chennai l saturday l february 04, 2023 l `9.00 l PAGES 18 l late city EDITION IMF giving Pak tough time amid crisis: Shehbaz Sharif The conditions that the Fund wants Pakistan to meet are ‘beyond imagination’, the Pakistan prime minister said $7-billion assistance being reviewed Focus on fiscal consolidation Sharif added that Pakistan will fulfil the conditions, but refused to divulge more details. The IMF mission led by Nathan Porter is in Islamabad to hold talks with the Pakistan side headed by finance minister Ishaq Dar for the review of the $7-billion assistance package. Experts say Pak’s forex reserves have fallen to $3.09 billion, which would cover just around 3 weeks of imports ■ ■ According to reports in local media, the IMF wants clear action to bridge the daunting fiscal gap between 2 and 2.5 lakh crore rupees Pakistan has agreed to increase petroleum prices and allowed a market base exchange rate but that seems too little and too late as the IMF wants more measures to increase revenues $1.1 bn Outstanding amount Pakistan IS TO GET from IMF’S $7-bn bailout SECURED IN 2019 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 patient dead US bars eye drops import from Chennai pharma unit E x press N e w s S er v ice @ New Delhi The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has restricted imports of products by Chennai-based Global Pharma after its eye drops were linked to an outbreak of “extensively drugresistant” bacteria across 12 states in the US, which reportedly infected 55 people and led to the death of one person. After the FDA asked the company to recall its eye drops sold under the brand names EzriCare or Delsam Pharma, Global Pharma said it has voluntarily recalled them. These eye drops are not sold in India. Teams from the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) and Tamil Nadu Drugs Control Department are on their way to inspect the plant in Chennai. Officials said it is a contract manufacturing plant supplying through others to the US market. V P Vijayalakshmi,Director in charge of Drugs Control, said details about the unit will be known after the inspection. This is the third incident of India-made drugs being linked with reported deaths abroad since last October. Earlier, the World Health Organization (WHO) had issued medical alerts twice for India-made drugs linked to alleged deaths of 66 children in The Gambia and 18 children in Uzbekistan. In a statement on Thursday, the FDA cited multiple violations of manufacturing regulations by the company including , a lack of appropriate microbial testing and a lack of proper controls concerning tamperevident packaging. “FDA is warning consumers and health care practitioners not to purchase and immediately stop using EzriCare Artificial Tears or Delsam Pharma’s Artificial Tears due to potential bacterial contamination. Using contaminated artificial tears increases risk of eye infections that could result in blindness or death,” it said. The FDA also placed import alert on it for inadequate response to a records request. express read ‘Frontline rail staff in TN will get Tamil training’ Chennai: To better serve passengers, the frontline railway staff from other states, posted in TN, will be imparted training in the Tamil language, said Southern Railway general manager R N Singh on Friday | P4 AIADMK GC to decide candidate, OPS gets say Shruti Kakkar & T Muruganandham @ New Delhi/Chennai AHEAD of the by-election to the Erode East Assembly constituency in Tamil Nadu, the Supreme Court on Friday by , way of an interim arrangement, asked the AIADMK’s General Council (GC) to decide on the candidate to be fielded in the bypoll and allowed three expelled members, including O Panneerselvam, to participate in the meeting. The court stressed the interim nature of the arrangement, stating it shall not confer or take away any other rights of the parties. The bench of Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and Hrishikesh Roy while direct, ing GC to decide on the party’s candidate by way of circulation, told the party’s presidium chair man Tamil Magan Hussain to convey the GC’s decision to the Election Commission of India (ECI). Effectively, the AIADMK factions have three days to elicit the views of the GC members on the candidate and convey the decision to the ECI by February 7, the last date for withdrawal of candidates for the poll. “In this regards without prejudice to rights of parties and without conferring any other rights, it is considered appropriate and provided as thus agreed to by the counsel for Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS) that the proposal for filing the candidate shall be put before consideration... The decisionmaking process may be taken up by putting the necessary resolution for circulation. During the process of decision making, the expulsion shall not operate so far as the present purpose. In other words, the three per- RBI, govt bid to calm nerves on Adani stock Dow Jones to drop scrip from sustainability index; Moody’s sees impact on fund raising SAC H I N K U M A R @ Mumbai WITH the Adani group saga still unravelling, the regulators and the Centre on Friday came up with clarifications to calm investors’ frayed nerves. While the Reserve Bank of India sought to allay the concerns about lenders’ exposure to Adani Group saying the banking sector remains resilient and stable, Union finance minister Nirmala Sithraman reiterated that the exposure of State Bank of India and the Life Insurance Corporation is within limits. Sitharaman said in a television interview t h a t g ove r n m e n t owned financial institutions do not have overexposure in Adani group stocks. On LIC’s exposure, the finance minister said even with valuations falling, the company is still sitting on profits. SBI chairman Dinesh Khara also chipped in, clarifying that the bank’s exposure to Adani group is only 0.88% of its total loans, or `27,000 crore, while Bank of Baroda said its exposure is one-fourth of the permissible ceiling. However, there was no respite for Adani as bad news kept pouring. Credit rating agency Moody’s said the recent sell-off in Adani shares could reduce the group’s ability to raise capital and that it is assessing overall financial flexibility, including liquidity position of Adani firms. Taking a harsh stand, S&P Dow Jones Indices said it would remove Adani Enterprises from the widely used sustainability indices on February 7, making the shares less appealing to environmentconscious investors. In another blow to the Indian conglomerate, S&P Global Ratings revised its outlook for Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone and Adani Electricity from ‘stable’ to ‘negative’. However, the Gautam Adani-led group found backing from Fitch Ratings, which said there is