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News BriefKolkata Zoo

says no to kangaroos

Agency | Kolkata

With the death of the lone red kangaroo in captivity in India, the Kolkata Zoo authorities have decided against keeping the pouched mammals in the future. “We have decided that we won’t bring anymore kangaroos in the near future,” a West Bengal Zoo Authority official said. “Henceforth, our focus will be on species found in eastern India and not exotic species”, he said.Mercury rises by

few notches in Kashmir

‘Ghayal Once Again’ to now

release on Feb 5

Agency | Srinagar

Mercury stayed above the freezing point across Kashmir, barring Gul-marg and Pahalgam towns, while the weath-er is expected to remain mainly dry for the next few days. Pahalgam witnessed light rainfall during the night and the mercury there settled at minus 3.5 degrees Cel-sius against the previ-ous night’s zero degrees Celsius, an official of the Meteorological Depart-ment said.

Agency | Mumbai

Actor Sunny Deol’s much-awaited “Ghayal” sequel, which was ear-lier slated for January 15 release, will now hit theatres on February 5. “Ghayal Once Again” marks Sunny’s second directorial venture af-ter “Dillagi” (1999). The reason behind the film’s postponement is not known yet. “Big an-nouncement: Save the date, Ghayal Once Again now to be released world-wide on 5th February, 2016 #Ghayalon5Feb @IAMSUNNYDEOL @sakpataudi.”

North Korea ‘earthquake’ near nuclear test site“Hydrogen Bomb”

Agency | New Delhi

The government denied on Wednesday Aamir Khan had been removed as the brand ambassador of Incredible India -- a campaign to promote tour-ism in the country – hours after reports of the actor being dropped emerged on the web. “In response to certain news reports appearing in the media, about Shri Aamir Khan, the ministry of tourism clarifies that there is no change in the stand of the ministry in this matter,” a statement released by the

Agency | New Delhi

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Government on Wednesday said that it would be addressing the observation made by the Delhi High Court with regard to the Odd-Even formula on January 8. “The Delhi Government would be following the observation of the Delhi High Court and it would keep its point in front of the court also. We would be addressing the obser-vation made by court on January 8,” Delhi Trans-port Minister Gopal Rai said. “We have signifi-cantly increased the fre-

Agency | Washington

A US university, whose Indian students were deported recently, has blamed Air India and some of the students for confusion on the issue. “I want to share with every-one my strong belief that these difficulties arose solely because of the ac-tions of Air India,” pres-ident of the Northwestern Polytechnic University (NPU) Peter Hsieh said in an email to its students. “At this time, we do not know why Air India has undertaken these ac-tions to cause irreparable

Agency | Seoul

North Korea announced on Wednesday it had successfully carried out its first hy-drogen bomb test, a development that, if confirmed, would mark a stunning step forward in its nuclear development. “The republic’s first hydrogen bomb test has been successfully performed at 10:00am on January 6, 2016, based on the strate-gic determination of the Workers’ Par-ty,” a state television news reader an-nounced. The announcement Wednesday from North Korea that it had carried out a nuclear test brought to the front lines of global attention a phrase not often heard since the Cold War — “the H-bomb.” As opposed to the atomic bomb, the kind dropped on Japan in the closing days of World War II, the hydrogen bomb, or so-called “superbomb” can be far more powerful — experts say, by 1,000 times or more. North Korea’s first three nuclear tests, from 2006 to 2013, were A-bombs on roughly the same scale as the ones

used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which together killed more than 200,000 peo-ple. Pyongyang announced Wednesday that it had detonated its first H-bomb; while seismic data supported the claim of a large explosion, there was no imme-diate way to confirm the type. Atomic bombs rely on fission, or atom-splitting, just as nuclear power plants do. The hy-drogen bomb, also called the thermo-nuclear bomb, uses fusion, or atomic nuclei coming together, to produce ex-plosive energy. Stars also produce ener-gy through fusion. “Think what’s going on inside the sun,” says Takao Takahara, professor of international politics and peace research at Meiji Gakuin Univer-sity in Tokyo. “In theory, the process is potentially infinite. The amount of en-ergy is huge.” The technology of the hydrogen bomb is more sophisticated, and once attained, it is a greater threat. They can be made small enough to fit on a head of an intercontinental mis-

Agency | Islamabad

Pakistan defence minis-ter Khawaja Muhammad Asif said that “some el-ements” want to “sab-otage” Indo-Pak peace talks through terror acts but they will not suc-ceed in their nefarious designs. “Some elements want to sabotage the talks process between the two neighbouring coun-tries through such terror acts but they would not succeed in their nefar-ious designs,” he said. Asif said Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Shar-if and his Indian coun-terpart Narendra Modi, in a telephonic contact, have agreed that a cor-

Some elements want to sabotage talks with India: Pak defence minister

US university blames Air India, deported students for visa mess

tourism ministry said. The ministry clarified it had a contractual agreement with creative agency Mc-Cann Worldgroup to pro-duce a social awareness campaign and the said campaign featured Khan. Several news reports start-

ed doing the rounds after Amity Malviya, who han-dles the IT, website and social media management cell for the BJP, tweeted: “Aamir Khan removed as brand ambassador of Incredible #India.” Khan had courted controversy in

