BHUBANESWAR  SATURDAY  OCTOBER 05, 2024  `9.00  PAGES 16  JEYPORE EDITION APPLE SAYS IT WILL MANUFACTURE ENTIRE iPHONE 16 LINEUP IN INDIA Weeks after launching its iPhone 16 series, Apple said that it will manufacture its entire iPhone 16 lineup, including premium devices, in India PREMIUM DEVICES TO ROLL OUT THIS MONTH FOUR MORE APPLE STORES COMING UP This marks the first instance of Apple producing its premium devices outside China. The company said Indian-made iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max models will be rolled out this month. These will be available for local customers and will also be exported. “Apple is now manufacturing the entire iPhone 16 lineup, including iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max, in India,” it said ■ ■ The iconic phone maker also said that it will open four more stores in India, to be located in Pune, Bengaluru, Delhi-NCR and Mumbai Apple’s manufacturing partners in India include Taiwanese giants Foxconn and Pegatron, as well as the Tata-owned Wistron. The Tata Group is Apple’s only Indian manufacturing partner | P14 2017 WHEN THE U.S.-BASED TECH GIANT BEGAN MANUFACTURING THE IPHONE IN INDIA 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 Jaishankar-led team to attend SCO meet in Pak 28 MAOISTS KILLED IN SOUTH BASTAR E J A Z K A I S E R @ Raipur First Indian foreign minister in nine years to visit the neighbour amid frosty bilateral ties Y E S H I S E L I @ New Delhi Modi convenes urgent Cabinet meet to discuss West Asia crisis RAJESH KUMAR THAKUR @ New Delhi AMID rising global tensions over the prospects of an IsraelIran war, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has convened a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) to discuss the evolving situation and its potential impact on India. According to sources, a significant portion of the discussion focused on fuel and crude oil supplies, with Finance Minister Nir mala Sitharaman putting the status on trade with other countries. The committee deliberated on whether the rising international fuel prices, influenced by the situation involving Iran, could affect India’s oil sector. A source said the Ministry of Finance ruled out any immediate adverse implications CONTINUED ON P7 for India. received a high-level welcome in Pakistan. It is disappointing EXTERNAL Affairs Minister S and condemnable, but it is not Jaishankar will lead the Indian surprising,” said Jaiswal. delegation for the upcoming Bilateral ties became frosty SCO Summit in Islamabad, after Indian Air Force jets making him the first Indian bombed a Jaish-e-Mohammed foreign minister to visit Paki- training camp in Balakot deep stan in nine years. “Jaishankar inside Pakistan in February will lead the Indian delegation 2019 in response to a terror atfor the SCO Summit for Islama- tack on a CRPF bus in J&K’s bad on October 15-16,” said Pulwama. Months later, J&K’s Ministry of External Affairs special powers under Article spokesperson Randhir 370 were read down. Jaiswal on Friday . Pakistan retaliated by Foolproof The last time an Indowngrading diplosecurity dian external affairs matic ties with India. Pakistan minister went to PakiDuring his recent s t a n w a s S u s h m a minister Mohsin UN General Assembly Naqvi said Swaraj’s visit in 2015. address, Jaishankar personnel from said, while many counThere was no clarity the Army, on whether India will tries get left behind have any bilateral Rangers, FC and due to circumstances Punjab police talks with other Shangbeyond their control, hai Cooperation Or- will be deployed some make conscious to ensure ganisation (SCO) choices with disasfoolproof members as Jaiswal trous consequences, said Jaishankar is security for the pointing to Pakistan SCO guests, travelling to Pakistan as a prime example. “A reports Dawn only to attend the sumdysfunctional nation mit. During the SCO coveting the lands of foreign ministers’ meeting in others must be exposed and Goa in 2023, Pakistan’s foreign countered,” he said. minister Bilawal Bhutto had He was rebuffing the false travelled to India along with 11 equivalence Pakistan Prime journalists from his country . Minister Shehbaz Sharif Significantly Indian fugitive sought to draw between Kash, and radical Islamist Zakir Naik mir and Palestine in his UNGA is in Pakistan since the past address the previous day Later, . few days. He also met Pakistani defence minister Rajnath Singh Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said India could have extended on Thursday . much more aid to the neigh“We are not surprised that a bour than the IMF’s $7 billion fugitive from Indian justice has had it mended its ways. OOPE in Odisha drops to 37.1 pc from 71.5 pc in less than a decade H E M A N T K U M A R R O U T @ Bhubaneswar TAKING gigantic strides in making healthcare accessible and affordable for the people, Odisha has cut down out-of-pocket expenditure (OOPE) on health by almost half in less than a decade. The OOPE in the state is now among the lowest in the country, as per the National Health Accounts (NHA) estimate released by the central government on Friday . The NHA estimate revealed that OOPE in the state has dropped 37.1 per cent (pc) in 2021-22 from around 71.5 pc in 2015-16. The drop is attributed to the HEALTHY universal health assurance scheme for TREND more than one crore families and a fourfold increase in the government expendiOOPE down ture on healthcare. from 71.5% in Although the per capita total expendi2015-16 to 37.1% ture on health has gone up from `3,768 to in 2021-22 `5,749, per capita OOPE has dropped Odisha has from `2,693 to `2,133 during the period. fared better The OOPE is the amount households pay than Kerala, at the point they receive healthcare. It is Andhra an important indicator of the level of Pradesh and financial protection available towards West Bengal