C PRADEEP KUMARn VIJAYAWADA

In a ghastly accident, as manyas 10 patients died on Sundayafter fire ravaged through theHotel Swarna Palace inVijayawada, converted to acoronavirus treatment centre.

According to sources, 31persons were undergoingtreatment in the hotel forCoronavirus and 10 of themdied due to suffocation asthey were trapped in thicksmoke.

Ramesh Hospitals had takenthe Hotel Swarna Palace locat-ed in Vijayawada on lease andtransformed it into temporaryCovid Care Centre. The hotelwas housing Covid-19 patientswho were mildly symptomaticand those who did not requirehospitalisation.

The sources said that flameserupted in the hotel at about4.45 am and fire tenders start-ed rescue operations at 5 am.

The smoke swiftly spreadthrough the three floors of thehotel, leaving patients gaspingfor air.

According to sources in theAP Disaster Response andFire Services Department, thefire apparently broke out dueto an electrical short circuit inthe hotel's front lobby andspread to the first and secondfloors. As there was only onemain stairway, the panickedpatients tried to escape tosafety using the stairway afterthey noticed the smoke.

"They should have actuallyused a different stairway onthe rear side and that wouldhave saved their lives.Unfortunately, they used themain one in a moment ofpanic and were trapped in thefire," a fire official said.

The fire department enteredthe room by breaking open thewindow panes and rescued 21persons by bringing themdown using ladders. Theywere shifted to RameshHospitals for treatment.

Since there was no otheroption, fire and NDRF person-nel used ladders to bring downother people, stranded insidethe hotel, to safety.

Meanwhile two personsjumped from the second floorto save their life. Their condi-tion was said to be stable asthey sustained minor injuries.

@TheDailyPioneer facebook.com/dailypioneerFollow us on:

MONEY 8DEFENCE REFORMS TO STEER INDIATOWARDS ‘ATMANIRBHAR BHARAT'

OPINION 6UNENDING

LADAKH STORY

SPORTS 11LONDON DREAMS

VIJAYAWADA, MONDAY AUGUST 10, 2020; PAGES 12 `3

}SATYADEV

‘HUMBLED' WITH THEACKNOWLEDGEMENT

TO UMURPage 12

www.dailypioneer.com

{

RNI No. APENG/2018/764698

*Late City Vol. 2 Issue 279*Air Surcharge Extra if Applicable

Established 1864Published From

VIJAYAWADA DELHI LUCKNOW BHOPAL RAIPUR CHANDIGARH

BHUBANESWAR RANCHIDEHRADUN HYDERABAD

Current Weather ConditionsUpdated august 9, 2020 5:00 PM

ALMANAC

TODAY

Month & Paksham:

Shravana & Krishna Paksha

Panchangam

Tithi : Shashthi: 06:42 am

Nakshatram: Ashwini: 10:05 pm

Time to Avoid: (Bad time to start

any important work)

Rahukalam: 07:36 am – 09:11 am

Yamagandam: 10:46 am – 12:21 pm

Varjyam: 05:36 pm – 07:24 pm

Gulika: 01:56 pm - 03:31 pm

Good Time: (to start any important work)

Amritakalam: 02:00 pm – 03:48 pm

Abhijit Muhurtham: 11:55 am – 12:46 pm

VIJAYAWADA

WEATHERFFoorreeccaasstt:: DrizzleTemp: 32/25Humidity: 85%Sunrise: 05.57 amSunset: 06.45 pm

Careless smokers triggered most fire mishaps in Statel AP recorded 2,856 deaths in fire mishap in 10 yrs l Property damage around Rs 200 cr every yearPNS n VISAKHAPATNAM

Careless smokers are literallyplaying with fire with most of thefire mishaps in Andhra Pradeshis caused by cigarette butt. Thelast annual report (2019) of thestate fire department reflect itclearly as 1,896 fire incidents inAndhra in 2019, 1034 are due tothe careless smoking.

The reason is no different inother years too. The previousyear, in 2018, 14,485 firemishaps were reported andcareless smoking was attrib-uted to 6,920 cases. Election ori-

gin was next with 4,693 cases.The other contributing factors

being electrical short-circuit,gas coal furnace, electric origin,hot ashes, fire crackers andchemical reaction, among oth-ers. The department officials saycigarette butts that were notproperly put off before beingchucked, sparked fire in sever-al incidents.

Despite the suggestions ofmaking separate smoking zoneconsidering the increasingmishaps due to casual smokers,the owners of the commercialbuildings are ignoring it.

Occupants should not dumpcartons, waste papers and otherflammable substances either inbalconies or cellars. The fire per-sonnel usually ascertain thereasons for the mishap only afterexamining the premises andassessing the intensity of theblaze.

2,856 died in fire mishap in 10 years

In 10 years from 2006, 2856people have died in fire mishapsin Andhra Pradesh, according tothe fire department.

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Firefighters were widelyacknowledged to be the realheroes on Sunday by not onlyresponding promptly to callsfor help, but also managing torescue 21 people trapped insidethe burning Hotel SwarnaPalace in Vijayawada.

“We received a call at around5.09 and reached the spot inless than five minutes andstarted rescue operations,” saidM Sreenivasa Reddy, DistrictFire Officer.

He said that after reachingthe spot, the first thing to dowas to gain control over the firein the building and rescuethose trapped inside. “We start-ed the rescue operations byclimbing till the first floor withthe help of ladders and enter-ing the rooms by breakingopen the window panes,” hesaid.

Firefighters show their worth

Disinfectants meant to stopvirus spread fanned the flamesSUMIT ONKA n VISAKHAPATNAM

Use of disinfectants with highalcohol content is beingencouraged to kill the virus andstop its spread, but it may havecontributed to the flames thatravaged the Hotel SwarnaPalace in Vijayawada onSunday.

Disinfectants stored for useat the hotel-turned Covid CareCentre apparently acted as acatalyst for the fire to spreadrapidly.

It is learnt that disinfectantswhich contain alcohol werekept near the electrical appli-ances by the cleaning staff.

According to the Ministry ofHealth and FW guidelines,disinfectant with 1 per cent

sodium hypochlorite or pheno-lic disinfectants should be usedagainst the Coronavirus.

It also suggests that 70 percent alcohol content can beused to wipe down surfaceswhere the use of bleach is notsuitable, e.g. metal.

(Chloroxylenol (4.5%-5.5%)/Benzalkonium Chloride or anyother disinfectant found to beeffective against coronavirusmay be used as per manufac-turer’s instructions).

Since the sanitiser solution isbasically Isopropylalcohol/Ethanol, it is highlyflammable and when sprayedupon a hot surface it maycatch fire. Phenol is considereda Category 4 flammable liquidby the Occupational Safety andHealth Administration(OSHA). The ground floorwhere the fire erupted hadalso the disinfectants stored tosanitise the hospital premises.It was recently seen that a bikecaught fire while being disin-fected.

Over 70% ofhospitals inVizag yet toobtain fire NOCPNS n VISAKHAPATNAM

Hospitals in Vizag city are lit-eral tinderboxes with manage-ments least bothered to imple-ment fool-proof safety mea-sures. Sources in the fire ser-vice department said over 250of the 340 hospitals in Vizagcity under the GVMC jurisdic-tion are yet to obtain NoObjection Certificates (NOCs)from the fire department.

The fire safety certificate isrenewed every year. The appli-cants need to seek NOC online.

In view of the Covid situa-tion, the fire department hadtaken up a survey to inspect firesafety compliance and servednotices to the erring hospitals.

97 deaths in AP taketoll past 2,000 mark PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Yet another record high perday cases of 10,820 sawAndhra Pradesh'sCovid-19 tallyrocket further upto 2.27 lakh onSunday.

The coron-avirus toll crossedthe 2,000-mark as97 fresh fatalities werereported in the last 24 hours,the latest bulletin said.

The total number of recov-

ered patients touched 1.38lakh as 9,097 got cured in thelast 24 hours, leaving 87,112

active cases in the state.The recovery rate

improved to 60.88per cent.

After 24.87 lakhsample tests, thecumulative positiv-

ity rate climbed upto 9.16 per cent

against the nationalaverage of 8.93 per cent.

10 patients die in fire at hotel-turned-Covid facility

Governor BiswabhusanHarichandan has expressed

shock over the fire incident atHotel Swarna Palace inVijayawada, in which 10 Covid-10 patients were killed andseveral others injured. TheGovernor directed authorities toensure best possible treatment tothose injured in the fire mishap.He expressed condolences to thekin of the patients who died inthe fire accident. In a message,the Governor said that he hasprayed for peace to the souls ofthe victims and expressed hisdeep sympathies to their familiesin their hour of grief. HealthMinister Alla Kali KrishnaSrinivas expressed grief over theloss of lives in the fire accident.

Governor,Ministersexpress shock

Condolences,Rs 50 lakh ex gratia: Jagan

PM grieves,announces Rs 2L ex gratia P

rime Minister Narendra Modion Sunday expressed anguish

at the death of patients in a fireincident at a Covid facility inVijaywada, even as the PrimeMinister's Office announced an exgratia of Rs 2 lakh each to the kinof those killed. Modi said hediscussed the prevailing situationin the city with Chief Minister YSJaganmohan Reddy and assuredall possible help. Ten Covid-19patients were killed in the incidentat a hotel converted into atreatment facility at Vijayawada."Anguished by the fire at a Covidcentre in Vijayawada. My thoughtsare with those who have lost theirloved ones. I pray that the injuredrecover as soon as possible," theprime minister tweeted.

Expressing his deepestcondolences to the

families of the victims of thefire accident at SwarnaPalace Hotel in Vijayawada,Chief Minister YSJaganmohan Reddy onSunday announced anexgratia of Rs 50 lakh to thekin of each of the deceased.The Chief Minister alsoordered an in-depthinvestigation into theaccident and directedauthorities to take steps toensure proper medicalservices are extended to thevictims of the accident. TheChief Minister assured toprovide necessary help andsupport to the familiesaffected by the incident.

Could not seea thing dueto smoke,says survivorPNS n VIJAYAWADA

Giving a first-hand accountof the horrifying events thatunfolded in the wee hours ofSunday, Pavan Sai Kishan, asurvivor of the fire mishapnarrated his ordeal and howhe was rescued by the fire andpolice authorities.

In a selfie video, Pavan saysthat he saw the thick smokecoming inside the hotel andhardly anything else was vis-ible.

Gripped with fear he cameout of the hotel room scream-ing for help. Later he brokethe hotel room window paneand came out and shouted atthe top of his voice for help.

At the same time he calledthe police and the fire author-ities and told them about thefire.

Pavan said that within notime, police and fire author-ities reached the hotel andrescue operations began. Heexpressed his gratitude to theauthorities for saving his life.

According to the firedepartment DG, the accidentis said to have happened dueto short circuit on the groundfloor and the flames reachedthe first floor, resulting in theloss of 10 lives.

NANI PRAISES FIRE PERSONNELFOR THEIR ALACRITY, BRAVERYExpressing profound sym-

pathy with the families ofthose who lost their life in thefire accident at Hotel SwarnaPalace in Vijayawada, StateHealth Minister Alla KaliKrishna Srinivas (Nani) onSunday said that a commit-tee has been set up to inquireinto the mishap and direct-

ed to submit its report with-in 48 hours. After inspectingthe hospital, the Ministerconducted a review with theauthorities and then spoke tothe media.

He said that the fire brokeout at 4:45 am and firefight-ers were notified at 5:09 am.

Kin of victims blame hospital, hotelPNS n VIJAYAWADA

Expressing anguish over thedeath of his sister G VenkataJayalakshmi (52) and nephewVenkata Narsimha PavanKumar (30) from Kandakuruof Prakasam distr ic t ,Narayana Swamy said thatstern action should be takenon the hospital managementfor choosing a hotel lacking

proper safety equipment touse as a Covid Care Centre.

He found fault with thehotel management for noteven bothering to instal aworking fire safety alarmsince it did not work evenwhen the flames reached thethree floors of the hotel.

Speaking to The Pioneer,an emotional NarayanaSwamy said that his nephew’s

wife was pregnant andexpected to give birth with-in a few days.

“I lost my sister andnephew only due to the neg-ligence of the management ofRamesh Hospitals and HotelSwarna Palace for their poormaintenance. It’s a great lossfor my family,” he said.

33

3

33

3

3

3

33

Printed and published by B Krishna Prasad for and on behalf of CMYK Printech Ltd., Printed at Sree Seshasai Enterprises, D.No. New 3-88, Old 3-22, Chandra Theatre, Gosala, Penamaluru Mandal, Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh - 521 151, Resident Editor: B Krishna Prasad, AIR SURCHARGE of Rs 2.00.

Although every possible care and caution has been taken to avoid errors or omissions, this publication is being sold on the condition and understanding that information given in this publication is merely for reference and must not be taken as having authority of or binding in any way on the writers, editors, publishers, and printers and sellers who do not owe any responsibility for any

damage or loss to any person, a purchaser of this publication or not for the result of any action taken on the basis of this work. All disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of competent court and forums in Delhi/New Delhi only. Readers are advised and requested to verify and seek appropriate advice to satisfy themselves about the veracity of any kind of advertisement before

responding to any contents published in this newspaper. The printer, publisher, editor and any employee of the Pioneer Group's will not be held responsible for any kind of claim made by the advertisers of the products & services and shall not be made responsible for any kind of loss, consequences and further product-related damages on such advertisements.

VIJAYAWADA | MONDAY | AUGUST 10, 2020 vijayawada 02

HC UPADHYAY nHYDERABAD

Some have unfurled the bat-tle flags while others haveundertaken the fire-fight-

ing exercise following the apexcourt taking suo motu cog-nizance of the contemptuoustweets by the celebrated public-spirited advocate of the SupremeCourt Prashant Bhushan.Surprisingly, this is not the soli-tary instance of the apex courthauling up an advocate for hiscontemptuous behaviour. Evenin the past, several advocates,including a sitting judge of theHigh Court, have had the tasteof the severe provisions of theContempt of Courts Act, 1971.Some of them were reprimand-ed and let off, while other lessfortunate ones had to paythrough their nose heavy finesand even be the guests of theprison.

Obviously, not many eye-brows were raised at all theseinstances, then one wonderswhether heavens have fallen allof the sudden now only after theinitiation of contempt proceed-ings against Prashant Bhushan!

If the Contempt of Courts Actis the main culprit, then noth-ing would have stopped the pro-tagonists of freedom of expres-sion and beholders of the ruleof law to register their concernall these years since the passingof the said Act in 1971. Evenif some small fries attempt-ed their bit to voice theirconcern against thestatute of contempt ofcourts, they did notreceive any sup-port from any elitequarters for thereasons unknownto them.

Now, a hue andcry has been raisedagainst the so-called‘dreaded’ provisionsof the contempt law. In fact,Courts in India are so muchlenient towards the contemnorsthat in the name of the freedomof expression under Article19(1)(a) of the Constitution ofIndia, even the sworn enemies

of the country like Tukde-Tukde gang and jehadis goscot-free. Had it been in someother country, the judiciarywould have taken to the tasksuch people, including thosewho showed disrespect to itsverdicts such as on the issue of

Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. Unfortunately, the elite

lobby with obvious hiddenagenda in order to weak-

en judiciarythrough brow-beating methods

has been by and largeemboldened by the soft

and sympathetic attitude ofthe judiciary towards them.Otherwise, how dare theveteran lawyer ShantiBhushan could file the

impleading petition in theSupreme Court sermonisingthe apex court about the virtues,honesty, integrity and what not.He must be at least aware thatthe contempt proceedings areconcerned only with the con-

temnor and the third partycannot implead in such pro-ceedings. This is such a simplething which even the fresher atthe court knows very well.However, nobody can stop anyfather to go to the rescue of theson who is in the soup.Branding some of the formerjudges, including the ChiefJustices of India, as ‘corrupt’ byShanti Bhushan cannot be takenlightly and he should be madeto clarify as to why he kept mumall these years even when he wasthe Law Minister of the coun-try and a responsible senioradvocate of the Supreme Court.

Considering the prevailing

situation, wherein some vestedinterests are hell bent uponderiding the judicial system andinsulting the coveted positionsof judges, it is high time thatabout 50 years old law on con-tempt of court is revised andmade more stringent against thecontemnors. In particular, themaximum punishment of 6months of imprisonment shouldbe enhanced to at least 3 yearsfor the first offence and 5 yearsfor subsequent offences besidesthe fine of Rs.50,000/- for thefirst offence and Rs.1 lakh eachfor the subsequent offenceswithout any exception. Indeed,‘unbridled’ legal horses need to

be controlled effectively if thereal rule of law has to prevail.

Can't barter land for job: TSHC

In a remarkable judgmentdelivered on August 4, JusticeP.Naveen Rao of the TelanganaHigh Court held that a contractbetween a Village Panchayatand a citizen to provide job tothe latter against the landgiven/gifted to the Panchayat isillegal and null and void ab ini-tio.

In a case on hand, the Courtwas dealing with the grievanceof an employee of the GramPanchayat who had secured thejob against the donation/gift ofhis land to the Panchayat.

MP-HC orders digital detoxi-fication

In a unique case, the MadhyaPradesh High Court, whilegranting bail to a studentaccused, laid down the conditionto perform ‘digital detoxification’

of himself by not usingWhatsApp, Facebook or othersocial media for 2 months.

The bench, presided over byJustice Anand Pathak, directedHarendra Tyagi, a student ofAgricultural Sciences, to com-plete his Pre Agriculture Test(PAT). The student was arrest-ed on June 24 in connectionwith crimes u/ss. 323, 294,506/34, 327 and 329 of the IPC.

The court also imposed a con-dition to plant five trees. Hope,the reformative mood of theHigh Court Judge would radi-ate to all other courts in thecountry.

Let accused choose betweensureties and cash: HC

In a path-breaking judgment,the High Court of HimachalPradesh has held that an accusedcannot be compelled to providesureties at the cost of his selfpride. The court held that anaccused is the “queen” and hasthe freedom to choose between

depositing cash or furnishingsureties for getting bail.

Justice Anoop Chitkara saidthat the lawyers have duty toappraise the accused of the exis-tence of the provision of a cashdeposit in Sec. 445 of Cr.P.C.

In the instant case, AbhishekKumar Singh, accused of com-mitting a white-collar crime, hadat the time of hearing of the bailpetition prayed the Court that inthe event his bail petition wasallowed, then he should bereleased on cash security insteadof surety bonds because theaccused does not know anyonewho resides nearby and willingto stand as surety.

Accepting this contention,the court noted that the sole pur-pose of a bond is to ensure pres-ence of accused to attend thetrial. The purpose of a cash bondis not to enrich the State’s coffers,but to secure the accused’s pres-ence, and added: “The right tolife guaranteed by Article 21 ofIndia’s Constitution includesthe right to live with dignity.Begging or prostrating beforesomeone to stand as a surety,comes at the cost of pride.”

LEGAL

ROUNDUP

In a unique case, the Madhya Pradesh HighCourt, while granting bail to a studentaccused, laid down the condition to perform‘digital detoxification’ of himself by notusing WhatsApp and Facebook for 2 months

COURT AND CONTEMPT: STORM IN A TEA CUP!

PRECIOUS METALSON CLOUD NINEPNS n HYDERABAD

Amidst the hot and cold rela-tionship between the US alongwith its allies including India onthe one side and China on theother, all the precious metalshave been on cloud nine sinceapart from overt investors,covert-ones too, have taken abig jump to grab the maximumof these metals.

Consequently, the marketswitnessed a mad race amongprecious metals. New Yorkgold broke the psychologicalbarrier of US $ 2,000 and final-ly closed at US $ 2,034.80 (perounce) while, silver followedsuit and closed at $ 28.32 (perounce). Platinum andPalladium also marchedforward and closed at $960 (per ounce) and $2,031 (per ounce)respectively.

Other eco-nomic parame-ters remaineds t r o n g .B r e n tclosed atUS$ 44.40 (per barrel), whileCrude MCX oil was quoted atRs.3,095 (per barrel). GoldMCX stood at Rs.54,789 (per10 gms). The MCX Silvermoved up and closed atRs.74,160 (per kg), Coppermarched ahead and closed atRs.502.05 (per kg). Sensex andNifty 50 closed at 38,040.57 and11,214.05 points respectively,following the retreat by Indo-China forces on the borders.Leading foreign currencies’exchange rates were, US $:Rs.75.04, British Pound:Rs.97.88, Euro: Rs.88.46,Singapore $: Rs.54.66, SwissFranc: Rs.82.21, Australian $:Rs.53.70, Saudi Riyal: Rs.20.01,New Zealand Dollar: Rs.49.56,Kuwaiti Dinar: Rs.245.49,Omani Rial: Rs.194.94 andUAE Dirham: Rs.20.43,Japanese Yen: Rs.0.71, Hong

Kong Dollar: Rs.9.68.At home, in the absence of

genuine buyers, the marketremained highly speculative.Both the precious metalszoomed to achieve dizzyheights during the historicweek. Standard gold (24 carats)zoomed by Rs.3,310 and closedat Rs.59,140 (per 10 gms).Ornamental gold too moved intandem, and was quoted in therange of Rs.54,110 – 54,210 onthe closing day. Silver (0.999)too appreciated by Rs.11,500and closed at Rs.76,500 (perkg). Considering the prevailinginternational scenario, the for-ward march of precious metalsis likely to create new recordsin the near future.

COMMODITIES

The sentiment in principalwholesale commoditymarkets in the twin cities

continued to remainstrong. Rythu Bazars

and the variousc o m m o d i t ymarkets locatedin Begum

Bazar, Kishangunj,Mukthyargunj, RisalaAbdullah, Mir AlamMandi,Dilsukhnagar, Kukatpally,Bowenpally, General Bazar areslowly but steadily returning tonormal business activities.

During the week, commonpulses such as tuar dal, masoordal, moong dal and urad daland commodities like chilliesand garlic remained at moder-ate levels, while staple food-grains and common edible oilsclosed at their respective clos-ing levels in the previous week.Common vegetables such ascabbage, cauliflower, ribbedgourd, snake gourd, lady's fin-ger, cucumber, potatoes,onions, tomatoes and Frenchbeans along with other leafyvegetables recorded a furtherappreciation in the range of20% to 38%.

WEEKLY MARKET REVIEW

PNS n TIRUPATI

In all, 743 employees ofTirumala TirupatiDevasthanams (TTD) testedpositive for Covid-19 after thetemple was opened for darshanto devotees following relax-ation of lockdown norms.