Tourism ministry denies dropping Aamir from Incredible India campaign

North Korea Nuclear DetonationsNorth Korea carries out ‘successful’ hydrogen bomb test; ‘Man-made earthquake’ suspected after tremor

dial relationship was the most appropriate re-sponse to the terrorists, Radio Pakistan reported on Wednesday. He said Indian leadership has not levelled any allegation on Pakistan regarding the Pathankot airbase terror attack. To a question, he said that Pakistan itself was a victim of terrorism and fighting a successful

war against the menace. Heavily-armed terrorists last week attempted to storm the air force base in Pathankot. The attack-ers were believed to have infiltrated from Pakistan and there was specu-lation that they may belong to Jaish-e-Mo-hammad, headed by Maulana Masood Azhar of the Kandahar hijack.

November last year when he said his wife, Kiran Rao, was considering whether to move out of the country due to the prev-alence of an atmosphere of “intolerance”. “As an individual, as part of this country as a citizen, we read in the papers what is happening, we see it on the news and certainly, I have been alarmed. I cannot deny. I have been alarmed by a number of incidents,” he said while speaking at the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards ceremony.

harm to our university and tarnish its reputation and incite great distress in our students and their families... we can only speculate as to Air India’s motives and assume Air India’s recent actions are related to their precarious financial position,” he said. Hsieh alleged that Air India is preventing students from boarding the plane because of the

fear of financial burden in case students are de-ported from the US. The statement has also been posted on the universi-ty’s website. There was, however, no immediate comment from Air India. Hsieh said the universi-ty continues to witness a large number of students successfully arriving and entering the United States.

AAP govt to reply to Delhi HC’s observations on January 8

quency of the Delhi metro and we have also worked to increase the efficiency of the buses plying on the roads of the national capital,” he added while pointing out that the city has become congestion free and there is a drop in pollution. Rai further said it seems entire Delhi is

united in this campaign. “The vehicular pollution is most dangerous. It has been reducing and that is definitely helpful for the people of Delhi as people are also doing carpool-ing,” he added. Rai also said that the state gov-ernment would be prov-ing to the High Court the

data of the changes in the level of pollution in the national capital since the scheme came into effect. The Delhi High Court has asked Chief Minis-ter Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Government to explain as to why the Odd-Even trial should last for more than a week. The High Court has asked the city government to file a de-tailed account of the im-pact on pollution level of the new traffic rules, which were introduced on January 1. The AAP Government had declared that the first two working days since the inception of the Odd-Even scheme was a success.

North Korea conducted its fourth underground nuclear test Wednesday, detonating what the government said was its first hydrogen bomb, a device significantly more powerful than those used in previous tests. The test was conducted in a “safe and perfect manner” with “no adverse impact on the ecological environment,” the official Korean Central News Agency said. Kim Jong Un’s government said it set off a hydrogen device at 10 a.m. local time. The explosion was first detected as a magnitude 5.1 earthquake by the U.S. Geological Survey. 1976-81: Begins development using SCUD-B missile from the Soviet Union and launchpad from Egypt1984: First SCUD-B missile test firing1988: Operational deployment of SCUD-B and SCUD-C missiles1990: First Rodong missile test firing1998: Operational deployment of Rodong missiles, which have a range of 1,300 kilometers. Firing of Taepodong-1 missile, which North Korea says was a satellite launch2005: North Korea announces possession of nuclear weapons and its withdrawal from six-party talks aimed at ending its atomic program

North Korea Missile Tests: Timeline

More on Page 3...

sile. “That the bomb can become compact is the characteristic, and so this means North Korea has the US in mind in making

this H-bomb announce-ment,” says Tatsujiro Su-zuki, professor at the Re-search Center for Nuclear Weapons Abolition at Na-gasaki University.

www.sunvillasamachar.com Ahmedabad2 / Dt. 07-01-2016, Thursday

- Kapilkumar M. HirparaEditor

Editors’ Picks

THURSDAy, JANUARy 07, 2016

QUOTE OF THE

DAYWhat North Korea’s ‘hydrogen bomb’ means for Asia and the worldNorth Korea’s claim of having successfully tested a thermonuclear device, if true, could have serious im-plications for the non-proliferation of nuclear weap-ons and the balance of power in the Korean Peninsu-la. This claim comes barely weeks after the country’s leader Kim Jong-Un stated his country is developing the capability for a thermonuclear device, or hydro-gen bomb, as it is popularly called. While a 5.1 seis-mic event from near the country’s nuclear testing site was reported by international seismic stations, there is no clarity as yet on whether the test was indeed a thermonuclear one and, if so, a successful one. North Korea is unlikely to have mastered the technological capability to make highly sophisticated thermonucle-ar weapons, and therefore the device tested on Tues-day may well be a “boosted fission weapon”, more sophisticated than an atomic (or fission) bomb but not as powerful as a hydrogen bomb. The country has been on the nuclear path for some time now. Having declared its plans in 2003, it tested its nuclear weap-ons in 2006, 2009 and finally in 2013. Moreover, the country has been conducting submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) tests, a weapon system that when perfected could add great value to North Korea’s nuclear delivery capability while, of course, increas-ing the insecurity of its neighbours. North Korea’s nu-clear ambitions have undeniable consequences for the stable balance of power in the Korean peninsula and beyond. For one, this will make Japan and South Ko-rea deeply insecure, especially at a point in time when a rising China is perceived as a challenge by them, and the US’ ability to be the security provider for its allies in the region is in serious doubt. Secondly, with the breakdown of the six-party talks with Pyongyang, both the US and China have lost their traction within North Korea. Finally, the only country with some in-fluence in Pyongyang is Russia, with whom the West has no meeting of minds on a variety of geopoliti-cal issues, particularly after the conflict over Ukraine. It also shows that China, the rising superpower, does not enjoy much political and strategic influence in its own backyard. North Korea’s nuclear tests, whether or not their thermonuclear claims are valid, pose serious challenges to the global non-proliferation regime even as this order is under immense stress, particularly after the failure of the NPT Review Conference last year. Moreover, if Pyongyang continues to develop more so-phisticated, and miniaturised, nuclear weapons and ad-vanced delivery mechanisms, it could potentially force South Korea and Japan to follow similar paths.

