbai’s
August Kranti Maidan
(aka Gowalia Tank
ground) come Tuesday
will host a rally to com-
memorate the 80th an-
niversaryof the‘Bharat
Chodo’ (Quit India) agi-
tation launched against
the British government
during India’s freedom
struggle as part of the
planned programmes to
mark the diamond jubi-
lee celebration of the
nation’s freedom.A
massive rally is planned
in Mumbai alongside
the other initiative of
‘Tiranga Rally’ being
carried out across the
nation with the CM
Eknath Shinde and
DCM Devendra Fad-
navis led Maharashtra
government launch-
ing the public cam-
paign of Ghar Ghar
Tiranga, Har Ghar Ti-
ranga in the run up to
August 15.
A person associated
with the development
said, “The BJP has
launched a major po-
litical initiative aimed
at redefining its con-
cept of Hindutva get-
ting subsumed by and
becoming synonymous
with Indian national-
ism. We are enthused
by the nationwide re-
sponse that the Tiranga
rallies have generated.
The statements by
Leader of Opposition
in Uttar Pradesh Akh-
ilesh Yadav who termed
the initiative as ‘Tiran-
ga nahin Danga’ while
his party leaders like
Azam Khan refusing to
unfurl the Indian tri-
colour have only fur-
ther bolstered our cam-
paign across the na-
tion.” The quit Indian
movement was the
turning point in India’s
freedom struggle.
August Kranti Maidan to host rally tomorrow
QUIT INDIA ANNIVERSARY
School children taking out a tricolour (1 km in length) march
under the Har Ghar Tiranga campaign, in Gwalior on Sunday.
CM TO TAKE PART
New Delhi (PTI):
Banking on cutting-
edge technology,
the Culture Minis-
try has envisioned a
plan to digitally map
boundaries of over
3,600 centrally-protect-
ed monuments for
greater security and
checking encroach-
ment through en-
hanced monitoring of
these sites.
Union Culture Minis-
ter G Kishan Reddy has
said technology giant
Google could help the
government in doing
this job, and talks be-
tween the ministry and
the software belwether
are ''in the pipeline''.
There are a total of
3,693 heritage sites in In-
dia protected under the
Archaeological Survey
of India. Reddy
said Google could help
the ministry in digital
mappingtheboundaries
of its over 3,600 central-
ly-protectedmonuments
that will help in better
monitoring and check
any encroachment. As
also, Google can help in
digitisation of rare
archival material, he
said. ''Therefore, we
urge Google to be a
partner in government's
transformative journey
,
as also promote
tourism destinations,''
Reddy said.
GOVT SEEKS
GOOGLE HELP
FOR MAPPING
OF ASI SITES
Bareilly (ANI): In a
shocking video mak-
ing rounds on the in-
ternet, a man could be
seen thrashing and al-
legedly misbehaving
with a woman and her
daughter.
Based on the FIR, the
UP police, on Saturday,
booked unknown per-
sons. The victim al-
leged that Jitendra
Rastogi, a Bharatiya
Janata Party leader
from UP, misbehaved
and abused her and her
daughter, however, Sat-
yarth Aniruddh Pan-
kaj, Senior Superinten-
dent of Bareilly Police
denied it and said, “the
man in the video is not
Jitendra Rastogi. It is
yet to be established
which party did the
said man belong to.
Meanwhile, an official
statement from the Po-
lice said that Rastogi
has been arrested on
the basis of filed FIR,
because his name was
involved in the matter.
The victim, who is
known to be a neigh-
bour of the BJP leader,
while registering the
case had accused him
of dangerously attack-
ing her and her daugh-
ter, with the intention
to kill them.
Meanwhile, the BJP
leader has claimed that
the woman already
had a charge over her
head while her sister is
already reeling in jail
for murder.
Police deny claims of BJP leader molesting woman
A video grab of the incident.
BJP MLA AMONG 40 ACCUSED
OF ILLEGALLY SELLING PLOTS
Ayodhya (PTI): Ayodhya's mayor, a local BJP
MLA and a former party legislator are among
the 40 people whom the Ayodhya Development
Authority has accused of illegally selling plots
and building infrastructure in such land. Mayor
Rishikesh Upadhyay and MLA Ved Prakash Gupta
have, however, alleged conspiracy in the list of
alleged offenders released by the authority.
Kanpur: A minister in
Yogi Adityanath's UP
government has been
accused of fleeing from
a court in Kanpur after
a guilty verdict in a 1991
case, before the quan-
tum of sentence could
be decided. The minis-
ter, Rakesh Sachan, who
heads the medium,
small and micro enter-
prises and khadi depart-
ments in UP
, has denied
the allegations.He was
found guilty on Satur-
day in a case of keeping
an illegal weapon.
Oppositionleadersin-
cluding SP chief Akh-
ilesh Yadav alleged
Sachan fled from the
court before he could be
taken into custody
.
There is much that
needs to be examined.
We have been trying to
get in touch with all
stakeholders, Kanpur
senior police officer AP
Tiwari said.
The minister said,“I
have never run away
in my life. I reached
the court a little
before 11 am and re-
quested for the case to
be expedited since I had
other engagements.
Sachan said.
UP min leaves court ‘without bail bonds’
Minister claimed
the allegations
were false and
politically
motivated
Rakesh Sachan
Bengaluru (PTI): Sev-
eral rivers are in spate
following heavy rains
lashing many parts of
Karnataka, especially
villages located near
Tunga and Tungabhad-
ra rivers, officials
said. At least one lakh
cusecs of water was re-
leased from Tungabhad-
ra dam into the Tungab-
hadra river following
heavy downpour in
catchment region.
The Tungabhadra
dam with a storage ca-
pacity of 1,633 ft already
has water level reach-
ing 1,631 ft. To maintain
the balance, one lakh
cusecs of water was re-
leased, which has cre-
atedafloodscareamong
the people living in the
lower riparian of Tung-
abhadra dam. Officials
have sounded an alert
for the locals. Of the 33
floodgates, 30 were
opened on Sunday, fol-
lowing which many
heritage sites of Vijay-
anagara dynasty in
Hampihavesubmerged.
Sources in the Water
Resources department
said Bhadravati,
Ghataprabha,Malaprab-
ha, Krishna, Cauvery
,
Supa and Varahi,
and their subsidiary riv-
ers are in spate.
RIVERS IN SPATE AS HEAVY RAINS
LASHMANYPARTSOFKARNATAKA
30 floodgates opened on Sunday; 1L cusecs water released from Tungabhadra dam
Students push a vehicle through a knee-deep waterlogged street after heavy downpour, at Civil
Lines, in Kanpur on Sunday. —PHOTO BY ANI
WEATHER
AGENCIES HIT
BY CLIMATE
CHANGE: IMD DG
New Delhi: Climate change
has hampered the ability of
the forecasting
agencies to ac-
curately predict
severe events
and weather
bureaus across
the world are
focusing on augmenting
the observational network
density and the weather
prediction modelling to
improve predictability, India
IMD Director General Mrut-
yunjay Mohapatra has said.
He said the number of heavy
rainfall events has increased
and that of light rainfall
events has decreased due to
climate change.
