BHUBANESWAR  TUESDAY  DECEMBER 24, 2024  `9.00  PAGES 12  JEYPORE EDITION JAPANESE AUTO GIANTS HONDA AND NISSAN TO BEGIN MERGER TALKS Honda and Nissan have announced plans to join forces that could result in the creation of the world’s third-largest automobile company AIM IS TO ACHIEVE ECONOMIES OF SCALE COMPETITION FROM CHINESE EV MAKERS Joining forces would help the companies achieve economies of scale to compete with Toyota, Volkswagen and Chinese automakers like BYD. Also, Japanese companies, especially Honda, have lagged behind rivals in electric vehicles (EVs) and are now trying to catch up. Nissan has years of experience building batteries and EVs that could help Honda in developing its own EVs ■ ■ Honda, Nissan and Mitsubishi announced in August that they will share components for electric vehicles like batteries to cut costs | P10 The talks come at a time when Chinese automakers like BYD, Great Wall and Nio that make relatively affordable EVs are expanding their market shares as the world shifts away from fossil fuel-driven cars $50 bn WOULD BE THE MARKET CAPITALISATION OF THE MERGED ENTITY 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 Now, Dhaka note verbale for Hasina’s extradition Pioneer of Parallel Cinema KARTIK BHARDWAJ D Ministry of External Affairs confirms receiving it, offers no comment B A L A C H A U H A N @ Bengaluru BANGLADESH’S interim government said on Monday it had sent a note verbale to India seeking extradition of deposed former prime minister and Awami League head Sheikh Hasina. Hasina, 77, has been living in exile in India after she fled on August 5 following massive student protests over a controversial job quota. Foreign affairs adviser Touhid Hossain told media persons that they had sent the note verbale asking to send Hasina back for judicial process. It came after Bangladesh’s home advisor Jahangir Alam said his office had sent a letter to the foreign ministry to facilitate Hasina’s extradition, quoting a prisoner exchange agreement with India “under which it (her extradition) will be carried out”. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) confirmed they have received the diplomatic note from Dhaka. “We confirm that we have received a Note Verbale from the Bangladesh High Commission today in connection with an extradition re- File picture of Sheikh Hasina | PTI PROBE INTO ALLEGED $5 BN N-POWER SCAM The interim government has also initiated probe into an alleged $5 billion Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant project scam involving Sheikh Hasina, her son Sajeeb Ahmed Wazed (Joy) and niece Tulip Siddiq | P9 quest. At this time, we have no comment to offer on this matter,” said MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal. Speaking to this newspaper, former high commissioners to Bangladesh Veena Sikri (200306) and Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty (2007-09) said a “note ver- bale is not an instrument on which extradition can be sought. Extradition is a very long, detailed process involving the judiciary. Request for extradition comes at the end of the process,” they said. “The requesting country has to complete the judicial process of proving the charges against the fugitive leader and convicting her,” said Sikri. She added that the UNHRC (United Nations Human Rights Council) was invited to investigate the charges against Hasina. “The UNHRC team visited Bangladesh twice since August but they were not provided any evidence on the charges of murder, forced disappearance and human rights violations against Hasina,” added Sikri. “I’m told that Dhaka has sought Hasina’s extradition under a prisoner exchange agreement with India. Hasina is not a prisoner in India. She came here of her own will,” the former diplomat pointed out. India’s Extradition Act prescribes separate procedures for handling extradition requests from different countries. 14 DEC 1934 - 23 DEC 2024 I wonder what I would have become if he hadn’t had faith in me when no one else did. He and Nira (his wife) were a huge support in my difficult days. He did whatever he could with his life till the end. Not many people can claim to have done that Naseeruddin Shah, actor AYS after celebrating his 90th birthday, Shyam Benegal, a towering figure in Indian cinema and a pioneer of the Parallel Cinema movement, passed away in Mumbai on Monday evening. Benegal, whose body of work straddled the worlds of mainstream and alternative cinema with remarkable dexterity, leaves behind a legacy of nuanced storytelling and sharp social critique. Born on December 14, 1934, into a Chitrapur Saraswat Brahmin family in Hyderabad, Shyam Sunder Benegal exhibited an early fascination with filmmaking. At the tender age of 12, he created his first short film with a camera DEVI AWARDS DELHI It was an all-women show without any pink bows. The 30th edition of the Devi Awards instituted by The New Indian Express Group, and the sixth in Delhi on December 23, was marked by showcasing of solid and sustained body of work by women in the arts, economics, public service, and governance | P5 Huge difference in Odisha Lok Sabha and Assembly poll votes, says BJD, asks ECI to clarify on the variations EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Bhubaneswar THE BJD on Monday alleged huge discrepancies in the voting and counting process in the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections earlier this year, and urged the Election Commission of India (ECI) to clarify on the issue. A delegation led by former Rajya Sabha MP Amar Patnaik and Rajya Sabha members Sasmit Patra and Sulata Deo submitted a memorandum to the ECI in this regard at New Delhi on Monday . Addressing a media conference, the BJD leaders said the party has pointed out three major discrepancies. The first was the differences in votes polled in a booth as shown in 17(C) form and the total number of votes in the EVM for the same booth as mentioned in form 20 filled up by the returning officer after counting. A variance of 682 votes was found in booth number 57 of Phulbani Assembly constituency under the Kandhamal parliamentary seat. The difference was 660 and 784 in booth numbers 165 and 219 respectively of