CHENNAI  WEDNESDAY  NOVEMBER 04, 2020  `7.00  PAGES 20  LATE CITY EDITION OCTOBER EXPORTS, IMPORTS DIP, TRADE DEFICIT NARROWS After recording positive growth in September, India’s exports fell 5.4% to $24.82 billion in October, latest data showed PETROLEUM, GEMS, LEATHER SHIPMENTS DOWN Lower shipments in petroleum products (down 53.30%) and India’s mainstays gems & jewellery (down 21.27%), and leather (down 16.69%) saw exports falling in the festive month. Imports also fell 11.56% to $33.6 billion, leading to trade deficit narrowing to $8.78 billion. Sectors which grew include rice, oil meals, iron ore, oil seeds, carpet, pharma and spices ■ Stimulus PM MODI TO CHAIR GLOBAL INVESTOR MEET ■ PM Narendra Modi will on Thursday chair a virtual global investor roundtable, which will be attended by leading global investors It will be an exclusive dialogue between global institutional investors, Indian business leaders and the highest decision makers from the Indian govt and financial market regulators P13 PACKAGE WILL BE UNVEILED SOON, SAID TARUN BAJAJ, SECRETARY - DEA 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 Trump or Biden? Florida may offer the earliest clue NITISH RULE ENDED ANARCHY, SAYS MODI Under Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Bihar had left behind the darkness of insecurity and anarchy of the RJD rule, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said. “Roads and markets today bustle with people even late at night.” After around 100 million cast their ballot early, voters queued up to decide who will be their next president amid Covid worries and fears of violence if Trump loses but refuses to concede defeat. A look at the race to 270 electoral college votes for outright victory EXPECT DELAY Security fencing put up around White House in Washington on Tuesday | AP MARKETS BUOYANT First polls close at 4.30 am IST on Tuesday, but the last one will be open toll 11.30 am on Wednesday, so the final results will be delayed No uniform rule on how and when to count postal ballots. Also, states differ in postal ballot deadlines. Georgia, for instance, will count ballots received on or before November 3, but others like Ohio will accept late ballots if they have the November 3 postmark WHITE HOUSE ‘LOCKDOWN’ US stocks led the rally in global equity markets amid optimism about Biden’s victory and hopes for fresh stimulus. Dow Jones up; major S&P indexes stay north Amid concern over possible violence, with some even fearing a civil war, a fence was erected around the White House complex, the Ellipse and Lafayette Square @ Virudhunagar HUNDREDS of families in Virudhunagar are shocked and upset over the announcements made by multiple State governments banning the sale and usage of firecrackers this Deepavali season. Already reeling under the impact of the pandemic and associated lockdowns, these families are now staring at abject poverty if the , sale of crackers is not up to the mark. So far, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Odisha, and Haryana have announced a ban. “The firecracker industry is a fragile ecosystem. A damage caused to any one part of it can have debilitating impact on a large number of families across the nation,” says Elangovan of fireworks traders association. Of all the swing states, Florida is the largest with 29 electoral college votes. Its result will be declared early as the state has been counting the mail-in ballots as they arrive, unlike others that begin the counting process today. If Trump loses Florida, analysts say it will be very tough for him to pull off a win | P12 More States expected to follow suit So far, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Odisha, and Haryana have announced a ban on sale and usage of firecrackers this Deepavali season. Karnataka may also announce a ban. Sources said a decision will be taken after discussion with CM Yediyurappa | P7 The biggest damage, he adds, will be in Sivakasi. Industry experts say that over 80 per cent of cracker sales happen on the day before the festival. “While products have been shipped away to different States, we are yet to receive payments from many traders,” claims Elangovan. Wholesale buyers in North India, their dealers, and local shopkeepers are all likely to be hit hard this year. Elangovan says, in Sivakasi, the business is done on a credit-based system. “We receive payments after the festival, which is used to pay off bonus for workers, loans, and to invest in the business for the year ahead.” Around 2 lakh persons are directly employed in the firecracker sector of Sivakasi, and Rajasthan is one of their major market – contributing almost 12 per cent to overall sales every year. “We have followed every rule in the book in making ‘green fireworks’ this year,” says Ganesan Panjurajan of another fireworks manufacturers association. “If more States follow suit, this Deepavali will be a dark one for us.” NOW, A LOAN DEFAULT CASE ADDS TO BINEESH’S WOES P R A M D A S @ Kochi Bineesh Kodiyeri Sandalwood actors denied bail The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday