The Evening Wrap: Unable to give exact date when J&K Statehood would be restored, Centre tells SC

The Centre on Thursday conveyed to the Supreme Court its inability to commit to an exact time period within which the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir would be restored to full Statehood. The Union government, however, said Jammu and Kashmir was ready to hold elections “any time now”. Appearing before a Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta assured the court that the Union Territory status of Jammu and Kashmir was only a “temporary phenomenon”. Mehta had on Tuesday sought time till August 31 to get instructions from the government about a time frame by which Jammu and Kashmir would revert to Statehood following bifurcation in August 2019. The erstwhile State was reorganised into the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. Ladakh would continue to be a UnionTerritory unlike Jammu and Kashmir, the Centre had said on August 29. “I am unable to give an exact time period right now for the Statehood. Complete Statehood may take some time as the State had faced repeated and consistent disturbances for decades together… I assure you we are progressively proceeding to make Jammu and Kashmir a complete State,” Mehta submitted. He said Jammu and Kashmir became a Union Territory in an “extraordinarily extreme situation”. Its progress towards Statehood needs to be “infused” with investments. He said the Centre was catalysing the progress to Statehood by pumping investments to the tune of ₹28,400 crore. There were investment proposals, besides that of the Centre, worth ₹ 78,000 crore. Actual investments have been so far ₹2,153 crore. Mr. Mehta said e-initiatives in Jammu and Kashmir have jumped from ₹9,218 crore in 2018 to ₹92,560 crore now. He said 32 out of a total 53 infrastructural projects worth ₹58,477 crore have been completed under the Prime Minister’s Development Package. Mehta said Jammu and Kashmir had seen “enormous changes” post abrogation of Article 370 in 2019. Terrorism, infiltration, stone-pelting and casualties among security personnel have reduced by 45.2%, 90.2%, 97.2% and 65.9%, respectively. He said there were 1,767 incidents of secessionist-spurred stone-pelting in Jammu and Kashmir in 2018. “Now it is nil… In 2018, there were 52 instances of organised bandhs, now it is nil,” the Solicitor General said. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, for the petitioners, objected to Mehta presenting figures in court to prove his case that an “enormous change” happened after abrogation. “They had 5,000 people under house arrest and Section 144 [curfew] was ordered across the State… Then how could there be any bandh… People could not go to the hospital… His statements in court become part of public space. These proceedings are televised, recorded… These figures are irrelevant to the challenge,” Sibal said. Chief Justice Chandrachud said these figures would only be considered as the Centre’s efforts to restore Statehood to Jammu and Kashmir. The constitutional challenge to the abrogation of Article 370 would have to be answered by the Centre on constitutional grounds, and not by quoting these statistics at the court. “The development work the government says it has undertaken post August 2019 is not relevant to the constitutional challenge… From what you [government] have told us so far, we understand that the roadmap to full Statehood would take time. Right now development work is taking place. Some stability has to be brought about. The UnionTerritory status of Jammu and Kashmir is not a permanent arrangement… That is, you are envisioning a move from Union Territory to State again, but you cannot give a fixed time by which this can be done,” the Chief Justice addressed Mehta, who agreed with the summing up. Meanwhile, Mehta said the Election Commission had been doing the groundwork for elections in the erstwhile State. “Till date, the updating of the voter list was going on. This is substantially over, only some part remains. The Election Commission is doing it,” Mehta said. He said the three-tier polls in Jammu and Kashmir would be held for the first time after 2019. These would include elections to panchayats (rural areas), municipality and to the Assembly. As for Ladakh, Mehta said the Leh part of the elections were already over. The Kargil portion would be conducted in September. Centre calls special session of Parliament between September 18 and 22 The central government has convened a special session of Parliament for five days between September 18 and 22, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi said on August 31. There is no official word on the agenda of the session which will be held days after the G20 Summit in the national capital on September 9 and 10. “Special Session of Parliament [13th Session of 17th Lok Sabha and 261st Session of Rajya Sabha] is being called from 18th to 22nd September having five sittings. Amid Amrit Kaal looking forward to having fruitful discussions and debate in