Chandigarh: As North India continues to wit-
ness heavy rains for several weeks now, multiple
incidents of land-
slides and flash
floods have been
reported from
states which
have caused
roads to remain
blocked and
some also washed away due to flowing water. In
a recent case, a road in Himachal Pradesh got
washed away due to an increased flow of water
in the adjoining Chakki river. As reported by ANI,
the road which was leading to Pathankot airport in
Punjab was washed away on Saturday.
Idukki: In view of heavy rainfall, the State Water
Authority of Kerala on Tuesday opened a shutter of
Kerala’s Idukki dam as the water level continues to rise.
“Shutter No 3 of the Cheruthoni dam was opened at
6 in the morning by 40 cm but it was raised to 60 cm
on 8.30 am,” said Idukki district officials. The district
administration has issued an orange alert as the water
level in the reservoir there touched 2401.58 feet.
ROAD LEADING TO PATHANKOT
AIRPORT WASHES AWAY
IDUKKI DAM’S SHUTTER OPENED
AFTER HEAVY RAINFALL IN KERALA
GAMES HIGHLIGHTS
SHARATH, SATHIYAN
BAG SILVER IN TT
The sub-continental
pairing of Sharath and
Sathiyan went
down to the
English duo of
Liam Pitchford
and Paul
Drinkhall 2-3 in the final of
doubles table tennis event.
AMIT PANGHAL,
NITU STRIKE GOLD
Star Indian boxers Amit
Panghal and Nitu
Ghanghas won gold in
Men’s Over 48kg-51kg
and Women’s Over
45kg-48kg event final
respectively.
COMMONWEALTH
HOCKEY: INDIAN
WOMEN BEAT NZ
TO WIN BRONZE
SANDEEP KUMAR
WINS BRONZE
IN RACE WALK
I Indian women’s
team beat New
Zealand 2-1 in pen-
alty shoot-out to win
bronze at Birming-
ham on Sunday.
Athlete Sandeep
Kumar won
bronze
after
finishing
in third
position
in the final of the
10,000 m race walk.
NIKHAT ZAREEN WINS GOLD IN
FLYWEIGHT CATEGORY
India boxer Nikhat Zareen beats Mcnaul of Northern
Ireland to win gold in 48-50 Kg flyweight category on
Sunday. Nikhat, who is on
a winning spree since the
Nationals last year, asserted
her dominance over Carly
Mc Naul as she punched her
way to a comprehensive 5-0
win in her maiden CWG appearance.
Vice President-elect Jagdeep Dhankhar and his spouse Sudesh
Dhankhar meet with VP M Venkaiah Naidu and his spouse Usha
Naidu, at Upa-Rashtrapati Nivas, in New Delhi on Sunday.
CONGRATULATIONS
POUR IN FOR
DHANKHAR
New Delhi (PTI):
Congratulations
continued to pour in for
Jagdeep Dhankhar after
his election as India’s
14th vice president.
ECissuescertificate
ofelectionto
VP-electDhankhar
New Delhi (PTI): The
Election Commission
on Sunday issued a cer-
tificate announcing the
election of National
Democratic Alliance
(NDA) candidate
Jagdeep Dhankhar as
the 14th vice president
of India.
Chief Election Com-
missioner Rajiv Kumar
and Election Commis-
sioner Anup Chandra
Pandey signed the “Cer-
tification of the Elec-
tion” of Dhankar.
A signed copy of the
certificate was handed
over to the Union Home
Secretary by senior
Deputy Election Com-
missioner Dharmendra
Sharma and Narendra
N Butolia, senior Prin-
cipal Secretary in the
EC, the poll panel said.
The signed copy will
be read out at the time
of oath taking ceremo-
ny of the new vice pres-
ident on August 11.
Amit Shah
@AmitShah
Dhankhar will prove to
be an ideal guardian of
the Constitution while
holding the post besides
functioning as chairman
of the Rajya Sabha.
Jagat Prakash Nadda
@JPNadda
It is a proud moment for
the country to have ‘kisan
putra’ (son of farmer)
Jagdeep Dhankhar as
Vice President. I am
sure that your tenure will
take the country to new
heights of glory.
FROM PG 1
CM Shinde...
rebellion bringing
about the collapse of
the previous Maha Vi-
kas Aghadi govern-
ment. They have con-
sistently held that al-
though they broke rank
with their parent or-
ganization, they still
consider Uddhav
Thackeray as their par-
ty leader and have even
expressed a wish for
reconciliation.
Modi’s...
future the Union minis-
ters are expected to give
an impetus to the Ghar
Ghar Tiranga campaign
in their outreach to vot-
ers across India.
“There will be a rota-
tional policy
. So, while
Goyal, Rane and Thakur
will focus on Mumbai
initially
, they will later
be assigned to other dis-
tricts,”apersonfamiliar
issue explained.
Confirming reports,
Fandavis said, “Bara-
matiisamongthe16con-
stituencies BJP has de-
putedkeyleaderstotake
responsibility to im-
prove poll performance.
Nirmalaji has been giv-
en the responsibility for
Baramati,andwillmake
her first visit around
September.
The BJP had come
closest to wresting Bara-
mati--the unconquered
bastion of the Sharad
Pawar family since
1967--during the Modi
Wave in May
, 2014.
Though BJP had not
fieldedapartycandidate
against Pawar’s daugh-
ter Supriya Sule, the sit-
ting MP from Baramati,
the Sena-BJP combine
hadsupportedRashtriya
Samaj Paksha’s Ma-
hadev Jankar, a leader
from the Dhangar (shep-
herd) community
. The
community was upset
that the then Cong-NCP
government had de-
clared 16% reservation
for the Maratha commu-
nityand5%forMuslims,
while ignoring their
long-standing demand.
Modi’s charismatic
campaign combined
with the Dhankar angst
propelled Jankar to
4,51,843 votes against
Sule’s 5,21,562, and re-
duce her victory margin
to her lowest. However,
she managed to retain
theseat,andimproveher
performance in 2019. Ex-
perts felt Jankar would
have had a better chance
if he had contested on a
BJP ticket in 2014.

8. MUMBAI | MONDAY, AUGUST 8, 2022
07
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Commodity Price Change % Chg
GOLD 52,030.00 6.00 0.01 (Per 10g)
SILVER 54,400.00 00.00 0.00 (Per 1kg)
COMMODITIES
Currency Price Change % Chg
USDINR 79.24 0.24 0.3020
GBPINR 96.1957 0.5808 0.6001
CURRENCIES
business
BRIEFS
New Delhi: A `2,500 cr
rights issue in the pipeline
and healthy CRAR may
provide leeway to PNB
Housing Finance to re-en-
ter the high-yielding cor-
porate loans that it
stopped two years back, a
top company official said.
