visakhapatnam l Tuesday l august 09, 2022 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l late city EDITION India to restrict entry-level Chinese smartphones: Report Chinese makers could be barred from selling phones cheaper than `12,000 in the Indian market, according to Bloomberg representative picture Move to help domestic brands Body blow to Xiaomi, others The proposed move is aimed at helping homegrown brands such as Lava and MicroMax and pushing Chinese giants out of the lower segment of the world’s second-biggest mobile market, the news agency reported. The development comes amid India’s tough stand against Chinese manufacturers and recent raids on OPPO, Vivo and Xiaomi ■ ■ Exclusion from India’s entry-level market would hurt brands like Xiaomi that rely heavily on India to drive growth Industry estimates say smartphones under `12,000 contributed to a third of India’s sales volume for the quarter through June, with Chinese brands accounting for 80% of those shipments 50% Estimated share of Xiaomi and realme in the sub `12k segment 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 Anti-Big Bang theory scientists face censorship by int’l journals BALA CHAUHA N @ Bengaluru Scientists from across the globe, including India, who are refuting the Big Bang theory on cosmology are facing resistance and censorship from journals and archives of international repute where they get their research papers published for peer review. The Big Bang theory holds that the universe was born out of a highly compressed, dense and microscopic point (called singularity), which exploded with a huge force some 13.8 billion years ago, resulting in everything arising from that singularity moving outwards in all directions. From this, all cosmic matter (as we know it today) was formed at different stages through time until now. Twenty-four astronomers and physicists from 10 countries including reputed astrophysicist Jayant V Narlikar of Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Prof Sisir Roy of National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS) and Prof Amitabha What’s the Big-bang theory? According to a NASA explainer, the Big Bang theory indicates how the universe began — as just a single point, then expanded and stretched to grow as large as it is right now. It is still believed to be stretching Electricity (Amend) bill introduced in LS, sent to panel amid Oppn’s rage Monsoon session ends four days ahead of schedule R a ke s h K u m a r @New Delhi The controversial Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2022, which is expected to escalate Centre-state confrontation, was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Monday and later sent to the Standing Committee on Energy for vetting. The bill mandates state electricity regulatory commissions (SERCs) to specify regulations to progressively reduce cross-subsidy, which is subsidising one set of customers at the cost of others. It requires SERCs to adhere to the National Electricity Tariff Policy while determining cross-subsidy . Subsidies will not be accounted for while fixing tariff; subsidies will be provided directly to consumers. The bill allows multiple distribution licences within the same area of supply No applicant who fulfils all the con. ditions can be refused a licence. It also provides for graded revision in tariff over a year besides mandatory fixing of maximum and minimum tariff by the appropriate commission. Introducing the Bill, Union power minister R K Singh called it “pro-people and for the growth of our economy” that would allow consumers to choose from multiple electricity distributors. But experts feel otherwise. According to the All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF), it would intrude into the powers and functions of the state governments, abolish subsidies and cross-subsidies and harm farmers and consumers alike. “It seeks to centralise almost all functions of the DISCOMS as well as SERCs, thereby changing the entire character of the electricity supply industry and existing legislation as well as the federal structure,” said Shailendra Dubey, chairman of AIPEF. He also said the area of licence has not been clearly defined. “This would lead to cherry-picking and eventually in privatising profits and nationalising losses.” Former Power Secretary Subash Chandra Garg told this newspaper the sector can be reformed only when state distribution utilities are dismantled, private entities take over business like in Delhi and states support farmers and other vulnerable sections by providing direct benefit transfers. “Unfortunately, this bill has none of these provisions.” E x p r e ss N e ws Se r v i c e @ New Delhi Privatisation of profit? It envisages allowing multiple private companies to provide electricity in the same area, a provision that could lead to privatisation of profits and nationalisation of losses - Manish Tewari, Cong It’s contrary to the assurances given by the govt to the SKM during their protest. It had that that point agreed to shelve amendments to the Electricity Act Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Cong The proposed amendments are dangerous... They will only benefit a few power distribution companies Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi CM Electricity is on the concurrent list. It is the bounden duty of the Centre to have effective consultations with state governments before introducing the bill - N K Premachandran, RSP Farmers will continue to get free power. There will be no rollback of subsidy - R K Singh, power minister MONSOON session of Parliament ended four days ahead of schedule on Monday as both Houses were adjourned sine die. According to the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, the session was supposed end on August 12 but was