12
T he Centre on Tuesday sounded the alarm over India’s Covid-19 situation which, it warned, is going from “bad to worse” and becoming a “huge cause of worry”. Stressing that the “whole coun- try is at risk” and nobody should be complacent, the Union Health Ministry asked the States to prepare a district action plan, convert hospitals to dedicated Covid facilities yet again, ramp up testing with focus on RT-PCR, isolate promptly, trace contact, and boost healthcare resources. India has recorded 56,211 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, which, in some relief, is 17 per cent lower than the day before, taking the total tally to 1,20,95,855 on Tuesday. Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Karnataka and Chhattisgarh account for 80.17 per cent of the total active cases in India, whereas 19 States and UTs have higher coron- avirus cases per million than the national average. At a Press conference here on the Covid-19 situation in the country, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said that 10 districts, with 8 in Maharashtra alone, have reported nearly 6 lakh cases in March. The 10 districts also include Delhi taken as a whole. “The 10 districts with max- imum active Covid-19 cases are Pune (59,475), Mumbai (46,248), Nagpur (45,322), Thane (35,264), Nashik (26,553), Aurangabad (21,282), Bengaluru Urban (16,259), Nanded (15,171), Delhi (8,032) and Ahmednagar (7,952). Continued on Page 2 T he Government on Tuesday said that Covaxin and Covishield are effective against the UK and Brazilian variant of SARS-CoV-2. “Work against South African variant is going on,” said Union Health Secretary Bharat Bhushan. Of the 11,064 genome sam- ples of coronavirus sequenced, the UK variant has been detect- ed in 807, South African vari- ant in 47 and Brazilian variant in one. He said that India will open Covid-19 vaccination for everyone aged above 45 years from April 1, irrespective of whether they have any co- morbidity or not. “Everyone in the eligible age group can register on the CoWIN platform for vaccina- tion or can visit the vaccination Centre after 3 pm with any identity document. Usually people with Aadhaar card & voter ID. But you can also pro- duce bank passbook, passport, ration card,” said the official at a Press conference here. However, reports of glitch- es in CoWIN app as well as some hospitals showing negli- gence during the vaccination process seem to be deterring many from coming forward to take the jab. Take the case of Nirupama Cairie (58), who even after eight days of taking the first dose of Covishield, continues to reel with severe side effects of the jab. She alleged the private hospital where she was registered for vaccination did not follow the norms. “I had registered on CoWIN app and scheduled my vaccination appointment at at a private hospital in Noida, Uttar Pradesh and went for my first dose on March 22nd 2021.Without bothering to look into my medical papers about my co-morbities, the hospital staff vaccinated me which left me with severe itch- ing all over my body,” said Nirupama. Continued on Page 2 I n view of the rising number of Covid cases across the country, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Tuesday asked airports to enhance surveil- lance and explore the possi- bility of imposing “spot fines” on those who violate Covid-19 protocols. In an advisory issued to airports, the DGCA noted that compliance of some airports to Covid-19 guide- lines weren’t satisfactory. “All airport operators, therefore, are requested to ensure that the instructions on Covid-19 protocol from the standpoint of wearing a face mask properly, covering nose and mouth, as well as main- taining social distance norms within the airport premises are followed scrupulously,” the circular said. Airports have been given a strict SOP as part of the mea- sures being taken to contain the spread of the novel coro- navirus as India stares at a sec- ond more lethal wave. Accordingly, all airport oper- ators can increase surveillance in this regard, the DGCA said. Continued on Page 2 Chandigarh: The Punjab Government on Tuesday extended restrictions to tack- le coronavirus with schools and colleges to remain shut for another 10 days. T he countdown for the April 6 elections in Kerala and Tamil Nadu Legislative Assemblies began on Tuesday with Prime Minister Narendra Modi leading the campaign against the CPI (M)-led LDF in Kerala and the DMK-led Opposition in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. Addressing an election rally at Palakkad, from where the legendary engineer E Sreedharan is contesting as a BJP candidate, Prime Minister Modi lambasted the Marxists whom he described as Judas who betrayed Jesus Christ for 30 silver coins. “Judas betrayed Lord Jesus Christ for 30 silver coins. But the CPI(M) betrayed Kerala and the country for some gold bars,” the Prime Minister said in a thundering voice as the thousands who had gathered to listen to him roared in approval. Modi reminded the people of Kerala how the CPI(M) sys- tematically destroyed the age- old custom and tradition of Sabarimala shrine. “While the CPI(M) was destroying the cultural fabric of the State, the Congress-led UDF watched it in silence,” charged the Prime Minister. He also reminded the peo- ple of the State about the match fixing between the CPI (M) and the Congress. Continued on Page 2 C ampaign for second phase of Bengal polling came to an end on Tuesday with reports of violence coming from sev- eral places. Former India cricketer Ashok Dinda, who is contest- ing on a BJP ticket from Moyna, sustained back and shoulder injuries in an attack by TMC supporters. Elsewhere, a BJP candidate was attacked at Tamluk by TMC men and he had to be hospitalised, sources said, adding another BJP worker was beaten to death at Egra in East Midnapore. Allegedly gangraped by TMC supporters, the woman, the wife of a BJP supporter who had campaigned with Suvendu Adhikari even on Monday evening, was in a critical con- dition, sources said. The Election Commission had sought reports of the incident. Even as reports of vio- lence came in, war of words ensued between Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Home Minister Amit Shah with each blaming the other’s outfit for the volatile situation in Bengal. Shah on Tuesday reiterat- ed that his party would win 200-plus seats, before con- demning the TMC Government for creating an atmosphere of violence in the State, even as Mamata hit back accusing the BJP of importing and harbouring criminals in Nandigram and other parts of the State with a “vicious design of rigging the polls.” Continued on Page 2 I n a bid to incentivise the owners of old vehicles to go for scrapping, the Centre on Tuesday directed the trans- port departments of the States through a gazette notification to give discounts on registra- tion fee and road taxes as per the vehicle scrappage policy that will come into effect from October this year. Some of the incentives notified are: scrap value for the old vehicle given by the scrap- ping centre, expected to be 4- 6 per cent of the price of a new vehicle; a road-tax rebate of up to 25 per cent for new person- al vehicles and up to 15 per cent for new commercial vehicles from the States besides an additional discount of 5 per cent by auto companies against the scrapping certificate. Private vehicle owners, who renew fitness certificates after 20 years, will have to pay an increased fee of 7,000. They will pay another 5,000 for renewal of registration fee. Additional discount of 5 per cent by auto companies will, however, not be manda- tory for the manufacturers but the Government anticipates that the all the stakeholders could be a contributor for a green tax in the country to help reduce pollution. As per Government esti- mates, currently there are 51 lakh light motor vehicles in the country, which are over 20- year-old and 34 lakh light motor vehicles, which are over 15-year-old. Besides, there are 17 lakh medium and heavy vehicles, which are over 15- year-old, and plying without fitness certificates. The Centre early this year had proposed a slew of mea- sures to ensure that vehicles over 15 years old stay off the road. This included a steep rise in fee for renewal of fitness cer- tificate for old commercial vehicles, increasing the fee for renewal of registration of pri- vate vehicles that are over 20 years old. Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari during the Budget session had announced that all vehicles of the Central Government, State Government, Municipal Corporation, Panchayats, State Transport Undertakings, PSUs and autonomous bodies may be de-registered and scrapped after 15 years from the date of registration. A mob of sword-wielding Sikhs on Monday attacked policemen, injuring at least four of them, after being denied permission to hold a public procession in Nanded due to the coronavirus pandemic, an official said. 22 people have been arrested for the attack. A viral video showed the sword-wielding mob barging out of the gurdwara, breaking the barricades put up by police and attacking the policemen. Several vehicles were also damaged in the violence. Nanded Range DIG Nisar Tamboli said the condition of one of the four constables was serious. Detailed report on P5 Mumbai: Suspended Mumbai Police officer Sachin Vaze and former policeman Vinayak Shinde were present at the meeting where the murder of Thane-based businessman Mansukh Hiran was planned, the NIA told the court on Tuesday and added Vaze had used a mobile phone to contact a “conspirator”. The NIA, however, didn’t name the conspirator. The investigating agency also said that it was close to unravelling the conspiracy and the motive behind the crime. The special court judge P R Sitre has extended till April 7 the NIA custody of Shinde and another accused Naresh Gor, a cricket bookie, in the murder case. Hiran, a Thane resident, had been in possession of an SUV which was later found with explosives near the resi- dence of industrialist Mukesh Ambani in south Mumbai on February 25. The body of Hiran was found in the Mumbra creek in Thane on March 5. The Maharashtra Anti- Terrorism Squad had arrested suspended constable Shinde and Gor in this connection ear- lier this month. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) took the duo into its custody last week. They were presented before the spe- cial NIA court on the expiry of their remand on Tuesday. The NIA told the court that its probe revealed that Vaze and Shinde were present at the meetingwhere the murder of Hiran was planned. Continued on Page 2 I n what could be an ominous sign of the impending trou- ble, the RAW has warned that the terror groups in Jammu & Kashmir have decided to loot protective gear from the secu- rity forces, even by killing them, in the Valley. The ter- rorists have already been snatching weapons from the forces’ personnel in both the Valley as well as the Maoist-hit States. The Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), country’s pre- mier external intelligence agency, has warned that the ter- ror groups operating in Jammu & Kashmir are planning to acquire protective gear like bulletproof helmets by any means like snatching, stealing or even killing security forces personnel. The agency said that Maoists are also estimated to have been using bullet-resistant helmets and bulletproof vests snatched from the security forces in Chhattisgarh. The input was generated by the RAW on March 19 and has been passed on to stakeholders engaged in law and order roles as also counter-terror opera- tions in the Valley like the Army, Rashtriya Rifles and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), sources said. As per the chatter of mili- tant outfits on the social media, intercepted by RAW, Abdul Ghani Khwaja (Al Badr Operational Commander) died due to bullet injury in the head and he could have sur- vived, if he had been wearing the bulletproof helmet, sources said, adding liquidation of Khwaja has prompted the ter- ror groups to acquire bullet- proof helmets. Khwaja was killed by the security forces in an operation in Sopore on March 9. After the killing of Khwaja, the terrorist outfits have tasked their cadres to make efforts to acquire bulletproof helmets “by any means, including snatching, stealing or even by killing secu- rity forces personnel.” According to the inter- cepts, the terror outfits have highlighted Maoists are using such helmets in Chhattisgarh after snatching the items from security personnel. The security forces have sensitised their formations to alert their troops in their juris- dictions regarding the latest input and remain extra alert and highly vigilant while on security duties to avoid inci- dents of snatching of their protective gears, officials said. Apart from bulletproof vests, the forces also use bullet- resistant helmets and patkas as protective gears. Continued on Page 2 New Delhi: Vistara will be rolling back pay cuts for a few categories of employees, start- ing April. These pay cuts were implemented last year due to the Covid-19 pan- demic leading to severe finan- cial issues for the aviation industry. Mumbai: The Maharashtra Government on Tuesday set up a committee headed by a retired judge of High Court to probe the corruption allega- tions levelled by former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh against State Home Minister Anil Deshmukh.

 · 1 day ago · include Delhi taken as a whole. ... in a thundering voice as the thousands who had gathered to ... cination certificate, it had wrong date of March 25, 2021

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Page 1:  · 1 day ago · include Delhi taken as a whole. ... in a thundering voice as the thousands who had gathered to ... cination certificate, it had wrong date of March 25, 2021

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The Centre on Tuesdaysounded the alarm over

India’s Covid-19 situationwhich, it warned, is going from“bad to worse” and becominga “huge cause of worry”.Stressing that the “whole coun-try is at risk” and nobodyshould be complacent, theUnion Health Ministry askedthe States to prepare a districtaction plan, convert hospitals todedicated Covid facilities yetagain, ramp up testing withfocus on RT-PCR, isolatepromptly, trace contact, andboost healthcare resources.

India has recorded 56,211new coronavirus cases in thelast 24 hours, which, in somerelief, is 17 per cent lowerthan the day before, taking thetotal tally to 1,20,95,855 onTuesday. Maharashtra, Kerala,Punjab, Karnataka andChhattisgarh account for 80.17per cent of the total active casesin India, whereas 19 Statesand UTs have higher coron-avirus cases per million thanthe national average.

At a Press conference here

on the Covid-19 situation inthe country, Union HealthSecretary Rajesh Bhushan saidthat 10 districts, with 8 inMaharashtra alone, havereported nearly 6 lakh cases inMarch. The 10 districts alsoinclude Delhi taken as a whole.

“The 10 districts with max-imum active Covid-19 cases arePune (59,475), Mumbai(46,248), Nagpur (45,322),Thane (35,264), Nashik(26,553), Aurangabad (21,282),

Bengaluru Urban (16,259),Nanded (15,171), Delhi (8,032)and Ahmednagar (7,952).

Continued on Page 2

�������������� ��������������������������� �./%.0+�

The Government on Tuesdaysaid that Covaxin and

Covishield are effective againstthe UK and Brazilian variant ofSARS-CoV-2. “Work againstSouth African variant is goingon,” said Union HealthSecretary Bharat Bhushan.

Of the 11,064 genome sam-ples of coronavirus sequenced,the UK variant has been detect-ed in 807, South African vari-ant in 47 and Brazilian variantin one.

He said that India willopen Covid-19 vaccination foreveryone aged above 45 yearsfrom April 1, irrespective ofwhether they have any co-morbidity or not.

“Everyone in the eligibleage group can register on theCoWIN platform for vaccina-tion or can visit the vaccinationCentre after 3 pm with anyidentity document. Usuallypeople with Aadhaar card &voter ID. But you can also pro-duce bank passbook, passport,ration card,” said the official at

a Press conference here.However, reports of glitch-

es in CoWIN app as well assome hospitals showing negli-gence during the vaccinationprocess seem to be deterringmany from coming forward to take the jab.

Take the case of Nirupama Cairie (58), whoeven after eight days of takingthe first dose of Covishield, continues to reel with severe side effects of the jab. Shealleged the private hospitalwhere she was registered forvaccination did not follow thenorms.

“I had registered onCoWIN app and scheduledmy vaccination appointment atat a private hospital in Noida,Uttar Pradesh and went for myfirst dose on March 22nd2021.Without bothering tolook into my medical papersabout my co-morbities, thehospital staff vaccinated mewhich left me with severe itch-ing all over my body,” saidNirupama.

Continued on Page 2

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In view of the rising numberof Covid cases across the

country, the DirectorateGeneral of Civil Aviation(DGCA) on Tuesday askedairports to enhance surveil-lance and explore the possi-bility of imposing “spot fines”on those who violate Covid-19protocols. In an advisoryissued to airports, the DGCAnoted that compliance of someairports to Covid-19 guide-lines weren’t satisfactory.

“All airport operators,therefore, are requested toensure that the instructions onCovid-19 protocol from thestandpoint of wearing a facemask properly, covering noseand mouth, as well as main-taining social distance normswithin the airport premises arefollowed scrupulously,” thecircular said.

Airports have been givena strict SOP as part of the mea-sures being taken to containthe spread of the novel coro-navirus as India stares at a sec-ond more lethal wave.Accordingly, all airport oper-ators can increase surveillancein this regard, the DGCAsaid.

Continued on Page 2

�������������� �� �����������������������������������

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Chandigarh: The PunjabGovernment on Tuesdayextended restrictions to tack-le coronavirus with schoolsand colleges to remain shut foranother 10 days.

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The countdown for the April6 elections in Kerala and

Tamil Nadu LegislativeAssemblies began on Tuesdaywith Prime Minister NarendraModi leading the campaignagainst the CPI (M)-led LDF inKerala and the DMK-ledOpposition in Tamil Nadu andPuducherry.

Addressing an electionrally at Palakkad, from wherethe legendary engineer ESreedharan is contesting as aBJP candidate, Prime MinisterModi lambasted the Marxistswhom he described as Judaswho betrayed Jesus Christ for30 silver coins.

“Judas betrayed Lord JesusChrist for 30 silver coins. Butthe CPI(M) betrayed Keralaand the country for some goldbars,” the Prime Minister saidin a thundering voice as the

thousands who had gathered tolisten to him roared inapproval.

Modi reminded the peopleof Kerala how the CPI(M) sys-tematically destroyed the age-old custom and tradition ofSabarimala shrine. “While theCPI(M) was destroying the

cultural fabric of the State, theCongress-led UDF watched itin silence,” charged the PrimeMinister.

He also reminded the peo-ple of the State about the matchfixing between the CPI (M) andthe Congress.

Continued on Page 2

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����������������������������������� �!�������������� ���������������� �������� �������� �����"#������������������� �������$����������#����!�% ��������" ��� �������$��� ��������������$�����%� �$&

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Campaign for second phaseof Bengal polling came to

an end on Tuesday with reportsof violence coming from sev-eral places.

Former India cricketerAshok Dinda, who is contest-ing on a BJP ticket fromMoyna, sustained back andshoulder injuries in an attackby TMC supporters.

Elsewhere, a BJP candidatewas attacked at Tamluk byTMC men and he had to behospitalised, sources said,adding another BJP workerwas beaten to death at Egra inEast Midnapore.

Allegedly gangraped byTMC supporters, the woman,

the wife of a BJP supporter whohad campaigned with SuvenduAdhikari even on Mondayevening, was in a critical con-dition, sources said. TheElection Commission hadsought reports of the incident.

Even as reports of vio-lence came in, war of wordsensued between Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee and HomeMinister Amit Shah with eachblaming the other’s outfit forthe volatile situation in Bengal.

Shah on Tuesday reiterat-ed that his party would win200-plus seats, before con-demning the TMCGovernment for creating anatmosphere of violence in theState, even as Mamata hit backaccusing the BJP of importingand harbouring criminals inNandigram and other parts ofthe State with a “vicious designof rigging the polls.”

Continued on Page 2

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In a bid to incentivise theowners of old vehicles to go

for scrapping, the Centre onTuesday directed the trans-port departments of the Statesthrough a gazette notificationto give discounts on registra-tion fee and road taxes as perthe vehicle scrappage policythat will come into effect fromOctober this year.

Some of the incentivesnotified are: scrap value for theold vehicle given by the scrap-ping centre, expected to be 4-6 per cent of the price of a newvehicle; a road-tax rebate of upto 25 per cent for new person-al vehicles and up to 15 per centfor new commercial vehiclesfrom the States besides anadditional discount of 5 percent by auto companies against

the scrapping certificate.Private vehicle owners,

who renew fitness certificatesafter 20 years, will have to payan increased fee of �7,000.They will pay another �5,000for renewal of registration fee.

Additional discount of 5per cent by auto companieswill, however, not be manda-tory for the manufacturers butthe Government anticipatesthat the all the stakeholderscould be a contributor for agreen tax in the country to helpreduce pollution.

As per Government esti-mates, currently there are 51lakh light motor vehicles in thecountry, which are over 20-year-old and 34 lakh light

motor vehicles, which are over15-year-old. Besides, there are17 lakh medium and heavyvehicles, which are over 15-year-old, and plying withoutfitness certificates.

The Centre early this yearhad proposed a slew of mea-sures to ensure that vehiclesover 15 years old stay off theroad. This included a steep risein fee for renewal of fitness cer-tificate for old commercialvehicles, increasing the fee forrenewal of registration of pri-vate vehicles that are over 20years old.

Union Transport MinisterNitin Gadkari during theBudget session had announcedthat all vehicles of the CentralGovernment, StateGovernment, MunicipalCorporation, Panchayats, StateTransport Undertakings, PSUsand autonomous bodies maybe de-registered and scrappedafter 15 years from the date ofregistration.

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Amob of sword-wieldingSikhs on Monday attacked

policemen, injuring at leastfour of them, after being deniedpermission to hold a publicprocession in Nanded due tothe coronavirus pandemic, anofficial said. 22 people havebeen arrested for the attack.

A viral video showed thesword-wielding mob bargingout of the gurdwara, breakingthe barricades put up by policeand attacking the policemen.

Several vehicles were alsodamaged in the violence.

Nanded Range DIG NisarTamboli said the condition ofone of the four constables wasserious.

Detailed report on P5

�����������!�������� ��������������������""��� ��� Mumbai: Suspended Mumbai

Police officer Sachin Vaze andformer policeman VinayakShinde were present at themeeting where the murder ofThane-based businessmanMansukh Hiran was planned,the NIA told the court onTuesday and added Vaze hadused a mobile phone to contacta “conspirator”.

The NIA, however, didn’tname the conspirator.

The investigating agencyalso said that it was close tounravelling the conspiracy andthe motive behind the crime.

The special court judge PR Sitre has extended till April7 the NIA custody of Shindeand another accused NareshGor, a cricket bookie, in themurder case.

Hiran, a Thane resident,had been in possession of an

SUV which was later foundwith explosives near the resi-dence of industrialist MukeshAmbani in south Mumbai onFebruary 25.

The body of Hiran wasfound in the Mumbra creek inThane on March 5.

The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad had arrestedsuspended constable Shindeand Gor in this connection ear-lier this month.

The National InvestigationAgency (NIA) took the duointo its custody last week. Theywere presented before the spe-cial NIA court on the expiry of

their remand on Tuesday.The NIA told the court that

its probe revealed that Vaze andShinde were present at themeetingwhere the murder ofHiran was planned.

Continued on Page 2

�����#�����#� �./%.0+�

In what could be an ominoussign of the impending trou-

ble, the RAW has warned thatthe terror groups in Jammu &Kashmir have decided to lootprotective gear from the secu-rity forces, even by killingthem, in the Valley. The ter-rorists have already beensnatching weapons from theforces’ personnel in both theValley as well as the Maoist-hitStates.

