14
R ebel Congress leader Sachin Pilot on Thursday virtual- ly shut the door on the Congress and plunged into a legal battle against threat of dis- qualification with the help of top legal eagles considered close to the BJP. Pilot also paid no heed to advice by the Congress leader- ship to shun the “hospitality” of the BJP Government in Haryana, where he is camping with 18 other Congress MLAs in two different hotels under police protection. The Congress leadership feels that Pilot has gone too far to return after he hired senior lawyers Harish Salve and Mukul Rohtagi to contest his case in the Rajasthan High Court against the disqualifica- tion notice served on him and his associates by the Assembly Speaker. The case will come up before a division bench of the HC on Friday. The court move marks a widening of the rift between the Congress and Sachin Pilot, who has been in Delhi along with some 18 MLAs since he launched his revolt on Sunday. Congress sources said Pilot remains indifferent to all attempts made by the Gandhis to settle his differences with the party. “His (Pilot) intentions are clear now. His claim that he is still a Congress man and not joining the BJP was just a ploy to escape disqualification. He has just tried to buy time so that he could lure more MLAs to topple the Gehlot Government. Already he has booked more room in the Gurugram hotels for these MLAs,” said an AICC leader who has been making attempts for a patch up between Gehlot and Pilot. Sources said Congress gen- eral secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra spoke to Sachin Pilot even on Wednesday, but drew no positive response. This would be the Congress leader’s fourth direct outreach to the rebel, who has always been a Gandhi family favourite. Former party chief Rahul Gandhi has also been in touch with him, but through emis- saries. A division bench of the Rajasthan High Court has deferred the petition filed by Pilot and 18 other dissident leaders challenging notices from the Speaker over a Congress move to disqualify them from the State Assembly and will take it up at 5 pm on Friday. The two-judge Bench ruled that no action be taken against Pilot and the MLAs till 5 pm Friday. Rajasthan Assembly Speaker CP Joshi had issued notices after the party sought their disqualification from the State Assembly. Sacked Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot and the other MLAs were asked to respond to the notices by Friday. The notices were issued on Tuesday. Congress sources said Pilot and 18 other MLAs had defied a whip and did not attend its legislature party meetings. Salve was then NDA Government’s top law officer from 1999 to 2002 and is cur- rently based out of London, from where he fought India’s case against Pakistan in the Kulbhushan Jadhav matter. Rajasthan BJP unit is in “wait and watch” mode. Party leaders maintained that the BJP, as the main Opposition in Rajasthan, will take “every action to see that the Gehlot Government fails to prove (its) majority” in the Assembly. While Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra made several contacts with Pilot, former party chief Rahul Gandhi’s brief to his emissary KC Venugopal was to try to hold Pilot back. Party chief Sonia Gandhi also called Gehlot asking him not to speak anything against Pilot in public. Sources said Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala, who is part of the Central team sent by the Congress to Jaipur to handle the crisis, had a meeting with Gehlot on Thursday only to convey the Chief Minister that Rahul Gandhi wants to keep the doors open for Pilot. Sources said Gehlot told Surjewala he was not against that but Pilot would have to “leave the BJP camp”. Continued on Page 6 G iving a ray of hope to international fliers, India has established individual bilat- eral “air bubbles” with France and the US that will allow air- lines of each country in the pact to operate international flights starting Friday. Under the agreements, Air France will fly 28 flights from July 18 to August 1 between Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Paris while American carriers will be flying 18 flights to India between July 17 and July 31. The civil aviation authori- ties are working to make sim- ilar arrangements with Germany and the United Kingdom. According to Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, India is at “very advance stage” of negotiations with France, US and Germany under bilateral air bubbles. “International flights may resume under bilateral air bub- bles with other countries with certain conditions as many are imposing entry restrictions even now, including India due to coronavirus pandemic,” Puri said while addressing a Press conference on Thursday. The Civil Aviation Minister said Air France will operate 28 flights between Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore to Paris from July 18 till August 1 while United Air will operate 18 flights between Delhi, Mumbai to New York till July 31. “In case of the United States, we have an agreement with United Airlines to operate 18 flights between India-US between July 17 and July 31 but this is an interim one. “They (United) are flying a daily flight between Delhi and Newark and a thrice-a-week flight between Delhi and San Francisco,” Puri noted. Continued on Page 6 U nidentified hackers broke into the Twitter accounts of technology moguls, politi- cians, celebrities and major companies Wednesday in an apparent Bitcoin scam. The ruse included bogus tweets from former US President Barack Obama, Democratic presidential front- runner Joe Biden, Mike Bloomberg and a number of tech billionaires including Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Celebrities Kanye West and his wife, Kim Kardashian West, were also hacked. The fake tweets tweets offered to send $2,000 for every $1,000 sent to an anonymous Bitcoin address. There is no evidence that the owners of these accounts were targeted themselves. Instead, the hacks appeared designed to lure their Twitter followers into sending money to an anonymous Bitcoin account. The Biden campaign, for instance, said that Twitter’s integrity team “locked down the account within a few min- utes of the breach and removed the related tweet.” Obama’s office had no immediate com- ment. The FBI said it was aware of Twitter’s security breach, but declined further comment. In a tweet, Twitter noted that it was aware of a “securi- ty incident impacting accounts on Twitter.” The San Francisco company said it is investigating and promised an update short- ly. It did not reply immediate- ly to requests for comment. The apparently fake tweets were all quickly deleted, although the Associated Press was able to capture screenshots of several before they disap- peared. Continued on Page 6 I ndia has slammed Pakistan’s move to construct the China- backed Diamer Basha dam on the Indus river in Chilas in Gilgit-Baltistan of Pakistan- occupied Kashmir (PoK) con- tending it will submerge large parts of J&K and Ladakh. “India strongly protested against construction of Diamer Basha dam to Pakistan Government. It will lead to submergence of large part of land of Indian UTs of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh. We condemn attempts by Pak to bring about material changes in Indian territories under its ille- gal occupation,” Anurag Srivastava, official Spokesperson of Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said. “We have shared concerns with both China and Pakistan on all such projects in Indian territories under Pakistan’s ille- gal occupation.” Continued on Page 6 I ndia and China have agreed to continue the dialogue process as part of their agree- ment to restore peace at the volatile Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Eastern Ladakh. India feels the disengagement of is an “intricate process” and requires “constant verification.” The the Corps Commanders of the two Armies Lt General Harinder Singh and Major General Liu Lin during the 15-hour long talks on Tuesday also agreed to re-deploy troops towards their regular posts on their respec- tive sides of the LAC as a con- fidence building measure. External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said on Thursday the disengagement process is specifically aimed at addressing face-off situations and close-up deployments of troops. Continued on Page 6 Moscow: The Russian defence Ministry has said that it has developed a “safe” coronavirus vaccine following clinical trials on a group of volunteers. The Ministry said 18 people had participated in the research and were discharged without “serious adverse events, health complaints, complications or side effects”. The results of the trials “allow us to speak with confidence about the safety and good tolerability of the vac- cine”, it said in a statement. London: Researchers at the University of Oxford believe they may have a breakthrough in their search for a Covid-19 vac- cine after the team discovered that the jab could provide “dou- ble protection” against the deadly coronavirus following early stage human trials. I ndia on Thursday said Pakistan violated all its assur- ances of giving “unimpeded” and “unconditional” consular access to Kulbushan Jadhav, the ex-naval officer who was sen- tenced to death by the country’s military court for alleged espi- onage activities in 2016. India on Thursday said when two of the country’s offi- cials in Islamabad visited Jadhav, they realised that he was under severe stress and that Pakistan had violated all its assurances laid out before the access was provided. After lodging a protest, the Indian officials left the venue. “It was evident from a camera that was visible that the conversation with Jadhav was being recorded. Jadhav himself was visibly under stress and indicated that clearly to the Consular Officers,” the official Government statement said. “We were assured that this consular access would be unimpeded, unhindered and unconditional. On the basis of this assurance by the Pakistani Foreign Ministry, two Consular Officers of the High Commission proceeded to the meeting with Jadhav. Moreover, Pakistani officials with an intimidating demeanour were present in close proximity of Jadhav and Consular Officers despite the protests of the Indian side,” the statement said. Officials said Pakistan’s approach to this matter con- tinues to be obstructive and insincere. “It has not only vio- lated its assurance to the International Court of Justice to fully implement the 2019 judgement, but also failed to act in accordance with its own Ordinance,” they said. Continued on Page 6 I ndia’s Covid-19 case load crossed one-million mark (10,04,348) on Thursday as the country registered 34,421 fresh cases and 680 deaths. The overall death count also crossed the psychological figure of 25,000 on Thursday as several State Governments brought back the lockdown measures. India is adding one lakh cases now in four days and experts feel that in a fortnight the rate of daily growth in absolute terms could further spike. Several studies have predicted that India could see more than three million cases by the end of the next month. The last few days have seen all-round spread of coro- navirus from north to south and east to west. Karnataka has emerged as the latest hotspot after successfully con- trolling the growth of the virus. But the State is now pay- ing the price for regulation violation of lockdown norms, massive wedding, temple gathering, and gala parties, all in utter violation of social dis- tancing norms. On Thursday, Karnataka recorded 4,169 new Covid-19 cases and 104 deaths, both being highest single day spike. Total number of cases stand at 51,422, including 19,730 recoveries and 1,037 deaths. Bengaluru reported 2,344 new cases and 70 deaths in the last 24 hours. Meanwhile, Maharashtra reported 8,641 new cases and 266 deaths in the last 24 hours, taking active cases to 1,14,648 and death toll to 11,194. A total of 1,58,140 patients have recovered so far. As many as 1,498 new Covid positive cases and 56 deaths were reported in Mumbai on Thursday. Total number of positive cases rose to 97,751, including 68,537 discharged cases, 23,694 active cases and 5,520 deaths report- ed till now. Delhi reported 1,652 new cases and 58 deaths in the last 24 hours, taking active cases to 17,407 and death toll to 3,545. There are 658 contain- ment zones in Delhi at pre- sent. According to a health bulletin, Delhi on Thursday had 11,545 vacant hospital beds. In Tamil Nadu, a total of 69 persons succumbed to Covid-19 during the last 24 hours while 4,549 new per- sons were diagnosed with coronavirus across the State. A medical bulletin issued by the Department of Health and Preventive Medicine said there were 46,714 active Covid cases in the State as on Thursday evening. There is a positive news in this disclo- sure as there were 47,340 active cases as on Wednesday. The State has registered a fall in the number of active cases which has brought some relief to health secretary J Radhakrishnan. Continued on Page 6 A fter the purported video of a Dalit farmer couple con- suming pesticide in front of policemen to protest the bull- dozing of their crops, alleged- ly on the encroached Government land, went viral, the Shivraj Singh Chouhan Government on Thursday swung into action and trans- ferred the Guna District Magistrate (DM) and the Superintendent of Police (SP). Dalit farmer Rajkumar Ahirwar and his wife con- sumed pesticide as a team of police and administration reached their farm and destroyed their standing crops and mercilessly beat them up when they tried to stop the demolition. According to sources, 20 bighas of land was allotted in Jaganpur Chak area for the construction of a college in Guna. This land was alleged- ly encroached on by Rajkumar, who claimed that they had been farming on the vacant Government land for years. The videos of police mer- cilessly beating the farmer and women members of his fami- ly went viral in no time on Wednesday, sending jitters to Madhya Pradesh State capital. Within hours on Wednesday, Home Minister Narottam Mishra set up a probe panel of senior police officers to look into the police excessess. The NCW has asked the Madhya Pradesh Police to ensure “swift and fair” probe. On Thursday, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi con- demned the attack, saying “our fight is against this injustice”. Continued on Page 6 L ucknow reported its highest single-day spike in coron- avirus cases so far with 308 per- sons testing positive even as three more COVID-19 patients died in the city taking the death toll to 43. Across the state, 34 COVID- 19 deaths were reported on Thursday, the highest single-day fatalities, while 2,083 people test- ed positive, pushing the tally 43,346 cases. According to Lucknow’s Chief Medical Officer Dr Narendra Agarwal, 12 new pos- itive cases were reported from Aliganj, 10 from Indiranagar, nine from Gomtinagar, eight from Ashiyana, six from Kalyanpur, five each from Rajajipuram, Kanpur road and Alambagh, four each from Cantonment, Chinhat, Hazratganj, Para, Chowk Jankipuram and Madiyaon, three each from Gomtinagar Extension, Vikas Nagar, Rajendranagar, Balaganj, LDA Colony, Peernagar, Sitapur road, Gudamba, Krishnanagar and Mohanlalganj, two each from Model House, Khadra, Lal Kuan, Manas Nagar, Faizabad road, IIM road, Rae Bareli road, Sushant Golf City, Vrindavan and Thakurganj, and one each from Niralanagar, Sultanpur road, Udaiganj, River Bank Colony, Utretiya, Old Hyderabad, Purab Gaon, Mehndiganj, Mawaiya, Hussainabad, Kaiserbagh, Tikaitganj and Shardanagar. Meanwhile, among the 34 deaths reported in UP, nine were from Kanpur, three each from Lucknow and Prayagraj, two each from Noida, Varanasi, Jaunpur and Ballia, and one each from Agra, Ghaziabad, Firozabad, Moradabad, Bulandshahar, Azamgarh, Gorakhpur, Amroha, Etawah, Fatehpur and Mirzapur, pushing the toll to 1,046. Meanwhile, in view of the unabated rise in COVID-19 cases across Uttar Pradesh, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has asked officials to prepare a model on protecting people from this deadly disease. The chief minis- ter issued this directive after reviewing a presentation on ways to control the spread of coron- avirus infection in the state. “Put big cities under the scanner. The nodal officers should hold meetings with dis- trict magistrates, chief develop- ment officers and other district officials to get feedback,” he dur- ing the meeting.

€¦ · flights between Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore to Paris from July 18 till August 1 while United Air will operate 18 flights between Delhi, Mumbai to New York till July 31. “In

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Page 1: €¦ · flights between Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore to Paris from July 18 till August 1 while United Air will operate 18 flights between Delhi, Mumbai to New York till July 31. “In

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Rebel Congress leader SachinPilot on Thursday virtual-

ly shut the door on theCongress and plunged into alegal battle against threat of dis-qualification with the help oftop legal eagles consideredclose to the BJP.

Pilot also paid no heed toadvice by the Congress leader-ship to shun the “hospitality” ofthe BJP Government inHaryana, where he is campingwith 18 other Congress MLAsin two different hotels underpolice protection.

The Congress leadershipfeels that Pilot has gone too farto return after he hired seniorlawyers Harish Salve andMukul Rohtagi to contest hiscase in the Rajasthan HighCourt against the disqualifica-tion notice served on him andhis associates by the AssemblySpeaker. The case will come upbefore a division bench of theHC on Friday.

The court move marks awidening of the rift betweenthe Congress and Sachin Pilot,who has been in Delhi alongwith some 18 MLAs since helaunched his revolt on Sunday.Congress sources said Pilotremains indifferent to allattempts made by the Gandhisto settle his differences with theparty.

“His (Pilot) intentions areclear now. His claim that he isstill a Congress man and not

joining the BJP was just a ployto escape disqualification. Hehas just tried to buy time sothat he could lure more MLAsto topple the GehlotGovernment. Already he hasbooked more room in theGurugram hotels for theseMLAs,” said an AICC leaderwho has been making attemptsfor a patch up between Gehlotand Pilot.

Sources said Congress gen-eral secretary Priyanka GandhiVadra spoke to Sachin Piloteven on Wednesday, but drew

no positive response. Thiswould be the Congress leader’sfourth direct outreach to therebel, who has always been aGandhi family favourite.Former party chief RahulGandhi has also been in touchwith him, but through emis-saries.

A division bench of theRajasthan High Court hasdeferred the petition filed byPilot and 18 other dissidentleaders challenging noticesfrom the Speaker over aCongress move to disqualify

them from the State Assemblyand will take it up at 5 pm onFriday. The two-judge Benchruled that no action be takenagainst Pilot and the MLAs till5 pm Friday.

Rajasthan AssemblySpeaker CP Joshi had issuednotices after the party soughttheir disqualification from theState Assembly. Sacked DeputyChief Minister Sachin Pilotand the other MLAs were askedto respond to the notices byFriday. The notices were issuedon Tuesday. Congress sources

said Pilot and 18 other MLAshad defied a whip and did notattend its legislature partymeetings.

Salve was then NDAGovernment’s top law officerfrom 1999 to 2002 and is cur-rently based out of London,from where he fought India’scase against Pakistan in theKulbhushan Jadhav matter.

Rajasthan BJP unit is in“wait and watch” mode. Partyleaders maintained that theBJP, as the main Opposition inRajasthan, will take “everyaction to see that the GehlotGovernment fails to prove (its)majority” in the Assembly.

While Congress generalsecretary Priyanka GandhiVadra made several contactswith Pilot, former party chiefRahul Gandhi’s brief to hisemissary KC Venugopal was totry to hold Pilot back. Partychief Sonia Gandhi also calledGehlot asking him not to speakanything against Pilot in public.

Sources said Congress chiefspokesperson RandeepSurjewala, who is part of theCentral team sent by theCongress to Jaipur to handlethe crisis, had a meeting withGehlot on Thursday only toconvey the Chief Minister thatRahul Gandhi wants to keepthe doors open for Pilot.Sources said Gehlot toldSurjewala he was not againstthat but Pilot would have to“leave the BJP camp”.

Continued on Page 6

����� ��������

Giving a ray of hope tointernational fliers, India

has established individual bilat-eral “air bubbles” with Franceand the US that will allow air-lines of each country in the pactto operate international flightsstarting Friday.

Under the agreements, AirFrance will fly 28 flights fromJuly 18 to August 1 betweenDelhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru andParis while American carrierswill be flying 18 flights toIndia between July 17 and July31. The civil aviation authori-ties are working to make sim-ilar arrangements withGermany and the UnitedKingdom.

According to Union CivilAviation Minister HardeepSingh Puri, India is at “veryadvance stage” of negotiationswith France, US and Germanyunder bilateral air bubbles.“International flights mayresume under bilateral air bub-bles with other countries withcertain conditions as many are

imposing entry restrictionseven now, including India dueto coronavirus pandemic,” Purisaid while addressing a Pressconference on Thursday.

The Civil Aviation Ministersaid Air France will operate 28flights between Delhi, Mumbaiand Bangalore to Paris fromJuly 18 till August 1 whileUnited Air will operate 18flights between Delhi, Mumbaito New York till July 31.

“In case of the UnitedStates, we have an agreementwith United Airlines to operate18 flights between India-USbetween July 17 and July 31 butthis is an interim one. “They(United) are flying a dailyflight between Delhi andNewark and a thrice-a-weekflight between Delhi and SanFrancisco,” Puri noted.

Continued on Page 6

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Unidentified hackers brokeinto the Twitter accounts

of technology moguls, politi-cians, celebrities and majorcompanies Wednesday in anapparent Bitcoin scam.

The ruse included bogustweets from former USPresident Barack Obama,Democratic presidential front-runner Joe Biden, MikeBloomberg and a number oftech billionaires includingAmazon CEO Jeff Bezos,Microsoft co-founder Bill Gatesand Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

Celebrities Kanye West andhis wife, Kim Kardashian West,were also hacked. The faketweets tweets offered to send$2,000 for every $1,000 sent toan anonymous Bitcoin address.

There is no evidence thatthe owners of these accountswere targeted themselves.Instead, the hacks appeareddesigned to lure their Twitterfollowers into sending moneyto an anonymous Bitcoinaccount.

The Biden campaign, forinstance, said that Twitter’sintegrity team “locked downthe account within a few min-

utes of the breach and removedthe related tweet.” Obama’soffice had no immediate com-ment. The FBI said it wasaware of Twitter’s securitybreach, but declined furthercomment.

In a tweet, Twitter notedthat it was aware of a “securi-ty incident impacting accountson Twitter.” The San Franciscocompany said it is investigatingand promised an update short-ly. It did not reply immediate-ly to requests for comment.

The apparently fake tweetswere all quickly deleted,although the Associated Presswas able to capture screenshotsof several before they disap-peared.

Continued on Page 6

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India has slammed Pakistan’smove to construct the China-

backed Diamer Basha dam onthe Indus river in Chilas inGilgit-Baltistan of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) con-tending it will submerge largeparts of J&K and Ladakh.

“India strongly protestedagainst construction of DiamerBasha dam to PakistanGovernment. It will lead tosubmergence of large part ofland of Indian UTs of Jammu& Kashmir and Ladakh. Wecondemn attempts by Pak tobring about material changes inIndian territories under its ille-gal occupation,” AnuragSrivastava, officialSpokesperson of Ministry ofExternal Affairs (MEA) said.

“We have shared concernswith both China and Pakistanon all such projects in Indianterritories under Pakistan’s ille-gal occupation.”

Continued on Page 6

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India and China have agreedto continue the dialogue

process as part of their agree-ment to restore peace at thevolatile Line of Actual Control(LAC) in Eastern Ladakh. Indiafeels the disengagement of is an“intricate process” and requires“constant verification.”

The the CorpsCommanders of the twoArmies Lt General HarinderSingh and Major General LiuLin during the 15-hour longtalks on Tuesday also agreed tore-deploy troops towards theirregular posts on their respec-tive sides of the LAC as a con-fidence building measure.

External Affairs MinistrySpokesperson AnuragSrivastava said on Thursday thedisengagement process isspecifically aimed at addressingface-off situations and close-updeployments of troops.

Continued on Page 6

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Moscow: The Russian defenceMinistry has said that it hasdeveloped a “safe” coronavirusvaccine following clinical trialson a group of volunteers. TheMinistry said 18 people hadparticipated in the researchand were discharged without“serious adverse events, healthcomplaints, complications orside effects”. The results of thetrials “allow us to speak withconfidence about the safetyand good tolerability of the vac-cine”, it said in a statement.

London: Researchers at the University of Oxford believe theymay have a breakthrough in their search for a Covid-19 vac-cine after the team discovered that the jab could provide “dou-ble protection” against the deadly coronavirus following earlystage human trials.

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India on Thursday saidPakistan violated all its assur-

ances of giving “unimpeded”and “unconditional” consularaccess to Kulbushan Jadhav, theex-naval officer who was sen-tenced to death by the country’smilitary court for alleged espi-onage activities in 2016.

India on Thursday saidwhen two of the country’s offi-cials in Islamabad visitedJadhav, they realised that hewas under severe stress and thatPakistan had violated all itsassurances laid out before theaccess was provided. After

lodging a protest, the Indianofficials left the venue.

“It was evident from acamera that was visible that theconversation with Jadhav wasbeing recorded. Jadhav himselfwas visibly under stress andindicated that clearly to theConsular Officers,” the officialGovernment statement said.

“We were assured that thisconsular access would beunimpeded, unhindered andunconditional. On the basis of

this assurance by the PakistaniForeign Ministry, two ConsularOfficers of the HighCommission proceeded to themeeting with Jadhav. Moreover,Pakistani officials with anintimidating demeanour werepresent in close proximity ofJadhav and Consular Officersdespite the protests of theIndian side,” the statementsaid.

Officials said Pakistan’sapproach to this matter con-tinues to be obstructive andinsincere. “It has not only vio-lated its assurance to theInternational Court of Justiceto fully implement the 2019judgement, but also failed to actin accordance with its ownOrdinance,” they said.

Continued on Page 6

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India’s Covid-19 case loadcrossed one-million mark

(10,04,348) on Thursday asthe country registered 34,421fresh cases and 680 deaths.

The overall death countalso crossed the psychologicalfigure of 25,000 on Thursday asseveral State Governmentsbrought back the lockdownmeasures.

India is adding one lakhcases now in four days andexperts feel that in a fortnightthe rate of daily growth inabsolute terms could furtherspike. Several studies havepredicted that India could seemore than three million casesby the end of the next month.

The last few days haveseen all-round spread of coro-navirus from north to southand east to west. Karnatakahas emerged as the latesthotspot after successfully con-trolling the growth of thevirus. But the State is now pay-ing the price for regulationviolation of lockdown norms,massive wedding, templegathering, and gala parties, allin utter violation of social dis-tancing norms.

On Thursday, Karnatakarecorded 4,169 new Covid-19cases and 104 deaths, bothbeing highest single day spike.Total number of cases stand at51,422, including 19,730recoveries and 1,037 deaths.Bengaluru reported 2,344 newcases and 70 deaths in the last24 hours.

Meanwhile, Maharashtrareported 8,641 new casesand 266 deaths in the last 24hours, taking active cases to1,14,648 and death toll to11,194. A total of 1,58,140patients have recovered sofar.

As many as 1,498 newCovid positive cases and 56deaths were reported inMumbai on Thursday. Totalnumber of positive cases roseto 97,751, including 68,537discharged cases, 23,694 activecases and 5,520 deaths report-ed till now.

Delhi reported 1,652 newcases and 58 deaths in the last24 hours, taking active casesto 17,407 and death toll to3,545. There are 658 contain-ment zones in Delhi at pre-sent. According to a health

bulletin, Delhi on Thursdayhad 11,545 vacant hospitalbeds.

In Tamil Nadu, a total of69 persons succumbed toCovid-19 during the last 24hours while 4,549 new per-sons were diagnosed withcoronavirus across the State.

A medical bulletin issuedby the Department of Healthand Preventive Medicine saidthere were 46,714 active Covidcases in the State as onThursday evening. There is apositive news in this disclo-sure as there were 47,340active cases as on Wednesday.The State has registered a fallin the number of active caseswhich has brought some reliefto health secretar y JRadhakrishnan.

Continued on Page 6

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After the purported video ofa Dalit farmer couple con-

suming pesticide in front ofpolicemen to protest the bull-dozing of their crops, alleged-ly on the encroachedGovernment land, went viral,the Shivraj Singh ChouhanGovernment on Thursdayswung into action and trans-ferred the Guna DistrictMagistrate (DM) and theSuperintendent of Police (SP).

Dalit farmer RajkumarAhirwar and his wife con-

sumed pesticide as a team ofpolice and administrationreached their farm anddestroyed their standing cropsand mercilessly beat them upwhen they tried to stop thedemolition. According tosources, 20 bighas of land wasallotted in Jaganpur Chak areafor the construction of a collegein Guna. This land was alleged-ly encroached on by Rajkumar,who claimed that they hadbeen farming on the vacantGovernment land for years.

The videos of police mer-cilessly beating the farmer and

women members of his fami-ly went viral in no time onWednesday, sending jitters toMadhya Pradesh State capital.Within hours on Wednesday,Home Minister NarottamMishra set up a probe panel ofsenior police officers to lookinto the police excessess.

The NCW has asked theMadhya Pradesh Police toensure “swift and fair” probe.

On Thursday, Congressleader Rahul Gandhi con-demned the attack, saying “ourfight is against this injustice”.

Continued on Page 6

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Lucknow reported its highestsingle-day spike in coron-

avirus cases so far with 308 per-sons testing positive even asthree more COVID-19 patientsdied in the city taking the deathtoll to 43.

Across the state, 34 COVID-19 deaths were reported onThursday, the highest single-dayfatalities, while 2,083 people test-ed positive, pushing the tally43,346 cases.

According to Lucknow’sChief Medical Officer DrNarendra Agarwal, 12 new pos-itive cases were reported fromAliganj, 10 from Indiranagar,nine from Gomtinagar, eightfrom Ashiyana, six fromKalyanpur, five each fromRajajipuram, Kanpur road andAlambagh, four each from

Cantonment, Chinhat,Hazratganj, Para, ChowkJankipuram and Madiyaon, threeeach from GomtinagarExtension, Vikas Nagar,Rajendranagar, Balaganj, LDAColony, Peernagar, Sitapur road,Gudamba, Krishnanagar andMohanlalganj, two each fromModel House, Khadra, Lal Kuan,Manas Nagar, Faizabad road,IIM road, Rae Bareli road,Sushant Golf City, Vrindavan andThakurganj, and one each fromNiralanagar, Sultanpur road,Udaiganj, River Bank Colony,Utretiya, Old Hyderabad, PurabGaon, Mehndiganj, Mawaiya,Hussainabad, Kaiserbagh,Tikaitganj and Shardanagar.

Meanwhile, among the 34deaths reported in UP, nine werefrom Kanpur, three each fromLucknow and Prayagraj, twoeach from Noida, Varanasi,

Jaunpur and Ballia, and oneeach from Agra, Ghaziabad,Firozabad, Moradabad,Bulandshahar, Azamgarh,Gorakhpur, Amroha, Etawah,Fatehpur and Mirzapur, pushingthe toll to 1,046.

Meanwhile, in view of theunabated rise in COVID-19cases across Uttar Pradesh, ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath hasasked officials to prepare a modelon protecting people from thisdeadly disease. The chief minis-ter issued this directive afterreviewing a presentation on waysto control the spread of coron-avirus infection in the state.

“Put big cities under thescanner. The nodal officersshould hold meetings with dis-trict magistrates, chief develop-ment officers and other districtofficials to get feedback,” he dur-ing the meeting.

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In an attempt to salvage the position post-VikasDubey encounter when Bharatiya Janata

Party was branded as anti-Brahmin, the rulingparty has appointed Yogendra Upadhaya as thenew chief whip of the party in the Uttar PradeshAssembly.

Assembly sources said here on Thursday thatYogendra Upadhaya, the MLA from Agra,would take the place of Virendra Singh Sirohiwho died in March last.

Yogendra Upadhaya is also close to

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and this also wasone of the reasons to give him this post.

With the appointment of a Brahmin in placeof an OBC as chief whip of the party in theAssembly, the BJP has tried to pacify the uppercaste after the Vikas Dubey incident in Kanpur.Questions are being raised as to why the houseof Dubey was demolished and his family mem-bers were penalised for the crime committed bythe gangster.

Opposition parties too are up in armsagainst the BJP government, alleging harassmentof the Brahmins.

����� �� >���

Uttar Pradesh ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath

has directed officials to imple-ment an effective integratedstrategy through inter-depart-mental coordination to combatCOVID-19 and other commu-nicable diseases and has askedthe nodal officers deployed inthe districts to review it daily.

Presiding over a high-levelUnlock review meeting at hisofficial residence here onTuesday, the chief ministerdirected the senior officersdeployed in districts to moni-tor from the headquarters thespecial cleanliness and sanita-tion drive launched in their dis-tricts.

