SATURDAY 13 JANUARY 2024 www.thestatesman.com Pages 12 |` 5.00|LC Twitter.com/thestatesman Facebook.com/thestatesman INDIA’S NATIONAL NEWSPAPER SINCE 1818 KOLKATA | NEW DELHI | SILIGURI | BHUBANESWAR ‘BJP WILL WIN ALL 11 LS SEATS’ MUKESH AMBANI BACK IN $100-BILLION CLUB P8 SENSEX 72,568.45847.27 WEATHER PARTLY CLOUDY SKY. DENSE FOG IN THE MORNING. THE MAXIMUM AND MINIMUM TEMPERATURES WOULD BE AROUND 19 AND 05 DEGREE CELSIUS RESPECTIVELY. ‘INDIA WILL BECOME THIRD LARGEST GLOBAL ECONOMY DURING MODI'S THIRD TERM’ P7 NIFTY 21,894.55247.35 P4 ` vs $ 82.9011 PAISE GOLD 62,950120 India’s longest sea bridge inaugurated RAINFALL: NIL RELATIVE HUMIDITY Atal Setu is a 22-km-long twin-carriageway 6-lane bridge over Thane Creek Max. 100 % Min. 45 % Max: 19.3 °C (-1) SUN RISES 7:15 hrs MOON RISES 09:38 hrs Min: 03.9 °C (-3) SUN SETS 17:45 hrs MOON SETS 19:52 hrs STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, 12 JANUARY TEMPERATURE THUMBNAILS Delhi BJP Mahila Morcha workers celebrate Lohri at the Delhi BJP Office in the Capital on Friday. SUBRATA DUTTA INDIA bloc to discuss seat sharing tomorrow, says Congress: The Congress announced that the meeting of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) will be held on Saturday. The party informed on Friday that issues including seat sharing for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections would be discussed by the leaders of the constituent parties during the virtual meeting. The INDIA is an umbrella of Opposition parties formed to take on the ruling BJP in the general polls. T he Atal Bihari Vajpayee SewariNhava Sheva Sea Link, or Atal Setu, the country's longest bridge, was dedicated to the nation by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday in Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra. The Atal Setu is also the longest sea bridge in the country. The bridge will provide faster connectivity to the Mumbai International Airport and Navi Mumbai International Airport and reduce travel time from Mumbai to Pune, Goa and South India. Also called the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL), the Atal Setu is a 22-km-long twin-carriageway six-lane bridge over the Thane Creek in the Arabian Sea, connecting Sewri in the island city of Mumbai to Chirle in Raigad district on the mainland. The MTHL includes a 16.5 km sea link and viaducts on land at either end with a cumulative length of 5.5 km. A total of Rs 21,200 PM Narendra Modi inspects India's longest sea bridge after inaugurating it, in Mumbai on Friday. ANI The inauguration of Atal Setu exemplifies India’s infrastructural prowess and underscores the country’s trajectory towards a Viksit Bharat NARENDRA MODI PRIME MINISTER crore has been spent on the project, work on which began in 2018, of which Rs 15,100 crore is a loan from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). Mr Modi posted on microblogging site X: “The inauguration of Atal Setu exemplifies India’s infrastructural prowess and underscores the country’s trajectory towards a Viksit Bharat.” Addressing a public event in Navi Mumbai, the Prime Minister said: “Today is a very big day for Mumbai and Maharashtra and a historic day for Viksit Bharat Sankalp... The whole country has its eye on Mumbai as they have got this grand Atal Setu.” He said: “Several mega projects have been completed in Maharashtra and Mumbai, several will be completed soon... In the coming years, Mum- Debris of IAF plane that went missing in 2016 with 29 on board found on sea bed AGENCIES NEW DELHI, 12 JANUARY The debris of an Indian Air Force (IAF) plane with 29 personnel on board that went missing in 2016 while flying across the Bay of Bengal have been found by a search and rescue team on the sea bed after seven years, an official said on Friday. An IAF official said that the debris of the ill-fated An32 aircraft were spotted on the sea bed around 310 km off the Chennai coast by an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) deployed by the National Institute of Ocean Technology. The plane went missing over the Bay of Bengal on 22 July 2016 during a routine mission. The aircraft took off from Tambaram Air Force Station in Chennai at around 8:30 am and was due to arrive at Port Blair in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands around midday. However, the authorities lost radar con- AFTER 8 YEARS The An-32 aircraft with registration number K2743 of the IAF had gone missing over the Bay of Bengal on 22 July 2016, during a mission. Twentynine personnel were on board. A large-scale search and rescue operation by aircraft and ships that was launched then could not locate any missing personnel or the aircraft debris. The National Institute of Ocean Technology recently deployed