TIRUCHY l friday l march 31, 2023 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 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 after amit shah AIADMK chief too says alliance with BJP intact E x p r e ss N e ws Se r v i c e @ Chennai A day after union home minister and BJP’s election strategist Amit Shah said his party’s alliance with the AIADMK continues, AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami on Thursday said the ties between the two parties are intact and the alliance would continue for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. On Wednesday participating , in a television programme, Amit Shah said the BJP’s alliance with the AIADMK continues. The statement assumes significance as it came against the backdrop of BJP state president K Annamalai’s remarks on the need for the party to fight the 2024 Lok Sabha elections on its ow n i n t h e s t a t e. Annamalai’s assertions came days after several BJP IT wing functionaries joined the AIADMK and started criticising Annamalai, leading to a war of words between the parties. Last week, according to sources, Annamalai was summoned to New Delhi and BJP leaders there told him to continue his work for the growth of the party in Tamil Nadu and the parliamentary board at the national level would take a call on the alliance at an appropriate time. Speaking to reporters at the secretariat on Thursday about Amit Shah’s statement on the alliance, Palaniswami said, “We never said the alliance with BJP was not there. The alliance continued for the byelection to the Erode East Assembly constituency and will continue for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.” FSSAI now OK with curd and regional name E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ 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 haven (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 Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan ordered a magisterial probe into the incident and announced `5 lakh each to the next of kin of the de- Temple built on encroached land? Local residents say the tragedy could have been avoided had authorities acted against encroachments of the gardenpark at Sneh Nagar colony. The Beleshwar temple was built on encroached land, they allege 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? Theatre denies entry to Narikuravas, sparks row Pope hospitalised, condition stable Rome: The condition of Pope Francis, 86, who was hospitalised on Wednesday with a respiratory infection, is stable, Vatican said on Thursday. He would remain in hospital for a few more days, it added. His hospitalisation was the first since Francis had 33 centimeters (13 inches) of his colon removed in 2021 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? 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 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 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 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 @ New Delhi A slew of space missions have been lined up for this year, which are expected to enhance the country share in the global space economy as well. For context, ever since the Modi government came to power in 2014, the Indian space sector has launched 388 foreign satellites so far, earning €188 million and $157 million in the process. “On top of the priority list is on the launch of Aditya-1, India’s first space mission to study the Sun, aboard the PSLV- C56 (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle). Besides, the configuration and design of various systems related to Gaganyaan, the first human spaceflight programme of the country is over , and it has entered the realisation and testing phase. TV-D1, which is Gaganyaan’s first test vehicle demonstration, is planned for mid-2023,” said a senior official of the department of space. ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) is also working on XPoSAT, an X-ray polarimeter satellite. It is India’s first dedicated polarimetry mission Foreign sats launched so far Year 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 (up to Mar) Total No.of Sats 5 17 22 130 60 50 9 14 44 37 388 federations such as Aavin were asked to include dahi on their curd packets. That order has now been revoked,” explained an official. However, an Aavin official has stated that there was no rationale on using the Hindi term. Now, ‘Curd ( )’ in Hindi or ‘Curd (mosaru) in Kannada, ‘Curd (thayir)’ in Tamil, ‘Curd (perugu)’ in Telugu can be used, the FSSAI said in a statement. not allowed to work in the US Save Jobs USA said it will apbut an Obama-era legislation peal against the court ruling. changed that by granting em- According to the group, the US ployment authorisation to part- Department of Homeland Seners of H-1B visa holders, who curity (DHS) could not have letend to be highly educated and gally given work authorisation have considerable work to H-4 visa holders. Howexperience in their ever, the judge did not achome countries. cept the argument while The US has issued noting that DHS and its nearly 100,000 work aupredecessors have auISA V thorisations to spouses thorised employment of H-1B workers. The not just for students but ruling is also a victory for also for their spouses and big technology companies such dependents. as Amazon, Apple, Microsoft Judge Chutkan had disand Google that employ highly missed the suit by Save Jobs skilled H-1 B visa holders. The USA earlier as well, saying it tech companies had argued lacked standing to challenge that spouse visas were a major the H-4 rule. But, a federal apattraction for skilled work force peals court reversed that ruling in their companies. in 2019 and revived the case. Harassment: Students hold stir, Kalakshetra closes institute B I N I TA JA ISWA L @ Chennai After a protest by students at Kalakshetra Foundation on Thursday over the institute’s failure to initiate action against a dance teacher on sexual harassment allegations, the administration has decided to shut the college till April 