no immediate impact on the ratings of Adani entities and their securities. On Friday, shares of Adani Enterprises recovered after hitting a fresh 52-week low of `1,017.45 on the NSE. Meanwhile, amid Opposition parties’ clamour for a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe, Union minister Pralhad Joshi said on Friday that the government has nothing to do with the Adani issue. India has a stable government and a well-regulated financial market. Our regulators are very stringent about governance practices. One instance is not indicative of how well markets are governed Nirmala Sitharaman General audit by ‘big four’ In a bid to intill confidence among investors, Adani group said it will appoint one of the ‘big four’ global accounting firms to conduct a general audit of its business. Meanwhile, Fitch Ratings, which said there is no immediate impact on the ratings of Adani entities and their securities Local languages in HCs disallowed by SC full court, says Rijiju Union law minister Kiren Rijiju on Friday told the Lok Sabha that the full court of the Supreme Court has refused proposals by various states to permit use of their local languages in their respective high courts. The proposals were made by Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal and Karnataka | P9 lucky charm Chhattisgarh CM and the power of 23 E JA Z K A I S E R @ Raipur PEOPLE’s obsession with fancy car registration numbers matching numerology is nothing new. There are numerous examples of such people spending lakhs of rupees to secure the desired set of numbers, which they believe will bring them good luck. Politicians also do it to remain strong in the game of power, though some wouldn’t admit it publicly as they don’t want to be seen as superstitious. On Friday the Chhattisgarh , government acquired a fleet of new black Toyota Fortuner cars in Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel’s carcade, each carrying the number BB 0023. “The number 23 is lucky for Bhupesh Baghel. Before becoming the chief minister, he was the state Congress president and travelled on a Scorpio having number 0023. He also owned his personal black Fortuner car with number 0023. In election year 2023, the government has purchased new vehi- cles bearing number 0023. That augurs well for him and the party to move on towards yet another victory,” said Congress leader Ajay Sahu. Ahead of 2018 elections in the state, the then CM Raman Singh of the BJP had got a fleet of 19 Mitsubishi Pajero SUVs with identical numbers ending with ‘004’ for his convoy. Though Singh dismissed any astrological reasons behind the opted numbers — saying he didn’t believe in such numerology or black magic as any number given to him would be lucky — he was confident of securing a fourthterm with the luck numbers. It is another matter that the BJP lost the polls. New cars for security reasons, say officials On record, however, officials claim there is no superstition behind choosing the identical numbers, adding that the old cars of the CM had run more than 1.3 lakh kms and had to be replaced for security reasons. The new vehicles come with the latest safety and security features sons can put forth their views too for limited purpose. The ultimate decision of the GC shall be conveyed to ECI by the presidium chairman,” the court said in its order. Noting that the bench had reserved its verdict in the plea filed by OPS against a Madras High Court order upholding EPS’ appointment as interim general secretary of the party the SC made it clear , “this interim arrangement shall have no bearing whatsoever and shall not be conferring any other rights and taking rights of parties and will be only for the process of byelection and not beyond.” P4 Gang poses as cops in Chennai, robs Andhra jewellers of `1.4 crore Gau t ham S e lvarajan @ Chennai POSING as policemen, an unidentified four-member gang robbed `1.4 crore from two people near Sowcarpet around 6 am on Friday. The gang allegedly took the money and fled after telling the duo, visiting Chennai from Andhra Pradesh, to produce proper receipts for the cash at the nearest police station. According to the Elephant Gate police, the victims, Subbarao (58) and Rahman (48) run a jewellery shop in Andhra. They had arrived in Chennai to buy jewellery at a shop on NSC Bose Road near Parry’s Corner. As they were headed towards Sowcarpet around 6 am, they noticed a car following their auto. As they neared Veerappan road near Sowcarpet, the car overtook the auto and blocked the path. “The four unidentified men got out of the car, bearing lathis, and came to the auto. Claiming they were policemen, they said they had received a tip that the duo was carrying hawala money. The gang then asked them to open their bags. When Subbarao and Rahman opened the bag, they found they had `1.40 crore in it,” a police officer said. P5 Team EPS says order a blessing AIADMK spokesperson Kovai Satyan said the verdict is a blessing to EPS. “It is an big opportunity to prove EPS has majority support in the GC. Besides, as per the SC order, OPS has to withdraw his candidate,” he said. Soon, SC to have five more judges judge) and Manoj Mishra (Allahabad HC judge) as SC judges. The strength of the Supreme However, the bench expressed Court could go up from 27 to 32 displeasure over the delay in within the next few days as the even clearing recommendations Centre on Friday informed the for transfer of high court judgcourt that the warrants es, saying “it is a very of appointment of five Roasts govt very serious issue”. on transfer “Don’t make us take a judges recommended by the collegium could stand which will be The bench said be issued by Sunday . very uncomfortable.” any delay in “It is happening. The transfer of judges “If transfer orders five warrants of apare not implemented, could result in pointments are being administrative or what do you want us to issues. It goes to the do,” the bench said, judicial action, President by evening. adding that “we withwhich may not They will be issued,” be palatable. It draw judicial work Attorney General R from them, is that what observed that Venkataramani told a you want?” sometimes the bench led by Justice S The court also pointgovt clears K Kaul. names overnight. ed out that one judge On December 13, the whose elevation as On other Supreme Court colle- occasions it lets chief justice of HC was gium had recommendrecommended, was to them hanging ed the elevation of demit office in 19 days. Pankaj Mithal (Rajas“You want him to retire than HC Chief Justice), Sanjay without being appointed as the Karol (Patna HC CJ), P V Sanjay chief justice?” the bench asked. Kumar (Manipur HC CJ), Ah- The A-G said necessary action is sanuddin Amanullah (Patna HC being taken on it. S H R U T I K A K K A R @ New Delhi