The Research and AnalysisWing (RAW), country’s pre-mier external intelligenceagency, has warned that the ter-ror groups operating in Jammu& Kashmir are planning toacquire protective gear likebulletproof helmets by anymeans like snatching, stealingor even killing security forcespersonnel.

The agency said thatMaoists are also estimated tohave been using bullet-resistant

helmets and bulletproof vestssnatched from the securityforces in Chhattisgarh.

The input was generated bythe RAW on March 19 and hasbeen passed on to stakeholdersengaged in law and order rolesas also counter-terror opera-tions in the Valley like theArmy, Rashtriya Rifles andCentral Reserve Police Force(CRPF), sources said.

As per the chatter of mili-

tant outfits on the social media,intercepted by RAW, AbdulGhani Khwaja (Al BadrOperational Commander) dieddue to bullet injury in thehead and he could have sur-vived, if he had been wearingthe bulletproof helmet, sourcessaid, adding liquidation ofKhwaja has prompted the ter-ror groups to acquire bullet-proof helmets.

Khwaja was killed by the

security forces in an operationin Sopore on March 9.

After the killing of Khwaja,the terrorist outfits have taskedtheir cadres to make efforts toacquire bulletproof helmets “byany means, including snatching,stealing or even by killing secu-rity forces personnel.”

According to the inter-cepts, the terror outfits havehighlighted Maoists are usingsuch helmets in Chhattisgarhafter snatching the items fromsecurity personnel.

The security forces havesensitised their formations toalert their troops in their juris-dictions regarding the latestinput and remain extra alertand highly vigilant while onsecurity duties to avoid inci-dents of snatching of theirprotective gears, officials said.

Apart from bulletproofvests, the forces also use bullet-resistant helmets and patkas asprotective gears.

Continued on Page 2

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New Delhi: Vistara will berolling back pay cuts for a fewcategories of employees, start-ing April. These pay cutswere implemented last yeardue to the Covid-19 pan-demic leading to severe finan-cial issues for the aviationindustry.

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Mumbai: The MaharashtraGovernment on Tuesday set upa committee headed by aretired judge of High Court toprobe the corruption allega-tions levelled by formerMumbai Police CommissionerParam Bir Singh against StateHome Minister AnilDeshmukh.

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Page 2:  · 1 day ago · include Delhi taken as a whole. ... in a thundering voice as the thousands who had gathered to ... cination certificate, it had wrong date of March 25, 2021

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Of more than 1.6 lakh COVID-19 Vaccinedoses allotted to Goa, the state has admin-

istered 90,590 doses till March 15, state HealthMinister Vishwajit Rane told the legislativeAssembly on Tuesday.

In a written reply to a question tabled byIndependent MLA Rohan Khaunte, Rane said asof March 15, a total of 69,980 doses of vaccineshad remained in the state.

"The total quantum of vaccines allotted toGoa is 1,60,570 doses, of which 90,590 have beenutilised till March 15," the minister said.Thequantity of doses in the next batch of vaccine forstates will be decided by the Ministry of Healthand Family Welfare, depending on utilisation andstock availability in the state as per the eVIN por-tal, he said.

An email requesting for the next lot of vac-cine has been sent to the Ministry of Health andFamily Welfare, he said.

Till March 15, of 17,516 registered frontlineworkers, 12,798 have been inoculated at gov-ernment hospitals and centres and nine in pri-vate hospitals, Rane said, adding that only onesevere AEFI (adverse event following immuni-sation) had been reported as on date. At least4,718 frontline COVID-19 workers are yet to bevaccinated, the minister said.

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Kerala logged 2,389 positivecases, including 13 health

workers, on Tuesday, pushingthe total caseload to 11.21 lakhand the active cases to 24,650,the state government said.

As many as 1946 peoplehave been cured of the infec-tion, taking the total recover-ies to 10,92,365. In the last 24hours ending at 2 pm, 58,557samples have been tested andthe test positivity rate was 4.08per cent.So far,1,31,09,437 sam-ples have been sent for testing.Kozhikode recorded the high-est number of cases 325, fol-lowed by Ernakulam 283,Malappuram 250, Kannur 248and Thiruvananthapuram 225,while Pathnamthitta had theleast at 62, Health minister KK Shailaja said ina pressrelease.The toll has gone up to4,606 with the addition of 16recent deaths and the totalnumber of cases has touched11,21,931.

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New Delhi: The CBI onTuesday questioned AnupMajhi, the alleged mastermindof illegal coal mining in EasternCoalfields Ltd mines in Asansol(West Bengal), in connectionwith the coal pilferage scam. Hewas grilled at the agency’s officein Kolkata. Earlier, the SupremeCourt had restrained the agencyfrom arresting Majhi till April6."The petitioner shall not bearrested until April 6. Thisorder has been passed withoutgoing into the merit of the case.We clarify that this order willnot restrain the investigation," abench headed by Justice D YChandrachud had said.

The bench, also comprisingJustices M R Shah and SanjivKhanna, directed that Majhishall cooperate in the probe inthe case. The multi-crore coalpilferage scam is related to theEastern Coalfields Ltd mines inthe Kunustoria and Kajora areasin West Bengal.The CBI hadregistered an FIR in Novemberlast year against the allegedkingpin of the pilferage racket,Manjhi alias Lala, ECL generalmanagers Amit Kumar Dharand Jayesh Chandra Rai, ECLsecurity chief Tanmay Das,Kunustoria area security inspec-tor Dhananjay Rai and Kajorarea security in-chargeDebashish Mukherjee. PNS

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From Page 1Though technically speaking,

Delhi has many districts, it has beentaken as one district, said Bhushanwho has also written to ChiefSecretaries and Administrators of allStates/UTs, highlighting specific dis-trict-level strategies with proactiveand focused action to contain thecluster outbreaks of corona cases insome districts from overflowinginto other regions.

NITI Aayog member (Health)VK Paul said, “Covid-19 situation isturning from bad to worse. In the lastfew weeks, especially in some States,it is a huge cause for worry. No State,no part of the country or districtshould be complacent.”

“We are facing an increasinglysevere and intense situation, more sosurely in some districts. But thewhole country is potentially at risk

and therefore all efforts to containand save lives should be taken.

“Hospital and ICU preparationshave to be readied. If the casesincrease rapidly, the healthcare sys-tem would be overwhelmed,” Paulsaid.

About surge in case positivityrates, Bhushan said Maharashtralast week had an average positivityrate of 23 per cent, followed byPunjab 8.82 per cent, Chattisgarh8.24 per cent, Madhya Pradesh 7.82per cent, Tamil Nadu 2.5 per cent,Karnataka 2.45 per cent, Gujarat 2.22 per cent, and Delhi 2.04per cent.

The average national positivityrate during last week was 5.65 percent. All States and Union Territoriesare reporting a surge in cases andthere is a need to significantly andexponentially increase the number ofCovid-19 tests. The proportion ofRT-PCR tests need to be increasedtoo, Bhushan said.

In his letter to the States/UTs, theHealth Secretary asked all districts toprepare a District Action Plan withclear timelines and responsibilities.“While RT-PCR test proportionmust be more than 70 per cent as thisimpacts on positivity rate, anEmergency Operations Centre witha team to monitor the indicators,their growth, and spread 24×7should be set up. The DistrictMagistrate should review this twicea day and firm up a strategy foraction.

Containment zones (CZ) incompliance with the SOPs issued bythe Ministry should be dynamic andthe district should take into accountthe evolving situation and clusteringof cases and review on a daily basis.“All districts with high caseload andfast growth of cases must ensure 100per cent saturation vaccination of thepriority age group of 45 year andabove, in the coming two weeks,” saidthe official in the letter.

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From Page 1“The hospital staff did give me an injection but post-

vaccination care was nil. Within 2 hours of my leaving forhome I suffered severe asthmatic attack, high fever, breath-ing distress and cough. My family doctor has put me onall medications including steroids. The effects reduced butcontinue but I am still suffering. My doctor has suggest-ed me not to take the second dose.”

Nirupama who happens to be the wife of a former IASofficer also alleged that she got two vaccination certifi-cates with PAN card number which is not hers. Finallyafter her several complaints when she got yet another vac-cination certificate, it had wrong date of March 25, 2021as the date of vaccination, she alleged and asserted thatshe will never suggest that particular hospital for vacci-nation as well as the particular company’s vaccine.

Dr Rahul Bhargava Director and Head, Hematologyand Bone Marrow Transplant, Fortis Memorial ResearchInstitute, Gurugram voiced concerns that the Governmentis neither sharing data on re-infection, or those gettinginfected with coronavirus nor about those who are report-ing adverse impact post vaccination.

He said that the Government should provide data onthe number of people being inoculated with the Covaxinand Covishield and how many are getting infected despitegetting the two doses of the jabs.

From Page 1The agency said it needs to question the accused

duo regarding the recovery of seven SIM cards, somemobile phones and a CPU during the probe.

These SIM cards and cell phones were recoveredfrom Shinde, the court was told.

Special public prosecutor for NIA Sunil Gonsalvestold the court that the probe team found a piece of paperduring the probe listing 14 mobile phone numbers, ofwhich five numbers were given to Waze.

One of the mobile phones was also given to Waze,which he used for contacting “conspirator” to kill Hiran,the agency told the court.

The NIA further said the agency is closer to unrav-el the conspiracy and the motive behind killing Hiran.Shinde’s lawyer Gautam Jain submitted that no role inthe crimehas been attributed to the accused other thanthe delivery of the SIM cards.

He said Shinde’s further remand is not required ashe has been in the custody of the probe agencies (firstthe ATS and then the NIA) for almost nine days.

Gor’s lawyer Aftab Diamondwale told the court thathis client’s role was restricted to providing the SIM cardsand that he is not connected to the (murder) case.

Diamondwale told the court that Gor has been false-ly implicated in the case. PTI

From Page 1“The possibility of taking punitive action, such as levy of spot fines in accor-

dance with the law, shall also be explored with the local police authorities so asto serve a deterrent for violation of Covid-19 protocol,” it stated.

The March 13 circular had asked the airport operators to hand over the pas-sengers, who are not following the Covid-19 protocol even after repeated warn-ings, to the security agencies. Moreover, it had asked the airlines to de-board thepassengers who refused to adhere to Covid-19 norms even after repeated warn-ings and consider banning them from flying for at least three months.

Till last week, three Indian carriers had started the process of putting 15 domes-tic travellers on no-fly list. These 15 are likely to be barred from flying for up tothree months, under DGCA’s unruly flyer norms. Of these 15 passengers, threewere offloaded before take-off for refusing to wear PPE gown as required on theirmiddle seats or masks. The other 12 were handed over to police on landing atthe destination.

The DGCA said that it has approved 18,843 flights per week from 108 air-ports for the summer schedule, which begins on the last Sunday of March andends on the last Sunday of October. “It may be noted that 18,843 departures perweek have been finalised to/from 108 airports. Out of these 108 airports, Bareilly,Bilaspur, Kurnool and Rupasi are the new airports proposed by the scheduledairlines,” the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said on Twitter.

It said IndiGo’s 8,749 weekly flights and SpiceJet’s 2,854 have been approvedfor the summer schedule. GoAir’s 1,747 flights, Air India’s 1,683, Vistara’s 1,288and AirAsia India’s 1,243 have also been approved.

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From Page 1“Here in Kerala they oppose

each other while in the rest of thecountry they are alliance partners.In Kerala the secret deal betweenthem is to rule and loot the Statealternately. We saw the youth in theState who agitated for employ-ment getting lathi-charged by thepolice,” said the Prime Minister.

A Muslim woman who want-ed to seek the blessings of Modi bytouching his feet was asked by thePrime Minister not to do so and hehimself touched her feet.

The campaign pitch in TamilNadu touched new heights as Modiunleashed a scathing attack on theDMK and its allies. Addressing amammoth rally at Tirupur whereBJP’s State chief Dr Murugan is theparty’s candidate, the PrimeMinister came down heavily on the

derogatory comments on women inTamil Nadu made by A Raja, for-mer Union Minister forTelecommunications during theUPA regime. Raja has used unpar-liamentary and obscene commentswhile mentioning about ChiefMinister Edappadi Palaniswamy’smother.

Without naming Raja, thePrime Minister said the UPA led bythe DMK has launched an outdat-ed 2G Missile to attack ChiefMinister Edappadi Palaniswamy’smother. “The attack was targetedagainst the women of Tamil Nadu.If the DMK comes to power itwould target women in the Stateand I do pray that such things donot take place in the State,” he said.

Modi reminded the votersabout the physical assault carriedout by the DMK on former Chief

Minister Jayalalithaa inside theLegislative Assembly. “How can weforget the incidents of March 29,1989 when the DMK’s MLAs phys-ically assaulted Amma Jayalalithaajiwhile the Legislative Assembly wasin session? It was the most despi-cable incident,” said the PrimeMinister.

Later in the evening, address-ing an election rally at Puducherry,the Prime Minister described theprevious Government of the UnionTerritory led by V Narayanasamyas a disaster. “In a long list of non-performing Congress Governmentsover the years, the previousPuducherry Government has aspecial place. The Delhi HighCommand and Government ofPuducherry failed on all fronts; takeany sector - education, filling ofmedical seats, welfare of SC-STs,

there was only loot,” said the PrimeMinister.

“I have seen many elections butthe 2021 elections in Puducherry isunique for the fact that the sittingChief Minister has been denied aticket. So many years of loyalty, lift-ing the slippers of his leader, doingwrong translation to impress hisleader. Still no ticket.

This clearly shows how muchof a disaster his Govt has turned outto be,” said Modi. He said MLAsbelonging to Congress were open-ly talking about corruption, direct-ly linked to the family of the formerChief Minister.

Election fever touched thezenith by the end of Tuesday as thePrime Minister set the agenda fordebate and discussion in the run upto the April 6 election in the twoStates and the Union Territory.

From Page 1Speaking to the reporters in the

morning he said “after reachingNandigram, I got a sad news about howa woman was raped within a 5-km ofthe place where Chief Minister MamataBanerjee is staying,” wondering how awoman could be raped when the ChiefMinister herself a woman was stayingwithin five km of the area.

Saying that the “large crowd assem-bling in the roadshows only show thatthe people have made up their mindsto bring about a change…SuvenduAdhikari is winning from here,” Shahsaid, adding “Change is the mood inBengal and Nandigram will show theway. The victory margin of the BJPshould be so big that no politician willdare to fool people with false promis-es ever again… The party that will winNandigram will form the Governmentin Bengal.”He said, “If you defeatMamata Didi here, the TMC will beautomatically be defeated in otherparts of the State.”

Dinda who first “hid beneath thecar seat and then ran with the help ofmy security and took shelter in a BDOoffice,” said “one of my workers hasbeen severely hit and he has been hos-pitalised. My vehicle has been com-pletely damaged and I have receivedinjuries to my back and shoulder.”

The TMC supporters returningfrom a roadshow held by TMC MP and

actor Nusrat Jahan attacked Dinda’s car,sources said. The EC has sought areport on the incident sources said.

Shah, who conducted two otherroadshows at Debra and Keshpur rodea four-km stretch between Bethuria andReyapara with Adhikari by his side.Apart from Shah cine star MithunChakrabarty too led a roadshow atNandigram with thousands of peoplejoining the walk.

Hitting back at the Home Ministerand his party, Mamata said it was theBJP which was creating problem inBengal. “They have brought out-siders… we have already brought thisto the notice of the ElectionCommission that police men from theBJP-ruled States are coming to Bengalto create violence … but theCommission has not taken anyaction… we have information how theyare harbouring criminals in variousguest houses here… is this the way youwin elections by creating terror,”Mamata who travelled more than 5 kmon wheel-chair said.Betraying a tad lackof confidence apparently in the changedpolarised atmosphere in Nandigramwhere the minorities account for about23.5 per cent vote share, the ChiefMinister said, “I could have contestedfrom my home seat Bhawanipore alsobut I came to contest from Nandgirambecause I had longed for it … When Iput this proposal during a rally manyyouth expressed their enthusiasm andso I am here… I hope Nandigram willnot return me empty handed.”

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New Delhi: In India, 61 million doses ofCOVID-19 vaccine have already been admin-istered, while 64 million doses have been givento 84 nations under various programmes,Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said onTuesday.

Virtually participating in a panel discus-sion on vaccine production and distributionacross Asia at the 'World Immunisation andLogistics Summit', he detailed how the infra-structure of India's universal immunizationprogramme provided a pivot for its COVID-19 vaccine drive. The virtual conferencebrought together over 1,000 attendees fromaround the region and the world to discuss keyissues of global supply chains as the world facesthe largest and most complex logistical oper-ation in history in an effort to deliver life-sav-ing vaccines worldwide, the health ministrysaid in a statement.It said the panel wasinformed how India is scaling up productionof COVID-19 vaccines and how the govern-ment was working with local and internationalpartners to ensure timely distribution of thesame.

Reminding everyone that India produces60 per cent of the world's vaccine, Vardhan

said, "More than 61 million vaccine doses havealready been administered in our country and64 million doses have been given to 84 coun-tries under various programmes. We alwaysfeel that benefits of science be delivered to thewhole world." At the summit, he show-cased India's vaccine drive, the developmentof two vaccines -- Covishield and Covaxin --as well as the priority pyramid of beneficiaries.

The Union health minister said thathalf a dozen vaccines are under clinical trialand around one dozen are in pre-clinical trialwhich are being monitored by an expert groupfor vaccine NEGVAC, Vardhan said. Applauding initiatives for collaboration,including the HOPE consortium, as a welcomestep, he observed, "It is going to help in shap-ing the future policy for equitable distributionof the vaccine." This will strengthen theefforts of WHO in their commitment to ensur-ing that there is a common platform invali-dation, all manufacturing companies of theworld are on the same page and all stake-holders are committed to equitable distribu-tion of vaccine, the minister said. "We havelearnt from each other's experiences andfrom various guidelines. PTI

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Aspecial NIA court on Tuesdayremanded till April 7 a con-

victed constable and a bookie arrest-ed earlier by Maharashtra’s AntiTerrorism Squad (ATS) in theextended custody of the NIA in thecase involving the alleged murder ofbusinessman Mansukh Hiran, evenas the NIA seized a white MitsubishiOutlander allegedly owned byarrested Assistant Police InspectorSachin Vaze.

After hearing the submissionsmade by the Prosecution, theSpecial Court extended the remandof convicted Mumbai Police con-stable Vinayak B. Shinde (51) anda cricket bookie Naresh R. Gaur(31), till April 7.

Shinde and Gaud were arrest-ed by Maharashtra Anti-TerrorismSquad (ATS) on March 21 a dayafter the Union Home Ministry ask-ing the National InvestigationAgency (NIA) to take over theinvestigations into the murder of

Hiran, whose body was recoveredfrom the marshy Reti-Bunder creekMumbra in the neighbouring Thanedistrict on March 5.

While seeking 10 day custodyof Shinde and Gaud, NIA SpecialPublic Prosecutor Sunil Gonsalvestold the court that the investigatingagency had seized two mobile, oneiPhone, 7 SIM cards, a blank coverof SIM card, a note with 14 mobilenumbers mentioned including 5 inthe name of arrested-suspected copand prime accused Sachin Vaze with

'Ok' written (for activation) besidethem.

Gonsalves also informed thecourt that Gaur had given those 5numbers to co-accused Shinde whoin turn gave it to Vaze.

These numbers, the SPP said,were allegedly used for the con-spiracy and crime pertaining to theexplosive laden SUV Scorpio plant-ing case and the subsequent allegedmurder of Hiran, whose body wasrecovered from the Mumbra creekon March 5.

Dharmapur/Bilasipara: BJP PresidentJ P Nadda on Tuesday alleged that theCongress is suffering from "mentalbankruptcy" as it has aligned withpolitical parties on religious lines in thecurrent round of elections in the states.

The Congress has joined handswith the political parties on religiouslines be it Kerala, West Bengal orAssam, Nadda said while addressingelection ralles in Assam. "At the sametime it has entered into alliances withthe Left parties in Bengal and Assam butin Kerala, it is fighting against them.This exposes the party's mental bank-ruptcy", he said at a poll rally. Healleged that the Congress has dividedthe society on diffierent criterion,including religion, but Prime MinisterNarendra Modi ensured that all peopleget benefits of various schemes on thebasis of their need and not on any other

considerations. The Prime Ministerhas always insisted on inclusion of allsections by emphasising on "Sabkasaath, sabka vikash aur sabka vishwas"unlike the Congress which had divid-ed society on the basis of caste, class andreligion for nearly seventy years afterIndependence. "Congress todne kakaam karta hain, aur Modiji jodne ka(Congress divides but Modiji unifies)",he added.

The BJP president further thatCongress leaders claim that there havebeen no development during the lastfive years in Assam, but "actually theycannot see it, as they have not developed". "Rahul Gandhi accuses us of'Jumlebaji' (hypocrisy) but keeps silentabout the 'jumlebaji' by his grand-mother, father and mother who onlygave slogans and did nothing to solvethe problems of the country. PTI

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Page 3:  · 1 day ago · include Delhi taken as a whole. ... in a thundering voice as the thousands who had gathered to ... cination certificate, it had wrong date of March 25, 2021

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With Delhi reported 992fresh cases of Covid-19

on Tuesday, Delhi ChiefMinister Arvind Kejriwal saidthat the number of beds in nor-mal and ICU “Intensive CareUnit” is being increased todeal with the situation andurged people to take all the pre-caution to check the coron-avirus.

