source: nasa tirupati l wednesday l march 20, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l late city EDITION Asteroid bennu has building blocks of life, say scientists Bennu’s sample show presence of glycine, the simplest amino acid, and a crucial ingredient of proteins, according to a report in Live Science water minerals found in the sample Did earth get water from outer space? The sample also has other water-bearing minerals such as carbonates, sulphites, olivine and magnetite, leading to a tangible evidence that Bennu’s parent body witnessed multiple water-related episodes before fragments coalesced into the asteroid, the report says. Scientists also found a reservoir of magnesium phosphate, a rare find in astromaterials ■ ■ Scientists have found abundant water-altered compounds called phyllosilicates, which may have been the cradles for organics, water that scientists suspect were delivered to Earth early in its history Sample of Bennu was brought by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission in a protected capsule in 2023 and kept in Houston where study is on 700 mn years ago bennu could have broken off from a larger asteroid 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 SC gives govt 2 weeks to respond to petitions seeking stay on CAA rules Directs the Centre to file its reply by April 2; matter to come up before court again on April 9 S u c h i t r a K a lya n M o h a n t y @ New Delhi APCC general secretary Madireddy Jagan Mohan Reddy and other leaders joined the YSRC in the presence of CM YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Tuesday | Express Jagan to begin bus yatra on March 27 from Proddatur dham meetings that Jagan had addressed earlier. “Siddham meetings are massive YSRC president and Chief congregations, which even atMinister YS Jagan Mohan tracted international attenReddy will kick-start his cam- tion. The meetings at the Lok paign on March 27 with a pub- Sabha constituency level will lic meeting - Memanta Sid- also be held in a similar mandham - at Proddatur in Kadapa ner,’’ Sajjala revealed. Lok Sabha constituency after The yatra will be planned in starting his bus yatsuch a way that all ra from Idupulapathe Assembly conTDP LS list ya the same day . likely today stituencies that Announcing the were not covered in TDP supremo first three days of the four Siddham N Chandrababu road map of the bus meetings, will be yatra, YSRC gener- Naidu is focused on covered. Jagan will finalisation of the al secretary Sajjala interact with variparty Lok Sabha Ramakrishna Redous sections of peody said the yatra candidates for the ple in the morning ensuing elections, will start from Iduand take feedback pulapaya and after and is expected to and suggestions traversing through announce the names from them. “Like in of more than 10 various parts of the his earlier Padayatcontestants in the State, it will end at ra, he will mingle first list on Ichchapuram in with the people durWednesday Uttarandhra. ing his bus yatra,’’ “The yatra has Sajjala said. been taken up to make YSRC The yatra is likely to concadres Siddham for the elec- tinue till April 18, when the tions. It is a platform to show notification for the elections that crores of party support- will be issued. Jagan will then ers and cadres are ready for take up regular election ralthe electoral battle,’’ he lies. Jagan will be among the asserted. people once the yatra starts. Sajjala said Jagan will ad- Jagan will continue the dress one public meeting eve- yatra even on festival days, ryday and each meeting will the YSRC general secretary P4 be held on the lines of the Sid- said. E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Vijayawada The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to stay the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules sought by a batch of petitioners, but directed the Centre to file its reply by April 2. “We are not expressing any prima facie view. We have to hear the petitioners, we have to hear the other side,” said the bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta initially sought four weeks time to reply and clarified that the law “does not take away citizenship of any person”. express read Leopard that killed girl at Tirumala identified Tirumala: Finally, the leopard, which mauled six-year-old Lakshitha to death on the Alipiri pedestrian path in Tirumala seven months ago, was identified after much technical research. Based on the 80-page report submitted by IISER, the forest department had concluded that the leopard was the one that was captured at Tirumala on August 28 | P3 Lokpal orders CBI probe against Mahua Moitra New Delhi: The Lokpal on Tuesday asked the CBI to investigate the cash-for-query allegations against TMC leader Mahua Moitra and submit its findings within six months. After careful evaluation of material on record, the allegations against Moitra are extremely serious in nature and a deeper probe is required, the Lokpal’s order said | P7 Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the Indian Union Muslim League, questioned the urgency to notify the rules four years after CAA was passed. The Act was passed in December 2021 but the rules giving effect to the law were notified only on March 11. “We