In photos: Monkey caught, tied & caged in Mumbai for thieving

Mumbai: A thieving monkey caught, tied and caged here in the commercial capital of India.

The captured primate’s arms tied tightly behind his back as he sits crouched down in a residential colony here.

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His fault? He had been causing a nuisance for over six months, including stealing food and tearing up pillows that were on sale in one of the colony’s shops, said locals.

The primate was caught by a professional monkey catcher.

He was one of three or four monkeys caught.

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Residents of Sion area recently complained to a local municipal councillor about the unwelcome guests.

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In India, monkeys are often found in gardens, offices, residential rooftops. They even attack people viciously for food but are rarely subjected to such public humiliation.

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On Friday morning, when locals found one of the apes they called a monkey catcher to catch the animal.

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Local residents assembled round and cheered as bandages were tied around the macaque’s wrists and elbows. A rope was put around its neck.

Later, the shackles were removed and macaque was placed in a cage, where he ate grapes and looked forlornly at the crowd of staring onlookers.

The monkey is now all set to open a new chapter of his life in the countryside north of Mumbai.

Caught on camera: Speeding car crashes with another on highway in Rajkot

Image-Just millisecond before the crash/ABP Live

Rajkot (Gujarat): A chilling CCTV video of a car crash has emerged in which two cars crash on a highway resulting in the death of two people here.

The accident took place at Morbi-Rajkot road, near Shanalla village on February 4.

In the video, one car can be seen taking a U-turn. However, before it could do so, a speeding car coming from behind crashes into it.

The accident took place on Thursday night.

The result of the accident was so much so that both the vehicles reduced into scrap. Localities heard a loud sound as a result of the mishap in which drivers of both the cars lost their life.

Home > INDIA > Nine Hyderabad municipal officers caught at mujra party, suspended Nine Hyderabad municipal officers caught at mujra party, suspended

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Hyderabad: The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) on Sunday suspended nine of its officers after they were caught red handed at a ‘mujra’ party.

GHMC commissioner and special officer Janardhan Reddy suspended the officials including three tax inspectors and ordered an inquiry by the additional commissioner.

The officers along with others including six women were arrested late on Saturday night during a police raid on a mujra party at Khanmet under Madhapur police station limits of Cyberabad police commissionerate.

Police said the raid was conducted following a tip-off about the party being held in a private building. Dancers brought from Mumbai were among those arrested.

Liquor bottles were also seized from the premises.

Taking a serious view of the incident, the GHMC commissioner suspended the officials.

North Korea launches space rocket in defiance of sanctions threat

Seoul: North Korea launched a long-range rocket today, violating UN resolutions and doubling down against an international community already struggling to punish Pyongyang for a nuclear test last month. Pyongyang insists its space programme is purely scientific, but most of 

IPL Auction: Rajasthan factory worker's son Nathu Singh picked up by Mumbai Indians for 3.2 cr

New Delhi: The IPL Auction held on Saturday threw open a box of surprises as uncapped Indian players were bid for aggressively, while former international stars were overlooked and remained unsold. This time, the bidders focused on local talent rather than spend money on overseas options. Apart from Pawan Negi, who was sold off to the Delhi Daredevils for a mind-boggling sum of 8.5 crores, a 20-year-old fast bowler from Rajasthan grabbed headlines as well.

Nathu Singh was snapped up by the Mumbai Indians for 3.2 crores, an amount that is bound to change this previously unknown cricketer’s life from rags to riches. But who is Nathu Singh, what does he do, how did he grab the bidder’s attention? All these questions can be answered just by looking at the life of this young talent.

According to cricket website ESPNcricinfo, Nathu Singh was born near Jaipur, in Rajasthan, and is the son of a labourer in a wire factory. Having seen abject poverty early on in his life, this young fast bowler burst into the scene in the 2015-16 season of the Ranji Trophy, bagging a remarkable 7/87 on debut against Delhi.

