Vol. 66 No. 311 | SATURDAY | SEPTEMBER 2, 2023 | 25 Pages | `5 & for Pune `6 only Quality at Value www.freepressjournal.in EDITIONS: MUMBAI*, Pune, Nashik, Konkan, Indore, Bhopal, E-paper REVIEWS OF THE WEEK Find out if the films and web series released are worth watching or not EDIT ONE NATION, ONE ELECTION, ONE OPPOSITION TOO? GST REVENUES GROW 11% TO `1.59L CR IN AUG The collections have grown because of better compliance and improved tax collection efficiency STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION S BALAKRISHNAN / MUMBAI The Indian National Democratic Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), which held its third conclave in Mumbai on Friday , continues to be a work in progress. The leaders of 28 parties, who held confabulations in the five-star ambience of the Grand Hyatt at Kalina, failed to not only elect a convenor, but also could not agree upon a common logo. W Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee was apparently so upset with the alliance (read Congress) for not expediting the process of seatsharing at the ground level that she skipped the postlunch press meet. One of the three resolutions, which scraped through, said, "We, the INDIA parties, hereby resolve to contest the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections together as far as possible." The seemingly innocuous expression "as far as possible" was a dead giveaway to a motley crowd which was not able to reconcile their small little irritants despite a convergence of interest against the BJP . Even as Sanjay Raut of the ECO BUZZ GST MOPUP RISES 11% G ST collections grew by 11 per cent to over Rs 1.59 lakh crore in August on the back of improved compliance and reduced evasion, with experts forecasting even a higher mop-up in the upcoming festive season. The revenues for the month of August 2023 are 11 per cent higher than the GST revenues in the same month last year. During the month, revenue from import of goods was 3 per cent higher and the revenues from domestic transactions (including import of services) was 14 per cent higher than the revenues from these sources during the same month last year, the Finance Ministry said in a statement. MOODY’S RAISES GDP FORECAST M oody's Investors Service has raised India's growth forecast for 2023 to 6.7 per cent from 5.5 per cent earlier on the back of strong services expansion and capital expenditures. However, Moody's lowered the country's growth forecast for 2024 to 6.1 per cent from 6.5 per cent earlier since the GDP data for April-June has created a high base this year, it said. MANUFACTURING PMI SOARS 58.6 I ndia's manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index, compiled by S&P Global, rose to 58.6 in August from 57.7 in July. The August figure indicated the second-best improvement in the health of the sector for nearly three years, S&P Global said. A PMI reading above 50 denotes expansion in activity from the previous month, while a print below 50 indicates contraction. LEGAL CORNER SC CLARIFIES ON ‘INHERITANCE’ AGENCIES / NEW DELHI In a significant verdict, the Supreme Court on Friday held that children born out of invalid marriages are entitled to claim a share in the property of their parents under the Hindu succession law. The top court, however, held that the children from such "void or voidable" marriages will not be able to inherit the ancestral properties of the coparceners other than their parents under the Hindu law. The verdict from a bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud came on a 2011 plea pertaining to a vexatious legal question -- as to whether children, CONTD. ON NATION KABADDI KABADDI GATECRASHER KAPIL SIBAL FPJ NEWS SERVICE / MUMBAI Shiv Sena (UBT), who anchored the press conference, called out Mamata’s name in the chandeliered grand ballroom of the hotel, someone informed him coyly that Didi had left for the airport. In an obvious bid to tide over the embarrassment, Jairam Ramesh of the Congress said some of the leaders had to leave since they had flights to catch. However, the FPJ learnt that Didi was scheduled to leave for Kolkata in the evening and that too by a pri- vate plane, but had her departure preponed. She was possibly expecting to be made the convenor of the alliance, but since there was no consensus, she was more than miffed, sources CONTD. ON NATION said. Kapil Sibal’s brief appearance at the INDIA conclave – some would even call it a ‘cameo’ – would have gone unnoticed in his hey-day when he was the virtual national spokesperson of the Congress. But ever since he made his exit from the party and made the profound statement about the High Command -- that "the leadership is in cuckoo land" -- the top lawyer has been persona non grata, at least in the Gandhi household. Senior  Congress leader KC Venugopal whined about ‘uninvited’ Sibal's presence to host Uddhav Thackeray . However, Sibal, who quit the Congress last year because he wanted to "not hang on coattails of any party", has ‘friends’ in all quarters with many ‘netas’ having leaned on his acumen as a lawyer from time to time. CONTD. ON NATION Itching for ‘The Match’ PALLEKELE / S tar batsman Virat Kohli won't mind an encore of that magical moment against Haris Rauf while Rohit Sharma would be ready with his answers for Shaheen Shah Afridi's banana in-swingers in an encounter that for organisers and fans is not just another game, but is 'The Match'. Kohli's lofted check-drive off Rauf under the Melbourne skyline last year during the T20 World Cup became a part of Indian cricket fans' muscle memory while Pakistanis rejoiced when Rohit failed to negotiate a lethal tailingin delivery from Shaheen and was caught