TTD Executive Officer AnilKumar Singh, who interactedwith devotees from across thecountry as part of ‘Dial YourEO’ programme, said that sincethe Tirumala temple opened fordarshan to devotees on June 11,so far, 743 TTD employees test-ed positive for Corona and ofthem 402 have recovered andjoined duties. Another 338 areundergoing teatment in TTDrest houses-turned-CovidCentres at Srinivasam,Vishnunivasam andMadhavam.

"Only three employees suc-cumbed to the virus and we aregiving best possible arrange-ments and treatment to all ouremployees in the CovidCentres,'' he said.

About 2.38 lakh pilgrimsfrom different places acrossthe country had darshan ofLord Venkateswara in July, saidTTD Executive Officer.

Speaking to media persons

here on Sunday, after themonthly Dial your EO pro-gramme held at the ConferenceHall in TTD administrativebuilding in Tirupati, theExecutive Officer disclosingthe details said though therewas a dip in the number of foot-falls to Tirumala due toincreased cases across the coun-try, from the past three days butthe number of pilgrims pickedup again. On August 8, 8,500odd pilgrims had darshanagainst the quota of 9,000 tick-ets, he informed.

He said hundi collectionsstood at Rs 16.69 crore, whilethe e-Hundi Rs 3.97 crore dur-ing the last month. “InPadmavathi temple also wecommenced e-Hundi recentlyand so far Rs 8.15 lakhs werereceived”, he added.

Jagan reaffirms govt’sresolve for tribal welfarePNS n VIJAYAWADA

Chief Minister YS JaganmohanReddy has extended his greetingsto the Adivasis on account ofWorld Adivasi Day and reaf-firmed the government's resolvefor tribal welfare, while retainingtheir ethnicity.

The Chief Minister said thatthe distribution of RoFR pattasto the tribals would take place onOctober 2 commemorating withGandhi Jayanti. He alsoannounced that the laying offoundation stone for a Tribal uni-versity, Girijan Medical Collegesand an Engineering Collegebesides setting up of SuperSpecialty hospitals in tribal areas.

Taking to Twitter, he said, "TheState is home to a diverse array ofindigenous communities. We areproud of our tribal heritage anddoing everything in our capacityto uplift and preserve their cultureand ethnicity. The distribution of

RoFR pattas to tribals has beenpostponed to October 2 due toCovid-19.”

“On, Gandhi Jayanthi, we willalso lay the foundation for aTribal Engineering College at

Kurupam, a medical college inPaderu and a Tribal University.Seven Super Specialty Hospitalsunder ITDA will also be inaugu-rated on the same day," he dis-closed.

Naidu, Pawan express shockover death of Covid-19 patientsPNS n VIJAYAWADA

Opposition leader NChandrababu Naiduand Jana Sena Partychief Pawan Kalyanexpressed shock overthe fire accident at theCovid Care Centre at SwarnaPalace Hotel here on Sundaywhere 10 people died andseveral others were injured.

There were 31 Covidpatients and 10 hospital staffthere at the time of the acci-dent while a short circuit isbelieved to be the cause of thef ire. Meanwhile, Naidudemanded that the injured be

given the bestpossible treatment and thatcompensation be given tothe families of the deceased.

On the other hand, PawanKalyan said he was shockedto learn about the fire mishapat the Covid Care Centre.Those who come here fortreatment of the Coronavirusare most saddened to be at

risk in this way. He said hewas praying for peace for thesouls of the dead. Heappealed to the governmentto provide better medicalcare to the injured.

Man hands oversevered head of son-in-law to policePNS n VIJAYAWADA

In a shocking incident, a manwalked into a police station onSunday with the severed headof his son-in-law in EastGodavari district.

Annavaram police said thatthe man, identified asSatyanarayana, had choppedoff the head of his son-in-lawLachhanna, carried it in a bagto the police station and sur-rendered.

According to police, thisincident took place in KJagannadhapuram mandal inEast Godavari district.

Satyanarayana’s elderdaughter had marriedLachhanna a few years back,and died under suspiciouscircumstances about 10months ago. From thenSatyanarayana's grandchildrenwere staying with him.

Lachhanna came toSatyanarayana's home onSaturday night and under theinfluence of alcohol revealedthat he had killed his wife.According to Satyanarayana,Lachhanna threatened that hewould kill the children too.Infuriated, Satyanarayanabeheaded Lachanna with asword, then put the severedhead in a bag and handed itover to the police.

l The ChiefMinister said thatthe distribution ofRoFR pattas to thetribals would takeplace on October 2commemoratingwith Gandhi Jayanti.He also announcedthat the laying offoundation stone fora Tribal university,Girijan MedicalColleges and anEngineering Collegebesides setting upof Super Specialtyhospitals in tribalareas

l Taking to Twitter, he said, "The State ishome to a diverse array of indigenous

communities. We are proud of our tribalheritage and doing everything in our

capacity to uplift and preserve their cultureand ethnicity. The distribution of RoFRpattas to tribals has been postponed to

October 2 due to Covid-19.”

Many of my fellow jour-nalists, friends in differ-

ent spheres of life often con-fer with me about the polit-ical situation in the countryin general and its nuances inTelangana and AndhraPradesh in particular, think-ing that I get to know andhave more 'inside' or insight-ful information. I often haveto frankly admit that I knowas much as they do.

Over a period of time, Ihave noticed the urge in peo-ple to know varied, interest-ing aspects of politics. Notmany really know what pol-itics is inside out. They thinkpolitics is all about change ofpower.

As all political parties andtheir members are stronglybelieving that coming topower and staying at the top

for as many years as possibleis the sole motive, people toohave start accepting that theultimate goal of politics ispower. Accordingly, politicalparties and leaders haveevolved their strategies --some populist, some divi-sional, some left, some rightand so on. It is alwaysintriguing to find out whattheory (rather myth) wouldpeople accept in the election.Political leaders across theglobe are struggling a lot tofigure out what they can sellto people to win and keeptheir support.

As a journalist with overthree decades of work expe-rience, I feel I can throwsome light on some of theimportant aspects of politicswhich is a science, accordingto Aristotle. He, who wasconsidered as the 'Father ofPolitical Science' consideredPolitical Science as the mas-ter of all sciences. Here, sci-ence means a body of system-atized knowledge arrangedon certain principles. I would

be sharing my experimentsand experiences with readers,starting this Monday.

Unfortunately, may be afterthe advent of socialism in the20th century, political lead-ers started to believe that it isnot a science, but an art.Believing that, every politicalleader started ‘performing'the art in their own style, for-getting the original dynamicsof the politics. Of course,many of them had to con-clude their careers abruptly,unlike some leaders likeMahathir Mohamad ofMalaysia, Sheik Hasina ofBangladesh, Vladmir Putin ofRussia and Angela Merkel of

Germany, who showed theworld the strength of being astudent of political ‘science’.

I strongly feel that it is a“science” because politicalscientists strive to deriveanswers through scientificreasoning and this is espe-cially true today, where sta-tistics are coming to fore tohelp find the currents ofpublic mood.

The western democraciesare older than ours and hadexperimented on quite anumber of issues muchbefore India could even thinkof them. For example Gallupsurveys. An American ana-lytics and advisory company

Gallup, Inc. founded byGeorge Gallup in 1935,known for its public opinionpolls conducted worldwide.Starting in the 1980s, Galluptransitioned its business tofocus on providing analyticsand management consultingto organizations globally.Now companies like OxfordAnalytics have taken that tounbelievable levels in under-standing the mindsets of dif-ferent groups of people in aparticular society.

Are any of you aware thatpeople exposed to entertain-ment television and dailyserials are more likely tovote for populist politicians?According to a new study co-authored by Queen MaryUniversity of London, peoplewho are older (55+) andviewers of entertainmentstuff in TVs are more vulner-able to ‘unrealistic’ populistdoles! This age group votedan average by 10 percentagepoints more to political par-ties whose manifesto is full of‘unrealistic’ welfare promis-

es. Another recent study con-

firmed the difference in vot-ing pattern between resi-dents of a big city and sub-urbs. The study displayedthe clear ideological dividebetween urban and suburbanareas. Same thing applies toIndia, where rural voting isdifferent from that of thecities. And astonishingly, thesuburban and rural popula-tion is increasingly movingtowards ‘right-wing’ think-ing! There is an increasingtrend across the globe thatpeople now detest ‘globalisa-tion’, which was once toutedas panacea for all humandifficulties.

The latest thinking of peo-ple clearly exposes most ofour political leaders’ inabili-ty to update themselves toground reality. How manyleaders in India are awarethat people are now thinkingthat immigrant workers arethe reason behind theirunemployment! They aresupporting the leaders who

are propagating the ‘divi-sional’ theories. It may not beto your liking, but that exact-ly is what is happening at theground level. And the polit-ical leaders who stoppedlearning anything after sometime find it ‘unruly’ and‘undemocratic’. Wonder whatis 'democratic', as the veryword 'democracy' during itsearly days refused to extendvoting rights to women? It isonly after the First WorldWar, that women suffragecould see the light in USA,the so-called heaven ofdemocracy! As we are in themiddle of an evolvingdemocracy, there would bemore changes, more surpris-es to political parties whichrefuse to ‘unlearn’ their oldtheories and ‘relearn’ the newdynamics that are influencingthe present-day democracy.

When I wrote aboutchanging perception of peo-ple and imminent fall ofChandrababu Naidu in 2003,after the Alipiri blast, every-one laughed at me. At that

time, Chandrababu wastreated as equal to BillClinton and Bill Gates asboth had visited Hyderabadand sat beside Naidu forphoto-ops. My seniors injournalism cautioned me,saying that I must see the‘sympathy wave’ born out ofthe Alipiri incident and pic-ture of Naidu with a hand insling. But Naidu bite thedust at the hustings in 2004elections and could not wineven in Hyderabad citywhich he claims to be hisbrainchild. Same thing wasrepeated in 2019, whenTelugu Desam Party lostmost of the seats inAmaravati capital region,despite the fact that his govtmade the area as AP capitalregion and started buildingmany structures. Politicaltapestry is vivid, complex,ruthless and everchanging.So, to stay afloat, all politicalleaders should be ready toupdate themselves.

— B Krishna Prasad

As a journalist with over three decades ofwork experience, I feel I can throw some lighton some of the important aspects of politicswhich is a science, according to Aristotle. He,who was considered as the 'Father of PoliticalScience' considered Political Science as themaster of all sciences

LESS OF SCIENCE, MORE OF EVOLVING ART

743 TTD stafftested positive forCovid till date: EO

l Naidu demanded that theinjured be given the best possibletreatment and that compensationbe given to the families of thedeceased

l Pawan Kalyan directed thegovernment to conduct a reviewon security measures at CovidCentres running in various hotelsand buildings in the wake of theaccident

Victims of fire mishap identifiedPNS n VIJAYAWADA

The District Administrationreleased the names of those wholost their life in the fire accidentin Vijayawada on Sunday.

Officials said that among thevictims was KosarajuSuvarnalatha (42) a housewifefrom Nidubrolu of Guntur dis-trict.

Dokka Siva Brahmaiah (59)

from Machilipatnam wasadmitted to the hospital afterbeing confirmed Covid positivethree days back.

Potluri Purnachandra Rao(80) was from Kodali village,Gantasala Mandal of Krishnadistrict, while Sunkara BabuRao (80) was a retired sub-inspector from Indiranagar,Ajitsingh Nagar, Vijayawada.

Majji Gopi (54) from

Machilipatnam of Krishna dis-trict, G Venkata Jayalakshmi(52) and Venkata NarsimhaPavan Kumar were fromKandakuru of Prakasam dis-trict. S Ratna Abraham (48) wasfrom Jaggaiahpet, as was SRajakumari while MaddaliRaghu from Moghalrajapuram,Vijayawada.

Among the ten victims, threewere women.

VIJAYAWADA | MONDAY | AUGUST 10, 2020 vijayawada 03

BJP suspends 2 party leadersfor their stand on 3 capitalsPNS n AMARAVATI

New president of BJP State unitSomu Veerraju has placed aparty member, who was formermember of the TTD, OVRamana, for having expressedhis views in an editorial sup-porting the capital inAmaravati and criticising thethree capitals policy of thegovernment.

Similarly, he placedVelagapuri Gopalakrishnaunder suspension for havingaired his views in favour of thecapital in Amaravati. In a let-ter addressed to the BJP leader,action has been taken againsthim for having aired his viewscontrary to the BJP stand onthe capital issue.

Meanwhile, the BJP statedofficially that the Centre has norole to play on the capital issue.The party views were diamet-

rically opposite to the viewsexpressed by the members.

Moreover, the BJP state unitpresident said that the allega-tion of the party leaders thatthe party is not pro-farmer iscompletely baseless.

Since the views expressed bysome BJP leaders are likely to

cause damage to party image,he is forced to place the BJPleaders under suspension onorders from BJP national pres-ident. Moreover, many TVchannels gave wide publicity tothe wrong stand taken by theBJP leaders, Somu Veerrajumentioned in the letter.

Fire breaks out on ship PNS n VISAKHAPATNAM

Just a day after a boat caughtfire off the Vizag shore, aminor fire broke out on a shipberthed at theVisakhapatnam port .According to VPT officials,smoke originated from WestQ5 berth where the BD51ship reached Vizag fromChennai on Saturday. Thecoastal ship is used to shiftcrew to cargo ships. Thecoastal ship is used to shiftcrew to cargo ships.

The staff observed smokeemanating from the shipcabin room and immediate-ly alerted the port fire extin-guishers, who swung intoaction to put off the smoke.

VPT Chairman K RamaMohan Rao said that there'sa possibility of a short cir-cuit in the vessel.

"The smoke was detectedand controlled immediate-ly a s t he f i re f i g hte rsstepped in to bring the sit-uation under control. The

smoke originated from oil-soaked waste jute and cot-ton and boiler suits left forthe crew.

However, there is nodamage to the ship and thevessel is safe," assured theChairman of the VPT.

According to the portofficials, no casualty, orinjury occurred to anyoneduring the incident.

n Since the views expressedby some BJP leaders arelikely to cause damage toparty image, he is forcedto place the BJP leadersunder suspension onorders from BJP nationalpresident. Moreover,many TV channels gavewide publicity to thewrong stand taken by theBJP leaders, SomuVeerraju mentioned in theletter.

n The BJP stated officiallythat the Centre has norole to play on the capitalissue. The party viewswere diametricallyopposite to the viewsexpressed by themembers.

Vizag sitting on powder keg: PawanPNS n AMARAVATI

Jana Sena president PawanKalyan has gone on record say-ing that there are 19,500 tonnesof ammonium nitrate in theSteel City and maintained thatthe city is sitting on powder keg.

In a statement here onSunday, he exhorted the gov-ernment to save the city fromthe threat of explosion due toignition of ammonium nitrate.

The chemical substance hasmany uses. It is widely used inmaking fertilisers and also inblasting underground mines.

If the chemical is handledcarefully, it is progressive.Otherwise, it will be highlydestructive, he said appre-hending danger toVisakhapatnam from thechemical a la the blast in Beirutthat had claimed 158 lives.

The extent of mayhem cre-ated by the Lebanon blast issending shivers down the peo-ple’s spines, he said.

On account of a chemicalreaction in ammonium nitratestored in a godown, a hugeblast was triggered claiminglives of over 158 and severalbuildings collapsed like a packof cards. He quantified theammonium nitrate stored inVisakhapatnam is eight times

more than the chemical thatwas stored in Lebanon.

The chemical is beingimported into the country tomeet the needs of the countryonly through Visakhapatnamport. The chemical is beingimported from Russia.Annually, 2.7 lakh tonnes isbeing imported into the coun-try through Vizag port. Thereare seven godowns here tostore the hazardous chemical.After the Beirut mishap, offi-cials inspected the godownsand security measures andexpressed satisfaction over thesecurity at the godowns.

Of late, the city has wit-nessed many big and small

industrial accidents. When thechemical exploded in Beirut,the temperature was not 270degrees Celsius. But, how theblast could be triggered there?Officials should think twiceand explore scope for not hav-ing huge quantities of ammo-nium nitrate at one place.

He wanted the State andCentral governments to thinkseriously to decentralise thegodowns storing the hazardouschemical. Any complacency onthe part of the government,could lead to a huge disaster.Quoting reports from the media,he said that at least 100 tonnesof ammonium nitrate has beenstored in Kondapalli on the

outskirts of Vijayawada. It is notadvisable to store the substancein the middle of the city andhabitats. Environmentalists havebeen expressing anguish over thehuge quantities of the chemicalstored in the city habitats.

A retired IAS officer EASSarma said that storing thechemical close to shipyard,airport, ENC and the HPCL isnot advisable, he said express-ing concern over lack of prop-er monitoring near thegodowns.

He appealed to the Stateand Central governments totake steps on a war-footing toprotect Visakhapatnam, whichis sitting on ammonium nitrate.

Cordial relations with Jaganbut TS interests first: KTRPNS n HYDERABAD

Minister for Industries KT RamaRao has predicted huge invest-ments will come to the state anda formal announcement in thisregard will be made soon. Takingpart in Ask KTR through twit-ter platform here on Sunday, KTRama Rao made it clear that theState Government will fight forits rights in Krishna waters. TheGovernment already filed aSpecial Leave Petition in theSupreme Court.

He noted that the StateGovernment has cordial rela-tions with Andhra PradeshChief Minister YS JaganmohanReddy and as such the stategovernment would not com-promise in protecting interestsof the state.

T-Fiber works will be com-pleted within a year, he said.

The Covid-19 pandemic hasunderlined the need for initiat-ing several measures to updatethe medical and health sector inthe state. The state governmenthas initiated disciplinary actionagainst two private hospitals forirregularities in Covid-19 treat-ment. He advised the people to

go to government hospitals fortreatment of Covid-19 as thestate government has providedall amenities for treatment ofCovid in government hospitals.

He appreciated the servicesbeing rendered by GandhiHospital personnel in treatingCovid-19 patients.

Currently, 23000 samplesare being tested to confirm thevirus, he said adding that thenumber will soon increase to40,000 per day.

Compared to the AyushmanBharat Scheme of the Centre,the Arogyasri being imple-mented in Telangana is a bet-ter health scheme, he said.

He predicted that the maid-

en vaccine for Corona will befrom the soil of Telangana.However, he is also happy ifother countries will invent thevaccine first. The Centre's greensignal is being awaited to resumethe public transport, he said.

He refused to draw a paral-lel between Telangana andother states on number oftests being done in Telanganato diagnose Covid-19.

The state government willgive additional incentives toindustries that provide jobs tolocals. The Telangana StateBuilding Permission Approvaland Self Certification System(TS-bPASS) will standout as abench march in urbanreforms, he said.

n Visakhapatnam PortTrust ChairmanK Rama Mohan Rao saidthat there's a possibilityof a short circuit in thevessel. "The smoke wasdetected and controlledimmediately as the firefighters stepped in tobring the situation undercontrol.

He appreciatedthe servicesbeing renderedby GandhiHospitalpersonnel intreating Covid-19patients

n Jana Sena chief seeksmeasures to save Vizagfrom ammonium nitrateblast threat

n If the chemical ishandled carefully, it isprogressive. Otherwise, itwill be highly destructive,Pawan saidapprehending danger toVisakhapatnam from thechemical a la the blast inBeirut that had claimed158 lives

97 deaths taketoll past 2,000mark in AP

Continued from Page 1

The current positivity rate isover 16 per cent over the pastfew days as the state has beenreporting cases in excess of10,000 per day in the last fivedays. "What we are witnessingis a peak curve. Our infectionpositivity rate was less than oneper cent till May (during lock-down), which increased to2.16 per cent in June and 12.33per cent in July (post-lock-down).

Now it is about 16.24 percent," Special Chief Secretary(Health) K S Jawahar Reddypointed out. East Godavariand Kurnool districts contin-ued to report new cases at analarming rate while WestGodavari, Visakhapatnam,Anantapur and Guntur too arewitnessing a high surge. In thelast 24 hours, East Godavarireported 1,543, Kurnool 1,399,West Godavari 1,132 andVisakhapatnam 961 coron-avirus cases.

Jagan congratulates Prime MinisterPNS n VIJAYAWADA

Stating that this initiative will boost theagricultural economy by enablingfarmers to add value to their productsand get sustainable higher incomes,Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddyon Sunday congratulated PrimeMinister Narendra Modi for launch-ing the Agri-Infra fund of Rs 1 lakh-crore.

Taking to Twitter, the Chief Ministerwrote "I congratulate Prime MinisterNarendra Modi Ji for launching theAgri infra fund Rs1 lakh-crore. Thisinitiative will boost our agriculturaleconomy by enabling farmers to addvalue to their produce and get sustain-able higher incomes”. The State govern-ment has initiated various welfareschemes to boost the agriculture sec-tor for the benefit of the farmers.

In a statement, the State govern-ment reminded that it has established10,641 Rythu Bharosa Centres (RBKs),a one-stop destination for farmers,where they can collect seeds and fer-tilisers for cultivation, sell their produceand can also seek expert advice on crop

cultivation. They will also facilitate ingetting crop loans through the e-Cropfacility and also help in getting cropinsurance.

As promised during 3648 km PrajaSankalpa Yatra, the Chief Ministerstarted a flagship programme, ‘YSRRythu Bharosa-PM KisanYojana’which provides financial assistance ofRs 13,500 each in three instalments toover 51 lakh farmers’ families and three

lakh tenant farmers in the state everyyear.

Perhaps this is the first time thatbenefits are extended to tenant farm-ers without affecting ownership rights.All the eligible farmers will get thepromised amount of Rs 13,500 in threeinstalments; Rs 4,000 during Rabi inOctober, Rs 7,500 before Kharif and Rs

2,000 during Sankranti festival. During2019-20, the government had spent Rs8,750 crore towards YSR RythuBharosa scheme.

For the first of its kind, the State gov-ernment took up an initiative to offerMinimum Support Price (MSP) for thefarmers to prevent the losses. At timeswhen the market price falls steeply, theState shall intervene and purchase thecrops by paying MSP.

Earlier, the State government alsolaid proposals to strengthen the agri-cultural marketing sector with Rs4,000 crore, by establishing cold stor-ages and godowns in each mandal.

The Market Stabilisation Fund withRs 3,000 crore has come in handy tobuy perishable crops like tomatoes andbananas from farmers. When prices ofonions have spiraled the State pur-chased at higher price and sold at nom-inal price through Rythu Bazaars.

The Fund is aimed at stabilisingsmart prices during fluctuations. Thoseare but some of the schemes of Stateto benefit farmers and the ChiefMinister has earned the reputation ofbeing farmer friendly.

