NATIONWIDE APR 18 APR 19 JAB-O-METER KARNATAKA APR 18 APR 19 15,12,703 doses Fresh cases Recoveries Deaths Fresh cases Recoveries Deaths BENGALURU  WEDNESDAY  APRIL 20, 2022  `9.00  PAGES 18  LATE CITY EDITION LOANS TO GET COSTLIER AS BANKS HIKE LENDING RATES SBI RAISES MCLR BY 0.1%, OTHERS BY 0.05% The State Bank of India has revised its MCLR by 0.1% across tenors. Other lenders like the Bank of Baroda (BoB), Axis Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank have hiked their MCLR by 0.05% each. SBI’s new MCLR for one-year tenure stands at 7.1% while that of BoB is 7.35%. The revised rate for both Axis Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank is 7.4% | P12 EMIs set to go up for borrowers as major lenders have revised their marginal cost of funds based lending rate (MCLR) MORE BANKS LIKELY TO FOLLOW SUIT ■ ■ ■ MCLR is the lowest interest rate at which banks can lend money Following an RBI directive in 2019, floating-rate retail loans must be linked to an external benchmark and not MCLR The latest lending rate hike by large lenders, which comes after a gap of three years, is likely to be followed by others 2,183 1,985 214 53 44 0 TAKE YOUR SHOT 1,247 928 1 April 18 April 19 62 15,53,966 doses 48 TOTAL DOSES 0 1,86,88,85,779 53% SHARE OF ALL OUTSTANDING BANK LOANS LINKED TO MCLR 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 3 wise netas to take PK call Quran will be part of moral education: Min While Digvijaya, Antony were lukewarm on ’24 strategy paper, Jairam was upbeat S H A H I D F A R I D I @ New Delhi CONGRESS president Sonia Gandhi has formed a three-member committee comprising party veterans A K Antony, Ambika Soni and Mallikarjun Kharge to examine election strategist Prashant Kishor’s strategy paper for contesting the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The committee has been asked to submit its report in a week. Kishor had made a three-hour presentation at Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s residence on April 16. It was attended by former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, and senior leaders A K Antony, Ambika Soni, Mallikarjun Kharge, Digvijaya Singh, Mukul Wasnik, K C Venugopal, Jairam Ramesh and Ajay Maken, besides the Congress president. In the presentation, Kishor outlined the mistakes the party has been making and presented an alternative plan that could help the party succeed at the hustings. Among his suggestions was to focus party resources on winnable seats, which he said were only 370 out of Lok Sabha’s total strength of 543. U.P. SHOCKER SC boy forced to lick feet of upper caste man N A M I TA BA J PA I @ Lucknow IN a shocking incident, a Class 10 student belonging to the Scheduled Caste category was assaulted and forced to lick the feet of an upper caste person in Rae Bareli district of central UP recently . The crime had taken place on April 10 but it came to light when a video of the assault went viral on social media. Seven persons, including a minor, were arrested following the student’s complaint. In the video, the teenager is seen being forced to sit on the ground with hands on his ears while the perpetrators were on their motorcycles. One of the men asks the boy to spell out ‘Thakur’ while insulting him with a caste slur. The accused persons are heard threatening the victim, trembling with fear, not to repeat his ‘mistake’ again. They are also seen accusing the victim of selling cannabis. According to police officials, the main accused is a minor, who was sent to juvenile correction home. Local sources said the student lives with his widowed mother. The incident happened when the boy had gone to collect the wages of his mother, who works in some of the accused persons’ fields. This enraged the attackers, who grabbed the boy assault, ed and abused him. EXPRESS READ Hubballi clashes : 88 shifted to K’buragi jail Hubballi: The Hubballi police on Tuesday detained 10 more people in connection with the incident of stone-throwing at the Old Hubballli police station. The police shifted 88 arrested in the case from the Hubballi to Kalaburagi prison | P4 PM Modi to kick off 3-day ‘Semicon India’ Bengaluru: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate a three-day “Semicon India 2022” conference in Bengaluru on April 29. Sources said it is yet to be confirmed if Modi will be in Bengaluru for the event or inaugurate it virtually | P4 A K Antony, Mallikarjun Kharge, Ambika Soni Kharge puts Kishor in a spot Kishor faced an awkward moment when he referred to media reports about his appointment as Congress general secretary, and said he is not hankering after any party position. Kharge cut him off and said, “PK, didn’t you come to me asking me to recommend you to be made Congress vice-president?” He said Congress is a great product which lacks proper marketing. He was particularly critical of the party’s media strategy He brushed aside . the rising communal polarisation as an insignificant issue and said it could be countered by galvanising and empowering workers at the booth level. He said the party should fight on its own in Uttar Pradesh and Bi- har, and enter into alliance in states like Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, West