plumb. The Indian team will hope that their 'holy trinity' of skipper Rohit, Kohli and his heir apparent Shubman Gill is ready to fight fire Countdown starts for solar mission Kovind panel to examine proposal ONE NATION, ONE ELECTION OUR BUREAU / NEW DELHI FPJ NEW SERVICE / SRIHARIKOTA The countdown for the launch of India’s maiden solar mission, Aditya L1 onboard the PSLV commenced , here on Friday the Indian , Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said. The Sun observatory mission comes in the wake of India's successful moon expedition, Chandrayaan-3 and is set to be launched at 11.50 am on Saturday The 23-hour 40-minute . countdown to the mission started at 12:10 pm, ISRO said. “PSLV-C57/Aditya-L1 Mission: The countdown leading to the launch at 11:50 Hrs. IST on Septermber 2, 2023,” has started, ISRO said in an update on X, formerly Twitter. ISRO Chairman S Somanath had earlier said the mission will take 125 days to reach the exact radius. Aditya-L1 will be carried by the PSLV-XL. During the countdown process, the fuelling of the rocket -- liquid fuel -- will be done as well as checking of its systems. Initially Aditya-L1 will be , ejected in a low earth orbit (LEO). Then the orbit will be elliptical. As the spacecraft travels towards L1, it will exit the earth's gravitational Sphere of Influence (SOI). The Union government has constituted a committee headed by former President Ram Nath Kovind to explore the possibility of 'One Nation, One Election' which envisages the holding of general election and state Assembly elections simultaneously . Sources said that the committee will even explore the Woman jumps with baby from sixth floor PREM MORE / THANE After exit from SOI, the cruise phase will start and subsequently the spacecraft will be injected into a large halo orbit around the Lagrange Point (L1) -- the point where the gravitational pull of two large bodies will be equal and hence the spacecraft will not gravitate towards any one of the planet. The total travel time from launch to L1 would take about four months for Aditya-L1 and the distance will be about 1.5 million km from the Earth. CONTD. ON NATION A 34-year-old woman, is alleged to have died by suicide, jumping off the balcony of her sixth floor flat, her oneyear-old daughter in tow, in Kasarwadavli, Thane, early on Friday The woman, . Priyanka Mohite, was reportedly upset that her  husband, Mahesh, did not allow her to visit her sister in Satara, for Raksha Bandhan. Mahesh advised her not to travel  so far with their baby Earlier too, there had . been several altercations between them, police said.  CONTD. ON NATION PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS MINISTER CONFIRMS DISCUSSION WILL TAKE PLACE IN SESSION possibility of bringing a law regarding this. A parliamentary standing committee, the Law Commission and Niti Ayog had earlier examined the 'One Nation, One Election' proposal and submitted reports on the subject. Even as he refused to elab- Ex-Sena corporator ends life on rly tracks, family alleges blackmail AISHWARYA IYER & KALPESH MHAMUNKAR / MUMBAI A former Shiv Sena UBT corporator from Ghatkopar¸ Sudhir More, is reported to have ended his life by lying down on the tracks near Ghatkopar railway station, and was run over by a train on Thursday The . incident came to light around 11.05pm on the same night. According to the GRP , Kurla, CCTV camera footage obtained from Ghatkopar railway station showed that he reached Platform No. 1 at 10.45pm, walked to the edge of Platform No. 2 towards the CSMT-end and began walk- MADHAVAN IS FTII PRESIDENT FPJ NEWS SERVICE / NEW DELHI Actor-filmmaker R Madhavan was on Friday nominated as the president of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) and the chairman of its governing council. Union minister Anurag Thakur shared the news on X and congratulated the actor, who turned director with his National award-winning film “Rocketry: The Nambi Effect”. “Heartiest congratulations to @ActorMadhavan ji on being nominated as President of @FTIIOfficial and Chairman of the governing council. I’m sure that your vast experience & strong ethics will enrich this institute, bring positive changes, & take it to a higher level. My best wishes to you," the I&B Minister wrote. Madhavan, 53, thanked the minis- orate on the agenda for the Special Parliament session from September 18 to 22, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi on Friday admitted that there will be a discussion on the "One Nation, One Election," terming it as evolution of In- dian democracy and asked why the Opposition is scared of it. "There will be a discussion (on 'One Nation, One Election') in Parliament. Why is the Opposition scared (about it)? Democracy is about evolution; India is the mother of democracy This is part of . the evolution," Joshi said. CONTD. ON NATION ter for the opportunity . “Thank you so very much for the honour and kinds wishes Anurag Thakur ji. I will do my very best to live up to all the expectations,” the actor wrote on X. The actor, known for his films across languages including “Kannathil Muthamittal”, “Rang De Basanti”, “3 Idiots” and “Vikram Vedha”, will succeed filmmaker Shekhar Kapur as FTII president. “Rocketry: The Nambi Effect”, a biographical drama revolving around the life of former ISRO scientist S Nambi CONTD. ON NATION Narayanan, ing on the tracks, towards Vidyavihar. “He walked at least 300 to 400 metres, talking on the phone, stopped below the Ghatkopar flyover (eastwest connector) and lay down on the tracks,” said a senior GRP officer at Kurla.  