BENGALURU TUESDAY JULY 23, 2024 `9.00 PAGES 20 LATE CITY EDITION SAILOR MISSING AFTER FIRE ERUPTS ABOARD NAVY VESSEL IN MUMBAI One sailor was missing after a fire erupted onboard INS Brahmaputra, which was undergoing refit at Mumbai’s Naval Dockyard, on Sunday night BLAZE PUT OFF, BUT SHIP LISTS TO ONE SIDE SEARCH ON FOR MISSING JUNIOR SAILOR Though the fire was brought under control by Monday morning by the ship’s crew with the help of fire fighters from the dockyard, the ship later started listing to one side. Despite all efforts, the ship could not be brought to an upright position, the Navy said. “The ship continued to list further alongside her berth and is presently resting on one side,” it said ■ ■ A search was underway for the junior sailor who was missing. All other personnel who were on the ship have been accounted for The Navy said further follow-on actions, including sanitisation checks for assessment of residual risk of fire, were carried out on the ship, which is an indigenously-built multi-role frigate 2000 WHEN INS BRAHAMPUTRA WAS COMMISSIONED INTO SERVICE 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 MUTED GROWTH FORECAST Survey says GDP growth in FY25 would slow to 6.5-7% from 8.2% in FY24 The projection is lower than 8.2% estimated in 2023-24 and RBI’s forecast of 7.2% The muted projection is due to global uncertainties and various domestic challenges SURVEY SURPRISES Review FDI policy to bring investments from China Chinese firms can make in India, to tap export market Govts should “renounce some powers” to help improve governance Artificial intelligence could impact workers, regardless of whether they are low-killed or high-skilled Private sector and state govts need to do more to create jobs: Corporates must invest in tandem with their profit growth and states need to formulate policies and incentives for job creation Private companies contribute to ‘toxic mix of habits’ among workforce such as social media, screen time, sedentary habits, and unhealthy food Excessive speculation and overconfidence of retail investors in stockmarket a matter of grave concern Growth story pared with dose of realism Economic Survey contradicts the government’s anti-China stance; seeks to shift the responsibility of job creation to the private sector D I PA K M O N D A L @ New Delhi INDIA’s march towards Viksit Bharat in 2047 may not be a walk in the park amid rising global uncertainties, climate change risks, and the ‘huge pall of uncertainty’ cast by artificial intelligence (AI). Premised on this reality check, the Economic Survey 2023-24, tabled by Finance Minister Nir mala Sitharaman in Parliament on Monday, presents a mixed picture of hope and high water. Though the Survey asserts that India’s economy is on a “strong wicket and stable footing, demonstrating resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges”, it outlines in great length the challenges ahead. In this context, the report pegs GDP growth rate at a conservative 6.5-7% for FY25, lower than the estimates of many domestic and international agencies. “It is not that we are not optimistic about growth, we are just making aware of the challenges it faces going forward,” said Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran. He outlined three major challenges facing India’s growth – geopolitical tension and growing inward looking economic policies in the developed world; climate change and global To boost manufacturing and plug India into the global supply chain, it is inevitable that India plugs itself into China’s supply chain Chief Economic Adviser V Anantha Nageswaran warming; and, the AI casting a huge pall of uncertainty on workers across all skill levels. Overcoming these challenges will need a ‘grand alliance’ of Union, state governments, and the private sector, says the Survey. The three stakeholders should work in tandem for generating productive employment by reducing the skill gap, boosting the MSME sector by easing compliance burden, de-cluttering financing bottlenecks, and managing the China conundrum, it adds. Raising concerns about inequality and the poor health of the young population, the Survey ticked off the private sector for encouraging investigating it. “Regarding anomalies and information FACING heat from the Oppo- of some malpractices, out of sition on the opening day of 4,700 centres, due to proactive the Budget session in the Lok approach of Bihar Police, Sabha over the NEET-UG only in one place in Patna and row, Union education minis- surrounding points, there is ter Dharmendra Pradhan re- an incident of anomaly CBI is . butted all charges on Mon- getting into the details. Some day during Question Hour, action has been taken. We are saying his governhiding nothing. Evement is not hiding rything is on record,” anything, adding he said. there is no evidence While Rahul deof paper leak in the manded a one-day last seven years. discussion on the isLeader of Opposue, the minister sition (LoP) Rahul said, “I am here at Gandhi led the ofthe mercy of my fensive, alleging leader, the prime m a n y a re c o n - Minister Dharmendra minister. Whenever vinced that the In- Pradhan speaks in the question of accountdian exam system Lok Sabha on Monday ability comes, my is a fraud. “The edgovernment is anucation minister has blamed swerable to that.” everybody except himself. I When other Opposition don’t even think he under- leaders like SP chief Akhilesh stands the fundamentals of Yadav alleged that the Modi what is going on here... The government will create new issue is that there are mil- records in paper leaks, Pradlions of students in this han hit back, saying: “I have a country who are extremely list of how many paper leaks concerned about what is go- happened when Akhilesh Yaing