“We expect the construction work on the Ram temple at Ayodhya to start within the next two-three months and certainly before the end of this year. We will wait for a court verdict and the temple would not come up through any ‘andolan’ (movement),” - BJP leader Subramanian Swamy today claimed that

Confirmed: Deepika Padukone to be a part of Vin Diesel’s ‘XXX’ franchise

Agency | Mumbai

She may have bagged many awards and im-pressed the audience with her performances but Konkona Sen Sharma says she did not want to be an actress. After winning praise for her acting skills on screen, the 36-year-old is now working behind the camera. The “Ek Thi Daayan” star is all set to go on floors with her di-rectorial debut “A Death in the Gunj” but Konkona insists she had no plans of turning a director ei-ther. “Honestly, I never wanted to be an actor ei-

ther and I never thought I want to be a director. But it’s just that this particular story fascinated me for so long, a story that’s been with me for so long…I didn’t think I would write a script either. But it start-ed getting bigger and bigger and at some point I thought ‘oh so this is how its going to be like’, I have to write and di-rect it,” she said. The ac-tress was speaking at the launch of Honey Trehan and filmmaker Abhishek Chaubey’s production company MacGuffin Pic-tures, which is backing the film.

Konkona Sen Sharma says never wanted to be an actor

Agency | Mumbai

It’s here guys – the cat is finally out of the bag. After much speculation and tizzy, we know that Bollywood actress Deep-ika Padukone will indeed be a part of Vin Diesel’s ‘XXX’ franchise. Yes, it has been confirmed by a report in Bollywoodlife.

com, that Dips will be seen in the popular Hol-lywood movie and share screen space with action stud Vin Diesel! Earli-er, Deepika had post-ed a mysterious photo posing with Vin which set the tongues wagging and started the game of speculation. Accord-ing to sources, Deepika

who kept the project un-disclosed, had flown to America to have a meet-ing with Vin. Apparently, director of ‘XXX: The Return of Xander Cage’ confirmed the news on Twitter and added, “We start in January. She starts sometime in February.” Well, what a way to start the year, Dips!

Agency | Mumbai

Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt , currently serving five-year sentence in Yer-awada central prison in Pune for illegal posses-sion and destruction of an AK-56 rifle in 1993 serial blasts case, is set to released from jail on Feb-ruary 25 on the grounds of ‘good conduct’. The release will be 103 days ahead of the official end of his prison term. Sources said the home department on Tuesday approved the proposal to give the actor, currently lodged in Yer-awada central prison, the benefits of remittance for good conduct. Sources in the state secretariat said Dr Ranjit Patil, the minister of state home, cleared the proposal. Patil, however, has not given an official confirmation that the pro-posal was cleared. He did not deny it either. HT had

Agency | New Delhi

At 49, singer-compos-er AR Rahman has two Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award, two Grammy Awards, four National Film Awards, a Golden Globe, 15 Film-fare Awards and 13 Film-fare Awards South to his

credit. He is the go-to musician across languag-es and film industries, in-cluding though not limited to Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malyalam, Kannada and English movies. But the ‘Mozart of Madras’, who celebrated his 49th birth-day on Wednesday, did

Agency | New Delhi

Bollywood actor Kriti Sanon was in for a rude surprise as she boarded a flight to Delhi recently for a man sitting next to her took obvious pride in watching a pirated ver-sion of Dilwale, which stars her, on his phone. The Shah Rukh Khan- Kajol film, made at an estimated cost of Rs 100 crore, released on Decem-ber 18 and is still showing in cinemas. Despite being aware of the fact that the film’s lead actress was a fellow passenger, the man continued watching the film via his iPhone projector. Infuriated by the man’s act, Kriti took to Twitter to shame the man. “Someone watchin pirated version of Dil-wale in front of me on

Agency | New Delhi

Actor-filmmaker Farhan Akhtar is hopeful that the new Shyam Bene-gal-headed committee will bring positive chang-es in the controversy-rid-den censor board. The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) has been at the centre of flak for some time now, ow-ing to its decisionfrom cutting scenes in films like “NH 10” and “Dum Laga Ke Haisha” to short-ening a kiss in “Spectre”. The 41-year-old “Bhaag Milkha Bhaag” star feels a rating system should be adopted while certify-ing a film. “Everything is work in progress. A new committee has been set up, headed by Mr Shyam Benegal. I would hope some result will come of it that benefits artists. “In my personal opinion, there needs to be a rat-