Nathu Singh was rewarded for his brilliant outing, securing a spot in the Board President’s XI squad for a two-day warm-up game against the visiting South Africans, and proved to be an impressive bowler with his natural pace. That Nathu Singh can consistently touch 140 kph on the speed gun can be attributed to his stint in Chennai.

This 20-year-old from Jaipur has trained under the watchful eyes of Glenn McGrath at the MRF Pace Academy in Chennai and has reportedly been labelled by many, including Rahul Dravid as the future of fast bowling for the Indian Cricket Team.

Now that his fortunes are about to change in the upcoming Indian Premier League, it remains to be seen how Nathu Singh grabs this opportunity to share dressing room space with some of the greats of the game and how he hones his remarkable talent to emerge as India’s best. All eyes will be on this young man, among many other uncapped Indian players, when he makes his debut in IPL 2016.

IND v SL: Dilshan ruled out of first T20, uncapped Dickwella receives call-up

Sri Lanka's Tillakaratne Dilshan has been ruled out of the first T20 international against India on February 9. (AFP Photo)

Colombo: The experienced Tillakaratne Dilshan was on Saturday ruled out of the first Twenty20 international against India with a hand injury, prompting Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) to call wicketkeeper-batsman Niroshan Dickwella as cover.

Dilshan, who did not travel with the team to India, is expected to be available for the second match, in Ranchi, on February 12. The first match is scheduled to be held in Pune on February 9, with the third game at Visakhapatnam on February 14.

Dilshan’s injury is an aggravation of an old complaint that surfaced after he hurt himself while attempting a catch during the semi-final of the recently-concluded Super T20 Provincial Tournament. He is likely to resume training in the nets on Monday.

Dickwella earned his call-up following a good run in the Super T20 tournament, where he struck 189 runs in six innings, with a strike rate of 173. He has played four Tests and one ODI for Sri Lanka, but is uncapped in the shortest format.

Pakistan to insist on Kashmir as main course on dialogue table

NEW DELHI: Islamabad is looking to raise the ante on Kashmir as India and Pakistan seek a mutually convenient date for foreign secretary-level dialogue which is meant to launch the recently announced comprehensive bilateral dialogue (CBD) process. Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif's adviser on foreign affairs Sartaj Aziz said on Saturday that Kashmir was going to top the agenda for talks, expected to begin with foreign cretary S Jaishankar's visit to Islamabad soon.


On 'Kashmir Solidarity Day', which fell on Friday, Sharif himself had reiterated that development and peace in South Asia would not be possible until the Kashmir issue was resolved. Aziz was on Saturday quoted by Radio Pakistan as having said that Islamabad was urging the international community to fulfil its responsibility towards implementation of the UN resolutions on Kashmir.Pakistan seems to have made up its mind, as sources in Islamabad said, that no progress in bilateral ties is possible until the comprehensive dialogue to discuss outstanding issues, most notably J&K, is held. Pakistan is clearly not inclined to have a meeting between the national security advisers, even a clandestine one, until the foreign secretaries meet.

'India will continue to engage with Pak'

Pakistan's focus on Kashmir has made it important for India to ensure that the comprehensive bilateral dialogue (CBD) itself is not seen as a trade-off for Islamabad's commitment to address the issue of India-specific terror in the NSA dialogue. While the government still believes that talks and terror can't go hand in hand, it has also said that it will go ahead with talks on terror. It will need more than just semantics though to convince all that the primacy of the issue of terrorism has not been diluted in the re-engagement with Pakistan.

Foreign secretary S Jaishankar has already said New Delhi will continue to engage with Pakistan as that's how India can ensure that Pakistan keeps its commitment to act against terror targeted at India. While India and Pakistan had decided, before Pathankot attack happened, that the issue of terrorism would be addressed by the NSAs, government sources said Jaishankar would look to emphasise upon Pakistan the need to act further on the "actionable" leads provided by India in the airbase attack case. "Counter terrorism is very much a part of the CBD too and as significanas any other issue mentioned in the Islamabad (where the resumption of dialogue was announced on December 9) statement including J&K; it's not that only NSAs can discuss terror," said a source.