Parliament,” he said on X. Sources said the special session could see parliamentary operations being shifted to the new Parliament building which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 28. Final touches are being given to the new Parliament building to make it ready to host sessions. Generally, three parliamentary sessions are held in a year — Budget, Monsoon and Winter sessions. With the government not spelling out its agenda, speculation swirled about some showpiece bills being considered for passage by the Modi dispensation in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections. The recent historic success of the Chandrayaan-3 mission and India’s goals for ‘Amrit Kaal’ may be part of the wider discussions during the special session. Congress leader Jairam Ramesh alleged that the five-day session just three weeks after the end of the Monsoon Session was aimed at managing “the news cycle” and countering the news about the ongoing meeting of INDIA parties in Mumbai and the latest revelations on Adani. “Regardless, the JPC demand [on Adani issue] will continue to resonate inside and outside Parliament,” the Congress MP added. Congress accuses Adani Group of being involved in ‘the biggest scam in Independent India’, demands JPC probe Stepping up its attack on the Narendra Modi government after the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) investigation revealed fresh charges against the Adani Group, the Congress on Thursday called it the “biggest scam in independent India”. The OCCRP probe alleged that millions of dollars were invested in publicly traded Adani Group stocks through Mauritius-based ‘opaque’ investment funds managed by partners of the promoter family. The Adani Group, however, said the latest charges were “recycled allegations”. “These news reports appear to be yet another concerted bid by Soros-funded interests supported by a section of the foreign media to revive the meritless Hindenburg report,” the group said in a statement. The fresh allegations by the OCCRP, funded by George Soros and Rockefeller Brothers Fund, among others, comes months after a U.S.-based short seller, Hinderburg, alleged accounting fraud, stock price manipulation, and improper use of tax havens by the group. Congress general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal took to X (formely Twitter) to allege that the “PM Modi’s best friend is running an international money laundering racket”. “The Adani Mega Scam is largest corruption scandal in Indian history. Since he assumed office, PM Modi’s single-point agenda has been to enrich his best friend. The Modi government and SEBI [Securities and Exchange Board of India] facilitated suspicious offshore individuals to take ordinary Indian shareholders for a ride,” Venugopal said. “Who are Chang Chung-Ling and Nasser Ali Shabhan, who ended up controlling 13% of Adani shares through offshore operations from Mauritius? Our question remains the same -- whose ₹20,000 crore is being controlled through these shady operations?” he asked. Making a strong pitch for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the allegation, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh too questioned the role of market regulator SEBI in properly investigating the role of shell companies linked to the Adani Group. “Despite the Modi government’s best efforts, the truth will not stay suppressed forever. However, the full story about the flow of benami funds into the Adani Group, how foreign citizens came to play a role in critical national infrastructure, and how PM Modi ‘violated rules, regulations and norms to enrich his close friends’ can only be revealed by a JPC,” Ramesh said at a press conference at the Mumbai Congress office. “Did the obvious conflict of interest revealed by the association of past SEBI chairpersons with the Adani Group play a role in SEBI’s inability to properly investigate these shell companies?” Ramesh asked. In a post on X, Ramesh recalled Modi’s speech at the G20 summit in Brisbane in November 2014, where the Prime Minister called for global cooperation “to eliminate safe havens for economic offenders and unconditionally extradite money launderers”. “Today’s explosive revelations by The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, The Financial Times and The Guardian about the clearly brazen violations of Indian securities laws by the Adani Group and its close associates are a reminder of how hollow these words have proven,” the Congress leader said. “They are a reminder of the lengths and depths to which the PM has gone to ‘protect his corrupt friends and their misdeeds’ by rendering India’s regulatory and investigative agencies toothless, reducing them to political tools to intimidate the Opposition rather than to investigate wrongdoing,” Ramesh added. The Congress’ communication chief said there is now fresh evidence linking Adani associates Nasser Ali Shaban Ahli and Chang Chung-Ling to an effort to bypass Indian securities laws relating to minimum public shareholding that were put in