FRIDAY 06 SEPTEMBER 2024 www.thestatesman.com X.com/thestatesmanltd. Fb/thestatesman1875 INDIA’S NATIONAL NEWSPAPER SINCE 1818 Pages 14 |` 5.00|LC KOLKATA | NEW DELHI | SILIGURI | BHUBANESWAR NARROW ESCAPE FOR NAIDU POPE, INDONESIA’S TOP IMAM CALL FOR RELIGIOUS HARMONY P11 SENSEX 82,201.16q151.48 WEATHER Thunderstorms developing in the afternoon. Storms could contain frequent lightning. Maximum and minimum temperatures likely to be around 33 °C and 26 °C respectively. RAINFALL: NIL RELATIVE HUMIDITY Max. 88% P4 NIFTY 25,145.10q53.60 P7 ` vs $ 83.97 Full Moon on 18 September THUMBNAILS Devotees take part in the procession of 'Nagpur Mahal Raja' idol towards the pandal ahead of the Ganesh Chaturthi festival, in Nagpur on Thursday. n ANI NMC rolls back medical curriculum guidelines: The National Medical Commission on Thursday rolled back its recently issued 'Guidelines under Competency Based Medical Education Curriculum (CBME) 2024'. This comes after it faced a backlash over the reinstatement of several controversial topics in the forensic medicine and toxicology curriculum for undergraduate medical students, including references to ‘sodomy' and ‘lesbianism' as unnatural sexual offences. Comprehensive Strategic Partnership will boost India’s Act East Policy Calcutta High Court on Thursday directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to look into derogatory social media posts using the photographs of the junior doctor who was raped and killed within the RG Kar Medical College & Hospital premises in August. Giving this direction to the CBI while acting on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed in the matter, the Division Bench of Chief Justice, TS Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya observed that such posts were simply unacceptable. The next hearing in the matter has been scheduled on 18 September, by when the central agency will submit a report to the court. The bench issued the direction after going through the social media posts presented by the petitioner's counsel. “Since CBI has taken over the investigation, they should rime Minister Narendra Modi and his Singapore counterpart Lawrence Wong on Thursday reviewed IndiaSingapore bilateral relations and decided to elevate the relationship between the two countries to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. On the second day of his visit to Singapore, the Prime Minister held talks with Mr Wong and took stock of the robust progress in economic ties between the two nations. The two leaders called for further expanding trade and investment flows between the two countries. Their decision to elevate the relationship to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership is expected to give a major boost to India’s Act East Policy, given the breadth and depth of bilateral ties and immense potential. Concluding his visit to Singapore, the Prime Minister said: “My visit SC reserves order on Kejriwal’s plea for bail PARMOD KUMAR NEW DELHI, 5 SEPTEMBER The Supreme Court on Thursday reserved orders on the incarcerated Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s plea for bail and against his arrest by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in an alleged corruption case rooted in the now-scrapped 20212022 Delhi liquor policy. A bench comprising Justice Surya Kant and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan reserved the orders after hearing arguments lasting the entire day in which counsels of Mr Kejriwal and the Central Bureau of Investigation locked horns over the BRENT CRUDE (IN $) 72.83p0.55 India, Singapore to elevate relationship P Min: 26.8˚C SUN SETS 17:48 hrs MOON SETS 19:35 hrs P14 Calcutta HC directs CBI to look into nasty social media posts using RG Kar victim’s photo TEMPERATURE Max: 33.4˚C SUN RISES 05:20 hrs MOON RISES 07:46 hrs SILVER 90,000 GOLD 73,995.00 STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, 5 SEPTEMBER Min. 73 % DULEEP TROPHY: MUSHEER LEADS INDIA B'S REVIVAL A RIGHT TURN THAT CAUSES CONCERN issue of whether the incarcerated Chief Minister can approach the top court for bail bypassing the trial court. The Additional Solicitor General S.V. Raju appearing for the CBI said that under the judicial hierarchy, Mr Kejriwal should first approach the trial court for bail in the criminal case being investigated by the investigating agency before knocking on the doors of the High Court or the Supreme Court, but senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi representing Mr Kejriwal opposed this, saying it would amount to playing the game of “snakes and ladders”. Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets with top business leaders and CEOs of Singapore on Thursday. n ANI to Singapore has been a very fruitful one. It will certainly add vigour to bilateral ties and benefit the people of our nations. I thank the government and people of Singapore for their warmth.” Mr Modi and Mr Wong witnessed exchange of MoUs for cooperation in Semiconductors, Digital Technologies, Skill Development and Healthcare. Mr Modi invited Prime Minister Wong to visit India, which the latter accepted. At his meeting with Mr Wong, Mr Modi said Singapore is not merely a partner country; it serves as an inspiration for every developing nation. “We also aim to create multiple ‘Singapores’ within India. I am pleased that we are collaborating towards this goal. The ministerial roundtable we have established is a path-breaking mechanism.” Mr Modi said collaborative initiatives have been identified in areas such as skilling, digitalisation, mobility, advanced manufacturing, semiconductors and AI, healthcare, sustainability and cybersecurity. Singapore is also an important facilitator of our Act East policy, Mr Modi said. “Our shared belief in democratic values connects us with each other.” The PM said: “our strategic partnership is completing a decade. Over the past 10 years, our trade has more than doubled.” Mr Modi said mutual investment has increased almost threefold to cross $150 billion. “Singapore was the first country with which we launched the UPI Person-to-Person payment facility,” he said. Mr Modi said: “I am delighted to inform you that India’s first Thiruvalluvar Cultural Centre will soon be inaugurated in Singapore. The great saint Thiruvalluvar provided guiding thoughts to the world in the most ancient