fridAY 11 october, 2024 epaper.morningstandard.in facebook.com/TheMorningStandard X.com/TheMornStandard Han Kang, South Korean author, wins Nobel literature prize R u s s i a n t h r e at NATO to start nuke exercise The NATO will hold a nuclear exercise next week, the alliance’s chief said on Thursday, a few weeks after Putin announced changes to Russia’s N-doctrine. Page 9 Han, best known for her book The Vegetarian, becomes the first Asian woman and the first South Korean writer to win the Nobel Lit Prize ‘an innovator in contemporary prose’ A CAPITAL VIEW OF NEWS l New Delhi l J8.00 l PAGES 12 The Nobel panel praised Han for her ‘intense poetic prose’ exploring the correspondence between mental and physical trauma. “She has a unique awareness of the connections between body and soul, the living and the dead, and in a poetic and experimental style, has become an innovator in contemporary prose,” Nobel committee chairman Anders Olsson said | P9 Ratan cremated, his legacy lives Sudh i r Su r ya w a n s h i @ Mumbai It’s rare for a businessman’s demise to draw a spontaneous outpouring of emotion from the lay public. But when the person in question is visionary industrialist Ratan Tata, 86, their sense of void is quite understandable, as his work touched millions of lives. Thousands of people thronged the lawns of the National Centre for Performing Arts at Nariman Point on Thursday to pay their homage to him. Known as much for his philanthropy as for his bold acquisitions abroad, he infused the quality of trust and integrity into the Tata brand. His people-centric approach propelled him to realise his dream of an under `1 lakh car in the massy Nano. Though it failed the market test, his reputation of having his heart in the right place remained intact. Also, the Nano plant site shook up West Bengal politics like never before. He was known to chase ideas, not wealth. Under his leadership, the salt-toBuzz on Noel software behemoth grew as successor more than 70 times in size. The last rites were perMany consider Noel formed at Mumbai’s Worli Tata, stepbrother Crematorium with full state of Ratan Tata, as honours in the presence of the heir apparent Union home minister Amit of the Tata Group. Shah, his cabinet colleague He is a trustee in Piyush Goyal, Maharashtra two of the most Chief Minister Eknath influential of these Shinde, his deputy Devendra trusts — the Sir Fadnavis, and Congress leadDorabji Tata Trust er and former chief minister and the Sir Ratan Sushilkumar Shinde. Tata Trust | P10 Shah stood in for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had to fly to Laos to attend the ASEAN-India and East Asia summits. “Ratan Tata took charge of the group at a time when it needed a shake up. He patiently transformed its working practices. Today the Tata Group stands as a pole star in In, dia’s industrial landscape,” Shah said. Earlier in the day the Maharashtra cabinet rec, ommended to the Centre to consider honouring Ratan Tata with a posthumous Bharat Ratna. The state government as well as a few others declared a day of mourning and the national flag was flown at half-mast across government offices. The Mumbai Police paid tribute to Tata with a gun salute. Family and friends as well as top officials of Tata group joined the ceremony The last . rites were performed as per the Parsi tradition. Among the mourners was a black dog that refused to leave his side, literally clinging next to the casket. Tata had adopted the stray dog nearly a decade ago and named it ‘Goa’. He had a special affinity for strays. Kerala Assembly resolution rejects simultaneous polls E XPR E SS N E WS S E RVIC E @ Kochi Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran, Neville Tata and others during last rites of industrialist Ratan Tata, at Worli Crematorium in Mumbai on Thursday | PTI He valued leadership with trust A titan has left us. Although Ratan Ratan was a unifier. Tata never had the reputation outHis first real test as a leader came side of India that he should have when he was appointed as chair of had — and richly deserved — he TELCO, later Tata Motors, at a time was the dominant figure in when a vicious strike had Indian business for more brought the Pune plant nearthan three decades. ly to a halt. Ratan’s method Like many great leaders, of resolving the strike was he did not at first aspire to a typical of his later leaderposition of leadership. He ship style. once said that in a perfect He went down to the shop world, he would have become Morgen Witzel floor, talked to the few rean architect. Writer, management historian. maining workers, listened to Nevertheless, as JRD Tata’s Author of Tata: Evolution of a their grievances and promCorporate Brand leadership of the Tata Group ised to do his best for them. drew to its close in the late These workers talked to their 1990s, it was clear that Ratan was the striking colleagues and told them that only obvious choice to succeed him, the Ratan was a leader they could trust. only man who could hold the group