FP The publishers permit sharing of the e-paper's pdf on WhatsApp and other social media platforms FREE PRESS Vol. XLI No. 257 | INDORE | SUNDAY | FEBRUARY 23, 2025 | Pages 16 ` 4 | Regd. No. Indore MP/ICD 216/2024-2026 | RNI No. 38281/83 www.freepressjournal.in To lay stone of cancer hosp at Bageshwar Dham Our Staff Reporter BHOPAL Prime Minister Narendra Modi is arriving on a twoday visit to MP on Sunday. On the first day, he will visit Bageshwar Dham in Chhatarpur to lay the foundation stone of cancer hospital. On Monday morning, he will inaugurate the two-day Global Investors Summit. It is for the first time that PM is going to stay in the state for two days. On Sunday noon, the PM will lay the foundation stone of Medical Science and Research Institute in Gada (Rajnagar) village. 4Continued on | P8 Shaktikanta Das PM’s principal secy 2 A P Kanungo BHUBANESWAR Former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das, a native of Odisha, has been appointed as Principal Secretary-2 to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet approved his appointment, and an official order was issued on Saturday by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) under the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances, and Pensions. Since September 11, 2019, P. K. Mishra has served as the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister. According to the order, Das’s tenure will be "co-terminus with the term of the Prime Minister or until further orders, whichever is earlier." A former Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the 1980-batch from the Tamil Nadu cadre, Das assumed the role of RBI Governor in December 2018 and retired last year. 4Continued on | P8 Associated Press Hadi Matar was convicted on Friday of attempted murder for stabbing author Salman Rushdie multiple times on a New York lecture stage in 2022. The judge set sentencing for April 23. Matar could receive up to 25 years in prison, which District Attorney Jason Schmidt noted is the maximum for a conviction on attempted murder in the second degree. Jurors delivered the verdict after deliberating for less than EDITIONS: INDORE UJJAIN PUNE BHOPAL NASHIK Cinema Celebrating the luminosity... Nitendra Sharma BHOPAL There are talks about the Global Investors’ Summit (GIS) being held in the capital of MP, Bhopal. Chief Minister Mohan Yadav is preparing for the GIS and for the arrival of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. According to Yadav, industrialists come INTERVIEW with great enthusiasm and expectations, but because of lack of enough government response, they feel disappointed. Nevertheless, he will never let this happen, Yadav said. Despite his busy schedule, he spoke to Free Press about the GIS. Here are the excerpts of the interview: Q. Every state is organising GIS. Why should industrialists invest in MP? A. MP’s topography is different from other states. Raw material can be easily transferred from south Asian countries to any place in India from the state. There is hardly any land in UP, Delhi and Haryana. We have surplus land and extra power. We are getting the benefits of it. Q. The figure of investment proposals is very high at GIS. But the actual investment is lesser than the proposed figures. How will you fulfill this gap? A. Industrialists come with a lot of enthusiasm. They come up with investment plans. But afterwards, they don’t get enough response. They do not get the benefits of their policies. So, they give up. But this time, the government is paying special attention to stop it. Earlier, 38 types of permission were required to set up an industry, but my government reduced the number to ten. Officers are directly interacting with the representatives of industries. The government is sparing no effort to bring in investments. Q. Some old industrial units, like garment factories in Malwa, Bidi factories in Sagar and cement factories in Vindhya, which had been operating before independence, were been shut. Now, the government is talking about setting up new industries. Why is it so? A. The successive Congress governments harmed the state in many ways. Most of the old factories were shut because of the Congress government’s wrong policies. During the Congress rule, industrial growth rate declined to-25 percent. The Congress government hardly USAID MYSTERY DEEPENS | Who got $21 million? Trump’s repeated assertion has BJP, Cong at loggerheads as blame game continues ‘Kickback’ row escalates Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar NEW DELHI The Congress on Saturday latched on to US President Donald Trump third statement on USAID’s now-cancelled $21 million funding in India, in which he claimed that the money went to “my friend Prime Minister Modi for voter turnout”, by demanding to know if he indeed took the money and sought a white paper on the issue. On Thursday too the Congress had sought a white paper on this payment after Trump had said that the funds meant for improving voter turnout in India