madurai l Saturday l December 28, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 14 l late city EDITION Former Suzuki Motor chairman Osamu Suzuki passes away at 94 Osamu Suzuki Revolutionised India’s car market He passed away on December 25 due to malignant lymphoma, according to information shared by Japan’s Suzuki Motor Corporation on Friday. Suzuki is credited for taking a big risk by partnering with the then Indian government in 1981 to form a joint venture, Maruti Udyog Ltd, when India was a closed economy. The move revolutionised India’s car market Suzuki, who grew small-car manufacturer Suzuki Motor into an international brand with huge success in India, passed away on Wednesday focused on building light-weight ‘kei’ vehicles, many of which became big hits for their fuel efficiency and easy-to-handle quality ■ Under the charismatic businessman’s four-decade leadership through 2021, Suzuki Motor’s sales grew more than 10-fold to 3 trillion yen 40% Proved small cars can give big business ■ Calling himself an “old man at a small business”, Osamu Suzuki Current Market share of Maruti Suzuki in India’s car market 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 Cremation today amid party’s Rural, urban push for separate resting place consumption Household survey 2023-24 Funeral at 11.45 am at Delhi’s Nigambodh Ghat crematorium, says home ministry Modi among first to pay homage Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was among the first ones to pay homage to Singh and lay a wreath on Friday, said the death was a big loss and the nation lost an able statesman Prime Minister Narendra Modi pays his last respects to former prime minister Manmohan Singh, in New Delhi on Friday | PTI P r e e t h a Na i r @ New Delhi Ahead of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s final rites with full state honours, the Congress on Friday requested the Union government for a resting place for him along the banks of the Yamuna in Delhi, where many former PMs have their memorials. However, sources said that the Centre told the Congress brass to conduct the funeral at the Nigambodh Ghat crematorium on Saturday as scheduled while it will consider the request for a memorial later. Congress sources said they had no option other than to proceed with the plan announced by the Union home ministry . In his letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Kharge said: “Apropos our telephonic conversation today morning, wherein I made a request to hold Dr Singh’s last rites, which will take place tomorrow at his final resting place that would be a sacrosanct venue for a memorial of the great son of India. This is in keeping with such tradition of having memorials of statesmen and former Prime Ministers at the very place of their funerals.” However, a communication from the Ministry of Home Affairs said Singh’s last rites will be conducted at 11.45 am on Saturday at the Nigambodh Ghat crematorium with state honours. Significantly it was the UPA , government headed by Singh that decided in 2013 that there He left his imprint on our national life. The nation has lost an eminent statesman, renowned economist and a distinguished leader Union Cabinet resolution would be no separate memorials for VVIPs in Delhi and decided to have a common complex for memorials of departed national leaders like Presidents, Vice Presidents and Prime Ministers. However, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh kept up the pressure, wondering why the government could not find a location for his cremation and memorial befitting of his stature. “This is nothing but a deliberate insult to the first Sikh Prime Minister,” he alleged. Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi described Manmohan Singh’s demise as a “deeply personal loss”. A condolence resolution passed by the Congress Working Committee said he was a towering figure in India’s political and economic landscape whose contributions transformed the country and earned him respect worldwide. Manmohan singh believed in growth with equity kapil sibal Member of Rajya Sabha D r Manmohan Singh belongs to an era when politicians were respected for allowing institutions to flourish. It is not as if there were no aberrations in the past. By and large, the spirit of the Constitution was honoured by those in power. Even when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister (19992004), he respected and heard the voice of the opposition. Narasimha Rao, on one occasion, requested Vajpayee, who was the Leader of Opposition at the time, to lead a delegation to the UN. It was during those years that Manmohan Singh, from being a bureaucrat, who served the nation in several capacities, became the Prime Minister in 2004. The opening up of the Indian economy when a radical , shift was made in 1991, by Singh as Finance Minister with India’s balance of payments in deep crisis. His economic liberalisation policy paved the way for what India is today Every sector of the . economy moved away from the license quota raj and