US and Indian army personnel during the 18th edition of the Indo-US joint military exercise at Tapovan in Uttarakhand on Wednesday | SHEKHAR YADAV KALABURAGI  THURSDAY  DECEMBER 01, 2022  `9.00  PAGES 12  CITY EDITION CHINA STRENGTHENING INFRA, TROOPS ALONG LAC: PENTAGON Since the 2020 Galwan Valley clash, the PLA has amassed force and stepped up infra build-up along LAC, says its report USES ARMY AS A TOOL OF STATECRAFT: REPORT China is increasingly using the People’s Liberation Army as an instrument of statecraft as it has adopted more coercive and aggressive actions in the Indo-Pacific region, says the US Department of Defense’s annual report to Congress. The report adds that Beijing is ramping up its nuclear arsenal and is likely to have at least 1,500 nuclear warheads by the year 2035 ■ 400 GREAT REJUVENATION OF NATION BY 2049 ■ The report states that China warned the US not to interfere in its relationship with India even as it amassed troops along LAC China’s larger objective is “great rejuvenation of the nation” by 2049. With this strategy in mind, Beijing is trying to have an international system favourable to its national interests | P7 ACTIVE NUCLEAR WARHEADS IN CHINA’S POSSESSION, AGAINST 3,750 WITH THE U.S. 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 Economic growth slows to 6.3% in Q2, RBI spot on Manufacturing, mining sectors drag growth, contracting 4.3% and 2.8%, respectively M O N I K A YA DAV @ New Delhi INDIA’s economic growth is in line with the Reserve Bank of India’s projection, government data released on Wednesday showed. However, GDP growth at 6.3% in the three-month period of July-September slowed when compared with 8.4% growth registered in the same quarter a year ago and 13.5% during April-June 2022. A relatively slower GDP expansion nothwithstanding, India continues to remain the fastest-growing major economy ahead of China which registered an economic growth of 3.9% in July-September 2022. “Real GDP or GDP at constant (2011-12) prices in Q2 202223 is estimated at `38.17 lakh crore, as against `35.89 lakh crore in Q2 2021-22, showing a growth of 6.3% as compared to 8.4% in Q2 2021-22,” the National Statistical Office (NSO) said while releasing the data for the second quarter on Wednesday . The latest GDP growth data is impressive, according to Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran. He said India is very much on track to achieving 6.8%-7% growth in the current financial year. The country has managed to maintain robust growth momentum despite challenges in the global economy, he added. This, he said, can be gauged from various economic indicators including festival sales, PMI (purchasing managers’ index), bank credit growth and auto sales data. According to the data released by the CSO, the manufacturing and mining sectors dragged the growth rate, contracting 4.3% and 2.8%, SENSEX SIZZLES BSE Sensex settled above the 63,000-level for the first time on Wednesday, backed by continuous foreign fund inflows and positive trend in global markets FACTORY OUTPUT SLOWS The growth rate in the production of eight key sectors slowed down to a 20-month low of 0.1% in October on account of contraction in the output of crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, and cement FISCAL DEFICIT WIDENS Fiscal deficit - the difference between expenditure and revenue - touches D7,58,137 crore during the AprilOctober 2022, which is 45.6% of full-year target of D16.61 lakh crore respectively . The data also showed that private consumption eased sequentially (0.5% in the September quarter vs 0.8% in June quarter) due to high inflation and uneven recovery impacting rural consumption demand. Government consumption momentum continued to contract, though investment in asset creation witnessed robust sequential growth of 5% against 1.0% in the previous quarter due to lagged effects of easier monetary policies and the government’s capex push. KICKBACKS FROM SOUTH GROUP AAP got `100 cr from Kavitha, others in liquor scam, says ED S H A H I D F A R I D I @ New Delhi THE Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday said the key accused in the Delhi excise policy scam, Vijay Nair, received kickbacks worth at least `100 crore from what it called the ‘South Group’ “controlled by Sarath Reddy K Kavitha and , Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy”. The kickbacks were received by Nair on behalf of Aam Aadmi Party leaders, some of whom are in government, the agency alleged. This is the first time Kavitha’s name is being mentioned on record by the probe agency A member of the leg. islative council in Telangana, she is the daughter of TRS founder and Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao. In an application filed in a local court seeking remand for businessman Amit Arora, arrested