FRIDAY 08 DECEMBER 2023 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 P5 SENSEX 69,521.69132.04 WEATHER CLEAR SKY. SHALLOW FOG IN THE MORNING. THE MAXIMUM AND MINIMUM TEMPERATURES WOULD BE AROUND 25 AND 09 DEGREES CELSIUS RESPECTIVELY. GOVT SANCTIONED 340 SPORTS INFRA PROJECTS ACROSS INDIA MALDIVES SET TO RECALIBRATE INDIA TIES PUNJAB COPS WARNED RAJASTHAN POLICE ON 14 FEB P7 NIFTY 20,901.1536.55 P11 ` vs $ 83.364 PAISE GOLD 62,780110 PM: Poll victory our collective triumph RAINFALL: Nil RELATIVE HUMIDITY Says victory in Assembly polls is party workers' win, not Modi's victory Max.100% Min. 61% STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, 7 DECEMBER TEMPERATURE Max: 25.8°C (+1) SUN RISES 07:02 hrs MOON RISES 03:16 hrs Min: 09.2°C (0) SUN SETS 17:25 hrs MOON SETS 14:11 hrs THUMBNAILS Chief of Defence Staff, General Anil Chauhan inaugurates the Avionics Exposition 2023 organised by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, in New Delhi on Thursday. ANI New Cong govt to hold Praja Durbar at KCR's residence: True to his promise of providing a people friendly government the first Congress chief minister of Telangana A Revanth Reddy on Thursday announced that he will hold his first Praja Durbar or people’s court tomorrow at the erstwhile Pragathi Bhavan which was the official residence cum camp (PG4) office of his predecessor KCR. P rime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said the BJP’s win in the recent Assembly polls was not anyone's personal victory but a collective triumph of party workers. “Don’t distance me from the public by making me ‘Modi ji’. I am Modi. Victory in the Assembly elections is party workers’ win, don’t consider it Modi’s victory,” he said addressing a meeting of BJP Members of Parliament here. “It was the result of our hard work,’’ he said. Briefing the media after the meeting, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Prahlad Joshi said the PM appreciated everyone's work. He also said that all BJP MPs and ministers have to participate in Vikas Bharat Sankalp Yatra from December 22 to January 25. The minister said the PM shared an interesting fact at the meeting. He pointed out that the Congress, while being in government, faced elections 40 times in states and got success only seven times. The BJP, on the other hand, got a chance to seek a repeat mandate 39 times and got success 22 times. “Our (victory) percentage is 56 per cent and Congress's is 18 per cent. Thus the figures prove that people's biggest choice now is BJP," Joshi quoted the PM as telling the BJP MPs. Mr Modi also stated that only four castes exist – women, youth, farmers SHAMI AMONG NOMINEES FOR ICC PoM FOR NOV and the poor-- and the party and the government have to work for their overall development. The PM got a rousing reception from party MPs with chants of “Modi ji ka swagat hai” on his arrival for the meeting. BJP President J P Nadda garlanded the PM amid a thunderous applause. The meeting was also attended by Home Minister Amit Shah, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and other senior leaders. This was the first meeting of BJP MPs after the recent Assembly polls in which the saffron party succeeded in retaining power in Madhya Pradesh and dislodged Congress from office in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. However, there is still suspense over who will be the new chief ministers of the three states with the party's central leadership holding intense discussions over the issue. P12 SILVER 77,2001,000 BRENT CRUDE (IN $) 74.710.41 US gave inputs having bearing on India’s security: Jaishankar STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, 7 DECEMBER External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar told the Rajya Sabha on Thursday that India has instituted an inquiry and set up an inquiry committee to look into inputs received from the US, after Washington alleged an Indian link to a foiled plot to kill a Sikh separatist on its soil. Mr Jaishankar was replying to a supplementary question by Mr John Brittas (CPIM), although the main question related to foreign visits by Indian Ministers. Mr Brittas said India had instituted an inquiry following US inputs, but rebutted charges made by Canada. The Minister said inputs were received from the US as part of security cooperation with the country, and they were of concern to India, as they related to a nexus of organized crime, trafficking and other matters. Since it had a bearing on India’s national security, it was decided to constitute an inquiry, and it has been constituted. In so far as Canada is concerned, he said, no specific evidence or inputs were provided and so the question of equitable treatment to the US and Canada, one of which EAM S Jaishankar told the Rajya Sabha on Thursday that India