TIRUNELVELI  SATURDAY  NOVEMBER 07, 2020  `7.00  PAGES 16  CITY EDITION AMAZON TO INVEST `20,761 CR IN HYDERABAD FOR NEW DATA HUB LARGEST FDI IN TELANGANA’S HISTORY It will be the largest-ever foreign direct investment in Telangana, the state’s IT & Industries Minister KT Rama Rao said. The AWS Asia Pacific Hyderabad Region will have three Availability Zones (data centres) with independent power, cooling and physical security systems. Mumbai is presently the only Indian city housing an AWS region It will be operational by mid-2022, and is meant to protect data from disasters, Amazon Web Services said on Friday ■ 26 T’GANA’S STARTUP ECOSYSTEM CREDITED ■ Telangana was chosen due to its successful startup and enterprise ecosystem. Other factors like availability of talent, Hyderabad’s connectivity to other metros also played a role The new data hub will offer more startups and big companies access to better cloud infrastructure, the AWS said in a statement AVAILABILITY ZONES IN ASIA, INCLUDING IN AUSTRALIA, JAPAN AND CHINA 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 BIDEN BLITZKRIEG CONTINUES Races past Trump in Pennsylvania; recount set to be ordered in Georgia where he now has a narrow lead; also ahead in Nevada 264 JOE BIDEN 214 DONALD TRUMP Electoral college votes Electoral college votes 73,670,575 popular vote 69,732,717 popular vote 270 TO WIN EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE DEMOCRAT Joe Biden on Friday got within kissing distance of the White House as he overtook President Donald Trump in the vote count in the big battleground states of Pennsylvania and Georgia. The two states have 20 and 16 electoral college votes respectively and their vote tabulation is expected to end by Friday Bi. den needs just six to reach the halfway mark of 270. However, Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger indicated a recount. “With a margin that small, there will be a recount... “The final tally in Georgia at this point has huge implications for the entire country he ,” told CBS News. If Biden wins Georgia, he would be the first Democrat to flip it since Bill Clinton in 1992. Biden is also ahead in Nevada that has six electors, but its final vote tally is expected to take a few more days. A desperate Trump continued haranguing the tabulation of mail-in votes, since most of them are expected to be Democrat leaning. It is these postal Boarding calls to be made in Tamil first at airports soon votes that snuffed out his leads in Pennsylvania and Georgia. “They’re trying to rig an election, and we can’t let that happen,” he argued, but several media networks cut off telecast of his briefing at the White House midway as he charges were unsubstantiated. In contrast, Biden was measured and presidential in his response: “No one is going to take our democracy away from us. Not now, not ever.” Trump’s aides initiated legal challenges in several states, but judges in Georgia and Michigan threw them out, putting his campaign’s legal strategy — to attack the integrity of the voting process — in disarray . Trump also stood increasingly isolated even within his Republican party His sons Don . Jr and Eric articulated the frustration, accusing the party of being “weak”, adding “Our voters will never forget you if your [sic] sheep!” “The total lack of action from virtually all of the ‘2024 GOP [Republican] hopefuls’ is pretty amazing,” Don Jr tweeted, which was directed among others at former UN amP13 bassador Nikki Haley . CM VISIT Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami along with Municipal Administration Minister SP Velumani having a look at the stalls installed as part of a government exhibition at Tamizhagam Guest house in Ooty on Friday | EXPRESS President Donald Trump speaks at the White House on Thursday in Washington | AP Don losing steam in postal ballot count  JOE BIDEN  DONALD TRUMP IN PROGRESS While tabulation of mail-in votes in five states is still on, Trump is ahead only in North Carolina and Alaska, not enough for re-election GEORGIA 2,450,152  49.4% 2,448,565  49.4% Electoral votes: 16 Vote counted:99% PENNSYLVANIA 3,301,186  49.5% 3,292,153  49.4% Electoral votes: 20 Vote counted:98% NORTH CAROLINA 2,655,383  48.7% 2,732,084  50.1% Electoral votes: 15 Vote counted:94% 624,246  49.8% 602,170  48.1% Electoral votes: 6 Vote counted:84% NEVADA ALASKA 1,18,602  62.1% BJP defies Vel Yatra orders; Murugan arrested, let off The drama that was... EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Chennai SOON, all announcements on flights and at airports in the State will be made first in Tamil, said Minister K Pandiarajan. After meeting Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri in New Delhi, Pandiarajan said a circular has been sent to airline companies in this regard. According to a statement, the minister also expressed hope that the directive will be implemented before the Pongal festival. “I have met department secretaries and requested them to give classical Tamil the same status as Hindi. Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami has repeatedly urged the Centre in this regard and has written many letters.” The minister also sought speedy implementation of the Centre’s translation software project, which supports 16 Indian languages. “The Supreme Court had said that judgments must be translated and published in 16 languages within 24 hours.” He added, a 74,000 sq ft building would soon be readied for the Classical Tamil Research Institute, and Centre has approved 43 staff postings. 63,992  33.5% BJP State unit chief L Murugan with the Vel before commencing the Vetrivel Yatra, defying State government orders, on Friday | R SATISH BABU EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Chennai ON a day of high drama, the police thwarted BJP State unit chief, L Murugan, and other party leaders’ attempt to carry out Vetrivel Yatra from Tiruttani, defying government orders. They were taken into custody and let off after a few hours. Upon release, Murugan asserted that the Yatra would continue in other parts of the State and expressed disappointment over the government’s denial of permission for it. Among others taken into custody were BJP’s national general secretary CT Ravi, senior leader H Raja, former Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan, State vice-president K Annamalai, and former State president CP Radhakrishnan. Functionaries were taken into custody in other distrricts including Coimbatore, Erode, Salem, Madurai, Tirunelveli and Nagercoil. At 9 am on Friday Murugan, , clad in a saffron shirt and green dhoti, with plenty of vibhuti (holy ash) on his forehead and holding a Vel in his right hand, left for Tiruttani to launch the Vetrivel Yatra. Murugan and his team were stopped by the police at Nazarathpettai near Poonamallee, but allowed to continue after they claimed they were on their way to visit the temple. This had some of the cadre believe that the government had given permission. However, the police clarified that was not the case. At Tiruttani, Murugan spoke about the importance of the Yatra, and as soon as he tried to take out the procession, police took him into custody. Reiterating that the Yatra was aimed at exposing those against Tamil culture, he said, those behind the Karuppar Koottam YouTube channel have not yet been arrested The main agenda of the Yatra is to expose the DMK. All our efforts will aim at sending as many MLAs of the party to the Assembly. The BJP-led alliance will only form the next government in the State L Murugan, BJP ENVIRONMENTAL VIOLATIONS Kamarajar Port to pay `4 cr compensation S V K R I S H N A C H A I TA N YA @ Chennai THE southern bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Friday directed Kamarajar Port Limited (KPL) to pay `4 crore as environmental compensation for violations committed in the ecologically sensitive Ennore Creek. The bench, comprising Justice K Ramakrishnan and expert member Saibal Dasgupta, has asked the KPL to deposit the amount within two months with the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). KPL had filed a review application seeking modification to NGT’s order dated January 20, 2020, wherein an interim compensation of `8.35 crore was levied on it. The amount has now been revised. However, while disposing of the review application, the bench held KPL accountable for loss of mangroves due to illegal dumping of dredged ma- terials in the Coastal Regulation Zone area. It relied upon findings of the NGT-appointed joint committee, which used satellite images to establish that mangroves were destroyed. The joint committee also stated that very high concentration of elements such as magnesium, aluminium, iron, potassium, chromium, lead and calcium are present in the soil at all dump sites. Mgmt speak Kamarajar Port CMD Sunil Paliwal said, “We can’t be solely penalised when there are so many industries in the area. Whatever dredged material we had dumped was removed.” Electoral Votes: 3 Vote counted:50% Chief of Defence Staff rules out redrawing border line EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ New Delhi A larger conflict with China cannot be ruled out, Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Gen Bipin Rawat, the senior-most military officer in the country warned on Friday He said , . the situation along the border with China remains tense and China’s People’s Liberation Army is facing “unanticipated consequences” for its misadventure in eastern Ladakh thanks to India’s strong response. “In the overall security calculus, border confrontations, transgressions and unprovoked tactical military actions spiralling into a larger conflict cannot therefore be discounted,” he said, adding that the PLA is facing unanticipated consequences of its misadventure in Ladakh thanks to Indian forces’ firm and strong response. “Our posturing is unambiguous. We will not accept any shifting of the LAC,” he said.