SAMBALPUR l friday l march 29, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 14 l CITY EDITION Light combat Aircraft Tejas Mk1A’s first flight successful The HAL said the first LA 5053 aircraft of the Tejas Mk1A series took to the skies successfully from its facility in Bengaluru on Thursday ‘Significant milestone has been achieved’ INDIAN AIR FORCE TO INDUCT THE AIRCRAFT “HAL achieved this significant production milestone with concurrent design & development amid major supply chain challenges in the global geopolitical environment subsequent to the contract signature in February 2021,” said C B Ananthakrishnan, chairman and managing director of the company. The aircraft was piloted by Group Captain K K Venugopal (Retd) ■ ■ The Tejas Mk1A will have an advanced electronic RADAR, warfare, communication systems and additional combat capability The country can look forward to an early induction of the Tejas Mk1A by the IAF and more numbers through the three lines of production established at HAL, it said in a statement 18 mins was the flying time of Tejas Mk1A’s first flight CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI Delhi court extends the chief minister’s ED remand in liquor scam case till April 1 Kejriwal argues his case in court, sees plot to crush party ister Satyendra Jain was also present. Referring to this allegation, Kejriwal said A Delhi court on Thursday saw its arrested because of his position, several ministers chief minister himself arguing his case in come to his residence and even exchange the liquor policy scam. “I was named by documents. “Is this statement sufficient to four witnesses in the excise policy case. Are arrest a sitting CM?” he questioned. four statements enough to arrest a sitting On the statement of another accusedCM?” he asked. turned-approver Raghav Magunta to the The court extended the custody ED, the CM said Magunta’s father of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind gave six statements to the probe Kejriwal with the Enforcement Diagency but did not say anything rectorate (ED) by four more days about Kejriwal. Magunta is the till April 1 in the scam. son of Buchi Babu, chartered acThe actual excise The Rouse Avenue Court saw countant of BRS leader K Kavitha, policy scam heated arguments between Kejriwho too is under arrest in the started after the wal and ED lawyers during the same case. The AAP chief argued beginning of the ED investigation hearing. “Where is the `100 crore that people are being turned apand not when the liquor scam money the ED keeps prover and forced to change their policy was made harping on?” Kejriwal asked, addstatements. The ED investigation ing that the entire liquor policy began in August 2022. The 2021-22 Arvind Kejriwal, case is a political conspiracy to Delhi excise policy was later Delhi chief minister crush his Aam Aadmi Party . scrapped. During the previous hearing, Not opposing the ED’s demand the probe agency had sought to establish for further custody, Kejriwal pointed out Kejriwal’s role in the formulation of the ex- that approver Sarath Chandra Reddy docise policy by citing a statement of C nated `55 crore to the BJP just after his arArvind, the then Secretary of former Dep- rest. “I have the evidence. Money trail is uty CM Manish Sisodia. Arvind told the ED established. He donated `55 crore to BJP afthat he was handed a draft report of a Group ter being arrested,” Kejriwal said. The court of Ministers on the excise policy by Sisodia noted his point and assured it will be at Kejriwal’s residence where former min- investigated. Comments by US State Dept not acceptable: MEA Y e s h i S e l i @ New Delhi U J W A L JA L A L I @ New Delhi Arvind Kejriwal comes out of a Delhi court after his production in the excise policy scam on Thursday | PTI custody extension “...there appears to be sufficient reasons to permit further custodial interrogation, particularly keeping in view the submissions that he (Kejriwal) is required to be confronted with the material collected and statements recorded so far,” special judge Kaveri Baweja said BJD list for six LS seats likely by Sat B i j ay C h a k i @ Bhubaneswar With Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik meeting senior leaders of BJD at Naveen Niwas on Thursday, it is likely that the second list of the party’s Lok Sabha candidates will be finalised and announced in a day or two. BJD has announced candidates for 15 Lok Sabha seats leaving out some key constituencies like Berhampur, Balangir, Balasore and Bargarh among the remaining six. The political situation in Berhampur has changed after the BJP announced Pradeep Panigrahy as its candidate from the seat. Though BJD had almost finalised renominating for mer Union minister Chandrasekhar Sahu from the seat, the party has now deferred its announcement of candidate from the seat. The Berhampur Lok Sabha constituency is the most important for the regional express read Key conspirator in cafe blast case held by NIA Bengaluru: In a major breakthrough in the Bengaluru cafe blast case, the NIA on Wednesday