“In view of Covid situationdeveloping in Del, no of nor-mal n ICU beds reserved forCovid is being increased in afew hospitals. This will improvebed availability We r keepingclose watch and will take allsteps necessary. There is noth-ing to worry. But pl follow allprecautions,” Kejriwal tweeted.

The positivity rate stands at2.70 per cent. These new infec-tions pushed the tally to660611, while 642166 patientshave recovered from the virus.The active cases reached to7429 on Tuesday, according to

the health bulletin issued by thehealth department of the DelhiGovernment.

A total of 36,757 tests,including 28618 RT-PCR tests,were conducted a day ago, thebulletin said.

The number of peopleunder home isolation rose to4832 and containment zonesrose to 1903, it said.

Health Minister SatyendarJain had on Saturday dismissedany possibility of imposing

another lockdown in thenational Capital, saying it wasnot a solution to check thespread of the coronavirus thatis again surging rapidly.

The Health Minister alsosaid that random testing isbeing done at the railway sta-tion and airport to check peo-ple coming from outside toDelhi.

He urged people to followall the safety measures to checkthe virus.

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Delhi Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal met Switzerland

Ambassador Ralf Heckner inDelhi Secretariat on Tuesdayand discussed the steps takenby his Government for theeffective management ofCovid-19, promotion oftourism and dealing with pol-lution etc.

During the meeting,Ambassador Heckner praisedthe various steps taken by theDelhi Government to deal withCovid-19 despite difficult cir-cumstances.

Kejriwal spoke about howthey did not allow any bedshortages even when Covid wasat its peak in the city, with theDelhi Government evenlaunching a mobile application,which helped one find out bedavailability in hospitals. Healso spoke about how the DelhiGovernment will implement aHealth InformationManagement System (MIMS)soon, whereby every Delhi cit-izen will get a health card,detailing their entire medicalhistory.

“The Delhi Governmentnot only succeeded in dealing

with Covid-19, but also pro-vided good health facilities topatients in hospitals. The gov-ernment adopted the methodof home isolation to deal withCovid-19. Under this method,serious patients were admittedto the hospital, while undertreatment patients were pro-vided treatment at their home.The home isolation methodwas very successful and later itwas adopted in other states ofIndia and outside India,” hesaid during the meeting.

Kejriwal said that the Delhigovernment launched an appwith the aim of providing beds

easily in hospitals.“Information on the currentstatus of available beds andthose occupied could be foundon the app. Those who wererequired to be admitted to ahospital could get informa-tion about empty beds in thehospital and they could go tothe hospital for treatment. Theapp helped people a lot andthere was no shortage of bedsfor anyone,” he added.

The chief minister alsodiscussed in the measuresbeing taken to tackle pollutionin Delhi. Kejriwal said that theDelhi government is seriousabout controlling pollution inDelhi, with the governmenttaking several steps to combatpollution, including imple-menting a progressive EV pol-icy.

“The Delhi government isalso taking the support of IIT-Kanpur, IIT-Delhi and TERI.Both, IIT-Kanpur and IIT-Delhi have developed a tech-nology, which allows one toidentify the actual source ofpollution occurring at certainplaces during a certain periodof time. This technique willidentify the actual source ofpollution at that place at a given

time. When the source isknown, it will be easy to takenecessary steps. Under thepilot project, super sites andmobile sites will be installed inthe hotspot areas of Delhi,” hesaid.

In this meeting, Kejriwalalso expressed the need forcooperation to promotetourism in Delhi. He told

Ambassador Heckner that theDelhi Government is takingvarious steps to promote thetourism industry in the city andworking on a number ofschemes.

He also discussed the Swisscompanies working in thetourism sector to invest inDelhi, so that tourism in Delhican be promoted.

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Delhi Cabinet MinisterGopal Rai on Tuesday

claimed that the measurestaken by the AAP-led DelhiGovernment to curb pollutionhave been successful as accord-ing to a study, Delhi’s pollutionhas decreased by 15 per cent

Rai presented the report byiqair.com, a Sweden-basedorganisation and the secondone was by the Centre forScience and Environment(CSE). The report by IQ Airrevealed that the capital hasdropped down to the 10thspot among polluted cities inthe world and the one by CSErevealed that Delhi’s PM 2.5 hasdecreased at the rate of 25 percent between 2018 and 2020.

“Among the world’s mostpolluted cities, Delhi hasdropped down to the 10thposition, as the report by IQAir revealed. Among the top 10of this report are seven ofUttar Pradesh’s cities and states,including Lucknow, Kanpur,Noida, and Bulandshahr. Thereport also reveals that Delhi’spollution has decreased by 15per cent,” he said.

The CSE’s report also dis-closed that Delhi is the firststate in India to have shut

down those power plants whichemit harmful gases and the firststate to have 39 Air QualityMonitoring Systems, he said,accusing the municipal corpo-rations in Delhi carelessness isbehind the fire incident of theGhazipur landfill as revealed bythe ‘Delhi Pollution ControlCommittee’ report.

Following the unfortunateincident of the fire in GhazipurLandfill, Rai made an earnestrequest to the central govern-ment to analyze these reportsand said that the incident wasa result of careless working byMCD and the Delhi govern-ment shall file a complaintagainst the Delhi MunicipalCorporation.

Underlining the five majorpoints mentioned in the reportby the Centre for Science andEnvironment, he said, “First,the report highlights that Delhiis the first state to have shutdown those power plants whichemit harmful gases. DespiteSupreme Court’s rulings, 12such plants are operational inthe neighbouring areas ofDelhi, and the central govern-ment has not done anything inthis regard.”

The second one is that thecity is the first state to have ini-tiated 13 hotspots which initi-

ate measures at the micro-level to curb pollution, rightfrom dust particles to expan-sion of the green-belt. Thethird one, Delhi is the first stateto have provided PNG Gas atsubsidised rates to its industri-al sector. The fourth one is,Delhi is the first state to haveinstalled 39 Air QualityMonitoring Systems whichanalyze and take concrete stepsto decrease the AQI index. Alot of other neighbouring stateswhich have these systems donot work effectively, leading toincreased air pollution. Thefifth one is, the EV policylaunched by the Delhi govern-ment and its constant efforts toenforce it will help in curbingair pollution,” he said.

Delhi government’s effortsin expanding its green-belthave been successful, whosereport the government will bepublishing very soon. “Delhi isthe first state to have launchedthe Tree Transplantation Policy,which is inclusive of afforesta-tion measures. Moreover, wehave made a policy in which 80per cent of the plants will betransplanted,” Rai said.

Rai further added that theDelhi Government is going toconduct a two-day conferencewith environmental experts

that will primarily focus oncurbing pollution of the nation-al capital.

Highlighting the compla-cency of neighbouring areas,Rai said “Neighbouring statesplay a major role in curtailingpollution in Delhi. IfGhaziabad has a high pollutionrate, Delhi will inevitably suf-fer. Furthermore, Noida,Greater Noida or Gurgaon arepolluted severely, it will have animpact on the state of Delhi’s

air pollution. Hence, I requestthe central government to ana-lyze these two reports andmake efforts like shutting down

dangerous power plants orputting an end to diesel-ori-ented generators by providing24-7 electricity.

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Due to a strong dust storm,the air quality in Delhi was

recorded as ‘poor’ with 301micro grams per cubic con-centration of Particulate Matter – 10.

According to the NationalAmbient Air Quality Index(NAAQI), the overall AirQuality Index (AQI) recorded251.

City’s Anand Vihar record-ed highest levels of SuspendedParticulate Matters (SPMs)with PM 10 and 2.5 recorded308 and 325 respectively.

Scientists from the IndianMeteorological Department(IMD) said air quality is likelyto deteriorate further as strong,westerly winds are likely toblow over the city till April 1.

“The change in the color ofsky is mainly due to the dust,the dust particles fromRajasthan are affecting air qual-ity, these conditions will con-tinue till April 1 followingwhich temperature will risefurther,” a MeT scientist said.

System of Air Quality andWeather Forecasting andResearch (SAFAR) in its weath-

er forecast said that the over-all air quality is in the high endof the moderate category.“Surface winds are moderateand forecasted to stay high forthe next 72hours.Better venti-lation is forecast however, anincrease in coarse dust contri-bution in suspended particlesis expected due to the dust rais-ing high winds. Chance for sig-nificant long-range transport ofdust from the arid region for ashort period exists. AQI islikely to stay in the Poor toModerate category for the nextthree days,” SAFAR said.

The air quality in thenational capital was recorded inthe poor category. The airquality index (AQI) was 202 at9.05 am, real-time data of theCentral Pollution ControlBoard (CPCB) showed. AnAQI between zero and 50 isconsidered good, 51 and 100satisfactory, 101 and 200 mod-erate, 201 and 300 poor, 301and 400 very poor, and 401 and500 severe.

On Monday, the maxi-mum temperature shot up to40.1 degrees Celsius, making itthe hottest day in March sinceMarch 31, 1945.

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The first meeting of theDelhi Board of School

Education’s (DBSE) generalbody was held on Tuesday inwhich matters regarding theregistration and the constitu-tion of the board were discussed.

The meeting was attendedby the nominated and ex-offi-cio members of the board.

"The agenda of the firstmeeting included appraisalregarding the registration of theDBSE under the SocietyRegistration Act, 1860, theconstitution of the DBSE andits functioning from the acad-emic session 2021-2022, andthe appraisal of the mem-bers/nominated members ofthe general body of the Board,"according to a statement issuedby the Sisodia.

Sisodia said that the DBSEwill discourage rote-learning,bring continuous formativeassessments and promotegrowth mindsets in students.

"The purpose of the DelhiBoard of School Education isthree-fold. First, the Board willmove away from the practice ofrote-learning and movetowards giving a holistic pictureof each learner, which goesbeyond scholastic ability insubjects to include values andskills required in the futuresuch as critical thinking, cre-ativity, collaboration. Secondly,it will emphasise on continuousformative assessments.

"The main aim of settingup the board is that the assess-ment system should become a'Partner of Learning and not anAuthority of Testing'. Andthird, we want to encourage agrowth mindset among stu-dents, which would bestrengthened by making it apart of regular assessment,"Sisodia said.

The Delhi Cabinet had

approved the setting up of theDBSE on March 6, followingwhich the society for the Boardwas registered on March 19.

Sisodia added that theDBSE will also empower teach-ers to achieve their full poten-tial by giving them "timelyfeedback on specific actionsthey take to help every child intheir classroom".

"...Often, the style and fre-quency of our assessmentsleaves little room for teachersto change their teaching plan soas to help individual learners inareas where they need help.With a more personalized andcontinuous form of assess-ment, teachers will receiveactionable inputs on how theycan help learners overcomedifficulties they may be facingin the classroom," he said.

Sisodia presided over thefirst meeting of the Delhi Boardof School Education as its pres-ident. The meeting was attend-ed by the nominated and ex-officio members.

The agenda of the firstmeeting included appraisalregarding the registration of theDelhi Board of SchoolEducation under the SocietyRegistration Act, 1860, theconstitution of the Delhi Boardof School Education and itsfunctioning from the academ-ic session 2021-2022, and theappraisal of the Members /Nominated Members of theGeneral Body of the Board.

The Delhi Cabinet hadapproved the setting up of theDelhi Board of SchoolEducation on 6th March 2021,after which the society for theBoard was registered on 19thMarch 2021. The DBSE isformed with the objectives tomanage quality and standard inschool education, design/con-duct holistic learning assess-ments, amplify learner’s skills,and knowledge among its affil-iated schools in NCT of Delhi.

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Senior Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) leader and MCD in-

charge Durgesh Pathak accusedthe BJP- ruled MunicipalCorporation of transformingthe national capital into theMosquito Capital.

Pathak said that the civicbodies have not started foggingin the national capital to curbthe mosquito's spread. He saidthat the AAP demands theCorporations to begin the fog-ging within 48 hours or else thecitizens of Delhi will take to thestreets.

However, responding tothe claim, Delhi BJPSpokesperson Praveen ShankarKapoor said that the AAP

leader kept leveling allegationafter allegation under politicalcompulsion that too withoutany facts.

“The AAP seem to haveintentionally ignored the factthat fogging cannot be donefollowing the order issued bythe DDMA as it can causebreathing problems to peo-ple,” he said.

"The MCDs cleans neitherthe drains nor is the garbagecollected - this is the primaryreason for the outbreak of andthe increase in the number ofmosquitoes. BJP has dominat-ed the MCD for the last 15years yet as per a survey con-ducted by the Prime Ministerhimself, it has been revealedthat Delhi is the dirtiest city inthe country," he added.

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A31 year-old Supreme Courtlawyer was mowed down

by a car in Civil lines area onHoli. Police said that they havearrested the accused.

The deceased AdityaChanakya Boxipatro, a residentof Odisha, who was practisingin SC. Police said that theaccused has been identified as67-year-old Preeti Gupta, aresident of Bengali market.

According to police, at3:15 pm on March 29, a PCRcall regarding the accident wasreceived following which apolice team was dispatchedfor the spot.

“The accident between a

Royal Enfield and a ToyotaGlanza had occurred in thecivil lines. The bike was beingdriven by Aditya who wastaken to Parmanand hospital inwhere he died during the treat-ment,” said the police official.

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With the rise in tempera-ture, the cases of fire

have also started to rise. OnTuesday, two fire incidentswere reported in the NationalCapital. Officials said that noone was injured in the incidentsat JJ cluster near Bawana andoffice at ISBT in Kashmiri.

In the first incident, a firebroke out at a slum cluster inJJ colony in outer Delhi'sBawana area on Tuesday but noinjury was reported. Officialssaid that around 100 jhuggieswere damaged in the fire.

According to fire depart-ment, a call about the fire wasreceived at around 12.36 pmand 15 fire tenders were rushedto the spot and the fire wasbrought under control.

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A58-year-old BJP func-tionary in Delhi hanged

himself at a park in West Delhi’sHari Nagar over a family dis-pute. The deceased has beenidentified as Gurvinder Singh(58), a resident of Fateh Nagar.Police said that Singh was headof the Legal Department of theBJP’s West Delhi district unit.

According to a seniorpolice official, Singh's bodywas found hanging at JheelWala Park on Monday, follow-ing a minor dispute with hisfamily. “His son IshwenderSingh reached the spot andidentified the body which waslater sent for postmortem.Further investigation is on,”said the senior police official.

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In an order to provide time-ly medical help to accident

victims the regional transportauthority (RTA) of Gurugramhas claimed that the authorityin collaboration with the healthdepartment and the trafficpolice have reduced an earlierresponse time from 18 minutesin November in 2020 to 12minutes in February this yearso far.

Medical experts said that

the first hour after the mishapis considered the golden hour,and a delay of a few minutescould claim the victim’s life. Inseveral cases, the victims dieddue to excessive bleeding andlack of timely medical help.

RTA officials said that theyhad analysed data for themonth of November 2020 andit found that it takes 18 minuteson average for a road accidentvictim to get medical aid. RTAofficials say that since Februarythis time has been reduced to12 minutes.

“We have asked the chiefmedical officer (CMO)Gurugram, Virender Yadav tocoordinate with the privatehealth facilities in the city andwork out an arrangementunder which the private hos-pital nearest to the accident sitecan send their ambulance. Thispractice will surely cut downthe response time and willhelp in saving valuable lives,”said Gurugram RTA secretary,Dhaarna Yadav.

Gurugram has a largenumber of private hospitals and

these are located in almostevery corner of the district. Allthese private hospitals alongwith private ambulance oper-ators together own around 500ambulances in Gurugram.

Therefore, the nearest pri-vate hospital is in the bestposition to provide timely med-ical help to road mishap vic-tims, said RTA officials.

Yadav informed that inmany cases, commuters takeaccident victims to the nearestprivate hospital on their own,but private hospitals do not

keep records of such instances.“Private hospitals should

alert the health departmentofficials after admitting anyaccident victim. At present,they are only informing police,”said Yadav, adding that she hasasked health officials to preparerecords of the time lapse between road accidentsand death of victims and findout ways to reduce responsetime.

The RTA official revealedthat, in 2021 around 55 peoplelost their lives in road accidents

in the city while in 2020 around380 people had died in acci-dents.

According to data sharedby the police, in 2019 around433 people had died in roadmishaps.

Apart from this, in 2018 anumber of 446 deaths werereported in Gurugram. In 2017the number of fatalities stoodat 415 in 2016 around 435death cases were reported andin 2015 at least 400 people losttheir lives on the multiplestretches of the district.

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Taking strict action againstthose violating Covid-19

norms, the Delhi Police issuedchallans to over 700 peoplewho were found not wearinga face mask at public across thenational capital on Holi.Officials said that authoritieshave been asked by theLieutenant Governor to inten-sify drive against violations ofCovid norms.

According to a data sharedby the police till 4 pm on Holi,

730 challans were issued topeople for not wearing a facemask while nine people werefined for not adhering to socialdistancing norms.Three peo-ple were issued challan forspitting in public places.

A total of 5,73,457 challanshave been issued in the nation-al capital since June 15, police said.

Meanwhile, 94 face maskswere distributed by the policein the city on Holi, officialssaid, adding that 4,27,258masks have been distributedby the force since June 15.

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The eighth and the finalweek of the ‘Switch Delhi’

EV (electric vehicles) aware-ness campaign will focus onsensitising the youth of Delhion the benefits of e-vehicles.

The city Government'sEV policyTransport MinisterKailash Gahlot said “Theyouth of Delhi can play a hugerole in making the EV move-ment in Delhi a mass move-ment. I appeal to the youth tomake their first vehicle pur-chase an electric one.

“Youth is the most impor-tant section in any country,especially in a young countrysuch as India. They can drivechange and be the torchbear-ers of this movement. TheDelhi government will engagewith the youth via the SwitchDelhi campaign to motivatethem to adopt EVs and con-tribute to a cleaner and green-er Delhi,” he added.

With the wide range offinancial and non-financialincentives offered under EVpolicy, youth can obtain ben-efits in buying an EV.

“By switching to electrictwo wheelers which have verylow operating costs, an indi-vidual can make an annualsaving of approximately Rs22,000 as compared to usingpetrol scooter and Rs 20,000 as

compared to a petrol bike,”Gahlot said.

Gahlot added, “An averageelectric two wheeler providesa lifetime savings of 1.98tonnes of carbon emissions ascompared to an average petroltwo wheelers, which is equiv-alent to planting 11 trees.”

“Youth, by adopting EVsinstead of motorised vehicles,can set an example. I am surethat the youth of Delhi willbecome torchbearers of thismovement and spread themessage to the rest of thecountry to adopt electric vehi-cles,” Gahlot said.

The minister said “Delhi’syouth has the power to trans-form Delhi by adopting EVsand can help reduce vehicularpollution levels in the capital.The youth is an active stake-holder in helping achieve thevision of making Delhi the EVcapital of India.”

Switch Delhi is an eight-week mass awareness cam-paign by the Government tosensitize every Delhiite aboutthe benefits of switching toEVs to the environment aswell as to make them aware ofthe incentives and infrastruc-ture being developed underDelhi’s EV policy.

The campaign aims atinforming, and motivatingeach person in Delhi to switchfrom polluting vehicles tozero-emission electric vehicles.

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Page 4:  · 1 day ago · include Delhi taken as a whole. ... in a thundering voice as the thousands who had gathered to ... cination certificate, it had wrong date of March 25, 2021

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The Congress on Tuesday wrote to theElection Commission urging it to debar

BJP leader and Assam Minister HimantaBiswa Sarma from campaigning for theAssam Assembly election for allegedly“threatening” its ally and Bodoland People'sFront chief Hagrama Mohilary of sendinghim to jail. The Congress further chargedthat by the said threats, Sarma has alsoattempted to influence the voters to not votefor the INC alliance, including Mohilary’sBPF.

Addressing the media on the sidelinesof a rally, Sarma had said that Mohilary willbe jailed if found to be “encouraging” for-mer NDFB militant M Batha to return to thejungles.

In a three pages letter to poll body, theCongress alleged, “We would like to drawthis Hon'ble Commission's urgent attentiontowards senior BJP leader, Himanta BiswaSarma's open public threats, who foresee-ing the looming defeat of his party, has made

blatant, scandalous and intimidating state-ments on 29.03.2021 wherein he has open-ly threatened his opponent party, INCalliance partner & Bodoland People's FrontChairperson Shri Hagrama Mohilary ofsending him to jail by misusing the CentralAgency - NIA which is under the directadministrative control of the BJP-led CentralGovernment.”

The party further alleged that Sarma hassaid that the BJP will ensure that NIA inves-tigates and implicates Mohilary and that heis sent to jail. It also accused Sarma ofattempting to influence the voters to not votefor Congress’ alliance, including Mohilary’sparty.

“Sarma has sought to cast a maliciousand malafide impression on the public atlarge, that on account of the undue strengthof the BJP led Central govemment manningthe Central agencies, Sarma is in an undueposition to control/ misuse the NIA andhence capable of sending Mohilary to jail.This is a clear message to the voters in orderto influence them to not vote for INC

alliance including the BPF by completelyunconstitutional means and propaganda,”the letter read.

The Congress further said that the cen-tral investigative agencies are not the toolsof the party in power at the Centre to be usedfor electoral gains. It also alleged that the BJPleader has been “terrorising its opponentsof false implications, jail, curtailing personalliberty by misusing central Investigatingagencies”.