Unfortunately for India, just as it looked to break free from the vice-like grip which the Mumbai attacks seemed to have on bilateral ties, the attack on Pathankot airbase happened. The Pathankot attack, in fact, has again brought to the fore the need for India to keep insisting that the ongoing trial of the Mumbai accused, including mastermind Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi, is brought to its logical conclusion as soon as possible. As the MEA said recently, the Mumbai attacks remain a test of Pakistan's commitment to act against terror groups targeting India.

The pill that costs $9,000 in US sells for $70 in India

And that's just one leukaemia drug. India's generic industry has been producing many such life-saving medicines at a fraction of the global price

The Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech might be the first to come out with a vaccine for the Zika virus if its efficacy can be proved. If it does succeed, this won't be the first time India has come to the rescue of the world. Indeed, the country's generic medicines are a lifeline for millions not only in low and middle-income countries but also in the developed world. India's generic industry hit global headlines in 2001 when Cipla offered a three-drug cocktail for AIDS at less than a dollar a day , a fraction of the price charged by multinationals. Today, apart from several HIVAIDS drugs, the industry is producing affordable, high quality medicines for several diseases including hepatitis B and C, cancers, drug-resistant TB and asthma. This has been credited to India's patent law, often held up as a model one in preventing the abuse of patent monopolies, and in balancing public interest and the growth of the pharmaceutical industry .

Last month, generic manufacturer Natco announced that it would be supplying daclatasvir, a Hepatitis C drug, to 112 developing countries. In 2013, a medicine to treat hepatitis C, sofosbuvir, hit international headlines for its price -$1,000 per pill. Gram for gram, it cost 67 times the price of gold. The sofosbuivir and daclatasvir combination used for the disease costs almost $150,000 per patient for the 12-week regimen in the US. But in India, it is priced at just $700 or a little over Rs 46,500 per patient for the same regimen. And prices are expected to fall further.

Typically, the price of many expensive patented drugs in European countries like France, Spain or the UK is half of what these cost in the US. In countries like Brazil or South Africa, these are a third or a fifth of the US price. The Indian price is often 1100th. (See box)

BALANCING PATIENT AND PATENT

So how does the Indian generic industry manage to do it? The patent law in India is stringent on what is innovative enough to get a patent. Plus, the crucial section 3(d) in the law, much criticized by multinationals, has prevented "evergreening" -the attempt to patent different aspects and improvements of the same drug to extend the period of patent -a lucrative game for the pharmaceutical business.

Indian courts, too, have played a role. In the case of entecavir for hepatitis B and erlotinib for lung cancer, for instance, instead of blindly handing out injunctions or upholding the validity of patents, the courts ruled in favour of public access to a lifesaving drug. This encouraged companies like Cipla, Ranbaxy and Natco to do a `launch at risk', a term that describes a company deciding to challenge a patent by launching a generic version. This forces the patent-holding company to take them to court, thus testing the validity of the patent granted. Patent oppositions filed by patient groups also spurred the rejection of several frivolous patent claims on cancer, hepatitis and HIV medicines, protecting generic competition.

India's patent law also provides for granting of compulsory licences -under which the government can give a licence to a manufacturer other than the patent holder for a royalty fixed by it -for public health reasons. This can be used where drugs are unavailable or unaffordable. The only compulsory licence granted was in 2012 when the patent office allowed the Indian generic company Natco to market sorafenib, a drug patented by Bayer to treat kidney and liver cancer.This move, upheld by the Supreme Court in December 2014 helped bring down the price by 97%, unimaginable through a price negotiation with the company .