He said that during thedrive, prevention of COVID-19and other communicable dis-eases, medical screening ofpeople, supply of potable waterand the works related to clean-liness and sanitisation shouldbe undertaken expeditiously.

He also asked the officialsto ensure anti larval spray andfogging during the cleanlinessand sanitation drive.

Expressing satisfactionover touching the mark of48,000 per day COVID-19

tests per day, the chief minister said that

testing should be ramped up to50,000 per day. “Out of this30,000-35000 tests should bedone by RT-PCR method,2,000-2,500 by TrueNaTmachines and 20,000-2,5000 byrapid antigen technique,” hesaid. Yogi also laid stress ontele-consultation by the doc-tors.

He also laid emphasis onusing public address systemsalong with electronic and printmedia to educate people aboutprevention from COVID-19.

“There is need for takingspecial caution in the districtsof Lucknow, Kanpur Nagar,Varanasi and Jhansi in view ofthe COVID-19 spread there.Effective measures are requiredin these districts to counter theCOVID-19,” he said.

The chief minister said allprecautions must be taken toinsulate the police force fromthe infection. “The police per-sonnel on enforcement dutyshould be provided masks,gloves and sanitiser,” he said,adding that the services ofNCC cadets could also be con-sidered along with homeguards and PRD jawans in thecontainment zones.

The chief minister saidthat cleanliness was extremelyimportant for controlling aninfectious disease like COVID-19. Keeping it in view, theLevel-1 hospitals should beset up at places where basicfacilities for cleanliness wereavailable, he said.

The chief minister direct-ed officials to make all arrange-ments at Level-1 hospitals toprovide better facilities to thepatients.

Those present in the meet-ing included MedicalEducation Minister Suresh

Khanna, Minister of State forHealth Atul Garg, ChiefSecretary RK Tiwari,Infrastructure and IndustrialDevelopment CommissionerAlok Tandon, AgricultureProduction CommissionerAlok Sinha, Additional ChiefSecretary (Home andInformation) Awanish KumarAwasthi, Additional ChiefSecretary (Finance) SanjeevMittal, Additional ChiefSecretary (Revenue) RenukaKumar, Director General ofPolice HC Awasthi, AdditionalChief Secretary (MedicalEducation) Rajneesh Dube,Additional Chief Secretary(Health) Amit Mohan Prasad,Additional Chief Secretary(Rural Development andPanchayati Raj) Manoj KumarSingh, Additional ChiefSecretary (Agriculture) DeveshChaturvedi, Additional ChiefSecretary to Chief Minister SPGoyal, Additional ChiefSecretary (MSME) NavneetSehgal, Principal Secretary(Animal Husbandry)Bhuvnesh Kumar, PrincipalSecretary to Chief MinisterSanjay Prasad, Secretary toChief Minister Alok Kumar,Director Information Shishirand other senior officers.

����� �� >���

The Central government islikely to raise the minimum

selling price (MSP) of sugar byRs 2 per kg to Rs 33 per kg.

The NITI Aayog had rec-ommended to the Centre toraise the price to bail out thesugar industry which is grap-pling with excess productionand mounting arrears of sug-arcane farmers.

The intense speculationover hike in MSP has led tospurt in price of sugar by overRs 3 per kg in the open mar-ket.

A Group of Ministers(GoM) headed by UnionHome Minister Amit Shah onWednesday recommendedincreasing the MSP of sugar byRs 2 to Rs 33 per kg to ensuremills cleared pending canearrears of around Rs 20,000crore.

The GoM directed theFood ministry to move aCabinet note with a proposal tohike the MSP of sugar asrecommended by the NITIAayog.

The NITI Aayog had rec-ommended a hike in sugarMSP to Rs 33 a kg, apart fromseveral other measures to aug-ment the commercial viabilityof the domestic sugarcane valuechain.

The NITI Aayog recom-mendation stated that the exist-ing MSP of Rs 31 a kg did notcover the production cost vis-à-vis the cane’s fair and remu-nerative price (FRP) of Rs 275a quintal, with the state advisedprices standing still higher.

The MSP helps mills toearn a little around their cost ofproduction to clear farmersdues without the governmentgiving subsidies. The MSP wasfirst announced by the Centrein 2018.

In Uttar Pradesh, the coun-try’s top sugar producer, the ex-mill price of sugar is at almostRs 33/kg, a premium of 6.5 percent on the MSP.

The sugar price has wit-nessed a sharp upsurge in thepast four weeks after talks of animminent hike in the MSPgained currency following therecommendation of theNITI Aayog and demand bythe states for an upwardrevision in the floor price tofacilitate early settlement offarmers’ outstanding by themills.

����� �� >���

Uttar Pradesh GovernorAnandiben Patel has sum-

moned the monsoon session ofUP Assembly from August 20.

The Assembly secretariathas issued the formal notifica-tion for the session. It will bethe second session of thisyear.

Earlier, the UP cabinet hadapproved the proposal for themonsoon session of the stateAssembly on July 12. The mon-soon session of Uttar Pradeshlegislature will be held as persocial distancing protocol forthe Covid pandemic asannounced by the Central gov-ernment.

The new pandemic guide-lines will be discussed duringthe all-party meeting heldahead of the each session of theAssembly.

The Assembly secretariatsources said to implement thesocial distancing protocol, themembers of the Assemblywere likely to be accommodat-ed in the visitors and press gal-leries.

This issue is also likely tobe discussed in the meeting ofthe business advisory com-mittee of the Assembly whereall the political parties are rep-resented.

During the brief monsoonsession which is expected tohave 3-4 sittings, the UP legis-lature would pass the first sup-plementary budget of the cur-rent fiscal 2020-21 and arounda dozen of bills for which ordi-nances have been promulgatedas the Houses were not in ses-sion.

Due to the coronaviruspandemic, the UP governmenthas borrowed heavily from thebonds market and by the endof last week of March 2020, thestate government had raisedover Rs 13,000 crore, which is96 per cent of the total borrow-ings to be made by thestate government during 2020-21.

The money was drawnfrom the state ContingencyFund and the governmentneeds to get the legislativeapproval for the recoupmentof the state ContingencyFund.

The monsoon session is theconstitutional obligation of thestate government as there can-not be gap of six months ormore between the two sessionsof the Assembly. The budgetsession of the UP assembly wasadjourned sine die on February28 last; hence the next sessionhas to be called before August28.

Lucknow (PNS): Hitting out at theBharatiya Janata Party for the destructionof a Dalit’s crops in Madhya Pradesh’sGuna, Bahujan Samaj Party supremoMayawati on Thursday said that the MPgovernment was also working like theCongress regime.

In a tweet on Thursday, Mayawati said,“Forcing the couple to attempt suicide afterdestroying the crop with a JCB machine,which the Dalit family had prepared aftertaking loan, in the name of encroachment

by the Guna police and administration inMadhya Pradesh, is extremely cruel andshameful. Nation-wide condemnation ofsuch an incident is natural. The govern-ment should take strict action.”

In another tweet, the BSP chief saidthat on the one hand, the BJP and its gov-ernments were making claims of settlingthe Dalits while on the other hand, inci-dents of Dalits being uprooted were ascommon as they were during the Congressrule.

She questioned, “How are both gov-ernments different then?”

A purported video of the incident onsocial media showed the police hitting aDalit man mercilessly with batons and hiswife and others trying to save him.Officials had said that a Dalit couple, whowere being removed from a plot of gov-ernment land allotted for a college in Gunacity, consumed pesticide in protest onTuesday.

����� �� >���

Sleuths of the Special TaskForce (STF) arrested an

accused in the Mumbai serialblast case and accomplice ofunderworld don Abu Salem inNoida on Wednesday night .

The STF said on Thursdaythat Abu Salem’s aide GajendraSingh was held in Noida.

Gajendra Singh used tocollect ransom from people inthe name of D-Company andwas staying in Sector 20 ofNoida.

“Gajendra was arrestednear his residence onWednesday night in connec-tion with two cases of fraudregistered against him inNoida. He was absconding tillnow,” the STF said in an offi-

cial statement.Gajendra was involved in

duping a Delhi businessman ofRs 80 crore in 2014 in the nameof a property and when thebusinessman wanted hismoney back, he engaged KhanMubarak shooters to elimi-nate the businessman in Sector18 of Noida for which he gaveKhan Mubarak Rs 10 lakh.

Gajendra used to investmoney of Khan Mubarak andAbu Salem in real estate inNational Capital Region, theSTF said.

Further interrogations areon.

Meanwhile, a history-sheeter was killed in a gunfightwith the police in Meerut dis-trict. A police sub-inspectorwas also injured in the

exchange of fire, officials saidon Thursday.

Deepak Siddhu, one of themost wanted criminals ofMeerut who carried a reward ofRs 50,000 on his arrest, wasgunned down on Wednesdaynight, Senior Superintendent ofPolice of Meerut, Ajay KumarSahani, said.

Following an input about aloot planned in the area, thelocal police were put on alert.Siddhu and one of his accom-plices were intercepted butthey opened fire on the policepersonnel, the SSP said.

“In the retaliatory fire,Siddhu was injured while hisaccomplice managed to flee. Asub-inspector was also injuredin the cross-firing. They wereboth taken to a community

health centre and then referredto the district hospital, whereSiddhu died during treatment,”Sahani told reporters.

The SSP said that Siddhuwas a notorious criminal andthe police of various districts ofwestern Uttar Pradesh werelooking for him.

“He had more than one-and-a-half dozen cases, includ-ing those of loot, murder anddacoity, registered against him,”the SSP added.

The police recovered twoillegal firearms from Siddhu’spossession.

Further investigation isunderway.

The sub-inspector injuredin the encounter is undergoingtreatment at the district hospi-tal.

����� �� >���

Neck-deep in debt and mounting loss-es coupled with sharp reduction in

power demand and revenue collection dueto the coronavirus pandemic, the UPPower Corporation Limited (UPPCL) hassought a loan of Rs 20,940 crore fromPower Finance Corporation (PFC) andRural Electrification Corporation to payits arrears to the PSU power generatingcompanies (gencos).

Prime Minister Narendra Modi hadannounced a bailout package of Rs 20 lakhcrore for different sectors of economy inMay. In the package, Rs 90,000 crore wasearmarked for the power sector under theAtmanirbhar scheme. Union FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharaman, a day laterin her 15-point agenda to boost the econ-omy battered by the pandemic, hadannounced the details of the Rs 20 lakhcrore bailout packages. Under the scheme,the Union government-owned power sec-tor lenders PFC and REC will give equalloan amounts to states that commit to fol-low a reforms path indicated by lenders.The money is to be used for paying off duesof gencos. Under the scheme, the state gov-ernment will have to submit guaranteesagainst loans given to power distributioncompanies (discoms). Private power dis-tribution companies (discoms), however,are not covered under the scheme.

Due to the cash crunch, the discomsare resorting to various measures of short-term financing, like bill discounting, tohonour power purchase and transmissionbills and avoid levy of late payment sur-charge. The discoms across the countryowed Rs 1.08 lakh crore to power gener-ating companies (gencos) in April. Thescheme seeks to address liquidity problemsof both discoms and gencos.

The Atmanirbhar scheme is meant totackle the liquidity crisis. The efforts byCentre in the form of two earlier bailoutpackages for the discoms to deal with thelosses and debts have not met with muchsuccess. Under the last discom reformsscheme, Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana,(UDAY) the national average aggregatetechnical and commercial (AT&C) loss wassupposed to come down to 15 per cent byMarch 2019. It was, however, 22 per centby then. The AT&C losses of UPPCL areover 17 per cent. The total debt of powerdistribution companies across the coun-try stood at Rs 3.76 lakh crore on a neg-ative net worth of Rs 80,600 crore at theend of March 2019.

Under the loan terms of theAtmanirbhar scheme, states are requiredto have prepaid smart metering in govern-ment electricity connections. Besides,states should have a liquidation plan forsubsidy and electricity bills payable to dis-coms. A system for timely payment of sub-sidy and electricity bills in future is alsorequired. Over the next three to four years,AT&C loss and average cost of supply andrevenue have to be brought down. TheAT&C loss or power supply loss due toinefficient system of discoms across thecountry is 20.8 per cent. The powerindustry sources, however, said such liq-uidity infusion should be seen only as atemporary measure and not be considereda permanent solution for the revival of thestruggling power distribution sector.

The sources said for the short andmedium term, lending through the pack-age would help in addressing the liquidi-ty problem arising due to the COVID-19pandemic and non-liquidation of regula-tory assets. The ultimate success to addressthe liquidity issue has to come from cost-reflective tariff, including liquidation of

regulatory assets in a time-bound mannerthrough regular tariff announcementswith adequate increase. Regulatory assetsare the accumulated loss of the discomsdue to difference between the average costof supply and average revenue realised.The UPPCL incurs a loss of 70 paisa perunit supplied.

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

Uttar Pradesh Energy MinisterShrikant Sharma has directed the UPPower Corporation Limited to cut downthe transmission and distribution losses.He has fixed a target to reduce the line loss-es to 15 per cent in 60 feeders in every dis-trict every month. The minister, whilereviewing the performance of the UPPCLhere on Wednesday, said that every districthad been directed to bring down the lossof at least 60 feeders below15 per cent. Ofthese identified 60 feeders, half will begiven to the discom officials and half to thepower vigilance department to monitorthem. Sharma said the government hadalready announced that those feederswhich had less than 15 per cent line losswould be eligible for 24-hour uninterrupt-ed electricity supply.

The people’s representatives, includingparliamentarians, legislators, gram prad-hans and others have been asked to jointhe campaign to make their area feeder’sline loss below 15 per cent, he added.

The minister appealed to the MPs andMLAs to adopt at least 10 feeders withhighest losses in their respective con-stituencies. The minister said that a pro-gramme had been chalked out by theEnergy department authorities for next 90days to identify the highest line loss feed-ers in each district and decide on the strat-egy to minimise the line loss to 15 per cent.

!�/��� �������*�"��������.,������!��&�����Lucknow (PNS): Charging thatthe UP government’s muchhyped tree plantation drive,specially on occasion of VanMahotsav campaign, was noth-ing but one of the biggestscams to siphon off govern-ment money, Congress leaderin the Legislative Council,Deepak Singh, demanded aWhite Paper on the issue andalso threatened to raise theissue in the House duringmonsoon session.

Singh was reacting to thestate government’s claim ofhaving planted 25.75 croresaplings in a single day, mak-ing a record during VanMahotsav campaign on July 5.

Singh, who reachedVidhan Bhawan with a Neemsapling on Thursday morningto hand over a memorandumto Chief Minister YogiAdityanath and Forest MinisterDara Singh Chauhan, told jour-nalists that the UP govern-ment’s claim of large tree plan-tation was a blatant lie and inreality there had been large-scale manipulations in thesame of tree plantation.

He said that the govern-ment said that in the pastthree years, 61 crore saplingswere planted in the state buteven after spending crores ofrupees, the trees could not beseen on the land anywhere.

Singh said that the govern-ment should release a WhitePaper and tell the people aboutthe present condition of thesaplings which were planted orthe Congress would demand aprobe into this “scam” in themonsoon session.

He even claimed that asatellite picture of the afforesta-tion under present regimewould expose the truth behindthe much-hyped plantationcarried out by the BharatiyaJanata Party government.

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�%/����� ��!�2����4�&COVID 19 has made

adverse impact on the sugarindustry as the consumptionhas plummeted due to thelong spell of lockdown. Thelockdown not only hit thedemand but also createdimpediments in transporta-tion to key markets.

According to All IndiaSugar Trade Association, thesudden upsurge in the mar-ket price in the expectation ofa hike in the MSP had cooleddown a little.

The hike in the MSP islikely to be announced nextweek.

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Governor Anandiben Patel calledupon various departments and

agencies of the state government, banksand other developmental organisationsto make systematic use of financialresources, development models andtechnical support available fromNABARD for development of agricul-ture and other rural sectors, as also thecritical infrastructure in rural areas.

She was addressing a large numberof stakeholders across rural UttarPradesh who participated in a webinarconducted by the UP office ofNABARD on Thursday to commemo-rate its 39th Foundation Day. She also released a booklet titled ‘NABARDin UP’.

She pointed out that massive irri-

gation project in Saurashtra and Kutchbrought rain-fed regions under irrigat-ed agriculture with the financial supportfrom NABARD under its rural infra-structure fund. She called upon UPdepartments to propose similar projects.Stressing on the need to educate ruralyouth and girl children and improvehealth and sanitation facilities in vil-lages, she said that funding fromNABARD can be effectively used toimprove the human development indexin rural UP.

She lauded NABARD for its contri-bution to the all-round development ofUP through various development pro-grammes such as RIDF, digitisation andbank linkage of women self-help groupsthrough its e-Shakti programme andFarmers- Producers Organisations(FPOs). She said that small and margin-

al farmers must reap the benefits ofaggregation approaches by forminginto FPOs. Appreciating the role ofNABARD already being played in thestate for strengthening of FPOs, she saidNABARD and its training institution,

BIRD, has a greater responsibility tosupport this cause. She also underlinedthe need to encourage rural women tobecome micro-entrepreneurs throughskill and entrepreneurship developmentefforts being supported by NABARD.

Chief general manager ofNABARD, UP, Shankar A Pande eluci-dated 38 years of journey with majormilestones achieved by the organisation.He elaborated on various programmesbeing undertaken by NABARD for pro-viding financial, technical and promo-tional support to the state government,banks and other stakeholders forachieving its mandate for the develop-ment of agriculture and rural sectors inthe state. Regional director of RBILaxmikant Rao congratulatedNABARD for successfully completingits 38 years of journey.

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Police arrested a fraudsterwho amassed property

worth Rs 600 crore by dupingfarmers and retired armymenin the name of attractiverefunds on investments in hisponzi firms, from PGI policestation area on Thursday. Theaccused was identified as AjitKumar Gupta, a native ofAyodhya presently staying inGomti Nagar.

The scam was exposedafter a team of the Directorateof Revenue Intelligence nabbedAjit’s gang members recentlyand they disclosed his name ininterrogation. Thereafter, policehelp was sought and followinga tip-off, the police succeededin nabbing Ajit from PGI policestation area on Thursdaymorning.

The accused owned up hiscrime and disclosed how he setup his empire of fraud by lur-ing innocents to invest in hisponzi companies for attractiverefunds of 40 per cent. Ajit

formed his company declaringthat it would deal in bullion,diamonds and gold & silvercoins to lure investors.

He then floated anotherponzi scheme luring moreinvestors. The scheme madethe victims believe that theywould get profits from productsales or other means, andremained oblivious that otherinvestors were the source offunds. Ajit expanded his busi-ness in several districts of UttarPradesh, including Lucknow,Barabanki, Faizabad,Gorakhpur and evenUttarakhand, Haryana andNew Delhi. The mastermindopened his company offices inChowk in Lucknow and dis-tricts where he appointed hismen to lure investors.

After the demonetisationin 2016, some of the investorsstarted demanding their moneyand Ajit avoided taking calls.He invested the money in pur-chasing assets and his totalassets were estimated to be Rs600 core.

The police said Ajit is sowily that he floated a compa-ny and linked it to Patanjali toavoid being on the radar ofIncome Tax department. Hefloated over a dozen companiesand collected huge sum fromdifferent investors before doinga moonlight flit.

He showed on his websitethat his companies deal in saleof diamonds besides gold andsilver coins, but it was not thecase. The police said theRevenue department sleuthsrecovered 8 kg of gold andmore than two quintals of sil-ver from Ajit’s men inGorakhpur in the recent past.

The police said a cashreward of Rs 50,000 wasdeclared on Ajit after his namefigured and he went into a hid-ing. Ajit was named in ten casesof fraud in different districts,including Lucknow where hewas named in three. Anothercase of fraud was registeredagainst him at the Gomti Nagarpolice station.

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In view of the guidelines issued by theCentral government and University

Grants Commission amidst increasingnumber of coronavirus cases, the state gov-ernment has decided to postpone all theexaminations of the state universitiesexcept those of final year and last semes-ter. These exams will be held towards theend of September.

The universities have been asked tocoordinate with their executive councilsand present their strategies to the govern-ment by July 23.

Deputy Chief Minister and HigherEducation Minister Dinesh Sharma toldmediaersons on Thursday that if the uni-versities have already held the examina-tions and results announced, the same willbe counted. “If the universities have con-ducted some examinations before thelockdown, these marks will be included inthe final exams,” he said.

Sharma said the students of all thedepartments who appeared for the exams,which were conducted before lockdownor before March 18, would be promoted.

The Deputy CM said that for the lastyear and semester, the exams would beheld towards the end of September witha mix of offline and online papers.

“The exams should concluded bySeptember 30 and the results of UG-level

be declared by October 15 and that of PGlevel by October 31. If under any circum-stances the students are unable to appearfor the last-year exams, the universities canhold the exams later on a convenient date,”he added.

Sharma said the results of the first-year and second-semester students can bemade as per the UGC recommendationson the basis of internal evaluation or fol-low the various choices.

Regarding Intermediate exams,Sharma said the results can be declared 50per cent on the basis of exams and 50 percent on internal assessment, as per theUGC guidelines.

Meanwhile, the government hasreduced the syllabus of Uttar PradeshMadhyamik Shiksha Board by 30 per cent.Deputy CM Dinesh Sharma said theremaining syllabus would be dividedinto three parts and the classes conduct-ed accordingly.

He said the first part would includesubject-wise videos which would be post-ed on line or can be viewed by childrenat Doordarshan or Swayam Prabha whilethe second part would have portionswhich could be self-studied and the thirdwould have the project work which couldbe carried out by the students.

The Deputy CM said that for the restof subjects, to be taught by experts, anannual calender could be chalked out.

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Awadh bus station atKamta, which was inau-

gurated on Thursday, willhelp in taking the load offKaiserbagh bus station,UPSRTC regional managerPK Bose said. Till now, 14,00buses per day were being runfrom Kaiserbagh bus station,but now 400 buses would beshifted to Awadh bus station.

This station will be oper-ating for 18 districts, includ-ing Devipatan, Basti,Azamgarh, and will take careof eastern UP operations. “Itis a modern bus station and itsin-and-out systems will becompletely computerised. Themoment a bus enters the sta-tion, it will be allotted a plat-form though an automaticannouncement system,” hesaid. Each platform has LEDscreens displaying details ofthe buses and their destina-

tions. “There is a provision ofwaiting room and we alsohave marked out areas where training of conductorsand drivers can be carriedout,” he added.

Bose said it’s an eco-friendly bus station in whichthey have marked out a greenbelt and also have verticalgardening all over. The landhas been leased out by LDA for90 year. “LDA has also con-structed the bus station andthe cost has been Rs 38 crore,which will be paid by UPSRTCin annual installments,” Bosesaid.

A renovated auditorium atthe UPSRTC headquarters wasalso inaugurated by TransportMinister Ashok Kataria.Managing director RajShekhar said the auditoriumwas built in 1990 and sincethen, only some need-basedchanges were made. In accor-dance with the modern needs,

the idea of major changes wasalways there, he added. Therenovated auditorium has amaximum seating capacity of110 persons. There are 11LEDs in the auditorium whichis equipped with an automat-ic projector. A high-qualitysound system has also beeninstalled in the auditorium.There is a facility of video-con-ferencing with all the region-al offices spread throughoutthe state. The minister alsoinaugurated the new website ofUPSRTC, which is in accor-dance with the guidelinesgiven by the Central govern-ment. Shekhar said that theprevious website was launchedby UPSRTC in 1998-99 but tokeep up with the times andrequirements of users, thenew website has beenlaunched. The website is com-patible with all types of deviceslike mobiles, tablets, laptops,desktops etc.

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Eight Covid centres are beingstarted in Lucknow for con-

tainment of the virus in view ofthe increasing number of cases.CMO Dr Narendra Agarwal saidthey have started a 250-bedCovid centre at Railway Hospitalon Thursday. Two centres atChandan and Atharva hospitalsare already operational and a 40-bed centre at Mayo Hospital inGomti Nagar will start func-tioning shortly.

The CMO said the door-to-door surveillance, which wasscheduled to conclude on July 15,has been extended in some areastill July 30 because the teammembers tested positive for coro-navirus.

“The monitoring of the areaswhere surveillance was beingcarried out is being done byWHO and UNICEF, and wehave been informed that 90 percent of the areas were coveredand in 10 per cent of the areas, thefeedback was that two teamworkers had not reached thehomes in these areas. However,90 per cent coverage is also esti-mated as good enough,” he said.

Looking into the pandemicsituation, District MagistrateAbhishek Prakash nominatedofficials from the district admin-istration for proper functioning

of Covid hospitals. He said thatnodal officers would take feed-back from 10-12 patients regard-ing the facilities being providedthere. He said they would alsosend a daily report to the chiefdevelopment officer abouthygiene, availability of drugs anddrinking water at the hospital.

Meanwhile, a senior officialat the CMO office said it was thestaff and officials from the gov-ernment department which weretesting positive for coronavirus inlarge numbers and they includ-ed officials from LMC, Transportdepartment, Electricity &Irrigation departments. “TheHealth department is having acontinuous flow with manyamong the staff testing positive,”he added.

The official said that 25teams have started working undercontact surveillance for contacttracing. “These teams have beenseated in a hall at the CMO officeensuring social distancing, andthey are regularly using handsanitisers,” he said.

Meanwhile, at BalrampurHospital, director Dr RajeevLochan said they have startedtesting 14 samples per day at theirnewly-inaugurated BSL lab andwould be increasing this capaci-ty to 96 shortly. “We are trying toget a machine which can test 96-98 samples in a day. We are get-

ting positive cases from the hos-pitals and OPDs everyday. We aretaking precautions so that it doesnot spread to our staff members.We have created barriers betweenthe patients and doctors in ser-vices such as ultrasound, X-rayand in OPDs. We are puttingthese transparent barriers every-where so that it does not spreadto our paramedics or doctors,” hesaid.

He added that none of thestaff members at Balrampur had

tested positive because of the in-house patients.

“It was only one staff nursewho tested positive because of herhusband who was involved indoor-to-door delivery,” he said.He added that the hospital hasstarted prostrate surgery in addi-tion to other surgeries.

At Ram Manohar LohiaHospital, media spokespersonDr Srikesh Singh said the agegroup of people dying of Covid-19 has dropped because in major-

ity of the cases, patients do notreport in time and come for treat-ment only when the disease hasflared up.

He said the patients of asth-ma, COPD, pulmonary diseasesand severe bronchitis should beextra cautious because the flare-up is more in such people. “If thelungs are functioning in a healthymanner, there is no sudden onsetof the disease and in case ofpatients whose lungs are nothealthy, the impact of the virus ismore,” he added.

Meanwhile, UPMRC offi-cials said that an employee at theadministrative building in GomtiNagar has been diagnosed withCovid-19. “The employee has notbeen coming to the office for thelast three days. As soon as theinformation was received, theadministrative building was sani-tised. Only 90 staff members areallowed to come to the office onworkings days. Currently, theoffice is fully functional and theroutine work is being carried outwith all precautionary measuresin place,” the officials said.

Meanwhile, Sanyukt RajyaKarmachari Parishad has submit-ted a memorandum to ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath that inthe wake of several of the stafftesting positive for coronavirus,the government offices shouldopen for three days in a week.

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Atailor created a scene byclimbing atop an over-

head water tank in PGI policestation area around noon onThursday. Vijay Rawat ofKharika in Telibagh is present-ly living in Alambagh afterseparation from his family.Some commuters spotted himcrying and threatening to endhis life by jumping off thewater tank. Soon, a huge num-ber of people flocked to thescene. One being informed, apolice team and personnelfrom Fire department alsoreached there. The police per-suaded Vijay to come downafter much efforts.

He told the police that hisfather, who was employed inSecretariat, died before retire-ment. “After my father’s death,my younger brother Amarnathgot the job on the promise thatI would be given the moneywhich was supposed to begiven to the kin. However, Iwas cheated and not given asingle penny. In due course of

time, my mother and mybrother sold the parentalhouse in Kharika (Telibagh). Iwas tortured by the thenincharge of Telibagh policeoutpost and even put behindthe bars until the house wasregistered in the name of itspurchaser,” he alleged. Rawatsaid that his mother andbrother threatened him withpolice action and forced himto live separately. “I tried to gethelp from the police but wasthreatened to be put behindthe bars. Left with no option,I chose to end my life. I hopeI will get justice now,” he said.

Meanwhile, a 49-year-oldman was killed after he cameunder a wheel of his tractor-trolley in Gudamba onThursday morning. As perreports, Munna Yadav ofAdilnagar was getting the trac-tor-trolley loaded with mau-rang. After the loading wasover, the driver moved thetractor-trolley and Munnacame under its wheel. “He wascrushed to death on the spot,”the police said.

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Lauding the role of UttarPradesh State Roadways

Transport Corporation(UPSRTC) in providing reliefduring the lockdown period,Chief Minister Yogi Adityanathsaid on Thursday that stateroadways had proved that itwas a true friend of people. “There is a saying thata friend in need is a friendindeed, and the state roadwayshave proved that it can deliverat the time of crisis. Peopleneeded help at the time of lock-down and roadways officialscame to their rescue,” the CMsaid at a function after flaggingoff new buses and inauguratedbus stations.

“During the coronaviruspandemic, officials andemployees of UPSRTC workedday in and day out to facilitatemigrants and students returning to their villages.UPSRTC is a true friend inneed,” he said. Yogi said anyorganisation or individual canwork during normal time but

the actual challenge would beto work during natural calami-ty like Covid-19. “In just 48hours, it has transportedbetween 3 lakh and 4 lakhstranded migrant workers. Thestudents who were preparingfor competitive examinationswere sent home though buses,”he added. “The state transport

corporation has passed thechallenge successfully andproved its importance,” theCM said.

During the programmeheld at the official residence ofthe CM, the new bus stationswere inaugurated throughvideo-conferencing — Awadhbus station in Kamta

(Lucknow), Naimsharan(Sitapur), Chitrakoot, Basti,Gonda, and Bulandshahr whilefoundations were laid for newbus stations in Kannauj, Jalaun,Moradabad, Auraiyya, Etah,Jaunpur and Kaushambi.

