time BHUBANESWAR l friday l december 04, 2020 l `7.00 l PAGES 12 l LATE CITY EDITION 15-year-old Indian American named TIME’s ‘Kid of The Year’ Gitanjali Rao is an inventor, author, and a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) promoter Using tech to tackle everyday problems The latest issue of Time Magazine features Gitanjali’s interview by actor Angelina Jolie, in which she talks about how she uses technology to tackle issues ranging from contaminated drinking water to opioid addiction and cyberbullying. In 2017, Gitanjali, then just 12, had won the top prize in the Young Scientist Challenge for her device that finds lead in drinking water ■ 5,000 Barometer for rising young leaders ■ ■ For the past 92 years, TIME has named a Person of the Year In 2019, climate activist Greta Thunberg, then 16 years old, became the first individual under age 25 to receive the title This year, TIME decided to recognise its first ever Kid of the Year, a barometer for the rising leaders of America’s youngest generation Nominees were in the race for time magazine’s ‘kid of the year’ title 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 crisis simmers 7-hour marathon talks fail to cut ice with farmers Next meet tomorrow; make MSP legally binding, say agitators even as govt expresses willingness to address concerns; award wapsi begins E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ New Delhi / Chandigarh The fourth round of talks between agitating farmers and the Centre that stretched for about seven hours on Thursday remained inconclusive, but the government expressed willingness to address some of the concerns raised by far mer unions. The next round of talks will be held on Saturday . Both sides agreed that little progress has been made in the talks. Sources said Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar assured the farmers on the minimum support price (MSP), saying it will not be touched. “No changes will be made to it,” sources quoted the minister as saying. “Initially, we felt the deadlock will persist but slowly due to pressure from our side, the government started listening to us and then the talks went on in a conducive atmosphere. In the next meeting, we will put pressure on the government and ask them to take back the laws. It will be finalised in the Saturday’s meeting,” Harjinder Singh Tanda of Azaad Kisan Sangharsh Committee said. However, the farm leaders were firm on their demand that the three new farm laws be repealed. During the meeting, the farmers gave a presentation about their concerns A sticking problem in the new law in Uttar Pradesh on interfaith marriages came to the fore on Wednesday as one such ceremony in the outskirts of Lucknow was stopped by the police though the wedding was consensual — not just of the couple but their families too. E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Bhubaneswar Days after his expulsion from the BJD over links with the tainted IFS officer Abhay Kant Pathak and his son Akash, the State Crime Branch (CB) arrested the three time MLA and former minister Pradeep Kumar Panigrahy in connection with the recruitment scam. He is stated to have collected money on behalf of Akash, who allegedly ran the fraudulent recruitment drive and conned many youths by impersonating as in-charge Managing Director of Tata Motors MINOR MURDER Farmers delegation coming out after a meeting with Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi on Thursday | Shekhar Yadav following which deliberations were held on each point. “The government is considering giving written assurance on the MSP,” the sources said. “In the meeting we put forward 35 objections before the government and urged the government to make a law that guarantees MSP. The government indicated some amendments could be made but we were firm nothing less than the withdrawal of the three laws is acceptable,” said Bhartiya Kisan Union’s Punjab (Rajewal Group) president Balbir Singh Rajewal and Haryana Bhartiya Kisan Union president Gurnam Singh Chaduni. D i s c u s s i o n s r evo l ve d around some key points in the three new farm laws. They include grievance redressal mechanism, putting an end to the Agricultural Produce Market Committee and trade mechanism outside the mandis. “Discussions were held in a cordial atmosphere. The gover nment has no ego. Farmers are concerned that the new laws will end APMCs and trade outside the mandis,” Tomar said after the meeting. Meanwhile, former Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal and former Union minister Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa returned their Padma awards in protest against the farm laws.  continued on: P7 Consensual interfaith marriage stopped in U.P. N am i ta B a j pa i @ Lucknow Crime Branch arrests expelled BJD MLA Raina Gupta, 22, was to wed Mohammad Asif, 24. While Raina is a Chemistry postgraduate, Asif is a diploma holder in pharmacy The wed. ding was being solemnised with the consent of both the families, additional deputy commissioner of police, South Zone, Suresh Chandra Rawat, agreed. While the new law mandates applying for permission a month in advance, the couple didn’t. The local Hindu Mahasabha unit raked up the issue, but the police decided against booking them as the couple agreed to comply with the law, Rawat said. It is a case of following the law in letter but not in its spirit. HC gives govt 13 days to file report E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Cuttack THE Orissa High Court on Thursday set a 13-day deadline for the State government to submit a status report on the progress of investigation into the murder of a five-yearold girl in Nayagarh district four months back. The division bench of Chief Justice Mohammad Rafiq and Justice Biswanath Rath also directed the police to provide protection to the girl’s parents. The State government will have to submit the report by December 16, the next date of hearing on the PIL filed by a lawyer Padmalaya Mohapatra alleging police inaction in the killing of the girl child even after four months have passed since the incident.  