place to prevent share price manipulation. “Shell companies controlled by Ali and Chang — that have been revealed to be fronts for Gautam Adani’s elder brother Vinod — accumulated substantial stakes in four Adani Group companies covertly and illegally,” Ramesh alleged. Ramesh said the actual ownership of two of the 13 benami shell companies that SEBI has failed to identify, despite years of “investigation”, has been revealed. “Why did SEBI fail to disclose to the Supreme Court that the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence had carried out investigations against the Adani Group in 2014, that were then closed by the Modi government in 2017?” Ramesh asked. Five killed in fresh Manipur gunfight since August 29; Meitei women groups prevent security from reaching the area As a heavy exchange of fire continued between two groups in the areas bordering the Churachandpur and Bishnupur districts of Manipur for the third consecutive day, three people died on Thursday, including two who had been injured by splinters a day ago, police said. A defence source said that women-led groups in Meitei-dominated Bishnupur have been stopping additional security forces from reaching the areas where the two groups have engaged in an intense gunfight since the early hours of August 29. The two who succumbed to injuries were identified as music composer L.S. Mangboi, 42, and Richard Hemkholun, 31, both residents of Churachandpur. Kuki groups said that their villages have been pounded by mortar shells from the valley, leading to the deaths and injuries of several village guards. The Indigeneous Tribal Leaders Forum (ITLF), a Kuki-Zo body, called for an emergency shutdown in Churachandpur, stating that the Khousabung, Kangvai and Sugnu areas are under attack. Mr. Mangboi, one of the victims, had composed a song for the Kuki-Zomi people’s movement, titled I Gam hilou ham (is this not our land?”), to galvanise the tribal community after ethnic violence erupted in the State on May 3. While guarding the village on Wednesday, his head was hit by a splinter; he was being rushed to Aizawl in neighbouring State of Mizoram for medical treatment when he succumbed to his injuries, a local resident said. Earlier, fearing for their safety after the violence broke out, his family had sent their two daughters to Aizawl for their studies. On Tuesday, two men were killed, and eight others were injured, in a fresh round of violence at Khoirentak in the same area. On Wednesday, seven more people, including two Indian Reserve Battalion jawans, were injured in the gunfight between two groups. Two of these seven injured died on Thursday. One more person was also killed on Thursday. While the hill district of Churachandpur is dominated by the Kuki-Zo community, Bishnupur in the valley is Meitei-dominated. The inter-district boundary or the “buffer zone” has seen frequent clashes between the two communities since violence erupted in the State on May 3. In Brief: Goa AAP chief arrested for ‘misrepresentation of facts’ in road accident case The Goa Crime Branch on August 31 arrested State Aam Aadmi Party president Amit Palekar for allegedly misrepresenting facts in connection with an accident wherein a Mercedes car mowed down three people near Panaji earlier this month, an official said. Palekar has been accused of misrepresenting facts by introducing a wrong person as the car driver before the investigation officer in an attempt to save the main accused who was at the wheel at the time of the accident, a senior police official said. The AAP leader, however, said he had nothing to do with the crime and claimed the action against him was part of “dirty politics”. At least 73 dead in fire at a building in Johannesburg A nighttime fire ripped through a rundown five-story building in Johannesburg that was occupied by homeless people and squatters, leaving at least 73 people dead early Thursday, emergency services in South Africa’s biggest city said. Some of the people living in a maze of shacks and other makeshift structures inside the derelict building threw themselves out of windows to escape the fire and might have died then, a local government official said. GDP grew 7.8% in first quarter Growth in India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and the Gross Value Added (GVA) in the economy sped to 7.8% in the first quarter of this year, as per estimates released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) on August 31. GDP growth stood at 6.1% in the January to March 2023 quarter and at 13.1% in the first quarter of 2022-23. GVA growth in the previous quarter was 6.5%, while it was 11.9% in the April to June 2022 period. Manufacturing GVA grew for the second quarter in a row, with the pace of growth picking up slightly to 4.7% in Q1 of 2023-24, from 4.5% in the previous quarter. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. [logo] The Evening Wrap 31 August 2023 [The Hindu logo] Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day’s biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. [[Arrow]Open in browser]( [[Mail icon]More newsletters]( Unable to give exact date when J&K Statehood would be restored, Centre tells Supreme Court [The Centre on Thursday conveyed to the Supreme Court its inability to commit to an exact time period within which the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir would be restored to full Statehood.]( The Union government, however, said Jammu and Kashmir was ready to hold elections “any time now”. Appearing before a [Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud]( Solicitor General Tushar Mehta assured the court that the Union Territory status of Jammu and Kashmir was only a “temporary phenomenon”. Mehta had on Tuesday sought time till August 31 to get instructions from the government about a time frame by which Jammu and Kashmir would revert to Statehood following bifurcation in August 2019. The erstwhile State was reorganised into the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. Ladakh would continue to be a UnionTerritory unlike Jammu and Kashmir, the Centre had said on August 29. “I am unable to give an exact time period right now for the Statehood. Complete Statehood may take some time as the State had faced repeated and consistent disturbances for decades together… I assure you we are progressively proceeding to make Jammu and Kashmir a complete State,” Mehta submitted. He said Jammu and Kashmir became a Union Territory in an “extraordinarily extreme situation”. Its progress towards Statehood needs to be “infused” with investments. He said the Centre was catalysing the progress to Statehood by pumping investments to the tune of ₹28,400 crore. There were investment proposals, besides that of the Centre, worth ₹ 78,000 crore. Actual investments have been so far ₹2,153 crore. Mr. Mehta said e-initiatives in Jammu and Kashmir have jumped from ₹9,218 crore in 2018 to ₹92,560 crore now. He said 32 out of a total 53 infrastructural projects worth ₹58,477 crore have been completed under the Prime Minister’s Development Package. Mehta said Jammu and Kashmir had seen “enormous changes” post abrogation of Article 370 in 2019. Terrorism, infiltration, stone-pelting and casualties among security personnel have reduced by 45.2%, 90.2%, 97.2% and 65.9%, respectively. He said there were 1,767 incidents of secessionist-spurred stone-pelting in Jammu and Kashmir in 2018. “Now it is nil… In 2018, there were 52 instances of organised bandhs, now it is nil,” the Solicitor General said. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, for the petitioners, objected to Mehta presenting figures in court to prove his case that an “enormous change” happened after abrogation. “They had 5,000 people under house arrest and Section 144 [curfew] was ordered across the State… Then how could there be any bandh… People could not go to the hospital… His statements in court become part of public space. These proceedings are televised, recorded… These figures are irrelevant to the challenge,” Sibal said. Chief Justice Chandrachud said these figures would only be considered as the Centre’s efforts to restore Statehood to Jammu and Kashmir. The constitutional challenge to the abrogation of Article 370 would have to be answered by the Centre on constitutional grounds, and not by quoting these statistics at the court. “The development work the government says it has undertaken post August 2019 is not relevant to the constitutional challenge… From what you [government] have told us so far, we understand that the roadmap to full Statehood would take time. Right now development work is taking place. Some stability has to be brought about. The UnionTerritory status of Jammu and Kashmir is not a permanent arrangement… That is, you are envisioning a move from Union Territory to State again, but you cannot give a fixed time by which this can be done,” the Chief Justice addressed Mehta, who agreed with the summing up. Meanwhile, Mehta said the Election Commission had been doing the groundwork for elections in the erstwhile State. “Till date, the updating of the voter list was going on. This is substantially over, only some part remains. The Election Commission is doing it,” Mehta said. He said the three-tier polls in Jammu and Kashmir would be held for the first time after 2019. These would include elections to panchayats (rural areas), municipality and to the Assembly. As for Ladakh, Mehta said the Leh part of the elections were already over. The Kargil portion would be conducted in September. Centre calls special session of Parliament between September 18 and 22 The [central government has convened a special session of Parliament for five days between September 18 and 22]( Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi said on August 31. There is no official word on the agenda of the session which will be held days after the G20 Summit in the national capital on September 9 and 10. “Special Session of Parliament [13th Session of 17th Lok Sabha and 261st Session of Rajya Sabha] is being called from 18th to 22nd September having five