“The bus stations in UttarPradesh will be developed onthe lines of the airport. The

government is committed toextending help to the peopleand provide them the bestpossible facilities,” he said,adding that the governmentwould fight COVID-19 andspeed up the pace of develop-ment. On the occasion, the CMalso flagged off new bus ser-vices for different places.

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VARANASI (PNS): In thecontext of Umbha killings inSonbhadra district a year ago,the Congress Party has onceagain tried to put the YogiGovernment in dock as far asthe law and order situation isconcerned in the state, as theparty leaders and workers triedto go to the village on the eveof first anniversary of incidenton Thursday but they werestopped by the police whenthey were on the way atFatehpur Toll Plaza in Adalhat(Mirzapur). When they sat ondharna after being denied mov-ing ahead, the police tookthem in their custody butreleased them later, on person-al bond.

It may be noted here thaton July 17, 2019, in the violent

clash between Gujjar and Gondcommunities over 90 bighaland dispute, 10 were killed andover two dozen were injured.The killed and injured weresaid to be of Gond communi-ty. The incident had shaken theentire state and the oppositionhad raised a question on theYogi Government’s efficiency tomaintain the law and order sit-uation. The police had fur-nished a chargesheet in thecourt mentioning the name of51 persons in it. The name ofvillage head Yagyadutt Bhuriahad come to fore as the mainaccused behind the killing.The killing had witnessed polit-ical tussle between the govern-ment and Congress.

After two days of incidenton July 19, the national gener-

al secretary of the CongressParty Priyanka Gandhi Vadrahad tried to go to the village buthad been stopped by the policeand kept at Chunar Fort inMirzapur while on the way toSonbhadra from Varanasi.Later on, the government hadsuccumbed to her pressureand allowed her to meet thefamily members of victims.

On the eve of the firstanniversary of the incident, theCongress Party once againdecided to put the YogiGovernment in dock on thelaw and order situation and theparty state president AjayKumar ‘Lallu’ moved for thevillage through Mirzapur butwas detained by the police atGopiganj. Meanwhile, the partyformer state minister Ajay Rai

and ex-MP Dr Rajesh Mishraalong with party leaders andworkers also moved for the vil-lage in Sonbhadra but they allwere stopped at Fatehpur TollPlaza in Adalhat by the police.They sat on dharna on groundin protest against this policeaction and remained adamanton going to the village. Thepolice took them in their cus-tody on the violation of Section144 but released them later, onpersonal bonds. Thereafter,Rai, Dr Mishra and otherCongressmen moved forGopiganj where the party statepresident was detained. Raisaid that the Congressmenwould launch an agitation if thepolice denied releasing theparty state president immedi-ately.

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The continuous spike in thenumber of corona cases in

this belt of Purvanchal (easternUP) has turned the situationalarming. Till the end ofnationwide lockdown, theoverall COVID-19 situation inthe region comprising 10 dis-tricts of three divisions wascomparatively well in compar-ison to other regions of thecountry but now the same hasbecome different. The recoveryrate has fallen below 60 per centwhich is poor than the nation-al average. The biggest city ofthe region, Varanasi has nowbecome the epicentre as by 11am on Thursday, the totalnumber of cases has crossed1,000-mark. With the detectionof 40 new cases in the morn-ing and on Wednesday latenight, the figure has reached1019.

Before the beginning of therelaxation process underUnlock 1.0, there were just 182cases and out of them, 117 weredischarged from the hospitals.Besides, there were just four

deaths and 61 active patientsbut within the last one-and-a-half months the situation hasworsened day after day as byJuly 15, there were 979 caseswith 458 active patients, while491 have been recovered and 30have died.

This shows how the situa-tion has turned alarming asduring the period, the recoveryrate has fallen from 64.28 percent to 50.15 per cent andmortality rate has increasedfrom 2.19 per cent to 3.06 percent.

The same is the story ofalmost all the districts becauseat the start of Unlock 1.0 therewere 768 corona patients in theregion which has increased to4,467after the end of 45 days.By the end of Lockdown 1.0 inmid-April, there were no casesin three districts includingBallia, Chandauli andSonbhadra as they were ingreen zones but now the situ-ation has become different.Trans-Ganga district ofChandauli which was a part ofVaranasi till mid-1990, sawthe biggest spike of the region

in a day when by Thursday, 101patients were found and 65 ofthem were from PDDU Nagar(Mughalsarai) in which justseven were migrants. It indi-cates that now the majority ofpatients are being found withno contact history. In all, therewere 416 cases in Chandauli byJuly 15 with 244 active patientsas only 168 have been recov-ered and four have died.

Besides, the day also saw abig spike in Ballia where 76patients were found and thisdistrict has seen the rapidincrease crossing 500-markwithin a shortest duration.There were 563 cases with 236active patients while 319 havebeen recovered and eight havedied. Sonbhadra where the firstcase was found last also saw arise of 25 cases during the day.

The total number ofpatients has increased to 137with 87 active patients while 50have been discharged. Therecent finding trend of themajority of patients with nocontact history is an alarmingsignal as in Varanasi, a largenumber of traders were found

infected apart from house-wives and students. As only afew migrants are being foundCOVID-19 positive now sothe surveillance of patients isnot an easy task.

After Varanasi, the maxi-mum cases were found inJaunpur and by July 15, therewere 759 cases with 211 activepatients while 537 have recov-ered and 11 died. In Ghazipur,there were 433 cases with only63 active patients (364 recov-ered, six deaths) while inAzamgarh 390 cases (113active, 267 recovered and 10deaths); in Mau 288 cases (158active, 127 recovered and threedeaths); in Mirzapur 266 (113active,150 recovered and threedeaths) and in Bhadohi 235cases (80 active, 147 recoveredand eight deaths). The overallrecovery rate in the region hasfallen gradually from around 75per cent three weeks ago to58.65 per cent as out of 4,467patients, 2,620 have been dis-charged.

However, the mortality rateis comparatively good with1.85 per cent (83 deaths).

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North Central Railway hasidentified 15 goods sheds

for improvement in loadingand related infrastructure.Works are categorised underimmediate improvement tar-geted in 15 days and majorinputs to be completed in thenext three month.

To double freight loadingvolume by 2024, NorthCentral Railway has takenmany initiatives for increasingloading of conventional com-modities and to capture load-ing of non bulk commodities.Formation of BusinessDevelopment Units (BDUs)

and improvement in goodssheds are two important stepsin this direction.

Improvement of freightinfrastructure and useramenities in Goods sheds areaimed towards providing bet-ter road connectivity, addi-tional l ines forloading/unloading, improve-ment in warehousing area,wharf surface improvementworks, improvement indrainage, improved lighting,provision of high mast towerlights and other electricalfacilities, improved facilitiesfor drinking water, improve-ments in merchant andlabourers’ rooms, toilets and

other specific improvementworks for each goods shed.Based on the quantum ofwork involved these itemshave been categorised inimmediate works targeted in15 days time and majorimprovements to be complet-ed in next three months.Works identified in the 15days category have alreadystarted in identified goodssheds.

For effective monitoringof identified works in goodssheds nominated for improve-ment, a dedicated link hasbeen created on e-Drishti, theonline portal for monitoringof important items on Indian

Railways. Work executingagencies have been asked toreport regular progress,target dates for completionand before and after pho-tographs through e-Drishtiportal.

Identified goods shed forundertaking improvementsare Chunar, Mirzapur, Naini/Prayagraj Chheoki, Fatehpur,Kanpur Central, Panki Dham,Etawah, Mainpuri and Aligarhof Prayagraj division,Rayaru and Bhimsen goodsshed of Jhansi divisionand Kosi Kalan, MathuraJn., Kuberpur and YamunaBridge goods sheds of Agradivision.

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With the findings of around300 coronavirus cases in

a short span of a fortnight dayshas sent the authorities ofHealth department in a tizzywho are running from pillar topost to find out exact causesbehind rapid spread.

Till June 30, the city hadrecorded only 286 COVID-19cases while the graph on July11 stood 578. Ironically,around 90 per cent of thecases reported between July 1and July 12 were from the oldcity, semi urban and poshlocalities like Civil Lines andthe list of infected people also

included bank employees,policemen, healthcare profes-sionals.

Health officials, however,claimed that teams are work-ing overtime to enlist theareas in urban pockets wheremaximum numbers ofCOVID-19 were reportedbetween July 1 and 12. Thedoor to door campaign beingtaken out by the healthauthorities from July 1 to 15would also help them to listabout the patients who camein contact with any positivepersons.

From July 1 to 11, 277persons tested positive forCOVID-19 in the city and

over 90 per cent of them wereresidents of either old city orupscale localities like CivilLines, Tagoretown,Georgetown and Lukerganj.The sudden rise in number ofnovel coronavirus cases hasalso put a major dent inPrayagraj district’s recoveryrate — which dropped from72 per cent to 58.47 per centtill July 11.

According to data releasedby the Health department, asmany as 578 Covid-19 caseswere recorded in the city bySaturday night.

Of these, 338 patients haverecovered and have been dis-charged, while 18 have suc-

cumbed to the disease so far.Health department data showsthat on July 1, 2, 3, 4 , 5, 6, 7,8 , 9, 10 and 11 was 10, 16, 31,22 ,27, 22, 5, 8 , 52, 49 and 35cases were reported respec-tively.

A senior health officialsaid officials of the Healthdepartment are focussing onpockets where more positivecases were reported in fort-night and are also takingup a massive awareness cam-paign. He, however, addedan antigen rapid test kit hasalso helped health authoritiesto speed up testing and as aresult, more cases were report-ed.

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Taking the sharp spike in thenumber of COVID-19

patients during the last 15 daysseriously, the district adminis-tration has taken a decision tocheck this trend. Now peoplewill not have to go to OPD ofthe hospitals for investigationand treatment of corona likesymptoms, but the doctors willthemselves go to their localitiesto check and treat them. The 15mobile ward clinic vehicles ofthis new arrangementwere launched here onThursday. The vehicles wereflagged off by DivisionalCommissioner (DC) DeepakAgarwal, along with DistrictMagistrate (DM) Kaushal RajSharma.

The DC said that it woulddefinitely prove worthwhile tohelp in prevention of coronapandemic by providing med-ical treatment to the infectedpeople at their convenience. Heinformed that the availability ofdoctors, paramedical staff, allo-pathic, homeopathy andAyurvedic life saving medicinesand necessary medical check-

up equipment will be availablein these vehicles.

The DM said that underthe month-long special cam-paign, a mobile vehicle willmove around in each police sta-tion area and the people will becollected on the spot with thehelp of ASHAs and ANMs. ‘Ongetting the symptoms of coro-na, the persons will get theirtreatment started on the spot,’he said, adding that in view ofthe increasing number of coro-na patients during the last 15days, this arrangement hasbeen ensured so that the infec-

tion of the corona can bestopped. He said that the peo-ple who have been sufferingfrom diabetes and blood pres-sure will also be treated at thesemobile clinics so that they willnot be infected with coron-avirus in future.

He further said that all thecorona patients are being fullylooked after in the district andthere is no need for homequarantine.

According to him, there area large number of active coro-na patients in the district andall are being treated in the hos-

pitals. ‘There will be no prob-lem if the number of coronapatients becomes 1,000. If thenumber of patients willincrease by 3,000, then someschool buildings, which havealready been identified, will beconverted into hospitals toensure treatment of patients,’ hesaid, informing that the list hasbeen prepared after talking tothe management of some pri-vate schools which are in goodcondition.

‘Arrangements will also bemade in some inter collegebuildings by arranging beds,doctors and paramedical staffas per requirement,’ he said,adding that arrangements forman power and lab techniciansare also being ensured.According to him, as the dis-trict has a number of asympto-matic patients, it is indeed amatter of concern but the dis-trict administration will takefull care of the health of all. Healso informed that BHU has400 beds but at present only150 beds capacity is being usedthere. ‘It will be increased by50-50 beds as per the require-ments,’ he added.

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With four deaths due tocoronavirus including

three late on Wednesday nightwhile one on Thursday morn-ing, the Prayagraj once againreported the total of 52 cases ofCOVID-19, the biggest single-day spike late on Wednesdaynight. The number of patientsinfected with the coronavirushas increased to 720 in the dis-trict of which the active casesare 255.

Coronavirus infection isspreading rapidly in the district.Infected patients were admittedto COVID Hospital. Also, peo-ple coming in contact withthese patients are beingsearched for. Four infectedpatients admitted to SRNHospital succumbed to dead-ly virus. One of these patientswas from Jaunpur. While threepatients were residents of thedistrict. On the other hand, 24patients were also dischargedfrom the hospital after theirreports came negative onWednesday night.

Patients have to run frompillar to post for other treat-ments among the rapidlyspreading infection of the coro-na. Many patients have died inabsence of proper treatment intime while many others are suf-fering in serious condition.

A case in the district cameto light when a serious patienthad to run from pillar to postfor six hours by a hired ambu-lance for treatment. The driverof the ambulance had alsomade up his mind that hewould get the patient treated atany cost. He also took the sup-port of a journalist and thepatient could then be admittedto Colvin Hospital.

A young man was foundlying in critical condition nearMadraha railway station inJasra at 7 in the morning. Thestation master called an ambu-lance. The ambulance driverseated the young man and leftfor the hospital. His condition

was critical. His head boremultiple injuries. There was afracture in the leg. Ambulancedriver Mahendra Pal took himto Jasra CHC.

Seeing the critical condi-tion, the CHC doctor referredhim to SRN Hospital.Mahendra Pal took him to theTrauma Centre of SRNHospital at 9 am. The doctorsthere did not admit the patient.The patient was taken from thesame ambulance to BeliHospital. Due to being aCOVID hospital, he was alsorefused for admission.

On the other hand, thecondition of the patient wasgetting worse. The driver want-ed to hospitalise him somehow,he could not understand whereto take him. Then the driverMahendra Pal contacted a jour-nalist.

Then with the support ofthe scribe, the man was admit-ted to the Colvin Hospitalwhen the ambulance drivertold the doctor the whole thing.

Meanwhile, five moremembers of the family of thelate corona positive IG, a resi-

dent of Myorabad, have comepositive for corona. Apart fromthis, a staff of Deputy ChiefMinister Keshav PrasadMaurya and three media per-sonnel have also been foundcorona infected. Their reporthad come on Wednesday night.

The number of patientsrecovering is also increasingamong the growing patients ofcorona. 24 corona patientswere fully recovered and dis-charged from the hospital.Those who recovered, alsoincluded a bench secretary ofa High Court's Justice. So far440 corona patients have beencured.

CMO Dr GS Bajpai saidthat 45 patients were admittedto Kotwa, 22 in COVID CareCentre Railway Hospital, 76 inBeli COVID Hospital and 94 inSRN COVID Hospital.Similarly, samples of 271prospective corona patientshave also been taken.

The effect of coronavirusinfection is increasing in ruralareas as well. In the last twodays, one person each wasfound infected in Jamila Baad

and Duniya Ganj locality ofPhulpur. This made people inPhulpur more alert.

Along with sanitisation inboth the mohallas of NagarPanchayat, the Health depart-ment teams are going door-to-door advising people to pre-vent the infection.

In this regard, DeputyCollector Phulpur VivekChaturvedi said that barricad-ing has been put in place inboth the mohallas. Apart fromthis, the entire locality has alsobeen instructed to be sanitised.Kotwali incharge Brijesh Singhsaid that the team is makingpeople aware of all the mohal-las of the entire NagarPanchayat.

In addition to this, fourmembers of a family living inthe premises of Attarsuiyapolice station have been foundinfected with the coronavirus.The police station premiseshave been sealed after the coro-navirus infected patients werefound. Only guard duty isposted in the police station.Officers are churning on howthe police station will work.

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National president of AkhilBharatiya Akhara Parishad

(ABAP), Mahant NarendraGiri strongly flayed the state-ment made by the PrimeMinister of Nepal overAyodhya and Lord Rama.

In a statement, Giri saidthat ABAP, the apex body ofsaints in the country, stronglyopposes KP Sharma Oli’s state-ment.

The Prime Minister of

Nepal had stated that realAyodhya is in Nepal and theone that is in India is fake. Hehad also alluded that LordRama was born in Nepal.

Ayodhya is in India and inUttar Pradesh and there ismuch historical evidence ofthis. Nepal is just playing intoChina’s hands and is makingfalse statements against India.Today, the entire country isopposing the statement madeby Oli, said Giri.

India and Nepal have

friendly relations, but the PMof Nepal is trying to spoil theequation by coming under theinfluence of China, added Giri.

Giri has appealed to theleaders of all political parties inthe country to unite andstrongly oppose Oli’s state-ment and also force him toapologise for this false state-ment.

The ABAP president hasalso demanded that PM Modishould also strongly opposethis statement. In the upcom-

ing meeting of the AkharaParishad, the sage fraternitywill discuss this issue, Girisaid.

Meanwhile, Kanak ManiDixit, a senior writer of theneighbouring country tweetedIt was folly for PM Oli to wadein and raise controversy on theplacement of Ayodhya, home ofthe mythological Lord Rama.He has now alienated theIndian people when earlier itwas only the Indian govern-ment.

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As the sharp spike in coro-na positive cases contin-

ued, Varanasi has joined the listof only a few districts of thestate where more than 1KCOVID-19 patients have beenfound so far. The day also sawthe biggest spike in the num-ber of corona patients as 68new cases have been detectedin the district on Thursday.Earlier, the highest number ofcases found in a day was seenon July 12 when 60 patientswere reported.

With this, the total numberof patients has increased to1,047. During the day as thefollow-up reports of fourpatients were found negativethey have been dischargedfrom the hospitals. With this,the total number of patientswho have been recovered hasincreased to 495, leaving 522active patients. Earlier, by 11

am as many as 40 new coronapatients were found. Therewere 458 hotspots in the dis-trict by Wednesday with theaddition of 26 new ones. Thenumber of red zones hasincreased to 226. There were295 active hotspots whichincluded 69 orange zones. Therest of 163 have become greenzones.

Meanwhile, in this regionof Purvanchal (eastern UP), thefinding of a large number ofcorona positive patients contin-ued as 52 more patients weredetected in Sonbhadra, 15 inGhazipur and 16 in Azamgarh.A staff nurse (55) of Mirzapurdied during treatment at BHUHospital on Wednesday night.In Ghazipur, senior clerk ofCMO office and son of ACMwere among the positivepatients which included 11persons of a family ofMohammedabad also. InGhazipur, the total number of

patents has increased to 448with 81 active patients while361 have been recovered andsix have died. With the findingof 52 patients, the total num-ber in Sonbhadra has increasedto 189 with 119 active cases,while 70 have been dischargedfrom the hospital. In Jaunpur,one CHC superintendent hasalso been found COVID-19positive and with the finding offive new patients the numberhas increased to 764. InAzamgarh, with the finding of16 patients the number hasincreased to 406 with 206active patients, while 267 havebeen recovered and 10 havedied. Earlier, an SDM posted inBhadohi district was also foundcorona positive.

Earlier, under 10 days spe-cial door-to-door surveillancecampaign with an aim to iden-tify the COVID-19 infectedperson in the initial stage sothat the patients can be cured

at the earliest, 10,467 teams hadsurveyed about 6.61 lakh hous-es and 34.17 lakh persons. Theteams had identified 853 per-sons who had symptoms andcame into the contact withCOVID-19 positive patients.Out of them, the samples of 20were collected for COVID-19tests. District Magistrate (DM)Kaushal Raj Sharma said thatthe campaign was launchedwith an aim to identify personshaving symptoms like corona.Chief Medical Officer (CMO)Dr VB Singh said that pulseoximetres and thermal scan-ners have been given to allhealth workers engaged in sur-vey work.

During the survey, it wasbeing ascertained that if anyperson has come from outside,then complete informationrelated to his/her visit is beingtaken. Along with this, detailsof long illness of people are alsobeing taken.

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As per the decision taken byNorth Eastern Railway

(NER) administration duringthe pit maintenance of LHB(Linke Hofmann Busch) rakestransformer will be used inplace of power car. The use oftransformer in place of powercar is very beneficial, saidChief Public Relations Officer(CPRO), Pankaj Kumar Singh.

In this system besidesreduction in expenditure dieselis used in very small quantitieswhich will also get rid of pol-lution. Till now during the pitmaintenance of LHB rakes twopower cars are used in whichfour DG sets are fitted. The pit

maintenance work of LHB rakelasts for about five hours inwhich two power cars are usedin which four DG sets are fit-ted and about 400 litres of high

speed diesel (HSD) was con-sumed in it whose estimatedcost is about Rs 30,000. Also

carbon released from DG setsduring maintenance is notenvironmentally friendly.

The proposed use of trans-former in pit maintenance ofLHB rakes will begin soon.With the use of a transformerwith a capacity of 500 KVAduring pit maintenance therewill be no consumption ofHSD and during this time asthere will be no carbon emis-sion this system will be envi-ronment friendly. Previouslythe use of power car requiredfour people but the use oftransformer will require onlytwo people. The use of this newsystem will reduce dependenceon diesel which will save for-eign exchange.

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The students of BKD Aldrich Public School(BKDAPS) performed exceptionally well in

CBSE class X examinations the results of whichwere declared on Wednesday. Anurag Singhtopped the district by scoring 98 per cent marks.Chairman Ajay Itauria said that topper Anurag Singhhad scored 100 marks in mathematics and sciencewith an aggregate of 98 per cent (pc). Vice-princi-pal Ashish Tiwari said that out of the 311 enrolledstudents 68 had scored more than 90 pc marks. Asmany as 44 students scored between 90 per cent and80 pc marks, 49 between 80 pc and 70 pc and therest got over 60 pc marks. Topper Anurag Singh gavecredit to his parents, teachers and school for his suc-cess. The other meritorious students were AshvendraRajpoot 96.6 pc, Manvendra Singh 95.6 pc, SatyamDoorbar 95.4 pc, Aryan Srivastava 95.2 pc, GauriSoni 94.8 pc, Sahitya Singh 94.2 pc, Manya Gupta93.8 pc, Nikhil Yadav 93.8 pc, Prakhar Dwivedi 93.8pc, Devansh Gupta 93.6 pc, Naman Agarwal andPinkal Gahoi 93.4 pc, Kanika Patel 93.2 pc, SwapnilSharma 92.2 pc, Anshika Barthre 92 pc, VedantPandey 91.2 pc and many others. Vice-principalAshish Tiwari said that they had already started onlineclasses and students were taking advantage of it. Staffmembers Shivam Gupta, P Purwar, KK Chaturvedi, MGupta, G Singh, Devesh Pathak, Mahesh Kushwaha,Mahendra Bajpai and Upendra were present.

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Principal SR Public School Rashmi Shuklasaid that Gaurav Prajapati who had scored

96.8 per cent marks in the CBSE class X exam-ination was the school topper. Shukla out of250 students enrolled 150 of them hadsecured more than 75 per cent marks. Givingdetails, she said that Khushi Jain got 96.2 percent marks, Suraj Singh 95 per cent, Namrata94 pc, Aditya Raj 93.2 pc, Lakshya Gupta 93 pc,Arshika 92.6 pc, Iram 91.8 pc, Manish Singh90.2 pc and Aditi Rathore 90 pc. Principal gaveher blessings to the students. Chairman SRPublic School CP Gupta wished the students abright future. Vice-chairman RamakantDwivedi and manager Ashok Rathore felicitatedthe students by garlanding them. TeachersRamesh Chandra Prajapati, Vandana Parihar,Raghvendra Singh, Archana Gupta, HimanshuDixit and Shivchand were present.

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Persons who came in contactwith Covid-19 positive

patients should be identifiedand tested on top priority. Thiseffort will check the spread ofcoronavirus inChitrakootdham division.These instructions were givento the authorities concerned byC o m m i s s i o n e rChitrakootdham divisionGaurav Dayal during a reviewmeeting of Covid-19 in campoffice premises on Wednesday.He directed them to ensureproper identification of thecontacts of corona positive per-son with the help of infraredthermometer and pulse meter inthe district. Dayal asked them tomake them available to thehealth teams to ensure properhealth check-up of the suspects.He directed DM Amit SinghBansal to ensure wearing of facemask by doctors and paramed-ical staff of Banda MedicalCollege (BMC) and district hos-pital Banda. Dayal said thatwearing of mask should be

made mandatory. Dayal direct-ed DM to take legal actionagainst those who did not wearmask. Dayal instructed theofficials to ensure Covid-19 testof all doctors and paramedicalstaff of BMC and district hos-pital. He said that all such doc-tors and paramedical staff

should be kept in isolation tilltheir reports arrived. He toldthem to cross-check the peoplekept in home quarantine. Heinstructed them to keep win-dows of all government offices,district hospital and BMC openin order to ensure proper ven-tilation. He said that no doctorwould leave the headquarterwithout the permission of theDM. Dayal directed them to

ensure sanitation in districthospital and BMC.Commissioner directed theCMO to get corona suspectsidentified and ensure their testwithout any delay. Dayal saidthat those who did not obey hisorder would be dealt strictlyand legal action would be taken.DIG Chitrakootdham rangeDeepak Kumar directed theauthorities to ensure wearingface mask and implementa-tion of other protocols in dis-trict hospital and BandaMedical College. DIG asked theHealth department officials toprovide detailed informationabout Covid-19 tests to thehead of that particular depart-ment. DM said that quarantinecentre would be restarted. Thosepresent during the meeting wereDM Amit Singh Bansal, SPSiddharth Shankar Meena, JointDevelopment CommissionerRamesh Chandra Pandey, CMODr Santosh Kumar, CMS, districthospital, Dr SN Mishra. CityMagistrate Surendra Singh, anddeputy director, Information,Bhupendra Singh Yadav.

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DM Amit Singh Bansal onWednesday inspected

Pahariya Dai Tapovan VatikaAshram in Pandaura villageunder Mahuwa block. DM told‘The Pioneer’ that UP CM hadsanctioned special budget of�88.71 lakh for beautificationand renovation work of thisashram in order to develop it asa tourist spot. DM said that thestate government had nominat-ed Jal Nigam as the workingagency. He said that two gates,590 metre running boundrywall, toilet block, interlockingtiles in 681 square metre,‘hawan kund’ shed, temple

stairs and 10 solar street lightshad been planned under thisproject. DM said that he found30 metre work of stairs incom-

plete. He said that the work oftoilet was found satisfactoryand added that he had issuedinstructions to the officialsconcerned to set up a urinal inthe men’s toilet. DM said that

he found tiles used in stairs ofthe temple of low quality andordered the officials concerned toget them removed and put goodquality ones there. DM foundduring the inspection that the‘hawan kund’ structure was ready.He directed officials to establishshed of Jindal sheet. DM foundthat the slope of the stairs of thetemple and the height of the gatewere not up to the mark andasked the officials to get themmodified as per the projectplan. He observed that the workof solar light had not yet start-ed. DM directed the officials toget all incomplete works done byAugust 15. He said that no lax-ity in work would be tolerated.

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Acattle smuggler who car-ried a reward of �20,000 on

his head was arrested by Padaripolice on Wednesday. Reportssaid that Santosh Singh, son ofLalmani Singh, a resident ofDhanayi village, was a memberof gang involved in cattle smug-gling. On being tipped off by aninformer about his presence atDagmagpur on Mirzapur-Chunar Road the police raid-ed the place and arrested him.Meanwhile Ahraura policearrested three accused andrecovered seven goats fromthem on Varanasi-ShaktinagarRoad. The thieves were caughtwith the help of the localswhen they were loading thegoats on a vehicle. When policecame to know about it theyraided the place and recovered

the goats. The accused, identi-fied as Mohammad Malik,Mohammad Husain aliasSaddam and MohammadHusain, residents of Varanasi,had been sent to the jail.

INSPECTION: Nodal offi-cer/Special Secretary,Information, Surendra PrasadSingh, inspected PHC Chilh inSadar tehsil on Wednesday.He directed the medical staff tokeep themselves safe fromcoronavirus first and then dotheir duties. He interacted withthe patients and became awarewith the working of the PHC.He appealed to the patients tocooperate with the medicalstaff, maintain social distancingand follow the norms to checkCovid-19. The officer visitedthe laboratory, store room,OPD and other wards. Duringhis visit medical officer Dr

Dheeraj was present along withhis team.

ENDS LIFE: A youthended his life by hanging him-self in Jamalapur village underthe Jamalpur police station.Reports said that Deepak Singh(28) was found hangingthrough the ceiling fan at hisresidence. On getting infor-mation SO Jamalpur AshwiniTiwari reached there with ateam and took his body intocustody for completing legalformalities.

MAN DIES: Dileep (35)was ploughing his field with thehelp of his tractor onWednesday when hit sudden-ly overturned in Hajaripur vil-lage under Dehat Kotwalipolice station and he cameunder it. The locals took himto a hospital where the doctordeclared him as brought dead.

�1&�#�&1����������GORAKHPUR: Rajkumar Pandey (32) andhis daughter, Aastha (8), drowned whilebathing in Rapti near Niamatganj under theSahajanwa police station on Wednesday. Thevillagers fished out their bodies after aroundan hour. Later police sent them for the post-mortem examination. Correspondent

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KANPUR (PNS): The trainingof around 4,000 apprenticesremains suspended as theNorth Central Railways train-ing centre at Fazalganj here hasbeen converted into a quaran-tine centre. As the training isimparted in batches, therecruitment of around 3,500apprentices selected in 2018 isalso being delayed. The ongo-ing training of a batch of 500apprentices had to be sus-pended after the training cen-tre was made a quarantinecentre. In view of the unprece-dented delay in completion ofthe training of these appren-tices, the management ofRailway’s Electric Centre atFazalganj wants the quarantinecentre to be shifted to someother premises. The appren-tices also want the quarantinecentre to be shifted as comple-tion of training of one batchpaves the way for the trainingof another batch. Out of the3,500 new apprentices, 2,500were to be recruited as assistantloco pilot. The remaining 1,000apprentices belong to OHE,electrical and other trades.

The principal of ElectricTraining Centre has urgedDeputy Chief Traffic ManagerHimanshu Shekhar Upadhyayato get the quarantine centreshifted to any other premises.

However, railway officialssaid a decision to provideonline training to the appren-tices at the Electric TrainingCentre was taken in the past.They said the training wasimparted online for a few daysbut could not be continued asit was difficult to show railwaycoaches and the use of engineequipment and other parts tothe apprentices in online class-es.

KANPUR (PNS): A teacherlodged in jail for killing hisminor girl student has nowbeen booked under theNational Security Act (NSA).