Bengal and Maharashtra. After the presentation, Sonia asked the leaders about their opinion on the presentation. Sources said Digvijaya Singh and A K Antony did not appear very impressed by the proposal. Singh said this is exactly what the party had said after its last two chintan shivirs at Pachmarhi and Shimla. Antony said most of the points mentioned in the proposal were similar to those he had mentioned in his report after the party’s loss in 2014. The response of others was muted. But Jairam Ramesh was full of praise for the ideas presented by Kishor and said they were worth trying. After the meeting, Congress leaders said it was now certain that Kishor would join the party He may . , however, not get the number two slot in the party. Going by what Kharge said during the meeting and what key party functionaries feel, Kishor had been bargaining for a post next only to the Congress president. He is reportedly keen on reporting only to the Congress president. CONTINUED ON: P10 Security breach as Pak spook found in Army officers’ social media group M AYA N K S I N G H @ New Delhi INTELLIGENCE agencies, including Military Intelligence, have detected a cyber security breach as a phone number of foreign origin was shockingly found as part of a social media group that had serving Indian Army officers. “A Pakistan intelligence operative’s number has been found in a WhatsApp group that included our serving personnel,” a source confirmed, adding an inquiry is on to ascertain the extent of the breach. That Chinese and Pakistan intelligence agencies have been trying hard to penetrate Indian social media groups is well known. This paper had reported earlier that the Army has instructed all officers to stay off any social media groups formed by civilians or people whose identity cannot be verified. The instruction issued by the Directorate General of Military Operations said, “No Army personnel is permitted to be part of any large group(s) on internet-based messenger, chat, email services. Only one-to-one messages are permitted. However, within a close-knit group wherein members or subscribers are ‘only serving personnel’ known to each other and whose credentials can be ascertained, it is allowed.” S H I L PA P @ Bengaluru JUMBO JOY In one of the rarest incidents, a female elephant gave birth to twin calves at Bandipur Tiger Reserve four days ago | EXPRESS | REPORT: P5 Minister, Swamiji fight over ‘30% cut’ E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Bengaluru/ Gadag ALLEGATIONS and counter-allegations between a religious head and a minister are exposing what appear to be cracks between mutts and the BJP-led state government over the issue of corruption which the opposition Congress has already taken up to increase the heat on the ruling dispensation ahead of the polls. PWD Minister CC Patil on Tuesday took on Shirahatti Jagadguru Dingaleshwara Swamiji, who is the Veerashaiva-Lingayat religious head of Balehosuru Mutt Peetha in Gadag district, over the latter’s allegation that the state government charges “30 per cent commission” for grants to the mutts. Patil said the seer had three criminal cases against him and questioned the P4 latter’s integrity as a religious head. MORAL science will be part of the curriculum in schools from this academic year, and it will not be restricted to one particular religion. The essence of all religions, including from Panchatantra, Ramayana, Mahabharatha, Bhagavad Gita, Quran and others, will be part of moral studies. A committee will decide the curriculum and there will be no exams for the subject, said Primary and Secondary Education Minister BC Nagesh said here on Tuesday . “Though there is no demand from madrasas or the minority community parents have asked , us to provide regular education to madrasa students, like in other schools, so that they can compete with other children, take professional courses and competitive exams,” he said. Preparatory classes, Kalika SECOND PU EXAMS START ON APRIL 22 Bengaluru: The Pre-University Board will hold the second PUC exams from April 22 to May 18. As many as 6,84,255 students including 6,00,519 regular students will write the exam, said minister BC Nagesh | P2 Chetharike that will focus on teaching students through song and dance, will begin on May 16 to improve the quality of learning among children which dropped during the pandemic. Regular classes will begin on June 1 and students will have less homework as per NEP, Nagesh added. Model schools will be set up by merging multiple schools in a village or village panchayat to improve the quality of education. There are 2,300 such schools in the state and some of them have already started functioning in Ramanagar district, he said. On providing stitched uniforms to government school students, he said the karnataka High Court has directed the government to give at least the second set stitched. After calling for tenders, the price has reduced to `182 per uniform, the minister said. NO RELIGIOUS ATTIRE ALLOWED: NAGESH Bengaluru: Primary and Secondary Education Minister BC Nagesh said that religious attire is banned inside PU II exam centres. Teachers who insist on wearing hijabs will be relieved from exam duty, he said | P2