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 TIRUNELVELI 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 express read New IT park may create 6,000 jobs Chennai: Chief Minister MK Stalin on Friday inaugurated the 21-storey mega TIDEL Park established at a cost of `330 crore in Pattabiram. The facility is expected to create 6,000 jobs in IT/ITeS sector. He also inaugurated Precision Engineering & Technology Cluster, a first-of-its-kind unit established through collaboration between government and MSMEs | P4 30% more water in TN dams: WRD Chennai: Reservoirs in Tamil Nadu have 30% more water compared to same period last year, thanks to the copious rainfall during northeast monsoon. While seven of 90 reservoirs, including Vattar in Dharmapuri, Gundar in Tenkasi and Sothuparai in Theni, have reached their full capacity. Water level in 33 reservoirs was above 70% of their capacity, as per WRD data | P2 Daily-wage faculty: Univ drops move Chennai: After drawing flak for its decision to appoint teaching and non-teaching staff members on a daily-wage basis through an outsourcing agency, Anna University on Friday rolled back the decision and said the circular was issued by mistake. Only non-teaching staff will be engaged through outsourcing, a new circular said | P2 FOREX RESERVES tank $18 BillioN, rupee slips No proof of Modi link to Nijjar plot, clarifies Canada rUPEE AT 84.41/$ 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 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 Exterset the record straight as it nal Affairs Ministry called it trashed a Canadian media re- out as a smear campaign. port, 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 Bumrah magic After India got all out for 150 in the first innings, Jasprit Bumrah rose to the occasion, taking 4/17 on day one of the first Test in Perth. Australia were 67/7 at stumps on Friday | afp | P11 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. Forex reserves have slipped nearly $30 billion in the past seven weeks. The reserves are down $47 billion from the 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 Vessel collides with sub, 2 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 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. 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 dollar demand from precious metal importers postDiwali. 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. $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