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 MALDIVES SET TO RECALIBRATE INDIA TIES PUNJAB COPS WARNED RAJASTHAN POLICE ON 14 FEB P5 SENSEX 69,521.69132.04 WEATHER A few spells of rain or thundershower very likely.Maximum and minimum temperatures likely to be around 22 °C and 19 °C respectively. RAINFALL: 16.9mm RELATIVE HUMIDITY ` vs $ 83.364 PAISE GOLD 62,780110 CM to provide land rights to tea workers MANAS R BANNERJEE Min. 56 % Max: 26.4°C (-2) SUN RISES 06:4 hrs MOON RISES 00:42 hrs Min: 19.9°C (+3) SUN SETS 16:53 hrs MOON SETS 13:0 hrs Full Moon on 13 December 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. SILIGURI, 7 DECEMBER hief minister Mamata Banerjee said that the hill has become her own home from today through marital relations. Mamata came to Kurseong yesterday to attend a wedding ceremony of one of her family members. Diamond Harbour MP Abhishek Banerjee and other state government’s ministers came to attend the marriage ceremony. “Today is a historic day for me. I am really happy today. We have made a blood relation with the hill, a relationship of the heart and a unity has developed between the hills and the plains.” “The hill has become my own home now. Our family belongs to all others in the country and even in the world. We are one. We will work together in the hills and the plains and maintain unity. I have finally established it today,” chief minister Mamata C Today is a historic day for me. I am really happy today. We have made a blood relation with the hill, a relationship of the heart and a unity has developed between the hills and the plains. The hill has become my own home now. Our family belongs to all others in the country and even in the world. We are one. MAMATA BANERJEE CHIEF MINISTER Banerjee said. Wearing traditional attire of tea workers in Darjeeling, Miss Banerjee today plucked green tea leaves with the tea workers in Makaibari tea plantation and even sang a traditional song with them during plucking.(Photo) “Today I have learnt how to pluck tea leaves from them. I have written Indian envoy meets ex-Navy men on death row in Qatar STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE poems on tea and other subjects of each district in north Bengal,” Miss Banerjee said. She also asked the tea workers about the state government sponsored projects and whether they have got those schemes. The chief minister, after interacting with the tea workers, told the media that she would provide land rights to them. “I will announce the state government’s plan in detail in an official meeting slated to be held in Kurseong tomorrow,” she said. The chief minister will attend her official programme from tomorrow in different parts of north Bengal and in Siliguri on 12 December. Poll victory is our collective triumph: PM tells BJP MPs STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, 7 DECEMBER NEW DELHI, 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, P11 Mamata will attend official programme from today in diff parts of N Bengal Max. 94 % TEMPERATURE P7 NIFTY 20,901.1536.55 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. Prime 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 22 December to 25 January. India fastest-growing economy, says FM 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 sec- tor’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 expan- SHAMI AMONG NOMINEES FOR ICC POM FOR NOV GOVT SANCTIONED 340 SPORTS INFRA PROJECTS ACROSS INDIA sionary 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. CMYK 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 pro- 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. vided 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.