curtailed due to completion of essential government business and in view of two public holidays ahead -Muharram on August 9 and Raksha Bandhan on August 11. However, the Opposition accused the government of running away from discussing bills and other important issues. The session witnessed repeated disruptions with the Opposition members aggressively raising the issues of inflation and the ED action, while the BJP vociferously protested Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury’s Rashtrapatni remark. A record number of Opposition 27 MPs were suspended — 23 from Rajya Sabha and 4 from Lok Sabha — for unruly behavour. The government had set a target of passing 32 Bills, including 24 new ones, but the Lok Sabha could pass only seven and the Rajya Sabha five. The Lok Sabha functioned for 48% of the scheduled time while the Rajya Sabha functioned for 44% of the time. Attacking the government for curtailing the session, Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien tweeted, “This is the seventh consecutive time (since Budget Session 2020) Parliament session has been cut short. Stop mocking Parliament. We will fight for its sanctity ...” Congress Rajya Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh said, “Early adjournment is at the government’s request. We were prepared to discuss Bills.” The monsoon session is supposed to be the last one to be held in the old building as the government plans to hold the winter session in the new building expected to be completed before the next session. Ghosh of Indian National Sci- cosmology and specifically on ence Academy (INSA) from In- the Big Bang hypothesis. Run dia are among the scientists by Cornell University arXiv is , protesting the censorsupposed to provide an ship of papers critical open public forum for of the Big Bang hypothresearchers to exesis, by the open prechange pre-publication print website arXiv. papers, without under“As scientists entaking to peer-review gaged in the study of them. But during June the cosmos and the reJayant V Narlikar 2022, arXiv rejected lation of phenomena in three papers which are space to those on Earth, we critical of the validity of the strongly protest arXiv’s censor- Big Bang hypothesis. No speship of controversial papers on cific reason was given,” the sci- Nitish set to bolt, lead New govt with RJD, Left? S h a h i d F a r i d i @ New Delhi Bihar is all set to have a Maharashtra’s Maha Vikas Aghadi-type coalition government comprising all non-NDA parties, as Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) indicated it may snap its ties with the BJP . Sources said Nitish has already spoken to interim Congress president Sonia Gandhi and the leaders of the three Left parties — CPI(ML), CPI(M), and CPI, besides Lalu Yadav and Tejashwi Yadav, leaders of the main opposition party RJD. All opposition parties have agreed to support Nitish as the chief minister. According to sources, all supporting parties are likely to join the new government, which will be sworn in within this week. All the non-NDA parties have called their MLAs to Patna where a formal approval for supporting a new government would be sought from them. Congress general secretary in-charge of Bihar Bhakt Charan Das has flown into the state capital to iron things out. A formal announcement of Amit Bandre @ Nellore/Tirupati DESPITE a rise in the sale of handloom products on e-commerce platforms, weavers are hesitant to join the online bandwagon. They still prefer to sell their products offline directly to traders. Besides concerns over return and exchange policies, another reason that has been keeping weavers from jumping on to the e-commerce bandwagon is their desire to maintain healthy relations with the traders, which many weavers felt was a prerequisite for keep- Weavers in the region are not wellversed with conducting business online. We are not ready to lose contacts with our traders. They never return our products as well K Srihari Babu, weaver from Patur Full Cong support The Bihar Congress on Monday extended unconditional support to Nitish if he were to come to the opposition camp. The decision was taken at a meeting of party MLAs and MLCs in Patna Bag of Golds It was a day of domination from the paddlers and shuttlers as India collected a handful of gold, finishing fourth in the medals tally BJP in the last election. Singh did not elaborate, but hinted that former JD(U) president R C P Singh was at the centre of a conspiracy to split the party The JD(U) is. sued a show-cause notice to R C P Singh following which he resigned from the party’s membership. Speaking to reporters at Patna, JD(U) spokesperson K C Tyagi said, “Nitish Kumar is the undisputed leader of the JD(U). He commands respect in the rank and file. Whatever decision is taken by the party under his leadership will be accepted by everyone.” The RJD, too, has called a meeting of its lawmakers on Tuesday. RJD national vicepresident Shivanand Tiwary said both parties convening meetings of legislators was a clear indication that the situation was extraordinary “We . cannot ignore the fact that both parties, which together had sufficient numbers for a majority have convened such , meetings when an Assembly session is not round the corP8 ner,” Tiwary said.  