“We have still not decided
to go ahead with corpo-
rate loans, but at some
point in time, we will de-
cide. The reason I stopped
this business is that these
kinds of loans carry 100%
risk weightage and if you
have 100% risk, then I
need more capital,” Har-
dayal Prasad, the MD and
Chief Executive Officer of
PNB Housing Finance,
said. —PTI
New Delhi: Godrej Prop-
erties is looking to add
new housing projects
worth about `15K crore
this fiscal year by pur-
chasing land outright and
by forming JV with land-
owners. “We had laid out
`10K crore as our goal for
booking values during the
current fiscal year. We
have already achieved
25% of our target which
is a good start, especially
considering that sales in
the third and fourth quar-
ter are generally strong-
est,” GPL’s Executive
Chairman said. —PTI
GPL AIMS TO ADD
NEW PROJECTS
WORTH ` 15K CRORE
PNB HOUSING MAY
RE-ENTER
CORPORATE LOANS
New Delhi: Sebi has given
its nod to 28 companies
to raise funds totalling
`45,000 crore through
IPOs in April-July period
of 2022-23. Among the
firms that have secured
the regulator’s clearance
include FabIndia; Bharat
FIH; TVS Supply Chain
Solutions; Blackstone-
backed Aadhar Housing
Finance; Macleods Phar-
maceuticals and Kids Clin-
ic India, which operates
super-specialty mother
and babycare chain
Cloudnine. —PTI
28 COs SECURE
SEBI’s CLEARANCE
TO FLOAT IPOs
New Delhi : With telcos
eyeing 5G deployments,
India is poised for dra-
matically improved data
speeds and lag-free vide-
os, where applications
would range from con-
nected ambulances to
cloud gaming and even
augmented reality driven
tryouts for shoppers, say
experts. Retailers are
dabbling with augmented
reality (AR) in a 5G envi-
ronment to curate immer-
sive shopping experiences
that allow customers to
see how a piece of new
furniture would look in
their homes. —PTI
5G TECHNOLOGY TO
BRING NEW
APPLICATIONS
IRDAI TO REVAMP
GRIEVANCE REDRESSAL
MECHANISM
New Delhi: Insurance regula-
tor Irdai will soon launch a
revamped grievance redressal
mechanism
to make
complaint
redressal
more ef-
ficient with the option of cus-
tomers filing their complaints
in regional languages. The
Integrated Grievance Redres-
sal System (IGMS), launched
in 2011, is being upgraded to
make it more convenient for
customers. It is to be renamed
as Bima Bharosa, sources
said. The new portal will also
act as an industry-wide griev-
ance repository. —PTI
EIGHT OF TOP-10
FIRMS ADD `98,235
CRORE IN M-CAP
New Delhi: Eight of the 10
most valued firms together
added `98,234.82 crore in
market valu-
ation last
week, with
IT majors
Infosys and
TCS emerging as the biggest
gainers amid a positive mo-
mentum in equities. From the
top-10 pack, HDFC twins were
the only laggards. In the rank-
ing of top-10 firms, Reliance
Industries retained the title
of the most valued domestic
company, followed by TCS,
HDFC Bank, Infosys, HUL,
ICICI Bank, SBI, Bajaj Finance,
LIC and HDFC. —PTI
FPIs BUY SHARES WORTH `14,000 CRORE IN A
WEEK AMID SOFTENING DOLLAR INDEX
New Delhi: After turning net buyers last month, foreign investors
continued their positive stance on Indian equities and invested
over `14,000 crore in the first week
of August amid softening of the dollar
index. This was way higher than the
net investment of nearly `5,000 crore
by Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs)
in entire July, data with depositories
showed. FPIs had turned buyers in
July after nine straight months of
heavy net outflows, which started
from October last year. Between October 2021 and June 2022,
they sold a massive `2.46 lakh crore in the Indian equity
markets. —PTI
OTHER STORIES
Industry needs tariff rise
at regular intervals: VIL
WITH EYE ON FUTURE
New Delhi (PTI): Strug-
gling telecom operator
Vodafone Idea Ltd says the
industry needs to raise mo-
bile tariffs at regular inter-
vals as the sector still oper-
ates at unsustainably low
prices and revisions will
allow it to generate reason-
able returns and support
future investments.
The joint venture of Adi-
tya Birla Group and Voda-
fone Group, which last year
got a fresh lifeline after the
government extended a re-
lief package to the sector,
said per user revenue re-
mains lower than historic
trends. All three private tel-
ecom operators — Reliance
Jio, Bharti Airtel and Voda-
fone-Idea Ltd (VIL) — last
yearraisedchargesfordata,
arresting average revenue
per user (ARPU) declines.
Despite this, “the indus-
try still operates on unsus-
tainably low tariffs”, VIL
said in its latest annual re-
port. “India continues to
have the lowest tariffs glob-
ally, while the proliferation
of unlimited data bundles
have led to India having
one of the highest data us-
age (per subscriber) in the
world,” it said.
The ARPU levels remain
lower in comparison to his-
toric trends, despite con-
sumers getting much more
value in terms of unlimit-
ed voice and daily data al-
lowances, compared to five
years ago.
“The company thus be-
lieves that the industry
will have to further raise
tariffs at regular intervals,
which is essential for op-
erators to generate reason-
able returns on their capi-
tal employed and support
future investments, includ-
ing new technologies,” the
firm said.
VIL had 24.38 crore sub-
scribers as of March 31,
2022, of which 11.81 crore
were 4G users. The com-
pany said while the Su-
preme Court allowed past
statutory dues to be paid in
10 years, the government
announced a relief pack-
age for the industry in Sep-
tember 2021 to address li-
quidity challenges facing
the telecom sector.
New Delhi (PTI): Quar-
terly earnings and global
developments would be the
major factors driving eq-
uity markets in the holi-
day-shortened week ahead,
analysts said.
Foreign fund movement
will also play a crucial role
in deciding the trend. Mar-
kets will remain closed on
Tuesday for Muharram.
This week market will
deal with the last batch of
Q1 earnings where it will
react to SBI, HPCL and
BPCL results on Monday,
while Adani Ports, Bharti
Airtel, PowerGrid, Coal In-
dia, Eicher Motors, Hin-
dalco, Grasim, Hero Moto-
corp, LIC, ONGC and Bata
India will be other promi-
nent earnings during the
week, said Santosh Mee-
na, Head of Research,
Swastika Investmart Ltd.
Global cues will be im-
portant as geopolitical con-
cerns are rising whereas
both domestic and global
macro numbers will play
an important role, Meena
added. India will announce
its CPI and IIP data on Au-
gust 12, while US inflation
numbers will be released
on August 10. This week is
a holiday-shortened one
and participants will be
closely eyeing global mar-
kets and domestic factors
viz. Earnings and macroe-
conomic data for cues.
Further escalation of
China-Taiwan tension may
result in volatile swings.
On the data front, we have
IIP and CPI inflation sched-
uled for August 12, said
Ajit Mishra, VP - Research,
Religare Broking Ltd.
TOP TALKING
POINTS
z All three private telecom
operators — Reliance Jio,
Bharti Airtel and Vodafone-Idea
Ltd (VIL) — last year raised
charges for data, arresting
average revenue per user
(ARPU) declines.
z Despite this, “the industry
still operates on unsustainably
low tariffs”, Vodafone Idea Ltd
(VIL) said in its latest annual
report.
z VIL had 24.38 crore
subscribers as of March 31,
2022, of which 11.81 crore
were 4G users.
Earnings, global
cues to set market
trend this week
MARKET
PREDICTION
z The 30-share BSE
benchmark Sensex
advanced 817.68 points or
1.42% last week.
z India will announce its CPI
and IIP data on August 12,
while US inflation numbers
will be released on August
10, 2022.
New Delhi (PTI): The auto
industry expects car sales
to be on the fast lane this
festive season on the back
of new launches and im-
proved production but is
cautiously optimistic on
the road ahead once the fes-
tivities peter out.