has instituted an inquiry and set up an inquiry committee to look into inputs received from the US, after Washington alleged an Indian link to a foiled plot to kill a Sikh separatist on its soil. provided inputs and one did not do so, does not arise. Mr Jaishankar said visits by Union Ministers are means to foster closer relations with foreign countries and promote India’s multi-faceted engagements at bilateral, regional and global level. He said the Ministers attended gatherings organised by the Indian diaspora during their visits.The diaspora had contributed to India’s good image abroad, and it did not matter whether the gatherings were organised by BJP’s overseas bodies. The Minister said India was paying due attention to rela- tions with Latin American countries with which Indian trade had increased substantially. India had pursued with Sri Lanka the issue of the welfare of Tamils in Sri Lanka. He said through Ministers’ visits abroad, “We convey India’s viewpoint and shape the agenda at bilateral, regional and global levels on issues such as peace and security; climate change; reformed multilateralism; transnational crime and terrorism,” besides emerging technology and cyber security and evacuation of Indian nationals and diaspora issues, among others. Indian envoy meets ex-Navy 7,000 prominent personalities in guest list for inauguration of Ram temple in Ayodhya men on death row in Qatar STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE MANOJ BHADRA NEW DELHI, 7 DECEMBER AYODHYA, 7 DECEMBER India got consular access to the eight former Indian Navy personnel on death row in Qatar on 3 December, two days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani on the sidelines of the COP28 Summit in Dubai. “We are closely following the matter and extending all legal and consular assistance. Meanwhile, our ambassador got consular access to meet all eight of them in prison on 3rd December. This is a sensitive issue, but we will continue to follow and whatever we can share, we will do so,” Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said at a media briefing. The Indian nationals, all employees of a Doha-based company, were taken into custody in August 2022. While the Qatari authorities are yet to make the charges against them public, Amid reports that Prime Minister Narendra Modi could inaugurate the Maryada Purushottam Ram International Airport here this month, the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust is finalising guest list for the inauguration of Ram temple and the consecration ceremony of Ram Lalla here on January 22 next. Mr Modi will be the chief guest at the January 22 function. The trust is inviting around 7,000 guests comprising wellknown personalities of the country to the consecration ceremony, sources here on Thursday said. However, there is a possibility of the PM inaugurating the international airport here which is expected to be completed by December 15. He is also schedule to visit his parliamentary constituency Varanasi on December 17. The invitees for the con- We are closely following the matter and extending all legal and consular assistance. Meanwhile, our ambassador got consular access to meet all eight of them in prison on 3rd December. This is a sensitive issue, but we will continue to follow and whatever we can share, we will do so ARINDAM BAGCHI MINISTRY OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS SPOKESPERSON there have been reports that the eight Indians had been charged by a court in Qatar with spying for Israel. “There have been two hearings. We filed an appeal, from the families, and the detainees had a final appeal,” the spokesperson said, refer- ring to the appeals held on November 23 and 30. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had recently earlier met with the families of the eight prisoners and assured them that the government attached “the highest importance” to the case. The invitees for the consecration programmee include saints and religious leaders of different traditions of the country, artists, litterateurs, sports personalities, judges, industrialists, etc. secration programmee include saints and religious leaders of different traditions of the country, artists, litterateurs, sports personalities, judges, industrialists, etc. The Trust is expecting around 3,000 VVIPs includ- India fastest-growing economy, says Sitharaman STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, 7 DECEMBER Indian economy achieved 7.6 per cent growth in the JulySeptember quarter and maintained the momentum of the fastest growing economy in the world, while the third and the fourth largest economies of the world contracted during the same quarter. This was stated by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman while replying to a short duration debate on the