healthcare in the country. The health estimate showed that OdiUniversal health assurance sha’s total health expenditure (expense coverage a major incurred by both government and prifactor for drop in vate sources including external funds) OOPE fell to 3.9 pc of the gross domestic state product (GSDP) in 2021-22 from 5 pc in Govt 2015-16. expenditure As far as the total health expenditure on healthcare is concerned, Odisha spent `26,445 crore rose by 4 times from in 2021-22 while it was `16,579 crore in `3,354 cr to 2015-16. The government’s expenditure `14,108 cr on health rose more than four times from `3,354 crore to `14,108 crore, pushing the per capita expenditure up from `762 to `3,067 during the six year period. In 2021-22, the expenditure on healthcare by the state government was 2.1 pc of the GSDP and the share of OOPE was around 1.5 pc of the GSDP. Infusion of more money by the government on healthcare brought down the OOPE from `11,849 crore to `9,810 crore. Odisha has fared better as compared to Kerala, which has one of the most robust healthcare systems, and Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar and Jharkhand, where the OOPE was 59.1 pc, 52 pc, 58.3 pc, 41.3 pc and 47.5 pc. CONTINUED ON P7 Bastar inspector general of police Sundarraj P inspecting the weapons recovered from Maoists after an encounter on September 25 in Narayanpur | EXPRESS Major encounters in Bastar this year MARCH 27: 6 Maoists killed in Bijapur APRIL 2: 13 Maoists killed in Bijapur APRIL 6: 3 Maoists killed along C’garhTelangana border APRIL 16: 29 Maoists killed in Kanker APRIL 30: 9 AUG 29: 3 Woman MAY 23: 7 SEPT 3: 9 Maoists killed at inter-district border Narayanpur-Kanker Maoists killed on borders of KankerNarayanpur Maoists killed on inter-district border Narayanpur-Bijapur Maoists killed on inter-district border Dantewada-Bijapur JUNE 6: 7 SEPT 25: 3 Maoists Maoists killed on Narayanpur, Dantewada and Kondagaon June 15: 8 Maoists killed in Narayanpur killed In Narayanpur OCT 4: 28 Maoists killed on inter-district border DantewadaNarayanpur Maoists killed in last five years 2019 65 2020 40 2021 51 2022 30 2023 20 2024* 185 (*till Oct 04) AT least 28 Maoists were killed in a fierce gun battle with the security forces close to the forested NendurThulthuli area along the inter-district border of Dantewada and Narayanpur in south Bastar on Friday . Bastar range inspector general of police Sunderraj P said the troopers have recovered 28 bodies so far. The count could go up further. “Based on specific intelligence inputs about the presence of Maoists in the region, a joint team comprising District Reserve Guards and Special Task Force launched parallel search operations. While the encounter began around 1 pm, intermittent exchange of firing continued till late in the evening. Search operations in the region are underway,” Prabhat Kumar, Narayanpur district police chief told this newspaper. A large cache of assault weapons, including AK-47, self-loading rifles, explosives, besides other items of Maoists were recovered from the site, the police said. There was no report of any injury sustained by the forces. The recovered bodies will be identified after the safe return of the security forces engaged in the operation. Dantewada and Narayanpur are among the seven Maoist-affected districts in the Bastar zone. Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai hailed the operation and said the ‘double engine’ government (BJP government in the state and at the Centre) is determined to eliminate the menace. As many as 185 Maoist fighters have been neutralised by security forces this year alone (see table). Besides, 663 others have been arrested and 556 surrendered since January in the conflict-ridden Bastar zone. Since 2019, as many as 277 new camps of central armed police forces were set up to fill the security vacuum in the Maoist-affected areas of the state. SC forms new SIT to probe laddu row 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 Friday constituted an independent special investigation team (SIT) to probe the allegations that animal fat was used to prepare laddus at Sri Venkateswara temple in Tirupati, in Andhra Pradesh. The new SIT substitutes the Andhra Pradesh government’s probe panel constituted on September 26 to look into the row. A bench of Justices B R Ga- vai and K V Viswanathan said the fresh probe team shall have two CBI officers, two Andhra Pradesh police officers, and a senior official of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). The two CBI officers would be nominated by the agency’s director while the two officers from the Andhra Pradesh Police would be named by the state government. The FSSAI chairperson would nominate a senior of- VAISHNAW RULES OUT RLYS PRIVATISATION Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Friday said there is no question of privatising the Railways, asserting that providing affordable service to all is the focus of the national transporter | P9 ficer to be a part of the SIT, it said. The SIT shall work under the supervision of the CBI director, the bench added. The SC said it hasn’t gone into the merits of allegations and counter allegations on alleged adulteration of the laddus. “We won’t allow the Supreme Court to be used for political drama. There are sentiments of crores of people throughout the world,” the bench said. The court said its order to set up a fresh probe panel should in no way be construed as any reflection on the independence or the fairness of the officers of the SIT constituted by the state government. “We are passing order regarding entrustment of this matter to an independent agency consisting of the aforesaid members only to assuage the feelings of crores of people/ devotees having faith in the deity,” the bench said while disposing of the petitions seeking a court-monitored probe.