Continued from Page 1

Sreenivasa Reddy said that itwas only at the time of shiftingthe inmates to safety did thefire personnel realise that theywere Covid patients. This wasafter they noticed the tags andbands to their hands. “Withoutany second thought we contin-ued to save the survivors,” saidthe fire officer.

Sreenivasa Reddy told ThePioneer that he along with ASekhar, Asst District FireOfficer, K Naresh, SFO AutoNagar and Srinadh Reddy SFOGuntur were on the forefrontin rescuing the inmates in thefire accident.

They could rescue 21inmates in the CCC.

He said that neither the firealarm nor the smoke alarmworked to alert the inmatesduring the fire mishap. There

were no stretchers available inthe CCC and they had to shiftthe bodies on stretchers fromthe ambulances that reachedthe scene later.

Naresh said that during thepresent Covid pandemic theown kith and kin disown theirloved ones and are treatingthem as untouchables. “Wefirefighters, without PPE kits orany protective measures, res-cued the Covid patients dis-charging our duty and riskingour life,” he said.

Ramesh said that he wasworried about the infection ashe was due to return home andwould meet his family.

Meanwhile, district collectorA Md Imtiaz said that all thefire fighting crew involved inthe rescue operation would bequarantined for a week as theycame in direct contact withCovid positive patients.

Firefighters show their worth

Nani praises fire personnelfor their alacrity, BRAVErY

Continued from Page 1

Fire crews arrived at thescene at around 5:13 am, and18 people were rescued fromthe hotel due to timely action,the Minister said.

Nani said that preliminaryinvestigation found that thecarelessness and recklessnessby the management ofRamesh Hospital was themain reason for the firemishap. He promised strictaction against those respon-sible for the accident.

Nani said a case was regis-tered against the manage-

ments of both Hotel SwarnaPalace and Ramesh Hospital,under Sections 304, 308 (readwith Section 34 of IPC) andother relevant sections.

The Minister confirmedthat 10 patients, includingthree women, died in thefire accident and said thatthere were 31 Covid-19patients undergoing treat-ment in the temporary CovidCare Centre.

Ministers M Sucharitha,Vellampalli Srinivas, PerniNani and MP MopideviVentakaramana accompaniedAlla Nani during his visit.

10 patientsdie in fire...

Continued from Page 1

As the hotel is situated in thecentre of the city, the newsabout the fire mishap spreadswiftly and relatives of thepatients rushed to the hospitalsto know about the condition oftheir beloved.

Krishna District Fire OfficerSreenivasa Reddy said,"Around eight to 10 people arefeared dead. There were 31patients in total (at the centre).The rest have been rescued andsent to Ramesh Hospital. Theywere all Covid-19 patientsadmitted to the CCC run byRamesh Hospital. There maybe about 10 staff members.”

"The fire alarm did not go offat the time of the accident andthere was a delay in opening therear door,” he added.

All the victims were patientsundergoing treatment there,according to Deputy CM(Health) Alla Kali KrishnaSrinivas. Fire Safety DirectorJairam Naik said that the hotelviolated safety rules and willface action as investigation hasbeen initiated. The AP govern-ment announced an ex-gratiapayment of Rs 50 lakh each tothe kin of the 10 victims.

PM Narendra Modi spoke toChief Minister Y S JaganMohan Reddy over the phoneand enquired about the inci-dent. Jagan told Modi that a pri-vate hospital had taken the starhotel on lease to treat Covid-19patients. The PM assured allpossible help and support to thefamilies of the victims, a releasefrom the CMO said. StateHome Minister M Sucharitasaid an electrical short circuitappeared to be the possiblecause of the fire mishap in thewee hours of Sunday.

Disinfectantsacted ascatalyst to fire

Continued from Page 1

CPM leader P Madhu is alsoof the view that the disinfec-tants might have helped tospread the fire. Fire emanatingfrom the short-circuit areacould have spread due to thesanitisers kept there. Even asthe State Government hasordered a probe into the mat-ter, ‘prima facie’ reports say thesanitisers acted as a catalyst.

Fire broke out in the groundand first floors of the hotelaround 5 am and the fire ser-vices personnel and policereceived information at around5.10 am. WHO has also nowsuggested regulation of thedispersal of disinfectants inurban areas, which they say isbeing done without input fromthe scientific community.

PM condolesloss of lives...

Continued from Page 1

"Discussed the prevailingsituation with AP CM @ysja-gan Ji and assured all possi-ble support," he said.

The PMO later tweetedthat an ex gratia of Rs 2 lakheach from the PrimeMinister's National ReliefFund would be given to thenext of kin of those killed inthe incident. The injured willbe given a financial assistanceof Rs 50,000, it said.

Continued from Page 1

The number could have gonehigh, but a good number of peoplewere also saved during fire and res-cue too. Moreover, the property

damage assessed every year amountto around Rs 200 crores in the lastfive years. Fire outbreak is the thirdbiggest risk to business continuityand operations, according to IndiaRisk Survey.

Careless smokers playing...

Over 70% of hospitals...Continued from Page 1

In view of the Covid situa-tion, the fire department hadtaken up a survey to inspectfire safety compliance andserved notices to the erringhospitals.

They found that a majorityof Covid designated hospitalswere not adhering to the firesafety norms. Most of thehospitals in the city withoutprior permission from thehealth department are treatingCovid patients.

“During last couple of days50 hospital, including 10 den-tal hospitals, have obtainedNOC and yet another 200 hos-pitals are yet to respond. Wehave submitted a report to thegovernment seeking actionagainst these hospitals,’’ saidregional fire officer NiranjanReddy, who oversees hospitalswith buildings below 15

meters in height.He cautioned that the vul-

nerable institutions like hospi-tals, schools and function hallsare taking advantage of theinadequate staff of the fire ser-vice department and continu-ing to violate the fire safetyrules.

In the Vizag region, thereare about 340 hospitals,including private and govern-ment hospitals. Of these, only80 have fire NOC and over250, including 20 governmenthospitals, have not, saidNiranjan Reddy.

District Fire Officer B RamPrakash said all the Covid des-ignated hospitals includingGITAM, VIMS, Apollo andSeven Hills have installed firesystems at the time of con-struction. “But they need toconduct mock drills and over-haul the system periodically,’’the DFO said.

Kin of victimsblame hospital,hotel

Continued from Page 1

Narayana Swamy said thathis brother-in-law was treatedfor Covid in the hotel-turnedCCC and later his sister andnephew too tested positive andwere admitted in this hotel.“They even charged about Rs2.5 lakh from my brother-in-law for treatment for a weekand planned to charge thesame amount for both my sis-ter and nephew,” he said.

Governor, Ministersexpress shock over mishap

Continued from Page 1

He expressed profound sympathy totheir family members. The ministersaid that the medical and healthdepartment had already alerted theauthorities and directed them to takeaction. Medical health officials havebeen directed to provide best possiblemedical care to the injured, Nani said.

The minister said that ChiefMinister YS Jaganmohan Reddy hasordered an inquiry into the incidentand sought a detailed report. The ChiefMinister had earlier announced ex gra-tia of Rs 50 lakh to the families of each

of the deceased.Vijayawada district in-charge min-

ister Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddycondoled the loss of lives of Covid-19victims.

He spoke to district Collector A MdImtiaz and directed officials to providebetter treatment to the injured.

Ramachandra Reddy also directedthe Municipal Commissioner toinspect all the security facilities at theCovid-19 treatment centres set up inprivate hotels across Vijayawada city.

The district in-charge minister alsoordered a comprehensive investigationinto the incident.

LAUNCH OF AGRI-INFRA FUND

In a statement, theState governmentreminded that it hasestablished 10,641Rythu Bharosa Centres(RBKs), a one-stopdestination forfarmers, where theycan collect seeds andfertilisers forcultivation, sell theirproduce and can alsoseek expert advice oncrop cultivation

VIJAYAWADA | MONDAY | AUGUST 10, 2020 nation 04

SHORT READS

‘PM Kisan schemebenefited 52.5 lakhfarmers in Karnataka’BENGALURU: Karnataka ChiefMinister B S Yediyurappa onSunday said the PM KisanScheme has benefited 52.5 lakhfarmers in the state and thatthe first instalment of Rs 1,049crore will be credited into theiraccounts. As the PrimeMinister unveiled a specialpackage of Rs one lakh crorefor farmers today, Yediyurappatweeted,"PM @narendramodiGovt believes India's future liesin the welfare of its farmers.Thanks to @PMOIndia for#PMKISAN Scheme which hasbenefited over 52.50 lakhfarmers in Karnataka, the firstinstallment Rs 1,049 crore willnow be credited into theiraccounts." State AgricultureMinister B C Patil too thankedModi for selecting Karnatakafor launching the AgricultureInfrastructure Fund of Rs onelakh crore and releasing Rs17,000 crore under PM Kisanscheme.

CISF official asked if Iam Indian as I don'tknow Hindi: DMK MP

Over 27,000 litres ofchemicals containingspirit seized in PunjabCHANDIGARH: The Punjabexcise department said it hasseized 27,600 litres ofchemicals containing spiritduring raids carried out at threefactories in Mohali and arrestedfour people. This comes daysafter 121 people died in thestate's Tarn Taran district dueto consumption of spuriousliquor. A total of 138 drums of200 litres each containingchemicals were seized duringthe raids which were carriedout in Mohali's Dera Bassi areaon Saturday. Four people havebeen arrested in this matter.The department said it hassought help from experts fromthe Forensic Laboratory toidentify the chemicals.

CHENNAI: DMK MP Kanimozhion Sunday alleged that a CISFofficial asked her if "she was anIndian" as she could not speakHindi, prompting theparamilitary force to respondsaying appropriate action willbe taken. The incident isunderstood to have taken placewhen Kanimozhi was at theChennai international airport totake a flight to Delhi. "Today atthe airport a CISF officer askedme if 'I am an Indian' when Iasked her to speak to me inTamil or English as I did notknow Hindi," Kanimozhi, who isalso the DMK's women's wingsecretary, said on her officialTwitter account. "I would like toknow from when being Indianis equal to knowing Hindi," shetweeted with the hashtag"hindiimposition." According toparty sources, the incidentoccurred in Chennai when theMPwas at the airport to board a Delhi flight in theafternoon.

PNS n THIRUVANANTHAPURAM

Kerala Chief Minister PinarayiVijayan has dismissed theOpposition allegation thatthere was discrimination inproviding compensation tovictims of Rajamala landslideand the victims of aircraftcrash at Karipur.

The solatium announcedfor landslide victims was aninterim one and the state gov-ernment will "hold together"those who have lost every-thing, Vijayan said at a pressmeet on Saturday.

Vijayan said since the res-cue operations were still onfor missing persons in thelandslide in high rangeIdukki district and the gov-ernment was yet to makeafinal assessment of the lossincurred.

"At Rajamala, we havedeclared the initial financialassistance. There the rescueoperations are not over yet.

We need to hold themtogether as we have theresponsibility of taking careof those who lost everything.We also need to ensure theirlivelihood and rebuild theirlives," Vijayan had said in thepress meet. The oppositionCongress and other partieshad alleged discrimintion inproviding compensation tothe victims of two tragedieswhich happened withinhours of each other.

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Delhi zoo has undertak-en an enrichment campaign toprovide its animals conditionssimilar to their natural habitatsand improve their physicaland mental health.

The exercise aims at stimu-lating curiosity among ani-mals, and encouraging natur-al behaviour, as in the wild, anofficial said.

One of the enrichment tech-niques is cognitive enrich-ment. As part of this technique,animals are required to solve aproblem to obtain food.

For bears, a bamboo puzzlefeeder has been prepared. Theanimal is encouraged to climbup and explore the sections ofbamboo filled with honey andbananas, the official said.

"Another way is habitatenrichment. In this, the habi-tat is made more dynamic, andfull of fun. For example, a tireswing has been hung from atree for monkeys. A rope lad-

der has been placed for lion-tailed macaques. Perches arecreated for animals to climband sit on. They love it," hesaid. Food enrichment involvesnew food and different waysfor animals to get it. This isdone so that the animal doesnot get bored of eating thesame food and indulges inactivity.

"For example, the food is putinside a cardboard box forlions. The animal has to findit and work for it. In the case

of monkeys, food items arehidden in leaves in a corner ofthe enclosure or in a box fullof straw. This makes the ani-mal more active and alive tothe surrounding environment,"the official said.

Social animals are groupedor housed in the same enclo-sure for social enrichment.

"For instance, we havepaired lion Sundaram andlioness Hema, and leopardsBunty and Bubbly, and Tajasand Bunty," the official said.

Delhi zoo undertakesenrichment campaign

PNS n JAMMU

The Jammu and Kashmir unitof Congress on Sunday cele-brated the 78th anniversary ofhistoric "August Kranti Divas"with its leaders payingfloral tributes toMahatma Gandhifrom their resi-dences, theparty said.

J & KP r a d e s hC o n g r e s sC o m m i t t e e(JKPCC) chiefspokespersonRavinder Sharmasaid the party leadersdecided to celebrate theanniversary of historic 'QuitIndia Day' by offering floral trib-utes to the Father of the nationfrom their respective homesafter the administration deniedpermission to hold symbolicfunctions at party headquarters

in Jammu and Srinagar. "We did not receive the

requisite permission for a lim-ited presence due toCoronavirus-driven lockdownto mark the day symbolically

at party headquarters.Therefore, all the

leaders decided tocelebrate the

day at theirr e s p e c t i v eres idencesand the spir-it of freedomstruggle was

remembered,"he said.Accusing the

government of nothonouring the historic

day and denying the party per-mission to hold the symbolicfunctions, he said it was theCongress which led the free-dom movement and spear-headed the Quit India move-ment against all odds.

Cong observes 78th‘Quit India' anniversary,pay tributes to Gandhi

Delhi Police personnel taking part in I-Day guard of honour quarantinedPNS n NEW DELHI

In view of the COVID-19pandemic, over 350 DelhiPolice personnel who will bepart of the guard of honour atRed Fort on IndependenceDay have been quarantined asa precautionary measure, offi-cials said on Sunday.

These personnel of the forceof all ranks — from a constableto Deputy Commissioner ofPolice — have been quarantinedat a newly built police colony inDelhi Cantonment, they said.

Special Commissioner ofPolice (Armed Police) RobinHibu, who is in charge of thearrangements, said the 350 per-sonnel are doing well and noneof them has any COVID-19symptoms.

But they have been quaran-tined as a precautionary measureto ensure theirs as well as every-one else's safety, he said.

"All personnel who are cur-rently in quarantine at the policecolony here for over a week nowhave been provided with allfacilities and are strictly follow-ing social distancing norms.

"After their parade rehearsals,they immediately sanitise them-selves. All precautions are beingtaken," another senior policeofficer said.

He said that usually least 40police personnel are ferried in avehicle to parade rehearsals.

But this year, owing toCOVID-19, only 20 personnelare being ferried in a sanitised

vehicle with strict adherence tosocial distancing norms, theofficial said.

More than 2,500 Delhi policepersonnel have been infectedwith COVID-19 so far. A major-ity of them already recovered andresumed their duties, accordingto the police. Fourteen Delhipolice personnel have died dueto the viral infection.

PNS n PATNA

Historians, preservationistsand scholars have expressed"deep concern" over the newly-constituted Bihar heritagecommission, alleging that thepanel has "no representation"from conservation architectsand other independent domainexperts.

The Bihar government,however, has said that thepanel has been set up as per thenorms under the Bihar UrbanPlanning and DevelopmentRules, 2014.

The Bihar Urban Arts andHeritage Commission has beenrecently set up by the state gov-ernment, after a plea by her-itage organisation INTACHin the Patna High Court.

The state government, in itsadditional response to the twoPILs filed in August 2019, hassaid that in the light of thedirections of the court, the"commission has been consti-tuted with a notification datedMarch 30" this year "under theprovision of the rule 85 of theBihar Urban Planning and

Development Rules, 2014".The seven-member panel is

headed by the principal secre-tary, Department of Art,Culture and Youth of the Bihargovernment, with other mem-bers represented from theDepartment of UrbanDevelopment and Housing,Building ConstructionDepartment, TourismDepartment, and the state'sDirectorate of Archaeology,among others, according to theadditional response filed by it.

Historians, conservationarchitects, scholars, preserva-tionists and other domain

experts have taken strongexception to "no externalmembers being made part ofthe heritage commission" withmany alleging that it reducesthe panel to a mere "rubberstamp of the state govern-ment".

They pitched for includingeminent people and indepen-dent experts from variousfields related to art, history,architecture and urban plan-ning in the new commission.

Noted historian and authorSurendra Gopal, who has beenadvocating for long for a her-itage conservation policy in

Bihar and pitched for preser-vation of the centuries-oldPatna Collectorate, said, "Thegovernment wants to changethe face of Patna, and histori-cal buildings are being erasedyear after year in the name ofdevelopment."

The 84-year-old author of'Patna in the 19th Century'urged the government toinclude historians and architec-tural history scholars also inthe heritage commission, say-ing "a few government mem-bers cannot decide the fate ofbuilt heritage" of Patna and restof Bihar.

Historians, architects express concernover new Bihar heritage commission

PNS n NEW DELHI

Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal on Sunday said theCOVID-19 situation in Delhiis under control and the recov-ery rate is improving.

Speaking at the inaugurationof a hospital in AmbedkarNagar, he said in case the sit-uation takes a turn for theworse, the government is fullyprepared to deal with it.

Delhi's COVID-19 casecount stood at 1,44,127 onSaturday, according to govern-ment data.

"The (COVID-19) situationis under control. All parame-ters are good, recovery rate isimproving, positivity ratio anddeaths have reduced," Kejriwalsaid.

He said the inauguration ofthe hospital is a step towardsstrengthening the health infra-structure in the city.

"We have graduallyincreased the number of

COVID-19 beds," he added."The hospital was conceived

in 2013. It is a 600-bed hospi-tal. We are inaugurating thefirst 200 beds which will beused for the treatment ofCOVID-19 patients," Kejriwalsaid at the launch event.

"I pray to God that these 200beds are not needed in thefuture... we never get to a sit-uation where we have to usethese beds. But even if the sit-

uation becomes bad again,we are fully prepared to dealwith it," he said.

"This hospital was sched-uled to begin operations aftera few months, but it has beeninaugurated today. I want tothank and congratulate engi-neers, doctors, and all thepeople for their efforts inmaking this 200-bed hospitalavailable for the people ofDelhi," he said.

Covid situation in Delhiunder control: Kejriwal

Venkaiah calls for ‘Knit India'for a stronger, united nationPNS n NEW DELHI

Vice President M VenkaiahNaidu on Sunday called for anintensified campaign for “KnitIndia” to enable a strong andemotionally integrated nation.

To mark the 78th anniver-sary of the Quit India move-ment, Naidu wrote a Facebookpost recounting the series offoreign invasions and the colo-nial exploitation during thelong period of 1000-1947.

During the second millenni-um, the country paid a veryheavy price in the form of cul-tural subjugation and econom-ic exploitation that enfeebledthe once rich India, he said.

The vice president stressedthat hard fought independencein 1947 was not just about end-ing the colonial rule of the pre-ceding 200 years but alsobringing down curtains on the1000 year-long "dark age" dur-

ing which the country wasplundered at will by invaders,traders and colonialists, whotook advantage of the lack ofunity among Indians.

“Lack of sense of belonging toeach other and unity of purposeand action had led to long sub-jugation and exploitation ofIndia. Learning from this, allIndians need to be bound by theshared sense of Indianness while

pursuing their respective cultur-al values and ethos," Naidu saidHe said a perception of dividedIndia would make India aneasy target for others for fishingin troubled waters. "A strong,unified and emotionally inte-grated India is the best defenceagainst those casting an evil eyeon us with questionable inten-tions,” the vice president said.

Naidu stressed on the need to

Knit India into one single fab-ric by ensuring equality of alland equal opportunities for alland noted that a divided andiniquitous society does notenable the fullest developmentof all Indians to their capacity.

Kerala CM deniesdiscrimination inproviding compensation

"All personnel who are currently inquarantine at the police colony here forover a week now have been providedwith all facilities and are strictlyfollowing social distancing norms

PNS n JAIPUR

Rajasthan Chief MinisterAshok Gehlot on Sunday ques-tioned the shifting of BJPMLAs to Gujarat, saying theopposition party was riddenwith factionalism.

His comments came in thewake of the BJP herding its 18MLAs in the past two days toparty-ruled Gujarat ahead ofthe Rajasthan assembly sessionbeginning August 14.

The BJP had claimed thattheir MLAs were beingharassed by police and theadministration at the behest ofthe Congress government inthe state. Gehlot, on the otherhand, defended the stay ofCongress legislators at aJaisalmer hotel, saying theparty required to keep them

together to thwart horse-trad-ing. “But, what is worrying theBJP? They are herding theirlegislators to three-four places.I see a big split in them,"Gehlot told reporters inJaisalmer.

Lashing out at the opposi-tion party, Gehlot said the“tradition they are setting up is

dangerous to democracy”. He said while BJP is trying

to topple his government, thegovernment is making effortsto save lives amid the coron-avirus crisis. Unfortunately,such people sitting in powerare weakening democracy,which we saved for the past 70years, Gehlot said. He addedthat their fight to save democ-racy will continue even afterAugust 14 and the truth willprevail."I can say this that thevictory will be ours, truth willwin,” he said, stressing that his“government will complete itsfive-year term”.

Gehlot on Sunday also wroteto all Rajasthan MLAs, urgingthem to listen to the voice ofpeople to save democracy andstand with the truth in theinterest of people of the state.

Defence Minister promised a ‘bang',ended with a ‘whimper': CongressPNS n NEW DELHI

The Congress on Sundayplayed down Defence MinisterRajnath Singh's announce-ment on the import embargoon defence equipment, sayingit was only "high sounding jar-gon" and that 'atmanirbharbharat' was merely a slogan.

Congress spokespersonAbhishek Singhvi also criticisedSingh for dubbing the importrestrictions as a push to achievea self-reliant India, saying therewas a "big difference betweenclaims and reality.

"The prime minister hasgiven the slogan of'Atmanirbhar Bharat', but hasnot said when, how and whatwill be the direction. Just a slo-

gan has been given becausethis government and the primeminister are fond of slogans,"Singhvi said at an online mediabriefing.

Senior Congress leader PChidambaram said the defenceminister promised a "bang" ona Sunday morning but endedwith a "whimper".

"The only importer of

defence equipment is theDefence Ministry. Any importembargo is really an embargoon oneself," the former homeminister said.