Kanpur Dehat’sSuperintendent of PoliceAnurag Vats said love-strickenArya Bhatt School teacherShailendra Rajput had killed hisminor girl student inMangalpur police station areaon October 24, 2019 when hefailed to get any response fromher. He shot the class VIII stu-dent, Anamika, dead and wassent to jail after being chargedunder various sections of theIndian Penal Code.

In view of the seriousnessof the case, the NSA has nowbeen invoked against Rajput.

According to reports,Anamika (13) of Shainpur,Achhalda (Auraiya) was livingwith her maternal grandfatherin Bahbalapur (Mangalpur) topursue her studies.

On October 24, whilereturning from school,Anamika left the bus at theBahbalapur village turn andmarched on foot towards herhouse with other two chil-dren.

Meanwhile, teacherShailendra Rajput appearedthere with his friend on bike.He tried to force Anamika to siton his motorcycle and whenshe protested, he shot her deadand escaped.

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After the signing of a mem-orandum of undertaking

(MoU), the Small IndustriesDevelopment Bank of India(SIDBI) will not sell the prop-erties of Uttar PradeshFinancial Corporation (UPFC)in auction.

This has been decided asagainst the repayment of Rs 275crore balance, the UPFC hasdeposited Rs 72 crore recently.

The UPFC will repay thebalance amount of the loan inthe next two years by selling offits properties and recoveringloan from industrialists.

It may be recalled that theUPFC owed Rs 661 crore to theSIDBI, towards a loan of Rs 372crore plus interest. After theUPFC failed to repay the SIDBIloan, the latter had attached theformer’s properties, includingthose at Civil Lines, KanpurHeadquarters, and 50 flats sit-uated at Agra, Shivpuri(Varanasi), Sigra andVishnupuri (Kanpur) in August2017. The SIDBI had initiatedthe action on the directives ofthe Debt Recovery AppellateTribunal to recover its loan.

Thereafter, in a proposalfor One Time Settlement(OTS), it was decided that theUPFC would pay only Rs 275crore to SIDBI. Of this amount,the UPFC has already paid Rs72 crore so far and the repay-ment of balance amount wouldbe made within next two years.

A senior officer of theUPFC after the FinancialCorporation repaid Rs 72 croreagainst its loan, the SIDBI hadpostponed the plan to sellUPFC properties in auction.

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Online teaching took itsfirst toll when a 14-year-

old girl, Pragya Daksh, dousedherself with kerosene and setherself on fire after a rowerupted over a smartphonebetween two sisters to attendthe online class.

The deceased was a stu-dent of OnkareshwarSaraswati Vidya Mandir inJawahar Nagar here.

The police said that primafacie the girl seemed to haveset herself ablaze over a pettyissue but the exact reasoncould be given only afterquizzing the parents.However, the parents refusedto make any comment on thewhole incident.

The father of the deceasedis a teacher of the same schooland Pragya Daksh was theyoungest of his four daugh-ters.

In the current times, pres-sure is on parents to providesmartphones to their chil-dren for online classes.

Pragya was to attend anonline class on Wednesday butone of her sisters too hadonline class at the same timeand refused to give the mobilephone to her and the two girlshad a quarrel over the issue.

It may be mentioned herethat on the one hand the par-ents are unable to affordsmartphones for each of theirchildren for online classesand with the clash of timingsit has become a genuine causeof frequent verbal duelsbetween siblings.

Pragya, who wanted toattend the online class, scuf-fled with her sister but wasunable to win and had to sur-render the mobile phone toher sister. Irked over the fail-ure to get the smartphone she,in anger, allegedly went to therooftop and doused herselfwith kerosene and set herselfon fire.

As the flames engulfed thegirl, Pragya started screamingin pain and ran around seek-ing help. On hearing her

screams, the sisters rushed tothe rooftop and were shockedto find her a ball of fire. Theyshouted for help and theneighbours rushed to her res-cue but by the time the firecould be extinguished shewas falally burnt and died onthe spot.

Circle Officer SaumyaPandey said prima facie it wasa case of quarrel over mobilephone. She said more detailswould emerge only after theautopsy and investigation.

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Prolonged lockdown in Indiacould have been effective in

checking the spread ofCOVID-19 but it would nothave been conducive to theemotional and mental health ofa large number of people.

There has been a drasticalteration in the daily routine,with thousands stranded, mostwithout jobs and far away fromhome. Studies have shown thatsudden loss of employment,along with financial stress oreven distress can enhance thepsychological impact on theworking community, which hasstarted reflecting increasedaggressiveness and post-trau-matic stress. It is heaviest onthose who were alone, poor,already psychologically bur-dened, or out of the main-stream at baseline.

This was stated by Dr LijiThomas, Vellore while address-ing a virtual session for ITPsychiatry Diagnostics Centre

on Thursday. She said the mostneedy were the aged and sickpeople, often without immedi-ate family caregivers in thevicinity and were known tohave a higher risk of acquiringthe infection.

She said studies in the pastthree months had clearly shownthat depression and anxietywere a known risk factor forsleep and eating disorders. Shesaid one potent method tokeep well was touch with rela-tives either in real life or virtu-ally.

Dr Thomas said the extend-ed time spent with family mem-bers, free of the stress of normalworking and school days, maywell have strengthened familybonds and restored balance tolife, leading to an actualimprovement in the quality oflife during the lockdown. Shesaid but the opposite situationprevailed with those who did notget along well with their fami-lies, inducing more conflict andpromoting poorer outcomesduring this period.

She said depressive symp-toms were independently asso-ciated with a history of lonelinessand depression, but not withsexual orientation, residence ina high-risk state, and being in ahigh-risk group.

Dr Thomas said it wasfound that people called theirfamily members more duringthe lockdown than earlier, andthose who shared their vulner-abilities with their loved ones,were more likely to have socialempathy and better social rela-tionships.

She said resilience andhealthy coping strategies helpedeven high-risk individuals tostay positive, view the lock-down as a good time to rumi-nate on their individual andsocial identity, and take steps toimprove their relationships withtheir families.

She added that one need tounderstant that the current sit-uation dealt with uncertaintyaround and that it was ‘normal’to feel overwhelmed. She saidtalking to someone whom one

trusted could certainly help.She said while thinking aheadand planning were helpful,obsessive thoughts and efforts toproblem solving may furtherinduce worry.

She added that if one foundoneself thinking about the samethoughts throughout the day,one should to grab a paper bagand breathe into it and thiswould help to calm down thenerves and would also be a goto technique that one couldemploy every time one foundoneself going in circles

Dr Thomas, while dis-cussing positive coping mecha-nism, said exercise, aerobics oreven dancing to favourite musicor playing with pet dog for a halfan hour released the good hor-mones in the body and madeone feel happier and lighter. Sheadvised people to set smallachievable targets so one couldmake everything manageableand this would help with con-centration.

The vote of thanks was pro-posed by Dr Ira Tripathi.

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Kanpur Nagar reported 74more coronavirus cases in

the last 24 hours.Chief Medical Officer Dr

AK Shukla said that with the 74new coronavirus cases detect-ed between Wednesday andThursday evening, 2,087 per-sons had tested positive in thecity so far.

He said 21 COVID-19patients were discharged fromhospitals, takng the tally ofcured persons to 1,208 and atpresent 774 active cases wereundergoing treatment.

Dr Shukla said with sevenmore deaths reported in thecity, the COVID-19 death tollstood at 105 on Thursdayevening.

He said 1,017 samples werecollected in the city, including267 from surveillance areasand 261 pool samples.

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��� �������� ���� ���� ������ ���KANPUR (PNS): The Daksh family is not the only one whichis facing pressure from children to provide them smartphonesfor the new trend of online classes. Some children are outright-ly demanding laptops with internet connections.

Today each house requires a minimum of four smartphones,two for parents and two for children. Besides, they also need inter-net connections too, which of late have become expensive. Withthe smartphone price starting from a minimum of Rs 10,000 itis a major fiscal problem for the parents on providing each childa phone and paying four bills for internet connections.

Certainly, online classes in the present times are good butcan every person afford this expenditure? Or are the online class-es meant only for the rich? said a prominent teacher of a pub-lic school on Mainawati Marg.

She said online classes were the need of the hour but wasthe country prepared for this. She said with the poor connec-tivity and the signals not reaching the interior rooms, it hadbecome a major cause of concern for parents.

The teacher said before introducing online classes, the gov-ernment need to do enough groundwork before making it manda-tory. She said it was an irony that the government was not con-sidering about ensuring that students paid fees so that the teach-ers could get salaries.

Majority of teachers of verious schools have reported thatwhile they were teaching online, the students kept their video-audio closed and were busy elsewhere.

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Three months after two Sadhus andtheir driver were lynched by an irate

mob of villagers, Maharashtra’s CrimeInvestigation Department (CID) sleuth-son Thursday filed a comprehensivechargesheets against the accused beforea Dahanu court in connection with themuch-discussed lynching incident.

In its chargesheet — running into4,955 pages — filed before the court ofJudicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC)at Dahanu in Palghar district, the CIDsleuths named 126 accused in connec-tion with the incident that took place onthe night of April 16.

The investigation team, led byDeputy Superintendent of Police (CID)Vijay Pawar, filed the two chargesheetsafter examining 808 suspects and 118witnesses to collect strong evidenceagainst the accused. In all, 154 personswere arrested and 11 juveniles werearrested in connection with the incident.None of the arrested+ accused has beenreleased on bail so far.

It may be recalled that on thenight of April 16, three persons werelynched by a 200-strong mob of vil-lagers near Kasa town inMaharashtra’s Palghar district on sus-picion that they were thieves.

The villagers first hurled stones atthe van, prompting the driver to stop thevehicle. Later, they pulled three personsout of the vehicle and beat them to deathin Gadhchinchale village on Dabhadi-Khanwel road, with sticks and rods. Thedeceased — identified as Chikne

Maharaj Kalpavrukshagiri (70),Sushilgiri Maharaj (35) and driverNilesh Telgade (30) were travelling toSurat. Of them one was the diver,while two are residents of Kandivli innorth Mumbai. The place where theincident took place is approximately 120km from Mumbai.

In their chargesheet, the investiga-tors have said that the incident hadtaken place amid rumours that child-lifters were roaming in the area duringthe lockdown. The villagers allegedlysuspected the three deceased to be child-lifters.

The accused arrested in connectionwith the incident have been chargedunder various sections of the IndianPenal Code (IPL) for murder, armedrioting and using criminal force to pre-vent a public servant from doing is dutyand relevant provisions of the DisasterManagement Act, the EpidemicDiseases Act (since lockdown was inforce during the incident), theMaharashtra Police Act and theMaharashtra Damage to Public Property(Prevention) Act.

As there is adequate evidenceagainst two juveniles in conflict with law,the police have launched separate pro-ceedings against them are being initi-ated before the Juvenile Justice Board.

After the incident which hadsparked a political uproar across thecountry, thee Kasa police had registeredtwo FIRs in connection with the lynch-ing and assault on policemen. All theaccused had been arrested a day afterthe ghastly crime.

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Sources in Delhi also said both Rahul andPriyanka Gandhi Vadra are keen to accom-modate Pilot, and that Ahmed Patel was talk-ing to him.

Meanwhile, a BJP ally in Rajasthan hasal leged that former Chief MinisterVasundhara Raje, the BJP’s most prominentleader in the State, is trying to help AshokGehlot. A tweet by Hanuman Beniwal, an MPof the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party, added thetwist to the Congress versus Congress fightin Rajasthan by suggesting that VasundharaRaje is trying to sabotage the rebel camp.

“Former Chief Minister VasundharaRaje has called up Congress MLAs close toher and asked them to support AshokGehlot. She has called each and every JatMLA in Sikar and Nagaur and asked themto keep distance from Sachin Pilot, I haveproof of this,” tweeted Hanuman Beniwal,who represents Nagaur in Lok Sabha.

Gehlot has alleged that Pilot’s support-ers were paid Rs 20 crore by the BJP. To this,Pilot’s loyalist and former BSP legislatorMurari Lal Meena has responded by sayingthat the CM should also come clean aboutthe money they were paid to come over tothe Congress.

Congress leader Kapil Sibal, who had ear-lier expressed concern about “horses boltingfrom the Congress’ stables”, on Thursdaysounded critical of Pilot. “False rumoursspread to malign Pilot: I am not joining theBJP. I guess then legislators at a hotel inManesar is merely a vacation in Haryana’scomfort zone under BJP’s watchful eye.What about “ghar wapsi”?”, Sibal tweeted.

Responding to these, Pilot camp said “he(Pilot) never detached himself ”. “Is it wrongto have grievances against the Chief Ministerand point out what he was doing wrong? Thelegislators are in the Manesar hotel at theirown cost because they will be arrested inJaipur. Pilot has not held anyone hostage,they are paying their own hotel bills andsome are staying at homes in Faridabad,” stat-ed a close aide of Pilot.

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Tamil Nadu’s mission to trace, test andisolate the Covid-19 cases is proceeding infull steam. There are 107 laboratories oper-ating in the State which tested 44,186 per-sons on Thursday and this took the numberof persons tested till date to 1.78 million.

Covid-19 which was once tamed by theKerala Government has hit the State againlike an avalanche as the number of personstested positive for the pandemic on Thursdaycrossed the 700 marks forcing Chief MinisterPinarai Vijayan to warn the people that thingsare going out of control.

While 722 new patients added to theCovid-19 table in the State on Thursday, thecapital city of Thiruvananthapuram tested339 positive cases. This is a major cause ofconcern as out of the 339 persons diagnosedin Thiruvananthapuram, 301 were infestedthrough contacts. “On Wednesday, 61 work-ers in a hypermarket in the city, known as atextile shopping hub, tested positive. We haveto track hundreds of customers who had vis-ited the shop at least on Wednesday,” said theChief Minister in his daily media briefing.

Kashmir valley on Thursday reported 16deaths due to Covid-19 while 490 cases weredetected in Jammu and Kashmir, taking thetally of total coronavirus cases to 12156.

With every passing day the situation inKashmir valley is worsening. The health careinfrastructure is also crumbling, forcingthe health administrators to pool in theirreserves to cater to the rush of patients, withmore severe symptoms.

According to official sources, the high-est number of 259 cases was detected inSrinagar district on Thursday. At least 19policemen, deployed in Police headquarterpremises tested positive during randomscreening while 96 prisoners from Anantnagdistrict jail also tested positive, forcing theauthorities to segregate and shift some of thejail inmates to another location.

Half of Srinagar is already witnessingcomplete lockdown in the wake of a freshspike in the number of cases of coronavirussince Monday. According to official sources,Srinagar district alone accounted for 37 per-cent active positive cases in Jammu andKashmir.

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“We have a request from Germany alsoand an agreement with Lufthansa is almostdone,” Puri said.

“Till international civil aviation canreclaim its pre-Covid numbers, I think theanswer will lie through bilateral air bubbleswhich will carry a possible number of peo-ple but under defined conditions as countriesare still imposing entry restrictions includ-ing India,” the Minister added.

The Minister also underlined that bilat-eral air bubbles will be the way to resumeinternational travel amid the Covid-19 pan-demic. The Minister said India is planningto establish a bubble with the UK soon underwhich there would be two flights per daybetween Delhi and London.

“We have got a request from Germansalso. I think the arrangement with Lufthansais almost done...We are processing thatrequest,” Puri said. “Now we have manydemands for air bubbles, but we need to becareful. We should permit that many onlythat we can handle,” the Minister noted.

An air bubble is a bilateral arrangementwith a set of regulations and restrictions inwhich the carriers of the two countries canoperate international flights. Such an oper-ation has already been established betweenIndia and the UAE, while negotiations areunderway with countries like the US, France

and Germany.On the speculation on the hike in tick-

et prices, Puri said that the cap on domes-tic airfare amid the coronavirus pandemicneeds to continue for a while. Owing to theprevailing coronavirus situation in the world,most countries have shut down their airspacebanning inbound flights in their countries.India has also suspended all internationalflights following the announcement of its firstlockdown on March 24.

Air India CMD Rajiv Bansal has said ason July 13, Air India and Air India Expressoperated 1,103 flights and brought back208,000 Indians under the Vande BharatMission. “On many of these flights, we fer-ried back 85,289 passengers to various coun-tries across the world,” he said.

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Earlier in the day when Jadhav was pro-vided consular access, External AffairsMinistry spokesperson Anurag Srivastavahad announced that “India has been request-ing for an unimpeded, unhindered andunconditional consular access to KulbushanJadhav. On the basis of assurances provided,our officials have proceeded for the meetingtoday”.

In an official statement the MEA saidover the past year, India has requestedPakistan more than twelve times to provideunimpeded, unhindered and unconditionalconsular access to Jadhav, who remainsincarcerated in Pakistani custody since 2016.

“This consular access is of utmostimportance, as it is the basis for a process ofeffective review and reconsideration orderedby the International Court of Justice (ICJ) inJuly 2019 of the conviction and sentence ofJadhav by a Pakistani military tribunal,” thestatement said.

The statement said in May 2020,Pakistan passed an Ordinance, ostensibly tocomply with the order of the InternationalCourt of Justice. It inter-alia envisaged theConsular Officer of the High Commission ofIndia filing a petition before a High Courtfor the relevant review and reconsideration.In that context, the contacts and conversa-tions between the Consular Officer andJadhav assume great importance, it said.

“Any conversation between them mustnecessarily take place in privacy and with-out the presence of any Pakistani official orrecording by Pakistan. It is only then thatJadhav can speak freely without any concernsof reprisal as he remains in Pakistani custodyafter the meeting. It is already evident thatJadhav has been intimidated repeatedly in thepast, including in being made to express hisalleged disinclination to seek a review,” theMEA said.

The MEA went on to add that Indiarecently requested the Pakistani side for anunimpeded, unhindered and unconditionalconsular access to be provided on July 13.Pakistan was asked to ensure that the meet-ing is held in an atmosphere free from fearof retribution and without the presence ofany Pakistani official in the vicinity ofJadhav and the Indian consular officials.Pakistan was also requested to not record(video and audio) the meeting, the MEA said.

“After extensive discussions, the Pakistanside conveyed that they were ready to organ-ise consular access on July 16, 2020. We wereassured that this consular access would beunimpeded, unhindered and unconditional.On the basis of this assurance by thePakistani Foreign Ministry, two ConsularOfficers of the High Commission proceed-ed to the meeting with Jadhav. Regrettablyhowever, neither the environment nor thearrangements of the meeting were in accor-dance with the assurances of Pakistan,” thestatement said.

“The arrangements did not permit a freeconversation between them. The ConsularOfficers could not engage Jadhav on his legalrights and were prevented from obtaining hiswritten consent for arranging his legal rep-resentation,” the statement said.

In the light of these circumstances, theIndian Consular Officers came to the con-clusion that the consular access being offeredby Pakistan was neither meaningful nor cred-ible. After lodging a protest, they left thevenue.

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The security problem was severe enoughfor Twitter to warn that many of its morethan 166 million daily users might be unableto tweet or reset their passwords while thecompany tried to lock things down.

Among the political figures targeted, thehack mostly appeared to target Democrats orother figures on the left, drawing compar-isons to the 2016 campaign.

US intelligence agencies established thatRussia engaged in coordinated attempts tointerfere in those U.S. Elections throughsocial media tampering and various hacks,including targeting the various campaignsand major party organisations.

The hack might also be a simple demon-stration of Twitter’s weak security controlsas the U.S. Heads into the 2020 presidentialelection, a contest in which the service is like-ly to play an influential role.

The Bitcoin account mentioned in thefake tweets appears to have been created onWednesday. By the end of the day, it hadreceived almost 12.9 bitcoins, an amountcurrently valued at slightly more than$114,000. At some point during the day,roughly half that sum in bitcoin was with-drawn from the account.

Bezos, Gates and Musk are among the 10richest people in the world, with tens of mil-lions of followers on Twitter. The three menare worth a combined $362 billion, accord-ing to the latest calculations by Forbes mag-azine. The same bogus offer cropped up asecond time on Musk’s account, which hasa history of sometimes befuddling tweets

from the eccentric billionaire. Tesla didn’timmediately respond to a request for com-ment.

Gates, who has become one of theworld’s leading philanthropists since step-ping down as Microsoft CEO, confirmed thetweet wasn’t from him. “This appears to bepart of a larger issue that Twitter is facing,”a spokesperson for the billionaire said in astatement.

This is hardly the first time hackers havecreated mischief on Twitter. Just last year,the account of Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey wasbroken into a nd used to tweet racist and vul-gar comments. The latest security breachprompted Sen. Josh Hawley, a MissouriRepublican, to send a letter to Dorsey urg-ing him to work with the FBI and the JusticeDepartment on ways to improve Twitter’ssecurity. “A successful attack on your system’sservers represents a threat to all of yourusers’ privacy and data security,” Hawleywrote.

Investors also appeared to be concernedabout potential fallout from the hack affect-ing Twitter’s usage. Twitter’s shares fell 3%in extended trading after news of the hackbroke.

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Earlier PCC chief Kamal Nath had re-tweet-ed about the incident. “This inhuman act hasexposed the autocracy of Shivraj Government,this fight is beginning of the end of Shivraj rule.”

Any land encroachment could be resolvedthrough legal process and bashing the farmerand his family including kids isn’t justified. “Wasit done just because they are farmers and poor,”asked Nath in a tweet on Wednesday. Will theydisplay such courage to free government landfrom musclemen?

MP Congress too had tweeted the mattersaying it took place in Jyotiraditya Scindia’sregion and was a display of Shivraj’s ego.“Farmer beaten up, woman’s clothes were tornso a saddened farmer consumes poison,” hadclaimed the MP Congress twitter handle.

Well over a lakh messages were tweeted onWednesday with the subject ‘Shivraj_Singh_Istifa do’ on Wednesday.

Home Minister Mishra, who issued ordersfor shifting collector S Viswanathan and super-intend of police Tarun Nayak on Thursday, hitback at Congress party saying during KamalNath Government police-administration usedto see prepaid transfers. “When two kids wereabducted in Satna, they returned only after theirdeath,” added Dr Mishra.

Former Guna MP Jyotiraditya Scindia toohad then called the incident ‘highly unfortunate’.

Meanwhile the incident at Guna too placecouple of days ago when administration accom-panied by police reached a Government landto remove encroachment in Jagatpur areaunder limits of Cantt police station area.

The 20 bigha land allotted years ago toGovernment Model College was encroachedupon several times and when administrationfreed it, it was encroached again due to slack-ness of administration.

The family of Dalit farmer Raju Ahirwar ispresently undertaking farming at the said landafter a local native Gabbu Pardi who held theland for 40 years leased it to Ahirwar some yearsago. Seeing their crop destroyed by JCBmachine, Ahirwar and his wife tried stoppingthe administration team and were bashedmercilessly by the police. They also questionedwhy they weren’t given advance notice of theaction. When the administration went aheadwith the action, the couple rushed towards theirshanty and consumed pesticide kept there.

The farmer couple was hospitalised after theincident. The police have also lodged a caseagainst the farmer and his family under vari-ous charges including obstructing Governmentwork and others. However, the administrationdid not accept this on record.

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Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan onWednesday kicked off construction work at theDiamer-Bhasha dam, notwithstanding India’sobjection to the mega project.

Addressing a public gathering in Chilas inGilgit-Baltistan, Khan said the Diamer-Bhashawill be Pakistan’s third largest dam afterTarbela and Mangla dams.

The project will generate 4,500MW elec-tricity and provide at least 16,000 jobs. It isexpected to be completed by 2028.

The Pakistan Government in May signeda whopping Rs 442 billion contract with a jointventure of a Chinese State-run firm and a com-mercial arm of Pakistan’s powerful military forthe construction of the Diamer-Bhasha dam.

Chinese state-run firm China Power holds70 per cent and the Frontier WorksOrganisation (FWO), a commercial arm of theArmed Forces of Pakistan, 30 per cent share inthe consortium that will build the dam.

In May, India took strong note of Pakistanawarding the contract to build the dam, sayingcarrying out of such projects in territories underPakistan’s illegal.

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Both sides have agreed at specific points tore-deploy towards their regular posts on theirrespective sides of the LAC. These are mutu-ally agreed reciprocal actions to be taken by bothsides. “And as I have already conveyed, it is anongoing process. This mutual re-deploymentshould not be misrepresented. There is absolute-ly no change with respect to India’s position onthe LAC. We are fully committed to observingand respecting the LAC. Any unilateral attemptsto change the status quo along the LAC are notacceptable,” he said.

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The Government-Raj Bhavan conflictin Bengal hit a new low with Chief

Minister Mamata Banerjee taking onboth Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar and theBJP-led Union Government for trying topollute democratic institutions of thecountry with “dictatorial” crudity.

Attacking the Central Government for“covert ways” Banerjee on Thursday said“less said about this BJP and theGovernment in the Centre is better… nor-mally I desist from talking about them aswe want to jointly fight the current crisisbut I am seeing how shamelessly they aretaking advantage of widespread despairduring the corona times to push throughchanges in the existing laws.”

Attacking the Centre’s covert ways shesaid “when people are trying to somehowremain afloat in this period of despair thisGovernment is silently injecting dictato-rial laws … they are trying to bulldoze thelabour laws that provide security to thecommon employees, workers both inGovernment and private sector… “Insteadof listening to the senior economists whoare asking the Government to provide foodand transfer cash into the accounts of thepoor this Government has descended takeadvantage of the current situation whenthe people will not be able to come out andprotest… they are selling all the profitableventures of the Government by briningFDI in coal, initiating privatisation in

Indian Railways, introducing bank merg-ers and even taking steps to close downthe BSNL.”

Asking all the trade unions includingthat of the BJP to unite against “this nefar-ious design of the Government to sell awaythe workers’ interests to the privateers,” shesaid “how can a popularly electedGovernment snatch the democratic rightsof the people … is it a democracy or dic-tatorship … everybody is afraid of thisGovernment.”

Banerjee’s immediate point of refer-ence was the conduct of State Governorwho had hours before attacked the StateGovernment for politicising the campusand blamed the CM for ignoring his let-ters.

The Governor had reacted saying theeducation system in Bengal had been high-ly politicised and caged to which theBanerjee wondered “what the BJPGovernment had done to the universitiesin Nalanda, Jamia and JNU,” adding “firstthey should look into what is happeningin these universities controlled by the BJPGovernment before making such remarks.”Infuriated by the absence of the 23 ViceChancellors of the State universities in avirtual meeting called by him theGovernor said earlier in the day that he hadtaken, “strong exception to the deliberateabsence of all Vice Chancellors from theimportant virtual meeting to discuss thepresent state of affairs in the higher edu-cation scenario of the State.”

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Two persons were killed and15 others rescued in two

building crashes that took placeat Fort in south Mumbai and atMalad in north Mumbai onTuesday afternoon.

In the first major mishapduring the current monsoon,two persons were killed and 13others rescued when a groundplus-two storey building col-lapsed at 2.38 pm Malvani Gateno.5 near Nuree Masjid atMalad (W) in north Mumbai.

In the second collapse, twopersons were rescued when aportion of a six-storey buildinglocated near ChhatrapatiShivaji Maharaj Terminus(CSMT) at downtown Fort areain south Mumbai, crashed latein the afternoon.

Identifying the two personskilled in the first mishap thattook place at Malad (west) asFaizal Wahid Sayyad (Male 18years) and Anjum ShahabuddinShaikh (Female, 23 years) thefire brigade personnel said that13 others were treated andallowed to go home from thenearby Hayat Hospital at Malad(E).

In the second mishap, thenorth side part of Ground plussix floor Bhanushali buildingcollapsed at the Mint Roadnear the CSMT at 5.27 pm.

Days ahead of the collapse,the State-run MaharashtraHousing Area DevelopmentAuthority (MHADA) hadvacated the Bhanushali build-ing and repair work was goingon at the time of mishap. Evenafter the MHADA orderedvacation of the building, somefamilies continued to live there.

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Reaffirming their resolve torestore peace at the volatile

Line of Actual Control (LAC)in Eastern Ladakh, India andChina have agreed to continuethe dialogue process as the dis-engagement of troops is an“intricate process” and requires“constant verification.”

Defence Minister RajnathSingh, along with Army ChiefGeneral MM Naravane, willmake an on-the-spot assess-ment during their two-dayvisit to Leh and Srinagar start-ing Friday. Rajnath is alsoexpected to visit some for-ward areas in Ladakh. He wasscheduled to visit Leh on July3 but it was deferred.

The Corps Commandersof the two armies—Lt GeneralHarinder Singh and MajorGeneral Liu Lin—during the15-hour-long talks on Tuesdayhad also agreed to re-deploytroops towards their regularposts on their respective sidesof the LAC as a confidencebuilding measure. India alsomade it clear that any unilateralattempts to change the statusquo along the LAC are notacceptable.

Giving these main take-aways from the military leveltalks, external affairs ministryspokesperson AnuragSrivastava said here onThursday the disengagementprocess currently underway inthe Western sector (Ladakh) isspecifically aimed at addressing

face-off situations and close-updeployments of troops alongthe LAC.

Both sides have agreed atspecific points to re-deploytowards their regular posts ontheir respective sides of theLAC. These are mutuallyagreed reciprocal actions to betaken by both sides. “And as Ihave already conveyed, it is anongoing process. This mutualre-deployment should not bemisrepresented. There isabsolutely no change withrespect to India’s position onthe LAC. We are fully com-mitted to observing andrespecting the LAC. Any uni-lateral attempts to change thestatus quo along the LAC arenot acceptable,” he said.

Highlighting the fact thatboth the countries were hold-ing talks through establisheddiplomatic and military chan-nels to defuse tension, he saidSpecial Representatives (SRs) ofIndia and China on theBoundary Question – NationalSecurity Advisor(NSA)AjitDoval and State Councillorand Minister of Foreign AffairsWang Yi had a telephone con-versation on July 5. A meetingof the Working Mechanismfor Consultation andCoordination on India-ChinaBorder Affairs (WMCC) wasalso held on July 10.

In these meetings, the twosides agreed on complete dis-engagement of the troops alongthe LAC and de-escalation forfull restoration of peace and

tranquility in the border areasin accordance with bilateralagreements and protocols.