The party also urged the EC to dis-qualify the candidature of Sarma from theAssembly elections and prohibit him fromcampaigning during the remaining electionperiod in Assam. It also requested the pollpanel to issue directions for the filing of acomplaint against Sarma for violation of,“inter-alia, Sections 123(2)(a)(i), 123(4),123(7) of the Representation of People Act,1951 and Section 171C of the Indian PenalCode”. Sarma is contesting the ongoing stateelections on a BJP ticket from Jalukbari, thatwill vote in the final phase of the three-phaseelection, on April 6.

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The Trinamool Congress (TMC) hasregistered a complaint with the

Election Commission (EC) flagging whatit calls a violation of “democratic ethics”and the Model Code of Conduct by PrimeMinister Narendra Modi during his offi-cial visit to Bangladesh last week.

In a complaint (dated March 28) byTMC leader and Rajya Sabha MP DerekO'Brien addressed to the Chief ElectionCommissioner (CEC) , the West Bengal'sruling party has raised objections to PMModi's programmes in Bangladesh onMarch 27, the second day of the visit.Earlier, Bengal Chief Minister MamataBanerjee had slammed PM Modi over thetiming of his Bangladesh visit and saidthe trip was aimed at the Assembly pollsin Bengal.

The subject line of the letter read:"Gross violation of democratic ethics andthe Model Code of Conduct by PrimeMinister Shri Narendra Modi during hisvisit to Bangladesh."

"We have no objection whatsoever tohis visit to Bangladesh for this officialpurpose. After all, India played a criti-cal role in the liberation of Bangladesh.West Bengal, in particular, made animmense contribution to the heroicstruggle of our fellow Bengalis in (what

was then) East Pakistan for freedom fromthe brutal regime in West Pakistan.

"However, the All lndia TrinamoolCongress strongly objects to Shri Modi'sprogrammes in Bangladesh on March 27.These had nothing to do with either the50th anniversary of the independence of

Bangladesh or the birth centenary of'Bangabandhu'. Rather, they were solelyand exclusively intended to influence thevoting pattern in certain constituenciesin the ongoing elections to the LegislativeAssembly of West Bengal," O'Brien saidin the letter.

"No lndian Prime Minister has sobrazenly indulged in an unethical andundemocratic act and violated the ModelCode of Conduct by indirectly cam-paigning for his party from foreignsoil," he said.

The TMC leader further alleged thatthe political motive behind Modi's visitis proven by the fact that he took alongwith him BJP MP from West BengalSantanu Thakur, who holds no officialposition in the government of lndia.

"No MP or representative from theTrinamool Congress or other parties wasinvited to accompany the PM. PrimeMinister Shri Narendra Modi has thusgrossly misused his official position tointerfere from foreign soil in the electionprocess in West Bengal," O'Brien said.

Modi visited Bangladesh from March26 to 27 to attend the celebrations of the50th anniversary of the country's inde-pendence and the birth centenary of'Bangabandhu' Sheikh Mujibur Rahmanfollowing an invitation from hisBangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina.

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The EnforcementDirectorate (ED) on

Tuesday attached 12 land piecesmeasuring 48.56 acres inGurugram, Haryana, worthRs. 152.48 crore, owned by pro-moters of Unitech Groupthrough proxy/benami enti-ties.

The benami entities arestyled as Crown Infra ProjectsPvt. Ltd, Kore CommunitiesIndia Pvt. Ltd. and JoshuGurgaon SEZ Pvt. Ltd. Thesethree companies are the part ofone Trikar Group/ Kore Groupwhich is the benami investmentof Chandra family of UnitechGroup, the ED said.

The ED had initiated amoney laundering investiga-tion on the basis of multipleFIRs registered by Delhi Police.

“During money launderinginvestigation, it is revealed thatfor purchasing of these prop-erties, funds were transferredthrough Singapore-based com-panies namely Joshu Pte. Ltd.,

Trikar Residential DevelopersPte. Ltd and Trikar Propertyopportunity Pte. Ltd during theperiod 2015-2020,” the agencysaid in a statement.

The source of funds inthese Singapore-based com-panies was from a CaymanIsland based entity namelyTrikar Fund Limited (SPC)which is being controlled by theChandra Family throughanother Cayman based entityTrikar Asset Management LtdSPC, it said.

The ED had conductedsearches at 35 premises in theNational Capital Region (NCR)and Mumbai. Analysis of seizedrecords followed by the admis-sions of various accused per-sons, the benami structure (of

companies) has beenunearthed.

Further investigationrevealed that the promoters ofUnitech Group, SanjayChandra and Ajay Chandra,had illegally diverted morethan Rs 2,000 crore to Cyprusand Cayman Island. “It is high-ly likely that this Benamiinvestment is the part of thefund diverted to CaymanIsland and Cyprus,” it added.

The ED case underPrevention of MoneyLaundering Act was filed afterstudying multiple FIRs filed bythe Delhi Police economicoffences wing (EOW) againstthe promoters of Unitech asalso the company. One of thecases relates to the accusedallegedly failing to complete ahousing project on the sched-uled time in Gurgaon.

Before the initiation of thecriminal cases by the DelhiPolice and subsequent probe bythe ED, the Unitech was amajor builder in Delhi andNCR.

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The Indo-Tibetan BorderPolice (ITBP) that secures

the frontier along China hasplans to double its womencontingent from the present500 to 1,000 for deploymentalong the Line of ActualControl (LAC) in Ladakh andNortheast.

The move comes amid astandoff between India andChina in eastern Ladakh sinceMay last year. However, underthe disengagement process thatbegan on February 10, both thecountries’ troops have movedback from their positions at thePangong Tso Lake’s northernand southern banks.

In a first, the ITBP had in2019 raised a women contin-gent comprising 500 troops ofITBP, breaking the proverbialglass ceiling and traditionally amale forte of deployment athigh-altitude border postsalong the Indo-China borderwith treacherous sub-zero tem-

peratures and difficulties ofsurvival in cold desert. TheContingent was subjected torigorous 44 weeks of training inbattle craft and mountain sur-vival. Like their male counter-parts, the women combatantshad undergone grueling drillsand learnt to handle weapons,read maps, gather intelligenceand were trained in comman-do tactics, official had thensaid.

Earlier, women in the para-military force were deployedfor maintaining law and orderand VIP duties and were alsoposted at the cantonments and

hospitals.The total number of

women troops in ITBP was2,000, mostly constables, head-constables, sub-inspectors andinspectors posted at variousplaces.

“We are now also planningto recruit women officers inITBP in supervisory and com-bat roles. A proposal forrecruitment of officers in therank of commandants andassistant commandants hasbeen sent to the Ministry ofHome Affairs,” said an ITBPofficial.

As the first line of defence,the ITBP secures the 3,488kmborder with China that passesthrough the five states ofArunachal Pradesh, Sikkim,Uttarakhand, HimachalPradesh and Jammu andKashmir.

The 90,000-strong ITBPwas raised on October 24,1962, exclusively securing theChinese frontier after the Indo-China war.

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The country's premier scientific body,Council of Scientific and Industrial

Research (CSIR), has recommendedsetting up sewage and air surveillance sys-tems in Parliament to detect the preva-lence of Covid-19 to estimate the num-ber of people infected in a population tobe used to understand the progression ofinfection even when mass scale tests forindividuals are not possible.

A presentation in this regard wasmade on Tuesday before Vice PresidentM Venkaiah Naidu who, being the chair-person of Rajya Sabha, said he woulddiscuss the issue with Lok Sabha SpeakerOm Birla and the government.

Elaborating on the relevance ofsewage surveillance in his presentation,Director General of CSIR Shekhar CMande said, "Covid-19 patients shedSAR-CoV-2 in stools. Apart from symp-tomatic individuals, asymptomatic peo-

ple also shed the virusin their stools."

Sewage surveillanceprovides a qualitativeas well as a quantitativeestimate of the numberof people infected in apopulation and could beused to understand theprogression of Covid-19even when mass scaletests for individuals arenot possible, an officialstatement said quotingthe CSIR chief.

It is a measure to

comprehensively monitor the prevalenceof the disease in communities in realtime, Mande said.

Presenting data of sewage surveil-lance carried out to find the trend ofinfection in Hyderabad, Allahabad,Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Nagpur,Puducherry and Chennai, he said it pro-vides an unbiased estimate of numberssince the sampling is not done at theindividual level.

Mande said that sewage surveillanceof Covid-19 would not only help under-stand the present epidemiology of thedisease but would be an indispensabletool for early and easier detection offuture coronavirus outbreaks.

However, the Central PollutionControl Board (CPCB) has alreadyasked sewage water treatment plants toensure adopting all covid-19 precautionsfor its workers to protect them fromSARS CoV2 infection as virus found insewage water may be a source of trans-mission of disease.

“We are already conducting sur-veillance of SARS CoV2 virus in bio-medical waste and wastewater. We haverecently observed that viral RNA isfound in sewage water and there is ahigh possibility in biomedical waste too.

“However, currently there is no evi-dence that virus transmission occursthrough sewage, but if that is, which westill may not know, the workers in thesewage treatment plants may be highlysusceptible to the infection," said T KJoshi, member, Central PollutionControl Board (CPCB) task force on airpollution and health.

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As talks are on between thetwo countries to defuse

tension at the border, ArmyChief General MM Naravanesaid here on Tuesday India hasnot lost any territory to China.He also said parleys are takingplace to ensure disengagementfrom flash points.

Making these observations,he said a phased disengage-ment took place from thenorthern and southern banksof the Pangong Tso(lake)inFebruary. This breakthroughcame nearly after ten months ofstand-off at multiple points atthe Line of ActualControl(LAC)in EasternLadakh.

Informing that both thearmies have withdrawn to theirprevious positions in thePangong Lake area, Naravanesaid India did not lose any ter-ritory while negotiating forpeace at the LAC.

Reiterating that India hasall along favoured dialogue toresolve differences at the bor-der, the Army Chief said talksare now on to defuse tension atother face off sites like Gograand Hot Springs in Ladakh.

The face-offs began in earlyMay last year beginning withthe first incident at the PangongTso and then spread to someother sectors. In June, a bloodybrawl took place between thesoldiers of the two armiesresulting in the death of 20Indian personnel including the

commanding officer. Chinaalso lost more than 40 soldiersthough there is no official con-firmation from the other side.

On the ever-present threatof a two-front war simultane-ously with China and Pakistan,the Army Chief said there arechallenges and the Indianarmed forces are prepared tomeet any threat.

On the recent agreementwith Pakistan to uphold cease-fire on the Line ofControl(LOC)in Jammu andKashmir, Naravane said the sit-uation on the border is peace-ful for the past one month.

In late February, theDirector Generals of MilitaryOperations (DGMOs) of Indiaand Pakistan issued a jointstatement saying two sides willadhere to the 2003 agreementon maintaining ceasefire on theLOC. Firing stopped frommidnight of February24-25.

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The Supreme Court hastaken note of the traffic

management problem inGhaziabad’s Kaushambi areaand constituted a committeecomprising representatives ofthe statutory authorities ofDelhi and Uttar Pradesh so thata “coordinated and concertedeffort” can be made to resolvethe issue.

The apex court, which saidthat a “comprehensive trafficmanagement plan” should bepresented before it, observedthat a resolution of the issuewould not be possible unless allthe authorities concerned joint-ly agree on a concrete effort tomanage the traffic problems.

A bench headed by JusticeD Y Chandrachud constituteda committee consisting ofDivisional CommissionerMeerut, Chairperson of theGhaziabad DevelopmentAuthority, District MagistrateGhaziabad, Transport Secretaryof Delhi government,Municipal Commissioner ofEast Delhi MunicipalCorporation and other con-cerned authorities.

The bench, also compris-ing Justices M R Shah andSanjiv Khanna,said thatGhaziabad's District Magistrateshall be the nodal officerofcommittee.

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CHENNAI: In what could bea shock to the DMK-led alliance,a journal on astrology has saidthat M K Stalin, Leader of theOpposition, who is also theparty chief would not be able toform a government after theApril 6 election to the Stateassembly.

This is in contrast to the‘findings’ of opinion polls heldby various media houses inTamil Nadu which forecast thatthe DMK-led front woulddemolish the ruling AIADMK

and its allies in the assemblyelection.

Stalin himself had said atSalem that the DMK and itsalliance would win all 234 seats.“People of Tamil Nadu will seea House without Oppositionafter the April 6 election,” he haddeclared. But Gayatri DeviVasudev, editor, ModernAstrology told The Pioneer thatplanetary positions do notfavour the DMK and Stalin.“The AIADMK is likely to retainpower in Tamil Nadu,” she said.

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Jammu: The splen-dour and richness ofJammu came aliveonce again on thesecond day of“Fulkari 2021” a twodays festival of folk,colours and musicorganized by the Directorate ofTourism Jammu in collaborationwith Atlas Event ManagementCompany. The musical evening at GulshanGround opened with a powerpacked performance by “SaptakClassical Fusion Band” fromJammu. The local band isamongst the top 100 perform-ers of India’s Got Talent Season3. Their performance on&quot;Uss Dogreian aakhneanShaane knne&quot; gained a lotof applause from thecrowd.Another attractive pre-

sentation of this pro-gramme was fusiondance performanceby Rakesh Kona andgroup.The dancefilled the air withrhythms of Dogriand Punjabi fusion

on this very special festiveevening.

The main highlights of theevening were live performancesby famous playback singer andperformer&quot; Titliyanfame&quot;Afsana Khan,Television Actress Prerna Bhatand “VePathra” fame Gursaaz.The soulful voice of AfsanaKhan left the audience spell-bound.The Celebrity artistsappreciated jammu for theirlove and warmth they had show-ered on them since the verybeginning of the festival.

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The CPI(M) which swears by theadage “LDF for Sure” and the

Congress offering “Clean andTransparent governance” are worriedabout a political outfit launched in2012 and its mind boggling growthin Ernakulam district.

Twenty 20, which came into exis-tence in 2012 thanks to an initiativeby Sabu Jacob, scion of a corporatefamily, wrested power from conven-tional parties by winning all the 20wards of KizhakkambalamPanchayath in the 2015 election to thelocal bodies.

What KizhakkambalamPanchayath saw in the last five yearswas something hitherto unseen in theState. The dilapidated roads passingthrough the Panchayath and the ringroads were re-laid and rebuilt by thePanchayath. All roads spot footpathand well designed drainage systemthat made waterlogging a distantmemory. Not only that, thePanchayath constructed safe walls forhouses along the road side.

“We have seen such roads only intelevision programmes on foreigncountries, not in India,” said SureshGopinath, a young auditor. He said he

was not at all surprised by the growthof Twenty 20 over the last five years.“They deserve the public acceptabil-ity because they have delivered whatthey promised in their manifesto. Thispolitical group is a threat to both theCongress and the CPI(M),” saidGopinath.

The recent election to the localbodies in the State saw Twenty 20spreading its success to four morePanchayaths in the district. “When weassumed power in Kizhakkambalamin 2015, the panchayat had liabilitiesof Rs 39 lakh. We completed our fiveyear tenure in 2020 by investing anamount of Rs 13 crore 57 lakh as fixeddeposit as reserve fund of the pan-chayat,” Sabu Jacob, President andchief coordinator of Twenty 20, toldThe Pioneer.He said it was for the firsttime in India the village roads werebuilt with state-of-the-art technologyusing BM&BC tarring, which makesthe road strong and sturdy. “We dohave visitors from other parts of theState to get a glimpse of these roads,”said Jacob.Roads are just a part of thedevelopment works initiated byTwenty 20.

Those without roofs over theirhead were given beautifully builthouses with modern facilities during

the last five years. Houses that werebuilt by the UDF Government in 1969under the Laksham Veedu Projectwere demolished and re-constructedusing modern technology. The villagesin the Panchayat spot 72 God’s Villaswhere one can feel the happiness andsatisfaction of the residents, mainlycasual labourers and people belowpoverty line.

Two more institutions built dur-ing the tenure of the Twenty 20deserve special mention. The FoodSecurity Market and the varioushealth schemes launched for the poorand downtrodden in the society havebecome benchmarks for other polit-ical parties.

While Dr G Madhavan Nair, for-mer chairman, Space Commission,said he does not have words todescribe the kind of development hesaw in Kizhakkambalam, film actor-turned- Kamal Haasan declared thathis mission was to emerge as a heroin real life like Sabu Jacob. Withproven track records, the Twenty 20has fielded candidates in eight con-stituencies in Ernakulam district.According to political pundits, theKunnathunadu assembly constituen-cy is sure to go the Twenty 20 way.

The fact that Kochouseph

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An uneasy lull descends atMuhammadpur Bazaar a

tiny hamlet in Nandigram asthe sun dips below the westernrim. There was a skirmishbetween TMC and BJP work-ers a little while ago as the saf-fron supporters shouted JaiShri Ram at Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee’s convoy andthe Trinamool cadres chargedback menacingly. The centralforces had a trying to keep thetwo sides away. Even as therival sides retreat for the timebeing they vow reprisal.

Chief Minister MamataBanerjee is pitted against herformer Man Friday-turned BJPnominee Suvendu Adhikari inNandigram --- that goes topolls on April 1 --- with a

young and active CPI(M) can-didate Minakshi Mukherjeegiving valiant chase to herhigh-profile opponents.

A comment by HomeMinister Amit Shah hours agothat the party that winsNandigram will form theGovernment seems to havecharged up an already ignitedatmosphere.

With the campaign for thesecond phase polling coming toan end on Tuesday motleycrowds collect hesitantly at thetea shops discussing hot topics.“Who knows what is there instore for us in the comingdays,” says Khagen Jana a localwho like many Nandigram res-idents want the politics andpoliticians out of the place.

With news of attacks andcounterattacks filtering in fromneighbouring villages gossipers

who had collected at Ibrahim’stea stall gradually fade away.

“We want to live peaceful-ly, we want jobs, we are notconcerned as to who is cominghere from Delhi or Kolkata…Just leave us alone. Enough ofusing Nandigram as a ladder torealize political dreams… wedo not want violence.,” saysAbbas a local farmer whowalked back home for morethan 300 km fromBhubaneshwar during the lock-down.

“Why do these leaders useso harsh words for each other?Why do they have to polarizethe atmosphere like this? WhatLord Rama or Allah has to dowith the elections, an ArpanMaiti unemployed postgradu-ate --- who unsuccessfullyattempted two TET (Teachers’Eligibility Test)exams --- from

Reyapara wonders. But likemany others he two feels like anant in the artificial show oftitans.

Asfaquddin an old manfrom Sonachura admitsNandigram of breaking alongcommunal lines “perhaps forthe first time afterIndependence. “Hindus andMuslims were together duringthe Nandigram movement …but today there is a unex-plained divide … Now we hearthat all that land movementduring 2007 was fake and a partof some big master plan … Ithink the earlier regime wasbetter. But still we have noother way but to support …” hestops short of naming MamataBanerjee.

True, Nandigram has notseen a tensed and polarizedelection like this before. Not

even during the Left rule. WithTuesday being the last day forcampaigning for the secondphase of polling the boon-docks of Nandigram saw atleast half a dozen road showsby the Chief Minister on oneside and Home Minister on theother.True as well that LordRama is a comparatively newdeity in this part of Bengal thatlargely worshipped Durga, Kali,Saraswati, Laxmi, Siva andNarayan.

On what lay ahead of thecontestants he boldly says, “thecandidate who will be able tocatch most of the Left votes…effectively Nandigram hasabout 35 percent Left votersmost of who would not liketheir votes to go waste … youknow what I am saying. In thatcase if they vote in lot forMinakshi she may win but

they won’t… In that case eventhe side that manages to gethalf of the Left votes will win.”

Like him another localfarmer says how the CPI(M)workers “are so angry with thepresent government that theywill vote only for the party willbring a change … they areworking for the CPI(M) butthis time round they may votefor some other party … youcan understand what I am say-ing... The would not let us votefor years … they would fine uslakhs of rupees if we went toCPI(M) rallies… I sold my landto pay that fine .,.. they wouldmake us do sit-ups in public fordoing CPI(M)… a time hascome to pay back.”

But with lot many peoplechoosing not to say anything.Nandigram is any body’s gameand anybody’s guess.

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For the first time in morethan six years former Chief

Minister BuddhadebBhattacharjee on Tuesdayaddressed the public releasingan audio tape and asking thepeople to back the Left-demo-cratic-secular forces and defeatthe conspirators like TMC andBJP who had come to ruinBengal.

Coming down heavily onthe two parties ailingBhattacharjee who is almostbed-ridden for years said only

the Left-Congress-ISF alliancecould pull Bengal out of thepresent anarchy that the Statewas win. Earlier he had in awritten statement said how hisversion --- of a deep-rootedconspiracy --- stood vindicat-ed more than 14 years after theNandigram police firing thatkilled 14 people.

This, after Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee from a rallyat Nandigram on Sunday saidthat Suvendu Adhikari and hisfather and MP Sisir Adhikariwere behind the Nandigrampolice firing.

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Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) President SharadPawar who has been unwell since Sunday, was

rushed to the Breach Candy Hospital here Tuesday, afterhe developed fresh abdominal pains.

Eighty-year-old Pawar, who was in the normalcourse was to be admitted to the hospital on Wednesdayfor an endoscopy and surgery for removal of gallblad-der stones, was taken to the Breach Candy Hospital afterhe complained of pain in the abdomen.

“In the normal course, Pawarsaheb was to be admit-ted to the Breach Candy Hospital tomorrow, for anendoscopy and surgery. But, after he developed pain inthe abdomen, he was taken to the Breach Candy Hospitaltoday,” NCP’s chief spokesperson Nawab Malik said.

