Counting day today in Maha, Jharkhand The counting of votes for the crucial assembly elections in Maharashtra and Jharkhand will begin at 8 am on Saturday. The Jharkhand election was conducted in two phases on November 13 and 20. Votes polled in the by-elections to 46 assembly seats in 13 states and in the Lok Sabha segments of Nanded in Maharashtra and Wayanad in Kerala, will also be counted simultaneously | PTI | P8 SAMBALPUR l Saturday l november 23, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l CITY EDITION 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 No proof of Modi link to Nijjar plot, clarifies Canada Trudeau’s security advisor trashes report claiming Indian leadership was in the loop security and intelligence advisor to the Canadian PM. THE Justin Trudeau-led govCanada’s denial of the newsernment on Friday sought to paper report came after Extersought to set the record straight nal Affairs Ministry called it as it trashed a Canadian media out as a smear campaign. report, which claimed Prime “Such ludicrous statements Minister Narendra made to a newspaper Modi was in the loop purportedly by a Caabout the killing of nadian government Sikh separatist Hardsource should be diseep Singh Nijjar in missed with the conCanada. tempt they deserve,” On Wednesday The , India’s foreign minisGlobe and Mail had try had said. What the put out a report quotMeanwhile, the dippaper said ing an anonymous Calomatic stalemate beQuoting an nadian security offitween India and Cancial linking Modi, official, the paper ada continues. The Home Minister Amit said “it would be Indian Consulate in Shah, External Af- unthinkable that Toronto has issued a three senior fairs Minister S Jaisstatement saying it hankar, and National political figures had to cancel several Security Advisor Ajit in India wouldn’t consular camps as the have discussed Doval to criminal acCanadian authorities the targeted tivities in Canada. refused to provide ad“The Government killings with Modi equate security . before of Canada has not “Due to continued proceeding” stated, nor is it aware inability conveyed by of evidence, linking security agencies to Prime Minister Modi, Minis- provide minimum security ter Jaishankar, or NSA Doval against heightened threats, the to the serious criminal activity Consulate has had to cancel within Canada. Any sugges- some consular camps. Most of tion to the contrary is both them were not at any places of speculative and inaccurate,” worship, including one at a poread the statement issued by lice facility the Indian consu,” Nathalie G Drouin, national late in Toronto said. Y E S H I S E L I @ New Delhi Allegations of Adani bribing Odisha govt officials baseless, incorrect: BJD E x p r ess N e w s S e r v i c e @ Bhubaneswar Breaking its silence on the US department of Justice’s indictment of Adani group on bribing government officials of Odisha and several other states to secure solar energy contracts, the BJD, which was in power in the state during the period, dismissed the charges as ‘baseless and incorrect’. Former Energy minister and Opposition chief whip in the Assembly Pratap Keshari Deb said the power purchase agreement made in 2021 was between two government agencies - the Solar Energy Corporation of India Limited (SECI), a central public sector undertaking (PSU), and Gridco, a state PSU - for the purpose of supply of The agreement was to procure 500 MW of renewable energy from SECI at the lowest rates and was between two government entities. There was no engagement of any private party whatsoever including the Adani Group Pratap Keshari Deb, BJD leader renewable energy under the manufacturing-linked solar scheme of the Centre. Deb said the agreement was to procure 500 MW of renewable energy from SECI at the lowest rates and was between two government entities. “There was no engagement of any private party whatsoever including the Adani Group,” he said. “In fact to fulfil the renewa- ble energy commitments, the state has been procuring renewable energy from central government PSUs like SECI and NTPC from 2011 onwards. Hence, these allegations in respect of Odisha are baseless and incorrect,” he added. The former minister said, Odisha has privatised the power distribution sector while other states are doing the job directly . “All the agreements on power get the approval of OERC (Odisha Electricity Regulatory Commission), an autonomous body The Gridco is also . semi-autonomous. Therefore, the state government has no direct role in the agreements. Neither the Energy minister nor the secretary is involved in all such agreements,” he CONTINUED ON P5 added. Vessel collides with sub, two go missing M AYA N K S I N G H @ New Delhi Two fishermen were reported missing after their fishing vessel collided with a Indian Navy submarine about 70 nautical miles off the Goa coast. Eleven of the 13 crew on board fishing vessel Marthoma were rescued. “Search and rescue efforts were immediately launched by the Indian Navy with six ships and aircraft. 11 crew have been rescued so far,” navy officials said. A coordinated search and rescue effort for the remaining two crew is on. Additional naval assets, including from the Coast Guard, have been diverted to the area to augment the search efforts. Sources said the submarine India’s forex reserves tank $18 billion, rupee slips rUPEE AT 84.41/$ The rupee recovered from its all-time low level and appreciated 9 paise to close at 84.41 against the US dollar on Friday, supported by positive domestic equities RBI has aggressively supplied dollar to meet demand and outflows to control volatility Dilip Parmar B enn K o c h u v ee d an @ Mumbai INDIA’s foreign exchange (forex) reserves have seen the sharpest weekly dip on record, losing $17.76 billion for the week ended November 15 as the dollar continued to rally leading to immense pressure on the rupee, which forced the Reserve Bank of India to sell the greenback to stem the slide. Fo re x re s e r ve s h ave slipped nearly $30 billion in the past seven weeks. The reserves are down $47 bill i o n f ro m t h e record high of $704.89 billion reported on September 27. Traders said RBI intervention in the forex market repeatedly to save the rupee. According to analysts, there was a revaluation loss estimated at $10.4 billion for the reporting week, and RBI may have sold dollars worth $7.2 billion in the week ended November 15. Dilip Parmar, a senior currency research analyst at HDFC Securities, said that dollar demand from importers and continuing foreign funds outflows weigh on the rupee. “The central bank has aggressively supplied the dollar to meet the demand and outflows to control volatility There has been huge dol. lar demand from precious metal importers post-Diwali. The value of non-dollar assets also declined in the same period,” he said. “Despite the seven weeks of decline, we believe the forex reserves remain robust in terms of all external adequacy requirements with the import cover comfortably placed at over 11-months,” said Aditi Gupta, an economist at Bank of Baroda, in a note. was moving from one port to the other on the western coast when the accident happened on Thursday night. “After the collision, it continued to its next port of call,” they added. The extent of damage to the submarine will be ascertained once it touches the port, possibly by Friday night, the source said. The cause of the collision is being investigated. Fishermen getting curious about a surfaced periscope amid pitch darkness and trying to figure out the ripples it was creating, has happened a few times in the past. In 2015, INS Sindhughosh collided with a fishing vessel off the western coast, which resulted in minor damage to its periscope. $250 bn per year offer of rich nations The latest draft text on New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) published during COP29, for the first time included the quantum of climate finance rich nations are willing to commit, which is $250 billion per year by 2035 | P9