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 | P10 bengaluru l saturday l november 23, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 20 l LATE 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 Israel popular destination for Karnataka jobseekers S L a l i t h a @ Bengaluru There has been a surge in people from Karnataka opting to work in Israel this year, according to the Regional Passport Office (RPO) here. The Israeli government approached India two months ago seeking 10,000 construction workers and 5,000 caregivers. In November last, it was made public that Israel’s construction sector was looking at hiring thousands of Indian workers to replace one lakh Palestinians. There has been a marked surge in requests from people of Karnataka for the Police Clearance Certificate Certificate (PCC), a mandatory requirement in many countries for jobs, according to RPO. P5 express read Vessel collides with submarine, 2 missing 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 navy with six ships and aircraft. 11 crew have been rescued,” navy officials said. P9 FOREX RESERVES tank $18 BillioN, rupee slips No proof of Modi link to Nijjar plot, clarifies Canada rUPEE AT 84.41/$ The rupee opened at 84.48 and touched an intra-day low of 84.50 against the greenback. The unit ended the session at 84.41, an increase of 9 paise over its previous close Trudeau’s security advisor trashes report that claimed Indian PM 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 SHI 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 | P15 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 a n @ 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 Bhovi scam: Woman ends life, DySP booked E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Bengaluru A 35-year-old woman contractor, who used to supply materials to beneficiaries under an employment scheme of the Karnataka Bhovi Development Corporation (KBDC), ended her life on Friday after she was questioned on Thursday by CID sleuths, probing the alleged misappropriation of funds in the corporation. Based on her 11-page death note, a deputy superintendent of police (DySP) of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has been booked for abetment to suicide. The deceased has been identified as Jeeva of Padmanabhanagar. Police said Jeeva ended her life between 5 am and 9 am on Friday at her house. Jeeva’s sister found her hanging from a ceiling fan using a saree around 10 am. She found the note in the room and alerted the police. Police said Jeeva was questioned by CID sleuths on Thurs- day in connection with transfer of funds to her bank account from the account of the corporation. “In her 11-page death note, Jeeva stated that she was taking the extreme step due to the alleged harassment by an officer during questioning on Thursday. Based on the note and a complaint filed by her sister, we have booked CID DySP Kanakalakshmi under Section 108 (abetment to suicide) of BNS,” a senior police officer told TNIE P3 billion in the 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 post-Diwali. 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. K’taka BYELECTION results today The outcome is unlikely to have any impact on the ruling Congress in the state. However, stakes are high for CM Siddaramaiah, his deputy DK Shivakumar, JDS leader HD Kumaraswamy and BJP state president BY Vijayendra | P4