on Tuesday, the ED said: “PMLA (Prevention of KIRLOSKAR PASSES AWAY Toyota Kirloskar Motor ViceChairman Vikram Kirloskar, who was instrumental in bringing Japanese auto giant Toyota to India, died due to a heart attack in Bengaluru on Tuesday. He was 64. Kirloskar suffered a cardiac arrest on Tuesday morning and was immediately rushed to a private hospital, where he passed away. P10 Money Laundering Act) investigations revealed that the Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22 was a device created by the leaders of AAP some of whom , are part of the Delhi government, to generate illegal funds at the cost of the state exchequer. The policy was formulated with deliberate loopholes, inbuilt mechanisms to facilitate illegal activities… it promoted car tel for mation through back door, awarded exorbitant wholesale (12%) and high retail (185%) profit margins and incentivised other illegal activities…” The ED said: “The 12% profit margin to the wholesalers was devised to extract half of SUSPECTS DESTROYED 170 DIGITAL DEVICES The ED said dozens of accused/suspects destroyed 170 digital devices to hide evidence in the liquor scam, which ran into “thousands of crores”. The agency has so far recovered 17 of them and is working on recovering more devices. Amit Arora has been sent for seven days of custodial interrogation by the ED GROUP D DRAMA TUNISIA STUN FRANCE Australia beat Denmark 1-0 to confirm their place in the Round of 16, the second time in the history of the World Cup. Winger Mathew Leckie scored the winner on the hour with a smart run and end Denmark’s dream | P13, 14 Tunisia snatched a dramatic 1-0 victory over world champions France as a lastminute goal was disallowed after the final whistle. The VAR ruled Antoine Griezmann’s strike offside in the final seconds of injury time PELE IN HOSPITAL Australia’s Mathew Leckie (left) celebrates with teammate Riley McGree after scoring against Denmark on Wednesday I AP HC approaches SC on holding BBMP polls 10 killed in bombing of Af religious school Bengaluru: A special bulletin on Maternal Mortality in India 2018-20, released by the Office of the Registrar General, on Wednesday showed that the maternal mortality rate in Karnataka has improved to 69 for 2018-20, compared with 83 in 2017-19. P5 Bengaluru: Filing objections to an extension of three more months sought by the state to issue notification of ward reservation, the SEC informed the Karnataka High Court that it has approached the Supreme Court seeking directions to the state to hold BBMP polls. Kabul: A bomb blast hit a religious school in Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing at least 10 students, a Taliban official said. The explosion went off at around the time of afternoon prayers at the Al Jihad Madrassa in Aybak, capital of Samangan province. No row here: State ryots sell cane in Maha MANY sugarcane growers from the border villages of Karnataka are approaching sugar factories in Maharashtra to sell their crop. While sugar factories in Karnataka are offering Rs 2,700 to Rs 2,800 per tonne to the farmers, the factories in Maharashtra are offering Rs 3,000 to Rs 3,500 per tonne of the crop. The farmers are approach- ing factories in Jatt, Sangli, Solapur, Kolhapur and surrounding areas in Maharashtra to sell their crop. According to them, the low price offered by factories in Karnataka are pushing them towards Maharashtra. Although the Karnataka government is incurring losses, it is still not taking any measures to address the issue. Speaking to TNIE, Mahadev Madiwal, president of Karnataka Raitha Sangha in Athani, said that the sugarcane growers Football legend Pele has been hospitalised again in Sao Paulo, but there is “no emergency,” his daughter said Wednesday, the latest health issue for the 82-year-old icon, who has been in treatment following a colon tumour TODAY’S MATCHES 8.30pm Croatia vs Belgium, Canada vs Morocco 12.30am (Fri) Japan vs Spain, Costa Rica vs Germany S H R U T I K A K K A R @ New Delhi BILKIS Bano, who was gangraped and seven members of her family were killed during the Godhra riots in 2002, has approached the Supreme Court challenging the premature release of 11 convicts in the case. The convicts had walked free on August 15 after the Gujarat government allowed remission of their life sentence. She has also sought review of the SC’s May 13 order directing the Gujarat gover nment to consider releasing convict Radhey Shyam under its remission Bilkis Bano p o l i cy. H e r petiton said she is the victim but was not made a party in Radhey Shyam’s plea. Bilkis’ pleas were mentioned by her counsel Shobha Gupta before a bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice P S Narasimha. The CJI said he would examine whether both pleas can be heard together. Explaining the delay