“After his treatment and further examination, thedoctors attending on him at the hospital will take a callon his surgery,” Malik said.

Earlier, Pawar was on a blood thinner medication.The doctors advised him to stop the medication, pend-ing his surgery.

Meanwhile, several prominent personalities includ-ing Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief MinisterUddhav Thackeray, Bharat Ratna Lata Mangeshkar andothers have enquired about Pawar’s health and wishedhim a speedy recovery.

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Ten days after Mumbai’s for-mer police commissioner

Param Bir Singh made a sen-sational allegation of corrup-tion against State HomeMinister Anil Deshmukh, theMaharashtra government onTuesday appointed retiredjudge of the Bombay HighCourt Kailash UttamchandChandiwal to probe the formerCP’s charges againstDeshmukh.

The appointment of a sin-gle-member judicial committeeto go into the allegations madeby Singh against the StateHome Minister came two daysafter the latter himself gave anindication to that effect.

It may be recalled that onMarch 20, the former com-missioner of police had allegedthat State Home MinisterDeshmukh had asked now

arrested and suspended policeofficer Sachin Vaze last monthto "collect" a staggering Rs 100crore per month from bars,restaurants and other sources.

On his part, Deshmukh –in a tweet put in the evening –had debunked Singh’s chargeand said: “The formerCommissioner of Police,Parambir Singh has made falseallegations in order to savehimself as the involvement ofSachin Waze in MukeshAmbani & Mansukh Hiren’scase is becoming clearer fromthe investigation carried out sofar & threads are leading to Mr.Singh as well”.

In the terms of referencefor the judicial probe orderedby it, the state governmentsaid that the retired Judgewould look into whether theformer Police Commissionerhad produced any evidence toestablish that either Deshmukh

or any officer in the HomeMinister’s office had indulgedin any irregularity or crime.

“The probe panel will alsolook into whether there wasany substance in the informa-tion provided by AssistantCommissioner of Police SanjayPatil, then Assistant PoliceInspector Sachin Vaze to Singh,based on which the latter madeallegations of corruptionagainst the State HomeMinister in his letter datedMarch 20, 2021. It will also sug-gest whether there is a need toorder a probe by the AntiCorruption Bureau (ACB) orany other agency,” the govern-ment notification announcingthe judicial probe stated.

Justice (retired)KailashUttamchand Chandiwal-head-ed Judicial committee to sub-mit its report to the state gov-ernment within next sixmonths.

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RSS head Mohan Bhagwat will inaugurate 'KalaSankul' (campus), a modern complex for art and

culture where artists from across the nation willshowcase their talent, on April 2 here at Deen DayalUpadhyay Marg.

Kala Sankul, an art and culture activity com-plex dedicated to showcasing a number of genresincluding art, literature, and theater in an integratedformat and will be extensively promoted, accord-ing to an RSS press statement.

The Kala Sankul , under 'Sanskar Bharti', isdesigned with many amenities for the art and cul-ture field, including a rich library equipped withart and culture books, an art gallery, auditorium,studio, and conference rooms encompassed in a sin-gle complex. ‘Kala Sankul' will be positioned as themost renowned and major center of art and cul-ture, said the press statement.

Sanskar Bharati is a cultural organization, whichis "committed and devoted to try and implantnational values in the folk lives through the tradi-tional, classical, folk, and modern arts of India", itsaid .

"Even in the era of massive advancement in artand culture, Sanskar Bharati has been implementingan irrevocable mantra 'Sa Kala Ya Vimuktaye' whichhas been continuous since the past four decades andto give a concrete shape to these objectives, 'KalaSankul' is being established", said the statement

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Amid the continued spurt inthe Covid-19 cases in

Mumbai, the BrihanmumbaiMunicipal Corporation (BMC)on Tuesday announced that it wasmaking additional 2,269 Covidbeds available to our citizens inprivate hospitals(including 360ICUs) with immediate effect.

“We will be making addition-al 2269 Covid beds available to ourcitizens in private hospitals(including 360 ICUs) with imme-diate effect,” Mumbai MunicipalCommissioner I S Chahal saidhere.

“This will be in addition tomore than 3000 beds currentlyvacant in Mumbai for covidpatients(including currentlyvacant 450 beds in private hospi-tals),” Chahal said.

Chahal said that the BMC wasalso operationalising additional

1500 beds in Jumbo field hospitalsthis week to take vacant beds toapprox. 7000 by the weekend.

The Municipal commissioner,however, made it clear that no bedwould be allotted directly to any-one by hospitals.

“All allotment of hospital bedsshall be through 24 WARD WARROOMS only & therefore no oneshould try to procure a positivecovid report directly from TestingLabs. Otherwise,they will find itdifficult to get beds anywhere,” hesaid.

“Let the name come to us inour line list from labs at midnightand we will go to their homes withbeds early next morning as wehave been doing since last June.Let us all follow the system please,”Chahal said.

Chahal, it may be recalled, hadsaid last week that the BMCgeared itself to handle 10,000Covid-19 patients per day.

Chahal had said that the BMCwas preparing to increase thetotal availability of DCHC/DCHCovid beds from 13,733 to 21,000in the next 15 days in various hos-pitals of Mumbai.“Assuming thatthe number of positives in the duecourse of time in Mumbaiincreases to 10,000 per day withassumption that 15 per cent of ofthese would be symptomatic –requiring beds as per ICMRguidelines,” Chahal had said.

He had pointed out thatassuming that every symptomaticpatient requires bed and consid-ering a 14 days’ bed occupancy,the total beds needed to handle10,000 cases per day for a periodof next six to eight weeks, around21,000 beds would be needed.

Chahal had said that the mor-tality rate is low – 4.6 per day and0.3 per cent of the total positivecases between 10 February-24March.

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Aday after a video clip that showed a sword-wielding mob come out of a gurdwara at

Nanded, break the barricades and attack thepolicemen stationed to prevent them taking outa procession went viral, the local police onTuesday arrested 14 persons in connection withthe attack on the policemen.

Having registered three FIRs against 64unidentified persons allegedly involved in theattack on policemen that took place at the SriHazur Sahib gurdwara on Monday, theWazirabad police in Nanded district ofMarathwada region arrested 14 persons onTuesday.

The irate mob had attacked the police afterit was denied permission to hold a “HolaMohalla” public procession as part of therestrictions imposed due to the COVID-19pandemic..

In all, four constables were injured, whilesix vehicles were also damaged in the violence.

A video clip that surfaced immediatelyafter the incident showed an angry sword-wielding mob barge out of the gurdwara, break

the barricades put up by police and attack thepolicemen.

The local police said that the condition ofone of the four injured policemen was “seri-ous”.

“"The gurdwara committee had assured usthat they would abide by our directives andhold the event inside the gurdwara premis-es...We are trying to ascertain if any memberof the gurdwara committee had a role in theincident,” a senior police officer said.

Meanwhile, the Wazirabad police havebooked the 14 arrested persons on charges ofattempt to murder, rioting and other sectionsof IPC and under provisions of the Arms Act.

“We are looking out for other abscondingpeople named in the three FIRs registered inconnection with the incident,” the police offi-cer said.

The violence broke out when the “NishanSahib” -- a triangular saffron-colour flag furl-ing outside a gurdwara on a steel pole coveredwith a saffron cloth -- was brought at theGurdwara gate late on Monday afternoon.Some of the participants got into verbalexchanges with the police.

Page 6:  · 1 day ago · include Delhi taken as a whole. ... in a thundering voice as the thousands who had gathered to ... cination certificate, it had wrong date of March 25, 2021

constitutes a majority of India’spower mix. But again, likefuel prices at the pump, that isbeing a victim of the present.India is aggressively changingits energy mix with more solarand wind energy sources com-ing onstream. But the one thatcannot be escaped is the factthat electric vehicles are muchmore expensive than internalcombustion engine vehiclesand leave India vulnerable to awhole new cluster of nationsthat dominate natural resourcesin this arena, much like Indiawas beholden to oil-producingArab nations for years. And inelectric vehicles, India has beenvery slow compared to China;not only has China hooveredup Lithium and other vitalresources but also by establish-ing a manufacturing ecosystemaround electric vehicles andbatteries, poses an existentialthreat to Indian automotivemanufacturing.

The automotive industryin India directly employsclose to 15 million people,indirectly employing five-sixtimes as many in varied othersectors, from components tologistics to sales and even thevibrant automotive media.There is a realisation that theindustry has to pivot to clean-er alternatives as air pollutionand fuel prices are a concern.However, it is not going to be

an easy task, although increas-ing consumer preference forelectric vehicles will be amajor driver for change.

But to truly drive electrifi-cation, the products have to bedesirable, and affordable. Theperfect electric motorcycleconsidered by a large industryplayer has what that companycalls the ‘70 Trifecta’, a range of70 km, a top speed of 70 kmper hour and costs �70,000.Fulfilling the first two criteriais relatively easy to fit a biggerand better battery, the third isthe challenge in India. And ifprices of important raw mate-rials go up, the price of LithiumCarbonate has doubled sincebottoming out in late 2020, itwill only drive prices higher.And similar issues exist inpassenger vehicles; even iflower-range urban commuterhatchbacks are a model chosenfor India, would a consumer bewilling to pay 50 per centmore, say �9 lakh vis-a-vis �6lakh, even if they knew thatover a lifetime of eight yearsand 1,00,000 km of drivingthey would save �6-7 lakh inrunning costs if benchmarkedat today’s petrol prices? May be.But would they pay �12 lakhfor such a car even if net-netthey will end up saving money?

And then there is thebiggest problem for theGovernment. If mass electric

vehicle adoption takes place inthe next five-six years, havethe Governments thoughtabout just how they will makeup for the lakhs of crores oflost petroleum taxation? Hereis the bizarre irony of the sit-uation: The Central, State andcity Governments are incen-tivising people to buy vehiclesthat will eventually cost themtheir lunch. After all, even themost dedicated petrolheadwill not be able to argue withthe fuel costs involved.

While a bureaucrat willcome up with ideas to cover therevenue shortfall, but what willthat entail? The reduction ofelectricity subsidies for one, andmaybe even increased taxes onelectricity including a cut fromfast-charging stations? Ofcourse, even if there is rapidadoption of electric vehicles inIndia, it will not replace inter-nal combustion engines total-ly. Far from it, recently the DelhiGovernment and Tata Motorsgot into a disagreement regard-ing the range of the Tata NexonEV, proving that not only isrange anxiety real, but it canimpact policy issues as well.

This is the first part of aseries on electric vehicle adop-tion and policy issues aroundthe same in India.

(The author is ManagingEditor, The Pioneer. The viewsexpressed are personal.)

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During a recent round ofincrease in petrol anddiesel prices, manycrocodile tears were

shed by the politicians of all hues.The Centre and StateGovernments have raised incred-ible sums of money from exciseduties, surcharges and cess onpetrol and diesel. But the recentprice surges saw the reality of�100 a litre petrol in some States,and with Black Swan events con-tinuing to take place, such as theSuez Canal blockage, and oil pro-ducers’ cartel OPEC talking ofproduction cuts, crude oil priceswill not dramatically declineanytime soon. With the ReserveBank of India keeping the rupee’sexchange rate against the dollarsteady, prices at the pump mightnot come down soon. With anambitious infrastructure buildingprogramme and higher agricul-tural expenditure on the cards,the Centre will need funds andthe amount it takes from everylitre of petrol or diesel will onlygo up. Petrol at �100 a litre willbe a reality nationwide soonerrather than later, and at the cur-rent rate of increase, �120 a litrefor ordinary petrol will be a real-ity by the next general elections.

Why talk about fuel prices ina column about vehicle electrifica-tion? Because fuel prices are boththe greatest opportunity as well asthe biggest challenge for this. Theopportunity is simple, becausewhether we like it or not, a cogentargument can be made that high-er taxes on petrol and diesel are likea carbon consumption tax. If youdo not want to pay this tax, go elec-tric. As an automotive reviewer foralmost two decades, this columnisthas driven several electric vehicles,even living with them for a fewweeks. This gave me the opportu-nity to evaluate their runningcosts in a real-world situation andon something like the HyundaiKona and Tata Nexon EV, thiscame to a rupee a kilometre evenat the peak unit rate of power inDelhi. A similar vehicle with apetrol or diesel engine wouldhave running fuel costs between�6-10 per km at the current rates.

There are many argumentsagainst electric vehicles. The morefallacious ones surround the factthat polluting thermal energy

SOUNDBITE��������� ����������������������Sir —Prime Minister Narendra Modi’sBangladesh visit is really remarkable andhistoric as well. Modi reiterated India’s “sin-cere and continued efforts” to conclude theTeesta water-sharing agreement in consul-tation with relevant stakeholders during histalks with Bangladesh counterpart SheikhHasina. Both India and Bangladesh sharecommon goals and challenges and the twocountries should remain focused on deal-ing with challenges like terrorism.

A new passenger train connectingDhaka and New Jalpaiguri on the Indianside was also inaugurated jointly by Modiand Hasina via video conference. This is thethird passenger train after Maitree Express(Dhaka-Kolkata) and Bandhan Express(Khulna-Kolkata) running between the twoneighbouring countries. This will strength-en the people-to-people ties between boththe nations. PM Modi reached Dhaka atthe invitation of his Bangladesh counter-part for the twin occasions of the neigh-bouring country’s 50 years of nationhoodand the centenary of Bangabandhu MujiburRahman. However, it cannot be seen in iso-lation with the elections in West Bengal.

The Prime Minister’s visit toBangladesh is likely to not just consolidatein general the Hindu voters who havemigrated from the neighbouring countrybut also attract in particular the Matuas infavour of the BJP. Also, Modi courted con-troversy when he said: “I must have been20-22 years old when my colleagues and Iparticipated in the Satyagraha forBangladesh’s freedom. I even courted arrestfor the same”. After which social media hasbeen abuzz with many disbelieving thePrime Minister’s claims. However, we haveno reason to disbelieve our PM.

S Ramanathan | Ghaziabad

��������������� �����Sir — The second wave of the Coronavirusis posing a huge challenge has to belooked at and understood in terms of thedual phenomena of transmission andmutation. It is understandable that people

grew weary of the pandemic. It is evidentfrom the way they go about their businessdespite the spike in cases. The crowds breaknorms at festivals and election rallies androadshows. This is when it is entirely inad-visable to lower the guard and make con-ditions conducive for the contagion tospread and take its toll.

There is nothing called individualsafety in a pandemic; we must all under-stand that no one is safe till everyone is safe.Vaccination is the life-saving pharmacolog-ical intervention now in progress with vary-ing degrees of success. At this juncture, itwould be foolhardy to let the ongoing vac-cination drive, that has covered less than sixper cent of the country’s population, lull usinto a false sense of security.

G David Milton | Tamil Nadu

������������� �������������Sir — Hate politics has overshadowed the

Assembly elections campaign in the Statesconcerned. The leaders of all parties aretrying their best to woo the voters and lev-elling false allegations against one anoth-er. The situation is particularly disturbingin West Bengal.

Such politics is not good for ourdemocracy. Real issues are ignored or side-lined while political parties and their lead-ers enagage themselves in rhetoric and thespate of allegations and counter-allega-tions. The voters have no option except tovote for one of these parties as to exercisetheir franchise is always better than notgoing to vote at all. However, not only thevoters but also the politicians should dotheir bit to uphold the tenets of democ-racy and should set healthy precedents.

Amit Singh Kushwaha | Satna

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On March 18, 2021, Union Minister for RoadTransport and Highways Nitin Gadkariannounced in the Lok Sabha a “voluntary”

vehicle scrapping policy which will lay the foun-dation for what he termed the “Voluntary VehicleFleet Modernisation Programme” and enable theIndian automobile industry to more than doubleits turnover from the current �450,000 crore to�10,00,000 crore in a few years. Besides, it will havea salutary effect on environment due to the miti-gated vehicular pollution.

Apart from it, other benefits are expected byway of reduction in fuel consumption (as old vehi-cles get replaced by more fuel-efficient new ones)and cut in import bill; boost to inclusive develop-ment as investment flows into setting up scrappingand fitness centres thus creating jobs; increasedsafety on the roads and reduction in accidents; rein-ing in input costs for industries such as automo-bile, steel, electronics, white goods and so on andincrease in Goods and Services Tax (GST) collec-tion. So, how will the Government realise it? Whatare its possibilities? Will the intended outcomesflow? Currently, there are 51 lakh vehicles in Indiawhich are older than 20 years while 34 lakh vehi-cles are more than 15 years old but less than 20 yearsand 17 lakh vehicles older than 15 years, but with-out renewed fitness certificate. Based on thepremise that vehicles older than15 years are con-sidered to be more polluting and less fuel efficient,the policy architecture is founded on two major pil-lars — incentivise owners of such vehicles to go forscrap and disincentivise hanging on to the old vehi-cle.

The owner going for scrapping will get four-six per cent of ex-showroom price of the new vehi-cle as compensation termed ‘scrap compensation’;five per cent discount on the purchase of the newvehicle; rebate on the road tax at the rate of 25 percent for personal vehicles (generally, States collectthis tax at four per cent, so 25 per cent rebate comesto one per cent). The policy also moots waiver ofthe registration fee for a new vehicle purchased onproduction of the ‘scrap certificate’ issued againstthe scrapped vehicle.

As for the disincentives, the policy suggests hikein fee for renewal of registration (�5,000 for a carolder than 15 years, up from �600 at present) andfitness certificate renewal fees, stiff penalties fordelay in renewals and imposition of the so-called‘green tax’ by the States on such vehicles. All per-sonal vehicles will have to undergo mandatory auto-mated fitness test after 20 years to ply on the roads(for commercial vehicles, the threshold is 15 years).If they don’t pass, those vehicles will be de-regis-tered and impounded by the transport authorities,pronouncing it as “end of life vehicle”.

If the owner goes for scrapping, he is promiseda total benefit of 11per cent including scrap com-pensation of around five per cent (average of four-six per cent), discount five per cent and one percent rebate in road tax. Against this, he can easi-ly realise at least 15 per cent by selling. So, he won’topt for scrapping.

Even 11 per cent incentive on scrapping is notguaranteed. Road tax being a major revenue sourcefor States and given their precarious finances (thisscenario is unlikely to change until 2024-25), theyare unlikely to give any rebate. As for the balance10 per cent, the onus is entirely on auto compa-

nies. If they don’t oblige (a lot willdepend on individual firms, theircost dynamics and, in particular,how much they gain by way ofreduction in cost of raw materialsand components due to scrap pur-chase), the scale will be further tilt-ed against scrapping.

However, a more likely sce-nario for the majority of old carowners is one wherein they retain itafter renewing the registration. Theybelong to the middle or lower mid-dle class, their resource positionbeing pretty tight. They had financedpurchase of their vehicle (albeitold) from loan. Many of them mayhave only recently completed servic-ing that loan. So, they will all go forthis option. Even the increased re-registration charges and imposi-tion of green tax won’t deter them(compare a few thousand they needto spend on paying these chargesagainst a minimum �5 lakh-�� lakhon purchase of a new car).

The policy, too, is liberal towardsthem. Barring vehicles owned by theGovernment or its agencies, pan-chayats and State transport under-takings and so on which have to bemandatorily scrapped after reaching15 years of age, all personal vehicleswill have to go for a fitness test onlyafter 20 years. Those more than 15years but less than 20 years will getthe registration renewed sans test.

On balance, therefore, the pol-

icy may not prompt the owners ofaged vehicles to go for scrapping ona large scale. However, things couldlook different — tilting the scale infavor of abandonment of old vehi-cles and making way for new ones— if the GST Council accedes toGadkari’s suggestion for exemptingnew vehicles purchased against thescrapped vehicles from levy of theGST. At present, automobiles attracttax at the rate of 28 per cent and ifthis becomes zero (for those decid-ing to dump the old and buy new),this will be a big boost. But given thehuge revenue implications, this iseasier said than done.

Meanwhile, there is an order ofthe Supreme Court (2015) validat-ing a National Green Tribunal(NGT) directive that prohibitedpetrol vehicles older than 15 yearsfrom plying in the National CapitalRegion (NCR) (for diesel cars, thethreshold is 10 years). The order isnot just a negation of the extant lawwhich provides for registrationrenewal on completion of 15 yearsfrom the date of first registration butalso presumes that all such carsbecome unfit for plying after attain-ing this age. Even as the policy laysemphasis on fitness rather than theage of a vehicle and is structuredaround incentives and disincen-tives, the court order militatesagainst this. In fact, the order ren-ders the policy infructuous in the

NCR. It also creates an anomaloussituation whereby the vehicle own-ers in other States have the freedomof choice (scrap versus retention orresale) while those in the NCR areforced to scrap their aged vehicles orresort to desperate sale and buy anew one, thereby plunging intoanother round of financial night-mare. The Union Governmentshould take urgent steps to correctthis anomalous situation. It mayeither approach the top court torelent; alternatively, bring aboutnecessary amendment in the MotorVehicles Act (MVA) to reflect thepolicy intent that is using fitness asthe sole criterion irrespective of thevehicle’s age for determining whetherit can be allowed to run.Concomitantly, it should go for set-ting up of the required network oftesting infrastructure to be operat-ed by trained manpower havingimpeccable credentials so that scopefor malpractices and corruption iscompletely eliminated and onlythose vehicles which pass the test —as per specified norms — areallowed.

As regards the scrapping of oldvehicles and making way for newmore fuel-efficient and less pollut-ing vehicles on the intended scale, itshould endeavour to make theincentives more attractive. Givingexemption from the GST could bethe way forward.