The festive season,
which usually witnesses a
spike in automobile sales,
begins this year on August
11 with Rakshabandhan
stretching up to Diwali on
October 25.
We expect the festive
season this year to be the
best in terms of passenger
vehicle sales on the back of
new launches and im-
proved production activity
.
The industry has been roll-
ing out over 3 lakh units on
an average in the past 4-5
months which is helping in
retails, automobile deal-
er's body President Vinke-
sh Gulati said.
He listed erratic mon-
soon in some parts of the
country, inflationary pres-
sures and the looming
threat of a China-Taiwan
war as some of the chal-
lenges to watch out for in
the days ahead.
FADA represents over
15,000 automobile dealers
across the country. Kia In-
dia Vice President and
Head of Sales Marketing
Hardeep Singh Brar said
that supply chain issues
are now showing signs of
easing off, and market sen-
timents remain bullish.
We are optimistic that a
good festive season is
ahead of us in terms of
sales, he added.
Car sales likely to increase
in upcoming festive season
WHAT’S IN
THE BAG
z Auto industry expects car
sales to be on the fast lane
this festive season on the
back of new launches
z The festive season this year
begins this year on August
11 with Rakshabandhan
stretching up to Diwali on
October 25.
New Delhi (PTI): Maruti
Suzuki India will increase
its production and aims to
produce 20 lakh units in
the ongoing fiscal with im-
proving availability of
semiconductors, according
to company’s Chairman RC
Bhargava.
In his address to share-
holders, he said the upcom-
ing mid-sized SUV Grand
Vitarawillplayakeyrolein
the challenge to touch 20
lakh units.
The vehicle production
would increase as the situ-
ation regarding the availa-
bility of semiconductors
has improved. Your com-
pany has also made further
improvisations to enhance
production. I am exhorting
our team to reach 2 million
units, though doing that
remains a challenge.
Maruti Suzuki to
produce 20 lakh
units in FY23
IOC,HPCL,BPCL post `18,480 cr loss in Q1
New Delhi (PTI): State-
owned IOC, HPCL and
BPCL posted a combined
loss of `18,480 crore on
holding petrol and diesel
prices despite a rise in cost.
According to stock ex-
change filings by the three
fuel retailers, the losses
were due to erosion in the
marketing margin on pet-
rol, diesel and domestic
LPG. This wiped away
gains from the record refin-
ing margin. IOC, HPCL and
BPCL, which are supposed
to revise petrol and diesel
prices daily in line with
cost, have not changed
rates for four months now
despite international oil
prices shooting up.
They have also not
changed cooking gas LPG
rates in tandem with cost.
IOC on July 29 reported a
net loss of `1,995.3 crore for
the April-June quarter. On
Saturday, HPCL reported
its highest ever quarterly
loss of `10,196.94 crore and
BPCL posted a loss of
`6,290.8 crore.
The combined loss at
`18,480.27 crore is the high-
est ever for any quarter in-
cluding the era when petrol
and diesel prices were reg-
ulated and the government
used to give subsidies to
the three retailers.
ON HOLDING PETROL, DIESEL PRICES
QUARTERLY
RESULTS
z HPCL reported its highest
ever quarterly loss of
`10,196.94 crore
z IOC on July 29 reported a
net loss of `1,995.3 crore
for the April-June quarter
and BPCL posted a loss of
`6,290.8 crore.
New Delhi (PTI): Out-
bound trips from India will
surpass $42 billion by 2024
and the government could
bring about certain policy
changes to boost this grow-
ing market, a report said.
The report’ titled ‘Out-
bound Travel and Tour-
ism’, highlights the up-and-
coming Indian travel mar-
ket and outline a frame-
work for creating a more
value for money experi-
ence for Indian tourists
and travellers.
To facilitate ease of do-
ing business and promote
the interests of Indian
firms dealing in outbound
travel the government
could look at steps like in-
creasing direct connec-
tions to popular and up-
coming destinations, al-
lowing foreign cruise ves-
sels to operate on Indian
waters, besides taking con-
certed and coordinated ef-
forts on multiple fronts to
propel the outbound tour-
ism market, report said.
India’s outbound tourism
to surpass $42 billion
=

9. MUMBAI | MONDAY, AUGUST 8, 2022
08
2NDFRONT
www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epapers/mumbai I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia
One of the most beautiful ways to live
your life is to reach out to others and
be of help to them.
— Dr Jagdeesh Chandra, CEO Editor-in-Chief, First India
PARROT’S RUCKUS
PROMPTS MAN TO
FILE COMPLAINT
TEMPO DRIVER
INJURED IN THANE
ROBBERY BID
Pune: The constant
screeching and
squawking of a parrot
has forced a 72-year-
old man in Pune to
file a police complaint.
Suresh Shinde filed a
complaint with Khadki
police station on
August 05 against his
neighbour Akbar Amjad
Khan. The latter’s par-
rot would constantly
screech and squawk,
which was allegedly
disturbing the senior
citizen, said the official.
Thane: A tempo driver
was injured when a
group of three-four
persons allegedly
fired at the vehicle in
an attempt to loot it
in Thane district, said
police on Sunday. When
they failed to rob the
tempo, they ran away,
said Deputy Superinten-
dent of Police Jitendra
Agharkar. The tempo
driver got injured in the
attack but was rushed to
a local hospital. Police
are probing the case.
10-YR-OLD BOY
DROWNS IN LAKE
WHILE FISHING
MAN KILLED IN
MOTORCYCLE
ACCIDENT
Nagpur: A 10-year-
old boy, identified as
Prem Arvind Fulzele,
drowned in a lake in
Nagpur city. “On Satur-
day morning, the boy,
who is residing with
his maternal uncle, fell
into the Sakkardara
lake after losing his
balance while fishing
with friends,” an of-
ficial said. His friends
raised an alarm, but he
could not be saved, the
official added. Police
fished out the body and
registered a case of
accidental death.
Nagpur: Ravindra Ba-
liram Golait (55) died
after the motorcycle he
was riding skidded on
a wet road in Nagpur
city, police said on
Sunday. The incident
took place around 9pm
on Saturday when
Golait, a security guard
with a private firm,
was heading to work.
The victim sustained
grievous head injuries
in the accident and was
rushed to a hospital,
where he died. A case
of accidental death has
been registered.
CRUCIAL READ
Palghar: An eatery was destroyed in an explosion in
Nallasopara area of Palghar district, and no casual-
ties were reported in the incident, said an official on
Sunday. The blast occurred late on Saturday night at
an eatery in a building and an investigation is under-
way, said a fire officer at the Vasai Virar Municipal
Corporation (VVMC) said. Incidentally, all five gas
cylinders in the eatery were found to be intact.
NO CASUALTIES IN BLAST AT PALGHAR
EATERY, POLICE SAY PROBE UNDERWAY
Mumbai (PTI): Maha-
rashtra on Sunday
reported 1,812 fresh
COID-19 cases and
one death, taking the
tally to 80,59,732 and
the toll to 1,48,139,
the state health de-
partment said.
A day earlier, the
state had reported 1,931
COVID-19 cases and
nine fatalities.
