Vol. 66 No. 82 | THURSDAY | AUGUST 4, 2022 | 17 Pages | THE FP BULLETIN ZAWAHIRI KILLING: US ISSUES ALERT T he US has issued a worldwide alert asking its citizens to maintain a high level of vigilance when travelling abroad as Al-Qaeda supporters may target American facilities, personnel or nationals in the wake of killing of the terror network’s chief Ayman al-Zawahiri, who played a key role in the 9/11 attacks and later formed the group’s regional affiliate in the Indian subcontinent. PANSARE CASE PROBE WITH ATS S even years after CPI leader Govind Pansare was killed, the Bombay High Court on Wednesday transferred the probe in the case from the Special Investigation Team of the state CID to Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS). The HC is currently hearing two petitions and several applications filed by the families of the late leader and slain rationalist Narendra Dabholkar, pleading that the court monitor the probe into the two killings. The CBI is probing Dabholkar’s P2 murder. BABUL SUPRIYO IN WB CABINET I n a major cabinet reshuffle in West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee inducted former BJP leader and singer Babul Supriyo as a minister. This is the first cabinet reshuffle since Mamata stormed to power in the 2021 assembly polls. The reshuffle also comes in the backdrop of the removal of senior TMC leader Partha Chatterjee from the cabinet after his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate in the massive teacher recruitment SEE NATION scam. 10 MILLION HAVE FLED UKRAINE T he Russia-Ukraine war has forced over 10 million people from the war-torn nation to neighbouring countries since February, the UN Refugee Agency reported on August 2. The agency’s tally has recorded 10,107,957 migrations from the country. BOUNTY FOR IELTS SCORES A t least 950 youths from Gujarat managed to arrange fake certificates by paying nearly Rs 15 lakh to various agencies that conduct English proficiency exams. In the case of four boys who appeared for the standardised IELTS test at a centre in Navsari in south Gujarat in September last year, the manager of the banquet hall where it was conducted told the police that CCTV cameras were switched off by supervisors when the SEE NATION test started. CWG: ATHLETES GO MISSING T he Sri Lankan contingent at the Commonwealth Games has asked its athletes and officials to submit their passports after three members of the touring party disappeared from their respective villages. The Sri Lankan team press attache confirmed that a judoka, a wrestler and the judo manager have disappeared. MUMBAI BACK TO 227 WARDS EDITIONS: MUMBAI*, Pune, Nashik, Konkan, Indore, Bhopal, E-paper INTEGRATED PLAY, LAB-BASED R&D, NEXTGEN TECH TO REDEFINE INDIA’S MED-TEST MARKET MY ACTING CAREER IS GOING SO WELL. WHY SHOULD I LEAVE? MANOJ BAJPAYEE EDIT SITHARAMAN’S PAT ON HER OWN BACK FPJ BUREAU NEW DELHI The State Election Commission will wait till the government issues ordinances for future course of action. If the government has annulled the exercise then it will have to again order the delimitation and reservation of wards, and update the voters’ list in the municipal corporations and zilla parishads. – Senior SEC officer The Centre on Wednesday withdrew the Personal Data Protection Bill from the Lok Sabha after a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) suggested as many as 81 changes to it. The government will table new legislation for a comprehensive legal framework for the digital economy Ashwini , Vaishnaw, minister for communications, electronics and information technology said. , The government will hold public consultations before tabling the new legislation. The withdrawn bill is likely to be replaced by more than one law dealing with privacy and cyber security The gov. ernment may bring the fresh bills in the winter session of Parliament, sources said. The government circulated among members a statement giving reasons for withdrawal of the bill which was introduced on December 11, 2019, and referred to the parliamentary panel soon after. The committee’s report was presented to the Lok Sabha in December 2021. The withdrawal of the bill was made part of the supplementary agenda of the Lok Sabha on Wednesday . The bill had proposed restrictions on the use of personal data without the explicit consent of citizens. It had also sought to give the government with powers to exempt its investigative agencies from provisions of the law, something that opposition MPs strongly objected to. CONTD. ON NATION PAGE no constitutional protection for disqualification under the 10th schedule. One either has to merge or form a new political party Sibal told the bench, , also comprising Justices Krishna Murari and Hima Kohli. Rebutting the arguments, Harish Salve said the anti-defection law is not a weapon for a leader who has lost the confidence of his own party to lock his members and somehow hang on. He said it is not the the state. At the outset, Sibal, along with senior advocate AM Singhvi, submitted that the Shinde group violated the party's chief whip by not attending a party meeting and stood disqualified in accordance with the provisions of the 10th Schedule. “Two-thirds go on one side and one third remains. So, two-thirds cannot say we are the original political party .” ON P2 TWO SIDES OF SAME COIN In a massive blow to the Maha Vikas Aghadi, the Shinde-Fadnavis government on Wednesday scrapped the erstwhile state government’s decision to increase the number of BMC wards to 236 from 227. In a cabinet, the Eknath ShindeDevendra Fadnavis government cited the 3.8 per cent increase in