In this context, the Indianand Chinese Senior CorpsCommanders held their fourthmeeting at Chushul onTuesday. Giving the seriousnessof the matter, the high-poweredChina Study Group (CSG) onWednesday reviewed the latestdevelopments. The CSG meet-ing saw Doval and ExternalAffairs Minister S Jaishankaralong with top brass of thearmed forces analysing the sit-uation.

Sources said the nextround of talks between the twoCorps Commanders can takeplace as early as next week todiscuss different aspects of dis-engagement.

While the Chinese have,more or less, pulled back com-pletely from three “frictionpoints” including the GalwanValley, Hot Springs and Gogra,Pangong Tso(lake) andDepsang valley are yet to seefull-scale withdrawal. Thoughthe Chinese have startedretreating from these two sites,the pace is not commensuratewith the mutual agreementsbetween the two commanders,they said.

Negotiations are expectedto be more ticklish in theforthcoming round as the con-tinued presence of the Chinesein the Finger Area of Pangongand the Depsang sector couldbe the sticking point in thetalks, they said.

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With the number ofjehadis arrested in

Europe, especially France,recording a marked increase in2019 as per Europol data,concerns have emerged hereover the possibility of radical-isation of Indian studentsstudying there. Most of thearrested radicals there arefrom the refugee communitysettled there.

Timely formulation ofmonitoring and counsellingsuch students throughStandard OperatingProcedures (SOPs) could comein handy in keeping the vul-nerable Indian youth awayfrom radicalisation, officials inthe security agencies conced-ed.

According to Europol dataof the jehadis arrested last yearreleased late on Wednesday, asmany as 202 radicals werearrested in France followed by56 in Spain, 43 in Austria, 32in Germany, 27 inNetherlands, 21 in Denmark,18 in Italy and 11 each inBelgium and Bulgaria. In addi-tion, f ive jehadis have been nabbed from Ireland,three each in Greece andRomania, two in Poland andone each in Hungary andPortugal.

The age group of thearrested jehadis range between15 and 30 years. Most of thestudents from India are also inthe same age bracket and anyinterface between the two

groups can potentially be lead-ing to conversion and radical-isation.

The number of radicalsarrested in Europe in 2019 hassignificantly increased over2018 and the previous years.

A significant number ofIndian students particularlyprefer to study in France,Spain, Germany andNetherlands. The age group ofthe students is susceptible torebel sentiment and girl stu-dents are particularly vulnerable to con-version and radicalisation,officials in the security estab-lishment said.

The development has ledto calls for putting in place sys-temic measures to increaseawareness amongst the stu-dents returning after studiesfrom Europe.

The students should bemade aware of the pitfalls offalling into the radicalisationtrap and they should also beadvised to keep their familyand the respective Indian missions in loop on the radicalisation bid by any jeha-

di group during the course oftheir studies abroad.

Efforts should also bemade to sensitise the studentsas they could be a grazingground for hostile foreignintelligence agencies, they said.

Counter terrorism ExpertDr Rituraj Mate said,” Thespurt in the number of radicalsarrested in Europe, especiallyFrance, is a pointer to theimpending terror plot in theregion and enhanced efforts for radicalisation ofthe youth, inlcuding Indianstudents.”

An institutional mecha-nism or SOP should be rolledout to contain the threat ofIndian students getting radi-calised or falling into the ter-ror fold and also deradicalisethose who have already beenexposed to ulterior designs ofthe jehadi groups there, Matesaid, adding a detailed assess-ment of all such studentsreturning from abroad isrequired to be undertaken inaddition to counselling andconstant monitoring of theradicalised youths.

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The Election Commission(EC) on Thursday decided

not to extend the facility ofpostal ballot to electors above 65years of age in the Assemblyelections in Bihar and by-elec-tions due in the near future cit-ing challenges and constraints oflogistics, manpower and safetyprotocols related to coronavirusto implement this rule. However,the postal ballot rules will beapplicable for voters over the ageof 80, disabled or those suffer-ing from novel coronavirus andare either in home or institu-tional quarantine. After theCovid-19 outbreak in India,Bihar will be the first state tohave assembly polls.

The EC said that it has beenmonitoring the electoral pre-paredness for the coming by-elections and General electionsof the Assembly in Bihar. It saidthat it had already limited thenumber of electors to one thou-sand for each polling station forease of voting, especially forelderly and vulnerable sectionsof electors, in Covid situations.The Commission also informedthat the state was creating addi-tional 34,000 polling stations(45% more), which will increasethe total number of polling sta-tions to around 1,06,000.

“This would entail formi-dable logistical challenges ofmobilising 1.8 lakh more pollingpersonnel and other additional

resources including require-ment of much larger number ofvehicles in the State of Bihar.Similar challenges would bethere for the coming by-electionsalso. Considering all these chal-lenges and constraints and inview of the decision to limit thenumber of electors at eachpolling station to 1,000, theCommission has decided not toissue the notification to extendthe facility of postal ballot to theelectors above 65 years of age,”the EC said.

In several Covid healthadvisories, people over the ageof 65 have been asked not toventure out as they are particu-larly vulnerable to catching thehighly contagious virus.

The Ministry of Law andJustice, dated June 19, has madecertain changes to theRepresentation of the PeopleAct, 1951, under the Conduct ofElections (Amendment) Rules,2020, recommending extensionof postal ballot to people over theage of 65 years which was ear-lier 80 years, and others vulner-able to coronavirus to cast theirvotes through postal ballots.

Six political parties—theCongress, the Rashtriya JanataDal (RJD), the CommunistParty of India (CPI), theCommunist Party of India(Marxist) (CPI(M)), DMK andthe Trinamool Congress(TMC)—have raised concernsover the move, with some call-ing it “unconstitutional”.

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New Delhi: The SupremeCourt on Thursday adjournedtill July 29 hearing on thehabeas corpus petition filed bythe wife of Congress leader andformer union ministerSaifuddin Soz challenging his"unlawful" detention by theJammu and Kashmir govern-ment.

A bench headed by JusticeArun Mishra adjourned thematter for hearing on July 29after the Jammu and Kashmirgovernment sought more timeto file a reply on the matter.

The apex court had earli-er issued a notice to Jammuand Kashmir government seek-ing their response on the mat-ter.

Challenging the detentionorder passed by theGovernment of UnionTerritory of Jammu andKashmir, Mumtazunnisa Sozhad filed habeas corpus peti-tion in the apex court for theproduction of her husbandbefore the court.

The petition, filed through

advocate Sunil Fernandes, saidthat Soz was informed of hishouse arrest by the securityguards of his house situated atShehjar, Srinagar on the morn-ing of August 5, 2019, when theUnion of India passed aPresidential order revoking thespecial status of the (erstwhile)State of Jammu and Kashmirgranted under the Constitutionof India.

Seeking quashing of thedetention order, the plea saidthat ten months have passedsince his detention started,and he is yet to be informed ofhis grounds of detention.

"All efforts by him toobtain a copy of the detentionorder(s) have been of no availdue to the illegal, arbitraryexercise of powers by Jammuand Kashmir government.

His detention is whollycontrary and perverse to theconstitutional safeguards laiddown under Article 21 and 22of the Constitution of India, aswell as the law on preventivedetention. Agencies

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The University GrantsCommission (UGC) on

Thursday announced that ithas received responses from640 universities on the issue ofholding exams amid theCovid-19 pandemic.

"Universities wereapproached to inform the sta-tus of the conduct of exami-nations. Response receivedfrom 640 universities. Out ofthese, 454 have either con-ducted the examination or areplanning to conduct. 177 uni-versities are yet to decide onthe conduct of examination,"UGC said.

In case of 27 private uni-versities, which were estab-lished during 2019-20 to tilldate, the first batch is yet tobecome eligible for final exam-ination, it said.

On July 6, the UGC hadissued revised exam guide-lines mandating to hold finalexaminations in colleges anduniversities by the end ofSeptember stating that the academic credibility, careeropportunities and futureprogress of students werelinked to exams.

Earlier in the week, theDelhi High Court asked theCentre, UGC and DelhiUniversity to reply to a pleachallenging the guidelinesmaking it mandatory for col-leges to conduct final yearexaminations by September-end in view of the COVID-19pandemic.

The plea, by DU studentKabir challenged the UGC'sJuly 6 guidelines making itmandatory for colleges to con-duct final year exams bySeptember-end via offline,online or a blended method.

Taking to social mediaplatform, students and otherstakeholders have made uptheir mind to challenge theguidelines in the SupremeCourt seeking scrapping ofthe new UGC guidelines.

"Results of final-year stu-dents should be declared onthe basis of internal assessment(midsem, internal vivas, majorprojects/assignments) whichhas already been conducted byinstitutes+50% weightage canalso be given to previoussemester," a student shared.

Another said the guide-lines did not give due consid-eration to the infrastructuraland demographic limitationsof the education system. "Theiradamant insistence on con-ducting traditional pen andpaper exams during the pan-demic will spell doom for stu-dents," wrote another studenton twitter.

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With coronavirus startingto take a psychological

toll on the frontline healthcareworkers in the country, theGovernment has come outwith guidelines envisaging adesignated mental health sup-port network at all the Covid-19 treatment centres across theStates to protect the fraternity.

The Guidelines, “Caringfor Health Care Warriors men-tal Health Support DuringCOVID-19”, has been pre-pared by KarnatakaGovernment in collaborationwith the Centre of excellenceNational Institute of mentalHealth and Neurosciences

“As the battle becomeslong-drawn, the healthcareworkers (HCWs) in the front-line have become particularlyvulnerable to mental stress.

“Worries about risk ofinfection to self and their fam-ilies, adequacy of protection,long working hours, being inquarantine/isolation, and sep-aration from families can leadto severe psychological distressamong health professionals.If not effectively recognised

and treated, such stress cantransform into more persistentillness, even leading to suicidalthoughts and feelings,” as perthe document.

Though, this is for thefirst time that the Governmenthas prepared mental supportguidelines for the medical staff,the issue had been existing forlong time and individualresponses to address mentalhealth issues among HCWshave been patchy.

“Structured and confiden-tial mental health services forhealth workers exist in very fewsettings, primarily in high-income countries.

Organisational leadershiphas a crucial role to play inensuring good work-life bal-ance, incentivising healthybehaviours and providing anatmosphere of discussing men-tal health issues without stig-ma,” the Government has alsoadmitted in the document.

Given the likely magnitudeof the mental health difficultiesamong HCWs and the patchyavailability of specialist men-tal health care across the coun-try, it has become necessary forall non-psychiatric health care

professionals to be trained toprovide initial mental healthcare to the extent possible, asper the document.

The document defines indetail the framework foradministrators and health caresupervisors to address themental health needs of healthcare personnel in Covid-19treatment settings where HCWare encountering a consider-able degree of stress, anxiety,depression, insomnia due tothe pandemic.

It also provides technicalinput to guide health care per-sonnel to help themselves andtheir colleagues in distress.

Calling for strict imple-mentation in this direction, thedocument notes that if noteffectively recognised and han-dled, this can transform intomore severe distress, evenleading to suicidal thoughtsand feelings.

“It is thus a matter of pri-ority to address these concernsto ensure positive mentalhealth and early interventionsfor frontline personnel inCovid-19 treatment settings,”as per the guidelines.

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Even though cases are con-stantly on the rise with the

total touching 9,68,876 and thedeath toll standing at 24,915,the good news is that the num-ber of recoveries have almostdoubled against the active casesat 3,31,146 in the country.

The Union HealthMinistry on Thursday attrib-uted this to a graded, preemp-tive and proactive approachadopted along with theStates/UTs for prevention, con-tainment and management ofCOVID-19. The collectiveefforts are regularly reviewedand monitored at the highestlevel.

“The targeted measureshave contributed to a steadydecline in the number of activecases. As on date, the actualcaseload of COVID-19 patientsin the country is only 3,31,146.These contribute to a littlemore than a third (34.18 percent) of total cases detected sofar.

“Actual case load ofCOVID-19 has remained lim-ited and manageable in thecountry due to proactive mea-sures of containment includinghouse-to-house survey,

perimeter control activities,timely contact tracing and sur-veillance of containment zones,aggressive testing and timelydiagnosis, and effective clinicalmanagement of the moderateand severe cases through a wellimplemented standard of careprotocol substantially increas-ing their chances of recovery,”said a statement here.

The joint efforts by theCenter and the State/UTGovernments of increasing thetesting capacity, ramping upthe health infrastructure, prioritising surveillance in theSARI/ILI cases, and ensuringmapping of the aged popula-tion and people with co-mor-bidities have led to a continu-ous improvement in the recov-ery rates seen across India, itsaid.

The hospital infrastruc-ture to treat Covid-19 consistsof 1,381 Dedicated CovidHospitals in Category I , 3100dedicated Covid HealthcareCentres in Category II, 10,367Covid Care Centres inCategory III. They togetherhave a capacity of 46,666 ICUbeds.

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Indian Institute ofTechnology (IIT), Madras-

incubated startup ModulusHousing has developed a 15-bedded portable hospital unit‘MediCab’ that can be installedanywhere within two hours byfour people.

It is foldable and is com-posed of four zones – a doctor'sroom, an isolation room, amedical room/ward and atwin-bed ICU, maintained atnegative pressure.

‘MediCAB’ has beenlaunched recently in WayanadDistrict of Kerala where theunits are being deployed totreat Covid-19 patients.

This deployment in Keralahas been undertaken withgrant funds from Habitat forHumanity’s Terwilliger Centerfor Innovation in Shelter. Thestartup collaborated with SreeChitra Tirunal Institute forMedical Sciences andTechnology (SCTIMST) whichprovided inputs on the certifi-cations and customizationsnecessary for the project.

Founded by two IIT alum-

ni in 2018, Modulus Housingwas supported by IIT MadrasIncubation Cell and has avision to revolutionise housingthrough modular prefab struc-tures. They have re-purposedtheir designs to support thefight against Covid-19.

Emphasising the need forsuch innovations in Covid-19times, Shreeram Ravichandran,Chief Executive Officer,Modulus Housing, said, “Theoutcome of this pilot project inKerala will help in proving theapplicability of the technologyand advantages of micro hos-pitals, with MediCAB as aninstant infrastructure solution.It can be easily assembled ineight hours by four people.When folded, our collapsible

cabins are reduced five-fold,making it very cost-effectivefor transportation.”

Ravichandran said,“Unlike urban areas wherethere is plenty of existing infra-structure that can be convert-ed to hospitals, rural areas donot have a lot of infrastructure.It is difficult to construct build-ings from scratch as therequirement is immediate. Asthe rural population density isrelatively low, more micro hos-pitals help greatly in tacklingCOVID-19 cases.”

Post-Pandemic, these cab-ins can be remodelled intomicro-hospitals/clinics forrural places. They can be eas-ily shifted and placed there,said an official.

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Children with disability runa huge risk of dropping out

of school unable to cope withthe switch to the online/digitalmedium of instruction duringthe Covid-19 pandemic-induced schools' closure,according to activists citingtwo surveys.

Conducted by Swabhimanand Disability Legislation Unitof Eastern India and partner ofCentre for Advocacy andResearch (CFAR), the surveynoted that an underlying real-ity was that children fromGovernment schools belongedto poor families, and a largeproportion of them were notusers or owners of smart-phones which are being usedfor online education.

The surveys found thatonly 56.5 per cent of studentswere “struggling yet attendingclasses” irregularly whilearound 77 per cent of studentssaid they would not be able tocope and would fall behind inlearning due to their inability

to access distance learningmethods.

Similarly, 71 per cent saidthey were finding it difficult tocope with the Covid-19 socialand educational scenario. Theparents of as many as 90 percent CwDs said teachers werenot giving them attention while86 per cent said they did notknow how to use technology.As many as 76 per cent ofmothers said they did notknow how to help as theythemselves did not understandtechnology.

Around 81 per cent teach-ers said they did not haveaccessible educational mater-ial, suitable for online learn-ing, with them while 64 percent of students did not havesmartphones or computers athome.

The surveys also foundthat 67 per cent of studentsexpressed their need for lap-tops, smartphones or tabletsfor educational purposes,while 77 per cent asked forstudy material in alternateformat suitable for children

with disabilities. Around 74per cent of them said theyneeded data/Wi-fi support foreducational purposes while61 per cent expressed a needfor scribes, escorts, readersand attendants.

The surveys also probedissues such as why studentswere not attending classes reg-ularly. Dr. Sruti Mohapatrafrom Swabhiman, a commu-nity-based organisation, saidthe first requisite is readingmaterial in alternate formats.“This is a non-negotiable.Alternate course material mustcater to different disabilities.Our recommendations includeempowering students, teachersand parents so that they canplay their roles more effec-tively,” she said.

The activists also calledfor focus on disabled stu-dents’ various requirements,the need to give equal statusand respect to special educa-tors, empowering parents sothat they are able to learn newtechnology and support theirchildren.

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Page 8: €¦ · flights between Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore to Paris from July 18 till August 1 while United Air will operate 18 flights between Delhi, Mumbai to New York till July 31. “In

The European Union (EU)sponsored an investigationand set up a commissioncalled the EuropeanEmergency Trust Fund,

which came to an end in 2018.Collaborators and researchers from dif-ferent parts of the world were part ofthis study. The commission examinedquestions related to “ethics dumping,”typically practised by rich nations hav-ing strict legal regimes on poorercountries with more lax regulations.American screenwriter DorisSchroeder, who led the trust, said thatwhile there were certain cases wherethere is a “lack of awareness”, there arealso others “where there was a definiteattempt to avoid legislation in Europeancountries.”

It is noteworthy that one of thecountries which is reportedly notoriousfor making itself available to this prac-tice of ethics dumping is China. Onesuch high-profile case was that ofSergio Canavero, an Italian neurosur-geon, who sought to perform headtransplants on humans. Unable toattempt such a procedure in Europe,Canavero approached Ren Xiaoping, aChinese orthopaedic surgeon fromHarbin Medical University, and carriedout his work on dogs and monkeys.Canavero also apparently planned tograft the head of a patient, who wasparalysed from the neck down afterbeing injured wrestling with a friend.He was reportedly stopped by China’sHealth Ministry before he couldattempt an experiment that had morein common with the fictionalFrankenstein’s monster than anythingrelated to medical science.

With tension along the Line ofActual Control (LAC) brewing and theIndian Government’s decision to ban 59applications from China, it is more thanobvious that India would like to dis-tance itself from China and has henceincreased focus on making the coun-try aatmanirbhar (self-reliant). It isimportant that India distances itselffrom the Chinese example of provid-ing lax medical standards that havemade the latter a popular territory for“ethics dumping.” In this context,recent examples show that we aretreading a dangerous path.

Take the example of Coronil, theayurvedic medicine manufactured byPatanjali, which claimed that “thoseadministered the medicine were fullycured and none died.” Patanjali furtherclaimed that 69 per cent of those whowere administered the medicine werecured within three days and a whop-ping 100 per cent recovered in sevendays. It almost sounded as if we hadfound a “miracle cure.” However, this

excitement and enthusiasmwere short-lived. On the face ofmounting criticism from thoseoutside Patanjali, including thecommon citizens and theMinistry of AYUSH amongothers, Patanjali came up witha clarification, saying it neverclaimed that Coronil was a curefor COVID-19. As more detailsbegan to emerge, the impossi-ble nature of Patanjali’s claimwas exposed.

As per reports that rely onresearch papers submitted byPatanjali to the AYUSHMinistry, it emerged that theAyurveda firm “did not testCoronil on any severeCoronavirus patient.” Clinicaltrials were conducted only on120 asymptomatic, mildlysymptomatic and moderatelysymptomatic patients betweenthe 15-80 year age group.

As someone familiar withthe sphere of medical scienceand one who knows about theprocess involved in approvinga particular drug to be admin-istered to patients, it was shock-ing that Patanjali made an out-landish claim on the basis oflimited data. Watching suchstandards, I am afraid that anumber of home remedies canqualify as “cures” forCoronavirus.

However, what’s moreshocking is that such out-

landish claims are allowed to gounpunished without such firmsgetting a serious rap on theknuckles. COVID-19 is one ofthe biggest threats to humani-ty in recent memory. Allowingsuch companies and individu-als to earn profit by creatingpanic and fear among the cit-izens is something that histo-ry will not look kindly on.

Another example is that ofItolizumab, a drug used tocure skin ailment psoriasis,which was approved by India’sdrug regulator to treat COVID-19 patients with moderate tosevere acute respiratory dis-tress. Typically, drugs areapproved after trials on hun-dreds of patients. However, inthis case, approval was givenwithout any phase-3 trials.Randomised clinical trial ofonly 30 patients was conduct-ed. Doctors from differentparts of the country are usingsimilar drugs that are alreadyavailable in the market onpatients who are experiencingmoderate to severe Coronasymptoms.

Doing away with thephase-3 trials for drugs couldopen the gates for the patientsto be used as guinea pigs. It isalso surprising that most of ourdiscussions are focussed onwonder drugs that are expen-sive. But drugs like dexametha-

sone, which is deemed to beextremely effective on COVID-19 patients on ventilators, isavailable at a much more rea-sonable cost. There has been lit-tle discussion on televisionchannels or newspapers aboutthis drug.

A large part of the respon-sibility falls on the manufactur-ers. We must demand morefrom them but is theGovernment acting withrestraint or responsibility?Unfortunately, expert bodieshave allowed such laxitythrough their conduct.

The most obvious exampleis of a letter dated July 2 by theIndian Council of MedicalResearch (ICMR). In this letterto the select institutes, wherethe clinical trial pf COVID-19is to be done, it states that itwants the institutions to “fast-track all approvals” and toensure that participants in thetrial of the vaccine are enrolled“no later than July 7” so that thelaunch of the vaccine can bedone by August 15. The letterfurther goes on to state that anynon-compliance to the orderwill be viewed “seriously.”

The contents of this letterare troubling. This, not mere-ly because of the fact that bydesignating August 15 —which is the day we celebratethe independence day — as the

date on which vaccine shouldbe launched, the ICMR isreducing a serious medical cri-sis to a potential political gim-mick.

It is all the more worrisomethat the ICMR, an organisationthat is meant to rely on science,has asked institutions to fasttrack all approvals. This wouldinclude getting relevantapprovals from the ethics com-mittees of these institutions.

This approach of potential-ly favouring a headline overobtaining relevant approvalsmust be criticised.Repercussions of such a movemay outweigh possible benefits.It is time for the ICMR to speakto the Government and the cit-izens instead of setting suchludicrous timelines.

Even optimists in the scien-tific community do not realis-tically expect a vaccine to beavailable till early 2021. In theevent, the ICMR needs to con-vince the Government of amore calibrated approach. It cancite the example of Canaveroand China and how Indiawould do well to not go downthat dark alley where medicalethics is considered “red tape”rather than a necessary checkon reckless scientific pursuit.

(The writer is a former IPSofficer, a former MP and cur-rently a member of the AAP)

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Sir — The COVID-19 pandem-ic has disturbed the academicyear. At the same time, it hasgiven us a chance to introspectand bring some positive changesin life. As education becomesrooted in the family and homeenvironment, it’s a great oppor-tunity for parents to make use ofthis time to experiment. Earlier,parents used to complain thatthey do not know what is hap-pening in school.

Now there is an opportunityto get directly involved in class-es, which they must make use of.In online classes, there is a greaterneed for parents to fill the gaps inlearning. We had a situationwhere parents’ responsibility usedto end with dropping children toschool; now they can get direct-ly involved with their children’sstudies. The crucial factor here isthe parent-child relationship. Weneed to set boundaries for chil-dren and monitor them. Parentsmust sit through classes if possi-ble or monitor younger childrenin the initial phase and speak toolder children.

B Ahsanullah New Delhi

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Sir — The United StatesImmigration and CustomsEnforcement’s (ICE) decision to

rescind the TrumpAdministration’s order thatwould have required internation-al students to transfer schools orleave the country if their collegeshold classes entirely online next

semester because of the coron-avirus pandemic is welcome. Asit is, we are yet to come to termswith Kuwait National Assembly’sdraft expat quota Bill that wouldforce around eight lakh Indians

to leave that country. The ICE has regularly been

accused of arbitrary and discrim-inatory practices against immi-grants and citizens of colour inthe US. At a time when studentsacross the world are facingunprecedented challenges, evic-tion from the US would havemade thousands of students anx-ious about their future. Onehopes that such measures are notundertaken in the near future.

Kavya ShahUjjain

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Digital reliance” (July 16).That so many firms have soughtan alliance with Jio speaks of theventure’s prospects. Google,along with Jio, plans to create aspecial operating system for low-cost devices to penetrate theIndian market. However, it’sworrying that there’s no directcompetitor in this space. Thiscan block space for innovation.

ShubhamVia email

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During my professional engagement withrural India, I found that one of the mostuseful resources at the grassroots level was

an Anganwadi worker. I would always begin myvillage exploration with a visit to an Anganwadiand would be rewarded with a finer introduc-tion to the local community. I have alwaysregarded Anganwadi workers as the most effi-cient last-mile connects. Their delivery on theground is both devoted and empathetic.

In normal times, India’s army of Anganwadiworkers is on the frontline of the country’s waragainst undernutrition. Today, it has joinedanother battle — the battle against COVID-19.This vast cohort is now at the forefront of com-munity surveillance, detection and preventionmechanisms, going door to door, recording peo-ple’s travel history, noting symptoms, advisingpeople on hygiene protocols and social distanc-ing to protect themselves against the virus.

These workers form an important part of thedisease surveillance and mitigation mecha-nism. Since they know their people well and haveintimate on-the-ground experience, this legionof Anganwadi workers is extensively used by dis-trict administrations in times of crisis. Dealingwith emergencies is, therefore, not alien to theircadre. Anganwadi workers are a resilient work-force and can adapt very quickly to difficult cir-cumstances. In Wanoja village in Chandrapurdistrict of central India, too, Anganwadi work-ers are leading COVID-19 work. Apart fromspreading awareness about the Coronavirus andconducting related surveys, they visit houses,looking for cases of cholera and keep track ofimmunisation, family planning, nutrition and soon. An Anganwadi worker is usually a local vil-lage woman, between 18 to 35 years of age andeducated up to class X. She gets paid around�4,500 per month.

An Anganwadi worker whom I have knownfor most of my professional life and who is stillactive in that role is Meera Chaudhary of Wanojavillage. I remember vividly my first encounterwith Meerabai. She lived in a primitive housewhich had a very low entrance. I had to bendalmost half to get into it. Meerabai had a goatwhich she milked on every visit to prepare teafor us. We became regular visitors and she alwayswelcomed us with great warmth. We wouldspend time discussing local affairs, the diverseoccupations and even politics although she hadlittle interest in it.

Since Meerabai was the primary interface ofthe village for development staff of theGovernment, she was familiar with the nicetiesto be done when entertaining visiting dignitaries.I found her a well-trained host.

Her husband Vasantrao had a hair salon inthe local town. When Meerabai became anAnganwadi worker in 1986, she received amonthly compensation of �125. For Meerabai,the job was purely a labour of love. AlthoughAnganwadis were the primary units of India’smainstream nutrition programme for womenand children, Anganwadi work was consideredmore of a social contract than a source of sta-ble income. Meerabai’s organising skills and herendearment to her people proved highlyresourceful to us. She would host our meetingsin her house and whenever the meetings werelarger, she would open the Anganwadi premis-es. While the Anganwadi was not part of ouragenda, we got involved in it. We helped theAnganwadi with a small donation for purchas-ing an audio player, a few tricycles and a collec-tion of modern toys.

Right from the beginning of her career as anAnganwadi worker, Meerabai carried an air of

seriousness and was very committed toevery task she undertook. This is thereason she was never allowed to retreatto the privacy of her home even whenshe was keen to take a holiday.

She juggled the Anganwadi jobeven as she saw through the educationand marriages of her three daughters.She saw several juniors join and leavethe Anganwadi on account of lack ofadequate monetary incentives. But shecouldn’t think of taking a reprievebecause parents would shudder at thevery thought of what the Anganwadiwould be like without Meerabai.

She has grown into a versatileresource primarily because she has han-dled practically every grassroot role forwhich there was no specifically-assigned Government worker. Therewas a time when the block administra-tion wanted to use Self Help Groups(SHGs) for promoting its nutrition mis-sion for children and pregnant moth-ers. We already had these groups formicro-finance. Meerabai provided us aplatform for using them as conduits forsocial and financial programmes.

How is it that when everyAnganwadi gets the same monthly sup-port from the Government, some per-form well while others lag behind. Onemajor reason is leakage at every levelwhere the aid is sponged off. As the aidtravels, only a small part reaches theactual beneficiary.

Indians have learnt to live with thisso called “chalta hai (it’s ok)” attitude.But you will get a better answer whenyou observe a typical day in Meerabai’swork schedule. She is meticulous abouthygiene and the quality of raw materi-als used for cooking mid-day meals forchildren. She pays attention to everyminute detail so that the overall ambi-ence of the Anganwadi is highly stim-ulating.

The children belong to a very sen-sitive age band (under six years), whentheir vital cognitive and behaviouralfunctions are being developed.Meerabai’s deep understanding of childbehaviour has made a huge difference.A child’s early years have a dispropor-

tionate impact on the rest of his/hersocial, mental and emotional life up toadulthood. That’s why Anganwadisare considered a cost-effective way toraise a generation of healthy, socially-adept and productive adults. It is farbetter than treating sick adults later.

Anganwadi workers do not haveany comprehensive manual on manag-ing their role. They are taught broadprinciples and it is left to their rawnative understanding and native wis-dom to flesh out the details. AnAnganwadi Worker (AWW) is entrust-ed with many non-Integrated ChildDevelopment Services (ICDS) tasks —such as preparing voter identity cards,conducting a census, employment orSwachh Bharat Mission (Clean IndiaMission) surveys and helming electionbooths — none of which is paid workexcept for election duty.

It may not be possible for theGovernment to provide formal salariesand other allowances to Anganwadiworkers on account of the country’sexperience with formal employment.But it can give frontline responders suchas healthcare workers and social serviceproviders guaranteed support and faircompensation. Many of these health-care workers, fighting the COVID-19on the frontline, are equipped only withcommitment, courage and the burdenof expectations.