Contiuned on: P5  RBI bars HDFC Bank from issuing new credit cards s E S A S E N @ New Delhi Taking a grim view of frequent outages reported in HDFC Bank’s online services, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has directed the private lender to stop issuing new credit cards and put all its planned digital launches on hold till further orders. The Mumbai-headquartered bank, India’s largest privatesector lender with a market cap of `8 lakh crore, has also been asked to examine such lapses at the board level and strengthen its IT infrastructure to restore customer faith in digital banking channels. 1.5 crore credit cards RBI’s move will hurt HDFC Bank as it is the highest issuer of credit cards in India with 1.5 crore cards in force as of September. Digital operations are critical to the bank as 90% of the transactions come from digital channels be any impact on existing operations, including credit cards and digital banking. “We assure our customers there is no reason to worry. You can continue to transact with the bank without any concern,” Sashidhar Jagdishan, the newly-appointed MD and CEO of HDFC Bank, said in a letter to customers. The trigger for the RBI action was the major disruption on November 21 due to power failure in the primary data centre, the third such instance in the past two years. ` Disclosing the RBI order, dated December 2, to exchanges on Thursday, HDFC Bank clarified that the restrictions are limited to new digital launches and that there won’t The bank had faced a similar outage on its mobile app in 2018 and again in December 2019 owing to “increasing payday transactional activities”. An RBI team examined the case and asked the bank to bolster its IT infrastructure to keep pace with the explosive growth in digital banking. Technical glitches aren’t limited to HDFC Bank. Hours after RBI cracked the whip on the Mumbai-headquartered bank, State Bank of India’s YONO app, too, faced a system outage, forcing SBI to issue an advisory to customers to use internet banking instead.  Contiuned on: P10  passenger car division. Panigrahy was picked up from his Bhubaneswar residence by the CB officials on Thursday evening and taken to an undisclosed location for questioning. He was then arrested. Panigrahy was produced before the SDJM Court which rejected his bail and remanded him in 14day judicial custody . The Crime Branch, in a press note, said he was arrested in connection with the cyber police station case number 26/2020. The case relates to impersonation, cheating, forgery criminal con, spiracy and other cyber offences committed by Akash. There is sufficient prime facie evidence of Panigrahy’s involvement in the crime, CB sources said and added he has been booked under different sections of IPC and IT Act 2000. T M u r u g anan d h am , S K u ma r e s an @ Chennai “IF not now, then never.” The tweet sent out at 12.16 pm on Thursday set the social media and political circles in Tamil Nadu on fire. It had come from the official handle of actor Rajinikanth, who had been waiting for the “right time” for over three years now, ever since he announced his decision to enter electoral politics. A for mal announcement would be made on December 31, and the party would be launched in January the actor , said. Soon after the tweets were sent out, Rajinikanth has appointed the former president of BJP State unit’s intellectual wing, Ra Arjunamurthy as the , chief coordinator of his party . Thamizharuvi Manian of Gandhiya Makkal Iyakkam, he said, would supervise the works for launching the party . The sudden announcement has surprised several members of the Rajini Makkal Mandram. Even during the November 29 meeting with senior office-bearers of the Mandram, the actor gave no indication about launching the party, a few members who attended the @ New Delhi When children retur n to school after the pandemic-induced long break, they will not only carry a lighter bag but also go without it for one-third of the academic year. For, the Centre recently instructed states to provide for at least 10 “bagless” days for chil- Tapas ranjan try asked the states to follow the instructions in their letter and spirit. The letter sent to school education secretaries in all the states also said that from first to tenth grade, the weight of the school bag should not exceed 10% of the student’s weight and students in pre-primary classes should not be made to carry bags to schools. It also specified that first and The SIT of Odisha Vigilance on Thursday detected cash deposits of another `1.28 crore in the bank accounts of Akash Pathak | P4 rupees in their bank account, Sujata said that the money was for their daughter’s marriage that was to take place on December 11. The BJD had expelled Panigrahy after sensational details about the Pathaks and his close relationship