economic situation in the country in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday. The debate started on 5th December. She said India’s achievement of 7.6 per cent growth is significant; in just eight years, India has become the fifth largest economy from being the tenth largest in 2014. All sectors of the economy are showing growth, although the services sector’s contribution to the GDP is touching 60 per cent. Compared to the Indian economy, she said Germany contracted by 0.4 per cent and Japan by 2.1 per cent during same quarter. Among the other emerging economies, considered engines of growth of the world, Vietnam grew by 5.33 per cent, Malaysia by 3.3 per cent and Thailand by 1.5 per cent. She said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Make in India and Production Linked Incentive schemes had encouraged manufacturing to contribute to the economy significantly. The manufacturing sector has registered the highest growth of 13.9 per cent in second quarter of the current year. The Finance Minister said, compared to India, major economies of the world like US, China and Eurozone are showing contraction of the purchasing managers’ index (PMI), which shows the health of manufacturing in any country, while it has been expansionary for India. The overall exports October, 2023 have risen by 9.43 per cent to 62.26 billion dollars, in spite of falling demand in western countries, she said. WTO was pessimistic about merchandise trade and said it would come down in 2023 to 0.8 per cent. But India’s merchandise exports have increased by 6.21 per cent to 33.57 billion US dollars in October this year, Ms Sitharaman said. Last year India was the second largest mobile manufacturer in the world. India exported mobiles worth 10 billion dollars worth mobiles in 2022-2023. The export of passenger and commercial vehicles from India has increased to many countries. The passenger vehicles’ exports rose by 15 per cent to 6.62 lakh units in 2022-23 compared to 5.77 lakh units in 2021-22. Made in India articles are seen increasingly in US supermarkets, she said. There was decline of US imports from China by 10 per cent and increase by 44 per cent of goods imported from India during 2018-22, she said. Net direct tax collection is going up; till 9 November there was collection of Rs 10.60 lakh crore, she said. This was an increase by 21.82 per cent. The GST monthly collection has stabilised at Rs 1.60 lakh crore, growing by 15 per cent last month, the Finance Minister said. Ms Sitharaman said Capex growth has been going up, including by the States by over 74.3 per cent, especially due to 50-year interest free loans by the Central Government. There was a provision of Rs 1.30 lakh crore for the States in the Budget. ing PM Modi, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat to attend the ceremony on January 22. Sources said the invitations would be sent to prominent cricketers, Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli, Bollywood celebrities, Amitabh Bachchan, Kangana Ranaut, Deepika Chikhalia, Akshay Kumar, Asha Bhosle, Arun Govil, industrialists, Mukesh Ambani, Gautam Adani, Ratan Tata. Invitations will also be sent to retired military officers, scientists, Padmashree and Padma Bhushan awardees. As per the programmee, Narendra Modi will perform the first aarti of the new idol of Ramlala in the newly-constructed Ram temple in Shri Ram Janmabhoomi complex. 150 Vedic Acharyas are being engaged in the ritual of Pran Pratistha. Govind Dev Giri, Treasurer of Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, said that a group of Acharyas have been selected under the guidance of Shankaracharya Vijayendra Saraswati of Kashi. Vedic scholar Laxmikant Dixit of Kashi will be the chief acharya and there will be a group of 150 pundits with him, who will perform various parayans, recitations, yagyas etc. All the rituals will be conducted under the supervision of the famous Vedic scholar Ganeshwar Shastri of Kashi. On January 17, a grand procession of the immovable idol of Ramlala will be taken out and installed in the Ram Janmabhoomi complex. After that, the process of worship and worship rituals will start from January 18. After reaching the Ram Janmabhoomi complex on January 22, PM Modi will first go to Jatayu temple. Jatayu is a symbol of the kar sevaks, the sacrificers, who sacrificed their lives for the work of God. He will offer floral tribute to Jatayu as a representative of them all. After this he will participate in the consecration ceremony before addressing the inaugural address and thereafter take blessings frombthe saints. After this, the guests from India and abroad will be given darshan of Ram Lalla. VIKSIT BHARAT Glimpses of Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra programme held in Meghalaya on Thursday.  ANI