from a 3.3% growth rate prior to 1991, we in the 1990s witnessing India’s GDP growing at 6%. Between 2004 and 2014, GDP growth averaged 7.7% with 8.1% average growth between 2004 and 2009. Those were golden years, when India’s growth story was lauded internationally and 271 million people moved above the poverty line. Economic growth during these years was tempered with equity. Singh believed that growth without equity is not , the path India should tread. His commitment to Parliament and Parliamentary institutions was unmatched. He sat through the debates, listening to the opposition and attempted, to the extent possible, to move forward with consensus. He did not have the luxury of a brute majority in the Lok Sabha and therefore, had to navigate his policies through dialogue both with his coalition partners and the opposition. The dialogues, with his coalition partners, allowed him to make some monumental decisions. The Right to Information Act, 2005, brought about enormous transparency in the process of decision making. With information available to citizens, government could be held accountable, making transparency a policy prescription. The Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, allowed 25% of children belonging to the poor and marginalised communities to be admitted to private schools where their education was subsidised from Class I to Class VIII. These changes in many senses recognised that unless people at the bottom of the pyramid have opportunities, India will continue to be an iniquitous society .  Continued on: P9 Personal loss, says Sonia Terming his death a “personal loss”, Congress leader Sonia Gandhi on Friday said Singh was her friend, philosopher and guide. She said Singh leaves a void in the national life that can’t be filled singh’s final procession at 9.30 am On Saturday, his mortal remains will be taken to AICC HQ at 8 am, where party cadre and the public can offer tributes. The final procession to the cremation ground will depart at 9.30 am Champion of Indo-u.s. ties: Blinken US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Singh was one of the greatest champions of US-India strategic partnership who brought the two countries closer A StateSman like no other: Putin Russian President Vladimir Putin described former prime minister Manmohan Singh as an outstanding statesman who elevated IndiaRussia ties to greater heights gap narrows D I PA K M O N D A L @ New Delhi THE gap between urban and rural consumption narrowed as the average monthly per capita consumption expenditure grew 9% in nominal term in rural areas and 8% in urban areas in 2023-24, the latest household consumption data released by Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation showed. The gap between urban and rural consumption declined to 70% in 2023-24 from 71% in the previous year. The household consumption survey was conducted from August 2023 to July 2024. According to the new data, monthly consumption expenditure in current prices was `4,122 in rural areas and `6,996 in urban areas in 2023-24. In the previous year, the average monthly consumption expenditure was `3,773 in rural areas and `6,549 in urban. In real terms (2011-12 price), the increase in both rural and urban consumption is only 3.5% to `2,079 and `3,632, respectively . This paper had on December 3 reported the household consumption expenditure survey report of 2023-24 would be released soon. The government was awaiting the consumption data as it has to decide the new base year for calculating economic data such as GDP and inflation. The new base year could be either 2022-23 or 2023-24. The Consumer Price Index basket would also be changed accordingly. It is likely that the weightage of food in CPI basket will be aligned based on the consumption survey report. Currently food has a weightage of 44.6% in the com, bined CPI, which tracks the retail inflation. Average MPCE for major states State Rural Urban Kerala 6,611 7,783 Tamil Nadu 5,701 8,165 Telangana 5,435 8,978 Andhra 5,327 7,182 Karnataka 4,903 8,076 Odisha 3,357 5,825 Uttar Pradesh 3,481 5,395 Maharashtra 4,145 7,363 ( MPCE: Monthly per-capita consumption expenditure) Man convicted for rly station murder E x p r e s s N e w s S e r v i c e @ Chennai A special court in Chennai on Friday convicted a 26-year-old man for murdering a 20-year-old woman from Alandur by pushing her in front of a moving train at St Thomas Mount railway station in October 2022. D Sathish was convicted under Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 4 of the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Harassment of Women Act, 1998. Mahila Court Judge Sridevi said the quantum of the sentence would be announced on December 30. The case was investigated by the CB-CID, on the orders of then DGP Sylendra Babu. According to the police, Sathish and the victim -- S Satya -- both resided at the police quarters in Alandur as Sathish’s father was a retired policeman and Satya’s mother was a constable. The two had once been friends but had fallen out, said the police. During the investigation, Sathish claimed to the police that he was “in love” with Satya and had started stalking her after learning she was getting married. He had been following her for at least 10 days before the murder, that investigators said had been planned.  