"How long will this continue? We are already feeling the adverse impact of monopoly and limited access to important drugs. If India cannot manufacture newer drugs, how can we be the pharmacy of the world?" asked Dr Yusuf Hamied, of Cipla.
About half the essential medicines that Unicef distributes and 75% of those distributed by the International Dispensary Association, which procures medicines for 130 countries, come from India. So do about 80% of HIV AIDS medicines for the developing world. But there is immense pressure on India from Europe, the US and their multinational pharma companies to `strengthen patent enforcement'. This could mean that the newer cancer and TB drugs getting patented would be out of reach for millions in India and the developing world with no generic versions to force prices down.
For example, lapatinib for breast cancer and other solid tumours, which costs over Rs 46,000 a month, or dasatanib for a kind of blood cancer, which costs over Rs 70,000 a month, have no cheaper generic versions. Even drugs like delaminid, meant for drugresistant TB, will not be available in India and the developing world despite India having the highest burden of the disease. This is because the Japanese company that holds the patent has not made it available in India. In the pre-2005 patent regime, if a company did not bring the drug to India, generic companies could step in to register it in India and start supply, but not anymore.

India is just 1-2% of the global pharma market. Yet there is intense focus on its patent law. This is "to protect the markets of large pharmaceuticals companies against competition from cheaper generic drugs manufactured in countries like India and Brazil", explained Dr Amit Sengupta of the People's Health Movement in an article on India's patent law.

Delhi: Girl killed by friend, body dumped in ventilation shaft

NEW DELHI: A 23-year-old Delhi University student was brutally murdered by her male friend who then burnt the body and dumped it into a ventilation shaft at his house in north-west Delhi's Rajpura area.
The body was discovered after the male friend was questioned by the police over the woman's disappearance.

The woman, Arzoo Singh was missing since February 2, following which a police case was registered at the Model Town police station. Singhs's friends at the DU college had told the family members that they had last seen her leaving with her friend Naveen Khatri.
Family sources say that Khatri and Singh had wished to get married and but their families objected to it four months back. However, the two kept meeting. Lately Singh was reportedly having a tiff with Khatri after his marriage was fixed elsewhere. This had probably let to an argument during which Khatri had murdered Singh. The role of his family members has also not been ruled out.

On February 4, Khatri was to get married to another girl, after he had murdered Singh and dumped her body.

"He thought that my sister will create problems during the wedding and murdered her to remove hinderances," said the Arzoo's sister Payal.

Bike-borne suicide bomber kills 8 in Pakistan

QUETTA:
Police say a suicide bomber riding on a bicycle has targeted a vehicle carrying security forces in southwestern Pakistan, killing at least eight people and wounding more than 20.Senior police officer Imtiaz Shah said the attacker blew himself up on Saturday near a vehicle belonging to the paramilitary Frontier Corps in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province.
Government spokesman Anwar Kakar said the attack killed six civilians and two members of the security forces. No one claimed the attack.

Baluchistan has long been the scene of a low-level insurgency by Baloch separatist groups. Islamic militants also operate in the province.

Thanks to Facebook, ‘the world is shrinking, we are now just 3.5-degrees apart’

NEW YORK:

You must have heard about the famous "six degrees of separation" theory that everyone on the planet is connected to everyone else by six other people. Facebook has just upended this theory, saying that world is more closely connected than you might think.

After studying 1.59 billion people active on the social networking website, the team determined that the number is actually 3.57 - meaning thereby that there is actually "three-and-a-half degrees of separation" where each person in the world is connected to every other person by an average of three-and-a-half other people.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is 3.17 degrees of separation from all Facebook users.

According to researchers, our collective "degrees of separation" have shrunk over the past five years.

In 2011, researchers at Cornell University, the Universita degli Studi di Milano and Facebook computed the average across the 721 million people using the website.

"They and found that it was 3.74. Now, with twice as many people using the site, we've grown more interconnected, thus shortening the distance between any two people in the world," Facebook said in a post.

