chennai l saturday l september 23, 2023 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l vellore EDITION U.S. and China launch working groups to mend fraught ties Two working groups to be established to improve communications between the two countries, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Friday Janet Yellen regulatory, Macroeconomic issues in focus Decision made during yellen’s china visit Led by Yellen and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, the working groups will be divided into economic and financial segments. The former, led by the US Treasury and China’s finance ministry, will discuss macroeconomic issues, while the latter group, which includes the Treasury and the People’s Bank of China, will focus on regulatory and financial stability issues ■ ■ Washington and Beijing saw their relations hit a new low in February when the US forces shot down an alleged Chinese spy balloon Since then, the two sides have restarted high-level contacts, and Yellen visited Beijing in July to hold talks with He. It was during this visit that the two countries agreed to set up working groups Two Groups are expected to hold regular meetings, China’s CCTV reported 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 JP Morgan adds Freed after four years, Mirwaiz Indian bonds to makes Kashmir dialogue pitch its global index F aya z W a n i @ Srinagar Analysts estimate passive fund inflows to the tune of $25 billion; rupee to gain value DIPAK MONDAL @ New Delhi decision on its own. It attests to the confidence that financial IN a significant move that will market participants and finanset the stage for billions of dol- cial markets, in general, have lars of foreign fund flows to In- on India’s potential and growth dia, global financial firm JP prospects and its macroecoMorgan has decided to include nomic and fiscal policies,” said Indian government bonds into India’s chief economic advisor its widely tracked emerging V Anantha Nageswaran. market debt index. Analysts see this as a positive “India’s weight is expected to move for the Indian economy reach the maximum weight as it ensures stable fund inthreshold of 10% in the flows, stronger rupee, and GBI-EM Global Diversilower bond yields. fied, and 8.7% in the According to SBI MuGBI-EM Global index,” tual Fund’s chief econJPMorgan said in a omist Namrata Mittal, statement. Indian the move creates an adbonds’ inclusion will ditional source to fund be staggered over a 10the current account GBI-EM month period from and fiscal deficit. She, Global June 24, 2024 to March however, cautions that 31, 2025, indicating 1% China, Indonesia, once the initial adjustincrement on its index ment is done, there Malaysia, weight. This will lead Thailand, Czech, may be a relatively to passive inflows of Hungary, Poland, higher volatility in the around $25 billion. Romania, Serbia, Indian bond market. Government Bond Debopam ChaudhuTurkey, Brazil, Index-Emerging Mar- Chile, Colombia, ri, chief economist of kets (GBI-EM) Global Dominican Rep., Piramal Group sees the Diversified accounts move in terms of freeMexico, Peru, for $213 billion of the Uruguay, Egypt & ing up of funds for priestimated $236-billion South Africa are vate borrowers. “With benchmarked to the part of the index a d d i t i o n a l fo re i g n GBI-EM f amily of funds available through indices. funds tracking the Bond IndexAccording to the index inclu- es, government borrowing may sion criteria, eligible instru- not crowd out private corporate ments are required to have no- borrowers as much as in the tional outstanding above $1 past,” he said. billion and at least 2.5 years reAccording to Nomura, over maining maturity Currently 23 the longer term, this could trig. , Indian government bonds with ger other index inclusions, a combined notional value of such as in the Bloomberg Glo$330 billion are eligible to be bal Aggregate Index, which part of the index. could attract another $7-10 bil“JP Morgan has made this lion of inflows. rahman show Case on event firm CEO for breach of trust EXPRE S S NEW S S ER V I C E @ Chennai The Tambaram city police on F riday re gistered cases against the CEO of ACTC Events, the organiser of A R Rahman’s September 10 concert held in Chennai, for overselling tickets, committing breach of trust, and causing inconvenience to people. The Kanathur police have booked Hemanth Kumar under Sections 406 and 188 of IPC. Tambaram Commissioner of Police A Amalraj said, “The agency was given permission to allow 25,000 people but they disobeyed police order and sold m o r e t i c ke t s than the permitted limit. The mismanagement led to chaos and several people who had bought the tickets were unable to watch the concert. It was a clear breach of trust.” About 15,000 to 20,000 tickets were sold more than the stipulated number, he said. “The organisers have violated the licence conditions for holding the event,” Amalraj said. The concert was conducted on a ground owned by Adityaram group at Panaiyur. Thousands were caught in traffic on ECR and OMR roads and multiple women complained of harassment in the crowd. A day after the event, poeple took to the internet to P5 share their ordeal.  