are not expressing any prima facie view in the matter,” the bench said, while posted the matter to April 9. Voting rights When senior advocate Ranjit Kumar, appearing for a Hindu immigrant from Balochistan, wondered how will anyone be affected or anyone’s rights be violated if his client is granted citizenship, senior advocate Indira Jaising said: “Because they will get the right to vote.” tioners, said the government should not grant any citizenship under the rules while the matter is pending before SC. Sibal concurred, saying that under international law, “once citizenship is granted, you cannot take it back”. Advocate Nizam Pasha, appearing for AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi, said Muslims left out of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) will be prejudiced. Mehta strongly objected to this, saying: “An effort was made earlier outside this court to mislead people that they will be ousted. The NRC is not an issue before this court.” BJP summons State chief to decide on LS, Assembly seats, candidates E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Vijayawada BJP State president D Purandeswari rushed to Delhi on Tuesday to hold talks with the party high command on finalising the seats and candidates that the party would contest in the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections. Sources said that apart from selecting the candidates, the main task would be to finalise the seats the party would contest as the party leaders are unhappy with the Lok Sabha and Assembly seats allotted to the saffron party by the TDP . Recently several senior party , leaders shot off a letter to the party national leadership on how leaders who joined from the TDP were being given pri- ority in allotting seats, and also the TDP offering them seats that it was unsure of winning. Amidst this, Purandeswari left for Delhi. Though the BJP managed to get more seats than what were offered earlier, the leaders are of the view that the allocation of seats was not going as per their choice. Sources said that the party was offered seats like Paderu and Adoni where the BJP does not have a strong The BJP was offered seats like Paderu and Adoni as part of the alliance. The TDP is unsure of winning these seats and that was why the yellow party had allotted them to the BJP A senior BJP leader leader. The TDP is also unsure of winning these seats and that was why the yellow party had allotted them to the BJP a par, ty leader said. The BJP wanted to contest from Araku Assembly seat, where it had prepared ground for itself, but it was reportedly offered Paderu. The other Assembly seats that it wanted to contest was Rajahmundry City which it had won in 2014. The TDP, however, is reluctant to give the seat. Similarly, the BJP opted for contesting Madanapalle, Srikalahasti and Kadiri seats in the Rayalaseema region but the it reportedly did not get them, sources said. It is said that the party was offered Adoni Assembly seat in P4 Kurnool district. 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 Tuesday directed Yoga guru Baba Ramdev and Patanjali Ayurved managing director Acharya Balkrishna to appear before it during the next hearing as the company failed to file its reply to an earlier notice on violating an undertaking on misleading advertisements and hauling it up for contempt of court. Senior lawyer Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Patanjali and Ramdev, strongly objected to the observations and remarks by the bench. “How does Ramdev come into the picture in the case,” he asked. Rohatgi claimed that the violation of the law (by the contemnors) was not contempt of court and what was being relied on in open court has to be recorded in the order. But the two-judge bench of Justice Hima Kohli and Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah passed the order for personal appearance of Ramdev and Balkrishna in the next hearing, which could most likely be in April first week. “Having gone through the adverts issued by respondent 5 (Patanjali Ayurved) in the teeth of the undertaking given to this court on November 21, 2023 and on noticing that the said adverts reflect an endorsement thereof by Acharya Ramdev, it is deemed appropriate to issue notice to show cause as to why contempt of court proceedings be not initiated against him,” the order said. Speech & hearing impaired boy locked in Kurnool GGH HoD room for 24 hrs Paras exits NDA, but BJP draws Sita Soren, ex-US envoy Sandhu E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Kurnool R a m a s h a nk a r a n d MU K E SH RA N J A N @ Patna/Jharkhand A day after announcing its seat-sharing formula for Bihar, the NDA lost an ally though it had already accommodated the rival faction. There were rumblings within the JD(U) as well as its as its general secretary put in his papers. Union minister Pashupati Kumar Paras on Tuesday resigned from the Union ministry as the rival LJP led by Chirag Paswan was given five seats in the NDA, including the prestigious Hajipur, for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls in Bihar. Paras accused the BJP of doing injustice to his LJP faction by excluding it from the seat-sharing deal. Tej Pratap Yadav, elder son of RJD chief Lalu