declined to grant bail to Kannada film actors Ragini Dwivedi and Sanjjanaa Galrani, who were arrested last month, in the drugs case. Justice Sreenivas Harish Kumar also dismissed the anticipatory bail plea of film producer Shivaprakash National Guard troops have been put on standby THE FLORIDA FACTOR As States ban crackers, Sivakasi workers stare at a dark Deepavali EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE MORE trouble seems to be brewing for Bineesh Kodiyeri, son of Kerala CPM secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan. Currently in Enforcement Directorate’s custody in Bengaluru on charges of funding a drug cartel, he has now been named in a `30.74-lakh loan default case as well. TNIE has learnt that the Punjab National Bank (PNB) has filed a case against Bineesh and his partners Anand Padmanabhan and Arun S for defaulting on the repayment of the loan. They had taken the amount from the bank’s Kazhakkoottam branch to finance Old Coffee House, a Thiruvananthapurambased multi-cuisine restaurant, by mortgaging the property of one Mini Pradeep of Thirumala in the state capital. The Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT), which facilitates recovery of defaulted loan from bank customers, issued notice to the trio, but they did not appear before it. The DRT has posted the case to November 25 to produce the original documents relied CONTINUED ON: P7 upon by PNB for giving the loan. VIENNA SHOCKER Four dead, 17 wounded in suspected terror attack EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE AT LEAST four people were killed in Vienna and 17 were wounded, some of them critically when gunmen fired upon , people at random in the Austrian capital on Monday night. One of the assailants, identified as 20-year-old ISIS sympathiser Kujtim Fejzulai, was shot dead by police. He was reportedly wearing a fake suicide vest. Police said they were searching for at least one more shooter still at large. The shooting happened in the heart of Vienna hours before a coronavirus lockdown started, Austrian authorities said on Tuesday . Of the four killed, two were women, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said, terming it an Islamist terror attack. “It was an attack out of hatred — hatred for our fundamental values, hatred for our way of life, hatred for our democracy in which all people have equal rights and dignity he added. ,” Authorities said of the 17 injured in the attack, seven were in life-threatening condition. According to reports, the attacker who was shot dead was released from jail last year after spending 22 months of incarceration for trying to travel to Syria to join the ISIS. The terror attack drew widespread condemnation from global leaders, including from French President Emmanuel Macron, whose country experienced three terror attacks in recent weeks, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. ONE LIFE AT A TIME “FROM Kashmir to Kanniyakumari” is an oft-quoted phrase describing the diversity of this country. That diversity often becomes a difficulty for people from these extreme geographies to bond, but not always. All it took for Gawhaar Mir to bond with Major Kamlesh Mani was a chocolate and an exchange of pleasantries. Major Kamlesh Mani, a native of Tirupattur, was posted in Handwara town of North Kashmir. That is where he met the 16-year-old Gawhaar Mir for the first time, in the beginning of 2020. “I was patrolling the streets and came across this boy. I offered him a chocolate. Soon, he started following me everywhere,” recalls Kamlesh, who is now settled in Chennai. “He would visit me in the camp, and wait for me till I returned from duty. His love touched my heart.” Gawhaar comes from a nine-member family of which four are speech , and hearing disabled, includ- ing Gawhaar. His father is a tractor driver. Despite the ongoing tension in the Valley, Gawhaar’s family welcomed Kamlesh with open arms when he promised to help the teenager overcome his disability . “I took him for medical consultations, but there was only so much that could be done in Kashmir. I have sought permission from the boy’s family to take him to Delhi for better facilities,” says the 29-year-old Major. He has also been helping P5 Gawhaar study further. MUKESH RANJAN @ Bhagalpur/Kishenganj/Khagaria IF random voices of voters were to be taken as an indication of what might come on November 10, when votes for the Bihar polls are counted, then the state will see a parivartan (change). At many villages and towns, especially in the poorest districts, there is a sense of despair and even anger. On the face of it, this could be interpreted as a sign that the 15-year rule of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is coming to an end and that his challenger, Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav, is going to win hands down. Yet, the mood of the people is not as black and white as it may seem, rather there is a lot of grey So while there is a cry for . change, the voters don’t want the RJD. The voters agree that Nitish has brought