Massing of Russian troops around Ukraine WAR CLOUDS gather russia UK pulling out embassy staff from Ukraine, US directs relatives of mission staffers to leave NATO rushes additional ships and fighter jets to eastern Europe Kyiv Luhansk ukraine Ireland says it won't allow Russia's upcoming war games off its coast Donetsk Newly arrived units ■ Crimea* * Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 sambalpur l tuesday l january 25, 2022 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION Troops 6,000 4,000 1,000 Russia, however, maintains it has no intention to invade Ukraine P9 CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI Just 9.4% seats to Yadavs in SP’s first list for UP are Yadavs. However, the party treaded cautiously in signalUnder attack from the ruling ling the minority vote bank and BJP for distributing party tick- drawing Dalits by giving both ets ‘under the table’ but not Muslims and SCs a respectable making the names public, the chunk of 31 (19.5%) and 29 Samajwadi Party on Monday (18.23%) seats, respectively Be. released a list of 159 candidates sides, nine Brahmins and Banifor the first three phases of yas each as also seven Thakurs polls in Uttar Pradesh on Feb- have been fielded. ruary 10, 14 and 20. One name that stands out in As expected, party chief the list is of Umar Ali, the sonAkhilesh Yadav is the in-law of Maulana NDA’s first candidate from Karhal Ahmed Bukhari, the Muslim in Mainpuri district. Shahi Imam of Jama nominee While sitting MLA NaMasjid in Delhi. Umar hid Hasan has been rewill contest from BeApna Dal’s nominated from Kai- Haider Ali Khan hat on the SP ticket. rana, the SP’s Rampur (32) became the The other big name is MP Azam Khan has Shivpal Yadav, uncle first Muslim been fielded from his candidate fielded of Akhilesh and chief pocket borough of by the NDA in the of Pragatisheel SamaRampur. Both Hasan UP polls. He hails jwadi Party-Lohia. and Azam Khan are in from the Rampur Shivpal will contest different jails. royal family that from his traditional The par ty ag ain seat and Yadav family is a with the fielded Azam Khan’s Congress. He got bastion Jaswantnagar son Abdullah Azam a Congress ticket in Etawah district on from Suar in Rampur. but defected to the SP symbol. Abdullah’s election The party has acApna Dal | P8 was declared null and commodated 18 turnvoid by the Allahabad coats — 7 from BJP, 9 High Court in the previous As- from BSP and 2 from Congress. sembly (2017) on charges of BJP defector Dharam Singh forging age documents. Saini has been fielded from NaHaving woven a bouquet of kur though the import from alliances with smaller OBC Congress, Imran Masood, badly outfits for the first time to woo wanted it. They have since the non-Yadav OBCs, the SP patched up. Another BJP defecwalked the talk by giving them tor Swami Prasad Maurya 48 seats (30%). Interestingly, failed to get a seat for his son just 15 (9.43%) in the list of 159 Utkrisht from Unchahar. N a m i ta B a j pa i @ Lucknow Black Monday wipes out `9 lakh cr investor wealth RA M SA H GA L @ Mumbai Investors in Indian stockmarkets lost a whopping `9.07 lakh crore on Monday as key indices fell for the fifth straight day in tandem with the meltdown in global shares. The Sensex slipped 1545.67 points or 2.6% to end at 57491.51 points on Monday, while the broader Nifty shed 468 points to close at 17149.10, led by foreign institutional investors selling `3,752 crore worth of shares Young achievers Bal Puraskar awardees from south Telukunta Virat Chandra Banita Dash Mountaineer Young scientist Aswatha Biju Remona Evette Pereira Palaeontologist Deviprasad Syed Fateen Ahmed Mridangam exponent Pianist Gurugu Himapriya Bravery Ace dancer Vishalini N C Page 7 Young patent holder and domestic investors buying just `75 crore of shares. Some buying at the lows helped the Sensex to close 507 points above the day’s low while the Nifty closed 151 points above its intraday low. Such was the ferocity of the fall that all of the Sensex’s 30 constituents ended in the red and just two of the Nifty 50 shares closed in the green. The FIIs have sold shares worth `12,543 crore in the calendar year to date and `42,534 62000 61000 61308.91 60754.86 60098.82 59464.62 59037.18 60000 59000 Crash course sensex 58000 57000 57491.51 56000 55000 17 Jan 18 Jan 19 Jan 20 Jan 21 Jan 24 Jan crore in the fiscal year so far. Relentless selling by foreign portfolio investors amid a rise in global inflationary expectations and fears of a rate hike by the US Fed is behind the 1200plus fall in the Nifty since January 17. The combined loss of investors over the past five days is a massive `19.5 lakh crore. Global markets are likely to remain choppy this week in view of rising geopolitical tensions between Russia and USled Nato over Ukraine. HC dismisses PILs challenging amendments to Varsities Act E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Cuttack The Orissa High Court on Monday dismissed three PILs challenging the validity of Orissa Universities (Amendment) Act, 2020, which brought all varsities in the State under one law. The petitions alleged that the amendments to the Act notified on November 9, 2020 violated the regulations of the University Grants Commission (UGC). The amendments encroached upon the autonomy of the universities as recruitment of teaching staff like professors, associate professors and assistant professors would be done now by the Odisha Public Service Commission, the petitions alleged. The petitions were filed by professor of Utkal University Kunja Bihari Panda, retired professor of Jawaharlal Nehru University Ajit Kumar Mohanty and Biswabasu Dash representing the All India Save Education Committee. While dismissing the petitions, a division bench of Chief Justice S Muralidhar and Justice AK Mohapatra said the UGC Regulations, 2018 are not binding on the State government and they can at best be directory as far as the Odisha S t at e u n ive r s i t i e s a re concerned”. The bench said the contention of the State government that amendment to the OU Act does not dilute the minimum standards set out in the UGC Regulations, 2018 for the appointment of a VC, merits acceptance. The change brought about is that the number of academicians in the committee has been reduced from three to two and the third is a retired bureaucrat. However, the decision of the committee has been mandated to be unanimous, the bench observed. It further observed, “This Court is accordingly inclined to accept the submission of the State government in the present case that while the UGC Regulation 2018 lays down the minimum qualifications for the teaching posts, the service conditions and the method/process of selection cannot be said to be covered thereunder.” CONTINUED ON: P5 express read Tata Sons likely to takeover AI on Jan 27 New Delhi: Tata Sons is expected to take operational ownership of national carrier Air India this week, officials aware of the development said. This comes more than three months after the Tatas had emerged as the winning bidder of the airline. According to Air India officials, the airline will share its balance sheet with the Tata Group on Monday (Jan 24) for its review, which is expected to be concluded by Wednesday | P10 Acute Covid may end in 2022: WHO GENEVA: Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO’s directorgeneral, warned that conditions remain ideal for more Covid variants to emerge and said it’s dangerous to assume that Omicron is the last one or that “we are in the endgame,” while saying the acute phase of the pandemic could still end this year—if some key targets are met | P12 NATIONWIDE Jan 23 Jan 24 Fresh cases Recoveries Deaths odisha 3,33,533 3,06,064 2,59,168 2,43,495 525 439 jan 23 jan 24 Jab-o-meter Take your shot January 23 27,56,364 doses January 24 Fresh cases 8,520 7,291 49,52,290 doses Recoveries 10,841 10,309 Total doses Deaths 06 05 1,62,77,06,092