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 ■ ■ MADURAI l saturday l january 30, 2021 l `7.00 l PAGES 16 l LATE CITY EDITION Drama at Singhu, Ghazipur peaceful ‘Local’ mob clashes with agitators demanding that they vacate the site; police summon 9 leaders E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ New Delhi A day after the police tried to evict farmers from Ghazipur, action on Friday shifted to the Singhu border — the nerve centre of the ongoing protests against the three farm laws — where a group of ‘locals’ clashed with agitators demanding that they vacate it. The Delhi Police and security personnel resorted to lathicharge and launched tear gas shells to control the situation as both sides resorted to stoning and the mob allegedly snatched batons from security forces to attack the protestors. The clashes began after more than 100 locals reached the site with placards and the Tricolour around 1.15 pm and shouted slogans like Jai Shri Ram, Goli Maaro Salon Ko, Desh Ke Ghaddaron ko, Khalisthan Khali Karo, Desh kaUpmaan, National Flag ka Upmaan nahi chalega and Khalistani Bhagao, Singhu Safayee Karo. They alleged damaged tents and other paraphernalia of farmers, which led to retaliation. In the melee, Delhi Police SHO (Alipur) Pradeep Paliwal was injured as a man allegedly attacked him with a sword. “These people carrying national flags who claimed to be local but were paid agents of agencies came with stones and lathis and asked us (farmers) to vacate the highway as we have been sitting , here on dharna for two months. After heated exchange of words, they attacked our tents, pelted stones on us and hit us with lathis,” said Harinder Singh Lalhowal, general secretary of BKU (Lakhowal). In contrast, the UP-Delhi bor- der at Ghazipur was peaceful, but the crowd swelled in the morning following an emotional appeal by Rakesh Tikait, national spokesperson of Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), after his emotional appeal a day earlier. Farmers in batches, small business owners, and social and political activists kept visiting the protest site in droves. From diminishing in size after the Republic Day violence, the numbers began to go up, with encampments now spread about 6 km on the Delhi-Meerut Expressway . Farmers in large numbers on their tractor-trailers from Punjab and Haryana are also moving back towards Singhu and Tikri borders. Earlier in the day, a mahapanchayat of farmers in Muzaffarnagar decided to throw weight behind the BKU. The GIC ground The new refinery, which will be a joint venture between Indian Oil Corporation and Chennai Petroleum Corporation Limited, is expected to be commissioned within 48 months with an annual refining capacity of 9 million metric tonnes | P5 POCSO not to punish teens in love, says HC HARISH MURALI @ Chennai OBSERVING that the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act was not intended to penalise adolescents or teenagers in romantic relationships, the Madras High Court on Friday called for swift amendments to be made to the Act. The issue pertains to a case booked against an auto driver, in his early twenties, under the Act, in 2018, for marrying a minor girl. The court made the observations while quashing criminal proceedings pending before a magistrate court after the girl’s family moved the High Court. The family had stated that the case had caused them mental agony and that they wanted to get the girl married. Justice Anand Venkatesh, in his order, pointed out that the victim had told the court that she was in a relationship with the accused. He added that several POCSO cases were being filed by families of adolescents and teenagers, who are involved in romantic relationships. The judge pointed out that the scheme of the POCSO Act clearly shows “....it did not intend to bring within its scope or ambit, cases of nature where adolescents or teenagers involved in romantic relationcontinued on: p5 ships are concerned.”  president defends new farm laws New Delhi: President Ram Nath Kovind on Friday defended the contentious farm laws in his address to Parliament and described the recent Republic Day violence as unfortunate. With the laws put in abeyance on the Supreme Court’s orders, Kovind said the government will abide by the verdict of the highest court of the nation. While he addressed a range of issues, including the tension on the China border, the biggest focus of his speech was on the agriculture sector | P9 J aya n ta R o y C h o w d h u r y @ New Delhi E XPR E SS N E WS S E RVIC E @ Chennai `31Kset up by ioc in nagai dist cr-refinery to be Police personnel pin down a farmer (top), who allegedly attacked police Station House Officer (Alipur) Pradeep Paliwal, during clashes between locals and farmers at the Singhu Border in Delhi on Friday; and a man hurls a stone at protesters at Singhu as policemen look on | PTI we don’t need lecture on respecting national flag from these people. Majority of farmers who are sitting here have their children fighting in the border for the country Yudhvir Singh, farmer leader Survey sees V-rebound, growth @ 11% TN clears `52,257-cr investment proposals, new industrial policy THE State Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on Friday cleared 34 major investment proposals with a total investment of `52,257 crore, and potential to create 93,935 jobs. Most of the investments are in sectors like electronics, automobile and auto components, including electric vehicles and solar cell manufacturing. The Cabinet also cleared the Tamil Nadu Industrial Policy, 2021 which will be unveiled by the CM soon. “The incentive packages have been customised to suit the requirement of each investor. In case of some of the investors, the government had already entered into facilitation MoU in order to enable them to do preliminary works. Now, with the Cabinet approval, a detailed and a legally binding MoU will be executed,” said an official release. These special initiatives of the government would lead to further industrial development and generation of more employment opportunities for the youth, particularly during the pandemic period, the release added. Meanwhile, in a related development, Chief Secretary K Shanmugam, who is heading the Special Investment Promotion Task Force, submitted a report on attracting investments from companies that migrated from other countries due to the pandemic. Some of the major investments that have been approved by the State Cabinet are — `5,763 crore-worth mobile phone components manufacturing unit by Tata Electronics in Krishnagiri district (18,250 jobs); `4,629 crore-worth investments by SunEdison to produce solar PV models (5,397 jobs); and `2,500 croreworth lithium ion batteries manufacturing plant by P4 Lucas TVS in Tiruvallur district (3,500 jobs). near Mahaveer Chowk, where the meeting took place, was jam packed. Hundreds of tractors with the Tricolour and flags of farm unions were parked along city roads, disrupting traffic movement. The mahapanchayat was called by BKU national president Naresh Tikait after the Ghazipur developments. Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief Ajit Singh has already announced his support to the BKU and his son Jayant Chaudhary met Tikait at Ghazipur. Meanwhile, the Delhi Police sent notices through WhatsApp messenger app to nine farmer leaders to join the investigation in connection with the violence at Red Fort on January 26. A police team also visited their tents where they pasted the notices, police officials said. Delhi Police after cordoning off the area outside the Israeli Embassy where the bomb exploded | Parveen Negi high alert after blast outside israeli embassy E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ New Delhi A low intensity blast occurred on the high-security posh Abdul Kalam Road near Israel Embassy on Friday evening at a time when the annual Beating Retreat ceremony was underway at Vijay Chowk near Rashtrapati Bhavan, sending security officials in a tizzy Presi. dent Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and the three Service Chiefs were attending the ceremony just a few km away from the location of the blast. While no injury or casualty was reported, three cars parked nearby on the opposite side of the carriageway suffered minor damages. Friday also happened to mark the 29th anniversary of India and Israel establishing full diplomatic relations back in 1992. While the officials in the security establishment said the blast was being investigated as an attempted ‘security attack’, Delhi Police called it a ‘mischievous’ attempt P10 to create a sensation.  India is likely to grow by 11% in the next financial year (FY22), the annual Economic Survey tabled by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Lok Sabha on Friday said, predicting a V-shaped recovery from the sharp 7.7% economic contraction in this pandemichit year. “With the economy’s returning to normalcy brought closer by the initiation of a mega vaccination drive, hopes of a robust recovery in services sector, consumption, and investment have been rekindled,” said the Survey. However, it cautioned it would take at least two years to get back to the prepandemic levels. The Survey, an annual exercise in economic stocktaking Dr Krishnamurthy Subramanian and future policy prescriptions, drew lessons from the pandemic to strongly recommend raising healthcare spending from 1% to 2.5-3% of GDP . It indicated that the government would overshoot its fiscal deficit target by a wide mark and may look at increased spending and stimulus measures in the year ahead to push growth. Former member of the PM’s Economic Advisory Council and Chief Economist with Brickwork ratings Dr M Govin- The key takeaways Women empowerment Rising from down under IT boom continues GDP to replicate V-shaped performance Norms relaxation enable IT-BPM of Indian cricket team in Australia to companies to ‘Work from Home’ scale historic heights after a poor start to post growth Bollywood’s Bare Necessity link Tinsel town’s rhetoric on ‘Roti, Kapda Aur Makan’ (Food, clothing and housing) mirrors socio-economic issues of country Saved 1 lakh lives Strong lockdown measures helped restrict cases by 37 lakh, save 1 lakh lives More teeth to redress system Current ombudsman set up is only advisory in nature, rendering it ineffective da Rao said: “Relaxation in fiscal deficit targets may be necessary, and the government may have to revise the target upwards for the current year in view of the need to augment capital expenditures.” While analysts at Barclays say the fiscal deficit has widened to 7.7% of GDP, Darren Aw, Asia Economist at Capital Economics, calculated it at 8%. This is against a target of 3.5% set in this year’s Budget. Chief Economic Advisor Dr K Subramanian said: “Reforms must go on to enable India to realise its potential growth and erase the adverse impact of the pandemic.” Analysts predict a spate of state-run enterprise privatisations and asset sales in the budget to help fund infrastructure spending the government is likely to have planned. P12 Power point India’s Transmission & Distribution losses are over 20 Per cent of generation, twice the world average Promote non-discriminatory practices like pay and career progression to increase female participation rate Agriculture as modern biz Bats for urgent reforms to transform farming into modern business enterprise Upskilling children Vocational courses for skill development of students from classes 9 to 12 Online education a great leveler Online schooling can reduce inequalities in educational outcomes if well-utilised Focus on R&D, Jugaad can take you only so far B i s m a h M a l i k @ Bengaluru The Indian industry’s growth under trying circumstances has often been attributed to the spirit of jugaad (makeshift solutions). The Economic Survey for the first time war ned against its limitations, saying mere-reliance on Jugaad innovation by the private sector instead of adequate spending on Research and Development (R&D) could result in India missing crucial opportunities. On the brighter side, India improved its ranking on the Global Innovation Index (GII), and is now at the 48th position. When it came to competing with the top 10 global economies, India lags behind on the basis of the seven pillars of GII, including knowledge and technology outputs (KTO-27th rank), market sophistication (31st), business sophistication (55th), human capital and research (HCR-60th), institutions (61st), creative output (64th) and infrastructure (75th). “India must significantly ramp up investment in R&D if it is to achieve its aspiration to emerge as the third largest economy the Survey said. ,”