Early release: Sanjay Dutt to walk out of jail on Feb 25

Disha Patani to play MS Dhoni’s former lady love in biopic

Happy Birthday AR Rahman: Top 18 Hindi hits by the maestro

Man sitting next to Kriti Sanon watches pirated Dilwale, shamed

Shyam Benegal-led panel will bring good results: Farhan Akhtar

phone in the flight! An-noyed!! #SayNoToPira-cy,” she wrote along with the image of the man. The tweet was shared and liked over 4,000 times. The man, howev-er, remained unfazed as Kriti’s following tweets showed. She wrote: “Sad to c the hardwork of so many ppl bein watched in such pathetic quali-ty!Pls enjoy films in cin-emas #SayNoToPiracy.”

Directed by Rohit Shet-ty, Dilwale has earned Rs 141.5 crore on box office till now. It is a hit inter-nationally but the busi-ness has remained below expectations given the star names attached to it. Shetty had said that the sporadic protests against the film by right-wing or-ganisations affected the BO numbers. He should probably add piracy to the list.

not have it easy. Just last year proved to be a rath-er rough one. There were fatwas against him over his involvement in Majid Majidi’s film on Prophet Muhammad , he joined the raging intolerance de-bate and courted several controversies. However, Rahman’s global appeal is his strong suit. In 2014, Rahman gave music for as many as 12 films including Hollywood projects like the Million Dollar Arm and The Hundred-Foot Journey, Shankar’s Tamil film I and Rajinikanth’s Kochadaiiyaan and Lin-gaa in Tamil.

Agency | Mumbai

Disha Patani has bagged the role of Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s former girlfriend in a biopic which will see Sushant Singh Rajput playing the World Cup winning In-dia captain. The girl was roped in to essay the char-acter as she fits the bill perfectly. Disha had made her Telugu movie debut last year opposite Varun Tej in a film titled ‘Loaf-

reported on December 9 last year that Dutt is likely to be released on Febru-ary 25. Dutt was convict-ed in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case for possessing illegal weapons and sen-tenced to five years in jail. He had already served 18 months before the verdict was pronounced. The ac-tor is serving 42 months of his remaining jail term, after the Supreme Court upheld his conviction in 2013. The state home de-partment, said sources, believes Dutt should be given all benefits of re-mittance a prisoner gets

for good behaviour while serving a sentence. The only hitch was pertain-ing to a two-day delay by Dutt in returning to jail after being granted a 14-day furlough in De-cember 2014. While he was expected to report back to jail on January 7 (2015), he had sought an extension of furlough (an extension of 14 days is allowed) from jail author-ities. The jail authorities, however, delayed taking a decision on his appli-cation and informed Dutt about it being rejected only on January 9 (2015).

er’. And now with this Neeraj Pandey film, Di-sha will mark her Bolly-wood debut. Sushant has worked really hard for

the film which will retell various phases of Dhoni’s life on celluloid. The film will release on September 2, 2016.

ing system. We are stuck with the U, U/A and A system, which do not al-low that much sensibil-ity. You can’t tell a per-son above a certain age that you are immature to watch a kiss. We don’t need to be babysit,” Far-han said in an interview here. There were reports that an intimate scene between Farhan and ac-tress Aditi Rao Hyadri in their upcoming film “Wazir” was chopped off by the board. The “Rock On!” star denied the ru-mours but expressed his disappointment with the

“inconsistency” in the CBFC’s working. “There has not been consisten-cy in the way the censor board has behaved in the past that can tell you what will be removed. Every single time the people in the committee that come to watch your film, they are not the same peo-ple. “Different members come, hence they have different sensibilities and aesthetics. You can’t have a written rule and this is with every art form be-cause context is every-thing. Snipping has to be done away,” he said.

www.sunvillasamachar.com Ahmedabad3 / Dt. 07-01-2016, Thursday

SPORTS ROUNDUPRatan Tata invests in data analytics company Tracxn

Good news! Twitter planning to expand tweet’s 140-character limit to 10,000

Agency | New Delhi

Chairman emeritus of Tata Sons Ltd Ratan Tata has invested data analytics company Tracxn continu-ing the slew of investments he has made in various startups globally. However, the value of the invest-ment was not disclosed. This is Tata’s second in-vestment this year. He begain his first investment this year with pet care portal DogSpot.in.Tata, who served as the Chairman of Tata Sons for over two decades until his retirement in 2012, is also asso-ciated with some venture capital funds as advisor, including Kalaari Capital and Jungle Ventures. His other investments include Snapdeal, Ola Cabs, Pay-tm, Urbanladder, Xiaomi, UrbanClap. Founded in 2013 by Abhishek Goyal and Neha Singh, Tracxn provides information on start-ups to over 6,000 cli-ents across India, US, Middle East, South-East Asia

and Europe.