to- Gradually the strikers began returning , gether. The “satraps” who aspired to to work, leaving the leaders of the succeed JRD were divisive figures, but strike isolated. “Leadership with trust” was one of Ratan’s values, and he did his best to live by it. Following the collapse of Tata Finance in 2001, he famously promised that every investor and depositor would get their money back; no one would lose a single rupee. Eight years later, I asked him if he had known at the time how much money Tata Finance had lost, and how much the Tata Group would have to pay back. His answer was startling. “No,” he said calmly. “I had no idea. In my mind, I was prepared to liquidate the entire group, sell off every asset we had, in order to pay that debt. We had to do this.” I asked him why “Because if we had . not, no one would ever have trusted us again,” he said. “And everything we have worked for would have been Continued on P7 thrown away  .” THE Kerala assembly on Thursday unanimously passed a resolution urging the Union government not to implement the ‘One Nation One Election’ proposal, which it termed ‘anti-constitutional’. The resolution moved by state Parliamentary Affairs Minister M B Rajesh said the proposal of the high-level committee headed by former president Ram Nath Kovind reflected an anti-democratic mindset. It said the move could undermine the parliamentary democratic system. The Kovind panel had recommended simultaneous polls for the Lok Sabha and assemblies as the first step, followed by synchronised local body polls within 100 days. “If implemented, the proposal will dilute the powers of the state legislative assemblies and make the local bodies that function as local governments irrelevant. That way, it will disrupt the decentralisation of power and negate the involvement of the public in the democratic processes,” the resolution read. The resolution said the act of viewing Parliament, assembly and local body polls through the prism of expens, es alone is undemocratic, adding that plenty of options are available to curtail expenses. “The proposal disrupts federalism, which is the fundamental aspect of the Constitution, and violates the powers enjoyed by the state. It also challenges the sovereignty of the public,” it said. The resolution will now be sent to the Union government. 2nd big drug bust in 9 Maha govt triples salaries of madrasa teachers days as 200 kg cocaine worth `2K cr seized S U D H IR S U R YAWA N S H I @ Mumbai U j w a l J a l a l i @ New Delhi Days after the Special Cell of the Delhi Police busted an international narco-cartel and seized drugs worth more than `5,000 crore, the cops found another consignment of 208 kg cocaine whose estimated value is said to be more than `2,000 crore, police said on Thursday . A senior police officer said that the latest drug recovery is part of the previous drug haul. That means the police have seized 7,628 kg of cocaine having a value of `7,620 crore in the international market. “The consignment was kept at a closed shop in West Delhi’s Ramesh Nagar by an Indian origin UK citizen who has probably escaped from the country the of,” ficer told this newspaper. The accused had taken the shop on rent a few days ago, the officer said, adding two people including the shop owner, have been detained. The team of Special Cell probing the matter had received a tipoff about the consignment hidden at some west Delhi shop. A raid was conducted on Thursday evening and contraband was found hidden in food packets. “We suspect some more such consignments are kept or already transported to other destinations. Our teams are conducting raids at every possible location,” the officer said. Seven people have so far been arrested in the cocaine recovery Kept in food packets The 208 kg cocaine consignment was kept at a closed shop in West Delhi’s Ramesh Nagar by an Indian origin UK citizen. The accused had taken the shop on rent a few days ago. Acting on a tip-off, the police conducted raid on Thursday evening and the contraband was found hidden in food packets. Two people, including the shop owner, have been detained. Total haul worth `7.6K cr The latest drug recovery is part of the previous drug haul. The police have seized 7,628 kg of cocaine having value of `7,620 crore in the international market. The main suspect is said to be a Dubai-based businessman. One of his aides owned a godown in Mahipalpur from where 560 kg of cocaine was recovered on October 2. case, which includes Akhlak, from Hapur, who was nabbed from Uttar Pradesh. The prime accused of the cartel is said to be a Dubai-based businessman, named Virendra Basoya, who the cops believe was running the racket with the help of Tushar Goyal and Jitender Gill alias Jassi, both arrested. Goyal, who owns a godown in Mahipalpur from where 560 kg of cocaine was recovered, was arrested on October 2 along with Himanshu Kumar and Aurangzeb Siddiqui of Delhi and Bharat Kumar Jain of Mumbai. THE BJP-led Mahayuti government in Maharashtra on Thursday took a slew of steps to woo