6. The protesting students, however, said they would continue their agitation till they get justice. Students of Rukmini Devi College of Fine Arts, Kalakshetra Foundation, were informed through a circular issued by principal Pakala Ramadas that the college will remain shut from March 30 to April 6. All inmates have been asked to vacate their hostel rooms within two days. The college has also postponed exams and the circular said new exam dates will be announced later. The abrupt closure has irked the students. Many students that TNIE spoke to said they won’t leave the campus despite the closure notice. “Closing down the college is an attempt to weaken our protest. But we will not leave the campus until we get justice,” said a student. “We were waiting for the director to come out and speak to us and resolve our issue. But she did not come out of her room till evening. In fact, nobody informed us about the closure and only a circular was sent to us,” said a third-year student of the college.  P5 Students of Rukmini Devi College of Fine Arts hold a protest march on the campus on Thursday | Express Russia CM announces year-long celebration to commemorate Vaikom Satyagraha arrests Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was detained in Yekaterinburg while allegedly trying to obtain classified info | P9 Slew of space projects, with some moneymakers RAJESH KUMAR THAKUR Representative picture US judge says spouses of H-1B visa holders can work during their stay Y E S H I S E LI @ New Delhi express read Chennai: A cinema theatre in Chennai drew flak after a video of its ticket-checking staff denying entry to a few Narikurava members went viral on Thursday. Amid calls demanding action under SC/ST Act, the theatre administration said they were denied entry as they came with children for the movie which has U/A certificate | P2 ceased, besides `50,000 each to the injured, whose medical treatment will be funded by the state 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, while `50,000 would be given to each of the injured from the same fund. According to officials, the concrete slab roof of the step well on which the haven 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. With a language and political storm building up in the run up to the Karnataka elections following a fiat to label curd packets by their Hindi term dahi, the national food safety regulator on Thursday did a sharp Uturn and withdrew its order. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) blinked after Chief Minister M K Stalin and other political leaders condemned the order, terming it an attempt to impose Hindi. It said the order has been revised following representations from various quarters. The dahi directive was issued by the FSSAI on March 10 to the Karnataka Cooperative Milk Producers Federation (KMF), Bengaluru Rural and Ramanagara District Cooperative Milk Producers Societies Union Ltd, Tamil Nadu Cooperative Milk Producers Federation (Aavin) and Hatsun Agro Products Ltd. In its order to Aavin, the FSSAI had asked it to label its curd sachets as dahi (thayir) instead of curd (thayir). Aavin refused to do so. The March 10 directive had drawn flak from JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy and even TN BJP president Annamalai, who is also his party’s Karnataka’s election in-charge. The food safety and standards (food products standards and food additives) regulations of 2011 mandate the use of dahi to distinguish between dairy and non-dairy products. “It was mandated to avoid non-dairy products being labeled as curd. Therefore, milk cooperative to study the dynamics of bright astronomical X-ray in extreme conditions, which will be launched aboard SSLV-D3 (Small Satellite Launch Vehicle). Sources in the space department said the launch of the radar imaging satellite, RI-SAT1B, aboard the PSLV C60 is planned for the second half of 2023 in addition to a host of private sector activities, including launch vehicles and satellite launches. Besides, India’s moon mission, Chandrayaan-3 is also on the cards. E x p r e ss N e ws Se r v i c e @ Chennai Chief Minister MK Stalin on Thursday announced a yearlong celebration to commemorate Vaikom Satyagraha, the historical struggle against untouchability in which Periyar EV Ramasamy played a vital role and got imprisoned for spearheading the protests. Making an announcement in the assembly under rule 110, the CM said he would join the Vaikom Satyagraha centenary celebrations on April 1, at Vaikom in Kerala. On that day , the Malayalam translation of Tamil research work Vaikom Porattam authored by Pazha Adhiyaman would be released. The Telugu, Kannada, and English translations of the work will also be released soon. On November 29, the Tamil Nadu government will organise a grand function to commemorate the satyagraha in CMs to take part in TN event on Nov 29 Tamil Nadu will organise a grand function on November 29 to commemorate Vaikom Satyagraha in which personalities from various places and CMs of TN and Kerala would take part. which personalities from various places and CMs of Tamil Nadu and Kerala would take part. Stalin also said Vaikom Award would be presented on September 17 every year to per- sonalities or organisations working for the welfare of oppressed sections of society in other states. The CM also announced that Periyar memorial in Vaikom in Kerala would be renovated at a cost of `8.14 crore. Efforts would be taken to establish a new memorial for Periyar at Aruvikutty village in Kerala where he was imprisoned for taking part in the satyagraha. Steps would also be taken to release a commemorative postal stamp on Vaikom Satyagraha, the CM said. “Seminars will be conducted in universities and colleges about Vaikom Satyagraha and oratorical competitions, essay contests, and quiz programmes will be organised for school students. A 64-page book will be released to create awareness about the struggle. The book will also be released as an ‘audio book’ in Tamil and English,” Stalin said.  P5