may have been used “to get somebody else elected”. In his third statement on the issue in three days, Trump said, “USD 21 million going to my friend Prime Minister Modi in India for voter turnout. We are giving $21 million for voter turnout in India, what about us? I want voter turnout too.” Incidentally the video was shared on “X” on Saturday morning by BJP’s national information and technology department incharge Amit Malviya, who, however, removed the PM’s name from a brief transcript which accompanied it. Malviya also wrote alongside: “But what does he know about his own country’s spending?” For the Congress, which was being attacked by BJP for using foreign funds for influencing polls in India ever since the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) claimed in a post on “X” on February 16 that U.S. agency funding was used for increasing “voter turnout in India”, this provided an opportunity to claim that it was actually the BJP which was to blame. The party held a press conference in which chairman of its media and publicity department Pawan Khera while citing Trump’s latest statement asked, “After Trump's statement, there is silence all around. That is why we want to know from Narendra Modi where did these 21 million dollars go?” Khera insisted that “Trump's statement has proved that he had given $21 million to Modi to influence the elections and increase voter turnout.” The party also claimed that “USAID has given $2.9 billion to India between 2001-24. And 44.4% of this amount has come during the Modi government.” That is why, Khera said, “we are demanding a white paper, because it should be known to everyone as to whom this money went?” Khera also gave a new angle And $21 million going to my friend, Prime Minister Modi, in India for voter turnout. We're giving 21 million for voter turnout in India. What about us? I want voter turnout too. – Donald Trump Mallya pursues annulment of UK bankruptcy order two hours, also finding Matar, 27, guilty of assault for wounding a man who was on the Chautauqua Institution stage with Rushdie at the time. Matar ran up to Rushdie as he was about to speak on Aug. 12, 2022, and stabbed him more than a dozen times before a live audience. The attack left the 77-year-old prizewinning novelist blind in one eye. Rushdie was key witness during seven days of testimony, describing in graphic detail his life-thretening injuries and long and painful recovery. London: Embattled businessman Vijay Mallya has instructed his lawyers in the UK to pursue an annulment application against his bankruptcy order, with his legal team set to argue that Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's statement in Parliament in December last year gives the order an "unreal quality". It comes after Justice Anthony Mann reserved judgment, to be handed down at a later date, after hearings of three interlinked appeals related to Mallya's bankruptcy order concluded at the High Court in London this week. 4Continued on | P8 4Continued on | P8 to the issue by saying, “When Anna Hazare's movement was at its peak during 2012, Kejriwal was forming his own party. At that time Narendra Modi was hatching a conspiracy against Advani. At that time too, how much money came from USAID and to whom did it go - we have to know all this in the white paper?” He said the party was also demanding that the Centre reveal “which political parties, political individuals, non-governmental political organizations and cultural organizations of India received money from USAID and when did they receive it”. Meanwhile, The Washington Post fon Saturday reported that it found no evidence that $21 million was due to be spent for voter turnout in India or for any other purpose. In a report (How a false DOGE claim ignited a political firestorm in India) it cited "Three people with knowledge of regional aid programs, speaking on the condition of anonymity who expressed bewilderment over the claim. 4Continued on | P8 Shivraj slams AI after broken chair fiasco Civil Aviation Minister orders probe, Air India tenders apology Our Staff Reporter BHOPAL Union minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has taken the Tata management to task over a broken chair given to him on an Air India flight from Bhopal to Delhi. Chouhan left for Delhi on an Air India flight AI 436 on Saturday. Chouhan was allotted seat number 8C which was broken and stuck inside. It was difficult for him to sit properly. According to Chouhan, taking money from passengers and offering such seats is against the law. It is a sort of cheating on passengers. He wrote, “After Tata Group took over Air India, I thought its services would improve, but I was under wrong impression.” The Air India management will take proper steps to mitigate the sufferings of passengers or take the advantage of their helplessness. 