the Muslim minority and backward communities ahead of the assembly polls, expected to be held next month. In a cabinet meeting chaired by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Thursday the , government decided to increase the salary of madrasa teachers and also the working capital of the Maulana Azad Financial Corporation. Primary teachers with D Ed degree will see their monthly pay almost triple to `16,000 from `6,000 at present, while the monthly payout of secondary school teachers with BEd will in- crease from `8,000 to `18,000. Under Zakir Hussain Madrasa modernization scheme, the state government asked Madrasas to provide modern education along with the religious studies. Science, mathematics, sociology, English, Marathi, Hindi, and Urdu are proposed to be taught in madrasas. The proposal to increase the working capital of the Maulana Azad Financial Corporation from `600 crore to `1,000 crore was tabled by the state minority department. The cooperation will use this money to lend to those from the minority community for various purposes. The Eknath Shinde-led cabinet also passed the proposal to set up welfare cooperative boards for several communities. The government increased the investment capital for tribal welfare boards. State SC panel to get constitutional status A draft ordinance to accord a constitutional status to the Maharashtra State Scheduled Caste Commission was also approved in the cabinet meeting, said a statement from the office of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. The ordinance will be tabled in the next session of the legislature; 27 posts were approved for the commission The state government announced the setting up co-operative boards for Shimpi, Gavali, Lad ShakiyaWani, Lohar, and Nam Panth community boards. Each cooperative board will be given `50 crore as investment capital to carry out various social and community activities. In another major decision, the the Maharashtra cabinet decided to request the Union government to increase the income limit to qualify for ‘non-creamy layer’ to `15 lakh per year from `8 lakh at present. A non-creamy layer certificate, which means the family income of a person is below the prescribed limit, is needed to avail of reservation benefits in the Other Backward Class (OBC) category . DU eyes green campus, own satellite, free lunch scheme for underprivileged students E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ New Delhi Bungalow AAP-BJP war of words intensifies Atishi has accused BJP of trying to seize CM’s official residence at 6, Flagstaff Road in Civil Lines, while the saffron party has dismissed the AAP’s claims, calling it ‘drama’ | P3 Those looking for a major shift in the way Delhi University would function in the coming years take a look at the university’s Institutional Development Plan (IDP) 2024. The initiatives include implementing a policy to allow only electric vehicles on the campus, launching its own satellite, and introducing a free lunch scheme for students. The IDP has been tabled for consideration before the Academic Council members, who held a meeting on Thursday . The IDP is a perspective plan document that charts out broad objectives the university wants to achieve over some time. The satellite system could play a major role in scientific research, telecommunications, GPS navigation as well as remote education. However, in the case of financial constraints, the university may consider hiring services from ISRO, the document says. DU is also looking at environmental sustainability with plans to introduce a zero-emission target by restricting fossil fuel vehicles on the campus. It hopes to gradually introduce electric vehicles starting with Chhatra Marg to create a cleaner environment for students and the staff. Another major initiative is a working lunch scheme for underprivileged students, offering free meals in the university cafeteria in exchange for work. The university is looking at creating a ‘University Haat’ on the lines of universities abroad to set up a commercial shopping area where products developed by studentled start-ups can be showcased and put up for sale. express read Chargesheet in Laos trafficking The NIA said it has filed a chargesheet against five members of a human trafficking syndicate that was sending Indians to Laos to work in cyber crime sweatshops run by Chinese scammers. The move comes on a day when PM Modi is visiting Laos to attend India-ASEAN meet. | P7 Govt hikes MLA fund by 50% Ahead of the assembly election, the Delhi government on Thursday raised the annual MLA Local Area Development (LAD) fund by 50% hiking the current amount from `10 crore to `15 crore. CM Atishi claimed that the MLA-LAD in Delhi was the highest in the country. | P4 SIT to probe Covid ‘scam’ The Karnataka cabinet on Thursday decided to recover `500 crore from firms the companies allegedly involved in irregularities in supplying medical equipment during Covid-19. It also decided to set up a SIT to probe the criminal intention. | P5