What the defence ministersaid in his "historic Sundayannouncement" deserved onlyan office order from the min-ister to his secretaries,Chidambaram said in a seriesof tweets.

"Import embargo is highsounding jargon. What itmeans is we will try to makethe same equipment (that weimport today) in 2 to 4 yearsand stop imports thereafter!"he said. Singhvi, in response toa question, said the defenceminister's statement was both"funny as well as unfortunate".

BJP ridden with factionalism: Gehlot Six Raj BJPMLAs holed upin Guj leavePNS n AHMEDABAD

Six BJP MLAs from Rajasthanwho had arrived in Gujaratahead of the crucial Assemblysession in that state starting onAugust 14 left for an undis-closed location . The Congressgovernment in Rajasthan underCM Ashok Gehlot is in strifeafter Deputy CM Sachin Pilotrebelled and was sacked fromthe post. The six BJP MLAs hadreached Somnath fromPorbandar on Saturday evening,with one of them tellingreporters that the Congressgovernment in Rajasthan was"harassing" opposition MLAs,and that they had come on a pil-grimage to Somnath to seekmental peace.

The Bihar UrbanArts and HeritageCommission hasbeen recently setup by the stategovernment, aftera plea by heritageorganisationINTACH in thePatna High Court

“Lack of sense ofbelonging to eachother and unity ofpurpose and actionhad led to longsubjugation andexploitation of India.Learning from this,all Indians need to bebound by the sharedsense of Indiannesswhile pursuing theirrespective culturalvalues and ethos,"Naidu said

Maoist hideoutbusted, cartridgesseized aftergunfight in OdishaPNS n BHUBANESWAR

Security forces busted a campof the CPI (Maoist) and seizeda large number of cartridgesafter an exchange of fire withcadres of the banned outfit inOdisha's Bargarh district,police said on Sunday. Thegun-battle took place inGandhamardan reserve forestin Paikmal police station areaon Saturday and it lasted foraround 30 minutes, a policeofficer said.

Acting on a tip-off, a teamof CRPF and police person-nel launched a combing oper-ation during which theynoticed the movement ofaround 10-15 armed Maoists.The rebels started indiscrim-inate firing on spotting thesecurity personnel, BargarhSuperintendent of PolicePadmini Sahoo said.

The security personneltook defensive positions andappealed to the Maoists tostop firing and surrender, towhich they shouted "LalSalaam Zindabad", she said.

VIJAYAWADA | MONDAY | AUGUST 10, 2020 nation 05

SHORT READS

Kiran Bedi: People'srepresentatives mustfollow Covid normsPUDUCHERRY: LieutenantGovernor of Puducherry Kiranbedi on Sunday said politicalleaders and people'srepresentatives should follownorms for safety from COVID-19 and set an example to thepublic. She said there werephotographs and reports in themedia that some of the people'srepresentatives were seenviolating the guidelinesintroduced to fight thepandemic. "There are umpteenpictures daily in the mediashowing social distancing beingviolated by people'srepresentatives themselves andthis is despite being few of themhaving tested positive for thevirus," she said. In her whatsappmessage, Bedi said unlesspolitical leadership showsrespect for whatever they wantthe public to do, the war againstCOVID-19 would be a case oftaking two steps forward andthree steps backwards.

Actor Natasha Suritests positive for Covid

12 Naxals surrender inC'garh, 5 of themcarrying cash rewardsRAIPUR: Twelve Naxals, five ofthem collectively carrying areward of Rs 6 lakh on theirheads, surrendered inChhattisgarh's Dantewadadistrict on Sunday, police said.The cadres turned themselvesin before police and the CRPFofficials in Dantewada townsaying that they wereimpressed by the rehabilitationcampaign being run by thelocal police and disappointedwith the hollow Maoistideology, DantewadaSuperintendent of PoliceAbhishek Pallava said.Dantewada MLA Devti Karmawas also present on theoccasion, he said. Of theseultras, Chanduram Sethiya,who was active as a member ofplatoon no. 26 of Maoists, wasallegedly involved in threeNaxal attacks, including inBhusaras-Chingavarm in 2008,wherein 23 policemen and twocivilians were killed, he said.Sethiya was carrying a rewardof Rs 2 lakh on his head,Pallava said.

MUMBAI: Actor and formerMiss India World Natasha Surion Sunday said she has testedpositive for COVID-19 and iscurrently quarantining at herhome. Suri, 31, said she hadgone to Pune earlier this monthand fell sick on her return toMumbai. "I had gone to Punetaking all the necessaryprecautions. When I cameback, on August 3, I fell sick. Ihad fever, sore throat so I gotmyself tested and it turned outCOVID-19 positive," the actorsaid. Suri, who made her bigscreen debut with the 2016Malayalam comedy "King Liar",said her sister andgrandmother have also beentested. "My family membersalso started feeling sick so I amstrictly quarantining at home,taking medications. They havealso undergone tests, theirreports are awaited," she said.

‘Modi to present new outline forself-reliant India on August 15’PNS n NEW DELHI

Prime Minister NarendraModi will present a new out-line for a self-reliant India inhis address to the nation fromthe ramparts of the Red Forton August 15, DefenceMinister Rajnath Singh said onSunday.

The defence minister saidvarious departments and min-istries of the government areworking seriously to imple-ment Modi's initiative for aself-reliant India and that it isan attempt to give a freshdimension to MahatmaGandhi's push for 'Swadeshi'.

Singh was speaking at anonline event organised to paytributes to revolutionary free-dom fighter Udham Singh.

Talking about the'Atmanirbhar' initiative, thedefence minister said that thecoronavirus pandemic hasshown that a country may notbe able to effectively protect itssovereignty if it is not self-reliant.

"Our government will notallow any harm to India's self

respect and sovereignty at anycost," he said.

"Prime Minister NarendraModi will present before thenation a new outline for a self-reliant India in his addressfrom the ramparts of the RedFort on the IndependenceDay," Singh said.

Referring to the defenceministry's decision to banimport of 101 militaryweapons and platforms, Singhsaid major and tough decisionsare being taken to promoteself-reliance in defence pro-

duction.He said big weapons systems

will now be produced in Indiaand the country will look fortheir export to make it a hubfor defence manufacturing.

In a major push to promotethe domestic defence industry,Singh on Sunday morningannounced restrictions onimport of 101 weapons andmilitary platforms includinglight combat helicopters, trans-port aircraft, conventional sub-marines and cruise missiles by2024.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Scaling up testing capacity,over seven lakh samples havebeen examined for COVID-19in a day taking the cumulativetests conducted so far to2,41,06,535, the Union HealthMinistry said on Sunday.

The number of recoveriestoo has surged to 14,80,884with 53,879 coronaviruspatients having recuperatedand discharged in 24-hours,the highest in a day so far,pushing the recovery rate to68.78 per cent. The fatality ratehas further dropped to 2.01 percent, it said.

The ministry said the num-ber of single-day tests has beengrowing exponentially andIndia has been testing over sixlakh samples daily for severaldays. "A record 7,19,364 sam-ples have been tested onSaturday, the highest in a dayso far. India is conductingaround 500 tests for detectionof COVID-19 per minute and

the per-day testing capacity hasincreased over five lakhs,"Scientist and media coordina-tor at ICMR, Dr LokeshSharma said.

Such elevated level of testingwill also lead to high numberof daily positive cases, thehealth ministry said, addingstates have been advised tofirmly focus on comprehensivetracking, prompt isolation andeffective treatment, followingthe Centre-led strategy of 'test,track and treat'. The number

of recoveries has surged to14,80,884 with 53,879 coron-avirus patients having recuper-ated and discharged in 24-hours, the highest in a day sofar, pushing the recovery rateto 68.78 per cent. The fatalityrate has further dropped to2.01 per cent, the ministrysaid.

"The number of recoveredcases has touched another highof 2.36 times the active cases.All patients are all under med-ical attention either in home

isolation or in hospitals," theministry said.

From 7.69 per cent on April5, the recovery rate improvedto 26.59 per cent on May 3,48.37 per cent on June 7 and to68.78 per cent as on date, itsaid. "The widening gapbetween recovered and activecases, indicative of the highernumber of recoveries as com-pared to those either in hospi-tals or in home isolation, is8,52,137 at present," the min-istry said.

Record 7 lakh Covid testsconducted in a day

PNS n NEW DELHI

Union Home Minister AmitShah on Sunday expressedgratitude to Prime MinisterNarendra Modi for launchinga Rs 1 lakh crore AgricultureInfrastructure Fund and saidit will generate new employ-ment opportunities andstrengthen the rural economy.

In a series of tweets inHindi, Shah said agriculture isthe foundation of the Indianeconomy and the Modi gov-ernment has been striving tostrengthen it for the last sixyears. Shah said manyunprecedented steps have beentaken to double the income offarmers and for the develop-ment of the agriculture sector.

"I am confident that due tothe untiring efforts of PMNarendra Modi, Indian agri-

culture will become worldclass in the times to come," hesaid.

The home minister said theagriculture infrastructure fundwill accelerate creation ofmany infrastructure projectssuch as cold storage, collectioncentres, processing units sothat the hardworking farmerscan get the true value fortheir produce.

‘Agri Infra Fund to benefitfarmers, create jobs,develop rural economy’PNS n NEW DELHI

The Congress must expeditethe process of finding a full-term president to arrest thegrowing public perception thatthe party is "adrift and rudder-less", senior Congress leaderShashi Tharoor said onSunday.

Tharoor also said that hecertainly thinks Rahul Gandhihas the "mettle, capability andaptitude to once again lead theparty", but if he does not wishto do so then the party must"take action" to elect a newchief.

His comments assume sig-nificance as they come justahead of Sonia Gandhi com-pleting one year as interimchief on August 10, with theparty yet to find her successor.

"I certainly believe weshould be clear about ourleadership going forward. Iwelcomed Sonia ji's appoint-

ment as interim president lastyear, but I do believe it's unfairto her to expect her to carrythis burden indefinitely,"Tharoor said.

"We also need to arrest thegrowing public perception,fuelled by a dismissive media,that the Congress is adrift andrudderless, incapable of takingup the challenge of a crediblenational Opposition," the for-mer Union minister said.

That is precisely what theCongress needs to urgentlyaddress by expediting theprocess of finding a full-termpresident, through a participa-tory and democratic processthat will offer the winningcandidate a legitimate mandateand the credibility that will beindispensable in ushering inmuch needed organisationaland structural revival of theparty, Tharoor said.

Congress must find full-termpresident, says Tharoor

PM releases Rs 17,000cr to 8.5 cr farmers underPM-KISAN schemePNS n NEW DELHI

Prime Minister NarendraModi on Sunday transferredRs 17,000 crore directly intothe bank accounts of 8.5 crorefarmers under the PM-KISANscheme.

He said the scheme hasbeen successful in its objectiveto provide financial support tofarmers without any involve-ment of middlemen.

The Centre provides Rs6,000 per year in three equalinstalments under thePradhan Mantri KisanSamman Nidhi (PM-KISAN)scheme that was launched inDecember 2018.

The prime minister"released the 6th installmentunder the PM-KISAN schemeof Rs 17,000 crore to nearly 8.5crore farmers. The cash ben-efit was transferred directly to

their Aadhaar verified bankaccounts with the press of abutton", an official statementsaid. The amount was trans-ferred to farmers at a functionorganised through video con-ference to launch financialfacility of Rs 1 lakh croreunder the AgricultureInfrastructure Fund. "No mid-dlemen, no commisison. Theamount was transferred direct-ly to farmers," Modi said.

INDUS WATER TREATY MEETING

India suggests video-conf, Pakistaninsists on meeting on Wagah borderPNS n NEW DELHI

India has suggested to Pakistanthat the talks for discussingpending issues under the IndusWater Treaty (IWT) be heldthrough video-conferencing inview of the coronavirus pan-demic, but Islamabad has beeninsisting that the parleys beconducted at the Attari checkpost, sources said on Sunday.

In a letter last week, the IndusCommissioner of India told hisPakistani counterpart that it isnot conducive to hold the meet-ing at the Attari Joint Check Postdue to the pandemic.

On Pakistan's request, ameeting was scheduled in lastweek of March to discuss pend-ing issues under the IndusWater Treaty. However, it wasdeferred due to current pan-

demic.Considering the fact that it

may take some time for the sit-uation to normalise and inter-national travel to resume, theIndian Commissioner, in thefirst week of July, proposed tohold the meeting through

video conference or any alter-native means, sources said.

In response, the PakistanCommissioner, in his lettersent in last week of July, insist-ed on holding the conven-tional meeting at Attari JointCheck Post instead.

“The Indian Commissionerresponded stating that the sit-uation in India is still not con-ducive for travelling of his del-egation and holding the meet-ing at Attari JCP as proposedby his counterpart and maytake some time to allow such

meeting at Attari JCP or NewDelhi as desired by Pakistan,”a source said.

The Indian Commissioneralso requested the Pakistanside to consider holding a vir-tual meeting as a viable optionto discuss the pending and newissues, sources added.

They noted that even thediplomatic talks with othercountries have been takingplace through virtual meet-ings and the Indus meetingcan take place in a similarmanner.

The Kishenganga projecthad been in operation since2018 while work on Ratlestands abandoned since 2014due to a contractual disputebetween the Jammu andKashmir government and thecontractor.

PNS n MUMBAI

The Enforcement Directorate(ED) questioned ShowikChakraborty, brother of actorRhea Chakraborty, for about 18hours in connection with amoney laundering case linkedto the death of actor SushantSingh Rajput, officials said onSunday.

Showik left the central inves-tigative agency's office here inthe Ballard Estate area around6:30 AM after an overnightquestioning session that beganaround noon on Saturday.

Officials said Showik's state-ment was recorded under thePrevention of MoneyLaundering Act (PMLA) andhe was asked about his person-al businesses, income, invest-ments and financial dealingswith his sister and Rajput.

He was grilled by the agency

for a few hours on August 7 aswell. On the same day, his sis-ter and prime accused in thecase Rhea (28) was questionedby the agency for the firsttime for about eight hours.

Rhea and her father IndrajitChakraborty have been sum-moned to appear before theagency again on Monday.

On Friday, the ED had ques-tioned Indrajit, Rhea's charteredaccountant (CA) Ritesh Shahand business manager ShrutiModi, who also worked forRajput. The agency is under-stood to have questioned Rhea,who stated in her petition to thecourt that she was in a live-inrelationship with Rajput, abouther friendship with the lateactor, business dealings and thedevelopments that took placeover the last few years betweenthem. The ED's line of ques-tioning, officials said, is revolv-

ing around Rhea's income,investments, business and pro-fessional deals, and links.

Also under the ED's scanneris a property located in thecity's Khar area and another inNavi Mumbai, both linked toRhea, for the source of pur-chase and ownership.

ED grills Rhea Chakraborty's brother overnightin money laundering case; calls her again today

PNS n PATNA

The R-Block flyover in Patnaopened for traffic on Sundayafter its inauguration by BiharChief Minister Nitish Kumar.

The 960-metre-long flyoverin the heart of the city wasbuilt for Rs 106 crore in fiveyears, officials said.

The R-Block flyover con-nects Hardinge Road withVeerchand Patel Path andMithapur flyover and it willreduce traffic near the stateLegislative Assembly, theysaid.

The R-Block-Digha Roadwill be connected with the newflyover near the GPO,Additional Chief Secretary ofRoad Construction Depart-ment, Amrit Lal Meena, wasquoted as saying in a release.

Commuters will be able toaccess the Digha Bridge andthe Ganga Path via the newflyover once it's linked with theR-Block-Digha Road, he said.

Ganga Path is a 20.5-km-long driveway being builtalong the river to connectDigha Patna to Didarganj.Thechief minister asked the offi-cials to connect the R-Block-Digha Road with the new fly-over through an elevated road,the release said.

Politicisation of Sushant case aconspiracy against Maha: RautPNS n MUMBAI

Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Rauton Sunday claimed "pressuretactics" were being used in thecase of actor Sushant SinghRajput's death and the issuewas being politicised as partof a conspiracy againstMaharashtra.

It is wrong to see the unfor-tunate suicide of the actorfrom a political angle, Rautsaid in his weekly column'Rokhthok' in the partymouthpiece 'Saamana'.

Rajput, 34, was foundhanging at his apartment insuburban Bandra on June 14.

The CBI recently tookover the probe in the case,based on a Patna police FIRrelated to alleged criminalconspiracy and abetment tosuicide against Rajput's girl-friend and actor RheaChakraborty.

Patna's R-Block flyoveropens for traffic afterinauguration by Nitish

Shekhawat slams Gehlot overdeaths of 11 migrants from PakPNS n NEW DELHI

Jal Shakti Minister GajendraSingh Shekhawat on Sundayslammed the Rajasthan govern-ment over deaths of 11 membersof a Hindu migrant family fromPakistan, saying the incidentreflects the “working style” ofChief Minister Ashok Gehlot.

Eleven members of a Hindumigrant family from Pakistanand belonging to the Bhil com-munity were found dead at afarm in Rajasthan's Jodhpurdistrict on Sunday.

"The deaths of nearly a dozenrefugees from Pakistan put aquestion mark on@ashokgehlot51's working style

“The deceased include twomen, four women and five chil-dren. One after other, veryfrightening incidents reflectingthe deteriorating situation ofthe state, are coming to the fore.

The government should swinginto action and clear the picture,"Shekhawat tweeted.

One member of the migrantfamily, however, was found aliveoutside the hut they lived atLodta village of Dechu area, anofficial said in Jodhpur.

"But he claimed to have noidea about the incident, whichbelieved to have happened in the

night," said Jodhpur'sSuperintendent of Police (Rural)Rahul Barhat. "We are yet toascertain the cause and means ofdeath. But apparently, all themembers appeared to have com-mitted suicide by consumingsome chemical in the night,"Barhat said.

On Pakistan'srequest, a meetingwas scheduled inlast week of Marchto discuss pendingissues under theIndus Water Treaty.However, it wasdeferred due tocurrent pandemic

The number ofrecoveries toohas surged to14,80,884 with53,879 coronavirus patientshaving recupera-ted and dischar-ged in 24-hours

“The deceased includetwo men, four womenand five children. Oneafter other, veryfrightening incidentsreflecting thedeteriorating situationof the state, arecoming to the fore.The governmentshould swing intoaction and clear thepicture," Shekhawattweeted

An interesting anecdote doing therounds among military veterans’groups on social media pertainsto an incident just after the 1971war. A young officer performing

duties of the Regimental Adjutant, the prin-cipal staff officer to the Commanding Officer,was approached by an extremely engagingand popular ex-serviceman — who wasemployed by a well-known corporate — foran authority letter to continue drawing can-teen stores from his unit. This was a commonoccurrence in those times when smart cardswere yet to make an appearance. However,on a hunch, the officer decided to obtain ver-ification of his antecedent prior to signing thecertificate from the office that maintaineddepartmental records.

Surprisingly, it turned out that the indi-vidual was a deserter from the Army and hadabsconded from his unit during the Sino-Indian conflict of 1962 while his unit wasdeployed in the combat zone. On receipt ofthis information, as was expected, the ex-sol-dier was apprehended and questioned. Heaccepted his guilt and explained that after hisunit was overrun by the Chinese, he success-fully evaded them and escaped to Bhutanwhere he got himself a job. One thing led toanother and he settled into civilian life andnever rejoined the Army. As is customary, hewas brought before a court-martial; was foundguilty and sent off to serve time in jail.However, the commanding officer being akindly soul and displaying immense empa-thy for the convict, convinced his companyto retain him on the rolls, while also arrang-ing to look after his family till he had servedhis sentence. Thus, on his return, the formersoldier not only got his job back but was alsoable to finally shed his sense of guilt andapprehension that had haunted him allthose years.

This is a simple straightforward tale ofbeing held to account for one’s misdeeds,which fortuitously ended well for the soldierand his family, despite all the trials and tribu-lations that he must have faced. A contrari-an view would suggest that in all likelihood,he had probably been traumatised by hisworld collapsing around him when his unitdisintegrated in battle, leaving him to fend forhimself. Given his experience and mental state— where there was no sufficient ground formitigation — should he not have beenabsolved of all wrongdoing? Of course,while this question may draw differing con-clusions, depending on one’s point of view andinterpretation of the law, what cannot be dis-puted is that he was guilty of fraudulentlyattempting to obtain benefits authorised onlyto military veterans. He deserved to be heldto account. Ironically, the account does notmake clear whether the latter aspect wasglossed over or even considered.

But here is the thing that the young sol-dier was undoubtedly an insignificant cog inthat vast military machine and yet, he was heldto account for the error he had committed.

One wishes that those responsi-ble for derailing the military andforcing it and this country to livethrough years of ignominy ofdefeat had also been meted outjustice in a similar manner. Thesad truth is that they got awaywithout being held accountableas neither resignations — like thatof Krishna Menon or GeneralThapar, the Army Chief — nordeprivation of further promotion,as some others faced, can becalled punishment enough. Atthe minimum, those responsibleshould have certainly faced dis-ciplinary proceedings, maybeeven have had their pensionsstopped, as was the case withGeneral AAK Niazi after he sur-rendered in Dhaka. After all, sur-rendering 37,000 square km ofthe territory that we claimed asours to the Chinese was nosmall matter. Yet, how did werespond to this humongous dis-aster? Shamefully, to say theleast, the Government did trans-fer the individual entrusted withthe defence of India, the thenDefence Secretary O Pulla Reddy,but subsequently nominated himas the founding Vice Chancellorof Andhra Pradesh AgriculturalUniversity. Talking of secondchances.

Our unwillingness andinability to fix the blame for actsof commission and omission atthe highest levels have ensuredthat no lessons are ever learnt. Wehave also gone on to perfect theart of deflection as the Kargil dis-

aster clearly showed. There wasno reason why Atal BihariVajpayee’s attempts at engagingPakistan should have led tocomplacency on the part ofeither the intelligence or thesecurity establishment. It was allvery well to have blamed it on“systemic intelligence failure”but why nobody thought it nec-essary to ask the question: Whilethe intelligence agencies mayhave failed to discern Pakistan’sintentions, how was it that the lat-ter occupied our territory with-out detection by the Army?Instead of taking it to task, wemade much of our top militarybrass, treating them as heroes forreclaiming — at great cost onemight add — what we should nothave lost in the first place. Ofcourse, the Government of theday could not have acted in anyother manner as that wouldhave been seen as a blemish onits performance as well.

