DHARMAPURI  THURSDAY  OCTOBER 22, 2020  `7.00  PAGES 12  CITY EDITION 16.7 LAKH INDIANS DIED IN 2019 DUE TO AIR POLLUTION: STUDY Outdoor and household particulate matter pollution contributed to the death of 1.16 lakh infants in the first month of their life CAUSES STROKE, HEART ATTACK, LUNG CANCER LARGEST RISK FACTOR FOR DEATH More than half of these deaths were associated with outdoor PM2.5 and others were linked to the use of solid fuels such as charcoal, wood, and animal dung for cooking. Long-term exposure to outdoor and household air pollution contributed to deaths from stroke, heart attack, diabetes, lung cancer, chronic lung diseases and neonatal diseases, the report said ■ ■ The new analysis reported in the State of Global Air this year says air pollution is now the largest risk factor for death Particulate air pollution exposure during pregnancy is linked to low birth weight and pre-term birth, which can trigger serious complications that may lead to death 21% OF NEONATAL DEATHS ATTRIBUTABLE TO AMBIENT / HOUSEHOLD AIR POLLUTION CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOGGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ WARANGAL ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI PM to meet 15 global fund houses Foreign investors look up to India for stable returns, to tap long-term opportunities here savings and domestic assets. @ New Delhi “There is a lot of capital available in the country and PRIME Minister Narendra will now it’s increasing unlike 10 soon meet 15 leading global years ago, when money was not fund houses which are keen to available. For instance, the govinvest in India, Tarun Bajaj, ernment is in talks with regulasecretary, Department of Eco- tors to tinker rules to allow Emnomic Affairs (DEA), ployees Provident said on Wednesday . Fund to put money in “Fund houses from the infra sector,” the all over the world are official said. in touch with us and He also revealed that want us to provide the Union Cabinet will good assets with stable soon consider a new returns,” Bajaj said public sector enterGovt open while addressing a virprises policy, which to further tual event organised will allow for the pristimulus by the Confederation vatisation of the pubof Indian Industry . The Modi govt is lic sector enterprises. The decision follows “It is an open secret, open to further conversations between but till it gets the stimulus funds and the Indian stamp of the Cabinet measures to government on longwe are not satisfied. It boost the term investment opshould happen very coronavirus-hit portunities here. soon,” Bajaj said, addeconomy, The announcement Economic Affairs ing monetisation of also comes on a day Secretary Tarun assets is a focus area when RBI governor of the government and Bajaj said Shaktikanta Das said that it is getting a lot India is at the cusp of an eco- of traction. nomic recovery . He said the government has Bajaj, however, did not reveal been able to privatise six airnames of the funds which ports, and now the Airports Auwould be meeting the PM. thority of India and the MinisThe DEA secretary added try of Civil Aviation are ready that the government was look- with the next tranche of six ing at channelising domestic airports. EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE PANEL CLEARS `25K-CR INDUSTRIAL PROJECTS E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Chennai THE high-powered committee headed by Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, constituted for expeditious investment facilitation, cleared 23 industrial projects on an investment of `25,213 crore, which were in various stages of consideration, on Wednesday. These projects are expected to provide employment for 49,003 persons. The newly approved projects include readymade cloth production unit of ENES Textile Mills (Ramraj), Mobis India Limited’s automobile accessories manufacturing unit, 34 projects Seoyon E-HWA Automotive India Private cleared Limited’s electronic goods manufacturing earlier unit, Kyungshin Industrial Motherson PriDuring the earlier vate Limited’s motor vehicles accessories production unit, MRF Limited’s vehicle meetings, tyres manufacturing unit, Wheels India approvals were sanctioned for 34 Limited’s motor vehicles accessories manuprojects bringing facturing unit, Ather Energy Limited’s elecin an investment tronic vehicles manufacturing unit and Inof `15,000 crore, tegrated Chennai Business Park’s unit (DP World). These projects will come up in Chengenerating jobs nai, Chengalpattu, Kancheepuram, Tiruvalfor 23,000 luvar, Ranipet, Tirupur, Namakkal, Coimpersons batore, Perambalur, and Krishnagiri. The panel, which met for the third time, also discussed the status of approvals already given for industrial projects through single window clearance, pending applications relating to big industrial investments and MSME sector. Deputy Chief Minister O Pannneerselvam, Industries Minister MC Sampath, senior Ministers, Chief Secretary K Shanmugam and secretaries of key departments took part in the meeting. Onions to be cheaper as import norms relaxed EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ New Delhi/Mumbai WITH onion prices going north because of heavy rains damaging standing crops in Maharashtra and Kawrnataka, the Centre on Wednesday announced easing of its import norms till December 15. Parallelly Tamil Nadu kept , options open to supply onions through ration shops if needed. While the retail cost in Chennai was over `100 per kg, state Minister for Cooperation Sellur K Raju tapped the Farm Fresh network for now to sell the kitchen staple at a subsidised `45 a kg. India is already importing onions from Egypt and Iran. While Maharashtra’s popular Lasalgaon variety of big onions fetches a retail price of `90-100 per kg, the Egypt and Iran consignments come at half the cost — `40-50. The downside is the imported varieties aren’t as hot on the palate as the Indian ones. The Consumer Affairs Ministry said it will offload more onion from its buffer stock into the open market. To facilitate its import, the ministry said, “the government has relaxed the conditions for fumigation and additional declaration on Phytosanitary Certificate (PSC) under the Plant Quarantine Order (PQ), 2003 for import up to December 15, 2020.” EXPRESS READ Shops can stay open till 10 pm from today Follow Covid protocols, EC tells parties in Bihar Chennai: With Ayudha poojai festival round the corner, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on Wednesday announced that shops and commercial establishments across Tamil Nadu, except those in containment zones, can remain open till 10 pm from Thursday New Delhi: Taking a serious note of the blatant violation of social distancing norms during campaigning in Bihar, the Election Commission on Wednesday warned political parties and candidates of penal action if social distancing norms and other Covid-19 protocols are not followed CRIME FILE Transwoman entrepreneur found with throat slit EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Coimbatore A transwoman entrepreneur, who recently started a restaurant ‘Trans Kitchen’, was found murdered with her throat slit at her house in the district on Wednesday. Her body was dumped in a water storage container. Sources said that the deceased, Sangeetha (60), who is also the president of Coimbatore District Transgenders Association has been staying at a rental premises on NSR Road in Saibaba Colony. It was on September 2 that she, along with a few other transwomen, started the restaurant on Venkadasamy Road. An investigating officer said that she had not opened her restaurant after Sunday , and her mobile phone remained switched off. Police said that an autorickshaw driver, who regularly transports vegetables to Sangeetha’s restaurant, grew suspicious of her prolonged absence and went to her house to check P4 on her.