with them came to the fore. The Pathak father and son have both been arrested and in jail. While father Abhay Kant has been booked for possessing disproportionate assets, Akash is charged with the recruitment con job. meeting confirmed to Express. In fact, a few office-bearers had even threatened to commit suicide if Rajinikanth fails to launch the party . “Mathuvom — ellaththaiyum maathuvom — ippo illenna eppavumae illai,” he tweeted on Thursday, which loosely translates to, “It’s time for change. If not now, then never will it happen.” He also said: “If I succeed (in my political venture) it would be the success of the people, and if I fail, it would be the defeat of the people... With the massive support of people, Tamil Nadu will witness the emergence of spiritual politics, characterised by virtues such as honesty transparency incorruptibil, , ity. Politics that is bereft of caste and communal leanings.” Within an hour of sending out the tweets, the actor met the media at his Poes Garden residence. He clarified that he had taken some time to launch the party due to the prevailing Covid situation, and that he would not go back on the promise that he had made to the people of Tamil Nadu — to bring Continued on: P5 change.  Party’s office bearers are... Former president of BJP State unit’s intellectual wing, Ra Arjunamurthy, appointed as the chief coordinator of Rajini’s party. Thamizharuvi Manian of Gandhiya Makkal Iyakkam would supervise the launching works If I succeed (in my political venture) it would be the success of the people, and if I fail, it would be the defeat of the people... - Rajinikanth Tectonic shift in Tamil Nadu politics R ajinikanth’s announcement to enter the fray in the 2021 Tamil Nadu Assembly elections is an event that has the potential to transform Tamil Nadu’s political landscape. He could not have timed the entry better. Different factors make his entry an extraordinary development that can unsettle all parties and their calculations. The absence of towering leaders Karunanidhi and Jayalalithaa, who dominated Tamil Nadu politics till a few Bagless days coming for school students across the country dren in classes 1-12 each month and introduce vocational training for students in classes 6-12, in line with the provisions of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. Vocational training could include engagement with local professionals and artisans, such as agriculturists, horticulturists, carpenters and potters. The Union education minis- `1.28 crore more found in Akash’s accounts Now or never, says Rajini; to launch party in January National education policy E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e The MLA’s wife Sujata Panigrahi, however, termed the police action as a deep rooted conspiracy to defame and harass her husband. She alleged, some people identifying themselves as sleuths from the Crime Branch came in four vehicles to their official residence and took him away They did not produce . any notice or warrant. “We said if any questioning is to be done, we are ready to cooperate and reply to everything. When I wanted to accompany my husband, they asked me to follow them in my own vehicle to Economic Offences Wing office, but I stood in front of the office and there was no sign of my husband. If anything happens to him, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik will be responsible,” she said. Clarifying about the crores of second grade students will have to keep the same notebook for classroom tasks while two notebooks have been fixed for third to fifth grade students. It will be mandatory for every school to install a digital machine to check the weight of the bag, the letter said, adding that school bags should be lightweight and hanging on both shoulders. years ago, marked a quality is not interested in power, shift of elections from person- which is unusual in politics toality clashes into interday. His exposition on party battles. Rajini’s spiritual politics fits advent reverses this him perfectly to oppose trend as his personality the anti-God and antitowers over all others, Hindu DMK, of which thus re-introducing the he is likely to emerge as personality factor in the principal politics, with no one challenger. S GURUMURTHY matching his stature to The stunning recepThe author is a commentator on political tion that Rajini’s ancounter him. and economic affairs Rajini is not just a nouncement got is a mega star. He is seen as manifestation of the a genuine and clean person longing of the people of Tamil who wants to do good to the Nadu for an alternative to both people of Tamil Nadu. Also, he the DMK and the AIADMK. P5 express read Matric, +2 exams to be delayed by two months Covid in focus, malaria cases soar in Odisha Bhubaneswar: The matriculation and Plus II examinations in Odisha are likely to be delayed by at least two months due to the late commencement of 2020-21 academic session | P3 Bhubaneswar: As all attention centered on Covid-19 management, prevention and control of malaria seems to have taken a back seat in Odisha. significantly | P2 Border row: Odisha, AP agree to status quo Jeypore: Putting the month-long border dispute to rest for the time being, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh on Thursday agreed to maintain status quo along the inter-State boundary after a meeting by senior administrative officers of Koraput and Visakhapatnam in the bordering village of Sunabeda | P4