REPORTS ON PAGES 6 and 7
The business of doing good
(From left) Mithila Mahesh, Iman Jumabhoy, Buvenasvari Pragasam and Shloka Sriram.
P
H
O
T
O
S
:
T
I
M
O
T
H
Y
D
A
V
I
D
,
B
U
V
E
N
A
S
V
A
R
I
P
R
A
G
A
S
A
M
Four young women launch enterprises to help the vulnerable
SINGAPORE, WEEKEND OF FRIDAY,
MAY 27, 2022
MCI (P) 034/10/2021
BOXING CHAMP:
AM I TRENDING?
PAGE 12
ANEK EXPLORES
INDIAN
IDENTITY
PAGE 8
MAN SHOT EIGHT
TIMES IN FRONT
OF FAMILY
PAGE 3
PM LEE: SINGAPORE’S
DEMOCRACY IS A
SYSTEM THAT WORKS
PAGE 5
In the 2019 Hindi film Bala,
Ayushmann Khurrana plays
a man who suffers from
premature balding and hides
it from his bride-to-be.
A groom in Unnao, Uttar
Pradesh, tried to pull the
same trick on Sunday but he
failed.
The bride discovered his
baldness during the wedding
ceremonies and ditched him.
While performing the
wedding ceremonies, the
groom suddenly felt dizzy
and fainted – and his wig
fell off as he hit the ground.
The man had kept his
baldness a secret from the
bride’s family.
Upon seeing his baldness,
the bride refused to
continue with the wedding
and could not be swayed by
her family’s persuasion.
The matter was then
taken to the local police
station but the bride still
refused to budge.
Sugar exports capped at
10 million tonnes
India has capped sugar exports to
safeguard its own supplies and ease
inflation, days after a ban on wheat
shipments sent global prices soaring in
the wake of the Ukraine war.
The world’s largest sugar producer
and No. 2 exporter after Brazil said on
Tuesday that shipments would be
limited to 10 million tonnes for the
current marketing year to September.
The decision was taken “with a
view to maintain the domestic
availability and price stability during
the sugar season”, said the food
ministry.
Government moves to protect
consumers from rising prices
The Central government on Saturday
announced a series of changes to the
tax structure levied on crucial
commodities in a bid to protect
consumers from rising prices amid high
inflation.
Finance Minister Nirmala
Sitharaman announced a cut in excise
duty on petrol by Rs8 (14 cents) per
litre and Rs6 per litre on diesel.
The new tax regime on petrol and
diesel could result in a loss of about
Rs1 trillion to the government in
annual revenue due to the lower
collection, she said in a series of
tweets.
The government also removed the
import duty on anthracite, PCI coal
and coking coal in a bid to reduce raw
material costs for local market
demand.
India attracts highest ever foreign
direct investment in 2021-22
India received a new record of foreign
direct investment (FDI) worth
US$83.57 billion in the financial year
April 2021 to March 2022, the
Ministry of Commerce and Industry
said on Friday.
It added that India had rapidly
emerged as a preferred FDI destination
and that the FDI inflows had increased
20-fold in the past 20 years.
Singapore remained the top investor
with 27 per cent, followed by the
United States (18 per cent).
Man jailed 10 years over wife’s
‘dowry death’
A court in Kerala on Tuesday
sentenced a man to 10 years in prison
in a ruling that found he abused his
wife over their wedding dowry, leading
to suicide.
The district court found Kiran
Kumar guilty under India’s “dowry
death” law, which allows charges to be
brought against people for causing the
death of a woman within the first
seven years of a marriage featuring
dowry gifts and payments.
Kumar was married to Ms Vismaya
Nair for just over a year when she was
found dead last June in the bathroom
of his family home in Kerala.
Delhi woman hires contract killer
to kill husband
A 28-year-old woman was arrested in
New Delhi on Wednesday for getting
her husband, who had another wife,
killed with the help of a contract killer.
Chander Kala alias Chanda and the
contract killer Jumman alias Jumma
earlier surrendered before the Tis
Hazari Court.
