BHUBANESWAR  TUESDAY  NOVEMBER 19, 2024  `9.00  PAGES 12  LATE CITY EDITION COMPETITION COMMISSION SLAPS `213 CRORE PENALTY ON META ACTION OVER 2021 WHATSAPP PRIVACY UPDATE The penalty is over Meta-owned WhatsApp’s 2021 privacy policy update on a ‘take-it-or-leave-it’ basis. The commission said the update forces users to comply, undermining their autonomy, and constitutes an abuse of Meta’s dominant position. The CCI said it constituted “an imposition of unfair condition” under the Competition Act, 2002 The Competition Commission of India (CCI) on Monday imposed `213.14 crore penalty on the company for abusing its dominant position ASKS META TO BAR WHATSAPP DATA SHARING ■ ■ The regulator asked the US social media giant to bar WhatsApp from sharing data it collected with other Meta companies The CCI said sharing of user data collected on WhatsApp with other Meta companies for purposes other than for providing WhatsApp services shall not be made a condition for users to access in India Sec 4(2) OF COMPETITION ACT, 2002 BREACHED BY THE 2021 PRIVACY POLICY UPDATE 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 Protester killed; more troops sent to Manipur Three elephants walk into trap laid for boars, electrocuted in Sambalpur dist M U K E S H R A N J A N A N D P R A S A N TA M A Z U M D A R @ New Delhi/ Guwahati IN a tragic incident, three elephants including a calf were electrocuted after coming in contact with an electric trap that had been laid by poachers to hunt wild boars on wee hours of Monday . The incident occurred in Naktideul range under Rairakhol forest division of the district. While the adult elephants, both females, were aged between 35 and 40 years, the male calf was around three to four-year-old. The jumbos were part of a herd of 11 elephants that had been roaming around the forest range since the last few days. The elephant carcasses were first spotted by villagers near Helpless local BJP office-bearers resign; Shah holds 2nd review meet UNION home minister Amit Shah on Monday chaired a high-level meeting to review the security situation in Manipur with senior officials, his second in as many days. One person was killed and another injured in alleged police firing during mob violence in Jiribam town on Sunday night even as several local office bearers of the ruling BJP submitted their resignations expressing deep concern over the prevailing “unwelcome/ helpless situation”. A mob had gone on the rampage in Jiribam and attacked the offices of the BJP and the Congress, prompting the police to allegedly open fire. The state government has ordered a probe. Given the volatile situation, the Union home ministry decided to send 50 more companies of the Central Armed Police Forces to the trouble-torn state. This is over and above 20 companies sent last week. At the meeting, Shah directed the CAPFs and the state police to intensify their operations to quickly restore normalcy. In Imphal, Chief Minister Govindas Konthoujam’s residence, that was set on fire in Bishnupur | PTI There is no question of withdrawing support. The govt is doing its best but unfortunately, it could not save lives. We appeal to people to exercise restraint — BJP ally Naga People’s Front minister Awangbou Newmai Minister N Biren Singh chaired a meeting with the NDA legislators. Twenty-three MLAs — 14 from BJP, five from its ally Naga People’s Front, three from National People’s Party (NPP) and an Independent — besides the lone Rajya Sabha member attended the meet. The NDA has a strength of 46 in the 60-member House. The NPP served notices to its three MLAs who attended the meet despite the party’s withdrawal of support to the government. The meetings came in the wake of arson attacks and vandalism by mobs targeting the houses and the properties of over a dozen legislators, including ministers. Leishangthem Susindro, a minister, has built a bunker at his house, which was targeted by a mob. The government extended the ban on internet and mobile data services in seven affected districts, and ordered the closure of all educational institutes in Imphal East, Imphal West and Bishnupur districts. Influential Meitei organisation, ‘Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity’, locked the GST Bhavan and election department office on Monday . EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Sambalpur Carcasses of the elephants lying near Buramal forest | EXPRESS Buramal forest in Naktideul range at around 5:30 am. On being informed, forest officials along with police rushed to the site and recovered the electric trap. The carcasses were also seized for postmortem. Deputy chief minister KV Singh Deo, who holds the Energy department portfolio assured swift action in the matter. “Offi- SAMIR DEY PASSES AWAY IN CUTTACK H E M A N T K U M A R R O U T @ Bhubaneswar IN an extraordinary medical feat, doctors at AIIMS-Bhubaneswar virtually brought a ‘dead’ man back to life after his heart stopped beating for nearly two hours. The patient Subhakant Sahu, an army jawan, had suffered a cardiac arrest due to which his heart stopped beating. He was revived with the help of advanced extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation (eCPR), marking the first such case in Odisha. Subhakant, a resident of Odapala village in Nayagarh district, was initially rushed to Ranpur hospital after he complained of heart-related complications on September 30. He was shifted to AIIMS the next day when his condition worsened. Subhakant Sahu with the doctors team of AIIMS-BBS on Monday | EXPRESS Intensivist and ECMO specialist Dr Srikant Behera said shortly after arrival, the patient suffered a cardiac arrest and despite 40 minutes of conventional CPR, there was no cardiac activity. “At this point, patients are usually declared dead. But we decided to employ eCPR. This is a state-of-theart procedure that involves using IT ONLY HAPPENS IN INDIA No custodian for locked room in Nirman Bhawan PA R V E Z S U LTA N @ New Delhi THE custody