P7 HC grills TN on rape probe, lauds survivor R SIV A K U M A R @ Chennai Grilling the TN government on the investigation into the rape of a student in the Anna University campus, the Madras HC on Friday directed the state and university to file reports on the probe and the deficiencies in security and safety arrangements at the institution. Lauding the survivor for coming forward to lodge the complaint, the bench said it is the duty of every citizen to protect her; and stated that women’s liberty to move anywhere cannot be restricted.A vacation bench comprising Justices SM Subramaniam and V Lakshminarayanan took up suo motu cognizance of the matter earlier in the day following requests made by some , advocates, including V Jayaprakash Narayanan who submitted a letter addressed to the court by advocate R Varalakshmi. The bench directed the home secretary, the DGP and the Anna University to file reports on the incident by noon. However, when the court re-assembled for the post-lunch session, the judges said they would take up the matter for hearing after getting the nod of the Chief Justice as the matter had been placed before him. In the meantime, Varalakshmi filed a public interest litigation on the matter and advocate A Mohanadas moved a petition to implead himself in the case.  P7 Agencies Safety audits to be done at all edu institutions in TN Chennai: In the aftermath of the sexual assault incident inside AU, the higher education department has directed authorities to conduct safety audit in all education institutions. Speaking to TNIE, higher education secretary K Gopal said, “Authorities must conduct security audit, identify porous points, ensure CCTV cameras and monitor the movement of outsiders on the campuses.”  P4 Birds behind bars H raja TN prisons to set up poultry farms, cut costs & improve meals Jail term suspended: HC The Madras HC suspends H Raja’s six-month prison sentence in the cases relating to his remarks against MP Kanimozhi and Periyar until appeals filed against trial court verdicts are decided | P2 R A J A L A K SH M I S A M PATH @ Vellore In a bid to reduce procurement costs and graft while ensuring quality the Tamil Nadu Prison , Department has launched a self-sustainable poultry farming initiative. Implementation of the programme at nine central prisons, including special women’s central prisons, began in December. The initiative is projected to save the department up to `10 crore annually . According to the prison manual, each prison inmate is entitled to receive 300gm of skinless, boneless chicken twice a week. TN’s prisons, including sub-jails, house approximately 22,000 inmates. Prison officials told TNIE than 15,000 chickens were re- quired for every 1,000 prisoners. While the chicken was earlier procured from external suppliers, the in-house production system is expected to ensure cost efficiency and improved quality. “The total project cost is `18 lakh. This initiative not only helps the department achieve selfsustainability but also ensures inmates are served healthier chicken of better quality,” a senior prison official said. The newly-established poultry Mumbai attack plotter Abdul Makki dies of heart attack farms have been scaled according to the capacity of each prison to meet the inmates’ needs. The Palayamkottai Central Prison in Tirunelveli is the first to have tried poultry farming but to sell the chicken in the prison market. That model has been adapted now for in-house consumption. “Not all central prisons have fully functional poultry farms yet.  P7 PAKISTAN-based terrorist Abdul Rehman Makki, a key figure in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks that killed 174 people and injured over 300, on Friday died of a heart attack in Lahore, Pakistan. He was 70 years old and had been undergoing treatment for diabetes. He was the brother-in-law of Mumbai attacks mastermind Hafiz Saeed and the deputy chief of the banned Jamaat-udDawa (JuD). According to the JuD, Makki had been ill for the past few days and was undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Lahore. “Makki suffered a cardiac arrest early this morning and he breathed his last in the hospital,” news agency PTI quoted a JuD official as saying. In 2020, Makki was handed six months-imprisonment in a terror financing case by an anti-terrorism court in Pakistan. However, another court in Pakistan commuted this to a paltry fine of `50,000. After this incident, however, Makki had been keeping a low profile. In 2023, Makki was designated as a global terrorist by the United Nations, subjecting him to an assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo. A vocal critic of India, Makki had made several provocative speeches threatening to seize Kashmir by force.