Agency | New York

Want to convey more to your friends and policy-makers on Twitter? Soon, you may be able to tweet in 10,000 characters on the micro-blogging site. Ac-cording to media reports, Twitter is building a new feature that will allow users to tweet longer than its traditional 140-character limit. The company is cur-rently considering a 10,000-character limit, recode.net reported, adding that Twitter may launch this feature toward the end of the first quarter. This is the character limit the company uses for its Direct Mes-sages product. According to the report, it is also pos-sible that the 10,000-character feature may change before it is finally rolled out. There is, however, no

official launch date set so far.

Australia’s Mitchell Starc writes off his World Twenty20 chances

Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif will have to wait: Pakistan chief selector

MS Dhoni in twilight zone, no finish line in sight

Mohammed Shami’s comeback story – From using crutches to bowling again

Virender Sehwag opens up about IPL, State Associations, and his equation with MS Dhoni

Agency | New Delhi

He might be known to have unflinchingly stuck to his ‘see the ball and hit it’ batting approach irrespective of match situations in his playing days, but former India opener Virender Se-hwag says that he made changes in his tech-niques early in his career to emulate iconic Sachin Tendulkar. “When I was growing up, I played a lot of 10- and 12-over games, I would bat in middle order. I got only 10-odd balls to face and I tried to score as much as I could. I applied the same approach in do-mestic and international cricket and people were appreciating my strike rate being more than 80

Agency | Mumbai

Former stumper Syed Kirmani was bestowed with the prestigious Col CK Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution to Indian cricket, while Test cap-tain Virat Kohli bagged the Polly Umrigar Trophy for Cricketer of the Year in the BCCI awards night on Monday. The 66-year-old former India cricketer and member of the 1983

World Cup-winning squad was presented the award by BCCI president presi-dent Shashank Manohar at the Cricket Board’s annual awards (2014-15 season) ceremony. The coveted Polly Umrigar award was also handed over to Kohli by Manohar. Kirmani, who was also given the award of citation, trophy and Rs 25 lakh, took a mild dig at modern wick-etkeepers when asked

Virat Kohli is cricketer of the year, lifetime honour for Syed Kirmani

Agency | Melbourne

Fast bowler Mitchell Starc has all but written off his chances of mak-ing a faster-than-expected recovery from ankle sur-gery and playing a part in Australia’s bid for a first World Twenty20 title. The 25-year-old left-arm quick had surgery on an-kle spurs after sustaining a stress fracture in his foot during the inaugu-ral day-night test against New Zealand in Novem-ber. Starc, the player of the tournament at last year’s 50-overs World Cup, was always an outside shot to make the March 11-April 3 World Twenty20 in In-

Agency | Karachi

Pakistan’s chief selec-tor Haroon Rasheed has ruled out an immediate national team comeback of spot-fixing tainted duo of Salman Butt and Muhammad Asif who will resume playing domestic cricket from January 10 in the Na-tional One-day Champi-onship. Pakistan Cricket Board has permitted the duo to play for their de-partment Wapda in the national event which begins in Karachi and Islamabad. But Rasheed made it clear that there would be no immediate return for Butt and Asif to the national team even if they performed well in the champion-

Agency | Mumbai

During the World Cup in New Zealand, Moham-med Shami was asked by a journalist about his jour-ney to the Indian team, and how he had endured the tough times. “Itne bhi bure din nahi dekhe,” (ha-ven’t seen real bad days), he said with a smile. Little did he know then, in the midst of the best time of his career where he was getting raves about his action from the legendary Richard Hadlee to whom he was even introduced to by Ravi Shastri, that things would soon turn

dire. Almost immediately after the tournament that he had played through pain and injury, he was out of action for several months after a knee sur-gery. During the World Cup, he would have fluids sucked out of his knee and practice on the day before the match. He was India’s second-highest wick-et-taker at the World Cup, with 17 wickets at 17.29 and an economy rate of 4.81. The surgery put him on bed for two months after which he hobbled around on crutches be-fore slowly finding the

energy, and will, to start bowling again. On Tues-day, a few hours before the flight to Australia, he was still shuddering at the memory of the “bure din”. “No one should face such a time. It was really tough times. When injury happened the doc-tors prohibited me from getting up from bed for two months. That was the toughest time for me. I was allowed to walk only up to the bathroom.” His wife was pregnant with their daughter Aaira then and he was in crutches for 40 excruciating days.

or 90 in Test cricket,” Sehwag said when asked if his approach changed how batsmen opened the innings in a fundamental way. “I was just playing my game and not think-ing that I have to score quickly or do something different except when I joined the team and want-ed to bat like Tendulkar. I realised there could be only one Tendulkar and I changed my stance and backlift. I realised I

should change my game and I did it. After that, I was playing with my own technique,” he told ‘Cricinfo’. Sehwag, now 37, last played for India in 2013 after scoring 8586 runs from 104 Tests and 8273 runs from 251 ODIs. Asked if there was only one Sehwag as well, he said, “Yes, because of my mindset and the im-pact I had on the team but there was only one Tendulkar.”

dia due to the estimated recuperation period and he was unable to offer a bet-ter prognosis on Wednes-day. “It’s very unlikely,” he told reporters at the Sydney Cricket Ground. “Everything would have to go perfectly to be any chance. I won’t know un-til I can start doing some stuff on it. I don’t want

to rush it. I want to make sure it’s 100 percent be-cause I’ve rushed back before and been dropped after a game. I’ve played probably non-stop for two years and the silver lining is I get to give the body a bit of a break and rebuild that strength. Make sure everything is 100 percent before I go again.”