Prasad, offered to accommodate Paras in the opposition alliance. “We will be the first to welcome him Pashupati Kumar Paras (Paras),” he said. Paras though was cautious. “We will seek the opinion of party workers before taking the call on a new pre-poll alliance,” he said. As for the JD(U), national general secretary Mohammad Ali Asaraf Fatmi resigned from all posts of the party He . is likely to join the RJD on Wednesday and could be fielded as candidate either from Madhabani or Darbhanga. In Jharkhand, Shibu Soren’s daughSita Soren ter-in-law Sita Soren resigned from the ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and joined the BJP Sita represents Jama in the state assembly . . She alleged the at the JMM was isolating her and hatching a conspiracy against her family members. Sita is the widow of Durga Soren, the eldest son of Shibu Soren. The BJP’s acquisitions continued with former Indian ambassador to the United States, Taranjit Singh Sandhu, joining the party amid buzz on fielding him in the Lok Sabha polls from Amritsar in Punjab. During the hearing, the petitioners sought a stay on the grant of citizenship under CAA to persons belonging minority communities from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan who came to India before December 31, 2014. The petitioners say CAA discriminates against Muslims and violates Article 14 of the Constitution. Senior advocate Indira Jaising, also appearing for the peti- Ramdev in SC cross-hairs as bench orders his presence Talk time Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge has a word with Sonia Gandhi at a CWC meeting in New Delhi on Tuesday ahead of the Lok Sabha elections | Parveen Negi | P7 In a shocking incident, a 5-yearold speech and hearing challenged boy remained locked inside the office of the Head of Department (HoD) of anaesthesia unit in the Government General Hospital (GGH), Kurnool, for nearly 24 hours. Though the family and the police searched for the boy on the hospital premises after he went missing, they could not find him. The boy was traced in the room the next day . According to hospital superintendent Dr Venkata Ranga Reddy, the boy Sujeeth, son of Hussenaiah and Mounika of Tippayapalle village in Orvakal mandal, was admitted to the hospital about 20 days back. “The doctors decided to perform surgery on the boy after completing all medical examinations, including blood tests, X-ray, CT scan. The doctors planned cochlear implant operation and the date was also fixed (March 19),” the superintendent said. Around 10.30 am on Sunday, the boy came out from his room in the general ward when his mother went to collect medical reports. It is said he walked into the HoD chambers, which was kept open for cleaning. The sanitation staff, who reportedly went out to dump the garbage, returned after some time and locked the door and went ahead with their regular duties. The boy’s mother Mounika returned after some time and was shocked to find her son missing from the general ward and immediately asked the nursing staff and PG doctors. Initially the hospital staff and , parents searched for the boy on the premises. As he could not be found, the boy’s parents complained to the police. A case was registered. The police rushed to the hospital and began search, but could P4 not find him. new vertical Zomato launches exclusive fleet to tap the pure veg market E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Chennai online food delivery company Zomato on Tuesday announced the launch of a vegetarian-only delivery service to cater to those who prefer ordering from pure-veg restaurants. The new feature will see a phased rollout across the country in the next few weeks. The ‘Pure Veg Fleet’ will have green coloured delivery boxes. Zomato’s CEO Deepinder Goyal cited feedback from vegetarian customers as the reason for the launch of the new service. He said the new vertical is for customers who follow a 100% vegetarian diet and that the firm will not discriminate anybody on the basis of the delivery person’s dietary choices. The pure veg vertical will handle orders from restaurants that serve only pure vegetarian food and will exclude those that serve nonveg food items as well. In a series of posts on micro- blogging platform X, Goyal said the dedicated fleet will serve orders from these pure vegetarian restaurants. “This means that even a veg meal served by a non-veg restaurant will never go inside the g reen delivery box meant for our Pure Veg Fleet,” he explained. Goyal said: “India has the largest percentage of vegetarians in the world, and one of the most important feedback we’ve gotten from them is that they are very particular about how their food is cooked, and how their food is handled. To solve their dietary preferences, we are launching a Pure Veg Mode along with a Pure Veg Fleet on Zomato, for customers who have a 100% vegetarian dietary preference.” Goyal said the pure veg business doesn’t serve or alienate any religious or political preference. He added the firm plans to add more specialised fleets in the future. “For example, there’s a special cake delivery fleet coming up,” he said. Zomato’s pure-veg fleet will deliver food in green boxes | zomato
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