on and who are convinced dav was CM.” that the Indian exam system Later, writing on X, Pradis a fraud,” Rahul charged. han questioned why the Countering the argument, Congress-led UPA failed to Pradhan said “only one case” implement bills to stop malof malpractice has come to practices in educational light in Bihar and the CBI is institutions. EXPRESS READ Suraj Revanna gets bail in sexual assault case Bengaluru: JDS MLC Dr Suraj Revanna, who was arrested in a sexual assault case filed by a male worker of the party,, was granted bail by a special court on Monday. Among the bail conditions, the court directed Suraj execute a personal bond of Rs 2 lakh with two sureties to the satisfaction of the jurisdictional court and he should not contact the victim directly or indirectly | P4 SC stays order to eateries to show owners’ details S U C H I T R A K A LYA N M O H A N T Y @ New Delhi THE Supreme Court on Monday issued an interim stay on directives issued by the governments of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh asking eateries along the Kanwar Yatra route to display the names, addresses and mobile numbers of their owners. “Food sellers may be required to display the kind of food they are serving. But, they must not be forced to display the name/identity of the owners and also the employees,” a two-judge bench comprising justices Hrishikesh Roy and S V N Bhatti said. It was hearing pleas filed by the Association For Protection of Civil Rights, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra and Prof Apoorvanand, challenging the state governments’ orders. During the hearing, Justice Bhatti said he used to frequent a vegetarian restaurant in Kerala run by a Muslim. “Without disclosing the name of the city, there is a vegetarian hotel run by a Hindu. There is another vegetarian hotel run by a Muslim,” Justice Bhatti said. “I was going to the hotel run by a Muslim for vegetarian food. When it comes to food standards and safety he , was displaying everything,” he said. The bench issued notices to all three states and asked them to file their responses in time for the next hearing slated for July 26. Welcoming the order, the Congress said it hopes Prime Minister Narendra Modi will make BJP CMs aware of their raj dharma. HC terms viewing child porn an offence, recalls earlier order Sparks fly over NEET-UG on Budget session day 1 P R E E T H A N A I R @ New Delhi sedentary habits among employees. With the external sector remaining uncertain, the Survey says the domestic sector should do the heavy lifting. Notably, the Survey seeks to shift the responsibility of job creation to the private sector. “Employment generation is the real bottom line for the private sector,” says the CEA, under whose supervision the Economic Survey report was drafted. It also says that private sector investment has not been commensurate with the benefits it received from the corporate tax rates in 2019. Cautioning that the deployment of AI could have deleterious impact on jobs, the Survey says deploying capital- and energy-intensive AI is probably the last thing a lower-middleincome economy needs. In a clear departure from the general anti-China stance of the government, the Survey bats for more Chinese investment to boost domestic manufacturing, adding that India must ‘plug itself ’ into China’s supply chain. “Whether we do so by relying solely on imports or partially through Chinese investments is a choice that India has to make,” it says, hinting that the anti-China policy has P12 not been helping India. KANWAR YATRA BBMP to be split into 10 corpns, Bill to be tabled today EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Bengaluru The state cabinet on Monday approved to split the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) into ten city corporations under the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA), along with the Bengaluru Water Supply and Sewerage Board, BDA and Bescom. The chief minister will be the chairman of the authority The . government is likely to table the Greater Bengaluru Governance Bill-2024 in the Assembly on Tuesday The plan is to restruc. ture the BBMP to transform it into a three-tier setup with the chief minister at the top. Municipal corporations and ward committees will form the other two layers, which will be accountable for improving the administration, sources said. Besides carving out the city corporations as East, West, South, North and Central, Nelamangala, Devanahalli, Hoskote, Ramanagara, Kanakapura, Anekal and Bangalore Rural would also be included. E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Bengaluru HOLDING that browsing child pornographic material is an offence under Section 67(B)(b) of the Information Technology Act, the High Court of Karnataka rejected a petition filed by a 47-yearold man, challenging the case registered against him for watching child pornography on his mobile phone. Justice M Nagaprasanna passed the order on July 19 while rejecting the petition filed by Inayathulla N of Hoskote near Bengaluru. The case was registered by Bengaluru CEN Crime Police under Section 67B of the Information Technology (IT) Act on May 3, 2023. Inayathulla was booked for allegedly viewing a website which exhibits pornographic material of children between 3.50 pm and 4.40 pm on March 23, 2022, after it was tracked by Cyber Tipline, which placed an alert on its Tipline about the IP address that led to his mobile number and then to his address. Inayuthulla questioned it on the grounds that his action won’t attract Section 67-B as he was watching a pornographic website on his mobile phone and never intended to circulate anything. P5 DKS: 30 tmcft of Cauvery water released to TN E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Bengaluru/Mandya