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The heads of the States ofthe Quad Group — India,Australia, Japan and the

US — recently held a meeting tocounter the Chinese threat andto ensure a free and secure Indo-Pacific. Analysts are of the viewthat it will provide the much-needed impetus to work out anew security road map in deal-ing with most obnoxious formsof modern terrorism. It is a wel-come development as it wouldprovide a platform for multilay-ered security cooperation todeal with various other issueslike funding of terrorist activi-ties, policing cooperation anddealing with cyber threatthrough enhancing the techno-logical innovation and tighten-ing border and maritime secu-rity information-gathering exer-cise.

Cooperation and coordi-nation in aggrandisementtowards communication capa-bility and management of secu-

rity arrangements to deal withany kind of threat is the maincredo of relevance. With thechanging times the parameter ofnational interest is also becom-ing more dynamic. Anotherimportant area which requiresimmediate attention on the partof cooperation to develop amechanism to deal with thechemical weapons in the posses-sion of the new breed of terror-ists. Actually chemical weaponsare normally not easilydetectable and are easily trans-portable compared with conven-tional weapons. The revolutionin communication network andgrowth of international narcot-ic trade spread through theGolden Triangle on the bordersof Myanmar, Laos and Thailandand the Golden Crescentthrough the network ofAfghanistan and Pakistan haveposed new forms of threat.

The nations need to changetheir strategy, keeping in view

the changing dynamics of theworld order on account of newthreats, some very apparent buta few extremely subtle. A cou-ple of years ago there was thenews of 50 refugees found deadnear eastern Austria alongSlovakia and Hungarian borderwhich brought forward a debateon the tedious issue of illegalmigration and related crime.

In the search for survival inthe competitive world order,many people from underdevel-oped societies have moved toEuropean countries for greeneypastures, sometimes throughillegal transit. In another suchincident a few years ago, a boatcarrying more than 80 illegalmigrants drowned in Libya. It ishigh time that European coun-tries developed sophisticatedmechanism to handle the prob-lem head on as it has alreadycaused severe tension betweenvarious countries. The issue ofmigration at times creates the

problems of human traffickingand refugees across the globe. Incertain pockets, the problems ofmigration and refugees have cre-ated quagmire and terrorism.The problem of refugees whohave fled due to disturbances inAfghanistan and Uzbekistanhas added a new dimension tothe existing problem of violenceand crime in Central AsianRepublics.

Afghanistan is a clear exam-ple of such a situation wherein

refugees were misled and organ-ised into a deadly force. Despitevarious steps taken by theUnited Nations HighCommissioner for Refugees(UNHCR), there has not beenany significant improvement intheir conditions. Contrary to theclaims made by nations aboutthe distribution of resourcesfor refugee welfare, extremeeconomic vulnerability hasworsened their lot. According toa survey, over 70 per cent of the26 million refugees in the worldare women and children.Although most countries havefaced the problem, it hasassumed alarming proportionsin Afghanistan, Rwanda,Vietnam, Bosnia, Cambodia,Burundi, Ethiopia, Sudan, Iraq,Sri Lanka, Zaire, Bangladesh andSouth and Central America.

Most refugees have takenshelter in nearby countries . Theserious problems in Kampuchea,Vietnam and Laos compelled

people to seek refuge inMalaysia, Thailand andIndonesia. The victims inAfrican countries have takenrefuge in Somalia, Kenya andZambia. The issue of refugees attimes becomes crucial due totheir exploitation by many ille-gal and antisocial elements.The following measures can besuggested for addressing theproblems of refugees:Development of local infra-structure to create self-suffi-ciency, increasing the role ofN o n - G o v e r n m e n t a lOrganisations, extensive train-ing to the staff involved in res-cue operations, coordinationbetween the local units and theUNHCR, financial support forimplementation of new pro-grammes and so on.

There have been instanceswhere refugee camps wereattacked by the armed forces ofcountries across the border.Many Governments have for-

mulated policies to deal with thisalarming situation. But manynefarious actors interpret thesesteps as surrender to interna-tional criticism. In such a situ-ation, the role of security forcesbecomes very crucial. Thestrength of success in handlingthe problem of refugees lies increating internal dynamism byensuring inclusive growth andaddressing the plight head onand taking care of the securityconcern and law and orderthreats, if any, collectively.

The recent internationalchanges might have broughtsome hopes of reform andchange in the internationalarena but there are mountingtensions across the globe due tothe rise in religious-based terror.No country can afford to com-promise on its security despitehaving deep feelings andtremendous magnanimous out-look towards the problem ofrefugees.

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The writer is a NewDelhi-based

policy analyst. The views expressed

are personal.

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Suez (Egypt):Experts boardedthe massive container ship onTuesday that had blockedEgypt's vital Suez Canal anddisrupted global trade for near-ly a week, seeking answers to asingle question that could havebillions of dollars in legal reper-cussions: What went wrong?

As convoys of ships againbegan travelling through theartery linking theMediterranean and Red Seas, acanal service provider saidmore than 300 vessels carryingeverything from crude oil tocattle were still waiting fortheir turn in a process that willtake days.

Egyptian government offi-cials, insurers, shippers andothers similarly waited formore details about what causedthe skyscraper-sized EverGiven to become wedgedacross the canal on March 23.

When blame gets assigned,it will likely lead to years of lit-igation to recoup the costs ofrepairing the ship, fixing thecanal and reimbursing thosewho saw their cargo shipmentsdisrupted. Since the vessel is

owned by a Japanese firm,operated by a Taiwanese ship-per, flagged in Panama andnow stuck in Egypt, mattersquickly become an interna-tional morass.

“This ship is a multina-tional conglomeration," saidCapt. John Konrad, the founderand CEO of the shipping newswebsite gcaptain.Com.

Experts boarded the EverGiven as it idled Tuesday inEgypt's Great Bitter Lake, justnorth of the site where it pre-viously blocked the canal. Asenior canal pilot, speaking on

condition of anonymitybecause he was not authorizedto talk to journalists, told TheAssociated Press that expertswere looking for signs of dam-age and trying to determinewhy the vessel ran aground.

There could be significantdamage to the the ship, Konradwarned. Stuck for days acrossthe canal, the ship's middle roseand fell with the tide, bendingup and down under thetremendous weight of some20,000 containers across its400-meter (quarter-mile)length.

On Monday, when workerspartially floated the ship, allthat pressure came forward toits bow. “Structural integrity isNo. 1. You know, there was a lotof strain on that ship as it wassagging in the waterway,”Konrad said. “They have tocheck everything for cracks andparticularly that rudder and thepropeller in the back that'sconnected to the engine room.”

AP

Hong Kong: China has sharplyreduced the number of direct-ly elected seats in Hong Kong'slegislature in a setback for theterritory's already beleaguereddemocracy movement.

The changes wereannounced on Tuesday after atwo-day meeting of China's toplegislature.

The legislature will beexpanded to 90 seats, and only20 will be elected by the pub-lic. Currently, half of the 70-seatlegislature — 35 seats — isdirectly elected.

The move is part of a two-phase effort to rein in politicalprotest and opposition in HongKong, which is part of Chinabut has had a more liberalpolitical system as a formerBritish colony. China imposeda national security law on

Hong Kong last year and is fol-lowing up this year with arevamp of the electoral process.

The crackdown comes inthe wake of months of pro-democracy protests in 2019that brought hundreds of thou-sands to the streets and turnedviolent as the governmentresisted the movement'sdemands.

"It's a very sad day forHong Kong. The election sys-tem is completely dismantled,”said former lawmaker andDemocratic Party memberEmily Lau.

“They are going to get ridof opposition voices becauseunder this new system, whichis so oppressive and restrictive,I don't think any self-respect-ing individual will want totake part,” Lau said. AP

Rawalpindi: Unidentifiedassailants ransacked a 74-year-old Hindu temple located inRawalpind's Purana Qila area.

As per the police authori-ties, a case has been registeredat the Bani Gala station againstthe attack which took placeearly Sunday morning.

The authorities said thatthe temple was being restoredand construction and repairwork was underway since thelast one month.

It was further revealed thatdue to the restoration process,there were no religious ritualstaking place in the temple, norwere there any idols in thepremises. "Ten to 12 peoplecame and ransacked the doorsand stairs of the temple on itsouter side, which affected theconstruction work," Syed RazaAbbas, Assistant SecurityOfficer, Evacue Trust Property,Northern Zone, Rawalpindi,said. IANS

Kabul: Three members of apolio vaccination team werekilled in two separate incidentsin Afghanistans Nangarharprovince, officials said onTuesday. Provincial police chief JumagulHemat told dpa news agencythat one member of the teamwas killed in Police Districtfour of the provincial capital ofJalalabad.

The other two deaths tookplace in the city's Police Districtseven. AP

Brussels: Twenty-five worldleaders have supported a pro-posal from European CouncilPresident Charles Michel todraw up a new internationaltreaty on pandemic prepared-ness in the wake of the Covid-19 crisis.

Leaders including UKPrime Minister Boris Johnson,South African President CyrilRamaphosa and Thai PrimeMinister Prayut Chan-o-chasigned an opinion piece alongwith Michel and World HealthOrganization (WHO)Director-General TedrosAdhanom Ghebreyesus, dpanews agency reported.

"There will be other pan-demics and other major healthemergencies. No single gov-ernment or multilateral agency

can address this threat alone,"the piece, published onTuesday, said. The article madethe case for a new agreementanchored in the WHO's con-stitution that would improveglobal preparedness for pan-demics and ability to respond.

A treaty would provide aframework for internationalcooperation to immediatelyexchange information at thestart of possible pandemics,and channel global resourcesfor research into possible treat-ments and vaccines, Michelsaid at a virtual press confer-ence with Tedros on Tuesday.

"The time to act is now,"Tedros said, "We must notallow the memories of thiscrisis to fade and go back tobusiness as usual." IANS

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Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his wife, Asma,

have recovered from the coro-navirus and returned to theirduties, his office said in a state-ment on Tuesday.

"After the end of the quar-antine period, the disappear-ance of Covid-19 symptoms,and the negative result of thePCR swabs, President Basharal-Assad and Asma al-Assadreturned starting today to theirwork normally," dpa newsagency quoted the statement assaying.

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An Asian American womanwas attacked by a man

who repeatedly kicked her infront of witnesses who seem-ingly stood by, according tosurveillance footage released bythe New City PoliceDepartment. The 65-year-oldwoman was walking in mid-town Manhattan on Mondayafternoon when a man cameup to her and kicked her in thestomach, knocking her to theground, the NYPD said.

The man then stompedon the woman's face severaltimes while hurling anti-Asiansentiments at her, police said.He later casually walked away,the footage shows. The womanwas hospitalised with serious injuries.

Dushanbe: Voicing "grave con-cern" over violence and blood-shed in Afghanistan, India saidon Tuesday that there is needfor a genuine "double peace" inand around the war-torn coun-try and asked the negotiatingparties to engage in good faith,with a serious commitmenttowards reaching a politicalsolution.

Addressing the 9th Heartof Asia Ministerial Conferencehere in Tajikistan's capital,Dushanbe, External AffairsMinister S Jaishankar also saidthat India has been supportiveof all the efforts being made toaccelerate the dialogue betweenthe Afghan government andthe Taliban, including intra-Afghan negotiations.

"For a durable peace inAfghanistan, what we need is agenuine ‘double peace', that is,peace within Afghanistan andpeace around Afghanistan. Itrequires harmonising the inter-ests of all, both within andaround that country,"Jaishankar told the conferenceattended by Afghan PresidentAshraf Ghani, Pakistan ForeignMinister Shah MahmoodQureshi and others. AP

Nay Pyi Taw: The number ofpro-democracy protesterskilled in the ongoing demon-strations in Myanmar againstthe February 1 military couphas surpassed the grim 500mark, a monitoring group saidon Tuesday.

The Assistance Associationfor Political Prisoners (AAPP)puts the nationwide death tollat 510, after another 14 peoplelost their lives at the hands ofsecurity forces on Monday,reports dpa news agency.

The deteriorating situa-tion in Myanmar is alarmingthe international community,especially after 110 deaths werereported on March 27 alone,with the European Union call-ing it "a day of terror".

The latest crackdown wasin Yangon's South Dagontownship, where witnesses saythat, during the past two days,the military has carried out a

campaign of destruction thatlaid waste to whole neigh-bourhoods.

The General StrikeCommittee of Nationalities,one of the main groups behindthe protests, on Monday urgedMyanmar's ethnic armedgroups to stand on the side ofprotesters.

On Tuesday, three suchgroups heeded the call.

In a joint statement, they"strongly denounced" the mil-itary's actions and said theyshare their sympathies with thefamily members of those whohave lost their lives fighting for

Myanmar.The military must imme-

diately stop their attacks andengage in political dialogue, theMyanmar National DemocraticAlliance Army, Palaung StateLiberation Front and theArakan Army said in the state-ment.

"If Myanmar's militarydoesn't do the above men-tioned facts and continue (thekillings), our three partnergroups will cooperate with allnationalities who are joiningMyanmar's spring revolution interms of self-defence," it added.

The military seized controlof the South-East Asian coun-try after an election which for-mer de facto leader Aung SanSuu Kyi's ruling NationalLeague for Democracy partywon by a landslide.

The Army has had Suu Kyiunder house arrest sinceFebruary 1. IANS

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Washington: US President JoeBiden has said 90 per cent ofadult Americans will be eligi-ble to get Covid-19 vaccinationin three weeks.

He told a White Housebriefing on Monday that while90 per cent of adult Americanswill be eligible to get vaccinat-ed by April 19, the remaining10 per cent will be eligible byMay 1, Xinhua news agencyreported.

Biden's remarks came asthe country has seen a rise innew Covid-19 cases in 27states. IANS

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Brussels: EuropeanCommission President Ursulavon der Leyen has warned ofthe "domino effect" of thehealth crisis brought about bythe raging Covid-19 pandem-ic. "We risk that the Covid cri-sis sets off a number of othercrises, especially in developingcountries," she said whileaddressing a high-level meet-ing on international debt archi-tecture and liquidity onMonday. Von der Leyen namedthose crises as a debt one, aneducation crisis and a crisis ofrising inequalities bothbetween countries and withincountries. IANS

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Ousted Tata Sons ChairmanCyrus Mistry on Tuesday

expressed disappointment overthe Supreme Court order in thefight against the conglomerateover his ouster, but asserted hisconscience was clear and hehad no doubt about the direc-tion he took regarding thegenerational change in leader-ship during his tenure.

The apex court order onFriday had set aside NationalCompany Law AppellateTribunal (NCLAT) orderrestoring Mistry as executivechairman of the conglomerate,while allowing appeals filed bythe Tata Group.

"Every member of societylooks to institutions such ascourts to validate and endorsethe appropriateness of his orher actions and beliefs. As aminority shareholder of TataSons, I am personally disap-pointed by the outcome of thejudgement with respect to ourcase," Mistry said in a state-ment.

He further said, "AlthoughI will no longer be able to influ-ence the direction of gover-

nance of the Tata group direct-ly, I hope that the issues I haveraised will cause deeper reflec-tion and influence individualsconcerned to catalyse change.I sleep with a clearconscience. "

On Friday a bench ofChief Justice SA Bobde andJustices AS Bopanna and VRamasubramanian allowedappeals filed by Tata Group. The court said, "All the ques-tions of law are liable to beanswered in favour of theappellants Tata Group and theappeals filed by the Tata Groupare liable to be allowed andthose by Shapoorji PallonjiGroup are liable to be dis-missed.

The apex court had onJanuary 10 last year grantedrelief to the Tata group by stay-ing NCLAT order by whichMistry was restored as theexecutive chairman of the con-glomerate.

Reflecting on the SupremeCourt order, Mistry said, "Lifeis not always fair, but we arestill the lucky ones – I am luckyto have the unwavering sup-port of my family, friends,colleagues - past and present.

I am grateful to my legal teamthat has remained steadfast andcommitted beyond the call ofduty, through this journey.

"This is another step in theevolution of life for me and myfamily. We will celebrate thegood times and take theknocks on our chins."

Mistry, who had raisedseveral raised issues related tocorporate governance andtransparency, including allegedRs 22 crore fraudulent trans-actions involving non-existententities in India and Singaporein Tatas' joint venture with AirAsia, besides accusing RatanTata of feeling insecure abouthis legacy, said he has reflect-ed on his actions since his exitfrom the Tata Group.

"Over the last four years,I have had the opportunity toreflect on my actions and onwhether I could have handledthe generational change inleadership better. In hindsight,while I may have had manyimperfections, I have no doubtor erosion of conviction aboutthe direction I chose, theintegrity behind my actionsand their consequences," hesaid.

Mistry said his aim at TataGroup, "an iconic institutionundergoing a generationalchange in leadership, was toensure a robust board-drivensystem of decision-making andgovernance that is larger thanany one individual".

A key focus was to enablethe directors on variousboards to discharge their fidu-ciary duties without fear orfavour, while still ensuringthat shareholders views werereflected in strategy andactions, he added.

"It continues to be mybelief that it is by such amodel, that one would protectvalue for all stakeholders inTata Sons and its various groupcompanies," Mistry said.

To this end, he said, "Myperformance was reviewed bynearly 50 independent direc-tors across multiple Tataboards that I served. Beyondthe performance metric thatspeaks for itself and the docu-mented appreciation for myinitiatives, I am humbled bythe continued support I havereceived from my former col-leagues and other board mem-bers”.

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Investor wealth surged Rs6,02,001.9 crore in two days

of market rally which was sup-ported by positive global cues.

The 30-share BSE indexon Tuesday closed at 50,136.58,an increase of 1,128.08 pointsor 2.30 per cent. During theday, it gained 1,259.95 points totouch 50,268.45.

On Friday, the bench-mark had closed 568.38 pointshigher. Markets were closed onMonday for Holi.

Driven by the rally, themarket capitalisation of BSE-listed companies soared Rs6,02,001.9 crore to Rs2,04,77,472.33 crore in twotrading days.

"Beating worries ofincreasing COVID cases andrising bond yields, the domes-

Mumbai: Led by a recordnumber of QIP issues andIPOs, the pandemic-hit FY21has been the best for fundrais-ing, with companies raising arecord �1,88,900 crore in pub-lic equity sales during the year,more than double of �91,670crore in the previous fiscal,according to a report.

According to data com-piled by PRIME Database onTuesday, the previous best was in2017-18 when companies hadmopped up Rs 1,75,680 crore.

The year was also good witha record qualified institutionalplacements worth Rs 78,731crore and IPOs with Rs 31,268crore raised through initial pubicissues, more than half of whichtook place in the ongoing quar-ter of the outgoing fiscal.

Of the total Rs 1,88,900

crore, fresh capital amountwas Rs 1,36,992 crore (73 per-cent); the remaining Rs 51,908crore being offers for sale.

PRIME DatabaseManaging Director PranavHaldea said strong retail par-ticipation in IPOs, huge listinggains and the highest-everamount raised through qualifiedinstitutional placements (QIPs)and InvITs/ReITs were the keyhighlights of the fiscal.

Similarly, this was the bestyear for QIPs, with 31 issuesmobilising Rs 78,731 crore,the highest ever in a financialyear, and this was 54 per centhigher than Rs 51,216 croreraised in 2019-20. The largestQIP was from ICICI Bankraising Rs 15,000 crore,accounting for 19 per cent ofthe total. PTI

New Delhi:: Amidst assemblyelections in four states and aUnion territory, the govern-ment on Tuesday approvedissuance of the 16th tranche ofelectoral bonds which will beopen for sale from April 1 to10.

Electoral bonds havebeen pitched as an alternativeto cash donations made topolitical parties as part ofefforts to bring transparency inpolitical funding. However,Opposition parties have beenraising concerns about allegedopaqueness in funding throughsuch bonds.

The Election Commissionof India (ECI) has accorded 'noobjection' from the ModelCode of Conduct (MCC) angleon March 17. PTI

New Delhi:As per CouncilRegulations of 2020, candi-dates need to qualify anAptitude Test in Architectureconducted by the Council foradmission to B.Arch. course.Aspirants for B.Arch. courseneed to register themselves atthe portal www.nata.in forNATA 2021 for admission, irre-

spective of place of study, insti-tution, deemed University, uni-versity centrally funded, statefunded or private or any other.place offering B.Arch degree.Last date of registration for thefirst test is 01.04.2021. Furtherdetails on NATA, are availablein the brochure at www.nata.in.

New Delhi: India's inflation isat "uncomfortably high" level,which is an exception amongAsian economies, Moody'sAnalytics said on Tuesday.

Higher fuel prices willkeep upward pressure on retailinflation and keep the RBIfrom offering further rate cuts,said Moody's Analytics, afinancial intelligence company.

Retail inflation rose to 5per cent in February, from 4.1per cent in January. TheReserve Bank mainly takesinto account retail inflationwhile deciding on the mone-tary policy.

Core inflation (whichexcludes food, fuel and light)was up 5.6 per cent in February,from 5.3 per cent in January,Moody's Analytics said, addingIndia's inflation is "uncom-fortably high".

In its macro roundup,Moody's Analytics said infla-tion is subdued in most of Asia,and expected to only gradual-ly pick up over 2021 because of

rising oil prices and economiesstarting to reopen. Brent crudehas climbed 26 per cent thisyear at around USD 64 per bar-rel.

It was around USD 30 perbarrel in March 2020, when theCOVID-19 crisis was near itspeak.

"India and the Philippinesare exceptions. In theseeconomies, inflation is abovecomfort levels, adding to the listof challenges for policymakers,"it said.

