source: nasa NAGAPATTINAM l Wednesday l march 20, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l 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 it r a K a lya n M o h a n t y @ New Delhi Prime Minister Narendra Modi greets PMK founder S Ramadoss during a public meeting at Salem on Tuesday | v Sakthi PMK to contest in highest-ever 10 Lok Sabha seats T M u r u g a n a n d h a m @ Chennai A day after the PMK announced its decision to ally with the BJP-led NDA for the upcoming Lok Sabha election, PMK founder S Ramadoss and BJP state president K Annamalai on Tuesday signed the seat-sharing pact at the former’s Thailapuram residence allotting the regional party 10 seats. This is the highest number of seats the PMK has ever contested in a parliamentary election since its first foray in 1996. The constituencies to be contested by the PMK will be announced later. However, Annamalai and PMK president Anbumani Ramadoss dodged reporters’ questions of whether the PMK will also be given a Rajya Sabha seat. Soon after signing the agreement, Anbumani attacked both the Dravidian majors, without naming them. “There is a resentment prevailing among the people of Tamil Nadu against the parties, which ruled the state for the past 60 years. The people are eagerly awaiting a change. To fulfil that wish of the people, the PMK has taken this decision to align with the NDA,” he said. Interestingly, the PMK has been in alliance with both the Dravidian parties several times in the past. In fact, it contested the 2021 Assembly elections in alliance with the AIADMK. “For the past 10 years, the PMK has been a partner of the NDA. The PMK will contest the LS polls in alliance with the NDA. The PMK took this decision to ensure the continuance of the government led by Narendra Modi as PM once again and to bring in changes in Tamil Nadu. The NDA will have a big victory not only in Tamil Nadu but also at the national level,” Anbumani added. Annamalai, who addressed reporters, said, “It is a strong alliance. The political scenario has changed since Monday night due to the decision taken by the PMK to align with the BJP-led NDA.” P4, 5 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 School quizzed after kids attend PM event Coimbatore: On orders of the District Election Officer, officials from the school education department as well the labour department conducted an inquiry with the management and staff of an aided school in Saibaba Colony on Tuesday for allegedly engaging schoolchildren in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s roadshow on Monday | P4 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.” Cops looking for missing baby, find 3 more kids abducted from Thoothukudi S G o d s o n Wi s e ly D a s s @ Thoothukudi THE search for one missing child has led Thoothukudi police to four children abducted from their parents and sold to childless couples from 2022. The four children, three of whom have been identified, were rescued from Alangulam in Tenkasi district by a special police team for med by Thoothukudi Superintendent of Police L Balaji Saravanan. The police on Tuesday arrested one Samy alias Karupasamy and Raja alias Rajan of Alangulam who had allegedly been kidnapping children from Thoothukudi and selling them to families in their hometown. South Zone Inspector General of Police N Kannan, speak- ing to reporters, praised the district police for the “excellent job” in rescuing the children. Their scientific approach to the investigation played a major role in cracking the case, he said. Ten special teams were put on the job after a woman filed a complaint at Thoothukudi south police station on March 9, stating that her fourmonth-old daughter had been kidnapped on March 8 night from near the Anthoniyar The two men were seen in most of the footage from that area (from where the baby was kidnapped) from the night of March 8 to the morning of March 9 Member of the special team Church on VE road where they had been sleeping. A member of a special team said they scrutinised at least 300 pieces of CCTV footage over three to four days before narrowing in on Karupasamy and Rajan. “The duo was seen in most of the footage from that area from the night of March 8 to the morning of March 9,” he said. Police shared the suspects’ images publicly on Sunday . Kannan said one of the children rescued was reported missing at the Kulasekarapattinam station in 2023 while another was reported missing at the Tiruchendur station in 2022. The third child was also abducted from Tirunchendur in 2022 but has not been identified yet, police said. P5 S u c h it 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. Health dept forms panel to probe plaints of poor teaching at 11 TN med colleges Paras exits NDA, but BJP draws Sita Soren, ex-US envoy Sandhu T H I NA K ARAN RA J A M AN I @ Tirunelveli R a m a s h a n k a r a n d M U K E SH RAN J AN @ 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 THE state health department has formed a committee to probe the flurry of complaints received by Health Secretary Gagandeep Singh Bedi about the poor quality of teaching at the 11 newest state medical colleges in Tamil Nadu. Bedi on Monday forwarded the students’ complaints to the deans of these medical college hospitals and the Director of Medical Education and Research instructing them to monitor teaching standards. In the petition sent to Bedi, first-year students at these colleges alleged that their teachers were merely condensing chapters into powerpoint pres- entations and reading them out in class, forcing the pupils to purchase online video lectures to help them clear the exams. In the recent petition, which was also sent to Chief Minister MK Stalin and Health Minister Ma Subramanian, several first year students said they were undergoing a lot of stress due to academic issues, but could not come forward to seek help as they feared backlash from college authorities. They urged the department to permit them to opt for self-study and alleged there was no transparency in the marking of attendance by the teachers. “We have to learn three subjects in first year — anatomy, physiology and biochemistry — which form the basis of the MBBS and require plenty of time to learn and revise. However, most of our teachers condense whole chapters into slides, and often give wrong explanations. Instead of using either Tamil or English during lectures, they mix both languages and make no sense. They tell us that they will be paid by the government, no matter whether they teach us or not,” the petition read. The students further alleged that plenty of time is wasted in the poor lectures and claimed that teachers described a perfunctory short speech as a lecture. P5 new vertical Zomato launches exclusive fleet to tap the pure veg market E x p r e s s Ne 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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