4Continued on | P8 ‘Jana Gana Mana’ in Lahore mix up Haridev Pushparaj The musical notes of ‘Jana Gana Mana’ was not the anthem local spectators at Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium were expecting to hear but that is exactly what they were treated to and that too at a nonIndia game of the marquee ICC Champions Trophy. E-paper readers’ corner A Myth or a Social Question P.6 Hamas releases 6 Israeli hostages Pak’s faux pas MUMBAI MUMBAI P.16 Many units were shut in Congress rule, industrial growth rate was -25%: CM Rushdie’s attacker guilty of attempted murder MAYVILLE, N.Y. iii QUALITY @ VALUE WORLD Sports Semifinal spot vs Survival P.14 PM in MP on two-day visit from today ESTD-1983 Yes, it’s well and truly the season of goof-ups at the ICC Champions Trophy and the trend shows no signs of abating as India’s national anthem was played out for a few seconds prior to the start of the Australia-England match at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore. Drama can’t be too far away when there is India involved in some form, in Indian national anthem played at Australia-England match this case the national anthem, and the hosts Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and the International Cricket Council (ICC) were in for some major embarrassment as the Australian players and local fans looked in wonderment as strains of ‘Bharata Bhagya Vidhata’ played out with images of the Aussie national flag on the big screen telecast live worldwide. The national anthem mess-up comes at a time when the PCB has lodged an official complaint with the ICC over the absence of Pakistan’s name in the tournament logo during the live broadcast of the India-Bangladesh match held in Dubai on February 20th. The latest development in the matter, according to PCB sources, being that the ICC has informally admitted to the error and has assured that they will use the three-line logo with Pakistan’s name for all matches in Dubai. paid attention to industrialisation from the inception of the state to 2003. So, the party should be ashamed of talking about industries. The policy of the present government is to set up new industries and revive the old ones. Q. How will you differentiate between the serious investors and phony investors? A. We have done our homework. We have worked on what kind of investors are coming to our state. The government is acquainted with the serious investors. Now, cotton is sent from the state to Coimbatore. Because of our efforts, factories from Coimbatore are coming to the state. We have to go ahead in this way. Q. Is there any hope for foreign investment? A. It will be more than expectations. Wait for two days. And everything will be clear. (See also PG-5) MPIDC gets 5K applications after closure of registration Process underway to find genuine industrialists Our Staff Reporter BHOPAL Though the registration process for Global Investors Summit (GIS) closed, Madhya Pradesh Industrial Development Corporation kept receiving applications. Such was the situation that over 5,000 applications were received after closure of the registration. Following this, the MPIDC officials were filtering genuine industrialists among the latecomers. After validation only, passes will be issued to them. Sources in MPIDC said around 30,000 registrations have been received so far. Bat coronavirus with human transmission risk found in China Minister headed dept which did not exist PTI CHANDIGARH Rajesh Moudgil BEIJING A Chinese team of virologists have found a new bat coronavirus that carries the risk of animal-to-human transmission because it uses the same human receptor as the virus that causes Covid-19, a media report said. The study was led by Shi Zhengli, Chinese virologist from the controversial Wuhan Institute of Virology, where the COVID-19 was alleged to have emanated from. Shi, who is known as the Bat Woman for her research on viruses from the Bats, as well as the Chinese government deny that the virus was leaked from the Wuhan lab. 4Continued on | P8 The ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government on Saturday found itself in a deeply embarassing situation after it was discovered that its Cabinet minister Kuldeep Dhaliwal was found heading a “nonexistent’’ department for as long as 20 months. This opposition targetted the government after a gazette notification dated February 21, issued by the chief secretary stated: ``In partial modification of the Punjab government notification dated September 23, 2024, regarding allocation of portfolios amongst the ministers, the Department of Administrative Reforms earlier allotted to Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal, Cabinet minister, is not in existence as on date. Therefore, on the advice of the Chief Minister of Punjab, the Governor of Punjab is pleased to It has taken AAP more than 20 months to find that Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal headed the Dept of Admistrative Reforms’ which simply did not exist make the following amendment: With effect from February 7, 2025, Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal will hold the charge of NRI Affairs Minister.’’ 4Continued on | P8