"Calculating this number across billions of people and hundreds of billions of friendship connections is challenging; we use statistical techniques described below to precisely estimate distance based on de-identified, aggregate data," the team wrote.

Imagine a person with 100 friends. If each of his friends also has 100 friends, then the number of friends-of-friends will be 10,000.
f each of those friends-of-friends also has 100 friends then the number of friends-of-friends-of-friends will be 1,000,000.

"Some of those friends may overlap, so we need to filter down to the unique connections. Rather than calculate it exactly, we relied on statistical algorithms to estimate distances with great accuracy, basically finding the approximate number of people within 1, 2, 3 (and so on) hops away from a source," the researchers noted.

"The average distance we observe is 4.57, corresponding to 3.57 intermediaries or "degrees of separation." Within the US, people are connected to each other by an average of 3.46 degrees," the post added.

The "six degrees of separation" theory was coined by the Hungarian playwright Frigyes Karinthy in 1929.

Noted political cartoonist Sudhir Tailang passes away

NEW DELHI:

Eminent cartoonist Sudhir Tailang, who chronicled contemporary Indian politics with wit and humour, died here on Saturday after battling brain cancer for over two years. He would have turned 56 on February 26 and is survived by his daughter and wife.

Tailang was under treatment for brain cancer since 2014 and breathed his last at his east Delhi residence in Mayur Vihar.

The cartoonist, who had worked in a number of newspapers including Hindustan Times, Indian Express and The Times of India, was admitted to Medanta Medicity hospital in Gurgaon in December but was brought home around a month ago.

Tailang was awarded Padma Shri in 2004. As a cartoonist, many politicians including Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Atal Behari Vajpayee, PV Narasimha Rao, Manmohan Singh and Narendra Modi bore the brunt of his brush.

"He was fighting brain cancer since 2014 very bravely. However, after last Diwali, he started keeping unwell and was admitted to Medanta hospital. We brought him home in mid January when the doctors said there is nothing more they could do. He passed away at 1pm today," said Aditi, Tailang's daughter.

Tailang, who was born in Rajasthan's Bikaner on Febnruary 26, 1960 had his first cartoon published in a newspaper at the age of 10 in 1970. It was in 1982, when he got his first major break in Illustrated Weekly of India, Mumbai. As a child, Tailang was fascinated by comics such as Tintin Phantom and Blondie which is known to have encouraged him to go for drawing cartoon. He had his first cartoon published in a newspaper at the age of 10 in 1970.

In 1983, he joined Navbharat Times in Delhi. For several years he was with Hindustan Times and also worked for Indian Express and The Times of India. Later, he worked for Asian Age.

In 2009, he had come out with a book of cartoons titled "No, Prime Minister", which carried cartoons on Manmohan Singh drawn during first stint of his prime ministership.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi condoled the passing away of noted political cartoonist.

"Saddened at his untimely death, Gandhi said that his depiction of contemporary events through cartoons and fearless commitment to the right to artistic expression will be forever remembered," the AICC tweeted.
Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah also expressed grief over the passing away of Tailang. "Very sorry to hear about cartoonist Sudhir Tailang. Was a big fan of his tongue in cheek humour. May he rest in peace," Omar tweeted.

Veteran BJP leader LK Advani described Tailang as an outstanding artist, full of life and humour who will always be remembered for his exceptional work.

Advani, who recalled his long association with Tailang, said he was one of the "most reputed and eminent cartoonists of our era".

Taiwan earthquake death toll rises to 12, fells apartment block

TAINAN (Taiwan):

A powerful earthquake struck Taiwan early on Saturday killing at least 12 people, most in a 17-storey apartment building that collapsed, with some people still known to be missing in the ruins of the complex as night fell, government officials said.