Naturally, we are again wit-ness to this sordid cycle as theChinese once again make foolsout of us. The same clichedexcuses are being trotted out thatunfortunately, the “Wuhan-Mamallapuram spirit” made oursecurity establishment compla-cent and we were, thus, caughtwrong-footed as intelligenceagencies were unable to detectChinese movers or gauge theirintentions. The security establish-ment hopes to save itself theblushes by pushing the blame onits favourite whipping boy, “sys-

temic failure.” In this case, thecurrent border managementpractice that ensures a ratheropaque division of responsibili-ties between the Army and theIndo-Tibetan Border Police.

One can be certain that theywill manage to avoid being heldto account this time as well. Notleast because of the way PrimeMinister Narendra Modi hasattempted to change the narra-tive by denying any ingress or lossof territory and instead promot-ing through his minions “differ-ing perceptions of the LACbetween both sides” to fudge theissue. He hopes — and not with-out good reason given the blindsupport he enjoys — this willallow him and his Governmentto carry on as if it is business asusual. Unfortunately for him, theunexpected appearance in thepublic domain of the Ministry ofDefence report on the ingress bythe PLA — though now with-drawn — does suggest that thereare those within the Governmentwho have serious reservationsabout his actions and have nocompunction in showing him upfor dissembling.

Normally, in a bureaucraticand hierarchical system such asours, it is often the case that thoseleft holding the baby, so to say, arenot necessarily the ones respon-sible for its procreation in the firstplace. We would certainly nothave found ourselves in the pre-sent situation if the previousGovernment, and this one, had

shown even a modicum of inter-est in national defence and kepttheir eye on the ball. Modi findshimself in an extremely difficultsituation, not because theManmohan Singh Governmentwas negligent, which it certain-ly was, but because of his owndeliberate neglect of the militarysince 2014. He made all the rightnoises but had no time for themilitary, except for where ithelped his own political fortunes.

Similarly, General Rawatwould not have found himselfcaught in this controversy todayif he had not been appointed theChief of Defence Staff after pan-dering to Modi’s wishes. He can-not escape responsibility for hav-ing sabotaged the MountainStrike Corps (MSC) midwaythrough its raising while he wasChief of Army Staff. One mayrecall that it was after the ingressby the Chinese in the DepsangSector in 2013 that the dysfunc-tional Manmohan SinghGovernment understood theseriousness of the issue andsanctioned the raising of theMSC. Its raising was given fullattention by the Army Chief andwas of immense concern to theChinese because they clearlyunderstood the shift in the intentof the Indian armed forces froma purely defensive posture to amore pro-active one. It changedthe concept of Sino-Indian con-ventional deterrence.

Thus, one can imagine theirutter joy when the Modi-Doval-Rawat combine put the spannerin the works and put the MSCinto forced hibernation. Thiswas allegedly done because ofbudgetary constraints, some-thing that apparently had noimpact on the unbridled expan-sion of the Central Armed PoliceForces. It is obvious that purelydefensive actions on our part willnever restore the status quo ante,which we are insisting upon, inthe foreseeable future. If we donothing, the loss of territorywill be a body blow to our rep-utation in the region and inter-nationally.

In the long run, as happenedwith Nehru, it will be the ruina-tion of Modi. His reputation willsuffer, his ability to stay in powerwill be constrained and he will bereduced to a caricature. Ironically,while Nehru continues to shoul-der much of the blame for prob-lems that afflict us today, Modiand his minions will not havethat advantage. They will have tobear the consequences for theiractions. There is something to besaid for poetic justice and that oldadage, “As you sow, so shall youreap.”

(The author, a military veter-an, is a consultant with theObserver Research Foundationand a Senior Visiting Fellow withThe Peninsula Foundation)T

he recently published results of the UnionPublic Service Commission (UPSC) civilservices examination, 2019, have thrown

up some powerful stories of triumph, surpass-ing gender, caste, economic and religious bar-riers. Stories of grit and inspiration abound asmost candidates who have made the cut havedone so under challenging circumstances andmodest means. While some never gave updespite repeated failures, there are others whohad to overcome physical as well as familylimitations to prove that courage is the only

mark of success. The topper, Pradeep Singh, though already an IRS officer, isthe son of a farmer from Sonipat. Surprisingly, Jatin Kishore and Pratibha Verma,too, not satisfied with their earlier results, reappeared for the exams and havenow become the second and third rankers and the top scorers among women.Overall there are three women candidates in the top 10 list. But setting a newrecord are 12 candidates from Jammu and Kashmir, including Nadia Beig, theyoungest officer from Kupwara, at a time when young people in the blacked outState are suffering on account of lost opportunities. In yet another example ofperseverance, a son of a petrol pump worker from Madhya Pradesh has baggedthe 26th position. Neither financial struggles nor a missed opportunity last year,when he failed to make it to the list by just one slot, could deter this young offi-cer. Aishwarya Sheoran, who bagged the 93rd position, has become a classicexample of beauty with brains. A former Miss India finalist, she has broken thestereotype that models aren’t smart enough by clearing the exams in her firstattempt. A former child actor, too, is an inspiration for he is a COVID warrior andis ready to become an officer. And Purana Sunthari, a 25-year-old visually impairedwoman from Madurai, has proved just how no vision can be out of sight.

Caste and gender barriers continue to be broken. Of the total qualified can-didates, 304 belong to the general category and 78 from the reserved (SC, STand OBC) quotas. The gap is still wide but there is some progress. Women havepushed their way creditably into the top 10 list but overall, the number of womenjoining the services is still less than 25 per cent, according to Government data.This year, it is 23.7 per cent women, an improvement on the 2018 figures. Thebiggest takeaway is that the young and hard-working achievers have broken manymyths surrounding one of the toughest examinations in the country — that it ismeant for the intelligent, those who have excellent academic records, that it iseasier for those from engineering and medical fields to clear the exams, that oneneeds to devote more than 16 hours of the day to do so and that one needs tospend money and time on coaching classes. Yet everybody on the toppers’ listthis year is a regular youngster. Each has been high on motivation, effort andfocus. The mindset has won in the end.

Indian air crash investigators examining thewreckage of Air India Express flight 1344,a Vande Bharat Mission flight from Dubai to

Kozhikode, are likely to have witnessed sim-ilar scenes just a few short years ago. AnotherAir India Express Boeing 737-800 overran arunway at Mangalore airport, just a few hun-dred kilometres north of the current site.Thankfully, while that crash saw few survivors,it appears that, at the time of writing, a largemajority of the passengers on board this planesurvived the slide down the end of the run-

way. This is probably because the pilot turned off the engine to avert fire.Investigators will have several tools at their disposal from weather reports, radardisplays and even the plane’s own Cockpit Voice Recorder and Flight Data Recorder.However, the similarities between the two accidents bring to mind the risks ofoperating at such “tabletop” airports. Both Kozhikode and Mangalore airportsare carved into the Western Ghats, leaving pilots little room for error. The infor-mation available at this time has revealed that the pilot had already made onemissed approach to the airport. Landing in the monsoon in India, when runwaysare wet, is always a risk and runway “excursions” are common due to the lowerbraking action available on the slippery tarmac, as any motorist on the roadswould be quite aware of. While Kozhikode airport’s runway was clearly long enoughat 9,000 feet for a Boeing 737 to land safely in most conditions, the distanceneeded for a landing in extremely wet conditions with a tailwind might have beenan ask too far for the aircraft. And unlike Cochin airport, a hundred or so kilo-metres to the south, this one, by its very layout on the top of a plateau, had lit-tle runoff area and no soft concrete surface at the end of a runway for planesto sink into. Now that the crash has happened, every oversight and lapse is beingcalled into account. As it turns out, civil aviation experts had warned of the air-port’s risk factors about nine years ago. In a letter sent on June 17, 2011, tothe then director-general of civil aviation, Capt Mohan Ranganathan wrote, “Anaircraft landing on runway 10 in tailwind will experience poor braking action dueto heavy rubber deposits … All such flights … are endangering the lives of allon board.’’ While no accident happened until now, the report got buried. Evennow the Government has claimed that hundreds of flights have landed there inthe recent past, overlooking the need to reassess the lay of the land.

There are six tabletop runways in India where landing flights is somewhatdifficult as there is no additional space on the runway. Since there are many issuespertaining to safety of aircraft, crew and passengers, many international flightsand Airbus A330 and Boeing 777 do not land at these airports. The Kozhikodeairport’s runway end safety area was expanded in 2018 to accommodate wide-body aircraft. Though it meets United Nations international civil aviation require-ments, the agency recommends a buffer that is 150 metres longer than whatexists at Kozhikode airport. Some reports also suggest a laxity about routine tests.Apparently no friction test was done at the airport, as is mandatory on runwaysand taxiways, especially those affected by rains. Flying in India has been incred-ibly safe over the past decade even as air traffic has exploded with hundreds ofnew aircraft and millions of first-time passengers. But air travel, while being inher-ently safe, does have an ability to shock us when something goes wrong. Oneexpects this accident to be thoroughly investigated and faults if any to be recti-fied, even if that means closing down of certain airports in India or restrictinglarge jet aircraft from flying there. Ranganathan has flagged Patna and Jammuairports as accident-prone and sitting ducks that need immediate upgrades. Aviationis a vitally important transportation option in a country as large as India wheremillions make their living outside Indian shores. The safety and security of thisindustry is not only of paramount importance but also a strategic necessity forthis nation.

Tragedy in Kozhikode

China cannot be trusted

Sir — Despite several rounds oftalks between India and China,no solution appears to be insight with regard to the bordercrisis along the Line of ActualControl. Clashes at Galwan wereproof enough that China cannotbe relied upon. It attacked Indiansoldiers without any provocation.To top it all, China’s expansion-ist tendencies and greed for grab-bing weaker landlocked territorythrough unfair means are a never-ending phenomenon. India’s rela-tionship with Russia, though onan even keel, cannot be ignorantof the former’s support to China.It is doubtful if Russia will extendus any help in case of a conflict.It is, thus, imperative that Indiaforges a military pact with the USto keep a check on China’sassertiveness, aggressiveness andother nefarious activities.

RashmiVia email

Debt restructuring

Sir — In view of the COVID-19pandemic having battered theeconomy, it was expected that the

Reserve Bank of India (RBI)would come up with another ratecut but it left it unchanged at fourper cent. Instead, the Centralbank has allowed financial insti-tutions a special one-time dispen-sation to restructure loans which

are stressed due to the pandem-ic. Indeed, a rate cut at this junc-ture would have meant little.Unless demand is generated,units will continue to gasp for sur-vival despite the repaymentbreather.

The Monetary PolicyCommittee has also called for theappointment of an expert com-mittee to frame a window underthe prudential norms for speedyresolution of stressed loans.Besides, the gold loan-to-value

ratio has been increased to 90 percent. This will pave the way for arobust rise in the quality andquantity of loans. While extend-ing forbearance, it is imperativefor the banks to be diligent andcautious to prevent good moneyfrom turning into NPAs.

ShivanshVia email

Deal with compassion

Sir — The Kashmir problemneeds to be tackled with sensitiv-ity. The people of Jammu andKashmir have suffered enough.All possible aid should be provid-ed to them. Kashmir should betransformed into a world-classtourist destination. Establishinggood colleges and other techni-cal institutes will help theKashmiri youth compete equal-ly with the rest of the nation asthey are talented and given toinnovation. By setting up goodmedical colleges and hospitals,public health needs can be takencare of, too.

Ashok MalikVia web

P A P E R W I T H P A S S I O N

www.dailypioneer.comfacebook.com/dailypioneer | @TheDailyPioneer | instagram.com/dailypioneer/

op nionVIJAYAWADA | MONDAY | AUGUST 10, 2020

06

Unending Ladakh story

DEEPAK SINHA

The Modi Govt is in a fix today, not because of the negligence of previous regimes but because

of its own deliberate neglect of the military. We have failed to learn lessons

There have been no signifi-cant reforms in education forthe last many years. As aresult, our society started pro-moting herd mentality insteadof imagination and curiosity.

Prime Minister—Narendra Modi

If a new actor is launchedtoday, even if in a small film,they (public) should supportthem, write good commentson their posts and stop cry-ing nepotism, nepotism.

Actor—Gurmeet Choudhary

If Democrats continue tohold this critical reliefhostage, I will act under myauthority as President to getthe American people therelief they need.

US President—Donald Trump

S O U N D B I T E

L E T T E R S T O TT H E E D I T O R

Raging rainforest a climate threat

The rainforest region of Brazil, Amazon, recorded6,800 incidents of fire in July, up from 5,318 lastyear, the same month. Amazon has been a talking

point for most experts because it comprises more thanhalf of the world's wetlands. Continued dry spells are athreat to the forests. Raging fires in the region may notentirely be attributed to natural causes such as lightning,heatwave or the eruption of volcanoes. Cattle ranchingis the largest driver of deforestation. In the monthsbetween July and September, farmers are known to cleartheir lands for cattle farming and soil fertilisation. Illegalmining in Amazon rainforest, too, has become an “epi-demic.” Artisanal mining for gold and other minerals inAmazon forests and rivers has been a problem fordecades and is usually illegal.

Critics of President Jair Bolsonaro have placed theblame at his doorsteps and his “anti-environment,” “pro-agriculture” and pro-industry” policies. The pro-devel-opment image of Bolsonaro has angered conservation-ists, who feel he is not doing enough to save the forestsfrom man-made disasters. Species of plants and ani-mals in the rainforests slow down global climate warm-ing. Rainforests contribute to a healthy maintenance ofthe ecosystem. In contrast, wildfires emit a high con-

tent of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and ozone pre-cursors let alone nitrogen oxides and organic materials— all of which are detrimental to the climate. In 2019,the forest fire was termed as a “global crisis” by worldleaders. President Bolsonaro's attempt to crack a whipon “offenders” was too late to bear fruit. This seasonin Brazil is expected to be drier than the correspondingperiod in 2019. The fires may only get worse in themonths ahead.

Ganapathi BhatAkola

Send yyour ffeedback tto:letterstopioneer@gmail.com

Breaking stereotypes

With MS Dhoni in the IPL, Idon’t see much difference. Infact, the conditions that we haveare just perfect for Dhoni, whereit’s going to be about the mindand not just power hitting.

Former India batsman—Sanjay Manjrekar

The crash of an Air India Express Boeing 737 at Kozhikodeis an unfortunate disaster but could it have been avoided?

UPSC toppers come from fairly modest backgrounds andhave shown how the ordinary can manage extraordinary feats

Nip the NPA crisis, now

JAMMU AND KASHMIR WAS A BROKEN STATE. NOT A

SINGLE SOUL CRIED OVER THE DETENTION OF POLITICAL

AND SEPARATIST LEADERS IN AUGUST LAST YEAR.

—J&K CHIEF SECRETARY

BVR SUBRAHMANYAM

SUBRAHMANYAM AND HIS TEAM ARE LEAST EXPECTED

TO KNOW HOW THE PEOPLE FEEL. TO QUOTE GANDHI,

THEY ARE RULING J&K FROM THE 500TH FLOOR.

—PDP LEADER AND FORMER J&K MINISTER

NAEEM AKHTAR

POINTCOUNTERPOINT

After the release of the Reserve Bank ofIndia’s (RBI’s) half-yearly FinancialStability Report (FSR) on July 24, shares

of banks and finance companies were batteredat the stock market. Though the private banks(PVBs) like ICICI, HDFC, Axis Bank, BandhanBank got seared, the public sector banks (PSBs),too, bore the brunt of the bloodbath on the bours-es. The mayhem exposed the structural weak-nesses of the Indian banking system and theseverity of the Non-Performing Asset (NPA) cri-sis looming over them.

As the RBI Governor Shaktikanta Dasemphasised (and his sentiment was echoed bythe Chairman of the 15th Finance Commission)the soaring NPAs and the consequent capital ero-sion of the banks would need immediate recap-italisation of both PVBs and PSBs.

To alleviate the pandemic-created stress onborrowers, the RBI has already placed a mora-torium on the payment of loan instalments anddeferment of interest payments till August 31.However, the banks are fearing — as articulat-ed by the HDFC Chairman — that even solventborrowers may take advantage of this relaxationand not repay their loans. This would furtherworsen the financials of the banks.

The FSR has also acknowledged that thereis a major risk that the moratoriums may haveserious implications on the financial health of thebanks. Overall, about 50 per cent of all loans —65 per cent of Micro, Small and MediumEnterprises (MSME) borrowings and 56 per centof retail loans — were under moratorium as onApril 30, against only 39 per cent of corporateloans. The PSBs have a larger share — 58 per cent,82 per cent and 80 per cent respectively for cor-porate, MSME and individual loans, as against20 per cent, 43 per cent and 34 per cent respec-tively for the PVBs.

As far as Non-Banking Financial Companies(NBFCs) are concerned, 56 per cent, 61 per centand 46 per cent of the loans are under morato-rium respectively for these categories. The sce-nario is really disquieting. The RBI has assumeda contraction of the Gross Domestic Product(GDP) by 4.4 per cent, gross fiscal deficit of 10.9per cent and Consumer Price Inflation (CPI) of4.1 per cent as the baseline scenario assumingsteady recovery from the second-half of the cur-rent fiscal. The GDP contraction and fiscal deficitnumbers may be a tad too optimistic, given thesevere economic disruptions with no end in sight.

The FSR has stated that the Capital to Risk-Weighted Assets Ratio (CRAR) of ScheduledCommercial Banks (SCBs) stood at 14.8 per centwhile their Gross Non-Performing Asset (GNPA)ratio stood at 8.5 per cent in March. But it pro-jected that the GNPA ratio may worsen furtherto 12.5 per cent by March 2021 under the opti-mistic baseline scenario and may escalate to 14.7per cent under a severely-stressed scenario.

The implications of these numbers areindeed very serious. As of March, the total NPAsof SCBs stood at `8.62 lakh crore; at the base-line scenario which seems a bit hopeful, thiswould rise to around `13 lakh crore and at theworst case scenario to `15 lakh crore, at whichlevel, all undercapitalised and overleveragedbanks would cease to be going concerns.

In fact, the pandemic has wiped out all thework done so far by the SCBs by using a largepart of their capital to correct their balance sheets

— which was so assiduously pursuedby the RBI during the last few years.This has seen a steady decline in theirGNPA ratio from 11.5 per cent inMarch 2018 to 8.5 per cent in Marchthis year. Though this reduced theirCRAR, however, it still remained abovethe Basel III-compliant RBI norms.Now, the loans are likely to rise to a 20-year high as a result of the crisis trig-gered by the pandemic.

As the RBI Governor said in theforeword to the FSR, “The financial sys-tem in India remains sound.Nonetheless, in the current environ-ment, the need for financial interme-diaries to proactively augment capitaland improve their resilience hasacquired top priority. In the evolvingmilieu, while risk management has tobe prudent, extreme risk-aversionwould have adverse outcomes for all.”

Under the current crisis, risk aver-sion, both by banks and borrowers, isonly to be expected as evidenced by thebanks parking their excess liquiditywith the RBI instead of lending. Creditdemand has not picked up despite theeasing of the lockdown and financialvulnerabilities are likely to be amplified,leading to a further deterioration in theasset quality of the banks due to the pil-ing up of mountains of bad loans.

As a 90-day window is given forpaying the loan instalments to keep theloans from being classified as NPAs, theexact position would be known only inDecember after the expiry of the mora-torium on August 31. But there is anurgent need to recapitalise the banks —both PSBs and PVBs — for buildingstronger buffers for them to be able toabsorb the losses.

The recapitalisation bond route bywhich the Government issues bonds tothe banks, which promptly invest them

in Government securities, is nothingmore than an accounting trick. Apartfrom increasing the Government’sinterest liabilities, it rarely addresses thedeeper structural problems of thebanks.

While the GNPA ratio of PSBs mayincrease to 15.2 per cent under the base-line scenario (16.3 per cent under theworst-case scenario), the ratios of thePVBs and even the foreign banks arelikely to increase to 7.3 per cent and 3.9per cent, respectively. Erosion of thecapital will shrink the system-levelCRAR of the banking sector as awhole from 14.6 per cent in March to13.3 per cent by next March under thebaseline scenario and to 11.8 per centunder severe stress conditions.

Five banks will fail to meet the min-imum prescribed CRAR level of nineper cent by March 2021 — five morewill be close (under 10 per cent) with-out merger or recapitalisation whichmight increase their systemic resilience.However, mergers of PSBs, now prac-tically stalled because of the lock-down, have their own problems. TheNPAs of the State Bank of India (SBI)worsened after its merger with associ-ates two years ago, with write-offs andpersistent slippages eating into profitand capital both, besides impeding thegrowth of credit.

Other mergers — Bank of Baroda(BoB) with Vijaya Bank and Dena Bankand Punjab National Bank’s (PNBs)1993 merger with the New Bank ofIndia also faced many problems. It isunlikely that the current mergers ofhealthy banks with weak banks willimprove the health of the banking sys-tem as a whole; in any case, they willnot cause any significant reduction ofthe NPA ratios of the amalgamatedbanks. Then there is the added danger

of spillover effects from the NPAs ofNBFCs, which are still unable to recov-er from the IL&FS shock of 2018. Banklending to NBFCs had increased dra-matically from `3 lakh crore inDecember 2016 post-demonetisation to`8 lakh crore in May this year. Anyincrease in their NPAs will automati-cally trigger a contagion, leading to fur-ther deterioration of the banking sys-tem. The gravity of the situation can-not be overemphasised.

The structural problems with therecovery of bad loans have remainedunresolved even after operationalisationof the Insolvency and BankruptcyCode (IBC). Of the total claims of ̀ 3.52lakh crore from 190 companies (tillDecember 2019), `1.52 lakh crore (43per cent) has been recovered, which ofcourse was a significant improvementover the earlier recovery rate of 10 percent. But only two cases — BhushanSteel and Essar Steel — accounted for49.5 per cent of the overall recoveries.

Given the huge number of case-loads — 1,961 as of December 2019 —and the time taken for disposal by theNational Company Law Tribunal(NCLT), the system is already gettingclogged like never before. With lowcredit offtake and higher NPAs, bankswill be forced to further lower thedeposit interest rates — already at therock-bottom — and drive depositorstowards the equity market or gold. Thisis hardly a recipe for revival. TheGovernment and the RBI must urgent-ly reassess the across-the-board mora-torium policy and limit it only to thehardest-hit, address the delays in IBCresolution and not further alienateand drive away the depositors.

(The writer is a former DirectorGeneral at the office of the CAG of Indiaand an academic.)

