Young Sikhs respond with
kindness to influencer whose
Instagram post about
turbans sparks anger
First World response
to Third World incident
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Instagram influencer Sheena Phua (left) with president of
the Young Sikh Association Sarabjeet Singh.
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REPORT ON PAGE 6
SINGAPORE, WEEKEND OF FRIDAY,
OCTOBER 4, 2019
MCI (P) 078/03/2019
INDIA
REMEMBERS
GANDHI
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ONG: INDIA
GOOD FOR
INTERNSHIPS
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DAILY TRAIN
RIDE TO
COLLECT WATER
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THE SKY IS PINK
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FOR PRIYANKA
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Published by
Singapore Press Holdings
Editor-in-Chief
(English/Malay/Tamil Media group)
Warren Fernandez
Editor
Jawharilal Rajendran
Contributing Editor
V.K. Santosh Kumar
Marketing Team Head
Bernard Ong
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NBA comes to India
A man walks past a National Basketball
Association (NBA) themed mural in
Mumbai.
India will host the popular NBA for
the first time when the Indiana Pacers
and Sacramento Kings play two
pre-season games at the National Sports
Club of India in Worli today and
tomorrow.
Basketball is attempting to gain a
foothold in a country where cricketers
are treated like gods and the ancient
sport of kabaddi is a hot television
property.
National control room to handle
natural calamities
Following glaring lapses by federal and
state agencies to immediately respond
to people in distress during natural
calamities, the Central government is
setting up an integrated control room
for quick response and to carry out a
strategic level of monitoring.
“It has been found that during
natural calamities the response time of
the state and central governments is
delayed causing loss of many lives,”
said a senior Home Ministry officer.
UK court: Nizam’s £35 million
belong to descendants
In a major win for India, The United
Kingdom High Court has ruled that
funds Hyderabad’s Nizam Osman Ali
Khan transferred to the high
commissioner of Pakistan in Britain in
1948, now worth around £35 million,
belongs to India while dismissing
Pakistan’s claim over it.
The ruling ends over 70 years of
legal dispute over the beneficiary of
the funds the Nizam sought back after
his kingdom became part of India.
The titular eighth Nizam, Prince
Mukarram Jah, and his younger
brother Muffakham Jah, joined hands
with the Indian government last year
in the legal battle against Pakistan for
possession of the £35 million which is
lying in London’s NatWest Bank.
Surgical blade found in jail
inmate’s stomach
A prisoner at Delhi’s Mandoli jail has
been found with a surgical blade in his
stomach. This came to light when
Sunil alias “Chooha” returned to jail
after appearing in a court hearing. A
metal detector detected the blade and
jail staff were alerted.
The prisoner was taken to the Guru
Teg Bahadur hospital where doctors
worked to remove the object.
Seven-hour journey to Doklam
now takes only 40 minutes
A journey to the Indian Army’s
strategic Dokala base, which stands at
the edge of the disputed Doklam
plateau near Sikkim, now takes no
more than 40 minutes on an
all-weather tarred road that has no
restrictions on load.
When the Indian Army had a tense
standoff with the Chinese People’s
Liberation Army in Doklam in 2017,
access to the base used to take up to
seven hours on a mule track.
According to the Border Roads
Organisation (BRO), the newly-
surfaced Bheem Base-Dokala road
“was black topped on a war footing”.
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October4,2019
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INDIA
Workers transfer onions at a wholesale
vegetable market in New Delhi.
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From Kathmandu to Colombo, it’s a kitchen night-
mare: Onion prices have gone crazy.
That’s because India, the world’s biggest seller of
the Asian diet staple, has banned exports after
extended monsoon downpours delayed harvests and
supplies shrivelled.
And dedicated buyers across the region, like
Nepalese housewife Seema Pokharel, are flum-
moxed.
“This is a terrible increase,” said Ms Pokharel,
out shopping for vegetables in Kathmandu. “Onion
prices have more than doubled in the last month
alone.”
Whether it’s Pakistani chicken curry, Bangladeshi
biryani or Indian sambar, Asian consumers have
developed a serious dependence on Indian onion
supplies for go-to dishes.
Shorter shipment times than from rival exporters
such as China and Egypt play a crucial role in
preserving the taste of the perishable commodity.
But last Sunday, New Delhi banned all exports
from India after local prices jumped to Rs4,500
($87) per 100kg, their highest in nearly six years,
due to the delay in summer-sown crop arrivals
triggered by longer, heavier rains than usual.
Prices of the vegetable, as ubiquitous as spices in
Indian cooking, surged more than 200 per cent last
month from previous months after flooding from
heavy monsoon rains damaged crops and reduced
supplies, reported Bloomberg.
That prompted the Indian government to ban
exports and crack down on hoarding to lower
prices, angering farmers who took to the streets on
Monday in protest.
The onion, whose soaring prices have been
blamed for bringing down past governments, puts
Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a tight spot.
During his re-election campaign this year, the
Baharatiya Janata Party leader promised to raise
incomes for farmers, a key voting constituency that
makes up more than half of the electorate.
Yet, he also needs to ensure inflation remains
stable, and food prices are already spiking higher.
“The government could be caught in a dilemma,
as while it seeks to keep food inflation contained, it
also has a promise to raise farm incomes,” said Mr
Jason Yek, Asia Country Risk Analyst at Fitch
Solutions. “Any measure to artificially depress the
price of onions could spur a backlash from the
onion farmers.”
This isn’t the first time onions have taken centre
stage in Indian politics. In 1998, high onion prices
were cited for the Bharatiya Janata Party losing the
vote in New Delhi.
In 2013, onions were blamed for soaring infla-
tion. Last year, Mr Modi, in his campaign to gain
reelection, said farmers are his “top” priority, with
TOP meaning Tomato, Onion and Potato.
Onion prices in India climbed to as high as Rs80
($1.56) a kilogram last month compared to Rs20 to
Rs25 in July through August.
The crisis comes at a time when the ruling BJP is
going into its first set of state elections after
returning to power in a general election earlier this
year. The BJP is seeking to retain power in Haryana
and Maharashtra, a key onion producing state, later
this month.
“The price of onions has become symbolic. The
price of all vegetables are going up but the
government has taken no initiative to bring them
down. There is a history of governments losing
badly due to onion prices. It is a politically sensitive
issue,” said Prof Sanjay Kumar from the Centre for
the Study of Developing Societies, a research
institute.“It just adds to the (economic) problems of
the government.”
Reuters
“This is a
terrible increase.
Onion prices
have more than
doubled in the
last month
alone.”
– Housewife
Ms Seema Pokharel
Onion prices
bring tears
to consumers
INDIA
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October4,2019
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