of a nondescript locked room No 4 on the ground floor in ‘ ’ wing A of Nirman Bhawan has become a mystery of sorts as no one seems to know which ministry or department it has been allotted it. Nirman Bhawan houses offices of a couple of ministries and departments, including the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) and its affiliated divisions such as the Central Public Work D e p a r t m e n t (CPWD), Land and Department Office and the ministry of tribal affairs. However, no ministry or department operating from the complex has come forward to claim its custody despite sending multiple reminders. In a fresh circular recently, the CPWD stated that it would break open the lock under supervision by the panel as no office had responded. Following the no- tices, only the Directorate of Estates, under the MoHUA, sent its response. “It is still known which department or ministry holds the possession of the room in question. November 25 is fixed to open the room,” said an official. As part of the Special Campaign 4.0 launched by Department of Administrative Refor ms Public Grievances for institutionalising cleanliness and minimising pendency in government offices, the ministries and departments were earlier requested to claim custodianship by November 8. The room’s lock will be broken nect Monday at 11 am in the presence of a panel constituted to oversee it. “Representative of the ministries or departments (if any) may be deputed to present at the scheduled time and venue. Further, this room will be taken into this directorate’s (CPWD) custody read the ,” latest circular. a machine to temporarily take over the functions of the heart and lungs,” he said. A multidisciplinary team of doctors initiated extracorporeal membrane oxygenation and eCPR, following which the patient’s heart finally resumed beating, albeit with an irregular rhythm. His heart function, however, improved significantly in next 30 hours, and the patient was successfully weaned off ECMO after 96 hours. “The eCPR gave us the ability to maintain blood circulation and oxygen delivery to vital organs while we worked on reviving his heart. He was in the ICU for more than a month as his other organs like lungs, liver and kidney were also affected. The team successfully addressed these life-threatening complications,” said Dr Behera. Associate professor and ECMO specialist Dr Krishna Mohan Gulla said eCPR is an emerging procedure used in cases of severe cardiac arrest when traditional methods fail. Though technically challenging, it has displayed amazing results in the treatment of some cardiac arrests, which are traditionally deemed fatal, he said. Family members and relatives of the patient were all praises for the doctors. “It is nothing short of a miracle. We owe everything to the doctors. They did not let us know what had actually happened and kept on saying to keep faith on the God and pray The doctors are . the God for us. They saved my son’s life,” said his mother Minati CONTINUED ON P5 Sahoo. KV Singh Deo, Dy chief minister cials of both the energy and forest departments are responsible to keep an eye on electric wires laid by poachers. Stern action will be taken against those found guilty for the lapses that led to the death of the elephants,” he said. Terming the incident unfortunate, principal chief conservator of forests (wildlife) Susanta INTEREST RATES STRESSFUL, CUT THEM: FM TO BANKS EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE The three-time Cuttack MLA and former BJP minister passed away while undergoing treatment at a private hospital here on Monday. He was suffering from pneumonia, kidney and heart problems | P2 AIIMS docs revive ‘dead’ man after heart stops for 2 hrs Officials of both the energy and forest departments are responsible to keep an eye on electric wires laid by poachers. Stern action will be taken against those found guilty for the lapses that led to the death of the elephants Nanda attributed the negligence and lack of vigilance by forest staff to be the cause of the incident. He said strict action against will be taken against people involved in the incident. While Rairakhol divisional forest officer (DFO) Arabinda Mohanty could not be reached for a comment on the matter, official sources said a team including joint task force and deputy conservator of forest is present at the spot and investigating the incident. Regional chief conservator of forests (RCCF) T Ashok Kumar said the joint task force reached the spot in the afternoon. Preliminary investigation revealed the electric trap to be the reason behind the elephant deaths. CONTINUED ON P5 @ Mumbai Bank interest rates will have to be far more affordable Nirmala Sitharaman ‘No undue concerns’ Amid concerns about growth slowdown, Sitharaman assured there is no need to have “undue concerns” FINANCE minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday said the current cost of borrowing is very stressful and asked banks to cut the interest rates to make borrowing more affordable. “What is important is that when you look at our growth requirements, and you have so many different voices coming out and saying the cost of borrowing is really very stressful, and a time when we want industries to ramp up and move (to) building capacities, interest rates will have to be far more affordable,” Sitharaman said at a SBI event here. Her remarks come amid the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) decision not to lower the interest rates since February 2023. The rates were left unchanged for the tenth time in the October policy. Retail inflation, too, remains above the tolerance level. With the retail inflation rising to a 14-month high of 6.21% in October, analysts are expecting the central bank to keep the rates unchanged in the next policy review in December as well. However, the finance minister’s nudge came amid concerns about a possible slowdown in economic growth. Falling demand from urban consumers is one of the prime worries.