As rescuers searched for survivors, questions were raised about the construction of the Wei-guan Golden Dragon Building in the southern city of Tainan, with its floors that pancaked down on each other when the 6.4-magnitude tremor hit at around 4am. (2000 GMT), at the start of a Lunar New Year holiday.

Ten of the dead, including a 10-day-old girl, were from the apartment building. The baby was found in her dead father's arms, media reported.

Rescuers mounted hydraulic ladders and a crane to scour the ruins, plucking survivors to safety, with hundreds taken to hospital, though many were quickly released.

An 18-year old man was found alive and conscious shortly after dark, and rescuers were working to get him free, while a 30-year-old woman, a nine-year old girl and a male toddler were pulled out alive, Taiwan television said.

Buildings in nine other locations in the city of 2 million people had collapsed and five were left tilting at alarming angles, a government emergency center said.

But a fire department official said rescue efforts were focused on the apartment block, where a child's clothes fluttered from a first-floor laundry line and the smell of leaking gas hung in the air.

"I was watching TV and after a sudden burst of shaking, I heard a boom. I opened my metal door and saw the building opposite fall down," said a 71-year-old neighbor who gave his name as Chang.

A plumber, he said he fetched some tools and a ladder and prised some window bars open to rescue a woman crying for help.
"She asked me to go back and rescue her husband, child, but I was afraid of a gas explosion so I didn't go in. At the time there were more people calling for help, but my ladder wasn't long enough so there was no way to save them."

The quake was centered 43km (27 miles) southeast of Tainan, at a depth of 23km (14 miles), the US Geological Survey said.
Earlier in the day, an elderly woman, wrapped in blankets, was strapped to a board and slowly slid down a ramp to the ground as the cries of those still trapped rang out. Rescuers used dogs and acoustic equipment to pick up signs of life in the rubble.
Authorities said there were 96 apartment units in the Golden Dragon Building and 256 registered residents, though more were in the building when it collapsed. Late in the day, city mayor William Lai said 5 people were missing there.

Rescuers clad in red and yellow overalls pulled over 240 survivors from the ruins and later inserted huge supports under slabs of leaning concrete to buttress the ruins as they searched for more.

Dad beats mom,’ 10-year-old writes in an essay

KOLKATA:

When a teacher of an English-medium school in Salt Lake asked the Class V students to write an essay on "My Family", little did she know that it will take the lid off the suppressed anger of an otherwise calm girl.

"My dad is a bad man. He beats my mother regularly. Mom and I cry every night. No one cares or us. Even our uncles have turned a deaf ear to us. Dad beats me also. This is my family." This is what the girl had all to write about her family.


The essay does not end there. "When I will grow up, I will take my mother far away from my dad," she wrote.

The essay took the teacher by surprise as she could not even imagine that the little girl was undergoing through such excruciating pain.

"I could not understand what to do. Then I talked to the principal and we consulted our school counsellor as well," said the girl's class teacher, who checked her paper.

Both her parents were called and after sessions of counselling, the parents were asked to stay separately unless her father mends his ways and the girl regains the lost respect for her father.

The girl's act cannot be dismissed as childish. She vented her pent-up feelings through this essay, which she could not do in any other way so far, " said psychologist Jayranjan Ram.

City psychologists feel there are some "dark epissodes" in life, which can't be shared with even the closest friends. Writing down those is an easier alternative.

"It is good that at least the student felt comfortable with the atmosphere of the school that she did not hesitate to write those things in an essay," said parental consultant Payel Ghosh.

Man takes selfie with friend, kills her, posts on WhatsApp

DEHRADUN: 

Sending shock waves across the peace-loving Doon valley, a 27-year-old youth clicked a selfie with his married friend before allegedly killing her in a tea estate of the state capital.

Going a step further - without the fear of getting caught - he made the selfie as his display picture on WhatsApp and changed his status on the instant messaging application. In his status message, the accused used abusive words to address the woman and dropped hints on eliminating her.