Police said the husband, Veer
Bahadur Verma, 50, was found lying in
a pool of blood on a bed near Ranhola
Road on May 18. He was taken to a
nearby hospital where he was declared
dead.
Jet Airways allowed to fly again
India’s Jet Airways said on Friday it
got the green light to resume operation
of commercial flights.
Once India’s biggest private carrier,
Jet stopped flying in April 2019 after
running out of cash, owing billions to
lenders and leaving thousands jobless.
The airline earlier said the National
Company Law Tribunal approved a
resolution plan submitted by a
consortium of London-based Kalrock
Capital and UAE-based businessman
Murari Lal Jalan.
Three in-flight engine shutdowns
in two months spark probe
The Indian government is investigating
three separate incidents in the past two
months where pilots had to shut down
plane engines mid-flight after
encountering problems.
All three incidents, the people said,
involved engines made by CFM, a
joint venture between General Electric
and France’s Safran.
All the planes landed safely as
modern commercial jetliners are
equipped to fly and land safely with a
single engine.
Seven feared dead in Zojila Pass
road accident
Seven people are feared dead after a
road accident on Wednesday in Zojila
Pass, which connects Ladakh with
Jammu and Kashmir.
A disaster management department
officer told IANS that a taxi carrying
eight people skidded off the road and
fell into a 135m-deep gorge. Rescue
operations are ongoing.
46 arrested for violence in
Andhra town
Police in Amalapuram, a town in
Andhra Pradesh, arrested 46 people in
connection with Tuesday’s large-scale
violence.
The houses of minister P. Viswaroop
and a legislator were set afire during
the incident.
It was reported that the violence
intensified after groups of people
protested against the government
proposal to rename Konaseema district
as Dr B.R. Ambedkar Konaseema
district.
Two mauled to death by tiger in
Uttar Pradesh
Two men were mauled to death by a
tiger in Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur
Kheri district.
On Saturday, 30-year-old Mahesh
from Dumeda village was killed in the
Tikunia forest area.
On Monday, Kamlesh Kumar, also
30 years old, was cycling home after
working in a cane field in the forest
area of Dudhwa Tiger Reserve when
the tiger pounced on him.
Festival cancelled after temple
remains submerged
The Someshwar temple in Kurdi
village, south Goa, emerges from the
water every year when summer is at its
peak.
However, due to non-seasonal rain
this year, the temple has remained
underwater.
IANS reported that locals were
disappointed because the Someshwar
Maha Utsav, an annual festival held at
the temple when it surfaces, had to be
cancelled.
Committee of Administrators to
run Hockey India
The Delhi High Court on Wednesday
declared that Hockey India had
violated the National Sports Code and
constituted a three-member
Committee of Administrators to run its
day-to-day affairs.
This was in the wake of a plea filed
by former Olympian Aslam Sher
Khan, challenging the appointment of
Mr Narinder Batra as a life member
and Ms Elena Norman as CEO of the
national sports body.
For editiorial matters,
write to us at
Talk to us at
6319-5510
For advertising enquiries,
write to
Advertise with us by calling
6319-4014 or
9863-3894 (Kalim)
For home delivery, call
6388-3838
(Mon to Fri 9am to 6pm)
or e-mail
Catch us online at
An SPH Media Limited publication
Editor-in-Chief
(English/Malay/Tamil Media group)
Warren Fernandez
Editor
Jawharilal Rajendran
Contributing Editor
V.K. Santosh Kumar
Channel Excellence Lead
Alicia Luke
Bride refuses to marry groom after discovering the bald truth
Page 2
May 27, 2022
tabla
!
INDIA
As the scorching sun beat down on his
fruit cart, Mr Mohammad Ikrar
dreaded another day of tossing out
dozens of rotting mangoes and melons
– a practice that’s becoming common
as India grapples with an unprece-
dented heatwave this month.
The 38-year-old does not own a
refrigerator, so the fruits rot quickly
and at the end of the day, they’d be
good only to be fed to the cows.