Mirwaiz Umar Farooq at the Jamia Masjid in Srinagar on Friday | PTI human issue, not political: Mirwaiz “We believe in peaceful coexistence. We have always advocated return of Kashmiri Pandits and disapproved of making this human issue a political one,” the Mirwaiz said Released from house arrest after over four years, Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq on Friday said people like him were peace promoters, not separatists or disrupters. He pitched for dialogue to resolve the Kashmir issue at the prayers at Kashmir’s grand mosque, Jamia Masjid. The Mirwaiz criticised the reading down of Article 370 saying it was an assault on Kashmiri identity, adding harsh and unilateral decisions of disempowerment were taken by the administration. Terming Kashmir as a human problem and not a territorial tug of war, the Mirwaiz said, “We in Hurriyat believe that a part of J&K is in India, a part with Pakistan and some part with China. All these comprise J&K as it existed in August 1947. Its people are divided by an artificial line. This issue has to be addressed through dialogue.” On Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement that ‘today’s era must not be of war,’ in the context of the Ukraine invasion, he said it applies to Kashmir too. Police guard deployed outside his residence was withdrawn and he was allowed to move out. A senior police officer visited his residence on Thursday and informed him that restrictions on his movement have been lifted. The Mirwaiz was under house arrest since August 4, 2019, a day before the Centre abrogated J&K’s special status, withdrew its statehood and reduced it to two Union Territories. As he left his home and reached Jamia Masjid, a large number of people welcomed him with slogans of “Sher Aaya, Mirwaiz Aaya (lion Mirwaiz has come), making him emotional. He broke down on reaching the pulpit. “These four years were the worst period of my life after my father’s death. Being here is a very emotional moment for me,” he said. SC TN IN PLEA ON SANATANA DHARMA seeks reply FROM A bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Bela M Trivedi issued notices on a plea filed by B Jagannath seeking an FIR against minister Udhayanidhi on grounds that his remarks are like hate speech | P5 BJP MP’s religion slur sparks outrage Pa r v e z S u lta n @ New Delhi BJP MP Ramesh Bidhuri’s gutter language in the Lok Sabha against BSP’s Danish Ali triggered a massive outrage on Friday with Speaker Om Birla apparently letting him off with a warning of strict action if such behaviour is repeated in future. An appalled Ali said he could consider quitting the membership of the House if no step is taken against Bidhuri. Bidhuri had made the remarks during a discussion on the success of Chandrayaan 3 in the House on Thursday. A two-minute clipping of Parliament’s proceedings that shows Bidhuri making derogatory re- BJP MP made an objectionable remark against Danish Ali. The Speaker expunged it and a minister apologised but BJP has not taken any action against him, which is unfortunate — Mayawati, BSP chief Video grab of the exchange between Ramesh Bidhuri (L) and Danish Ali in LS marks stirred up a storm on social media. The BJP lawmaker from south Delhi seat drew severe criticism from all quarters, with the Opposition INDIA bloc rallying behind Ali. Defence minister Rajnath Singh expressed regret immediately after Bidhuri’s remarks on Thursday According to BJP . leaders, the party later served him a show cause notice. “During the course of his speech, he directed the most foul, abusive invectives against me, which are part of the record of Lok Sabha. Among words he used against me were bhadwa (pimp), katwa (circumcised), mullah ugravadi (Muslim terrorist) and atankvadi (terrorist) etc,” Ali wrote to the Speaker and requested that the matter be referred to the privileges committee. Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and K C Venugopal visited Ali and expressed solidarity. Later on X, Rahul posted pictures with Ali and said, “Nafrat ke bazaar mein mohabbat ki dukaan (shop for spreading love in market of hate).” Electric bus goes up in Power tariff hike: 50k firms to flames in pile-up on NH blow a fuse go on strike in TN on Monday E x p r e ss N e w s S e r v i c e @ Coimbatore The Tamil Nadu Industries Association on Friday said around 50,000 industries affiliated to 165 associations spread across TN, including Coimbatore District Small Scale Industries Association (CODISSIA), will go on strike on September 25 (Monday) The protest is to urge the state to withdraw electricity tariff revision, peak hour charge and fixed charge, and in support of other demands, associations said. Speaking to reporters in Coimbatore on Friday office, bearers of various associations said, “Around 50,000 industries will suspend their ‘Not consulted by state govt on tariff revision’ “Maharashtra and Gujarat are offering subsidies to industries but TN is increasing our burden. The state government neither consulted us nor sought our suggestion,” say industrialists o p e r at i o n s o n M o n d ay. Around three crore labourers, including 1.2 crore registered employees and migrant labourers of these units, will strike work.” “While states like Maharashtra, Haryana and Gujarat are providing subsidies to industries, the Tamil Nadu government is increasing the burden on us with exorbitant electricity charge. The government neither consulted us before revising power tariff nor sought our suggestions about the change after the rollout,” the industrialists said. If the government fails to accept our demands, we will convene a meeting to decide the future course of action, the associations said. V Karthick, a motor pump manufacturer in Coimbatore, told TNIE, “One-HP motor pump sold for `6,000 apiece P5 now costs `11,000.”  