The department also
said 16 patients of
BA.2.75 and three pa-
tients of BA. 4 and 5 sub-
variantshavebeenfound
in the state. All these
cases are from Pune.
The tally of BA.4 and
BA.5 patients has risen
to 275 and of BA.2.75 pa-
tients to 250.
Maharashtra is now
left with 12,011 active
cases.
The lone COVID-19
fatality in the state was
reported in Mumbai
city, the department
said.
A total of 1,675 pa-
tients were discharged
in the past 24 hours.
First India Bureau
Mumbai: Despite a
slow start, as much as
27% more rainfall
than normal was re-
corded in Maharash-
tra in the months of
June and July this
year, said the Indian
Meteorological De-
partment (IMD).
According to figures
compiled by IMD, the
state received 677.5mm
rainfall till July 31,
which is 27% more than
the normal figures, said
a senior official.
The southwest mon-
soon, which generally
hits the state by June 07,
was delayed till June 11
and had a slow start.
By June-end, the
state’s rainfall figures
showed that it had re-
ceived 30% less rainfall
than normal. The inten-
sity of the rains, how-
ever, increased drasti-
cally and by July-end,
the state recorded ex-
cess showers, he said.
The state received
147.5mm rain in June,
which was 70% of its
normal rainfall, re-
vealed the IMD data.
While Marathwada
region received 61% ex-
cess rainfall, Vidarbha
and central Maharash-
tra recorded 25 to 39%
more showers. 6% ex-
cess rainfall was also
recorded in the Konkan
region.
A senior official from
the disaster manage-
ment department said
that this pattern of ex-
cess rainfall was unusu-
al for the rain-shadow
regionsinMaharashtra.
Mumbai (PTI): The
Maharashtra cyber
department has asked
people to remain alert
against online frauds
and not to respond to
video calls, friend re-
quests from unknown
persons and threaten-
ing calls from people
posing as police offic-
ers.
The state cyber de-
partment has received
several such complaints
and also of people being
duped under the pretext
of electricity bills,
through loan apps and
online marketplaces,
said an official from the
department.
People need to be
aware before applying
for anything online or
while clicking any link,
he said.
There have been cas-
es of women seen in ob-
jectionable condition in
video calls and then
fraudsters posing as of-
ficers of Delhi cyber
police to extort money
from people, he added.
People should not ac-
cept video calls from un-
known numbers. If they
receive the call again,
they should block that
number or contact local
police and inform them
about it, said the official.
Also, people should
not accept friend re-
quests from unknown
persons. In most of such
cases,fraudstersusepic-
turesof women,gainthe
confidenceof peopleand
then try to extort money
from them by threaten-
ing to file cases, he said.
Before doing any
transaction with such
callers, people should
contact the power com-
pany’s customer care
cell, check their power
meter or ask the compa-
ny if it had hired some-
one to call on its behalf,
said an official.
Philem Dipak Singh
New Delhi: Avinash
Sable, who made his-
tory by claiming a sil-
ver medal in the
3,000m men’s steeple-
chase at the ongoing
C o m m o n w e a l t h
Games in Birming-
ham, United King-
dom, became the first
non-Kenyan to win a
medal since 1994 at
the Games.
Brought up in penu-
ry, Avinash ran when
walking would suffice.
He would carry out
most of his activities,
including covering a
distance of six kilome-
tre from his home to
school, running.
Little did the Sables
know their son’s every-
day routine from young-
er days was gradually
turning into baby steps
to a career in athletics.
“When I was a child, I
had never thought I
wouldbecomeanathlete
and win medals for the
country
. It’s destiny
,” the
27-year-old would say
.
Having taken to com-
petitive sport after join-
ing the Indian Army five
years ago, Sable is a clas-
sic case of an athlete
witha“willof steel”con-
quering lofty heights,
despite hardships.
Born to a poor farm-
er’s family at Mandwa
villageinMaharashtra’s
Beed district, Avinash’s
very humble back-
groundalsoattractedthe
attention of his coach
Amrish Kumar, who act-
edasthefulcrumaround
which Sable started
achieving success.
“For me, the back-
ground of the athlete is
very important. Those
who come from humble
families have faced the
worstsituationsinlife.It
hardensthemandmakes
them battle-ready
. They
are not afraid of adver-
sity and want to work
hard,” said Kumar.
Avinash tested posi-
tive for COVID-19 three
months before the To-
kyo Olympics. He still
broke his own national
record in Tokyo, but
that was only good
enough for a seventh
place finish in his heat.
The result shattered
him and he gave up
training for a while. But,
he put his act together
after the World Champi-
onships (where he fin-
ished 11th) and bagged a
medal at the Birming-
ham Games. —PTI
Sable’s ‘will of steel’ brought India glory at CWG’ 22
HARD WORK
Running while on
errands shaped
the success of
Avinash’s career
Avinash Sable became the first non-Kenyan to win a medal in the
men’s 3,000m steeplechase at the Games. —ANI PHOTO
Among the athletes I trained, Sable
was special and different from oth-
ers. He has a will of steel and he can
come back from any worse scenario. I knew
that he was a fighter. I told him to forget ev-
erything (Tokyo debacle) and start training
again and improve on his timing further.
—Amrish Kumar, Sable’s coach
Maha receives 27%
more rainfall than
normal in June-July
Cyber dept warns
against contact with
unknown persons
West-central India, that includes a major portion of Maha, is expected
to receive below normal rain in next two months. —FILE PHOTO
Four low-pressure
systems, that had
developed in July,
had brought excess
showers to the state
Officials ask people
not to respond to
video calls, friend
requests, and threats
from imposters
Ethanolproduction
toreach140crlitre
First India Bureau
Aurangabad: Etha-
nol production in
Maharashtra is like-
ly to reach 140 crore
litres next year, sug-
ar industry repre-
sentatives have said.
In future, the de-
mand for fuel will be
more than food.
“Hence, Maharash-
tra’s sugar industry
will also be called the
energy industry in
times to come,” Na-
tional Federation of
Co-operative Sugar
Factories Ltd Chair-
man Jayprakash Dan-
degavkar told report-
ers.
Ethanol is a by-
productof sugarmills.
Its production cycle is
from December 01 to
November 30.
In 2020-21, Maha-
rashtra produced
100.36 crore litre of
ethanol through 78 es-
tablishments, as per a
representative of the
statecooperativesugar
factories federation.
Since December
2021, the state has so
far produced 75.88
crore litres of ethanol
and it is expected to go
up to 116 crore litres by
November 30 this year
through 85 establish-
ments, he said. The
production is likely go
up to 130-140 crore litre
next year. The estab-
lishments producing
ethanol will also reach
90, he said.
Considering limita-
tions for natural fuel
products, sugar-pro-
ducing companies will
alsoproducepowerand
hydrogen along with
ethanol in the future,
said Dandegavkar .
On the future of eth-
anol production in the
state, he said, “This
production growth is
mainly based on fi-
nance and government
policies along with vi-
ability and new tech-
nology
. The govern-
ment has to keep a bal-
ance between labour
wages, sugar rates and
also ensure good re-
turns for sugarcane
producers.”
He demanded that
the government also
help financially in
ethanol production.
“The co-operative
sugar industry works
on a ‘no profit-no loss’
policy. Therefore, it
does not hawve huge
finances needed to un-
dertake new projects,”
he said.
