THIRUVANANTHAPURAM l friday l march 31, 2023 l `9.00 l PAGES 16 l LATE city EDITION Ajay Banga poised to become World Bank chief unopposed The Indian-American business leader is the only candidate as no country has proposed another candidate for the post of World Bank president Name expected to be confirmed by May First Indian-American to be at the helm The World Bank on Wednesday closed a month-long window for nominations for its next president, with no alternatives announced to 63-year-old Banga. The former Mastercard Inc chief currently serves as vice-chairman at General Atlantic. The bank’s board is expected to announce the next steps in its selection process on Thursday, with a view to confirming Banga by early May ■ In February, US President Joe Biden announced the US would nominate Banga to lead the World Bank because he is “well equipped” to lead the global institution at “this critical moment in history” ■ If confirmed, Banga would become the first Indian-American to head either of the two top global financial firms – the World Bank or the IMF $104 billion The Value of projects committed by the World Bank in financial year 2022 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 Dahi label nahi as food safety regulator blinks HC collegium differs on judges, forwards two separate lists E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Kochi IN a first, the collegium of the Kerala High Court has failed to arrive at a consensus on the list of judicial officers to be elevated as HC judges. The collegium, which met after two years, has forwarded two separate lists to the Supreme Court Collegium and the Union government as one of its members disagreed with two names recommended by the other two members. The collegium consisted of Chief Justice S Manikumar, Justice S V Bhatti and Justice K Vinod Chandran. In each list, names of seven officers have been recommended. But, only five sessions judges found a place in both lists. The collegium met in view of Chief Justice S Manikumar’s retirement next month and appointment of Vinod Chandran as the Chief Justice of the Patna High Court. Justice Vinod Chandran disagreed with two names included in the list signed by Chief Justice S Manikumar and Justice S V Bhatti. The names of P Krishna Kumar (Registrar General, High Court), M B Snehalatha (Principal District and Sessions Judge, Kollam), Johnson John (Principal District and Sessions Judge, Kalpetta), G Girish (Principal District and Sessions Judge, Thalassery), and C Pratheep Kumar (Additional District Sessions Judge, Ernakulam) found a place in both the lists. The other names in the list signed by Chief Justice Manikumar and Justice Bhatti include P J Vincent (Officer on Special Duty High Court), and , C Krishnakumar (Principal District and Sessions Judge, Kasaragod). The list sent by Justice Vinod Chandran has the names of K V Jayakumar (Registrar, Vigilance, High Court) and P Saithalavi (Muvattupuzha Vigilance Judge). The collegium did not recommend names of lawyers from the Bar to be elevated as judges of the High Court. FSSAI now OK with curd and regional name @ Chennai/Bengaluru Rescue workers pull out a devotee from the step well of Beleshwar Mahadev Jhulelal temple in Indore on Thursday | pti 14 dead as roof of well caves in at Indore temple E x p r e ss N e ws Se r v i c e @ Bhopal AT least 14 devotees, including 11 women and a child, were killed after the roof of a step well caved in at the private tr ust-mana g ed Beleshwar Mahadev Jhulelal temple in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, on Thursday . The tragedy occurred at around 12 noon when a havan (fire ritual) was being performed on the occasion of Ram Navami on the concrete roof of the step well. “Twelve bodies were retrieved during rescue operations, which continued till late evening. Two of the 19 devotees who were rescued died at the hospital later. Four are battling for life in the ICU,” a senior Indore police official said. Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan ordered a magisterial probe into the incident and announced `5 lakh each to the next of kin of the deceased, besides `50,000 each to the injured, whose medical treatment will be funded by the government. Besides, an ex-gratia of `2 lakh each would be given to the next of kin of each deceased from the PM National Relief Fund. According to officials, the concrete slab roof of the step well on which the havan was performed was not strong enough to carry the weight of 30-40 people. The platform collapsed suddenly throwing the , devotees standing on it down the 40 ft deep step-well, containing up to 9 ft water. German investor accuses Zonta of fraud, complains to PM Modi A i s h w a r ya P r a b h a k a r an @ Kochi Zonta Infratech Pvt Ltd, which was under fire for the recent Brahmapuram fiasco, is back in the news for all the wrong reasons. In a surprise move that could have wider ramifications, a German investor has filed a complaint with Prime Minister Narendra Modi alleging that Rajkumar Chellappan Pillai, MD of the Bengaluru-based firm, has siphoned off his investment in the company . Patrick Bauer, CEO of Bauer GmbH, in the letter dated March 24, 2023, said the German firm has invested `357.4 crore (4 million euros) and ad- Show time, whistle podu! With the 16th edition of the Indian Premier League beginning in Ahmedabad on Friday, a look at some of the tournament’s main talking points Dhoni’s final season? Chennai Super Kings players leave for training at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Thursday | CSK New rules Both Rishabh Pant and M S Dhoni have picked up fights with on-field umpires because of seemingly questionable no-ball calls. From this year, teams can take a DRS over wides/no balls too. Besides, there is a Impact Player (essentially a substitute) rule and option of naming playing the XI after the toss Union Ltd, Tamil Nadu Cooperative Milk Producers Federation (Aavin) and Hatsun Agro With a language and political Products Ltd. In its order to storm building up in the run up Aavin, the FSSAI had asked it to the Karnataka elections fol- to label its curd sachets as dahi lowing a fiat to label curd pack- (thayir) instead of curd (thayets by their Hindi term dahi, ir). Aavin refused to do so. the national food safety regulaThe March 10 directive had tor on Thursday did a sharp U- drawn flak from JD(S) leader turn and withdrew its order. H D Kumaraswamy and even The Food Safety and TN BJP president AnStandards Authority namalai. The food o f I n d i a ( FSSA I ) safety and standards blinked after Tamil (food products standNadu Chief Minister ards and food addiM K Stalin and other tives) regulations of political leaders con2011 mandate the use demned the order, of dahi to distinguish Representative picture terming it an attempt between dairy and to impose Hindi. It non-dairy products. said the order has been revised “Therefore, milk cooperative following representations from federations were asked to invarious quarters. clude dahi on curd packets. The dahi directive was is- That order has been revoked,” sued by the FSSAI on March 10 explained an official. to the Karnataka Cooperative Now, ‘Curd (dahi)’ in Hindi Milk Producers Federation or ‘Curd (mosaru) in Kannada, (KMF), Bengaluru Rural and ‘Curd (thayir)’ in Tamil, ‘Curd Ramanagara District Coopera- (perugu)’ in Telugu can be used, tive Milk Producers Societies the FSSAI said in a statement. E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e Workload management With the final of the World Test Championship less than two weeks after the final of the IPL, some of the Test regulars could be rotated out of their respective franchises due to workload concerns One of the winningest IPL captains, Dhoni, hasn’t announced anything officially yet. But there is a feeling that this is set to be Chennai captain’s final year as a playing member. Having lit up many a year in the famous yellow jersey, can he inspire the franchise to a fifth title? Injuries: The likes of Jasprit Bumrah, Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer, Jonny Bairstow, Lockie Ferguson and Josh Hazlewood are either out or will miss a part of the season because of injuries | P11 Today’s match: Gujarat Titans vs Chennai Super Kings, 7.30 PM ditionally given a standby letter of credit for `20.4 crore (2.28 million euros). “I realised too late that my/our hardearned money that I invested in India was siphoned off by Rajkumar Chellappan Pillai to benefit him and his family . I learned that the money was transferred to different private entities that had backlinks to Rajkumar Pillai,” Patrick said in his letter. The complaint, a copy of which is in possession of TNIE, shows the German firm made the investment between 2016 and 2018.  “The firm contacted me to get German waste bin technology to India in consonance with ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’,” he said. ● More on P4 ‘Nothing to protect investors’ Patrick, in his complaint, said investing in India was a mistake, as he feels the government has made no safeguards to protect foreign investors. Spouses of H-1B visa holders can work in US: Judge Y E SHI S E L I @ New Delhi IN a big relief to thousands of Indians who hold H-1B visas, a US judge has ruled that their spouses can work in the country In her landmark ruling, US district judge . Tanya Chutkan upheld the Obama-era regulation that gave employment authorisation cards to spouses of certain categories of H-1B visa holders and dismissed the lawsuit filed by Save Jobs USA, a group representing IT professionals who claim they lost their jobs to foreign workers. The H-1B visa programme is designed to allow skilled foreign workers to come to the US and work for American companies. Earlier, their spouses were not allowed to work in the US but an Obama-era legislation changed that by granting employment authorisation to partners of H-1B visa holders, who tend to be highly educated and have considerable work experience in their home countries. The US has issued nearly 100,000 work authorisations to spouses of H-1B workers. The ruling is also a victory for big technology companies such as Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and Google that employ highly skilled H-1 B visa holders. The tech companies had argued that spouse visas were a major attraction for skilled work force in their companies. Save Jobs USA said it will appeal against the court ruling. VISA EXPRESS READ CMDRF ‘misuse’: Verdict today T’Puram: The Lokayukta will on Friday pronounce its verdict on a petition alleging misuse of Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund (CMDRF). The respondents in the case are CM Pinarayi Vijayan and the ministers in the previous LDF government led by him. P5 G20 Sherpa meet gets under way Kottayam: The first day of the second G20 Sherpa Meeting began in Kumarakom with an all-day focus on the role of Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) in improving development outcomes. P4 16 pages, including 4 pages of THIRUVANANTHAPURAM Express