Agency | Mumbai

Greying beard, a hint of baldness, a thickset frame, and the weight of Indian cricket on his shoulder – that was MS Dhoni at the start of 2015. The new year, though, couldn’t have started more differ-ently. A year after Test retirement, the finish line seems near. Sentimental-ism is in air. Is he ready to pack up and leave cricket after the T20 World Cup? He just smiles when you ask that question. A co-

louring brush has spruced up the beard, a crop of hair has knocked off couple of years, and fat burn in hips has given a ‘v’ shaped definition, and he looks the most relaxed he has been in the last couple of years. “I am still 87-88 kgs that I have been in the last 15 years but I have toned down. I have enjoyed do-ing it and have had fun.” Someone whispers that he has opened a fancy gym recently. It’s the retire-ment question, though,

that hangs in the air. We are at the press conference before the team’s depar-ture to Australia on Tues-day night that also saw the BCCI awards night in a suburban hotel lawns in Mumbai. The man who announced his Test re-tirement in the middle of a series wasn’t going to make a grand farewell statement. “I am some-body who has always be-lieved in the present,” he warms up after the smile. So you won’t get the an-swer about future that is too far ahead. As of now, the Australia series is im-portant. Then, after we get into the T20 groove, we should move in one direc-tion to what we need to do as a team so that we have the best chance of winning the World T20.

about the difference from his time to the present day. Kirmani, who was under-study to Farokh Engineer on successive visits to En-gland in 1971 and 1974 before taking over as the No.1 gloveman, effected 198 dismissals in 88 Tests during the latter period of the famous Indian spin quartet. Kohli said that the greatest moment of his ca-reer so far is the Test se-ries in Australia, which In-dia lost 0-2, but not before giving a tough fight to the hosts. “It is important to start the year well and we were able to do so in Aus-tralia. I compliment the en-tire team. It was the great-est moment of my career so far and would probably remain so,” he said.

ship. “I would say they will have to wait un-til the next season and appear in the first class tournament before we can decide whether their form, fitness and attitude makes us consider them for national selection,” Rasheed said on ‘Geo Super’ channel. He said even Muhammad Amir, the third player involved in the 2010 spot-fixing scandal in England, was

only recalled to the Pa-kistan team after one proper domestic season. “In Amir’s case, the ICC allowed him to resume playing last April and first he played Grade-11 cricket, then in different T20 tournaments and finally in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy and Ban-gladesh Premier League before we invited him for the national camp,” the chief selector said.

July 2006: Taepodong-2, Rodong and SCUD missiles test firingsOct. 2006: Korean Central News Agency announces “a successful nuclear test”2007: Operational deployment of Rodong missilesApril 2009: Firing of Taepodong-2 missile, which North Korea says was satellite launch. United Nations strengthens sanctions and North Korea responds by withdrawing from six-party nuclear disarmament talksMay 2009: North Korea carries out second nuclear testJuly 2009: Test-firing of SCUD and Rodong missilesDec. 2011: North Korean leader Kim Jong Il dies, clearing way for son Kim Jong Un to take powerApril 2012: North Korea says Unha-3 rocket launch failedDec. 2012: North Korea launches Unha-3 rocket that puts its first satellite into spaceFeb. 2013: North Korea conducts third underground nuclear testAug. 2013: North Korea reported to have restarted nuclear reactor to produce plutoniumMay 2015: North Korea claims to have tested a submarine-launched missile; says it developed technology to mount nuclear warhead on a missileJuly 2014: North Korea conducts series of missile tests ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to SeoulSept. 2015: North Korea threatens nuclear attack against U.S. and reaffirms its main reactor is operational. South Korean President Park Geun Hye says North would “pay a price” for fourth testDec. 2015 Kim Jong Un says North Korea is “ready to detonate” a hydrogen bombJan. 2016: North Korea says it successfully tests hydrogen bomb

Conti. from Page 1...North Korea...

www.sunvillasamachar.com Ahmedabad4 / Dt. 07-01-2016, Thursday

Sunvilla News | Ahmedabad

Sahitya Akademi Award winner Veteran Gujarati littérateur Labhshankar J Thakar, also known by his pen name Punarvasu, to-day died after prolonged illness. He was 80. Thakar was a modernist author of Gujarati literature with in-fluence of existentialism challenging traditional lit-erature styles. He was also an Ayurvedic Practitioner also. He had also received Kumar Chandrak, Narmad Chandrak and Ranjitram Suvarna Chandrak. He was presented Sahitya Ak-ademi award in 1991 for his poetry, Tolan Aawaz Ghunghat. He also received Sahitya Gaurav Puraskar from Gujarati Sahitya Par-ishad in 2002. He has writ-ten several poems, plays, novels and stories. Kala-granthi (1987) is the collec-tion of six poems. Thakar was heavily influenced by