The government
helps in establishing a
cooperative sugar fac-
tory
. In the same man-
ner, it should also fi-
nancially help in etha-
nol production, he
added.
RISING TREND
In 2020-21, Maharashtra produced 100.36 crore
litre of ethanol through 78 establishments, as per
a representative of the state cooperative sugar fac-
tories federation, an official said. Since December
2021, the state has so far produced 75.88 crore
litres of ethanol and it is expected to go up to 116
crore litres by November 30 this year through 85
establishments. The production is likely to rise to
130-140 crore litre next year. The establishments
producing ethanol will also reach 90.
Since Dec Maha has produced 75.88 cr litre of ethanol,
which is expected to go up to 116 cr litre by Nov 30
Ethanol is a by-product of sugar mills. —FILE PHOTO
Maha sees 1.8K nCoV
cases, only 1 fatality
Fee hike nominal,essential to
meet operational expenses: IITB
First India Bureau
Mumbai: Following
protests by students of
IIT Bombay against
the recent fee hike, the
premier institution on
Sunday said that the
increase in hostel fees
is to essential to cover
operational expenses.
Officials added that
they would try to talk
to the protesting stu-
dents and clear any
misunderstandings.
Explaining its stance,
IITBombaysaidthebulk
of its funding comes
from the government,
with fees being only 8%
of its revenue. “Given
thesharpincreaseinthe
number of students, we
need to build more hos-
tels and academic build-
ings. The hostel fee in-
crease is essential to
cover actual expenses,
allowing our other
sources of income to be
used to provide better
academic facilities, and
to take the loans which
we badly require for ex-
panding our infrastruc-
ture, than subsidizing
operational expenses of
hostels,” the institute
said in a statement.
“It may also be com-
pared with the monthly
PhD stipend of between
Rs31,000-34,000 per
month, and the MTech
stipend of Rs12,400. Tu-
ition fees for current
PhD students is Rs2,500
per semester, and
Rs5,000 per semester for
new students, while for
new MTech students, it
increased from Rs5,000
per semester (after par-
tial tuition fee waiver)
to Rs30,000 per semes-
ter. It may be seen that
even these increased
fees (which do not im-
pact current students)
are very nominal,” the
statement said.
Hostel fees
hiked from Rs2K
per month to
around Rs2.7K
and medical fees
apart from room
rent, power and
water charges

10. M
alaika Arora
and her girl
squad Kareena
Kapoor Khan,
Amrita Arora, and Ka-
risma Kapoor are one of
the most stylish girl
gangs in Bollywood.
Recently, the Chaiyya
Chaiyaa star opened up
about her friendship
with her girl squad. Call-
ing them her 'life', she
revealed wanting to gift a
show to them. Malaika,
who met with a car acci-
dent near Khalapur Toll
Plaza in Mumbai on
April 2 recalled how her
girl gang was worried for
her. She said that when
she returned home from
the hospital, every day
they’d be here, at her
house, and ensuring that
she was taken care of
and was doing fine.
They would leave
their routines aside
and spend time with
me.Theywerepam-
pering me and
making me laugh.
Their presence
and prayers also
gave me the
strength to get
back on my feet
soon said
Malaika.
J
anhvi Kapoor has al-
ways been compared
to her contemporar-
ies namely Sara Ali
Khan and Ananya Panday
.
When asked that a friend-
ship between two compet-
ing actresses is a rarity
but her friendship with
Sara Ali Khan is discussed
in both film circles and
with the fans, how did this
friendship start? Replying to
this question, Janhvi Kapoor
replied that they have known
each other before they started their
acting careers. She appreciates the
way Sara is working hard and how
real she is. Janhvi adds, “she is so
secure about herself that when they
spend time together, the threaten-
ing energy between contemporaries
never shows up between us. I always
feel that I am spending time with
my friend who wishes good for me.
It is difficult to find such a bond in
life, let alone in the film industry
.”
L
ast year, Kajol was seen in her first
web original film, ‘Tribhanga’
(2021). After having wrapped up
work on ‘Lust Stories 2’, Kajol has
begun prep for the Disney+
Hotstar adaptation of the
legal drama. According
to the sources, a set is
being created at
Juhu Gold Studio,
where a chunk of
the drama will be
shot. With a signifi-
cant portion of the
show playing out in a
legal firm and court-
rooms, an office set-up is
being created for the first
schedule. Kajol, who will
give her own take to the
lead character of Alicia
Florrick, is expected to
begin shooting from Au-
gust 11. The streaming
service has yet to an-
nounce the creator
and primary cast.
www.firstindia.co.in I https://firstindia.co.in/epapers/mumbai I twitter.com/
thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia 09
unchai starring Am-
itabh Bachchan, Anu-
pam Kher, Boman
Irani, Neena Gupta,
and Sarika, with
Parineeti Chopra in a
very special appear-
ance is slated to release in the
theatres on November 11th,
2022.Ontheoccasionof Friend-
ship’s Day 2022, Amitabh Bach-
chan unveiled the first visual
from Uunchai which also
shows Anupam and Boman in
it. In the poster, the trio can be
seentrekkingintheHimalayas
with Mount Everest standing
tall in the background. The tag-
line at the top of the teaser
poster reads- ‘Friendship was
their only motivation.’ Taking
to his social media handle, Big
B wrote: “Celebrate #Friend-
shipDay with the first visual of
our upcoming #Rajshri film
#Uunchai. Join me, @anupam-
kher and @boman_irani on a
journey that celebrates friend-
ship. A film by @rajshrifilms
and #SoorajBarjatya.
UUNCHAI’S
FIRST LOOK
U
A
nushka Sharma
has been busy
shooting for the bi-
opic of cricketer
Jhulan Goswami, Chakda
‘Xpress in London and
has been rigorously
training them for the
same. Anushka took to
Instagram to share a
mirror selfie from a lo-
cal gym, with her fol-
lowers. In the photo,
Anushka was seen
sporting a yellow crop-
top and black tights, as
she flaunted her biceps.
Her Instagram story
read, “Mehnat karri aur
show off nahin kiya toh
kya mehnat karri”,
which loosely translates
as, “If you worked hard
and didn’t show off, then
what’s the use”.
ANUSHKA
SHOWS OFF
HER BICEPS
KAJOL HEADS TO
COURTROOM
T
ara Sutaria and
Aadar Jain have
been dating each
other for quite
some time now. Mean-
while, on August 6th,
Aadar celebrated his
birthday and she took to
her Instagram account to
share a special wish for
Aadar, and referred to him
as her ‘whole world.’ Tara
wrote: “Happy Birthday,
my (world emoji) (black
heart emoji) (evil eye emo-
ji).” In the pictures shared by
her, both Tara and Aadar can
be seen enjoying a gala time as
she enjoyed an intimate dinner
party with their friends.
JANHVICALLS
SARA SECURE
KRITI ON
FAILURE
BOYFRIEND’S
BIRTHDAY BASH
FRIENDS FOR LIFE
K
riti Sanon is one of the
most successful and tal-
ented actresses in the
industry. She revealed
how she deals when the films
don't do well and said that she
does things that normal hu-
mans do like sulking and cry-
ing. Talking to Bollywood Hun-
gama, Kriti said that people see
a strong woman on the outside,
on-screen,andintheinterviews
but she feels that it is important
to face your emotions. She add-
ed that a person can't brush
them under the carpet, because
that's not how it works.