“This heat is torturous but I have to
keep going if I want to buy an
air-conditioner or fridge some day,”
said Mr Ikrar, who was wearing a
long-sleeve shirt and white headwrap
to keep cool in the 44 deg C heat.
Heavy rain and thunderstorms in
the New Delhi area early on Monday
brought the scorching temperatures
down to about 20 deg C. But tempera-
tures are set to soar to about 40 deg C
later in the week, according to India’s
weather office.
Monday’s storm knocked out power
in large parts of the national capital – a
problem Mr Ikrar has become accus-
tomed to this summer.
He and his family suffer from power
cuts, which happen day and night,
rendering the ceiling fan useless in
their one-room house in Noida, a
satellite city of New Delhi.
Almost 323 million people across
the country are at high risk from
extreme heat and a lack of cooling
equipment such as fans and refrigera-
tors, according to a report released last
week by Sustainable Energy for All
(SE4ALL), a United Nations-backed
organisation.
India topped a list of “critical”
countries – which included China,
Indonesia and Pakistan – with the
largest populations facing heat-related
dangers ranging from immediate
deaths from overheating to impact on
food security and incomes.
SE4ALL also found that although
nearly all households in India have
access to electricity, only a fraction of
its 1.4-billion population owns cooling
appliances.
As demand for cooling will soar in
the coming years, it will also add
pressure to India’s over-stretched elec-
tricity systems and lead to a potential
increase in planet-warming emissions,
said Mr Brian Dean, head of energy
efficiency and cooling at SE4ALL.
“This in turn exacerbates the risk of
longer and more extreme heatwaves.”
He urged the authorities to quickly
implement the India Cooling Action
Plan, which aims to cut cooling de-
mand by up to 25 per cent by 2038
through measures including developing
new cooling technology and designing
buildings with natural airflow.
In India, government data shows at
least 25 people have died from heat
stroke since late March, the highest
toll in the past five years.
Thomson Reuters Foundation
A suspected member of a triad was
shot dead in front of his family in
Sungai Petani, Kedah, on Wednesday.
According to New Straits Times, the
man – identified as 36-year-old Murali
Shunmugam – was shot point-blank in
front of a restaurant on Jalan Kam-
pung Baru at 12.30pm.
He was shot at least eight times in
the body and head while he was with
his wife, a boy and a friend.
Bernama reported that the child is
believed to be his stepchild.
The trio could only scream in disbe-
lief when Murali was shot repeatedly
by four men on two motorcycles as he
was about to step into his Toyota
Vellfire that was parked across the
restaurant.
“They went there to pack some
food in his multi-purpose vehicle,” said
Kedah Police chief Wan Hassan Wan
Ahmad.
“When the victim was about to get
back into his vehicle, four suspects on
two motorcycles and who wore full-
face helmets and jackets fired several
shots at the victim.”
The gunmen were reportedly wear-
ing gloves and had their faces covered.
A forensic team found eight bullet
casings at the site.
Police chief Hassan said the victim
died on the spot due to severe injuries
to the face and body.
A witness told China Press that the
victim was a regular customer at the
restaurant and went there with his
family almost every week.
Free Malaysia Today quoted wit-
nesses who said that they saw the
motorcycles arrive from a back alley
before the man was ambushed.
The Kedah police chief said Murali
was a wanted man over suspected
organised crime and drug-related activi-
ties, with a pending case under the
Security Offences (Special Measures)
Act 2012.
Police chief Hassan said the police
will study the closed-circuit television
cameras in the surrounding areas as
well as look for witnesses to assist in
the investigation.
“So far, the motive for the shooting
has yet to be ascertained and a de-
tailed investigation will be carried
out,” he said.
Murali Shunmugam was shot at least eight times in broad daylight.
P
H
O
T
O
S
:
I
N
T
E
R
N
E
T
Millions at risk from
extreme heat
Malaysian shot dead in front of family
NEWS
tabla
!
May 27, 2022
Page 3