language Tamil. His work, the Thirukkural, was composed nearly 2,000 years ago, yet its ideas remain relevant today.” Mr Modi met President of Singapore Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Senior Minister Mr Lee Hsien Loong and Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong. Be ready to deal with the unexpected, Rajnath Singh tells armed forces STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, 5 SEPTEMBER Defence Minister Rajnath Singh Thursday asked the top military leadership to analyse the ongoing RussiaUkraine and Israel-Hamas conflicts and the current situation in Bangladesh, predict the problems that the country may face in the future and stay prepared to deal with the “unexpected”. He emphasised the need for a broader and deeper analysis by the top military leadership in view of the situation along the Northern border and the happenings in neighbouring countries, which are posing a challenge to peace and stability in the region. The defence minister was presiding over the maiden Joint Commanders’ Conference in Lucknow on the second and final day of the apexlevel military leadership meeting. He commended the armed forces for their invaluable contribution to safeguarding national interests and advancing the vision of ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’, and appreciated the efforts being undertaken for furthering jointness and integration among the three Services. In line with the theme of the conference, ‘Sashakt aur Surakshit Bharat: Transforming the Armed Forces’, Mr Singh stated that India is a peaceloving nation and the armed forces need to be prepared for war in order to preserve peace. He stressed the significance of evolving joint military vision and preparing for the type of challenges the country may face in future wars, while emphasising on synergised, swift and proportionate response to provocations. No ambulance, parents forced to carry dead sons home on shoulders in Maharashtra AGENCIES GADCHIROLI, 5 SEPTEMBER A couple from Aheri taluka was forced to carry the bodies of their two dead sons ~ who succumbed to a fever after allegedlyfailingtogettreatment on time ~ from a hospital to their village home 15 km away, in Gadchiroli, of which Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis is the GuardianMinister,theOpposition claimed here on Thursday. A video of the unidentified couple, seen lugging the bodies of the two boys, aged less than 10 years, on their shoulders and trudging through a muddy forest path, was shared by Leader of Opposition in Assembly Vijay Wadettiwar. “The two siblings were suffering from fever, but they did not get the treatment on time. Within a couple of hours, their condition deteriorated and barely in the next one hour, the two boys succumbed,” said Mr Wadettiwar. He added: “There was no ambulance to even transfer the two minors’ bodies to their village, Pattigaon and the parents were compelled to walk 15 km through the rain-soaked muddy path. A grim reality of the healthcare system of Gadchiroli has again come to the fore today.” The Congress leader pointed out that the BJP’s Fadnavis is the Guardian Minister of Gadchiroli while NCP’s Dharmarao Baba Atram is an FDA minister in Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s government. “Both make claims of how the state can develop every day by conducting events all over Maharashtra. They should go down to the ground level and see how the people live in Gadchiroli and the death toll there,” said Mr Wadettiwar. This is the second instance of its kind from the Vidarbha region this week highlighted by the Congress LOP. On 1 September, a pregnant tribal woman delivered a stillborn child at her home and then succumbed to her own pains after a local hospital failed to send an ambulance to pick her up on time. AGENCIES KOLKATA, 5 SEPTEMBER check if something can be done. Very nasty comments are written with picture of the victim. We will ask advocate to serve copies. You (CBI) examine. We will list the matter with other pleas. On September 18 we will hear.” The court also asked whether the state has any mechanism to regulate such practices where the photo of the victim is uploaded on social media.In his petition, the petitioner argued that although there are clear instructions from the court in the matter, enough initiative was not being taken by the state police to curb this menace. Counsel for the petitioner further said that these online posts were being used to target a specific community, exacerbating the harm caused by the hateful content. "Only Muslim names are being used for the handlers. They may or may not be real persons," the counsel contended. During the hearing on the RG Kar rape and murder case last month, the Supreme Court, too, directed the removal of the name, photos and videos of the victim from all social media platforms. Despite moderation in Q1, GDP likely achieve 7.2 pc growth: RBI Governor STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, 5 SEPTEMBER: Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das has said that despite the moderation seen in the first quarter gross domestic product (GDP) growth, the Indian economy is likely to achieve full year growth of 7.2 per cent as projected. While speaking at the FIBAC banking conference, the Governor said: “Fundamental growth drivers of the Indian economy are not slowing, they are gaining momen- tum and this gives us confidence to say that the Indian growth story remains intact.” The governor said that agriculture should perform better during the rest of the year due to a good monsoon and aid a further pick-up in rural demand, while strong investment activity would also see a further boost from government capex picking up pace. "It is evident that India is on a sustainable growth path. Consumption and investment demand, the two main drivers of growth, are growing in tandem. Overall, the RBI's projection of GDP growth at 7.2 per cent for 2024-25 does not appear out of place,” he added. Currently the balance between inflation and growth is well poised Mr Das said, but he reiterated the need to maintain price stability to support growth over the medium to longer term, he said. It is the headline inflation that matters. "It is the headline inflation with food inflation having a weight of 46 per cent that the people understand," Mr Das said.