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 HYDERABAD  SATURDAY  DECEMBER 07, 2024  `9.00  PAGES 16  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 RBI holds rates again to keep inflation down No protocol to criminals even if they are leaders: CM E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Hyderabad 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 economP10 policy rate, the MPC offered ic growth. B E N N K O C H U V E E D A N @ Mumbai MOTHER TELANGANA An image, said to be of the redesigned Telangana Talli statue, that has gone viral. However, there is no official confirmation that the image is of the statue scheduled to be unveiled at the Secretariat on December 9 INSIDE SC junks plea to put off Group-I mains exam E N S @ Hyderabad ADVISING elected representatives to respect the police whenever they visited police stations, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Friday asked the department not to extend protocol to criminals. Addressing the Praja Palana Vijayotsavalu organised by the Home department here, the chief minister said that the police would send a message to society that they were incapable if they respect the politicians who disrespect them. “Act tough against criminals, even if they are officials or politicians. Political or official tags do not apply to criminals,” Revanth advised, adding that the police should arrest those who come to the police station and exhibit ostentation. The remarks assume significance in the wake of recent arrest of BRS MLA Padi Kaushik Reddy for obstructing the Banjara Hills circle inspector from carrying out his duties. Revanth, however, did not take the name of Kaushik Reddy . Heckling the ‘friendly policing’ concept advocated by the previous BRS regime, the chief minister wanted the police to be THE Supreme Court on Friday paved the way for the state government to continue the recruitment process by dismissing a clutch of petitions seeking the postponement of Group-I mains examinations. The petitioners contended that the new notification issued for Group-I was unconstitutional. Stating that there were 14 mistakes in the Group-I preliminary exam, they urged the apex court to order postponement of the mains test. Dismissing the petitions, the court said that there was no need to postpone the exam as the petitioners did not qualify for the mains. The petitioners had approached the SC after the high court rejected their petitions. It may be recalled that the TGPSC conducted Group-1 mains in the last week of October for filling 563 posts. As many as 31,403 candidates took the exam. The PSC is likely to declare the results in February . TG BANS PREMIERE SHOWS I P2 Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy checks a gun during a visit to the Police Expo organised at the HMDA Grounds in Hyderabad on Friday | SRI LOGANATHAN VELMURUGAN TG gets 7 Navodaya Vidyalayas Hyderabad: The Union Cabinet on Friday sanctioned seven new Navodaya Vidyalayas for Telangana | P4 friendly with the aggrieved and do justice to them. “Friendly policing is not for criminals, no matter how big they may be,” he asserted, adding that criminals should fear the police. CONTINUED ON P4 45 CR TO ATTEND MAHAKUMBH-2025: UP DEPUTY CM I P5 ROW OVER `500 BUNDLE ON SINGHVI’S RS SEAT RAJESH KUMAR THAKUR @ New Delhi 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 Chairman Jagdeep 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 anti-sabotage 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 appropria t e, ” a n d c a l l e d f o r a n investigation.