development, but are angry with him that he has failed on employment, migrants and bureaucratic corruption. In other words, the Nitish and Tejashwi seem to be their own biggest enemy Rudra Ku. mar, a final year graduation student at Zero Mile in Naugachia village of Bhagalpur district, said being a Yadav, he would vote for the RJD candidate from his Gopalpur seat but praised both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Nitish. Voters stand in queues patiently awaiting their turn to cast their votes during the second phase of Bihar Assembly elections in Patna on Tuesday | PTI BIHAR 2020 53.51% “I want the RJD to win from my seat but an NDA government must be formed in Bihar,” he said. Explaining the contradiction, Kumar said: “If Tejashwi Yadav comes to power, there will be jungle raj in Bihar once again.” Tejashwi rallies are drawing huge crowds where the mood is of parivartan, but his party’s record of lawlessness haunts him. And if a taste of things under his possible regime was needed, it came on Tuesday, hours after voting in a constituency of Patna. Kavindra Mahato, 45, and his family were allegedly thrashed by RJD goons for not voting for Turnout in Phase II of Bihar polls till 5 pm. Figure likely to go up. Total 53.79% polling in two phases so far as against 55.35% in 2015 their party The victim has filed . a written complaint with the police against some unknown persons. Narrating the incident to a local video journalist, Mahato alleged that the goons tore his shirt. If Tejashwi falls under his own weight, then Nitish could also trip on his own. Anil Kumar Yadav of East Thatha village in Khagaria district admitted that under Nitish, the state has seen development. “The condition of main roads and highways along with electricity and water has definitely improved in the state,” Yadav said. CONTINUED ON : P10 EXPRESS READ Summary revision of rolls from November 16 Chennai: Ahead of the 2021 Assembly polls in Tamil Nadu, the summary revision of electoral rolls will commence with publication of draft rolls on November 16. The final rolls will be published on January 20, 2021 | P4 HONOURING SERVICE Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami gave out Thamizh Chemmal award to 19 scholars, shortlisted for Tamil Nadu Day for the year 2019 Perarivalan’s remission: SC unhappy with delay providing a 9-volt battery to coconspirator Sivarasan, which was used in the explosive deTHE Supreme Court on Tues- vice that killed Rajiv Gandhi. day expressed unhappiness In 2014, the apex court commutover delay in executing the e d h i s s e n t e n c e t o l i f e Tamil Nadu governimprisonment. ment’s recommendaOn Tuesday a bench , tion for remission of comprising justices L sentence awarded to Nageswara Rao, Ajay AG Perarivalan, conRastogi and Hemant The larger victed in the Rajiv conspiracy probe Gupta asked the addiGandhi assassination is pending for 20 tional advocate generyears and is case. The recommenal for TN, Balaji Srinidation is pending with ongoing. Still, you vasan, to find out why are at the stage of the Governor for over getting replies to the Governor Banwartwo years as the gov- rogatory letters? ilal Purohit had not deernment is waiting for cided on the recomJustice Rao a larger conspiracy anmendations of the gle to be probed. State gover nment. Perarivalan was awarded the Srinivasan informed the Court death penalty in 1991 for his in- that the matter before Govervolvement in the conspiracy to nor was that of a larger conassassinate the former Prime spiracy and that he was await, Minister. He was charged with ing a report from the CBI. P4 @ New Delhi/Chennai Major Kamlesh Mani with 16-year-old Gawhaar Mir in Handwara | EXPRESS “NDA has plundered Bihar and lied to the people. Modi and Nitish are a spent force have not done anything for the state. But our alliance will deliver. Tejashwi ji and me are the future,” Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said ‘Parivartan’ looks certain, but it may mean more than Nitish or Tejashwi in Bihar EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE It takes real bravery to win Kashmir with love, just like this Major did C S H I V A K U M A R @ Chennai BOTH TEJASHWI & I ARE THE FUTURE: RAHUL Online application sale for med courses begins Chennai: Online sale of applications for MBBS and BDS courses in Tamil Nadu began on Tuesday. The filled-in applications must be submitted before 5pm on November 12. The tentative date for releasing the rank list has been fixed as November 16 | P2 NOTICE TO GANGULY, KOHLI FOR ENDORSING ‘ONLINE GAMBLING PLATFORM’ After TN reported deaths by suicide after losing money in alleged online gambling, the Madurai bench of Madras HC issued notices to India captain Virat Kohli, BCCI president Sourav Ganguly on a PIL, which sought action against such companies. The IPL has Dream11 as title sponsor and Ganguly endorses My Circle 11, which are online gaming platforms | P6 Sunrisers enter playoffs Hyderabad became the fourth and final team to book an IPL play-off spot after defeating Mumbai Indians on Tuesday