Cabinet approves 3 mega chip units @ `1.26 lakh cr outlay Construction of the units will begin within the next 100 days and the govt will provide financial aid Tata group to set up 2 units; CG Power one Tata Electronics and Taiwan’s Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp will set up a unit at Dholera, Gujarat, at a cost of 91,000 cr Tata Semiconductor Assembly and Test will set up a unit in Morigaon, Assam, at 27,000 cr MADURAI l friday l march 01, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 14 l LATE CITY EDITION CG Power, Renesas Electronics Corp, Japan, and Stars Microelectronics, Thailand, will set up a unit in Sanand at 7,600 cr Cabinet approves rooftop solar scheme Cabinet approved the rooftop solar scheme of 300 units free power for 1 cr houses with an outlay of `75,021 cr for panel installation 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 Economy zooms to 8.4% in Q3 Growth in gross value addition, however, was just 6.5% in third quarter, down from 7.7% in Q2 M o n i k a Ya d av @ New Delhi Tunda, after he was acquitted by a TADA court in the 1993 serial bomb blasts case, in Ajmer on Thursday | PTI ‘Mastermind’ of serial blasts in ’93 acquitted R a j e s h A s n a n i @ Jaipur Abdul Karim Tunda, the prime accused in the 1993 serial blasts case, was on Thursday acquitted by a TADA court in Ajmer. He is 80. Two other individuals, Irfan (70) and Hamimuddin (44), were convicted in that case. Tunda’s lawyer, Shafiktullah Sultani, said, “The court acquitted him of all charges. The CBI has failed to present any strong evidence against Tunda.” However, defence lawyer Bhavani Singh Rohela said the CBI would file an appeal in the Supreme Court. “The court acquitted Tunda because there was no direct evidence to prove his involvement,” he said. Tunda expressing gratitude to the court for his acquittal. Tunda, Irfan, and Hamimuddin were accused in the serial bomb blasts that targeted trains in Lucknow, Kanpur, Hyderabad, Surat and Mumbai on December 6, 1993. Twenty years ago, on February 28, 2004, the TADA court had sentenced 16 accused to life imprisonment in the case. Tunda was nabbed in 2013 in Banbasa, Uttarakhand, near the India-Nepal border. He was known to have close ties with underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and earned the moniker “Doctor Bomb” due to his expertise in bomb-making. THE Indian economy continues to spring surprises with the GDP growing at 8.4% in the third quarter of the current financial year (FY24). The numbers released by the National Statistics Office (NSO) on Thursday beat estimates by 140-170 basis points. Buoyed by the latest data, NSO has also revised its full-year GDP growth estimates for FY24 to 7.6%, up from the initial 7.3% projection made in January . “Robust 8.4% GDP growth in Q3 2023-24 shows the strength of Indian economy and its potential. Our efforts will continue to bring fast economic growth which shall help 140 crore Indians lead a better life and create a Viksit Bharat!” Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted. During a media briefing, Chief Economic Adviser V Anantha Growth sectors 11.6% 9.5% 9.5% 8.7% 9% Q3FY23 7.5% 5.2% Q3FY24 Average GDP growth of first 3 quarters of FY24 8.2% 1.4% Construction -4.8% Manufacturing sector output Electricity, gas, water supply Mining & quarrying -0.8% Laggard Agriculture IIP slips Key infra sectors grew at a 15-month low of 3.6% in Jan 2024, down from 4.9% in December and 9.7% in January 2023 Nageswaran said the robust GDP growth and India’s consistent outperformance are prompting a reevaluation by international organisations to raise their estimates of India’s growth rate to 7% or higher. He emphasised the economy’s ability to surpass projections, indicating a structural transformation in progress, par- Source: NSO ticularly in infrastructure and inclusion initiatives that enhance purchasing power. The sparkling GDP figures, however, don’t hide the sluggish sequential growth in gross value addition (GVA), which measures the total value of goods and services produced. GVA grew just 6.5% in the third quarter, lower Speaker disqualifies all 6 Himachal rebels as Cong sets its house in order H a rpr e e t B a j w a @ Chandigarh The Himachal Congress on Thursday sought to put its house in order with the Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania announcing the disqualification six rebels and the party deciding to set up a panel to coordinate between the party and the government. Two days ago, the party had spectacularly failed to keep its flock together during the Rajya Sabha