an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle at the last known location of the missing An-32. Analysis of images it took indicated the presence of debris of a crashed aircraft conforming to an An-32. tact with the aircraft at around 9:12 am when the plane was about 280 kilometres east of Chennai. A large-scale search and rescue operation by aircraft and ships that was launched then could not locate any missing personnel or the aircraft debris. There were 29 people onboard the aircraft including six crew members, 11 IAF personnel, two Indian Army soldiers, one each from the Indian Navy and Indian Coast Guard, and eight defence civilians working with the Naval Armament Depot. The National Institute of Ocean Technology, which functions under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, recently deployed an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle with deep sea explo- ration capability at the last known location of the missing An-32. The Ministry of Defence said the search operation was conducted at a depth of 3,400 metres using multiple payloads, including a multi-beam SONAR (Sound Navigation and Ranging), synthetic aperture SONAR and high resolution photography. Analysis of search images had indicated the presence of debris of a crashed aircraft on the sea bed approximately 140 nautical miles (approximately 310 km) from the Chennai coast. The IAF said that the search images were examined and found to be conforming with an An-32 aircraft. This discovery at the probable crash site, with no other recorded history of any other missing aircraft report in the same area, points to the debris as possibly belonging to the crashed IAF An-32 (K-2743) the ministry said. bai will get its first Bullet train..." Mr Modi said the government's intention is clean. Those who ruled the nation for a long time, their intention and loyalty have always been under question. Their intention was to gain power only. They were only dedicated towards the development of their families, and this is why they were never able to think about Viksit Bharat, he maintained. Privileges panel may recommend revoking suspension of 3 Congress MPs NEW DELHI, 12 JANUARY Privileges Committee of the Lok Sabha is likely to adopt the recommendation to revoke the suspension of three Congress MPs - Dr K Jayakumar, Abdul Khaleque and Vijay Vasanth, sources said on Friday. Three suspended Congress MPs, Dr K Jayakumar, Abdul Khaleque and Vijay Vasanth, recorded their statement before the Committee of Privileges in connection with a motion adopted by the Lok Sabha on December 18, 2023, which led to their suspension. The Privileges Committee summoned the three MPs on January 12 after the issue of their suspension was referred to the committee for further investigation and a report to be presented to the House. AGEN- ‘T20 WC SELECTION ALWAYS AT THE BACK OF THE MIND’ P12 SILVER 76,000 BRENT CRUDE (IN $) 79.272.54 Army convoy ambushed by terrorists in Poonch dist STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE JAMMU, 12 JANUARY A massive cordon and search operation was launched in the Khanetar area of the border Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir in Friday when an Army convoy, including the vehicle of a commanding officer, was attacked by terrorists. Terrorists tried to ambush the convoy near the Line of Control (LOC) by firing from a hilltop where they had taken up positions, reports said. The terrorists fled after the troops retaliated. The convoy was reportedly moving from the Daradhullian Khwadia area of Poonch and the commanding officer of Army’s Rashtrya Rifles (RR) was also travelling in his vehicle when terrorists fired bullets at them. Reinforcements of security forces have reached the spot. A statement issued by the White Knight Corps said; "At around 6 pm today, a security forces convoy of vehicles was fired upon by suspected terrorists from a jungle near Krishna Ghati in Poonch Sector. No casualties to own troops. Joint search operations by Indian Army and J&K Police are in progress.” The attack came hours after the Northern Army Commander Lt General Upendra Dwivedi and GOC of 16 Corps Lt. General Navin Sachdeva visited forward areas of the Rajouri district to finalise the strategy to tackle with terrorism in the border districts of Rajouri and Poonch. It is worth mentioning that in a similar modus operandi, terrorists had on 21 December ambushed Army vehicles in the Rajouri Sector and killed four soldiers. Earlier they ambushed an Army truck in Poonch and killed five soldiers. Home Minister Amit Shah and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh in separate meetings recently reviewed the situation in the twin districts. Army Chief General Manoj Pande visited