The Govt and the RBI must urgently reassess the moratorium policy and limit it only to the hardest-hit, address the delays in IBC resolution and not drive away depositors

analysis 07F I R S T C O L U M N

October surpriseawaits the US?

GWYNNE DYER

Maybe Trump will arrange the prematurecertification of a COVID-19 vaccine, so he

can roll it out just before the Nov 3 election

GOVIND BHATTACHARJEE

THERECAPITALISATION

BOND ROUTE BYWHICH THE

GOVERNMENTISSUES BONDS TO

THE BANKS, WHICHPROMPTLY INVEST

THEM INGOVERNMENT

SECURITIES, ISNOTHING MORE

THAN ANACCOUNTINGTRICK. APART

FROM INCREASINGTHE

GOVERNMENT’SINTEREST

LIABILITIES, ITRARELY

ADDRESSES THEDEEPER

STRUCTURALPROBLEMS OF THEBANKS. WITH LOW

CREDIT OFFTAKEAND HIGHER NPAS,

BANKS WILL BEFORCED TO

FURTHER LOWERTHE DEPOSIT

INTEREST RATES— ALREADY AT

THE ROCK-BOTTOM— AND DRIVEDEPOSITORS

TOWARDS THEEQUITY MARKET

OR GOLD. THIS ISHARDLY A RECIPE

FOR REVIVAL

An “October Surprise” in the US is now almost inevitable,because that will be US President Donald Trump’s last chanceto get re-elected legitimately. Trump might try to cling to office

even if he loses the vote, but it would be a lot easier and neaterif he actually won a majority in the Electoral College on November3. In US political jargon, an “October Surprise” is a news eventdeliberately created or timed to influence the outcome of an elec-tion, particularly one for the US presidency and usually involvesforeigners or a threat to the nation. It is planned such that all otherissues are forgotten, Americans rally around the flag and the incum-bent wins on a surge of patriotism. Or that’s the theory, at least.

The same thing happens elsewhere, too, of course and notnecessarily in October. That’s when it needs to happen in the USto win a presidential election. For instance, a “July Surprise” hap-pened recently in Belarus because of the August 9 presidentialelection. Alexander Lukashenko, the strongman who rules Belarus,“discovered” Russian mercenaries in his country. It matters lit-tle that they were unarmed and on their way to Istanbul, butPresident Lukashenko told his people that there was a plot. “Sofar there is no open warfare, no shooting, the trigger has not yetbeen pulled, but an attempt to organise a massacre in the cen-tre of Minsk is already obvious. Only I can save our country. Votefor me,” was Lukashenko’s impassioned plea to his citizens.

Trump will need something like that because otherwise theCoronavirus is going to kill him politically. This was not true asrecently as early June, because up until then the US was not per-forming especially badly in dealing with the pandemic. It lookeda lot worse because of Trump’s bizarre behaviour — the end-less, shameless lies, the narcissism, the suggestions that peo-ple should inject bleach and so on — but in terms of COVID-19deaths per million people, the US fatality rate was still lower thanother major Western countries, except for Germany and Canada.

The US was late to go into the lockdown, but so were theyall, at least compared to most Asian countries. Until recently, ifyou were a Trump supporter, you could still believe he was doinga good job. It was Trump’s rush to end the lockdown, not all theearlier nonsense, that did the real damage. He believed that hewould lose the election if the economy didn’t revive, but by open-ing up too fast he managed to revive the pandemic at the sametime.

The numbers tell the tale. This week the US will record its1,65,000th death from COVID-19. That’s almost a quarter of allthe Coronavirus fatalities in the world. Much worse, US deathsare still going up while casualties elsewhere in the developed worldhave fallen steeply. That’s almost entirely due to Trump.

Take Canada, for example. It is very similar to the US in itseconomy and demography but different in social and political terms.Canada has universal healthcare and a much less drastic dividebetween the rich and the rest, for example, which probably explainswhy the US’ cumulative death rate per million is 484, while Canada’sis only 237. The history is, therefore, an American death rate twiceas high as Canada’s: Not great but structurally inevitable. By now,however, Canada has managed to get its casualties down to tena day, whereas the US is back up to around a 1,000 fatalities aday.

Even allowing for Canada’s much smaller population, that isten times worse. This is what coming out of a lockdown too earlydid to the US, and it is all down to President Trump. The pan-demic is raging once again in the US and there may be a quar-ter-million deaths there by election day in November. US “deathsper million” are going up three per day, which means that the USwill overtake Chile (now at 509 casualties) in less than one week,Italy (582) in a month, Spain (609) in five weeks. It might evencatch up with the UK (682) by election day.

Most of those newly-dead Americans will be over 60, so prob-ably they would have been Trump supporters. Their relatives andfriends are bound to notice eventually. As it is, Joe Biden’s leadover Trump in the polls has already widened to 10 per cent. Howcould Trump turn that around in the remaining 82 days? His onlyhope is to manufacture an “October Surprise” involving China, arestaged “Tonkin Gulf Incident” i.e. the one real and one phan-tom firefight that embroiled the US in the Vietnam War.

Or perhaps he could manufacture a terrorist “threat” so humon-gous that it would give him a pretext to declare martial law nation-wide. Or maybe Trump will arrange the premature certification ofa COVID-19 vaccine so he can roll it out just before the November3 vote. If it kills a lot of people later on, who cares? He won. Trumpknows that if he loses the November election, he will spend therest of his life in court, possibly even in jail. He will do whateverit takes to win. It isn’t over yet.

(Gwynne Dyer’s new book is ‘Growing Pains: The Future ofDemocracy and Work.’)

The roots of the concept of theState lie in the political ideas for-mulated in ancient Greece and

the Roman Republic. Greek philoso-phers Plato and Aristotle write of the“polis” (the city State) as an ideal formof association, in which the religious,cultural, political and economic needsof the citizens can be satisfied. Theancient Roman idea of res publica ismore similar to the modern conceptof the State. The res publica was a legalsystem, the jurisdiction of whichextended to all Roman citizens, secur-ing their rights and determining theirresponsibilities.

However, it wasn’t until the 16thcentury that the modern concept of the

State fully emerged in Europe. Betweenthe 17th and 19th centuries, the ideawas expanded and developed in theworks of philosophers like John Locke,Thomas Hobbes, Jean-JacquesRousseau, Jeremy Bentham and KarlMarx. By the 19th century, the conceptof the State as we know it today, hadbeen practically established in variousregions of Europe.

According to the noted politicalanthropologist Professor Irfan Ahmad,till the 17th century, “the State gov-erned by not governing.” Seldom didit interfere in most affairs of its sub-jects. Its main interest was to extractlevies and taxes. Its administrativescope was limited. The French philoso-pher, Michel Foucault, claimed that thescope of the State began to expandfrom the 16th century. The idea of theState in non-Western regions was nodifferent. According to Irfan Ahmad,the nature of the State in Muslim-majority regions and in regions beingruled by Muslims was also static. It wasonly interested in gathering taxes andaiding the monarch and his vassals to

retain their wealth and power. The State as we know it today, is

thus a comparatively recent constructand a product of political and econom-ic modernity. So what do conceptssuch as “Islamic State” or “Riyasat-i-Madina (State of Madina)” reallymean? Such terms are often used byideologues and politicians in Muslim-majority regions. The thinking behindthem is that Islam is inherently polit-ical and its sacred texts lay out a blue-print for a State run by laws prescribedby Allah. Those who hold this viewinsist that such a State came into beingwith the arrival of Islam that activelyregulated every political, economic andsocial aspect of the community.

Irfan Ahmad writes that till the16th/17th century, the working of theState, even in powerful Muslimempires, was as limited as it was innon-Muslim realms. He adds that theidea of an Islamic State is actually notmore than a 100 years old. Accordingto the works of Egyptian scholars AliAbdel Raziq and Sa’id al-Ashmawi,theologically, Islam treats faith and the

concept of State separately and, in fact,puts more emphasis on faith and howit can operate as a moral guide.Ahmad writes, “to impose the mod-ern concept of the State on 7th centu-ry Arab society is misleading.” Becauseof infrastructural weaknesses, theState could not have expanded itsscope beyond a handful of duties, evenif it wanted to.

The Syrian academic and histori-an Aziz Al-Azmeh, in a widely-debat-ed 1990 essay Utopia and IslamicPolitical Thought, demonstrates thatthere is no political theory (about aState) in classical Islamic politicalthought. Fact is, those who insist thatthere is, are simply projecting the mod-ern concept of the State on ancient andmedieval Islamic polities, reimaginingthese polities as Islamic states whichinfluenced almost every aspect of thelives of their citizens. According toAhmad, such projections are the resultof ideas that first emerged in the early20th century.

One of the pioneers in this respectwas the prolific South Asian ideologue

and Islamic scholar Abul Ala Maududi.Ahmad writes that, as a young man,Maududi was associated with TheMuslim, a daily that took an anti-British, pro-Congress Party positionand promoted Muslim-Hindu unityand a secular set-up in India. However,after 1937, Maududi changed hisstance, especially when Jinnah’sMuslim League began to press for aseparate Muslim-majority State.Ahmad writes that all major politicalplayers in British India had becomesmitten by the concepts of the State andnationalism introduced in the regionby the British colonialists. The MuslimLeague began to speak about a MuslimState, the Congress about a post-colo-nial secular Indian State and theLeftists about a socialist State.

Rejecting all these concepts asungodly, Maududi came up with thetheory of Government of Allah orIslamic State. He then set out to for-mulate a new political theology, byinterpreting Islamic scriptures in thecontext of the State. In a 1941 essay, hewrites, “In reality, the classical Arabic

word deen approximately has thesame meaning which the word Statehas in the contemporary age.” Notingthat the modern State regulates almostevery facet of people’s lives, he contem-plated the creation of an Islamic Statethat would regulate every aspect of itscitizens’ lives according to laws laiddown by the Islamic scriptures.

Maududi understood the MuslimLeague as a secular Muslim national-ist organisation. So, to neutraliseMaududi’s criticism, Pakistan began toborrow his ideas. Yet, Maududi’s ownparty could not gain much tractionamong voters. This was probably dueto the aforementioned ploy by the Stateand, more so, because from the mid-1970s, even non-religious partiesbegan to adopt ideas from Maududiand fused them with their secular out-look. His ideas in this context reachedcompletion as an elaborate theory inhis 1979 magnum opus, FourFundamental Concepts of the Quran.

The theory suggested that anIslamic State existed during the earlydays of the faith because the sacred

scriptures were treated as an all-encompassing political constitutionand that such a State fell away becauseof corruption and needs to be re-enact-ed. Interestingly, this is the narrativepopularised by the Imran KhanGovernment. Though Maududi’s the-sis was inspired by largely Europeanideas of the State, this does not both-er those who take the revisionist his-torical claims of his theories as fact.

Ever since the 1980s, wheneverthere are claims and promises made bya variety of ideologues and leaders inthe Muslim world, about workingtowards an Islamic State, it is assumedthat it is rooted in the workings of a7th century Islamic realm. Accordingto Ahmad, objective history does notsupport this. As Egyptian scholarNasr Abu Zayd says, “Religious scrip-tures are at the mercy of the ideologyof its interpreter. For a communist,they would reveal communism, for afundamentalist they would be funda-mentalist text, for a feminist it wouldbe a feminist text, and so on ...”

(Courtesy: Dawn)

Did an Islamic State ever exist?The modern State is a fairly recent European construct and has been borrowed to project a retrospective interpretation about what an Islamic State meant

NADEEM PARACHA

VIJAYAWADA | MONDAY | AUGUST 10, 2020

www.dailypioneer.com

VIJAYAWADA | MONDAY | AUGUST 10, 2020 money 08

CAPSULE

‘Amazon Easy'stores now in all-new avatarBENGALURU: Online retailerAmazon on Sunday launchedan upgraded 'Amazon Easy'store format that integrates itsmultiple services through asingle touchpoint. The formatwould offer a touch-and-feelproduct experience through aphysical product display, thecompany said in a statement.Customers can also place anorder on Amazon.in withguided assistance from thestore staff and either pick upthe order from the store or getit delivered at their doorstep, itsaid. The store owners cannow leverage Amazons last-mile delivery program 'I HaveSpace'to deliver packages tocustomers in their area as wellas facilitate pickups. The firstsuch exclusive Amazon Easystore is now operational inMahalakshmi layout here.

Micro enterprisesconfident ofrecoveryNEW DELHI: Despite severalbusinesses remaining closedduring the lockdown, 81 percent of micro enterprisespolled are confident of arecovery post COVID-19whereas 57 per cent reportednot having any cash reservesto survive, according to asurvey. Initial results of a six-month survey that isunderway by GAME (GlobalAlliance for MassEntrepreneurship) inassociation with LEAD at KreaUniversity covering 1,500micro enterprises also revealthat 40 per cent tried toborrow money to coverexpenses. However, only 14per cent of the overallborrowing was from formalborrowing sources. As per therevised criteria, any firm withinvestment up to Rs 1 croreand turnover under Rs 5 croreis classified as a "micro"enterprise.

Lupin, Sun Pharmarecall drugs in theUS marketNEW DELHI: Leading drugmakers Lupin and SunPharma are recalling differentproducts in the US, accordingto the US Food and DrugAdministration (USFDA). TheMumbai-based drug makerLupin is recalling 11,688bottles of Lisinopril tabletsUSP, 10 mg, which is used totreat high blood pressure, inthe US market, as per thelatest Enforcement Report bythe US health regulator.USFDA said the company isrecalling the specific numberof bottles due to presence offoreign tablets. Lisinopriltablets USP, (20 mg) werefound in a 1,000 count bottleof Lisinopril Tablets USP (10mg), it noted. The tablets havebeen manufactured at Lupin'sNagpur facility.

Unichem: Need to boostlocal API production for India PNS n NEW DELHI

Drug firm UnichemLaboratories has called formeasures to step up local pro-duction of raw materials toproduce drugs in order toreduce the country's depen-dence on imports, especiallyfrom China.

Sharing information withshareholders in company'sannual report for 2019-20, thedrug firm said the ongoingcoronavirus pandemic callsfor concentrated efforts tobuild upon capacities for activepharmaceutical ingredients(APIs) in the country.

"Our country is heavilydependent on China forimport of most of its APIs.India needs a healthy andfinancially strong ecosystem toboost manufacture of APIs toremain self-reliant in the yearsto come," UnichemLaboratories Chairman andManaging Director PrakashA Mody said.

The present health crisiscalls for proactive measures tostep up economies of scale inproduction of intermediatesand other key materials, withfocus on research and develop-ment for APIs, he added.

The procrastination syn-

drome surely calls for prompttreatment, Mody noted.

"Over-dependence of theIndian pharmaceutical indus-try on imported APIs exposesit to raw material supply dis-ruptions and pricing volatility,"Mody said.

While the government isworking on developing bulkdrug manufacturing parks toboost local production andreduce dependence onimports, the company, at itsend, is focusing on efficiencyand backward integration byramping up its capacities inAPIs and intermediates, headded.

The company is looking touse these APIs for captiveconsumption, which will giveit an edge in the global gener-

ics market, Mody said.The drug firm's strategic

investments in two pharmacompanies engaged in researchand development, marketingand distribution of APIs willhelp meet the demand ofexports for incrementalgrowth, he noted.

Unichem offers a broadportfolio of APIs across vari-ous therapeutic areas. It hasthree manufacturing facilitiesto cater to the segment.

The Mumbai-based firmalso has a sizable presence infinished drug formulation seg-ment.

The global API market isprojected to reach USD 268billion by 2026 from USD 182billion in 2019, growing at aCAGR of 6 per cent.

PNS n NEW DELHI

India Inc on Sunday said theCentre's decision to imposerestrictions on import of 101weapons and military plat-forms, and creation of a sepa-rate budget for domestic cap-ital procurement in the currentfinancial year is a 'path-break-ing' reform towards becomingself-reliant and will boostindigenous defence manufac-turing.

In a major reform initiativeto boost the domestic defenceindustry, Defence MinisterRajnath Singh on Sundayannounced restrictions onimport of 101 weapons andmilitary platforms, includingartillery guns, assault riflesand transport aircraft.

"The Ministry of Defence is

now ready for a big push to#AtmanirbharBharat initia-tive," Singh said on Twitterwhile making the announce-ment.

He said the Ministry ofDefence (MoD) has prepareda list of 101 items for which the

embargo on imports is plannedto be progressively implement-ed between 2020 and 2024.

"MoD has also bifurcatedthe capital procurement bud-get for 2020-21 betweendomestic and foreign capitalprocurement routes. A sepa-

rate budget head has been cre-ated with an outlay of nearlyRs 52,000 crore for domesticcapital procurement in thecurrent financial year," theDefence Minister tweeted.

Welcoming the initiative,CII Director GeneralChandrajit Banerjee said thedefence minister's announce-ment of negative import list ofdefence systems and plat-forms marks the launch of anew glide path for'Atmanirbhar Bharat'.

"Announcement of Rs52,000 crore for domesticcapital procurement coupledwith the list of 101 items forimport embargo gives atremendous boost toAtmanirbhar Bharat andindigenous defence manufac-turing," he added.

Defence reforms to steer Indiatowards ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat'

PNS n BENGALURU

Indigenous short video-shar-ing app Chingari has attract-ed a funding of USD 1.3 mil-lion in a seed round.

The round was led by ven-ture capitalists, includingAngelList India, UtsavSomanis iSeed, VillageGlobal, LogX Ventures, andJasminder Singh Gulati ofNowFloats, said a statementfrom Chingari.

The funding, said the com-pany officials, would be usedto hire more talent to accel-erate product development,ramp up the platform andmake it more engaging andconsumer focused, andengage a larger consumerbase by offering a seamlessshort video entertainmentexperience."Were delightedthat investors saw theimmense potential in ourvision and chose to join theChingari journey," he said.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Hit hard by the COVID-19p an d e m i c , g l o b a l s te e lg i a nt A r c e l o r M i t t a l i sfocussing on cost-reduc-tion initiatives to protectprofitability in view of anuncertainty around paceof recovery. The world'sl arge s t s te e l m a ke r h a dlogged a net loss of USD559 million for the secondquarter ended June 2020and termed it as the mostdifficult period in its his-

tory."The company continues

to focus on cost reduction

initiatives to protect prof-itability as it navigates theevolving demand backdrop.

Moving forward, as eco-nomic activity recovers thecompany will respond byi n c re a s i ng pro du c t i on ,leading to the return ofsome fixed cost," the com-pany s a id in i t s l ates treport.

The easing of lockdownmeasures has seen activi-ty levels improving, never-t h e l e s s t h e d e m a n dr e m a i n s s i g n i f i c a n t l ybelow normal and the paceand profile of recovery isuncertain, it said.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Pre-dominance of cash trans-actions, independence of direc-tors and frequent changes ofauditors are among the poten-tial red flags for insolvencyprofessionals in detectingavoidance transactions dur-ing insolvency proceedings,according to an IBBI docu-ment.

Under the Insolvency andBankruptcy Code, resolutionprofessionals and liquidatorsare required to determinewhether corporate debtorsconcerned were subject toavoidance transactions.

The Code provides for atime-bound and market-linkedresolution of stressed assets. Incase, the resolution does notmaterialise, then the entityconcerned goes for liquidation.

Resolution professionals andliquidators can also facilitateclaw-back or disgorgement ofvalue, if any, lost through

avoidance transactions.Against this backdrop, the

Insolvency and BankruptcyBoard of India (IBBI) hascome out with the detaileddocument titled 'AvoidanceTransactions - Red Flags'.

IBBI Chairperson M SSahoo told PTI that the insol-vency law frowns on alien-ations of property prior to thecommencement of the insol-vency proceeding, if it vitiatesthe sanctity of equitable distri-bution and maximisation ofthe value of the assets of a cor-porate debtor. Such alienations,which vitiate an insolvencyproceeding, are called avoid-ance transactions, he noted.

The 22-page document listsout various factors, including

the need to look at whether thecorporate debtor is present atthe address that is given in thecorporate affairs ministryrecords. It also noted thatnon-existence of an office ofthe corporate debtor at such anaddress is also a red flag.

"Predominance of cashtransactions generally under-taken by the entity is a poten-tial red f lag indicator.According to the document, aninsolvency professional shouldassess the independence, capa-bility and competence of thedirectors as well as underwhose instructions they areusually accustomed to act,and that presence of name-sake directors might also be ared flag.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Billionaire Mukesh Ambani'sReliance Industries Ltd has a15-year vision to build itself asa new energy company thataims to recycle CO2, createvalue from plastic waste andhas an optimal mix of cleanand affordable energy, ana-lysts said.

While the oil-to-chemicalconglomerate has in recenttimes seen focus on con-sumer business, RIL's coreoil-to-chemical (O2C) busi-ness is well placed to gener-ate sustained free cash flow,BofA Securities said in areport.

"Until demand normalises,RIL is looking to maximise

throughput, focus on cost byleveraging deep petrochemicalintegration and continue tofocus on domestic fuel market-ing," it said.

Future of O2C is new ener-gy company and partnerships.

"RIL has a 15-year vision tobuild itself as one of the world'sleading new energy and new

material companies. It alsointends to be a net carbon zerocompany by 2035. To achievethis, the company is open towork with global financialinvestors, reputed technologypartners and start-ups workingon futuristic solutions," it said.

This new energy businessbased on the principle of car-

bon recycling and circulareconomy is a multi-trillionopportunity for India and theworld.

The brokerage said a keyfocus for RIL is renewableenergy, and for that it intendsto build an optimal mix ofclean and affordable energywith hydrogen, wind, solar,fuel cells and battery.

"It intends to use proprietarytechnology, recycle CO2, cre-ate value from plastic waste;RIL is also looking to make itsoperations cleaner and morecustomer-centric," it said.

Reliance has the largest sin-gle site refinery at Jamnagar inGujarat with crude processingcapacity of 1.24 million barrelsper day.

The brokerage said RIL islooking to make CO2 as a recy-clable resource, rather thantreating it as an emitted waste.

While the company willremain a user of crude oil andnatural gas, it is looking toembrace new technologies toconvert CO2 into useful prod-ucts and chemicals.

"One viable application RILhas found for such 'end of life-cycle' plastic waste is in roadconstruction. Road construct-ed with post-consumer, non-recyclable plastic waste ensuresenhanced durability, higherresistance to deformation,increased resistance to waterinduced damages andimproved stability andstrength," it said.