MUMBAI, MONDAY,
AUGUST 8, 2022
Parineeti Chopra
Tara Sutaria
Her post...
Janhvi Kapoor
Malaika Arora
Kriti Sanon
Kareena Kapoor Khan, Malaika Arora,
Karisma Kapoor and Amrita Arora
Anushka Sharma
Her story...
Kajol Devgan
Poster of the film

11. 10
ETC
MUMBAI | MONDAY, AUGUST 8, 2022
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YOU AND YOUR
SIBLING MIGHT
KEEP FIGHTING
THROUGHOUT
THE YEAR OVER
THE SILLIEST
THINGS BUT YOU
NEVER GIVE UP ON
EACH OTHER! SO,
CITY FIRST BRINGS
TO YOU SMART
OPTIONS OF
GIFTS THAT
CAN MAKE
YOUR SISTER
FEEL
SPECIAL
aksha Bandhan
is around the
corner and it is
a festival in
which siblings
can make each
other feel spe-
cial. It is a festival solely
dedicated to the affection
of brothers and sisters.
Sisters tie a sacred thread
called Rakhi around the
wrists of their brothers
for their protection and
pray for their longevity,
good health and prosperi-
ty on this auspicious
occasion.
All the brothers also
present their sisters with
their favourite gifts.
What could be a better
way to make your sister
feel loved and cherished
than giving her a very
thoughtful gift this
Raksha Bandhan?
Here are some smart gifts
that you may choose to
makeherrakhiamemora-
ble one:
FITNESS TRACKER OR
SMART WATCH
It is the most perfect and
thoughtful gift for your
sister in terms of fitness.
It is a multipurpose
gadget which is very
useful. Lives have be-
come sedentary
given to the
pandemic re-
strictions. A
gift like this
wouldsure-
ly motivate
your sister
to stay fit,
active and
healthy
. She
can also track her calorie
intake, step count, oxygen
levels and pulse beat.
SMART TILE
It is one of the most useful
gifts that one can think of
for Raksha Bandhan. It is
both a lifesaving as well as
a time-saving device. It is
a Bluetooth tracker which
comes with easy-to-use
app technology
.It canhelp
onefindpetsandeveryday
items in a matter of sec-
onds. For example, the tile
can be attached to the
phone, backpacks, keys
and pet’s collar to track
them quickly
.
SMART SPEAKER
This technologically ad-
vanced gift will be a good
option for your sister. The
latest speakers with an in-
tegrated virtual assistant
and hands-free activation
wouldsurelymakeherlife
all the easier.
3D PRINTER PEN
A 3D printer pen is one of
the most fascinating gifts
on this Rakhi. This would
enable your sister to draw
in thin air. It would be
akin to a hand-held ver-
sion of a 3D printer.
CAMERA
ACCESSORIES
The best gift for a photo
lover is nothing but cam-
era accessories. In case
your sister is an influenc-
er or fond of making vid-
eosbyclickingselfiesthen
the right accessories will
h e l p her fix the light,
position
the camera an-
gle better, ena-
ble rotation
and make her
vlogging a fun
as well as a
simpler task.
SMART JEWELLERY
It’sacombinationof beau-
tiful and wearable tech-
nology that is an exten-
sion of your smartphone
which helps to stay in
touch with your loved
ones.Itensuresconnectiv-
ity and provides informa-
tion about your wherea-
bouts to them. For exam-
ple, a digital mini-clutch
speakerwithconnectivity
,
a smart necklace and a
smart ring.
SMART BOTTLES
You can keep water within
reach with a good water
bottle but a smart water
bottle can do more for your
sister. It can nudge her to
drink more water. It can
track your sister’s water
intake. It can report the
temperature of the bever-
age.Itprovidestechsuchas
built-inBluetoothspeakers
or power banks
for charging
devices.
R
DHANUSHREE VYAS
cityfirst@firstindia.co.in

12. he noteworthy
grand finale of
Miss Ra-
jasthan, one of
the most pres-
tigious and
government-
approved beauty pag-
eants, organised by Fu-
sion Group and in asso-
ciation with 5 by OYO
Metropolitan was held
at Birla Auditorium
where beautiful faces
across the state finally
presented their model-
lingpassiononthestage
with final touches.
The top 28 beauties
gave wings to their
dreams by challenging
5000 girls on this stage
of Miss Rajasthan.
Jagdeesh Chandra
graced the occasion as
the Chief Guest and en-
couraged the partici-
pants with his motivat-
ing words.
Various dignitaries
including Senior Con-
gress leader, Suresh
Mishra, Jyoti Khandel-
wal, former Mayor
Jaipur, Mahesh Shar-
ma State Minister, Ajay
Singh Meena, Prasna
Kumar, Pooja Agarwal,
Pawan Goyal, Somen-
dra Sharma, Yatindra
Negi, Shankar Gupta,
Lalit Natani, Puja
Agrawal were also pre-
sent as the special
guests.
Nikhil Anand, GK
Agarwal, Serena Khat,
Simran Sharma, Mit-
tali Kaur, Arshad Hus-
sain, Arvind Agrawal
and Nirmal Saraf were
present in the Grand
Jury
.
Tarushee Rai bagged
the crown as the win-
ner while Priyan Sain,
Paridhi Sharma, Riya
Jakhar and Sanjana
Sharma bagged the ti-
tles of First, Second,
Third and Fourth Run-
ner Up respectively
.
Yogesh Mishra and Ni-
misha Mishra, the or-
ganisers of Miss Ra-
jasthan, informed that
in the grand finale of
Miss Rajasthan, where
the top 28 contestants
performed the opening
act on the ramp wear-
ing the outfits of El-
len College of
Design in the
first round.
During the
grand finale,
various talent
rounds were
also held
w h i c h
l a u n c h e d
the semi-
bridal col-
lection of
K o l k a t a -
based famous
designer Nirmal
Saraf of Panghat.
The make-up and
makeover touch of
the finalists was
done by Geetu
Sachdev of Unisex
Salon, Photogra-
phy is done by
Vasu Jain, Show
is Choreo-
graphed by Shah-
rukh Khan.
Apart from the
winner category,
18 more titles
were given.
CROWNING THE
BEAUTIES
T
City First brings to you
glimpses of crowned
beauties of the Miss
Rajasthan 2022. The
grand finale of the
event took place at
Birla Auditorium
on Saturday
UTTKARSHA SHEKHAR
cityfirst@firstindia.co.in
—PHOTOS
BY
SANTOSH
SHARMA
Jagdeesh Chandra with Winner of Miss Rajasthan Tarushree Rai,
First runner up Priyan San, Second runner up Paridhi Sharma,
Winner of Miss Rajasthan Tarushree Rai, First runner up Priyan San, Second runner up Paridhi Sharma,
ETC
www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epapers/mumbai I twitter.com/thefirstindia facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirst- MUMBAI | MONDAY, AUGUST 8, 2022
11

13. 12
MUMBAI | MONDAY, AUGUST 8, 2022
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CITY BUZZ
GET VACCINATED
STAY MASKED
Ranbir and Alia’s little
secret from Ayan
A
t a recent event
to unveil a sneak
peekof thefilm’s
new song Deva
Deva, the film’s director
Ayan Mukerji revealed
how the trio are best
friends and do every-
thing together includ-
ing taking holidays, and
watching movies and
hanging out. Despite
their friendship, Ranbir
and Alia had to hide
their relationship status
from Ayan for some
time.