One way of improving motivation-al levels of Anganwadi workers isthrough aligning their incentives withthe policymakers’ objectives. EachAnganwadi worker can be individual-ly made responsible for services at hercentre, thereby avoiding the problemsassociated with free-ridership. Paymentwould be made based on overall out-comes among all the children at eachcentre, incentivising each worker toallocate efforts among tasks in some-what the same way as payments toteachers for education outcomes arebased on improved test scores.

Focussing on outcomes createsincentives for workers to employ con-textual knowledge about the optimalallocation of available resources.

Performance pay in the healthcaresector usually targets the provision ofintermediate inputs such as clinic vis-its or other specific services .

Meerabai recalls the hardship sheendured in setting up the Anganwadiand the ordeals during the familyplanning programme, when stiff targetshad to be met for sterilisations. Sherecalls how “scary” it was when herinexperience landed the initial effortsin trouble, but her bosses rallied aroundand chipped in.

Anganwadis are the primary unitsof ICDS, the world’s largest State-pro-moted social programme. ICDS waslaunched on October 2, 1975, withabout 5,000 Anganwadis to deliverhigh-quality healthcare, nutrition, com-munity education and pre-school edu-cation services to vulnerable families.The centres are tasked with a range ofpublic health responsibilities includingproviding supplementary nutrition,informal preschool education, nutritionand health education, immunisation,health check-ups, and referral services for primarily children underthe age of six and pregnant and lactat-ing women.

Working alongside an army ofnearly three million Anganwadi work-ers are more than nine lakh AccreditedSocial Health Activists (ASHAs). TheASHA initiative was the result of the2005 National Rural Health Mission,affiliated with the Ministry of Healthand Family Welfare. A single ASHAworker looks after more than onethousand families in an administrativeunit.

With about 1.4 million Anganwadisin 7,000 blocks and around 2.8 millionfrontline personnel, Anganwadis con-tinue to be the backbone of India’sgrassroots social services platform forwomen and children. However, the realvalue of the programme can be realisedonly when the cadre has devoted work-ers. They are the most authentic mas-cots of this mission which would com-plete a half-century in a few years.

(The writer is a well-known devel-opment professional)

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The ‘Make in India’ drive in 2013and the ‘Atma Nirbhar BharatAbhiyaan’ initiated this year by

the Government are critical steps for-ward in improving the manufacturinggrowth of India. Success in bothwould hugely depend on the real leapwe make in the ease-of-doing-business.One of the biggest challenges on thisfront is the growing emphasis on hir-ing of informal labour.

Trade unions do not represent theinformal labour force, which has nei-

ther employment nor social security.Such workers are neither coveredunder national labour legislation andsocial protection nor entitled toemployment benefits such as paidannual or sick leave, health insurance,contribution to the provident fund,bonus and so on. In other words, thequality of employment of the informallabour is relatively poor. In a develop-ing economy, the labour mix (formaland informal) employed in manufac-turing plays a significant role.

As per current estimates, 92 percent of approximately 500 millionworkers in India are informal. The pro-portion of informal employment in theorganised sector has increased from 41per cent in 1999-2000 to 58 per centin 2011-2012, thereby indicating dete-rioration in skill quality. This meansthat India has too many working

poor, who make enough money to livebut not enough to pull out of pover-ty. Additionally, as per the NationalSample Survey Office (NSSO), only 18per cent of the youth passing out ofvocational schools have regular jobsand 60 per cent of them are employedas informal workers. Our archaiclabour laws regulate the industriallabour environment. So an informalworker employed for more than 240days can claim a regular or permanent(formal) employment.

Companies hire informal labourbecause lower wages make itfavourable to manage the intenseglobal competitiveness. There is flex-ibility to play with staff numbers to getaround labour laws and managedemand-market volatility. There isincreased flexibility in retrenchment,irrespective of the performance of the

employee. The practice also reducesthe bargaining power of formal work-er unions during negotiations.However, an unusually high propor-tion of the informal labour force in amanufacturing set-up, in the long-term, is likely to lead to low produc-tivity and product quality due totime-bound exit of the informal labour,inconsistent quality and high cost ofquality due to low labour skill levels.There is an unhealthy industrial rela-tionship climate between the “top-floor” and the “shop-floor” that detersefficiencies.

Therefore, it is recommendedthat every manufacturing plant shouldoperate with the right balance of for-mal and informal labour. This is rati-fied by simulation runs to study thelong-term implications of informallabour hiring on manufacturing

growth using System Dynamics mod-elling.

Some of the useful inferencesfrom the analysis are: Beyond a criti-cal limit of informal labour mix, themanufacturing output, in the long-run,is likely to decrease. A small periodicconversion from informal labour toformal, based on high performance,significantly improves the perfor-mance trajectory of the manufactur-ing output.

All options with conversions frominformal to formal labour have showna speedy and a significant increase inthe output. Options with no conver-sion from informal to formal labourhave shown low plant capacity utilisa-tion. The recommended healthy labourflexibility range of formal-informallabour ratio may vary from 60:40 to80:20 with a conversion rate of five-

seven per cent per year. The policy ofperiodically moving a small fraction ofhigh performing informal workers intothe formal category would improvecompetitiveness among workers andfacilitate a long-term healthy industri-al relations environment in the produc-tion shop.

Gradually minimising and even-tually leading to equal work, equal pay,is recommended. Labour reforms areneeded by providing the employers theflexibility in labour recruitment andlay-offs. However, this ought to betransparent, performance-driven andwith a financial safety net in the formof insurance for upskilling or retrain-ing. To fulfil the dream of an AtmaNirbhar Bharat, we need labourreforms.

(The writer is Professor, Operations,GLIM, Gurugram)

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GMRINFRA 19.55 20.3 19.35 20.1EIDPARRY 279 313.8 275 304.6IDFCFIRSTB 25.35 25.75 24.1 25.65JUSTDIAL 380 380 367.7 375.75CANBK 101.65 102 98.9 101.45CYIENT 284 287.85 273.15 284.15RAMCOCEM 652.7 654.5 632.2 651.15HDFCAMC 2420 2452 2392 2449.7SCI 64 64.7 61.15 61.9JUBLFOOD 1722 1732.8 1673.3 1692.25MANAPPURAM 156.5 161.4 152.05 160.85INDIACEM 117.5 117.9 113.5 116.3BOSCHLTD 13300.15 13300.15 12692.15 12813.9GRANULES 243.05 247.2 240.65 245.95TATACHEM 296.5 299.85 289.5 298.3PETRONET 255 260.3 250.5 255.55ASTRAZEN 3399.9 3469.95 3307 3347.95CENTURYTEX 299.95 304.8 290.2 301.15ONGC 77 77 75.05 76.15

MCX 1288.35 1315.95 1284 1309.6MOTHERSUMI 94.8 94.8 91.55 92.4GAIL 97.15 97.8 94.45 96.75MRF 63633.2 64018.1 62427.6 63495.7BAJAJ-AUTO 2949.95 2950 2900 2942.75HEXAWARE 361 373.15 360 362.45GRASIM 591 592.45 579.75 582.5SRF 3791.2 3832.15 3760.1 3814.7SUNTV 384 384 372.65 380.3ADANIGREEN 354.25 359.95 338.05 348.1POWERGRID 164.4 164.4 159.55 162.2BEL 96.9 96.9 94.2 94.45MGL 990 990 959.35 982.5NTPC 88.4 88.4 85.9 86.75HATHWAY 44.75 46.5 39.45 39.65ITI 126.5 126.85 121 122.45HAVELLS 578 578 562.4 573.85TATACONSUM 414 414.25 407.2 410.35LTTS 1465 1515 1427.4 1439.2APOLLOTYRE 114 114 108.8 109.45BANKINDIA 46.55 46.8 45.1 45.7ICICIPRULI 425.5 431.9 419 430.15RAIN 94.75 99.7 93.15 97.7BBTC 1182.9 1276.6 1170.7 1264.45FORTIS 129 130.7 126.9 129.7BLISSGVS 105.6 106.2 102.35 105.65APLLTD 951.8 987.95 944.5 970.9PFC 80 81.55 78.9 81.25COROMANDEL 758.8 778.9 746.9 773.25OIL 96.6 96.6 93.15 93.35UBL 1005 1006.7 966.65 977.2NATIONALUM 33.85 33.9 32.75 33.75CRISIL 1798.7 1798.7 1711 1733.6NOCIL 105.85 105.85 101.4 103.15BALKRISIND 1260 1260 1230.45 1249.55BDL 375.9 377.4 354.7 359.55SUZLON 4.5 4.6 4.3 4.32BOMDYEING 71 71.55 68.5 70.8WOCKPHARMA 244.7 244.7 237.9 241.85GODREJPROP 855 903.25 840.5 889.3IDBI 40.25 40.5 38.1 38.3GODFRYPHLP 947 947 922.4 943.75GREAVESCOT 83.1 89.8 82.1 87.15SPARC 161.5 163.8 157 161.7CEATLTD 872 875.5 847.5 867.45ADANIPORTS 317 317 309.8 311.2NCC 31.3 31.85 30.25 31.45FSL 45 45 41.2 42.4OFSS 3004 3195 2981.3 3149.3SWSOLAR 236.5 240.65 220 238.95ADANIENT 148 150 145.15 148.9VOLTAS 540.55 552.3 529.4 549.9SONATSOFTW 239 251.4 238.65 243SOUTHBANK 7.56 7.6 7.3 7.42TORNTPOWER 319.6 319.6 313 317.15CONCOR 435 435 420.35 429.9PIIND 1695 1708.2 1661.5 1672.85EDELWEISS 58.4 61.3 56.15 61.25PHILIPCARB 105 105.75 100.9 102.85AMBUJACEM 190 192.95 185.8 192.5JUBILANT 693.7 693.7 653.55 675.9TVSMOTOR 394.9 394.9 382.25 391.45HAL 896 896 826.2 840.35COCHINSHIP 334.5 334.5 323 326.95RALLIS 290 291.35 277.35 284.15

RITES 241.9 248.05 237.5 245BASF 1308.85 1308.85 1248.95 1272.8LALPATHLAB 1935.9 1936.15 1850 1856.65SBILIFE 867.95 868.4 850.55 864.8IRB 114 116.05 109.65 114GNFC 161.8 161.8 156.2 158.5AMARAJABAT 685.35 686.15 664.65 683.15AUBANK 633.3 644 616 641.9CASTROLIND 120.05 121.65 118.75 120.1RECLTD 102.5 103.7 99.85 103.15IBREALEST 63.5 63.5 57.5 57.6GODREJCP 696.7 698.35 686 694.2AJANTPHARM 1350.05 1420 1350.05 1409.5CANFINHOME 365.3 367.15 355.5 359.35DCMSHRIRAM 319 345 317.5 332.45PFIZER 4146.05 4146.05 4080.05 4107.15TV18BRDCST 35.05 35.75 33.8 34CUMMINSIND 389.9 389.9 373.6 382.9NMDC 82.5 82.5 80.4 82.1ADANIGAS 151.7 151.7 142.95 145.65AFFLE 1700 1740.75 1652.15 1707CUB 120.55 123.05 119.75 121.25NAM-INDIA 287.9 291.55 282.05 289.75FDC 259.4 265.45 250.65 261.4MARICO 344 348.35 338.9 347.2MEGH 58.5 59.45 56.8 58.15PERSISTENT 782.15 799.8 745.6 755.4ASHOKA 58.4 58.6 54.6 57.1ABBOTINDIA 15180.05 15595 15180.05 15544.55SHREECEM 22149.95 22149.95 21265.15 21734.4TORNTPHARM 2422 2425.15 2367.35 2405.05UJJIVANSFB 35.25 36.6 34.15 36.05JAICORPLTD 91 91.05 87.5 88.45AVANTI 436 454 429 452.3FCONSUMER 10.3 10.5 10.25 10.25SWANENERGY 143.9 145 140.1 141.2MIDHANI 209.4 209.4 202.45 205.55PAGEIND 19819 19819 19156.3 19252.5THYROCARE 570 610.4 549.8 606.45DELTACORP* 94 95.2 90.05 90.85RAYMOND 255 255 244.4 248.35BEML 624.5 629.2 605.8 614.5ASTERDM 134 135 125.9 127.3ITDC 249.9 249.9 226.1 230.15SKFINDIA 1620 1620 1564.7 1577GSFC 57.85 57.85 55 55.6ECLERX* 504.9 528 504.9 523.1CGCL 173.1 173.1 165.95 168.55GRAPHITE 168.9 168.9 161.7 164.2J&KBANK 17.1 17.1 16.25 16.5GUJGAS 304.85 304.85 290.3 294.75DCAL* 159.65 163.8 156.1 160.05ALKEM 2560 2573.5 2511.85 2559BALRAMCHIN 126.5 128.8 124.15 126.05DIXON 6565 6570 6418.25 6447.05SANOFI 7615 7809.95 7615 7772.85WELCORP 79.9 82.8 77.95 82.25DCBBANK 80 80 77.45 79.45NATCOPHARM 669.4 692 651.5 687.8HEG 743.5 750 722 726.45FRETAIL 105.25 105.25 105.25 105.25GRSE 206 206.7 192.15 202.65AARTIIND 906 920.8 893.15 897.95VBL 680 690 662 686.4ENGINERSIN 73 73 70.75 71.7ABCAPITAL 57.05 58.25 55.8 57.85TRIDENT 6.45 6.45 6.1 6.21BAYERCROP 5584.55 5620 5460.05 5538.8NBCC 24 24 23.15 23.7RAJESHEXPO 474.8 474.8 458 471.25DISHTV 7.8 7.8 7.3 7.35NAVINFLUOR 1689.9 1689.9 1661 1674.45ABFRL 115.1 115.4 112.6 113.1SYNGENE 420 420.9 402 404.45PRESTIGE 182.55 182.55 167.3 171.55ZENSARTECH 137 139.1 133.4 137.35DBL 272 284.55 271 280.1UNIONBANK 30.2 30.2 29.55 29.9TATAMTRDVR 40.5 40.55 39.15 39.95HFCL 13.15 13.25 12.45 12.6IRCON 88.35 88.55 85.05 86.95HINDZINC 188 189 183.2 188.25GLAXO 1532.8 1559.3 1518 1547.25DHANUKA 815 829.4 787.85 812.3VINATIORGA 963.5 983 959.6 978.75EXIDEIND 155.9 155.9 152.6 155.25HUDCO 34.9 35.2 32.85 34.85VARROC 208 208 196.6 201.35INDIAMART 2198.2 2198.2 2101 2106.7HSCL 51 51 48.65 49.25INTELLECT 123 126.6 117.6 125.55CESC 629.15 631.5 606.15 609.7FINEORG 2070.05 2140 2024.2 2126.2TATACOMM 687 715.75 685.1 685.1RADICO 381.85 382 367.25 377MINDACORP 64.55 66.85 63.5 66.4AEGISLOG 182.9 185.8 178.85 183.55RCF 47.5 47.5 45.8 46.6GODREJAGRO 436.9 451.7 431.5 444.7JINDALSAW 57.9 57.9 55.8 56.85HINDCOPPER 36.65 37.3 34.8 36.95IEX 188 190 184.4 185.25SUNTECK 172.9 174.55 165.2 167.3RELAXO 622 625.45 611 622.85INDIANB 60.95 60.95 58.5 59.6GMDCLTD 42.4 42.8 41 41.3JYOTHYLAB 114.1 120.7 112.4 119.9ICICIGI 1256.2 1264.9 1242 1249.45GSPL 206 209.95 206 208.3

KTKBANK 45.2 45.25 43.85 44.45KPITTECH 71.9 72.35 69.75 72.1IDFC 18.5 18.5 18 18.4PGHH 10400 10486.95 10167 10301.1PNBHOUSING 202 202 193.2 196.05QUESS 344 344 322.1 331.2CARBORUNIV 245.95 255.95 235.95 239.3TRENT 623 623 600 610.6INFIBEAM 69.35 69.85 66.45 67.85JTEKTINDIA 69.5 72 67.5 67.75KALPATPOWR* 248.3 254.8 235.5 251IFCI 6.7 6.75 6.37 6.42SHK 71.25 71.4 68.05 68.6CHAMBLFERT 152.95 154.25 148.25 153.7JMFINANCIL 76.2 78.7 73.55 74.35JKPAPER* 99.85 99.9 97.7 98.2MAHABANK 10.65 10.75 10.22 10.52SUPREMEIND 1143 1199 1129.1 1155.4PTC 48.05 48.5 47.5 48.15VIPIND 258 261.7 252 260.05ALKYLAMINE 2300.05 2300.1 2227.9 2265.7GET&D 80.2 83.5 80.05 80.95BAJAJHLDNG 2605.95 2609.65 2553.75 2590.953MINDIA 19806.05 20699 19806.05 20557.1WHIRLPOOL 2186.6 2214.45 2175 2192.7CENTURYPLY 130.9 132.15 125.35 131.4UFLEX 239.4 249.25 239.4 247.25JSWENERGY 43.8 44.15 43 43.55POLYCAB 829.5 829.5 802 812.9ADANIPOWER 34.7 34.95 34.5 34.7INDHOTEL 80 80 77.15 78.7GMM 4040 4040 3978 4004.95LEMONTREE 25.15 25.2 23.75 24.7GHCL 156.9 156.9 149.6 152.55RVNL 19.1 19.1 18.35 18.65CAPPL 366 373.45 357.2 367.3TASTYBIT 11571.7 12094 11387.3 12079.85VENKYS 1023.85 1023.85 996.85 1006.75VSTIND 3370.1 3399 3340.5 3355.8JKTYRE 64.8 65.55 63 64.95HAWKINCOOK 4075.05 4165.35 4075.05 4101.65KEI 371.75 372.7 362.05 367.05GICRE 150.85 150.85 144.05 146.1ADANITRANS 244 247.4 238 241.85ATUL 4622.2 4646.2 4561.65 4632.8DALBHARAT* 698.9 700.75 685 690.05NHPC 20.1 20.2 19.9 20.1FLUOROCHEM 374.75 395 363.5 390.35TATAMETALI 486.85 505 478.7 485.95SOBHA 230.1 230.15 222.35 226.35REDINGTON 93.75 93.75 90.1 93.05IIFL 74.4 74.45 70.55 71.8NBVENTURES 46.35 47.85 46.1 46.5FORCEMOT 931 942.8 924.75 930.5DEEPAKFERT 114 115.85 111.75 114.15ENDURANCE 880 896.65 865 872.25VMART 1852.3 1852.3 1775 1819.25IOB 10.4 10.4 10.03 10.2SUMICHEM 266.85 267.45 262.85 265EMAMILTD 235.2 245 231.4 233.2ABB 927.9 927.9 895 902.95WELSPUNIND 33 33 31.25 32.25SPANDANA 611.35 614 604.8 606.25GILLETTE 5050 5050 4970 5030.2TIINDIA 490 490 463.15 477.15MMTC 19.25 19.25 18.1 18.3KAJARIACER 390 394.35 389.3 390.4UCOBANK 13.1 13.4 12.7 13.03METROPOLIS 1609.2 1609.2 1550.05 1556.5HONAUT 28267.3 28411.9 28104.6 28186.7SUDARSCHEM 395.9 395.9 387.3 390.55IFBIND 378.5 393 366.7 383.3HEIDELBERG 176.15 176.15 172 172.8TATACOFFEE 80.75 80.75 78.6 79.3WESTLIFE 323 334.9 319 331.45JKLAKSHMI 282.75 287.45 280.5 281.1SUPRAJIT 156 156.8 153.6 155.15REPCOHOME 118 120.35 114.05 117.35BIRLACORPN 576.7 576.7 560.5 567.95DBCORP 79.7 80.2 76.6 77.95TAKE 43 43.8 42.2 42.8GESHIP 219 221.85 212.65 216.45JSLHISAR 69.9 70.15 67.85 69.4CROMPTON 240.5 243.3 238 241.9SHOPERSTOP 156.5 157.6 148 151.05CHENNPETRO 78.8 78.8 75.5 76.9FINCABLES 278.1 278.1 269.95 274.2GALAXYSURF 1577.7 1579 1540.05 1543.6CREDITACC 550 550 518.05 532.05VGUARD 169.25 171.45 168.65 170.5MRPL 34.3 34.5 33.7 34.15TNPL 111 112 108.7 111.5PARAGMILK 87.5 87.5 85.75 86.9BLUESTARCO 490 490 471.8 485.85MINDAIND 313.95 313.95 298.8 305.2JAMNAAUTO 29.1 29.1 28.2 28.6MAHLOG 311 317 300.95 313.9AKZOINDIA 1850.55 1860.5 1835 1835.85GEPIL 498.25 506.2 481.85 495.55ORIENTELEC 173.9 175.35 171.85 174.05KEC 277.95 277.95 266.3 269.15CARERATING 418.75 426 407 424.3ZYDUSWELL 1387.65 1388 1356.85 1369.75KNRCON 207 213.25 205.65 209.45TTKPRESTIG 5566.95 5580.9 5510 5546.45SHRIRAMCIT 664.5 667.8 655 662.95AMBER 1530 1530 1470 1477.1GARFIBRES 1489.05 1520 1465.9 1487.45FINOLEXIND 468 468 453 458.65

PGHL 4048 4152 4028.5 4106.65GUJALKALI 331.7 337.5 326.5 328.25NLCINDIA 45 45.2 44.25 45KRBL 251.35 255.95 249 249.8ASTRAL 925.3 960.3 915.15 941.5INOXLEISUR 229 229 221.1 224.9GODREJIND 355.25 355.55 345 351.85NH 281.55 281.85 273 274.4EIHOTEL 63.7 63.7 62 62.35CSBBANK 176.55 184.85 175.85 184.25BALMLAWRIE 108 108 106.5 107.15BAJAJELEC 394 394 381.25 386.9INDOSTAR 266 286.9 265 280.65OBEROIRLTY 372 372 362.4 364.4NESCO 429.05 429.05 420 422.55JSL 39.75 39.75 38.1 38.75BRIGADE 135.4 138.8 132.4 137.15MOIL 147.05 148.9 146 146.6BLUEDART 1970 1976.6 1951 1959.15LINDEINDIA 673.75 673.75 660 661.7MAHSCOOTER 3060 3081.3 2975 3030.05TATAINVEST 741.25 748 738.5 742.1ALLCARGO 91.6 93 90.5 92.45APLAPOLLO 1713.45 1720.4 1677.9 1698.35MAHSEAMLES 224.1 224.45 221.35 223.75NILKAMAL 1165.45 1179.3 1160.25 1177.45SYMPHONY 860 860 845.2 850LUXIND 1164.6 1176.55 1162.15 1167ERIS 439.2 443.6 431.15 434.15TIMKEN 1025.9 1028.2 1005 1024JBCHEPHARM 717 717 711 713.85NIACL 111.55 111.8 110.05 110.55TEAMLEASE 1820 1870 1797.1 1827.2NAVNETEDUL 75 77 74.5 75.75LAOPALA 192.75 196.75 188.6 194.5THERMAX 763.6 767.85 747.55 758.5TCNSBRANDS 325.05 350 325.05 337.2KSB 536.5 536.5 516.5 519.25PCJEWELLER 14.1 14.25 13.55 14TIMETECHNO 37.6 38.05 37.3 37.55ESSELPRO 185.15 189.75 184.9 188.2JAGRAN 39.5 39.5 39.1 39.2PRSMJOHNSN 49.9 49.9 46.1 47.75HIMATSEIDE 57.2 57.4 55.35 56.65SOMANYCERA 114.3 114.3 111.05 113.15SIS 367 368 362.85 363.75PNCINFRA 136.1 141.3 135 139.4CENTRALBK 16.35 16.35 16.05 16.25ADVENZYMES 162 163.1 159.35 160.5GPPL 81.5 81.5 78.7 80.15

SJVN 22.45 22.65 22.3 22.35STARCEMENT 86 87.45 84.75 85.95AAVAS 1300 1302.2 1269 1286.15VRLLOG 151.8 151.8 149 150.4TCIEXP 646.1 668.5 646.1 664.45CCL 239.1 246 237.65 244.45MAHINDCIE 111.95 111.95 107.5 110.25ARVINDFASN 134.75 134.75 134.75 134.75SHANKARA 349.95 349.95 330.55 334.65SUNDRMFAST 387.9 387.9 383.25 385.1GRINDWELL 498 498.4 491.15 495.05CHOLAHLDNG 329.9 337 316.85 328.25SCHNEIDER 79.75 79.8 78.5 79.3ORIENTREF 173.05 173.05 167.25 169.15AIAENG 1570.05 1645.65 1570.05 1633.1JCHAC 2155.35 2180 2141.85 2170.65TVSSRICHAK 1400 1404.85 1382.7 1400.15WABAG 108 108.1 106.45 107.3MAHLIFE 208 213.8 204.65 213.05GDL 88.9 89.4 87.15 88.85ORIENTCEM 69.5 69.5 63.05 63.75PHOENIXLTD 575 585 571.2 579.95MASFIN 664.05 664.55 639.4 650.85SCHAEFFLER 3521 3622.05 3505 3579.35HERITGFOOD 243.6 247 242 246.6GULFOILLUB 584.2 584.2 578 581CERA 2217.5 2223.15 2198.7 2202.55VTL 647 656.5 644.05 649.6INDOCO 200.1 203.1 199.85 201.45ESABINDIA 1352.35 1371.6 1345 1346.15IIFLWAM 914 949.1 914 930.45SFL 1434.65 1450.95 1434 1445WABCOINDIA 6916.1 6917 6913.25 6917OMAXE 65.1 65.1 65.1 65.1TVTODAY 197.95 197.95 196.1 197.05MHRIL 165 165 159.7 162.65VAIBHAVGBL 1302.7 1317.15 1300.1 1316.1POWERINDIA 854.5 857 854.3 854.65KPRMILL 454.6 454.6 446.25 447.5SOLARINDS 999 1003.3 995 1003.3RATNAMANI 1030 1037.9 1029.95 1037.9

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SCRIP OPEN HIgh LOW LTP CHANGENIFTY 50 10,706.20 10,755.30 10,595.20 10,739.95 121.75INFY 900.1 955.5 894.25 910 79.05BPCL 372.75 396.25 360.3 395.1 25.5CIPLA 639.95 677.4 635.9 673.6 35.4M&M 547 574.5 542.55 568.95 21.15BRITANNIA 3,729.00 3,880.25 3,689.55 3,858.80 135.55INDUSINDBK 508 522 490.25 520.5 16.95NESTLEIND 16,926.00 17,764.60 16,760.00 17,457.20 548.45JSWSTEEL 194 201.9 192.6 201 6.1HCLTECH 630 652.2 607.15 634 18.8DRREDDY 4,031.10 4,162.95 4,011.10 4,148.25 111.8HEROMOTOCO 2,650.00 2,725.00 2,613.05 2,715.00 66.95KOTAKBANK 1,288.60 1,327.90 1,267.00 1,317.00 27BAJFINANCE 3,180.00 3,215.00 3,102.30 3,203.00 53.75BAJAJFINSV 6,200.00 6,280.00 6,065.00 6,255.00 86.55ASIANPAINT 1,679.80 1,697.10 1,645.10 1,694.00 22.35AXISBANK 431.95 436.15 418.45 432 5.35MARUTI 5,809.00 5,920.00 5,752.00 5,873.80 72.5SBIN 185 186.95 181.65 186 2.2LT 913 924 898.45 919.5 7.3SUNPHARMA 496 505.95 490.6 498.4 3.3HDFCBANK 1,053.65 1,065.50 1,034.10 1,059.15 6EICHERMOT 18,600.00 19,039.00 18,325.00 18,646.00 83.45TATASTEEL 338 346.5 331.55 340.65 1.35HINDUNILVR 2,275.25 2,291.30 2,238.00 2,281.95 6.8TCS 2,244.00 2,333.00 2,220.10 2,233.00 4.1HDFC 1,792.00 1,794.70 1,750.00 1,790.00 0.1HINDALCO 164.9 166.8 161.05 165.3 -0.1RELIANCE 1,847.00 1,869.00 1,812.45 1,842.05 -1.95BHARTIARTL 565.9 566.2 553.3 562.5 -1.1BAJAJ-AUTO 2,944.00 2,950.00 2,898.90 2,936.00 -6.05VEDL 109.3 110.7 105.8 108.85 -0.25ULTRACEMCO 3,824.95 3,834.00 3,735.00 3,812.00 -8.65TATAMOTORS 103.95 103.95 100.6 102.95 -0.25ONGC 76.4 76.7 75 76.05 -0.2ICICIBANK 347.95 348.6 341 344.85 -0.95WIPRO 262.5 268.45 255.05 261.25 -1.5GAIL 97.5 97.95 94.45 96.35 -0.6SHREECEM 22,031.90 22,031.90 21,250.00 21,670.00 -173.25TITAN 968.5 972.95 941.8 960.05 -7.9POWERGRID 164.5 164.5 159.5 162 -1.55UPL 440.55 441.75 423.55 433 -4.55GRASIM 592 593 580 582 -6.9ADANIPORTS 317 317.45 309.6 311 -4.15NTPC 88.2 88.4 85.85 86.75 -1.3COALINDIA 127.75 128 124.6 126.05 -1.95IOC 85.45 85.55 82.5 84 -1.65ZEEL 161.55 162 154.6 156.7 -3.55ITC 198.7 198.85 192 193.85 -4.85TECHM 627 638.95 588.1 598.95 -16.35INFRATEL 204.8 206.4 188.8 189.6 -14.35

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SCRIP OPEN HIgh LOW LTP CHANGENIFTY NEXT 50 25,979.80 25,991.95 25,614.15 25,950.05 74.8OFSS 3,001.00 3,199.00 2,990.00 3,170.00 188.1MUTHOOTFIN 1,082.00 1,137.50 1,076.60 1,132.20 54.9HINDPETRO 204.35 211.8 200.5 210.1 7.45SRTRANSFIN 661.9 679.6 644.5 678.05 23.5INDIGO 960.45 1,002.00 950 985 32.75LUPIN 861.8 881 856.05 880.5 23.35ICICIPRULI 423.9 431.95 418.75 430.4 9.5PFC 79.95 81.6 78.85 81.3 1.75AMBUJACEM 189.45 193 185.7 192.5 3.85CADILAHC 356.2 362.65 352.1 361.5 6.95ABBOTINDIA 15,250.00 15,599.00 15,177.55 15,500.00 287.75MCDOWELL-N 601.9 612.45 590.7 608.3 10.3DABUR 481 489 474.5 487.7 8.05SBILIFE 856.05 869.5 851.25 868.1 12.25ACC 1,287.50 1,305.00 1,253.00 1,304.50 17.5PNB 33 33.45 32.25 33.4 0.4BANKBARODA 48 48.35 46.9 48.1 0.55MARICO 345.65 348.2 338.75 348.1 3.85HINDZINC 188.5 189.25 183.15 189 1.8PIDILITIND 1,373.50 1,384.90 1,340.00 1,382.65 12.8HDFCAMC 2,413.85 2,455.00 2,390.55 2,449.10 21.55DLF 137.3 140.25 134.5 138.3 1.2HDFCLIFE 594 603.75 589.25 600 5.2IGL 406.05 408.6 395.5 406.2 2.05TORNTPHARM 2,412.00 2,425.00 2,366.80 2,405.00 12.3NHPC 20.05 20.2 19.85 20.1 0.1PGHH 10,397.00 10,479.85 10,171.00 10,300.00 50.45BIOCON 425 432.5 416.2 426.5 1.7SIEMENS 1,161.00 1,172.00 1,139.05 1,161.00 3.85GODREJCP 700 700 685.35 696.5 1.95NMDC 82.3 82.5 80.4 81.95 0.1NAUKRI 3,045.00 3,075.00 2,982.30 3,039.95 3.3CONCOR 430.95 432 420.25 430 -0.95ICICIGI 1,255.00 1,264.90 1,241.30 1,249.25 -3.4PETRONET 255 260.35 250.4 255.4 -0.75PEL 1,399.80 1,399.80 1,354.20 1,372.00 -4.2AUROPHARMA 840 842.35 821.25 837.4 -2.65HAVELLS 575.6 578.15 562.2 573.2 -2.2BAJAJHLDNG 2,630.00 2,630.00 2,552.10 2,592.00 -14.25BERGEPAINT 515 515.75 496 506.3 -4.1DIVISLAB 2,239.00 2,242.00 2,193.25 2,205.05 -20.25ADANITRANS 246.85 247.9 236 244 -2.5BOSCHLTD 13,170.00 13,221.80 12,685.05 12,830.00 -165.3COLPAL 1,425.00 1,425.40 1,383.80 1,395.60 -18.05PAGEIND 19,850.00 19,850.00 19,100.00 19,235.00 -260.8GICRE 148.85 149.95 144.05 146.1 -2.1MOTHERSUMI 94.3 94.75 91.55 92.3 -1.8UBL 1,000.00 1,006.15 966.45 978.35 -21.15BANDHANBNK 354 354.7 330.55 341.5 -7.9DMART 2,145.00 2,149.70 1,980.00 2,005.00 -141.35

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The Finance Ministry onThursday said banks have

sanctioned loans of about �1.23 lakh crore under the �3-lakh crore Emergency CreditLine Guarantee Scheme(ECLGS) for MSME sector,reeling under the economicslowdown caused by COVID-19 pandemic. However, dis-bursements against this stoodat �68,311 crore till July 15under the 100 per cent ECLGSfor micro, small and mediumenterprises (MSMEs).

