visakhapatnam l wednesday l november 04, 2020 l `7.00 l PAGES 12 l 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 P10 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 @ Vijayawada The State gover nment on Tuesday gave in principle clearance for three investment proposals in AP including that of , Adani Enterprises, which proposed to set up an Integrated Data Centre Park, Integrated IT and Business Park, Recreation Centre and Skill Development University in Visakhapatnam. Apart from it, proposals to set up a footwear manufacturing unit in Chittoor and a tyre unit in Visakhapatnam were also given in principle consent, sources in the Industries Department said. Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy who heads the State , Investment Promotion Board (SIPB), held a meeting with officials on the proposals for set- 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 | P9 Give priority to green units in Vizag: CM Speaking at the SIPB meeting, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy directed officials to give priority to pollution-free and green industries in the Port City. Emphasis should be laid on environmental protection while promoting industrial development, he said. ting up various mega projects in Andhra Pradesh. Informing the Chief Minister about the proposal of Adani Enterprises, the officials said it proposed to invest `14,634 crore on the data centre project and provide jobs to 24,990 people. Another proposal was that of Hong Kong-based Intelligent SEZ Development Limited, which wanted to establish a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) for footwear manufacturing with an investment of `700 crore in two phases. The facility is proposed at Inagaluru in Srikalahasti mandal of Chittoor district and it will provide jobs to 10,000 people. Intelligent SEZ Limited has also evinced interest in setting up a unit at Pulivendula in Kadapa district to provide employment to 2,000 people. The SIPB also discussed the proposal of ATC AP Private Limited (off highway tyres) to invest `980 crore in Atchutapuram SEZ with an employment potential of 2,000. The officials also explained to the SIPB about the incentives being sought by the investors to set up units in the State. 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 SIPB clears Adani group proposal to set up `14.6K cr Data Centre Park E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e 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 upon by PNB for giving the loan.  Vienna shocker Four dead, 17 wounded in suspected terror attack E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e 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. new attraction Aground cargo ship likely to be a restaurant E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Vijayawada If the plans of the State government materialise, Bangladeshi cargo vessel MV Maa, which drifted from its anchorage point and ran aground near Tenneti Park in Visakhapatnam due to the deep depression in the Bay of Bengal in the second week of October, is likely to be converted into a restaurant. It will be an added attraction to Vizag beach, which already has aircraft and submarine museums. The place where the vessel ran aground, has become an in- Both Tejashwi & I are the future: Rahul Bangladeshi cargo vessel MV Maa, which ran aground in Visakhapatnam | EXPRESS stant tourism spot with locals in large numbers visiting it even as operations to salvage it are going on. On Tuesday, Tourism Minister M Srinivasa Rao said the government has proposed to take over the vessel and convert it into a restaurant. “Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy is optimistic that the proposal will materialise. We will proceed with a plan to get the project after holding talks with the chairman of Ports Authority It will be a good addition to . the already existing aircraft and submarine museums in ViP4 zag,” he said.  “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 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 P8  express read DPR for `4.6K cr pipeline project underway Visakhapatnam: Preparation of a DPR for laying a `4,600 crore drinking water pipeline from Polavaram to Vizag has begun. PBS Agency was entrusted with task of preparing the DPR, GVMC Chief Engineer M Venkateswara Rao said. SEC ready to hold local polls: Nimmagadda to HC operation to the SEC and stressed need for enhancing security to him as well as the State Election Commissioner commission. Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar Stating that a meeting was on Tuesday informed the High already held with representaCourt that the SEC is prepared tives of all political parties in to conduct elections to local this regard, he said the SEC debodies. cided to take certain precauHe told the court tions while conductthat the SEC posting the polls in view poned the local body of the violence that elections in March in took place earlier. view of the spread of There is a shortage The SEC pointed of ballot boxes. coronavirus. As the out that there is a The election number of Covid-19 shortage of ballot boxschedule will be cases has come down es in the State. Ballot released in phases in the State in recent b oxe s n e e d t o b e as and when the weeks, it is ready to brought from other SEC gets ballot conduct the local body boxes in sufficient States for the elecpolls. He filed a countions. Telangana could numbers ter informing the prenot give ballot boxes to Ramesh Kumar, SEC paredness of the SEC AP as it is conducting to hold the local body elections to municielections in response to a peti- palities and efforts to get ballot tion filed by T Yogesh, a lawyer boxes from other Southern who sought court directions to States have failed to yield reconduct the local body polls in sults, Nimmagadda said and the State as polls are being held added that the schedule will be in several States. released for the elections to loNimmagadda informed the cal bodies in phases as and court that the State govern- when the SEC gets ballot boxes P5 ment should extend its full co- in sufficient numbers.  E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Vijayawada Electric two-wheelers for secretariat staff Vijayawada: The State government is considering a proposal to take up a real-time performance study by providing electric two-wheelers to ward and village secretariat staff, who are involved in delivery of various government services at the doorstep of people. P4 Quad nations kick-start Malabar naval exercise New Delhi: The navies of India, the US, Japan and Australia on Tuesday held a series of complex manoeuvres in the Bay of Bengal, kick-starting the first phase of the Malabar naval exercise, a prelude to future military cooperation among the Quadrilateral Coalition 8th round of Sino-India talks likely this week New Delhi: The eighth round of Corps Commander-level talks between India and China is likely to take place this week to carry forward negotiations on the disengagement process in eastern Ladakh as troops brace for a harsh winter. There was no breakthrough during the seventh round of military talks on October 12