Sahaya Novi nsto n Lo bo @ Chennai An electric bus with 20 passengers on board went up in flames on Friday morning near Chembarambakkam on the ChennaiBengaluru National Highway after it got sandwiched between two buses in a three-vehicle pile-up. The passengers had a narrow escape as they immediately disembarked from the bus before it was completely engulfed by flames. Fire service officers said a circuit mishap, set off by the collision, may have triggered the blaze. The bus, which belongs to a private travel company, was headed for Bengaluru from Koyambedu bus terminus on Friday “Around 6 am, when the . bus was near Chembarambakkam, it dashed against a government bus moving in the front after the driver of the gov- Bus ablaze near Chembarambakkam on Chennai-Bengaluru NH | Express ernment bus hit the brake suddenly Another private bus that . was coming behind rammed the rear of the electric bus,” a police officer said. Minutes later, after the vehicles moved past, smoke started emanating from the battery cabin in the back. After the passengers alerted driver Ambaresh, the bus was halted and they all got P5 out of the vehicle.  It’s official, JD(S) part of NDA group ahead of Lok Sabha polls R a j e s h Ku m a r T h a k u r @ New Delhi Putting an end to speculations, the Janata Dal (Secular) on Friday said it will ally with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The decision was announced after JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy met BJP national president J P Nadda and Union home minister Amit Shah at Nadda’s residence. The JD(S) joining its camp will give the BJP a boost in Karnataka as it prepares for the general elections, months after losing the state Assembly elections to the Congress. “I am happy that JD(S) has decided to be the part of National Democratic Alliance. We wholeheartedly welcome them in the NDA. This will further strengthen NDA and vision of Hon’ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi Ji for ‘New India, Strong India’,” Nadda wrote on X, formerly Twitter. Welcoming the JD(S) to the NDA, Shah tweeted: “Their association will lead Karnataka ‘Alliance against Cong’ “We have formed the alliance against Congress. Congress is indulging in corruption in the state,” H D Kumaraswamy told reporters H D Kumaraswamy (left) with Union Home Minister Amit Shah with in Delhi | PTI on the path of development and pave the way for a stronger NDA and a stronger India.” BJP sources said talks with JD(S) leaders have been going on for the last six months. Party leaders believe an alliance with the JD(S) will ensure its domination in Karnataka in the Lok Sabha elections as the regional party enjoys a strong political grip in the state’s southern parts. The JD(S) is the third biggest political party in Karnataka after the Congress and the BJP in Karnataka. Sports minister Anurag Thakur Sports min to skip Asiad over accreditation of Arunachal girls Y e s h i S e l i @ New Delhi The Asian Games, one of the biggest multi-event meets in the world in terms of athlete representation, is set to open on Saturday The Indian con. tingent reached Hangzhou in batches and are set to be part of what is expected to be one of the most competitive and largest Games. However, China’s refusal to grant accreditation to three Arunachal Pradesh athletes has forced the sports minister to drop his Games visit in protest. Anurag Thakur has decided to not attend the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou starting from Saturday Apparently his . , trip could have started with the Opening Ceremony but as a mark of protest for discriminating against Indian players from Arunachal Pradesh, the trip stands cancelled. “Government of India reserves the right to take suitable measures to safeguard our interests as some sportspersons were denied entry into the Games,’’ said Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi. The three women wushu players from Arunachal Pradesh are Nyeman Wangsu, Onilu Tega and Mepung Lamgu. Earlier, India had pulled out of the World University Games in Chengdu in response to stapled visas. The Indian government said that the Chinese authorities have, in a targeted and premeditated manner, discriminated against some of the Indian sportspersons from Arunachal Pradesh by denying them accreditation. A strong protest has been lodged in New Delhi and Beijing against China’s deliberate and selective obstruction of some of our sportspersons. “China’s action violates both the spirit of the Asian Games and the rules governing their conduct, which explicitly prohibits discrimination against competitors P11 from member states.”