DEPUTY Chief Minister and Water Resources Minister DK Shivakumar said on Monday that 30 tmcft of water has been released to Tamil Nadu from Karnataka’s reservoirs in the Cauvery basin so far. Addressing reporters after visiting Krishna Raja Sagar (KRS) dam in Mandya, Shivakumar said, “We are releasing 51,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu every day. We have ‘Cauvery Aarti’ released 30 tmcft of water and if planned at KRS we release 10 tmcft more, it will The state government meet the TN’s quota in a normal is planning to start monsoon year.” ‘Cauvery Aarti’ on the Sharing the government’s plans lines of ‘Ganga Aarti’ for this sowing season, Shivaku- in Varanasi. “We will mar said officials have been direct- study the plan by ed to take steps to fill 1,657 tanks in forming a committee the state’s Cauvery basin. of 20 members from “The agriculture minister has the Cauvery basin fixed a target to take up sowing in area,” said DyCM DK two lakh hectares of land. We have Shivakumar | P4 many programmes for this sowing season, including distribution of 5.90 lakh quintals of seeds to farmers, stocking 27 lakh tonnes of fertilizers and giving loans to the tune of Rs 25,000 crore to 30 lakh farmers through cooperatives,” he said. The Cauvery Water Management Committee (CWMC) had directed the state to release 20 tmcft of water from July 11 to July 30 to Tamil Nadu. “But it was not done due to poor water levels in our dams then. We called an allparty meeting and discussed the matter,” he said. Following heavy rain, water level at KRS dam touched 123.20 feet against the maximum of 124 feet on Monday | UDAYASHANKAR S No special status for Bihar: Centre PREETHA NAIR & RAMASHANKAR @ New Delhi/Patna THE Centre on Monday ruled out granting special category status to Bihar, a long standing demand of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal (United), a crucial ally of the NDA government. In a written reply in the Lok Sabha on Monday, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary cited an inter-ministerial group report of 2012 to assert that a case for granting special category status to Bihar is not made out. He said special category status was granted in the past by the National Development Council to some states, based on certain criteria, which did not apply in Bihar’s case. The development comes a day after JD(U) leader Sanjay Kumar Jha voiced his party’s demand for the status at an allparty meeting. The Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), also a BJP ally, and the RJD, too, raised the demand at Sunday’s all-party meet. Reacting to the Cen- tre’s response, JD(U) spokesperson K C Tyagi said: “JD(U) would keenly looking at Nirmala Sitharaman’s budget speech on Tuesday to what is on offer for Bihar.” The JD(U) has already said that it is willing to settle for a special financial package. Meanwhile, the RJD hit out at Nitish Kumar demanding his resignation. “He should resign immediately, he has said that he will get special state status,” RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav said. K’taka to have its Doppler Weather Radar atop Nandi Hills B O S K Y K H A N N A @Bengaluru KARNATAKA will finally have its own Doppler Weather Radar (DWR) this year. It will be installed atop the Nandi Hills, 62 km from Bengaluru. “If all goes well (the pending soil test results), work on installation of DWR will start in two months,” IMD-Bengaluru Director N Puviyarasan told The New Indian Express. A team of IMD officials with their counterparts from horticulture and revenue departments visited the Nandi Hills 10 days ago and shortlisted four sites there. Samples for soil testing are being taken and results will be known after a month-and-a-half. Dr Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State (Independent charge), Ministry of Science and Technology recently wrote , to Union Minister of State for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and Labour and Employment Shobha Karandlaje confirming that IMD would install a C-Band DWR “in Beng alur u” this year to strengthen early warning system benefiting numerous stakeholders and the public. Singh said the site for the radar had been identified and discussions were on with the state government to acquire it. IMD also selected land at Air Force Station Yelahanka (AFSY) in Bengaluru. The IAF responded positively If soil at . the Nandi Hills is not condu- cive to install DWR, then it will be installed at AFSY. Installing DWRs atop hills has been done in the north-eastern states. Installing the radar at the Nandi Hills will be ideal as no construction can take place there. A major challenge in installing it is that there should not be any high rise structure within its radius of 40 km, Puviyarasan said. P5 FIR against two ED sleuths probing ST Corpn scam EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Bengaluru IN a fresh development, a 54-year-old official of the Social Welfare Department on Monday filed a criminal complaint against two ED officials, accusing them of forcing him to name Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and former tribal welfare minister B Nagendra in the Karnataka Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation scam. The complaint was filed by B Kallesh, additional director of the department, against Mittal and Muruli Kannan, the ED officials, at Wilson Garden police station. The police have registered a case against the two officials under different Sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). According to the FIR, Kallesh was questioned on July 16 between 12.45 pm and 7.30 pm at the ED office, II Floor, BMTC Complex, Shanthinagar. CONTINUED ON: P4
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