On Friday evening, Ashish Kumar alias Monu, a resident of Tyagi Road, arrived in a tea estate in Prem Nagar area along with his friend identified as Gurpreet Kaur (30), on the latter's two-wheeler. Kumar took their selfie on his mobile phone and both were about to leave when he tried to strangle her with a cloth.

Unsuccessful in the attempt, Kumar took out a sharp-edged weapon and slit Gurpreet's neck at two places. Hearing Gurpreet's cries for help, the locals rushed towards the victim, but by that time the accused managed to escape from the spot. Late at night, the police team found his vehicle from Sevalkala area.
enior superintendent of police, Dehradun, Sadanand Date said, "Prima facie it appears that the two were in a relationship and Kumar was annoyed that she was friends with some other people too."

According to the senior police official, Kumar after murdering the woman had sent message to some friends which indicated that he had eliminated the woman. "We are extremely close to cracking the case and the accused would soon be behind the bars," he added.
Confirming that fact that Kumar had clicked a selfie with the woman and made it his display picture, Date said that the motive behind the move is yet to be identified. "Going by the developments, it appears that Kumar had prepared for the murder," the SSP added.

He pointed out that Gurpeet was married to Gurjeet Singh for a period of five years, the couple stayed as tenants at Kumar's residence at Tyagi Road. About two months ago, the couple had shifted to a house in Rest Camp area of Dehradun.

According to Gurjeet, Kumar had taken Rs 2 lakh from them and was reluctant to return the amount. He claimed that Kumar had been threatening his wife and it was under this pressure that the couple recently shifted to another house.

Leading car makers shifting gears to counter diesel ban

GREATER NOIDA: 

Even though the ban on the registration of diesel vehicles in the national capital potentially affects several leading automobile manufacturers, they are coming out with alternatives and getting ready to counter the prohibition, stakeholders said.

To curb the increasing levels of air pollution in New Delhi, the Supreme Court on December 16 forbade diesel automobiles with above 2,000cc engines from being registered till March 31, 2016.

The ban has somewhat affected the sales of sports utility vehicles (SUVs) and multi-utility vehicles (MUV), but manufacturers are preparing themselves in case the duration of prohibition is extended in the national capital or extends to other Indian cities as well.

"Very clearly, it has impacted us in the first quarter -- particularly Innova and Fortuner. The National Capital Region (NCR) accounts for 8-10 percent of our volume, but for dealers, the profitability is 50-60 percent," N. Raja, Toyota Kirloskar Motor director for sales, told IANS.

The Land Cruiser is another vehicle Toyota sells in India, which is also above the 2000cc but the SUV does not account for majority of its sales.

"Frankly our preparedness is towards getting petrol options as Plan B," said Raja. "We have engine options available, but it will not catch up with the launch dates, currently planned around mid-year. It will take further time."

Another option, he said, would be to bring down engine displacement the below 2,000 cc.

Out of some 3 million domestic sales of passengers cars in India annually, analysts pointed out that some 7 percent is accounted for by the national capital -- which makes it a market of 210,000 units.

Out of that, diesel vehicles account for 25 percent, or a market of 52,500 units. That is 1.75 percent of passenger vehicles sold in India are accounted for by the diesel versions in Delhi region. While this, in itself, may seem small, the anxiety is over the future course of action.

Yet, at the ongoing Auto Expo here, the SUVs and Muvs segment had a fair share of new launches. Like the new Innova Crysta, which is set to hit the showrooms by mid-2016.

What about the the new entrant in the Indian market, the iconic American SUV maker Jeep vis-a-vis the court order? A senior official of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, which owns Jeep, told IANS that the Italian-American company has enough ability to overcome such issues.

"We are looking at petrol engines for our Jeep in India. Jeep has got enough capacity to take care of these legislations -- in the sense that vehicles which can be brought in at a short notice. We've already responded by looking at a 3.6-litre petrol engine," said the source.