WORLD FOOD PRICES AT 19-MONTH HIGH The benchmark index for world food commodity prices rose in November to its highest level since April 2023 bengaluru l saturday l december 07, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 20 l late city EDITION The price index, compiled by UN 32% Food and Agriculture Organization to Annual jump track most traded food commodities, in veg oil zoomed to 127.5 points in November— price index a 5.7% rise from a year ago The surge is on account of high international vegetable oil prices FAO’s vegetable oil index jumped 7.5% above levels seen a month ago Sunflower, soyoil prices rose on strong global import demand 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 Row over `500 notes on Singhvi’s RS seat RBI holds rates again to keep inflation down RA J E S H K U M AR T H A K U R @ New Delhi In balancing act, cuts cash reserve ratio and frees up `1.16 lakh crore to support growth cheaper funds to the economy to support growth, by slashing THE Reserve Bank of India the cash reserve ratio (CRR) by (RBI) on Friday chose to stay 50 bps to 4%. The move will rethe course on inflation control, lease `1.16 lakh crore of lendarefusing to make any knee-jerk ble money to banks. CRR is the reaction to the growth slump percentage of banks’ deposits reported in the second quarter that must be parked with RBI. with a repo rate cut. Announcing the policy deciRBI’s monetary polision, Das said all data cy committee (MPC) led since October indicate by governor Shaktikanthat the economy has ta Das decided to mainbottomed out and has tain the repo rate at since been resilient. 6.5% for the 11th time “We don’t want to take on the trot. The last any decision which we time it changed the may be forced to retract repo rate—the interest or regret. We need more rate at which RBI lends evidence/data to changmoney to commercial es our course of acbanks—was in Febru- At this juncture, tion,” he said at the cusary 2023, when it raised tomary post-policy prudence and practicality it by 25 basis points. press conference, which demands we With Friday’s deciwould be his last presssion to hold rates, the remain careful er if he is not given ancentral bank has sigother extension. His RBI Governor nalled that a growth current term ends on Shaktikanta Das slip in just one quarter December 10. does not warrant a course corMichael Patra, the senior rection from its Parliament- most deputy governor who is mandated inflation control in-charge of the monetary polobjectives. icy department, said: “Just beRBI has, however, cut the cause of one set of data went FY25 GDP projection from 7.2% off the mark, it’s too early to to 6.6% and also raised the full reverse or change the course,” year inflation estimate to 4.8% indicating that the secondfrom 4.5% earlier. quarter GDP numbers are not While it maintained the key the end of the road for econompolicy rate, the MPC offered ic growth.  P13 B E N N K O C H U V E E D A N @ Mumbai First blood An injured farmer being carried after security personnel lobbed teargas shells to disperse protesters during their march to Delhi, at Shambhu border, on Friday | pti express read Class 12 student shoots principal dead in MP school Bhopal : The principal of a government school was allegedly shot dead by a Class 12 student on the school premises in Chhatarpur district of Madhya Pradesh on Friday. Surendra Saxena, the principal of Dhamaura Higher Secondary School, was entering the toilet when the student whipped out a pistol and shot him twice in the head from point blank range. Saxena died on the spot |P10 The Rajya Sabha on Friday witnessed an uproar over a wad of `500 notes from the seat allocated to legal eagle and Congress member Abhishek Manu Singhvi the previous day . Commotion be gan after C h a i r m a n Ja g d e e p Dhankhar informed the House that security personnel found a bundle of currency notes of `500 denomination on seat number 222, allotted to Singhvi. He said they were recovered during a routine antisabotage check on Thursday. There were about 100 notes in the bundle, but whether or not they were genuine is yet to be established, he added. A heated exchange of words between the ruling and Opposition benches followed and the House descended into chaos. “I am quite astonished to even hear about it. Yesterday I , reached inside the House at 12.57 in the afternoon. House closes at 1 pm. From 1 to 1.30, I sat with Ayodhya Prasad in the canteen and had lunch. At 1.30, I left Parliament. So, my total stay in the House was three minutes and 30 minutes in the canteen yesterday. I find it bizarre that even on such an issue politics is raised,” Singhvi said on X. Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge criticised the chairman for naming a member before the investigation had concluded. But Leader of the House J P Nadda interjected saying there should be no objection to identifying the seat and member involved. He added, “Carrying bundles of notes in the House is not appropriate,” and called for an investigation. Nadda went on to criticise the selective reaction of Kharge to various issues. But Kharge retorted with “We don’t suppress matters; you do.” Another maternal death at BIMS, 5th since Nov 9 K i r a n  B a l a nn a n a v a r @ Ballari Ballari Institute  of   Medical Sciences (BIMS) Hospital reported another maternal death on Thursday This is the . fifth case reported from the hospital since November 9. Summayya Abdul, 25, died after she was administered a banned intravenous glucose solution. Family members of Summayya claimedthat her health deteriorated  after  she gave birth to a baby girl on November 22. They alleged that  Summayya died because of  the banned glucose solution and negli- gence on the part of BIMS staffers. Meanwhile, local BJP and JDS leaders visited the hospital and registered their protest stating that Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao and officials from his ministry did not visit the hospital despite five maternal death cases. P4 Ready to resign, says Health Min Gundu Rao Bengaluru: Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao on Friday said he is “ready to resign” if that helps, over the rising maternal deaths in Ballari. “If I am at fault, I am ready to step down. This is not about prestige or power, it’s about people’s lives,” he said. P4 Youth extorts `2.57 cr from girlfriend, held E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Bengaluru Sleuths of CCB have arrested a youth for blackmailing his 19-year-old girlfriend with private videos and extorting Rs 2.57 crore from her. The accused has been identified as Mohan Kumar, 19, of Chamarajpet. CCB sources said Kumar and his friend studied together in a boarding school at Devanahalli. They were in a relationship during their pre-university days. During holidays, they went out on trips with Kumar’s friends. During a trip, Kumar allegedly promised his friend that he would marry her, following which they were in a relationship. P5 Cabinet nod for Sarjapur-Hebbal Metro stretch E N S @ Bengaluru The state cabinet on Friday approved the 36.59-km stretch of Phase-3A of the Bengaluru Metro Rail Project from Sarjapur to Hebbal. Phase-3A will have 22.14 km of elevated line with 17 stations and 14.45 km of underground line with 11 stations, which will be implemented at an estimated cost of Rs 28,405 crore. The cabinet approved a proposal to avail funds from the Centre under the Equity Sharing Joint Venture envisaged in the Financial Plan and Metro Rail Policy 2017. P2