Sunvilla News | Ahmedabad

Over 4,000 kilograms of ‘ganja’ or marijuana and 6,700 kg of poppy straw have been among the large-scale seizures ex-ecuted by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in Gujarat during the last four years since 2012. NCB of-ficials say that instances of drug abuse is fast spread-ing in the state especially among school-going stu-dents who are as young as 16 years. “Ganja, hashish and derivatives of poppy continue to among the biggest consignments seized from Gujarat,” says Hariom Gandhi, the

Sunvilla News | Gandhinagar

‘Run Gandhinagar Run’- the first half marathon of its kind in the capital city of Gujarat dedicated to children born with heart ailments will be held on January 31. Apart from the 21 km half marathon, restricted to the partic-ipants of or above 18 years of age an open to all 7 km Dream Run will also be organized on the same day. The purpose of the run, promoted by Tourism department of Gujarat and organiszed by Gandhinagar runners, a club of running enthu-siasts of the city. is to create awareness about

Sunvilla News | Gandhinagar

In a move that may prove to be a respite to senior citizens not supported by their adult sons, Social Justice & Empowerment Department (SJED) of the Gujarat government has proposed to waive a rule for the old age pension scheme which disqualifies a senior citizen as benefi-ciary of the scheme if they have a son above 21 years. The proposal which, if ac-cepted, will enhance the scope of the scheme to a larger group of senior cit-izens and cause drain on annual state budget to the tune of estimated Rs 600 crore. Sources said that presently there are two schemes of old age pen-sion existing in Gujarat

— one by the Centre and the other by the state gov-ernment. A senior officer of the state government says that one of the rules for the state government scheme, Niradhar Vrudh-ha Pension Yojana, is that the senior citizen must not have a son above 21 years with an assumption that the son would take care of the parents. “However, it is not necessary that the son would be taking care of the parents. There are increasing number of sons abandoning their old par-ents. And so, we have pro-posed to waive this rule,” the officer says. Current-ly, the old age pension scheme of the state gov-ernment has 96,000 senior citizens as beneficiaries.

Sunvilla News | Ahmedabad

Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation will start reg-ular run of women buses on five BRTS routes from January 8. Mayor Gautam Shah will inaugurate the regular women bus ser-vice on January 7 at the L D Engineering college stop at 6 pm. A statement issued by the AMC to-day said that the run of women bus services on the five routes (RTO to Maninagar, RTO to Hat-keshwar, Maninagar to Ghuma Gam, Iskon cross-ing to Naroda Gam and Zhundal circle to Com-merce six roads) was con-ducted successfully on trial basis. Now the service on these routes will be regu-larized, the statement said adding that of the around 1 lakh 35 thousand daily

Sunvilla News | Ahmedabad

Hundreds of Congress protesters were detained across Gujarat on Tues-day after the party was denied permission to hold its Daman Pratikar ral-ly in Ahmedabad against alleged police atrocities on the Patidars and also the state action against quota stir leader Hardik Patel and his aides. Many senior Congress lead-ers, including state party chief Bharatsinh Solan-

ki, former GPCC presi-dents Arjun Modhwadia and Siddharth Patel, and spokesperson Shaktis-inh Gohil, were detained near Gandhi Ashram in Ahmedabad along with a number of party workers during the protest. They were all released in the evening. Leader of Op-position in the Assembly Shankersinh Vaghela, who is said to be tend-ing to a bad knee, did not participate in the protest. Party workers shouted

Sunvilla News | Ahmedabad

Kotak Mahindra Old Mu-tual Life Insurance Lim-ited (Kotak Life Insur-ance), today announced the launch of Kotak Pre-mier Life Plan. This is a limited premium pay-ment, participating whole life plan. The plan is com-pletely aligned with the firm’s core purpose, which is to add value to lives of customers by providing Protection and Long Term Savings (PALTs). This plan provides customers the option to save and pro-tect up to 99 years of age. Life expectancy in India has steadily increased due to better health care, rising income levels and enhanced standard of liv-ing and is only expected to improve. Kotak Pre-mier Life Plan provides

year : 02, Issue : 12 “Sunvilla Samachar” (English) Daily Morning Newspaper Printed at “Sunvilla Samachar(Daily) Printing Press”, Survey No.: 1624-25-26, Final Plot No.F/P/537, Urmila Compound, Opp.Ambica Estate, G.D. School Road, Saijpur Bogha, Ahmedabad -382340 and Published at A-24, Shardha Apartment, Thakkarbapanagar Road, Bapunagar, Ahmedabad-382350. Mo.: 9687612324, by Owner, Printer, Publisher : Aksheshkumar S. Savaliya on date 07-01-2016 (Thursday), Editor : Kapilkumar M. Hirpara* (*Responsible for selection of News under the PRB act). RNI No. : GUJENG/2014/59629

Congress workers agitate for Hardik’s release, key party leaders detained

Women-only buses on 5 BRTS routes in Ahmedabad from January 8

Correspondent | New Delhi

The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Min-ister Shri Narendra Modi, has given its ex-post fac-to approval for signing a Memorandum of Under-standing (MoU), which was signed in November, 2015 between Airports Authority of India (On behalf of Government of India) and Singapore Co-operation Enterprise (On behalf of Government of Singapore) in Civil Avi-ation during Prime Min-ister’s visit to Singapore. The objective of this MoU is to establish mutu-al cooperation in the field of civil aviation, which will cover, to begin with, the airports of Jaipur and Ahmedabad. This cooper-ation will be extended to other airports with mutual consent. The salient fea-tures of the MoU include collaboration in Civil Avi-ation Sector in the areas of (a) Master-planning