The scheme is the biggestfiscal component of the �20-lakh crore AatmanirbharBharat Abhiyan packageannounced by FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharamanin May. The latest numbers onECLGS, as released by theFinance Ministry, comprisedisbursements by all 12 public

sector banks (PSBs), 22 privatesector banks and 21 non-bank-ing financial companies(NBFCs).

“As of 15 July 2020, thetotal amount sanctioned underthe 100 per cent EmergencyCredit Line Guarantee Schemeby #PSBs and private banksstands at �1,23,345.16 crore, ofwhich �68,311.55 crore hasalready been disbursed,” theFinance Minister said in atweet.Under the ECLGS, theloan amounts sanctioned byPSBs increased to �69,135.19crore, of which �41,819 crorehas been disbursed as of July15, she said. At the same time,private sector banks have sanc-tioned �54,209.97 crore anddisbursed �26,492 crore.

“Compared to 9 July 2020,there is an increase of � 3,245.79crore in the cumulative amountof loans sanctioned & anincrease of �6,323.65 crore in

the cumulative amount of loansdisbursed, by both #PSBs andprivate sector banks combinedas on 15 July 2020,” Sitharamansaid. The country’s largestlender SBI has sanctioned�20,910 crore of loans anddisbursed � 14,362 crore. It isfollowed by Punjab NationalBank, which has sanctioned�9,121 crore. However, its dis-bursements stood at �4,032crore as of July 15.

On May 20, the Cabinetapproved additional funding ofup to �3 lakh crore at a con-cessional rate of 9.25 per centthrough ECLGS for MSMEsector.

Under the scheme, 100 percent guarantee coverage will beprovided by the NationalCredit Guarantee TrusteeCompany (NCGTC) for addi-tional funding of up to �3 lakhcrore to eligible MSMEs andinterested Micro Units

Development and RefinanceAgency borrowers in the formof a guaranteed emergencycredit line facility.

For this purpose, a corpusof �41,600 crore was set up bythe Government, spread overthe current and next threefinancial years.The scheme willbe applicable to all loans sanc-tioned under GECL facilityduring the period from the dateof announcement of the schemeto October 31 or till the amountof �3 lakh crore is sanctioned,whichever is earlier.

All MSME borroweraccounts with an outstandingcredit of up to �25 crore as onFebruary 29, which were lessthan or equal to 60 days pastdue as on that date, i.E., regu-lar, SMA-0 and SMA-1accounts, and with an annualturnover of up to �100 crore areeligible for GECL fundingunder the scheme.

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Equity benchmark Sensexrallied 420 points on

Thursday, led by stellar gains inIT major Infosys, even as glob-al markets faced selling pres-sure amid spiking coronaviruscases.

After a choppy start, the30-share BSE Sensex gainedmomentum towards the end ofthe session. It finally closed419.87 points, or 1.16 per cent,higher at 36,471.68.

Similarly, the NSE Niftysurged 121.75 points, or 1.15per cent, to end at 10,739.95.

Infosys was the top per-former in the Sensex pack, ral-lying 9.56 per cent, a day after

the IT major posted a stronger-than-expected 12.4 per centrise in first quarter consoli-dated net profit to �4,272crore. M&M, Nestle India,IndusInd Bank, Kotak Bank,HCL Tech, Bajaj Finance andAxis Bank were the other gain-ers, spurting up to 3.81 percent.

On the other hand, TechMahindra, ITC, NPTC,PowerGrid, Titan and ICICIBank finished with losses of upto 2.54 per cent.

According to traders, rallyin IT stocks led by Infosys keptinvestor sentiment positive,but a massive selloff in Chinesestocks and concerns overrecovery amid rising COVID-

19 cases induced volatility inthe session.

Bourses in Shanghaiplunged 4.50 per cent asinvestors seemed disappointedwith the pace of recovery in theworld’s second-largest econo-my. China’s gross domesticproduct (GDP) expanded 3.2per cent year-on-year in thesecond quarter of 2020, thecountry’s National Bureau ofStatistics said earlier in theday.

Following negative cuesfrom Chinese equities, bench-marks in Hong Kong, Tokyoand Seoul ended on a weaknote.

Stock exchanges in Europewere also trading in the red in

early deals. “In spite of negativeglobal cues, Indian benchmarkindices gained strength as theday went on, powered by the ITindex and Infosys in particular.Infosys reported better thanexpected numbers and wasbacked by good deal wins anddecent outlook.

“Ground realitiesremained little changed, as thevirus infections and geopoliti-cal tensions created uncertain-ty on the global economicrecovery. Investors need toremain stock specific and theearnings results and commen-tary should be watched out for,”said Vinod Nair, Head ofResearch at Geojit FinancialServices.

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Promising all support toindustry, Union Minister

Nitin Gadkari on Thursdayasked players to join handswith the Government to res-cue COVID-19-hit economyby taking up projects on pub-lic private partnership (PPP)mode.

At the same time, he sug-gested all stakeholders, includ-ing banks, financial institu-tions, infrastructure, MSMEs,agriculture and industries, tojointly create demand toaddress the need of liquidity inthe economy. “Presently oureconomy is facing lots of chal-lenges. Government is positive

and supportive and at the sametime as a facilitator, we arekeenly taking lots of decisionsregarding how we can be help-ful in promoting industry, tradeand business... This is the timewe need cooperation from allstakeholders,” Road Transport,Highways and MSME MinisterGadkari said. He was address-ing Renewable EnergyManufacturing Conference,organised by industry body CIIin association with the Ministryof New and Renewable Energy(MNRE) through video con-ferencing.

“The banks, financial insti-tutions, MSMEs, industries,agriculture, infrastructure,everywhere we need to plan

and with an appropriate visionwe need to move fast,” he said,adding there was liquiditycrunch in the economy and theneed of the hour was to createdemand through PPP projects.

He also asked industrybodies like CII to get in touchwith the Ministry ofEnvironment and Forests forearly clearances to projects.The Minister stressed that thereis a need to find out a systemfor self assessment of pollutionlevels by the industry and incase they are found guilty thefine amount could be manifold,including jail term in case ofrepeat offenders.

Gadkari said the PrimeMinister has accorded priori-

ty to infrastructure develop-ment, and 22 green highwayswere on the anvil, including Rs1 lakh crore Delhi-MumbaiExpressway on a greenfieldalignment. The expressway willreduce the travel time to 28hours from the present 48 to 50hours. He also underlined theneed for setting up industrialclusters along the highways todecongest metropolises anddevelop far-flung areas.

“We need to change ourtransport on LNG, which is thefuel for future. We will set upLNG and CNG stations onhighways. As compared todiesel there is 60 per cent sav-ing on these fuel,” the Ministersaid.

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Commerce and IndustryMinister Piyush Goyal on

Thursday assured the industryabout finding a solution forissues related to local taxes,such as electricity duty, as theymake domestic manufacturersuncompetitive.

The Ministry is taking up

the matter at all levels, he saidat a CII webinar on renewableenergy. Goyal made the com-ments while replying to a ques-tion about Indian industrybecoming uncompetitive attimes while competing withglobal players because of vari-ous non-credible taxes, likeelectricity duty and taxes onfuel, and how the government

is looking to adjust these under‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’.

“We are conscious of thisproblem particularly becauseother countries may not behaving a coal cess or mandi taxor electricity duty, and there-fore our manufacturers do getuncompetitive because of it.

“We have taken it up with-in the Government and we are

trying to assess what could bethe mechanism...Our Indianmanufacturers compete withlet’s say FTA (free trade agree-ment) imports or other importscoming from other parts of theworld, face this problem. Iassure you that my Ministry istaking it up at all levels and wewill find a solution to this,” theMinister said

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Kathmandu: With embattledPrime Minister KP SharmaOli refusing to resign or give uphis position as chairman of theruling Nepal Communist Party,talks aimed to strike a newpower-sharing deal betweenhim and former premierPushpa Kamal Dahal‘Prachanda’ failed to make anyheadway on Thursday on theeve of a crucial meeting of theparty.

Prime Minister and partychairman Oli, executive chair-man ‘Prachanda’ and formerpremier Madhav Kumar Nepalheld an informal meeting at thePM’s official residence atBaluwatar on Thursday, aheadof the meeting of the party’s 45-member powerful StandingCommittee.

However, the three leadersfailed to reach a deal after Oliand Prachanda, who is leadingthe dissident group, stuck totheir demands, said StandingCommittee member GaneshShah.

The trio tried to sort outdifferences between Oli and thedissident group. But, as the Prime Minister didn’taccept their condition of aone-man-one-post, the talksfailed, he said.

Oli and Prachanda havefailed to reach a power-sharingdeal even after at least eightrounds of talks in recent weeks.

Thursday’s talks took placejust ahead of the StandingCommittee meeting on Fridaywhich is expected to determinethe political future of the 68-year-old prime minister whohas previously alleged that hisdetractors were trying toremove him with India’s help.

Top party leaders, includ-ing ‘Prachanda’, have beendemanding Prime Minister

Oli’s resignation, saying hisrecent anti-India remarks were“neither politically correct nordiplomatically appropriate.”They are also against Oli’sautocratic style of functioning.

There could be a middlepoint for compromise even ifthe Prime Minister agreed toquit either of the two key posi-tions, which he did not accept,resulting in deadlock in thetalk, Shah said.

Prime Minister’s pressadvisor Surya Thapa also saidthat the talks remained incon-clusive though the leaders spentaround two hours together.

The differences grew fur-ther after Oli said that some ofthe ruling party leaders arealigning with the southernneighbour to remove him frompower after his governmentissued a new political mapincorporating three Indian ter-ritories.

The Prachanda-Nepal fac-tion rejected the allegations,saying it is them who haveasked for resignation, not India.They asked Oli to show evi-dence to support his allegation.

Prachanda has said that hewill not allow the party to splitand any attempt from any-where to weaken its unitywould hurt the fight against thecoronavirus pandemic and nat-ural disasters.

Last Friday, the meeting ofthe NCP’s Standing Committeeto decide Oli’s future was post-poned for a fourth time at thelast moment, citing floods andlandslides in the country.

Under mounting pressureto resign, Prime Minister Olihas downplayed the intra-party rift and said such dis-putes are “regular phenomena”that can be resolved throughdialogue. PTI

London: London-born IslamicState (ISIS) recruit ShamimaBegum on Thursday won theright to return to the UK andcarry on her legal fight againstthe UK Government’s revoca-tion of her British citizenshipon security grounds.

Bangladeshi-origin Begum,now 20, was one of threeschoolgirls who fled London tojoin ISIS in Syria in 2015.

Senior Court of Appeal UKjudges, including Indian-originLord Justice Rabinder Singh,ruled that she must be allowedto re-enter and fight her case.

“Fairness and justice must,on the facts of this case, out-weigh the national securityconcerns, so that the leave toenter appeals should beallowed,” said Lord Justice

Julian Flaux, who was part ofthe three-judge bench withLord Justice Singh and LadyJustice Eleanor King.

The judges also said thatthe national security concernsabout her “could be addressedand managed if she returns tothe United Kingdom”.

The UK Home Office saidthe decision was “very disap-pointing” and it would “applyfor permission to appeal”.

Begum, who was 15 yearsold when she secretly fled herhome in east London in 2015 tojoin the terrorist group in Syria,is living in a camp run byKurdish forces in northern Syria.The UK Court of Appeal saidshe had been denied a fair hear-ing because she could not makeher case from the camp. AP

Washington: Infighting overthe White House’s handling ofthe coronovirus pandemic isspilling further into publicview, with trade adviser PeterNavarro panning Dr AnthonyFauci as President DonaldTrump stands watch.

Fauci, the nation’s topinfectious disease expert, calledthe criticism “nonsense” and “abit bizarre.”

The long-simmering tiffescalated when Navarro wrote an op-ed in USA Todayskewering Fauci, writing thatthe doctor “has been wrongabout everything I have inter-acted with him on. ... So when you ask me whether I lis-ten to Dr. Fauci’s advice, myanswer is: only with skepticismand caution.”

In an interview with The

Atlantic, Fauci responded: “I can’t explain Peter Navarro.He’s in a world by himself. So I don’t even want to gothere.” And Trump, who hascomplained about Fauci pri-vately for months — and pub-licly in recent days — steppedin to referee.

Navarro “made a statestatement representing himself.He shouldn’t be doing that,”

Trump told reporters as hedeparted the White House forAtlanta. The president insistedhe had a “very good relation-ship with Dr. Fauci” and saidhis staffers were workingtogether.

The back-and-forth is thelatest episode of infighting in aWhite House that has beenriven by rivalries since its ear-liest days. AP

Washington: Facing a toughre-election battle, PresidentDonald Trump has replaced hiscampaign manager, on a daywhen opinion polls showedthat his Democratic rival JoeBiden has taken a double digitlead over him.

“I am pleased to announcethat Bill Stepien has been pro-moted to the role of TrumpCampaign Manager,” the pres-ident said in a Facebook poston Wednesday night.

Stepien, Trump’s formersecond-in-command, replacesBrad Parscale as the presi-dent’s campaign manager, some16 weeks before the November3 election.

The shakeup comes as theTrump campaign has sought torevive the momentum amid acoronavirus pandemic thatwreaked havoc on a oncebooming US economy and a

national reckoning over racefollowing African-AmericanGeorge Floyd’s custodial death.

Parscale is reported to havebeen sidelined in recent weeksafter Trump’s comeback elec-tion rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma,flopped.

Parscale had boasted thatmore than one million peopleregistered to attend Trump’srally, but less than 6,200showed up at the arena.

“Brad Parscale, who hasbeen with me for a very longtime and has led our tremen-dous digital and data strategies,will remain in that role, whilebeing a Senior Advisor to thecampaign,” Trump said.

“Both were heavilyinvolved in our historic 2016win, and I look forward to hav-ing a big and very importantsecond win together,” headded. PTI

Washington: The US ismulling over imposing asweeping travel ban on mem-bers of the ruling CommunistParty of China and their fam-ilies, a move that could furtherexacerbate the bilateral ten-sions, according to a mediareport.

The presidential procla-mation, still in its draft form,could also authorise the USgovernment to revoke the visasof CPC members and theirfamilies who are already in thecountry, leading to their expul-sion, the New York Timesreported on Wednesday, citingsources.

However, there was noofficial confirmation of thereport.

The move, if taken, willfurther exacerbate the tensionsbetween the two economicgiants which are at logger-

heads over several issues,including the coronavirus andChina’s implementation of acontroversial security law forHong Kong.

The Trump administra-tion blames China for notwarning the world of the coro-navirus pandemic earlier andhiding the extent of its out-break. Beijing has rejected theallegations.

The US has also lambast-ed China for suppressing thefreedom of Hong Kong, a semi-autonomous Chinese territorythat has a special trading rela-tionship with America, byimplementing the nationalsecurity law which allowsBeijing to tighten its grip overthe former British colony.

According to the NYTreport, the draft legislationwould be based on the samestatute in the Immigration and

Nationality Act used in a 2017travel ban on several predom-inantly Muslim countries,including Iran, Sudan andYemen. The Act gives the pres-ident the power to temporari-ly block travel to the US by for-eign nationals who are deemed“detrimental to the interests ofthe United States”.

The report, however, saidPresident Donald Trump mightalso reject the travel ban pro-posal.

It also pointed out somepractical difficulties to imposethe travel ban.

The CPC has 92 millionmembers. Almost three mil-lion Chinese citizens visitedthe United States in 2018,though the numbers haveplummeted because of thecoronavirus pandemic and thecurrent ban on most trav-ellers from China. PTI

Taichung (Taiwan): Taiwan’smilitary fired missiles fromthe air and the island’s shorefacing China on Thursday in alive-fire exercise to demon-strate its ability to defendagainst any Chinese invasion.

Assault helicopterslaunched missiles and fighterjets dropped bombs on targetsat sea, while tanks and missiletrucks fired from a beach todeter a simulated invading force.

“We want the world to seeour determination and efforts toprotect our country.” PresidentTsai Ing-wen said, observing theexercise in a helmet and greenmilitary uniform.

The drill was part of a five-day annual exercise that endsFriday. China regards Taiwan asa breakaway province that is partof its territory. The self-govern-ing island of 24 million peoplelies 160 kilometers (100 miles)off China’s southeast coast acrossthe Taiwan Strait. AP

Beijing: In the global race tomake a coronavirus vaccine, astate-owned Chinese companyis boasting that its employees,including top executives,received experimental shotseven before the Governmentapproved testing in people.

“Giving a helping hand inforging the sword of victory,”reads an online post fromSinoPharm with pictures ofcompany leaders it says helped“pre-test” its vaccine.

Whether it’s viewed as hero-ic sacrifice or a violation ofinternational ethical norms, theclaim underscores the enor-mous stakes as China competeswith US and British companiesto be the first with a vaccine tohelp end the pandemic — a featthat would be both a scientificand political triumph.

“Getting a COVID-19 vac-cine is the new Holy Grail,” saidLawrence Gostin, a global pub-

lic health law expert atGeorgetown University.

“The political competitionto be the first is no less conse-quential than the race for themoon between the US andRussia.” China has positioneditself to be a strong contender.Eight of the nearly two dozenpotential vaccines in variousstages of human testing world-wide are from China, the mostof any country. And SinoPharmand another Chinese companyalready have announced they’reentering final testing.

Both China and SinoPharmhave invested heavily in a tried-and-true technology — an“inactivated” vaccine made by growing the whole virus ina lab and then killing it, whichis how polio shots are made.Leading Western competitorsuse newer, less proven technol-ogy to target the “spike” proteinthat coats the virus. AP

Terre Haute (US): The UnitedStates on Thursday carried outits second federal execution thisweek following a hiatus ofnearly two decades, killing bylethal injection a Kansas manwhose lawyers contended hehad dementia and was unfit tobe executed. Wesley Ira Purkeywas put to death at the FederalCorrectional Complex in TerreHaute, Indiana. Purkey wasconvicted of kidnapping andkilling a 16-year-old girl,Jennifer Long, before dismem-bering, burning and dumpingher body in a septic pond. Healso was convicted in a statecourt in Kansas after using aclaw hammer to kill an 80-year-old woman who had polio. AP

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Hong Kong: China accusedthe United States of “gangsterlogic” on Wednesday afterUS President Donald Trumpordered an end to HongKong’s special status underU.S. law in response toBeijing’s imposition of newsecurity legislation on the ter-ritory.

Beijing’s Liaison Office inthe Asian financial hub saidthe move would only damageU.S. interests while havinglittle impact on Hong Kong.

“Unreasonable meddlingand shameless threats by the

United States are typical gang-ster logic and bullying behav-iour,” the office said in a state-ment.

“No external force canblock China’s determinationand confidence to maintainnational sovereignty and secu-rity for Hong Kong’s long-term prosperity and stability.”

The security law imposedby Beijing punishes whatChina broadly defines as sub-version, secession, terrorismand collusion with foreignforces with up to life inprison. AGENCY

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Beijing: China reiterated onThursday that it does not seekto challenge or replace theUnited States and called onWashington to view Chinaobjectively and return to reasonin its policies towards Beijing.

Chinese foreign ministryspokeswoman Hua Chunyingtold reporters during a briefingthat if the United States thinksthat everything China does isa threat, such attitude wouldbecome self-fulfilling. Hua alsoinvited US Secretary of StateMike Pompeo to come toChina and visit Xinjiang to seefor himself that there are nohuman rights violations againstthe region’s Uighur Muslimminority. AGENCY

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London: The UK Governmenton Thursday accused “Russianactors” of seeking to interfere inthe December 2019 GeneralElection through illicitlyacquired documents and alsocondemned the alleged cyberattacks from Moscow to collectCOVID-19 vaccine data.

UK Foreign SecretaryDominic Raab told the Houseof Commons in a written state-ment that after extensive analy-sis the government was “almostcertain” that Russians sought tointerfere in the UK polls, whichresulted in a landslide win forPrime Minister Boris Johnson,through the online amplifica-tion of illicitly acquired andleaked government documents.

“Sensitive government doc-uments relating to the UK-USFree Trade Agreement wereillicitly acquired before the 2019General Election and dissemi-nated online via the socialmedia platform Reddit. Whenthese gained no traction, further

attempts were made to promotethe illicitly acquired materialonline in the run up to theGeneral Election,” Raab said.

“Whilst there is no evidenceof a broad spectrum Russiancampaign against the GeneralElection, any attempt to inter-fere in our democratic process-es is completely unacceptable. Itis, and will always be, anabsolute priority to protect ourdemocracy and elections. Thereis an ongoing criminal investi-gation and it would be inap-

propriate for us to say anythingfurther at this point,” he said.

The leaked documents ofUK-US trade negotiationsbecame a key part of theOpposition Labour Party’s elec-tion message on the NationalHealth Service (NHS) being atrisk under the rulingConservatives. The claim thatthe NHS was part of any US-UKtrade talks was denied by theTories at the time and an inves-tigation launched into the doc-ument leak. AP

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Moscow: The Kremlin onThursday denied claims byBritain that “Russian actors”sought to meddle in last year’sgeneral election and thatRussian intelligence servicesmost likely hacked coronavirusvaccine research.

“We have no informationon who could have hacked

pharmaceutical companies andresearch centres in Britain,”Kremlin spokesman DmitryPeskov told the TASS newsagency. “We can only say this:Russia has nothing to do withthese attempts. We do notaccept such accusations nor thelatest groundless allegations ofinterference in 2019 elections.”

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New York: The number ofopenly LGBTQ elected offi-cials in the United States hasmore than doubled in the pastfour years — and those rankscould soon grow, thanks to arecord field of LGBTQ candi-dates this year, according tonew data from an advocacyand research group.

The LGBTQ VictoryInstitute’s Out For Americareport, released Thursday, tal-lies 843 openly LGBTQ elect-ed officials across all levels ofgovernment at present, upfrom 417 in June 2016.

The institute says a record850 LGBTQ people are run-ning for office this year,

including several candidateswith strong chances of enter-ing Congress.

Yet the institute’s president,former Houston MayorAnnise Parker, says thatdespite significant progress,LGBTQ people “continue to beseverely underrepresented inevery state and at every levelof government.”

She said LGBTQ peoplemake up about 4.5 per cent ofthe U.S. Adult population, yethold only 0.17 per cent of themore than 510,000 electedpositions in the U.S., rangingfrom Congress and state leg-islatures to city councils andschool boards. AP

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����������� @�/����� ������ ���������� ���#��������New York (AP): PresidentDonald Trump is adamant thathe wants another four years inoffice. It’s less clear what hewould do with them.

The Republican presidentrepeatedly assailed Democraticrival Joe Biden during a ram-bling, hourlong Rose Gardennews conference Tuesday thatdoubled as a reelection rally.But he offered few clues aboutwhat he would do if he remainsin the White House. He simi-larly stammered through aninterview last month whenpressed by a friendly TV hostto talk about what a secondterm would look like.

With the election less thanfour months away, Trump’sfocus is more on winning thanon how he would govern. He’soffered no substantive policyproposal, opting instead forheated rhetoric on race, crimeand socialism aimed at hismost loyal supporters. Biden,meanwhile, is releasing a grow-ing number of proposals touch-ing on topics including tradeand climate change.

Trump is reshaping hiscampaign, announcingWednesday that veteran GOPoperative Bill Stepien willreplace Brad Parscale as cam-

paign manager. But it’s unlike-ly the move will changeTrump’s preference to focusmore on messaging rather thana policy agenda. SomeRepublicans said that reflectsthe challenge of asking votersfor another term amid over-lapping public health and eco-nomic crises.

“During a reelection cam-paign, you basically are makingthe argument that the statusquo is really good and that thechallenger is insufficient to dothe job. And for more thanthree years, he could crediblymake that argument about theeconomy,” said Mike DuHaime,senior adviser to former NewJersey Gov. Chris Christie’s2016 presidential campaign.

“The problem comes whenthe status quo isn’t good andthere is hard data — both onthe economy and with COVID— that shows that,” DuHaimesaid, referring to the coron-avirus. “That makes it muchharder to make an argumentabout the next four years.”Still, the question of what to dowith four years in the WhiteHouse is one of the most basicelements of a presidential cam-paign — even for an incum-bent. Trump’s challenge became

apparent late last month whenhe struggled to answer thequestion during an interviewwith Sean Hannity of Fox NewsChannel.

“You know the story, ridingdown Pennsylvania Avenuewith our first lady and I say,‘This is great,’ but I didn’tknow very many people inWashington. It wasn’t my thing.I was from Manhattan,” Trumpsaid as part of his answer,before eventually calling JohnBolton, his former nationalsecurity adviser, an “idiot.”

Trump didn’t name a sin-gle policy objective, and, in thedays that followed, the mes-saging from the White Houseseemed to rely solely on theidea that because Trumppresided over a strong econo-my once, he would be theright person to build it back.But it has yet to put forth muchof a positive agenda, insteadfocusing on painting a dystopicpicture of the nation if Bidencame to power.

“There has never been anelection where we’ve had thiskind of difference” between thecandidates, Trump said, beforepainting a bleak, crime-filledportrait of the Democrats’ gov-erning philosophy. “It’s radical

left, and it’ll destroy our coun-try.” His Rose Garden addresson Tuesday haphazardlybounced from topic to topic,from China to statues to Bidenand back again, resemblingnot an official governmentevent but rather a facsimile ofthe campaign speech the pres-ident had wanted to give threenights earlier at a NewHampshire rally that was calledoff because of sparse crowdsand a somewhat ominousweather forecast.

It was a display of Trumpin full, an equal mix of brag-gadocio, grievance and viciouspartisan politics. But what wasmissing were any specific plansto right the country’s economyor improve the fortunes of itscitizens.

“There’s no agenda becausehe himself is the agenda,” saidpresidential historian JonMeacham. “In 2016, Trumpwas a vehicle; now, amid a cat-aclysmic pandemic that he hasfailed to manage, fewer peopleoutside the core base want tohear anything other than howdo we get safely back to real life.Because he has no answer tothat overarching question, hejust talks — about, inevitably,himself.”

2 �������� @������������)������� ��(���������������� ����������Kathmandu (PTI): Nepal’sarchaeological departmentplans to start studies and exca-vation in Thori in the country’ssouth after Prime Minister K PSharma Oli’s claim that it is the“real birthplace” of Lord Ram,according to a media report onThursday.

Several top Nepalese polit-ical leaders from different par-ties have slammed Oli for mak-ing “senseless and irrelevant”remarks that Lord Ram wasborn in Thori near Birgunj andthe real Ayodhya lies in Nepal.They have asked him to with-draw his controversial state-ment. Following Oli’s remarks,the Department ofArchaeology (DoA) has beendiscussing a possible archeo-logical study in the area withdifferent ministries, My

Republica newspaper reported.“The department has been

holding several meetings withdifferent ministries to discussthe possibility of startingarchaeological studies in Thoriof Birgunj,” it quoted RamBahadur Kunwar, thespokesperson for the DOA, assaying.

DoA Director GeneralDamodar Gautam said thedepartment is serious aboutconducting archaeologicalstudies in Thori after PrimeMinister Oli’s statement.

“The department will dis-cuss with experts and willcome to a conclusion soon,”said Gautam.

However, the DoA doesn’thave any basis to start any exca-vation at Thori — the birth-place of Lord Ram, as claimed

by Oli.“It is our responsibility to

carry out a study after suchstatements by the prime min-ister. Having said that, I cannotsay that we have enough basesto prove that Ayodhya is inNepal,” according to Gautam.