PNS n NEW DELHI

State-owned Oil and NaturalGas Corporation (ONGC) hascut its debt by more thanone-third but faces an uphillchallenge to meeting plannedexpenditure during currentfiscal due to oil and gas pricesfalling below sub-optimal lev-els, according to companyofficials and regulatory fil-ings. ONGC's outstandingdebt of Rs 21,593 crore as onMarch 31, 2019 has comedown to Rs 13,949 crore as onMarch 31, 2020, as it used rev-enue from better operations toretire some of the borrowings,according to the company'sregulatory filings.

Out of this debt, long-termborrowings account for Rs2,245 crore which are due formaturity in December 2029.

The company had cash andcash equivalent (including

other bank balances) of Rs 968crore as on March 31, 2020, upfrom a record low of Rs 504crore a year back.

Standalone debt-equity ratioat the end of March 31, 2020is only 0.07 which is consid-ered comfortable.

"While we ended the 2019-20 fiscal year with a comfort-able financial position, weface an uphill challenge dur-ing the current 2020-21 finan-cial year. The pandemic hasplayed havoc on oil prices andgovernment mandated gasprice is way below cost of pro-duction," a senior official said.

PNS n KOLKATA

Online beauty and personalcare platform Purplle is look-ing to double its sales to USD100 million during the currentfiscal, as it is bullish on grow-ing demand in the e-com-merce space in the wake of thecoronavirus pandemic, a com-pany official said.

The e-commerce firm,which has raised USD 35 mil-lion of funds from globalinvestment bank GoldmanSachs and other investors, isexploring opportunities foracquisition in brands, technol-ogy and content space to fuelgrowth, Purplle co-founderand CEO Manish Taneja toldPTI in a telephonic inter-view.

"The coronavirus pandem-ic had worked in our favour. Inthe short term, demand willcontinue to be robust as peo-ple prefer to stay indoors andonline purchases. Given theeconomic situation, we may

see some speed breakers in thelong term," he said.

Purplle achieved USD 50million in gross merchandisevalue in 2019-20.

"In the current fiscal, weexpect USD 100 million sales,out of USD 7 billion beautyindustry in the country," hesaid.

Taneja said the consolida-tion in the online beauty andpersonal care segment is

expected to happen in thesecond half of the current fis-cal. "Consolidation will happenin this industry in the secondhalf of the year. Some smallfirms and start-ups will finddifficulties to tide over the cri-sis, and raising money is get-ting difficult now. We are openfor acquisitions," he said.

The company concluded amega sale programme onSaturday.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Co-working playerSmartworks has taken a totalof over 6 lakh sq ft of officespace on lease in Mumbai,Pune and Hyderabad to set upnew centres as part of its planto expand business despite theCOVID-19 pandemic.

Founded in April 2016,Smartworks Coworking SpacesPvt Ltd, currently has 31 co-working centres, comprisingabout 60,000 seats and 40 lakhsq ft area, across nine cities.

According to sources,Smartworks has taken on lease

over 2 lakh sq ft area each inMumbai, Pune and Hyderabadsince March this year to set upthree new large co-workingcentres, targeting big corpo-rates.

The centre at Times Squarebuilding in Mumbai is likely tostart from next month with

3,000 desks. The co-workingfacilities at Pune andHyderabad are slated to belaunched within this fiscalyear. A Smartworks spokesper-son declined to comment onthe leasing transactions.

In October last year,Smartworks had announcedraising of USD 25 million(about Rs 175 crore) fromSingapore's Keppel Land Ltd tofund its expansion plan andtouch 1 lakh seating capacity.

The company's founderNeetish Sarda had said that itwas the first round of externalfunding.

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Commerce Ministry hasrecommended imposition ofprovisional countervailing duty(CVD) on certain steel prod-ucts from Indonesia to guarddomestic manufacturers fromsubsidised imports.

The ministry's investigationarm Directorate General ofTrade Remedies (DGTR) in itspreliminary findings has rec-ommended the duty after con-cluding in its probe that 'FlatProducts of Stainless Steel'have been exported to Indiafrom Indonesia at subsidisedprices.

The domestic industry hassuffered material injury due tosubsidisation of the productand therefore it is necessary torecommend imposition of pro-visional countervailing duty onthese imports, the DGTR hassaid in a notification.

It said that the directorate is ofthe view that imposition of pro-visional countervailing duty isrequired to offset subsidisation

and injury, pending completionof the investigation. "The author-ity recommends imposition ofprovisional countervailing dutyon the imports...originating in orexported from the subject coun-try (Indonesia)," it said.

The duties recommended are22.31 per cent, 22.65 per cent and24.83 per cent on different pro-ducers of Indonesia. The financeministry will take the final callto impose these duties. InOctober last year, the direc-torate initiated the probe into analleged subsidised export of cer-tain steel products by Indonesia,following complaints by domes-tic industry.

PNS n BENGALURU

Chairman of IT-BPM indus-try body NASSCOM, U BPravin Rao, said on Sundaythat the shelf-life of skills isnow only two to three yearsas he stressed the need forcontinuous, lifelong learn-ing. As corporates are rein-venting themselves, individ-uals also need to reinventthemselves to stay relevant,said the Chief OperatingOfficer of Bengaluru-head-quartered IT major, InfosysLtd. "Shelf-life of skills isbecoming short, 2-3 years",said Rao, who was the chiefguest at an online graduationceremony for approximately2,800 learners, hosted byonline higher education com-pany, upGrad in partnershipwith 'The InternationalInstitute of InformationTechnology Bangalore'.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Leading cement makerUltraTech Cement expects a"subdued performance" inthe wake of weak real estateand overall slowdown in theeconomy coupled with theimpact of the coronaviruspandemic. The nationwidelockdown, amid the coron-avirus outbreak, will have asignificant near-term impacton the cement industry, how-ever, the Aditya Birla Groupfirm is "confident of its abil-ity to weather the storm"and come out stronger givenits healthy credit profile.

ONGC cuts debt by 35pc to Rs 13,949 crore

Shelf-life ofskills nowonly 2-3 yrs

Plan to convert Reliance into new energy firm

Chingariattracts $ 1.3million

Lockdownhits UltraTechhard

DGTR recommends CVD oncertain steel product imports

IBBI lists out potential red flags todetect avoidance transactions

Manish Taneja

The e-commercefirm isexploringopportunitiesfor acquisitionin brands,technologyand contentspace to fuelgrowth

RIL has a 15-yr vision tobuild itself asone of theworld'sleading newenergycompany

Purplle aims at $ 100 mn salesin FY'21, looks for acquisition

ArcelorMittal resort to cost-reduction measures

Smartworks takes over 6 lakhsq ft office space on lease

The world'slargeststeelmaker hadlogged a net lossof USD 559million for thesecond quarterended June 2020

MondayAugust 10, 2020

Follow us on

@TheDailyPioneer

facebook.com/dailypioneer

A STEP TOWARDSTRANSFORMATIONOR BAD EXECUTION?

A STEP TOWARDSTRANSFORMATIONOR BAD EXECUTION?N

EP 2

020

NEP

202

0

hen the NEP 2020was announced, thedraft came undercriticism for propos-ing a three-languageformula. Some

believe this new policy is anurban-centric approach andwhile others feel it’s going tobring approximately 2 crorechildren back to schools! Therewill be more e-courses inregional languages and virtuallabs will be developed, accord-ing to this new draft.

PRIOR ATTENTION TOMULTIDISCIPLINARYSTUDY

This policy will unfold animmense opportunity for thenew generation. Having a firmgrasp on the current socio-eco-nomic landscape and theprospect of future uncertainty,education for a new generationof learners will be necessarilyengaging with the increasingdematerialisation and digitali-sation of our economies. NavinMittal, the commissioner colle-giate education and technicaleducation for the Governmentof Telangana, believes the due

encouragement towards start-ups and blend of technologywith education will help pro-mote free thinking along withflexible entrepreneurship cours-es. “There is a lot of focus ondeveloping soft skills amongstudents. All of this will greatlyencourage start-ups.Establishing NationalEducation and TechnologicalForums will bring in technolog-ical convergence and encouragethe use of technology in educa-tion. It aims at equitable andinclusive education for everychild in the country with a spe-cial focus on socially and eco-nomically disadvantagedgroups,” adds Navin Mittal. Afree education system cannotflourish without a free society!

TERMINATION OF MPHIL PROGRAMME

Among several proposedchanges, one provision thatstands out is the discontinua-tion of the MPhil programme.What does this mean? “NEP isa revolutionary movementtowards streamlining the entireeducation pattern and practicesin India that were untouchedfor the past 34 years despite theconstantly changing scenario ofglobal education. The decisionto scrap M.Phil. which was abridge between Masters and thePh.D. program comes as anexorbitant measure by the

Government. For those whowant to get into teaching,M.Phil. has been an importantmedium to shape their researchmind and further an importantqualifying asset to apply forteaching jobs. But I believe the‘research’ part which is sup-posed to be the crux of theentire NEP program, will betaken care of by the four-year,research-oriented UGC pro-gram. Now, it is for the educa-tional institutions to ensure thestudents complete theirresearch projects in core areasthat significantly contribute toinnovations and inventions,”explains Rini Anweshi, SI forExcise department and a Ph.D.aspirant. If the NEP provisionapplies to all MPhil pro-grammes, regardless of aresearcher or practitioner’sfocus, there will be importantimplications to it.

EXPENDITURE ON EDUCATION

Member of a Hyderabad’sstudent association, RamKumar asserts that this newpolicy indeed wants to increasethe GDP percentage by sixunits, however, the policy does-n't aim to focus on enhancingexistential resources like skillsof unemployed youth, bettertraining support for athletes,increase in the number of plat-forms to showcase the creativity

of developing artists, etc., andthat’s just not enough. “Ofcourse there’s an aspect of apolicy encouraging extracurric-ular activities but do we havethe necessary resources for it?As a local citizen associatedwith student association foralong time now, I have witnessedthat a majority of the educa-tional institutions here run oncommercial profits. Studentsare pushed into a singular classlike a flock of sheep having bareminimum facilities. It’s an over-ambitious policy — there’sgreater centralisation probablygoing against the federal poli-cies. If we want to become adeveloped nation, we mustincrease our allocation for edu-cation substantially. The centrewill have to convince states thatit’s going to be a beneficial one,”adds the TDP student wingmember.

3-LANGUAGE POLICY,CODING & BLUE-COLLARINTERNSHIPS

What about those who grad-uated already? What do theyhave to say about these changesto the education system? Let’shear it from AvinashDenduluri, MassCommunication andJournalism graduate who con-siders the new education policya blatant attack on classism andcasteism despite having vision-

ary goals for students. “It’s anapproach towards elitist audi-ences. Exclusion of the Englishlanguage until 5th grade cancreate barriers for vocationaleducation. The affluent are any-way going to hire a tutor fortheir ward, but guess who’sgoing to suffer amidst all this?The destitute, causing furtherimperialism. Coming to theaspects of inclusion of codingfrom the sixth standard, howdo you expect a child stridingonto regional languages tounderstand coding? A studentwith an established Englishbackground may land jobprospects globally. There areblue-collar internships availabletoo, poor students may getinclined towards those, hence itcomes back to the same old cir-cle of educational likelihood. Inan ideal world, if properlyimplemented, the freedom tochoose subjects flexibly withoutthe restriction of streams is ahealthy move. But with the pre-sent infrastructure, only ICSEschools and elite CBSE schoolscan do that,” opines the graduate.

MULTIPLE EXIT OPTIONS

College is the stage whereyoung people drop out orchange track. The exit optionssound good- a certificate afteryear 1, a diploma after year 2,and a multidisciplinary degreeafter four years. The NEP hasenvisioned the combination ofsciences and humanities. Thiswill undoubtedly improve thecalibre of graduates if they arepermitted to study subjects oftheir choice rather than therigid combinations imposed bycolleges. Anupama DalmiaBarnwal, an influencer parentfrom the city of Hyderabadfeels positive about one of thenewly added steps with the helpof which, students can take abreak from the undergraduatecourse and come back againwithin a specified period with-out missing the credits earnedduring the previous session.“Our education system was indire need of an overhaul and Ipersonally think that the neweducation policy is definitely astep in the right direction. I amextremely happy with the talkof more

libraries and the reduction ofschool drop-out rates by meansof volunteering and peer-to-peer teaching. I believe, that insome ways, there is an additionof ‘contemporary’ to our tradi-tions and the idea to use thesetraditions and folklore in teach-ing is actually progressive and agreat way to keep children con-nected to the Indian heritage. Afine balance here would ensurea comprehensive and all-embracing learning experiencefor students. The only thing I’munsure about is the suggestionof using the regional languageas a mode of teaching and intext-books as this may posechallenges in many cities. Thedemand for education is yet tobe channelised into an institu-tional change,” adds theKarmaveer Chakra awardee!

We should be grateful for anadmirable draft for focussingon the right questions. Theresure is much to discuss, but thehope is that with this, our edu-cation policy can be trans-

formed into a treat andnot another trick.

When the Union Cabinet had, onJuly 29, 2020, approved theNational Education Policy 2020that represents a major service ofteaching processes in Indianeducation, from the pre-primarylevel to higher education, Twitteratiwent beserk with some heaving asigh of relief, and others, raisingseveral doubts and issues. The

Pioneer's SHIKHA DUGGALattempts to address a few of theseby talking to eminent people fromdifferent walks of life in the city.

W

Anupama DDalmia BBarnwal

Avinash DDenduluri Mrs RRini AAnweshi

Navin MMittal

Ram KKumar

EDUCATION FOR A NEW GENERATIONOF LEARNERS WILL BE NECESSARILYENGAGING WITH THE INCREASINGDEMATERIALISATION ANDDIGITALISATION OF OUR ECONOMIES.

o fan one of themost important

discussionsneeded today,

FICCI FLOHyderabad

Chapterorganised aconversation

on the topic‘Women in

Political Leadership- Then to Now’ with

noted politician andacademician Prof. Rita

Bahuguna Joshi, MP,Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh

and SwethaKesineni,Mayoral candidate forVijayawada, Andhra Pradeshas a part of the Power Hourseries.

The discussion capturedthe emergence of women inpolitics in India spanningdecades to today’s contextwhere a growing number ofwomen leaders are workingtowards influencing thepolitical agenda and the lawsto improve the lives of mil-lions. The freewheeling con-versation that captured thepersonal and political jour-neys of Rita Bahuguna Joshiwas laced with many person-al anecdotes on the chal-lenges faced and successesachieved.

Prof. Rita Bahuguna Joshi,

as part of the discussion,said, “I have seen severaldecades right from the con-servative phase then camethe phase of the strugglewhen women were goingthrough a kind of emancipa-tion, then I saw the empow-

erment phase. Today’swomen are empowered. Asfar as politics stands, womenstill have to prove themselvesa lot more than men to beconsidered worthy of the job.Political mentoring is essen-tial to prepare women. We

can start with social activityand local-level positions thatcan equip women with theskills necessary for higherlevels of public office andcareers in regional andnational politics. Womenneed support and encourage-

ment. I am happy to notethat the activities of FICCIFLO are aimed at theempowerment of women atall levels.”

Swetha Kesineni, TDPmayoral candidate forVijayawada, with her work in

the political domains in bothUS and India, dwelt on thedifferential aspects of thetwo. She also spoke abouther understanding of thecurrent political climate foryouth leaders.

Speaking on the occasion,

Usharani Manne,Chairperson, FLOHyderabad Chapter andFounder-Director PolmonGroup of Companies said,“It was enlightening to hearthe views of veteran politi-cian Rita Bahugunaji onhow we can can carve out apositive enabling environ-ment alive with genderequality in terms of accessand opportunities, distribu-tion of resources to ensurewe create, encourage andempower women politi-cians. It has been 100 yearssince the first woman couldvote. The number of womenactive in politics globallyand in India is growing sig-nificantly. Mentoring andtraining programs preparewomen for political workand enhance their skills.FICCI FLO is working toimbuing leadership qualitiesin women.”

Manne outlined FLOHyderabad’s Incubation andMentorship activities in col-laboration with WE Hub &IIIT-Hyderabad’s CIE. FLOHyderabad’s active participa-tion in the Ministry ofTextiles’ Handloom Day pro-motion and Government ofTelangana’s ‘Haritha Haram’program too, were broughtto the fore by her.

WOMEN IN POLITICAL

LEADERSHIPT

10

what’s brewing?Vijayawada Monday August 10 2020

FUN

Rules

ARCHIE

GARFIELD

SUDOKU

REALITY CHECK SPEED BUMP CROSSWORD

GINGER MEGGS

NANCY

CALVIN AND HOBBES

l Each row and column cancontain each number (1 to 9)exactly once.

l The sum of all numbers inany row or column mustequal 45.

Yesterday’s solution

2020 is unlike any year we haveseen and in parts of the country

this monsoon is unlike any wehave seen. Staying healthy is

essential to staying happy; andwhile we are well versed with

the power of the mind forwellness, or the ‘top-down’

approach as some call it,however, one shouldn't

underestimate the ‘bottom upapproach’ either. With the rains

comes the common cold andcough, flu and viral fevers, in

addition we have COVID-19 todeal with as well. If you get sick,

your immunity is loweredmaking you more suspectable tovirus. Our mood, health, energy

and reactions are heavilyinfluenced by our second brain;

our gut, which is a result of whatwe eat. Try these simple recipes

to help get super charged withthe nutrients you need.

SWEETNUTRITIONWHICH PACKS

A PUNCH

OVERNIGHT CHIA PUDDINGo I call this a pudding because it truly tastes like one. Chia

seeds are filled with fiber, antioxidants essential fattyacids and good quality protein; add to this the humblecurd and you have a good dose of probiotics, proteinand fats. Fruit adds fresh sweetness and flavour alongwith phytonutrients and essential vitamins. Cinnamonadds flavour and you get its medicinal properties too —antioxidants and anti-inflammatory.

WHAT YOU NEED:

o Chia seeds: 2 tbspo Curd: 6-8 tbspo Chopped mango: 3/4 cupo Cinnamon powder/vanilla essence (optional): 1/2 tspo My seed powder (optional): 1tspo Coconut ( optional): 6 - 7 thin slices

HOW TO MAKE:

o Mix all the ingredients together the night before and youare good to go in the morning

o The yogurt / curd mixture should be runny like amilkshake or dosa batter.

o Store it overnight in the fridgeo Before serving top with the chopped mango and the

coconut slices

FLAVOUR OPTIONS

o One small banana + half an apple chopped smallo One small banana + half mango + coconut meato One small banana + 1 tsp instant coffee powder 1/2 cup

strawberrieso One small banana + 1 tbsp cocoa powder + toasted

almond sliceso Pina colada - Coconut Milk + Pineapple

HOT CHOCOLATEo Chocolate has long been known for its antioxidant

properties and magnesium. This helps fight freeradicals, however one can't say the same forcommercial chocolate which is mostly sugar. Usingcacoa gives us the myriad benefits this super food hasto offer, in addition to how comforting it is to hold a hotcup of chocolate.

o This simple hot chocolate tastes like molten chocolate ina cup. Try this low calorie version every time you cravechocolate and you'll thank me. I prefer to useunsweetened cocoa powder as this helps control theamount of sugar you want to add. You can use anysweetener of your choice. If you just keep boiling thisdown slowly you get a chocolate sauce. If you want tomake the sauce more indulgent, just add a tiny bit ofbutter at the end.

WHAT YOU NEED:

o Unsweetened cocoa powder: 1 heaped tbspo Jaggery (or sweetener of choice): 1 inch squareo Water: 1 cup

HOW TO MAKE:

o Mix the cocoa powder into room temperature watero Mix till there are no lumps remainingo Add the jaggery or sweetener and simmer on low heat

for about 5 minuteso Once it starts to boil down, reduce to about 3/4 cupo Switch off when you think its thick enougho Sprinkle with Chocolate Powder and serve hot

SUPER SEED POWDERo Seeds are a nutritional powerhouse and a must include

for everyone. Especially for vegetarians and vegans,due to their plant based protein and omega 3. They area brilliant source of protein, healthy fats, fiber, mineralsand vitamins. Each seed has its unique benefits whichis why my recipe uses a mix to ensure we get a little ofall the important ones. I grind the to ensure maxabsorption.

o How to use it? Just add it to your overnight oats, attadough or sprinkle on your curd. This is a versatilerecipe you should make ahead and use daily foreveryone in the family. Think of it as your multi-vitamin.

WHAT YOU NEED:

o Flax seed: 3/4 cupo Hemp seeds: 1/2 cupo Mixed seeds (pumpkin, sesame, sunflower,

watermelon): 1/2 cupo Cacao nibs: 1/4 cupo Turmeric (haldi): 1 tspo Ground pepper: 1/2 tsp

HOW TO MAKE:

o Mix all the seedso Use the chutney jar of the grindero Ensure its completely dryo Do a quick pulse, open and mixo Do short pulses to reach a powder consistency. Do not

over grind or it will turn into a a clumpy messo Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator

11VIJAYAWADA | MONDAY | AUGUST 10, 2020

NEW DELHI: The BCCI is mullingNovember 19 as tentative date for startof domestic season with SyedMushtaq Ali T20 tournament butIndian players in various IPL teamswon’t be able to play first few roundsdue to quarantine protocols in place.

The delay in the beginning of thedomestic season due to pandemicmeans that only Mushtaq Ali trophyand Ranji Trophy (Dec 13 - March 10)comprising of 245 games (acrossformats with 38 teams) will be played.

There will be no Vijay HazareTrophy, Duleep Trophy or ChallengerSeries this year and as of now thereis no provision for Irani Cup also.

“This is a tentative list that hasbeen prepared and it has gone forapproval of president Sourav Gangulyand secretary Jay Shah,” a senior BCCIofficial told PTI.

While this is a draft schedule, itis being asked how the Indian play-ers, who will return from IPL, will playsince they will have to be in a 14-dayquarantine as per Government rules.

“That’s an issue primarily for theuncapped players, who would be withthe squad and would like to play somecricket. Now even a player’s team isknocked out before play-offs, hewon’t be back before November 3 andtill Nov 17 will be in quarantine.

“For those whose teams are inplay-offs and may reach finals, theywill have to miss the first few roundsin that case. But again this is a draftproposal and there could be sometweaks in it,” the official said.

LEXINGTON: Serena Williams onSaturday said that she is press-ing ahead with plans to play inthe US Open despite a wave ofplayer withdrawals from theupcoming Grand Slam eventover coronavirus fears.

The 23-time Slam winnerreturns to tennis next week at theinaugural Top Seed Open WTAevent in Lexington, Kentucky,relaunching her season after a

six-month hiatus caused by theCovid-19 pandemic.