the civic body’s jurisdiction area and fast growing urbanisation. The government will soon issue an ordinance in this regard. The cabinet, chaired by Minister Eknath Chief Shinde, decided that the upcoming BMC elections, which are expected to take place in October-November, will be held as per the 2017 ward structure by amending the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act. The move also aims to checkmate Uddhav Thack- FRESH EXERCISE IN THE OFFING? APPROVED The decision taken by a two-man jumbo cabinet aims to throttle democracy. –SUNIL PRABHU Revision in the number of corporators in 26 municipal corporations, excluding Mumbai, in proportion to the population of the respective civic bodies. It was an attempt to wipe out the Congress party from the city of its birth and destroy the political future of Congress councillors working for the people of Mumbai. –MILIND DEORA eray-led Shiv Sena, which is weathering a devastating split. This apart, the BJP, which is playing a second fiddle in the Shinde-led government, hopes to achieve its Mission 2022 of defeating the Shiv Sena and capturing power in India’s richest civic body. However, the Shiv Sena strongly opposed the decision. Party chief whip and former mayor Sunil Prabhu FILED An interim application in the Supreme Court by the Shinde Fadnavis government to recall the last order directing the State Election Commission to go ahead with polls in 92 Nagar Parishads and four Nagar Panchayats without OBCs. said, “The decision taken by a two-man jumbo cabinet aims to throttle democracy.” In view of Wednesday’s decision, the BMC will have to undertake a fresh exercise of delimitation and reservation of wards and updating the voters’ list. The MVA cabinet on November 10, 2021, had approved increasing the number of wards to 236 in a bid to give a better stage to elected representatives. CONTD. ON NATION PAGE SCRAPPED MVA’s decision to increase the minimum seats to 55 from 50 and the maximum seats to 85 from 75 in Zilla Parishad. SC: Shinde camp must redraft legal issues FPJ BUREAU NEW DELHI The Uddhav Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena told the Supreme Court on Wednesday that party MLAs loyal to Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde can save themselves from disqualification under the 10th Schedule of the Constitution only by merging with another political party . The bench, headed by Chief Justice NV Ramana, asked the Shinde faction, represented in court by senior advocate Harish Salve, to redraft the legal issues of split, merger, defection and disqualification raised in petitions filed by the Thackeray camp that are to be adjudicated upon following the recent political crisis in Maharashtra. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the Thackeray faction, told the bench there is ED attaches `415 cr assets of Chhabria, Avinash Bhosale SOMENDRA SHARMA MUMBAI The Enforcement Directorate (ED) issued two provisional attachment orders on Tuesday under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and seized assets worth Rs251 crore of Sanjay Chhabria of the Radius group and Rs164 crore of businessman Avinash Bhosale in the Yes Bank-DHFL fraud case. With this, the total value of properties attached in the case stands at Rs1,827 crore. According to the ED, the attached assets of Chhabria are a land parcel in Santa Cruz, Mumbai, worth Rs116.5 crore, 25% share of his company in a land parcel in Bengaluru worth Rs115 crore, a flat in San- FYJC 1ST MERIT LIST ANNOUNCED ANNOUNCED 10 exams conducted after two years. College Arts Commerce Science Podar College of Commerce and Economics — 92.2% — Ramnivas Ruia Junior College 91.4 — 92 J i Hi d C ll 90 0% 91% 87% case where the MLAs have voluntarily given up their membership of the political party . “It is not a case of defection. Today it is the case of intra, party rebellion and nobody has given voluntary membership of the party Salve said. ,” The top court asked Salve to redraft his submissions on petitions filed by the rival Uddhav Thackeray group on constitutional issues arising from the recent political crisis in CYBERCRIMES UP 8-FOLD IN CITY; RANSOMWARE UP BY 51% IN INDIA ta Cruz worth Rs3 crore, profit receivable from a hotel belonging to Chhabria near Delhi airport worth Rs13.67 crore, and three high-end luxury cars together worth Rs3.10 crore. Bhosale’s assets include a duplex flat in Mumbai worth Rs102.8 crore, a land parcel in Pune worth Rs14.65 crore, another plot in Pune worth Rs29.24 crore, a land parcel at Nagpur worth Rs15.52 crore and another portion of land in Nagpur worth Rs1.45 crore. The ED initiated investigation against Rana Kapoor, former managing director and CEO of Yes Bank, and Kapil Wadhawan and Dheeraj Wadhawan, promoters of DHFL, on the basis of an FIR registered by the CBI. CONTD. ON NATION PAGE Sunrise: 06:16 am Sunset : 07:14 pm Centre withdraws Personal Data Protection Bill In a significant cabinet decision, state government scraps MVA’s ward delimitation exercise; decides to hold upcoming elections as per 2017 ward structure SANJAY JOG MUMBAI 310c. 250c. On an average, 42 cybercrimes reported every day JAN-JUNE, 2022: 7,726 cybercrime cases registered; 3,196 online frauds 15 people falling prey to online frauds every day Highest in June: 2,506 cases Jan: 309 cybercrime cases, climbing to 534 cases in Feb, 952 in March, 1,468 cases in April and 1,957 in May. Average daily crimes in June: 80 As per Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) report, the IT sector is worst hit by ransomware attacks Second line of victims: Manufacturing and Threat actors continue