Stating that India's infla-tion is "worrisome", it saidvolatile food prices and risingoil prices led retail inflation toexceed the upper band of 6 percent several times in 2020,inhibiting the RBI's ability tokeep accommodative monetarysettings in place during theheight of the pandemic.

Under the monetary poli-cy framework, RBI has a targetfor maintaining retail ination at4 per cent (+/- 2 per cent).

PTI

New Delhi: India's economicoutput in 2021 is expected toremain below the 2019 leveldespite roll-out of the vaccineto deal with the menace of thecoronavirus pandemic, said areport by the United NationsEconomic and SocialCommission for Asia and thePacific (UNESCAP) releasedon Tuesday.

India, according to the'Economic and Social Survey ofAsia and the Pacific 2021:Towards post-COVID-19resilient economies', is esti-mated to record an economicgrowth of 7 per cent in 2021-22, over a contraction of 7.7 percent witnessed in the previousfiscal on account of the pan-demic's impact on normal busi-ness activity. Observing thatIndia entered the pandemicwith subdued GDP growthand investment, the reportsaid, "Following one of themost stringent lockdowns inthe world, the economic dis-ruptions that the country expe-

rienced mounted in the secondquarter of 2020."

It added that a subsequentchange in lockdown policiesand success in reducing infec-tion rates supported an impres-sive economic turnaround inthe third quarter.

"However, the pace ofrecovery moderated in thefourth quarter with estimatedyear-on-year growth still closeto zero. "Despite a robustreduction in new COVID-19cases and the start of vaccineroll-out, India's 2021 econom-ic output is expected to remainbelow the 2019 level," it added.

Meanwhile, maintaininglow borrowing costs whilekeeping non-performing loansin check would be a challenge,it added.

In its second advance esti-mates of national accounts,the National Statistical Office(NSO) has projected an 8 percent contraction in 2020-21,showing the pandemic impact.

PTI

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Mumbai:The rupee slumpedby 87 paise to close at 73.38(provisional) against the UScurrency on Tuesday as risingcrude oil prices and a strongAmerican currency weighed oninvestor sentiment.

At the interbank forex mar-ket, the local unit opened at72.85 against the greenback andtraded in the range of 72.77-73.47 during the day. PTI

tic market sparked a rally todayas investors turned their focusto economic recovery sup-ported by vaccination drives.Positive openings seen in Asian

and European markets alsohelped in boosting optimism inthe Indian market," VinodNair, Head of Research atGeojit Financial Services, said.

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������������ ��� ��! ���������"#New Delhi:Gold dipped by � 138 to � 44,113 per 10 gramin the national capital onTuesday amid decline in glob-al precious metal prices,according to HDFC Securities.

In the previous trade, it hadclosed at � 44,251 per 10 grams.

Silver also declined �320to �63,212 per kg, from �63,532per kg in the previous trade.

PTI

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Faridabad: Goodyear IndiaLimited, in associationMunicipal Corporation ofFaridabad, CorridorManagement Unit of MathuraRoad, NHAI, and IndianPollution Control Association(IPCA), installed 22 wind puri-fying units at 3 highly pollutedlocations at Ballabhgarh as partof its CSR initiative "Solutionsto Air Pollution". IPCA will

install, maintain and ensure theupkeep of the advanced airpurifiers.

We hope our contributionhelps the residents ofBallabhgarh and Faridabad tolead a healthier life by breath-ing cleaner air, said the CMDGoodyear India Limited.Faridabad DeputyCommissioner Yash Pal appre-ciated Goodyear's contribution.

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Mumbai:Anshuman Singhania,managing director of JK Tyre &Industries, and Mohan Kumarexecutive director, MichelinIndia, have been unanimouslyelected as chairman and vice-chairman of Automotive TyreManufacturers' Association(ATMA), the national industry

body for automotive tyre sectorin India, respectively.

Anshuman Singhania is agraduate from Oxford BrookesUniversity, UK and an alumnusof London Business School;while Mohan Kumar is a grad-uate from NIT Trichy and a post-graduate from IIM Bangalore.

4B�CB8��2��������$��0�������A4<�����������������New Delhi: In order to aid themid-meal beneficiaries duringthe Covid-19 pandemic that hasdisrupted ongoing child welfareactivities and aggravated mal-nutrition crisis, NewgenSoftware, a global provider ofdigital automation platform,teamed up with The AkshayaPatra Foundation to provide

mid-day meals and happinesskits, worth around Rs 1 crore to17,378 children in Vrindavan,Lucknow and Jhalawar.Priyadarshini Nigam, head ofcorporate communications,Newgen Software, said, "Thiscollaboration supports ourvision of ensuring the holisticdevelopment of children."

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Shiksha, a part of Info EdgeLimited and one of India’s

leading career and collegeselection website for stu-dents, recently conducted asurvey on MBA aspirantstitled MBA Outlook 2021that traces trends on prefer-ences that are gaining tractionamong Indian students aspir-ing to pursue higher educa-tion in India.

The report provides anoverview of popular MBAentrance exams in India, witha particular focus on top

locations in the country forstudents who want to pursueMBA. The report highlightsnine different facets of whatMBA aspirants want includ-ing, apart from CAT, MATand CMAT are gaining pop-ularity.

According to report,overall preference for CAT,XAT, SNAP, MICAT,IRMASAT and SPJATincreased by minimum 10%in 2020 when compared to2019 while preference forexams such as NMAT andIIFT declined by nearly 12-25% in 2020 over 2019.

�The pandemic has seen an increasein K-12 segment students learningcoding. What is the reason?

Due to the pandemic, K-12schools across the globe were forcedto adopt online learning. The grad-ual shift towards online learningfrom traditional learning methodsignited the continuation of extra-cur-ricular activities and vocational skillsthrough online mode. As a skill, cod-ing is crucial in making young chil-dren future-ready to cope with ever-rising technological advancementsacross all sectors. We are living in theage of Artificial Intelligence andautomation. Our upcoming genera-tion will require coding as an inher-ited skill in order to become employ-able and even carry out day to daytasks. This is why we have seen a rapidrise in K-12 students learning codingduring the pandemic.�Isn’t it too early?

Coding is a proven tool toenhance 21st-Century skills like log-ical thinking, creativity, analyticalskills, computational thinking and

problem solving skills. Understandingcomputers and learning the basics ofcoding helps children develop a com-prehensive understanding of howthings work in the real world aroundthem. Critical thinking, a fancy wayof saying good thinking, is a skill thatcan be developed with the help ofcoding. With the help of block-basedprogramming, kids can understandthe cause and effect relationships andcan explore a whole different list ofoptions. Creativity, the most soughtafter skil, can also be developed withcoding. The purpose of introducingcoding at an early age is not to makefuture techpreneurs and softwareengineers but coding is a medium forstudents to understand the underly-ing concepts of science and mathe-matics as they continue to buildsolutions inspired by their sur-roundings.

Coding, as being introduced at anearly age, will help identify the round-pegs in the square holes and motivatestudents to become thinkers andtinkerers. This will help our youth to

be prepared for any challenges andadversities they might face in thefuture.�What are some of the courses thatchildren can explore?

Coding is being taught throughmultiple platforms and children canchoose a technology as per theirinterest like Block-based coding, 3DDesigning, Artificial Intelligence &Python, Application Development,Electronics, Robotics and manymore. With Tinker Coders, chil-dren are able to understand the con-cepts of programming with in theeasiest way possible. Also, studentscan explore multiple technologies inthe initial months with the help ofGrade wise courses designed forvarious grades starting from GradeII-XII and as per their interests andcapabilities, they can further pursuecoding in the technology of theirinterest with the help of variousinternship programmes. �What does the future hold for cod-ing?

With rapid technological

advancements, it has become manda-tory to equip the students with theskills and knowledge needed forthem to sustain and excel the futur-istic jobs accelerated by theseadvancements. With coding becom-ing an indispensable part of our life,we are ready to witness exponentialgrowth in the coding market in theupcoming years. The New EducationPolicy 2020 where coding is beingintroduced from Class VI onwards asa vocational skill, has accelerated thegrowth of coding market in India.Even in the pandemic, many com-panies have witnessed 100 per centmonth on month growth in terms ofvaluation. At the current pace, we arelikely to witness an exponentialgrowth in the coding market for kids.�What all initiatives have youtaken for the students in ruralareas so that they can learn coding?

To bridge the gap of access totechnology among all sections ofsociety, we have come up with mul-tiple solutions on which we areworking parallelly. Tinker Coders will

play a crucial role in reaching out tothe masses having little exposure tocomputers and laptops as most of ourcoding platforms work onSmartphone as well. We are launch-ing various programmes that will easethe access to coding and experientiallearning through smartphones.Students will be able to access thecomplete course on their smart-phones and will be able to learn cod-ing and make interesting projects,mobile applications through theirsmartphones itself. To tackle theissue of internet connectivity, thecompany provides self-learning mod-ules as well, so that the learningprocess doesn’t hamper. With thehelp of self-learning modules, stu-dents could access pre-recordedvideos and documents at any partic-ular time. We have collaborated withthe schools across India under“De<Code> The Future” campaignwhere we are targeting to reach to themaximum students who might nothave access to facilities like comput-ers, Internet and electricity.

In spite of the fact that the effect ofthe Coronavirus has been very

unfavourable to numerous busi-nesses and organisations, it hasopened the window to significantlearning opportunities for studentsin sports management and commu-nications programs.

Here’s how:The pandemic and the subse-

quent lockdown had affected busi-nesses all over the globe acrossnearly all industries. If we talkspecifically about the sports indus-try, we witnessed continuous can-cellation or postponement of majorsporting events — from football tocricket, rugby, ice hockey, basket-ball, and even Olympics &Paralympics (now to begin in July,2021).

While some sporting eventsand related businesses haveresumed their operations and ser-vices, the need to reduce the oper-ating costs is sti l l looming.Consequently, the kind of jobopportunities and compensationtrends in sports industry have alsotaken a downturn. Although this isa tough situation for experiencedworkers, it can turn out to be anexcellent time for students toacquire valuable learning opportu-

nities, as more businesses in thesports industry are now willing toonboard apprentices and interns totake over the roles to fulfil theirbusiness goals at minimised costs.

While most internship andlearning opportunities with variousbusinesses can be found on therespective company’s website andpreferred job portals, it can be hardfor students to come face-to-facewith these opportunities on theirown due to lack of experience andknowledge of where to look. Thus,involvement of administration, aca-demic counseling and placementcenters of educational institutesand learning centers can help bridgethe gap.

Ideally, the role of institutes andfaculty members in this scenariowould include:

�Consulting with business per-sonnel to understand their needs,and figure out and communicateways in which students and fresh-ers could assist.

�Collaborating with business-es and arranging guest-speakingsessions by business personnel oracademic counselors to share theopportunities and needs of thesaid business.

�Guiding students throughout

the process in understanding thebusiness processes, workplace poli-cies, applying their literary knowl-edge in real-word scenarios, andresolving challenges faced - along-side the actual business mentors.

�Creating learning strategiessuch that all student generated con-tent goes through an initial reviewround by a faculty member beforebeing passed on and presented tothe business mentor. Such strategywould help ease the learning processfor the students and would leave lit-tle to no room for doubts.

Benefits of developing studentlearning based on participatorysport:

�It can help students get a first-hand experience of what it is like towork with an actual participatorysport business and add a sense ofrealism to their learning.

�It can assist students under-stand the basics and diverse oper-ations involved in creating andhandling any task specific to thebusiness.

�It will challenge students toimprove their critical thinking skillsand think of various ways to attractand retain customers.

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The IIM Bodh Gaya organised intro-duced their Integrated Programme in

Management (IPM) course on March 24,2021. The institute is all set to launch thefive-year course from the academic year2021.

The course is designed for under-graduate students interested in the man-agement field. Dr Vinita Sahay, Director,IIM Bodh Gaya, said that the number ofopportunities for students interested inentering the corporate world is signifi-cantly less, especially at the undergradu-ate level. IPM will be a gateway for ‘freshout of school’ students interested in cor-porate without waiting to reach the post-

graduate level to study. The first three years will be for under-

graduate studies and the latter two yearswill be for the core management studies,and the IPM course will culminate withan MBA.

The candidates will be assessedthrough a test called the Joint IntegratedProgramme in Management AdmissionTest (JIPMAT). IIM Bodh Gaya and IIMJammu have come together to conduct JIP-MAT across 78 cities in India. The regis-tration will start from 1st April 2021. Theassessment will be done based on Class X,XII and entrance test scores. The weigh-tage to the JIPMAT scores, Class X andClass XII percentages will be 70%, 15%,and 15%, respectively.

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India is full of talentedpeople inclined toward

acting and storytelling, butthey don’t know where tostart, as a result of variousbarriers of entry.Geography, language, eco-nomic and socio-culturaldifferences pose real barri-ers for most when it comesto getting access to highquality theatre education.

The Ekalavya OnlineSchool of Drama aims totranscend these obstacles,

and give individuals whoseek these opportunities, aspace to learn, hone theirnatural talent, and boosttheir self-confidence, whileteaching them to act andsetting the stage for acareer in the film and the-atre industry.

As online educationgoes mainstream, the DSMhas embraced this mediumand designed never beforeimagined online trainingmodules in acting. Coursesthat are not just "gyan" forpassive consumption, but

require active participa-tion, performing tasks tocamera, with a strongfocus on learning-by-doing.

Ekalavya is created bycore team members fromDSMs highly experiencedfaculty; theatre actors,directors and teachers,many of whom are nation-al award winners. Since2008, DSM faculty havecreated courses that boost-ed the careers of actors likeRanveer Singh, KalkiKochlien, Richa Chaddha,

Swara Bhaskar, KunalKapoor, Gulshan Devaiah,Vicky Kaushal, amongstothers.

The Ekalavya OnlineSchool of Drama offerspreparatory courses inCharacter Study,Monologue, ExpressiveVoice, Expressive Body,Script Analysis,Storytelling, Acting forCamera, the Art ofAuditioning, among oth-ers. In essence, it forms thefundamental textbook fortheatre and acting.

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India’s education segment is rapid-ly changing and online learning has

become an indispensable part of it.All thanks to technological advance-ments, marking a new chapter for thesector in the post-Covid world.While other occupations struggled in2020 due to the Covid-19 pandem-ic, educational start-ups and teach-ers found a common platform of e-learning to engage with learners.EdTech startups are mushrooming ata rapid pace to keep up with thedemand in the market.

While work-from-home was notentirely a new concept in the pre-Covid days, school-from-home cer-tainly is! Educational institutionswere among the first to shut downand the country was faced with a seri-ous predicament — academic dis-continuity for millions of students.Enter, e-learning! The pandemicexponentially accelerated adoption ofe-learning. Edtech companies thatwere agile, adapted quickly to the newcircumstances and offer more thanjust online tutoring that existedbefore the pandemic struck.

With students sequestered athome due to social distancing normsand health concerns, educators hadto find efficient and interesting waysto engage students. It became impor-tant for solution providers to designlessons to interest the curious learn-er to learn further, even during thepandemic-induced lockdown.

One reason edtech companieswere able to allow students to gainaccess to best-in-class remote learn-ing is technology. Internet prolifer-ation and increased usage of smart-phones has made elearning moreaccessible than ever, even to students

in Tier-II and Tier-III towns. Schoolshave shifted to online learning andteachers are encouraging students toadopt online learning methods sincethey are convenient and efficient. Thefuture of education is now set to bestudent-centric rather than teacher-centric, with the advent and increasedadoption of online learning tools.

Experiential learning:Experiential learning is a process thatallows learners to develop knowledgeand skills from their own experiencerather than from formal courses. Thisis understandable. When you learnto ride a bicycle or to swim, you neverforget because you learnt the skillspractically. Similarly, when you watch

movies, you retain more - the con-cepts come to life before your eyesand ears — creating greater retention.How many of us have sat throughboring classes and lost interest in sub-jects because of the traditional meth-ods of teaching and learning?Experiential learning is, therefore,interactive, participative and multi-dimensional. It is only through expe-riential learning characteristics, whenwoven into the curriculum, thatstudents will be better prepared toface the complexities of the modernworld.

Edtech companies are facilitatinglive classes, automated attendance,personalised assignments, ready-to-

use presentations, adaptive practiceand even instant doubt-clearing,making learning more convenientand efficient, and creating a unifiedlearning solution. These advances ine-learning further help India makethe transition to digital educationfrom physical classrooms. And thebig difference between the traditionalways and digital education is expe-riential learning. Hands-on learning,immersive storytelling, gamifica-tion, simulations and videos are thebest way for students to absorb, retainand apply concepts.

Experiential learning is effectivebecause it closely mimics real-worldexperiences, structures and monitorsthose experiences and provides ampleopportunities for hands-on doing,experimenting and simulation. Usingall these elements produces a pow-erful learning experience that cannotbe replicated by other learning meth-ods.

Today, the classrooms combinedwith digital learning tools throughinnovative methods have helped inincreasing the student’s engagementwith personalised learning approach.Artificial intelligence and machinelearning have become an integral partof the teaching process that allow stu-dents to learn with an understand-ing.

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����������The University of

Sheffield, UK invites applica-tions for MSc Robotics coursestarting in September 2021.

Build on your existingknowledge to become anexpert in robotics andautonomous systems, with theinterdisciplinary skills to jointhe next generation of engi-neers. This course helps youtranslate your existing knowl-edge and skills and developsthem in the key areas of robot-ics and autonomous systems.You’ll learn about sensing andperception, cognition andautonomy, control and plan-ning and robotic devices.

Duration: One yearEligibility: Minimum of

60 per cent or first class froma reputable university in anumerate subject such as engi-neering mathematics or phys-ical sciences. Overall IELTSscore of 6.5 with a minimumof 6.0 in each component, orequivalent.

How to apply: Log on tohttps://www.sheffield.ac.uk/postg ra du ate / taug ht / c our s -es/2021/robotics-msc or con-tact: [email protected].

�����������The Strathclyde Business

School (University ofStrathclyde) Glasgow invitesapplications for its new MScEconomics & Policy of Energy& Climate Change coursestarting in September 2021.

Develop a strong under-standing of key issues in envi-ronment and energy from pol-icy and economic perspec-tives, gain practical insightfrom leading energy and cli-mate change experts and ben-efit from applied teaching,which focuses on the devel-opment of transferable skillsand applicable knowledge.

The course offers excellentopportunities to network withenergy and climate changespecialists from a broad rangeof organisations. The course isdesigned to maximise theopportunities for industryengagement. You'll also havethe opportunity to take part inevents organised by the

Scottish Energy Forum.Eligibility: Minimum sec-

ond-class honours degree oroverseas equivalent in anysubject. Applications are wel-come from candidates withsignificant high-calibre indus-try or Government experi-ence. 6.5 IELTS score, with noindividual score lower than5.5.

How to apply: Log on tohttps://www.strath.ac.uk/cours-es/postgraduatetaught/eco-nomicspolicyofenergyclimate-change/#whythiscourse.

������������The Hong Kong

University of Science andTechnology (HKUST) invitesapplications for the 2021-2022academic session for the uni-versity’s most popular cours-es across Engineering, Science,Humanities and Businessstreams that are designed tohelp students with ingenuity,entrepreneurship and leader-ship skills required for 21stCentury job market.

Eligibility: Students whowish to apply must fulfil theGeneral Admission,School/Program-Specific andEnglish Language require-ments. The university reviewseach application holistically,considering both academicperformance and non-acade-mic achievements. For stu-dents using Indian Boardsexams, the requirements are“Pass Certificates obtained oncompletion of Standard XII(State and National boards)”and reference score of previousstudents admitted to HKUSTis “overall average of 85% orabove”.

How to apply: Log on tohttps://join.ust.hk/admis-sions/international-qualifica-tions/. The students can alsovisit https://join.ust.hk/apply.

Decoding a bright future

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What is the best job in countrytoday? Undoubtedly CivilServices will come out as clear

winner if we take a poll. The UPSC examis considered the toughest exam in thecountry, and it is no joke to crack it. Ithas earned this reputation because of theintense competition and the vast syllabusthe exam has to offer. Yet, why do we notsee the best talents of the country mak-ing bee-line to prepare for UPSC. WhyUPSC is a priority only for a select few?

Preparing for UPSC can be the bestthing for our young graduates. The dis-cipline, vast knowledge and analyticalskills one learns in the process is usefulin any profession.

Only requirement is that aspirantspreparing for this exam have to be deter-mined, focused and have high energy ifthey wish to clear the exam. Any 21-year-old graduate is eligible for the UPSCexam.

Students who begin preparing forUPSC exams while pursuing a degree geta proper lesson in time management.They have to juggle their preparationwith the classes and courses they haveenrolled in, and they even have to fol-low a proper timetable. This habit even-tually will help them in their profession-al career, irrespective of the field theychoose.

Candidates who get selected areamong the brightest and smartest indi-viduals in the country. Not even five percent of the graduates apply for the UPSCexams each year. Why? Why is the bestjob in the country not attractive to themajority of Graduates? If each andevery student starts appearing for theexam, then the amount of talent tochoose from will certainly increase andthat would be beneficial for the nation.

The major concern that college stu-dents feel is how to manage regular stud-ies along with UPSC preparation? Andby getting stuck in this dilemma, moststudents quit their dream of becominga Civil Servant one day.

