visakhapatnam l wednesday l october 30, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l late city EDITION After India, now Brazil opts out of China’s Belt and Road Initiative Brazil has decided not to join China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), becoming the 2nd BRICS member after India to opt out of the project WILL COOPERATE IN OTHER WAYS, SAYS OFFICIAL Brazil, headed by President Lula da Silva, will instead seek alternative ways to collaborate with Chinese investors. Brazil wants to ‘take the relationship with China to a new level, without having to sign an accession contract’, Celso Amorim, special presidential adviser for international affairs, told Brazilian newspaper O Globo. India was the first BRICS country to publicly oppose BRI ■ Nov 20 Realpolitik, Trump factor in play ■ Explaining that Brazil does not want to take Chinese projects as ‘an insurance policy’, the official said, “We are not entering into a treaty” The prevailing opinion in Brazil is that joining the project would not only fail to bring any tangible benefits for Brazil in the short term but could also make relations with a potential Trump administration more difficult China had hoped to bring Brazil on board during Prez Xi Jinping’s visit 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 Invest in Andhra, Lokesh tells Microsoft & Adobe S V i s w a n at h @ Vijayawada IT and Human Resources Minister Nara Lokesh met Indian-origin business leaders, including Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen, and Apple Vice-President (operations) Priya Balasubramaniam, as he sought US investments in areas ranging from Artificial Intelligence to manufacturing, agritech and e-governance. Inviting Nadella to Andhra Pradesh, he sought Microsoft’s cooperation in improving e-governance and establishing IT hubs in the State. It may be pointed out that Nadella’s father was an IAS officer and held several official positions in the State. During the meeting at Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond, US, Satya Nadella highlighted that the company has been a global leader in software, cloud computing and enterprise technology As of October this year, . Microsoft has a market cap of $3.1 trillion, he said, adding that in financial year 2023, it earned a record profit of $211.9 million. Pointing out that Hyderabad was transformed into an IT hub under the leadership of N Chandrababu Naidu, Lokesh explained Nadella that the State 102 hurt in blast during Kerala temple fireworks IT Minister Nara Lokesh with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella in the US | Express government, with Naidu at the helm, was taking steps to position Andhra Pradesh as the IT capital. As part of the programme, the Minister explained, new IT hubs and innovation parks would be established in the State. Asserting that Andhra Pradesh will be transformed into a regional centre for global institutes in cloud infrastructure and data centres, Lokesh emphasised that the State has all the necessary facilities and opportunities for such centres. Stating that Andhra Pradesh has a strong academic record for generating the best talented youth in IT and engineering, he requested Microsoft to support the State in improving e-governance to develop smart city programmes. He also informed Nadella that the gov- ernment is mulling over establishing an AI University in Amaravati. The Microsoft CEO promised to extend all possible support to promote Andhra Pradesh as the AI capital. During his meeting with the Adobe CEO in San Francisco, Lokesh urged Shantanu to extend support to the State towards enhancing youngsters’ digital technology skills. He also invited Adobe to establish a research and development (R&D) wing in Andhra Pradesh to become partners in smart governance and Artificial Intelligence-driven soP4 lutions.  India to slap penalties on GE over fighter jet engines delay Delivery schedule running late by two years; first batch expected by March 2025 Way past Deadline Air Force ordered 83 LCA Tejas Mk1As from HAL for `46,000 crore in 2021; delivery was to start in March 2024 but delayed due to non-receipt of engines from GE Stricter norms The government is working on a new procurement system to safeguard sensitive data about the arms M aya n k S i n g h @ New Delhi THE Centre has decided to impose penalties on US manufacturer GE Aerospace for delays in the delivery of jet engines for Indian Air Force’s indigenous light combat aircraft, Tejas Mk-1A. The government is also tightening procurement norms to safeguard sensitive details of defence contracts, sources told TNIE. The penalty clause against GE Aerospace has been invoked for the delay in the supply of GE-404 engines contracted by India for the Mk-1A series. All defence contracts carry a penalty clause to make the contractors follow a fixed timeline; in case of breach of this timeline, they will have to pay a reasonable compensation. Sources said GE Aerospace shifted delivery schedule multi- ple times, cumulatively leading to a delay of two years. The delivery was supposed to start in 2023; it has now been pushed back to March 2025, going by the GE’s latest schedule. GE has been contracted to manufacture and deliver 99 jet engines (GE-404) and not even one has been delivered, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) sources told this newspaper. The deal, signed between HAL and GE Aerospace in 2021, was worth $716 million. Flagging the inordinate delays, Chief of Air Staff A P Singh had earlier said: “It is a known fact that Tejas has been delayed. There is no doubt. There is also a promise that the production rate will be increased to 24 aircraft per year. If that promise is kept, the delays can be caught up with. The first aim is not to let our aircraft strength go down.” Sources in the know said the delays are purely a logistics matter involving GE Aerospace, which is facing some issues with its suppliers, and that HAL could not be faulted for this. The delays were also flagged at the highest levels with Prime Minister Narendra Modi raising the issue during his visit to the US in September. The government is also working on a new procurement system to protect sensitive information. Two IndiGo flights en route to Vizag receive hoax bomb threats Us h a Pe r i @ Visakhapatnam Smoke seen at Anjoottambalam Veerarkavu temple in Nileshwar, Kasaragod, following the