Talsara Assembly constituency under the Sundargarh LS seat. Similar disparity of 42 votes has been found in Ekamra Assembly segment under the Bhubaneswar LS constituency . The BJD leaders said such discrepancies found in many other booths not mentioned in the memorandum were high enough to im- DRESS CODE Women lawyers can’t appear with face veil: J&K HC F AYA Z W A N I @ Srinagar THE Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh High Court has held that women advocates cannot appear before the court with their face covered. Justice Moksha Khajuria Kazmi cited provisions under the Bar Council of India (BCI) while making the observations in the order dated December 13. The order is related to an incident on November 27 when a woman identifying herself as an advocate named Syed Ainain Qadri refused to remove her veil when Justice Rahul Bharti, who was hearing the case then, asked her to do so. The woman claimed it was her right to appear with face covered, adding the court can’t force her to remove the veil. Following this, Justice Bharti did not entertain her appearance as counsel saying the court was unable to confirm her identity The bench also warned the petitioners . that their case could be dismissed if proper representation was not ensured. The court, then, proceeded to adjourn the case to another date and also sought a report from the Registrar General on the rules on dress code for lady advocates. The Registrar submitted the report on December 5. After examining the Registrar’s report, the court held that the rules prescribed by the Bar Council of India do not mention any such right. However, the court did not go further into the matter as the lawyer chose not to appear again. Later, another lawyer stepped in to represent the petitioners, whom Justice Kazmi heard before reserving the case for judgment on December 6. The petition was dismissed on December 13 after the court found that there was an alternative remedy available. pact the election results. “Such type of variation has also raised questions on the integrity of the entire polling and counting process,” they said. The second point raised by the party was the huge difference between the total votes polled in a Lok Sabha seat and the seven Assembly segments under it. The memoramdum mentioned that there was a huge discrepancy in votes counted in all the 21 parliamentary constituencies. It was 4,056, 3,521 and 2,701 votes in Dhenkanal, Kandhamal and Balangir LS constituencies respectively In Jajpur LS seat where . the result was decided by only 2,000 votes, the difference between the parliamentary constituency and Assembly segments was 677 votes which is serious, they said. The third point was the more than 30 per cent difference in polling as shown by the ECI at 11.45 pm on the voting date and after two days, which was highest in the country The BJD stated such . discrepancies were within two per cent in 2004, 2009, 2014 and 2019 elections. There was a huge shift of 30.64 per cent in Keonjhar Assembly constituency from where Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi won the election, they said. “We urge the ECI take up these issues seriously and clarify within a specified time frame to clear doubts in the minds of the people,” the delegation members said. gifted by his photographer father, Sridhar B Benegal. Despite this early foray his jour, ney to becoming one of India’s most influential filmmakers was a gradual one, as he began his professional career as a copywriter in a Mumbai-based advertising agency . Benegal’s groundbreaking debut feature, Ankur (The Seedling) (1973), not only introduced Shabana Azmi to Indian cinema but also marked the arrival of a filmmaker unafraid to tackle caste discrimination and other entrenched societal issues. His subsequent films, like Nishant (1976), examined complex human emotions and power dynamics, such as a powerless school teacher’s (Girish Karnad) harrowing struggle with his masculinity and morality when his wife is abducted. The condition of women in Indian society remained a recurring theme in Benegal’s work. Bhumika (The Role) (1977), featuring a career-defining performance by Smita Patil. Mandi (1983) offered a trenchant exploration of the lives of sex workers within the confines of a brothel. His mastery over the medium also found expression in documentaries on towering figures like Jawaharlal Nehru and Satyajit Ray. His television series Bharat Ek Khoj (1988), based on Nehru’s The Discovery of India, remains a landmark in Indian historical storytelling. At 89, he delivered his final film, Mujib: The Making of a Nation, a biopic on the founding father of Bangladesh. Govt schools can now fail students of classes 5 and 8 18 STATES, UTS SCRAPPED IT Following the amendment to the Right to Education Act (RTE) in 2019, at least 18 states and Union Territories have done away with the ‘no-detention policy’ NO EXPULSION The government has clarified no student shall be expelled from any school till the completion of elementary education K A V I TA B E J E L I D AT T @ New Delhi IN a major decision, the Centre has scrapped the ‘no-detention policy’ for classes 5 and 8 in schools governed by it, which means students will be failed if they do not clear the year-end examinations. According to a gazette notification, if a student fails to fulfill the promotion criteria, as notified from time to time, he or she shall be given additional instructions and an opportunity for re-examination within two months from the date of declaration of results. “If the child appearing in the re-examination fails to fulfill the promotion criteria again, he shall be held back in fifth class or eighth class, as the case may be. “During the holding back of the child, the class teacher shall guide the child as well as the parents of the child, if necessary and pro, vide specialised inputs after identifying the learning gaps at various stages of assessment,” the notification said. It will apply to over 3,000 schools run by the Central government including Kendriya Vidyalayas, Navaodyala Vidyalayas and Sainik Schools. “Since school education is a state subject, states can make their decision in this regard,” an official said.