Today the challenge in front of anystudent is different. In a world ofWhatsapp, Youtube and Google, howwill one find a trustworthy and concisesource of information and content.Thelure of availing Free content leads tomany wasting precious time. These for-

mative years shouldn't be wasted.Keeping in mind the benefits one

can get if he/ she starts preparing for theexam early in life, We at UPSC Pathshalahave also come up with different cours-es that aim at helping the early starterswith proper guidance. The flexibility ofthis platform makes it even easier for stu-dents to prepare for the UPSC examalong with their regular college sched-ule.

Each individual who is currentlyenrolled in any university should aim toclear the UPSC exam because therewouldn't be a better time than this toprepare for the examination.

The perks and the peace of mind thecandidate will get after clearing theexamination and serving the countrywould match the efforts he/ she puts intoday. Saying that appearing in UPSCexams should be made compulsory forstudents pursuing a degree won't be rightas each individual should have the free-dom of doing what he or she wants topursue.

But each student should be madeaware that Civil Service is also anattractive option considering that noteach profession will give a chance tobring a change in society.

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The Verizon India hascollaborated withthe Indian Institute

of Technology, Madras tolaunch V Provide RightOpportunity to PowerEnabled Learning, a merit-cum-means scholarshipprogramme to pursue BScin Programming and DataScience.

The aim’s to supportmeritorious students whoseannual family income isless than �1lakh. Throughthis scholarship pro-gramme, select studentswill receive financial assis-tance for four academicterms.

This will provide anopportunity for learners topursue an undergraduatedegree/diploma from IITMadras regardless of age,location or academic back-ground. In addition, thescholarship will give prefer-ence to meritorious womenstudents and students withdisabilities.

For more details aboutthe programme, visit:https://onlinedegree.iitm.ac.in.

The Queen’sUniversity, Belfast invitesapplications for itsUndergraduate Awards forthe academic year 2021-

2022.N a t i o n a l i t y :

International students(INdian) can apply.

Award: £2500-£3000Eligibility: Students

must be self-funded (thegrant is awarded for the firstyear of study, and it isdeducted from gross tuitionfees upon enrolment); Ifyou receive funding froman external sponsorshipbody such as a charity, aprivate organisation, orgovernment, you will not beeligible for the award, stu-dents can use their award inconjunction with the Early-Bird reward discount.

Supporting docu-ments: Applicants mustpresent a transcript, pho-tographs, letter of recom-mendation, a resume, pho-tocopy of passport, and allthe previous necessarymark-sheets.

Language require-ments: Students must haveexcellent proficiency in theEnglish language to study inthe UK.

How to apply: To beeligible for the sponsor-ship, students must takeadmission in an under-graduate degree pro-gramme at Queen’sUniversity Belfast. Aftergetting enrolled, aspirantswill automatically beassessed for the bursary.

Application deadline:The last date to apply isJune 30, 2021.

Global companies developingbusinesses across countrieshave created a diverse and

competitive workforce that canrun businesses internationally.Graduation from an internation-al business development MBAprogramme is a career-changingevent that can drastically increasechances for promotions on theglobal front.

Today, every business is goingto expand. It is the age of compe-tition and everyone is trying toadopt the money-making tech-nique. Companies that are aimingto expand and establish theirbusiness in a foreign countryrequire candidates that are trainedto deal with international scenar-ios and are knowledgeable with theconcepts and theories that can behelpful for business’ establish-ment.

Here students are taught aboutthe International Business Law &Ethics, Strategic Marketing &Branding, InterculturalManagement & InternationalNegotiation, Management ofInnovation, International

Partnerships and Mergers &Acquisition, Advanced BusinessPlanning, Business Plan JuryPresentations, InternationalEconomics & Micro Markets todevelop skills.

Roles and ResponsibilitiesInternational Business

Development Managers areexpansion wizards who craft suc-cessful strategies for taking com-panies into new avenues to max-imise the Return on Assets. Theyare responsible to monitor theeffective implementation of inter-national business developmentactivities. Develop individual busi-ness plans for each country. Theyadminister and develop initia-tives to increase sales and marketdevelopment activities.

Help to analyse businessstrategies and develop improve-ment plans for the same to provideappropriate growth to the busi-ness. They manage all develop-ment processes and ensure com-pliance with government policiesand regulations. Assist businessesto identify opportunities and

develop strategic plans to enhancethe same. Manage customer/clientcommunication and maintain aneffective relationship with all.Prepare and implement variouscapture methods for businessdevelopment. Review competitorplans and the effect of productsand services in management.Maintain all communication withDirector. Evaluate market trendsand provide appropriate supportto product development.

Skills RequiredAnalytical and leadership

skills, creativity, business develop-ment, market research, logistics,new customers, sales goals, expan-sion planning, intercultural com-petence are a must.

ScopeAfter completing this degree,

you can join various enterprises orfirms anywhere. Apart from glob-al companies that contend oninternational markets. For exam-ple, airlines and chain restau-rants, graduates of internationalbusiness MBA programme fre-

quently find careers within non-profit organisations, Governmentagencies, and banks.

EligibilityStudent must hold a bachelor’s

degree minimum of three yearsduration in any of the disciplines& score at least 50 per cent marksin the qualifying exam. You canjoin this course after completingUG degree in BTech/BArch,Medical, Arts, Humanities andScience. One has to clear theentrance exam, group discussionand personal interview. There isno age limit to apply for thiscourse.

RemunerationThis field has a good oppor-

tunity to get handsome salaries. Apostgraduate in international busi-ness development from a reputedinstitution can get the initial salaryoffered range from �5 lakh to �8lakh per annum and the designa-tion will be as a business develop-ment manager.

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The SRM Institute of Science andTechnology (SRMIST),Kattankulathur in collaboration

with National Chung Cheng University(CCU), Taiwan has come out with a SmartPandemic Prevention Technology. TheTaiwan-India Joint Collaboration Efforthas been made on alleviating the effectsof the ensuing global pandemic problem.

CCU and SRMIST have shared smartand advanced technologies resulting in theimplementation and deployment of theSmart Pandemic Prevention System(SPPS) which includes smart face recog-nition, thermal body temperature moni-toring and real-time social contact analy-sis.

A presentation of the results of the“Taiwan-India Joint Collaboration inSmart Pandemic Prevention System” washeld online, presided by Vice Chancellor(Interim) of SRMIST Dr CMuthamizchelvan and Pro-ViceChancellor (Medical and Health Science)of SRMIST Lt Col Dr A Ravi Kumar alongwith Dr Mu-Min Chen, DeputyRepresentative of TECC, Dr CT Wang,Director of Science and Technology,TECC, Dr Chadaram Sivaji, Director ofInternational Bilateral CooperationDivision, DST, India.

The Taipei Economic and Cultural

Center (TECC) and Taiwan EducationCenter (TEC) had invited the Taiwan-India Joint Research Center on ArtificialIntelligence organised by the NationalChung Cheng University (CCU) and IITRopar along with the SRMIST to jointlycreate a Smart Pandemic PreventionSystem (SPPS) which is currently deployedon the campuses of both CCU andSRMIST, with the possibility of extendingit to hospitals and other hotspot areaswhere pandemic prevention is of utmostimportance.

The system has four main features,including automatic body monitoring andrecording, smart face recognition, alongwith face mask recognition and social con-tact analysis. Automatic body monitoringwas achieved using a thermal camera, butthe students and professors worked onmaking the software checking more accu-rate. This helped reduce the number ofemployees that were needed for checkingbody temperatures at each and everyentrance/exit on campus.

Face recognition adapted the latestdeep neural network model such asMTCNN and MobileFacenet, with opti-misations for Indian faces. Face trackingwas achieved using the SORT algorithm.An edge-based version was also developedon the Nvidia Jetson Nano board.

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Sergio Aguero, ManchesterCity’s all-time leading scorer,

will be leaving the club when hiscontract expires at the end of theseason, the team announced onMonday.

Aguero dazzledover an illustriousdecade-long spell atCity, winning thePremier Leaguetitle four times,the League Cupon five occa-sions, and theFA Cup in2018-19.

The 32-year-old is likely to add tohis trophy cabinetbefore he departs, asCity remain in thehunt to win anu npre c e d e nte dquadruple.

“A huge sense of satisfac-tion and pride remains in mefor having played withManchester City for a whole10 seasons — unusual for aprofessional player this day

and age,” Aguero wrote in astatement.

“Ten seasons withmajor achievements,throughout which Iwas able to becomethe top historicgoalscorer and forg-ing an indestruc-tible bond with allthose who love this

club — people whowill always be in my

heart.”Aguero famously

delivered City’s firstPremier League title on thefinal day of the 2011-12season with a 94th-minute winner againstQueens Park Rangers.

The goal bumped crosstown rivalsManchester United out of first placeon goal difference.

Commentator Martin Tyler’sfamous call of Aguero’s heroicsmakes the rounds to this day.

But it is Aguero’s longevity asCity’s go-to striker that sets himapart. The Argentine has scored 257goals in 384 appearances since join-ing City from Atletico Madrid in

2011, breaking Eric Brook’s 78-year-old record in the process.Among those tallies is a PremierLeague-record 12 hat-tricks.

Aguero transformed into a com-plete player upon Pep Guardiola’sarrival in 2016, upping his intensi-ty and contributing to the team’sbuild-up play. But several injurieshave curtailed his contributionsover the past year. Aguero, who alsomissed time with Covid-19, hasstarted just five matches in all com-petitions this season.

Team chairman Khaldoon AlMubarak said a statue of Agueroalongside former teammates DavidSilva and Vincent Kompany will beplaced outside the Etihad Stadium.

It’s unclear where Aguero willend up next. He previously expresseda desire to return to Argentinian clubIndependiente, where he started hiscareer, and he’s also been linked withBarcelona, Paris Saint-Germain, andJuventus. He’ll be available on a freetransfer.

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HARMANPREET KAUR TESTS COVID POSITIVEPatiala: ��� ������ �� ��=� �>? �� ������+�� ������������������������"��,����)'@������9���������� �#��� �� �!��������������#�������>?�����������������"������0��$����"����-����������#"����"�"�1%��������'H��������#"�������������"������#����� �#�"����!C�������#")���#���� � �� �! ��� �� ���� �������� ������������ ������������ ������!������ �#�"���� ����� "��� ���� �� ����� � ��� ��� � ������!����������"������������������#�������������D��������#�������#��������!

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IPL auction’s most expensive buyChris Morris says leading theRajasthan Royals’ pace attack in the

absence of injured Jofra Archer in theupcoming IPL will be an added respon-sibility but it doesn’t change his role inthe team.

In a major blow to the Royals’ cam-paign, pace spearhead Archer wasruled out of the first half of the tour-nament due to an elbow injury he suf-fered during the recently concludedEngland’s tour of India.

In his absence new-recruit Morrisis set to lead the fast-bowling attack.

“Every single team that I haveplayed in the IPL, my role has been withthe new ball and at the death. Thatdoesn’t really change. I have always hadfast bowlers in the team and I’ve beenthere as supporting act,” Morris said ata virtual press conference. “It won’t bea new role if I am leading an attack,won’t be new if I am supporting. Thereis a little bit of responsibility when itcomes to leading the attack. But like Isaid, it wouldn’t be able to be alien tome,” he added.

Morris became the most expensivebuy in the IPL auction history with theRoyals shelling out �16.25 crore for theSouth African all-rounder last month.

Talking about the pressure thatcomes with such an expensive price tag,Morris said, “I think it’s natural to havea little bit of a pressure when somethinglike that has happened. I’d be lying toyou if there wasn’t any pressure but for-tunately enough in the past, I have beencoming in with quite a big price tag onmy head.

“At the end of the day, you need toperform, no matter what the price tagis.”

Morris feels his role in the team isdifferent to that of fellow all-rounderBen Stokes, who he feels possess the“magic touch in cricket”.

“I think we have got different rolesStokes opens the batting. He is one ofthe best in the world if not the best. Myrole is to finish off games with the batwhich I hope I can do more of this year.

“With the ball it’s different I thinkhe bowled a lot less in the IPL last yearthan he did in the previous years. Butthe guy has got the magic touch whenit comes to cricket. So, you know, if wefeeding off each other in our different

roles on the team, you know, I think wecould be quite a quite an interesting duoto come up against,” Morris said.

The Royals have a new skipper inSanju Samson this year. Morris, whohas shared the dressing room with the26-year-old in the IPL before, feels assomeone who keeps wickets and alsofields, the Indian will have to a lot tooffer while leading the side. “I’m obvi-ously quite lucky I’ve got a very goodrelationship with Sanju, I have battedwith him at Rajasthan and in Delhi. Idon’t see him as a young captain, I seehim as seriously good cricket player,who has got a great cricket brain.

“For a guy who can keep wicketsand field he has seen different angles,different approaches from the back andthe side. So, you know, I’m sure it’s gotsome good ideas, I’m sure it’s got someinteresting things that we can discusswhen it comes to tactics and to what theplans are.”

Humbled to have gone for such ahigh price tag, Morris said that seeingso many teams interested in his servicesis a confidence booster.

“I didn’t expect to be bought for thatmuch and so many teams to employ myservices. It’s humbling, I never thoughtI’d be playing these many IPLs.”

The 33-year-old is firmly focussedon winning the IPL.

“Whether T20 World Cup or not it’sgoing to be a very important season.Your main focus is to win the IPL. It’sthe second biggest trophy, if not thebiggest in the year without a WorldCup, you want to win as a domesticcricketer.”

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Steve Smith is interested inbecoming Australia skipper

once again if the opportunitycomes but head coach JustinLanger has made it clear thatthe position is not availableright now.

The 31-year-old Smithserved a one-year ban fromplaying and was disqualifiedfrom leading Australia fortwo years because of his rolein the 2018 ball-tamperingscandal in a Test against SouthAfrica.

“I’ve certainly had a lot oftime to think about it and Iguess now I’ve got to a pointwhere if the opportunity didcome up again I would bekeen,” Smith told News Corp.

Langer, however, said thatthe Australian captaincy iscurrently not available.

“We have two very goodcaptains and two importantcompetitions coming up — an

Ashes and a T20 World Cup.Our future looks good,” he wasquoted as saying by ABC Sport.

“Despite the media chatterthere is no captaincy positionavailable,” the coach added.

According to the report,the board of Cricket Australiawill determine whether Smithcan return to captaincy at itsnext meeting.

“If it was what CricketAustralia wanted and it waswhat was best for the team atthe time, it’s certainly some-thing I would be interested innow, that’s for sure,” Smithsaid.

Smith acknowledged thatthe scandal will forever beattached to his name and hehas made peace with the dam-

age it caused to his career andreputation. He will, however,not let it get in the way ofassuming leadership again.

“I’m always going to haveto live with Cape Townregardless of whether I leadagain or not. It’s always there,”he said.

“I’ve been through all thatnow. Time keeps moving for-ward, and I’ve learnt so muchthe last few years about myselfand grown as a human being.

“I feel as though I’d be ina better place if the opportu-nity did come up. If it doesn’t,that’s fine as well and I’d sup-port whoever is in charge thesame way I’ve supported (Testcaptain) Tim (Paine) andFinchy (ODI captain AaronFinch).”

Paine has been under fireever since Australia lost ahigh-stakes Test series to aninjury-plagued India earlierthis year. Finch, on the otherhand, has turned 34.

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New Zealand beat Bangladesh by 28runs in the rain-affected second T20

on Tuesday and took a winning 2-0 leadin the three-match series.

Sent in by Bangladesh, New Zealandwas 173-5 in the 18th over when itsinnings was cut short by rain. Bangladeshwas set a revised winning target of 170from 16 overs under the DuckworthLewis system and finished on 142-7.

The series win was New Zealand’sseventh at home this season; four of thosewere in T20s, two in Tests, and one inODIs.

Amid bizarre scenes, Bangladeshbegan before match referee Jeff Croweofficially calculated its revised total. Theumpires stopped the match withBangladesh 12-0 after 1.3 overs, waitingfor official notification of the new target.

There was a long delay while Croweworked feverishly at his computer. At onepoint he had what appeared to be anangry exchange with Bangladesh coachRussell Domingo.

Bangladesh at times looked on paceto succeed in what would have been anextraordinary chase which requiredthem to score mostly at 12 runs per over.

Soumya Sarkar made a half-centuryfrom 25 balls and added 81 for the sec-

ond wicket with Mohammad Naim (38)to raise the hopes of the touring team.

Soumya fell to Southee for 51 in the11th over and Bangladesh's task becameinsurmountable.

Phillips dismissed Naim and thespeedster Milne returned to bowlMahmudullah and Afif Hossain in the14th over. Bangladesh slumped from 123-3 to 126-6.

Earlier, New Zealand’s innings movedin fits and starts, propelled at the end byPhillips who made an unbeaten 58 from31 balls — his 50 from 27 deliveries —and Daryl Mitchell, who made 34 from16.

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Former US Open championBianca Andreescu prevailed

over in-form Garbine Muguruza3-6, 6-3, 6-2 to reach the MiamiOpen quarter-finals on Mondaywhile reigning US andAustralian Open championNaomi Osaka extended her winstreak to 23 matches by defeat-

ing Belgian 16th seed EliseMertens 6-3, 6-3.

Top-ranked defendingchampion Ashleigh Barty bat-tled into the quarter-finals byoutlasting former world No 1Victoria Azarenka 6-1, 1-6, 6-2while Ukraine’s fifth-seededElina Svitolina rallied to defeatCzech ninth seed Petra Kvitova2-6, 7-5, 7-5.

Second seed Osaka will nextface Greek 23rd seed MariaSakkari, who outlasted US 29thseed Jessica Pegula 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (8/6).

While Barty, who had tosave a match point on the wayto a three-set victory overKristina Kucova in the secondround, plays next against sev-enth seed Aryna Sabalenka,who downed Czech 19th seedMarketa Vondrousova 6-1, 6-2.

On the men’s side, secondseed Stefanos Tsitsipas defeated28th seed Kei Nishikori 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 after an hour and 56 min-utes to reach the last 16.

Russian fourth seed AndreyRublev routed 29th seed MartonFucsovics 6-2, 6-1, to reach thefourth round.

The 23-year-old fromMoscow will next face Croatia’s32-year-old Marin Cilic, theworld number 45 who beatItaly’s 19-year-old LorenzoMusetti 6-3, 6-4.

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India should stick to the experiencedopening combination of Rohit Sharma and

Shikhar Dhawan in the T20 World Cup, feelsformer selector Sarandeep Singh, calling theduo the “best option” despite skipper ViratKohli’s recent interest in the slot.

Sarandeep, whose term ended withIndia’s historic win in Australia earlier thisyear said: “It was surprising. He (Dhawan)did well in the IPL, he did well in Australia.Whenever he plays he performs. He is men-tally very strong. May be they want to try outoptions but in my view the left-hand right-hand combination of Rohit and Dhawan isthe best option for the India at World Cup.”

“You can’t judge him on basis of onematch. He did well in ODIs after that. TheIPL will decide a lot of the team. There areno easy places in the team. Ishan Kishan toowill need to do exceptionally well to makethe team,” he added.

He also said that K L Rahul should con-tinue keeping in the ODIs and the in-formRishabh Pant will have to wait for his turnwhen Shreyas Iyer returns.

Sarandeep also believes there is noplace for Krunal Pandya in the ODI team ifHardik is not bowling.

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An accident while cleaning his fishtank was the cause of Jofra Archer’s

hand injury that troubled him duringthe series against India along with anelbow issue and a glass fragment wasfound lodged in the England pacer’sright middle finger that had to be oper-ated.

England’s director of cricket AshleyGiles made this revelation while givingan update on Archer, who underwentthe surgery on Monday.

“They (surgeons) have operatedand I think they found a small fragmentof glass still in attendance. It obvious-ly healed but there was part of the fishtank still in his finger,” Giles said onBBC’s Tuffers and Vaughan show.

“This is going to sound like anawful conspiracy ... But it’s true.”

Archer suffered a cut on his righthand’s middle finger in the accident thattook place at his home at Hove inJanuary prior to the tour of India.

The finger healed sufficiently forArcher to take part in both the Test andT20I legs of the tour but the Englandmanagement decided it would be pru-dent to investigate the wound proper-ly after he flew home ahead of the three-match ODI series to undergo treatmenton a long-term elbow injury.

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Explosive Indian wicket-keep-er batsman Rishabh Pant on

Tuesday was appointed as theDelhi Capitals captain for theupcoming edition of IndianPremier League.

Pant will step in as captainfor the 14th edition of the tour-nament, for the injured ShreyasIyer, who hurt his left shoulderduring the recently concludedIndia-England ODI series.

Speaking on the develop-ment, Shreyas Iyer said, “WhenI sustained the shoulder injury,and Delhi Capitals needed aleader for this edition of the IPL,I had no doubt that Rishabhwould be the best man for thejob. He has all my good wishesto make amazing things happenwith our absolutely incredibleteam.”

On his new role, RishabhPant said, “Delhi is where I grewup, and where my IPL journey

began six years ago. To lead thisteam one day is a dream I’vealways harbored. And today, asthat dream comes true, I feelhumbled. With an amazingcoaching staff, and a plethora ofaccomplished seniors aroundme, I can’t wait to give myabsolute best for Delhi Capitals.”

Meanwhile, head coachRicky Ponting said, “The previ-ous two seasons under Shreyas’leadership have been incredible,and the results speak for them-

selves. This is a tremendousopportunity for young Rishabh,who is coming off successfulstints against Australia andEngland which will no doubtgive him the confidence need-ed to take on a new role thatcomes with a lot more respon-sibility. The coaching group isexcited to work with him.”

This will be Rishabh Pant’sdebut as IPL captain. The 23-year-old has captained Delhi’sstate team in the past.

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