blast | Express E x p r ess Ne w s S e r v i ce @ Kasaragod Revelry gave way to horror on Tuesday after an explosion during a fireworks display at a temple in Kerala’s Kasaragod district left 102 people injured, seven of them critically The in. jured have been admitted in Kasaragod, Kannur, Kozhikode and Mangaluru hospitals. Sources said the firecrackers had been kept near the temple compound. The Nileshwar police booked eight persons, including seven temple committee members. Three have been arrested. District Police Chief Shilpa D said permission had not been obtained for bursting the crackers. “There were no safety measures, including fire extinguishers,” she said. The incident occurred around midnight during the ‘Theyyam Mahotsavam’ at the Anjoottambalam Veerarkavu temple in Nileshwar. A large number of people from across the district had turned up for the event, as it was the first theyyam performance to be held this year in a temple in the north Malabar region. During the fireworks display sparks flew into , the storage room nearby where more firecrackers were kept, resulting in the explosion. “It was around midnight. The theyyam performance was on, and a huge crowd, including women and children, had come to the temple to witness it. Many people were standing near the storage shed for a better view. Crackers were being burst at the time,” said Gopi, 59, an eyewitness. Suddenly, sparks from the fireworks fell into the shed where firecrackers for the day’s programme were kept, he said. “There was a loud sound. Many people got trapped inside the shed as a wall behind them prevented their escape,” Gopi said. Two days’ celebrations had been planned for the ‘mahotsavam’. Following the mishap, all the celebrations were cancelled. Just a day after a Hyderabad-Visakhapatnam-Mumbai IndiGo flight received a hoax bomb threat, two Visakhapatnam-bound IndiGo flights received bomb threats on Tuesday . The regional security head alerted the airline’s Station Manager regarding the threat after taking note of a post on X (formerly Twitter) made under user name ‘ damLanza202’. A The two flights, which received hoax threats, were heading Vizag from Chennai (6E917) and Bengaluru (6E969) respectively. The message, which was posted at 5.36 pm, warned of explosives in the aircraft. While the Chennai-Vizag flight departed for its destination at 4.39 pm, the one from Bengaluru left for the port city at 4.12 pm. “In response to the threat, both flights, which had landed safely at the Visakhapatnam International Airport, were immediately moved to an isolation bay as a precautionary measure. Security teams at the airport conducted thorough checks on both the aircraft in accordance with standard operating procedures for such situations,” Airport Director Raja Reddy told TNIE. After an extensive inspection, security personnel found no suspicious items aboard the flights and subsequently cleared both them for operations. Following the security clearance, both the flights returned to Chennai and Bengaluru at 5:50 pm and 6:25 pm respectively While the flight to Chennai . was delayed by 2 hours and 10 minutes, the one to Bengaluru landed 1 hour and 35 minutes late. Clearance to both flights was given after security teams conducted thorough checks as per the SOP for such situations Raja Reddy, Vizag airport director Drug syndicate with Mexican links busted in Noida, four arrested U J WA L J A L A L I @ New Delhi The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and the Special Cell of Delhi Police, in a joint operation, on Tuesday dismantled a meth manufacturing lab being run clandestinely in Uttar Pradesh’s Noida and arrested four persons, including a former warden of Tihar Jail, a Delhi-based businessman and a Mumbai-based chemist. The crackdown has revealed scintillating details of the syndicate, such as the lab’s links with notorious Mexican drug cartel, Cartel De Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG). The meth manufactured at the Noida lab was tested by a member of the Mexican cartel in Delhi. CJNG is considered one of the most dangerous criminal networks in Mexi- co and the second-most powerful after the Sinaloa Cartel. It is heavily militarised, has its own ‘Special Operation Group’ that travels in armoured vehicles. Cannibalism of a victim is one of the ways the cartel trains its new recruits. Acting on a tip-off, the sleuths on October 25 raided the factory in Kasna Industrial Area of Noida. “We found about 95 kg of methamphetamine in solid and liquid forms,” Deputy Director General (NCB) Gyaneshwar Singh said. The value of seized drugs is estimated to be around `100 crore. Preliminary probe revealed that the Delhibased businessman, who was found inside the factory at the time of the raid along with the former Tihar Jail warden, were instrumental in setting up of the illegal factory . Acting on a tip-off, the sleuths on October 25 raided the factory in Kasna Industrial Area of Noida. We found about 95 kg of meth Gyaneshwar Singh, NCB Vijayamma sides with Sharmila on property dispute with Jagan S G u r u S r i k a n t h @ Vijayawada In a major setback to YSRC chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy , his mother YS Vijayamma on Tuesday strongly supported her daughter -- APCC chief YS Sharmila Reddy -- in the claim over family properties. In a three-page open letter, Vijayamma said the family property was never divided when her husband and former Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy was alive and some of them were only put in the name of her two children Jagan and Sharmila. She took a serious exception to YV Subba Reddy and V Vijaya Sai Reddy spewing lies and distorting facts about the family properties, particularly regarding Sharmila’s share of assets. “When YSR was alive, he never divided the property and only named some in the name of the children,” she said in the letter and wondered why those two people (Subba Reddy and Vijaya Sai Reddy) were forgetting what they did had tarnished the name of YSR and his family . Vijayamma pointed out that Subba Reddy as a relative had signed the MoU her children had entered into about the property distribution in 2019. “They entered into a MoU as she (Sharmila) has the right. It was written officially . The assets that are being given to Sharmila as per the MoU are not given by Jagan as a gift. It is Jagan’s responP4 sibility she said.  ,”