Williams, who was one ofthe first players to commit to theUS Open despite the pandem-ic, said her plans remainunchanged, adding that she wastentatively planning to go toEurope for the rescheduledFrench Open.

“I see myself doing it all if ithappens,” Williams said when

asked about her schedule duringa virtual press conference.

“But I am not planning forthe future, as tournaments gotcancelled I was just like, ‘Let mejust work on today and see whathappens.’”

Williams revealed that shehad been practicing on her owncourt, built with the same hard-cout surface used at the USOpen. She has also stayed fitwith construction of a homegym.

AFP n SILVERSTONE

Max Verstappen delivered Red Bull’s first victo-ry at Silverstone since 2012 on Sunday when

he made the most of a superior strategy in sizzlingconditions to beat both Mercedes and claim victo-ry in the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix.

It was the Dutchman’s firstvictory of the season and theninth of his career and the firsttime a race had been won by adriver who did not start on poleposition in seven races since lastyear’s Mexican Grand Prix.

Verstappen owed his victo-ry to a team decision to start therace on hard compound tyreswhile his main rivals alllaunched from the grid onmediums, the two Mercedesmen struggling to manage tyre-wear throughout the race.

During the race, Red Bullasked him to ease off, but he replied saying “I don’twant to drive like a grand-ma” before the team relent-ed.

AFP n MANCHESTER

England looked all but beat-en when they stumbled to

117-5 in their pursuit of a 277-run target set by Pakistan atOld Trafford but captain JoeRoot felt confident about histeam’s battling qualities.

“We knew it would takesomething special but after lastsummer it is very hard tostop believing. It’s a real strongtrait of ours,” he said.

Almost a year on from BenStokes’ heroic batting displayto stun Australia in the 2019Ashes at Headingley, JosButtler and Chris Woakescombined to deliver a counter-attacking display in a 139-runsixth-wicket stand.

Buttler (75) was trappedleg-before with 21 runs stillrequired and the second newball due, but Woakes (84)stuck it out, edging the win-ning boundary down to third

man to seal a famous victory.“It was a brilliant chase. I

couldn’t be more proud of the

lads,” Root said.“Jos, it shows the mental

strength, to play that situationand manage different passages

of it, calculating risks, manip-ulating the spinner, brilliantinnings, and Chris was mag-nificent too.

AFP n TURIN

Former Italy and Juventus star Andrea Pirlo wasappointed the Italian champions’ new coach, just

hours after Maurizio Sarri’s sacking with the clubpromising a “new chapter in world football”.

Sarri, 61, leaves Juventus after just one season,a day after the Italian giants crashed out of theChampions League in the last 16 to French clubLyon.

The 41-year-old Pirlo, with no previous top-level coaching experience, recently took over theJuventus U-23 side and arrives on a two-year con-tract.

“The choice is based on the belief that Pirlo haswhat it takes to lead from his debut on the bench,an expert and talented squad to pursue new success-es,” Juventus said.

“Today, begins a new chapter of his career in theworld of football: from Maestro to Mister.”

Pirlo’s swift appointment, a day after theirChampions League exit, is again a bold choice forclub president Andrea Agnelli.

Other former players have turned to coachingsuch as Zinedine Zidane, Frank Lampard andGennaro Gattuso, but Pirlo does so without expe-rience.

The former midfielder does, however, knowJuventus and its players well after an impressive four-year spell from 2011 to 2015.

“Pirlo has had a leg-endary career as a

player. In his fouryears at the centreof the Juventus

midfield, he wonas many league titles,

a Coppa Italia and twoItalian Super Cups,”Juventus said.

He also won twoChampions Leagues and

two league titles withAC Milan.

At Juventus,Pirlo will now find

himself coachingsome of his for-

mer teammatessuch asJ u v e n t u sgoa lkeeper

G i a n g l u i g iBuffon, a yearolder at 42.

AFP n BARCELONA

Lionel Messi scored a bril-liant solo goal as Barcelonasaw off Napoli on Saturday

but they are likely to need some-thing even more special fromtheir captain to beat BayernMunich in the ChampionsLeague quarter-finals.

Messi’s weaving run andfinish came between an earlyClement Lenglet header and aLuis Suarez penalty, also won byMessi, as Barca stormed into a3-0 lead in the first half atCamp Nou.

But Lorenzo Insigne gaveNapoli hope just before theinterval and an unconvincingsecond period from Barcelona

left them hanging on for a 3-1win on the night, 4-2 on aggre-gate.

“A second goal would havegiven them a feeling of eupho-ria that can hurt you,” saidBarca coach Quique Setien.

“It’s normal to get a littlenervous.”

In winning the penalty,Messi took a heavy kick fromNapoli’s Kalidou Koulibaly andneeded treatment.

“It was a heavy knock,” saidSetien. “It will have to be treat-ed but I don’t think there is aproblem.”

After finishing five points

behind Real Madrid in La Liga,Barca resumed in theChampions League with doubtshanging over the form of theteam and the future of theircoach.

And victory against Napolieases the pressure but the per-formance will not inspire confi-dence, even with Messi seeming-ly rejuvenated after three weeksrest.

Napoli, whose own leagueseason only finished last week-end, should have had the advan-tage of rhythm but a disastrousopening half an hour left themwith too much to do.

Koulibaly, l inkedwith a move to severalelite European clubs thissummer, endured a par-ticularly disappointingnight.

Yet Barcelona willhave to improve signifi-cantly to match Bayern, whoadvanced after putting sevenpast Chelsea over two legs andare arguably favourites to winthe tournament.

“It’s going to be very compli-cated,” admitted Setien ahead ofthe quarter-final on Friday.

Messi now has four goals inhis last three games and in aone-off match in Lisbon, theArgentinian is capable of any-thing.

But Bayern have their owntrump card in RobertLewandowski and a more com-plete team that makes themheavy favourites to reach thesemis.

7-11 IIN TTWO LLEGSAt Allianz Arena, treble-

chasing Bayern Munich seal a 4-1 home win over Chelsea in thelast 16, return-leg tie afterRobert Lewandowski nettedtwice to .

“The anticipation is enor-mous. Barcelona has a goodteam with very good players, butif you look at the last few weeks,we can fly to Portugal with a lotof confidence,” said Bayerndefender David Alaba.

Lewandowski, the

Champions League’s top-scorer, bagged his 12thand 13th goals in Europethis season and played apart in all four Bayerngoals in Munich onSaturday.

Leading 3-0 from thefirst leg at Stamford Bridge inFebruary, before the coronaviruspandemic halted the competi-tion, Bayern progressed 7-1 onaggregate.

“We can be pleased, it wasour first game for a month andit’s not easy to keep the rhythm,”added Alaba.

“We have prepared for thisfor the last two weeks and youcould see the result.”

Lewandowski netted apenalty with just 10 minutesgone at the Allianz Arena.

Winger Ivan Perisic thendoubled Bayern’s lead beforeEngland striker TammyAbraham tapped home a looseball to give Chelsea brief hope.

However, replacement mid-fielder Corentin Tolisso put theresult beyond doubt when hefired home a Lewandowski passwith 14 minutes to go.

“I am really happy with howwe played over the 90 minutes,the first 30 minutes we shutChelsea out,” said Bayern headcoach Hansi Flick.

This was a world-class dis-play from Lewandowski whoadded a late header to his pair ofassists.

He is now four goals short of

Cristiano Ronaldo’s record of17 Champions League goals in2013/14.

“It’s not a goal of mine,”said Lewandowski when askedabout Ronaldo’s record. “Wehave a few more games inthe knock-out round andI am just as happy creat-ing goals as scoring them.”

The Poland star wasalso coy when asked abouta rivalry with Barcelonastar Lionel Messi. “We haveto perform well and show ourquality as a team against agood Barcelona side, it’s a biggame for everybody.”

66With a brace againstChelsea, RobertLewandowski is now the

outright fourth-highest scoringplayer in Champions Leaguehistory, with 66 goals

7Chelsea's 7-1 defeat onaggregate to Bayern Munichwas the second-heaviest

inflicted on an English team in CLhistory, behind only Arsenal's 10-2aggregate defeat in the last 16 in2016/17, also against BayernMunich

7Robert Lewandowski wasinvolved in all seven ofBayern's goals against

Chelsea this season (3 goals, 4assists). He was the first player toregister 3+ goals & assists againstan opponent in a season since LuisFigo in 2004/05 vs Roma

35Lionel Messi has scoredagainst 35 differentclubs in the CL; two

more than the next best CristianoRonaldo

53Robert Lewandowski hasscored 53 goals in 44appearances in all

competitions this season, findingthe net in 36 of those 44 matches(82%)

1Lorenzo Insigne is the firstItalian player ever able toscored at least one goal at

Bernabeu vs Real Madrid and onegoal at Camp Nou vs Barcelona inthe UCL history

NUMBER GAME

London dreams Lewandowski scripts another dominatingBayern win over London club, this timeagainst Chelsea to set up Barca clash

Bayern's Robert Lewandowski celebrateswith teammate Leon Goretzka after scoringhis team's first goal from penalty spot AP

Chris Woakes returns to pavilion afterhe guides England to win in 1st Test AP

Barcelona's Lionel Messi, right, embraces Napoli's goalkeeper David Ospina after the endof Champions League round of 16, second leg soccer match AP

Pirlo is newJuve boss

Verstappen winsSilverstone race

BCCI may start domesticseason from Nov 19

Root hails Poms mental strength after ‘brilliant chase’

PTI n MANCHESTER

England’s star all-rounder Ben

Stokes will miss theremainder of thethree-match Testseries againstPakistan due to fam-ily reasons, thecountry’s cricket boardannounced on Sunday.

The England and WalesCricket Board (ECB), how-ever, did not specify theexact reasons for his pull-out.

“Stokes will leave theUK later this week and trav-el to New Zealand. He will

miss England’s two Testmatches against Pakistan at

the Ageas Bowl start-ing on Thursday 13August and Friday 21August,” the ECB saidin a statement.

He will be flyingto Christchurch —where his parents Ged

and Deb live.Stokes’ father — a for-

mer rugby league interna-tional — was hospitaliseddays ahead of England'sBoxing Day Test againstSouth Africa in Decemberlast year, and has since beenrecuperating at home inNew Zealand.

Stokes out of series for ‘family reasons'

Serena fit & ready to playAkram criticises Ali's captaincyPTI n MANCHESTER

Fast bowling great WasimAkram has come down

heavily on Pakistan captainAzhar Ali for his decisionsduring the first Test againstEngland, saying he “missed atrick quite a few times” in thevisitors’ three-wicket defeathere.

Akram was particularlycritical of Ali’s decision tounder-bowl pacer NaseemShah, who was used for just 13overs out of 82 in the secondinnings while defending a tar-get of 277.

“It will hurt. It will hurt thePakistan team and the cricketlovers in Pakistan,” Akram wasquoted as saying by Sky Sports.

“Winning and losing ispart of cricket, but I think ourcaptain missed a trick quite afew times in this game, as far

as his leadership is concerned,”the former Pakistan captainsaid.

Akram felt with Englandreduced to 117 for five, theneed of the hour was to putpressure on Buttler, who wasfighting for his Test spot, andWoakes, who averaged just5.22 with the bat in his previ-ous six Tests.

The stunning gem aged from 120 to 230 million years wasmined in Arctic Yakutia. The precious discovery was made by

workers of remote Ebelyakh mine on river Anabar in the extremenorth of Yakutia, not far from shores of Laptev Sea and some1,211km north-west from Yakutsk. The mine belongs toDiamonds of Anabar, part of ALROSA Group. The roughdiamond is of deep amber colour, its dimensions are 47x24x22mm. The decision hasn't yet been made as to whether it'll besent to Alrosa's in-house cutting andpolishing division, orsold rough. 'Such alarge natural colorrough diamond is aunique discovery. "Now,the stone is atALROSA's UnitedSelling Organizationbeing studied and evaluated by our specialists. After that, we willdecide whether to give it to our manufacturers for cutting or sellit as a rough. 'Of course, cutters in any country will be interestedin such a diamond, as it has the potential to give several highquality polished diamonds," said Pavel Vinikhin, head ofALROSA's cutting and polishing division. The Ebelyakh mine hasproduced several brightly-coloured rough diamonds in the pastseveral years. In summer 2017 alone a crimson, a pink and anintense yellow stones were found within a month.

Cops return wallet stolenin a train 14 years ago

Naked man chaseslaptop stealing wild boarA

naturist in Germany got much closer to nature than hebargained for after a wild boar ran off with his laptop bag.

According to the BBC, there is a strong tradition of naturism inGermany, where it is common in the summers to strip in parksand other public places. The back-to-nature movement is knownas Freikorperkultur - or "free body culture". One nudist, however,left fellow sunbathers in splits after he was filmed running afterthe laptop-stealing boar and her two piglets. The incident tookplace on Wednesday inBerlin, reports The Local.Photos of the naked manchasing the boar wereshared on Facebook byAdele Landauer, an actorand life coach. She saidthey were taken atTeufelssee, which is apopular bathing spot.While sharing thehilarious pics on Facebook, where they have gone viral, MsLandauer said that she had shown them to the nudist and had hispermission to share them online. "I then showed the photos to theman, he laughed soundly and authorised me to make thempublic," she said. The post has gone viral with nearly 10,000'shares' and hundreds of amused comments. In the comments,Ms Landauer revealed how the chase finally ended. The man"made some noise, then the sow dropped the bag," she wrote.

A man, who lost his wallet containing ? 900 in a local train inMumbai, Maharashtra, in 2006, was contacted by the policewho said they have found it after 14 years. They returned partof the amount to him. Hemant Padalkar had lost his walletwhile travelling in a Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus-Panvel local train in 2006, a Government Railway Police (GRP)official said. In April this year, he received a call from GRP,Vashi, informing that his wallet was found. However, he couldnot go tocollect itbecause of thelockdown amidcoronaviruspandemic.After theeasing ofrestrictions, MrPadalkar, aresident ofPanvel in neighbouring Navi Mumbai township, recently wentto the GRP office at Vashi where he was given part of themoney. "My wallet at that time contained ? 900, including a ?500 note which was later demonetised (in 2016). The VashiGRP returned ? 300 to me. They deducted ? 100 for stamppaper work and said the remaining ? 500 would be returnedafter exchanging the scrapped currency note with a new one,"Mr Padalkar said.

Museum on RK Narayan’sfictional town opens

Russia unearths its largestever color diamond

NEW

S

MostRead T

he Indian Railways has brought RK Narayan's fictional town ofMalgudi to life by developing a railway station in Shivamogga in

Karnataka, where the popular television serial 'Malgudi Days' wasshot into the 'Malgudi Museum'. The museum developed at theArasalu railway station was opened on Saturday and aninauguration was held with Union Minister of State for Railways,Suresh Angadi appearing via weblink. "Iconic TV series MalgudiDays shot in Agumbe, Shivamogga district comes to life with"Malgudi Museum" atArasalu station. Thankyou Piyush Goyal ji forimmortalising thelegendary work of RKNarayan, Shankar Nagand for revivingmemories of millions,"Karnataka ChiefMinister BSYediyurappa tweeted.The television series was directed by the late actor and directorShankar Nag based on the heartwarming short stories written bynovelist RK Narayan. The stories were set in the fictional town ofMalgudi and Shankar Nag decided to shoot the televisionadaptation in Shivamogga. The series was an adaptation of theheartwarming short stories set in the fictional town of Malgudi.Shankar Nag chose Agumbe and nearby areas in Shivamogga asthe locations for the serial due to the rustic ambience.

s soon as it dropped onNetflix more than aweek ago, UmaMaheswara UgraRoopasya (UMUR)fronted by Satyadev and

directed by Venkatesh Maha,received acclaim from audiencesand critics alike. With industrypersonalities too giving it athumbs-up and praise especiallygoing to the way Satyadev enactedthe part, the actor, one of thebrightest talents, couldn’t haveasked for more. Extremely gladwith the reception that is cominghis way, the actor, in a statement,said, “Thank you! Although I dosay that phrase often I feel I haveunder-used it in the last few days.All the kind words and apprecia-tion we have been receiving eversince the movie wasreleased have notonly been over-whelming but alsobrought usechoes of joyand delightthat aretrulyend-less.”

Further stating that he is leftwith a feeling of gratitude, theactor, addressing the people who’veembraced the film, added, “I’mhumbled by this entire acknowl-edgement and the manner inwhich all of you have owned thefilm. All I am left with is a feelingof gratitude and a renewed sense ofpurpose.”

UMUR — an official remake ofMalayalam hit MaheshintePrathikaaram — tells the story ofan Araku-based studio photogra-pher owner (played by Satya) whopublicly vows that he will not wearhis slippers again until he hasavenged the humiliation that hehas been meted out to by a neigh-bouring village resident who suf-fers from anger management

issues. Maha has tai-lored the original

to suit Telugunativity.

Actor Satyadev‘humbled' with theacknowledgementto UMUR

ctress Shruti Haasan says that working withher family in a film will not necessarilymake it a great film.

Shruti is the daughter of veteran actorsKamal Haasan and Saarika. Her sisterAkshara is an actress, too. She says she

has not thought of working with all of themtogether.

“I tell you why because that doesn’tdetermine that it will make a great film.Everybody from the same family. That’sabsolutely not what’s going to deter-mine that at all,” Shruti said.

The actress believes that a “greatfilm is that a film chooses to be greatand the people working on it”.

She added, “I think films have alife of their own, which is reallywonderful and then we kind ofbecome a conduit to the energyand destiny of the film, andthat can be with anybody. Idon’t necessarily think that itwould be with my family.”

The actress, who will benext seen in Ravi Teja-star-rer Krack, recently signedPawan Kalyan-starrerVakeel Saab.

12

A

tollywoodVijayawada Monday August 10 2020

RANA AND MIHEEKATIE THE KNOT IN A

PRIVATE WEDDING

ctor RanaDaggubati tiedthe knot withfiancéeMiheeka Bajajin a close-knit

ceremony held atRamanaidu Studios,Hyderabad on Saturdaynight. With COVID-19scare all around, the guestcount was kept minimalwith only immediate fam-ily and close friends of theactor and Miheeka grac-ing it.

While Rana cut a dash-opting for a South Indianlight gold pancha with apattu border and a full-sleeved lalchi, MiheekaBajaj looked glittering ina Anamika Khanna ivorylehenga, pairing it with apiece of heavy Polki jew-ellery, matha Patti, nosering and traditionalkalirey worn with the ban-gles.

Besides members of theDaggubati clan, includingRana’s aunt Lakshmi whoflew down from Chennai,

the Baahubali star’s bestfriend Ram Charan andhis wife Upasana, andactor Allu Arjun, wereamong the 40 guests whoreceived invites. Sharing apicture with the bride andgroom on his Twitter pro-file, Ram Charan wrote,“Finally my hulk is mar-ried wishing @ranadaggu-bati #miheeka a veryhappy life together!!(Sic).” Celebs like AkshayKumar, Mahesh Babu andNani too congratulatedthe newly-weds.

One notable absenteefrom the event wasVenkatesh’s eldest daugh-ter Aashritha, who is mar-ried to Vinayak Reddy,the grandson ofHyderabad Race ClubChairman R SurenderReddy. Commenting on awedding post ofSamantha, Aashrithawrote, “Picture perfect!I’m going to Photoshopme and V (her husbandVinayak Reddy) in this atsome point.”

A

Madhie steps in for PS Vinod

n a freshdevelopment,ace cinematog-rapher PSVinod, whowas initially

signed on for superstarMahesh Babu-starrerSarkaru Vaari Paata, hasmade way for Madhie.The new poster of thefilm indicates the change.While there’s no officialword from the unit onwhat led to the change,reports suggest thatVinod’s other commit-ments prompted him toexit the project on goodterms. It is believed thatwith no production date

attached to the projectdespite it beingannounced more thantwo months ago, Vinodwas left with no optionbut to consider otheroffers. Madhie, who hasshot Mahesh-starrerSrimanthudu five and halfyears ago, was immediate-ly approached and as hehad not committed toother projects, he said yes.

Meanwhile, the motionposter of Sarkaru VaariPaata, a joint productionventure between MythriMovie Makers, 14 ReelsPlus and GMBEntertainment, wasunveiled by the makers

on Sunday as Maheshrung in his 45th birthday.In the poster, the actor isseen flipping a one-rupeecoin and wearing a threadwhich has an ‘Om’ locket,as the title track plays inthe background. Theposter doesn’t have theactor’s face but for hisfans, the 44-second longvideo was enough tomake them happy.

On Sunday, Maheshalso participated in GreenIndia Challenging initia-tive and planted a sapling

at his home inHyderabad. ThankingTRS MP Santosh for theinitiative, he posted onTwitter, “There couldn’tbe a better way to cele-brate my birthday#GreenIndiaChallenge Ipass this on to@tarak9999, @actorvi-jay& @shrutihaasan. Letthe chain continue andtranscend boundaries Irequest all of you to sup-port the cause. One steptowards a greener world!(Sic).”

I

Here's how Johaarlanded at aha

eja Marni’s debut film, Johaar, which drops on aha this IndependenceDay, was initially acquired by prominent distributor and producerAbhishek Nama for an outright price after he saw the film. “The dealwas signed before COVID-19 outbreak. But the scenario changed

post pandemic, with Nama later dissolving the agreement.Marni understood it. The director put his father’s sav-

ings into the film and his father’s business too wasreeling under the effects of coronavirus, he startedlooking for OTT platforms to recover money. Heinitially landed a good offer from Netflix but as thestreaming giant wanted to release it after a theatri-cal roll out, the deal couldn’t move forward. Withtheatres continuing to remain shut and lack of

clarity in sight, Marni later approached aha.The think-tank of aha liked the film and

decided to purchase it. Marni is happy withthe way it is being promoted,” said asource close to the development.

Featuring Subhalekha Sudhakar,Easwari Rao, Rohini, Naina Ganguly andEsther Anil in the lead roles, Johaar,inspired by real incidents, narrates howfive lives are affected due to the con-struction of a statue. Filmed acrossRajahmundry, Kakinada,

Visakhapatnam and Varanasi,Priyadarshan Balasubramanian

has composed the film’smusic.

T

Actor Naga Shaurya is the latest

Tollywood celebrity to have

participated in the Green India

Challenge. He planted a sapling at the

premises of his house in Hyderabad during

the weekend before praising and extending

his thanks to MP Santosh Kumar for thinking

of such an initiative. He nominated actors

Jagapathi Babu, Nara Rohith and director

Nandini Reddy to take the challenge forward.

Haven't thought ofworking with myfamily in a film: Shruti

A