in filing the review petition, the plea said it “took enormous efforts and time for the present review petitioner- victim of one of the most gruesome and inhuman communal hate crimes this country has ever witnessed, to collect courage and regroup herself to decide to hold the baton once again, after just getting over with the extremely excruciating 17 years long drawn legal battle in ensuring that her culprits are punished for the egregious crime”. Earlier, women’s rights activists including Subhashini Ali had challenged the release of the 11 convicts. Bilkis’ plea becomes significant as the accused and the Gujarat government have questioned the locus of the women rights activists in the case. WITH POLLS COME PROJECTS Maternal mortality rate improves in state @ Belagavi/Athani pay the 6% commission to AAP leaders/Vijay Nair.” The ED remand application for Amit Arora said, “he has been instrumental in connecting the cartels of manufacturer/wholesaler/ retailer to the political leadership and facilitating 6% kickbacks by working closely with Dinesh Arora and Vijay Nair who were working on behalf of AAP leaders.” The agency said “Vijay Nair is not an ordinary worker of AAP but a close associate of Arvind Kejriwal, the CM of Delhi. Vijay Nair, as per his statement under Section 50 of PMLA, 2002, functions from the camp office of Arvind Kejriwal, CM, Delhi. Further, Vijay Nair, since 2020, has been residing in a government bungalow allotted to a Cabinet minister of Delhi government, Kailash Gehlot, part of the GOM of Excise Policy 2021-22...” AUSSIES MARCH ON EXPRESS READ E X P R E SS N E WS S E R V I C E it as a kickback to the AAP leaders. As per the investigation carried so far, Vijay Nair, on behalf of leaders of AAP has at least received kickbacks to the tune of `100 crore from a group called South Group... The same has been disclosed by the arrestee, Amit Arora.” The agency said, “in order to facilitate kickbacks, Amit Arora in conspiracy with others played a key role in armtwisting wholesalers in Delhi business and getting their L1 licenses surrendered. The same business was then directed to such wholesalers — in connivance with Amit Arora — who were agreeable to Bilkis moves SC challenging early release of 11 convicts have been protesting every year, urging the government to hike the rates of sugarcane, but the government has been turning a blind eye to their demands. Prakash Naik, leader of Raitha Hitarakshan Samiti said the farmers have been urging the government to provide Rs 5,500 per tonne of sugarcane to growers, but the government seems to have been hijacked by the sugar lobby and ignoring the farmers demands in the process. Most parts of B’luru-Mys Expressway to open in Jan 2 years on, work begins on Anubhava Mantapa A S H W I N I M S R I PA D @ Bengaluru COME January 2023, most of the carriageway on the Bengaluru-Mysuru Express Corridor will be opened. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to inaugurate it in the first week of March next year. In March 2014, the Union Ministry of Surface Transport had announced that some roads across the country would be upgraded to NH, and BengaluruMysuru road was one of them. NHAI is converting the highway (NH 275) into 10 lanes, including a six-lane expressway . The 117-km highway -- stretching from NICE entrance in Bengaluru to Ring Road Junction in Mysuru -- is expected to cut travel time from an average of three hours to just 90 minutes. The distance between the state capital and Mysuru is around A S H W I N I M S R I PA D @ Bengaluru The Bengaluru-Mysuru Expressway, which is due to open in January 2023 140 km. The entire stretch is expected to have two toll gates and Rs 200 to Rs 250 will be charged at each toll. Earlier this year, Union Minister for Roads and Highways Nitin Gadkari had tweeted about the 10-lane BengaluruMysuru Express Corridor. P5 If it is not done or initiated even after hanging fire for so long, it might boomerang on the party which is largely depending on the Lingayat vote-base Officials An artist’s impression of Anubhava Mantapa, which is due to come up in Bidar district AHEAD of the assembly polls which are scheduled to be held early next year, the state government has started work on the Rs 600 crore ‘ nubhava Mantapa’ A project in Bidar. The project was in cold storage for the last two years after former CM B S Yediyurappa laid its foundation stone in January 2021. The government’s move is being seen as an attempt to woo the Lingayat voters from Kalyan Karnataka region. The Anubhava Mantapa, set up by 12th century reformer Basaveshwara is considered to be the ‘first Parliament of the world’. The project, which aims at promoting the teachings of Basaveshwara, was first proposed in 2016 by the then SiddaramaiP4 ah-led Congress government in the state.