Speakingtothemedia
Ranbir said, “
Alia, Ayan
andIhavespentsomuch
time making Brahmas-
tra that so much has
changed in our lives
over the years. During
these years, whenever
we met, Ayan would al-
ways be obsessing over
Brahmastra. At one
point, when Alia and I
had started dating, we
couldn’t even tell Ayan
thatwe’dstartedseeing
each other, fearing that
he would freak out.”
To which Ayan Add-
ed, “Ayan added, “I
had a very mature re-
action when Ranbir
broke the news to me.
I had to be on my best
behaviour with my
close friends.”
SIDHARTH
SHARES BTS PIC
S
idharth Malhotra
is currently
shooting for his
debut web series,
Indian Police Force. For
the unversed, Sidharth
is joining Rohit Shetty’s
cop universe for the first
time, as both of them
work on their first digi-
tal project together. In-
terestingly
, Rohit will
shine the spotlight on
DelhiPolicewiththe‘In-
dian Police Force’. Sid-
harth took to the stories
featureonhisInstagram
space. He shared a black
and white photo from
the sets of the Indian Po-
lice Force. In the photo,
the Shershaah actor can
be seen getting into his
action avatar as he land-
ed a kick in style. Doing
so, he captioned the
photo ‘ (tricolour
emoji)#INDIANPO-
LICEFORCE’ and
also tagged Rohit
Shetty in the picture. In
the black and white pic-
ture, Sidharth was
seen kicking one of
the goons and twist-
ing the hand of the
other. He was seen in
full-action mode.
Success bash for Jug Jugg Jeeyo
K
aran Johar hosted a
success bash for the
Jug Jugg Jeeyo team
at his residence in
Mumbai last night. Kiara
Advani, Varun Dhawan,
and others seem to have to
spend a gala time together.
Kiara Advani, Varun
Dhawan, and their JugJugg
Jeeyo co-stars were present
in attendance at Karan Jo-
har’s party. The director-
producer hosted a success
bash for the film. Apart
from Varun and Kiara, Anil
Kapoor, Neetu Kapoor, Ma-
niesh Paul, Prajakta Koli,
director Raj Mehta,
and CEO of Dhar-
ma Productions,
Apoorva Mehta was
seen arriving.
The star cast arrived in
style with Kiara sporting a
white dress and pastel
green blazer. Varun opted
for a green jacket and Anil
was flaunting his black
jacket and black shades.
Neetu chose a casual look
and was wearing a dark
grey top.
ctress Helly
Shah and Vi-
dhi Pandya
are best
friends since
the begin-
ning. They
are pillars of
strength for each
other, in the high
and low moments of
their life. The duo
met on one of the
sets for a show and
little did they would
find a friend for life.
In an exclusive con-
versation with Ash-
ish Tiwari of First
India, the BFFs
opened up on their
bond shared fond
memories and more.
While both of them
have been best
friends for a while
now asking what
their first impres-
sion of each other
they shared, “I did
my first on-screen
appearance with
Helly and I remem-
ber her being very
sweet she spoke to
me even though we
didn’t know each
other. She didn’t
have that heroine at-
titude. But we never
thought we’ll be best
friends 6 years lat-
er” said Vidhi.
To which Helly
added, “I didn’t as-
sume anything
about her, but she
was easy to approach
so that’s when our
friendship began. I
take time to be
friends with people
but there was a mu-
tual positivity that
we both have nur-
tured. We have an
unsaid understand-
ing between both of
us.”
They share a very
strong bond that’s
rare between two ac-
tresses speaking on
that Vidhi said, “She
understands the un-
said, I may finish my
conversation in
a line to keep
my best friend
updated and
she gets it.”
Adding on
the same
Helly said,
“Vidhi is
very ma-
tured, so I
really don’t
need to
elaborate
and ex-
p l a i n
t h i n g s
to her.
T h i s
is a
very strong base for
our relationship.
Even if we don’t talk
the silence between
us feels comfortable.
On asking what
friendship means to
them they quoted, “
Humari Dosti me
Sukoon hai.
When you are in
chaos there
has to be one
person who
you can feel
the sukoon
with, there’s
an ease in
f r i e n d s h i p
far apart
from the
world prob-
lems, some-
one with
whom we can
just be our-
s e l v e s .
There’s no
judgement
and no
pretence
in a
f r i e n d -
ship.”
Speaking on their
best moments spent
together they men-
tioned, “ Our best
time spent together
has to be our trips
favourite one would
be the one we took to
Jodhpur, where we
spent the most mini-
mal money yet had
the best time of our
lives exploring the
destination.”
While in many as-
pects the TV actors
are looked up the
BFFs mentioned
“Every actor has
faced the TV dis-
crimination tag. We
want to explore the
craft in every way
possible and to be
called only an ac-
tor and not be
categorised
based on
the plat-
form.
We
are here to perform
and given an opportu-
nity
, we would do that
on every platform.
Things are changing
but at a slow pace
there’s a section
of people who in-
vite us who col-
laborate with us
but also there’s a
section who refus-
es on the
same.”
ASHISH TIWARI
cityfirst@firstindia.co.in
A
IMTIAZ ON FEMALE
CHARACTERS
I
mtiaz Ali was
questioned by
many about the
way he writes
about his women.
According to the
sources Imtiaz re-
vealed, “I feel fasci-
nated by women for
having been in a role
which is more re-
pressed and disad-
vantaged than
men and yet hav-
ing that smile
and grace on
their faces.” When
asked about why his
women find their
agency as compared
to the men in his
films, he gave the ex-
amples of his OTT
series She and film
Highway where the
main leads who are
women have found
their way in life. Fur-
ther adding on it,
he said, “Not
every story can
be about a wom-
an finding the
agency
. Why am I not
allowed to mix sto-
ries of different na-
ture or do they mean
something else? I am
here not to actually
tell people how to
live their lives.”
VIJAY’S
STRUGGLING
DAYS
V
ijay Varma is one of the rarest
gems in the Hindi film industry
who has paved his way to the top
from nothing. The actor too re-
vealed during a recent interview that
not everything was smooth sailing and
he had to face
backlash as
well. The actor
revealed how he
was told by
someone during
his struggling
days, “Tu Shah
Rukh Khan nahi
hai.” Adding to
the incident, Vi-
jay further said
that now Shah
Rukh Khan himself has employed
him for his film. Vijay plays the
role of Hamza in Netflix’s film
Darlings. He is shown as the
abusive and alcoholic husband
of Alia Bhatt who then becomes
the subject of her torture when she de-
cides to fight back.
THERE’S AN UNSAID ENERGY
BETWEEN US : HELLY AND VIDHI
Karan Johar, Anil Kapoor, Varun Dhawan, Prajakta Koli,
Kiara Advani, Neetu Kapoor and Manish Paul with others
Vijay Varma
Sidharth Malhotra
His post...
Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhatt and Ayan Mukherji Alia Bhatt
Imtiaz Ali
Vidhi Pandya Helly Shah