to modernise attack tool kits with high impact strategies Ransomware as a Service (RaaS) eco system is evolving, leading to higher probability of monetisation Report notes that hackers continue to rely on known vulnerabilities in systems, phishing campaigns and compromised login credentials to gain initial access into systems Reports by Dharmesh Thakkar and Gautam S Mengle on Pages 3, 5 5G: JIO SET FOR REPEAT OF 4G SUCCESS? AGENCIES MUMBAI Contrary to the earlier perception that 5G rollout by the new spectrum buyers will be mainly targeted at enterprise users, Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd has declared its grand ambition to revolutionise the home broadband market in the country with 5G wireless services in the same way it upended the mobile data market with 4G services. While the higher cost of fibre connectivity limited the scope of expansion of the home broadband market with 4G, Reliance Jio’s plan to use 5G as an alternative to fibre broadband in areas where it is unviable due to price sensitivity makes it more strategic. “Jio’s extensive fibre-based offering, now supplemented by wireless home offering, will catapult India to leadership in home broadband services in the same way that Jio took India to global leadership in mobility services,” the company said while announcing its Rs 800-billion acquisition of 5G spectrum on Monday . The newly acquired band of 26 GHz will be used to provide high-quality streaming services, besides addressing the enterprise market, the company said. The problem, as far as home broadband is concerned, is less of price and more of infrastructure. Digging the ground to lay 100 or 200 metres of fibre for a connection that yields only Rs 300 or Rs 400 a month in a village or a small town is considered non-viable in telecom circles in India. The cost of acquisition of a fibre customer in such a place runs into Rs 3,000-4,000, out of which only around Rs 1,000 can be reliably collected as an upfront payment from the customer, given the price sensitivity of the market. However, 5G offers a way for Ambani to halve this as wireless networks are much cheaper to operate and maintain than wired networks. Prosecution to withdraw plea to try 4 cops KHWAJA YUNUS CUSTODIAL DEATH CASE BHAVNA UCHIL / MUMBAI The prosecution informed a court on Wednesday that it will withdraw an application made by the previous prosecutor Dheeraj Mirajkar, who had been removed from the case, seeking to try four more policemen as accused in the custodial death case of software engineer Khwaja Yunus. Controversial policeman Sachin Vaze, then an API with the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) is a prime accused in the case along with three other constables. Yunus was arrested by the ATS team in connection with the 2002 Ghatkopar blast and allegedly died in custody due to assault and torture. CONTD. ON NATION PAGE No maintenance for qualified wife: Court BHAVNA UCHIL / MUMBAI In a domestic violence case, a city magistrate has denied interim maintenance to the woman complainant, a dentist by qualification, observing that such “a qualified applicant is not entitled” to it. The magistrate noted that the woman is a doctor and resides in a metropolitan city like Mumbai. It said she is expected to practise as a dentist and can easily get a job, noting that she completed her BDS in 2010-11. The woman had claimed a monthly maintenance of Rs 1,10,000 for her and her two children, aged five and three, who live with her. She had left her joint family in the matrimonial home in Rajasthan in 2018 when she was expecting her second child. Since then she has been residing with her parents and children in Malad. CONTD. ON NATION PAGE Mega corporate transition for medical diagnostics TAILPIECE CH UNNIKRISHNAN MUMBAI The neighbourhood testing labs may soon be a rare sight, as plush corporate diagnostic centres, owned and operated by top chains across the country, may beat them hands down. India’s rapidly growing service sector of medical diagnostics, currently ruled by predominantly unorganised path labs, is in for a big transition as a market and corporate-driven consolidation is tightening its grip on it. The compelling factors pushing the consolidation are not only the aggressive business plans of the corporate laboratory chains but also the declining business viability and competitiveness of the standalone labs. The weakening of the local market has come in the wake of the fast emerging new generation tests and sophisticated technologies, which are increasingly replacing the traditional test methods. Going by the series of recent strategic mergers and acquisitions in the past couple of years by the existing corporate players, including SRL Diagnostics, Dr Lal’s Pathlabs, Metropolis Healthcare, Neuberg Diagnostics, as well as new corporate forays such as Lupin Diagnostics and PharmEasy in the domestic market indicate that the transition is now fast paced. The trend, however, is being seen as both good and bad for the patients and consumers. According to industry experts, it will obviously bring newer technologies that enable more specific and precise tests that were not accessible to tier 2 and 3 cities or the rural population so far. It will also help introduce many new-generation preventive and predictive tests for a larger population as the bigger lab chains, which are equipped with such sophisticated disease screening technologies, can easily expand their reach to the width and breadth of the country. At the same time, the cost of the tests may go up as compared to charges at traditional settings. DETAILED REPORT ON MONEY