Kotak Life Insurance Launches Kotak Premier Life Plan

Union Cabinet approves Singapore pact for Ahmedabad, Jaipur airports

Noted Gujarati Litterateur Labshankar Thakar passes away

NCB claims largest haul of narcotics over 4 years

‘Run Gandhinagar Run’ to be held on January 31

Gujarat govt eases norms for old age pension

policyholders the abili-ty to meet their present financial commitments while protecting future comfort of their families. The plan can be used to enjoy income benefits or to create a tax-free cor-pus. It allows to partly encash accumulated cor-pus during the policy term. Sunil Sharma, Ap-pointed Actuary & Chief Risk Officer, Kotak Ma-hindra Old Mutual Life Insurance Ltd.said,“It is important for indi-vidualstohave a secure future for themselves and their dependents in

a well-planned manner, without compromising current financial goals.Kotak Premier Life Plan is designed with the core purpose of adding val-ue to customers’ life.In alignment with the com-pany’s brand promise “Koi hai… Hamesha”, we have designed Kotak Premier Life Plan as an innovative, participat-ing whole life product for customers across in-come segments to build a strong foundation of insurance protection and a planned income over their lifetime.”

anti-government slogans and some lied on the road to stop police bus-es. They also damaged several flower pots kept on the road median, but were soon dispersed by police. Talking to the me-dia before being detained, Solanki said: “The state government could have solved the Patidar issue without resorting to ex-cesses against the Pati-dars. Unfortunately, the

state government did not show the maturity and re-sulted in worsening of law and order situation, lead-ing into the death of 11 innocent persons (during the quota violence in August). Many Patidars were arrested and several of them are still in jail.” “Congress wants the state government to withdraw cases against leaders of the Patidar Anamat An-dolan Samiti,” he said.

commuters on 97 km long 13 janmarg routes and 230 BRTS buses in the city, an estimated 35 to 40% happens to be wom-en. The arrival of women buses would be shown on the passenger display sys-tem separately and will be

run at a frequency of evey half an hour during the peak period of 0800am to 1030 am and 0500pm to 0830 pm. There will also be provision of a women security guard in these buses. These buses will facilitate smooth travel

of the women passengers and in the wake of the run of these women exclusive buses the number of buses will also be increased by 10 so that the other com-muters also continue to travel uninturp1ted, the statement said.

the benefits of running among common people,’ Dr. Gunjan Shah of the club told newsmen here today. The half marathon and dream run both will start and end at the GH-5 circle in the capital city . Over 2000 people are expected to participate in the events which is also dedicated to the children born with cardiac defects. The fund raised through this initiative would also be used to treat such chil-dren,’ he said.

zonal director of NCB. Figures from the Minis-try of Home Affairs show that the biggest seizures in Gujarat have been in form of poppy straw (all parts of poppy plant except the seeds). Over 6,700 ki-lograms of poppy straw have been seized in the state since 2012. The use of poppy straw is com-mon in states like Pun-jab and Haryana where labourers and drivers use it to relieve fatigue and physical pain. “Most of the derivatives of poppy

illegally find its way into the state from the neigh-bouring states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan where licit cultivation of poppy is carried out,” says the NCB official. The second biggest recovery during the four year period is that of ‘ganja’. The NCB has recovered over 4,000 kg of this narcotic substance between 2012-2015. Oth-er substances like hash-ish (271 kg) and opium (12 kg) have also been seized in sizable quanti-ties during this period.

and design (b) Traffic de-velopment (c) Commer-cial development (d) Ser-vice quality improvement (e) Training and develop-ment (f) Cargo handling and Management (g) Maintenance, repair and overhaul (h) Operation and management and (i) any other areas with mu-tual consent. Government of Singapore owns one of the best managed air-ports in the world, which has consistently main-tained its ranking for last many years. A need was felt that in order to ensure high standards of service at Ahmedabad and Jaipur

airports, Airport Authority of India (AAI) may enter into operation and main-tenance (O&M) contracts, either with or without the responsibility of maximi-zation of non-aeronautical revenue in the terminal building (excluding land on city side and air side). The city side and airside will continue to be man-aged directly by AAI. Globally, limited O&M contract models are prev-alent for the entire airport operations. AAI has no previous experience in awarding O&M contract model of terminal build-ings to other entities.

Samuel Beckett. He along with playwright Subhash Shah, wrote Ek Undar ane Jadunath based on Sam-uel’s Waiting for Godot. Mari Jawani Maza (1973) is a collection of his one act plays. He was active in workshops for play-wrights called Aakanth Sabarmati. Akasmat and Kon are his famous novels while hile Malela Jeevni Samiksha and Inner Life are his works of criticism.

His works of journalism are collected in Ek Minute (1986) and Kshana Tatk-shana (1989). Maari Ba (1989) is a biographical work about his mother. He had also written sev-eral books on Ayurve-da. He published several magazines including Kri-ti and Unmoolan. Tha-kar was born on January 14, 1935 in Patdi area of Surendranagar district of Gujarat.