In a statement, theMinistry of Foreign Affairs onTuesday clarified that theremarks made by PrimeMinister Oli “are not linked toany political subject and haveno intention at all to hurt thefeelings and sentiments of any-one.” It further stressed that hisremarks “were not meant todebase the significance ofAyodhya and the cultural valueit bears.”

“As there have been sever-al myths and references aboutShri Ram and the places asso-

ciated with him, the PrimeMinister was simply highlight-ing the importance of furtherstudies and research of thevast cultural geography theRamayana represents to obtainfacts about Shri Ram,Ramayana and the variousplaces linked to this rich civil-isation,” the ministry said.

The clarification came aftermuch public outcry in Indiaand Nepal over Prime MinisterOli’s controversial remarks onAyodhya.

BJP national spokesper-son Bizay Sonkar Shastri con-demned Oli’s remarks and saidthat the Left parties even inIndia played with people’s faith,and the Communists in Nepalwill be rejected by the massesin the same way they have beenhere.

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With no sight of when theatres will open in India,producers are resorting to streaming giants to

release their films. It was announced that Bhumi Pednekar and

Konkona Sen Sharma starrer Dolly Kitty Aur WohChamakte Sitaare is heading for a digital release withNetflix. Bhumi is welcoming this decision by her pro-ducers and feels the film will reach and entertain audi-ence worldwide.

“As an artist, I only look to entertain audienceeverytime I come on screen. I’m okay with any plat-form becoming the vehicle of my creative expression.At this day and age, producers will do what is need-ed and we must all support each other’s decisions. Weall need to run our own ego systems and I support thedecision of my producers wholeheartedly. I feel our filmwill reach out to a much larger audience with thismove,” says Bhumi, who has established herself as ahugely credible actor in terms of audience apprecia-tion and box office success within a short span of fiveyears.

The actor feels that the film will be a treat for theaudience. Bhumi says, “Dolly Kitty is a very special film.Konkona, as we know is a really, really phenomenalperson and actor and Alankrita (Srivastava) is a veryspecial director. Ekta (Kapoor) has always supportedcontent that has broken barriers. A very big reason whyI am fond of her. There couldn’t have been a better col-laborator for the film. So, for me, being a part of thisfilm was a super enriching experience.”

The versatile actor is a huge fan of Konkona’s bril-liance and Alankrita’s sensitivity. She says, “I haveadored Konkona’s work and it was simply mesmeris-ing to see her perform. Our scenes together in film arevery exciting and memorable. Alankrita is a very pow-erful voice in cinema today — she is strong, witty andhumane. I’m fortunate that I got the opportunity to cre-atively collaborate with her. I have learnt a lot from her.”

The film has already got rave reviews from crit-ics and audiences at various film festivals worldwide.Bhumi herself has won Best Actress Award at Busanfor the film. “Our film has been winning laurels at inter-national film festivals. We’ve garnered such love andrespect for it. I won awards at international platformsfor Dolly Kitty and I’m sure it will be liked by audi-ence here as well. I’m looking forward to see how peo-ple react. It was refreshing to play a girl, fresh out ofcollege, waiting to experience life. Our coming of ageis done in a fun yet relatable manner. Kitty is naive,sweet, ambitious and a survivor. The film is full of quirkand a pool of emotions. It has a different narrative andam excited,” she says.

Bhumi adds, “It celebrates womanhood, sisterhoodand all the drama that comes in between with love andwork. It very skillfully shows just how complex yetbeautiful women are.”

Hyundai launched theirupdated Tuscon Sports

Utility Vehicle this week. Wewould have done a test drive ofthat but because the carmakergets their cars registered inChennai and that southern cityhas gone back into a completelockdown, it might be a week orso before we get to experience thenew eight-speed automatic gear-box on the Tucson. That eight-speed gearbox is mated toHyundai India’s new introduc-tion, the ‘Nu’ 2.0 litre dieselengine with 185 horsepower, andthis made me wonder if it makessense to buy a diesel car anymore?

The reason I’m wondering isquite simple as diesel now costsmore than petrol in Delhi. Inmost of the states, the price dif-ferential between petrol anddiesel had come down under �5per litre when prices shot up lastmonth. This gap has increasedonce again, opening up to �8 perlitre in Mumbai. Now, given thatdiesel vehicles are more efficientthan petrol ones, but cost, onaverage across segments, at least�1,00,000 more ex-showroomprice at a similar specificationlevel. You could argue that dieselmakes more sense.

However, the problem is aswe have learnt, prices of fuels arenot steady, which means the cal-culations that you make today tojustify a diesel purchase over apetrol car is complicated. If youbought a diesel car in Delhi lastyear because you assumed dieselprices would stay far below thoseof petrol, well, your maths havegone awry. All thanks to theArvind Kejriwal government’sdecision to hike excise duties ondiesel. It would be dangerous tomake the assumption thatother states will not fol-low suit on diesel.One reason isthat in

many major cities, local publictransport is almost entirely pow-ered on CNG as is local goodstransport. The argument thatdiesel is the fuel of transport is abit harder to make now as eventhe Railways have electrifiedmost of their major freight lines.

For the purpose of my argu-ment, let us look at currentprices. I am currently driving aHyundai Elantra as my longterm vehicle, and since December2019, I have driven over 6,000kilometers, maybe a bit less thanI would have in normal times. Butyou don’t need me to tell youabout the times we live in. Thiscar, with Hyundai’s two-litre ‘Nu’petrol engine has given me anaverage of 11.5 kilometers a litre.Hyundai has fitted the 1.5 litre U2CRDi engine, the same as on theCreta and Verna and on this caras well. In city conditions, thatengine delivers around 16 to 17kilometers a litre (let us take16.5 kilometers as anaverage). Oncet h i n g s

return to normal and if youwork and live in Delhi withoutcrossing the borders, averagingaround a 1,000 kilometers amonth is normal.

At current fuel prices, thiswould mean I spend around�7,000 a month on petrol and�5,000 on diesel. Over the 60-month lifespan of the car, this�2,000 per month saving wouldwork out to �1.2 lakh which justcovers the �1.1 lakh ex-show-room price difference betweenthe engines. But on-road, itdoesn’t cover the difference.Now, one could argue that thediesel vehicle would have slight-ly higher residual value. Butkeep in mind that the SupremeCourt has mandated that dieselvehicles can only be run in theentire NCRfor tenyears,

which kills residual values fordiesels, whereas petrol cars havea 15-year lifespan.

Now, the math changes dra-matically if you l ive inGurugram and work in Noidaor vice versa. You might easilycover 500 kilometers a week for2,000 kilometers. Diesel is still�5 per litre cheaper in Haryanaand at that milage, always fill-ing in Gurugram you wouldspend �9,000 a month on dieseland �13,700 a month on petrol.A huge �4,700 difference, amassive �2.8 lakh differentialover 60 months, which mighteven cover the lower residualvalue you would get for a dieselvehicle in the NCR when yousell it as Gurugram registered

diesel cars also have a

ten-year life span.But there is a catch there as

well. The math has been doneon the basis of today’s fuelprices. We have learnt the hardway that these prices are not sta-tic. They can shoot up whenev-er state or central governmentsneed additional revenues. It isquite likely that a global eco-nomic recovery following thevirus might see fuel pricesincrease again. And if air pol-lution increases in cities outsidethe NCR, the Supreme Courtmight extend their 10-year ruleregarding diesels, even farcleaner BS6 diesels to othercities.

During the Tucson launch,Hyundai India’s Tarun Gargrevealed that on the second-generation Creta, over 56 per centof orders and deliveries were fordiesels. This might seem impres-sive, but my takeaway there was

that 44 per cent of sales werefor petrol. In the first few

months of the first-generation Creta,

six years ago,almost 85 per

cent of saleswere ford i e s e l s .H o w e v e r,

now a bulk of the dieselvehicle demand is downin the southern statesand Maharashtra. Infact, in Maharashtra,petrol and not diesel is

taxed excessively, so even with thetraffic jams and lower distancesin a city like Mumbai, dieselmakes sense.

There is also an irony aboutdiesel. From a purely carbonpoint of view, diesel-poweredvehicles are cleaner than petrol,more bang for the buck. Butdiesel, even BS6 diesels, do emitmore Sulphur, NOx and partic-ulates than petrol. This will bemitigated by the forthcomingBS6b norms in a couple of years,but those involve a SCR —Selective Catalytic Reductionsystem — much more expensivethat the particulate filter systemsused by some manufacturerstoday. An SCR based 1.5 litrediesel might cost �2.5 lakh morethan an equivalent petrol. Inaddition, as 48 volt battery sys-tems become the norm, I wouldexpect more and more hybrids tomake it to India. While thesehybrids might have only a 10-kilometre pure electric range,they would make petrol enginesfar more efficient. The Swifthybrid sold in Japan has aclaimed urban fuel economy ofupwards of 30 kilometres a litre,and the additional power fromthe battery would make it morefun to drive as well.

So it is not a simple answer.If you drive a lot, diesel still makessense, albeit barely, if you live inthe NCR. In Maharashtra, dieselis the king for the same reason itloses out in Delhi. Down inBengaluru, Chennai andHyderabad, the cleaner air (fornow) has led to fewer stricturesagainst diesel, although the high-er prices of BS6b diesels might killthat as well. And that is all on thebasis of today’s prices, whoknows about tomorrow.

Everybody wishes tospruce up their homesin a way that is youth-

ful and vibrant and breaks thestaid monotony. Particularly,when you are confined most-

ly indoors in pandemic times,a little bit of colour therapycan do wonders to your roomand help you reinvent yourspace. While this will helpyou bring about the much-

required dynamism, it wouldalso help you recycle, redoand rearrange availableresources at a time when weneed to inculcate sustainablepractices.

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���������������������������� %������(������+�1��������%��1(�����&��5�������#��&��1��"(6��1�%���#�������.��������&�����!������&�����������&���(&!�

YIN AND YANGToday, the kitchen area has become an

intimate space and a personal expression ofwhat makes you feel comfortable. When fur-nished with modern elements, you would feellike you are “with it” and love rustling up yourfavourite menu. For this urbane look, explorethe trending concept of closed cabinetryadorned in premium wooden laminates thatare resistant to surface wear and tear, consid-ering a kitchen’s heavy usage. Go for new lam-inates that are resistant to cracks, stain, heat,

scratch and easy to wipe down. Moreover, youcan build in a bit of excitement by alternat-ing the panel colours and tonalities.

There is no denying that a clean kitchenarranged neatly gives a refined look. Toachieve this, simply bring out your ceramiccrockery which can be placed on your coun-tertops for that classic touch. You can furtheraccentuate your interiors with metallic fixturesor metallic rimmed wall art in rose gold fin-ish. With this simple décor theme, get readyto experience a magnificent trance.

GIVE ME REDA powerful and an

empowering tone in itself,red radiates strong emotionsof passion, enthusiasm andwarmth. This versatilecolour is capable of instant-ly catching your eye andmakes up for any need tomake a statement. If you arelooking to incorporate thisshade neutrally, combine itwith earthy tones for a nat-ural look and feel. Forinstance, a red flame lami-nate can be combined withlight brown wooden tex-tures for a timeless contrast.

Since this laminate comeswith dimensional stability,you can use it in any climat-ic condition without worry-ing about replacing it sea-sonally.

Remember to keep youraccents minimal adorned ina glamorous mattifying orglassware coating. Here, trycombining refreshing vibeswith the scent of your oldbooks or other antiqueobjects close to your heart.The outcome will be a morepersonalised area puttogether in a cheerful set-up.

BE MELLOW-DRAMATICA pinch of drama in your

home can be a great self-start-ing inspiration. This is wheredark hues unite with subtlepops of light tints which beau-tifully weave a regal essence inyour space. In order to ace thislook, start with coupling thesoothing aura of muted blue onyour walls with the cocooningfeel of wooden floors in shadessimilar to spiced honey colourpalette.

To further add a breathtak-ing flair to your décor, go forlampshades or table clock inpure white to unleash sheeropulence when placed againstyour ornate blue backdrop.Complete this look by mixingyour open and closed cabinetsin wooden laminates that areruling the preference chart withtheir extensive life span. Lastly,layer it up with a self-made rugin your favourite pastel shadefrom old cloth materials for amellow and comfortable habitat.

(The author, Parul Mittal, isthe director of GreenlamIndustries Ltd.)

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Every good party starts with a speechfrom the host. So, here it goes. A bighello to all the moms and dads at

this unique lunch-box party. I am UmaRaghuraman, lovingly known asMasterchefmom. How did I get thatnickname, you ask? Let’s take a trip downthe memory lane!

When this traditional TamBramteacher from Chennai married a corpo-rate executive, she had to move often tosupport his career. Thanks to thoserelocations, I got to learn a lot about dif-ferent cultures, people, habits, languagesand most importantly, food. The num-ber of restaurants we ate at in our firstyear together easily outnumbered thetimes I had eaten out in my entire lifebefore meeting him.

Just like my husband, our kids,Vishnu and Gayatri, believe we must ‘liveto eat’ rather than ‘eat to live.’ Thisencouraged me to be even more open andcurious to explore new cuisines andrecipes at home. But like many of you, asa working parent who’s also raising chil-dren, I wanted to address two challenges— ensure that my kids were eatinghealthy and limit the number of times weate out. This led to a personal mission ofconstantly coming up with creative dish-es that are both healthy and visuallyattractive to appeal to my fussy littleeaters. I’m glad to report that my exper-iments in the kitchen were a big hit!

I quit my job in 2014 and that’s whenI first let the world into my kitchenthrough social media. My close friendsand family members became my cheer-leaders. In fact, requests for me to sharedetailed recipes as well as the process andstories behind them started pouring in.As a result, my blog was born and I waschristened Masterchefmom by my chil-dren — a compliment I didn’t think twiceto adopt!

Adding to my glorious journey is MyGenius Lunch Box, which you now knowisn’t just a book in your hands. You are(will be) holding the sum total of my pas-sion. Every recipe you find in this bookhas been created with love and meticu-lously tested in my own kitchen. I hopethese ideas for wholesome, creative andinteresting lunches not only excite thechild eating them but also inspire the par-ent making them.

What are some of the top issues facedby every parent who has a school-goingkid?��Preparing the lunch box early in themorning and quickly too. ��Packing it with something new everyday so that your kids look forward tolunchtime.�� Making a delicious and nutritiousmeal that won’t tempt them to eat junkfoods or bring back a half-eaten lunchbox. ��Presenting everyday food attractive-ly, and in a way that’s easy to consumeon the playground or the bus.

If these issues and thoughts like‘What do I send in the lunch box tomor-row?’ pop into your head at bedtime, Iwant you to fully explore this book andrest easy because lunch will almost makeitself the next day.

When people ask me what I do, Ioften tell them I cook three healthy andtasty meals for my family and as easy as

some make it sound, let me tell you thatit is a full-time job I enjoy immensely. Ipersonally believe that the way to myfamily’s hearts is through their stomachs.

This book is the sigma of all my learn-ing and experience, coupled with numer-ous recipes that have been liked by thou-sands of parents across the globe. Goahead, make as many recipes as possible

and share the joy with your friends andfamily.

I want every parent who is packingtheir child’s tiffin box to do it with prideand remember that you are packing notjust a nutritious and tasty lunch but alsoyour love. Wishing you and your childrena genius lunch-box experience!

Happy cooking!Also.When you start using the recipes

from this book, you’ll soon realise that Ihave created each of them in a way thatthey can be customised to your family’sneeds. I have also made sure to incorpo-rate as many healthy ingredients as pos-sible. Here are some handy tips and tricksfor you to keep in mind as you dive intothis book to prepare lunch boxes or evenjust prep for your family’s meals: �� Stock up on fresh and seasonal veg-etables and fruits on weekends — thisensures that you will always have some-thing new to add to any dish. ��A little bit of prep, like grating or chop-ping fruits and vegetables and soakingdals and legumes, if done the previous

night, can reduce a significant amount ofcooking time and make the entire processsimpler.��You can also bake cookies, crackers ordry snacks a day or two earlier so that you’renever short of treats for the short break.�� Whenever you have some time tospare, you can toast your monthly stockof dry fruits and store them in separatejars. These come in extremely handy asa snack or a condiment.

A recipe:We all have recollections of our

mothers, grandmothers and aunts gettingtogether to make savouries like sev,shakarpara, chakli and laddoos. One of myfondest memories is of a winter afternoonwhen a friend came home for tea andmade pinwheels — her family’s go-tosnack. I instantly fell in love with thismedley of sweet and savoury. So here ismy version of Sushmaji’s pinwheels,which is sure to become your lunch-boxfavourite.

(Extracted from the book, My GeniusLunchbox, published by Penguin Books.)

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Arsenal ended Liverpool’sbid to set a new PremierLeague points record with

a 2-1 win over the champions,while Manchester Citypushed Bournemouth closerto relegation with a 2-1 victo-ry on Wednesday.

Jurgen Klopp’s side need-ed to win their final threegames of the season to breakMan City’s record of 100 points setin 2018. They were on coursewhen Sadio Mane opened thescoring with a clinical finish fromRobertson’s cross at the EmiratesStadium. But two careless mistakes

condemned Liverpool to a thirdleague defeat this season.

Virgil van Dijk’s waywardbackpass went straight toAlexandre Lacazette, who round-

ed Reds keeper AlissonBecker to slot home in the32nd minute.

Alisson was guilty of anequally costly blunder whenhis pass out was interceptedby Lacazette and he picked

out 20-year-old Reiss Nelson for acool close-range finish. Liverpoolhave failed to win three of their fivematches since clinching the title.

They have 93 points and withjust two games left and can onlyreach 99 at the end of their first

title-winning campaign for 30years. Arsenal climb to ninthplace as they chase qualification for

the Europa League. Mikel Arteta’sside go into Saturday’s FA Cupsemi-final against ManchesterCity in good spirits after bouncingback from Sunday’s defeat at north

London rivals Tottenham.In Manchester, Guardiola left

Aymeric Laporte, Kevin DeBruyne, Raheem Sterling andRiyad Mahrez on the benchagainst Bournemouth to keepthem fresh for Wembley, but Citystill had too much quality in theform of David Silva and GabrielJesus. Silva showed why he will beso missed when he leaves at theend of the season, the midfieldercurling a free-kick in off theunderside of the crossbar after sixminutes. Jesus was ruthless in the39th minute as he wriggledbetween two weak Bournemouthchallenges before firing into the farcorner to score for the third con-secutive game.

� ������� ��$�City finally conceded for the

first time in five home games sincethe restart when David Brooksturned home Callum Wilson’scross two minutes from time. “It

was a really difficult game. Westarted well in the first 10 or 15minutes of the second half but thenwe had a problem in our build-up,”Guardiola said.

Defeat leaves Bournemouthstill three points adrift of safetyfrom Watford and West Ham, whoface each other on Friday.

Wolves remain three pointsadrift of the Champions Leagueplaces with just two games to playafter Chris Wood’s 96th-minutespot-kick gave Burnley a 1-1 drawat Turf Moor.

Tottenham won 3-1 atNewcastle to keep their chances ofEuropean football next season ontrack by moving up to seventh.

Son Heung-min’s shot crept inat Martin Dubravka’s near post toopen the scoring for Tottenham.Matt Ritchie got Newcastle’sequaliser, but Harry Kane restoredTottenham’s lead and the Englandcaptain added his second in thefinal minute.

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Serie A leaders Juventus con-tinued to stutter towards a

ninth straight league title asthey threw away a two-goallead before settling for athrilling 3-3 draw at Sassuoloon Wednesday.

Juventus are seven pointsahead of Atalanta, with fivegames left to play after theirwinless run was extended tothree matches.

Lazio missed the chance toretake second and cut the gapto Juve to six points with a goal-less draw against Udinese andare one point behind Atalantain third.

Sarri’s men were two goalsup within 12 minutes thanks toDanilo and Gonzalo Higuain.But despite the return of cap-

tain Giorgio Chiellini, theTurin giants showed signs ofweakness in defence again andhave now conceded 11 goals infive games.

Sassuolo took advan-tage, with Filip Djuricicpulling one back for thehosts just before the half-hour mark, beforeDomenico Berardi curledin a free-kick on 50 minutesand Francesco Caputo blastedin a third four minutes later.

Alex Sandro headedJuventus level with 26 minutesto play, but the defendingchampions had goalkeeperWojciech Szczesny to thank forsecuring a point as the Polepulled off a string of late saves.

The Turin giants next hostLazio on Monday after Atalantavisit Verona at the weekend

looking to cut the gap to fourpoints.

Simone Inzaghi’s Lazio,who were only one point adriftwhen Serie A returned follow-

ing the coronavirus lock-down, were held byUdinese after three con-secutive defeats, as theirhopes of a first Scudettoin two decades suffered

another blow.City rivals Roma, in fifth,

continued their good formwith a 2-1 win over ninth-placed Hellas Verona thanks toa Jordan Veretout penalty andan Edin Dzeko header.

AC Milan boosted theirEuropa League hopes with a 3-1 comeback win over Parma tomove level on points withsixth-placed Napoli who wereheld 1-1 at Bologna.

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The All India Football Federationis planning to hold a camp for

the senior national team inBhubaneswar in earlySeptember ahead of the 2022World Cup qualifying roundmatch against Qatar inOctober.

AIFF General SecretaryKushal Das said a responsefrom the OdishaGovernment is expectedsoon on the holding ofthe national camp. If ithappens, the players will geta month before the matchagainst Asian championsQatar to be held on October8.

“With regards to thesenior men’s team, ourplan is to start the camp

sometimes in early September. Wewant the camp in Bhubaneswar asthe match against Qatar was sched-uled there,” Das said.

“We’re in touch with the stateGovernment of Odisha as well asSAI. We are expecting to get aresponse from them. It’s a very

tricky situation but we need tocome up with the best possible

solution given the circum-stances,” he was quoted assaying by AIFF TV.

India are already out of con-tention for a berth in the 2022World Cup but they are in the reck-oning for a place in the 2023 AFCAsian Cup as it is a joint qualifica-

tion campaign.After taking on Qatar, India

play Bangladesh (away match) onNovember 12 and against

Afghanistan in Kolkata onNovember 17.

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Dominic Sibley dug deep tohold one end up but

Alzarri Joseph built on fromRoston Chase's early inroads bysending skipper Joe Root backin the hut as England were112/3 at Tea on the openingday of the secondTest at OldTrafford onThursday.

After off-spinner Chase(2/24) reduced the hosts to 29/2either side of the lunch break,opener Sibley and Root —back leading the side aftermissing the first Test — shareda 53-run stand for the thirdwicket.

But pacer Joseph endedRoot’s 23 run vigil off 49 deliv-

eries with a classic outswingerthat grazed the right-hander’sbat and flew to his counterpartJason Holder at slip.

At the break, talismanic all-rounder Ben Stokes (18) andSibley (46) were at the crease.

Shortly after the secondsession began, Zak Crawley

was sent back fora golden duck byChase who hadthe young No 3

batsman caught at leg slip byHolder. Having removed Burnsin the last ball before lunch,Chase was on a hat-trick butmissed the landmark.

Root and Sibley then stead-ied the ship before the formerdeparted with Stokes joiningSibley and both trying to nego-tiate Joseph and Holder’s fiery

little spell where the ball movedsideways under overcast condi-tions.

Earlier, England openersBurns and Sibley got off to acautious start but Chase pro-vided West Indies with the cru-cial breakthrough at the strokeof lunch.

With rain playing spoil-sport, the first session sawonly one hour of play on theopening day of the secondTest of #raisethebat series.England, who are gunning tolevel the series here inManchester, were put to bat byHolder after he won the toss,which was delayed by morethan an hour because of rain.

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Indian cricket great SachinTendulkar lauded West Indiescaptain Jason Holder for bring-ing on Roston Chase during the1st session of their second Teston Thursday. Tendulkar saidthat the dampness on the pitchmay help the spinners get gripand make life difficult for thebatsmen.

“In the 1st session I noticeda few balls didn’t even carry tothe keeper off fast bowlers indi-cating a lot of dampness in thepitch. Smart move by@Jaseholder98 to bring on aspinner on such a track wherethe odd ball may grip and theother may go straight.#ENGvWI,” Tendulkar tweeted.

He also tweeted on theneed for England skipper JoeRoot and Dom Sibley to put ona strong show with the bat.“@root66 & @DomSibley in acrucial partnership for England.WI needs to find a way to getbreakthroughs while the ball isfairly new. Old Trafford is a hardsurface when it dries out hencethe ball will become soft. A lotwill depend on how the teamsplay the new ball. #ENGvWI,” hewrote.

��)������� Australia onThursday announced a 26-strong preliminary squad for ayet-to-be-confirmed limited-overs tour of England, namingthe likes of Glenn Maxwelland Usman Khawaja alongwith some uncapped playerswith an eye on the currently-uncertain T20 World Cup. In astatement, CA said announcingthe squad is “a positive step,albeit not a definitive one” as itworks for a return to interna-tional cricket amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

A final squad will beannounced if the tour, compris-ing three ODIs and three T20Is,is confirmed for September.

The preliminary list fea-tures the regulars along with the

likes of Maxwell, who hasn’tplayed for the country sinceOctober last year.

Khawaja too has not beena particular favourite in white-ball cricket for a while now. Hemissed out on a CA contract forthe first time in five years ear-lier in April.

National SelectorTrevor Hohns said thesquad is not just for theEngland tour but has alsobeen picked with an eyeon the T20 World Cup,which is looks set to bepostponed due to theCovid-19 pandemic.

The uncapped trioof Daniel Sams, RileyMeredith and JoshPhilippe, all of whom

have done well in the Big BashLeague, were also named in thesquad. Squad: Sean Abbott, AshtonAgar, Alex Carey, Pat Cummins,Aaron Finch, Josh Hazlewood,Travis Head, Usman Khawaja,Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan

Lyon, Mitchell Marsh,Glenn Maxwell, BenMcDermott, Riley

Meredith, Michael Neser,Josh Philippe, DanielSams, D'Arcy Short,

Kane Richardson,Steven Smith,Mitchell Starc,Marcus Stoinis,Andrew Tye,Matthew Wade,David Warner, AdamZampa. PTI

�������� The Olympic coregroup of 34 Indian shooterswill return to camp trainingfrom August 1, the NationalRifles Association of Indiaannounced on Thursday, mak-ing attendance compulsory asit aims for a “cautious andphased recommencement ofactivities from next month”.

In a detailed statement,the NRAI said the decision torestart training was taken at ameeting of its Governing Body,after carefully weighing theCovid-19 threat. The campwill be organised at the DrKarni Singh Shooting Range inNew Delhi which wasreopened for use on July 8.

“Attendance shall be com-pulsory for this camp as theunprecedented circumstancesfound globally with the advent

of the Covid-19 pandemic dic-tates, that NRAI’s options atbeing accommodating are vir-tually zero,” the body said in astatement.

“Therefore, currently theoption of choice and personalinterests, must necessarily, beput on the back-burner by allin the national interest, it wasdecided,” it added.

A total of 15 Indian shoot-ers have qualified for theOlympic Games.

The Manav RachnaUniversity campus, which is anISSF training academy andlocated close to the DKSSR, willhouse the core group, coachesand its support staff during thecamp.

NRAI would also arrangetransport to and from thevenue. PTI

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Banning fans from theTokyo Olympics is

“clearly something we don’twant”, InternationalOlympic Committee(IOC) chief Thomas Bachsaid, adding that “multiplescenarios” were under con-sideration for therescheduled Games.

Bach said safe-ty was the top con-cern for organis-ers of the TokyoOlympics, whichwere due to startnext week buthave been post-poned for a year overthe Covid-19 pan-demic.

But he clearly sig-

nalled his reluctance tohold the Games at emptystadiums, now a commonsight in sport as other com-petitions make a tentative

return from virus-enforced shutdowns.

“Olympic Gamesbehind closed doorsis clearly something

we do notwant,” the IOCpresident toldreporters in avideo call.

“So weare workingfor a solu-tion of the

O l y m p i cGames which,on one hand, issafeguarding the

health of all the

participants and, on theother hand, is also reflect-ing the Olympic spirit.”

Bach and JapanesePrime Minister Shinzo Abehave both warned that itwould be hard to postponethe Games beyond 2021,raising the nightmare sce-nario of the first Olympicsto be cancelled in peace-time.

“The first priority isabout the safety of all par-ticipants of the OlympicGames," said Bach.

“For this reason, weare working now on multi-ple scenarios of the organ-isation of the Games withregard to the health situa-tion of which we do notknow how it will be in oneyear from now.”

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England pacer Jofra Archer wason Thursday dropped from the

second Test for breaking the team’sbio-secure protocol and will nowundergo two Covid-19 tests duringa five-day isolation period.

Archer apologised for the lapse,which wasn’t specified in ECB state-ment but BBC Test Match Special

said that the speedster had visitedhis home in Brighton after the firstTest.

“Jofra Archer has been exclud-ed from the #raisethebat second Testagainst the West Indies startingtoday (Thursday 16 July) at EmiratesOld Trafford following a breach ofthe team’s bio-secure protocols,”ECB said in a statement.

“Archer will now commence fivedays of isolation and will undergotwo Covid-19 tests in this period,which have to test negative beforehis self-isolation period is lifted,” itfurther stated. The flamboyantbowler offered an apology andacknowledged the enormity of hisindiscretion at a sensitive time.

“I am extremely sorry for whatI have done,” he stated.

“I have put, not only myself, butthe whole team and management indanger. I fully accept the conse-quences of my actions, and I wantto sincerely apologise to everyone inthe bio-secure bubble,” he added.

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The league is describing it asa “unique” ceremony that hasbeen designed because fanswon’t be able to celebrate themoment with the team, asmatches are being held in emptystadiums.

The specially erected podi-um will be surrounded by fan

banners in the Kop at the July 22match. Players have beeninvolved in the planning of theceremony, with club great KennyDalglish — the last manager tolead Liverpool to a league title —will present the players and staffwith their winner’s medalsalongside Premier League chiefexecutive Richard Masters.

The match against Chelseawill be shown on free-to-air TVin Britain, and Liverpool and thePremier League are urging fansto stay at home to watch it ratherthan congregate at Anfield. AP

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