More was walking on the slow track, as a Kalyan-CSMT slow train approached. “The motorman noticed a man lying on the tracks and slammed the emergency brakes to stop the train but it was of no use,” said the officer. The incident happened at 11.05pm, after which the motorman alerted the GRP , which reached the spot.   The mangled remains were immediately sent to Rajawadi Hospital for post mortem.   His family alleged he was being blackmailed over the last few days. On Thursday , he had attended a meeting of the Ganeshutsav mandal. CONTD. ON NATION ASHISH SINGH / MUMBAI Jet Airways founder Naresh Goyal was arrested late on Friday night for defrauding Canara Bank of Rs538 core. He was questioned for eight hours by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in Mumbai before being arrested. He had been summoned twice in the case before but failed to appear. This time, the ED team escorted him to the agency office for questioning. FPJ NEWS SERVICE / MUMBAI Tension gripped Jalna after two buses, including one of the MSRTC, were torched and roads blocked to protest a police lathicharge on people who were on hunger strike for four days seeking reservation for Marathas. The opposition came down heavily on the government over the lathicharge even as Chief Minister Eknath Shinde appealed to people to maintain calm. Former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan criticised the government for the excessive use of force. “Manoj Jarange Patil and his followers had started a hunger strike for Maratha reservation at Sarati Antravali village of Ambad taluka of Jalna district. In a bid to stop the agitation, police resorted to random and indiscriminate caning. They also used tear gas. This certainly amounts to excessive use of force. I condemn it,” Chavan wrote in his post on social media site X. “Step down if you are unable to keep your promises of giving reservation to Maratha community Ma,” harashtra Pradesh Congress Committee chief Nana Patole said late in the CONTD. ON NATION evening. REPORT ON QUESTIONING: CITY In July the agency had con, ducted searches at eight locations in Mumbai and Delhi. The agency’s case is based on an FIR filed by the CBI. Goyal,74, has been taken into custody under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act; the ED will seek his custodial remand in the PMLA court on Saturday The . CBI had filed an FIR in May this year on the basis of the Canara Bank’s complaint, alleging that it had sanctioned credit limits and loans to Jet Airways of Rs 848.86 crore, of which an amount of Rs 538.62 crore is outstanding. CONTD. ON NATION TAILPIECE 3kg gold seized from 2 flyers at int’l airport   two separate cases, MumIn bai Airport Customs has seized 3kg gold worth Rs 1.63 crore, from two male Indian passengers arriving from Sharjah.   the first case, an Air InIn telligence Unit (AIU) officer said, a passenger who had arrived in a flight from Sharjah was examined on Thursday “After a thorough exam. ination of the passenger, it was learnt that he had concealed gold in a specially designed belt underneath his inner garments and the rest Maratha quota seekers caned, Jalna is tense Jet founder Naresh Goyal arrested LAST WORD   SOMENDRA SHARMA / MUMBAI with fire against Shaheen, Rauf and the feisty Naseem Shah, who will benefit from overcast conditions and a nip in the air to unsettle the Indian top order. On the other hand, Pakistan is one of the most undercooked ODI sides at the moment. Since the 2019 World Cup, the team has played just 29 ODIs, whereas India has played 57 matches in the same period. CONTD. ON NATION In one case, the precious metal was hidden in a pasta-maker and mixer grinder was pasted on the bottom of his feet,” the Customs officer informed. “This is an indigenous method used by the flyer to dodge Customs checking. We have seized 1.79 kilograms of 24-carat gold from the said passenger. We launched an extensive probe to ascertain who had given him the gold consignment in Sharjah and who was supposed to receive it in Mumbai,” the officer said. In the second case, Mumbai Airport Customs officers examined another passenger who had arrived from Sharjah on Thursday and in this case, “The gold was ingeniously hidden in a pastamaker and mixer grinder being carried by the passenger. We have seized 1.386kg 24carat crude gold pieces from the said passenger. In this case too, we are ascertaining who the supplier and recipients were,” said the officer.  “In most cases, we have observed that the passengers act as carriers or mules for indulging in smuggling. They are lured by the promise of either free foreign trips or money by the smugglers,” said an agency source.   Tuesday a Sri Lankan On , national and a Tamil Nadu resident were held by Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel at the international airport in Mumbai for allegedly smuggling eight kilogrammes of gold worth Rs 4.18 crore. The two were later handed over to the customs department for further investigation. Indian-origin Tharman wins Singapore prez polls PTI / SINGAPORE I ndian-origin Singapore-born economist Tharman Shanmugaratnam registered a landslide victory on Friday in Singapore’s first contested presidential polls since 2011 bagging more than 70 per cent of the votes, making him the country’s third Indian-origin president. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong congratulated the 66- year-old Tharman, who had served as Singapore’s deputy prime minister from 2011 to 2019, on winning the presidential election. “Singaporeans have chosen Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam to be our next president by a decisive margin. As head of state, he will represent us at home and abroad, and exercise custodial powers, including over the reserves and key appointments,” he said.