sittings. Amid Amrit Kaal looking forward to having fruitful discussions and debate in Parliament,” he said on X. Sources said the special session could see parliamentary operations being shifted to the new Parliament building which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 28. Final touches are being given to the new Parliament building to make it ready to host sessions. Generally, three parliamentary sessions are held in a year — Budget, Monsoon and Winter sessions. With the government not spelling out its agenda, speculation swirled about some showpiece bills being considered for passage by the Modi dispensation in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections. The recent historic success of the Chandrayaan-3 mission and India’s goals for ‘Amrit Kaal’ may be part of the wider discussions during the special session. Congress leader Jairam Ramesh alleged that the five-day session just three weeks after the end of the Monsoon Session was aimed at managing “the news cycle” and countering the news about the ongoing meeting of INDIA parties in Mumbai and the latest revelations on Adani. “Regardless, the JPC demand [on Adani issue] will continue to resonate inside and outside Parliament,” the Congress MP added. Congress accuses Adani Group of being involved in ‘the biggest scam in Independent India’, demands JPC probe Stepping up its attack on the Narendra Modi government after the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) investigation revealed fresh charges against the Adani Group, the [Congress on Thursday called it the “biggest scam in independent India”](. The [OCCRP probe alleged that millions of dollars were invested in publicly traded Adani Group stocks through Mauritius-based ‘opaque’ investment funds managed by partners of the promoter family](. The Adani Group, however, said the latest charges were “recycled allegations”. “These news reports appear to be yet another concerted bid by Soros-funded interests supported by a section of the foreign media to revive the meritless Hindenburg report,” the group said in a statement. The [fresh allegations]( by the OCCRP, funded by George Soros and Rockefeller Brothers Fund, among others, comes months after a U.S.-based short seller, Hinderburg, alleged accounting fraud, stock price manipulation, and improper use of tax havens by the group. Congress general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal took to X (formely Twitter) to allege that the “PM Modi’s best friend is running an international money laundering racket”. “The Adani Mega Scam is largest corruption scandal in Indian history. Since he assumed office, PM Modi’s single-point agenda has been to enrich his best friend. The Modi government and SEBI [Securities and Exchange Board of India] facilitated suspicious offshore individuals to take ordinary Indian shareholders for a ride,” Venugopal said. “Who are Chang Chung-Ling and Nasser Ali Shabhan, who ended up controlling 13% of Adani shares through offshore operations from Mauritius? Our question remains the same -- whose ₹20,000 crore is being controlled through these shady operations?” he asked. Making a strong pitch for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the allegation, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh too questioned the role of market regulator SEBI in properly investigating the role of shell companies linked to the Adani Group. “Despite the Modi government’s best efforts, the truth will not stay suppressed forever. However, the full story about the flow of benami funds into the Adani Group, how foreign citizens came to play a role in critical national infrastructure, and how PM Modi ‘violated rules, regulations and norms to enrich his close friends’ can only be revealed by a JPC,” Ramesh said at a press conference at the Mumbai Congress office. “Did the obvious conflict of interest revealed by the association of past SEBI chairpersons with the Adani Group play a role in SEBI’s inability to properly investigate these shell companies?” Ramesh asked. In a post on X, Ramesh recalled Modi’s speech at the G20 summit in Brisbane in November 2014, where the Prime Minister called for global cooperation “to eliminate safe havens for economic offenders and unconditionally extradite money launderers”. “Today’s explosive revelations by The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, The Financial Times and The Guardian about the clearly brazen violations of Indian securities laws by the Adani Group and its close associates are a reminder of how hollow these words have proven,” the Congress leader said. “They are a reminder of the lengths and depths to which the PM has gone to ‘protect his corrupt friends and their misdeeds’ by rendering India’s regulatory and investigative agencies toothless, reducing them to political tools to intimidate the Opposition rather than to investigate wrongdoing,” Ramesh added. The Congress’ communication chief said there is now fresh evidence linking Adani associates Nasser Ali Shaban Ahli and Chang Chung-Ling