the area recently. Retail inflation rises to 4-month high of 5.69 pc in Dec: Govt data STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, 12 JANUARY India's retail inflation rose to a four-month high of 5.69 per cent in December 2023 due to a rise in food prices, data from National Statistical Office (NSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) said on Friday. In November, the retail inflation was 5.55 per cent while in December last year, the retail inflation was 5.72 per cent. Food inflation came in at 9.53 per cent in December compared to 4.19 per cent in December last year while In november, the food inflation was 8.7 per cent. According to MoSPI data, the highest inflation was recorded in the food and beverages category at 8.70 per cent. “December CPI inflation printed a tad better than our expectations at 5.69per cent , but still rose mildly vs last month. While the food inflation data on a sequential basis was underpinned by the seasonal contractionary behavior seen in December, we reckon the perishables, specifically veg prices easing was lower than the average seasonal behaviour,” Madhavi Arora, Lead Economist at Emkay Global said. “Nonetheless, the food inflation has still ticked up on YoY basis. The Mandi prices are showing correction in perishables to continue, while select protein goods would need a watch,” Ms Arora said. “Encouragingly, core inflation has eased further to 3.77 per cent, led by seasonal sequential contraction in housing, but even ex-housing, the core momentum has remained contained. The inflation downtrend will be more visible in 4Q, averaging 5.1 per cent, while core could be sub 3.75 per cent,” she added. MoSPI has also released the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) for November saying it fell to 2.4 per cent, the lowest since March 2023 when it was 1.7 per cent. Among the sectors, manufacturing grew at the slowest pace of 1.2 per cent as compared to November 2022. The manufacturing sector was pulled down by apparel, furniture, computer, electronic and optical products industries, all of which saw a de-growth of over 20 per cent. The electricity sector saw a 5.8 per cent growth and the mining sector witnessed a 6.8 per cent growth in November. NATIONAL YOUTH DAY SC refuses to stay law excluding CJI in selection of CEC & ECs PARMOD KUMAR NEW DELHI, 12 JANUARY The Supreme Court on Friday refused to put on hold the operation of the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act 2023 that excludes Chief Justice of India from a panel for the selection of Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners and gives the government a majority presence in the selection process. Issuing a notice to the Central government returnable in April, a Bench comprising Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Dipankar Datta refused to stay the operation of the law, even as senior advocate Vikas Singh told the bench: “This is against the very concept of separa- tion of powers.” The Bench said, “Stay will not be there. We can't stay a statute like this. Notice we will issue.” Senior advocate Vikas Singh appeared for the petitioner Jaya Thakur who is a Madhya Pradesh Congress leader. The Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act 2023, was brought to dilute the March 2, 2023, a five-judge constitution bench’s unanimous judgment directing that the appointment of the Chief Election Commissioner and the Election Commissioners shall be done on the recommendation of a selection panel comprising the Prime Minister of India, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and the Chief Justice of India. As per the new law, notified on December 28, 2023, the penal for the selection of CEC and the ECs would include the Prime Minister, Leader of Opposition, and a Central Minister to be nominated by the Prime Minister, thereby giving a clear majority to the government in the selection panel. Students perform Surya Namaskar on the occasion of the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekanand, marked as National Youth Day, at Government Subhash Excellence School, in Bhopal on Friday. ANI
The Statesman is one of India's oldest English newspapers. It was founded in Kolkata in 1875 and is directly descended from The Friend of India (founded 1818). The Englishman (founded 1821) was merged with The Statesman in 1934. The Delhi edition of The Statesman began publication in 1931. The Statesman Weekly is a compendium of news and views from the Kolkata and Delhi editions. Printed on airmail paper, it is popular with readers outside India. The Statesman (average weekday circulation approximately 180,000) is a leading English newspaper in West Bengal. The Sunday Statesman has a circulation of 230,000.