arrested a key conspirator, Muzammil Shareef, following raids in three states. Shareef was reportedly picked up from Bengaluru | P5 NET score to be used for PhD admission New Delhi: Academic session scores from the NET will be used for Ph.D. admissions from 2024-25, said UGC Chairman, Prof. M. Jagadesh Kumar. It will help replace the need for separate entrance tests conducted by individual universities and HEIs | P9 CM Naveen Patnaik & 5T chairman VK Pandian discuss the probable candidates’ list on Thursday outfit as it is the home district of the chief minister and the party cannot afford any surprises here. Sources said the party has several options for the seat. Finance Minister Bikram Keshari Arukha visited Naveen Niwas on the day fuelling speculation that the party is mulling his Lok Sabha candidature. Though there is little chance of Arukha contesting the Lok Sabha poll as he has been announced as the candidate from Bhanjanagar Assembly seat, party insiders said nothing could be said for certain in the party . There are also several other options before the party leadership including Rajya Sabha member and observer for the parliamentary constituency Manas Ranjan Mangaraj and president of the Ganjam district BJD Ramesh Chandra Chyau Patnaik. The party has not announced the candidate for Berhampur Assembly seat as well, from where Chyau Patnaik could also be fielded as he has represented the segment in the past. Besides, the party has also held back announcement of candidate for Balangir Lok Sabha constituency Ka. likesh Narayan Singhdeo, who earlier represented the Lok Sabha constituency will contest from the Assembly seat in this election. Continued on P5 India on Thursday said described the US State Department’s recent comments on the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal as unwarranted - its second riposte in response to two statements. Apart from weighing in on Kejriwal, the State Department also commented on the freezing of Congress funds. “As you are aware, on Wednesday, India had lodged its strong objection and protest with the senior official from the US Embassy with regard to the comments made by the US State Department. The recent remarks by the State Department are unwarranted. Any such external imputation on our electoral and legal processes is completely unacceptable,” said Ministry of External Affairs spokesman Randhir Jaiswal. The MEA said in India, legal processes are driven only by the rule of law. “Anyone who has similar ethos, especially fellow democracies, should have no difficulty in appreciating this fact. India is proud of its independent and robust democratic institutions. We are committed to protect them from any form of undue external influences,” Jaiswal added. India also reiterated that mutual respect and understanding form the foundation of international relations and states are expected to be respectful of the sovereignty and internal affairs of others. In first tango, RIL picks up 26% stake in an Adani arm R AKESH K U M A R @ New Delhi IN a first, rival billionaires Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani have joined hands for a business deal as Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) acquired a 26% stake in Mahan Energen Ltd (MEL), a wholly owned subsidiary of Adani Power Ltd. The deal will give RIL 500 MW of electricity from MEL’s Madhya Pradesh-based power plants for captive use. “One unit of 600 MW capacity of MEL’s Mahan thermal power plant, out of its aggregate operating and upcoming capacity of 2,800 MW, will be designated as the Captive Unit for this purpose,” Adani Power said in an exchange filing. It added that RIL will pick up 5 crore shares with a face value of `10 (`50 crore). “The proposed investment by the Company is in compliance with the provisions of the Electricity Rules, 2005, in terms of which the Company, as a captive user, is required to own 26% proportionate ownership in one unit of MEL of 600 MW capacity, with RIL being the captive user of 500 MW generation capacity,” said RIL in its exchange filing. Stake transfer to meet captive use norms If a power generating unit has to be considered a captive generating plant, the captive user must hold not less than 26% of the ownership in the captive generating company. Also, 51% of the power generated must be used by the owners for their own consumption Ambani’s interests span oil and gas to retail and telecom while Adani’s focus is on infrastructure spanning sea ports to airports, coal and mining. Though considered business rivals, the two Gujarat industrialists have rarely crossed each other’s path except in the clean energy business, where the two have announced multi-billion investments. Adani aspires to be the world’s largest renewable energy producer by 2030, while Reliance is building four gigafactories in Jamnagar — one each for solar panels, batteries, green hydrogen, and fuel cells. Adani is also building three gigafactories for manufacturing solar modules, wind turbines, and hydrogen electrolysers.
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