elections, as six of its lawmakers cross-voted for the BJP It led to a tie and the . BJP bagged the seat in the subsequent draw of lots. The disqualified MLAs said they would challenge the Speak- Coordination panel Party observer and Karnataka Deputy CM D K Shivakumar said a committee with 5-6 members was being constituted for better coordination between the state party unit and the government er’s call in a court, alleging the decision was taken in haste under pressure from Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu. For his part, Pathania said he arrived at the decision as the chairman of the tribunal and not as Speaker. He cited a Supreme The Madras High Court has cancelled the provisional selection list for appointment of 245 civil judges in the state after finding erroneous accommodation of top rank holders in the merit list under reserved category and accommodation of candidates who scored lower marks under general category . Directing the TNPSC to cancel the list published on February 16, 2024, a bench of Justices SM Subramanian and K Rajasekar said, “The TNPSC is directed to prepare a revised provisional list by accommodating top rank candidates in the merit list under general category and thereafter, accommodate candidates against the carried forward vacancies as per the quota notified for backlog vacancies, and thereafter place the remain- ing candidates against the current vacancies by adopting the Rule of Reservation.” “The revised list shall be prepared scrupulously by following the ratio laid down by the Supreme Court in K Shobana case and published within two weeks. Further proceedings shall be initiated after that,” the bench said. The bench said the TNPSC misconstrued the scope of Section 27 (F) of the Tamil Nadu Government Servant Conditions of Service Act 2016 and erroneously accommodated the top rank holders in the merit list under reserved category posts and gave general category posts to other candidates who scored lesser marks. The order was passed on a batch of petitions filed by candidates seeking to redraw the list in accordance with the reservation rules. Continued on p7 Cremated Punjab farmer Shubhkaran Singh, 21, who died during clashes with security personnel, was cremated on Thursday. There was no clarity on the farmers’ Dilli Chalo march that is now on hold open challenge Court verdict which said when a Speaker acts under the Tenth Schedule, he does so as chairman of the tribunal. Pathania said they had defied the whip and attracted the provisions of the anti-defection law as they were not in the House when the Finance Bill was passed. In the morning, ex-CM Virbhadra Singh’s spouse and Himachal Pradesh Congress president Pratibha Singh justified the dissidence. Later she nuanced it saying the challenge now is to win the Lok Sabha elections. Party observer and Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar said Sukhu had accepted some failures and promised it will not happen in future. HC bins judge selection list over quota violation R SIVAK U M A R @ Chennai than 7.7% in the second quarter, and 8.2% in the first quarter of FY24. GVA growth in the third quarter of FY23 stood at 4.8%. The latest GDP growth numbers were also helped by a downward revision (from 4.7% to 4.3%) of the figures in the third quarter of the previous year. Net taxes less subsidies, which jumped by 32% annually, also boosted GDP growth in the quarter. The slowdown in GVA growth was led by manufacturing, construction and agriculture. Manufacturing sector GVA slowed down to 11.6% in Q3 from 14.4% in Q2. Agriculture sector growth declined by 0.8% during the quarter compared with 1.6% growth in the previous quarter. Construction sector saw the growth dropping from 13.5% in Q2 to 9.5% in Q3. Mining activities also slowed down to single digit growth of 7.5%. no chai pe charcha Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates with Nagpur-based tea vendor Dolly Chaiwala, who is also a social media influencer. Dolly later said he did not know who Gates was when he served him tea. He quoted Gates as saying, ‘Wow, Dolly ki Chai.’ “We did not speak at all, he was standing just beside me and I was busy with my work,” Dolly said | PTI Which union govt scheme did DMK block, CM asks PM E X P R ESS NEWS SE R VI C E @ Chennai Chief Minister M K Stalin on Thursday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to spell out the names of central schemes that were blocked by the state government. Responding to Modi’s claim that there was lack of cooperation from the DMK government in implementing central schemes, the CM said Modi is slandering DMK and the state government due to his fear and anger over the prospect of losing the LS poll. In a letter addressed to DMK cadres on the eve of his birthday Stalin said, “Modi should have specified , the projects that were being obstructed by the DMK administration instead of making superficial and generalised allegations. Did we block the opening of AIIMS in Madurai? Did we stand in the way of metro rail projects? Let him tell us for which central projects did we not allocate land.” Stalin said the DMK was openly opposing only those schemes like the NEET, farm bills, Citizenship Amendment Act and National Education Policy since PM Modi, who heads a they were against the interests of the heartless govt people. “Modi, who heads a heartless that denies due government that denies grants to grants to states, prevents borrowing, doesn’t states, prevents sanction even flood relief money has borrowing, , and doesn’t no right to criticise DMK,” he said. Responding to Modi’s remarks that sanction even DMK had to be driven away from flood relief Tamil Nadu, Stalin termed the re- money, has no right to criticise marks as demeaning to the position of the DMK PM. He said he would not wish the same for the BJP as DMK believed in M K Stalin, CM BJP’s right to function as a party in a democratic arena. The political history of Tamil Nadu would show what happened to those who wanted to destroy the DMK, Stalin said. “My wishes for the BJP which was not able to be a good ruling party in , the past, to function at least as a good opposition party in the future,” the CM quipped. “Today the DMK has , the duty to defeat fascism and communalism to uphold democracy and pluralism in the Lok Sabha polls and to ensure the victory of the INDIA bloc. DMK cadres should strive to win all 40 LS seats — 39 in TN and lone Puducherry seat segment, and a change of guard at the centre would be a sweet birthday gift for me,” Stalin said. After 55 days on the run, TMC’s muscleman Shahjahan held P r a n a b M o n d a l @ Kolkata A day after the Calcutta High Court gave central agencies a free hand to go after Trinamool Congress strongman Shahjahan Sheikh for evading police action for 55 days, he was arrested by the state police in the wee hours of Thursday . The arrest came a day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to kick off his poll campaign in West Bengal. Sheikh was arrested from a hideout in Minakha in North 24 Parganas, an adjoining pocket of the strife-hit Sandeshkhali, in a case related to the attack on Enforcement Directorate officers on January 5 when they went to raid his house in a foodgrain scam. He also faces allegations of sexual abuse of women and forcible land grab in the North 24 Parganas island, Sheikh was remanded in police custody for 10 days. The state government then handed over the case to the state Criminal Investigation Department. Shortly after the arrest, the ED moved the HC requesting advancing of a hearing scheduled on March 6 so to obviate the possibility of the state police tampering with evidence related to the attack on the federal agency The court will hear . the petition on Friday . Later in the day, the Trinamool suspended Sheikh from the party for six years. “He will also be removed from all the government posts he occupies by virtue of being a Zilla Parishad member,” said state minister Bratya Basu. Rumpus in Kagithapattarai One of the six Tasmac outlets located at Kagithapattarai in Vellore | S Dinesh Six Tasmac shops in 1km radius, Vellore ward gets a hangover R AJALAKSH M I SA M PAT H @ Vellore For the 2,000 families living amid a multitude of Tasmac outlets at Kagithapattarai in Vellore, life has become one unending nightmare. The 28th ward spread across 20 streets has six liquor outlets within a radius of just one km. Of the six Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation Limited (Tasmac) outlets at Kagithapattarai, one shop is located near a movie theatre on Kagithapattarai Road, two within 500 metres, two more within 800 metres, and one shop is located among houses on a street in LIC Colony Muthu Nagar, LIC . Colony and Sarathy Nagar are , among the localities. “After 6pm, it is difficult to come out of the house as the streets are taken over by tipplers. We mostly keep our windows and doors closed all the time to save ourselves from un- wanted trouble from drunkards,” a resident said. There is a private factory near Kagigathpatrai where several residents work as labourers and housekeepers and their shifts typically end by 7pm. P7
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