to an effort to bypass Indian securities laws relating to minimum public shareholding that were put in place to prevent share price manipulation. “Shell companies controlled by Ali and Chang — that have been revealed to be fronts for Gautam Adani’s elder brother Vinod — accumulated substantial stakes in four Adani Group companies covertly and illegally,” Ramesh alleged. Ramesh said the actual ownership of two of the 13 benami shell companies that SEBI has failed to identify, despite years of “investigation”, has been revealed. “Why did SEBI fail to disclose to the Supreme Court that the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence had carried out investigations against the Adani Group in 2014, that were then closed by the Modi government in 2017?” Ramesh asked. Five killed in fresh Manipur gunfight since August 29; Meitei women groups prevent security from reaching the area As a [heavy exchange of fire continued between two groups in the areas bordering the Churachandpur and Bishnupur districts of Manipur]( for the third consecutive day, three people died on Thursday, including two who had been injured by splinters a day ago, police said. A defence source said that women-led groups in Meitei-dominated Bishnupur have been stopping additional security forces from reaching the areas where the two groups have engaged in an intense gunfight since the early hours of August 29. The two who succumbed to injuries were identified as music composer L.S. Mangboi, 42, and Richard Hemkholun, 31, both residents of Churachandpur. Kuki groups said that their villages have been pounded by mortar shells from the valley, leading to the deaths and injuries of several village guards. The Indigeneous Tribal Leaders Forum (ITLF), a Kuki-Zo body, called for an emergency shutdown in Churachandpur, stating that the Khousabung, Kangvai and Sugnu areas are under attack. Mr. Mangboi, one of the victims, had composed a song for the Kuki-Zomi people’s movement, titled I Gam hilou ham (is this not our land?”), to galvanise the tribal community after ethnic violence erupted in the State on May 3. While guarding the village on Wednesday, his head was hit by a splinter; he was being rushed to Aizawl in neighbouring State of Mizoram for medical treatment when he succumbed to his injuries, a local resident said. Earlier, fearing for their safety after the violence broke out, his family had sent their two daughters to Aizawl for their studies. On Tuesday, two men were killed, and eight others were injured, in a fresh round of violence at Khoirentak in the same area. On Wednesday, seven more people, including two Indian Reserve Battalion jawans, were injured in the gunfight between two groups. Two of these seven injured died on Thursday. One more person was also killed on Thursday. While the hill district of Churachandpur is dominated by the Kuki-Zo community, Bishnupur in the valley is Meitei-dominated. The inter-district boundary or the “buffer zone” has seen frequent clashes between the two communities since violence erupted in the State on May 3. In Brief: Goa AAP chief arrested for ‘misrepresentation of facts’ in road accident case The [Goa Crime Branch on August 31 arrested State Aam Aadmi Party president Amit Palekar]( for allegedly misrepresenting facts in connection with an accident wherein a Mercedes car mowed down three people near Panaji earlier this month, an official said. Palekar has been accused of misrepresenting facts by introducing a wrong person as the car driver before the investigation officer in an attempt to save the main accused who was at the wheel at the time of the accident, a senior police official said. The AAP leader, however, said he had nothing to do with the crime and claimed the action against him was part of “dirty politics”. At least 73 dead in fire at a building in Johannesburg [A nighttime fire ripped through a rundown five-story building in Johannesburg that was occupied by homeless people and squatters, leaving at least 73 people dead]( early Thursday, emergency services in South Africa’s biggest city said. Some of the people living in a maze of shacks and other makeshift structures inside the derelict building threw themselves out of windows to escape the fire and might have died then, a local government official said. GDP grew 7.8% in first quarter [Growth in India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and the Gross Value Added (GVA) in the economy sped to 7.8% in the first quarter of this year]( as per estimates released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) on August 31. GDP growth stood at 6.1% in the January to March 2023 quarter and at 13.1% in the first quarter of 2022-23. GVA growth in the previous quarter was 6.5%, while it was 11.9% in the April to June 2022 period. Manufacturing GVA grew for the second quarter in a row, with the pace of growth picking up slightly to 4.7% in Q1 of 2023-24, from 4.5% in the previous quarter. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. 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