Silver in hockey & cricket He may be 40 years old, but Sharath Kamal is still relentless in his pursuit of excellence. He finds that extra motivation for age-defying feats and this time at the Commonwealth Games he has medalled in each event he entered — teams gold, men’s doubles silver, mixed-doubles gold crowned them with singles gold. This was his seventh gold; he won India’s first-ever table tennis gold in 2006 Both the hockey men’s team and the women’s cricket team lost to Australia in their respective gold medal matches, finsihing with silver. While the Indian women lost late on Sunday night by nine runs, in hockey, the men were hammered 0-7 by the Australians on Monday Clean sweep in badminton PV Sindhu and young gun Lakshya Sen lived up to expectations by grabbing gold medals as India swept the singles badminton competition at the Commonwealth Games for the first time. Later in the day, Satwiksairaj Ranki Reddy and Chirag Shetty won gold in men’s doubles event Offline handloom trade vital, say weavers ing the business afloat. Weavers and traders share an ageold relation, in which the latter make advance payment to weavers so they can buy the raw materials required to meet the demand. “We have been maintaining transactions with traders for breaking alliance with the BJP is likely to be made by the JD(U) after the meeting of its MPs and MLAs in Patna on Tuesday . Politics in Bihar took a critical turn on Sunday with JD(U) president Rajiv Ranjan Singh attacking his party’s ally BJP without naming it. Singh said attempts were made in the past to get JD(U) candidates defeated in Assembly elections. He said a ‘Chirag Model’ was used in Bihar by getting Ramvilas Paswan’s son Chirag Paswan to field candidates against the JD(U) to reduce the number of JD(U) MLAs in the state legislature. There were reports that Chirag was supported by the Golden age for Sharath concerns over e-commerce D S u r end r a K u m a r entists wrote. Arindam Mal of the ISRO Ahmedabad and Sarbani Palit of the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata also faced difficulty in having their research paper Redshift Periodicity and its Significance for Recent Observation, which counters the Big Bang hypothesis — published in peer-reviewed journals like Astronomy and Astrophysics Journal, and Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society  continued on: P5 . decades and weave products according to orders. If we start conducting online business, it might hamper our relationship with the traders, who give us cash in advance to buy raw materials,” said K Subrahmanyam, a weaver from Venkatagiri rural. The situation is similar in Patur, another cluster of handloom weavers in Nellore district, as almost every household is involved in the trade. Many weavers have set up shops at their homes, where they sell sarees at reasonable prices. Traders, too, visit their stores and make bulk purchases. express read Five AP students score 100 percentile in JEE Vijayawada: Three candidates from AP found place in the top 10 ranks in JEE Mains session-2, the results for which were announced by the National Testing Agency on Monday. Penikalapati Ravi Kishore from Guntur secured AllIndia sixth rank | P3 Rains likely in north coastal AP, says IMD Vijayawada: Heavy to very heavy rains are likely in north coastal districts under the influence of well-marked low-pressure area over northwest and adjoining westcentral Bay of Bengal off north AP coast, intensifying into a depression by Tuesday | P3 Unidentified gang kidnaps and murders Nandyal cop E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Kurnool A GANG of six unidentified men waylaid, kidnapped and fatally attacked a police constable, who was returning home late on Sunday police said a day , after the incident. Identifying the deceased as G Surendra Kumar (35), a resident of Balaji Complex at Srinivas Centre in Nandyal town, police said he had been a clerk in the office of the Nandyal Deputy Superintendent of Police for the past years. Preliminary investigation revealed that the gang had laid in wait for the constable near Raj Cinema, and intercepted his two-wheeler around 10.30 pm. They allegedly forced Kumar into an auto-rickshaw and took him to the town’s outskirts. The auto-rickshaw driver was waiting for passengers when the gang forced him into giving them a ride, police said. I nve s t i g a tors found that Ku m a r w a s knifed and bludgeoned in the outskirts. The gang then told the autodriver to take a grievously injured constable to the government hospital. Though the driver did as told, the man’s life could not be saved. Nandyal District SP Raghuveer Reddy and DSP Maheswara Reddy visited the crime scene. They also visited the hospital and met Kumar’s bereaved relatives at his house. The deceased is survived by wife and two children. Addressing the media, Maheswara Reddy said a probe has been launched and investigators have collected CCTV footage and other evidence. He expressed suspicion that some rowdy-sheeters might have killed the constable. The deceased had not been facing any allegation in the department, the officer added. Kumar’s was the second such murder in four months in the district. A home guard, G Rajasekhar, was killed on April 11, by a few youths. Disabled man becomes ‘widow’ in govt records, denied pension S T r i m u r t h u l u @ Kakinada Numerous visits to government offices for the past two years and submitting petitions during Spandana programme have not helped 62-year-old Nandivada Bhima Raju to get disability pension. Bhima Raju resides in VAMBAY houses under the 16th division of Rajamahendravaram Municipal Corporation (RMC). He used to work as a cloth merchant in the city and surrounding villages until he suffered a paralysis attack in 2019. He has four children and had parted ways with his wife. Doctors certified him to be 90 per cent disabled and even issued a SADAREM (Software for Assessment of Disabled for Access Rehabilitation and Empowerment) certificate in 2020. Bhima Raju’s efforts to get disability pension have been hitting a roadblock since two years as his application keeps getting rejected for one or the other reason. This time, the problem was identified to be his marital status, which was wrongly-marked as ‘widow.’ He submitted a petition during Spandana at the Kakinada P4 Collectorate two times.